Woke House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries on Monday forcefully defended his vow to unleash “maximum warfare” against Republicans when pressed by reporters about the inflammatory phrase. Asked about the language in light of the recent attempted assassination of President Donald Trump, Jeffries replied, “I stand by it,” adding, “You can continue to criticize me for it, I don’t give a damn about your criticism.” Jeffries has used the phrase repeatedly in recent days while celebrating Democratic redistricting wins in Virginia and vowing to “crush” what he has called the “DeSantis dummymander” in Florida. At a Capitol news conference last week, he framed the fight over congressional maps by declaring, “We are in an era of maximum warfare, everywhere, all the time.”
The New York Democrat has attempted to argue that his rhetoric refers to a hard‑fought political and legal campaign over redistricting. Even as he doubled down, Jeffries hypocritically insisted he “unequivocally” denounces political violence, saying in a television interview that “violence is never the answer, whether it’s targeted at the right, the left or the center.”
