Death of Centrism with Gov. JB Pritzker

32:24How dare you? People on the left were quiet and didn't back it up. Now, what do you know? You know, 12 months later, well, a lot more people anyway, among Democrats are saying, yeah, this feels like Germany in the 1930s. And of course, Republicans just won't own it. But look, I'm about defending my state and defending the country and doing everything that I can in my power. I grew up believing that that's an obligation that we all have, defending democracy, defending this country, and especially defending it against attacks on civil rights and human rights. Let me ask you a question. You were one of the first people that I saw in a prominent position to go after Trump's cognitive decline and his cognitive health.

33:15And as we sit here and we see that he's still blubbering about the Nobel Peace Prize and is willing to sacrifice alliances, you know, NATO alliances. Do you think that speaks to his cognitive decline? Or is it just his rabid narcissism, in your opinion? Well, it is hard to separate all those things. I mean, you know, Dementia Don was on Twitter all last night attacking on the subject of Greenland, everybody that he could think of. And of course, what is his obsession with the Nobel Peace Prize? He's never going to win it because honestly, although he says he's stopped all these wars, he started more wars and made tensions in the world much worse than they were.

34:08But I guess he's just desperate to be recognized for something. But I do think there is something wrong with him. I mean, I think it's clear when he attacks people, it's like eighth grade. The bully is attacking others for what they themselves are weak about. And that's who Donald Trump is. So I don't know. It's hard to separate narcissism from his dementia. And then he has all these people around him who won't stop him from saying these things or acting upon them. And, you know, I remember thinking, I wonder back in 2020, if Michael Flynn is unusual, you know, in having somebody around him who's encouraging to do all these terrible anti-democratic things.

34:58But now it seems like he's just filled his entire White House and cabinet with money. Totally. Yeah. I think we can say that he is a malignant narcissist with dementia surrounded by sycophants. And that would just be the best thesis sentence for what we're experiencing. But I say this a lot on our podcast that what they're doing, what MAG is doing, I expect it. I do not expect them to stand up for the rule of law. They are the party of crime and disorder as shown by the pardons from the January 6th insurrection. The it's a it's not a meritocracy like they claim it is a shakedown to end all shakedowns.

35:39They are eroding every pillar of democracy that we have. So that's going to happen all day, every day until either he drops dead or, you know, the Democrats win the midterms or 2028. So that's we could we could talk about that ad nauseum. But what we can change, What we can talk about is our party and the resistance. And I think it's more productive to talk about that right now. And I feel like governors have really led the resistance. You have really been in an executive position where you have really gone after him with the things that I think are required, rule of law type talk, but also some personal insults, which is what I kind of call dark woke, not this snowflake woke anymore, but dark woke.

36:29And you really have encapsulated that. But moving forward, and I know you don't know if you're going to run for 28 or not. I think that's fair. Because who knows what they're going to do tomorrow, much less 2028 with this guy. We could be at war with Greenland tomorrow. But I think there's a conversation about our party that we need to have. And this is a long question, but bear with me. I've noticed that the base of the party is undergoing an awakening, where they are very upset with corporate Dems that are beholden by the same corporations that these MAGA politicians are beholden to. And I feel like the establishment governing class hasn't clued into that or is in denial about it.

37:12And so I want to ask you what your thoughts are on that. And then I want to ask you about three questions that I think are going to be central to whoever the nominee is or any primaries or any campaigns going on in the future. So what are your thoughts about the base of the party with the governing class? Not you, you're an exception and you're doing a great job. I want to start by saying that although we have things to sort out within our party for sure, that I also want us all to recognize that we've always had a spectrum of folks within the Democratic coalition and as part of the party. So I just want to forgive a little people who have slightly different views on one thing or another.

37:58I don't think there's going to be one doctrine that everybody's grabbing onto. Having said that, I really believe that, you know, we live in a world right now where people have to make a decision about who they are. I worked with Holocaust survivors to build a Holocaust museum, and they would remind me over and over again about, you know, there are really like four types of people in the world. There are collaborators, there are bystanders, there are rescuers, and there are upstanders. And the difference between a rescuer and upstanders, upstanders willing to stand up, speak out and put themselves right up front in taking the blows that come from fighting against authoritarianism, fighting against what Donald Trump is about, fighting against the tide that could be dangerous to the person speaking out.

38:51I believe that we have to be a party of upstanders like there is no room anymore for being anything less bystanders. No. And I've seen too much of it. I'm sick and tired, honestly, of the people in our party who've been quiet, hoping that if they just keep their heads down, that maybe they won't get affected by they can survive the next three years and not be negatively affected. Same thing, by the way, for law firms and universities and corporations. You know, what happened in the early 30s in Germany, just to be clear, is the elites backed the leader of the Nazi party and they backed the Nazis.

