← 5CAST w/ Andrew Callaghan
5CAST w/ Andrew Callaghan
Meet the Anti AIPAC Democrat Taking on the Establishment - 5CAST (#16) ft. Nida Allam
00:58:08
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- [00:00]
A
All right, thank you so much for making the time.
- [00:02]
B
Of course. Thanks, Andy.
- [00:03]
A
Yeah, I really appreciate it. So for those who don't know, can you tell us your name and kind of what's going on with the campaign?
- [00:07]
B
Yeah. I'm Nidha Alam. I am a county commissioner here in Durham, vice chair of the board, and I'm running for Congress In North Carolina's 4th district, the bluest, most diverse, youngest district in North Carolina.
- [00:18]
A
And does that encompass Raleigh and Durham, or just Durham?
- [00:20]
B
Not Raleigh, but includes western Wake counties like Cary, Morrisville, and then Durham County, Orange county, and northern Chatham County.
- [00:27]
A
And so for those who don't know what are the biggest problems facing this county and society around here, it's the
- [00:32]
B
same issues that are facing everyone across this country. Affordability. And also the threats and attacks against our democracy. We're seeing folks struggling to make ends meet with the rising cost of living. And then Trump's authoritarianism terrorizing our neighbors with ICE and cbp. Have some of these raids gone too far?
- [00:50]
A
No, I think they haven't gone far enough.
- [00:52]
B
Attacking our democracy with these gerrymandered districts and voter ID laws.
- [00:55]
A
So the rising cost of living in particular, it's kind of funny because everybody around the country is reporting the exact same thing is happening. Like, neighborhoods are getting bulldozed to make way for, like, condominiums, big tech developments, outside employment, you know, sectors and stuff, and regular people can't seem to get ahead. So what do you think are some things that can be done to reverse that trend?
- [01:14]
B
Well, it starts even before that, to be honest. It starts from birth or like prenatal. We know that the data shows that when you provide a family with early childcare investments and resources, that child's ability to earn, for every $1 invested in them, their earning potential grows by $7. And so if we're not having universal childcare, we're setting up kids for failure from birth. And so it's about investing in universal childcare. It's about raising our minimum wage. North Carolina's minimum wage has been stagnant for 20 years at $7.25. You can't even get a fast food meal for that amount. Then we also have the rising housing market. We have job losses. This district was hit with the highest number of federal funding cuts, more than any district in the country. And then we have a AI data center being debated and potentially being built in this district that we know AI is killing our jobs. Amazon is investing $10 billion into North Carolina. Yeah.
- [02:10]
A
The company announced it will launch a
- [02:11]
B
New high tech cloud computing and artificial
- [02:14]
A
intelligence innovation campus in Richmond County. The project will mark the largest upfront corporate investment in state history. And what made you want to run for Congress?
- [02:22]
B
I'm running for the seat because I've been serving as a commissioner now for five years. And you get real nitty gritty and get to meet your neighbors and know about the issues that are impacting them. And with Trump back in house and seeing ICE and CBP coming in and terrorizing our neighbors, I was out on the front lines protesting and documenting, doing ICE verification, and all we got from our member of Congress was a tweet. And I couldn't sit idly by and tell people, oh, well, we're in the minority so we can't do anything. Wait three years and then maybe we'll save you when folks are literally being killed with our taxpayer dollars.
- [02:57]
A
Have there been any examples of actual people dying at the hands of ICE and CBP here? Like in Minneapolis, not here.
- [03:02]
B
But people have been getting kidnapped. We've had several wrongful arrests. They actually picked up a high school student in Wake county and drove about like two, three, couple miles away until they realized that they had the wrong kid and just dropped him out on the side of the road and threw his stuff out. This is a high schooler and they just dumped him and he had to call his parents and find a way back to his school.
- [03:22]
A
So there's a lot of things in North Carolina that people are very curious about. But more specifically, your campaign run or your congressional run back in 2022 was quite interesting. So from the research that I did, it says your opposition candidate received $2.5 million from AIPAC to be spent just running against you. Can you kind of elaborate on what happened there?
- [03:41]
B
She had two and a half million spent on behalf of her from AIPAC. You all know that I took the money from AIPAC. They bundled about $800,000 from their donors that gave directly to her. And then on top of that, she got money from Sam Bankman Fried, the crypto billionaire who was sitting in the Bahamas, now sitting in jail. And during that entire campaign, it was the first time we've had an open primary since the 80s. And it became the most primary in North Carolina's history on any party side. And we were trying to run a campaign focused on working families, working issues. Like, I showed up to candidate forums and meet and greets. We never saw her at one because she didn't need to, because she had all this right wing super PAC money coming in to Support her.
- [04:22]
A
And for someone who doesn't know what
- [04:23]
B
is aipac, AIPAC is a right wing, pro Israel lobby that is involved in our political systems just to push U.S. congress to fund Israel's military more and more and more.
- [04:35]
A
Why are they and their donors spending $600,000 to keep her in Congress? Because Fushi has sent billions of our tax dollars to a dictator carrying out a genocide. Yeah. So their primary goal is just getting the green light to make sure these shipments of arms, weapons, drone, artillery and stuff never stops. Reports in the US Media say President Trump's administration is seeking approval from lawmakers in Congress to sell Israel around $6 billion worth of military. They fund candidates who they know are going to be sympathetic to them. Or if candidates don't even actually care about what's happening out there, the apartheid in Israel, Palestine, they'll just be like, all right, we're going to help you win. When you do win, just make sure that whenever it comes, when that day comes, to vote on things like the arms embargo, make sure that you let us get more guns.
- [05:22]
B
Yeah. And they also look at races of their like, oh, there's a pro Palestine candidate running. Let's make sure that we get in so that they aren't able to win. And that was one of the things that we saw in this race. There was about six other candidates in this race and they were, AIPAC was shopping around to figure out, like, they saw I was on one side and they're like, okay, we gotta make sure nida's not in. And so they, Valerie was the candidate that they ended up landing on. And you see what that over $3 million got that she has been voting for billions of dollars of funding for the Israeli military, even in the middle of the genocide, taking $50,000 trips sponsored by AIPAC to Israel to take pictures with Netanyahu after international courts had deemed him a warm criminal.
- [06:07]
A
And why in particular did they spend so much money trying to go against you?
- [06:11]
B
Because I have been vocal and steadfast in my belief that what Israel is doing in Palestine is unlawful, it's unjust, and that we as the United States shouldn't be endlessly funding wars.
- [06:22]
A
How many congressmen are currently sitting in the House that actually share your stance?
