Bob Brooks Discusses Flipping Pennsylvania Seat Blue

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1:37Ben Meiselas:Donald Trump is getting a rude awakening from ruby red states and from MAGA Republican podcasters who are turning against him. Donald Trump has destroyed the American dream. He's destroyed the way of life for millions of Americans and people are livid. Also livid at Donald Trump in the right-wing Supreme Court, gutting the Voting Rights Act and now eliminating all black congressional districts. A throwback to Jim Crow. I want to show you what's going down right now across this country and I want to focus on ruby red states and I want to focus on swing states. So first, let me bring you to Louisiana where a resident who identified himself as Morshan delivered a fiery emotional speech to lawmakers during a state Senate hearing over redistricting, specifically how the MAGA Republican legislature there wants to get rid of all black congressional districts following the right wing United States Supreme Court decision in Louisiana versus Calais, destroying the Voting Rights Act and bringing the country back to Jim Crow and the horrific past of this country.

2:40Ben Meiselas:Let me show you what went down here. play this clip. I have no doubt in my mind that the map's going to pass. If y 'all can give us less than zero seats, you would do it. Y 'all do this under the orders of somebody that said the Civil Rights Act was harmed for the white people, that it caused reverse racism. RFK said that black children are overfilled on antidepressants and that they need to be reparented on different farms, all of them. Pete Hexth constantly brings Doug Wilson to the Pentagon to give a prayer service Doug Wilson is the same pastor that said that slave owners were on strong spiritual ground.

3:18I don't have no belief in no morality on anybody that followed Donald Trump. If you wasn't with this map, you wouldn't be underneath this president. You wouldn't be in your party. You would stand up. You would stand against it. You would speak out about it. So as far as I'm concerned, if you here as one of these Trump Republicans, you already showed us who you are. You showed us what you want to do. And I believe the country as a whole is rebuking your party. Y 'all are in a death spot. That's why y 'all have to redistrict. That's why y 'all have to cheat. That's why Trump got to go to Texas and say he entitled to five more seats.

3:57It's because y 'all know what y 'all doing is abhorrent. We letting our people die in Iran based on false pretense that Tulsi Gabbard and Joe Kent said ain't real. Y 'all okay with all that? So I'm positive y 'all gonna be okay with the maps. But the beautiful thing is, the children that y 'all have made and the people that's younger than y 'all don't support none of this racism that y 'all want. The MAGA party is the last breath of the Confederacy. And I'll be happy to see millennials and Gen Z bury y 'all. There will be no more of your party. The midterms gonna come, y 'all gonna get wiped out.

4:35Trump gonna get dragged out of the White House. And I'm gonna love every second of it. Because y 'all loved every second of the suffering that he caused to everybody in this country and worldwide. We starve in Cuba. We bomb Nigeria. We hold in Zimbabwe and Zambia hostage for the minerals. We don't want to give them aid support. The pro-lifers that say all life is special. Y 'all letting kids die of AIDS. What part of your Bible say that? point out the scripture. I think everybody would love to see it. And we would love to see y 'all in

5:15Ben Meiselas:the midterms. Now I want to show you what went down in Ruby Red Central Florida as a keynote speaker at the graduation there. A healthcare executive named Gloria Caulfield talked about artificial intelligence to students. They were not having it. Specifically, people across the country on a bipartisan basis are livid and pissed at Donald Trump's unregulated AI, Trump's unregulated data centers that's taking away people's jobs and hurting the environment. And we're seeing this on a bipartisan basis. Watch as the speaker is so confused as the people there are booing AI and it's because it's unregulated and it's dangerous.

5:56Ben Meiselas:And just watch as the speaker didn't even think this is ripping away the future of the students who she's talking in front of. Here, play this clip. The rise of artificial intelligence is the next industrial revolution.

6:18What happened? Okay, I struck a chord. May I finish?

6:33Only a few years ago, AI was not a factor in our lives.

6:47All right. Okay.

6:51Ben Meiselas:Now, speaking of Ruby Red, let me bring you to Ruby Red, Utah, where Kevin O 'Leary's massive data center was approved by a county commission in Utah last week. More Perfect Union does a great job covering all of the proliferation of data centers and how they harm America's wildlife. But you all know what data centers are doing to your communities. Again, on a bipartisan basis, this is being protested. Let me show you what happened as the commission which approved this 40 ,000 acre facility, 2.5 times the size of Manhattan. You'll see everybody there booing. And this is on a bipartisan basis, folks.

