EXCLUSIVE: Hakeem Jeffries's office empty hours into government shutdown

Hours into the Schumer Shutdown, Hakeem Jeffries has made messaging blunder after blunder. We have the exclusive on his latest mistake.

Exactly nine hours and 25 minutes into the Schumer Shutdown, the D.C. office of the top House Democrat was closed, with newspapers piled up outside next to a giant recycling bin.

At 9:25am — while House Republican offices were open — Rep. Hakeem Jeffries’s (D., N.Y.) office sent quite a different message, the Washington Reporter can exclusively confirm.

Jeffries’s closed office the morning of a shutdown fueled by his counterparts in the Senate is the latest messaging faux pas from the relatively untested leader of House Democrats.

As the government shutdown started, Jeffries and his fellow House Democrats kicked off a 24 hour livestream that, at times, had fewer viewers than there are members of his caucus.

Republicans, in contrast with the Democrats’ top leader, showed up to work on time — despite the shutdown. Several told the Reporter that they were irate at Jeffries’s hypocrisy.

One Republican staffer who showed up to work on time during the first day of the Schumer Shutdown remarked to the Reporter that “if you shut the government down, maybe at least show up to work on time the next day.”

Another Hill veteran added that “I see he doesn’t read the Washington Post either,” adding that “at least he recycles it.”

It’s unclear how the Democrats will emerge from the shutdown message they caused; one Republican staffer remarked that “Dems may have been partying hard on CNN last night, but this morning all they have is a killer political hangover and a lot of regrets.”