Speaker 1: Good morning, peeps, and welcome to wok F Daily with
Speaker 1: me your girl, Danielle Moody recording once again from the
Speaker 1: Brooklyn Bunker. You know, folks, as Amicron continues to ravage
Speaker 1: the country, as we get new news that Feiser has
Speaker 1: been approved for an at home pill to treat COVID
Speaker 1: so that you no longer have to go into the hospital,
Speaker 1: clogging up our hospitals in a way that they have
Speaker 1: not seen since twenty twenty, but we are hearing about daily.
Speaker 1: Is great news. But what would be even better is
Speaker 1: if we had more than sixty one percent of the
Speaker 1: population that was vaccinated. I know that I am beating
Speaker 1: a dead horse every time that I go back down
Speaker 1: this road, but it discuss me to no end that
Speaker 1: no one from the Trump administration is being held accountable,
Speaker 1: even as we receive more reports on the fact that
Speaker 1: they had information for the public to share about COVID nineteen.
Speaker 1: They had the protocols that they should have been using,
Speaker 1: and they just refused. Instead, they saw it as an
Speaker 1: opportunity to weaponize a virus, right, turning people against each
Speaker 1: other and creating absolute chaos so that they could hold
Speaker 1: on to power. Right. We lost over eight hundred thousand Americans,
Speaker 1: and that number continues to tick up, and they're twenty
Speaker 1: five percent of the population that will refuse still to
Speaker 1: get vaccinated. They're killing their own constituents, they're killing their
Speaker 1: own followers, and yet still here we are, sixty one
Speaker 1: percent of the population is vaccinated. You know, all I
Speaker 1: can continue to say, following my conversation yesterday with our friend,
Speaker 1: doctor Jonathan Metzel is, friends, do everything within your power
Speaker 1: to stay safe. As Jonathan said yesterday, now is not
Speaker 1: the time for us to want to get COVID right now.
Speaker 1: It's not the time for us to allow ourselves to,
Speaker 1: you know, fall and lag in our daily habits that
Speaker 1: that we've created, washing our hands six feet of distance,
Speaker 1: wearing a mask. Make sure that you are vaccinated, make
Speaker 1: sure that you are boosted, and just stay as safe
Speaker 1: as possible this holiday season. I want to switch gears
Speaker 1: now to going back to that son of a bitch
Speaker 1: from West Virginia, Joe Mansion coming up later in the show.
Speaker 1: I have the opportunity. I'm so excited to bring you
Speaker 1: this conversation. I've wanted to interview this member of the squad,
Speaker 1: Representative Jamal Bowman, from New York for the longest time
Speaker 1: since he was elected. He is outspoken, he is passionate,
Speaker 1: he is thoughtful and strategic, you know, everything that we
Speaker 1: actually want out of the Democratic Party, but yet don't
Speaker 1: get in mass. And we have a very candid conversation
Speaker 1: about his thoughts on Joe Mansion, which he has not
Speaker 1: minced any words on any of the shows that he
Speaker 1: has appeared on. But the reality is this that we,
Speaker 1: as he will share with us, are moving into a
Speaker 1: really dark season, right. And I'm not just talking about winter.
Speaker 1: I'm talking about, you know, the winter of our politics.
Speaker 1: I'm talking about the dark corners right that we are
Speaker 1: headed into when we know that we have a rabid
Speaker 1: Republican Party that is willing to do anything and everything
Speaker 1: in order to hold power. We have a really apathetic
Speaker 1: Democratic Party that is not messaging in the way that
Speaker 1: they need to message. And one of the things that
Speaker 1: I bring up two Congressmen Bowman, is this, you know,
Speaker 1: it is evident right that the Republicans have embraced the
Speaker 1: likes of Marjorie Taylor Green, have embraced the likes of
Speaker 1: Laura Beaubert as the new faces the Republican Party. They're
Speaker 1: not moderate, they're not economically fiscal. They are crazy white
Speaker 1: nationalists that are armed, that don't just use violence as
Speaker 1: a threat, they use it as a campaigning tool as well.
Speaker 1: They use it as a fundraising tool. If you see
Speaker 1: the reception that Kyle Rittenhouse a murderer, right, a person
Speaker 1: that murdered two people in cold fucking blood, two citizens
Speaker 1: of this country. If you see the type of embrace
Speaker 1: that he is received from the Republican Party, from Lauren Bobert,
Speaker 1: from others, right, they are making no qualms about who
Speaker 1: they are, who they see their future as. And the
Speaker 1: question that I ask Congressman Bowman is why won't Democrats
Speaker 1: embrace who their future is? Why do they continue to
Speaker 1: run from the likes of him, as well as Congresswoman
Speaker 1: Omar and Ocasio Cortez and Pressley, And you know, it
Speaker 1: just makes no fucking sense. Right. We know the demographics
Speaker 1: of this country are rapidly shifting. We know that white
Speaker 1: supremacy tied into capitalism, which are just one and of
Speaker 1: the same, are going to be what destroys this country.
