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The Democratic Leader in the House, my fellow Brooklyn Night Hakiem Jeffrey is joining us from Washington.
Leader Jeffries, thank you for joining us. I want to get right to it. The US Embassy in Israel has authorized departure for non essential personnel. That usually doesn't happen unless something is imminent. Do you expect the US to strike around this weekend and we'll Angrist be informed in advance.
Well, that remains unclear.
We certainly have taken the position as House Democrats that prior to any military action, the Trump administration should seek authorization for the use of military force in connection with any strikes against Iran that would be the functional equivalent of an active war.
You spent the better part of this week with your fellow Democrats at a retreat just outside of Washington, d C. I know that a big focus of your attention was on this affordability agenda. I wonder if you could enumerate just a few points proposals that you would make should you get the speaker's gabble Democrats regain control of the House on that agenda going forward? What are items that you think you could reconably pass without breaking the bank.
Well, that's House Democrats.
We're committed to making life more affordable for the American people. Donald Trump promised to lower the high cost of living on day one, costs having gone down, costs have gone up. In fact, the inflation numbers today showed that life continues to get more for the American people because of the Trump administration policies, including the Trump tariffs that have increased costs on everyday Americans by thousands of dollars per year.
One of the first things I think that we need to do is to make sure that these tariffs that have been randomly and recklessly put into place by Donald Trump can no longer move forward, and Congress needs to regain its authority on trade and tariff issues. Second, of course, in connection with fixing our broken healthcare system, we have to extend the Affordable Care Act tax credits. We're going to continue to fight to do that in the Senate.
This year we've passed it, of course, out of the House all two hundred and thirteen Democrats joined by seventeen Republicans. This is a bipartisan issue, and in order to prevent tens of millions of Americans from experiencing dramatically increase health insurance premiums, we have to pass these tax credits so we can drive down the costs. That certainly is also a commitment of House Democrats.
Peter Jeffries on that to do list. I reached out to a senior Democrat, former member of the Bind administration, and I said, what would you ask lear Jeffries? And they said, ask him what the plan is for border control. This is something that most Americans say they want, They want stronger borders. They may disagree with the way the President is going about it, but this is top of the agenda. And this individual said, I don't think Democrats have a plan, do you, and what is that?
Well?
Our plan is anchored in several values. We want order at the border, a safe, secure and strong border. We recognize that we have a broken immigration system and we need to fix it in a comprehensive and bipartisan way. At the same period of time, the American people are appropriately demanding that ICE enforcement is humane, it's fair, and it's just, and that's not what we're seeing right now.
ICE is completely and totally out of control, which is why we're fighting for dramatic reforms to the way in which.
ICE conducts itself.
That's bold, that's meaningful, and that's transformational, including things like a mandatory requirement that judicial warrants be obtained before ICE agents break into the homes of the American people. We want to make sure that there are independent investigations that state and local elected official, state and local officials like, for instance, the attorney generals, can conduct in order to make sure that there's accountability when ICE agents violently break
the law. We want to make sure that there's an excessive use of force prohibition policy that's put in the place. We have to make sure that sensitive locations like houses of worship, schools, hospitals, and polling sites are protected from overreach by ICE agents or the DHS. Those are some of the policies that will continue to fight.
To achieve should ICE be defunded.
I think we want dramatic reform as it relates to the manner and which ICE conducted itself. That's anchored in the principle that taxpayer dollars should be used to make life more affordable for the American people, not to brutalize or kill them, as was the case with Renana Cole Good and Alex Pretty.
Has to be brought under control.
Of course, what I've said is that what we need to do interior enforcement should be fair, just and humane. That's been the position that I've articulated from the very beginning of this extremism that's being at least of the American people. So that is why DHS as a funding bill has not moved forward at this point in time, and it will not move forward until there are changes that are bold, meaningful, and dramatic.
The types of things that I've articulated.
We've talked about border policy, talked about trade policy, child tax credit. I'm reminded of something that Elyssi Slotkin, the Democratic senator said recently, which was the suggestion Democrats need a version of Project twenty twenty five, a Project twenty twenty.
Nine, if you will.
I think in saying that, what she's getting at is there needs to be a clear value proposition for the American people to understand what Democrats are offering.
Do you agree with her? Is she on to something there?
Does there need to be a clearer outline of what Democrats proposing here going into the midterms of the next presidential election.
Well, I think heading into the midterm election is what we've made clear is that the American people deserve better, and we've said directly to them, you deserve better than the extremism that has been unleashed on everyday Americans, the assault on the economy, the failures as it relates to the high cost of living, the failures on healthcare, the failures as it relates to immigration enforcement, and the failures of Donald Trump and Republicans to make life better for
the American people because they're so preoccupied with a whole host of other things, including massive tax breaks for their billionaire donors. That's what their one big, ugly bill was all about while at the same period of time, they gutted Medicaid, ripped away snap benefits from millions of Americans, and gave is a seventy five billion dollars slush fund.
