LEADER JEFFRIES ON MS NOW: "THE WAR HAS MADE LIFE MORE EXPENSIVE IN THIS COUNTRY AND IT NEEDS TO END"
Today, House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries appeared on MS NOW's The Beat, where he emphasized that Democrats remain opposed to Donald Trump's reckless war of choice and the continued corruption being unleashed on the American people by his administration and sycophantic Republicans in Congress.
MELISSA MURRAY: Now we are going to turn to a special guest here on The Beat for a big night in politics. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, Democrat from New York, is joining us right now. Leader Jeffries, how are you?
LEADER JEFFRIES: Good, great to be with you.
MELISSA MURRAY: Great to have you. Lots of questions going on here. The President is going to make his big address tonight to the nation, an update on the Iran war. What are you hoping to hear from the President about this incredibly unpopular war?
LEADER JEFFRIES: Donald Trump and Republicans have gotten us into a reckless war of choice with no plan, no objectives and no clear exit strategy. The war clearly has not made us safer, but it has made life more expensive in this country and it needs to end. Now, the American people, as you've pointed out, Melissa, have expressed themselves from the very beginning of this conflict because our view, in totality, is that billions of dollars are being wasted right now to drop bombs in the Middle East. But these same group of extremists, Donald Trump and Republicans in the House and the Senate, won't even spend a dime to make life more affordable for the American people. In fact, we know what the war is doing—it's increasing costs, gas prices are skyrocketing through the roof and it's hurting everyday Americans all across the country.
MELISSA MURRAY: So tonight, are you hoping to hear a plan for withdrawing from Iran and, if so, what will that mean for the control of the Strait of Hormuz, which still remains in the hands of Iran?
LEADER JEFFRIES: That's a challenge that Donald Trump, of course, has created, had no clear strategy or preparation done to deal with this eventuality, and that's part of the problem of how this President and Republicans have conducted themselves from the very beginning, sort of just unleashing chaos and extremism on the American people and on the world. Now, it will be interesting to see if the President has articulated a plan to bring our allies together in order to get the situation in terms of the Strait of Hormuz under control. But he's not going to be able to accomplish that objective by criticizing and bullying and name-calling our NATO allies, which is what this guy has done from the very beginning of his presidency, and it's completely and totally ineffective.
MELISSA MURRAY: So one of the criticisms of this war is that the President has never really consulted with Congress as is required under the Constitution. Last month, a War Powers Resolution that sought to restrain the President was issued, but failed in the House, it was not passed. As this unpopular war continues, do you think the momentum on Capitol Hill is going to shift, and do you there will be more Members of the Republican Party who are willing to criticize this President and the way this war has been conducted in the absence of congressional approval?
LEADER JEFFRIES: Certainly it's my hope, but I'm not holding my breath because House Republicans have, from the very beginning of this presidency, conducted themselves not as a separate and co-equal branch of government, but actually like a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Trump cartel. These people continue to bury their heads in the sand and just serve like a reckless rubber stamp for Donald Trump's extreme agenda. The war is so deeply unpopular, it's been so ineffective in accomplishing whatever objective Donald Trump has articulated from day to day. And, of course, it's making life more expensive for the American people. It is my hope that upon our return, when we will have the ability to bring another War Powers Resolution to the Floor of the House, that a handful of House Republicans—we just need a few more to—join us and we can successfully enact a resolution that would require Donald Trump to end the war immediately.
MELISSA MURRAY: You mentioned one of the dynamics that has made this war so unpopular, it has had real constraints on affordability. Now, the White House is reportedly eyeing a $200 billion funding request for the war. The President has also reportedly suggested that additional cuts to healthcare may be necessary to fund the war. How is the Democratic Caucus going to respond to these measures? Will you be opposing this? Will you seek concessions on other issues? Are you planning to make this an issue as we go into the midterm cycle?
