Hakeem Jeffries slams ‘racist’ Republicans and Trump press secretary: ‘They’re ripping the sheets off!’:

U.S. Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, the Democratic leader of the U.S. House of Representatives, called out what he sees as the Republican Party’s racism and fueling of hatred and political violence. He also called out President Donald Trump‘s White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, calling the spokesperson “sick” and “out of control.”

After a series of controversial headlines involving the Republican Party and its proximity to racism and violence, including a young Republican group chat that called Black people monkeys and used the n-word, Jeffries said Republicans are showing who they really are.

“This is apparently who many of these people are. They are ripping the sheets off in plain view of the American people. Their words, their actions, revealing themselves in so many different ways,” Congressman Jeffries said during a news conference Friday morning.

Referring to the controversial group chat and flag with a swastika being found in a Republican congressman’s office, the Democratic leader said recent events are a “matter of deep concern.”

“We’ve already seen a rise in political violence and hatred in America, and then you’ve got swastikas apparently appearing in the offices of Republican members of Congress. You’ve got young Republicans engaging in the most antisemitic and racist speech possible,” said Jeffries, who is the first African-American in U.S. history to serve as a party leader.

As an example of the Republican Party’s extremism, Rep. Jeffries pointed to Leavitt, who recently told Fox News that Democrats were “catering” to a constituency of “Hamas terrorists, illegal aliens, and violent criminals.”

“[She’s] sick, she’s out of control, and I’m not sure whether she’s just demented, ignorant, a stone-cold liar, or all of the above. But the notion that an official White House spokesperson would say that the Democratic Party consists of terrorists, violent criminals, and undocumented immigrants — this makes no sense,” said the House leader.

Jeffries added, “This is what the American people are getting from the Trump administration in the middle of a shutdown. So their actions continue to speak for themselves, which is why they’re on the wrong side of public sentiment.”