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Monday, November 21, 2022

Pelosi Steps Down--Hakeem Jefferies Steps Up; What You Should Know

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Just a day after U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced she would step down from her role as leader of the House Democrats, Rep. Hakeem Jefferies, D-NY, has stepped up, emerging as the top candidate to take her position.

Who is Hakeem Jefferies and does it matter?

It does matter, and here's what you should know about him.

Be informed, not misled.

Pelosi, now 82 years old, announced Thursday she will be stepping down from her role as leader of the Democrats in the House of Representatives.

On Friday, Rep. Hakeem Jefferies sent a letter to his Democrat colleagues seeking "support for the position of House Democratic Leader."

Jefferies is 52, has represented New York's Brooklyn-based 8th Congressional District since 2012, and has served as Chair of the House Democratic Caucus 2019. He previously worked as a corporate lawyer and as a state lawmaker.

Should he get the support he's asking for, he will become the first African American to lead a political party in the US Congress.

More importantly, what does he believe? In what direction will he lead the Democrats in the House. 

Is he more---or less "progressive" than Nancy Pelosi?

Is he anti-Semitic like his professor uncle?

Four things you should know about Hakeem Jefferies.

He is an "election denier."

He called Trump an "illegitimate" president multiple times.

News of Republican "election deniers" losing their bids for elected office has dominated the headlines in the week following the 2022 midterm elections. The term "election deniers" has been used to describe anyone who has cast doubts about the results of the 2020 presidential election. 

The legacy press has labeled anyone who questions an election a "denier" and therefore an "outcast" to progressive ideology and an enemy of "democracy."

Now the Democrats are considering a new House Leader who is a "denier." One of them.

Actually, the Democrats have raised questions about the authenticity of a number of elections including the outcomes of 2000, 2004, and 2016 presidential elections, all of which were won by Republicans. Jeffries was one of several Democrats to suggest that former President Donald Trump, who won the 2016 presidential election, was not a legitimate president.

In early 2018, Jeffries tweeted, "The more we learn about the 2016 election the more ILLEGITIMATE it becomes." The tweet reacted to a Washington Post article announcing the indictment of 13 Russians accused of interfering in the 2016 election.

"America deserves to know whether we have a FAKE President in the Oval Office," Jeffries wrote, accompanied by the hashtag #RussianInterference.

In September 2018, Jeffries took to Twitter to outline ( link 5 )  what he viewed as the shortcomings of the Republican Party, which included what he described as the propensity to "CHEAT." The lawmaker cited "2016 election/Russian interference" as an example of the party's cheating.

In November 2020, shortly after the 2020 presidential election, Jeffries directed a tweet at Trump, saying, "History will never accept you as a legitimate president."

He called pro-lifers "yahoos' and "extreme."

Last year, after Texas implemented a ban on abortions after six weeks gestation, Jeffries indicated that the U.S. House would pass the Women's Health Protection Act that would codify the right to abortion established in the now-overturned 1973 Roe v. Wade decision into federal law.

Jeffries said, "Women across America should have the freedom to make their own reproductive healthcare decisions," adding that the legality of abortion "shouldn't be determined by a bunch of yahoos in Texas and a negligent Supreme Court."

Has he distanced himself from his controversial uncle and his double-mindedness?

A local edition of the New York Times published this in 2012:

Fort Greene and Clinton Hill’s likely new congressman, Hakeem Jeffries, has spent a lifetime straddling two worlds.

He’s a product of Brooklyn public schools, but he now champions religious and charter school education. His roots are working class, but he later walked the hallowed halls of our nation’s elite educational institutions. His uncle was a radical black nationalist from a take-no-prisoners era, yet he has fashioned himself as a centrist dealmaker who listens a lot more than he talks.

I would add that a profile titled "Schooled In Hate" compiled by the Anti-Defamation League illustrates some of the anti-Semitic commentary made by Professor Jeffries over the years.

Jeffries, who formerly served as the chair of the Black Studies Department at the City College of New York, told one of his classes in April 1990 that "rich Jews who financed the development of Europe also financed the slave trade." The following summer, The New York Post reported on remarks made by the professor at the 1991 Empire State Black Arts and Culture Festival in Albany, New York.

At the event, Professor Leonard Jeffries reiterated his comments tying "rich Jews" to the slave trade and described Hollywood as "the site of a Jewish-dominated conspiracy to systematically denigrate Blacks." He also referred to then-Assistant U.S. Secretary of Education Diane Ravitch as the "ultimate, supreme, sophisticated, debonair racist" and a "Texas Jew." Jeffries' comments at the festival prompted his removal from his position as chair of City College's Black Studies Department less than a year later.

When the Times local edition asked on Primary Night (in 2012) for his two priorities, Mr. Jeffries said that one major initiative would be eliminating the “crushing burden” (his words) of the costs of private religious school education."

"Two worlds. That’s the Hakeem Jeffries story," they concluded

Is Hakeen anti-Semitic like his uncle? 

I guess it all depends on which world you're talking about.

He co-sponsored the 'FIRST STEP Act.' 

The FIRST STEP Act, an acronym for the "Formerly Incarcerated Reenter Society Transformed Safely Transitioning Every Person Act," passed the Republican-controlled House in a 358-36 vote and the Republican-controlled Senate in an 87-12 vote.  

"This bill will transform lives by providing access to the mental health counseling, education, job training and substance abuse treatment needed to help incarcerated individuals to get back on their feet and become productive members of society," Jefferies said. "It also provides retroactive relief for the shameful crack cocaine sentencing disparity that unfairly destroyed lives, families, and communities." 

He said, "The FIRST STEP Act is not the end. It's not even the beginning of the end. It's simply the end of the beginning of a bipartisan journey to eradicate the mass incarceration epidemic in America."

Takeaway

It appears this man may well be the next Leader of the House Democrats---Speaker if the Democrats should ever regain a majority in the House.

Should his colleagues elect him as their leader, you'll know all of the above doesn't matter at all to the Left.

Be Informed. Be Discerning. Be Vigilant. Be Engaged. Be Prayerful.