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Speaker 1: Wake that answer up in the morning club.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, it's the world most dangerous morning show to Breakfast Club.

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Speaker 2: Charlamagne the God just hilarious. DJ Envy is not here today,

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Speaker 2: but we got a very special guest. The vice chairman

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Speaker 2: of the DNC and the co founder of the March

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Speaker 2: for Our Lives, David Hodge is here.

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Speaker 1: It is like the pig.

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Speaker 2: Okay, okay, I always see the two gs, and I

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Speaker 2: don't know if it's Hodge alcohol.

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Speaker 1: Good to see you man.

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Speaker 2: You know, I really appreciate a lot of the things

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Speaker 2: that you've been doing because you are challenging the democratic establishment,

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Speaker 2: and I just think we need more of that.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, I certainly agree.

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Speaker 4: I think the fact of the matter is right now,

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Speaker 4: we have seen last election, we lost voting share with

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Speaker 4: nearly every single demographic out there, and we also lost

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Speaker 4: against Donald Trump of all people. Right, And if that's

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Speaker 4: not a sign that we need to dramatically change, I

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Speaker 4: don't know what is. So that's really what we're out

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Speaker 4: here trying to do is help to elevate a new

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Speaker 4: generation and also make sure that nobody feels like, you know,

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Speaker 4: that they can just be in their position of power forever,

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Speaker 4: because ultimately the democracy last I checked, right, and it's

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Speaker 4: about making sure that we have the best representation possible

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Speaker 4: in every district.

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Speaker 2: Do you feel like the democratic establishment uses young activists

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Speaker 2: as mascots more than partners.

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Speaker 4: Certainly, at times it can't happen. I mean, I know

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Speaker 4: for a fact when I started running for this position,

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Speaker 4: you know, there were people who were certainly resistant who

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Speaker 4: I ended up talking to a lot of the time.

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Speaker 4: That was actually one of my favorite parts about running

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Speaker 4: for this position, because when you're running to be a

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Speaker 4: vice chair, you have to call people and obviously earn

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Speaker 4: their vote, and one of my favorite parts about it

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Speaker 4: was talking to the people who at first did not

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Speaker 4: want to vote for me at all. I mean, there

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Speaker 4: was one person who I talked to who actually said,

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Speaker 4: in one of my first calls that I made to

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Speaker 4: ask for the support, that I'd never talked to this

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Speaker 4: person before this that said that I should not do this.

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Speaker 4: I cannot win, and that there was absolutely no pathway

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Speaker 4: to victory for me, and that they would not vote

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Speaker 4: for me. That was the first call that I had,

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Speaker 4: very welcoming, right But what I said to them was like,

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Speaker 4: I understand that you're not in a position where you

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Speaker 4: feel like you're not gonna be able to suppor me,

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Speaker 4: But ultimately I care a lot about the constituency group

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Speaker 4: that you represent, so I want to keep talking to

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Speaker 4: you because even if you don't vote for me, I

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Speaker 4: do care about what you care about. And ultimately they

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Speaker 4: ended up coming around and supporting me and being a

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Speaker 4: huge supporter as well.

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Speaker 2: And you were a survivor of the Parkland shooting, with

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Speaker 2: that would spark you know, the thought to get into politics.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean before this, I wanted to be a

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Speaker 4: journalist because I wanted to scare the crap out of

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Speaker 4: politicians that I thought were corrupt as hell and didn't

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Speaker 4: do anything. Ultimately, but I realized after Parkland, when my

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Speaker 4: classmates and I mobilized. For people that may not remember,

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Speaker 4: we had one of the largest school shootings in American

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Speaker 4: history happen at my high school in Parkland, and my

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Speaker 4: classmates and I were obviously devastated after that, but I

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Speaker 4: would say just as much as that we were furious

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Speaker 4: because we grew up hearing from our politicians their thoughts

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Speaker 4: and prayers over and over again after these shootings, but

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Speaker 4: they weren't really doing anything right.

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Speaker 3: I was.

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Speaker 4: I think I was in middle school when Sandy Hook happened.

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Speaker 4: I wasn't even alive when Columbine happened.

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Speaker 3: That's how long this has been going on for.

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Speaker 4: And we went out there and we didn't say go

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Speaker 4: out and vote for Democrats or Republicans necessarily. We said,

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Speaker 4: go out and vote for more religis leaders that represent

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Speaker 4: you and your values right. And what we saw was

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Speaker 4: one of the largest youth photo turnouts in American history.

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Speaker 4: We took back the House. And what we saw as

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Speaker 4: well is after Parkland, we didn't go out there, even

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Speaker 4: though there was a lot of the polsters and consultants

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Speaker 4: and pundits that brought the Democratic Party to the place

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Speaker 4: that it is right now, who told us, no, you

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Speaker 4: can't talk about taking on the NRA, the organization that

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Speaker 4: stops these gun laws from changing a lot of the time, insanely,

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Speaker 4: you can't talk about banning assault weapons because that's too unpopular.

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Speaker 4: Because this is Florida, it's a Republican state. Gun laws

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Speaker 4: get weaker here because we did the opposite of what

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Speaker 4: all those purported experts told us to do. We actually

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Speaker 4: did change gun laws in Florida.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, because you're not fixing the problem if you don't

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Speaker 1: go after.

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Speaker 4: Exactly, you have to address it. And because of that,

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Speaker 4: we raised the aged buy a gun to twenty one.

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Speaker 4: For context of the shoot at my high school. He couldn't

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Speaker 4: buy a handgun from a federally licensed dealer because he

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Speaker 4: wasn't twenty one yet, but he could purchase an AR fifteen.

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Speaker 4: And then we passed a red flag law that can

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Speaker 4: disarm people that are risked themselves and others. That has

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Speaker 4: been used over nineteen thousand times in the state of

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Speaker 4: Florida to disarm people that, for example, threaten to shoot

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Speaker 4: up a high school or harm their intimate partner, you know,

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Speaker 4: and thousands of lives have been saved from that. And

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Speaker 4: what I learned from that experience is that it's actually

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Speaker 4: summed up well by Dolores Erta, who I asked one

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Speaker 4: time at a protest. She's a major civil rights activist

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Speaker 4: obviously and later in the farm workers who have been

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Speaker 4: amazing person. I asked her, what is the most important

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Speaker 4: thing that you need to tell any young person or

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Speaker 4: activist that wants to make change that they need to know?

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Speaker 4: And what she said to me is it doesn't matter

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Speaker 4: whether or not the change is actually possible. It's whether

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Speaker 4: or not you can make people believe that the change

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Speaker 4: is possible more than anything. And that's what we did

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Speaker 4: after Parklyn, and I think what we're trying to do

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Speaker 4: now is take that generation of young people who have

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Speaker 4: been let down in so many ways by their political system,

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Speaker 4: whether it's through gun violence inside of school or outside

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Speaker 4: of school, whether it's the housing crisis, the student debt crisis,

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Speaker 4: are so much more, and show them that there's a

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Speaker 4: new generation of people coming in. What are people like

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Speaker 4: Congressman Maxwell Frost. I don't know if you know this person.

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Speaker 4: He is the youngest member of Congress. He started he

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Speaker 4: was working for March for Our Lives while I was

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Speaker 4: in college, and he called me up and he said

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Speaker 4: he wanted to run for Congress. And I said, that's awesome,

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Speaker 4: But you know you're twenty four, right, You have to

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Speaker 4: be twenty five to get elected to Congress. And Maxwell,

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Speaker 4: do you know he didn't come from some super fancy background.

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Speaker 4: His parents aren't super wealthy or anything like that. He's

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Speaker 4: just a normal person. And when he was running, he

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Speaker 4: had to uber drive from nine pm to two am

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Speaker 4: every night while running for Congress, and he was running

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Speaker 4: against two former members of Congress, one of whom was

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Speaker 4: a headge fund manager while they were a member of Congress.

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Speaker 4: Not a conflict of interest at all, right, And then

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Speaker 4: the other one had committed tax run while they were

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Speaker 4: in Congress. And Maxwell's written off by the establishment so much.

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Speaker 4: They said, you know, he's a great person, but he

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Speaker 4: can't win. He can't raise that kind of money. And

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Speaker 4: we helped him raise. I helped him raise about four

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Speaker 4: hundred thousand dollars in his first two quarters. But the

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Speaker 4: thing is the most important thing that somebody needs to

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Speaker 4: run for office is the will, the grit, and the

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Speaker 4: determination to get elected. But they also need a substantial

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Speaker 4: amount of fun in order to get elected. And far

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Speaker 4: too many young people with that griten determination struggle to

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Speaker 4: get there. And that's why we do what we do

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Speaker 4: with leaders we deserve. Because Maxwell ended up with that

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Speaker 4: determination and that support, becoming the youngest member of Congress,

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Speaker 4: that helps us pearhead an effort to get the Biden

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Speaker 4: administration to aggress to address gun violence in a more

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Speaker 4: substantial manner. And shortly after I graduated from college, I

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Speaker 4: found myself sitting in the rose Garden at the White

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Speaker 4: House with Congressman Maxwell Frost, who I had just I

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Speaker 4: literally hired from my freshman dorm room, introducing the President

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Speaker 4: of the United States to create something called the Office

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Speaker 4: of Gun Violence Prevention that helped coordinate the federal government's

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Speaker 4: response to gun violence. And they oversaw about a twenty

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Speaker 4: five percent reduction in gun homicides over the course of

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Speaker 4: about three years from that work. And that's because the

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Speaker 4: pressure that Maxwell helped to put on. But imagine if

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Speaker 4: we had thirty Maxwell's in Congress.

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Speaker 5: David, going back to the shooting, you were just seventeen

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Speaker 5: when that happened, right, and I can only imagine, like,

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Speaker 5: what was I know you said you guys were furious,

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Speaker 5: But what is something from that day? What do you

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Speaker 5: remember most about that data sticks with you today?

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Speaker 4: I think what I remember most was just the sense

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Speaker 4: of anger that I had at what had happened. But

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Speaker 4: it was more righteous indignation, kind of like the injustice

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Speaker 4: of what had happened. Because I had spent the past

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Speaker 4: four years in my speech and debate classes, studying, you know,

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Speaker 4: arguing about gun control, for example, and having to argue

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Speaker 4: on both sides of it, both for and against it.

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Speaker 4: You don't get to decide which side you're arguing on,

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Speaker 4: you have to argue on both. And I was frustrated

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Speaker 4: because I felt like I maybe myself and my classmates

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Speaker 4: could have done something before this because of what we

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Speaker 4: knew from that education that we did it, that could

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Speaker 4: have potentially prevented it. So that's a lot of what

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Speaker 4: I think about, and of course, to the fear that

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Speaker 4: one has when my sister was just fourteen years old

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Speaker 4: that day and she lost four friends, that's really what

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Speaker 4: I was thinking about. Was for the first time in

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Speaker 4: my life, I I, you know, there wasn't anything that

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Speaker 4: I could do to help my sister feel better other

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Speaker 4: than to try to stop this from happening to other people.

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Speaker 4: And that sense of helplessness is really what I hold

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Speaker 4: on to. But I also remember that the friendship and

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Speaker 4: camaraderie that my classmates and I and the parents and

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Speaker 4: teachers and other people that we worked with had in

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Speaker 4: order to hold these politicians' feet to the fire. Because

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Speaker 4: if there's anything that I learned from that experience, when

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Speaker 4: I originally went out and started talking about it, I

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Speaker 4: wasn't doing it as an activist. I was doing it

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Speaker 4: as a journalist because I wanted to talk about what

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Speaker 4: happened that day. But I soon realized it wasn't gonna

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Speaker 4: be enough to do that, because you can't just talk

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Speaker 4: about what's wrong. Yeah, you got to make it better

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Speaker 4: and say what needs to be done right and journalists

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Speaker 4: often can't do that. And what's an even better way

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Speaker 4: of scaring? I like to say, Charlaine, the the only

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Speaker 4: good politician is a scared politician that is afraid of

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Speaker 4: losing their job rightly. And we need a lot more

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Speaker 4: of that. And what's a lot better to do a

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Speaker 4: lot better of a way of doing that than just

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Speaker 4: writing a bad story is running somebody against them or

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Speaker 4: having a massive jet youth voter turnout that helps to

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Speaker 4: defeat the NRA. And that's just what my generation did

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Speaker 4: in twenty eighteen. People told us, you young people are great,

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Speaker 4: you're really inspirational, but you don't vote, that's the problem.

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Speaker 4: And we said, okay, watch us. So we did, and

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Speaker 4: we ended up defeating more NRAY backed incumbents in the

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Speaker 4: US House than ever before in American history. And in

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Speaker 4: the time sense, we actually passed just fu' all day,

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Speaker 4: the first federal gun law in thirty years as well.

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Speaker 4: And it's not nowhere near enough. There are still people

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Speaker 4: every day that live in fear of gun violence, students

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Speaker 4: that live in fear of gun violence. And let we

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Speaker 4: have to be clear too, what happened in Parkland is

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Speaker 4: horrifying and should never happen again. But most of the

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Speaker 4: young people that are dying from gun violence aren't dying

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Speaker 4: in school, and they aren't getting nearly enough attention. And

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Speaker 4: we need to make sure that we're providing a holistic

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Speaker 4: solution so that kids don't feel in danger on their

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Speaker 4: way to school or inside of their classroom at the

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Speaker 4: same time. But not only just focus on one or

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Speaker 4: the other, but focus effectively on both.

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Speaker 2: Have you encountered more resistance from Democrats or Republicans when

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Speaker 2: trying to push real.

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Speaker 3: Reform in which sense in terms of reform just a

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Speaker 3: reform period.

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Speaker 4: I mean, honestly, I think a lot of the challenge

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Speaker 4: is that, I think the resource that our party lacks

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Speaker 4: more than anything, it's not cash. We certainly are good

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Speaker 4: at raising money, right The resource that we lack is courage.

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Speaker 3: In my opinion, I.

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Speaker 2: Agree, I think that's the one strategy Democrats have not tried.

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Speaker 4: And exactly what kills me about that is that think

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Speaker 4: about all the most prolific things that our party has

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Speaker 4: helped to usher in in the past, right, whether it's

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Speaker 4: the social security system, right, Medicaid, or Medicare, which now

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Speaker 4: are getting cut, of course, in part because some of

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Speaker 4: our members of Congress literally passed away in office and

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Speaker 4: that vote very likely would not have gone through.

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Speaker 3: That just went through.

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Speaker 4: That is going to cut billions of dollars in funding

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Speaker 4: from medicaid and so much much more. And what I think,

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Speaker 4: what I'm always coming back to is what those people

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Speaker 4: said to us after Parkland, which is, you can't talk

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Speaker 4: about this because it's too bold, it's too out there,

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Speaker 4: it's too much. You need to add, you need to

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Speaker 4: be very incremental.

