 Hello, everyone. I am here with Isaiah James running in New York's ninth congressional district. He's running again He's been on my show multiple times and he is one of the best congressional candidates Isaiah James welcome back Thank you so much for having So I I've got to ask the question and we've talked since you've launched again What on earth made you want to run for Congress a second time because the first time it sucks the life out of you and every Congregational candidate that I've spoken with says it is the most grueling the most tiring thing that they've ever done You're doing it twice in a row. What made you want to do it? Well, first of all, this is not the most grueling or tiring thing I've ever done I've been to war three times That's a good point. Yeah, so This is actually pretty easy compared to getting shot at and blown up every year. Yeah, I mean so not that Not that grueling. It's very time-consuming, but what made me want to do it again You know, I don't want to say do it again. Like it's just like some endeavor What made me have to do it again is because the situation that we're in in this country is getting worse by the day It's getting worse by the billionaire created It's getting worse by the company that fires somebody, you know Lays them off instead of wants to pay them a living wage. Nothing is getting better Everything is getting worse and it's not hyperbole for me to say that things are getting worse People know that so nobody stepping up, you know, the few people that do step up the voices are drowned out so, you know What do we have to lose by sit by by standing up and fighting for our community? If I was to say, you know what screw it and sit back The corporations aren't gonna stop the billionaires aren't gonna stop the millionaires aren't gonna stop Police violence is not gonna stop housing injustice is not gonna stop climate injustice is not gonna stop So I might as well Have some skin in the game and try to fight for the things that I believe in and things that I know It'll make my life and my community's life better and in turn Every working person in poor person's life better. So you better get you better better get off off your ass and get to it Yeah, yeah, hey fair enough So I've got to ask you because you're running a second time and everyone who I've spoken with who has run multiple campaigns They always say round two is it's different because you have a lot more inside inside You know the district even better, you know kind of what you were lacking last time. What's different this time to you? I feel like now you kind of have the additional Insight that you that you need to actually win and bringing home What do you think has been the biggest thing that you've changed with this second run? It's not really I haven't changed anything my message is still the same. It's it's still, you know Economic message for the people but the thing is I'm not as gullible as I was last time. I'm not as you know Rose colored glasses as last time, you know last time believe it or not. I was running I was like I didn't want to tell anybody I was running. I thought I could do it in secret and like You know sneak up and be the insurgent and nobody saw I didn't really want to raise money because I don't like asking Poor people to work in people for money. I'm like, yeah, I don't I don't really need money I just need a good message and a good voice You know good volunteers. I'm not as naive as that this time. So I know I just I grew up a lot from 32 year old Isaiah, so I'll be 35 In two weeks, so I grew up a lot. Happy birthday. Thank you October 13th. I turned 35. I can't okay so yeah, I grew up a lot since then, you know, I mean and It just it just shows me that it shows me that this fight is worth having because when I was young and and Idealistic at 32 thinking I could change the world now. I'm at 35 and I know that we have to change this world Yeah, and I turned 35 next year and I feel like with each passing year I get more and more cynical but not necessarily in a bad way I mean some of it is demerism, but I feel like I just know more. I know what to expect I know how to view the world better and I feel like with age It really does come wisdom not for everyone because oftentimes the trope is that when you get older You get more conservative, but that certainly hasn't been the case with me, and I don't think it's the case with you So it's interesting one thing that I wanted to ask you about is and we talked about this the last time You're running for Congress is you are running against Yvette Clark This is the incumbent and we don't hear very often about Yvette Clark You know the rotating villain for the Democratic Party if you will is mansion cinema And so she's definitely not as bad as someone like Henry and re quay are or other corporate Democrats So why do you feel as if she needs to be primaried? I? Want to correct you on something she is just as bad as all of them. She's just quiet She doesn't do it. Oh, she doesn't make any waves. She just takes the corporate money and doesn't do a goddamn thing So they're just bad. Let's not equivocate Money let's not equivocate on her taking defense money and big gas and big sugar and big agra and big insurance That we're not gonna equivocate on that. She's just as bad as the rest of them She just doesn't do anything. That's why you'd never hear about it at least Joe Joe Manson's a piece of he's a POS But he takes a stance She's a tissue in the wind. She goes wherever the wind blows. She doesn't want to ruffle feathers She she votes for anything military. She votes for anything You know Nancy Pelosi says and as we can see look what's happening in Congress right now Even the demo some of the Democrats don't want to you know, bolster the social safety net So all of these folks they're just as bad. What makes me know that she needs to go is that dude? If you walk around my district right now All right as the same homeless people on the