 So yesterday more states voted on Super Tuesday 3 and I'm sure that by now you all want to move on from that But I just want to take a moment to really just talk about how the DNC and state Democratic parties Put people's lives at risk now. Thankfully, Ohio chose to postpone its primary I think they made the correct decision, but nonetheless three states still went ahead with their Democratic Party primaries Florida Arizona and Illinois and at a time where the CDC is telling us to avoid Large crowds and to self quarantine and you know practice social distancing the fact that this would still go on it's It's deeply problematic I would even argue that it's undemocratic because even if the right to vote is sacred and postponing any election in and of itself It makes me feel uneasy think about the impact that this has on democracy like maybe You want to vote but you're choosing to be responsible and not leave your home So you don't vote imagine if you did choose to brave it and vote anyway And then if you're immunocompromised or you know, you Are exposed to covid since this is asymptomatic You could expose others who are vulnerable the elderly and make more people sick Like how many people Is this going to endanger by going ahead with these primaries that could have easily been Postponed right? We don't know how long maybe four weeks. Maybe eight weeks But we just know that currently to contain the spread of covid 19 Social distancing is of the utmost necessity if you don't have to go out You shouldn't and we should have these state democratic parties and the dnc all Trying to follow these guidelines, but that didn't happen the opposite happened Look at this tweet from james packard. He shared this video of a line of people waiting to vote in chicago illinois And it obviously had more than 200 people They weren't standing far enough from each other and this is at a time When they're being told to avoid crowds with more than 10 people Abshir Omar shared this video of people waiting to vote at the Thurgood marshal public library And they're waiting around two hours to vote This is mostly elderly people and then he also shared this photo Of people waiting to vote in a poorly ventilated basement at gauge park And he pointed out that the line here, you know, you're waiting a little more than an hour But people are just choosing to go home because they just don't want to risk it They feel uneasy being in public when we are being told to stay indoors And then you have this tweet from adam e ross who I think very reasonably was scared He says i'm so effing scared to vote tomorrow that i'm crying. I don't want to get coronavirus I don't want to die and then he says update it's 6 a.m I'm in line. I'm scared shitless. I'm doing this for bernie. I'm doing this for me I'm doing this for you. So I mean people shouldn't have to make this decision I get not wanting to postpone primaries because Democracy is sacred, but at the same time you can't really have A democracy that Is uh, you know robust if people are afraid to vote because of a global pandemic Where every single country in the world is trying to deal with this and contain it Now you think that the dnc, uh, the dnc chairman in particular tom pares would be doing everything in his power To encourage states to adopt vote by mail and you know, tell them to postpone this if they need to But he's not doing that and this is what he said on msnbc in an interview with chris hais This was just completely irresponsible is your view that this can be safely conducted tomorrow Who are you been consulting to come to that view? Well again, we didn't intervene in that case because no, I know This is a state matter, but i'm asking your position as tom pares the head in dnc My understanding is you're saying you agree with the states that are going forward Yes, we we respect what they're doing and we you know, we always encourage everyone And I was in contact today with uh people in a number of these states Including but not limited to arizona And again asking them if they do they believe they have the systems in place That enable them to put the elections on tomorrow and they do And republican and democratic governors have made that judgment that they can't do that I don't think it's for me to second-guess those judgments chris and so Uh, I respect that so in other words ignore what the cdc is saying Ignore the necessity of social distancing. You know these state party leaders and governors they think that the primaries can still go on as planned so I'm gonna trust them Except you are in a position of leadership And you are complicit now in endangering their lives How much of this virus will spread specifically because of These primaries that are taking place will people die because of this? I mean these are serious Implications like we should be talking about this So currently what tom pares should be doing if i'm the dnc chair if i'm in a position of power as i'm saying Listen every single state should postpone their primary for at least four weeks And meanwhile we are going to be rolling out a vote by mail system. We're going to be helping these states Uh have the capacity and the resources that they need to actually carry out a competent vote by mail system Because this is just too serious. We don't want to take any chances But that's not what's happening. In fact, the dnc is actively encouraging states to not postpone Their primaries. I mean look at this headline here from the hill dnc calls on states not to postpone Primaries and on top of that as the guardian reports states delaying primaries past June 9th may face delegate penalty warns dnc memo democratic national committee reacts to ohio postponent With memo that says party working with states on coronavirus measures. So I mean this is criminal This is criminal and we'll get to the articles But how could you Put people's lives at risk When you don't have to do that. There's other options. You can postpone it. You can roll out vote by mail Four to eight weeks is more than enough time To have a vote by mail system in place for these states who haven't yet voted We're not looking at all 50 states, you know and the additional territories like You have a limited amount of states that haven't voted you have states like or again that already have vote by mail So you don't have to worry about that Why are you doing this? It's just It's unbelievable to me now getting to that article from the hill As jonathan easily reports in a statement dnc chairman tamper has said that states should begin mailing ballots to all registered voters And to implement no excuse absentee voting Which allows voters to drop their ballots off at pre-approved sites In addition press said that polling places should expand their hours and days of service to reduce lines and crowds The dnc chairman said that postponing elections as several states have done is not the right answer States that have not yet held primary elections should focus on implementing the aforementioned measures To make it easier and safer for voters to exercise their constitutional right to vote Instead of moving primaries to later in the cycle when timing around the virus remains unpredictable press said The right to vote is the foundation of our democracy And we must do everything we can to protect and expand that right instead of bringing our democratic process To a halt he added now him encouraging vote by mail Is important, but the message here isn't unequivocal He's saying if you can't roll out vote by mail then there are other measures that you