Tag: hakeem jeffries
'No Violence From Right' Says Don Jr. As J6 Rioter Busted For Threatening To Kill Jeffries

'No Violence From Right' Says Don Jr. As J6 Rioter Busted For Threatening To Kill Jeffries

Just hours after New York prosecutors charged a pardoned January 6 rioter with threatening to kill House Democratic Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY), Donald Trump Jr. told Sean Hannity’s Fox News audience that “there is no violence from the right,” adding, “It is not both sides — it is from one side, and it was from the left alone.”

Fox viewers, however, probably did not experience any cognitive dissonance. The network all but ignored the threats against Jeffries, with its coverage on Tuesday consisting of a single largely nonspecific 36-second news read on its Special Report program, according to a Media Matters review.

CBS News’ Scott MacFarlane reported early Tuesday morning that Christopher Moynihan “was arrested Sunday after saying in text messages that he planned to ‘eliminate’ Jeffries when the top House Democrat spoke at an event in New York City on Monday” and charged with making a terroristic threat. Prosecutors noted in a court filing that Moynihan texted “Hakeem Jeffries makes a speech in a few days in NYC I cannot allow this terrorist to live,” and “Even if I am hated, he must be eliminated, I will kill him for the future." He was arraigned later that day.

Prosecutors previously said Moynihan was one of the first Trumpists to storm the U.S. Capitol during the January 6 insurrection and among those who occupied the Senate chamber that day. He pleaded guilty to five misdemeanors and was sentenced to 21 months in prison but was among the roughly 1,500 January 6 participants to receive a pardon from President Donald Trump on his first day in office.

Political violence does, in fact, target “both sides”

Donald Trump Jr.’s Tuesday night comments reflect a talking point frequently heard in right-wing spaces. In the wake of the shocking murder of Republican activist and podcaster Charlie Kirk, many in MAGA media and President Trump himself baselessly declared the case symptomatic of a terroristic left targeting a nonviolent right.

This argument flies in the face of what we’ve seen the last several years, as right-wing extremists have violently attacked not just the U.S. Capitol but also Democratic politicians and their families as well as Black, Hispanic, and Jewish Americans. Denying that reality derails any hope of a genuine conversation about political violence, a genuine scourge in this country, in favor of what appears to be a Trump administration plan to use Kirk’s death as a pretext to wield state power against its political enemies in a broad crackdown on dissent.

A Trump supporter who rioted against democracy and received a presidential pardon subsequently threatening to murder a leading Democratic politician hammers home the absurdity of the MAGA talking point.

And so Fox is hiding that news from its audience as part of its frequently deployed strategy to downplay or ignore stories that undermine its narratives. The network’s hosts and executives seem to prefer keeping viewers ignorant in order to maintain their fearfulness and fury at their fellow Americans.

Reprinted with permission from Media Matters

'On Vacation': Jeffries Scorches GOP Leaders For Fleeing Town During Shutdown

'On Vacation': Jeffries Scorches GOP Leaders For Fleeing Town During Shutdown

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries spoke with reporters Thursday and was asked whether Democrats would be amenable to voting on separate legislation to support U.S. military families—who are already hurt by the Trump administration—while shutdown negotiations continue.

“Yes,” Jeffries answered. “I mean, this is an extraordinary thing. It's unbelievable. Members of the House Republican Conference are upset and perplexed that their leadership has them on vacation. The last day the House was in session was September 19. Republicans got out of town before sundown, and we haven't seen them back in Washington since. This is extraordinary.”....

- YouTube youtu.be

He went on to highlight all of the ways that the GOP’s government shutdown has negatively impacted Americans.

“This is a crisis—both in terms of the government shutdown, the impact on the American people, the impact on aviation safety, the impact on public safety, the impact on the health and wellbeing of the American people,” Jeffries said. “And House Republicans remain on vacation. Their own voters are telling them—including the Republican Speaker—’get back into town, sit down with Democrats, engage in a bipartisan negotiation, reopen the government, and address the health care crisis that they've created.’"

The GOP’s shutdown is predictably damaging vital operations that Americans rely on. Yet Republicans’ response has been to threaten federal workers while claiming that they plan to come up with a solution to skyrocketing health care costs—eventually.

As Jeffries rightly points out, Americans just want Republicans to do their damn jobs.

Reprinted with permission from Daily Kos

Shunning Schumer And Jeffries, Trump Earns Blame For Looming Shutdown

Shunning Schumer And Jeffries, Trump Earns Blame For Looming Shutdown

"The way this country works, you've got to sit down with people you may not agree with and come to an agreement, come to a negotiation," Sen. Chuck Schumer, the minority leader, said on Tuesday after President Donald Trump canceled his meeting with Democratic leaders. "Donald Trump is not a king. He's the president, and he has his responsibility to work to avoid the Trump shutdown, and time is of the essence."

It's a matter of simple arithmetic. Even when you control Congress and the White House, you still need 60 votes in the Senate to fund the government. Unless they come up with those votes by Tuesday, the government shuts down and real people suffer. Will they blame Trump? They should.

Trump reportedly canceled the meeting with Democrats not after talking to Democrats but after a call with Speaker Mike Johnson and Senate Majority Leader John Thune. According to news reports, both of them encouraged Trump not to speak to the Democrats. Johnson had told reporters before the meeting was canceled that he was "not certain" it was "necessary." Indeed, Trump said earlier this month that Republicans should not "even bother" negotiating with Democrats, suggesting that Republicans can fund the government without any Democratic votes. How?

This is no way to run the country. It's Trump's way or the highway. So far, it has worked, sort of. Trump got his big, beautiful bill. The rich are getting richer. Working people will pay for it, but not until after the midterm elections. Clever?

