Trump's Worst Nightmare, New Dems Take Him Out After Horrific Voting Rights Act

0:04All right, some beautiful things are happening around the country. And first and foremost, it is that all of the democratic strategists that love to do focus groups and not believe in anything are having, are being forced to listen to their voters. And it turns out that people in America want politicians who are not prostitutes. What do I mean by prostitutes? I mean people that corporations and lobbyists can say, here's a check for you. Now you work for me. And turns out the electorate doesn't like that. And we can look no further than the great state of Pennsylvania. And so I'd like to welcome my guest today, Chris Rabb.

0:42He just won the Democratic primary in Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania's third congressional district in Philadelphia, which is the bluest district in the country. He has been a Pennsylvania state lawmaker for 10 years, representing a majority black mixed income district. And now he's headed to Congress to shake up the Democratic party and go toe to toe with Donald Trump. Chris Rapp, congratulations on your primary victory. I love when centrists that play patty cake with MAGA and their donors get their asses handed to them. I love it. Me too. Yeah. I love battling entrenched politicians and establishment politics and reminding folks that organizing always defeats organized money.

1:37Exactly. It does. And we always have to remind everybody that, especially in our party, that Kamala outraised Donald Trump and she still lost. She didn't even want to swing state. And so I think our messaging as a party needs to be something very understandable. And it's not that deep, but it is that if you prostitute yourself out to the same people that MAGA prostitutes themselves out, then you're dealing with pimps and hoes politicians. And we need to be the party of the people. Because as I look at it, Chuck Schumer chuckles. He takes money from AIPAC. So he's just a prostitute, just like Donald Trump is.

2:17And I think that we have got to do brand damaging, whether it's a Republican or a Democrat, to these people who take money from these corporate donors. Agreed. And there is a major distinction between liberals and progressives. Liberals want play around the edges. Progressives believe in structural change and we cannot move forward as a party, as a society, as a whole, if we allow for the continued prostitution. And this is no disrespect to sex workers because they're more honorable than a lot of the politicians that I work with. We have to make sure that we end this era of money and politics.

2:59And we saw what happened in New York City. So Mondani was a great candidate and I'm excited about him as mayor. But what also helped him in the state of New York, there was a public financing of campaigns, which means that for every dollar he got up to$250, he got$12 back. And that helped him raise significant funds from a grassroots supported campaign to allow him to have what I call aggressive fabulosity behind him. Also, they had ranked choice voting, which made sure that the people's will put in someone who got at least a simple majority. And we don't have that. We have plurality voting in most of our states, which is problematic.

3:45So you can be in office with, you know, 11 % of the vote or 27 % of the vote. And that does not give people a sense of ownership, a sense of agency in terms of who they really want to serve them. And that's ultimately what it's about. And I just want to say one other thing that's when we talk about language, I am not a politician amongst elected officials on one side, which is the side you described quite aptly are politicians. Those are people who serve themselves and moneyed interests. On the other side of the elected officials spectrum are public servants. Public servants serve the people and the public good.

4:27And that's the side of the spectrum I want to remain on for the remainder of my political career. Let's talk about, you mentioned that there's a difference between like liberals and progressives. And I lived in Oklahoma City the majority of my life and recently moved to New York. And for the average Republican voter, and I would even say an independent voter, they would label Barack Obama, Kamala Harris, Chuck Schumer, Cory Booker, etc. as radical, progressive, crazy liberals. And there's no distinction in that with the electorate. And so as we tackle that, because we can all get in our silos and we can be like, oh, these liberals and people will accuse my co-host and I, oh, you girls just like to lib out.

5:20You're just neo liberals or if you're progressive and we try to like out progressive each other. I think that it's important that changing the language around our messaging as a party is labeling the people getting off of this progressive liberal thing and taking the Chuck Schumers of the world, that brand, Kristen Gillibrand, those types of politicians and label them as, I mean, I like the prostitutes, but I agree with you, I don't want to demean sex workers because I would rather earn my money on my back. I think it's a much more honest, admirable vocation than what the Chuck Schumers of the world do.

