 I think that the Florida statute itself is unconstitutional, giving that kind of power to the party. The party itself is a political committee. It's not a government agency, but it's playing a quasi-governmental function here. And it has no right to block democracy this way. It has a responsibility to the public good. And we all know that we're living at a time when our democracy itself is in crisis. We all know that the threats to democracy of them that are represented by people such as Donald Trump. But the irony here, of course, is that the Democratic Party claims to be trying to protect democracy, but the way of doing it is to suppress democracy. You just watched a clip from a joint town hall between two of Biden's 2024 presidential primary opponents, Marianne Williamson and Cenk Uger. Now, Marianne Williamson was speaking about the Florida Democratic Party's decision to unilaterally cancel the 2024 primary before a single vote has been cast. And both Williamson and Uger are rightfully pissed off. In fact, we all should be. Politico reports Florida appears poised to hold no presidential primary election for Democrats this cycle after the state party submitted only President Joe Biden's name as a candidate up for nomination. Now, as journalist Ryan Grimm adds, here's the moment where the Florida Democratic Party nominated Biden. I'm told by a party member that it was not explained to people that by nominating him, that also would keep other candidates off the ballot. Even enthusiastic supporters of Biden would not have purposefully canceled the primary. So whether or not this is a case of corruption or incompetence or perhaps both, that remains to be seen. But I don't really care. I don't care why they did this. They have to undo it. You don't get to unilaterally give Biden the state's pledge delegates before voters even have the chance to make their voices heard. That decision remains solely with voters. And you might be thinking, well, I mean, what does it even matter because Biden's going to win the primary there anyway? So why even bother holding a primary? Now, let me just say this. If he's going to win, then certainly you have no reason to go out of your way to rig the primary against his opponents. But second of all, and most importantly, inevitability is not a justification for the cancellation of an entire fucking primary. The process matters. Giving voters the ability to make their voices heard matters. Even authoritarian regimes hold elections. For example, Kim Jong-un supposedly won his last election in North Korea with 99% of the vote. Now, just in case there's any question, no, he didn't actually get 99% of the vote. The election is obviously rigged. So the question is, why even bother going through the process if he and everyone else already knows the outcome? And it's because cultivating legitimacy matters. Demonstrating to citizens that there is a process in place that is followed and that there are rules in place that are followed is how you build legitimacy for the state. It's how you get people to buy into the political process and believe that things matter. Any political scientist will tell you the importance of legitimacy. But Democrats in Florida apparently can't even grasp a simple concept that literal totalitarian leaders are able to grasp. But this isn't North Korea and that's not a very good comparison because elections here matter, or at least they're supposed to, but apparently Florida Democrats didn't get the memo. Now, Dean Phillips, another Biden primary opponent, was also pissed off and rightfully so. Politico continues, the move to leave Representative Dean Phillips off the primary ballot left the Minnesota Democrat enraged on Thursday. In a statement first provided to Politico, Phillips, who has launched a long shot primary bid against Biden, accused Florida Democratic Party officials of rigging the primary. He threatened a lawsuit and a convention fight if he didn't win ballot access in the state. Quote, Americans would expect the absence of democracy in Tehran, not Tallahassee, said Phillips. The intentional disenfranchisement of voters runs counter to everything for which our Democratic Party and country stand. Our mission as Democrats is to defeat authoritarianism, not become them. In his statement, Phillips called the handling of the process by the Florida Democrats a blatant act of electoral corruption and demanded Biden condemn and immediately address it. The Biden campaign did not provide a comment for this story. Nikki Fried, the chair of the Florida Democratic Party, contended the party followed its standard process that was outlined on its website. Quote, we are dismayed by Dean Phillips conspiratorial and inappropriate comments comparing the state of Florida to the Iranian regime as part of his knee-jerk reaction to long established procedures, Fried said. Quote, this is unbecoming of someone running for higher office. I'm sorry, but that comment is outrageous. Absolutely outrageous and false. And I shouldn't have to say this, but he's not being conspiratorial if you literally did the thing that he said you did. Now, I am no fan of Dean Phillips. I think that that's probably obvious to anyone who knows my policy positions, but he's right on the principle and I support what he's saying here. Everything he's saying is correct. This is not