House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) has a problem that looks a lot like an airplane cabin losing pressure. Warning lights are flashing, the air is getting thin, and red smoke is slipping through the vents.
Jeffries can see it, smell it, and even identify where it's coming from. His solution, for now, is to keep the plane in the air until Nov. 3.
Kristen Welker pressed Jeffries Sunday about the Democratic Socialists of America. Jeffries said he doesn't support the DSA agenda. He rejected defunding the police, open borders, and abolishing the Senate.
Hakeem Jeffries CONFIRMS again, he DOES NOT support Medicare For All! There you have it. No one should support him for speaker. And this is another reason why he should’ve had a CHALLENGER! Boo this man! pic.twitter.com/OUrMl3Forf
— Sabby Sabs (@SabbySabs2) August 17, 2026
Then he made room for the people pushing those ideas, saying a future Democratic House would be a "broad caucus" containing progressives, New Democrats, and Blue Dogs.
Congressional records show Jeffries formally co-sponsored the Medicare for All Act of 2019 and later co-sponsored the 2021 version. However, he was not among the 102 additional House cosponsors announced when Reps. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., and Debbie Dingell, D-Mich., introduced H.R. 3069 in April 2025.
The NYC DSA Healthcare Working Group credited its months-long organizing campaign with helping secure his 2019 support, although it described his position as qualified because he also backed Medicare X, a public-option bill.
"Rep. Jeffries’ public endorsement of this legislation is the result of all these efforts and of this growing national movement," the working group said at the time.
The DSA's new "Workers Deserve More!" program calls for universal health care at no cost to individuals, as well as abolishing ICE and the Senate, replacing the president and Supreme Court with an executive and judiciary subordinate to Congress and redirecting police funding as a step toward fully abolishing police and prisons.
When Welker asked whether democratic socialists belong under the Democratic Party’s tent, Jeffries rejected the organization’s platform while leaving room for candidates who win Democratic nominations.
"I don’t support the DSA agenda as has been articulated by the DSA itself," Jeffries said.
"You’re going to have individual members who have been elected in Democratic primaries, and if they are elected in the general in November, will be part of the House Democratic Caucus. It’s going to be a broad caucus. There will be progressives. There will be New Dems. There will be Blue Dogs," he added.
Seven incumbent House Democrats have lost primaries this cycle, thus far. They include Jeffries-backed Reps. Dan Goldman and Adriano Espaillat, who lost to DSA-backed or affiliated candidates, Brad Lander and Darializa Avila Chevalier in New York.
The oxygen masks should be dropping by now.
Unsurprisingly, at least to me, if Welker was a functional reporter, she should've pressed Jeffries for his understanding of what the DSA's positions are and why he objected to them.
Get the man on record. But that's the reason Welker didn't bother asking.
DSA's own 2026 program calls for abolishing ICE and the Senate, moving toward fully abolishing police and prisons, replacing the president and Supreme Court with bodies subordinate to Congress, and establishing public ownership of America's largest corporations and essential industries.
Nobody needs Republican talking points to describe the agenda. DSA wrote it down.
The world is in chaos, but for the bosses, it’s all going according to plan. We can see their plan in the countless heartbreaking images coming out of war zones like Beirut, Gaza, and Tehran. We can hear it in the rumble of bulldozers making way to build detention camps and data centers. We can feel it in the air as the summer heat becomes unbearable, and in the pits of our stomachs when faced with the price of gas and rent. We’re promised magical technology with AI, but in reality, the bosses lay us off and track our every move. The billionaire class is dividing workers against each other, and it’s making us desperate and miserable.
The political and economic system under which we live is built on private ownership and profit at all costs. As capitalism fails to solve problems of its own making, it turns to right-wing authoritarianism. Big business makes deals with the government to line their pockets, and politicians stoke hatred between working people. Instead of offering real solutions to unemployment and the cost of living, they attack immigrants, communities of color, and trans people. Rather than fixing our broken healthcare system, they push snake oil and circulate conspiracy theories. The Republicans are in on it, the Democratic Party is asleep at the wheel, and both are funded by the same criminal class of billionaires and war profiteers.
Democratic socialists know that no one has to live like this. If we lived in a classless society and governed ourselves, we could freely build a world without war or poverty. We could build a world where no one suffers for their race, gender, or religion, and everyone is free, equal, and cared for. Building this world is the guiding star of our movement. When we labor for our common good instead of private profit, we can all have a secure and dignified life, and use our time and talents how we wish.
To achieve this future, our class must organize. The Democratic Socialists of America is building a party whose goal is a democratic society of the working class. Our enemies are not just individual bosses, but the entire global system of capital; not just this or that cop, judge, or president, but the entire anti-democratic structure of our society. We are workers fighting to transform society: to win the battle for democracy, draft a new constitution, and create a democratic socialist republic.
DSA has written this program for ending capitalist oligarchy and creating a real democracy. Some of these demands may be won under our current system, but we know complete victory will require building a new society from the ground up. We push these demands to their furthest extent today, so we can fight for their fullest realization in a socialist future.
Then Pennsylvania state Rep. Chris Rabb, the Democratic nominee for Congress in Pennsylvania's 3rd District and a DSA member, supplied the next warning. Asked whether he'd vote for Jeffries for speaker if Democrats win the House, Rabb wouldn't commit. He said the focus was electing progressives and winning Nov. 3. The Jeffries conversation could come afterward.
In an airplane emergency, "We'll decide who flies after takeoff" isn't reassuring.
Republicans currently hold 218 House seats, Democrats 212, with one independent and four vacancies. If Democrats win a majority by only a few seats, a small socialist bloc could gain enormous bargaining power.
DSA says seven of its endorsees are likely headed to Congress next year. A handful of members willing to withhold votes can make life miserable for any would-be speaker.
The smoke didn't drift in accidentally. Democratic primary voters keep opening the vents.
Melat Kiros defeated Democratic Rep. Diana DeGette in Colorado. Donavan McKinney beat Democratic Rep. Shri Thanedar in Michigan. Darializa Avila Chevalier defeated Democratic Rep. Adriano Espaillat in New York.
DSA celebrated McKinney's win by declaring that its supporters had "took his seat in Congress."
Their grammar needs work, but their intentions don't.
So here's the question Jeffries and Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) should be asked until somebody answers it: Why are socialist candidates defeating established Democrats in Democratic primaries?
A new national poll found 58% of Democrats view socialism positively, while only 32% positively view capitalism. Among Americans overall, just 35% hold a positive view of socialism.
The cabin isn't filling with smoke because Republicans broke into the cockpit. A growing part of the Democratic passenger list appears to like what's coming through the vents.
Republicans don't need to exaggerate any of it. Keep pointing at the gauges, keep reading the DSA platform out loud, and keep asking Jeffries, who controls the cockpit, if Democrats win by three, four, or five seats.
Legacy Democrats may believe they can hold their breath until Election Day. If they win, they may discover the people pumping red smoke into the cabin are also holding the oxygen masks.
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