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September 24, 2024 14 mins

Unity does not mean unanimity. A powerful word from Congressman Hakeem Jeffries who sat down with hosts Angela Rye, Tiffany Cross, and Andrew Gillum, during a special live broadcast on Day 2 of the 2024 Democratic National Convention in August. 

 

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Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Native Land Pod is a production of iHeartRadio in partnership
with reisent Choice Media. Welcome, Welcome, Welcome, Welcome, Welcome, Welcome.

Speaker 2 (00:08):
Hey, fam You're about to hear a replay of one
of our interviews from our live stream at the Democratic
National Convention. If you want to listen to or watch
the full stream, check out the links in the episode description.
You can also find a full list of all the
guests we interviewed. Welcome home, y'all. Haqim Jeffries has been
family from i'd say day zero, I'm Iri Andrew, you're

(00:32):
not on mute. In the middle of my intro, thank you.
Hakim Jeffries came in to see us when he was
coming into Congress, and one of my favorite moments was
as a staff person, him just being like, Okay, what
do I need to do?

Speaker 3 (00:44):
Who do I need to know?

Speaker 2 (00:46):
And because of his genuine intellectual curiosity, I knew. I
was like, this dude is going to be speaker, and
we are on the eve of that dream and it's
really knowing that that will come to pass. I want
to know in the middle of your history making journey
now as Democratic leader in the House, and where we
are today.

Speaker 4 (01:06):
How does it feel, welly Azela, it is great to
be with you, I could say here in Chicago, of course,
this amazing team. You know here in Chicago, it's joyful,
it's aspirational, it's unifying, it's electrifying. But we also know
that there's a mission ahead of us over the next
few months, and the other.

Speaker 3 (01:25):
Side can be diabolical.

Speaker 4 (01:26):
Yeah, and so we you know, we're here to thank
President Biden, of course for his work he's passed the torch,
to celebrate and elevate Kamala Harris and Tim Walls, but
then to make sure that we're doing the work necessary
so that they're successful in November, that we do take
back the gavels in the United States House, and that

(01:48):
we do what's necessary to hold the Senate.

Speaker 2 (01:50):
Yes, it's so important.

Speaker 1 (01:51):
It's going to be a lot of people who will
lose their minds, Congressman, and we have when we have
a black woman president, a black House speaker, black governors elected,
more black mayors elected, and it really speaks to our
ancestors built this country for free. That's the phrase I
came up with myself. Originally, she saw that for me

(02:13):
to see Angelus is all the time and to finally
see our work, the fruits of our labor come together
at this moment. A lot of people, I don't think
necessarily understands the role of the Speaker of the House,
because that is a title that you are about to assume.
Because we speak things into existence on this podcast. What

(02:35):
is the role of the House Speaker?

Speaker 4 (02:37):
Well, you know, I'll say that it's been an honor
to stand on the shoulders of Nancy Pelosi, Senny Hory
and Jim Cliveburn, you know who were legendary leaders. Of course,
Nancy Pelosi as the Speaker of the United States House
of Representatives, she'll go down in history, we believe is
the greatest speaker of all time, along with you know

(03:00):
Stenny who did his thing, and of course the great
legendary Jim Clyburn, and they all collectively actually made the
decision to pass the torch to the next generation of
Democrats in the House last year, and as a result,
Petere Aguilar, Catherine Clark, and myself now is House Democratic leader.
The role of Speaker of course done incredibly well, you

(03:20):
know by Nancy Pelosi really is a constitutional officer in
the House of Representatives who presides over the House, determines
the agenda, make sure that legislation moves through the House
actually can get out of the House and hopefully make
it through the Senate and become law. And also, depending

(03:42):
on which party the Speaker is a member of at
that given point in time, is also responsible for making
sure politically, you know, things go right and that you're
interacting with the other branches of government, you know, particularly
the President, the Vice President, as well as the Senate.

Speaker 1 (04:00):
I just want to give a quick shout out before
I toss it to Andrew. I know your wonderful, amazing
intellectual brother, Hassan Jeffries, doctor Hassan Jeffries. I met Hassan,
and when I met Hassan over in the nineties, over
twenty years ago, you were running for office then, so
you have been a public servant your whole life. This
is like a family affairs, yes, but I want to

(04:21):
give a shout out to the men of Kappa Alpha
Psi Fraternity Incorporated as well, because we were just talking
about the importance of the fraternities in this work and
you are a member along with your brother.

