WEBVTT - Political State of Emergency 0:00:11.720 --> 0:00:14.440 Good morning, peeps, and welcome to willk F Daily with 0:00:14.520 --> 0:00:19.119 Meet Your Girl Daniel Moody, recording from the Home Bunker. Folks, 0:00:19.280 --> 0:00:23.280 what a fucking week. Let me start with the fact 0:00:23.440 --> 0:00:27.400 that Donald Trump is absolute trash, but we are going 0:00:27.440 --> 0:00:30.400 to get into that on Friday, but let me just 0:00:30.560 --> 0:00:35.479 preview that not only is Donald Trump found libel for 0:00:35.680 --> 0:00:42.920 sexual abuse, for defamation, but in a recent interview with MSNBC, 0:00:43.320 --> 0:00:47.800 his former running mate Mike Penn said, well, you know, 0:00:47.920 --> 0:00:50.200 there's a lot of stuff going on, and I don't 0:00:50.200 --> 0:00:52.680 think that the American people really care about this. Are 0:00:52.720 --> 0:00:57.200 you fucking dumb? Do you think that Americans, particularly women, 0:00:57.320 --> 0:00:59.960 don't care about the fact that the Republican Party is 0:01:00.080 --> 0:01:04.880 a coven for misogynists, is a coven for sexual abusers. 0:01:05.200 --> 0:01:09.120 From the state, local, and federal level, there have been 0:01:09.680 --> 0:01:15.360 accusations for a number of people. A person in Tennessee 0:01:15.360 --> 0:01:19.080 and the Tennessee Legislature just resigned because he was fucking 0:01:19.120 --> 0:01:22.760 an intern. So you think that the party that wants 0:01:22.800 --> 0:01:28.160 to couch themselves as somehow about family values, We know 0:01:28.319 --> 0:01:31.360 that there are there's no family and there are no values. 0:01:32.200 --> 0:01:35.160 All these people want is fucking power so that they 0:01:35.200 --> 0:01:38.880 can impose their will, their religion, their bullshit, their lives 0:01:39.240 --> 0:01:42.679 on the rest of us. Donald Trump is a man 0:01:42.720 --> 0:01:46.240 that they bowed down to. They they would give blood 0:01:47.160 --> 0:01:50.760 for this man so long as he says that he 0:01:50.800 --> 0:01:53.360 will make the people around them who they don't like 0:01:53.520 --> 0:01:58.080 lives harder, so long as he will release cruel policy. 0:01:58.840 --> 0:02:01.240 Because if you ask these very same people, you know 0:02:01.320 --> 0:02:03.160 there'll be a whole heap of them that will be 0:02:03.200 --> 0:02:07.480 at that bullshit CNN town hall which I did not watch, 0:02:07.520 --> 0:02:10.000 am not watching. But by the time you listen to this, 0:02:10.080 --> 0:02:15.440 we will know what has happened. Four hundred people call 0:02:15.520 --> 0:02:19.040 themselves Republicans in the widest fucking state of New Hampshire 0:02:19.840 --> 0:02:23.200 to give softball questions to Donald Trump. The question that 0:02:23.280 --> 0:02:26.880 I would ask. Ask these people how their lives have 0:02:26.919 --> 0:02:30.800 been made better by the Republican Party. Tell me exactly 0:02:30.840 --> 0:02:33.919 how your specific life. Don't talk to me about all 0:02:34.000 --> 0:02:38.040 day banned abortion. Tell me exactly how your life and 0:02:38.120 --> 0:02:41.920 the lives of your family members are better because of 0:02:41.960 --> 0:02:47.160 Republican policies. I'll wait, tell me how, over four years 0:02:47.160 --> 0:02:51.840 of Donald Trump's corrupt, fucking ass presidency that your life improved. 0:02:52.520 --> 0:02:56.480 Because unless you are a multi millionaire and a billionaire. 0:02:56.800 --> 0:03:00.960 The answer is the same way that couldn't answer the 0:03:01.040 --> 0:03:03.960 fucking question around what does it mean to be woke. 0:03:06.400 --> 0:03:08.600 What they care about and what they know for certain 0:03:08.680 --> 0:03:11.799 is that Donald Trump is a misogynist, white supremacist, and 0:03:11.919 --> 0:03:14.799 that is what they like in a candidate. That's what 0:03:14.840 --> 0:03:18.520 they like in a party. They want to go back 0:03:18.520 --> 0:03:21.400 to a time when it was okay for men to 0:03:21.520 --> 0:03:25.360 grab women however, whenever and wherever that they wanted, and 0:03:25.400 --> 0:03:28.880 those women didn't have any recourse. They want to go 0:03:29.000 --> 0:03:32.120 back to a time when black people were forced off 0:03:32.200 --> 0:03:35.520 of sidewalks because white people were walking down the street. 