LEADER JEFFRIES ON ABC: "WE'RE GOING TO CONTINUE TO FORCEFULLY PUSH BACK AGAINST THE EXTREMISM BEING UNLEASHED ON THE AMERICAN PEOPLE"
Today, House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries appeared on ABC's This Week, where he emphasized that House Democrats will continue to push back against Donald Trump's reckless war of choice in the Middle East and demand reforms to the Department of Homeland Security.
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: Now I want to bring in the Democratic Leader of the House of Representatives, Hakeem Jeffries. Congressman, thank you for joining us this morning. Your reaction to these developments overnight.
LEADER JEFFRIES: Well, I'm thankful that a second U.S. airman has been rescued heroically by our Special Forces. And we, of course, continue to pray for the safety, the health, the well-being of all of our men and women who are in uniform in a very dangerous theater of war. Of course, Donald Trump has gotten us involved in this reckless war of choice without any plan, any strategic objectives and no clear exit strategy. Instead, billions of dollars are being spent every day to drop bombs in the Middle East when Donald Trump as a candidate promised to never get us involved in this type of conflict.
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: You've made it clear you're opposed to the war, but what should the exit strategy be right now?
LEADER JEFFRIES: Well, that's the challenge that, of course, Donald Trump has gotten us into this reckless war of choice without ever clearly laying out the strategic objectives, the plan, how this is designed to actually make life better for the American people. We've seen the exact opposite, particularly as it relates to the dramatic increase in gas prices when we already are dealing with an affordability crisis here in the United States of America. Donald Trump purported to deliver a speech to lay out a case to the American people a few days ago, but he failed dramatically.
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: He is expanding, he's threatening this morning to expand again. He says the Iranians are going to be living in Hell if they don't open up the Strait of Hormuz by Tuesday. Is that possible without U.S. ground troops?
LEADER JEFFRIES: Well, certainly there is no circumstance where U.S. ground troops should be sent over to the Middle East. This war is already deeply unpopular for obvious reasons amongst the American people, and the American people are not going to accept ground troops being put into harm's way in this war of choice, when there's no clear evidence that it actually is designed to improve our national security interests. Instead, we see a war that continues to escalate. More than a dozen countries are involved. And billions of dollars of taxpayer money are being spent overseas when this administration refuses to actually spend a dime to make life more affordable for the American people.
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: And the President sent a request for $200 billion in supplemental spending to the Defense Department, as well. It's pretty clear Democrats are going to oppose that, but are you concerned that that will undercut the war effort?
LEADER JEFFRIES: Listen, the Department of Defense has been given over a trillion dollars within the last year. They have more than enough resources as far as we can tell in order to do what is necessary. At the same period of time, Congress has to be good stewards of taxpayer dollars. The cost of living in this country is out of control and Donald Trump promised to actually lower cost on day one. That hasn't happened. In fact, life has become more expensive for the American people because of decisions made by Donald Trump and extreme Republicans in the Congress. The Trump tariffs have increased costs on everyday Americans by thousands of dollars per year, as well as on small business entrepreneurs and on farmers throughout this nation. Republicans have refused to extend the Affordable Care Act tax credits and that has resulted in tens of millions of Americans experiencing dramatically-increased health insurance premiums. And now this reckless and costly war of choice is increasing the cost of living on everyday Americans, particularly through gas prices and soon through food prices all across the country in ways that are hurting the American people.
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: The President said this week that the United States is considering withdrawing from NATO, a sentiment that was echoed by Secretary of State Marco Rubio. Are you confident that Congress can keep the United State in NATO?
LEADER JEFFRIES: Certainly, I hope that there will be a bipartisan effort to convince this administration that withdrawing from NATO would be a reckless choice. This is a dangerous world. We need more friends, not more adversaries. And we should not walk away from an alliance that has actually kept the world and the United States as safe as possible in the aftermath of World War II. And the President should stop issuing these threats and attacking our allies, while coddling up to people like Vladimir Putin and Russia, which is a sworn enemy of the United States of America. He's got our priorities in terms of our friends and our adversaries all wrong.
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: Let me switch gears now to the Department of Homeland Security and ICE funding. As you know, the Democrats have been pushing for reforms in ICE as a condition for that funding. But now the Republicans are saying they're going to try to circumvent that by going through the reconciliation process, which means they could get the funding just by having a majority vote. So does that moot your efforts?
LEADER JEFFRIES: The first thing that needs to happen is that the House of Representatives under the leadership of Speaker Johnson and Republicans need to bring us back into session so we can actually reopen the Department of Homeland Security, stop creating chaos at airports all across the country and forcing people, including what happened to TSA agents for weeks, to work without pay. There is a bipartisan bill that has been sent over from the Senate, not once, but twice. Every single Democrat, every single Republican in the Senate supports that legislation. House Democrats support that legislation so we can reopen every other aspect of the Department of Homeland Security, including TSA, Coast Guard, FEMA and our cybersecurity professionals, while continuing to work on the effort to get ICE under control.
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: Let's look ahead to the midterm elections. We saw the President sign that executive order this week on mail-in voting. I know you believe it's unconstitutional. But what is your message to Democrats who are concerned that the President's party are going to be able to find ways to subvert the elections?
LEADER JEFFRIES: We're going to work as hard as we can to make sure that this is a free and fair election. That executive order is unlawful and unconstitutional. We've already filed litigation and we expect that it will be declared so in short order by the courts. We've won victory after victory in terms of even this very conservative Supreme Court, most recently, of course, in connection with the unlawful Trump tariffs. I expect that this executive order, which is designed to try to suppress the electorate, alter the landscape in order to artificially keep control of the House and the Senate will be rejected. At the same time, George, we're going to continue to articulate an affirmative vision to the American people of what we as Democrats will do if they give us the opportunity to lead in the majority. We're going to fight hard to lower the high cost of living, to fix our broken healthcare system, to get ICE under control, to end this reckless war of choice in the Middle East and to focus every single day, every single week, every single month, on actually making life better and more affordable for hardworking American taxpayers.
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: Why isn't that breaking through? The Democrats in Congress are almost as unpopular as the President right now.
LEADER JEFFRIES: Well, one of the things that I will say is breaking through is that consistently, for the last 15 months, Democrats have been winning elections all across the country, up and down the ballot, including most recently in deep red states like Texas, like Louisiana and, of course, a few weeks ago in Florida, particularly in Mar-a-Lago. So at the end of the day, when the American people evaluate who's going to push back against Republican extremism, who is going to actually make life better for them and focus on the issues that matter, consistently they're choosing Democrats. Now as it relates to the parties being perceived as unfavorable across the country, we understand that dynamic because the American people want to see action. Things haven't been working out for them over the last several decades. Far too many people are struggling to survive and certainly can't thrive, paycheck to paycheck in this country, which should not be happening in the wealthiest country in the history of the world. And so we're going to continue to forcefully push back against the extremism being unleashed on the American people, push back agains the chaos, while at the same period of time convince every single American that it's us who are determined to do the things that are necessary, bring about the bold, transformational changes necessary to support working-class Americans, everyday Americans and middle-class Americans in a manner consistent with who we are when we are the best version of ourselves here in America.
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: Congressman Jeffries, thanks very much for your time this morning.
LEADER JEFFRIES: Thank you.
Full interview can be watched here.