Rep. Adelita Grijalva (D-AZ) was officially sworn into Congress on Wednesday afternoon, putting an end to weeks of delay that caused intense controversy and pressure on House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA).
After her swearing-in ceremony, the House chamber erupted in applause, with Democratic lawmakers chanting "Adelita! Adelita!" She opened with a fiery speech condemning President Donald Trump and the GOP in Congress for enabling the chaos, vowing that the time had come to "hold Donald Trump accountable as the co-equal branch of government that we are."
Grijalva, the daughter of the late progressive Rep. Raul Grijalva, is the first Latina to represent Arizona in the House of Representatives.
She was elected to replace her father in a special election nearly two months ago; however, her swearing-in has been on hold for weeks, with Johnson claiming it could not take place until the federal government shutdown concluded.
Some observers, however, suspected that the real ulterior motive for Johnson was to prevent Grijalva from being the final vote to approve a discharge petition to compel the Trump administration to release the Jeffrey Epstein sex trafficking case files, hoping to persuade Republicans who had signed the petition to take their names off.
In her first speech as a member of Congress, she also vowed to sign the petition instantly, because "justice cannot wait another day."