The Young Turks - Christian Organization Hosted Putin Lackeys And Tulsi Gabbard Announces Presidential Bid
Episode Date: January 12, 2019Russian spies attended the National Prayer Breakfast. Progressive Representative Tulsi Gabbard unofficially announces her bid for president in 2020. Get exclusive access to our best content. http://ty...t.com/GETACCESS Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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Okay, so we're breaking a story tonight about the National Prayer Breakfast and how they
are involved with the Russians.
I think it's an amazing story, we're gonna do that first, and that is brought to you
by TYT.
All right, secondly, a lot of the Democrats in the House apparently aggrieved with Alexandria
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Why, I'm greatly amused by their aggrievement.
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But the essence of the story is, I do declare it is not how things are done around here.
Well, that's exactly the point, isn't it?
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Trump maybe starting to backpedal.
That news just broke about the national security situation.
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All right, what's the first?
Okay, this is a complex one, so hold on to your butts.
We know that Maria Butina, the convicted Russian agent, is in a bad way legally because of her
attempts during the last election to get involved in things by going to politician's speeches,
talking with them, taking photos with them, and also, as we know, attending the national
prayer breakfast, as well as a number of other Russians as well, who apparently were here
to attempt to get involved and change the course of either the election.
policy, things like that.
Well, now, TYT investigates has turned up strong financial evidence that a Christian charity spent
a significant amount of money for Russian guests, including Maria Boutina, to attend that
national prayer breakfast in at least one, although possibly multiple years.
So let's talk about this process.
The FBI says that Maria Boutina and her handler, widely reported to be Alexander Torsin,
a Russian official said to be close to President Vladimir Putin, attended the breakfast to influence
U.S. politics. Tax records reviewed by T.Y.T. represent the first indication they may have received
direct financial support in their efforts. So can I just pause there for a second, John?
I want people to understand. So first of all, the FBI got Butina. And so she's got a plea deal.
There's a lot of information in the plea deals and the affidavits. Tortion was her handler.
And Tortion is one of the top Russian oligarchs, deeply tied to Putin and wanted for money,
wandering in Spain.
So in fact, they got, through the prayer breakfast, it appears they got torsion at meeting
with Trump, but then even the Trump White House had to cancel it because they're like, I mean,
the guy is wanted for money laundering.
We can't meet with a known criminal that our allies is seeking to extradite for on these charges.
So torsion is based on the US government's findings and the Spanish government as well,
bad guy.
The prayer breakfast is having him over quite frequently.
Now that's from the affidavits and the plea deals, et cetera.
Now we know through TYT investigative story, Jonathan Larson did a wonderful job here, through
the tax records that a group associated with a fellowship and John's going to break that
down for you in a second, is apparently paying for those Russians to come here.
Why?
I mean, that's a fascinating question and how deep do those ties go.
So let's now dive into that.
Exactly. And I want to explain briefly for those who might not follow what the national
prayer breakfast is and why it's important. Because in this particular case, it's important
because of the connection with Torsin and Maria Boutina. But in a larger sense, going back a
very long time, it has been an extremely influential event that both Democrats and Republicans
attend, including presidents, that has this sort of veneer of bipartisanship and respectability
and mainstreamness, but is in fact sort of a den of corruption of different forms, which we're
to break down.
The breakfast is run by the Fellowship Foundation, sometimes known internally as the family.
Secret of Christian Group, led by Coe, what's this first name?
Doug Coe.
Doug Co.
For decades before his death in 2017, although this organization goes back many, many decades.
The annual event has become an international influence peddling bazaar where foreign dignitaries,
religious leaders, diplomats, and lobbyists jockey for access to the highest reaches of American
power, because as we said, presidents go, senators go.
Congressmen go, influential people in business and all of that as well.
And so meanwhile, around the prayer breakfast, outside of that specific event, that's just
one event on the first Thursday of February.
There's a week-long lobbying festival.
There is oil industry hosting events, defense contractors, and all of that.
So this is, by the way, coming from journalist Jeffrey Charlotte, who says, so you look at
the list of foreign leaders who are coming again and again from around the world, they're there
for access to American power, they're there to cut deals.
He goes on to say, and he wrote a book, by the way, on this organization and the event, saying the National Prayer Breakfast is used to circumvent the State Department.
They are arranging meetings with a real who's who of nasty figures, the kind of government leaders from some countries that typically you would not have formal meetings with.
And so what's interesting is that this is such an important event that the people who attend will spend thousands or tens of thousands or even more dollars in attending.
And so if an organization is paying to have Maria Butina and other influential Russians attend,
that is significant because normally that has a significant price tag associated with it.
So let's go into more of what was found.
A July 2018 FBI affidavit said that an unnamed organizer of the breakfast helped Butina
and Torsin get Russian guests into the breakfast.
Federal tax filings show that a Seattle nonprofit called Leadership Development Seminars
reported expenses connected to guests from Russia and other former Soviet black nations,
attending the breakfast from at least 2014 through 2017, the most recent year for which tax
records are available. LDS, that organization we just mentioned, has strong ties to the
Fellowship Foundation, including personnel, cooperation on the breakfast, and hundreds of thousands
of dollars in funding. And going back quite some time, money flows both ways. And from LDS
to the Fellowship in several of the years that was found, the only thing they were
providing money for was for that fellowship and their breakfast.
Okay, so now let me again level set here.
You've got the fellowship, the family, whatever you want to call it, they do the prayer
breakfast, okay?
Then you've got these guys, the leadership development seminars, which is shortened it
as LDS.
Which is unfortunate too because the Mormons are LDS.
That's right, but they are not Mormons.
They're not part of them.
It's just that this group is also called LDS.
Now, Doug Coe used to run the fellowship until he died.
in 2017.
The person who runs LDS is Doug Burley.
Doug Burley is Doug Coe's son-in-law.
And the fellowship also apparently paid for some of his housing.
And they give hundreds of thousands of dollars back and forth to one another.
Until about 2014, it's the fellowship mainly giving to LDS.
Okay, to me that's a little bit more logical.
They're apparently the bigger group.
But then LDS turns around in 2013 and starts giving money to the fellowship.
Where do they get that money?
That's an interesting question that we don't have an answer for yet.
They do have a public facing website where they can collect money from sources that are not clear.
So that'll be an interesting.
