 This is the Humanist Report with Mike Figueroaido. 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 Figueroaido and this is the 210th edition of the program. Today is Friday, September 20th 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 signed up for the very first time to support us this week or increased their monthly pledge. And that includes Barbara Sherman, Blue Nebula, Brian Hevlin, Seppren Sip, Christian LaSalle, Dee, Daphne Bruley, Gregory T. Hart, Ingrid Gottschalk, Jacob Williams, Jamal Arbery, Jeff Hassenger, Jeffrey Brown, John Rines, Julie Maisels, Karen Webster, Catherine Busby, Kenny N., Nelson Olvera, Nemanja Dukic, Patrick Cheek, Ryan Clodierre, Sujit Ravindran, The Needle Drop, Anthony Fantano, Loveham, Trent Hansen and Walter Dali. So thank you so much to all of these kind individuals. If you'd like to support the show and join the independent progressive media revolution, you can do so by going to humanistreport.com slash support or patreon.com forward slash Humanist Report. So I was off the previous week, but I'm back and we've got a lot to talk about. So this week on the Humanist Report podcast, Working Families Party faced backlash for endorsing Elizabeth Warren over Bernie Sanders. Michael Moore confronts Bill Maher over his newfangled radical centrism and Bill Maher's stupidity utterly shocked one of his guests. Pete Buttigieg is now getting desperate and resorting to attacks and lies about Bernie Sanders. Bernie Sanders has had it with Joe Biden's blatant corporatism and is now calling him out more aggressively. Candace Owens showed that she's not very good at grifting because she couldn't even answer the most basic question about Donald Trump ever. Also, Bernie Sanders releases a housing for all plan that is incredibly robust. I'll talk about why Elizabeth Warren supporters are choosing her over Bernie Sanders. Who Trump is the most afraid to run against in 2020? We'll talk about Tulsi Gabbard's clash with Fox News' Neil Cavuto and Trump's decision to revoke California's autonomy to create their own auto emission standards. And finally on the program, we will talk to 2020 congressional candidate from Illinois, Robert Emmons Jr. So that's what we've got on the agenda for this week's episode. Hopefully you guys will enjoy the program. Let's go ahead and get right into it. So for those of you who don't know, Elizabeth Warren has essentially caught up to Bernie Sanders. When you look at aggregate polling data, it is now the case that they are in a statistical tie. This is a dead heat. So it may very well be the case that we soon need to get very vocal about the differences between Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren. The only problem and reason why I think it doesn't really make strategic sense to do this now is because there's a bigger target still in the race. That is Joe Biden and he still is pretty much the frontrunner by numerous accounts. Now his lead has in fact shrunk. And you know when you look at the trajectory, I think it makes sense to predict that it will continue to go down. That being said, though, it really doesn't make sense for Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren to start aiming at each other now, because if they start taking shots at one another and they start driving down support for one another, then they are effectively doing Joe Biden's bidding for him, which doesn't make any sense because he's still the biggest target. He still is the worst case scenario where if he wins, I think we're looking at another four years of Donald Trump. So it doesn't make any sense strategically for Bernie and Warren to start taking shots at one another so long as Biden is pulling ahead of everyone. But that doesn't mean that we don't at some point have to start really distinguishing between Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren. But that just means that in order to get to that point, we really need to go harder on Joe Biden. And you know, Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders, it's evident that they both know that it makes no sense for them currently to go after one another. It's why at the debates, they've kind of tag teamed Joe Biden. But one issue that I've kind of taken with Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren to be fair is that they both, even if they criticize Joe Biden, they've gone too soft on him. When this individual is not looking out for normal Americans, he is doing all of these high dollar fundraisers with fossil fuel executives. It's just absurd. Why are we even considering Joe Biden? So you have to get more aggressive and you have to take on Joe Biden and take him out as quickly as possible so we can get down to the real race, the real primary, which is between Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren. I think Bernie Sanders knows this and it's why as of late, he started to really hone his craft when it comes to criticizing Joe Biden. So Bloomberg tweeted out an article titled Biden praises farmer to donors as he pushes to cut prices. And as Jennifer Epstein writes, Joe Biden praised pharmaceutical companies on Saturday offering a line that drew pushback from Democratic opponents who have demonized the industry's focus on profits. By the way, great drug companies out there accept a couple of opioid outfits. The former vice president told donors at the Dallas home of David Jennecove, a craniofacial surgeon. Now Bernie Sanders then tweeted in response to this article saying, I disagree with Joe Biden. The pharmaceutical companies are greedy, corrupt and engaged in price fixing. At a time when their behavior is literally killing people, America needs a president who isn't going to appease and compliment drug companies. We need a president who will take on the pharmaceutical industry whether they like it or not. That is exactly what we will do. And this is really what Bernie Sanders should be doing because we keep seeing article after article about Joe Biden doing these private fundraisers in the Hamptons getting extra cozy with the establishment and big dollar donors. And it's just inconceivable that he thinks this is still acceptable in 2019. I mean, what are you doing? Hillary Clinton did this in 2016. She lost because everyone viewed her as the establishment candidate and rightfully so. So at a time when people are disenfranchised and feel disenchanted with the establishment for you to not call this out, it doesn't even make sense. Joe Biden is your opponent. So you are in a primary against him. Now is the time to go negative because it's not bad if you're going negative for the American people. And whenever there's another candidate that takes shots at Joe Biden and very harshly criticizes him and points out the differences between them and him, they get a boost. So it only makes sense for Bernie Sanders to aggressively go after Joe Biden as a means of showing why he's the true candidate who is best suited to take on Donald Trump and understand. Bernie Sanders has the most to gain by taking down Joe Biden because numerous polls have shown that a lot of Joe Biden supporters view Bernie as their second choice. And I know that that doesn't really make a lot of sense. But I think Bernie is benefiting from name recognition. So let's use that to our advantage. Let's take down Joe Biden and Bernie's got to be aggressive and what he's doing here by ripping Joe Biden for this. This is precisely the strategy that he needs. Now I want to share another criticism that Bernie Sanders had of Joe Biden because we all saw the debate where Joe Biden was lying about Medicare for all. And Bernie Sanders was asked after the debate in an interview with Anderson Cooper to further elaborate on his response to one of Joe Biden's criticisms of Medicare for all specifically with regard to the cost. And Bernie Sanders just pretty bluntly said Joe Biden doesn't know what he's talking about. Take a look. I think he meant trillion when he was saying billion but what's your response to that? I think Joe doesn't know what he's talking about. I mean I just got it. I like Joe. Joe is a friend of mine. I just don't think he knows what he's talking about. He said we're spending $30 trillion over 10 years on health care. Wow. Yeah. It's a lot of money. It is. If we maintain the status quo according to a study done by the Center for Medicare and Medicaid studies, we'll spend $50 trillion. Hey Joe, we're now spending twice as much per person on health care as the people of any other nation. We're paying by far the highest prices in the world for prescription drugs. The current system is incredibly expensive. Every study that I have seen shows that Medicare for all, which eliminates the 100 billion in profits made by the health care industry, which ends the incredible bureaucracy and administrative nightmares inherent in a system which has hundreds of different insurance programs that have to be dealt with by administrators. We can save many, many hundreds of billions of dollars, provide health care to every man, woman, and child, and save the average person significant sums of money on their health care costs. That was strong. That was a very, very strong response. Bernie, you know, it's long overdue for him to start coming out and saying, Joe Biden doesn't know what he's talking about. Call him out for the corporate chill that he is, but I will say this Bernie. You don't have to qualify every Joe Biden criticism with some caveat about, well, you know, he is my friend and he's a nice guy. I know him personally. Drop that. Joe Biden is nobody's friend, but corporate America's. He's not our friend. He's not looking out for us and we are banking on him losing. So Trump loses because if he wins the nomination, I think there's a 50-50 chance that Trump wins. And I don't want to roll the dice and you can look at public opinion polls. And I think correctly points out that Joe Biden is still polling better than Donald Trump in head-to-head matchups. But still, so is Hillary Clinton at this point and I don't want to risk it. So we need to take down Joe Biden. Even some corporate media pundits are realizing this man is a joke and he can't win. So Bernie doesn't need to qualify his criticisms of Joe Biden with, you know, I'm his friend. You know, we know each other. I've known the Biden family for a long time. Drop all of that. This is a primary. You can be a little bit more ruthless and it doesn't matter. They're still going to accuse you of always yelling and being overly aggressive. Just communicate to voters that you're looking out for them and Joe Biden isn't. So it really is important for Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren to take down Joe Biden because neither of them can win this primary if Biden is still such a gigantic threat. Now at the Iowa caucus in spite of polls, Joe Biden could still lose because, you know, these grassroots candidates, more progressive figures tend to overperform at these caucuses. This is what happened in 2008. And this is something that could very well happen in 2020. It's just a matter of if we really want to get down to what this primary race will most likely be about between Bernie and Warren. We've got to take out Joe Biden first. So if Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren start really relentlessly going after Joe Biden, this will benefit both of them because the quicker we get to them criticizing each other once Biden is kind of out of the equation, the quicker we can really see who the eventual nominee will be. And I hope it's going to be Bernie Sanders, but currently Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren have got to go after Joe Biden. And I think that calling out Joe Biden's willingness to shill is a really important first step in that direction. During the 2016 Democratic Party primary process, the Working Families Party endorsed Bernie Sanders over Hillary Clinton. That was obviously an easy choice because if you purport to represent the working families of America, then it's not even a question. Of course, you opt for Bernie Sanders over someone who is a neoliberal centrist like Hillary Clinton. So this time around, they were planning to make another endorsement and as of September 3rd, they announced that they would be holding an official vote for the party's 2020 endorsement between five candidates, Cory Booker, Julian Castro, Bill de Blasio, Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren. Now, first of all, I don't necessarily know what criteria they used to narrow it down to these five candidates, but Cory Booker, Julian Castro, Bill de Blasio, I mean, come on. Now, if I'm remembering correctly, as a DSA member, when they did their endorsement process, it was just an up or down vote for Bernie Sanders. They sent us the card and we voted yes or no if we wanted to endorse Bernie Sanders. And look, that's the way that it should be. If you are truly a grassroots organization, then it's not even a question. You just should be savvy enough to know the difference between someone who wants social democracy and someone who wants a little bit more humane version of capitalism. It's not even a question. So the fact that they even had Cory Booker and Julian Castro in the running is pretty much an embarrassment for the working party's family. Nonetheless, they held the vote and the way it works is leadership gets 50% of the vote share and members who pay monthly dues of $10 per month. They get the other 50% of the vote share and it's conducted using a ranked choice voting system. And now the working party's family has made their choice. The results are in and they have officially chosen to endorse Elizabeth Warren over Bernie Sanders. Yeah. Now, as Daniel Moran's of HuffPost reports, the endorsement reflecting the views of 61% of working family's party members and leaders in a ranked choice voting system is a particularly sharp disappointment for Sanders who picked up the group's backing in the 2016 election cycle but received just 36% of the vote from participating members this time around. The Sanders campaign's political director, Annelia Mejia, is the former executive director of the New Jersey Working Families Party. So they made their endorsement. There's nothing we can do about it. But let me just say this. If you are opting to endorse a candidate and you're choosing between Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren and you're really trying to make that choice, then you can say, sure, these are both solid candidates but when it comes down to the differences between Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren there are many. It's not like, you know, they're indistinguishable from one another. These are two very different candidates with very different views for the future of this country. Bernie Sanders supports social democracy and Elizabeth Warren supports a reformed version of capitalism. And when it comes to policy differences, Bernie Sanders has supported Medicare for All for 40-plus years whereas Elizabeth Warren has been waffling back and forth multiple times throughout the course of this year. In addition, Bernie Sanders has a progressive, non-interventionist, anti-imperialist foreign policy agenda whereas Elizabeth Warren hasn't really laid out her agenda when it comes to foreign policy. And what we've heard is troubling. She also recently failed to explain why she voted for Donald Trump's military budget. On top of that, she's only swearing off big fundraisers until the general election. Then if she wins, all bets are off. And then it's fundraisers, I guess, and big money. That's what she said to Cenk Eugar of TYT in an interview, at least, whereas Bernie Sanders has permanently sworn off PAC money. He's sworn off these private fundraisers because they are a corrosive influence. Also, Elizabeth Warren is assuring Democratic Party elites that she doesn't want to fundamentally change the status quo and she's getting buddy-buddy with people like Hillary Clinton who represents everything wrong with the Democratic Party and Bernie Sanders is not doing that. Now, let me just emphasize here. I'm not in Elizabeth Warren Hader. I think she's a solid candidate and I think that she is running a really good campaign. But if we are forced to choose between Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren during a presidential primary, the choice is clear if you truly care about working families in America, if you truly want to get us on that trajectory of social democracy. It's Bernie Sanders. It's clear. It's not like the only difference is that while Elizabeth Warren, you know, she is a little bit more wonkier and she's stronger on areas X, Y and Z. No, that's not the case. When you have Bernie Sanders in the race, the one candidate who has explicitly said he wants social democracy, that's an obvious choice. It's Bernie over Elizabeth Warren. Now, of course, because they made this endorsement, this led to a lot of backlash on Twitter. And let me remind you that the reason why they're getting backlash, I think rightfully so, is because this goes against their stated agenda and they've been doing this lately. So in 2018 in New York's 14th Congressional District, they endorsed Joe Crowley over Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. And here they are again endorsing the candidate who clearly is not the best for working families. Is Elizabeth Warren bad for working families? No. But is she anywhere near as good as Bernie Sanders? Absolutely not. And people vocalized that in the responses here. So for example, Michael Brooks tweeted, the most pro-worker candidate in modern history building a multiracial working coalition and a clear social democratic platform and you don't endorse that campaign. You guys will be known for this now instead of just getting played by Cuomo. Also, change your name. Megan Day of Jacobin writes, working families party should have endorsed Bernie Sanders. Bernie has a much more working class and racially diverse base and he's focused explicitly on building working class movements on the ground. He's the most pro-labor presidential candidate in living memory. This is a real shame. Ben says he canceled his recurring donations. And when you just look at the level of enthusiasm for Bernie Sanders on the YouTube page for the working families party, it's evident that the only videos that gain any sort of traction whatsoever are the videos that feature Bernie Sanders. Any other video, they'd be lucky to get 10 views and the one with Elizabeth Warren only got a couple hundred. Bernie Sanders, however, he clearly has a lot of support. So this doesn't make any sense. It's perplexing and it makes less sense when you consider that one of the working families party's main issues is single payer Medicare for All. Now, in an interview with Anna Kasparian on No Filter, Ben Bergus explains that that was one of the main issues for the working families party. So to support Elizabeth Warren over Bernie Sanders when the working families party has been a champion of single payer healthcare, Bernie Sanders has been promoting single payer Medicare for All for decades and Elizabeth Warren only formally came out and endorsed it in 