#RolandMartinUnfiltered - Hakeem Jeffries BLASTS MAGA Parade Of Horribles, Talks Plan To FIGHT Trump, Musk, GOP Power Grab

Episode Date: February 22, 2025

Twice-impeached and criminally convicted felon-in-chief Donald Trump is openly defying constitutional law, claiming king-like authority, and surrounding himself with unaccountable figures dismantling democracy.  As Americans demand action, Democratic leaders like Rep. Hakeem Jeffries are mounting an offensive to pushing back—fighting in Congress, in court, and in the media.  Democratic Leader Congressman Hakeem Jeffries spoke with Roland Martin about the the fight stave off Donald Trump's attacks on democracy, and the battle to protect everyday Americans.  Are Democrats doing enough to stop MAGA extremism?See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an iHeart Podcast. In America is an assault on what makes America, America. You've literally got a twice impeached, criminally convicted felon in chief, Donald the con man Trump, who literally says that he is a king, who says that frankly, he doesn't have to abide by constitutional law,

that only he can determine what the law is. You see his administration literally tell a federal judge they're not going to comply with an order from that federal judge. These folks are you see what you see at the actions they're taking. You see what Elon Musk is doing, how they are invading every federal department, how these people, we don't know who they are. There are no protections. They wanted to get into the personal taxes of every single American. They are firing people left and right. No rhyme or reason for any of their actions. People are demanding change. People are saying, what do we do to stop this? I have traveled around this country

and I consistently hear people saying, what's going to happen? Where's black leadership? Where's democratic leadership? Can this be stopped? What do we do? Because what we are seeing is a constitutional crisis and assault on this country.

Well, joining us right now is the House, the democratic leader, Congressman Hakeem Jeffries of New York. Congressman, glad to have you here. It's a lot I want to get to. But first and foremost, this is what I hear. I hear this constant people. People keep asking me. I was in San Francisco for the NBA All-Star game last week. They said, what the hell are Democrats doing? Are they fighting back? What is the plan? And they were all great to be with you. Thanks for all that you do and bringing the information straight to the people in a clear and compelling manner. Look, the Trump administration strategy is clear. They want to flood the zone, and they've unleashed this parade of horribles on the American

people as part of a deliberate attempt to try to disorient and discourage and depress people throughout America. And it's incumbent upon all of us to make it clear, look, we know it's an all-hands-on-deck effort. We're pushing back in the Congress. We're pushing back in the courts. We're pushing back in communities all across America. And we're going to have to do it day after day, week after week, month after month until we get the country through this moment. But the notion that this is all inevitable and that Donald Trump is simply going to steamroll the country is belied by the facts. There have been more than 75 different lawsuits filed in federal courts all across the nation related to at least 25 different unlawful and unconstitutional executive orders or administrative actions

taken by Donald Trump. And we're winning in court. Donald Trump is losing. That's going to have to hold. We're going to have to continue to follow the process all the way through to the end. But we're winning in court. We're not losing. He's losing. In terms of the community and making sure that we can bring the information directly to everyday Americans on the ground, in town hall meetings, at rallies, in the living room, on social media and in every possible way. It's going to be critically important for us to continue to press forward in that regard. Abraham Lincoln once made the observation that public sentiment is everything. With it, nothing can fail. Without it, nothing can succeed. We are engaged in an effort to make sure that public sentiment pushes back aggressively against Donald Trump. When you say public sentiment, does that mean, I mean, is the goal to amplify these stories we hear? The federal worker whose wife was pregnant, who couldn't get a medevac because of the cuts, the 71-year-old woman from Myanmar who died in a refugee camp in Thailand because she couldn't get her oxygen that was being paid for by USAID for a hospital there.

We just did the story of the 11-year-old girl in Texas who took her own life because she was being bullied by classmates who said that they were going to call ICE on her family. They were going to be taken and she was going to be left here alone. We even played a video of one of your colleagues, Congressman Mike Lawler from you, from your home state, who literally talking to a Latino legislator in Westchester County where he was like, well, hey, if ICE comes up to you, you know, you need to comply. And the guy was like, what are you talking about? I'm an American citizen. I mean, so what we have is we have a visceral attack on people of color, on black people, on Latino people.

