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Ex-Pelosi aide accuses Hakeem Jeffries of ‘squandering’ anti-Trump opportunities in stunning rebuke
A former top advisor to ex-Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., suggested House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., is not meeting the moment in the current Trump era.
«Trump is just giving us all this incredible red meat. I mean, I’ve never seen anything like this before. It’s like the biggest gift any party has been given by the opposition, and we’re just squandering it, to a degree,» former Pelosi advisor Ashley Etienne told Politico’s Deep Dive podcast.
Etienne helped Pelosi oversee Democrats’ messaging during President Donald Trump’s first impeachment. She also previously worked for former Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Barack Obama’s 2008 campaign.
She said Jeffries was «doing well» in many areas and said she had «a tremendous amount of respect» for the New York Democrat but signaled that he was missing opportunities on anti-Trump messaging.
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A former advisor to ex-Speaker Nancy Pelosi shared criticism of House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries’ leadership. (Getty/Reuters)
«He gave a speech this morning. I don’t have any talking points in my phone about what he said. And I’m going to be doing TV and this interview all day. That’s a failure,» Etienne said.
«How do you get to discipline if you’re not telling people what the hell you want them to say? At least emphatically, at least tonally.»
Jeffries’ allies pushed back against that characterization, pointing out that intraparty friction was taking attention away from Trump’s low poll numbers and Republicans’ policies.
«Donald Trump’s approval ratings are plummeting, and he’s bringing House Republicans down with him. Extreme MAGA Republicans have been forced to delay their plans to advance Trump’s centerpiece legislative priority due to intense backlash against their scheme to enact the largest cuts in history to Medicaid and food assistance. Let’s keep the main thing, the main thing,» Jeffries spokesperson Christiana Stephenson told Fox News Digital.
Just Friday morning, Jeffries released a statement hammering House Republicans for having to delay part of their legislative work to advance Trump’s agenda.
But Etienne’s comments are a notable rebuke from a former senior Democratic leadership aide to one of the party’s most powerful current officials, which comes after months of Democrats being plagued by infighting over messaging woes.
Etienne noted that Democrats had scored several wins on the messaging front, like having «successfully demonized Elon Musk» and Sen. Cory Booker’s recent record-breaking filibuster speech.
But she singled out liberals’ protests during Trump’s speech to a joint session of Congress as an «embarrassing» setback for the party and Jeffries.
Etienne said the Democratic protests during Trump’s speech were ‘embarrassing.’ (Win McNamee/Pool Photo via AP)
«If you look at the headlines post-the speech, even during the speech, it was more about Democrats and Democrats protesting rather than what Trump was actually saying. And in those kind of moments, you don’t want to become the story. You want Trump to be the story,» Etienne said.
«And I also thought it was a problem for Mr. Jeffries. I mean, it really says a lot about how people value his leadership. He asked for no protest. And what did they do? They protest 50 different ways.»
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Both Pelosi and Jeffries’ offices told Politico that the latter often seeks the former’s input, and Jeffries’ spokesperson pushed back on Politico’s reporting that House Democratic leaders were seeking to move past Pelosi and that Jeffries was not doing enough to help Democratic groups with messaging.
One of those groups, the Progressive Change Campaign Committee (PCCC), pushed back on the assertion they were not hearing enough from Jeffries.
PCCC sent out a press release that read, «Today, in a POLITICO article we are not interested in dwelling on, a former Pelosi staffer attacked Hakeem Jeffries. PCCC co-founder Adam Green said, ‘We hear more from Jeffries than we ever heard from Pelosi.’»
Meanwhile, a House Democratic aide told Fox News Digital that Jeffries held «multiple calls» previewing his earlier speech on Trump’s first 100 days in office, as well as talking points «emphasizing the Leader’s message that President Trump’s first 100 days have been a disaster for the American people.»
Stephenson, Jeffries’ spokesperson, also posted on X of Politico’s report, «Can anyone tell me how grandstanding like this is anything other than a gift to Republicans?»
