 The Democratic Party primary in Massachusetts is coming up very soon And there's a lot of races to watch in this state But one of them that I am watching very closely is the primary race for the US Senate between incumbent Edmar Key and Joe Kennedy the third now Usually I support the insurgent candidates over the incumbent Democrats But in this instance I actually am backing Edmar Key because he is the more progressive candidate He supports Medicare for all a green new deal pot legalization criminal justice reform and Joe Kennedy even though now He's claiming to support all of these wonderful policies He is a Johnny come lately to all of these policies and Edmar Key has been hitting him nonstop throughout the course of the primary For only supporting them recently since he's choosing to primary Edmar Key. So usually I support the insurgent candidates Not in this instance. I'm backing the incumbent in this instance now having said that I'm not like the biggest fan of Edmar Key in the world And I think that leftist need to pump the brakes on praising Edmar Key because he may be like better than Joe Kennedy But he's not let's not fool ourselves. He's not like a wonderful progressive candidate. He's no Bernie Sanders He's not even a Jeff Merkley because my question is okay. You support Medicare for all green new deal That's phenomenal, but why didn't you endorse the one candidate who wanted to bring this vision to a national stage? Bernie Sanders, I mean Edmar Key did not endorse during the 2020 Democratic Party primary He sat this one out now you can defend him and say well look he had Elizabeth Warren from his own state run against Bernie So maybe he didn't want to ruffle any feathers. Okay, but I mean if you truly care about these policies Why not support Bernie Sanders? And I think that honestly a true leftist should know the difference between Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren But look, I'll give him a pass because someone from his state was running for president even Ayanna Presley Endorsed Elizabeth Warren over Bernie Sanders because she's from the state of Massachusetts And I don't necessarily dislike Ayanna Presley. I think she's one of the better Members of the House of Representatives even if I disagree with her on some issues But then my question is okay. Well, if you didn't support Bernie in 2020, why didn't you support him in 2015? Now you'll ask Mike, but didn't he support him in 2015? No, he actually endorsed Hillary Clinton over Bernie Sanders right when Bernie Sanders was starting to pick up steam He endorsed Hillary Clinton over Bernie in August or excuse me in October of 2015 Yeah, so look Edmar Key. I think that he is He's kind of stretching it a little bit And rewriting history to an extent when he boasts about his progressive bona fides Having said that I do think that you know between him and Joe Kennedy Joe Kennedy is far worse He is a corporate Democrat who doesn't even support the legalization of pot as far as I know unless he flipped on that as well But you know most of the Democratic Party establishment They seem to have backed Joe Kennedy over Edmar Key and that's frustrating because They told us that primary challenges are bad But here they are backing someone who's primarying a Democrat And I'm also frustrated because you have some prominent progressives who are in charge of the Congressional Progressive Caucus like Pramila Jayapal and Mark Pokan endorsing Joe Kennedy over Edmar Key You have Pramila Jayapal doing Medicare for all town halls with Joe Kennedy and that is fine Like I think that as many Medicare for all town halls as you can do you should do them But let's also not kid ourselves and acknowledge when someone is trying to dupe us Acknowledge when someone is just supporting a policy because they want to win an election like we have to be more savvy as Progressives you had Mark Paul can blocking people on Twitter who you know expressed Disappointment over his endorsement of Joe Kennedy over Edmar Key. So look truly There's not very many heroes in this story, but I am rooting for Edmar Key over Joe Kennedy Now what irritates me and makes me like Edmar Key even more is the type of campaign that Joe Kennedy and his team are running I mean, there's no policies except for his fake supportive Medicare for all. There's platitudes You know, it's it's nonsense like Joe Kennedy is basically the heterosexual version of Pete Buddha judge But maybe less substantive than Pete Buddha judge if you could believe it But he is now using Something out of the 2020 playbook, which I kind of expected Joe Kennedy's team is Basically accusing people who support Edmar Key of harassing him and his supporters online and bullying people sound familiar Well, it should because they are trotting out the exact attack that we all knew as the Bernie bro attack So Politico reporter Stephanie Murray explains Joe Kennedy's campaign manager Nick Clements sent a letter to Edmar Key campaign manager John Walsh Requesting a personal and public statement from marquee instructing his followers to immediately end the attacks on Joe's supporters And the threats to Joe and his family's life. She added the email included pages of screenshots of tweets last sentence reads Please note members of the media have been copied on this letter to encourage Accountability now we're gonna read the letter. It's relatively long so bear with me But this is going to be the most inseparable thing you've ever heard like this is what we basically saw When Elizabeth Warren was attacking Bernie Sanders supporters like it's this elevation of well There's just one random comment that said this one thing. So that's going to be conflated to your entire campaign acting the same way It's a culture of this toxic behavior like this is the same shit We saw from the 2020 Democratic Party primary and it's giving me flashbacks And it may be even less substantive than the Bernie bro attack because really all they point to are Not even a dozen examples of people being mean to Joe Kennedy and his family online So the letter reads the following dear John in recent weeks the tone and tenor of the marquee for centered campaign and people associated with it Have reached dangerous levels despite repeated public requests for senator marquee and his campaign to disavow and condemn the vitriol If his supporters