During a press briefing on Thursday, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) spoke about recent victories for Democratic candidates in special elections held after Trump won the Presidential Election.
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00:00Thank you, Leader Jeffries. With everything that is going on right now inside the Democratic Party, including this growing group between David Hogg and Malcolm Kinnata, what do you see as the future?
00:13I'm sorry, I missed that. They have a rift right now for the last year, so including that rift. What do you see as the future direction of the party, and how do you anticipate, if in any way, that this can translate to what you're doing here in the House?
00:28Well, I think, you know, as House Democrats, we remain strongly unified, and, you know, look forward to our continued partnership with Senate Democrats, governors across the country, Democratic Attorney Generals, other stakeholders, elected officials, unions, and of course the Democratic National Committee, to continue to make our case to the American people and win elections.
00:53It's interesting to me that we continue to navigate these sensational narratives, when as far as I can tell, from the very beginning of this presidency, Democrats are winning and Republicans are losing.
01:12What exactly is confusing to people observing the state of the Democratic Party versus the state of the Republican Party based on five months consecutively of electoral data?
01:37What exactly is confusing at this point in time?
01:41There's a special election in January in Iowa. It was a district that Donald Trump had just won
01:46by 21 points
01:50in a state Senate district
01:53that's in a swing congressional district
01:55that we will win
01:56next year.
01:58And the Democrats won that state Senate seat in Iowa, that was in January, and then in February, there's a high-profile special election in New York
02:09because the Westchester County executive seat was vacant.
02:14It was held by a Democrat who's now in Congress, George Latimer. He's doing a great job.
02:18Before Latimer held it, it was held for eight years by a MAGA Republican, Rob Astorino, Trump endorses the Republican candidate
02:29in February in that special election, who then loses to the Democrat
02:33by 30 points.
02:36And then in March, there's a special election
02:41in a state Senate district
02:44in Pennsylvania, a district that Donald Trump had just won
02:47by 15 points.
02:51As far as we can tell, no Democrat
02:53in recent memory in the 20th or 21st century has ever represented
02:58Lancaster County
02:59until now
03:01because the Democrat won
03:04in the swing state of Pennsylvania
03:07in March.
03:11And then in April, Elon Musk spent $25 million
03:14in Wisconsin,
03:16a state
03:17that Donald Trump had just won
03:20in what was widely viewed as a competitive
03:24election for the state
03:26Supreme Court
03:27seat that was open
03:29and the Democrats won decisively
03:33in a swing state
03:34defeating
03:35the MAGA extremists
03:38who was backed by Donald Trump and company
03:40by double digits.
03:43And then just this week
03:45in Omaha, Nebraska
03:48in another electoral upset
03:52the Democratic
03:54candidate, John Ewing Jr.,
03:57defeats the incumbent
03:58Republican
03:58Republican
03:58mayor
03:59by 13 points.
04:03This is happening
04:04all over the country.
04:07Five consecutive
04:09months.
04:11So if that's losing,
04:13what does winning look like?
04:16I'm confused.
04:18We have a very clear
04:21quantifiably evident
04:23road map
04:25as to
04:27how Democrats
04:28are doing
04:30in this country
04:31and how Republicans
04:33are doing
04:34during this Trump era.
04:36You