Today, House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries appeared on CNBC’s Squawk Box, where he emphasized that Democrats will continue to demand that the reckless war of choice in Iran that is raising costs and wasting taxpayer dollars end immediately.

JOE KERNEN: Democrats pushing for an end to the Iran war with House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries saying that he will call for another War Powers Resolution vote. Leader Jeffries joins us this morning. Congressman, it’s good to have you on. Good morning.

LEADER JEFFRIES: Good morning, great to be on.

JOE KERNEN: Should we just end this immediately, in your view? Or, the next couple of days, according to the President, negotiations could resume and there could be some type of agreement with Iran that does accomplish certain objectives. How do you think that the President or the administration should approach it at this point?

LEADER JEFFRIES: Well, Donald Trump has gotten us into this costly, reckless war of choice with no plan, no clear objectives that he clearly communicated to the American people and no exit strategy. And so, the whole thing right now is a mess, and we’ve been spending billions of dollars dropping bombs in the Middle East from an administration and a President who are unwilling to spend a dime to actually make life more affordable for the American people. So it’s no surprise that this war is deeply unpopular across the country. And the real problem that we have in terms of where we find ourselves right now, no regime change, which the Trump administration argued was an objective, that hasn’t been accomplished. The nuclear material still remains in Iran’s possession. And so, that so-called objective hasn’t be accomplished. And Iran now controls the Strait of Hormuz. And as a result, gas prices have skyrocketed as a direct result of Donald Trump’s reckless war of choice.

JOE KERNEN: Mr. Speaker, Mr. Leader—I almost called you Speaker, I might be rushing things. I know what your plans are in November. That was classic Freudian slip, you probably liked that one. Leader Jeffries, we did have an expert on Iran—he was in the Trump administration—but he is now with the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies. And you know, I know that you’ve heard arguments from Republicans and from the administration about why this made sense. Just respond to what this gentleman, the points he made earlier in the show. Here it is.

RECORDING OF RICHARD GOLDBERG: If we still face an imminent nuclear threat and we face a looming imminent missile threat, both direct national interests to the United States, the question would then be, when do you want to confront those threats? Do you want to do it when they’re strongest? When China says, hey, close the Strait? You want to do it when they’ve actually achieved the nuclear weapon or when they have the ICBM? Or do you want to do it when they are at their potentially weakest point? If you have an imminent threat, it’s a clear national interest and your adversary’s at its weakest points, that’d be a good time to do something. And so, I think the President chose the right time, on his timeline, not on their timeline, not on China’s timeline, not on Russia’s timeline. And he’s done great damage to both the missile and nuclear program, but obviously still some things to achieve.

JOE KERNEN: There’s some of the rationale. And we are at this point now, you talk about some of the objectives that haven’t been, we haven’t actually accomplished yet. In your view, isn’t it possible that maybe we could accomplish them if we either go through negotiations or continue to put the pressure on? You think we should just unilaterally just stop?

LEADER JEFFRIES: I think that we have to end this reckless war of choice that Donald Trump never came to Congress to get authorized in the first place, and more importantly, never actually made the case to the American people. Now, this so-called expert does understand, should understand, that the administration has presented no evidence, zero evidence, privately or publicly, that there was an imminent threat to the United States of America in terms of Iran’s ballistic missile capacity, and that there was no threat that Iran was actually close to nuclear breakout or had demonstrated the intention to take steps to get to nuclear breakout. And so, the objectives that the administration allegedly is trying to achieve can’t be accomplished militarily. And there was no reason to go in in the first place, or if there was, the administration has actually failed in a classified briefing setting, or certainly failed to communicate that evidence to the public. Why? Because it does not exist.

JOE KERNEN: The War Powers Act, it’s been tried once already, you’re going to do it again. Do you actually think you could be successful this time? And I will give you credit, Leader Jeffries, in the past, I think you even criticized President Obama’s Libya campaign and all the way back to Kosovo, and you’ve never thought a regime change is possible. So you’ve been consistent as far as that goes. But, the interplay between Article I and Article II, there’s gray areas there. I mean, the President does have the authority as Commander-in-Chief to take action to protect the national interest.

LEADER JEFFRIES: Yeah, but the President, of course, has to exercise that judgment when he does it in a limited capacity, and it should be done in a way that is actually designed to improve the national security posture for the American people, or certainly to make life better for the American people. And the problem with this reckless war of choice is life has gotten more expensive. Gas prices are now more than $4 a gallon across the country in an environment where Donald Trump had already failed to bring down costs. And, the problem, Joe, that we confront right now is that what’s clear is thatDonald Trump and Republicans have made affirmative policy decisions that actually have made life more expensive for the American people. The Trump tariffs have made life more expensive for the American people. The refusal to extend the Affordable Care Act tax credits have increased health insurance premiums for more than 20 million Americans directly and millions more who get their insurance from their employer indirectly. And now, of course, with this reckless war of choice, costs have increased in terms of gas prices. And the likelihood is that we’re going to see food prices increase as well. And so, the whole thing has been a disaster in terms of the way in which Donald Trump has managed this economy. From our standpoint as Democrats, we want to focus on driving down the high cost of living, fixing our broken healthcare system, getting ICE under control and spending taxpayer dollars in ways that actually improve the quality of life of the American people.

