Today, Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries appeared on MSNBC’s PoliticsNation where he that emphasized that House Democrats will stand up for the American people and fight back against Donald Trump’s cruel cuts to the healthcare and nutritional assistance everyday Americans depend on to survive.

REV. AL SHARPTON: You used your magic minute, which is historic, during the spending bill debate this week to deliver the longest House Floor speech in U.S. history. For anyone who’s missed the full eight hours and 45 minutes, can you tell us tonight what’s wrong with this piece of legislation?

LEADER JEFFRIES: Well, great to be with you, Rev. Thanks again for having me on. You know, the One Big Ugly Bill hurts everyday Americans and rewards billionaires. It’s the largest attack on healthcare in American history. More than 17 million people will lose their healthcare as a result of this One Big Ugly Bill. It will end, effectively, Medicaid as we know it. Hospitals will close. Nursing homes will shut down. Community-based health clinics won’t be able to operate. And as a result of the fact that so many people will not be able to get access to healthcare, folks are going to die all across the United States of America. And for those who have private insurance, premiums, co-pays and deductibles are likely to go up for millions of Americans. But it also represents the largest cut to supplemental nutritional assistance in American history. Republicans are literally ripping food out of the mouths of hungry children, veterans and seniors. And all of this, Reverend Sharpton, is being done so that Republicans can award billionaires massive tax breaks as part of an effort to jam their extreme trickle-down economic theory down the throats of the American people and explode the debt by more than $3 trillion.

REV. AL SHARPTON: Now, there are some Democrats right now who are outraged over what President Trump is doing, who are frustrated Democrats can’t do more right now to block him legislatively. What is your message to those critics?

LEADER JEFFRIES: Well, listen, it’s incredibly important to note that House Democrats and Senate Democrats were united in our strong and principled opposition against Donald Trump’s extreme agenda. The problem that we confront is that Republicans have effectively become a rubber stamp for Donald Trump’s ideology and his extremism, and have chosen to abandon their role as part of a separate and co-equal branch of government. You know, as Members of Congress, we don’t work with Donald Trump, we don’t work for JD Vance, we don’t work for Elon Musk. We work for the American people. That’s why, as House Democrats, our determination was we’re going to stand up for the healthcare of the American people, stand up for veterans and farmers, everyday Americans, the children, the older Americans, the people with disabilities who are all going to be hurt by this One Big Ugly Bill. And the problem that we confront in the legislative branch right now is that Republicans have basically conducted themselves like they’re a wholly-owned subsidiary of Trump Incorporated, not independently elected folks who are supposed to be serving the best interests of the American people.

REV. AL SHARPTON: Now we’re following breaking news this weekend out of Texas Hill Country. Governor Abbott held a news conference just in the last hour. Authorities are searching for more than two dozen people missing from a girls summer camp after flash floods that left at least 32 people dead. Authorities are being questioned over whether the camp had sufficient warning about the severe weather. The incident comes as the Trump administration is making deep cuts to weather forecasting services and openly discussing shifting more of the burden for disaster recovery from FEMA to state governments. How concerned are you in light of this—and we’re all praying for the families—but how concerned are you in light of this, with the country’s readiness for extreme weather right now, headed into the hurricane season?

LEADER JEFFRIES: Such a very shocking and sad tragedy. And our thoughts and prayers, of course, go out to all of the families of those who have been lost, of those who are still missing. And we also want to express our thanks and appreciation for the first responders who are right now in the midst of a search-and-rescue operation. I think we are going to have to figure out what happened, why did it happen and how do we prevent this type of tragedy from ever happening again. And so, the question of readiness is certainly something that Congress should be able to explore in a bipartisan way, particularly as we head into a summer where we can expect intensifying extreme weather events hitting massive parts of the United States of America throughout July, August, into the fall.

