 I think what we saw when we saw the Democrats during that House chaotic moment when they were trying to pick speakers was this unity. And I think that unity came from the fact that Hakeem Jeffries waited his turn and waited for Nancy Pelosi to sort of bless him and say, yes, I'm going to step down, you may step up. And I think she kind of earned that right. And so Diane Feinstein, I mean, she has been a lion of the Senate. And for her, even at 90, I don't know, she's put in her papers for 2024, basically saying I'm going to run again. And so there's some tension there. And I'm surprised Katie Porter wouldn't get her blessing first. It's hard to see clearly for me because I think Katie Porter is such a force. Amazing. And normally I wouldn't concern myself. I'm not like a political person with California. But I learned of Katie Porter in one of the many whiteboard presentations and was like, that woman is fascinating. So it's, again, I tend to give her more credit that there could be more to this. She could have talked privately. There could have been some advisors or people that know. In theory, that sounds lovely, Sonny, but getting her blood in the Senate to me was like, it's a bit Machiavellian, but I'm like, just go, girl, go. I mean, Adam Schiff is also someone that people are talking about sort of taking that place. I'd love to see an Adam Schiff, but only if Diane is truly ready to step down. Isn't Adam Schiff getting a lot of flack from the right right now about the calling him all different? I feel like he's kind of radioactive a little bit. I feel like it makes it even better. I think he's radioactive. But she is also, in a way, somebody who speaks her mind, who says what she means. She shows you her work. Yeah. Like a good math equation. You may not agree with her, but you will know how she got there. And I think that's so important in transparency. I think Katie Porter is unequivocally super sharp and like a rising star for Democrats, but three things that bothered me about the timing is Diane Feinstein has not officially announced her retirement. And you always stand on the shoulders of the people before you. She served in the Senate for, I believe, 31 years. She was the first female mayor of San Francisco. She needs to know who paved the way for her. California is also facing deadly floods. 17 lives have been lost. Yeah, that gave me a little bit. Diane Feinstein put out a statement saying, you know, she hasn't made a decision yet, whether she's running or retiring, but her focus is on the floods. I actually interpreted a little bit of shade in there. I did, too. I'm doing work for my home. And then just finally, this is, I could say this about a lot of people, but she was just sworn into office in the house. I don't love when people run for one office only to run for the next thing. You just watched the Ladies on the View basically scold Katie Porter for daring to challenge 89-year-old Diane Feinstein, who's reportedly struggling to recognize her own colleagues and notably yelled at children who confronted her about her inaction on climate change. Senator, if this doesn't get turned around in 10 years, you're looking at the faces of the people who are going to be living with these cross-off fronts. The government is supposed to be for the people and by the people and all for the people. You know what's interesting about this group is I've been doing this for 30 years. I know what I'm doing. You come in here and you say, it has to be my way or the highway. I don't respond to that. I've gotten elected. I just ran. I was elected by almost a million vote plurality. And I know what I'm doing. So, you know, maybe people should listen a little bit. I hear what you're saying, but where are the people who voted you? You're supposed to listen to us. That's your job. How old are you? I'm 16. Well, you didn't vote for me. Well, she voted. It doesn't matter. We're the ones who did the impact. It doesn't matter. We're going to be the ones who are impacted. That's who the hosts on The Viewer Defending, a rich lady who looked children in the eyes and basically said, you kids, burn on this planet. I don't give a shit. It's just ridiculous. And some things that they said, I've got to address here because it's inaccurate. So, Sonny Haasden said that Hakim Jeffries waited his turn. He waited for Nancy Pelosi to bless him. But no, that's not actually true. He leapfrogged Barbara Lee, who was next in line, to become the caucus chair. So, he didn't just wait his turn. It's just that he didn't have the votes needed to become Speaker, as long as Nancy Pelosi was going to be the Speaker, because Democrats are overly differential towards leadership. So, to say that he waited his turn is wrong, but it also doesn't matter because power should be challenged. You don't have to be overly differential towards leadership just because they're in positions of power. I find this position very bizarre. And Sonny Haasden said that she really was hoping to see Adam Schiff run, but only if Diane Feinstein was going to step down. So, it's perfectly reasonable for Diane Feinstein to run until she's 126 years old, and anyone who challenges her has to have her blessing in order to do that. I mean, do we live in a democracy or a monarchy where we wait for kings and queens to die so as to see who's going to replace them? Like, this is ridiculous logic here. And Sarah Haasden, no, Sarah Haynes, she said that this was a Machiavellian move, and Alyssa Griffin, I believe the Republican on the panel, said that Katie Porter needs to know who paved the way for her. This is all ridiculous here. They're making it seem as if Diane Feinstein is a saint, and even if she were a saint, that still wouldn't matter. This is a democracy, and Katie Porter is well within her right to challenge somebody who is the incumbent. And let's