CNN "The Situation Room" - Transcript: Interview With New York Congressman Hakeem Jeffries

Interview

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ACOSTA: All right.

CNN's Boris Sanchez, thank you very much.

Let's get more on all of this with Democratic Congressman Hakeem Jeffries of New York, a member of the Judiciary Committee.

Congressman, let's start first with these developments surrounding Roger Stone. It looks like Robert Mueller is starting to focus on Stone, a longtime confidant of President Trump. He's trying to talk to all these various people connected to Roger Stone.

Do you believe Stone is a key witness in all of this?

REP. HAKEEM JEFFRIES (D), NEW YORK: Well, it certainly appears so.

And what may be the case is that Roger Stone is the key to the triangular relationship that apparently existed between WikiLeaks, the Trump campaign, and Russian spies that resulted in hacked and leaked information being used to undermine the Clinton campaign, to the benefit of Donald Trump, all part of what appears to be a conspiracy to sell out our democracy and artificially place Donald Trump at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

[18:10:17]

And it would come to no surprise -- as no surprise to anyone if Roger Stone was at the center of it all.

ACOSTA: And Roger Stone tells CNN, Congressman, he still has not been contacted by the Mueller team. What does that tell you? That doesn't necessarily mean that he's not a target.

JEFFRIES: He may be a subject, he may be a target, and the fact that he hasn't been contacted by the Mueller team may actually indicate that he is in serious jeopardy, because what often takes place, as you know, Jim, is that the individuals who are targets of an investigation are the last ones to be contacted, as the noose tightens around them.

And that apparently is the case here. This is all an example of the culture of corruption that we have seen invade Washington, D.C., since January 20 of 2017, the moment that Donald Trump was inaugurated. And it's a shame.

ACOSTA: And, Congressman, I want to move on to the -- it's been one year now since this white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, those terrible pictures that we're showing now that we all have burned into our consciousness.

At the time, President Trump said that there were very fine people on both sides. As you know, we all know that he said that at the time. Do you think that this president understands the threat posed by the white supremacist movement in this country?

And do you want to hear from him before these rallies get started this weekend to say that these folks should not be doing what they're doing?

JEFFRIES: We should absolutely here from the president of the United States of America. But I have no expectation that we will hear from someone who was appropriately characterized as the birther in chief, someone who has never hesitated to fan the flames of racial hatred in order to advance his own personal, political or professional ends.

This goes all the way back to the 1970s, when the Trump Organization was sued by the Nixon Justice Department for racially discriminating against black and Latino housing applicants. And then, of course, in the late 1980s, it was Donald Trump who led the lynch mob against the Central Park 5, individuals, black and Latino, who were wrongfully charged, wrongfully accused, wrongfully convicted, wrongfully imprisoned for a crime that they did not commit.

And Donald Trump continues to double and triple down on that malicious prosecution. And then, of course, the five years perpetrating the racist lie that Barack Obama was not born in the United States of America.

And then it continued into his administration, particularly as it relates to the horrendous response to what took place in Charlottesville.

We continue our hearts to go out to the family of Heather Heyer as it relates to that tragedy. Moral leadership from the president would be nice, but, based on what we have seen throughout his entire life journey, I don't expect it.

ACOSTA: And let's turn to another topic which is getting a lot of attention during these next few months with the midterms right there on the horizon.

If the Democratic Party wins the majority in the House of Representatives this November, would you support Nancy Pelosi for another term as speaker of the House? Congressman, as you know, her face, her name is popping up in all of these campaign ads across the country.

Republicans were using her as sort of a weapon against their Democratic opponents in these races. Would you support Nancy Pelosi for another term?

JEFFRIES: Yes, I strongly support Nancy Pelosi and the leadership team that's currently in place.

And Nancy Pelosi led us into the majority, the promised land back in 2006, and I think she's on the cusp along with the entire House Democratic Caucus of doing that again.

The reason why the Republicans continue to run negative ads against Nancy Pelosi is because they have no affirmative agenda. Democrats stand for the people. They stand for the wealthy, the well-off, the mega-corporations, the special lobbyists, as evidenced by their Republican tax scam, where 83 percent of the benefits went to the wealthiest 1 percent.

If you have no agenda, and the singular piece of legislation that you passed was actually have no benefit to everyday Americans, but helped to subsidize the lifestyles of the rich and shameless, then all you're going to do is go negative against Nancy Pelosi. It's not going to work in November.

ACOSTA: Congressman, did you see that President Trump just tweeted his support for Nancy Pelosi? Does that worry you?

This is the tweet up on the screen right now. He says: "Democrats, please do not distance yourself from Nancy Pelosi."

He thinks -- obviously, he thinks this hurt your party.

JEFFRIES: Well, it's possible, Jim, that he's actually watching the show right now, even though he claims not to watch CNN.

ACOSTA: That's probably true.

JEFFRIES: Because that is in direct response to my support and I think what will be significant support.

Listen, Nancy Pelosi is a legislative mastermind. She's done a tremendous job. We're going to be united and focused on delivering for the American people as we move forward lower health care costs, increased pay.

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We're in the midst of wage stagnation right now. We don't have an unemployment problem. Thank you, Barack Obama. But we do have an underemployment problem, where too many Americans are working multiple jobs, often dead-end, not able to provide a comfortable living for their families.

We got a whole host of issues that we have to deal with. Democrats have an agenda for the people. Donald Trump is going to continue to try to distract us with his unnecessary attacks. We're not going to take the bait.

ACOSTA: And just quickly, Congressman, you have been mentioned as a possible contender to lead the House Democratic Caucus. Is that something you're going to pursue? Can you make some news here and tell us that you're going to be going for that position?

JEFFRIES: Well, we will see what happens post-November. But as I have indicated, I think now is not the time for us to engage in a leadership fight, a circular firing squad, when we're in the midst of an existential threat to our democracy in the singular figure of Donald Trump.

We have a reality show host running around the Oval Office masquerading as president of the United States.

ACOSTA: But wouldn't you like to see some younger -- some younger blood in the leadership ranks?

JEFFRIES: Well, I think that...

ACOSTA: Like yourself?

JEFFRIES: Well, Jim, well, I think there will be opportunity for fresher, younger, newer members of the caucus, so to speak, to continue to play a meaningful role in the House Democratic Caucus.

And, in fact, that opportunity was afforded to myself and several others, David Cicilline and Cheri Bustos. Ben Ray Lujan is doing a tremendous job and many others. And I think you will continue to see all of us who are new and recent arrivals to the United States Congress continue to contribute as best we can.

ACOSTA: OK, Congressman Hakeem Jeffries, we had to try.

Thank you very much for joining us. We appreciate it. Good talking to you.

JEFFRIES: Thank you, Jim.

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