And remember, there was a huge affidavit here where the FBI laid out the different problems
with both the NRA and the fellowship and how they have Russians that have apparently in a sense
infiltrated them.
And so we might soon find out a lot more.
of these details.
But for now, what TYT has found out is that Doug Burley's group, the LDS, in their tax circuits
showed that they gave, for example, in 2017, $421,000, 644 on top, to work, quote, work in
the former Soviet Union.
We had 65 people from Russia, Ukraine, Georgia, Armenia, Kyrgyzstan, and Kazakhstan,
attend the National Prayer Breakfast in early February.
And there's a lot of communication, and now some of it public.
Doug Burley also talked to World Magazine about it, saying, and it seems to match up with the evidence
in the affidavits and the plea deals, that they got 10 Pete Russians into the National Prayer
Breakfast in 2017.
Then Torsian asked for a meeting with Trump.
And all these guys are looking to influence American politicians.
Now look, at this point, if you say, look, I got it.
The Republicans are massively compromised by the Russians in a lot of different ways.
There's Dana Roerbucker, there's obviously famously Donald Trump and all of his underlings,
Manafort, et cetera, et cetera.
But why are Democrats going to this?
And so wait, I thought it was about prayer.
I didn't really think that, but that's what they claim, right?
But in reality, no, this is about deal making.
It was about prayer until Bill Clinton at the prayer breakfast in 1998, I'm guessing
right after his affair with Monica Lewinsky was revealed, people started protesting, boycotting
it because it was Bill Clinton then.
Some people early in the first Obama one mentioned, well, he might be a Muslim, so is that
really something that we need to have at the prayer break?
So even the religious side of it has historically been, of course, pretty conservative and
pretty challenging.
But yeah, this is clearly not just about prayer.
I think one thing from Jonathan is reporting to add that's, I think, interesting too, is that
Torsin himself reportedly directed Boutina who should be the Russians invited in the Russian
delegation. So they were hand-picked Russians by torsion that were invited by Bhutina.
Yeah. Yeah. I think that it does. This is not. So Burley is a long-time fan of Russia,
and to be fair to him. So he speaks Russian. He's gone there. He goes about three, four times
a year. So he's interested in this country. Some people are interested in France and some who are
interested in China. So I think there's something legitimate there because it goes back a long time.
On the other hand, if you're inviting Russian oligarchs to meet with top level American
officials, and you're financing that, that is problematic.
I mean, you take any country and put that in.
What if he brought in top level, instead of oligarchs, mullahs from Iran, and said,
you know what, I'm gonna circumvent the whole State Department, the whole process, and
I'm gonna pay for the mullahs to come here and influence both the Republican and Democratic
politicians.
Everybody would go, that's totally unacceptable.
And it might theoretically be one thing if it was considered to be a weird extreme event,
where weird extreme people go.
But if it's considered just, oh, normal, no, you go there.
If you're the president, you go there.
It's totally normal, totally cool.
You should be there.
Creating this obligation, you know, whether real or imagined, that everyone needs to go.
So I was reading up a little bit more on the origins of this organization.
In the very beginning, it was created by a man who apparently got a vision from God that America,
in Christianity was focused too much on this idea of poor people and doing stuff for poor
people. That's a waste of time. Jesus is strong and he wants you to track down the key
individuals, powerful influential people, get them to support you, and then they will set up
a system and laws that benefit Christianity and create what has been termed trickle down Christianity
or trickle down evangelicalism. That is not a middle of the road form of Christianity. No.
That's not something that, hey, maybe some Republicans, some Democrats can get on with that,
although they have.
And it also has- I'm gonna get to the Democrats in a second.
It conveniently has the name National Prayer Breakfast, which is the softest, most benign
name, and everything sneaks under that radar.
Yeah, although when its nickname is the family, the family would like to meet you now.
I'd be a little careful.
Anyway, so, but on to super important stuff.
So first of all, the question is, why are Democrats going here?
Okay, the Republicans might be compromised, but why are top-level Democrats going to support
evangelical right-wing Christians and their agenda about trickle-down Christianity, trickle-down
economics, and these people are clearly right-wing.
I mean, we're really having a conversation about how it's bipartisan?
No, it is the Democrats then helping support a right-wing frame, even if they weren't involved
with the Russians.
Now, it's about to get way worse in a second as well.
But first, on this burly guy and what he thinks of Jesus, okay, first he said that back
in 2017, now at this point Donald Trump is president, remember, he's quoted by the Russian
evangelical alliance that there will soon, in a matter of three months, he said, be, quote,
a breakthrough between Russia and the USA that is about to occur.
Now, how does he know that?
What does he know that we don't know?
Well, that's an important and interesting question.
So now, why did I bring up Jesus?
He has also said this, Burley, to give you a sense of who this guy is, the one who paid for
the Russians to come here through LDS.
When challenged about it in March of 2018, he said, there's big time collusion.
It's the Russians, and Jesus, that's the collusion.
Okay, so Ted Lou, Chris Coons, all the other Democrats.
So they're going in the past, Amy Klobuchar has gone, Kirsten Gillibrand, Hillary Clinton.
Al Franken went.
That's right.
So are you guys going to continue to go with a guy who thinks that he's talking to Jesus and
that Jesus wants him to collude with the Russians?
And then he has information we don't have any paying for Russians to meet with top officials.
And you want to take part in that process?
That's crazy.
But wait, there's one last part.
And this is earlier stories that the TYT investigates broke.
So Representative Bob Adderholt is a Republican from Alabama, and the fellowship has paid
for his overseas trips.
So where did he go?
Well, one of the things that he did was he went to Ukraine and met with Rinot Akmettov, okay?
That is a client of former Trump campaign manager, Paul Manafort.
So that's Manafort's oligarch.
So now the fellowship is paying for Republican congressmen to go talk to Russian oligarchs.
Why?
And why are Democrats participating in this?
So it's TYT investigates job to bring you the facts, and they have.
And I think this is fascinating now that we know that there's a direct financial relationship.
We know one side of the relationship, which is that the LDS is paying for the Russians.
Whereas LDS getting their money, we don't know that yet.
And I'm very curious about that.
So now to the Democrats, I mentioned Ted Liu, and let's be fair, TYT Investigates went and
asked Lou about participation here.
And his chief of staff, Mark Sevesco, gave this quote, if this is all true, the payments
are verified and this is true and factual.
Of course, the congressman would be concerned about it.
