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- [00:07]
A
All right. The progressive wing of the Democratic Party is rising and everybody is freaking out all across the United States. But I think one of the most important voices that is guiding us through this is David Hogg, who should be the chairman of the dnc, although I don't think he wants that job because he is the president of the leaders we deserve. David, how are you after these big wins?
- [00:30]
B
I'm feeling great. I'm feeling a lot better than these Centers Democrats that have continued to say it's just a New York thing, it's just a Colorado thing, and now they're trying to just say it's just a Michigan thing and it's not really working anymore.
- [00:42]
A
You know, I think that I've been saying this on the podcast for over a year, that a lot of Democrats, after Kamala Harris's loss, instead of looking at Republicans because we know exactly what they are, they're pathological liars. Not MAGA is a death cult. All of their policies facilitate and lead to death. Whether it's the NRA alliances or the dismantling of the epa, loosening safety regulations, it all leads to death. So everybody started looking inward at the Democratic Party and a lot of conflicts of interest rise up. And you recently said that you think APAC and NRA are very similar. And I thought it was such a brilliant point and I completely agree. Will you tell my viewers about your thinking on this?
- [01:33]
B
Yeah. I mean, look, the bottom line is both are lobbying groups that for the longest time have been considered juggernauts in American politics. I remember after Parkland being told my classmates and I being told after Parkland that what while what happened to us was terrible, we couldn't do anything about it and we couldn't talk about the NRA because they were too powerful. The there were many people that many centers Democrats out there and many Democrats in general that didn't want to talk about the NRA because they were afraid to stand up to them. And what it took was a group of kids that went through a school shooting along with parents of victims speaking out against the NRA for us to be able to really take them down. And now we've made them basically irrelevant largely in American politics where there is certainly much more of a liability than they are an asset to people. And think about them as an organization that literally was lobbying for the purported right of somebody like the 19 year old shooter at my high school to have an AR15 despite threatening to shoot up my high school multiple times. And when you compare that with what aipac is doing. They're going out there and lobbying for the United States government to give arms to an irresponsible group of people, that being the Israeli government that is going out there and dying deliberately using them in horrific war crimes across Gaza in a genocide that they are inflicting upon the people there. And I don't, I don't discriminate when it's a kid. If it's kid being killed by a US made gun in parkland or if it's a child being bombed by a US produced bomb in Palestine, bombing their school, I don't think that's something that we should discriminate against and say that those things are all that different. Ultimately there are children dying because of the decisions of US policymakers and it shouldn't matter if they're in Palestine or if they're in the United States, if it is the United States laws that are causing that to happen in the first place.
- [03:25]
A
It's almost as if all of the pro life propaganda from the Republican Party has always been bullshit. And the progressive wing of the Democratic Party actually promotes life and wants to protect life. As you can imagine. Over on Fox News, they're going through quite a few things since Abdul's victory. And Laura Ingram, I don't know if she's horny because lately she's been talking about how hot she thinks AOC is. Now she's talking about how hot Abdul is. Play the clip. So the question here is come November, will those Haley Stevens voters really vote for the guy who's the socialist dreamboat of diversity? Are they really going to buy his
- [04:03]
B
attempt to pivot and his silly gym
- [04:06]
A
rat flex and his tight fitting black tee?
- [04:10]
B
I mean, it's so an asmr, Jen. Like what?
- [04:15]
A
This is all they have. This is all they have on him. He looks good in a gym rat T shirt. And this is a time for Democrats to really, really pounce on these pathological pro death cult maga Republicans.