- [06:27]
B
Not enough. Right now. We're seeing is that a lot of people like to say that they are pro peace, that they are anti war, or that they want to see our taxpayer dollars be used to support the things that we actually need here. But then they continue to endlessly approve the Pentagon's budget, which hasn't even passed an audit in over 30 years.
- [06:50]
A
I'm just trying to get a sizable understanding of what fraction of people voting in Congress actually share an anti war standpoint. Is it like a couple dozen? Is it one or two?
- [07:00]
B
It's probably a couple, maybe a handful, like a dozen. We have like the Progressive Caucus that honestly, we need more members who are taking that anti war stance within the Progressive Caucus because our current member, she's in the caucus, but she hasn't been staunchly. She hasn't even called it a genocide. She hasn't even called Netanyahu a war criminal.
- [07:23]
A
What do you think is the ideal solution for.
- [07:26]
B
I think the ideal solution is that the United States cuts our endless funding of the Israeli military and actually invests in rebuilding Palestine and it needs to be led by the Palestinian people, not by Donald Trump.
- [07:39]
A
Yeah. That kind of brings me to what I really wanted to talk about, which is the Board of Peace, which is currently in charge of, I guess really will be in charge of administering what happens with Gaza. President Donald Trump launched his Board of Peace from the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. The organization was initially designed to cement Gaza's rock Iraqi ceasefire and was endorsed by a United Nations Security Council resolution as part of Trump's Gaza peace plan. Trump, who will chair the board, says he thinks it will eventually tackle conflicts worldwide because Hamas agreed to, I think, the third phase of disarmament in Trump's 12 point plan. So it's looking like there will be a great deal of Gazan territory that is transferred over to the U. S backed coalition that's called the Board of Peace. What do you think about the Board of Peace?
- [08:27]
B
I think that if the Palestinian people don't have their land returned to them, especially the way that they've been moved, they've been told to move south, move north, move south, move north and been displaced. It's a humanitarian crisis. And now Trump and his administration and his allies are talking about building resorts. No, there's millions of Palestinians and people of Gaza that need to be returned to their homes. And we, the people who have funded their destruction need to support the funding of their rebuilding.
- [08:52]
A
Yeah. The only Palestinian corporation inside of the Board of Peace I was reading is through something called the ncag, the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza. And I think that represents 1 16th of the board. And the director of that is a guy named Ali Shah, who's a longtime west bank resident who is associated with the PA or the group that used to be the Fatah that ran against Hamas in 2006 but lost the election. It is an honor to be here today. I want to start by thanking President Donald J. Trump and his administration for their intensive efforts to advance peace in the whole region. So that means the pa, the Palestinian Authority in this new world, in this new Post Board of Peace prism, I guess, post Board of Peace reality, are the sole representative of the Palestinian people. Do you feel like the PA has what it takes to ensure Palestinian statehood or sovereignty in the future?
- [09:44]
B
I think that the Palestinian people deserve a fair and free election because they haven't had one in several decades. That a majority of the Palestinian people did not vote, were not eligible to vote, they were children or they weren't even born yet. In the last time that Palestine had an election. And being able to have an election is what's going to actually lead to us knowing who is. Do the Palestinian people truly want to represent them?
- [10:09]
A
But I guess if it was a group that was more radical than the PA, or I guess more that had more direct demands, AIPAC would do what they did with your campaign and fund the opposition.
- [10:19]
B
That's possible. But I also think that Palestinian people are resilient. They are some of the strongest people that I have, society has ever seen. The way that they. This current war and genocide is not something that is new. Unfortunately, the very first protests that I've ever attended as a kid in, like, elementary middle school were for Palestine. The Palestinian people have been under war and siege for four decades now, more than that. And so we need to make sure that the United States, like, we can't be deciding what another country is, how they govern themselves. We need to be allowing the Palestinian people to have an election and supporting them in that.
- [11:01]
A
Do you think that Mohammad Abbas and the PA would agree to an election?
- [11:04]
B
I think it's incumbent on us as the United States to push for it because that's. We need to support democracies everywhere.
- [11:11]
A
That's actually a pretty good stance. So you think that our role should be to help rebuild and essentially push for a democratic election among Palestinians?
- [11:17]
B
Yes.
- [11:17]
A
Yeah. Because I just got back from the west bank and we toured some of the settlements that were experiencing a lot of violence from, like, the hilltop youth and some of these, like, you know, aggressive, violent youth movements that are displacing families, taking over villages, and then making way for the Israeli military to come in, bulldoze it, and build settlements. And we got a chance to sit down with Anwar Rajab, who's the head of security for the Palestinian Authorities, security forces. And the way they talked about it was just so strange every time we asked them, like, what would you do if, you know, the US led an Israeli led attack here in the West Bank? And he said, we wouldn't fight back. We're committed to nonviolence. And so they have this like peacetime language that in my mind will just make it so Israel can keep expanding into the west bank and ultimately acquire the whole thing. So it's just, it's kind of, it feels like a gridlock situation. But what you just said does sound like a potential solution.
- [12:06]
B
Yeah. And it's also about the reason that Israel has been able to continue to commit this genocide in Gaza, to occupy and build more settlements in the west bank is because of the United States military funding. And if we as the United States take a anti war, pro peace stance, that is what's going to actually help Palestinian people. Actually not sure if you are familiar. In 2024, one of my husband's really close friends, his wife went to the west bank to be a peaceful volunteer and document the protests that were happening. She was there documenting and watching a peaceful protest. She was out in the olive grove, olive tree groves, not close to the protesters. And an Israeli sniper killed her. And she was a US Citizen. The United States government has still not called for an independent investigation into her murder. The member of Congress that represents her, Pramila Jayapal, has been introducing resolutions, pushing for an investigation. But the fact that the United States is not even holding its own allies accountable for killing U.S. citizens in the west bank, not even Gaza.
- [13:19]
A
Yeah, I think it just shows how entrenched the Israeli lobby is in our politics, our financial structure, our judicial system. Do you envision a world in which they could be untangled from US Interests? Or do you think it's just going to be like that forever?
- [13:32]
B
I think if we truly have representatives that stand for ending Citizens United and it's about getting, you know, ending our military industrial complex and also ending the chokehold that corporations and these right wing billionaires have on our politicians that they're allowed to spend millions of dollars lobbying on legislation and to kill the thing. The bills and legislation that are hurting working, that are going to help working families every single day, like Medicare for all, like a Green New Deal, like fully funding, providing more funding for our public education, housing. And we're always told like, well, we don't have money for that, we can't afford that. But then we can prove billions of dollars for war.
- [14:12]
A
Who do you think are the top three Most evil billionaires currently alive not dead.
- [14:17]
B
Well, is Trump technically Fin still won?
