On Wednesday, Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY), the chair of the Democratic House Caucus, spoke of the Democrats’ efforts to force Republicans to bend to their will on voting rights, and while celebrating various civil rights leaders, mentioned former Venezuelan despot Hugo Chavez before correcting himself and naming Cesar Chavez, triggering criticism on social media.
Jeffries started by referencing Dr. Martin Luther King as he said, “I think it’s important to remember, as Dr. King just reminded us, as we reflected upon his life and his legacy a few days ago, ‘The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.’ What Dr. King was saying to us is that in this world there are some good folks, there’s some rough folks. For the good folks to be able to prevail you gotta be willing to continue to stand up, step up, speak up, show up. And things aren’t necessarily going to happen instantaneously. It didn’t for Dr. King; it didn’t for Rosa Parks. It didn’t Fannie Lou Hamer or John Lewis or A. Philip Randolph or Roy Wilkins or Adam Clayton Powell Jr. or Shirley Chisholm.”
Then he declared. “And we’re inspired: Hugo Chavez, (catching himself) Cesar Chavez; we’re inspired by all of these leaders.”
“Their struggles, their civil rights struggles,” he continued, before segueing to the usual leftist themes of various forms of justice, instead of simple justice itself: “The farm workers’ struggle, the women’s struggle. It’s my expectation that the people we represent understand this dynamic of struggle and service and sacrifice. And that we’ll be able to make the case that we’re going to continue to do everything we can on economic justice, on racial justice, and on social justice.”
The Democrats' election takeover bill being inspired by Hugo Chavez is a classic Washington "gaffe"—accidentally telling the truth. https://t.co/Pn1rdcgHll
— Tom Cotton (@TomCottonAR) January 19, 2022
LMAO!!!!! And you may too, until you realize, it is more reflective of Hugo than Cesar. https://t.co/LVdgxN83ZO
— Trey Radel (@treyradel) January 19, 2022
Earlier, Jeffries, taking a leaf from President Biden’s characterization of his opponents on voting procedures as racists, seemingly insinuated that the present-day Republican Party is racist as he referred to the election of Barack Obama in 2008:
What happened to the modern-day Republican Party? Was it the election that took place in 2008? Did that disturb you? Did that throw you off? Were you confused by that? Still trying to figure out how that occurred? What happened to the modern-day Republican Party that you’ve abandoned your own principles? … What happened to the modern-day Republican Party? It’s a cult right now. Is it because the cult leader has told you to oppose voting rights?
As another indication of Jeffries’ perspective, he insisted, “President Biden has had a very good year under incredibly difficult circumstances.”
Rich Lowry of National Review wrote of Chavez in 2013:
He displaced a corrupt, conscienceless oligarchy when he took power in 1999 with his own corrupt, conscienceless rule. In a recent report, Human Rights Watch detailed how “the accumulation of power in the executive and the erosion of human rights protections have allowed the Chávez government to intimidate, censor, and prosecute critics and perceived opponents.”
Fidel Castro was his mentor, and he propped up the Castro regime with Venezuela’s ample oil. He praised every heinous dictator around the planet as a brother-in-arms. He was hell on the plutocrats, and also on the Jews. “Don’t let yourselves be poisoned by those wandering Jews,” he warned his countrymen, in a sentiment worthy of the 15th century.