7:28Ben Meiselas:Let's play this clip. False. All of this is false. Then why won't they let people talk? Why won't they let people talk? This is not real information. And we sit here like it's okay. It's a charade. It's a charade. It's false.

8:15Ben Meiselas:And then let's talk about what's going on in Georgia, which of course is a swing state, but at the top government level run by Republicans, they're now invoking eminent domain, a legal doctrine that has the government seize people's homes and properties in order for them to build data centers. Let's play this clip of someone whose home is being seized. Hey, my name is Ansley. I wanted to come out here and show you guys firsthand what is happening in Coweta County, Georgia. Here in Coweta County, Georgia, Georgia Power is forcibly taking people's homes. Okay. They have no choice in this matter.

8:55As you can see behind me, these are the power lines and this is my childhood home. My childhood home is being taken by Georgia Power. They are going to bulldoze this entire property to the ground. We don't have a choice in this. They are going to be expanding these power lines. Why? For the data centers. All of this is for the data centers. And you may think this might not affect you personally, but what happens when they come for your house next?

9:22Ben Meiselas:Now I want to share with you MAGA podcaster Andrew Scholz. This guy laundered the oligarchy. He laundered Donald Trump and MAGA during the 2024 election. And here he is right now going after Trump sycophants who say, and you got all these people like Scott Jennings and others who try to just support everything this idiotic regime does. This guy's a mega podcaster. Here, play this clip. Here's something he's like, yeah, obviously the Pope doesn't know what's in the Bible. Trump does what's in the Bible. No, he did not say that. He said, like, based off of the rhetoric going on, obviously Trump must know more about Christianity than the Pope.

9:59Sarcastically, or dead fucking serious. He's being serious. Yo, what is going on? Yo, that's a hard job to just cap for that motherfucker all the time. Like, yo, just let it go, man. He's fucking up everything. Just call it what it is. Like, you don't have to fucking cap for this dude. Like, I see that guy, Scott Jennings. He's losing hair. Do you know that guy who's on CNN and his job to just be like, everything Trump is doing is right? You can tell he is stressed. He's cursing at little teenagers they got out there arguing with him. Every new CNN guy is younger than the last one. Yeah. Right?

10:27He's like a 14-year-old putting his finger in his face. Get your fucking hand out of my face. He's stressed.

10:31Ben Meiselas:He's stressed because there's no way. Like, open the street. And then you just have like like J.D. Vance speaking earlier today where he denies the very words that came out of Donald Trump's mouth. Let's be very clear. Donald Trump said he doesn't care about the financial condition of Americans. He said that. And J.D. Vance like, oh, well, he didn't say that. Yes, he did. And Americans are sick and tired of being gaslit. Whether you're a MAGA podcaster, from MAGA states, whatever, we're sick and tired of this behavior from this idiotic regime, this dangerous regime, this tyrannical regime. Here, play this clip of Vance.

11:07When you're negotiating with Iran, Mr. President, to what extent are American financial businesses motivating you to make a deal? Not even a little bit. The only thing that matters when I'm talking about Iran, they can't have a nuclear weapon. I don't think about American financial situation. I don't think about anybody. I think about one thing. We cannot let Iran have a nuclear weapon. I don't think the president said that. I think that's a misrepresentation of what the president said. But look, I agree with the president that Iran should not have a nuclear weapon.

11:40Ben Meiselas:Now, speaking of Ruby Red, you had former President Barack Obama with James Tolerico in Ruby Red, Texas. Obama getting a hero's welcome. Let me show you what went down. Hey, Mr. President. Good to see you, brother. Nice to meet you, sir. Good to see you. Hey, people. I hear the tacos here are OK. They're amazing. They're not bad. That's the word on the street. Lilia, this is your spot. This is your joint. So what I'm thinking is, got to get the street taco. I need maybe like a holy moly. I'll have a street taco, no onions. I think I know your order. Yeah, breakfast tacos. That's right. I come here a lot, so she does.