be realistic about who Diane Feinstein is. Diane Feinstein is a multi-millionaire who amassed millions upon millions of dollars during her tenure as a United States Senator thanks to lucrative investments in companies that she's supposed to be regulating. So don't lie to your viewers and pretend as if she served them. No, she served herself in the U.S. Senate. Now, according to Alex Salmon of Slate, even though she is old and very clearly in cognitive decline, she still is reportedly going to cling to power. He reports Diane Feinstein has not given any indication she is stepping down. She has in fact filed the paperwork to run again, but there's blood in the water and California Dems are going for it. Barbara Lee just told the Black Caucus she's running. Katie Porter is in. Now, more on that later. But getting back to the view, prior to what you watched, Whoopi Goldberg opened this segment by framing this conversation in a way that suggests that people are angry that Katie Porter is challenging Diane Feinstein before she officially announces that she's not seeking reelection. And the word that she used in particular was some people are saying it's disrespectful. And I can't know for sure, but I believe this is the popular tweet that she's referencing where Keith Edwards responded to Porter's announcement saying it's pretty disrespectful to announce ahead of Feinstein's decision. Now, he also attacked Porter for endorsing Nina Turner's run for Congress because I mean, how dare a progressive endorse a fellow progressive with similar policy priorities? How scandalous. These people are so ridiculous. And let me just say this, power is supposed to be challenged. Even politicians that I support, I believe that they should have to prove themselves every single time there's an election. Bernie Sanders, he should face a primary challenger. I wouldn't support that primary challenger, but I believe in democracy. And simply saying that you have to wait your turn and you shouldn't challenge power, otherwise you're being disrespectful. It's completely absurd. Now, to my surprise, Whoopi Goldberg actually had the most reasonable response on the entire panel. And I'll tell you why she shocked me after we watched this clip. What if this is just a take on this? What if Feinstein doesn't want to walk away and you're in a party where you're saying, okay, I get what you've done for the place. I get it. But like, everyone's different at different ages. So I'm not saying 90 needs the same thing for 10 different people, but you're 90. And there's a lot of people coming in. One, just for your own sanity, life is short. Sit back and relax. Yeah, but that's your choice. That's her choice. But I do think there's a bigger party than just her. But if she decides that she doesn't want to run, that's one thing. But she should, and the state of California should also know there are other choices in the mix. And that is politics. That is politics. Now, the flooding, you all right? Well, I'm being told that we have a picture that I did want to call up during the McCarthy vote that Katie Porter is reading that book that says how not to give an F about things and sharing it with friends. And sharing it with many of us. While McCarthy was talking. While she was talking. And so she does have this fervor. Well, listen, she's a great politician. She's someone you absolutely want in. My point is that there are many people who are saying, OK, if you're going to stay, we don't know if you're going to stay. But if you are going to stay, you should know we also would like to come into this. And I don't think that's a bad thing. I did not expect this from Wolfie Goldberg, but she's absolutely correct. That's politics. There's no rule saying that you have to be overly deferential towards the incumbent. And you can never question their legitimacy ever. No, you can run against them because we live in a democracy. Wolfie Goldberg pointed that out and nobody else got that. They thought that it was only appropriate for somebody to challenge Feinstein if they, uh, one, swore fealty to her and two, she gave them the go ahead. But it doesn't work that way. And the reason why I'm so shocked that Wolfie of all of the panelists had that take is because she herself has previously scolded progressives. So after AOC was first elected and on her very first day, she protested with climate activists in Nancy Pelosi's office. This is the way that Wolfie Goldberg reacted. This is a clip from January 9th of 2019. She just got in on Thursday. She was sworn in and she's very opinionated, which we like. We like opinionated women, but it is very, very difficult when people make accusations where you, that you say, you know, the Democrats have, have done nothing. The, the, the establishment of the Democrats have done nothing. You just got in there and I know you got lots of good ideas, but I would encourage you to sit still for a minute and learn a job. You know, and just, you know, because there are people in that party who have been working their tails off. Wolfie, look at how far we've come. Look at how far we've come. You are now saying it's actually okay to challenge these incumbent Democrats, whereas before that thought to you was heresy. It was blasphemous. So I'm really proud of Wolfie Goldberg. By the way, I missed the days when progressive lawmakers were actually challenging leadership, or at least I thought that they would be consistently challenging leadership because those days are absolutely long gone. Either way though, whenever there is an instance when a progressive Democrat wants to challenge a corporate Democrat, I'm going to welcome that. But let's talk about this challenge, moving on from the view stuff. This is going to be complicated because there's a lot of individuals jockeying for Diane Feinstein's seat, assuming she's not going to