House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries attempted to criticize President Donald Trump and his administration Sunday on ABC News after host Jonathan Karl pressed him about the president’s high popularity among voters.
Just weeks into his second term, Trump and his administration have pushed to fulfill the president’s campaign promises to Americans, with a CBS News poll released Feb. 9 showing Trump reaching his highest approval rating of 53%. On ABC News’ “This Week,” Karl asked Jeffries about a new national survey conducted by Marquette Law School, which found that a majority of adults support many of Trump’s top issues.
“Is there anything you are seeing that Trump is doing that you are in favor of, that you think is the right thing?” Karl asked.
“Let me say, as it relates to all of those issues, we’re just at the beginning,” Jeffries said. “The core promise that Donald Trump made is that he’s going to lower costs for everyday Americans. In fact, we were told that grocery prices would go down on day one, on January 20th. Costs aren’t lower, in fact, costs are increasing. The price of eggs is skyrocketing out of control. Inflation is on the way up. That was the core promise that’s been broken.”
In 2022, Jeffries spoke on the House floor to advocate for the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), claiming it would “lower energy costs, confront the climate crisis with the fierce urgency of now and set our planet on a sustainable trajectory.” However, after Biden signed the $740 billion legislation in August 2022, economists agreed that the IRA did little to help Americans struggling with the economy, as inflation remained high.
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According to a Marquette Law School survey conducted from Jan. 27 to Feb. 5, 63% of the 1,018 adults polled supported the federal government’s recognition of only two sexes. Additionally, 60% are in favor of deporting illegal migrants, 60% support expanding oil and gas production and 59% favor declaring a national emergency due to the high number of migrant crossings under the Biden-Harris administration.
Jeffries went on to say that while he agrees the U.S. needs to “secure the border,” Democrats will continue to protect illegal migrants who “help” communities within the country “thrive.”
“With respect to immigration, listen, we have to secure the border. We have a broken immigration system, and we need to fix it in a comprehensive and bipartisan way,” Jeffries added. “At the same period of time, as Democrats, we’re going to protect DREAMers, protect farm workers, and protect families who help our communities across the country thrive.”
Since Trump’s November win, Democrats have struggled to regain a unified message, with party members appearing divided on their top priorities. While polls had consistently shown during the election that voters were most concerned with immigration, the economy and inflation, former Vice President Kamala Harris struggled to connect with the majority of voters. Her policies, including one that seemed to focus on race while attempting to appeal to black business owners, did not connect to voters, leading to the party’s poor performance among key voting blocs.
The recent CBS poll showing Trump’s high approval additionally shows 70% of respondents said the president is fulfilling his campaign promises. Of those surveyed, 49% said Trump is doing more than they had expected, 41% said he is doing as much as expected and only 9% felt he is doing less than anticipated.
Featured Image Credit: Gage Skidmore from Surprise, AZ, United States of America
