Rejects GOP criticism

Jeffries rejects GOP criticism of Democrats' funding proposal

From CNN's Karenia Murry and Emily R. Condon

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries rejected Republicans’ claims that Democrats are arguing to fund health care for undocumented immigrants as part of their proposal to reopen the government.

“When Republicans are talking about the notion that Democrats somehow are interested in providing health insurance to undocumented immigrants, we know that the law prohibits that and nothing in any single Democratic proposal has suggested that,” Jeffries said Friday morning on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.”

Jeffries reiterated that he is looking for a “bipartisan path forward” and pointed to successful Capitol Hill negotiations between the two parties during the Biden administration.

“We know throughout the Trump administration, they’ve taken a go-it-alone approach, a my-way-or-the-highway approach, and we’re not going to sit there and simple rubber stamp Donald Trump’s extreme agenda,” Jeffries said.

Asked in part about Trump’s sharing of racist, manipulated images of Jeffries, the New York Democrat called the president’s action’s “unhinged and unserious.”

“Everything that Donald Trump has done since Monday is unhinged and unserious. In fact, Donald Trump is in the presidential witness protection program,” he said, referring to a lack of public appearances on Trump’s official schedule since Tuesday. “No one can find him when it comes to the government shutdown issue, because he knows he’s responsible for having caused it.”