LIVE: House Minority Leader Jeffries Holds News Conference (Feb. 2)

Good afternoon, everyone. The Republican Congress began with the extremists holding the narrowest majority of any party since the Great Depression in 1930. And later on today, as a result of the victory by Christian Menefee, who we congratulate on this significant accomplishment, that narrow Republican majority will get even narrower. And the question for Republicans will continue to be, are you going to double and triple down on your extremism, which is getting you nowhere with the American people? Or try to find a bipartisan path forward to actually address the issues that matter when it comes to making life better for everyday Americans. House Democrats are going to continue to fight hard to lower the high cost of living, to fix our broken healthcare system, and to clean up corruption everywhere that it is found in this town. Republican policies on the economy have been a failure. Republican policies on healthcare have been a failure. And Republican policies on immigration enforcement have been a complete and total failure. Taxpayer dollars should not be spent to brutalize and kill American citizens. Taxpayer dollars should be spent to make life more affordable for everyday Americans, something that Republicans have refused to do from the very beginning of Donald Trump being sworn into office last January. Donald Trump and Republicans promised that they were going to lower the high cost of living in the United States of America on day one. That's what they promised. They lied to the American people. Costs haven't gone down, costs have gone up. Across the board, housing costs out of control, grocery costs out of control, utility bills out of control, child care costs out of control, and healthcare costs out of control. Republicans have refused to extend the Affordable Care Act tax credits in the Senate and as a result, tens of millions of Americans are now experiencing dramatically increased health insurance premiums. In some cases, the monthly costs have increased by a thousand or two thousand dollars per month. That is completely and totally unacceptable, brought to you by the Republican party. At the same time, it's Republicans led by Donald Trump who in their one big ugly bill enacted the largest cut to Medicaid in American history. They literally have ripped healthcare away from more than 14 million Americans and as a result of their policies, hospitals, nursing homes, and community-based health clinics are closing all across America. In that one big ugly bill, they also cut SNAP by 186 billion dollars, the largest cut to nutritional assistance in American history. The extremists, they literally snatched food out of the mouths of hungry children, seniors, and veterans. And why did they do all of that? For at least two reasons. So they could provide massive tax breaks to their billionaire donors and at the same time, create a 191 billion slush fund that went to the Department of Homeland Security, including 75 billion dollars to ICE so that mass agents could unleash brutality and lawlessness on the American people. Everyday Americans have had enough with the failed policies of Donald Trump and Republicans in the House and the Senate. And the only real question that needs to be answered right now is when will Republicans have enough with the extremism and the cruelty and the chaos and the corruption that has failed the American people? Questions? Republicans have a responsibility to move the rule, which by the way, includes a wide variety of other issues that we strongly disagree with, including their efforts to weaponize the criminal contempt process so they can create a distraction from the Department of Justice continuing to hide the Epstein files. And so it's hard to imagine a scenario where Democrats are going to provide Republicans who spent all last year lecturing us about the fact that they had some big massive mandate. Really? You had a three-seat majority that as of this evening will be a two-seat majority, the narrowest one since 1930, spent all year lying to the American people, but pretending apparently some of them believe it, that the results of the 2024 election represented a dramatic shift in how the American people viewed the Republican Party and the Democratic Party. What have the results of the last year said about that conclusion? What have the results of Saturday night deep in the heart of Texas said about the Republican conclusion that somehow we were in the midst of some dramatic MAGA makeover? It was a lie then, it's a lie today, and it certainly will be proven to be a lie in November. Well Democrats clearly had the high ground as it relates to standing on the side of the American people and pushing to fix our broken health care system and address the Republican health care crisis, which is ongoing and that work is ongoing. And John Thune needs to stop erecting procedural hurdles and take up the House passed bill that will allow for a straightforward extension of three years of the Affordable Care Act tax credits to benefit working families, middle-class families, and everyday Americans. In the same way that we had the high ground in standing on the side of the American people and will continue to do so as it relates to health care, we clearly have the high ground