This is the Humanist Report with Mike Figueredo. The Humanist Report podcast is funded by viewers like you through Patreon and Paypal. To support the show, visit patreon.com forward slash humanist report or become a member at humanistreport.com. Now, enjoy the show. Welcome to the Humanist Report podcast. My name is Mike Figueredo. This is episode 243 of the program. Today is Friday, May 29th, the last episode of the month. And before we get started, I want to take some time to thank all of our newest Patreon, Paypal and YouTube members, all of which either sign up for the very first time to support us this week or increase their monthly pledge. And that includes Chris Courtney, Coralie LaSalle, Dave Natal, Echo, Ghost, Gracie Picose, I am a bolt nut, Jorge M, Leo Edwards, Lizbeth Raphael, and Paul Curtis. So thank you so much to all of these kind individuals. If you'd also like to support the show and join the independent progressive media revolution, you could do so by going to humanistreport.com slash support, patreon.com slash humanist report or by clicking join underneath any one of our YouTube videos. So this week, we have another deeply depressing and demoralizing episode of the podcast. I don't know what to tell you. I can't control the news cycle. So we will talk about how we are nearing 100,000 deaths due to COVID-19 in the United States. And as we approach this horrific milestone, Trump is patting himself on the back about the great job that he's doing. Also, Bernie Sanders puts out a bad tweet and I schooled him for that. Joy Reid faces backlash for very tapedly criticizing Joe Biden. Republicans are gearing up to gut social security once again, and they're also suing the state of California to stop mail-in voting from taking place during a pandemic. Andrew Yang makes important endorsements in key congressional races in order to oust corporate Democrats. Makayla Wilkes is gaining steam in her race against Steny Hoyer. And another black man was murdered by cops in America. We'll talk about George Floyd. And finally, we closed the week by talking to 2020 candidate for the United States Senate. Apology in Swarajan about her race and how she is now poised to defeat Shellymore Capito. So that's what we've got on the agenda for today's show. Hopefully you all will enjoy it. Let's get right through it. This is going to be a doozy, so buckle up. It's not going to be a fun one. So we are about to pass 100,000 American deaths due to COVID-19. 100,000.  I know from first-hand experience, months of mourning and, you know, just reeling from the loss, trying to process it, trying to move on. But that's happening to 100,000 families currently, if not more. And, you know, it's a number that is so large. I mean, you can't help but think what a difficult and dark time we are in. This is one of the darkest times in American history. This is so tragic. There aren't words to really describe how awful this is. There's just no words for it. But at a time when we're all reeling from, you know, this virus that is ravaging the country, Donald Trump thought it would be a good idea to put out this tweet where he patched himself on the back about the good job that he's doing with regard to his handling of COVID-19. He writes, Great reviews on our handling of COVID-19 sometimes referred to as the China virus. Very necessary to add that. Ventilators, testing, medical supply distribution. We made a lot of governors look very good and got no credit for so doing. Most importantly, we helped a lot of great people. Yeah. So, I mean, this is completely delusional. Read the room. Nobody cares about you, Donald Trump. This isn't about you. We don't care about the good job you're doing. Nobody's thinking about how wonderful of a job you've been doing. Everybody is thinking about the virus. Nobody cares about you. He's incapable of not making something about him. Whatever the issue is, he's got to make it about him. It's the same thing with Hurricane Maria. He had to make it about himself and how great of a job people are supposedly saying he's doing. Nobody cares about you. Nobody cares about you. We're not thinking about you. The world doesn't revolve around you. Unfortunately, as that may be to you. It doesn't. So, I mean, the fact that he's not reading the room, it's a very Trumpian thing to do. But this is delusional. He's saying that he's handling this in a good way and he specifically points out testing. You think that you've done a good job supplying states with tests, really? For others, talk about reopening the country and the need to do it as quickly as possible. We could actually maybe do that if there were enough tests, but there's not enough tests. We are not testing nearly as much people as we need to be. Which is why a resurgence of this virus is almost guaranteed at this point. Right? Because if you reopen the country when it's still destroying the country, wreaking havoc on Americans, then how would you expect it to ever go away if you're not testing enough people? If you're not doing contact tracing? So, he's delusional. But, you know, to speak to the good job that he's supposedly doing, there was a report that came out just last week that goes over data that shows that if the US hypothetically decided to impose social distancing requirements just one week earlier, that could have saved 36,000 lives if he acted just a little bit sooner. Thousands of lives could have been spared. And on top of that, he's making matters worse by declaring churches essential and calling for them to reopen. You know, he's basically adding to this chorus of people, these pundits, who want the country to be reopened as soon as possible. When, I mean, we're reaching 100,000 deaths. Do you honestly think now is the right time? Now I get, like, when ordinary Americans want to go back to work, I understand that because they're suffering. So, you know, it's not like Donald Trump just failed when it comes to not acting. He continues to fail because he's not acting when it comes to an economic response. Why haven't we seen a temporary UBI? Why haven't we seen, you know, rent cancellation? He is a failure in every single sense of the word. Sure, you can give him credit for postponing student loan repayments. And, you know, he's going to boast about that $1,200 stimulus, but that's not enough. That's not enough. And it's funny, I just got my stimulus over the weekend. And to see his name on the check is surreal. He wants all of the credit, but he doesn't want to take responsibility for the areas where he failed. You failed to respond and you're still not meeting the needs of people rather than giving people economic relief and doing your job. You just want to send them back to work.  Sure, they may go back to work if we reopen a little bit too early and end up getting COVID-19 and dying, but that doesn't matter to Donald Trump. And sure, the economy is important, but you're not going to save the economy if you send people back to work too early and they end up dying and getting sick because that too is bad for the economy. So, not only has he mishandled this virus in a way that is undeniable, but he's still not taking the proper action. We still don't have enough tests. We don't have economic relief and he can't read the room because now he's wanting everyone to pat him on the back. No, we're not going to pat you on the back. And, you know, to show you how out of touch he is, his slogan for 2020, keep America great. At a time when more than 100,000 Americans will have died by the time that the November election takes place, his campaign slogan is keep America great. Yes, because with another depression, widespread anxiety over what's going to happen if people are going to lose their livelihoods and material wealth with worry about their loved ones getting COVID-19, keep America great is the exact type of slogan you would expect from an out of touch elite like Donald Trump. Who doesn't care about the virus? Who doesn't actually care about the death toll and saving lives? He doesn't care what happens. Like a million people could die. And the only thing that he would care about is that you think he did a good job throughout this process.  He doesn't care about suffering. He just wants you to think that he did a good job because he is a narcissist. But saying that is, it doesn't even mean anything because it's so obvious, right?  I mean, it's not like it's shocking. It just is irritating.  So, usually Bernie Sanders Twitter game is on point, but he recently put out a tweet that is really wrong. It's bad on multiple levels. And I should be more specific here. One of Bernie Sanders staffers put out a tweet on his behalf and it reads like something an overpaid Democratic Party consultant would write. And there's like a 0% chance that Bernie Sanders himself wrote this. But it's still bad. And you know, it's really antithetical to what Bernie Sanders has been fighting for because what does the left want? What was the point of Bernie's presidency? Of course, to get policies that we want enacted, we being the left collectively. But the broader goal was to take over the Democratic Party. We wanted a hostile takeover. So that way, you know, the corporate wing is no longer in control. They're no longer steering the party off of a cliff and following Republicans to the right. But before I babble on any further, let's get to the tweet itself. It says Republicans make fun of Democrats who have political differences. Really? That's democracy. What is sad and dangerous is to see a Republican Party, including many who know better, surrender to the will and vindictiveness of their stable genius leader. That's authoritarianism. All right. So first and foremost, that first sentence is incorrect. I mean, I rarely see Republicans making fun of Democrats for having political differences. I don't think that Republicans see any difference between Democrats. They don't realize that there is, you know, factionalization and intra-party warfare, quite frankly, within the Democratic Party. They don't realize the differences between the left or the center right. And if they do, it's to be disingenuous. It's to claim that, you know, the left's individuals like Ilhan Omar, AOC, who make up a very small minority within the party, unfortunately, are the ones who are pulling all the strings. That's just not true. And just last week in an interview with Fox Business, Dan Crenshaw with a straight face claimed that Nancy Pelosi is a socialist who wants to institute socialism in America. Does that sound like Nancy Pelosi? If you are on the left, in any way, does Nancy Pelosi represent you from the standpoint of her wanting to move us anywhere near, not even like social democracy, but socialism? Of course not. So they don't have any sort of nuance when they discuss the differences between the left and the center right within the Democratic Party. So that in and of itself doesn't make sense.  Second of all, assuming that Republicans actually did make fun of the differences, because maybe this tweet is referencing some interview, I don't know. But assuming that they were going to have a conversation about the differences between the left and the corporate wing of the Democratic Party, to just say that that's political differences is a gross oversimplification, because this isn't about political differences. One side is driven by ideology. The other side is driven by corporate money. The left wants policies that help the working class, whereas the center and the center right in the Democratic Party, they don't want anything but neoliberalism instituted. And I don't even necessarily know that they came into Congress with this neoliberal line of thinking. But the reason why they're only willing to propose neoliberal solutions to any problems is because they are capitalists. To their core, as Nancy Pelosi said, we're just capitalists. That's the way it is. And the reason why they're capitalists is because they don't want to do anything that would offend their corporate donors, because the way that you get elected, the way that you keep your job in Congress is to make sure you can raise enough money, each election cycle, to put out more ads and round out your opponent.  So if you start talking about Medicare for All, while your health industry donors are not going to like you, they're not going to like that and they're not going to donate to you. Therefore, that will diminish your chances of getting elected. Now, that's just one of many issues, but this isn't a real disagreement. Like, one side is bought and paid for, the other side is not. The other side actually wants real policies implemented that will affect working class people in a positive way. So this isn't some type of ideological disagreement. To call it that is incredibly disingenuous and Bernie Sanders himself knows better, which is why the staffer who made this tweet should never be allowed to tweet on his behalf anymore. But it goes deeper than that. So the tweet also adds, what is sad and dangerous is to see a Republican Party, including many who know better, surrender to the will and vindictiveness of their stable genius leader. That's authoritarianism. So first of all, it is incredibly naive to assume that there are any Republicans that know better. If you are a Republican, then you do not know better, because the Republican Party's ideology is not just morally bankrupt, but it has been discredited on numerous occasions. But yet, we still see their worldview, a minority party's worldview, push down our throats. We're still doing trickle-down economics. They just passed tax cuts for the rich in 2017. The Republican Party is not comprised of individuals who know better on any issue. They are wrong on every single issue. And every once in a while, they'll say something that isn't completely insane. But I mean, a broken clock is right twice a day. We shouldn't give them credit when almost everything that they want is to the detriment of our society. They are the party of death and destruction. They want wars. They want late-stage capitalism to the extreme. So I mean, to say that they know better, that gives them credit that they don't deserve. But furthermore, for Republicans to surrender to the will of Donald Trump, that's not authoritarianism. That is an ideological takeover. That's what we wanted to do on the left. We wanted Bernie Sanders to become president so that way we could take control of the party. Pry the corporate wing's hands off of the steering wheel and start driving the bus in a better direction. How is that authoritarianism? How is that authoritarianism? You can argue that the way that Donald Trump was elected wasn't very democratic, right? He got less votes than his opponent. And yet, he's still his president. You can argue based on that, but that's not really the argument here. The argument here is that everyone within the Democratic or the Republican Party, rather, they basically surrendered to Donald Trump. Well, that's what happens if you win. That's exactly what we wanted to do on the left. That doesn't necessarily mean that Donald Trump is authoritarian, putting aside his authoritarian instincts. He does have them, but that doesn't make him an authoritarian. He has created a brand of politics that the Republican Party likes. And anyone, any other Republican Party politician who doesn't go along with Trumpism, like Jeff Flake, for example, they get marginalized. They become outcasts. And that's exactly what we wanted to do on the left. Anyone who was against Medicare for all, we wanted to shame. We wanted to marginalize, right? So this tweet, it just from top to bottom, it's a bad tweet. As I stated, it reads like an overpaid Democratic Party consultant wrote it. And Bernie Sanders is an independent. He is not a Democrat. So it's really irritating to see him be all raw, raw Democratic Party, you know, and he's going to probably be this way until the election is over. Because as many people, you know, in the left have agreed, he probably just feels like he's responsible for Donald Trump winning in 2016. And he shouldn't be, he shouldn't feel responsible. That loss is on the Democratic Party, on Hillary Clinton specifically. But I mean, Bernie Sanders, what does this, you know, accomplish? Why would a staff retweet this out? It shows you that Bernie Sanders surrounds himself with a lot of people who don't have interests that align with him. You know, Bernie's job is not to do Democratic Party Apologia.  