LIVE: House Minority Leader Jeffries Holds Press Conference

Good afternoon everyone. Yesterday was tax day and House Republicans decided to celebrate the fact that in connection with their one big ugly bill, they enacted the largest cut to Medicaid in American history, ripping health care away from 14 million Americans. As a result of their toxic policies, hospitals, nursing homes, and community-based clinics are closing all across the country, particularly in rural America, as a direct result of what Republicans have done in their one big ugly bill. In that same piece of legislation, Republicans ripped food assistance away from hungry children, seniors, and veterans with the largest cut to SNAP, $186 billion in American history. And why did they do all of this, which they celebrated yesterday? To provide their billionaire donors with massive tax breaks to continue to subsidize the lifestyles of the rich and shameless. We are now in the midst of an ongoing war of choice in the Middle East that is reckless and costly, where billions of dollars are being spent every day while Republicans are unwilling to spend a dime to make life more affordable for the American people. All of this, of course, is unfolding in the midst of an affordability crisis that Donald Trump continues to maintain is a hoax. And as a direct result of the costly and reckless Republican war of choice, gas prices have skyrocketed, putting more cost pressure on working class Americans, everyday Americans, and middle class Americans. Enough. Donald Trump and Republicans have failed the American people. House Democrats, in partnership with Senate Democrats, are going to continue to focus on driving down the high cost of living because we know that life has become far too expensive in the United States of America as a direct result of policies that Donald Trump and compliant Republicans continue to jam down the throats of the American people. I intend to speak with her. What's been your communication with her? And have you all had any conversations within the caucus about what next week will look like, depending on how the Well, as a caucus, what's in front of us is the Ethics Committee penalty hearing that will be public next Tuesday. And subsequent to their deliberations, we await the recommendation that the Ethics Committee will make in a bipartisan way, as they've done up until this point. And then the Congress as a whole is going to have to make a decision as to how to implement the most appropriate punishment. My private conversations with members will remain private. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Some within your leadership have said that they were not aware of the allegations against Swalwell until that San Francisco Chronicle story last week. Yet there are other Democratic lawmakers who have said they have heard rumors for years that he was flirtatious and a womanizer. So can you specify what you knew? And if you did not know about those characterizations or rumors about him, shouldn't you have known as leader? I learned about the allegations the same way that the overwhelming majority of people learned about the allegations, which was the San Francisco Chronicle article. And it was shocking. We issued a statement immediately as it relates to the situation that was unfolding. That statement strongly speaks for itself. My current view of the situation is that there are ongoing criminal investigations. Those investigations need to be swift and comprehensive, should follow the facts, apply the law, and make sure at all points in time that those brave, courageous women who have come forward are treated with dignity and respect. We don't look at matters of war and peace through an electoral lens. We look at it through the lens of what is the right thing for the American people. And clearly, this reckless and costly war of choice hasn't put the American people in a better situation. It's put them in a more troublesome situation, particularly as it relates to dramatically increasing the cost of living, most prominently experienced as a result of the gas prices that are through the roof and out of control, placing an additional burden on everyday Americans and hardworking American taxpayers. Donald Trump's reckless war of choice, which we had an opportunity to stop through our War Powers Resolution, but unfortunately, the overwhelming majority of House Republicans have chosen to stick with Donald Trump as they always do and support this reckless and costly war of choice. It's extraordinary to me, since Donald Trump has gotten America in a war which has now cost the lives of more than 12 different brave servicemen and women, injured hundreds seriously, and cost the American taxpayer billions of dollars at the same time that Republicans are ripping health care away from the American people. With respect to this war, there was no intelligence to suggest that Iran presented an imminent threat. No strategy put forward by the administration, no clear set of goals, no exit strategy, and now no public support to continue this conflict. Yet Republicans in the House continue to serve as nothing more than a reckless rubber stamp for Donald Trump's extreme agenda, and it's shameful. It's shameful, and the American people will have an opportunity to change direction in just a few months. Mike Johnson and I had a direct conversation about FISA a few days ago. I haven't talked to him this week about the issue. Jim Himes is in communication with his Republican counterparts, and at the caucus meeting yesterday morning, we heard from Jim Himes, who, of course, is skeptical about this administration and their willingness to abuse authority and power and the law while making a case, as he's done publicly, for a short, straightforward extension of FISA 702 because of the national security implications. At the same period of time, we heard from Jamie Raskin, who's also publicly made the case in opposition to moving forward with an extension absent dramatic reforms that are designed to protect the privacy of the American people. I am deeply skeptical of a straightforward extension for a wide variety of reasons, including the fact that you can't trust Donald Trump. You can't trust Todd Blanch, currently violating the law as it relates to withholding more than 3 million documents connected to the Epstein files that he's under a statutory obligation to release, and you certainly can't trust Cass Patel. That guy is the head of the FBI, responsible for compliance, who's a serial conspiracy theorist who wrote a book presenting an enemies list that includes people who disagree with his political ideology, suggesting that these individuals should be targeted by the Trump administration. And now Cass Patel is the head of the FBI, who should have never been confirmed by sycophantic Senate Republicans who put him in this position of great power and authority. And we're supposed to trust that Cass Patel is going to comply with the law as it's currently written. So there's deep skepticism, it's fair to say, as it relates to where I stand and where I think a significant majority of House Democrats stand. But there are ongoing conversations at committee level involving Jim Himes, who has a lot of trust and respect within the House Democratic Caucus as well. And we'll see where that leads over the next few hours. It's a close race, and we expected that from the very beginning. But there's a lot of momentum behind the effort to ensure that there's a yes vote to stop the power grab. There are a lot of skeptics and cynics in this town. Donald Trump first announced this extraordinary