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- [00:00]
A
Foreign Nancy Pelosi has finally resigned and we are going to get fresh blood in the Democratic Party fighters. And running for her seat is Shoykat Chakrabarti. Did I say that correctly?
- [00:16]
B
You said it perfectly. It's amazing.
- [00:18]
A
Yes.
- [00:19]
B
All right.
- [00:19]
A
Welcome to IHIP News. I'm really, really excited about your campaign. And I was really, I felt relief when Nancy Pelosi resigned because I'm starting to get angry at after Rut Bader Ginsburg and then Joe Biden. And then we see the current frailty of Donald Trump, these boomers that are so reluctant to pass, you know, power and positions over to a younger generation that is more in touch with both older people and younger people.
- [00:51]
B
Yeah. And, you know, I often talk about, because I've been campaigning for 10 months, I started this campaign back in February. And it's honestly not just the age, it's also just when you've been in there for so long, you kind of get out of touch. Right. Like, you know, I've got a lot of respect for former Speaker Pelosi. She's done a lot of great work. But I really think the job in front of us right now is really different. Like, we're in the middle of an authoritarian coup. We have to actually be doing things really differently right now. And we need real new ideas to completely change the Democratic Party. And that's what I've been trying to push for.
- [01:21]
A
So do you have any Democratic primary challengers right now that Nancy dropped out?
- [01:27]
B
Yeah, there's one other person who's jumped in the race who's a state senator in the city.
- [01:32]
A
And is he more of an establishment Dem or a progressive Dem?
- [01:37]
B
I mean, he's the establishment pick. Right. So he's already got a super PAC that he's raising tons of corporate money into. I know he and I have a big difference, especially when it comes to Israel and Palestine. He's been a big opponent of the pro Palestinian rights movements here for years. He's not committed to backing the Block the Bombs bill, which would actually stop military funding to Israel right now. And he's been an architect of this bill, AB 715 in the California Senate, which equates criticism of Israel with antisemitism in our K12 system. And the result of that has actually been our 1 history textbook in San Francisco doesn't even talk about it because teachers are afraid of getting disciplined. But really, the big difference, I'd say, between the state senator and myself is the approach, because I am talking about doing a political revolution in Congress, you know, I'm talking about primaring people all across the Democratic Party to get rid of all the do nothing Democrats. You know, I've talked about primary against Hakeem Jeffries and not saying that just to be divisive, I think that is practically what we have to do because the Democratic Party is just completely in the tubes right now. You know, we're polling worse than Donald Trump half the time. And the thing is like, we need a whole new generation of leaders. I'm talking about hundreds of new people running to completely remake this party and fix this country. We need a party that actually knows, knows how to stop, stand up to what's going on right now to this authoritarian coup. But then we actually. Leaders, sorry, go ahead.
- [03:03]
A
Let's talk about this component. So you have Hakeem Jeffries and I assume probably your primary challenger, Cory Booker, Chuck Schumer and other corporate Dems that take money from aipac. AIPAC gave just as much money to the reelection of Donald Trump that Elon Musk did. So if we were to apply that standard, let's imagine for a second, if your opponent took money from Elon Musk, that would be a nail in the coffin in the Democratic primary that you were beholden to Elon Musk. Yet when it comes to aipac, there is this willful blindness in a lot of people that they don't see that AIPAC wanted Trump to win every bit as much as Elon Musk did, every bit as much as all of these bad actors did. So I think taking APAC money should be a litmus, litmus test for any up and coming Democrat that if you are taking that money, you are showing us that you are controlled opposition, that you are allowing people that control Donald Trump to control you. And that's how serious I think it is. And I don't think it's hyperbolic at all for you to talk about Hakeem Jeffries being primaried because we're talking about democracy and he can't even endorse Zoran Mamdani until, you know, the very, very, very tail end of it. It was such a lackluster endorsement. It's just maddening. It's really maddening to see the people that are supposed to represent us being controlled by the people that control Donald Trump.
