Jeffries meets with Kushner, faces criticism and vows to take on 'Trump cartel'

Hakeem Jeffries, the Democratic House minority leader, defended his private meeting with Jared Kushner after facing criticism from within his own party for meeting with President Donald Trump's son-in-law and envoy.

News of the meeting became public on Sunday, Aug. 23, when The New York Times reported that Jeffries and Kushner had held a private meeting in New York in the preceding weeks. According to five people with knowledge of the conversation cited by the newspaper, the two discussed possible areas of cooperation and common ground.

A day later, Jeffries posted a video on X in which he stated that he had agreed to meet with Kushner to discuss the "affordability crisis," but emphasized that this did not mean Democrats would give Trump's inner circle a "pass" after the midterm election.

Speaking with CNN, Jeffries commented on his meeting with Kushner: "We have a responsibility to solve problems and sometimes that means meeting with people on the other side of the aisle to figure out what the opportunities will be in order to address the things that the American people definitively want us to address, which from our standpoint, is the reality that the cost of living in this country is way too high."

Moments later, journalist Wolf Blitzer asked him if he had reached any kind of agreement during the meeting. "No, it was just a high-level, topical conversation," the Democrat replied.

Among those who criticized the meeting were James Carville, a veteran Democratic strategist, and Tommy Vietor, a former advisor to President Barack Obama and current political commentator on "Pod Save America."

"These people are a pack of felons and traitors, and you do not meet with them. You do not meet with them. ... We need to drag [Kushner’s] a** before a committee and find out what backdoor-dealing, w****house s*** he's got going on with Steve Whitcomb and everybody else. We're not going to be nice to you. We don't like you," said Carville in a recent interview.

As for Vietor, he argued that Kushner should be held accountable by Congress for his activities and business ties: "Jared Kushner has no actual government job; he just uses his family connections to get money from Gulf autocrats and fund corrupt deals."