Leader Jeffries on MS NOW’s PoliticsNation

Joining me now to talk about it all is a man at the center of it all, House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries. Thanks for joining me tonight on Politics Nation. Thank I will say majority leader, minority leader, Jeffries, soon to be something else we'll talk about. But first of all, I want to congratulate you you on the Democrats' strong performance. MSNBC now estimates your party will hold 256 House seats, very giving you a clear majority. much. But what are your thoughts on how we arrived at this moment? Well, good evening, Rev. Great to be with you. It was an incredible victory for the American people and a decisive defeat for MAGA extremism. Clearly, the American people are fed up. The cost of living is way too high. There are far too many people in this country. They're working hard. They're playing by the rules, but they can't thrive and can barely survive. Democrats promise to fight for an affordable America. We promise to fight to lower the high cost of groceries and gas and housing and to fight to make health care affordable for every single American. And at the same time, in the face of all of the rampant, unprecedented corruption that that has been unleashed on the American people to hold the crooks accountable Now, any hope that these midterm results would prompt President Trump to change course and seek compromise seems to have already been dashed. His first major move after the midterms this week has been to elevate longtime aide Stephen Miller to White House chief of staff, replacing Susie Wiles. As you well know, Miller has been the architect of some of Trump's most controversial policies like mass deportations. And just earlier today, we learned that President Trump announced he has offered former UFC president Dana White The job of White House press secretary is unclear if this is an official offer. What do these decisions tell you about where we are headed in the next two years? Donald Trump and MAGA extremist Republicans are clearly tripling down on the chaos, the corruption and the cruelty. It's a failed strategy. And the Republican Party, if they pursue this, will continue to crash and burn, as we saw on Tuesday. Democrats are going to continue to focus on the issues that matter to the voters all across the country. We're going to fight hard for people in urban America, in rural America, in small-town America, in the heartland of America, and in black and brown communities all across America who want dramatic change in this country. And we're going to work hard to deliver it. Now, you announced in a letter to your colleagues on Wednesday that you intend to run for Speaker of the House in the new session. You have enjoyed unanimous support as leader of the party during these past two terms in the minority. And so far, no one else has come forward to challenge you. However, Axios is reporting that more dozen lawmakers say Democratic House members and members elect are being inundated with calls. And I put that in parentheses, urging them to not vote for you. MSNBC NOW has not matched this reporting. But what do you make of that? And what do you say to a voter who's cast their ballot for Democrats seeking change, who might also be feeling some hesitance about having the remaining House leadership, even though even progressives voted for you to be the minority leader? Is this just noise? What do you think of this? Well, we're going to continue to work hard to make our case to every single current member of the House Democratic Caucus, as well as incoming member of the House Democratic Caucus. In the new Congress, we need to focus on affordability, accountability, and bring back to live American values like liberty and justice for all, equal protection under the law, access in an unfettered way to the right to vote. And a return to our nation's great heritage as a nation of immigrants. These are the things that I believe House Democrats have forcefully advocated for in the current Congress against all odds, repeatedly pushed back against Donald Trump and MAGA extremists, battled them on every issue, battled them on the economy, battled them on tariffs, battled them on the reckless war of choice in Iran, battled them on ICE funding. Battle them on the Epstein files and battle them on their corrupt and incompetent cabinet officials and other members of the Trump cartel, a few of whom we successfully ran out of town like Kristi Noem and Pam Bondi. And so this was a historic victory for the American people. Historic victory for House Democrats. We're going to have an incredibly broad caucus of great patriotic members. It's been my honor to lead House Democrats over these tumultuous years, and hopefully I'll have the opportunity to continue to work hard on behalf of the American people moving forward. We put it in the hands of the House Democratic Caucus members. And you and I have talked a lot during the years, and I've told you the story. I was there in South Africa when ANC won the election in 94, and Mandela said, now we have to govern. Now everybody's going to be looking for you and the caucus to govern. What are we going to do? I'm certainly going to be pressing the John Lewis voting bill to come back and George Floyd bill. But I want to talk to you about black representation. We mentioned at the top of the of the historic gains in terms of black senators and black governors. The situation in the house is more complicated. The Supreme Court decision in Louisiana and the gerrymandering wave that followed directly impacted house districts. So even in a blue wave, the number of black representatives have gone down slightly from 61 black members to 58. Not including non-voting delegates. That's not as bad as it could have been or they intended it to be. But what can Democrats in Congress do to make sure it is not eroded any further? Well, we certainly are going to fight hard to make sure that we aggressively advance the John Robert Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act so we can end the era of voter suppression in the United States of America once and for all. We worked hard to make sure that we held some of the seats that were most aggressively challenged. By Republicans in terms of unleashing this unprecedented gerrymandering scheme, we defeated the Republican scheme in Missouri that was trying to rip away a congressional district from Reverend Emanuel Cleaver. He's coming back to the United States Congress. Don Davis successfully defeated a Republican gerrymander in North Carolina. He's coming back. Sharna Figures. He also ran a great race. I campaigned with him on the final weekend in Alabama. They tried to gerrymander his seat out of existence and rip it away from African-American voters in the heart of the belt that brought us the civil rights movement. And Sharna Figures is coming back. And we'll build upon this progress to ensure that we have a Congress that continues to reflect the American people in every possible way. And Sharna Figures will be on the show with me tomorrow. But we've talked a lot down through the years. You're a member of National Action Network. So I know you always talk big picture. So let me finish by looking at the big picture for Democrats post-midterm. Since Tuesday, there's been a lot of discussion about what the priorities should be. Should Democrats be prioritizing investigations of White House officials? Will impeachment be on the table? Or should the primary focus be on delivering in terms of affordability or all of the above? What is the focus if you were to become Speaker that you would be pushing for? It definitively is going to have to be an all of the above approach, but we have to relentlessly commit ourselves to making life more affordable for the American people in an environment where the cost of living is way too high. And no matter what part of America you live in right now, people are drowning in this failed Trump Republican economy. And so we're going to work hard to move bills very early on. To end this reckless and costly war of choice in Iran, which has skyrocketed gas prices on the American people, we're going to work hard to reverse the Medicaid cuts, reverse the SNAP cuts. We're going to work hard to end the Trump tariffs, which have increased costs on everyday Americans by thousands of dollars per year. We also need to extend the Affordable Care Act tax credits so we can provide economic relief. So tens of millions of Americans who've seen their health insurance premiums skyrocket in some cases by over a thousand dollars per year. We're going to work hard on affordability. We're going to work hard on accountability, as we've indicated, because there's a cost to corruption when you have folks who've been in office focused more. On enriching themselves, their family members, their friends, and their donors, as opposed to making life more affordable for the American people. And we're going to work hard to bring about a restoration and return of American values. So you say all of the above, and I'll have to leave it there. Thank you very much for joining us tonight, Congressman Hakeem Jeffries.