LEADER JEFFRIES ON INSIDE CITY HALL: "MY REPUBLICAN COLLEAGUES ARE ACTUALLY HURTING THE PEOPLE THAT THEY REPRESENT"
Today, House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries appeared on Spectrum News NY1's Inside City Hall with Errol Louis, where he reiterated that Democrats are committed to driving down the high cost of living while Republican extremists will stop at nothing to benefit their wealthy donors.
ERROL LOUIS: Joining me now for a wide-ranging interview on that and a number of other topics is House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries. He also represents parts of Brooklyn, including all or part of Bedford-Stuyvesant, Canarsie, Coney Island and Sheepshead Bay. Welcome back to the program. Always good to see you.
LEADER JEFFRIES: Great to be with you.
ERROL LOUIS: I wanted to get your reaction to today's big news about the case being dismissed against Letitia James.
LEADER JEFFRIES: Well, it was a welcome development. Attorney General Tish James is a tremendous public servant, a champion for the communities throughout New York City and New York State, as well as beyond, really, a national leader pushing back against the extremism of the Trump administration. As a result of her outspokenness, the Department of Justice filed this phony indictment against her, and I'm thankful that it was dismissed. The so-called Department of Justice under the Trump Administration is a malignant clown show. And they got what they deserve today. And we're gonna continue to stand by Tish James until this whole matter is definitively over.
ERROL LOUIS: As an attorney, how serious was the error by the Justice Department? I was reading the decision, and I was thinking, man, you're not supposed to make these kind of mistakes.
LEADER JEFFRIES: Yeah, absolutely. We've seen this over and over again, but this is what happens when effectively there are no credible attorneys running the Department of Justice. They all answer to Donald Trump, who's just using the Justice Department as a weapon against his perceived adversaries as part of him unleashing all of this extremism against the American people. And by the way, the American people are rejecting it up and down the ballot across the country. We just saw that recently with the off-year elections earlier this month.
ERROL LOUIS: Okay, we'll get back to the elections in a minute. Let's let's stay local for a minute and talk about some of the local politics. Former Governor Andrew Cuomo, who was talking today, says that Democratic leadership—and he's, I think he was talking nationally— he says, are not prepared, are not tough enough, are not fighting hard enough in the direction that the nation and the party needs to go. I wanted to get your reaction to that.
LEADER JEFFRIES: Yeah, I have no idea what he's talking about. By the way, Democrats literally across the country, in New Jersey, in New York, in Virginia, in Pennsylvania, in Georgia, in Mississippi, right, in California, across the country, up and down the ballot, race after race after race, have won elections. This represents a pushback that's dramatic against the extremism of the Trump administration, and Democrats actually articulating an affirmative agenda as it relates to making life more affordable for the American people. What about winning across the country does he not get?
ERROL LOUIS: Okay, well, let's peel it back a layer. There's discussion locally. There was even talk about somebody wanting to challenge you. We still don't know whether or not Chi Ossé, the City Council Member, is going to do that. But there's some discussion about whether or not Democratic leadership, and that's a term we'll try and nail down in, I guess, in just a second. But your wing of the Democratic leadership is either not tough enough, not forceful enough, not engaged enough. What's your sense of that?
LEADER JEFFRIES: Well, I think what we just saw over the last several months on the House Democratic side, partnering with Chuck Schumer and our colleagues on the Senate, is week after week after week pushing back against the Trump administration, making very clear to them that, of course, at all times we will find a bipartisan path forward to fund the government, but that there were lines in the sand, including making sure that any spending agreement actually makes life better for the American people and that we were not going to support a spending agreement that continued to gut the healthcare of the American people.Every single Democrat in the House and the Senate stood up against Donald Trump and the Republican One Big Ugly Bill. Why did we do that? Because back in July, when they jammed that bill down the throats of the American people without a single Democratic vote, they ripped healthcare away from everyday Americans, we pushed back aggressively against that. They enacted the largest cut to supplemental nutrition in American history, cut $186 billion from SNAP, literally ripping food from the mouths of children, seniors and hungry veterans. We pushed back aggressively against that. And all of that was done by Republicans so they could enact massive tax breaks for their billionaire donors.
ERROL LOUIS: Are we going to go through this all over again on January 30?
LEADER JEFFRIES: Well, now we're in the middle of a fight, as we approach December 31, where we're going to continue to make clear that we need the Affordable Care Act tax credits extended so that tens of millions of people, including over a million people here in New York State, don't see their healthcare premiums dramatically increased. And everywhere I go in the community, in the city, across the country, people are urging us to continue to stay in that fight, which we will, until we win this fight.
