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Minority Leader

Hakeem Jeffries takes the stage

DAN RATHER AND ELLIOT KIRSCHNER JAN 7

(Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

As the news world was gripped this past week by the pathetic drama coming out of the United States House of Representatives, the spotlight naturally focused on Kevin McCarthy and the roughly 20 renegades in his caucus who were determined to debase him, the Republican Party’s nominal leader. We learned the names of the holdouts and analyzed their motives. We reached back to the lack of historic precedent. We considered the role of the former president. 

(Here at Steady, we were among those watching and writing about the saga, posting “A Cyclone of Crazy” and “Burning Down The House.”)

Well, late last night, after more name-calling, and roll-calling, and almost fisticuffs, McCarthy finally attained the position for which he has long yearned. The dealmaking, dysfunction, and degradation that allowed him to reach the speakership come at great cost to the institution of the House and American democracy more broadly. The entire fiasco portends a 118th Congress of destructive and divisive chaos.

Sadly, this is a story that will not disappear. There will be plenty to say about who McCarthy is and what he surrendered to his hostage-takers as the full picture comes into focus. A broken House will define our lives in unknowable ways in the years to come. With this in mind, let us shift our gaze a bit today to the other side of the aisle. 

As we watched McCarthy come up short in vote, after vote, after vote, after vote, after vote, the Democrats stood remarkably united. They stayed in the chamber, and they voted in unanimity for their new leader, Hakeem Jeffries. Here was a caucus — with its own divisions and disagreements — sticking together around a man who had himself just risen to the top of leadership. 

Jeffries had been a trusted deputy of Speaker Nancy Pelosi for years. He learned from a woman who will go down in history for many reasons, including the effectiveness with which she wielded the gavel. But it is one thing to be the understudy and quite another to be the star. 

Jeffries is himself historic, the first Black lawmaker to lead a party in Congress. But “historic” does not automatically translate into “effective.” In the face of what we saw from the Republicans, who is the man who will be leading the opposition? What will be his public persona and his backroom tactics? How will he take on this fraught moment in our history? And how will he try to hold his party’s many factions together? 

Early this morning, Jeffries rose to the top of the dais in the House and addressed his party, his Republican colleagues, and the nation as a whole. He has of course given many speeches over the years, but this was something different. He was officially the House minority leader, and what he said would help define how he would embody this important role. 

Let’s just say that Jeffries seized his moment and gave a speech in substance and tone that suggests the Democrats have a new and unique voice speaking for their party in the chamber. Rather than try to further characterize what he said and how he said it, we wanted to share the speech in full here for you to watch and then contribute your feedback in the Steady comments below.