Home Minority Chief Hakeem Jeffries hesitated to endorse presumptive Democratic New York Metropolis mayor nominee Zohran Mamdani however praised his “profitable” marketing campaign and messaging.
“I’ve not,” Jeffries stated when requested by “This Week” co-anchor Jonathan Karl about if he had endorsed the self-proclaimed democratic socialist candidate.
Jeffries stated he spoke to Mamdani on Wednesday and plans to satisfy in individual quickly in Central Brooklyn.
“I congratulated him on the marketing campaign that he ran, a marketing campaign that clearly was relentlessly centered on the excessive price of dwelling in New York Metropolis and the financial system. He outworked, he out-communicated, and he out-organized the opposition, and that is clearly why he was profitable,” he added.
Home Minority Chief, Rep. Hakeem Jeffries speaks with ABC Information whereas showing on This Week, June 29, 2025.
ABC Information
Pressed on why he was holding again from endorsing Mamdani, Jeffries stated “We do not actually know one another effectively.”
“Properly, our districts do not overlap. I’ve by no means had a substantive dialog with him. And in order that’s the following step by way of this course of … to debate his imaginative and prescient for transferring the town ahead and addressing the problems which are essential to the communities that I signify,” he stated.
Jeffries dismissed a query about how Mamdani’s win pertains to the way forward for the Democratic Celebration.
“I believe it is going to proceed to be essential for all of us on the Democratic aspect to deal with relentlessly the difficulty of the shortage of affordability on this nation. Donald Trump promised to decrease prices on Day 1. Prices have not gone down, they are going up,” he stated.
On Mamdani and antisemitism costs
Jeffries stated Mamdani might want to “make clear” his place on Israel and antisemitism.
“Globalizing the Intifada, by the use of instance, will not be a suitable phrasing,” he stated. “He’ll must make clear his place on that as he strikes ahead. With respect to the Jewish communities that I signify, I believe our nominee goes to must persuade people that he’s ready to aggressively deal with the rise in antisemitism within the metropolis of New York, which has been an unacceptable growth.”
On Home briefing on US strikes on Iran
Pressed on Friday’s categorized briefing within the Home on the U.S. strikes on Iran, Jeffries was skeptical of the knowledge supplied by the Trump administration.
“Why did they not search the congressional authorization required by the Structure for this kind of preemptive strike?” he requested. “I nonetheless have not seen details offered to us as a Congress to justify that step, and I definitely have not seen details to justify the assertion that Donald Trump made that Iran’s nuclear program has been fully and completely obliterated.”
On the Supreme Courtroom’s birthright citizenship ruling
On Friday, the Supreme Courtroom granted a partial keep of nationwide injunctions towards President Donald Trump’s govt order to successfully finish birthright citizenship. Jeffries known as the choice “unlucky” and “reckless.”
“If there’s any occasion the place nationwide injunctions are applicable, it might be in a way like what we have simply skilled by way of birthright citizenship, which is clearly part of the Structure. In case you are born as a toddler in the US of America, you’re a citizen. So, it was a procedural setback that was fairly unlucky, and it was a reckless resolution, for my part,” he stated.
He stated Democrats might want to “intensify our efforts” in district courts or work on a category motion swimsuit on behalf of people “adversely impacted.”