0:03:37.400 --> 0:03:40.000 They want to go back to a time where gay 0:03:40.080 --> 0:03:46.080 people are forced into the closet or jailed. That's their 0:03:46.120 --> 0:03:49.840 idea of making America great again. So miss me with 0:03:49.920 --> 0:03:54.600 the bullshit with these fucking fake ass journalists who can't 0:03:54.640 --> 0:03:58.880 take questions. You know, the other day, bravo to Joe 0:03:58.880 --> 0:04:03.640 Biden who flipped it on reporters at the White House 0:04:03.960 --> 0:04:07.520 when he asked them, you tell me what Republicans said 0:04:07.640 --> 0:04:10.400 was in their plan? Did you ask them? He's like, 0:04:10.680 --> 0:04:13.320 I'm not trying to be funny, I'm not trying to 0:04:13.360 --> 0:04:18.599 even be a wise guy. But did you ask? And 0:04:18.680 --> 0:04:22.160 I realized that when questions are posed back to these reporters, 0:04:22.160 --> 0:04:26.520 they don't have fucking answers because they don't ask the 0:04:26.680 --> 0:04:29.960 very politicians that they are throwing in Democrats' faith. They 0:04:29.960 --> 0:04:34.799 don't ask Kevin McCarthy. So you say that it's fine 0:04:34.839 --> 0:04:38.840 for George Santos to remain in Congress because you need 0:04:38.920 --> 0:04:43.120 the votes, and that he's innocent until proven guilty. So 0:04:43.200 --> 0:04:46.480 what are your thoughts on Donald Trump being held liable 0:04:46.520 --> 0:04:51.039 for sexual abuse and defamation? Should he, then, by your 0:04:51.240 --> 0:04:54.520 line of thinking, be able to still run for president? 0:04:54.640 --> 0:04:59.240 And will you back him? Because a jury of his 0:04:59.400 --> 0:05:03.880 peers found him liable and would have found him fucking guilty, 0:05:04.160 --> 0:05:06.600 and he would have been jailed if the statutory of 0:05:06.680 --> 0:05:13.880 limitations was unlimited, But by grace of new legislation in 0:05:13.920 --> 0:05:19.640 New York, Egen Carroll was able to file a civil suit. 0:05:22.400 --> 0:05:25.279 You know, folks, I just keep thinking about the fact 0:05:25.400 --> 0:05:31.520 that this country, I really, honestly, you know, all credit 0:05:31.600 --> 0:05:34.279 is always given to the forefathers of this nation for 0:05:34.360 --> 0:05:38.960 concocting this project called democracy. And I got to say, 0:05:39.080 --> 0:05:42.720 there are a lot of fucking holes that they left unfilled, 0:05:43.440 --> 0:05:50.000 because why is it that you can be indicted, that 0:05:50.080 --> 0:05:55.000 you can be how liable for sexual violence, that you 0:05:55.120 --> 0:05:59.839 can be charged with crimes and still run for president 0:06:00.080 --> 0:06:03.080 and still be a member of Congress is fucking beyond me. 0:06:05.279 --> 0:06:09.880 It's as if the forefathers either they thought that to 0:06:10.040 --> 0:06:14.120 be a politician was to be above reproach, you know, 0:06:14.200 --> 0:06:20.479 the same way that again, no real laws right except 0:06:20.480 --> 0:06:24.440 for ethics, no real laws put in place for grifting 0:06:24.480 --> 0:06:28.479 as Supreme Court justices Clarence Thomas is able to be 0:06:28.600 --> 0:06:37.159 a kept fucking man by Harlan Crowe. No oope, no 0:06:37.320 --> 0:06:43.560 violations around that, no laws on the books ensuring that 0:06:43.680 --> 0:06:47.120 there's actual accountability and responsibility for the people who are 0:06:47.120 --> 0:06:50.320 making decisions about the rest of us. You see, if 0:06:50.360 --> 0:06:53.480 they were only making decisions for them, go with God, 0:06:53.600 --> 0:06:57.720 I could give a fuck. But you see, their perspectives 0:06:57.760 --> 0:07:02.599 are being colored in order to side with people who 0:07:02.640 --> 0:07:04.880 are able to give them the most money. So then 0:07:05.760 --> 0:07:08.960 your decisions that you're making and how you are making them, oh, 0:07:09.000 --> 0:07:14.040 they matter. The Republican Party has shown their entire ass 0:07:14.120 --> 0:07:18.440 as has CNN, and the question is much in the 0:07:18.480 --> 0:07:22.000 same way that people took over this State House in Tennessee. 