But don't lie to people about what this party is about. You can say rightfully so that the Democratic Party is, you know, nominally better than the Republican Party, sure. Nobody would take issue with that on the left. But you can't pretend as if they're a good party, because the Democratic Party is a rotten institution that has to be taken over. It may be irredeemable, right? We may not be able to reconcile the differences between the left and the center, which is why we're having this battle, which is why, you know, we are waging war on the corporate wing of the party.  So I just, the tweet doesn't make sense. I don't get why this was greenlit by someone on Bernie's team, but Bernie cut off their access to Twitter. Don't let staffers tweet on your behalf.  This is just, it's wrong in so many ways that I can't believe that this was approved to be tweeted out. It's a bad tweet. Joe Biden's interview with Charlemagne the God on the Breakfast Club was an unmitigated disaster to say the least. You know, his statements went viral immediately. Donald Trump's team capitalized on that gaffe. If we want to call it a gaffe, by selling hashtag you ain't black t-shirts and also releasing an ad about Joe Biden's record when it comes to mass incarceration. It was just awful. It was a train wreck. But I want to go back to Charlemagne the God's broader point about Joe Biden needing to appeal to a very loyal demographic that is always there for the Democratic Party. African-American voters, especially black women, they are always there. They are the most loyal group that always delivers victories to Democrats. So the point that Charlemagne was making overall was restated in an interview with Joy Reid on MSNBC. And they had a really honest and open conversation, which is something you don't usually see in mainstream media. But nonetheless, they talked about the need of Joe Biden to appeal to black voters. And afterwards, Joy Reid actually took a lot of heat for this interview. Take a look. What are people telling you that they want him to do? Just some really major policy commitments for the black community, mainly in the form of economic justice. So we can tip the scales on some of this wealth and equality in America. I do hear a lot of people say, you know, we also want him to have a black woman running mate, you know, but not just any black woman running mate, one that's going to actually, you know, get in the office and care that black people benefit from her presence there. You know, we need substance and significance over symbolism. And he's already committed to putting the black woman on the Supreme Court. So I just want him in the Democratic Party to know that it's time to give back to the black community in a very tangible way. But I can say that, you know, the major, the major point that I'm hearing about is just, you know, economic justice, some form of economic justice. And let me play the apology that Joe Biden gave. He got on a call with black business leaders and apologized for the comment that he made at the end of your show. Let me let you listen to that. The last thing I want to do, and I shouldn't have been such a wise guy, I shouldn't have been so cavalier in responding to what I thought was. Anyway, it was, I don't take it for granted at all. And no one, no one should have to vote for any party based on their race, the religion, the background. Do you do you think there's a risk that not just Joe Biden, but the Democratic Party in general, just takes for granted that, well, the black, you know, the black people are with us. So we don't really have to give them anything else. They're going to vote for us regardless. Look, they voted for Joe Biden in overwhelming numbers, six in 10 black voters, particularly in southern states. They all voted for Joe Biden. We don't need to offer anything more. Do you worry that that is the attitude that Democrats are taking toward the black community? I mean, I know that's the attitude. I mean, that's why I don't even care about the words and the lip service and the apology is cool. But the best apology is actually a black agenda. They got to make some real policy commitments to black people. We got to stop acting like the fact that blacks are overrepresented in America when it comes to welfare, poverty, unemployment, homelessness, drug addiction, crime, coronavirus. Like that's no accident. Like the whole function of systemic racism is the marginalized black people. And as the great Dr. Claude Anderson says in the book, Powernomics, white society has an out-of-sight, out-of-mind attitude about racism. And they don't like to have any discussions of substance about systemic racism. So when you have black people who have the nerve, the audacity, the unmitigated guard to act like citizens and demand something of our vote, it's a problem.  You're going to get Trump re-elected. It has to come to a point where we stop putting the burden on black voters to show up for Democrats and start putting the burden on Democrats to show up for black voters. Now, I think that was actually a really honest conversation that I want to see more of, right? There's this sense that if you say anything negatively about a Democrat or the Democratic Party's nominee ever, then you're just automatically, you know, helping Donald Trump. But that's not true. We're all adults. We can be honest and open about what we're getting. Joe Biden is not a good candidate. He's just not. So I think these types of conversations are important to educate voters and also show viewers of MSNBC that they are capable of criticizing Democrats because this is just the propaganda arm of the Democratic Party, usually. So it is nice and refreshing, honestly, to see them have these types of frank conversations. Now, I will just say, though, because this kind of is bothering me. Charlemagne, the God is saying all of this about Joe Biden, but didn't he support Pete Buttigieg during the primary? Like, I don't know if he openly endorsed Pete Buttigieg, but he was featured in a Pete Buttigieg ad and stumped for him, at least digitally. So I mean, it doesn't make sense why you're being so hard on Joe Biden when you supported a candidate who was almost as weak as Joe Biden in the primary. And he also supported Kamala Harris. And if he didn't endorse her, he made the case for her on CNN or MSNBC. So I mean, he's not very consistent, but at times he does make good points. And I do think that this is one of those times. And he says, pretty simply, what he wants is strong policy concessions, tangibles to black America. And I think this is just common sense. I mean, the Democratic Party has got to acknowledge that you can only expect the support of a community for so long until once they realize that you're not serious about delivering them the goods, whatever that may be, they're going to abandon you. You're just not going to automatically have their support. And that's a problem that Democrats are having with a lot of different demographics. I mean, Democrats are on the cusp of losing two generations, millennials and Gen Z. They, Joe Biden in particular, is having difficulties appealing to Latino voters. So the problem is that Democrats do take these communities for granted. They think that they have these demographics unlocked because these demographics, statistically speaking, aren't likely to want to support someone like Donald Trump. But just not liking Donald Trump is an evidence that they're going to vote for you. The problem is that voter apathy is a real issue for Democrats. And the issue is that they stay home and when that happens, Democrats lose. So I don't think it's too much to ask for Joe Biden to make major economic concessions. In fact, everyone should be asking for major policy concessions for Joe Biden because the country is hurting right now. Everyone's hurting right now. So why is it so unreasonable for Charlemagne the God to say maybe since Black people are so loyal to the Democratic Party, you deliver us something, deliver us economic justice, give us something, reward us for constantly being there for you when voter turnout is one of the biggest issues, when our community has to put up with these obstacles to voting since the Voting Rights Act was gutted, voter ID laws and whatnot. Like that is common sense. That's what you do to an election.  You shouldn't assume that they're always going to be there for you. Now, Joy Reed made a similar point. She said, do you think there's a risk that not just Joe Biden, but the Democratic Party in general, just takes for granted Black people are with us. So we don't really have to give them anything else because they're going to vote for us regardless. Yeah, I think there is a risk of that. And I think that they're already taking Black voters for granted. I do. And for this comment, Joy Reed got a lot of hatred online. Like not everyone disagreed with her, but her usual following was very against this, to put it lightly. And we'll get to some of the feedback here. But Charlemagne adds, there has to be a time when we stop putting the burden on Black voters to show up for Democrats and start putting the burden on Democrats to show up for Black voters. And he's correct here. And this is true not just of Black voters, but all the voters. It's time for Democrats to actually deliver policy concessions to their base. But they don't do that. They take not just Black voters for granted, but all voters for granted. And that's bad. That's bad politics. If you see one thing that is consistent with Donald Trump, is that he is constantly throwing red meat to his base. It doesn't matter how bad the optics may be. He's constantly trying to make it seem as if he is representing their interests. He hasn't stopped talking about the wall and being xenophobic. That's what they want. But Democrats, they try to have it both ways and appeal to more conservative, leaning Republican Party voters while thinking that the left is going to be there for them. And Black voters and Latino voters are going to be there for them when that's not the way that this works. The further to the right that the Democratic Party moves, the more of the left they leave out. And those people aren't just going to be drug along by the Democratic Party because there's no other option. They're just not going to vote. They check out of electoral politics. That's what happens. That's what we've seen happen before. It happened in 2016. So I think this conversation is incredibly important. But a lot of people, namely MSNBC's audience, they haven't been conditioned to accept any criticism of Democrats. They hate it, right? Because MSNBC is largely the propaganda wing of the Democratic Party. So when you look at this video's dislikes on YouTube, for an MSNBC video, that's relatively high. That's a lot of dislikes. And one of the top commenters said this, at this point, I feel like even the Democrats want to give Trump four more years. So that's why these types of open and honest conversations don't usually take place because they have created monsters that won't allow them to attack Democrats. So whenever they actually do attack Democrats, they see backlash. It's why, you know, Fire Chris Hayes started trending once he covered Tara Reid's allegations against Joe Biden. Like, you reap what you sow. If you have an audience that you have taught to never criticize Democrats, any and all criticism is illegitimate, you know, by definition because Republicans are bad. This is what's going to happen. You restrict yourself. You kind of back yourself into an ideological and intellectual corner to where you can't criticize Democrats. You can't run segments like this where you are actually doing a good job. Now on Twitter, that's where Joy Reid got most of the backlash. And she posted a clip of the segment and some of her fans were not too happy about it. One person tweeted, Another person says, I think we have reached that stage. Democrats try to level the field for all Americans, but it's an uphill battle against the Republican propaganda machine. Democrats cannot favor, quote, only blacks. The right thing is to work for all Americans. The damn platform is America's best hope. So obviously the entire point that Joy Reid and Charlemagne was trying to make went over this person's head, but nonetheless there's more. Just scrolling now, and Joshua Johnson on MSNBC, same thing, beating Joe up over and over. Nothing about the depravity of Donald J. Trump. Serious question. Does MSM really want Trump? Another four years? Is this a ratings thing? Another person says, So another four years of Trump is an acceptable outcome if Biden fails to court black voters in a manner that meets their approval. So I mean, these comments are completely delusional. Completely delusional. You really don't think that MSNBC covers Donald Trump enough and beats up on Donald Trump enough? They don't just cover Donald Trump now that he's president. Like during the 2015 and 2016 Republican Party primary, they covered him arguably more so than the Democratic primary. They gave Donald Trump more coverage than Bernie Sanders. So what are you talking about? But you see this is the type of audience that MSNBC has created. They made it unacceptable. They set the standard that any and all criticism of Democrats is bad. The only person who you can criticize is Bernie Sanders, but any other Democrat is bad. And you know, if you criticize them at all, it's blasphemy. Talk about Republicans and how bad they are constantly. Never points out, maybe Republicans are winning because Democrats are so horrible. This is what MSNBC has done. They have lowered discourse as a network by engaging in sensationalist click bait journalism where they just talk about Donald Trump non-stop, which is important. He's the president, right? But they never point out the flaws with the Democratic Party. The flaws that if Democrats corrected, maybe would stop people like Donald Trump from taking office. And here's the thing. At some point, Donald Trump will not be president. That day will come. He's not going to be president forever, right? He's only a human being, even if there's some sort of authoritarian power grab and he just chooses to stay in power forever. He's only human being. He's not going to live forever. So there will be a day where we are in the post-Trump era in American politics. Maybe Republican Party politicians emulate his strategy. Who knows? But Trump will not be in power forever. And there's always going to be a Republican who is bad, right? It was the same with George W. Bush, who Democrats seem to love all of a sudden. But there's always going to be a Republican boogeyman. But if you ever want to beat said Republican boogeyman or boogeywoman, if Ivanka wants to run or whatever, you have to fix the issues with your own house. You have to make sure that Democrats are doing enough to appeal to their base. And quite frankly, they're not. So maybe if more of these types of honest conversations took place on MSNBC, maybe Democrats would listen. Because they watch MSNBC. MSNBC is an establishment-based media outlet. Maybe if they didn't cater to the needs of the Democratic Party establishment, maybe they might actually listen. Maybe if more of these conversations took place, you know, things would be different. But MSNBC is the one who did this. They built up this audience of conspiracy mongering, blue-maga Kool-Aid drinking monsters who won't let them criticize anyone, but Republicans and Donald Trump specifically. Now, look, I don't want to give you the impression that all of the comments towards Joy Reid were negative, because she actually did get a lot of praise for being honest and open about Joe Biden.   