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Transcript: House Minority Leader Rep. Hakeem Jeffries on “Face the Nation,” March 10, 2024
The following is a transcript of an interview with House Minority Leader Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, Democrat of New York, that aired on March 10, 2024.
MARGARET BRENNAN: We turn now to the House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries, who joins us from Brooklyn, New York. Welcome back.
DEMOCRATIC LEADER REP. HAKEEM JEFFRIES: Good Morning. Great to be with you.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Leader Jeffries, you know, our latest CBS polling shows Donald Trump with a four-point lead over Joe Biden. And Mr. Biden has not consolidated his base Democratic voters. Specifically among Black voters, Biden is ahead of Trump 76% to 23%. But that core democratic group that he won with about 90%, back in 2020, is showing just- it seems like a lack of enthusiasm. How does President Biden fix it?
REP. JEFFRIES: Well, the polling has been all over the place, but I’m confident that at the end of the day, in November, the overwhelming majority of African Americans, Caribbean Americans, black voters throughout the country, will support President Biden, understand that he has delivered over and over and over again, on issues of concern whether that’s the lowest rate of Black unemployment in decades, whether that’s historic investment in historically Black colleges and universities, making sure that he has been supportive, incredibly so of small business creation and entrepreneurship in the Black community, building upon the efforts that had been previously done by President Barack Obama. And Joe Biden has a vision for the future of an inclusive economy that grows the middle class and ensures things like homeownership within the African American community can continue to grow.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Well, we heard a bit of that vision in the State of the Union address but we don’t often hear from the President on many of these things. Al Sharpton was just quoted in The Washington Post saying the campaign needs to do more to draw comparisons between “two old white guys.” He said they need to spend more money on ads, more money touting the record you just laid out. Is that it? What is it that is making people not have this enthusiasm?
REP. JEFFRIES: Well, I’ve traveled throughout the country and spend time, of course in the district that I represent here in Brooklyn. And there is a high degree of enthusiasm for President Joe Biden, and it is growing. President Joe Biden had an incredible State of the Union address. He was strong, he was serious, and he was substantive. And he drew a clear contrast between his vision of moving America forward in an enlightened way that’s inclusive of everyone. And the contrast with the extreme MAGA Republicans who want to turn back the clock. Turn back the clock on reproductive freedom, turn back the clock on voting rights, turn back the clock by ending Social Security and Medicare, as we know it–
(CROSSTALK)
MARGARET BRENNAN: — They would say they don’t —
REP. JEFFRIES: — President Joe Biden on the right side of those issues.
MARGARET BRENNAN: — plan to do that.
REP. JEFFRIES: On the right side of those issues for the American people.
(END CROSSTALK)
MARGARET BRENNAN: On the issue of the border, our polling shows by more than five to one voters say Biden’s policies will increase the number of migrants attempting to cross versus Trump policies. That’s an impression. I know in the state of New York, you recently had a race in New York 3, the victory of Tom Suozzi, and he campaigned on tougher border positions. Specifically, he said he was comfortable describing this as an invasion. I wonder if you endorse that language and if you would encourage Democrats to adopt it?
REP. JEFFRIES: Tom Suozzi ran a great campaign, he communicated with voters, he talked about common sense solutions to meeting the challenges that are facing the American people. Now, we believe as Democrats that we have a broken immigration system, and that we need to address the clear challenges at the border. President Biden has repeatedly made that clear. Entered into negotiations with Republicans who decided to detonate their own border policy bill because they were ordered to do so by Donald Trump, who was more interested in playing political games than solving the challenges at the border. Tom Suozzi leaned in to the fact that he supported the bipartisan bill that was being negotiated in the Senate —
MARGARET BRENNAN: Right.
REP. JEFFRIES: — and that Republicans are the ones who walked away from it. That is what was decisive in that campaign.
