Jeffries attempts to take national spotlight amid shutdown battle
The article discusses how House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) is using the ongoing government shutdown situation to raise his profile in national politics. Despite being the least well-known of the top congressional leaders, with a recent poll showing 45% of voters unaware of him, Jeffries is adopting a more aggressive stance against former President Donald Trump to gain visibility and political influence. This includes publicly condemning a racist AI video Trump posted mocking him and demanding direct confrontation, which surprised many Democrats who worried Trump was provoking him.
In contrast, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer responded more restrainedly, dismissing Trump’s actions as irresponsible but avoiding labeling them racist. Jeffries’ approach has drawn praise from some Democrats, including former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and senator Cory booker, who see him as fighting strongly for Democrats during a difficult minority position.
Jeffries has drawn inspiration from Rev. Al Sharpton, sharing longstanding opposition to Trump’s tactics. Jeffries is positioning himself as a bold and unifying opposition leader amid political gridlock, leveraging confrontation to increase his national prominence.
Jeffries’s departure from Schumer and Pelosi on shutdown approach thrusts him into spotlight
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) is eyeing the drama around the government shutdown as a chance to amplify his name in national politics.
Jeffries, the least powerful of the four Congressional leaders, suffers from a lack of visibility — a recent Pew poll found that 45% of voters don’t know who he is, compared to just 3% who didn’t know his predecessor when she stepped down. He appears to be consciously positioning himself to counter this issue, adopting a more aggressive approach to force confrontations with President Donald Trump, thereby raising his national prestige.
Jeffries went on the offensive after Trump trolled him on Truth Social, showing an AI video depicting him in a mustache and sombrero. At the same time, Schumer bemoans their loss of minority voters in profane language. Jeffries decried the video as “racist” and “bigoted,” then demanded that Trump make any further criticisms “to my face.”
The heavy-handed response shocked many Democrats, according to Politico, who feared the president was successfully baiting him.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer took a different approach, dismissing the video as part of a “tantrum,” proving his unseriousness. But he notably refrained from calling it racist.
Speaking with reporters on Wednesday, he said Trump had been engaging in “irresponsible and unserious behavior.”
In the talks leading up to the shutdown, he called out Trump in a post on X, pointing out that the president has never said his name.
“Donald Trump has never used my name during his presidency. Now he is afraid to meet to discuss the Republican healthcare crisis and pending government shutdown. Why is that?” he said, signing his name.
The post was ratioed on X — with a critical reply receiving more likes than the original post, and the post garnering more replies than likes — and was widely mocked, but it struck a chord among some Democrats.
“They are in the minority over there, and they’re a majoritarian body where the minority has very little voice in terms of affecting the outcomes of events like this,” Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) said, according to Politico. “And so he’s showing what an oppositional party leader should do — a lot of fight, a lot of strength — and frankly, the ability to keep Democrats united on the other side of the Capitol.“
One source of inspiration for Jeffries was Rev. Al Sharpton, a longtime rival of Trump, to whom he spoke ahead of the shutdown.
“I told him I’ve been fighting with Trump for 35 years, from the Central Park Five all the way through, and [that] sometimes he tried to act nice,” Sharpton said. “I said, ‘I find him to be a day trader — he says whatever will work to his advantage at that particular time. I don’t think Donald Trump believes in anything but Donald Trump.’ And Hakeem kind of chuckled.”
JEFFRIES’S CRITICISM OF TRUMP’S AI VIDEO SPARKS ANOTHER VIDEO
Though her approach was much different than Jeffries’s, the House Democrat leader’s predecessor has been pleased with his approach.
“He has seized the moment,” former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) told Politico. “He’s doing a great job. I have no guidance for him except to keep on doing what he’s doing.”
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