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The John Fugelsang Podcast

More Interviews from the DNC

John's interviews Democratic Strategist and Political Commentator - Amisha Cross; civil rights leader, environmentalist and executive director of the Sierra Club - Ben Jealous; and Pennsylvania Congressman - Brendan Boyle.

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Duration:
52m
Broadcast on:
07 Sep 2024
Audio Format:
mp3

John's interviews Democratic Strategist and Political Commentator - Amisha Cross; civil rights leader, environmentalist and executive director of the Sierra Club - Ben Jealous; and Pennsylvania Congressman - Brendan Boyle.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Well, if you know how much I love wine, you know, how excited I am to talk to Damien from my favorite. Oh, my God. This is my favorite new Rosé Chateau August Grand Rosé. Hi, Damien. Hi, Stephanie. I thought I was a Chardonnay girl. You have won me over entirely. And I read a tweet. Janine said the good news is I my six bottles of Chateau August Rosé arrived yesterday. The bad news is I may drink them all today. Can you get more offer codes, maybe the other varietals? I think I may go through a lot of them by November. You make a lot of great wines. You know, I'm excited to get into the Reds as we get into fall. But I mean, this Rosé is just a perfect summer wine, isn't it? Sure. No, it's it's a perfect summer wine. It's made with with Cabernet Sauvignon and Melo grapes. So it's it's not usual for for Rosé, because it's normally more for red grapes, for red wines. And no, that's why we try to change the techniques few few years ago, because we just want you to make something different. We get the right fruit. Yeah, right cutler and right taste. One of the things I love is that you play music to the vines twice a day. This is a scientific process. Tell us about that. We work with with Gene Dix with the company who made the box for the music on the on the vineyards. It's more frequencies and vibrations. So and we played two times per day when when the sunrise and the size. Yeah, and it's at the vines to have a better immunity. So it's it's good for the health of the vines. I cannot recommend this Grand Rosé highly enough. Again, my SiriusXM listeners get over 50% off go to vs.wine six bottles for 98 bucks and free delivery. Best wine by varietal gold medal best in show by quality that six bottles for 98 bucks and free delivery just use the promo code Stephanie 50% off with the promo code Stephanie vs.wine the promo code is Stephanie. This season Instacart has your back to school as in they've got your back to school lunch favorites like snack packs and fresh fruit and they've got your back to school supplies like backpacks binders and pencils and they've got your back when your kid casually tells you they have a huge school project due tomorrow. Let's face it, we were all that kid. So first call your parents to say I'm sorry and then download the Instacart app to get delivery in as past as 30 minutes all school year long. Get a zero dollar delivery fee for your first three orders while supplies last minimum ten dollars per order additional term supply. This is the John Fiebel saying podcast. One of the best parts of being at the DNC 2024 is meeting some of our favorite people in the flesh. Amisha Cross you are such a rock star you are someone who fights so hard as an activist as a journalist as a thinker and it's a great pleasure to thank you to your face for classing up our show so many times. How are you enjoying the convention so far? This convention has been probably one of the best experiences. I have been to conventions my first one was oh wait when Obama was chosen as a nominee and of course there was excitement there was a vibrancy there was at that time I was still in college so it was a whole different experience. Now it is we're watching this happen and people of all demographics age groups different parts of the country have come together you could not hear anything on the floor I was lucky enough to be on the floor the first few nights I'll be on it again tonight um you cannot measure the excitement in the room I don't think the TV does it service it's so true because when you're there the level of excitement the level of just support the level of people who honestly for many of them this is their first not only their first convention but the first election that they're voting in and for several others they haven't voted in the past three or four elections so to come here and to show that level of excitement that level of encouragement wanting to see the Harris walls ticket across the aisle because other thing that they know and that they've talked about is what they've got to do in their communities yes I think that that's been the biggest part here it's not just a celebration we've all seen the celebrations but it is they have plans to go back and activate and that's the biggest part that's one of the narratives that's really emerged for me uh over the past few days they're not really trying to get the undecided voters they're trying to get people who know how they want to vote to get off the couch and actually do it our republican friends are always better at getting the vote out this whole convention is not about swaying 25 confused Caucasians in seven swing states they're they're getting people out the boat in every state no you're absolutely right and I think that historically speaking the democrats have always had it harder because they have chosen to that their states that they automatically know that they are good in correct and I think that they by doing that they automatically alienated certain other states and what the Harris walls ticket is done is showcase that there are states that are in play the democrats have not thought about in decades I've always said one of the unsung heroes of Barack Obama's election was Howard Dean has headed the DNC because he was implementing the 50 state strategy saying why shouldn't we go into Alabama even if it doesn't work this time let's get the ground game going for the next time and I agree I mean these ideas are popular you ask people there was a huge study in the Washington Post that where they asked people about the policies and Joe Biden was overwhelmingly more popular than Trump including among republicans when there wasn't a name attached exactly and I think that people have to remember that um southern strategy can work both ways the south has to say oh I like that so we have to make sure that we're also investing there when I look at as somebody who was born in Chicago but raised in the south when I look at the demographics there there's a lot of minority groups there are a lot of younger people there are a lot of people who move for business or who are there