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DONKEY: Haley Stevens Breaks Party Lines After Primary Loss To Endorse GOP Rival She Once Bashed · The Breakfast Club

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: I was born a donkey. It's the donkey of the day.
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: That's pretty funny. Charlamagne the devil? Possibly. The Breakfast Club.
• 0:19
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's Don here today for Monday, November 2nd. Goes
• 0:21
  Speaker 2: to Congresswoman Haley Stevens of Michigan. And I want everybody
• 0:24
  Speaker 2: to learn a phrase today. And that phrase is establishment self-preservation.
• 0:28
  Speaker 2: Because I need y'all to understand that the biggest divide
• 0:31
  Speaker 2: in American politics isn't always Democrat versus Republican. Quite often,
• 0:35
  Speaker 2: the biggest divide in American politics is the Democrat political establishment.
• 0:39
  Speaker 2: Versus anybody trying to change that establishment. OK, and what
• 0:43
  Speaker 2: happened in Michigan this weekend is a perfect example of that.
• 0:46
  Speaker 2: And it's a perfect example of why folks don't trust politicians.
• 0:50
  Speaker 2: It's an example of why people believe Democrats and Republicans
• 0:53
  Speaker 2: are two wings on the same bird. OK, see Haley
• 0:55
  Speaker 2: Stevens ran for the Democratic nomination for United States Senate.
• 0:59
  Speaker 2: against progressive Dr. Abdul El-Sayed. She lost and Abdul won
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: the primary by, I think it was less than one
• 1:05
  Speaker 2: percentage point or something like that. Now you would think
• 1:07
  Speaker 2: the story ends there, okay? You ran, the people voted,
• 1:11
  Speaker 2: they chose somebody else, that's democracy. And at first, Haley
• 1:15
  Speaker 2: Stevens accepted that, okay? She endorsed Dr. Abdul El-Sayed, but
• 1:19
  Speaker 2: Sunday morning, okay? Yesterday morning, two days before election day,
• 1:24
  Speaker 2: Haley Stevens woke up and decided, you know what? Democrats
• 1:27
  Speaker 2: might actually win this seat in Michigan, and we can't
• 1:29
  Speaker 2: have that. So let me endorse Republican Mike Rogers instead.
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: The same Mike Rogers.
• 1:35
  Speaker 2: She previously warned voters would help Donald Trump advance his
• 1:40
  Speaker 2: authoritarian agenda. Now, I don't know if you saw her
• 1:43
  Speaker 2: on Anderson Cooper, but when Anderson asked her what changed,
• 1:46
  Speaker 2: she didn't have much to say.
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: Let's listen.
• 1:48
  Speaker 2: And it's just an interesting change, and I think a
• 1:51
  Speaker 2: lot of people are curious to try to understand it.
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: Was that a question, Anderson? No, I wanted to see
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: if you wanted to fill in the silence, but you don't. Oh, look. Yeah.
• 2:07
  Speaker 2: Look.
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: Michiganders are going to the ballot box.
• 2:17
  Speaker 2: Haley Stevens, I don't care about your personal disagreements with Dr.
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: Abdul. I don't care if they're over Israel.
• 2:25
  Speaker 2: I don't care if it's his association with a sound piker.
• 2:27
  Speaker 2: The fact that you were told not to attend his
• 2:31
  Speaker 2: campaign events. I don't care about none of that. OK,
• 2:33
  Speaker 2: I don't care about any of those stated reasons that
• 2:37
  Speaker 2: you gave for supporting Mike Rogers.
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: OK, people can evaluate those for themselves.
• 2:42
  Speaker 2: But me, Lenard McKelvey, Charlamagne Tha God, I got three
• 2:44
  Speaker 2: questions that I know the answer to. I know the
• 2:46
  Speaker 2: answer to every single one of them. I'm just asking them,
• 2:48
  Speaker 2: you know, for S's and giggles this morning. OK, number one,
• 2:51
  Speaker 2: what happens when the establishment doesn't like who the people choose?
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: OK, see, everybody loves democracy when democracy goes their way.
