Congress

Inside the Jeffries-Schumer Rupture

Published

1 year ago

March 14, 2025

Year after year, in shutdown fight after shutdown fight, in debt-limit standoff after debt-limit standoff, you could count on this: While Republicans would be bickering and taking potshots at each other, Democratic leaders would stay in lockstep — giving their members a united front to rally behind.

That all exploded in dramatic fashion this week, culminating Friday at a news conference unlike any I have seen in my career covering Congress, where the No. 1 House Democrat repeatedly dodged questions about whether the No. 1 Senate Democrat was fit to lead.

Should Senate Democrats ditch Chuck Schumer? House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, as the kids say, chose violence: “Next question.”

It was the diss heard around the Capitol and in Democratic circles around the country. It marked the end of decades of relative peace atop the Democratic ranks and exposed the friction between two Brooklyn natives who had worked closely together last year to engineer a new presidential ticket. And it sent a worrying signal to their party: In the future, these two leaders won’t necessarily be singing from the same political hymnal.

The stunning breach comes just as President Donald Trump takes a wrecking ball to the federal bureaucracy and pushes the limits of his constitutional powers. And yet the Jeffries-vs-Schumer drama has emerged as the biggest show on Capitol Hill this week — a distraction for Democrats that is yanking the headlines away from Trump’s tough polling and a spiraling stock market.

Ashley Etienne, a former top communications strategist for ex-Speaker Nancy Pelosi who has vocally criticized Hill Democrats agitating for a shutdown, told me it amounted to a “complete meltdown” for Democrats.

“Trump had given the party a gift — the economy is tanking, his tariff wars are devastating Americans’ pocketbooks, and the courts are finally checking his authority — yet we’ve found a way to squander it,” she said, “To beat Trump, we need clarity of purpose, discipline and coordination. It’s clear none of that exists right now.”

While the Democratic base will hold Jeffries up as a hero, even some Jeffries fans are privately questioning his approach. Before the news conference, I heard from several former House Democratic leadership aides who were puzzled by Jeffries’ posture.

One, a Democratic strategist with close ties to Pelosi granted anonymity to speak frankly, texted me out of the blue to say that he’s “afraid Jeffries is letting the Caucus’ emotional response get the best of him and his relationship with his home state counterpart.”

“Sure we’ve had disagreements in the past … but I cannot recall a moment when our bicameral leadership went this hard against each other,” the person added.

So how did two Democrats of different generations but similar politics and a shared Brooklyn upbringing end up so dramatically at odds?

Many of the Democrats I heard from said it was a long time coming and represented a deeper divide between the two leaders that had been obscured during the hothouse of the 2024 campaign.

“Leader Schumer sees Leader Jeffries as a new leader who needs to learn a lot about the nuances of governing and negotiating,” said the Pelosi-linked strategist. “Jeffries sees Schumer as someone who has lost touch with the sentiment of the base and whose tactics and style are a relic of the past.”

Yes, the clash was exacerbated by the different political realities that the two men were inhabiting. With House Republicans able to put up the votes to fund the government, Jeffries didn’t have to make the hard choice about whether he was leading his members into a shutdown. He could instead use the moment to ingratiate himself with the base, and he did.

Schumer, on the other hand, was the last man standing between the lights being shut off and 2 million federal workers being furloughed without pay. Further compounding the dilemma: real fears that Trump and Elon Musk would have even more power in a shutdown than they would otherwise.

Typically in situations like this, leaders graciously give each other space to do what they need to do — even if they privately disagree. Case in point: Speaker Mike Johnson and Senate Majority Leader John Thune have vastly different ideas about the size and scope and strategy for Trump’s agenda — and yet we have not seen them spar publicly.

It’s not a difficult line to walk. Here’s Sen. Mark Warner managing to do it just fine: “I’m a ‘no’ on this — but I have total respect for members who are voting yes, because these were both crappy choices,” the Virginia Democrat said after announcing his opposition to the House GOP bill.

That’s not what happened here, however.

Jeffries and his leadership team worked over the course of days to stir up opposition to the House bill even after it passed, loading pressure on Senate Democrats even as many in the party knew they would eventually have to swallow it.

