Dem
51
Ties
1
GOP
48
We assume that House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) was either trying to lay some preliminary groundwork for his potential election to the Speakership next year, or else he was indulging the Joe-Manchin-like belief that voters really, really want bipartisanship, or maybe both. In any event, Jeffries has been meeting privately with First Son-in-Law Jared Kushner, to discuss "areas of common ground."
We could have sworn that Kushner said he was not going to be a part of his father-in-law's second administration. Perhaps we were misinformed. In any event, once the news of the under-the-radar meetings leaked, many Democrats were not pleased, to say the least. There are numerous ways we could illustrate this, but how about a comment from reader D.E. in Lancaster, PA?
Regarding Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries secretly meeting with Son-in-law Jared Kushner, I just have this to say: If Jeffries found any common ground with Kushner, then he doesn't need to be the next Democratic Speaker of the House. Stop appeasing the Nazis. Jeffries, you do realize that after your little clandestine meeting, Jared scurried back to Daddy to tell him everything, giving the Trump regime almost half a year to come up with every way to oppose us? Or are you obtuse enough you did not realize that? Stop trying to do politics the old way. The fascists threw out the book, but you keep pretending that nothing has changed. Wake up and smell the electorate.
D.E., you've really gotta stop holding back, and have to start writing what you really think.
This was a pretty bad, unforced error by Jeffries, and he really is being excoriated widely, both by progressives and by more centrist Democrats. Heck, even James Carville blasted the Minority Leader, and Carville is about as establishment as it gets. What the base wants right now is pushback, and with it (eventually) change, and collaborating with Team Trump is not in line with those goals. It makes it worse that it's Kushner; there aren't too many people in the administration who are more toxic to Democrats than he is.
Yesterday, clearly realizing that he'd stepped in it, Jeffries posted a 3-minute video to eX-Twitter in which he tried to do damage control, accompanied by the caption "No one from the Trump Cartel is getting a pass." He was wearing a green shirt and a green New York Yankees cap, incidentally; we did not realize that St. Patrick's Day had been moved to August.
Maybe this, too, shall pass. That said, if there is one thing Jeffries could have done to put his speakership hopes in danger, this is pretty much it. Meanwhile, every Democrat is going to take note of the response here, and isn't going to touch a Republican with a 10-foot-pole while Trump remains in office. So, if you like investigations and obstruction, then Democratic control of at least one chamber of Congress is going to be manna from heaven. If you would like to see things get done, you'll probably have to check back circa January 3, 2029. (Z)