0:07:22.360 --> 0:07:25.880 They're taken over the state house in Ohio. I believe 0:07:25.880 --> 0:07:28.360 that the people of this good country right because I 0:07:28.400 --> 0:07:31.120 still believe that there are more more. I want to 0:07:31.160 --> 0:07:33.880 believe this people. I want to I want to believe 0:07:33.920 --> 0:07:38.520 that there are more good people, right, sane people, logic 0:07:38.640 --> 0:07:41.840 driven people in this country than there are Trump supporters. 0:07:42.520 --> 0:07:45.280 The Trump supporters are just the whiniest and everyone gives 0:07:45.320 --> 0:07:49.120 them a fucking microphone. But I believe that what we 0:07:49.160 --> 0:07:51.800 are seeing, which is not being covered by mainstream media, 0:07:51.880 --> 0:07:56.040 what we are seeing with these protests taking over state houses, 0:07:56.080 --> 0:08:01.280 is that the American people have had enough. They don't 0:08:01.320 --> 0:08:04.520 want to be dictated to. They want to be able 0:08:04.560 --> 0:08:08.320 to choose their representatives and remove their representatives when their 0:08:08.400 --> 0:08:16.080 vision for the future no longer aligne. We are once 0:08:16.160 --> 0:08:19.720 again in an outrageous place, and I, you know, I 0:08:19.800 --> 0:08:22.960 keep having this conversation. I asked Glenn the very same 0:08:23.080 --> 0:08:27.480 question earlier this week. You know, does America come out 0:08:27.480 --> 0:08:31.240 of this right? Do we get to the other side? 0:08:33.480 --> 0:08:40.040 Do we restore our integrity, our global standing? I don't 0:08:40.080 --> 0:08:42.480 think so, and neither do a lot of people that 0:08:42.559 --> 0:08:49.120 I talk to. I think that this is it. So 0:08:49.559 --> 0:08:54.840 it has those of us who believe in democracy as 0:08:54.840 --> 0:08:58.440 imperfect as it is, who believe in justice as rare 0:08:58.520 --> 0:09:02.040 as it is, to continue pushing. But the question is 0:09:02.120 --> 0:09:06.960 until what point? Which brings me to something I've talked 0:09:06.960 --> 0:09:09.080 about on this show and I continue to talk about 0:09:09.200 --> 0:09:12.440 every time I go on TV. We need a national strike. 0:09:13.280 --> 0:09:16.840 We need to shut this fucking country down. If we 0:09:17.040 --> 0:09:23.840 are to restore this nation's integrity and integrity in our institutions, 0:09:24.120 --> 0:09:28.960 then everything must be grinded to a halt until action 0:09:29.160 --> 0:09:35.079 is taken. One person, Joe Manchin, right now put out 0:09:35.080 --> 0:09:39.319 a statement. He is the head of the Natural Resources 0:09:39.320 --> 0:09:43.200 and Energy Committee in the Senate. He's not passing any 0:09:43.240 --> 0:09:46.679 more EPA names because guess what they are, radical, says 0:09:46.679 --> 0:09:49.959 the man for Big Coal, because he doesn't care about 0:09:50.000 --> 0:09:52.680 how many of his constituents have died of black lung. 0:09:52.720 --> 0:09:55.959 He doesn't give a fuck. So long as he can 0:09:56.000 --> 0:09:59.920 continue making money off of polluting the environment, he will. 0:10:02.920 --> 0:10:06.240 So now he's gonna hold the rest of the country's 0:10:06.240 --> 0:10:13.000 safety hostage. Tell me the difference between Joe Manchin, Kirsten Cinema, 0:10:13.000 --> 0:10:21.480 and the Republican Party. There isn't one, folks. We have 0:10:21.720 --> 0:10:26.360 got to recognize that our time, this democracy, this clock 0:10:26.559 --> 0:10:32.400 is running out, and the question is are there really 0:10:32.720 --> 0:10:41.240 enough good people to do what's right that, dear friends, 0:10:41.360 --> 0:10:44.640 I honestly do not know, but it's a question that 0:10:44.679 --> 0:10:47.400 I'm going to continue to dig into and ask of 0:10:47.440 --> 0:10:50.679 our guests every single week that we make it to 0:10:50.720 --> 0:10:56.840 the end of Coming up next, my conversation with Helen Gimm, 0:10:57.200 --> 0:11:03.080 who is the Democratic