| Speaker | Time | Text |
|---|---|---|
|
unidentified
|
And I like it that way. | |
| Who wants to live in a country that is blown about by gusts of opinion emitted by journalists? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Author and writer George Will, Sunday night at 8 p.m. Eastern on C-SPAN's Q ⁇ A. You can listen to Q&A wherever you get your podcasts and on the C-SPAN Now app. | |
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| During a news conference, House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries talked about the Trump administration's legislative agenda, Social Security, job cuts at the Department of Health and Human Services, and the Signal group chat leak. | ||
| Good afternoon, everyone. | ||
| House Democrats are going to continue to focus on the things that matter to the American people. | ||
| We're going to protect Social Security, protect Medicare, protect Medicaid, protect our public schools, protect veterans, and protect nutritional assistance for children, everyday Americans, and families. | ||
| House Republicans and the Trump administration are trying to take a chainsaw to everything that matters to the American people, like ending Social Security and Medicaid as we know it. | ||
| Seniors on Social Security receive an average of $65 per month. | ||
| They rely on Social Security and earn benefit to put food on the table, clothing on their back, and to make sure that they can pay their rent or pay their mortgage. | ||
| It's extraordinary to us that Donald Trump, the administration, and Republicans are trying to detonate Social Security in real time, including by dismantling the Social Security Administration, which will impact the ability of older Americans to receive benefits. | ||
| The Republicans believe that Social Security is a Ponzi scheme. | ||
| Project 2025 is the Ponzi scheme. | ||
| Republicans are defrauding the American people. | ||
| Last year, Republicans promised that they would drive down the high cost of living and ignored Project 2025, lied to the American people as if it didn't exist. | ||
| This year, Donald Trump, the administration, and Republicans in the Congress have done nothing to drive down the high cost of living. | ||
| Costs aren't going down. | ||
| They are going up. | ||
| Inflation is going up. | ||
| America is becoming more expensive and less affordable under complete Republican control of government. | ||
| At the same period of time, Republicans are flooding the zone with a parade of horribles that all relate to Project 2025. | ||
| That's the Ponzi scheme that's been run on the American people. | ||
| And front and center right now is the target that Republicans have put on the back of Social Security recipients all across America. | ||
| Democrats are going to fight hard to protect Social Security and Medicare and Medicaid and the things that actually matter to making life better for the American people. | ||
| Questions? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Mr. Jeffries. | |
| Mr. Leonard, good afternoon. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| There's been some reporting that the Republicans might have a numbers problem. | ||
| What? | ||
| What does that mic actually do? | ||
|
unidentified
|
It speaks for the cuts camera in Bruno Korean. | |
| My first time seeing it. | ||
| I was wondering what's going on here. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Okay. | |
| Thank you. | ||
| It's kind of an oversized microphone there. | ||
|
unidentified
|
So as Joda said in Star Wars, though, size matters not. | |
| In any of that, there's been some. | ||
| I'm going to refrain from commenting on that observation. | ||
| But go ahead. | ||
| In any of that, there's been some suggestion that Republicans might have numbers with their reconciliation package. | ||
|
unidentified
|
There's some reporting that there might be a withdrawal of the nomination of Elise Stefanik. | |
| What do you think that that says if they were to pull that nomination or if she were to withdraw about them having trouble with numbers to get through the so-called big beautiful bill? | ||
| Republicans are in free fall right now. | ||
| House Republicans are fighting with Senate Republicans. | ||
| Senate Republicans are fighting with House Republicans. | ||
| House Republicans are fighting with each other because you've got a group of people who are uncomfortable with the fact that they were forced as House Republicans in so-called swing districts to vote for the largest Medicaid cut in American history. | ||
| And we will not let the American people ever forget it. | ||
| Then you have a group of so-called Freedom Caucus Republicans who want to go further in terms of the cuts that are harmful and painful that they want to inflict on the American people. | ||
| And then you've got Republicans in both the House and the Senate who don't know whether they should follow orders from Donald Trump or Elon Musk. | ||
| So the whole situation is chaotic and confusing, but it all relates to a corrupt Ponzi scheme that they are trying to jam down the throats of the American people. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Let's speak to this numbers issue. | |
| It's unclear what the numbers issue ultimately represents. | ||
| I don't know. | ||
| They seem to be panicking about the two special elections in Florida, which shocks the conscience of anybody who follows these races closely. | ||
| Florida won and Florida six. | ||
