LEADER JEFFRIES ON MS NOW: "IT'S A PATRIOTIC THING TO SAVE THE HEALTHCARE OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE"
Today, House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries appeared on MS NOW's The Weekend, where he made clear that Democrats will continue fighting to end the Republican healthcare crisis and lower costs for everyday Americans.
EUGENE DANIELS: Joining us now is House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries. Leader Jeffries, thank you for coming to The Weekend again.
LEADER JEFFRIES: Good morning. Great to be with you.
EUGENE DANIELS: I want to get—to start with this discharge petition, because I assume that Marjorie Taylor Greene will sign on because that was her kind of first splintering from President Trump and other Republicans. But what are you doing as leader to get other Republicans to sign on? And who are you targeting?
LEADER JEFFRIES: Well, there are at least 25 different Republicans who, in a variety of different ways over the last several weeks during the Trump-Republican government shutdown, indicated that there absolutely needed to be an extension of the Affordable Care Act tax credits. And so our view is that we just need a handful to join us, to keep their word to their constituents so we can actually prevent tens of millions of people from experiencing these dramatically-increased premiums, copays and deductibles that will prevent them from being able to go see a doctor when they need one.
JONATHAN CAPEHART: So, Leader Jeffries, the point you just made is an excellent one. Unfortunately, Speaker Johnson doesn't seem to be quite there yet in terms of holding a vote on ACA benefits. So I want to play for you something he said on Wednesday at the Capitol.
RECORDING OF SPEAKER JOHNSON: Who are you going to trust to fix healthcare? It's the Republican Party because we have volumes of ideas on how to do this, on how to fix it, on how to drive costs down and how to increase access to care and quality of care. And you're going to see all that vigorous debate. So the answer to your question is, am I going to guarantee a vote on ACA unreformed COVID-era subsidies that is just a boondoggle to insurance companies and robs the taxpayer? We got a lot of work to do on that.
JONATHAN CAPEHART: Leader Jeffries, Speaker Johnson says that Republicans have a whole lot of plans and everything to drive down costs. Have you seen any of them or is he selling wolf tickets?
LEADER JEFFRIES: He's definitely selling wolf tickets. And Mike Johnson and the Republicans, particularly the leadership, they continue to bury their heads in the sand. They were on a taxpayer-funded vacation for seven plus weeks. Missing in action. Absent without official leave. Nowhere to be found. Uninterested in trying to extend the Affordable Care Act tax credits or deal with the Republican healthcare crisis that's devastating people all across the country. We know what their plan is to the extent that it exists. It's to destroy the Affordable Care Act. It's to rip Medicaid away from millions of people. It's to trigger, you know, closures of hospitals, nursing homes and community-based health centers that are closing all across the country as a result of what they've done in their One Big Ugly Bill. And, Jonathan, this is the same group of people who have tried to repeal the Affordable Care Act more than 70 different times over the last 15 years. These people are obsessed with ripping healthcare away from the American people, which is why we're going to go around them in terms of this discharge petition effort to extend the Affordable Care Act tax credits for three years just like we're going around them now to trigger a vote to release the Jeffrey Epstein files.
JACKIE ALEMANY: Leader Jeffries, I know you've been asked repeatedly this week about whether or not Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer has your stamp of approval for the way that he handled his group of Democratic colleagues. I'm not going to put you on the spot about that again. But what I am, what I would like to know is you and Leader Schumer obviously have to work very closely together as co-leaders of Democratic lawmakers in Congress. Has he indicated to you whether or not he's seeking reelection again in 2028?
LEADER JEFFRIES: No, we haven't had a conversation about that. Our conversation right now is focused on making sure that we can successfully move legislation in the House and in the Senate to deal with this vicious Republican healthcare crisis. I know in the Senate there's a vote that will be planned over the next few weeks. We want to make sure that that vote is successful. And in the House, our view is that we want to continue to drive home the issues of importance to the American people. Lower the high cost of living, deal with the affordability crisis. And this is a situation where Donald Trump and Republicans lied to the American people repeatedly last year when they said they were going to lower costs. In fact, they said they were going to lower costs on day one. But we know costs haven't gone down, they're going up. Housing costs out of control. Grocery costs out of control. Utility costs, electricity bills skyrocketing. Child care costs out of control. And now tens of millions of people facing the possibility of their premiums going up, in some cases by $1,000 or $2,000 per year. These are working-class people and middle-class people. It's unaffordable for folks to live in America because of the Republican policies that are making things worse right now.
