Someone high up in the Democratic Party wants Hakeem Jeffries’ politically dead. Why?

Why is Democratic mouthpiece CNN breaking ranks to dig up dirt from over 30 years ago on Jeffries’ relationship to his bigoted Black Studies professor pops? Are they taking orders from the President?

When you work at the highest levels of the Leviathan as I have, you quickly learn that no major political story is written by accident.  Especially in this Trump-deranged era, media stay firmly within their GOP and DNC camps with only a Venn diagram sliver of bipartisan topics into which they can venture without pushback.  Breaking rank must be done carefully and in consultation with those at the highest echelons of the party.

This is why Wednesday’s CNN hit piece on the head of the Democratic Caucus––Hakeem Jeffries’ ‘vague recollection’ of controversy surrounding his uncle undermined by college editorial defending him­­––was so shocking.  Normally, CNN colludes, Pravda-style, with its pals in the Democratic Party and White House on any piece that would damage the reputation of the party, its leaders, or its standard-bearer.  The eight years of the Obama Administration, for example, were almost entirely free of deep CNN scrutiny because the media was lockstep towing the Democratic National Committee (DNC) party line.  Despite the Fast and Furious gun-running and IRS conservative targeting scandals, the deep state dissemination of the DNC’s Steele Dossier disinformation document and FISA court lies to take out the GOP Presidential nominee, and enabling of riots in Baltimore and Ferguson, the mainstream media was essentially mum.  Obama was the historic “Chosen One” and nothing could or would be done to darken his halo.

So, you’d naturally assume that Hakeem Jeffries, born on Obama’s birthday with a Muslim name to boot, would get a similar hands-off treatment.  He’s head of the Democratic Party in Congress, after all, and should the party regain House control in 2024, he’d be third in line to the Presidency.  And it’s not like Jeffries has sat on his hands.  Along with the departing Pelosi, he helped deliver a remarkable showing for Democrats in the 2022 midterms against a backdrop of catastrophic Democratic failures on inflation, crime, literacy, overspending, and a broken border.  Jeffries also raised $33 million for the party in the first quarter, while ably continuing the Goebbels-level lie of his predecessor that Democrats will “make communities safer.”  It’s an apt metaphor given the pro-Hitler whoppers that Jeffries is being accused of by proximity to his controversial paterfamilias.

But casual bigotry is not really a problem for Democrats, who’ve long accepted that virulent homophobia and antisemitism among black preachers, professors, and pro athletes are part of the Faustian bargain that comes with keeping a monolithic grip on the black vote.  Jeffries, in the end, is just doing what he is paid to do.  His failings, if any, are de minimis.  Yes, he was a 2016 election denier, but trucking in the canard of Russian collusion to elect Trump is now a staple of Democratic political paranoia. Besides, Democrats seek to perpetuate that lie to justify their ongoing political-judicial persecution of Trump and his supporters.  Their goal is to weaken MAGA Nation by whatever means necessary, including trumped-up charges around January 6 against old white grannies, as most BLM/Antifa insurrectionists walk free.

The Democratic Party did have some notable defeats in the 2022 midterms. Losing the Westchester seat previously held by retiring Appropriations Chair, Nita Lowey, was a surprise, as was the election of a not-so-talented Mr. Ripley, George Santos, in a fittingly swingy Long Island seat.  But Jeffries, who only took over as Pelosi’s replacement after the 2022 midterms, can hardly be blamed for those odd hiccups.

So, my first thought upon reading the CNN hit piece was that someone in the Democratic Party wants Hakeem Jeffries politically dead or at least chastened.  But why?  Why is the official Democratic Party organ, CNN, breaking ranks to dig up dirt from over thirty years ago on Jeffries’ relationship to his bigoted Black Studies professor pops?  A Democrat party operating in usual lockstep with its party mouthpieces would never let these scandalous lines from a 1992 Hakeem Jeffries’ collegiate editorial see the light of day: “Dr. Leonard Jeffries and Minister Louis Farrakhan have come under intense fire. Where do you think their interests lie?  Dr. Jeffries has challenged the existing white supremacist educational system and long-standing distortion of history.  His reward has been a media lynching complete with character assassinations and inflammatory erroneous accusations.”

Hakeem Jeffries, who grew up in the Jewish and black-dominated neighborhood of Crown Heights, Brooklyn has been a strong and consistent supporter of Israel. Supporters of Israel were the second largest donors to his campaign in the last cycle, just behind Wall Street.  In practice, Hakeem has, in office, repudiated everything his City University professor father preached regarding Israel and the Jewish people.  If Hakeem genuinely trucked in Leonard Jeffries’ rank slurs, we’d have heard about it. So, why the Roy Kapeniak strategy here?  Is there a Frank Underwood out there weirdly gunning for Jeffries’ scalp? Or is there a larger domestic or foreign policy play on which Brother Hakeem might prove to be a hindrance?

The politics of race inside today’s Democratic Party are complex, vicious, and self-devouring.  But one thing is clear: they don’t play well with suburban white women and the Rust Belt working class, where, once again, the next general election will be fought.  While Joe Biden is shoring up his shockingly loyal Woke Gen Z stormtroopers with the hiring of thousands of Tik-Tok “influencers”––knowing he owns the loyalty of single women of all stripes due to Republican extremism on abortion––he and his team have become consumed with a possible 2016 repeat.  Could Trump do it again? No sensible analyst thinks that is remotely possible after Trump’s lies about the 2020 election, his ugly performance on January 6, his three straight election losses either on the ballot or as a cheerleading surrogate, and now four separate Dem-pushed investigations of him.

But Nervous Nelly Democrats are still worried.  No prominent Democrat thought Trump could win in 2016 after the Access Hollywood and Stormy Daniels revelations. But he did.  And, besides, what if, by some fluke, Trump is not the 2024 GOP nominee? Then the Get Trump strategy of the past seven years would be for naught.

The truth is, the Dems are right to be worried.  They know they got complacent in 2016 and correctly vowed to never let that happen again.  Their ethically and legally dubious scorched earth stratagems ever since have shown they got the memo.  If the continuance of that strategy requires throwing shade on a prominent black leader in another Sister Souljah Moment, so be it.  If Democratic apparatchiks know one thing for certain it’s that they can always count on the black vote no matter how badly they treat black leaders and voters.  

James Marshall Crotty was the Director of Communications and Senior Policy Advisor to former Ranking Member of the House Appropriations Committee, Jeff Fortenberry (NE-01). His columns are found via The Crotty Farm Report on Substack. He is @Crotty on Twitter.