39:37And, you know, many of them ended up either not surviving or being tossed aside. And that's precise. You know, so people ought to remember that for anybody who's being quiet right now. Every day that goes by that you let this guy continue to amass power and we don't push back is a day when we are weaker and he is stronger. So eventually we won't be able to push back. If we are not right now in 2026 fighting back against the his election interference, which is going on every day, every day that we are losing and could lose in 2026. That's why I've been calling this out consistently. Everybody's got to recognize, stand up, speak out the you know, the the upstanders in the world.

40:28And, you know, back to who we are as a party, we have to be about telling the truth. And I mean, really bluntly, it's one of the things, by the way, both of you, Jennifer and Angie, can I call you pumps? Yes. I mean, really, you guys are so good at it, so good at it. And we just we need more of it. This is the type of platform for it. Maybe they're not doing it on CNN. They're not doing it on MSNBC enough. This is where I think people should be speaking. And so just back to your point, our party has to recognize that the system is rigged. Donald Trump kept saying it, you know, when he was running and he wasn't wrong.

41:10The system is rigged. He was just saying it for effect. He wants to rig the system. Right. Totally. We need to be the ones who are standing up against, well, corporate elite who are trying to take advantage of people who are poor and working class and middle class. We need to be the party that's saying that the wealthiest people in the country should step up and pay more than your average nurse or someone who's working at McDonald's. I mean, we need to be the party that's that's that's forcing a discussion about universal health care. Why are we not? You know, this is upsetting. I'm sorry to go on and on.

41:45No, I love it. Hitting on here is, you know, I was upset in 2024. Two things really upset me. A lot of things, actually. But I remember I remember particular moments for this in in January. You may recall, I think it was in January of 2024. Joe Biden did a speech at Valley Forge about democracy. And I remember I got invited as a Democrat, as a governor to go to Valley Forge for him to give that speech because he was trying to make it the theme of his campaign. Now, you know that I believe in fighting for democracy, but that is not what wins you an election. You need democracy so we can have the election.

42:27Right. You know, what wins the election, though, is fighting for people to be able to pay their bills, for God's sakes, to make enough money so that, you know, they can afford their electricity. They can afford their housing. And we Democrats don't talk enough about why it is that we became Democrats in the first place. What the Democratic Party is, we're the party, I hate to say, maybe you want to pick somebody else, but I would say we're the party of Franklin Roosevelt. That this is fundamentally, even though I was born in 1965, fundamentally, we are the party of Franklin Roosevelt, you know, adding with that, you know, very strong focus on civil rights and human rights.

43:07And we aren't we didn't live up to that. So the second thing. So fighting for democracy was kind of a moment when I was like, OK, I'm for fighting for democracy, but that's not the theme. And also, to your point, in 2024, where was everybody talking about we have a$7.25 minimum wage in this country? No shit. I mean, Jesus, you can't survive on two jobs at$7.25. If you're holding down two jobs, you can't survive on that. That's$28 ,000 a year. You can't feed your family on that, let alone one job. Why are we as a party not out there fighting for, you know, the things that we really believe in that, you know, so, you know, I've had it for people forgetting about about, you know, people forgetting about what our party is really all about, what why we exist as a party.

44:02Civil rights, human rights, fighting for people to be able to pay their bills, the working class and the most vulnerable people. These are the fundamentals of what we are as a, you know, we're the ones who created Medicaid, Medicare, Social Security, the Civil Rights Act, the Voting Rights Act. Why are people quiet when Donald Trump is ripping those things apart? I think that the answer is to that, like, I think we're all kind of going through this great awakening right now. And for me personally, I was always a good MSNBC liberal and I watched Morning Joe and I went through the opinion channels.

44:38And then when we lost this last time to an absolute effing moron, a convicted felon at this point who had a Nazi rally at MSG. And you're spot on for calling it what it is. We all we all heard the language that they were using and the propaganda that they use. And then it's like I started looking for the resistance. Like in 2016, there was a really succinct resistance, right? Well, everybody's been in the knee, all the industry. Titans, you were standing up, a few other governors were standing up. Then I was looking at some people in our party in Congress that weren't. And then I started really researching like, why are they not standing up about this?

45:19And there's this whole argument that, oh, the base wants everybody to be pure and we have these purity tests. And I think that's a defense mechanism for somebody that's trying to provide cover for something that they're compromised on in the party. And so there is a huge thought that Kamala ignored a lot of people in the base, particularly younger people, very upset about the war between Israel and Palestine. And at the DNC, she did not have any Palestinian voices, just kind of like went right over. You were there. We were there. You couldn't walk in. It was in your state. You did such a great job organizing those protesters too.

