House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries on Wednesday slammed Republicans on “Morning Joe,” calling out his colleagues on the other side of the aisle for their “cult-like” reaction to Donald Trump’s State of the Union address.
During his remarks Tuesday evening, Trump criticized the recent Supreme Court decision that struck down his global tariffs and defended his ability to unilaterally impose the tax without approval from Congress.
“Congressional action will not be necessary,” the president said, to the applause of House Speaker Mike Johnson and other Republicans in the chamber.
In that moment, Jeffries said the majority party showed “a complete and total abdication of their responsibility to conduct themselves like a separate and co-equal branch of government.”
“What we’ve seen repeatedly from these folks is that they regularly bend the knee to Donald Trump and behave like they are nothing more than reckless rubber stamps for Donald Trump’s extreme agenda,” said the New York Democrat.
According to Jeffries, such behavior is “the reason why the American people are rejecting Republicans in election after election after election over the last 14 consecutive months — because they’ve broken promises.”
“They failed to actually address anything that is designed to make life better for everyday Americans, and then they lie about it regularly,” he said.
Jeffries compared Trump’s speech with the Democratic response, delivered by Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger, who won her closely watched election in November.
In her speech, the minority leader said Spanberger contrasted Republicans’ “corruption with our commitment to make life better for everyday Americans, to drive down the high cost of living, to fix our broken health care system and to make sure that immigration enforcement in this country is fair and just and humane.”
Ahead of the midterms, Jeffries also addressed Republicans’ efforts to overhaul elections with the SAVE Act, which passed the House earlier this month. The bill, if approved by the Senate, would make major changes to how Americans vote, including requiring proof of citizenship to register, eliminating mail-only registrations and mandating photo ID in every state.
“Donald Trump is not interested, of course, in a free and fair election,” the congressman told MS NOW. “And this legislation is about voter suppression because the Republicans know that they are on their way to losing, as has been the case for the last 14 months now.”
Jeffries said Democrats at the state and national level and civil rights groups across the country were “all hands on deck” to “unleash the largest voter protection effort that the country has ever seen.”
“We understand the stakes are so high,” he said.
You can watch Jeffries’ full interview in the clip at the top of the page.
Allison Detzel is an editor/producer for MS NOW. She was previously a segment producer for “AYMAN” and “The Mehdi Hasan Show.”