Speaker 1: Good morning, peeps, and welcome to bok F Daily with
Speaker 1: Meet your Girl Danielle Moody recording from the home Bunker, Folks, today,
Speaker 1: I am excited to welcome to woke F Daily for
Speaker 1: the first time the new president and CEO of the
Speaker 1: Center for American Progress and CAP Action, Patrick Gaspard. For
Speaker 1: those of you who do not know that, haven't been
Speaker 1: listening to woke F since the beginning of time, which
Speaker 1: feels like how long I've been recording. I was a
Speaker 1: senior advisor at the Center for American Progress, where I
Speaker 1: co launched an initiative under lgbt Progress, the Fire Initiative
Speaker 1: Fighting Injustice to Reach a Quality, which looked at how
Speaker 1: discriminatory LGBTQ policies adversely affected black queer people. And during
Speaker 1: my time at CAP, you know, which is the largest
Speaker 1: progressive think tank in the country, I had the opportunity
Speaker 1: to be surrounded by some of the biggest thinkers and leaders,
Speaker 1: and at one time, in those glory glory days of
Speaker 1: the twenty tens, there was a pipeline of talent that
Speaker 1: was going into the Obama administration, coming out of the
Speaker 1: Obama administration into CAP and into creating different policies and
Speaker 1: ways in which we can progress as a country and
Speaker 1: as a nation. And you know, during the last I
Speaker 1: would say ten years plus, Patrick will tell us that
Speaker 1: CAP is turning twenty years old, which is so wild
Speaker 1: for me to think about, but that a lot has changed.
Speaker 1: You know, when Center for American Progress was established, it
Speaker 1: was you know, about pushing forward, pushing this country to
Speaker 1: reach its possibility. And now we're in a place of
Speaker 1: just trying to hold on bare knuckle to our democracy.
Speaker 1: And this shift has taken place in the last ten years,
Speaker 1: and it is wild. And so this interview with Patrick
Speaker 1: will go into what it is he believes that Democrats
Speaker 1: need to be doing. You know, this interview you will
Speaker 1: hear will be roughly, you know, the day before the
Speaker 1: final day to vote in this consequential midterm election. It
Speaker 1: is unbelievable to me where the polls are. But like
Speaker 1: I've said to you all on Woke f that I
Speaker 1: believe in the bodies that show up at the polls.
Speaker 1: I do not believe in the tea leaves being read.
Speaker 1: Because understand that the horse race is necessary for ratings,
Speaker 1: and what is good for ratings is real shit for
Speaker 1: our democracy. So we will see. But if you have
Speaker 1: yet to vote, and you know people that have yet
Speaker 1: to vote, tell them that this is our last free
Speaker 1: and fair election. If they like their lives, if they
Speaker 1: like you know, democracy, if they like freedom, then they
Speaker 1: need to go into that voting booth and vote Blue
Speaker 1: all the way down the ticket. Because the alternative is
Speaker 1: a cult that is looking to not only reverse rights
Speaker 1: in this country, but they are looking to create a
Speaker 1: climate of violence and misery that we have never seen.
Speaker 1: And so it is important for us to understand what
Speaker 1: is at stake, which is why I have Center for
Speaker 1: American Progress President and CEO Patrick Gasberg coming up next.
Speaker 1: Indisputable with Doctor Rashi Ricci is one of the latest
Speaker 1: shows on the TYT network and also the fastest growing
Speaker 1: news show in America. On his show, Doctor Ricci plays
Speaker 1: no games regarding policy, delivering a heavy dose of fact
Speaker 1: based truth and penetrating analysis on all the top news
Speaker 1: stories focusing on racism, criminal and social justice, politics, police brutality, Karens,
Speaker 1: and much more. Listeners can also expect interviews with fascinating guests,
Speaker 1: political leaders, commentators, and even fiery debates with conservatives on
Speaker 1: a wide range of policy topics. In the bullpen. It
Speaker 1: is an indisputable fact that you will love this show.
