LEADER JEFFRIES: "YOU HAVE A DO-NOTHING REPUBLICAN CONGRESS THAT HAS DELIVERED NO MEANINGFUL PROGRESS FOR THE AMERICAN PEOPLE"
Washington, DC – Today, Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries appeared on MSNBC'S All In where he emphasized that while extreme MAGA Republicans are mired in chaos, dysfunction and extremism, House Democrats and President Biden are moving our nation forward to make life better for the American people.
CHRIS HAYES: House Democratic Leader, Congressman Hakeem Jeffries of New York. Congressman, how are you doing tonight?
LEADER JEFFRIES: Good evening. Great to be with you.
CHRIS HAYES: What are you looking for on a night like this? Or do you not even have the TV on except for when you're coming to the camera to check in with us?
LEADER JEFFRIES: Well, certainly, it's interesting to see that Donald Trump continues to march toward the Republican nomination. He is a clear and present danger to our democracy, to our way of life, to everyday Americans. And I think, on a night like this, the stakes continue to be crystallized, that this is going to be a matchup, in all likelihood, between the former President and President Joe Biden. I think that's a matchup, once it's completely crystallized, the American people will understand that we can either move the country forward under the leadership of Joe Biden or risk turning back the clock under Donald Trump in a very dangerous way.
CHRIS HAYES: There were some reporting, in the past week, Mitch McConnell announced that he'll be retiring as the Republican Leader in the Senate, that he had told some people that it was the worst Congress he'd ever served in, which is saying something, the man has been in Congress a long time. By any kind of metrics that we have, it's been one of the least productive Congresses. And it's been particularly true in the House. Even Chip Roy, a member of the Republican Party, has gotten up in the well and said, what exactly have we done? Do you think the historically unproductive nature of this Congress has any political effect outside of what it does to governing? Do voters know about it? Care about it? Can you see it being part of this campaign as it was in 1948 for Harry Truman?
LEADER JEFFRIES: Yeah, I do think it will be an important part of this campaign because you can establish a clear contrast. You have a do-nothing Republican Congress that has delivered no meaningful progress for the American people. Instead, it's been chaos and dysfunction and extremism. And that compares to the track record of accomplishment under the leadership of President Biden, a historic Congress in the previous two years prior to this Congress starting, where we got things done, like clean water in every community, bringing domestic manufacturing jobs back home to the United States of America, lowering the high cost of lifesaving prescription drugs, including shrinking the price of insulin to $35 a month for millions of Americans. It's an extraordinary track record of accomplishment. Now, we can contrast that with the do-nothing Republican Congress and also make clear that moving forward, President Biden has a vision for making life even better for the American people over the next four years.
CHRIS HAYES: I'm going to ask you a question about your home state of New York and congressional maps and delegation there. The fate of who controls the House this fall hinges, probably, on no state more than it does on New York, where four or five– five seats flipped. One just got flipped back with Tom Suozzi. There are a number of high-level targets. There's been rounds of endless litigation about congressional maps. Finally, after a complicated set of plot twists, the Democrats have drawn a new map. Critics of it say it is-it is-that basically they flinched, that it's nowhere near as aggressive as it should be and that it risks essentially preserving a Republican majority. And I'm curious, as a New York Democrat, to get your response to that critique.
LEADER JEFFRIES: Well I strongly disagree. I think the New York State Legislature did a good job in drawing the fairest possible map that is a meaningful improvement on the map that had previously been drawn by an unelected, out-of-town Special Master that broke up communities of interest and seemed to have been done in a way that provided a partisan political advantage to Republicans. Now, that said, it was under the current map, not the new map that we will be running under in November, that Tom Suozzi decisively defeated a Republican and basically swung the district by 15 points from the congressional election in 2022. And of the five competitive districts that we have in New York, the Suozzi district was the toughest. And so, I think we've got a lot of room moving forward. They'll all be close races, but in the four other super-competitive races that we have, we've got a lot of room to get the job done.
CHRIS HAYES: Final question for you, on primary challenges. It has been your position, as I understand it, as the Leader of the Democrats, you defend incumbents across the ideological spectrum and across the coalition. There has been reporting that about $100 million has been raised by several pro-Israel groups, often from large checks from Trump donors, Republican conservative donors, to basically take out and challenge a number of your members who they view as insufficiently pro-Israel. What is your position on what's going to be a huge amount of money spent trying to take out some of your members?
LEADER JEFFRIES: Well, I'm going to continue to stand behind members of the House Democratic Caucus. We're a diverse family. We're an enthusiastic family. But at the end of the day, we're a family. We're progressives, we're New Dems and we're Blue Dogs. And so, I believe that the value of House Democrats range from the entire spectrum. From Representative Ocasio-Cortez to Representative Josh Gottheimer and all points in between. And as has been the case under the leadership of Speaker Pelosi and other Democratic leaders, I'm going to continue to stand behind our members.
CHRIS HAYES: All right. House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries, thank you for your time tonight.
Full interview can be watched here