Late-night TV host Stephen Colbert has set the table for a change in leadership in the House for Democrats. He ripped the House Minority Leader for literally sitting on his hands during Trump’s State of the Union (SOTU) address.
Colbert claimed that Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) showed a “bold rebrand of doing jack squat.”
Jeffries was among those who sat in “quiet defiance” during the SOTU, but he did release a short statement afterward.
Leadership was hoping to avoid the debacle that took place during Trump’s joint session address in 2025.
Jeffries had given a directive to either do a silent protest during the speech or boycott it altogether, but they did not want any ugly outbursts, which never play well with the American people.
Jeffries had stated, “The two options that are in front of us in our House [are] to either attend with silent defiance or to not attend and send a message to Donald Trump in that fashion, which will include participation in a variety of different alternate programming that is going to take place in and around the Capitol complex.”
This was supported by the majority of the caucus, with Rep. Sarah McBride (D-MD) being among them. She voiced support for Jeffries’ directive, stating, “I think this president’s slow undoing, I think this president’s unhinged tirades, I think this president’s unpopular policies should be the story, not sort of gestures from our side.”
Jeffries did follow his directive, but the usual players from the party did exactly what he was hoping they would not do.
When Trump called out Somali fraud in Minnesota, Reps. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) and Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) just about lost their minds, getting more headlines for their outbursts than anything Trump said or did.
There was also Rep. Al Green (D-TX) being escorted out of the chamber for the second straight year.
Jeffries then issued a statement, accusing Trump of being divisive, concluding, “Instead of presenting the nation with a positive vision for our future and the economy, the President blamed others for his failures. Democrats know that everyday Americans deserve better, and we will continue to use every tool at our disposal to address the Republican affordability crisis, fix our broken healthcare system and get ICE under control.”
Colbert, who has proven himself to be a Democrat operative over the last few years, went off on Jeffries after the address.
Colbert noted Jeffries' directive on “silent defiance,” then added, “Which I believe is a bold rebrand of doing jack squat. As Martin Luther King once said: ‘Shhh.'”
Jeffries was trying to strategize this, but Colbert would rather have a spectacle, which benefits him and the other late-night hosts who need material to make their shows successful and entertaining.
And as was proven after the address, the damage done to Democrats was far worse than any hits they were trying to land against Trump. I think Trump’s address could have been better, but it passed muster, and I think he and the GOP came out ahead during this round.