- [04:31]
B
Yeah, it absolutely is. And what we need to do is show people that there is one party that is literally in bed with the people that are in the Epstein files. That let's remember, Trump ran on the idea that he was going to release the Epstein files and then he did, but massively redacted them because he's in them thousands of times. And literally zero people by Donald Trump's account, zero people in the Epstein files, despite being an entire Republican controlled government, have been held accountable in every any way, shape or form. Then you add on to that the fact that Donald Trump is one of the worst presidents that we have had in modern American history in terms of the blatant insider trading that he's done, where he's made a billion dollars in the past year, Jen, Over a billion dollars from his insider trading and Trump Coin and World Liberty Financial and all of that, and you combine that with the fact that the cost of living is getting so bad that you have conservative influencers that sound like they have hired Democratic messaging consultants from 2024 saying, Eat ramen. The economy isn't that bad. Just shut up and work harder. And we are in for a massive wave this year. But this time we need. We really need to make it count. And what I'm excited about is that we were never going to get to this place, despite what the establishment thought, despite what the centerist thought, without having a really vicious primary season to credibly show people, especially younger people, but people of all ages, that, that our party has actually changed since 2024. And while there are Democrats that we all, at least with your listeners, don't like, there is a segment of Democrats that we do believe in that are not being bought and paid for and getting tens of millions of dollars from aipac as they give Republicans tens of millions of dollars as well, that are not taking massive checks from the corporations that are making all of our lives harder. And what excites me about this is this gives us the opportunity to win back young voters and show them Democrats really are the party fighting for you, not for aipac, not for these corporations. And we've had that fight internally. The rebellion has succeeded and we are now going to hold Donald Trump accountable and all of the people that are around him that have made our lives so much worse to begin with, terrorized our communities and are bringing our country down an incredibly dark path. It gives us the opportunity, opportunity to credibly say, he is corrupt. He is not focused on your cost of living. He is more focused on helping the guys that are building data centers in your backyard and not giving a damn what you think about it or what your city council thinks about it or any of your elected officials think about it, and we're for you and standing up against that. And that's what really excites me about this time, is I'm starting to have a real sense of hope. Jen, I don't know about you, but it's a weird feeling. You get so used to just going and going and going over and over and over again. You can start to lose hope, but you keep going. But I'm starting to get that strange feeling again that maybe we can succeed, maybe we can bring our party to a better place. But it's not going to be easy, obviously. But with Abdul's win, with the defeat of Sri Tanadar as well, with the first incumbent challenger, you'll remember, Jen, the whole reason why I got, I got, I had to get kicked out of the DNC was because I said we need to challenge asleep at the wheel Democrats. We just had our first incumbent challenger that we announced our challenge of lose his reelection campaign and our incumbent challenger won, that being Donovan McKinney out in Detroit. And notice how there's no dialogue there where it's, oh, it's just a bunch of dsa, you know, white gentrifiers that are causing that. You know, that's, it's ridiculous that we're in this position. And these moderates, their response to it isn't to say, hmm, let's change how we're actually appealing to voters and, I don't know, run anybody even remotely charismatic or that sounds like they believe in what they're saying at all. It's to say, let's continue to run the least charismatic, least compelling candidates in the world and throw $15 million behind it just to tell voters over and over again what we aren't instead of who we are as a party.
- [08:24]
A
I completely agree with you. And I just think that we have to do a lot of work in messaging that if any candidate, Republican or Democrat, is taking money from these same people that are funding fascism right now, that they are prostitutes. And it doesn't matter if they have an R or a D next to their name, even more so if they have a, I'm going to be harder on them because I have higher standards and higher expectations of them. And I think the lie is more diabolical. Republicans lie with impunity. They've been doing it for decades, my entire life. They trickle down economics lie, patriots lie, care about the troops, big dog shit lie. And so Trump and the Republicans are starting to take note that there is an actual opposition party rising. They know they can beat moderate Democrats. Trump did it twice. He knows he can do it. And so here is Trump in a post warning about Abdul Al said, pop this up. He says, for our great Republican senators, friends of mine all, please be advised. Communist Democrat Senate candidate from Michigan, Abdul Raham Mohammed El Sayed. That's all he has to do is touting as perhaps his single most important point, the termination of the filibuster. I watched yesterday and he's gone termination clown crazy. If he succeeds, the Democrats will gain four senators. Yes, I want it. Eight congressmen. Yes, many electoral and popular votes, a stacked Supreme Court with 23 justices, and I will be, sadly, despite the great job we are doing, the last Republican president, President Donald J. Trump. And that is just music to my ears.
- [10:08]
B
Sounds great to me.
- [10:09]
A
I didn't have Trump being a fortune teller on my bingo card. Did you, David?
- [10:13]
B
No, no. But you know, I guess a block, a broken clock is right twice a day. But what I, what I will say, Jen, too, is that what's crazy to me is you remember all the flack that we got for announcing that we were going to spend millions of dollars to challenge some of these asleep at the wheel Democrats and how senators like James Carville and others were losing their mind over it. And yet those centrists, now that AIPAC went out there and spent $30 million trying to get Haley Stevens elected and now is spending just as much if not more to try to support the Republican that race. Mike Rogers, those centers have nothing to say. They have nothing to say about the fact that one of the largest, if not the largest spender in Democratic primaries also goes on and spends tens of millions of dollars on Republicans. Say what you will about progressive challenges within our safe primaries and safe Democratic seats, at least I'm not going to go on and spend tens of millions of dollars supporting a Republican. Because here's the deal, Jen. If you take issue with progressives spending money in primaries to get Democrats elected who, I don't know, vote to fucking thank, ice, for example, if you take issue with that, but you don't take issue with AIPAC spending tens of millions of dollars in primaries and then spending just as much, if not more on Republicans. You don't actually want Democrats to win. You want AAC to win.
