Brooklyn, NY – Today, Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries appeared on The ReidOut with Joy Reid where he emphasized that Democrats will continue to push back against the far-right extremism of Donald Trump and House Republicans. 

JOY REID: Joining me now is House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries. Leader Jeffries, thank you so much for being here. I think it’s become very clear that the cut and slash and burn of these federal agencies, pushing out federal employees and zeroing out programs like USAID etc., is the ‘bait’ and the ‘switch’ is they’re going to ram through this tax cut that’s going to mainly benefit the top 1% income earners and big corporations. And they’re going to make poor people, people on Medicaid, pay for it, people on food stamps. So my question to you, you’ve said in the past that you want to—you’re looking to negotiate with your Republican colleagues. You want to find bipartisan common ground in funding the government to meet the needs of the American people. Does that mean a single Democrat or you will allow any in your caucus to vote for this budget? 

LEADER JEFFRIES: Well, it’s great to be with you, Joy. We’ve got two things going on at the same time. There’s the funding of the federal government, and that is approaching a March 14 deadline. And traditionally, the appropriators, House Democrats, House Republicans, Senate Democrats and Senate Republicans sit down and try to find common ground on an agreement that meets the needs of the American people in terms of their health, their safety, their national security and their economic well-being in the context of funding the federal government’s operations. Separate and apart from that—and we’ll see what happens as we approach March 14 in that regard—but separate and apart from that, is the Republican effort to jam a budget down the throats of the American people, which is in connection with the hearing that is ongoing today. That is at the heart and soul of the ‘Republican Bait and Switch.’ First, they promised the American people that they would drive down the high cost of living. They’ve lied. Second, their true goal is to enact massive tax cuts for their billionaire donors and wealthy corporations, which is at the heart of this budget proposal. And they want that to be paid for by working-class Americans and everyday Americans by doing things like ending Medicaid as we know it. It’s my expectation that not a single Democrat will support this reckless effort.

JOY REID: What’s the point of passing a budget if Republicans have already conceded that they’re not in charge, that you all, that Congress is not in charge of spending money, Elon Musk is? What’s the point of passing a budget if it’s really Elon Musk’s decision whether that budget is adhered to? 

LEADER JEFFRIES: Well, what the Republicans are doing is they’re using the budget reconciliation process that requires, of course, a simple majority vote in the House. Right now, there are 218 Republicans and 215 Democrats. But more importantly, from the standpoint of what the extreme MAGA Republicans are trying to do is that they are using the budget reconciliation process so they can evade the filibuster in the Senate. Effectively, they want to try to jam this budget down the throats of the American people in a partisan way. It’s not something that Democrats, of course, would ever be expected to support. But the key point in the House, given the closeness of the margins, is that to stop any of this bad stuff from happening, it only takes three House Republicans to do the right thing on behalf of the people that they represent, to stand up for children and seniors and people with disabilities and veterans who will be hurt badly by this Republican budget proposal.

JOY REID: But we’ve seen, Leader Jeffries, that there aren’t three, there aren’t any. If Donald Trump announced tomorrow that he was selling the United States to Vladimir Putin personally and that we will now be owned by the Kremlin, every single Republican would say, ‘yes, sir,’ and vote for it. We already have seen their behavior and we’ve stopped—I think most of us—have stopped expecting any different behavior from them. So the question to me is the levers that Democrats have at this point is coming up in March, and Republicans have never been shy about using the debt limit to hold Democrats hostage. You all now are the ones in a position to do that, to essentially attempt to prevent the debt limit from being raised by withholding any support, any help, any assistance. Are you prepared to use that leverage and say ‘if you all want to shut the government down, do it by yourselves?’

LEADER JEFFRIES: Well, Republicans have the responsibility to fund the government. That’s clear, as it approaches the March 14 deadline. With respect to the debt ceiling, we already rejected a Republican effort in late December to try to give Donald Trump a $4 trillion blank check by suspending the debt ceiling for either two to four years so he could enact the GOP tax scam. Democrats are on record rejecting that. We did it in December. Now, with respect to when we will actually hit the debt ceiling, that is likely to come at some point as early as June 1. It could come as late as August 1. So that’s an issue that we’ll have to tackle in a couple of months. 

