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, and this is episode 242 of the program Today is Friday May 22nd 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 Increased the monthly pledge that they were already giving us and that includes our Mon Pai Omara Ashley Dana McBale Dana Quillman Donna Brown Eileen Fox J.O.A.O.B Jonathan McGarry Lee Takashi Marcia Everett Sabina Curti Siddiqui cleaning service and Sen Bai 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 can do so by going to humanist report comm slash support Patreon comm slash humanist report or as always you can click join underneath any one of our YouTube videos and become a member Right here on this website right now unless you're listening on iTunes then you have to go to YouTube But anyways, we've got a jam-packed episode for you all this week Apparently Donald Trump is taking hydroxychloroquine Yeah, so we'll talk about that Additionally Jennifer Rubin a conservative writer for the Washington Post explains why she now feels right at home in the Democratic Party And let me remind you she has not changed her ideology at all She's still just as conservative as she ever was and we'll have a conversation about how Bernie Sanders recently let us down By missing a key vote that would have made all the difference in the world Also, Jeff Weaver changed the name of his pro-biden super pack after Bernie Sanders was reportedly furious about the pack Marianne Williamson endorsed his primary challengers to members of Democratic Party leadership while Elizabeth Warren is endorsing Corporate Democrats over actual progressives and finally we close the week by talking to Cara Eastman who just Defeated a corporate Democrat in her primary in Nebraska's second congressional district and is now taking on Republican Don Bacon so these stories along with others will be discussed on today's show Let's waste no time because we've got a lot to talk about and get right to it There are a plethora of reasons as to why the left has not been very successful at gaining power in American politics But one of the main reasons is because I think that the left largely speaking generally speaking Has not been tough enough. They're just not willing to go after leadership and this isn't just You know about people running for president This is elected members of Congress and we're starting to kind of see, you know, the wins change a little bit But still I mean you can't expect to really affect change from the inside if you're not going after The biggest barriers to change and that is members of the Democratic Party's leadership And so what a lot of people can do if they are in a position of influence or power is Endorse some of these primary challengers to incumbent Democrats endorse McKayla Wilkes who's going up against any Hoyer Endorse Shea had but are who's running against Nancy Pelosi? These are really difficult campaigns to run like what AOC managed to do and taking out Joe Crowley that is So Difficult to accomplish the fact that she pulled that off was basically a miracle, right? But she did it and she ran a phenomenal campaign, but we can't just stop there We have to keep going and oust members of the Democratic Party oust members of leadership Especially who aren't allowing a progressive agenda to even be contemplated on the floor of the Senate or the House So with that being said, um, I am disappointed that more people aren't endorsing Shea had but are Bernie should have endorsed she had but are and there's still time, but I don't think that he will AOC could make a difference by endorsing Shea had but are so there's not a lot of people who are willing to stick their necks on the line To you know, endorse one of their fellow colleagues and I get it I'm not in Congress so I don't have to deal with that pressure of you know, condemning a colleague because that would make for a really awkward work environment Nonetheless, if you truly care about priorities, then you can't allow Nancy Pelosi to remain at the top of the Democratic Party Otherwise the party is going nowhere. She's driving the party into a ditch and we're all suffering because of it So we need bold change and that means you take some risks, right? You endorse her primary challenger She may try to marginalize you within Congress. She may try to isolate you, but I mean That's what you've got to do burning Sanders has no reason to not endorse Shea had but are I mean sure the Democratic Party would attack him But here's the thing Nancy Pelosi if you remember was part of these stop Bernie meetings with Chuck Schumer near a tendon and Pete But a judge as reported on by the New York Times So there's already bad blood there. So why not just add to you know The momentum that she had already has and endorse him right now a lot of people don't know who she had but are is so if a lot of these High-profile figures within the Democratic Party or associated with the Democratic Party back him that could be make a break But with that being said there is an individual who is very prominent who ran for president who decided to do what? I think is really really unexpected Indoor she had but are and that person of course is Mary Ann Williamson She came out with a surprising endorsement of she had but are on top of other phenomenal endorsements that she's been making lately and She made a really passionate and I think powerful realistic case as to why Nancy Pelosi has got to go take a look I want to talk to you about a congressional endorsement that I think is very important. I Have long had great admiration for Nancy Pelosi because She's the first woman speaker of the house and I believe that her achievements have paved the way in Really profound ways for women such as myself At the same time, I am a lifelong Democrat who has become very very concerned With the corporatist direction of the party in too many cases and I had met my own experience In the camp in the presidential campaign showed me how the control of certain forces at the expense of progressive forces is a direction that is Taking Democratic Party away from the principles on which I was always raised to believe it stands and And so in this election, I feel that we need to do everything possible To make a strong stand for those of us who have been Democrats for those of us who are Democrats We need to take a strong stand for the progressive vision that many of us feel is absolutely essential Not only for the future of our country, but also for this next election and as a consequence I am now endorsing Shahid but are For the seat the congressional seat and the San Francisco district where Nancy Pelosi now serves We have to get right to the heart of things and the Nancy Pelosi's of this world And I say this with all due respect for Nancy Pelosi have got to hear us that we are serious Have got to understand that yes, we on the left will challenge you we on the left that God Nancy This was what we always thought you were This is this is what I always thought the Democratic Party was supposed to be We've heard long enough. I yes, you understand No, no, no, no this last heroes act that did it for me. Mm-hmm Should be $2,000 a month until this is done. We need Medicare for all we need a show of Compassion for the American people They just simply not the agenda these days for the corporate back Democratic Party and if that doesn't change I think we're gonna have a hard time this year and America's even gonna have a harder time in the future So I hope you'll check out Shahid but are because I think he's worthy of our support. He's um He's a perfect challenger for Nancy. I think this is good for Nancy That was excellent and I cannot emphasize how important this move is a Name like Marianne Williamson who ran for president is endorsing the challenger To the leader of the House of Representatives. This is huge.  She's not trying to Curry favor with the left. She did this because she genuinely believes that Nancy Pelosi is an obstacle to progress Yes decades ago. She was a pioneer when it came to social justice, you know She spoke out in favor of lgbtq rights, but now she's blocking medicare for all which would save lives, right? She's not effectively challenging Donald Trump. She's failing us in A number of ways. So she's got to go. She's got to go.  Nancy Pelosi is a bad person. She's a multimillionaire She doesn't care about what poor people are experiencing So she's got to go and if nobody wants to be You know, um bold and endorse her primary challenger then you can't complain about Nancy Pelosi So for maryon williamson to do this I just I value it so much because if you truly want to beat the republican party Well, you've got to acknowledge that they're the final boss You have to get to the sub-boss and beat them first and that boss is democratic party leadership And if the left doesn't actually take on effectively Democratic party leadership nancy plosy chuck schumer steny hoyer We're never going to be able to win because we're not going to be able to challenge republicans Because people like nancy plosy are going to use their institutional powers To squash the left at every turn.  So I absolutely love maryon williamson like she has completely won me over We don't agree on every single policy But in terms of her strategy and her priorities We're absolutely aligned and everything that she has done has proven to people that she cares about the issues She cares, you know, she wasn't just running for president as a vanity project She was running because she genuinely cares about left-wing issues And you know, she's not willing to stay silent as leadership fails the people which is so important It's one of the biggest things lacking from the progressive movement Nobody wants to call out leadership. Everyone's too afraid to speak up But maryon williamson has absolutely been vocal at calling out leadership I mean, look at this tweet that she shared about the heroes act Quote even if we're only speaking in crass political terms, how can the democrats think all these incremental efforts are going to inspire anyone? It's like trying to sexually seduce someone with new office equipment And there are so many tweets like if you go through maryon williamson's timeline Everything she's saying is in lockstep with the progressive movement So look, it's really important to have leaders in the progressive movement because you can only be a leaderless movement for so long Until, you know, you start seeing increasing Factionalization, you see, you know, the movement itself kind of dissipate. This is why, you know I worry so much about bernie's movement because look at what happened to occupy even though That was a leaderless movement with no hierarchies and I think that's commendable You've got to have a leader to kind of steer the ship And we have a lot of progressive leaders and one of them unquestionably is maryon williamson And she is one of the few leaders we have who's actually willing to call out democratic party leadership And I cannot stress how important that is because again If you want to critique republicans, that's all fine and dandy. They're awful. They're terrible But they are the