LEADER JEFFRIES ON CNN: "THESE PEOPLE ARE DESTROYING THE HEALTHCARE OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE IN REAL TIME"
Today, House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries appeared on CNN's The Situation Room, where he made clear that as Donald Trump and Republicans continue to raise prices and fail to address their healthcare crisis, Democrats will continue fighting to lower the high cost of living on behalf of everyday Americans.
WOLF BLITZER: Joining us now to discuss this and more, the House Democratic Leader, Hakeem Jeffries of New York. Leader Jeffries, thanks so much for joining us. First of all, what's your response to what we heard there from President Trump and Defense Secretary Hegseth about that boat strike?
LEADER JEFFRIES: Well, there's a lot of explaining that the White House needs to do. Listen, at the end of the day, the buck stops with the President and the so-called Secretary of Defense. And it's not clear to me that the so-called Secretary of Defense is being truthful in this instance. And so, that's why there's going to be a complete and thorough bipartisan congressional investigation in both the House and the Senate, so we can uncover the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. That's what the American people deserve.
WOLF BLITZER: Why do you call him so-called Defense Secretary?
LEADER JEFFRIES: This is the most unqualified Secretary of Defense in American history. I called for him to be terminated several months ago in the aftermath of the Signalgate scandal. And there's still some additional information that I think will be revealed to the American people as to why that was so problematic.
WOLF BLITZER: Yeah, we're covering that as well. Pamela, go ahead.
PAMELA BROWN: He has said that everything he has done as the Secretary of War has been lawful, but given what you just said, do you think that he has committed impeachable offenses?
LEADER JEFFRIES: Well, there's reason to believe that war crimes may have been committed, and that's why we need a complete and thorough investigation, and I expect that that's exactly what's going to take place.I'm hopeful that my Republican colleagues in both the House and the Senate will finally decide to act like a separate and coequal branch of government and a check and balance on this out-of-control executive branch in this instance, where there's reasons to be horrified by what took place, a potential extrajudicial killing off the coast of Venezuela.
WOLF BLITZER: On another issue that just has emerged within the last several minutes, Leader Jeffries, President Trump has announced a pardon of the Texas Democratic Congressman Henry Cuellar and his wife, who were charged with bribery. What's your response?
LEADER JEFFRIES: Well, Congressman Cuellar is a beloved member of the House of Representatives, loved in his community, particularly in Laredo. I've had the opportunity to spend time with him down in Laredo in South Texas. I look forward to that moving forward. Listen, the reality is this indictment was very thin to begin with, in my view. The charges were eventually going to be dismissed, if not at the trial court level by the Supreme Court, as they've repeatedly done in instances just like this.
PAMELA BROWN: So, just to follow up on that, do you agree with the President's pardon here? Do you think that that was a good thing then?
LEADER JEFFRIES: I don't know why the President decided to do this. I think the outcome was exactly the right outcome.
PAMELA BROWN: Well, Congressman Cuellar, we should note, is one of a handful of House Democrats who sits in a district President Trump won in 2024. So now he has this presidential pardon. Have you had any conversations with the Congressman about him potentially switching to the Republican Party?
LEADER JEFFRIES: I think Congressman Cuellar is a highly-valued Member of the House Democratic Caucus, and I expect that he'll continue to remain a highly-valued Member of the House Democratic Caucus.
PAMELA BROWN: What about reelection plans? Has he informed you of that?
LEADER JEFFRIES: No, I think the filing deadline in Texas is upcoming in the next few days. Many of the Members of the Texas congressional delegation have yet to file for reelection. I expect that we'll see that happen in advance of the Monday deadline.
WOLF BLITZER: We'll see what he decides. The U.S. is immediately pausing immigration applications for individuals from some 19 countries, including Afghanistan, and temporarily holding asylum decisions. Do you see any upside at all to these steps by the Trump administration in the wake of that tragic shooting of two National Guard members here in Washington, D.C. by an Afghan national who was vetted and was here legally?
LEADER JEFFRIES: Yeah, the administration hasn't fully and completely explained their rationale for taking this decision, but here's what I know. Like, the American people want Donald Trump and Republicans to actually keep their promises on the issues that they said they would focus on, which includes dealing with the affordability crisis that exists here in the United States of America notwithstanding the fact that Donald Trump apparently believes that the high cost of living in this country is a scam. It is not a scam. These people promised that they were going to lower costs on day one. Costs aren't going down, they're going up. Housing costs out of control. Grocery costs out of control. Electricity prices out of control. And now, because Republicans refuse to extend the Affordable Care Act tax credits, tens of millions of people are about to experience dramatically-increased healthcare costs that will prevent them from being able to go see a doctor when they need one. These are the issues that the American people want to see progress made on. House Democrats are prepared to make that progress, but we need partners on the other side of the aisle.
PAMELA BROWN: And we'll get more—we'll get to more on affordability in just a moment. But just to follow up, I mean, one of President Trump's key campaign promises was also on immigration, right? So even if you disagree with the way this immigration crackdown is happening, according to government data, U.S. Border Patrol has released zero undocumented migrants into the U.S. for six consecutive months, and daily average apprehensions at the southwest border are lower now than under Biden. Are you willing to give President Trump any credit for that?