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Speaker 1: Who was saying that Democrats are bold?

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Speaker 4: I mean it was a lot of polsters and consultants

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Speaker 4: and other people on the Democratic side saying, you don't understand, Uh,

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Speaker 4: this is too controversial, you can't push for this. What

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Speaker 4: we did, though, is because we actually spoke authentically about

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Speaker 4: what we actually believed and went out there and said

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Speaker 4: this is what needs to happen. We got Republicans in

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Speaker 4: our state, which was a Republican trifecta on the defense,

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Speaker 4: and we changed gun laws and saved lives. But imagine

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Speaker 4: if we didn't have that courage. Imagine if we listen

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Speaker 4: to those people that said that we can't over and

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Speaker 4: over again.

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Speaker 3: Right.

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Speaker 4: I think part of the reason why I would say

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Speaker 4: one of the last times that we were the strongest

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Speaker 4: as a party was shortly after Barack Obama was elected.

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Speaker 4: And I think part of the reason we had such

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Speaker 4: a massive wave wasn't just because of the recession that

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Speaker 4: we just went through, but it was because it wasn't

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Speaker 4: because he had a message of we can't. We can

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Speaker 4: exactly And that is the most powerful force that we

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Speaker 4: need to tap into. Is we need to reignite the

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Speaker 4: American people's vision of what kind of country we could

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Speaker 4: be ultimately right, and not just talk about how we're

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Speaker 4: against Donald Trump, of course we are, but talk about

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Speaker 4: what are we trying to build as an alternative right.

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Speaker 4: And what I think about is, Alex Charlatanne, I'm not

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Speaker 4: a Democrat because I think that we're God's greatest gift

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Speaker 4: or we're perfect by any means, right, It's because I

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Speaker 4: believe in the party that we can be, and I

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Speaker 4: believe in what we have done as a party in

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Speaker 4: those moments when we did have courage, when we passed

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Speaker 4: the Affordable Care Act so that people didn't get kicked

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Speaker 4: off their insurance for a pre existing condition. That's why

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Speaker 4: my father, when he got diagnosed with early on said

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Speaker 4: Parkinson's disease, didn't get kicked off in his insurance. And

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Speaker 4: then my family didn't go bankrupt because we had the

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Speaker 4: Social Security system that he paid into throughout his life

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Speaker 4: to support him and his family should he get the

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Speaker 4: unfortunate consequences of having a life altering thing like that.

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Speaker 4: But what I also think about is how I ended

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Speaker 4: up in Parkland in the first place. And that's because

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Speaker 4: when my dad was diagnosed with Parkinson's and faced an

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Speaker 4: early medical retirement, we very likely wouldn't be able to

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Speaker 4: continue to afford to live in California, where we lived

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Speaker 4: at the time, because of the housing crisis out there.

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Speaker 4: That's not because of Republicans, right, That's because of Democrats.

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Speaker 4: And then we moved to Florida, and I loved the

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Speaker 4: consequences of Republicans failure to address gun safety. So I

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Speaker 4: want to make sure that not only are we defeating Republicans,

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Speaker 4: but we're not just defeating them to defeat them, but

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Speaker 4: we're actually doing something with that power to address the

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Speaker 4: housing crisis, to address gun violence, and ensure just more recently,

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Speaker 4: when my dad passed last September, I'm sorry to thank you.

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Speaker 4: When my dad passed last September, I was reminded of

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Speaker 4: how much more work we have to do because when

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Speaker 4: he was on his deathbed, despite being a Navy helicopter

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Speaker 4: pilot with full VA benefits and a medically retired FBI agent,

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Speaker 4: his cost of care monthly for at home care was

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Speaker 4: nineteen thousand dollars a month. I had to make a

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Speaker 4: spreadsheet to figure out how long my family could afford

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Speaker 4: to keep my dad alive despite all of those things.

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Speaker 4: And the only reason why we didn't go bankrupt is

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Speaker 4: because he did not live long enough for that to happen.

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Speaker 4: And that is an impossible decision that no person in

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Speaker 4: this country should have to make between caring for a

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Speaker 4: loved one or going bankrupt, or paying for heat or

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Speaker 4: paying for insulin, or getting a college degree or not

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Speaker 4: having a lifetime of debt, for example. That's why I'm

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Speaker 4: a Democrat, because I know the power of what can

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Speaker 4: happen when we do have courage, when we fight for

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Speaker 4: what we actually believe in, and we don't just cower

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Speaker 4: and say no, we need to do this tiny incremental

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Speaker 4: thing when hundreds of millions of people are struggling around

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Speaker 4: the country right now.

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Speaker 2: Do you think Democrats are afraid of upsetting wealthy donors

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Speaker 2: even when the issue is life or death like gun reform.

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Speaker 4: When it comes to gun reform, I don't think the

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Speaker 4: issue is necessarily wealthy donors, To be honest with you,

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Speaker 4: I think that there certainly are conflicts with that. I

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Speaker 4: think the bigger issue that I look at is the

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Speaker 4: fact that we have corporations that are literally giving money

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Speaker 4: to our politics, that are directly incentivized not to address

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Speaker 4: the broken healthcare system for example, right that are directly

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Speaker 4: incentivized to not do all kinds of things that the

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Speaker 4: American people need. We need our government to fight against

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Speaker 4: special interests, not be in bed with special interests. That's

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Speaker 4: why our candidates, when we support them, leaders we deserve,

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Speaker 4: and the funding that we get to support our candidates,

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Speaker 4: we get funding from two hundred thousand people around the

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Speaker 4: country with an average donation of twenty two dollars. We

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Speaker 4: don't take money from corporations, and our candidates they don't

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Speaker 4: take money from corporations either, and we say to them

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Speaker 4: as well, if you take money from corporations, we will

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Speaker 4: find a different young person to run against you, and

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Speaker 4: we will primary you to hold you accountable because we

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Speaker 4: have to reform the campaign finance system, because ultimately that

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Speaker 4: is the thing that is keeping all these issues exists,

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Speaker 4: making them exist at the same time, because ultimately, these

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Speaker 4: politicians are able to stay in their positions of power

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Speaker 4: because they continue to get funding from the NA, They

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Speaker 4: continue to get funding from all these special interests. That

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Speaker 4: stops from making progress and having the courage to adjust

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Speaker 4: those most substantial issues in the first place.

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Speaker 2: Let me ask a question, David, at what moment did

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Speaker 2: you realize you were more of a threat than an

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Speaker 2: asset to democratic leadership.

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Speaker 4: I wouldn't say that, I would say that I'm still

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Speaker 4: an asset because I would say that this much is true,

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Speaker 4: right if you were in democratic leadership. I kind of

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Speaker 4: have a strange metaphor for this. But if you're in

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Speaker 4: democratic leadership, it's kind of like being the coach of

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Speaker 4: a baseball team, right, Like, sure, could you go out

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Speaker 4: against a group of fifth graders and hit a home run? Absolutely,

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Speaker 4: But Ultimately, if you can't get other people on base,

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Speaker 4: right because they can't even swing the bat. Sometimes it's

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Speaker 4: not a matter of what type of bat they're using,

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Speaker 4: it's a matter of can they swing to actually get

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Speaker 4: on base in the first place, And it's a matter

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Speaker 4: of getting new players. Ultimately, it's not a matter of, oh,

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Speaker 4: can we just do more and more training. And I

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Speaker 4: think what we need to do more of in our

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Speaker 4: own party is, yes, we have to fight back to

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Speaker 4: defeat Republicans, but we also need to give people something

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Speaker 4: true and authentic to vote for. Where we're showing people

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Speaker 4: how the reason you vote for us isn't just so

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Speaker 4: that we have a majority, it's so that we use

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Speaker 4: our majority to help you, right, Because if we stuck

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Speaker 4: with that politics of cowardice, we never would have passed

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Speaker 4: the Affordable Care Act in the first place. We never

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Speaker 4: would have passed so many of the most monumental pieces

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Speaker 4: of legislation then now are helping one hundreds of millions

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Speaker 4: Americans around the country. So, of course there are challenges

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Speaker 4: with democratic leadership. But what I would say is, especially

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Speaker 4: in the case of somebody like a King Jeffreys, let's

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Speaker 4: get him the majority, so we can see what he

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Speaker 4: can actually do with that majority in the first place.

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Speaker 2: He's not going to do anything I can see. Here's

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Speaker 2: the thing, and I treat it like anything else. Right,

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Speaker 2: Like you know how they say money doesn't change you,

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Speaker 2: It just it just multiplies.

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Speaker 1: Whatever you already are.

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Speaker 2: More power is not going to change these people. If

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Speaker 2: you're a coward with no power, you're going to be

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Speaker 2: a coward with power. We've seen plenty of Democrats who

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Speaker 2: have power who are still cowards.

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Speaker 1: A game ain't gonna do nothing different with power.

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Speaker 4: Well, I think if we I think if we have

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Speaker 4: the right people elected that are out there, are going

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Speaker 4: to be able. Ultimately, sometimes it's not a matter of

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Speaker 4: what you want to do when you have to get

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Speaker 4: elected to those positions within the House. For example, if

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Speaker 4: we get more people elected that are saying no, this

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Speaker 4: is not enough, we have to fight harder that we're

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Speaker 4: we're not just going to stick in our positions of

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Speaker 4: power forever, and we're going to say to you, for example,

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Speaker 4: that if we're going to vote for you, this is

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Speaker 4: what we want to see. Because obviously he has to

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Speaker 4: be elected to be the majority speaker of the House.

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Speaker 4: By having some of them some more of those young

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Speaker 4: people that are on the front lines of these issues

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Speaker 4: of addressing that I know in those internal deliberations that

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Speaker 4: it's not so much a matter of what he wants

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Speaker 4: to do, It's more a matter of if he wants

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Speaker 4: to get elected. He is going to have to be

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Speaker 4: able to fight harder, and I know that those young

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Speaker 4: people will push him to do that, and if they

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Speaker 4: feel like he's not going to, then they won't vote

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Speaker 4: for it.

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Speaker 2: Have you ever been directly wanted by anyone in the

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Speaker 2: Democratic Party to stan you leem? I'm like, I'm talking

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Speaker 2: like I know some people say things publicly, but like

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Speaker 2: behind the scenes, have they like, really right.

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Speaker 1: There?

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Speaker 4: Certainly are our real challenges so the work that we

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Speaker 4: are doing. But I'm not going to let that stop me.

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Speaker 4: You know, I wouldn't say necessarily that it's like somebody

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Speaker 4: is directly coming to me and saying if you don't

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Speaker 4: stop this, this is going to happen to you, or

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Speaker 4: something like that. But they that's not how a lot

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Speaker 4: of these things work inside of DC. A lot of

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Speaker 4: the time, it's not necessarily necessarily an overt threat. It

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Speaker 4: is saying it is essentially a tacit threat that we

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Speaker 4: hear a lot of the time knowing that if X

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Speaker 4: thing happens, then why could happen to you?

439
00:19:31,240 --> 00:19:31,400
Speaker 3: Right?

440
00:19:32,520 --> 00:19:34,560
Speaker 1: Why not call it out? Though? Why not?

441
00:19:34,680 --> 00:19:38,600
Speaker 4: Because ultimately it is what I care more about is

442
00:19:38,720 --> 00:19:41,119
Speaker 4: when there are people that go against me, whether it

443
00:19:41,200 --> 00:19:43,919
Speaker 4: was for example, in the vice chair race, I know

444
00:19:43,960 --> 00:19:46,080
Speaker 4: the power for my own work and gun violence prevention

445
00:19:46,600 --> 00:19:52,160
Speaker 4: of being a bigger person working towards victory. And ultimately,

446
00:19:52,160 --> 00:19:54,080
Speaker 4: when you do that, a lot of those people start

447
00:19:54,080 --> 00:19:55,880
Speaker 4: to come around. Because a lot of the time in DC,

448
00:19:56,040 --> 00:19:57,879
Speaker 4: we have a lot of wind socks that go just

449
00:19:57,880 --> 00:20:00,399
Speaker 4: whichever way the wind is blowing, right, whichever side that

450
00:20:00,400 --> 00:20:02,200
Speaker 4: they think is going to win. And I believe in

451
00:20:02,200 --> 00:20:05,000
Speaker 4: the politics of being able to reconcile those differences and

452
00:20:05,040 --> 00:20:08,000
Speaker 4: work together despite what people say. Because what's even more powerful,

453
00:20:08,080 --> 00:20:10,679
Speaker 4: Charlot Mane, is that when when somebody comes out and

454
00:20:11,040 --> 00:20:14,040
Speaker 4: tries to go overtly against you, right, and they know

455
00:20:14,119 --> 00:20:15,960
Speaker 4: that they did that to you, but they see that

456
00:20:16,000 --> 00:20:17,760
Speaker 4: you start to win, and that's ultimately what they care

457
00:20:17,840 --> 00:20:20,480
Speaker 4: most about. Then if you don't go out there and

458
00:20:20,520 --> 00:20:23,160
Speaker 4: start calling them out publicly, one it's not nearly as divisive,

459
00:20:23,400 --> 00:20:25,439
Speaker 4: and two, it shows that you're trying to be a

460
00:20:25,520 --> 00:20:30,320
Speaker 4: real leader, and ultimately they oftentimes feel guilty about it

461
00:20:30,400 --> 00:20:31,879
Speaker 4: and they want him try to make up for it

462
00:20:31,880 --> 00:20:33,600
Speaker 4: by working to help you because they want to be

463
00:20:33,640 --> 00:20:35,720
Speaker 4: on the side of winning, and ultimately that's what we're

464
00:20:35,720 --> 00:20:36,280
Speaker 4: trying to do here.

465
00:20:36,280 --> 00:20:37,000
Speaker 3: If that makes sense.

466
00:20:37,080 --> 00:20:39,159
Speaker 5: How do you respond to people to say that your

467
00:20:39,200 --> 00:20:40,960
Speaker 5: work is too political?

468
00:20:41,600 --> 00:20:42,119
Speaker 1: And what could you?

469
00:20:42,280 --> 00:20:43,400
Speaker 3: Could you elaborate a little bit?

470
00:20:43,560 --> 00:20:46,520
Speaker 5: I mean, because you know, obviously, like to the point

471
00:20:46,560 --> 00:20:48,080
Speaker 5: that he said, how.

472
00:20:48,200 --> 00:20:51,080
Speaker 2: Like you don't really Yeah, you don't like you're you're

473
00:20:51,119 --> 00:20:54,159
Speaker 2: doing this for selfish reasons and not because you actually

474
00:20:54,200 --> 00:20:56,679
Speaker 2: care about you know, the whole party if they advance

475
00:20:56,760 --> 00:20:57,879
Speaker 2: your political career.