And we believe transparency is more important as we did with the NRA.
And if there's some Russian influence on the National Prayer Breakfast, we want to know about
it.
That makes sense.
We all want to know about it.
And finally, I mentioned those, the trips of the Republican legislators are taking on the dime
of the Fellowship Foundation.
One of the things they go to do is to influence other governments to pass anti-gay
legislation.
Wow.
Why would a Democrat support that group in any way, shape, or form?
When you look at other countries, laws against LGBT members and citizens in their own countries,
they're as bad as ours and some far, far worse.
So to send people through this organization to argue against the dignity and human rights
and sometimes the lives of gay people across the world.
And Democrats go and validate that by going to this breakfast and saying, no, it's okay, it's wonderful
and all we're doing is praying, which is total nonsense, and you could see it in the facts
here.
So it's our job here at the Young Turks then to analyze it.
My analysis is no Democrat in their right mind should give any credibility to this organization.
It appears to be toxic on several different fronts.
And not faulting them now, but faulting them for going to the next prayer breakfast, because
that was before Jonathan Larson's reporting uncovered all of this.
So if you were Al Franken in 2016 and you went to the prayer breakfast because you didn't know that this was going on, you know, I have to think that there was a lot of not knowing that this was going on, which is why this story is so interesting as well.
Maybe.
It seems, it seems suspicious from the beginning.
Are you the luteina and torsion thing?
I mean, listen, you know, that's definitely.
Yeah, no, no, I'm saying even if you don't know about that, even if you don't care about that, even if you don't care about anything having to do with any Russian that's ever lived in the world.
Yeah.
It seems weird, I think.
Well, you know, so look, let me be in the middle here, which makes sense.
So John is right, I never would have gone to the breakfast in the first place, because I know
that they're right wingers, who are we kidding, right?
And who are the Democrats kidding?
They're not nonpartisan, they're not left wingers, and I wouldn't want to go and aid
and abet their policy against the LGBT community, et cetera, et cetera, right?
Like Hillary Clinton has this flowery quote about Doug Coe and how wonderful he is to her.
I'm sure he was.
Okay, but that doesn't help fix any of the other things.
But to Michael's point, now what do we know?
Well, from earlier TYT investigative stories, we now know that they're paying for Republican
congressmen to go to other countries and actively lobby against LGBT rights and their lives
in a lot of cases.
And now we know through the FBI and the special counsel that they were infiltrated by Maria
Boutrina, that's a fact, and her handler is one of the top Russian oligarchs, tors, that's
That's a fact.
Well, that's new.
And now through TYT investigates, we know another layer to it, which is that it turns out
they were actually paying for the Russians to attend.
So now that greatly enmeshes the National Prayer Breakfast with Russian oligarchs that clearly
had an agenda.
Again, best case scenarios, they were useful idiots of the Russians thought, they're paying
for us to come get all this influence in power with both Republicans and Democrats.
How do we get this lucky?
There are other worst case scenarios, but we'll see how that develops.
And something called the National Prayer Breakfast shouldn't be backed by a group like this.
And if it is, then people should not go to the National Prayer.
Because it's not that.
I mean, I think the name is really deceptive, not just because it's a soft name, but because
it leads people to think that this is somehow, the president always goes, it's an official
government function when it is clearly anything but that.
Yeah, and the president normally does go.
And so I agree with Michael again, let's give these folks a chance.
I mean, I'd be really surprised if Ted Lou and Kirsten Gillibrand continue to go to the breakfast.
So let them absorb the report, let's ask them about it, and then let them verify, let
him go through that whole process, and then we'll ask and if they say, no, I see, you know
what, fighting against LGBT rights across the world and paying for the Russians to come
influence us, we think that's wonderful ideas.
We really like it and we'd like to stay.
Okay, well then that's a different question.
And now we should ask them about it.
I mean, now we should take this to them and go to the offices of these Democratic members
of Congress and say, hey, now that this report exists, are you going to go to the next
prayer breakfast, which I presume is next month?
It's usually in February or March.
It is.
It's in early February.
And Michael, you're at our mind.
And Emma Viglin now is going to follow up and reach out to all those offices and ask them.
And so we'll find out what their answer is.
But it appears that this group is unconscionable from a progressive perspective, let alone
the legal issues they have now that is going to also probably get revealed in the next month
or two.
We already know parts of it as we just explain, and it could be even worse from the blacked-out
parts of the plea deals that are not yet public.
Yeah.
First break?
Yeah.
Now when we come back, oh boy, the establishment Democrats are on the war path against
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
How's that going to turn out?
I have a pretty good clue.
We'll tell you the details.
We'll tell you where it's going,
and we might have a lively discussion about it,
so we'll be ready.
We need to talk about a relatively new show
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Will.
All right, back on the Young Turks, some comments from you guys.
First, the member section, eclectic miscellaneous says religion in Russians, two things that should not be influencing American politics.
Agreed?
Also money.
Right, and two things that are.
That's right, unfortunately.
Dempstar asks, other countries try to influence our elections, why is all the focus just on Russia?
Israel has a powerful lobbying firm in America, for Christ's sake, probably not for Christ's sake,
but yes, Russia doesn't have an A-PAC equivalent.
Well, then you can say that Israel is more sophisticated.
And so do I like Israel or any other country influencing our politics?
I mean, Jesus, Turkey asked Michael Flynn to kidnap someone, and he was gonna be our national
security, he was our national security advisor, right?
So no, I do not like that, but there are legal and illegal ways to influence us, and that
is a very important distinction.
And I would argue we talk about the legal ways a lot.
The APEC convention, where they invite people to the APEC convention.
There's just something about the national prayer breakfast, which doesn't sit well with
them.
Yeah, and so look, we want to get all the influence of money out of politics.
so that would, you know, apply to A-PAC and everyone else, and we look forward to that day.
And meanwhile, let's enforce the laws that we have, so we can do both.
Okay, Xavier O. says, stories like this, that makes me wonder if Mueller's slow game is to catch a bigger fish than the president.
Well, okay.
He probably, I don't think that he has a particular game.
I think he's just going where the facts lead him.
And my guess is he was probably pretty surprised to find out that it led him to that.
NRA in the National Prayer Breakfast.
Also in fairness, what bigger fish is there than the President of the United States, not just
this one?
I assume Xavier means the groups.
The group, all the groups, yeah, okay.
That makes sense.
