MSNBC "All In with Chris Hayes" - Transcript: Interview with Hakeem Jeffries

Interview

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Joining me now to discuss what Congress is doing to protect voting rights is someone who serves in House leadership, Congressman Hakeem Jeffries of New York, chair of the House Democratic Caucus. Congressman, thanks so much for coming on tonight.

We`ll get to voting rights in a moment. I do want to start with Afghanistan. Your colleague Congresswoman Ocasio Cortez tweeted, "We have a moral obligation to the Afghan people. The U.S. role in this crisis is indisputable. We must waste no time or expense in helping refugees safely and swiftly leave Afghanistan. We must immediately welcome them to the U.S. and provide real support as they rebuild their lives."

Do you agree with your colleague from New York? Should specific funding for Afghan refugees now perhaps be part of the budget bill?

REP. HAKEEM JEFFRIES (D-NY): Well, certainly something that we need to look at. And I agree that we have to get the situation in Afghanistan under control. First step, of course, is to make sure that the airspace has been secured so that flights can come in and come out. That appears to have been done.

The second step will be to get control of the airport. That appears to be a work in progress, but it`s something that the administration is clearly committed to doing. And then step three will be to make sure that we can secure a safe passage from Kabul and other parts of Afghanistan to the airport that are now controlled by the Taliban.

It`s my understanding that the administration understands that that is going to have to be something that is done in order to make sure that the American people who are there can be safely evacuated as well as Afghan refugees and others who work closely with us over the last 20 years.

HASAN: Congressman, is the House going to hold hearings on this debacle in Afghanistan about what went wrong, two decades of sacrifices basically down the drain?

JEFFRIES: I don`t want to get out ahead of any of the committee chairs, any announcements that they may make, but it is my expectation that you will see some active engagement by the relevant House committees including the committee on foreign affairs in terms of getting an understanding of the current moment that we`re in, as well as how we got to this point over the last 20 years.

[20:25:12]

HASAN: So, Congressman, on voting rights. To be fair, the House has done its job. It passed the For the People Act. It died in the Senate. The new John Lewis Voting Rights Bill you`re backing will also pass in the House, and then it too will die in the Senate. At what point do you tell President Biden and Senator Chuck Schumer they need to get rid of the filibuster, no more waiting, there is no time left?

JEFFRIES: Well, we certainly cannot allow these bills to die in the Senate at this critical moment for our democracy. At the end of the day, the very integrity of our democracy depends on the unfettered right to vote which we know is under intense assault.

In the aftermath of the violent insurrection on the sixth, instead of running toward democracy which is what my colleagues on the Republican side of the aisle should have done, they are running away from democracy. They have doubled and tripled down on voter suppression efforts, which is why we have to act.

Now, I do believe one, most importantly, we are going to pass the John Lewis Voting Rights Act next week, and we will pipe pass it decisively. And then the question will be in terms of the Senate. There are already exceptions that exists to the filibuster. Budget reconciliation is an exception. It`s an exception that Republicans used in 2017 to pass the GOP tax scam, where 83% of the benefits went to the wealthiest one percent. And there`s a federal judiciary exception that Mitch McConnell has used to steal not one but two Supreme Court justices.

So, if there are exceptions that already exists, certainly this should be one for democracy and voting rights. And I think you`ll see us continue to push that and press that position moving forward.

HASAN: I`m glad to hear you say that. But we are eight months in. I`ve interviewed a lot of members of Congress, Democratic senators, House members over the last eight months, and I`ve been hearing this, I`m hearing this, it`s coming, we`re pushing, time is running out.

I mean, some might argue on gerrymandering, the time has run out. The census is out. Republican state legislators are already starting to redraw boundaries. They could take back the House next year without a single extra vote, thanks to gerrymandering. And I wonder, do you think enough people in your party, especially in the Senate recognize that history will judge your party if the Republicans got out of democracy, and you guys, let them because you were interested in bipartisanship in the Senate?

JEFFRIES: Well, it`s fair to say, Mehdi, that if we had the ability in the House to reform the filibuster rule, we would do it. But of course, we do not. That`s a Senate role, and only the Senate can do it. I certainly think that there are many senators who understand the urgency of the moment. But there are, of course, a handful that we have to continue to persuade. And that is something that will take place with increased intensity over the next few days and next few weeks.

You`re absolutely right. Because Republicans have committed to voter suppression as an electoral strategy, and they are bankrupt of substantive ideas in so many areas, we know that we`ve got to deal with this issue in order to preserve our democracy.

HASAN: And the intensity has to come not just from you guys in the House, but from the President in the White House. Congressman, a group of conservative Democrats in the House are threatening to hold up the budget resolution. Politico reports that your boss, Speaker Nancy Pelosi, called it "amateur hour."

We hear so much about the left and the squad being obstructionist, but are these nine so-called centrist really trying to block to derail President Biden`s entire agenda? And if so, what are you going to do about it?

JEFFRIES: Well, I embraced the entire spectrum of the House Democratic Caucus from the very progressive members on the left, to more centrist and moderate and even a few conservative members of the caucus. I don`t think anyone is an obstructionist within the caucus. Everybody has the ability to express their ideas about the best way to move forward.

But the bottom line is, the President has made clear, we`ve got an American Jobs Plan and an American Families Plan, both of which need to be passed. And part of the American Jobs Plan is captured in the infrastructure bill, but only part of it. And the entirety, we need to get over the finish line. And in order to do that, we`ve got to enact the budget reconciliation bill for America`s families and children on a parallel track. And I believe that is exactly what is going to happen next week.

HASAN: Congressman, I was struck by this quote from you recently about how you and Congressman Colin Allred, a former NFL linebacker were prepared to physically fight back on January 6. "I took my jacket off and my tie because I said you know what, if it`s on, it`s on, we`re not going to be overrun by the sedition Trump supporters and it`s just going to be what is going to be."

I have to ask, all these months later, I mean, what was going through your mind that day? I know the Republicans want us to move on from January 6, but when I read a quote like that, I think about a senior House Democrat prepared to fight his way out of the legislature?

[20:30:16]

JEFFRIES: Well, we really thought we were going to have to fight for our lives. It came at a point when the Sergeant at Arms interrupted the proceedings and said, be prepared to hit the ground. The mob has breached the Capitol. They`re a few feet from the chamber. And get ready to secure the gas masks that are underneath your chairs.

I`ve been in the House at that point for eight years, had no idea that we`re gasmask in the chamber. But then of course, Colin Allred is behind me. And he says to me, I don`t know about you, Hakeem, but I`m not going down without a fight. And that`s when the jackets came off. And if you ever find yourself in the middle of a violent insurrection, which I hope no one ever does moving forward, it`s good to have a former NFL linebacker by your side.

Thankfully, the Capitol Police found an exit route for us. But it was a very dangerous situation inspired of course, by the former twice impeach, corrupt President of the United States of America. We can never allow something like that to ever happen again.

HASAN: No, we cannot. Congressman Hakeem Jeffries, thank you so much for your time tonight. I appreciate it.

JEFFRIES: Thank you, Mehdi.

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