6:00But we need to label them that these are bought and paid for people. Because once you get outside of that, then if you're not beholden, if you don't allow corporations to break you, then you are progressive. Then you are all about progress. And so what do you think in Pennsylvania? Pennsylvania is, you are in the most liberal, the bluest district in the country. What do you think about independent voters and messaging to the people who may have triple Trumped that were maybe low information voters or felt like, you know, they're upset with the two party system about how we should message? Do you agree with me?

6:40We need to get off of this liberal progressive thing and simplify it. No, I think you're I think there's there's great value in transcending labels that are often used without genuine care or full understanding. So absolutely. So if we're talking inside baseball, like we can talk about liberal progressive. But if you're talking to the average person who may be what is called a low information voter, like they don't know the difference between Congress and state legislature or what have you. You're just talking to them about the things they care about, not the things that I care about as a candidate or an incumbent.

7:21I always start with when I talk to someone new is what do you care about? And it's a beautiful question for two reasons. One is I'm not centering it on myself and my candidacy. That's number one. Number two is most people have never been asked that question before, and they're working hard, they're distracted, they're concerned, and they're like, wow, no one's ever asked me that question. What do I care about? And in their answer, there will be something that we will agree on. And that's where you start, no matter how they define themselves as a libertarian, a liberal or whatever. and there will find a way.

7:59So for instance, like this war in Iran, most people who identify as conservatives don't want us over there. If you start there and say, don't you think we could use billions of dollars that are being sent over to Iran to be used to help your rural community, to help local farmers? They're going to say yes. And if they hear that coming from a Black Democrat from a city, they're going to be shocked and kind of like, oh, he actually cares about me. Like, I love that. I love like shocking people with like affirmation, right? Indecency. And it's not pandering. Like we both agree we shouldn't be spending our valuable tax money in a war that nobody wants, right?

8:45Except Netanyahu and, you know, Trump. So I start there and you don't have to mention any labels. I don't have to say I'm a progressive, I'm a Democrat. I'm just someone who cares about my communities and my communities are embattled in ways that your communities in rural areas are embattled. We have more in common and it's the billionaire class that's making our lives miserable. Let's discuss the dismantling of the Voting Rights Act. And you hear a lot about there's a rise in this, there's a rise in that. The biggest rise that is causing a bigotry, that's causing material damage is anti-Black racism.

9:27It is off the charts. It is past every other form of bigotry. And we have a lot on the rise right now. Misogyny is on the rise. Transphobia is on the rise. Homophobia is on the rise. Islamophobia is just downright accepted. Anti-Semitism is on the rise, but none of them are as bad as what is happening materially to black Americans. Anti-black racism is, in my opinion, 9-1-1, houses on fire, out of control because they are weaponizing it now through the courts. They are making it a legal, legal, legalized racism. And as a lot of these seats in the house are going to be removed, incredible black representation that is much needed, especially in the South.

10:11A lot of really good people are getting kicked down the curb. And so I think you're going to win and you're going to be in the house of representatives. And there's probably going to be a lot less black representatives. I hope I'm wrong. I hope I'm wrong about that. But I think that that's what this has been designed to do. And that's how much power these racist, these fascist racists have. So speak to me about the rise in anti-black racism. And let's try to get this to the top of the news cycle, because it is just insane that this isn't the lead story everywhere in the United States right now.

10:49Well, I mean, I think that's why I appreciate being on your show because corporate media doesn't want to cover this because they benefit from it. And I don't hear a lot of white people saying what you're saying. I don't. And if you're silent, you're complicit. We can hold multiple truths at the same time. There is an increase in anti-Semitism and Islamophobia and transphobia, but the anti-Black racism is extraordinary. Donald Trump, one of the first things he did was basically fire 300 ,000 Black women from federal service. Black women are overrepresented in terms of civil servants in government on all levels and doge went after them.

11:37And that is the base of the Democratic Party. So where's the, where's the solidarity with the Democratic Party for the interests of black women? And if you take care of black women, you take care of everybody. That's right. Everybody. And so that should be, that should be the central rallying point, but because black women's labor and intellect and And collective genius has been so undermined for all the reasons for so long. I don't think beltway Democrats could possibly conceive of an agenda that centered them, even though that is the most strategically wise thing to do is also the moral morally correct thing to do.

