 When Hillary Clinton smeared Tulsi Gabbard, she also lumped Jill Stein in with that attack now Jill Stein recently appeared on CNN and She had what I think is a brilliant response to this because even if you don't trust Jill Stein And you're worried about Russia propping up some sort of Manchurian candidate Jill Stein has a response That addresses your worries It's just a matter of will you actually take what she says seriously in fight for a solution to this problem This is what she had to say. Dr. Stein. I went to Miriam Webster looked up asset just to be sure Here's what it says something useful in an effort to foil or defeat an enemy such as a piece of military equipment or a Spy are you a Russian spy? No, I am not a Russian spy. I think this is a completely Unhinged conspiracy theory for which there is absolutely no basis in fact not for myself and not for Tulsi Gabbard I think it's it's really outrageous that Hillary Clinton is trying to promote this crazy idea You know, you can't just slander people. You have to present some basis in fact he'll Tulsi has said that she is dedicated to running as a green as a Democrat and she has been for her whole life So that's pretty believable. I am not running for office. Somehow Hillary Clinton didn't do her google research Or she would know that I am not running So it's preposterous to say if I will give it up You know, this is just a it's a wild and insulting theory And I think it speaks to Hillary's need to try to explain perhaps to herself You know why her campaign was not successful people really wanted change and unfortunately Believed Donald Trump's lies that he was going to bring change. We need a voting system, you know in which people can actually vote for what they want and if people are concerned that Independent candidates and campaigns are Russian plots. There's a very simple solution rank choice voting Prevents any evil foreign asset or anyone from splitting the vote It lets you rank your choices. You never have to worry about your vote being quote thrown away or your Your vote not counting or Spoiling the election it doesn't happen under rank choice voting if your first choice loses your vote is Automatically reassigned to your second choice. It's a win-win and you know, that's the solution here The solution is not to silence political dissent, you know The basis of our democracy is supposed to be political dialogue and competition. We shouldn't be in the business of of You know throwing just terrible Conversations and calling tyranny and and traitor For people who are standing up for very important values that the American people badly need to hear about, you know 70% in a recent Wall Street Journal poll 70% of Americans said they're not just fed up They are fighting angry with a political establishment that's thrown them under the bus So we shouldn't be in the business of silencing Diverse political choices. We need rank choice voting to make that okay and bring our values back into our vote So first of all she denounces Hillary Clinton's attack She calls it an unhinged conspiracy theory and she points out the obvious that Tulsi Gabbard has already ruled out That she's not going to be running in a third party Further more Jill Stein isn't running for president in 2020. She's not running for office in 2020 So for Hillary Clinton to say that I mean there is truly no basis in reality for that criticism There's zero link between Tulsi Gabbard and Vladimir Putin zero I mean the only thing that they have to go on is that Tulsi Gabbard is against regime change war in Syria and Bashar al-Assad is an ally with of Vladimir Putin and the Russian government But that's it. That is a connection that isn't even tenuous. It's non-existent. I am against regime change war In Syria, so you can't just say that she's a Russian asset based on her View on geopolitics in the Middle East that doesn't even make any sense. It's a conspiracy theory So Jill Stein is right to call that out. There's absolutely no merit there However, when it comes to Jill Stein a lot of people in the Democratic Party are Incredibly skeptical of her because of that now infamous 2015 photo when she appeared at a dinner that included Vladimir Putin Now she explained that this was a conference RT invited her to and that she paid for her own trip And you know, of course She never concocted some type of malicious scheme with Vladimir Putin to quote unquote steal the election from Hillary Clinton But the reason why I think that Jill Stein's response in this interview is so brilliant is because it accounts for people's Skepticism like if you don't trust Jill Stein, she's still nonetheless offering you a solution now look I Understand like to be fair that the optics of that photo are bad right if it were me and I were in Jill Stein's position and I showed up to that dinner and Vladimir Putin was there. I would have left in protest right to make a statement about human rights That was around the time when Russia had just passed there What was like a gay propaganda law which essentially banned advocacy for LGBTQ rights So I would have left in protest However, to be fair to Jill Stein the reason why she attended that knowing that there would be some pretty awful people there Is because she wanted to be a voice that would speak truth to power that would actually be able to stand up for human rights But I mean regardless if people are concerned There's a very simple solution ranked choice voting if you are worried that a third party candidate is going to run Deliberately at the behest of Vladimir Putin to prop up whatever candidate the Russian government