On Sunday's State of the Union, Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries' answer to Trump's threatened military crackdown on Chicago was a canned, consultant-crafted set of talking points that did nothing to convey the urgency of the moment.
In response to Dana Bash's question about Trump's threat, Jeffries ran through reasons why Trump is unpopular, as if saying that will turn off the march toward fascism.
And we should continue to support local law enforcement and not simply allow Donald Trump to play games with the lives of the American people as part of his effort to manufacture a crisis and create a distraction because he's deeply unpopular. Here is the transcript to his full answer, which would have been an fine, bland response to something like Republicans defunding local police.
The one big ugly bill is deeply unpopular.
Ripping health care away from millions of Americans is unpopular.
Enacting tax breaks for their billionaire donors is deeply unpopular and that's why a lot of this is taking place Donna.
You think it's manufactured that Americans even likely in the city of Chicago are worried about crime?
Of course people are going to be worried about public safety all across America.
I represent a community that for decades has had to deal with the crack cocaine epidemic, the failed war on drugs, gun shots going off at different points in time in communities.
So of course all of us will continue to focus on making sure we can drive down crime whenever and wherever it is taking place.
This is not about the American people.
The American people understandably want safer communities.
As Democrats we want safer communities.
We want to continue to make sure that crime can go down as it's doing in Chicago, in New York, in Washington DC and other places.
And to do that we should support local law enforcement.
We should make sure that the flood of guns into these communities is cut off.
We should make sure that we're dealing with the mental health crisis that exists all across the United States of America.
And by the way which Donald Trump is exacerbating by cutting funds to actually help people who are dealing with emotional distress.
The President of the United States has threatened to send the National Guard from states which aren't from Illinois in to Chicago to occupy it and this is the response from the Democratic leadership? Again, it's a perfectly fine response to a different, less urgent situation but THIS IS FASCISM and it's high time for Democrats to call it that.
Illinois Governor JB Pritzker called the threat of troops in Chicago “an authoritarian power grab of major cities," which gets closer to the truth of the matter.
By sending the military into cities under the auspices of fighting crime, Trump is setting the stage for massive voter suppression in 2026, among other things. Just yesterday the National Guard in DC has been given Sig Sauers to carry despite there being no need for them. Those weapons are meant to send a message, and it's not one that supports democracy.
Immigrant advocacy organization CASA got the message loud and clear. “This is not safety. This is state-sponsored intimidation,” said CASA’s Organizing Director Eduardo Zelaya. “From ICE raids to militarized patrols, this is an orchestrated campaign to terrorize our families. We will not stand by as our people are harassed, abducted, and pushed from the streets of the city we call home. These actions also hurt our economy by driving workers into the shadows and disrupting local businesses.”
“These are not isolated incidents. They are a direct assault on immigrant families, on working-class neighborhoods, and on the dignity of Washingtonians as a whole. Everyone deserves dignity and respect, no matter who they are, where they were born, or what language they speak," he continued.
Those are strong words: Terrorize, state-sponsored intimidation. Compare those comments to Jeffries' remarks. He is not finding and speaking to the urgency of the moment.
My purpose here is to push him toward dropping the talking points and hand gestures, and instead speak from the heart to the moment at hand. Trump is a FASCIST and using our military to occupy cities is FASCISM and it's high time Democrats and the media started using those words.
Others had thoughts too.
Let's hope Jeffries hears what we're all saying.
