Top House Dem calls Trump ‘grand wizard of 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.’

Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) on Sunday described President Trump as “the grand wizard of 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.,” invoking the Ku Klux Klan title while speaking at a Martin Luther King Jr. Day event.

“These are challenging times in the United States of America — we have a hater in the White House, a birther in chief, the grand wizard of 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.,” Jeffries said at the National Action Network’s annual celebration of the late civil rights leader.

{mosads}”One of the things that we’ve learned is that while Jim Crow may be dead, he still got some nieces and nephews that are alive and well,” he added.

House Democratic Caucus chair Hakeem Jeffries doesn’t hold back, calls Donald Trump “The Grand Wizard of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.” Preach! And the modern-day Klansmen who follow him wear MAGA hats not hoods. pic.twitter.com/Kah7hGiSK7

— Adam Best (@adamcbest) January 21, 2019

Jeffries, who is the chairman of the House Democratic Caucus, has often been a vocal and fierce critic of the president and has previously decried Trump’s comments on race. Jeffries has said Trump fans the “flames of racial hatred,” and has called the president a “racial arsonist.”

The president has reportedly referred to Haiti, El Salvador and some African nations as “shithole countries,” said “both sides” were to blame for violence at a white nationalist rally in 2017, and for many years pushed the false conspiracy theory that former President Obama was not born in the U.S.

Some progressive lawmakers, including Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), have labeled Trump a racist, citing those comments and his immigration policies.

Throughout his time in the Oval Office, Trump has emphasized economic improvements he says his policies are responsible for bringing to African-Americans and other minority groups and has touted his support among those groups in polls.

Trump on Tuesday marked Martin Luther King Jr. Day by visiting the memorial to the civil rights leader in Washington, D.C. The stop lasted a couple minutes in frigid D.C. temperatures, according to the White House pool.