ERROL LOUIS: A recent CBS poll asked Democratic voters, well, actually voters overall, to describe their party in one word. For a majority of all voters and more than 40 percent of Democrats, the word that they chose is, 'weak.' What aren't you doing? Is this a messaging problem? Is there some new strategy you might want to try?
LEADER JEFFRIES: Well, I think what's interesting is that this weak party just won elections all across the country. So, there's a juxtaposition, and I think part of it is that Donald Trump is unleashing extremism on the American people week after week after week. This incredible, unprecedented assault on the economy, on healthcare, on nutritional assistance, on veterans, on everyday Americans, on law-abiding immigrant families, on the rule of law and of course, on democracy itself. And so, we are in a more-is-more environment, and as Democrats, we have to continue to do more. But I think what we've decisively seen, literally all across the country, and we've been winning elections, by the way, since the end of January,when we flipped the seat in the Iowa State Senate, that Donald Trump had just won by 21 points the previous November. We flipped that seat, and we've been winning the elections ever since. That said, we can't take our foot off the gas pedal. We have to continue to press forward and articulate our affirmative agenda. We want to lower the high cost of living. We want to fix our broken healthcare system. And of course, we need to clean up corruption in this country so we can deliver an America that actually works for working-class folks.
ERROL LOUIS: Yeah, one thing about all of this. When I see a word like weak or people saying you're not fighting hard enough, look, you come through here and I see you've got like a level of security you didn't used to have to travel with. There's been serious threats against you, at least one of which resulted in quite a bit of publicity. How are things going as far as that part of your life?
LEADER JEFFRIES: Yeah, well, you know, I appreciate you raising that. When you push back aggressively, all of us in the House and the Senate, governors, mayors, local elected officials, of course, we see extremists on the other side of the aisle who start to target you. And that's certainly been a reality, particularly, you know, throughout the year. The particular situation that unfolded a couple of weeks ago, of course, was some individual who was pardoned by Donald Trump for attacking the Capitol on January 6, and we know hundreds of these people, violent felons, have actually been pardoned by the President on his first day in office and then released back into communities. So I'm more concerned about the impact that that has on public safety in neighborhoods throughout America. This is from a group of people, by the way, Errol, who promised that they were going to lower costs on day one. But costs haven't gone down on day one, costs are going up. The Trump tariffs are creating life that is more expensive for everyday Americans, thousands of dollars of additional expenses per year. And that's why we're continuing to wage this healthcare affordability fight and pressing our Republican colleagues to do the right thing and extend the Affordable Care Act tax credits.
ERROL LOUIS: Among the chattering classes, the consultants and the commentators and so forth, there's an assumption that Democrats are going to win control of the House. The polling, at least at this stage, seems to suggest that on a generic ballot, people think that they want to vote for Democrats more so than Republicans. That's enough to win the control of the House and perhaps make you the Speaker of the House. If that should happen, how will life be different for New Yorkers?
LEADER JEFFRIES: Well, listen, we're going to continue to work hard to stop the extremism from being unleashed on the people of New York City, New York State and across the country, serve as a check and balance on an out-of-control executive branch. That's what the framers of the Constitution wanted. That's not what we're seeing from our Republican colleagues, who are nothing more than a reckless rubber stamp for Donald Trump's extreme agenda. And if any of my House Republican colleagues dare to push back, even gently, against Donald Trump, they get run out of office, as we just saw with Marjorie Taylor Greene. House Democrats, in the majority, are also going to try to move an affirmative agenda that recognizes that far too many people in this city work hard, play by the rules, but can't get ahead, can barely get by, are living check-to-check.And we actually have to do something to make life more affordable in the city, as the Mayor-elect is working hard to do, in the state, as Governor Hochul is working hard to do and of course, down in Washington, where we've seen no action from our Republican colleagues, but as House Democrats, we will press forward to try to accomplish.
ERROL LOUIS: Okay, speaking about affordability, Mayor-elect Mamdani publicly urged the New York City DSA not to endorse Chi Ossé in a primary against you. Did you speak with him before that? Was there an actual or implied kind of alliance that you had with him?
LEADER JEFFRIES: Well, we actually didn't talk about the politics related to primaries in any great detail. We spent a lot of time talking about, and continue to do so, talking about his continued emphasis on affordability and public safety. And I think, as we saw most recently when the Mayor-elect met with Donald Trump, continuing to stay focused on those issues and delivering for the people of New York will pay dividends. And everybody needs to lean in to make sure that the Mayor-elect is successful, that the governor is successful, because if that in fact is the case, if he's successful, then the people that we represent will be successful because the city of New York will be successful.
