🔰Hakeem Jeffries on Trump-Musk feud, his response to frustrated Democrats and more

Leader Jeffries, I want to start with the news of the moment. The president's tariffs on steel just doubled to 50 percent. What are you doing to convince Americans that you have a better plan than that? Well, the Trump tariffs are reckless and irresponsible and represent a tax on everyday Americans because they are going to increase costs, the cost of goods, the cost of groceries, the cost of everyday items that Americans rely upon to live their lives day to day. By some estimates, it could add thousands of dollars in additional costs to hardworking American families, which is why on the House Democratic Caucus side, working with our Senate Democratic colleagues, we have been strongly opposed. We also don't believe that Donald Trump has the authority to randomly announce and then try to implement these tariffs. That authority has been specifically delegated to the United States Congress, which is one of the reasons why a court recently concluded that Donald Trump's tariff scheme is unlawful and unconstitutional. Understood. That's opposition. But what are you doing about that? Well, our view is we should all be working toward making life more affordable for everyday Americans. The cost of living in the country is far too high and for far too long. The cost of living has gone up and the size of the middle class has gone down. And so our view is that we should be focused on lowering housing costs, lowering child care costs, lowering the cost of groceries, lowering the cost of utilities, lowering the cost of insurance to make life more affordable for hardworking American taxpayers. That's not what's happening here in this Congress, unfortunately, because Donald Trump and Republicans promise to lower costs. In fact, they said that costs would go down on day one. Costs aren't going down. They're going up. There's a better way. Do you plan to take the administration to court on this front? On simply levying tariffs like this? Well, the administration is already in court and House Democrats have supported that litigation that resulted in the recent court decision, the Court of International Trade, where judges, including one appointed by Donald Trump, concluded that his tariff activity is unlawful and unconstitutional. I want to ask you about the recent anti-Semitic attacks in Colorado and here in D.C. What's your reaction to that? And what are you what are you seeing from your constituents? It's horrific. I, of course, represent an incredibly diverse district, traditionally the ninth most African-American district in the country, 16th most Jewish. And many of my constituents across the board, but certainly in the Jewish community, are understandably disturbed by the dramatic rise in anti-Semitism that we've seen in this country. In some ways, it predated the events of October 7th, but we've seen an intensification of it subsequent to October 7th. My view is that anti-Semitism and combating it shouldn't be a partisan issue. It's not a Democratic issue or Republican issue. It's an American issue. And we need to stamp out, of course, anti-Semitism, along with all other forms of hatred, because when it's allowed to grow and fester, it turns violent. And that's what we saw in Washington, D.C. That's what we've recently seen in Boulder. And all of us need to come together as Americans to make it clear it's not acceptable. It needs to be shut down. We need to bury anti-Semitism in the ground never to rise again. ICE agents charging Congresswoman Lamonica McIver, that confrontation at that ICE detention center in Newark, New Jersey, and then federal agents handcuffing one of Jerry Nadler's staffers, congressman in Manhattan, right there in his office. You said that kind of thing is going to be a red line. So I ask you, Leader Jeffries, what are you going to actually do about it? What does that mean, red line? Yeah, it's an important question. And the first thing that we've done is to make sure that we are standing squarely behind Lamonica McIver and standing behind Jerry Nadler and his staff, particularly the young woman who was aggressively engaged by the federal agents in that building, clearly aggressive overreach. And so we're going to make sure that Lamonica has everything that she needs to fight back against this unjust prosecution, that she has the best legal representation. That's incredibly important. She does right now that that legal representation can be fully funded throughout the entirety of this process and that she's able to be successful in court, either in these charges being dropped because they are baseless or ultimately her prevailing when she gets her day in court. So that fundamentally is the most important first step that we can take. Now, we've got to look at changing the legislative paradigm that exists right here because you have an out of control executive branch on a whole lot of fronts. We've seen this executive branch launch an assault on the economy. They have done nothing to make life more affordable for the American people. An assault on health care, largest potential cut to health care in American history and an assault on