Watch Live: House Democratic Leader Jeffries holds news conference

Housing costs are up. Gas prices are up. Mortgage insurance rates are up. Inflation is up. Health care premiums are up. Donald Trump and Republicans have broken the economy and the American people, unfortunately, are paying the price. Republicans have failed to lower the high cost of living in the United States of America. In fact, housing costs, grocery costs, utility costs, child care costs, and health care costs have all gone in the wrong direction as a direct result of policies enacted by Donald Trump and Republicans in Congress. The American people have had enough, and our message to them is that help is on the way. House Democrats are committed to fighting for an affordable America, lowering the high cost of living, lowering the cost of groceries, lowering the cost of gas, lowering the cost of housing, and fighting to make health care affordable for every single American. The American people have understandably had enough with failed Republican policies that actually hurt everyday Americans simply to benefit the wealthy, the well-off, and the well-connected. It's time for Congress to put the American people first, and that's exactly what House Democrats intend to do. Questions? Have you received any of the recommendations from your task force on what they'd like to do if you all win the majority in November? It's an ongoing conversation with different members of the House Democratic caucus as it relates to the urgent need to take decisive action in order to protect the American people from the possible harms that can be visited upon them when AI agents go rogue. And we've now seen multiple examples, some very extraordinary, like the Hugging Face incident, where AI agents have gone rogue and engaged in behavior that is clearly out of alignment with what they were directed to do by their companies. It's the reason why you have industry leaders publicly saying things need to be slowed down and paced, because in some instances it seems like the companies themselves are uncertain as to how to actually contain the explosive growth and, as a result, how to best protect the American people. Congress needs to act, and that's what Democrats believe should occur, not in the next Congress, but right now. What do you make of the meeting? Well, I mean the notion of entering into a voluntary agreement that is entirely unenforceable and that allows the industry writ large to police itself is not the right response at this moment, given the potentially grave harm and danger that industry leaders themselves are now flagging for the American people. Democrats are competing in pretty deep red districts at this point. What does it mean for what House Democrats can accomplish next term if you run up the score in these areas with a bigger majority versus having a tight one or two vote margin? Well, we're working incredibly hard to win control of the House of Representatives and then to win as many seats as possible on top of that. House Democrats right now are competing all over the country in areas that were comfortably won by Donald Trump, because the American people know that Donald Trump and Republicans in Congress have been a complete and total disaster. They failed on the economy, failed on health care, failed on tariffs, failed as it relates to this reckless and costly war of choice in the Middle East that has skyrocketed gas prices on the American people. Republican control of Congress and the White House and Washington over the last two years has been a disaster, and that's what's enabled us as Democrats with extraordinary candidates to compete all across the country. When it comes to governing, what unites House Democrats is a commitment to driving down the high cost of living and confronting the affordability crisis with the fierce urgency of now. And that's what we intend to do should the American people give us the ability to govern on their behalf. Well, with respect to the midterm elections, we take nothing for granted. It's 34 days. It's going to be in the hands of the American people. We're making very clear wherever we go across this great country, Democrats are fighting for an affordable America. We're committed to driving down the high cost of living. Life is way too expensive. There are far too many people working hard, playing by the rules, can't thrive and can barely survive. That's unacceptable in America, the wealthiest country in the history of the world. And things need to change and these change dramatically. House Republicans apparently believe that the American people want more of the same. Democrats are very clear. The American people want dramatic change, and they want this Congress to be disrupted because it hasn't been doing the business of the American people. These Republicans have been focused on continuing to subsidize the lifestyles of the rich and shameless, which is exactly what they did in their one big ugly bill where they ripped Medicaid away from millions of Americans, stole food from the mouths of hungry children, seniors and veterans, and then gave a massive tax break to their billionaire donors. Enough of that. House Democrats are going to focus on the affordability agenda. We have launched five working groups on affordability, because we believe that we have to tackle this issue in every area. And those five areas are housing, health care, gas and utilities, groceries and goods, and fifth, caregiving. And those will be the five areas where we will concentrate our work at the beginning of the new Congress. Mr. Leader, there's been a spate of stories on member