MARGARET BRENNAN: It wasn’t just process. He used that word, “invasion”. He used much stronger language. Do Democrats need to campaign in a- with a stronger message specifically on immigration? And you know, the- the flow of migrants is only expected to pick up in the coming months. This isn’t going away as a campaign issue.
REP. JEFFRIES: Invasion is not a word that I would ever use. I’m not sure whether he used that word or not, or in what context. I do know what Tom Suozzi said is that he believes that we are a nation of immigrants, of course, through his own experience, his grandfather coming over from Italy. At the same period of time, we need to also deal with the challenges that we confront at the border, anchored in the notion that we also are a nation based on the rule of law. And we can and should do both. But we need to do it in a bipartisan and in a comprehensive way that also respects the fact that Dreamers contribute to our country in a significant way. We have farmworkers who contribute to our country in a significant way–
(CROSSTALK)
MARGARET BRENNAN: Yeah, that’s- that’s not in the- the Senate bill.
REP. JEFFRIES: –and we can do this in a meaningful way.
(END CROSSTALK)
MARGARET BRENNAN: Okay, Dreamers are not in the Senate bill. And as you know, the Speaker and- and the House have said it would be dead on arrival, even if it were to pass the Senate. So moving to another issue that seems also stuck in Congress right now, aid to Ukraine. It runs out, ammunition does, in the month of April, according to the Ukrainian government. You want to get the $95 billion package, I know, from the Senate through the House. There’s no date to do that. Speaker Johnson has not committed to do that. Do you need an alternative? And can you promise Joe Biden, who made this issue number one in the State of the Union, that you can deliver on it?
REP. JEFFRIES: Of course we don’t need an alternative when you have a comprehensive, bipartisan, national security bill that has come over from the Senate. And all we need is an up or down vote in the House of Representatives. And everyone in Washington knows that it will secure at least 300 votes, if not more, so we can meet the needs of America’s national security–
(CROSSTALK)
MARGARET BRENNAN: But there’s no date to do that.
(END CROSSTALK)
REP. JEFFRIES: –we can support our democratic allies in Ukraine and Israel, humanitarian assistance to Palestinian civilians who are in harm’s way, support our allies in the Indo Pacific. That’s a question for Mike Johnson, when he knows that the House has the votes to act on America’s national security interests. The reason why it’s not happening is because there’s a pro-Putin faction in the Republican Party, led by Donald Trump and Tucker Carlson, who are blocking this legislation. And that’s shameful.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Will you protect Speaker Johnson from a motion to vacate if he takes that vote? Will you prevent him from being ousted?
REP. JEFFRIES: We haven’t had that conversation as a caucus. But I have made the observation that I believe there are a reasonable number of members, if the Speaker were to do the right thing, that don’t believe that he should fall as a result of it.
MARGARET BRENNAN: That sounds like a yes. All right. Leader, thank you for your time this morning. And “Face the Nation” will be right back.
AT&T is lowering curtain on its foray into the entertainment business, selling its majority stake in satellite TV provider DirecTV to private equity firm TPG Partners for $7.6 billion.
The deal, announced Monday, comes more than a decade after AT&T agreed to buy DirecTV for $48.5 billion, an acquisition that was designed to give the telecom giant a larger base of video subscribers and help it compete against rivals.
But since then, the subscription TV business has been hit by defections from “cord cutters,” or customers who have canceled their cable or satellite TV subscriptions in favor of streaming services such as Netflix. In 2021, following the loss of millions of customers, AT&T sold a 30% stake of the business to TPG in a deal valued at $16.2 billion.
“This sale allows AT&T to continue to focus on being the leading wireless 5G and fiber connectivity company in America,” AT&T said in a statement on Monday.
AT&T’s sale of its remaining 70% stake in DirecTV is expected to close in the second half of 2025.
Separately, DirecTV said it is acquiring satellite-TV provider Dish from EchoStar, a deal that also includes Sling TV, for $1 plus the assumption of roughly $9.8 billion in debt.
Shares of AT&T rose slightly before the market opened on Monday.