46:02We walked in every day. There was peaceful pro-Palestine protesters on your way in and on your way out. You never felt unsafe around them. You allowed them to assemble all of those things. What is your position as the facts start coming in on this, on the situation? Because I lived in Oklahoma. I'm an ethnocentric American. I wasn't like, okay, whatever's going on in the Middle East, whatevs. Now finding out that hundreds of thousands of kids under the age of five have been killed really pisses me off that we're part of that and funding that. What is your take on that and to the base of the party and people that care about humanity and human rights?

46:41Well, let me start by saying these are particularly challenging, hard questions when you're asking somebody who's Jewish, like me. Because, you know, remember that Israel in many ways was created as a safe haven for people who were escaping anti-Semitism and indeed the Holocaust. And so just so it's, I'm just expressing to you, and as somebody who grew up in a home where being Jewish meant fighting for social justice and economic justice, you know, and believing in the fundamental values of, you know, I guess I'll say Niemöller's first they came poem, you know, that when you have somebody like Benjamin Netanyahu, who gets elected in Israel and leads that country to commit atrocities, starving children, starving innocent people as a matter of warfare, as an example.

47:52These are all things that are, I mean, you know, I have to step back and wonder what has happened? What has happened fundamentally? Do you feel betrayed? Benjamin Netanyahu, honestly, you know, he, he it's like he moved for I'm not suggesting I was ever a big fan but I mean way way back Benjamin Netanyahu was just sort of like a regular I guess I'd say was like a never Trumper type of you know conservative and then he just slowly but surely because he thought it would get him elected and it did over and over again he became this right-wing zealot about what to do with Gaza and the West Bank. And so the betrayal, I think, is that the leadership of the country, because there are a lot of really great people who live in Israel, and you cannot hold against the people of Israel what the leadership decided to do.

48:48Let's also recognize, I don't want to overlook the fact, and again, you know, I remember when Hamas attacked and killed and raped innocent people on October 7th. I mean, that's also an atrocity. And so I don't want to forget that or forgive that. But to your point, we as a party, and I want to say we have to recognize when atrocities have occurred, and then we as an important carrier of values in the world need to do what we need to do in order to squash the atrocities and stand up for those who are innocent and being killed as they were in Gaza. Now, the question is, with Donald Trump as leader of the United States, inviting somebody like Vladimir Putin, as he did, as I understand, last night, to serve on a kind of peace board to decide what's going to happen in Gaza, right?

49:54He's putting together where he's going to have Benjamin Netanyahu and, you know, an enemy of ours, Putin, making decisions about what's good for the innocent people who live in the Gaza territory. You know, what kind of a country you live in. So we have to make sure that we're speaking truth to power. And also, just as a Jew, I have to, you know, in my commitment to my faith, understand that these values of mine, right, of fighting for social justice and people's freedom, that I have to apply that equally to the state of Israel as I do to other countries that have committed atrocities. I appreciate your answer.

50:45And I certainly understand the sensitivity surrounding your being Jewish and having to answer questions like this. But I feel like there is an atonement, a national atonement that we need to have for funding this. And Benjamin Netanyahu and the blank check that he has and the democratic duplicity from a lot of our politicians that take money from APAC. And APAC donated like the same amount that Elon Musk did to Donald Trump. And so then I think there's a condescension with Democratic leaders if they say, oh, it wasn't that much. There's a condescension to the electorate when you're not saying, okay, look, and I understand the thing.

51:33I can tell you when I jump in. I'll let you jump in. Yeah, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to interrupt. No, no, no. I want you to go. You made me think of something really important. I mentioned Niemöller's poem. I think it's really important for us to remind everybody, you know, first they came first. They came for the trade unionist. I wasn't a trade unionist. And so I did nothing. And, you know, when they go through that list, I mean. Innocent Palestinians are are just the same, you know, just the same as innocent Jews, innocent Israelis. families. And we that's why so much of what I've been fighting for anyway, is is founded on that idea, you know, that they're coming for me, they're coming for you.

52:17I think I heard you say, Jennifer, that, you know, you're a white woman who's, you know, mostly immune from the, you know, and don't have to do anything. But they're coming for you. And they're coming for me. So So if they're coming for, you know, they're also coming for the Palestinians. And so that's why I think that the support that we should be talking about right now is support for rebuilding Gaza, for creating a zone that is literally lifting up human rights and protecting the innocent people of the Gaza Strip. I I'm shocked that we have a government in the United States, which always, you know, has tried to play a bit of a of a broker role.

53:02Right. Is now gone completely anti-Palestinian. That's what our government is currently doing. And and it's like you can't hold the innocent people of a country or a territory. You can't hold them responsible for what leaders, whether we're talking about Benjamin Netanyahu or Hamas, have done. We have to now stand up for the people who are most innocent and most put upon. So I think that's what it is to be a Democrat, too, FYI. And so it's a challenging – this is a really challenging moment. It's tough stuff. You're right. I think we have to have the conversation because we, during the 2024 election, and I like Kamala, I voted for Kamala, but she stuck her head in the sand about it or did doublespeak, which here's a big issue that I think we need to talk about right now that really links with this.

