Inside the backlash over the Jeffries-Kushner meeting

Inside the backlash over the Jeffries-Kushner meeting

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4 hours ago - Politics & Policy

Inside the backlash over the Jeffries-Kushner meeting

* Andrew Solender

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!A man in a navy suit and red tie stands at a wooden podium with two microphones, orange backdrop, and a U.S. flag partially visible on the left.

*House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries speaks at a press conference at the U.S. Capitol on July 23. Photo: Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images*

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries' long-standing tensions with his party's left flank resurfaced this week after news broke of his meeting with President Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner.

**Why it matters:** Jeffries will have to make nice with the left next year if Democrats win back the House with only a narrow majority. Blowups like this are not helping.

* The Democratic leader defended the meeting in a video posted to social media on Monday, saying that Kushner "asked for a meeting, and I took it, to discuss the affordability crisis."
* Jeffries (D-N.Y.) suggested Kushner, whose dealings with Saudi Arabia have drawnscrutiny from Democratic congressional investigators, remains a top oversight target.
* "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."

**What they're saying:** The meeting was "definitely a signal about the kind of Speaker Jeffries would be," said Joseph Geevarghese, executive director of the progressive group OurRevolution.

* 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," he said.
* Geevarghese and Justice Democrats spokesperson Usamah Andrabi both noted the meeting comes after Jeffries said on Meet the Press that Medicare for All, a central pillar of the left's platform, is "not legislation ... that I support."
* "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," Andrabi told Axios.

**Jeffries, a onetime co-sponsor** of Medicare for All who dropped off the bill when he joined party leadership, said in a later radio interview that health care must "be a right available to every single American."

* The Democratic leader said there are "different paths" to achieve universal coverage.
* Those include Medicare for All, he said, but "other folks within the caucus ... think that there are other ways to get there."

**What we're hearing:** House Democrats and Democratic congressional aides, speaking on the condition of anonymity to offer candid thoughts about their party's leader, questioned why Jeffries met with someone who has no official role in the administration.

* "Of all the people he could meet with, this strikes me as odd," said one lawmaker. "I just wouldn't think Kushner would be the main guy to do that. Strange."
* Lawmakers and aides also said Jeffries has not issued any private, Democratic caucus-wide explanation for the meeting.

**Between the lines:** "They have a relationship," a senior House Democrat told Axios of Jeffries and Kushner, noting that they "worked on criminal justice" together during Trump's first term.

* The meeting was focused on potential areas of common ground between Kushner and the Democratic leader, according to the New York Times, which first reported it.
* The two discussed housing, immigration and affordability, with Kushner suggesting Jeffries meet with White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, according to a source familiar with the matter.
* Jeffries said in a CNN interview Tuesday morning: "The American people want us in Washington to solve problems. And I'm not simply here to make a point, but I'm also here to make a difference."

**The other side:** "The media is trying to make this a big deal, but members are trying to enjoy the last week of August recess. Lots of CODELS and some are working," said the senior House Democrat.

* One progressive lawmaker told Axios of Jeffries: "People have the common sense that he's the only person who's going to run for Speaker and most of us like him personally."
* "We deal with him privately rather than publicly ... If everyone knows it's inevitable he's gonna be the Speaker, why would anyone go on record?"

**The bottom line:** "It's less who you meet with than what you do with the meeting," said Adam Green, the co-founder of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee.

* "When Gavin Newsom meets with a right-winger, he concedes points -- while Elizabeth Warren gets Republicans to go along with housing bills and free hearing aids," he said.
* Green added: "Time will tell what Jeffries does with this."

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