As Democrats, our approach is going to be very different, will be laser focused on driving down the high cost of living, fixing on broken healthcare system, and cleaning up corruption wherever it's found in the Congress, at the Supreme Court, and certainly with this administration the most corrupt in American history.
We're coming into week two of that partial government shutdown. You just mentioned all the reforms that you want from DHS, and you're asking your party to hold the line on that. But realistically, as TSA agents start to miss paychecks, as airport slow down, as constituents start to feel the pain of this partial shutdown, do you think members of your caucus will stay strong on this or will you see defections like you did during the last shutdown?
Well, I think the outcome of the last shutdown was that House Democrats led the effort to pass a straightforward three year extend of the Affordable Care Act tax credits, and seventeen House Republicans joined us marking the first time in American history that any Republicans in this Congress have voted affirmatively for the Affordable Care Act tax credits, or the Affordable Care Act. That was the outcome of our effort to draw a hard line in the sand on
behalf of the American people. Now, this time around, we've basically made clear that it's unfortunate that Donald Trump and Republicans in the Congress have decided that they would rather shut down FEMA, shut down the Coastguard, and shut down TSA as opposed to enacting the type of bold, meaningful, and dramatic changes that will help transform DHS and its enforcement agencies in a manner that is consistent with our values.
But do you think your party is united enough to hold that line?
And who is the leader.
Of the Democratic Party right now?
Democratic leader? We've got great members of the House Democratic Caucus as well that are leading in a wide variety of different ways. It's not my job to make determinations
as to who's the Democratic Party leader. What I can tell you is that Democrats have won elections consistently for the last fourteen months, and so whoever the leader may be, he or she is doing a great job, because literally, we haven't lost a meaningful election in the entirety of the Trump administration, winning races up and down the ballot across the country in places like New Jersey, in New York,
in Virginia, in California. Certainly during the off year elections last November in Mississippi, in Georgia, three state Supreme Court races that we swept, in Pennsylvania, and then went on to win races in Florida, the Miami mayors race for the first time in thirty years, and of course these special elections that we've seen dramatic overperformance, most recently in Texas by thirty one points and then in Louisiana, the home state of Mike Johnson and Steve Scalise by thirty
seven points in terms of an overperformance from the Trump number. So collectively, we're going to continue to message and communicate to the American people our values, Juxtapose that with the extremism that the Republicans are unleashing on the American people, and let the ships fall where they may.
Quite just quickly about messaging, and you're getting to this point that is, I think there are a lot of people who are keen to run against and maybe support candidates who are running against the policies of this president. There are others who are looking for the Democrats to
promote and campaign on policies of their own. What is your counsel to your caucus those running on how to find that balance between those two things, being anti Trump and being pro whatever the Democratic parties offer something.
Yes, well, I think what's been obvious over the last fourteen months, and certainly this was the case no longer deniable by people who suggest that Democrats don't have a message, is that what has united us is the issue of affordability and our commitment to actually drive down the high cost of living. That was the case in New Jersey, that was the case in Virginia, that was the case
in New York. Three very different type of candidates all united around the affordability issue because we believe they are far too many people. We're talking about millions of folks in this country who are working hard and who are playing by the rules, but who are unable to get by. They certainly aren't able to get ahead, they can't thrive, and they are barely surviving, and that's unacceptable in the
wealthiest country in the history of the world. And we believe that when you do those things, when you work hard, and when you play by the rules, you should be able to live an affordable life, a comfortable life, live the good life.
And we define that very clearly.
Good paying jobs, good housing, good health care, a good education for your children, and when it's all said and done, a good retirement. That's what House Democrats are fighting hard to achieve for the American people.
I want to ask you about one of your Republican colleagues. Texas Republican Tony Gonzalez is facing criticism over allegations of an affair he had with a former staffer who later died by suicide. He is so far resisted calls to step down should he resign, So.
These are extremely disturbing and very serious allegations, and it requires a very serious investigation. And it's my understanding that the Office of Congressional Counsel is in the midst of that investigation, and in fact may be prepared to issue a report to us as members of Congress as early as Wednesday of next week. And once that report has been issued to us, then all options should certainly be on the table based on what the conclusions are in terms of that investigation.
I want to ask you about a piece in the Washington Post about executive order the president's reportedly considering. I'm going to read a quote here from Peter Tickton, who is what someone who's pushing for this executive order said, if the President were to declare a national emergency to grant him power over elections, that would empower the president to ban mail ballots and voting machines as the vectors
of foreign interference. So effectively, the argument the administration will be making is, as they see it, there is fort interference, although not proven in the last election, that's grounds for the presidents take more control of future elections.
