Brooklyn, NY – Today, Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries appeared on Deadline: White House with Nicolle Wallace, where he emphasized that House Democrats will continue to fight to lower costs for the American people while the Trump administration’s harmful policies prioritize the wealthy.

NICOLLE WALLACE: It’s where we start the hour with Democratic Congressman from New York, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries. Thank you for being here at the table.

LEADER JEFFRIES: Great to be with you.

NICOLLE WALLACE: I want to ask you, I mean, what is your strategy for their intentional strategy of flooding the zone and trying to offend all the senses and break all the norms?

LEADER JEFFRIES: Well, it’s definitively an intentional strategy to flood the zone with outrage. And it has been a parade of horribles that Donald Trump, Elon Musk and his minions have unleashed on the American people. And so, we’ve got to be prepared to push back in an all-hands-on-deck way. What we’ve said in the House is that for us, that means the congressional playing field, the courts, as well as pushing back aggressively in the community. And understand particularly where we have the opportunity to win those fights, as has been the case in several instances, including in pushing back aggressively against the illegal funding freeze that would have halted Medicaid as we know it all across the country. The American people rose up, Members of Congress, members of the Senate, Democratic governors, and it was reversed in less than 40 hours. This administration backtracked, showing us—and hopefully the country—that public sentiment does matter. And there are limits to what this administration is capable of doing. We’ve seen that in the courts. Right now, there more than 65 different lawsuits that have been filed related to at least 25 of the unlawful executive orders. And the American people are actually winning those lawsuits and Donald Trump and his administration are losing. We have to keep that up. But we also have to engage aggressively with the community, because at the end of the day, the American people will have to push back as it relates to their tolerance for Trump and Republicans promising to do things to improve their quality of life, but instead doing the exact opposite.

NICOLLE WALLACE: I mean, you’re sort of dealing with everything from the legality of Musk’s, DOGE, DOGE—whatever we’re calling it—to the price of eggs. And I guess what I’m trying to distill is how, you know, how you direct all that. You know, do you divide up your Members? Do you divide up your days? I mean, is there—or are you really in triage in crisis management?

LEADER JEFFRIES: Well, I think it’s all day, every day, every week, every month until we get the country through this moment. Now, there’s one overarching narrative, which is the Republicans have essentially pulled a bait and switch. Last year, they promised relentlessly that they were going to drive down the high cost of living as their chief promise to the American people. They now have the opportunity to do it. There’s a Republican President, a Republican House and a Republican Senate. No ideas, no plans, no program to lower the high cost of living. In fact, costs aren’t going down. They’re going up in the United States of America. And the Republicans could care less. Why? Because their objective, actually, is to pass massive tax cuts for billionaires, donors and their wealthy corporations. And then third, stick working-class Americans with the bill by slashing and burning things like Medicaid to the ground. And so, it’s all connected at the end of the day. And we’ve got to break through with that narrative that ties it all together for the American people and then battle it out in these different forms in the Congress, in the courts and in the community.

NICOLLE WALLACE: Democratic Senator Chris Murphy calls it an oligarchy. Do you see it that way?

LEADER JEFFRIES: Well, I mean, I think these people are trying to end America as we know it, as relates to our democracy, as it relates to our ability for the federal government to deliver the type of services that are designed to improve the quality of life of the American people. And I certainly think it’s the case that you’ve got Donald Trump, you’ve got Elon Musk as a billionaire puppet master who is directing House Republicans as to what they should or should not be doing. And so, you’ve got House Republicans who were elected to serve the American people, but they’re serving Elon Musk. And, you know—

NICOLLE WALLACE: What can you do about that?

LEADER JEFFRIES: Well, for instance, we’re going to continue to press forward with legislative efforts in addition to the litigation. We’ve introduced the Taxpayer Data Protection Act, for instance, which would make Elon Musk’s activity, particularly as it relates to the Department of Treasury, unlawful. They’re trying to use this exemption that Elon Musk is a special government employee who’s exempt from the ethical requirements and the financial disclosure requirements. Meanwhile, he’s raiding the personal data, bank accounts, names, addresses, Social Security numbers of the American people. Why does he need access to that information? It’s unconscionable. It’s un-American. We’re going to work hard to make it unlawful, as we’re battling in the courts as well.

