When Hakeem Jeffries handed Mike Johnson the speaker’s gavel on the House floor in October 2023, the pair hugged, marking the promise of a new era of bipartisanship.

In one of their first private meetings, the two party leaders agreed they would not launch personal attacks against each other, according to multiple sources familiar with the dynamic.

As two fathers with deeply held religious beliefs, the pair often discussed their faith, the sources said, and forged a working relationship that stemmed from serving together on the House Judiciary Committee early in their congressional careers. At one-point last term, Jeffries even helped Johnson save his job.

But that was in an era of split government when Johnson, trying to put his Republican conference back together after a messy speakership fight, had to work with Democrats who controlled the Senate and President Joe Biden in the White House.

Now, with President Donald Trump’s resurgence, a Republican takeover in Washington that has at times ceded congressional authority on federal spending, and a historic government shutdown, the dynamics between Johnson and Jeffries are different.

As the shutdown drags on, the changing relationship between Johnson and Jeffries may make it even harder for lawmakers to find a way out of the impasse, particularly if a deal to end the stalemate requires a compromise and each leader must make a difficult sell to their members.

The shutdown has also placed a spotlight on the frayed dynamic between Johnson and Jeffries. As the funding lapse has grown more painful for federal workers going without pay and millions of Americans who rely on critical social safety net programs, the two House leaders have sharpened their rhetoric and sought to cast blame on each other’s party for the failure to reopen the government.

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