It’s not often that I find myself feeling sorry for Hakeem Jeffries.
The embattled Democrat met with Jared Kushner, President Donald Trump‘s son-in-law, and now his ascent to the House speakership appears to be in jeopardy.
Simply talking is a bridge too far for today’s left-wing Democrat revolutionaries.
What was the offense? Kushner asked for a meeting. Jeffries took it.
Look Who’s Talking
The two discussed housing, immigration and the cost of living, according to The New York Times, which broke the story Sunday. Kushner suggested Jeffries also meet with White House chief of staff Susie Wiles.
That’s the scandal: a conversation about housing costs and grocery bills, the very issues Democrats say will help them retake the House in November.
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Jeffries and Kushner are not strangers, having previously worked together on criminal justice reform during Trump’s first term. These kinds of relationships used to be considered an asset for a congressional leader.
Apparently not anymore, especially if that someone is connected to Trump.
Hakeem Jeffries Tries to Explain
In the days since the Times revealed the meeting, Democrats have not been kind to their leader.
Jeffries, responding to the growing backlash, released a video that had the unmistakable feel of a political damage-control exercise.
“I want to give y’all a little real talk on this Jared Kushner situation,” Jeffries said “He asked for a meeting, and I took it to discuss the affordability crisis that exists. That is not a hoax.”
The explanation didn’t satisfy his critics, who were already at odds with Jeffries over his failure to fully embrace the far Left’s policy agenda.
Democrats Turn on Their Leader
Justice Democrats spokesman Usamah Andrabi told Axios that “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.”
Joseph Geevarghese, executive director of Our Revolution, added that the meeting “reinforces the worry from our base that Jeffries’ instinct is to negotiate with the Trump power structure rather than draw lines and fight it.”
Tommy Vietor, the former Obama aide who co-hosts “Pod Save America,” argued the only appropriate way to engage Kushner is through demands for documents and subpoenas.
Mehdi Hasan, CEO of Zeteo, wrote that the only meeting Jeffries should take with Kushner is one where he informs him he’ll be subpoenaed by a Democratic-controlled House. Hasan called it “pathetic stuff from the House Dem leader.”
Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that he’s fine with people meeting whomever they want—before adding a caveat that “it’s one thing to have a meeting. It’s another thing to see something real come out of that.”
House Democrats speaking anonymously to Axios were even more revealing.
“Of all the people he could meet with, this strikes me as odd,” one lawmaker said. Others noted that Jeffries has offered no explanation to his fellow House Democrats. One aide, quoted by Semafor, dismissed the whole thing with a two-word profanity.
What Did Jeffries Do Wrong?
The striking thing about the backlash is not that Democrats disagreed with Jeffries. It’s that so few seemed willing to say outright that talking to political opponents is a normal part of governing.
In the video posted Monday night, Jeffries did his best to strike a balance between defending his actions and presenting a tough-guy image.
“No one is going to get a pass,” he said. “We’re going to hold every single member of the Trump cartel accountable, beginning on day one.”
He ran through the scalps Democrats claim to have already taken—Pam Bondi, Kristi Noem—and promised more.
A day later, Jeffries turned to CNN’s Wolf Blitzer to explain his thinking.
“The American people want us in Washington to solve problems,” he said. “And I’m not simply here to make a point, but I’m also here to make a difference.”
The man who hopes to wield the speaker’s gavel in January took a single meeting about the cost of living and spent the past 48 hours explaining why.
Brent Buchanan, founder and CEO of Cygnal, believes the backlash speaks to a deeper political problem for Democrats.
“Republicans should make sure every Democratic voter, especially in vulnerable districts, knows Jeffries sat down with Kushner to look for common ground,” Buchanan told the Daily Signal. “Democrats’ moderate wing is no longer voting for something; it is voting against Donald Trump. But when their own House leader negotiates with Trump’s son-in-law, he punctures the ’emergency’ they have spent two years inflating to midterm voters. Without that emergency, the anger that drives turnout fades and so does their motivation.”
The Far Left Doesn’t Want Common Ground
The reaction to Jeffries illustrates a broader problem on the modern Left: treating engagement itself as a form of compromise.
Victor Davis Hanson discussed the stark contrast in his most recent Daily Signal video. In Hanson’s view, the activist Left increasingly sees political opponents as wrong, illegitimate, and dangerous enemies.
The radical Left, Hanson argued, operates on a logic that defies American traditions. Its adherents believe their ends are “morally and intellectually superior to those on the conservative side,” and therefore, Hanson explained, “we’re allowed to use any means necessary.”
That logic has no off switch. It does not distinguish between political adversaries and insufficiently zealous allies, which is why a movement that spends its days attacking Trump turned on Jeffries.
Hanson warned of the consequences for America, noting “a huge chasm between what the Democratic Socialists are advocating and what traditional conservatives are trying to maintain.”
No Room for Negotiation
For the Left, there is no tolerance for civility or negotiation, because that would concede the other side has something legitimate to offer.
The Jeffries episode is just one data point. But it’s a clarifying one.
Jeffries shouldn’t have had to defend himself for taking the Kushner meeting. Yet within hours of its disclosure, he was effectively forced to do exactly that.
Whether he can repair his standing on the Left is a question that won’t be answered until after November. What we already know is that his own coalition treated a conversation with Kushner as a betrayal.
Whatever they discussed behind closed doors, the reaction tells us something important about today’s Democrat coalition: for many activists, talking to the other side is becoming its own offense.
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