Speaker 1: Listen to Indisputable with Doctor rashad Ricci on Apple Podcasts, Spotify,
Speaker 1: or wherever you get your podcasts. If you like what
Speaker 1: you hear, be sure to subscribe so you never miss
Speaker 1: a new episode. Folks, I'm very excited to welcome to
Speaker 1: woka F Daily for the very first time, Patrick Gaspard,
Speaker 1: who is the president and the CEO of the Center
Speaker 1: for American Progress and CAP Action Fund and a seasoned
Speaker 1: expert on progressive politics and campaigns. Patrick, I need this
Speaker 1: discussion to go well, so so let me let me first. Uh,
Speaker 1: let's let's start, you know, Danielle, I hope that next
Speaker 1: Tuesday goes at least as well as as this discussion
Speaker 1: with I meet too, so as folks who listen to
Speaker 1: oka F. No, I am a CAP alumni. I was
Speaker 1: with CAP under LGBT Progress back in the twenty tens,
Speaker 1: and I'm a big fan of the work that CAP
Speaker 1: has done as a former senior advisor. So I just
Speaker 1: you know, before we jump into mid terms, Uh, Patrick,
Speaker 1: I wanted to get a sense of your leadership at
Speaker 1: Center for American Progress and you know the importance of
Speaker 1: this massive progressive organization, particularly in these times. Well, Danielle, first,
Speaker 1: thanks for having me on. It can't believe that this
Speaker 1: is my like inaugural moment on your phenomenal show. And
Speaker 1: it's really great to be able to speak with a
Speaker 1: CAP alum. Thank you for all the work that you
Speaker 1: did when you were with a CAP, and thank you
Speaker 1: for your ongoing and unique and important public service. Look,
Speaker 1: it's a privilege of a lifetime to be able to
Speaker 1: be the head of this organization as it turns twenty
Speaker 1: next year. I'm sure that since you're an alum, that
Speaker 1: your listenership understands that the great advantage that CAP has
Speaker 1: is that we are engaged across all issues that are
Speaker 1: debated and litigated in Washington, DC and in our state capitals.
Speaker 1: We have centered racial equity, injustice, economic inclusion, climate, health expansion,
Speaker 1: and fundamentally democracy integrity. And anybody who lived through the
Speaker 1: last four years under the previous president understand why we
Speaker 1: would center democracy integrity in this critical moment in this country.
Speaker 1: So CAP turns we have kind of a three legged
Speaker 1: stool at CAP where we have our deep research leg our,
Speaker 1: muscular advocacy, leg and our nimble communications and all of
Speaker 1: those things work in concert to pass legislation, to land
Speaker 1: that legislation in the lives of people in community, and
Speaker 1: then to be able to kind of tell a story
Speaker 1: about it that can hopefully accrue to our benefit at
Speaker 1: the moment when people have to make the kinds of
Speaker 1: choices that they're making next Tuesday. I can't believe that
Speaker 1: it's been twenty years. I mean, it is. It's it's
Speaker 1: wild to me because I I feel like, I mean,
Speaker 1: I wasn't around in the beginning, but CAP was still nascent.
Speaker 1: It was still this this new building entity. And so
Speaker 1: you know, you have this this layered approach and the
Speaker 1: tentacles in every place and space at a time that
Speaker 1: our democracy is really under attack. You know when I
Speaker 1: feel like when CAPP was built at the beginning, it
Speaker 1: was about the expansion of progressive ideals and the expansion
Speaker 1: of this idea of equity and justice. And what it
Speaker 1: looks like to take a layered approach to the advancement
Speaker 1: of our country and our body politic. What does it
Speaker 1: mean for you now though, at a time when the
Speaker 1: very democracy, the very foundation of this country is at risk.
