LEADER JEFFRIES ON CNN: "THE REPUBLICANS KNOW THEY'RE LYING ABOUT THIS ISSUE"
Today, House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries joined CNN's The Lead with Jake Tapper to correct Republican disinformation about the harmful government shutdown that they've created and make clear that House Democrats will continue to fight for the healthcare of the American people.
JAKE TAPPER: And we're back with our politics lead, the government shutdown, the spending talk stalemate here on Capitol Hill. Democrats so far not willing to bend on their demands for Obamacare subsidies to be extended and more. Here with me now is the leader of the Democrats in the House, Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, Democrat of New York. Thanks for being with me, Leader Jeffries. So you maintain Democrats are ready to come to the table any time with anyone at any place on any spending agreement. Vice President JD Vance today said the President's hoping to—coming to the table on healthcare once the government is funded. Where are we at negotiations right now?
LEADER JEFFRIES: Well, we haven't heard from the White House since the White House meeting on Monday. The President has been behaving somewhat erratically and in unconventional fashion in the context of the government shutting down. Clearly, they wanted to shut the government down, unfortunately. We're ready to work together to bring it back open, but to do it in a way where we enact a spending agreement that's bipartisan, that meets the needs of the American people, while, at the same time, addresses the Republican healthcare crisis that is devastating everyday Americans all across the country.
JAKE TAPPER: So you said erratic, and I believe you used the word unhinged the other day.
LEADER JEFFRIES: I did.
JAKE TAPPER: Are you trying to draw a line between President Trump's acuity—his mental state, and what's going on here with the shutdown?
LEADER JEFFRIES: No, no, no. I'm actually referring to some of his social media posts, which didn't seem to make a lot of sense.
JAKE TAPPER: The sombrero and the mustache?
LEADER JEFFRIES: Correct. Well, it would seem to me that as the President of the United States, on the brink of a government shutdown, if you actually wanted to bring everyone together to try to get to a resolution in a common-sense, bipartisan way, that's not the type of behavior that we would see. So hopefully moving forward, whether it's President Trump or Vice President Vance, Speaker Johnson, Leader Thune, that we'll actually come together to have a conversation to figure out how we can get the government reopened immediately, stop this pain that Trump is inflicting on hardworking American taxpayers and at the same time, resolve the Republican healthcare crisis, particularly as it relates to the Affordable Care Act and their refusal to extend the tax credits, which is going to result in tens of millions of Americans experiencing dramatically increased premiums, co-pays and deductibles.
JAKE TAPPER: So right now, JD Vance says he's talking to other Democrats in the Senate. Three Democrats, or three people that caucus with Democrats—Angus King of Maine, John Fetterman of Pennsylvania, Cortez Masto of Nevada. They voted to proceed—for the continuing resolution. They only need five more Democrats. Are you worried at all about the more moderate Democrats caving?
LEADER JEFFRIES: Not at all. In fact, what I think—constructive conversations are positive. I don't know that these conversations have been constructive, because for the last several months, what we've seen from the Trump administration is that they've adopted a my-way-or-the-highway approach. Now, if you adopt a my-way-or-the-highway approach and then you drop on us a partisan spending bill that continues to gut the healthcare of the American people, then the reality is, they are going to drive us toward the government shutdown that they've now created.
JAKE TAPPER: The partisan spending bill—is that the One Big Beautiful Bill or the continuing resolution? Because this continuing resolution just funds the government at the current level.
LEADER JEFFRIES: Well, actually, the continuing resolution that they have presented to the Congress is a partisan bill. House Democrats voted against it in March because it hurt veterans, hurt seniors, hurt children, hurt child care affordability, hurt housing affordability and hurt healthcare, which is why we opposed it.
JAKE TAPPER: You're saying that Chuck Schumer then voted for a Republican partisan bill—because he voted for that, so did nine other Democrats in the March.
LEADER JEFFRIES: Well, Chuck Schumer did explain his views on the merits of that bill at the time. I don't think he ever disputed that there were challenging parts of that legislation. The partisan bill is the one that's before us now. A bipartisan agreement on spending had actually been reached in December. Bipartisan majorities in the House and the Senate. Joe Biden signed it into law, then-President-elect Donald Trump blessed it as well.
JAKE TAPPER: So let me ask you about a provision that the Republicans are talking about quite a bit. I know you want to talk about, and Democrats want to talk about, extending the Obamacare subsidies, which expire at the end of 2025. But they talk about the provisions, and it's right here, subtitle E, and this has to do with the repeal of healthcare subtitle changes, and specifically what it is. How they characterize it is you want to give health insurance to undocumented immigrants. I understand that's not really an accurate depiction, but what it does do is—
LEADER JEFFRIES: It's a lie.