final boss if we cannot use the democratic party as a vehicle To actually take on the republican party Then it's going to be very difficult to affect change. That means we've got to oust members of the democratic party's leadership Who are obstacles to change? And this is the most basic thing that you can do To facilitate that goal Get people out of leadership Who are steering the party in the wrong direction and maryon williamson is helping with that And I absolutely Love her. She's the real deal and I cannot tell you how valuable She's been as a leader. Um to me. She is just I mean, I love her. I don't know what to say. I know I've said that but it's so nice to see someone Who is being principled and actually is committed to a progressive agenda, you know a new vision for america And It's great. It's really great to see it's so valuable and it really means so much to me So thank you maryon williamson. I don't know if she'll see this video, but if you do What you're doing is so Amazing, please keep it up A couple of weeks ago on the program we talked about how former aides and advisors to bernie sanders Have decided to form a pro joe biden super pack where they will not only try to persuade members of the left to support joe biden But they'll also be attempting to push joe biden to the left Yeah, how's that working out for you guys so far Now I found this absolutely repulsive obviously because this is a slap in the face to bernie sanders He founded his campaign on a new Fun raising model right he transformed the way that politicians Raise money there are dozens of members of congress who are not taking any super pack money who are rejecting donations From large multinational corporations. They're doing it the way that he did it raising money By individual small grassroots donations bernie sanders changed the game and so for members of his own team To do this it's just it's grotesque It shows us that they were never really in this because They believed in bernie sanders message. They were in this because they're career minded They were only looking out for themselves.  He couldn't have been happy, right? And his press spokesperson mike casca almost immediately Denounced the super pack saying we're not associated with this but we got a little bit of Inside information about how bernie sanders feels because a vice article by cameron joseph explains That bernie sanders was not happy and he actually got them to change the name Because he doesn't want people to think that this super pack is associated with him Because the name of the super pack is a future to believe in pack So they literally stole bernie's 2016 campaign message and they're using it for a pro corporate democrat super pack Where they can raise unlimited sums of dark money for joe biden like this is disgusting So bernie wasn't happy and according to this article He uh was using some quote unquote colorful language to explain his feelings So joseph explains when a bunch of bernie staffers formed a super pack name checking his old slogan A future to believe in he was none too pleased to give in his well-known hatred of groups that skirt campaign finance limits So they changed the name the group will now be known as america's promise pack The change was filed with the federal election commission on tuesday We wanted to be as clear as possible that there is no association between the pack and the senator super pack head and sanders advisor Jeff weaver told vice news We've relaunched the group in late april with a number of other sanders alumni Shortly after sanders dropped out of the presidential race and endorsed joe biden Their stated goal to help elect joe biden to the presidency while pushing his policies to the left But sanders has also spent the better part of his career crusading against the millionaires and billionaires Looking to buy political power and had a particular ire for super packs Which can accept unlimited sums from individuals and corporations sanders hammered his opponents for taking help from super packs During the 2016 and 2020 primaries and by all accounts He was rather furious when he found out some of his top advisors had decided to move ahead with one The senator was informed about the creation of the super pack Before the paperwork was filed and he was not happy about it sanders political spokesman Mike caska told vice news numerous other sanders staff used more colorful language to describe sanders reaction to the group He didn't authorize it He doesn't like super packs and doesn't want it to exist said one senior former sanders staffer familiar with sanders feelings about the group Bernie's pissed off said another okay, so I stand corrected. I guess that um, it was his staffer So we're using more colorful language. I got excited at the prospect of bernie possibly cussing And I guess I was wrong there jumped the gun, but according to them He didn't authorize it. He doesn't like super packs and he doesn't want it to exist Um, and he was furious bernie's pissed off. So I mean this is obvious right the fact that they would do this I mean it's so transparent now that bernie's not going to run for president again They're looking for some other way to advance their careers and you can't necessarily Be successful in the democratic party, you know apparatus in that establishment in that circle If you were against the establishment, right? You've got to prove to them that you're loyal And this is basically what they're doing. This is about optics Is this actually going to be a successful attempt to lure sanders supporters into supporting joe biden? Of course not Of course not. Um, and second of all, you're not going to get joe biden To go further left by running a super pack that what advertises campaign television ads How is that going to persuade joe biden? Are you going to market ads specifically tailored to joe biden? Do you hope he sees the ads like what is the point like this is a fraudulent organization, right? It's all just a political theater. They know this isn't going to be successful They know it's not going to convince anyone to support joe biden Especially with the way that they're doing it. This is all about them looking out for their own asses and hopefully Getting a job in dc in the future after they just ran with an anti establishment politician who the establishment was very much against So i'm glad that bernie sanders Um got them to change the name the fact that they used his name From the beginning. I think it's just unacceptable What were they thinking like were they expecting him to Think this was a good idea Why would they use his name like if you're going to sell out Because this is what they're doing they're selling out if you're going to sell out Then why would you appropriate? What bernie sanders used ss 2016 slogan when bernie sanders the man himself is against super PACs like How low are you willing to go for a career in dc? So look i'm glad that bernie sanders condemned this and spoke out Um, I think that publicly he should have made a statement although since this is technically a super PAC They're not supporting him, but I don't know if legally he's allowed to condemn it publicly But I will say bernie sanders has absolutely got to distance himself from jeff weaver Because from everything that we know based on you know internal Um Things that have come up people who volunteered for bernie sanders and worked closely with him I mean jeff weaver was running the show and even though fa Shakira was bernie's campaign manager Everything kind of went through jeff weaver in a way. He was really pulling the strings behind the scenes So, you know bernie, he's not going to run for president again, but just morally speaking I think he is obligated to distance himself from jeff weaver You've seen now firsthand bernie that he's not looking out for you. He doesn't align with you politically He has a different agenda than you do and I think the smart thing to do so it doesn't you know poison your image politically is um Distance yourself from him fire him get rid of him because here's the thing bernie sanders I'm assuming will remain in the senate for years to come And you want to make sure that you're able to maintain a pretty Large amount of influence and that influence comes from millions of people across the country who trust you who trust your authenticity And who don't believe you are you know, um motivated by anything other than helping the american people and with people Who are working for you like jeff weaver? I mean There's going to be a question always whether or not bernie is doing something because He believes in it or whether his misstep is just a genuine misstep or because jeff weaver is the one who kind of misled him Right, we already know According to some people who work with bernie sanders who were surrogates that jeff weaver Basically shot down ideas of what bernie should have done to appeal to black people for example investing in black media That's awful advice awful awful advice So jeff weaver has misled bernie sanders before and you know in the future We're going to need bernie sanders in this fight. He's not going to run for president again But we still need him so to distance yourself from people like jeff weaver assures us That you're going to be committed and you're not going to make some of the boneheaded decisions that you made before um also There's talk that jeff weaver is the one who influenced bernie sanders to not go negative against show biden Which was possibly one of the biggest reasons why he lost aside from the media bias. So, you know going forward bernie has got to distance himself from jeff weaver This is someone who's a grifter and you know, you've got to understand that from bernie's perspective Him and jeff weaver have worked together for decades. So there's some loyalty there You know bernie sanders is a very loyal person But what matters ultimately at the end of the day is Where jeff weaver's priorities lie and if his priorities are very much not aligned with yours Then you can't trust that individual's judgment and you've got to distance yourself from him There are phenomenal people who you can hire as one of your advisors david sorota is one of them Brianna joy gray nina turner. I mean you have so many options There's no reason why you would stay close with jeff weaver someone who has now just pulled the mask off He's not in this for the policies. He's in this for you know, the job opportunity You know increasing his power in dc So you've got to also take this a step further bernie and distance yourself from him entirely Because if you don't disassociate with him, then this is undermining everything that you've been fighting for throughout the course of your career So, um, you've got to not have him as your top advisor You know, uh sever that tie and move on from him because he is a bad influence on you I don't have to convince you guys. I love bernie sanders. Everyone who watches this channel knows I love bernie sanders. I mean he has single-handedly transformed american politics for the better He created a movement around progressive policies I mean we owe him a debt of gratitude