Cabbage on Twitter writes, prayer breakfast with all you can eat corruption, good deal.
And Joe Oliver 44 tweets in, people using Jesus to make money, he'd love that.
He must because so many people do.
That's right.
I'm rolling around in his grave.
Anyway, you want to hear some breaking news?
We do.
Okay, let's talk about it.
I'm really hope this was just handed to me.
I haven't really vetted it yet.
I hope it's true.
You know what?
No?
Why don't we let Anna do it?
There's specifics.
Oh, you got it?
Yeah, yeah.
All right, then go ahead.
Go for it.
Okay.
Sorry, Anna.
No.
Breaking news, Tulsi Gabbard announces that she will be running for president in 2020.
She apparently did this during an interview with CNN's Van Jones that is going to air
tomorrow on the Van Jones show, and to Van Jones, she said, I've decided to run and we'll be making
a formal announcement within the next week. They apparently talked about some of the issues that
were driving her to want to pursue the presidency, and she said, there are a lot of reasons
for me to make this decision. There are a lot of challenges that are facing the American people
that I'm concerned about and that I want to help solve. She then listed health care access,
criminal justice, reform, and climate change as key platform issues. And she also said,
there's one main issue that is central to the rest, and that is the issue of war and peace.
I look forward to being able to get into this and to talk about it in depth when we make our
announcement.
Okay, so I know what a lot of people will think.
They'll think, why are so many progressives running?
They're going to split the vote.
And my answer to that usually is we should be so lucky.
And what I mean by that is about 30 people are going to run.
If it turns out there's four progressives and 26 establishment candidates, trust me, they're
going to split the vote more.
And what I mean by we should be so lucky is somehow, miraculously, all of them have been defeated,
and Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, and Tulsi Gabbard remain.
We should be so lucky, right?
And then, hey, you know, you like Tulsi a little bit better, you like Bernie better, you
like Warren better, great.
Now if it turns out three of them are in and six, I mean, we want to get into those calculations
A year from now, as we're heading into Iowa, New Hampshire, have added us, for now,
what you have is more strong, progressive voices that are in the mix and then are gonna make
the progressive case instead of the establishment case.
I think that's wonderful for the country.
Yeah, and I think, I mean, there could be cases eventually once it gets weeded down
where there's a lot of splitting, but I think initially, like, we're gonna have, I mean,
we're already in the primary, we're gonna have month after month after month of talking and
polls and news coverage and debates before there's even one vote. Let's have as many strong
progressives of different shades out there driving the conversation. Because while they might
agree largely on policy, they don't necessarily agree on priorities. And so some of them
will talk more about one issue, more, some more about another. So maybe Tulsi Gabbard is talking
constantly about, you know, American foreign interventions or something like that. Elizabeth Warren
is talking about, you know, reforming Wall Street. And Bernie Sanders is talking about prescription
drug prices or whatever.
Let's have all of them out there doing that.
We can eventually figure it out once the voting starts, who supports who, and it would be
great.
I've never really been involved in an election where I was really hard-pressed to figure out
who I wanted to vote for.
I know, wouldn't that be great?
I want that struggle.
Yeah, we have multiple progressives from which to choose from said for the first time
ever in American politics, at least in my lifetime that I've been trying it.
And I know people have different definitions of progressive.
But my definition, so I have three people that fit the bill.
I totally agree with John that they have different strengths and then those will be different
voices that will, and different issues that'll be highlighted because of their presence.
And look, we are principled, we believe in primaries, not just when it's convenient, but all
the time.
We believe in it as a form of democracy.
So let them battle through ideas and not necessarily even battle, just make their case.
And then we'll find out who has the most compelling narrative.
Bobby Kennedy and Gene McCarthy could be argued.
No, that's definitely true, but I wasn't around.
I know you weren't around.
And there have been, well, we won't get into that.
Yeah, I mean, listen, there are often people of the same ilk that are running all the time.
Why not progressives who are also running a number of them running?
I think because the progressive movement typically puts all their.
you know, eggs in the Bernie basket as they've done it in the past two years, and that's
going to take some getting used to.
And people who liked other people for liking Bernie are going to have to figure out whether
that's enough and look at their records.
Well, actually, in- Oh, sorry.
Oh, sorry.
That's important.
Then also, you know, the first thing I think of is now will Mofi Hahnemann finally win the
second district seat in Hawaii?
Will she run for Congress?
I was wondering about that as well.
Former mayor of Honolulu.
So we transition to that topic now.
No, I'm kidding.
So one thing I am worried about is because in your lifetime and my lifetime too, we haven't
really had this sort of thing going, it is going to be interesting to see once we really get
into it how things play out because we've been through a few elections.
At least online in the news and all that, you set people on fire, that's what you do.
If you disagree with people, you want to destroy them.
And we get so passionate that we see anyone who defers from us as the devil.
So when you have four people who largely might vote the same way you would, were you
in office.
So let's say you really love Bernie Sanders or you really love Elizabeth Warren, you really
love Tulsi Gabb or you, Ojeda, or whoever, it's going to be interesting to see how
those people speak about other progressives in the race.
And also having to differentiate themselves from each other and not just from the others.
Yeah.
Because that happens by default and it's going to be much more of a challenge for Elizabeth Warren
and to now differentiate herself from Tulsi Gabbard and Bernie Sanders.
It'll be easy enough for her to do against Cory Booker and Amy Klobuchar, should she do that?
And should they run?
So it's going to, it'll set up an interesting debate dynamic.
Yeah.
Which I want to see.
Lastly on this, and I'm curious about it too.
I actually think progressives are really smart.
And that the reason why they vociferously lash out sometimes the establishment is because
of great frustration, because they have not had a lot of choices.
and most of the Democratic figures do not actively fight for the bigger progressive priorities
Medicare for all.
I mean, God, we had to fight so hard for most of people to accept $15 minimum wage, which
is a really low bar, and it took us year after year after year, and we're still not there, right?
So I think that there's a real reason why people are against the establishment candidates
and sometimes passionately so, but maybe I'm wrong, and maybe we'll find out people will go into
camps for Gabbard and Sanders and warn and rip each other to shreds based on not.
Or based on small differences, and maybe I'm wrong, but I'm hopeful that that is not
the case.
I 100% agree.
Yeah, I think that you look on candidates and circling them.
For example, I guess let me put it this way.
For me, I don't care about the candidate, I care about the ideas, okay, and the policies.
