House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) held a press briefing on Friday moments after Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) failed in his effort to become speaker.
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00:00 Good afternoon. Welcome to month 10 of the House Republican Majority's chaos,
00:10 dysfunction and extremism. Let me begin by thanking President Biden for
00:18 demonstrating what leadership looks like here in America and for the free
00:25 world. President Biden has made clear that there is serious business that
00:32 needs to be done for the American people.
00:34 But in order for that to happen, we need the House of Representatives to
00:39 reopen so we can meet the needs of the American people domestically and in
00:46 terms of our national security interests so that we can stand by
00:52 Israel in its time of need. Stand by Ukraine in its time of need. Stand by
01:01 our allies throughout the world. Provide humanitarian assistance to
01:07 civilians in Gaza who may be in harm's way
01:11 and reach a spending agreement so we can keep the government open, avoid a
01:19 shutdown
01:21 and continue to solve problems on behalf of everyday Americans.
01:24 House Democrats continue to make clear that we are willing to find a
01:34 bipartisan path forward so we can reopen the house and solve problems
01:40 for hard working American taxpayers. It's time for traditional Republicans
01:49 to get off the sidelines, get in the arena, realize that the chaos,
01:56 dysfunction and extremism has to end. And the only way to do it
02:01 is to figure out how we can partner in a bipartisan fashion
02:07 to reopen the house
02:09 and govern in a reasonable, common sense way. It's time for House
02:16 Republicans
02:18 to embrace bipartisanship and abandon extremism once and for all. That is
02:26 your only way out
02:28 of the House Republican chaos and dysfunction. Embrace bipartisanship
02:35 and abandon extremism. Questions.
02:39 Thank you, Mr Leader. As we know, President Biden sent up this foreign
02:46 aid package. How concerned are you about moving that forward? Not just
02:51 because of the lack of a speaker, but also given some Republican opposition
02:55 to additional funding for Ukraine. And what kinds of conversations are you
02:59 having now to try to shore up support? So it's kind of ready to tee up
03:02 whenever all this gets resolved. But when the house reopens, I'm confident
03:06 that the votes exist
03:11 in combination between House Republicans and House Democrats to
03:16 support a national security package to meet the needs of the American people
03:20 and the free world. But we have to get the house reopened. Now it's my
03:24 expectation that the Senate will begin to act on President Biden's national
03:29 security package sooner rather than later. But if the house is not reopened,
03:35 then it will stall unnecessarily and lives will be jeopardized. This is a
03:41 serious situation,
03:43 which is why the chaos and the dysfunction has to come to an end.
03:47 It's not my understanding that you have several
03:52 extreme mega Republicans on the other side of the aisle who are saying they
03:57 will only ever vote for Jim Jordan. And if that in fact is the case, it's in
04:04 an additional data point that there is only one way out a bipartisan path
04:13 forward
04:14 to arrive at
04:16 a reasonable arrangement
04:19 to embrace common ground and common sense on behalf of the American people.
04:25 I take your point about the bipartisan path, but there is some school of
04:29 thought that McHenry should just try it out, see if you can put a resolution
04:33 forward, see if the parliamentarian stops him. Do you think that that's a
04:36 method that he should explore? You know, in the aftermath of the September 11th
04:41 tragedy, this mechanism was put in place for the designation of an acting
04:50 speaker pro tem whose sole responsibility was to organize the
04:56 house in the context of a speaker election
05:00 that was done under a House Republican majority
05:05 with bipartisan votes on the Democratic side of the aisle as well. And so it's
05:13 clear
05:13 that
05:15 acting speaker pro tem McHenry's authority is simply to preside over an
05:23 election for a permanent speaker. The only other alternative is for the House
05:29 to act together in a bipartisan way to elevate a speaker pro tem.
05:35 That doesn't have to be Patrick McHenry. There are many good men and women on
05:42 the Republican side of the aisle. I believe a patriotic. They care about
05:47 America. They care about our democracy. They care about the communities that
05:52 they represent, who would be reasonable individuals to consider. But there's
05:57 going to have to be a move on the Republican side of the aisle to make a
06:02 decision
06:02 to break with the extremists who are tearing the Republican conference
06:10 apart. It's a mess on the other side of the aisle. And the problem is the
06:16 American people are paying the price.
06:18 It goes without saying right now that the house is pretty dysfunctional.