NICOLLE WALLACE: What is the most helpful thing for the 48.6% of Americans who voted for Kamala Harris to do right now?

LEADER JEFFRIES: I think the most helpful thing is to communicate with their elected officials, both in terms of what they would like to see happen. That’s important. That’s occurring. But what’s even more significant is share the personal stories as to why the things that are occurring in Washington as a result of the extremism coming out of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue will hurt them, hurt their families, hurt their parents, hurt their neighbors. Because one of the things I think we’re going to have to more effectively do as we move forward, as we communicate with the American people, is to personalize it all.

NICOLLE WALLACE: Right. Right.

LEADER JEFFRIES: This is not about institutional solutions.

NICOLLE WALLACE: Put them on the side of the bureaucracies and put the Democratic Party on the side of the American people.

LEADER JEFFRIES: —of the individuals.

NICOLLE WALLACE: How do you put—I mean, you look at the success that Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger had when welcomed in under your predecessor’s leadership to work with Democrats on the January 6 Select Committee. Do you think there’s a scenario where any Republican is interested in hearing from Danielle Sassoon about what went awry at SDNY?

LEADER JEFFRIES: That’s going to be interesting to see. We certainly look forward to providing any opportunity that we can for her to present her story and the information to the American people. She’ll be a very compelling individual. I think that what we’ve been saying to our Republican colleagues is that on any issue that the American people are concerned about, it only takes three Republicans to break with the other side of the aisle, join the 215 Democrats, and we can stop them in their tracks. It only takes three. Meanwhile, they’re in the witness protection program as it relates to the things that are taking place. Don’t want to take a stand, don’t want to offend Elon Musk, don’t want to offend Donald Trump, but they’re really offending the people that they were elected to represent.

NICOLLE WALLACE: Are you starting to see any evidence of that? I mean, do you have, on the campaign side, evidence that in some of those tougher districts, it’s hurting them?

LEADER JEFFRIES: On the campaign side, there’s a lot of activity that has taken place to hold House Republicans accountable now for their failure to govern in an enlightened fashion. And that will have consequences next November, but we need we need them to do the right thing now.

NICOLLE WALLACE: Right. Right. I want to ask your opinion about Eric Adams’s ability to govern the city of New York. And if you agree with Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who says he’s currently being coerced by Donald Trump?

LEADER JEFFRIES: He’s going to have to make the case to New Yorkers that he still has the capacity to behave as an independently elected official, not someone who’s taking orders or who is on a short leash relative to the Department of Justice. It should trouble everyone that this decision was made to recommend the dismissal of charges, which ultimately a judge will have to approve, but only to dismiss the charges without prejudice, which effectively means it can be brought back at any point in time. And so, there is a prosecutorial gun being put to the head of the elected Mayor of the city of New York. That’s deeply disturbing. And the Mayor is going to have to answer those questions to the people that I represent in Brooklyn and to the people throughout New York City.

NICOLLE WALLACE: Is he compromised?

LEADER JEFFRIES: I think it’s a legitimate question to ask, and he’s going to have to answer that question sooner rather than later—not just through his words, but through his actions.

NICOLLE WALLACE: I mean, Tom Homan’s words are I will be, ‘up his butt.’ I apologize for Mr. Homan’s choice of language. It certainly seems that Tom Homan thinks that he resides somewhere in his anatomy.

LEADER JEFFRIES: Yeah, it was an extraordinary interview. I saw clips of it. An extraordinary statement. But what I will say is, we’re not going to let the Trump administration intimidate the people of the city of New York.

NICOLLE WALLACE: But they believe that they literally occupy space inside the Mayor’s anatomy for the—

LEADER JEFFRIES: It’s an extraordinary statement. This is why Eric Adams is going to have the burden of having to demonstrate to the people of New York otherwise, not simply convince a—

NICOLLE WALLACE: What plan do Democrats have to oppose flagrant, on its face, on TV, paraded on Fox News corruption?

LEADER JEFFRIES: That’s something that’s going to be worked out. And I think, as Reverend Sharpton just said, there are ongoing conversations to try to figure out, you know, where we land on this sooner rather than later.

