Brooklyn, NY – Today, Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries appeared on MSNBC’s The Weekend to emphasize that Democrats will stand united against Republican attempts to cut Medicaid, destroy Social Security and enact tax cuts for their billionaire donors. 

ALICIA MENENDEZ: Good morning, sir. Leader Jeffries, we had Congressman Clyburn on earlier in the show, and he described you as being blindsided by Senate leadership. Help us understand what happened.

LEADER JEFFRIES: Well, House Democrats were strongly opposed to this reckless Republican spending bill because it would hurt the American people, hurt seniors, hurt families, hurt veterans, and enact cuts that we believed were not in the best interests of the American people. We opposed it from the very beginning, all the way through the Senate vote and we’ll continue to oppose these types of cuts to the extent that they are put forward by Republicans. The Senate position was the Senate position. There were many Senate Democrats that shared our view with respect to this reckless Republican spending bill. And we’re all going to have to come together to move forward to oppose the Republican budget that they are trying to jam down the throats of the American people over the next few weeks.

SYMONE SANDERS-TOWNSEND: Leader Jeffries I have heard that from a number of House Democrats specifically, and some people aligned with House Democrats in the last 24 to 48 hours said look, Democrats have to come together because there’s more work to be done. But I do think that the rift that we are seeing and not even rift, I just think it’s about a difference of approach, you have a number of Democrats yourself included, House Democrats writ large, all of you all, and a number of Senate Democrats also, that are ready to fight at once to demonstrate to the American people that you understand not just the stakes, but you are doing everything you can about it. And then you have a contingent of Senators, there were Democrats in the Senate that don’t necessarily share the sentiment that you have about the approach. From the outside looking in, some people are saying, well, are Schumer and Jeffries not speaking, but it’s my understanding that you all did communicate and then something happened for Leader Schumer that changed his mind. And I’m just wondering, do you have any insight on what that was, or have you and Leader Schumer had a conversation since that vote?

LEADER JEFFRIES: We haven’t had a conversation since that vote. I was down in Houston helping to memorialize and funeralize the great Sylvester Turner and I just got back to New York. I do expect to have a conversation with him at some point later on today. Look, Chuck and I disagreed as it relates to the approach and outcome relative to what we viewed as a reckless Republican spending bill and the effort to try to jam these cuts down the throats of the American people. Cuts to health care, cuts to veterans benefits and cuts to nutritional assistance to children and families throughout America, while potentially handing a blank check to Donald Trump and Elon Musk to continue their Extreme Project 2025 agenda. At the same period of time, Chuck and I agree on the overwhelming majority of issues moving forward, including our effort to oppose the largest potential Medicaid cut in American history. And we’re all going to have to come together, House Democrats, Senate Democrats, governors, elected officials, advocacy organizations, civil rights groups, the democracy reform groups who are doing a tremendous job stopping the Trump administration in court. We are all going to have to come together to oppose the effort to rip away health care from the American people, which is why Democrats on Tuesday across the country are having a Medicaid Day of Action in blue states, purple states and red states to save Medicaid for the American people.

MICHAEL STEELE: Leader Jeffries, you say that Democrats will have to come together on this issue to hold the line, but I presume that that was the thinking going into the vote last week, and yet that line was not held. So I think a lot of Americans, particularly those who are looking for some action from the Democratic Party on this, and I want to iterate. It’s not, in my view, not just action within the Democratic Party, but how the Democratic Party rallies the entire country. Republicans like myself, independents and others up to this idea to stand on that wall, to prevent this, this deconstruction of our government. To that point, with respect to how this holding this line will go, you have from Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in a Bluesky tweet noting, Among the material devastation to everyday people, Senate Dems have now blown a hole in their ability to work with the House. We had an agreed-upon plan. House took immense risk. The Senate turned around midway and destroyed it with a fear-based, inexplicable abdication. They own what happens next. You just described what the next is on the health care front. How do you hold the line so to A, repair that hole in the wall from what happened last week and prevent another one from opening up.

LEADER JEFFRIES: We have the Republicans on the run on three different issues, three different issues. We have them on the run with respect to the economy, Donald Trump and House Republicans promised that they were going to lower the high cost of living, but instead, costs haven’t gone down. They’ve gone up. Inflation is going up. Why? Because Donald Trump and Republicans haven’t been focused on doing anything to lower the high cost of living. Not a single bill, not a single executive action, not a single administrative order. We as House Democrats have to make sure we forcefully make the case to everyday Americans that we are trying to build an affordable economy. We know that costs are too high, and we know that people that are struggling to live paycheck to paycheck and that should never happen in the wealthiest country in the history of the world. We’ve got to hold the line as relates to the economic narrative. And we see that Trump’s poll numbers are collapsing in that regard. The American people are with us. We got to hold the line as it relates to the effort to save Medicaid and prevent the type of devastation that Republicans are trying to bring to hurt children, hurt families, hurt pregnant women, hurt seniors, hurt Americans with disabilities who rely upon Medicaid to go see a doctor and to live the best possible life. This Medicaid cut that Republicans are trying to visit upon the American people will close hospitals, including in rural America, and close nursing homes. Every single Democrat in the House and in the Senate opposed the Republican budget resolution. We have to stay the course as it relates to that level of principled opposition. And lastly, we have the Republicans on the run with respect to their tax scheme. They want to rip away money from everyday Americans so that they can fund massive tax cuts for their super-rich donors like Elon Musk and the wealthy, the well-off and well-connected corporations. That is not acceptable. And the American people are with us on that. And so it’s my hope and expectation, not just in the next few days, but in the next few weeks and the next few months as we engage in this legislative struggle, that we can stay together in defense of the American people.