So I want to win on policies.
And so if they got great policies, hear them out.
And by the way, hear out everyone.
And so at the same time, look at their track record.
So I want to hear our Cory Booker, but I'm also cognizant of his track record.
So you can do both things at the same time.
Yeah.
It's a little bit of a lie you wanted a wall, you just didn't like Trump.
Well, look, some of their track record is clear, let's just keep it real, okay?
But it's not like, Corey, but let's talk, let's see what happens.
Okay, why don't we transition to something I think you might enjoy.
Today, Politico posted an article that describes how, in their terms, exasperated Democrats
have become some of those in the leadership in the House and are deploying a strategy
of sticks and carrots to try to rein in new Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
There are some great quotes from this, so let's get started.
Alexandria Accio-Cortez is already making enemies in the House Democratic Caucus,
and some of its members are mounting an operation to bring the anti-establishment Democratic Socialist
with 2.2 million Twitter followers into the fold.
Just to update that, it's now 2.3 million.
I just wanted to be clear about that.
I know they posted it this morning, so they can't update it constantly, but it's 2.3 million.
Some lawmakers with ties to Ocasio-Cortez are hoping to coaxe her into using her star power
to unite Democrats and turn her fire on Republicans.
Others simultaneously warn Ocasio-Cortez is destined for a lonely, ineffectual career in Congress
if she continues to treat her own party as the enemy.
One example of that last bit is Representative Emanuel Cleaver who says, I'm sure Ms. Cortez
means well, but there's almost an outstanding rule.
Don't attack your own people.
We just don't need sniping in our Democratic caucus.
And I think that's a great point.
I think the best way to deliver that lesson is in an article that is attacking a member of
your caucus.
I think that Representative Cleaver might have missed that irony.
He was at the prayer breakfast.
Which he has gone to.
So, first of all, I love the destined for a lonely ineffectual career in Congress.
Meanwhile, they're like, we're so scared of her.
She has 2.2 million Twitter followers.
Now 2.3.
Okay, and she's too powerful and she's getting too much attention.
What happened to lonely ineffectual career in Congress?
I got news for you.
Here's what Politico isn't doing.
Writing about lonely ineffectual careers.
Okay, that is not what that.
What's happening?
So they're obviously concerned.
But to me, the most important crux of this article, and in this case, it isn't about Politico,
and Politico gave good context too here where they said, look, the Freedom Congress for
the right wing, they don't want any popularity contest, but they have pushed the Republican
party to the right and hence have been effective.
So that is good, important context that Politico is giving.
My issue is with the House Democrats that are trying to say, hey, do you want to know why
They're mad?
Uh-huh.
I'm pretty sure I know why.
Okay, well, I might shock you.
So apparently some that they talked to were angry that she tried to challenge the new rules
that they were gonna set up, which we encouraged people to vote against.
But also, incumbent Democrats are most annoyed by Ocasio-Cortez's threat to back primary
opponents against members of their ranks she deems to moderate.
My point is, I can see how she would be a little bit biased on the power of primaries since
she is now a representative because she got in through a primary.
Well, so that goes to another court.
So first core is Emmanuel Cleaver and several other Congress people reported in this article
say, hey, listen, I know you're a rookie here, okay, but we're all Democrats so we don't attack
these other.
We attack the Republicans, they're the other side.
My first question is, do you?
Okay, the Democrats don't often effectively fight back against Republicans, that's part of
the problem.
Secondly, but do you agree?
That's a much bigger problem, and the reality is you don't agree.
You say, why are you fighting me when we agree?
But wait, are you ready for the Green New Deal?
Are you going to vote yes?
No, most of you are not going to vote yes.
Are you going to vote for Medicare for all?
Well, a lot of you are going to vote no, so you don't agree.
Are you going to vote for abolishing ice?
Okay, look, I don't know how I would vote on that, but there's real substantive disagreements
there.
On the House rules that they're criticizing, I can't believe she went and publicized that
that she was gonna vote no on the rules.
That's because she doesn't agree with you.
It's called the democracy.
And guess what?
You say, well, we're all on the same team, are we?
Because those House rules, the one that she objected to, and Rokana and Tulsi Gabbard objected
to, said, hey, we gotta do PAYGO, which means we gotta raise taxes on people if you
wanna pay for Medicare for all, et cetera, which is gonna make it much more politically difficult.
So that's not a mistake, they know that.
Nancy Pelosi, Democratic leadership, and every one but three Democratic congresspeople
All voted yes on a rule that progressives honestly hate.
I'm not just saying that.
You go read anywhere online.
You read comments under our videos on Twitter.
I can't find a progressive in favor of that rule except for the overwhelming majority of the Democratic
caucus.
We don't agree.
So don't pretend you're on our side when you just voted against us.
So that context is massively important.
And then secondly, on the issue of the primaries, how has it?
How hypocritical would it be for Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to defeat a Democratic incumbent
in a primary?
Then turn around and go, I do declare, I'm now in a club, so we shall not have any more primaries,
and I shall support all incumbents who are wonderful Democrats.
And even though we don't agree, and we just voted in a way that we don't agree,
I will now bow my head and say they are always right.
Well, that would be preposterous, and that's what they're asking her to do.
Yeah.
Different take?
I mean, no, slightly.
I blame Politico more than I blame the Democrats here.
If you walk all around Congress, I was there last week, and I spoke to, if they're
435 members, I mean it, I probably spoke to 150 of them, asking them questions about what
was going on, how they were feeling Democrats, elated, Republicans, realistic.
And whenever I asked about Alexander Ocasio-Cortez, I said, what was it like with
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in the caucus,
every single one of them
that I spoke to said, it's amazing. It's so
exciting, it's so thrilling. There's this
vibrancy, there's this vitality.
If I were to ask, have asked any of them
off the record, does
her being there do this? They're going to
answer. So if you go in writing an
article like this, exasperated Democrats,
I could write it tomorrow. I could go
to Congress and find that. I could also go
to Congress. And so I think, and then
I don't mean this as any
disrespect to Emmanuel Cleaver, but he's easy.
By the time you've gotten to Emmanuel Cleaver, there are a lot of Congress people that have
not got on the record with you if you're writing a story like this.
So I don't disagree that this is a ridiculous article, and it's a ridiculous thing to say,
but I felt nothing palpable like that, though I know that if I had gone out looking for
this article among 435 people, you're going to find a handful that would say whatever you want
them to say.