CBS News
Israeli strikes in Lebanon decapitate Hezbollah, but as civilian deaths mount, neither side backs down
Beirut, Lebanon — Israel expanded its airstrikes on Iran-backed groups in Lebanon and beyond over the weekend, launching raids thousands of miles away on Yemen’s Houthi rebels. The Israeli attack on Houthi targets in the Yemeni port city of Hodeida came after months of U.S. and British strikes against the group – a joint response to the rebels’ regular rocket, drone and missile attacks on international military and commercial vessels in the Red Sea.
The Israeli strikes also came, however, amid growing concern that Israel’s nearly-year-long war with the Houthi’s ideological allies Hamas in the Gaza Strip and Hezbollah in Lebanon could spiral into a broad regional conflict, drawing in Iran and even the U.S. to back their respective allies.
Israel hit the Houthis just a couple days after it assassinated Hezbollah’s longtime leader Hassan Nasrallah with a massive airstrike on Friday.
After that strike, Israeli forces continued pounding purported Hezbollah and Hamas targets across Lebanon’s south and east all weekend, but the southern Beirut suburb of Dahiyeh, the Hezbollah stronghold where Nasrallah was killed along with another senior commander and two other high-ranking members of the group, has borne the brunt.
Aziz Taher/REUTERS
The well-armed group’s surviving deputy leader Naim Qassem vowed Monday that Hezbollah would carry on – despite its near decapitation via airstrikes, and before that exploding pagers and walkie talkies – “facing the Israeli enemy to support Gaza and Palestine.”
He accused the U.S. of offering Israel “limitless support” for Israel to carry out “massacres” in Lebanon and Gaza, and then claimed Hezbollah had fired even more weapons at Israel, and deep into the country, since Nasrallah was killed.
But Hezbollah’s incessant drone and rocket fire is virtually wiped out by Israel’s advanced air defenses before it reaches any targets. There have been civilians injured over the last couple weeks, but in Lebanon’s capital, entire residential buildings have been flattened.
CBS News went to see the aftermath of one Israeli strike Sunday on the edge of Dahiyeh. A five-storey-building was reduced to rubble. It was still smoldering as another massive boom reverberated in the distance, underscoring the unpredictable security situation for Lebanese civilians as Israel carries on, determined, it says, to push Hezbollah many miles away from its border to stop the cross-border attacks.
Getty/iStockphoto
Israel has assassinated at least five Hezbollah commanders over the past week alone, and 19 in just a few months — dealing a major blow to the U.S.-designated terrorist group. Hezbollah ramped up its attacks on Israel a day after Israeli forces launched their first airstrikes on its Hamas allies, in immediate response to Hamas’ Oct. 7 massacre.
Hezbollah has acknowledged losing more than 30 operatives in recent weeks, including many of its senior leaders, but the ferocity and pace of the Israeli strikes in Lebanon has also taken a massive toll on Lebanese civilians. At least 1,000 people have been killed in just two weeks — 105 on Sunday alone.
According to Lebanon’s Prime Minister Najib Mikati, the strikes have displaced almost 1 million people from their homes, most of them fleeing southern Lebanon for Beirut of other locations further north.
Some of those displaced families — including many with young children — have come to Beirut’s iconic Blue Mosque, desperate to find safety. The place of worship has become a refuge for people who told CBS News they’d rather sleep in the courtyard’s surrounding the building, out in the open, than go back to their neighborhoods amid Israel’s bombardment.
Samar al-Attrash is among those who have found sanctuary outside the mosque. She fled her home in Dahiyeh with her husband and their three children, and little more than the clothes on their backs.
CBS News
“We have nowhere to go to but here,” the mother told us. “We are very scared and we can’t go back to Dahiyeh at all until the situation gets better.”
“I told my kids it’s scary and that we can’t go home,” she said. “I’m only telling [them] a little at a time so I don’t traumatize them.”
