Can Hakeem Jeffries Lead a Democratic Takeover of the House?

"Earlier this year, Hakeem Jeffries, who represents New York's Eighth Congressional District, was headed to a meeting with a Democratic donor in Palm Beach when he checked his phone. As the House Minority Leader, Jeffries has spent much of the past eighteen months hopscotching across blue America's high-income Zip Codes, soliciting campaign contributions in Palo Alto and Palm Desert, Martha's Vineyard and Greenwich. The evening before, he had headlined a Democratic Party fund-raiser at a lobbyist's office in Miami."

"Now, as he was being driven north, in a Capitol Police S.U.V.-a staple of the twenty-four-hour security detail provided to congressional leaders-Jeffries saw that one of his staffers had alerted him to a video on Donald Trump's Truth Social account. The clip, which promoted various conspiracy theories about the 2020 election, included a depiction of Barack and Michelle Obama as apes."

"Jeffries, who is the highest-ranking Black elected official in the United States, had criticized Trump for what he once called "a troubling pattern of racially insensitive and outrageous at times behavior." He'd branded the President a "racial arsonist" and the "birther-in-chief." At the same time, he had steadfastly refused to call Trump a racist."

"But as Jeffries watched the video from Trump's feed he seethed. "The guy is so disgusting and out of control in so many different areas," he told me. "My reaction was visceral.""

Hakeem Jeffries, House Minority Leader representing New York’s Eighth Congressional District, travels across high-income Democratic areas to solicit campaign contributions and attend fund-raisers. While traveling north in a Capitol Police vehicle, he sees a Truth Social video from Donald Trump promoting 2020 election conspiracy theories and depicting Barack and Michelle Obama as apes. Jeffries has criticized Trump for racially insensitive behavior, calling him a “racial arsonist” and “birther-in-chief,” while previously refusing to label him a racist. The video triggers a visceral reaction, reflecting frustration with Trump’s conduct and the political pressures facing Jeffries amid intensified electoral challenges.

Read at The New Yorker