Well, that's super interesting, Michael, and I like slight role reversal here where I'm defending
Politico, but I have a sense that some of these Democrats went to Politico.
I, maybe you're right.
We don't know.
Let's be fair.
I don't know.
I lean towards them looking for the story, I think.
Yeah, but they found it.
And so, and I love the context that Michael is giving.
But so let's just keep going on the quotes, because I think the quotes are telling.
So, John, I got a few cheat-ups.
So the first is, you mentioned there's a lot.
haven't gone on the record, political apparently understands why they didn't go on the record,
at least some. So far, most of them have kept their criticism of Ocasio-Cortez private.
Fearful, she'll sick her massive following on them by firing off a tweet.
I thought she was destined for a lonely and effectual career in Congress.
That is interesting.
And one anonymous House Democrat said she needs to decide that she'd want to be an effective
legislator or just continue being a Twitter star.
There's a difference between being an activist and a lawmaker in Congress.
There's one more quote I want to read.
That is the response from Alexandria Ocasso-Courges to this story.
She says, to quote Alan Moore, none of you understand, I'm not locked up in here with you.
You're locked up in here with me.
I hadn't seen that.
Oh, God, I love that.
Oh, she's so good.
Okay, and I believe that that perhaps they do understand that, because another senior Democratic
Gates said, quote, people are afraid of her.
Yes.
I wanna say something about that because in the beginning, it's not a direct quote from
a Democrat, but what Politico, apparently what they got from these conversations is they
wish that she would turn from, and they want her to unite Democrats and to turn her fire
on Republicans, implying that she's not doing those things.
That is false.
She is more effectively making the case against Republicans than literally any other politician
in the country right now.
That was on stark display in response to Donald Trump's comments a couple of days.
ago, we saw other responses.
We saw Chuck Schumer, Nancy Pelosi, and Bernie Sanders.
I like Bernie Sanders' comments.
I would say that informally, Alexandria Casa-Cortez on Rachel Maddow immediately after
his speech was even more effective and off the cuff.
And I think that on many of these issues, she makes, she does a protest about the Green
New Deal, changes the national conversation about it.
She brings up raising the marginal tax rate, and suddenly everyone is talking about whether
that's a good idea.
She is at the same time attacking the Republicans better than you.
you are, uniting Democrats about bold ideas better than you are.
I mean, you can't say she's not uniting Democrats, and at the same time, she's gotten 2.3
million followers on Twitter in one year.
There's a reason for that.
She is uniting Democrats.
We call them progressives, and I would assume her influence extends beyond even that, because
she makes the case for the policies, she represents the values better than anyone else I know
of in politics.
She's been a congresswoman for a week, I mean, that's the other thing.
There hasn't really been anything to do.
So this is, it's too early to write this article if you're going to write this article.
I mean, nothing has happened.
They've gone in, they've had shutdown votes for a week, and that's it.
And so that's another problem I have with political.
Yeah, I hear you, but look, people are being sent to talk about her.
Joe Lieberman is out today, and he said that she's too left left.
Oh, Joe Lieberman.
Okay.
That was my response.
And then he said, with all respect, I certainly hope she's not the future.
And I don't believe she is.
Well, I have a pretty good case to make that the person who is not the future is Joe Lieberman.
Okay.
He's the pasture.
Just really, really, I am not one of those people who thinks that social media is everything,
and the internet is everything.
Twitter is wildly unrepresentative of the real world, that's true.
But it is something, and I think that if he is going to come out with all of his baggage,
policy-wise and politically wise, I mean, I'm from Connecticut, I know who Joe Lieberman is, okay?
I know what he does and his interactions with progressives.
If he's going to say she's not the future, I know what the Democrats need to do because he gave advice for how they should run in 2020.
She gained more than three times a Twitter followers today that he has.
So that might mean something about how well we're communicating our values and our policies.
And that was not the worst thing that happened to him today either, because today on the day that he's giving this unsolicited garbage, Ned Lamont, who beat him in a primary, was inaugurated as governor of Connecticut.
So there's- Yeah, which is justice, I think.
And let's just note, I mean, Joe Lieberman is taken seriously as a Democrat when he is not
a Democrat.
So now people say that about Bernie Sanders, but Bernie Sanders has always caucus with Democrats
and is to the left of Democrats, whereas Joe Lieberman ran against the Democrat in his last
Senate campaign.
So he lost the Democratic primary, did not accept the results of the Democratic voters,
and said to hell with the Democratic Party, I'm gonna run as an independent, and then
won that race, okay, look, I don't have a problem with that.
I believe in primaries, I believe in general elections, I believe in democracy, but don't come
here telling me how good a Democrat you are.
And then he came in and endorsed John McCain, and guess Barack Obama in 2008.
I don't think he's taken seriously as a Democrat.
First of all, I don't think he's taken seriously, except by very sort of middle-of-the-road
McCainite Republicans, and that's it.
So I don't think he's taken seriously as a Democrat.
I think he threw all that away with the McCain endorsed.
So last things here are a couple of the last quotes, because I just can't love them enough.
Kurt Trader, Democrat of Oregon said, she's new here, feeling her way around, she doesn't understand
how the place works yet.
And I thought, exactly, thank God for that, okay.
I would argue the people there never understood how it should work.
Yeah, I mean, you guys understood it and did what?
You understood and did what?
I don't know what you did.
So I don't want to get into a whole thing of like, no, you don't understand how hard
it was to pass Romney care when we had overwhelming majorities.
Okay, so I don't want her to learn the old ways.
None of us want her to learn the old ways where you just sit on your ass and basically
do nothing and certainly don't fight for progressive priorities.
And finally, Nidio Velazquez from Democrat of New York, she says she's reaching out to
Acosta Cortez, they've talked, let's assume good intent here.
But I don't agree with her philosophy.
She says there shouldn't be a litmus test in every district.
Nobody's saying there is except for don't take corporate PAC money because that means, are
Are you honest or not?
Okay, in our opinion, she says she should think twice about Acosta Cortez in the future before
backing primaries against her colleagues.
But she just won a primary.
So that makes no sense.
By the way, Velasquez also won a primary against a Democrat.
But it's convenient that once they get in, they're like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa,
no more primaries, because I already got my power.
Where's that bridge?
We've got to burn it down right away, I already crossed it.
