Inside Jeffries and Johnson's rollercoaster week

0:00Good morning, I'm Anna Palmer. Then I'm Jake Sherman. And welcome to the Daily Punch. Brought to you by Punch News. It's Friday September 4th, 2026. Let's get in the next here. Are you're Washington headlines of the day? Number one, Jeffrey's family discussion. Number two, Dems get a major redistricting win in Missouri. And we've got some news in number three from the vault cast in ways a gable bid against waters. All right, Jake, let's get to it. We are talking about Jeffries. Once again, he has been kind of it's, you know, I don't know if it's a, pretends what is the future, but certainly as we look to whether or not Democrats will take the majority, how he handles his leadership and the rest of the caucus is going to be something we are watching closely. Yes. Here's what I would say. There's been, and we wrote this, there's been kind of three phases to Hackeen Jeffries in

1:04recent years. There was the first phase where he became leader. Joe Biden was in the White House. Chuck Schumer was leader and Jeffries was kind of, you know, in the background, right? Then there was Donald Trump wins. Jeffries got to help these Dems crawl out of a relevancy, I guess, is the fact that that's way to say it. And then there's now where people are realizing he might just be the speaker of the house. And in that, he needs to, people need to be taking his decision making and his leadership seriously. In not serious, not that they haven't taken it seriously in the past, but they need to view it in the context that this guy might be speaker. So this week has been a roller coaster. It started off with two Democrats, Jared Golden and Marie Gluson-Kamprez voting against a rule. Jeffries saying that it needs to be taken, it needs to be met with a serious response.

2:05And then him saying on Thursday, yesterday morning, that they had a forward-looking conversation. So we've kind of had the full circle of reactions here to this episode. Listen, here's what you should think about Jeffries, or maybe don't think it, but here's so I think about Jeffries. He is much more deliberate and slow, not in a bad way, but deliberate and careful than anybody, any other leader that we've had. He doesn't move swiftly. He is lawyerly. Now the argument against that would be if you're going to punish somebody, do it right away or let it go. Don't let it linger out there. Don't come back three days later or a week later after some action has happened and say, well, okay, now we're going to punish you. That also comes with downside, right? I mean, if you don't end up punishing somebody and you're after saying you will, that's also not great.

3:06So I would just say that it's going to be a different kind of leadership style at the top of the Democratic caucus. So what do you think about all that, Anna? Yeah, listen, I think he's finding a sea legs. This is a small and early test. They're going to be harder times ahead. It's just the truth of the matter. And I do think the question, there's a vacuum here of you said there, we, this doesn't stand. Then what is the reaction to that? If it says, hey, you know what, it was a one time thing. We've got better communications now. We're moving forward. Fine. But you know, you can only say that so many times, right? What are the consequences? Right? At this point Republicans have struggled with this for a very long time. And they don't have consequences. And there's not a lot of fear. And so that means all of a sudden the, the whole floor, as we've seen time and time again,

4:06this Congress can all of a sudden be shut down. Will Jeffries face the same problem or not? We will have to see typically, Democrats have stick together. Yeah, I was going to say a lot better. Yeah. No, no, this is a new era of Democrats as well, right? You have a new year. You also have your, he is, this is the tip of the iceberg, Jacob of, you know, I would think of DSA aligned, potentially, you know, incoming members who aren't, you know, are they gonna play with the team or not? Yeah, I don't know the answer to that, but that's what Trump always says. And it's in a stu, observation, right? Democrats stick together, you know, they just do. They're not Republicans. They don't, you know, look to burn the whole house down. And maybe you're right, maybe they will going forward. I don't know the answer to that, but, you know, you're absolutely right. Let's talk about Johnson for a second, sent the house home for what? The rest of September after the week is September 14th. So we've got a whole like four or five is aggressive,

5:09but probably four days in session in the US House of Representatives before the election, you know what, Ann, it's good. It gives me more time to travel and go do stories and the team more time to travel and do stories. More interesting stuff for punch bull news. So all right, we will be watching it. So how they make to how busy they make those four days, that they're used to their time. Stick with us after the break. We are talking about redistricting and Democrats getting a major win in Missouri. RJ, this is one of the number two story of the morning, the Missouri Supreme Court, through the state's election into chaos. There's a day by blocking the new seven R1D, GOP drawn congressional map and reinstating the old six Republican two Democratic map for the midterms. This is a huge win for Democrats and representative, a manual cleaver whose Kansas City base district is now intact for 2026. I mean, this comes the the back and forth on redistricting and kind of who was up and who was down. We've seen it twist and turn so over the past several months, but there's a ton to unpack here.

