2447 - Trump's Marathon Of Lies & Challenging Dem Leadership w/ Adam Green, Saikat Chakrabarti

Summary

Podcast Summary: The Majority Report with Sam Seder Episode: 2447 - Trump's Marathon Of Lies & Challenging Dem Leadership
Guests: Adam Green, Saikat Chakrabarti
Release Date: March 5, 2025

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1. Introduction and Overview

In Episode 2447 of The Majority Report with Sam Seder, host Sam Seder delves into the ramifications of former President Donald Trump's latest joint session speech, labeled a "marathon of lies." Joining him are two prominent guests: Adam Green, co-founder of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee (PCCC), and Saikat Chakrabarti, a congressional candidate challenging Nancy Pelosi in her primary. The episode critically examines Trump's rhetoric, the Democratic response, and the internal dynamics threatening the party's cohesion and effectiveness.

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2. Trump's Speech: Lies and Impact

Sam Seder opens the discussion by condemning Trump's recent joint session speech, highlighting its contentions and misinformation. Key points include:

• Social Security Threats: Trump allegedly declared, "They're coming for your Social Security"—a claim dismissed by many as unfounded. (03:33)
• Supreme Court and Foreign Policy: The speech touched on Supreme Court decisions and hinted at withdrawing intel from Ukraine, suggesting peace deals without substantial backing.
• Economic and Governmental Cuts: Proposals included slashing the IRS workforce by half and selling off federal properties, actions perceived as detrimental to public services. (02:19)

Emma Vigeland, Sam's co-host, criticizes the speech for its overwhelming focus on negative themes without offering constructive solutions. She states, "He has nothing to offer... all the cuts to the essential social services in this country." (04:14)

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3. Democratic Leadership and Protests

The episode transitions to discussing the Democratic response to Trump's speech. Sam highlights the mixed effectiveness of Democratic protests during the address:

• Protest Dynamics: While some Democrats protested with signs like "This is not normal," notable figures like AOC's former chief of staff walked out, diluting the impact. (04:36)
• Media Coverage: The Associated Press's minimal coverage of Democratic walkouts versus the extensive focus on Trump's speech underscores a potential communication gap. Sam criticizes, "AP doesn't mention it... blatant out and out lies." (06:00)

The conversation emphasizes the necessity for Democrats to communicate the urgency of Trump's policies to the broader public effectively.

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4. Conversation with Adam Green

Adam Green returns to the discussion, offering a critique of Democratic leadership's response to Trump's address:

• Failure of Unified Response: Adam points out that while individual members like him protested, there was a lack of cohesive strategy from Democratic leaders. He remarks, "This was the most memorable moment in the chamber for Democrats is just a failure." (07:27)
• Need for Strategic Action: He advocates for naming bills after affected individuals to humanize the impact of Trump's policies, suggesting, "Name a bill after the 13-year-old kid who was a cancer survivor...". (49:10)
• Implications of Fraud Rhetoric: Adam discusses how Trump's claims of widespread Social Security fraud are unfounded and used as a pretext for cuts, stating, "They're using the rhetoric of fraud to preview their cuts to core benefits." (34:23)

Notable Quotes:

• "He is a person who has consistently been used [his incivility] against our civility." – Adam Green (11:13)
• "Democrats communicate to the American public at every opportunity what is happening is an emergency." – Sam Seder (04:14)

Adam emphasizes the importance of proactive measures and strategic legislative actions to counteract Trump's detrimental policies effectively.

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5. Conversation with Saikat Chakrabarti

Saikat Chakrabarti, running against Nancy Pelosi, shares his insights into Democratic Party dynamics and his vision for transformation:

• Campaign Origins and Vision: Saikat traces his political trajectory back to the Bernie Sanders 2016 campaign, aiming to infuse Congress with transformative economic agendas. He recounts, "Our feeling at the time was the big problems that a lot of people are facing... people were really feeling squeezed and stuck." (52:42)
• Challenges in Running Against Pelosi: Acknowledging Pelosi's entrenched position, Saikat discusses the strategic disadvantages and the necessity for a broader national movement to support such challenges. (55:47)
• Call for National Movement: He urges for a nationwide recruitment of candidates who can articulate a clear and transformative vision, stating, "We need to actually show how we can improve people's lives in such a drastic way..." (57:45)
• Critique of Democratic Leadership: Saikat criticizes the current Democratic leadership for lacking a cohesive ideology and being overly influenced by donors, leading to inaction on critical issues. He notes, "They chipped this home so many times... they've got a plan and they're telling you why your life is getting worse..." (72:38)

Notable Quotes:

• "People are really divided on action versus inaction or just kind of change versus status quo." – Saikat Chakrabarti (65:47)
• "The dominance of the current party... they're playing the same games, but they're on their back foot." – Gerry Connolly (43:25)

Saikat advocates for shifting the Democratic Party's focus from entrenched politics to a national narrative that addresses everyday concerns and promotes substantial policy changes.

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6. Conclusion

The episode concludes with a reflection on the necessity for the Democratic Party to undergo significant internal reforms to effectively counteract Trump's policies and rhetoric. Both Adam Green and Saikat Chakrabarti underscore the importance of unified, strategic action and the development of a clear ideological framework to guide Democrats in upcoming elections.

Final Takeaways:

• Unified Democratic Strategy: There is a pressing need for cohesive leadership and strategic legislative actions within the Democratic Party to effectively communicate and counteract Trump's policies.
• Grassroots Movements: Encouraging grassroots campaigns and challenging entrenched Democratic figures like Nancy Pelosi are seen as essential steps toward revitalizing the party.
• Clear Ideology: Developing a clear, transformative ideological stance is crucial for Democrats to resonate with voters and implement meaningful change.

The episode serves as a wake-up call for Democrats to reassess their strategies, prioritize effective communication, and embrace transformative policies to safeguard social services and respond to the challenges posed by Trump's administration.

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For More Information:

• Publications and Resources: Listeners are encouraged to visit boldprogressives.org for more insights and to engage with ongoing activism efforts.
• Support the Show: To support The Majority Report, visit jointhemajorityreport.com.

Transcript

[Emma Vigeland]

You are listening to a free version.

[Sam Seder]

Of the Majority Report.

[Emma Vigeland]

Support this [e-mail] and get an extra hour of content daily.

[Sam Seder]

It is Wednesday, March 5, 2025. My name is Sam Seder. This is the five time award winning Majority Report. We are broadcasting live steps from the industrially ravaged Gowanus Canal in the heartland of America, downtown Brooklyn, usa. On the program today, Adam Green, co founder of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee to look back on last night's crap show in the rotunda. Then we will be talking to Soykat Chakrabadi. He is a candidate running in the primary against Nancy Pelosi, former chief of staff of aoc, founder of New Was it the New Congress and early involvement in the Justice Democrats.

[Emma Vigeland]

Brand new Congress.

[Sam Seder]

Brand new Congress. Meanwhile, Trump lies for a record amount of time in the joint session speech last night. Democratic lawmakers walk out and take away from the entire speech is they are coming for your Social Security. Supreme Court denies Trump's bid to cancel usaid, ending US Cuts off intel to Ukraine as Trump says there may be a peace deal. Reset. Trump helps arch villain Black Rock, apparently to the conservative movement, secure two massive Panama Canal ports.

[Emma Vigeland]

He's trying to do like easy East India Company stuff.

[Sam Seder]

It feels like BlackRock supposedly I thought was problematic. On the right, Trump looking to slash IRS workforce in half government service administration to sell off 400 federal properties to private real estate developers. FBI DOJ on and on Judge blocks Trump's block on funds for trans youth. Another judge reinstates a member of the Merit Systems payment board. And OPM ordered again to retract their firing of probationary employees. All this and much, much, much more on today's Majority Report. Welcome, ladies and gentlemen. It is. I can't remember what day. Yes, hump day. It doesn't feel like. It doesn't feel like. It just feels like we were here just the other day and I don't know, it keeps. The hits keep coming.

[Shoikat Chakrabati]

You feel severed?

[Sam Seder]

I sort of.

[Emma Vigeland]

I mean, I wish I could be severed. I guess I haven't seen the show so maybe I don't know what I'm talking about.

[Sam Seder]

No, yeah, actually that's. No, you got it.

[Emma Vigeland]

Because last night, you know, I could have been. Well, I stopped watching the Knicks to watch this and they ended up losing. So that's fine. But I could have been doing something else with my time. Instead we listened to Donald Trump lie the entire time and just nonce. It was like a campaign speech. But he kept just alternating between transphobia and Immigration and Biden's bad. And then weird imperial things. He has nothing to offer. And then, of course, all the cuts to the essential social services in this country.

