House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY), who has claimed to have a “vague recollection” of the controversy surrounding his antisemitic uncle, told reporters on Thursday that he never supported the views of his uncle, Leonard Jeffries, despite defending him and Islam Leader Louis Farrakhan in his college newspaper.
“I think I’ve made clear, consistently, that I do not share any of the controversial views that were expressed by my uncle more than three decades ago. Not now, not ever,” he told a reporter during a press conference on Thursday when asked about a recent news story revealing an editorial he wrote in his college newspaper.
The minority leader pointed to his over two-decade-long “track record” of being in public service and professional. He claims to have focused on “bringing people together and standing up for every single community, including the black and Jewish communities I proudly represent in Brooklyn.”
🚨NEW🚨@RepJeffries lies: "I’ve made clear consistently that I do not share any of the controversial views that were expressed by my uncle…"
He literally wrote an op-ed defending his uncle, Louis Farrakhan, and their anti-Semitic beliefs. pic.twitter.com/PnXEOdqq5G
— NRCC (@NRCC) April 20, 2023
The reporter was referring to a recent CNN story that revealed Jeffries defended his antisemitic uncle — a black studies professor who lost his job after making antisemitic remarks — and Farrakhan in his college newspaper. At the time, Jeffries explained that the two were unfairly targeted by “white media” for challenging “the longstanding distortion of history”:
Do you think that a ruling elite would promote individuals who would seek to dismantle their vice like grip on power? Of course not. … Dr. Leonard Jeffries and Minister Louis Farrakhan have come under intense fire. Where do you think their interests lie? Dr. Jeffries has challenged the existing white supremist educational system and the long standing distortion of history. His reward has been a media lynching complete with character assassinations and inflammatory erroneous accusations.
CNN also reported that Jeffries, during his time at Binghamton University and as a member of the executive board for the Black Student Union, had invited his uncle to speak on campus after he made inflammatory comments in the early 1990s, such as “rich Jews” being in the African slave trade and about Jewish executives in the film industry.
Additionally, the minority leader’s editorial went on to criticize “black conservatives” as a “phenomenon,” referring to them as “token Blacks” and “right-wing opportunists” that have bought into “the idea of the American dream,” in addition to comparing them to “house negroes” during American slavery.
“The House Negro of the slavery era and the Black conservative of today are both opportunists interested in securing some measure of happiness for themselves within the existing social order,” Jeffries added. “In both cases, the social order has Blacks occupying the lowest societal echelon.”
National Republican Congressional Committee press secretary Will Reinert, looking to define Jeffries negatively, told Breitbart News, “Hakeem Jeffries is gaslighting you by assuming the media and the American people will ignore his well-documented bigoted remarks if he keeps claiming they never happened.”
Jacob Bliss is a reporter for Breitbart News. Write to him at jbliss@breitbart.com or follow him on Twitter @JacobMBliss.
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