LEADER JEFFRIES: "HOUSE REPUBLICANS HAVE SPENT THIS ENTIRE YEAR DOING NOTHING"
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries appeared on MSNBC's Morning Joe where he emphasized that while House Republicans are wasting time with a baseless impeachment inquiry and doing nothing for everyday Americans, House Democrats will continue to put people over politics to support the American people.
WILLIE GEIST: Congressman, thanks for being with us. You spoke out very strongly yesterday on the floor of the House against what you called a fraudulent impeachment inquiry into President Biden. What did you make of the spectacle you saw from Republicans yesterday?
LEADER JEFFRIES: Well, it was a very unfortunate abuse of the solemn and serious impeachment authority that we have in the House of Representatives. There is no evidence that President Biden committed a crime. There is no evidence that President Biden committed an impeachable offense. There is no evidence that President Biden engaged in any wrongdoing. Effectively, what we saw, is that the extreme MAGA Republicans in the House were ordered by an organized crime boss, the twice-impeached former President of the United States, who has been, we've seen, a living, breathing, one-person crime wave. He basically ordered the extreme MAGA Republicans to launch this illegitimate impeachment inquiry as a political hit on President Joe Biden to try to undermine President Biden's ability to be reelected.
MIKE BARNICLE: Congressman Jeffries, one of the two participants in the press conference that Republicans had yesterday was the Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, Jim Jordan of Ohio. Has he ever paid a price for ignoring a congressional subpoena? If not, why not?
LEADER JEFFRIES: It's a great question. He has not. And this speaks to sort of the approach that House Republicans have taken during the Trump years. Facts don't matter, hypocrisy is not a constraint to their behavior and many of them believe that shamelessness is a superpower. And so it's an approach that totally holds themselves to one standard of non-compliance with the law, with customs, with norms, with the Constitution, but tries to hold everyone else to a different standard. We'll expose that hypocrisy to the American people. But the bigger challenge is that House Republicans have spent this entire year doing nothing- nothing on the economy, nothing on affordability, nothing on inflation, nothing to deal with the gun violence epidemic that continues to ravage this country, nothing on public safety. Instead, they're going after reproductive freedom, going after the progress that has been made under the Biden administration and failing to advance the best interests of the American people.
JON LEMIRE: Leader Jeffries, while House Republicans yesterday were focused on this impeachment inquiry and the probe into Hunter Biden, what they were not doing was working on the Israel, Ukraine and border security package. I know lawmakers are getting set to head home for the holidays. Can you give us any sort of update as to where things stand? Is there any chance, any chance at all, that a deal could get done by year's end?
LEADER JEFFRIES: Well, we absolutely need to make sure that we fund our national security priorities with respect to Israel, Ukraine, the Indo-Pacific, as well as address in a bipartisan way some of the challenges that we've been experiencing at the border. What we see, I believe, is that the pro-Putin caucus within the House Republican Conference which on the inside is led by Marjorie Taylor Greene and Jim Jordan and on the outside is led by Donald Trump and Tucker Carlson actually wants Putin and Russia to prevail. They do not want to see us succeed in Ukraine because the facts are clear. 50% of the territory that was initially captured by Russia has been recaptured by Ukraine. 300,000 casualties have been inflicted by the brave Ukrainians on the Russian invaders. That is north of half of the Russian military being wiped out. This is an extraordinary strategic success that is in the national security interests of the United States, of our allies in Europe and certainly of NATO. And we can't allow that success to be eroded. So there's no rational reason why the Republicans are refusing to fund the Ukrainian war effort, other than at this point taking orders from the pro-Putin caucus.
JENNIFER PALMIERI: Leader, when Congress does come back in January, you're going to be very quickly facing a deadline on government funding, possibly face another government shutdown. Can you lay out for us what-what those first few weeks of Congress are going to look like and what you see the role for the Democrats in trying to find an agreement on the budget, keep the government operating. It's often fallen on Democrats' shoulders, to-to be there for those key votes. How do you see those next few weeks playing out?
LEADER JEFFRIES: Well, as you pointed out, from the very beginning of this Congress, House Democrats have made clear that we're going to continue to put people over politics and to find bipartisan common ground on any issue, whenever and wherever possible. And we've done that repeatedly as it relates to avoiding a catastrophic default on our debt. It was Democrats who provided the vote necessary to protect the full faith and credit of the United States of America and avoid the economy from crashing. And it certainly has been Democrats providing the votes necessary to keep the government open not once, but twice. And we are ready, willing and able to continue to do that. But we need partners on the other side of the aisle. And I'm concerned that House Republicans actually want to shut the government down. It's in their DNA, they've done it multiple times and it would be bad for the American people. We're prepared to do everything possible to stop that from happening.
MIKA BRZEZINSKI: House Minority Leader Congressman Hakeem Jeffries of New York, thank you very much for coming on the show this morning. We appreciate it.
LEADER JEFFRIES: Thank you. Happy holidays.
Full interview can be watched here.