WASHINGTON — In his first weekly press conference since the election, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., stressed the need for bipartisan solutions while pledging to push back “whenever necessary against far-right extremism.”
Republicans officially retained control of the House Wednesday when Rep. Juan Ciscomani, R-Ariz., narrowly defeated his opponent Kirsten Engel. The win secured 218 seats for the GOP and a slim majority, setting the stage for a legislative agenda shaped by President-elect Trump’s priorities.
As Democrats brace for a Republican trifecta in the House, Senate and White House starting in January, Jeffries framed the moment as both a challenge and an opportunity to find common ground—though he made clear that his party would not shy away from confrontation when principles are at stake.
“We will defend the Affordable Care Act. We will defend the progress we’ve made on the climate crisis. We will defend voting rights,” Jeffries said, outlining what he deemed to be non-negotiable priorities for House Democrats. “And we will certainly defend a woman’s freedom to make her own reproductive healthcare decisions at all times.”
When asked about electoral gains for Trump in nearly every demographic voter bloc, Jeffries said that it was going to be important to examine the election results on a state-by-state basis to determine what happened, offering his home state of New York as “an interesting case study.” Jeffries pointed out that while Trump made electoral gains even in strongly held Democratic areas like Queens and the South Bronx, Democrats flipped four Republican-held seats in the state of New York.
Jeffries addressed a broad array of topics, touching on everything from the war in Ukraine to the implications of artificial intelligence, to his experience working alongside former Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., on the House Judiciary Committee. His remarks came amid reports of a pending House Ethics Committee investigation into allegations of sexual misconduct involving Gaetz, who is under scrutiny following his recent appointment as Attorney General.
When first asked about Gaetz, Jeffries deflected the question toward other senior position appointments in the Trump administration.
“The former president promised on the campaign trail that America would have the best economy, the best border security, and the best administration possible,” Jeffries said. “And the question that we all have to ask when we’re confronted with nominations like Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is, are these the best individuals available?”.
When asked again, Jeffries appeared more frustrated. He said that he’s not going to answer questions about potential White House officials for the next two years, citing former Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard and Gaetz as examples.
“That’s all a distraction,” Jeffries said, calling on Senate Republicans to act independently and serve as a check and balance on “a particularly out-of-control, when it emerges, administration.”