But House Republicans’ elections arm was quick to pounce on the discord as well.
«Hakeem Jeffries is the so-called leader of a team that doesn’t fear him, doesn’t follow him, and now, doesn’t even pretend to respect him,» National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) spokesman Mike Marinella said in a statement.
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And Democratic strategist Julian Epstein, a former chief counsel of the House Judiciary Committee, criticized Jeffries’ leadership but said that Trump was not Democrats’ main problem.
«He’s not a particularly effective speaker, gives no sense of direction or purpose, seems intent on not offending anyone, and has a leadership style that seems extremely passive,» Epstein said.
«The Democrats in the House just seem like a big blob that goes wherever gravity takes them, and right now gravity is taking them to the hard protest left. But no matter who the leader is, if the Democrats are selling a product that voters don’t like, it won’t matter.»
Pelosi’s office did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.
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Those who leaked a preliminary assessment — rejected by the White House — on the U.S. strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities will face justice for sharing the document, according to White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt.
President Donald Trump and multiple leaders are saying that the strikes destroyed three Iranian nuclear sites.
A leaked report from the Defense Intelligence Agency, published by CNN and the New York Times, cast doubt on that though, saying that the strikes only set back Iran’s nuclear program by several months. CNN first reported the assessment’s findings, citing seven people who were briefed on the report. The outlet reported the findings were based on a battle damage assessment from U.S. Central Command.
Leavitt pushed back on the early assessment’s credibility, claiming the report was «flat-out wrong.»
«Everyone knows what happens when you drop 14 30,000-pound bombs perfectly on their targets: total obliteration,» Leavitt said in a Tuesday statement.
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said Wednesday that the FBI is conducting an investigation to get to the bottom of the matter and who shared the document with the media.
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White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt speaks during a press briefing at the White House in Washington, Jun. 26, 2025. (Mark Schiefelbein/The Associated Press)
Additionally, Leavitt told reporters that leaking classified information is a criminal offense and that those who fail to follow the law «need to be held accountable for that crime.»
«This administration wants to ensure that classified intelligence is not ending up in irresponsible hands, and that people who have the privilege of viewing this top secret classified information are being responsible with it,» Leavitt told reporters Thursday.
«Clearly, someone who had their hands on this and it was a very few people, very few number of people in our government who saw this report,» Leavitt said. «That person was irresponsible with it. And we need to get to the bottom of it. And we need to strengthen that process to protect our national security and protect the American public.»
Meanwhile, the U.S., Israel and Iran’s Foreign Ministry have all said that the three nuclear sites U.S. forces struck have encountered massive damage.
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U.S. struck three nuclear sites in Iran Saturday. (Fox News)
Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Ismail Baghaei told Al Jazeera Wednesday that the country’s nuclear facilities were «badly damaged,» and Israel’s Atomic Energy Commission said the U.S. strikes were «devastating.»
On Sunday, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine said that initial battle damage assessments suggest «all three sites sustained extremely severe damage and destruction.»
Trump issued a word of caution to Iran Wednesday, should it attempt to repair its nuclear program once more, and said the U.S. wouldn’t hesitate to launch another strike against Iran.
Trump personally called for the firing of one of the reporters who authored the story about the initial assessment, claiming in a Wednesday Truth Social post that the reporter should be «IMMEDIATELY reprimanded, and then thrown out ‘like a dog.’»
RUSSIAN LEADER CLAIMS MULTIPLE COUNTRIES PREPPED TO PROVIDE IRAN NUCLEAR WEAPONS FOLLOWING US STRIKES
Trump lashes out at Israel and Iran with profanity for breaking ceasefire Tuesday. (Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images)
Even so, CNN came to the defense of the reporter, Natasha Bertrand.
