Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, Podcasts, Radio News. Welcome to the Bloomberg
Speaker 1: This Weekend Podcast with David Gura, Christina Raffini, and Elisa Matteo.
Speaker 2: Thanks for joining us for today's selection of conversations from
Speaker 2: the show.
Speaker 3: You can listen to our favorite discussions right here on
Speaker 3: the podcast, but also make sure to join us live
Speaker 3: every Saturday and Sunday morning starting at seven am Easter.
Speaker 2: We're on Bloomberg Television, Radio and the Bloomberg Business app,
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Speaker 3: The Democratic Leader in the House, my fellow Brooklyn Night
Speaker 3: Hakiem Jeffrey is joining us from Washington.
Speaker 2: Leader Jeffries, thank you for joining us. I want to
Speaker 2: get right to it. The US Embassy in Israel has
Speaker 2: authorized departure for non essential personnel. That usually doesn't happen
Speaker 2: unless something is imminent. Do you expect the US to
Speaker 2: strike around this weekend and we'll Angrist be informed in advance.
Speaker 4: Well, that remains unclear.
Speaker 5: We certainly have taken the position as House Democrats that
Speaker 5: prior to any military action, the Trump administration should seek
Speaker 5: authorization for the use of military force in connection with
Speaker 5: any strikes against Iran that would be the functional equivalent
Speaker 5: of an active war.
Speaker 3: You spent the better part of this week with your
Speaker 3: fellow Democrats at a retreat just outside of Washington, d C.
Speaker 3: I know that a big focus of your attention was
Speaker 3: on this affordability agenda. I wonder if you could enumerate
Speaker 3: just a few points proposals that you would make should
Speaker 3: you get the speaker's gabble Democrats regain control of the
Speaker 3: House on that agenda going forward? What are items that
Speaker 3: you think you could reconably pass without breaking the bank.
Speaker 4: Well, that's House Democrats.
Speaker 5: We're committed to making life more affordable for the American people.
Speaker 5: Donald Trump promised to lower the high cost of living
Speaker 5: on day one, costs having gone down, costs have gone up.
Speaker 5: In fact, the inflation numbers today showed that life continues
Speaker 5: to get more for the American people because of the
Speaker 5: Trump administration policies, including the Trump tariffs that have increased
Speaker 5: costs on everyday Americans by thousands of dollars per year.
Speaker 5: One of the first things I think that we need
Speaker 5: to do is to make sure that these tariffs that
Speaker 5: have been randomly and recklessly put into place by Donald
Speaker 5: Trump can no longer move forward, and Congress needs to
Speaker 5: regain its authority on trade and tariff issues. Second, of course,
Speaker 5: in connection with fixing our broken healthcare system, we have
Speaker 5: to extend the Affordable Care Act tax credits. We're going
Speaker 5: to continue to fight to do that in the Senate.
Speaker 5: This year we've passed it, of course, out of the
Speaker 5: House all two hundred and thirteen Democrats joined by seventeen Republicans.
Speaker 5: This is a bipartisan issue, and in order to prevent
Speaker 5: tens of millions of Americans from experiencing dramatically increase health
Speaker 5: insurance premiums, we have to pass these tax credits so
Speaker 5: we can drive down the costs. That certainly is also
Speaker 5: a commitment of House Democrats.
Speaker 2: Peter Jeffries on that to do list. I reached out
Speaker 2: to a senior Democrat, former member of the Bind administration,
Speaker 2: and I said, what would you ask lear Jeffries? And
Speaker 2: they said, ask him what the plan is for border control.
Speaker 2: This is something that most Americans say they want, They
Speaker 2: want stronger borders. They may disagree with the way the
Speaker 2: President is going about it, but this is top of
Speaker 2: the agenda. And this individual said, I don't think Democrats
Speaker 2: have a plan, do you, and what is that?
Speaker 4: Well?
Speaker 5: Our plan is anchored in several values. We want order
Speaker 5: at the border, a safe, secure and strong border. We
Speaker 5: recognize that we have a broken immigration system and we
Speaker 5: need to fix it in a comprehensive and bipartisan way.
Speaker 5: At the same period of time, the American people are
Speaker 5: appropriately demanding that ICE enforcement is humane, it's fair, and
Speaker 5: it's just, and that's not what we're seeing right now.
Speaker 5: ICE is completely and totally out of control, which is
Speaker 5: why we're fighting for dramatic reforms to the way in which.