Speaker 1: We know why people voted in mass right for the
Speaker 1: historic twenty twenty election. We know why the squad was
Speaker 1: ushered into power in twenty eighteen. And it's because we right,
Speaker 1: who still believe in progress, who still believe in justice,
Speaker 1: believe in these young voices of color, And yet our
Speaker 1: folks that are in leadership, the Peloses and the Schumer's right,
Speaker 1: are still running from these people, are trying to distance
Speaker 1: themselves from them. And I'm thinking to myself, but yet
Speaker 1: you want to continue to run to the fucking mansions
Speaker 1: of the world. You think that it's the independence that
Speaker 1: saved you in twenty twenty. You think that that's what
Speaker 1: got the Biden administer stration in. You think that that's
Speaker 1: what solidified a democratic majority in Congress. You think it
Speaker 1: was the independence or the fucking Republican karens that you
Speaker 1: still try in court. It isn't right. It's people of color,
Speaker 1: it's progressives, and they continue to ignore these people to
Speaker 1: their fault. Right. You know, I just saw right before
Speaker 1: it came on air that Biden has decided to extend
Speaker 1: the waiver for paybacks of student loans until May because
Speaker 1: of the omicron variant rise. And I gotta tell you,
Speaker 1: if Joe Biden wants Democrats to stay in power, you
Speaker 1: know what he could do instead of delaying the inevitable,
Speaker 1: maybe cancel fucking student loan debt, right, maybe for those
Speaker 1: people that have student loan debt that is above fucking,
Speaker 1: you know, fifteen thousand dollars that you fucking canceled that
Speaker 1: shit out. It's just consistently amazing to me, and by amazing,
Speaker 1: I mean absurd that we can make the excuses as
Speaker 1: to why you continue to give tax breaks to the rich,
Speaker 1: on why you continue to allow loopholes to exist so
Speaker 1: that they don't have to pay their fair share. Then
Speaker 1: you want to turn around and you want to tell people, oh,
Speaker 1: if you want to be successful, if you want to
Speaker 1: be quote unquote wealthy or middle class, you got to
Speaker 1: go to school. You got to get an education. Then
Speaker 1: those same people listen to you. They go to school,
Speaker 1: they go to get an education, only to be saddled
Speaker 1: with six figures worth of debt too, then have to
Speaker 1: work in a low level, low paying job that they
Speaker 1: are tied to not only for their benefits, but so
Speaker 1: that they get to pay back the very institutions that
Speaker 1: gave them blown you know, blown up fucking student loan debt.
Speaker 1: It just doesn't make any sense, you know, everywhere It
Speaker 1: doesn't matter at which at which end of the educational
Speaker 1: spectrum that you're looking at, whether you're looking at preschoolers
Speaker 1: or you're looking at those that are headed into post
Speaker 1: secondary learning. We don't care. We don't care about you,
Speaker 1: We don't care about students, we don't care about young students,
Speaker 1: we don't care about older students. We don't want to
Speaker 1: invest in workers in this country. And then we want
Speaker 1: to turn around and say that they're lazy, right, We
Speaker 1: want to allow the mansions of the world to say, no,
Speaker 1: you don't deserve tax credit, you don't deserve student loan
Speaker 1: debt relief, you don't deserve any of these things because we,
Speaker 1: the rich and the mighty, who are wielding our swords
Speaker 1: of power, believe that you are lazy and undeserving. You know,
Speaker 1: it's amazing to me, and I will say this in
Speaker 1: the interview with the congressman, you know us him. If
Speaker 1: I have very little hope right about Congress and the
Speaker 1: direction that Congress is going in. How do you feel?
Speaker 1: How does it feel to show up every day into
Speaker 1: a chamber with people that you know want to kill you? Right? Like?
Speaker 1: What must that feel like? This isn't just oh, I'm
Speaker 1: going to work and Peggy over there gets on my nerves.
Speaker 1: Or every day, No, it's like I'm going to work
Speaker 1: with somebody that put my face on their website and
Speaker 1: with a with crosshairs, right, or I get on talk
Speaker 1: radio and I tell them, oh, yeah, she's a terrorist
Speaker 1: and we should kill them, like I You know, folks,
Speaker 1: I swear to you, this year for me cannot end
Speaker 1: soon enough because you know, and I'll just continue to
Speaker 1: say this, I need a break, and I think that
Speaker 1: we all need a break. And I wish, I wish
Speaker 1: that I had the power to be able to say,
Speaker 1: you know what, America, you know what, you deserve a sabbatical,
Speaker 1: You deserve a year off, You deserve some time to
Speaker 1: breathe right that we have if you, folks, if you
Speaker 1: really think about it, as we're reflecting on, you know,
Speaker 1: this year that has just passed, the fact that we
Speaker 1: have been working, continuing to work, pay bills, pay rent,
Speaker 1: pay mortgages, find ways to put food on the table
Speaker 1: during this health pandemic where now in New York folks
Speaker 1: are back to wearing masks just outside right, Like we
Speaker 1: had gotten to a place where it's like, okay, we
Speaker 1: all have our masks, and as soon as we're walking
Speaker 1: into any store, any restaurant, our masks go on. And
Speaker 1: it wasn't right. It was in twenty twenty when we
Speaker 1: knew very little about COVID. So we're walking around out
Speaker 1: on the streets and you're masked up because we don't know, right,
Speaker 1: we didn't know how the virus worked. Well, now we're
Speaker 1: back at what it feels like in New York right
Speaker 1: now square one. And I know it's not square one
Speaker 1: because we have a vaccine and we have a boost,
Speaker 1: but I mean square one. Is it pertains to fear
Speaker 1: Like I am not walking out of my apartment building
Speaker 1: without a mask on. I am walking down the street
Speaker 1: with a mask on. Right, I am seeing lines wrapped
Speaker 1: around you know, city mds and pop up testing sites
Speaker 1: because people are fearful. And you know the fact that
Speaker 1: we are able to make it through this year. If
Speaker 1: you are getting to the end of your workload for
Speaker 1: the year, I know it may not have been perfect, right,
Speaker 1: there may be some things left that will just have
Speaker 1: to wait. But I want you to give yourselves a
Speaker 1: pat on the back. I want you to give yourself
Speaker 1: some high praise because you know, I don't know who
Speaker 1: is due the studies right now on our emotional state
Speaker 1: as a collective, what it means to go through or
Speaker 1: exist in collective trauma and anxiety and depression. And I'm
Speaker 1: going to be you very candid. I've had many moments
Speaker 1: as I'm trying to close out for the end of
Speaker 1: the year this week, where I was in full blown
Speaker 1: tears because things just feel so big, right, like the problems,
Speaker 1: they just feel so unwieldly, like are we ever going
Speaker 1: to be able to wrap our arms around this? Are
Speaker 1: we ever going to be able to tackle this issue?
