Hakeem Jeffries lambastes Louisiana GOP Rep’s 'reckless Republican rhetoric' on work requirements

House Speaker Hakeem Jeffries (D-New York) lambasted Rep. Garret Graves' (R-Louisiana) "rhetoric" during the speaker's Friday interview with CNN's Wolf Blitzer.

@Acyn shared a clip of the New York congressman's interview, writing, "Jeffries: That's exactly the type of reckless Republican rhetoric that is driving our country toward a default for the first time in American history…"

The Speaker was responding to a video clip Blitzer played which showed a reporter interviewing Graves about his thoughts on the potential debt default.

READ MORE: GOP ramps up cruel push for work requirements

"Democrats, right now, are willing to default on the debt," Graves insisted, "so they can continue making welfare payments for people that are refusing to work. And I'm talking about people that are without dependence. People that are able-bodied, between 18 and 55. And that's crazy to me that we're even having this debate today."

The reporter asked him, "Are you willing to drop that — work requirements?"

The GOP leader replied, "Hell no, not a chance."

Blitzer then asked Jeffries, "So how do you respond to that, leader, will you accept a deal that strenghthens work requirements?"

The Speaker said, "That's exactly the type of reckless Republican rhetoric that is driving our country toward a default for the first time in American history, and leads many people to irrationally conclude that what the extreme MAGA Republicans really wanna do, is crash the economy, trigger a recession, because they believe, as many of them have said, that it will be in their political benefit in 2024."

He continued, "These so-called work requirements are not a serious public policy proposal, because work requirements already exist under federal law, and that has been the case going all the way back to 1996. To the extent that there are anything in the law that Republicans would like to discuss in terms of additions to the changes that have already been put into the law related to work requirements going all the way back to 1996, then the appropriate place for that to be discussed is the Farm Bill. Not as part of a hostage taking situation with a full faith and credit of the United States of America and potentially crashing the economy could result in the failure to arrive at a resolution."

READ MORE: McCarthy to Wall Street: GOP will hold economy hostage to cut aid programs

Watch the video below or at this link.

READ MORE: Republican work requirements: A solution to an imaginary problem