Speaker 1: Good morning, peep sen. Welcome to okay F Daily with
Speaker 1: Meet your Girl Danielle Moody, recording from the Home Bunker, Folks.
Speaker 1: I want to start off today with my reflections on
Speaker 1: the historic reign of Speaker Nancy Pelosi as the first
Speaker 1: woman to ever hold the gabble in Congress. Nancy Pelosi
Speaker 1: announced at the end of last week that she would
Speaker 1: not be seeking reelection in Democratic leadership, and following her
Speaker 1: was also Steady Hoyer. Nancy Pelosi has been a complicated character,
Speaker 1: I think in political circles in political history, she has
Speaker 1: been lambasted on the right. Literal targets were placed on her,
Speaker 1: and she took every hit that the Republican Party tried
Speaker 1: to wail against her, not only in stride, but with
Speaker 1: a level of dignity and defiance and courage and style
Speaker 1: that I think that no speaker has ever shown. Now
Speaker 1: I have throughout my time on woke AF, I have
Speaker 1: both applauded Nancy Pelosi for ushering through things like the
Speaker 1: Affordable Care Act, for ushering through and leading Barack Obama's
Speaker 1: many accomplishments. I have also been angry at Nancy Pelosi
Speaker 1: for not providing cover to the younger members of the
Speaker 1: Democratic Caucus and seemingly creating friction between middle of the
Speaker 1: road Democrats and the newer, younger, browner, progressive set. However,
Speaker 1: I have always revered Nancy Pelosi as a woman who
Speaker 1: entered into Congress at the age of forty seven years
Speaker 1: old and at a time when there were only nine
Speaker 1: women in Congress. Can you imagine as she was giving
Speaker 1: her speech last week, she said that when she entered,
Speaker 1: there were nine, and now she's leaving and there are ninety.
Speaker 1: To say that Nancy Pelosi has been a role model
Speaker 1: for women in politics, for people in politics in general,
Speaker 1: would be to just signal out in such a way
Speaker 1: how this woman singlehandedly reshaped the Democratic Party and the
Speaker 1: House and what it means to be speaker. I want
Speaker 1: to read you a little bit of what was written
Speaker 1: in the Washington Post last week about Nancy Pelosi because
Speaker 1: I think it's worth the reflection. I think that her
Speaker 1: tenure is worth the reflection, and particularly now. I also
Speaker 1: want to say that we are in perilous times in
Speaker 1: this country. We can applaud what happened during mid terms,
Speaker 1: We can pack ourselves on the back. We can definitely
Speaker 1: pat young people on the back for showing up in
Speaker 1: historic numbers. But the only reason why Nancy Pelosi doesn't
Speaker 1: have the gabble this time around is because of jerrymandering,
Speaker 1: vote of suppression and the ways in which the Republican
Speaker 1: Party has rigged the game right against the American people.
Speaker 1: But I think that it bears reflection on someone who
Speaker 1: has redefined history and leadership and speakership as the Republican
Speaker 1: Party has redefined itself as a white supremacist, violent cult,
Speaker 1: and that many are wondering whether or not Nancy Pelosi
Speaker 1: would have sought democratic leadership if not for the violent
Speaker 1: attack against her husband. But I think that in her speech,
Speaker 1: what she signifies is that the time has come, you know,
Speaker 1: for new leadership. We are in a new time, right,
Speaker 1: and while the sun may be setting on politics that
Speaker 1: once was, I think that many will have learned from
Speaker 1: her ability to navigate one of the most disturbing political
Speaker 1: times in our history, which was the presidency of Donald Trump,
Speaker 1: and she navigated it with the type of dignity and
Speaker 1: grace that we can all just pray for. But let
Speaker 1: me read you a little bit from the Washington Post.