Speaker 1: And I'm not just talking about Omicron, because it'll be
Speaker 1: Omicron right now and in a couple of months it'll
Speaker 1: be something else. That's the reality of where we're living
Speaker 1: now that any moment, any reprieve that we have in
Speaker 1: between these very enjoy them, right, Enjoy the ability to
Speaker 1: socialize with your friends, Enjoy the ability to you know,
Speaker 1: to connect with family, because we are going to be
Speaker 1: living in what I believe are just going to be
Speaker 1: consistent waves of this virus that will happen between November
Speaker 1: and February of every year. So you know, during the show,
Speaker 1: I have been you know, the past couple of weeks,
Speaker 1: I've been talking about fire seasons and these once in
Speaker 1: a century tornadoes and once in a century storms and
Speaker 1: all of these things. Well, the reality is that we're
Speaker 1: living inside of a once in a century pandemic that
Speaker 1: I don't think is ever going to end. I think
Speaker 1: that much in the same way that we have these
Speaker 1: different seasons right that through climate change have become exasperated
Speaker 1: over time, that we're going to be living in and
Speaker 1: with COVID forever, and that there will be seasons that
Speaker 1: are way worse, that see a lot more death and
Speaker 1: a lot more illness than others. And that is simply
Speaker 1: right because of wealthy nations desire not to provide lower
Speaker 1: incominations with the ability to manufacture at a high level
Speaker 1: their own vaccines. It has to do with Donald Trump
Speaker 1: and the Trump administration's initial handling of COVID nineteen that
Speaker 1: after a year of being lied to every single day
Speaker 1: by every single member, by every single fucking outlet that
Speaker 1: a Republican would go on that the damage was already done.
Speaker 1: The genie had already left the bottle, and we were
Speaker 1: never going to be able to put it back. And
Speaker 1: because of that, we'll never have one hundred percent of
Speaker 1: the country vaccinated. We won't even ever get to probably
Speaker 1: eighty percent of the country vaccinated, right, and that is
Speaker 1: because of the Trump administration. And I'm just wondering why
Speaker 1: we ever, we will never call a fucking spade a spade.
Speaker 1: We'll keep talking about well some people and over there
Speaker 1: and conservatives and the saying no, no, it's one person,
Speaker 1: one party to blame for this. Fucking own it before
Speaker 1: they do, right, But that's not what Democrats do. And
Speaker 1: so in my conversation with Congressman Jamal Bowman coming up next,
Speaker 1: we are going to talk about a range of topics.
Speaker 1: We're going to talk about COVID, We're going to talk
Speaker 1: about build back better, and we're going to talk about
Speaker 1: what he hopes to manifest in twenty twenty two. That
Speaker 1: conversation coming up right now, folks. I am so excited
Speaker 1: to welcome to wakayeff Daily for the very first time.
Speaker 1: Congressman Jamal Bowman, who represents the sixteenth Congressional District of
Speaker 1: New York, which is the North Bronx and Westchester and
Speaker 1: has been one of the most outspoken, vocal progressive voices
Speaker 1: in the House of representatives that I've been dying to
Speaker 1: talk to you. Congressman, let me just say one, your
Speaker 1: spirit and your passion give me hope at a time
Speaker 1: when I am not the only one in America these
Speaker 1: days that is feeling hopeless. As we're trying to head
Speaker 1: into the holiday season and into the new year. The
Speaker 1: first question that I have for you, I mean, is
Speaker 1: the question that is on everyone's mind. Why is Joe Mansion,
Speaker 1: a man that was elected by two hundred and ninety
Speaker 1: thousand Americans the President of the United States. Why is
Speaker 1: he the one that is leading our democracy when eighty
Speaker 1: one million people voted for Joe Biden, voted for Vice
Speaker 1: President Kamala Harris, voted for change, and he's sitting on
Speaker 1: a yacht and a maserati doing anything but creating change.
Speaker 1: You are speaking to the reason why we have to
Speaker 1: deal with the electoral College and change what's happening there.
Speaker 1: You are speaking to the reason and why we need
Speaker 1: to elevate the issue of the filibuster and ending the
Speaker 1: filibuster right now, because it's that issue I think that
Speaker 1: will uncover sort of the historical and systemic discrimination and
Speaker 1: how it exists in Congress and throughout much of America's institutions.