6:11If you the race for control of Congress is a seat by seat thing and in a narrow majority, winning back one seat is a big deal, right? A manual cleaver represented Kansas City, Missouri, Republicans drew him out. Now he's back. Now the the Missouri, the state of Missouri could take this to the Supreme Court and we expect that they will. It said they've said that they will. But we'll see it's very close to the election and I don't know what they'll do. The open question here was they've already run primaries on a new map. So how do they put that back together? They could have the parties choose the candidates. That's I think what Democrats are suggesting. But it is a big, big deal also aside, you know, Maryland Democrats got a less shocking victory on Thursday when the state Supreme Court ruled that they could place redistricting constitutional amendment

7:14on the ballot this fall. It is the idea there would be to draw out Andy Harris from the Eastern Shore. We talked to Andy Harris about that. And I when he was on fly out day a couple of, I don't know, not that long ago. So as we've said time and time again, 2027 is going to be a lot about redistricting and it's going to be a big story for us to cover. All right, let's move on to the number three story of the morning. We've got some news represented Sean Castin. The Democrat from Illinois is weighing a bid against representative Maxine Waters to be the next top Democrat on the House Financial Services Committee according to four Democratic sources familiar with the discussion. This would be a massive, massive race here and a jolt of the House Financial Services Committee which Waters has led Democrats on that panel since 2012, Jake, that is a very long time. Maxine Waters, that's right. She is also 88 years old and 88 is, you know,

8:19is a, that is, the Democratic Party is moving against having 88 year olds in positions of power for better or worse. I mean, Maxine Waters is with it. There's don't have any question about that. She is very energetic. She is very, she is ready for battle at all times, Maxine Waters, but she is 88 years old and, you know, that's been one of the undercurrents of this election. And although, you know, you can't just say she's 88 and that's it and I'm going to win and, you know, have people vote for you. You got to give ideas and explain to people how you're going to be better than Waters. What do you think? Yeah, I mean, listen, I think to your point, this is something we've seen and we've, and as much as there's been, and I think the big question has always been, we talked yesterday about Republicans wanting waivers for these committees, right? And they have a really different strategy of moving people in and out of committee slots. Democrats that has not been their historic norm

9:20and there's been friction on that where Democrats have been kind of, haven't changed their rules. They say, hey, well, actually what we've seen is people challenge members for the GAVL. And if that's the case, this seems to be like that's the new norm that leadership is going to be okay with, you know, potentially a challenge here. I think it is also to your point, a generational shift that is happening within the Democratic caucus and people get tired of waiting around. And it used to be 20 years ago, members would wait around. And now that is just not the case anymore. One thing I believe is that Republicans have benefited greatly from their term limits on committees. They just have, it's been, it's like actually a good reform and so many Democrats said to me, I wish we had that too. I mean, there are downsides for sure, but like you do get fresh blood in there. And it does, it is a good thing. And there again, there are upsides to not having term limits. You get more experience, people who come into Congress

10:21later in life could, you know, make their, I don't know, there's a bunch of different ways to think of it anyway. And I would just say, I mean, water is an icon. I mean, it's not, it's not, some, when you look at some of the other battles, right, where you've had people challenge, people for ranking member in the Democratic House, oftentimes that is because they are struggling with other issues that we, you know, I mean, she has a huge influence. So I don't know, it is gonna be that. And the CBC is very powerful. For sure. All right, we will leave it there. Thank you so much for listening. Hope you had a great week back. We are into Labor Day. So enjoy the long weekend. You can find out all the news and more at punchbowl.News. Have a great day and stay safe, everybody.