53:58You say you cannot hold innocent people for what their government does. So put us in that situation right now, Americans, look what our government's doing, shooting people in the face, ice um there's been conversations about maybe they need more training maybe they need body camps and the guy that shot renee good is a veteran of ice and an instructor a trainer a 10-year vet and he was filming it to make sure because christy gnome wants to make sure they get the propaganda do you think that isis foobar fucked up beyond all repair and that we need to abolish ICE. Yeah, we've got to abolish what Donald Trump has done to ICE, has made it so that we have to abolish it.

54:44Now, you can't go without some kind of immigration control. You just can't. We have to have that. But not ICE, not this. Well, that's to your point about FUBAR. I really think you may have said it exactly right. I haven't used that term to describe, But that's what Donald Trump is. It's become his personal police force. It's these are these are like secret police running around, you know, Donald Trump's secret police running around, you know, with no badges on, with no identification, wearing masks and attacking people. as you said, shooting mothers in the face. How do you reform an organization like that?

55:28I just don't know. I don't know what the replacement is, but it can't be what they're doing today is okay with us, and we'll just figure out if we can reform what they're doing. I mean, they're spending a whole lot of money shooting people in the face, attacking U.S. citizens, people who are illegally and just human beings. That money, by the way, could be like about providing health care for people. It could be about providing housing for people. It could be. But instead, it's Donald Trump's personal secret police. All right, listeners, for all of the parents out there with teenagers, We know you're already trying to keep a million different things under control.

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58:00You can just go guns blazing. Well, that's why we have to stop. We have to, honestly, I believe you are right. Incrementalism. That's why I think, you know, whatever we want to call it, Project 2029, I'll use that term because everybody knows what 2025 was. I mean, that we have to have our own and that it is no longer acceptable for us to just do it in increments. Does that include taxing billionaires? It does. It means, listen, in my state - And you're a billionaire. I am. And I said all along, you know, when I was running in 2017, 2018, and I've said it ever since, that I'm trying to, you know, I'm trying to lower taxes on the working class, on the middle class, and raise taxes on people like me.

58:45And I spent, just so you know, not only did I campaign on that and win in 2018, but I spent, you know, it's very hard. We have to have a constitutional amendment in Illinois because we have a flat tax in our constitution. I spent$55 million of my own money fighting for a referendum on the ballot to get a graduated income tax. Oh, by the way, on the other side of that, writing a similarly large check,$50 plus million, was Ken Griffin. You know, and people on the far right, these are like hedge fund, you know, right wingers and who, by the way, defeated it. And so we cannot be apologetic anymore.

59:30I mean, we cannot. I mean, I've gone great guns, you know, to make sure that the wealthiest people in the country are paying more than, like I said, you know, than a secretary or than a firefighter. But we got to stop pussyfooting around. I agree. All right, Pops, jump in. Okay, so I love your mayor of Chicago, Mayor Johnson. I just think he's a fighter. And I saw that you two, on behalf of the state of Illinois, have filed a lawsuit against ICE saying that Trump is way outside the Constitution. What I get so sick of, and what I've had it with, is all these MAGA are like, we're so patriotic. And it's like, you don't believe in the Constitution.

1:00:15So what would be your message to people in MAGA that say, oh, we're part of the Constitution, how we communicate that with them? Because I think you're pretty eloquent on this issue. Well, maybe I'll go back to what I've had it with. I've had it with people who say they love America, but seem to hate Americans. Yes. And that is that is what we're talking about. That's what Donald Trump is doing. It's like they talk on the right and in MAGA land as if they are the patriots. We're the ones upholding democracy and constitutional law, not them. It's like 1984. It's just that they have, you know, louder loudspeakers seemingly and people get drowned out about this.

1:00:58But do they really think it's OK to shoot people in the face who are U.S. citizens? Do they think that's OK? I don't think they do. Now, again, I do want to separate like I think there are a lot of people who voted for Donald Trump who are not MAGA Republicans, but they voted for him because they thought he was better than than Kamala Harris. or better than Hillary Clinton or whatever. But I'm not forgiving them exactly except to say it wasn't as if they're in the cult. It's as if they've convinced themselves that this is just a bunch of issues that they're deciding between, you know, the decision on these sets of issues versus deciding on the other side of those issues.

1:01:42And I want to recognize that we have to be the ones who stand up and tell the truth about what we stand for and what it is we're fighting for and people's human rights and civil rights. I keep saying those words, but recognize that it is a lot of BS when they say they are the patriots, when Donald Trump hugs the flag. It's such bullshit. It is. These are grifters that run on all this faux Christianity and this pumped up patriotism, and they prove they're hypocrites when they run and provide cover to protect a pedophile ring. It shows how complicit they are. They don't believe in anything, not anything.