Speaker 4: ICE conducts itself.
Speaker 5: That's bold, that's meaningful, and that's transformational, including things like
Speaker 5: a mandatory requirement that judicial warrants be obtained before ICE
Speaker 5: agents break into the homes of the American people. We
Speaker 5: want to make sure that there are independent investigations that
Speaker 5: state and local elected official, state and local officials like,
Speaker 5: for instance, the attorney generals, can conduct in order to
Speaker 5: make sure that there's accountability when ICE agents violently break
Speaker 5: the law. We want to make sure that there's an
Speaker 5: excessive use of force prohibition policy that's put in the place.
Speaker 5: We have to make sure that sensitive locations like houses
Speaker 5: of worship, schools, hospitals, and polling sites are protected from
Speaker 5: overreach by ICE agents or the DHS. Those are some
Speaker 5: of the policies that will continue to fight.
Speaker 2: To achieve should ICE be defunded.
Speaker 5: I think we want dramatic reform as it relates to
Speaker 5: the manner and which ICE conducted itself. That's anchored in
Speaker 5: the principle that taxpayer dollars should be used to make
Speaker 5: life more affordable for the American people, not to brutalize
Speaker 5: or kill them, as was the case with Renana Cole
Speaker 5: Good and Alex Pretty.
Speaker 4: Has to be brought under control.
Speaker 5: Of course, what I've said is that what we need
Speaker 5: to do interior enforcement should be fair, just and humane.
Speaker 5: That's been the position that I've articulated from the very
Speaker 5: beginning of this extremism that's being at least of the
Speaker 5: American people. So that is why DHS as a funding
Speaker 5: bill has not moved forward at this point in time,
Speaker 5: and it will not move forward until there are changes
Speaker 5: that are bold, meaningful, and dramatic.
Speaker 4: The types of things that I've articulated.
Speaker 3: We've talked about border policy, talked about trade policy, child
Speaker 3: tax credit. I'm reminded of something that Elyssi Slotkin, the
Speaker 3: Democratic senator said recently, which was the suggestion Democrats need
Speaker 3: a version of Project twenty twenty five, a Project twenty twenty.
Speaker 4: Nine, if you will.
Speaker 3: I think in saying that, what she's getting at is
Speaker 3: there needs to be a clear value proposition for the
Speaker 3: American people to understand what Democrats are offering.
Speaker 4: Do you agree with her? Is she on to something there?
Speaker 3: Does there need to be a clearer outline of what
Speaker 3: Democrats proposing here going into the midterms of the next
Speaker 3: presidential election.
Speaker 5: Well, I think heading into the midterm election is what
Speaker 5: we've made clear is that the American people deserve better,
Speaker 5: and we've said directly to them, you deserve better than
Speaker 5: the extremism that has been unleashed on everyday Americans, the
Speaker 5: assault on the economy, the failures as it relates to
Speaker 5: the high cost of living, the failures on healthcare, the
Speaker 5: failures as it relates to immigration enforcement, and the failures
Speaker 5: of Donald Trump and Republicans to make life better for
Speaker 5: the American people because they're so preoccupied with a whole
Speaker 5: host of other things, including massive tax breaks for their
Speaker 5: billionaire donors. That's what their one big, ugly bill was
Speaker 5: all about while at the same period of time, they
Speaker 5: gutted Medicaid, ripped away snap benefits from millions of Americans,
Speaker 5: and gave is a seventy five billion dollars slush fund.
Speaker 5: As Democrats, our approach is going to be very different,
Speaker 5: will be laser focused on driving down the high cost
Speaker 5: of living, fixing on broken healthcare system, and cleaning up
Speaker 5: corruption wherever it's found in the Congress, at the Supreme Court,
Speaker 5: and certainly with this administration the most corrupt in American history.
Speaker 2: We're coming into week two of that partial government shutdown.
Speaker 2: You just mentioned all the reforms that you want from DHS,
Speaker 2: and you're asking your party to hold the line on that.
Speaker 2: But realistically, as TSA agents start to miss paychecks, as
Speaker 2: airport slow down, as constituents start to feel the pain
Speaker 2: of this partial shutdown, do you think members of your
Speaker 2: caucus will stay strong on this or will you see
Speaker 2: defections like you did during the last shutdown?