Speaker 1: It means that we are in the right place at
Speaker 1: the right time to say and do the right things
Speaker 1: to advance the common American enterprise forward. Right, So, we
Speaker 1: have twenty years now of testing, of researching, twenty years
Speaker 1: of some tremendous successes, but twenty years also some failures
Speaker 1: to learn from that hopefully should inform our direction of
Speaker 1: travel as an organization and then as a country in
Speaker 1: the next several years to come. I'll tell you, Danielle
Speaker 1: that in my brief time as leader of CAMP and
Speaker 1: my very long history working with the organization, it's clear
Speaker 1: to me that CAP always was the thing that should
Speaker 1: have existed from their earliest days that some of us
Speaker 1: were involved in public policy and in politics. We always
Speaker 1: needed a space that could hold the big expansive tent
Speaker 1: that is liberal to progressive political actors policy leaders in
Speaker 1: this country to be able to find a common purpose
Speaker 1: and to understand really profoundly the intersection of all of
Speaker 1: these issues with one another and how they ladder up
Speaker 1: to this notion of democracy and freedom and fairness. There
Speaker 1: are extraordinary organizations in Washington and in the country that
Speaker 1: are single issue to focus, and we need them and
Speaker 1: their expertise is invaluable. But there is something extraordinary about
Speaker 1: caps superpower, which you know, just kind of glums all
Speaker 1: of these issues together and tackles them in a way
Speaker 1: that always centers equity, and there's always clear about on
Speaker 1: whose behalf we're struggling every day and what we think
Speaker 1: is needed to develop a stronger nation that brings everybody along. So, yeah,
Speaker 1: it's been it's a thrill of a lifetime to do
Speaker 1: this work. And you know, it also helps me to
Speaker 1: continue to carry forward the lessons and the skill sets
Speaker 1: that I learned when I was a young activist, when
Speaker 1: I was an organizer for unions, when I became a
Speaker 1: political and policy director for the Service Employees International Union,
Speaker 1: all the lessons I learned on both sides of the barricade,
Speaker 1: either on the protest side in Lafayette Park or on
Speaker 1: the other side of the barricade. Working as a senior
Speaker 1: staffer in the White House. Certainly, my working global diplomacy,
Speaker 1: given our determination to insert our notion of progressivism in
Speaker 1: US foreign policy, all of that, uh and my time
Speaker 1: in philanthropy working on human rights, all of that has
Speaker 1: come to a head in this moment in the US,
Speaker 1: In this moment in cap and Boy what a privilege
Speaker 1: to be able to lead on those fronts. You know,
Speaker 1: your your background and your expertise is one that is
Speaker 1: surely needed because you have a wide perspective and and bandwidth,
Speaker 1: uh that that you've been operating with for for for
Speaker 1: so many years. And I you know, I wonder now,
Speaker 1: um as you're at the helm of of cap and
Speaker 1: you're and we're just days we're just days away from
Speaker 1: what I believe and what I said on this show
Speaker 1: and other programs is the most consequential election of our times.
Speaker 1: And I've said many times without being hyperbolic, that this
Speaker 1: may be very well be the last free and fair
Speaker 1: election of our time. And you know, right before our interview,
Speaker 1: I get a text from a colleague that's said, Danielle,
Speaker 1: I just spoke with a Democratic donor who has their
Speaker 1: ear to the ground, and they say, we're in for
Speaker 1: a red wave. Patrick, what do you say to that?
Speaker 1: Because I, you know, and I got to tell you,
Speaker 1: I don't believe polls. You know, I believe, I believe
Speaker 1: who shows up at polls. I believe hard numbers of
Speaker 1: ballots that have already been mailed in. Those are the
Speaker 1: numbers that I believe. But when you hear, and it's
Speaker 1: been reiterated on cable news in many, many, many, many articles,
Speaker 1: probably too many to count, that we're in for red wave.
Speaker 1: What is your response to that? Oh, you know, whoever's
Speaker 1: calling you needs to hang out with some better people.