because they're receiving their education at one of the state schools or one of the HBCUs which the majority of them are housed in the south you have to make sure that you are also not neglecting those people those are also voters that's why I think that having walls on this ticket really does matter because he speaks to small towns he speaks to rural areas he speaks the language of the everyday man because it was very easy I think in the beginning for a narrative to basically be juxtaposed that Kamala Harris is a west coast elite and she has proven that she is not considering her immigrant background her story as someone who put herself through school who was working at McDonald's while she was going to college as she is made in American story out of herself yes but in addition to that she's been able to weave her story with coach walls who is someone who I think I think her campaign for introducing him to America because quite frankly the level of joy the level of excitement the level of sheer bringing people together yes when I was in that and in the room last night on the floor when his son started crying when he's like that's my dad I don't have kids yet but I think that the epitome of your life is to have a family that is able to reflect on you and the things you've done for them and the love for you that the walls family is able to do for their father that tells so much about him his character the type of leader that he is that it transcends politics and I think that that is going to really really awaken something in America because we've seen so much dysfunction on the right we've seen them try to be the party of family values meanwhile tearing families down this is hope personified this is family personified this is unity personified and that's going to be really tough ticket to be yeah as opposed to a wife who won't show up to your trial or your convention to speak I agree I mean we've had we've had like three different presidential spouses I've seen so far in this convention um well john if if you were if you put the shoe on your foot and you were the wife who was pregnant when you may actually know you're pulling a star yeah I don't necessarily know I would be there I know she's being well-compensated for her support um yeah you mentioned the word elite and you're exactly right there's two kinds of elite in this society there's the privileged kind where you're born into it millionaire at birth it's been handed to you your inheritance the people that Michelle Obama talked about who don't have the privilege of being able to fail forward and then you've got the people who earned it by virtue of excellence like Kamala Harris head of her class uh being a DA being the attorney general being a senator being the vice president and I I have to believe that some of our people including some of our beloved Caucasian Trump supporters have to be able to see the contrast of the millionaire at birth who had it all handed to him you know the privilege with no appreciation of privilege like George W. Bush versus a person like Kamala Harris a person like Bill Clinton who pulled themselves up from nothing no absolutely because Republicans like to sell that story please up up for your bootstraps don't rely on government programs make sure that you're out here you know uh being able to make a way out of no way they love the Horatio Alger story meanwhile the majority of the people who they elect don't have that story at all when we look at Donald Trump he's somebody who talked about a small loan worth millions that long came with his father not even a bank the majority of us can't get that size of a loan from a bank much less our own parents so so I think that the idea that he was the everyday man was always something that was a lot quite frankly I mean he's been known to lie 5,000 times over but the whole background story of I built this when you walked into it when you were silver spoon fed that is a very different narrative than what we have from Kamala Harris it's very different narrative than what we have from Governor Waltz it's different narrative than what we have from Bill Clinton from what we have from Barack Obama individuals who were able to make it in spite of yeah not because they were giving everything to get there I'm trying to think of when was the last time a Republican presidential nominee was not born into privilege and I'm thinking it's Bob Dole in 96 I'm thinking it's Bob Dole was the last one to pull himself up by his bootstraps I think you're right because it darn sure wasn't me around me so can I tell you what what this has reminded me of when I was in college Nelson Mandela was released from prison and came to America for his big first visit and I was a marshal on the welcoming committee I saw a sign in my dorm and I'm like yes I'm doing that and I got to work the Yankee Stadium rally that's what I felt here this week that incredible diversity people from all different backgrounds who don't agree on everything ideologically but do agree on what is right and wrong and see a common purpose and the joy of different people coming together I want to live in America that looks like the crowd I've been around all week here exactly and people who've awoken to what is happening so Olivia Troy who was with the administration she worked for Mike Pence she was a national security I have met with her several times in DC it takes a lot for somebody who was a part of the Trump administration to come on and be able to say the things that went wrong particularly as it related to his immigration strategy which a lot of people believe is something that was a good thing we've seen that the the polling showcases that the majority of Americans think that immigration was better under Donald Trump to have someone who worked in that arena come out and say no this is what he was doing there was no real strategy he was absolutely fine doing whatever he could to protect himself and keep himself in office it had nothing to do with not only the voters even those who actually supported him in voting form but it darn sure wasn't about immigrant families and making sure that people had due process she was on the floor last night speaking out as you know republicans for Kamala I think that that matters because you have so many people that are not willing to say out loud what people in his administration have been willing to bear the burden of she's gotten death threats her family has gotten them as well we know how the maka community reacts when you speak out against Donald Trump so we also know that evangelicals for Kamala that's that is a group that democrats never thought they would have at least not since the turn of the civil rights movement she is able to expand that base and many of those people are in that room i was actually i was asked to do a