Tipsheet

Hakeem Jeffries Totally Melts Down on CNBC When Host Obliterates His Talking Points

Matt Vespa
Matt Vespa  |  November 21, 2025 3:30 PM

There’s a reason why Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) could be a dead man walking next session in Congress. No, he won’t lose his seat, but members of his caucus are increasingly turning against him over his leadership of House Democrats. He’s bad at it. He’s no different from Kamala Harris when it comes to going off-script and saying things on the fly. As soon as there’s pushback, he collapses. 

On CNBC, host Becky Quick easily checkmated him on the expiring Obamacare subsidies. She wasn’t playing games. Temu Obama tried to come back to the Schumer shutdown, which ended poorly. The CNBC host aptly noted that Democrats might prefer these subsidies to expire and rates to rise, so they could be used to blame the GOP ahead of the 2026 midterms. Jeffries was aghast. He also couldn’t answer the question:

Jeffries: “You can ask the question, I’ll provide the answer!"

Quick: "Answer the question, instead of going back."

Jeffries: "I'm providing an answer in order to provide context!" 

Quick: "It's important context to make me realize that I don't think you want to get a deal done. I think this is something where you'd like to see the rates go higher and allow the Republicans to hang themselves with that." 

Jeffries: "That's absolutely a ridiculous assertion. Shame on you for saying that! It’s not a partisan issue for us!" 

Quick: *eyeroll* 

CNN’s Scott Jennings usually has the best reactions to liberal insanity, but Quick’s is easily in the top ten: 

Jeffries has lost two major government spending fights, can’t message worth a damn, and remains a punching bag for the Trump White House. The man wants to fight, but doesn’t know how. That applies to the Democrats in general right now. Everyone sees your playbook, sir. It sucks.