“That was smooth”: Netizens react as Hakeem Jeffries 'A to Z' speech goes viral online 

House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries recently won over Democrats with a poetic and now-viral “A to Z” speech delivered at the House Chambers following the election of Kevin McCarthy as the House Speaker.

On Friday, McCarthy came out victorious after the House conducted its 15th ballot to elect the House Speaker.

Following four days of votes, Jeffries secured 212 votes from Democrats while McCarthy secured 216 votes from Republicans despite facing opposition from the hardliners. Around six Republicans reportedly voted “present.”

In the wake of the election, Jeffries extended a “hand of partnership” to McCarthy and passed on the gavel to the Republican to symbolize a peaceful transfer of power. He said:

“We extend, and intend, to try and find common ground, whenever and wherever possible on behalf of the American people.”

However, Hakeem Jeffries noted that Democrats will “never compromise our principles” and went on to list down the said principles in an alphabetical order by drawing comparison with the Republicans. He began:

“We'll always put American values over autocracy, benevolence over bigotry, the constitution over the cult, democracy over demagogues, economic opportunity over extremism, freedom over fascism.”

He continued to take a jab at the Republicans, adding:

“Governing over gaslighting, hopefulness over hatred, inclusion over isolation, justice over judicial overreach, knowledge over kangaroo courts, liberty over limitation, maturity over Mar-a-Lago, normalcy over negativity, opportunity over obstruction, people over politics, quality of life issues over Qanon.”

Jeffries’ smart alliteration continued until the final alphabet:

“Reason over racism, substance over slander, triumph over tyranny, understanding over ugliness, voting rights over voter suppression, working families over the well-connected, xenial over xenophobia, yes we can over you can't do it and zealous representation over zero sum confrontation.”

The politician received major applause from the House Democrats and earned appreciation from several social media users, with some dubbing the speech as “smooth”:

Videos of Hakeem Jeffries’ alphabet speech went viral online. A clip of the speech posted by Twitter user @/BrooklynDad_Defiant garnered over 3.8 million views, 31K retweets, 6K quote tweets and 142 likes.

The caption of the tweet read:

“HOLY S***, my man Rep. Hakeem Jeffries actually schooled these fools alphabetically!”

Another video shared by Huffington Post journalist Philip Lewis also has more than 1.7 million views, 9K retweets, 3K quote retweets and 49K likes.

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Twitteratis react to Hakeem Jeffries “A to Z” speech

Hakeem Jeffries 'A to Z' wins over netizens following Kevin McCarthy's win as House Speaker (Image via Getty Images)

Rep. Hakeem Jeffries recently made history by becoming the first African American to lead a major party in Congress, while Republican Kevin McCarthy won the bid to become House Speaker.

Following the election, Jeffries delivered a thrilling speech on behalf of House Democrats, using every letter of the alphabet and a clever alliteration to draw a contrast between the Democratic and the Republican parties.

The Brooklyn native earned major applause from Democrats during his speech and also received praise online. As multiple videos of Jeffries went viral on social media, netizens also took to Twitter to react to the speech:

Ahead of the House Speaker's election, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told TheGrio that U.S. President Joe Biden thinks Jeffries is “incredibly impressive” and that he is looking forward to working with him as the new House Democratic leader:

“It’s important to see that type of representation at that level. But aside from that, Hakeem Jeffries is a brilliant thinker, a great legislator. We congratulate him on his new role, and we’ll continue to work closely with him.”

Hakeem Jeffries and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer will now lead the Democratic Party in their respective chambers over the next two years.