christians for Kamala um uh live stream on zoom with a bunch of folks and and like to do stand up for it and i couldn't believe i mean they were trying to raise $25,000 they raised $200,000 in one night the enthusiasm is there let me ask you the million-dollar question what do you want to hear from vice president harris tonight we're in the weeks to come specifically on a policy level specifically on a policy level i i want to hear how she is going to sustain the middle class um we know that many people who've been born into the middle class fall out within one generation part of that is because our nation's economy even though it's the most robust in the world values higher income individuals more than it does people who are in the middle they are getting squished out and many people cannot even dream of rising to the middle class or even waking up to the american dream it's turned into american nightmare a long time ago we're talking about people who work full-time jobs we're talking about people with college degrees who cannot afford to buy a home who are putting off you know the grown-up things that we're expected to do home buy have children all of these things and i think that she is going to talk about and i'm very thankful that she didn't economic rollout before the beginning i agree because i think that that really matters talking about home ownership and its importance talking about uh child tax credits again republicans talk about family values but they're doing everything they can to take food out of kids mouths it matters to have someone who understands what family values mean is not only in word but also indeed but also someone who knows the policies that are going to ensure that we remain the most robust nation in the world that we remain competitive that we have jobs created right here in the united states in that i think we bring back something that was the core of america for so long my grandfather sadly passed away a few years ago but he was a part of that generation that moved with a great migration from the south to the north and for him manufacturing was the name of the game what got him out of jim crow mrs sippy was manufacturing jobs in detroit manufacturing jobs that was a latter middle class exactly that was what he was able to do to afford a home for our family to afford you know various aspects of education for my mom those types of opportunities are not there for many people today regardless of the many hours that they're working so i think that for her it's having that conversation and bringing that policy out amisha cross you're so good at this when do i get to vote for you one of these days sir one of these days kamala is knocking down doors she is breaking that glass ceiling and with every single time it happens it opens the doors for more young women my god you're good at this what's the best way for our listeners to follow you and keep up with your work follow me on all things social at amisha cross you're the best thank you for joining us thank you have you ever covered a carpet stain with a rug ignored a leaky faucet pretended your half-painted living room is supposed to look like that well you're not alone we've all got unfinished home projects but there is an easier way thumbtack is the app that makes it easier to care for your home pull out your phone and in just a few taps search chat and book highly rated pros right in your neighborhood download thumbtack and start caring for your home the easier way okay want to know where to find brands on brands on brands this fall at Ross mhm they've got big savings on the latest fall styles seriously you'll find the brands you want at prices you'll love at Ross yes for less hey podcast listeners great news all your favorite comedy podcasts can be enjoyed ad-free on amazon music listen to your favorite music plus top podcast completely ad-free on amazon music included with your prime membership dive into a world of laughs by downloading the amazon music app for free or go to amazon.com/adfreecomedy that's amazon.com/adfreecomedy to catch up on the latest episodes without the ads what a pleasure to actually get Ben jealous back on our show here at the DNC you guys know Ben he was the youngest uh leader of the national association for the advancement of colored people he of course was became the head of the NAACP at age 35 uh ran for governor of Maryland against you know who Larry Hogan right now he is the executive director of the Sierra club Ben jealous is a true hero in the fight against climate change the fight to get citizens to accept climate science and the fight to get the democratic party to stay on message about the most important existential issue of our age his book never forget our people were always free a parable of American healing came out last year mr jealous it's so nice to see you welcome john it's always good to see you and thank you for what you do for our country the reality is that progressive voices on talk radio are critically needed and there's few people i was just with Tom Harten but you Tom Harten is a kind of small cohort of folks who honestly do it in a way that gives us a shot to connect with working people well no one does it better than Tom Harten i'm just a vulgar clown and bought billion who tells dick jokes and likes to scream about christian nationalism but i thank you very much but you're the guy who's actually well as a christian i appreciate the use talk as a christian and that Tom talks as a christian because this is a very religious nation and working people honestly the folks who raised me our faith is important to us and being able to speak in terms of faith is how we help frankly pull folks back from the insanity of the far right wing i completely agree and to that same end to me it's a very religious nation but that doesn't mean it's a very jesus following american christian i'm a red letter christian name here man same here i get saying where in your holy book and the quotes of jesus the teachings the commandments of jesus where from that do you get any rationale for supporting donald trump or these policies and they can't and all he says you want to have a region university i spoke to recently and i said this to him i said you know whenever i hear somebody say like second karenthians i know they've read the bible whenever i hear them say two karenthians i assume it's a set up for a joke yeah but when i hear them say second karenthians and they think it's jesus or god yes well no yeah yeah pauling god paul's a man paul's a man who never thought his letters were going to be considered holy scripture one day yes and he never knew that homophobic incels would be pretending he's god well after after that you like you maybe having back on in the lead up to christmas we have a whole conversation just about jesus but you