12:18So I appreciate you raising this issue because it is so true on every level. And that's also why we need to understand why we should embrace reparations, because reparations help everyone. Reparations is not about repairing Black people. It's about repairing society itself, right? Because if we did all the things that liberals and progressives wanted, all the programs, we fully funded everything, thing, we would still have radical wealth inequality based on race. The only thing that can level the playing field is reparations. And so it's not about taking money from good, hardworking white people and put it in the pockets of poor black people.

13:03That is a trope that is silly and nonsensical. It's about investing in the things that there's never been the political will to do in earnest ever in this country. And making sure that that investment addresses all of the root causes that have been born out of government complicity or actual attacks. So when we talk about legalized races, well, race itself was created for economic reasons. The reason I'm considered Black in this country and not in most other countries was because it benefited the slavocracy to have anyone with one drop of black blood to be owned, and therefore the most valuable form of capital for their continued wealth generation.

13:50Like, the whole notion of whiteness was created to justify the transatlantic slave trade. So everything we do is connected to race, and we have to talk about it. And I really appreciate that you've brought it up because not enough white folk do. And we can connect it to things that most white people care about that don't think about in terms of race. And the best example is a lot of people are talking about the minimum wage. Bernie Sanders has been talking about forever,$15. Now it's been so long that$15 minimum wage is not a livable wage. But the tipped minimum wage in this country is$2.13, which means that if you're working at Denny's as a server, and you're a white woman with a small child, a single mom, you're having to get paid with tips and being exposed to sexual harassment, sexual assault, all kinds of awfulness, because women are overrepresented among tipped wage earners.

14:46Well, the origins of the tip minimum wage is slavery and Jim Crow, where white employers in the South said, I don't want to pay Black people for their labor. So if white patrons of my business want to give them tips, I'll allow it. But that's the only way I'm bringing black people into workforce. And that's the reason we still have the tip minimum wage. So millions of white people who are earning a poverty wage, particularly white women, are being victimized because of white racism generations later. So our fates are intertwined. But we have to lift these stories up and show that we indeed have more in common than what divides us.

15:26And that's the way forward. Let's talk about, you mentioned the very successfully weaponized trope that white people are paying for monies coming out of their pocket to black people or white country club Republicans will be paying for these even white trailer trash people, you know, these lazy, there's some white on white crime there too, that I've experienced, you know, this demon. Well, that's all there is. Right. White on white crime and, right. Because crime is based on our neighbors, right? Right. Right. Demonizing the poor and all of these things. The messaging I would like to see Democrats launch, which goes back to how we started this podcast, which is talking about these politicians that whore out, that we cannot trust somebody who takes money from the same donors that are funding Donald Trump and fascism.

16:23And as it pertains to the messaging here, the real parasites are the corporations. The real coddling and theft is from black and white Americans and immigrants and no matter what color you are to corporations. When you think about Walmart and you think about Amazon and that they pay their customer, their workers minimum wage, no health insurance, no benefits whatsoever, tough titties, you lazy ass, go get a second job. That's the way corporate America treats them. And then the population picks up on that instead of realizing like we're subsidizing these billionaires. The Walton family is so rich that when they do the Forbes 500 list, all the heirs are separated and they're still in like the top 25 or something.

17:17I mean, it's just insane, grotesque wealth. Same with Jeff Bezos. You know, like he completely demonized this guy who tried to unionize and really, in my opinion, launched some racism against him. And we always rig the system for these really exploitative, morally defunct white men and their corporations. And Jesse Jackson made a lot of headway when he ran for president. He went to rule America and kind of started talking to these rural Americans that probably as a default setting were racist. I mean, let's just face it. And he kind of pointed out to them, hey, you're poor. My people are poor.

