Latest / The Breakfast Club / INTERVIEW: Senator Raphael Warnock Talks Democratic & Presidential Leadership, Keisha Lance Bottoms +More

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INTERVIEW: Senator Raphael Warnock Talks Democratic & Presidential Leadership, Keisha Lance Bottoms +More · The Breakfast Club

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: We all finished or y'all done?
• 0:07
  Speaker 2: Yep, it's the world's most dangerous morning show, The Breakfast Club.
• 0:09
  Speaker 2: DJ Envy, Jess Hilarious, Charlamagne Tha God, Envy and Jess
• 0:11
  Speaker 2: are not here, but Lauren LaRosa is, and we have
• 0:13
  Speaker 2: a very special guest in the building. Senator Ralph Warnock
• 0:17
  Speaker 2: is here.
• 0:17
  Speaker 3: How you doing, brother?
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: Great to be here with you.
• 0:19
  Speaker 4: Hey, man.
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: We just had a historic... This is Raphael.
• 0:22
  Speaker 3: Raphael, I'm sorry. Senator Raphael Warnock, I'm sorry. Yeah, it's
• 0:25
  Speaker 3: all right. I'm just gonna call you Senator. Senator Warnock.
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: Call me when it's time to eat, man.
• 0:30
  Speaker 2: But you know, we just had a historic night across America, man,
• 0:33
  Speaker 2: just this past week. When you look at the results...
• 0:36
  Speaker 2: What do you believe the American people were voting for?
• 0:38
  Speaker 2: Were they voting for Democrats? Were they voting against Trump?
• 0:41
  Speaker 2: Or were they just voting for a fundamentally different kind
• 0:43
  Speaker 2: of politics?
• 0:44
  Speaker 4: I have to tell you, and it's great to be here,
• 0:47
  Speaker 4: that as I've been walking around, moving around Georgia and
• 0:50
  Speaker 4: across the country, people have just felt like they're living
• 0:54
  Speaker 4: under a cloud. Like, this is not some normal time.
• 0:58
  Speaker 4: There's a heaviness, even in happy moments. It's always there.
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: You feel it.
• 1:02
  Speaker 4: And I literally will be out in public and And
• 1:06
  Speaker 4: these last two years, I've been in the Senate now
• 1:08
  Speaker 4: six years, and folks will literally grab me, sometimes physically,
• 1:12
  Speaker 4: and say, fight for us.
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: Stand up for us.
• 1:16
  Speaker 4: And I think that's what the American people are saying,
• 1:19
  Speaker 4: that in this moment in which they are being crushed
• 1:22
  Speaker 4: by these costs, driven by these tariffs, which is just
• 1:25
  Speaker 4: a tax on everything, which disproportionately hurts people who are
• 1:30
  Speaker 4: working class, poor everyday people, gas prices spiked by this
• 1:36
  Speaker 4: Lawless war of choice.
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: All of this corruption, health care that they can't afford.
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: People are just feeling crushed.
• 1:43
  Speaker 4: I mean, how else do you explain the ways in
• 1:46
  Speaker 4: which we had really a blue tsunami, even in districts
• 1:51
  Speaker 4: that they gerrymandered? I think folks are waking up in
• 1:53
  Speaker 4: those red districts and they're saying, well, Donald Trump certainly
• 1:56
  Speaker 4: isn't fighting for us. And he showed that the day
• 1:59
  Speaker 4: after the election, showing off his ballroom. Yeah.
• 2:02
  Speaker 2: I mean, it definitely was a complete rebuke of the
• 2:04
  Speaker 2: last 10 years of MAGA, but I don't want Democrats
• 2:08
  Speaker 2: to get comfortable and think that they actually went out
• 2:10
  Speaker 2: there and voted because they trust the Democratic Party.
• 2:13
  Speaker 4: Oh, I agree with that. I agree with that. I
• 2:16
  Speaker 4: think both political parties don't have a good brand right now.
• 2:23
  Speaker 4: And I think there's a way in which people have
• 2:25
  Speaker 4: been trying for a long time almost to get above politics,
• 2:28
  Speaker 4: the recognition that What we're dealing with, in a sense,
• 2:33
  Speaker 4: is deeper than the puny.
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: Vocabulary of politics.