I mean, this is becoming a cult.  When we can criticize Bernie Sanders, we're capable of introspection. But here's the thing, if you truly do want to beat Republicans, then you can't just mute your criticisms of the Democratic Party, because they're not perfect. That may be something that is difficult for you to hear if you're a Democratic Party loyalist, but they're not perfect. In fact, they're very flawed and if you actually listen to some of the criticisms primarily from people on the left, maybe you guys might not have to worry so much about Republicans. Maybe if Democrats course corrected, it would be Republicans following Democrats to the left and away from extremism on the right. You know, I'm old enough to remember a time when Republicans at least pretended to actually be in favor of states' rights, but now they don't even try to maintain the facade.  They're hypocrites. They're, you know, electoral opportunists. And if there's a states' rights issue at stake that doesn't help them, then they don't care. They'll show their colors, their true colors immediately. But this is what we've come to expect from the Republican Party. So when it comes to states' rights and voting, you know, I don't know if you all know about this, but we're currently in a pandemic and we have a major election coming up in November. So assuming that the pandemic persists until that time, voters have to be given some alternative.  So of course, I think that mail-in voting is a no-brainer. We do it in Oregon. It's been this way for decades. Everyone here loves it. Republicans and Democrats. But California Governor Gavin Newsom has chosen to institute vote by mail and the Republican Party is suing him. You heard that right. They are suing him for choosing to do vote by mail during a pandemic. I mean, never mind that this should be the norm, even if we're not living through a pandemic, but the fact that they're suing him for instituting vote by mail during a pandemic adds to the absurdity of this story. So as William Cummings of USA Today reports, the Republican Party launched a legal battle to block California Governor Gavin Newsom from sending all voters in his state mail-in ballots for the general election, arguing the move is unconstitutional and invites voter fraud. The Republican National Committee, National Republican Congressional Committee and California Republican Party filed a lawsuit Sunday against Newsom and Secretary of State Alex Padilla in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California. In their complaint, the groups called the Democratic Governor's action in a legal usurpation of the legislature's authority to set the time, place, and manner of the election, which they said constitutionally rests with the state legislature. This brazen power grab was not authorized by state law and violates both the Elections Clause and Electors Clause of the U.S. Constitution, the complaint says. On May 8th, Newsom signed an executive order stating that every registered California voter would be sent a mail-in ballot because of concerns about the spread of coronavirus. Elections and the right to vote are foundational to our democracy, Newsom said in a statement. No Californians should be forced to risk their health in order to exercise their right to vote. So, I mean, there's so much to say about this, but let's just pause for a moment and think about their Republican Party and what they view as, you know, an abuse of power or a power grab, whatever language they used. They're perfectly fine with voter ID laws. They're perfectly fine with restricting the number of polling places and precincts. They're perfectly fine with legally questionable voter purges in states like Georgia and elsewhere. But when it comes to a governor signing an executive order that allows citizens to vote by mail during a pandemic, that's where they draw the line. That's an unconstitutional power grab. And understand they don't have much of a leg to stand on here because they constantly cry, voter fraud, Trump does the same thing, but they can never prove it. They never present you with evidence and that's because there is no evidence that vote by mail invites mass voter fraud, which is why they use language like it invites voter fraud because they can't actually prove that it is conducive to voter fraud. If you go to the Heritage Foundation's election fraud website, you can look at each state and they basically will catalog all of the instances of voter fraud.  So clearly they can't prove that this will lead to voter fraud, which is why they have to fear manga and say, oh, you know, it'll invite voter fraud. We're not saying definitely, but it just opens the door to voter fraud. More so than machines, how they don't have an argument and understand that they're basically trying to get him on a technicality. This is a very, you know, democrat tactic. They're trying to say, well, you didn't fill out the proper paperwork. You did this via executive action, whereas if you did this via the legislature and got it passed that way, then we'd be okay with it. We're not against vote by mail because that would encourage more people to vote, which means we'd probably lose or against it because you didn't do it properly. You signed an executive order and we're against that. We're against power grabs. I mean, they're clowns. They're absolute clowns. Let's be very real about the intentions of the RNC and the Republican Party. Here's the thing. If more people turn out to vote, that hurts them every single time because the Republican Party is a minority party. Most people, the overwhelming majority of Americans, do not identify with the Republican Party. So they know the only way that they can get power and maintain power is by disenfranchising thousands and thousands of voters. And of course, a form of voter suppression is forcing people to vote during a pandemic. And if more people have an option to vote, then that means that they may not be as successful. They don't care that they're winning illegitimately. They just care that they win and make no mistake about it. This isn't just about California because I think that they realize California is a deep blue state and to them it's lost cause, but they don't want the popularity of mail-in voting to catch on because if it does, and if every single state had vote by mail, if we had nationwide vote by mail, could you imagine more people would vote? And when turnout is higher, Republicans lose. This is a fact of reality. Every single election, we can basically, if we knew how many people would turn out to vote, you could predict with a relative degree of certainty which party would win and take power. So the Republican Party always tries to concern troll as a way of disenfranchising voters. They say we need voter ID laws to diminish the prospect of fraud. We need to make sure that we don't do mail-in voting because that could lead to people committing fraud when in actuality, what's the outcome of these policies that they implement? I mean, look at voter ID laws. These disproportionately affect black and brown voters. So if they're going to disenfranchise voters, at least stop with the facade, stop with this pretense that you actually care about integrity at the vote because that's not what you care about. You care about winning. And so if you can disenfranchise Democratic Party voters and get them to not turn out for Democrats, then this means you would win.  But if more people turn out, Republicans lose. So, I mean, this is just, it's a despicable move, right? And if I were Gavin Newsom currently not knowing how this is going to pan out, I would encourage Democrats in their state legislature to pass this law and codify it, send it to his desk because I think that signing an executive order is an important measure to take. But you also have to make sure that you make this a law so it's permanent, so it can't be challenged. I mean, that doesn't necessarily mean that it can't be challenged. That's not to say that Republicans still wouldn't challenge it. But as many arguments from them as you could debunk, that's going to help bolster your case because mail-in voting is incredibly important. And regardless of what Donald Trump and Republicans say, they're lying.  And if they actually cared about voter fraud, they can have policies enacted to where they audit the votes at every single precinct. At every election, have a recount just automatically be triggered if an election is within two points, right? If it's a close race. There are things you can do to minimize voter fraud but it's not that big of an issue. They try to make it a big issue and right-wing media sensationalizes this issue because they want to suppress the vote. Claiming that there are widespread instances of voter fraud across the country, that's just the justification that they use to try to disenfranchise voters.  And once you lose that right in a democracy, then you no longer live in a democracy. You can argue about how much impact your vote has but if you lose the right to vote, if there are more obstacles that keep you from voting, you no longer live in a democracy. And you can already make the case that we don't live in a democracy. I would argue that we don't live in a democracy or we don't meet the criteria of polyarchy. But the right to vote is essential. Don't let Donald Trump lie to you. Don't let the Republican party lie to you.  They don't care about voter fraud if they actually were concerned with it. They wouldn't be pushing voter ID laws or stopping people from voting by mail. Because again, it works in Oregon. We've had it here for decades and Republicans and Democrats here love it. And if you try to take it away from us, you're gonna have a pretty hard time doing that, right? Even Republicans here absolutely love vote by mail. So this is just a tactic.  Don't let them and fight them. So about a month or so ago on the program, we talked about how there was an effort amongst congressional Republicans to use COVID-19 to undermine social security. And this is something that Donald Trump and Mitch McConnell also want to do. And since social security is such a popular program, they can't just come out and explicitly say, we want to cut social security or undermine social security. They can't even say that they want to privatize social security because even Republicans, Republican voters, that is, they have social security. They like this program so they don't want politicians to touch it. So what they have to do is basically lie to people. Trump proposed, for example, a payroll tax cut to help people during this pandemic. Now ask yourself, why would it make sense to help people who are losing their jobs at record numbers by cutting payroll taxes?  Well, this is just a covert attempt to undermine social security because social security is a program that is funded almost disproportionately or if not mostly through payroll taxes. So if you cut payroll taxes, you undermine social security by cutting funding to it. And then once they create this problem, then they can propose solutions to fix social security, which leads to privatization either fully or partial, but either way, Wall Street wants it and they are trying to deliver. So long story short, we talked about that effort and it hasn't gone away. It's still an issue. They're still trying to use COVID-19 to undermine social security and ultimately gut it by either privatizing it, whatever. And that effort is gaining momentum and Mitt Romney is spearheading this effort because he's trying to set up these sort of task forces or committees, whatever way you want to frame this to look at what we can do to protect social security at a time when it is under threat because of COVID-19. Yeah, if it sounds sketchy, it's because it is. So for more on this, we got a Jake Johnson of Common Dreams who reports a proposal by Senator Mitt Romney to establish congressional committees with the specific goal of crafting legislative quote unquote solutions for America's federal trust fund programs has reportedly resurfaced in GOP talks over the next COVID-19 stimulus package, sparking alarm among progressive advocates who warned the Utah Republicans bill is nothing but a stealth attack on social security and Medicare. Politico's Bergus Everett reported Wednesday that Romney's trust act first introduced last October with the backing of a bipartisan group of senators is getting a positive reception from Senate Republicans in coronavirus relief discussions which are still in their early stages. The legislation Everett noted could become part of the mix for the next COVID stimulus package as Republicans once again claim to be concerned about the growing budget deficit. Max Richmond, president and CEO of the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare told Common Dreams in an interview that he is not at all surprised to see Romney's bill crop up again and said it should be diligently opposed. NCPSSM vocally condemned the trust act when it was unveiled last year warning that if passed the measure would likely result in cuts to the earned benefits of seniors, people with disabilities and survivors. Richmond noted that in a House Ways and Means Social Security Subcommittee Roundtable discussion this week the idea of establishing commissions to study possible changes to social security though not Romney's bill specifically was floated by GOP members an indication that the New Deal era program is very much on the minds and potentially in the crosshairs of Republican lawmakers. Speaking to Politico this week two Republican congressmen, representatives Tom Reed and Steve Womack cited the coronavirus pandemic's possible effects on social security to call for a commission to study the program and recommended reforms. Representative John Larson meanwhile is pushing for an expansion of benefits funded by lifting the payroll tax cap which would make wealthier Americans pay more.  