Speaker 1: Let's help set them straight about the moment that we're in. Look,
Speaker 1: there is always this kind of bad wedding amongst the Democrats,
Speaker 1: in particular days out from any election, and let's you know,
Speaker 1: let's you and I be really sober about this. We
Speaker 1: know that Americans right now are going to the grocery store,
Speaker 1: they're going to the gas pump, and they're encountering eight
Speaker 1: percent inflation. That is a real thing in the lives
Speaker 1: of average folk. That will matter next The ready matters
Speaker 1: in early vote, will matter next Tuesday as well. But
Speaker 1: you know what else matters, folks recognize that with President
Speaker 1: of Bio's leadership, with the leadership of Democrats in the
Speaker 1: House and Senate, we managed to pass real consequential stimulus
Speaker 1: bill that redounded to the average spoken community. That saved
Speaker 1: a small business, is that saved our ability to maintain
Speaker 1: community and education and public safety. And we did it
Speaker 1: without votes from Republicans. They know that this administration passed
Speaker 1: an infrastructure build the likes of which has been spoken
Speaker 1: about for decades from one administration to the next. I
Speaker 1: think that the previous it's hard to even call him
Speaker 1: a president, and previous occupants of the White House, you know,
Speaker 1: talked until he was blew in the face about how
Speaker 1: he was going to do this, made an America infrastructure
Speaker 1: never got it done. Republicans didn't get it done. Jill Biden,
Speaker 1: Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer and the Democrats who have been
Speaker 1: toiling with them got infrastructure done, and they got it
Speaker 1: done in a fashion that center's fairness equity that reverses
Speaker 1: some of the structural racism that we've had in infrastructure
Speaker 1: development for decades in the US. Democrats did that. Following that,
Speaker 1: after you know, a long set of negotiations, they passed
Speaker 1: the Inflation Reduction Act, that is the largest expansion of
Speaker 1: here that we've seen in a decade. It has done
Speaker 1: most consequential climate bill that's ever been passed in the
Speaker 1: history of the United States, with real sources going towards
Speaker 1: climate mitigation and energy transformation. And they also passed the
Speaker 1: most consequential economic bill we've seen in a generation that
Speaker 1: comes with meaningful reforms in taxes that's going to compel
Speaker 1: and force largest corporations, richest folks to pay their fair share.
Speaker 1: And then on top of that, just for you know,
Speaker 1: just to kind of flawed the bingo card, they also
Speaker 1: managed to push down the costs of prescription drugs. So
Speaker 1: folks know and feel the benefit of these things. Plus
Speaker 1: a student debt measure that was passed by the by
Speaker 1: by President Biden. But then on top of that, we
Speaker 1: have this reactionary maga extremists six three majority in the
Speaker 1: Supreme Court that took away a fundamental right that was
Speaker 1: assured for the last fifty years in the DABS decision
Speaker 1: when they rolled back access to a worsen in this country.
Speaker 1: So folks understand that they feel that we've seen that
Speaker 1: in the uptick in voter registration, particularly from women and
Speaker 1: young people in places like Pennsylvania, Arizona, Michigan, Georgia, following
Speaker 1: the DABS ruling, following the education debt relief from the President,
Speaker 1: and following the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act. Now,
Speaker 1: I know, Danielle, and you know what the historic trends
Speaker 1: look like. More often than not, with very rare exceptions,
Speaker 1: those who occupy the White House during a midterm elections
Speaker 1: and losing seat. The historic trend, the Democrats are bucking
Speaker 1: that trend right now, and in state after state, from
Speaker 1: the special elections that we've had to the numbers we're
Speaker 1: seeing in the early vote period, Democrats and key battleground
Speaker 1: states are outpacing President Biden's approval numbers. And they also
Speaker 1: are benefiting from the fact that the Republican Party has
Speaker 1: gone off the rails. Seventy percent Republican believe somehow that
Speaker 1: the twenty twenty election was rigged against them. Instead nominated
Speaker 1: campidates who are deeply flawed. Right we have Blake Masters
Speaker 1: in Arizona, Doctor Oz in Pennsylvania, Tutor Dixon in Michigan,
Speaker 1: Tim Michaels in Wisconsin, Herschel Walker in Georgia, who barely
Speaker 1: believes that the earth is around, and who all won
Speaker 1: a role social Security Medicare, and they want to continue
Speaker 1: to give encouragement to the proud boys, to the old keepers,
Speaker 1: to the kind of people who visited violence on Paul
Speaker 1: Pelosi a week ago. So all that to say, we've
Speaker 1: given ourselves a fighting chance more than a fighting chance,
Speaker 1: and we're going to have some success in even some
Speaker 1: difficult places next Tuesday. The Damage Report with John Idarola
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Speaker 1: Report on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Speaker 1: If you like what you here, be sure to subscribe
Speaker 1: so you never miss an episode. I'm so thankful one
Speaker 1: for the list of accomplishments that you have laid out,
Speaker 1: because I think that in this time of great anxiety,
Speaker 1: of great inflation, which you also named, of political the
Speaker 1: rise in political violence. I think that what this administration,
Speaker 1: first of all, we forget what they inherited from the
Speaker 1: prior occupant, as you said, which was an absolute disaster
Speaker 1: a sewer is is what they inherited, and that what
Speaker 1: they have been able to kind of move this country
Speaker 1: out of My issue with Democrats and this question is twofold,
Speaker 1: and is that all of the things that you named.