in standing on the side of the American people with respect to ICE. ICE and the Department of Homeland Security need to dramatically change and absent that, then a full year appropriations bill is in deep trouble because the American people are correctly demanding accountability. The American people want to see the mask come off. The American people want to see body cameras turned on and mandated. The American people want to see judicial warrants before ICE or DHS officers can storm homes, harass people violently on the streets of America, or rip people out of their cars. The American people want to see independent investigations so that if ICE or DHS officers break the law, they are held accountable. This concept of absolute immunity is absolute absurdity because the American people know that if you break the law in the United States of America, you should be held accountable. Nobody is above the law. ICE officers should be held to the same standards as every other member of law enforcement in the country who put their lives on the line for us law enforcement officers, police officers at home in New York and across the country. And ICE needs to be reined in. They're out of control. They need to be brought to heel so that there is a level of accountability and professionalism that the American people are demanding. Those are just a few of the issues that are absolute must-haves in advance of the Congress taking up a full year appropriations bill as it relates to DHS funding. We have a leadership meeting later on today where we'll have a discussion about it. We had a caucus meeting yesterday. There was a diversity of perspectives about how to move forward on this particular bill, but it's the five bipartisan bills where there's strong Democratic support and, of course, a variety of perspectives as it relates to the two-week continuing resolution, the two-week funding freeze related to DHS. So we'll continue those conversations in the leadership meeting today at 515, and then, of course, we'll have a full and robust discussion tomorrow morning at caucus. Thank you. Yeah, second row. I'll get back to you. Thank you, sir. On the subject of the contempt resolutions the House set to vote on this week, what do you make of the fact that a number of members of your caucus voted with Republicans in the committee, and do you plan on voting against those? Well, those decisions, of course, will be articulated by the Democratic whip Catherine Clark at the appropriate time. It's my expectation we'll have a discussion tomorrow as well about these so-called criminal contempt resolutions. House Republicans cannot be taken seriously on this issue. The Department of Justice is now withholding, in violation of the law, more than three million documents related to the more than three million documents, and we don't hear a peep from James Comer or any Republicans about the failure of the Department of Justice to comply with a law, as well as a subpoena that had been previously issued in a bipartisan way. I'm a hard no on the shenanigans of House Republicans. I don't believe it's serious, and I also think that there have been ongoing discussions by the Clintons and their lawyers to testify that have been repeatedly, apparently, rejected by House Republicans on the Oversight Committee, because they don't want a serious interview. They want a charade, and it's not something that I'm down with. On the weekend show, you talked about wanting a clear path for this, to know that the Trump administration is serious about working on this funding, so what does that look like? Do you want to speak to President Trump? What do you need to have that? Speaker Johnson and I have been in close communication. I've also been in close communication with Leader Schumer. Still haven't seen a clear path articulated, an ironclad path articulated by the Trump administration related to the type of dramatic changes that are necessary in order to rein ICE in. It's out of control, and the American people know it. As evidence, in public opinion survey, after public opinion survey, after public opinion survey, including amongst Donald Trump supporters, they know he's gone too far. The American people know Donald Trump lied to them. He said, we're going to target violent felons. Instead, they're targeting five-year-old boys with Spider-Man backpacks. They're horrifying the American people, and so Democrats are committed to this fight. Again, we've made clear, line in the sand, red line. We've articulated the things that will be necessary for there to be a full year appropriations bill connected to ICE funding, because we're standing on the side of the American people, some of whom have been killed in cold blood by ICE in plain sight, horrifying the American people. You say that some Democrats might be willing to appropriate on the bill. That's okay? I indicated there's a variety of different perspectives, and we'll continue to have that discussion. Republicans are in the majority in this institution and has now been around for more than 200 years. It's hard to cite an example where in an institution that is majoritarian in nature, as you know, where the minority steps in to help the majority pass a rule, when as I've indicated to you, there are multiple bills within that rule that we strongly disagree with and do not