House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries holds a news conference at the U.S. Capitol Visitors Center on March 19, 2026, in Washington, D.C. (Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images)
By Michael Schwarz March 27, 2026 at 8:25am
If nothing else, Christian charity alone requires us to assume that not every Democrat has lost his or her mind.
Nonetheless, the Democratic Party’s leadership remains as contemptible and hypocritical as ever.
For instance, in a clip posted to the social media platform X, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise stood on the House floor and read a decade-old quote from House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries in which Jeffries insisted that Republicans must vote to fund the Department of Homeland Security rather than “playing political games.”
Scalise read Jeffries’ 2015 comments while standing next to a chart showing two recent House votes on DHS funding. In each case, nearly all Democrats voted “nay.”
“I think this is an important quote that everybody should listen to right now,” Scalise said. “This is Hakeem Jeffries, and I quote, ‘We are here today to do a single job, and that should be to fund fully the Department of Homeland Security. Anything else is an abdication of our responsibility. Anything else is an act of legislative malpractice. We’re playing political games at a time when the safety and the security of the American people is being threatened.’”
Scalise then asked what changed.
“Unfortunately, that was Hakeem Jeffries from February of 2015,” Scalise said moments later. “What happened to that Hakeem Jeffries?”
🚨 BREAKING: Majority Leader Steve Scalise just PUMMELED Hakeem Jeffries using his OWN WORDS
“Jeffries, 2015: ‘Our single job should be to FUND DHS! Anything else is an abdication our responsibility and legislative malpractice.’”
“Their party now stands with ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS,… pic.twitter.com/P6gQhB6GiK
— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) March 27, 2026
As one might expect, savvy X users quickly unearthed the Jeffries clip from 2015.
Yep… pic.twitter.com/xm3Ja0QGwm
— Melvin Marco (@MelvinMarko1) March 27, 2026
Scalise asked, “What happened to that Hakeem Jeffries?” Well, even in 2015, the then-future House minority leader provided an answer.
While reading Jeffries’ words on the House floor, Scalise excluded one crucial passage. To the words “anything else is an act of legislative malpractice,” Jeffries originally added “simply because of the inability of my friends on the other side of the aisle to satisfy the thirst of the extreme right-wing anti-immigration base of the party.”
In other words, Democrats have prioritized illegal immigrants over American citizens for more than a decade. And they have done so again during the current political contest.
Congressional Democrats have held DHS funding hostage while hoping to force Republicans into a deal that would allow Democrats to rein in Immigration and Customs Enforcement activities.
As a result, Transportation Security Administration agents have gone without pay, and chaos has ensued.
Ironically, on Monday, President Donald Trump helped alleviate travelers’ headaches by dispatching ICE to more than a dozen major airports.
All the while, only Democratic Sen. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania has had the courage to tell the truth about his party’s tactics.
As for Jeffries, one wonders if the public recitation of his own words will cause him any embarrassment.
That seems unlikely. After all, a man best known for mariachi memes and a flatulence-related faux pas has already lost what little dignity he once possessed.
Michael Schwarz holds a Ph.D. in History and has taught at multiple colleges and universities. He has published one book and numerous essays on Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and the Early U.S. Republic. He loves dogs, baseball, and freedom. After meandering spiritually through most of early adulthood, he has rediscovered his faith in midlife and is eager to continue learning about it from the great Christian thinkers.
Michael Schwarz holds a Ph.D. in History and has taught at multiple colleges and universities. He has published one book and numerous essays on Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and the Early U.S. Republic. He loves dogs, baseball, and freedom. After meandering spiritually through most of early adulthood, he has rediscovered his faith in midlife and is eager to continue learning about it from the great Christian thinkers.
Advertise with The Western Journal and reach millions of highly engaged readers, while supporting our work. Advertise Today.
