Speaker 1: You're listening to Comedy Central.
Speaker 2: From the most trusted journalist at Comedy Central's America's only
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Speaker 1: This is The Daily Show with your host shown Steward.
Speaker 1: Welcome to the Daily Show. My name is Young short Man.
Speaker 1: Do we have a good show for you tonight? The chairman,
Speaker 1: not the alderman, not the assistant secretary, the chairman of
Speaker 1: the Wisconsin Democratic Party only if the Daily Show? Does
Speaker 1: that get a big round of applause? Really, Wisconsin Democratic Party.
Speaker 1: Benwick is going to be joined us to discuss the
Speaker 1: future of the National Democratic Party, specifically, is there going
Speaker 1: to be one? But first, ladies and gentlemen, we can
Speaker 1: often get cynical about the state of things in the world.
Speaker 1: Fauna a psycho of despair, so the horrors and deprivations
Speaker 1: of our modern world can never be overturned or undone.
Speaker 1: But then at our lowest we get images like these
Speaker 1: from this weekend, a moment in time of pure unalloyed joy,
Speaker 1: the delirious, almost uncomprehending excitement for a people celebrating a
Speaker 1: suddenly bright and hopeful new future. Yes, even the people
Speaker 1: of Syria are celebrating. The New York Mets signing ron
Speaker 1: Soto chanting. You heard them, You heard them in the streets, chanting.
Speaker 1: I can only assume we're going to the series I did.
Speaker 1: Of course, those images were jubilant Syrians celebrating the end
Speaker 1: of the fifty year rule of the murderous, despotic assad family,
Speaker 1: a result that would have seemed incomprehensible even two weeks ago.
Speaker 1: And you know it's the real deal because they sealed
Speaker 1: it with the universal symbol of falling dictatorships, the traditional
Speaker 1: toppling of the statues. They pulled them down and home.
Speaker 1: They toppled the horse run, They've knocked over the one
Speaker 1: where a signal field goal. They even paraded us out
Speaker 1: through the streets like a decapitated Charlie Brown in the
Speaker 1: Macy's Day parade. And if I may a quick word
Speaker 1: to the many remaining despots in the Middle East, it
Speaker 1: is my deepest hope that when you see this footage
Speaker 1: you realize once and for all that you are really
Speaker 1: skimping on statue structural integrity, because when you are overthrown,
Speaker 1: and you will be, they're just going through these statues
Speaker 1: like it's tissue pap. I mean this one here, there's
Speaker 1: one here guy just pushes it over with one hand.
Speaker 1: It's all native. It is one guy.
Speaker 3: This statue is a symbol of my eternal power and
Speaker 3: iron fisted. Oh no, don't touch it. It's just clay
Speaker 3: and pressed wood shavings. Father always told me, if it's
Speaker 3: worth putting up.
Speaker 1: A symbol of autocracy, it's worth doing it right. And
Speaker 1: all the dictators could have made it fun for people
Speaker 1: by filling the statues of candy or something. Assad's former
Speaker 1: subjects are still finding a way to have fun with
Speaker 1: the toppled totems. It's like their new public transport system,
Speaker 1: some kind of Syrian version of a club med banana boat.
Speaker 1: By the way, I don't speak Arabic, but I'm pretty
Speaker 1: sure that what they were chanting there is mustache rides
Speaker 1: five cents. Oh, I know that fella there is feeling
Speaker 1: the sweet taint of freedom. But while statue Assad is
Speaker 1: being tea bagged in the streets, actual Assad has left
Speaker 1: the building.
Speaker 4: Assad fleeing with his family to Russia, where he had
Speaker 4: been granted asylum on humanitarian grounds.
Speaker 1: Their hugolds we yes, Putin has given a sod humanitarian
Speaker 1: asylum and then immediately sent him to go fight in Ukraine.
Speaker 1: They're very they're very shorthanded. But obviously it's a great
Speaker 1: decision by Assad. I think no leader can go wrong
Speaker 1: in their exile choice by posing one simple question to themselves,
Speaker 1: what would Stephen Segal do? But if Asad is in Russia,
Speaker 1: you know what that means. Nobody's home at the palace.