- [14:20]
A
Yeah.
- [14:20]
B
Is he?
- [14:21]
A
Yeah, technically.
- [14:22]
B
Definitely him up at the top. And what's the Palantir?
- [14:27]
A
Peter Thiel.
- [14:28]
B
Yes. Let me see. Third billionaire. Honestly, Bezos, Zuckerberg and Musk are probably up there as well. I know you said three, but all those.
- [14:40]
A
Yeah. All in the Epstein class.
- [14:41]
B
Yes.
- [14:42]
A
How do you feel about the Epstein file release?
- [14:43]
B
It's kind of crazy that the documents have not been released. But also the fact that several heads of our government are in there is very clear that why they're blocking it. But I think that it should be a bipartisan issue, especially when we're talking about people who are child trafficking like one of the worst crimes you could ever commit and our government is just allowing a cover up of that.
- [15:09]
A
But I mean on the bright side, it may make way for like the destruction of the two party system and then we can have populist candidates like you from the progressive side and the right wing side kind of all compete for a fair shot. They can give the youth more incorporation. Because right now, I hate to say it, but most people I know didn't vote last election or they voted for like a third party candidate as a protest vote.
- [15:28]
B
Yeah. And most people in this country are unaffiliated voters. Most people in this state of North Carolina are unaffiliated voters because they're disappointed in both parties. And I understand that. And like a lot of times people try to say, well, North Carolina is a red state, no, it's a purple state. But also it's just a state of working people. Just like the rest of this country is a state of working people who want to just get by and live with dignity. And if we had our elected officials that stopped playing politics and throwing labels around and actually focused on paying people a living wage that they don't have to work two or three jobs to make ends meet. Making sure that as the wealthiest nation in the world we guarantee health care because why does medical debt even exist? That we're allowing our neighbors to have to decide between picking up their prescription or paying their rent. And that the fact that I have two kids, my kids daycare is for the two of them to go to daycare is the same as our mortgage. So how are working families supposed to make that balance? There are so many young families and friends that I have that they've chosen for one parent to stay home because it makes more sense for them to not work than to both be working because one is not making enough to cover childcare.
- [16:38]
A
You mentioned that you went to Palestine protests as a super young person. What do you think your political wake up moment was?
- [16:43]
B
I think showing up at Palestine protests, like I never considered those to be deeply political, to be honest. Like they were humanitarian protests. They were talking about, you know, we should stop bombing children. And it felt very common sense to me. My political wake up moment didn't come for many, many years later. Obviously like in the after that, like we had 9 11, which obviously like the way that Muslims were portrayed and demonized post 9 11.
- [17:10]
A
I'm here to protest the building of this disgraceful mosque, which to me is nothing but a touchdown victory dance for the whole Islamic jihadist culture.
- [17:20]
B
My family and many other Muslim families all across the country kind of sheltered ourselves. We didn't really talk about politics. My parents, when we turned 18, like, they were like, gotta make sure you vote. But it wasn't something like you talk about at the kitchen table. Because anytime a Muslim was spoken about, it was in a negative light. But in my final year of undergrad, I lost my best friend Yusra Bou Salha, when she was murdered in a hate crime here in Chapel Hill by her neighbor who hated her because she was Muslim. And he killed her alongside her husband Diya and her younger sister Razan. And the media and politicians immediately labeled it a parking dispute, just brushing their debts under the rug as if it was like a petty dispute. When we knew that he targeted them because they were Muslim and they didn't even wait for a proper investigation or anything.
- [18:11]
A
And moving forward to your political life, how have you seen Islamophobic attacks toward you and the media?
- [18:16]
B
It comes out a lot. When I was first elected vice chair of the state party, I remember there was some right wing blogger that posted this whole thing about how the state party is going full Sharia law, because I was elected to the vice chair role. And I see it even to this day through Islamophobia, through xenophobia. I mean, you saw the woman outside following me who's been questioning and asking about my birth certificate. And it's difficult for sure. But again, as a mom of a three year old and a one and a half year old, I look at my kids and I'm like, I need the world to be better for them. I need my daughter and son to be able to walk outside and not have to be looking over their shoulders, to not be fearful that someone's going to target them. And if that takes putting myself in an uncomfortable position, putting myself on the Front lines, then I'm going to do it for my kids.
- [19:06]
A
What do you think most Americans, especially, like, Islamophobic Americans, a lot of conservative Americans don't understand about the religion.
- [19:12]
B
One thing that's always funny to me is that when people talk about Sharia law, which is not even anything part of this campaign, but one of the first rules of Sharia law is follow the rule of the land. And so, like, we live in the United States. That's the law of the land. Like, I'm going to follow the law of the land of the United States. And so whenever people try to, like, view that, I'm like, okay, so you want me to follow the United States law, which plan on doing. And then also, just like, the fact that people love to say, because I wear a hijab, they're like, oh, she's oppressed. Oh, she's like, put into silence. I'm like, you're literally talking to the first Muslim woman ever elected to office in North Carolina who is out in public in an elected body. Do I look oppressed to you? And also the fact that my biggest champions. If you go to, we're at South Library, but if you go to Maine, my dad is out there campaigning for me there, and my mom is at another library campaigning for me. And then my husband, he actually has a T shirt that says, my wife Nida is running for Congress. So I'm like, this is the furthest thing from an oppressive society. Islam actually believes, like, one of the things that they tell us is, like, heaven lies at the feet of your mother, that women are held to such a high esteem.
- [20:24]
A
So things like the hijab would more just be like an act of modesty and sort of. Yeah, that made more sense to me because when I was in Hebron in the west bank, and I noticed that society itself was more modest. Like, there's no bars. It's just not really like a drinking or, like, you know, gambling culture. And so it kind of started to make sense to me a little bit. It's like, oh, it's part of the modesty of the culture. It's not so much oppression as it is. I mean, it's just American culture is so, like, rotten to the core, too. Like, I think about Vegas and, like, I see alcohol ads on the side of the road, like, it's Friday. Get a Smirnoff Ice. And just all of our cultural things like hazing and fraternities, and I'm like, damn, maybe we could use a little bit more modesty in Life, like, what makes us feel like our, I guess, Western social culture. Culture is so superior that it needs to be spread across the world.
- [21:11]
B
And I think for me, like, as a Muslim, I'm a Muslim who is an elected official, but that doesn't mean everyone needs to be a Muslim who is elected official. And if you actually look at this country, it's the right wing Christians who have been pushing their religion on everyone else and other religions and people, they're kind of just chilling. They're like, yeah, I'm gonna practice my religion, but you can do your thing.
