House

Jeffries stands by ‘maximum warfare’ language: ‘I don’t give a damn about your criticism’

Comments:

by Mike Lillis - 04/27/26 5:27 PM ET

Comments:

Link copied

by Mike Lillis - 04/27/26 5:27 PM ET

Comments:

Link copied

NOW PLAYING

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) is standing by his promise to use “maximum warfare” in the battle over redistricting, even following Saturday’s shooting at a press gala where President Trump was in attendance.

In the wake of the shooting, a number of conservatives have hammered Jeffries’s choice of language, saying the Democratic leader was encouraging violence against the president.

Jeffries dismissed those criticisms on Monday, saying he condemns political violence unconditionally. The reference to “maximum warfare,” he said, was specific to the partisan gerrymandering fight that’s taking place ahead of the midterms — a fight that was instigated by Trump.

Jeffries also noted Trump’s long history of violent rhetoric directed at political adversaries and accused Republicans of hypocrisy for defending the president’s track record on that topic.

“The notion that any of us are concerned with so-called criticism from these phony Republicans as it relates to anything that has been said — certainly as it relates to the comment related to ‘maximum warfare, everywhere, all the time,’ in connection to the redistricting battle that Republicans launched — I stand by it,” Jeffries told reporters in the Capitol.

“You can continue to criticize me for it. I don’t give a damn about your criticism.”

Last week, after Virginia voters approved a new House map designed to give Democrats more seats, Jeffries summed up the party’s redistricting strategy in military terms.

“We are in an era of maximum warfare, everywhere, all the time,” he said. “And we are going to keep the pressure on Republicans at every single state in the union, to ensure at the end of the day, that there is a fair, national map.”

The language was borrowed directly from an unnamed Trump ally who told The New York Times last August that the president’s strategy for keeping the House through redistricting was best described as “Maximum warfare, everywhere, all the time.”

After Saturday’s shooting at the annual White House Correspondents’ Association dinner in Washington, a number of Republicans blamed Jeffries for helping to create an environment that encourages political violence.

“It is unacceptable that House Democrats continue to remain silent in the aftermath of his call for ‘maximum warfare, everywhere, all the time’ against Republicans,” Rep. Randy Fine (R-Fla.) posted on the social platform X. “Their casual acceptance of hateful and divisive language enables this out-of-control behavior.”

Democrats have responded to such attacks with incredulity, pointing to Trump’s decision to pardon the rioters who stormed into the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, in an effort to overturn Trump’s election defeat. More than 140 police officers were injured in the rampage.

Jeffries singled out that episode on Monday, going after White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt for blaming Democratic rhetoric for inciting Saturday’s shooting.

“This so-called White House press secretary wants to lecture America, and lecture us, about civility? Get lost. Clean up your own house,” Jeffries said.

“We embrace the fact that everybody should take the temperature down,” he added. “We’re just not going to be lectured by extremists on the other side of the aisle who are looking directly at the camera and then lying to the American people.”

Add as preferred source on Google