NICOLLE WALLACE: All right. I want to ask you about what’s happening overseas. Speaker Pelosi spent a lot of time reassuring our allies, really throughout her career—still spends time—when the Democratic Party didn’t adhere to the ideals of the Republican Party from the time my old boss was president, George W. Bush, but definitely during Trump’s first presidency. And I wonder if you see Elon Musk take the world stage and you see some of Hegseth’s comments over there that are being compared by very senior national security folks—I’m sure you’re hearing even more than I am—to Neville Chamberlain-like language around the war in Ukraine. What do you feel you can do as one of the two most powerful Democratic leaders in America to reassure our allies?

LEADER JEFFRIES: Well, appeasement failed in the 1930’s, and it will continue to fail. This is one of the reasons why we pushed aggressively to make sure that the United States, in its capacity as leader of the free world, stood by Ukraine, not just for Ukraine’s territorial integrity, but because freedom and democracy and truth are on the line, and the post-World War II NATO alliance, the greatest military alliance in the history of the world. And it was shameful that the Vice President went over there and effectively is trying to start the process of detonating it. And we can assure our NATO allies that there are Members of Congress, I believe, on both sides of the aisle—Republicans hiding in many ways—but on both sides of the aisle, who understand that it’s good for America to lead the free world and not turn it over to China and Russia and Iran. Good for America and our national security. And we will continue to press that point publicly, as well as legislatively.

NICOLLE WALLACE: What keeps you awake at night, what three worries are at the top of your list?

LEADER JEFFRIES: Well, I never know day to day, hour to hour, minute by minute what’s coming out of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Now, we do have a blueprint, Project 2025, where they lay it all out, lied about the connection to Project 2025 last year, only talked about lowering the high cost of living but this year, are doing nothing about the high cost of living and flooding the zone with Project 2025 extreme initiatives. And so, the reality is, the first 100 days, first year, first midterm election, we’re in an intense moment. We all have to step up. We’ll continue to do the best we can as House Democrats and rise to the occasion and bring the American people along with us.

NICOLLE WALLACE: Well, you look at the role that Speaker Pelosi played, and it was a different dynamic. I mean, Republicans at this moment control everything. But, what what lessons do you take from the successful fights, the fights that were won by Democrats against Trump and, in some cases, with sort of a broader pro-democracy movement? What opportunities do you see to build that broader coalition and not try to, sort of, win these narrow victories, but communicate and sort of reshape the way elections are fought in this country?

LEADER JEFFRIES: Yeah. I think what was incredibly important about Speaker Pelosi’s time leading, particularly during those first two years when it was Leader Pelosi, and I was just entering into House Democratic leadership, but there was a big frenzy around the Mueller report and Russian interference with the election and a lot of people animated about it. But Speaker Pelosi, those of us who are around the table, made an intentional decision that we are going to confront their efforts to harm the American people around their effort to repeal the Affordable Care Act and the GOP tax cap.

NICOLLE WALLACE: Yeah.

LEADER JEFFRIES: And though that didn’t take up lot of the outside energy initially, those were the decisive issues that allowed us to take back the House in November of 2018. And that’s a lesson that I think we can draw from that moment. Trump will flood the zone. He’s doing it even more. But there are going to be some key legislative fights that we have to win on behalf of the American people. We cannot allow them to decimate Medicaid or Supplemental Nutrition Assistance for children and seniors and veterans. We can’t allow them to close hospitals in rural America, in urban America, in the heartland of America. You know, we can’t allow them to effectively undermine the ability of people to pursue the great American dream, all in service of massive tax cuts for the wealthy, the well-off and the well-connected. We’ve got to win those fights while we, of course, are pushing back aggressively on the extremism that continues to be unloaded on the American people. But I think the lesson from Speaker Pelosi during those early years is, you know, make a decision to win and know what you can win.

NICOLLE WALLACE: And just remind us the results of the 2018 midterms. How many seats?

LEADER JEFFRIES: Picked up 40 seats.

NICOLLE WALLACE: Okay. All right. Well, that sounds like a reassuring plan of action. Please come back as often as you’re able to. Our audience is really, really interested in, one, knowing there’s a plan and two, hearing more about it. Thank you very much.

LEADER JEFFRIES: Thank you.

NICOLLE WALLACE: Thank you for your time.

Full interview can be watched here.