2017. And on top of that, she's been going back and forth, back and forth. And she finally put up Medicare for All on her website. And as Ben Bergus is going to explain here, it's really not that clear that she supports the same version of Medicare for All as Bernie Sanders. Yeah, I think that's disappointing. And it's especially strange to me because one of the working families party's big issues has always been single payer health insurance. And Bernie is, I think, much clearer on that issue than Warren. She just finally put a healthcare plan on her website and I was just looking at it. And if you look at the part that especially disturbs me about that about mental healthcare, that makes it sound like that would be separate from whatever Medicare for All thing she's endorsing. She talks about Medicare for All and then she talks about affordable mental healthcare. And usually when I hear that word affordable about healthcare, I start worrying because that's kind of the buzzword for it's still in the market system. We're just going to try to do some sort of cost control thing. So I'm with Ben here. It's confusing. Does she mean that she supports single payer for everything but mental health? Is that something where she would just offer a subsidy? There's no questions like this when it comes to Bernie Sanders. He just supports single payer Medicare for All. That includes mental healthcare. That includes dental, vision. So there's these open questions about Elizabeth Warren that makes it an obvious choice. If there is a choice between Bernie and Warren and single payer is one of your main issues, you opt for Bernie Sanders. So this is confusing and makes no sense. And to clear up some of the confusion, National Director for the Working Families Party, Maurice Mitchell appeared on CNN with Chris Cuomo and he tried to explain why they made this endorsement. But rather than clearing up the confusion, this actually made me feel even more confused. Why Warren and not Sanders? So let me just first say that it's 2019 and we have two structural change, big, bold, progressive candidates that have built huge grassroots followings in the democratic process. But you picked one. Why? Right. And so our grassroots members and our volunteers and our state committee, we engaged in a very long process and we came out. And I'm so proud of the process and so proud that we chose Elizabeth Warren. Let me tell you why. So, I mean, if you look at her, you know, they joke about she has a plan for it, right? But if you look at it and you take a step back, so the Green New Deal, so we could save the planet, a historically big picture housing policy, you know, Medicare for All to take the insurance companies between you and your doctor, right? So healthcare could be a right and not a commodity that's traded. Bernie does the same things that he wrote the damn bill. That's absolutely right. Okay. So this is confusing. The reason why he's happy that the Working Families Party opted to endorse Warren over Bernie Sanders is for the following reasons. One, the Green New Deal, so we can save the planet. Okay. Well, how do you reconcile the fact that Bernie Sanders scored higher when it comes to the Green New Deal than Elizabeth Warren? So if you truly want to save the planet and you want the strongest policy proposal, well, you can't really say it's because of Elizabeth Warren's Green New Deal if Bernie's is stronger. He also says Medicare for All, take the insurance companies between you and your doctor. So healthcare is a right and not a commodity that's traded. I don't know what that means to take the insurance companies between you and your doctor, take them out. Is that what do you mean you want to take them out of the equation? Because we don't necessarily know that that's what Warren is going to do because she only recently endorsed Medicare for All. And she was talking about there being many paths to Medicare for All. And at the end of the day, all Democrats have the same goal when it comes to Medicare for All and healthcare and whatnot. So these are horrible reasons. If the Green New Deal and Medicare for All are your biggest issues, then to support Warren over Sanders is nonsensical. So I don't get it. There's really nothing that we can do about this. They made their endorsement. They're not going to unendorse Elizabeth Warren, but simply we just have to make the case that Bernie Sanders is the stronger candidate. So the entire situation is incredibly frustrating. It just feels like these people who claim to care about certain policies that claim to stand up for working families to endorse Crowley, to not endorse Bernie, I mean, what are you doing? It doesn't make any sense to me. And you can see why they don't have a good reason because when they try to explain it, they're frail. You could tell that Mitchell was frazzled there because if you're trying to explain to people the standpoint of you being a progressive, Warren is better than Bernie. You're going to come off as either a troll or someone who isn't very politically savvy because it's evident to anyone who is engaged with politics that Bernie has the strongest ground game. He's the strongest politically. He is more electable to take on Donald Trump because he has that anti-establishment appeal where as Elizabeth Warren is getting buddy-buddy with the establishment. And he is just stronger on policies like Medicare for All and the Green New Deal. So I don't know what else to say. This endorsement is completely nonsensical and the Working Families Party has discredited themselves. And, you know, it's not like they only discredited themselves now. I think that when they endorsed Joe Crowley over Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, that in and of itself should have been the red flag that we all needed to see that maybe there's something wrong with this organization. But now to do this, it's just, it's a complete joke. So it's been a while, but I want to take some time to talk about Pete Buttigieg. You know, at the beginning of this race, I actually surprisingly praised him because his rhetoric when it comes to progressive issues was actually pretty refreshing. So in an interview with Morning Joe, when the issue of healthcare and Medicare for All came up, he said that it's not a radical idea contrary to popular belief and that Medicare for All actually, if you think about it, is the real compromise policy between, you know, a capitalist, Obamacare type system and a national healthcare system like the UK has. So single payer is really the logical choice between those two extremes. And I thought that it was such a phenomenal point to make. And he really did seem to want to appeal to progressives. But fast forward, you know, about six or so months later, and now he's having these private fundraisers in the Hamptons. Now billionaires are flocking to his campaign and contributing. And now he's going out of his way to lie about progressive policy proposals like Medicare for All. And he absolutely needs to be called out because it's one thing to say that, you know, you're not part of the progressive wing of the Democratic Party. But to go out of your way and actively spread misinformation, presumably at the behest of special interests, that is uniquely evil. And yes, I'm using the word evil because that's what that is. If you are shilling for a system that allows people to die or go bankrupt because they don't have health insurance or maybe they have health insurance, but they still can't afford a particular procedure that their insurance company won't cover. That's just pure evil. I don't know what else to say, how to be more charitable with that. So one thing that has really stuck with me, that has really gotten under my skin, and I don't know if I talked about this in my debate analysis video, is what he said about Medicare for All. And this is what he said in response to Bernie Sanders talking about Medicare for All. The problem, Senator Sanders, with that damn bill that you wrote and that Senator Warren backs, is that it doesn't trust the American people. I trust you to choose what makes the most sense for you, not my way or the highway. Now look, I think we do have to go far beyond tinkering with the ACA. I propose Medicare for All who want it. We take a version of Medicare, we make it available for the American people. And if we're right as progressives that that public alternative is better, then the American people will figure that out for themselves. I trust the American people to make the right choice for them. Why don't you? Spoken like a true neoliberal nitwit. What he said there is disingenuous horseshit. Because to suggest that eliminating private health insurance companies somehow isn't putting trust in the American people, it's idiotic and you're framing this in a way that conspicuously benefits the health insurance industry. Because Bernie Sanders has a Medicare for All bill that is so robust that it would effectively get rid of private insurance companies. Because if you ban duplicative care and you offer a comprehensive benefits, you're not leaving any room for these health insurance companies. So what does Pete Buttigieg say to that? Well, you are not trusting the American people to make their choice between a public system and a private system. Why should we remove quote unquote choice from Americans? Why shouldn't we trust them? I trust the American people to make the right choice for them. Why won't you trust them? And that is where I call bullshit on that rhetoric and talking points. Because here's the thing. To suggest that wanting to get rid of these for-profit health insurance vultures means we don't trust the Americans to make their own decision is absolutely nonsensical. Because of course we trust the American people to make their own decisions when it comes to health care. But you see what he is proposing here is a false dichotomy of choice. It's the illusion of choice that the choice when it comes to health care is between a public or private option. But that's not the choice that we're looking for. The choice comes into play when Americans have the ability to choose whatever doctor they want to go to whatever hospital they want. Because America becomes one big network. Because if I have the choice to see any doctor in the country, that is true choice. That's giving me the freedom to do whatever I want to take my own health care into my own hands. And that's really what matters. Choosing between private insurance and a public Medicare system. That's not where the choice comes in. I don't want to worry about that. Do you think that people are excited to fill out the paperwork and pay their monthly health insurance premiums? Of course they're not. So to say, Bernie Sanders doesn't trust the American people. As someone who claims he formally supported Medicare for all, now you're just lying. Now you've become the enemy, Pete. Now another thing that he said, he followed up his attack on Medicare for all. In an interview with CNN. And what he said was also nonsensical. Take a look. As the youngest candidate in the field, I am obviously a believer in the power of generational change. I also believe that a candidate at any age, depending who they are, can be a great president. What we've got to talk about right now is vision. My concern about the vision from the Sanders-Warren approach is that it can polarize Americans when we have other ways to deliver bold solutions without dividing the American people further. So that right there shows exactly why he is not positioned to take on Donald Trump. Because what Democrats are failing to realize is that polarization is a reality in American politics. It's an inescapable reality that you have to deal with. Polarization will not be going away anytime soon. So what makes more sense to try to bring those two polarized halves together during the process of an election? Or actually craft a strategy tailor made for polarization and then once you get elected, try to bring people together by passing popular policy proposals. You see, if you try to pretend like America isn't polarized, and that Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren are furthering that divide, you're being a useful idiot because we're already polarized. That's not going to change. So capitalize on that polarization and actually show the base that they have a reason to come out and support you because Republicans are so bad. They're already energized to come out and support Donald Trump. He's not trying to appeal to moderate Democrats. He's not appealing to the left in any way, shape or form. So why should Democrats appeal to moderates that don't really exist anymore in a polarized environment when they could excite the base, go after non-voters, and perhaps win larger than they've ever won before? I mean, think about this. If you're worried about polarization and trying to reach out to moderates, we already saw how that strategy plays out at the national level. It leads to Republicans winning. Hillary lost. She tried that. She picked a VP that was to her right when she was already a center-right politician. So what do you want? What are you going after? You honestly think that Medicare for All is polarizing? Then explain why some polls show that a majority of Republicans support it. Explain why it's overwhelmingly popular with the Democratic Party base. See, I'm preaching to the choir. Pete Buttigieg is smart enough to know that everything I'm saying is true, but he's choosing to lie and be disingenuous because this is a political tactic. You see, when you start going down in the polls and you kind of lose that status as being one of the front runners, what you have to do in electoral strategy is to attack the front runner. It makes sense, so I get it. But you see, if he wants to criticize Bernie Sanders, you can do that in a way where you're not lying about Medicare for All because Bernie Sanders is not above criticism. I personally have criticisms of Bernie Sanders from the left. The problem, though, is that Pete Buttigieg is a centrist. He is to the right of Bernie Sanders. So he can't actually come across as a progressive and criticize Bernie Sanders from the left because he is to Bernie Sanders' right. So what does he do? What everyone else does. He lies about Bernie Sanders' policies. And that doesn't just hurt Bernie. That hurts everyone. That hurts grassroots activists who have been fighting for Medicare for All for years. So shame on Pete Buttigieg. This individual is disgusting. He is a disgrace to American politics. And really, he should be ashamed of himself. But like all of his predecessors, Obama, Hillary Clinton, he's proving that he doesn't actually care about policy. He's hollow. He's vapid. And he just cares about his own career. He's not fighting for the people. He's looking out for himself. He's an opportunist. And that's why he's in the race, period. Every time I talk about how bad Bill Maher has gotten, it's like he takes this as a challenge. And I absolutely am not under the illusion that he's watching my show. But it's like he keeps devolving. And just when you think that, you know, he's bottomed out. He can't get any worse than this. He really says something even dumber than anyone could fathom that he would be saying. I mean, five years ago, to hear the way he talks about politics and Bernie Sanders and progressive policies, I wouldn't have believed that that's the same person. But here we are. So I'm going to stop talking. I'm just going to play the clip for you. When he says something very stupid, watch one of the panelists face. Can I present a scenario? I think this might be one of those years where it's the last discussion Mike and I were having. It's that they can't get over that centrist versus socialist thing. So Elizabeth Warren at some point takes Bernie's voters. He drops out. It's Warren and Biden. And they go to the convention and it's deadlock. This has happened before in American politics. And they need to compromise candidate. I'm looking hard at Amy Klobuchar. You know why? Because like, this is not an insult, Amy Klobuchar. I like you. But when they put generic Democrat on the ballot, they win. You don't have a thing. She's a woman. So like that helps. That moves a lot. Hold on a second. Hold on a second. Why do you think that economic populism, whatever you want to call it, socialism, democratic socialism, et cetera. Medicare for all is so unpopular when a poll just came out that had Bernie Sanders beating Trump in Texas by more than any of the other candidates. The last 20 polls have shown Bernie Sanders beating Trump. And here's the other thing though. Meaning? Meaning that you don't need a centrist to win. Centrism is why we have lost. It's why we lost 1,000 statehouse seats. It's why we lost the White House. We ran a centrist. We lost. But even the centrist in the Democratic Party are pretty far left. So the look on Crystal Wall's face, I think she really represented how we all felt watching him make that idiotic point. I mean, there's like multiple layers to why that's not just a bad idea, but it's downright stupid. So first of all, let's say, hypothetically speaking, this scenario plays out where it comes down to Biden and Warren and their deadlocks. First of all, he is actually saying, rather than going for the top two choices in this hypothetical scenario, we should go with the candidate who's polling at like 2% instead. That is an absolutely moronic thing to say in and of itself because it's antithetical to democracy that would be super delegates openly choosing whoever they want, unilaterally. Do you not think that that would demoralize the base, Bill? Second of all, to say that Amy Klobuchar of all people is the compromise candidate between Joe Biden and Elizabeth Warren shows that he just doesn't care about policy at all because she is the female Joe Biden. So in what way does she embody any of the principles that Bernie Sanders and even Elizabeth Warren are espousing? In what way? What does she even stand for, Bill? Can you name a single policy that sets her apart from Joe Biden? Can you name one? Because she's not talking about policies. She is pitching herself as, well, I was gonna say a moderate, but she actually self identifies as a progressive, still hilariously enough. But you know, in the same vein as Hillary, she is basically saying, I'm a progressive who's practical and I like to get things done. And that's good enough for Bill because she self identifies as a progressive even if she is politically moderate. That's good enough for Bill to say, you know what, she's a compromise candidate. I mean, I don't know what else to say. Bill Maher used to be someone who offered unique political insight and now he is one of the worst pundits. In fact, I don't know if he's one of the worst or just that, you know, he fell so far, right? Because everyone on mainstream news, they say idiotic things. They, you know, they do apologia for the Democratic Party establishment and the political elite class. But Bill Maher, he was really different. You know, he supported Bernie in 2016 even if he was very dismissive of Bernie's chances. But now it's just like, he's full mask off and