Hakeem Jeffries Wins Reelection as House Democratic Leader Despite Party’s Losses

TIME

House Leader Hakeem Jeffries won reelection Tuesday as the Democratic leader, receiving support from his colleagues despite the party's inability to win back majority control of the chamber in the November election.

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00:00It's an honor and a privilege to have the opportunity to continue to serve in the position as

00:06House Democratic leader and to work with this extraordinary group of public servants

00:12Who the caucus has entrusted to make sure

00:16that in the next Congress we can continue the fight for everyday Americans and push back against any effort and

00:26extremism that we see from the House Republican

00:30conference

00:31or from the incoming administration

00:34We are prepared to work hard to find bipartisan common ground with our Republican colleagues and the incoming administration

00:41On any issue whenever and wherever possible, but at the same period of time we will push back against far-right

00:49Extremism whenever necessary in terms of the so-called lame-duck

00:55Session, there are three high priority items that we hope we can get to over the next several weeks

01:02First, of course, we need to make sure that we keep the government open

01:07That we fund the government in a manner that meets the needs of the American people in terms of their health their safety and their

01:14economic well-being and we should do so before

01:18December 20th in a manner consistent with the

01:22Bipartisan Fiscal Responsibility Act this notion of some mandate to make massive

01:29far-right extreme policy changes, it doesn't exist

01:34It doesn't exist

01:35and so in the new Congress for anything to happen particularly as it relates to an

01:42enlightened spending agreement or

01:45ensuring that

01:47America does not default on our debt and crash the economy and hurt everyday Americans for the first time in our nation's history

01:54It's clear House Republicans cannot do it on their own

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