Michael Goodwin: Dem meltdown over Jeffries-Kushner meeting is a testament to party’s radicalization
Sometimes a meeting is just a meeting.
And sometimes it’s treason.
The meeting in question was between the Democrats’ House minority leader, Hakeem Jeffries, and Jared Kushner, President Trump’s son-in-law and adviser.
My first reaction to the news about the get-together was probably like that of most Americans.
OK, two guys from opposite sides had a meeting.
What’s the big deal?
After all, people in Washington have meetings all the time.
And perhaps Democrats and Republicans could get more done for the country if they often met privately instead of just shouting at each other during interviews and campaigns.
Ah, but the rules — and common sense — go out the window if you are the leader of House Dems in the era of Trump.
Then you must be on a total war footing at all times.
Even the slightest deviation will provoke a storm of denunciations and threats to boot you from the job.
Dems’ bloodlust
Consider the reaction from James Carville, who has migrated from Southern-fried endearing to absolute bonkers-land.
He was early out of the gate in spotting a capital offense by Jeffries.
“You do not meet with them — don’t have anything to do with them,” Carville declared online.
He insisted that what Jeffries should have said is, “Any business we have is going to be conducted with you under oath.”
Another nutso theme common among the critics, many of whom are from the party’s ascendant far left, was that having the meeting proved Jeffries was not going to be tough enough on Trump even if Dems win the House.
They want blood and scalps, and if Jeffries isn’t up to the job of being their Speaker, they’ll find someone who is.
“Jared Kushner has no actual government job, he just uses his family connections to get money from gulf autocrats and fund corrupt deals. The only way [Jeffries] should work with him is with demands for documents and subpoenas,” Tommy Vietor, a podcaster and former aide to Barack Obama, wrote on X.
Radical lefty Mehdi Hasan, whom CNN calls an “outspoken journalist,” despite his once saying that Israel’s war in Gaza was “worse” than the Holocaust, called Jeffries’ meeting with Kushner “pathetic.”

The nutty blowback dominated the party’s reaction, putting the jittery Jeffries on defense.
In a video post on X, he said that Kushner “asked for a meeting, and I took it to discuss the affordability crisis that exists that is not a hoax.”
To make it clear he is still wholeheartedly at war with Trump, he felt compelled to add, “No one is going to get a pass. We’re going to hold every single member of the Trump cartel accountable, beginning on Day 1.”
Calling the administration a “cartel” is like throwing a bone to a pack of ravenous wolves.
No surprise, they aren’t satisfied and demand more.
To show that he is ready for battle, Jeffries also told CNN that he hasn’t ruled out impeaching Trump if Democrats win control of the House.
Now that’s more like it!
Promises to impeach the president and members of his cabinet have emerged as an obligatory vow for many of the party’s midterm candidates.
The sentiment is so widely shared that it is likely testing well in polls of committed and swing voters.
So much so that it’s considered a near certainty that a move to investigate Trump and impeach him would be the first order of business under a Dem-controlled House.
Impeachment hysteria
Even if a majority voted yes on a bill of particulars, there is almost zero chance the Senate, regardless of which party has the majority, could muster the 67 votes needed to convict and remove him from office.
All of which raises the question of why Dems are committed to putting themselves on a course that is almost certain to fail.
Especially when Trump, a consummate dealmaker, would certainly like to pass bipartisan legislation in his final two years, if only to bolster his legacy.
But if Dems take control and are laser-focused on impeachment and little else, they will miss a chance to get big things done with an eager and willing president.
Part of the problem so far is that most Dems have little confidence that they can win the fall midterms or the 2028 presidential election on the strength of their domestic and foreign policy agendas alone.
They are convinced that hating Trump, and proving it to voters every day, is their ace in the hole.
That obsession helps explain why so little attention has been paid to the sober explanation of why Jeffries and Kushner decided to meet.
They worked together on prison reforms in Trump’s first term, and that history reportedly led a third party who knows both men to suggest they get together now to explore possible areas of agreement if Dems control the House for the last two years of Trump’s current term.
Unfortunately, the blowback at Jeffries over a single meeting is a testament to how the rise of the socialist left has radicalized the entire party.
One indication is that there was zero interest from the left about what Jeffries and Kushner discussed, only unhinged madness that Jeffries dared to even meet with a representative of the devil.
The fury also underscores how serious the radicals are about gaining full control of the party’s entire agenda.
Compromise is verboten.
A fundraising email from a group called Justice Democrats illustrates how the left is committed to driving a wedge between Dems and Israel.
Ignoring the facts
The email declares that the group’s polling finds “a majority of Democratic voters in the first six states to vote in the 2028 party presidential primaries believe ‘Israel is committing genocide against Palestinians’ and that their voters “want a president who will completely cut off weapons to Israel.”
It goes on to denounce the Dems’ congressional leaders, saying “Rep. Hakeem Jeffries and Sen. Chuck Schumer are deeply out of step with their own voters, prioritizing AIPAC over their constituents.”
Neither man has done anything that could reasonably be described as “prioritizing AIPAC” — but reason and facts are not important to socialist revolutionaries.
They want to overthrow the American system and are confident they have the upper hand and don’t feel any need to compromise.
That is why the uproar over Jeffries’ meeting with Kushner has taken on such importance.
It’s a marker that something as simple as talking to the other side will not be tolerated.
All of which spotlights the crucial importance of the midterms.
If antisemitic radicals such as Michigan Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed prevail, Dems will have walked into a trap of their own making and given Trump no reason to compromise with them.