know what i'd love to do that it's my favorite subject but i mean at the same time i think that the struggle for climate science yes and the existential threat it represents is a deeply spiritual struggle and it's something that it's basically the first commandment in the first book right this is the commandment of genesis right do not destroy the garden that's adam's commandment and our dominionist friends want because god gives man dominion over the earth well we might say well that means that man is called to be responsible stewards of creation are right when friends they have my mama gave me control over her garden i messed it up but she'd be haunting me you know that's it that's it they think that dominion means we get to do with it and to it whatever we want right and i i'm looking for christianity to be at the forefront of the climate movement and i'm looking for the democratic party to publicly be in the forefront oh obviously they fight for it hard yes but it's also an election year and this is one of the issues that some of our democratic friends like to put on the backburner sometimes that's why your work your voice your strength on the issue is so inspiring thank you brother how do you feel the party's doing so far and how have you felt the convention has addressed the work that needs to be done man i'm excited you know i got to tell you typically democrats like in my lifetime it's like oh man we are fighting to make sure that we don't lose you know and it's like this time it feels like we're fighting to win yeah and we talk about a lot of us mean you'll come up a burning campaign like man we'd be the party fdr again right well one of the things you you can't have fdrs you had the time to do big to get 12 years well by the hand the overwhelming majority i mean what this old man is done with basically no majority at all it's been astonishing and joe is an fdr democrat and when you let joe be joe you hear that and most importantly you see it and you feel it because of joe biden we are opening up factories in west virginia in georgia in other words throughout america and not just the states you know um like california and massachusetts that are like in the tank for joe you know he's literally he sits high he looks low and he's made sure that we're building factories everywhere and that's something man i mean my entire adult life till this moment had been 65,000 factories shutting down one by one in this country yeah and and and you can't explain the toxicity in our politics the division and our nation without naphtha it's the same dynamic we saw with brexit it's the same dynamic you know we saw in germany in the thirties with the scapegoating you want to get beyond the skill scapegoating of immigrants and america man rebuild the manufacturing sector get people back to work so joe set that up that's biden harris harris walt's harris waltz that's 12 years of the courts that's 12 years of rebuilding our manufacturing that's 12 years of fighting climate change at scale it's a very exciting prospect we're looking at decades of automation de-industrialization and outsourcing yes and let's be honest but honestly denigrating of the american worker well that's what i'm talking about because it's all to save a buck yeah it's all because the job creators don't want to pay a living wage to an american worker yes and so that's what and and they really don't like these pollution regulations so they'll move it overseas where they can exploit foreign labor yep and not have those pesky environmental concerns so so i i want to hear more of the oligarchs responsible for the pollution being called out yeah having said that we have never seen a president who has talked this much about the dangers of climate change never seen a president with a greater grasp of the science i marvel at biden when he goes off on this subject yeah and we've never seen an administration that has actually made so much legislation happen well you know what we also haven't seen anybody destroyed donald trumpin and debate the way that we know kamala Harris will yeah no because everything you just said about joe is true about her and she is also a whip smart prosecutor with a lot more energy at these warm memories of her bitch smacking bill bar and crushing kavana yes i've well i've dreamed that i was hoping that she would tag out with joe wrestling style in 2020 and jump in there yes it's going to be well and what folks don't want to know like so um kamala's brother-in-law tony west we were roomed together in 2008 see obama announced in spring field and tony says to me said banny said you know um you want to go on the gym and the morning i said pro i'm going to sleep in the morning so he goes on the gym only other person the gym is barack obama getting ready to make his announcement running on the treadmill so tony gets next to him and he says you know he said uh he said uh senator obama um sir you can't keep coming out to the bay area and raising money you got to talk to the people if you do that me my sister-in-law kamala Harris we'll get 10 000 people out in the street for you they got 20 000 people out there right i remember in the street kamala is one heck of an organizer and so donald trump really has no idea what to do with this this was not the fall he was expecting to have and i am enjoying it i mean donald trump lives in a yard full of rakes that he can't avoid stepping on and smacking himself in the face when it comes to this woman he says he does not seem able to critique her without falling into sexism or racism he can't do it he really he really can and it will it will damage and haunt the republican party for a long time you know there are a lot of people if the republican party would just stop being racist who would go over their vote we started to see kind of like you know there's trending up they don't think they're racist and they deny racism and then it just starts to you know and and so you know it's uh who i am looking forward to the to the democratic party uh really uh continuing this trajectory of becoming the party of fdr again and i'm telling you man 12 years of kamala Harris four is vice president eight is president it's a beautiful thing for this country i we just got to get there it's a you're making me happy hearing this i can handle those 12 years you know the sierra club is one of the unsung heroes of the climate advancements that were achieved through the inflation reduction yes years of advocacy years of educating yes mooks like me about the existential basis to me carry out the army of the john the baptists and the jane the baptists who've been out there for a long time saying there's a better way i mean if you're going to call yourself a patriot if you're going to call yourself pro-life yes you have to care about the future of the damn planet