Speaker 5 (04:30):
Thank you, mister Speaker to be I have marveled from
Afar down in Florida at the way you have been
able to manage and keep a very vast ideologically ranged
caucus together. I mean the fact that you all have
held on some of the votes that have come been

(04:51):
put to the floor, that you have in many ways
performed as the Speaker of the House and delivering very
key legislation that could have otherwise been off the table
or otherwise undermined.

Speaker 2 (05:01):
More effective than the active more effective.

Speaker 3 (05:04):
Because he delivers.

Speaker 5 (05:05):
I just got to ask a lot of folks around
the country are nervous around the kinds of tactics that
may be taken to either uncertify, not certify, put spoke,
you know, obstructions in the wheel in order to delay
the Congress's ability to do what is your ceremonial but
also constitutional responsibility to count the votes, the Electoral College votes,

(05:30):
so on and so forth, and certify the presidency. Please
tell us that there are scenario planning, there is there
are stop gaps in the way fell safes that can
ensure that if we are out here encouraging people to
go vote, they do their job, that when it comes
to you all that we can rely on some protection
that this election will not be stolen, will not be

(05:50):
undermined by the other side, but that people can have
some relative reliability on our democracy.

Speaker 4 (05:57):
Well, Andrew, great to see you, Thank you for your
public service. It is a very important question. I think
the good news is, first of all, we got to
make sure all the reasons that you articulated all of
the uncertainty, because whoever holds the gavels, whoever is in
the majority on January sixth, which is the date set

(06:18):
forth in the Constitution to certify the election.

Speaker 3 (06:21):
The new Congress is sworn in.

Speaker 4 (06:23):
On January third, meaning whoever is in the majority as
a result of the November election will have the ability
to decide whether to certify or not. And there's an
open question if the Republicans continue to hold the majority
because so many of their members are election deniers and
have chosen simply to bend the need to Donald Trump,

(06:46):
who has already trying to lay the groundwork to claim
falsely if he loses or when he loses, that the
election was stolen.

Speaker 3 (06:56):
So we got to take back the House. That's important.

Speaker 4 (06:59):
But we actually did act legislatively and passed a bill
called the Electoral Reform count Act in two thousand and
twenty two. That did two important things. One, it made
clear that the vice president's role is only ceremonial important. Now,
the good news is, in this particular situation, of course,

(07:21):
the vice president is Kamala Harris. But for future elections,
we've made it clear that no one can do what
Donald Trump tried to do in bullying Mike Pence to
unilaterally declare the election invalid and toss the electoral votes
over to him. But perhaps the second, yet most important

(07:42):
part of that legislation is it used to be the
case that it only took one member out of all
four hundred and thirty five to object to the election
in the House and one member out of one hundred
to object in the Senate.

Speaker 3 (07:57):
That's all that was required.

Speaker 4 (08:00):
And then you can create this whole scenario where shenanigans
and games can be played. And that's what was set
in motion on January sixth of twenty twenty one. We
changed that so now it requires at least twenty percent
of the House and twenty percent of the Senate, so

(08:21):
that means at least a little over eighty members.

Speaker 3 (08:24):
Have to object.

Speaker 4 (08:27):
Now, you know, on the other side of the out
you might be able to get to that number in
the House, but we don't think you can get to
that number in the Senate because there still are enough
traditional Republicans, but we don't believe will go along with
Donald Trump's shenanigans to try to undermine the results. And
so this is an example of legislation actually being advanced

(08:51):
in response to a crisis that puts us in a
much stronger position.

Speaker 5 (08:55):
Well, the best feel safe, y'all if you didn't catch
it at the beginning of the answer is to put
Democrats can chargemcial.

Speaker 2 (09:12):
You know the other thing that I think is really
important about the role of the speaker. You talk about
the Democratic Party being a big tent party all the time,
so your job is not going to be very easy.
You have people across the ideological spectrum. You know that
and have experienced that as the Democratic leader as well.
Talk about some of the things that you will have
to do to get people on the same page and

(09:34):
some of the big picture ideas you have in that role.
I'm gonna use as a personal example. He is my
leader too, and I texted him when I.