Speaker 1: We have a system of minority rule, which means it's
Speaker 1: a fifty fifty split. So Democrats have a slim majority
Speaker 1: in the Senate, but the fifty Republicans represent way less
Speaker 1: people than the fifty Democrats, and those fifty Republicans, their
Speaker 1: votes have as much power as the fifty Democrats. And
Speaker 1: what makes it worse to your point, is we have
Speaker 1: one Democrat. And I would say too, because I think
Speaker 1: Senator Cinema is an alignment with some of what we've
Speaker 1: been fighting against. We have one Democrat that's pretty much
Speaker 1: caucusing as a Republican, pretty much behaving as a Republican.
Speaker 1: And on the one hand, you could say, well, you know,
Speaker 1: his state was won by Donald Trump at thirty nine points,
Speaker 1: so he's behaving in alignment with that. That is true.
Speaker 1: On the other hand, he represents a state where that
Speaker 1: has some of the highest poverty rates in the country,
Speaker 1: where has the seventh highest poverty rate when we're talking
Speaker 1: about childhood poverty, when you talk about climate injustice, when
Speaker 1: you talk about lack of access to healthcare and the
Speaker 1: history of an opioid epidemic, as well as a literal
Speaker 1: scandal where private industry poisoned the people of West Virginia.
Speaker 1: When you talk about those things and what constituents they
Speaker 1: are really dealing with, and who mentions donors are and
Speaker 1: how those donors and special interests literally control Congress, that's
Speaker 1: when we begin to have the right conversations and bigger
Speaker 1: conversations about what's happening there. So that's a very long
Speaker 1: answer to the simple question of why he has so
Speaker 1: much power. The short answer is we have a slim majority.
Speaker 1: The longer answer is, wait a minute, this is all
Speaker 1: pretty corrupt and how it wor right? Yeah, because I'm
Speaker 1: because I'm saying I sit around on woke a f
Speaker 1: you know, on a regular basis, and I say to myself,
Speaker 1: if this is what winning looks like, then I hate
Speaker 1: to see what losing would look like. Right, Because if
Speaker 1: if winning looks like no voting rights legislation, no build
Speaker 1: back better, no direction on climate change, if it looks
Speaker 1: like the House of Representatives passing hundreds of pieces of
Speaker 1: legislation that without the graveyard of Mitch McConnell still goes
Speaker 1: to die, right, then what is it that we are
Speaker 1: telling the American people to vote for you know, And
Speaker 1: so I ask you, you know, as as a staunch Democrat,
Speaker 1: as a staunch progressive, are we messaging as Democrats in
Speaker 1: the way that we need to? Should we take a
Speaker 1: piece of the Republican playbook? And in my humble opinion,
Speaker 1: I'm not putting words in your mouth, but go after
Speaker 1: Mansion in the same way that we see Republicans go
Speaker 1: after people that refuse to tout Donald Trump's big lie.
Speaker 1: It's a time for the niceties to end. So no,
Speaker 1: we are not messaging correctly. Yes, it's time for the
Speaker 1: niceties to end, but I wouldn't even say it's time
Speaker 1: for the niceties to end. It's time for us to
Speaker 1: tell the truth. We just have to tell the truth
Speaker 1: about who we are, where we come from, how we
Speaker 1: got here, and where we want to go. That's it.
Speaker 1: Let's just have honest conversations about that. And because you know,
Speaker 1: the Republican Party and the Democratic Party both kind of
Speaker 1: serve the same master when we talk about moderate and
Speaker 1: conservative Democrats and Republicans. The master is money, The master
Speaker 1: is green, the large corporations, the master of special interests.
Speaker 1: This is why we're trying to get big money out
Speaker 1: of politics and afore, the People Act that we passed
Speaker 1: out of the House back in March would have done
Speaker 1: just that, but as you mentioned, it hasn't moved in
Speaker 1: the Senate at all, and partly because Mansion didn't support it,
Speaker 1: rewrote the bill, and now we're going to deal with
Speaker 1: his rewrite of the bill. Right, So it's all of that.
Speaker 1: It's also about getting organized, right, So we need to
Speaker 1: get organized on the outside of Congress. And I'm talking
Speaker 1: living room to living room conversation after conversation, what do
Speaker 1: we want the country in the world to look like
Speaker 1: twenty years from them? And then what are we doing
Speaker 1: individually and collectively every day in our lives to get
Speaker 1: to that world Because you're not going to defeat settler
Speaker 1: colonialism in just a couple of years, because it's taken
Speaker 1: hundreds of years to build. But we also need to
Speaker 1: be organized on the inside, meaning is the Democratic Party
Speaker 1: really going to embrace its big tent and it's and
Speaker 1: it's brilliant communicators and orators and fundraisers like Ayana Presley,
Speaker 1: Corey Bush and AOC. Are we really going to embrace
Speaker 1: people like that to make the party what we should be,
Speaker 1: which is the leader of the next iteration of American democracy,
Speaker 1: and we need to get organized in doing that. What's
Speaker 1: happening in the Senate. How could we win a supermajority
Speaker 1: in the Senate next year? How is the Senate working
Speaker 1: with the House? How are we working with the White House?