And all came to a head with Jeffries’ curious choice to return to the Capitol for a news conference Friday, after two days holed up with his caucus at a suburban Virginia resort, knowing full well he would be inundated with questions about Schumer — with pat answers at the ready except to indirectly accuse his Senate counterpart of posing a “false choice” between shutdown and surrender.

Jeffries’ comments at the presser, some House Democrats speculate, were the results of a pressure campaign that had been building at the Democratic retreat. As they huddled in Leesburg, members complained to Jeffries about Schumer throwing in the towel. They felt like they had gone out on a limb to vote against government funding, and they felt Schumer was being weak in refusing to follow suit.

Jeffries also felt blindsided by Schumer’s decision, according to someone close to him. While Schumer gave Jeffries a heads up that he would back the GOP’s funding bill just before announcing his intentions publicly, Jeffries had believed for days that Schumer would likely come down on his side on the vote.

Jeffries’ leadership team first put out a joint statement Thursday hours after Schumer announced his decision, in which they said they would “not be complicit” in advancing the funding bill.

Meanwhile, Jeffries privately argued to his members that they were in the right, invoking the words of Martin Luther King Jr., no less: “The time is always right to do what’s right. This week, House Democrats did what was right. We stood up against Donald Trump,” he said at the retreat, according to my colleague Nicholas Wu.

A person close with Jeffries told me he did not mean to cast aspersions on Schumer’s leadership during the press conference, but was dodging the questions to try to keep the focus on Republicans.

Tell that to Schumer. Now with Jeffries keeping mum on Schumer’s future as Senate Democratic leader, he has essentially given Democrats a green light to question whether he should stay at all.

The dynamic is a major break from the relationship Pelosi and Schumer had back in the day. One of the former leadership aides said those two would have been bending each other’s ears daily to strategize — and certainly never would have let their disagreement spill out into the open.

“I don’t know that Pelosi would have ever gotten into an open confrontation with the Senate like this,” said a senior House aide.

The most surprising part of it, these people told me, is that Jeffries pounced even after Schumer explained that he was trying to do what he believed was right — taking the hard position on behalf of what’s best for the party despite knowing he’d take heat from the base.

“This is the [Mitch] McConnell thing, right?” the former House leadership aide said. “He would take the shit and eat the sandwich — and that’s what you do when you are leader. Pelosi did it, too. These guys [in the House], they don’t have the same experience.”

So why create all this chaos for his counterpart across the Rotunda? The immediate political incentives for Jeffries were clear: He was already getting pummeled by the base for the tepid response from Washington Democrats to Trump and Musk’s slash-and-burn campaign. Given the opportunity to reverse that narrative, he took it.

“Look, it takes a lot of heat off our leadership,” said one senior House Democratic aide when asked about why Jeffries was doing this.

Another senior House Democratic aide told my colleague Nick that the situation allowed front-line Democrats to keep the base happy while someone else took out the trash.

But it may have come at the cost of upending the lockstep relationship between leaders that has historically been essential to parties out of power. The usual pattern in Washington is that nothing unites a party quite like being in the minority — witness Kevin McCarthy’s marriage of convenience to the hard-liner Jim Jordan, who once blocked him from the gavel.

The breakup also underscores the continuing divide in the Democratic Party over how to oppose Trump.

A longtime former House Democratic leadership aide, who was also granted anonymity to speak frankly, called it evidence of “the lack of experience by House leaders.” The aide warned that this could have long-term repercussions.

“The cool sexy thing is, ‘fight, fight, fight.’ … But it’s one thing to gin up pressure on [Sens. Kyrsten] Sinema and [Joe] Manchin,” the person said, referring to the retired Senate moderates. “This is different. …This is gonna be terrible for their relationship.”

Congress

Mamdani boosts congressional slate ahead of primary election

Published

11 hours ago

June 19, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

NEW YORK — With just five days to go until the primary election in New York, Mayor Zohran Mamdani issued a stark warning to members of Congress who believe “incumbency is a substitute for action”: Watch out.

“People often ask me what I think of the state of the Democratic Party,” Mamdani said to the crowd at the Kings Theatre in Brooklyn as he boosted his endorsed congressional candidates. “This slate here today is our answer. The Democratic Party must change.”

