LEADER JEFFRIES ON MSNBC: "HOUSE DEMOCRATS WILL STRONGLY OPPOSE THE BILL THAT'S COME OVER FROM THE SENATE"
Today, House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries appeared on MSNBC's All In with Chris Hayes, where he reiterated that Democrats are focused on protecting the healthcare of the American people as negotiations in the House begin on reopening the government.
CHRIS HAYES: Joining me now is House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries from New York's 8th Congressional District. Congressman, you will be back in session tomorrow. Mike Johnson has decided that he's going to call the House back into session. How will you be, will leadership be whipping votes on this vote to basically pass what the Senate passed, continuing funding for the government?
LEADER JEFFRIES: Well, House Democrats will strongly oppose the bill that's come over from the Senate because we continue to make clear that we have to decisively address the Republican healthcare crisis. I'm thankful that Republicans have finally decided to end their seven-plus-week taxpayer-funded vacation, which was outrageous. They've been on the run, but they can no longer hide. And in just a few moments from now, myself and Katherine Clark will offer an amendment before the Rules Committee to change the bill so that it extends the Affordable Care Act tax credits for three years, and we're going to put Republicans on record. They've been saying, many of them, for the last several weeks, that they actually do want to deal with this healthcare crisis situation, the fact that, for tens of millions of people, their premiums, copays and deductibles are about to skyrocket. These are working-class Americans. But now we're going to force them to actually see, are they willing to do it, or will they continue to do the bidding of Donald J. Trump?
CHRIS HAYES: How did you hear about the Senate deal?
LEADER JEFFRIES: I think I learned about the Senate deal maybe an hour or two before it officially came together. And certainly, I think there's a lot of disappointment as it relates to what those seven or eight Senate Democrats decided to do. I am thankful for what we've seen from Leader Schumer and the overwhelming majority of Senate Democrats who, for seven-plus weeks, held the line and continue to stand against this Republican spending bill because, as we've indicated, we were not going to support anything that guts the healthcare of the American people. And as you've indicated also as well, Chris, over the last several weeks, we have elevated successfully the issue of the Republican healthcare crisis, and we're not backing away from it. We're gonna press them tonight, we're gonna press them on the House Floor tomorrow and we're going to continue to press them until these Affordable Care Act tax credits are extended.
CHRIS HAYES: I want to ask one more question just about the deal and how it came together. So you know, legislative leaders like yourself, Senator Schumer, you're not people's boss, right? I mean, everyone's elected. They get to vote their conscience. You try to whip them, but they, you know, they get to do what they want to do. But is it not an indictment of the majority, the Minority Leader's leadership in the Senate if it's the fact that on something so high stakes and so high leverage, there's basically a breakaway caucus that hammers the deal?
LEADER JEFFRIES: Well, it was my understanding that this was a somewhat rogue group of individuals in terms of how they approached this negotiation, and they broke away from the overwhelming majority of their colleagues, both progressive senators and moderate senators, and, you know, that's unfortunate, but they're going to have to explain themselves. I think our fight right now, Chris, is the reality that there are at least 25 different Republicans who, in different ways, in the House, have been on record saying that we have to address this healthcare crisis because it's out of control. And we know the cost of living in this country is out of control, and Republicans, these people, these extremists, they lied to the American people. They said they were gonna lower costs on day one, but costs haven't gone down. They've gone up. Housing costs through the roof, grocery costs through the roof, utility bills, electricity prices through the roof. And now, because of their refusal to extend the Affordable Care Act tax credits, in some instances, we know that everyday Americans are going to experience insurance costs that increase by $1,000 or $2,000 per month. That is unsustainable. That's why we're in this fight, Chris, until we win this fight for the American people.
CHRIS HAYES: So I don't know if people quite have gotten their head around this. The bill that's going to be before the House and pass the Senate will extend funding through January. We're in the second week of November. That'll be here before you know it. So Laura Ingraham interviewed Donald Trump and asked basically, well, what's going to happen in January? I want to play you what he had to say.
RECORDING OF LAURA INGRAHAM: How do Republicans avoid this shutdown saga from re-occurring on January 30th when this deal ends?