• 2:37
  Speaker 4: It gets to the character of the nation, what kind
• 2:40
  Speaker 4: of nation we intend to be. Do people have a
• 2:42
  Speaker 4: path for their children to prosper? And they're frustrated because
• 2:46
  Speaker 4: they've seen over the last 50 years, right, wages go
• 2:50
  Speaker 4: down for working class people. We have wealth inequality right
• 2:55
  Speaker 4: now that's worse than it was during the Gilded Age.
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: Damn.
• 2:58
  Speaker 4: The age that gave birth to reform, the eight-hour work week, unions,
• 3:04
  Speaker 4: all of that. Wealth inequality is worse now than it
• 3:08
  Speaker 4: was then. So people, I think, have a sense that
• 3:11
  Speaker 4: the system is rigged. And Donald Trump is a crass
• 3:16
  Speaker 4: and obvious expression of that. But this corruption, this chokehold
• 3:21
  Speaker 4: that corporate interests have had on our politics, limiting what
• 3:24
  Speaker 4: we can even do or imagine— is real. And I
• 3:29
  Speaker 4: think if we think that people want us simply to
• 3:32
  Speaker 4: return to normalcy prior to Trump, then you've misdiagnosed where
• 3:36
  Speaker 4: we are. This is a time to reimagine what's possible
• 3:39
  Speaker 4: in the United States of America.
• 3:41
  Speaker 2: How do you distinguish a mandate for change from a
• 3:44
  Speaker 2: temporary rejection of the party in power?
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: Well, clearly it's a rejection. Yeah.
• 3:50
  Speaker 4: But it could be temporary. Well, people feel, people even
• 3:53
  Speaker 4: in the MAGA coalition feel betrayed.
• 3:55
  Speaker 5: Mm-hmm.
• 3:57
  Speaker 4: But I do think both parties are very much on
• 4:00
  Speaker 4: trial right now, and people want to know who will
• 4:02
  Speaker 4: deliver for everyday people, which is the work that I
• 4:05
  Speaker 4: try to do every single day.
• 4:06
  Speaker 3: But we still have to be realistic, too, though, because
• 4:07
  Speaker 3: there's a lot of things.
• 4:09
  Speaker 2: We know the big, beautiful bill kicks in in January,
• 4:11
  Speaker 2: and people might say, well, once the health care and
• 4:14
  Speaker 2: stuff starts getting taken away, they might start blaming that
• 4:16
  Speaker 2: on Democrats.
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  Speaker 1: They shouldn't.
• 4:18
  Speaker 4: I'm glad you mentioned that because it shows you how
• 4:21
  Speaker 4: cynical these people are.
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: As you point out, they passed the one big, ugly bill.
• 4:25
  Speaker 4: In 2025, which cut a trillion dollars out of Medicaid,
• 4:30
  Speaker 4: these huge cuts and snap, literally knocking, taking food out
• 4:34
  Speaker 4: of the mouths of children and medicine away from seniors.
• 4:38
  Speaker 4: But what's worse is that some of the most brutal
• 4:43
  Speaker 4: parts of that bill in terms of health care are
• 4:46
  Speaker 4: slated to hit after the election. That's how cynical they are.
• 4:51
  Speaker 4: And so, yeah, we've got to fix that. Like, we
• 4:53
  Speaker 4: have to approach that as a 911 emergency. And I
• 4:57
  Speaker 4: think after the people stood up on Tuesday night, we
• 5:01
  Speaker 4: may be able to get enough Republican takers to restore
• 5:06
  Speaker 4: the ACA premium tax credits so people don't see their
• 5:09
  Speaker 4: premiums go way up while addressing some.
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: Of these other issues as well.
• 5:14
  Speaker 5: I saw you tell CNN when they asked you about
• 5:16
  Speaker 5: corruption or cost, you said, we can walk and chew
• 5:19
  Speaker 5: gum at the same time.
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: Absolutely.
• 5:22
  Speaker 4: Not only can we, we have to, because the corruption
• 5:26
  Speaker 4: is connected to costs. You know, where Trump is concerned,
• 5:30
  Speaker 4: you're witnessing a president who's literally, his family is $ 2
• 5:33
  Speaker 4: billion richer than they were two years ago.
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: You have these tariffs, which are crushing people, right?
• 5:40
  Speaker 4: And every now and then, Trump shakes down a foreign
• 5:42
  Speaker 4: government for his own interests. So the corruption and the costs...