• 2:58
  Speaker 2: Everybody believes in the will of the people until the
• 3:00
  Speaker 2: people exercise their will and choose somebody they don't like.
• 3:04
  Speaker 2: And that's where the conversation about establishment self-preservation begins. It's
• 3:09
  Speaker 2: not vote blue no matter who. It's vote blue unless
• 3:12
  Speaker 2: AIPAC says not to. OK, these politicians spend years building
• 3:16
  Speaker 2: relationships with donors and lobbyists and organizations and party leaders.
• 3:21
  Speaker 2: And those relationships can become part of their political identity.
• 3:25
  Speaker 2: And then along comes a candidate like Dr. Abdul-Sayed challenging
• 3:29
  Speaker 2: the direction of the party. And suddenly the question becomes
• 3:31
  Speaker 2: whether those established relationships change. matter more than party unity
• 3:36
  Speaker 2: in the will of the actual people. Okay, my number
• 3:39
  Speaker 2: two question, is it really Democrats versus Republicans or is
• 3:43
  Speaker 2: it establishment power versus people trying to change the system?
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: I know the answer to that one too. Okay, I'm just.
• 3:49
  Speaker 2: Asking answers this morning. All right, because we know the truth.
• 3:53
  Speaker 2: We keep acting like everybody with a D next to
• 3:54
  Speaker 2: their name has the same priorities.
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: They don't.
• 3:57
  Speaker 2: OK, and sometimes the difference within a political party are
• 4:00
  Speaker 2: so deep that the people involved find themselves closer to
• 4:03
  Speaker 2: somebody in the opposing party on certain issues. OK, Haley
• 4:07
  Speaker 2: Stevens and Abdul El-Sayed have serious disagreements about things that
• 4:11
  Speaker 2: I mentioned earlier. You know, Israel, American foreign policy. But
• 4:14
  Speaker 2: Mike Rogers didn't suddenly become a Democrat. Nothing he's talking
• 4:18
  Speaker 2: about changed his political positions. didn't magically change overnight. So
• 4:22
  Speaker 2: how does Haley Stevens reconcile supporting him with the policies
• 4:26
  Speaker 2: she spent years advocating? And I want to be clear,
• 4:29
  Speaker 2: not every establishment Democrat has turned against Dr.
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: Abdul, Chuck Schumer, Nancy Pelosi.
• 4:35
  Speaker 2: A lot of Democratic leaders have condemned Stephen's endorsement and
• 4:39
  Speaker 2: continue to back Dr.
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: Abdul El-Sayed, which tells you something else.
• 4:43
  Speaker 2: Even the establishment isn't united about where the line should
• 4:46
  Speaker 2: be drawn. But we also know in the Democratic Party,
• 4:49
  Speaker 2: somebody has to be the bad guy to appease the
• 4:51
  Speaker 2: corporate donor class. OK, if the corporate donor class thinks
• 4:54
  Speaker 2: that all Democrats are becoming progressive and becoming the next
• 4:57
  Speaker 2: Zoran or Dr. Abdul El-Sayed, trust and believe they will
• 5:00
  Speaker 2: stop giving up those corporate dollars. OK, now my number
• 5:03
  Speaker 2: three question. I already know the answer to. Isn't this
• 5:07
  Speaker 2: the kind of thing that makes people distrust politicians? The
• 5:10
  Speaker 2: answer is yes. Hell yes it is.
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: Okay? Think about what voters are being asked to believe.
• 5:16
  Speaker 2: Every election, politicians tell us how consequential the election is.
• 5:20
  Speaker 2: They tell us what's at stake. They warn us about
• 5:22
  Speaker 2: the policies. The other party will advance if it wins.
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: Then suddenly.
• 5:27
  Speaker 2: A disagreement within their own party becomes so serious that
• 5:30
  Speaker 2: they're willing to support the very candidate they previously warned
• 5:33
  Speaker 2: us about. That don't make no damn sense. OK, now
• 5:36
  Speaker 2: crossing party lines isn't automatically wrong. There are circumstances where
• 5:40
  Speaker 2: people genuinely believe the principles require them to do that.