1:02:30And the hypocrisy that you talked about earlier, remember, you know, they call themselves the party of law and order. The head of their party, the president of the United States, is a convicted felon. Right. It's a party of crime and disorder and corruption. And when I tell you that we should be talking about that issue much more because, you know, what pisses off working class people as much as anything? It's corruption in government. And that is precisely Donald Trump is getting richer and richer. His family is getting richer and richer because he's removing regulations on crypto, on AI and his family is in those businesses.

1:03:07He's accepting, you know, large gifts. He's demanding gifts to his organizations in order for people to get some political power. I mean, this is this is the kind of thing that leads to a revolution, for God's sakes. We need to be standing up and pushing back on the corruption that he has brought to the U.S. government. I'm not suggesting, by the way, that it's like everything was sweetness and light before he got there. But this is now just happening on a daily basis. People see it, but nobody is really lifting it up and highlighting it so that people, because people should be aware of it. And I believe when they hear about it, they're angry about it.

1:03:48Yeah, like where's the Venezuelan oil money going? Qatar. And then this$1 billion shakedown for his peace thing, he's going to monitor the money. This guy is a crook. He's always been a crook. He's jealous of everybody. He is in his Marie Antoinette dementia, narcissistic era, and nobody's coming to save us, but us. And we're going to have to keep organizing, going on podcasts, lifting up voices because Because this turnout, and I know that you're the one who keeps calling that they're going to be up to a lot of fuckery on the midterm election day. And our turnout has to be too big to rig. And we have to make sure people are not scared.

1:04:30And make sure that Democratic governors in bluish, purplish states hold the line and don't let these, you know, it's like a mafia. An incompetent, horrible, dorky mafia is what this regime is like. Because at the end of the day, they're dorks. They're not even cool. All right, Governor, do you remember when we met you in Illinois at the DNC and we played Had It or Hit It? Do you remember that game? Okay, we're going to play it again. Oh, my God. Welcome to Had It or Hit It. I would hit it. Had It. Had It. I hit it every day, sometimes twice a day. All right, Had It or Hit It, Christy Noem. Oh, God, I'm Had It.

1:05:13What about her costume changes? Just on top of just what a psychopath she is that shot her dog and has a goon squad, the costume changes. Yeah. Yeah. I can I tell you, I beat my my opponent in 2018 was the governor, Republican governor. And he used to put on a costume everywhere. This guy is a wealthy guy and he used to put on a Carhartt jacket everywhere and sort of pretend to be a down home farmer when he's actually from Winnetka. I love Winnetka, by the way, but it's a wealthy suburb of Chicago. And, you know, and so the costumes and I find and also he wrote a motorcycle and he would put on a vest, you know, stickers or pins on it, you know, and something that said governor like he's got to remind you he's governor.

1:06:00And so, yeah, Christy Noem is precisely like that. By the way, I mean, I think her brain and head are shrinking because the hats are getting bigger. Yeah, yeah. And she's just so unprepared for the job that she's got. it's all about being a sycophant for Donald Trump. Yeah. Talk about corruption. You just hear more stories about how she's funneling all this money to her buddies and all that. Right. Corey Lewandowski. Yeah. Funneling more than money. Christian family values. Moving along. Had it or hit it? Maha. Oh, okay. Well, obviously had it. I mean, let's be clear. He's not making people healthier.

1:06:39He's making people sicker. Look what's happening on the measles front across the country. I mean, in in in South Carolina, I mean, they have a full blown. I mean, it's like a pandemic almost that's happening. But I mean, people are getting sick right left. And it's because they're you know, the Maha movement and people who are following it in state government are not pushing people to get vaccinated for measles. In fact, they're saying, oh, no, it's bad for you. And now you're going to we've already seen one death. and a lot of kids sick. And we've just, I mean, yeah, this Maha movement is insane.

1:07:15And Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is, well, he's literally making our children sick. You just brought up South Carolina, and this is just something I want to say to you. You see Lindsey Graham, you know, he's over in, Lady Graham is what I call him. He's over in Israel. I mean, like it's Trump's America. We're way past all the pleasantries in politics right now. So he's over in Israel, you know, taking pictures with Mossad agents, Benjamin Netanyahu, blah, blah. Because anti-Semitism is real and it is a bigotry that if you've studied it at all, will leave an imprint on your soul, especially you being Jewish.

1:07:56I'm sure it's like a cloud that follows you everywhere. The history of that. There are grifters in the political movement like Marjorie Taylor Greene, like Tucker Carlson, that are using this very simple language, America first. We shouldn't do anything with Israel at all. And there's an argument to be made for sure, 100%. Our money should not fund what Benjamin Netanyahu did. There's no question about it. But in the MAGA movement, Governor, is where I believe real anti-Semitism is boiling. You have people, far right, hardline Israel people that have gone to seek refuge in the heart of Christian nationalism.