The conclusion is that social security is going bankrupt and in order to save social security we've got to make some changes which will ultimately result in us underfunding the program undermining its long-term health and actuality when it's not currently the case that it is going bankrupt and then proposing a solution to the problem that they themselves created. I mean we're kind of already seeing this right because they're fear-mongering about the budget and the deficit that's what you know Mitch McConnell and Donald Trump are using his grounds to fear-monger about you know needing to cut social security so they propose some sort of solution to a problem that doesn't actually exist and they end up creating more problems with said solution that we didn't need them to implement in the first place. If you want to save social security and you want it to last for future generations there is just one policy change that you need to make and it was cited in this article by Representative John Larson you just lift the cap on taxable income Bernie Sanders talks about this and it is the one change that you need to make if you want to protect social security period end of story anything else is just going to be an effort to undermine social security because they know that if they just come out and say look we want to privatize social security it's not going to last and if you want it to be there for future generations your children and grandchildren then we have to privatize it that argument holds no weight even among Republican Party voters doesn't hold any weight so what they have to do is actually drive down satisfaction because this program is very popular so if they can cultivate dissatisfaction by undermining the program gutting it in ways in roundabout ways covert ways then people might be more open to the idea of privatization and they may not propose full privatization but they at least want to start with partial privatization and then once Wall Street gets their foot in the door then you know it's a matter of time before they chip away at it and it looks nothing like it does today so this is why whenever there is any sort of inklings that they may make an adjustment or change or fix to social security we have to sound the alarm because they are constantly looking for ways to undermine social security and if they're going to use COVID-19 as a justification they don't care that it's disgusting and insidious they're going to use just that because this is what their donors want and think about this they're trying to roll this into the next stimulus package supposedly it's still early but the first stimulus came with a multi-trillion dollar bailout for the industry and the second one may come with them undermining social security even during a pandemic they're always looking out for their donors so I want you all to remember this whenever there is an opportunity for social security to be undermined and ultimately cut Republicans will be looking for that way out Democrats also want to cut social security they also want to deliver for their Wall Street donors Obama tried to do this but Bernie Sanders is the one who actually stopped him from cutting social security so you know you have to be vigilant because both parties want to cut social security but Democrats are a lot more tactical when it comes to cutting social security they try to do it when they're in power and try to you know pass it as a negotiation with Republicans so they can argue that their hands were tied like how Obama didn't want to raise you know the cost of living give social security recipients that raise which amounts to a cut over time but Republicans they're just always they don't they don't care if they're in power or not they're always looking for a way to undermine social security and you have to be hyper vigilant you have to always sound the alarm because if you back down just for a second they're gonna do it and that's a damn shame Trump wants to do it Mitch McConnell wants to do it and we can't let them we have to stop them so um this is disgusting Mitt Romney's trust act isn't about anything but gutting social security we don't need to study what we need to do to protect social security the answer is very simple you just lift the cap so rich people can pay into it as well there's no reason to stop people who make higher incomes from paying into social security that doesn't make any sense right they're gonna get it too right it's a universal program so why should they not be paying into it so that's it anyone who proposes anything else is um lying to you they're trying to deceive you because they ultimately want to gut social security and privatize it for their donors and we can't let them we cannot let them we have to fight them because they're gonna do it if we don't fight them at every step of the way even though the left and anti-establishment candidates lost during the 2020 Democratic Party primary we got some really fantastic leaders that emerged out of this process and even if I had policy disagreements with individuals like Marianne Williamson and Andrew Yang the work that they're doing for the progressive movement it's showing how invaluable they are to not just the movement but to the country so last week we talked about how Marianne Williamson endorsed primary challenges to members of Democratic Party leadership she endorsed Makayla Wilkes running against Steny Hoyer and Shea Hidbutar running of course against Nancy Pelosi and she also has endorsed you know a plethora of other congressional candidates such as Eva Putzavan whatnot so that's so important because these candidates oftentimes lose because they don't have name recognition and when you're trying to build a campaign based on grassroots getting recognized by people with you know these large platforms with millions of followers that is so valuable so I gave Marianne Williamson a lot of credit for that and now I'm going to give Andrew Yang a lot of credit because him along with his organization Humanity Forward have also been endorsing a lot of really solid congressional candidates and two of them that he just endorsed are Jen Perlman running in Florida's 23rd congressional district against Debbie Wasserman-Schultz as well as Russ Cerencione who's running against Frank Palone so first of all Jen Perlman tweeted out we are thrilled to be endorsed today by Andrew Yang his humanity first approach to politics mirrors what our service-based campaign is all about let's unseat Wasserman-Schultz together Yang-Gang and she includes a quote from Andrew Yang which says Jen Perlman is first and foremost an activist she was born and raised in Florida where she attended marches and protests with her parents growing up today she uses her law degree to protect voting rights defend women's reproductive health and help people navigate the criminal justice system all pro bono her campaign events are all volunteer service events a Jen victory would truly be caused for celebration I am proud to endorse her and when it comes to Russ Cerencione running in New Jersey's sixth congressional district he writes today it is with great honor that I announced the Russ for US 2020 campaign has received the endorsement of Andrew Yang and humanity forward and along with that tweet he included this video where he announces the endorsement of Andrew Yang hey everybody this is Russ Cerencione I'm running for Congress in New Jersey and I'm so happy and I'm super thankful to share that I'm endorsed by humanity forward and Andrew Yang because we really need Beth the facts the data to guide us and humanity forward knows these values are true as a millennial we're known for changing the rules of the game and shaking things up it's time to build an economy that puts people first that meets all of our basic human needs with 40 million jobs lost because of COVID we need a federal jobs guarantee and a universal basic income for every single person we can do things better as a nation and live up to our full potential my name is Russ Cerencione I'm running for Congress in New Jersey 6th go to my website at Russforus2020.com so that's fantastic listen these endorsements are absolutely crucial I cannot stress that enough if you are running for Congress and you have zero name recognition and not very much money and you're going up against a behemoth of an incumbent these endorsements are everything members of the Yang Gang and people who follow Andrew Yang the millions of followers that he has are learning about Jen Perlman and Russ Cerencione for the first time because of Andrew Yang he has nothing to gain by making these endorsements but you can tell he's endorsing these people because he cares about them and think about this Debbie Wasserman Schultz is one of the most notoriously anti-left anti-progressive members of Congress in case you forgot she rigged an entire presidential primary against the left in 2016 so this person has got to lose her job and putting that aside putting aside 2016 her record is atrocious she doesn't support Medicare for All and in the case of Frank Palone in New Jersey 6th congressional district he sits on a powerful committee that can ensure that we never get Medicare for All so these are individuals who absolutely must be defeated and for Andrew Yang to endorse the primary challengers to prominent Democrats he's making waves and this actually you could argue hurts him it hurts him going forward because assuming he's going to run for president again in 2024 or 2028 you know you ideally want to make inroads with the Democratic Party this was Elizabeth Warren's key strategy right you butter up members of the establishment and you get them to like you Andrew Yang is pissing off people here so whenever you see a politician or a public figure endorse someone who's challenging an incumbent Democrat I need you to acknowledge that takes a level of courage that other politicians are not exhibiting this is big this is substantial and I'm very thankful that Andrew Yang and his organization are making these endorsements because honestly these endorsements like I'm not going to say that they're make or break but it gives people running these races that are difficult a lot of momentum and hopefully that momentum will kind of turn into this snowball effect right so this is fantastic some of these people Jen Perlman has been endorsed by Marianne Williamson and Andrew Yang I don't know about Russ but I will say that all of these endorsements of congressional candidates is really really important because even if the left and the anti-establishment in general just if you think of them as a block even though we all lost collectively I mean we still have a lot of races that matter to us we may have lost the presidency but if we can actually knock out a few prominent Democrats who are holding us back I mean that would be huge it would be a boost that our movement needs so this is why you know you never want to focus on one race you know politics isn't just about electoral politics it's mostly about organizing but when you do focus on electoral politics you know the presidency isn't everything and I say this knowing the irony as someone you know who focused almost exclusively on the presidential election but you know it's tough not to when we're this close to power but you know we have to re-center ourselves from time to time and acknowledge what's really important and these congressional races where we can still make a difference where we can have an impact and I'm so thankful that leaders like Andrew Gang and Marin Williamson are continuing to show us that they are dedicated they didn't just run for a vanity project or because they wanted a book deal they ran because they believed in something and that really is rare in politics so whenever I see a politician even if I don't necessarily agree with them on everything pop up that actually is principled you know I value them because that is rare nowadays in the fifth congressional district of Maryland Steny Hoyer is the individual who currently holds that seat he represents that district and the bad news about Steny Hoyer is that he is next in line to be the speaker of the house once Nancy Pelosi leaves and as much as we all don't like Nancy Pelosi on the left Steny Hoyer is actually worse than Nancy Pelosi he's actually more conservative than Nancy Pelosi more hostile towards the left than Nancy Pelosi which is almost unthinkable because when you think about neoliberal and centrist hostility towards the left I mean Nancy Pelosi embodies that but everything that we've seen based on his record based on his rhetoric Steny Hoyer will be worse than Nancy Pelosi so we have to do everything in our power I cannot stress this enough everything to stop that man from becoming speaker and there's only one surefire way to do just that kick him out oust him launch a primary challenge against him and kick him to the curb now he actually does have a primary challenger that's the good news her name is Michaela Wilkes and I actually brought her on my program a couple of months ago and this is a difficult race like anytime you are challenging leadership that's a David and Goliath situation and I know that we may feel a little bit emboldened because we were able to oust a leader a future house speaker when AOC took down Joe Crowley but this is a really difficult task this is look we've got our work cut out for us but the great news is that Michaela Wilkes is gaining so much steam that Steny Hoyer is officially worried and we know that he's worried for the first time in decades because he's actually having to campaign you see whenever there's a primary challenger against members of Democratic Party leadership they have so much clout in that district so much money that they don't even acknowledge the existence and run ads of their primary challengers or anything like that because they just know that they're going to win automatically but guess what Steny Hoyer is forced to campaign because of Michaela Wilkes because of the amazing campaign that she is running and her campaign manager tweeted out this Steny Hoyer just made a $30,000 TV ad buy spanning five regions this is unprecedented for a primary race in his 40 year tenure Michaela Wilkes clearly has him nervous Hoyer's got money Michaela Wilkes has people and as you can see they posted the report here he is choosing to advertise on Surprise Surprise MSNBC between 7 p.m. to midnight now you may see that and think well it's only $30,000 and you know that makes sense to think that that's not very much because we just watched a billionaire Michael Bloomberg spend a billion dollars almost of his own money you know buying ads across the country but in a congressional race $30,000 for an incumbent that's that's a lot that's a lot of money and it does show you that she's starting to break through she has a real chance to actually defeat him and I want to show you why I think it's the case that her campaign is gaining momentum she put out an ad in April and she has this pinned to her Twitter page and this really shows you who she is and why Steny Hoyer is so bad and this is by far one of the best ads I've seen throughout this election cycle so take a look at the ad and we'll discuss it when we come back when I was about nine years old we moved to Charles County here in Waldorf my family played a huge part in my life my dad was murdered while my mother was pregnant with me and so my aunts and my mom were my support system growing up my aunt her name Sharon Carver we were just so close I was in math class we had a substitute teacher the sub turned on the TV what she was watching were airplanes crashing into the World Trade Center I went home and I'll never forget my mom was in the living room watching the news when I looked at the TV I was like isn't that where Aunt Sharon works I began to run away from home I began to skip school because I didn't know how to deal with what I was dealing with what I needed was someone to talk to and what I received was being shackled and taken away to a juvenile detention facility this was bigger than the individual like it's so much bigger than the people that get in trouble it's the system that catches them when they get in trouble I wasn't always interested in politics because I didn't see any politicians speaking about issues that were important in my community no one was knocking on my door no one was calling my phone then in 2018 I saw people like AOC running for Congress we can run as regular people and we can speak truth to power to these issues that are heard in our communities and we can win single mother of two is taking out the second most powerful Democrat in the house Steny Hoyer takes money from corporations that profit off of the most vulnerable marginalized people in our community and I know this because I'm one of them we are of course on this floor now considering a major comprehensive drug bill this is someone who signed every single crime bill that has been put into place that has helped to contribute to the mass incarceration crisis this is someone who refuses to believe that we should act on climate change now and support a green new deal this is someone who works with the very corporations that profit off of our pain what we have at stake is actually having affordable housing what we have at stake is actually providing jobs that provide livable wages I'm