for that forever because of what he managed to do However, that being said he is an imperfect person. He's not infallible and as a human being He's going to make mistakes from time to time and lately He's been making a lot of mistakes and one in particular It really has bothered me and I didn't have time to talk about this last week on the program But it's been weighing on my conscience and um over the weekend. This really bugged me He missed a really key vote that I think was crucial. Um something That pertains to the fourth amendment which has been a great concern to him He's spoken out against the patriot act and you know warrantless surveillance on americans We needed him and he wasn't there and the worst part I think is that He's been silent like we haven't gotten an explanation as to why He wasn't there for us And you know as his supporters I think it's especially incumbent on us to call him out because he knows This is a good faith criticism. It comes from a place of love Not you know an opportunistic attempt to attack him and take him down As we see with the mainstream media, but um before I go any deeper into telling you how I feel about this Let's get to the story itself as slates jim newell reports the senate on thursday took up a key bill to reauthorize domestic surveillance programs While making changes to the foreign intelligence surveillance act with several substantial amendments on the line One of the amendments introduced by democratic senator ron wyden and republican senator steve danes Would have required authorities to obtain a warrant to access internet users search histories and browsing information Uh, yes past that the amendment however met an extremely senate grave It failed with 59 yeas to 37 nays one short of the 60 vote threshold It needed to overcome the streamlined vestigial filibuster the splits didn't fall neatly along partisan lines 24 republicans voted for it while 10 democrats voted against it Would you like to see the names of the democrats who voted against it? Their names are tom carper bob kasey diane feinstein Maggie hassan doug jones tim kane joe manchin gene shaheen mark warner and sheldon whitehouse Four senators meanwhile didn't vote when any one of them could theoretically have saved the amendment by showing up Senator lamar alexander is self quarantined in tennessee after a staffer tested positive for covid 19 We don't know where nebraska senator ben sass was and do not care But where was democratic senator patty murray ranking member of the help committee and assistant democratic leader or senator bernie sanders Independent who caucuses with the democrats and also constantly comes in second place for the democrats presidential nomination Murray a spokeswoman told me after the vote was flying back to dc from washington state today She isn't in quarantine. She's just been working remotely an aid confirmed separately to politico That murray would have supported the widen danes amendment Had she been there a standard spokesman has not responded to our request for comment about the senator's whereabouts The vermont are was last seen on tuesday participating remotely in a help committee hearing from a room decorated with music related campaign paraphernalia He has not cast a vote since the senate returned to session on may fourth. So the question is Where was he?  You at least owe us an explanation Maybe he has a good explanation Or maybe he doesn't maybe he's just too focused on these task forces with joe biden Which I think is completely a waste of time and energy because that doesn't matter That's not going to change anything at the end of the day But his work as a united states senator, which is a very powerful position actually will make a difference So the fact that he didn't show up I just I don't know what to say this this bothered me. It's not like bernie To do something like this and no he's not a sellout. No He is not, you know a bad person because of this from time to time People are gonna let us down because at the end of the day we're all human beings including progressive leaders but He's got to do better lately bernie just has not been making Good choices And he's got to do better. This is unacceptable. And sure, you know patty murray is as equally responsible for this as bernie sanders, but I mean Nobody expected the milk toast senator from washington state to come through for us But bernie sanders it's really disappointing, you know, it's disheartening because if you're not going to be a leader when we need you the most That's hurtful That's going to leave a mark and you know, it doesn't give me any pleasure to criticize bernie sanders And I feel like I've been dog piling on him, you know with everyone else lately But I don't I don't want to do that. I don't want to give you the impression that you know He's useless to our movement and we don't need them anymore. No, that's wrong I think he's he's a crucial ally that we definitely need But from time to time as I stated People who we trust and admire are going to make decisions That disappoint us. They're not always going to be there for us And the last time I was this disappointed with bernie sanders Was in 2014 when I saw a video of one of his town halls from vermont Whereas somebody had asked him about israel's incursion into gaza where they were basically Um indiscriminately killing palestinian civilians and he gave a horrible response He said, you know israel has a right to defend themselves and I found that appalling and Uncharacteristic of bernie sanders now. He's improved on that issue, but it just goes to show you that he's not perfect, right? He's not always going to be right. He's not always going to be there for us And at times when he's not there for us at times when he lets us down and says a brazen way as this as he did here We have to call him out.  You're still in a position of power and influence And if you're not trying to make a difference, then we have to call you out We have to tell you to refocus what you're doing and actually You know pay attention to the things that matters like we needed you on this We needed you and you let us down And this hurts it hurts really fucking bad So if you've followed any of donald trump's white house press briefings with respect to covet 19 You know that he talks a lot about a drug known as hydroxy chloroquine, which is used traditionally to treat malaria and lupus And there was never really any evidence to suggest that this is actually an effective treatment of covet 19 But it's currently being determined through studies whether or not this can be used as a preventative drug to stop people Who are at high risk of contracting the virus of? Stopping them from getting it. We don't we don't know yet. It's inconclusive But with that being said he recently stated that he is currently taking hydroxy chloroquine And i'm gonna play a clip for you and then i'll share my thoughts on this And a lot of good things have come out about the hydroxy a lot of good things have come out And you'd be surprised at how many people are taking it, especially the frontline workers before you catch it The frontline workers many many are taking it. I happen to be taking it. I happen to be taking it I'm taking it hydroxy chloroquine Right now. Yeah A couple of weeks ago started taking it Because I think it's good. I've heard a lot of good stories and if it's not good. I'll tell you right I'm not going to get hurt by it It's been around for 40 years for malaria for lupus for other things. I take it frontline workers take it a lot of doctors take it Excuse me a lot of doctors take it. I take it Yeah, I hope to not be able to take it soon because you know, I hope they come up with some answer Alrighty then. I don't know what to say about that Part of me doesn't really believe him because he lies every five seconds But at the same time does trump seem like the type of person To be a guinea pig when it comes to a drug if he truly believes in it And you know, he's drunk in the Kool-Aid for whatever reason Putting aside any monetary connection that he may have with the uh drug manufacturers Sure, so it's totally believable that he would do something like this But at the same time, I don't necessarily know Maybe he's just trying to promote this drug more and say look, I'm taking it and I'm doing fine So other people should take it as well. It's so difficult To tell him he's telling the truth and it's just it's weird. Would I be doing something like this? Absolutely not. I don't want to be a guinea pig for any drug And um, you know for him to do this it just it I find this hard to believe because you think that the people around him would say no, mr. President You shouldn't take this drug. We don't necessarily know if there are any risks associated with this But nonetheless, he claims he's taking it.    Maybe I should try doing this as well We don't have conclusive evidence that this actually will Prevent you from contracted contracting cobit 19. Now the thing about this drug is that it comes with a lot of side effects I believe my sister was on this a generic version of it For lupus at a time and she stopped because of the side effects. They were they were extreme. Um, so There there's no conclusive reason to believe at this point in time that it will stop you from contracting COVID-19 and here's what the experts are saying as npr's joe palco reports Medical experts have urged caution around the drug and last month the FDA strongly warned against using hydroxychloroquine Without medical supervision such as in a hospital or as part of a clinical trial Although researchers have been skeptical of hydroxychloroquine's role in treating cobit 19 There is more enthusiasm about its potential to prevent infection That's because multiple studies have shown that the drug can prevent coronavirus replication Two such studies are currently underway One is being conducted by scientists and physicians at the university of minnesota and will involve 1500 volunteers at a high risk for contracting cobit 19 either because they are healthcare workers or live with someone who has the disease The study is actively recruiting high-risk healthcare workers and first responders from around the united states That study began clinical trials on april 6th to determine whether hydroxychloroquine is effective at preventing infection from SARS-CoV-2 The virus that causes the disease cobit 19 The other is a multicenter study led by duke university that is also aimed primarily at healthcare workers It aims to enroll 15 000 volunteers neither study has released any results Dr. David R. Bolware a medical professor who launched the university of minnesota study Said there is no data that using hydroxychloroquine as a pre-exposure Prophylaxis is effective. It may be it may not be we do not know he told npr The only way i would recommend taking hydroxychloroquine is within a clinical trial. He said so if you're going to take hydroxychloroquine as part of a clinical trial That matters right that makes a difference because they're constantly monitoring you and if they have if you have any side effects That you're experiencing they can