NBC’s Ali Vitali reports on House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries’s more than two-hour “magic minute” designed to prevent Republicans from passing the “Big, Beautiful Bill” before sunrise.

WILLIE GEIST, MSNBC: You see there in the lower portion of the screen-Leader Jeffries still speaking in that marathon speech now, well over two hours. Let’s get people up to speed about what we’re watching right now and what comes next. ALI VITALI, NBC NEWS: Yeah, what we’re watching here on the floor is the House Minority Leader, Hakeem Jeffries, exercising a “magic minute,” which basically means that as a member of leadership, he can talk for as long as he wants. And he’s already said he’s going to take his sweet time. And that’s exactly what we’re watching. When I got on the air at 5:00 this morning for “Way Too Early,” Jeffries was the person who was holding court on the floor. Then, of course, you’re seeing live pictures there-that remains true. Now, we’ve seen him exercise this magic minute at pivotal moments before. That’s not new or unique to him. But it’s the way that he’s doing it. We’ve heard Democrats complain throughout this process that Republicans have done a lot of the key points of this legislating in the dead of night. And so Jeffries, right now, by speaking for these two hours, brings it into the light of day. And it’s both an optics thing and a messaging thing-to try to show the American public that they are shedding light on what is in this bill. We’ve also heard Jeffries do an interesting thing-and it might be because they know the power of this, but also because advocates have been clear that they want Democratic lawmakers to do more of this-the idea that they are sharing stories of Americans who will be harmed by this legislation. And we’ve had this conversation on this show about how a lot of the key pieces of this bill tee Democrats up to talk about exactly the things that they want to be talking more about: affordability, the cost of living, the ability for Americans to live their lives with government programs that actually help them make it work. Things like food assistance programs like SNAP. Also Medicaid, of course-that spans a whole range of health care things that Americans use it for right now. But Jeffries has gone even a layer deeper. They’re reading letters from Americans and constituents that live in the districts of embattled Republicans-people who were already going to have a tough sell to their constituents coming up in the 2026 midterms. But only layering on the fact that these effects of this bill will be felt by Republicans and Democrats alike. It’s not going to be just one side or the other. And so Jeffries really trying to make this a campaign issue. Because this is on a glide path right now. Jeffries is extending the process, but it’s largely expected that Republicans are going to pass this bill. And I was so struck by Brendan Buck coming on and saying, yes-on the policy and the strategy piece of this, the getting-it-passed part-[Speaker] Johnson deserves the plaudits and applause that he’s getting from his party. But on the politics of it, there’s a real question about the polling, as Claire mentioned, about the way that they play defense on it. And now the ball’s in Democrats’ court to keep this issue alive for the next year.

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