‘Hakeem Jeffries must apologize for this disgraceful call to violence,’ a senior White House official responds.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., is being criticized by Republicans after pledging Democrats would fight President Donald Trump’s agenda “in the streets.”
“Right now, we’re going to keep focus on the need to look out for everyday New Yorkers and everyday Americans who are under assault by an extreme MAGA Republican agenda that is trying to cut taxes for billionaires, donors, and wealthy corporations and then stick New Yorkers and working class Americans across the country with the bill,” Jeffries said.
“That’s not acceptable. We are going to fight it legislatively. We are going to fight it in the courts. We’re going to fight it in the streets.”
Republicans blasted Jeffries for his choice of words, accusing him of inflaming political tensions in an already-tense political climate.
House Majority Whip Tom Emmer, R-Minn., immediately demanded that Jeffries apologize.
“House Minority Leader [Jeffries] should promptly apologize for his use of inflammatory and extreme rhetoric,” Emmer wrote on X. “President Trump and the Republicans are focused on uniting the country; Jeffries needs to stop trying to divide it.”
A senior White House official told Fox News, “Hakeem Jeffries must apologize for this disgraceful call to violence.”
Jeffries spokesperson Christie Stephenson told Fox News Digital, “The notion that Leader Jeffries supports violence is laughable. Republicans are the party that pardons violent felons who assault police officers. Democrats are the party of John Lewis and the right to petition the government peacefully.”
She also referred to the comments as promoting “nonviolent protest” on X.
The House Democratic leader was holding a press conference in Brooklyn on Friday aimed at criticizing Trump’s federal funding freeze and his handling of the tragic aircraft collision in Washington, D.C., earlier this week.
Jeffries credited Democrats with stopping the Trump administration’s federal funding freeze.
“As was demonstrated this week, House Democrats, Senate Democrats, Democratic governors, and everyday Americans all across the country rose up in defiance as it relates to the illegal, unlawful, and extreme federal funding freeze that is part of the Republican rip-off agenda,” Jeffries said. “We fought it, we stopped it, and we will never surrender.”
The Trump administration’s Office of Management and Budget (OMB) issued an order earlier this week pausing most federal funding while directing agencies to conduct thorough reviews of where taxpayer dollars are being spent.
The White House later clarified the memo to mean funding going toward progressive causes that Trump had explicitly blocked through executive orders.