treat you they can look after you So this is part of the reason why I don't necessarily know if I believe donald trump I mean certainly he can have a lot of medical experts around him But are they really going to be monitoring him does he have time as president to you know, um constantly check in And they can see if he's having side effects and if so manage them I mean he does spend hours a day watching fox news So maybe I just I don't necessarily know I don't care if donald trump is taking hydroxychloroquine But what I don't want to happen is people to you know, rely On something that they believe would be a cure if there's not sufficient evidence Like there is believe it or not a large contingent of people online Who believe in really kooky things that are harmful to their own health like there is a uh contingent it almost is like cold like on youtube of people who believe That drinking trace amounts of bleach is going to help heal you of numerous medical conditions And this is so harmful. This is damaging. You don't want people to get the wrong Information or ideas about what will actually improve their health if it could be damaging So this is why the only negative effect of trump saying this is that it may encourage people to kind of take their lives Into their own hands with regard to medications and try to do some type of weird, you know, I don't know bogus Experiment on themselves or take something that isn't necessarily healthy for them But with that being said, I do not care at all if trump is taking hydroxychloroquine How that if you want to take this ship take it it doesn't matter to me if trump takes it and experiences side effects Who cares? I don't care about donald trump What I care about is the impact that him promoting this drug or you know, something that may not necessarily be A good treatment will have you know, because if you're the president everyone is watching what you do um, so I I shouldn't have to explain like Why we have to be adults when it comes to this why we shouldn't believe you know conspiracy theories about health care Why we should do everything in our power to make sure that people They only do something or take a particular drug having complete information Um, so that's the only like negative thing that could come about this but without being said like again We're all adults here, right?  I don't care You know democrats think that as they follow republicans to the right They're just you know picking up new Right wing voters and absorbing, you know that that demographic while also holding their base But that's not the way that it works as they shift to the right They pick up new ground but also lose a lot of ground with the left, you know, it's not like one side of That spectrum between left and right shifts Like it's a block that shifts entirely and as you shift to the right you lose the left And increasingly as the republican party shifts further and further to the right and become a far right extremist party You know akin to u-kip or other really fringe right wing parties in europe that we see The democratic party is trying to pick up those moderates that republicans are losing And it's why you're seeing politicians in congress that are basically Republican and democrat but indistinguishable from one another ideologically speaking like joe manjin and susan collins are very much aligned You can almost not see any I think noticeable ideological differences They're in lockstep on everything when it comes to economic issues to most social justice issues So, you know, the problem is that the democratic party should never be hospitable To right wing moderates, but with donald trump's takeover of the republican party increasingly We've heard from the so-called never trump crowd of more moderate republicans who aren't necessarily in lockstep with the overt Nationalism and xenophobia that we see coming from the republican party. So they've kind of found a new home in the democratic party So we see people like anna navarro go on cnn and represent this never trump part of the republican party And we see jennifer rubin Who is one of the worst people in the country? I think Increasingly admit, you know, i'm no longer really vested invested in the republican party I kind of found a home in the democratic party and she penned an article In the washington post explaining how she actually does feel At home with the democratic party now this tells you a lot about the democratic party They should never ever be so right wing that a moderate republican Can feel right at home in the democratic party that tells you they've shifted so far to the right that They're not going to be able to hold the base You can no longer just expect that left wing people are going to vote for you If you can appeal to people like jennifer rubin and i want to get to her article here Because believe it or not She does lend us a lot of insight as to why the democratic party appeals to someone like her Who's just a flat-out right-winger So her op-ed is titled never trump becomes never republican and she kind of explains why She now aligns more with the democratic party as opposed to the republican party She writes their once was a friendly debate among those who used the never trump moniker About whether the g.o.p. Could be saved or was worth saving early in the trump presidency if not before i answered no Many who once spoke of reforming or reviving the party now have come around to the view it is hopeless I cannot speak for others But the reason the republican party is not worth saving is that with few exceptions e.g. maryland governor larry hogan massachusetts governor charlie baker its members have fully embraced trump and trumpism a noxious brew of nationalism Contempt for truth xenophobia and an america first agenda Any of these would have sent me fleeing from the party collectively they make it impossible to return Sadly my feelings toward the spineless republicans who blindly supported trump Opposed impeachment enabled his lies and attacks on institutions and have not found the nerve even in a pandemic To take issue with his lies impulsive reactions and dangerous preferences can be summed up in a single word Contempt democrats to the relief of many never trumpers made it easy for us in this presidential election Former vice president joe biden is a decent qualified man who is respectful of objective reality All right Understand separation of powers and embraces america as a nation founded on a creed all men are created equal Not on blood and soil. He is no socialist. We can happily embrace him I would have been prepared to crawl over broken glass to vote for anyone but trump Yes, even senator bernie sanders because of my conviction that trump is a menace to democracy And now a danger to our very lives. It would not have been a pleasant choice and many never trumpers would not have joined me Thankfully, we were spared the sanders versus trump matchup Finally, many people ask are you all big d democrats now? My answer is it depends I am a pat moinehan democrat a scoop jackson democrat and andrew quomo democrat I am not a bernie sanders democrat So where does that leave me where I have been for just about four years a center-right member of the resistance an advocate for good governance And internationalism including free trade and robust legal immigration and a passionate believer in the american creed The best answer perhaps to the partisan affiliation question is that it is a time for creative policy and civility So we will focus on that one final point never trumpers now never republicans should keep their eye on the extraordinary class of female freshman house centrists representatives abigail spanburger Mikey charyl elaine luria and others a lot of those ex republicans might decide they're abigail spanberger democrats So a lot of people instinctively might see this article and think wow, this is really smart of democrats You know trump is abandoning The base and democrats are just appealing to all of those people left behind By donald trump except let's keep things in perspective The never trump portion of the republican party is a very very small fraction And they're boosted and you know given This impression that this is a larger phenomenon that it is because we always hear from them in mainstream media I mean how often have we heard from anna navarro lately? How much articles from the washington post from jennifer rubin have we see lately? So, you know, there's this illusion that the never trump phenomenon is widespread and donald trump is just Out of step with the republican party base, but that's factually incorrect If you look at approval ratings from within the republican party trump is comfortably above 90 percent And you know sometimes he dips into the 80s But for the most part the aggregate republican party absolutely loves Donald trump and so here's the main point the fact that any former republican can just feel right at home With democrats while not making any ideological shifts whatsoever while not changing Their philosophy on politics that is a huge huge problem Because it tells you there's a gigantic portion of the electorate That democrats are abandoning for this small fraction of republicans Think about this. We all who watch this channel or you know are in tune with progressive politics Feel disenfranchised and disenchanted with the democratic party But have you ever thought you know what since I don't really agree with democrats I'm going to become a republican Well, of course not that doesn't make sense right because ideologically the republican party is at the opposite end of the spectrum that we're all on But with uh jennifer rubin She didn't have to change anything about her neoliberal worldview her free market worldview And democrats, you know, she feels right at home with them That tells you that the democratic party has shifted they shifted to the right Now you'll hear people on fox news like tucker carlson screaming about crazy socialists on the far left And sure we have more left-wing representatives in congress now like aoc and promila jaya paul But they're just one block a very small block Who doesn't have that much power within the democratic party The fact still remains even if we've made some attempts to yank the overton window back to the left That democrats disproportionately are a right-wing party They used to be centrist to center right and now I think you can Accurately characterize them as a right-wing party because think about this if you look through, you know, right-wing parties throughout europe Just take the tories for example in the uk They are arguably to the left of democrats on some issues and this is the conservative party in the uk because think about this Boris johnson, even if you don't necessarily believe him He believes in a national health system Now he's probably just paying lip service to that He's trying to undermine it at every step of the way and you know privatize more portions of it But he at least has to hide his agenda whereas democrats were openly hostile towards the notion of medicare for all Which doesn't even go as far as the uk's national health