- [04:43]
B
Yeah. And I think this issue of taking APAC money, it's, I totally agree with you. And I think it's become this proxy for are you a sold out Democrat? You know, are you somebody who represents money or people? Because also on the issue, when you look at what people think right now, people believe that we should stop sending military funding to Israel. Right. So many people wanted, you know, Hakeem Jeffries and Chuck Schumer to endorse Doran Madani. So when they don't do these things that are overwhelmingly popular, then the only answer is money. And it just shows that you guys are sold out. And it just, you know, people can't trust you. Like, if you can't trust the party, if you can't trust the leaders in charge, then it doesn't matter what else you're standing for or what else you're pushing, people fundamentally can't trust you. And we have to break this stronghold of corporate money in our party. And that's what I've been fighting to do for the last decade. I started this group, Justice Democrats back in 2018, where we were recruiting people to run against corporate backed Democrats back then because we were saying, hey, if we can't get rid of this problem of corporate money in the Democratic Party, this party is going to collapse. It's really just, you know, a death march right now.
- [05:48]
A
So you told me before we started recording that you grew up in Fort Worth, which I think gives you a really interesting qualification to go to Congress. Because growing up in Texas, and I was born in Dallas and grew up in Oklahoma City, you understand more of the electorate than if you were just a San Francisco liberal through and through. The way, you know, the way people in Oklahoma and Texas view people from San Francisco, pile on the fact you have, you know, a name that's difficult to pronounce and some pigment in your skin, you know, the optics of you on a screen to quote, unquote, real Americans. And those of you that are listening, I'm saying that in quotes, but that's the way people think. I think this qualifies you even more for this job because understanding the electorate and the divisiveness of it and how to tell people in middle America, you have been lied to for decades, long before Trump, you have been lied to and they have picked a boogeyman for you to hate while they milk off of you, and they pave the way for Trump and his son's dumb and dumber and Elon Musk to fleece money from you. And will you speak to our listeners about your upbringing in red state America to now being in San Francisco and what qualification you think that helps you with navigating Congress with a bunch of crazy right wingers?
- [07:16]
B
Yeah, you know, I mean, I did choose to become A San Francisco liberal for a bit of a reason. But I will say, you know, growing up in Texas, like, I was surrounded by conservatives my whole life, and they're people, you know, they are people, and they want honesty. That's what I think it is. And so, honestly, sometimes is rough. That just means you talk, tell them how it is. You, you know, don't try to sugarcoat it. And you figure out, like, you can tell people, like, hey, you have had it hard. I get it, right? Like, and that's true for everybody. That's the. The thing that 95% of the country really agrees on is stuff is getting worse. The American dream is shattered. You're working harder for longer for. You're working harder and harder for worse and worse outcomes. And I think if we actually treat folks as people and we don't shy away, we don't pander to them, right? We don't just do, like, fake Christianity to try to, like, put up some. Some, you know, symbol of a candidate who, like, has all the virtue signaling, right? Because people see through that. You know? You know, this people in Texas, they see through it. And I think we just say, like, yeah, you. You have been lied to by this other side. I think the real opportunity in front of us in 2026 and 2028 is Trump's version of this will have failed. You know, he got elected because he said, I stand for economic change. I'm going to make your grocery prices cheaper. I'm going to make your cost of living cheaper. And he will have completely failed on that. So the question to me is, what will Democrats offer? Because we need to have a counter vision to that MAGA vision, MAGA saying we got kick out the immigrants and that'll make your life better. Well, that won't work. So what's our version that actually includes people? And we need to have that plan. We need to not just message it, but then we have to actually deliver on it. That's the only way we're going to defeat not just Trump, but Trumpism for good.
- [08:52]
A
Okay, and let's talk about your opponent's plan. If he's already taking PAC money, that tells me that just from being a political observer doing this podcast, that a lot of these corporations, industry titans, have bent the knee to a fascist, to a man that has no problem with bigotry, has no problem with dismantling the Constitution, has no problem eroding the court system, who has no problem taking bribes from Qatar, places like this. So how on earth Earth can this opponent of yours And I mean this, not just your opponent, but people that are running with D next to their name anywhere. And even if they're already currently a Democrat like Hakeem Jeffries, how on earth are they for the people if they are taking money from the people who are bending the knee to a fascist regime like Donald Trump who commits crimes? In my opinion, I am not in law enforcement, but I'm good at observation. It appears to me that these people are committing crimes every single day.