he seems to have contempt for Bernie Sanders. He hasn't even brought Bernie Sanders back since he, you know, announced that he's running again. Unless I'm forgetting, you know, an appearance. But I mean, it's just, it's embarrassing. And Crystal Ball brought up the point that I would have absolutely brought up. She said, we don't need a centrist to win. Centrism is why Democrats have lost more than a thousand seats in state legislatures across the country. How do you not grasp this yet, Bill? How do you not grasp this? And I'm so glad that Crystal Ball is on the panel to make that point and push back because Bill Maher, oftentimes, he surrounds himself with Republicans and corporate Democrats and Democratic Party strategists who think the same way. They're all in that same bubble, so they aren't, you know, as likely to push back. But Crystal Ball thankfully was there to point out how dumb of a strategy that was. But then how does he respond to Crystal Ball? He says even centrists in the Democratic Party are far left. I don't even know what to say to that. His perception of the Overton window from the standpoint of someone who used to be progressive is far right. It's right-wingers who think that centrist Democrats are far left. But in actuality, when you compare the Democratic Party to the average left-wing party anywhere in Europe or throughout the world in Latin America, they are to the right. There are probably more similarities between the conservative UK Party and Democrats than there are between Republicans and Tories. Maybe that's not necessarily the case now with Boris Johnson as Prime Minister. But still, when you compare them to average left-wing parties they are far to the right. And basically the way that the Overton window is sitting in the United States is we have two right-wing parties. One is a far right party, an extremist party, the Republican Party that is, you know, more aligned with UKIP and fringe right-wing parties you see in Europe than they are with any normal conservative party and then we have a center-right party or a centrist at best in Democrats. Now thankfully there's been an effort to push that Overton window back to the left but that's still, you know, the overwhelming majority of Democrats they are very much centrist to center-right. Chris Coons was on Fox News talking about how maybe we would be justified if we bombed Iran if they really were culpable for this Saudi oil attack. I mean, in what world are centrist Democrats far left? You honestly think that Joe Manchin is a far leftist bill? I mean, the things that he says it's baffling the thing that he believes in after you listen to him just from like what, five to six years ago it was him who was saying we need a left-wing equivalent of the Tea Party and now he's saying the complete opposite. He's saying, you know, anyone who's a far leftist who's too pure, they can go fuck themselves with a locally grown organic cucumber after he said no, we really need a left-wing Tea Party. The man is an absolute fraud and a joke and I don't know how anyone can still take him seriously but his platform is large enough to where people do take him seriously so I do think it's incumbent on us in indie media to push back against what he says. Because I hate myself I am doing a second Bill Maher video in the same week. Not necessarily something that I think is probably a good idea but nonetheless, here we are. So as you all know, he brought on crystal ball to push back against his idiocy but he also brought on filmmaker Michael Moore. And, you know, Michael Moore, my feelings on him are mixed but mostly positive. Michael Moore for the most part he still, he seems to have his finger on the pulse more so than other elites but I will say that there have been times where he's had takes that are questionable to say the least so I want to say maybe it was in March of this year on Instagram he made a post where he floated a celebrity for president and I'm blanking on the celebrity but I believe it was someone like Tom Hanks. This is the person who can rally the Democratic Party base, someone who's beloved by the American public. So I don't remember who it was specifically but I know that it was a very weird take with that being said Michael Moore still has a lot of great things to say and I think that he does make a contribution to the progressive movement that is for the most part valuable even if at times he kind of veers off in a weird direction. But on Bill Maher's show he actually decided to challenge Bill Maher and push back against Bill Maher's new fangled centrism and this was really interesting to watch. You and I have fought for years to get the country where it is now the majority of you talked about climate change 20 years ago. You talked about so many things legalizing marijuana the fact that that's just happening in one state after another now. You were ahead of the curve for so many years. We fought for these things. No we fought for these things. The minimum wage I'll tell you what Bill Maher believes in the minimum wage should not be $7.25 an hour. Go down the whole list. We got the country to where Bill Maher and Michael Maher asked why pull back now Bill and say we got to go to the center because the country isn't there because I'm sorry you're lumping a lot of vague shit together. The country is for raising the minimum wage of course. The country is not for Medicare for all. As soon as you ask the question get rid of private health insurance. I mean Barack Obama said if you like your doctor you can keep your doctor which has to be not true for only 2% of the population and the whole country went apeshit about the 2%. Now are you going to take away everybody's completely get rid of private even though there are so many things to fix about Obamacare. They don't like that. People don't like that. No they like the fact that their 26 year old can still be covered that's Obamacare. They like the things about Obamacare but it didn't go far enough and we've got 30 million people that are we've got 50 more million that are under insured. As Nancy Pelosi points out Obamacare is a better benefit. The Medicare for all doesn't pay for catastrophic. You've got to do that yourself. Look Bill we're going to beat Trump. We're going to beat Trump. Well that's not a helpful thing to say. I'm not predicting it. We're the two guys who said Trump was going to win. If the election were tonight Trump would win. How about that. All right. That's how dangerous it is because everybody is so look at the same reaction when I said that three years ago. No. No don't say that. You have to respect the evil genius of this guy and how he gets away with every fucking thing. So here's an interesting thing. He will get away with us if we don't you and I and others start fighting fighting for the progressive things that we believe. So that goes on longer and let me just say that Bill Maher I mean I don't even know what to say after that clip he went on to criticize members of the squad and say that their approval rating is low and that America doesn't like them and that if Donald Trump actually makes them the face of the Democratic Party then this will be bad for Democrats. See the problem with Bill Maher is that he only views politics through the lens of personality it's all about the personalities and first of all he doesn't mention that their approval rating is maybe low because Fox News has been relentless in attacking these ladies but to him it's all about personality the policies that Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Ilhan Omar and what they're talking about that doesn't matter it's their personalities and since Fox News says that they're bad then you know they must be bad. So he's just an imbecile but basically the point that Michael Moore made which I think was poignant was that why now all of a sudden after being a progressive you're saying wait pump the brakes I mean we finally get this vocal left-wing movement in the country which is what we needed which is what you previously said we need and now all of a sudden you're against them you're shitting on them why? and Bill Maher's response idiotically enough was it's not where the country is at really? We elected Donald Trump the establishment has failed Americans they're ready for change they're ready for bold progressivism and if you look at countries throughout the world in every country where there is a Trumpian figure Brazil, the UK there is always someone who is progressive who is incredibly popular left-wing policies vocal social democratic and socialist policies are the antidote to fascism and right-wing populism is the only thing that actually can permanently defeat Donald Trump okay so the fact that Bill Maher doesn't get that by now it shows how naive he is and how he's just not engaged and what's odd to me is the prime example he brings up to show why Americans aren't with progressives Medicare for all he says Americans don't support Medicare for all they don't support Medicare for all have you read any poll lately Bill? most polls show that Medicare for all is overwhelmingly popular and some polls even show that a majority of Republicans support it but he goes on to lie about Medicare for all and frames it as taking away healthcare so that's why it's not popular Obama said if you like your doctor you can keep it and now we're gonna take insurance away it's interesting to me that all of these people they just one person will say it and then everyone else will repeat it it's like a telephone but for corporate talking points now I don't believe that Bill Maher is meeting you know in a smoke filled back room with a Democratic Party strategist so that way they can all get on the same page and say the same thing but you know it's just it shows you that his level of political analysis is very superficial he just parrots what he hears on the mainstream media that's it that's all you know he does that's the extent of research that he performs research if you even that Medicare for all is incredibly popular and if you look at this poll from the morning consult if you explain to people that even if we take away their private health insurance but replace it with Medicare for all where they get to still see their doctors and go to the hospitals that they want it still is popular so for you to say Medicare for all is not where the American people are that's laughable look at all the policies that Bernie Sanders is proposing and they have majority support raising the minimum wage Medicare for all a green new deal a federal jobs guarantee the writing is on the wall Bernie Sanders is the candidate that can basically defeat Donald Trump and put us on the trajectory of social democracy but to Bill Maher he probably buys into all of this fear mongering that he sees in the mainstream news he just thinks well you know if you run a far left candidate Donald Trump is going to pounce and we're gonna lose and you know having Trump for another four years that wouldn't make me feel good I mean look Donald Trump and the Republican Party they can move as far to the right as they want but the minute that people on the left start inching closer towards social democracy that's when people on the supposed left say hang on now pump the brakes it's a double standard Republicans can become as extreme as they want to be move off a cliff and it doesn't matter nobody's really calling them out for that including liberals but when leftists say hey you know what maybe we should have a healthcare system that's comparable to our neighbors just north of the border maybe we should actually pay our workers a living wage so that way we reduce poverty we actually have a middle class again that's when we are the ones that are scolded it's just it's irritating and I can't stand Bill Maher and he has permanently damaged his credibility here so I think that at this point Bill Maher is just too far gone I don't think that anything would make him the light I mean Bernie Sanders even if he were elected and Jeremy Corbyn was elected and Lula was freed and throughout the world social Democrats are introducing these policies that are changing people's lives for the better and restoring faith in you know the political establishment he still would probably find some reason to shit on them the man's an idiot he's out of touch and I think that that's evident I'm just glad that he's still at least willing to bring on people like Michael Moore and Crystal Ball who are willing to challenge him because I guess that's the best that we can hope for when you have someone who is this out of touch at the Revolt Summit right wing grifter Candice Owens got into a pretty heated debate with ATL based rapper T.I. about make America great again and what that means to her so he asked her a very simple question what era in America would you prefer to go back to and as you're going to see here it got pretty heated and she didn't have an answer the fear that Trump has lifted in poor whites that black people and poor urban people are their problem that's a that's a fallacy when did Trump ever say black people America great again that's when he said guys that was on the panel that was Ronald Reagan slogan was that racist when Ronald slagan had it as a slogan yes what time please I have a question please please I have a question when you say make America great again which period are we talking about the period when women couldn't vote the period when we were hanging from trees like the crack ever which period in America are you trying to make America like that I actually think that I would I would totally rock a hat right now that said make black America great make America before that was the question I am answering your question which period was America great that we're trying to replicate whichever was it tell me I'll answer your question which era was it what whichever was so great here's the thing that you guys are forgetting America was actually one of the slavery was all over the world America was I'm not saying it's okay so why are you saying oh America was one of the first country I want to invite you so bad I'm trying to answer your question I want to answer the question I want to be able to hear them if you can't answer the question and you're just going to boo when I say a slavery was all over the world which is a fact why are you booing a fact because you're making like you're making like the enslavement of people that look like us you can't make light of that that ain't nothing I haven't even finished the sentence how am I making light of anything you started with some boo she so Candace we can be emotional we can boo you can cheer but I'm telling you right now the black hole is not going to matter so that was thoroughly entertaining and my favorite part was when she invoked Ronald Reagan as kind of a get out of jail free card to kind of you know cleanse Trump because he is just adopting the slogan that Ronald Reagan previously had so the question was are you going to say that Ronald Reagan is racist too and the answer very simply was yeah that's easy of course he was racist he was one of the most racist presidents you could argue he was the individual who invented the term welfare queens about black women to fear monger about black women so it just shows you how ignorant she is of history but this is kind of what she does she isn't just a historical but she will deny historical facts she said that the southern strategy wasn't a thing she said this in a testimony before congress she literally said that with a straight face this is someone who has no moral core she is just in it for the check that's evident because she can't come up with arguments to explain why it's good for black Americans to support Donald Trump and she's the individual who spearheaded this black sit movement where she's making the case that if you are a black American then it would be who view to support Donald Trump but most black Americans rightfully do not support Donald Trump because his policies are a disaster for them the republican party is absolutely destructive to black Americans but she's saying that you know it's the conservatives and the republican party now the modern republican party that's actually better for black America than Democrats I mean it's a joke but when it comes to the question is of what era do you want to replicate this is a question that I've always wanted to ask Trump supporters because if the slogan is make America great again the implication is that it was once great and it's no longer great so the idea is there must be an era in time if you had a time machine that you'd want to return to a status quo that was preferable to what we have now and T.I. asked the question what era do you want to replicate because the underlying assumption here is that if you're a black American especially why would you want to go back to any point in time because throughout the history of this country it has not been kind to black Americans it has not been kind to women it has not been kind to poor people it has not been kind to the LGBTQ plus community it's still not kind to these groups but obviously things have gotten better there's still systemic racism institutional racism social discrimination there's all of these issues police brutality against marginalized minorities but to go backwards would make individuals from these groups who are vulnerable much much worse so to suggest that maybe we should go back to a different era it really doesn't make sense it seems like it's contrary to your own self-interest to support this idea so the question that T.I. asked is simple where do you want to go back to Candice what era in US history would be better for you because it doesn't really seem like there's any era that would be preferable so what are you talking about and see this is the thing about the MAGA slogan and why it was so persuasive and why it resonated with a lot of people because it's a blank slate Trump isn't saying let's go back to 1969 let's go back to 1973 he's just saying make America great again so individuals who support Donald Trump can kind of insert whatever they want there they simply attribute whatever meaning they want to that slogan so that's why make America great again was a slogan that resonated with a lot of people now of course I'm over generalizing here but this is something that as a Trump supporter she should be ready to answer but the fact that she couldn't shows that she's in this for the money it's all about the paycheck well I am back after taking a week off I return to the world of political commentary with a gigantic ball in the pit of my stomach and an overwhelming sense of dread because once again we are facing the prospect of a potential war or strike definitely some sort of escalation with Iran and this comes after the news that John Bolton either was fired or resigned which of course in a lot of our eyes diminished the prospect of war because John Bolton was openly a hawk on Iran he wanted to overthrow the Iranian regime by 2019 so it was evident that getting rid of John Bolton made the prospect of war with Iran less likely now his ouster reportedly happened after he clashed with Donald Trump over policy with regard