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- [00:00]
Ben
The markets are tanking right now after Donald Trump announced across the board tariffs on the world, something he called Liberation Day. The Dow futures as of this recording are down more than 1,000 points. The S&P is down about 3.7%. The NASDAQ is down almost 5%. This is unprecedented. Market crashes right now. And the White House doubling, tripling down their official rapid response account saying Liberation Day. And they're posting all the countries that are being tariffed wor, which is every country, basically. We're seeing headlines like this from barons. The stock market pain is just getting started. This is how you sabotage the world's economic engine. And Treasury Secretary Scott Bessen does the following, advising countries not to panic, not to retaliate. Right there and then from Fitch we have. This is a game changer not only for the US Economy, but but for the global economy. Many countries will likely end up in a recession. You can throw most forecasts out the door if this tariff rate stays on for an extended period of time. From cnbc, the market reaction after hours. I've never seen anything like this. Worse than anybody expected. This is what Donald Trump said moments ago in this horrific press conference.
- [01:24]
Donald Trump
Let's play it at the same time. We will establish a minimum baseline tariff of 10%. You notice that on the chart. And that'll be on other countries to help rebuild our economy and to prevent cheating. So we're going to have a minimum of cheating and we're going to be very severe on the people that at the gate that watch the tariffs and watch the product coming in, because there's been a lot of, a lot of bad things happening at the gate.
- [01:51]
Ben
Let's bring in Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries. Leader Jeffries, what do you make of all of this?
- [01:57]
Hakeem Jeffries
To be with you, Ben, you know, Donald Trump is a complete and total disaster on all the things, but at this moment, as it relates to the economy, this is someone who spent all of last year promising to address the high cost of living in the United States of America. In fact, he said that costs are going to go down on day one of his presidency. That's not happening. In fact, costs aren't going down. They're going up. Inflation is going up. As you pointed out, what's happening is that the stock market is collapsing. And what that means is that the retirement savings of everyday Americans are disappearing by the hour. And this is all because of Trump's reckless mismanagement of the economy. And now these tariffs that are being imposed are going to raise the cost of goods on everyday Americans, by some estimates, by thousands of dollars per year. This is out of control in terms of this guy who should be leading us to a better place in terms of an affordable economy, but instead is crashing the economy in real time. This ain't Liberation day, it's recession day because that's where we're headed.
- [03:22]
Ben
What do you make of the MAGA Republicans in the House of Representatives and in the Senate who are saying, America needs pain. This is pain that is needed. Short term pain and suffering. This is what was promised. So everybody, they go, it's like a kitchen remodel or like when you remodel your house. I think that's what a lot of the MAGA Republicans have been saying. What's your response to that?
- [03:46]
Hakeem Jeffries
MAGA Republicans can't be trusted with a thing other than trying to take away your health care and your Social Security. These are people who spent all of their time on the campaign trail promising to address the high cost of living, while at the same time acting like Project 2025 did not exist. And then this year, now they've got majorities in the House, the Senate and the presidency have done nothing to drive down the high cost of living and instead are talking about inflicting pain on the American people. Where was that talk before the election? This is why people in the country are so cynical about their elected leaders, because MAGA Republicans just lied. And by the way, what they've been doing is every day trying to implement the most extreme parts of Project 2025, which they claim they did not know anything about last year. This is why the American people we're starting to see all across the country are holding them accountable electorally. And we are going to keep the pressure on every single one of them.
- [04:58]
Ben
Let's talk about that. What do you make of the results in the Wisconsin Supreme Court election, those special elections also in Florida? Are you seeing a through line, a trend developing here?
- [05:11]
Hakeem Jeffries
Absolutely, there is a through line. What we've seen in the special elections that have taken place throughout this entire year, culminating of course with the crescendo of what occurred in Wisconsin, is incredible Democratic energy amongst the base and swing voters, independent voters, and even some moderate Republican voters supporting us. And that is why we've seen in January, we won a special election in Iowa in the state Senate seat that Donald Trump had previously won that November by 21 points. We won that race by 4, 25 point Democratic overperformance. We had a special election for the Westchester county executive seat in February. It's a seat that has been held within the last 10 years by a Democrat and by a Republican. It can go in either direction. Donald Trump endorsed the Republican candidate. The Democratic candidate won by 30 points. And then of course last week we saw in Pennsylvania in a state Senate district that Donald Trump had won in November by 15 points, that the Democratic candidate wins in Lancaster county, by the way, a county that in the history of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, one of the original 13 states has never elected a Democrat to represent it in the state Senate from Lancaster County. And then it all culminates with the results that occurred in Florida. Massive over performance. And of course in Wisconsin, a 50, 50 state that Donald Trump just won, which was a significant repudiation in the results. The enlightened candidate prevailed and prevailed decisively. It was a 10 point victory. Nobody saw that coming. It was stunning. The people rejected Donald Trump, rejected Elon Musk and rejected the extreme MAGA Republican brand which is rapidly deteriorating across the country.