- [21:31]
A
After 9 11, there was such mixed messaging about why it happened in the first place. And I think that's where a lot of the misunderstandings came from. I'm not obviously justifying 911 or something. It was a terrible thing. But there was a lot of conflicts in the Middle east that the US Was engaged in that led to that climate where something like that would happen, like October 7th, you know, and it became at least what we were told asking our parents as young people, hey, why did 911 happen? What they said is, well, Osama hates our freedom. When I get to Washington, right? Refusal of France to support the US And Iraq, triggering a symbolic protest. Instead of offering French fries, some restaurants across the country now calling them freedom fries. That message also being heard in Washington now being served in congressional cafeterias. Freedom fries. And instead of French toast, you can get freedom toast. He hates the baseball game, he hates the supermarket, he hates popcorn, all the things that you like. Osama hates it. So he did that because he hates us and he wants us to be like him. Not considering the geopolitical context because there wasn't this awareness of what we were doing overseas at the time. A lot of people had no idea about US intervention in Latin America, in the Arab world, across the entire planet, all the things we were doing and funding. And so I think now for the first time, people are starting to come out of that fog a little bit. But now it's kind of being undone by the whole Israeli propaganda campaign once again.
- [22:47]
B
Yeah. And I think also, like, as somebody who was in third grade, I still remember being asked by my teacher post 911 of like, to stand up in front of my class and explain, like, why Muslims hate Americans. And I was a third grader, I didn't know what she was talking about. And to be put on the spot like that and kind of like came home and my parents were worried, obviously already, because my sisters, they were two years apart. And then me and my middle sister are Three years apart. So they were in middle school together. I was in elementary school. And so I was alone in school and there was no other Muslim kids that my parents were kind of like, should we pull another out? Should we move her to, like, you know, the masjid school where she's around other people, where she has a support system? But I ended up staying. I was like, again, I didn't know why they were doing all of those things, but I knew I didn't want to leave my friends because I was a kid. I didn't know anything different. And now growing up and seeing all of this continue, that we've learned. We haven't learned any of our lessons of the way that the United States continues to intervene internationally and create these crises, but then also at the same time block refugees from the crises that we've created enter into our country. It's baffling. And, like, we need leadership that understands that the decisions we make today are going to have lasting impacts for generations to come.
- [24:14]
A
Yeah, totally. And if we encourage and fund the genocide in Palestine or other things happening similar, we're going to face the repercussions down the line. It's just basic. It's like a boomerang.
- [24:24]
B
Look at, you know, Palestine. But also holding our allies accountable for the genocide in Sudan, for the atrocities in Yemen, just in terms of the
- [24:34]
A
UAE funding the RSF as we're talking about.
- [24:38]
B
And, like, we need to return to the United States being a diplomatic leader of using our world powers to lead in diplomacy, not through war, like during World War II. Yeah.
- [24:51]
A
So you think that was the golden era of American foreign policy?
- [24:54]
B
I think that. I think from where the wars that we have been a part of.
- [25:00]
A
Yeah, because we haven't really fought bad guys since then. You know, I mean, the Taliban, mixed opinions on that. But Vietnam, we shouldn't have been there. Iraq, definitely not. I'm super curious about the mechanics of AIPAC. So whenever AIPAC spends $2.5 million trying to ruin your campaign, what does that actually look like?
- [25:18]
B
So they sent. They did polling, and they were putting up push polling, calling me a radical extremist, using all the, you know, basic Islamophobic, xenophobic tropes, calling me a socialist, a radical. They did actually run a poll my first time when I ran in 22, I was pregnant. They ran a poll that asked a question of would you be more likely to support a Muslim pregnant woman? And I'm like, why is this even something that needs to be asked? And then they took that polling and ran about people were getting like, I think they sent a total of 17 mailers to voters across the district, were up on TV and cable running just ads constantly. Constantly that like anytime you open up your phone, you scroll through social media, open YouTube, open your mailbox, you would just see Representative Valerie Fousshi's name in the mailbox or on your screen.
- [26:15]
A
So it's simultaneously hyper promoting the opposition candidate through targeted ads and running a smear campaign about you at the same time. What was the most ridiculous thing you saw throughout the smear campaign?
- [26:26]
B
I think was the pregnancy questions, to be honest. One, they call me a radical extremist. And also, unfortunately, as a Muslim woman, I heard those attacks and it was terrifying and scary for me, not just me personally, because having lost my friends to a hate crime, my fear was how that type of messaging being out there would radicalize the wrong person into acting and attacking the Muslim community. Showing up to target Muslims and causing harm, that was my biggest fear.
- [26:57]
A
And then have you seen in the political campaign thus far this year, do you feel like a similar attack is ramping up?
- [27:05]
B
We're probably going to be seeing like AI has just dropped their first TV ad. We haven't seen what the ad is yet, but they are dropping $100,000 in support of her, as well as this other super PAC that is funded by. Is bankrolled by the. Was it the CEO or president chair something title he holds of APAC as well as Coinbase. So, you know, even though my opponent says she's not going to take APAC money and says she's distancing herself from it, she's taking it through these other entities.
- [27:37]
A
You said coinbase?
- [27:38]
B
Yeah.
- [27:38]
A
Crypto guys.
- [27:39]
B
Yep.
- [27:40]
A
So you got crypto guys and Israelis trying to ruin your life.
- [27:44]
B
Pro Israel, right wing, Pro Israel lobby.
- [27:45]
A
Yeah. What's that like?
- [27:46]
B
I felt kind of flattered that they would feel the need to spend so much money to try to stop our campaign. But also I feel empowered that it's because we're running on the right values, that we're running for working people, that we're running on a campaign for peace, that they feel threatened by our message and the momentum that we're building.
- [28:07]
A
And what is the core message?
- [28:09]
B
The core message is that every person in this country deserves to live with dignity. And the United States doesn't have an issue with resources. We have an issue of priorities, that if we can endlessly fund war and write blank checks to the Pentagon, then we can fund health care as a human right and provide a safe and Sound as basic education to all of our children and pay people a living wage.
- [28:31]
A
So universal basic income. Yes. Affordable healthcare, perhaps socialized. Free health care. Universal universal healthcare?
- [28:38]
B
Yes.
- [28:39]
A
The doctor's free always, no matter what. Even if you have this extremely advanced surgery to do triple X ray.
- [28:44]
B
Yeah. So I mean, with universal healthcare, we look at the countries that have it, like Canada, the Netherlands, they've been able to implement universal healthcare. That shouldn't be something that's, you know, obscene for the wealthiest nation in the world to accomplish like us.
- [28:59]
A
And we raise the minimum wage.
- [29:00]
B
Yes. To a true living wage, which for this district is $24 an hour.
