CNBC’s Joe Kernen Berates Hakeem Jeffries Over Democratic Shutdown Strategy
CNBC Squawk Box host Joe Kernen raged Thursday that House Minority leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) and the Democratic Party were setting a “bad precedent” with their government shutdown strategy to Jeffries’s face, telling the congressional leader he’d be “going crazy” if Republicans did the same.
The government shutdown blame game boiled over during a CNBC interview with Jeffries, with Kernen fuming at the Democrats who he said were effectively holding the government hostage to reverse Republican legislation.
“There was an election, and the Republicans were put in a position where they were able to pass the Big Beautiful Bill, or as you call it the ‘Big Ugly Bill.’ To then say, we don’t like any of that, so we’re going to shut down the government until you take back all the things that you duly passed through legislation – ” the host began.
He continued:
If Republicans had tried to do that to the Inflation Reduction Act or any of the acts that Biden and that administration have passed, if they said we’re going to shut down the government because we don’t like any of those things you did, ‘we’re not going to pay our military, we are going to not allow the government to reopen until you do what we want’ – after an election where the American people put Democrats in power – you’d be going crazy! You’d be crazy about using a shutdown of the government on a continuing resolution.
As Jeffries stood stonefaced, Kernen added: “To get what you want just because you don’t like what the Republicans did. It’s not how it works. It’s bad. It’s a bad precedent, and it’s just clear. And you’re talking about the House. You’ve already passed this. The Senate is who we’re talking about, and they have a bill which will reopen the government right now with five more Democrats.”
Jeffries fired back, blaming the GOP for refusing to negotiate.
“What is bad precedent is the Republican refusal to engage in bipartisan negotiations,” he said, accusing the House majority of a “my way or the highway approach from the very beginning of this Congress.”
As the debate grew testy, Jeffries framed the standoff as a moral failure by Republicans, arguing that “Cruelty from the very beginning of this administration has been the point” and insisting that the “responsible thing to do is to sit down and negotiate a bipartisan path forward.”
Co-host Becky Quick defended the Republican position, warning that there was not much for House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) “to politic in” because his “clean CR” – rejected by Democrats – had little “pork” to “offer as a way of getting around this.”
She attempted to steer the discussion toward compromise, asking whether Democrats could negotiate “while the government is reopened.”
Jeffries replied that even efforts to initiate talks before the shutdown were met with resistance, arguing his Oval Office meeting with President Donald Trump, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Johnson “took place literally a day before the government shut down because Republicans have refused to engage in bipartisan negotiations.”
Watch above via CNBC.