Speaker 1: It's open house people, the estate sale begins. Crowds are
Speaker 1: pillaging the palace. They are sitting in his chairs, they
Speaker 1: are taking pictures in his chair. There, they are stealing
Speaker 1: more chairs. They was there some kind of terrible seating
Speaker 1: problem in this country. The people are rushing the palace
Speaker 1: and they're just taking the chairs. People are coming out like,
Speaker 1: don't bother going in? The good chairs are gone. All
Speaker 1: that's left is money, jewelry and antiquities. In fact, I
Speaker 1: want to show you real quick my favorite moment from
Speaker 1: the looting of Assad's palace. A gentleman in the palatial room,
Speaker 1: frustrated that this chair is not reclining. Are there no
Speaker 1: depths to assads depravity? Where are the cup holders? And
Speaker 1: obviously this is surprising because in that part of the world,
Speaker 1: you'd think they're be an abundance of at least Ottomans.
Speaker 1: Here's an empire of them. What was startling to me
Speaker 1: is how quickly the whole thing unfolded. I mean, how
Speaker 1: long did it take to overthrow the Assad regime? The
Speaker 1: regime overthrown by rebel fighters in just eleven days? How
Speaker 1: did they manage to end a decade long civil war
Speaker 1: and defeat the entire Syrian military in just eleven days?
Speaker 1: And wait, zoom in on there is that zoom Are
Speaker 1: you a gray? No? No way? That guy? What?
Speaker 5: How did.
Speaker 1: Is that? Where he rode that city bike? Is that? Actually?
Speaker 1: I was like, couldn't have been that guy today? They
Speaker 1: did appear to catch that guy today at a McDonald's
Speaker 1: in Altoona, Pennsylvania. It's true. Look, I'm sorry, guys. Apparently
Speaker 1: a bystander at the McDonald's ratted him out. And normally
Speaker 1: I would say snitches get stitches, but obviously without pre approval.
Speaker 1: There's really Seriously, though, I want to meet the rebel
Speaker 1: mastermind who overthrew this entrenched regime. The leader of the
Speaker 1: Islamist rebel group, Abu Mohammad al Jawani, arriving triumphantly in Damascus,
Speaker 1: addressing a crowd at a mosque, My God, all hail
Speaker 1: Syrian John Turtureau, tell me more about this modern day
Speaker 1: George Washington.
Speaker 6: Syrian rebel leader abum Hamad al Jolani, who's been on
Speaker 6: the US terror watch list since twenty thirteen.
Speaker 1: Significant portions of Algielani's group maintained strong links to isis
Speaker 1: a former al Qaeda member.
Speaker 4: He's got a ten million dollar bounty on his head.
Speaker 1: Oh ten million. Who hope he never ends up in
Speaker 1: a McDonald's in Altoona. Okay, so we've got a former
Speaker 1: al Qaeda guy in charge. Now what did he have
Speaker 1: planned for the new Syria. I'm assuming it's some taliban asque,
Speaker 1: brutal fundamentalists to dystopia.
Speaker 6: There must be legal framework that protects and ensures the
Speaker 6: rights of all, not a system that serves only one sect.
Speaker 4: I asked God Almighty that this be a conquest free
Speaker 4: of revenge, but a conquest entirely of mercy and love.
Speaker 1: Conquest of mercy and love. I think that's how Taylor
Speaker 1: ended the Aristour wait that the new leader of Siria's
Speaker 1: a swifty How many terror groups is that guy in
Speaker 1: l I'm all swift? Seriously, though, how did an al
Speaker 1: Qaeda associate suddenly turn into Deepak Chopra. You've gone through
Speaker 1: quite the transformation once.
Speaker 6: An Al Qaeda leader, and now you are projecting this
Speaker 6: image of a moderate leader in a moderate group. I
Speaker 6: believe that everyone in life goes through phases and experiences,
Speaker 6: and these experiences naturally increase a person's awareness. A person
Speaker 6: in their twenties will have a different personality than someone
Speaker 6: in their thirties or forties.
Speaker 1: I get it. Who amongst us hasn't gone through an
Speaker 1: Emo goth phase or nine to eleven phase? You know,
Speaker 1: you know how kids are. I don't like Gioann anymore. Dad,
Speaker 1: I'm into horses. Jilani's purported transformation to a more benevolent
Speaker 1: governance gives me hope as our country goes through its
Speaker 1: hopefully peaceful transfer of power to hopefully a more humbled
Speaker 1: and mature leader as well.
Speaker 7: In his first Network TV interview since the election, President
Speaker 7: like Donald Trump, says he would like to see members
Speaker 7: of the January sixth Committee sent to jail.