- [29:04]
A
24. Sounds chill. Especially after taxes. It's like 19.
- [29:06]
B
Yeah.
- [29:07]
A
Are we lowering taxes on working people and raising them on the 1%?
- [29:12]
B
Well, we need to get the 1% to even pay their fair share to begin with because right now we're seeing billionaires who are just paying nothing. In North Carolina, the state legislature actually passed legislation that says by 2030, corporations are going to pay zero in corporate taxes. And so we have to actually get corporations and these billionaires to pay their fair share so that we can actually see how much revenue we're going to be able to collect from them to fund these programs and systems. And it is going to ease the burden and lower rates on our working class families.
- [29:44]
A
Are we also going to fund public school to make the food better and the classes have more well paid teachers, they're more qualified so kids can be smarter.
- [29:50]
B
Yeah. So as a county commissioner, public schools is one of the largest parts of our budget. And every year I've been on the commission, I've advocated for increased funding. And we've gone in the past, every year I've been on and also increased the minimum wage of all our county employees, including public school workers.
- [30:05]
A
Have you done anything to I guess improve the counseling and mental health services program at schools?
- [30:11]
B
Yes. So we have, we fund the counselors as a part of the county commission's budget. And then also one of the things that is really important for us in Durham Public Schools is making sure that our educators have the resources that they need to support their students in the classrooms as well. So that we have the counselors, but also the student is supported in the classroom as well without having to go to counselor.
- [30:37]
A
Well, it seems like everybody in theory wants all the things that you're advocating for. So what's the biggest obstacle? Is it just super PAC funded opposition candidates?
- [30:44]
B
It's corporations and these right wing billionaires who just care about their bottom line. They don't care about working famil being able to make ends meet. They care about being able to catch a profit and increasing their profit as much as possible.
- [30:57]
A
Turning everything to a dollar.
- [30:58]
B
Yeah.
- [30:59]
A
And the easiest way to convince people to vote against their own interests, I've noticed, is to deploy culture war issue distractions.
- [31:06]
B
Yeah. And if you see a lot of the places that they run these ads, like here, they don't actually run on the issues that they lobby for. Like APAC never actually ran any mailer or TV ad about Israel or about Palestine because they knew that that wasn't an issue that voters, everyday voters are going to be thinking about. They just ran positive, like TV ads for my opponent and just to get her name recognition and name ID up. And they know that if they ran a campaign that was like, hey, we should fund more military, we should put more money into war, people are going to be like, wait, but what about me being able to put food on my table? Like, what about this?
- [31:48]
A
But convincing working class Americans to vote against their own interests is a long game. You gotta create a scarecrow and a couple different boogeymen for them to be too distracted with if they don't see what's going on.
- [31:58]
B
Well, it's also about just showing up for working families. Because one thing that the Republican Party and Trump has unfortunately done really well is that they show up. Like Trump loves to go and have these rallies where he's telling people, I'm going to lower your egg prices.
- [32:12]
A
The egg price is out of control. Now we have lots of eggs and they're much cheaper, down about 59%.
- [32:20]
B
Now he's gonna lower your gas prices. And we know he's lying.
- [32:23]
A
Make America affordable again.
- [32:26]
B
But he's showing up and that's the only message they hear. And then Democrats, unfortunately, we failed in our more rural red areas because we don't even try to do outreach enough. And if you look at this district, the bluest district in North Carolina, or you go all the way to western North Carolina, to our reddest district or eastern North Carolina, everyone, if you ask them, would you, do you want to live with dignity? Do you want to keep a roof over your head? Do you want to put food on the table, they're going to say yes. But it's because we're not even going and talking to them about how we are going to do that for them, that we're not giving them the opportunity to choose. We're just letting the Republicans win the narrative more.
- [33:05]
A
And part of, I mean, I Always saw a direct correlation between. If you talk about the ultra conservatism, the ultra right wing pivot in some of these rural counties, you can also trace with the collapse of unions over the course of the past few decades. Most white working class areas, especially in North Carolina, et cetera, used to be union strongholds where there was at least a solid portion of union Democrats who realized, okay, Democrats are going to be the party that advocate to keep our wages high and give us time off, whereas conservatives, they actively crush unions every day. But then they can be like, yo, I don't know if you guys saw, there's trans athletes on tv, there's fraudulent daycares in Minnesota, the borders are wide open. And so the reason that your gas is expensive is because of those guys. It's not because of us or anything that we're doing. You inherited a total mess from the previous administration and it's sad how it's worked so well because the media is such a big propaganda tool. And it's interesting that you mentioned that AIPAC's game isn't just like, like when a PAC funds a candidate, they have a strategy. They're not just like putting them on camera in Jerusalem at the wall and being like, see, she's awesome. They know how to manipulate people, they
- [34:13]
B
know how to message do. They do the polling that shows them what issues are people thinking about and making sure that their message is tailored to that. But their ultimate goal is something completely separate from what they're campaigning on. At least it was in this race in 22. And we even saw that with the crypto billionaire Sam Bakeman fried. His super PAC was something about like preventing the next pandemic.
- [34:37]
A
My donations were mostly for pandemic prevention. And they were looking at primary elections where there were candidates who were outspoken in favor of doing things now to prevent the next pandemic.
- [34:49]
B
We all know it was about crypto regulation. I like this. The CEO of ftx, he didn't care about the next pandemic. His entire thing was which member of Congress, which candidate is going to be easiest on crypto.
- [35:02]
A
You got any? I don't have any crypto either. I don't even really know how it works.
- [35:07]
B
Yeah, I talked to my husband about this. I'm like, it just seems like made up money.
- [35:13]
A
Totally. And as a content creator, if you get involved with the crypto crowd, you can almost kiss your career goodbye. Are you familiar with Hayley Welch, AKA Hoktua?
- [35:22]
B
I've. Yes.
- [35:24]
A
She got basically acquired by these, like, Miami crypto Guys who convinced her to start a coin, the hawk to a coin in her name using her likeness. They did a rug pull, got $15 million blocked, her number disappeared. Now her career is in shambles. So just saying bitcoin is a bad idea. Whether or not you have bitcoin billionaires funding your opposition's campaign, the crypto crowd is an industry of sharks, and they've got no place in our society.
- [35:49]
B
Yeah. Even like, if you look at the AI pack that's coming in now, the company that's behind it, who gave them 500 million of their 580 million startup funds, Sam Bankman, fried. So I'm like, oh, wow. So he doesn't disappear in this election.
- [36:06]
A
Wow. So he's in MDC, sitting there with Tekashi69 and Maduro, and he's still making plays.
- [36:11]
B
No. So when they had initially formed, I think it was like in 2022, he had invested 500 million, and now this company has created their own AI Super PAC.