fighting for Medicare for all I'm fighting for a green new deal I'm fighting for a restorative more holistic approach to criminal justice reform one that is fair to everyone and not just those who can afford it we are going up against someone powerful someone who is backed by the machine but we have to show them that we have the people those who have been affected by legislation those who are closest to the pain that is who runs this movement it's us it's me it's you it's regular people not the corporations and not the politicians who profit off I'm asking each of you to join this movement with me a vote for me is a vote for us wow listen watching that ad something just kind of clicked with me if enough people in that district if every single person in that district saw this ad and knew who Makayla Wilkes was she'd win handily in fact I'd argue that if every single person who was going to vote saw that ad before casting their vote she would win in a landslide because the difference between her and Steny Hoyer is like night and day he hasn't just been not representing the people of Maryland's fifth congressional district he's been doing damage to their community damage to communities of color supporting mass incarceration and whatnot so that ad is so good that if people saw it she could win and here's the thing about these races even though oftentimes primary challenges are not successful statistically speaking it just takes more time it takes more name recognition and in every single one of these races I truly believe to my core that all it takes to win is we educate enough people enough people have to know about the choice that they have and I think nine times out of ten they're gonna go for that progressive option they're gonna go for the person who's actually hungry to represent them I truly believe that and we really do have our work cut out for us I don't want you to make it I don't want to make it seem as if this is going to be an easy race and because he's purchasing $30,000 worth of ads you know what's over no I mean COVID-19 has really been a huge obstacle to all of these grassroots campaigns because knocking on doors is their bread and butter so they basically have to rely almost exclusively on phone banking which isn't everything I mean making those personal connections with future constituents that matters so you know this isn't over I don't want you to think that you know McKayla Wilkes has this in the bag but what I want you to take away from this is that there's a real opportunity these primary challenges they're not you know lost causes they're not always going to be a foregone conclusion most of the time when we mount these challenges against incumbent Democrats you know our side isn't successful but you know as AOC said in the documentary Knocking Down the House it takes a hundred of them to win or to run in order for one of them to win and with the way that some of these primary races are going where you have people like Steny Hoare and Nancy Pelosi with Shea Hidbutar challenging her actually being forced to campaign that is a phenomenal phenomenal sign so McKayla Wilkes can win this race and I know it seems like that's an impossible thought currently because the left just lost the biggest race of our lifetimes with the Democratic Party primary and Bernie Sanders but it's not over and there's still a lot of wins that we can rack up in 2020 we've got a long way to go and her primary is coming up so I'm going to link you to the interview that I did with McKayla Wilkes and I want to encourage you to donate to her campaign I know that everyone is hurting right now I know that you know we're losing our jobs and our livelihoods because of COVID-19 but if you have anything to spare a dollar that can make a difference because she's got Steny Hoare on the ropes we just need to give her enough momentum to land that knockout punch it's going to be hard but it is possible it is within the realm of possibility don't tell yourself it's not possible McKayla Wilkes has been campaigning now for over a year and she has a phenomenal strategy she's running a good campaign she has a solid team and she could do this don't just believe it fight for it but acknowledge it's possible by now I'm sure you've seen the absolutely horrific viral video of four police officers in Minneapolis Minnesota murdering a black man named George Floyd and as one of the officers had his knee on George Floyd's neck he was crying out I can't breathe you've got your knee on my neck and he started crying for his mom and as this man begged for his life as people who were watching this take place begged and pleaded with the police officers to let him up because they were killing him they were completely stone faced they had no emotions they didn't care that they were literally killing somebody this was a murder this was a murder and we have to call it what it was this wasn't an officer involved killing as some politicians want to describe it this was a murder a cold blooded murder that we all saw with our very eyes and the police officers were fired once they started to the police department sensed public backlash that was growing but that's not enough murderers don't get to go free murderers should be charged and you know anyone who watched this video who saw the callousness on these police officers faces were struck by it but if you talk to any black American this isn't surprising to them this happens every single day and they know how little the cops view them right they don't view them as human beings they dehumanized black Americans they harass and target black communities and it's just it keeps happening but at what point are we as a society going to stop this from happening you would think that the prevalence of this would maybe decrease because everyone basically has a camcorder in their pocket they can film these instances so you'd think that maybe that would be some sort of check but it's not at all I mean people were literally filming this police officer and he refused to take his knee off of this man's neck he didn't care that the world was inevitably going to see this he did not care they don't care they don't value black lives and so the story is just it's gut wrenching and it keeps happening and it's going to continue to happen until we do something about this and we stop this from happening America is so fucked up but here's the thing it's not like this is a new phenomenon it's always been this way the difference is that now we can see it now we can see these things happen now white America gets clued in on what's been happening to black America since the founding of this country it's fucking disgusting so there's no words to really you know close out this story there's no great flowery rhetoric that I can use about us coming together and fighting this I mean how can you not just be completely fucking disgusted by this how could you not watch that video in horror and just completely lose all sense of hope in America and in the world that they just killed this man not even caring completely stone-faced not caring that they are murdering someone in broad daylight with cameras on them and they don't care they don't care at all completely apathetic ambivalent unbelievable now we got newly released surveillance footage confirming that there was no signs that George Floyd was resisting arrest they can't try to make it seem as if he was doing anything wrong in this instance or that the police officer's lives were threatened that certainly wasn't the case and we're now hearing from the family of George Floyd his sister Bridget Floyd called on the four police officers to be charged with murder rightfully so and in an interview with CNN's Don Lemon his brother and other family members also called for the police officers to be charged with murder because they committed murder take a look the four officers involved have been fired on which the mayor of Minneapolis said was the the right call but is that enough for your family felonies no not at all I love my brother everybody love my brother knowing my brother is to love my brother they could have tased him they could have amazed him and stand they would they put their knee in his neck and just sat on him and didn't care at all he screamed mama mama I can't breathe I can't breathe and he didn't care so I don't I just don't understand what more we gotta go through in life man they didn't have to do that to him he's a giant he don't hurt anybody he give his last to anybody they didn't care they treated him worse than they animals and I was like that they took a life now they deserve life I don't feel sorry for them they hurt me and they hurt my family I can't take nothing back I can't get my brother back they at home they sleep they with their wife they got kids and something like that happened to them that'd be just like me I just don't know what's going on now so firing them is is is is a good start but we want to see justice for our family and we want to see them charged we want to have them arrested they need to be charged with because what they did was was murder and almost the whole world has witnessed that because somebody was gracious enough to the connection we lost it for a second you said you want to see them charged did you say charged with murder is that what you said we want to see them charged with murder and we want them to be convicted we want them arrested they need to pay for what they did he didn't deserve what happened to him and they didn't do anything to help him they were supposed to be there to serve and to protect and I didn't see a single one of them lift a finger to do anything to help while he was begging for his life not one of them tried to do anything to help him that I didn't see what I did see was murder and that's what I want them to be arrested and charged and convicted for my heart goes out to them but I mean saying that is meaningless because no flowery rhetoric as I stated is going to you know bring him back it's not going to get justice in this situation so there's no words really that are profound enough to like resonate with anyone that will make the situation better this is just disgusting and that's that's it now you know there were a lot of protests that erupted and the police officers responded as you expected them to respond with riot gear throwing tear gas at the protesters who were rightfully outraged the fact that the individuals who are supposed to protect and serve murdered someone in cold blood in their community now I'm going to have another video coming up where we kind of contrast the response to the police with the Minneapolis protesters and you know the protests that we saw just a few weeks ago from anti-quarantine protesters who were literally getting up in the faces of police officers screaming it's a double standard you can't exist in America if you're black anything that you're doing no matter how innocent it may be you are always under threat that the police may kill you what kind of a fucked up world is that how can we let this happen and sit idly by and you know just try to put it out of our minds and move on to the next one once it inevitably happens and you know forget about the last one we're seeing modern day lynchings happen and the outrage just isn't there I mean sure this is a story that everyone is compelled by it's a viral video but we're seeing modern day lynchings why aren't we taking the proper action I don't know what to say there's nothing to say in this instance it's going to keep happening unless we put a stop to it unless we actually change this country so that's that another black man was murdered by police officers after an unarmed black man named George Floyd was murdered by four police officers in Minneapolis, Minnesota protests broke out across the United States and surprisingly police officers remained relatively calm as people demanded justice for George Floyd as you can see from this video here armed protesters actually stormed the state capital in Michigan demanding justice for George Floyd and in California protesters were actually confronting cops directly getting in their faces screaming in their faces and demanding justice for George Floyd or wait hang on a second okay so I'm getting word from my producer that I mixed up the footage I made a mistake that was not footage from the protests regarding George Floyd that was protests that took place a couple of weeks ago right wing protests of armed thugs demanding that states reopen so the footage that I'm going to show you this is actually footage from Minneapolis where police officers responded in a more predictable manner so these are photos from Star Tribune's Carlos Gonzalez and okay this is what I expected we see police officers in riot gear shooting rubber bullets throwing tear gas this makes a lot more sense so the police didn't apparently feel intimidated or threatened or the need for riot gear when armed thugs stormed the Capitol building in Michigan or when people were yelling in their faces in California but in Minneapolis as people demand justice for the murder of George Floyd now they feel threatened now if you've been watching the news you know there's various I think probably dozens of live streams of what's taking place in Minneapolis currently on YouTube but you can't really characterize this all with a broad brush right some of the protests are leading to riots and looting whereas a lot of people are just marching and demanding justice specifically demanding for the murderer of George Floyd murderer specifically to be charged and arrested but you know because there were many instances of rioting and looting conservatives took issue with this they didn't say very much about how maybe the right-wing protesters went a little bit far storming the state Capitol with guns but in this instance they're very concerned about the behavior of the people who are rebelling in Minneapolis for example Tommy Loran clutched her pearls at the looting tweeting if you smash and bang on cop cars riot and burn flags in the streets and loot your community businesses you are not a protester you are part of the problem is this really how you bring justice is this how you honor his life now I should note that at the time she made that tweet she made precisely zero tweets about George Floyd zero tweets demanding justice for George Floyd so let's not pretend as if Tommy Loran cares about honoring his life she doesn't care but the point is that she wants these people to voice their grievances in a more respectable manner in a more peaceful manner if you will right well no actually because if you actually do try to draw attention to police brutality in the way that Colin Kaepernick did and you kneeled during the Pledge of Allegiance national anthem she's going to take issue with that as well here's what she said about a city official who chose to kneel during the Pledge of Allegiance I think what she's doing is disrespectful I think also we have to remember that just because she has the right doesn't make her right so she's outraged when you protest peacefully but she's also outraged when you riot it's almost as if she doesn't want you to speak up when you're mad about the fact that police officers across the country are murdering unarmed black Americans with impunity she just wants you to be quiet but she's not alone because Charlie Kirk also clutched his pearls and he tweeted if you burn a city to the ground to riot against injustice you should be arrested and thrown in prison now I checked his timeline and I didn't see any tweets talking about what he thinks the penalty should be for murder but if you riot you should definitely be arrested if you murder an unarmed black civilian yeah he doesn't really care about that it's the rioting that's the biggest issue in his opinion now America's biggest bootlicker Andy Noe snitched on Ilhan Omar's daughter