and i want to ask you a bit about um project 2025 or as i call it comp 2025 because the our media seems fixated on does donald trump uh does he don't like it or not they go oh here's dr cornell west yes i go go here we go so the the media is fixated on on you know donald trump's attachment to it they'll never ask him about the specific policies and ask him to refute any of it as far as i'm concerned until donald trump refutes the specifics he endorses it but i don't think we have any understanding of the damage that will be done to the air the water and the soil of our planet if project 2025 were allowed to be executed you know the reality is that the fossil fuel industry owns the modern republican party and they and they and they own heritage too yeah and that's what you see with project 2025 and it's and it's a shame you know because i believe i i know there are republican policy people who are actually good people trying to figure out how to solve things but man you got so many people over there who are literally just shills for the fossil fuel industry willing to again violate the very commandments that they say that they adhere to you know like like don't destroy the god the garden adam's commandment just to make a fast buck um yeah and when you hear donald trump say drill baby drill what you have to imagine is this sierra club we've shut down 385 coal fire power plants in this country in the last 20 years we will next year we will celebrate a a million asthma attacks prevented and a hundred thousand heart attacks prevented because we shut down 385 we only got about 150 left to go in other words when you drill when you you know go pull call out when you burn those things you kill the elderly and you torture the young and and this green economy is also a more healthful economy but a lot fewer tragedies my family is still haunted my dad was 17 when his dad died of a heart attack he's now in his 80s it's still with us every day multiplied that by a hundred thousand yeah yeah you know these are our neighbors these are our family members and when we talk about green jobs we have to stress that this is the future of the economy like it's not going to go back you our conservative brothers and sisters might not like hearing words like green economy that they might be scared that somehow that's marxist because they heard something on fox news but we we're not going to go back this is the economy of the future the world is going to lead China does yeah China does they know it China's I mean all this here's the thing even in Detroit even in Michigan you pull republicans yeah they're like oh I don't know how I feel about honing an eevee but I want Detroit to make them yeah because they know and you know they don't know when it's gonna be in their garage but they know that is the future of what will be in garages you know that's the future of the local buses and they understand China has wanted to overtake Detroit for a long time that's right and again talking about healing our country if if China if Joe Biden when Joe Biden announces tariffs targeted tariffs on Chinese solar panels on Chinese eevees Sierra Club was the only major green group that showed up all the unions were there and why were we there because one we know ain't nobody creating a car that you can make a profit on for $14,000 that is the Chinese national government deciding that they are going to massively subsidize the production of hard goods to try to prop up their middle class and their strategies a real simple one we will undercut like in the last year the price of solar panels from China dropped 50% coming into the US just as we were starting to build our own capacity to build them that's right strategies really easy you undercut you drive the other factories out of business now they're addicted to China that's it they're not doing it because they care about the earth they're doing it because they're better at evil capitalism than we are and so the Joe Biden had the courage to say 100 tariff on the eevee you know similar on the solar panels because we've got to rebuild our ability here and if you say wow you know when the textile industry disappeared because of NAFTA when all these other manufacturing industry disappeared because of NAFTA 65,000 factories American politics got rapidly more divisive how much more divisive would it get if we lost Detroit and that's China's goal yeah and so that's like but if we continue down the Biden-Harris path with Harris Walt's how much better will things be how much better will the Supreme Court be how many more factories will there be how many fewer people in poverty will there be how much better will politics be let me ask you about Maryland politics because you ran such an inspiring race thank you against Larry Hogan who is now running for the Senate and really America's greatest chameleon Larry Hogan really counting on people not remembering the things he stood for a few years ago or as a terrible astonished i'm a little bit astonished you know he led the Tea Party in Maryland that's what Change Mary was right uh his his father had like a county level strategy for resisting Roe versus what way that he was all in for he goes down as the first governor in the history of Maryland not to come in on legislation because he was so far to the right he tried it a couple of times he kept getting vetoed and he's like well and they're like it just keep your mouth shut so he did that right if Martin O'Malley was sitting here he would say he was the most corrupt governor in the history of Maryland because uh he literally became a multi-millionaire in office having his company set up a shop uh to expedite to expedite getting your like land permitting uh done like this is like some like old school like 17th century 18th century corruption Martin O'Malley's a former federal prosecutor and he literally is like it's clear the one thing that when it was hard to get was the records were of which business associates were in the governor's box of the Ravens and the Orioles games win they ever got that Martin O'Malley's convinced you would have a lot of the receipts of the corruption of Larry Hogan he is not the man to put in the US Senate is he just running this anti-Trump act and drag i mean i don't really understand how he thinks that people of Maryland have forgotten his recent stances unless it's just a wink wink to a certain kind of white i mean i mean you know he uh yes he his strategies appear inoffensive in charming yeah um the reality is that his politics are way to the right of Maryland in Angela also Brooks we have a great candidate who was much more in the mainstream of the state um who is rapidly ascending and in many ways uh architected her political career on Kamala Harris and this is about to be Harris's moment in Maryland and that will