JOY REID: But are you willing to help them raise the debt limit at all? Why not just say no? 

LEADER JEFFRIES: We’ve already said no, Joy. 

JOY REID: Okay. Okay. That’s good to hear. That’s good to hear. There is some reporting—Axios reporting—that the leadership, including yourself, have taken some annoyance at groups like Indivisible and other activist groups who have organized protests that have also resulted in a lot of phone calls into Democratic Party offices. Why would that annoy Democratic leaders? It does feel like the energy that you’re seeing at the town halls for Democratic and—when Republicans do bother to talk to their constituents—is real and it’s genuine. Why would that annoy leadership? 

LEADER JEFFRIES: It doesn’t annoy leadership. I think that we’ve been very clear. In fact, we work regularly with advocacy groups to make sure that we are in lockstep as it relates to pushing back against the extremism that’s being unleashed against the American people. That was, as I understand it, a report that was filled with anonymous sources. Not a single House Democratic leader, myself included, is on record making that observation, because nothing could be further from the truth. At the end of the day, our view is that it’s an all-hands-on-deck effort. We need everybody, Democratic members of the House, Democratic members of the Senate, Democratic governors, Democratic elected officials, advocacy groups, everyday Americans, Democratic Attorney Generals like Tish James, who’s doing her thing. It’s an all-hands-on-deck-effort in the Congress, in the courts and in the community.

JOY REID: You mentioned Attorney General James, the New York Attorney General Tish James. She is now being sued. There was a lawsuit that’s been filed by the Justice Department naming her specifically. What do you make of the tactics of the Department of Justice? Pam Bondi pretended during her nomination hearings that there would be no weaponization of the Justice Department. But now we have this happening. And also, we have several resignations and, you know, including some pretty conservative members of the Eastern District of New York because they refuse to drop the prosecution of Eric Adams. And also, this question of trying to sue New York over immigration. What do you make of the Justice Department’s actions toward New York? 

LEADER JEFFRIES: It’s not clear to me why the administration is so focused, obsessed, on the people of the great state of New York as opposed to doing what they promised to do, which was to lower grocery prices on day one. That was the promise. And we haven’t seen the cost of living here in the United States of America go down. In fact, it’s going up all across the country because the administration and House Republicans could care less, it appears, about actually solving the problems that they were elected to solve. Housing costs are too high in the United States of America. Grocery costs are too high. Utility costs are too high. Childcare costs are too high. It’s a fact that America is too expensive. And House Democrats have been clear that we want to solve that problem. We want to get that done. We believe the American people, working-class folks, low-income folks, middle-class folks are crying out for us to solve that problem. But the administration has shown no interest in doing anything about it. Instead, they’re playing games and targeting the great state of New York. We will not be intimidated by their illegitimate threats. 

JOY REID: Let’s talk a bit, for a moment, once again about Elon Musk, who seems to be wielding the real power in the administration. It does appear that Donald Trump essentially is, sort of, junior to him on the totem pole. How can Congress—I mean, obviously, you all are in the minority, but it’s been very difficult to subpoena Elon Musk. It’s been very difficult to get some accounting. There’s reporting that they found really nothing in terms of fraud or abuse, they just found programs they don’t like and started to cut them. Is there any way to audit DOGE? 

LEADER JEFFRIES: We think information is eventually going to come to light. That’s the reality of this situation. There are a lot of hardworking, good-natured people within the federal government who understand that what’s taking place right now is wrong and is not in the best interest of the American taxpayer. And we also believe that through the courts, where there is legitimate authority that can be granted in terms of subpoenaing information, that you are likely to see a lot of the things that we’re concerned about eventually come to light. The reality is right now, there are more than 55 different lawsuits that have been filed in defense of the American people related to at least 25 different executive orders and administrative actions—many of them related to the unlawful activity of Elon Musk. As those cases proceed through the system sooner rather than later, and the Trump administration has been losing them, we expect that this information will be forthcoming and we can take it straight to the American people. 

JOY REID: House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries, thank you so much. We appreciate your time tonight. 

LEADER JEFFRIES: Thank you.

Full interview can be watched here. 

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