Speaker 1: Native Land Pod is a production of iHeartRadio in partnership
Speaker 1: with reisent Choice Media. Welcome, Welcome, Welcome, Welcome, Welcome, Welcome.
Speaker 2: Hey, fam You're about to hear a replay of one
Speaker 2: of our interviews from our live stream at the Democratic
Speaker 2: National Convention. If you want to listen to or watch
Speaker 2: the full stream, check out the links in the episode description.
Speaker 2: You can also find a full list of all the
Speaker 2: guests we interviewed. Welcome home, y'all. Haqim Jeffries has been
Speaker 2: family from i'd say day zero, I'm Iri Andrew, you're
Speaker 2: not on mute. In the middle of my intro, thank you.
Speaker 2: Hakim Jeffries came in to see us when he was
Speaker 2: coming into Congress, and one of my favorite moments was
Speaker 2: as a staff person, him just being like, Okay, what
Speaker 2: do I need to do?
Speaker 3: Who do I need to know?
Speaker 2: And because of his genuine intellectual curiosity, I knew. I
Speaker 2: was like, this dude is going to be speaker, and
Speaker 2: we are on the eve of that dream and it's
Speaker 2: really knowing that that will come to pass. I want
Speaker 2: to know in the middle of your history making journey
Speaker 2: now as Democratic leader in the House, and where we
Speaker 2: are today.
Speaker 4: How does it feel, welly Azela, it is great to
Speaker 4: be with you, I could say here in Chicago, of course,
Speaker 4: this amazing team. You know here in Chicago, it's joyful,
Speaker 4: it's aspirational, it's unifying, it's electrifying. But we also know
Speaker 4: that there's a mission ahead of us over the next
Speaker 4: few months, and the other.
Speaker 3: Side can be diabolical.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and so we you know, we're here to thank
Speaker 4: President Biden, of course for his work he's passed the torch,
Speaker 4: to celebrate and elevate Kamala Harris and Tim Walls, but
Speaker 4: then to make sure that we're doing the work necessary
Speaker 4: so that they're successful in November, that we do take
Speaker 4: back the gavels in the United States House, and that
Speaker 4: we do what's necessary to hold the Senate.
Speaker 2: Yes, it's so important.
Speaker 1: It's going to be a lot of people who will
Speaker 1: lose their minds, Congressman, and we have when we have
Speaker 1: a black woman president, a black House speaker, black governors elected,
Speaker 1: more black mayors elected, and it really speaks to our
Speaker 1: ancestors built this country for free. That's the phrase I
Speaker 1: came up with myself. Originally, she saw that for me
Speaker 1: to see Angelus is all the time and to finally
Speaker 1: see our work, the fruits of our labor come together
Speaker 1: at this moment. A lot of people, I don't think
Speaker 1: necessarily understands the role of the Speaker of the House,
Speaker 1: because that is a title that you are about to assume.
Speaker 1: Because we speak things into existence on this podcast. What
Speaker 1: is the role of the House Speaker?
Speaker 4: Well, you know, I'll say that it's been an honor
Speaker 4: to stand on the shoulders of Nancy Pelosi, Senny Hory
Speaker 4: and Jim Cliveburn, you know who were legendary leaders. Of course,
Speaker 4: Nancy Pelosi as the Speaker of the United States House
Speaker 4: of Representatives, she'll go down in history, we believe is
Speaker 4: the greatest speaker of all time, along with you know
Speaker 4: Stenny who did his thing, and of course the great
Speaker 4: legendary Jim Clyburn, and they all collectively actually made the
Speaker 4: decision to pass the torch to the next generation of
Speaker 4: Democrats in the House last year, and as a result,
Speaker 4: Petere Aguilar, Catherine Clark, and myself now is House Democratic leader.
Speaker 4: The role of Speaker of course done incredibly well, you
Speaker 4: know by Nancy Pelosi really is a constitutional officer in
Speaker 4: the House of Representatives who presides over the House, determines
Speaker 4: the agenda, make sure that legislation moves through the House
Speaker 4: actually can get out of the House and hopefully make
Speaker 4: it through the Senate and become law. And also, depending
Speaker 4: on which party the Speaker is a member of at
Speaker 4: that given point in time, is also responsible for making
Speaker 4: sure politically, you know, things go right and that you're
Speaker 4: interacting with the other branches of government, you know, particularly
Speaker 4: the President, the Vice President, as well as the Senate.
Speaker 1: I just want to give a quick shout out before
Speaker 1: I toss it to Andrew. I know your wonderful, amazing
Speaker 1: intellectual brother, Hassan Jeffries, doctor Hassan Jeffries. I met Hassan,
Speaker 1: and when I met Hassan over in the nineties, over
Speaker 1: twenty years ago, you were running for office then, so
Speaker 1: you have been a public servant your whole life. This
Speaker 1: is like a family affairs, yes, but I want to
Speaker 1: give a shout out to the men of Kappa Alpha
Speaker 1: Psi Fraternity Incorporated as well, because we were just talking
Speaker 1: about the importance of the fraternities in this work and
Speaker 1: you are a member along with your brother.