476
00:20:58,280 --> 00:21:00,159
Speaker 3: No, no, no, So what I'll say.

477
00:21:00,680 --> 00:21:03,000
Speaker 4: When I was eighteen, I said that I wanted to

478
00:21:03,040 --> 00:21:05,840
Speaker 4: run for Congress because I thought that would be the

479
00:21:05,840 --> 00:21:08,520
Speaker 4: best way to make change. But I realized when I

480
00:21:08,520 --> 00:21:11,440
Speaker 4: was working with people like Maxwell and other young people

481
00:21:11,440 --> 00:21:13,800
Speaker 4: around the country how hard it is to raise money

482
00:21:13,800 --> 00:21:17,000
Speaker 4: and get the resources to get elected. Because of course,

483
00:21:17,119 --> 00:21:20,439
Speaker 4: courage is that resource that we lack the most. But

484
00:21:20,640 --> 00:21:22,760
Speaker 4: those courageous people they need cash in.

485
00:21:22,720 --> 00:21:23,720
Speaker 3: Order to get elected.

486
00:21:24,000 --> 00:21:25,960
Speaker 4: And I could be one person myself to go out

487
00:21:26,000 --> 00:21:29,439
Speaker 4: there and maybe I get elected to Congress, but ultimately,

488
00:21:29,680 --> 00:21:31,679
Speaker 4: what is more, what is going to be more beneficial

489
00:21:31,680 --> 00:21:36,840
Speaker 4: for the future right One, I often do get physically threatened,

490
00:21:36,880 --> 00:21:40,199
Speaker 4: not necessarily by Democrats, necessarily by any means, but by

491
00:21:40,240 --> 00:21:42,600
Speaker 4: a lot of people who don't agree with the things

492
00:21:42,600 --> 00:21:45,639
Speaker 4: that I say about strengthening gun laws. My family and

493
00:21:45,680 --> 00:21:48,000
Speaker 4: I we got probably over a thousand death threats after

494
00:21:48,000 --> 00:21:50,639
Speaker 4: the shooting, I would say, between online and directly in

495
00:21:50,640 --> 00:21:56,480
Speaker 4: the mill. My house got swatted as well. And what

496
00:21:56,600 --> 00:21:59,960
Speaker 4: I frankly have to think about is that I can't

497
00:22:00,160 --> 00:22:02,520
Speaker 4: just be one person doing this right, And there's a

498
00:22:02,560 --> 00:22:04,239
Speaker 4: whole movement of people out there that are doing this,

499
00:22:04,280 --> 00:22:06,560
Speaker 4: a whole movement of young people that have gone through

500
00:22:06,560 --> 00:22:08,159
Speaker 4: these school shootings. And what I want to help do

501
00:22:08,760 --> 00:22:10,360
Speaker 4: is I don't want to just be one vote that's

502
00:22:10,400 --> 00:22:12,480
Speaker 4: out there. I want to help bring in a generation

503
00:22:12,920 --> 00:22:15,760
Speaker 4: that is truly representative of our generation and not just

504
00:22:15,800 --> 00:22:18,080
Speaker 4: what you know, somebody who's able to raise as much

505
00:22:18,080 --> 00:22:20,120
Speaker 4: money as possible to get elected looks like. And that's

506
00:22:20,119 --> 00:22:22,080
Speaker 4: what we're trying to do with this is look at

507
00:22:22,119 --> 00:22:24,119
Speaker 4: all the candidates that we supported last cycle, where we

508
00:22:24,119 --> 00:22:26,840
Speaker 4: helped to elect the youngest person and the Georgia Legislature. Ever,

509
00:22:27,080 --> 00:22:29,840
Speaker 4: it's a seventh grade algebra teacher, right. Look at the

510
00:22:29,840 --> 00:22:32,600
Speaker 4: person who we elected, Dante Pittman in North Carolina, who

511
00:22:32,640 --> 00:22:35,680
Speaker 4: helped to break the Republican supermajority out there. Look at

512
00:22:35,680 --> 00:22:38,600
Speaker 4: people like Nadarius Clark in Virginia who broke the Republican

513
00:22:38,600 --> 00:22:40,399
Speaker 4: majority in the House and help pass all this stuff.

514
00:22:40,480 --> 00:22:42,679
Speaker 4: So the reason why I'm doing this is because I

515
00:22:42,760 --> 00:22:45,439
Speaker 4: want to help bring in I don't want to just

516
00:22:45,440 --> 00:22:47,240
Speaker 4: walk through that door myself and close it behind me.

517
00:22:47,840 --> 00:22:49,919
Speaker 4: I don't want to just keep the door open. I

518
00:22:49,960 --> 00:22:52,119
Speaker 4: want to take the door off the damn hinges and

519
00:22:52,280 --> 00:22:54,720
Speaker 4: enable it so that future young people don't need to

520
00:22:54,760 --> 00:22:57,080
Speaker 4: have the door held open for them in the first place.

521
00:22:57,200 --> 00:22:58,960
Speaker 4: What they need to do that, though, is they need

522
00:22:58,960 --> 00:23:01,440
Speaker 4: the funding to get elected and make sure that they

523
00:23:01,440 --> 00:23:03,240
Speaker 4: have their right value so that they're able to reform

524
00:23:03,280 --> 00:23:06,480
Speaker 4: our campaign finance system. Because what I look at this

525
00:23:06,600 --> 00:23:10,840
Speaker 4: as ultimately is an insurance policy for the gun safety movement.

526
00:23:11,160 --> 00:23:15,280
Speaker 4: Where President Biden's generation, they didn't go through school shooter drills,

527
00:23:15,920 --> 00:23:18,080
Speaker 4: but they went through a different type of drill. They

528
00:23:18,119 --> 00:23:20,639
Speaker 4: went through nuclear bomb drills, and they went on to

529
00:23:20,680 --> 00:23:23,120
Speaker 4: pass some of the largest arms reduction treaties in human

530
00:23:23,200 --> 00:23:25,400
Speaker 4: history to limit those nuclear weapons. And I think that's

531
00:23:25,400 --> 00:23:28,199
Speaker 4: important because they felt the anxiety of what it was

532
00:23:28,320 --> 00:23:30,960
Speaker 4: like to be told by your government just hide on

533
00:23:31,080 --> 00:23:34,479
Speaker 4: your desk to survive a nuclear bomb and the epic

534
00:23:34,520 --> 00:23:37,359
Speaker 4: failure of leadership that that is. And I believe for

535
00:23:37,520 --> 00:23:40,920
Speaker 4: the difference from our generation is that the bomb is

536
00:23:40,960 --> 00:23:44,280
Speaker 4: going off multiple times a year, absolutely right, So let's

537
00:23:44,280 --> 00:23:46,919
Speaker 4: get them elected so that they can lead, like Congressman

538
00:23:46,960 --> 00:23:50,240
Speaker 4: Frost boldly on this instead of me just being one vote,

539
00:23:50,240 --> 00:23:54,119
Speaker 4: because it isn't about me. It's about our generation and

540
00:23:54,200 --> 00:23:56,560
Speaker 4: the story of are we going to continue having conversations

541
00:23:56,560 --> 00:23:58,440
Speaker 4: like this in the future where school shootings remain in

542
00:23:58,440 --> 00:24:00,359
Speaker 4: the headlines, and gun violence remains in the head lines,

543
00:24:00,359 --> 00:24:02,359
Speaker 4: and so many issues that we should not have to

544
00:24:02,440 --> 00:24:04,800
Speaker 4: deal with in the richest country in human history remain

545
00:24:04,800 --> 00:24:06,560
Speaker 4: in the headlines, or we're going to leave them where

546
00:24:06,560 --> 00:24:08,320
Speaker 4: they belong in history books.

547
00:24:08,920 --> 00:24:10,360
Speaker 2: Give me some other names, because you know you keep

548
00:24:10,520 --> 00:24:12,159
Speaker 2: mentioning in Maxwell Frost, who do you think is the

549
00:24:12,240 --> 00:24:14,520
Speaker 2: voice of the Democratic Party, or who do you think

550
00:24:14,560 --> 00:24:16,399
Speaker 2: should be the voice of the Democratic Party, Or is

551
00:24:16,400 --> 00:24:17,840
Speaker 2: there multiple voices.

552
00:24:17,880 --> 00:24:20,120
Speaker 4: Well, I think one there's going to be multiple voices, right.

553
00:24:20,480 --> 00:24:22,600
Speaker 4: I think one of the great things about our party

554
00:24:22,680 --> 00:24:25,280
Speaker 4: that also creates some challenges is, look, we are not

555
00:24:25,359 --> 00:24:26,480
Speaker 4: a cult, right.

556
00:24:26,760 --> 00:24:28,760
Speaker 2: We can can't tell in recent years.

557
00:24:28,920 --> 00:24:32,000
Speaker 4: Well, sometimes I understand what you're saying, certainly given some

558
00:24:32,080 --> 00:24:34,240
Speaker 4: of the responses that I've gotten to this, but ultimately

559
00:24:34,359 --> 00:24:36,000
Speaker 4: we are not a party with somebody like Donald Trump

560
00:24:36,040 --> 00:24:38,200
Speaker 4: at the top that says you have to believe every

561
00:24:38,240 --> 00:24:41,359
Speaker 4: single thing right here or else you were excommunicated and

562
00:24:41,400 --> 00:24:43,280
Speaker 4: we're going to try to destroy your life necessarily.

563
00:24:43,440 --> 00:24:46,000
Speaker 6: It's not really that's true, David Well, I've looked at

564
00:24:46,000 --> 00:24:49,159
Speaker 6: the way people people would really get upset with you

565
00:24:49,200 --> 00:24:52,720
Speaker 6: if you had anything negative to say about President Biden

566
00:24:52,920 --> 00:24:54,520
Speaker 6: when he was the one that we should have been

567
00:24:54,560 --> 00:24:55,760
Speaker 6: speaking out about.

568
00:24:55,440 --> 00:24:59,200
Speaker 4: The most right, And I under I completely agree with you. Actually,

569
00:24:59,560 --> 00:25:02,919
Speaker 4: I think one of the challenges in that regard that

570
00:25:02,960 --> 00:25:05,880
Speaker 4: we have to address in our politics is that we've

571
00:25:05,920 --> 00:25:08,440
Speaker 4: created a culture where people are told repeatedly what they

572
00:25:08,480 --> 00:25:11,120
Speaker 4: want to hear instead of what they need to hear. Right,

573
00:25:11,720 --> 00:25:15,840
Speaker 4: And what I believe happened in that regard is, look,

574
00:25:15,880 --> 00:25:17,879
Speaker 4: when you're in the White House and I've seen this

575
00:25:17,960 --> 00:25:19,679
Speaker 4: in different ways, either in the White House or in

576
00:25:19,720 --> 00:25:22,520
Speaker 4: other places. You want to keep your job, and the

577
00:25:22,520 --> 00:25:24,000
Speaker 4: best way to do that is ensure that you get

578
00:25:24,000 --> 00:25:27,200
Speaker 4: this person reelected again. And I think what happens far

579
00:25:27,240 --> 00:25:29,760
Speaker 4: too often in our politics is that people get too

580
00:25:29,840 --> 00:25:32,320
Speaker 4: comfortable and they just tell people what they want to

581
00:25:32,359 --> 00:25:34,280
Speaker 4: hear instead of what they need to hear, over and

582
00:25:34,359 --> 00:25:37,240
Speaker 4: over and over and over again. And frankly, part of

583
00:25:37,280 --> 00:25:40,119
Speaker 4: why I'm doing this is because what I met with

584
00:25:40,160 --> 00:25:43,199
Speaker 4: President Biden in twenty twenty three for an hour in

585
00:25:43,200 --> 00:25:46,440
Speaker 4: the Oval Office, and one of the things that that

586
00:25:46,920 --> 00:25:49,080
Speaker 4: happened to you, well, it was a good meeting, and

587
00:25:49,119 --> 00:25:51,359
Speaker 4: it was it was after he created the Office of

588
00:25:51,359 --> 00:25:54,520
Speaker 4: Gun Violence Prevention at the White House that saw about

589
00:25:54,520 --> 00:25:57,280
Speaker 4: the twenty five percent reduction in gun homicides around the country.

590
00:25:57,480 --> 00:25:58,879
Speaker 4: Part of the challenge is, though you're not gonna hear

591
00:25:58,880 --> 00:26:02,359
Speaker 4: about the shooting. That doesn't have right. But I was

592
00:26:02,359 --> 00:26:04,080
Speaker 4: meeting with him in that regard.

593
00:26:04,040 --> 00:26:05,880
Speaker 1: And did you see the decline in him then?

594
00:26:06,280 --> 00:26:08,359
Speaker 4: So that was one of the challenges is I didn't

595
00:26:08,400 --> 00:26:11,720
Speaker 4: see it personally. And what I wish I had told

596
00:26:11,800 --> 00:26:13,360
Speaker 4: him though, because he asked me, how do I win

597
00:26:13,440 --> 00:26:17,000
Speaker 4: back younger voters. What I wish I had told him, which,

598
00:26:17,040 --> 00:26:18,359
Speaker 4: of course I would have been left out the room

599
00:26:18,400 --> 00:26:20,639
Speaker 4: if I said this was that he shouldn't run for

600
00:26:20,680 --> 00:26:21,240
Speaker 4: office again.

601
00:26:23,800 --> 00:26:25,359
Speaker 3: I know, but that's what needed to be said.

602
00:26:25,400 --> 00:26:27,280
Speaker 1: I was saying that everybody was so mad at me.

603
00:26:27,480 --> 00:26:29,160
Speaker 4: And but that's part of the problem is we need

604
00:26:29,160 --> 00:26:31,200
Speaker 4: to have a more open conversation about these things, because

605
00:26:31,200 --> 00:26:33,640
Speaker 4: we also created an environment where people felt like they

606
00:26:33,640 --> 00:26:36,480
Speaker 4: were excommunicated if they dared to say anything about it.

607
00:26:36,520 --> 00:26:39,640
Speaker 4: And I to some extent, I understand people were afraid

608
00:26:39,760 --> 00:26:42,480
Speaker 4: about potentially re electing Donald Trump, but ultimately look at

609
00:26:42,480 --> 00:26:43,199
Speaker 4: where we ended up.

610
00:26:43,640 --> 00:26:43,720
Speaker 3: Right.