for committing the unspeakable crime of retweeting the Twin Cities DSA who asked for supplies needed to shield and treat people who have been harmed by police abuse now I know what you're thinking yeah my conservatives or hypocrites I get it but shouldn't we as responsible leftists actually condemn this behavior that we're seeing condemn the looting well my response to that is sure and I'm going to take the time to condemn looting right now quote American billionaires got 434 billion richer during the pandemic as Michael Brooks put it this is looting and I condemn this this is a photo of Kelly Loeffler she is a United States Senator who along with some of her colleagues including Richard Burr Diane Feinstein dumped their stocks before the market tanked after they were briefed on COVID-19 as Blaine puts it she is a looter and I absolutely unequivocally condemn her and the behavior of her colleagues this photograph includes images of some of the world's biggest most notorious looters it includes billionaires like Jeff Bezos Mark Zuckerberg Bill Gates one of the Koch brothers and these individuals are all looters who looted the wealth that they now control they stole the wealth and now they were able to use the wealth that they've accumulated to buy political capital to influence politicians to make them even richer I absolutely condemn these looters and there's a lot more instances of looting that I want to condemn here quote wealthiest hospitals got billions in bailout for struggling health providers bonanza for rich real estate investors tucked into stimulus package airlines got the sweetest coronavirus bailout around large troubled companies got bailout money and small business loan program stealth bailout shovels millions of dollars to oil companies and as David Sirota points out these are all instances of looting and I whole heartedly condemn all of them so yes all of those instances that I just listed are bad oh okay so you wanted me to actually talk about the rioting and the looting um here's the thing I don't actually consider what protesters in Minneapolis are doing as rioting or looting as Mark Lamont Hill puts it these are rebellions this isn't random or irrational violence this is organized resistance to an evil system that only pays attention when it feels financially or physically unsafe this is how we feel every day exactly this is a response this uprising this rebellion is a response to sustained oppression and tyranny state sanctioned murders cannot happen they can't keep happening so this is a community who is exhausted and fed up rising up and saying enough is enough so I don't view this as some irrational act of civil disobedience this is a rebellion these people are demanding change and if that change is not going to come then they're going to make everyone in society feel uncomfortable until everyone feels compelled to listen to them and take action ultimately and all of this could end like that if the murderers who killed George Floyd we all saw the video were arrested but do you want to know what happened instead rather than marching to his house and arresting their colleague dozens if not hundreds of police officers stood in front of his house to protect him none of them chose to go into his house and put handcuffs on him instead they chose to protect him so if you are choosing to just dismiss this as a riot of people you know not being respectable not doing what's right for the movement respectability politics has not gotten us anywhere it hasn't gotten us anywhere and these protesters feel like they are left with no other choices they have to make noise they have to rebel like this openly because you weren't paying attention to them when they were peacefully protesting in fact a lot of the conservatives we talked about denounced them Trump called Colin Kaepernick a son of a bitch and said that he should be fired for taking a knee during the national anthem so you weren't listening to them when they were trying to be peaceful so now you don't get to complain that they are using the last method that they have rebellion to stop these types of murders from taking place and I will leave you with the wise words of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr this is a video shared by Isaiah James who was a 2020 congressional candidate from New York this is what we need to know about what's taking place in Minneapolis I think we've got to see that a riot is the language of the unheard Tucker Carlson of Fox News decided to respond to what is taking place in Minneapolis currently and his commentary was predictable but take a look and I will respond afterwards so that's what rioting looks like it happened last night as you can see it's happening right now we want to be clear we're not showing you these pictures to defend the behavior of individuals on the Minneapolis police department we're not we're defending society itself rioting is the one thing you don't want ugly opinions police brutality a vicious bird watchers rude and titled ladies walking their dogs in big city parks all that is bad but none of it is nearly as bad as what you just saw the indiscriminate use of violence by mobs is a threat to every American of all colors and backgrounds and political beliefs democracy cannot exist when people are rioting rioting is a form of tyranny the strong and the violent oppress the weak and the unarmed it is oppression now some of you may not necessarily be that politically savvy and instinctively you might agree with what he had to say but in case you didn't notice it let me point it out for you whatever he said the opposite is actually true the power dynamic that he's describing he flipped it what he said the opposite is true it's like if I told you that I'm not actually the host of the humanist report you're the host of the humanist report yes you watching this and I'm actually the viewer that is the level of absurdity that we're talking about here and maybe you still aren't convinced you had this visceral reaction to the rebellion that's taking place in Minneapolis but let me ask you this which Tucker Carlson do you agree with more when it comes to protests do you agree with the Tucker Carlson that we just heard from or do you agree more with this Tucker Carlson this is America we're allowed to disagree with what our leaders do however we like and we're allowed to express that disagreement in public that's our birthright I mean it kind of sounds like he's doing a 180 does it not let me read that quote back to you this is America we're allowed to disagree with what our leaders do however we like and we're allowed to express our disagreement in public it's our birthright so the question to Tucker is which is it are we allowed to publicly disagree with government however we like as you put it or are there restrictions in the way that we are able to engage in civil disobedience what's the parameters laid out for us Einstein because you weren't very specific there you just condemned the protesters but let's go back to some of what he said in that first clip so the first thing he says is we're defending society itself rioting is the one thing you don't want now when he says that is he trying to convince you that rioting isn't good for you or is he trying to convince us that rioting isn't actually good for the state furthermore he says the indiscriminate use of violence by mobs is a threat to every American is it actually a threat to every American or is it a threat to the establishment to the powers that be because when society collapses because the people are fed up and they take to the streets something that we saw with the yellow vest movement in France for example that forces the powers that be to respond so who actually does the rioting pose a threat to an actuality Tucker does it pose a threat to normal citizens or the establishment the capitalist overlords he also says democracy cannot exist when people are rioting probably the most absurd thing that he said here rioting is a form of tyranny the strong and the violent oppress the weak and the unarmed it is oppression so there's no way that he believes what he just said there's no way because if he believed that he would be so idiotic have such a juvenile understanding of political definitions that he wouldn't be able to be a competent political commentator but he knows what he's doing but let's go over some of these definitions the definition of tyranny reads cruel and oppressive government or rule a nation under cruel and oppressive government cruel unreasonable or arbitrary use of power or control ask yourself this does that sound more like the state and police officers arms of the state murdering unarmed civilians or does that sound more like the people who are protesting that injustice we know what it sounds like we know what tyranny means also when it comes to oppression it is prolonged cruel or unjust treatment or control a state of being subject to unjust treatment or control are the people rebelling in minneapolis the ones who are subjecting the state to cruel and unjust control or is the state the one that is subjecting them to cruel and unjust control hence why they are rebelling and protesting so do you understand what he did here he completely flipped what's happening here in response to tyranny and oppression he calls the people the tyrants and the oppressors rather than the state itself rather than saying you know these people are speaking up against tyranny and oppression he takes the power dynamic here and he reverses it he says it's actually the protesters who are the ones who are doing tyranny and oppressing rather than the state oppressing them so here's the thing you can choose to use whatever political terms you want to describe situations but you don't get to redefine their meanings I think that it is important to point out the inherent tyranny and oppression with this story but you don't get to attribute who the oppressor is if you don't even know how power dynamics work it's the state who's the oppressor it's the four police officers who murdered an unarmed black man these are entities of the state this is a state sanctioned murder of a civilian the people speaking up and rebelling they're not the ones who are carrying out the oppression and the tyranny they are speaking out against oppression and tyranny but see for Tucker Carlson it's only oppression and tyranny if a democratic governor imposes some sort of policy that right-wingers don't like so if Gretchen Whitmer is going to say how about this we're extending the lockdown for another two weeks and people storm the Michigan Capitol with guns that's perfectly reasonable that is exactly what we're allowed to do we're allowed to disagree with what our leaders do however we like but in this instance we're not allowed to disagree however we like if we're actually calling out a real form of tyranny telling people that they should social distance and wear masks that's not an actual form of tyranny murdering human beings that is a form of tyranny that is oppression so Tucker Carlson is trying to use the language of populists he's trying to speak as if he's a revolutionary when in actuality he is a bootlicker he is a state propagandist trying to do everything in his power to quell this rebellion and uprising so he can protect the establishment that enriches him that's what this is about don't trust this propagandist he's lying to you I'm inclined to say that Donald Trump is becoming even more unhinged than he usually is but you know that really isn't shocking to anyone I think it'd be more surprising if he actually acted like a functioning adult for at least a day but lately he really has been more stupid than usual for lack of a better word I don't know what to describe but we need some new words to describe what's happening the current vocabulary just doesn't do it justice so as many of you know he has been raging against mail-in voting not because this actually will lead to fraud as he claims but because if more people vote if mail-in voting increases voter turnout that means he probably will lose because democrats always win when people show up to vote and republicans lose so he's banking on people staying home and feeling demoralized and not voting or not being able to overcome the obstacles to vote in order for him to get re-elected and here's what he tweeted out there is no way zero that mail-in ballots will be anything less than substantially fraudulent mailboxes will be robbed ballots will be forged and even illegally printed out and fraudulently signed the governor of california is sending ballots to millions of people anyone living in the state no matter who they are or how they got there will get one that will be followed up with professionals telling all of these people many of whom have never even thought of voting before how and for whom to vote this will be a rigged election no way now he's trying to prime you to think that mail-in voting will lead to fraud specifically because it will enable undocumented residents to vote but that's not going to happen you will not get a ballot mail to you unless you are a registered voter if you are not a citizen you cannot become a registered voter so he's fear mongering but one thing that you may not have noticed about that tweet is that twitter actually put a little disclaimer with a link saying get the facts about mail-in ballots which leads to a headline which reads Trump makes unsubstantiated claim that mail-in ballots will lead to voter fraud so they fact-checked him and they also explained in a tweet we added a label to two real Donald Trump tweets about california's vote by mail plan as part of our efforts to enforce our civic integrity policy we believe those tweets could confuse voters about what they need to do to receive a ballot and participate in the election process so uh yeah simply put they fact-checked him and in response to said fact-checking Donald Trump was apoplectic he was enraged he tweeted out twitter is now interfering in the 2020 presidential election they are saying my statement on mail-in ballots which will lead to massive corruption and fraud which he presented no evidence for is incorrect based on fact-checking by fake news cnn and the amazon washington post twitter is completely stifling free speech and i as president will not allow it to happen yes you heard that correctly the president of the united states accused a private company of violating his first amendment rights you're not dreaming this is real life this is the dystopian future that we never thought we'd all see but we're living it now but he wasn't done there as variety reported trump is signing an executive order that would let u.s citizens submit complaints if they feel they have been unfairly treated by social networks so he's going to make it easier for us to speak to the managers of these social networks and voice our grievances and you know i for one am all for it because i have a grievance with youtube please stop deprioritizing independent media in favor of cable news like fox news and cnn and msnbc but he's not done yet there's even more so as nbc news reporters to hill kaper reports president trump says he would shut down twitter if his lawyers found a way to do it but there are hurdles i'd have to go through a legal process he says per white house poll report and let's take it back to the beginning all of this this entire kerfuffle is because he's mad that they fact-checked him that's it they fact-checked him and he wants to shut down twitter donald trump is the ultimate karen he should take that comb over and just let it hang down like in front of his eye like the karen haircut because he is the ultimate karen now look there is a conversation to be had about whether or not social media websites should engage in fact checking because that doesn't necessarily mean that they will be unbiased