JOE KERNEN: We just did see a Truth Social post, Leader Jeffries, from the President. Let you respond to it. ‘China is very happy that I am permanently opening the Strait of Hormuz. I am doing it for them, also, and the world. This situation will never happen again. They have agreed not to send weapons to Iran. President Xi will give me a big, fat hug when I get there in a few weeks.’ That might be a little TMI. ‘We are working together smartly and very well. Doesn’t that beat fighting? But remember we are very good at fighting if we have to, far better than anyone else. President DJT.’ Your response?

LEADER JEFFRIES: I mean, it’s a lot of bluster, and that’s what we continue to see from this President. Until we actually see tangible evidence that the Strait has been reopened, our view is that gas prices are going to continue to go in the wrong direction for the American people. In fact, the President himself just acknowledged yesterday that by the end of the year, gas prices may actually be right where they are right now, too high or even higher. And so, I don’t understand the confusion that the President is trying to put into the public domain other than he wants to fool the American people with his rhetoric. And so, I think this is a President that just actually should start focusing on the things that matter. And we’ve said from the very beginning as Democrats that we’ll work with anyone, anytime, anyplace who’s actually committed to doing something about the high cost of living in the United States of America, to standing up for working-class Americans and middle-class Americans and everyday Americans. But instead, this President has been more focused on posting deranged messages on Easter Sunday, then attacking the Pope of all people and then putting images into the public domain portraying Donald J. Trump as Jesus Christ. If that’s not blasphemy, I don’t know what is right now, Joe.

JOE KERNEN: Congressman, you know what we do here, and what we try to cover whenever possible, and that is the stock market. And there’s plenty of disagreement whether Wall Street and Main Street are always aligned, but at least we know that corporate profitability and the economy and profit margins are reflected in what happens in the averages. In other words, if we’re facing a recession, it’s unlikely for the stock market to be doing well. We can look at the bond market as well. So I just wanted to show you a couple of charts. One is the S&P. One is the NASDAQ. We’re back to all-time highs, basically, on most of the averages. You can see that when the tariffs were enacted, that’s in the middle of the chart, there was a sell-off, quick rebound and the same sort of situation happening now. Same with the NASDAQ. And then also, I just want to show you quickly the 10-year note or interest rates. Go back to the same period of time and, inflation is not where the Fed wants it, it’s not where anyone wants it, but you would normally see, if there was a true crisis, you would normally see some type of panic or angst in the bond market. So just in terms of Wall Street, you would not know things are going very poorly the way that you describe it. Things are going pretty well.

LEADER JEFFRIES: Well, actually, I talk to corporate leaders all the time, and they’re incredibly concerned with the instability and the uncertainty that Donald Trump and Republican policies have created. Because as you know, Joe, it’s impossible to make sound investment decisions when you have such an uncertain, unstable public policy environment, which Donald Trump has continued to put forward in terms of the way in which he’s conducted himself, and so, that’s highly problematic. And the reality is, at the end of the day, for the American people that we all are privileged to represent here in Congress, that, yeah, for the investing class under Donald Trump’s policies, including his One Big Ugly Bill, which enacted the largest cut to Medicaid in American history at the same time that these Republicans, my colleagues, provided massive tax breaks to their billionaire donors, the investor class is doing well. The problem is the working class is not. And Donald Trump promised to focus on making life more affordable for working-class Americans. And in that regard, all evidence indicates he has failed.

JOE KERNEN: In the One Big Beautiful Bill, it’s calculated that maybe refunds this year could be much better, much higher than before, 11 to 14%. No tax on tips, raises take-home pay for tip workers by $1,300 a year. There’s overtime, no tax on overtime, which helps quite a few people. And I know you always say it just benefits billionaires. I assume you’re talking also about corporations. Just listen to yesterday what J&J, the Johnson & Johnson CFO, said it did in terms of domestic investment and why they’re doing it here now.

RECORDING OF JOSEPH WOLK: In 2016, I was looking at a proposal to build a new facility that had a tax rate of 35% plus state tax here. That compared to other countries that were anywhere from 10 to 12% with additional incentives. It would have been a dereliction of duty on my part to say, yeah, that’s a good financial move. Now the game is equal.

JOE KERNEN: Leader Jeffries, J&J, because of those provisions, this, what we were talking about yesterday, is part of a broader $55 billion U.S. investment plan that the company is making to build factories here, creating tens of thousands of jobs that would never have occurred if the corporate rate hadn’t been brought down in the Big Beautiful Bill or Big Ugly Bill, as you call it.

LEADER JEFFRIES: Well, listen, the reality is that job creation under the Trump administration has been incredibly shaky. The numbers in that regard speak for themselves. And the fundamental question that everyday Americans are asking, has life gotten better for me under the presidency of Donald Trump, or has it gotten worse? And when you actually look at the dynamics around cost of living, housing costs are up. Utility bills are up. Health insurance premiums are up. Child care costs are up. Gas prices are up. And so, the reality is life has gotten more expensive for the American people. By the way, the cost of goods and groceries are up as well as a direct result of the Trump tariffs that he unilaterally decided to impose over a year ago. And so, life clearly has not gotten better for everyday Americans in terms of the Trump economy, life has gotten worse. And that’s a big problem for the American people. And we don’t view it politically, we view it from the lens of our job is to actually improve the quality of life of the people that we are privileged to serve. And that’s not what’s going on in the United States of America right now as a result of the extreme policies that Donald Trump and Republicans continue to try to jam down the throats of the American people.

JOE KERNEN: Leader Jeffries, thanks for your time this morning.

Full interview can be watched here.

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