House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) held a press briefing on Monday where he spoke about President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris.
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NewsTranscript
00:00President Biden is a heroic, patriotic, transformational leader who will go down in American history
00:19as one of the greatest public servants of all time.
00:25When President Biden and Vice President Harris first took office on January 20th of 2021,
00:36the Biden-Harris team assumed a public health crisis, an economic crisis, and a democracy
00:44crisis in the immediate aftermath of January 6th at the same time.
00:51And thanks to the leadership of President Joe Biden and his partnership with Vice President
00:58Kamala Harris, they were able to rescue the country from a once-in-a-century pandemic
01:07and turn the situation around so we could return to normalcy.
01:11Thanks to the leadership of President Biden and his partnership with Vice President Harris,
01:18they were able to save the economy from a once-in-a-decade-or-so recession-like situation
01:30and set us on a positive path so that everyday Americans could thrive in every single zip
01:37code across America.
01:39Thanks to the leadership of President Biden and his partnership with Vice President Harris,
01:45dignity and decency and a democratic way of life was restored to the Oval Office and
01:561600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
01:58We owe a debt of gratitude to President Biden for his tremendous leadership, and I'm also
02:04thankful for the incredible partnership that he has had for the last three and a half years
02:11with Vice President Kamala Harris.
02:13Leader Jeffries, Leader Jeffries, Leader Jeffries.
02:15Leader Jeffries.
02:17Leader Jeffries.
02:19First, will you endorse Kamala Harris?
02:21And then I have one other question for you.
02:23Well, Leader Hsu and I are scheduled to meet with Vice President Harris shortly.
02:29The House came back into session today.
02:32The Senate does not come back into session tomorrow.
02:34I'm excited for that meeting.
02:38And let me say this, that Vice President Kamala Harris has excited the community.
02:45She's excited the House Democratic Caucus.
02:49And she's exciting the country.
02:52And so I'm looking forward to sitting down with her in person in short order with Leader
02:57Schumer, and we'll have more to say about the path forward as soon as that meeting can
03:02Leader Jeffries, Leader Jeffries, Leader Jeffries.
03:06Quick question.
03:08What does President Biden need to do these final few months to ease the path to help
03:13to, you know, while he's in office, to ease the path to make it easier for Democrats to
03:17flip the House and to keep the White House?
03:18Well, President Biden is going to continue to do his job.
03:23And he's put the country first.
03:25He's put the American people first.
03:28He's put hardworking American taxpayers first, which is what President Biden has always done.
03:35And as a result of his leadership, we've seen transformational change, fixing our crumbling
03:41bridges, roads, tunnels, airports, our sewer and water systems, rescuing the economy from
03:46the once-in-a-century pandemic, gun safety legislation for the first time in 30 years,
03:51standing up for our veterans, bringing domestic manufacturing jobs back home to the country,
03:56and passing the Inflation Reduction Act, which is the largest investment in combating
04:01the climate crisis in the history of the world.
04:02We still have more work to do.
04:04We still have to lower costs.
04:06We still have to end price gouging.
04:08We have to continue to grow the middle class, defend democracy, and fight for reproductive
04:12freedom.
04:14President Biden will continue to do that job, along with Vice President Harris and Democrats
04:19in the House and the Senate.
04:20What, you know, this has been a few weeks of very intense discussions about Biden being
04:27at the top of the ticket.
04:28What light can you shed to the American public about the concerns that you conveyed to the
04:33president about staying on the top of the ticket?
04:36It's a private conversation with President Joe Biden that will remain private.
04:40Mr. Leader, I mean, there has been a lot of reporting about what was said and wasn't.
04:45So just for the record, can you just be clear, did you ever tell the president that he could
04:50hurt Democrats' chances at taking back the majority if he stayed in the race?
04:53And secondly, secondly, what do you say to those, whether it's Ron Klain or congressional
04:59Republicans, who claim that Democratic Party leaders or elected officials pushed the president
05:04out?
05:05President Joe Biden is a heroic, patriotic, and transformational figure.
05:12And he will go down in history as one of the greatest public servants of all time.
05:15That much is clear.
05:18I had a private conversation with President Biden to express the perspectives that were
05:23wide-ranging of the House Democratic Caucus.
05:27That conversation will remain private.
05:29In terms of my Republican colleagues, former President Donald Trump and extreme-mega-Republicans
05:35are having a meltdown right now, a complete and total meltdown.
05:40Why?
05:41Because their presidential nominee is unpopular.
05:45Extreme-mega-Republican policies are unpopular, including trying to impose a nationwide abortion
05:52ban on the American people.
05:54And their Project 2025 is unpopular.
05:57They're having a meltdown right now.
05:59All we want to do as Democrats is have a debate about moving the country forward and continuing
06:06to put people over politics.
06:09Mr. President, can you speak for just a moment to what the concerns you were hearing from
06:14members in swing districts who were concerned about the president possibly dragging down
06:19ballot and how this potentially changes that equation by changing the top of the table?
06:23That's what we're looking forward to.
06:25We are going to do everything we need to do as House Democrats to win back control of
06:30the House of Representatives and vacate the extreme-mega-Republican majority on November
06:365th.
06:37Mr. President, when is that meeting today, tomorrow?
06:41We're waiting on Leader Schumer to get back into town, as well as to get exact confirmation
06:47from Vice President Harris.
06:48Mr. President?
06:49Thanks.
06:51You just said that she's exciting the community, that coming to the White House is exciting
06:52the House Democratic Caucus.
06:53Can you speak to what particularly excites the caucus about her versus the president?
06:59Well, we're looking at a frame of change versus the status quo.
07:04Moving the country forward versus Donald Trump and the extreme-mega-Republicans who
07:08want to turn back the clock.
07:11Defending freedom, like a woman's freedom to make her own reproductive health care decisions
07:15versus the nationwide abortion ban that Donald Trump and the extreme-mega-Republicans want
07:20to jam down the throats of the American people.
07:23We're looking at building an economy from the middle out and the bottom up that works
07:28for everyday Americans versus the extreme-mega-Republican plans and Donald Trump's plans to drive the
07:34economy forward.
07:35We're looking at a big tax cut down the throats of the American people that benefit the wealthy,
07:39the well-off, and the well-connected.
07:40Last question.
07:41Last question.
07:42Last question.
07:43Last question.
07:44I'm looking forward and excited for the meeting that we will have in short order with Vice
07:49President Kamala Harris.
07:50Thank you, everyone.
07:52Peter Deverick, on a personal level?