Corporate Dems Desperate To Stop Progress, MAGA Finds An Ally in Spineless Sellouts

0:05In the 2020 election, Donald Trump got his feelings hurt because millions, tens of millions of Americans voted via mail-in ballots and voted against him. So of course he wants to eliminate mail-in voting because he cannot stomach people voting against him or the people that he's endorsed. Pop this up. Democracy Docket does incredible work. The United States Postal Service is planning to radically crack down on mail voting according to a yet-to-be-published proposed rule. And what you need to know here is that Republicans have to cheat. The whole purpose of all of this voter suppression is because the more people that vote, the more Democrats win.

0:47And to discuss this and politics on the ground in Democratic races with me is candidate for Congress in San Francisco, Shoikot Chakrabarty. Shoikot, how are you doing today?

1:00Saikat Chakrabarti:I'm doing great. Thanks for having me on. Yes. Tell me, how concerned are you about all of the meddling Republicans are doing in all of these races around the country? Yeah, I'm somewhat concerned. I am pretty concerned. I think something that I wish that I was seeing from our Democratic leaders right now was actually putting more of a spotlight on this. I mean, the stuff you're doing, right? Because we don't want to be a surprise when we suddenly see Republicans denying election results, when we see Republicans showing up and actually taking over ballot boxes. And this has been going on for years.

1:35Saikat Chakrabarti:There have been Republicans taking over a board of elections all over the country. So I want to see our Democratic representatives actually highlighting what's going on. But of course, the best way to actually get over whatever meddling occurs is we have to win with a big margin. We have to win. The bigger the margin is, the harder it is to throw any sort of wrench until it works. Too big to rig. Okay. Tell me about your race. You're running, so my listener knows, you're running for Nancy Pelosi's seat, correct? That's right. And you're in the throes of a primary. And it's my understanding it's a three-way race right now.

2:06Saikat Chakrabarti:Yeah, that's exactly right. There's three major candidates in the race. It's myself, State Senator Scott Wiener, and Supervisor Connie Chan. And our election is coming up on June 2nd. Oh my gosh. Okay. So who, how, how are you different from Connie and Wiener? Yeah. I have sometimes elementary grades. I know. I know. I can't make fun of anyone's name. My name is Chakrabarty. You know, I know, no disrespect to Wiener, but I just, I know that's so immature, but yeah, you know, okay. I'm sorry. Okay. This is a serious question. Yeah. How are you different from your two opponents? Well, so in this race, I'd say State Senator Scott Wiener, he's sort of the main one to beat.

2:50Saikat Chakrabarti:And he and I differ hugely, especially when it comes to genocide that's going on in Gaza. I mean, State Senator Wiener has long been an opponent of the Palestinian rights movement in San Francisco. he's authored multiple pieces of legislation to try to silence criticism of israel to try to equate criticism of israel with anti-semitism he's gotten people fired i mean he got the state uh the university president sonoma state fired for meeting with bds activists activists like years ago um and so you know because i'm running in this race like he's now starting to pretend like he's gotten different on this issue and we can get more into that but uh but he's the he's different you know, we differ hugely on this issue.

3:28Saikat Chakrabarti:And also he's against taxing the rich. I mean, right now there's multiple ballot propositions to try to do a wealth tax on billionaires in California to try to do a tax on CEOs of large corporations. And he's against both because he's corporate funded. He's taken money from over 400 corporations over the course of his career. He's being funded by people like Chris Larson, Gary Tan, I mean, these tech VCs, crypto billionaires, APAC. So that's the big difference with him. And with Supervisor Chan, And, you know, the major difference I have is I'm running against the establishment. Like I've said, I don't believe Hakeem Jeffries should be the leader of the Democratic Party, and I'm not going to vote for him.

4:03Saikat Chakrabarti:I'm trying to recruit people to run all around the country to primary other corporate Democrats. I'm going in there to try to actually change this party. And, you know, Supervisor Chan is not going to be willing to do that. Okay, so let's talk about that, that whole notion of these Democrats that, like I just saw recently there was an Israel parade in New York. and this small trick, I think his name is, he's a finance minister of Israel. And he has said that 2 million, he doesn't care if 2 million Gazans starve. Really genocidal language, really. I mean, like sociopathic, like this person is serial killer on a very large scale.