Speaker 1: What's our twenty year plan? None of that is happening
Speaker 1: at the level as should. And that's why we need to,
Speaker 1: you know, we need to do more to make the
Speaker 1: change that's necessary to get that done. You know, I'm
Speaker 1: really thankful that you mentioned your other colleagues, you know
Speaker 1: who collectively the mainstream or the right wing. I don't
Speaker 1: even know who has named this squad. And one of
Speaker 1: the things that I find really frustrating is that it
Speaker 1: is evident that the Republican Party has decided to embrace
Speaker 1: what we had hoped was just the fringe, the Marjorie
Speaker 1: Taylor Greens, the Lauren Bouberts, the Matt Gates. We thought
Speaker 1: that that was the fringe of the Republican Party, but
Speaker 1: we now know that it is the face. Why do
Speaker 1: you think or do you believe that the Democrats that
Speaker 1: are in leadership run from the progressives and don't have
Speaker 1: their back in the same way that we are seeing
Speaker 1: the Republicans consistently have the back of their most rapid members.
Speaker 1: You're talking about members that have threatened violence and death
Speaker 1: against their sitting colleagues. And I sit around and I
Speaker 1: read strongly worded statements rather than you know, seeing the
Speaker 1: full breadth of the Democratic leadership embrace and have the
Speaker 1: back of their warriors. You know, I agree. When I
Speaker 1: was on the outside looking in, still a middle school principle,
Speaker 1: just paying attention to what was going on, I said
Speaker 1: to myself, Wow, we have Nancy Pelosi, who's the Speaker
Speaker 1: of the House, who as a woman who's been in
Speaker 1: leadership in that space for a very long time. And
Speaker 1: you got these four new, dynamic, incredible women in Congress
Speaker 1: coming into you know, shake things up and move things
Speaker 1: forward in a good way. And imagine if Speaker Pelosi
Speaker 1: would embrace them in a way that truly empowered them
Speaker 1: and centered them. We had an opportunity to do that
Speaker 1: with the Democratic National Convention that we just had, and
Speaker 1: I saw all these other faces and all these other people.
Speaker 1: I mean, we had a case at who's a Republican
Speaker 1: gets some airtime at the DNC and others not saying
Speaker 1: they shouldn't, but that would have been the perfect time
Speaker 1: to elevate people like Rett Presley and Kazio potez Omar
Speaker 1: and to leave and others. So that so that because
Speaker 1: they represent the full breath of America and what America is,
Speaker 1: so we can't run away from it. We have to
Speaker 1: be who we are, and we have to be honest
Speaker 1: about who we are. But I'll tell you, you know,
Speaker 1: we have people in Congress who are quote unquote frontliners,
Speaker 1: which means they are you know, they're in swing districts
Speaker 1: who the party caters to and dictate sort of how
Speaker 1: we should go about doing business as a party to
Speaker 1: support them, and of course we want to maintain the majority.
Speaker 1: But when we do that, we only target independence, and
Speaker 1: we only target moderates, and we don't target the eighty
Speaker 1: million people who consistently do not vote in presidential elections
Speaker 1: because they don't believe in our politics and our democracy.
Speaker 1: One reason they don't believe is because for thirty one
Speaker 1: years it was Elliot Ingle in the seat versus a
Speaker 1: jamal bowment. Now you got a Jamalowment in the seat.
Speaker 1: So let's do something with that. Let's not just you know,
Speaker 1: continue to maintain a status quo that's that's long since past.
Speaker 1: You know. I want to feel encouraged by the consistent
Speaker 1: fire that comes out of the progressive voices in the House.
Speaker 1: But it's almost as if Democrats consistently want to go
Speaker 1: after people of color, which is the base of their constituent,
Speaker 1: go after black people, black women, the base of the
Speaker 1: Democratic Party, and then once they get our vote, they
Speaker 1: hide those very voices and the very people that God
Speaker 1: us excited to begin with. Right It's the same feeling
Speaker 1: that I have currently right now about Vice President Kamala Harrison.
Speaker 1: Why we haven't seen her front and center. It's this
Speaker 1: sense of fear that Democrats have of whatever type of
Speaker 1: retribution or reaction Republicans are going to bring them. Is
Speaker 1: there a way do you see? And I know we
Speaker 1: haven't turned the calendar year yet, but is there a
Speaker 1: way for Democrats to win these mid terms, to make
Speaker 1: some type of significant pivot in our messaging and in
Speaker 1: the sense of urgency about what's at stake in this
Speaker 1: upcoming election season? Yes, but you use the perfect word,
Speaker 1: which is urgency. You know, like, if we don't act
Speaker 1: and respond with urgency going into January, then we have
Speaker 1: no shot. We already have to climb out of a
Speaker 1: ditch that we've dug for ourselves because we didn't communicate
Speaker 1: our successes with the American Rescue Plan, because there were
Speaker 1: a lot of successes there. We used a lot of
Speaker 1: political capital to pass the bipartisan bill. We pretty much
Speaker 1: spent most of the year doing that. But we haven't
Speaker 1: moved to needle on voting rights. As you mentioned right,
Speaker 1: we haven't moved to needle on George Floyd. George Floyd
Speaker 1: died in the Senate with a whisper. It died with
Speaker 1: a whisper. There's not even there are no longer negotiations happening,
Speaker 1: and it's just dead. And the whole world stood up
Speaker 1: to demand police accountability and police reform, and George Floyd
Speaker 1: was supposed to be that, and that there's been no
Speaker 1: delivering on that. There's been no deliverance on the Women's
Speaker 1: Health Protection Act, which would supersede whatever the Supreme Court
Speaker 1: does in terms of women's reproductive rights. No movement on
Speaker 1: common sense gun reform. I mean, you think about it.