611
00:26:44,359 --> 00:26:46,720
Speaker 4: We need to build a culture inside of our party

612
00:26:46,760 --> 00:26:48,560
Speaker 4: where we are telling people what they need to hear

613
00:26:48,600 --> 00:26:50,359
Speaker 4: and not just what they want to hear. That's what

614
00:26:50,440 --> 00:26:52,320
Speaker 4: I did when I ran for vice chair. When I

615
00:26:52,400 --> 00:26:54,440
Speaker 4: ran for this position, I said, you know what I'm

616
00:26:54,440 --> 00:26:56,400
Speaker 4: not going to do. I'm not going to be a politician.

617
00:26:56,640 --> 00:26:59,040
Speaker 4: I'm not going to contort myself into some bullshit pretzel

618
00:26:59,320 --> 00:27:01,440
Speaker 4: of whatever you want to see if some bullshit mirage

619
00:27:01,440 --> 00:27:03,919
Speaker 4: of you know. When they asked me, should Joe Biden

620
00:27:03,920 --> 00:27:07,560
Speaker 4: have dropped out? I said, yes, he should have obviously,

621
00:27:07,720 --> 00:27:09,359
Speaker 4: And then when they asked me why we lost the election,

622
00:27:09,520 --> 00:27:12,719
Speaker 4: I said, why do we lose the election? Voters told

623
00:27:12,800 --> 00:27:15,119
Speaker 4: us two things. They said, prices are too high and

624
00:27:15,200 --> 00:27:17,400
Speaker 4: Joe Biden is too old. And we said to them,

625
00:27:17,400 --> 00:27:19,280
Speaker 4: with a power of two billion dollars behind us, no

626
00:27:19,400 --> 00:27:22,119
Speaker 4: he's not, Yes he is. And then we said, no

627
00:27:22,200 --> 00:27:23,800
Speaker 4: they aren't. Look at the stock market.

628
00:27:24,200 --> 00:27:26,520
Speaker 1: And if a majority of people don't have fucking stuff.

629
00:27:26,240 --> 00:27:28,640
Speaker 4: Exactly, and if you tell people not to believe their

630
00:27:28,640 --> 00:27:31,560
Speaker 4: eyeballs or their wallets, you're gonna lose them. And I

631
00:27:31,600 --> 00:27:33,520
Speaker 4: think what we need to build in the party is

632
00:27:33,560 --> 00:27:36,439
Speaker 4: a culture of addressing the realities that people are actually

633
00:27:36,440 --> 00:27:39,240
Speaker 4: going through and what they're actually feeling, not just what

634
00:27:39,359 --> 00:27:41,600
Speaker 4: a chart is telling us that they should be feeling,

635
00:27:41,680 --> 00:27:45,159
Speaker 4: but actually listening to them. And what we're here to

636
00:27:45,200 --> 00:27:47,679
Speaker 4: do is build that culture, regardless of whether or not

637
00:27:47,720 --> 00:27:50,679
Speaker 4: people like it or not, because it needs to say

638
00:27:50,800 --> 00:27:54,960
Speaker 4: if you aren't gonna listen and understand that, frankly, sometimes

639
00:27:55,280 --> 00:27:57,400
Speaker 4: people should not be in these positions of power anymore

640
00:27:57,480 --> 00:28:01,800
Speaker 4: because the consequences are if you die in office, we

641
00:28:01,840 --> 00:28:03,880
Speaker 4: may lose a vote like we just did.

642
00:28:04,200 --> 00:28:04,800
Speaker 3: That's going to.

643
00:28:04,760 --> 00:28:09,000
Speaker 4: Cost billions and billions of dollars and people to lose

644
00:28:09,040 --> 00:28:12,720
Speaker 4: their health care because they chose to stay in power

645
00:28:12,880 --> 00:28:14,920
Speaker 4: for so long that they literally died there. I mean,

646
00:28:14,960 --> 00:28:17,240
Speaker 4: imagine a scenario like this to your point of what

647
00:28:17,320 --> 00:28:21,000
Speaker 4: you were talking about, Imagine we had a scenario where

648
00:28:21,040 --> 00:28:23,359
Speaker 4: we won, you know, a two seat majority in the House,

649
00:28:23,480 --> 00:28:26,959
Speaker 4: we would have already lost it because several of our

650
00:28:27,000 --> 00:28:30,359
Speaker 4: members have died in office. That should not be the case.

651
00:28:30,400 --> 00:28:32,040
Speaker 4: They need to be. We need to be training up

652
00:28:32,080 --> 00:28:34,520
Speaker 4: the next generation and passing down that knowledge and not

653
00:28:34,560 --> 00:28:37,880
Speaker 4: sticking around so long that they're just there forever. And

654
00:28:38,640 --> 00:28:40,360
Speaker 4: I know that's uncomfortable for some people to hear, and

655
00:28:40,400 --> 00:28:42,080
Speaker 4: I certainly get a lot of heat for saying that.

656
00:28:42,480 --> 00:28:44,480
Speaker 4: And it's not to say that there isn't you know that.

657
00:28:44,560 --> 00:28:46,880
Speaker 4: I don't have respect for those people. They've done incredible

658
00:28:47,040 --> 00:28:50,440
Speaker 4: like work and prolific work. But ultimately we have to

659
00:28:50,480 --> 00:28:52,960
Speaker 4: figure out how do we train up the next generation

660
00:28:54,120 --> 00:28:56,360
Speaker 4: to build the best democratic party possible because I think

661
00:28:56,400 --> 00:28:58,440
Speaker 4: what happens is a lot of people don't want to

662
00:28:58,440 --> 00:29:00,840
Speaker 4: train up their successor because that is a threat to them.

663
00:29:01,200 --> 00:29:03,960
Speaker 4: Because if you can be if you train up somebody

664
00:29:03,960 --> 00:29:06,120
Speaker 4: well enough You're going to train them so well that

665
00:29:06,160 --> 00:29:09,360
Speaker 4: you could potentially be replaced, and that's scary to them.

666
00:29:09,360 --> 00:29:12,440
Speaker 4: But ultimately, this isn't about you. It's about the country.

667
00:29:12,640 --> 00:29:14,720
Speaker 4: It's about the party, and it's about what are we

668
00:29:14,800 --> 00:29:19,120
Speaker 4: doing not only to defeat Donald Trump? He's look, he's old.

669
00:29:19,560 --> 00:29:21,520
Speaker 4: I know, Joe Biden's old. Donald Trump is old too.

670
00:29:22,160 --> 00:29:24,040
Speaker 4: I don't know how much longer he's going to be around.

671
00:29:24,120 --> 00:29:26,600
Speaker 4: Why do we keep saying defeat Donald Trump? Though he won,

672
00:29:26,960 --> 00:29:30,880
Speaker 4: right exactly? So that's what I'm getting at is we

673
00:29:30,880 --> 00:29:32,400
Speaker 4: can't just talk about what are we doing to defeat

674
00:29:32,440 --> 00:29:33,920
Speaker 4: Donald Trump? What are we doing to defeat him?

675
00:29:34,360 --> 00:29:34,760
Speaker 3: He won?

676
00:29:35,400 --> 00:29:38,320
Speaker 4: What are we doing to defeat what empowered him? Ultimately,

677
00:29:38,440 --> 00:29:40,000
Speaker 4: what are we doing to address the fact that right

678
00:29:40,000 --> 00:29:42,720
Speaker 4: now he's taking millions and millions of dollars into his

679
00:29:42,760 --> 00:29:45,360
Speaker 4: own cryptocurrency that I think it's very likely that foreign

680
00:29:45,400 --> 00:29:48,880
Speaker 4: governments are buying to buy favor with him. Right What

681
00:29:48,920 --> 00:29:51,800
Speaker 4: are we doing to address the fact that his own

682
00:29:51,840 --> 00:29:55,400
Speaker 4: administration is kidnapping students for op eds that they've written.

683
00:29:56,200 --> 00:29:59,200
Speaker 4: That's horrifying. And the fact that right now, despite all

684
00:29:59,200 --> 00:30:01,640
Speaker 4: of that, that are party's approval rating is that twenty

685
00:30:01,680 --> 00:30:07,080
Speaker 4: seven percent should tell us it is an indictment of

686
00:30:07,120 --> 00:30:09,400
Speaker 4: our party. My question to the people that don't agree

687
00:30:09,400 --> 00:30:12,719
Speaker 4: with this is what is the plan yeah to address

688
00:30:12,760 --> 00:30:15,440
Speaker 4: that If it's not new leadership. Everybody loves to say

689
00:30:15,600 --> 00:30:18,320
Speaker 4: it's just new messaging, it's just new messaging. The problem

690
00:30:18,400 --> 00:30:23,239
Speaker 4: is in DC, the guiding philosophy that guides far too

691
00:30:23,240 --> 00:30:25,160
Speaker 4: many of our principles is what pisses off the least

692
00:30:25,160 --> 00:30:28,440
Speaker 4: people and what raises the most money. That's not a

693
00:30:28,440 --> 00:30:30,840
Speaker 4: winning strategy, because that's what brought us here.

694
00:30:31,200 --> 00:30:33,640
Speaker 2: Congressman Jim Clyburne said that, you know, you know, what

695
00:30:33,920 --> 00:30:36,080
Speaker 2: do you want them to do? Give up their life

696
00:30:36,080 --> 00:30:38,080
Speaker 2: and you told them to get over get over themselves?

697
00:30:38,360 --> 00:30:39,080
Speaker 1: You what do you mean by that?

698
00:30:39,160 --> 00:30:40,920
Speaker 4: What I was getting at more in particular, is first

699
00:30:40,960 --> 00:30:43,680
Speaker 4: and foremost. I think people like Jim Cliburn are incredibly

700
00:30:43,720 --> 00:30:47,160
Speaker 4: important figures in our party and have an incredible legacy.

701
00:30:47,360 --> 00:30:50,000
Speaker 4: What I was getting out was not specific to him.

702
00:30:50,280 --> 00:30:52,160
Speaker 4: What I was getting out was specific to the culture

703
00:30:52,160 --> 00:30:54,280
Speaker 4: that we have in the party that I've heard from

704
00:30:54,280 --> 00:30:56,920
Speaker 4: many members across the board, which is to say, if

705
00:30:57,080 --> 00:30:58,880
Speaker 4: I leave, I feel like my life is over. And

706
00:30:58,920 --> 00:31:01,200
Speaker 4: that's why I'm there and I need to be there.

707
00:31:01,760 --> 00:31:05,520
Speaker 4: That's not a good enough reason to be in office. Frankly, dude,

708
00:31:05,680 --> 00:31:09,840
Speaker 4: right completely, and the congressman collaborator, right, of course. But

709
00:31:10,440 --> 00:31:13,400
Speaker 4: the question should be are you the best representative possible?

710
00:31:13,440 --> 00:31:14,040
Speaker 3: And maybe he is.

711
00:31:14,200 --> 00:31:16,920
Speaker 4: Ultimately his voters obviously re elected him, so maybe he is.

712
00:31:17,360 --> 00:31:19,600
Speaker 4: But the question that we need to be facing here

713
00:31:20,680 --> 00:31:25,320
Speaker 4: is that it ultimately it's not about any single one

714
00:31:25,360 --> 00:31:27,680
Speaker 4: of us. It's about this party. It's about what are

715
00:31:27,720 --> 00:31:29,840
Speaker 4: we doing to make sure that people that rely on

716
00:31:29,880 --> 00:31:32,680
Speaker 4: food stamps aren't having funding cut like we just saw,

717
00:31:33,040 --> 00:31:34,920
Speaker 4: What are we doing to make sure that the tens

718
00:31:34,920 --> 00:31:38,440
Speaker 4: of millions of people that rely on Medicaid aren't having

719
00:31:38,520 --> 00:31:42,680
Speaker 4: Republicans cut funding from that because several of our members

720
00:31:42,720 --> 00:31:44,720
Speaker 4: died while in office and that is part of what

721
00:31:44,880 --> 00:31:48,000
Speaker 4: enabled them to do that. Because ultimately, we need to

722
00:31:48,000 --> 00:31:50,840
Speaker 4: be focused on those several million people and the American

723
00:31:50,840 --> 00:31:53,120
Speaker 4: people more than we need to be focused on ourselves.

724
00:31:53,120 --> 00:31:54,560
Speaker 4: And I'm not, let me be clear, I'm not saying

725
00:31:54,560 --> 00:31:56,880
Speaker 4: that that's specific to Congressman clib Do.

726
00:31:56,840 --> 00:31:58,720
Speaker 1: You regret saying that, like just that choice of words

727
00:31:58,720 --> 00:31:59,160
Speaker 1: get over you?

728
00:31:59,640 --> 00:32:02,480
Speaker 4: I think think what I wish I was more specific,

729
00:32:02,560 --> 00:32:04,120
Speaker 4: and in that regard is that we have a culture

730
00:32:04,120 --> 00:32:06,400
Speaker 4: in our party of saying, like, well, you know, I

731
00:32:06,400 --> 00:32:08,440
Speaker 4: feel like my life is over if I stay here forever,

732
00:32:08,960 --> 00:32:10,880
Speaker 4: and that's why I'm here, and that's not a good

733
00:32:10,960 --> 00:32:12,680
Speaker 4: enough reason of being there. And maybe that's not what

734
00:32:12,800 --> 00:32:15,600
Speaker 4: he's maybe that's not what he was trying to say.

735
00:32:16,040 --> 00:32:17,640
Speaker 4: In that case, I agree.

736
00:32:17,440 --> 00:32:19,720
Speaker 2: With that, because the American people's life could be over

737
00:32:19,760 --> 00:32:22,000
Speaker 2: if you stay too long. Clearly a lot of y'all

738
00:32:22,000 --> 00:32:23,800
Speaker 2: have stayed too long, and you know, y'all have been

739
00:32:23,800 --> 00:32:26,040
Speaker 2: holding onto those same ideologies, and like you said, that

740
00:32:26,400 --> 00:32:29,440
Speaker 2: culture of the Democratic Party has not benefited us. The

741
00:32:29,440 --> 00:32:31,800
Speaker 2: thing that bugs me out the most is twenty twenty.

742
00:32:31,840 --> 00:32:35,800
Speaker 2: They told us vote for President Biden to stop what

743
00:32:35,960 --> 00:32:39,920
Speaker 2: is happening now, and it didn't stop anything. They didn't

744
00:32:39,960 --> 00:32:42,520
Speaker 2: fight hard at all when they got in the office

745
00:32:42,640 --> 00:32:44,719
Speaker 2: to stop what is currently going on in this country

746
00:32:45,040 --> 00:32:45,480
Speaker 2: right now.

747
00:32:46,720 --> 00:32:47,400
Speaker 3: It's horrifying.