Speaker 1: Honestly, they should go to jail or not. That is,
Speaker 1: of course, the incoming United States president and I'm assuming
Speaker 1: future statue have her Donald Trump, who this weekend was
Speaker 1: in Europe, continuing the long American tradition of not waiting
Speaker 1: for the inauguration to become president and head overseas and
Speaker 1: meet with allies and remind everybody how fucking weird he
Speaker 1: is about shaking hands top down, up, down, bottom, side
Speaker 1: and side grab it hit me on the Flemity and
Speaker 1: how seamlessly Trump resumed his official duties of looking bordos
Speaker 1: shit and meetings. This is so dumb now. Normally the
Speaker 1: first Lady Milania would have been there to say to
Speaker 1: Donald set up. But another stroke of weirdness. Trump was
Speaker 1: apparently traveling with his predecessor's wife, attending the opening of
Speaker 1: the Notre Dame Cathedral with Jill Biden. It was a
Speaker 1: rare moment of conciliation, one that would have given this
Speaker 1: country hope had it not immediately been undermined by the
Speaker 1: returning president releasing an actual cologne ad belittling and sexualizing
Speaker 1: said moment. The caption there saying a fragrance your enemies
Speaker 1: can't resist. The men's colone and women's perfume are both
Speaker 1: for one hundred ninety nine dollars. You one, you one.
Speaker 5: You don't have to push merch anymore. I find it
Speaker 5: hard to believe I'm saying this, but it's beneath you.
Speaker 5: I mean, for God's sakes, you.
Speaker 1: Don't see Jolani out there pushing product.
Speaker 4: I conquered Syria and now you can conquer dry hair
Speaker 4: follicles with my new line of beard oil.
Speaker 2: When we return that we will be going if they'll
Speaker 2: go away? Where am I to with out until I
Speaker 2: got tonight?
Speaker 1: Here is highly the head of the Wisconsin Democratic Party
Speaker 1: running to be chair of the Democratic National Committee Police.
Speaker 1: Welcome to the program, Ben Wickler, Sorry, I'm ahead. Well,
Speaker 1: thank you, thank you for coming in from Wisconsin, the Democrats,
Speaker 1: and I'm getting it. You know. We take a little
Speaker 1: questions and things from the audience early on, and the
Speaker 1: biggest question that we get is no follow up and
Speaker 1: then the tears, yeah, sometimes vomiting. It appears the Democratic
Speaker 1: Party is slightly broken. You run the Wisconsin Democratic Party,
Speaker 1: which was broken before you took it over. There was
Speaker 1: a super majority in Wisconsin. The Supreme Court of Wisconsin
Speaker 1: was diabolically making changes to with stand power. Scott Walker
Speaker 1: was the governor. How did you turn that situation around?
Speaker 7: So Republicans took over Wisconsin in twenty ten and immediately
Speaker 7: smashed unions, suppressed voting rights, jerrymandered the living daylights out
Speaker 7: of legislative maps to make sure they'd never lose power
Speaker 7: even if voters tried to throw them out.
Speaker 8: And for years it looked as though.
Speaker 7: Wisconsin was going to fall off the cliff, be a
Speaker 7: state where Republicans controlled everything, whether voters liked it or.
Speaker 1: Not, undemocratically. So because through all those methods like what
Speaker 1: New York, the Democrats in New York had tried to
Speaker 1: do as jerrymander it, you know, even if it was
Speaker 1: closer than it should be, those were the methods they undertook.
Speaker 7: So twenty twelve twenty eighteen, Democrats won a majority of
Speaker 7: the votes for the legislature, Republicans got almost two thirds
Speaker 7: of the seats, and twenty eighteen I moved home and
Speaker 7: volunteered Governor Evers.
Speaker 8: Now, Governor Evers.
Speaker 7: Ran and in a landslide year for Democrats nationally, he
Speaker 7: won by one point one percentage point, super super close.
Speaker 7: It was like we'd grabbed a branch as we fall
Speaker 7: off the side of a cliff, and we're pulling ourselves
Speaker 7: up by a fingernails. Republicans then took away a bunch
Speaker 7: of the powers he'd been elected to wield. Republicans rejerrymandered
Speaker 7: the state through the state Supreme Court after that, and
Speaker 7: I was elected chair in twenty nineteen with the goal
Speaker 7: of supercharging our kind of grass roots organizing and how
Speaker 7: we communicate.
