LEADER JEFFRIES ON MSNBC: "WE'RE TEAM REASONABLE AND WE'RE DEALING WITH TEAM EXTREME"

Press Release

BRZEZINSKI: Joining us here in Washington we have Leader of the Democratic Caucus, Congressman Hakeem Jeffries of New York. Also new to the table, Washington Bureau Chief for USA Today, Susan Page is with us and White House Editor for Politico, Sam Stein.

SCARBOROUGH: Leader Jeffries, great to have you here. I want to ask you, you know, we talk about a lot of different issues here, issues that most likely people are going to be voting about next year, has to do the economy, got some inflationary pressures, it's going down some. But the jobs numbers just exploding, we had an explosive jobs numbers report. Where is this economy and is it doing as well as the job numbers suggest? And if so, why don't Americans feel it?

JEFFRIES: Well, good morning Joe, great to be with you. Great to be with you, Mika. I think that one, President Biden has done a tremendous job under very difficult circumstances. This economy has emerged from COVID stronger than any other economy in the developed world. It doesn't mean that we don't have challenges. Of course we do. But when you think about it, more than 13 million good-paying jobs have been created during the Biden administration. That is a record. Unemployment, I think, has now been under 4% for 16 consecutive months--

SCARBOROUGH: And by the way, sorry, we look inward, you compare our numbers to the rest of the world. You compare our numbers to Europe. They're really good.

JEFFRIES: That's great. That's exactly correct. But we, of course, still have challenges. We have to fight to lower costs. We-you know-we are going to continue to fight to make sure that there's economic opportunity in every single zip code. The president's committed to that. He, of course, is committed to building an economy that works for everyday Americans from the middle out and the bottom up. And that's what the election I think is going to be about. But he's got an incredibly strong track record of success to build upon and just helped to avert a manufactured default crisis that would have hurt everyday Americans.

SCARBOROUGH: How did that come about?

JEFFRIES: Well, I think from the very beginning, you know, President Biden had made clear we won't default. Senate Democrats made clear we won't default. House Democrats made clear we won't default. And we understood that the consequences of that would have been catastrophic. What was challenging is that there were some extreme MAGA Republicans in the Congress who made the political calculation that yeah, if we default, it will crash the economy.

SCARBOROUGH: They got rolled though, didn't they? Like we always talk about the extremists, the wackos, the freaks who say the most offensive things, that they carry around guns in photos, threatening other members who pose with their children, all these extremists that we pay so much attention to. They ended up legislatively getting crushed. What does that say?

JEFFRIES: Well, hopefully it's a blueprint for the future. But, of course, it took leadership to bring that about because we were in a hostage-taking situation. You know, there were extreme MAGA Republicans who basically said, you know what? We can use the threat of default to try to extract painful, deep cuts that we know we can't otherwise achieve through the normal legislative process, because we know that Democrats, President Biden, folks in the House and the Senate, we're Team Reasonable, we're Team Normal, we're Team Get Stuff Done. And we're dealing with Team Extreme who might just be willing to default and crash the economy. But President Biden found the path. He held the line, but then defended these basic principles that were important to us while, you know, finding a way, finding enough common ground to get something done.

ROBINSON: In the end, there were 314 votes for the debt ceiling bill in the House, which is pretty extraordinary. I mean, this is like the most bipartisan thing I've seen out of the House of Representatives in a long time. Roughly the same number of Democratic and Republican votes, around 150 or so. I mean, I think a few more Democrats maybe. How did that--

JEFFRIES: 165. But who's counting?

ROBINSON: So, how did that come about in terms of your relationship with Speaker McCarthy and in terms of getting a lot of Democrats to vote for stuff that, you know, they weren't that wild about? I mean, tell us other how that worked.

JEFFRIES: Well, you know, clearly there were a few skirmishes. And in some areas where there was concern whether that was in the permitting space or around the SNAP program, although the Biden administration did a tremendous job of negotiating, you know, a resolution that actually, because of the increased exemptions related to veterans or people who are homeless or people who are aging out of foster care, that actually more people will be eligible for SNAP, not less. So that was good. But I think we basically took the position that we'll allow everyone to evaluate the resolution on the merits, make sure that there's real engagement between the administration and House Democrats every step of the way, including when a resolution had been reached, and then allow people to make their evaluation based on the four corners of the resolution. And when that happened, I think people concluded averting a default was incredibly important. Protecting Social Security and Medicare and Medicaid and veterans and education and public safety and protecting the American people against these draconian, dramatic, across the board 22% cuts-that was incredibly important. And taking us out of this hostage situation for the balance of this Congress by suspending the debt ceiling until the early part of 2025. That was important. And as a result, we got a strong Democratic vote. Those who voted against it also voted out of principle, objection to the hostage-taking moment that we ran. What was important is everyone supported President Biden's leadership.

GEIST: Leader Jeffries, good morning. Good to see you. So after this deal was put together, after the president signed the legislation, he took great pains to thank Speaker McCarthy, to talk about the spirit of bipartisanship that he actually ran on during the presidential campaign of 2020. It sounds this morning with your labeling of Republicans, a team extreme, that that spirit may have dissipated already. But do you take anything away from that process with hopes that more things can be done on a bipartisan basis? Or was that a one-off because the stakes were so high for the economy.