748
00:32:47,720 --> 00:32:49,320
Speaker 4: I mean, there were things that I think that we

749
00:32:49,360 --> 00:32:51,479
Speaker 4: did do to give them some level of credit. Right

750
00:32:51,480 --> 00:32:53,800
Speaker 4: We got the first federal gun law passed in thirty years.

751
00:32:54,080 --> 00:32:56,160
Speaker 4: That's pretty prolific. That's part of what resulted in twenty

752
00:32:56,160 --> 00:32:58,480
Speaker 4: five percent reduction in gun homicides. It's nowhere near enough

753
00:32:58,480 --> 00:32:59,040
Speaker 4: to be clear.

754
00:32:59,480 --> 00:33:03,400
Speaker 2: But I'm talking of regard to stopping authoritarian rule. Oh yeah,

755
00:33:03,520 --> 00:33:06,240
Speaker 2: I'm talking about in regard to stopping with somebody, stopping

756
00:33:06,280 --> 00:33:09,520
Speaker 2: somebody that you know wasn't going to uphold the Constitution.

757
00:33:09,840 --> 00:33:14,200
Speaker 2: They never acted like, well, they talked like Donald Trump

758
00:33:14,240 --> 00:33:16,560
Speaker 2: was a threat, but never really acted like yeah.

759
00:33:16,560 --> 00:33:19,280
Speaker 4: And I think what we should have done if if

760
00:33:19,280 --> 00:33:21,800
Speaker 4: we genuinely felt that way, we would have we would

761
00:33:21,840 --> 00:33:24,120
Speaker 4: have made sure that we were building a culture where

762
00:33:24,160 --> 00:33:26,360
Speaker 4: we were telling people what they need to hear, including

763
00:33:26,360 --> 00:33:28,400
Speaker 4: the President of the United States, and not just what

764
00:33:28,440 --> 00:33:30,160
Speaker 4: they want to hear. And frankly, the fact that I

765
00:33:30,200 --> 00:33:32,280
Speaker 4: didn't say that in that meeting with President Biden, it

766
00:33:32,320 --> 00:33:34,280
Speaker 4: is one of the biggest regrets that I have and

767
00:33:34,320 --> 00:33:36,760
Speaker 4: I will think about almost probably every day for the

768
00:33:36,800 --> 00:33:40,080
Speaker 4: rest of my life. Is in those major moments, sure

769
00:33:40,120 --> 00:33:41,920
Speaker 4: would the President of listened to me? Probably not, and

770
00:33:41,920 --> 00:33:43,640
Speaker 4: I probably would have just been laughed out of the room,

771
00:33:43,640 --> 00:33:45,000
Speaker 4: to be honest with you, but at least I would

772
00:33:45,000 --> 00:33:46,880
Speaker 4: have told him what he needed to hear and not

773
00:33:47,040 --> 00:33:50,640
Speaker 4: just what he wanted to hear. Ultimately, and that is

774
00:33:50,680 --> 00:33:52,000
Speaker 4: what we got to change in our party, And what

775
00:33:52,040 --> 00:33:57,160
Speaker 4: I'll tell you this much is that comfortable politicians don't change.

776
00:33:57,920 --> 00:33:58,400
Speaker 3: They don't.

777
00:33:59,040 --> 00:34:01,160
Speaker 4: And I think right now there's far too much comfort

778
00:34:01,240 --> 00:34:02,840
Speaker 4: in our party in a moment of crisis in our

779
00:34:02,880 --> 00:34:06,240
Speaker 4: country with what we're seeing Donald Trump do across the board,

780
00:34:06,560 --> 00:34:10,880
Speaker 4: I'm tired of seeing strongly written letters, right.

781
00:34:10,840 --> 00:34:12,920
Speaker 1: Strongly written letters with eight strong questions.

782
00:34:13,000 --> 00:34:15,040
Speaker 4: What I think we need more of is people that

783
00:34:15,120 --> 00:34:18,960
Speaker 4: are like Senator Van Holland right, who said, who's a

784
00:34:18,960 --> 00:34:21,600
Speaker 4: senator from Maryland that said he didn't just sit on

785
00:34:21,600 --> 00:34:23,279
Speaker 4: his hands and say I'm in the minority, I can't

786
00:34:23,320 --> 00:34:26,640
Speaker 4: do anything. He said, Donald Trump disappeared one of my

787
00:34:26,719 --> 00:34:29,880
Speaker 4: constituents to El Salvador, and I'm going to l Salvador

788
00:34:29,960 --> 00:34:32,759
Speaker 4: to talk to him. That's what it looks like. That's

789
00:34:32,760 --> 00:34:35,520
Speaker 4: what fighting back it looks like. But it goes beyond

790
00:34:35,520 --> 00:34:38,359
Speaker 4: that too as well. It's about an overall cultural shift

791
00:34:38,360 --> 00:34:41,480
Speaker 4: in our party because right now, I'm curious what you

792
00:34:41,480 --> 00:34:45,600
Speaker 4: guys think of this. If you ask the average American

793
00:34:46,800 --> 00:34:49,759
Speaker 4: if the Democratic Party was an animal, guess what the

794
00:34:49,760 --> 00:34:50,799
Speaker 4: most common answer.

795
00:34:50,600 --> 00:34:54,880
Speaker 1: Is A cowardly line. You want to take a guess

796
00:34:55,239 --> 00:34:56,520
Speaker 1: same cowardly line.

797
00:34:57,000 --> 00:35:01,040
Speaker 3: It's a turtle, a smart.

798
00:35:02,560 --> 00:35:05,040
Speaker 4: You know what it is for Republicans and it's a

799
00:35:05,040 --> 00:35:08,759
Speaker 4: shark or alliant. People want somebody who fights for them ultimately,

800
00:35:09,239 --> 00:35:12,240
Speaker 4: and that is what kills me about what we're saying

801
00:35:12,320 --> 00:35:15,239
Speaker 4: is we are fighting. I do genuinely believe for the

802
00:35:15,280 --> 00:35:18,000
Speaker 4: right reasons and for the right people. But for far

803
00:35:18,040 --> 00:35:20,080
Speaker 4: too many people, they clearly don't feel like we are

804
00:35:20,080 --> 00:35:22,920
Speaker 4: fighting for them ultimately. They don't feel like we're addressing

805
00:35:22,920 --> 00:35:24,320
Speaker 4: their real concerns. And what we need to do is

806
00:35:24,360 --> 00:35:27,160
Speaker 4: elect people that are there to address those concerns and say,

807
00:35:27,400 --> 00:35:30,279
Speaker 4: screw the special interests. We're here to represent you. We're

808
00:35:30,280 --> 00:35:32,880
Speaker 4: not here to represent corporations. We're not in Congress to

809
00:35:32,920 --> 00:35:35,319
Speaker 4: help you know, an extremely wealthy group of people, like

810
00:35:35,360 --> 00:35:38,560
Speaker 4: Republicans are doing right now where they are literally cutting

811
00:35:38,640 --> 00:35:43,480
Speaker 4: billions of dollars in funding for Medicaid and food stamps

812
00:35:43,680 --> 00:35:45,919
Speaker 4: in order to give a I think there's a five

813
00:35:46,120 --> 00:35:49,440
Speaker 4: trillion dollar tax cut to the wealthiest Americans in this country.

814
00:35:49,480 --> 00:35:52,480
Speaker 4: They are literally taking from the poorest and most vomitable

815
00:35:52,520 --> 00:35:55,080
Speaker 4: members of our country and giving it to the most

816
00:35:55,120 --> 00:35:57,839
Speaker 4: affluent and wealthy people. And Donald Trump likes to call

817
00:35:57,840 --> 00:36:00,120
Speaker 4: this his big beautiful bill. It should be called the

818
00:36:00,120 --> 00:36:03,319
Speaker 4: big bullshit bill. That's what that is ultimately, because that's

819
00:36:03,360 --> 00:36:05,440
Speaker 4: not the art of the deal. That's just total bullshit

820
00:36:05,600 --> 00:36:06,520
Speaker 4: that he is pushing there.

821
00:36:06,640 --> 00:36:08,719
Speaker 2: And I wonder if Democrats understand, like, you know, when

822
00:36:08,760 --> 00:36:11,440
Speaker 2: Chuck Schumer talks about how bad this bill is but

823
00:36:11,520 --> 00:36:13,480
Speaker 2: then says he has to support it anyway, do they

824
00:36:13,520 --> 00:36:16,200
Speaker 2: not understand how that missed messaging makes me not ever

825
00:36:16,280 --> 00:36:17,480
Speaker 2: believe anything that comes out.

826
00:36:17,760 --> 00:36:19,320
Speaker 3: Well, it is awful.

827
00:36:19,320 --> 00:36:21,040
Speaker 4: And what I think we need to do is make

828
00:36:21,080 --> 00:36:23,480
Speaker 4: sure that we're better coordinated between the left and the

829
00:36:23,560 --> 00:36:25,760
Speaker 4: right hands right where the House and the Senator properly

830
00:36:25,800 --> 00:36:28,080
Speaker 4: talking to each other. And also if we do have

831
00:36:28,120 --> 00:36:30,439
Speaker 4: to face a tough decision like that, like that's safe

832
00:36:30,480 --> 00:36:34,000
Speaker 4: for a second that that Schumer in that position, let's

833
00:36:34,040 --> 00:36:39,000
Speaker 4: say like he made the best of two bad bads,

834
00:36:39,040 --> 00:36:42,400
Speaker 4: the least bad of two bads. You know, this is right,

835
00:36:42,400 --> 00:36:46,040
Speaker 4: the lesser two weeks. But ultimately, when we're in the minority,

836
00:36:46,080 --> 00:36:48,879
Speaker 4: unfortunately we don't have the choice of that a lot

837
00:36:48,880 --> 00:36:49,239
Speaker 4: of the time.

838
00:36:49,320 --> 00:36:51,320
Speaker 1: But even when they're in a majority, it's like we're.

839
00:36:51,200 --> 00:36:53,279
Speaker 4: Picking and it shouldn't be. To be clear, and I

840
00:36:53,280 --> 00:36:54,600
Speaker 4: think the way that we do that it was we

841
00:36:54,760 --> 00:36:56,440
Speaker 4: change our cast of characters to make sure that we

842
00:36:56,440 --> 00:36:59,440
Speaker 4: are fighting harder and showing that we're going to fight

843
00:36:59,480 --> 00:37:02,240
Speaker 4: to elect p people that are like our first endorsed candidate,

844
00:37:02,440 --> 00:37:06,160
Speaker 4: actually Senator Robert Peters in Illinois, who actually currently is

845
00:37:06,160 --> 00:37:08,480
Speaker 4: in the same Senate seat as Barack Obama was when

846
00:37:08,480 --> 00:37:11,480
Speaker 4: he was in the state legislature there, and the reason

847
00:37:11,480 --> 00:37:13,600
Speaker 4: why we had him just as an example of what

848
00:37:13,640 --> 00:37:15,200
Speaker 4: we need more of to help make sure that we're

849
00:37:15,200 --> 00:37:17,719
Speaker 4: pushing our leaders to be better, because leaders are the

850
00:37:17,760 --> 00:37:20,000
Speaker 4: consequences of the people that vote for them, right, whether

851
00:37:20,040 --> 00:37:22,480
Speaker 4: that is the American people that are voting for them,

852
00:37:22,760 --> 00:37:26,359
Speaker 4: or that is the people inside of Congress that are

853
00:37:26,400 --> 00:37:31,239
Speaker 4: voting for them. Senator Peters in Illinois, what he did

854
00:37:31,600 --> 00:37:33,680
Speaker 4: that was really remarkable to us is it's not enough

855
00:37:33,760 --> 00:37:35,640
Speaker 4: just to have the right values. That is obviously the

856
00:37:35,680 --> 00:37:38,719
Speaker 4: first and most important thing in terms of fighting to

857
00:37:38,920 --> 00:37:42,560
Speaker 4: ensure like he did that he's he ended cash bail

858
00:37:42,640 --> 00:37:44,240
Speaker 4: in the state of Illinois, and they built a system

859
00:37:44,239 --> 00:37:46,080
Speaker 4: where it's based off of how much of a risk

860
00:37:46,160 --> 00:37:47,960
Speaker 4: somebody is to society whether or not they get out,

861
00:37:48,000 --> 00:37:49,839
Speaker 4: not whether or not they can afford to get out.

862
00:37:50,000 --> 00:37:52,279
Speaker 4: But on top of that, he also did things like

863
00:37:52,600 --> 00:37:55,040
Speaker 4: increased tenant protections and made it so that if you

864
00:37:55,040 --> 00:37:58,439
Speaker 4: have a mental health crisis and you're insurance companies don't

865
00:37:58,480 --> 00:38:00,200
Speaker 4: love to pay for therapy a lot of the time.

866
00:38:00,560 --> 00:38:04,800
Speaker 4: So part of what they addressed was prior authorizations for insurance.

867
00:38:05,680 --> 00:38:07,399
Speaker 4: What we're looking for people with the right values who

868
00:38:07,440 --> 00:38:10,880
Speaker 4: also gedget had done right. That's what I care about ultimately,

869
00:38:10,920 --> 00:38:13,239
Speaker 4: And he passed over one hundred and twenty bills through

870
00:38:13,280 --> 00:38:15,880
Speaker 4: the legislature and got them signed into law. That is

871
00:38:15,920 --> 00:38:18,160
Speaker 4: what we're looking for more of in Congress. People that

872
00:38:18,200 --> 00:38:19,759
Speaker 4: have the experience, that have the grit, that have the

873
00:38:19,800 --> 00:38:22,319
Speaker 4: determination and the will to get done, and have the

874
00:38:22,360 --> 00:38:25,320
Speaker 4: lived experience that far too many members of Congress frankly

875
00:38:25,360 --> 00:38:28,000
Speaker 4: only pretend to even know about. And he knows that

876
00:38:28,120 --> 00:38:32,080
Speaker 4: himself because unfortunately, at a younger age, he lost his parents,

877
00:38:32,160 --> 00:38:34,440
Speaker 4: went through the foster care system, and went on to

878
00:38:34,600 --> 00:38:37,640
Speaker 4: still become this prolific leader in the Illinois state legislature.

879
00:38:37,640 --> 00:38:39,239
Speaker 4: And I think part of the reason for that is

880
00:38:39,280 --> 00:38:42,759
Speaker 4: because he personally knows the consequences of what happens when

881
00:38:42,760 --> 00:38:44,799
Speaker 4: we don't lead on these issues and that's what we

882
00:38:44,840 --> 00:38:47,359
Speaker 4: need a lot more of in Congress. But it's not

883
00:38:47,719 --> 00:38:50,359
Speaker 4: just any young person, to be clear, right, there's lots

884
00:38:50,360 --> 00:38:52,359
Speaker 4: of young people who suck. There's lots of old people

885
00:38:52,400 --> 00:38:54,239
Speaker 4: who are great. It's not as simple as saying if

886
00:38:54,239 --> 00:38:56,200
Speaker 4: you're above a certain age, you shouldn't necessarily be there.