dues. First of all, is there some sort of crisis that involves, you know, members not paying their dues? And second of all, the black members who are featured in the story often, do you expect that they're not paying their dues because there's no black, red to blue candidates, and they'd be paying into a system that doesn't have any black vendors involved with it over at Dietrich? What do you say? What do you, can you comment on member dues? Also, you're going to campaign in Virginia. I am planning to campaign in Virginia. In terms of the member dues issue, I haven't seen any of those stories. We actually have broken records over the last two cycles for member dues that have been received, and that's across the board. Now, we do have a significant number of CBC members who are frontline members, and their responsibility is to go hold their seats as opposed to actually paying dues to the DCCC. That's the case with every single frontline member. When I came into Congress, I think there were 38 members of the Congressional Black Caucus. Right now, there are 62. So, we've achieved that because we've gone out and you've had frontline members of the CBC, like Steve Horsford, or Amelia Sykes, or Johanna Hayes, or Don Davis, more recently Shamari Figures, actually, and Janelle Bynum, win tough seats and then hold them. That's because the DCCC has actually partnered with the Congressional Black Caucus Political Action Committee to grow the number of members of the CBC in districts that are overwhelmingly white because these CBC members are representing everyone. At this point, and that's largely a result of the primary process, there were, in fact, not a lot of candidates who stepped forward in these competitive districts to run. Now, there are a couple of emerging opportunities in places throughout the South that we're closely monitoring. To that point, if I may, on the South, we're seeing some polls in some of these typically more Republican areas where Democrats are certainly making some inroads, but we're not necessarily seeing the same shift in some of the more traditionally battleground bluish areas. What do you attribute that to, this idea of a red undertone that's been talked about? Then, when it comes to your campaigning, how are you deciding where you're going to go? What does a red undertone mean? Basically, the argument that's being made by some political analysts is that it's more of a reaction to Trump as opposed to Democrats pushing forward in certain areas in terms of your agenda and what's galvanizing voters. I think there are two things that are taking place. One, you've had Republicans fail to actually deliver on the American people. Republicans promised to lower the high cost of living on day one. Costs haven't gone down. Costs have gone up. Republicans promised to love and cherish Medicaid and then turned around and enacted the largest cut to Medicaid in American history. Donald Trump and Republicans promised not to start endless wars in the Middle East but to stop them and then turned around and did the exact opposite by getting us involved in this reckless and costly war of choice in Iran. You have a graveyard of broken Republican promises actively hurting the American people. At the same period of time, and we've seen this consistently in election after election since January of 2025, the American people are concluding that Democrats actually have their best interests at heart and that we are actually committed to lowering the high cost of living and making sure that we have an economy that works for everyday Americans. It's a combination of both and we've seen that consistently for 20 plus months heading into this midterm election and I expect that the results on November 3rd will reflect the fact that Republicans have failed and that Democrats are leading on the issues that matter to the American people. When it comes to travel plans, we process the requests that come in and try to meet as many of them as we can. When it comes to the Iran war, what is Democrats, your plan to push back on the Trump administration? What levers do you actually have to make changes to this war? He's indicated that post midterms he wants to go back to bombing potentially. So what do you see will happen right after the election and then when you start governing? Abraham Lincoln once made the observation that public sentiment is everything. With it, nothing can fail. Without it, nothing can succeed. The public is clearly and decisively against this reckless war of choice in Iran and Democrats are standing on the side of the American people. One way or the other, we will prevail and we're going to continue to press the case. We should end the war now. There's no reason that this needs to drag on a day more than it has. And Pete Hexeth, by the way, who's letting go 20% of the Pentagon. No, one person needs to be let go from the Pentagon. It's you, Pete Hexeth. You have failed the American people. You've been a disaster and you weren't even qualified to hold a job to begin with. And so hopefully we're in a situation after the November 3rd election where the war has ended and Donald Trump has decided to pull the plug on Operation Epic Failure. But if that's not the case, we will continue to use every legislative means available to us, led by war powers resolutions, until we bring this failed conflict to an end. When it comes to the cost of living, especially with the concern of AI, we just saw the Rape Care Protection Act today in the Senate. Some of your Senate counterparts called it toothless, said it was a bait and switch. How can you assure the American people that if Democrats