06:23 The House Republican conference is dysfunctional. The House Democratic
06:28 Caucus is unified. When a new speaker is elected at some point, what is this
06:34 dysfunction that you've been seeing? How does that vote for the ability to
06:37 pass supplemental appropriation bills? Are you concerned about our message to
06:42 our Republican colleagues is that we need to reopen the house so that we can
06:46 do things like
06:47 make sure there's child care funding for working families, middle class
06:52 families and low income families. We need to reopen the house so we can
06:56 ensure that the affordable broadband connectivity program that provides
07:03 access to people all across the country in urban America, rural America,
07:07 suburban America, small town America, the middle of America, the heartland
07:13 of America and Appalachia has access to affordable Internet service. We need to
07:21 reopen the House of Representatives so that we can provide additional
07:25 disaster relief to Americans all across the country in blue states, purple
07:31 states and red states whose lives have been devastated by extreme weather
07:37 events. We need to reopen the house to solve problems for hardworking American
07:43 taxpayers and House Democrats continue to say we are willing to do that in a
07:49 bipartisan fashion because clearly the votes do not exist in the House
07:54 Republican conference alone to elect a speaker. House Republicans rejected
08:00 McCarthy House Republicans rejected Scalise House Republicans rejected
08:06 Jordan House Republicans have apparently rejected McHenry. This can
08:12 only be done in a bipartisan fashion and with serious about partnering with
08:19 House Republicans in a reasonable way to do the business of the American people.
08:23 Go back to the side and then come back to me.
08:26 Thank you. Um, with how the Democrat require concession from Congressman
08:31 McCamery in order to like
08:32 here.
08:33 Yeah, we have not discussed concessions because our view is that we want a
08:40 partnership in the best interests of the American people that simply requires
08:46 the house to reopen and function in a bipartisan way so that bills that we
08:51 know have support from Republicans and Democrats get up or down votes on the
08:58 House floor and can't be blocked by a marauding band of extremists on the
09:05 hard right. That's all we want. That's a reasonable ask. Can we govern in a
09:12 bipartisan way to solve problems for the American people? So it's not about
09:16 the individual. It's about the interests of everyday Americans. It's
09:20 about the integrity of our institution, which House Republicans have broken at
09:27 this moment.
09:27 Two questions. One, have you heard from any Republicans today on this choice
09:33 resolution or anything of the sort to do you need a guarantee from them that
09:37 they will bring the White House supplemental up for a vote before you
09:41 guys support any kind of resolution like that?
09:44 Well, common sense suggests to me that if we are going to reopen the house, it
09:49 should be done so that the pressing business of the American people is
09:53 before us, and that would include the national security issues presented by
09:59 President Biden for Congress's consideration so we can be there for
10:05 Israel and its right to defend itself against Hamas is terror for Ukraine.
10:13 And the courageous struggle to defeat Vladimir Putin and Russian aggression
10:19 for our allies in the Indo Pacific
10:22 for Palestinian civilians who are in harm's way and for other parts of the
10:28 free world. It's also important that we reopen the house so that, uh, we can
10:34 pass an end of year spending agreement that meets the needs of the American
10:39 people, consistent with the bipartisan Fiscal Responsibility Act that was
10:44 passed
10:45 at the end of May and negotiated by House Republicans with President Biden
10:51 with more than 300 members of the Congress supporting it in a bipartisan
10:58 way. We're asking House Republicans simply to do one thing with respect to
11:03 avoiding a government shutdown and funding the government by the end of the
11:06 year.
11:08 Stick to the agreement that you negotiated and supported as a majority
11:15 at the end of May. These are common sense things. And if there's an
11:21 agreement to move forward and consider these common sense pieces of
11:26 legislation, then I think there's a clear bipartisan path in order to
11:31 reopen the house to solve problems for hardworking American taxpayers.
11:35 I have not.
11:37 Yeah.
11:38 Do you plan to talk to Republicans about a path forward? Are you waiting
11:42 for them to call you? No, there have been ongoing conversations
11:46 this past weekend and throughout the week, member to member
11:51 about coming to an enlightened agreement to reopen the house because
11:58 my Republican colleagues understand that they have to find a way to end the
12:06 GOP chaos in the GOP dysfunction in the GOP extremism and in the House
12:13 Republican Civil War. It's bad for the House Republican Conference, but more
12:18 importantly, it's bad for the Congress. It's bad for the country. It's bad for
12:22 the communities that all of us took an oath to fiercely represent
12:28 when you say member to member discussions, you're talking about
12:32 within the Democratic Caucus or Democrats talking one on one with
12:35 Republicans, Democrats and Republicans having conversations with each other.
12:39 Does that involve leadership? I have not had any conversations with the
12:43 other side of the aisle. A leader to talk to is gonna have to emerge in
12:49 order for that to occur.
12:50 If anything,
12:52 well, the conversations that have been ongoing and in some ways have
12:59 intensified throughout the week have been serious and I've been briefed on
13:04 every single one of them.
13:05 And it involves different parts of the House Republican Conference because, as
13:12 we can see on the House floor, there are different parts of the House
13:18 Republican Conference who have rejected the extremism of Jim Jordan.
13:24 And so
13:25 conversations hopefully will intensify today, perhaps continue throughout the
13:33 weekend and get us to a place where we can reopen the house no later than
13:39 Monday of next week. Thank you, everyone. It's possible.
13:43 Possible.
13:44 Hope brings eternal from your mouth.
13:51 (laughing)