Elmo had quite the day on Capitol Hill Thursday as House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) brought a stuffed version of the beloved “Sesame Street” puppet onto the House floor to slam Republicans’ proposed cuts to children’s programming.
"Today, we are on the floor of the House of Representatives debating legislation that targets Elmo. And Big Bird. And Daniel Tiger and ‘Sesame Street,'" Jeffries said, waving the red puppet during remarks on the GOP-led budget rescissions package, according to a Fox News report.
The colorful moment came during a debate over the legislation, which later passed the House and aims to peel back more than $9 billion in unspent or low-priority federal funds, CBS News reported. But Democrats still came out to blast the bill “as cultural and humanitarian vandalism disguised as fiscal responsibility,” according to Fox News.
"While you all have killed off Elmo, I urge my colleagues to vote no on this trash and I yield back," Rep. Sydney Kamlager-Dove (D-CA) reportedly said.
Republicans on Capitol Hill brushed off the Elmo-wielding stunt, and on social media, the moment went viral.
"I never realized Elmo was more important to my colleagues on the other side of the aisle than the American people,” Rep. Lisa McClain (R-MI) said, according to Fox News.
“The Minority Leader held up a Sesame Street character here on the floor as if Sesame Street’s somehow going to go away," House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-LA) said.
“Hakeem Jeffries brought his emotional support Elmo to work today,” TikTok creator Link Lauren, a former advisor to Robert F. Kennedy Jr., wrote Thursday on X. “How nice!”
“Hakeem Jeffries invokes Elmo while he complains about spending cuts,” Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) told her X followers above an Elmo GIF with flames in the background.
Conor Coutts, communications manager for the conservative Daily Caller publication, summed up the day in his own X post: “Dems are having an INSANE 24 hours. Stacey Plaskett talked about her lady parts in detail on X Alex Padilla was handcuffed after heckling Kristi Noem John Mannion screamed obscenities at colleague on the house floor Hakeem Jeffries held up an elmo toy during a floor speech.”
Watch the clip below or at this link.
🚨WATCH: Hakeem Jeffries literally brought a stuffed 'Elmo' toy on the house floor to rail against cutting PBS. https://t.co/3I6I1fwUvbpic.twitter.com/PMA0N60apj
— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) June 12, 2025