ERROL LOUIS: What do you make of that summit or that meeting between Mamdani and President Trump the other day in the Oval Office?
LEADER JEFFRIES: Yeah, it was kind of an extraordinary thing, but Donald Trump clearly recognizes that Mayor Mamdani is committed to trying to turn things around from an affordability standpoint. And he also knows, meaning the President, that he's failed in that regard. And hopefully, we'll see, actually, Donald Trump try to emphasize those issues of lowering the high cost of living across the country a little more and partner with the city of New York as opposed to trying to target the city of New York. So I thought it was a great success, and—
ERROL LOUIS: Have you ever had a meeting like that with the President?
LEADER JEFFRIES: I think the most recent meeting that I had with the President was a few days before Donald Trump and Republicans decided to shut the government down. And we agreed to strongly disagree on the issues because we made clear at that moment that we were not supporting any partisan Republican spending bill as long as it gutted the healthcare of the American people. And we did not support that partisan Republican spending bill a few days later, when we hit the October 1 deadline.
ERROL LOUIS: So, you know, something that across both sides of the aisle, that I'm hearing from you is that there's actions being taken by the Republican majority at the behest of the White House that have nothing to do with winning elections, right? That it's clearly not going to be popular. We see the effects that are going to hit even Republican districts when the cost of healthcare premiums goes through the roof. We know that it's not popular. The polling suggests that. You have hard evidence in the form of these elections, like you said, from coast to coast, up and down the ballot. How does this continue to sort of go in a destructive path that just not only hurts individual families, but is politically just not working for anybody?
LEADER JEFFRIES: Yeah, it's incredible to me, first and foremost, that my Republican colleagues are actually hurting the people that they represent. Like, when you enact the largest cut to Medicaid in American history, they've now set in motion hospitals, nursing homes and community-based health centers closing in their communities, rural America and all across the country. And apparently they could care less, because they were ordered by Donald Trump to do so. When you are on the verge of allowing the Affordable Care Act tax credits to expire, the 10 states that are most impacted are all Republican-run states. Everyday Americans throughout the country are going to get hurt, but it's West Virginia, it's Wyoming, it's Alaska, it's Tennessee, it's Mississippi, it's South Carolina, I believe, Alabama, Texas, these states, North and South Dakota, who are most impacted by the Affordable Care Act tax credits expiring. And my Republican colleagues could care less.
ERROL LOUIS: Well, I mean, if this is part of your messaging for the fall elections, and it's happening about a year from now, can you wait that long? Is that what the message is going to be, or are people going to have to endure all of this pain, or is there kind of another way to sort of set up a Democratic alternative?
LEADER JEFFRIES: Well, one of the reasons why we've waged a fight and we've launched the discharge petition, as was most recently done successfully with the release of the Jeffrey Epstein files, we as Democrats in the House have launched a discharge petition to try to force an up-and-down vote on a three-year extension of the Affordable Care Act tax credits. And all we'll need at the end of the day is just a handful of our Republican colleagues to join us. And if that, in fact, is the case, then we can save healthcare in terms of affordability for the people that I'm privileged to represent throughout the 8th Congressional District in Brooklyn, for people in New York City, for people in New York State and across the country. All we need is a handful of Republicans, including a handful from New York State, like Mike Lawler and others. Just join us.
ERROL LOUIS: Okay.
LEADER JEFFRIES: And if you're willing to do so, we can actually get something done for the people they represent.
ERROL LOUIS: Where are the seats that you're targeting, that you are planning to flip between now and next year?
LEADER JEFFRIES: Well, you know, we believe that in this environment,we've got 25, 30, 35 different seats that we actually are in position to win. Now, we only have to win three. But they're all across the country, a handful here in New York. We've got at least one, maybe two, in New Jersey. We've three to four in Pennsylvania, three to four in Michigan, one or two in Wisconsin, at least two in Arizona, several opportunities now in California. We've got some seats that we've got to hold in Texas, but maybe a handful that we can pick up as well. So, coast to coast, across the country, north, south, east and west—
ERROL LOUIS: Okay.
LEADER JEFFRIES: —we're gonna work hard to take back the House.
ERROL LOUIS: Who's the leader of the Democratic Party, if I asked you? Everybody's got their own opinion about this.
LEADER JEFFRIES: Well, it's my honor to be the House Democratic Leader, and I have a job right now to lead about 215 Democrats in the House of Representatives. It's a big job, and I'm working hard to do the best that I can.
ERROL LOUIS: Okay, we'll let you get back to it. Thanks so much for coming by.
LEADER JEFFRIES: Thank you.
ERROL LOUIS: Happy holiday to you.
Full interview can be watched here.