system. We're talking about you know Government-run insurance not health care and yet democrats are using the same exact talking points that republicans use How are you gonna pay for it? 180 million americans were kicked off their private plans that they love so much And it's not just the uk look at the conservative party in canada again, same thing They are to the uh left of democrats So this article right here, even if we all can't stand jennifer rubin and she's in an insufferable hack The fact that she feels right at home in the democratic party party shows you How far they've fallen because rather than firmly planting their feet in the ground And saying no, we're not going to follow republicans to the right We realize that there are real issues And policy prescriptions That are progressive that will you know meet the needs of americans So we're not going to follow you to the right and opt for more neoliberalism and private, you know solutions To public problems. No, we're not going to do that, but they're not doing that They're not doing that And as they shift further and further to the right Democrats are even abandoning the one thing that made them appealing in the first place social justice and racial justice issues And that's awful because once you take away That you know cultural issues, you know the left wing social justice issues then What point is there to vote for democrats? You just have two economically conservative parties I mean think about this with the tar read me too situation. They've abandoned The issue of me too entirely throughout the course of the primary We saw scandals with regard to Amy Klobuchar and Pete with a judge and their relationship with the black community And this wasn't really discussed So I need you to understand It should never ever be the case That a republican can feel right at home in the democratic party By not changing their ideology if for whatever reason jennifer rubin thought, you know what everything that I believed before you know following ein rand and melton freedman, whoever she you know Aligns with philosophically If she has like a political awakening Then that's fine, you know joined the democratic party But the fact that she changed nothing and she still supports the same policies That tells you that republicans or that democrats rather They met her she didn't change to meet the democrats the democrats changed to meet people like her And it's not like trump is the only catalyst of this phenomenon You know democrats have been inching further and further to the right as you know republicans have inched to the right As we go deeper into late stage capitalism But that should never happen It tells you we have no left-wing choice neither of the two parties Represent the most popular policy positions. I mean think about this a majority of americans support medicare frail And this is not in the manifesto of either of the two parties a majority of americans want to legalize cannabis This is not in the manifesto or party party platforms of either of the two mainstream parties So there's a huge portion of people in this country Who are just not being represented their ideas, which I think are the right ideas progressive ideas More democratic socialist ideas about worker co-ops and whatnot these are not being represented Whatever happened to you know Demand there's a demand for it. So why isn't there anyone filling that demand? Sure? You have politicians here and there individually filling that demand But if the democratic party was serious about winning They would try to adopt more left-wing policies and they wouldn't shift further and further to the right To appeal to disillusioned republicans But the fact again That they are easily able to appeal to people who are former republicans when that republican like jennifer rubin Has not changed ideologically That is such a huge issue And it tells you That we've got a lot of work to do After she ended her 2020 bid for the presidency elizabeth warren has been doing a lot of things making a lot of moves To grow her influence within the democratic party and one of the things she's doing Is endorsing Democrats running for congress now What this has really shown us if you weren't already aware of who she actually is is that she's not serious About getting progressive policies implemented because the individuals who she's choosing to endorse are um Not progressive And there are very viable progressive candidates who are running who she just completely ignored And some of them who aren't necessarily the most ideal most progressive who i don't support It doesn't make sense why she in her position isn't supporting someone who is very obviously a quote unquote Warren democrat whatever that means so let's talk through a couple of these uh endorsements here Because they are Really showing who elizabeth warren is in actuality the first person who we'll talk about is therisa greenfield And elizabeth warren shows to endorse her Over the true progressive in this race kimberley graham She tweeted i'm proud to endorse therisa greenfield in her run to represent iowa in the united state senate Her life has been defined by hard work Determination and resolve i know she'll put the needs of iowa's working families first Okay, well, we know now how important healthcare is medicare for all so what does uh greenfield have to say about the issue of healthcare Well, she claims healthcare is a right But yet she doesn't actually Believe it is a right in actuality because she only supports quote unquote access and explicitly does not support Medicare for all rather she says she just wants to expand the affordable care act to include a public option Now looking at kimberley graham. However, she explicitly Support single payer which includes dental hearing and vision coverage all free at the point of service Now ask yourself this if elizabeth warren was serious about medicare for all would she be endorsing The anti medicare for all candidate over the pro medicare for all candidate, of course not So when progressives told you that elizabeth warren backed away from medicare for all in favor of a public option This is more evidence that what we were saying was correct because if you want something Don't you think you would endorse people running for congress who would actually help fulfill your vision? Don't you think you would hold strong no matter how much criticism you face So she endorsed someone who is just a standard run of the mill democrat who doesn't support medicare for all who's championing Access to affordable healthcare, which is entirely subjective We all have access to a lot of things in life I could technically purchase a lamborghini. I have access to it. Does that mean that I have the means to of course not So this is meaningless. This is corporate democrat speak, but elizabeth warren endorsed this person over someone who's very bold kimberley graham Unbelievable, but that's not all because she chose to endorse jerry nadler over another real progressive named lindsay boylan saying I proudly endorse chairman jerry nadler in his run for reelection to congress His record shows that he doesn't just know how to fight. He knows how to win I'm honored to call jerry a friend and someone I continue to work with on important legislation So first of all jerry nadler does not know how to win anything He's a standard run of the mill corporate democrat and if you truly wanted to affect change Why would you endorse him? While someone else is running who actually has a real vision for america and look I get that you don't want to endorse someone who you consider You know the primary opponent of your friend That's fine, but you can just sit this one out if there's a real progressive option running Why not just sit this one out? Why do you have to make an endorsement in this instance? Well, you don't have to but she chose to do it anyway And what's weird is that this uniquely contradicts what she claimed to stand for during her presidential campaign Because as jordan chariden points out elizabeth warren boldly called for google and facebook to be broken up as a candidate google is nadler's top 2020 donor facebook is number five So why would you endorse someone? who Stands against what you said you believed in Why what's the point of that? It makes no sense. So as she builds this brand of warren democrat She's got to explain to us what that means in a policy sense because we get what it means politically, right? But what does it mean when it comes to policy? What does the average warren democrat stand for because it seems like We don't know this is you know inconsistent and the ideology of you know The average warren democrat seems pretty incoherent or nonexistent altogether Now the thing about jerry nadler is that you can make the case that you know Maybe he's not as bad as people like to make him out to be he co-sponsored per millijayapals medicare for all acts And that's great. I give him credit for that But the problem is he's taken thousands of dollars from health industry packs So how are we supposed to trust him when there is an actual progressive option? Who's not taking that money who also claims she supports single-payer medicare for all and the thing about this Is lindsay boylan actually feels betrayed by elizabeth warren endorsing jerry nadler over her because She used to respect elizabeth warren and she responded to warren's endorsement on twitter saying I have been a big supporter of your career and it's unfortunate that you looked right past me to the guy Who it took three decades to pass three things and who takes as much money from companies as he does from people How is that progressive she adds this is my daughter writing you a thank you nut for running for president I told her all about you. I won't tell her the story of how you didn't even bother to know who I was Before you endorsed my opponent and she concludes by saying by the time i'm at your stage in life I promise I will not overlook other women and close the door behind me Yeah, and I feel for lindsay because you know if you truly Believe someone is progressive for them to not endorse you for someone who's milk toast Who doesn't actually get anything done who doesn't stand for anything It seems to fly in you know the face of what you stand for but again elizabeth warren doesn't stand for much You know, whatever progressive ideals she came into congress with I mean, she's clearly abandoned them if she truly was a progressive Don't you think she would have endorsed bernie sanders when it would have made a difference after super tuesday when she dropped out No, she chose to remain silent because now she hopes that maybe she can be joe biden's vp So it's just this shows you once again that elizabeth warren Doesn't stand for much anymore and she isn't actually committed to progressive policy proposals But let's put you know these two endorsements aside one endorsement that honestly doesn't make sense to me Or lack thereof I should say is iana pressley Let me remind you iana pressley she broke from the squad when they all endorsed bernie sanders and she endorsed elizabeth warren Now we kind of expected