President Donald Trump has called for criminal charges against House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, accusing the top Democrat of inciting violence.
The president posted a photo of Jeffries beside a poster reading “Maximum warfare everywhere all the time” next to a photograph of the alleged gunman who prosecutors say attempted to breach security at the White House correspondents’ dinner.
Donald Trump calls out Hakeem Jeffries
“This lunatic, Hakeem ‘Low IQ’ Jeffries, should be charged with INCITING VIOLENCE! The Radical Left Democrats actually want to Destroy our Country,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
The accusatory quote by Hakeem Jeffries was made during an April 22 news conference. He was addressing the partisan fight over congressional redistricting. Following a vote in Virginia that approved an electoral map favouring Democrats, Jeffries accused Republicans of waging a “gerrymandering war.”
Whilst outlining his party’s response strategy, he said, “We are in an era of maximum warfare, everywhere, all the time. And we are going to keep the pressure on Republicans at every single state in the union, to ensure at the end of the day, that there is a fair, national map.”
Three days after these comments, an alleged gunman attempted to run through a security checkpoint at WHCD in what has been described as an assassination attempt on Trump. Republicans pointed to Jeffries’ “warfare” language to accuse Democrats of violent rhetoric. The minority leader has not retreated from his statement. “You can continue to criticise me for it. I don’t give a damn about your criticism.”
A New York Times report on gerrymandering indicates the “maximum warfare” phrase may have originated from within Trump’s own political operation. It quoted an anonymous person close to the president, who described the White House strategy as “Maximum warfare, everywhere, all the time.”
The post comes as Trump continues to press for criminal prosecutions against political opponents. He has pushed for charges against people, including New York Attorney General Letitia James and former FBI Director James Comey. (Source: Al Jazeera)
Originally reported by Devanshi Basu on Mandatory.