the American way of life, on the rule of law and on democracy itself. But when you say red line, it sounds serious like you can't cross this or else. Absolutely. Or else part. Well, as I indicated, first of all, the human thing to do is to make sure that Lamonica MacGyver is supported and taken care of. That's the human thing to do. That's standard, though. It's it's beyond standard for us. It's personal at this point. They are trying to upend her life. And change it adversely. And all she was doing was her job. And we have a constitutional responsibility to provide oversight. Now, one of the things that, you know, needs to happen here is that we need a handful of House Republicans to join us as Democrats in reiterating the point that Congress doesn't work for Donald Trump. We don't work for J.D. Vance. We don't work for Elon Musk. We work for the American people. We're a separate and coequal branch of government for a reason. We have oversight authority for a reason. And if that oversight authority is breached, then the Congress should step forward and reclaim it from the executive branch and make clear that they are lines that are being crossed. And ultimately, when you cross those lines, you hurt the American people. You brought up Elon Musk. He called the president's budget plan a disgusting abomination. Is that helpful for you? You oppose it as well. The GOP tax scam, this one big ugly bill is absolutely a disgusting abomination. What we see right now is a Republican civil war. Elon Musk is attacking the GOP tax scam. This reckless budget that's going to hurt everyday Americans. House Republicans are attacking Senate Republicans. Senate Republicans are attacking House Republicans. Donald Trump is attacking the Federalist Society when these are the people that helped him stack the bench during his first term. This is a Republican civil war. And instead of fighting for the American people, they are fighting each other. But what Elon Musk said is the stone cold reality. When you try to take away health care for more than 15 million Americans, that's a disgusting abomination. When you are endeavoring to rip food literally out of the mouths of children, veterans and seniors with the largest cut to nutritional assistance in American history, that's a disgusting abomination. And it's certainly a disgusting abomination when all of this is being done to provide massive tax breaks to their billionaire donors. And they're going to stick the American people with the bill and increase the debt by trillions of dollars. All that said, is there a world in which Democrats can work with Republicans to push back and ultimately stop this bill from going through? Yes. At this point, the bill barely limped out of the House. It passed with only one vote to spare on the Republican side in the face of strong principled opposition on the Democratic side, because we're standing up for the American people, for their health care and for the American way of life in the Senate. There are 53 Republican senators. We only need four of them to show John McCain levels of courage only for. And if they were to do that, partnering with Senate Democrats, then we can stop this one big, ugly bill in its tracks. Politics of the moment. Leader Jeffries, when it comes to Democratic Party voters, they are frustrated. They want you all to have backbone. They want you to have a spine. CBS News polling shows 66 percent of them are frustrated by the way their party has handled the administration thus far. Fifty plus percent say it makes them feel nervous. Eighty six percent say their party should be doing more to oppose the president. That's not exactly a ringing endorsement of the Democratic leadership, which includes you. So how do you respond to all of that? Well, one, people in this country are understandably frustrated because this is all unprecedented. This daily outrage, the flooding, the zone, the parade of horribles that Donald Trump and his minions in Congress have unleashed on the American people. This is this is unprecedented. And it is, of course, unsettling because it's all on American. And I think what we'll continue to do as Democrats is to show up and stand up and speak up for what we know is right, to push back aggressively in the spirit of the great John Lewis and others. And of course, to also articulate our vision for what America should look like, how we actually do make life better for everyday Americans and reward hard work, reward playing by the rules, make sure that everyone has access to a good paying job, can live a comfortable life. And that's what we'll continue to do. We're in a more is more environment. More rallies, more press conferences, more town hall meetings, more sit ins, more speeches on the House floor, more speeches on the Senate floor, more hearings on campus, more hearings off campus, all of the things that we've been doing and more creativity so that we can meet the moment and one day in this national nightmare. The polling I talked about a second ago suggests that that stuff is not breaking through. Joe Biden, the case has been made, didn't use the bully pulpit, did a lot of stuff, but people just didn't know about it, didn't