By House Speaker Mike Johnson is warning that Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries faces growing internal strife as progressives tighten their grip on the Democratic Party, threatening to split its leadership just as Congress struggles to reopen the government.
In an interview with The Daily Caller News Foundation, the Republican Speaker of the House painted Jeffries as trapped between two incompatible forces — the party’s dwindling moderates and its ascendant Marxist wing. “He’s trying to appeal to the less-progressive, more-moderate people … while also trying to appease the radical Marxist progressive left, and that’s an impossible assignment,” Johnson said. “He finds himself saying and doing things he knows aren’t true, but he’s trying to lead a fractured caucus.”
Johnson didn’t stop there. “Hakeem is establishment,” he added flatly. “And the Marxists are taking over the party. It’s a tough, tough position to be in.”
Johnson’s comments come as party leaders — both local and nationally, like Jeffries — have rallied behind a progressive who fantasized about murdering a Republican colleague and his children instead of condemning him and calling for him to drop out of his race in Virginia.
The Virginia Beach Dems issue a statement which "reaffirms its full support or Jay Jones for Attorney General" and "[calls] on all Virginians to line up behind Jay Jones" https://t.co/M3EeWyiQ6g pic.twitter.com/taDdtOBEYC
— Blue Virginia (@bluevirginia) October 4, 2025
The showdown in Congress unfolds against the backdrop of a government shutdown that has left service members unpaid and jeopardized food aid for low-income families. Jeffries and most Democrats have sided with the standoff, echoing activist demands for a hard line against President Trump’s budget plan. Johnson called the stance hypocritical. “Hakeem Jeffries has always said that shutting the government down is dangerous,” he said. “He knows that — but he led his entire caucus to vote against funding two weeks ago, except one.”
That lone defector, Rep. Jared Golden of Maine, sided with Republicans on a short-term funding measure, later suggesting his party’s stance had less to do with governance than with showing defiance toward Trump. Jeffries sidestepped questions about Golden’s criticism, instead insisting Democrats were “acting in the national interest” — a line Johnson dismissed as hollow.
The Speaker also pointed to Jeffries’s careful silence over Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic socialist running for New York City mayor, as proof of progressive pressure. Despite endorsements from high-profile New York Democrats, Jeffries has avoided taking a position — a move that infuriated Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and others on the left. “Both Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries are running scared from AOC and the far-left in their party,” Johnson said. “They have outsize influence — and they’re terrified.”
Ocasio-Cortez’s radicalism was recently confirmed when she led a group of “progressive” Democrats who refused to vote for a resolution condemning the assassination of Charlie Kirk.
The tension between AOC and Jeffries has spilled into public view. A recent Democratic livestream defending the shutdown drew only a handful of viewers before being cut short. Meanwhile, a clip of Sen. Bernie Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez rallying their base soared past 1.5 million views.
Johnson accused Jeffries of misreading the moment. When the Democratic leader lashed out at a satirical AI video posted by Trump — depicting him in caricatured cultural garb — Johnson said it made him look unserious. “He’s arguing about a sombrero meme while the government is shut down and people are losing healthcare,” Johnson said. “They’re doing this to themselves. These are self-inflicted wounds.”
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