to Iran so Trump vocalized his intent to lift some sanctions on Iran in hopes that that would bring to Iran back to the table after he torpedoed the Iran deal but of course John Bolton didn't like that and he tried to persuade Donald Trump that de-escalation wasn't actually the right course of action and then this clash led to the ouster of John Bolton so it seemed like everything was going semi-smoothly until you fast forward to Saturday when there were drone attacks on two Saudi oil fields and Houthi rebels claimed responsibility and this led to a disruption of almost half of Saudi Arabia's oil exports and when you consider the fact that Saudi Arabia produces a tenth of crude oil globally I mean the ramifications for this are huge the moment I found out that this happened I thought this could be what leads us to war with Iran if it is the case that the United States blames Iran for this and of course that's exactly what they are doing even after Houthi rebels have claimed responsibility for this attack now the dust has kind of settled and we see the impact that this is having on global markets ultimately this led to the biggest spike in oil prices within the last decade and here in the United States we love our oil so I mean you can murder journalists you can commit genocide we're not going to touch you but if you fuck with our oil that's when we all have to be worried about the prospect of war and I'm not even going to worry about cursing this video will in fact be demonetized so you know it's frustrating this situation is absolutely terrifying Houthi rebels claimed responsibility and to give you some additional context they're saying look we will do further attacks if Saudi Arabia does not withdraw because Saudi Arabia has now been waging a years long genocide in Yemen and I don't think that it's hyperbolic to describe what Saudi Arabia is doing as a genocide so they're saying this is in direct retaliation to what Saudi Arabia has been doing in Yemen and there will be more attacks if they don't stop doing what they're doing in Yemen now of course it is possible that Iran had something to do with this in some way perhaps they supplied you know the Houthi rebels with the drones or weapons assistance in some way but what we all knew and expected would happen is exactly what happened you know Iran is the main scapegoat Secretary of State and Iran Mike Pompeo is in fact blaming Iran even after the Houthis took responsibility and Iran itself has denied any part and again I'm not trying to deny whether or not Iran assisted the Houthis here what I'm trying to do is make the case that even in the event Iran did this let's say that Iran directly was responsible and claimed responsibility for this attack that still is not a justification for the United States to strike or invade Iran because that is absolutely something that could lead to not just a bloody war with Iran but World War 3 potentially so we of course should not go to war with them over oil but the United States does have a long history of intervening when oil is at stake if we want oil or oil is you know at risk we intervene now after this attack happened Donald Trump tweeted Saudi Arabia oil supply was attacked there is reason to believe that we know the culprit are locked and loaded depending on verification but are waiting to hear from the kingdom as to who they believe was the cause of this attack and under what terms we would proceed so this is another threat to a country via twitter by Donald Trump and we're just waiting on Saudi Arabia to give us the go ahead say it's Iran and we'll do what you want Saudi Arabia unbelievable now what Donald Trump is alluding to here when he says that were locked and loaded presumably is him saying we are ready to strike in the event Iran is responsible if that's what the intelligence points us towards will strike Iran so in his view he wants to do something to make sure that he projects strength he doesn't want to be seen as you know this beta male he doesn't want to appear too weak as he thinks Obama appeared but at the same time he is committed to at least being portrayed as a non-interventionist when that's laughable he's not he is a warmonger perhaps to a lesser extent than individuals like Mike Pompeo or John Bolton but nonetheless he still is a warmonger but he still wants to be portrayed as an anti-interventionist so it seems like in his view he thinks striking Iran will suffice and then he pulls out no war needed after that the problem is that Iran has communicated that they would in fact view that as an act of war and that would lead to war but let's talk a little bit more about that after we hear from Donald Trump when he denied that war with Iran is what he wants take a look and I will tell you it was a very large attack and it could be met with an attack many many times larger very easily by our country but we're going to find out who definitively did it first I didn't say that why do you say that I said that we think we know who it was but I didn't say anybody but certainly it would look to most like it was Iran but I did not say it the way you said well I want war I don't want war I don't want to hurt anybody I'm somebody that would like not to have war we have the strongest military in the world we've spent more than a trillion and a half dollars in the last short period of time when our military nobody's even come close there's nobody it has the F-35 we have the best fighter jets the best rockets the best missiles the best equipment but with all of that being said we'd certainly like to avoid it two and a half to three years ago they were causing a lot of trouble it happens but we'll let you know definitively as you know there are ways to see definitively where they came from and we have all of those ways and that's being checked out right now well you know there were always conditions because the conditions if you look at it the sanctions are not going to be taken off so the sanctions that's a condition so you know that's why the press misreported it the biggest thing you can talk about are the sanctions are massive there's never been sanctions put on a country like that and I think they have a tremendous future but not the way they're behaving we'll see what happens in terms of this attack Secretary Pompeo and others will be going over to Saudi Arabia at some point to discuss what they feel they're going to make a statement fairly soon but they also know something that most people don't know as to where it came from who did it and we'll be able to find that out figure that out very quickly we pretty much already know you know there's a number of ways that you can interpret what Donald Trump is saying there by saying I don't want war with Iran it seems like he thinks a strike in the same way that he struck Syria twice would basically be all that happens but again Iran has made it very clear that they are prepared to go to war if they are struck now if we were attacked let's say Iran bombed Texas would we just let that go absolutely not we would absolutely be prepared for war not to be redundant and overuse the word absolutely but when we're talking about Donald Trump we are dealing in absolutes because this individual is incredibly volatile he's unstable and one minute he could talk about how locked and loaded we are in the next minute talk about how of course I don't want war with Iran but make no mistake about it if it strikes them that's war with Iran that is an act of war unquestionably so we don't necessarily know how this is going to turn out we're watching this unfold in real time and de-escalation seems a lot less likely this time around because we see an attack on Saudi Arabia which is one of our allies and the United States government is committed to defending our allies especially if we already are looking for reasons to attack Iran so any little thing that they do or don't do is the justification that we need to invade we can't just invade if we have no reason to so whether we fabricate a reason or take something and attribute blame to Iran for even if it's someone else it doesn't matter the point is there are many neocons in Donald Trump's administration the military industrial complex does have an overwhelming amount of influence over a lot of lawmakers and they want war with Iran because that is incredibly profitable so we are trying to push back against the prospect of war with Iran within a capitalist system that profits off of never ending wars and the situation looks grim I'll just put it that way now in response to Donald Trump's saber-attling you do have the usual anti-war voices speaking out you had Tulsi Gabbard on Twitter say Trump awaits instructions from Saudi masters having our country act as Saudi Arabia's bitch is not America first Rand Paul explained how a strike on Iran would be a quote big mistake which is a message that he sent to Donald Trump after Lindsey Graham unsurprisingly told Donald Trump that he must consider an attack on Iran and Lindsey Graham I don't think that there's any war that he's ever been against like you literally could say should we strike Canada and if that is something that would increase the profits of his donors in the military industrial complex in that defense industry he would go for it this man is a psychopath he's not stable so I'm glad that there are a few anti-war voices even within you know at least one in the Republican party in Rand Paul who's willing to push back however the problem is that we've gone to this point where never ending wars is just the default position and new wars aren't that alarming to people there's this emerging bipartisan consensus when it comes to war and to give you an example of that Chris Coons United States Senator in the Democratic Party had this to say on Fox News quote we have been constantly preparing ourselves for a full-fledged war Democratic Senator Chris Coons sits on the Senate for our relations committee he's a busy guy a lot of topics and a great to see you in person great to see you Senator if it is tied directly to Iran what's appropriate action well first I want to see the intelligence but it seems credible that the Houthis don't have the sort of advanced drones that carried out this crippling strike on Saudi oil facilities my hope is that the president will consult with his generals his diplomats his advisors will look hard at the intelligence Iran is one of the the most dangerous state sponsors of terrorism this may well be the thing that calls for military action against Iran if that's what the intelligence supports what about people who say you know we got our own oil we don't need that oil as much as we used to not our problem what would you say to that I'd say one of the things that has kept America safe and secure for seven decades is a global network of alliances obviously our alliance with the Saudis has been badly strained by the murder of Khashoggi and by some of the other things that MBS the Crown Prince has done but this is a moment where Iran is really pushing our resolve and is really testing to see whether we're actually going to stand up and if there's attacks by Iran on our close allies like Jordan, Israel or the Saudis we need to take seriously taking action against them I think it would be great to know that republicans and democrats would be behind that so if the intelligence says that you know Iran is responsible that's a justification to attack Iran so here's what I will say about this because I don't know what's going to come of all of this maybe Trump will try to de-escalate maybe someone like Tucker Carlson will once again get in his ear we don't know what's going to happen but there are two conflicting sides here you have one side that's overwhelmingly powerful urging and trying to go Donald Trump into war with Iran knowing that Donald Trump is belligerent and volatile enough to where he could potentially act if the right person says something at the right time you know they're trying to use that to their advantage and then you have the anti-war side which is small in comparison trying to do whatever they can to put pressure on lawmakers to put pressure on Donald Trump the problem is that you know as these things continue to happen we had the incident a couple of months ago you know it seems as if what we're watching is a case being built against Iran so in the event we're able to escape war with Iran or a strike with Iran in retaliation to this well that doesn't necessarily mean that we're out of the woods yet because Bolton may be gone but that military industrial complex it operates autonomously it doesn't need John Bolton in Donald Trump's ear to have a substantial influence over Donald Trump so even if we don't have a strike on Iran that doesn't mean that we get to rest easily we still have to be hyper vigilant because Donald Trump who is very unpredictable again he threatened Iran and then says I don't want war with him so he's sending mixed messages and he's not playing four-dimensional chess this is not someone who has some type of complex strategy and he's just trying to convey strength to Iran this is someone who has no strategy so that type of naivete and just downright dumb fuckery is easy to capitalize on if you are close to Donald Trump and Mike Pompeo he's a hawk in Iran he wants war with Iran so we just have to watch the situation and hope for the best but unfortunately we are going to have to prepare for the worst because if anyone is going to attack Iran Donald Trump in spite of his anti-interventionist rhetoric is someone who could potentially be crazy enough to do something like that so I've got to be honest with you last week when I was on my staycation I wasn't filming to watch Tulsi Gabbard go on the Rubin report and not push back against his right wing framing of questions it's not only not push back but proceed to agree with the way he framed it that kind of hurt my heart a little bit I'll be honest the democrats are basically trying to out do each other for open borders something like that A. do you think that's a fair way to start the question my brain is still in recovery from taking so many high-level and being where you sit now I was going to talk about that but Kyle Kalinsky my brother from another mother actually did a really fair job covering that so I will link you to his video there I think that pretty much everything he said I agree with but let me say this Tulsi did make it up to me in a way because she went on Fox News and she was interviewed by Neil Cavuto and she absolutely demonstrated that she is not afraid to push back I don't know why she didn't push back on the Rubin report but here she pushed back and I think this is more important because if you go on Fox News you are reaching a broader audience so you need to be ready to push back against any right wing framing against any misinformation and right wing Republican party talking points and propaganda and she did just that now in this interview that I'm about to show you she was very critical about Donald Trump's response with regard to the issue of Iran and she said things that were probably really uncomfortable for Fox News's audience to hear hence why the video has more dislikes than likes because you know how dare she criticize Daddy Trump on his home turf Fox News is supposed to be you know a safe space so how dare this outsider this intruder come into our domain and criticize Lord Donald Trump because Fox News viewers they are in a bubble and we're all in political bubbles you know in one way or another but they are in the biggest, most thickest bubble that is very very difficult to penetrate and often times you don't reach these viewers unless you go on their own home turf so what she did in this first clip I'm going to show you there's two clips in total but I'll link you to the full video she basically educated Fox News viewers about the Iran deal and why it wasn't that good ultimately this is something that fostered peace and why because it's now gone we are dealing with the current situation and the escalation with Iran it's because Donald Trump tanked the Iran deal take a look we need to re-enter the Iran nuclear agreement and get rid of these crippling economic sanctions that are continuing to escalate this war against Iran well Iran has been doing this kind of stuff with or without sanctions right with or without a deal right so it doesn't seem to matter the occasion or the deal they're provocative behavior while the Iran nuclear deal while the Iran nuclear deal was in place Iran was found to be in compliance both by our own intelligence agencies the IAEA, other countries intelligence agencies they were complying with that deal and it was making it so that they were not moving forward towards building a nuclear weapon now that that deal has been thrown in the trash Iran is continuing to move forward while the nuclear deal is not outstanding it's been provocative right so I guess what I would ask you would you as president then ignore that provocation deal or no deal would you work on behalf with the Saudis do you like the Saudis more or less than Iran what it's not about who you like or who you don't like it's about once again focusing on our objective of keeping the American people safe what has just happened and transpired over the last few days your didn't just pop up out of nowhere so we can't look at this situation away from what has been happening over the last several months that really was kicked off by President Trump walking away from and throwing that nuclear deal in the trash increasing crippling economic sanctions that are really hurting the people of Iran most of all designating their military as a terrorist organization deploying more of our troops to the region so there's a number of things that have pushed us all the world to this point where we are today what Fox News viewers needed to hear what we need to do is stop escalating stop being aggressive and actually opt for diplomacy it's a crazy thing you know Donald Trump is vying for diplomacy with Kim Jong Un and I think rightfully so so to suggest that he should be more hawkish and aggressive when it comes to Iran that's nonsensical if you want to be consistent in your foreign policy so you know for her to say we need to stop with the aggression lift the sanctions re-enter the Iran deal that's exactly what we need to do now Cavuto then says that Iran's behavior continues to be provocative so you know regardless if we have sanctions or not you know they're still going to be aggressive but she corrected him and she said something very important and I'm going to read back her quote when the Iran nuclear deal was in place Iran was found to be in compliance both by our own intelligence agencies the IAEA countries intelligence agencies they were complying with that deal and it was making it so they were not moving forward with building a nuclear weapon now this is so crucial because the Fox News audience they've probably never heard this if you were a Fox News viewer and you've drunk the Kool-Aid and you've watched Fox News religiously for years you've heard nothing but bad things about the Iran deal that it makes it easier for them to get a nuke and that they violated the deal