particularly online your campaign has responded with silence Ridicule and thinly veiled efforts to actually incite further attacks on Joe Kennedy His family his staff and his supporters this tested endorsement of such negativity has given your supporters Licensed to not only target student fellows destroy campaign materials and vandalized campaign property But to launch death threats against Joe himself and revisit the assassinations of his grandfather and great uncle We understand it is not anyone paid by the marquee campaign making these threats But it is the direct result of the toxic online ecosystem Your campaign has allowed at best and encouraged at worse It has now reached the point where our campaign has to report death threats to capital police on a near daily basis The negativity of the quote marquee verse that is cringe worthy as hell is not random one-off or half-azard It is a pattern of behavior sound familiar one that has grown more vitriolic and unwieldy by the day It began before Joe entered this race when one of the senator's top political advisers launched a personal attack on Joe's family online and despite initial condemnation the campaign chose to reward him afterwards It continues with direct interventions from top marquee campaign aides sharing offensive content and disparaging Kennedy volunteers Doing nothing but supporting their chosen candidate the death threats and assassination References are beyond the pale But it is petty and personal attacks on our supporters that we find the most disheartening Reasonable minds can disagree about who to support in this race between two progressive candidates who undoubtedly share deep political values But no matter what side you fall on we should be able to agree that those who volunteer their time talent energy and passion to help drive the Democratic process should be commended and celebrated not disparaged ridiculed or attacked in the age of Donald Trump sound familiar and the existential threat he poses to our democracy Honesty and authentic political participation is more sacred than ever when this came up in our last debate The senator claimed no knowledge of it for all of your reference I have included a sample of what Joe and our team have faced online for months First the death threats and allusions to murdered family members And then they show a screenshot of a tweet where Alex Thompson shows off a button from the Kennedy campaign saying he's going full Kennedy in the final month with these vintage buttons and They then point out a comment where somebody responds saying he went full Kennedy Rip thoughts and prayers That is ruthless, but it's hilarious They then point to another tweet saying he should go all out copying Gramps There's another tweet of President Kennedy getting shot Somebody then tagged Lee Harvey Oswald saying we could really use you right about now another person says I think we should help him out if he wants to go full Kennedy heading to the dealer plaza right now in Reference to an ad released by Ed Marquis someone said Ed Marquis murdered the entire Kennedy dynasty with just one line of this ad Pun intended your move Lee Harvey Oswald another person said might as well call Ed Marquis Lee Harvey Oswald because he just killed a Kennedy damn the letter then continues second the nasty of course and Personal attacks on Joe and our team done by supporters often directly connected to your campaign your fellows volunteers and organizers Then they show a picture of a dinosaur saying fuck Joe Kennedy. Oh, no They then show off a tweet of someone criticizing his staff saying how can you be a Kennedy and still managed to make some of the worst staff hires of any campaign this Cycle they then link to someone with a Twitter banner that says fuck off Joe Kennedy I second that they then share a meme that says fuck Joe Kennedy all of my homies hate Joe Kennedy Love that finally they conclude by saying you and I are both campaign veterans. We know that supporters get passionate We know that in the heat of an election things get sharp But we also know that at the end of the day the buck stops with the candidate and his or her campaign We both have the opportunity and the responsibility to set the tone for our supporters to follow Unfortunately, your campaign has chosen to do the opposite I am hoping cooler heads prevail here and we can agree that this has gone too far as you celebrate and promote your social media Following and Ed Markey for Senate campaign materials. You must acknowledge the influence you can have on those who follow you We are requesting a personal and public statement from Senator Markey himself Instructing his followers to immediately end the attacks on Joe supporters the threats to Joe and his family's life and the destruction of Kennedy From Massachusetts campaign materials and property Please note members of the media have been copied on this letter to encourage accountability Sincerely Nick Clemens now the fact that they see seed the media in this message It tells you everything that you need to know about this. It is bull shit. It's a manufactured outrage campaign Sharing some people joking about him getting assassinated that is not tantamount to Ed Markey promoting this It's not tantamount to a death threat. It's just memes in poor taste, right? But you're going to find this about any campaign, right? You could point out weirdos or randos and say look at what your supporters are doing But that doesn't mean that the candidate is responsible for that like this is the same exact thing We saw with the Bernie bromit They were pointing to snake emojis that Bernie Sanders supporters were sending to Elizabeth Warren as evidence of quote-unquote Harassment and Elizabeth Warren even admitted that the snake emojis in part were the reason why she refused to endorse Bernie Sanders So either this is an attempt to manufacture outrage to help you get elected or Democrats are just so fucking fragile That they can't even take random people on Twitter getting zero attention Criticizing them. I mean give it up give it up But my favorite part about this story my favorite part about all of this fellow outrage is the response to one of these criticisms Oh, excuse me one of the harassment that we've seen by Joe Kennedy's wife So in response to the particular comment where someone said he went full Kennedy