Brooklyn, NY – Today, Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries appeared on CNN’s Inside Politics where he emphasized that Democrats will continue to aggressively push back against Republican plans to crash our economy and impose the largest Medicaid cut in American history.

DANA BASH: Now I want to turn to our guest, the House Minority Leader, Democratic Congressman Hakeem Jeffries of New York. Thank you so much for being here, sir. I do want to start on the meeting that the President is having today shortly. In fact, they’re beginning to talk to each other as we speak. And that is about tariffs. My question for you is whether or not you see any situation where tariffs are a useful tool. President Biden, of course, capped many of President Trump’s first term tariffs in effect.

LEADER JEFFRIES: Hello Dana, great to be with you. As many of us have said on the Democratic side, tariffs, when appropriately utilized to promote American competitiveness, American jobs, as well as American businesses, can be one of several tools that the US government can use in ways that are designed to help elevate economic prosperity. That’s not this in terms of what is taking place. Donald Trump is clearly crashing the economy in real time, and he’s driving us toward a recession. The manner in which these tariffs have been unleashed on the American people will result in the largest tax increase on everyday Americans since at least 1968. And it’s going to cost everyday Americans over $4,000 per year if these tariffs are fully implemented. And that clearly is a problem. That’s not what the American people signed up for.

DANA BASH: And I know that you and other Democratic leaders believe that the best way back to the majority in the House, which is your number one political goal, is to focus on bread and butter issues, the economy, even sort of an extension of that, potential cuts to Medicaid is a big part of what you’re talking about during this recess, and you will continue to do that because in 2018, focusing on healthcare got Democrats the majority back. Is that where you are convinced the Democratic energy is right now?

LEADER JEFFRIES: Listen this is not about the 2026 midterm elections. That is going to be important and the political calendar will take care of itself. I’ve been in the district over the last few days. We had a town hall meeting that was incredibly well-attended on Tuesday. And the issues that were brought up to me by the people that I’m privileged to represent include the attacks on Social Security, the attacks on healthcare, the failures of this administration related to the economy and the fact that everyday Americans, in so many cases, are struggling to live paycheck to paycheck. This is what is on the minds of the American people. Earlier today, as part of the House Democratic Medicaid Matters Day of Action, I met with constituents at a community health center in Bedford-Stuyvesant, some of whom were in tears because of the concern that their healthcare could be ripped away, which would impact their ability to receive the treatment and the medication and the interventions that they need to survive. This is a life or death matter for many of the people that I represent and folks all across the country. And so that’s why, as Democrats, we’re focused on these issues.

DANA BASH: Now, earlier this morning, I was just speaking about this with Jeff Zeleny. The President lashed out at the Fed Chair, Jerome Powell. He posted, quote, Powell’s ‘termination cannot come fast enough.’ And that Powell should lower interest rates. Now, a lot of economists are warning that we are heading for a recession. I just heard you mention that. You blame the President. But given those warnings, regardless, is the President right that the Fed should lower interest rates?

LEADER JEFFRIES: We have monetary policy in this country and then we have fiscal policy. And the Federal Reserve has been set up to manage monetary policy in a manner that meets the needs of the American people and meets the moment. And Chairman Powell, who is a Republican, is someone who should be left to do independently what the Federal Reserve has been set up to do. The problem that we confront in this country is that Donald Trump, this is someone who promised to lower costs on day one. Not my words, his words. That he was going to deal with the high cost of living in the United States of America. And yet we haven’t seen from these Republicans a single bill, a single executive action or a single administrative order designed to actually lower costs. And in fact, we know that costs aren’t going down. They’re going up. Inflationary pressure is going up. Consumer confidence is going down. The retirement savings is going down. And the economy is going down as well because of the reckless fiscal policies of Donald Trump and House Republicans.

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DANA BASH: I want to turn to the administration and the Judicial branch of the United States government. The Trump administration is finding ways to defy the courts on a few fronts right now. One is refusing to bring back Kilmer Abrego Garcia. Another example is continuing to block the Associated Press from covering the President, despite a judge ordering the White House to treat the AP like other news organizations. Sir, I know that you have said that the President defying court orders would create a constitutional crisis. Are we there?

LEADER JEFFRIES: You know, what we need right now is certainly—we are in a crisis across the board, right? I mean, that is obvious for everyone to see. This is not normal. The President is assaulting the economy, assaulting Social Security, assaulting healthcare, assaulting the American way of life and assaulting our democracy. None of this is normal. It is all a crisis. Now, with respect to what we need to deal with in terms of the situation with the courts, the Supreme Court needs to aggressively enforce its judicial orders. The White House is seeking a confrontation with the courts, and the courts need to lean into that. We will have the back of the courts and it needs to use all of the tools available to it, like contempt.

DANA BASH: For example?

LEADER JEFFRIES: Like contempt in terms of the people within the administration who are failing to adhere to these judicial orders or who are actively continuing to propagate unlawful or unconstitutional actions at Donald Trump’s direction.

DANA BASH: But we did see one example of the threat of contempt yesterday, a federal judge did that with regard to those flights that left after he signed an order saying that they shouldn’t go. But you think that that threat should go all the way up to the Supreme Court, the highest court in the land?

LEADER JEFFRIES: In the case of Mr. Abrego Garcia, there was a Supreme Court decision that was issued. And so, when you have a Supreme Court decision that was issued instructing the administration to facilitate Mr. Abrego Garcia’s return, it seems to me that ultimately the Court is going to need to aggressively enforce its decision. When you’ve got lower courts who have issued orders, then of course the jurisdiction will fall with them.

DANA BASH: I just want to make sure I’m understanding you right. Are you saying that the Supreme Court should hold President Trump in contempt, should hold his Cabinet Members who are involved in this in contempt?

LEADER JEFFRIES: The Supreme Court needs to take a close look at enforcing its orders. And that is generally going to involve not the President, of course, at this moment in time, but is going to involve Cabinet Secretaries and other administration officials who are responsible for the actual execution of these orders or the noncompliance.

Full interview can be watched here.

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