12:13Oh, you got something there. No, I'll choose it. I'll choose it. This looks like a table of troublemakers right here. Who's this cutie? This is my baby niece, Jane. Hey, you. And what's my name? That's me. She's been saying Barack Obama, so she's almost got it. Listen, that's better than most, dude.

12:33Ben Meiselas:Now let me bring you to Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania, where Donald Trump's approval is net negative 21. A swing state, Pennsylvania, the Commonwealth. Trump approval, net negative 21. You know who I want to bring in right now? let me bring in a Democratic congressional candidate over there. Very compelling guy by the name of Bob Brooks. Bob Brooks is a firefighter, firefighter union over there, and a small business owner. Let's talk about this race in Pennsylvania, what he sees going on in Pennsylvania. Let's bring in my interview with Bob Brooks. Now I want to bring in Bob Brooks, president of the Pennsylvania Professional Firefighters Association, running for Pennsylvania's seventh against a MAGA Republican Congress member, Ryan McKenzie, who from time to time tries to pretend he's not a MAGA Republican Congress member.

13:27Ben Meiselas:He tries to act, I'm just one of the people, man. I'm one of the cool people here, which is just a whole thing that we'll get into. There's a primary coming up on May 19th, which we should mention as well. We'll get into it all. You and I spoke several months back about the pain that Trump and MAGA and people like McKenzie, you know, a wolf in sheep's clothing, if you will, were inflicting on the 7th all of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania for that, frankly, you know, around the country. Talk to us about what you're hearing right now as you're on the campaign trail. Are things changed, getting worse?

14:02Ben Meiselas:Talk to us about it they're getting worse and they're getting worse you can just you just tell when you're talking to people you know they don't like going to the filter gas tank anymore right things are double triple what they used to cost as a small business owner I think we talked about this last time you know I have three diesel pickup trucks to use the push snow and I don't drive much right now because I don't want to fill them up but I was talking to a guy just the other day a friend of mine who owns a small business and does trophies and stuff and with all the taxes and the tariffs and everything that's been levied on a small business like he's struggling to make ends meet he's struggling uh to keep things keep things going it's it's destroying so uh you know when we see that happening that's disheartening and uh we like to call ryan mackenzie the arsonist because he starts all these fires and then two weeks later says oh i'm gonna put up this bill i'm gonna i'm gonna co-sponsor this and co-sponsor it's too late man he already started the fire that's kind of a trend we've seen a lot though with maga and general.

15:01Ben Meiselas:And so I, you know, we're seeing a new class of people running for Congress, maybe who never thought they were going to be running for Congress. I'm not sure if you ever thought, you know, I'm going to be a Congress member one day. And we're seeing people with unique background skills, experiences, small business owners, union leaders, et cetera. And I got to step in to the arena because what we're seeing is, you know, these MAGAs like Ryan McKenzie and the trumps of the world. They come into towns like yours. They talk a big game. They promise the world. They lie. They cause all of the problems.

15:33Ben Meiselas:Then they go, look, everybody, I'm the one who can fix it. I'm the one who can fix it. And then it's a constant blame game Ponzi scheme cycle that just kind of never ends. And frankly, it needs to end. And I say this like, you know, just generally like, I just think people want competent leaders who are listening to the people right now who can hear what the people are experiencing. None of these con artists. Yeah, I mean, that's what I've been doing for the last 20 years. As the president of my local, now the president of the State Association, where I've been working for my members. So we have about 8 ,000 members, 74, 75 different locals that all rely on us to work for them.

16:09And that's all I think I want to do is bring common sense, working class people's problems to Washington, D.C. because right now we don't believe we're being thought of or cared about. And I think that's problematic. So when you start talking to people, they left the Democratic Party, a whole group of people left the Democratic Party because they felt like it was becoming the party of elites. And they went over either independent or Republican. And if they went to Republican, they're feeling lied to right now. So that's what they're seeing. It's just they get lied to and sold a bill of goods and it just doesn't settle.

16:45So I think I have the unique ability to bring them back. You know, just a working class guy. Get up. I work every day. I've usually worked multiple jobs at a time just to make ends meet. And I've kind of lived the life that a lot of them are living right now.