front runner in the primary for 0:11:03.640 --> 0:11:08.440 mayor in Philadelphia. That primary takes place on Tuesday, so 0:11:08.520 --> 0:11:11.760 if you are in the Philadelphia area, this is an 0:11:11.760 --> 0:11:14.480 important conversation for you, and even if you are not, 0:11:15.280 --> 0:11:19.520 what does it mean to be a progressive urban mayor 0:11:20.600 --> 0:11:25.319 at a time when this country and quote unquote blue 0:11:25.440 --> 0:11:34.120 centers are on the fritz? Folks. I am very excited 0:11:34.200 --> 0:11:39.440 to welcome to wok F Daily mayoral candidate for Philadelphia 0:11:39.480 --> 0:11:44.400 and the Democratic front runner, Helen Gimm, who is a 0:11:45.720 --> 0:11:54.079 urban twenty first century style mayoral candidate, and Helen one, 0:11:55.040 --> 0:11:59.960 congrats on your positioning on the conversations that are bubbles 0:12:00.160 --> 0:12:03.000 up around you. I know that the primary is on Tuesday, 0:12:04.240 --> 0:12:07.640 but you should feel really good about about where you are, 0:12:08.120 --> 0:12:12.199 so talk to me, talk to us about what does 0:12:12.240 --> 0:12:16.560 it mean to be a progressive urban mayor given the 0:12:16.600 --> 0:12:19.960 climate you know that the entirety of the country is 0:12:19.960 --> 0:12:20.840 in right now. 0:12:21.040 --> 0:12:23.439 Yeah, I mean, you know, I come out of more 0:12:23.480 --> 0:12:27.040 than twenty years of organizing with communities on the ground 0:12:27.400 --> 0:12:30.640 who never felt like politics was a place where we 0:12:30.640 --> 0:12:33.600 were going to start with our change. Our politics never 0:12:33.640 --> 0:12:36.720 started with politicians. They always started with us, and that 0:12:36.880 --> 0:12:40.480 was largely because the politics of any given moment are monstrous. 0:12:41.640 --> 0:12:45.480 They tear families apart from one another, you know, they 0:12:45.840 --> 0:12:49.800 disinvest in neighborhoods and communities. We've allowed some of our 0:12:49.800 --> 0:12:53.840 most essential institutions to completely fall apart, whether that's public 0:12:53.920 --> 0:12:59.160 transit or schools, or the issue of public safety. And 0:12:59.600 --> 0:13:02.400 now more than ever, I think what you are seeing 0:13:02.600 --> 0:13:05.240 from a new wave of candidates who are coming in 0:13:05.800 --> 0:13:08.720 are not people who just hold a set of ideologies, 0:13:09.040 --> 0:13:11.680 but people who are born out of movements, who have 0:13:11.720 --> 0:13:14.440 spent a lot of time in them, not just kind 0:13:14.440 --> 0:13:17.600 of you know, like hanging around on the edges, but 0:13:17.760 --> 0:13:21.120 have actually driven large scale movements for change. When we 0:13:21.160 --> 0:13:24.560 get into office, we actually deliver. That's the biggest thing 0:13:24.760 --> 0:13:29.120 about what needs to happen with the big cities. And 0:13:29.320 --> 0:13:32.640 a progressive movement right now. We have to actually deliver 0:13:32.760 --> 0:13:35.440 the things that we're talking about. It's not enough to 0:13:35.480 --> 0:13:38.800 talk about it. It's not enough to disparage the status 0:13:38.880 --> 0:13:42.320 quo austerity politics of the past. We actually have to 0:13:42.400 --> 0:13:45.480 prove that we can deliver safe drinking water to every 0:13:45.559 --> 0:13:49.840 child and every family you know, in every neighborhood. We 0:13:49.920 --> 0:13:54.560 actually have to deliver an economic justice mission that gives 0:13:54.800 --> 0:13:58.360 jobs to people in communities and neighborhoods and doesn't simply 0:13:58.400 --> 0:14:02.839 recycle them into like the low wage, high turn work 0:14:03.280 --> 0:14:05.600 of other places. And we have to deliver housing. I mean, 0:14:05.679 --> 0:14:08.520 this is the mission right now. This is why cities 0:14:08.559 --> 0:14:10.720 are on the move and they're tired of the status 0:14:10.760 --> 0:14:14.120 quo politics that haven't that have failed to deliver. But 0:14:14.480 --> 0:14:16.640 we have to be able to deliver that, and that's 0:14:16.679 --> 0:14:18.559 born by people who've actually done the