[Sam Seder]

Yeah, And I also think that like, and we'll talk to Adam Green about this in terms of the protests that Democrats did, and they really tried the full sort of like gamut of protest. Some Democrats did not attend from the very beginning.

[Emma Vigeland]

AOC Hattie Murray, I think, too, some.

[Sam Seder]

Democrats went with signs that said a lie or this is not normal or stuff like that. Some left throughout the evening. Here is, I think, probably the loudest and most covered of the protests. And again, the protests are important because at least from I think our perspective, I'll speak for Emma, but because it is important that the Democrats communicate to the American public at every opportunity what is happening is an emergency. He is stealing essentially from the public coffers to, to give to his crony friends. And we're seeing that in every case. I mean, I just did this GSA, when they sell off these buildings in downtown Washington, D.C. like, who do you think they're going to sell them to? These are not buildings that the federal government's ever going to be able to buy back because they're selling off prime real estate. They are selling off the public goods. This is just a massive privatization scheme. And the only sort of slight difference to it is that, you know, it's all Trump's buddies, and I use that term broadly. But there's like inherent kickbacks in all of this. I mean, just across the board. And so it's incumbent upon the Democrats to attempt to cut through the noise and at the very least explain this dynamic or signal this dynamic to people who are not really paying attention that much. And I listen every morning to the AP news at the bottom and the top of the hour. At the bottom of the hour, they just talked about Trump's speech as if it was a normal speech and nothing else happened. They didn't say he lied about all this Social Security stuff, which he did. I mean, just blatant out and out lies that have already been debunked that he certainly knows about. It was a conscious, conscious decision to lie about Social Security. I mean, there were other ones, too, but this was just the most egregious. AP doesn't mention it. At the top of the hour, when they have about another 15, 20 seconds, they talked about Democrat Al Green.

[Al Green]

Members are directed to uphold and maintain decorum in the House and to cease any further disruptions. That's your warning. Members are Engaging in willful and continuing breach of decorum. And the chair is prepared to direct the Sergeant at Arms to restore order to the joint session. Mr. Green, take your seat. Take your seat, sir. Take your seat. Finding that members continue to engage in willful and concerted disruption of proper decorum, the chair now directs the Sergeant at Arms to restore order. Remove this gentleman from the chamber.

[Sam Seder]

Oh, that seems out of order.

[Emma Vigeland]

That's basically it, right? So they remove him. I guess he was shouting, you have no right to cut Medicaid.

[Sam Seder]

You have no right to. You have no mandate to cut Medicaid.

[Emma Vigeland]

Because he kept repeating that he has a mandate. Dude, you didn't even get 50% of the popular vote. The margin that you won by in the popular vote, 1.5%. It's the slimmest margin since the 2000 election. You have the slimmest. One of the slimmest majorities in the House in the history of this country. Give me a break. About the mandate that he has to cut health care for tens of millions of Americans.

[Sam Seder]

And so Al Green goes out into the hall outside of. You know, the last time we see pictures like this really is from January 6th. And usually it was, like, full of people who were trying to kill the members inside. But all those people have been pardoned. Now here is Al Green in the hallway now. So what were you shouting to the President?

[Adam Green]

The president said he had a mandate. And I was making it clear to the President that he has no mandate to cut Medicaid. I have people who are very fearful. These are poor people, and they have only Medicaid in their lives when it comes to their health care. And I want him to know that his budget calls for deep cuts in Medicaid. He needs to save Medicaid, protect it. We need to raise the cap on Social Security. There's a possibility that it's going to be hurt. And we've got to protect Medicaid care. These are the safety net programs that people in my congressional district depend on. And this president seems to care less about them and more about the number of people that he can remove from the various programs that have been so helpful to so many people. It is the best way to get on a cross to a person who uses his incivility. Who uses his incivility against our civility. He is a person who has consistently been used. Incivility against civility.

[Emma Vigeland]

Do you think it was useful?

[Gerry Connolly]

Is that what you said?

[Adam Green]

Well, look, I'm willing to suffer whatever punishment is available to me. I didn't Say to anyone, don't punish me. I've said I'll accept the punishment. But it's worth it to let people know that there are some of us who are going to stand up against this president's desire to cut Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security.

[Sam Seder]

Great job, 100%. I mean, just in that, was this the right way to get that message across? Well, the fact that you're interviewing him and he's repeating it to you and it's the only news that's going to get out in terms of like a pushback, I would say, yeah, yeah, it's really good.

[Emma Vigeland]

I mean, Green has said that I think he will introduce articles of impeachment for a third time. With Donald Trump, he's called, he's been, you know, not horrible on things like Gaza, so condemning also Trump's plan to take it over and things like that. But I mean, this was, I think, the image that is going to resonate with people most. We need, I wish they did more of that specifically at the Social Security part. You know, he went into that this was about Medicaid broadly, like when he was standing up. But they should have had those kind of walkouts and disruptions over all of the social programs. He's planning on taking a hammer to 100%.

[Sam Seder]

And I think like, you know, and I'm, it is, it is difficult to know. I think people expected probably that them walking out in the middle of the speech would be more disruptive than it ended up being because the cameras never moved and no one really knew it. If you weren't, if you weren't like sort of following along with like a cheat sheet, you wouldn't have known that people walked out. And, you know, so I am willing that it matters in terms of my assessment, I think that like, I'll give them a B, B minus. But at least there was attempts at efforts that some largely failed. But at least, you know, this is not the end all be all. But there is a growing understanding amongst these Democrats on some level that they got to do something. And in fact, I think when we talk later in the program to Shoikai Chuck Chakra Body, he's going to have strong opinions on this and I'm looking forward to hearing from him. In a moment, we're going to be talking to Adam Green, co founder of the Progressive Change Campaign. He also, I would imagine has some thoughts on this and his reactions to what Trump had to say last night. He spoke for a long time. That is a, it was like a record.

[Emma Vigeland]

It was so rambling. It was unbelievable.

[Sam Seder]

It, it honestly, like there was a big quality. I just happened to have this for. I just pulled this out the other day. But there was a real quality like this to it. What's going on? Why isn't that playing?

[Emma Vigeland]

What are you trying to play?

[Sam Seder]

I'm trying to play something and on my phone.

[Emma Vigeland]

Okay.

[Sam Seder]

Oh, I know why. Because it was connected to my earplug.

[Emma Vigeland]

My earplugs, headphones.

[Sam Seder]

What the heck?

[Emma Vigeland]

Okay.

[Sam Seder]

I don't know why it's not playing.

[Emma Vigeland]

You want to abandon ship here?

[Sam Seder]

Yeah, I guess so. Well, we'll try it again later.

[Emma Vigeland]

We'll try it again.

[Sam Seder]

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[Emma Vigeland]

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[Sam Seder]

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[Emma Vigeland]

Yeah, sometimes that happens.

[Sam Seder]

Sometimes. I mean specifically reds.

[Shoikat Chakrabati]

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[Emma Vigeland]

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[Sam Seder]

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[Emma Vigeland]

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[Sam Seder]

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[Gerry Connolly]

I did.

[Sam Seder]

Let me just. This is how I mean, this is a version of that speech except for with a lot less sort of transphobia, xenophobia and threats to Social Security. But there was definitely quality of that speech.

[Shoikat Chakrabati]

From this day on, the official language.

[Al Green]

Of San Marcos will be Swedish silence. In addition to that, all citizens will be required to change their underwear every half hour. Underwear will be worn on the outside.

[Sam Seder]

Yep. There you go. So they can check it. Aside from that, give me your thoughts about the speech, what alarms you and also how the Democrats, you know, approached the whole thing.

[Gerry Connolly]

Yeah. So first, just an obligatory disclaimer. Before I give any commentary on Al Green, I need to say no relation.

[Sam Seder]

I was going to say something to that effect, but I'm glad you did that.

[Emma Vigeland]

You beat him to it.

