 We're gonna look at a CNN clip. This is an interview with Corey Bush and Jamal Bowman by CNN's John Berman and This is probably one of the best interviews. I think I've ever seen from leftist lawmakers and that's not a hyperbole Basically, what they do here is they thoroughly deconstruct the mainstream media's bias Against leftist lawmakers. They kind of take that narrative that is usually pushed and they challenge it Usually if we see this dispute between leftist lawmakers, progressives and Santrists, Democrats, then I mean nine times out of ten It's the progressives who are framed to be the bad guys and the obstructionists and they're the ones who are being unreasonable and You kind of get that sense in this clip that John Berman is Siding with Joe Manchin. Now he may be playing devil's advocate But either way the narrative here that Joe Manchin is the reasonable one and leftist lawmakers are the ones who are being Unreasonable that is challenge and I think thoroughly dismantled here by Corey Bush and Jamal Bowman and every single person Needs to see this especially members of Congress because if everyone got on the same page and said these things I think that finally we'd be able to break through and People who tune into mainstream media wouldn't always have the same takeaway that progressives bad Santrists and moderates Reasonable so take a look at this first clip here. You talk about the people in your districts and what they're asking for How do you tell them that? The possibility of nothing is better than the possibility of everything. Why is that the possibility? I'm sorry Corey go ahead. No, but that that's what you voted If it's a 1.5 trillion dollar plan that gets to the floor we vote against it But that's the expectation the expectation is we will we will give you crumbs and expect you to be happy What we're saying is I didn't come to Congress to continue to give crumbs to my community St. Louis continues to get crumbs and we keep being number one for homicide number one or number two for homicides Number one for police murder number one for the murder of children. We keep having those issues We keep having issues with ten of black children being ten times as likely to go to the hospital in emergency room For asthma than white children. How do we fix those things? You have to put the money there and so I didn't come to Congress to sit back and accept those crumbs give my folks the Meal and that is why we're here to push that don't ask us Why aren't we willing to compromise? Ask Joe Manchin. Is he okay with violence in our communities? Continuing public housing falling apart black and brown people disproportionately dying from COVID the climate crisis acts him To go bigger instead of asking us to go smaller to be clear We're asking every member, you know Where they're going to go and where the possible agreements can be reached? Paula Gala was on earlier today and talked about progress versus perfection You know, well perfect. That's not even but we're talking about a package that is not even perfection Trillion was the compromise This is not inviting came in a six trillion again And I'm making the argument that Joe Manchin is making here because he's not sitting here But he's he would say 1.5 trillion isn't crumbs We're paying for 1.5 first of all, so we have the offsets. This is key My district that's right. Tell him to come to my district Tell him to meet with me and I'll take him to see what happens when you give when you give a little of you give a Little of something and you expect people to live off of that because what'll happen is that 1.5 trillion or or whatever It turns out to be that he wants We can't expect anything we can't expect other investments other big investments to come right after that It'll be oh, we did something for you We spend seven point six trillion on the military alone Every ten years and it's okay for us to spend that money No one back tonight, but we're looking to spend three point five over ten years that most of it is paid for on a bottom-up Economy to target those most vulnerable and we have a problem with that black brown black and brown people black and brown women Indigenous people poor people we always have to wait you always ask not you The government always ask us to kick the can down the road for for the most vulnerable and people to me That's unacceptable. So I don't say this very often, but I think that everything that they said was Virtually perfect. I wouldn't change a single thing. In fact, I don't really have much commentary to supplement what they said But I just want to highlight what they said because it's that good So the one criticism that I could anticipate is that well you could say maybe they were being a little bit too harsh on John Berman, he's just playing devil's advocate not all CNN anchors are gonna say the same thing But I think that the questions that he asked were so silly Even if he's playing devil's advocate here that it's it's worthwhile to laugh in his face at that question because that's how silly That narrative is so for example, he cites Paul Bighalla of all people who gives a fuck what Paul Bighalla thinks But he says, you know Paul Bighalla was on today and he talked about progress versus perfection and Corbush Just laughed at that and the reason why that's so laughable. Well, I mean she laid it out We're talking about a package that isn't even perfection and Jamal Bowman brought up the point. We already compromised So if you're talking about us as if we're the individuals who are not willing to compromise We already did we came down from six trillion to three point five trillion and now we're being asked to come down again, so You're pretending as if this is a perfect package when it's not and we're not getting everything that we want But at what point do we draw the line and say you've watered this down enough and now it's to the point where it's it's just It's not worth voting for especially Considering all of the harmful things that's in the bipartisan infrastructure proposal corporate giveaways So it's really important that they Fundamentally dismantle this talking point Oh, well, don't let progress be the enemy of or the perfect be the enemy of the good is the usual saying If we keep doing more incrementalism and more incrementalism and we don't actually go big It's not gonna be enough. We've been doing Neoliberal centrist incrementalist policies for decades now and what has gotten us? It's not gonna save the planet It's not gonna fix the economy. It's not gonna help the working class. It's just more of the same It's crumbs as Cory Bush laid out and you know He made the point John Berman made the point that mansion wouldn't say that 1.5 trillion is crumbs Except it is crumbs compared to all the other things that we spend money on I mean Jamal Bowman made the excellent point that we spend 7.6 trillion on the military alone every 10 years and nobody bats an eye It's fine. But when it comes to helping people That's where we're really