Democratic House Leader Hakeem Jeffries met privately with Jared Kushner, Donald Trump’s incompetent and corrupt son-in-law (so basically no different from his actual sons). Jeffries and Kushner reportedly have a mutual friend, who they probably met at the same Empty Suit Academy. According to the New York Times, “the private get-together was described by one of the people as a catch-up for Mr. Kushner and Mr. Jeffries. The two men have stayed in touch since they worked together on a criminal justice bill midway through Mr. Trump’s first term.”
Before you are tempted to think that Kushner’s motivations were noble, please remember that his even more corrupt father Charles Kushner was sentenced to two years in 2005 for tax evasion, witness tampering, and making illegal donations. (The guy paid a sex worker to seduce his own brother-in-law.) He served 14 months, but Trump pardoned him between coup-plotting in December 2020. He’s now the United States Ambassador to France, where hiring sex workers for your relatives is less controversial.
Apparently, Kushner and Jeffries “discussed housing, immigration and the high cost of living as potential areas of common ground.” This is ridiculous for many reasons. The most obvious is that Trump’s underwater approval is because he’s failed to resolve issues related to housing and affordability, which he’s called a Democratic “hoax.” There’s no reason that Democrats should help Trump in those areas — just as Republicans refused to help Biden when he was similarly drowning. That might seem harsh — shouldn’t Democrats work constructively with the Trump administration for the next two years — but voters have repeatedly demonstrated that they’ll never reward Democrats for attempts at good governance while in the minority. It’s not even a complicated trolley problem
Kushner is a slime ball who has openly profited from his familial ties to the White House. He’s made corrupt deals with autocrats and filled his pockets from the conflicts in Iran, Gaza, and Ukraine. He ran an “off-the-books” shadow coronavirus task force that operated secretly and with sociopathic intent. He reportedly was willing to let the virus ravage Democratic-run states that hadn’t voted for Trump (including New York, where Jeffries lives) and just blame the Democratic governors for the horrific body count.
There is nothing positive about Jeffries or any Democrat working with Kushner on anything. If a politician is meeting secretly with a gangster, it is safe to assume that the politician is not helping to reform the gangster. (Watch below.)
Kushner has an obvious agenda: He’d like to avoid following his father’s footsteps into prison. He wants to avoid congressional subpoenas. I’m sure Hunter Biden would have willingly met with Kevin McCarthy in August 2022 if he thought it might keep Republicans off his back. Of course, Hunter Biden had nothing to offer the incoming House majority. Maybe Jeffries thinks Kushner does, but no one in full possession of their faculties should trust Kushner, who was probably the one who told the press about the meeting.
Of course, Kushner is not even the best point person for immigration or even domestic policy. He is deeply involved in Middle East policy. Kushner has unveiled plans for a “New Gaza” that would turn an attempted genocide into an investment opportunity for war profiteers. Jeffries remains devoted to Israel, despite growing discontent among Democratic voters over Israel’s actions in Gaza. (Yet even staunchly pro-Israel conservative Joe Walsh thinks meeting with Kushner was stupid.)
The Blue MAGA brigade immediately defended Jeffries with evangelical zeal. There was the usual tedious “you’re only criticizing Jeffries because you hate Black men” nonsense, and some truly tortured whataboutism regarding New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s White House meeting earlier this year with Donald Trump. This was the song of the truly desperate. After all, Mamdani was meeting with the actual president, not a self-serving incompetent (well, that’s technically Trump, as well, but he does hold actual elected office). Mamdani didn’t seek “common ground” with Trump and he’s continued governing in a fashion that irritates Republicans and centrist Democrats. No one complained when Jeffries and Chuck Schumer met with Trump at the White House last year for budget negotiations. That was their job — although it didn’t go well. Trump presented them with Trump 2028 hats and later released an AI deepfake video that depicted Jeffries with a fake sombrero and mustache pasted on his face.
Many Jeffries defenders seem trapped in the distant past, far removed from the fierce urgency of now. “That was nothing more than normal meeting to size up a political opposition,” someone posted on social media. “After all, Tip O’Neil met numerous times with President Ronald Reagan back in their days. There were no wringing of hands or recriminations then, there shouldn’t be either now. How else should a prudent leader gauge and engage the opposition?”
