On Thursday’s broadcast of CNBC’s “Squawk Box,” House Minority Leader Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) responded to questions on attacks on the free market by New York City mayoral candidate Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani (D), Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), and former President Joe Biden by saying that “I’m trying to understand why you would spend a significant amount of time asking me about the Democratic nominee, who’s not even the mayor.” And “It’s interesting that we’re talking about Joe Biden, no longer the president, Elizabeth Warren, who’s a Senator, as opposed to Donald Trump,” the current President.
After Jeffries stated that Trump is attacking the free market economy, co-host Andrew Ross Sorkin asked, “You’re talking about a free market on one side and being an advocate for a free market on one side. But, at the same time, we just had a whole conversation about an individual who is running for mayor in New York City, who is genuinely titling themselves a socialist. And you’re saying that you might ultimately support them. And so, I’m trying to understand the distinction here.”
Jeffries responded, “I’m trying to understand why you would spend a significant amount of time asking me about the Democratic nominee, who’s not even the mayor. And it’s not a legitimate point to raise about a President who is regularly attacking the free market economy, bullying corporations, bullying universities, bullying law firms. He just recently called upon the CEO of Goldman Sachs to fire their chief economist. That’s not problematic? He’s the leader of the free world, the President of the United States of America. He’s in office right now, and he’s attacking the market-based economy. Now, I said that I support –.”
Ross Sorkin cut in to ask, “I don’t disagree with you at all. And I don’t love those attacks. But I will say, just in fairness, and I wonder whether you think that they’re the same or they’re not the same, there have been people that have criticized Elizabeth Warren for years for individually attacking and going after and naming specific CEOs in America, specific companies in America, over again and over again. President Biden famously didn’t invite Elon Musk to the White House, probably caused him to actually support this President originally. And so, the question is, whether those are the same or they’re different.”
Jeffries responded, “It’s interesting that we’re talking about Joe Biden, no longer the president, Elizabeth Warren, who’s a Senator, as opposed to Donald Trump, the President of the United States of America, his administration, as well as complete control of government in Washington, D.C., the House and the Senate. That’s the problem that we are confronting right now. And our challenge is to actually make sure that we are addressing the issues of significance to the American people. And the number one issue is the high cost of living that they’ve failed to address.”
Earlier in the interview, Jeffries stated that his solution on affordability is to build more housing and this requires partnering with the private sector.
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