rip thoughts and prayers to his young widow She actually responded to that and her comment honestly made me laugh This young widow would be me and this is what Ed Markey's campaign condoms. Oh my god. Shut the fuck up. I hate Democrats Listen, I already said like I am not like Raw raw all gung-ho, you know for Ed Markey like I don't really care Like I think that Joe Kennedy deserves to lose because he's a shitty candidate, but that doesn't mean that like I'm super Pro Ed Markey, but this is the kind of shit that like even if I didn't support Ed Markey I would start supporting him when I see sanctimonious bullshit like this because this just shows me that Democrats They have nothing like your snowflakes. You have no policies All you do is you talk about how mean the other side is to you and when you're done with the primaries Then you point to how mean the Republican is how about rather than pointing out how mean everyone is to you Rather than pretending to be the victim when you actually have power and wealth Why don't you offer to do something for the people who you want to represent? Actually promote policies that you support now to Joe Kennedy's credit He actually has been making a bit of a pivot to the left in supporting Medicare for all But the difference here is that Ed Markey is saying you're only supporting these because you're primarying me And I supported these before you now again You can argue the extent to which Ed Markey actually supports these policies But he supports them a hell of a lot more than Joe Kennedy does and being the sponsor of the Green New Deal At least Ed Markey is more serious about climate change than someone like Joe Kennedy But I mean this is all that Democrats have when they are running primary campaigns They cannot beat the leftists on policy. So they have to basically cry and say you're mean to me My feelings are hurt. Like you are basically That meme like the snowflake SJW meme that right-wingers use like you're making that a self-fulfilling prophecy Like you're being the worst caricature that Republicans present you as by acting like this and doing shit like this But again when you have nothing else to campaign on when you can't really outflank The person who you're challenging on policy or to the left you have to resort to dumb shit like this That's why Elizabeth Warren was criticizing Bernie Bros, right now What I do appreciate is that Ed Markey's campaign manager actually publicly responded to this and he was kind of defiant Like he didn't back down and take the bait although we did a little bit But not as bad as Bernie Sanders did with regard to the whole Bernie bro kerfuffle and smear So we responded online saying Nick thanks for the email since you sent it with reporters BC seed I guess I'll just respond here for the accountability. You're looking for of course I'm disappointed that as someone I have known for years you are choosing to end this campaign with crocodile tears Senator Markey has condemned all vile and hateful speech Surrounding this race and you know it the Markey campaign has put up with non-stop Kennedy campaign supported harassment including a pickup truck spewing negative attacks literally every day at our campaign events attended by families and young people We don't whine or complain about your ridiculous campaign supported stunts because we are focused on our campaigns positive message and supporters if Reporters would like photographic proof of Kennedy campaign attacks and harassment they can get in touch with me instead of more Disingenuous political stunts the Kennedy campaign should join ours in closing out the race Discussing solutions to the real injustices people face Medicare for all the Green New Deal racial and economic justice as senator Markey Has done since day one and oh, yeah almost forgot. He then tagged the campaign manager for Joe Kennedy So I think that's a pretty good response. I mean he made fun of them for their crocodile tears You know basically poked fun at them for pearl clutching and I think that that's what you have to do Like he did say of course we condemn these violent attacks But rather than saying that you're kind of like tacitly admitting guilt Just say why don't you condemn the violent attacks that your supporters have been lobbing against us first? And then we'll follow your lead be a leader in this instance Like do something like that because what they want you to do is admit guilt when you have to deny that narrative like reject The narrative altogether because it is just that it's a narrative. It's fake It's bogus like you're always going to find someone online who is critical of you I can go on, you know the comment section of this YouTube video Which I will not do and find a bunch of people criticizing me that doesn't mean that this is Harassment or anything like people online are vocal and you're going to always find someone who's a critic if you're a public figure You know this so stop trying to weaponize it for purposes of political expediency. You goddamn insufferable hacks But this is exactly what you know Democrats do because they have nothing, you know as this person said they have no substance Now I do have to criticize this person who is the campaign manager of Ed Markey for boasting about the fact that he's a fan of Bane capitals Deval Patrick in his Twitter profile How could you support a progressive like Ed Markey and be a fan of Deval Patrick in the same breath like? Democrats are just very weird. This is what happens when you have a big 10 party, right? But look this story is laughable like the fact that Joe Kennedy's campaign Actually published this and thought that they would get support from people or sympathy like it's embarrassing like you should feel ashamed of yourself Like this campaign manager for Joe Kennedy Shouldn't be able to get a job in politics again because you did this and before we end this I do want to add one more criticism of Joe Kennedy That they can use like you have my permission to use this in your email your next campaign to add whatever you want because I'm really butthurt that I was not used in the burning bro smears because I Sent a lot of snake emojis and rat emojis to people to judge and Elizabeth Warren. So hopefully they will use this one So allow me to make my pitch to them and a harass Joe Kennedy Fuck Joe Kennedy and that's it