As Annie Wilkes said, “Have you all got amnesia?” Donald Trump is not Ronald Reagan. That is key part of mainstream Democratic messaging. Do Democrats think Never Trumpers are on their side because Hakeem Jeffries and Chuck Schumer are such commanding leaders?
Another post argued, “Jared runs foreign policy and has a say in every important decision. He’s basically the defacto POTUS, same as in the first admin. Jared and Ivanka play Trump. This is probably the most powerful man in the world.”
Anyone who was alive and conscious during Trump’s first nightmare term would know that Jared and Ivanka were never moderating influences, certainly in no way that benefitted Democrats. Besides, the future Speaker should not enable the fact that an unelected, non-confirmed moron runs foreign policy.
Jeffries did release a carefully scripted impromptu video on Monday where he explained the “Jared Kushner situation.” Basically, just because he met secretly with the wallet inspector, that doesn’t mean he handed over his wallet.
The Blue MAGA acolytes suggest that we all shout “yippee yippee” over the meeting because it means Kushner knows that Democrats will soon regain control over the House. This is hardly a shocking admission, considering Trump’s dire approval rating and overall polling data — though Trump is actively attempting to steal the midterms under Jeffries’s nose.
During an appearance on Fox News’ The Sunday Briefing, current House Speaker Mike Johnson dismissed the meeting.
“I know Jared is a smart guy and he hedges bets, but I'm telling you what, you better not bet against the House Republicans,” Johnson told host Peter Doocy. Sure, that’s probably cope but it’s true that Kushner is a craven opportunist who’s consistently wrong about almost everything. He’s not exactly a political bellwether.
“I don’t know what that’s about,” Johnson added. “I know Jared has interest in lots of other things going on … He’s not really directly involved in the admin, at least in the day-to-day in the White House.”
You hate to credit someone as loathsome as Mike Johnson with spectacular shade, but he does correctly point out that Jeffries is a fool if he believes he can trust any deal he makes with Kushner. We might all agree that Kushner operates as Trump’s shadow secretary of state, but he’s not the real Senate-confirmed secretary of state. Maybe Kushner can convince Trump to go easy on the Jeffries’s deep-fake videos, but even that’s a stretch.
So, just a couple months away from the midterms, Jeffries is the one who looks like he came to this meeting from a position of weakness, as if he actually needs anything from Kushner. Republicans have never operated this way when in a similar position. Kevin McCarthy wasn’t holding secret meetings with anyone in the Biden White House prior to the 2022 midterms. (And the backlash to the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade did shift the dynamic of the midterms, so there was a chance Democrats might have held the majority.)
Of course, the most important reason McCarthy wouldn’t have had secret meetings with anyone from the Biden White House is because his primary focus beyond winning the midterms was ensuring he had 218 votes for Speaker. He wouldn’t risk alienating MAGA hardliners who were already skeptical of him. Conversely, Jeffries seems far more secure in his hold on the gavel. That strikes me as both arrogant and complacent. Thanks to GOP gerrymandering and the Supreme Court gutting the Voting Rights Act, Democrats are not guaranteed a healthy majority. They could have just a half dozen or so voters to spare.
No, there are not enough votes to make Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Speaker but there are enough to repeat Kevin McCarthy’s humiliating experience in January 2023 when he wasn’t elected until the 15th vote. This was after making even more concessions with hardliners, and he still only kept the job for 269 days.
Perhaps Hakeem Jeffries is certain that the DSA members who’ve just won primaries will prove more reasonable than Chip Roy, Matt Gaetz, Lauren Boebert, and Nancy Mace. If so, he should start saying this during his cable news interviews, and he should probably spend the next few weeks having meetings with them and not Jared Kushner.
Once again, Stephen has perfectly stated my feelings about both Kushner, who is a rapacious scumbag without an ounce of conscience, and about Jeffries, who doesn't seem to understand that he should be leading the fight against this administration and not cutting deals. Jeffries should know by now that his position as speaker will not be helped by ignoring the Dems who have been the leading edge of the Democratic party, and their supporters.
Neville Chamberlain 2.0
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The Vichy Dems Prepare to Surrender