A Democratic victory in November will lead to a painful, conflict-ridden final two years of the Trump presidency.
Anyone who doubts this need only look at the fallout and response from Democratic House Leader Hakeem Jefferies’s meeting with President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner.
The New York Times’s initial reporting from Aug. 23 made the Jeffries-Kushner meeting seem positive.
“Representative Hakeem Jeffries, Democrat of New York and the minority leader, met privately in recent weeks with Jared Kushner, President Trump’s son-in-law and top outside adviser, and discussed potential areas of common ground, according to five people with knowledge of the meeting,” according to the newspaper.
This first report sounded encouraging. Then the Democratic partisans and the hardline left stepped in and attacked the idea of talking with anyone associated with the Trump administration.
Tommy Vietor, a former aide to President Barack Obama and cohost of the Pod Save America podcast, posted on X: “Jared Kushner has no actual government job, he just uses his family connections to get money from Gulf autocrats and fund corrupt deals. The only way Jeffries should work with him is with demands for documents and subpoenas.”
James Carville on the Politicon podcast acknowledged there are many areas of politics and policy over which Democrats disagree. But he said Democrats were united on one front:
“On one thing, on one thing, there is no disagreement. There’s unanimity. And it is simply this. In the opinion of every Democrat in the United States — progressive, moderate, middle road, left, f--k, I don’t know, whatever you want — we believe one thing above all: These people are a pack of felons and traitors, and you do not meet with them. You do not meet with them! You do not meet with them.”
Mehdi Hasan, the former MSNBC host posted on X, “The big question to ask today is: does Hakeem Jeffries have a place in the Democratic Party, given he is so out of step with the base on everything from Medicare for All to Israel to Kushner?”
The Justice Democrats PAC, which was founded by two Bernie Sanders presidential campaign staffers and Cenk Uygur of The Young Turks, told Axios, “Opposing Medicare for All and having secret meetings with Donald Trump’s son-in-law sounds more like the leadership of the Republican Party than the fighters Democratic voters are demanding in Congress.”
Democratic Maryland Sen. Chris Van Hollen said on NBC’s Meet the Press:
“Look, this has been a lawless Trump administration; they have been out of control, and Donald Trump has broken his essential first promises which is to focus on lowering prices and keep us out of wars. He’s done the opposite. We are in an illegal war in Iran, and prices are going up. We have broken promises, betrayal… I’m in favor of people meeting with whoever they want to discuss ideas. But it’s one thing to have a meeting. It’s another thing to see something real come out of that.”
Two days after the meeting, Jeffries responded to the attacks with a video on X and TikTok. He wrote:
“We’re gonna hold every single member of the Trump cartel accountable beginning on day one. If you’re stealing from the American people, shortchanging the American people, or screwing over the American people, you’re going to be held accountable. We’re gonna follow the facts, apply the law, and be guided by the Constitution, beginning on day one, and hold the crooks accountable.”
Even before his meeting with Kushner, Jeffries said, “We’ve got to make sure we continue to get rid of toxic Trump cabinet secretaries… Pete Hegseth, in my view, should be next on the list.”
If Kushner hoped a meeting with Jeffries would illuminate a path to working with a potential Democratic majority, he has his answer. The Democrats plan to wage war on the Trump administration, drive many of the president’s cabinet members from office, investigate every possible mistake or scandal, and insist on hard left legislation.
The House Democratic leader made clear his intention to declare war on the Trump administration. That should make the fall elections even more important for Republicans.
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Who cares? Why don’t Hakeem and is democrat socialist comrades spent some time and thought on problems facing America and its people?
Big talk from a little man. Hakeem Jeffries.. if I were him I wouldn't be so sure that Democrats were going to win in november. They've got an islam, marxist, socialist problem in their party, and if that's not a reason to get conservatives off their ass to vote, then I don't know what is.