Speaker 1: Pelosi stepping down as top House Democrat after two decades
Speaker 1: in leadership, written by Marianna Satomayor and Paul Kane. How
Speaker 1: Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who broke Congress's glass ceiling as the
Speaker 1: first woman to hold the top position in the House,
Speaker 1: announced Thursday she will not seek reelection as the House
Speaker 1: Democratic Caucus's top leader, ending one of the most consequential
Speaker 1: leadership tenures in American political history. This is a direct
Speaker 1: quote from Nancy Pelosi for me, the hours come for
Speaker 1: a new generation to lead the Democratic Caucus that I
Speaker 1: so deeply respect. Her decision to not seek reelection as
Speaker 1: a top Democrat in Congress's lower chamber marks the culmination
Speaker 1: of a political career widely seen as setting the standard
Speaker 1: for wielding political power. Historians largely agree that Pelosi redefined
Speaker 1: the speakership, and she made history climbing the ranks of
Speaker 1: Democratic leadership, becoming the first woman to be second in
Speaker 1: line to the presidency as Speaker of the House twice.
Speaker 1: In her more than three decades serving in the House,
Speaker 1: Pelosi earned a reputation for amassing power in the face
Speaker 1: of male colleagues who at times undermined her opinions, and
Speaker 1: she earned respect by delivering votes on her party's top priorities,
Speaker 1: even if that meant twisting the arms of her colleagues
Speaker 1: to take a bill over the finish line. Pelosi's ability
Speaker 1: to keep her caucus in line has led to bipartisan
Speaker 1: recognition that she alone may be capable of wrangling Democrats'
Speaker 1: disparate factions. She led the House Democratic Caucus through a
Speaker 1: bitter fight in twenty ten to pass the Affordable Care Act,
Speaker 1: and most recently managed to raise her thin majority in
Speaker 1: passing several key pieces of President Biden's legislative agenda. The
Speaker 1: White House said in a statement that Biden spoke with
Speaker 1: Pelosi on Thursday morning and congratulated her on her historic tenure.
Speaker 1: President Biden said this history will note she is the
Speaker 1: most consequential Speaker of the House of Representatives in our history.
Speaker 1: There are countless examples of how she embodies the obligation
Speaker 1: of elected officials to uphold their oath to God and country,
Speaker 1: to ensure our democracy delivers and remains a beacon to
Speaker 1: the world. Pelosi's decision to step back has been seen
Speaker 1: somewhat expected. She said in twenty twenty that she would
Speaker 1: not seek reelection to a leadership position, but she revealed
Speaker 1: little about her intentions outside a small and extremely loyal
Speaker 1: circle of trusted confidants, and her plans were never fully clear.
Speaker 1: Her choice to step back from leadership comes weeks after
Speaker 1: her husband, Paul Pelosi, was violently attacked in their San
Speaker 1: Francisco home by an intruder who was searching for the speaker.
Speaker 1: The attack on her husband and her husband played a
Speaker 1: major role as she deliberated on her decision, Pelosi said
Speaker 1: during a recent television interview. She noted in the interview
Speaker 1: that she felt guilt about the violent attack as the
Speaker 1: intruder was looking for her. In her speech last Thursday,
Speaker 1: she thanked her husband, calling him my pillar of support,
Speaker 1: and said she was grateful for all of the prayers
Speaker 1: and well wishes he continues as he continues his recovery.
Speaker 1: She said this, I'm endlessly grateful for all of life's blessings,
Speaker 1: for my Democratic colleagues, whose courage and commitment, with the
Speaker 1: support of your families, have made many of these accomplishments possible.
Speaker 1: Shortly after her announcement, it became clear that a new
Speaker 1: generation of Democrats was stepping in to take the torch.
Speaker 1: Representative came Jeffries, the current chairman of the House Democratic Caucus,
Speaker 1: will run for House Minority Leader. According to two people
Speaker 1: familiar with the decision, Jeffries will be joined by Representatives
Speaker 1: Catherine m clark and Pete Aguilar, who will seek the
Speaker 1: number two and number three positions, respectively. Representative Jim Clyburne
Speaker 1: will stay on as Assistant Leader, a position that used
Speaker 1: to be third in line but will now be fourth
Speaker 1: in the leadership structure. Pelosi's top deputy, Representative Steenny Hoyer,
Speaker 1: said in a statement he also would not seek reelection
Speaker 1: in leadership. You know, folks, I share that with all
Speaker 1: of you, because oftentimes, as we are looking forward to
Speaker 1: what's next, what we're anticipating, how we're moving, we don't
Speaker 1: take time to reflect on how far we have come
Speaker 1: and to think about a House of Representatives that looks
Speaker 1: more like the country. Because of people like Nancy Pelosi.