So now Acosta Cortez is not doing that and it's driving them crazy.
Here's a direct quote from Velazquez.
Washington is a political animal where a lot of the work that you want to accomplish depends
on relationships within the Democratic caucus.
In other words, be a team player, play ball here.
And the honeymoon between the voters that you represent and yourself could be a short one.
People want to see results.
First of all, what results have you guys brought?
Second of all, she is fighting for results.
You can't tell her, shut up and be quiet, you're a freshman congresswoman.
And at the same time, say, where's your results?
Where's your results?
She just got a select committee on Green New Deal.
Did you do that?
No.
Okay?
I mean, I can't remember a freshman congressman of either party, congressperson of either party coming in
and getting a select committee because she requested it ever.
So already she has results.
And what you guys are afraid of and you're partly saying in this article is, my God, she might
actually get us to do progressive priorities, to which all of us.
say, exactly. So if you don't like it, that's a sad day for you, but this is your new reality.
Yeah. We got to take a break, but one more story probably after that. We'll be right back.
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All right, back on a young church YouTube super chat, Lars Nielsen, the conservative
says, conservative media here in Scandinavia says that AOC, Warren and Sanders are too extreme
for American politics.
If it wasn't for TYT secular talking on the majority report, I would have believed them.
So that's really interesting.
And thank you for saying that.
And it makes us feel good that we're at least making a difference.
That's awesome.
That's great.
Yeah.
That means there's enough.
And Rose Star Runners on Twitter says, do not bend AOC.
We love what you're doing.
You have the people over the party, and that's fantastic.
And then I want to, Adele, I just want to disagree with you just for a second.
Or tell you to calm down for a second.
He's in the member section.
If the DNC tries to block Bernie from the primaries, he needs to run as an independent, and
I think we need to look starting a separate progressive party.
Whoa, whoa, no, nobody's blocking anybody from the primaries.
Okay, so just hold on a second.
Bring it down, if Bernie wants to run, he'll run, he'll be in the primary, and he, I think,
if I was drafting, I'd draft him number one, was most likely to win.
So just give it a chance.
And on that, we don't know too much about how it's going to go, but it definitely looks
better than the last time around.
They're going to have a million debates starting very early historically.
Yeah, in June, and there's going to be more than a dozen debates.
And I don't know the specifics, we do need to look into that, but supposedly the thing that's
going to determine if you get on that stage since 75 people are going to run.
is going to be small dollar donations.
Oh.
So check the details on that to make sure, you know, how they do that math.
But that is good.
If they stick with that, that'll be fantastic.
So by-bye establishment.
I don't know if any of you're going to make the difference.
Well, I don't know what the threshold will be.
But we'll see.
I think it's mainly intended for people who have, you know, 0.5% support amongst the public.
Okay, I mean, it's going to be great to see Beto against three progressives.
Okay, all right, because Beto will make it.
He'll make it on small dollar donations for sure.
Yes.
Less is hard.
All right, what's next?
Maybe by the skin of his teeth, which you can see live stream on Instagram.
No, and I'm by the way.
I just thought that was funny.
That's not a thing about Ben.
No, no, no, no.
I love that he's doing that.
I think that's great.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's fine.
I'm worried.
No, no, I mean, I agree.
It's just stupid that people are talking about.
I don't mean this.
It's just if he did the teeth thing, I don't know what Ted Cruz is going to live stream.
I'm really worried.
I'm really worried.
Okay.
Okay.
Okay.
Okay.
Let's talk about something important.
Apparently identified their first primary target in the 2020 election.
They're working to recruit a challenger to Representative Henry Quayar, a seven-term congressman
from a strongly Democratic district, who's one of a few anti-abortion rights voices in the party's
House conference.
It's launching a primary Quayer fund to encourage any potential candidate that there will
be resources if he or she jumps into the race.
That was from a write-up by Dave Weigel at The Washington Post.
Now it's interesting- It is actually, so that that district
Trump got 38.5% of the votes, so it's a strong blue district.
There's a lot of things about him that are pretty interesting, which we'll get to.
But what's interesting is that he had previously said of primary challenges.
So this is not in response to this Justice Democrat thing, but he said, they came after
me twice and I beat him.
LBJ used to say, what's the difference between a cannibal and a liberal Democrat?
Cannibals don't eat their own.
That's sort of clever, I guess.
No, no, it isn't.
It's the opposite of clever because it makes no sense.
are famous for eating their own.
No, no, I think he's saying that they eat outside of their tribe.
Okay, that's the idea.
Yeah.
All right, you know who's a cannibal by that definition?
Henry Quere, because now he says, primaries, what are you guys doing?
Oh, this is outrageous.
You guys are like cannibals?
You want to guess how Henry Quere got into Congress?
Lottery.
Good yes, but no.
Turns out it was primaring another Democrat.
That can't be.
But that was a liberal Democrat, so apparently that's okay.
So he did a primary challenge to oust a liberal colleague in 2004 to win his seat in the first
place.
Now what is left unsaid in the Washington Post is as soon as he used that bridge, he's like,
how do we set it on fire?
So no one else ever comes across, because hey, I beat a Democrat to get here, but screw
the rest of them.
So no, Henry, that's not gonna work.
And so we should probably talk about why.
Yes.
I mean, so there's a lot.
I mean, I was going through a list of the things that he's voted on historically.
He voted yes on constitutionally defining marriage as one man, one woman.
His record overall in the LGBT community is very questionable.
He voted yes on making the Patriot Act permanent.
The Justice Democrats tweeted some of the issues.
Actually, if we can bring that up, you'll see a list of a few of the reasons are targeting him,
including voting with Trump 69% of the time.
Bye, Felicia.
An A rating from the NRA, voting to penalize sanctuary cities.
fundraising for the GOP, which is, that is interesting.
Now look, look, right now there's an article in Politico talking about how, hey, Alexandria
Acosta-Cortez-Button better not help any primaries against incumbents, because it would help
the other side.
What do you mean?
Henry Quire literally helped the other side.
He fundraised for Representative John Carter from Texas, who was a Republican, and he was in
a really close race with a Democrat who could have won.
And Quayar said, no, I'm gonna crush the Democrat.
I'm gonna help the Republicans.
So wait, wait, who's on the Democratic side?
Who's on the Republican side?
Yeah.
No, we got no interest in Harry Quayar.