get control, they won't let the perfect be the enemy of the good when it comes to these small steps in helping? I think we've demonstrated, House and Senate Democrats together, a willingness to make progress for the American people on the affordability issue, even when it involves working with our colleagues on the other side of the aisle. That's what happened with respect to the housing affordability bill, led by Maxine Waters in the House, working with French Hill, and Elizabeth Warren in the Senate, working with Tim Scott, to get to a place where every single House Democrat supported that housing affordability bill. That is a meaningful step in the right direction, even though a whole lot more needs to happen. But we decided, collectively, that making progress on behalf of the American people was exactly what needed to occur. And that was done. Have you gotten any updates on the ethics reform that the bipartisan group of women, do you expect to see anything when you get in? It's my hope and expectation that there is going to be decisive action that Congress takes in a bipartisan way on this issue as soon as we return. And I spoke to Teresa Ledger Fernandez, who's been a great leader and champion on this issue a few days ago, and she's working to get to a place where Republicans are ready to act on the recommendations that have been made that will help ensure an environment here that is safe and healthy and respectful of every single woman who serves on Capitol Hill. Thank you, Leader Jeffries. What's your reaction to the current press restrictions set by House, and if you specifically come back after the new terms as the new Speaker of the House? What types of commitments to press freedoms and press actions are you making? Well, listen, the freedom of the press and the free and fair press is an incredibly important part of our democracy. And the fact that the President doesn't like coverage from the media and decides to cut that coverage off seems to us to be a clear violation of the First Amendment. And I think courts will find that to be the case as these cases continue to move forward, all the way up potentially to the Supreme Court. You know, we pride ourselves here on Capitol Hill of our interactions with the American people. This is a citadel of democracy for them. And of course, with our interactions with the free and fair press on behalf of the American people, which is the job that you all have to do. Thanks. Congress has to change their Democrats. Well, those are things that Congressman John Larson has been working on for a long period of time, along with Richie Neal and other members of the Ladies and Men's Committee, and we look forward to their continued work. Our commitment is to protect and strengthen Social Security at all times. Can you elaborate on your October travel, some of the states, better yet, districts that you'll be visiting? Yeah, I'll have more to say about my October travel when I have more to say about my October travel. But I expect to visit 15, 20 different states during the month of October. States or districts? States. Several dozen Democrats introduced, said they're going to introduce, sorry, legislation tomorrow that would want to impose sanctions on West Bank settlements. What's your assessment now of the Democratic Caucus vis-a-vis Israel? Well, with respect to the West Bank Violence Prevention Act, which is the bill that had been introduced by Jerry Nadler at some point last year that now has the support, I believe, of more than 170 different House Democrats, myself included, that certainly decisive action needs to be taken to address the out-of-control settler violence in the West Bank so we can get to a place where the Palestinian people in both the West Bank and in Gaza are treated with the dignity and respect that they deserve and that we put an end to the death and destruction and devastation that we've seen in Gaza and we get to a place where we have a safe and secure Israel as a Jewish and democratic state living side by side in peace and prosperity with a Palestinian state that provides dignity and self-determination for the Palestinian people. Republicans are talking about using the lame duck session to do a giant military bill possibly paired with a debt ceiling increase and they're calling fraud cuts. What's your message to them about attempting this kind of giant bill? Well, we'll deal with that issue when we have to deal with that issue. What's in front of us right now over the next 34 days is to run through the finish line, continue to make our case to the American people that we're actually focused on building an economy that works for working-class Americans, for middle-class Americans, and for everyday Americans as opposed to what Republicans have delivered which is an economy designed to benefit the wealthy, the well-off, and the well-connected. The American people have had enough of that. House Democrats have presented a compelling alternative with our relentless focus on affordability day after day, week after week, month after month, last year into this year, and now we've seen that on every issue, whether that's the economy, the American people trust us. Lowering the high cost of living, the American people trust us. Combating inflation, the American people trust us. Ending this war of choice over in Iran, the American people trust us. Tackling the deficit, the American people trust us. And even on immigration, because of how out of control Donald Trump and ICE have been, and our commitment to immigration enforcement being fair, just, and humane, the American people trust us. Thank you everyone.