CNN "Newsroom" - Interview with Hakeem Jeffries

Interview

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HARLOW: He joins me now.

It's really good to have you. It feels different, it does. I was just telling you about the protests that -- you know, our car was stopped for half an hour yesterday in the middle of a protest in Brooklyn. More of the protestors were white by a big margin than were black. It feels different this time, but how do we know the outcome will be different?

JEFFRIES: Well, I'm certainly hopeful. We know that it's a movement that has been led in large measure by young African-American women, but has been joined by people of every race, of every creed, of every color, of ever religion.

And so it's a multiracial, multiethnic, multicultural, multigenerational movement that I think signals a sea change in public sentiment that something needs to be done about police violence, police abuse and police brutality at every level of government. And that is going to be our approach in Washington, led by Karen Bass, the chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, with leadership from Speaker Pelosi and Chairman Jerry Nadler of the House Judiciary Committee.

HARLOW: You have now -- twice -- proposed legislation that would put a federal ban on police using chokeholds or applying pressure to the neck of someone. You did it after Eric Garner was killed, and you've done it last year. But now, it's getting attention and now there's talk about it being fast-tracked. Is it being fast-tracked and do you have bipartisan support?

JEFFRIES: It's my hope that we will obtain bipartisan support, although currently I have not secured a Republican sponsor, which is disappointing. Every major police department in the country -- in New York, in Boston, in Chicago, in Philadelphia, in Los Angeles -- prohibit the chokehold as a matter of policy. But we continue to see it deployed, as well as other neck restraints such as the knee to the neck that we saw in Minneapolis.

That's why we want to prohibit it as a matter of law. Because it's an unnecessary, unacceptable, uncivilized, unconscionable and un-American tactic. No one should be choked to death on the streets of America. And that's why Congress needs to act, and I'm hopeful that we will do so. I know the House will --

HARLOW: Yes.

JEFFRIES: -- and it will be on the Senate.

HARLOW: Congressman, you are a cosponsor of legislation that would open up a commission to talk about the possibility of reparations in this country. And this week, I was reminded to re-read that 2014 piece by Ta-Nehisi Coates called "The Case for Reparations," in which he writes, "250 years of slavery, 90 years of Jim Crow, 60 years of Separate but Equal, 35 years of racist housing policy: Until we reckon with our compounding debts, America will never be whole."

Where does your call for a commission on just discussing this, where does that stand and where does that go? Is it time for America to have a much more serious conversation about reparations?

JEFFRIES: Without question, it's time. You detailed the parade of horribles directed at the African-American community that we still haven't grappled with in America.

[10:40:06]

H.R. 40, which is legislation that has been introduced and pushed by Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee did receive a hearing in the Congress last year, as did my police accountability bill with respect to chokeholds and other neck restraints.

But after 401 years of racism living in the soil of America, we can't even get a commission, right? Not action, a commission.

HARLOW: Right.

JEFFRIES: Seems like now is an appropriate time to at least have that discussion.

HARLOW: I'm going to ask you a question that you've been asked so many times before, but I wonder if the answer might be different this time. So many people have asked you, Do you want to be the next speaker of the House? But we have not had a black speaker of the House in the history of this country, 230-plus years, there has never been a black speaker of the House. Do you want to be the first African- American speaker of the House?

JEFFRIES: Not something that I've given any thought to, particularly this year, when we've been dealing with this global pandemic that has hit the communities that I represent particularly hard, in terms of the pain, suffering and death. And now we're confronting the epidemic of police violence. One speaker at a time, Poppy, and we have a phenomenal one in Nancy

Pelosi. I've just got to continue to do my job to the best of my abilities, and the rest will take care of itself in the future.

HARLOW: Fair enough. Let's end on this. There is anti-lynching legislation in the Senate right now. And we heard impassioned pleas from Senator Cory Booker and Kamala Harris yesterday. Rand Paul is trying to amend it, saying that he argues that it doesn't go far enough, he says the definition of lynching is too broad and doesn't take it seriously enough.

And then Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, listen to what she said, responding to Senators Harris and Booker.

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SEN. LISA MURKOWSKI (R-AK): As a white woman born and raised in Alaska, with a family that was privileged, I can't feel that openness and rawness that I just heard expressed by my friends Cory and Kamala.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: What is your reaction to what you saw play out there?

JEFFRIES: Well, those were very authentic words from Senator Murkowski. And hopefully, it signals that this time is different. And that the American people of every race -- white, black, Latino, Asian, Native American -- are coming together in ways to bring about systematic change.

Now I'm not confident that that's possible under the current occupant of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, as broad as it needs to be. I do believe, however, that Vice President Joe Biden, who's a good man, has the heart for the type of work and leadership necessary to bring about the change that we've been waiting for for 401 years.

HARLOW: Congressman Hakeem Jeffries, appreciate your time very much this week.

JEFFRIES: Thank you.

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