«We stand 100% behind Natasha Bertrand’s journalism and specifically her and her colleagues’ reporting of the early intelligence assessment of the U.S. attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities,» CNN said in a Wednesday statement. «CNN’s reporting made clear that this was an initial finding that could change with additional intelligence. We have extensively covered President Trump’s own deep skepticism about it.»
Fox News’ Brooke Singman contributed to this report.
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Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced new sanctions on Thursday that he called «necessary» to «deter and dismantle» the flow of deadly fentanyl into the United States.
The new policy imposes new visa restrictions on family members and close personal and business associates of foreign drug traffickers.
Speaking with reporters Thursday afternoon, State Department spokesman Tommy Piggott said that this move «will not only prevent them from entering the United States, but also serve as a deterrent for continued illicit activities.»
In a statement released by the State Department, Rubio stressed the importance of further expanding sanctions to stop the flow of fentanyl and other drugs into the country.
«The fentanyl crisis in the United States is unprecedented, with overdoses remaining the leading cause of death for Americans ages 18 to 44,» said Rubio.
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Left: Secretary of State Marco Rubio testifies at a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., May 20, 2025. Right: Over 1.2 million fentanyl pills, which were seized by U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
The secretary said that «more than 40 percent of Americans reportedly know someone who has died from an opioid overdose, and in 2024, the United States averaged over 220 overdose deaths daily.»
«Today’s action expands upon existing tools,» he said, adding that the State Department «will use all necessary tools to deter and dismantle the flow of fentanyl and other illicit drugs from entering the United States and harming U.S. citizens.»
Fentanyl is a dangerous drug that is often trafficked into the United States across the southern and northern borders by cartels and other criminal elements. In 2024, fentanyl was linked to the deaths of 48,422 persons in the United States, according to the CDC.
During his campaign, President Donald Trump vowed to wage a war against fentanyl traffickers through increased border security and by cracking down on illegal immigration. Since taking office, Trump has deployed U.S. troops to the southern border, targeted cartels and transnational criminal groups as «foreign terrorist organizations» and hit cartel leaders with sanctions.
LIBERAL NEWS OUTLET MOCKED FOR REPORTING ON ‘MYSTERIOUS’ DROP IN FENTANYL FLOWING ACROSS BORDER
Liberal news outlet The Washington Post is being mocked online and by the White House for «pathetic» reporting on what the outlet calls a «mysterious» decline in fentanyl flowing across the border. (U.S. Customs and Border Protection and Fox News)
According to the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS), the U.S. law enforcement seizures of fentanyl, which the group explains is a «key indicator of broader total smuggling at and between the southern border’s ports of entry,» have dropped 50% since the November election. CIS states that this significant decline indicates a «greater decline in total fentanyl smuggling.»
In May, Attorney General Pam Bondi announced that authorities had made one of the biggest fentanyl busts in U.S. history with the seizure of 409 kilos of fentanyl pills and 11.5 kilos of fentanyl powder. Bondi said that around 35 kilos of methamphetamine, 35 kilos of meth, 7.5 kilos of cocaine and 4.5 kilos of heroin also had been seized along with $5 million in cash and 49 rifles and pistols.
Sixteen people including three women, were arrested in the operation. Six of the males are in the U.S. illegally, according to Bondi.
BONDI ANNOUNCES ONE OF LARGEST FENTANYL SEIZURES IN US HISTORY
Bondi described fentanyl as a weapon of «mass destruction» and laid down a stern warning to drug pushers looking to distribute the potentially deadly drug throughout the nation. (Pool)
Bondi described fentanyl as a weapon of «mass destruction» and laid down a stern warning to drug pushers looking to distribute the potentially deadly drug throughout the nation.
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«When we catch you like all of these individuals, if convicted, we will put you behind bars. There will be no negotiating and we will lock you up for as long as humanly possible,» Bondi said. «We will not negotiate with those who are killing our family members, including brothers, sisters, daughters, sons, parents, friends, everyone in this room.»
Fox News Digital’s Michael Dorgan contributed to this report.
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