Speaker 5: Well, I think the outcome of the last shutdown was
Speaker 5: that House Democrats led the effort to pass a straightforward
Speaker 5: three year extend of the Affordable Care Act tax credits,
Speaker 5: and seventeen House Republicans joined us marking the first time
Speaker 5: in American history that any Republicans in this Congress have
Speaker 5: voted affirmatively for the Affordable Care Act tax credits, or
Speaker 5: the Affordable Care Act. That was the outcome of our
Speaker 5: effort to draw a hard line in the sand on
Speaker 5: behalf of the American people. Now, this time around, we've
Speaker 5: basically made clear that it's unfortunate that Donald Trump and
Speaker 5: Republicans in the Congress have decided that they would rather
Speaker 5: shut down FEMA, shut down the Coastguard, and shut down
Speaker 5: TSA as opposed to enacting the type of bold, meaningful,
Speaker 5: and dramatic changes that will help transform DHS and its
Speaker 5: enforcement agencies in a manner that is consistent with our values.
Speaker 2: But do you think your party is united enough to
Speaker 2: hold that line?
Speaker 4: And who is the leader.
Speaker 2: Of the Democratic Party right now?
Speaker 5: Democratic leader? We've got great members of the House Democratic
Speaker 5: Caucus as well that are leading in a wide variety
Speaker 5: of different ways. It's not my job to make determinations
Speaker 5: as to who's the Democratic Party leader. What I can
Speaker 5: tell you is that Democrats have won elections consistently for
Speaker 5: the last fourteen months, and so whoever the leader may be,
Speaker 5: he or she is doing a great job, because literally,
Speaker 5: we haven't lost a meaningful election in the entirety of
Speaker 5: the Trump administration, winning races up and down the ballot
Speaker 5: across the country in places like New Jersey, in New York,
Speaker 5: in Virginia, in California. Certainly during the off year elections
Speaker 5: last November in Mississippi, in Georgia, three state Supreme Court
Speaker 5: races that we swept, in Pennsylvania, and then went on
Speaker 5: to win races in Florida, the Miami mayors race for
Speaker 5: the first time in thirty years, and of course these
Speaker 5: special elections that we've seen dramatic overperformance, most recently in
Speaker 5: Texas by thirty one points and then in Louisiana, the
Speaker 5: home state of Mike Johnson and Steve Scalise by thirty
Speaker 5: seven points in terms of an overperformance from the Trump number.
Speaker 5: So collectively, we're going to continue to message and communicate
Speaker 5: to the American people our values, Juxtapose that with the
Speaker 5: extremism that the Republicans are unleashing on the American people,
Speaker 5: and let the ships fall where they may.
Speaker 3: Quite just quickly about messaging, and you're getting to this
Speaker 3: point that is, I think there are a lot of
Speaker 3: people who are keen to run against and maybe support
Speaker 3: candidates who are running against the policies of this president.
Speaker 3: There are others who are looking for the Democrats to
Speaker 3: promote and campaign on policies of their own. What is
Speaker 3: your counsel to your caucus those running on how to
Speaker 3: find that balance between those two things, being anti Trump
Speaker 3: and being pro whatever the Democratic parties offer something.
Speaker 5: Yes, well, I think what's been obvious over the last
Speaker 5: fourteen months, and certainly this was the case no longer
Speaker 5: deniable by people who suggest that Democrats don't have a message,
Speaker 5: is that what has united us is the issue of
Speaker 5: affordability and our commitment to actually drive down the high
Speaker 5: cost of living. That was the case in New Jersey,
Speaker 5: that was the case in Virginia, that was the case
Speaker 5: in New York. Three very different type of candidates all
Speaker 5: united around the affordability issue because we believe they are
Speaker 5: far too many people. We're talking about millions of folks
Speaker 5: in this country who are working hard and who are
Speaker 5: playing by the rules, but who are unable to get by.
Speaker 5: They certainly aren't able to get ahead, they can't thrive,
Speaker 5: and they are barely surviving, and that's unacceptable in the
Speaker 5: wealthiest country in the history of the world. And we
Speaker 5: believe that when you do those things, when you work hard,
Speaker 5: and when you play by the rules, you should be
Speaker 5: able to live an affordable life, a comfortable life, live
Speaker 5: the good life.
Speaker 4: And we define that very clearly.
Speaker 5: Good paying jobs, good housing, good health care, a good
Speaker 5: education for your children, and when it's all said and done,
Speaker 5: a good retirement. That's what House Democrats are fighting hard
Speaker 5: to achieve for the American people.