887
00:38:57,120 --> 00:38:59,680
Speaker 4: It's about effectiveness, right, And the issue that I take

888
00:38:59,680 --> 00:39:02,960
Speaker 4: more breadly speaking with the party right now is that

889
00:39:03,000 --> 00:39:06,040
Speaker 4: it feels like we've leaned so much on this culture

890
00:39:06,040 --> 00:39:08,799
Speaker 4: of seniority politics that if you just wait for the

891
00:39:08,800 --> 00:39:10,879
Speaker 4: most experienced people, that they're going to be the ones

892
00:39:10,920 --> 00:39:12,759
Speaker 4: to get things done the best, over and over and

893
00:39:12,760 --> 00:39:14,600
Speaker 4: that's what we said over and over and over again.

894
00:39:15,200 --> 00:39:17,920
Speaker 4: But that's what got us here. If that was the

895
00:39:17,920 --> 00:39:20,360
Speaker 4: best situation for us to lead us out of these moments,

896
00:39:20,480 --> 00:39:22,400
Speaker 4: I wouldn't be talking to you right now because this

897
00:39:22,400 --> 00:39:24,800
Speaker 4: wouldn't be a problem, right, because Donald Trump wouldn't have

898
00:39:24,800 --> 00:39:27,680
Speaker 4: been elected again in the first place. But here we are,

899
00:39:27,920 --> 00:39:34,120
Speaker 4: and experience matters. But it has to be effective experience ultimately,

900
00:39:34,680 --> 00:39:38,400
Speaker 4: because if you're just there for thirty years and you

901
00:39:38,440 --> 00:39:40,560
Speaker 4: don't know how to get things done, that experience doesn't

902
00:39:40,640 --> 00:39:41,200
Speaker 4: mean anything.

903
00:39:41,960 --> 00:39:42,240
Speaker 3: Right.

904
00:39:42,440 --> 00:39:43,920
Speaker 4: But if you've been there for three years and you

905
00:39:43,960 --> 00:39:45,560
Speaker 4: know how to get things done, that's a lot more

906
00:39:45,600 --> 00:39:46,120
Speaker 4: important to me.

907
00:39:46,400 --> 00:39:46,640
Speaker 3: Right.

908
00:39:46,800 --> 00:39:48,680
Speaker 4: So we're not just looking to find any young person.

909
00:39:48,960 --> 00:39:50,319
Speaker 4: We're looking to find the best of the best of

910
00:39:50,360 --> 00:39:52,480
Speaker 4: our generation to get them elected around the country.

911
00:39:52,719 --> 00:39:56,799
Speaker 2: What advice have owed the progressives given you privately that

912
00:39:56,840 --> 00:39:58,160
Speaker 2: contradicts their public message.

913
00:40:00,000 --> 00:40:01,880
Speaker 4: I've heard from a lot of members of Congress that

914
00:40:01,920 --> 00:40:05,799
Speaker 4: have thanked me for doing this, even not so young

915
00:40:05,920 --> 00:40:07,880
Speaker 4: members of Congress that have thanked me for doing this

916
00:40:08,239 --> 00:40:10,120
Speaker 4: and said that this is dramatically needed, but they don't

917
00:40:10,120 --> 00:40:11,920
Speaker 4: want to speak out about it because they obviously don't

918
00:40:11,920 --> 00:40:14,120
Speaker 4: want to say that some of their colleagues shouldn't necessarily

919
00:40:14,120 --> 00:40:16,319
Speaker 4: be there anymore. But look, I'm willing to do that.

920
00:40:16,600 --> 00:40:17,160
Speaker 4: I don't care.

921
00:40:17,480 --> 00:40:17,880
Speaker 1: I didn't.

922
00:40:18,120 --> 00:40:20,279
Speaker 4: I didn't get to this position by saying over and

923
00:40:20,320 --> 00:40:23,240
Speaker 4: over again, Oh, I'm just gonna conserve my political capital,

924
00:40:23,239 --> 00:40:26,000
Speaker 4: and I'm just going to be extremely risk averse. I

925
00:40:26,040 --> 00:40:28,480
Speaker 4: know the consequences of what of that type of politics.

926
00:40:29,640 --> 00:40:32,360
Speaker 4: My generation knows the consequences of that type of politics

927
00:40:32,360 --> 00:40:35,520
Speaker 4: of saying, oh, let's just cower ourselves and negotiate against

928
00:40:35,560 --> 00:40:37,359
Speaker 4: ourselves more and more and more and more and more,

929
00:40:37,960 --> 00:40:39,680
Speaker 4: to the point that Eddi, it makes us question why

930
00:40:39,680 --> 00:40:41,399
Speaker 4: the how are we even there in the first place, right,

931
00:40:41,400 --> 00:40:43,319
Speaker 4: because we're not there just to sit in a comfortable chair.

932
00:40:43,719 --> 00:40:46,680
Speaker 4: We're there to get out of it and get things

933
00:40:46,880 --> 00:40:49,399
Speaker 4: done to show people why they should vote for us,

934
00:40:49,520 --> 00:40:51,759
Speaker 4: not just because of how that we're the less bad

935
00:40:51,800 --> 00:40:54,359
Speaker 4: of two options, like you talk about, but that were

936
00:40:54,400 --> 00:40:58,080
Speaker 4: the best option overall. Right, I'm tired of voting for

937
00:40:58,120 --> 00:41:00,480
Speaker 4: the least bad of two options. I want to vote

938
00:41:00,480 --> 00:41:03,319
Speaker 4: for the best option. Ultimately, I've got two more questions.

939
00:41:03,360 --> 00:41:06,200
Speaker 2: Would you ever consider helping to start a third party

940
00:41:06,239 --> 00:41:09,080
Speaker 2: of Democrats continue ignoring your generation's demands.

941
00:41:09,440 --> 00:41:12,279
Speaker 4: No, because this is not their party. Ultimately, the people

942
00:41:12,280 --> 00:41:15,480
Speaker 4: that are trying to you know that are against this.

943
00:41:16,840 --> 00:41:20,040
Speaker 4: The Democratic Party doesn't belong to anybody in leadership. It

944
00:41:20,080 --> 00:41:22,759
Speaker 4: doesn't belong to me. It doesn't belong to any of

945
00:41:22,760 --> 00:41:27,560
Speaker 4: the official members of the DNC, the or the official

946
00:41:27,600 --> 00:41:29,719
Speaker 4: leaders of the Democratic Party. The Democratic Party belongs to

947
00:41:29,760 --> 00:41:32,239
Speaker 4: the American people and the millions of Democrats that are

948
00:41:32,280 --> 00:41:34,680
Speaker 4: elected around the country that we are here to try

949
00:41:34,680 --> 00:41:37,200
Speaker 4: to represent as much as possible. So no, I'm not

950
00:41:37,239 --> 00:41:38,920
Speaker 4: about to leave and try to start my own party,

951
00:41:39,160 --> 00:41:42,440
Speaker 4: because ultimately, this isn't you know, the people that are

952
00:41:42,480 --> 00:41:43,280
Speaker 4: against this.

953
00:41:43,040 --> 00:41:43,960
Speaker 3: This isn't their party.

954
00:41:44,080 --> 00:41:45,799
Speaker 4: It's all of our party, and it's a matter of

955
00:41:45,800 --> 00:41:47,400
Speaker 4: what type of party do we want to build in

956
00:41:47,440 --> 00:41:48,000
Speaker 4: the first place.

957
00:41:48,160 --> 00:41:50,200
Speaker 2: Okay, my last question, I'm just going to throw some

958
00:41:50,320 --> 00:41:52,160
Speaker 2: names at you, and because because these people to me

959
00:41:52,239 --> 00:41:54,759
Speaker 2: represent what the next generation of Democrats could look like,

960
00:41:54,840 --> 00:41:56,560
Speaker 2: I just want to know what your thoughts of them are.

961
00:41:57,040 --> 00:41:58,600
Speaker 1: Governor Wesmore and Maryland.

962
00:41:58,719 --> 00:42:02,080
Speaker 4: So, I think Governor Wes Moore has done a pretty

963
00:42:02,120 --> 00:42:04,560
Speaker 4: amazing job. He actually has a really cool program that

964
00:42:04,640 --> 00:42:06,640
Speaker 4: I don't think has been talked about very much where

965
00:42:06,719 --> 00:42:09,800
Speaker 4: he works. I think it's called like the mid Career Program,

966
00:42:09,880 --> 00:42:12,040
Speaker 4: where they'd taken a class of several hundred young people

967
00:42:12,080 --> 00:42:13,880
Speaker 4: and put them into different jobs around the state of

968
00:42:13,880 --> 00:42:16,359
Speaker 4: Maryland and it really helps get them started in their

969
00:42:16,360 --> 00:42:18,520
Speaker 4: lives and their careers and like help turn things around.

970
00:42:18,520 --> 00:42:19,919
Speaker 4: And there have even been people that have gone into

971
00:42:19,920 --> 00:42:23,719
Speaker 4: this program that that I've heard about that started out

972
00:42:23,760 --> 00:42:26,839
Speaker 4: literally homeless that now have gone on to get jobs

973
00:42:26,880 --> 00:42:29,279
Speaker 4: and do things like that. So that's great. I love

974
00:42:29,560 --> 00:42:34,400
Speaker 4: Governor Wes Moore. I will say this much. If yeah,

975
00:42:34,560 --> 00:42:38,319
Speaker 4: I can't. I can't talk at all about the any

976
00:42:38,719 --> 00:42:41,440
Speaker 4: potential presidential nominees. I'm not saying that he is or

977
00:42:41,520 --> 00:42:43,920
Speaker 4: is not running, but I can't give any opinion specifically

978
00:42:43,960 --> 00:42:48,520
Speaker 4: on that. I think people boo to Judge clearly was

979
00:42:48,560 --> 00:42:52,239
Speaker 4: a very good Secretary of Transportation given the situation that

980
00:42:52,280 --> 00:42:57,080
Speaker 4: we're in right now, and I think I think with

981
00:42:57,239 --> 00:43:01,520
Speaker 4: Pete he represents a level of sanity that I think

982
00:43:01,560 --> 00:43:04,240
Speaker 4: people are craving right now. They're tired of the chaos

983
00:43:04,520 --> 00:43:07,359
Speaker 4: that I think Donald Trump represents a lot of the time.

984
00:43:07,920 --> 00:43:09,759
Speaker 4: I don't think people want to have a president that

985
00:43:09,800 --> 00:43:11,880
Speaker 4: they have to hear about doing something ridiculous in the

986
00:43:11,880 --> 00:43:15,000
Speaker 4: headlines every single day. That is frankly an embarrassment to

987
00:43:15,040 --> 00:43:20,959
Speaker 4: our country and internationally as well. So I think Pete

988
00:43:20,960 --> 00:43:23,600
Speaker 4: could be great. What I really like about him is that,

989
00:43:24,160 --> 00:43:26,680
Speaker 4: and I'm just talking about like future leaders. I'm not

990
00:43:26,760 --> 00:43:29,239
Speaker 4: talking about anything about presidential or anything like that. To

991
00:43:29,280 --> 00:43:34,040
Speaker 4: be extremely that's generation democratics. What I really like about

992
00:43:34,120 --> 00:43:36,600
Speaker 4: him is I think he does an excellent job of

993
00:43:36,640 --> 00:43:38,520
Speaker 4: talking to people who don't agree with him.

994
00:43:38,600 --> 00:43:40,759
Speaker 3: Yes, I agree, that is what we need more of.

995
00:43:40,840 --> 00:43:43,800
Speaker 4: When I was actually in college, I joined the shooting club.

996
00:43:44,239 --> 00:43:46,319
Speaker 4: As you can imagine, I was very popular there, right,

997
00:43:46,920 --> 00:43:49,840
Speaker 4: And I didn't do that because I was super popular.

998
00:43:49,920 --> 00:43:51,040
Speaker 4: I did that because I wanted to talk to the

999
00:43:51,080 --> 00:43:54,000
Speaker 4: people who disagree with me most. And what I realized

1000
00:43:54,000 --> 00:43:56,040
Speaker 4: from those conversations, at least on the issue of gun

1001
00:43:56,120 --> 00:43:58,439
Speaker 4: violence a lot of the time, is that it's it's

1002
00:43:58,440 --> 00:44:00,319
Speaker 4: not even for a lot of people that there's super

1003
00:44:00,320 --> 00:44:02,680
Speaker 4: overtly against this, even if they say that they're against it.

1004
00:44:03,239 --> 00:44:04,880
Speaker 4: A lot of the time, when people don't agree with

1005
00:44:04,920 --> 00:44:08,239
Speaker 4: something on this, it's because they feel disrespected by you,

1006
00:44:08,320 --> 00:44:10,520
Speaker 4: they feel unheard, they feel looked down on. And when

1007
00:44:10,520 --> 00:44:12,239
Speaker 4: you have an actual conversation with them and say, okay,

1008
00:44:12,239 --> 00:44:14,359
Speaker 4: why do you feel this way? What can we agree on?

1009
00:44:14,719 --> 00:44:15,960
Speaker 3: You start making progress with them.

1010
00:44:16,080 --> 00:44:17,640
Speaker 4: That's why I've talked to people who've said to me

1011
00:44:18,520 --> 00:44:20,840
Speaker 4: even crazy things like people who think that the shooting

1012
00:44:20,840 --> 00:44:23,360
Speaker 4: in my high school didn't happen. Why I've engaged with

1013
00:44:23,400 --> 00:44:25,200
Speaker 4: and said, obviously, I don't agree with you on that

1014
00:44:25,440 --> 00:44:28,920
Speaker 4: because they're conspiracy theorists, right, And it's hard for me

1015
00:44:28,920 --> 00:44:32,359
Speaker 4: to have that conversation, incredibly hard. But I'm not here

1016
00:44:32,440 --> 00:44:34,719
Speaker 4: to have easy conversations and get nothing done. I'm here

1017
00:44:34,760 --> 00:44:38,120
Speaker 4: to have hard conversations and help fundamentally change this issue

1018
00:44:38,160 --> 00:44:40,200
Speaker 4: so that no other generation has to live through it

1019
00:44:40,200 --> 00:44:42,880
Speaker 4: in the first place. And what I learned from those

1020
00:44:42,920 --> 00:44:45,480
Speaker 4: conversations is when they say an insults me, or they

1021
00:44:45,520 --> 00:44:49,080
Speaker 4: say something like I just mentioned, when I respond and

1022
00:44:49,120 --> 00:44:50,839
Speaker 4: I say, look, I can respect that you don't agree

1023
00:44:50,880 --> 00:44:52,400
Speaker 4: with me, but I can't accept the fact that you

1024
00:44:52,440 --> 00:44:54,640
Speaker 4: don't want school shootings or gun violence to continue either.