streets they were on the streets three years ago If they didn't die from the pandemic if you walk around my district right now, there's more drugs. There's more crime Excuse me. There's more children who are hungry doesn't this there's more people getting evicted from their homes I'm like what the hell is going on in two years during the pandemic you had The world at your feet you could have done anything you could have put forth any bill and got people rally into your side You did nothing you did nothing I mean dude that we can't afford to have feckless milk toast Middle of the road whatever acronym or adjective you want to use we need bold Transformational leadership and we need it now look at the look at the world as it stands You know, I mean the ice caps are melting their amazons on fire Do people are there's a goddamn? Pandemic that is killing millions of people and we still have half the country who doesn't believe it's real The other half of the country who just wants to go and bury their heads in the sand because they've been dealing with it like the rest of us Now is not the time for us to take our eye off the proverbial prize Which is a more equitable and more just and a more more Egalitarian society and we can make it so we just have to have people in office who want to make it so Yeah, and I think that the point you're getting at is that if you're complicit You're part of the problem and I totally agree with that. She's not putting herself out there She's not being a leader and I think it's actually bad if a politician isn't trying to strive to have More say more national name recognition You don't have to just put yourself out there because you have broader political ambitions And you want to run for president you can put yourself out there because you have something to say and that's really what I think is lacking And it's the lack of effort from a lot of these lawmakers that is Sufficient to warrant a primary challenge, but you know, you are someone who's a leader and so here's what I want to ask you I actually want to pose a hypothetical question to you because if you're in Congress, it's it's gonna be challenging It's gonna be tough. I have no doubt that you can weather any storms whatever they throw at you But I'm curious as to what you would do in kind of peculiar peculiar situations where there's really no right or wrong answer So let's say that you just introduced some bill that you really want passed. This is kind of like your go-to issue And in order to get support for it in order to get more co-sponsors for it You have a group of Democratic Party lawmakers who say we're not gonna give you a committee hearing for this Unless you vote for this other bill which you don't actually agree with ideologically you're opposed to it So the question is in that type of a scenario, which is bound to come up if you're in Congress How do you balance out the pros and the cons doing something you don't like to possibly? Benefit the greater good. How do you navigate those types of situations? Can you just kind of speak through your thought process? Yes, so I'm glad you brought it up Somebody has to take a stand if you keep equivocating than it you're bringing up a scenario. That's not a hypothetical dude It happens all the time It happened. That's how we get all these pork barrel defense spending Why do you think the rich keep getting richer and tax breaks keep going through because that happens all the time Look what happens when there's a group of people who say we're not going to vote for that bill Unless you make the social safety that bigger. It's it's national news They're like what is going on because finally somebody's taking a stand No, if it's going against what I believe ideologically, I'm not going to vote for it. I'm sorry I'm not I told you this the year and a half ago the lesser of two evils is still evil All right, I do not want to prescribe to that I don't want to sign my name onto a bill that's going to give israel more iron dome funding while our schools are failing I am not going to sign on the bill that gives a corporation a tax break While a single mother is struggling just to make ends meet and can't get help from the damn government I cannot in good conscience do that I would hope that the people of my district would vote for me knowing Who I am and where I stand on the issues Sending me through congress to represent their best interests and to do what I think is right on their behalf Because I'm not some rich kid who just wants to run for office I am one of you when I take this suit jacket off I walk down flat bush avenue I go to the bodega and I buy a sandwich because I am one of you So I would want you to do what's in the best interests of me And I hope they understand that anything I would do would be in the best interests of them Not the rich and not the powerful Yeah, I really like that uh that answer because it kind of gives people a sense of what You're going to do in congress. You're going to be one of the legislators. Who's this immovable object and Listen, you yeah, you have to be that immovable object because if you capitulate here and in there and in there and in there and in there Listen, a ship does not sink because all of the water around it A ship only sinks when the water gets inside of it So if you capitulate in a little crack here a little crack there And there's just a little bit of corporate money gets in here and a little bit of corporate money comes to your coffers there You're invited to a cigar tasting here and a whiskey sipping there and then you become Corrupted just like all the rest of you Yeah, and I think I think the issue is that if you Make mini compromises here and there I think that sometimes that's acceptable, but over time if enough lawmakers do it enough I mean we we get into the situation where you can't really break that cycle And so I think it's really important to have people like you that kind of get in there and your wrecking