1:08:44And they're going to F around and find out these people are not going to protect you and you're not the magic Jewish person. You're not going to be safe. But this message, and you know from rural Illinois, if a Marjorie Taylor Greene or Tucker Carlson says, MAGA wasn't America first anymore. We got away from that. Israel, they make these statements. Israel has free health care. Israel has free education. I support them having that for the record. I don't besmirch them for having that. But to the rural or suburban person in Illinois or Oklahoma that hears that very simple language without any context to it, it feeds a type of tribalism and nativism that is a part of the inception of all of this.

1:09:33And I'm very fearful what MAGA is incubating right now and what's to come, which is why I think you're such a very important voice right now politically, because anti-Semitism is being weaponized right now by some very bad actors. And I think that we need moral clarity and credible messengers to guide us through this and to very simply state like Marjorie Taylor Greene and Tucker Carlson, don't give a shit about Palestinian babies. You know how we know that? Because they don't give a shit about immigrant babies in the United States of America. So don't buy their bullshit. A very simple response to that, I think, is going to be required.

1:10:14So remember that the America First movement, which was prominent in the 1930s in the United States, was the pro-Nazi, anti-the United States getting involved in protecting the UK or Europe and letting the Nazis do what they were going to do in Europe. So I just want to remind you that history, they use that America first name because it has a history that fits with the philosophy. And Marjorie Taylor Greene is she's I don't care how, you know, you saw that she started separating from the MAGA movement when or separating herself from everybody else. I think she thinks she's MAGA. But she started separating herself when her kids were getting cut off of healthcare because of what MAGA was doing in the OBBA, the big ugly bill.

1:11:15Literally, go back and listen to the interviews. She started separating herself, but she has the same Tucker Carlson and she, they're anti-Semites. I mean, it's - Total. Total. You can separate. Let me let me be clear. You can separate your feelings about the foreign policy or actions of the state of Israel from your feelings about Jews in the United States or anywhere in the world. You should, in fact, separate those two. But they don't. They they you know, the language they use intermixes their views about, you know, what's happening with regard to Israel and the United States relationship with Israel and Jews.

1:11:59And so it's very upsetting to me. To your point, Oath Keepers, Proud Boys, look at the, I mean, the really, you know, the skinheads that are on the right. Nick Fuentes. That are racist and anti-Semitic, you know, and they're like a firmly part of the base of MAGA. Totally. And I again, I do want to say we all need to recognize that, you know, for us to win elections, there are we have to remember we Democrats have to remember that there are a bunch of people who voted for Donald Trump who do not believe in those things. They they have convinced themselves that they're not voting for that. And we need to make sure that we're addressing the things that really do matter to them.

1:12:44And like I said before, to them, if I knocked, and I've knocked on a lot of doors in my life as a candidate or for other people, and if you knock on 100 doors and tell people like the most important issue is democracy, fighting for democracy, five people will agree with you out of 100. You know, what people really want to hear is how are you going to make my life easier? How are you going to make it easier for me to send my kid to college or retire or make more money or pay for health care or housing? And I know you're you know, I've drifted from the from anti-Semitism, but recognize that they win the right.

1:13:24I'm talking about the the anti-Semitic racist right wins when the middle can't tell the difference. They don't see those things on the right. And all they see is, well, they're talking about lowering prices. Donald Trump has not lowered any prices. Donald Trump has raised prices for people. He's made life more difficult, not less. And you're seeing it now in the polls. We are winning on every single issue. It doesn't mean we're going to win in 2026. So anybody that say, well, I can just sit back and it'll all just happen. It'll all be good. No, we can't. We have to get out there and make sure we're registering people to vote and get them to the polls.

1:14:02But we have to recognize that we got a lot of work to do to make sure that we're winning among those people who thought they were voting for Donald Trump because it would be good for their daily lives. And they've gotten the opposite of that and anti-Semitism and racism right there in the core of the right wing movement. I always say it's a big tent of racists. You have the Islamophobes, the anti-Semites, the homophobes, the, you know, just anti-immigrant bigotry, just the straight up racist, the inward hard R. It's just a big tent of bigotry. MAGA, the MAGA. Can I remind you, let me remind you one other thing, because, again, I built a Holocaust museum.

1:14:42When you get to a certain point in the history of what was happening in Germany, there were, you know, economic challenges people were reacting to when they voted for the Nazis and so on. And there is a point at which the Nazis are talking about, yeah, you know what our real problem is? The immigrants. That is actually what they said before they were going full on, let's round up the Jews. They were talking about people in Germany who weren't, you know, basically white and blonde, right, Aryan. But they called them immigrants. like Jews or Catholics or other people who maybe weren't originally from Germany, but have only been there for two generations or one generation.