this to happen because they're both from the same state But iana pressley stuck her neck out and became a surrogate one of elizabeth warren's top surrogates Gave her that progressive Credibility as you know a member of the squad And elizabeth warren has yet to endorse her now you can say that endorsement is coming Maybe she'll endorse her in a week or so because she's been kind of like trickling out these endorsements But how is iana pressley who has been loyal to you not your number one endorsement? I have nothing against iana pressley. She's not my favorite progressive and you know I'm very skeptical of her But if i'm elizabeth warren and this person who i needed to get an endorsement from was there for me Why not endorse her? I don't think iana pressley is even going up against a primary challenger Who can beat her who's strong if there are other options in fact I don't even know so you literally lose nothing. So why aren't you there for iana pressley after she was there for you It makes no sense So elizabeth warren once again is proving she just she's a coward She doesn't really stand for much and she's showing you She's not committed to progressive policies because if she was actually in fact committed Don't you think she would be making endorsements of candidates who explicitly support What she said she supported when she ran for president So look the reason why i'm talking about this is because in 2024 Assuming joe biden is unable to beat donald trump There's going to be a vacuum left open by bernie sanders absence He's not gonna run again and elizabeth warren is going to try to fill that void being left open by bernie sanders But acknowledge she's not real She's going to obama you because she doesn't believe in anything. She's proven that time and again She's gone full mask off I don't think you needed this extra information to demonstrate how much of a phony she is but in case you still weren't convinced Here it is Now i brought kimberley graham who's running for the senate from the state of iowa on my show and she's a phenomenal candidate And i'll link you to that interview down below But i have not yet had the pleasure of talking to lindsay boylan So i'm going to show you one of her campaign ads because after watching this ad you can't say that elizabeth warren Had a legitimate reason to just ignore her because this is a serious candidate with the real record of actually Accomplishing meaningful things take a look before the pandemic I was focused on issues that are more relevant than ever and i had my story ready to share with you How i got to new york How i was able to build a career and a family How i love it here, but ours is the most unequal district in the country How i fought for higher wages and better housing in our city And my credentials i was deputy secretary for economic development for the state of new york And then the world changed New yorkers are living and dying through this public health crisis It's outrageous that congressional leadership went on recess without getting enough cash in the pockets of those who needed the most I come from three generations of women who've lost custody of their kids because of mental illness and addiction My family would have been devastated to miss just one paycheck So you can be damn sure that as a congresswoman i won't be taking the week off while millions of people file for unemployment Growing up i had my share of struggles, but i've always said what can i learn from this and what can i do about it So i led job creation for the state of new york After the federal government abandoned public housing i negotiated hundreds of millions for nitra After hurricane maria, i led disaster relief efforts in portorico on behalf of new york I've dedicated my career to public service. We need to elect people who have skin in the game It's not just that i understand how our issues are connected. It's that i'm gonna do something about it So i mean linzi is qualified. She's accomplished. She has a real agenda You can actually go to her website and see a plethora of policy positions that are bold that she's taken Whereas with jerry nadler. I mean he's been in congress for how long we don't really know what he stands for He'll do um, whatever he thinks is going to be politically expedient So that's who you know elizabeth warren chose to endorse over lindsey over kimberley and that's just really uh It's i don't even want to say disappointing because there's a simplification that I'm shocked by this i'm not shocked by this at all This is exactly what we've come to expect from elizabeth warren but meanwhile I mean alexandria ocazio-cortez is endorsing progressive candidates like nabila islam from georgia Like sam lee slope as from new york and maryan williamson Also a presidential candidate in 2020 just endorsed shea hid buta or nancy bolossi's challenger mackayla wilts stanney hoeyer's challenger She also just endorsed eva putzovah So I mean everyone else is trying to do everything in their power currently To affect change to get more progressives elected to congress whereas elizabeth warren is endorsing a bunch of incumbent democrats over progressives which Makes no sense. She's endorsing Corporate democrats over progressive democrats like if you thought that elizabeth warren was progressive, that's fine But now that she's gone full mask off Don't be surprised when she does even more things that contradict what she purportedly stand stood for, you know in the past She's not progressive or at least if she is progressive Um ideologically speaking. She certainly isn't committed to getting that vision carried out, right? So I mean This is elizabeth warren now. Um, I'm at least thankful that she is not hiding The fact that she doesn't actually care about progressivism That's That's good at least, you know being honest is is good But um, just again, don't be surprised because this is who elizabeth warren is Hello, everyone. I am here with 2020 congressional candidate from nebraska's second congressional district Cara eastman fresh off of her primary victory She's here to talk about what she did to be successful and how we can help her win and defeat republican incumbent don bacon in November kara. Thank you so much for coming on the program. Thank you for having me. I'm I'm so honored to be here You know, I was telling cara before we came on that her Success here really helped to kind of pull me out of this funk that I was feeling Um, you know, because it seems like everything that we worked for In a way was crashing and burning before our very eyes and you know, there's still a number of really fantastic members congressional candidates running for congress across the country and your victory meant so much because it showed us that You know, we can still win We still have a lot to fight for and this election isn't over Like we may have not been successful at the top of the ticket, but we can still really have a tremendous impact You know when it comes to congressional races across the country Um, so I just want to ask you because this is really a difficult question that we're all asking to ourselves How did you win? Like what do you think you you did? What were the key ingredients to your campaign success because you're running in nebraska and you know Conventional wisdom would tell us that you have to be kind of centrist and You can't be too bold But you've run on this really bold unapologetically progressive campaign your advocacy for single payer is just phenomenal the way that you explain it I think is perfect. Um, so what do you think made you successful? Well, I mean Part of it is just hard work. We we were able to You know in 2018 we knocked on about 200,000 doors this cycle We made a full pass to the district before the corona virus hit I think my field director today said we had about 320 Thousand attempts at voter contact either at the doors or by phone And so I think hard work is part of it. But but the other pieces You know, I I am fortunate enough to have run in 2018. So I do my name ID is relatively high in the district I think that helps But also I think people are looking for authenticity in a candidate And even though we don't always agree on everything at least people know who I am and what I stand for and where I stand on things And and I think now it's just a matter of candidates trying to get people to understand that While not everybody agrees on progressive issues There there's there's so much common ground and I think part of the problem is is like messaging It's it's buzzwords that throw people off. We learned this right from obama care affordable care People didn't know they were different things or they thought they were different things and And so I think that's how it's happening now Like you walk into a room and say in medicare for all and half the room shuts down because they're like Oh, I don't like that thing that that guy was talking about on tv for years And so But the reality is when you explain it to them when you say this is cheaper for the federal government This is a lot cheaper for you This means you actually have choice and freedom when it comes to health care That you you don't have to go within network out of network for no parent reason whatsoever that you're not kind of get hit with surprise billing I think then people start going ha That's really interesting Then you get a pandemic and you and people say wow Untethering health care from employment not so crazy Yeah, and when I saw um or when I when I posted the video of your single payer, um Basically you make you make the case for single payer and you kind of respond to all of these talking points that we've seen that have largely You know, um manifested from within the industry that are fed to politicians Um, you broke down all of these anti medicare for all talking points I think brilliantly and one thing that I noted when I talked about that was that you really You have a great way of explaining something to where you meet people where they are So understanding, you know the context of the district that you know that you're running in and all of that unique dynamics there You know, you you touch on these aspects of freedom, which is important to people You know, you will be more free under a medicare for all system And what's interesting is that the minute you won your opponent don bacon republican Immediately started lambasting you on twitter with this absurd twitter thread Going through all of the ways that you are kind of this cuckoo crazy person And he's really trying to frame you as someone who is an unrealistic candidate And what is going to be your response because he already is trying to really focus on single payer And he's trying to use that to bring you down. How are you going to basically, um Repel some of these attacks and what do you think will be the best strategy going forward to actually beat him? Because I think this is a very winnable race and it's going to be difficult But if you win this could really change discourse nationally when it comes to where progressives can't win So how are you going to beat this guy? Good question. Um, well, well, first of all, we're