President Biden reiterated his warning on Sunday that an all-out regional war must be avoided, but as he spoke, CBS News correspondent Chris Livesay and his team reported that tanks and armored vehicles were massing on the Israeli side of the country’s northern border with Lebanon.
IDF handout
On Monday, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant paid another visit to Israeli troops waiting for orders near the border, telling them killing Nasrallah was, “an important step, but it is not the final one.”
“We will employ all of our capabilities,” Gallant told the Israeli troops, “and this includes you.”
It was the latest clear signal that Israel is preparing for some kind of ground operation in Lebanon — a move that has the potential to spark fighting even deadlier than anything seen since Oct. 7.
Despite the body blows dealt by Israel, Hezbollah’s deputy leader claimed Monday that the group’s “military capabilities are solid,” that it “will continue along the same path” it has been on for months – and that it is ready for a war with Israel.
contributed to this report.
Washington — Sen. JD Vance of Ohio and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz — both relative newcomers to the national political spotlight — face off Tuesday in the only scheduled vice-presidential debate before the November election.
The debate is being held three weeks after former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris had their only scheduled debate.
Walz, who is Harris’ running mate, has had a long career in politics but was largely unknown to voters outside of Minnesota before he joined the Democratic ticket.
Vance, the author of “Hillbilly Elegy,” was first elected to office in 2022 — less than two years before being selected by Trump to be his running mate.
Here’s what to know about the debate.
What time will the VP debate start and end?
The debate starts at 9 p.m. ET on Tuesday. It will run 90 minutes — the same length as the two presidential debates — and end at 10:30 p.m. ET.
Who is moderating the VP debate?
“CBS Evening News” anchor and managing editor Norah O’Donnell and “Face the Nation” moderator and chief foreign affairs correspondent Margaret Brennan will moderate the debate.
Where is the VP debate?
The debate is taking place at the CBS Broadcast Center in New York City.
Trump was a lifelong resident of New York City, a Democratic stronghold, before changing his voter registration and primary residence in 2019 to Palm Beach, Florida, where his golf club Mar-a-Lago is located.
In 2020, Trump lost New York to President Biden by more than 20 points, but the former president insisted during a recent campaign event on Long Island that he could win the state this year.
“When I told some people in Washington, ‘I’m going up to New York, we’re doing a campaign speech,’ they said, ‘What do you mean New York? You can’t ever — nobody can win. Republicans can’t win. I said, ‘I can win New York, and we can win New York.’ We’re going to win,” Trump said.
What are the rules for the debate?
Both campaigns agreed to a 90-minute debate with two four-minute commercial breaks. Campaign staff are not allowed to interact with the candidates during the breaks.
There will be no audience — a measure also implemented during the two previous presidential debates.
At the event’s start, the moderators will introduce the candidates in order of incumbent party, with Walz coming first. There will be no opening statements.
Walz will stand behind the lectern on the left side of the stage, which will be on the right side of viewers’ screens. Vance will be at podium on the right side of the stage, but the left side of screens.
Candidates, who cannot bring pre-written notes or props on stage, will have two minutes to answer a question and two minutes to respond. They will be allowed one minute for rebuttals. At moderators’ discretion, candidates may get an additional minute to continue a discussion.
Unlike the presidential debates, a candidate’s microphone will not be muted when their opponent is speaking, but CBS News reserves the right to turn off the microphones.
Vance won a virtual coin toss on Thursday, opting to go second with his closing statement. Each candidate will have two minutes for their closing remarks.
No topics or questions will be shared with the campaigns in advance.
How can you watch the VP debate on cable?
CBS will air debate coverage starting at 8 p.m. ET on its broadcast stations and affiliates. Find your local station here.
Besides CBS, the debate will simulcast on a number of other broadcast and cable networks. Check your local listings.
How can you stream the VP debate without cable?
It will also be streamed on all platforms where CBS News 24/7 and Paramount+ are available, including CBSNews.com and YouTube.
Debate coverage on CBS News 24/7 begins at 4 p.m. ET.