1:15:31You know, that's what they were. They were kind of throwing everybody else in with this idea of we've got to push the immigrants out. They're causing our problems. And that, frankly, is the trigger for me early on when Donald Trump was going after immigrants was I started to recognize that he's throwing in basically black and brown people who are U.S. citizens, many of whom have been here for generations. And by the way, taking away the human rights of people who are immigrants. My family is an immigrant family. We learned early on. My family, you know, my great grandfather arrived here with nothing and literally, literally, you know, fought for everything that they were the most patriotic family in the world, because we recognize what a great country this is and the great opportunity that got provided to us.

1:16:21But he wrote a book when he was 70 years old, my great grandfather, about his life. We hand it down in my family when we turn 13 years old. It becomes, you know, something that I get you get a copy of. I've read it many times in my life, but it reminds me who we are. First of all, we're a nation of immigrants. Right. And the values that we brought here. It's true. It's what makes us cool. You know, that's what, that's our culture is that we have multiculturalism. That's, that's the shtick. That's the part they're trying to dismantle. The coolest part about us is the part that they hate. And it's an economic advantage.

1:17:01It's an economic advantage that, that think about what's happening. Read all the stories about, I don't know if you just saw in China, you know, their population is declining now. This is happening in a lot of developed nations. And what is our advantage in a world where the population is declining? We're the nation of immigrants. We don't have to decline. We actually, people want to come here if we make them welcome. And we want people to, you know, the most entrepreneurial people in the nation are immigrants. that 50%, remember this, and I hope you'll cite it, 50 % of the Fortune 500 companies in this country, the biggest companies in the United States, were founded by immigrants or the children of immigrants.

1:17:45Think about it. 50%. It's just cool. With the exception of Elon Musk being in that, I'm 100 % for all that. Okay. I didn't say they were all great. Okay. Here's the really bad one. Two more, and then we'll call it, and you can go back to being the badass governor of Illinois. Okay. Had it or hit it, Zoran Mamdani. Hit it, but let me be clear about what it is. He zoned in on precisely the thing that most people are suffering from, which is unaffordability. And he hit it over and over and over again. And it didn't matter. You can call him whatever you wanted. And he calls himself a democratic socialist.

1:18:26And if you don't like that, fine. But you know what he talked to people about? he talked about making their lives easier every day. And that was it. It was like almost nothing else got talked about in that election. We should take a note. You know, he won in what I think was a kind of a tough election. I do too. And he took on the billionaire class. He took on a lot of Islamophobia. We talk a lot about antisemitism, but Islamophobia is something that's just so normalized and the Islamophobic attacks on him hurt me just as much when I hear somebody say anti-Semitic things, because I think all of these human rights have to be connected always as to the poem that you referenced a couple of times.

1:19:09And I thought he very beautifully reminded us that all of these human rights are connected, but they're also connected to affordability. Because if we're all equal, the economics of it need to be applied equally to everybody, whether you're Muslim, Jewish, gay, trans, whatever. And he didn't throw anybody under the bus. And I just thought, God, I mean, what great timing to show the Democrats this can be done. And I agree with you. Do you call him a democratic socialist? Sometimes I think Americans don't understand what socialism means? Should we say we're for highly regulated capitalism, you know, more safety style capitalism?

1:19:50I don't know. You know, when you run your 2028 campaign, I'll sit down with you and help you sort out all the language on that. Remember, Mikey Sherrill and Abigail Spanberger, Mikey Sherrill and Abigail Spanberger ran at the same time that Donnie was running, and they all ran on the same message and they all won big. And that's the message, frankly, you know, back to a question you asked up front, you know, I think, you know, because let's be honest, like Mikey Sherrill and Abigail Spanberger are at a different place in the Democratic Party than Vandani, but we all agree that we ought to be fighting for the working class and the most vulnerable in our society, in the middle class.

1:20:29And that's what all of those three big candidates ran and won on. And that ought to be our message for 2026 and 2028. All right. Last one. Had it or hit it, the United States of America. Oh my gosh. Hit it. I love our nation. I mean, I know we are led by a madman. I know there's a lot to say. But I love this country. And I do believe, even though the institutions of our country are under attack right now, Look at how people have stood up. I mean, it's taken too many elected officials too long to stand up. But average folks out there peacefully protesting, showing up at No Kings, but not just that, showing up every week or every day whenever they can.

1:21:18And I'll tell you a quick story. There's a woman in Edwardsville, Illinois, 28 ,000 people in Edwardsville and in southern Illinois. She right after Trump was elected and she realized what was happening, she didn't know what to do. She wanted to protest. So she made a sign and she went and stood at the crossroads of two state highways and held up a sign by herself. and somebody with a dog walked by and said, what are you doing? And she explained she's fed up and can't believe that Donald Trump is our president. And that person stood there with her and with the dog that day. The people heard about it.