seek re-election. Slate reports that other hungry California congressmen and women including Adam Schiff, Barbara Lee, and Ro Khanna will also jump into this race is already a near certainty. There will be more too. Already there is grumbling about Porter's move, both because she didn't wait until Feinstein's formal announcement and because she beat others to the punch. Right away, sources in Schiff's orbit lit up the political press with anonymous sniping saying to multiple outlets, you don't announce a campaign in the middle of a natural disaster referring to the ongoing flooding in California. Schiff then blasted out a fundraising email for flood victims, an altruistic gesture that would just so happen to bring in more names, emails, and phone numbers for his email list, exactly, which incidentally would be quite useful for later donations efforts by a political campaign. So what we're seeing is, I think, two things. On one hand, you do see individuals like Sonny Hauston and other hosts on the view who are liberal and they believe in the Democratic Party establishment and they don't view the party the way that young people like myself view the party as out of touch, wealthy elites who don't actually care about anything other than their own power. That's part of it. But another part of it is that they're a little bit angry that their preferred candidate was beat to the punch and Adam Schiff is one of those individuals and Sonny Hauston even admitted that she was kind of hoping that he would run and his team is reportedly angry that Katie Porter beat them to the punch. So this isn't just about Diane Feinstein. This is, I want my preferred candidate to get in. And in the case of the view, it seems like they're supportive of Katie Porter just because she's an effective communicator but ultimately, at least, if we're listening to Sonny Hauston, she wants Adam Schiff, the corporate Democrat. Now, let me address all of the progressives running. On one hand, I am absolutely pleasantly surprised to see so many progressives trying to run for Diane Feinstein's seat. The problem is that this becomes an issue of math and when you have so many progressives against corporate Democrats, progressives, they can split that vote which would pave the way for a corporate Democrat. Now, I think this is probably going to be a pretty open field. It's going to be a very robust primary. If Diane Feinstein ends up running again, she probably is going to win because for whatever reason, voters are very differential to the incumbents. But in the event, this is a four-way race primarily between Adam Schiff, Katie Porter, Barbara Lee, and Ro Khanna. Well, you have all of the corporate, more centrist establishment-friendly Democrats all consolidating their votes behind Adam Schiff and then you have the progressives behind Katie Porter, Ro Khanna, and Barbara Lee splitting their votes which would pave the way for Adam Schiff. So I think that we absolutely need a progressive in this seat. That isn't even a question to me. But what I want these progressives who are running to do and I support Katie Porter, but including her is I want them to look at the polls and if they don't believe they have a real shot, they need to drop out and endorse the progressive who has the best chance because in the event progressives are once again fragmented and not united, then the progressive is going to lose and the corporate Democrat is going to win. This is what happened in 2020. Bernie Sanders was getting a plurality but because Amy Klobuchar, Pete Buttigieg all dropped out and endorsed Biden and the centrists kind of coalesced behind one candidate, Biden ended up getting the plurality and Bernie Sanders lost. Remember that Elizabeth Warren did not drop out and endorse him when she had no chance and ended up losing in her own home state. So I want progressives going forward to be a little bit more savvy in their politics and yes, I do believe in democracy but I want them as entitled as they are to run to think about the ways in which they can help the progressive win overall and not put their careers ahead of the policy substance. But we'll just have to wait and see what happens. I personally am rooting for Katie Porter because I think that she is not just a good option for Californians but this is somebody who, let's be clear, can be a really good presidential contender for Democrats. She is a rising star and I think that if she were to run for president she'd have a good chance of winning. You know, she'd be one of the more progressive options that actually has a solid chance. So I'm rooting for Katie Porter but either way, if it turns out that Ro Khanna has more support I would hope that Katie Porter would back Ro Khanna and drop out so that way, you know, they're not splitting the votes and we don't get an Adam Schiff or another out of touch corporate Democrat but I'll leave that there. Diane Feinstein may run again but regardless of what she chooses to do that should not cause other Democrats to acquiesce and just say, oh well this 89 year old who's very clearly in cognitive decline isn't giving up power so I'm going to wait my turn. No, you don't have to wait your turn. These aren't part of the rules. You can do what you want. This is a democracy and I wish that other people, namely individuals in media like the hosts on the view would stop being so differential towards these establishment politicians. If there's hope then, I mean, look at Whoopi Goldberg. She was originally very protective of the establishment and now at least in this instance she's kind of siding with Katie Porter here and saying that's politics so maybe they'll change their minds over the years either way it doesn't matter because this is going to be a decision that the voters ultimately are going to make and I really hope that they opt for the progressive.