Jeffries slams weaponization committee in response to McCarthy tweet on Trump probe

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) took aim at the House weaponization subcommittee on Sunday, saying that he disagrees with Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s (R-Calif.) recent remarks about the New York grand jury investigation into former President Trump.

McCarthy accused Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg on Saturday of using the investigation to pursue “political vengeance,” saying that he would direct “relevant” committees to look into whether any federal funding is being used to “subvert our democracy by interfering in elections with politically motivated prosecutions.”

“I strongly disagree with that statement,” Jeffries said on MSNBC’s “Inside With Jen Psaki,” which aired its first episode Sunday. “And it’s not clear to me what committee the speaker may be referring to, perhaps the so-called weaponization committee, which is really more appropriately named, the Committee to Protect Insurrectionists.”

Bragg’s probe investigating Trump’s role in hush-money payments to adult-film star Stormy Daniels was the focus of the political world over the weekend after the ex-president said he might be arrested in connection to the investigation on Tuesday. Many Republicans have risen to Trump’s defense, saying that the prosecution is politically motivated.

McCarthy confirmed at the GOP issues retreat in Orlando, Fla., on Sunday that he expects Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) to take action regarding Bragg’s probe, as head of the weaponization subcommittee.

Jeffries said Jordan’s subcommittee, which was formed when Republicans gained control of the House, was mostly fueling conspiracy theories.

“Instead of the House majority focusing on the economy, focusing on inflation, focusing on job creation, focusing on health care, they continue to peddle conspiracy theories led by this so-called weaponization committee and the oversight committee, as opposed to trying to find common ground with House Democrats to try to make life better for everyday Americans,” he said.

He also told Psaki that he has “full confidence” in Democrats leading the Judiciary Committee, the Oversight Committee and the Weaponization Committee to push back on their GOP counterparts.

Psaki asked Jeffries about a Washington Post article that he and McCarthy has reached a “truce, of sorts” in an effort to make the House a functioning legislative body.

“We’ve had a positive, forward-looking relationship,” he said. “That doesn’t mean that we aren’t going to strongly disagree with each other as we have with respect to the former twice-impeached president of the United States of America.”

“But we can agree to disagree without being disagreeable, and always try to find common ground for the good of the institution, the Congress, the country,” he added.

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