lift the Angela also Brooks boat like you know she is you know um sort of like Kamala's little sister in some ways yeah and uh and that's a beautiful thing you know i'm big support of Angela also Brooks and uh you know Larry you know he's a nice guy in a lot of ways but politically he is a man who is afraid to be himself and the American people yearn for authenticity and while you know he's like an authentic cancer survivor and he's authentically you know an engaged husband politically Larry Hogan just doesn't want you to know what he actually thinks yeah exactly i mean i i wonder if he's trying to get Trump to insult him to help him at this point uh yeah i mean possibly i want to give some praise to Sierra Club and NAACP for working so hard to help uh advance the designation of the Springfield race riot monument thank you and we're about to do the same thing in Tulsa god willing and that'll be the first national monument period in Tulsa because you know it's it's an oil state they don't want any land protected um but yeah no Springfield's a big deal you know this was a race riot in Abraham Lincoln's hometown in 1908 and the grandson of the great abolitionist William Garrison um his grandson Oswald Garrison valard wrote the call to what would become the NAACP in response uh and so you know being here in Illinois and i think it's important to recognize if you will that we this is the home of merely the the alpha and the omega of the modern civil rights movement to date Omega this Kamala Harris moment right first woman first South Asian second African-American president that's what we're seeking to make happen wow and it's happening in the city of the elevated Jesse Jackson and Barack Obama what poetry but we forget you know in the middle you had uh Emmett Till and his mom making those decisions right here in Illinois and we also forgot many of us in the beginning the call for the NAACP was inspired by events in Springfield uh that race riot in Abraham Lincoln's hometown and so um yeah it is poetic to be in Illinois for such a great moment it's great to see you feeling such hope about the months to come oh man absolutely i man i was in Springfield with Kamala and some other friends we were all there together to you know be you know supportive of Barack when he announced and uh that's quite a picture of all of y'all oh thank you yeah yeah yeah and we are um i saw it then man i saw it then you know i was fun i kept bringing her out to the NAACP conventions 2009-2010-2011 and then there's like this group of like kind of women who lead the NAACP to impose something you know we have other black women prosecutors why keep bringing back that lady from San Francisco and it's so beautiful it's like this is why they also said the same thing to say say it was why keeping back the minority leader from Georgia we have other black women who are actually majority leaders and i was like man if you can't see it if you can't see it but uh i this is uh my daughter may be the only girl in America who grew up calling uh vice president Harrison and Kamala and minority leader Abrams you know um auntie Stacey and uh a lot of pride in the family then it is such a pleasure to see you you look great thank you what is the best way for our listeners to keep up with all your work @benjellis on twitter um find me on LinkedIn on you know @benjellis on instagram join the Sierra Club and man if you don't want to join Sierra Club join anything else because this is always a battle between organized money and organized people we can win if we're organized but you're not organized if you don't belong to nothing you have inspired me for so many years really good same always so much man all right peace thank you john with Hyundai america's best warranty including a 10-year 100 000 mile power train limited warranty is a given not a luxury and the safety features that have helped Hyundai win nine IIHS top safety picks again not a luxury high strength steel nope durability is never a luxury and if you think that orchestra you're hearing is a luxury well you got me there but when it comes to a Hyundai quality is never a luxury visit Hyundai USA dot com or call 562-314-4603 for more details Hyundai there's joy in every journey okay it's time to commit 2024 is the year for prioritizing yourself begin your new smile journey with bite and you could start seeing results in just two to three weeks just order your at-home impression kit today for only 1495 at bite dot com bite clear liners are doctor 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uh at the Fillmore um and a member of the budget committee welcome shocks your your your congressman brendan Boyle thank you well good to meet you in a mutual admiration society like i said i've admired uh you from television uh radio uh and and on social media as well and um a lot of times you say something that i want to be eloquent enough to say it the way you say it so it's great to be with you it's very kind of you and thank you for committing professional suicide by appearing on my show um congressman how is this last 31 days been for you on an emotional level as a democrat what has been your experience of these historic events we've lived through well they had been remarkable i would just move the the date back um the three weeks between the first debate we're three and a half weeks between the first debate and the ultimate decision that president biden made on that uh early sunday afternoon uh we're very painful and difficult um the sort of um mixed emotions that a lot of us were having in my case i am a long time admirer and backer of joe biden i was one of his first supporters a day one supporter when he decided to run for president in 2019 was out there in iowa and new hampshire literally knocking on doors for him and stuck with him when everyone was writing us off in that campaign uh and i'm a big admire of what he's done as president that i've played a a small role in as a house democrat producing some of the most meaningful reforms and pieces of legislation since 1965 not to mention his uh tremendous foreign policy achievements which will also be well regarded in history all that said as someone who loves and cares for joe biden that first debate was painful to watch and uh and so for a lot of us specifically within the house democratic caucus we were really wrestling with these emotions what to do some people obviously uh publicly came out and and called for him to step down i was not one of those people i stuck with the president i always said it was his decision he won fair and square correct about 90 percent of the delegates this convention were pledged to the the biden harris ticket um but then he on his own made the decision that for party unity sake and to give us the best chance of of success in in november um that he