House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries was challenged during a CBS interview Sunday after claiming that President Donald Trump plans to “rig” the upcoming midterm elections — remarks that appeared to contradict his previous insistence that there are “no election deniers” within the Democratic Party, as reported by Fox News.

Appearing on CBS’s Face the Nation, host Margaret Brennan questioned the New York Democrat about his recent comments suggesting the 2026 midterm elections could be “rigged.”

She noted that Democrats had strongly criticized President Trump for using similar language after the 2020 election.

“Democrats were appalled when President Trump used language like that,” Brennan said.

“How do you justify using that now? Doesn’t that undermine faith for voters you need to show up?”

Jeffries responded, “No, I’ve been using that term in the context of Donald Trump’s unprecedented effort to gerrymander congressional maps in a partisan fashion all across the country in order to rig the midterm elections and deny the ability of the American people to actually decide who should be in the majority as it relates to the House of Representatives.”

When Brennan interjected to point out that “Democrats are also going through gerrymandering and redistricting,” Jeffries quickly rejected the claim.

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“No. No. No. Well, Democrats are going to push back aggressively to make sure that we have fair maps across the country, not partisan gerrymandering, which Republicans have initiated in state after state after state,” Jeffries said.

The segment ended shortly after the exchange.

Jeffries has faced scrutiny for his remarks about redistricting in blue states, including New York.

During an August appearance on CNN’s State of the Union, anchor Dana Bash pressed him over his support for Democratic-led redistricting efforts while criticizing similar actions in Republican-controlled states.

“You praised New York’s state legislature for redrawing new ones,” Bash said.

“Is criticizing Texas hypocritical given what you pushed for in your own state?”

Bash also noted that Jeffries had previously opposed redrawing New York’s congressional maps in 2022.

Jeffries defended his stance, arguing that the state’s most recent map was approved “on a bipartisan basis.”

“What’s important is that in New York, the redrawn map that was actually adopted by the legislature was adopted on a bipartisan basis,” he said.

“Democrats and Republicans in the Assembly voted for the map because the redraw was fair. That’s not what’s happening in Texas. In Texas, this is a racial partisan gerrymander ordered by Donald Trump as part of an effort to rig the midterm elections. And we’re not going to let it happen.”

Jeffries’ comments have sparked criticism from both sides of the aisle, with opponents accusing him of hypocrisy for invoking election-rigging rhetoric while continuing to deny that Democrats have ever challenged the legitimacy of election outcomes.

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