Speaker 1: I don't believe a majority of the country actually knows, right,
Speaker 1: I know, I do know that they remember that they
Speaker 1: remember the stimulus. I do know that many people, you know,
Speaker 1: remember the covid AID that they received as well because
Speaker 1: of you know, the million plus people who have died
Speaker 1: in this country that we continue to kind of, you know, forget,
Speaker 1: right then a million We lost a million souls, over
Speaker 1: a million souls to this global health pandemic, and that's
Speaker 1: something that we have we just kind of gloss over.
Speaker 1: And the prior occupant was responsible for at least half
Speaker 1: of those deaths. And so, you know, in that way,
Speaker 1: I ask about first, you know, the messaging. We have
Speaker 1: all the right policies, Patrick, We have all the right policies.
Speaker 1: We believe in the foundation of democracy. We believe in equity,
Speaker 1: we believe in justice. And so how is it that
Speaker 1: when you have what has what has turned into a
Speaker 1: very rabid, racist, misogynistic cult telling you very clearly that
Speaker 1: they want to strip away entitlements, they want to take
Speaker 1: away social Security, they want to take away Medicare, they
Speaker 1: want to take away public education, they don't believe in
Speaker 1: climate change, even as this country is being ravished by it.
Speaker 1: How is it that Democrats are not messaging, not just
Speaker 1: in reaction to the Republicans, but about what they have
Speaker 1: done and what they're willing to do. Danielle, that was
Speaker 1: a woke af takedown. I know, I know about the
Speaker 1: right show. Look, I narrative is always a really difficult thing,
Speaker 1: and usually you need hundreds of millions of dollars focused
Speaker 1: around very very specific messaging in order for things to
Speaker 1: account of Landhole for folks as they get repeated over
Speaker 1: and over on their TV sets, on their social media,
Speaker 1: on the door when somebody's knocking there from a canvas,
Speaker 1: or as I'm going to get to do this weekend
Speaker 1: in Georgia for Stacy Abrahams and Raphael Warnot. It takes
Speaker 1: a while. You know, messaging. You know, I remember somebody
Speaker 1: once telling me a long time ago that messaging is
Speaker 1: like a dagwood sandwich where you just got put those
Speaker 1: layers and layers and layers, and hopefully, I hope that
Speaker 1: at all you can taste all of it in one
Speaker 1: bite and then have them come back again for more.
Speaker 1: You know. Of course, I'd worked in the White House
Speaker 1: and their President Obama and his first term as the
Speaker 1: White House Political Director, and messaging was the bane of
Speaker 1: our existence in that moment. After we passed what was
Speaker 1: then record stimulus, after we saved Americans from the foreclosure crisis,
Speaker 1: we saved your mobile industry. Yeah, oh, and then we
Speaker 1: got healthcare form done. Even despite all of that, we
Speaker 1: struggled with messaging in the mid term election, and folks
Speaker 1: were you know, it's it's interesting. There are some interesting
Speaker 1: comparisons here. You have historic accomplishments, but those accomplishments can
Speaker 1: get swamped in them and the media ecosystem that we're in,
Speaker 1: if if, if there if folks are just hearing about
Speaker 1: one issue over and over and over again. Back then
Speaker 1: in two and ten, it was still overwhelmingly about unemployment,
Speaker 1: which was at double digits. So irrespect of all the accomplishments.