And you've got, frankly, some Democrats who are like, hey, we're spending too much time talking about diversity and things along those lines. The elevation of these stories is going to be critically important because at the end of the day, the far right extremism that is being unleashed on the American people has real life consequences for everyday Americans in our community and in communities all across the nation. And we've got to elevate these stories, continue to tell these stories and do so relentlessly, exceeding the intensity by which these unlawful executive actions are being unleashed on the American people. And that's what we will continue to do. We're thankful for the work, Roland,

that you've been doing in that regard, and it's going to be necessary. Look, the central scheme that is taking place here is that Donald Trump and Republicans consistently promised to lower the high cost of living for everyday Americans. We recognize that housing costs are too high, grocery costs are too high, child care costs are too high, utility costs are too high, and insurance costs are too high. America is too expensive for far too many people. That should not be the case in the wealthiest country in the history of the world. Things need to change. Republicans promised to try to address the high cost of living, but they don't have a single bill, a single idea,

a single initiative related to making America more affordable. Why? Because it was all a bait and switch. At the end of the day, what they really want to do is pass a budget that provides massive tax cuts for their billionaire donors and wealthy corporations. Americans, communities of color and everyday Americans, including children, people with disabilities and seniors with the bill by doing things like decimating Medicaid. Obviously, they want to. First of all, last night on Fox News, Donald Trump said there'll be there'll be no touching Medicaid and Medicare, Social Security. But then today he endorsed the House Republicans bill.

Are Democrats going to obviously there's a lot of pressure on their side to come to that bill. Are Democrats are you going to tell your caucus we're not going to lift a finger? Y'all want to pass that crap. You're on your own. Or do y'all plan to offer amendments and things along those lines? Some people are saying that the position of Democrats should be, no. If y'all want to pass that, you must do it with your votes. Don't look to anybody on our side for any votes to help you pass this massive

tax cut for the rich. What's your strategy? The committee that took place last week, which advanced their budget proposal, What's your strategy? against the GOP tax scam. And it's my expectation that you'll see that same level of intense and principled and enlightened opposition as we move forward, because the impact on the American people would be so devastating. Cuts to Medicaid, cuts to nutritional assistance for children and families and veterans, cuts to housing assistance at a moment when we should be trying to make affordable homeownership

accessible to people as opposed to making it more difficult. Next week, it's our expectation that the Republican tax scam will be on the floor of the House of Representatives. We'll be able to debate it extensively and reveal for the American people what it's all about, why it will be so harmful, and why we, of course, are going to do everything that we can to stop it. Some Democrats said that they've been critical of video, a video

that was circulated, that was edited, where you said, hey, we don't have any leverage, we don't have any power. For the people who don't understand politics, Republicans, look, they have a three-seat majority in the House. So the question for you, what leverage, what influence, what power do you and Democrats have to stop Republicans from what they're doing? The Senate is a lot different, where one senator can actually hold up a lot. Is Chuck Schumer your your colleague there? Is he trying to be as aggressive as possible in doing that on the Senate side? Because what I keep hearing from people is they want to see Democrats breathing fire, firing away and saying that we are going to do all we can to stop

the MAGA riot from, frankly, destroying the country. Budget committee, Democrats fought incredibly hard last week, and I think you'll see that level of fight continue to take place when the bill reaches the floor in the House. And it's my expectation that we'll see a similar level of aggressive and principled opposition in the Senate. Now, what's important to understand is that in the context of that leverage discussion, the question related to Speaker Mike Johnson and Republicans trying to set the stage to blame House Democrats for their inability to fund the government, meaning the Republican inability to fund the government, which could relate and result in a government shutdown.

