Former Top Aide to Pelosi and Harris Slams Hakeem Jeffries’ Leadership
Ashley Etienne, who once served as communications director for both former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Vice President Kamala Harris, delivered a scathing critique of House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries during an appearance on Politico’s Playbook Deep Dive podcast released Thursday.
Etienne, who also ran Pelosi’s anti-Trump messaging operation, accused Jeffries of lacking the organizational structure needed to effectively lead the Democratic caucus. Based on what she’s heard from various House Democrats, she described Jeffries as hesitant and ineffective in confronting former President Donald Trump, according to The Daily Caller.
“If you don’t have coordination, you’ve just got words on a paper that you’re calling talking points,” Etienne remarked. “It’s meaningless. And I think that’s where we are right now.”
She also claimed that current Democratic leadership is intentionally distancing itself from Pelosi’s legacy. “I was hearing from leadership staff that the leadership on Capitol Hill right now wants to sort of move away from that Pelosi era — that they … don’t want to embrace anyone or anything that’s like Pelosi,” she told host Rachael Bade. “Which I just think is the dumbest s-h-i-t ever.”
While she acknowledged Jeffries’ skill as a communicator, Etienne argued that he often fails when it comes to timely decision-making and crafting a clear messaging strategy.
“What I’ve been hearing from members is that, to sort of sum it up, he thinks too long and wrong about things. He takes too much council and then takes too long to make a decision,” she said.
“Which says that maybe you don’t trust your gut in the moment, which is also fair when you’re a new leader, cause you’re still trying to figure it all out,” Etienne continued. “It might also suggest maybe you don’t have a handle on the caucus, or you don’t have a handle on how to actually land some punches on Donald Trump.”
Criticism of Jeffries’ leadership has reportedly grown among progressives, especially due to what some see as an absence of a clear plan to oppose the Trump administration. Etienne pointed to the chaotic nature of Democratic protests during Trump’s address to Congress in March as a sign of this lack of control.
“I thought the 50 different protests during his joint address was embarrassing. It was a T-shirt, it was a paddle, it was a walkout. The reality is, you’ve gotta learn when to pull the trigger on some of these tactics,” she said. “I also thought it was a problem for Mr. Jeffries. It says a lot about how people value his leadership.
“He asked for no protests, and what did they do? They protested in fifty different ways to the point in which it was just an ineffective protest. I think that was the beginning of a signal that he might have a larger problem,” she added.
After the joint address, media coverage quickly focused on the disjointed protests, which included lawmakers staying seated during tributes and repeated disruptions from Rep. Al Green of Texas—behavior that led Speaker Mike Johnson to eject him from the House chamber.
Coincidentally, the same day Etienne spoke on the podcast, Jeffries gave a speech to mark Trump’s first 100 days back in office. However, according to Etienne, there was no press release or coordinated effort to distribute talking points to the media or Democratic allies.
“And I’m going to be doing TV and this interview all day. That’s a failure,” she said. “How do you get to discipline if you’re not telling people what the hell you want them to say?”
She also recalled being “disappointed” by Jeffries’ remarks during a press event earlier this year, in which he said Democrats had “no power” as the minority party.
“It said to me that he’s not seeking out the answers to that actual question, which is what powers do I have in the minority? What can I actually do?” Etienne said. “Trump is just giving us all this incredible red meat. I mean, incredible. I’ve never seen anything like this before. It’s like the biggest gift any party has been given by the opposition, and we’re just squandering it.”