i mean for example you have facebook hiring a fact-checker of the daily caller which i personally don't trust but that's a different conversation for a different day the fact is they fact-checked him and in this instance you know they were correct and he didn't like it but guess what stop making shit up he has been absolutely on a rampage against mail-in voting and all he has is fearmongering he can't present evidence because this is not a widespread issue and he sent out this bizarre email to people which reads we need to make one thing clear there is no way that universal mail-in ballots will be anything less than substantially fraudulent mail boxes will be robbed ballots will be illegally printed out and forged and the election will be rigged but that's just what the Democrats want isn't it they know they can't possibly be President Trump so their only path forward is through voter fraud so that they can try to steal the election yeah so again i'm inclined to say that he's losing it but that would mean nothing it wouldn't adequately describe like anything different than what we've been seeing but let's go to his concerns here mail boxes will be robbed ballots will be illegally printed out and forged listen i've said this once i'll say it again i live in Oregon we have had vote by mail here for decades and this has not happened if you go to the Heritage Foundation's website which you should never do but if you did check out their cataloging of voter fraud and instances of voter fraud individually at the state level for Oregon they have what 13 instances of voter fraud that has happened over the course of 20 years would you call that a widespread problem because i wouldn't and it's not that easy like you can't just forge these types of ballots because what we do is we'll get it mailed to us right and it comes with an envelope and in that envelope before you can put your ballot in there there's another little envelope and you have to sign that envelope before you before you mail it off there's so much that you have to do that if you actually wanted to affect an election that trying to rig the election by forging ballots that's more work than finding some other way to actually fuck with the election like if you chose to theoretically tamper with the machines that count the ballots that are mailed in you'd be more effective that way and when it comes to people robbing mailboxes i mean that is a federal offense if you rob a mailbox if you go into somebody's mailbox and take their mail that is a federal offense so if that were going to be something that happens don't you think that it would have already been happening in states like Oregon that have mail-in voting and here's the thing if somebody hypothetically shows to steal my envelope in my mailbox and take my ballot i could just request a new one and sure they can they can fill it out and forge my signature and all that but again the steps to commit voter fraud here i mean think about this people don't even think that their vote matters in this country right like people have checked out of the system 100 million Americans don't even vote so they don't feel like their one vote matters so why would people if they truly wanted to rig an election or affect change politically illegally do something like that which would be the least effective way of rigging an election ever it just doesn't make sense it doesn't make sense now i would be happy to stand corrected if he provided us with evidence that maybe this is more widespread than it is but guess what it's not it's not an issue and this is about him being afraid of democracy because again we always have to call it like we see it Republicans don't want the turnout to be increased and if you reduce the obstacles to voting if you offer everyone automatic voter registration and mail-in ballots and you make voting a national holiday guess what's gonna happen more people will turn out and Republicans will lose because they have a fixed block of people that is always going to literally turn out for them and you know each election will hinge on whether or not Democrats are successful at getting out the vote so they know that if they can just suppress the vote by demoralizing people or making voter voting a little bit more difficult they can win that's what this is about don't let him tell you anything other than that this is about his own self-interest he doesn't actually care about fraud he doesn't if he truly was concerned with voter fraud then any election where it comes within 2% for example if it's a close race that can trigger an automatic audit he can tell Congress send me that bill and I'll sign it into law he can do that there are ways that you can take precautions to audit the vote make voting more secure pass election security bills that have been introduced in Congress Tulsi Gabbard has one that's great but he's not doing that because he's a fraud that's the thing the only fraud here when we're talking about mail-in voting is Donald Trump who is completely full of shit and somehow becoming even more unhinged than he usually is hello everyone I am here with Paula Jean Sweringen running for the United States Senate in West Virginia you all know her you all love her she's back to give us an update about her campaign Paula welcome back to the program thank you for coming on thank you Mike it's always a pleasure to be on your show you're great and thank you for always amplifying progressive voices well thank you thank you for running and I had to bring you back because we're in a really different situation currently you know you ran against Joe Manchin and you got a large portion of the vote but didn't win and we were gutted but now you're back and you're the favorite you're running a very viable campaign and you can win this so talk about the dynamics and how you can actually defeat Shelley Capito Moore well um you know well for first of all let's talk about personal reasons and why I'm running against her she's out you know she's voted against equal pay for women three times um she's a mother and a grandmother she's been in office for almost 20 years her dad was our former governor and um she's basically a rubber stamp for you know like Mitch McConnell and uh she was elected to be the first United States Senator first woman to be to represent West Virginia and the US Senate and um she's really did nothing for us and she's a mother and she's a grandmother and she's turned her back on the children dying and starving in this state and it's time for her to face a mother and a grandmother and uh you know kick her out make sure that we do have a good voice in Washington and have a good strong woman in Washington because I think that maybe it'd be West Virginia's intent to send her there but she's not taking care of women and children in this state in our state the population in West Virginia is like 51 52 percent women and uh you know we are not divided by partisan politics when it comes to our children and women are ready to fight back it's been really incredible and I want to thank everybody across the nation that has supported this campaign this time it really solidifies that you can have a people-funded campaign we have outraised everyone eight to one and we have an incredible staff have incredible campaign manager finance director comms director incredible people in field a lot of people have signed up to volunteer to make phone calls and just in text during this pandemic and actually a lot of West Virginians that don't live in the state anymore have donated to the campaign just because they want to come back home yeah this is really incredible because you know what I hear from congressional candidates who have run multiple times is that the first time you know you run and it's difficult you kind of try to find your footing but the second time you build up a really well oiled machine you have connections you have you know a lot of people that you know who become your staffers and now your campaign is incredible so the eight to one fundraising that really is important because you are a campaign everyone in my audience knows you're not taking any money from large multinational corporations this is all people powered so that fact in and of itself is astonishing and now that your position to win it's incredible like it feels like we actually can affect change and for everyone who's feeling demoralized about the 2020 election since Bernie Sanders didn't win you know these congressional races this is our fight now this is where we can affect change it's not all over 2020 is still you know the election is months away and races like this imagine if apology and swear engine were to be elected to the U.S. Senate the things that you would accomplish I think you would be very effective because you know for you something that you said before you went on it stood out with me and you've said this before this is a fight for survival this isn't about you know a vanby project you're not running because you think that this is you know a good career opportunity for you you're running because this is a fight for survival so let's say you get elected you get sworn in in 2021 what is going to be your first policy priorities because assuming Donald Trump is defeated and let's just say Democrats take back you know the Senate and they have the White House what are you going to push for because there's going to be a lot of voices you know in Congress in the Senate that will try to marginalize you Chuck Schumer probably will try to marginalize you as we've seen from other progressives you know with regard to the House and Nancy Pelosi so what do you think you would really push for immediately in terms of relief for Americans We'll get to that but let's talk about our movement for a second and the importance that's one of the reasons too that I decided to run for United States Senate because we do need good strong people representatives in Congress and the Senate plays a large role in electing the Supreme Court so it's vitally important and one person can't go to Congress and change everything so this is a movement it continues to grow no matter who our president is we have to have a good strong Congress and everybody don't give up hope we have a whole slate of candidates with Brand New Congress I worked with them in 2018 and I'm incredibly proud of Brand New Congress and I fully believe in them because of the way they vet their candidates and they give voters a chance of having real people representatives without having to go through the weeds and pick out who actually has integrity so don't forget Brand New Congress Brand New Congress.org because if I do go to Congress it's not going to be just me it's going to have to take a whole slate of candidates and it's going to take a bunch of us we have to keep on pushing that needle too we're going to suffer losses and we have in our movement but we've also had some wins and even if we don't win we keep on pushing that needle with our incumbents they know that we're holding them more accountable even which I mentioned we've seen him make better decisions this year because we have pushed him so hard I've given credit for some of the things that he's done and you know we if we hold them accountable then they'll do better but if they don't do better then they need to know that we're going to come take their jobs as far as when I get there we still have a chance for Medicare for all I still stand behind Medicare for 100% the first thing I would do in Congress is co-sponsor Medicare for all and it's going to take all of us to push whoever our president is to make sure that it's implemented because even the Trump administration promised us universal healthcare I'm behind Bernie's bill because it's comprehensive it covers dental and vision but also in that bill is just transition for people that work in insurance companies and that's important to me because even here in West Virginia with the book you know with the loss in the market for the coal industry people are dying and starving so when we do advance and grow we have to make sure that we do have just transition secondary to that you know it's important to me to make sure that we combat the addiction epidemic not only in my state but in my country across the country and right now West Virginia leads and drug overdose deaths and I want to send federal funding to long-term recovery systems we have seen with the people that are working to combat this crisis and the front lines of our communities and across the country that long-term recovery systems work we've been hearing from our counterparts that they are going to take care of the addiction epidemic and drug replacement therapy plays a small role in ending addiction because it takes that money from big takes that money from big foreman puts it right back into big format and it's it's not creating long-term solutions and it's been proven statistically that long-term recovery systems work and they need state and federal funding and they need support from medical providers and social workers I will fight for a living wage I mean I fight for everything that I've always fought for economic diversity for my state and state and states like mine is very important to me the industrial revolution was built on the backs of West Virginians their families and surrounding communities when you turn on your light switch it's been you know it's by the blood of Appalachians and the least that we can do is infesting things like the reclaim act the green new deal and make sure that we put funding in states like ours so we can grow and diversify our economy when we look at diversification for our economy in West Virginia if we legalize cannabis which I am for legalization and decriminalization 100% we would see economic growth in our state within six to eight months if we grew hemp on mountaintop removal sites not only would it clean up clean up the soil it create topsoil and you know we could tap into that agriculture we have a lot of hot spots for geothermal hydropower here in the state we can invest in that a lot of people don't have comprehensive broadband across the state we've heard from our senators that they're going to give some relief and make sure that we have comprehensive broadband but it doesn't happen it seems like it's a political talking point if we have good roads we have good schools we have a good infrastructure we invest in clean water clean air and create a place where businesses will want to come and grow here then business will come here and we you know there's all kinds of ideas we could have for the Appalachian region but we just need visionaries for our future instead of visionaries for our demise and make sure that we get dark money out of politics and we have true people servants and opposed to people that are serving corporations lobbyists and social interests you know there's so many things that we could be doing across the country even with this pandemic I'm really really frustrated to see states suffer like mine because of population they're opening up West Virginia and this is one of the poorest and sickest states in the nation we have high rates of lung disease heart disease diabetes a large bulk of our population is the elderly and instead of sending relief efforts in the National Guard out into the hills and hollers where people haven't seen daylight and we don't know what's going on with them living in food deserts they're talking about opening up our state so on a state level we should be taking care of the people here and on a federal level we hear so much that well we've got to open up the economy but we also in the last stimulus bill gave over to you know trillions of dollars to corporations and Wall Street you know and only $1,200 and some of those people have not even received those stimulus checks and relief we can afford $2,000 a month until we figure this out