work. 0:14:19.520 --> 0:14:22.280 You know, one of the things that I saw on 0:14:22.360 --> 0:14:26.160 your campaign website, you know, one of the first items 0:14:26.160 --> 0:14:29.280 and issues is gun violence. And I want to talk 0:14:29.320 --> 0:14:32.440 to you about that because you know, it used to 0:14:32.480 --> 0:14:36.240 be the myth is that it was the cities that 0:14:36.360 --> 0:14:40.080 were riddled with gun violence, as we've seen with so 0:14:40.240 --> 0:14:42.920 many mass shootings too many to even count this year, 0:14:44.280 --> 0:14:48.760 that it isn't just cities, right, and you in your 0:14:48.800 --> 0:14:52.920 campaign have talked about the importance of getting these guns 0:14:52.960 --> 0:14:55.800 off the street. So talk to us about your platform 0:14:56.360 --> 0:14:57.560 for gun safety. 0:14:57.880 --> 0:15:01.160 Yes, so safety is real in all the work that 0:15:01.200 --> 0:15:05.040 we do in community organizing. My work got started with 0:15:05.760 --> 0:15:10.200 victims of crime who were ignored, marginalized, or sidelined. We've 0:15:10.240 --> 0:15:14.080 gone into situations where schools were falling apart because you know, 0:15:14.120 --> 0:15:16.760 people didn't take the safety of everyday lives. And I 0:15:16.760 --> 0:15:19.720 think that's what needs to resonate right now. We see 0:15:19.760 --> 0:15:24.360 a lot of mass shootings and horrifying things happen in 0:15:24.600 --> 0:15:27.640 other communities, but when they're happening in black and brown 0:15:27.680 --> 0:15:31.080 and immigrant communities, they're seen as just a course of life, 0:15:31.080 --> 0:15:34.160 and that is absolutely not the case. And that's why 0:15:34.280 --> 0:15:37.120 it is so important for us to restore the mission 0:15:37.200 --> 0:15:40.320 of safety back to the progressive movement, a mission that 0:15:40.400 --> 0:15:45.280 has taken on and fought, you know, ridiculous prohibitions on 0:15:45.320 --> 0:15:48.800 common sense gun control, but has also talked about the 0:15:48.880 --> 0:15:52.760 need for investments if we believe that violence is rooted 0:15:52.880 --> 0:15:57.120 in disinvestment. And you know, Philadelphia often called the poorest 0:15:57.160 --> 0:16:00.160 large city in the country. Almost one out of four 0:16:00.000 --> 0:16:04.800 our residents live in poverty, thirty seven percent, thirty seven 0:16:04.880 --> 0:16:08.560 percent of our children's party. And I don't believe any 0:16:08.600 --> 0:16:12.720 of that is by accident. Whether intended or not. Those 0:16:12.800 --> 0:16:16.280 policies have been deliberate, they have been purposeful, and they 0:16:16.280 --> 0:16:19.760 have been devastating. And thus everything we do has to 0:16:19.800 --> 0:16:25.640 be equally purposeful, equally determined to reverse those trends and 0:16:25.680 --> 0:16:30.680 to ensure that people live healthier, safer, and more enriched lives. 0:16:30.880 --> 0:16:35.200 And so our platform absolutely goes in on taking illegal 0:16:35.240 --> 0:16:39.160 guns off the street. It absolutely talks about, you know, 0:16:39.480 --> 0:16:43.040 different levels of law enforcement coming together. That's what people 0:16:43.080 --> 0:16:46.040 have been struggling with and doing. But I'm also very 0:16:46.040 --> 0:16:49.040 clear I'm here to deliver crisis response because that's one 0:16:49.080 --> 0:16:51.440 of the things that our communities talk about. We want 0:16:51.480 --> 0:16:55.840 to promote more detectives, not just hire police officers. We 0:16:55.880 --> 0:16:58.520 do it twenty to forty at a time. We've got 0:16:58.560 --> 0:17:02.320 a thousand off, we have a thousand positions vacant in 0:17:02.360 --> 0:17:05.639 our police department. Absolutely, people feel like there's not enough police. 0:17:05.800 --> 0:17:08.240 But it would take me forever to promise that I 0:17:08.280 --> 0:17:11.400 could deliver police officers so what I'll do in the interim. 0:17:11.480 --> 0:17:14.159 We're going to promote more detectives to reduce caseloads and 0:17:14.240 --> 0:17:17.520 actually solve crimes, which is the most lawless thing about Philadelphia. 