| Donald Trump won those two districts respectively by 30 and 37 points. | ||
| How is it that they are even competitive at this point? | ||
| Why are Republicans panicking in deep red districts? | ||
| It's because their agenda is unpopular. | ||
| They are completely and totally out of control. | ||
| There's been no focus on driving down the high cost of living. | ||
| And instead, this budget that they want to jam down the throats of the American people in order to provide tax cuts to their billionaire puppet master donors like Elon Musk is also unpopular. | ||
| So they do have a numbers problem that they're going to have to try to resolve, but that's for Republicans to work out. | ||
| Yes? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yes, Leader Jeffries. | |
| What is your comment on the latest mass firings at NIH, at HHS today, announced today, in context of the others that we all are hearing about? | ||
| The mass firings are likely unlawful, will likely be challenged in court. | ||
| And we also know that it does nothing to improve the health, safety, and economic well-being of the American people. | ||
| It will hurt it. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Leader Jeffries. | |
| Thanks. | ||
| Thank you, Leader. | ||
| Have you spoken with Congressman Cockett regarding her comments towards Governor Abbott? | ||
| And how are comments like that affecting the party's brand? | ||
| I have not had a conversation with Jasmine. | ||
| I did see that she issued a statement clarifying her remarks, and her statement speaks for itself. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Leader Jeffrey. | |
| On top of that, you've mentioned the list of horribles from Project 22 to 25. | ||
| On top of that, one of the other ones unrelated to Secretary Medicare Medicine is the ramping up of deportations, sending people to El Salvador, and they're coming day by day by day. | ||
| Is just the rapid fire of these deportations, a lot of those which seem unlawful or without due process, is the speed of it making it harder for Democrats to respond to this violation of due process and civil liberties? | ||
| No, these deportations that appear to involve, in several instances, American citizens or legal permanent residents have been challenged in court and will continue to be challenged in court. | ||
| Democrats will also forcefully speak out against overreach whenever and wherever it occurs. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thank you. | |
| Thank you, Mr. Leader. | ||
| Earlier this week, President Trump issued an executive order that introduces several changes to federal election procedures, including proof of citizenship for voter registration. | ||
| I wanted to get your reaction to that executive order. | ||
| And you've talked about the role that kitchen table issues, Matt, cost of living has played top of mind for a lot of voters. | ||
| Do you think that these threats to democracy are also top of mind of voters, or will Democrats have to work a lot harder to communicate to the American people what the impact of executive orders like this is, even if they're challenged in court? | ||
| Well, the executive order that was recently issued by President Trump is not worth the paper it has been written on. | ||
| It will be challenged in court and it will be invalidated. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Do you think that the American people, because it's going to be challenged to the court, that it's not worth Democrats putting forward a forceful message about the fact that Republicans have claimed that federal elections should be left to the states and local municipalities, but now you see this executive overreach? | |
| Is that something that you think the American people should be aware of? | ||
| Republicans have zero credibility on the issue of protecting democracy and as it relates to the integrity of our election. | ||
| Republicans have actually concluded that voter suppression is an electoral strategy. | ||
| These people in the House wouldn't even be in the majority right now if it weren't for the egregious mid-decade highly partisan gerrymandering that took place in North Carolina. | ||
| Think about that. | ||
| They would not even be in the majority right now, but then they're running around the country claiming to have a mandate. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Give me a break. | |
| There were a number of town halls last week where Democrats heard from constituents who were angry that the party isn't doing more to stand up against Trump. | ||
| AOC said at one of her rallies that she thinks you guys need leaders who are fighting harder for the Democratic Party. | ||
| Do you think the party could be doing more to fight against Trump and MAGA? | ||
| It's all hands on deck, and it will continue to be all hands on deck. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Peter Jeffries. | |
| Thank you. | ||
| Yep. | ||
| Thank you, Leader. | ||
| Just wanted to ask about the D.C. budget fix. | ||
| Have you spoken to Speaker Johnson about what the timeline is from when that's expected to come to the floor? | ||
| And are you concerned about conservative opposition potentially derailing the bill? | ||
| Andy Harris was saying earlier today that they're pressing for requirements for the district. | ||
| I don't know if that's something that Democrats can even get on board with. | ||
| In terms of the District of Columbia funding fix, it needs to happen before we go on the next district work period, which means it should occur either next week or the week after next. | ||