[Gerry Connolly]

Sorry, fixing editing. So, you know, going into the speech, Social Security was high in our mind as an organization and it's been pleasantly a big part of the kind of unified Democratic language as an attack point on Trump. So I think we should have been prepared to really kind of blow up his failure to keep Social Security safe, his lies that you mentioned earlier in the show. And I gotta say, while what Al Green did was good to me, it is actually a prima facie symbol of failure of Democratic leadership that him standing up at an okay moment in the speech, not the best moment in the speech, saying something unintelligible and then later explaining what he was talking about for the C SPAN camera in the hallway. That was the most memorable moment in the chamber for Democrats is just a failure. There should have been more of a plan. It was fine that there were the placards that said, you know, musk is stealing from you. It's fine that we heard after the fact that some people walked out. Didn't really see that on camera. Some very credible people like Jamie Raskin and Maxwell Frost, Jasmine Crockett, others, but that was the main thing. And you know, we talked to House leadership a little bit beforehand. Simone Sanders was on TV last night saying that she was hearing from staffers and members of Congress that they wanted to do more and that leadership actually was kind of trying to simmer the waters a little bit. And that's just a problem. Like we're in this moment of either get it or you don't get it. And you're either willing to fight back hard or not willing to fight back hard. And when it's kind of laissez faire, no leadership from Democratic leadership, that's what you get. So props to him for being willing to fight. But I don't think that was the most effective way we could have engaged in the fight to point out that he wants to cut Social Security, to give tax cuts to billionaires.

[Sam Seder]

What do you, I mean, what do you, how do you account for this in the sense that, like we saw reports two or three weeks ago that Jeffries was upset with groups that were, you know, saying stuff and Richie Torres was angry, like resented and rejected the idea that they weren't doing anything when it was clear they weren't doing anything. I mean, like we had concurrent reporting at the time saying, like, this is their strategy. Their strategy is to not do anything. And like, even James Carville is out there going, like, don't do anything, wait 30 days, things will get better. You know, he's going to fall apart, he'll have a heart attack. Whatever it is they. Is this just sort of like, I don't know, just corporate risk averse ness? Like, I mean, what it, like what is it?

[Gerry Connolly]

Yeah, there is again, I think there's a dividing line between those that get it and those who don't get it in terms of like, this is an absolute threat to the America we want to know. And you think about a pendulum going back and forth. I don't know if the pendulum will ever go back to what we consider normal. And I think some people just think, oh well, when in the next midterms, so let them self destruct. And they're just thinking about through an old school political lens. I think a lot about what is effective in this moment, as I know you are talking about a lot. And I talked to a senator this Week who is like, I'm very averse to anybody who claims to have the one silver bullet. Like, if we shut down the Senate, that will do everything. It's like, I grant that point. There's not one silver bullet. But the way I think about it is, if we're going to make progress, if we're going to defeat these people, what can we do right now to expedite that progress and expedite their defeat and mitigate the harm and the pain to our democracy and to people? And one glimmer of hope I have is I just saw this morning Ro Khanna is going to start going to Republican districts to do town hall meetings there. And I do think that while it is very important that we have blue state rallies and people in San Francisco protesting the ability to expedite Republican voters, Trump voters, veterans stepping up and being like, whoa, this is not what we wanted, the fact that Republicans are waving the white flag of defeat, not just to Putin, but also to their own constituents and saying, we are not going to do town hall meetings anymore, like, that is a symbol that this is an expediter. This is a mitigator of risk of pain if we can actually help these people speak out more. So I hope that we can have a strategy of identifying more of these people in Republican states and districts, doing our part to raise their voices credibly and that nothing is more clear to me that the amorphous idea of change is popular. And if Donald Trump stands for change, okay. But the second you get one degree closer to the surface, and it's like, Social Security will be cut, Medicare, Medicaid, veterans, health care, food, nutrition for kids, cancer, research for kids, people. These are 80, 20, 90, 10 issues. And we really need to kind of get into that territory as quickly as possible.

[Sam Seder]

I mean, I think, like, we saw Bernie go to Iowa with these rallies that I think are sort of like, you know, the type of template that you're talking about. And particularly now that the Republicans have completely shut the door on doing their own town halls because they're, you know, nervous about facing their constituents, I mean, some of these are just amazing. That senator that we played the other day from Kansas, I mean, Marshall, yeah, he just, like, he just beelined Debbie, literally just, you know, he's got a constituent asking him about the veterans being fired, and he goes like, bye, and just leaves. I think that can be strong. Let's talk about the thing with Social Security, because you and I are Veterans of the 2005 George W. Bush assault on Social Security. This one's a little stealthier. It seems like the way that they're doing it. I want to play this clip from last night. Now I find my sheet here. I think it's. Which one's the Social Security one?

[Emma Vigeland]

Seven, I believe.

[Sam Seder]

Yeah, here it is.

[Gerry Connolly]

Sorry.

[Sam Seder]

Yeah, I think it's seven.

[Emma Vigeland]

This is essentially. Or no, I guess this part is doge. We could do this. Okay.

[Sam Seder]

Because instead of saying like, instead of saying Social Security is broke, you know, nothing but IOUs here, it's just piece of paper. Just piece paper. As if like there's, there's stacks of $1 bills in file cabinets. George W. Bush was going around saying it the way that Trump. And it's really, it's Russell Vote, it's the Heritage Foundation. It is Elon Musk. It's some of the wealthiest people in the world and they want to cut Social Security because this has really always been sort of the fundamental building block of our government for the past 90 years. And this is the way they're going about doing it. By claiming it's just completely rife with fraud. Go ahead.

[G]

We're also identifying shocking levels of incompetence and probable fraud in the Social Security program for our seniors and that our seniors and people that we love rely on. Believe it or not, government databases list 4.7 million Social Security members from people aged 100 to 100, 109 years old. It lists 3.6 million people from ages 110 to 119. I don't know any of them. I know some people that are rather elderly, but not quite that elderly. 3.47 million people from ages 120 to 129. 3.9 million people from ages 130 to 139. 3.5 million people from ages 140 to 149. And money is being paid to many of them. And we're searching right now, in fact. Pam, good luck. Good luck. You're going to find it. But a lot of money is paid out to people because it just keeps getting paid and paid and nobody does. And it really hurts Social Security and hurts our country. 1.3 million people from ages 150 to 159 and over 130,000 people, according to the Social Security databases, are age over 160 years old. We have a healthier country than I thought, Bobby.

[Sam Seder]

So a couple of things about this. I mean, it's the too long don't read is it's all just a lie. I Mean, there may be. There's two things going on here. One is there are people who are in the database who are dead, but they do not get paid. Social Security does not pay out to people over the age of 115 regardless. B, the way that the, the Social Security computer systems were set up, the language that they use when they didn't have a date, it would default to 1875, like May 22, 1875 or something.

[Emma Vigeland]

Right.

[Sam Seder]

And so, and the thing is they know this like this is a story from two or three weeks ago.

[Emma Vigeland]

Yes. Wired reported it. Essentially it's a default reference point that anybody that's done like my fiance's, you know, done data science and stuff like that, data analysis that happens all the time. When they have incomplete information, they'll put a default setting in there. And this has been disproved now for weeks. But Trump, just a lot of the stuff that has already been fact checked about what Doge is finding, it seems like he just copy and pasted it and put it into his speech, regardless of the reporting about it. And it sounds like Musk wrote half of it.

[Gerry Connolly]

Yep.

[Sam Seder]

The point is you spend that much time on Social Security a thing that you're supposedly not going to cut.

[Emma Vigeland]

Yeah.

[Sam Seder]

You're cutting it. Right. Like, I mean, they're cutting the Social Security administration, you know, employees. But this all seems like a prelude, right?

[Gerry Connolly]

It's absolutely a prelude. And it's a really important point for us all to be aware of. They're using the rhetoric of fraud to preview their cuts to core benefits. Right. They're basically trying to have their cake and eat it too, say we will not cut Social Security benefits, but of course we'll get rid of fraud. And then they put out fake fraud and then they cut Social Security and that's benefits. Right. David Day and the American Prospect, as you probably have already covered, did good reporting on how they're going to cut half of the Social Security administration, which by definition means checks don't go out the door. People who are missing their checks don't have someone to call to get it back. Seniors who are living paycheck to paycheck and literally might not be able to eat or get their medicine because they lost their check, won't be able to have a remedy like this is going to do so much harm. And it's all so clear out in the open. So one point I do want to make though, Sam, you mentioned the 2005 George W. Bush fight and happy 20 year anniversary. We were also veterans of the 2013, Obama trying to cut Social Security fight.

[Sam Seder]

Yes.

[Gerry Connolly]

And back then, it was actually very hard, given a Democratic president to get Democratic unity for the proposition that we will not cut Social Security benefits. Right. It was actually absurdly hard. And I want to actually read to you two quotes from last night. One is from Maxwell Frost, one is from Melissa Slotkin. I want to see if you know the difference. So one said, we are in the middle of a billionaire administrative takeover and coup of our country where they want to cut Medicaid, cut Social Security, cut Medicare, cut all the things that we fought for and earned in order to give tax breaks to billionaires and corporations. The other person said President Trump is trying to deliver an unprecedented giveaway to his billionaire friends. He's on the hunt to find trillions of dollars to pass along to the wealthiest in America. And to do that, he could very well come after your retirement, the Social Security, Medicare, VA benefits that you work for your whole life. The president claims he won't, but Elon Musk just claimed that Social Security is the biggest Ponzi scheme of all time. Which of those is moderate? Alyssa Slotin?