1025
00:44:54,920 --> 00:44:57,040
Speaker 4: So to figure out what we can't agree on, even

1026
00:44:57,040 --> 00:45:00,279
Speaker 4: if it's a small thing. When I do that, at

1027
00:45:00,320 --> 00:45:02,719
Speaker 4: the end of every single conversation that I've had like that,

1028
00:45:03,000 --> 00:45:05,279
Speaker 4: without fail, if they continue talking to me, they end

1029
00:45:05,360 --> 00:45:07,640
Speaker 4: up apologizing and saying I may not agree with you

1030
00:45:07,680 --> 00:45:11,719
Speaker 4: on everything, but I respect you. And then they'll come

1031
00:45:11,760 --> 00:45:13,399
Speaker 4: back a lot of the time and say, actually, I've

1032
00:45:13,440 --> 00:45:15,759
Speaker 4: changed my mind because of our conversation, and I now

1033
00:45:15,840 --> 00:45:17,840
Speaker 4: support you, and I shouldn't have said that the shooting

1034
00:45:17,840 --> 00:45:19,479
Speaker 4: at your high school didn't happen, and I was wrong

1035
00:45:19,520 --> 00:45:21,799
Speaker 4: for that, and I'm sorry. And that is what the

1036
00:45:21,800 --> 00:45:24,319
Speaker 4: most powerful force to me is is how to turn

1037
00:45:24,360 --> 00:45:30,360
Speaker 4: that hatred into Hope's shoot. No, I didn't now I

1038
00:45:30,400 --> 00:45:32,759
Speaker 4: was one of the best shots on the team because

1039
00:45:32,760 --> 00:45:36,880
Speaker 4: my dad was an FBI agent. But that's what I

1040
00:45:36,880 --> 00:45:39,120
Speaker 4: think Pete is really good at representing, is helping to

1041
00:45:39,280 --> 00:45:41,040
Speaker 4: kind of bring people together and talk to the people

1042
00:45:41,040 --> 00:45:44,640
Speaker 4: that don't agree and explain without compromising his values what

1043
00:45:44,680 --> 00:45:47,040
Speaker 4: we believe as Democrats, and I think it's really powerful.

1044
00:45:47,480 --> 00:45:48,480
Speaker 1: Names govern to Josh Shapiro.

1045
00:45:49,160 --> 00:45:51,000
Speaker 4: You know, I think with Josh Shapiro, he has a

1046
00:45:51,320 --> 00:45:55,320
Speaker 4: huge amount of favorability for a reason in Pennsylvania ultimately,

1047
00:45:55,680 --> 00:45:57,960
Speaker 4: and you know, I think it's interesting as a swing state.

1048
00:45:58,560 --> 00:46:01,960
Speaker 4: They have a pretty close state logist as well, and

1049
00:46:02,000 --> 00:46:04,160
Speaker 4: there's been some great work that they've done on gun

1050
00:46:04,239 --> 00:46:07,759
Speaker 4: violence as well. Javna Crockett Jasmine Crockett, I love her.

1051
00:46:08,080 --> 00:46:09,040
Speaker 3: She is amazing.

1052
00:46:10,040 --> 00:46:13,080
Speaker 4: I think that people want to see somebody who fights

1053
00:46:13,120 --> 00:46:15,759
Speaker 4: and calls out the bullshit. Ultimately. I think that's what

1054
00:46:15,840 --> 00:46:17,600
Speaker 4: Jasmine does. And we need a hell of a lot

1055
00:46:17,680 --> 00:46:19,239
Speaker 4: more people that are out there that are willing to

1056
00:46:19,280 --> 00:46:21,480
Speaker 4: do just that and call people out on their ps

1057
00:46:21,520 --> 00:46:23,200
Speaker 4: and not say, oh my god, Republicans are going to

1058
00:46:23,200 --> 00:46:25,640
Speaker 4: criticize me for saying this, screw that, They're going to

1059
00:46:25,920 --> 00:46:28,080
Speaker 4: criticize you no matter what So what we should be

1060
00:46:28,120 --> 00:46:30,560
Speaker 4: asking ourselves is what are we really fighting for? Because

1061
00:46:30,680 --> 00:46:34,960
Speaker 4: we know it matters. And I think Jasmine is, frankly

1062
00:46:35,000 --> 00:46:38,000
Speaker 4: the type of leader that we're really looking to support

1063
00:46:38,120 --> 00:46:40,200
Speaker 4: in some senses, right, somebody who is out there that

1064
00:46:40,520 --> 00:46:43,560
Speaker 4: frankly doesn't give a damn with the other side. At

1065
00:46:43,640 --> 00:46:46,239
Speaker 4: least the elected Republicans in Congress say that say what

1066
00:46:46,239 --> 00:46:48,400
Speaker 4: they believe in, and at least you know, even if

1067
00:46:48,440 --> 00:46:50,280
Speaker 4: you don't agree with her, you know what she stands

1068
00:46:50,320 --> 00:46:52,960
Speaker 4: for because she makes it very clear. And people are

1069
00:46:53,000 --> 00:46:55,520
Speaker 4: really craving that right now. They don't want more politicians

1070
00:46:55,520 --> 00:46:57,400
Speaker 4: that say talking points that it doesn't even feel like

1071
00:46:57,440 --> 00:46:59,640
Speaker 4: they believe, or you don't even really know what they mean.

1072
00:47:00,080 --> 00:47:02,560
Speaker 4: They want somebody who's out there that says what they

1073
00:47:02,600 --> 00:47:05,239
Speaker 4: believe and doesn't care what somebody else thinks about it.

1074
00:47:05,280 --> 00:47:06,520
Speaker 4: They want that authenticity.

1075
00:47:06,760 --> 00:47:07,720
Speaker 1: Govin and Gretchen Wimmer.

1076
00:47:08,200 --> 00:47:10,920
Speaker 4: I think part of what was really great with Gretchen

1077
00:47:10,960 --> 00:47:15,480
Speaker 4: Wimmer and her focus was on infrastructure right people. I

1078
00:47:15,480 --> 00:47:19,040
Speaker 4: think Democrats need to do a lot more of finding

1079
00:47:19,040 --> 00:47:21,520
Speaker 4: the issues that nobody likes and addressing them in a

1080
00:47:21,520 --> 00:47:24,759
Speaker 4: substantial matter. So part of her campaign was addressing potholes, right,

1081
00:47:25,080 --> 00:47:27,600
Speaker 4: really basic, just saying fix the damn roads.

1082
00:47:28,040 --> 00:47:29,640
Speaker 3: We need more of that. Right.

1083
00:47:30,040 --> 00:47:31,799
Speaker 4: I want to make sure that if somebody is out

1084
00:47:31,840 --> 00:47:34,960
Speaker 4: there that when we have democratic cities, for example, that

1085
00:47:35,000 --> 00:47:37,680
Speaker 4: they should be the most efficiently run, safest and clean

1086
00:47:37,719 --> 00:47:41,120
Speaker 4: cities in the world. Ultimately that are the best run possible.

1087
00:47:41,160 --> 00:47:44,480
Speaker 4: And I think part of our strategy for twenty twenty

1088
00:47:44,560 --> 00:47:47,640
Speaker 4: eight and twenty twenty six needs to be talking about, Okay,

1089
00:47:47,760 --> 00:47:50,520
Speaker 4: what are we doing to address the fact that it

1090
00:47:50,560 --> 00:47:52,799
Speaker 4: is incredibly hard for people to pay their rent right

1091
00:47:52,840 --> 00:47:55,719
Speaker 4: now because rents have gone up so much. What are

1092
00:47:55,719 --> 00:47:58,239
Speaker 4: we doing to address the fact that our roads are

1093
00:47:58,320 --> 00:48:01,759
Speaker 4: terrible in far too many places? Because I think the

1094
00:48:01,800 --> 00:48:05,799
Speaker 4: pathway forward for Democrats is if we're successful. What I

1095
00:48:05,800 --> 00:48:07,520
Speaker 4: want people to think when they hear the word democrat

1096
00:48:07,600 --> 00:48:10,280
Speaker 4: is two things competence and integrity.

1097
00:48:10,440 --> 00:48:10,600
Speaker 1: Right.

1098
00:48:10,719 --> 00:48:12,239
Speaker 4: I want them to know that we get things done

1099
00:48:12,880 --> 00:48:15,160
Speaker 4: and that we have the integrity to stand behind what

1100
00:48:15,200 --> 00:48:17,200
Speaker 4: we truly believe in and accomplish it at the end

1101
00:48:17,239 --> 00:48:19,399
Speaker 4: of the day, whether that's making sure that you don't

1102
00:48:19,440 --> 00:48:21,200
Speaker 4: go bankrupt because you want to go to the doctor,

1103
00:48:22,080 --> 00:48:24,160
Speaker 4: or that's making sure that you don't you know, pop

1104
00:48:24,160 --> 00:48:26,080
Speaker 4: a tire on a pothole, or making sure that you

1105
00:48:26,120 --> 00:48:29,640
Speaker 4: can actually afford a home ultimately, because the biggest challenges

1106
00:48:30,640 --> 00:48:34,359
Speaker 4: to those things should not be how it shouldn't be

1107
00:48:34,520 --> 00:48:37,759
Speaker 4: how expensive it is. Everything is too damn expensive, way

1108
00:48:37,760 --> 00:48:40,680
Speaker 4: too damn expensive. What we got to figure out is

1109
00:48:40,719 --> 00:48:42,319
Speaker 4: how do we address the cost of all those things

1110
00:48:42,360 --> 00:48:46,040
Speaker 4: across the board, because the American dream for those essentials,

1111
00:48:46,120 --> 00:48:47,799
Speaker 4: the things that we don't have options of buying a

1112
00:48:47,880 --> 00:48:53,640
Speaker 4: roof over our head, right, health care, insurance, and things

1113
00:48:53,680 --> 00:48:56,520
Speaker 4: like elder care like for my father, or childcare. Those

1114
00:48:56,560 --> 00:48:59,440
Speaker 4: things are way too damn expensive and guess what Republicans

1115
00:48:59,440 --> 00:49:01,520
Speaker 4: are not going to fit them. So the question was

1116
00:49:01,600 --> 00:49:03,160
Speaker 4: is Democrats needs to be what are we going to

1117
00:49:03,200 --> 00:49:04,719
Speaker 4: do to fix it? And some of that needs to

1118
00:49:04,719 --> 00:49:06,560
Speaker 4: be making it easier for people to be able to

1119
00:49:06,560 --> 00:49:08,719
Speaker 4: buy a house, but it's also about addressing why are

1120
00:49:08,719 --> 00:49:10,680
Speaker 4: there's so few houses to begin with at the same time,

1121
00:49:11,000 --> 00:49:13,160
Speaker 4: and not treating it as an either or, but addressing

1122
00:49:13,200 --> 00:49:15,080
Speaker 4: the demand side and the supply side of it.

1123
00:49:15,000 --> 00:49:16,960
Speaker 1: At the same time. Some more names AOC.

1124
00:49:18,239 --> 00:49:19,000
Speaker 3: How long do you have?

1125
00:49:20,920 --> 00:49:23,040
Speaker 4: I mean, AOC has been a huge inspiration to me

1126
00:49:24,440 --> 00:49:28,960
Speaker 4: when I because she got elected in twenty eighteen and famously,

1127
00:49:29,160 --> 00:49:36,359
Speaker 4: you know, I also want to mention she challenged a Democrat, Yes, right.

1128
00:49:36,480 --> 00:49:38,640
Speaker 4: Imagine if we didn't have AOC right now going out

1129
00:49:38,640 --> 00:49:42,239
Speaker 4: there and rallying tens of thousands of people. Imagine that, right.

1130
00:49:42,320 --> 00:49:44,200
Speaker 4: And it wasn't just any Democrat that she challenged, it

1131
00:49:44,239 --> 00:49:47,040
Speaker 4: was one of the most powerful Democrats in the House.

1132
00:49:50,080 --> 00:49:52,480
Speaker 4: And frankly, the way that she's been treated simply for

1133
00:49:52,560 --> 00:49:56,200
Speaker 4: doing that, I find horrible and unacceptable. I think that

1134
00:49:56,239 --> 00:49:58,279
Speaker 4: she should have been the head of oversight, frankly, so

1135
00:49:58,320 --> 00:50:00,000
Speaker 4: that she could have gone out there and spoken out

1136
00:50:00,080 --> 00:50:03,839
Speaker 4: about all this stuff. What I really like about her

1137
00:50:05,000 --> 00:50:08,640
Speaker 4: is more than anything, that you clearly know that she

1138
00:50:08,760 --> 00:50:13,120
Speaker 4: believes what she's saying. Absolutely, she clearly believes what she's saying.

1139
00:50:13,400 --> 00:50:16,520
Speaker 4: And she knows how to communicate on social media because

1140
00:50:16,680 --> 00:50:20,520
Speaker 4: she grew up with it she's young. And also she

1141
00:50:20,600 --> 00:50:22,520
Speaker 4: doesn't you know, she's not out there taking money from

1142
00:50:22,520 --> 00:50:24,520
Speaker 4: special interests. You know, regardless of whether or not you

1143
00:50:24,560 --> 00:50:26,839
Speaker 4: agree with AOC, at least you can say that she's

1144
00:50:26,880 --> 00:50:30,479
Speaker 4: not owned by anyone, right, She's not owned by any

1145
00:50:30,480 --> 00:50:32,840
Speaker 4: special interest or anything like that that's finding her campaign

1146
00:50:33,160 --> 00:50:37,000
Speaker 4: because she is saying what she believes in at the

1147
00:50:37,080 --> 00:50:38,239
Speaker 4: end of the day, and I think we need to

1148
00:50:38,440 --> 00:50:39,960
Speaker 4: help a lot more of that, and we need to

1149
00:50:40,000 --> 00:50:43,719
Speaker 4: create a culture where if somebody does successfully challenge, you know,

1150
00:50:43,960 --> 00:50:46,440
Speaker 4: a member like that, that they aren't shut out and

1151
00:50:46,520 --> 00:50:48,719
Speaker 4: kept out. Because she is a huge asset to our

1152
00:50:48,760 --> 00:50:51,680
Speaker 4: party that I do not believe is being utilized nearly enough.

