LEADER JEFFRIES ON MSNBC: "IT'S IMPORTANT FOR HOUSE REPUBLICANS TO PRODUCE AT LEAST 150 VOTES"
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries joined MSNBC's All In with Chris Hayes to reiterate that House Democrats are committed to avoiding a catastrophic default, while extreme MAGA Republicans continue to hold the economy hostage.
HAYES: I'm joined now by House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York. And, Congressman, first, let me just ask you, your, sort of, top-line understanding of the deal. What do you think of it?
JEFFRIES: Well, good evening, Chris. Great to be with you. I think President Biden accomplished three very important objectives. First, to make sure that we avoided a devastating and catastrophic default and stop the extreme MAGA Republicans from crashing the economy, triggering a job-killing recession, which would have hurt millions and millions of everyday Americans. The second thing that was accomplished here is to make sure that the debt ceiling was suspended for two years, taking it into the early part of 2025 and removing their ability, for the balance of this Congress, to take the country down another hostage-taking exercise. Third, President Biden was able to protect some really important Democratic priorities, protect Social Security, protect Medicare, protect Medicaid, protect veterans, protect the country from the types of extreme right-wing cuts that the Republicans were demanding in the bill that they passed in April, the Default on America Act. 22% cuts they were proposing across the board. And so, I think, on balance, in this circumstance, where he was dealing with an extreme, unreasonable group of people who were determined to bring about a bad result for the American people, that President Biden did an incredibly good job in a very difficult situation.
HAYES: Let's talk about the sort of hostage-taking aspect of this, because there's a sort of- critiques of the substance of the bill, and then there's the critiques of essentially incentivizing this again. So, we saw it in 2011. They did it again. It's now pushed through to 2025. Right? The next time they'll have to raise the debt ceiling yield. Now, let's say you have a President Biden and a Republican Congress again? Not a crazy idea, right? It's like, okay, we're going to go through this every time. Has it changed anyone's thinking, among your House colleagues, that you have to get rid of this thing once and for all, whether it's to do what Gephardt did when he was your Democratic Leader and essentially come together and just get rid of it statutorily, whether the White House has to look into saying, look, the Constitution doesn't allow us not to pay our debts. But, where are you on that? Because that seems to me still the kind of unfinished business of this deal.
JEFFRIES: Yes, I think- Very good point, Chris. It's an all of the above approach. First thing that we have to do is get through this moment, make sure the country pays our bills, avoid a default, and we can continue to build an economy that works for everyday Americans, building upon the great record of accomplishment that came out of the last Congress. But we also have to find our way out of enabling extreme right-wing individuals in the Congress to use the debt ceiling down the road to take us down this hostage-taking exercise and try to extract a painful ransom. And so, we need to look at the options legislatively. I think that would be the best solution that's in front of us and to see where the opportunities are moving forward. McConnell had agreed on a proposal, initially, several years ago, that would change the formula related to the debt ceiling and effectively give the administration, through the Secretary of Treasury, the ability and presumption to be able to do this.
HAYES: Yes.
JEFFRIES: Without, you know, Congress being able to weigh in at the front end. So, I think we need to look at that because it's a proposal that the Senate Republicans have at least supported in the past. And then the administration can explore, you know, some of the options that may be available to it outside of the context of the crisis that we're in right now.
HAYES: Yeah, that's interesting, I'd forgotten the McConnell proposal was, basically, it defaults to it being raised, and if you want to stop it from being raised, then you have to act to pass legislation as opposed to the way that we have it now, which is, as you said, perfectly sets up this sort of hostage negotiation. In terms of the process, how involved I mean, who got this deal and how involved were you?
JEFFRIES: Well, President Biden and his team had the laboring oar, but they were in close communication with Leader Schumer and with myself and House Democrats every step of the way and I greatly appreciate that. And House Democrats were unified, we were unified in getting behind the discharge petition to make it clear that there was an option here if we couldn't find an acceptable resolution, we were unified in all voting against the House Republican Extreme Default on America Act, making it clear that there was no room, no leverage in terms of trying to peel off Democrats, that we all stood strongly behind President Biden and his team in avoiding default and arriving at a resolution that protected our values and that was acceptable to Democrats in the House and in the Senate.
HAYES: I want to play you what, when the deal was coming together, Congressman Matt Gaetz, I think late last week when the sort of contours were being made public, sort of offered a prediction about what-how we thought this would go. And I thought it looks like it's fairly astute and I'm curious to get your reaction. Take a listen.
GAETZ [VIDEO]: I think that it will pass with about 80 to 100 Democrat votes and between 140 and 160 Republican votes. I think the coalition opposed to this will be like the Squad and the Freedom Caucus and it will-it will rocket through the Senate after it passes the House. And I think that there's no serious threat to McCarthy's speakership.
HAYES: Basically a pass on a bipartisan basis. I guess the question for you is, are you whipping votes for this? Is this-is this a vote that you're going to go around and really get Democrats to vote yes on?
JEFFRIES: Well, we're continuing the process of engaging with the administration and making sure that they are presenting information, which they have been doing in a very clear and comprehensive way, to members as it relates to the contours, the four corners of the resolution. And we'll be hearing from them tomorrow in person at a Caucus meeting. But I do expect that Democrats will make sure that we don't default and that this agreement, that is presented, is able to pass out of the House through the Senate and gets to President Biden's desk. But it's important for House Republicans to produce at least 150 votes. This is an agreement that they themselves negotiated and they should be able to produce the votes necessary, consistent with what Representative Gaetz said in order to help get this thing over the finish line.
HAYES: That's-that's interesting, because that's-those two parts of the answers are somewhat in tension with them, right. You're saying like, look, we've you know, the leadership in the White House, the White House that we generally trust, thinks it's a good deal. They're explaining why they think it's a good deal, why your members should vote. But then the second part is Kevin, buddy you-you negotiated this, this is you're doing. We can't give you-you got to do the heavy lifting on these votes.
JEFFRIES: Well, he's got to do his part to avoid a default. But I do think that for the reasons that I outlined and the protection of those Democratic values, Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, veterans, you know, vulnerable individuals, the homeless, people who are aging out of foster care, these are all communities and issues that we fight hard for as Democrats that President Biden protected. But at the same time, if we're going to have a bipartisan resolution to this, that means that, in addition to House Democrats helping to avoid a default, that's exactly what House Republicans should do as well.
HAYES: All right, Congressman Hakeem Jeffries. I appreciate you taking some time with us tonight. Thank you very much.
JEFFRIES: Thank you, Chris.
Full interview can be watched here.