Speaker 1: I think that women in power have taken a lot
Speaker 1: of cues from her. I think that her ability to
Speaker 1: navigate patriarchy misogyny at the highest ranks of government and
Speaker 1: do so with her smile and her cunning and her
Speaker 1: thoughtfulness is amazing. You know, we don't really think about
Speaker 1: the ways in which women are challenged consistently by men,
Speaker 1: are undermined by men, are put to the side by men,
Speaker 1: whether or not they're from your same party or not.
Speaker 1: And Nancy Pelosi's ability to navigate the House of Representatives
Speaker 1: at a time folks when women had to wear a
Speaker 1: dresser skirt on the floor it was part of the rules.
Speaker 1: Weren't allowed to wear pants at a time when you
Speaker 1: would look around and there were only eight other women
Speaker 1: in the room. But make clear that you know what
Speaker 1: you're doing, that you're going to own the space and
Speaker 1: the skin that you're in. And I think that there
Speaker 1: are so many profound lessons in that, in her achievements,
Speaker 1: in her steadfastness, that we can take as the baton
Speaker 1: is passed and as we look forward to what the
Speaker 1: future brings. Now we know by the press conference, and
Speaker 1: I say that with fucking air quotes that Republicans gave
Speaker 1: with regard to who is going to be in charge
Speaker 1: of their oversight committee, that Republicans, when they assume the
Speaker 1: gavel in January, have absolutely no intention on doing a
Speaker 1: goddamn thing for the American people except wasting our time
Speaker 1: and our tax dollars with frivolous, fucking committee hearings and
Speaker 1: investigations that are political witch hunts in order to get
Speaker 1: back at Democrats for having the audacity to hold their
Speaker 1: twice impeach criminal ass, fucking grifting ass deity Donald Trump
Speaker 1: accountable for his crimes against this country. You're going to
Speaker 1: hear more about Hunter Biden's laptop and hear more about
Speaker 1: the ways in which they're going to try and impeach
Speaker 1: members of a Biden's cabinet than you will about anything
Speaker 1: that they're actually willing to do, any legislation that they're
Speaker 1: willing to put together that would advance the American people.
Speaker 1: Now folks can say, well, you know, they did win
Speaker 1: the House, while like I said earlier, the only and
Speaker 1: why Republicans have the gavel at a very slim fucking
Speaker 1: margin is because of all of the gerrymandering and voter
Speaker 1: suppression that their party has been at the forefront of
Speaker 1: four decades. You have congressional districts that look more like
Speaker 1: you know, contortionists from cerftus Olay than they do actual
Speaker 1: landmasses carving their way to make sure that they have
Speaker 1: the Republican votes that only a Republican could possibly win
Speaker 1: in these very narrow, carved out, curved districts, because if
Speaker 1: Republicans actually had to compete in a real way, what
Speaker 1: the fuck do they offer? Not a goddamn thing they
Speaker 1: don't offer the American people away forward, as they were
Speaker 1: rolling out what was top on their agenda, Nowhere was inflation.