multiple times but in actuality that's factually incorrect they were in compliance and we were the ones that violated the deal so if you want peace if you want them to be less likely to get a nuclear weapon if you even want to you know agree that that's what they want then you have to understand that we are the ones who are responsible Donald Trump is responsible had he not withdrew from the Iran deal then we would not be in this predicament but because Obama did it it's just automatically bad and that's what Tulsi Gabbard was trying to explain to Fox News viewers but Neil Kovuto he kind of took a cheap shot at Tulsi Gabbard by insinuating that maybe she loves the Saudis more than the Iranians and that's why she's saying this that wasn't the first time he said that and you're going to see in this next clip that he's going to bring that up again and again that there must be some underlying thing that's motivating Tulsi Gabbard she loves the Iranians maybe that's why she is taking the stand but she does a really good job I think at shutting that notion down and once again educating Fox News viewers about what's at stake and why we are seeing the situation get so tense is it in our interest for Saudi Arabia to be protected or it's kingdom to be protected or do you draw a distinction well let me tell you what is not in our interest is this alliance that has been long standing between the United States and Saudi Arabia in spite of the fact that they are directly and indirectly supporting Al Qaeda terrorist group that attacked us on 9-11 we just observed the 18th anniversary of that terrible attack on our country in 2001 they are continuing to spend billions of dollars every year propagating this extremist Wahhabi ideology that's fueling the growth of terrorist groups like Al Qaeda and ISIS and others around the world they are directly supporting those who pose a threat to our country and to the United States that threat that we need to defeat is that threat greater than Iran yes it is so Saudi Arabia is more a problem for us than Iran currently Iran does not pose a direct threat to the United States we have the opportunity to make sure that we prevent Iran from continuing to move forward towards developing a nuclear weapon that's where we need to be focused if I were president right now that's exactly what I'd be doing getting back into that nuclear deal getting rid of these crippling economic sanctions and being able to make sure we can move forward in the interests of our national security so a president also gov would see Saudi Arabia as a bigger threat to our country than Iran what I would like to see is Saudi Arabia ending their support for Al Qaeda terrorist groups like Al Qaeda I'm sorry that's not what I asked it's not what I asked you're turning my words around I want to just be very clear but you have a higher opinion of Iran than you do Saudi Arabia that's not at all what I'm saying that's not what I'm saying I'm focused on how we can best keep the American people safe on how we can make sure that we are we have our national security intact the Saudis are a bigger threat to that safety than Iran the Saudis are directly supporting the very terrorist group that attacked us on 9-11 and that continued to pose a threat to the American people today so if the president were to take action against Iran with or without Saudi intelligence or help that would be a bad move in your eyes that would be a very bad move it would not serve the interests of the United States thousands more of my brothers and sisters in uniform their lives it would cost us as taxpayers trillions dollars more it would make the Iraq war that I served in look like a picnic compared to the cost and the consequence and the devastation that would come about as a result of that war what to speak of the fact that it would be unconstitutional given the president would do that without that authority coming from Congress so that went off the rails but it ended on a really strong note so let's break it down so Kavuto asked her is it in our interest for Saudi Arabia to be protected and I think that she handled that answer well but if it were me I would have just rejected the premise of that question altogether because this notion that Iran is more militaristic and aggressive than Saudi Arabia is nonsensical when what was arguably a proxy war in Yemen ended up devolving into a genocide by Saudi Arabia it's comical to suggest that Saudi Arabia is innocent here and she explained why Saudi Arabia is not a good ally and I would have added that you know when you are committing a genocide in Yemen and carrying out human rights abuses of your own people when women are treated as third class citizens when atheists and LGBTQ people are put to death yeah they're not a good ally they're not good so if there's any relationship between the United States and Saudi Arabia that goes deeper than just a sheer economic relationship then it should be us exerting pressure on them in a positive way using diplomacy using soft power to get them to actually stop with the myriad human rights abuses so she did a good job but as you can see she said something that essentially got Nio Kavuto off the rails it made his head explode nearly and he couldn't move on after this so she said actually Iran does not pose a direct threat to the United States don't say no for her to go on Fox News and say that their heads are exploding like you could hear if you listen closely heads exploding across the country because that is something that is unfathomable to progressives you know that's just common sense but if you are a Fox News viewer that is something that seems counter-intuitive because all these years think about this I'm tuning into Fox News all you've heard about is how bad Iran is and how they pose a direct threat to us and they want a nuclear weapon so they can use it on either us or one of our allies Saudi Arabia, Israel but what she just said there was a dose of cold water and it's why Nio Kavuto at that point he was triggered and he couldn't get past the fact that she basically was saying that Iran isn't a threat and Saudi Arabia may possibly be a bigger threat to you know world peace than Iran especially as they carry out a genocide I mean crazy thought right and even though that was pretty redundant with him just going back and forth with her I did want you to be able to watch that play out just so you can see how ridiculous you know it really was and she ended on an important note that I think you can't really overstay it's important that we emphasize Donald Trump does not have the authority constitutionally speaking to unilaterally wage war with Iran he doesn't get to do that Congress makes war Congress not the president so the idea that we're even entertaining well will Donald Trump take us to war like we need to understand the president should not be doing this because they don't have the authority to do that and the expansion of executive power it's been this ongoing phenomenon now for decades political scientists have been tracking it and it's absolutely time that Congress takes back their authority to declare war so she ended strong and you know that was really important I wish that she would have pushed back you know against Dave Rubin as much as she did against Neil Kubuto here but this was a really strong interview and what she's doing here is trying to shift the Overton window to the left when it comes to foreign policy issues and that's super important especially when we're talking to Fox News Fox News viewers they will accept whatever you know they are told they'll accept anything and they've been fed this line of nonsensical propaganda that Iran is at our doorstep ready to attack us at any moment and they're overly aggressive and what she's saying is actually here's the truth the Iran deal was good if you care about peace and no Iran isn't actually a threat to us that's not going to be something that will resonate with a lot of Fox News viewers because again look at the like to dislike ratio but it's still something that is important in terms of just planting seeds and getting us on the right path maybe a couple viewers will take the liberty to Google what she said and learn a little bit um maybe some of them rejected and they have that cognitive dissonance that they're not willing to fight through but you know they just they hear it from her and then they hear it again and maybe they start to have doubts this is what political discourse needs we need someone to you know get in that bubble of Fox News shake it up and tell them the truth Bernard Sanders has unquestionably stepped up his game and it seems like at least twice a week he's releasing new policies that are more sweeping more progressive more robust than they were before and this week is no different so he just released a housing for all plan that would change so many lives that as I read through the details of this plan it actually gave me chills so as tele-axle route of the Hill reports White House hopeful Senator Bernie Sanders on Wednesday released a 2.5 trillion plan to guarantee housing for every American Sanders said the plan would guarantee every American regardless of income a fundamental right to a safe decent accessible and affordable home and would be paid for by a wealth tax on the top one tenth of one percent of income earners there is virtually no place in America where a full-time minimum wage worker can afford a decent two-bedroom apartment at a time when half of our people are living paycheck to paycheck this is unacceptable he said for too long the federal government has ignored the extraordinary housing crisis in our country that will end when I am president Sanders plan seeks to invest 1.48 trillion over 10 years in the national affordable housing trust fund to build and maintain 7.4 million quality affordable and accessible housing units that he says will eliminate the gap in affordable housing for the lowest income renters it would also invest another 400 billion to build 2 million mixed income social housing units he also intends to use the plan to end homelessness by prioritizing 25,000 national affordable housing trust fund units to house the homeless in his first year in office and provide 500 million to state and local governments to help connect the homeless to case management and social services the democratic socialist lambasted corrupt real estate developers for jacking up rent prices and president trump for cutting federal housing programs he says he would create an office within the department of housing and urban development to strengthen rent control and tenant protections and make data on evictions and rent increases available to the public so just pause for a moment and try to think through the ramifications of this in the event that governments were codified into law this would most definitely end housing insecurity in America once and for all and this actually could literally end homelessness this isn't a guarantee we'd have to wait a couple of years to see how this plays out once it's implemented but this actually has a shot of ending homelessness and let me explain to you why this is so important and why this is so special bernie is doing this out of a place of moral courage because even if you claim that you are representing you know lower class constituents the downtrodden people don't talk about homelessness and homeless people because they're not viewed as a real political constituency i mean they don't have homes so you can't send them campaign mailers it's difficult to get in contact with them so a lot of times politicians just kind of give up and ignore their needs but what bernie sanders is doing here is he's taking initiative and he's saying no these are americans and they deserve a home every american deserves a safe and accessible and affordable home including homeless people and that is absolutely commendable um and it's really touching that bernie cares about this like you can say just in the abstract that you care about homelessness and it concerns you but to really come up with the plan that would eliminate it possibly this is a next level i mean bernie sanders is changing the game and even if this never comes to fruition and never passes still he's shifting the overton window to the left and he's getting people to think about possible solutions to the homeless crisis now there is that price tag that i already know republicans will complain about and some corporate democrats will say that this is bad as well but consider this for a moment if you're concerned about the deficit and the price tag before you concern troll understand that giving the homeless homes overall is actually more cost efficient than the current status quo it will net save us money and this was based off of research from central florida where a study found that it actually costs three times as much to police homeless people and you know get them to move certain areas then it does to just put them in a house you know emergency services um law enforcement that all costs money currently so we'd spend less on homelessness if we just give homeless people homes housing is also a really effective way to reduce alcohol abuse drug abuse in some instances and overall morally speaking this is just the right course of action because it's difficult to get clean you know if you are a drug user and you are an abuser of substances how do you get clean and in some instances maybe drugs is your only escape you feel because if you're sleeping on the streets what are you supposed to do right um so this is just all around incredible policy and it's not just about homelessness so I don't want to overemphasize that even though it's incredibly important but housing insecurity is such a huge issue we have landlords across the country that are overly greedy people they need to be secure they need to feel as if they don't have to worry that they will lose the roof that is over their heads I mean it's a basic necessity that nobody's talking about so there's a number of basic necessities right as human beings we should be guaranteed by right of citizenship um and just as a member of the human race clean drinking water healthcare you know a roof over our head basic civil rights and civil liberties these are things that are non-negotiable and the way that Bernie Sanders has brought this to the forefront of you know political discourse and increased the salience of these issues it's remarkable Bernie Sanders has done more to change and shift the overton window in this country than any politician since Ronald Reagan and when it comes to left-wing politicians uh definitely since FDR so this is why the more that I see Bernie Sanders run this dynamic campaign where he's constantly putting out policy I can't help but think it's like he has a plan for everything you know I find it funny because publicly Donald Trump has been huffin and puffin and he talks a big game about how he wants to make socialists and you know socialism members of the squad the Green New Deal all the main representatives of the Democratic Party because in 2020 it will be easier to run against socialism than it will be to run against um capitalism the Green New Deal right Green New Deal I encourage it I think I think it's really something that they should promote that's just talk and behind closed doors he's saying something very differently in fact he's telling his closest confidants that socialism might not be too easy to beat after all so this story is fascinating it's from The Daily Beast by Asoin Sub-Sang and Sam Stein and it's titled Trump privately tells confidants that socialism won't be so easy to beat in 2020 the president is not totally sold on the attack line that he and his team have made so central to their campaign and let me just pause before we dive into the article um it's funny because you really see Fox News the Republican Party Donald Trump all zero in on socialism they're trying to make AOC the face of the Democratic Party and individuals like Bernie Sanders who identify as Democratic Socialists the faces of the Democratic Party but you can already see that that's not working because you are building their name recognition and even if you may not necessarily be making them more popular per se you're still spreading their ideas so when you go and you fish through AOC's Instagram in order to try to find something to criticize her for you're just broadcasting her message to a bigger audience so of course this is going to backfire it's not a good long-term strategy but I'm glad it's backfiring and I'm glad that we're learning that actually maybe they realize that socialism is a little bit more of a threat than they initially thought so let's get to the article as he campaigns for re-election Donald Trump and his team have made trashing the Socialists or Communists in the 2020 Democratic presidential field a cornerstone of their messaging in private however the president often strikes a different more nuanced tone one driven by a concern that socialism at least as defined by the Democrats may actually sell politically this year Trump has repeatedly told friends and donors that running against socialism in a general election may not be so easy because of its populist draw according to four Republicans and sources close to Trump who've heard him say this over the past several months according to a person who was in the room Trump told donors at a recent private event that though a lot of people think it'll be easy to beat in 2020 the truth is it might not be so easy the president according to the source said that you can have someone who loves Trump but many people love free stuff too that if candidates tell Americans especially young voters that they're going to cancel their debt that's a tough one to run against I have discussed the popularity of the Democratic Socialist message i.e. Sanders and Elizabeth Warren with President Trump on more than one occasion and in person said Eric Bowling a blaze TV host and a friend of the Trump family specifically the idea of excusing debt and giving away as Trump says free stuff becoming more and more popular among younger voters so I really find this fascinating because even if it's common sense to me and people who are politically savvy like you watching this you know anyone who's in Washington DC anyone who's a strategist they're stupid and Donald Trump is absolutely idiotic but it's interesting that they're realizing that going up against the populist appeal of socialism is in fact something that's not going to be as easy to beat now look nobody is a sure bet but this is why I've maintained that Bernie Sanders has the strongest chance going up against Donald Trump because when you are a populist when you are explicitly saying we're going to tax the rich and invest in a social safety net that directly benefits you that is popular it's part of the reason why Donald Trump was incredibly popular and he was this insurgent candidate even within the Republican Party's field in 2016 because he was saying we're going to protect social security we're going to protect Medicare now of course it was a lie but even though he may be dim-witted even if he has a low IQ just I think objectively speaking