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DONKEY: Hakeem Jeffries Says He Doesn't Support Medicare For All · The Breakfast Club

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  Speaker 1: It's time for Donkey of the day. You have a
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: bunch of donkeys out here in the street. Don't here
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: today called donkey of the day. It really caught me
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  Speaker 1: off guard.
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  Speaker 2: If we live a life where we write are tell
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  Speaker 2: based off who we may offenised.
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  Speaker 1: He never would say anything. Give it to you are
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  Speaker 1: a donkey. That is why Charlemagne is some donkey today
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  Speaker 1: Bakfast Club. Okay, Charlamagne, who'll be giving Donkey of the
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  Speaker 1: day too?
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  Speaker 3: It's to day?
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  Speaker 2: Well, you know, Donkey to day for Tuesday, August eighteenth
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  Speaker 2: goes to one of the most confusing people in American politics,
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  Speaker 2: Congressman Hakeem Jefferson.
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  Speaker 1: Well, actually he's not confusing.
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  Speaker 2: If you follow the corporate pack money, then you know
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  Speaker 2: exactly why Haqum moves the way he moves. Okay, it's
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  Speaker 2: a reason they call him a pac shakor it's a
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  Speaker 2: reason they call him a pac rocky. But today we
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  Speaker 2: are here to talk about APAC. We are here to
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  Speaker 2: discuss Medicare for All. Okay, what is Medicare for All?
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  Speaker 2: It is a proposed single pair national health insurance system
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  Speaker 2: for the US. It would expand and improve the current
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  Speaker 2: public Medicare program to cover all residents, replacing private health
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  Speaker 2: insurance companies and eliminating out of pocket costs like premiums,
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  Speaker 2: co pays, and deductibles care.
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  Speaker 1: A lot of data I've seen.
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  Speaker 2: Says around fifty to sixty percent of all Americans support
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  Speaker 2: a national Medicare for all, our single payer healthcare system.
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  Speaker 2: But Hakim Jeffries is not one of those people. See
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  Speaker 2: Hakim was on Meet de Press with Christen Welker, and
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  Speaker 2: the House Minority Leader indicated that he does not currently
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  Speaker 2: support Medicare for all. Okay legislation, even though he co
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  Speaker 2: sponsored similar bills from twenty thirteen to twenty twenty one.
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  Speaker 1: Let's go to Meet the Press for the report.
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  Speaker 3: Please, all right, let's move on to Medicare for All.
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  Speaker 3: You co sponsored Medicare for All legislation from twenty thirteen
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  Speaker 3: to twenty twenty one, You've not co sponsored it since
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  Speaker 3: you became Democratic leader. Will you put Medicare for All
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  Speaker 3: up for a vote if you become speaker?
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  Speaker 4: Well, listen, these are all conversations that the House Democratic
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  Speaker 4: Caucus is going to have to have right now. We're
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  Speaker 4: focused on November third, not January third. What we are
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  Speaker 4: promising the American people, is that we're going to fight
• 2:00
  Speaker 4: to make health care affordable for every single American. And
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  Speaker 4: we know there's a lot of damage that Republicans have
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  Speaker 4: done that we've got to restore and repair. For instance,
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  Speaker 4: Republicans have enacted the largest cut to Medicaid in American history.
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  Speaker 4: More than a trillion dollars or so has been cut
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  Speaker 4: from Medicaid, and what you're going to have is about
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  Speaker 4: fourteen million Americans lose access to healthcare.
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  Speaker 3: Do you personally support Medicare for All? Do you personally
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  Speaker 3: support Medicare for All?
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  Speaker 4: No, as you indicate it, I haven't co sponsored the
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  Speaker 4: Medicare for All legislation that has been introduced over the
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  Speaker 4: last several years. I do think we need to figure
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  Speaker 4: out how to fix our broken health care system and
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  Speaker 4: then build something better once we repair the damage that
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  Speaker 4: has been done. Now that will include doing things like
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  Speaker 4: extending the Affordable Care Act tax credits so that more
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  Speaker 4: than twenty million people who have seen their health insurance
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  Speaker 4: premium skyrocket in some cases by up to a thousand
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  Speaker 4: thousand dollars a month. That's not sustainable and that's something
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  Speaker 4: that Donald Trump and Republicans have visited upon the American people.
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  Speaker 3: Just be very clear, though, as a Democratic leader in
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  Speaker 3: the House, would you vote for or against Medicare for All?
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  Speaker 4: I think, as you've indicated in your question to me,
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  Speaker 4: it's not legislation that I currently am co sponsoring or
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  Speaker 4: that I support. Okay, but we do support the notion
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  Speaker 4: that we've got to find a path forward to fix
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  Speaker 4: our broken healthcare system and make health care affordable for
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  Speaker 4: every single American.
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  Speaker 1: Pathetic.
