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House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., doubled down on his inflammatory rhetoric toward Republicans during a fiery news conference Monday, telling critics, “I don’t give a damn.”
“I stand by it,” Jeffries told reporters, when asked about his vow last week to unleash “maximum warfare” on the GOP to counter the party’s redistricting efforts ahead of November’s midterm elections. “You can continue to criticize me for it. I don’t give a damn about your criticism.”
Jeffries’ messaging sparked backlash from Republicans following the third apparent assassination attempt on President Donald Trump’s life at the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner Saturday.
The top Democrat defended his choice of words by pointing to a report from The New York Times last year in which an anonymous White House staffer used the same phrase to threaten Democrats.
Police and National Guard stand in front of the Washington Hilton after the White House Correspondents Association Dinner was postponed April 25, 2026, in Washington, DC. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
“That phrase ‘maximum warfare everywhere, all the time’ came from the White House in the summer of 2025, when they started this redistricting battle, and now they’re big mad,” Jeffries continued. “Why? Because Democrats have decided to finish it. Get lost.”
The top Democrat insisted that he denounced political violence in all of its forms.
Jeffries also had harsh words for White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt, who he labeled a “disgrace” and a “stone-cold liar” after she criticized Democrats’ rhetoric that frequently labels Trump as an existential threat.
“This so-called White House press secretary wants to lecture America and lecture us about civility. Get lost,” Jeffries said. “Clean up your own house before you have anything to say to us about the language that we use.”
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, a Democrat from New York, speaks at a news conference at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., on Nov. 10, 2025. (Aaron Schwartz/Bloomberg)
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Leavitt hammered top Democrats’ embrace of hostile messaging toward Trump during a news conference Monday.
“This hateful, constant and violent rhetoric directed at President Trump, day after day after day for 11 years, has helped to legitimize this violence and bring us to this dark moment,” Leavitt said.
“When you have mentally disturbed individuals across the country who are listening to this crazed rhetoric about the president day after day after day, it inspires them to do crazy things,” she added.
The National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) sharply criticized Jeffries’ defense of his comments.
“Democrats are playing with fire and pretending they don’t smell the smoke,” NRCC spokesman Mike Marinella said in a statement. “If they can’t bring themselves to put an end to this kind of rhetoric, it proves they’ll do anything to appease their far-left base.”
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt attends a news conference in the James S. Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House in Washington, D.C., on April 25, 2026, after President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance were evacuated from the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner following a security incident. (Roberto Schmidt/AFP via Getty Images)
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Jeffries on Monday also blasted a proposed new congressional map that Florida’s Republican legislature is expected to pass in the coming days that is aimed at erasing Democrats’ gains in Virginia, where voters approved a gerrymander targeting four Republican-held seats last week.
“The so-called map, which is a DeSantis dummymander actually, is blatantly unconstitutional,” Jeffries said. “Florida is not going to make a meaningful difference as it relates to their efforts to rig the midterm elections. That effort has failed.”
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