The democratic socialist framed Tuesday’s election as much more than what that means for New York, though. In recounting how people also ask him about the 2028 presidential election, he put it bluntly: “It starts now. It starts on Tuesday.”

“For far too long, our party has seen its job as managing decline instead of delivering material change for working people,” Mamdani said. “That old way of thinking will lose on Tuesday. And frankly, it will lose in South Carolina and New Hampshire. It will fall short of 270 electoral votes, because the party of the past will not be what leads us into the future.”

Mamdani, joined by Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, urged his supporters to show up for his endorsed candidates “the way you showed up for me.” They include former New York City Comptroller Brad Lander, who’s challenging two-term Rep. Dan Goldman; state Assemblymember Claire Valdez, who’s vying for retiring Rep. Nydia Velázquez’s seat; and community organizer Darializa Avila Chevalier, who’s trying to unseat five-term Rep. Adriano Espaillat, the chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus.

Mamdani’s endorsed slate of legislative candidates were at the rally, too.

The rally featured standard stump speeches from the candidates, highlighting the need to support working class New Yorkers and immigrants. Speakers called out the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, the pro-Israel group that has loomed over many of these primaries — despite no evident spending from its independent expenditure arm. Sanders also emphasized his call to ban super PACs, which have reshaped primaries across the city.

Taking place just hours after the massive ticker-tape parade celebrating the Knicks’ historic championship, there were also Knicks references galore.

“I hate to break it to you, but OG Anunoby is not here to save the day,” said Mamdani, who was wearing a Knicks jersey under his suit. “The only hands we can count on are ours.”

Sen. Bernie Sanders speaks during a get out the vote rally ahead of New York's primary election on June 18, 2026, in Brooklyn.

Sanders, who is wildly popular in New York, previously endorsed Valdez and Lander. Both Valdez and Avila Chevalier are members of the Democratic Socialists of America and are backed by the city chapter in their bids. Sanders had not officially endorsed Avila Chevalier prior to the rally.

“Why are progressives and socialist candidates winning elections all across this country?” Sanders asked. “The answer in my view is not complicated. The working class of America understands that our current economic system is rigged, that it is designed to benefit the wealthy and the powerful.”

Polling has shown Lander with a lead over Goldman, and a tight race for Velázquez’s seat. Public polling is scarce in the Espaillat race, but recent internal surveys suggest Avila Chevalier is posing a real challenge to the incumbent. Mamdani endorsed her just weeks ago, much later than Lander and Valdez, but his engagement in the race has significantly elevated its profile.

“Six months ago, they told us this race was over before it started,” Avila Chevalier said at the rally. “They told us Adriano was untouchable, that he was an institution, that you don’t run against someone like him and win. That this district was his, and that we should wait our turn. And they said it with such confidence, like the outcome had already been written. Look around. Look at what we’ve built.”

Mamdani’s decision to get involved in congressional races is stress-testing how the new mayor navigates relations with powerful, well-respected party figures — many of whom he’s on the opposite side of.

Mamdani’s endorsement is expected to be a significant asset for his picks; he had dominant performances across these districts in last year’s mayoral primary. And that shine doesn’t seem to have dulled. Recent polling has shown that Mamdani has high approval ratings.

Goldman did not support Mamdani during last year’s mayoral primary or the general election, as Lander has often pointed out. Espaillat backed former Gov. Andrew Cuomo in the primary, but supported Mamdani in the general election. Valdez’s opponents, Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso and city Council Member Julie Won, both supported Mamdani in the primary.

The mayor has been active on the trail for his congressional candidates of choice in the closing stretch of the campaign. And he touted them all in an advertisement that ran during the first game of the Knicks’ finals run.

Still, Lander has tried to keep some distance. When asked at a recent press conference why he would appear in that ad with Avila Chevalier, who attended a pro-Palestinian rally the day after Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack in 2023 — the same rally Lander said he left the DSA over — he said it was an “opportunity to show New Yorkers that politics can be a team sport.” He also clarified that he has not endorsed candidates in any other congressional primaries.

