Source: United States House of Representatives – Congressman Hakeem Jeffries (8th District of New York)
Today, Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries appeared on MSNBC’s The Last Word and made clear that while Donald Trump and Republicans are leading us toward a reckless government shutdown, Democrats will continue to fight to protect the healthcare of the American people.
LAWRENCE O’DONNELL: Leading off our coverage tonight is House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries. Thank you very much for joining us tonight, Mr. Leader.
LEADER JEFFRIES: Great to be with you.
LAWRENCE O’DONNELL: How do you do it? We’re all out here wondering, how can you possibly negotiate with Donald Trump, who some newspapers are now calling ‘deranged’ in headlines?
LEADER JEFFRIES: Well, here’s the thing. We’ve made clear that we’re ready, we’re willing, we’re able to sit down with anyone, at any time, any place, including the President, to have a discussion about avoiding a painful and catastrophic Republican-caused government shutdown. But at the same period of time, we’ve also been very clear we do not support this partisan Republican spending bill because it continues to gut the healthcare of the American people. We want no part of that. We’ve seen a massive attack on the healthcare of everyday Americans. Largest cut to Medicaid in American history. We’ve seen hospitals and nursing homes and community-based health clinics close all across America because of the One Big Ugly Bill. They refused to extend the tax credits for the Affordable Care Act, which is going to result in at least 20 million Americans experiencing incredibly skyrocketing premiums, co-pays and deductibles. There’s actually a $536 billion cut to Medicare that may occur because of what Republicans have done in the One Big Ugly Bill if Congress doesn’t act over the next few months. And we know, Lawrence, that they’ve also shut down medical research and in large measure vaccine availability in the United States of America. This is like immoral stuff that Republicans have done. And so we’re going to try to find a bipartisan resolution here, but there’s a clear line in the sand that we’ve drawn around the healthcare of the American people.
LAWRENCE O’DONNELL: Just to—diversion from the budget issue for a moment. Do you now see in the House of Representatives enough votes on the discharge petition to get the Epstein files?
LEADER JEFFRIES: Yes. When Adelita Grijalva, who won yesterday, is sworn in to Congress, and that needs to happen as early as next week. It should happen. In fact, we have a pro forma session of the House of Representatives on Friday, and this has happened before, with Republicans being sworn in this year in the immediate aftermath of the Florida special elections during a so-called pro forma session. And so the question, Lawrence, is whether Republicans are going to play games here because they know that Representative-elect Grijalva is the 218th vote to force the Trump administration to release the Epstein fines, which they clearly have been hiding from the American people, apparently because they’re afraid of what is in them.
LAWRENCE O’DONNELL: So the Speaker has the power to delay her swearing in?
LEADER JEFFRIES: Yeah, it’s largely at the discretion of the Speaker and the majority to try to delay the swearing in of a new Member until the election results were formally certified. But we know that Representative Grijalva won decisively and overwhelmingly. It was not close. And so there is no dispute as it relates to her joining the House of Representatives and following in her father’s footsteps. She’s going to be a tremendous progressive advocate for issues like lowering the high cost of living and fixing our broken healthcare system, while at the same time fighting for transparency in connection with the Epstein files. So we hope and expect that Republicans will do the right thing. And if they don’t, we’re going to make clear to the American people why they are playing games as it relates to the swearing in of Rep.-elect Grijalva.
LAWRENCE O’DONNELL: So Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee are now demanding the release of the Homan files, what may include an FBI undercover video recording of FBI undercover agents handing Donald Trump’s border czar, Tom Homan, last year $50,000 in cash. Might that have to also get to a discharge petition?
LEADER JEFFRIES: Well, we’re going to use every means available to us. And led by Jamie Raskin, who’s doing a great job leading the House Judiciary Committee on the Democratic side, and certainly Robert Garcia and Members like Summer Lee, Ayanna Pressley and others on the Oversight Committee who pressed hard to force Republicans to actually press the Trump administration through the execution of subpoenas to get the birthday note, for instance, or birthday book for Epstein, which had some new information in it. We’re going to continue to keep our foot on the gas pedal. We believe that the American people just simply deserve the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the whole truth with respect to all of the things. And we can do that. We continue to press our case as it relates to transparency, while at the same time also making clear that we’re in this fight to stop this government shutdown and to protect the healthcare of the American people for a simple reason. We just need Republicans to understand they should cancel the cuts, lower the cost and save healthcare because the unprecedented assault that has been launched on the healthcare of the American people is unconscionable and un-American, and Democrats are standing up to push back and do something about it.
LAWRENCE O’DONNELL: So you just said cancel the cuts, lower the costs and save healthcare. Are those your three negotiating points with Donald Trump?
LEADER JEFFRIES: Yeah. Our view has been we will not continue to participate in an effort to gut the healthcare of the American people. That’s why we opposed the One Big Ugly Bill. Every single Democrat in the House, partnering with Leader Schumer and every single Democrat in the Senate, pushed back against their effort to enact the largest cut to Medicaid in American history, which is extraordinary. I mean, they’re setting in motion hospitals and nursing homes and community-based health clinics closing all across the country, including in rural America. And they knew this was going to happen. We warned them that this was going to happen and they could care less. And people are going to die as a result of what Republicans have done in terms of this assault on the healthcare in rural America, urban America, small town America, the heartland of America, Black and Brown communities all across America. And so we’re saying that we’ve got the cuts that have to be dealt with. We have the need to lower healthcare costs, and the fact that premiums, co-pays and deductibles are about to explode for millions of Americans all across the country, in part related to their refusal to extend the tax credits for the Affordable Care Act. And overall, it’s been such an unprecedented attack on the healthcare of everyday Americans that saving healthcare is what we are trying to do for the American people.
LAWRENCE O’DONNELL: Donald Trump says in his statement about why he’s refusing to meet with you that you want to keep dead people on the Social Security rolls, that you want to keep dead people on the Medicaid rolls and that you want to cut funding for rural hospitals. Are any of those things true? I don’t hear those things when you listed your demands.
LEADER JEFFRIES: Yeah, not a single one of those things are true. And just to make it simple for Donald Trump, it’s eight words. Cancel the cuts, lower the cost, save healthcare. And let’s have this debate before the American people. Donald Trump agreed to meet in the White House and then backed away from it in an unhinged rant and is running scared. And this is on top of the fact that the House Republicans canceled votes that were scheduled to take place next Monday and Tuesday in advance of government funding running out. And John Thune has basically said, ‘I’ve got nothing to talk to Democrats about.’ Really? You don’t? Let’s start with the healthcare of the American people and the fact that Republicans are marching us toward a painful government shutdown. And we are ready to have that conversation anytime, any place. It’s the responsible thing to do. Like the notion that Republicans expect Democrats just to fall in line and vote for their partisan spending bill that hurts the American people without actually engaging in a discussion and a negotiation to arrive at a bipartisan spending bill that actually meets the needs of everyday Americans in terms of their health, public safety and economic well-being—the notion that we’re just supposed to fall in line and bend the knee—they’re sadly confused about who we are. That’s what Republicans have been doing, serving as a reckless rubber stamp for Donald Trump’s extreme agenda. We want no part of that.
LAWRENCE O’DONNELL: House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries, thank you very much for starting off our conversations tonight.
Full interview can be watched here.
###