Greg Sargent: This is The Daily Blast from The New Republic, produced and presented by the DSR network. I’m your host, Greg Sargent.
Hakeem Jeffries: Great to be with you.
Jeffries: Well, two things are occurring here. One, Donald Trump continues to crash the American economy in real time. He’s increasing costs when he promised to lower costs on the American people, and that will continue. In fact, Donald Trump and the reckless Republicans in the House of Representatives are actually driving us toward a recession that is going to hurt everyday Americans all across the country.
Sargent: Well, the tariffs are continuing in some sense, as you point out, and there’s a very decent chance that they’ll come back in 90 days because he’s pretty erratic. And now, House Speaker Mike Johnson is using a procedural maneuver to prevent a vote terminating the national emergency that Trump has declared to justify imposing these global tariffs unilaterally. Johnson’s move prevents this vote from being privileged, which would have meant that it has to go to the floor. He doesn’t want that to happen. What’s your reaction to that, Leader Jeffries?
In fact, the Trump tariffs would represent the largest tax increase on the American people since 1968 and will cost the average American family at least $3,800 a year in additional costs. This is why we believe that there are a handful of Republicans who would partner with Democrats in strong opposition to these tariffs—which is why Mike Johnson is now using these procedural gimmicks to try to prevent an up-or-down vote. But we’re not going to relent, and we will get an up-or-down vote. We’ll fight to make sure we get that sooner rather than later so Congress can step in to try to end this mess.
Jeffries: It’s my expectation that we will use every tool available, including the possibility in the near future of a discharge petition. Right now, we’re sorting through the different options. We can turn off these fake emergencies that Trump is using to justify his unilateral imposition on tariffs. That’s one legislative approach. We can also require Congress to approve any tariffs that go into effect. That’s another legislative approach, and that has bipartisan support as well. We could also clarify that Trump’s power to declare these national emergencies [doesn’t] generally exist, or severely restrict it. That’s a different, potential third legislative approach. So one of the things that we’re doing over the next few days in conversation with a handful of our Republican colleagues is try to figure out which approach would garner the most significant support—so that if we were to go down the road of a discharge petition, we can be successful.
Jeffries: We would need a discharge petition to get that vote in the absence of a decision by some Republicans to force Speaker Johnson to bring the bill to the floor through the Rules Committee or through what we call the suspension process where two-thirds of the Congress could vote to suspend the rules and enact a law where there’s strong bipartisan support. So there are some options now. We’ve set the stage for the use of a discharge petition through Congressman Jim McGovern having introduced legislation earlier in the year that could ripen and give us the opportunity to actually launch a discharge petition in this area this month.
Jeffries: I’ve consistently spoken to him more generally about the need for Congress to actually reassert itself in a situation where Donald Trump and his administration continue to do real damage to everyday Americans, to families, to children, to veterans, to the American way of life. I most recently spoke to Speaker Johnson—about a day ago indicating to him, on the Republican budget, Look, let’s have a one-on-one debate on the floor of the House, where he can articulate the Republican position, which, in our view, is to pass a reckless budget that would visit upon the American people the largest Medicaid cut in American history in order to pay for massive tax breaks for their billionaire donors like Elon Musk, and I’ll have the opportunity to defend the Democratic vision for building an affordable economy that makes life better for everyday Americans.
Sargent: Has he indicated to you his view of whether Trump should have these authorities? Is there any indication whatsoever that he’s willing to act in that direction to limit those?
Sargent: I want to get your reaction to a quote from Trump. He was speaking at an NRCC event and apparently talking about the midterm elections. Here’s what he said.
Sargent: Leader Jeffries, are Republicans going to be helped in the midterms by these tariffs?
So Republicans promised to try to deal with that issue. We’re committed to doing it as House Democrats. But instead, this year, we haven’t seen a single bill, a single executive order, a single administrative action designed to lower costs. Instead, costs aren’t going down; they’re going up. Inflation’s going up, and part of it is a result of these reckless Trump tariffs. So I think what we’re seeing all across the country in special election after special election after special election—most recently in Wisconsin—is that Democratic voters are energized, and swing voters are moving in our direction, which is resulting in decisive Republican defeats in state after state after state. There’s no reason to believe that that is not going to continue throughout the rest of this year into the midterm election next year.