4:44In my opinion, he comes over to New York city and he's marching on his parade. And then of course, Chuck Schumer's up there just Israel thumping like nobody's business. And it really, for me, it really pisses me off that we have people in our party that allow American taxpayer money to kill kids. And I mean, this has just got to stop. And it always seems like these politicians, the Schumers, I'm sure probably the wieners that it's running for your seat. They do these insidious lies to the public like, oh, we're for gay rights. Oh, we're for women's rights. We're pro-choice. But they always exclude a group of people.

5:31And then we just keep sending money to commit war crimes. And it's just like, where are the moral leaders in this? And is that what differentiates you from him?

5:43Saikat Chakrabarti:It's what differentiates me from both my opponents, to be honest. I mean, I started this race and i've been calling it genocide in gaza from the start and the if you if something is a genocide you can't be saying it's sending any sort of arms or any funding like if this was any other country we would not be sending any sort of aid to that country we'd be debating what kind of sanctions to put on them and that's why from the start of this race you know i've been calling for full arms embargo in israel i'm calling for sanctions on the leaders of israel we need to be doing everything we can to stop this genocide but the thing that we're seeing right now from a lot of politicians, and this is what State Senator Scott Wiener has been doing as well, is they've realized that this has become such a politically toxic issue.

6:24Saikat Chakrabarti:You know, try to say that we should continue sending funds to Israel has become so politically toxic that people are starting to change their position. There was a debate clip that kind of went viral from early in our race where, you know, myself and my opponents, we got asked whether Israel is committing genocide in Gaza. And myself and Suhra Khan said yes. And Senator Wiener, it was like a little paddle that you put up and he just he just didn't answer the question right and so he got so much blowback from that that a couple days later he put out the statement saying ah yes i've come around i've decided now that you know it is in fact a genocide but then there was reporting just yesterday from ryan grim at drop site that apparently state senator scott we were still going out and talking to apac donors telling them that yeah yeah i'm saying it's a genocide publicly but i don't actually believe that you know i'm just saying that because i have to say Like, please still give me your money.

7:13Saikat Chakrabarti:So this is like the kind of ridiculous, just hypocritical, you know, politics that people are so sick of. And people say one thing, you know, they just say whatever is politically convenient. Like, why don't you just look at what's going on in Gaza and have a moral opinion about it, right? And people are tired of it. Well, and this is just, this is kind of a crass way to put it, but this is honestly how I think of these Democrats. I think they're prostitutes. I think they're willing to whore themselves out to AIPAC and to Israel and not stand on business and stand up for their constituents. And when you have the same pimps that Donald Trump has, that Ted Cruz has, and that Lindsey Graham has, how on earth can you stand up for everyday Americans when you have the exact same pimps and you prostitute yourself out the same way Ted Cruz?

8:03I mean, and so I think that as a party, we have to really call these people out because here's what I'm concerned about. I'm concerned that there's a lot of people in these races that are lying, that are liars, that are going on camera, that are going to rallies and saying enough to say, oh, you know, we're not going to send money to Israel. And then behind closed doors, they're telling donors and corporate interests, oh, JK, I'm just doing that so I can get the vote, which makes them worse than the Republican Party, in my opinion.

8:37Saikat Chakrabarti:Yeah, and this is what they do on so many issues. I mean, the things that we actually want to do as progressives, like universal health care, you know, getting rid of corruption in politics, universal child care, taxing the rich. These are all hugely popular issues. And so you keep seeing Democrats who will come out and say they're for this stuff. But even when Democrats have power, somehow none of it gets done. And that's because the donors still control that place. You know, they don't want to actually piss off their donors. But, you know, in this race, like we are seeing, you know, I mentioned State Senator Wiener has continued to take money.

9:10Saikat Chakrabarti:He said he's not going to take any APAC money, by the way, but he's continued to take money from APAC board members, from APAC leaders. but we also just saw a super PAC come in in the last week that started to put in about a half million dollars that as far as we can tell again this is based on reporting is a front group for APAC and it's spending on behalf of my other opponent on behalf of Connie Chan who you know as far as I can tell is actually decent on this issue so she was for you know the offensive weapons but not defensive weapons thing but she managed to move on that position. Let's talk about that.

9:43Saikat Chakrabarti:Yeah, go ahead. Let's talk about offensive versus defensive. How stupid do these people think we are, these candidates that say that, and treat us in such a condescending way that they think that we would believe that Benjamin Netanyahu and Ben Gavir are going to actually be honest about what they're using offensively or defensively. Furthermore, is there such a distinction as an offensive and defensive weapon? To me, that is such a patronizing way to treat your voters. And you're telling me this is what Connie Chan is telling people, because I think that is so patronizing to tell people that.

