[Transcription via Youtube]
House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries, thank you for being here at the table.
>> Great to be with you.
>> I want to ask you, i mean, what is your strategy for their intentional strategy of flooding the zone and trying to offend all the senses and break all the norms?
>> Well, it's definitively an intentional strategy to flood the zone with outrage. and it has been a parade of horribles that Donald Trump, Elon Musk and his minions have unleashed on the American people. and so we've got to be prepared to push back in an all hands on deck way. what we've said.
>> In the house. is that for us, that means the congressional playing field, the courts, as well as pushing back aggressively in the community and understand particularly where we have the opportunity to win those fights, as has been the case in several instances, including in pushing back aggressively against the illegal funding freeze that would have halted Medicaid. as we know it all across the country, the American people rose up. members of Congress, members of the senate, Democratic governors, and it was reversed in less than 40 hours. this administration backtracked, showing us and hopefully the country, that public sentiment does matter. and there are limits to what this administration is capable of doing. We've seen that in the courts right now. there are more than 65 different lawsuits that have been filed related to at least 25 of the unlawful executive orders. and the American people are actually winning those lawsuits, and Donald Trump and his administration are losing. we have to keep that up. but we also have to engage aggressively with the community, because at the end of the day, the American people will have to push back as it relates to their tolerance for Trump and Republicans promising to do things to improve their quality of life, but instead doing the exact opposite.
>> i mean, so you're sort of dealing with everything from the legality of musk's doge, doge, whatever we're calling it, to the price of eggs. and i guess what i'm trying to distill is how you, you know, how you direct all that. do you know, do you divide up your members? do you divide up your days? i mean, is there or are you really in triage, in crisis management?
>> well, i think it's all day, every day, every week, every month until we get the country through this moment. now, there's one overarching narrative, which is the Republicans have essentially pulled a bait and switch last year. they promised relentlessly that they were going to drive down the high cost of living. yeah. as their chief promise to the American people, they now have the opportunity to do it. There's a republican president, a republican house and a republican senate. no ideas, no plans, no program to lower the high cost of living. in fact, costs aren't going down. they're going up in the United States of America. and the Republicans could care less. why? because their objective actually is to pass massive tax cuts for billionaire donors and their wealthy corporations. and then third, stick working-class Americans with the bill by slashing and burning things like Medicaid to the ground. and so it's all connected at the end of the day, and we've got to break through with that narrative that ties it all together for the American people and then battle it out in these different forms in the congress, in the courts, and in the community.
>> democratic senator Chris Murphy calls it an oligarchy. do you see it that way?
>> Well, i mean, i think these people are trying to end America as we know it, as it relates to our democracy, as it relates to our ability for the federal government to deliver the type of services that are designed to improve the quality of life of the American people. and i certainly think it's the case that you've got Donald Trump, you've got Elon Musk as a billionaire puppet master who is directing house republicans as to what they should or should not be doing. and so you've got house republicans who were elected to serve the American people, but they're serving elon musk.
>> And what can you do about that?
>> Well, for instance, we're going to continue to press forward with legislative efforts in addition to the litigation. you know, we've introduced the taxpayer data protection act, for instance, which would make Elon Musk's activity, particularly as it relates to the Department of Treasury, unlawful. they're trying to use this exemption that Elon Musk is a special government employee who is exempt from the ethical requirements and the financial disclosure requirements. meanwhile, he's raiding the personal data bank accounts, names, addresses, Social security numbers of the American people. why does he need access to that information? it's unconscionable. it's Un-american. we're going to work hard to make it unlawful as we're battling in the courts as well.
>> What is the most helpful thing for the, you know, 48.6% of Americans who voted for Kamala Harris to do right now.
>> I think the most helpful thing is to communicate with their elected officials, both in terms of what they would like to see happen. that's important, that's occurring. but what's even more significant is share the personal stories as to why the things that are occurring in Washington as a result of the extremism coming out of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue will hurt them, hurt their families, hurt their parents, hurt their neighbors. because one of the things i think we're going to have to more effectively do as we move forward, as we communicate with the American people, is to personalize it.
>> All right.
>> This is not about. the institution of the bureaucracies and put the democratic party on the side. of the individuals.
>> How do you put i mean, you look at the success that Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger had when welcomed in under your predecessors leadership to work with democrats in the January 6th select committee. do you think there's a scenario where any Republican is interested in hearing from Danielle Sassoon about what went awry at S.D.N.Y?
>> It's going to be interesting to see. we certainly look forward to providing any opportunity that we can for her to present her story, and the information to the American people should be a very compelling individual. i think that what we've been saying to our republican colleagues that on any issue that the American people are concerned about, it only takes three Republicans to break with the other side of the aisle, join the 215 Democrats, and we can stop them in their tracks. it only takes three. meanwhile, they're in the witness protection program as it relates to the things that are taking place. don't want to take a stand, don't want to offend Elon Musk. don't want to offend Donald Trump, but they're really offending the people that they were elected to represent.
>> Are you starting to see any evidence of that? I mean, do you have the campaign side evidence that in some of those tougher districts, it's hurting them.
>> On the campaign side? there's a lot of activity that is taking place to hold house Republicans accountable now for their failure to govern in an enlightened fashion. and that will have consequences next November. but we need we need them to do the right thing now.
>> Right, right. i want to ask your opinion about Eric Adam's ability to govern the city of New York. and if you agree with Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who says he's currently being coerced by Donald Trump.
>> He's going to have to make the case to New Yorkers that he still has the capacity to behave as an independently elected official, not someone who's taking orders or who is on a short leash relative to the Department of Justice. it should trouble everyone that this decision was made to recommend the dismissal of charges, which ultimately a judge will have to approve, but only to dismiss the charges without prejudice, which effectively means it can be brought back at any point in time. and so there is a prosecutorial gun being put to the head of the elected mayor of the city of New York. that's deeply disturbing. and the mayor is going to have to answer those questions to the people that i represent in Brooklyn and to the people throughout New York City.