Speaker 8: Across the state.
Speaker 7: And year over year we flipped two We won two
Speaker 7: critical state Supreme Court races. We were able to re
Speaker 7: elect Governor Evers, stop Republican super majority. Finally, a new
Speaker 7: kind of pro democracy majority on the state Supreme Court,
Speaker 7: struck down the jerrymander. We stopped Republicans from preemptively impeaching
Speaker 7: a Supreme Court justice. And this year, finally, for the
Speaker 7: first time in fifteen years, we had fair maps. And
Speaker 7: it meant that even in a year where we were
Speaker 7: basically fifty to fifty statewide in terms of the votes,
Speaker 7: we flipped fourteen state legislative seats. It is now Democrats
Speaker 7: are on track to win a majority in both legislative chambers.
Speaker 7: In twenty twenty six, we re elected Tammy Baldwin to
Speaker 7: the US Senate. We actually added votes for Harris relative
Speaker 7: to Biden. It came we were the battleground state that
Speaker 7: the whole state in the country that came closest to
Speaker 7: defeating Trump, where Trump still won.
Speaker 8: There was a lot of Republican turnout.
Speaker 7: There's still work to do, but we're a democracy again
Speaker 7: and that is the goal.
Speaker 8: That is the fight that we're fighting.
Speaker 1: Here's the idea.
Speaker 8: I'm just going to.
Speaker 1: Throw it out there. I'm just spitballing. We jerrymandered the
Speaker 1: shit out of that place and a point a bunch
Speaker 1: of Democrats of the State Supreme Court and cut all
Speaker 1: the power out from no. No, no, no, okay, right, no, no,
Speaker 1: Your plan is probably good too.
Speaker 7: What we want, what we want as a government that
Speaker 7: is structurally required to pay attention to what people want
Speaker 7: and is called accountable for what happens, whether or not
Speaker 7: they actually deliver it.
Speaker 1: Was it only a structural issue, But they're not a baud.
Speaker 1: Did you make any changes to the messaging to connect,
Speaker 1: because again, I don't want to give the impression that
Speaker 1: I think that this election the Democrats lost because structurally
Speaker 1: things were against them. I think they have a messaging issue.
Speaker 1: I think they have a what do they stand for issue?
Speaker 8: I think there's both.
Speaker 7: Okay, and I will say in this election, just now,
Speaker 7: if Republicans hadn't taken over the North Carolina Supreme Court
Speaker 7: in twenty twenty two and then gerrymandered that state, then
Speaker 7: right now Democrats would have a majority in the US
Speaker 7: House of Representatives where we are because Republicans have paid
Speaker 7: attention to these down ballot races that the rest of
Speaker 7: the country doesn't even notice that have enormous consequences later.
Speaker 7: Right now, Wisconsin has a state Supreme Court race in April,
Speaker 7: Susan Crawford versus Brad Shimmel.
Speaker 1: Never Crawford. But my point is the thriller in Manila.
Speaker 7: But there are Susan Crawford's and Brad Shimmel's all over
Speaker 7: the country. As here's my point that the National Party
Speaker 7: there is an infrastructure piece, which is to have a
Speaker 7: strategy in every state to prevent that state from being
Speaker 7: rigged and thrown out away state. And that's part of
Speaker 7: what we need to do with the Democratic National Committee.
Speaker 7: That's why I'm running for DNC chair now.
Speaker 1: And you're running to be the national DNC chair. Yes,
Speaker 1: you are, outside of though the establishment. Look, one of
Speaker 1: the things that's been difficult for the Democrats over these
Speaker 1: past years is they have been a real status quo
Speaker 1: establishment party. They suppressed I think Bernie's role in the
Speaker 1: twenty sixteen election. You know, they've put their thumb on
Speaker 1: the scales pretty clearly. You're an outsider. Are they going
Speaker 1: to put their thumbs on the scale against you?
Speaker 7: I think Democrats across the country, members of the Democratic
Speaker 7: National Committee, we're there's a real sense of unity that
Speaker 7: we need to change and adapt and win elections.
Speaker 8: And the question is how.
Speaker 7: We do that, And to me, it is these two things.
