Wisconsin's Weekend Morning News
WWMN Interview: Presidential Candidate Marianne Williamson
Between the attempted assassination of President Trump and President Biden's decision to not run for re-election, the political landscape has drastically changed in the last couple of weeks. And joining us on our Tri-County Contracting Hotline is Democratic candidate for President Marianne Williamson. And Marianne, first of all, what was your reaction when President Biden announced that he was not going to run for re-election? Well, I have been calling for the President to stand aside since the day after the debate. I felt it was extremely important. I felt there was real failure at crisis management that it took as long as it did to persuade the President. But my reaction was a human one. I feel compassion, I feel respect, I feel gratitude. This had to have been a very humiliating experience, what happened in that debate. So I had the reaction that I think was first and foremost, just compassion for the man. But at the same time, gratitude that that phase of things is over and we can move on. As a candidate, you must have felt now we have a chance to have a real open debate and convention in terms of trying to find who is going to follow in his footsteps. But we have found that very quickly, members of the Democratic Party are standing behind Kamala Harris. Well, they're doing now exactly what they did for the last year and a half. And I had a front row seat to all that. There was a very early decision made that it would be Joe. It's got to be Joe. Can't be anyone else. Got to be Joe. And the Democratic Party paid a price for that. And I think the Democratic process paid a price for that. I find it disturbing that they're doing the same thing now. Everybody told a line now. Everybody just do what we're saying. We have decided it's Kamala. I don't think that's healthy. I don't think it's a healthy part of democracy. And I don't think it's a strategic way to win in November. We've got to trust democracy here. We've got to make this exciting, it's boring. You know, people say, well, if we open up the convention, it might be messy. My contention is that if we don't open up the convention, it will be boring. You know, the Republican got a very highly energized convention. And we need one too. And you don't get high level energy from people who are simply doing what it was decided would be done. Look, no one is unaware of the way the forces of power work in this country. She inherited $96 million last night as part of the war chest that was for the Biden-Harris campaign. She's raised tens of millions since then. We have more than not since a bunch of volunteers trying to look up the contact info for delegates because the DNC will not release that list to us. So I understand the institutional forces that are arrayed against opening this to a larger democratic process. But I would rather die on my feet than live on my knees. And those half a million people who voted for me in the primary, despite the fact that I was erased, they have a voice too. We will not win if our only message is Trump is bad. They're working very quickly. They're working those machines. They've already got almost $2,000. They want to wrap this up quickly. But I'm appealing to delegates who say, wait a minute. I won't be reloaded into this. I want to think about this. A delegate to the Democratic National Convention has a almost sacred responsibility at this point. You kept referring to them as they. Who are they? Who are the people making the decisions that it has to be Kamala Harris? What is this interesting? Because what happens is the president won the delegates that were necessary to nominate him. Those delegates tend to be Democratic Party operatives. Sometimes they are actually elected officials. Some of them are clearly nothing more than friends and family. They're all part of that larger universe. If all we win are the vote blue no matter who people, we will not win in November. We have to appeal to independents. We have to appeal to progressives. We have to appeal to those who don't even see any point in voting because for them things never change. And for that, we absolutely must go beyond this clubish, let's all toe the line, let's also render any free thinking here and just do what's already been decided, an ointment of Kamala Harris. Why is it the powers that be from the very beginning of this whole primary season seem to want to be dismissive of you, of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and anybody else who even expressed an interest in running against Joe Biden and now Kamala Harris. That's terrible actually. So when I was a young woman, the role of the political party was to stand in the background. The voters decided who the nominee would be and then they brought money and infrastructure support in order to help that nominee. Things have changed over the last few years to the point where they feel they have the right. We saw it with what happened with Bernie and now it's gotten to the point where they don't even pretend anymore. So they said early, you know, the DNC, that they saw their mission as supporting the president in his renomination efforts. They character assassinate, they race, they invisibilize. It's not pretty. It's not good. I feel at this point, the soul of the Democratic Party is not the same as the machine of the Democratic Party. You know what I find interesting is when Kamala ran in 2020, I think she only got like 2% of the votes in the states in which she ran, which is what you were getting in this most recent primary. Why is it they're standing behind her and not you? You know, it's so interesting that you said that I was on Fox. And when he said to me, Marianne, just you haven't broken through. And I pointed out that I've been blacklisted on CNN and MSNBC and you know, which are mainstream platforms, which the average Democratic voters doesn't see you on either of those two channels. You know, you exist. But more than that, I wish that I said to him what you just pointed out. I wish I pointed out she never broke through either. She left 2020 before I did and she had gobs of money. She was listed up. She never broke through. She was listed up because they thought that she was the best choice for the vice president thing. And listen, and I want to say something else here. She might be the best one to defeat Donald Trump, but I'm just saying, then prove it. Let's have an open conversation, let's have the base, let the delegates here. Nothing could be more important than that we choose the right person. And this idea of just rubber stamping a candidate, everybody just falling in line and indoors for the day. I think that's something creepy about it. And there's something, this is not what democracy should be. It should be messy because if we don't allow it to be messy, then that convention is going to be boring. And we'll pay an even bigger price for a boring convention than we would for a messy one. Because we're looking at what's going to happen in Chicago. What is your prediction? What is that convention going to be like? Well, if I can get these 300 signatures, any delegates or friends of delegates who might be listening now, you can write to us at convention@marion2024.com. If I am able to get there, if I'm able to speak, even if she would debate me, it'll be rocketed and rolling and fun and exciting. And I promise you, we're not going to use platitudes like let's just finish a job. We're going to talk about the one in four Americans who live with medical debt. We're going to talk about the hungry, we're going to talk about the poor, we're going to talk about waging peace, we're going to talk about Israel and Palestine, we're going to talk about the floods and the fires and the hurricanes and how we're going to answer the climate emergency. We're going to talk about this mass for the drug war. We're going to speak to the needs of the American people and the people of the world, to the extent to which our policies affect them. We're going to speak to the deeper meaning of American democracy and our history and what we owe our ancestors and what we owe our descendants. That's the trauma there. And if I'm not there, it'll be same old, same old. And I don't believe that same old, same old status quo is going to beat Donald Trump. If by any chance, you would end up as the nominee for the Democratic Party. Could you win? Could you beat Donald Trump in November? Oh yeah, absolutely I could, because he tells them big lives and I tell them big truth. and Williamson. Pleasure to talk with you. Thank you. Thank you so much for having me.