[Sam Seder]

Well, I'm going to say the second.

[Gerry Connolly]

You happen to be right.

[Sam Seder]

I mean, you could tell with the language. But the point is they're more or less saying the same thing. And you know, and, and to be fair, like, well, I mean, this is something that we experienced also during George W. Bush, right? Like the, the Democrats align up pretty well now. We don't have anybody who's going in and going like, well, if there's fraud, I want to get to it. Although there was some Democrats who were doing this early on with this Musk thing, which I think was very problematic, frankly, because if you start to concede their premise, it's much harder to tap the brakes once that's there. Like, we have processes to deal with fraud, right? We have inspector generals. They fired all the inspector generals. Like, we have processes to do audits. We have processes. Even if we decide that we don't think it's right for the American public to, to provide, you know, ready made nutrition packets to starving children. If we decide that, that we don't want to engage in that kind of behavior, we have a system in place to actually have that debate publicly and democratically, and that is called Congress can debate it. So the Republicans right now, if they want to cut aid to starving children around the globe because you know how much they love life, they can bring that up as a bill and they can vote on it. But the, this is the way they're going. It's, it's all about the fake fraud and that's why they keep putting up fake fraud numbers and then they have to keep taking them down.

[Gerry Connolly]

Yeah, that's exactly what they're, what they're doing. And, you know, it's, it seems pretty clear to me that there's a high enough probability chance that the end game here is just massive self enrichment of the billionaires who will just flood the Zone in the next election and just buy their way to power, combined with their misinformation doing the same thing. There was some conversation at MSNBC yesterday being like, Lawrence O'Donnell made an inaccurate statement where he's like, the best way, you know, that Trump is not planning to run for a third term is that he's doing all this unpopular stuff and it's like, well, or there's not going to be a fair election and there's going to, you know, Elon Musk will have hundreds of billions of dollars that he could flood the Zone with. And, you know, it's really, it's really depressing to see what's going on. And that's why, you know, this is the one of the more tender moments that we will have the next couple years where Republicans in Congress are kind of willing to go along until they get public pushback back home. And it can't just be from San Francisco. It has to be, you know, us doing the work to expedite veterans, Trump voters, others just regular people who are not seen as overly political speaking out. And, you know, that's, I think, something that we all can contribute to as activists.

[Sam Seder]

Do you think that the Democrats understand why what O'Donnell said was wrong? Like the. Because it seems to me, you know, everybody thought that that budget resolution was not going to pass. There was nobody out there saying that they were going to be able to get that type of, of Republican discipline for that budget resolution. They have a one or two vote margin and it did. And I think, like, is, do you think that there is an awareness on Capitol Hill now that there's a slightly but very important different incentive structure with the Republicans in that, you know, if I'm a frontline Democrat, Republican in New York or in California, I'm worried about the general election. And so I gotta. But with the unlimited money, literally unlimited money that Elon Musk has, all of a sudden, their primary becomes a far more disciplining force than the prospect of how are they going to deal with the general. Because they won't get to the general. If they. If they don't. I mean, do you. Is it your sense that Democratic lawmakers have any sense of that? Maybe the incentive structure has changed for Republicans?

[Gerry Connolly]

God, that's a good question. Do they have a sense of change? Again, I think those who get it do. Does Chuck Schumer. Do Hakeem Jeffries fully get that incentive structure? I'm not. I'm not sure. But it is really important to just, like, even go deeper on what you're saying and connect some dots here. So what is part of the significance of Trump kicking Zelensky out of the White House? Right. It's a signal to every other world leader, you cross me, I will embarrass you on the world stage. Right. There was apparently. I heard this yesterday. There was somebody in the White House saying, maybe we should be less tough on Zelensky. And that person's now kind of frozen out of the inner circle in the White House. Right. There's this whack a mole thing where the first person to put their head up gets whacked so hard, everybody keeps their head down. And now go back to Congress. Nobody wants to be the first. Even the crazies who before would just lambast against their own party, nobody wants Elon Musk to write an unlimited check, which he can do with no consequence to his bank account, against them. What will it take? Fast forward to a time where the public pushback is so hard that 30 of them can actually step forward together and say to Mike Johnson, we cannot vote for this bill. Right? That's what has to happen. It can't be one courageous Republican. I don't know that we get there. But if we're gonna get there, we have to do things to expedite ourselves on that timeline.

[Sam Seder]

But the logic of those 30, let's say five years ago or whatever, pick a date in the past was, they can't take out all 30 of us, except for now. The difference between Elon Musk providing unlimited funds for one primary and the difference between that and Elon Musk providing unlimited funds for 30 primaries is like you or I deciding between, you know, a Lands End sweater or a J. Crew sweater, right? Like, it's not. It's meaningless to him. He's. He just spent a minimum of $300 million, a minimum that we know of. And.

[Emma Vigeland]

And his net worth has.

[Sam Seder]

Couldn't have been a better investment. Like, he could spend that five times over, and it still would be an incredible, like, one of the best investments in the world in history in terms of how much money he's made. So, like, I don't even know if we're at that 30 point yet.

[Gerry Connolly]

Yeah, I mean, look, I, I can see the point. He has unlimited money. I make that point. You know, there, there. It is a lot easier to take out one person than 30 people. On a logistical level, making the ads and just having operatives do the, you know, just do the stuff.

[Sam Seder]

There's only so many resources in which you can plow that kind of money into. In terms of, like, human abilities, too.

[Gerry Connolly]

Yeah. Now, again, again, you can go back and forth, oh, they can use AI and make ads that way and just do. At scale. And maybe that's true, but put it this way, I'd rather have 30 sticking up than one sticking up at this point. So my question is just how can we increase the pain on these Republicans? And the thing that pops into my head over and over again is show them proof points that their own voters who voted for Trump. This is not, this is not the direction they were trying to go. I'm open to other stuff. Again, I don't think there's one silver bullet. It's just like in this moment, what is effective? You know, another thing that we're thinking about a lot, we do a lot of polling and we've been doing months long polling almost every two weeks with data for progress on, on Doge and just how to make the argument against Musk and is it that he's stealing from you, wants to take your Social Security, give tax cuts to billionaires? Is it that the Constitution gives Congress certain powers and he's trying to steal these powers from the people? Spoiler alert. They're both pretty effective. There's lots of versions of that. Is it that they're hurting your public safety, cutting things like aviation and clean water and stuff like that? Also effective. But, you know, as we're, as we're doing this, there's a question in my mind of how much is Elon Musk kind of a heat shield for Trump, absorbing the blows and actually not having it transferred him versus kind of through osmosis, transferring that unpopularity to Trump. And that's actually going to be the subject of our polling this weekend. We're going to do some A B testing to see if we only make the argument against Musk and they don't hear Trump's name. Does Trump's popularity take a hit by the end of the poll? We'll have results on that soon.

[Sam Seder]

I would also argue that Trump has been a heat shield for Republicans for Nine years.

[Emma Vigeland]

Right.

[Sam Seder]

And it is incumbent upon like, you know, when Joe Biden is out there saying, you know, MAGA extremists and Kamala Harris is going around with, you know, Republican never Trumpers, all they're saying is like, Trump is the change agent, he's not part of the establishment. In fact, we got Republicans and Democrats right here. And also making it much harder to hold Republicans to account for Donald Trump. I mean, we know, I mean, we've just said like, you know, the weak link in this sort of like it's not Elon Musk, he doesn't care. And Donald Trump, you know, I don't think he cares either because he's like, okay, I may be unpopular, I, if I don't be, if I'm not president for the next term, I can't go to jail. That's already, you know, that's a foregone conclusion. I'm making money hand over fist in a way that he's probably never made in his entire life. At this point, you know, between his meme coins and every scam that they've got going, I'm convinced this whole tariff thing is just really just some type of kickback scheme or pump and dump. So the only people who really have a vulnerability are those 30 some odd Republican lawmakers. And if you don't say this is a, the Republicans doing this, how, how, how does Elon Musk not function and how does Donald Trump not function as a heat shield?

[Gerry Connolly]

Yep. And therefore it's significant. All the Republicans voted for that budget. Right. Because they're finally on the record.

[Sam Seder]

Exactly.

