Hakeem Jeffries Faceplants When Grilled On ICE and AIPAC New Leadership Now

0:04All right, Hakeem Jeffries and Chuck Schumer are not meeting this moment. I could get on here 17 times a day and run a story about Trump's failures, Trump's lawlessness, the people in the people in the government. administration, drama, toxicity, law-breaking, unprofessionalism. We could do it all day and never stop. And it's going to get worse. But when you're looking at a fascist takeover, when you're looking at the dismantling of a 250-year-old democracy, you have to look at all of the collaborators. That's important. You can't just focus on one side because this is not possible where Trump is without the Supreme Court.

0:43And what's continuing to happen right now is not possible without minority support as well. And that's why I focus a lot on Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries. And I saw some just stunning video on Joy Reid's show, and I'm going to use their content. So please make sure you go like and subscribe to Joy Reid's show. And this is her and Wajahat Ali also like and subscribe to him great independent uh journalists here interviewing Hakeem Jeffries and the answers to these questions are just utterly stunning play the clip leaders lead and what we've seen is people are impressionable if you lead on something people will follow it seems the wind is behind your back for the first time ever ICE has a history CPP has a history of terrorizing black and brown communities people are asking themselves why are we our taxpayer dollars paying for masked lawless men to terrorize our communities, kidnap people, take children, and kill Americans.

1:44So I ask you, and I'm going to do a follow-up to Joy, because I want an answer to this. You said you want to rain in ICE. I'm saying, I'm talking about the long term now, why not lead and say abolish ICE? Because what you're telling us is you want our taxpayer dollars to pay for a lawless masked armed agency to continue terrorizing our cities. And I'm trying to figure out how you as a leader can be telling Americans that their taxpayer dollars should be going twice. I don't understand anything that you just said. I spoke English. I don't understand anything that you've just said to me when I've made clear that taxpayer dollars should be used to make life more affordable for the American people, not brutalize or kill them.

2:26That's the whole reason we're in this fight right now. That's That's the whole reason the DHS is getting ready to shut down. That's the whole reason why... You agree with me, join? Abolish ICE. That is... Listen, I'm going to use the language that I want to use. You can use the language that you want to use. And the language that I'm using right now relates to these type of bold, meaningful, dramatic changes that are designed to save lives right now in communities that look like the ones that I represent. And that's the goal. So let me ask you this. Yeah. And I hear what you're saying. Every single Democrat together in the House and in the Senate is what we're trying to do to give us the best shot to win this fight right now while we're in the minority.

3:20Okay. It's really stunning. His answer and how ill prepared he is in the confrontation with facts, the facts on the ground and how the American people feel. And shout out to Wajahad Ali. It was an excellent question. and how defensive he got, and you can use whatever words you want, and I'm going to use my words, reminded me of when I interviewed Cory Booker, and I asked him, is Benjamin Netanyahu a war criminal? And he couldn't answer it, yes or no. And here you have Hakeem Jeffries, who wants to be the Speaker of the House, who has large support, even from the Progressive Caucus, the Progressives don't even break away with him.

3:59And this is such a decisive moment in history. There is no joy that I get in seeing the Democratic minority leader faceplant like that. It is so devastating to this moment in history and to the Democratic Party. And when you poll and you see that people view Democrats as weak and Democrats are feckless, and you have heard Donald Trump say in interviews, he says stuff like, yeah, we thought we're going to get a lot more resistance than this. I mean, they're just, you know, we're just doing whatever we want. And then you find out that Hakeem Jeffries takes the same money from the same corporations that Donald Trump does.

4:47It makes perfect sense. Okay. I'm sitting here and it enrages me the way he said, I don't even know what you're saying. Here's my thought on this. I'm in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. I know that the Trump administration says we're getting rid of the criminals and all this crap. I know that less than 20 % of the people that they're arresting and detaining are criminals. I know that they are breaking the law, ignoring court orders to the tune of thousands of court orders. So if I know that in Oklahoma City, I would think that the leadership and the Democratic Party knows that. I would think they know it doesn't matter what they say, it's what they do.

5:31And so for leader Jeffries, I would just say your words need to be backed up by your actions. You say that, you know, you want to do all this and rein it in and all that shit. What you need to do is tear it down to the studs because they're not going to listen or change with any of the regulations or different training that you give them. And if I know it, why don't you? That's what I just want to scream. He does know it. He does know it. That's his problem. He knows it. They all know it. They have the same corporate donors. So how on earth can we expect him to fight for the American people when he fights harder for his lobbyists and his PAC donors?

6:17He knows exactly what they're doing. Everybody knows exactly what they're doing. Most of all, the MAGA people know. Nobody is deluded that this isn't what it is, most of which these leaders in the Democratic Party, which brings me to his corporate donors. They go in, Joy and Wajahat, and ask him about AIPAC. Watch this. Well, I do have one question about accountability, and I'll put my cards on the table. I'm against fascists and MAGA and Donald Trump, and I want Democrats to win, but I want the right Democrats to win. And I remember the YouGov poll that came out of the 2024 election said the main reason why Democrats stayed at home was their displeasure with the genocide that's happening in Gaza.