What are you going to do, as.
The Democratic leader in the House if the President goes down that path.
Well, it's a crackpot conspiracy theory, and we will not allow it to be brought to life. Certainly we won't allow it to be brought to life legislatively. Where the President threatened to abandon the way in which elections have been conducted for the better part of almost two hundred and fifty years here in this country and try to nationalize them. This so called Save America Act is dead on arrival in the Senate.
It's not going anywhere.
And this effort to abuse the notion of an emergency authority has already been defeated multiple times by the Supreme Court, a very conservative Supreme Court. The President tried to use emergency authority to federalize the National Guard. We of course sued him, took it all the way up to the Supreme Court, and he was denied that ability, which is why the President was forced to pull out of places
like Oregon, California, and Illinois. The President claimed the authority to unilaterally issue tariffs, tariffs that are hurting businesses, hurting entrepreneurs, and certainly hurting farmers and consumers. We took that up to the Supreme Court, and the Supreme Court, including three very conservative justices, declared clearly that the President did not have that emergency authority with respect to tariffs and declared
them unlawful and unconstitutional. And in the same vein, we'll use every tool available, including suing the heck out of him if he tries to go down this road, to prevent him from trying to rig the mid term elections, because he knows his presidency hasn't been a failure. His policies have been a failure, and Republicans have failed America.
Leader Jeffers, we've talked about the democratic message. Let me ask you about what we've heard from the president on the campaign trail. This is a refrain he's used over and over again. Let me play it.
You got to win the midterms, because if we don't win the midterms, it's just going.
To be.
I mean, they'll find a reason to impeach me.
I'll get impeached.
You call this the most corrupt administration in history. I wonder if you think impeachment is inevitable. And as you listen to Americans, maybe there are those who are worried about the fact you have one administration impeaching the president as I'm sorry, one Congress impeaching the president. The administration switches that could happen back and forth.
Over and over again.
Are you willing to rule out or commit to not impeaching the president if you were to get the speaker's gabble.
Yeah, What I'm willing to commit to is that we are going to fight hard to drive down the high cost of living. We believe that affordability is the core issue that the American people. What I'm saying our priority is we're not ruling anything in and we're not ruling anything out.
It's all premature.
What we're focused on is a commitment to making sure we make life more affordable for the American people and fix our broken healthcare system. Now, of course, there's got to be accountability. This is the most corrupt administration in American history, and right now we are focused on delivering that accountability in terms of the administration directly to Christy Know who we've called to be fired, and if she's not fired, we are committed to commencing impeachment proceedings against her.
And we've just got to convince a handful of our Republican colleagues to do the right thing. She's a disaster, she's a stone cold liar. She called Renaina cold Good and Alex pretty domestic terrorists. She's unleashed these poorly trained aids to brutalize law abiding immigrant families and American citizens, in some cases killing them.
And she clearly has to go.
Leeter Jeffries before we let you go. Next week, you're going to compel a vote of the full House on the bipartisan kind of massive war powers resolution. I want to ask you, I've covered watching a long time. Warpowers Act seems to come up constantly, regardless of whether it's a democratic or Republican administration. Is this a performative act at this point? Because, frankly, if the president decides to bomb Iran or capture the president of Venezuela, what are you going to do about it?
Yeah?
Well, what we have to do as the Article one branch of government is reclaim our authority as a separate and coequal branch, which unfortunately our Republican colleagues have declined to do.
In fact, so how can you do Epican?
Well, we can do it by beginning to actually bring legislation to the floor that is consistent with the values of our framers. They gave the House of Representatives the authority as it relates to appropriations because they knew taxation and spending were particularly important and the House was the closest institution.
To the people.
They also gave us the authority as it relates to trade and tariffs, and they gave us the authority as it relates to the power to declare war, and unfortunately, over time we've seen in erosion of Congress exercising that authority, and our commitment on behalf of the American people is to regain that.
But can you do anything to stop a president who decides to take a military.
Action like this.
We have to do everything that we can on behalf of the American people, because the American people clearly know that the last thing we need at this moment when they literally are struggling having to choose between paying rent, buying groceries, or getting to go see a doctor when they need one, this is unacceptable in this country.
And the last thing we need is another.
Failed foreign forever war, which certainly would be the outcome if Donald Trump decides to get us entangled in Iran and the Middle East.
The Democratic leader in the House, my fellow Brooklyn Night, Hakim Jeffrey is joining us from Washington. Represent Jeffreyes. Thank you very much, Thank you, sir, Thank you.
Thanks for joining us on today's Bloomberg This Weekend podcast. Don't forget to tune in live for the show every Saturday and Sunday morning, starting at seven am Eastern.
We're on Bloomberg Television Radio and the Bloomberg Business app. Bringing you unique takes and in depth interviews on news, politics, lifestyle and culture.