‘It’s Going to Get Someone Killed!’ Hakeem Jeffries Goes Off on Mike Johnson Calling Democrats ‘Terrorists’ Over Government Shutdown
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) claimed on Thursday that House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) is “going to get someone killed” with his rhetoric about the current government shutdown.
Jeffries joined CNN’s Wolf Blitzer on The Situation Room as the government shutdown reached its 23rd day. Jeffries maintained that the Democratic position that an extension of Affordable Care Act subsidies should be included in any plan to fund the government.
Blitzer noted that Johnson accused Democrats of acting like “terrorists” and holding the government hostage. Jeffries responded by accusing Johnson of recklessly using inflammatory language at a time of deep political divisiveness in the country.
He said:
That type of language is reckless, it’s irresponsible, and it’s going to get someone killed. What do these folks not understand as it relates to the language that they continue to use? We should be able to battle it out in the contest of ideas as opposed to trying to use these extreme terms that have been unleashed on the American people from the very beginning of this presidency, and, as a matter of fact, for a long period of time, by the current president and those sycophants who continue to do nothing more than rubber stamp his extreme agenda and hurt the American people. These are folks in the house in terms of the Republicans, they’ve been on vacation for the last four weeks. They have actually canceled votes four consecutive weeks in a row. And as Democrats, we’ve been here, leader [Chuck] Schumer, Senate Democrats, House Democrats making clear we are ready, we are willing we are able to sit down with anyone, any time, any place in order to reopen the government, enact a spending agreement that actually improves the quality of life for the American people, that actually lowers costs for the American people.
In an interview with CNN’s Kaitlan Collins, Johnson referred to Democrats as “legislative terrorists.”
“We’re not going to allow Chuck Schumer to play selfish political games and hold the American people hostage,” he said. “We will not negotiate with legislative terrorists.”
Watch above via CNN.