Speaker 7: One of them is organizing, building the kind of infrastructure
Speaker 7: and apparatus supporting state parties across the country to have
Speaker 7: the kind of strength that has made such a difference
Speaker 7: in Wisconsin. And the second piece is that we need
Speaker 7: to show people working folks across the country. And this
Speaker 7: is across race and ethnicity, this is rural areas, small
Speaker 7: town city suburbs, that we are fighting for them and
Speaker 7: that we mean it, That we know this is not
Speaker 7: a game, and that, to me is the central thing
Speaker 7: that we know. Trump next year is going to try
Speaker 7: to pass a multi trillion dollar tax cut for the
Speaker 7: richest people in the world, and he'll do that by
Speaker 7: trying to cut healthcare. They're talking about cutting the veterans
Speaker 7: administration and veterans benefits.
Speaker 8: That's stuff that the vast.
Speaker 7: Majority of Americans do not want, and Democrats need to
Speaker 7: get caught trying to fight back against that and to
Speaker 7: create a country that works for working people.
Speaker 1: But see that, I think the difficulty is and it's
Speaker 1: the kind of rhetoric that I very much appreciate. I
Speaker 1: don't know that I've felt like they've governed with that
Speaker 1: urgency that you're speaking with, you know, And that's the part.
Speaker 1: How connected are the Democrats? Even here in the audience,
Speaker 1: you know a lot of people talk about, well, geez,
Speaker 1: do you think there were structural issues? Is that why
Speaker 1: we lost? It was pretty clear this was a whooping
Speaker 1: on narrative that.
Speaker 8: Let me personally disagree. Yes, this election.
Speaker 7: This is the first election in my lifetime where we
Speaker 7: lost the majority of the voters who were making less
Speaker 7: than fifty thousand dollars a year. And those voters have
Speaker 7: a lot going on in their lives. A lot of
Speaker 7: them are the people least likely to be watching political
Speaker 7: news hearing really either side's message, and they're folks who
Speaker 7: often got a lot of financial support during the pandemic
Speaker 7: when we passed, expanded unemployment insurance and child tax read
Speaker 7: all this stuff that really made a difference, and then
Speaker 7: it went away at the same time as prices went up.
Speaker 7: And if you're experiencing you have less money in the
Speaker 7: bank and you have to spend more to fill up
Speaker 7: prescription or buy your groceries or I'm sure you don't
Speaker 7: lose the home where you're putting your kids to bed,
Speaker 7: then you're going to vote for change. You're going to
Speaker 7: vote for something else.
Speaker 8: Correct.
Speaker 7: Now, Trump is going to make things worse for working people,
Speaker 7: and that.
Speaker 1: Was the argument that the Democrats were making, that he's
Speaker 1: going to make it worse. I guess, but I think
Speaker 1: we're saying the same thing.
Speaker 7: We're saying the same thing, and I think a lot
Speaker 7: of people did not hear our message, and when some
Speaker 7: people who heard it.
Speaker 8: Didn't believe it. But that is those are the two things.
Speaker 7: Let me ask you where voters are and show it,
Speaker 7: because hey, like we made it.
Speaker 1: You were saying, people making less than fifty thousand dollars
Speaker 1: don't really connect with the news, so they don't hear
Speaker 1: our message, but what they do feel is your governance. Yes,
Speaker 1: that's my point.
Speaker 8: Is that and I agree with.
Speaker 1: I think part of it is Democrats are defending a
Speaker 1: status quo that people feel is not delivering on the
Speaker 1: discomfort they have in their real lives.
Speaker 7: I think that during Trump's first administration sometimes we'd say
Speaker 7: this is not normal.
Speaker 8: It wasn't normal.
Speaker 7: But it's also the case that what's normal is not
Speaker 7: necessarily okay boom. It is it is not okay boom
Speaker 7: that people can't get it for their kid.
Speaker 1: And you have to we have to show that this
Speaker 1: piece is my God, I'm getting excited. Yes, you actually
Speaker 1: have to make the same.
Speaker 7: It looks like the fight people. That is the point
Speaker 7: of this work, all right. The only measure of working politics.
Speaker 7: It's not actually winning elections. It's whether you deliver change
Speaker 7: in people's lives. That is what winning looks like. That
Speaker 7: is the point of this work.
Speaker 1: Actually, I was thinking, do you think we just didn't
Speaker 1: spend enough time with the Chinese? Is that the issue?
Speaker 8: I was in Wisconsin, we had a business from les Chandy.
Speaker 7: We did a little bit better in the suburbs around
Speaker 7: Milwaukee than we did in previous elections.
Speaker 8: And also, this is a country that is majority working class.
