The Daily Show: Ears Edition - ICYMI - Pramila Jayapal on How to "Use the Power You Have"

Episode Date: August 16, 2020

Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal discusses her book "Use the Power You Have," navigating sexism and racism as a woman of color in Congress, and her support for Joe Biden. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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You have a new book entitled, Use the Power You Have a Brown woman's guide to politics and political change. What are some of the tips and tricks that you would teach a woman who wants to get into politics who has melanin in her skin? Yes, well you know Congress does not look a lot like me. There are only 79 women of color out of 11,000 that have ever served in the U.S. House of Representatives. And so it is different. We have to assert our voice, we have to use our power, and we have to be ready for all the sexism and racism that we face when we walk into those halls. Not super different than other places we might have been in some ways, but you would think that the House of Representatives, the People's House should be different, and

it's not yet. So this is saying to, you know, women of color everywhere, frankly, to, to, to, the women, thrown, thiiiiiiiii and thi and thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thr-a, the, the, tho, thi, thi, the, tho, and tho, and tho, and tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho So this is saying to you know women of color everywhere, frankly women in general, that when you come in know that you have power, don't let somebody else intimidate you, they're most probably intimidated by you, and claim your space, but also be ready, you know, do the work, be ready because you will be subjected to far more than most of your colleagues. You have an interesting journey in that you came to the US at 16 to study to to study to study to study to study to study to study to to to to to to to to to to to to the to the to the th and th and th and th and th and the th and th and thi thi thi, thi, thi, thi, the thi, thioliol-aughen, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, the the the the the the the the the the the the th. th. th. th. th. th. thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, their, their, thi, their, thi, thiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii, their, their, their, their, their, to far more than most of your colleagues. You have an interesting journey in that you came to the US at 16 to study. 18 years later, you became a US citizen and you're now serving, representing American citizens and non-American citizens alike. Do you feel like there's ever a conflict of interest as an immigrant or as a U.S. citizen, or do you think that that's a fallacy that people have created? Yeah, it's very much much much much much much much much much much much thi much thiiiiiiiiiiiiii thi thi thi thi thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. You thi. You thi. You thi. You th. You thi. You thi. You thi. You th. You th. You th. You th. You th. You th. You you th. You you you thi. You thi. You thi. You thi. You thi. You thi. You thi. You thi. You thi. You thi. You thi. You thi. You thi. You thi. You thi. You thi. You thi. You thi. You thi. You thi. You thi. You thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. You thi. You thi. You thi. You citizen or do you think that that's a fallacy that people have created? Yeah, it's very much of a fallacy. I mean I

think it's funny because you know 16 and and now 40 years later almost I'm not quite not quite at 40 but I am now in the United States of America. This is my home. Where am I supposed to go back to? So this idea that somehow you're never going to be American enough is ridiculous. And I think it's important that for those of us, there are 14 of us that are immigrants born outside of the United States naturalized serving in Congress today. This is also an important part of the story of America. When you think about this country and the conversations that are being had now, I feel a lot of the the the the the the the the thi thiiiiiiii thi thia thi thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thin is thin, thin, thi, thin, thin' tho, thus, th. th. th. thus, thus, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, than, than, than, than, than, than, than, than, thin, than, than, thin, thin, than, than, than, than, than, thin, than, thin, than, thin, thean, thean, thin, theanan, than, now. I feel a lot of the time it's easy for people to say, oh, the problem is on the Republican side,

you know, that's where we're seeing sexism, that's where we're seeing racism. But we come to learn time and time again that sexism, racism, a lot of the problems that we're facing in society aren't really party dependents. How do you broach the topic with your colleagues who you feel like have blind spots when it comes to race or when it comes to gender or when it comes to immigration? Yeah, I talk about this in the book. I do think we have to call it out within our own party.

The way I approach it is, you know, if it's with a colleague, I will talk to them directly if something happens, and I will try to raise it. I will tell you that after the murder of George Floyd, there was some very powerful caucus calls where I think many of our white colleagues in the caucus really had their own awakening. And we talked about white fragility and we talked about some of the other concepts that it is really important for people across party lines

to further the narratives of racist policy. And I think that that's just something that is coming to light over and over again. We see it very clearly. Sometimes our colleagues don't. So when they're on our side, obviously, you know, you try to raise it in the best way possible. But sometimes you do have to take it on publicly. And you do have to have to have to have to have to have to have to call to call to call to call to call to call to call to call to call to call to call to call to call to call to call to call to call to call to call to call to call to call to call to call to call to call to to the the to to to to to to to to to to to, to, to, to, to, their their their their their their their their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, thooooooooomorrow, tooomorrow, tooomorrow, tooomorrow, tooomorrow, tooomorrow, their, and you do have to call out those racist policies when you see them.

You have been pro-Bernie, you have been one of the people pushing the party predominantly to the left, and now Joe Biden, as you've commented on in the past, is someone where people aren't enthusiastically wanting to vote for, but we'll vote for because Donald Trump is the alternative. Going into the election, how are you going to balance that message of saying to people, yes, Joe Biden is not as progressive as we wanted, but you've got to go and vote for him. Do you think that balance is something that you can achieve? Absolutely. I don't think there's any contradiction whatsoever. We have two candidates on the ballot. One is Donald Trump, one is Joe Biden.

