Hakeem Jeffries, possible next House speaker, says party will try to restore healthcare spending, push back against Trump on tariffs, Iran war
By Ken Thomas
WASHINGTON -- House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries said Democrats would move swiftly to reverse Trump-era cuts to healthcare spending and bring down households' costs, expressing confidence that his party would win a majority during President Trump's final two years in office.
The New York Democrat, speaking with a group of reporters, laid out some of his key priorities Wednesday should his party win back control of the House in November's midterm elections, while also nodding toward planned investigations of GOP "crooks" but giving few details.
Jeffries said he was "very confident" the party will win enough seats to regain a majority, while cautioning it "remains to be seen what that looks like in terms of the number of seats."
Democrats need a net gain of three seats to win back the House, which would put Jeffries in a strong position to become the nation's first Black speaker. A large majority could give him more ability to keep Democrats' agenda on track and push back against any small group of holdouts in the party.
Current House Speaker Mike Johnson (R., La.) has predicted that Republicans will defy historical trends and keep the majority, despite the party of the president almost always losing seats in the midterms. He has cast Democrats as wanting to roll out socialist policies that will hurt voters. Election watchers currently see Democrats as favored to take the House and having a good shot at winning back the Senate as well.
Asked about working with Trump as a potential House speaker, Jeffries said, "We will cross that bridge when we get to it, based on what happens on Nov. 3, and then it will fall into the hands of the caucus to determine who is put in position to help lead us forward."
Jeffries said a Democratic-led House would tackle Trump's sweeping 2025 tax-and-spending law that cut taxes and slashed more than $1 trillion in healthcare spending. He said Democrats would be united around reversing cuts to Medicaid and restoring expired enhanced Affordable Care Act tax credits "right out of the gate."
Any legislation would face a possible filibuster in the Senate and Trump's veto pen, setting up possible policy showdowns headed into the next presidential election.
With high fuel prices and inflation leading concerns among voters, Jeffries said Democrats would push back against the White House's handling of the war in Iran. He also signaled plans to provide a check on the president's trade agenda, predicting a more forceful response by the Congress against global trade disputes and higher tariffs regimes.
In addition to high costs and healthcare, he noted that Democratic congressional candidates have made corruption a key theme ahead of the midterms, accusing Trump and his allies of enriching themselves while in office and issuing payments in exchange for pardons.
"These are all things that are going to need to be thoroughly investigated as part of our pledge to hold the crooks accountable beginning on day one," he said, noting that Rep. Jamie Raskin (D., Md.), the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, and Rep. Robert Garcia (D., Calif.), the ranking member of the House Oversight Committee, have been leading those efforts.
Raskin and Garcia, Jeffries said, "have been doing a great job to date, and they're just getting started."