Speaker 1: You haven't talked about gun reform probably all year, and
Speaker 1: we had we've had one hundred and eighty school shootings
Speaker 1: and a big one in Michigan. So Democrats have to
Speaker 1: react with the urgency and move with the urgency to
Speaker 1: kill the filibuster, in my opinion, and get these bills passed.
Speaker 1: And we got to do everything we in our power
Speaker 1: to get Mansion on board. And that's about holding him accountable.
Speaker 1: And until now that wasn't really happening, and now it's happening,
Speaker 1: and now we see him complaining about all of the
Speaker 1: pressure people up putting on him. That's the thing with
Speaker 1: people with people of privilege right there, So you see
Speaker 1: the vivillage and their comfort. Once they're challenge a little bit,
Speaker 1: all hell breaks loose for them while ignoring the the
Speaker 1: hundreds of years of systematical black people and several decades
Speaker 1: of systemical oppression of everyone else. You know what drives
Speaker 1: me crazy about Joe Mansion, And there are many and
Speaker 1: I won't bore you with them because I know that
Speaker 1: you in many ways feel the same way. But what
Speaker 1: drives me crazy right now is that he continues to
Speaker 1: say things need to be rewritten right, that he does
Speaker 1: not answer to the people of New York in LA
Speaker 1: That's that's one of his favorite things right, you know,
Speaker 1: because it's only in West Virginia that apparently real Americans live.
Speaker 1: I don't know. I guess I'm an avatar because I
Speaker 1: live in Brooklyn. But you know, the thing that he
Speaker 1: continues to say is, you know the people of West Virginia,
Speaker 1: those are the people that are on my mind. But
Speaker 1: to your point at the top, they're behind in every
Speaker 1: socioeconomic indicator that you can look at. Right, But this
Speaker 1: man has been in power in their state for four decades.
Speaker 1: Just recently this week, the coal union right, which is
Speaker 1: the biggest in his state, has come out and said
Speaker 1: we need build back better. Right, So if he's not
Speaker 1: listening to them, and then his buddies on Wall Street
Speaker 1: also just came out and said you need build back
Speaker 1: better because we're going to go into an economic downturn
Speaker 1: without it. So his donors on Wall Street are telling
Speaker 1: him we need this. The supposed coal miners that he
Speaker 1: loves to bring out every campaign season, he say that
Speaker 1: they need this. But Joe Manchin is sitting and saying
Speaker 1: he doesn't like the way people talk to him. I
Speaker 1: don't know what more compromise do you think that you're
Speaker 1: willing to give when we've already come down from three
Speaker 1: and a half trillion dollars to one point seven five trillion.
Speaker 1: He wasn't comfortable with that. Apparently he's not comfortable with
Speaker 1: the childcare tax, he's not comfortable with climate change legislation.
Speaker 1: So where do you see the room, Congressman, in terms
Speaker 1: of being able to get this through when the media,
Speaker 1: to me, also frames it as if it's your problem.
Speaker 1: This is if it's the progressives problem and Joe Mansion
Speaker 1: is just trying to be a moderate centerist. Yeah, absolutely,
Speaker 1: And thank you for saying what you said about the
Speaker 1: media's framing, because I've noticed that throughout my time in Congress,
Speaker 1: and it's it's crazy that they're constantly asking progressives to
Speaker 1: compromise and ask for less and if we don't take this,
Speaker 1: we get nothing. And the reason why they're doing that
Speaker 1: because the power structure is controlled by corporation. So we're
Speaker 1: talking about the corporate media and we're talking about a
Speaker 1: status quo that has done everything in this power for
Speaker 1: several decades to keep progressives from having a voice. So
Speaker 1: for me, and this goes back to the Democratic Party,
Speaker 1: including Mansion, if you have boots on the ground in
Speaker 1: your district, and across the country. You'll really understand what
Speaker 1: the needs of your people are, what the needs of
Speaker 1: the people that you serve are. But we don't have
Speaker 1: boots on the ground. We're in ivory towers. We're in
Speaker 1: ivory towers, reading polling, watching from afar what's happening, and
Speaker 1: then making decisions based on that in alignment with a
Speaker 1: status quo. That's that's embedded both consciously and subconsciously in
Speaker 1: how we do business. So we have to disrupt all
Speaker 1: of that because the reality is, again, tens of millions
Speaker 1: of people have been lost faith, not even now, they
Speaker 1: already were gone, and we're losing many more. And I
Speaker 1: also worry about the psyche of the American people. Right
Speaker 1: we were we were sort of coasting through Obama and
Speaker 1: you know, I love the sign. I always go back
Speaker 1: to this, if Hillary were the one, we would have
Speaker 1: all been in brunch. That's a great sign, a great sign.
Speaker 1: And then we got Trump and it's like, you know,
Speaker 1: that's how God works, like you thinks you're chilling bomb.
Speaker 1: Take that. So we took four years of Trump and
Speaker 1: we had an insurrection, and now we got twenty million
Speaker 1: radicalized across this country, ready to take up arms to
Speaker 1: defend their freedom. So if that doesn't wait, Joe Manchin
Speaker 1: up and President Biden up and many of the old
Speaker 1: status co op to to understand we need to do better.
