Palestinian journalist Rula Jebreal called House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, a Black man, an "AIPAC monkey" on a left-wing podcast, then claimed she didn't mean it "in a racist way," drawing swift condemnation from the Congressional Black Caucus.
Jebreal made the remarks Friday during an appearance on "The Left Hook," a podcast hosted by left-wing commentator and Israel critic Wajahat Ali. In the middle of a broadside against Jeffries' support for Israel, she dropped a term that would have ended the career of any conservative commentator before the episode finished uploading.
The New York Post reported that Jebreal first attacked the Democratic leader's name, then escalated to an outright racial epithet paired with a thin, real-time disclaimer:
"His name is Hakeem. 'Hakeem' is an Arabic name which means 'healer.' He's not a healer, he's a divider. He is a bought and paid by AIPAC monkey. With all due respect, and I don't mean it in a racist way."
She didn't stop there. Jebreal also called Jeffries "just basically an errand boy" and said "we're done and tired." When the moment apparently registered, she attempted a cleanup on the same broadcast, invoking the "three monkeys" of hear-no-evil, see-no-evil, speak-no-evil fame as her intended reference.
Ali, who was hosting the conversation, interjected to acknowledge that using the word "monkey" carries "terrible racial connotations." But he quickly offered Jebreal a lifeline, telling her he thought she "caught yourself and said you didn't mean it with any racial animosity."
That half-hearted pushback did not satisfy Black lawmakers who saw the clip circulating on X.
The Congressional Black Caucus posted a blunt response on X, rejecting Jebreal's defense outright:
"To be clear, there isn't a non-racist way to call Leader Jeffries, a Black man, a 'monkey' or 'errand boy.'"
The caucus went further, tying the episode to a broader erosion of standards in political discourse. "This is what happens when we hold ourselves to such low standards for what's allowable in our discourse, people get comfortable being openly bigoted," the CBC wrote. The group also called for an end to "platforming and trafficking in anti-Black racism, whether it's on the political right or the left."
That last line is worth reading twice. The Congressional Black Caucus, not exactly a right-of-center outfit, felt compelled to point out that anti-Black racism is not a one-party problem. The fact that the caucus had to say it at all tells you how deep the double standard runs.
Jeffries himself, the target of the slur, had not publicly responded as of Friday. His office did not immediately respond to the Post's request for comment.
Rep. Ritchie Torres, a Black Democratic congressman from New York, was less diplomatic than the caucus statement. Torres posted on X that "calling a Black man a 'monkey' is racist. Full stop."
Then he turned the lens on his own side of the aisle:
"If Wajahat Ali and Rula Jebreal were on the far right, no one on the far left would have any trouble condemning them for dehumanizing a Black man in racist terms. The silence is deafening."
Torres' point lands because it is obviously true. A conservative commentator who called any Black lawmaker a "monkey" on a podcast, regardless of the political context, regardless of what animal idiom they claimed to be referencing, would face immediate professional consequences. Networks would cut ties. Advertisers would flee. The clip would run on every cable news channel for a week.
Jebreal, a Palestinian journalist and writer, occupies a different ecosystem. She operates in progressive media circles where hostility toward Israel and its American allies often runs hot enough to burn through the guardrails that apply to everyone else. Jeffries has faced sustained pressure from the progressive wing of his own party over his stance on Israel and related appointments, and Jebreal's attack fits squarely into that pattern, but the language she chose crossed a line that has nothing to do with foreign policy.
Later on Friday, Jebreal posted what the Post described as a "backhanded apology" on X. The full text speaks for itself:
"I am disgusted and horrified that Hakeem Jeffries is taking money from AIPAC amidst Israel's genocide in Palestine. That said, a term that I used to describe him was inappropriate and offensive and should never have been used. I apologize unconditionally."
An unconditional apology that opens with an accusation and a contested political characterization is not unconditional in any meaningful sense. Jebreal used the word "unconditionally" while spending the first sentence restating the attack that led to the slur in the first place. The apology amounted to: "I'm sorry I said it that way, but everything I meant by it still stands."
Notably, Jebreal's claim that Jeffries "is taking money from AIPAC" was not independently verified in the Post's reporting. AIPAC, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, is a prominent pro-Israel lobbying organization, but the specific financial relationship Jebreal alleged was presented only as her assertion.
Jeffries, for his part, has faced no shortage of political headaches from within his own caucus. He has dealt with centrist defections that rescued parts of the GOP agenda and has watched socialist candidates sweep primaries in his own backyard. But being called a racial slur by a left-wing commentator on a left-wing podcast represents a different category of problem, one that exposes fault lines the progressive coalition would rather not discuss.
Jebreal's defense, that she was referencing the "three monkeys" proverb, not making a racial comparison, strains credibility to the breaking point. She called a specific Black man a "monkey" on a public broadcast, immediately added "I don't mean it in a racist way," and then tried to retrofit a folk-wisdom explanation after the fact. Even Ali, who was sympathetic enough to offer her an escape hatch on air, acknowledged the "terrible racial connotations" of the word.
The CBC did not buy the explanation. Torres did not buy the explanation. The only people who appeared willing to accept it were the ones who shared Jebreal's political objectives regarding Israel.
And that is the core of what Torres identified. The left's anti-racism framework, the one that polices language, demands accountability, and ends careers, operates on a selective basis. When the offender shares the progressive coalition's priorities, the machinery of outrage slows to a crawl. When the offender sits on the right, it accelerates to maximum speed before the full clip has even been reviewed.
Jeffries has also faced challenges from younger socialists who refuse to back his leadership, and he has been pushing an ambitious policy agenda ahead of the 2026 midterms. None of that justifies what Jebreal said. Political disagreement, even fierce political disagreement, does not entitle anyone to reach for a racial slur and then hide behind a proverb.
The CBC said it plainly: "There isn't a non-racist way to call Leader Jeffries, a Black man, a 'monkey' or 'errand boy.'" That sentence shouldn't require a caucus statement. It should be obvious. The fact that it wasn't obvious to Jebreal, and that Ali's instinct was to soften the moment rather than stop the show, tells you everything about which rules apply to whom.
Standards that bend depending on who breaks them aren't standards. They're privileges.
