Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries asserted that President Donald Trump’s recent social-media posts amounted to a call for the execution of Democratic elected officials.
Their statements follow Trump’s description of six Democratic lawmakers as engaging in “seditious behavior, punishable by death,” after those members appeared in a video urging service members to refuse unlawful orders. The president also referenced arrest and trial in connection with the lawmakers’ statements.
At a joint news conference, Jeffries condemned Trump’s language as “disgusting and dangerous death threats against Members of Congress,” and urged House Republicans to publicly repudiate the remarks. Schumer added that when the president uses execution-linked rhetoric, “some of his supporters may very well listen,” and he labelled the posts “deadly serious.”
The controversy escalates tensions in Washington over political speech and its potential to incite violence, as the nation’s top Republican and Democratic leaders trade accusations.