- [36:20]
A
But despite incarceration, his tentacles are still being felt throughout the world. So when the 2022 election results came out, how well did you do against your opponent?
- [36:27]
B
So we came within single digits, even though we were outspent on TV 10 to 1, which showed the momentum and energy of working people and like progressives and young people in this district when, unfortunately, people got flooded with these TV ads and these mailers just showing up at their houses. And now we see that the. Obviously, the tides have shifted in this country. Trump is back in the White House. People are sick and tired of being told to wait for relief when they're struggling. Right now, they want to be able to take care of their families, and they can't.
- [37:00]
A
I think you're going to win.
- [37:02]
B
I hope so.
- [37:02]
A
Because if you came in single digits last time, think about how the tides have changed. You've got people like Mamdani in office who are grassroots populist candidates of Muslim faith who, you know, beat their, I guess, Christian opponents. Not that religion matters that much, but, you know, they're outsider candidates who built grassroots campaigns from the ground up. And you've already done it. So what do you do in this campaign to really set yourself ahead? Like, I guess a better question is, like, what lessons did you learn last time that you're applying to this current race?
- [37:31]
B
I think one of the things that we've learned is also it's been something that's grown and shifted a lot from the 2020 race is new media is how to reach voters. New media is how to reach voters where they're at and connecting with more young people and progressives and people who felt disenfranchised from our political system because there's so many people in this district, across this country that don't vote because they are just like, what's the point of voting when everything's going to be the same? And finding ways to break through and show them that we're actually going to fight for change, that this isn't a status quo campaign. We are going to take on the corporate PACs and right wing billionaires and get rid of politicians that just do the same old, same old and don't stand up for us.
- [38:19]
A
And you can reach them with the podcast or the alternative news media channels.
- [38:22]
B
Yeah.
- [38:23]
A
On an existential level, why do you think the wealthy want so much money? Power over others.
- [38:31]
B
Yeah, power. I mean, the fact that, like, what are they going to do with these billions of dollars? They could be spending like a billion dollars every year for the rest of their lives and they would never be, they would never end.
- [38:43]
A
But do you think that the desire for power stems from an existential fear of death, like the impermanence of life and they feel like maybe power can give them, you know, the next thing, the next best thing to immortality?
- [38:55]
B
Yeah. And I think it's also just capitalism. And just like, even for people, like working people, when you get something new, it's like fun and exciting and you have that. And even my daughter, for example, like, I go, and when I go take her to the store, she'll be like, mom, I want this toy. And I'm like, you have toys at home? She goes, but I want this one. And just as human beings, we are wired to want more and more and more things. And unfortunately, these billionaires are just like overgrown toddlers that have unlimited bank accounts.
- [39:25]
A
Yeah. I don't want to sound naive. I just can't imagine having this certain level of wealth. And still, because I feel like if I made that much money, I'd be like, you know what? I've made enough for myself. I want to help people who haven't made this money much because I'm secure and stable. Like, I want to do the right thing and like, give back or whatever. But these people, it's, they, they're like obsessed with the next plateau of wealth. Like, upgrade, upgrade, upgrade. Is it some kind of like, brain disease?
- [39:46]
B
Yes. And it's like this fact that they're trying to compete to be the first trillionaire in the world.
- [39:51]
A
So do you think it's internal Competition amongst the elite.
- [39:54]
B
Yes. And it's also about. If they redistributed the wealth, they would feel that. And they don't want to be equals to us. They don't want to be close to us. It's about these class structures that they want to maintain and to keep working people down low and to continue to squash us so that they can keep us under their control so that they can convince us what they're doing is like convincing us you need us. You need us because we make your job, when in reality they need us because we're the ones who make them their profit.
- [40:29]
A
Yeah. So when is it going to be time?
- [40:31]
B
10, 100 years ago?
- [40:33]
A
Yeah. But I mean, I think that it should have been time after the Vietnam War. That was probably the most ridiculous thing I can think of. I mean, the fact that we even, like, allowed. They're going to kick us out of the library.
- [40:46]
B
Can come out and speak with the Board of Elections. Oh, yes. Oh, God.
- [40:50]
A
Okay, official business to handle. I'm just going to chill here for one second. I'm going to keep this going. I'm going to explain to the camera specifically, while she's handling official business, why I think that America should have had a revolution after Vietnam. After World War II, we were in an era of prosperity never seen before. Yet Americans, mostly white Americans, but coming home after the GI Bill, they got free homes. Leave it to Beaver was a reality for almost every family in America. Boom. 1964 comes, the Civil Rights act is passed. We are approaching a Reconstruction era level of peace and prosperity. And then boom. What happens? I have today ordered to Vietnam the Air Mobile Division. President Johnson and all these warmongers send almost exclusively 17 to 20 year olds who would have been entering a prosperous era in the new American reality overseas to fight a war for absolutely no reason. Millions upon millions of people, mostly Vietnamese, all died. And when Americans got home, they found the country was basically ripping at the seams. You had every counterculture movement that was revolutionary enough to be infiltrated by the FBI. Born in the 60s, the Black Panthers, the Brown Berets, the hippie movement, the Hell's Angels, outlaw motorcycle culture, radical revolution was on the cusp. And simultaneously you had millions of Americans suffering from drug abuse, ptsd, et cetera. The United States ain't doing nothing for us, man. We busted our ass. We went over there to an army to kill and 99% of us got killed. And we didn't get nothing for it. They give us a piece of paper that says to us, we are Vietnam veterans and we can get disability and we can get this and we can get a job and we ain't got nothing. We don't get a welfare. You understand? That should have been a moment of true class consciousness and solidarity where people came together and realized that the government is not our friend, they're working against us. And they all should have been defeated, but instead they haven't been. And now we're here still operating on the same division lines from the 60s. We have to get out of here because unfortunately society has many problems. And one of the problems is that you have to get a filming permit to shoot documentaries at the library, which may change under new leadership. So for a quick update, we've got a citizenship contester heckler out front who is disrupting our energy. But we're not going to let a cortisol spike set us off track because this is a part of the game. Politics is messy and you have certain psycho people out there who just attach themselves to you in a negative way for whatever reason.
- [43:19]
B
And I mean, you were asking me what type of Islamophobia and xenophobia I face and you get to see it.
- [43:24]
A
Yeah, I just thought it would be an old white lady. I didn't think it'd be an old local black lady. Maybe that's my own prejudice. I just didn't think that black people were Islamophobic because I grew up in Philly and most of the black people are Muslim.
- [43:35]
B
Yeah. And the very first Muslims in America were slaves. They were brought here. Yeah. During the slave trade.