There is zero progress that is possible on anything that we care about with Donald Trump and the White House. He is a fascist, xenophobe who is destroying our Constitution. And so we have to get him out. And this is a critically important election. And so as I said to Vice President Biden, I will be right there with him. I will be doing everything I can to support and get everyone to turn out for Joe Biden. And I will be pushing him. I will, you know, as soon as we get him in the White House, and even before, with these task forces that we had, we were able to significantly push Joe Biden to do things that he hadn't

signed on to before. So he is movable. He is listening. And he does understand that we need to turn out from young people, and I, to, to, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, to, and, to, and, to, to, and, to, to, to, to, to, and, to, to, to, to, to, to, they, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, the, and, the, the, and, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the the the they.e.e.e.e.e.e.e. And, toe.e. And, toe. And, toe. And, toe. And, toe. And, the the the the the the the the turn out from young people, from folks of color, and I'm going to do everything I can to help get them elected, and then I'm going to be right out front making sure that we continue to push for the policies that we need as a country. When you look at where America is headed right now, there are two things that are pressing for most people from what I see. Number one is, will the government find a way to continue the stimulus checks? But I'd love to know as somebody who's serving in Congress, firstly, is there any progress that you are seeing in getting people the checks that they so badly

need to survive? And secondly, what are you, what are some of the conversations you are having in protecting and preserving America's election, which might not be an election day anymore, might be an election week, might be an election month, depending on how long it takes to count mail-in ballots? On the relief, we have to, Trevor. I mean, this is just cruelty. My constituents, some of them are facing being kicked out of their homes. They don't have money to put on the table, they don't know what to do with their kids, they're being pushed to go back to work or to open up schools, and this president is pulling PR stunts with some executive orders that do absolutely nothing.

So where is the pressure for this? It's going to come from the people, particularly in those Republican states where there's a senator up for re-election. And that senator is going to have to have to have to have to have to have to have to have to have to have to have to have to have to have to have to have to have to have the the to have the the the the the the the the the to have the the the the the to have the the the the the the the their, their, their, their, their, the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the th... the. the. thr. thr. thr.ean.ean.ean.ean.ean. th. thr. thr. thr. threat. the. thr. Wee. We're that senator is going to say, all of these people are not going to re-elect me. This is the power of the vote. And we need to have the cacophony of voices across the country saying, this is what's happening to me. Cruelty, 3.5 million cases just in the last 12 weeks, 163,000 deaths of Americans.

It is absolute lunacy that this president and the Republicans have refused to bargain. So that's where the leverage is going to come, people's voices and stories. On the second point, this is very important. This president is trying to undermine the election in numerous ways. He is, you know, refusing to give money to the U.S. Postal Service. and if he doesn't do that, then the Postal Service can't deliver the ballot. He's refusing to put money into states so that those states that don't have mail-in voting can move to whatever they need to do. Now, we in Washington State do. It's been incredibly successful. And, you know, I think that the claim that that that that that that that that that the the that the the the the that the the that the the the the the the the that the the the the the the the the the throome is the throome is throeck is the the their is toeck is toeck is toeck is toeck is toeck is toe, toe, toe, toe, toe, toe is is toe is toe is toe is toe is toe is toeckhuehuehuehuehuehuehuehuehuehaauuihihihihihihihihihihihihihihihihihihihihihihihihihihiiiiii is their their toe is toe is toe is toeuiiiiiii.aui.aui.aui.aui.aui.aui.aui.aui. toe, toe, toe is toe is the claim that the fraud rate is high is ridiculous.

There was a study done that over 240 million ballots that were cast over the last 20 years, the fraud rate is 0.006%. So we have to make sure that we are getting money into these systems. But there's something else, for everybody that's listening, vote early. As soon as you can vote, get your vote in, get your ballot in, because this is going to be critical. They will try to stop ballots from being delivered. They will try all kinds of things.

Last thing, what do we do if the president tries to retain power, we have, we're talking with top constitutional scholars and we're really going through all the different ways in which this could happen. It will take people in the streets if this happens and then of course all the court challenges that will be there. But at the end of the day, it's going to be about whether Republicans are going to stand up for this president, even as he takes the country into the country the country the country the country to to to to to the country to to the country to the country to to the country to the country to the country to the as he takes the country into fascism and dictatorship. Well, that's an oblique future and I hope we never have to answer any of those questions. Thank you so much for joining us on the show.

Thank you, Trevor. The Daily Show with Trevnoa, E episodes and videos at the Daily Show.com. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, and subscribe to the Daily Show on YouTube for exclusive content and more. You may be tempted to skip this ad, but don't. Marketers want their audience to stick around. And with Paramount Ads Manager, you can advertise your business on the biggest shows on TV for 30 unskippable seconds. Run your ads in premium content on Paramount Plus and over 15 major networks with hitshows,

the to' sows, movies, sports and more. Put your business in show business with Paramount Ads Manager. Go to Ads Manager.paramount.com. That's ADS Manager. Paramount.com to learn more. Do Nice Guys Really Finish Last. I'm Tim Harford, host of the Cautionary Tales podcast, and I'm exploring that very question. Join me for my new mini series on the Art of Fairness. From New York to Tahiti will examine villains undone by their villainy. Monstrous, self-devaring egos and accounts of the extraordinary power of decency. Listen on the Eyeheart Radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts.