“America is too expensive,” says House Democratic Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, who has, as the saying goes, drawn a line in the sand. The man from Brooklyn wants to “keep fighting” for affordable healthcare for all Americans. The latest elections — which saw Republicans losing to Democrats in Virginia, New Jersey, New York City, and “up and down the ballot,” as Jeffries himself put it — have shown Democrats to be “on the right side of this fight.”
Jeffries makes no secret of his distrust toward the Trump administration, calling it “toxic.” As a case in point, he cites the firing of federal workers before the shutdown had even begun.
“America is too expensive,” he repeats throughout the press briefing, his words carrying the sort of punch that belongs on a campaign poster. His party, he insists, is waging the fight for affordability. “Donald Trump and Republicans have failed to deliver on their core promise to lower the high cost of living in the United States of America,” he stated at the opening of his Monday morning presser.
Jeffries was visibly fired up moments after Speaker Johnson proclaimed an end to the longest government shutdown in American history.
He said that Speaker Johnson is “apparently still hiding,” calling him out for dodging questions at his own press conference. “That’s extraordinary,” Jeffries said, “but they’re not going to be able to hide this week when they return from their vacation.”
![House Democratic Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries holds a weekly press conference [ Photo credit: Leader's press office handout]](https://i0.wp.com/thepavlovictoday.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/Hekeem-Jeffries-1-1.jpeg?resize=780%2C520&ssl=1)
According to Jeffries, “The overwhelming majority” of Senate Democrats, under the stewardship of Senator Schumer, are opposing the bill. House Democrats, he said, are poised to do the same. Asked whether he harbours any doubts about Schumer’s leadership, Jeffries shot back a resolute no.
Jeffries is now taking the lead to “decisively” address what he calls the “Republican healthcare crisis” on behalf of everyday Americans.
However, this was the first time Jeffries acknowledged — however faintly, however cautiously — that Affordable Care Act subsidies may not, in fact, be extended. And if that eventuality comes to pass, Trump will “owe” it. It was the first glimmer of acknowledgment that such a prospect might, just might, become reality.
Jeffries insists the struggle he leads is not a partisan fight but a “patriotic” one.
“Democrats are going to take back control of the House of Representatives next year,” said Jeffries, whom former President Biden often called the future Speaker of the House.
Trump, in his eagerness to lambast Jeffries, may have done him a colossal favour. The attacks catapulted him to the centre of the national stage. His weekly press conferences — and I was there at his very first as leader — are now fully packed, with journalists elbowing for questions. Jeffries, cool and combative, seems to draw strength from the fray. The fight, far from fatiguing him, appears to be his fuel.
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