Pete Aguilar: “Pro tempore, I rise today at the direction of the House Democratic Caucus to place into nomination for the position of…”

“Pro tempore, I rise today at the direction of the House Democratic Caucus to place into nomination for the position of Speaker of the House of Representatives, the Honorable Hakeem Jeffries of New York. Here we are again, Mr. Speaker pro tempore, and I promise to make these speeches shorter if we get closer to a compromise, but I am not certain that is going to happen at this moment. While the Republican candidate for Speaker is making late-night backroom deals to secure the gavel, Leader Jeffries has once again extended the hand of bipartisanship for a path forward. One thing was very clear yesterday, the vote total: 212-200. The People's House has spoken and Leader Jeffries has the support to be the Speaker that this country needs. Mr. Speaker pro tempore, 212-200, no amount of election denying is going to take away from those vote totals. Mr. Speaker pro tempore, we shouldn't be surprised at the vote count. I noted yesterday the legislative acumen of the gentleman from Ohio. Would it surprise anyone that in addition to not passing a single piece of legislation, he has never put up a piece of legislation that has made it to a committee? The Speaker of the House must be a legislator, and the gentleman from Ohio falls short in that regard. He supports an extreme agenda and is hell-bent on banning abortion nationwide, gutting Medicare, gutting Social Security, and giving cover to January 6 attackers. Those aren't the values that we share.…”