Brooklyn, NY – Today, Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries appeared on MSNBC’s Morning Joe where he emphasized that House Democrats will continue to focus on putting People Over Politics while extreme MAGA Republicans bend the knee to Donald Trump. 

Mika Brzezinski: Democratic Congressman Hakeem Jeffries of New York. And I’m just curious, when you walk into a room, is it required that your Democratic colleagues clap for like two minutes straight for you?

Leader Jeffries: No. Absolutely not. And it’s a good day if I get 30 seconds of a clap. We, you know, are a family but we work together to make life better for the American people, not to pledge fealty to one another. And it’s extraordinary to see what’s happening on the other side. The bottom line is that President Biden and House Democrats are going to continue to just simply put people over politics and my colleagues on the other side of the aisle, it’s all about Donald Trump, not the American people.

Joe Scarborough: Leader Jeffries, it is just, it’s fascinating and it’s historic, I can’t remember any time that, the Article One branch completely, was completely submissive, to the presidency. But here, you know, I don’t know. You have to help us understand. How do you deal with House Republicans? How do you negotiate with House Republicans when you know that they don’t speak for themselves? Like the Article One power, the House Speaker, he has no power in and of himself. If you guys come up with a historic immigration bill, Trump can just kill it.

Mika Brzezinski: Yeah.

Leader Jeffries: It’s important to maintain a sense of equanimity in the midst of the storm of it all. We know that Donald Trump is a chaos agent. And the extreme MAGA Republicans are dominated by the chaos caucus. And so, we just have to keep our eye on the prize, which is, we’re willing to find bipartisan common ground on any issue, with our Republican colleagues, whenever and wherever possible. And we’ve repeatedly demonstrated that in service of the American people, throughout the 118th Congress, but, at the same time, be prepared at all times to push back against their extremism whenever necessary. And we have had to do that repeatedly, particularly as it relates to the House Republican effort to try to jam their right wing ideology down the throats of the American people and continue to undermine a woman’s freedom to make her own reproductive healthcare decisions.

Full interview can be watched here. 

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