[Gerry Connolly]

Yeah. That was a game changer. I think there's been two game changing moments at least in the last couple months. One is the funding freeze. That was a galvanizing moment. Remember like until that moment it was all hypothetical. There were a lot of people not being full throated on our side. And the second that literally every program was threatened, whether you're a school board member or a mayor or, or a senator, you have something locally that's popular you can point to. And that's when we started seeing local events back home with real people telling their stories. And that's just kind of like extended through all the Doge stuff where they're cutting everything. But that left a vulnerability where Republicans in Congress had deniability. And this past week when they voted for the budget, that would kind of sconce that stuff into law. That gives every, that puts a target on every Republican's back politically in terms of being able to, you know, be subject to local press events back home saying they're cutting veterans health care, cutting cancer research for kids. And you know, we need to take advantage of that opportunity.

[Emma Vigeland]

Well, Adam, what's our version of the Lake and Riley Act? What is our version of basically taking the name of say a veteran? You know, a third of the federal workers that I think have been fired are veterans. Or at the. No, it's a third of the federal workforce. They are veterans. Right. I know that they're attacking the VA soon. Like can they, can the Democrats sponsor a damn bill with the name of a federal worker or somebody say that died because they didn't have access to health care coverage? Or how about a bill that talks about the FAA deregulation, call it president plane crash. Like is it Jefferies that's standing in the way of some of these more grandstanding bills that would at the very least make it look like they're standing on the floor of the House. I know maybe the time for the debate is not immediate, but and doing politics, just do a grandstanding bill and make it. And tie Trump to the plane crashes or something like that.

[Gerry Connolly]

I love that you just gave me homework for the next week. That is such a great idea. So I'll give a couple examples of things that could fit.

[Sam Seder]

Rogers think he shouldn't do anything right now. Just wait.

[Gerry Connolly]

Don't do it.

[Sam Seder]

Anything. Just wait. Give them 30 days.

[Gerry Connolly]

One thing we should do today is name a bill after the 13 year old kid who was a cancer survivor who was held up by Trump in the State of the Union last night and just name a bill to restore funding to NIH and other cancer research things named after him. Right. Like the fact that they're using that against us is so mind boggling and we should just flip that right away. You know, your FAA thing. Pick somebody involved with that. You know, I saw a video online recently of some Veterans affairs person, like the VA official in some midwestern state who was fired. He called his supervisor. The supervisor wasn't aware that he was fired. They called the supervisor supervisor. They weren't aware. And so like this guy trying to help veterans who's being cut for no reason, like name a bill after him. It does seem like for every one of these things we should just find a real person. Name a bill. That's really smart.

[Sam Seder]

Adam Green, we will check on your progress with your homework over the next week and we'll have you back and we'll grade your work. Co founder, Progressive Change Campaign Committee where can people find out more bold progressives.org.

[Gerry Connolly]

Old progressives.org to be looped into our activism.

[Sam Seder]

All right. Thanks, Adam. Appreciate it. All right, folks, we got to take a quick break. When we come back, Shoikat Chakrabati will be here. He is running against Nancy Pelosi, primarying her. He has a long history of these type of disruptive politics, was AOC's first chief of staff. We'll be right back after this. Ceder Emma Viglen, Majority Report Pleasure to welcome to the program Shoika Chakrabadi. He is a candidate for Congress in California's 11th district in the primary. And if I am correct, that district is former speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi's district.

[Shoikat Chakrabati]

You are correct. That's right.

[Sam Seder]

Welcome to the program. Let's I want to just start like, give us give folks a sense of sort of your trajectory in the context of of Democratic politics, because your story in many ways feels like it could be a, you know, it's almost like a microcosm reflection of an attempt that came out of the Bernie campaign in 2016, just reform the Democratic Party. And it feels like it stalled a little bit. But tell us about draw those parallels, if you would.

[Shoikat Chakrabati]

Yeah. So I worked on the Bernie 2016 campaign, the organizing team there, and there's a group of us who came out of that campaign who were really trying to recreate the sort of momentum that we saw on the Bernie campaign but for Congress. And so we had this idea of trying to recruit hundreds of people all across the country to run for Congress on not just the Bernie stuff, but on kind of a transformative economic agenda. Our feeling at the time was the big problems that a lot of people are facing this country just kind of stagnating wages while the costs of things like health care, housing, education, childcare, that stuff had been skyrocketing. And people were really feeling squeezed and stuck. So we wanted to recruit this movement to go in and change the Democratic Party and really change all of Congress to get to actually tackle the big stuff. People in Congress, they love to work in a bipartisan way to rename post offices, but they never want to actually tackle the big stuff. So through that project, we didn't get to recruit hundreds of people, but we did recruit a handful of folks. And one of the people that came out of that was Alexandria Ocasio Cortez. We recruited her. I ended up running her campaign in 2018 where she was primaring a very powerful Democrat, the third most powerful Democrat at the time, a guy named Joe Crowley. And it was a long shot campaign, but she won. And though we didn't get the hundreds of people going into Congress sort of transformation, her victory did allow us to use that spotlight to try to push a lot of the ideas we were trying to push forward. And a lot of that turned into the Green New Deal. And so I ended up going into Congress with Alexandria Ocasio Cortez as her chief of staff, helped her set up her office, was with her when she did her sit in Nancy Pelosi's office on day one of Congress and try to help sort of quarterback and push the ideas of the Green New Deal into the mainstream. It was a very strategic move. You know, at the time there was a Democratic presidential primary going on. And we want. And as you guys know, in these primaries, the presidential candidates are trying to figure out ways to differentiate themselves. So we want to insert the idea of, you know, can we build high wage industries to build a clean economy, to actually upgrade people's means of making a living in this country? We want to inject that idea into the primary. And we kind of got the presidential candidates to do an escalating arms race. And, you know, Joe Biden had to respond with build back better. That was his moderate plan, which was still bigger than anything anyone had proposed at that time amongst presidents. And so, so through that, you know, I stayed with the AOC in Congress for about a year and then hopped back out to actually work more on the policy side of stuff, which is what I've been doing for the last several years.

[Sam Seder]

I imagine. Nancy Pelosi is not. You're not getting regular Christmas cards from Nancy Pelosi would be my guess.

[Shoikat Chakrabati]

Yeah, we're getting dinner every Friday together. No, well, that's good.

[Sam Seder]

It's good that you guys can go and have a beer at the end of the day with each other.

[Shoikat Chakrabati]

Right? Yeah. I mean, as you can imagine, it's really fun to get a beer with Nancy Pelosi. No, you know, it's. You know, you asked about the parallels between back then and right now. A lot of the stuff we were trying to warn back then, you know, and warn the party about and warn Nancy Pelosi about, you know, I was in some, some meetings with Nancy Pelosi at the time was that, look, if you guys don't actually come up with a transformative vision for how to fix people's lives, how to, you know, reverse or the decline people are feeling, whatever right wing move you're seeing now is going to come back to, you know, bite you way harder in five or 10 years. And that's exactly what's going on right now. You know, so the parallels are like, people were sort of ready for change back then. I think people are really ready for change right now and are looking for some sort of vision, something that's not just Donald Trump is bad.

[Emma Vigeland]

Can you talk a little bit about that, though, and the differences between 2018 and what it might look like for you to run in a primary in 2026? Because the Ocasio Cortez campaign, which you guys were masterful at the Crowley, depended a lot on low turnout, is my recollection. In the primaries before, very low turnout compared to the population of the district. But when the primary race was over that night, when she defeated him, it wasn't close. And that was because your campaign with her turned out so many people who were less inclined to vote in a primary. How did you do that? And how do you think that you can maybe put that model into place in your campaign in 2026 when there it's maybe a little bit of a different environment because we don't have, say, the upswing of Justice Democrats or the 2016 Bernie campaign with the wind at.

[Sam Seder]

Our backs or the element of surprise.

[Emma Vigeland]

Right.

[Sam Seder]

For that matter, like, yeah, Crowley did not see this coming.

[Emma Vigeland]

Right.

[Sam Seder]

He was way overconfident. Pelosi may be overconfident, but she definitely, I would imagine, knows that you're running.