should step aside and it was an incredibly selfless decision um nothing like that my lifetime had had ever happened before from that sunday 30 some days ago on it has been the exact opposite it has been just let's go total unity total enthusiasm um we've seen this in the polls we've seen it in the record donations we've seen it in the record volunteers i have never seen anything like this and no one could have predicted this just uh over 30 days ago you know all of our friends who keep saying we need to switch to a european style of campaigning only three months they're going to get a lot of ammunition out of what we've experienced i was going to say um i was talking to some friends of mine who are MPs and we served together in something called the nato part elementary assembly and i was saying well a lot of you guys always talked about how long american elections are and that we don't have european style elections welcome to the first somewhat by accident european snap election and here we are and you know for our side has been working out congressman what are some policy specifics that you are hoping to hear from vice president harris either uh in her speech at the convention or in the weeks to come so first i actually as someone who is a policy guy who is the ranking member of the budget committee and uh also on ways and means it might be uh ironic that i then say i don't want to hear a big policy speech i think that would be a missed opportunity the most important thing tonight is kamala harris introduces herself to tens of millions of americans who don't really tune into politics who aren't like us yeah who don't watch cable tv news or consume a lot of this um they just get general impressions i agree um and they're going about their their daily busy lives they'll tune in tonight and they'll have for the first time sat down and listened at length to kamala harris so here's an opportunity for her to explain who she is where she comes from her humble middle class background why her story in many ways is the epitome of the american dream and why she's so passionate about the issue she's fighting for and then from that transition into highlighting and several of those so i think that that sort of structure is the way tonight that should go and and i think that's what we'll see in the weeks to come are there any specific policy proposals you'd like to hear from the vice president yeah several first jadie vance as you've probably noticed is such a fraud oh that's an insult to fraud sir that's an insult to frauds but go on he talks a big game on child tax credit meanwhile he and his side couldn't be bothered to vote could he killed the one-year extension of the child tax credit which had reduced child poverty by almost 46 percent in the united states i represent the congressional district in pennsylvania that actually had the most families the benefited from that extension extension of the child tax credit that's something we need to go back and make permanent number one number two the care economy that actually kamala harris has talked about at length as vice president and i think will be a major priority for her this wasn't the in the original house pass piece of legislation to ensure that finally people will be able to afford the child care that they need so that they we're talking let's face it disproportionately about women can enter the workforce and we can boost that workforce participation rate um that's something she cares about that was something that was in the house pass bill until it got cut down uh in in the senate that's right so those two things and then the third thing that i would say is and and this doesn't point to a specific policy per se but a set of policies and that is what we can do to continue to bring down costs in the united states of america so those those would be sorry i didn't just say one but those would be the name is great i mean of course you know they'll they'll demand politicians and democrats do something about all this inflation and then as soon as someone actually puts forth a measure to do something about this inflation they'll be called a marxist for price caps or etc etc but uh you know the frustrating thing for a lot of folks is the lack of hearing the words corporate greed the fact that we saw you know some capitalists didn't raise their prices during the pandemic arizona iced tea kept it at 99 cents they're still billionaires they didn't reduce the size of the cans so we know also that america is recovering from inflation better than any of our g7 allies and yet it's been so hard to get these messages out to the voters yeah it has been you're exactly right i mean imagine from my perspective as the lead democrat on the budget committee so we get reams of data from cbo congressional budget office actually reports to to the budget committee and the house and the senate so i know for fact that we have the strongest economic recovery in the world from covid by far both in terms of inflation and job growth correct um i said as i mentioned before all the time with members of parliament from other countries particularly your paying countries and they marvel at what has happened in the united states but i have to say it has been frustrating to me because it is hard to get that message out because for most americans say don't tell me about germany don't tell me about england don't tell me about france i just know that a few years ago when i went to buy eggs it was x and now it's x plus 25 percent this is not unlike what the obama administration dealt with yeah 2012 i mean recovery that yeah on paper i can prove it but trying to convince the people that it is getting better is a harder matter but they showed because that's exact analogy that i've been using to hear so mind meld they showed that it was possible to say hey look we are so much better off than where we were when we were at the deaths of the great recession thank you but we're not all the way back we're on the path to getting back now that we're finally getting out of the ditch and we're close to getting fully out of it why in the world would you want to turn around and hand the keys back to the guys that drove the car into the ditch in the first place that's the messaging i mean we're not losing one nine eleven worth of a death toll per day of american lives and we don't have people beating up cops on the capital steps for a lie right the most difficult part for me of this convention was actually watching the video from uh january six that they displayed at some point last night and it's uh now obviously i have a very you know unique perspective since i was there um but it's still enormously difficult to watch and i do want to just give a special thanks to those few brave republicans who have left the tribe so to speak and come here to repudiate