- [09:54]
B
Yeah, look, there's going to have to be a big reckoning after this, right? Like, the level of corruption, the level to which this oligarchy has just completely sided with corrupt power, you know, And I'm talking about all the tech companies, many of which are in my district. Amazon, Meta, Facebook, you know, Microsoft, Apple, they're all donating to this, like, stupid ballroom. So we're going to have to call them out and list them afterwards and have a clean break. But the thing is, you know, this fight that you're describing of corporate money, like, there's a. There's a part of the Democratic Party that believes the only way you win elections is you got to raise as much money as possible. And I saw it in there. I worked as a chief of staff to aoc, and, you know, for about a year. I saw how people in there, they just spend six to eight hours a day calling big donors for money. That's their main job. And then they take a break and do some legislating, but their main job is raising money. And so they can't imagine another way to run an election. But there is, you know, and we just saw Zoran do it in New York, and we've. I've been on a bunch of campaigns. I worked on Bernie's campaign in 2016. I ran AOC's race in 2018. I've seen these campaigns that can work by actually running on people, not money. And we have to prove that that model works all across the country. And the playbook is really simple. You have to have people who are standing for real change, who are standing for working people, who have a real vision for what they want to do and who will swear off that corporate money and then win through people power. So, you know, I just think it's. It's just laziness. This sort of. This politics as usual. The establishment just, you know, this is all they know, and that's why they have no vision. Like that influence of corporate money tells them you can't ever tax the rich. Right. You can't ever make an economy that will work for everybody. And so they don't really try, and people see through that.
- [11:36]
A
So the big companies that you listed, like Meta, all of those, are they donating to your opponent in the Democratic primary?
- [11:46]
B
Well, we'll find out in the first financial disclosure, but I imagine they will.
- [11:50]
A
So here's my thing that I think we really need to start messaging. Whether it's your race, which I think is a super important race, or any other race. If you have a group that's giving money to Republicans and then they're also giving money to Democrats, the same group, let's say it's Meta, they're trying to, you know, control whoever doesn't win. And it's controlled opposition. And the Democratic Party right now, it's very clear to me, not all of them, but the ones who actually have the ability to do something. I'm talking about Chuckles, Hakeem, Cory Booker and others, they. They have the appearance of being controlled, and they also have the appearance to me right now. And I used to be a really good Ms. NBC Democrat, right? Like, I voted accordingly, and I was everything I was supposed to do. And then we lost two national campaigns to a racist moron. And then you have parts of the country that celebrate this dorky villain, right? And so I see now the void that corporate Dems left and that Hakeem and Chuckles, they. They just have no authenticity when they speak. I'm just like, shut the fuck up. And here's the worst part about it. They feel conservative to me. Democratic leadership feels like a conservative party to me. Like, they want to preserve that system. And I think when you said they're lazy, I agree with that, because it's like, you have to really think outside of the box. And I also think for people in California or people in New York, which is where Chuckles and Hakeem are, they don't understand the urgency, like people in red states do, of this. They do not understand because. And I just recently moved to New York, that snoring you hear is my little French bulldog. By the way, if you hear little piglet snorts, I just recently moved to New York, but where I lived in Oklahoma, you have total abortion ban, 10 Commandments in the classroom, despite all, the governor dedicates every square inch of the state to Jesus Christ. Despite said dedication, we're ranked 50th and 50th and 49th and 48th and 50th. It's a total fucking shit show, right? But all of those people have been lied to. And now that I see those styles of government mainstream controlling the federal government. I look to seats like yours and where Hakeem is in these blue states where you have the luxury of kind of being nuanced about liberalism. And I see these seats as so much more important because of the erosion of norms in other states. And MAGA super majorities have just created an all out Christian nationalist state. And so I feel like your opponent, what's his name?
