Source: United States House of Representatives – Congressman Hakeem Jeffries (8th District of New York)
Last night, House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries appeared on MS NOW’s The 11th Hour, where he highlighted the failure of Donald Trump and Republicans to lower costs and keep their promises and reiterated Democrats’ commitments to protecting the American people.
CATHERINE RAMPELL: Leader Jeffries, thank you so much for joining me this evening.
LEADER JEFFRIES: Great to be with you.
CATHERINE RAMPELL: So, Leader Jeffries, this was a record-breaking speech—nearly two hours as you know—and Trump dedicated less than three minutes in all of that to affordability. So many people out there said that they voted for him because of the economy, yet they are unhappy. At the same time, they aren’t exactly optimistic that Democrats can solve their issues. So how is the party going to show voters that they are able to do that?
LEADER JEFFRIES: Well, first of all, the best thing that I can say about the speech is that it’s over. And you’re absolutely correct. In addition to him lying throughout the entire duration of his remarks, he dedicated less than three minutes to dealing with the affordability crisis now. Donald Trump promised to lower costs on day one, and of course he’s failed. Costs haven’t gone down in the United States of America. Costs have gone up across the board on housing, on healthcare, on child care, groceries and electricity bills—all skyrocketing. Our effort will be to make clear to the American people that our top focus as Democrats is going to be to drive down the high cost of living. And we’ve seen Democrats successfully be able to make that case in places like New Jersey and New York and Virginia, as a matter of fact up and down the ballot across the country, which is the reason why Democrats have been winning elections for 14 consecutive months. And we’re going to continue to keep our foot on the gas pedal.
CATHERINE RAMPELL: So I want to ask you about at least one new proposal that seems to have come out of the State of the Union address on affordability. The President mentioned a ratepayer protection pledge, which, for those watching, basically means that tech companies will build or buy their own electricity supplies for data centers. Do you support this particular idea, and if not what are Democrats’ specific plans for dealing with voters’ concerns about data centers and rising electricity costs?
LEADER JEFFRIES: Well, those concerns are very real, very important. What we’ve seen is that electricity bills have increased, I think, north of 13% under Donald Trump’s presidency when this guy promised to cut them in half. Of course, that’s another broken promise that he’s made to the American people. Now, part of the problem that we confront is that in the Republican One Big Ugly Bill—where they, of course, cut Medicaid by the largest amount in American history, cut SNAP by the large amount in American history—they also detonated the progress that we’ve made on the clean energy economy by eliminating tax credits for renewable energy like wind and solar. That’s had the impact of lessening the electricity supply at a time when the demand, as you’ve indicated, has gone up in part, of course, because of what’s happening with these data centers. And so we have to increase the supply to make sure that we don’t see an environment where the demand is so greatly exceeding what’s available that bills are going to increase significantly. By the same period of time, I think it is important to make sure that companies are actually paying for the increased electricity that they are utilizing, as opposed to having communities all across the country bear that burden. And it’s something that we need to look into in terms of the best way to accomplish it. The President suggests that there’s been an agreement but, of course, we’ve seen documentation of that. We’ve seen no proof. We’ve seen no evidence that actually it’s enforceable, and I think that will be one of the most appropriate next steps.
CATHERINE RAMPELL: Leader Jeffries, as you mentioned, some Democrats across the country have won elections by focusing on affordability, including by promising to cap electricity price increases, including in, I believe, Virginia and New Jersey. Do you support that idea? Do you think more Democrats should adopt that proposal?
LEADER JEFFRIES: Yeah, well, I think, you know, one of the things that’s interesting, and we have had that conversation as recently as yesterday in terms of the different ways in which we can cap electricity prices for the American people. Of course it’s a concept that we support. The question is, from the federal level, what is the best way to get that accomplished when we know utilities are regulated at the state level? It’s one of the reasons why, of course, now Governor Mikie Sherrill was able to both make that pledge and then on her first day in office keep that promise. So there are a variety of different things that we’re going to contemplate in terms of how we can incentivize states to partner with us in the federal government to get these electricity bills under control, we know that have gotten worse under the presidency of Donald Trump and failed Republican policies, particularly as it relates to their unprecedented attack on renewable energy.
CATHERINE RAMPELL: I want to turn now to elections. The Washington Post reports that pro-Trump activists who say that they are coordinating with the White House are circulating a draft executive order claiming that China interfered in the 2020 election as a basis to now declare a national emergency. This could grant extraordinary power to the current President over elections. How can Democrats challenge this?
LEADER JEFFRIES: It’s a great question. First of all, there’s zero evidence that the Chinese Communist Party interfered in the 2020 presidential election. Donald Trump needs to get over the fact that he lost, and he lost decisively to former Vice President Joe Biden, who of course, as a result of the 2020 election, became the President of this country. Now, Donald Trump, all of the overreach that we’ve seen from this guy always comes down to the same approach in emergency authority. But we’ve repeatedly defeated him when he’s claimed this emergency authority, most recently, of course, at the Supreme Court as it relates to his alleged emergency authority to impose tariffs that have raised costs on the American people by thousands of dollars per year. That’s been struck down. He does not have the emergency authority to do that and to get around Congress. We also won a victory before the Supreme Court in December where Donald Trump was claiming the emergency authority to federalize the National Guard as part of his effort to try to intimidate voters. That ability and that power was struck down. And if he tries to go this route with an unlawful or unconstitutional executive order, we’re gonna get it struck down as well. And at the same period of time, make sure that the so-called Save America Act, which is basically voter suppression legislation, does not see the light of day and never emerges from Congress to get to his desk for a presidential signature.
CATHERINE RAMPELL: Finally, I want to, of course, talk to you about Iran. You released a statement today saying that it would be unconstitutional without consultation with and authorization from Congress for the President to use military force against Iran. So what happens then if he does strike without getting authorization? I mean, after all, he already bombed nuclear sites last summer without approval, and there were no consequences then. So how would this be any different?
LEADER JEFFRIES: Yeah, unfortunately, the absence of consequences, at least in terms of Congress, is due to the fact that Republicans in the House and the Senate, who are temporarily in the majority, continue to behave like reckless rubber stamps for Donald Trump’s extreme agenda. And they’ve become subservient to the President as opposed to functioning like a separate and co-equal branch of government. Here, we’re going to try to move this authorization for the use of military force legislation in advance of him trying to do anything and just find a handful of Republicans to join us so we can actually get this resolution over the finish line. The American people are with us. We know that the American people don’t want another failed forever foreign war, particularly in the Middle East, when we know the outcome is likely to be disastrous, as certainly was the case in terms of what happened in Iraq and Afghanistan. And so we’re going to press this next week. And we’ll have a handful of Republicans I believe—of course like Thomas Massie, who’s a cosponsor of the resolution—to join us. We’ll just need a few, and Congress can act to reclaim our authority with respect to the power to declare war.
CATHERINE RAMPELL: So to clarify, if the President goes ahead and strikes Iran without congressional authorization, would that be an impeachable offense? You said it’s unconstitutional.
LEADER JEFFRIES: Well, we’ll cross that bridge when we get to it, but I think what we’ve got to do right now, of course, is to do everything we can to prevent that from happening. It would be reckless. It would be dangerous. It would be harmful to America’s national security interests, which is why we’re committed, led by Ro Khanna and Greg Meeks and Jim Himes and Adam Smith and other Members of Congress in the House Democratic Caucus to do what’s necessary to get this resolution over the finish line next week.
CATHERINE RAMPELL: Leader Jeffries, thanks so much for your time tonight.
LEADER JEFFRIES: Thank you.
Full interview can be watched here.
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