LEADER JEFFRIES ON ABC: "THE DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY NEEDS TO BE DRAMATICALLY REFORMED"
Today, House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries appeared on ABC's This Week, where he emphasized that House Democrats will continue to hold Donald Trump and Republicans accountable for the extremism they are unleashing on the American people and for their failure to lower the high cost of living.
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: We're joined now by the House Democratic Leader, Hakeem Jeffries. Congressman Jeffries, thank you for joining us right now. So this passed the House, so they passed the bill to keep the government open for another couple of weeks as you try to negotiate reforms on Homeland Security funding. Will the House follow the Senate's lead and vote to keep the government open?
LEADER JEFFRIES: It was a meaningful step in the right direction, certainly the separation of the five bipartisan bills, which in our view promote the health, the safety and the economic well-being of the American people, need to move forward. And we'll meet later on this afternoon as a Caucus to discuss what we believe is the best path. What is clear is that the Department of Homeland Security needs to be dramatically reformed—we share that view, as does Leader Schumer and Senate Democrats—in a variety of different ways. Body cameras should be mandatory. Masks should come off. Judicial warrants should absolutely be required consistent with the Constitution in our view before DHS agents or ICE agents are breaking into the homes of the American people or ripping people out of their cars. We need to make sure that there are complete and independent investigations so that when ICE or DHS agents break the law, they are held accountable, not by the Department of Justice, which has no interest in actually conducting a fair investigation in our view, but by state and local authorities. And we need to reiterate that the detention and deportation of American citizens, off the table. And using taxpayer dollars to brutalize everyday Americans or violently target law-abiding immigrant families needs to be off the table.
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: That's a list of serious reforms. Will you vote to keep funding Department of Homeland Security for the next two weeks as you negotiate those reforms?
LEADER JEFFRIES: Well, we're going to have that conversation later on today and as we return to Washington. But the one thing that we've said publicly is that we need a robust path toward dramatic reform. The administration can't just talk the talk. They need to walk the walk. That should begin today. Not in two weeks, today.
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: But can you get these reforms that you're calling for? No masks, body cameras. You just heard Deputy Attorney General Blanche say that they're very much in support of these administrative warrants, not judicial warrants. Can you get them? How can they be enforced?
LEADER JEFFRIES:The administrative warrants, in our view, aren't worth the paper they are written on. This is an extreme administration unleashing brutality on the American people using taxpayer dollars. So we absolutely, as a condition of moving forward, in my view—I think this is a broadly held perspective shared by Democrats in the House and the Senate—need judicial warrants. More importantly, George, it's a perspective held by the American people and we're standing on their side.
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: Even if you get the agreement of Republicans in the Congress, can you trust the administration to actually enforce the changes?
LEADER JEFFRIES: This is one of the reasons—well, you're absolutely correct that this is an untrustworthy administration. They've been lawless from the very beginning. It's one of the reasons why we need to actually build these strict requirements in terms of behavior into the law so that the courts can hold them accountable and the American people through their representatives at the state and local level can hold these individuals accountable. But, you know, from the very beginning of this effort, with respect to the Department of Homeland Security, our premise has been simple—that ICE agents should conduct themselves like every other law enforcement agency in the country as opposed to running around, masked thugs in many instances, unleashing brutality on law-abiding American citizens and violently targeting immigrant families and communities or even, you know, holding in detention a five-year-old boy with a superhero backpack. That's not the type of violent felon that the administration promised they were going to target. And the American people are rejecting it and we're going to stand on their side.
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: Let me turn to the Epstein files. You heard Deputy Attorney General Blanche say this is over. They've released everything, just about everything they're going to release. They're going to allow Members of Congress to look at these unredacted files as well. So is it over?
LEADER JEFFRIES: It's not over, and it will not be over until there is full and complete transparency as demanded by the survivors so that there can be full and complete accountability. This is a basic premise here in the country. And there are more than three million documents that are being withheld by the Department of Injustice. And so the question that has to be asked, that the American people are asking, is what are they hiding from the American people and who are they protecting? This was a law that was passed by bipartisan majorities in the House and in the Senate, reluctantly on the Republican side, but we brought them over into a more enlightened position, and it was even signed by Donald Trump as President. And so the demand is simple—comply with the law so that we can achieve the type of full transparency and visibility for the American people about all the wrongdoing that occurred and ensure that there can be accountability so that something like this, this reign of terror, never happens again.
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: On the Epstein issue, as you know, the House Oversight Committee voted to hold President Clinton and Secretary of State Clinton in contempt. Nine Democrats voted for that resolution as well. It's probably going to come to the House floor this week. You said you're against this contempt vote. Why are you against it? How are you going to advise other Democrats to vote?
LEADER JEFFRIES: Well, we'll have a conversation about that when we return. I think our view, my view at least, is that the Clintons have engaged in good-faith negotiations to try to arrive at an accommodation so that their testimony is offered with the Oversight Committee. And James Comer, the so-called Chair of the Oversight Committee, he just needs to take yes for an answer because it's clear that the Clintons are prepared to appear and to have recorded testimony so that there's a track record that everyone can subsequently evaluate. The notion that they're going to go after Secretary Clinton and Bill Clinton with criminal contempt, in other words this is sort of a lock-her-up approach, seems completely inconsistent with the law if the goal is to actually try to get the information as opposed to create a political spectacle.
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: Do you think it's possible that they can reach an agreement before the House votes on contempt?
LEADER JEFFRIES: Yes, and I'm very hopeful that an agreement will be reached so that the testimony can be adduced and the chips will fall where they may. The Clintons are ready to testify. That's been made clear. The Republicans need to take yes for an answer.
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: As you saw, I had several questions for Deputy Attorney General Blanche about conflicts of interest, including about this new report in the Wall Street Journal showing that the National Security Advisor to the UAE made an investment in the Trump family company just before the inauguration. As you know, there's been several actions taken with the UAE since then. He says there's no conflict. How do you respond?
LEADER JEFFRIES: Of course there's a conflict. We have three issues of priority as House Democrats that we want to work on on behalf of the American people. One, we have to drive down the high cost of living, of course, because America is too expensive. Donald Trump promised to lower costs on day one. Costs haven't gone down. They've gone up. Housing costs out of control. Grocery costs out of control. Utility bills, electricity bills totally out of control. Healthcare costs, of course, child care costs. All of it out of control. We need to deal with that. We need to fix our broken healthcare system, particularly in the midst of the assault that Republicans have launched. In their One Big Ugly Bill, they enacted the largest cut to Medicaid in American history, ripping healthcare away from millions of people, and in that same bill gave the Department of Homeland Security $191 billion, including $75 billion that went to ICE, so that taxpayer dollars could be used to brutalize the American people. We also need to clean up corruption wherever it's found in the Congress, at the Supreme Court and certainly with the administration, I think the most corrupt administration in American history. Why is Donald Trump focused on enriching himself, his family and his friends, as opposed to focused on driving down the high cost of living? Why is he focused on destroying half the White House, trying to extort $230 [million] from the Department of Justice, or promoting his wife's documentary, as opposed to fixing our broken healthcare system? Why is he focused on brutalizing everyday Americans by unleashing these masked agents in American communities as opposed to doing his job? Like the American people, George, have enough. The question is when will Republicans have enough with this failed presidency?
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: Mr. Jeffries, thanks for your time this morning.
LEADER JEFFRIES: Thank you.
Full interview can be watched here.