[Shoikat Chakrabati]

Oh, yeah, she knows I'm running. I mean, I do think she might be a little overconfident, though. I don't think she's going to do anything in the race until it gets, you know, until she feels very threatened. But I think there, you know, there's some stuff that's going to be harder and some stuff that's easier. You know, Emma, as you mentioned, it was a low turnout primary back then, but, you know, AOC was part of this national movement, and there was some element of folks really calling for change. And that gave us some wind, and it allowed us to do a strong ground game and a bunch of campaign tactics, stuff that let us plot a win. The stuff that's going to be harder this time is it's a much larger district, the turnout's much higher in San Francisco, but the environment is also completely different. Back when we were running in the Joe Crowley primary, nobody serious would talk to us. Nobody wanted to work on the campaign. It was very difficult to actually get things off the ground. I'm noticing things completely different now. You know, the folks I'm Talking to. I'm doing these voter calls every day. Tons of people who are kind of mainstream Democratic voters who've been voting for Nancy Pelosi, their whole lives are showing up on these calls. And you know, I'm not actually just trying to run this campaign in San Francisco. I'm calling for people to run all across the country. I'm trying to do something similar to what we did in 2018. I think we need people to run all over the country to completely reshape and redo the Democratic Party to be one that's about a transformative agenda if we really want to make a difference and win, not just in 2026, but in 2028. And my experience or my sort of motivation for a lot of this is I think the kind of autocratic right we're seeing right now, it's not exactly the same, but it's similar to the kind of autocratic right and fascist movement in the 1930s. You know, it's not the same thing, but it's, it's being driven by the same motivations. And you know, I really feel like the only thing, you know, the way we defeated that last time was you had fdr, you had a whole new movement. You know, it was a New Deal movement, new people that came into government and a whole new vision to rebuild government and to do the kind of upgrade in people's lives that created the whole middle class. You know, we built the whole industrial base, we built a whole new economy. And that was good enough to show that liberal democracy can work and it defeated the right for decades. And I think that's what we should be shooting for right now. We shouldn't just be shooting for the pendulum swinging back and forth. We need to actually show how we can improve people's lives in such a drastic way that we just put to rest the idea that this sort of autocrat right can work and should be in power. So if people are interested in that, I think I do want to run together with them. I want this a national movement. And because I'm running against Nancy Pelosi, who she's very entrenched, but she's better known than Joe Crowley, I get a bit more of a national platform to call for something like that.

[Sam Seder]

I mean, the academic research shows that when you. The authoritarian right rises when they have a built in ideology almost definitionally, and then creating narratives around events becomes much easier. You know, 911 becomes about Islam as opposed to, you know, sort of the monarchy and people trying to maintain power. The financial crisis becomes about African Americans having home ownership as opposed to the big finance. I mean, the, the center left, as it were, in this country, has no, it's seemingly, they feel like they need no ideology and therefore they cannot control the narrative of anything that happens, whether it's immigration, you know, or any other.

[Emma Vigeland]

Or what's the health care vision, crime.

[Sam Seder]

Health, whatever it is, it's a real problem. Let me ask you this. Are there, do you, if you are looking, and I hope, you know, people see your candidacy as an opportunity to go and help you, at least, you know, in our audience here, as far as that vision of having half a dozen, a dozen, two dozen, you know, people running across the country, do you have. From having had so much experience in an insurgent campaign and taking out entrenched people because you're running in a very blue district. There's a lot of those blue districts where there's entrenched politicians who may not see, you know, it coming or are vulnerable because of this desire for change. I think we're seeing it in the, in the New York mayor's race, to be honest with you. Have you guys set up any type of resource? Is there. How would you, for those people who are interested in running and being part of something bigger in terms of change, where would you direct them to?

[Shoikat Chakrabati]

Well, for now, go to my website and there's a button on there says run with me and click that and sign up. Because I actually, you know, I don't actually start from the perspective of doing the sort of district by district analysis. I think it's exciting to start with the people who actually want to run and see who can really articulate this kind of a vision, who's exciting. Because I actually think the problems that San Franciscans are facing and a whole lot of folks are facing across the country are way more similar than people realize. And when I talk about affordability, the cost of housing, the lack of building housing, the cost of health care, education, all that stuff is, in fact, worse in my district than it is in a lot of places around the country. And so I, you know, I don't think it's going to be just, you know, trying to primary deep blue districts. I think we've got to find folks all across the country. So I'm, I'm not actually, I don't have a resource there about specific Democrats.

[Sam Seder]

But, okay, put aside the, you know, that, that imposition. But like, in terms of resources, like, I mean, do you have a handbook that says, you know, all right, I'm running in, I'm running in Nebraska and. But I don't know what's the first thing I do. Type of situation.

[Shoikat Chakrabati]

Yeah. No. So, no, I don't have a handbook yet, but I'm trying to do calls with the folks who are going to sign up and trying to nominate people to start actually just organizing the team. That's kind of the approach I take to it. That's what we did when I did this with Justice Democrats and Brand New Congress is we first started getting the team together because I do think it's really important that we get everybody onto the same page about even doing this, acknowledging what the problems are and what we want to do, and then you can figure out the tactics for each district. But I wanted to talk really quickly about something you mentioned about the centrist Democrats and how they don't really have an ideology, so they're always playing defense. And one potential resource that if anyone out there is interested in running that I'd love for folks to check out. I've been working on something called A Mission for America with a bunch of people. It's a newconcensus.com that's my think tank. Or if you Google Mission for America and find it. And that's the kind of like big, you know, is the plan and the details of the kind of thing that I think Democrats should be running on. You know, of course, I'm open to feedback about it all, but, but I just want to throw it out there if there's folks who are listening who are thinking about running. You know, check it out and see if you're, if you're interested in this kind of thing.

[Sam Seder]

Is there a need, though? I mean, in addition to like, you know, and I can, I have a sense of what that plan would be in terms of like, material benefits for, for folks ranging from housing and job. And maybe we have an idea for energy production. And from an ideological standpoint, like a, which functions as a rubric from which everything else emanates, it feels like that has not been articulated by the leadership of the Democratic Party. You know, I know Chuck Schumer says we will win, but it's not, there's not a lot that you can sort of like, there's no subsidiary narratives that can be developed from that and they seem to be allergic to it. And it seems like there's, I mean, there's room for, for almost like for, for two different narratives. One is within the primaries. Right. Like, what are you finding thematically or narratively is the frustration that people have with Democrats now that that is coming out from those voters who would have, like, I voted for Nancy Pelosi every year. I never even thought about it.

[Shoikat Chakrabati]

Yeah. You know, thematically, and I don't know this is so ideological as it is. Just people are. People are really divided on action versus inaction or just kind of change versus status quo. You know, they want Democrats to be doing more now, and they want Democrats to actually be more radical. And I see this from people on all sides of the political spectrum. People just want the big stuff to get fixed. You know, in San Francisco, the cost of living has just been getting worse and worse for so long that people are willing to entertain way more radical ideas. You know, and I think you see this all across the country. People are, you know, you vote for Obama for change in 2008, and you vote for Trump for change in 2016 and 2024, two very different visions of change, but people just want change. And so I think there's this opportunity to actually present something that's real action. I think that's where the voters are. You know, I think the story, you know, from a more ideological standpoint, what you. I think there's. There's two narratives. One is our politicians have sort of just been lazy and like, left. You know, they've put. Taken their hands off the wheels and it's been easy for them to be lazy because they're getting funded by big donors. You know, it's better for them to just kind of keep the status quo and. Which is good for their donors and not do too much. And if they ever try to say something a little bit, you know, that's like a real idea, they risk upsetting their donors. I saw that dynamic so often in my year in Congress. You know, stuff that would be very popular amongst a wide base of people in purple districts or red districts. The Congress people wouldn't want to touch because they would always be worried about, you know, what the donors would want to. Would think about that. But I think there's this other theme of we've just had, you know, decades and decades of this transfer of wealth from the working class and middle class to the top. You know, the richest people in this country, it's not even the top 0.1% or anything anymore. It's just the richest people in this country. And everyone feels that, you know, and so whatever. I think the ideology has to come back to this point of we need to do things that will improve the broad, you know, the prosperity and wealth of the vast majority of Americans. And it's not just. And it's not going to work to do nothing, because doing nothing is just going to continue that transfer of wealth.

[Emma Vigeland]

And in your. You're in a safe blue district, as Sam mentioned, obviously, Nancy Pelosi in San Francisco, does it change your calculation at all, given some of the polling that we're seeing coming out of Democratic voters and how they view leadership as having failed them right now? I mean, I've never seen this kind of reaction from people that might have been, say, supportive of a Nancy Pelosi in the past, but now, at least under Hakeem Jeffries, there seems to be, you know, amongst even moderate and liberals, this anger about an inability to fight. Is that something you're incorporating into your campaign and still tying Pelosi to.

[Shoikat Chakrabati]

Yeah, absolutely. You know, I'd say I was a part of the wave of the folks who are getting increasingly upset because of what I saw from the Democratic Party after the election. You know, after Trump won again, I really thought the Democrats would have sort of this come to Jesus moment where they're like, all right, you know, we screwed up big time. Let's go back and figure out what to actually change. And then, you know, I saw Pelosi do an interview with Ezra Klein where she basically made the argument for why Democrats shouldn't change and did nothing wrong in the last election. And then you saw her, I'm sure you guys followed this, where she used her considerable power within the caucus to push AOC out from being head of the Oversight Committee, which is the main kind of communications organ of the Democratic Party. Whatever people think of aoc, everyone agrees she's an amazing communicator. And she pushed her aside to get kind of her loyalist, Gerry Connolly. Nice guy, but not the guy for the moment, to be the chair of the Oversight Committee.