If you're telling me that as soon as you win a primary like Ocasio-Cortez did, or by the
way, Ayanna Presley did, that you're supposed to burn the bridge after you like Quayar did and
say, oh, no, no, Quayar, you vote with Trump's seven out of ten times.
Oh, I love you.
Oh, you're on my team now.
Or you're gonna vote against all progressive interests, against members of the LGBT community.
You're gonna vote against us on all these different issues.
But oh my God, we're on the same team.
No, we are not on the same team.
So he boasts with Trump's 69% of the time.
That is not my team.
So I don't, you know, Casier Cortez can speak for herself and all the just Democrats who won
previously can speak for themselves.
I'm telling you that I love what the just Democrats are doing.
And they should probably marry the hell out of these guys.
And it's just the beginning.
Wait till they get a load of the iceberg.
Their heads are exploding now.
Quayar is the appetizer.
And it was nice knowing you, Henry.
And so look, maybe we're wrong and maybe we're too, you know, sure of ourselves, but we've done
this before, and that's why they're in a little bit of a panic.
And by the way, one of the things we're going to do is raise money.
Now I say we in this context, because I'm not with just Democrats anymore, but I support
them 100% and I'm one of the co-founders.
So why do we have the Justice Democrats?
I went around and asked everybody, all the different groups, are you going to primary
Democrats?
And the answer was generally, not really, no.
The best groups were like, sometimes on rare occasions.
All the rest of the groups were like, no way, oh my God, that would upset people inside Washington.
Yeah, that's the point.
Because we don't like the direction of the Democratic Party, it's a corporate party, it's
an establishment party, we don't agree.
And in a democracy, when you don't agree, how do you settle it?
You settle a civilly in a wonderful way called an election.
In this case, a primary election, one that Henry Quayar loved in the past when he used
it to his advantage.
So, JusticeDemocrats.com slash Quayar fund.
And we will have the link down below if you're watching this later on YouTube or Facebook.
Now you raise a lot of money through that or Just Democrats raises a lot of money through
you guys to do that.
You know what it's going to do?
It's going to send a message.
That's a message that progressives will love, the establishment will hate, and the battle
is joined, okay?
So if we raise, let's, I don't know what the number is, 100,000, a million, whatever
it is, right?
Remember how much Susan Collins flipped out when they raised money to fund her opponent
when she voted for Brett Kavanaugh.
She didn't even have an opponent.
Yeah, to find an opponent, basically.
And in this case, by the way, Justice Democrats will do the same thing that they did last
time around.
Go to JustDemocrats.com overall, nominate people, 12,000 people were nominated last time,
and we got amazing candidates like Accio Cortez.
So this time around, nominate more people.
They'll take nominations in this particular case as well, they'll find the best candidate.
And then if you guys raise a lot of money, yeah, they'll be like, oh my God, I can't believe it.
They just raised from real people and not big business.
That's not fair.
Susan Collins called it corruption when real people give money.
She did.
They get exasperated.
Okay.
Yeah.
And by the way, you might want to donate because he is certainly going to have money for this battle.
He's actually the top Democratic recipient in Congress of oil.
and gas campaign contributions over the 2015 to 2016 campaign cycle receiving $165,000.
Now of course he is in Texas, which makes it a little bit easier, but that is a lot of money.
And I just want to jump out in front of like when this story comes out, then probably tomorrow
on Politico there's gonna be a thing where it's like, no, you can't do this, it's gonna
be a tight election.
If you put forward a progressive, then they might lose to Republicans too tight.
No, this is a safe blue district.
This is exactly where you have a hard contested primary fight, and then the Democrats gonna have
a relatively easy time winning regardless.
Unless Henry Quayar leaves and runs as a Republican and the general, it would be interesting
to see if that happened.
Oh, I would welcome that.
If there is a possibility of that.
I'm not asking whether you'd welcome it.
It would just be, that would be an interest.
I wonder if this is going to give rise to that happening in some cases.
Well, I would say primary any Democrat where he might run as a Republican if he loses.
That's easy.
Yeah, that's good.
That's right.
If you vote with Trump seven out of ten times, you might be a Republican.
It might not be a Democrat.
Right.
So- And the Quayor thing's going to be, is an interesting justice demographic, too, because
it will be, because the demographics in that district are pretty consistent.
And for a lot of political scientists who think, whatever you guys think, that Ocasio-Cortez,
a lot of what helped her were demographics and not message in New York or the combination
they're in.
But a lot of people think that they've understated the effect of demographic change in
that district.
It'll be interesting to see the Justice Democrats succeed in a place where that is not a part
of it because it isn't.
It's a lot more reflective of who's in office already, which is kind of cool, which Crowley
didn't have the advantage of.
Yeah, and so last two things here, imagine if a progressive gave money to a Republican in
a tight race and helped him put it over that.
Imagine if Bernie Sanders had given money to a Republican to defeat a Democrat in a close race.
And the Republican was really conservative.
Right.
People are like, that said, he's disqualified, disqualified.
He betrayed Democrats, he betrayed them, right?
Well, they think Beto O'Rourke betrayed Gina Ortiz Jones in Texas because he's such good friends
with Will Hurd, who was essentially a Democrat, I mean, on a lot of things.
And wouldn't campaign against Will Hurd at a time when he was quite popular and would
have gotten a lot of people out for Gina Ortiz Jones in a close race.
And the last fact is, Hillary Clinton won that district by 20 points, okay?
There is no reason to have a district that blue with a person who agrees with Donald Trump
seven out of ten times and votes against almost all of our priorities.
So Henry Quayar, it was nice knowing you, but not really.
So here comes that primary, but don't worry, you won't be alone.
You'll have many other colleagues who will be primaried along with you, so you guys can all cry together.
For the rest of you, JusticeDemocrats.com, and in this particular case, justicemocrats.com
We'll have the link down below.
Let's go get them.
Okay, we are out of time, unfortunately.
But we got a great hour coming up for you guys.
Don't go anywhere.
Thank you, Michael.
Sure.
You can also catch them on I-24.
Somebody complained the other day that we didn't disclose that you work for I-24.
Fine.
Here's another plug.
That's right.
Independent news network based in the Middle East and New York.
Yeah.
The United States.
They complain when you work for Al Jazeera.
They now complain when you work for I-24.
24, there's no winning.
Anyway, that was state-owned.
This is independent.
Yes.
Okay, John Iderola, host of the damage report.
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