Hakeem Jeffries isn’t speaker yet, but the Democrat may be the most powerful person in Congress

Updated: 1 minute agoHouse Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., speaks with reporters in the wake of a vow by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., to oust House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., from his leadership post, at the Capitol in Washington, Wednesday, May 1, 2024.

And Jeffries who, with the full force of House Democratic leadership behind him, decided this week his party would help Speaker Mike Johnson stay on the job rather than be ousted by far-right Republicans led by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene. Jeffries said that with House Republicans “unwilling or unable” to get “the extreme MAGA Republicans under control, “it’s going to take a bipartisan coalition and partnership to accomplish that objective. We need more common sense in Washington, D.C., and less chaos.”

“He’s operating as a shadow speaker on all the important votes,” said Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus. As Johnson sidles up to Donald Trump, receiving the presumed Republican presidential nominee’s nod of support, it is Jeffries who holds what Democratic Rep. Nancy Pelosi, the speaker emerita, has referred to as “currency of the realm” — votes — that are required in the House to get any agenda over the finish line.

Jeffries is a quietly confident operator, positioning himself, and his party, as purveyors of democratic norms amid the Republican thunderclap of Trump-era disruption.

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