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  Speaker 2: Some Democrats don't want to win, and it's about time
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  Speaker 2: folks stop pretending that they do. Okay, now, listen, I
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  Speaker 2: want to be clear, Hakim Jeffries is not getting donkey
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  Speaker 2: of today because he doesn't support Medicare for All. You
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  Speaker 2: are allowed to not support Medicare for all. You can
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  Speaker 2: believe in a public option. You can believe in scrimphening Obamacare.
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  Speaker 2: You can believe in expanding Medicare and Medicaid. You can
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  Speaker 2: believe there's another way to get every American affordable health care.
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  Speaker 2: That's called having a policy position. But with Hakim did
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  Speaker 2: on meet the Press illustrates one of the biggest problems
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  Speaker 2: Democrats have right now, and it's one of the things
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  Speaker 2: that pisses me off the most.
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  Speaker 1: About the Democratic Party. They will tell people what they're.
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  Speaker 2: Against without giving them something equally clear that they're for. Okay,
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  Speaker 2: we will come back to that. But I have a
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  Speaker 2: question for Hakim Jeffries in regards to Medicare for All.
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  Speaker 1: Simply what changed? Okay? Right, Hakim?
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  Speaker 2: In September twenty nineteen, you became a co sponsor of
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  Speaker 2: the Medicare for All Act. Then in twenty twenty one, Hakim,
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  Speaker 2: you know you wasn't just somebody who eventually jumped onto
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  Speaker 2: Medicare for All. No, you was an original co sponsor
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  Speaker 2: of the Medicare for All Act of twenty twenty one meeting.
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  Speaker 1: When that bill was introduced, your name was already on it. Okay.
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  Speaker 2: Now fast forward to twenty twenty six, Hakim Jeffries, as
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  Speaker 2: you just heard, goes on meet the Press and says
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  Speaker 2: Medicare for All is not legislation that he currently co
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  Speaker 2: sponsors are supports.
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  Speaker 1: Once again, what changed?
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  Speaker 2: What did you learn between twenty twenty one and now
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  Speaker 2: that changed your mind?
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  Speaker 1: Did the economics change?
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  Speaker 2: Did you discover something about Medicare for All that you
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  Speaker 2: didn't you know, you know when you co sponsored it?
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  Speaker 2: Did America's healthcare system suddenly get better. We know the
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  Speaker 2: answer to that. Did premiums get so cheap that I
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  Speaker 2: missed the announcement? Did deductibles disappear? Did prescription drugs become free?
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  Speaker 2: Did medical that go away? The insurance companies stopped the
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  Speaker 2: nying claims? Because if any of that happened, we all
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  Speaker 2: missed it.
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  Speaker 1: Okay.
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  Speaker 2: And by the way, politicians are absolutely allowed to change
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  Speaker 2: their minds. Okay, we should actually encourage people. People to
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  Speaker 2: change their minds when they get new information. Growth requires
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  Speaker 2: changing your mind sometimes, Wisdom requires changing your mind sometimes.
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  Speaker 2: But when you're an elected official and you change your
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  Speaker 2: position on something this significant, the people deserve to know why,
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  Speaker 2: especially when the thing that changed most dramatically during that
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  Speaker 2: time appears to be your position. Okay, not your policy position,
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  Speaker 2: your actual position. Because once again, in twenty twenty one,
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  Speaker 2: Hakem you was a congressman from Brooklyn.
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  Speaker 1: Remember that.
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  Speaker 2: Remember when you was a congressman from Brooklyn and you
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  Speaker 2: was quoting Biggie and Jay appearing to be down with
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  Speaker 2: the people. Today, you're the leader of the House Democrats, okay,
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  Speaker 2: the House Democratic Caucus, and could potentially become Speaker.
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  Speaker 1: Of the House. But you appear to be done with
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  Speaker 1: corporate America, not the people. So I have to ask
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  Speaker 1: did your beliefs change when your title changed? Because that's
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  Speaker 1: what people hate about politics.
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  Speaker 2: Okay, It's not disagreement, all right, It's the feeling that
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  Speaker 2: politicians believe one thing when they're trying to move up,
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  Speaker 2: and another thing once they moved up. Okay, And Akim
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  Speaker 2: Jeffreys has repeatedly said, healthcare.
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  Speaker 1: Is are right?
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  Speaker 2: All right?
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  Speaker 1: If healthcare is are right? How are you gonna guarantee
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  Speaker 1: that right? That's all we want to know.
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  Speaker 2: Okay, Because if medicare for all isn't the answer anymore,
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  Speaker 2: what's the answer. Don't just tell me what you don't support,
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  Speaker 2: tell me what you do support. How are democrats gonna
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  Speaker 2: make sure every American has health care? How are you
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  Speaker 2: gonna lower premiums? How are you gonna load deductibles? How
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  Speaker 2: are you gonna lower prescription drug prices? How are you
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  Speaker 2: gonna stop families from being financially destroyed because somebody simply
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  Speaker 2: got sick? What happens to the millions of Americans who
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  Speaker 2: are uninsured, are underinsured?
