STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
Hakeem Jeffries, the Democratic leader in the House of Representatives, received confirmation last night that his party did not win a majority, so he will not be speaker of the House. He will remain minority leader during the coming Trump administration. Shortly before the Associated Press called the House for Republicans, Hakeem Jeffries spoke with our cost Michel Martin.
MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
When he was chosen, Leader Jeffries took to the well of the Congress to give a rousing opening speech, which has become the basis of a new illustrated book.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
HAKEEM JEFFRIES: House Democrats will always put American values over autocracy, benevolence over bigotry, the Constitution over the cult.
MARTIN: It's called "The ABCs Of Democracy," and the timing is fitting, as his party struggles to make sense of the 2024 election where former President Donald Trump was returned to the White House. Congressman Jeffries, thank you so much for being here.
JEFFRIES: Morning, great to be with you.
MARTIN: I was wondering what gave you the idea to kind of riff on the alphabet as a way to conclude your opening speech.
JEFFRIES: Well, it was a moment of transition, as Democrats had just lost control of the House of Representatives. And I thought it was important to make clear that, while we would always be prepared - and that's the case right now - to work with the other side of the aisle whenever and wherever possible in a bipartisan way to get things done, that we would stand up for traditional American values and push back against extremism at all times, and concluded that perhaps the most accessible way to lay that out was to go through those traditional American values through the lens of the alphabet.
MARTIN: Would you just read a couple of pages?
JEFFRIES: Hopefulness over hatred, inclusion over isolation. Justice, over judicial overreach, knowledge over Kangaroo courts and liberty over limitation.
MARTIN: In the current moment, it does look as though Republicans will take the House as well as the Senate and the White House, of course. A lot of people have given their take on why this happened. What's yours?
JEFFRIES: It was a tough election night, and we can't sugarcoat that reality. And we've got to power through it with family conversations as House Democrats, which we will do, that will be candid and clear-eyed and comprehensive. What happened? Why did it happen? How do we make sure we can get better results moving forward?
MARTIN: I get that, but what's your take on what happened? I know you have an opinion. What is it?
JEFFRIES: Yeah, I think we all have to do a better job of meeting the needs of everyday Americans who are struggling to live paycheck to paycheck. High housing prices, the high food prices and the high gas prices that we've seen in America, of course, that spiked in the aftermath of the shutdown of the economy connected to the once-in-a-century pandemic and that we are still navigating our way through to this moment, had a significant impact.
And the party in power is going to receive the lion's share of responsibility for the fact that food prices, gas prices, housing prices remain high, and that the American dream for far too many people who are either part of the middle class or who aspire to be part of the middle class seems out of reach. That is a breakdown of what America represents. And we have to deal with it in as decisive a way possible, hopefully not as Democrats, independents or Republicans, but as Americans.
MARTIN: So is it that you as a Democratic Party did not know that? Or is it that you as a Democratic Party did not communicate that, that you knew that? Which is it?
JEFFRIES: Well, I think it's definitely clear that we were aware in the districts that we all represent that this was a big challenge, at least in terms of House Democrats, where we had 31 battleground members in the toughest seats in the country, who were incumbents. We will return 27 or 28. That's 90% or so of our front-line members who weren't washed away in a wave. They are coming back.
MARTIN: So let's look forward. What is the way back for your side?
JEFFRIES: Well, when former President Trump took office in January of 2017, he had a majority in the House of 241 Republicans and there were only 194 Democrats. Everyone agrees that even if House Democrats fall short at this particular moment in time of getting to the 218 number, we will have at least 213, 214, 215 members of the House. And so that's a very different dynamic in terms of heading into a midterm election.
MARTIN: What could you do with those numbers that you couldn't do with 194?
JEFFRIES: Well, on the governing side, as has been demonstrated during this Congress, where extreme MAGA Republicans who are in the majority can't point to a single thing that they have done to make life better for the American people and where House Democrats, because of the closeness of the margins, have effectively governed in the majority, though we are in the minority. And the same dynamic will exist as we move forward.
MARTIN: Just to give an example, that keeping the government open - right? - preventing the government from shutting down because of the failure to pass budget bills through regular order, that would not have been accomplished without the votes of Democrats. Things like that. That's one of the things you're talking about?
JEFFRIES: That's correct exactly, Michel, definitively. And we can go through the list. We have avoided a government shutdown now on five different occasions so that we could fund the government in a manner that meets the health, safety, national security and economic well-being needs of the American people because Democrats provided the majority of the votes.
MARTIN: Who's the standard-bearer now? Who speaks for the Democrats now?
JEFFRIES: Well, it's going to fall to the House. It's going to fall to the Senate. It's going to fall to the governorships.
MARTIN: You were in striking distance of becoming the first Black speaker of the House. It's not the only thing you are, but it is certainly one thing. How are you?
JEFFRIES: Well, I grew up in the Cornerstone Baptist Church and, you know, learned from an early point in time that a setback is nothing more than a setup for a comeback. And election night was certainly a setback, but it just sets us up for a comeback on behalf of the American people, staying consistent with our ideals, making sure we put working families over the well-connected and that we stand up for these traditional American values. So America is much more than any one particular election, any one particular moment of adversity and any one particular bump in the road. And we will regroup. We always have. We will rise to the occasion, and we will get through this moment.
MARTIN: House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York. We're talking about his new book, "The ABCs Of Democracy," and a lot of other things. Thank you so much for coming by.
JEFFRIES: Thank you, Michel.
(SOUNDBITE OF GIZMO VARILLAS' "EL DORADO") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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