Alphabetical list of Democratic unity principles

Echo report published in Newsweek by James Bickerton:

A video of Rep. Hakeem Jeffries handing the post of House Speaker to Kevin McCarthy has gone viral on social media, being viewed more than 2.4 million times.  YouTube video at this site here.

On Friday the Republican McCarthy was elected speaker on the 15th ballot, following four days of gridlock in the lower chamber.

In the end 216 Republicans voted for McCarthy versus 212 Democrats for Jeffries, while six Republicans voted "present."

Previously McCarthy had been blocked by a group of around 20 right-wing Republicans, making this the longest election for speaker since 1859, when 44 ballots were required.

Conceding the election Jeffries extended "our hand of partnership" to McCarthy, adding: "We extend, and intend, to try and find common ground, whenever and wherever possible, on behalf of the American people."

However, Jeffries warned the Democrats will "never compromise our principles," and proceeded to list those principles with one offered for each of the 26 letters in the alphabet.

He began: "We'll always put American values over autocracy, benevolence over bigotry, the constitution over the cult, democracy over demagogues, economic opportunity over extremism, freedom over fascism."

Continuing in this style until the letter z he said: "Reason over racism, substance over slander, triumph over tyranny, understanding over ugliness, voting rights over voter suppression, working families over the well-connected, xenial (hospitable, especially to visiting strangers or foreigners) over xenophobia, "yes we can" over "you can't do it" and zealous representation over zero sum confrontation."

A clip of the speech was posted on Twitter by user 'BrooklynDad_Defiant,' a self-described Democrat supporter.

He wrote: "HOLY S***, my man Rep. Hakeem Jeffries actually schooled these fools alphabetically!"

The video received more than 1.7 million views, along with 19,500 retweets and 86,000 likes.

Another clip of the speech was tweeted out by Huffington Post journalist Philip Lewis, who wrote: "Hakeem Jeffries just went from A thru Z in his speech."

This clip was viewed more than 500,000 times, receiving over 23,000 likes.

Reacting to his election on Friday, Speaker McCarthy joked: "That was easy, huh?" (❗)

He continued: "My father always told me, it's not how you start, it's how you finish. Now, the hard work begins."

Speaking to reporters McCarthy singled out former president Donald Trump for praise, who had endorsed him in the race.

He said: "But I do want to especially thank President Trump.

"I don't think you should doubt–anybody should doubt his influence. He was with me from the beginning... And he was all in. He would call me and he would call others."

Oh Paaaaleeeeze!

Speaking to Newsweek Professor Sarah Binder, who teaches at George Washington University's Columbian College of Arts and Science, predicted McCarthy will have a difficult time as speaker.

She said: "This was going to be a rocky Congress for McCarthy, even if he had been elected on the first ballot. It's a slim, fractured GOP majority that will have a tough time when 'must pass' measures come to the floor."