Speaker 2: I want to ask you about one of your Republican colleagues.
Speaker 2: Texas Republican Tony Gonzalez is facing criticism over allegations of
Speaker 2: an affair he had with a former staffer who later
Speaker 2: died by suicide. He is so far resisted calls to
Speaker 2: step down should he resign, So.
Speaker 5: These are extremely disturbing and very serious allegations, and it
Speaker 5: requires a very serious investigation. And it's my understanding that
Speaker 5: the Office of Congressional Counsel is in the midst of
Speaker 5: that investigation, and in fact may be prepared to issue
Speaker 5: a report to us as members of Congress as early
Speaker 5: as Wednesday of next week. And once that report has
Speaker 5: been issued to us, then all options should certainly be
Speaker 5: on the table based on what the conclusions are in
Speaker 5: terms of that investigation.
Speaker 3: I want to ask you about a piece in the
Speaker 3: Washington Post about executive order the president's reportedly considering. I'm
Speaker 3: going to read a quote here from Peter Tickton, who
Speaker 3: is what someone who's pushing for this executive order said,
Speaker 3: if the President were to declare a national emergency to
Speaker 3: grant him power over elections, that would empower the president
Speaker 3: to ban mail ballots and voting machines as the vectors
Speaker 3: of foreign interference. So effectively, the argument the administration will
Speaker 3: be making is, as they see it, there is fort interference,
Speaker 3: although not proven in the last election, that's grounds for
Speaker 3: the presidents take more control of future elections.
Speaker 4: What are you going to do, as.
Speaker 3: The Democratic leader in the House if the President goes
Speaker 3: down that path.
Speaker 5: Well, it's a crackpot conspiracy theory, and we will not
Speaker 5: allow it to be brought to life. Certainly we won't
Speaker 5: allow it to be brought to life legislatively. Where the
Speaker 5: President threatened to abandon the way in which elections have
Speaker 5: been conducted for the better part of almost two hundred
Speaker 5: and fifty years here in this country and try to
Speaker 5: nationalize them. This so called Save America Act is dead
Speaker 5: on arrival in the Senate.
Speaker 4: It's not going anywhere.
Speaker 5: And this effort to abuse the notion of an emergency
Speaker 5: authority has already been defeated multiple times by the Supreme Court,
Speaker 5: a very conservative Supreme Court. The President tried to use
Speaker 5: emergency authority to federalize the National Guard. We of course
Speaker 5: sued him, took it all the way up to the
Speaker 5: Supreme Court, and he was denied that ability, which is
Speaker 5: why the President was forced to pull out of places
Speaker 5: like Oregon, California, and Illinois. The President claimed the authority
Speaker 5: to unilaterally issue tariffs, tariffs that are hurting businesses, hurting entrepreneurs,
Speaker 5: and certainly hurting farmers and consumers. We took that up
Speaker 5: to the Supreme Court, and the Supreme Court, including three
Speaker 5: very conservative justices, declared clearly that the President did not
Speaker 5: have that emergency authority with respect to tariffs and declared
Speaker 5: them unlawful and unconstitutional. And in the same vein, we'll
Speaker 5: use every tool available, including suing the heck out of
Speaker 5: him if he tries to go down this road, to
Speaker 5: prevent him from trying to rig the mid term elections,
Speaker 5: because he knows his presidency hasn't been a failure. His
Speaker 5: policies have been a failure, and Republicans have failed America.
Speaker 3: Leader Jeffers, we've talked about the democratic message. Let me
Speaker 3: ask you about what we've heard from the president on
Speaker 3: the campaign trail. This is a refrain he's used over
Speaker 3: and over again. Let me play it.
Speaker 2: You got to win the midterms, because if we don't
Speaker 2: win the midterms, it's just going.
Speaker 1: To be.
Speaker 2: I mean, they'll find a reason to impeach me.
Speaker 4: I'll get impeached.
Speaker 3: You call this the most corrupt administration in history. I
Speaker 3: wonder if you think impeachment is inevitable. And as you
Speaker 3: listen to Americans, maybe there are those who are worried
Speaker 3: about the fact you have one administration impeaching the president
Speaker 3: as I'm sorry, one Congress impeaching the president. The administration
Speaker 3: switches that could happen back and forth.
Speaker 4: Over and over again.
