Home Minority Chief Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.), a fierce critic of President-elect Trump, congratulated him Thursday, emphasizing that Democrats respect the need of the voters and gained’t problem the outcomes.
“The American people have spoken,” Jeffries stated in an announcement. “I congratulate President-elect Donald J. Trump.”
The transient assertion, issued two days after Trump and the Republicans routed Democrats on the polls, didn’t point out the 2020 election or the GOP’s efforts to disclaim President Biden’s victory and hold Trump in workplace that cycle.
However Jeffries’s emphasis on accepting election outcomes, even in defeat, was a transparent shot at Trump and a few of his allies in Congress for his or her refusal, even right now, to say that Trump misplaced the competition 4 years in the past.
“I am proud that the Democratic Party does not believe in election denial,” Jeffries stated. “Our Democracy is precious and it involves elevating public trust in our system of free and fair elections, not undermining it.”
On Capitol Hill, the GOP effort to overturn the 2020 outcomes was led by Rep. Mike Johnson (R-La.), a former constitutional lawyer, who drafted the authorized rationale for difficult Trump’s defeat that 12 months in a handful of battleground states. Johnson is now the Home Speaker, and this week’s message from Jeffries — who’s in line for the gavel within the long-shot occasion that Democrats flip management of the Home subsequent 12 months — was clearly meant to distinction the Democrats’ acceptance of election outcomes, even after a loss, with the refusal of prime Republicans to do the identical.
“We cannot love America only when we win,” Jeffries stated.
Jeffries is among the many loudest Trump critics on Capitol Hill. He was one of many seven Home Democrats who managed Trump’s first impeachment in 2019. And because the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the U.S. Capitol, he’s repeatedly made clear that he sees Trump and his supporters as a fabric menace to the nation’s democratic foundations.
Democrats had sought to make democracy and “election denialism” a serious subject on the marketing campaign path this 12 months, the primary presidential election following the Jan. 6 assault. However the message didn’t resonate with most voters, who appeared to simply accept — or ignore — Trump’s argument that the 2020 contest was “stolen” from him.
Whereas Trump’s victory over Vice President Harris was a rout, the battle is far nearer for management of the Home, the place either side collected some wins, and a few losses, within the razor-tight race for the gavel. As of Thursday afternoon, the bulk Republicans appeared to have the benefit, after selecting off a pair of veteran Democrats in Pennsylvania and efficiently defending a troublesome seat in Nebraska that Democrats have been assured they’d flip.
Nonetheless, there are a selection of shut races but to be known as, and Jeffries is holding out hope that Democrats will nonetheless prevail by flipping battleground seats in Arizona, California and Oregon that stay up for grabs.
“It has yet to be decided who will control the House of Representatives in the 119th Congress,” he stated. “We must count every vote and wait until the results in Oregon, Arizona and California are clear.”
The Democrats’ struggles on the polls this week have already triggered a bitter sport of inner finger-pointing, with some within the social gathering blaming Harris for the way she managed her marketing campaign.
Jeffries soundly rejected that criticism on Thursday, hailing Harris and her working mate — Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D) — as “remarkable public servants who ran an inspired and positive campaign focused on lifting people up.”
“We look forward to our continued partnership on behalf of the American people in the next chapter of their public service journey,” Jeffries stated.
