Hakeem Jeffries needs a plan, and he’s not going to find it talking to Jared Kushner.
The House Democratic leader recently met privately with Kushner, President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, in New York City. According to The New York Times, which first reported the meeting, the topics of discussion included housing, immigration, the cost of living and possible areas of common ground between Democrats and the Trump administration. Jeffries, who acknowledged the meeting in an Instagram video Monday, said in an initial statement after the story broke that Democrats would meet Republican extremism with “forceful opposition” and deliver “bold change.”
I understand why people are inclined to defend Jeffries over this meeting.
Defending Jeffries from a double standard does not require defending this meeting.
The bar constantly moves for Black people in power. Decisions described as strategic when made by someone else can quickly become “evidence” that a Black leader is unprepared or undeserving. Several Black elected officials have told me privately that inside the House Democratic Caucus, Jeffries is not afforded the same deference members gave longtime leader Nancy Pelosi. Jeffries earned his position, but some still treat his authority as negotiable.
If Democrats regain control of the House in November, Jeffries would become the first Black speaker in U.S. history. That matters — not just to me but broadly in a country where the people who built the Capitol were enslaved and where, for most of American history, Black people were excluded from the rooms where congressional power was exercised.
But defending Jeffries from a double standard does not require defending this meeting.
Kushner is not a government employee or a formal representative of the Trump administration. He operates as an unofficial diplomat around the world because his relationship to Trump gives him access to power. Meanwhile, his private investment firm has solicited billions of dollars from Middle Eastern sovereign wealth funds while he participates in negotiations involving regional governments. House Judiciary Committee Democrats are investigating whether Kushner is using his influence for personal profit.
Jeffries should not have met with him. But Jeffries’ next step needs to answer bigger questions.
Most voters are not spending their days thinking about Jeffries — but they understand the signal sent by the party’s House leader privately discussing “common ground” with Trump’s unelected son-in-law.
Right now, people’s lives are hard. Housing is unaffordable. Healthcare costs are rising. People want to know that the candidates asking for their votes understand the urgency. If voters give Democrats the House, it will not be because they want better cooperation with Trump. They will be asking Democrats to keep Trump in check and make their lives better. Democrats need a plan capable of accomplishing both.
Most voters understand the signal sent by the party’s House leader privately discussing “common ground” with Trump’s unelected son-in-law.
Brace yourselves, because there is something Democrats should learn from Newt Gingrich.
No, the takeaway is not that they should imitate Gingrich’s willingness to treat political opponents as enemies of the country. But Gingrich understood how to wield power before he had a majority.
When Gingrich entered Congress in 1979, Republicans had been locked out of the House majority for nearly a quarter-century. With outreach via the “Conservative Opportunity Society,” special-order speeches and C-SPAN, Gingrich organized younger conservatives, reached voters outside the Beltway and convinced Republicans that they could win. Through GOPAC, he trained Republican candidates to speak with one voice and attack Democrats using the same language.
Gingrich also chose a sustained institutional target. His campaign against Democratic Speaker Jim Wright helped force Wright’s resignation in 1989 and established Gingrich as the leader of a more combative Republican generation. Then he became minority whip. Gingrich used his power inside the Republican caucus to change its culture; then he directed that power against Democrats.
The lesson: You do not wait until voters give you a majority to decide how your caucus will operate and what it will fight for.
To be clear, Democrats on the House Oversight and Judiciary committees have not been waiting.
Oversight Democrats, led by Rep. Robert Garcia of California, and Judiciary Democrats, led by Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland, have been explicit about their plans to investigate Trump family corruption, foreign financial entanglements, the awarding of government contracts and the weaponization of federal power. Democrats are preparing for hearings, records requests and subpoenas they could pursue if they regain the majority.
That work is serious and necessary. It is also not enough.
Investigating Trump will not lower people’s rent. Committee hearings will not make groceries cost less. Exposing corruption matters, but exposure alone will not put money back into anyone’s pocket or make a family feel more secure. Subpoenas are tools, not an agenda.
A Democratic power plan must connect accountability to action. It should tell voters which legislation will receive votes, how Democrats will use the power of the purse and what they will do to lower Americans’ costs. It should explain how they will protect workers and communities being targeted by the Trump administration, and how they will defend the majority if Trump attempts to discredit the election before the new Congress is seated.
Not everything a Democratic majority proposes would become law while Trump is president. That does not make the exercise meaningless. Floor votes force choices. A shared agenda creates discipline. A clear plan shows voters what Democrats would do with more power.
The Jeffries-Kushner meeting raised a question bigger than either man: Are Democrats truly preparing to become a majority?
Voters are not asking Democrats to manage Trump more politely. They are asking them to fight, govern and make their lives better.
If voters hand Democrats the gavel on Nov. 3, Democrats must already know what to use it for. The power plan needs to be established now.
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