Leader Hakeem Jeffries Responds to GOP Gerrymandering Scheme

0:00Ben Meiselas:As MAGA Mike recessed Congress, as he's terrified of discussing anything relating to Donald Trump's dark past with Jeffrey Epstein and the MAGA Republicans are in disarray. He just got more nightmare news. The new Gallup poll, which, by the way, previously showed Donald Trump's like approval in the 30s. Now, when it comes to party identification, this is a big change from 2024. More Americans consider themselves Democrats than Republicans right there. And that poll is hot off the press this morning. Let's talk about Maga Mike panicking, though, during this period of recess. We all know that Maga Mike's trying to conceal all of the Epstein files, but he's been trying to make his rounds and actually say, no, no, no, no, no.

0:46Ben Meiselas:I'm I'm I want everything. Really, I've been I'm the guy who has pushed for it to be released. That's me. I'm that guy. Here, play this clip. We have to do it in a responsible manner. But look, I'm pushing for aggressively for the full release of everything that is possible. And by the way, so is the president. He has said the same thing. We're using every mechanism within our power to do that and to do it as quickly as possible. I wonder why less people identify with guys like that. What are you talking about? You're literally the opposite of that. And what do they think that we're just so utterly stupid?

1:18Ben Meiselas:They're like, oh, yeah, Megamike. That's why you recessed it, because you want to get more info out. That's why you gave immunity to Ghislaine Maxwell. Here he is again on the Epstein files and saying, look, you know, Thomas Massey, he may be a Republican, but he's got other motivations and why he wants. I'm not going to get into those other motivations, but he wants to. He's pushing for something else for his own reasons here. Listen, here it is, Speaker Johnson, as I told you, your favorite topic, the Epstein file. So this issue is going to be waiting for you when Congress returns. And just this afternoon, Congressman Massey posted, quote, Speaker Johnson has been promoting this non-binding resolution, hoping to give cover to those who don't want a full release of the Epstein files.

1:58Ben Meiselas:Embarrassingly, Section 3 of his resolution refers to Section 2, which doesn't exist, unquote. Massey calls your resolution a glorified press release. He says his bill would be binding as the force of the law. And he says it does protect the victims. I wanted to give you an opportunity to respond. Look, I have no interest in getting a back and forth with Thomas Massey. He's doing what he's doing. Everybody can judge the motivation for themselves. I don't know what he's talking about. I don't have a resolution. There is a a resolution that's out there that was passed by the House Republicans on the Rules Committee.

2:31Ben Meiselas:And that's, you know, Freedom Caucus members and a cross section of members who are for maximum transparency as well. Oh, for maximum, maximum transparency. Those files are literally right there if anybody wants to release it. But then go into this issue as well of redistricting and how Donald Trump has ordered Texas to basically remove the Democratic congressional districts from Texas, remove five Democratic congressional districts. It was already gerrymandered, bright red by the Republicans in the first place, but just remove all Democrats basically from Texas. And then MAGA Mike Johnson was asked on Fox.

3:11Ben Meiselas:Well, what if a state like California has to you know, they respond and they gerrymander out Republicans? Isn't this just going to be a tit for tat? And then MAGA Mike's like, the thing is, in California, they have to follow the law. They have lawful process. We don't have to really do that. Right. We're the Republicans here. Play this book. Your life was so simple in the first term, much simpler in the first term, less responsibility. Real quick, are you for the redistricting that the president's pushing for in Texas and Ohio? Because in response, the Democrats say we're going to do it to you in New York and California.

3:46Ben Meiselas:California has a problem. They've got to amend their state constitution, as I understand the law out there, to do it. Look, we have to fight for every inch of ground in the country. We're in an era of small margins, as you said, because of gerrymandering and redistricting. But they have to follow the law. I'm convinced the red states will. And we will probably have a few more seats out of that. And of course, that's good news for me. You know, I got to bring in Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries to respond to that. You're in Austin right now and you're speaking to the state legislators there who know that the fight is on.

