As we covered at the time last week, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) certainly floundered during his Sunday show appearance on ABC News' "This Week" during his interview with Jonathan Karl. Jeffries kept ranting about prices, even when confronted by Karl about President Donald Trump's high approval ratings. Another Sunday, and another Sunday show appearance has gone by, with Jeffries once more being confronted about approval ratings, this time for members of his own party.
This Sunday, Jeffries spoke to Jake Tapper on CNN's "State of the Union." Early on, Tapper confronted him with remarks from a fellow Democrat, this time Gov. Josh Shapiro of the key swing state of Pennsylvania. Karl had likewise confronted Jeffries, bringing up comments from someone who works even more closely to Jeffries, Rep. Don Beyer (D-VA). The theme remains the same, though, which is that Democrats are in disarray.
Tapper quoted Shapiro as saying, per The New York Times, that congressional Democrats "are failing to address the real concerns that people have. They're failing to do what is their fundamental responsibility constitutionally, to be a check." As Tapper himself added, "that's a pretty harsh assessment of Democrats' first month in the second Trump administration. What's your response?"
Jeffries' response was a nonanswer of sorts, and one that may even put him at odds with Shapiro, who likely should have been the Democrats' vice presidential nominee last November, and could possibly be at the top of the ticket come 2028.
"I have no idea what the governor was talking about, so you're going to have to ask him for clarification," he said, before launching into his next talking point by adding, "here's what I know." In case there's any doubt, his response has to do with Trump.
"Here's what I know. Here's what the facts are. Donald Trump's poll numbers aren't going up. They are coming down, particularly as it relates to his management of the economy. That's a direct result of the fact that House Democrats and Senate Democrats have made clear that we are working to drive down the high cost of living," he claimed, though his poll numbers are still at a positive net, according to multiple aggregates, such as 538 and RealClearPolling.
"We believe we have to make America more affordable. We believe that we should be relentlessly focused on improving the quality of life of everyday Americans. Donald Trump is a chaos agent who promised to lower costs, lower the high cost of living in the United States of America, and he's doing the exact opposite because he's not focused on it," Jeffries went on to claim, though it would at least appear Democrats are more focused on throwing tantrums over Trump, Elon Musk, and the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). That even includes using concerning language, coming from Jeffries himself last month, and Rep. Robert Garcia (D-CA), who received a letter from United States District Attorney Ed Martin over his threatening remarks made earlier this month.
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What are Democrats doing to be productive, though? It all comes down to the courts, with Jeffries making such a point by claiming Trump's "unleashing chaos on the American people."
After Jeffries continued to rant some more about Republicans versus Democrats, Tapper finally spoke up to remind the Democratic Party about their abysmal approval ratings. Using the results from last week's Quinnipiac University poll, he specifically recalled that Republicans are polling at "about 40 percent," while Democrats are polling at "about 20 percent" in Congress. In stating the obvious, Tapper pointed out that "that's an issue for you."
More precisely, that poll found that Democrats in Congress have a 22-68 percent approval rating, a record low for them per the poll. Republicans in Congress, meanwhile, have a record 40-52 percent high approval rating.
🚨Hakeem Jeffries confronted with BRUTAL Democrat poll numbers —
— Western Lensman (@WesternLensman) February 23, 2025
— after Hakeem attempts to spin with lies about Medicare and Social Security, gets nuked by Jake Tapper of all people:
TAPPER: "Congressional Democrats polling is at about 20%. So, that's an issue for you." pic.twitter.com/wDqKhK8ok5
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