Speaker 1: Nowhere was an economic plan right nowhere was a policy
Speaker 1: put together around making sure that America is prepared for
Speaker 1: a potential new pandemic. No, everything that Republicans offer is
Speaker 1: about taking something away from the American people, whether that
Speaker 1: is Medicare, whether that is your right to vote, whether
Speaker 1: that is a full and complete education for your child
Speaker 1: who is attending a public school that now has over
Speaker 1: two thousand books banned. But the only way they win
Speaker 1: is by cheating. And what I've loved about Nancy Pelosi
Speaker 1: over the course of her leadership is the ability to
Speaker 1: call out bullshit, the ability to take Donald Trump and
Speaker 1: Kevin McCarthy and Mitch McConnell to fucking task, the ability
Speaker 1: to sit into a room or stand as one of
Speaker 1: my favorite photos of Nancy Pelosi standing up in a
Speaker 1: room with the cabinet members and Donald Trump and pointing
Speaker 1: her finger across the table in his face. I want Democrats,
Speaker 1: as the leadership structure shifts and as we turn the
Speaker 1: page on this historic Pelosi error, to have the same
Speaker 1: grit and strategy and ability to communicate the absolute ridiculousness
Speaker 1: and frivolousness and white supremacists of this party to call
Speaker 1: a fucking spade a spade. Now. I don't think that
Speaker 1: Hakim Jeffries is going to have an uphill battle to
Speaker 1: becoming minority leader in the House. I think that Hakim
Speaker 1: Jeffries has had some really great moments inside of the
Speaker 1: committees that he has led in questioning, in being you know,
Speaker 1: the head of the Democratic Caucus, and I think that
Speaker 1: he is ready. I think that he is ready to
Speaker 1: take on and call out this new I don't even
Speaker 1: know what you call them breed. I guess this new
Speaker 1: breed of Republican that is centered and grounded in violence,
Speaker 1: in cruelty, and oppression and hate, you know, the role
Speaker 1: aside from blocking legislation, not like I think that they're
Speaker 1: going to try and pass any their role on these committees.
Speaker 1: As we get prepared to enter into the circus of
Speaker 1: Ken McCarthy, if he's able to scrounge up the fucking
Speaker 1: votes to become you know, another sycophan for Donald Trump
Speaker 1: will be to communicate and to shut down Republican bias
Speaker 1: and lies at every turn. I mean, let me tell
Speaker 1: you something. I would not want to be in this body,
Speaker 1: in this Congress for so many reasons, because I think
Speaker 1: that the Republican Party is a sheer embarrassment. And I
Speaker 1: don't want to go to work when I hate half
Speaker 1: the people that are there, right, like literally hate them.
Speaker 1: When I worked on the hill, When I worked on
Speaker 1: the Hill one hundred and fifty years ago, the climate
Speaker 1: was so different, right, Yes, we were in leadership, Democrats
Speaker 1: were in leadership, but the climate was still about collaboration, right,
Speaker 1: It was about bringing together these two vying ideologies, but
Speaker 1: for the common good. But what we know and what
Speaker 1: we've learned over the last you know, seven god awful years,
Speaker 1: is that there is no longer any common good. But
Speaker 1: what I love about how Democrats are moving in this
Speaker 1: moment is that they're not going to let in fighting,
Speaker 1: jostling for power get in the way of what their
Speaker 1: common enemy is. And the common enemy is the Republican Party.
Speaker 1: The common enemy is fighting back fascism and authoritarianism and
Speaker 1: the rise of domestic terrorism. Christopher Ray, the head of
Speaker 1: the FBI, was testifying, and I watched a brief clip
Speaker 1: and I, folks, I needed to change the channel because
Speaker 1: some you know, self care. But basically, Christopher Ray was
Speaker 1: alerting to Congress that the FBI needs to have the
Speaker 1: authority to be able to continue to take down drones
Speaker 1: that potentially are carrying home i eds, you know, the
Speaker 1: explosives that are used at war. Because the threat and
Speaker 1: the rise of domestic terrorism, and let's just be clear
Speaker 1: and call it white terrorism, because that's what the fuck
Speaker 1: it is is so sky high that what they are
Speaker 1: hearing is chattering about being able to weaponize drones to
Speaker 1: cause mass destruction. As I'm listening to this, I'm like
Speaker 1: almost thirty years ago when Nancy Pelosi entered into the
Speaker 1: political arena, Domestic terrorism and threats of violence were not
Speaker 1: the norm. The nuanced ways in which people were trying
Speaker 1: to harm government government officials was not the norm. And
Speaker 1: so it is necessary for those that have the stamina
Speaker 1: and the foresight to be able to see how this
Speaker 1: white supremacist political party is manipulating their base into terrorism.