0:17:17.520 --> 0:17:21.480 People are gaining away with it. Second, we're deploying more 0:17:21.920 --> 0:17:25.280 first responders, mental health first responders to take off the 0:17:25.320 --> 0:17:27.159 hands of our nine to one one calls in our 0:17:27.200 --> 0:17:32.760 police departments, the homelessness, addiction, domestic situations, certain domestic situations, 0:17:33.480 --> 0:17:37.000 and mental health episodes that are not well dealt with 0:17:37.040 --> 0:17:40.280 by the police department, and allow our police officers to 0:17:40.320 --> 0:17:43.000 focus more on the violent crimes that individuals want. And 0:17:43.040 --> 0:17:46.359 then we're deploying more group violence interrupters. We had thirty 0:17:46.440 --> 0:17:49.639 six hundred kids drop out of school in September of 0:17:49.680 --> 0:17:52.879 this year. Since September, four thousand kids dropped out of 0:17:52.920 --> 0:17:55.359 school last year. They are not going to the police, 0:17:55.400 --> 0:17:57.199 they are not calling a nine to one one. I 0:17:57.320 --> 0:17:59.960 have got to reach them, and so we need individuals 0:18:00.080 --> 0:18:03.760 on the ground in communities doing the group violence interventions 0:18:03.800 --> 0:18:07.320 interruptions that we have seen make a difference, but it 0:18:07.359 --> 0:18:09.960 is not always in the form of a police officer. 0:18:10.040 --> 0:18:13.520 We can get crisis response, we can get first responders 0:18:13.520 --> 0:18:16.199 out onto the streets. If we understand that we have 0:18:16.280 --> 0:18:19.800 to handle crime differently from just ramping, you know, making 0:18:19.840 --> 0:18:22.000 false claims that we're going to be able to restore 0:18:22.040 --> 0:18:24.720 a thousand police officers when we're in a state of 0:18:24.760 --> 0:18:25.840 emergency right now. 0:18:26.720 --> 0:18:30.439 You know, you bring up the fact that young people 0:18:30.760 --> 0:18:35.000 are leaving school, are dropping out of school, and you know, 0:18:35.160 --> 0:18:39.520 one of the major issues right now is, you know, 0:18:40.400 --> 0:18:45.000 emotional instability in our youth. You know, we're taxing them 0:18:45.600 --> 0:18:50.080 with way too much with you know, school shootings, with 0:18:50.600 --> 0:18:57.960 anti LGBTQ rhetoric, with disrupting curriculum. So when you look 0:18:58.000 --> 0:19:01.960 at the youth of Philadela and you see those numbers, 0:19:03.040 --> 0:19:06.320 what do you think for your city is the cause? 0:19:06.920 --> 0:19:11.480 And how do you plan to address that level of anxiety, 0:19:11.640 --> 0:19:15.119 instability and what many have said is post traumatic stress 0:19:15.160 --> 0:19:18.600 disorder that young people are dealing with right now. 0:19:18.760 --> 0:19:21.280 Yeah, for more than twenty five years, I've talked about 0:19:21.320 --> 0:19:25.359 a city and state that disinvests in Philadelphia's youth, in 0:19:25.400 --> 0:19:28.520 their families and in their neighborhoods. Look, if we are 0:19:29.480 --> 0:19:32.159 you know, our school system, it's one of the areas 0:19:32.160 --> 0:19:35.080 where I spent most of my life trying to uplift 0:19:35.560 --> 0:19:38.960 a school system that should be delivering for two hundred 0:19:38.960 --> 0:19:42.520 thousand children and families in the city of Philadelphia, and 0:19:42.720 --> 0:19:45.840 time and time again, we've been kind of stymied and 0:19:45.960 --> 0:19:49.760 deliberately blocked. I fought for fair funding lawsuits that have 0:19:49.880 --> 0:19:54.000 won their constitutional grounding through state courts, but it's still 0:19:54.119 --> 0:19:56.760 up to us to fight for this. Thirty years ago, 0:19:56.840 --> 0:19:59.280 I was a teacher in the public schools, teaching thirty 0:19:59.280 --> 0:20:01.760 eight kids and a one hundred year old building without 0:20:01.760 --> 0:20:04.320 air conditioning on the fifth floor. And I knew then 0:20:04.440 --> 0:20:07.080 that our kids deserve so much better. But I also 0:20:07.160 --> 0:20:09.560 know this, you get the city you fight for. No 0:20:09.600 --> 0:20:12.520 one's coming in to hand this