JAKE TAPPER: It's a lie, but what you support does bring back funding for emergency Medicaid to hospitals, some of which does pay for undocumented immigrants and people who don't have health insurance. And also, there is this provision, and it's not about undocumented immigrants. It's about people with asylum seekers and people with temporary protected status, et cetera, et cetera, but about their ability to get Medicaid. So they're non-citizens. They're not undocumented. They're not illegal. Why even include that in a bill, knowing that they're going to seize right upon that and use that to message? I understand that when you retake the House, you can get whatever you want passed, but at this point?
LEADER JEFFRIES:Well, what we're doing is fighting to protect the healthcare of the American people against the largest cut to Medicaid ever. 14 million American citizens are going to lose their healthcare as a result of what Republicans did with their One Big Ugly Bill.
JAKE TAPPER: You're talking about the subsidies again, but I'm talking about the non-citizens.
LEADER JEFFRIES: No, no. No, no. I'm talking about the Medicaid cuts, that document that you just showed me. That was the One Big Ugly Bill. 14 million Americans are going to lose access to healthcare. Their hospitals, their nursing homes, their community-based health clinics are closing because of what the Republicans have done. These are hard-working American taxpayers, and the Republicans know they're lying about this issue. By the way, current federal law is clear. Taxpayer dollars cannot be spent on Medicaid or Medicare or the Affordable Care Act related to undocumented immigrants, and not a single Democrat has raised the issue of trying to reverse that federal law. What we are trying to do is save the healthcare of the American people, lower their costs and cancel these cuts.
JAKE TAPPER: Do you not think that the provisions that provide healthcare for non-citizens muddies that message?
LEADER JEFFRIES: No. You're referring to emergency care that some states might administer based on state law. We're talking about federal law. We don't have the ability to change state law.
JAKE TAPPER: So let me ask you about this threat from Russ Vought, the Director of the Office of Management and Budget. He announced that the White House—Vought, I'm sorry. He announced that the White House was freezing roughly $18 billion in New York City infrastructure, 'due to unconstitutional DEI principles.' He added that's going to impact the Hudson Tunnel Project and the Second Avenue Subway. I doubt it's a coincidence that you and Leader Schumer are both from New York, probably even occasionally ride that subway or use that tunnel. What's your response?
LEADER JEFFRIES: Well, it's an attack on working-class Americans. It's an attack on good-paying union jobs. It's an attack on teachers and social workers and nurses and firefighters and police officers, who are going to rely upon the transportation that will be enhanced by those projects, not just in New York City, but in New York State, as well as in New Jersey and in Connecticut. It's interesting to me. I wonder why Mike Lawler or others haven't said anything. It's going to have an adverse impact on his constituents. But this is the type of thing that we've seen from the Trump administration. These people are obsessed with retribution as opposed to actually doing what they promised. They promised, Jake, to lower the high cost of living on day one. But costs aren't going down in America. Costs are going up. Inflation is going up. America's too expensive. The Trump tariffs—is making life more unaffordable for millions of Americans who are paying thousands of dollars more a year because of the erratic Republican policies. And now, they actually are going after these economic development, job-creating engines to hurt not Democrats or Republicans, to hurt hardworking American taxpayers.
JAKE TAPPER: One last thing before you go. I know you said you thought it was racist and bigoted—that sombrero and mustache AI image that President Trump put out.
LEADER JEFFRIES: That wasn't simply my characterization. That was a broad characterization by a broad number of people.
JAKE TAPPER: JD Vance said he thought it was funny. Vice President Vance said he thought it was funny, and he said he didn't understand why you thought it was racist because you're not of Mexican heritage.
LEADER JEFFRIES: It was a xenophobic stereotype, which is why we've heard from many Latino organizations denouncing what took place. But the broader issue—I'm not going to dwell on the President's erratic behavior in terms of the meme or the AI deepfake videos. The broader problem is it's deeply unserious, and this is a serious moment. We need to reopen the government. We need to enact a spending agreement that's bipartisan, that actually meets the needs of the American people and we need to address the Republican healthcare crisis.
JAKE TAPPER: Democratic Leader of the House of Representatives, Hakeem Jeffries of New York. Thank you so much.
LEADER JEFFRIES: Thank you. Good to see you.
JAKE TAPPER: Good to see you as always. We'll be right back.
Full press conference can be watched here.