having serious conversations about fiscal responsibility and the deficit and it's a double standard It shows you that the priorities of the media to even think about it in this way They're flawed They're biased in favor of the establishment and centrists and what they do here is they try to change that entire narrative Flip it on its head. No, we're not the obstructionists It's Joe Manchin and they said that very clearly and Cory Bush made a point about how you know If we accept crumbs if we accept this watered-down bill then all the issues that are unaddressed There's this expectation that well, we already did all of this so we can't do more in the future So it's kind of like you have this one opportunity and this is it So you have to go as big as possible because who knows when Democrats are gonna hold control of all of Congress next and also You know when it comes to compromise Jamal Bowman made the great point that you know Don't ask us why we're not willing to compromise because it's Joe Manchin who's not willing to compromise It's Joe Manchin and Kirsten Sinema who half the time refused to negotiate I mean when there were do there were negotiations for the build-back better act Kirsten Sinema left and she literally went to a private donor retreat They're the ones Jamal Bowman Cory Bush progressives. They're the ones who are doing the work They're the ones who are trying to hash out a deal. It's the centrists the so-called centrists I should say the right-wing Democrats who are refusing to even Be reasonable here. So Cory Bush was asked or they were both asked and Cory Bush responded to this question of okay So if it's two trillion what do you do do you vote against it? Are you really going to go back to your constituents with nothing because you have you know a bunch of these proposals cut and Her answer was perfect and on top of that Jamal Bowman ended with a really important note again the prospect of getting Nothing if it's an issue of what you think should happen versus what can happen You you would vote no one two trillion so what because what we've been saying is if we if We don't want any programs cut period no programs cut no cuts on anything of the 3.5 trillion No cuts of programs, but we are willing to say if we have to cut years on some of the programs to make this work Then okay There may be some areas that can instead of being a 10-year investment can be five years or can be seven years or eight years So we're willing to do that, but don't cut our programs. How do how do you tell? That person working in the child care center that you know that no we you know not you you wait You wait till whenever because we don't even know when this will come back around But we want to make sure that the money is there to be able to pay for the folks that are You know fixing our roads and bridges do we need that absolutely? And I want to make sure that they know that that we want that investment for them But we also need our investment and our investments in housing. We also need investments in our schools We also need those investments in that climate action We need that clean clean electricity and the majority of the American people are with us the majority of Democrats are with us They're just a few who are holding it up and it's not us the majority of the American people are living paycheck to paycheck The child tax credit the temporary one lifted 50% of children out of poverty We're looking to extend that to make it permanent more money in people's pockets more spending better economy more job So great such great points there. Yes, the American people are with them so it shouldn't be that progressives are brought on these shows and It's implied that they're the ones who are being unreasonable They're the ones who are willing to or refusing rather to compromise because they've already compromised and Whenever they do compromise. It's never enough. Okay, you go down to two trillion. Why won't you get on to 1.5 trillion? Why won't you get on to one trillion and that's that's so unacceptable What every single mainstream news host should be doing is bringing on Joe Manchin and Kirsten Sinema and Confronting them. Why are you? Not delivering for the American people these policies are overwhelmingly popular Why are you not delivering on the agenda that the president of the United States wants? There are two senators who are standing in the way of this entire agenda. Why do you? Get to be roadblocks for something that your entire party wants 98% of elected Democrats want this past but yet because of Kirsten Sinema and Joe Manchin, it's not being through so to Suggest that it's the progressives were the ones who are holding up talks here and being obstructionist It's absurd and that's why it's really important that Cory Bush and Jamal Bowman have the opportunity to go on these programs and make their case now another thing that's important to note is that These are not good faith negotiations Progressives like Jamal Bowman and Cory Bush. They're negotiating in good faith But Joe Manchin is not when they even choose to negotiate. They don't care about the constituents they're operating at the behest of their donors and what their donors want and Jamal Bowman hinted at this Joe Manchin and others like him have a certain perspective that I think is incorrect He thinks investing in a bottom-up economy is entitlement. He claims he's worried about inflation But I think we need to have a conversation about the special interest that support Joe Manchin and many others Yes, and we need to understand that when we invest this way It's better for the GDP and the economy going forward But it's also better than for our well-being when you put money in people's pockets They spend that money it creates the man which creates supply which creates jobs We have to make sure we're putting money in people's pockets and lifting them out of a global pandemic Look at what we've gone through over the last 18 months and again. He's right So you have someone like Joe Manchin who doesn't actually care about the specifics He doesn't care about fiscal responsibility This is someone who's just doing the bidding of his donors and guess what his worldview his pro austerity worldview has been debunked again And again and again we're dealing with a global pandemic if we're not choosing to invest in Americans now When will it be ever if we can't do it now? Will there ever be a time? So this interview was absolutely just perfect Cory Bush and Jamal Bowman. I take it They won't be invited back on mainstream media if these are the points that they make just totally taking that narrative and crushing it and flipping it And actually shedding light on the situation for CNN's viewers who might think that it's the progressives who are the obstructionists This was just great in this instance. It is not progressives who are being obstructionist or unreasonable It's the conservative democrats and I hate to break it to you all but they always have been the obstructionists