donald trump and to stand up for this country and to endorse kamala harris we'll hear from my buddy adam kinsinger tonight who is a great colleague and friend of mine uh when we served in the house um i really give them credit i wish there were more of them who are willing to do that but that just makes what they're doing all the more courageous let me ask you about the less courageous ones yeah because i'm certain i always ask us if representative uh guess you've got to have colleagues who privately oh will confide in you that this racist con man clown who rapes women and stole from vets is a drag on the soul of a once great political party they're not the party of lincoln not even the party of quail i i have to imagine that you have colleagues who in private moments will confidentially acknowledge they know how corrosive this is there were more in 2017 in 2018 because then a number of folks either retired or lost in primaries yeah but they are still there including serving with me on the house floor only on the republican side and i would love to take a private straw poll of how house republicans will be voting this november you would be surprised by the number i'd love to will not vote for donald trump who want him to finally leave the stage and just move on um what a lot of them say in public is not what they say in private what a shock one last question congressman and thank you for your generosity of time what do you i mean you you represent one of the greatest what is called a swing state a purpose state and um you have a popular democratic governor and i do think that she will win your state but what do you want the republican or independent residents of your great state to know about this ticket and why this ticket can help their families more than say um the star of celebrity apprentice well first there's no question that um as goes pennsylvania so goes the election amen that was the case in 2016 when donald trump won pennsylvania by under one percentage point and then he won the the whole thing uh and then in 2020 when joe biden was able to flip it and he won pennsylvania by one percentage point he was able to get to the white house so it'll be the same thing this time and what i would want that swing voter to know maybe it's someone who's in chester county pennsylvania a largely upper middle class suburban area might be a voter is republican leaning may have voted for trump before may have voted for biden but is frustrated about inflation or the economy and isn't sure the way to go i would just urge this person to listen to a kamala harris speech and listen to a donald trump speech and actually sit there and compare which one is talking about concrete things holy true that will improve your life and the lives of the loved ones around you donald trump as bill clinton said last night it's not just about the lies it's about the eyes yeah donald trump will say aye aye me me me just talk about himself only cares of course about himself um he won't talk about how he'll just say you know of course donald trump everything's a superlative it's going to be the greatest ever it's going to be wonderful yada yada yada but won't actually tell you what he'll do he won't tell you about his repeated attempts to take away health care from thirty million americans yeah as he attempted to with the approval but i'm sure we'll get the trump health care plan any day now right that's not just about next week yeah next week within two weeks time he's there with a pencil in a paper working very hard really he's got a whole team of top men top men but let's not forget when that effort because of the infamous thumbs down from john mccain failed by one vote in the senate after it passed the house that's right that's how close 30 million americans were from losing their health in john mccain saved the republican party well i mean saved tens of millions of americans oh yeah from from losing their health care um but after that failed effort what was the one thing they turned to next giving a massive two trillion dollar tax cut not to the middle class not to working people not to the people that jd vance pretends the care about you know when he's not trashing them and has brought that made him a millionaire no they gave a tax cut eighty three percent of which went to the richest one percent correct and then they turn it around and shed crocodile tears about the deficit and debt when that two trillion dollar tax cut not one dime of it was paid for and oh by the way that expires when in 2025 oh not for everyone sir oh that's right the corporations boom the corporations who got a 40 percent tax cut because the rate went from 35 to 21 40 reduction in corporate tax paul ryan and dial trump were sure to keep that permanent and paul has even said publicly since the reason why they did that was because they know it was so deeply unpopular absolutely they have the same agenda just different methodologies exactly congressman boil it's such a pleasure having you here i want to thank you for your service and i want to thank you for fighting so hard for this country are we going to see joe biden campaigning in pennsylvania i hope so you know joe biden doesn't get enough credit for the fact that in part of uh his twenty twenty campaign to win back pennsylvania just sway it from a trump win by less than a point to a biden win by a point he over performed in his home area in north eastern p_a_ anchor by scranton he over performed by six points now you know scranton area doesn't have the population of philadelphia or even uh pitsberg but still a lot of people live there it's about 15 to 17 percent of the state wide electorate i would put joe scranton uh joe scranton um i would put joe scranton in scranton in northeastern p_a_n_ coach um he's ready to play and um he can still help us in pennsylvania because it will come down i believe the pennsylvania and i think in pennsylvania will come down to one point i think you're right maybe two let's be optimistic congressman thank you so much if it's a landslide yeah absolutely it's good to see you thank you again thank you this is an ad by better help what are your self-care non-negotiables the things you know make you feel better even when it's impossible to make time for them like that workout you try to squeeze in between kids activities work and everything else you have going on and before you know it it gets pushed to tomorrow sound familiar but it's the moments when you feel like you have no time for yourself when those non-negotiables are more important than ever those are the things that keep you strong healthy motivated and prepared to take on everything life demands of you so why not make therapy one of them better help online therapy makes it easy to get started with 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