And the reality is, Roland, that Republicans have been lecturing the country for the last few months about how they allegedly won a big and decisive mandate. They control the House, the Senate and the presidency. They have the responsibility to fund the government at the end of the day, particularly given the context of their complete control of the situation. And the notion that they will try to blame Democrats for their inability to govern is something that it was very important to shut down and make clear to Speaker Johnson that we are not going to let them get away with perpetrating that lie to the American people. At the same period of time, of course, we're going to fight as hard as we can to hold the Republicans accountable if they decide to support this bill that will be on the floor next week. All we need is three Republicans to join with the 215 Democrats that we have in the House right now, and we can stop

any of this bad stuff from happening, from ever becoming law. But we cannot allow these Republicans to escape accountability at the end of the day. They've got children. They've got pregnant women. They've got people with disabilities. They have seniors in nursing homes. They have rural hospitals, all of which will be devastated by the up to $880 billion in potential Medicaid cuts that are being proposed. And we will not allow them to duck and dodge and hide and not have the attention put on them where it should be at this moment in time. You created a rapid response team to respond and drive out information. A lot of I've heard, I saw some criticism.

They felt that the three leaders of that were way too old. They usually have had younger members on the rapid response team. So first of all, on this rapid response team, how many people are actually on it? How many people are, is a part of this? And how are they trying to craft the narrative and the message? That's the interesting thing, because the chair of the Rapid Response Task Force and Litigation Working Group is one of the youngest Democrats and one of the youngest members in the House of Representatives. It's Assistant Democratic Leader Joe Neguse. And it was made clear in the announcement of the top Democrat on the Appropriations Committee,

Jerry Conley, who's the top Democrat on the Oversight Committee, and Jamie Raskin, a brilliant lawyer, led the second impeachment, who's now the top Democrat on the Judiciary Committee. They are there because those three committees are the areas of jurisdiction that most relate to the unconstitutional and unlawful executive orders that are coming out of the White House. While you're talking, of course, this is the actual press release. Henry, go to my iPad. This is the actual press release here. I know we're running out of time. I have to I want to ask you this here in terms of, and I've had to deal with this with a lot of people. What do you say to black women, to young black folks and others?

And I've heard this a lot, man, we're resting. We're tired. We're tired of being out here. We put it all on the line, trying to elect Vice President Kamala Harris. You know what? Let the rest of these people do all the work, pick up the slack. What do you say to them when you've got local elections in 2025, but also you need a highly motivated base to turn out in massive numbers for the 2026 midterm elections? We have an opportunity to take back control of the House of Representatives in 2026. We only need to flip three seats out of a total of 435. This is the narrowest majority that Republicans currently have of any Congress since before the Great Depression. We are very close to being able to flip the House

and cut Donald Trump's presidency legislatively in half in 2026. At the same period of time, of course, we have to engage in that day-to-day, week-to-week, month-to-month effort through these first 100 days and beyond to continue to push back against the extremism that we're seeing. And we're going to be here. We're going to be in the arena. We need everyone to join us when they're ready. But obviously, the more people that get engaged, the better. Last point that I'd make, Roland, one of the things that has been undercovered, but that we've seen, and you and I have talked about this over the last few months, is that there have been several special elections that have already occurred subsequent to Donald Trump being sworn in on January 20th, including one in Iowa in a Senate district, state Senate district, that Donald Trump had won in November by 21 points. The Democrat won by four in January, in the middle of the winter, because Democrats turned out. An independent and swing voter said enough already with the extremism.

And it was only a week. And we've seen a similar pattern unfold in special elections in Virginia, in Delaware, and most recently in the suburbs of New York with respect to the Westchester County executive race, where Donald Trump's endorsed candidate lost by 27 points in a jurisdiction that has had Democrats and Republicans within the last decade or so serve as county executives. And so people are engaged. People do understand the stakes. And obviously, the more people get involved, the faster we can turn this thing around and move the country in the right direction. Well, in a moment, I'm going to be talking with Josh Will, who's actually running for one of the special election there in Florida., I'm going to be talking with Josh Will, who's actually running for one of the special election

there in Florida. So it's going to be a tough race. It's a ruby red district. But again, if folks actually turn out, there could be upset there. House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries,

we appreciate it. Thanks a lot. Thanks so much, Roland. Hello, I'm Isaac Hayes III, founder and CEO of Fanbase. And right now, we're accepting investors in our $17 million round to revolutionize the future of social media. Today, for just $399, you can own 60 shares of stock in Fanbase at $6.65 a share.

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