LEADER JEFFRIES: "WE HAVE A RESPONSIBILITY TO SIT DOWN AND FIND COMMON GROUND WHERE POSSIBLE"
Interview
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"Well, good evening, Rev. Great to be with you. I mean, I think from the very beginning of this Congress, the extreme MAGA Republican ideology has been on full display and now that might accelerate. Remains to be seen what the tenure of Speaker Mike Johnson may be. On the Democratic side, we continue to make clear, as we have from the very beginning of the year, that we will seek to find bipartisan common ground whenever and wherever possible with our Republican colleagues for the good of the American people. However, we will continue to push back against MAGA extremism whenever necessary."
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"Well, in my view, the package that was sent up by President Biden, which relates to providing support for Israel, providing support for Ukraine in its effort against Russian aggression, providing support for humanitarian assistance for Palestinians who may be in harm's way or others who may be in harm's way, Palestinians in Gaza, as well as meeting some of the needs of trying to strengthen the situation at the border and standing with our other allies in the Indo-Pacific or throughout the free world. These things will move forward together because they all relate to our values and to America's national security interests. And it is necessary, as Speaker Johnson has indicated, that we stop Vladimir Putin and his brutality in his tracks in Ukraine. It's the right thing to do for the free world. It's the right thing to do for our allies in Europe. It's the right thing to do for the principles of democracy, freedom and truth."
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"Well, Congressman Golden, first and foremost is a good man, he's a patriot, he's a veteran. He's served his country ably in uniform and is now serving the people of Maine. I think we need to come together and look at common sense gun safety measures that are designed to address what has become a uniquely American challenge in terms of the gun violence epidemic and the carnage that continues to be inflicted on the American people. 18 innocent souls lost their lives in Maine. They were gunned down by a weapon of war. Weapons that were not used to hunt deer, that were used to hunt human beings. And that's a big challenge that we've got to confront."
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"Well, House Democrats, we're going to continue to make our case to the voters based on our track record of success. President Biden has done a tremendous job in leading. We've gotten big things done for the American people in terms of bringing jobs back home to the United States of America, clean water in every community, dropping the price of insulin to $35 per month. These are incredible accomplishments that, you know, relate to us building an economy that works for everyday Americans from the middle out and the bottom up. That's our vision for the future, people over politics. On the other side of the aisle, what we see is that Republicans are leaning into voter suppression and intense partisan gerrymandering as an electoral strategy. That's been the reality of this modern version of the Republican Party. We saw intense gerrymandering in the last election cycle in Florida, in Alabama, in Louisiana, in Georgia, as has now been confirmed by a federal court, now in North Carolina. It's an electoral strategy for the extreme MAGA Republicans. We're going to fight them in court. Attorney- former Attorney General Eric Holder has been doing a tremendous job, as well as other lawyers who are dealing with this in state after state after state. And we're going to continue to lean into our ideas. At the end of the day, I believe, across the country we'll have a fair map, a map that we can win on, and we'll take our case to the American people."
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"Well, this is why we've got one electoral mission. Democrats need to win back the majority in November of 2024 so that it's a Democratic majority that is prepared to certify the election on January 6 of 2025. But everything is on the ballot. Democracy will be on the ballot, as evidenced by the position that many of the election deniers on the other side of the aisle continue to hold. Reproductive freedom will be on the ballot. We believe in a woman's freedom to make her own reproductive health care decisions. They want to criminalize abortions and impose a nationwide ban. Social Security and Medicare are on the ballot. We believe that these things are important parts of the fabric of the American dream. The other side of the aisle wants to end Social Security and Medicare as we know it. The stakes are high. We've got to lean in, we've got to show up, we've got to speak up, we've got to stand up and we've got to prevail."
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"You know, we have a responsibility to sit down and find common ground where possible but hold the line on our values. We'll continue to do that. We're going to strongly disagree in a lot of areas, but we can agree to disagree without being disagreeable."
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