Speaker 3 (09:41):
Was like, what did everybody got it?

Speaker 2 (09:43):
Indors come he knows it and he was like, let
me be leader for a day. I was like, bye,
I was spouting I was, it.

Speaker 1 (09:51):
Was but I but I.

Speaker 2 (09:53):
Think that it's important because you're going to deal with
people who are throwing tantrums.

Speaker 3 (09:57):
I'm one of them sometimes, and you're.

Speaker 2 (09:58):
Gonna be dealing with folks who are like, I know
the best way, How can follow me? How do you
bring everybody together?

Speaker 3 (10:04):
Yeah? No, it's a great question.

Speaker 4 (10:06):
And you know, I think one we've adopted a philosophy
and approach and this is something that I learned from
Jim Clyburn that unity is different than unanimity.

Speaker 2 (10:18):
Wow.

Speaker 4 (10:19):
And the House Democratic Caucus represents the gorgeous mosaic of
the American people with the closest institution to the American
people by design. And on the House Democratic Caucus side,
we have, you know, incredible diversity across every possible measure.
But that means with people who have different life experiences,

(10:40):
different perspectives, different constituencies, they may take a different view
on a given issue or two. But we're not expecting unanimity.
We are, however, expecting unity, which means that we're united
around these principles of fighting for justice, fighting for freedom,
putting people over politics, and we can have our family discussions,

(11:01):
which we often do. Sometimes they're exuberant. We prefer them
to be private, not public. But once we get through
those family discussions, we find the highest common denominator. And
this is what we've done throughout the entire Congress in
order to get to the best possible result for the
American people. Now, there will always be some folks who

(11:21):
will say, well, you didn't go far enough. And our
general view, learning from our civil rights legends right who
went through a similar process as they were working through
the Civil Rights Act, the Voting Rights Act, and the
Fair Housing Act, that sometimes you just have to live
to fight another day. But we're all united in terms

(11:42):
of where we want to go.

Speaker 5 (11:43):
Not make the perfect the enemy of the good, which
often times too often happens the speaker to be. We
know that your time is extremely valuable. I just got
to throw you some crazy love over his oratory. Yes,
I mean I've been moved on occasion where this stuff
should be for process. Yes, and I keep getting Uh.

(12:04):
The Congressman gets up and begins to speak, and he
evokes history, and he evokes emotion, and he connects and
weaves together such an incredibly diverse set of experiences of
the American people to bring all of us into investment
and whatever it is that they're attempting to do, it's

(12:26):
it is. It is a power, yes, but more than anything,
it is a blessing. And I'm so glad that you've
been imbued with it because I think it's an essential
part of what allows you to be the kind of
successful speaker that I think you've already shown yourself to
be by.

Speaker 2 (12:41):
Here a little hip hop every now.

Speaker 1 (12:45):
That's why My quick favorite quote from the Congressman is
during the impeachment hearings and a Republican member said, I
just don't know why we're here, and the Congressman stood
up and answered him and listed innumerable reasons why we
were here and laid out beautifully are you case And
at the end he said, so if you don't know,

(13:16):
Brooklyn is always in the house. And we love it.

Speaker 2 (13:18):
Literally, I love you on this podcast.

Speaker 3 (13:21):
We are champion gratulations.

Speaker 4 (13:23):
This is amazing podcast. Gratulations on all the success. And
you know, Angela and Tiffany Andrew appreciate you'all family close.

Speaker 2 (13:34):
You'll let you be leader for a day. But tomorrow.
You got to be mister speaking.

Speaker 3 (13:40):
Thank you, thank you.

Speaker 5 (13:42):
I love it.

Speaker 2 (13:43):
It's fantastic.

Speaker 3 (13:44):
I love it, love it, love it. Man.

Speaker 5 (13:45):
I'm so proud of of I mean, yes, I heard
him first in Florida when he came down and did
some some organizing work throughout the race and so on
and so forth. But his leadership is incredible. Thank you,
and we're now saying goodbye. If you want.

Speaker 1 (14:04):
Ling on, do that. Native Land Pod is the production
of iHeart Radio and partnership with Recent Choice Media. For
more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,

(14:26):
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
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Hosts And Creators

Tiffany Cross

Tiffany Cross

Andrew Gillum

Andrew Gillum

Angela Rye

Angela Rye

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