Today, House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries appeared on MS NOW’s Morning Joe, where he made clear that Democrats will continue to protect the American people from the Republican healthcare crisis and deliver the American people the truth and bring justice as it relates to the Epstein files.

MIKA BRZEZINSKI: Joining us now, House Minority Leader, Democratic Congressman Hakeem Jeffries of New York. It’s good to have you on the show. So how will these conversations go with the President?

LEADER JEFFRIES: Well, good morning. It’s great to be with you. It is not clear who Donald Trump is talking about. I’ve spoken to no House Democrat, no Senate Democrat who has had a conversation with him. We’ve made clear that what needs to happen is to extend the Affordable Care Act tax credits prior to the expiration that’s going to occur on December 31st of next month because, if we don’t do that, tens of millions of Americans are about to experience dramatically-increased healthcare premiums such that it will be unaffordable for them to be able to go see a doctor when they need one. We’re talking about, in many instances, a premium increase of $1,000 or $2,000 per month. And these are for working-class, middle-class families, everyday Americans, who will be unable to afford access to healthcare.

JOE SCARBOROUGH: Well, Leader Jeffries, even with those tax credits, premiums are exploding. And they’ll be exploding under Obamacare, they’ll be exploding in private healthcare. I mean, at what point are we going to sit down and figure out a systemic approach that actually is sustainable? Because we’re not in it now. And again, even with those tax credits, the Obamacare premiums explode. Even worse, private healthcare premiums explode, denials of coverage multiplying. A lot of those denials coming, reportedly, from AI. This system is failing the American people, and it’s only going to get worse. What are we going to do?

LEADER JEFFRIES: There’s no doubt about that, Joe. We have a broken healthcare system and, unfortunately, Republicans have decided to break it even further. And this relates to things that go beyond their refusal to extend the Affordable Care Act tax credits. In this year alone, what we’ve seen is Republicans enact the largest cut to Medicaid in American history. 14 million people are being denied their coverage as a result of the fact that they’ve passed this One Big Ugly Bill. We see hospitals and nursing homes and community-based health centers closing all across the country. In this appropriations process that we’re in right now, Republicans are trying to enact a $1.7 billion cut to the Centers for Disease Control. That will be the largest cut to the CDC in American history. And at the same time, they want to enact a historic cut to the National Institutes of Health. So this has been an all-out assault on the healthcare of the American people, and the system was already broken because of some of the dynamics that you’ve referenced. And so, yes, we’ve said we want to sit down and find a bipartisan path forward to actually address the Republican healthcare crisis and create a system that enables everyday Americans to be able to go see a doctor when they need one. This is the wealthiest country in the history of the world. That’s the least that should be expected in the context of people confronting serious medical illnesses.

WILLIE GEIST: Leader Jeffries, good morning. As you know well, it’s not just Democrats sounding the alarm about the expiration of these ACA subsidies, it’s Republicans. Marjorie Taylor Greene chief among them, putting pressure on the White House and the Congress to preserve these. So now there’s this bipartisan legislation from your colleague Tom Suozzi, the Democrat, and Don Bacon, Republican from Nebraska, to get this taken care of, to extend these subsidies before the end of the year. Are you confident that will happen for the American people, not just for Democrats, but for American people across the political spectrum who rely on those subsidies?

LEADER JEFFRIES: Well that’s an important point, that this fight for us is not a partisan one, it’s a patriotic one. And in fact the states that will be most impacted if the Affordable Care Act tax credits are allowed to expire are all states that are run by Republicans. We’re talking about West Virginia, Wyoming, Alaska, Mississippi, Tennessee being the top five states. I think the next five states are Texas, South Carolina, Alabama, North Dakota and South Dakota. And so, we’re fighting to protect the healthcare of the American people. Now, Republicans continue to refuse to take yes for an answer. Leader Schumer presented a very reasonable proposal during the midst of the Trump-Republican shutdown, which is a one-year extension and then a bipartisan commission so we can find a path forward to fix our broken healthcare system in a more comprehensive way. They’ve rejected it. Our view on the House side now is a straight three-year extension to give the American people the certainty that they need while working on these broader healthcare issues that need to be addressed.

JONATHAN LEMIRE: Leader Jeffries, let’s talk now about the Jeffrey Epstein vote scheduled for later today. What do you anticipate? There’s a suggestion that a lot of Republicans now will go for this after President Trump offered his blessing the other day. But secondly, do you share concerns that your Republican colleague, Congressman Massie, voiced last night that by President Trump ordering the Attorney General to open up the investigations into Democrats who are connected to Epstein, that that might actually trigger a withholding of information? That they’ll say, hey, it’s an open matter, we actually can’t release much in the way of files, or at least we’ll only selectively release some of the files.

LEADER JEFFRIES: Yes, that is a very reasonable concern, particularly when we’ve seen this so-called Attorney General conduct herself and conduct the Department that she runs more like the Department of Injustice. And so, there’s no reason to believe that they’re going to behave in any kind of independent fashion, particularly now that Donald Trump has once again charged the Department of Justice with weaponizing the federal government against people he perceives to be his political adversaries. And so on the floor today, I do expect that there will be a decisive vote to release the files in the context of the transparency that the American people deserve and that the survivors have been so courageously calling for. Once that decisive vote happens in the House, it’s my expectation that will put pressure on the Senate, not to continue to bury their heads in the sand in terms of Senate Republicans, but to do what’s necessary, and then create the environment where the Trump administration should respond to the public pressure and the public sentiment of providing the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth to the American people about this horrific Jeffrey Epstein scandal.

MIKA BRZEZINSKI: Alright, House Minority Leader, Democratic Congressman Hakeem Jeffries of New York. Thank you very much for being on this morning.

Full interview can be watched here.

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