- [07:20]
Ben
Leader Jeffries, this is the messaging that's going down on FOX right now. How they're trying to tell their viewers this is how you have to deal with the pain and suffering. I want to show you this, then I want to get your message to the voters out there and the people who are seeing these, the markets crash, they're seeing their life savings go away. But this is how Fox is framing it right now. Here, play this clip.
- [07:45]
Fox News Commentator
And those 401k people who are depending, those, those retirees, all of that, just talking, plain speak with them. Look, when this nation used to go to war, people in this country would support the war effort with, with their materials at home and, and making things for weaponry and all that. We got to do 100% buy in over this bumpy period. Just communicate, Taylor.
- [08:07]
Ben
So that's what Fox is saying. Tell people that we're at war and this is like World War II and that's what's going on. What's your message though, Leader Jeffries, to the American people right now who are seeing this crash take place before their eyes, A self induced recession by Donald Trump. What do you say to them?
- [08:28]
Hakeem Jeffries
That's absolutely right. And the notion that everyday Americans need to absorb pain brought to us by Donald Trump and his group of MAGA billionaires is ridiculous. It's outrageous. Every single one of the House Republicans and Senate Republicans supporting this kind of reckless approach, this unnecessary trade war need to be thrown out of office and held accountable for the pain that they are intentionally inflicting on the American people. We have to ask the question. This is probably the first time in our history that an American president is intentionally crashing the economy and driving us toward a recession. He didn't tell us about this when he was on the campaign trail last year. They have no mandate for any of this. No mandate to cut Medicaid, no mandate to try to take away Social Security. Certainly they don't have any mandate to drive this country into a recession, which is going to hurt hardworking American taxpayers and families all across the land.
- [09:34]
Ben
Why do you think he's doing it? Do you think it's part of the authoritarian playbook? Is he someone who just has bankrupted a lot of the companies that he's created before, and this is just what he does? What's your take on?
- [09:49]
Hakeem Jeffries
Does appear to me that this is what Donald Trump does. He somehow sold himself to significant numbers of Americans as a businessman, but he's a failed businessman, bankrupted multiple companies, and now Donald Trump is trying to literally bankrupt America. And we do have to ask the question, is there some financial gain involved here? Because we've seen significant corruption coming out of this administration. I mean, they're peddling Teslas on the White House lawn. You've got the cryptocurrency schemes that are underway. He's even trying to sell Easter. And so all of these things are happening. This is the most corrupt administration already in American history. They are going to be held accountable. I can promise that to the American people. And we are going to get to the bottom of why these reckless tariffs have been put into place, which are spiraling us toward economic collapse.
- [10:59]
Ben
You know, I've been hearing from a lot of our viewers see Democrats now going out. I mean, this. You told us this is what was going to happen. Democrats going out not just in their home districts, but in red districts across the country leading rallies. You've been leading events as well, focused on Social Security, on Medicaid. We've been seeing this across. So you're up in the fight right now. Right? You've also brought a lawsuit against Donald Trump. Talk about what contours the fight is taking on now and what we're seeing now because it looks like, you know, and I've been hearing from a lot of people, they said, yes, this is what we've been looking for definitively.
- [11:38]
Hakeem Jeffries
And this got to continue. It's every hour, it's every day, it's every week, it's every month, it's this year, it's next year. We get to the midterm elections and then, of course, we can try to begin to end this national nightmare and redeem the American dream for people all across the country. And the fight has to continue. And we've maintained it's in the Congress, it's in the courts, and it's in communities all across the country to win the hearts and minds of the American people. And that does require, as we've been doing, getting on the road in districts represented by Democrats and districts represented by Republicans in blue states, in swing states, in red states, town hall meetings, days of action, telephone town hall meetings, in person, events, rallies, iconic speeches delivered on the floor of the United States Senate, strong Democratic opposition in the House to. To the things that the MAGA Republicans are trying to do, including defeating a bill on the House floor yesterday or a rule that they brought to try to block expectant mothers and new mothers from being able to vote. Outrageous stuff. Strong Democratic opposition that stopped that bill and forced the Republicans to actually cancel votes for the rest of the week and run home. But we're going to continue to intensify these efforts while at the same time winning over the hearts and minds of the American people. This lawsuit, it was brought by myself, by House Democrats, Senate Democrats, the Democratic Governors association and the dnc. All hands on deck. Captioned in part Jeffries versus Trump. But it's all of us, and we're suing him in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia around his unconstitutional and unlawful executive order that relates to voter suppression. Donald Trump is not a king, and we're not going to bend the knee to this guy. And he issued an executive order as if he can change how elections are governed. No, you can't. And the courts are going to rule in our favor. That executive order will never go into effect. And it's only the state legislatures or the Congress or voters who have an ability through referendums to decide how elections are governed in a particular state. And I'm confident that the federal court will see it our way and that Donald Trump's unconstitutional and unlawful voter suppression executive order will never, ever see the light of day.
- [14:30]
Ben
Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries, thanks for joining.
- [14:33]
Hakeem Jeffries
Us so much, Ben.
- [14:35]
Ben
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