Jeffries Grilled On ‘Tension’ Between Moderate & Progressive Dems After ‘Divisive’ NY Primary

3 months ago

On Thursday, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries held his weekly press briefing and spoke about Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-NY) losing his primary, the upcoming Missouri primary and AIPAC’s support for George Latimer.

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Transcript

00:00Mr. Leader, your party just got through a divisive primary in New York where you saw

00:04an incumbent fall.

00:05You have another one coming up in Missouri.

00:08How would you describe the tension between the moderate members of your party and the

00:13progressive members of your party, and is it your responsibility as a leader to support

00:18your incumbents that are in these vulnerable primaries?

00:21Yes, and that's what I've consistently done.

00:27In the Bowman primary, we saw a PAC, Super PAC spend upwards of $14 million.

00:33Do you think that type of spending is appropriate, and many Democrats on the left of your caucus

00:38have forcibly called it out.

00:40Do you join with them in condemning that type of outside spending?

00:42I think that pro-Israel groups are going to support pro-Israel members of Congress.

00:51Pro-reproductive freedom groups are going to support pro-reproductive freedom members

00:57of Congress.

01:00Pro-climate groups are going to support pro-climate members of Congress or candidates who are

01:11out in the communities throughout the country.

01:18Our view on democracy reform broadly is that we have to do everything possible to protect

01:29and strengthen a government of the people, by the people, and for the people, which is

01:36why the House Democratic position, shared broadly by progressives, New Dems, and Blue

01:45Dogs, is that we have to get the Freedom to Vote Act, which is our signature piece

01:54of democracy reform legislation, over the finish line.

01:59In this Congress, the Freedom to Vote Act is H.R. 11.

02:05If we get the gavels back, the Freedom to Vote Act will be H.R. 1.

02:11That's our view, shared broadly by the entirety of the House Democratic Caucus, as to how

02:18to make sure we have the most accessible, authentic, and available electoral system

02:28possible.

Jeffries Grilled On ‘Tension’ Between Moderate & Progressive Dems After ‘Divisive’ NY Primary

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