Speaker 1: Folks just wanted to hear and understand and wanted to
Speaker 1: see the impact immediately overnight of the policies on unemployment.
Speaker 1: It wasn't until two thousand and twelve that all of
Speaker 1: that landed in people's community, in their homes in a
Speaker 1: way that was transformational enough for us to win reelection
Speaker 1: in two twelve and then win back the majority in
Speaker 1: Congress some years later. We had to have proof points
Speaker 1: not just in being able to say we passed the legislation,
Speaker 1: but how it was landing effectively in people's lives. Right now,
Speaker 1: despite all the great things that I just listed that
Speaker 1: President Biden Democrats have been able to achieve, they have
Speaker 1: the challenge of inflation hovering at about eight percent now.
Speaker 1: It's been going down, and there are some very real
Speaker 1: things that have been done by this administration to kind
Speaker 1: of turn that around, but that's still a really stubborn
Speaker 1: metric and that comes with a whole set of anxieties.
Speaker 1: They're being clear that they intend to go right at
Speaker 1: sour security and medicare by either gutting them or sun
Speaker 1: setting them. They're playing Russian Roulette with our economy and
Speaker 1: They're gonna hold a debt limit hostage to get whatever
Speaker 1: policies they want. They're gonna go back and reinstate Donald
Speaker 1: Trump's tax cuts, which were for the wealthiest corporations and Americans.
Speaker 1: And they're gonna follow a set of policies that are
Speaker 1: really similar to what this trusted in England after she
Speaker 1: thanked their economy and got roundly bounced out after a
Speaker 1: couple of weeks. And they're going to work no matter
Speaker 1: what they say now. They're going to work to pass
Speaker 1: a national abortion ban like the well proposed by Senator
Speaker 1: Lindsey Graham earlier this year. They are going to do
Speaker 1: these things. You know. The one thing I will say
Speaker 1: about magor Republican extremists, when they tell you that they
Speaker 1: intend to do something, take them out. They do it
Speaker 1: because they do it, including up to you know, violating
Speaker 1: the Capitol on January sixth and almost bringing great harm
Speaker 1: to members of Congress and indeed bringing harm to police
Speaker 1: officers a number of other people. You know, I'm thinking
Speaker 1: right now, Danielle of the sisters in Georgia who were
Speaker 1: the election workers who testified January, how terrified they were
Speaker 1: just because they did their civic duty, and I worry
Speaker 1: that if Republicans are successful next Tuesday, that we're going
Speaker 1: to move increasingly to a nation towards a democracy where
Speaker 1: folks life shamas are not safe just helping to basically
Speaker 1: count votes. That's not the America that I want to
Speaker 1: wake up to on Wednesday. So I hope your listeners
Speaker 1: going out of participating an early vote where that's available
Speaker 1: to them, but certainly are going to take the time
Speaker 1: on Tuesday to go out and cast their ballot, but
Speaker 1: will also knock on a few doors of their neighbors
Speaker 1: to get them out as well. Patrick, last question for you,
Speaker 1: you know, oh no, no, I know, but you'll have
Speaker 1: to come back. This was your inauguration. But you're you're
Speaker 1: you will, you will be back on woke a f
Speaker 1: But um, you know, political violence UM is at an
Speaker 1: all time high in this country but also around the
Speaker 1: around the world. UM. And my own mother, after the
Speaker 1: attack on Paul Pelosi, said Danielle, I'm really worried. I'm
Speaker 1: I'm worried for you who speaks out and writes. I'm
Speaker 1: worried for representatives because I think that good people will
Speaker 1: decide to stop doing what they're doing out of fear
Speaker 1: for their lives and those of their family. You know,
Speaker 1: what do you make of this time, and what, if
Speaker 1: anything you know can you express to those that are
Speaker 1: feeling hopeless, that are feeling you know, that are that
Speaker 1: are having their fear takeover a deep breath. Here we
Speaker 1: have to give your moms or reassurance. We have to
Speaker 1: get everybody to um feel a good deal more hopeful
Speaker 1: and optimistic about the future despite the dark times and
Speaker 1: the challenges that we're having here in the US and elsewhere.
