Leader Jeffries on CNN's The Story Is with Elex Michaelson

Akeem Jeffries is joining us live from San Francisco. Mr. Leader, welcome. The story is for the first time. Good evening. Great to be with you. What do you think our objective is in Iran? And when is it time to stop the bombing? Well, it's an incredibly important question because the president has failed to articulate a compelling reason for why the United States preemptively struck Iran and has now plunged us into a war of choice where billions of dollars are being spent to drop bombs in the Middle East. In fact, the entire region is in flames right now. And the president and Republicans are unwilling to actually spend a dime to make life more affordable for the American people, to drop the price of groceries, drop the cost of housing or drop the cost of health insurance to make sure that Americans can afford to go see a doctor when they need one. And so, in my view, we've advanced this war powers resolution that narrowly failed because the American people understand that this war is not making them safer. In fact, I think it's creating potential harms to our national security. And the president has not offered a justification as to why this should continue unabated. Well, we know Iranians, though, have attacked Americans and attacked people throughout the world for years through their proxies as well. We have seen thousands of Americans in the streets thanking President Trump, saying that they are grateful for the U.S. finally acting. A lot of them talk about the fact that their family members were killed by that regime. What do you say to those people? Well, Iran is definitively a bad actor and needs to be aggressively confronted. And there are a different tools to be able to do that, including aggressive diplomacy or making sure that the sanctions regime continues to tighten as it relates to what had been put in place by Democrats and Republicans over the years. But on matters of war and peace, I mean, the framers were very clear. They gave Congress the sole authority to declare war, understanding that it's a serious thing when we decide to put our servicemen and women in harm's way. And we've already lost seven heroic, patriotic, brave service members. And certainly it's the case that our heart goes out to them and our prayers continue to be with them and our support will continue to be with their families. But this is a very serious decision, and Donald Trump has not taken it seriously. He's just unilaterally plunged us into this conflict that now has spread to more than a dozen countries and has not provided us with a compelling justification, sort of a set of objectives as to what we're trying to accomplish, and hasn't provided a strategy as to how this all is going to end. But we know that U.S. presidents have done military actions without going to Congress before. President Obama did this with Libya. And what leverage do you have to stop what you call an illegal war? What leverage do you have to do something about it? Well, unquestionably, it's in a lawful war of choice that Donald Trump has plunged us into, and he's making decisions— What President Obama did or other leaders have done when they launched military incursions without going to Congress as well. I mean, don't they have—the president has 60 days to launch military action before he has to come to Congress. Well, this isn't simply a series of military strikes. This is an all-out war against Iran that now involves more than a dozen different countries and the expenditure of billions of dollars, perhaps a day, to drop bombs in the Middle East without a clear objective, a clear strategy, or a clear endgame. And so that's the problem. This is the first president, as far as we can tell, to launch this type of military conflict without bothering to try to convince the American people as to why it is all taking place, to persuade the American people. It's one of the reasons why we believe that the war is already so deeply unpopular with the American people throughout the country. So is it time to get out now? Well, listen, I think our view as it relates to the resolution that we voted on, that I strongly supported, that the overwhelming majority of Democrats supported, along with two Republicans, is that these type of hostilities should cease until there's an actual debate and the president makes his case to the Congress and to the American people and seeks the authorization for the use of military force. There's no justification for it, but that is what the Constitution requires in our view. And that step, of course, has not been taken. So right now, there is still a sort of fight and shutdown over DHS funding that started before this war happened. There's a question now that some have raised about this possibility that Iran may enact its sleeper cells and activate them in the United States. President Trump talked about that today. Here's some of what he said. Yeah, we know a lot about them. The biggest problem we have is the Democrat shutdown. We know a lot about them, but the shutdown doesn't allow us to do what we have to do. So the president saying that Americans are being endangered because the Department of Homeland Security cannot go after Iranian sleeper cells. What's your response to that? Well, the president's lying to the American people. He's fear mongering, and he knows that. Now, Republicans have made the decision they would rather shut down every other aspect of the Department of Homeland Security, which we as Democrats have repeatedly made clear we are prepared to fund. That includes, of course, FEMA and the Coast Guard and TSA and the national security, cybersecurity parts of the Department of Homeland Security that are separate and apart from ICE and from the other agencies that have been brutalizing the American people using taxpayer dollars. This is a president who promised to go after the worst of the worst. Instead, ICE agents are targeting law abiding immigrant families and using taxpayer dollars to brutalize and in some cases kill American citizens, as was horrifically the case with Renee Nicole Good and Alex Pretty. And unfortunately, the administration has decided that they don't want to get ICE under control. And so they forced the Congress into a situation where DHS funding is not moving forward. And we've indicated both House Democrats and Senate Democrats that we are prepared to fund every other aspect of the Department of Homeland Security while making sure that until ICE enacts the type of dramatic, bold and meaningful changes that force ICE to conduct themselves like every other law enforcement agency in the country, that the DHS funding bill with respect to immigration enforcement interior to the country should absolutely not move forward. Is there any actual negotiation happening on this front? Are you talking with Republicans in a serious way to come to an agreement? Yeah, listen, there are ongoing conversations. And as Democrats, we've made clear that we will continue to be prepared to sit down with anyone, anytime, anyplace to discuss how we can move forward in a way that allows for immigration enforcement in this country to be fair, to be just, and to be humane. That's what the American people want to see. And we're going to continue to support the notion that changes need to be made that are transformational in terms of the way in which ICE conducts itself. You're here in California. There was big news when it comes to the California Caucus today, Kevin Kiley, who has been a Republican member of the House, decided to leave the Republican party, but become an independent. Although he's still caucusing with the Republicans right now, he is running as a no party preference person after his district was gerrymandered by Democrats, after Texas Republicans gerrymandered their district. And he said that he may be open to being a Democrat in the next Congress. Take a listen. As far as next term, I think that the appropriate posture as an independent is to say, I'm going to do whatever serves my constituents. And so that's a decision that I'll make at the time. I think that first and foremost, I'll be looking at what's going to best lower the cost of living for the folks that I represent. So Congressman Kiley is actually our guest next. What's your message? Are you ready to welcome him into the Democratic caucus? Well, I think the Congressman is going to have to explain to the people he hopes to represent in the next Congress why he voted for the Republican one big ugly bill. Think about this. Republicans enacted the largest cut to Medicaid in American history. They literally ripped health care away from about 14 million Americans. In that same bill, they enacted the largest cut to nutritional assistance ever, 186 billion dollars taken away, literally ripping food from the mouths of hungry children, seniors and veterans in order to provide massive tax breaks to their billionaire donors. And in the same bill gave ice a 75 billion dollar slush fund so that the Trump administration can unleash these violent individuals who are mass and untrained to brutalize the American people and in some cases kill them. And so I think the first question for us is going to be, well, does he regret that vote? And does he plan to partner with Democrats to reverse the damage that has been done by the Trump policies today? OK, so so if he does, you're ready to welcome him in, it sounds like. Well, I mean, we'll cross that bridge when we get to it. But there's a lot of explaining that he has to do to his constituents and to those of us on the Democratic side of the aisle. All right. Hakeem Jeffries, thank you so much for sharing your views. We appreciate it.