JEFFRIES: Well it was definitely not a one off. And I think what we've seen going back to the last Congress, through this Congress, is that we'll continue to take the following approach, which is to say we're going to find common ground whenever and wherever possible with the other side of the aisle for the good of the American people. That's what we as Democrats do. We want to advance the ball for everyday Americans to do that. Often, particularly in divided government, you've got to find common ground. But at the same time, as we said from the very beginning of this Congress, we're going to push back against extremism whenever necessary. We can strike that balance. And if you think about the track record of success under the Biden administration, Bipartisan Infrastructure Agreement, bipartisan gun safety legislation, more needs to be done, but bipartisan gun safety legislation for the first time in 30 years, bipartisan CHIPS and Science Act to bring domestic manufacturing jobs back home to the United States of America, bipartisan reform of the Electoral Count Act, bipartisan legislation to make sure we respect the right to marriage for everyone and now a bipartisan resolution in saving our economy from a catastrophic default. That's a great track record of success that President Biden can now take to the American people. And Democrats will remain committed to finding that bipartisanship in the House whenever possible.

LEMIRE: Leader Jeffries, want to get your response, though, to a far more partisan endeavor, which is your Republican colleagues' efforts to investigate President Biden and his family. We heard from Congressman Comer in recent days just regarding, you know, what he said, you know, made clear that polls are what's driving some of this investigation. And now an effort from some Republicans to hold the FBI director in contempt. Can we get you to weigh in on that, sir?

JEFFRIES: Well, I think what we've seen is that individuals who pretend to be the party of law and order are really just a party of lawlessness and disorder. Joe's done a great job of pointing this out, you know, every step of the way. These are people who supported a violent insurrection, where there was an assault not just on the Capitol, but on Capitol Police officers, and then refused to recognize their service, their bravery, their valor. So, this is just part of that lawlessness and disorder that I think we've seen coming from far too many extreme MAGA Republicans on the other side of the aisle. They want to defund the FBI, they want to investigate FBI agents. Now they want to hold the FBI director in contempt. By the way, an FBI director that was appointed, nominated by Donald Trump.

PAGE: You know this one, you raised the debt- managed to raise the debt ceiling without defaulting. Congratulations on that. That was a test for President Biden, also a test for Speaker McCarthy. And there was some doubt beforehand that he could deliver his troops to do that and stay in office and avoid a motion to vacate the chair. What did you learn about Speaker McCarthy through this experience and what does it tell us about politics going forward?

JEFFRIES: Well, Kevin McCarthy and I have had a very good relationship from the beginning, and it's been an open and honest and communicative relationship. And that started back in November and will continue, I believe, as we continue through the rest of this Congress. I think we both concluded, yeah, there'll be a lot of times where we can agree to disagree, strongly disagree at times without- without being disagreeable, because, you know, for the good of the institution, for the good of House Democrats, House Republicans, most importantly for the good of the country, we should continue to find ways to work together in order to get things done. And that's been a commitment that I think Stephen McCarthy has had with me, certainly commitment that I've had with him, and one that I believe will sustain itself.

STEIN: You- you touched on what I think is kind of the central dichotomy of the Biden presidency, which is - and Kevin McCarthy said this, too - which is like, in private this guy's a deft negotiator. He's very good. He's tough. The public image of him doesn't always portray that, especially the Republican caricature of him does not always portray that. So, I'm wondering if you could, sort of, talk about that dichotomy. Obviously, poll after poll after poll shows that this president is not exciting the Democratic base. I think that's objectively true. May change, but it's true right now. At the same time, you've listed all these achievements. You've talked about how good he was in these negotiations. What does he have to do, what does the White House have to do to translate that success that you're laying out right here into something that's tangible, especially for the voters of his own party?

JEFFRIES: Well, I think as we get closer and closer to the presidential election of 2024 and the Biden administration and President Biden himself gets out on the campaign trail, takes his case to the American people, we'll see what alternative emerges on the other side, but it's going to be an extreme alternative. And he'll be able to point out that, you know, he's going to continue to build this economy that works for everyday Americans. He's going to fight for reproductive freedom because we believe in a woman's freedom to make her own reproductive health care decisions. The other side wants to criminalize abortion care and impose a nationwide ban. We actually believe in democracy. We want to protect and strengthen Social Security and Medicare. The other side wants to end those things as we know them today, and they will continue to try to do that. We believe that everyone should pay their fair share. President Biden continues to make that point. The other side, you know, is going to try to dramatically cut taxes for the wealthy, the well-off and the well-connected, as they did with the GOP tax scam. So, I think, once there is a clear alternative in terms of what's the other vision for moving the country forward, President Biden will have a track record and a vision that I think will be very compelling for the American people.

STEIN: So you're up against a choice for the opposition, and not a referendum on his own record.

JEFFRIES: Well, I think what we also saw during the midterm elections, where the expectation was that this would be a referendum that would result in a red wave for the other side of the aisle in 2022, once again, President Biden defied expectations. It was barely a red ripple when you think about it. We picked up a seat in the Senate, won governorships all across the Midwest and in Arizona, flipped legislative seats, including but not limited to in Michigan and in Pennsylvania. And the other side barely held on to the House of Representatives.

SCARBOROUGH: So this is so important, I think, for people to understand that don't know what goes on behind closed doors in Washington, D.C. Joe Biden, as you all have said, Joe Biden behind closed doors, negotiating, is as tough and as agile as any president I've ever heard of in negotiations.

JEFFRIES: Well I will say this, that President Biden is certainly an incredible leader, incredible negotiator, incredible strategist and he's strong, brilliant, understands nuance in those conversations. Some of whom that I was with him and the other legislative leaders and saw firsthand in a high-stakes circumstance. But also, if you think about perhaps President Biden's biggest moment in front of the American people this year, which was his State of the Union address, he delivered it delivered in a big way. And it wasn't just the script. He had to face a hostile crowd of people on the other side of the aisle and he faced them down, came off his script, did it spontaneously, and got them to publicly commit to take Social Security and Medicare off the table. Joe Biden at his finest, in a public way, and in a very high-stakes environment.

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