Speaker 7: Most people in the United States do I have a
Speaker 7: college degree, they work for a living, they don't live
Speaker 7: off returns on their investments. And if we're not winning
Speaker 7: working class voters again across race and ethnicity, if we're
Speaker 7: not winning with those voters, we're gonna lose. And we
Speaker 7: are the party that actually believes everyone should be able
Speaker 7: to join a union and fight for better working conditions
Speaker 7: and wages. We're the party that thinks that no one
Speaker 7: should have to go to bed hungry because their parents
Speaker 7: didn't have enough money to put in a down payment
Speaker 7: for them. People shouldn't have to choose between rent groceries.
Speaker 7: This is stuff that Democrats believe to their core, and
Speaker 7: we need to communicate it through our actions and our
Speaker 7: words and where it is that we show up so
Speaker 7: that we're listening and then we're speaking in language that
Speaker 7: actually resonates for people.
Speaker 8: That is the work of the Democratic It's like.
Speaker 1: Wrestling a bear.
Speaker 3: You're a giant man with a golden tongue.
Speaker 1: What do you think? Ultimately, because I completely agree, one
Speaker 1: of the fundamental problems that the Democrats have had is
Speaker 1: they co signed to this sort of what they call
Speaker 1: the neoliberalism economic supply side deregulation NAF to all these
Speaker 1: other things, and they never clawed it back. And what
Speaker 1: we keep hearing is, well, we just need to raise
Speaker 1: taxes on billionaires. But if you haven't convinced your voters
Speaker 1: that the money that is raised will be spent wisely
Speaker 1: and with value, none of it's going to matter, isn't it.
Speaker 1: Look Rats have a harder road to hoe. Yeah, because
Speaker 1: they're the party that believes government needs to be there
Speaker 1: and play a vital role in balancing out corporate interest
Speaker 1: and helping people's lives. It's not nihilistic like the other
Speaker 1: which is like blow the whole thing up and reduce
Speaker 1: it to the size you could drown in a bathtub.
Speaker 1: So is that a message of competence that people can
Speaker 1: can wrap their heads around? In the Democratic Party?
Speaker 8: You have to prove it out now right to be
Speaker 8: able to earn.
Speaker 1: Have they done that? In Wisconsin?
Speaker 8: They've done that.
Speaker 7: Governor Evers ran on fix the damn roads, and then
Speaker 7: he fixed the damn roads.
Speaker 1: So in Wisconsin, can I tell you something Wisconsin people
Speaker 1: orf I med I mean no disrespect. They share like
Speaker 1: the spicy talk.
Speaker 7: Yeah, you know, sometimes there's pepper jack and the still
Speaker 7: what to talk about?
Speaker 1: Fix the damn roads.
Speaker 7: But what happened to that was twenty eighteen twenty twenty two.
Speaker 7: In Wisconsin, it's so evenly divided. Five of the last
Speaker 7: seven presidential races has come down to less than one
Speaker 7: percentage point, and that means that there's usually this slosh
Speaker 7: back and forth. If there's a Democrat in the White House,
Speaker 7: Democrats lose the governor's race. That's been true ever since
Speaker 7: nineteen sixty two. That was the last time we won
Speaker 7: by one percentage point in nineteen sixty two with the
Speaker 7: Democratic president and governor. IVRs won in twenty twenty two
Speaker 7: by three point four points. He tripled his landslide one
Speaker 7: point one point margin in twenty twenty two, and that
Speaker 7: was in no small part because people could see that
Speaker 7: he was actually delivering on what he talked about and
Speaker 7: it touched their lives directly. We had there, you know,
Speaker 7: he had ads in every county about what he'd done
Speaker 7: in that county to make people's lives better. And I
Speaker 7: think politics can make people so cynical. It can be
Speaker 7: so frustrating. Sometimes it feels like the only thing people
Speaker 7: want to do is attack each other. You have to
Speaker 7: actually show your work and show how what you have
Speaker 7: done will make someone's life better to have any possibility
Speaker 7: of building trust. And I think you're right. The Republican
Speaker 7: project is to create so much corrosive cynicism that people
Speaker 7: give up and walk away.
Speaker 8: That is kind of their mission. And when they do the.
Speaker 1: Vote to overthrow any status, vote.
Speaker 8: To overthrow the status quoe.