| The Senate Republicans have clearly and unequivocally expressed support for the spending legislation. | ||
| Senate Democrats, House Democrats. | ||
| Apparently, even Donald Trump himself has expressed support for the need to correct this egregious error that was in the House Republican highly partisan spending bill. | ||
| And so it needs to happen. | ||
| I haven't talked to Johnson specifically about this, but if there's further delay, I will raise it with him directly. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thank you. | |
| Two weeks ago, you and Eder Schumer ended up in different places on the CR vote. | ||
| Moving forward, what are you and him doing to get on the same page? | ||
| We are on the same page right now as it relates to pushing back against the reckless Republican budget, which includes the largest Medicaid cut in American history. | ||
| We are on the same page as it relates to stopping the Republican effort to dismantle Social Security as we know it. | ||
| We are on the same page as it relates to what needs to be done to actually create an economy that is affordable for everyday Americans. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Speaker Jeffrey. | |
| Thanks. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| Obviously, the Democrats are mad. | ||
| The base is mad. | ||
| We've noticed this uptick in the use of expletives in both chambers by Democrats. | ||
| I have a list that I want to read it. | ||
| Am I on that list? | ||
|
unidentified
|
No, you're not actually. | |
| You're a gentleman. | ||
| You haven't used a curse word that I've heard of yet. | ||
| Do you think this is the best tactic and the smartest way to connect with voters? | ||
| Is this something that you think works right now? | ||
| Voters are angry all across the country for good reason. | ||
| We are witnessing in real time an unprecedented assault by Republicans on the economy, an unprecedented assault on Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid, an unprecedented assault on the American way of life, an unprecedented assault on veterans, thousands of whom have been fired without justification by the Trump administration, | ||
| and an unprecedented assault on American democracy. | ||
| People are upset. | ||
| People are concerned, anxious, frightened, scared, and all of the above. | ||
| And so you see Democratic members across the country channeling those feelings in a variety of different ways. | ||
| But one thing is clear, electorally, Republicans are on the run. | ||
| They're on the run. | ||
| We saw it in Iowa in January. | ||
| We saw it in New York in February. | ||
| We just saw it in Pennsylvania yesterday in places where Republicans should not simply be winning, but winning easily. | ||
| And it's because there is an energized Democratic base and swing voters along with independents are abandoning Republicans in droves all across America. | ||
| By the way, that's the reason why Republicans are actually spending millions of dollars in two districts in Florida that Donald Trump won by north of 30 points. | ||
|
unidentified
|
So is it fair to say that you won't use that language, but you're okay with it? | |
| It's fair to say that Republicans are on the run all across the country, and I'm okay with that. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thank you. | |
| Given the anti-establishment energy from some of the Democratic grassroots on the ground, how confident are you that you'll be able to maintain the unanimous support that you've enjoyed from your caucus when it comes to the 2027 speaker election, particularly from some of the new members that may come in? | ||
| Very. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| I have unanimous support now, what, 20 different times across two different Congresses? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah. | |
| Kind of speaks for itself. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thanks. | |
| Thank you, Later. | ||
| In recent days, we've seen a number of students, international students here on visas get detained at Columbia Tufts and today the University of Alabama. | ||
| Do Democrats have any advice for these students on things they can do to protect themselves from these detainments and what specific actions the Democrats plan to take to combat these recent actions? | ||
| We are carefully working with a variety of different advocacy organizations as well as our allies in the legal community and where appropriate Democratic attorney generals to make sure that we are forcefully pushing back against any violation of the law, | ||
| including where students on visas and legal permanent residents, as was the case in New York, are being illegally targeted by the Trump administration. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thank you, Leader. | |
| Can you describe your relationship right now with Leader Schumer and are you two good? | ||
| Can I ask you to elaborate on your on your strategy? | ||
| You said it's all hands on deck as far as what the fight looks like. | ||
| When can we start to expect to see some evidence of this fight and whether or not Democrats can land a punch on Republicans? | ||
| What evidence are you looking for exactly? | ||
| Should we win elections? | ||
| Check. | ||
| Should we outraise Republicans? | ||
| Actually, the DCCC, interesting that I haven't seen this aggressively covered because it runs against the narrative. | ||
