Today, Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries appeared on CNN’s The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer where he emphasized that Democrats will continue pushing back against the reckless Republican scheme to rip healthcare and nutritional assistance away from the American people. 

WOLF BLITZER: Turning back now to the very contentious budget battle here in Washington, Republicans remain sharply divided over funding key pieces of President Trump’s agenda, as Democrats hammer them for proposing major cuts to Medicaid. For more on that, I want to bring in the House Minority Leader, the Democratic Congressman Hakeem Jeffries. Congressman, thanks so much for joining us. From your vantage point, do you think Republicans have the votes to get these important pieces of legislation through committee and onto the House Floor?

LEADER JEFFRIES: Well, that remains to be seen. House Democrats are going to continue to stand up on behalf of the American people and make clear that what Republicans are trying to do will actively harm everyday Americans. This reckless Republican budget would inflict the largest healthcare cut to Medicaid in American history, and at the same time, inflict the largest cut to supplemental nutritional assistance to the American people in history, literally taking food out of the mouths of children, veterans and seniors. It’s shameful and Republicans need to stand up for their constituents and stop being a reckless rubber stamp for Donald Trump’s agenda.

WOLF BLITZER: And on that point Leader Jeffries, how does it—what does it say to you that many of these proposed Medicaid cuts in the current proposal are scheduled to take effect after the 2026 midterm elections?

LEADER JEFFRIES: Well, once you set these cuts in motion, there will be a dramatic impact on the healthcare ecosystem. And so, despite the Republican gamesmanship, the reality is, if you begin to set in motion collapsing the healthcare system in the United States of America, and more than 80 million Americans rely on Medicaid for their health insurance, what’s going to happen is that hospitals are going to close, nursing homes are going to shut down and, in fact, people will die. And so, this is a matter of life and death, no matter what type of legislative gamesmanship Republicans are playing, they can’t defend these Medicaid cuts. And that is why they are trying everything they can to try to hide them from the American people.

WOLF BLITZER: Republicans, Leader Jeffries, say they can save a significant amount of money by cutting Medicaid funding to those states that help undocumented immigrants purchase health insurance. What’s your position on that proposal? And if Democrats try to fight that proposal, do you worry it could open up your members to Republican attacks that they support tax dollars, U.S. tax dollars going to people who are in the United States illegally?

LEADER JEFFRIES: Well, this is actually another lie in terms of what Republicans are trying to do. The Congressional Budget Office has been clear that if these Medicaid cuts were to become law, approximately 14 million Americans will lose their healthcare. And the Republicans aren’t even trying to make the argument that the overwhelming majority of those 14 million Americans aren’t actually citizens. Of course they are. These are everyday Americans who work hard. They’re our children and our families and our women and everyday Americans with disabilities. And, of course, those seniors who rely on Medicaid for their nursing home care or for their home care.

WOLF BLITZER: Another key disagreement, as you know, is among Republicans—a disagreement among Republicans—is what to do about state and local tax deductions that primarily benefit blue states out there. You’ve called on letting the caps on those deductions expire altogether, but that would cost the government a significant amount of revenue. So where else would you find that money?

LEADER JEFFRIES: Well, one of the things that we should be doing is providing tax relief to working families, working-class Americans, middle-class Americans, those who have been struggling to live paycheck to paycheck. Donald Trump and House Republicans spent all of last year promising that they were going to lower the high cost of living. In fact, they promised, Wolf, that costs would go down on day one. We know that’s not happened. Costs, in fact, aren’t going down. They’re going up. Inflation is going up. And Donald Trump, with his reckless tariffs, is actually crashing the economy and driving us toward a painful recession. And instead of trying to actually provide tax relief to help out those everyday Americans to build an affordable economy, part of this GOP tax scam is to cut Medicaid, hurt veterans, cut nutritional assistance to families and children and others, all to give massive tax breaks to their billionaire donors like Elon Musk. The more we expose this tax scam, the worse it gets for Republicans, which is why they are on the run, it’s why they’re not holding town hall meetings and it’s why they’re trying to manipulate the facts and the reality of this toxic piece of legislation.

