House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) on Sunday bashed President Donald Trump as a “wannabe king” and his Republican followers as “rubber stamps.”
Jeffries’ criticism comes at a time when Trump’s massive tax bill, which will be detrimental to the working class, is up for a vote in the Senate and just after a controversy in which the Department of Homeland Security handcuffed a congressional staffer in Rep. Jerry Nadler’s (D-N.Y.) office.
“We don’t work for Donald Trump, we don’t work for the administration, we don’t work for Elon Musk, we work for the American people. And we have a responsibility to serve as a check and balance on an out-of-control executive branch,” Jeffries told CNN’s Dana Bash. “It’s unfortunate that our Republican colleagues continue to be nothing more than rubber stamps for Trump’s reckless and extreme agenda, and the American people, I think, will ultimately reject that next year when we will take back control of the House of Representatives.”
Bash asked Jeffries for his thoughts about DHS handcuffing Nadler’s staffer as they were detaining migrants in the same building.
DHS said officers temporarily detained the staffer because the person was “verbally confrontational and physically blocked access to the office,” but Nadler warned the arrest represents a “deeply troubling disregard for legal boundaries.”
Jeffries argued it was an intimidation tactic.
“I think the administration is clearly trying to intimidate Democrats, in the same way that they’re trying to intimidate the country,” he told Bash. “But Donald Trump has learned an important lesson: The American people are not interested in bending the knee to a wannabe king.”
Jeffries also slammed Trump’s “big, beautiful bill,” which senators are set to vote on soon after House Republicans just barely passed it last month.
Democrats have warned about the harm the bill could impose on ordinary Americans.
“This bill actually hurts everyday Americans in order to reward billionaires. It would strip away health care from approximately 14 million Americans. Premiums, copays and deductibles for tens of millions more will go up. Actually, if it ever were to be implemented into law, hospitals will close, nursing homes will shut down and people will literally die,” Jeffries said.