6:56And what we've seen is APEC. APEC now has spent$2 million attacking a moderate-leaning Democrat, Tom Malinowski, a Democrat, in the special House election in New Jersey 11th District. And we got a progressive Latina, Representative Mejia, who won, who by the way says abolish ICE. My question for you, if you're looking for accountability, if you're looking for change, shouldn't Democrats stop taking money from AIPAC that has spent so much money against Democrats? Well, listen, everyone's going to have to make their individual decision. My view as it relates to Democratic incumbents, first of all, is that I will continue to stand by every single one of them, whether that's Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on the one hand or the most conservative moderate Democrat on the other who's sitting in the Trump district and at all points in between, right?

7:46That's what I'm going to do as House Democratic leader. Now, in terms of how people individually fundraise, I'm proud of the fact that my average contribution amongst the millions of dollars that I've been working hard to raise for my own reelection that I used to help elect Democrats in other parts of the country is$27 per contributor. That's my average contribution. That's probably the lowest in the Congress. And so now everyone is going to raise money from their own constituents in different ways, and their own constituents are going to have a variety of different perspectives on a variety of different issues.

8:26But make no mistake, there's a big difference between Democrats and Republicans, and we're seeing that right now. I know some people like to project otherwise. How one can see the horrors of what has been inflicted on the American people since January 20th of last year and conclude otherwise or want to try to suggest that there's no difference in one's quality of life. When I go to Bedford-Stuyvesant or Brownsville or East New York or Canarsie or the West End of Coney Island, people know that their life is being made marketably worse because of who's in office right now, both in the White House and the House of the United States.

9:09And we determined to do something about that. Just a quick follow-up. So that means, will you stop taking money from APEC? I'm going to continue to raise money in the same way that I've been raising it, where the average contribution from millions of people across the country is$27 per contributor. Okay. In both of these instances, he cannot answer the question in a very plain spoken way. He cannot say, you know what, everything that you just said, Wajahat is 100 % true. And I don't know that we can abolish ICE right now. I don't know that we can do that. So here's what we're trying to do. And we're looking at all options because I agree it needs to be abolished, but I don't have the majority.

9:53He doesn't speak that way. In the instance of AIPAC, he has to filibuster and talk about his$27, blah, blah, blah. The bottom line is how can Hakeem Jeffries, he just said he's going to continue to raise money the way he always has, which means it's going to take more AIPAC money. How can we trust Hakeem Jeffries when the people who spent$200 million to get Donald Trump elected also own Hakeem Jeffries and Chuck Schumer. And they seem to prioritize Israeli safety over American safety. And one thing that the minority leaders said that I do agree with is that Republican governments rain more hellfire on their population than Democrats do.

10:42That is true. I lived in a red state. I saw it firsthand. I see what Republican supermajorities do. That sentence in there is true. But what is also true is that when the Democrats govern incrementally and service their corporations and their corporate donors and their lobbyists more and prioritize that over they do the people, the working class people get left behind and it incubates the political soil for a demagogue to come in, lie to them. And here we are in full-blown fascism. Listener, the thing about getting sick is it's not always between eight and five. So many things happen after hours.

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12:37And I want to play this last video. Here's Graham Plattner. He is Senate candidate in Maine. Here he is on the New Yorker podcast. And listen to just how plain spoken and excellent his answer is to David Remnick's question. Play the clip. Democratic Party today's biggest problem is that there is an element of it that has become as attached to corporate interests as the Republican Party is. And by the way, this isn't just like my opinion. I mean, everybody thinks this. Everybody. Will you hear people say things like, I don't vote because it doesn't matter. Both sides are the same. All that kind of stuff.

13:20And I don't I don't agree with that. I mean, there's a reason I'm running as a Democrat. There's a reason I'm running. If I thought that none of this, if there was no hope, I wouldn't do this. I have an immense amount of hope. However, I do think that there is an innate contradiction in trying to be a party that represents working people, representing those that struggle, those that labor, those that are often exploited or taken advantage of. It is impossible to represent their interests while also trying to represent the interests of those that exploit them. It's perfect. What he said is perfect.

14:00How can we expect these politicians to protect the people when the people, one single donor, might not be able to give Hakeem Jeffries money? Maybe they can't send him any money. All they can do is vote. But AIPAC can send him tens of millions of dollars. Other corporations can send him tens of millions of dollars. And it breaks something in these politicians. They get broken when they start receiving all this money and they start selling out and they start selling out. And you just see it across the Democratic Party. And this is why I think this moment in these conversations that everybody's trying to shut down online right now about the heart and soul of the Democratic Party are the most important conversations that we should be having right now in this lead up to the midterms.

14:46If you see what Hakeem Jeffries said there and you're satisfied with that type of filibuster and obfuscation, if you're fine with that, then OK, maybe the only thing we have in common is that we both hate Trump and we both hate fascists. I want a Democratic Party that is built to last. I want an FDR style popular government. FDR's policies were so effective and so popular and led to so much economic growth that the Republicans are still spiraling out over it. They did the amendment with the term limits, which I support. We don't want any president in there for too long. And ever since then, all they've been trying to do is unravel all of the New Deal stuff.

15:30They still have PTSD from it. That's how popular it is when your government services you. You pay money into the social contract, you get roads, you get education, you get healthcare, etc. People fundamentally like it. And the Republicans have been wetting the bed ever since that happened. And we're still living in the aftermath of it. Okay, that's all we have. Like, subscribe, comment. We'll be back later. Thank you.