PoliticsThursday 05.16.24

Hakeem Jeffries mocks “Red Tie Brigade,” when asked about Speaker Mike Johnson attending Trump's NY hush money trial.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) on Thursday mocked Republicans who attended Donald Trump’s hush money criminal trial in New York as the “Red Tie Brigade.”

“It is extraordinary that so many extreme MAGA Republicans, who are apparently part of the 'Red Tie Brigade,' felt the need to bend the knee to the 'Insurrectionist-in-Chief,'” the New York Democrat said during his weekly news conference, an apparent reference to several of Republicans wearing red ties while standing for a news conference outside the courthouse.

A reporter had asked Jeffries whether he was surprised or disappointed to see House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) join the stream of Republicans, who attended the trial and appeared with Trump outside the courtroom in a show of support for the presumptive GOP nominee for president.

“I have not had an opportunity to talk to Speaker Johnson about the rationale for his visit,” Jeffries said about the Louisiana Republican’s decision.

Trump is charged with 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in New York as part of a hush money scheme to bury stories of alleged extramarital affairs that he feared could hurt his presidential campaign in 2016.

Recount Wire

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