lucky, right? This playbook has been played for decades About democrats about ideas medicare that this was the same narrative social security same narrative That this is crazy pie in the sky idea um, and so so there's that right there's the The fact that this is this is a traditional playbook that they bring out to try to make someone look nuts When really what we're saying is like there's a better system out there that actually saves money And and and obviously when when there's a woman running the the narrative, they you know, they love this narrative like i'm i'm this radical socialist crazy person Um that I don't have the right temperament all these kinds of things Well, like I run non-profit organizations for over 20 years My temperament's pretty calm pretty cool And i've gotten things done that people said couldn't get done and that's by building coalitions by bringing people together So I think one we have we have an obligation To point out where his his playbook is the republican playbook. It's the trump playbook And and he's just regurgitating speaking points given to him by a party I've never been that person nor will I ever be because I I'm going to fight for the things I believe in And any party can tell me what they think I should say but you know, I'm just going to be me And and the other part of this is the reality is congressman bacon has voted three times to take away healthcare from people without a viable plan to replace it when he talks about his plan Which was had some made-up name There's no way that that's going to save money and and I can't believe that That somebody you know where the republican party has traditionally been this party of fiscal responsibility They're now completely Rejecting although not completely right because when we look at single payer it keeps growing among you know popularity among republicans But they they're they're Some of them are rejecting this idea That we could have a system that's much more efficient that eliminates waste and that saves money for people I don't quite understand why that would be unpopular. Oh wait Yes, I do when the pharmaceutical companies and the insurance companies are coming in and lobbying and paying for Politicians to say this crap it works And so now it's time for us to stand up against those things and say we're gonna elect politicians Who don't take corporate PAC money who aren't bought and sold by industry and by special interests And we're actually gonna fight for regular working and frankly right now people who aren't working In this country because this is what we need and what we deserve Yeah, and the irony is that he accused you in his twitter thread of wanting to quote unquote take away people's healthcare But that's what he voted to do three times because if you just want to repeal what we have in place Obamacare it wasn't perfect, but it's better than nothing But if you repealed that and you don't have a replacement plan that's quite literally taking away healthcare So there's this weird conflict with their talking points on one hand Proponents of single payer want to take away healthcare, but at the same time it's too expensive and we can't afford it Well, which one is it if we're taking it away then There's nothing there to pay for right So, you know and these talking points don't make sense because they're meant to really confuse people And at a time when we have whistleblowers like wendell powder who came from the industry who says Hey, I helped write this choice talking point that politicians are now using I think there's really nowhere to hide and I wanted to ask you because you've talked to so many people What is the reception when you talk to people who don't necessarily know about Medicare for all And might not necessarily be disposition to support a progressive What is the response when you explain it to them because I think the way that you explain it It's basically you can't explain it in a better way. You break it down in such a phenomenal way That's why I shared that video rather than your actual campaign ad when I talked about your victory because It's such a great way because part of what I think has been missing with progressives is We're great at talking about policy, but marketing is is difficult marketing in the sense that we don't explain policies As well as we should and I think that you really are honing this craft So what is the general response from people who might not necessarily be inclined to support something like single payer off the bat? Well, I feel lucky that I've had been able to have these conversations so many times because trust me There are there are definitely people in the district who don't Or agree or didn't agree and the reality is if I can get three sentences out Inevitably they say oh, I hadn't thought of it that that way or oh, I didn't realize that So inevitable. I mean, I I remember this distinctly. We had a fundraiser when we could actually go out in public, right? at a at a small bar called the tiny bar and uh, and the the former mayor of Omaha was there He's a democrat. He you know, he would consider himself a pretty moderate democrat And he's a supporter of mine, but he's he asked me a question there and he said I don't know about this medicare for all They explain it. So I did three four sentences and afterwards he came up to me and said you sold me you sold me on it Same thing happened when we we wrote a two-page paper kind of a q&a on On single-payer healthcare and we had a a republican state senator read it and say wow I'd never seen it broken down like this. I don't know how I couldn't support something like this now So I I think look there's been so much misinformation unfortunately by both democrats and republicans put out there There's there's a lot of misinformation being spread on purpose some of it Just because people are running and they want people to be more Amenable to their ideas and they think if they're more moderate then they won't scare people as much and and I understand the fear It sounds crazy that tomorrow morning some of us could wake up without healthcare Well, except for the 30 million americans who just lost their healthcare, right? But like for for most people who have a job who have healthcare and and it sounds insane Well, one there's a transition program. This isn't an overnight approach This this isn't snap our fingers and get healthcare, but but it's it's rational It's reasonable and it makes sense and it saves money So I don't see why we wouldn't at least put out this idea this, you know and and see where we go Like there's going to be compromise along the way I actually one of the things I'm concerned about is over utilization and I talked to from illa jive Paula congressman who introduced the bill and we talked a little bit about this and she said There's places in the bill that prevent that but I get why people would be worried about that You know people worry that people are hypochondriacs and and are going to use healthcare too much And then what do we do if we have to wait months? I get all that it's scary But the reality is we would in the united states of america We would come up with the system that works and we can do it in a way Where we're actually saving money eliminating waste and giving people freedom to choose their healthcare provider I kind of want to go back to um your victory part of the reason why I felt um really frustrated with you know the 2020 election Is because you know covet 19 it really changed the dynamic of a lot of these congressional races because I think that You know the bread and butter of grassroots candidates. It's the knock on doors So you managed to win during a pandemic Can you explain how covet 19 changed your race and how you adapted and how that's going to change? You know the race going forward because you know as far as we know this could continue until november We don't necessarily know how long social distancing and self quarantine will be uh, you know Something that is a necessity. So how did you adapt and going forward? What would you say to other progressives who are currently running campaigns who haven't you know? They haven't won yet and their primaries are coming up How do you think they can arm themselves to adapt to a pandemic? It's tough and as I said before I think the fact that we did have relatively high name ID Her helped obviously But we we were able I have a great team and they were able to very quickly reconfigure so that rather than knocking on doors because we stopped You know immediately once we felt like it was unsafe for either our team or our volunteers or people at the doors Um when we stopped door knocking we immediately switched to phone banking And and there were days where we were making you know We had one weekend where we made 30,000 phone calls to people in the district And there's the technology out there to do that and if you have a strong volunteer base you can make that many calls But it's really relying on that grassroots support. And I think that's the nice thing for most progressives They have that support already so they can just really mobilize their own people and come up with some creative solutions We did a program called kids for cara where we delivered little coloring sheets in bags with crayons and stickers to kids We had about 100 people request these bags around the district Tell me on tv and mail, but I think you also have to look at other ways of reaching people and certainly the phone Especially when the pandemic hit was the best way because people were home and answering their phones Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Um, I wanted to ask you about the current fight that's being waged in congress We saw promilla jaya paul really speak out because nancy pilosi didn't include her provision To guarantee paychecks the workers that she fought for and after a large portion of the agenda of the congressional progressive caucus wasn't included in the heroes act And most progressives voted for it. Anyway, I wanted to ask what your position would have been You know as a member of congress, would you have still voted for the heroes act? Or would you have you know taken the jaya paul stance and not voted for it because you know I get the conflict internally, you know, there's some good in that bill But at the same time a lot of the progressive agenda was left off. It still doesn't go far enough So how you know if you're going to affect change from within How do you effectively challenge leadership and even not necessarily challenge? But how do you get them to take the progressive agenda? Seriously because one of my main criticisms lately has been of Members of congress who are progressive that don't actually challenge leadership In a really effective and meaningful way And I think that if they held strong as a block and withheld votes once in a while They would actually be more successful at you know, just being taken seriously by you know Members of democratic party leadership. So what's your stance on this whole battle with the heroes act? Would you have supported it? What do you think would have been the better strategy to get more progressive