Speaker 1: I don't know what does. So for me to speak
Speaker 1: out and for others to speak out, we have to
Speaker 1: do that. And even though people don't always hear it
Speaker 1: or understand it, we're actually speaking out with love, with
Speaker 1: love for the people, with love for the planet. And
Speaker 1: we think if we move forward with love and cooperation
Speaker 1: instead of the competition that's that's damn that is killing us,
Speaker 1: then you know, what are we gonna do? You know,
Speaker 1: I'm so I'm so grateful for the fact that you
Speaker 1: that you have brought up, you know, this sense of
Speaker 1: urgency and the fact that twenty million Americans have been radicalized.
Speaker 1: And if they looked and if they looked like me
Speaker 1: and you, right, if they were a Muslim, if they
Speaker 1: prayed in a different way, where do we think that
Speaker 1: those people would be? What do we think that the
Speaker 1: headlines on every news station, on in every paper, on
Speaker 1: every blog would be twenty million white people in this
Speaker 1: country are radicalized. We are learning every single day about
Speaker 1: the ways in which this that former administration criminalized in administration,
Speaker 1: put together a war room right and a plan to
Speaker 1: overtake the government, are still doing so and nothing is happening.
Speaker 1: What is the faith level that you have right now
Speaker 1: in the one six Commission, right in the committee to
Speaker 1: be able during what is going to be one of
Speaker 1: the most consequential years right this? Twenty twenty two to
Speaker 1: me is more consequential than twenty twenty four, because I
Speaker 1: don't think we get to twenty twenty four without some
Speaker 1: serious in twenty twenty two. But what faith level do
Speaker 1: you have right now, Congressmen and your fellow members and
Speaker 1: their ability to actually get the job done here. I
Speaker 1: have faith in the January sixth Commission. I have less
Speaker 1: faith in Joe Mansion and the Senate. But I have
Speaker 1: unlimited faith, omnipotent faith in people, in human beings to
Speaker 1: do great and be great. So my faith is in
Speaker 1: my constituents, the majority of them are black and brown.
Speaker 1: My faith is in the progressive way of moving forward,
Speaker 1: and we have a ton of constituents who fit that category.
Speaker 1: If what happens in Congress doesn't translate to the people,
Speaker 1: then we're going to lose. And that's what continuously happens, right,
Speaker 1: does a disconnect between Washington and the people, and the
Speaker 1: only conduce that connects them is mainstream media. And that's problematic.
Speaker 1: The other thing is, you know, I mentioned the people
Speaker 1: because what has transformed this country historically has been sustainable
Speaker 1: movements throughout history. You know, the George Floyd Uprising was
Speaker 1: powerful and important, but it was only a year. We
Speaker 1: need sustainable organizing an action for five to ten years,
Speaker 1: for five to ten to fifteen to twenty that starts
Speaker 1: in liver rooms and expands through school boards, city councils,
Speaker 1: state houses, and Congress. That is what we need more
Speaker 1: than anything else. And so I hope that the people
Speaker 1: take a breather during the holiday season as much as
Speaker 1: I can, enjoy it, rest and get ready for it.
Speaker 1: To your point A twenty twenty two, that's going to
Speaker 1: require us to be consistently engaged in our democracy on
Speaker 1: the day to day basis. And one other thing I
Speaker 1: want to mention, we can't eat our own as we
Speaker 1: build this movement and as we engage with this movement,
Speaker 1: because we are very critical of each other, right, it's
Speaker 1: like crabs in the barrel. We pull each other down
Speaker 1: very critical. You know, I gotta get mine. It's us
Speaker 1: versus them. That's colonial thinking, and we have to recognize
Speaker 1: that as colonial thinking and free ourselves of that because
Speaker 1: it's going to take all of us to defeat colonialism
Speaker 1: once and for all in the next five to ten years.
Speaker 1: But this year being a consequential year to your point,
Speaker 1: you know, want to I want to ask you this
Speaker 1: because I think that it's really important, particularly as people
Speaker 1: hopefully have an opportunity to get some rest and recharge
Speaker 1: as we head into the new year. How do you
Speaker 1: keep your hope going? How do you? You know, because
Speaker 1: I said, if I had to go to work with
Speaker 1: some of your colleagues, I think I would have quit,
Speaker 1: Like I think, I think I would have been like,
Speaker 1: so I'm good and I'm out. Um, you know it.
Speaker 1: How do you continue to go to the hill, you know,
Speaker 1: day in and day out and continue fighting when I
Speaker 1: can imagine if I feel exhausted, right and I'm not
Speaker 1: in your shoes, that you must be exhausted. So I
Speaker 1: want to be very honest, it's very hard. It's very
Speaker 1: very hard. It's tiring, it's stressful, it's often overwhelming. Even
Speaker 1: being a middle school principal in the bronx around the
Speaker 1: corner from the projects. Uh you know, that wasn't as
Speaker 1: stressful as this can be at times, but that was
Speaker 1: good preparation for me. So I'm happy for that. But uh, yes,
Speaker 1: dealing with children, yes, but it starts with this and
Speaker 1: I'm not promoting this particular brand of alkaline iodide water,
Speaker 1: but it starts with like, you know, our diets and
Speaker 1: you know, drinking brother, getting your vegetables, in getting your sleep,
Speaker 1: unplugging from social media, turning the TV off. If you
Speaker 1: have a loved one, spend time with them just doing
Speaker 1: nothing or reading or whatever relaxes you find what relaxes you.
