CNN
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Nancy Pelosi privately offered some advice for Hakeem Jeffries as Democrats devolved into bitter infighting over a government funding bill reviled by much of their party.
“Use your power,” she told him in an hour-long sit down in his office earlier this month, telling Jeffries to flex his muscle with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and sharpen their party’s strategy with a shutdown looming, according to a person briefed on their conversation.
After a week back home where Democrats took an earful from their voters demanding they hold a tougher line with President Donald Trump, Jeffries is facing new pressure to forgo his cautious demeanor and lead the charge against the White House – and take the reins of his party’s strategy from Schumer.
“He’s gonna have to lead, or Chuck leads. This is his moment, so step up,” said one senior House Democrat who is close to Jeffries and was granted anonymity to speak candidly. “He’s always bowed to Schumer, and I think that’s gonna end.”
The role of serving as the House’s top Democrat under a Republican president is a new one for Jeffries. Indeed, it was Pelosi – having served as speaker battling President George W. Bush and also during Trump’s first term – who often drove her party’s strategy.
And in the aftermath of Jeffries breaking with Schumer over the GOP funding bill, and as Trump challenges the limits of his power, House Democrats say it’s Jeffries’ time to step up and help articulate a badly needed vision for a party in crisis, according to interviews with more than two dozen members and operatives.
“We need to have a strategy, and it can’t be surrender,” Rep. Jared Huffman of California said in an interview. As for Jeffries, he said: “I think he understood the moment.”
With polls showing their party’s standing with the American public at record lows and lacking a national leader, Democrats say the mission is growing more urgent by the day, fearful that without a new approach they could see their chances at winning back the House majority slip away in next year’s critical midterm elections. Already, some Democrats are pushing for a new policy agenda like the ones offered ahead of the 2006 and 2018 midterms, two cycles where Democrats took the House pledging to check GOP presidents.
“We gotta show people we are willing to stand up,” said Rep. Debbie Dingell of Michigan, adding that Democrats “have to be willing to cut waste and fraud” but also defend key government programs.
“People are scared, they are angry,” she said. “We have to protect the programs that people rely on.”
In his third year leading House Democrats, Jeffries is now facing his biggest national moment yet. And it comes at a politically vulnerable time for him personally. Before Schumer’s crisis of confidence, Jeffries’ leadership had also been the subject of questions from a divided House caucus and party base.
“He’s never been in the position like this before,” said one senior House Democratic member, who said Jeffries “has had to adjust” and has been “slow” at times to tap into the anger from the Democratic base.
As Congress was staring at a government shutdown earlier this month, Jeffries rallied his caucus to try unite against the GOP spending bill, a position that unraveled as Schumer effectively allowed the measure to pass the Senate fearing a potential shutdown. But in a private meeting earlier this month, multiple battleground Democrats confronted Jeffries’ top spending leader, Connecticut Rep. Rosa DeLauro, about how they would explain to the American public what exactly they wanted from a shutdown.
Rep. Steven Horsford — a Nevada Democrat and longtime leadership ally — was stern, warning DeLauro that the party needed a strong message if the party was willing to go over the edge, as the room grew silent, according to two people who attended the meeting.
“I think the best thing that happened to Jeffries is Schumer bungling this so much,” another Democratic member added. “Prior to this, there was a lot of unhappiness and rumblings in the caucus about him.”
Most urgently in the coming days, Jeffries will face the task of blunting his fractured party’s circular firing squad, harnessing the anger against his fellow New York leader and tossing it back at Trump. House Democrats have sharply criticized Schumer, with some saying it could be time for new leadership. As a result, headlines have focused on Democratic infighting instead of Trump dismantling another federal department.
Behind the scenes, talks are already underway between Jeffries and Schumer to align their political strategy on the coming battles against Trump. The immediate fight for Democrats will be trying to derail Trump’s sweeping tax, border and spending cuts package – a strategy the two New York Democrats discussed in a private phone call last week where they sought to sharpen their party’s focus against the prospects of deep cuts to Medicaid.
And then in the fall, there will be yet another funding fight over keeping the government open, with the possibility that their votes could also be needed this summer to raise the debt limit – more fronts where Democrats could have leverage.
In his first caucus-wide conversation after Schumer’s spending concession to Trump, Jeffries told members he had a “frank and honest” conversation with the Senate party leader about unity going forward, according to two people who listened to the call. He said he “disagreed” with Schumer’s decision to back down from a funding fight with Trump — even though some House Democrats now privately acknowledge that their Senate counterpart probably prevented an even bigger political headache.
But he also stressed that in future fights, Democrats “need to be united” — a cue to end the intraparty fighting.
“We don’t have the luxury of devolving into the fight of who the Senate Democratic leadership will be at this moment,” Huffman added. “We got to make sure our tactics are better aligned.”
CNN’s Edward-Isaac Dovere contributed to this report.
