DPCC Co-Chair Jeffries: Democrats Refuse to Fall for Trump’s Same Old Tricks
WASHINGTON, DC – Congressman Hakeem Jeffries (NY-08), Co-Chair of the House Democratic Policy and Communications Committee (DPCC), appeared on CNN with Wolf Blitzer to discuss how, despite President Trump's repeated attempts to distract the American people, Democrats are not taking the bait. Jeffries highlighted how Democrats will lower health care costs, increase pay and clean up corruption in Washington if given the opportunity to govern in the majority. The forward-looking For The People agenda lasers in on actual solutions to problems facing everyday Americans, including slashing prescription drug prices, investing in roads, bridges and ports to increase pay and create millions of new jobs and investigating troubling instances of corruption in the Trump Administration. Below are excerpts from the interview. Click here to watch the video.
"Unfortunately, throughout much of America in the run up to this midterm election, we are seeing intense efforts at voter suppression. One of the things that we've realized during the Trump era is that while Jim Crow may be dead he still has some nieces and nephews that are alive and well. And this is a classic Jim Crow playbook effort to deny the ability of people – in this case, often, African Americans – the ability to vote."
"Voting is fundamental to the integrity of our democracy Wolf. And so we need to make sure that every single American that wants to cast a ballot is able to do so."
"Even moderate Republicans in suburban communities all look at the tenure of Barack Obama as President and know that he made America a better place."
"Well, that's ridiculous. We want comprehensive immigration reform. It's a broken system and we need to fix it. But, this is an example of Donald Trump as master of distraction. One day he wants to talk about the caravan. The next day he wants to talk about the transgender community. Tomorrow he's going to be talking about and attacking NFL players. We, Democrats, are not going to take the bait. This is an election where we are going to focus on lowering health care costs, increased pay and cleaning up corruption - fighting for the people, no matter what distraction Donald Trump tries to put before us."
"No reasonable person can believe almost anything that Donald Trump has to say at this particular point in time. Hopefully, at some point, once Democrats take control of the House of Representatives, we're going to be able to focus on doing the business of the American people – and stop taking the bait from all of these shiny objects that Donald Trump tries to put forward in order to energize the hard right in his base."