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government. new york representative hakeem jeffries serves as chair of the house democratic caucus. over the weekend he was in des moines to talk about president biden's legislative accomplishments and to encourage voters to vote for democrats in the upcoming midterm selections. >> thank you so much. good afternoon, iowa. on the polk county democrats in the house right now. are you ready to send cindy back to the united states house of representatives? are you ready to flip a red seat and turn it blue with admiral franken? are you ready to send detrick to the state house here in des moines? what an honor and privilege to be here in iowa. thank you, sean, for extending the invitation and for your leadership of the county

democrats. i thank all of the volunteers and workers for the things that you do to make sure that we're moving this could have been and the state and this country in the right direction. i'm so thankful for my friend and colleague cindy. she is a tremendous representative on your behalf in the united states congress. she speaks up for you with power and passion and principle and defenders your interests every opportunity that she has. she's a good friend to me and i use that phrase good friend. i know c-span may be here. i use that phrase good friend in the real sense of the word. not the congressional sense of the word because you know from time to time you'll hear members of congress often go to the floor, use the phrase, my good friend, the distinguished gentleman from the great state of georgia -- california or my

good friend, the distinguished gentle lady from the great state of florida. most of the time we use the phrase my good friend, we don't mean it, y'all. but with cindy, i absolutely mean it. she's a good friend to the caucus, the congress, the country, the constitution and the community she represents here in polk county and throughout iowa. we're thankful for her. and i look forward to serving with her and to you sending christina down to join her as part of the iowa delegation to get work done on your behalf during this incredibly difficult and challenging time that we have here in america. two parties, two competing visions for the future of this

country. you've got democrats who are going to continue to work hard to put people over politician presentation -- politics. and to lean in to getting things done with our for the people gentle, fighting for lower costs, better paying jobs and safer communities. and when we talk about working hard for the people, because we authentically mean it at our best, what democrats do, what you do, what cindy does, what we try to do in washington, d.c. under the and so i thank you for the work. the work that you do in that regard. people of this country will have a clear choice, democrats who are putting people over politics and extreme maga republicans.

something is very wrong with the republican right now. they use to in fiscal responsibility and national security. but now they believe in lawlessness, disorder, insurrection and defunding the fbi. extreme maga republicans who have gone from the tea party caucus and now we have the qanon caucus. you cannot make it up. no longer the party of bob dole, no longer the party of john mccain, no longer the party of mitt romney, no longer the party of john boehner and paul ryan. i disagree with them often, but who knew i would miss john

boehner and paul ryan? and i say that because we could battle it out on issues and strongly disagree with them, fight it out in the legislative arena, but in america, you should be able to lose an election without being concerned that you will lose your democracy. but that is what we confront right now. that is why the stakes are so high here in iowa. somebody asked me, why are you going to iowa? i am going there to make sure we send cindy ask back to congress -- cindy axne back to congress.

we appreciate polk county democrats, the work that you do. two competing visions for america. democrats putting people over politics and extreme maga republicans. we are fighting hard as democrats to move america forward. they want to turn back the clock. we are trying to bring people together. they are tearing us apart. we fight for the people. they fight for the privileged few. we believe in family, freedom and the flag. they believe a violent insurrection was legitimate political discourse. we believe in social security and medicare. they want to end those things and five being -- five years.

we believe in the climate crisis and let me to address the climate crisis with the fierce urgency of now. they continue to bury their heads in the sand. we believe that roe v. wade was wrongly decided by an out-of-control supreme court. and they want to criminalize abortion care and impose a nationwide ban, but here is a newsflash straight out of congress. democrats are going to keep fighting until the women of america have the freedom to make your own reproductive health care decisions. period, full stop. back up off the women of the united states of america. two competing visions. for this great country.

but we can articulate what we can stand for as democrats. we believe in a country that provides for the poor, works for working families, makes sense for the middle class and stands up for senior citizens. we believe in a country that innovates and we believe in a country with liberty and justice for all. people protection under the law. government by the people and for the people. and democrats, we believe that in america, if you work hard and play by the rules, you should be able to provide a comfortable living for yourself and your family. purchase a home, educate your children and retire with grace and dignity. that is the american dream that we as democrats believe in, that

we fight for every day. but we also understand that dream is under assault. the middle class is struggling. rural america struggling. those who aspire to be part of the middle class struggling. many parts of the heartland struggling. but here is some good news. every time america has found itself in a tough spot, going all the way back to 100 years or so, the democratic party has risen to the occasion to try to turn things around and make life better for you day americans. can we check the record for a moment? the electrification of rural america, social security, medicare, medicaid, head start,

the civil rights act, the voting rights act, the fair housing act, the higher education act, the affordable care act, the infrastructure and investments in jobs act, the american rescue plan, the inflation reduction act. all brought to you by your friendly neighborhood democratic party to make life better for every day americans. democrats have always risen to the occasion. whenever america has faced a tough spot and certainly we find ourselves in that situation right now. but that is why i am so thankful for the leadership of president joe biden, who has done a good job in the difficult circumstances. and in partnership with

democrats in the house and the senate, great leadership from cindy and so many others, we have been getting big things done. the american rescue plan saved the economy, prevented us from collapsing into a recession, put shots in arms, money in pockets, kids back in school, millions of good paying jobs will be created to fix our crumbling bridges and roads. our airports, clean water in every community. and then, we passed gun safety legislation for the first time in 30 years to make america safer. it will save lives.