public health and safety should not come last and I know even specifically for my state how can we trust these people to take care of us when we were treated like collateral damage to begin with West Virginia shouldn't be a test case or any state or any state in this country we need to lock down take care of people make sure that they have personal protective equipment the tools that they need to take care of people make sure that people are fed they can pay their bills and they're not homeless until we do figure this out and this just really solidifies the failure in our government that we can't handle a pandemic like this yeah absolutely like all of the flaws that already existed pre-covid-19 they just bubble up to the surface to where if you didn't see them before there's no way that you don't see them now and as you go through like your list of all these policy things you want to fight for something just you know stood out to me like why you're such a phenomenal candidate and why I'm so invested in this campaign and in you as a politician is because your idea of what you should do what you should fight for it doesn't change based on the political context and what I mean by that is you know there's this sense now that okay Bernie lost Medicare for all is done we can't get it so you know best case scenario you get to congress and maybe we get a public option you're still saying no I don't care who's president we're fighting for Medicare for all that's the right policy and that is so important because that is true political courage and that's one thing that I think is lacking with lawmakers you know the thing with politics is that you are expected to be overly savvy and you're supposed to you know use your political capital wisely but that time is gone like we are at the end of the empire like the country is collapsing so there's no time for these silly little games and political theater we just need relief we need the policies that will save lives and there's no debate like we know which policies are needed you just listed all of them so there's no room for discussion there's no time for that that time has come and gone now we get those policies and we fight regardless so I think that's just such an important thing for you to say that you know it doesn't matter who wins I'm still fighting for Medicare for all that doesn't change you know the calculus the trajectory it's not changing because we didn't get a burning president it doesn't change if you know Trump is re-elected what's right is right and we still fight for those policies so that's why I just love your campaign so much and I feel so like attached to this campaign because this is a fight for survival this isn't about anything other than that like we're trying to fight for people in West Virginia in your case but also the species because I mean we're dealing with a pandemic where as we record this almost a hundred thousand Americans have died like I don't think we're going to really realize the scale of you know the destruction and devastation until we we are like past this until we're out of this because right now so much is going on I think that psychologically a lot of people myself at least you just kind of like try to tune it out because it's it's so painful it's like this type of like coping mechanism in a way but I want to talk about your race because this time with you running it's so important you're you're doing a lot you can win this thing and so there's a challenger that jumped in there's an establishment Democrat who isn't really doing that great which kind of leaves the door open for you but another person who individuals perceived as progressive got a lot of coverage in indie media is Richard Ojeda now you had announced that you were running and he decided to jump in the race rather than endorsing you which doesn't make sense to me because if I prioritize policies if I want Medicare for all if I want a Green New Deal and I already see a well-established candidate running a great campaign in the race I don't jump in myself because what's the point of that I endorse that candidate I campaign for that candidate so he could have been a phenomenal ally but he chose to run against you which doesn't make sense to me what do you want to respond to the Richard Ojeda situation because it seems as if he in this instance rather than endorsing you could siphon away votes from you from progressives who don't necessarily know that you are the real deal you're the better candidate I think objectively speaking if you're on the left so do you want to speak to that at all I believe in democracy I believe in anybody can run for office if they want to however when we strategically think about this movement you know we need to think about how to take you know the main goal was to get rid of Shellymore Capital you know that's our bad guy right or supposed to be but I think oftentimes people are in this for the wrong reasons they are more in it to get famous instead of actually staying on point and I think West Virginians deserve consistency they don't need somebody that's going to pull back from Medicare for all or is going to be wishy-washy about coal they support it one day the next day they don't and that's the worst lie a politician can tell is the coal industry is going to rebound we had over 170 coal miners and 120,000 coal miners in the 1970s we a nationwide we have less than 50,000 and the rug has been pulled out from under West Virginians and it's not you know we just we shouldn't be making decisions just like you said for political expediency not only West Virginia but everybody across the country needs consistency and they need integrity I'm not in this to be famous I'm a country girl I don't want to go to DC but I've cut my leg off for my kids in West Virginians and that's why I even think about going is because we're underserved and this nation was built by the people for the people and of the people and who better to serve us than us we have been solving our problems in the front lines of our communities for decades why our incumbents are serving corporations and lobbyists and I fought for my state for years and the reason I'm running for office too is because I'm tired of begging I'm tired of people in my state begging for something so basic as a clean glass of water and a job and we can have both in addition to that you know we don't need somebody lying to us and saying that they're not taking dark money when the FEC says otherwise we you know we don't need people that are 45,000 dollars in debt from their last race and we don't need somebody that's going to win an election have West Virginians work hard to get them into a seat and then they turn around quit their seat four days later you know four days later run for president and then quit their seat again you know we just don't deserve that we need consistency I can't tell you what my opponent is thinking but we have proven that we're the most viable and I just encourage everybody just to continue to vet your candidates and keep your eye on the prize because there's a lot of people that have tried to hijack the progressive movement and we do have a lot of fake progressives you know you can research where their money comes from you can look at their history and look at the videos that you know Google is a great tool right now so you can find out more about your candidates I can't tell you why he's doing it but the main goal for me is to make sure that we have true representation in Washington and one thing that I want to add about that too is West Virginians are tired of not having a seat at the table when somebody goes into you know an elected office they're just not there to to just be a voice but they should be a medium for the people that they're supposed to serve and so it's important to me when I do go to Congress all these people that I've worked with throughout the years that I've seen in the front lines of their communities battling addiction making sure that our children are fed during crises making sure that we're combating poverty and all these things that are going on in my state that they have a seat at the table they're going to you know West Virginians are going to help me and people across the country help me write legislation that I introduce because it's important to me that West Virginians do have a voice I want to be a public servant and that's what we deserve and I know there's a lot of people that have went into Congress and sellouts they're barking up the wrong tree like I said I don't even want to be there I cut my leg off for my grandchildren and children and I'm doing this because we have to survive people actually are dying and starving every day this pandemic even solidifies it essential workers need essential things like jobs and being able to pay their I mean you know food and be able to pay their rent and I'm just tired of living like we do and I'm tired of begging people that are supposed to serve us and they've not done anything especially for West Virginia they've been pissing on their backs and saying it's raining for years and we're tired of being abused yeah yeah and I'm glad that you said that about you know you don't want to be in Congress because that's ideally the person who you want to represent you someone who doesn't want to be there someone who isn't running because you know you can become a celebrity or an influencer and I'm also glad that you pointed out the fact that you know this is democracy as left-wingers we support democracy because you know in my race in district one of Oregon I had a really great set of choices so there were two women running Amanda Sebe and Heidi Briones and this was a real like fantastic campaign between the both of them because you had Amanda Sebe who was championing disability rights in Medicare for All and then you had Heidi Briones who was really pushing for UBI and between both of them you could tell that there was like this real sense that they have different competing priorities but in this instance in your race it's not like you know Richard Ojeda chose to jump in because he's really committed to one set of ideals we don't know where he stands on Medicare for All he supported a public option and then he said he supported Medicare for All he voted for Trump in 2016 and then he apparently was a Bernie Sanders supporter he is supposedly progressive but yet he's buddy buddy with Joe Manchin none of this makes any sense to me and so like if if he were to jump in the race because he says you know what Paula you're not talking about this issue and I think that West Virginians need to know about this I think that intellectually speaking you know we should grant him that space that'd be fantastic but this is clearly a point to gain attention you know and now I'll tell you right now do I want to challenge Shelley Moore Capito who I think is absolute garbage if I did that I would find myself going head to head with Paula Jean Swearingen once again not a fan of Paula Jean Swearingen either Paula Jean Swearingen threw stones at me because absolutely she just could not stand the fact that I wouldn't act on basically run down up another road and screaming that Joe Manchin sucked because I knew she couldn't beat Patrick Morrissey so I supported Joe and I don't give a shit if you like that or you don't I don't want to you know dog on Richard Ojeda this isn't about him this is about the people of West Virginia but it is important for people to know that you have to look at the record look at the platforms of people Richard Ojeda has no platform on his website whereas Paula Jean is very committed to policy you know so you have to vet people and you know when it comes to the progressive movement there is this there is a leadership crisis right because we're not necessarily going to have another Bernie Sanders run for president anytime soon so we're looking for that next progressive hero and some people say the right things and step up and so basically my my overall point is that we have to be a lot more cautious and vet people a lot more don't be overly skeptical but just acknowledge that if you have a set of options really vet these candidates I think that if you have followed you know your campaign and your activism pre-campaign I mean there's no question in my mind you're committed to these ideals and you're going to go to Congress committed and fighting and even if you lose you're going to go down swing you know so that's why I think it's really important and I wanted to you know make it known because a lot of progressives I think were for lack of a better word duped by Richard Ojeda back in 2018 when he did run I think an admittedly good campaign against Carol Miller but times have changed and you know we need real leadership I'm not looking for a celebrity I'm not looking for someone who's going to make headlines and say the right things I want a fighter who's going to fight for the people and that's why I thought that this was important to bring up so thank you for addressing that I didn't want to put you on the spot and I will say that if Richard Ojeda is you know actually committed to policy he could debate you but he doesn't want to do that yeah he's publicly denied it denied a debate and I think that's a disservice to voters and I think voters need to hear from all sides and it's it's not it shouldn't be about giving your opponent a microphone and make you know you being worried about you're going to raise their profile it you know voters didn't need to hear policy from all their candidates so they can make informative decisions here we are in our primaries June 9th and we've not had one debate for us in it and I really think that's a real disservice to West Virginia voters and I really think it's a disservice that you know Richard Ojeda is refusing to give that to West Virginians and I think that goes against their democracy yeah I mean if you're going to run for Congress you have to be ready to debate because you're constantly debating like this isn't like those idiotic debates that you see on YouTube debate me bro like these are two people who are running for the United States Senate so they have to debate you know so this is important so much is on the line like now is not the time to play games and you know to that point about you know so much being on the line and us fighting for our survival I wanted to ask you because you you've always been fighting you've always been in the trenches you haven't stopped and so you know a presidential race not going our way isn't going to change that trajectory for you so I'm curious I don't want to ask you for words of encouragement but what do you say to people who currently feel like you know what I can't deal with electoral politics so I'm going to check out how do you get people to still fight after you know being faced with so much defeat because this is something that I'm asking myself lately like how do I keep you know that that spark lit and I don't know that there's a good answer I think that maybe when we're past this election past this pandemic maybe the dust will settle and there'll be like a clear message of unity for the left and what we should do but like what is your message to people at a time of defeat in terms of like what we should keep doing well it's I may be the wrong person to ask because I've got a fire in me that I can't put out I've been fighting for my state for years and when I lose any election I'm going to continue to fight for my state and you know I'm a mother and a grandmother now and I do anything for my children and I can't stop but I know working within the movements throughout the years you know make sure that we're working together like I said we're going to suffer some losses identify grifters in our movement and make sure that there's a place for that but you know it's it's passing the bullhorn to the people you know th