should be taking You can extend polling hours to make sure that the lines aren't as long and there's you know Less people in closed quarters except you should have been doing that anyway Like why does it take a global pandemic for you to want to reduce the size of lines? That should be something that you're already doing Having nationwide vote by mail is something the dnc could have been encouraging Under your leadership. I get that states ultimately are in control But you can be using the tools and resources that you have as dnc chairman to encourage these things But the fact that you're encouraging them To not Move these primaries back just a little bit to see What's going to happen? It is deeply deeply irresponsible And the dnc sent out a memo basically saying look if you uh choose to postpone your uh your primaries There's a cutoff date to where we are going to penalize you if you do in fact do that three states will hold primaries on tuesday They already voted by the time you see this video fourth. Ohio postponed its vote on monday due to cobit 19 and its drastic effect on public life Louisiana, kentucky, georgia and maryland have also postponed their votes as in virtually every part of u.s Society election officials at every level have been discussing ways to safely administer elections without spreading the corona virus The new dnc memo obtained by the guardian was sent to members of the rules and bylaws committee on wednesday night We are working with state parties that need to make adjustments as needed to their delegate selection process So they can continue without major interruptions wrote james roosevelt and lorraine miller The co-chairs of the rules and bylaws committee in the memo the regulations allow technical changes to be approved by the Co-chairs a number of states have taken dramatic steps to prevent spreading the corona virus late on monday night Ohio's governor mike de wine announced that his administration would order polling stations closed because of the health emergency Several states have taken steps to change the date of their first determining step The dnc memo said it continued the delegate selection rules provide that each state's First determining step must take place by 9 june if a state violates the rule on timing or any other rule They could be subject to penalties as described in rule 21 Including at least a 50 reduction in delegates, which will need to be reviewed by the rbc That's the rules and bylaws committee the deadline to elect convention participants Is the 20th of june? So state parties should have plenty of time to elect their delegates alternates and standing committee members Now june is quite a ways away So states by then absolutely should figure out some way to carry out vote by mail Right, that's more than enough time if you can't do that then what are you doing? But I mean the message from the dnc isn't one of hey, we're here to help you out Use our resources use us for information and planning They're saying get it done or we're gonna penalize you and possibly strip 50 percent of your delegates away This is just Insanity, I don't know how else to describe this. It's it's insanity It is insanity What is tom pares and the dnc doing? On one hand he's saying well look we care about this disease and you know We do want to practice social distancing and we would like vote by mail But on the other hand if you can't get it done We're going to screw you over Rather than trying to assist them You're trying to flex and intimidate them into not postponing the primaries Now the question is why are they being so irresponsible? I mean At first you'd think it's because they want to hurry up get the primaries over with because they want to protect joe biden If you extend it that opens the door to you know a momentum shift and bernie sanders regaining ground But at the same time, I mean is that really going to happen? How likely is that so I don't even know what their reasoning is if they're that paranoid then They're kind of being unreasonable, but I mean there's there's really there's no excuse for what they're doing. Look I get that the right to vote is sacred. I truly believe that but you can't really have A true democracy if people are afraid to come out and vote because they don't want to be exposed to something that could kill them So either way democracy is being jeopardized here if you Go on with these primaries as planned Then you are discouraging people from voting because they are being responsible And they don't want to expose themselves and their loved ones to go vid 19 But if you postpone it sure that's problematic, but it's not like they're going to be cancelled altogether So I just I don't know what to say It's just it's it's brainless. It's irresponsible. It's borderline criminal now. Thankfully someone who Agrees with me here Said this exact same thing albeit on a much larger platform. So this is what Alexander Rojas said on cnn I was going to say that I think in this moment in the midst of a pandemic where we know that millions of american lives at risk It feels like an abdication of leadership a democratic leadership in this moment to carry forward I know that most of the states like arizona and florida have vote by mail. You have absentee ballots of folks voting early But just as the right to vote is sacred So is every american life and I think that unprecedented times and moments of uncertainty call for unprecedented measures And so even if it's just one vote or a few votes, right? It matters the fact that we are It feels like we were kind of talking about how young people were crowding bars and going into public places Just a few days ago. Yet. We're pushing forward well on primaries when you're saying that you shouldn't have voted I think that ohio made the right call They prioritize the health and well-being of their citizenry And I think that if the question right now is if we gather and more than groups of 10, which those lines I think anecdotally I did not see people standing six feet apart That's really frightening especially when it comes to the older population the younger population where could easily spread it And so as a young person seeing this in the midst of a pandemic a potential another recession within my lifetime It feels very frightening in this moment. And I hope that democratic leadership follows And she is absolutely right to force people to choose between exercising their right to vote and remaining safe self-quarantining because it's something that we have to do given the gravity of The situation that we're in it's just it's it's truly inconceivable to me that This is what the dnc is doing at a time where we should all be trying to protect one another tom pares is Basically trying to bully states into having their primaries now You know super tuesday 3 is done georgia postpone their primaries Um, I don't know what's going to happen with the portorico primary, but there's no more primaries. I believe until april So for now, hopefully we can practice social distancing But just the thought of how many more people will exposed the fact that Not postponing the vote may have exposed more people It's just it's so irresponsible and tom pares should be ashamed of himself But I say that all the time and he has no shame so he absolutely won't but regardless If anyone gets sick or dies the blood is on his hands because he chose To go about it in this way for whatever reason. Maybe it's politically expedient. Maybe he's just ignorant But regardless, you know, the blood is on his hands if people die