LEADER JEFFRIES: Well, let's take the two issues together, right? First, we believe in a safe, a strong and a secure border. And that's important, and we'll continue to stand behind that. At the same period of time, we acknowledge, of course, we have a broken immigration system. It needs to be fixed, but it should be fixed in a comprehensive and in a bipartisan way. The American people strongly disagree with the approach that Donald Trump has taken in terms of interior enforcement and immigration. Because Republicans promised that they were going to go after violent felons. We support that. They're not going after violent felons. They're breaking up families, law-abiding immigrant families. In some cases actually deporting citizen children of the United States of America. That's completely and totally unacceptable. And the American people know it, which is why in the most recent Gallup poll, Donald Trump's approval rating on immigration was underwater by 25 points.
PAMELA BROWN: And it is true that the polls show in terms of the tactics used that the majority, they don't like the tactics being used. But in terms of the border, securing the border, can you give President Trump any credit for securing the border? Because as you know, that was a big issue under the Biden administration when you had record border crossings and those border crossings have gone down dramatically. Can you give him credit for that?
LEADER JEFFRIES: The border is secure, that's a good thing. It's happened on his watch. He wants to claim credit for it. Of course, he'll get credit for that. In terms of making sure that we actually deal with the issues that matter, including on immigration or beyond, there's a lot that is left to be desired.
WOLF BLITZER: You know, another sensitive comment from the President, and I just want to get your reaction, Leader Jeffries. The President ended his cabinet meeting yesterday by referring to Somalis and Democratic Congresswoman Ilhan Omar specifically, and I'm quoting him now, he said they were quote, 'garbage.' How do you respond to that?
LEADER JEFFRIES: Well, it's an outrageous statement from the President directed at a Member of Congress who is well regarded, who's a strong advocate, Representative Ilhan Omar, for the communities that she represents in the great state of Minnesota. But this is consistent with the type of xenophobic behavior that we've seen from this President, from the administration, from my Republican colleagues instead of focusing on the issues that matter because they have no solutions, they have no intention, they have no plans, they have no legislative agenda to actually drive down the high cost of living or fix our broken healthcare system. That's why they're losing races all over the country and underperforming, including what we just saw last night in Tennessee.
PAMELA BROWN: On affordability and on healthcare, House Republicans tell CNN they're still working to reach a consensus on those enhanced Affordable Care Act subsidies set to expire at the end of this month, as we know. Was it a mistake for Democrats, now looking back in hindsight, to agree to end the government shutdown without a resolution to this looming healthcare crisis?
LEADER JEFFRIES: Well, House Democrats are going to continue to fight to address our broken healthcare system and deal with the Republican healthcare crisis. Understand, these people are destroying the healthcare of the American people in real time. They enacted the largest cut to Medicaid in American history. More than 14 million people are about to lose their health insurance as a result of what Republicans did in their One Big Ugly Bill. Hospitals, nursing homes, community-based health centers are closing throughout the country. They're attacking the Centers for Disease Control, the National Institute of Health, making vaccines unavailable, children are going sick and now they refuse to deal with the Affordable Care Act tax credit extensions. So we, as Democrats, we're going to continue the fight. We have a discharge petition that has the support of all 214 members of the House Democratic Caucus. All we need are four Republicans. Just four. There's 219 of them. All we need is four to join us, and we can get an up-or-down vote on passing a three-year extension of the Affordable Care Act tax credits to protect and save the healthcare of working-class Americans.
PAMELA BROWN: Just to follow up with you, what do you say to the Republicans? Because I know you are criticizing what they've done on Medicaid, but what do you say to Republicans who say that what's going on right now with the healthcare subsidies is a crisis of the Democrats' own making with the Affordable Care Act and even setting this expiration date and the fact that these premiums would now go up so much past this month if nothing is resolved in Congress. How do you respond to what Republicans say about that?
LEADER JEFFRIES: Listen, we've made clear overall that there are a lot of challenges with the healthcare system, and we're committed to fixing every aspect of our broken healthcare system. But the Affordable Care Act is understandably embraced by the majority of the American people because they know that it's an important part of making sure that health insurance can remain affordable for working-class Americans, middle-class Americans and everyday Americans. We're talking about tens of millions of people, including in many red states across the country. In fact, the states that would be most impacted if the Affordable Care Act tax credits expire are Republican-run states. We're talking about West Virginia, Wyoming, Alaska, Mississippi, Tennessee, South Carolina, Alabama, Texas, North Dakota and South Dakota. Those are the ten states most impacted if the Affordable Care Act tax credits expire. So we're fighting to protect the healthcare of the American people. This is not a partisan issue for us. It is a patriotic issue because in this country, wealthiest country in the history of the world, healthcare can't simply be a privilege available only to the wealthy and the well-off. It's got to be a right that's accessible and available to every single American.
WOLF BLITZER: The House Democratic Leader, Hakeem Jeffries, thanks so much for joining us. We'll continue these conversations to be sure down the road.
Full interview can be watched here.