WOLF BLITZER: As you know, President Trump is in Qatar right now amid major bipartisan criticism over his plan to accept a luxury jet from that country. Are you and your Republican colleagues in Congress taking any steps to try to stop the President of the United States from accepting this gift from Qatar?

LEADER JEFFRIES: Pursuant to the United States Constitution, it’s our view that in order for the president to accept this flying palace in the sky, a $400 million gift, which is a joke and an embarrassment, and it’s malignant, that it’s even under consideration, but in order for the president to lawfully accept this flying palace in the sky, he has to come before Congress pursuant to the Constitution, and ask permission to accept what is technically referred to as an emolument. It’s a fancy word for gift from a foreign power that the framers of the Constitution were very clear should never be accepted or, if it is accepted, only with the permission of Congress.

WOLF BLITZER: In regards to the CBO, the Congressional Budget Office, each party asked the CBO to assess different combinations of the bill text. I just wanted to point that out, Congressman. You want to react to that?

LEADER JEFFRIES: Well, listen, I mean, I think the reality is the Congressional Budget Office is a nonpartisan organization that was stood up in a bipartisan way by Democrats and Republicans for decades in order to provide us with an actual, fact-based assessment of the legislation that we are considering. And the Congressional Budget Office has made clear that these cuts will be devastating to the health, safety and well-being of the American people. And the Republicans can try to run from that fact as much as they want. We will never let them hide it from the American people.

WOLF BLITZER: Before I let you go, Leader Jeffries, I want to quickly get your thoughts on this new book that’s about to come out from CNN’s Jake Tapper and Axios’s Alex Thompson detailing President Biden’s decline during his time in the White House? According to one rather stunning passage from the book, President Biden didn’t even recognize George Clooney at a fundraiser that the movie star was actually hosting for him. Why should voters trust Democrats when it’s clear so many in your party went to great lengths to keep Biden’s condition hidden from the public?

LEADER JEFFRIES: Well, I can’t tell you what happened between George Clooney and President Biden. I wasn’t at that event. What I can say is that we’re not looking back. We’re going to continue to look forward, because at this moment, we’ve got real problems that need to be addressed on behalf of the American people, including the Republican effort to snatch away healthcare, snatch away food assistance and hurt veterans.

WOLF BLITZER: You interacted with President Biden during those days, those final days he was President of the United States. Did you see, did you sense there was a major deterioration?

LEADER JEFFRIES: Well, in the conversations that I was able to have on behalf of the House Democratic Caucus in those final days, we simply expressed our perspective as to what would be best for the party at that given moment in time. President Biden subsequently made the decision that he was going to pass the baton to Vice President Kamala Harris. Of course, that was the decision that we supported strongly.

PAMELA BROWN: Just very quickly, I want to ask you, Congressman Jeffries. You know, you say we’re not looking back, we’re looking forward. But what happened in the past has to do with what’s going to happen in the future and whether voters can trust Democrats. As you look back, you were in a leadership position when President Biden decided to run again. Should you have done more at that point to intervene?

LEADER JEFFRIES: That’s a great question in terms of whether voters can trust Democrats or not. Every single high-profile special election that has taken place since President Trump was inaugurated—a special election victory in Iowa in January, a special election victory in New York in February, a special election victory in Pennsylvania in March, a special election victory in Wisconsin in the Supreme Court race in April and yesterday, decisively defeating a Republican incumbent in Omaha and a surprise to many observers. Clearly, voters are trusting Democrats this year when they go to the ballot, repeatedly rejecting MAGA extremism.

WOLF BLITZER: Congressman Hakeem Jeffries, the Democratic Leader in the House, thanks so much for joining us.

PAMELA BROWN: Thank you very much.

LEADER JEFFRIES: Thank you.

Full interview can be watched here.

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