hear. What did you learn from that? Well, here's the thing. I would actually disagree that things aren't breaking through. Donald Trump at the 100 day mark was the most unpopular president in American history. Now, shattering his own record, by the way, from his first term, you don't become the most unpopular president at the 100 day mark unless things are actually breaking through. Democrats have won every single high profile special election that has taken place over the last six months, every single one. Iowa in January, New York special election and the county executive race in Westchester in February. Pennsylvania and the District of Donald Trump had just won by 15 points in March. The high profile Wisconsin state Supreme Court race, which we won by 11 points in April. Of course, we flipped the mayorship in Omaha, Nebraska in May, and we just won a special election in South Carolina this week in a district that we had narrowly won in November. And we just won it by more than 40 points. Are the polling numbers are going to be different regarding your leadership in six months? What's going to change? Well, I haven't seen a lot of polling as it relates to my own particular Democratic Party, because I think our focus is on delivering for the American people. Yes, I do believe that based on what we're seeing from the special election results, based on what we're seeing from the unpopularity of the one big ugly bill, which in every single poll, the American people are saying we reject this effort to take away health care from millions of Americans in order to provide tax breaks to Republican billionaire donors. That actually is breaking through. Now, we've got to continue and we've got to increase the intensity over and over and over again to meet the moment so we can deliver on behalf of the American people. We can stop as many bad things from happening. And then, of course, at the end of the day, make our case to take back control of the House of Representatives. So there's an actual check and balance in the United States Congress. There's another deadline coming over funding in September. Last time around, you were all in favor of shutting the government down if necessary. Chuck Schumer last minute came in and said, let's make a deal. Let's go ahead with the president's plan. Where are you right now? Are you two all on the same page? We're definitely on the same page. We're going to see strong. Democratic opposition in the Senate as it relates to the GOP tax scam that they're trying to jam down across the American people. And I expect that that will continue. So he's willing to shut it down as well. Is that what you're saying? None of us are willing to shut the government down if necessary. Well, Republicans actually have the responsibility. They control the House, the Senate and the presidency. They've been lecturing America for months about them having a big mandate. If the government shuts down in the United States of America, it's because Donald Trump and the Republicans are trying to jam an extreme spending bill that in the case of what was going on in March would hurt families, would hurt veterans, would hurt children, was unacceptable, represented an attack on health care, an attack on housing and attack on education. If they continue down that path, then it's going to be hard for them to find bipartisan common ground, I believe, certainly in the House and in the Senate. Who's going to be the standard bearer going forward for the Democrats? Well, we're going to continue to do our thing in the House of Representatives. This is an all hands on deck effort. You're not going to get behind a presidential candidate right now. In other words, no, listen, I think we've got to we've got to defend the best interest of the American people on the governmental side. We've got to make our case to the American people in terms of taking back the House and the Senate next year. And then at that point, we'll see a process as it relates to 2028. It's my expectation that you're going to see an incredible array of next generation Democrats make their case that they should lead the country moving forward as we approach the other side of the 2026 midterm elections. It's just that it doesn't seem that that has broken through. Right. Those numbers I cited before suggested people don't feel like they're connecting with the Democratic Party. They feel as if. Where are you? What are you guys doing? Well, that's the feeling. Whether it's fair or not. Listen, I travel the country and, you know, we we've got to address those feelings that exist and their feelings of uncertainty and anxiety because it's all unprecedented in terms of the assault. And we've made clear, listen to the American people. We hear you. We see you. We feel you. And we are determined to make life better for you. And maybe the people will hear you because apparently they haven't just yet. Well, they're hearing us on the ground electorally in race after race. They're hearing us in terms of Donald Trump's cratering poll numbers. They're hearing us in terms of sharing our perspective on the one big, ugly bill. That's you know, that's a that's that's a good start. More needs to be done.