to us. So we 0:20:12.600 --> 0:20:14.520 got to go out, and for the last twenty years, 0:20:14.560 --> 0:20:16.480 I've tried to build a movement to fight on behalf 0:20:16.520 --> 0:20:19.280 of kids. I've made it very clear from the moment 0:20:19.359 --> 0:20:22.240 you walk in to a public school in Philadelphia, where 0:20:22.240 --> 0:20:24.560 the average age of a building is seventy years old, 0:20:24.760 --> 0:20:28.359 you can build the disinvestment. You can feel it when 0:20:28.720 --> 0:20:31.400 we start suspending kids as young as five years old. 0:20:31.640 --> 0:20:35.080 You can feel it when we deny kids. A nurse, 0:20:35.240 --> 0:20:37.960 a librarian, and a counselor, but we guarantee them a 0:20:38.000 --> 0:20:41.640 surveillance camera, a metal detector at the front door, and 0:20:41.680 --> 0:20:46.040 a school police officer. We've got more police officers than 0:20:46.080 --> 0:20:48.440 we have counselors in our schools. And that's why when 0:20:48.440 --> 0:20:51.120 I came into office, I did a number of things. One, 0:20:51.400 --> 0:20:54.040 I helped end a seventeen year state takeover of our 0:20:54.040 --> 0:20:57.760 public school systems that had depressed and closed down more 0:20:57.800 --> 0:21:01.480 than thirty public schools that had disinvested around these things, 0:21:01.640 --> 0:21:03.920 and with the same people in charge, we put back 0:21:04.000 --> 0:21:07.720 nurses and counselors. We built out a social worker program, 0:21:07.960 --> 0:21:11.920 we made we made investments in pre K I started, 0:21:12.080 --> 0:21:15.720 you know, arts and music, and I am here to 0:21:15.840 --> 0:21:18.800 run for mayor to finish that job. I don't think 0:21:18.920 --> 0:21:22.120 that a city can rise when it tells so many 0:21:22.200 --> 0:21:25.720 young people and their families that they are not worthwhile. 0:21:25.960 --> 0:21:27.920 And if you can tell that to a five year 0:21:27.960 --> 0:21:31.040 old child in a neighborhood, you will tell it to 0:21:31.119 --> 0:21:34.080 their parents, you will tell it to the communities around them, 0:21:34.200 --> 0:21:37.360 you will disinvest overall. And that's what I think we're 0:21:37.359 --> 0:21:40.840 feeling in Philadelphia. And in the meantime, we've been chasing 0:21:40.920 --> 0:21:42.960 all manner of things to make up for our lack 0:21:43.000 --> 0:21:47.200 of investment in families, in neighborhoods, in communities, and in 0:21:47.280 --> 0:21:50.560 the stabilizing things that make people healthy and hop We've 0:21:50.600 --> 0:21:54.160 done massive corporate tax breaks. We've given away the stores 0:21:54.200 --> 0:21:58.000 to like, you know whatever, if a billionaire sports owner 0:21:59.240 --> 0:22:01.280 will hand them the keys to the city and an 0:22:01.320 --> 0:22:05.200 open checkbook. We flirted with casinos. We are surrounded by 0:22:05.200 --> 0:22:08.960 more casinos than almost any other city in the state 0:22:08.960 --> 0:22:12.440 of Pennsylvania, and it has brought us nothing because those 0:22:12.480 --> 0:22:16.120 things are extractive. They do not invest, and most of all, 0:22:16.160 --> 0:22:20.000 they don't build. They extract capital out of communities. I 0:22:20.040 --> 0:22:23.200 am here to put that capital back into people, and 0:22:23.240 --> 0:22:25.359 I want to show what it looks like by having 0:22:25.720 --> 0:22:30.240 strong schools that are invested, open year round, after school 0:22:30.240 --> 0:22:34.560 programs seven day a week, libraries, parks that are lit 0:22:34.640 --> 0:22:38.159 up and brightened, programmed library you know, recreation centers that 0:22:38.200 --> 0:22:41.760 are open in the evenings, and summer camps that are running. 