RECORDING OF PRESIDENT TRUMP: Well, we're trying to put in a bill, as you know, the bill or a bill that you can never do that again. You can't just shut down the government because you're trying to renegotiate a deal.
CHRIS HAYES: I don't think that's in the bill, and I don't think you could even—do you even understand what he's talking about?
LEADER JEFFRIES: No, I have no idea what he's saying, and I don't think Donald Trump has any idea what he's saying either. But here's what I do know, is that the Affordable Care Act tax credits are going to expire on December 31.
CHRIS HAYES: Right.
LEADER JEFFRIES: And so, the Republicans are not going to be able to run away from this issue. We're in open enrollment right now. Tens of millions of people are seeing the reality that their premiums, copays and deductibles are about to skyrocket. People are not gonna be able to afford to go see a doctor when they need one. So, this has been a very real fight for us as Democrats, and this affordability fight is going to continue. It's the reason why great candidates, my colleague Mikie Sherrill, won a decisive victory in New Jersey and Abigail. We won in New York, we won in Pennsylvania, we won in Georgia, we won in Mississippi, we won in California. That's the momentum that will allow us to continue to stay in the fight, to lower the high cost of living, fix our broken health care system, clean up the corruption mess that Donald Trump and Republicans have created and then go back and take control of the House of Representatives next November so we can start the process, Chris, of ending this national nightmare.
CHRIS HAYES: What do you say to people who—and I've seen a lot of people say this, that yes, Democrats won everywhere, coast to coast, small, you know, swing counties and statewide elections, and they won because they were fighting. And then once they won, they stopped fighting. Why did they do that?
LEADER JEFFRIES: Well, that's a question, really, that the eight or so Democrats in the Senate are going to have to answer. I can tell you that House Democrats are committed to fighting on all the things, fighting to make sure we push back against the extremism that Donald Trump has unleashed on the American people, fighting the make sure that we actually improve the quality of life of everyday Americans. We've said from the beginning, look, we want to find a bipartisan spending agreement approach that actually makes life better for working-class Americans, that lowers the high cost of living, that improves their quality of life, that addresses the Republican healthcare crisis. These are reasonable things, but Republicans refuse to do anything about it. Why? Because these people, these extremists, they're only concerned with making life better for the wealthy, the well-off and the well-connected. That's what their One Big Ugly Bill was all about. They can't find a dime to extend the Affordable Care Act tax credits for everyday Americans, middle-class Americans, and working-class Americans. But somehow, in the midst of this shutdown, they found $40 billion to bail out their right-wing dictator friend in Argentina. It's extraordinary. The American people see these extremists now for who they are. That's become even clearer over the last several weeks, and we're going to continue to wage this fight on behalf of the people we're privileged to represent.
CHRIS HAYES: Javier Millet in Argentina, whose party did just win re-election in those elections, and who was elected to begin that term. Final question for you. Adelita Grijalva gets sworn in tomorrow. Everyone's back. Do you think that there's some bell that can't be unrung in terms of the constitutional structure of governance vis-a-vis Mike Johnson just canceling the House for eight weeks, like something that we've never seen before?
LEADER JEFFRIES: Yeah, it's extraordinary that, as you indicated, Mike Johnson did cancel the House for eight weeks. They were missing in action, taxpayer-funded vacation. Some of them, you know, were hiking in mountains and documented this. Others were traveling Europe. This is extraordinary stuff. But here's the thing, that basically, House Republicans have canceled the Congress, the House of Representatives, since the very beginning of Donald Trump's presidency. These people don't function as a separate and co-equal branch of government. They are puppets to Donald Trump, who's their puppet master. When he says jump, they say how high. All they do is serve as a reckless rubber stamp to Donald Trump's extreme agenda. And the American people have had enough. They see it. And that's why I'm pretty confident that we're going to take back control of the House so we actually have a check and balance on an out-of-control executive branch and an affirmative agenda that makes life better for the American people, beginning by lowering the high cost of living.
CHRIS HAYES: House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries, thank you very much.
Full interview can be watched here.