1:21:57And the next day, six of their friends showed up. And then over the course of the next month or two, 300 people started showing up every Friday to protest. I give that as an example. This is in Edwardsville, Illinois, right? And I give that as the example because this is happening everywhere when the suburban moms are coming out with their whistles to protect people in neighborhoods that they don't even, they've never lived in, or protect their own neighbors because they see that they're being attacked by ICE. that, you know, this is the country that is, we're taking this country back. We're taking back this nation from, you know, from what Donald Trump is trying to do to it and preserving our our institutions.

1:22:50And I guess, you know, I'm reminded because we just had Martin Luther King Day. Martin Luther King said, you know, that the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice. And I'll just say humbly, a small amendment to that, that I think we're all learning. It doesn't just naturally bend toward justice. We have to bend it toward justice. And that is the moment that we're in. And I think it takes, yes, it takes elected leaders, but it also takes all of us showing up and proving that we're just not going to, we're not going to put up with it. We're going to take our country back.

1:23:27Governor Pritzker, you're cool. I like you. You're a badass. I thank you so much. So many of us look to elected officials to know, are they fighting them? Oh, God, thank God they're fighting them. And it just means so much to the ladies you were talking about in Illinois, to our listeners. So thank you for coming on. I really appreciate it. Keep fighting the good fight. Thanks, Jennifer. Thanks, pumps. Yeah. All right. Bye, Governor. He's cool. yeah i i really really like him i do too i really like i kind of i feel like he answered a lot of these questions really well yeah that are going to be in the um first of all he's likable and relatable very charismatic i i just i remember when we met him in chicago how i just thought we just kind of started shooting the shit with him before the cameras when i was super easy to talk to.

1:24:23But his position on affordability, his position on taxing billionaires, his position on abolishing ICE and his position on a blank check to Israel and somebody like Benjamin Netanyahu. I think this is a much better candidate than Gavin Newsom. I do. I just think this is a much better candidate right now, who we have right now, to start lifting up. Now, he's got a race to run for governor, who knows if he'll run for president. But to me, all the places that Newsom has fumbled, and again, I like Newsom's fight, but he's turned out to be just this corporate Democrat that's so off-putting to so much of the electorate.

1:25:07I feel like Pritzker doesn't do that. And I feel like Pritzker's less narcissistic than Newsom. And we just had a narcissistic, we have a narcissist. We got to go the other way. But I also think like if people that are running for office, like Gavin Newsom with the billionaires and like the youth, just from my experience and the people around me, everybody's tired of the billionaires getting richer and richer and richer. Like the, the wealth inequality, it's come to people's attention and they don't like it. And as a billionaire. And Gavin Newsom letting Ben Shapiro dog walk him about Israel and dog walk him about so many issues.

1:25:48It's just, I'm tired of Democrats allowing the most fleabag bottom feeders of MAGA dog walk them. I really am. I just, I just, there's, and listen, I'm not super choosy right now, but who's fighting the fight, but in order for us to win and have an impactful administration right now of the names that are out there. I'm going J.B. Pritzker, a billionaire that's willing to say tax me more, a credible messenger on Israel, which I think we need because that is just such a hot, hot topic right now. And you're gonna have really bad actors that come and use that in the brewing antisemitism on the right wing, but also somebody who links anti-Semitism to Islamophobia and to anti-Black racism and really says, hey, listen, none of us are free until all of us are free.

1:26:49We need to link all of these things together. So I don't know. I'm an evolving person, but right now I've always liked Pritzker in this interview. I think he answered those questions that I think are going to be very important to the electorate and the base. I think he answered those very well. Yeah, I did too. I really appreciated how he was not scared to say, this reminds me of 1930s Germany. Like he was not scared to say that. And so many people are. Yep. All right. Listen, thank you for joining us. Leave us your thoughts in the comment section. Who is your front runner for 2028? I know we have a lot of time to go through years, but we should start having these questions.

1:27:29We need to get these, we need to get these fuckers ready. You guys, we got it. I mean, seriously, it's going to take a village and we've got to get, we have got to groom and make a great candidate that can go and win and make massive, massive changes. and accountability in this country. All right, time to tell them. We will see you next Tuesday and Thursday.

1:27:53I'll tell you what I've had it with. Let's hear it. I've had it with that. Listen up, patriots, gaytriots, and natriots. We have a new podcast that has dropped. It's called IHIP News. It's Monday through Friday, every day, 15 to 20 minute hot takes on the political landscape of the United States of America always served with a side of petty grievances. We are on all the available platforms, Apple, Spotify, Google, whatever. You get your podcasts and YouTube. Please go rate, subscribe, and review so that we will chart upwards with America's greatest legal mind. Pumps, what does an eagle say? Caw-caw.

1:28:35A little bit more enthusiasm. Caw-caw. That's it. That's the patriotism that this country needs right there.