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  Speaker 1: What's the plan, my guy?
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  Speaker 2: Okay? Because this is another problem democrats have. You cannot
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  Speaker 2: spend all day telling America what Republicans are doing wrong
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  Speaker 2: and never clearly articulate what you're going.
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  Speaker 1: To do right.
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  Speaker 2: Opposition is not an agenda, Resistance is not an agenda,
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  Speaker 2: where not them is not an agenda, And saying we
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  Speaker 2: need to fix our broken healthcare system isn't a plan.
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  Speaker 2: And tell you to tell people how you're going to fix
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  Speaker 2: the broken healthcare system. Regular people don't wake up debating
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  Speaker 2: the finer points of single pair.
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  Speaker 1: Of health care, okay.
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  Speaker 2: They wake up asking why am I paying hundreds of
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  Speaker 2: dollars a month for insurance and still have a deductible
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  Speaker 2: that's thouands of dollars?
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  Speaker 1: Okay?
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  Speaker 2: Why did my insurance company deny the procedure my doctor
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  Speaker 2: said I need? Why does this prescription cost hundreds of
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  Speaker 2: dollars that I don't have? Why am I afraid to
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  Speaker 2: go to the er because I don't know what the
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  Speaker 2: bill is going to look like. That's what people are
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  Speaker 2: dealing with in real life, Hakim. So, once again, Hakim,
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  Speaker 2: I don't need you to support Medicare for all, but
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  Speaker 2: I need you to explain why you supported Medicare for
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  Speaker 2: all when you weren't the Democratic leader, but democratic Hakim
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  Speaker 2: Democratic leader Hakim Jeffrey, does it?
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  Speaker 1: Okay? What changed? All right? Was it? The policy?
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  Speaker 4: Was it?
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  Speaker 1: The country? Are your position?
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  Speaker 2: And I'm asking because leadership should make you know, shouldn't
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  Speaker 2: make your convictions harder to find. Leadership should make your
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  Speaker 2: convictions clearer.
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  Speaker 1: Okay.
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  Speaker 2: If you believe Medicare for all was the solution in
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  Speaker 2: twenty nineteen and believes it enough to become an original
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  Speaker 2: Cospontan in twenty twenty one, but you don't believe it's
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  Speaker 2: the solution in twenty twenty six, you have to tell
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  Speaker 2: us why, and more importantly, probably the most important, tell
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  Speaker 2: us what replaced it, because you can't tell Americans healthcare
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  Speaker 2: is a right and then get vague when they ask
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  Speaker 2: you how you're going to guarantee that right. Rights require mechanisms,
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  Speaker 2: rights require policy, Rights require somebody actually fighting to make
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  Speaker 2: those rights real. And maybe that's the lesson in all
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  Speaker 2: of this, all right. The easiest thing for a politician
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  Speaker 2: to change is their position. When their position changes, when
• 8:46
  Speaker 2: you're trying to climb the ladder, bold ideas sound great, okay,
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  Speaker 2: and then you become responsible for protecting suits and raising
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  Speaker 2: money and maintaining coalitions and potentially becoming speaker, not to
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  Speaker 2: mention taking corporate back money, and suddenly.
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  Speaker 1: Those bull the ideas get a whole lot quiet on
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  Speaker 1: the creek.
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  Speaker 2: Okay, I understand the politics of that, but the American
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  Speaker 2: people deserve more than politics. They deserve an explanation. So,
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  Speaker 2: Congressman Jeffries, you don't owe anyone your support for MEDICAI
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  Speaker 2: for all. What you owe the American people is an
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  Speaker 2: explanation for why something worthy of your signature in twenty
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  Speaker 2: twenty one isn't worthy of your support in twenty twenty six.
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  Speaker 2: And until you explain that, people have every right to
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  Speaker 2: wonder whether the thing that changed was the policy or
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  Speaker 2: the politician, please give House Democratic Leader how Kim Jeffries
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  Speaker 2: the biggest.
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  Speaker 1: He huh, what the hell is that? You need to
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  Speaker 1: go see somebody right now.
• 9:43
  Speaker 2: Jesus Christ, that's a damn biscuit God like a damn
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  Speaker 2: a cat.
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  Speaker 1: The guy has stuff that's you about to call up
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  Speaker 1: a frog?
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  Speaker 2: You know, one time I see somebody put rootwork on
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  Speaker 2: someone and they caught up a whole frog.
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  Speaker 1: Sounded just like that. It could be a hairball. How
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  Speaker 1: many bits you head? All right? Thank you for thank
• 10:04
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• 10:05
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