House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries comes to Colorado, says Republican policies are hurting Black Americans
The top Democrat in the U.S. House of Representatives made a stop in Colorado this week, less than a month after the Republican Speaker of the House was here.
CBS Colorado was the only local television station to interview both U.S. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson. Both of them traveled to Colorado to help raise money for competitive races here.
Jeffries also joined Colorado Congressman Joe Neguse for a roundtable with about two dozen African-American leaders in Denver who told him that Republican policies are disproportionately hurting Black Americans.
He said their concerns include "an assault on healthcare, the attacks on Medicaid, dramatic cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program."
Jeffries says Colorado has also been disproportionately punished because the state didn't vote for President Trump. But he wouldn't say whether Democrats will seek impeachment if they win the House this November.
"We're going to follow the facts. We're going to apply the law. We're going to be guided by the Constitution, and we're going to let the chips fall where they may," Jeffries said.
He did commit, however, to making affordability a top priority, and he dismissed Republicans' assertion that the Democratic Party has been taken over by socialists.
"We believe in a market-based economy, well regulated, in the free enterprise system, but capitalism has to work for working class Americans," Jeffries asserted.
Jeffries said he had a positive conversation with Democratic Socialist Melat Kiros, who made national news when she defeated veteran Congresswoman Diana DeGette in the primary. But he didn't comment on Kiros's controversial remarks regarding the Hamas attack on Israel and the deadly firebombing of Jewish demonstrators in Boulder.
He focused instead on unity: "We're in the midst of an all-out assault on everything that matters and our unity is going to be central for us to be able to fight through the turbulence and ensure that as a community and as a country we come out stronger on the other side."
It is a message that resonated with Bishop Jerry Demmer, who was among those invited to the roundtable discussion.
"The message is coming together. Coming together with power, coming together with a force," said Demmer. "We must get out, must be registered and we must vote, and we must stand together in unity and not division."
Jeffries says Democrats have a real shot at flipping two Republican seats in Colorado. He is helping raise money for Manny Rutinel, who faces Republican incumbent U.S. Rep. Gabe Evans in Congressional District 8 North of Denver, and Jessica Killin, who's trying to unseat Republican incumbent U.S. Rep. Jeff Crank in Congressional District 5 in El Paso County.