- [11:34]
A
Yeah, you're exactly right. All right. And you alluded to this earlier, but moderate Democrats are spending against progressives right now. Pop this up. Moderate Democrats prepare for war against an ascendant left. We are preparing for the next war that is coming, said Jonathan cowan, president of Third Way, revealing a new $15 million effort through 2028 to discredit Democratic socialism. Their fear El sayed paving a path for a progressive to seize the party's 2028 presidential nomination and then lose the general election. It is deeply troubling to see radical far left candidates winning in places that are potentially presidential swing states. What I think is radical is the fact that they're going to spend money against what the base is continuing to show what they want. What I radical is that they would support and take money from the same super super PACs that are funding fascism right now. And I also think it's radical to treat the Democratic base in such a patronizing way as though we are idiots. MAGA base, the cultists, they get their marching orders from the right wing ecosystem, from Trump and they just go along with it. When we've seen all the coordinated tweets on our side, we're a little bit more critical thinking. And we see Chuck Schumer, for example, say that his main job is Senate majority is to make sure Israel has every cent that it needs. The average American living in the United States is like, what are you talking about? What about our health care? What about gun violence? What about the fact that we don't have enough air traffic controllers? Just basic things. And so what is your take on this third way situation and how diabolical that is? What I just read for you, it's really, really, really sinister.
- [13:37]
B
It's, it is sinister, Jen. But the irony of this is too, it's not going to solve their problem. Their problem is not the moderates problem as we just saw in Michigan has never been that they don't have enough money. That's not why they're losing. It's because people don't like what they are selling. They don't like their candidates and they don't like people who don't sound like what they believe in. Like Jen, they I like can you believe how, how many of these moderates just genuinely do not sound like. It sounded to me like for Haley Stevens, for example, that she was more passionate about Israel coming to her in her dreams than she was at any point during that primary for anything related to the United States. It's crazy. So if they actually want to start succeeding, here's an idea, maybe develop an actual philosophy that isn't just saying, well, we're going to triangulate to be whatever the ideological center is because that's always changing. That's why they don't sound like what they act. They don't sound like they actually believe what they're saying because they don't. They just believe in whatever the middle is and that's always changing. And if I was them, I would figure out how do I actually run more compelling candidates that actually sound like they're belie they, they believe in what they're saying at all in the first place. But I think this is just a massive waste of money to go against what the base of the Democratic Party is saying that they want what the core of who our supporters are, are saying what they want of going out there and having active primaries. And if you want to win, run better candidates, actually try to appeal. Tell us why you think that giving billionaires more tax cuts and deregulating Wall street, which is what they want to do, because that is who is funding them, is the thing that's going to appeal to the American people. I'll tell you what it's not. It's not going to appeal to them. What they want is real accountability, affordability, and to make sure that there is a real opposition party to fight back against Donald Trump. Because let's not forget, the reason why Kamala Harris lost last election is not because she was super progressive at all. She was going on TV bragging about how she owns a Glock. Like, that's not. She's not. It's not because she was some far left person that, that we lost. And the idea that what we need to do is just run further to the right of that is crazy. And that's what I'm really excited about, though, is the work that we're doing at Leaders we deserve, not just in congressional elections, but the majority of our work, which is actually in state legislative elections, because we're not just laying right now, the progressive movement is more coordinated than it ever has been. And we're working at all levels of government, as we saw with Zoran and New York City local government, as we're seeing with state legislators like rural Roman in Georgia, and we're seeing with different congressional leaders. And what I'm really excited about is we are helping to lay the groundwork for a real generational revolution in the Democratic Party at starting at the state legislative level and helping to build the bench so that they can then run up the ballot and replace a lot of these leaders that, because our party has gotten so old, are going to retire or frankly pass away while in office in the next couple of years. And we are laying the groundwork for that right now. Leaders we deserve, and I'm proud to say none of that is from corporate PAC money. It all comes from individuals like some of your viewers who donate to support our work with five or ten bucks. And it gives us the independence that when we do go out there and write a check for $300,000 to support Zoran as his largest organizational supporter, I can't get a call from some major donor. It's like, I'm not going to give you money anymore. And Then say, well we can only support centerist young people that are basically the same things that the failed politicians that we have in power right now. And that's why I'm about right now I'm in Memphis because I was just at Justin J. Pearson's election night party for his primary. I'm going right now in a couple of hours up to Minneapolis where your audience and progressives need to know. Matt Little is a name that they need to be much more familiar with. He is a progressive state legislator and former city council member who's running for Angie Craig's seat to replace her. He is the Progressive and an APAC affiliate group just dropped about $2 million against Matt Little. I'm going up there to do everything I can to get him elected. And if your viewers want to support him or they want to support our work at Leaders We Deserve, they can do so@leaderswe deserve.com they can find donate donation links for our website and all of our candidates there. And then the last thing I'll say is people need to pay attention to what's going on against Stephen Lynch. He is one of the most conservative Democrats in Congress. He's in Massachusetts and he is the last Democrat that has voted against the Affordable Care Act. He is in a safe Democratic seat that where he despite that voted for the Lincoln Riley act and voted to thank ICE and he's being challenged by a progressive voting rights attorney, Patrick Roth, that we're backing up there. Not many, not many people are paying attention to that race but we got to win that one and we're doing the work that leaders we deserve. But what I need people's help with is obviously supporting us if people can. We need your help to do recruitment for next cycle and get ready for that because donations go down after the election and they finish off this election strong. So if people want to donate they can go to leaderswe deserve.com and I