[Sam Seder]

He's also one of the most sprightly guys with cancer in Congress. I mean, we have to concede. And it only took, like, literally eight appearances on television before he could figure out to have his camera at eye level and a microphone to communicate to the American public. And he certainly was successful in making. He said, I think the quote is they had to scramble at one point on the committee. So the. That is, you know. Yeah.

[Shoikat Chakrabati]

I mean, to the point you made, Emma, about why are people so upset at the Democrats? It's because the whole. As in there, they got this culture where they're like a big company filing TPS reports, you know, that Donald Trump will say something crazy and they'll be like, let's set up A press conference next week to discuss. And, and they, and everything is seniority based. They just can't change, you know, and they can't, they can't, they can't even imagine how they could have some sort of bigger vision because they don't believe in that. Right. And that's why, you know, the polling that you're talking about, Emma, I think is really showing that the, the time is right now to change the whole party. You know, people are just sick of what the leaders are doing right now. And I don't think they can imagine people like Chuck Schumer suddenly changing, you know, and having some sort of vision. It's like, goes against every fiber of their being to be that way.

[Sam Seder]

What, what is it that, what do you, what do you, in your opinion account for that? I mean, you mentioned like this dynamic with the donors, but staring them in the face is an example of, you know, of people who can raise money by small donations. I don't know if Ocasio Cortez makes, or Sanders make less, you know, has less calling hours for themselves anyways because they have small donors or more, I would imagine it's certainly not a huge, you know, they're not doing that much more with the small donors. I mean, so there's a model out there. So it's not like, is it just that these people don't believe any in anything? Is it a corporate like just risk averseness? And I mean, and I, you know, is it, is it just simply. Well, I, when I came into Congress in 1994, you know, this is the way we did things and you know, Bill Clinton was triangulating and we had to like, you know, Tip O'Neill would have a beer with Reagan and you know, that was the lore and you know, McGovern was still hovering in the background and we all thought like, we don't want to be a hippie. Like what, what are, what are the factors that go in to this? And like, you know, maybe it's not that important, but it's maybe just a point of curiosity, but it also is a way of like perhaps maybe there are some sort of more low hanging fruit out there. I don't think Chuck Schumer's ever going to change, but there may be other politicians there who can be, you know, retrained in some way.

[Shoikat Chakrabati]

Yeah, yeah. First off, I know, at least from the horizon there, Alexandria Ocasio Cortez doesn't do any call time. So she gets to actually do her job when she's in Congress. Rather than spend all her time on the phone. But I think it's a lot of all the above, and I think it's a belief in not having a national message or national leadership. They hammered this home so many times when I was in these caucus meetings where they would talk about how everyone's got to run their own local race and they would really celebrate the local news, reporting on the number of potholes that got fixed. And that all sounds kind of good in theory, but the right does have a national message and they're hammering it over and over and they've got a plan and they're telling you why your life is getting worse and why you need to, you know, we need to kick out all the immigrants. So if you're not combating that with any sort of a national message and some sort of a vision on the other side, I think you're going to lose, you know, and, and I agree with you. I actually think there are some people in the caucus who, if there was a different kind of leadership, would go along with that. But I don't think it's going to come from the folks that are in there right now on their own. I do think there's just this deep seated. I think, you know, it's a bunch of different reasons, different for different people. Some people are just in there as the kind of next step in their career. It's a lot of people just are afraid, you know, if you say something, it can get used, an attack ad against you. And the Democrats just at their core believe that any messaging battle, they're going to lose. So they don't even want to have them, you know, they don't want to publicly fight for the things that they believe in, which half the time isn't anything. So that makes it difficult, you know, if it. So there's, you know, there's all this. There's been such an argument of should the demo. Should Kamala gone on Joe Rogan, you know, and should the Democrats have done more oppositional media? And they're still not doing it, and they're still not going on, you know, shows like this or shows on, you know, all across YouTube and social media and the stuff that people are paying attention to, because what are they going to talk about, you know, and Hakeem Jeffries is doing those shows, and you see what he talks about, and it's terrible. It's him just going on and making a case for doing nothing, which is, you know, that's.

[Sam Seder]

Well, he's being attacked from both the right and the left. So I think we know he's doing the right thing. Yeah, but that part about the, the, the idea of all politics are local is fascinating to me because, because the Democrats controlled Congress for 60 years, 50 years, and it was, I think Tiponi was probably the speaker for almost all of that, and it was his all politics are local. What has changed since then is that almost all media is national. And, and so this messaging, it's, it's almost as if, like, they just have not been pulled into the, the late 20th century, never mind, like, you know, the, the, the, the 21st century. And it's. That. That's terrifying.

[Emma Vigeland]

Right.

[Shoikat Chakrabati]

And, you know, part of that is I, I do think they're, they don't, you know, when it comes down to not having a vision, I don't think the Democrats even agree that there's a problem. You know, like when you, when I say something like, for the vast majority of Americans, life has been getting worse. Republicans will say that opportunistically, and they all say it, but the Democrats don't even agree on that. You know, they don't actually even want to say that because half of the time they're talking to people who don't have that problem and who don't want to talk about that problem. Right, right.

[Emma Vigeland]

I mean, do you think that that's it too? The constituency that the Democrats have sought actively? Chuck Schumer saying, for every, you know, blue collar worker we lose, we'll gain one in the suburbs? It seems like that vision has been tested and it's been an abject failure.

[Shoikat Chakrabati]

Yeah. And you, and that was the part that was surprising to me after the election is I thought this election was a test of that vision. And they seem to have doubled down on it. You know, and, and, and it's not just that constituency, you know, I want to be clear. It's also, you know, Hakeem Jeffries going around just trying to do the VC apology tour. You know, it's as if they thought they really feel like the tech CEOs and people like Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg went over to the right because we weren't nice enough to them. The right spent two years bashing those guys. You know, they were bringing them into committee hearings over and over again telling, you know, complaining about tech censorship, and they just bash them into submission. And all those guys know that they have to go along with Donald Trump or they're gonna, they're gonna get attacked. You know, and the Democrats response to that is let's be nicer to them and to try to convince them to come back to our side. That's never going to work in the first place. And also that's not how you win elections. Talking to the VC of the world is not going to win you the next election.

[Sam Seder]

It's fascinating to me. I can't tell if they're just in such a tight bubble that they can't sort of step out and see what what they're doing looks like to 85% of the country, 90% of the country, or if it is just sort of like a cultural thing, they just come out of some type of like corporate culture where this is just the way. I mean, I don't know. That was my feeling when we saw the three campaign people on Pod Save America. It was all like, this is a big CYA tour. So we're all here together and we agreed that it's like headwinds. It was all headwinds.

[Shoikat Chakrabati]

Yeah. And, you know, I don't think it's. It's gotta be whole new people, like coming to a party because it's not in. They're not gonna get rid of people like Cuomo. I mean, Cuomo is making a comeback tour right now. It's. It's nuts. Half the country, more than half the country, think both parties are corrupt. Of course, Trump's level of corruption is on a whole new astronomical level, but it doesn't matter, you know, for the Democrats to actually make a case against Trump from any sort of, you know, ground. The current people in there aren't going to be able to make it because everyone knows, you know, they're also bought out. They're doing insider stock trading. They're also playing the same games and they've got no vision, you know, so they're, they're playing the same games, but they're on their back foot, you know, so they're, they can't win. I think the current party, just as it is, maybe they can wait for Pendulum to swing back, but then it's gonna swing back the other way and it might be worse the next time.

[Sam Seder]

All right, before we let you go, I have to ask you, are you worried that if you do unseat Pelosi or that your challenge of Pelosi is going to impact the day traders who follow her portfolio, her stock portfolio, which apparently, like, performs incredibly well.

[Emma Vigeland]

Yeah. Why are you being anti economic populace?

[Sam Seder]

And there are literally apps you can get to follow Nancy Pelosi's trades so that you can mimic those. And apparently like outperforms the stock market by some like, I don't know, a thousand percent or something.

[Shoikat Chakrabati]

Yeah, it's, it's. I actually had a guy on a voter call last week who works at a company that Pelosi recently traded and their stock went crazy right after. And he was like, look, voting for you is going to be worse for me personally, but we got to do it. So I think I got the day traders, too.

