Today, Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries appeared on CNN’s The Situation Room where he made clear that House Democrats will continue to work to protect the healthcare of the American people and push back on the corruption of Donald Trump and his administration. 

WOLF BLITZER: And joining us now is the House Democratic Leader, Hakeem Jeffries of New York. Leader Jeffries, thanks so much for joining us. So you just heard the President there. Can a meeting with him actually achieve anything?

LEADER JEFFRIES: Well, it’s important that the meeting take place so that we can avoid a painful, Republican-inspired government shutdown. And our demands are really simple. We want to protect the healthcare of the American people. Cancel the cuts, lower the cost, save healthcare. We are in the midst of the most intense assault on the healthcare of the American people ever. Largest cut to Medicaid in American history. A potential $536 billion cut to Medicare as a result of the One Big Ugly Bill. Hospitals and nursing homes and community-based health clinics are closing all across the country, including in rural America. Tens of millions of Americans are about to experience dramatic increases in premiums, co-pays and deductibles, in part based on their refusal to extend the premium tax credits for the Affordable Care Act. And Republicans have effectively ended medical research in this country. And so, we need to make some progress on addressing the Republican healthcare crisis. And we cannot support a partisan Republican spending bill that continues to gut the healthcare of everyday Americans.

WOLF BLITZER: As you know, the House Republicans are noting that they passed what’s called a clean bill to extend government funding until November 21. Only one Democrat backed that. So why wouldn’t Americans blame Democrats if the government winds up shutting down?

LEADER JEFFRIES: Well, first of all, let’s be clear. It’s not a clean bill. It’s a dirty bill. The Republican partisan spending bill continues the assault on the healthcare of the American people. That’s why Democrats did not support it in March because it was an attack on healthcare, an attack on housing, an attack on veterans and an attack on the quality of life of the American people. And so, it can’t be a clean bill if it extends dirty provisions that existed in March. Second point is Republicans control the House, the Senate and the presidency. And so, it’s their responsibility to make sure that the federal government is funded. It’s our responsibility as Democrats to make sure that if the federal government is going to be funded, it’s actually done in a way that improves the quality of life of the American people, the health of the American people, the safety of the American people and, of course, the economic well-being of the American people and that we are actually driving down costs, not continuing the process of jacking up costs, be that healthcare or in other areas, on the American people.

PAMELA BROWN: All right, Leader Jeffries. I want to jump in and ask about something else that happened over the weekend. President Trump called for Attorney General Pam Bondi to bring criminal charges against several of his political foes, like Democratic Senator Adam Schiff and former FBI Director James Comey. And then he later backtracked, saying, quote, ‘if they’re not guilty, that’s fine.’ Your reaction?

LEADER JEFFRIES: There is absolutely zero basis for Trump’s Department of Justice to go after and prosecute Attorney General Tish James or James Comey or Senator Adam Schiff or Federal Reserve Board Governor Lisa Cook. No basis at all. This is all a political witch hunt being led by a President who is bent on revenge. And that statement that President Trump made initially is exhibit A for why this is a malicious prosecution. And it would be my expectation that if, in fact, they can convince a grand jury to bring charges, which I don’t believe they will be able to do, and if, in fact, you have attorneys violating their oath to actually administer justice in a fair and impartial way and indict these members, I believe any charges will be quickly dismissed and that everybody involved should be held accountable. If they want to prosecute or investigate anyone, start with Tom Homan and the fact that he appears to have taken a $50,000 bribe, but they want to sweep those charges under the table to allow this guy to continue to unleash masked ICE agents on the American people.

PAMELA BROWN: Just to follow up on that. Just to be clear, Tom Homan has not been charged. DOJ stopped the investigation. There are questions about that. So what is Congress going to do to look into it? Because if DOJ doesn’t do anything, the power is now with Congress to look into it. What can you do in the minority?

LEADER JEFFRIES: Well, as Democrats, you know, as we’ve done in other instances, including the most recent situation with the FCC Chair and the attack on the First Amendment that is ongoing, launch our own internal investigation, because Republicans haven’t been functioning as a separate and co-equal branch of government. They are simply a reckless and extreme rubber stamp for Donald Trump’s out-of-control agenda. And we are not going to wait until we take the majority back in November of next year. We’re going to launch these investigations now and make sure, just as we’ve done in the case of the Epstein files, that we can present the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth to the American people, and hold people publicly accountable for their behavior.

PAMELA BROWN: And just be clear, Tom Homan denies wrongdoing and says there’s nothing to it.

WOLF BLITZER: On another sensitive legal issue, Leader Jeffries, the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia was pushed out of his job. Several reports saying that that was for failing to charge the New York Attorney General Letitia James with mortgage fraud. What does that tell you about the independence of the U.S. Justice Department right now? And is there a role for House Democrats here?

LEADER JEFFRIES: There’s absolutely a role for House Democrats. And I expect that that effort will continue to be led by the top Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, Jamie Raskin. We are demanding that all information connected to this sordid affair be preserved so that once the investigation is fully underway, led by us and we’ll see what the Republicans on the Judiciary Committee decide to do, that we can secure all of the documents and present them to the American people and ensure that folks are held accountable for their behavior. You know, one thing to understand, as people who are flirting with the Trump administration or doing the bidding of the Trump administration or engaging in the pay-to-play schemes of the Trump administration, the statute of limitations is five years. Donald Trump and this toxic administration will be long gone, but there will still be accountability to be had. And that process, of course, begins now. But it will not be complete until perhaps there is an independent Department of Justice, certainly an independent House of Representatives in Democratic hands. The Department of Justice is one of the great institutions in law enforcement in the history of this country. And Donald Trump and these extremists have been destroying its integrity. And we should also blame the conservative justices on the Supreme Court for all of the things that we see happening because they basically gave this President blanket presidential immunity in a country where the framers of the Constitution said we don’t want a king. But they’ve effectively enabled Donald Trump at times to behave just like a king. And that needs to be revisited as well. The Supreme Court, shame on them for what they’ve done to this country in unleashing this out-of-control behavior. That needs to be reversed.

PAMELA BROWN: Let me just follow up with you on that, though. By saying that, are you undermining trust and faith in a critical institution in this democracy?

LEADER JEFFRIES: Are you referring to the Supreme Court or the Trump administration?

PAMELA BROWN: No, to the Supreme Court. You’re saying, you know, they’ve unleashed this. The justices have done this. They made him king. Are you undermining faith in an important institution in this democracy?

LEADER JEFFRIES: No. What I’m undermining faith in is a decision that had no basis in the Constitution, no basis in law, and no basis in how the framers envisioned this democratic republic. We broke away from the notion of a king, a singular figure, and created three separate and co-equal branches of government so that no one would have the ability to unleash unchecked power, and that no one could be above the law. And it’s reasonable, I think, to ask the question, why was that decision issued, and what are the consequences that have flowed from that decision over the last eight and a half months? And so, that’s what I’m questioning. Not the integrity of the Court. But yes, I am questioning the integrity of that decision and what it has wrought now on the American people, because of the out-of-control behavior coming out of the White House.

Full interview can be watched here.

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