Democratic House Minority Leader Rep. Hakeem Jeffries Wednesday slammed President Trump for failing to present a plan to lower costs for the American people in his speech to a joint session of Congress.
The Brooklyn lawmaker said Trump’s speech was all bluster and failed to include concrete proposals to improve the stuttering economy.
“There was nothing said … by Donald Trump to meet the needs of the American people, particularly as it relates to the economy,” Jeffries told ABC’s Good Morning America.
Jeffries accused Trump of abandoning his campaign pledge to reduce prices paid by American consumers.
“Donald Trump promised to lower costs. In fact, he promised to lower costs on day one,” he said. “We know that grocery prices aren’t going down. They’re going up. Inflation is going up. And the stock market is going down, which is hurting the retirement security of everyday Americans.”
Trump delivered a energetic campaign-style speech that went on for a record 100 minutes, claiming victory on slashing government spending and culture war issues like rolling back transgender rights.
Some Democrats protested by walking out on Trump while others held up placards decrying some of his controversial statements that fact-checkers called untrue.
Rep. Al Green (D-Texas) was booted from the chamber when he waved his cane and wouldn’t stop heckling Trump.
Jeffries defended his colleagues’ conduct, noting that most Democrats sat quietly through Trump’s extended diatribe.
“The vast majority of Democrats showed restraint, listened to what the president had to say (even though) we strongly disagree,” he said.
The Democratic leader said his caucus remains committed to negotiating a stopgap spending deal with Republicans that could avert a government shutdown as soon as next week.
He said the divisive speech, which is technically not considered a state of the union address because Trump had only been in office for a month, did not bode well for bipartisan cooperation in the coming four years.
“I was struggling to hear anything relative to what the President had to say in terms of bringing the country together,” he said. “(It) was one of the most partisan and divisive speeches ever delivered by an American president. And that’s unfortunate.”
Snap polls said viewers had a lukewarm response to the Trump speech.
About 70% of those who tuned in had a “somewhat positive” response while 44 percent had a “very positive” response, according to a CNN poll. Those were lower marks than he got in his first speech to Congress in 201, when 57% rated him “very positively” or former President Biden last year, who got a “very positive” reaction from 51%.
A CBS News poll showed better results for Trump with 76% of viewers approving of what he had to say.
The audience for the speech skewed much more heavily Republican than the population as a whole, possible giving Trump a boost among viewers.