Speaker 3: Are you willing to rule out or commit to not
Speaker 3: impeaching the president if you were to get the speaker's gabble.
Speaker 5: Yeah, What I'm willing to commit to is that we
Speaker 5: are going to fight hard to drive down the high
Speaker 5: cost of living. We believe that affordability is the core
Speaker 5: issue that the American people. What I'm saying our priority
Speaker 5: is we're not ruling anything in and we're not ruling
Speaker 5: anything out.
Speaker 4: It's all premature.
Speaker 5: What we're focused on is a commitment to making sure
Speaker 5: we make life more affordable for the American people and
Speaker 5: fix our broken healthcare system. Now, of course, there's got
Speaker 5: to be accountability. This is the most corrupt administration in
Speaker 5: American history, and right now we are focused on delivering
Speaker 5: that accountability in terms of the administration directly to Christy
Speaker 5: Know who we've called to be fired, and if she's
Speaker 5: not fired, we are committed to commencing impeachment proceedings against her.
Speaker 5: And we've just got to convince a handful of our
Speaker 5: Republican colleagues to do the right thing. She's a disaster,
Speaker 5: she's a stone cold liar. She called Renaina cold Good
Speaker 5: and Alex pretty domestic terrorists. She's unleashed these poorly trained
Speaker 5: aids to brutalize law abiding immigrant families and American citizens,
Speaker 5: in some cases killing them.
Speaker 4: And she clearly has to go.
Speaker 2: Leeter Jeffries before we let you go. Next week, you're
Speaker 2: going to compel a vote of the full House on
Speaker 2: the bipartisan kind of massive war powers resolution. I want
Speaker 2: to ask you, I've covered watching a long time. Warpowers
Speaker 2: Act seems to come up constantly, regardless of whether it's
Speaker 2: a democratic or Republican administration. Is this a performative act
Speaker 2: at this point? Because, frankly, if the president decides to
Speaker 2: bomb Iran or capture the president of Venezuela, what are
Speaker 2: you going to do about it?
Speaker 4: Yeah?
Speaker 5: Well, what we have to do as the Article one
Speaker 5: branch of government is reclaim our authority as a separate
Speaker 5: and coequal branch, which unfortunately our Republican colleagues have declined
Speaker 5: to do.
Speaker 4: In fact, so how can you do Epican?
Speaker 5: Well, we can do it by beginning to actually bring
Speaker 5: legislation to the floor that is consistent with the values
Speaker 5: of our framers. They gave the House of Representatives the
Speaker 5: authority as it relates to appropriations because they knew taxation
Speaker 5: and spending were particularly important and the House was the
Speaker 5: closest institution.
Speaker 4: To the people.
Speaker 5: They also gave us the authority as it relates to
Speaker 5: trade and tariffs, and they gave us the authority as
Speaker 5: it relates to the power to declare war, and unfortunately,
Speaker 5: over time we've seen in erosion of Congress exercising that authority,
Speaker 5: and our commitment on behalf of the American people is
Speaker 5: to regain that.
Speaker 2: But can you do anything to stop a president who
Speaker 2: decides to take a military.
Speaker 4: Action like this.
Speaker 5: We have to do everything that we can on behalf
Speaker 5: of the American people, because the American people clearly know
Speaker 5: that the last thing we need at this moment when
Speaker 5: they literally are struggling having to choose between paying rent,
Speaker 5: buying groceries, or getting to go see a doctor when
Speaker 5: they need one, this is unacceptable in this country.
Speaker 4: And the last thing we need is another.
Speaker 5: Failed foreign forever war, which certainly would be the outcome
Speaker 5: if Donald Trump decides to get us entangled in Iran
Speaker 5: and the Middle East.
Speaker 3: The Democratic leader in the House, my fellow Brooklyn Night,
Speaker 3: Hakim Jeffrey is joining us from Washington. Represent Jeffreyes. Thank
Speaker 3: you very much, Thank you, sir, Thank you.
Speaker 2: Thanks for joining us on today's Bloomberg This Weekend podcast.
Speaker 2: Don't forget to tune in live for the show every
Speaker 2: Saturday and Sunday morning, starting at seven am Eastern.
Speaker 3: We're on Bloomberg Television Radio and the Bloomberg Business app.
Speaker 3: Bringing you unique takes and in depth interviews on news, politics,
Speaker 3: lifestyle and culture.