mid-decade gerrymandering effort that Democrats were cooked, finished, that Donald Trump was gonna rip away 12 to 15 seats from us, and there was nothing that we could do about it. Look at us now, on behalf of the American people. And as we maintained from the very beginning, we were not gonna let Donald Trump steal this midterm election. The American people are the only ones who should decide who serves in the majority in the next Congress. Not Donald Trump, not JD Banz, not the MAGA extremists, who know that they can't articulate a credible argument based on policy or accomplishment to maintain the majority, which is why they've tried to cheat. And there's an opportunity over the next few days, in the hands of the people of the Commonwealth of Virginia, to take a strong step in ensuring that there's a fair national map that the American people are gonna vote on when they go to the polls in the fall and decide who should be in the majority. I spent the weekend campaigning in Virginia on both Saturday and Sunday, was there also at the same time apparently that Donald Trump was there on Friday and Mike Johnson on Saturday. There's a lot of energy behind the effort to make sure that we stop the MAGA power grant. We're not gonna take our foot off the gas pedal. We're gonna keep marching forward, make the case to the American people. I'm thankful for the support of President Obama, Governor Spanberger, the legislative leaders in Virginia, who've created an opportunity for the people of Virginia to make the decision. Unlike what we've seen in Texas and North Carolina and Missouri, where in the dead of night, based on Donald Trump's commands, Republicans gerrymandered those congressional maps and just jammed them down the throats of the people they purport to represent. Democrats have taken a different approach. That was the case in California, and it's also the case in Virginia, where it's the people who are the ones to decide what the congressional maps may ultimately look like in their given state, not the MAGA extremists in the legislature. It's not clear to me, what else do my Republican colleagues need to see? Representative Fitzpatrick has introduced a resolution. I haven't had the opportunity to take a look at it. Representative Josh Gottheimer has a resolution that will ripen shortly, that I fully and completely support. We're gonna keep the pressure on the MAGA extremists to do the right thing on behalf of the American people and end this reckless and costly war of choice. The American people reject what's going on right now, because they know that billions of dollars are being spent to drop bombs in the Middle East and put American lives in jeopardy, while at the same time, life has become more expensive here in America and Republicans ain't interested in doing a damn thing about it. In fact, Republicans have made life more expensive through their toxic policies, the Trump tariffs, or the refusal to extend the Affordable Care Act tax credits. And now this war, which has increased gas prices to more than $4 a gallon as a national average, it's extraordinary, the type of policy violence that Republicans are inflicting on the American people. For us to get this done, it has to be bipartisan. And we'll continue to engage with our Republican colleagues at different levels about what needs to happen in advance of the 60-day mark, or certainly once we hit that 60-day mark. The criticism about TPS has been, it's extended over and over and over. Do you believe these Haitians should ever have to- The extension, as it relates to the temporary protected status for the Haitian migrants who are here, who are working hard, who have been integrated into the community, who are helping to provide health care or childcare, doing a variety of different jobs in these communities because they're here legally and lawfully pursuant to our laws, that extension was the right thing to do. And it was bipartisan in nature. And I think many of my Republican colleagues who supported the resolution, and I congratulate Laura Gillum and Ayanna Pressley for their leadership, our fourth successful discharge petition in this Congress, shattering any record in the history of the United States House of Representatives, going all the way back to 1789, because we're going to continue to be committed to doing the right thing, no matter what it takes for the American people. So it was the right thing to do in this instance, but we have a broken immigration system, and we do need to fix it. And we should fix it in a comprehensive and bipartisan way. That's the right approach that should be taken. We've got ICE out of control, and we need immigration enforcement in this country that is fair and just and humane. And we need secure borders. And we continue to stand behind that principle as well. We need Donald Trump and the Republicans to exercise some willingness at some point to come to the table and, as opposed to weaponizing the issue of immigration, which they're now on the wrong side of in terms of public sentiment, so they're not even able to successfully do that anymore, actually partner with us to try to find a comprehensive solution to our broken immigration system, respecting the fact that we are a nation of laws and a nation of immigrants, as we approach our 250th birthday on July 4. Well, led by the Democratic Policy and Communications Committee, we're having those conversations right now as it relates to the articulation of a formal set of policies that will commit to enacting on behalf of the American people if we get the opportunity to govern in the majority, and to do so in partnership with our Senate colleagues led by Chuck Schumer. But it's anchored in several principles. We're going to focus on cost. We're going to focus on care. We're going to focus on combating corruption. And we believe we have to drive down the high cost of living in the United States of America. Donald Trump and Republicans have failed. In fact, it was Donald Trump that said he was going to lower costs on day one. Costs haven't gone down in America. Costs have gone up as a direct result of what Republicans have done. Gas prices out of control, housing costs out of control, health insurance premiums out of control, childcare costs out of control, utility bills out of control. The economy is a mess right now because of Donald Trump and Republicans. Life is too expensive. So we're committed, with the fierce urgency of now, driving down the high cost of living. We have to fix our broken healthcare system, because we believe in this great country of ours, that healthcare that is affordable and accessible can't simply be a privilege available only to the wealthy and the well-off. Access to high-quality healthcare that's affordable has got to be a right available to everyone. We've got to fix our broken healthcare system to bring that right to life. And we also will continue to talk about the need to combat corruption, starting with a stock trading ban for sitting members of Congress. We support that type of change. It's a long time incoming. We'll start there, but we won't stop there, because we have to confront corruption as it exists in the Congress, our own institution, in the Supreme Court, and certainly in dealing with the Trump cartel. We have an organized crime boss masquerading as the President of the United States of America, who's administered the largest pay-to-play scheme in the history of the world. It's an ongoing crime scene at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, and that corruption needs to be cleaned up, and we're prepared to do it. Thank you, everyone.