18:02We have the same problems here. And these guys are the enemy. Do you think victories like yours, victories like Zoran Mamdani's, hopefully Abdul Al-Sayed wins, hopefully Graham Plattner wins, hopefully we have just a huge, there's going to be a lot of corporate Democrats that win, but there's also, I think, going to be a lot of Chris Rabbs that win. Do you think this progressive wing of the party that can ride this wave and put pressure on these corporate Democrats and call out their passively racist voting. Because let's call it what it is. When you're voting for corporations, you're voting for this institutionalized wage theft and keeping the status quo of these racist policies that harm Black women.

18:49And then ultimately, like you mentioned, harm white women. Speak to all of that and speak about how we can just get be in our bonnet and just light up Hakeem and a bunch of these other do-nothing Democrats? So, so much of this is structural. And if you look at the Congressional Black Caucus, which is, you know, being decimated by the Voting Rights Act, right? A lot of the members represent, have a critical subset of Black voters. Not all of them are majority Black, but the ones that are, are the ones, and particularly in the South, are the ones who are most at risk. They represent generally folks where there's a higher level of poverty than in suburban districts and so forth.

19:36How do we fund our campaigns and elections, right? If they do not come from wealth, and I'm sure the Congressional Black Caucus has far less wealth than the average white member of Congress, ridiculously less would be my guess. Where are they getting their money from? if they can't raise it from regular voters, constituents, family members in that area, in that district, they need to raise money to get reelected because this is how our system is. So the lowest hanging fruit is the lobbyists and the PACs. And I'm not saying it's right, but I don't know if you've ever had to spend 35 hours in a windowless room dialing for dollars.

20:18It sucks. It's really, really hard. It's much easier to take a bigger check and do the work and be out there in community. So it's easy for us to say, oh, well, these folks are sellouts and they're taking money from the devil. But the reality is we're all on the grid. We are all complicit to a greater or lesser extent. If we had changed the structural way that elections are had and campaigns are funded, you're going to see a lot more ideological compatibility with folks in Congress. And that means that they'll be able to vote better and be better public advocates because they will be untethered from corporate interests that you and I agree are so toxic to our participatory democracy.

21:02So we need to get past the personalities and the individuals and disindividuate this problem and talk about the systemic issues. And again, we talk about Mondani. What was impressive about him, again, was it was in a state where they had the foresight to believe in rank choice voting, to make that happen, public financing of campaigns. That's not the case in Pennsylvania. In fact, I'm a state lawmaker in my fifth term, in my 10th year. A lobbyist could buy me a summer house, Jennifer. Not a cup of coffee, a summer house. And as long as I reported online, that's legal in Pennsylvania. In Pennsylvania, as a state lawmaker, I could get a million dollar check from Jeff Bezos and that's okay.

21:50But in Congress, I can only get$3 ,500 and I believe we should have caps. So a lot of this is structural. We address the structural issues, and a lot of these issues will go away or be much more manageable, and we will have more people who've currently taken that money who will say, oh, I believe in public financing. So the way forward, I believe, is not to attack the individuals, but to say to those individuals who've been taking this PAC money and so forth, if you get public financing, you can raise as much or more money than you did getting money from people who you don't actually like or agree with.

22:29And then you can be free to represent the people as a public servant and not a politician. And there's going to be public pressure on them to do it because I'm hoping that my class coming in in 2027 will be big and bold and everybody else will be noticing. Trust me, I know they are because I'm getting phone calls from those people who are like, oh, I better congratulate him because he's riding this wave and I'm afraid that I might not get reelected in the next term. I totally agree with you. And I think it's such a great point about the system and the structural issues. And I think the same pertains to billionaires.

23:07Like, I love to hate on Elon Musk. And I know it's petty and probably immature. And I love to hate on Peter Thiel and all of these people. But it is the system that has enabled these particular billionaires to be in the position that they're in. And a lot of bipartisanship support that enabled these billionaires to ascend to the area that they to the levels they've ascended to. And what's so fascinating to me about it is these guys have these bank accounts that could choke a bull and they sit there online or on television all day talking about what victims they are. that Ken Griffin, you know, just, uh, mom, Donnie calls him out, says, Hey, buckle up, buttercup.