is Supporting if that's really your concern This is the solution Join me in advocating for ranked choice voting But the problem is that a lot of people they worry about third party spoilers and whatnot But they never talk about ranked choice voting and it's incredibly frustrating to me I have advocated for ranked choice voting now for years on this program Nobody even the people who are the most vocal about you know, Jill Stein and whatever impact she had in the 2016 election They never mentioned ranked choice voting members and the Democratic Party who are the loudest in saying that you know Jill Stein spoiled the election and handed it over to Donald Trump Even if Gary Johnson took more votes away from Donald Trump mind you They never say anything about this and there's a bill in Congress that was introduced by Donald Byer This is HR 4,000 and it would institute nationwide ranked choice voting But can you guess how many cosponsors it has it has five cosponsors? That's it So everyone is worried about you know a Manchurian candidate. We're worried about third party candidates Not very many people are advocating for ranked choice voting Rokana cosponsor that bill Jamie Raskin cosponsor that bill but this was formerly HR 3057 back in the 2017 to 2018 Congressional session. Can you guess how many cosponsors it had back then once again five five Now what a town hall I showed up and I asked my representative if she'd actually cosponsored this legislation She said she'd look into it. Guess what she never did so everyone is super concerned About you know third-party candidates potentially spoiling the election third-party candidates potentially being Manchurian candidates running at the behest of Vladimir Putin propped up by the Kremlin But nobody wants to actually opt for meaningful yet easy electoral reform I mean the thing about ranked choice voting is this opens the door to third parties and fourth parties actually becoming electorally viable because there are make no mistake about it Dozens of parties that exist in the United States. It's just a matter of whether or not they're viable But here's the thing the reason why Democrats and Republicans don't support ranked choice voting is because this is a direct threat to their power if you start opening the door to a more fair electoral process and You will allow members of the Green Party and potentially the Libertarian Party or some other parties to start getting elected Then of course that threatens your power status So they want to complain about third-party candidates, but at the same time They don't want a solution to stop vote splitting Okay, well then you can't complain you see what the Democratic Party likes to do is they like to voter shame people, right? If you don't fall in line and support whoever Corporate as we nominate then we're just gonna voter shame you rather than opting for a true solution That would ameliorate all of our concerns We're just going to beat you over the head and tell you to fall in line. You have to change not us I mean, it's just it's ridiculous when it comes to elections. These are winner-take all This is a zero-sum game. There's gonna be one winner and one loser So that means that you have to make a decision either you support the person who you think has the best chance of winning Or you vote sincerely for the person who you genuinely believe in now look in 2016 I voted for Jill Stein proudly so but I am in the state of Oregon So as much as I hate the electoral college I still use it to my advantage in a safe blue state to vote for someone who I sincerely believe in now if I were in a Swing-state or if Oregon looked like it was gonna go to Donald Trump Of course I would vote for Hillary Clinton in order to prevent Donald Trump because defeating Donald Trump was a greater priority to me then voting Sincerely for a Green Party candidate, but I mean none of this would even matter if we just had rank choice voting So the fact that Jill Stein brought that up is I think brilliant because even if you hate Jill Stein Or you hate anyone who runs in third-party You can advocate for rank choice voting and whatever fear you have about third parties would be wiped away But nobody talks about rank choice voting So it's incredibly frustrating that we continue to you know look down upon third parties Even if we live in a two-party system and duverges law is still something that is Active I mean third parties. They're part of democracy regardless if you like it or not They're gonna exist. They've always existed and they will continue to exist It's just a matter of are we going to maybe open the door to allowing them to win by? loosening that Stranglehold that you know our majoritarian winner take all single-member district plurality system has or Are we going to just you know keep complaining and beating people over the heads if they don't fall in line? You know, I think the answer is clear But look if you care about democracy and you don't want a manjurian candidate, you know, whatever Potential a spoiler to emerge Advocate for rank choice voting you can advocate to get that on the ballot in your state You can call your representative and tell him or her to cosponsor HR 4,000 either way if you're not talking about a rank choice voting Then I don't take you seriously if you truly are concerned about you know a manjurian candidate because we can stop that We can stop that with rank choice voting period end of story Subscribe if you like this video folks Mike's tremendous and he's doing a really really good job Many people are telling me about how wonderful the humanist report is big