Today, House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries appeared on MS NOW’s Morning Joe, where he made clear that, one year into Donald Trump’s term, House Democrats will continue to hold the Trump administration accountable for the corruption and extremism they are unleashing on American communities and their failure to fulfill the promise of lowering the high cost of living.

JOE SCARBOROUGH: Let’s bring in right now, House Majority—Minority Leader, Democratic Congressman Hakeem Jeffries of New York. I’m sorry there was a little time lapse to next year, still Minority Leader for now but before we go to that, I want to say, first of all, Independent voters, a plurality, close to a majority, are now calling for the elimination of ICE. I don’t think a lot of mainstream Democrats on the Hill want to do that, but the polls are breaking that way. So, Minority Leader Jeffries, before we get to funding for DHS and their brutal tactics which, by the way, it sounded even like Donald Trump was suggesting that they made a mistake in the killing of Renee Good. I’m curious about the Epstein Transparency Act that you passed well over a month ago. The Department of Justice was required by law, in an almost unanimous House vote and Senate vote, required to release all the files. They’ve only released about 1% of those files, most of those heavily redacted. What can you do, what can Democrats do, to answer the pleas of even MAGA Republicans—

MIKA BRZEZINSKI: When are they coming?—

JOE SCARBOROUGH: Who want these files released and want the White House to stop hiding them?

LEADER JEFFRIES: Well, good morning. The Department of Justice has completely and totally failed to comply with the law under that statute that was passed and of course signed by Donald Trump, almost unanimously enacted by both the House and the Senate. The DOJ was required to turn over the Epstein files by December 19th. A month has now passed, more than five million documents have failed to be released and the Department of Justice has not provided any reason that justifies their obstruction. The American people deserve the transparency and accountability connected to the release of the Epstein files. And, in my view, to the extent that Republicans are actually interested in making sure that that transparency occurs, then the Department of Justice needs to either come up to Capitol Hill and explain why they’ve failed to comply with the law or be held in contempt of Congress.

WILLIE GEIST: Leader Jeffries, as you know, Republicans, the Justice Department in particular, are saying there’s so many files, there’s millions of files, it’s going to take us a while. Are you buying that explanation and, if not, what do you suspect?

LEADER JEFFRIES: Well, from the very beginning of this whole sordid saga, Trump administration officials have claimed that they want to release these files, that they plan to release these files, they’re now compelled to release these files by a law that was passed in the Congress, and yet they continue to obstruct. And so, clearly, I think the American people can reasonably conclude they’re hiding something. Right? Who are they protecting is the question that we need to get a real answer to because the American people simply deserve the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.

JONATHAN LEMIRE: Leader Jeffries, let’s switch gears now and talk about the upcoming government funding bill, whether the government will perhaps even shut down as that deadline approaches. A thorny issue is funding for the Department of Homeland Security, and in particular ICE, in the wake of that fatal shooting in Minneapolis a couple of weeks ago. Talk to us about the divisions that you and your colleagues feel. What happens next?

LEADER JEFFRIES: Well, ICE is completely and totally out of control. Donald Trump promised with respect to immigration enforcement that the administration was going to target violent felons who are here in the country illegally. That’s something the American people support. The American people do not support the targeting, the arrest, the detention, the brutalization of American citizens, certainly do not find acceptable the killing of Renee Nicole Good and the targeting of law-abiding immigrant families and communities. And so, I think from our standpoint, and we’ll have a discussion in about an hour in our Caucus meeting about the path forward, but clearly there needs to be accountability mechanisms that is put into law so that ICE conducts itself like every other law enforcement agency in the United States of America. That’s not too much to ask. So some of the things that we believe are appropriate in this instance, are demanding be part of any final bill, are a warrant requirement. That’s common sense. ICE should not be able to storm houses of worship, hospitals and schools. That’s common sense. That relates to protocols that exist for every other law enforcement agency in the country. ICE should have a use-of-force standard. None currently exists. Of course, the notion that masked ICE agents are running around brutalizing American citizens, utilizing taxpayer dollars, completely and totally unacceptable. And so these are the types of things that we believe should be put into place to get ICE under control, consistent with the demands of the American people.

MIKE BARNICLE: Leader Jeffries, the Department of Justice is not the same Department of Justice that existed 12 or 14 months ago. Hundreds of prosecutors have left. The FBI has been stripped of a lot of skillful agents who left the Department of Justice. I realize you are in the minority, but what can be done to restore the integrity and the skill level of the Department of Justice?

LEADER JEFFRIES: Well, that definitely is one of the projects that I think we’re going to need to work on. From our standpoint, we’ve got two pillars that we need to proceed with as we move forward. One, of course, is affordability and making sure that we are driving down the high cost of living, fixing our broken healthcare system. Donald Trump promised that costs would go down on day one. Year one has passed. Costs haven’t gone down. They’ve gone up. But in addition to the affordability agenda that we’ll aggressively push, we need accountability. And Pam Bondi and the Department of Justice, they’ve weaponized this institution against political enemies. Highly qualified individuals have left, and they’re proceeding with impunity. And so from my standpoint, there have to be consequences for some of the outrageous things that have been done. Congress needs to function like a separate and co-equal branch of government as opposed to what my Republican colleagues have done, which is a reckless rubber stamp for Donald Trump’s extreme agenda. We’re going to continue to press the case, to elevate, to make the Department of Justice great again, but the reality is that work is not really going to happen in a meaningful fashion until Democrats take back control of the House of Representatives after the November midterm elections.

MIKA BRZEZINSKI: All right. House Minority Leader, Democratic Congressman Hakeem Jeffries of New York, thank you very much for your time this morning, sir. We appreciate it.

Interview can be watched here.

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