LEADER JEFFRIES: Well, it's my expectation that there will be strong opposition amongst House Democrats and Senate Democrats, as has already been expressed by many Members across the Capitol. And, by the way, there should be some Republicans who join us. The notion that Donald Trump entered this country into a reckless war of choice, is spending billions of dollars to drop bombs in Iran, but won't spend a dime to actually extend the Affordable Care Act tax credits, to reverse the Medicaid cuts, to deal with the damage that has been done to the economy as a result of the Trump tariffs and then wants to come back to the taxpayers and ask us for as much as potentially $200 billion is out of control. And, you know, I think one of the reasons why Donald Trump is now talking about trying to do this through the budget reconciliation process is because he knows his only hope is to try to jam this down the throats of the American people in an extreme partisan way. But I think the American people, as they've done with the One Big Ugly Bill, will furiously react to any effort to continue to cut healthcare or cut nutritional assistance in order to actually fund Donald Trump's reckless war of choice.
MELISSA MURRAY: Well, there was widespread public outrage about the bill that you just mentioned, but it did ultimately pass. Are there steps that you all are taking to oppose this potential funding measure if it comes to the Floor of the House? And what might it look like in the Senate?
LEADER JEFFRIES: Well, it passed by a single vote, I believe, in both the House and in the Senate. And that was, of course, as a result of the fact that Republicans largely did what Donald Trump told them to do, notwithstanding the fact that many Republicans had previously committed not to cutting Medicaid or not to cutting nutritional assistance. What we'll need to do is just get a handful of House Republicans to join us—we'll just need one or two more—and I expect there will be complete Democratic opposition in the House and in the Senate, as was the case against the One Big Ugly Bill. And we just have to continue to forcefully lay things out for the American people. The American people want their taxpayer dollars spent to make their life more affordable, not actually to rip away healthcare, to unleash violent masked and untrained ICE agents to brutalize and in some cases kill the American citizens. And now, of course, dealing with this dynamic as it relates to funding a deeply unpopular war.
MELISSA MURRAY: Speaking of ICE, there is now a measure that has gone through to continue funding DHS, although there is an exemption for the provisions that would fund ICE and Customs and Border Patrol enforcement. What was the process like for that? Are you and your Caucus happy with this resolution to what has been a standoff with the administration?
LEADER JEFFRIES: Well, what we've made clear to Donald Trump and Republicans during this entire Trump-Republican shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security is that we should fund TSA, fund FEMA, fund the Coast Guard, fund our cybersecurity professionals and make sure that there are actually dramatic, bold, meaningful changes to ICE so that ICE is brought back under control because we know they're conducting themselves in a violent and extreme fashion. Immigration enforcement in this country should be fair, just and humane. We need to get the Department of Homeland Security reopened, in terms of every other part of it that doesn't relate to Donald Trump's violent mass deportation machine. And that's a positive outcome from the American people while we continue to fight the battles that need to be fought in terms of the type of reforms that need to be put into place before ICE gets another dime in taxpayer dollars.
MELISSA MURRAY: So Leader Jeffries, President Trump was at the Supreme Court this morning. What do you think that was about? Why did he choose to attend these oral arguments, the first time a President has ever done so? What was the play here?
LEADER JEFFRIES: Well, it's very king-like behavior, it appears, in terms of Donald Trump showing up. I don't know whether he was trying to intimidate the justices that he had previously appointed in some instances. But I think appropriately so—and you certainly are one of the top legal scholars in the country, but the Constitution, the 14th Amendment, the birthright citizenship clause, is very clear—and as I think it was, Justice Roberts pointed out, while the Trump administration for whatever reason is arguing that times have changed, of course, that is in fact the case, this was a Reconstruction amendment, but the Constitution remains the same, and that has not been changed. And so, hopefully, the Supreme Court justices are going to do the right thing in terms of ruling as has been the case in prior Supreme Court decisions or every other federal court that has considered this matter and Donald Trump's last-ditch desperate effort to show up and try to intimidate the justices will go nowhere.
MELISSA MURRAY: Alright, Leader Jeffries, thanks so much for joining us to get us started tonight.
LEADER JEFFRIES: Thank you.
Full interview can be watched here.