4:17Ben Meiselas:I want to talk about the fight being on before I talk about the fight being on, though. I got to talk about all the stuff that he's saying at the beginning right there when he goes, he and Trump are maximum transparency and they're the ones who want everything released. Leader, what do you say to that? Well, the extreme MAGA Republicans in the House and, of course, Donald Trump are completely and totally out of control. And they're in free fall right now. Donald Trump is deeply unpopular. His public approval rating is in the 30s or early 40s. The one big ugly bill has been rejected by the American people.

4:54It turns out that when you rip away health care from millions of Americans, steal food from the mouths of children and veterans and seniors. And all of this is being done by Republicans because they want to reward their billionaire donors with massive tax breaks. The American people don't like it. So they have no legislative track record of accomplishment that will meaningfully address the issues that are important to the American people, like driving down the high cost of living. In fact, inflation is going up under Donald Trump and Republican rule in Washington, D.C. Life is getting more expensive, and they have the problem that they are hiding the Epstein files from the American people.

5:39They're not about transparency. That's a joke. The votes exist in the House right now to release the Epstein files, But House Republican leaders refuse to bring the bill to the floor because Donald Trump has ordered them not to do it. And in the face of all of this. That is why they feel like they need to gerrymander the Texas congressional map to try to rig the midterm elections.

6:11Ben Meiselas:right i mean donald trump's a lifelong cheater i mean this is what he does he cheats on people he cheats in business he cheats on taxes he's a fraud i mean that's his background like that's like you know it's like well what's your background i mean trump's are all of those things and this is what he does when he starts losing he starts cheating and he compounds the problems so yes they're trying to rig the midterms right now with what we said this uh horrifically unlawful gerrymandering scheme. So you're in Austin. You're speaking today. You just spoke with them, the Democratic Austin legislators who are in for a fight.

6:49Ben Meiselas:So what are you talking with them about? What does this fight look like? How do they stop this unlawful plan? The members of the Texas congressional delegation are in complete lockstep with Democratic members of the Texas House and the Texas Senate who recognize this is an all hands on deck moment and everything is on the table in terms of pushing back aggressively against this reckless Republican gerrymander effort. We have to push back and fight them politically, fight them governmentally in terms of the legislative battle. And of course, we're going to make sure that we're fighting them legally in court and organizing on the ground, which is one of the reasons why I'm here, so that we can win over the hearts and minds of the people of Texas who are going to be hurt by this effort to suppress their ability to participate in a free and fair election.

7:48Ben, it's important to understand that, as you pointed out, the Texas map is already gerrymandered. There's already a lawsuit that is active that has challenged this map in terms of violations of the Voting Rights Act. And, of course, if the map that they want to substitute in is put in place, it's a further attack, particularly on communities of color all across the great state of Texas. Under this new proposed map, about a third of the people of Texas will be put into a new congressional district. That's more than 10 million people. And two thirds of those folks who will be put into a new congressional district are people of color.

8:35And so this is a very clear scheme designed to have politicians choose the voters that they want to represent so that they can rip away four or five congressional seats currently held by Democrats as part of their desperate effort to stave off being wiped out in the midterm elections because of their failures as a Republican Party.

9:02Ben Meiselas:You know, as our viewers may be wondering, how can they do this? Like, did they do this 20 or 30 years ago? Why does it seem like the maps are getting more egregious? Well, the Voting Rights Act was completely gutted as a result of the right-wing Supreme Court. In the past, these maps would actually have to be submitted to an independent Department of Justice and a three-judge panel that would make the determination in the first instance to approve or not approve. Now they are even unlawful maps presumptively go into effect. To your point, Leader Jeffries, then the litigation happens, which takes many years as the litigation gets closer to an election.

9:45Ben Meiselas:The Supreme Court goes right wing Supreme Court. We've got the Purcell principle or whatever. Purcell principle. We're so close so we can't do anything. We're going to keep the unlawful map for the next cycle. and then this is what they keep on repeating over and over again. Then they don't follow the Supreme Court orders and you have to get injunction after injunction after injunction. So with that as the background, though, when you say everything's on the table, yes, litigation needs to be on the table. The problem is that's not going to, you know, I don't know that'll stop it before the election.