• 5:48
  Speaker 4: are connected. And Trump is a particular vile expression of that. But,
• 5:54
  Speaker 4: you know, if I could quickly kind of walk you
• 5:56
  Speaker 4: through an example.
• 5:56
  Speaker 3: You don't even got to do it quickly.
• 5:57
  Speaker 4: You know, I'm proud of the fact that when I
• 6:00
  Speaker 4: went to the Senate, one of the things we did
• 6:03
  Speaker 4: was we passed a bill that finally gave Medicare the
• 6:08
  Speaker 4: ability to negotiate with Big Pharma the price of prescription drugs.
• 6:14
  Speaker 4: So think about that first of all. We had to
• 6:16
  Speaker 4: pass a law Just so Medicare could negotiate. That tells
• 6:21
  Speaker 4: you the influence of corporate interests in our politics. In
• 6:25
  Speaker 4: what capitalistic world does the seller get to tell you
• 6:27
  Speaker 4: the price and you don't even get to push back?
• 6:30
  Speaker 4: So they had to pass a law. I'm proud that
• 6:32
  Speaker 4: we did it. It is literally saving lives right now.
• 6:36
  Speaker 4: But guess what? It was only on 10 drugs. And
• 6:39
  Speaker 4: then the law didn't become law until four years after
• 6:42
  Speaker 4: we passed it. So I'm saying to you that too
• 6:45
  Speaker 4: often we have the best politicians, best politics, that money
• 6:49
  Speaker 4: can buy, which is why one of the things we've
• 6:51
  Speaker 4: got to do is deal with dark money in our politics,
• 6:54
  Speaker 4: partisan gerrymandering. We've got to get the people their voice
• 6:57
  Speaker 4: back in their own democracy so we can deliver the
• 7:00
  Speaker 4: things that they require.
• 7:02
  Speaker 2: What you're speaking to is why there's so many people
• 7:04
  Speaker 2: calling for Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries to step aside.
• 7:07
  Speaker 3: Or to fundamentally change how they lead.
• 7:10
  Speaker 2: Do you believe Democratic leadership understands what voters were demanding
• 7:14
  Speaker 2: in this election?
• 7:16
  Speaker 4: I spent a lot of time on the ground listening.
• 7:18
  Speaker 4: I campaigned in about 10 states trying to help us
• 7:21
  Speaker 4: with the Senate majority. I've been in the majority and
• 7:24
  Speaker 4: in the minority. The majority is a lot better. And
• 7:27
  Speaker 4: people are deeply frustrated. And I think they're hungry. I
• 7:31
  Speaker 4: think also I saw hope.
• 7:33
  Speaker 2: But does Democratic leadership understand that? Do Chuck Schumer and
• 7:36
  Speaker 2: Hakeem Jeffries truly understand that?
• 7:38
  Speaker 4: Well, I think that's a conversation we need to have
• 7:40
  Speaker 4: and we will continue to have inside the caucus. And
• 7:43
  Speaker 4: in terms of leadership, you know, I'm open to hearing
• 7:46
  Speaker 4: whoever in the caucus thinks that they should lead in
• 7:48
  Speaker 4: this moment. I want to hear that vision. But it's
• 7:51
  Speaker 4: got to center the concerns of ordinary people. It can't
• 7:54
  Speaker 4: be about Beltway politics. It's about how we actually deliver
• 7:59
  Speaker 4: to the people.
• 8:00
  Speaker 2: So does the party need new leadership or does it
• 8:02
  Speaker 2: need a new agenda under the same leaders?
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: I think the whole country needs a new agenda.
• 8:08
  Speaker 4: I mean, I think we've got to take account and
• 8:12
  Speaker 4: take stock of how we ended up here in the
• 8:14
  Speaker 4: first place.
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: Like, Trump is a problem. He's the most.
• 8:19
  Speaker 4: Corrupt president we've had in American history.
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: He's a vile human being with no moral compass, right?
• 8:27
  Speaker 4: But he's also symptomatic of a deep spiritual sickness in
• 8:32
  Speaker 4: our country. I would contend that no nation That is healthy.
• 8:38
  Speaker 4: Could have elected Donald Trump twice. The Trump era is
• 8:44
  Speaker 4: indicative of the brokenness and the deep pain that people
• 8:48
  Speaker 4: are feeling in our country. And I think we need
• 8:51
  Speaker 4: leaders who are going to take on the corruption, who
• 8:54
  Speaker 4: are very practical with addressing issues around cost and health care.