okay. Florida Democrats, they just straight up canceled a primary and disenfranchised every Democratic Party voter and now they're calling one of the candidates who was fucked over conspiratorial for calling them authoritarian. I mean, they have no shame. Now, they're not just anti-democratic despite democracy literally being in their fucking name. They're also hypocrites as well. Cenk Uger pointed this out on Twitter saying Democrats, democracy is on the line. Also Democrats were canceling elections in the primary translation. We had to destroy democracy in order to save it and he's exactly right. How can you correctly call out the threat that Trump poses to our democracy only to then cancel a primary yourselves? It's outrageous to me, but I do want to get to more from that town hall between Williamson and Uger because they're going to describe their action plan because they're not just going to take this lying down and I'm glad that that's the case, but here's what they say. It's wrong and it's also undercutting of the most basic rights. If we cannot, if we cannot assume that the people of the United States have fair and equal access to knowing even who their candidates are, then we don't have fair and equal access to the vote. And this is why this is a transgression of the 14th Amendment and this is what we will be claiming in court if we have to. Both Dean, all of us, Dean and Cenk and myself are going to take all legal action that we can and that we feel is necessary. We're going to communicate to the public and we appreciate, I know all three of us appreciate that you are here. You can't let these so-called little transgressions pass. We have to hold a line right here. This is not just about the fact that it's 200 Soma delegates, it's not just the fact that it's drama going on within the Democratic Party. This is the chipping away of our democracy. And as Cenk pointed out with an irony that the party called the Democratic Party, the party that claims to be the champion of democracy has basically decided that Joe Biden will be the candidate. Now, this is authoritarianism, just as Cenk said. When I was a child, we were told that in the Soviet Union people could vote, but they were told who their options were. And that's exactly what's happening here. And you have over 70% of Democratic voters who have made it clear time and time again that they want to hear other options. In this case, other options exist. And at this point, the Democratic Party, the state of Florida itself, have no right to manipulate the circumstances so in such a way that people are denied access to who their candidates are and to hear from us and to know that we're about. Unfortunately, this is part of a larger concerted effort that the Democratic Party has been taking. This has to do with media suppression. It has to do with invisibilization, erasure. But it stops right here. Or at least it will not go unchallenged right here by myself. And I think I hear the same kind of conviction in Cenk's voice. We certainly have heard it from Dean as well. And I'm with him 100%. And all of us will do what we feel we have to do. And I think that we're the ones who are standing up for democracy in this case, not the Democratic Party. Well said. And look, this is not the first time that Democrats have attacked democracy. In 2016, DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz was literally forced to resign in shame after she was caught red handed sabotaging Bernie Sanders. And she was the person who was supposed to make sure that the process was fair. It was her job to remain neutral. That was the obligation of the DNC Charter that she refused to follow, hence why she was forced to resign. So this is not a new phenomenon. But it's not acceptable. And Democratic Party voters should never accept this. Now, one last thing that I want to say is that when you look at hypothetical matchups between Biden and Trump, aggregate polling data currently shows that Biden is losing to Trump. I repeat, Biden would lose to Donald Trump if the election were held today. Now, this is not a fucking game. Voters should have the option to nominate someone else who has a better chance of beating Trump in 2024. Now, odds are that even if the primary was perfectly fair, Biden would still likely coast through the primary again due to that incumbency advantage. But Democrats do not have the right to take away our ability to choose a candidate that we believe is better positioned to defeat Trump in 2024. And the fact that they think that they do speaks to their hubris. And it's part of the reason why we got Trump in the first place in 2016. They should have learned that when you fuck over your own voters and spit in their eyes, that is going to backfire. And they're doing it again when the stakes couldn't be higher. So this is something that is obviously not acceptable. And it cannot stand. And despite my disagreements with Uighur, Phillips and Williamson as well, I absolutely support their effort to stop this. And you should too. Everybody who cares about democracy should be consistent. And they should call out the people who are a threat to democracy, regardless if they're Republicans or Democrats. And I hope that any liberals who see this will follow suit and also condemn the Democratic Party in Florida here, because what they did is completely egregious.