Speaker 5: Thank you, mister Speaker to be I have marveled from
Speaker 5: Afar down in Florida at the way you have been
Speaker 5: able to manage and keep a very vast ideologically ranged
Speaker 5: caucus together. I mean the fact that you all have
Speaker 5: held on some of the votes that have come been
Speaker 5: put to the floor, that you have in many ways
Speaker 5: performed as the Speaker of the House and delivering very
Speaker 5: key legislation that could have otherwise been off the table
Speaker 5: or otherwise undermined.
Speaker 2: More effective than the active more effective.
Speaker 3: Because he delivers.
Speaker 5: I just got to ask a lot of folks around
Speaker 5: the country are nervous around the kinds of tactics that
Speaker 5: may be taken to either uncertify, not certify, put spoke,
Speaker 5: you know, obstructions in the wheel in order to delay
Speaker 5: the Congress's ability to do what is your ceremonial but
Speaker 5: also constitutional responsibility to count the votes, the Electoral College votes,
Speaker 5: so on and so forth, and certify the presidency. Please
Speaker 5: tell us that there are scenario planning, there is there
Speaker 5: are stop gaps in the way fell safes that can
Speaker 5: ensure that if we are out here encouraging people to
Speaker 5: go vote, they do their job, that when it comes
Speaker 5: to you all that we can rely on some protection
Speaker 5: that this election will not be stolen, will not be
Speaker 5: undermined by the other side, but that people can have
Speaker 5: some relative reliability on our democracy.
Speaker 4: Well, Andrew, great to see you, Thank you for your
Speaker 4: public service. It is a very important question. I think
Speaker 4: the good news is, first of all, we got to
Speaker 4: make sure all the reasons that you articulated all of
Speaker 4: the uncertainty, because whoever holds the gavels, whoever is in
Speaker 4: the majority on January sixth, which is the date set
Speaker 4: forth in the Constitution to certify the election.
Speaker 3: The new Congress is sworn in.
Speaker 4: On January third, meaning whoever is in the majority as
Speaker 4: a result of the November election will have the ability
Speaker 4: to decide whether to certify or not. And there's an
Speaker 4: open question if the Republicans continue to hold the majority
Speaker 4: because so many of their members are election deniers and
Speaker 4: have chosen simply to bend the need to Donald Trump,
Speaker 4: who has already trying to lay the groundwork to claim
Speaker 4: falsely if he loses or when he loses, that the
Speaker 4: election was stolen.
Speaker 3: So we got to take back the House. That's important.
Speaker 4: But we actually did act legislatively and passed a bill
Speaker 4: called the Electoral Reform count Act in two thousand and
Speaker 4: twenty two. That did two important things. One, it made
Speaker 4: clear that the vice president's role is only ceremonial important. Now,
Speaker 4: the good news is, in this particular situation, of course,
Speaker 4: the vice president is Kamala Harris. But for future elections,
Speaker 4: we've made it clear that no one can do what
Speaker 4: Donald Trump tried to do in bullying Mike Pence to
Speaker 4: unilaterally declare the election invalid and toss the electoral votes
Speaker 4: over to him. But perhaps the second, yet most important
Speaker 4: part of that legislation is it used to be the
Speaker 4: case that it only took one member out of all
Speaker 4: four hundred and thirty five to object to the election
Speaker 4: in the House and one member out of one hundred
Speaker 4: to object in the Senate.
Speaker 3: That's all that was required.
Speaker 4: And then you can create this whole scenario where shenanigans
Speaker 4: and games can be played. And that's what was set
Speaker 4: in motion on January sixth of twenty twenty one. We
Speaker 4: changed that so now it requires at least twenty percent
Speaker 4: of the House and twenty percent of the Senate, so
Speaker 4: that means at least a little over eighty members.
Speaker 3: Have to object.
Speaker 4: Now, you know, on the other side of the out
Speaker 4: you might be able to get to that number in
Speaker 4: the House, but we don't think you can get to
Speaker 4: that number in the Senate because there still are enough
Speaker 4: traditional Republicans, but we don't believe will go along with
Speaker 4: Donald Trump's shenanigans to try to undermine the results. And
Speaker 4: so this is an example of legislation actually being advanced
Speaker 4: in response to a crisis that puts us in a
Speaker 4: much stronger position.
Speaker 5: Well, the best feel safe, y'all if you didn't catch
Speaker 5: it at the beginning of the answer is to put
Speaker 5: Democrats can chargemcial.
Speaker 2: You know the other thing that I think is really
Speaker 2: important about the role of the speaker. You talk about
Speaker 2: the Democratic Party being a big tent party all the time,
Speaker 2: so your job is not going to be very easy.
Speaker 2: You have people across the ideological spectrum. You know that
Speaker 2: and have experienced that as the Democratic leader as well.
