Jeffries rips freshman Mills, calls out GOP ‘double standard’ on tweets

The Democratic U.S. House Minority Leader accused the GOP of hypocrisy when it came to tweets, with a joke from a freshman Republican from Central Florida about the attack on Paul Pelosi as Exhibit A.

U.S. Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, D-New York, spoke Thursday in advance of a House vote to strip U.S. Rep. Ilan Omar, D-Minn., of her seat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee for alluding to anti-Semitic tropes in a 2019 tweet.

Jeffries condemned Omar’s tweet, in which she claimed Israel’s allies in the U.S. were “all about the Benjamins,” calling it “deeply offensive.”

But he stood before large poster-board blow-ups of tweets from Republican members, including Rep. Cory Mills, that he also said were offensive but have resulted in no pushback from their party.

Mills, R-New Smyrna Beach, tweeted a joke on Jan. 7 about the attack on Pelosi, former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband.

“Finally one less gavel in Pelosi’s house for Paul to fight with in his underwear,” Mills wrote at 2:49 a.m., just minutes after new GOP House Speaker Kevin McCarthy was chosen after 15 rounds of voting.

Mills’ tweet was later deleted.

The tweet alluded to conspiracy theories pushed in right-wing circles about the October attack, during which Paul Pelosi suffered a skull fracture after being struck by a hammer in his San Francisco home.

David DePape, who told police he wanted to hold Nancy Pelosi hostage, was later indicted by a federal grand jury on one count of attempted kidnapping of a federal officer or employee and one count of assault of an immediate family member of a federal official.

Jeffries slammed Mills for his tweet.

“Violence and attacks on someone who was north of 80 and almost beaten to death is no joking matter,” Jeffries said. “That is sanctioning violence. That’s his first act as a member of Congress. Where’s the accountability? There is no accountability. It doesn’t exist. It’s a double standard.”

Jeffries added that Mills “was placed on the very same Foreign Affairs committee that they’re about to throw Ilhan Omar off. Facts don’t matter with this extreme MAGA Republican majority. Hypocrisy is not a constraint to their behavior, and shamelessness they believe is a superpower.”

Mills voted along with the rest of his party to strip Omar of her seat.

“I support maintaining [the] integrity of the House Foreign Affairs Committee (HFAC). Our voice on geopolitical matters impact the US on the world stage, and how our allies and adversaries view America,” he wrote in a tweet. “I voted YES to HR 76 removing Rep. Omar for antisemitic/anti-American rhetoric.”

Mills’ office did not respond to a request for comment.

Mills, who was elected in November to succeed Democratic U.S. Rep. Stephanie Murphy after her district was redrawn to become heavily Republican, also gained notoriety last month for giving his fellow members dummy grenades.

“It is my pleasure to give you a 40mm grenade, made for a Mk19 grenade launcher,” Mills wrote. “They are manufactured in the Sunshine State and first developed in the Vietnam War. Let’s come together and get to work on behalf of our constituents.”