- [14:52]
B
Scott Wiener.
- [14:54]
A
No, shut up. It is not Scott Wiener.
- [14:56]
B
It's got Wiener. Yeah.
- [14:57]
A
No. Oh, boy. Okay. Scott Wiener. I feel like if he's already taking corporate money and doing this, I feel like he's a conservative. I don't even think we get to call these people Democrats.
- [15:15]
B
I mean, and this is the thing, like, people don't want to vote for sort of just. I call them performative Democrats, right? They say the right stuff, virtue, single. And then when it comes, push comes to shove, you don't actually do anything about it. And we just saw this with the Democrats caving, you know, in the last week.
- [15:33]
A
Oh, my God.
- [15:34]
B
My God. Like, can you imagine a worse. We were, we were winning. Like, we were winning. We were actually fighting for people not to give you health care. We won elections. Trump was on TV saying, oh, my gosh, I think we're maybe losing this one to the Democrats. We're losing the messaging war. Not because of Hakeem or Schumer. You know, Hakeem and Schumer did nothing to actually message this stuff. It's just on its own. We were winning and then we had him on the back foot. Instead of taking the fricking left hook and knocking them out, we decide to throw the fight. I mean, that is. People are sick of that. So I actually think whether you're in a red state, people don't realize that whether you're in a red state or a blue state, no one wants to vote for losers. No one wants to vote for losers. And that's one of the reasons why MAGA keeps winning. They at least look like fighters, right? And Trump goes in, he's saying, I'm going to drain the swamp, I'm going to fix the economy. And people don't know if he's left from right, but people know that he's saying he's going to do it and he seems like a fighter, so they vote for him. So who do we have, other than people like AOC or Bernie? Who do we have on the Democrat side who's talking like that? Who's actually going to pitch people on fixing this stuff. So. Yeah, I agree. I mean, we're well past the point. I think this corporate money, it's not just like part of it is just a straight up corruption is the quid pro quo. But a big part of it is just is this effect on the party where everybody just doesn't feel like it's their job to do anything. Is their job is just to kind of sit around, raise money, you know, plan for their next reelect, and we're just like sleepwalking into dystopia on one side while the other side is. They're taking power and they're using it for great destruction.
- [17:09]
A
Okay, one final question. We're going a little long listener, but I think this is a super important question. You kind of started out with your opponent talking about anti Semitism, which we all know it is very real. And bigotry in all forms should, in my opinion, be all on the same field. We shouldn't prefer one person's rights or susceptibility to bigotry, shouldn't be preferentially treated over like, let's say, immigrants right now and what they're going through in this country. I found it rather interesting that far right Jewish groups are finding solace and protection or seeking solace and protection in a regime that makes space in its tent for Nazis. And I find it rich getting lectured by these people about criticism, justifiable criticism that we all have towards Israel and Joe Biden's blank check to Netanyahu and Donald Trump's blank check to Netanyahu. That, that criticism is somehow, then we're told we're anti Semitic. And I just think that is just such bullshit. And I think that the Democratic Party, you, and hopefully you win, have to take this, this talk on bigotry and this talk on human rights and sort it out. Because you can't be safe as a Jewish person if you're going to seek refuge with the guy that dines with Nick Fuentes. It's just, it's just not going to happen. If some, if a group of people are marching saying Jews cannot replace us. And Donald Trump is kind of like, I kind of see their point. I see both sides. It's amazing to me the burden that's put on the people that fight for universal human rights like Zoron, that somehow if we do not prioritize, okay, this group is number one, number two, number three, if we don't prioritize it to their liking, then we're called, you know, bigots or anti Semites and I just think it's super important in this moment that we have leaders with real moral clarity on this, on this issue. Because so many people are really up because of Trump. You've got far right Jewish groups that are really fucked up and twisted in the head about how they're safe. You have working class Americans that were lied to that think that this guy's going to fix their woes. And I just think this is a moment for. When David Hogg came into the DNC and he said we need a primary every, I kind of agreed with him. Like, let's just, let's go guns blazing. So will you speak to that and into this issue of universal human rights before we go off?