23:49You're going to pay some taxes. And instead of him being a patriot, having gratitude, like JD Vance likes to talk about, if you ever said, thank you, have you ever had gratitude? That guy had such an opportunity to hop on his private plane, land in Teterboro, take a helicopter into Manhattan. Think about what little effort that would have taken for him, get an actual checkbook, write a check to the state of New York, the city of New York city, pass it over and say, as a billionaire who has been so successful because of unregulated capitalism, I agree with this mayor, here's your check. And then what else would you like for me to donate some money to?

24:22Because mayor, it's going to affect my life zero. But instead he acts like a titty baby and wets the bed on television. And then you have all of these people that probably have, you know, are making no disrespect to anybody who makes 40,$50 ,000 a year, but a lot of these billionaires, people die on the Hill that are living basically in poverty in this country. And so let's talk about if you get into Congress, which you're going to. I mean, yes, well, there's no Republican on the ballot and there are more raccoons than Republicans in my district. So I will be the next member of Congress. That is okay.

24:59So what do you want to do as far as it like Robert Garcia is my friend and he is on the oversight committee and I think he's doing great work. I really like Congressman Garcia. As far as accountability with what we're seeing, one thing that Donald Trump has been is transparent in the crimes that he's committing and the transferring of taxpayer money to himself, to his sons, dumb and dumber, and to his billionaire friends. How much are all gas are you on all this once you get in there? So I am someone who doesn't believe in the carceral state. We represent 5 % of the world population, but 25 % of the people in cages, our country.

25:49I will make an exception for these kleptocracy supporters, these thugs. Yeah, lock them up. Go after them. Use the full authority of Congress to nail them to the fucking wall. Love it. Will you also support, I'm looking for candidates right now. I'm in the market of looking for candidates that will run on, build whatever you want, MF-er. day one we're tearing every single bit of it down we're live streaming and we're having a rave while we do it the arch all the white trash gold shit he put on all the oval i want that lincoln memorial uh uh reflecting pool i want all of that sanded back down every single the trump that he put on top of the kennedy center if he puts his face on 200 bills that the treasury immediately says these are this is not real money go exchange it with a big bonfire all of it All of it.

26:48Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. These are memorials in one kind or another to white supremacy and white Christian nationalism and fascism. And they must be destroyed. We must send a message that this is not the nation we seek to be. And it's not just about destroying, it's about transforming. What are we transforming our nation into? How do we move towards a multiracial democracy that we've never had? Right. How do we do that? And that is what I want the agenda of the Democratic Party to be and not to be the vessel for corporate interests. The good billionaire narrative is our enemy. You can't be a billionaire without exploitation.

27:34You may be a very good person. You may give a shit ton to charity, but philanthropy is not policy. Right. And so we have to make sure that we have that we are we are really moving towards shared prosperity in the most meaningful ways and collective liberation. I can't be free until you're free. All of our struggles are indeed intertwined, and we have to figure out what are the policies and movement to move us in that right direction. And it has to be built around legislators in Congress and the House and the Senate and state and local who understand what are the things that are actually going to provide meaningful change and not just playing around the edges.

28:22So I appreciate that we have Obamacare. It was never enough. We need Medicare for all. We need a federal job guarantee. We need universal basic income. We need social housing. My mother was born. She's a baby boomer. And they did not, the GI Bill discriminated against black people. So when my grandfather got back from the war, he wasn't allowed to buy a home in the suburbs of Baltimore, but they didn't have housing. He just got back from the war. So they had a program called the Negro Veterans Housing Program, and they created real basic housing for Black vets. And it was abysmal. It was not nearly enough.

29:11But what we need to do is make sure that everyone has everything they need because we have the money. And how do I know that? Because we find the money to send it overseas, right? And if we do that, people will say, oh, this is possible. We can do that. I want to give one example. And it's odd because it's a shout out to the Biden administration. But in the pandemic, in the American Rescue Plan, they extended the child tax credits. For those folks who did not make enough to be taxed, they got money back in their pockets. and they got money per child they had at home under a certain age. And it decreased child poverty by almost 50 % in one year's time.