Speaker 2: Talk about some of the things that you will have
Speaker 2: to do to get people on the same page and
Speaker 2: some of the big picture ideas you have in that role.
Speaker 2: I'm gonna use as a personal example. He is my
Speaker 2: leader too, and I texted him when I.
Speaker 3: Was like, what did everybody got it?
Speaker 2: Indors come he knows it and he was like, let
Speaker 2: me be leader for a day. I was like, bye,
Speaker 2: I was spouting I was, it.
Speaker 1: Was but I but I.
Speaker 2: Think that it's important because you're going to deal with
Speaker 2: people who are throwing tantrums.
Speaker 3: I'm one of them sometimes, and you're.
Speaker 2: Gonna be dealing with folks who are like, I know
Speaker 2: the best way, How can follow me? How do you
Speaker 2: bring everybody together?
Speaker 3: Yeah? No, it's a great question.
Speaker 4: And you know, I think one we've adopted a philosophy
Speaker 4: and approach and this is something that I learned from
Speaker 4: Jim Clyburn that unity is different than unanimity.
Speaker 2: Wow.
Speaker 4: And the House Democratic Caucus represents the gorgeous mosaic of
Speaker 4: the American people with the closest institution to the American
Speaker 4: people by design. And on the House Democratic Caucus side,
Speaker 4: we have, you know, incredible diversity across every possible measure.
Speaker 4: But that means with people who have different life experiences,
Speaker 4: different perspectives, different constituencies, they may take a different view
Speaker 4: on a given issue or two. But we're not expecting unanimity.
Speaker 4: We are, however, expecting unity, which means that we're united
Speaker 4: around these principles of fighting for justice, fighting for freedom,
Speaker 4: putting people over politics, and we can have our family discussions,
Speaker 4: which we often do. Sometimes they're exuberant. We prefer them
Speaker 4: to be private, not public. But once we get through
Speaker 4: those family discussions, we find the highest common denominator. And
Speaker 4: this is what we've done throughout the entire Congress in
Speaker 4: order to get to the best possible result for the
Speaker 4: American people. Now, there will always be some folks who
Speaker 4: will say, well, you didn't go far enough. And our
Speaker 4: general view, learning from our civil rights legends right who
Speaker 4: went through a similar process as they were working through
Speaker 4: the Civil Rights Act, the Voting Rights Act, and the
Speaker 4: Fair Housing Act, that sometimes you just have to live
Speaker 4: to fight another day. But we're all united in terms
Speaker 4: of where we want to go.
Speaker 5: Not make the perfect the enemy of the good, which
Speaker 5: often times too often happens the speaker to be. We
Speaker 5: know that your time is extremely valuable. I just got
Speaker 5: to throw you some crazy love over his oratory. Yes,
Speaker 5: I mean I've been moved on occasion where this stuff
Speaker 5: should be for process. Yes, and I keep getting Uh.
Speaker 5: The Congressman gets up and begins to speak, and he
Speaker 5: evokes history, and he evokes emotion, and he connects and
Speaker 5: weaves together such an incredibly diverse set of experiences of
Speaker 5: the American people to bring all of us into investment
Speaker 5: and whatever it is that they're attempting to do, it's
Speaker 5: it is. It is a power, yes, but more than anything,
Speaker 5: it is a blessing. And I'm so glad that you've
Speaker 5: been imbued with it because I think it's an essential
Speaker 5: part of what allows you to be the kind of
Speaker 5: successful speaker that I think you've already shown yourself to
Speaker 5: be by.
Speaker 2: Here a little hip hop every now.
Speaker 1: That's why My quick favorite quote from the Congressman is
Speaker 1: during the impeachment hearings and a Republican member said, I
Speaker 1: just don't know why we're here, and the Congressman stood
Speaker 1: up and answered him and listed innumerable reasons why we
Speaker 1: were here and laid out beautifully are you case And
Speaker 1: at the end he said, so if you don't know,
Speaker 1: Brooklyn is always in the house. And we love it.
Speaker 2: Literally, I love you on this podcast.
Speaker 3: We are champion gratulations.
Speaker 4: This is amazing podcast. Gratulations on all the success. And
Speaker 4: you know, Angela and Tiffany Andrew appreciate you'all family close.
Speaker 2: You'll let you be leader for a day. But tomorrow.
Speaker 2: You got to be mister speaking.
Speaker 3: Thank you, thank you.
Speaker 5: I love it.
Speaker 2: It's fantastic.
Speaker 3: I love it, love it, love it. Man.
Speaker 5: I'm so proud of of I mean, yes, I heard
Speaker 5: him first in Florida when he came down and did
Speaker 5: some some organizing work throughout the race and so on
Speaker 5: and so forth. But his leadership is incredible. Thank you,
Speaker 5: and we're now saying goodbye. If you want.
Speaker 1: Ling on, do that. Native Land Pod is the production
Speaker 1: of iHeart Radio and partnership with Recent Choice Media. For
Speaker 1: more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.