JACKIE ALEMANY: Does it complicate Mr. Schumer's ability to lead if he's not seeking re-election?
LEADER JEFFRIES: Well, you know, the House has to run every other year. The Senate does have the privilege of the six-year term. And so, I mean, I think as it relates to Leader Schumer, he's not even up for reelection until 2028. And we, of course, make these leadership decisions every two years. And so I think Senate Democrats are appropriately focused on making sure we finish the job, like we're in this fight until we win this fight for the American people on all the things, certainly as it relates to dealing with the high cost of living, the affordability crisis and that certainly is the case in terms of dealing with our broken healthcare system that Republicans continue to destroy. And this is hurting people all across the country—rural America, working-class America, small town America, the heartland of America and Black and brown communities throughout America. This is not a partisan thing for us. It's a patriotic thing to save the healthcare of the American people.
EUGENE DANIELS: When you talk to younger folks, when all of us talk to younger people, especially as they looked and saw the shutdown ending, they saw these eight Democrats come out. What they see is, like, you guys teased us with a fight, right? That the Senate Democrats teased folks with the fight for a long time. We might have another shutdown because we're here, January 30th is the next time that you guys have to vote to fund the government. What—how should Democrats do this? How should they actually continue to fight but keep the government open? Do you see a fight coming or is this going to be a smooth sailing one this time around?
LEADER JEFFRIES: I definitely don't think that it's going to be smooth sailing if Republicans continue to adopt this my-way-or-the-highway approach, which is basically what they've done from the very beginning of Donald Trump's first day in office, which is, you know, let's try to jam their right-wing ideology down the throats of the American people. That's what the One Big Ugly Bill was all about. And Democrats were united in pushing back against that in both the House and in the Senate. But think about it. Their signature legislative accomplishment this year was to rip Medicaid away from 14 million people, the largest cut to Medicaid in American history. And in that same bill, they cut SNAP benefits by $186 billion. By the way, that's also the largest cut to SNAP in American history. And they did all of this so they could provide massive tax breaks to their billionaire donors. And they made those tax breaks permanent so they can eternally subsidize the lifestyles of the rich and shameless. These people are out of control. It's extraordinary. And so we've got to continue to aggressively push back against that in terms of their toxic policies that are hurting the American people.
JONATHAN CAPEHART: Let me get you on one thing before we have to let you go. Michelle Cottle in The New York Times with the headline, 'Democrats Need a Wartime Consigliere. Hakeem Jeffries Isn’t One.' And here's what she writes. 'Mr. Jeffries’s fatal flaw is that he is too unobjectionable. He comes across as too smooth, too reasonable, too benign to cut a compelling opposition figure in the Trump era, when attention and attitude are everything...to grip the imagination of his political allies and opponents, the Minority Leader needs to find a way to be less even-keeled, maybe even a bit of a jerk.' Leader Jeffries, when I read that as a Black man, I thought she has no idea what it means to be an African American leader at the level that you are. Just love your reaction to what I just read.
LEADER JEFFRIES: Yeah, you know, I've heard from outraged people all across the country, particularly African Americans, in terms of her assessment. You know, I don't want to comment on her view one way or the other, other than to say we've been fighting hard collectively as House Democrats, aggressively pushing back from the very beginning of Donald Trump's presidency. And we're going to continue to do that standing on the shoulders of giants like John Lewis, who always told us, show up, stand up, speak up for what we know is right, be strategic in how you do it. Our civil rights leaders, of course, were strategic in how they approached the fight, but they always brought the righteous indignation toward that fight. And as House Democrats, that's what we're going to continue to do. And building on these off-year elections that just occurred, we are going to take back control of the United States House of Representatives. And I'm proud to help lead that fight to end this national nightmare in the United States of America, and continue our country's great march toward a more perfect union.
JONATHAN CAPEHART: Go ahead, Leader Jeffries.
JACKIE ALEMANY: I have another question, but we're going to have to keep it there. My EP's going to kill us. House Minority Leader Congressman Hakeem Jeffries, thanks so much for joining us this morning. We always appreciate it.
LEADER JEFFRIES: Thank you all.
Full interview can be watched here.