[Sam Seder]

Well, I'm glad to hear that. Where can people get more information? Where can they join you if they want to run? Where can they donate or volunteer if they're in the neighborhood? Where should people go?

[Shoikat Chakrabati]

So everyone should go to my website. It's S A I K A T Us. I'm sorry, my name is hard to. Hard to spell. Shoikat us. But you can also sign up for Zoom Call there, you know, whether you're in San Francisco or not. I'm doing calls with San Francisco voters every day, but I'm also doing a call with people all across the country once a. Once every couple weeks because I do want to try to organize this national movement. So you can sign up for a Zoom call with me there and any help would be very much appreciated.

[Sam Seder]

So, folks, if you're living in Virginia or you live upstate New York or you're in Nebraska or whatnot and you're interested in running, I mean, it's helpful and, you know, people win in these situations. We will put a link to your website at Majority fm. Shoika Chakrabody, really appreciate your time today. Wish you the best of luck. And we'll check in in a couple of months and hopefully you're going gangbusters.

[Shoikat Chakrabati]

Right. Thank you. Appreciate it.

[Emma Vigeland]

Thanks so much.

[Sam Seder]

Okay, folks, we got to take a quick break, head into the fun half of the program. That's encouraging.

[Emma Vigeland]

Yeah, definitely, definitely.

[Sam Seder]

Like 40 of 40 of that guy in the. In the House would be amazing.

[Emma Vigeland]

I think some federal workers are going to, my guess, are going to get on board and start primaring some of these Democrats.

[Sam Seder]

That would be great.

[Emma Vigeland]

Primarying or if there's an open seat and then you get to run against a Republican who cut a bunch of jobs in your district. I'm looking at everybody in areas like Kansas City where it's a high concentration of federal workers, and then in safe blue districts. What Troy Cott's doing is the model. I mean, and we've had success. There were some setbacks, obviously. Jamal Bowman, Cori Bush, but there were also gains made.

[Sam Seder]

Yep.

[Emma Vigeland]

Since. Since birth, you know, since 2016.

[Sam Seder]

So folks, check out is it showing what shoykat.us so s a I k a t S a I k a t. I mean.us we will put a link to that in the podcast and YouTube description folks, but this is where we usually say you can support this program by going to jointhemajorityreport.com but today if you got some extra change, maybe go to shoykat's site, support that challenge. It's going to get a lot of coverage that race. S A I K A T.us in the meantime, you can also support this program by giving us a good rating on that itunes platform or Apple music whatever they call it these days.

[Emma Vigeland]

That machine.

[Sam Seder]

If you are watching us on Twitch. First off poggers and also second off, thank you for the level four hype train yesterday. That is what it I was feeling the effects of that all day. But if you have a one of those Amazon prime subscriptions you can dedicate it towards us. Also if you're on Rumble, I want to thank you person on Rumble who's been watching the show. That's been great. Also am quickie.com check it out amquickie.com three times a week it's free. You get an email with the biggest story. It's a great way to stay on top of this stuff, right? Like honestly, like every day. Look at this, look at this. It's been three days. This is stuff I didn't get to. It's insane right now.

[Emma Vigeland]

It is.

[Sam Seder]

But the AM Quickie is a great way to stay on top of that stuff and it's free three days a week. Amquikie.com also just coffee.co op price of eggs through the roof. Price of coffee through the roof. Just Coffee.co op is a co op though, so they're not there's no board of directors who are having to take their cut. They're not gouging people because they're protecting their their suppliers, their farmers and they have the majority report blend. So Just Coffee Co Op ESPN on break Bradley, what's happening with Mat Leck's left reckoning.

[Shoikat Chakrabati]

So Matt and David spoke with Jason Miles about from the this Is Revolution podcast on Tuesday to discuss his new work with Means tv and they also did some recapping of the joint address last night so you could check that [e-mail] leftreckoning and go to patreon.com leftreckoning to subscribe and access their post game.

[Sam Seder]

Enlightened dentist has an im saying shoykat should team up with Biden and pressure Pelosi to drop out of the race due to her age. It's fantastic.

[Emma Vigeland]

I'm wondering. I didn't want to ask this of him because I'm sure, you know, this is a situation where maybe he has no control over it, but I wonder if. Is she officially running for reelection again?

[Sam Seder]

I don't think she is announced.

[Shoikat Chakrabati]

Announced.

[Sam Seder]

I don't think she's announced.

[Emma Vigeland]

Good for him, regardless if he's getting out this early.

[Sam Seder]

100%.

[Gerry Connolly]

Yeah.

[Sam Seder]

This way he becomes. Yes. 100%.

[Emma Vigeland]

I mean, she's 84. 86.

[Sam Seder]

Yes.

[Emma Vigeland]

Her age. 84.

[Sam Seder]

Charlie Turk. I have Prime. I'm not sure how to subscribe through it. You got to be on Twitch, and then it is in your. Your settings, your profile settings on Twitch, and you just essentially assign it to our channel for the month. All right, quick break. 646-257-3920. We will endeavor to take calls today. Of course. We're going in at 130. I'm not blaming you, Emma. I know I was looking at you and I said that, but I'm not blaming you.

[Emma Vigeland]

Okay, thanks. See you in the fun half.

[Sam Seder]

Three months from now, six months from now, nine months from now. And I don't think it's gonna be the same as it looks like in six months from now. And I don't know if it's necessarily gonna be better six months from now than it is three months from now, but I think around 18 months out, we're gonna look back and go like, wow.

[Shoikat Chakrabati]

What?

[Sam Seder]

What is that going on? It's nuts. Wait a second. Hold on. Hold on for a second. Emma, welcome to the program.

[Gerry Connolly]

Fun Half.

[Sam Seder]

Matt who? Fun hat. What is up, everyone? Fun path.

[Emma Vigeland]

No.

[Sam Seder]

Mickey, you did it. Fun Path.

[Emma Vigeland]

Let's go, Brandon.

[Sam Seder]

Let's go, Brandon. Bradley, you want to say hello?

[Shoikat Chakrabati]

Sorry to disappoint everyone. I'm just a random guy.

[Sam Seder]

It's all the boys today.

[Shoikat Chakrabati]

Fundamentally false.

[Emma Vigeland]

No. I'm sorry.

[Sam Seder]

Women. Stop talking for a second. Let me finish.

[Gerry Connolly]

Where is this coming from?

[Emma Vigeland]

Dude?

[Sam Seder]

But. Dude, you want to smoke this? 7A. Yes.

[Adam Green]

All right.

[Sam Seder]

Me. You're safe. Yes. Is this me? Is it me? It is you? Is this me? I think it is you. Who is you? No sound. Every single freaking day. What's on your mind? We can discuss free markets and we can discuss capitalism.

[Gerry Connolly]

I'm gonna go start.

[Sam Seder]

Right. Ooh, libertarians. They're so stupid. Though common sense says, of course.

[Emma Vigeland]

Gobbledy gook.

[Sam Seder]

We nailed him.

[Emma Vigeland]

So what's 79 plus 21 challenge.

[Sam Seder]

Man, I'm positively quivering. I believe 96. I want to say 8572-1035-5011-0389, 11.

[Emma Vigeland]

For instance $3,400. $1900.

[Sam Seder]

5 4, $3 trillion.

[Emma Vigeland]

Sold.

[Sam Seder]

It's a zero sum game.

[Emma Vigeland]

Actually, you're making me think less of.

[Sam Seder]

Wait but let me say this poop, call it satire.

[Emma Vigeland]

Sam goes satire on top of it all.

[Sam Seder]

My favorite part about you is just like every day, all day, like everything you do. Without a doubt. Hey, buddy, we see you. All right, folks, folks, folks.

[Emma Vigeland]

It's just the week being weeded out, obviously.

[Sam Seder]

Yeah. Sun's out, guns out. I, I, I don't know.

[Emma Vigeland]

But you should know, people just don't.

[Shoikat Chakrabati]

Like to entertain ideas anymore.

[Sam Seder]

I have a question. Who cares?

[Shoikat Chakrabati]

Our chat is enabled, folks.

[Sam Seder]

I love it.

[Emma Vigeland]

I do love that.

[Sam Seder]

Gotta jump, gotta be quick. I gotta jump.

[Shoikat Chakrabati]

I'm losing it, bro.

[Sam Seder]

2:00, we're already late and the guy's being a dick. So screw them. Sent to a gulag.

[Emma Vigeland]

Outrageous.

[Sam Seder]

Like, what is wrong with you? Love you.

[Shoikat Chakrabati]

Bye.

[Sam Seder]

Love you. Bye.