Avila Chevalier told reporters that she went to that rally to “stand against” Israel engaging in “a response that is often disproportionate and creates a greater loss of life.” She added that she has “condemned Hamas” and does “not believe that celebrating the loss of anybody’s life is OK.”

Kings Theatre isn’t located in any of the districts these congressional hopefuls are trying to represent — though it neighbors the seats that Lander and Valdez have their eyes on.

It’s especially far from Espaillat’s district, which includes parts of upper Manhattan and the Bronx.

While handing out campaign literature to people walking out of the subway in Hamilton Heights, Blue Light News asked Espaillat if he had thoughts about Avila Chevalier appearing at the rally.

“I’m rallying right here in my district with my constituents — not in Brooklyn,” he replied.

Jason Beeferman contributed to this report.

Congress

Meta faces calls for Congress to probe scam ads targeting seniors

Published

15 hours ago

June 18, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Retirement groups are calling on Congress to investigate Meta over a wave of social media scams targeting older Americans.

In a letter sent Thursday to House Homeland Security Committee Chair Andrew Garbarino (R-N.Y.) and ranking member Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), the groups alleged Meta has been slow to take down fraudulent ads, leaving seniors vulnerable to financial loss. The letter, shared exclusively with POLITICO, was signed by the Alliance for Retired Americans, the American Postal Workers Union Retirees and the American Federation of Teachers, among others.

“Fraudulent Medicare ads have proliferated on Meta platforms and too many seniors are getting scammed while Meta profits,” said Richard Fiesta, executive director of the Alliance for Retired Americans. “We are calling on Congress to investigate how these scams are allowed to spread, what Meta knew about them, and why stronger protections are not in place. Seniors should not be left vulnerable while scammers and tech companies cash in.”

The letter’s demands follow a report published last month by the Center for Countering Digital Hate, a nonprofit advocacy group, which alleged that Meta has profited by leaving up fraudulent ads, many of which target Medicare recipients.

“Scammers are determined criminals who use increasingly sophisticated tactics to defraud people and evade detection,” Meta spokesperson Andy Stone said in a statement. “We aggressively fight scams on and off our platforms because they’re not good for us or the people and businesses that rely on our services and for years we’ve been one of law enforcement’s strongest partners in the fight against this type of online crime — identifying criminals, disrupting their crimes and helping bring them to justice.”

Stone pointed to several examples of Meta’s efforts to combat scams on its platform, including a recent collaboration with U.S. and Thai law enforcement to disrupt online scams.

It’s not the first time Meta has faced scrutiny over the scams: Sens. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) and Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) urged the Federal Trade Commission and the Securities Exchange Commission to open an investigation into the company in November after Reuters reported that Meta in internal documents projected 10 percent of its 2024 revenue would come from fraudulent ads. And in February, a group of bipartisan lawmakers pressed Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg over its plans to prevent and combat fraud on its platforms.

Reps. Dan Meuser (R-Pa.) and Lou Correa (D-Calif.) also introduced bipartisan legislation earlier this year to combat predatory scam ads.

Congress

Congress lays out path for final passage of housing bill

Published

15 hours ago

June 18, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Congress is expected to send a landmark, bipartisan housing affordability bill to President Donald Trump’s desk by the end of next week as the Senate and House schedule action on the legislation in the coming days.

The Senate has teed up the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act for final passage on Monday, after completing all its necessary procedural votes this week.

The legislation will then move on to the House where GOP leadership plans to open debate on Wednesday, with a vote expected as early as the same day, according to six people familiar with the vote granted anonymity to discuss plans.

House leadership plans to suspend the rules, requiring a two-thirds majority vote, to speed up the bill’s path to Trump’s desk. Final passage could be pushed to Thursday depending on timing, the people said.

The housing bill aims to tackle housing affordability and boost homeownership and supply ahead of a midterm election dominated by cost-of-living concerns.

The four lawmakers leading the negotiations over the legislation — Senate Banking Chair Tim Scott (R-S.C.), ranking member Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), House Financial Services Chair French Hill (R-Ark.) and ranking member Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) — came to an agreement Tuesday afternoon after months of back and forth on the bill’s contents.

The housing affordability legislation, which the White House supports, contains a provision limiting the role of large institutional investors in the single-family housing market, which was a key condition for Trump to sign the bill.