balls You won't necessarily play by their rules and you don't want to be part of the establishment or their club You don't want to make friends with your colleagues. You just want to get things done I'm not going there to have to make friends. I'm going to solve problems. I don't want to be any of those people's friends I don't want to go to your parties. I don't invite me to food Listen, if you know me if i'm not working i'm at home. I'm reading a book. I'm watching youtube I don't want to be a friend. I don't want to hang out with you I'm your co-worker and that's what at at 1700 five o'clock when you walk out of this building. That's what that stops Yeah, okay, so I want to I want to ask you a different hypothetical question Um, so it's about policy details and you're one of the few people who I think really Explain the fundamentals of certain policies that you support really well like the intricacies and sometimes We can get presented a package that is seemingly good, but when you dive into the details It doesn't look so good. So for example, there's a couple variations of paid family leave going through congress I don't know which one will ultimately land in the build back better act the reconciliation bill But uh kirsten jillabrand surprisingly has a really good Um paid family leave plan it just takes from social security and people just they they get that federally But then there's also a corporate version of that same plan Where it's uh privatized and you go through a certain company sort of like insurance I don't know which one will ultimately land but let's say that that was taken out of the bill That was decoupled and there was a vote for paid family leave all of a sudden You have these independent media progressive personalities saying isiah james just voted against paid family leave He's a sellout. How do you handle that situation because it's really difficult like we're in and this isn't I used to think that this was just a mainstream media problem It's also an indie media problem too where sometimes we have Standards that are either too high or we don't understand things So how do you change the narrative as a politician? When you're not necessarily able to come on shows as frequently as usual and explain yourself How do you how do you handle that type of situation because optics is everything in politics? And once you kind of lose support if you were to lose support Um, how would how would you try to regain trust among not necessarily your constituents but people who uh Have been following you for years my viewers for example people on twitter How would you respond to that because I genuinely don't have an answer But I want to know what you think well the thing about me is you know, I'm I'm an accessible person. So I would like you know what I would hold Christians cinema or Chris uh, or Chuck Schumer or hold alive on On instagram or facebook our generation. We are the millennial. So I know how to use all this stuff. So one Don't don't look what I I say look what I do If I ever voted for anything That you know goes against the interests of working people and poor people. No, I would never do that I would never ever do that So if I've ever done that and you call me on that but it'll never happen and two I'll address the people i'm a i'm a i'm a man of the people if you have a problem With the way you think things are going and i'm your representative you could talk to me Send me a dm Right now even right now to this day mike and you know this I have thousands of followers on all my social media. I have the blue check marks. I have all that stuff There's not a single person that writes my tweets that does any of that stuff. Whoever does that is me I see everything I respond to everything because I if something is going out in the world I said it and I meant it So just reach out to me and talk to me. You'd be surprised somebody wrote me an email to the campaign email The other day they said hey mr. James. I saw you on a show. I wanted to make a donation. Here's my phone number I was like, okay. I called them wasn't a big donation. It was like 27 bucks They were shocked that I actually called them. I was like you told me to call you So I'm calling you I can devote five minutes out of my day to call you and to tell you what my platform And policies is about it's just being accessible to the people people get mad at at aOC But she doesn't she gives you like once in a once a month she'll Cook something on live and answer a few questions A representative is literally the voice of the people so You just have to talk to people you have to make people see that I'm not voting against I'm not voting for anything that's against your best interests Because right now people get so mad because they don't understand anything in washington It's all a bunch of yeah, have you ever read like people you say I break down policies I went to school both undergrad and graduate for public policy and political science So I understand the minutiae it's about breaking down these complex subjects into simple Easy to understand things for everyday people like this is why this bill sucks. It sucks because it's going to give Corporations, you know huge tax breaks and it's going to hurt you the working person And if they understand that you're that you not only can tell them that but that you're fighting for their interests because you're one of them Then people would believe that's why If you look last cycle you remember all the policies that were going out all my opponents were attacking each other None of them said a word to me None of them said a word about me or to me to my stuff all they said was I had lack of experience But they couldn't attack my policies because every one of my policies is written by working people My wife is a teacher. That's why we talk about Education my wife is port-a-reca her family is port-a-reca. That's why we talk about independence from port-a-reca My father is an immigrant to this day. He's