NBC "Meet the Press" - Transcript: Interview Rep. Hakeem Jeffries
Interview
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REP. HAKEEM JEFFRIES:
Good morning, Chuck.
CHUCK TODD:
I want to start with what Republican Congressman Justin Amash laid out as his principal conclusions for reading the Mueller report in that infamous tweet storm last week, he said, "President Trump indeed engaged in impeachable conduct." And he believed that Attorney General Bill Barr, "Deliberately misrepresented" the Mueller report. Do you agree with Congressman Amash's two principal conclusions?
REP. HAKEEM JEFFRIES:
Well, I certainly think there's reason to believe that there was obstruction of justice. The Mueller report laid out ten different instances that we need to look into separately as part of our investigation as to what may have taken place. And it certainly appears to be the case that the so-called attorney general intentionally misrepresented the conclusions of the Mueller report as part of an effort to fool the American people. We won't let that stand either.
CHUCK TODD:
Well, if that's the case then why aren't you ready to start impeachment hearings? You, you, you're referring to an attorney general as a so-called. He is the confirmed attorney general. I think he even had a Democrat or two I think vote for him if I'm not mistaken. But if this is the case then why aren't you for starting impeachment now?
REP. HAKEEM JEFFRIES:
Well, Democrats can sing and dance at the same time just like Beyoncé. We have to keep our focus primarily on our "For the People" agenda which, we've been working on lowering health care costs, strengthening the Affordable Care Act, protecting people with pre-existing conditions, driving down the high cost of life-saving prescription drugs. These are all areas where we've passed legislation this month. At the same time, we recognize in the new majority that the House is a separate and coequal branch of government. We don't work for Donald Trump. We work for the American people. We have a constitutional responsibility to serve as a check and balance on a potentially out of control executive branch. But we will not overreach. We will not over-investigate. We will not over-politicize that responsibility. We'll proceed as Speaker Pelosi has eloquently laid out methodically yet aggressively to get to the truth.
CHUCK TODD:
Is it possible though you're making a political calculation about impeachment and then that in itself is actually something to, I mean, I opened my, my monologue here about the Iraq war debate. And Democrats, many of them, were convinced to make a political decision in the fall of '02 that down the road they would regret. What seemed like good politics in the moment, so in this case not impeaching seems like the right politics of that moment. How do you know that? And how do you know that isn't going to be bad politics five years from now?
REP. HAKEEM JEFFRIES:
Well, the only way to proceed is to make sure that politics don't dictate a decision to impeach or politics don't dictate a decision not to impeach. We need to follow the facts. We need to apply the law. We need to make sure that the constitution is the guiding principle in terms of the way forward. The Judiciary Committee, for instance, has indicated through our chairman, Jerry Nadler, that we will conduct hearings on obstruction of justice, we will conduct hearings on abuse of power, we will conduct hearings on the culture of corruption that appears to exist at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. But we are, in fact gathering mode right now. At the same time, we're going to continue to work on issues of importance to the American people. That's what we promised that we would work on should we win the majority. Now that we're in the majority we have to work to make life better for every day Americans and that's what we're going to continue to do.
CHUCK TODD:
Do you worry, though, you talked about this, the various investigations that are going on. You're doing obstruction of justice, you're investigating abuse of power, you're looking at his financial records. Do you understand why maybe the country just looks like, it looks like Democrats are throwing subpoenas up against the wall to see what sticks? Why is there not a focus, laser-like focus, for instance, on the Mueller report?
REP. HAKEEM JEFFRIES:
Well you have a variety of different committees of jurisdiction who have important work to do. But with respect to the Mueller report, we have indicated that we want to see the full and complete unredacted Mueller report. We can't trust the attorney general's redactions to be presumptively legitimate. We want to see the underlying documentation. And, of course, we'd like to hear from Bob Mueller who needs to tell his story to the American people. But besides that, we do have important things to work on like infrastructure, you know, the president didn't just walk out on a meeting with Nancy Pelosi and infrastructure, Chuck, he walked out on the American people. Donald Trump is functionally a studio gangster. He pretends to be a tough guy. But he really is just playing that role on TV. Hopefully he will have gotten his temper tantrum out of his system. He can come back from Japan. We have crumbling bridges, roads --
CHUCK TODD:
Okay.
REP. HAKEEM JEFFRIES:
-- tunnels, airports, mass transportation system. We need to get to work to fix it. We have a plan. And we'd like to do it in a bipartisan way.
CHUCK TODD:
Is there a point where impeachment becomes, does -- it becomes unfeasible because of the political calendar?
REP. HAKEEM JEFFRIES:
Well, we are at the very beginning of our new majority, as you know. This is the start of the clock. We just crossed into the 100 day point of the House Democratic majority last month. And so I think we have to proceed methodically. We have to gather the information. And then at a certain point we'll have to make a determination as to how best to present that to the American people.
CHUCK TODD:
What, what, I mean but, is there a timetable, I mean, is there a realistic time table here? Is it the summer? Do you have to sort of, if by Labor Day you're still equivocating then you're probably not impeaching?
REP. HAKEEM JEFFRIES:
I think that's a timetable that will be guided by the facts. I don't think it'll be guided by any political calendar. And we've been pretty clear, the presidential candidates are out in the campaign trail and they should make their case to the American people. We want to promote prosperity in every single zip code and hopefully they'll continue to do that. We have to do our work in the majority to govern, to pass bills, to send them over to the Senate as we've been doing and then try and get legislation to the president's desk to be signed into law.
CHUCK TODD:
Is there a, is there a point here in all of this where you're just arguing over semantics? I mean, Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler said what he's doing now, if you called it an impeachment inquiry, it'd be the same thing. So what should we take away from that? You already really have opened an impeachment inquiry, it's just not formerly called one?
REP. HAKEEM JEFFRIES:
No that's not the case. I think what Jerry Nadler has indicated is that he's going to look at some troubling facts that have emerged out of the Mueller report. But we have to conduct our own investigation separately because that is our responsibility. We cannot just simply take what Mueller has done because we don't even have all of the --
CHUCK TODD:
Okay.
REP. HAKEEM JEFFRIES:
-- underlying information.
CHUCK TODD:
Congressman Hakeem Jeffries, member of leadership, head of the Democratic caucus, thanks for coming on and sharing your views this morning. I really appreciate it.
REP. HAKEEM JEFFRIES:
Thank you, Chuck.
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