How Jared Kushner Snookered Hakeem Jeffries

Democrats need a fighter, but the congressional leader is addicted to illusory comity.

Jeet Heer, The Nation

On Sunday, The New York Times reported that “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.” On one level, the meeting was clearly good news for Jeffries. The midterm elections will be held just 71 days from now, and there is every possibility that the Democrats could take control of the House and make Jeffries the next House Speaker. The fact that Kushner, who holds no official position but functions as the president’s consigliere, met with Jeffries is a sign that the White House is seriously contemplating such a defeat.

Not surprisingly, congressional Republicans are unhappy. Current House Speaker Mike Johnson tried to pooh-pooh the meeting and minimize Kushner’s importance, telling Fox News, “I don’t know what that’s about. I know Jared has interest in lots of other things going on.” Johnson added that Kushner “hedges bets” and is “not really directly involved in the admin, at least in the day-to-day in the White House.”

It’s hard not to be delighted by Johnson’s discomfort. But the meeting also raised red flags for those who worried that Jeffries was helping whitewash one of Trump’s most corrupt cronies. Tommy Vietor, the former Obama adviser who cohosts the Pod Save America podcast, noted, “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.” Mehdi Hasan, the CEO of Zeteo, echoed Vietor, writing, “The only meeting Hakeem Jeffries should be having with Jared Kushner is to tell him he’ll be subpoenaed by the House for a corruption investigation on day one of Democratic control of the House. This is just pathetic stuff from the House Dem leader.” Erstwhile neocon turned anti-Trumper William Kristol posted, “Really? Or, as the kids say, AYFKM?” (The acronym stands for “Are you fucking kidding me?”)