provisions included in the heroes act? Well, so so to answer your question, I would have supported it and and mostly because In our district, there are so many people who have reached out to us because they're not getting what they need from their current congressperson who voted against it by the way and Who are are struggling and struggling pretty hard core? And and there are provisions here that will help so But but as to your broader question I mean one of the things we need to do is to get different more progressive candidates into congress, right? Because as we expand that base as we make sure that there's more of a block Of progressive leaders in congress people who are willing to work across the aisle people who are willing to challenge leadership People who are willing to get things done This is where we we just need more people who are running on these Platforms to get into congress and then I think that's where the negotiation starts too, right? Like we this is this is a relatively new movement that we're seeing in congress 2018 was had some bright shiny spots We need a lot more of that to get things done At what point do progressives in congress actually really make a difference on the larger democratic party agenda because currently, you know Nancy Pelosi won't allow a vote on medicare for all even though, you know, we know that it wouldn't pass the senate But symbolically it would it would make a difference and show voters that you know The democrats just delivered on medicare for all they voted for it So elect a democrat or more democrats and you get medicare for all delivered to you like What do you think progressives can do because currently I don't really see the strategy Um from members of the congressional progressive congress Caucus being utilized correctly like I look to the freedom caucus I disagree with them on everything but you can't deny that they were effective and they really hammered leadership So in terms of like going into congress, this is difficult because you're not you're not there yet And you know, you don't you know, it'll be awkward, right?  So I can only imagine what that's like But what will your strategy be to really elevate the progressive agenda given The fact that in terms of numbers, you know, you don't have that much progressives given the fact that you know, you are taking on You know special interests What will you do to basically make sure that what we want as you know, the left center left actually is Going to get more of um more of a standing in congress if not passed altogether Sure. Well, well first of all My boss will always be the constituents in my district. That's a good answer And and so I I truly believe that people here deserve a voice And and so I'm going to listen to them now We're a swing district and I think when you have candidates that say like I'm gonna listen to everybody and do what everybody wants That's crazy, right? Yeah Because like, you know, not half the district But you know court of the district certainly don't agree with most of the things that I that I would like to get done Although they would benefit tremendously from them So I think the other place where we we need to do this well is Is to really pick and choose our battles and and the the the tough thing right now Is that with the pandemic there's there's I mean, this is the worst crisis We've seen in the country other than donald trump as president. It's in a while if ever and so um This is a tough time to be You know, I I feel for congresswoman giapol I feel for you know, some of the congressman brokana like I think that they've been incredible Attempts to get some more progressive policies implemented And and I think we also have to look at wins from a different perspective, right? So so what what are the things that we can accomplish? Where are the things where we can get bipartisan support for them? I mean when we talk about things, you know, people always ask me like well What are the things you can work with republicans on well infrastructure certainly something that we all agree on um, you know, they're we all think that pharmaceutical prices are too high And that was something donald trump ran on and we haven't seen any movement And I guess when I say we all think that I have to go back and say well But congressman bacon voted against lowering prescription drugs. So most people think that they're too high So I do think that there's some common ground there, but um, but I think it's also It's also going to take different voices different kinds of messaging and my background has been in Bringing people together to solve problems when I was hired to start my nonprofit in Omaha Omaha Healthy Kids Alliance My board was made up of membership who were you know appointed by the Nebraska delegation Who are almost all republicans and we were able to get a lot of things done I actually worked with one of our republican us senators years ago to help sponsor the healthy housing council act He was the only republican in the senate that would even touch it And it's to create a council to advise over healthy housing issues. It's not like some sort of radical thing But like but that's the work that I've done. So I believe I will take I can take that experience and expertise to congress to try To get some stuff done. That's great. That's encouraging you here Um, one last thing I want to ask you with regard to policy is in a perfect world Um, if you could pass whatever you wanted to do with regard to covid relief What policies would you implement? What do you think your constituents would need the most at this time immediately? Um, well, I you know and I I think that the way that the it began in that in his ending is like it needs to be flipped Right, so it's always got to be working people first workers first Um, what are we doing for them bailing out the big corporations? Yeah, we can get to that But like they're doing fine, right? Um, so so starting there starting with small businesses I've talked to so many small business owners who are Just don't know what they're going to do next and when you have the president of the united states say things like Small businesses will be fine, but maybe under new ownership It's like come on, dude You don't like you must understand on some level that these are family owned businesses that have been passed down for generations Sometimes and the idea that you would just completely disrespect that is so un-american to me So it's like we really have to start looking at this from a different perspective. So for me, that's where we would have started Yeah, yeah, the response has been completely tone deaf You know, there was a there was a moment in time where at the beginning of this pandemic It kind of seemed like maybe we would see some bipartisanship In terms of relief But you know that hope dissipated almost immediately when we we just didn't get that, you know One time payment of $1,200 is obviously not enough for working families And you know when they you know, give us those crumbs give working people those crumbs But it's tied to a huge multi-trillion dollar bailout for special interests You know, it just shows why we need people like you in congress because this can't keep continuing We can't keep giving, you know, um special interests all of these gifts For lack of a better word while the working people continue to struggle and you know the the sense that I get from You know members of congress and president trump is that they don't even really seem to care anymore Like the the belief is that you know workers got that $1,200 bailout. That's fine You know, I think it was Steve Mnuchin who implied that it could last 10 weeks or something to that effect. I'm paraphrasing. So it's just it's ridiculous So look, I think that anybody who's watching this is incredibly excited about your campaign and we want to see you win So give us your um information about what we can do if we don't leave live in your district How can we affect change and get you elected? What can we do for you because we all want to see you in congress? We know you'd be a fighter. How do we make that happen? Um, so if everybody watching could move to the district I think that would be really helpful and then um Um No, we we rely heavily on volunteers as I said before so we we do have opportunities for people to sign up on our website Eastman for congress.com. I don't take corporate PAC money. So we also rely on grassroots donations and Any amount is great. We have a program called invest her that's a peer-to-peer fundraising program So you can sign up and you know set a goal for yourself I want to get 20 people to donate or i'm going to raise 50 bucks or whatever it is We want to grow our grassroots support as much as possible And then just spreading the word commenting on our stuff on social media letting people know that you know on our team that That you're with us. It's nice to feel this collective energy right now People who actually want to change the country and move it in the right direction Yeah, absolutely. Thank you so much and I will make my pitch for cara Um, even if you don't necessarily live in that district the policies that she passes will be implemented nationally Like I always like to point to the example of Ilhan Omar to where she proposed student debt cancellation That impacts me directly and she's not my representative So, you know, this is about building, you know a nationwide movement And we do this in every single district and get you know as many progressives elected as we possibly can So cara, thank you so much for uh winning first of all and giving us kind of something to fight for and letting us know that a victory Is possible even in very weird circumstances with you know a pandemic and whatnot And yeah, we'll be we'll be rooting for you and watching this race closely If I don't have you back on before the election, hopefully I can bring you on when you're actually a member of congress That will be uh, very exciting That would be great. I'm happy to come on anytime. Thank you. Thank you so much cara cara eastman running in Nebraska's second congressional district against republican Don bacon Links will be in the description box if you would like to donate and support her campaign Well, that is all that I have for you all uh today Thank you all so much for tuning in if you've made it this far on the episode As usual, we're not going to end the show without thanking all of our patreon paypal and youtube members for helping the show Not just to survive but thrive as well You all are the lifeblood of this show and we just absolutely cannot do this without you So I truly appreciate you and if you cannot contribute monetarily, uh, trust me Just liking the videos watching the videos that really does go a long way So don't feel as if you're not also helping us because if you're just watching and liking and commenting that really does Help the program. Uh, so, uh, I'm done talking. I've got nothing left to say. Thank you all so much for tuning in Uh, I will see you next week. Uh, this is the humanist report. I'm mike figurado. I've run out of words. So, uh, I'm done talking