10:24Saikat Chakrabarti:Yeah, that was her position. I will say she moved on it. Again, like because we're in an election, like I managed to move both my opponents on this issue. But this the thing right like the the reason aipac spends all this money is they want to have these malleable candidates that they know are movable what they know that they can actually you know influence at the end of the day i mean supervisor chan's been uh endorsed by nancy pelosi in the race by adam schiff and so she's going in as part of that establishment and the thing is like aipac knows that i am actually strong in this issue i mean i started just as democrats right like i helped Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar get elected.

11:03Saikat Chakrabarti:I've been fighting them for years. And so their main goal is to make sure I don't win this seat. So they're trying to spend everything they can right now to keep me out of the top two tomorrow, to make sure that I don't go on into general, both because they know that I actually care about this issue and I'm going to fight them on it. But also they know that I'm the best one to actually beat Scott Wiener. Like we already have a general election polling that we did where Scott Wiener are basically in a dead heat. We're completely tied up. So they're doing whatever they can to keep me out. But this is the thing.

11:31Saikat Chakrabarti:I think, you know, getting rid of APAC money, AI money, crypto money, that's going to be the big fight in the Democratic Party in this election in 2028. If we can't actually wrest control of this party back from all these influences and have it be a party that actually fights for working people, then we're hosed. I mean, then, yeah, like we are going to keep seeing the country go more and more in an authoritarian direction because we're not going to be able to actually make people's lives better. I completely agree. And I think it's really stunning that both of your opponents would even participate in anything to do with AIPAC, because it's my understanding that AIPAC creates these other groups like Democracy for Women.

12:12And it's all a ruse because the policies in Israel are so horrific, criminal, sociopathic, genocidal, et cetera, that they can't run on them. And I I cannot stand the NRA. I can't stand it, but at least they run on it. Don't take our rights away. This Israel thing is so toxic that they have to lie in disguise. And I just, in your final message to the voters in your district, speak about how dishonest it is for both of these candidates to somehow be overtly taking AIPAC money or taking it in a veiled way. And how lying to the electorate, And even just during the campaign, how much worse is that going to be for your district once you have representation?

12:57And my God, let me just say this to the people of San Francisco, as a woman that came from a red state, hold the line, man. Like, I can tell you that if you start playing patty cake with these fascists and these corporate donors, your rights will start eroding before you know it. I mean, San Francisco has got to be a beacon of liberal ideals. People in these blue dots and red states are just going to die if they elect some of these corporate do-nothing Democrats.

13:25Saikat Chakrabarti:Yeah, and that's really what this seat is about, right? This is a deeply progressive seat, a deep blue seat. I mean, there's a whole history and a legacy in San Francisco of being a seat that really pushes on these issues that kind of sets the tone for the rest of the country. And so to have someone from this seat who goes to Washington and is totally bought out by the Israel lobby and the corporate lobby, they're going to provide cover for all these other Democrats. They're going to be the one that's really like setting the tone for what happens in Washington. And so right now, like we're in an election.

13:59Saikat Chakrabarti:And so we're seeing these candidates move their positions and try to say they're better on this issue. But that's because of the pressure that the election is creating. So once the candidates get elected, once they're actually congresspeople, Well, there's no pressure. The only pressure they're going to face is from the gobs of money that come their way. So you have to actually vote for somebody who's clear on this issue, who's not going to be bought out, who's been very clear about rejecting APAC money, corporate money, AI money. And that's what I'm presenting this race. I really think we are in an existential battle for who's going to control our society, who's going to control our future.

14:32Saikat Chakrabarti:Are we going to just hand off control to the Israel lobby, to the AI lobby, to the crypto lobby? Or are we going to take control back? Are we going to have people control our future? And that's what I'm trying to fight for. All right, Shoycott, tell our listeners how they can support you in the tail end of this race. Yeah. So please, if you like what you hear, go to shoycott.us, S-A-I-K-A-T.us. We are doing a massive get out the vote operation. So if you're in the Bay Area, sign up to volunteer. We have about 600 volunteers signed up tomorrow to make sure people actually vote. And if you don't live in the Bay Area, you can still phone bank or you could donate a few bucks away.

15:08Saikat Chakrabarti:It all helps. Thank you so much. I appreciate any help I can get. Thank you so much and good luck. We're pulling for you. Thank you.