Speaker 1: Is needed. And you know why Christopher Ray was testifying
Speaker 1: is because there's going to be an expiration coming up
Speaker 1: soon of their authority to be able to disrupt drones
Speaker 1: to take them down, and he needed to amplify to
Speaker 1: Congress the threats right as we were headed into midterm elections,
Speaker 1: and obviously about a couple of weeks prior to that
Speaker 1: was the assault on Paul Pelosi from a white, white
Speaker 1: right wing fucking QAnon eating drink and sleeping intruder insurrectionist
Speaker 1: who is hyped up on all the lies and hate
Speaker 1: being fed to him by the Republican Party. And so
Speaker 1: when we look at this raise or thin margin that
Speaker 1: Republicans are going to have, what we realize is that
Speaker 1: they're not going to provide the authority to the FBI
Speaker 1: to be able to dismantle what it is that their
Speaker 1: constituency and base is trying to do to destroy this
Speaker 1: country and to start a civil war. We're not safe, right,
Speaker 1: is the reality that I want folks to still sit with.
Speaker 1: We have power, meaning that we still have the Senate,
Speaker 1: but the Senate map doesn't look good in a couple
Speaker 1: of years from now for us in terms of who
Speaker 1: is going to be up and where. But I'm not
Speaker 1: even concerned about that, because, folks, who the fuck knows
Speaker 1: where we will be? You know where this country will be.
Speaker 1: You have there twice impeach loser who still hasn't seen
Speaker 1: the inside of a jail cell, who still has not
Speaker 1: been indicted for all of his crimes, which there is
Speaker 1: a laundry list of. So we don't know where things
Speaker 1: will fall. But what I do know is that I
Speaker 1: believe Democrats are more clear eyed and united against what
Speaker 1: they are fighting for. And it is for us. It
Speaker 1: is for freedom, It is for democracy, It is for
Speaker 1: family right, It is for the ability to love, to learn,
Speaker 1: right to live free of oppression, obstacles, do humanization, and cruelty.
Speaker 1: So when Nancy Pelosi says, you know that this is
Speaker 1: the most beautiful building that she has ever served in,
Speaker 1: and that it means something to her to have walked
Speaker 1: these halls, to have led this party, I get choked
Speaker 1: up still. When I go to the capital, I am
Speaker 1: as a child of immigrants, queer black woman that walks
Speaker 1: those halls and holds meetings and speaks on panels about
Speaker 1: how to make this country better and having the awesome
Speaker 1: responsibility to use my voice to activate people into their
Speaker 1: own personal power and lifting their own voices. So when
Speaker 1: I feel that bit of responsibility, I can't imagine the
Speaker 1: awesome responsibility that Nancy Pelosi has felt when she has
Speaker 1: placed her hand over her heart and pledged allegiance to
Speaker 1: this country and then saw that same beautiful building disgraced
Speaker 1: by an insurrectionist mob led by a vile, hateful, disgusting
Speaker 1: man who is yet to be held accountable for any
Speaker 1: of his crimes. My favorite thing, you know, that I
Speaker 1: will hold about Nancy Pelosi is the footage that was
Speaker 1: released during the insurrection when she was just like I
Speaker 1: would like to punch him in the fucking face. I
Speaker 1: add the fucking part, I want to punch him in
Speaker 1: the face. I'm like, yes, we all do. I'd love
Speaker 1: it if we could take turns the way that he
Speaker 1: tried to punch a hole in the heart of our democracy.
Speaker 1: But Americans continue to push back and to stand up
Speaker 1: and to stand strong and to fight for what matters,
Speaker 1: which is the freedom for all people to exist, to
Speaker 1: pursue their happiness, to pursue their version of the American dream.
Speaker 1: That is what Nancy Pelosi has stood for her entire
Speaker 1: career and we're all indebted and better off because of
Speaker 1: her leadership. So, Madam Speaker, we thank you on woke
Speaker 1: F for all you have done, for the ways in
Speaker 1: which you have challenged the system, challenged the status quo
Speaker 1: in order to even make your speakership possible. That is
Speaker 1: it for me today, dear friends on woke F. As always,
Speaker 1: power to the people and to all the people. Power,
Speaker 1: get woke and stay woke as fuck.