Hakeem Jeffries, the man Democrats want to hand the speaker's gavel in a few months so he can investigate the Trump family, quietly sat down with Jared Kushner to talk about "collaboration." Jared Kushner, the president's son-in-law who has no official government job but does have billions in Saudi and Emirati money flowing into his private equity firm while he moonlights as a Middle East peace envoy. That Jared Kushner.
What Actually Happened Here
The New York Times reported Sunday that Jeffries and Kushner met to explore potential areas of bipartisan cooperation. No details about what those areas might be. No statement from Jeffries' office, which did not return requests for comment from The Guardian or, apparently, anyone else on the planet asking a reasonable follow-up question.
The timing could not be more aggressively weird. Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee opened a formal investigation into Kushner's financial conflicts of interest back in April. The inquiry focuses on how Kushner's private investment firm raised money from Gulf nations while he simultaneously served as a special government envoy working on diplomacy with those same nations. He is, in other words, both the diplomat and the investment vehicle at the same time.
What Kushner's Actual Deal Is, For the Uninitiated
Kushner holds no formal government position in Trump's second term. What he does hold is Affinity Partners, his private equity firm, which secured a $2 billion investment from Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund in 2021 — two months after he left the White House the first time. He has since raised money from other Gulf states as well.
He is also, simultaneously, acting as a back-channel envoy on some of the most consequential diplomatic issues on earth: Ukraine, Iran, Gaza. Maryland Congressman Jamie Raskin, the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, put it about as cleanly as anyone has in an April letter to Kushner. As The Guardian reported, Raskin wrote: "You cannot both be a diplomat and a financial pawn of the Saudi monarchy at the same time; you cannot faithfully represent the United States with billions of dollars in Saudi and Emirati cash burning a hole in every pocket of every suit you own." That's the guy Jeffries wanted to find common ground with.
The Reaction Was Not Warm
Tommy Vietor, former Obama aide and Pod Save America co-host, did not take the news lying down. According to The Guardian, Vietor posted that "Jared Kushner has no actual government job he just uses his family connections to get money from gulf autocrats and fund corrupt deals," and that the only way Jeffries should be working with him is "with demands for documents and subpoenas."
Adam Kinzinger, the former Republican congressman who served on the January 6th committee and has made a career out of being the guy Republicans hate at parties, posted "Make this make sense" while tagging Jeffries directly. When you've lost the anti-Trump Republicans, you've made an interesting choice.
Senator Chris Van Hollen of Maryland tried to be diplomatic about it on Meet the Press Sunday, saying he supports people meeting with whoever they want to discuss ideas, but added the completely obvious caveat that a meeting only means something if something real comes out of it. Which is a polite way of saying: what exactly is the plan here, Hakeem.
The Bigger Picture Democrats Are Working With
Democrats are heading into the November midterms as favorites to retake the House, according to current projections. If that happens, Jeffries becomes speaker. And the entire Democratic base has been told, repeatedly, that the point of winning the House is to use oversight and subpoena power to investigate Trump administration corruption, self-dealing, and the rest of the second-term greatest hits.
So the optics of the prospective future speaker quietly breaking bread with the president's son-in-law — who is currently under a Democratic congressional investigation — are, to put it gently, not ideal. The Guardian notes this reaction reflects broader Democratic appetite for a no-holds-barred investigative approach once they have the majority. Jeffries apparently got the memo and then scheduled a meeting anyway.
Not every Democrat has taken the confrontational road. Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer has pursued a more cooperative posture with Trump throughout his second term, a strategy that has earned her both pragmatic praise and blistering criticism from the base depending on the day. But Whitmer isn't the one being groomed as the tip of the spear for House oversight investigations.
The Dingo Take
You are supposed to believe this meeting was about finding common ground. Common ground between the incoming speaker who will chair investigations into Trump family corruption and the Trump family member currently under congressional investigation for using diplomatic access to funnel Gulf state money into his private equity fund. Common ground. Sure. Write that down.
The Democratic base has spent two years being told to hold on, to trust the process, to vote and give the party power so it can actually do something with it. That pitch depends entirely on the idea that Democrats in leadership understand what the stakes are and are playing to win. A secret sitdown with Jared Kushner, followed by radio silence from Jeffries' office, is not a great advertisement for that theory.
Maybe nothing comes of it. Maybe Jeffries was doing some kind of opposition research over canapes and it never goes anywhere. But the fact that his office can't even be bothered to explain what the meeting was about is its own kind of answer. Democrats are four months from potentially holding real power over Trump's final two years. This is a strange moment to start acting like the rules don't apply to the family you're supposed to be investigating.
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