 So this is really really great news here. I'm not sure how many of you saw this. It was announced yesterday so Cory Bush endorsed Amy Vallejo who is running for Congress again. This is absolutely important because for Cory Bush to endorse someone Who is running against one of her colleagues? She knows that this is gonna be unpopular. She knows this is going to be divisive within Democratic Party ranks, but she did it anyway because she knows that Amy Vallejo is The real deal and this takes courage to do. This is from Mother Jones The title is the newest member of the squad is already backing challenges to her colleagues Cory Bush is jumping in early to try to boost the ranks of the progressive wing of the house. This is really really important One of Congress's most left-leaning lawmakers is sticking her neck out early to endorse a primary challenger against an incumbent member of her caucus Representative Cory Bush is endorsing Amy Vallejo, a Democratic candidate mounting a challenge against Representative Dina Titus in Nevada's first congressional district, which includes most of Las Vegas Bush, one of six squad members who uphold Congress's left flank, won her seat last year after defeating former Representative Lacey Clay in a Democratic primary. Bush's endorsement of Vallejo Marks an aggressive early push against the fellow member of her party something her fellow squad members have generally approached with caution And this is correct. Actually, we'll talk about this even if many of them owe their seats to those very sort of challenges sorts of challenges as a newly elected lawmaker representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez raised eyebrows when she called for primary opponents against Soon-to-be colleagues soon after her 2018 election But after that initial broadside she has ended up being choosy about her endorsements When she actually started working alongside them as a member of congress She lent her support only to a handful of candidates and typically not until much later in the cycle Ocasio-Cortez conspicuously declined to endorse Bush's 2020 rematch against clay after campaigning on Bush's behalf in 2018 now this is what I wanted to talk about because Even though AOC explicitly called for primary challenges to incumbent Democrats She did not endorse Cory Bush and I mentioned this Back in 2020 and it was really hurtful to me to see this because AOC as soon as she won her primary She went to bat for Cory Bush to try to help her win her primary. This was in 2018 And so, you know, you would think that come 2020 she's going to be there again for Cory Bush But she chose to sit that one out now the reason why I suspect she didn't endorse Cory Bush Is because Lacey clay who is Cory Bush's primary opponent and the incumbent Democrat at the time He cosponsored the Green New Deal So if you're in this situation And you're AOC and it's very unlikely that Cory Bush is going to defeat Lacey clay And the incumbent is backing the Green New Deal. What do you do? And this is all speculation I don't necessarily know what was going through her head But I think she probably made a calculation. It was a miscalculation turns out and she thought look I don't want to piss off Lacey clay and have him not back the Green New Deal And then I you know end up endorsing Cory Bush and then that's one last cosponsor for the Green New Deal She probably thought look, I'll suck it up. I won't say anything. I'll sit this one out and then just Hope that Cory Bush wins, but I'll get that endorsement with the Green New Deal. That's what I'm Suspecting happened again. I have no idea what her reasoning was But still it was really heartbreaking because you know back in 2018 If you don't recall Progressive leftists like we went to war for AOC because Rokana Didn't endorse AOC right away. So he initially endorsed Joe Crowley over AOC And then progressives like myself and Kyle Kulinski reached out to Rokana and we Try to change his mind in good faith. We had conversations with Rokana trying to say look If you want supporters of your agenda Then you you really should back AOC because she will cosponsor all of your legislative initiatives And so the reason why I think that AOC didn't support Cory Bush in 2020 Was because Rokana basically said that you know, he he got Joe Crowley to support some of his initiatives And he didn't want to piss off Joe Crowley So I can only assume that that's the same logic that AOC applied like she doesn't want to piss off people Who are supporting her priorities and she wants to get things done I don't know though, right? But at the end of the day if you if you want to Effect change in congress you have to get new progressives elected. So ultimately I would err on the side of always endorsing These progressive primary challengers and you could just add the caveat Look if you don't like that I'm endorsing your primary opponent feel free to endorse my primary opponent. It's fine, right? That doesn't necessarily mean that we shouldn't work together that you shouldn't cosponsor the legislation that I introduce And I can't support your you know legislative priorities. Let's just put this aside And support democracy and if we want to Let's uh, let's endorse the primary opponents. Um, so I mean long story short again This is this is difficult because this is all speculation on my part Um, it may be partially conjecture because it's not necessarily true that since rokhana supported joe crowley Initially before the double endorsement Um or dual endorsement. I forgot what he called it Because he supported joe crowley, you know because joe crowley was supporting his legislative priorities That's not necessarily true that AOC made the same calculation But regardless, I think it's it's pretty logical to deduce that that's one of the reasons That she considered like she was trying to build up support for the green new deal, which is important And she didn't want to you know ruffle any feathers So bush tells me she's not worried about ruffling her colleagues feathers speaking of ruffling feathers She does that all the time she explains when she expresses her support for defending the police Even her moderate colleagues wish she wouldn't I understand that people within my caucus may not like the fact that I'm endorsing Amy period and that's okay. She tells me bush notes her endorsement is not to go against titus This is not a jab at the person that's in the seat bush says This is just saying that we need change and that's exactly it Um, I'm one of the individuals who think that there should be a primary challenge every single two years It doesn't matter who even uh, cori bush aoc There should always be a primary challenge because guess what? I'm principled and I believe in the concept of democracy So, um, you know, this whole concept of uh, trying to or notion rather of trying to shield incumbent democrats from primary challenges That's antithetical to democracy if you want to If you want to have a strong, uh Person go up against the republican in the general then you should support strong primary challenges. So, you know, that's it Um, this is just really great news. Uh, when I brought on cori bush She was on my show multiple times But when I brought her on with Amy valella in 2019 I want to say when she launched her second bid for the uh congressional seat that she now holds I asked her i'm like, you know, you see how aoc is being treated And you see the way that she's being attacked relentlessly by fox news Uh, how do you how do you think you're going to be able to to deal with that because psychologically? That's going to take its toll. I mean you're a strong woman But you know, we're all human beings and she said look I've been through so much That nothing that they say or do is going to break my will and I don't care about their criticisms and and to me This is her like living up to that like It's really It's really good to see Um, so i'm really thankful that she did this this endorsement is absolutely going to help Amy valella and by the way as soon as uh Nina turn its campaign is over We have to go to bat for Amy valella Because there's nobody who's going to be a stronger fighter for medicare for all than Amy valella who could speak Specifically to how her daughter's life would have been saved if she had medicare for all so yeah