On Tuesday’s broadcast of CNN’s “The Source,” House Minority Leader Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) responded to a question on whether Rep. Chuy Garcia (D-IL) disenfranchised voters by manipulating the timing of when he announced his retirement to ensure that his chief of staff would be the only Democratic candidate by saying that “there are things that we should be focused on in terms of solving problems for the American people, that the American people just decisively told us, two weeks ago, during the general election, they wanted us to work on.” He also complained that “we continue to come to the floor of the House of Representatives and they play partisan political games, as opposed to dealing with the issues that matter relative to driving down the high cost of living and making life better for the American people.”
Host Kaitlan Collins asked, “There was a resolution rebuking Rep. Chuy Garcia. He had timed the announcement of his retirement shortly after the state’s filing deadline, and that was after his chief of staff had declared her own candidacy for that position, basically leaving her as the only Democrat able to run for that seat. There are 23 Democrats who joined Republicans on the disapproval resolution. You urged members to oppose it. How come?”
Jeffries answered, “I think that it’s an issue to be worked out by the people back in the great state of Illinois. Chuy Garcia has been a consistent progressive champion for the disenfranchised, a voice for the voiceless. He’s done a lot of good. And I think that it was a resolution of disapproval that I did not support, that there are a lot of issues, I think, of importance to the American people, including the failed Trump economy, the Trump tariffs that are crushing people, the Republican healthcare crisis, the refusal by my Republican colleagues to extend the Affordable Care Act tax credits, the fact that that is going to result in tens of millions of people experiencing dramatically increased premiums, co-pays, and deductibles, people are going to be unable to go and afford to see a doctor when they need one. There are a whole host of issues that the American people just made clear, two weeks ago, during the general election, that they want to see addressed. It’s the reason why Republicans were decisively defeated across the country and up and down the ballot. And yet we continue to come to the floor of the House of Representatives and they play partisan political games, as opposed to dealing with the issues that matter relative to driving down the high cost of living and making life better for the American people.”
Collins followed up, “I think it’s fair to say there [are] bigger issues people care about, but even some Democrats have said this is why people don’t like politics. This is slimy, and it disenfranchises voters by not letting them pick who they want to be running in that race, did they have a point?”
Jeffries responded, “I think they can speak for themselves. And, certainly, my view on the situation was that there are things that we should be focused on in terms of solving problems for the American people, that the American people just decisively told us, two weeks ago, during the general election, they wanted us to work on.”
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett
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