16:58Ben Meiselas:Talk to us about, you know, I know we've seen Republicans. They're not there. They ain't holding back in their bag of deceit and trickery and election meddling and trying to rig these midterms. I mean, we've seen it all over the country. And, you know, it's interesting when you just zoom in on any district. I zoom in on your district. Um, you know, it's just fascinating that they jump into races and then try to undermine, you know, candidates in very unique ways. Talk to us about like what you're seeing there. Cause clearly, you know, they're feeling, they're feeling pressure. And I just think it's a good case study because I could probably pick out lots of other races and they're doing the same thing.

17:40Ben Meiselas:And it's just like, can't you all just win on the ideas? Like, can't we just go around and go, you know, say, here's my plan. Here's your plan. You told us that tariffs were going to be great. They weren't great. You told us catastrophic endless wars are going to be great. They're not great. You told us taking away health care was going to lead to more health care. That didn't happen. Here's my book. Why can't it just be that versus all this crap of noise and division? And that's why I got into this is I think that's the way it should be. But as we're seeing right here in PA 7, the GOP and the super PAC just jumped into our race yesterday and started trying to prop up one of my Democratic opponents.

18:23They're obviously afraid of us. I'm definitely the candidate they don't want to see in a general election. They attack every day, but now they're starting to run ads, send mailers all negative against me. And, you know, that's that's what's wrong with our political system. It's corrupt. And to allow a GOP super PAC to just parachute in 10 days before our election and try and affect it, like that shouldn't be okay. That shouldn't be something that we do. So I mean, we're in it. We're fighting the heck out of this. But we need to flip this seat. We need to take this seat, flip it, and then be able to go down and fight against this kind of stuff.

19:02If I'd love to throw out that if anybody wants to chip in a few bucks and help, it's Bob, or I'm sorry, it's brooksforcongress.com. We could use all the help we can because, like I say, this super PAC just came in and started dumping like half a million dollars in ads and stuff. So it just started yesterday. We're trying to affect our election.

19:19Ben Meiselas:You know, I just remember, man, you know, I'd love to hear how, you know, how you're connecting with working folks. Because I just remember, too, when Trump was running that campaign, do you remember he would like quite literally dress people up as firefighter union members and they weren't part of the union and they weren't firefighters? And he would like put the firefighter hats on people and then he would go, where are my firefighters at? And he would point to these people who weren't there, you know, and then he would go to Michigan and he would in a non-union shop, he would call it union workers, you know, union workers for Trump.

19:56Ben Meiselas:And they weren't union workers. It would just say, you know, and they would. And then, you know, I think they paid him like twenty five K to rent out the space. And, you know, with kind of the the way corporate news just spews out these narratives, the local news does, you know, the 15 second spot. Donald Trump said hello to the firefighters. You show them they're not really firefighters or you show the workers are not union workers. You know, and Donald Trump and people like McKenzie, in my opinion, have always been kind of stolen valor people and not just stealing the valor of military, but stealing the valor of working class union people and trying to roll up their sleeves.

20:35Ben Meiselas:Look, I'm one of you. I'm one of you. So what's kind of your clue? How do you how do you fight that as you're going around? How do you deal with that machine and just, you know, speak with people and go, that's bullshit. They're liars. Well, we were able to show him. I mean, Donald Trump just did it here. He was up at the casino. I think it's in PA area that was just outside of our district. But literally, he brought a guy up on stage and, you know, claimed he was a fireman and profiting from the no tax on overtime, which 90 percent of our guys didn't get the benefit from anyways. But the guy wasn't a paid fireman.

21:09I just don't understand how they'd keep spewing the garbage. But my thing is, my members, they know me. Guys like Josh Shapiro, Bernie Sanders, who have endorsed his campaign, they know me, they know what I'm about, they know how I work. So that helps. When I got local leaders like Mayor Matt Turk, Nick Miller, P. Schwer, Mike Schlossberg from Lee I County, all jumping into this and supporting me, that helps. So when people respect those people, they know they wouldn't do this just on a whim. They understand me, they know my work ethic, they know what I'm about, And that helps me when I'm talking to people.

21:43But my members, you know, they know I fight for them every day. Like I say, I got about 8 ,000 members across the Commonwealth, and they know what I've done to get bills passed in Harrisburg and to get bills passed in Washington. So it's not a question for them. And I hope people listen to what, you know, Josh Shapiro, Bernie Sanders, and a whole ton of firefighters and labor believe. And I hope they believe them over the nonsense that's being spread.