we did not stop there. we stood up for veterans. they served and sacrificed for us, we should be there for them. and we got it done. we passed the chips and signs act to bring domestic manufacturing jobs back home to the united states of america as opposed to our jobs being shipped in the other direction. and we finished off this run of legislative success bypassing the inflation reduction act to confront the climate crisis in a serious and decisive way, set our planet forward on a sustainable trajectory, strengthening the affordable care act, lower health care costs and drive down the high price of prescription drugs for millions of americans. democrats rise to the occasion to get big things done.

and improve the well-being of every day americans. i am confident with leaders like cindy and the others that you will send to the house and to the senate, that we here in america, if we continue to lean in to this idea of putting people over politics, fighting for lower cost, better paying jobs and safer communities, that the best is yet to come. as i prepared to conclude our remarks, i have to defend our fragile democracy. democracy that we know is under intense assault. the framers of the constitution were not perfect individuals like all human beings, but they did set us on the path to a more

perfect union. they understood that democracy was not the self-executing proposition. that it did not run on autopilot. it is not simply a spectator sport. you have to get into the arena. the story was once told. that time in 1880 -- 1787, when the framers had completed their work in the convention hall in philadelphia and they emerge from the convention hall and dr. ben franklin was there and a woman named elizabeth powell approached ben franklin. she was a prominent civic activist at the time, the first lady of the city of philadelphia.

she said sir, why have you gentlemen just done? have you created a republic or a monarchy? and dr. franklin paused for a moment and said, we created a republic if you can keep it. i thought about that a lot. i would dr. frankly express such skepticism -- why would dr. franklin express such skepticism and a moment of great triumph? i think because when they constructed the constitution, all of the ideas, the values, the institutions, checks and balances, the independent judiciary free and fair elections, the preeminence of the rule of law over the rule of

man, all of those ideas, all of those values had never before been put together in one form of government. and so i think that perhaps dr. franklin was skeptical as to whether we could keep that democracy think going. -- thing going. but the power of american exceptionalism has been that decade after decade, century after century, we have kept this democracy going. but now perhaps for the first time since the civil war, all of those values, ideas, institutions are under assault from within. misses powell, we created a

republic if you can keep it. that is the moment that we confront right now. i was on the floor during the january 6 insurrection. a date that all of us will never forget. i have the honor of serving as the chair of the democratic caucus. that puts me at number five in the leadership. so i was seated in the leadership section, close to the majority leader and the majority whip. my good friend was off campus that day. we were debating the objections to the state of arizona and all of a sudden i saw the sergeant at arms approach the microphone. i had never seen this before. he said the mob has breached the capitol.

they were on the second floor, a few steps outside of the house chamber. so be prepared to hit the ground and secure the gas masks that are underneath your seats. i have to be honest, i had been in congress for four terms at that point, and i had no idea there were gas masks under every seat. i know this was a different kind of situation. and then i see speaker pelosi aggressively and almost violently removed by her security team. i saw steny hoyer's security team come up to him and remove him. and then the security team for jim clyburn, the great jim clyburn who was seated right next to me said you have to

leave now. i still remember as if it was yesterday. so i am sitting there as the chair of the house democratic caucus. i see nancy pelosi removed. i see the majority leader removed from the floor of the house. i saw the great jim clyburn removed from the floor. he is number three. i have to be honest with you all. i am sitting there, the number five democrat in the house. i was waiting for somebody to come get me. but as cindy knows, they never came. and so i thought to myself, well, it is a good thing i am from brooklyn.

because we just did not know what we were going to have to do to defend ourselves and defend our democracy. after some time and commotion, they were able to find a safe passageway to a secure location where we remained for several hours. i tell you this story, not because the most important thing that happened was that we were run off the floor of the house of representatives by violent mob of insurrectionists. no, the most important thing that happened that day as an example of american resilience, is that we came back to the capitol, with certified the election and we make sure that joe biden would become the 46th president of the united states of america. that is what democracy is all

about. so let's go out there and win the day, win the month, win the election, hold the house, hold the senate. god bless you. god bless iowa. democracy.the unit

>> next republican presented of it liz cheney delivers the annual constitution day lecture at the american enterprise institute. representative cheney continues to be critical of our own party for its ongoing support of president trump in the aftermath of the january 6 attack at the u.s. capitol. she will be leading congress after the midterm elections, having lost the wyoming primary to a candidate endorsed by the former president.