Raising A Question of the Privileges of the House

Floor Speech

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Mr. JEFFRIES. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in strong opposition to this fake, fraudulent, and fictitious censure resolution.

The proceedings here on the floor of the House of Representatives have been a complete and total embarrassment. Extreme MAGA Republicans have stooped to a new low, and that is very difficult based on the events that have taken place under this Republican majority throughout this year.

Jamaal Bowman has taken public responsibility for the fire alarm incident. He has apologized, explained the circumstances under which it occurred. He has been held publicly accountable by the D.C. Superior Court, paid a $1,000 fine, and the Ethics Committee, under a Republican chair, on a bipartisan basis here in this Congress made clear that no further action was required.

It begs the question: Why is the author of this resolution and the extreme MAGA Republicans on the floor of the House wasting time and taxpayer resources trying to undermine the credibility of Jamaal Bowman?

He is someone who is doing his best to serve his constituents, including in some of the poorest sections of the Bronx, and extreme MAGA Republicans have us on the floor with this sad and silly charade.

Now, the extreme MAGA Republicans have said, including the author of this resolution, that this is about law and order. Give us a break. All you have done is demonstrate throughout the years, including on January 6 and thereafter, that you are not the party of law and order. Extreme MAGA Republicans are the party of lawlessness and disorder.

As a matter of fact, the author of this resolution has endorsed Donald Trump, with multiple indictments. Someone who undertook a crime wave over and over and over again, proudly smirking now that she stands behind Donald Trump, and then wants to communicate to us that this is about law and order when you are the party of lawlessness and disorder.

In fact, the author of this resolution voted to overturn the will of the American people on January 6, and then came back, like the majority of her extreme MAGA Republican colleagues after the violent insurrection, after the Capitol was overrun by a violent mob, after more than 100 Capitol Police officers were seriously injured, and then voted still, not for law and order, not for accountability, and not for the Constitution. You voted with the insurrectionists.

Give us a break, lecturing us about the Constitution and law and order. Your own record suggests that is a phony argument. Nobody is buying it.

The American people aren't buying it. We will make sure the people of Michigan won't buy it.

It has been very interesting watching extreme MAGA Republicans in this debate acting like detectives on the House floor. Extreme MAGA Republicans pretending to be Perry Mason. Extreme MAGA Republicans pretending to be Matlock. Extreme MAGA Republicans pretending to be Cagney & Lacey, not even worthy of being held to the standard of Inspector Gadget and Ace Ventura: Pet Detective. That is how embarrassing your display on the House floor has been.

This is a serious matter. Your behavior on the House floor is a serious matter, and I have the floor. I have the floor.

The behavior of the extreme MAGA Republicans censuring Member after Member after Member has brought disgrace to the institution, to the House of Representatives.

This behavior has brought disgrace; not the underlying censure. There has been accountability in the ways that we have all described. The effort to weaponize the censure--what happened, Mr. Speaker, to civility? What happened to trying to foster an environment where we can solve problems on behalf of the American people?

We don't take these arguments of civility seriously because the overwhelming majority of the extreme MAGA Republican Conference supports the violent insurrectionists and supports the insurrectionist- in-chief, twice impeached, under Federal indictment repeatedly for breaking the law and violating the Constitution.

Here we are on the House floor because extreme MAGA Republicans have no plan. Extreme MAGA Republicans have no policies. Extreme MAGA Republicans have made no progress for hardworking American taxpayers on any issue, and so you are here to try to distract.

We are not going to let it happen. We are not going to let extreme MAGA Republicans distract the people of Michigan, distract the people of New York, distract the people of America. We are on the House floor wasting time talking about fire alarms--not the economy, not inflation, not affordable housing, not lowering costs, not the gun violence epidemic that continues to claim the lives of our young people all across America. Extreme MAGA Republicans have us on the House floor talking about fire alarms. How silly is that under these circumstances?

Social Security is under assault. Medicare is under assault. Reproductive freedom is under assault. The Affordable Care Act is under assault. Democracy itself is under assault, and extreme MAGA Republicans are wasting time on the House floor talking about fire alarms under these circumstances.

They are embarrassing themselves. It is petty, it is pathetic, and it is petulant.

Now, House Democrats have said from the very beginning of this Congress that we will find bipartisan common ground with our Republican colleagues on any issue whenever and wherever necessary in order to make life better for the American people on any issue, but we will push back against Republican extremism whenever necessary, and you have crossed a line once again.

We will call out MAGA extremism in the loudest, strongest, most direct way possible. This extreme MAGA Republicans' do-nothing Republican Congress has done nothing to improve the lives of the American people all over the land. This do-nothing Republican Congress has failed to solve a single problem on behalf of hardworking American taxpayers. This do-nothing Republican Congress has failed to do a single thing to improve the quality of life of the American people.

If extreme MAGA Republicans are going to continue to try to weaponize the censure as is being done on this floor right now, going after Democrats repeatedly week after week after week because you have nothing better to do, then I volunteer. Censure me next. That is how worthless your censure effort is. It has no credibility, no integrity, and no legitimacy.

Republicans should censure me next. I will take that censure and I will wear it next week, next month, next year like a badge of honor. I will go home, sleep well, and say to myself, today was a good day.

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