Speaker 1: We have to recognize, Danielle, that this didn't come out
Speaker 1: of out of the ether. That the change that we've
Speaker 1: seen in this country, where we've become a good deal
Speaker 1: more radicalized and polarized UM and where we seem to
Speaker 1: have seemingly two different Americas in geography and culture and
Speaker 1: certainly in the outcomes that we have in our elections,
Speaker 1: didn't happen. It didn't come out of it end just anywhere.
Speaker 1: And ten years ago we started to see a real
Speaker 1: difference in the media ecosystem that we're in, driven by
Speaker 1: algorithmic governance on social media that's really driven folks to
Speaker 1: their worst instincts, where even the most marginal peripheral most
Speaker 1: polarizing conspiracies confine a community that gives people a sense
Speaker 1: that their own little house of mirrors is the world.
Speaker 1: The problem we got to work on, as probably have
Speaker 1: to work on. We have to change the regulatory environment
Speaker 1: for information democracy in America. We need the Department of
Speaker 1: Homeland Security to step up its efforts. They've been monitoring
Speaker 1: They and the Department of Justice have been monitoring groups
Speaker 1: that are that are just overwhelmingly supremacists and violence in nature,
Speaker 1: like the Proud Boys, like the Oath Keepers. That monitoring
Speaker 1: has to go to direct accountability, and there have to
Speaker 1: be consequences for the threats and the actions that have
Speaker 1: been taken. We have folks like Mark Finchum, who's running
Speaker 1: for Secretary of State in Arizona, who have been given
Speaker 1: active and open encouragement to people who are walking around
Speaker 1: with guns around ballot boxes. We have to defeat candidates
Speaker 1: like that, but we also have to put the resources
Speaker 1: in place to defend and protect and promote those who
Speaker 1: are trying to administer our elections in a safe and
Speaker 1: secure fashion. And then, lastly, we need to make sure
Speaker 1: that we are prebunking the rumors. The conspiracies that these
Speaker 1: folks are putting out there that even really good hearted
Speaker 1: people will quickly and easily be manipulated by and subscribe to.
Speaker 1: There are some real differences in how we view equity
Speaker 1: and fairness mean in our country. But at the end
Speaker 1: of the day, I really do believe, as Prison bidenstead
Speaker 1: of the other last evening, that the vast majority of
Speaker 1: Americans stand firmly against the vile rhetoric that we've heard
Speaker 1: and the violence that we've witnessed. But at the end
Speaker 1: of the day, that majority of Americans will only win
Speaker 1: the day if we have real administrative legal backup to
Speaker 1: build accountability and consequence, and if we keep pushing our
Speaker 1: politicians to their better nature by having the accountability at
Speaker 1: the ballot box. When the Governor of Virginia comes out
Speaker 1: and makes fun of the fact that Paul Pelosi was
Speaker 1: violated in that way, the governor of Virginia used to
Speaker 1: pay a price at home and the only way that
Speaker 1: politicians fear, which is around their support. So you know
Speaker 1: that's my story and I'm sticking to it. Yeah, Patrick, aspart,
Speaker 1: thank you so much for the work that you're doing
Speaker 1: at the Center for American Progress. I feel after speaking
Speaker 1: with you that it is in good hands. My alma mater,
Speaker 1: as I like to say as people graduate from GAP,
Speaker 1: is in good hands. And I hope that you will
Speaker 1: make time to join us again post midterms to see
Speaker 1: where we go from there. Appreciate you, Appreciate you, Thank
Speaker 1: you so much for what you do. Please tell your
Speaker 1: mom we're going to work it out as liston. That
Speaker 1: is it for me today, Dear friends, on woke app
Speaker 1: as always, power to the people and to all the people. Power,
Speaker 1: get woke and stay woke as fun