‘Are You Kidding Me?’ Hakeem Jeffries Pushes Back on CNBC Host Pressing Him to ‘Reject’ Progressives Promising He’s ‘Next’

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) pushed back on CNBC’s Joe Kernen as he pressed him to acknowledge that he and other Democrats may be in serious trouble after a trio of progressives won their primaries in New York.

Jeffries joined Squawk Box on Thursday morning and turned the focus to President Donald Trump when Kernen reminded him of a recent viral video of New York progressive voters chanting “you’re next” when they saw an image of Jeffries flash on a screen at a Brooklyn watch party for Claire Valdez.

Valdez is one of a trio of candidates backed by New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani (D) who won primary battles this week. Brad Lander and Darializa Avila Chevalier also won their primaries, toppling incumbents.

Kernen told Jeffries he needs to “reject” the far-left base of his party and reminded him they don’t seem to be too fond of him or his leadership.

“They were saying, you’re next about Hakeem Jeffries, you’re next, you’re next. You can’t think this is a positive development in New York politics, can you? Dems will be Dems or something like that. I don’t see how you can say that. You need to reject those things, I think,” Kernen said.

Jeffries said he has “rejected” extremist politics and went after Trump.

He said:

First of all, I’ve clearly rejected those things, that’s number one. Number two, and my record speaks for itself, this is not a Dems will be Dems situation. Donald Trump is the president of the United States of America right now, are you kidding me? He just actually detonated a bipartisan housing bill that would help build housing in this country that is affordable for everyday Americans who are drowning and suffocating in Donald Trump and the Republicans’ failed economy. He’s the president right now. And so I’m happy to talk about primary elections in one of the bluest cities in the country. At the end of the day, listen, our focus is going to be on ending this national nightmare in this country that America is suffering. A reckless and costly war of choice that skyrocketed gas prices. The failure to lower costs was Donald Trump’s promise that he would do and a whole host of other challenges.

Kernen went on to say voters are wondering, “What happened to the Democratic Party” and will be in 2028, while Jeffries argued national issues are far more important than New York’s primaries.

“I think that people are going to be concerned about the failure of Republicans to do the things they promised to do on the economy,” Jeffries said.

Watch above via CNBC.

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