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: But if that's your decision, you've got to explain it.
• 5:45
  Speaker 2: OK, and when Anderson Cooper asked you a straightforward question
• 5:48
  Speaker 2: about what changed, that's your opportunity to make your case.
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: You had nothing to say.
• 5:53
  Speaker 2: OK, and I don't care about how somebody hurt your
• 5:55
  Speaker 2: feelings or excluded you from a campaign event. OK, I
• 5:58
  Speaker 2: need you to explain the policy differences, explain the principles,
• 6:02
  Speaker 2: explain why your previous warnings no longer apply, because here's
• 6:05
  Speaker 2: what bothers people about politics. They hear politicians talk about principles,
• 6:10
  Speaker 2: but sometimes those principles seem to change depending on who's winning.
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: Who's losing and who's being included.
• 6:17
  Speaker 2: And that's why I keep coming back to establishment self-preservation.
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: Is the priority serving the people? Defending a principle?
• 6:25
  Speaker 2: Protecting political relationships are maintaining influence because all of those
• 6:29
  Speaker 2: are different things.
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: OK, and we should be.
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  Speaker 2: Able to ask those questions without somebody automatically turning the
• 6:34
  Speaker 2: conversation into Democrats versus Republicans, because the political system is
• 6:38
  Speaker 2: supposed to serve the people. OK, the people aren't supposed
• 6:42
  Speaker 2: to exist to protect the political system. So I want
• 6:44
  Speaker 2: to leave Haley Stevens with one question. When you say
• 6:47
  Speaker 2: you still believe in everything you stood for as a Democrat.
• 6:51
  Speaker 2: What specifically makes Mike Rogers the person who can best
• 6:54
  Speaker 2: represent those beliefs?
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: You ain't got no answer for that.
• 6:57
  Speaker 2: OK, if you believe Republican control of the Senate threatens
• 7:02
  Speaker 2: policies that you support, why does your disagreement with one
• 7:05
  Speaker 2: Democratic candidate outweigh those consequences?
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: I'll tell you why.
• 7:10
  Speaker 2: Because this is what happens when politicians become more loyal
• 7:13
  Speaker 2: to the political establishment than the people they're supposed to represent.
• 7:17
  Speaker 2: The people are the ones who give politicians power, but
• 7:20
  Speaker 2: the establishment is often where they build their careers. That's
• 7:23
  Speaker 2: where they raise their money. That's where they develop their relationships.
• 7:26
  Speaker 2: That's where they secure their futures. And that's the problem. OK,
• 7:30
  Speaker 2: the people can give you power, but the establishment can
• 7:33
  Speaker 2: help you keep it. So when the will of the
• 7:35
  Speaker 2: people conflicts with the interests of the establishment, you see
• 7:39
  Speaker 2: who people like Haley Stevens choose to protect. Please let
• 7:42
  Speaker 2: Remy Ma give Haley Stevens the biggest hee-haw.
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: Hee-haw, hee-haw. You stupid motherfucker. You dumb.
• 7:50
  Speaker 2: Establishment self-preservation. That's what you are witnessing here today, kids.
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: All right. Well, thank you for that donkey today. Now,
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: when we come back. I'm sorry. It was so quiet.
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: She had nothing to say.
• 8:04
  Speaker 2: Because there's nothing to say. This is all about establishment self-preservation. Hmm.
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: Ask her that. I bet you she'll answer. You might
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: slip up and tell the truth. Now, when we come back,
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: we have the Democratic nominee running for the U.S. Senate
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: in Mississippi, Scott Collum. Did I say that right? Collum, yep.
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: Scott Collum. When we come back, it's The Breakfast Club.
• 8:21
  Speaker 2: Good morning. Donkey of the Day is sponsored by renowned
• 8:24
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• 8:26
  Speaker 1: Don't be a donkey when you need a fighter on
• 8:28
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• 8:32
  Speaker 1: And when you mess with the bull, you get the horns.