Speaker 7: But then what they do is they use that cynicism
Speaker 7: to tear up the place and hand out the pieces
Speaker 7: to the richest people in the world. And for Democrats,
Speaker 7: we have to show that they are righting for people,
Speaker 7: that it works, that we can deliver, and in this moment,
Speaker 7: as an opposition party, we have to fight against these
Speaker 7: attacks and also make a proposition that we think we
Speaker 7: should be a country where everyone has basic freedom and dignity,
Speaker 7: where working people can actually support their family or aspire
Speaker 7: to have a family if they want to. That people
Speaker 7: should be able to live their lives and know that
Speaker 7: if they work hard, that they're going to have a
Speaker 7: decent life that is not brigged against them.
Speaker 1: When you do this, I'm assuming that the Democratic National
Speaker 1: Committee has meetings, Yes, and you're at those meetings, yes,
Speaker 1: And you say this with that great passion. You don't
Speaker 1: use words like damned because we're delicate party. What is
Speaker 1: their response to it? They do they throw analytics at you?
Speaker 1: Do they throw data? Because I have watched the people
Speaker 1: that were running these presidential campaigns on a variety of platforms,
Speaker 1: and I've been stunned at the lack of accountability or
Speaker 1: even reflection. And I'm curious if that's been your experience
Speaker 1: in the meetings.
Speaker 7: I will say, you know, when the Democratic National Committee meets,
Speaker 7: I was just in a meeting with the state cheers.
Speaker 7: People do this work because they believe in actually fighting
Speaker 7: and making a difference, and it is often totally thankless,
Speaker 7: and it is often really tough, and often the choices
Speaker 7: that people are making are between two bad options when
Speaker 7: they're in these roles, and so people are mad at
Speaker 7: them because they chose a bad option that was actually
Speaker 7: worse than the other one. It is really really hard
Speaker 7: to do to win these elections, especially when you're facing
Speaker 7: a wall of attacks and people who think that all
Speaker 7: politics is corrupt, and you're like, I'm actually just trying
Speaker 7: to make sure that kids can get lunch when they
Speaker 7: go to school, right, So I don't think that there
Speaker 7: is this kind of cynicism I think that there's defensiveness defensiveness.
Speaker 7: I think that there's this we're kind of in a
Speaker 7: system that is generally broken. Money has this giant role
Speaker 7: in politics on both sides that the you know, people's
Speaker 7: attention is in a million different places, so you can
Speaker 7: scream something from the rooftops and almost no one will
Speaker 7: hear it. Often if you work in politics, you're being
Speaker 7: told all the time, hey, you should do this thing,
Speaker 7: and you're thinking yourself, I do that every single day
Speaker 7: and no one notices it.
Speaker 8: So it is it is hard work.
Speaker 7: You know, you talk about messaging, you have to build
Speaker 7: an infrastructure if you want to get the message out,
Speaker 7: you actually have to have you know, you talk to
Speaker 7: you talk about door to do or organizing. We build
Speaker 7: neighborhood teams so neighbors are knocking on their neighbor's door
Speaker 7: so that it's someone that you actually.
Speaker 1: Know so much. But blew my mind that they were
Speaker 1: like we had strangers knocking on people's doors three times,
Speaker 1: and you're like, you're lucky no one got killed.
Speaker 7: But you have to do that for years to get
Speaker 7: to the point right where it actually so.
Speaker 1: Your energy though, I have to tell you and I
Speaker 1: have talked to DNC chairs and people that have been interested.
Speaker 1: You have a different energy than they do. I'm telling
Speaker 1: you they have a more corporatist vibe that's been the
Speaker 1: vibe of their I can remember Tim King God bless
Speaker 1: good dude, but came on the show when he was
Speaker 1: a DANC chair and he was like, we have door knockers,
Speaker 1: and I was like, oh my god, we're in the shitter.
Speaker 1: Like the passion that you're bringing, boy, that feels like
Speaker 1: what it needs in this moment. I really do feel
Speaker 1: that way. You are approaching it from a much more populist,
Speaker 1: bottom up standpoint than I've heard in the past, other
Speaker 1: than Howard Dean's sort of fifty state.
Speaker 7: Strategy, and I believe it. I really appreciate it. Well,
Speaker 7: I appreciate it. I appreciate the nice compliment. I will
Speaker 7: also say that there are so many people. There are
Speaker 7: thousands of people who work in politics, and sometimes you're
Speaker 7: buried in the numbers and you're you know, you're trying
Speaker 7: to like when you use this phrase, then people are like,
Speaker 7: what the hell are you talking about?
