House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) unleashed a blistering attack on White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt on Monday, calling her a “stone-cold liar” after she pinned the blame for Saturday’s shooting at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner on Democratic rhetoric. The exchange marks the latest escalation in a bitter partisan fight over political violence and incendiary language ahead of the 2026 midterms.
“The so-called White House press secretary, who’s a disgrace, she’s a stone-cold liar,” Jeffries told reporters during a press conference on Capitol Hill. “She had the nerve to stand up there and read talking points being critical of statements all taken out of context that Democrats have made and didn’t have a word to say about anything that MAGA extremists have said or done, including providing aid and comfort to violent insurrectionists here at this capital on January 6th who brutally beat police officers.”
Leavitt, during a Monday briefing at the White House, singled out several high-profile Democrats, including Jeffries, for what she called a “systematic demonization” of President Trump and his supporters. She specifically cited Jeffries’ recent comment that Republicans would face “maximum warfare” over Florida redistricting, arguing such language fuels political violence.
“This political violence stems from a systemic demonization of him and his supporters by commentators, by elected members of the Democrat party and even some in the media,” Leavitt said. “This hateful and constant and violent rhetoric directed at President Trump day after day after day for 11 years has helped to legitimize this violence and bring us to this dark moment.”
Jeffries fired back, dismissing Leavitt’s critique as hypocritical given the GOP’s own record. “This so-called White House press secretary wants to lecture America and lecture us about civility. Get lost. Clean up your own house before you have anything to say to us about the language that we use,” he said. He defended his “maximum warfare” remark, insisting it was a political metaphor tied to redistricting battles, not a call to violence.
The clash echoes a similar confrontation in October, when Jeffries also called Leavitt a “stone-cold liar” after she accused Democrats of using violent language and labeled the party as comprising “Hamas terrorists, illegal aliens and violent criminals.” At that time, Leavitt was criticizing New York mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani (D) for not calling on Hamas to disarm.
Jeffries went on to criticize Trump and other Republicans for their own heated rhetoric, accusing them of hypocrisy. “The notion that any of us are concerned with so-called criticism from these phony Republicans as it relates to anything that has been said — certainly as it relates to the comment related to ‘maximum warfare, everywhere, all the time,’ in connection to the redistricting battle that Republicans launched — I stand by it,” he said.
The back-and-forth comes amid broader fallout from the WHCA dinner shooting, which targeted Trump and other officials. Some lawmakers, like Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), have called for a bipartisan panel to address political violence, but the Jeffries-Leavitt exchange underscores how quickly the incident has become a partisan flashpoint.
Jeffries has previously ruled out impeachment efforts if Democrats retake the House, but his fiery response to Leavitt signals that he is not backing down from confrontations over political rhetoric. The White House, meanwhile, has defended Leavitt’s comments as a necessary response to what it sees as a pattern of Democratic incitement.
