Morris: Democrats Implode When Forced to Face the Victims of Their Policies

In a hearing on crime and miscarriage of justice in New York City, featuring victims of horrific violence and senseless cruelty, House Democrats crumbled as they were forced to face the victims of their policies and pressed to answer for the actions of their “progressive” Manhattan District Attorney.

Despite exactly zero victims invited to the House Judiciary Committee Field Hearing being impacted by crimes involving guns, Democrats attempted to address (or not address) casualties of their politics by bringing in two gun reform activists as their witnesses, in a conspicuous effort to avoid saying the name of Soros-backed district attorney “Alvin Bragg.”

When they weren’t talking about guns, Democrats launched into personal attacks of Republicans’ invited witnesses, calling them “MAGA” and “props.” Not a single one of the witnesses praised or defended or even talked about Donald Trump.

“Republican witnesses who have used their time to criticize District Attorney Bragg have served as props in a MAGA Broadway production,” Rep. Hank Johnson (D-GA) said, before being cut off by jeers from the crowd.

Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) said, “I want to thank all the witnesses, including the victims of crime. I fear you are being used for a political purpose despite your sincerity.”

In a surreal sight to behold, what ensued was the witnesses — who are victims or family of victims of violent crime — lacing into Democrats in response to their attacks.

“I’m a willing participant,” Madeline Brame, Chairwoman of the Victims Rights Reform Council and mother of a homicide victim, pushed back.

“We’re not insulting you,” Rep. Dan Goldman (D-NY) said later. “Your experiences are devastating, but the problem is this is a charade to cover up for an abuse of power that they are going around talking incessantly outside of this hearing about Donald Trump.”

Brame, in outraged response to Goldman’s remarks, replied, “Don’t insult my intelligence! That you’re not going to do. You’re trying to insult me like I’m not aware of what’s going on here. I’m fully aware of what’s going on here.”

A few of the witnesses even lambasted Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY), who presides over the district spanning Upper West to Upper East Side, to his face.

“I’m beyond grateful for the opportunity to testify here on behalf of victims because the Democrat Party, including Mr. Nadler and everybody here today, has ignored us in this city,” said Victims Rights NY founder Jennifer Harrison, whose boyfriend and boyfriend’s friend were fatally stabbed more than a decade ago.

“When my son got beaten up by these six individuals, we heard from many politicians,” said Barry Borgen, father of a victim of an antisemitic hate crime, listing then-candidate for mayor Eric Adams (D) and Gov. Kathy Hochul (D-NY).

He continued, “I must take notice of Mr. Nadler,” as he sat across from him, “You’re a Jewish New Yorker. I called your office numerous times; I called Mr. [Chuck] Schumer’s office, another Jewish New Yorker, numerous times. No one called us back.”

“Neither one of you came out with a statement on my son’s incident. You’re a Jewish New Yorker. You have Jewish roots here. Behavior like this enables [Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg] to just do whatever he wants to do,” Borgen said.

“If you guys were to come out with a statement from Washington saying… ‘we condemn [antisemitism], we condemn this act,’ maybe Mr. Bragg would have taken this case a little bit more seriously,” the victim’s father added in a jaw-dropping shutdown.

Nadler did not respond to the confrontations.

“Democrats absolutely blew it,” Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) said in a conversation with Breitbart News after the hearing. “They belittle the witnesses and continue their Trump derangement syndrome.”

“Let’s be honest … the fact that we flipped four seats in New York, the driving issue was crime,” Stefanik said.

“You had Democrat after Democrat, smearing the witnesses and denying that there was a crime crisis in this city — that’s how out of touch they are” she continued. “These victims deserve to have a voice … and yet Democrats are silencing them, and Alvin Bragg is refusing to prosecute.”

“They wanted to say this was all ‘MAGA,’ ‘Trump’,” Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) told Breitbart in a phone call following the event. “They actually tried to say there wasn’t a crime problem in New York, but then they got pushed back on hard by people who understand that crime is very personal.”

“They did not want to defend the DA,” he continued. “They don’t have an answer to this Soros city.”

“This hearing could have been held in Los Angeles, in San Francisco, or Chicago, you know, George Soros has successfully funded DA’s all over the country,” Issa told Breitbart. “Changing the rules to where crimes are not crimes, major crimes are misdemeanors, and the Democrats did not want to defend that. You did not hear anything about not needing bail or anything about reducing the category on which people are charged.”

“Democrats never waste any opportunity — no matter how harrowing the victims’ testimony was — they never miss any opportunity to pursue their far left radical policies,” Stefanik said of Democrats’ refusal to address the testimony of witnesses and insistence on painting them as Trump operatives.

“What struck me the most is how, really, is sitting in that room and listening from the opening statement of their ranking member Jerry Nadler, smearing the victims? How dare they? That’s smearing their constituents, that’s smearing law abiding citizens and victims of crime, who are still mourning the loss of their loved ones. So that’s for all America to see. And it was shameless by the Democrats.”

Emma-Jo Morris is the Politics Editor at Breitbart News. Email her at ejmorris@breitbart.com or follow her on Twitter.