0:22:41.960 --> 0:22:45.439 The fact that this is called radical is outrageous. The 0:22:45.480 --> 0:22:50.040 most by the most radical thing about me is that 0:22:50.160 --> 0:22:53.400 I actually delivered these things. That is a radical thing, 0:22:53.680 --> 0:22:57.680 because when we reorient the budgets, when we actually prove 0:22:57.800 --> 0:22:59.960 that the things that hold us back were just us 0:23:00.400 --> 0:23:04.160 and not you know, all these external forces. We show 0:23:04.520 --> 0:23:08.840 how small the ideas always were. We unlocked opportunity in 0:23:08.880 --> 0:23:11.800 capital and we watch people rise. And I think there 0:23:11.840 --> 0:23:13.920 are plenty of people who are scared about that. I've 0:23:13.920 --> 0:23:18.119 got a billionaire right wing zeal putting in, you know, 0:23:18.160 --> 0:23:21.440 a million plus dollars into negative advertising against me to 0:23:22.320 --> 0:23:25.600 hold that back. But I know that the thing that 0:23:25.960 --> 0:23:29.880 they're afraid of are the people that are working and 0:23:29.960 --> 0:23:33.160 laboring for years to change the city and put its 0:23:33.200 --> 0:23:35.200 resources back into communities. 0:23:35.800 --> 0:23:38.919 Yeah, you knows. As a former educator, I know that 0:23:38.960 --> 0:23:41.480 one of the places that is consistently defunded but we 0:23:41.520 --> 0:23:45.359 don't use that language, is education and has been, and 0:23:45.400 --> 0:23:48.200 that if you were to actually invest in young people, 0:23:48.320 --> 0:23:52.359 invest in instead of putting in, as you said, police 0:23:52.400 --> 0:23:55.440 officers in schools and putting counselors and put in nurses, 0:23:56.240 --> 0:23:59.920 put in therapists, and create schools as community hubs, which 0:23:59.920 --> 0:24:03.640 is what they are with wrap around services for families 0:24:03.680 --> 0:24:08.120 as well, then cities that have been targeted by the 0:24:08.400 --> 0:24:11.720 by Republicans and the extreme right would actually thrive. And 0:24:11.760 --> 0:24:14.760 that's what they don't want. Are black and brown people thriving. 0:24:17.840 --> 0:24:20.120 One of the biggest issues and I'm in New York 0:24:20.680 --> 0:24:23.320 in Brooklyn, and one of the biggest issues that we're 0:24:23.320 --> 0:24:26.240 facing in this city, as in a lot of cities, 0:24:26.280 --> 0:24:33.280 including yours, is the rising housing costs. Housing costs have 0:24:33.400 --> 0:24:37.000 got out of control, rent has gotten out of control. 0:24:37.160 --> 0:24:40.760 Just recently, you know, we had a horrific situation here 0:24:41.240 --> 0:24:45.679 with a homeless man, Jordan Neely, who was murdered, whose 0:24:45.760 --> 0:24:49.040 killer is still out free, and people are protesting and 0:24:49.080 --> 0:24:52.680 saying that we should have done something, you know, for 0:24:53.280 --> 0:24:56.480 a person that is experiencing a mental health crisis that 0:24:56.560 --> 0:24:59.880 has been pleading and asking for help, but we don't. Right, 0:25:00.840 --> 0:25:04.680 So what do you say with regard and how would 0:25:04.840 --> 0:25:11.480 your administration be dealing with the rising housing costs and 0:25:11.800 --> 0:25:18.000 how that is also connected to the homelessness crisis that 0:25:18.040 --> 0:25:21.240 we're seeing across major cities. How would you deal with that? 0:25:21.440 --> 0:25:25.040 Yeah, well, obviously housing and home life is the key 0:25:25.080 --> 0:25:29.440 to stability, and the disruption that you see around it 0:25:29.480 --> 0:25:31.639 is shocking. One of the things I was most proud 0:25:31.680 --> 0:25:34.480 of in my time on city Council was that in 0:25:34.560 --> 0:25:37.720 less than five years, we took the fourth highs evicting 0:25:37.800 --> 0:25:41.840 city in the country, and we slashed evictions by almost 0:25:41.840 --> 0:25:45.440 two thirds. During the pandemic started to creep up again. 0:25:45.560 --> 0:25:48.080 But you know, like what we were able to show 0:25:48.560 --> 0:25:51.680 is that when a city actually leans in on really 0:25:51.840 --> 0:25:57.120 aggressive policies to create alternatives to an eviction that could 0:25:57.160 --> 0:26:00.879 otherwise keep somebody house, we can deliver. The program that 0:26:00.960 --> 0:26:05.359 I delivered not only showed that significant reduction, it drew 0:26:05.400 --> 0:26:08.520 down almost a quarter of a billion dollars in investments 0:26:08.560 --> 0:26:12.480 from state and federal actors. It's the law that I 0:26:12.600 --> 0:26:15.240