We're almost to the end of April, and the liberals at PolitiFact have still not found one single Democrat utterance that is tagged "Mostly False" or worse in 2026. Instead, they're rushing to defense of House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries in the aftermath of the Correspondents Dinner shooting. Amy Sherman's article on Monday was headlined:
Hakeem Jeffries ‘maximum warfare’ comment was about redistricting, not a call to violence
None of the conservatives who raised the Jeffries use of "maximum warfare" were punished on the "Truth-O-Meter," but Sherman made a list of "out of context" quotes:
"I heard Hakeem Jeffries say this week ‘its maximum warfare all the time,’" CNN conservative pundit Scott Jennings said April 26. "We have a violent streak on the left and a rhetoric problem on the left."
The Republican National Committee responded on X to Jeffries condemning political violence on a Sunday political show, sharing a clip of his "maximum warfare" remark and asking if he will "apologize and condemn this type of violent rhetoric."
Republican Reps. Andrew Clyde of Georgia and Randy Fine of Florida also criticized Jeffries’ comment, while Tim Young, a conservative pundit, said Jeffries "caused" this.
While Jeffries used those words, the soundbite lacks larger context.
Jeffries talked about "maximum warfare" -- complete with a huge graphic -- in relation to the redistricting battles in blue states and red states. Sherman quoted the Democrat leader:
"We are in an era of maximum warfare, everywhere, all the time. And we are going to keep the pressure on Republicans at every single state in the union, to ensure at the end of the day, that there is a fair, national map. Because we believe that it is the people who should decide who is in the majority in the next Congress. Not Donald Trump and MAGA extremists."
Democratic House leader Hakeem Jeffries called for “maximum warfare” related to redistricting in Virginia. Some Republicans used his words out of context, linking them to the White House correspondents’ dinner hotel shooting.https://t.co/lp0JSo7alo
— PolitiFact (@PolitiFact) April 27, 2026
Sherman seemed especially appalled because Jeffries apparently borrowed this terminology from an anonymous Trump adviser who spilled his "maximum warfare" line to The New York Times last year:
Jeffries repeated the Trump ally’s words verbatim in an April 21 X post, "Democrats defeated Donald Trump’s gerrymandering scheme in Virginia tonight. We will crush the DeSantis Dummymander in Florida next. Maximum warfare, everywhere, all the time."
Jeffries used the phrase in the title of a YouTube video April 21 celebrating the Virginia redistricting outcome.
Sherman and her colleagues couldn't find anything False in Jeffries going on TV and laughably claiming "Democrats are going to push back aggressively to make sure that we have fair maps across the country, not partisan gerrymandering."