not a citizen. That's why immigration means a lot to me I talk about veterans issues because I'm a veteran I talk about student loan because I have student loans lgbtq mean something to me because my little sister Deserves the same equality as everybody else. So these aren't just amorphous topics to me All of this stuff actually means something to me and mean something to millions of people across this country And that's where i'm going to fight for Yeah, yeah, and I love it and the reason why i'm bringing up these hypotheticals is because by now I feel like most of my audience knows you so I think it's interesting to get the insight to what it would really be Like to visualize I want to do a live with you so people can just ask questions Right then in there, you know, I mean, I'll be awesome I don't want people because I know we say like these questions aren't scripted But people I know somebody's out there gonna be like they probably rehearse these questions, which we did I promise you you did not but yeah live like even like a 30 minute live on twitter or something where people can just ask questions Just ask me whatever you want to ask me as I guess i'm a public figure now I I had to google myself the other day and said public figure, which I never thought I'd be but whatever Just ask me whatever you want to ask me. I'm just saying regular old isa I told you most of you don't know this I have on a nice blazer I have on sweatpants and crocs. I'm not playing with you people My crocs right here, dude. I'm a regular everyday guy. So don't don't let the glasses in the in the nice suit for you I love it. Oh, I will say rule number one when you become a public figure is never google yourself I learned the hard way that that's a very bad idea. So yeah, I googled myself. I was like, oh Oh, yeah about me. You're like I was 40 years old. I'm 40. I didn't know I was 40. Okay Yeah, yeah I found very very weird stuff. I actually broke down one of the uh celebrity biographies written about me It was very strange I don't know where these people get this information Some of the stuff they wrote I'm like that is absolutely not true I've never lived in massachusetts. I don't know what the hell you talking about, but okay Yeah, yeah, it's a massachusetts. I was 40 years old I was like, wow, I didn't know any of this stuff. It's news to me Yeah, news to you as the person is reading this about you. Yeah, it's It's bizarre. It's bizarre. Well, isiah let people know how they can support you what you need specifically Uh, currently is the donations. Is it canvassers and just kind of like, uh, give us your your last pitch I feel like you don't have to win many people over on this channel But if if you're a newcomer here, what's your message to them? My last my last pitch to you would be I'll tell we're millennial. So I'll tell it to the gen z is We're in the end game now. All right. This is I've seen 14 million different scenarios One of them we win and the one we win is by electing Like actual progressives and people who are democratic socialists and people who don't take corporate money to congress every other scenario every single one Results in a failed america results in the rich getting richer Black people getting treated like crap immigrants women lgbtq Everybody getting treated like crap if you're not a rich white man There is one scenario in which we win and that's by putting people in office who actually give a damn about You and me because they are you and me. So that'd be my pitch my pitch would be listen. You're broke. I'm broke Everybody's broke if you're not rich, you're broke. There's no there's no middle class in america anymore. You're the rich or you're broke I get that if you can donate 27 dollars 50 dollars 100 dollars by all means I would love for you to do that because every single dollar is Uh a door knocker. We can hang on somebody's door. It's a t-shirt. We can print up for a volunteer It's it's the staff that we can turn from volunteers into paid staff You know what I mean? Because We want to pay people for their work. So those dollars actually matter and they actually count and they actually do Do a lot for a grassroots campaign and if you can't Follow me on social media and share whatever the hell I say Blast it out if you agree with it blast it out to your your circle your circle your social circle because Six degrees of separation. You'll never believe Who sees that I'm telling you right now. I've said some stuff on twitter and I've had people hit me up I'm like, how the hell is this person who's a famous actress or actor See this because somebody somewhere shared it and they got to them and we made that connection and that's what it's about It's about making the connections because I promise you your problems aren't you're just your problems The things you're going through it may feel like it's just yours But other people are going through them too and we only win by becoming a collective Yeah, I mean just think about it. I always said this to you. I think was two years ago, Mike A single snowflake it falls and it hits the ground and it melts has absolutely no effect If enough snowflakes get together when they fall they can create a mighty avalanche They can wipe away anything in a goddamn path. So that's what the collectivism collectivism is just think of it like that So that's my pitch. You know, you can follow me Isaiah for congress on twitter facebook instagram And then you go to isaafriconference.com if you want to sign up to volunteer get our newsletter You know buy some merchandise, which is coming soon like shirts and totes and stuff that counts as a donation and you know Read my platform. That's it. All right. Well, Isaiah James. It's always a pleasure I'm sure that you'll be back at some point in time before the primary. Uh, good luck. We'll be following your campaign Thank you so much for having me now. I'm about to go eat dinner because I am Same same. All right, you take care