support, separate and apart. Yes, Republicans done F'd up in Texas, and they know it. We knew it months ago, and it's because of a variety of reasons. First of all, they were never going to get five seats. But they created a scenario where they tried to take five seats away from Democrats, didn't think that we were going to respond. California responds decisively, and we will pick up five seats as a result of Prop 50 in California. And it remains to be seen what happens in Texas. I can guarantee you they won't win five seats. They're going to struggle to win three based on 2024 performance, let alone what we've seen literally over the last year. And let me congratulate Taylor Emmett, who ran an extraordinary campaign. It was a decisive victory. It was a shellacking for Republicans in Texas that even caught Ron DeSantis's attention. They can't ignore it. And by the way, Republicans have been losing elections, and Democrats have been winning elections since January of last year. irrefutable fact. This has now gone on for 13 consecutive months. And during the entirety of the Trump presidency, Democrats haven't lost a single meaningful election, not one. Not one. We won the Iowa special election. In January, that was a district that Trump had just won by 20 points, a state senate seat in Iowa, decisively won an election in February for the Westchester County Executive in a district partially represented by Mike Lawler. In March, we won a state senate race in Pennsylvania. In a part of the Commonwealth, where we hadn't had representation in over 100 years, it was a district that Donald Trump had just won by 15 points. In April of last year, we won a special election in the Wisconsin State Supreme Court contest by over 11 points in a state that Donald Trump had just won, where Elon Musk spent over $25 million. In May for the first time in 12 years, we won the mayor race in Omaha, Nebraska, and elected an African American for the first time ever in the history of that great state. In the off year elections in November, we won all over the country in Virginia, in New Jersey, in New York, flip seats in Mississippi to break the Republican supermajority in the state senate, won three state Supreme Court races in Pennsylvania, won statewide in Georgia for the first time in 20 years, crushed it in California with Prop 50. Democrats in the off year elections won up and down the ballot across the country in statewide races, in county legislative races, and at all points in between. And then in December of last year, we won the mayor's race in Miami for the first time in almost 30 years, crushed the Republican opposition. And then two days ago, in Texas, this is extraordinary, in a district that Donald Trump won by 17 points. The Democrat wins by 14 points, that's a 31 point swing. No one's ever seen anything like that. In modern American political history. Democrats are doing that a 50 point swing in Texas amongst Hispanic voters. And state senate districts in Texas aren't small. They're bigger than congressional districts. That has sent a chill down the spine of every single house Republican in Texas and across the country. And it gets worse for them. Because Republicans spent over $2.4 million to try to hold the seat that Donald Trump had just won by 17 points. And the Democrats spent about 400,000 outspent six to one and crushed the Republican extremists. At what point will Republican extremists come to the conclusion that your reach ain't long enough, and your peeps ain't strong enough. You are on the verge of losing control of the House of Representatives in November. And the Senate is looking increasingly shaky as well. Republicans have failed. Democrats are on the move. Because the American people have had enough. Thank you. I mentioned on Friday, that Congresswoman Shefali McCormick is entitled to the presumption of innocence, like every other American. I'm a hard no. As it relates to the effort to expel her and it's going to fail. The SAVE Act is dead on arrival. It's not going anywhere in the Senate. And the Republicans have failed on the issue of immigration enforcement. These people are desperate. They've lost their advantage on every single issue that they thought was going to be some permanent realignment. How is it possible that they actually convinced people that there was some permanent realignment when they haven't won a race in 13 months? It's confusing to me. Their policies have failed completely. Donald Trump is deeply unpopular. Democrats have been up in the generic ballot for months. And everybody understands if the election were held today, they're going down in flames on the other side. Because Democrats are the only group of people actually focused not on partisan bills like the SAVE Act, so called SAVE Act, but on actually making life better for the American people, driving down the high cost of living, fixing our broken health care system, cleaning up corruption, making it clear here in America, our view, you work hard, you play by the rules. As hundreds of millions of Americans do, you should be able to live an affordable life, a comfortable life, live the good life. That's what Democrats are fighting hard to bring about. Good paying job, good housing, good health care, good education for your children, and a good retirement. Thank you, everyone.