 So I want to share with you what I think is the highlight of the entire debate. It was when Bernie Sanders took the gloves off and he called out the corruption of his opponents on that stage. And on top of that, he boasted about how he's different. Take a look. I am rather proud. Maybe I don't know. The only candidate up here doesn't have any billionaire contributions, but you know what I do have? We have received more contributions from more individuals than any candidate in the history of the United States of America at this point in an election averaging $18 a piece. Now there's a real competition going on up here. My good friend Joe, and he is a good friend, he's received contributions from 44 billionaires. Pete on the other hand is trailing Pete. He only got 39 billionaires contributing. So Pete, we look forward to you. I know you're an energetic guy and a competitive guy to see if you could take on Joe on that issue. But what is not a laughing matter, my friends, this is why three people own more wealth than the bottom half. This is why Amazon and other major corporations pay zero in federal taxes. We need to get money out of politics. We should run our campaigns on that basis. That was absolutely glorious. And I kid you not, when he said that, like when he started calling out their billionaire donors, I screamed at my computer screen like I was just I was waiting for that. Like I was waiting for Bernie Sanders to finally take the gloves off and just really deliver a knockout punch. And I think he did. Like when we saw Pete Buttigieg and Elizabeth Warren go head to head, she called him out for doing fundraisers with billionaires in that wine cave. But then he kind of got her by saying, well, yeah, but you transferred $10 million from your 2018 Senate campaign to your 2020 presidential election and you raised that money by doing large fundraisers. So that kind of undermined your credibility there, right? Because if you're going to talk the talk, you have to also walk the walk. Now, thankfully, Elizabeth Warren currently is not doing fundraisers in the general election. She will do DNC fundraisers. Nonetheless, Bernie Sanders just demonstrated that he's the real deal. Everyone talks about getting dark money out of politics or about undoing Citizens United. But Bernie Sanders is the only individual who doesn't just have a real plan but actually really walks the walk. In fact, he does more than walk the walk. He changed the game. People are running for Congress right now because Bernie Sanders showed them that you can run without selling out. He decided to run for president, not take super PAC money, not have a super PAC and raise money by small individual donors. And now people all across the country are emulating that same model. Bernie did this. He is the only one on that entire stage as far as I'm concerned with the real credibility on this issue. And he bragged about that. I'm the only candidate without billionaire contributions. And we have more contributions than any other candidate in US history. And that is one million for those of you who don't know, one million. That is absolutely amazing. And it goes to show you that Bernie Sanders is a trailblazer. So not only does he have the credibility, but when he goes after them, they have absolutely no way of adequately responding. They're basically just left defenseless because how do you respond to that? What are you going to accuse Bernie Sanders of being corrupt by big poor? In fact, he was actually accused of that before. I'm paraphrasing that attack, but that's a different story for a different day. But I mean, there's no argument to be made against Bernie Sanders. You're corrupt. He absolutely unquestionably is not. And he just called you out. What are you going to do? Can't really do anything. You can say that you want campaign finance reform as Amy Klobuchar did when she butted into the dispute between Warren and Buttigieg. But how are we supposed to expect that you're going to opt for campaign finance reform and change the system that helped you get elected? You're taking money from people who are billionaires, large multinational corporations that don't want you to change the system. How are we supposed to believe that that's not going to influence you, especially after we all voted for the change candidate in 2008 and 2012 and we didn't get changed because he was taking a lot of Wall Street money. Like we've been duped before, so this argument holds absolutely no way. Like saying I'm going to be corrupt now, but then change that corrupt system when I'm in office is not something that is persuasive. The system is rotten to its core and we're not going to believe that you are going to change the system that got you elected. Period end of story, which is why I wanted Bernie to do this from the get go. Because nobody else has that credibility, nobody else can go after them in a way that will make it land. Now, it wasn't just that he called out their billionaire donors, it was also the delivery, the way he did it because he was being a snarky motherfucker and I was living for it. So, you know, he said there's real competition going on here. You know, my good friend Joe, he received contributions from 44 billionaires, but Pete, on the other hand, he's trailing. You only have 39, so you know, Pete, you're a competitive guy, I look forward to seeing you take on Joe on that issue. Bernie. Damn. Bernie is a beast, Bernie is a savage. Now what I love is that after he got his digs in, after he put on a great show, this moment was as good, if not better than the I wrote the damn bill moment, but then he kind of brought everyone back. Once the crowd was reacting and they were cheering, then he kind of made them all focus and told them what the real issue is. This is not a laughing matter, my friends. This is why three people own more wealth in the bottom half. This is why Amazon and other corporations pay zero taxes. We need to get money out of politics. We should run our campaigns on that basis. The reason why the system is the way that it is now is because of big money in politics. So it's funny that he's calling out their billionaire donors and boasting about the fact that he has none. But the truth is the reason why we have so many billionaires, the proliferation of billionaires is contingent on our system because we let it happen, because politicians are bankrolled by elites and they allow for this. Why do you think we are able to pass tax cuts for the rich, but we can't pass anything else, even bipartisan legislation? I mean, Donald Trump vetoed the bill that would have ended US complicity to Saudi Arabia's genocide in Yemen, but yet he signed the tax cut bill into law. I mean, why do you think that the only thing that Congress is ever able to accomplish is giveaways to elites, the military industrial complex? It's because they're all corrupt and bad. So for these people on the debate stage to try to convince everyone else that they're different somehow, it's not going to land. And they should know better because we actually have an example of that same argument failing Hillary Clinton in 2016, right before the election. If you'll recall, Donald Trump ran an ad basically calling out her corruption in all of the elites who bankrolled her campaign. Now he is a hypocrite because, you know, even though he initially bragged about self-funding his campaign, he started to take the big money and only bragged after billionaires rejected him in 2015. But he's still called out that corruption and she made a similar argument. Like, you know, I support getting dark money out of politics, which is a caveat. You shouldn't support getting dark money out of politics. You should support getting all money out of politics. But Hillary Clinton essentially tried to make that same case. But in a post-Obama America, when a generation voted for him for the first time and they were betrayed, and we learned that, you know, he's doing the bidding of Wall Street and not doing actually real reform because he's taking money from every single industry, it's not going to land. In 2019, in an anti-establishment era, you are not going to convince anyone that you're on their side by basically making a pro-corruption argument. You know, I have to be corrupt, guys. I have to take millionaire and billionaire money. I have to. Otherwise, I can't win. Actually, no, you don't because in 2016 Bernie Sanders proved that you can run a campaign and be not just solvent but thrive by rejecting that corruption. Bernie proved that. So now you don't have a leg to stand on. This argument, I'm going to be corrupt now and then later on I'll ask for forgiveness and change the system. Bullshit. That is nonsense. Nobody will believe you. So this was such a great moment of the debate. The only other, I think, moment that compares is when Elizabeth Warren, one, made the comment about her being the youngest woman ever inaugurated and two, calling out people to judge for wine caves, just trying to remove myself from, you know, supporting Bernie. If I'm an average viewer, either one of those two moments or this moment where Bernie Sanders called out billionaire donors would stand out more to me. But if I am a self-interested voter and I understand that money in politics is an issue, I think that the lasting impact will be with this clip, like the arguments that Bernie Sanders made and the way that he made this argument will ultimately have the biggest impact on voters. You know, it's not just a quirky, fun moment. I mean, it was, but it goes beyond that. There's real substance here. And Bernie, he did great.