Swansenreport

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries is refusing to back down from his call for “maximum warfare” against Republicans — even as Republicans argue the phrase helped fuel the political climate that led to Saturday’s assassination attempt on President Trump at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner.

Just four days before the shooting, Jeffries declared at a press conference: “We are in an era of maximum warfare, everywhere, all the time.” The remark came as Democrats were celebrating a redistricting victory in Virginia and vowing to challenge new Republican congressional maps in Florida.

When asked Monday whether he would tone down the language in the wake of the shooting, Jeffries was blunt: “I stand by it. You can continue to criticize me for it, I don’t give a damn about your criticism.” He argued the phrase referred specifically to the partisan redistricting fight, not a call to physical violence, and noted the phrase had originated with a Trump ally who used it to describe the White House’s own redistricting strategy in a New York Times story last August.

Jeffries also went on offense against White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, calling her a “stone-cold liar” for attributing Democrats’ rhetoric to the shooting, and said, “America will not be lectured about civility by far-right extremists in Congress.”

Republicans have seized on the comments. The National Republican Congressional Committee circulated a clip of Jeffries’ remarks, calling them “unhinged.” Rep. Randy Fine (R-FL) posted that it was “unacceptable” that Democrats remained silent after their leader called for maximum warfare everywhere, all the time.

PolitiFact weighed in Monday, ruling that the “maximum warfare” comment was specifically about redistricting and was not a call to shoot Trump or commit violence — noting the phrase was originally coined by someone in Trump’s own orbit. Democrats have countered Republican criticism by pointing to Trump’s long history of inflammatory rhetoric, including his pardons of those convicted in connection with the January 6 Capitol riot.

The Washington Times noted that the accused Correspondents’ Dinner shooter, Cole Tomas Allen, wrote a manifesto expressing “rage” over “everything this administration has done” — language that echoed much of the heated Democratic anti-Trump rhetoric in circulation. Jeffries said he had not read the manifesto and that the defendant should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

Sources: Axios | The Hill | Washington Times | PolitiFact | Fox News