Speaker 8: So you got to use this phrase.
Speaker 7: And a lot of times in politics, people when they're
Speaker 7: on your show. They're trying to remember all those things
Speaker 7: about like what might be a landmine if you step
Speaker 7: on it and it's going to blow up in your face.
Speaker 8: And you're trained to do that.
Speaker 7: In politics, you're trained to try to like navigate through
Speaker 7: these incredibly tricky waters. And that is sometimes important work
Speaker 7: to hold a coalition together, but it's easy to get
Speaker 7: lost in that and not actually go to the whole
Speaker 7: point of the thing, which is to fight in a
Speaker 7: way that makes the difference in people's lives so that
Speaker 7: they remember who was on their side when something went
Speaker 7: wrong and they understand who's trying to wreck them book
Speaker 7: like that is the reason when politics actually been is.
Speaker 1: Someone writing this down. Stop with the analytics, just sign one. So, oh,
Speaker 1: I'm sorry, I apologize. It went back to the mets
Speaker 1: uh dead on, dead on. The caution is killing effective governance.
Speaker 1: It's a fear. If you come from a place of
Speaker 1: fear and not from a place of passion and belief,
Speaker 1: you lose.
Speaker 7: And people can see, people can feel authenticity, they can
Speaker 7: feel it, and this I think Trump is a disaster
Speaker 7: for the country. I also think it's very hollelujah. It's
Speaker 7: very clear he does not think before he talks, he
Speaker 7: just says it. And there's something that draws people towards
Speaker 7: him about that. It is, even when he's lying out
Speaker 7: of his teeth, he's lying in an authentic way.
Speaker 1: I don't even think those are his real teeth, quite, frank,
Speaker 1: we have.
Speaker 7: No idea about the teeth his medical records deep deep
Speaker 7: sea deep secrets.
Speaker 1: Yeah. I really appreciate you coming by and bringing this.
Speaker 1: I'm telling you you had a dispirited group of people
Speaker 1: wandering in the desert of feeling that they didn't know,
Speaker 1: thirsty for leadership. You have provided it for them. Today
Speaker 1: we are announcing right now Ben Wickler is a nominee
Speaker 1: for President of the No no no, no no no
Speaker 1: no no no.
Speaker 2: No no no no no.
Speaker 1: For the seconding, it for charity, the Democratic it's doing.
Speaker 7: It matters who leads the Democratic National Committee, and it
Speaker 7: matters who leads state parties, and it matters who does
Speaker 7: this work because this doesn't happen alone. You have to
Speaker 7: have millions of people involved to be able to make
Speaker 7: elections like this work. I'm running to get people involved.
Speaker 7: I want people to join and fight and win.
Speaker 1: Why do we do it? Thank me? Thank you for
Speaker 1: having me. It's not a Democratic party. Chari Bay Red Club.
Speaker 5: We're gonna tell me.
Speaker 1: Quick clack all right about epilom. That's what I'm talking about.
Speaker 1: That a dog show. But before we go, we're gonna
Speaker 1: check in with your host for the rest of the week,
Speaker 1: Michael Kost. Everybody, Michael, that's that's that's a really nice chairman. Yeah, well,
Speaker 1: thank you.
Speaker 8: John picked it up this weekend. I guess you can.
Speaker 1: I guess you could say it was a real steal.
Speaker 1: You looted that from Assad's palace. Don't be jealous, John, Okay,
Speaker 1: I picked you up a little something too, all right,
Speaker 1: Merry Christmas? Is this a Sods underwear? This is a
Speaker 1: Sods underwear. I don't want to Sods underwear?
Speaker 8: Oh why because you don't celebrate Christmas?
Speaker 1: Marco Kus everybody here it is your moment? Is that
Speaker 1: that's really Jeff Bezos called me.
Speaker 8: We're having dinner.
Speaker 1: As you know, Mark Zuckelberg came in. We had a
Speaker 1: really nice dinner.
Speaker 8: He has to have dinner.
Speaker 1: I had dinner with him. I'm having dinner with everybody.
Speaker 1: People like me. Now, you know it's something going on
Speaker 1: that people. I said, would you have come to dinner
Speaker 1: with me if I lost, I think the answer is no.
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Speaker 2: searching the Daily Show wherever you get your podcasts.
Speaker 1: Watch The Daily Show week nights at eleven.
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