Watch: Hakeem Jeffries Snaps at CNN's Kaitlan Collins as She Repeatedly Asks the Question He Doesn't Want to Hear

You know a Democrat has reached a truly shameless level of gaslighting when even CNN won’t run cover for him anymore.

During a tense Tuesday evening segment on CNN’s “The Source,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York repeatedly dodged a simple, direct question: Was it “appropriate” for Democratic Delegate Stacey Plaskett of the U.S. Virgin Islands — a sitting member of the House Intelligence Committee — to exchange text messages with Jeffrey Epstein during a 2019 congressional hearing?

Epstein, of course, was a convicted sex offender and alleged sex trafficker. Yet Jeffries couldn’t bring himself to say even a single critical word.

Host Kaitlan Collins, to her credit, refused to let him slip away.

“In your view, were [those texts] appropriate?” she asked in a clip posted to X.

Jeffries immediately launched into a 40-second non-answer — a classic Washington filibuster — accusing President Donald Trump’s administration of “hiding” Epstein-related files “for months.”

This, despite the fact that the mishandling of the Epstein matter during Trump’s first presidency has been acknowledged as a political weak point — one Trump has been working to correct during his current second term as the White House pushes aggressively for transparency.

But the sheer gall of Jeffries’ claim is something to behold. Former President Joe Biden spent most of his four years in a perpetual fog, yet Democrats found no urgency whatsoever to demand Epstein disclosures while they ran Washington. Jeffries pretending otherwise is laughable.

Collins pressed a second time.

“But do you think it was appropriate for her to be texting with Jeffrey Epstein 11 years after he pleaded guilty to — ?” she began before Jeffries cut her off.

“I mean, I have not had a conversation with Stacey Plaskett to discuss this issue,” he insisted, “because we’ve been focused today on making sure that there was a decisive vote as it related to the Epstein files and the release.”

For the record, I haven’t talked to Plaskett either — and I still know enough to call her behavior “inappropriate.” Jeffries apparently cannot summon such moral clarity.

So Collins asked again.

“I was just asking if you personally believe messaging with Jeffrey Epstein, who was at that point a registered sex offender, is appropriate for a member of the House Democratic caucus,” she said.

Now visibly irritated, Jeffries snapped back.

“That’s the third time you’ve asked me this question,” he said, “and I’m gonna give you the same exact answer.”

Which, of course, was no answer at all.

By refusing to say what every normal American knows, Jeffries exposed his instinctive loyalty to the D.C. Swamp. Even Democrat-friendly viewers could see it: he wasn’t protecting Plaskett — he was protecting himself.

Because here’s the truth Democrats don’t want aired: Jeffries has his own long-standing connections to the late Epstein. Any condemnation of Plaskett would inevitably raise the question of why Jeffries hasn’t been judged by the same standard. And that’s a Pandora’s box he cannot afford to open.

When Kaitlan Collins — an establishment journalist who has spent years lobbing softballs to Democrats — becomes the voice of reason in the room, it’s clear just how far Hakeem Jeffries has fallen in the eyes of the public.

This isn’t just a Jeffries problem. It’s an indictment of a party that circles the wagons around the worst actors in its ranks, even when the whole country can see the rot.