- [18:29]
A
just want to talk in closing here. I want to talk about Democratic messaging moving forward. There is this, the James Carville wing of the Democratic Party and you hear people like Bill Maher and all of this bedwetting that we don't want these people in the party and if they come in the party, we're leaving. I would argue that they are all capitulating to right wing framing across the board that we need to message that what the progressive left, whether they're DSA or like Abdullah Sayed who was just a non prostitute complete progressive that believes in universal human rights, is not DSA affiliated but A progressive. They are taking the Democratic Party back to its most successful era, which is the era of fdr, which is the era that we had a president that delivered for the people and not for corporations.
- [19:23]
B
They had to invent term limits for him.
- [19:25]
A
They had to invent term limits. And the Republicans have been spiraling for decades, ever since then. And that's why they're so organized right now. And their propaganda has been so successful because FDR was so successful. And so as we head into these midterms and then the general, and then after that, as you're positioning progressives, I worry a little bit about the Democratic messaging that the centrist, because they go on corporate news all the time, tend to capture that somehow we are the outsiders in the party. And I think we have to keep establishing they are the outsiders. They are the ones that are fascist collaborating right now, not us. We want a social safety net. And FDR did all of these social programs because he wanted to protect capitalism. He knew if it wasn't regulated that it would end up being like this. And so can you speak to the messaging of the progressive sect, the progressive wing of the Democratic Party, whether it's dsa, whether it's, you know, just pure progressive people, whatever it is, people that want corporate money out of politics and believe in universal human rights and how we must recapture our party away from the James Carvilles who have taken it over, away from the FDR flank of the party.
- [20:45]
B
Yeah. I think it starts with focusing on the most basic issues, which is transparency in our government and making sure that our elected officials, as you said, are not prostitutes to these special interests. Making sure that people know that we actually want to deliver free and universal health care for them. Because we believe that in the richest country in the world, people should not be dying or having appendages cut off because they can't afford their insulin, for example. Right. If you want to have. One of some of the most radicalizing conversations I have ever had are with health care workers that are some of our candidates that work in ERs, that work in hospitals and have to deal with the epic failures of that system. And I think it's about making sure that we build an economy that works just as hard for those that power it as it does for the Elon Musk of the world that sit by and make billions of dollars basically every month doing next to nothing compared to the workers that actually doing drugs. Yeah. Doing ketamine and sitting in a K hole at Coachella or Burning man or take your pick. Right. Instead of his workers who are actually making that profit in the first place. And I think it's also about making sure that we do hold people that are in the Epstein files accountable in the first place and that we're not sending our money overseas to a country like Israel. That in many senses, I would argue, has a higher standard of living than we do. And yet somehow we're left footing the bill for their war in Iran, for their war, like, just over and over and over again, and making sure that our interests are prioritized here and people are able to get the health care they need, the education they need, and that we reestablish the. The possibility. And not just, again, I would say, but the. A real American dream for the first time for all people, not just straight white guys, but everybody, to actually achieve that and have the opportunity to do that, where they can go to college and graduate without a lifetime of debt, where they know if they do get sick, it's not going to mean that their family is going to go bankrupt trying to treat them. I'll never forget, and this is personal for me, right? It's personal for all Americans. I will never forget when my father was on his deathbed as a veteran diagnosed with early onset Parkinson's disease, getting. Still getting denied benefits from the va. I will never forget the. The pain of my parents having to tell my sister and I that we had to leave California because. Because of our failure, frankly, as a party to build enough affordable housing that when my dad got diagnosed with an. With a terminal illness that my family knew we were going to have to medically. He was going to have to medically retire, we would have to move to another state because we couldn't afford to live in California anymore, only to end up in Florida, where my sister and I went through a school shooting because of the failures of Republican leadership to address gun violence and create stronger gun laws, where if somebody threatened to shoot up a high school, they could be disarmed because they believe that somebody's right to an AR15 was worth more than the right of my classmates to survive. Math class, right? That is the type of country that we need to build where stories like that are not like, I wish that I was the exception. Unfortunately, there are millions of people that have similar horrible stories to that where the people that are at the core of serving our country the most continue to be let down because the system is not working for them. And regardless of whether or not they have served our country, that shouldn't matter if they're an American. Our country should be serving them just as well as it's serving the ultra wealthy and ensuring that all of their most basic needs are met in the country with most wealth in human history.
