‘Any day this week in primetime’: Hakeem Jeffries just challenged Speaker Mike Johnson to a live debate over shutdown
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries challenged House Speaker Mike Johnson “any day this week on prime time,” as the country enters its first full week of a government shutdown.
The New York Democratic leader sent a letter to the Republican leader of the House of Representatives on Monday as Democrats dig their heels in during the shutdown, hoping to win an extension of tax credits for the Affordable Care Act’s health care marketplace.
“I write to challenge you to a debate on the Floor of the House of Representatives any day of this week in primetime, broadcast live to the American people,” Jeffries said.
Last month, the House of Representatives passed a “clean” stopgap spending bill called a continuing resolution, before leaving for the Jewish high holidays. It has not returned and on Friday, Johnson declared this week a district work week, which means the House will not return for votes.
But Jeffries urged his colleague on the other side to make the case to the public and said that the country needed bipartisan negotiations between the White House and congressional leadership.
“Unfortunately, Donald Trump and your party decided to shut down the government because the GOP refuses to provide health care to everyday Americans,” Jeffries said. “Further, you have kept House Republicans on vacation instead of working with Democrats to reopen the government.”
Trump for his part has resorted to mocking Jeffries, posting numerous racist cartoons of Jeffries dressed in a Mexican sombrero, accusing Democrats of wanting to give health care benefits to undocumented immigrants, despite the fact that immigrants who came to the United States illegally are ineligible for federal benefits.
