U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) yells "Liar" during President Joe Biden's State of the Union address during a joint meeting of Congress in the House Chamber of the U.S. Capitol on February 07, 2023 in Washington, DC.
Jeff Jackson, the newly elected Representative from North Carolina and budding social media star, called out his colleagues in Congress on Monday in a new video published to his social accounts.
The purpose of Jackson’s video was to share his experience in his first 100 days in office. The Democrat did just that in his now familiar video style, which has garnered him hundreds of thousands of views and millions of likes on platforms like Twitter and TikTok.
During his 100-day update, Jackson discussed his fellow congress members, who he described as being “perpetually outraged” for the sake of TV cameras, noting they are “totally faking it.”
“It’s an act,” Jackson said in his video. “I’ve been to committee meetings that are open to the press and committee meetings that are closed. The same people who act like maniacs during the open meetings are suddenly calm and rational during the closed ones.”
While usually Jackson discusses a hot topic like the war in Ukraine, a data leak, or the banning of TikTok, in his Monday post, the topic was mainly about his fellow members of Congress and what he thinks they are actually like and why.
“What I’ve seen is that members of Congress are surrounded by negative incentives. There are rewards for bad behavior. Do you know what the big one is? Being able to reach you,” Jackson said. “The big thing that modern media and modern politicians have learned is that if they can keep you angry, they’ll hold your attention. And they both want your attention.”
Jackson continued, saying it appears politicians are playing the “game” of working with media to help them keep their audience and in return, reach their supporters, putting them in a cycle of “competition with each other to see how fake angry they can be.”
But instead of wanting to play the game, Jackson has worked to build a following of his own. As a result, he does not rely on traditional media to reach his voters.
“What I love about this — communicating with you directly — is that the incentives are different. They can be positive,” Jackson said. “They can be about speaking to you with respect and real information and in a normal tone of voice. Because if I can talk to you directly, I don’t have to yell.”
His videos have resulted in Jackson becoming one of the most recognizable members of Congress, as he is transparent with his constituents and anyone else who follows him on social media.
The videos posted to his social media accounts follow a similar format, where Jackson breaks down a topic in layman’s terms in what many have dubbed the modern-day version of FDR’s fireside chats.
When it comes to his success, he asserts his calm demeanor and straightforward personality as a game changer.
“And if you don’t have to yell to be heard, the whole conversation changes,” Jackson said. “So when you hear some enraged member of Congress say something absurd, your first question shouldn’t be ‘how can they possibly believe that?’ It should be: do we think they actually do? Because they probably don’t.”
Freshman Congressman says his colleagues are ‘perpetually outraged’ and ‘faking it’ for TV
Jeff Jackson, the newly elected Representative from North Carolina and budding social media star, called out his colleagues in Congress on Monday in a new video published to his social accounts.
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