Pete Aguilar: “Madam Clerk, I rise again to nominate Hakeem Jeffries for Speaker of the House. Madam Clerk, I thank my colleague on the…”

“Madam Clerk, I rise again to nominate Hakeem Jeffries for Speaker of the House. Madam Clerk, I thank my colleague on the other side of the aisle for sharing his American Dream story and to his family for being with him at his side. It is our hope that this Chamber gets down to the business so he and all the new Members in this Chamber can be sworn in to do the work of the people. That is why House Democrats stand united, again, on this ballot to make sure that Hakeem Jeffries is the lead vote-getter in this Chamber. It is also why it is important, just as I relayed a few days ago, Madam Clerk, the importance of the character of Hakeem Jeffries, who he is, his story, and why he should be given an opportunity to lead this Chamber. In New York, after the fifth grade, you can't get on a bus to go to school anymore. You have to take alternate means. You can walk or you can take a train. In sixth grade, Hakeem and his brother would walk to the train station, take the train, get off the train, and walk to school. Now, there is a little disagreement in the Jeffries' household as to how many days his father took him on that route before he let him navigate that route with his younger brother. The character it takes for an older brother in sixth grade and his fourth-grade little brother to go to school each and every day in New York, to be on their own, to handle themselves and to handle each other, that is the character of this man.…”