House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries’ uncle is a rabid antisemite whom he once vociferously defended during his college days 30 years ago.
This bombshell finding, unearthed by CNN, is relevant because for years Jeffries has claimed he had only “a vague recollection” of the controversy surrounding his uncle, former City College of New York black studies professor Leonard Jeffries.
“I have a vague recollection of it other than remembering that it was a very stressful time for my father in particular, given the level of controversy and acrimony surrounding Dr. Jeffries,” he told The Wall Street Journal in 2013.
“It had a great impact on my father at the time. My father’s a strong person so he never really showed it but that was his brother who was in the midst of the eye of the storm and that was what I remember. My mother worked very hard to shield my brother and I from much of it, preferring that we focus on our studies at [State University of New York at] Binghamton and at Morehouse [College].”
But the evidence uncovered by CNN proves that he had far more than just “a vague recollection” of the controversy, given as he’d taken direct part in it.
BREAKING:
For years, House Democrat Leader Hakeem Jeffries has claimed he has only a “vague recollection” of his uncle’s antisemitism.
But CNN’s @KFILE has the receipts — and Jeffries is on record DEFENDING both his uncle AND Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan. pic.twitter.com/wF3Qh3HG6L
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) April 12, 2023
“While Jeffries was a college student at Binghamton University in upstate New York, the Black Student Union, in which Jeffries was an executive board member, invited his uncle to speak on campus,” according to CNN.
The invitation was offered after his uncle went “viral,” per se, for making extremely antisemitic remarks.
“Leonard Jeffries faced widespread backlash … after comments he made about the involvement of ‘rich Jews’ in the African slave trade and ‘a conspiracy, planned and plotted and programmed out of Hollywood’ of Jewish executives who he said were responsible for denigrating black Americans in films,” CNN notes.
Following the invitation, a Jewish student group called for the school to cancel Leonard Jeffries’ planned visit to campus. In response, Jeffries held a news conference defending his uncle.
“We have no intention of canceling a presentation that contains factual information, proven through scholarly documents and texts. The proper way to debate scholarship is with scholarship–not with high-tech lynchings, media assassinations, character desecrations and venomous attacks,” he reportedly said.
Besides inviting his antisemitic uncle to campus, Jeffries also penned a college newspaper op-ed defending both his uncle and notorious antisemite Louis Farrakhan.
“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 long standing distortion of history. His reward has been a media lynching complete with character assassinations and inflammatory erroneous accusations,” the op-ed reads.
The rest of the op-ed, which can be viewed here, is filled with similar threads of racial grievance-mongering.
In the op-ed. Jeffries also smeared black conservatives as “token” “opportunists” comparable to “house negroes” during slavery.
Dovetailing back to Jeffries’ uncle, in 2012 the Anti-Defamation League reportedly quoted him as saying, “The evil genius of the Jewish community was to put together their powers to make business their religion and make it part of their culture.”
In 1994, the Associated Press reported him as saying during a speech that Jewish people are like skunks because they “stunk up everything.”
In 1992, a student accused him of saying in class that “Jews are dogs.”
And according to an article published in the Journal of Blacks in Higher Education back in 1993/1994, Jeffries’ uncle also had a habit of teaching “his controversial hypothesis that African Americans are warm, humanistic ‘sun people’ and that European Americans are cold, materialistic ‘ice people.'”
Contacted by CNN, Jeffries’ office touted the congressman’s alleged record of “bringing communities together” during office and claimed he doesn’t share his uncle’s views.
“Leader Jeffries has consistently been clear that he does not share the controversial views espoused by his uncle over thirty years ago,” a spokesperson said.
Critics don’t buy it, especially given Jeffries’ continued racial grievance-mongering, and say that the congressman should either just come out already and admit he’s a bigot or offer a valid explanation for his behavior three decades ago.
“Now that he is the leader of the House Democrats, it is time for congressman Jeffries to level with the public about where he stood in 1992, why he tried to paper over his past support for antisemitism, where he stands now, and to denounce the antisemitic views of professor Jeffries specifically,” writes Mark Paoletta of the Center for Renewing America.
Writers and editors can be contacted at [email protected] with feedback, tips, or corrections.
V. Saxena is a staff writer with a decade of experience as a professional writer, and a lifetime of experience as an avid news junkie. He holds a degree in computer technology from Purdue University. Saxena also contributes to BizPac Review.
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