Hakeem Jeffries on His Support for Mamdani: He’s ‘Relentlessly Focused on the Affordability’ of Everyday New Yorkers

RUSH TRANSCRIPT:
SHARPTON: “The house democratic leader, congressman Hakeem Jeffries of New York. Congressman, thank you for your time this evening. We have a lot of ground to cover, but we’re grateful tonight to be in your first TV interview since you formally endorsed zoran mamdani in his race for mayor of New York City. Mandani just sat down with my colleague Ayman Mohyeldin for an interview airing later tonight. Take a listen.”

MOHYELDIN: “Do you picked up a big endorsement of Hakeem Jeffries. A fellow. New Yorker. But also minority leader in the house? It was one that a lot of people. Were. Waiting to see. I wanted to. Get. Your thoughts on. That, that you are picking up that endorsement. What it. Says about your candidacy. But also the. Fact that there. Are still some very prominent New York politicians and senior. Members of the. Democratic Party. Who have not. Endorsed you yet.”

MAMDANI: “I appreciate having congressman Jeffries endorsement and. Its. Endorsement that reflects the fact that this is. An ever. Expanding coalition. And I also know that the reason I’m sitting here in front of you as the democratic nominee is not because of any one or many endorsements that we received. It’s because of the fact that we built a campaign focused on working class New Yorkers and their struggle to afford the city, and I’m looking forward to working with congressman Jeffries to deliver on the affordability for those New Yorkers.”

SHARPTON: “Leader, why are you backing a man, danny, in the mayor’s race?”

Jeffries: “Well, he’s. A democratic nominee. And as he’s indicated, he has. Relentlessly focused on the affordability of everyday New Yorkers. Of course, we know that affordability is a big concern in the city of New York, but also across this great state and throughout the nation. In an environment where Donald Trump promised that he was going to lower costs on day one, costs haven’t gone down. They’ve gone up. Grocery costs continue to be through the roof, housing costs out of control, electricity bills skyrocketing. And now, of course, we face tens of millions of Americans having to confront their health care premiums, co-pays and deductibles about to explode, with Republicans refusing to extend the Affordable Care Act tax credit. So the focus on affordability is important. The movement toward a realization that focusing on public safety is going to be important. And as I mentioned earlier this week, that the decision to extend an offer to commissioner Jessica Tisch to remain as police commissioner is incredibly important in an environment where people within many of the communities that I represent, certainly the Jewish community, are very concerned with the staggering rise of anti-Semitic incidents that have occurred in New York City over the last two years and throughout the nation. But comfortable, of course, with the notion that commissioner Jessica Tisch is someone who cares about public safety for every community and has done a tremendous job, certainly in the black and brown communities that I represent, which for decades have been struggling with gun violence that far too often has not gotten the attention that it needs. That will continue to be an issue of importance. And we found some common ground there. And lastly, in terms of the existential moment that we confront relative to Donald Trump and this extremism that he’s unleashing on the people that I serve in brooklyn. But people all across the country, the assault on the economy, the ripping away of health care from everyday Americans, the unleashing of. Masked ice agents on on law abiding immigrant families throughout the country, and just the undermining of the rule of law. The targeting of tish James, our attorney general. All of these things, I think, require an all hands on deck as part of an effort to push back.”