Rep. Madeleine Dean (D-Pa.) is using the words of “Succession’s” Logan Roy to blast her Republican colleagues on the House Judiciary Committee, accusing them of “gesturing about violent crime” by holding a field hearing in New York City.
“None of this is new: Hearing after hearing, one Congress to the next, the numbers keep repeating themselves,” Dean said Monday of violent crime statistics.
“More than 200 people a day shot. Forty thousand people a year killed by guns. We know all this. Facts are supposed to influence action. Horrifying facts are supposed to elicit a response. Yet my Republican colleagues prefer gesturing about violent crime rather than doing something about it,” Dean said.
“I’m reminded of the character in ‘Succession.’ The late Logan Roy said, ‘You are not serious people,’” Dean said of the words uttered by the fictional billionaire patriarch played by actor Brian Cox to his estranged children in the latest season of the HBO drama.
The first four words of the Roy quote in question — “I love you, but” — were omitted by Dean.
“If you are serious about doing something about violence, gun violence and other violence, please join us,” she said.
Dean’s remarks came as the GOP-led House Judiciary Committee held a hearing in New York nearly two weeks after a grand jury empaneled by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg voted to indict former President Trump, the first criminal charges brought against a current or former U.S. president.
“There is an underlying sham going on here,” Dean said during the hearing.
Noting that while she has sympathy for witnesses who testified — which included family members of violent crime victims — Dean said, “We are not properly here. It is not our jurisdiction to oversee or to interfere with an independent district attorney’s office.”
“We’re only here today because Chairman [Jim Jordan (R-Ohio)] and his colleagues want to make a show of defending a former failed, twice-impeached crooked president,” Dean said.
“This is not serious,” Dean said. “Violent crime is a grave national issue — it demands serious consideration by legislators who want to make a difference and to save lives.”