1153
00:50:52,400 --> 00:50:56,279
Speaker 4: And we need to accept the fact that we're going

1154
00:50:56,360 --> 00:51:00,000
Speaker 4: to have challenges in our own party, sometimes to incumbent Democrats.

1155
00:51:00,520 --> 00:51:03,840
Speaker 4: That's okay, that's healthy. Competition is a healthy thing. Imagine

1156
00:51:03,880 --> 00:51:05,520
Speaker 4: if we just said no, you can't do that, you

1157
00:51:05,560 --> 00:51:07,719
Speaker 4: need to wait your turn over and over again. I

1158
00:51:07,719 --> 00:51:09,239
Speaker 4: don't think that we'd be in a very good place

1159
00:51:09,320 --> 00:51:12,239
Speaker 4: right now. So I love her. I think she is

1160
00:51:12,280 --> 00:51:16,200
Speaker 4: a prolific lader, and we need a lot more people

1161
00:51:16,280 --> 00:51:16,600
Speaker 4: like her.

1162
00:51:17,280 --> 00:51:18,040
Speaker 1: My last name.

1163
00:51:18,400 --> 00:51:20,400
Speaker 2: These are people who I believe are the future and

1164
00:51:20,520 --> 00:51:22,120
Speaker 2: now in the future of the Democratic Party.

1165
00:51:23,120 --> 00:51:26,320
Speaker 1: John Stuart, John Stewart, John Stuart.

1166
00:51:26,360 --> 00:51:30,680
Speaker 4: So what I love about John is I think he

1167
00:51:30,680 --> 00:51:33,280
Speaker 4: he and Donald Trump actually have the same greatest strength.

1168
00:51:34,239 --> 00:51:36,520
Speaker 4: And this is going to sound controversial, is that they're funny.

1169
00:51:37,200 --> 00:51:38,760
Speaker 1: Yeah, right, not controversial.

1170
00:51:39,040 --> 00:51:41,920
Speaker 4: So I think what's controversial with some Democrats, right, but

1171
00:51:42,000 --> 00:51:43,200
Speaker 4: I think what happens.

1172
00:51:42,880 --> 00:51:43,879
Speaker 1: They don't have a sense of humor.

1173
00:51:44,239 --> 00:51:46,560
Speaker 4: Well truly, Yeah, that's a whole nother com Well. I

1174
00:51:46,600 --> 00:51:53,919
Speaker 4: think John Stewart has a sense of certainly. I think

1175
00:51:53,920 --> 00:51:55,720
Speaker 4: what happens a lot of the time with Donald Trump

1176
00:51:56,000 --> 00:51:58,920
Speaker 4: that we don't realize is that people in the America,

1177
00:51:58,960 --> 00:52:04,120
Speaker 4: in our America, we don't think of authoritarians as funny people.

1178
00:52:04,560 --> 00:52:04,759
Speaker 1: Right.

1179
00:52:04,760 --> 00:52:08,000
Speaker 4: It's very disarming to people because when we're freaking out

1180
00:52:08,040 --> 00:52:09,320
Speaker 4: and saying, oh my god, he's doing X, Y and

1181
00:52:09,440 --> 00:52:13,480
Speaker 4: Z thing, what a lot of normal people see is,

1182
00:52:13,520 --> 00:52:14,880
Speaker 4: what do you mean he's going and working at a

1183
00:52:14,920 --> 00:52:17,680
Speaker 4: McDonald's as part of like a political stunt, or what

1184
00:52:17,719 --> 00:52:21,920
Speaker 4: do you mean he's going and I don't know, just

1185
00:52:21,960 --> 00:52:24,680
Speaker 4: going and distract, like making all these weird jokes and stuff,

1186
00:52:24,760 --> 00:52:27,400
Speaker 4: or you know, going on and on about it. And

1187
00:52:27,800 --> 00:52:30,640
Speaker 4: it's very disarming to people, frankly, in a very dangerous way,

1188
00:52:30,640 --> 00:52:33,560
Speaker 4: because he is a dangerous man, very as we're seeing

1189
00:52:33,680 --> 00:52:37,359
Speaker 4: around the country. But I think with John Stewart, what

1190
00:52:37,440 --> 00:52:38,880
Speaker 4: I like about him is the same thing that I

1191
00:52:38,960 --> 00:52:44,359
Speaker 4: like about AOC. He's funny, he says what he believes in,

1192
00:52:45,280 --> 00:52:51,120
Speaker 4: and he gets shited done. And I know that because

1193
00:52:51,280 --> 00:52:53,440
Speaker 4: I saw when they were working on the Packed Actor.

1194
00:52:56,920 --> 00:53:03,960
Speaker 4: Sorry might get emotion, I'm talking about this. That summer

1195
00:53:08,040 --> 00:53:11,760
Speaker 4: they were Democrats were working on passing the largest expansion

1196
00:53:11,760 --> 00:53:14,440
Speaker 4: of veterans healthcare in American history. And that's in part

1197
00:53:14,480 --> 00:53:16,919
Speaker 4: because of President Biden's lift experience obviously with his son,

1198
00:53:16,960 --> 00:53:19,840
Speaker 4: which was horrifying. Died of cancer, very likely caused by

1199
00:53:19,880 --> 00:53:25,080
Speaker 4: a burnpit. I got a text from a friend that said, hey,

1200
00:53:25,120 --> 00:53:27,680
Speaker 4: there's some veterans that are out here that are protesting

1201
00:53:27,719 --> 00:53:30,879
Speaker 4: because what happened is Democrats actually out maneuvered, to Chuck

1202
00:53:30,880 --> 00:53:34,000
Speaker 4: Schumer's credit, he out maneuvered Mitch McConnell with the Inflation

1203
00:53:34,080 --> 00:53:37,120
Speaker 4: Reduction Act and Mitch McConnell was pissed about that. So

1204
00:53:37,160 --> 00:53:39,120
Speaker 4: what happened is they said, you know what, we're going

1205
00:53:39,200 --> 00:53:41,239
Speaker 4: to screw over the veterans. So right before they went

1206
00:53:41,280 --> 00:53:44,400
Speaker 4: on recess, they killed the Packed Act from passing. The

1207
00:53:44,480 --> 00:53:48,279
Speaker 4: Republicans did the largest expansion of veterans healthcare in American history.

1208
00:53:48,280 --> 00:53:49,160
Speaker 3: And I took this personally.

1209
00:53:49,280 --> 00:53:51,480
Speaker 4: There are let me count off the top of my head, went,

1210
00:53:52,360 --> 00:53:56,319
Speaker 4: there's at least four Navy pilots in my family that

1211
00:53:56,360 --> 00:53:58,880
Speaker 4: we've had between my aunt, my uncle, my grandpa, and

1212
00:53:58,719 --> 00:54:04,240
Speaker 4: my father, and my dad has Parkinson's very likely caused

1213
00:54:04,239 --> 00:54:08,080
Speaker 4: by being exposed to Judge fuel and other toxic substances

1214
00:54:08,120 --> 00:54:10,759
Speaker 4: in the military. And my friend texted me and said, Hey,

1215
00:54:10,760 --> 00:54:12,239
Speaker 4: there's a group of veterans that are sleeping on the

1216
00:54:12,239 --> 00:54:15,040
Speaker 4: steps of the US Senate right now and they're going

1217
00:54:15,120 --> 00:54:17,480
Speaker 4: to stay out there, pulling all nighters what they called

1218
00:54:17,480 --> 00:54:23,319
Speaker 4: a firewatch until this bill passes. And I went out

1219
00:54:23,320 --> 00:54:27,440
Speaker 4: there and I was talking to them, and I was

1220
00:54:27,480 --> 00:54:32,040
Speaker 4: so inspired by them because I saw my dad in them,

1221
00:54:32,080 --> 00:54:34,919
Speaker 4: I saw my family members in them that I said,

1222
00:54:35,600 --> 00:54:37,080
Speaker 4: what I'm gonna do is I'm just going to stay

1223
00:54:37,080 --> 00:54:38,960
Speaker 4: out here and I'm going to interview you guys like

1224
00:54:39,040 --> 00:54:40,680
Speaker 4: all night. So I took out my phone and I

1225
00:54:40,800 --> 00:54:42,840
Speaker 4: literally just posted directly to Twitter. I said, tell me

1226
00:54:42,880 --> 00:54:45,440
Speaker 4: your story and why you're here. And I heard so

1227
00:54:45,560 --> 00:54:50,239
Speaker 4: many heartbreaking stories of veterans who served overseas that then

1228
00:54:50,280 --> 00:54:53,239
Speaker 4: got a rare form of cancer and were denied their

1229
00:54:53,280 --> 00:54:58,759
Speaker 4: benefits that our country failed to serve. That is why

1230
00:54:58,840 --> 00:55:01,880
Speaker 4: they were out there. And one of those people that

1231
00:55:01,920 --> 00:55:06,160
Speaker 4: I met, you know, had worked for the federal government,

1232
00:55:06,200 --> 00:55:08,200
Speaker 4: and now he is facing a very real chance that

1233
00:55:08,239 --> 00:55:10,240
Speaker 4: his retirement is going to be cut by several hundred

1234
00:55:10,280 --> 00:55:13,080
Speaker 4: thousand dollars because of this bill that Republicans are pushing

1235
00:55:13,080 --> 00:55:18,160
Speaker 4: through right now. And I will never forget when John

1236
00:55:18,160 --> 00:55:21,960
Speaker 4: Stewart showed up to support those veterans and help get

1237
00:55:21,960 --> 00:55:23,880
Speaker 4: that bill passed, and it did get passed. Is one

1238
00:55:23,880 --> 00:55:27,000
Speaker 4: of the largest expansions ever the veterans' healthcare. Because in

1239
00:55:27,040 --> 00:55:29,040
Speaker 4: the past, you used to say, you used to have

1240
00:55:29,080 --> 00:55:32,080
Speaker 4: to say, oh, you know, this very rare form of

1241
00:55:32,120 --> 00:55:35,160
Speaker 4: cancer that I got, you had to prove that it

1242
00:55:35,239 --> 00:55:38,000
Speaker 4: was because you were exposed to all of these toxic

1243
00:55:38,080 --> 00:55:40,120
Speaker 4: chemicals like agent orange or whatever else it might have

1244
00:55:40,120 --> 00:55:43,640
Speaker 4: been in the military in order to get health care

1245
00:55:43,680 --> 00:55:47,440
Speaker 4: for that. Why the hell is it on our veterans

1246
00:55:47,480 --> 00:55:50,160
Speaker 4: that have served our country and risk their lives for

1247
00:55:50,239 --> 00:55:53,200
Speaker 4: their country and sacrifice so much to prove to the

1248
00:55:53,239 --> 00:55:58,759
Speaker 4: government that they served that their health care, that their

1249
00:55:58,840 --> 00:56:01,640
Speaker 4: cancer is caused by that. I think it should be

1250
00:56:01,719 --> 00:56:03,800
Speaker 4: on the government to prove why it isn't caused by that,

1251
00:56:03,840 --> 00:56:06,359
Speaker 4: Because if we're willing to spend trillions of dollars on

1252
00:56:06,560 --> 00:56:09,839
Speaker 4: stupid bullshit wars, overseas. We should be willing to spend

1253
00:56:09,880 --> 00:56:12,560
Speaker 4: at least a couple of billion taking care of our

1254
00:56:12,640 --> 00:56:15,040
Speaker 4: damn veterans that put their ass on the line. For

1255
00:56:15,120 --> 00:56:18,520
Speaker 4: the politicians in DC that are way too comfortable right now,

1256
00:56:18,840 --> 00:56:21,439
Speaker 4: and the fact that Republicans killed that at the last

1257
00:56:21,480 --> 00:56:23,960
Speaker 4: second and we had to shame them in order to

1258
00:56:24,000 --> 00:56:26,359
Speaker 4: pass that is disgusting. But that's part of the reason

1259
00:56:26,360 --> 00:56:29,399
Speaker 4: why I'm a Democrat, because we do stuff like that.

1260
00:56:29,920 --> 00:56:34,560
Speaker 4: We got that bill passed and we massively expanded healthcare

1261
00:56:34,880 --> 00:56:37,640
Speaker 4: for millions of veterans around the country. But what scares

1262
00:56:37,680 --> 00:56:39,960
Speaker 4: me is Republicans are already trying to chip away at

1263
00:56:39,960 --> 00:56:43,960
Speaker 4: it and erode against it. So Yes, John Stewart is

1264
00:56:43,960 --> 00:56:47,240
Speaker 4: an incredible and prolific figure that I think I wouldn't

1265
00:56:47,239 --> 00:56:48,839
Speaker 4: even say is the future of our party. I would

1266
00:56:48,840 --> 00:56:51,160
Speaker 4: say he is a major part of our party right now.

1267
00:56:51,320 --> 00:56:52,759
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's my hope.

1268
00:56:52,760 --> 00:56:55,200
Speaker 2: And I know you can't say this. I want him

1269
00:56:55,239 --> 00:56:57,200
Speaker 2: to be President of the United States of America. I

1270
00:56:57,280 --> 00:56:59,960
Speaker 2: really do. I think that he is such a fantastic,

1271
00:57:00,080 --> 00:57:04,520
Speaker 2: thick messenger, and he actually knows politics, and he cares

1272
00:57:04,719 --> 00:57:08,080
Speaker 2: about people and for the way the country is now

1273
00:57:08,160 --> 00:57:10,360
Speaker 2: and where the country is going. As far as messaging,

1274
00:57:10,960 --> 00:57:15,399
Speaker 2: you need somebody like him front and center that it's

1275
00:57:15,640 --> 00:57:18,760
Speaker 2: my thought, David Hogg, thank you brother. I like the

1276
00:57:18,760 --> 00:57:20,680
Speaker 2: work that you're doing. Man, keep fighting a good fight.

1277
00:57:20,800 --> 00:57:21,120
Speaker 3: Thank you.

1278
00:57:21,200 --> 00:57:23,200
Speaker 1: That's right. If they can support you in anyway, what

1279
00:57:23,240 --> 00:57:23,720
Speaker 1: should they do?

1280
00:57:24,000 --> 00:57:26,280
Speaker 4: People can just check out our website at leaders we

1281
00:57:26,400 --> 00:57:28,640
Speaker 4: Deserve dot com and you can also see on there

1282
00:57:28,640 --> 00:57:31,960
Speaker 4: too as we create more endorsements. Who's out there as well?

1283
00:57:32,160 --> 00:57:35,000
Speaker 1: Absolutely it is. David Hog is the Breakfast Club, Wake

1284
00:57:35,040 --> 00:57:37,960
Speaker 1: that answer up in the morning. Breakfast Club