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GLORIOUS: GOP Lawmaker Hands Hakeem Jeffries His Rear End In the Halls Of Congress

By POLITICS COMMENTARY

With the government still shut down thanks to Democrats filibustering a clean continuing resolution, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries has been working overtime to dodge responsibility. And let’s be honest — it’s not going well.

Every time Jeffries opens his mouth, he sounds like he’s reading an off-brand Obama script that got run through a discount speechwriter. There’s a reason people have started calling him “TEMU Obama” — all the same buzzwords, none of the quality. He’s trying to sell recycled talking points at clearance-bin prices, and Americans aren’t buying it.

In a must-see moment on Wednesday, Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY) walked right up to Hakeem Jeffries and asked the question Democrats can’t seem to answer: why are they refusing to back a simple one-year extension of the COVID-era Obamacare subsidies they’re using as an excuse for the shutdown?

Jeffries clearly wasn’t ready for it. The man looked like he’d been caught sneaking out of a press conference. His talking points fell apart faster than Biden’s approval rating, and his lack of political skill was on full display:

LAWLER: We’ve got a one-year extension. Why don’t we sign on right now? Why don’t we sign on right now?

JEFFRIES: Let me ask you a question (crosstalk). Did you get permission from your boss? Did your boss Donald Trump…

LAWLER: Why don’t we sign on right now? You can easily extend the ACA right now.

JEFFRIES: Did your boss, Donald Trump, give you permission?

LAWLER: He’s not my boss.

JEFFRIES: Yes, he is.

LAWLER: No, he’s not, and by the way, why did you vote to shut the government down?

JEFFRIES: Let me ask you a question. Let me ask you a question.

LAWLER: Why did you vote to shut it down? For years, you always lectured about how we need to keep the government open.

JEFFRIES: You’re making a show of this…

(Lots of crosstalk)

JEFFRIES: You’re embarrassing yourself right now. You’re an embarrassment.

WATCH:

I’m not going to bore you with a full transcript of the exchange — it was mostly crosstalk anyway — but let’s just say it didn’t go well for Hakeem Jeffries. He came off less like a congressional leader and more like a middle-school bully getting his lunch money taken. The question was simple: why won’t you sign onto the one-year extension? If these subsidies are supposedly the holdup keeping the government closed, then extend them and reopen the government. It’s not rocket science.

Unless, of course, you’re a Democrat trying to hide the real reason for the shutdown. The truth is, this fight isn’t about Obamacare subsidies at all — it’s about keeping the taxpayer-funded pipeline flowing to cover healthcare for illegal immigrants. Democrats hide behind technicalities, claiming it’s just for “emergency” coverage, but that’s laughably misleading.

When emergency rooms are being used like walk-in clinics for every sore throat and stubbed toe, the word emergency has lost all meaning. It’s a system built for abuse — and Democrats are perfectly fine with that, because it keeps their future voters comfortable on the taxpayer’s dime.

As the back-and-forth dragged on, Jeffries tried to pivot to bashing the “One Big Ugly Bill” — his snide nickname for Trump’s 2025 reconciliation package.

But Lawler didn’t take the bait. He hit right back, calmly dismantling Jeffries’s talking points until the so-called Minority Leader was left stammering, searching for words, and looking like a man completely out of his depth.

Here’s more of Lawler handing it to Jeffries:

JEFFRIES: Let me ask you a question. You voted for the One, Big Ugly Bill.

LAWLER: I voted for a bill that gave the largest tax cut to Americans in history (crosstalk), including, by the way, the average New Yorker getting a $4,000 tax cut. Are you against that?

JEFFRIES: You’re embarrassing yourself right now.

LAWLER: Do you want to cut the standard deduction in half? Is that what you want to do?

JEFFRIES: The largest cut to Medicaid in American history. You voted for that.

LAWLER: No, we voted out waste, fraud, and abuse, by the way, (crosstalk) pointed out that $1.2 billion was wasted on fraud.

This is where the wheels really came off for Jeffries. You could see the frustration bubbling up as he lost control of the exchange. Instead of answering a single substantive question, he resorted to parroting the same empty insult over and over — accusing Lawler of “embarrassing yourself”:

JEFFRIES: Listen, you’re not going to talk to me (cross-talk), you’re not gonna talk to me and talk over me because you don’t want to hear what I have to say

LAWLER: Oh, I’m listening.

JEFFRIES: So why don’t you just keep your mouth shut because you showed up (crosstalk) and so, you voted for this One, Big Ugly Bill…

LAWLER: I signed on for this. You can extend it right now.

JEFFRIES: A permanent extension of massive tax breaks for your billionaire donors.

LAWLER: 90 percent of Americans…

JEFFRIES: So they can get a permanent extension, but working-class Americans can’t?

LAWLER: 90 percent of Americans take the standard deduction.

JEFFRIES: Is that right?

LAWLER: If you had your way, the standard deduction would have been cut in half. There would have been a massive tax increase on Americans all across the country. You support that?

JEFFRIES: You’re here, unfortunately, to do the bidding of your billionaire donors.

LAWLER: The billionaire donors? Lifting the cap on SALT, we put an income cap in place.

JEFFRIES: Why are you here right now? Where are the rest of your Republican colleagues (crosstalk).

LAWLER: You wanted Republicans to be here. I’m here.

Jeffries was so far out of his depth it was painful to watch. He couldn’t even stick to his rehearsed talking points — instead, he devolved into mumbling about “billionaire donors” for what felt like the thousandth time. When all else fails, cue the class warfare card.

This is not the guy who’s going to lead Democrats out of the political wilderness. He’s a lightweight through and through — all slogans, no substance. The only reason Jeffries holds his position is because he checks the right identity boxes for a party more obsessed with optics than competence:

Someone in that exchange was a complete and total embarrassment — but it sure wasn’t Mike Lawler.

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