CNN "The Situation Room" - Transcript Interview with Hakeem Jeffires

Interview

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Joining us now, a key member of the House Democratic leadership, the New York Congressman Hakeem Jeffries. Congressman, thank you for joining us.

In response to these purely damning allegations in Woodward's upcoming book, the president trying to pin the blame elsewhere, even saying that Woodward should have, in his words, gone out to the authorities if he was so concerned about what he heard in early February from the president. What do you say to that?

REP. HAKEEM JEFFRIES (D-NY): Well, it's completely irresponsible for President Trump to have downplayed the impact of the coronavirus at a moment when every second, every minute, every day, every week counted and tens of thousands of lives, if not more, could have been saved. President Trump lied and people died. That's the reality of what has occurred. In numbers that should shock the conscience of every single American, almost 200,000 Americans dead as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, that is more than the Korean War, the Vietnam War, 9/11, Gulf War, the war in Iraq, and the war in Afghanistan combined. Yet the president would have us believe that it's all puppies and rainbows.

BLITZER: Yes. Tomorrow is the 19th anniversary of 9/11. About 3,000 Americans died on that one day in those terror attacks. We're losing about a thousand Americans every single day from the coronavirus. Once again, 1,206 Americans died just yesterday from coronavirus.

The lack of honesty coming from the president isn't just problematic when we think back over the last six or seven months, it will continue to be an issue. What will this mean, for example, when a vaccine is proven safe and effective and the federal government must urge all Americans to trust it and get vaccinated?

JEFFRIES: Well, the president's response to the coronavirus pandemic has been unmitigated disaster in terms of testing, tracing, treatment, social distancing. The absence of a national mask mandate from soup to nuts, it's been a failure. And the problem is, he has no credibility at this particular point in time and the key with a vaccine is not the presence of the vaccine, it's the actuality of vaccinations that take place. In this instance, hundreds of millions of people.

And if there's no confidence that the American people will have by- and-large in the president and/or the safety and efficacy of a vaccine, then you will not see the numbers necessary to actually defeat this pandemic and that's problematic.

BLITZER: While many of your Republican colleagues in the House and in the Senate for that matter have yet to address this new reporting by Bob Woodward, the Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell says the president should be in his words applauded not criticized. What's your response to the majority leader?

JEFFRIES: Well, the majority leader is living in a fantasy land both in terms of those sycophantic remarks as it relates to Donald Trump. But more significantly, you know, House Democrats acted on May 15th with the great leadership from Speaker Pelosi and the entirety of the House Democratic caucus on a $3 trillion plus COVID-19 relief package to deal with the pain, suffering, and death being experienced by the American people.

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A hundred and 17 days or so have passed, and Mitch McConnell has finally decided to act with a bill that provides no relief to state and local governments, no relief to tenants and home owners, no direct stimulus payments to every day Americans. It cuts the emergency unemployment insurance benefit in half and would do nothing to stimulate the economy in the midst of one of the most significant recessions that we've ever seen. And so it's not just his words, Wolf, that exhibit he's living in a fantasy land, it's the absence of action which is even more devastating because of the consequences of the failure to act really hurt every day Americans.

BLITZER: Yes. The Department of Labor today just announced another 884,000 Americans lost their jobs and filed for first time unemployment benefits just last week. In one week, another 184,000 Americans have now officially applied for unemployment benefits.

As our country grapples with all of these developments, there's also a lot of instances as we all know of racial injustice. So Woodward asked the president about his own white privilege. This conversation took place less than a month after George Floyd was killed by police. I want you to listen to their exchange.

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WOODWARD: But let me ask you this. I mean, we share one thing in common. We're white privileged who -- my father was a lawyer and a judge in Illinois, and we know what your dad did. And -- do you have any sense that that privilege has isolated and put you in a cave to a certain extent, as it put me and I think lots of white privileged people in a cave, and that we have to work our way out of it to understand the anger and the pain particularly black people feel in this country. Do you --

TRUMP: No. You really drank the Kool-Aid, didn't you? Just listen to you. Wow. No, I don't feel that at all.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: So, what do you think, Congressman? What's your reaction to the president's answer?

JEFFRIES: Well, listen, we've come a long way in America on the question of race. We still have a long way to go. And systemic racism has been in the soil of this country for 401 years, and it has benefited people like Donald Trump. I mean, that's just the reality. In fact, Donald Trump is exhibit a for the power of privilege and mediocrity. The notion that this individual, a failed businessman, who has driven company after company after company into bankruptcy would not just be able to emerge from that after receiving, you know, assistance and, of course, the original inheritance from his father but become the president of the United States of America suggests that there's a different playing field that exists here in this country.

I don't expect that the president would recognize it because he tends to be divorced from reality and sees everything through his own narcissistic lens but that is just the reality. And I think what has hearten me and many others is that Americans of every race have come together over the last few months to demand a better society, to demand that equal protection under the law exists for everyone, to demand liberty and justice for all. And I'm confident eventually we're going to continue this march toward a more perfect union.

BLITZER: Representative Hakeem Jeffries, thanks so much for joining us. We'll certainly continue our conversations down the road. Appreciate you joining us.

JEFFRIES: Thank you, Wolf.

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