- [24:16]
A
All right, final story here. Kylie popped this up. The DNC autopsy. One, the author of the infamous DNC autopsy says he won, did think Gaza cost Harris voters. Two did convey this to a pro Palestine group. Three. Did write this conclusion up last year. Four. Did not bother to include it in the unfinished draft sent to the dnc. I think we've all known this, but in tying this to the last question, we have to be the anti war party. These wars that we get involved in the United States of America are horrible for our country and for its citizens and for all of the lives abroad. Because like you, David, I value an American life as much as I do a Palestinian life. I don't. I don't have a rating system as to how I'm able to rate lives. I'm just not built like that. I don't have that Republican gene in me. And so we've kind of known this, but as we head into the midterms and then forward looking to 2028, how important is it going to be that our nominee look in the camera and not lie about Israel and not have a but or a caveat that they look in the camera and tell the truth about what this country is doing and our toxic relationship with them across both party lines?
- [25:44]
B
It's essential. It is absolutely essential because it's not. This is an issue that is so emblematic of broader issues at hand. And I think that's part. It's not only because of the atrocities that are happening there. It's because it's so representative of the misprioritization of priorities that our leaders have in this country where they are more obsessed with falling over themselves to talk about how much they want to give more money to Israel constantly, where they are literally saying like America could basically end tomorrow. And our most important thing is that we keep giving money to Israel. It's to going crazy, right?
- [26:16]
A
Nuts.
- [26:17]
B
As people struggle to get by. We need an executive that says that in our foreign policy we are not going to have a policy as the United States of America of slapping the hand of war criminals and saying don't do that. As we continue to arm them. It is such bullshit that we act like we are helpless in this position, that we cannot do anything about the behavior of the Israeli government as they continue to expand their settlements and as they continue to empower and implement the policies of people like Ben GVIR and Benjamin Netanyahu and over and over and over again continue to give them more arms, continue to give them more money and say, you know what, we're just going to right our strong, our party cannot treat the government of Israel that is committing these atrocities the way that we are treating Republicans with strongly worded letters, especially when we are arming them. You know, I, I think there's a lot of people that look at this issue and say, you know, this is so complicated. This is so intractable. This has gone on for thousands of years. A that is not the case. A long longer, not too long ago, everybody there were people that were living in peace, famously in Palestine together, groups of all religions. And what happened was British imperialism. But going beyond that, even if you don't have to be an expert on the history of the Middle east or the history of Palestine to know right from wrong and to know that the solution that is going to help to solve this conflict once and for all is not going to come from continuing to arm the same country that has been bombing the other country over and over and over again for the past 30 years and expecting a different result where kids are getting killed. It is creating generational trauma and it is going to result in the further extension of this conflict. The only group of people, by the way, who benefit from this are the American arms manufacturers and Israeli arms manufacturers and the far right in that country that can consistently over and over and over again, is needing to create these crises to keep themselves in power where they know if they continue these forever wars. Stop me if this sounds familiar, Jen. They know if they continue these forever wars, that they can continue to terrify their public and consolidate their power and ensure that they keep themselves in power even as their country continues to fall apart. And that the idea that we're going to have a presidential candidate that is able to go out there and once again tell people not to believe their eyeballs. And what they have been seeing at that point, what will have been for the past five years or more on their phone is insane. And it's not going to work because the, the Democratic strategy of trying to gaslight voters into not believing what they are seeing with their eyeballs or feeling with their wallets is not one that is going to win the presidential primary. In case it wasn't clear enough in the general election of 2024.
- [29:18]
A
David Hogg, it's always good to see you. And each time we meet, we have more victories behind us. So I hope the next time you're on, there are even more progressive victories. Thank you for everything you do. And my viewers, please go to leaderswedeserve.com and send them a grassroots donation because we still have the power and he is picking winners. David, thank you so much.
- [29:38]
B
Thanks so much, Jim.