(AFP) – Prospective Speaker of the House Hakeem Jeffries on Wednesday marveled at the scale of Democrats’ “incredible victory” in US congressional elections, singling out the high cost of living as the defining issue of the midterms. Appearing on “Morning Joe” on the liberal MS Now network, the House minority leader, who is poised to become the first Black person to lead the House when the new Congress convenes in January, called the result a repudiation of President Donald Trump and his Make America Great Again (MAGA) movement.
Asked by host Joe Scarborough whether he could ever have imagined winning 250 seats in the 435-seat chamber — a number not yet confirmed but which appears possible — Jeffries, 56, said: “We were confident that we were going to take back control of the House, and certainly that we had an opportunity to win a significant number of seats deep into Trump territory above that. But 250, perhaps even 255, Joe, is a stunning number.”
The Brooklyn Democrat said his party would focus not on retribution but on fulfilling its promise to lower the prices of groceries, gas, housing, and health care. “The American people don’t want us to get even,” said Jeffries, who succeeded Nancy Pelosi as House minority leader in 2023. “They want us to get things done on their behalf. Because life is way too expensive. We ran on affordability. We won on affordability. And now it’s our job to govern on affordability.”
Trump has threatened to use his veto power, raising questions about how much Democrats can achieve even with control of both the House and Senate. Jeffries pointed to the Democratic-sponsored housing affordability bill, passed by large bipartisan majorities in both chambers in July, as something that “should help lay a foundation for the types of things that we can do in the next Congress to actually drive down the high cost of living.” Trump refused to sign the bill, dismissing it as “a yawn” and “so unimportant,” but it became law without his signature after the 10-day constitutional window lapsed.
Jeffries also blamed the president’s “reckless and costly war of choice in Iran” for driving up fuel and fertilizer costs that fed through to groceries and goods. “It’s important for the president, before we even cross over into the new Congress, to end this war in Iran,” he said.
Amid numerous allegations of financial impropriety during Trump’s presidency, from his cryptocurrency venture to insider trading, Jeffries warned: “There’s a cost to corruption.” “When it comes to the accountability side of the equation, it’s going to be our responsibility to follow the facts, apply the law, be guided by the Constitution, let the chips fall where they may, and make sure that wrongdoers are being held accountable.”
© 2024 AFP