he does have the political instinct to kind of see that you do have to appeal to just everyday Americans right you have to understand that the establishment is incredibly unpopular in the fact that he understands that that's what I think ultimately facilitated his success in 2016 and he's smart out of his own self-interest to acknowledge that that anti-establishment appeal that has not faded away and you know the problem is that he is largely seen as the establishment's errand boy so you know it would be who of him to maybe rather than trying to smear people who are socialist and Bernie and AOC they're not actually democratic socialists if you look up the technical definition of that term they are social Democrats who believe in a mixed economy but if Donald Trump was smart he would try to steal some of their platform he just canceled the debt of disabled veterans when it comes to student loans so why not broaden that out and say I'm going to cancel the debt of all veterans or the debt of all people making X amount of dollars or go crazy cancel all debt like you can actually undercut that message if you're smart but the thing about Donald Trump is he knows being anti-establishment is a winning strategy he doesn't have that authenticity anymore because he is the president and he has done the bidding of the establishment the first thing he did his first major legislative accomplishment was a tax cut for himself and the elites so of course even if he came with this really bold debt cancellation plan which he knows is popular nobody would believe him because one he lies every two seconds and two Bernie Sanders is more genuine this is why Bernie has got to be the nominee I think that it's really difficult at this time in the race to say definitively that one person is definitely going to defeat Donald Trump because things can change 2020 is a long ways off at least until the general but if we're just looking at this and we have our finger on the pulse of America we know America's anti-establishment Americans are desperate and we know that Bernie Sanders has that appeal and went back the rust belt so it's interesting that Donald Trump is actually admitting actually it might not be so easy to defeat socialism after all even if I've been saying the complete opposite very very interesting so I mean this kind of confirms the obvious I said this I think back at the beginning of when Bernie Sanders launched his campaign that Donald Trump was lying when he said that he was the most afraid of Joe Biden because obviously Bernie Sanders is the biggest threat to Donald Trump and now that he's admitting this publicly or not publicly but privately you know it's obvious but it's interesting that he would actually admit this especially to donors who you are supposed to you know imbue with confidence that you're going to win otherwise why would they donate and invest in you so fascinating all around of course Donald Trump is correct here he absolutely should be afraid of Bernie Sanders because if Bernie Sanders is the Democratic Party nominee Donald Trump's ass will most likely be kicked and I would love to see that after watching this disaster unfold over the course of the last couple of years we need to defeat Donald Trump Bernie is our ticket not just to a Democratic White House but social democracy let's help him help us let's elect Bernie the party that supposedly supports states rights is showing yet again how selective they are in the application of that philosophy because when it comes to bodily autonomy and civil rights they're very pro-states rights because they want to make sure that red states have the authority to discriminate against their citizens as they see fit however when it comes to e-cigarettes and protecting the environment they're not very states rights now of course you know I am referring to Donald Trump's decision to revoke California's legal authority to set its own emission standards and this is important because California's economy is absolutely massive so even if they're just one state if they set a particular environmental standard then it would really be who businesses to follow that standard nationally because it would be more cost-efficient since California is such a massive part of the economy so if you're going to have one set of standards that are different for other states than it is for California and some other blue states then that doesn't really make sense from an economic standpoint so if you're a business then absolutely you want to make sure to just do what California wants so you have just one standard universally at the national level the problem though is that Donald Trump didn't like this because it gives a blue state a tremendous amount of power and he sees power as a zero sum game so if they have power then he doesn't and when it comes to the environment he absolutely does not want California to have a nationwide impact on any industry so what does he choose to do? well when it comes to the auto industry at least revokes their ability to set their own standards simple as that so instead he wants these auto emissions to be subject to federal standards as opposed to the standard that California sets mind you with Donald Trump in charge with a right wing EPA in control these federal standards are more lax they are worse for the environment so what he's doing here it just shows how antagonistic he is towards the environment but I'm talking about this story even though it's late because this isn't going to be just a one and done deal he's not just going to be able to say you know what California you're no longer going to be able to set your own emissions standards because guess what California thankfully is pushing back and this is most likely going to end up being a pretty huge legal battle and as Lydia O'Connor of HuffPost writes California officials said Wednesday that they're prepared to fight President Donald Trump over his announcement that he's revoking the state's legal authority to set its own emissions standards at a press conference state leaders emphasized that they've long anticipated this move by the Trump administration and that they plan to take Trump to court over it as soon as possible this is the fight of a lifetime for us we have to win this California Air Resources Board Chairwoman Mary Nichols said adding that she's been paying her dues to the state bar of California just in readiness for this moment so that she could be part of the litigation shortly before she spoke Trump tweeted that he was revoking a waiver that's long allowed the state to establish its own tailpipe emissions policy upending decades of bipartisan support for that exception the president argued that revoking the waiver would make cars cheaper and safer while making little difference in emissions and creating more jobs this is simply inaccurate Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom retorted on Twitter saying the looser standards Trump wants would cost consumers 400 billion and result in 320 billion more gallons of oil burned and spewed into our air and in this instance Governor Newsom is 100% correct and I don't even know how Donald Trump would reach that type of conclusion and you can only logically assume that he's following some type of libertarian philosophy where he thinks that if you just you know you deregulate you allow the market to self-regulate then that will be the best thing for consumers except we're not talking about a particular company making cookies and you know maybe they go out of business because it makes people feel sick there is a real information imbalance here that people aren't considering who is going to purchase a car and then think about all of these really specific things with regard to you know emissions and whatnot this is why the state should be handling something like that but you know this is part of the course for Donald Trump who it seems like he doesn't just not care about the environment which would be one thing I mean if he just was ambivalent that'd still be awful but he is actively trying to ruin the planet faster and it's one thing that is pausing it's what him and his Brazilian counterpart Jair Bolsonaro is doing and it just I mean on one hand you can say well look they're old so they don't have to see the consequences you know and they don't care about destruction on a mass scale they don't care about the habitability of our planet because they're older but I mean if you have a kid don't you have any concern whatsoever I mean there's no way that he actually is a climate change denier because if you look at the stories regarding his golf courses he absolutely is concerned with the effects of climate change so I mean to just be overly antagonistic what's the reason to own the libs like I just I don't get it I think there's multiple things that come into play I think part of it is power he's power hungry he doesn't want California to kind of reduce from his power because they don't want California to you know take away from what the federal government can do and since he is in control of the federal government maybe that has something to do with it I don't know but all I know is that this is psychopathic at this point and Donald Trump absolutely must be defeated if we want a fighting chance just as a species like we're not just talking about the supreme court we're not just talking about public policy we're talking about our survivability the habitability of our planet if we don't defeat him that's four more years that we lose that we just don't have so I'm watching all of this in terror and I just it makes no sense to me how Republicans don't care like if you are a young Republican I'll reason with you let's say hypothetically speaking you don't believe in climate change do you still not worry about the consequences of our actions having breathable air that's not polluted that is healthy you know I mean if you want to be healthy and breathe clean air don't you have an interest in that just from the standpoint of you being a self-interested rational actor I just I don't get it I don't understand conservatism and this Republican philosophy everything they do seems to be motivated by you know some way to trigger the libs or fuck up the planet and it's just it's psychopathic it's psychopathic and it's time that we call it like we see it this is absolutely insanity and Donald Trump this is probably just about power but either way we you know I hope that California wins this fight because um you know it's just one more nail in the planet's coffin and we don't need that now one thing that I have found really fascinating about this election cycle is the stark difference between Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren's bases of support you would think that there's going to be a lot of overlap there but there's not much in actuality which is a little bit strange so Bernie Sanders has you know a more racially diverse lower socio-economic base of support and Elizabeth Warren has more wealthy college educated whites who support her and that's not the one thing that has surprised me you know about this election cycle the fact that numerous polls indicate that Bernie Sanders is the second choice of Biden supporters is also perplexing so people you know sometimes you can rationalize the way that they come to conclusions other times I'm left speechless so it's why I really enjoy segments where we just see people interview voters I think that's important yes these are anecdotes but whenever I see Allison Kamerata talk to a panel of voters in Iowa and CNN whenever I see Emma Viglin of Rebel HQ go out and talk to Trump supporters or you know Amy Klobuchar supporters I always find these incredibly fascinating because if you don't talk to people then you're not really going to understand the way that they're thinking and that's going to make it more difficult to sell Bernie Sanders to them so I think that we need to be engaging with people who he wouldn't normally engage with because we need to talk to them to find common ground to figure out ways to sell the policies of Bernie Sanders to them so we can win now one thing that Emma did recently on Rebel HQ she talked to Warren supporters about why they're choosing over Bernie Sanders something that I absolutely am curious about and I am here to kind of give you my reaction here because I think that this is interesting I don't know fully what to expect when you compare Warren supporters with other candidates if you talk to Joe Biden supporters I mean I wouldn't expect much policy substance if you talk to Donald Trump supporters I would expect sheer lunacy but if you talk to Elizabeth Warren supporters I would guess it's a mixed bag so Emma is going to talk to them and we will watch Senator Elizabeth Warren has filled out this Washington Square Park rally here in New York City there's so many people here her popularity just keeps growing and growing so I wanted to ask her supporters why her let me just pause it real quick because that note about her popularity it scares me Elizabeth Warren has a lot of momentum now and when you look at aggregate polling data real clear politics averages her and Bernie are in a statistical tie she just is starting to pass him so Bernie I feel like he's doing pretty much everything right I think he should be harsher when he attacks Biden but he keeps releasing these policies and Elizabeth Warren still is gaining momentum part of that may have to do with the fact that the mainstream media loves her but either way this is something that we need to acknowledge and be cognizant of like I don't think people should worry their heads in the sand and think well you know what this is just one point in time that will change we need to take this seriously because this is a fight for our lives and if you're watching this show you're politically savvy enough to know that there are stark strong significant differences between Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders so just keep that in mind but I digress Sanders if it's really just on policy those two are closest so why support her over the further left more democratic socialist version in Bernie I think Bernie's message kind of resonated with everyone at first and she can kind of carry the torch farther than he can with other different demographics and supporters and things like that so I think she has a more of an electability factor than Bernie does this time so that doesn't make sense to me because Elizabeth Warren's base is more white Bernie's is more multiracial now back in 2016 when Bernie Sanders didn't have a lot of name recognition there were political analysts that said this was a problem for Bernie now this guy is just a normal person so I don't want to harp on him too much but to see her as more electable is interesting because I do not view Elizabeth Warren as more electable than Bernie Sanders Bernie Sanders I believe is the most electable candidate against Donald Trump and I say this because of that anti-establishment appeal I think he would do really well in the Rust Belt when you look at head-to-head between Bernie and Trump in the Rust Belt it looks good so I'm not going to say that it's a sure bet but he's our best bet and when it comes to Elizabeth Warren if you pit her against Donald Trump I think she can beat him but my confidence goes down substantially I think it's more of a toss-up I think that maybe she'd be the favorite but it's not it's not going to be an easy race I think Biden would basically be a sure bet that we lose to Donald Trump, Warren I think it's more 50-50 Bernie I think he's our best shot but we'll continue I got into Elizabeth Warren a long time ago if you remember No 8 the housing crisis in California we lost her home including everybody on my row in Sacramento California along with rows and rows of homes and I couldn't understand it I was still in high school so I didn't understand why we lost her home but they just said you know the recession right so as I got older I got some researching and I saw her fighting and screaming at the talk of her lungs about why we're going to a recession how this can bankrupt American families and at the end of the day what we can do about it so then she ran for Senate and then she's been out there being the voice of what I really have been going through so I believe in her in my heart and soul I understand the Bernie supporters I get them but Elizabeth is my heart and soul because I feel like she's really speaking to what I've been through and I'm still a capitalist I still believe in markets I believe in rules and regulations like everything she believes in I really do believe it okay so that person right there is kind of who I would envision as someone you know as for the reasons why they support Warren over Bernie and I don't think that you can persuasively argue that Bernie is better for that individual he personally likes Elizabeth Warren and like I think that the instinct if you're a Bernie supporter and you're probably to the left of him would think well I have to convince him on policies X Y and Z why Bernie is stronger here I think that's a waste of energy I think that what we need to do is go after people who are not as certain who don't necessarily know about the differences between Bernie Sanders and if somebody knows that Elizabeth Warren is a capitalist to her core and maybe she doesn't want to blow up the game but just change the rules a little bit that's going to be difficult to argue against so I wouldn't dedicate my time just if I had a family member like this you know what I mean I would if I had a family member because I argue with anyone in my family but I mean like if you know a friend like this I think your time is better spent going after people who aren't already committed because it's going to be very difficult to get someone like that to budge I mean you can make the case yeah capitalism sucks democratic socialism or social democracy that's the way to go but you're not going to convince them you know in that short amount of time we have a finite finite amount of time why is that so hard to say so I think that it's really important for us to focus on the gettable people and I just feel like that person is not gettable he has his reasons and I think at that point we just have to respect him and move on to the next person and try to woo them she has well like her slogan is I have a plan for everything but also she talks about getting rid of the filibuster which I think is very important because nothing will be passed if you don't get rid of the filibuster because okay I gotta stop it because again this is hard to argue against if you're a Bernie Sanders supporter like he I disagree with him on the filibuster and I also disagree with him when it comes to court packing so those are like the only two areas where you can say realistically that Elizabeth Warren outflanks him to the left so I don't know how to argue against that because I technically agree more with Warren here although Bernie Sanders did kind of give me a little bit more confidence when he said that he would use budget reconciliation to get just like a 50 plus one vote to pass policies like Medicare for all but ideally I think that you