By Staff Reporter
OCTOBER 9, 2025 — Three years after Nancy Pelosi, the iron-fisted Speaker Emerita, orchestrated the ascension of Hakeem Jeffries to Democratic Minority Leader, whispers of discontent have erupted into outright frustration within the caucus. What was billed as a historic milestone—the first Black American to lead a major party in Congress—has soured into a perceived farce, with many viewing Jeffries not as a trailblazer, but as a pliable puppet strung along by Pelosi’s enduring grip on the Democratic machine.
Now, the Congressional Black Caucus is finding itself grappling with a lingering sense of betrayal.
“She belittled him into a so-called ‘DEI hire’, when he could have been a righteous and strong Black leader,” one member of the Caucus tells The Inquirer on the condition of anonymity. “He was selected because she knew he would be in over his head and entirely reliant on her.”
The roots of this debacle trace back to November 2022, when Pelosi abruptly announced her retirement from leadership following the Democrats’ midterm drubbing. In a move that felt less like an open election and more like a coronation, Jeffries—then the caucus chair and a rising star from Brooklyn—emerged as the uncontested heir apparent. Behind the scenes, a clandestine September 2022 meeting in the Capitol sealed his path, with Pelosi’s blessing ensuring no serious challengers materialized.
But for the CBC, a powerhouse bloc of over 50 Black lawmakers whose influence helped propel Joe Biden to the White House in 2020, the choice reeked of calculation over merit. Why elevate the 52-year-old Jeffries, a sharp but relatively untested attorney with deep ties to New York’s political establishment, when a figure of undeniable stature like Rep. James Clyburn (D-S.C.) was waiting in the wings?
Clyburn, now 85 and the dean of the CBC, has been the quiet architect of Democratic victories for decades. As the party’s No. 3 whip from 2011 to 2023, he delivered South Carolina’s Black voters to Biden in a pivotal primary upset and has mentored generations of lawmakers. Many in the caucus believed—or at least hoped—that Pelosi’s exit would clear the way for Clyburn to step into the top spot, offering the kind of independent, battle-hardened voice that could command respect across the aisle and within the party.
“Jim Clyburn is a man of deep faith and moral courage,” Jeffries himself gushed in 2023, acknowledging the South Carolinian’s towering role. Yet, instead of promoting Clyburn, Pelosi’s succession plan slotted him into the assistant leader role—a lateral move at best—while fast-tracking Jeffries. Sources close to the caucus say the snub stung deeply, viewing it as a dismissal of Black institutional power in favor of a younger, more malleable ally who wouldn’t threaten Pelosi’s shadow influence.
This puppet dynamic has only grown more glaring in the harsh light of recent failures. Fast-forward to the 2024 election wipeout, where Democrats hemorrhaged seats and watched Donald Trump reclaim the White House. In the aftermath, Pelosi’s unfiltered New York Times interview—lambasting Biden’s tardy withdrawal and suggesting an open primary might have fortified Kamala Harris—drew immediate backlash for stepping on Jeffries’ toes as the party’s sitting leader.
An unnamed CBC member didn’t mince words, telling Axios, “I don’t think she is being respectful of him.”
The sentiment echoes a broader caucus gripe: Jeffries was anointed not to lead, but to serve as a frontman, reliant on Pelosi’s counsel for every pivot. Critics point to his reluctance to publicly diverge from her critiques of Biden, even as he privately absorbs blame for the losses, as evidence of his overdependence.
Worse still, some CBC insiders whisper that Pelosi knowingly set Jeffries up to falter. At the time of his elevation, she was acutely aware of the GOP’s midterm momentum and the Democrats’ internal fractures. By installing a leader still green on national security and fiscal knife-fights—areas where Clyburn’s decades of deal-making shine—Pelosi ensured Jeffries would lean heavily on her emerita status for gravitas.
“Jeffries is a puppet,” one observer quipped on X, capturing the caucus’s cynicism: “Speaker Emerita Pelosi remains in charge. Clyburn is the Dean of CBC.” This isn’t mere hazing for a rookie; it’s a structural sabotage, leaving Jeffries exposed as the party careens toward 2026 midterms under Republican dominance.
The true tragedy, as the CBC sees it, is the squandered historic moment. Jeffries’ rise was poised to be a triumph for Black political muscle—a counterweight to the GOP’s white grievance politics and a signal that Democrats valued unassailable Black excellence at the helm. Clyburn, with his civil rights bona fides and kingmaking prowess, embodied that stature: a self-made leader who rose from sharecropper’s son to whip without Pelosi’s patronage. Elevating him could have unified the caucus, energized Black voters, and projected unyielding independence.
Instead, the caucus feels robbed of a genuine icon, saddled with a figure whose every move invites scrutiny over his strings and lack of readiness.
As the dust settles from 2024’s rout, the CBC’s frustration boils over into calls for reckoning. Posts on X from Black activists decry the Pelosi-Jeffries axis for “leaving this flank exposed,” contrasting it with Clyburn’s steadfast loyalty to the base. One user even thanked the CBC and Clyburn for thwarting what they saw as a Pelosi-led coup against Biden, lumping Jeffries in with the “feckless” old guard. In private caucus huddles, the talk isn’t just of disrespect—it’s of a deliberate diminishment of Black agency at the precise moment it was most needed.
Pelosi’s legacy as a master tactician is etched in stone, but this chapter risks tarnishing it among those she once courted.
For the CBC, the Jeffries anointment isn’t just a misstep; it’s a debacle that betrayed the promise of power-sharing.
As Clyburn, ever the elder statesman, steps further into the background, the caucus wonders: When will Democrats learn that true leadership isn’t handed down—it’s seized?
Until then, the echoes of what could have been will haunt the halls of the minority.
Gregory Meeks: The Steady Hand Poised for Democratic Leadership
Several members of the Congressional Black Caucus have been quietly advancing the idea that Rep. Gregory Weldon Meeks, a longtime pillar of the caucus, could replace Jefferies as Minority Leader. They postulate that the ongoing government shutdown will be seen very negatively by the public. In that case, Rep. Jefferies would be an easy scapegoat, and in Rep. Meeks exists an opportunity to reboot and rebrand the House caucus.
Born on September 25, 1953, in East Harlem’s housing projects, Meeks embodies the American dream through resilient grit. Of African-American heritage tracing to Sierra Leone, he earned a B.A. from Adelphi University and a J.D. from Howard University School of Law, joining Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity. His early career as an Assistant District Attorney, narcotics prosecutor, and supervising judge honed a tenacious commitment to justice.
Entering politics in 1992, Meeks served in the New York State Assembly before winning a special election to Congress in 1998, now representing NY-05. As House Foreign Affairs Committee Chair (2021-2023) and current Ranking Member, he has forged bipartisan ties on global security, climate, and trade, while boycotting Netanyahu’s 2015 speech and keynoting the 2022 P20 Summit.
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