House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries is staying tight-lipped about how Democratic leadership plans to handle two members who defied the party on key procedural votes.
Jeffries declined again Thursday to outline any specific response to the pair of centrist Democrats who have twice crossed the aisle to advance the Republican floor agenda.
“As I repeatedly made clear, I’ll have more to say — we’ll have more to say — about the situation when we have more to say about the situation,” Jeffries said at a news conference alongside No. 2 and 3 House Democratic leaders.
Jeffries appeared Thursday with Massachusetts Rep. Katherine Clark and California Rep. Pete Aguilar, the House Democratic Caucus Chair, as frustration within the party continues to build.
Reps. Jared Golden of Maine and Marie Gluesenkamp Perez of Washington have each broken with their party on two separate occasions in recent weeks, helping Republicans rescue their legislative agenda heading into the midterm elections.
The crossover votes have drawn sharp anger from Democratic leaders and rank-and-file members who have built their campaign message around affordability issues and kitchen-table concerns.
Democrats are particularly frustrated that members of their own party helped bring unrelated topics to the House floor that could damage battleground incumbents ahead of the November elections.
Some Democratic lawmakers are pushing to strip Gluesenkamp Perez of her coveted seat on the powerful House Appropriations Committee as direct punishment for the votes.
Golden is facing comparatively less internal pressure, largely because he has already announced he will not seek reelection and is retiring at the end of this term.
Jeffries made clear that the party’s primary focus remains on winning back the House majority, even as pressure mounts to discipline the two dissenting members.
“We’ll address the situation when we address the situation,” Jeffries said Thursday. “We’re focused right now on taking back control of the House of Representatives. That’s what the American people want to see: a dramatic change in this country, because they are drowning.”
The comments signal that leadership is deliberately holding off on any formal action against Golden or Gluesenkamp Perez, at least for now, as election season intensifies.