know look if we get rid of the filibuster is that a risk yes but it's a risk that I think we need to take right because Republicans will do it so there's no reason why we should continue to impose this hurl on ourselves when we need to pass these policies so that is a good reason to cite there when it comes to why she supports Warren over Bernie I would argue that policy is more important but it's hard to argue against there so I like this is why I want to talk about this because I think that this is interesting like we need to be constructing ways to respond because this isn't like you know we're arguing with Hillary Clinton supporters where they just they love her hair you know or they love that she's a woman we're talking with people who I think are more politically astute generally speaking you know it's difficult to generalize a whole block of voters but these people seem to know more what they're talking about so we need to arm ourselves with a little bit of knowledge about where they're coming from because I want to convince them and we're not going to be able to convince all of them it's just a matter of who can we convince in the Senate to get anything passed and I just think she's so smart and she's awesome I just love her I like Bernie too Bernie's awesome too so I think a great ticket would be her and Bernie but that's too much to ask Bernie why are you here at this Elizabeth Warren now that is legitimately creepy and it makes me feel uneasy alright should be campaign to get back through she's not my candidate yet I like Pete Buttigieg but I like her I like that she has a plan a plan I like Pete Buttigieg okay now we're getting into some shaky territory here alright so it's between her and Pete Buttigieg oh yeah but also maybe even Amy Kluwuchar and Cory Booker I'm not even close to picking one person yet okay I have to stop it oh my god how are you not close and look I get it these people are not glued to politics like me so I'm trying to sympathize with them from that perspective but at the same time I mean Amy Kluwuchar and Elizabeth Warren are so different to kind of waver on who you want it's like you don't have a concrete political ideology picked out for you I don't know I don't know what factors she's considering I kind of I kind of shot myself in the foot by preemptively saying that these are more educated people because she doesn't seem as educated or politically astute so I'm eating my own words now but let her continue here I'm gonna go for somebody like on the left side of the spectrum it's gonna be Elizabeth Warren as opposed to any of the others like Bernie or anybody like that so why not Bernie it's time for a woman is all I mean Bernie's over and done didn't do it the last time Elizabeth has more energy I think she's got more intelligence so okay when you start resorting to someone's energy and intelligence then you're just grasping and it seems like she's more like moderate with the way that she said you know if I'm gonna go for anyone left it's gonna be Elizabeth Warren so it seems like maybe the fact that Elizabeth Warren is further to the right than Bernie even if it's marginally maybe that's something that appeals to her this is tricky guys can relate to her and I like that she's a woman Bernie shirt right there and she's very smart she's very sharp I mean I'm not sure any of them are as smart as she is but I just don't think that people are going to elect someone that of that age unfortunately and it would be great to see a woman president I think that this country this country like Obama the first african-american president we can't elect the first woman I think that's where this country needs to go okay so that was depressing and soul-crushing because it's like and I mean these are people at a Warren rally so they're the most energetic about the candidate that they support but you know I just feel like we have this one unique opportunity there's only one Bernie Sanders there's only one person who's saying I'm not just going to tweak the rules we're blowing up the game and it just feels like you know people don't grasp that maybe they're not looking at this holistically I don't know what it is but you know this is definitely we're playing on expert level difficulty here back in 2016 you know we can go toe-to-toe with Hillary supporters and nine times out of ten they really didn't have legitimate reason to support Hillary Clinton even you know from their own perspectives like Hillary was just bad on a lot of policies Elizabeth Warren is no Hillary Clinton she's no Bernie but she's no Hillary so it's more difficult to kind of like argue against Elizabeth Warren here from the perspective of Bernie Sanders supporter and I want people to understand that to those of us who are engaged in politics who follow this religiously if you're watching this video you follow politics in the 2020 election religiously like when we talk about the differences between Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren it's obvious but to normal people just average political consumers it feels like we're splitting hairs and this is kind of the experience that I've had in talking with Warren supporters you know personally they just they can't understand Mike why would you support you know Bernie over Warren when they're the same and you can also you know get a woman president now of course I run through my entire list you already know the same shit that I say it's the same shit that I say on the podcast it's just a matter of how we pitch it and it's tough when you see Bernie and Warren head to head you do have to draw these distinctions and at this point before and I think it's important for us to kind of go after uh Warren now when Biden is still in the race like if Biden wins who's still a biggest threat we're all fucked Bernie and Warren supporters and I don't think that Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren should aim at each other because if they start driving down each other's support then Biden could potentially get a boost or some other corporatist like Kamala could rise again or Pete Buttigieg so we're kind of in this weird situation at this point in time maybe this will change I mean these these poll results they're a good indicator of where people are at but you know this can change right um so I don't know but I think that this was interesting and I hope that people will listen to voters and try to figure out ways to um to just argue for their candidate now there's one other video that I want to play from Emma Viglin where she asks do Warren supporters like Bernie now this is from June by the way but um nonetheless same theme let's not do big fundraisers in the general then maybe Warren seems to have the support of many establishment minded voters yeah third way said they'd be okay with her although I think that's the minority and also progressive minded voters so she's bringing these two groups together why is that and uh if Elizabeth Warren isn't the nominee who would these Warren supporters back instead and this is a good question your number one candidate would you say I would say she's in my top two who's the other one can I guess is it Bernie Sanders no not Bernie uh Kamala Harris oh my god between her and Elizabeth Warren you're fucking killing me what and this was from June mind you but this was before Tulsi crushed Kamala election was so divisive um and tore apart the Republican party and I mean the Democratic party and and that is part of the reason that we have Trump in the White House and I just think that it's really I mean it's it's just not the right time we've got to get rid of Trump in power and I don't believe that having Bernie in the mix is um a good thing for the party I'm a supporter of Elizabeth Warren um I'm actively donating to her and to Bernie Sanders I think those are the only two candidates right now that are representing uh quality values in Americans the young people um against corruption standing up against corruption the big corporations that are uh polluting the environment and just running running over all our industries exporting our workers overseas and um just keeping all the profits for themselves I don't understand where the discrepancy comes in I mean it could be that Warren is a registered Democrat or Warren is a woman I don't know I don't think people when they say that they don't like Bernie Sanders but they like Elizabeth Warren I don't think there's a lot of substance to that I I think maybe they are unaware of how close on the issues they actually are a lot of people would say that Bernie Sanders is closest to Elizabeth Warren on policy he's not in your top three considerations um just why presidential run I was for him for a while but I feel that his values are a little too extreme for me if Bernie's looking like he's gonna lose uh to Biden then I'll definitely have to switch support to uh to Bernie can you explain why it's between Kamala Harris and Elizabeth Warren yeah so uh I think it comes back to the kind of the similar reasons why I was a big Hillary supporter um I was raised by my mom and I guess through the eyes of my mom I kind of understood the the unfair struggles that you know women have to go through especially in a world dominated by men it's about opportunity so you opt for Hillary Clinton who likes the bomb well uh women in the Middle East and North Africa cool okay I'm being a dick um um it a lot of Elizabeth Warren's base it seems like there's a lot of overlap with Hillary Clinton's base and um you know it's really difficult to break down um you know human psychology here and why you why you know policy isn't the utmost concern for you in this primary especially if you're a Democratic Party voter um they're thinking about electability they're thinking about 2016 you know it's a lot it's a lot to take in if you are a Bernie Sanders supporter but look we've got a we've got a long way to go um so I don't want you to feel depressed I don't want you to feel demoralized anything could happen in this race things change constantly and they'll probably change 10 times until we actually see the results in Iowa which I believe is February 3rd um so kudos to Emma Wiglin for doing these I always find these incredibly fascinating um it's nice to pick the brains of voters it's important again these are anecdotes um but it's nice to kind of step away from like the numbers you can look at aggregate polling data and that gives you a lot of really important information but it really it really is important I think to kind of dive a little bit deeper and talk to people and ask them you know if they're outside of our bubble why do you not support Bernie Sanders if you are a Democratic Party voter you're presumably a left winger why opt for someone who is essentially a centrist in you know Kamala Harris so it's all incredibly important I just wanted to share my reaction um we've got our work cut out for us but it's not over yet folks so don't get too discouraged growing up we didn't have much but I had dedicated parents that taught me and my sisters the importance of giving back and taking care of one another I was sick as a kid I had severe asthma that forced me to miss a lot of school my mom being the compassionate person that she is was in and out of work because of the care that I required my dad faced racism and inequities that prevented him from obtaining upward mobility in a sustainable way my story has become far too common in the first district of Illinois many of us live in poverty our babies are more likely to get asthma we're more likely to have lead in our water more likely to be shot we know what causes gun violence in our district it's not a lack of morals bad parenting or video games it's systemic poverty it's educational and equity it's the lack of universal health care it's environmental injustice it is a system that isn't broken because it works for those that it was designed to serve my name is Robert image junior and I'm a gun violence prevention advocate social innovator and nonprofit leader I was raised in a small town named maize landing New Jersey and I grew up in Auburn Gresham on the south side of Chicago I'm running for Congress to get the federal government to understand that these are common sense gun violence prevention laws that will lead to prosperity the solutions are simple and that's what makes them innovative a living wage universal pre-k and access to higher education for all of those who want it expansion of transportation accessibility medicare for all and a green new deal these policies and cultural shifts will allow those in our community to live with dignity for generations folks have been saying this is why we can't wait by any means necessary and enough is enough in this moment we cannot afford to wait our turn generations to come are depending on the actions we make today in our community we march for our lives every single day but we ought to live in a world that we don't have to join our pursuit of peace and be a part of this movement we are the solution together hello everyone I am here with Robert Emmons junior he is a 2020 congressional candidate running in the first congressional district of Illinois and he is here to talk about his campaign Robert thank you so much for coming on the program of course thank you so much for having me Mike I really appreciate it I appreciate you coming on it's always exciting to talk to candidates from around the country and you are from this new wave of progressives of Democrats who you are outspokenly progressive and you're running for congress and tell me why you decided to run because if I decided to run for congress I wouldn't know where to even begin so what made you want to one put yourself through all of this and two be a fighter at the national level yeah that's a really good question that we get at every single town hall and I answer it differently sometimes depending on what's going on in my life because there were so many different things that happened back in 2018 when I first made the decision to run for office but today I'll talk about just how I grew up once I moved to Chicago so I moved to Chicago when I was 13 turning 14 years old and I distinctly remember in my high school in the south side of Chicago every now and then having an assembly with the teachers will bring us all together and they would inform us that we had just lost a classmate a friend, a family member a former classmate it's a gun violence that weekend and I remember in those moments thinking about how critical it is for us to act and to not just allow that to become normal because we are losing so many futures to senseless gun violence so when I was thinking about what I wanted to do when I finished up high school I knew I wanted to get more involved in advocacy so I applied and got admitted to the University of Illinois at our Bennett Champaign with my two friends and we roomed together our freshman year and that's when I began to really get involved in advocacy, criminal justice reform gun violence prevention, you name it I really wanted to get involved in it and during that first year of college I remember talking to my friend one of my roommates about his grades and how they began to flip and then he received a letter from the University of Illinois at our Bennett Champaign telling him that if he didn't get his act together he'd be kicked out and despite his best efforts to bring his grades up he was unsuccessful and ultimately kicked out with that he tried to remain successful and try to be resilient like he's always been but he was unsuccessful and that is what I needed to move back to Chicago and when he moved back to Chicago he felt deeper into poverty and he ended up getting into some bad things here in Chicago and in 2015 he was shot and killed as you can imagine that devastated me and every single person that was in his orbit and the thing that resonated with me was that statistically speaking unfortunately his death was predictable it was predictable because he was living in a system, in a society that filled him at every turn our economic system that allowed him to fall back into poverty when he moved back to Chicago it failed him our education system that didn't give him the adequate amount of support in order to be successful it failed him and even our racist criminal justice system it failed him instead of rehabilitating our young people it's more focused on similar to the academic foundation that he encountered at the University of Illinois and I think what drove me to run for office was even though his death was statistically speaking predictable because of what's going on in our current society it was also 100% preventable it's preventable with a living wage it's preventable with access to higher education for all of those who want it it's preventable with Medicare for all with the expansion of access to mental health care and criminal justice reform and a green new deal so I'm running for US Congress to make this the very last generation to be faced with everyday gun violence and to do so we need to address it at its root causes and that's what we've been missing in our country and the national media seem to not care as much about what goes on in communities like mine as it pertains to gun violence so we're going to make sure that we have a vision for the country so that people in my community can live with dignity and live in safety and prosperity and peace so that's why we're running for US Congress is to fight for these progressive issues to make our lives and why the generations become brighter than what the trajectory would suggest today and I'm so glad that you shared that story and the reason why I like to ask people why they're running for Congress even if like generally speaking like nine times out of ten when you ask a candidate why they're running for Congress they talk about their qualifications they talk about well you know I was a mayor and I have X, Y and Z qualifications but when I talk to grassroots candidates like yourself you always really you have this personal story this personal thing that happened that impacted them and the reason why I like to ask this question I like so much effort like you're probably not getting any sleep so I like to ask and there's always a reason behind it and for you that personal story absolutely that resonates with people and I'm so glad that you decided to step up now you talk about root causes I want to read a quote from you this is in your ad this is probably my favorite quote of this entire race so far so this is what you say quote it is a system that isn't broken because it works for those that it was designed to serve I know what you meant by that but I want you to elaborate because that is such an amazing way to frame it and it makes so much sense so what policy prescriptions do you have to fix it yeah yeah I'm glad you pointed that out it was a derivative of just what I've I've seen other activists around the country saying so a lot of times you, especially in rallies we talk a lot about the system being broken but it occurred to me in this campaign actually that the system isn't necessarily broken unfortunately it's corrupted and it's greedy and it feeds off of the