Speaker 1: I'm blessed to have three children. Oldest is twenty in college,
Speaker 1: my son, my second oldest is twelve, and my youngest
Speaker 1: is Maya. She's seven, my only daughter. So when you're
Speaker 1: a dad, and you gotta when you're a girl, dad,
Speaker 1: like nothing can really like that center is everything for you, right,
Speaker 1: So for me, I try to just you know, like
Speaker 1: monitor myself and I'm getting when I feel the triggers
Speaker 1: and whatever, and just unplug because to your point, it's
Speaker 1: it's tremendously hard. And then the last thing just to
Speaker 1: connect with that we really need each other. We need
Speaker 1: each other, and it's really important for us to be
Speaker 1: there for each other, not just as black people, but
Speaker 1: anyone who who's woke, who realizes that we have to
Speaker 1: this is wrong, like what like the way things have
Speaker 1: been can no longer be. We need a new world
Speaker 1: and it's on us to build that world together. So
Speaker 1: just just be there for each other as we go
Speaker 1: through all of these stressful times. I mean, I just
Speaker 1: you know, once again, I can't thank you enough, first
Speaker 1: for making time to join woke af but in all honesty,
Speaker 1: for your belief in our democracy right and and the
Speaker 1: fact that your voice can change it. I'm a former
Speaker 1: educator as well. I taught first in second grade. With
Speaker 1: that and I transitioned my education of youth into trying
Speaker 1: to educate you know, adults, which is a lot harder.
Speaker 1: But you know, I really I feel that there you
Speaker 1: provide me with the sliver of hope that I need.
Speaker 1: That if more good people, if more warriors like yourself
Speaker 1: take up the mantle of protecting our democracy, then maybe
Speaker 1: we will say it right. Because I think again that
Speaker 1: twenty twenty two is the most consequential political year that
Speaker 1: we will ever see. And if we continued with the
Speaker 1: lack of urgency at the helm of the Democratic Party,
Speaker 1: then we will lose it. And it won't just be
Speaker 1: because of republican insurrectionists obstructionists, it will be because of
Speaker 1: democratic apathy. Final question for you, what are you hoping
Speaker 1: to manifest in twenty twenty two? Great question. So I
Speaker 1: was just texting with my chief of staff, Sarah, who
Speaker 1: is originally from Eritrea, East Africa, which is the birthplace
Speaker 1: of civilization, who started her career a professional career as
Speaker 1: a teacher in my school many years ago and it
Speaker 1: is now my chief of staff. So we were texting
Speaker 1: and we're settling up a meeting to talk about our
Speaker 1: ten year plan and our twenty years and you know,
Speaker 1: I want to highlight that because you know, oftentimes we
Speaker 1: just we just were, We're trapped. We're possessed with this
Speaker 1: moment to moment, day to day, anxiety, stress inducing way
Speaker 1: of being. A year to year is good, but the moment,
Speaker 1: the moment, day to day, week to week, month, that's
Speaker 1: too much. So we're going to take a step back
Speaker 1: twenty years from now. What do we want the world
Speaker 1: to look like, and how can we be a part
Speaker 1: of it ten years from now? What we wanted to
Speaker 1: look like, and how can we be a part of
Speaker 1: it next year? What do we need to get done.
Speaker 1: We gotta get built back better done. We gotta get
Speaker 1: voting rights done. We gotta get secure women's reproductive rights
Speaker 1: and access to healthcare, equity about access to healthcare through
Speaker 1: passing the Women's Health Protection Act. We gotta get immigration
Speaker 1: reform done. And we gotta get George Floyd and gun
Speaker 1: control done. So my energy is manifesting towards all of that. Now.
Speaker 1: I realize maybe two or three of those things may
Speaker 1: not happen, but I absolutely think that four or five
Speaker 1: of those things can happen. So I'm looking to manifest
Speaker 1: those things in Congress while also building power in the
Speaker 1: district because you know, this is a new thing for
Speaker 1: the district, first personal color representing this district in history,
Speaker 1: So it's a paradigm shift, and you know, I want
Speaker 1: the district to continue to trust me, to rock with me,
Speaker 1: because I'm going to rock with them because everything I
Speaker 1: fight for starts with the most needy person in our
Speaker 1: district and part of that group, and I want to
Speaker 1: mention this before our goal. New York State is fighting
Speaker 1: for care workers this year, so fair pay for home
Speaker 1: care workers. Right now, home care workers don't even earn
Speaker 1: The average is under minimum wage is twelve fifty hour
Speaker 1: and they do some of the toughest work. We got
Speaker 1: to make sure New York State pass passes policy that
Speaker 1: pays a prevailing wage to homecare workers so they can
Speaker 1: finally live with dignity. I want to give a special
Speaker 1: shout out to them and hopefully that manifest in New
Speaker 1: York State. Congressman Jamal Bowman, thank you so much. Thank
Speaker 1: you for your work, thank you for your passion, thank
Speaker 1: you for your time, and I hope that we can
Speaker 1: continue this conversation with you in the new year. Appreciate you,
Speaker 1: of course, Peace and love. Thanks for having me, God
Speaker 1: bless you. Happy holidays. That is it for me today.
Speaker 1: Here Folks on woke app as always, power to the
Speaker 1: people and to all the people. Power, get woke and
Speaker 1: stay woke as fuck.