Jeffries Met Kushner Privately as Midterms Loom
Jeffries Met Kushner Privately as Midterms Loom
The News
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries met privately with Jared Kushner, President Trump's son-in-law and top outside adviser, in recent weeks and discussed potential areas of common ground, the New York Times reported Sunday, citing five people with knowledge of the meeting.
The Times said the session was held in a private space in New York City offered up by a mutual friend of the two men.
Neither man would comment through aides. One person with knowledge of the meeting described it to the Times as a broad conversation on a range of topics.
Timeline
Jeffries, a New York Democrat, and Kushner meet in a private New York City space arranged by a mutual friend, according to the Times' account, which relies on people granted anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.
Maggie Haberman and Annie Karni report the meeting in the New York Times. Political Wire and AlterNet pick it up the same morning.
Reactions
Jeffries gave the Times a statement that did not explicitly confirm the meeting. "Throughout this Congress, Republicans have adopted a my-way-or-the-highway approach to governing that has failed the American people," he said.
He added: "In every conversation that we have with the Trump administration, we will continue to make it explicitly clear that the affordability crisis is not a hoax, and nothing short of transformational policy change is acceptable. We are fighting for an affordable America. The question is whether Republicans will join us."
The Times wrote that the timing of the meeting "underscored that those around Mr. Trump were well aware of the likelihood of a Democratic-led House, and trying to foster as much of a working relationship as possible before any change."
AlterNet, a left-leaning outlet, cast the report as further evidence that Republicans are bracing for defeat in November while Trump insists he can only lose a rigged election.
What's Next
Nothing from the meeting is official, the Times said.
Jeffries is in line to become speaker if Democrats win the House majority in the November midterms. Should that happen, the Times wrote, he would have to balance the need to keep the government funded against Democratic calls to defy Trump at every turn and possible pleas to impeach him for a third time.
Jeffries and Trump have both danced around questions about what their relationship would look like next year under divided government, according to the Times.
More
The two men covered a wide range of issues, including the cost of living, housing and immigration, according to AlterNet's account of the reporting. Both reportedly view Trump's chief of staff, Susie Wiles, as the insider in Trump's orbit most open to compromise with the other party.
All three stories in this cluster trace back to the same New York Times report; no participant has confirmed the meeting on the record.
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