vulnerable in our communities like our criminal justice system and how it's fueled by the amount of folks who are incarcerated and how we privatize our prisons since 1984 and perpetuated policies like the 1994 crime bill with the desperate vicious cycles of poverty and in that case violence in our communities and it's working pretty well the prison industrial complex is a billion dollar industry for private institutions and so it's working pretty well because it's not working well for those it was designed to hurt intentionally so that's just one example of what we're fighting what we're talking about when we're talking about broken systems so one thing we can do when using the criminal justice system as an example is to ban private prisons no one should profit off of folks being incarcerated it again it adds to this ugliness that has existed in America for a few decades in which case I know you've seen this that the United States has 5% of the world's population and 25% of the world's prison population that means that one out of every 110 citizens have been incarcerated within their lifetime and that's an extremely vicious capitalist way of repairing our society when someone does misbehaving in some way so we need to ban private prisons all together and invest in making sure that our criminal justice system is curated around repair and restoration and rehabilitation and not just punitive measures that just don't work and that's why our recidivism rate here in this country is so high and that's what we mean when we say that the system is working pretty well because the folks who profit off of that are benefiting from recidivism and keeping those jails as full as possible and that's so important it's a really good way to differentiate yourself from other candidates and just look at this mass incarceration crisis in our country and think wow this must be a flaw of our system but if you think about it and you know about capitalism it's functioning exactly as you would expect because the goal of capitalism is to take every single component of our society and commodify it turn it into some type of money making venture and so when you start turning prisons into this money making venture I mean we really can't be surprised because this is exactly the way the system is designed so it takes people like you to come out and say the system isn't broken we just have a system that doesn't work for normal people and I think that's so important and for people now to come out and criticize capitalism I do really see the Overton window starting to kind of nudge to the left and it's all because of grassroots activists such as yourself people who are really saying maybe it's okay to criticize capitalism you can consider yourself a capitalist but if you are going to allow these things to happen then maybe capitalism isn't what you thought it was we think about the glorious things about capitalism I love my PlayStation 4 we love the clothes and what not but we don't think about the way that this affects people at a very concrete level in terms of us getting our basic necessities so it's incredibly important and that's why I wanted to bring up that quote because it really stuck out to me and I absolutely love it but let me ask you this so hypothetically speaking you're elected to congress there's a lot of things that we have to do to change the system but there's only so much time so let's just say we get the best case scenario we get a Bernie Sanders president and a democratic house and congress and senate so in that first year what do you think realistically you'd be able to accomplish if you get elected because this is something that for me there's so many different policies that I want to pass I don't think I would be able to figure out where to begin, my head would be spinning so what would you do in the first year that you think would be feasible in an ideal world in which you just painted out the scenario I believe that's the best thing that I can do for the people of the Illinois First Congressional District is push as hard as I can and advocate with members of the House and the Senate to reverse the Dickey Amendment so that the CDC can study gun violence as a public health epidemic gun violence is a disease and it is contagious and it is killing thousands dozens of thousands of Americans every year until we can begin to truly study it and get down to the root causes of everyday gun violence we're not going to be able to address it the way we're supposed to I am a social innovator by profession I go around the world with the Innovation Lab bringing together a thousand young people from around the world to solve some of our most pressing issues focused on the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and one of the things we can start off with is the research and allowing that to influence how we design programming and how we make decisions because we got to end the epidemic of everyday gun violence now, not later 100,000 Americans are either wounded or killed by a person with a gun whether that be themselves or anyone in their communities every year at that rate there are going to be a million Americans that will have been directly impacted by gun violence within 10 years that is a crisis that isn't talked about enough and only talked about when there is a national mass shooting which the media centers in on but this is going on in our communities every single day and we have to solve it we have to solve it once and for all but to start, like I said, reversing the Dickey amendment so we can actually study gun violence and allow that research to influence our decision and how we advocate and continue to fight for a peaceful peaceful world and all of our communities that's awesome what else would you think would be feasible that actually is something that I think there would actually be a large enough consensus to where that would get done because like it really is it's absurd that the CDC can't study gun violence that doesn't even make any sense and of course that is written exclusively just for the gun lobby it's embarrassing that that is even a thing and I actually do think that even the Democratic party would be on board with that that's kind of a basic step what else do you think could be accomplished in that first year because you're going to have a lot of people what I noticed is that each candidate running for congress they all have their own bread and butter some are focused on healthcare some are focused on housing rights and you're coming to congress with a gun reform agenda so what else do you think could be accomplished in that first year because I feel like if we truly do get all three branches old maybe not supreme court of course but electorally speaking if we can elect you know a democratic house senate and white house then that first year I think we can accomplish a lot so what else do you think could be done realistically speaking absolutely I think we're in the Green New Deal which is also gun violence and that's what we've been saying around our district and around the country the Green New Deal has the federal jobs guarantee portion of it and it also would help reverse the impacts of racism that our communities are facing in disadvantaged communities around the country we can pass Medicare for all again gun violence prevention gun violence prevention policies with expansion of mental healthcare for members of my community that are suffering immense amounts of trauma that perpetuate cycles of violence I think we can pass education reform the way we fund schools and Illinois are heavily based also housing taxes which means if you live in a poor community your school is likely to be under-resourced which is an injustice in and of itself and again set up intentionally like that so we can pass all these progressive issues and the reason why I feel prepared to champion a lot of the policies I just explained and listed out is when you think about a lot of these progressive issues that we fight for the issues themselves disproportionately impact black men under the age of 35 like our criminal justice system like education like gun violence yet we don't have a single member of congress that fits this demographic either in the house or the senate so that means we're missing a key voice in congress right now one that understands the interconnectivity of these issues having gone through it having been from a community that is facing it and having friends and family that face these obstacles and fortunately for a good amount of us overcome them through resilience but we're missing that voice right now and I believe I can bring in the stories of my district and bring in the stories of people around the country to begin building more bridges so that way my kids, your kids, our grandkids aren't fighting for the same things that we have to fight for right now that's the mark of a sustainable society is generation after generation progressing and that's the way I look at progressivism and that's why I happily call myself a progressive and given that scenario that you illustrated an ideal world as long as we're physically engaged right now we can realize that I believe that the sky isn't even the limit for what we accomplish and then lastly here's a big kick in my we gotta figure out a way to get money out of politics because that is what is hurting and stunting our growth as a country even though you have 90 plus percent of the country believing that we need comprehensive background checks we still have a congress that isn't moving the way it's supposed to we got Mitch McConnell holding HR HR 1112 on his desk because of influences like the NRA and other 30 special interests that prevents them from actually moving but we need to get money out of politics and I believe we can do that with a progressive executive and legislative branch and then we got some work to do on the supreme court and we could talk about it and then we got some work to do that's a whole different conversation I took off the phone when my communications director were writing a blog on it so I spread some of my mind we got to get that put that person up absolutely we could literally talk for 24 hours straight about everything so basically what you all talked about is phenomenal you laid out your agenda you cited the lowest common denominator but let me ask you this though so you're running against Bobby Rush he's been in there since I believe the 90s I want to say I don't know the exact year someone who doesn't have as high of a profile as other Democrats so my question is hang on a second I just activated Siri okay sorry so my question is what is it about Bobby Rush that makes you feel as if you would be a better voice for individuals in that first district of Illinois because for example we have Shea Hidbutar running against Nancy Pelosi Makayla Wilkes running against Steny Hoyer for people who aren't in that district it's obvious but for your district you would kind of have to lay it out a little bit more for people who aren't there and don't have the context so why do you feel as if you are better suited to represent that district than Bobby Rush yeah that's a great question and one that's critical in terms of developing contrast between me and the current incumbent in which I respect and I honor years of activism in the 60s and the 70s but since he's been a congressman he was elected the same year in which I was born I'm 26 years old he's been in Congress for 26 years my birthdays and for I guess about three weeks happy birthday thank you I won't be able to use that talking place for about a month since he was elected in the general election in November 1990 we'll stop using that for a month so then at 26 and 26 in 1994 he voted for the disastrous crime bill a lot of Democrats were wrong about that crime bill and I do think that it did originate with good intent but it had terrible impact on black and brown communities around the country instituting three strikes and you're out and you just go on and on and on about how bad that was we would have given Bobby Rush a pass because of the information that was available then relative to what's available now but 25 years later in the mayoral election here in Chicago he supported a candidate for mayor and there were plenty to choose from that in broad daylight in an effort to reduce crime proposed that we spend 50 million dollars in drones surveillance in black and brown communities that is the same the same method that the 1994 crime bill instituted which does nothing but militarize and criminalize communities so that means Bobby Rush even though he said that was the worst thing he's ever voted for it's important to learn from your mistakes so that's one thing another thing that just makes us drastically different is our understanding of how to solve the climate crisis Bobby Rush sits on the committee on energy and commerce so the Green New Deal resolution went through his jurisdiction in which he called a smashing graph that he's glad is out of his committee and that should come at no surprise to the people of the first congressional district or folks around the country because Bobby Rush is also taking money from the fossil fuel industry and this is all the while we including myself in the first district of Illinois have some of the highest levels of asthma than any other place in the country yet we have a sitting congressman who is in the committee that can help solve the climate crisis by passing resolution that would put us on the trajectory towards reversing the impact of climate and guaranteeing jobs and I've already alluded to the fact that that is gun violence prevention right there Bobby Rush is out of touch with his constituency because the vast majority of the people I speak to in the first district of Illinois they want the Green New Deal they want Medicare for all they want us to address gun violence at its root causes Bobby Rush is late to the party and what we've been saying and what other progressives around the country have been saying is out of touch out of office 20 years ago President Barack Obama ran against Bobby Rush in 2000 and Barack Obama then state senator Barack Obama said that Bobby Rush was out of touch and it was time for change it's been 20 years since then so you can only imagine what the people of the first district feel currently and that is why folks all around the district are so excited about this election and our candidacy our mindset is fixated on the belief that we are the solution together meaning one person alone one election alone will not solve the issues at hand but when we come together actively pursuing justice and peace we can solve all of these problems but we got to do it together and that is what I've been doing as a gun violence prevention advocate as a nonprofit leader as a social innovator both locally, nationally and even internationally to solve some of these big issues and I always do it with my community not just for but with and that really is the difference I think between grassroots candidates and community organizers people who just know the issues of their community and someone who's been in congress for years, decades and like they just grow out of touch their candidates are running against someone who has been there forever and maybe at first they had a lot of new fresh innovative ideas but time has passed and they kind of just grew complacent and comfortable and just feel like I'm here, I don't have to do much I have the power of incumbency behind me and just this is what I'm hearing and it's so important that we get new blood in there especially when it comes to the issue of climate change because impacting violence in your community is something that you can make a huge amount of progress with but in terms of representing our entire generation that's also incredibly important because it's people like you and I who we have to think about when we are senior citizens what the world will be like after climate change really takes a toll and it's scary you know so it's nice to see people step up and run for congress and I already know that anyone who's watching this they already are going to be behind you 100% absolutely clear so let me just have you make your pitch to my viewers tell them what we can do to help you where we can donate and how we can get involved because if you get elected that's good not just for the first district of Illinois this is good for all of us because you're fighting for everyone across the country this is a national movement so what can we do to help Robert M. and Junior get into congress thank you so much Mike I want to point out that we have now a lot of states around the country about ending every day gun-off by addressing it as we call it with some of the media often time overlooked we're making sure that's the entire thing in terms of fighting for peace and fighting for safety and fighting for this generation to be the last generation Facebook is such violence so we need your support so visit our website at robertmn.org to our grassroots campaign the current congressman Bobby Russ for decades has been taking money from the fossil fuel industry and other corporate packs that is not what we stand for what we stand for is giving the keys to the house back to the people and the people are the only the only folks that we will be loyal to when we make it into congress in 2021 so join the movement and we're looking forward to changing this country together and we are all going to be rooting for you let me just make my pitch that I always do for candidates there's a lot of people running for congress and so it's difficult we're stretching ourselves thin just as a movement but even if you have a spare dollar every single penny helps because when you're going up against someone who is part of the establishment that political status quo that is well financed you need people to get behind you and it seems like you really hit a nerve because to get donations from 41 different states that's so unprecedented right to think that just 10 years ago what you're doing would be even possible it really does give me hope it's easy to be cynical but to see everyone across the country rising up just normal everyday Americans who care who care about the issues that affect their community it really is, it gives me hope so thank you for running and please to all of the people watching consider supporting Robert anything you can do to help that money then donating time is also incredibly crucial and just spreading the word goes a long way so it's RobertEmmons.org and on twitter you can follow him at rmins2020 Robert thank you so much for coming on, it's been a pleasure it's been a pleasure, thanks so much Mike appreciate it well that's all that I've got for you guys today thank you so much for tuning in if you've made it this far on the show as usual I want to thank all of our patreon, paypal members and send a special shout out to all of our youtube members who get to watch these episodes early, you always comment you always leave likes, thank you all so much I truly appreciate it and I'm done talking so I'll see you all next week my name is Mike Figueredo, this has been the Humanist Report Podcast take care everyone