REV. AL SHARPTON: Let me go to another issue. Florida’s attorney general says that the first group of immigrants have arrived in the Everglades Detention Center, known as Alligator Alcatraz. President Trump visited there earlier this week. The Trump administration has embraced the idea of alligator guards as a joke. Those of us familiar with the history of the Jim Crow South know the idea of using Black babies as alligator bait has a long, ugly history. The White House tries to claim its immigration policies aren’t about race. But don’t these stunts expose their motivations very clearly, or at least should raise their sensitivity?

LEADER JEFFRIES: Yeah, the last thing I would expect from this particular toxic administration at this point is sensitivity to any of the painful parts of our history. They’ve tried to erase our history, sanitize and whitewash our history. You know, the big problem with the Trump administration—we see all of these stunts that continue to take place, very toxic stunts, extreme stunts in many cases, but what have they done to actually address the issues of important American people, like lowering the high cost of living? This guy, Donald Trump, promised to lower the high cost of living, lower grocery costs on day one. Costs aren’t going down. They’re going up. And by the way, as a result of this One Big Ugly Bill, you’re going to see utility bills start to skyrocket as a result of some of the things that have been done in this reckless Republican budget. And instead, they’re focused on stunts like this Alligator Alcatraz situation. By the way, Rev., what they should be doing, what they promised to do, was to deport violent felons who are undocumented. Instead, in many cases, they’re going after law-abiding immigrant families. We all want to secure the border. But what is taking place right now is not what I believe the American people signed up for last November.

REV. AL SHARPTON: Now I want to take us home for a minute. I’m in New Orleans at the Essence Festival, but I want to ask you about the Democratic nominee for New York City mayor, Zohran Mamdani. Last weekend, you said you were still getting to know Mamdani and wanted him to clarify some of his positions on Israel and antisemitism. This week, you defended Mamdani when the President attacked his Muslim faith and questioned his immigration status. Have you had any additional conversations with Mamdani in the past few days, and has your thinking on his candidacy, evolved at all?

LEADER JEFFRIES: Yeah, I haven’t had any opportunity to talk with him over the last few days, based on the fact that so much has been going on in Washington, D.C., as we as House Democrats have been united in our fight to try to stop this extremism that Donald Trump and Republicans are jamming down the throats of the American people—real painful stuff in terms of healthcare and nutritional assistance and beyond. But we are in the process of getting a meeting in person, scheduled, likely to take place in East New York or Brownsville or Canarsie, at which point we’ll have the opportunity to discuss a whole host of issues, his vision for the future. I can share with him some of my thoughts about the district that I’m privileged to represent, and also talk about the importance of making sure that we’re all on board with the need to take back control of the House of Representatives next November so we can end this national nightmare in Washington, D.C., begin that process and actually try to bring about an America that is the best version of herself.

REV. AL SHARPTON: Now, quick follow-up. New York City Mayor Eric Adams is attacking Mamdani over reports that he had identified himself as African American and Asian on college application. Mamdani was born in Uganda, his parents from India. What are your thoughts on this issue? Mamdani has checked multiple boxes trying to capture what he calls the fullness of his background. I mean, is this a real issue to you?

LEADER JEFFRIES: I think to me, you know, the issue that we have to deal with in New York City, which our Democratic nominee did talk about extensively during the primary campaign, is affordability, and particularly and many of the neighborhoods that are being overwhelmed by gentrification and wiped out by housing displacement. That whoever’s going to be the next mayor of the city of New York really needs to articulate a concrete plan for making sure that working-class communities, including working-class neighborhoods of color, can still have a place in our great city, the city that both of us love but we know is changing significantly in terms of the opportunity for working families and middle class folks to be able to continue to call it home.

REV. AL SHARPTON: Well, I want to thank you for coming on. I know you haven’t done interviews since this almost nine hours. I’ll tease your pastor, Reverend Lawrence Aker of Cornerstone Baptist Church, that he certainly doesn’t preach that long. And you’ve been a member of the National Action Network, you sure didn’t get it from me. So, you did a great job, and you sound like you’re not even hoarse. Honored to have you with us, House Minority Leader, New York Congressman Hakeem Jeffries.

LEADER JEFFRIES: Great to be with you, Rev., thanks a lot.

Full interview can be watched here.

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