House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries warned Republicans and
federal law enforcement against sanctioning or arresting three Democratic New
Jersey lawmakers who were involved in a tense immigration protest.
“They’ll find out. They’ll find out. They’ll find out,” Jeffries said Tuesday when asked how he’d respond if officials arrested or sanctioned Democratic Reps. Rob Menendez, LaMonica McIver and Bonnie Watson Coleman. “That’s a red line. It’s a red line, it’s very clear.”
The three Democrats were inspecting the new ICE facility, which is set to play a major role in White House Northeast immigration operations, and were involved in a scrum when federal agents arrested Newark Mayor Ras Baraka, who authorities said was trespassing.
Six days later we learned
The Justice Department has filed charges against a Democratic member of Congress, alleging that she assaulted law enforcement officers during a protest outside an immigration detention facility in New Jersey earlier this month.
Rep. LaMonica McIver, D-N.J., faces two counts of assaulting, resisting, and impeding law enforcement officials in connection with an incident at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Newark, according to court documents made public on Tuesday.
Interim U.S. Attorney for New Jersey Alina Habba, who served
as Trump's personal attorney and previously worked as counselor to the
president, announced the charges against McIver on X on Monday night, before
they were made public.
On Tuesday, McIver told NBC News that she had learned of the charges on social media after Habba posted about them.
After President Trump in April reduced federal aid to Harvard University by $2.2 billion, thus slashing medical research, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer stated "We sent him a very strong letter just the other day asking eight very strong questions about why this isn't just a pretext," everyone laughed. Broadly mocked, Schumer faced faced calls for his resignation from leadership of the caucus as criticism of the Democratic Party for being leaderless grew.
But now that Hakeem Jeffries' "red line" was crossed with the charging of Representative McIver, the House Minority Leader has responded with..... a strongly worded press release. "Everyone responsible for this illegitimate abuse of power," read the joint statement from Jeffries, Whip Katherine Clark, Caucus Chair Pete Aguilar, Vice Chair Ted Leu and Assistant Leader Joe Neguse, "is going to be held accountable for their actions."
Fat chance, that. It's possible that the caucus will in the next few days do something more than it has, or that Senator Schumer did in the Harvard matter, but it has not done so thus far. However, as of now, this looks a lot like President Obama's reverse Theodore Roosevelt, "speak softly and carry a big stick."
In the summer of 2012, President Obama pledged that if President Bashar al-Assad were to cross a "red line" by employing chemical weapons against domestic rebels, Syria would face "enormous consequences." Assad called Obama's bluff a year later by dropping sarin gas outside of Damascus with no military response from the most powerful nation on earth.
Chuck Schumer did not rise to the occasion. Thus far, Hakeem Jeffries has done even less in response to a direct attack upon his caucus, a criminal charge against one of its members. He has not only failed to deliver, he threatened and then failed to deliver. The caucus cannot afford a paper tiger and if he does not respond forcefully in a manner at least reasonably effective, the Minority Leader should be replaced.
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