Jeffries Says Shutdown Talks With GOP Leaders Have Been Limited

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00:00As you and I are speaking, the House Speaker is doing a press conference just down the hall.

00:04What is the level of engagement? Do you pass one another? Are you speaking with one another?

00:08Are Democrats talking to Republicans right now?

00:10The conversations have been very limited, unfortunately, because Donald Trump has not given

00:14House Republican leaders or Senate Republican leaders permission to negotiate, reinforcing

00:19the principle from our view that he made the decision to shut the government down.

00:24They want to continue to inflict pain on federal employees. They've done that from the very beginning

00:29of Donald Trump's presidency. In fact, more than 200,000 federal employees had been forced

00:35off the job prior to the government shutdown. And this is something that we've continued

00:42to see them build upon during the shutdown. Until Donald Trump gets serious about reopening

00:50the government, unfortunately, we're going to remain in this situation and everyday Americans

00:55are being hurt.

00:56He's getting ready to take a trip to Asia. Is it appropriate for him to be doing

00:59that at this moment when the government is shut down?

01:01I think that the president has a responsibility both domestically and throughout the world.

01:09However, what has been irresponsible is that throughout this shutdown, he's found more time

01:15to golf than he has to engage with Democrats on Capitol Hill. He's decided to try to steal

01:22$230 million in taxpayer funds from the Department of Injustice. Donald Trump and his administration,

01:29have found $40 billion to bail out a right-wing wannabe dictator in Argentina and can't find

01:37a dime to extend the Affordable Care Act tax credits to keep health care affordable for tens of millions

01:42of Americans. And on top of all of that, they are demolishing the East Wing of the White House

01:49in ways that have appropriately horrified the American people.

01:55I want to ask you about potential off-ramps. And Tammy Baldwin, the senator from Wisconsin,

01:59Democrat, said Trump is the off-ramp at this point. Do you agree with that assessment? And has there been

02:04any kind of outreach or dialogue between you and the White House?

02:07Leader Schumer made clear earlier this week that we have reached out to the White House again to indicate that prior

02:14to Trump's departure for Asia, he should sit down with Democrats to find a path forward, to reopen

02:21the government, to enter into a bipartisan spending agreement, and to address the health care crisis

02:25that Marjorie Taylor Greene acknowledges must be addressed, and that traditional conservatives

02:31who are in the toughest seats in the country have now publicly acknowledged this week needs to be addressed.

02:37Can I ask you a question of congressional mechanics? And that is, can the Democratic leader

02:41pick up the phone, call the White House, and reasonably expect the president's going to take that phone call?

02:47Are you able to do that? And if so, what's keeping you from having that dialogue?

02:50Well, traditionally that probably is the case, but in this White House, that's very much unclear.

02:54Donald Trump didn't have a meeting with House or Senate Democratic leadership until two days prior

03:02to the government shutting down. And we had to demand that meeting. He initially agreed to it,

03:07then he canceled it, and then he was forced by public sentiment to agree to it. But unfortunately,

03:13we had a discussion for about an hour or so, and then there was no follow-up from either Donald Trump

03:20or his administration because they are not serious about solving these challenges on behalf of the

03:26American people. We live in a high cost of living environment. The American people are struggling to afford to live,

03:34struggling paycheck to paycheck. And Donald Trump and Republicans promised that they were going to lower costs on day one,

03:41but costs aren't going down. Costs are going up, inflation going up, electricity prices through the roof,

03:46housing costs expensive, grocery costs increasingly expensive. And now, people facing the possibility,

03:53as we approach the open enrollment period for health insurance on November 1st, that millions of folks are going to see premium increases

04:01that could be as high as $1,000 or $2,000 more per month. And yet, we see nothing but inaction from the President of the United States.

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