CHICAGO—Quoting a portion of a hit song by pop star Taylor Swift, House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries told Democrats gathered in Chicago on Wednesday that Donald Trump is like the guy Americans broke up with who is trying to stalk his way back inside.
“Donald Trump is like an old boyfriend who you broke up with but he just won’t go away,” Jeffries said, rousing the convention hall as he punctuated the air with his signature staccato oratory.
“Bro, we broke up with you for a reason,” the New York Democrat said, drawing roars of agreement.
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“Donald Trump can spin the block all he wants, but there is no reason for us to ever, get back together,” he said, reciting a portion of Swift’s hit song, “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together.” “Been there, done that, we’re not going back.”
Jeffries called Trump, the 2024 GOP nominee, a “chaos agent” who tried to overturn the legitimate results of the 2020 election, incited the Capitol riot and installed three “extreme justices” on the U.S. Supreme Court. And he warned he must not be let back into the White House.
If Democrats take back the House in November, Jeffries will become the first ever Black speaker of the House of Representatives.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y.,speaks during day three of the 2024 Democratic National Convention in Chicago on Wednesday, August 21, 2024.
Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty ImagesJeffries, a close ally of former Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who was instrumental in ousting Joe Biden from the 2024 presidential race, praised Biden as “one of the most consequential presidents of all time” who he said “selflessly passed the torch to Kamala Harris.”
Pelosi, who appeared on the DNC stage after Jeffries and who has defended her treatment of Biden as a necessary act of tough love in order to give Democrats their best shot to retake power, chose to focus on Trump’s role in the deadly Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.
“Let us not forget who assaulted democracy that day,” Pelosi said in her primetime speech following Jeffries’. “He did!
“Thank God we had a Democratic House of Representatives then,” she added, recalling how she led lawmakers to return to the Capitol that same night to finish their constitutional obligation to certify the election results.
“American democracy prevailed,” she said.
“Let’s make Kamala Harris the 47th President of the United States of America,” Jeffries said, to wild applause.