- [43:43]
A
That's interesting. Where were they first brought? Do you know which port they immigrated to?
- [43:46]
B
But that Muslims have a long, long history in this country.
- [43:50]
A
So they were slaves that were imported from North Africa by the English. That's really interesting. I had no idea. I always thought was Nation of Islam was the kind of like generational moment.
- [43:58]
B
No Muslims have been here since the like founding basically of this country.
- [44:02]
A
Definitely. How did you feel about Jill Stein as a third party candidate?
- [44:06]
B
I think Jill Stein needs to run for something else or do something outside of presidential elections. I understand the desire from voters to want more than the two party system, but I do not think Jill Stein is the. Is the voice for that.
- [44:19]
A
Yes, I voted for Jill Stein. It was one of my biggest regrets. I mean I'm from a blue state, I'm from Seattle. So regardless of what I voted for on the specific executive power thing, like it wouldn't make an actual difference because it's 80% blue. But still I realized like so many people were, especially post October 7th, so fed up with the Biden administration response and lack of acknowledgment of how big the Gaza issue was to our voting demographic, that people felt like, oh, it's just two evil people. But now we see for sure Harris would have been better than Trump.
- [44:48]
B
Yeah. And also, honestly, she's a grifter. She shows up every four years. And we're truly going to build and break the two party system. Then we need to be building from the grassroots and supporting organizations like Working Families Party like they have in New York. And I wish I'm endorsed by them and I wish and hope that we can have something like that here in North Carolina.
- [45:08]
A
Yeah. Who are your top, you know, donors?
- [45:10]
B
Some of my top donors say I don't even know them. Like by who it would be on top of my name.
- [45:16]
A
Is it mostly individuals?
- [45:18]
B
Yeah, no, it's individuals for sure.
- [45:19]
A
Like Bernie Sanders style.
- [45:21]
B
Oh yeah. But they're like probably Muslims, people who are pro peace, people who want to have representation in government. So that's something like I can't think of who the top people would probably be, but it's those folks when it
- [45:35]
A
comes to, I guess, affairs in Arab society. And I know you don't speak for all Muslim Americans who are some nations that you feel like politically are in line with your interests.
- [45:44]
B
I mean, I think again, we were talking about, like, look at the Netherlands, the way that they take care of their residents when it comes.
- [45:51]
A
Let me rephrase the question because I think I might have asked it wrong. You know, like as far as solidarity with Palestine, is there any countries in the Middle east you feel like are reflective of your position in the Middle East?
- [46:00]
B
Yeah, unfortunately we need to do a better job with our own communities.
- [46:08]
A
Yeah. Cuz I feel like the, even the Israel scops go further than the U.S. like even the UAE is in action.
- [46:15]
B
And I think what we're seeing now, like with these plans to rebuild or build whatever it is to come in Palestine, unfortunately there's a lot of Middle Eastern nations that are a part of those conversations and not putting forward the best interests of the Palestinian people.
- [46:32]
A
Why not, you think?
- [46:34]
B
Power, money.
- [46:36]
A
It's interesting how even with corporations that appeared to be more progressive during the Biden years, they just capitulate to power and they move to whatever is more financially advantageous. Like even corporations, like when Trump had that tech summit with Zuckerberg and Bezos, these are people who were like during Pride month, like pumping content out.
- [46:54]
B
Oh yeah, because for them also it's still, even then when they're doing that, it's about their bottom line. They know that they want to try to appeal to everyone. They want access to the power that the office of president holds. But then they try to like dabble into like pro lefty policies, pro right policies, because they're just trying to get their money from all of us consumers.
- [47:15]
A
Yeah. One thing you mentioned a second ago was like new media and how it represents potential new opportunities for people like you to get exposure. Also, though, I don't know how much you want to talk about this, but the flip side of new media is it's created, at least on the conservative side, a new ecosystem of power grifters that make it really easy for them to deploy culture war distractions and distribute fear mongering misinformation. So I think the new media landscape is going to be as crazy as the progressive or, oh, as crazy as the new populist candidate landscape because like, there's just so many new fresh voices in media and politics that it's almost overwhelming.
- [47:53]
B
Yeah. And I think one thing that's really good about new media though at this point is that it's not controlled by a overarching entity and institute that is deciding this is what you're allowed to say, this is what you're not allowed to say. And if you want to talk about something, it can only be in this lane. Which unfortunately is why what our mainstream media has become.
- [48:15]
A
Yeah. The only flip side is that it is controlled by the incentive structures that are set forth by social media platforms and also by audiences themselves. Like audience capture is really powerful, you know, and there's certain people that have built their whole platform on showing that Democrats are corrupt and that they can't manage their cities properly and that there's this giant cabal of Democrats who are evil and satanic and they're championing this fraud and mismanagement across the U.S. and then there's also people in the progressive, progressive space who are unwilling to try and find common ground with people who hold conservative positions. And so it becomes very difficult. You know, how do you as a new media member not fall to audience capture and be willing to change your mind if new information presents itself to you?
- [48:55]
B
I think talking to everyday people regularly because like again I mentioned, like I'm representing the bluest, most progressive county in North Carolina. But at the same time, the issues that my residents are facing is the same issues that that folks in the most red, red counties are facing. But it's about showing up and having those conversations to actually build those bridges. And I know in Congress right now we're in the minority, obviously, I hope that we'll see a big blue wave of momentum of progressives being elected and to be able to take control of the House and Senate when we're sworn in in 27. But also, I believe that we need to be pushing and showing up in these red areas to hold Republicans who haven't been acting in the best interest of their residents accountable. Because look at Congressman Virginia Fox, for example. This woman does not do anything for working families. She has voted against child tax credits. She's voted against health care as a human right. She's voted against, like, raising the minimum wage, all of these things. But if you go to her residence, if we took the time to go talk to her residents and tell them how she's hurting them and making it harder for them to live with dignity, we would be able to show them that it's not about being a Republican Democrat on a field like whatever your party labels are. It's like, we're trying to help you. We. We care about you as candidates.
- [50:19]
A
There's something that I need help with. I don't understand what gerrymander. I don't understand what gerrymandering means. I heard you say it, and I was like, yeah, true. It sounds like something that people don't like. And I think many people out there pretend they know what it means, but they don't. Who's Jerry and what's Mandarin?