Jeffries: Yeah, well, it’s not simply the fallout from the tariffs—but that is just the most recent outrage. What we’ve seen is an attack on our economy, an attack on health care, an attack on nutritional assistance, an attack by Trump and the Republicans on Social Security of all things, an attack on public schools, an attack on our veterans, and an attack on the American way of life and democracy itself. The totality of all of that—and it hasn’t even been 100 days—we think is going to be an overwhelming anchor on the Republican efforts to hold seats that otherwise might not be as competitive.
Sargent: Well, on top of all the stuff you mentioned, Republicans are also gearing up to cut Medicaid by hundreds of billions of dollars. You have a number of House Republicans going through the motions of making noises in opposition to this. The thing is, though, these are Republicans who tend to have their own brands. They’re pretty good at putting on these airs of independence from Trump. What are Democrats going to do to make sure they can’t get away with that? Are we going to see some new type of communication from you guys, something maybe a little different from previous cycles? What’s in the works?
So we’re taking town hall meetings into these Republican districts. That’s an effort that’s being led by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. It’s been successful so far. We’re partnering with Democratic senators and, in some cases, governors and certainly local elected leaders and officials on the ground. Those will continue. Republicans are running away from these town hall meetings. They can try to run but we’re not going to let them hide. And when they don’t show up, we will—so that they are held accountable. These are the type of efforts that will continue.
Sargent: Leader Jeffries, you have some Democrats out there that are taking a middle-ground approach to messaging about some of these tariffs. You’ve got them saying things like, Well, Trump actually has a point in certain ways; he’s right in certain ways. What’s your position on this? Does that get a little mealy-mouthed, and does it undercut what should be the Democratic message, which is that this is just an unqualified disaster—period?
That’s not this moment. What we have is a president taking a wrecking ball, a sledgehammer, and a chainsaw to the economy and everything that matters. And that, of course, is going to continue to require strong and principled opposition and righteous indignation to just the recklessness and irresponsibility of it all.
Jeffries: Well, absolutely. There’s a time and place to have what we would all view as a more nuanced discussion, understanding and respecting the fact that our allies in many instances, particularly those in organized labor, do have a point when it comes to how targeted tariffs can be used. But we’re not in a position right now to actually govern in an enlightened way, because the other side is totally and completely out of control and not interested in actually enacting public policy in any meaningful way. So certainly, our view as House Democratic leadership is that at this moment, what we’ve got to do is stop these reckless Trump tariffs dead in their tracks so we can eventually get to a place where we can have a real discussion about building an affordable economy that brings the American dream to life for every single person in this country.
Jeffries: It is an all-hands-on-deck effort that is going to require a multidimensional approach. Now we understand that in order to reach the broadest number of Americans who may not be following the day-to-day goings-on in Washington or even what’s coming out of the White House on a regular basis, that whether they can pay their bills, and who’s actually trying to look out for them in terms of making their life better, has and always will be a central concern. But at the same time, we are seeing an extraordinary assault on the American way of life, on the rule of law, and on our democracy. And that, of course, is going to require an intense and continuing response.
In some spaces, it’s been captioned Jeffries v. Trump. But it really is the people versus Donald Trump because this is the type of action that we’ll need to continue to take related to matters that concern government of the people, by the people, and for the people, democracy, the rule of law, and the American way of life. That’s going to continue. And we’re going to keep our foot on the gas pedal while at the same time, of course, speaking to issues related to the economic well-being of the American people; defending Medicaid and health care; defending [against] the assaults on Social Security; making sure they can’t take food out of the mouths of children, which is what they’re trying to do with this reckless Republican budget to pay for tax cuts for Elon Musk and their billionaire puppet masters. That’s crazy. This is what they are trying to do right now in real time. So we’re going to have to continue to stand up to all the things—and that, of course, will include protecting the rule of law.
Jeffries: It’s definitely not my view that we have lost the immigration debate, and so as a result of that, we’ve got to stand down. In fact, I was at a meeting earlier today with Democrats across the ideological spectrum—progressives and New Dems and one or two Blue Dogs—where we were talking about how we can make clear to the American people what we stand for on these issues and what we will stand against. And so, from our standpoint—listen, we understand that we have to secure the border. The American people—a racially diverse group of American people, socioeconomically diverse group of American people—want us to secure the border, we’ve got to do it.
Sargent: Leader Jeffries, thank you so much for coming on with us. Great discussion. We really appreciate your time.
Sargent: You’ve been listening to The Daily Blast with me, your host, Greg Sargent. The Daily Blast is a New Republic podcast and is produced by Riley Fessler and the DSR Network.
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