- [20:02]
B
Yeah, I mean, I think this is just a fundamental American value that no one should be picked on because of whatever group they associate with. Right. I mean, I was a brown kid In Texas after 9 11, I'm not Muslim. But I mean law field didn't seem to make decisions there. And it sucks, right? Like it sucks to be targeted for stuff going on halfway across, across the world. So yeah, we have to be able to criticize foreign policy, criticize our endless wars, criticize our endless military funding to human rights violations across the world while saying we must protect everybody here. Jewish people, Muslim people, you know, immigrants, trans people. Anybody in our society is part of our society and we protect them. And I think it's really worse, you know, and I will say, like a lot of Jewish people are fed up with that. I talked to tons of Jewish people through this campaign and they absolutely hate that this whole criticism of Israel becoming anti Semitism has resulted in them not feeling like they can criticize Israel. Right. And, and really facing real anti Semitism right now. So it's absolutely horrible. And I agree, you know, like you're talking about, you know, David Hogg, talk about primary, every fricking Democrat. That's my position. Yeah, absolutely. And you know, I just want to say, like, just to leave it with a little bit of hope. You know, I worked in this politics for a lot of long time, right. I worked on Bernie's campaign, I recruited AOC to run, I ran her campaign. And I have seen the other side of this a little bit. Like I've seen what a little bit of political courage can accomplish. Because through that project, when we were recruiting people to run, we were trying to recruit non career politicians, service workers, factory workers, nurses, teachers. And I met so many amazing people who, if they were in Congress, we really could turn it all around. We really could. And aoc. You know, the way she did the Green New Deal stuff, she did a sit in a Nancy Pelosi's office on her first day and work. You know, can you imagine that? Like doing a sit in in your boss's office. That's how she introduced the Green New Deal with the Sunrise movement and that really changed everything. That pressured everybody running for president to respond. And you know, Biden responded with bill back better and that turned into inflation Reduction act and that passed and created the largest investment in clean manufacturing and clean tech. It wasn't everything, but it was something. And so I think it is possible to do stuff. I think leaders like that are out there and I think if we had hundreds of leaders like that who aren't taking corporate money, who have a real backbone, who have a real vision, stepping up and running, we could turn this all around. And that's why I'm optimistic. That's ultimately why I'm running.
- [22:27]
A
At the end of the day, I'm so glad. And I just have to say that I think the work that you did with Bernie and AOC takes a Democrat like me who was a good MSNBC Democrat who voted for Hillary in 2016 in the primary. And now I recognize that was a failure. That vote on my part was I bought into the Democratic corporate narrative and didn't inquire outside of that. But I think as a voter we always have to keep our mind open to evolution. And I realized that Bernie's message has aged a million times better and his diagnosis of the unsustainability of our economic system was spot on. So the work you did with them, because it takes an army of people, people to get messages out. Even though Bernie didn't win, he laid the soil for Zoron to win and for AOC to win. And they still continue to go around together and can sway people like me. I've always been liberal and I love to live out, don't get me wrong, but I've gone even a little bit further, you know, to the left and have seen that we need to dig deeper. We need to make a place that is more fair and more just for all of us. So thank you for all the work you did prior and then tell our listeners how they can support your campaign because I think it's a super important race. I think that's a super important seat and I would love to see a true progressive fighter when that. And I think you will.
- [23:53]
B
Yeah, thanks so much. So please go to my website is Shoika US S A I K A T us. We are running the largest grassroots campaign in San Francisco history. We've already got 2,000 volunteers, knocked on over 50,000 doors. So if you live in the Bay Area, please sign up to come canvas. If you don't sign up to phone bank, we need all the volunteers we can get. And if you don't have any time, you know, throw a few bucks our way. Every little bit helps. So thanks so much for having me on.
- [24:18]
A
Thanks so much. And we'll have you on again closer to the race, especially right before the primary against Mr. Weiner, just because I like bathroom humor and I think it could be a fun episode. Bye.
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B
All right, you.
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A
Sam.