- [50:35]
B
So Gerry is, you know, a group of legislators who decide that they want to dictate who their constituents are instead of letting their constituents choose who their representatives are. And so in North Carolina, where we have a majority in the state house and the Senate, the states draw our maps for the state legislature as well as the federal level. And so what they're doing is they decide, well, we want to draw these maps so that we can have more seats, because if we have more seats, we have more votes in the state legislature, in federal office. So North Carolina has been a state that we've gone through gerrymandering. We've gone through redistricting so many times in the past decade, you're supposed to be doing redistricting after every census, which is every 10 years when you get new population data. But because Republicans in our legislature keep deep racially gerrymandering, and Democrats have had to sue repeatedly, and then the courts step in, and then in 22, our race was actually impacted by redistricting, where our primary kept getting Pushed back because it was in the courts. And now Republicans are taking this state that should be 50, 50, like red and blue, which it was. And gerrymandered it. So now we only have three safe, three blue seats and the rest are red.
- [51:53]
A
And how many seats are there in total?
- [51:54]
B
14.
- [51:55]
A
So it's legal for them if they're a majority, to just redraw lines around counties which they know are red, even if the population is less. So they have more representation in the seats.
- [52:06]
B
And it's not just even county lines because they break up counties. They do it by population and demographics. What where they look at, where are the Democratic voters are. Where are people who are more likely to vote Democrats? If you look at a map of North Carolina in our district, you have like districts that are like long stretch, like Snake and like snaking around this place and like all these different weird shapes. Because it's not about actually having blocks of just like, this is a community. This is a community that probably is facing similar issues, similar jobs, like that type of structure and using census data. It's no. How do we pack Republican votes here? The reason this deceit is so, so blue is because of gerrymandering. They wanted to just pack all Democrats, as many as they could of us, into one so that they could draw themselves another Republican seat.
- [52:53]
A
And this is legal or is this some kind of loophole?
- [52:55]
B
It's. Unfortunately, it is legal under state law for them to. They're not supposed to be allowed to racially gerrymander, but they have been able to manipulate the law because they control the courts in our state.
- [53:07]
A
What? Wait a second. Racial redistricting? How is that even. That doesn't mean. That's crazy. So you can be like, I don't have enough votes. Let me take this black neighborhood and make it a different district so I can have more votes.
- [53:19]
B
They try to argue that it isn't based on race, that it's just based on, you know, this data. And they're unfortunately, because they have North Carolina judicial races used to be nonpartisan.
- [53:30]
A
Yeah.
- [53:31]
B
Up until I think it was like 2014, 15, that Republican legislature decided, hey, there's too many Democrats or like Democratic leaning judges on our courts, let's make them partisan. Because then they were able to push it as a party line issue and push Republicans to vote for the Republican conservative judges. Because if you have judges as a nonpartisan race, which it should be, then it's harder for them to tell voters like, well, this is the person who's going to vote with. Right Wing cases.
- [54:04]
A
Damn. So you have some serious problems here. We have to ban gerrymandering. We have to reverse Citizens United. We have to put checks and balances on APAC funding, and then ultimately we have to get elected, create a majority in Congress, and then tell our government to stop sending arms to Israel.
- [54:20]
B
Yes.
- [54:20]
A
So it's a pretty advanced plan.
- [54:22]
B
Yeah. And also protecting our court systems of having independent courts that aren't controlled by whoever's in office, being able to manipulate what seats are in power.
- [54:34]
A
Yeah. Well, do you have a message to the youth out there, perhaps the neo nihilistic youth who think that nothing matters and that we're doomed and that we have to basically rebuild a society from the ashes after the current press president and his adversaries and allies destroy the entire world.
- [54:48]
B
I would say that anyone who's telling you that your voice and your vote doesn't matter is doing so because they want to hold that power. They want their vote to be counted and to yours to not. And if you get out and vote, there's six colleges and universities in this district. Young people have the opportunity to decide who represents the 4th congressional district if we show up and vote. The average age of this district is 35 years old. Wait, said. Ahmed. Ahmed. Ahmed Salaikum. Did you vote?
- [55:26]
A
We just saw a real life voter in the flesh. Real momentum in these streets. And that hater lady is gone. She's gonna get no airtime. We have no idea. But she's not coming over here. Not on my watch. Damn. It's kind of like that's how, you know you made it, though. You have real life hecklers after you've already been elected, saying you're from somewhere else.
- [55:46]
B
Yeah. I mean, they were showing up even before I was elected, too.
- [55:49]
A
Yeah. Well, thanks so much for your time. I really appreciate it.
- [55:51]
B
Thank you.
- [55:51]
A
Anything else you feel like I didn't ask that you want to tell people about?
- [55:55]
B
No. I think that this race is the first primary of the cycle, and it's really going to determine what the progressive wave is going to look like for 2026. That North Carolina and Texas is up first. But then we have right after Illinois, and then after that we have, you know, Cori Bush is running to retake her seat. We have Donovan McKinney in Michigan. So many strong progressive candidates that are taking on corporate interests.
- [56:22]
A
Oh. What we need to do as well is fund the immigration courts.
- [56:25]
B
Yes.
- [56:26]
A
That's the last thing I wanted to add.
- [56:27]
B
Yeah. And making sure that we expand visa opportunities.
- [56:31]
A
I've been covering the border forever. And it's crazy how that conversation is being left out. Like, I know that obviously the big conversations about ice because they're terrorizing people, but there wouldn't even be a need for ICE if we had, like, a robust asylum process.
- [56:43]
B
Yeah. And that's what folks like when I've called for. I'm the only candidate in this race who's clearly said, like, ice needs to be abolished. It's an agency that was created in 2003 under Bush to target the Muslim community, and now it's being used by Trump to target, I'd say, immigrants, but also just anyone, because they're killing American citizens in broad daylight.
- [57:01]
A
Anybody who resists them.
- [57:02]
B
Yeah, well, not even resists people who are just there documenting. They're not even running any sort of resistance. They're just there to view. An ICE agent killed a woman with their car who was crossing the street. An educator. She's a doctor. Maybe it's in my mind now right now, but she. An ICE agent hit her with her car and killed her.
- [57:25]
A
They need to stop wearing the masks, too. Where are we?
- [57:28]
B
Yeah, actually, in the state of North Carolina, it's actually illegal to be walking around with a mask unless it's for medical reasons. But ICE and cbp, for some reason don't have to follow that law.
- [57:38]
A
Yeah. I mean, in a weird way, I'm not defending them. Like, I did read, like, how much they get doxxed. So I kind of get from their perspective why they don't want their faces shown. But at the same time, you wouldn't be getting doxxed if you weren't doing things that made everybody upset.
- [57:51]
B
Yet.
- [57:52]
A
Yeah, that's kind of.
- [57:55]
B
All right.
- [57:55]
A
Thank you so much. Appreciate it. Channel 5 live worldwide. Hollywood advice. Fuck the authority. Channel 5 news, channel 55. We don't fuck with custards. And 5 is the best number.