Of course, Democrats have an agenda here. They have publicly stated that any measure to extend spending also include more than $1 trillion to continue Obamacare subsidies and reverse cuts to Medicaid and other health programs that Republicans made last summer. So, at least at this point, Democrats are positioning themselves as fighting for health care while Republicans are positioning themselves as going it alone.

That is clearly the place where Trump is most comfortable. He openly hates his opponents — and I don't mean Vladimir Putin. He said it out loud at Charlie Kirk's funeral. Why should he have to work with people he hates?

The answer — which he seeks to avoid at all costs — is because this is a democracy, and this is how a democracy works. There are times for division and times for bipartisan unity. Keeping the government open should be a time for unity. No one wants to be responsible for Social Security checks getting delayed or for the IRS not answering the phones. For Trump to think he can go this one alone and not be blamed for it, or better yet, blame the Democrats, is pure folly. Everyone will be blamed, starting with Trump.

We are as divided and polarized as a nation as we have not been in recent history. Our politics are toxic. It infects our families almost as much as it infects Washington. I can't believe this is what a majority of Americans want or what they voted for when they cast their ballots for Trump. Trump voters also have a big interest in protecting Obamacare and Medicaid, as Trump surely must know. How can a meeting with Democrats not be a useful way to at least show that you are trying to pull this country together and do right by it?

"No one wants a shutdown, but agreeing to a deal that can be revoked whenever Trump demands it isn't responsible," Rep. Brendan Boyle of Pennsylvania, the top Democrat on the Budget Committee, said. "It only teaches the other side that they can do it again and again."

And they have. In 2018, what were supposed to be private meetings morphed into a televised airing of grievances roughly a week ahead of the shutdown deadline. Trump reportedly was optimistic about working with Democrats to come up with a compromise. It didn't happen. The government shut down for 34 days, the longest in our history. No one wins with a repeat of that.

Susan Estrich is a celebrated feminist legal scholar, the first female president of the Harvard Law Review, and the first woman to run a U.S. presidential campaign. She has written eight books.

Reprinted with permission from Creators.

Democratic Leaders 'Frustrated' Over Criticism Of Weak Response To Trump

Democratic Leaders 'Frustrated' Over Criticism Of Weak Response To Trump

House Democratic lawmakers reportedly used a closed-door meeting earlier this week to vent their frustrations with progressive advocacy groups that have been driving constituent calls and pressuring the party to act like a genuine opposition force in the face of the Trump administration's authoritarian assault on federal agencies and key programs.

Citing unnamed sources, including a senior House Democrat, Axios reported Tuesday that the private meeting "included a gripe-fest" directed at "groups like MoveOn and Indivisible," which have "facilitated thousands of phone calls to members' offices" and pressured the party to use its considerable power to disrupt business as usual in Congress, including by opposing all unanimous consent requests from the Republican majority.

The unnamed senior House Democrat told Axios that House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) is "very frustrated" with the progressive organizations, which have urged people across the country to contact their Democratic representatives and pressure them to fight harder against the Trump administration and their Republican allies.

Britt Jacovich, a spokesperson for MoveOn, told Axios that "our member energy is high and this won't be the last any office hears from everyday Americans who want us to fight harder to push back."

Reports of internal Democratic frustrations with grassroots progressives come days after Jeffries questioned the leverage his caucus has to stop the Trump administration and unelected billionaire Elon Musk from imposing their will on the federal government.

"They control the House, the Senate, and the presidency," Jeffries told reporters late last week. "It's their government."

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), meanwhile, has said Democrats are "not going to go after every single issue" in the fight against President Donald Trump.

"We are picking the most important fights and lying down on the train tracks on those fights," Schumer toldThe New York Times earlier this month.

That's not the kind of all-out confrontational approach that rank-and-file Democrats clearly want from their elected representatives. According to a CBS News/YouGov survey released earlier this week, 65% of Democratic voters want the party to "'oppose Trump as much as possible," up from 46% in January.

The poll also found that just 16% of Democratic voters have "a lot" of confidence that congressional Democrats "can oppose Trump effectively."

"Hakeem Jeffries and Chuck Schumer are architects of the crisis that allowed Trump's fascism to arise and succeed," progressive organizer Aaron Regunberg wrote Tuesday. "They have zero credibility to be leading the fights we face today—not in their record, their competency, or their recent performance. Quite simply, they have to go."

"Forcing recorded votes is possible. Frequent quorum calls are possible. A wide variety of dilatory motions are possible. In short, harassing the majority is possible. If they think it's a bad idea, say so. If they say it's not possible, they're lying."

Andy Craig, director of election policy at the Rainey Center, urged Americans to keep up the calls to Democratic lawmakers, noting that progressive demands "are 100% doable."

"Objecting to unanimous consents is possible," Craig wrote early Wednesday. "Forcing recorded votes is possible. Frequent quorum calls are possible. A wide variety of dilatory motions are possible. In short, harassing the majority is possible. If they think it's a bad idea, say so. If they say it's not possible, they're lying."

Times editorial board member Mara Gay noted in a column earlier this week that both Schumer and Jeffries "have struggled to shed the familiar rhythms of business as usual" even amid Trump's lawless onslaught, which experts say has sparked a full-blown constitutional crisis.

On Tuesday, Senate Democrats did not object to a GOP unanimous consent request to advance the confirmation process for Tulsi Gabbard, Trump's pick to serve as Director of National Intelligence.

"Holy s---- Schumer and the Senate Democrats couldn't object to a basic UC (unanimous consent) time agreement to slow down a nominee like Gabbard?" progressive strategist Murshed Zaheed asked late Tuesday. "Disgraceful and humiliating surrender from these Democrats as they continue to hit your inboxes and messages begging (spamming) for money."

Reprinted with permission from Alternet.

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