SYMONE SANDERS-TOWNSEND: Leader Jeffries, I want to follow up with you about Medicaid, because on Tuesday, as you know, Democrats across the country will have a National Day of Action on Medicaid. We had Governor O’Malley, former governor O’Malley, on yesterday, talking about the Social Security aspect of what Republicans are talking– are potentially going to do and the breakdown within the Social Security system. And I can tell you that folks out there, people who watch this show, who see our clips online, they think that we are not telling the truth about Social Security and Medicaid. Speaker Johnson is actively going around saying that when Democrats like yourself suggest that they’re going to cut Medicaid, that it is a lie. So what is your message to people in your response to Speaker Johnson, who says that the Democrats aren’t telling truth on this?

LEADER JEFFRIES: House Republicans are lying. Their own budget resolution set in motion up to $880 billion dollars in cuts to Medicaid. That would be the largest Medicaid cut in American history. As Democrats, listen, we all support any effort to try to root out waste, fraud and abuse. There is not that level of waste, fraud and abuse in Medicaid and Social Security and Medicare. And so, they are using that excuse to try to visit these extreme cuts on their own people and everyday Americans all across the country. And independent observers who have studied their budget proposal have said the same thing, that they are going after these important safety net programs and earned benefits. Listen, the average Social Security recipient in the United States of America receives about $65 a day in benefits, $65 a day. Elon Musk in his contracts with the government—the federal government—gets about $8 million a day. If they were really interested in waste, fraud and abuse, they would start there. But they’re not. So they’re going after grandma and grandpa and people who rely on Medicaid in order to see a doctor. It’s—I mean, it’s scandalous. And that’s why we’re going to continue to strongly oppose it.

ALICIA MENENDEZ: Leader Jeffries, President Trump just invoked the Alien Enemies Act to target Venezuelan nationals. We haven’t seen this law be used to target a single ethnicity since the Japanese internment. What are you going to do to prevent the next Japanese internment and protect Venezuelans who call this country home?

LEADER JEFFRIES: So we have a broken immigration system. We’ve got to fix it. We got to fix it in a comprehensive and bipartisan way. And all of us within the Democratic Party, we oppose illegal immigration. We believe that if you’re a violent felon, you should be deported. But we also can’t go down this road that the Trump administration is taking us on and potentially deport American citizens, deport legal and lawful permanent residents and break up law-abiding immigrant families who are contributing to this country. This particular law has only been invoked three different times in our nation’s almost 250-year history. The War of 1812, World War I and World War II. There’s a reason why it’s been limited in its application. Those circumstances do not appear to exist right now and that’s the reason why a court has halted the Trump administration’s actions. And we’re going to stand strongly in support of the rule of law and its application, which the Trump administration appears to be violating in this particular instance.

MICHAEL STEELE: Leader, before we let you go, I got to get a little bit more political because that’s what us chairmen do. You know, the word on the street is Schumer is likely facing a primary challenge. And there are a lot of Democrats who are applauding that idea. You know, look, I’m not going to get you one way or the other on that, but that’s a political reality within your party, right now, the disruption in the leadership and the grassroots being upset with that leadership. How do you, given what’s at stake in terms of the House—control of the House next year and the rest of this year—level up an argument that moves, as we’ve discussed in this conversation, from health care to the economy to foreign policy, getting the American people behind the leadership of the Democratic Party?

LEADER JEFFRIES: Well, it’s all of us. It’s all hands on deck. So it’s every single House Democrat, myself, Katherine Clark, Pete Aguilar, who are doing a tremendous job. But every single one of us, and it’s every single Senate Democrat led by Chuck Schumer. And we’ve got to make sure that we are making the case that as Democrats, we want to make life better for everyday Americans and stop bad things from happening, which are being visited upon the American people as a result of Donald Trump and the compliant House Republicans, who, when they are told to jump by Donald Trump, their only response is how high. It’s one of the reasons why our most urgent political project is to take back control of the United States House of Representatives, so we can actually have a check and balance and cut Donald Trump’s presidency in half legislatively next year.

MICHAEL STEELE: All right. House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries, appreciate you. Thank you, sir, for coming on.

Full interview can be watched here.

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