10:16Ben Meiselas:So what else? Is there a walkout so there's not a quorum? Is there other steps that are taken? You know, are you meeting with other states and saying you do this? How do you deal with the fact that in a state like California, there's independent commissions and Democratic states tend to play by the rules and go, okay, we'll have independent people do it. Republicans are like, screw that. We ain't doing independent. What Trump says rules. So how do we fight that? Yeah, we can no longer unilaterally disarm. So that's the core principle. Enough with that. And, you know, we're going to make sure that we take a close look at the ability of other states like California, New York, New Jersey, Maryland, and others to be able to respond in a way that allows for the greatest opportunity for the nationwide congressional map to be as fair as possible.

11:09Now, you're absolutely correct that California has a citizens commission. New York has a constitutional prohibition on mid-decade redistricting and also has an independent redistricting commission. And so right now, we have a situation where Democrats for decades have been playing by a different set of rules relative to redistricting. And that's been made worse by the fact that the Supreme Court in 2013 decimated Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act, which is the preclearance provision that required that states like Texas or others who want to change the congressional map had to get that pre-cleared by either the Department of Justice or a three-judge panel in the federal judiciary who weren't going to sign off on changes that would likely undermine the ability of communities of color to be able to choose the elected representatives of their choice.

12:10So right now, we are making sure that we are exploring all of the opportunities to go back to the voters of California or New York or New Jersey or Virginia or beyond to address the moment that we are in as needed. because the bottom line is who's in elected office matters. It matters in terms of the economy. It matters in terms of health care. It matters in terms of standing up for our veterans who have been under assault, standing up for organized labor under assault, standing up for our children or people with disabilities, our older Americans, all of whom are going to suffer as a result of this one big ugly bill that has now been passed into law.

12:56And so we are going to use this moment to organize the American people in ways that shine a spotlight of transparency on how these Republicans have failed to make life better for the American people. and why we've got to do everything possible to ensure that when the will of the American people has been expressed in the midterm elections, it can be done in a free and fair way, which the Republicans know will result in them getting wiped out and Democrats taking back control of the House.

13:33Ben Meiselas:Yeah, I think that's what frustrates so many Americans. You look at the issues, you remove the parties, you remove the issues, whether it's climate, women's reproductive rights, gun control, the tax policy, trade policy, you name veterans issues, the size of the government, whatever. And if you did a blind study, here are the issues, here are the issues. What do you support? They come out like 70, 30 usually, and sometimes even more 80, 20. And then you tell people, well, now I'm going to tell you these issues are the democratic issues. These issues are the Republican issues. And they'd be shocked about that to begin with.

14:09Ben Meiselas:And so how is this all get inverted? And they're playing by a different set of rules. Democrats have been playing nice. You're telling the people we're done with that. We can still be nice people. We can still be compassionate and empathetic Americans. And we want to be clear that we're fighting for the people. But when it comes to this type of stuff, to your point, we're not going to unilaterally decide. We're fighting, right? Yeah, absolutely. We're in a More is more environment. And we just have to keep doing more to push the extreme mega Republicans in an aggressive fashion, stop them legislatively, stop them in the courts, stop them in communities in terms of winning over the hearts and minds of the American people, and then stopping them politically in November of 2026.

14:55the stakes are too high. And listen, we just believe in a country where when you work hard and play by the rules, you should be able to live the good life, not too much to ask for, good paying job, good housing, good health care, good education for your children, and a good retirement, which means making sure Republicans keep their hands off of Social Security and Medicare. And now we know that the Trump administration is trying to privatize Social Security. So these are fights that we're waging on behalf of the American people. And we're going to have to do it with righteous intensity over and over and over again.

15:32More is more, continuing to do more on behalf of the American people. But this redistricting fight is at the center of their efforts on the other side of the aisle to stop the American people from holding them accountable. And that's why, you know, we're in an environment where extraordinary times, require extraordinary measures, and all options are on the table from this moment forward until we end this national nightmare with Donald Trump in office and compliant House Republicans and can continue our country's great march toward a more perfect union.

16:08Ben Meiselas:Weird and dangerous times. Let's get out of them. Thanks for fighting for us. We appreciate you. Leader Hakeem Jeffries, great to see you again. Great to see you. Thanks so much. everybody hit subscribe. Let's get to 6 million subscribers.