On Thursday’s broadcast of MSNBC’s “The ReidOut,” House Minority Leader Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) reacted to the Department of Justice’s lawsuit over New York law tipping off individuals when immigration authorities request their data from the DMV by stating that the Trump administration is “playing games and targeting the great state of New York. We will not be intimidated by their illegitimate threats.”
Host Joy Reid asked, “New York Attorney General Letitia James (D), she is now being sued. There is a lawsuit that’s been filed by the Justice Department naming her specifically. What do you make of the tactics of the Department of Justice? Pam Bondi pretended, during her nomination hearings, that there would be no weaponization of the Justice Department. But now we have this happening, and, also, we have several resignations, including some pretty conservative members of the Eastern District of New York, because they refused to drop the prosecution of Eric Adams (D), and also this question of trying to sue New York over immigration. What do you make of the Justice Department’s actions toward New York?”
Jeffries responded, “It’s not clear to me why the administration is so focused, obsessed on the people of the great state of New York, as opposed to doing what they promised to do, which was to lower grocery prices on day one. That was the promise. And we haven’t seen the cost of living here in the United States of America go down. In fact, it’s going up all across the country because the administration and House Republicans could[n’t] care less, it appears, about actually solving the problems that they were elected to solve. Housing costs are too high in the United States of America. Grocery costs are too high. Utility costs are too high. Childcare costs are too high. It’s a fact that America is too expensive. And House Democrats have been clear that we want to solve that problem. We want to get that done. We believe the American people, working-class folks, low-income folks, middle-class folks are crying out for us to solve that problem. But the administration has shown no interest in doing anything about it. Instead, they’re playing games and targeting the great state of New York. We will not be intimidated by their illegitimate threats.”
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