Jeffries: Trump 'unserious' about shutdown

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) claimed Friday morning that President Trump is “unserious” about ending the federal shutdown as the two political leaders have continued their back-and-forth over government funding. 

“It’s further confirmation that Republicans are the ones who were clearly determined to shut the government down,” Jeffries said during an appearance on MSNBC. “Everything that President Trump has done subsequent to Monday has been unhinged and unserious.”

“In fact, Donald Trump is in the presidential witness protection program — no one can find him when it comes to the government shutdown issue, because he knows he’s responsible for having caused it,” he told “Morning Joe” host Jonathan Lemire. “And the behavior, the erratic behavior that we’ve seen is further confirmation of that unfortunate fact.” 

The Hill has reached out to the White House for comment. 

The criticism comes days after Trump shared AI-generated videos that mocked Jeffries and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) while pinning the blame for the funding lapse on the Democrats. 

In one video, Jeffries is depicted as having a handlebar mustache and wearing a Mexican-style sombrero. The New York Democrats called out the video as “racist,” while Vice President Vance said he thought the clip was “funny” and claimed the president was “joking.” 

On Friday, the House Democratic leader said members of his party are open to sitting down in “good faith” to negotiate a deal with Republicans, but he emphasized that a spending bill must meet the “needs” of Americans when it comes to health care and the economy. 

“Yet as Democrats, Leader Schumer, myself, House Democrats, Senate Democrats, we’ve been clear. Listen, we’ll sit down in good faith”, he said. “We need to reopen the government in this Trump Republican government shutdown, and we can find a bipartisan path toward a spending agreement.”

Jeffries added, “But that spending agreement has to actually meet the needs of the American people in terms of their health, their safety and their economic well-being, particularly as it relates to driving down the high cost of living and lowering health care costs, as opposed to driving millions of Americans into medical bankruptcy because of the Republicans’ refusal to extend the Affordable Care Act tax credits.”