Omar: “Be More Fearful of White Men”; Crockett: “We Know How to Use a Chair”; Psaki: “I Never Noticed Biden’s Decline”

A compilation of Democratic messaging moments from May 2025 captured the party’s internal contradictions. Rep. Ilhan Omar declared: “Our country should be more fearful of white men because they are causing most of the deaths within this country. We should be profiling, monitoring, and creating policies to fight the radicalization of white men.” Rep. Jasmine Crockett told Black students: “There are people that are going to tell you there is not a seat for you. I’m here to remind you of Montgomery and those folding chairs. We know how to use a chair, whether we’re pulling it up or doing something else with it.” Former Press Secretary Jen Psaki insisted: “I never saw that person — not a single time — that was on that debate stage. I was in the Oval Office every day.” House Minority Leader Jeffries dodged questions about El Salvador trips.

Omar: “Profile White Men”

Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) delivered remarks that would have ended any Republican’s career.

“Our country should be more fearful of white men across our country, because they are actually causing most of the deaths within this country,” Omar said.

She prescribed the policy response: “We should be profiling, monitoring, and creating policies to fight the radicalization of white men.”

The statement — calling for racial profiling of an entire demographic group — was extraordinary in its explicitness. Omar was not using coded language or making a subtle argument. She was calling for government surveillance and policy action targeted at people based on their race and gender.

The double standard was glaring. If any Republican member of Congress had called for “profiling, monitoring, and creating policies” targeting any other racial or gender group, the statement would have been condemned as hate speech, the member would have faced censure resolutions, and the media would have covered the remarks for weeks.

Omar’s remarks received virtually no mainstream media criticism. The asymmetry — in which explicit calls for racial profiling of white men were acceptable while any criticism of immigration enforcement was characterized as racism — epitomized the ideological framework that the Trump administration was challenging.

The claim that “white men are causing most of the deaths” was factually contestable on multiple grounds and ignored the complex reality of American crime statistics. But the more fundamental problem was not the accuracy of the claim but the principle it advanced: that an entire racial group should be subjected to government surveillance based on their demographics.

Crockett: “We Know How to Use a Chair”

Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-TX) addressed Black students with remarks that drew attention for their ambiguous implications.

“We’re going to be people that tell you that you don’t belong,” Crockett said. “And I am here to tell you over and over and over that you absolutely belong.”

She invoked civil rights history: “There are people that are going to tell you that there is not a table in which there is a seat for you. But I am here to remind you of Montgomery and those folding chairs.”

She delivered the line: “Let me tell you that we know how to use a chair, whether we’re pulling it up or we’re doing something else with it.”

She concluded: “Let me be the first one to tell you that I know that you are ready to put your boots on the ground.”

The “use a chair” remark — referencing the Montgomery, Alabama, brawl in which a folding chair had been used as a weapon in a widely shared viral video — drew criticism for appearing to encourage physical confrontation. Crockett’s defenders argued she was speaking metaphorically about making a seat at the table; her critics argued the “doing something else with it” addendum made the implication clear.

Psaki: “I Never Saw It”

Former White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki maintained her denial of Biden’s decline with increasingly strained reasoning.

“I left in May of 2022, just for the facts here,” Psaki said. “I have seen Biden once since then — when I took my daughter to the holiday party this last December.”

She insisted: “I never saw that person — not a single time, and I was in the Oval Office every day — that was on that debate stage.”

She hedged: “I’m not a doctor. Aging happens quite quickly.”

When asked about the cover-up: “Were things that people saw during that period of time similar to that? I don’t know, possibly, right?”

She resisted the term: “‘Cover-up’ is a very loaded term. Cover-up is often like a crime, right? People use that term as they relate to Watergate.”

Psaki’s defense was a masterclass in evasion. By noting she had left the White House in May 2022, she created a window of plausible deniability — she couldn’t have covered up what she didn’t personally witness after leaving. But her claim that she “never saw” any decline while she was there — “not a single time” — contradicted the mounting evidence that Biden’s condition was apparent well before the 2024 debate.

The resistance to the word “cover-up” was linguistically revealing. Psaki acknowledged that “people have used that term” and that it implied knowing “it was really bad and pretending otherwise.” But she deflected by calling it “dangerous” — as if the danger lay in the accusation rather than in the act of concealing a president’s incapacity from the American public.

Jeffries Dodges

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries demonstrated his own evasion skills when asked about Democratic members visiting El Salvador.

“Do you support your members going to El Salvador, particularly in terms of the situation involving Kilmar Abrego Garcia?” a reporter asked.

Jeffries deflected: “We’ll cross that bridge when we get to it.”

He denied any leadership involvement: “The report that alleged members of House Democratic leadership had some phantom conversation with either the members who took the trip or any other members — that is a complete and total fabrication.”

He minimized: “The only statement that was made to members who went to El Salvador was ‘welcome back, we are glad you have returned safely.’”

Jeffries’ refusal to answer a yes-or-no question — “do you support it?” — was itself an answer. If he supported the trips, he would have said so. If he opposed them, he would have said so. The dodge indicated that he knew the trips were politically damaging but couldn’t criticize members of his own caucus publicly.

Key Takeaways

• Omar called for “profiling, monitoring, and creating policies to fight the radicalization of white men” — applying to white men the same surveillance she opposes for anyone else.
• Crockett told Black students: “We know how to use a chair, whether we’re pulling it up or doing something else with it” — referencing the viral Montgomery brawl.
• Psaki insisted she “never saw” Biden’s decline: “Not a single time.” She called “cover-up” a “dangerous term” associated with crime.
• Jeffries dodged the El Salvador question: “We’ll cross that bridge when we get to it.” Called leadership involvement a “complete fabrication.”
• The compilation illustrated the Democratic Party’s messaging challenges: racial provocation, ambiguous rhetoric, and continued denial of the Biden cover-up.