| But the DCCC had its best off-year January ever and outraised House Republicans by $4 million. | ||
| Wait a second. | ||
| They're in the majority. | ||
| They've got access to all of this deep-pocketed money. | ||
| But the DCCC had its best off-year January ever in history. | ||
| And then what happened in February? | ||
| We outraised the Republicans again. | ||
| They're in the majority. | ||
| We outraised the House Republicans. | ||
| And by the way, outraged the Senate Republicans as well, which almost never happens. | ||
| And then in special election after special election after special election, Democrats are winning. | ||
| Winning. | ||
| We're talking quantifiable facts, numbers, fundraising, elections, and Donald Trump's public approval ratings are plummeting. | ||
| He's supposed to be in his honeymoon period right now. | ||
| One of the reasons why Republicans are probably panicking in terms of whether they ultimately will be able to produce the votes to jam a reckless budget down the throats of the American people is that the so-called swing seat Republicans get nervous when they see these special election results and see Donald Trump's poll numbers collapsing, | ||
| while at the same time, in every single one of these races, independents are breaking for Democrats and the Democratic base is turning out. | ||
| Wait, the Democratic base is turning out in Iowa, in New York, in Minnesota, in Delaware, most recently in Pennsylvania. | ||
| That seems to run counter to the narrative that some in this town continue to try to put forward. | ||
| But we're in the facts business, not the perception business. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Can I just follow up there? | |
| Sure. | ||
|
unidentified
|
It's not just a narrative. | |
| I mean, that's what we're hearing in town halls. | ||
| It's like constituents want to see the fight. | ||
| It's not clearly the journalists want to see the fight. | ||
| So if you're answering the question to constituents, when will they see the fight? | ||
| Is it just looking at special elections? | ||
| No, I think a lot of people across the country. | ||
| But I think what has been clear and what you're seeing, first of all, we're having town hall meetings. | ||
| Republicans aren't even having town hall meetings. | ||
| They are afraid to have town hall meetings. | ||
| We're in these streets regularly, whether that's in Brooklyn, in the Midwest, in the Deep South, in California. | ||
| So we interact with constituents all the time. | ||
| I interact with constituents all the time. | ||
| And we'll continue to talk about the things that are being done in Congress to push back against Republicans, our strong opposition to the reckless Republican spending bill. | ||
| That was a fight. | ||
| We were on one side of that fight. | ||
| Republicans were on the other side of that fight. | ||
| It was a legislative fight. | ||
| Our uniform opposition to the reckless Republican budget, every single House Democrat voted against it. | ||
| Every single Senate Democrat voted against it. | ||
| That was a legislative fight. | ||
| We were on the side of the American people and Republicans were on the side of their deep-pocketed donors and special interests. | ||
| We're in the middle of a fight right now as it relates to Pete Hegset. | ||
| He needs to resign or be fired by Donald Trump. | ||
| We've made that clear across the caucus. | ||
| And Democrats, I think, showed fight in the Senate hearing on Tuesday and in the House hearing on Wednesday. | ||
| Our veterans have stood up to push back against this stunning national security breach. | ||
| That's a fight that we're in right now. | ||
| Are we on the sidelines? | ||
| Have we been silent about this scandal? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Signal Beat? | |
| Have we? | ||
|
unidentified
|
No, no. | |
| Okay, so that's a fight. | ||
| These fights are ongoing. | ||
| We're pushing back against their efforts to dismantle the Department of Education. | ||
| Johanna Hayes and others, they're leading that fight. | ||
| Joe Nagoos and Jamie Raskin and others, who are leading the litigation working group effort, have been involved in the fights that are taking place in court case after court case after court case, where the American people are actually winning in court and Donald Trump is losing. | ||
| That's a fight. | ||
| So, yeah, special elections are one indication of it. | ||
| It's an important indication because is the Democratic base energized or demoralized as it relates to turning out? | ||
| Y'all can answer the question based on what you are seeing. | ||
| Is the Democratic base energized or demoralized as it relates to supporting the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee? | ||
| The data speaks for itself. | ||
| Those are data points. | ||
| But the most important thing is that the substantive fight has been underway from the very beginning, and it will continue with the relentless energy and righteous indignation that the moment deserves. | ||
| Thank you, everyone. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thank you. | |
| Are they in the fight? | ||
| Too soon. | ||
|
unidentified
|
On Friday, more coverage of lawmakers' town hall meetings as California Democratic Representative Robert Garcia meets with constituents in his district. | |
| Watch live at 8:30 p.m. Eastern on C-SPAN. | ||
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