• 8:58
  Speaker 4: But we also need leaders who will remind us who
• 9:01
  Speaker 4: we are when we stand together. The nation needs to
• 9:03
  Speaker 4: be healed.
• 9:04
  Speaker 2: What do you say when you see what happened Tuesday?
• 9:07
  Speaker 2: Because that's what gave me the case for optimism, right?
• 9:09
  Speaker 2: I'm like, when I see Texas go blue and Georgia
• 9:12
  Speaker 2: go blue and South Carolina, where I'm from, go blue,
• 9:14
  Speaker 2: I'm like, maybe people aren't as spiritually sick as I
• 9:17
  Speaker 2: thought they were.
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: I think they had enough.
• 9:20
  Speaker 3: I think they had enough.
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: What I'm saying, I think they went on the Trump ride.
• 9:23
  Speaker 4: I mean, there's a big dose, right, of racism and
• 9:26
  Speaker 4: xenophobia and all kinds of stuff in that awful story, right?
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: But what I'm saying is.
• 9:32
  Speaker 4: When year after year, decade after decade, government doesn't deliver
• 9:38
  Speaker 4: to people what they need, it opens the door to
• 9:41
  Speaker 4: demagogues who stand up and say everything is messed up.
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: And I'm the only one. Remember that? I'm the only
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: one who can fix it.
• 9:49
  Speaker 4: So I'm saying the brokenness, the wealth inequality, people not
• 9:54
  Speaker 4: being able to send their kids to decent schools, to
• 9:57
  Speaker 4: know that they can see a doctor when they're sick.
• 10:01
  Speaker 4: There's a kind of cynicism that sets in like gangrene
• 10:05
  Speaker 4: in the body politic. And for me, that's not just
• 10:07
  Speaker 4: a political problem. I'm a pastor. I see it as
• 10:11
  Speaker 4: a spiritual problem. And I see the work that I
• 10:13
  Speaker 4: get to do delivering things.
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: That my constituents need. I see that as spiritual work.
• 10:21
  Speaker 4: I'm proud of the fact that so far in my
• 10:25
  Speaker 4: tenure as a senator, I've delivered some $ 17 billion to
• 10:29
  Speaker 4: historically black colleges and universities because I know firsthand that
• 10:33
  Speaker 4: those schools have been punching way above their weight. They've
• 10:36
  Speaker 4: been delivering so much to so many for so long.
• 10:39
  Speaker 4: People expect them to just make a way out of nowhere.
• 10:42
  Speaker 4: I'm proud of the fact that in our bipartisan housing
• 10:45
  Speaker 4: bill that we got through, I saw the show where
• 10:48
  Speaker 4: you guys were talking about it. It was my provision
• 10:50
  Speaker 4: that dealt with private equity and saying that they can't
• 10:53
  Speaker 4: swoop into our communities and just buy huge swaths of housing,
• 10:58
  Speaker 4: driving up the price for ordinary people.
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: So I think people need need us to deliver.
• 11:06
  Speaker 5: When you talk about like people delivering right and all
• 11:08
  Speaker 5: the hope and all the. optimism that people feel right now,
• 11:11
  Speaker 5: are we doing ourself a disservice by only focusing on
• 11:15
  Speaker 5: the hope and the optimism and not walking, not walking
• 11:17
  Speaker 5: and chewing gum at the same time and being like,
• 11:19
  Speaker 5: but something else could be true at the same time
• 11:21
  Speaker 5: where these people, once they're okay, we won't be okay anymore.
• 11:24
  Speaker 5: Like the people who really need the help. Once it
• 11:25
  Speaker 5: doesn't trickle down, what will happen?
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: No, I'm very clear eyed.
• 11:28
  Speaker 4: I mean, I think you rightly point out that, you know,
• 11:33
  Speaker 4: when people get frustrated, they become open to all kinds of,
• 11:36
  Speaker 4: of options. Um, here's what I think we have to do.
• 11:40
  Speaker 4: We've got to stop this endless war of choice that
• 11:47
  Speaker 4: is driving up the price of diesel, driving up the
• 11:50
  Speaker 4: price of everything that moves on a truck, and that's everything.
• 11:54
  Speaker 2: Can you do that when you know how much influence
• 11:56
  Speaker 2: Israel has over people like Chuck.
• 11:58
  Speaker 3: Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries?
• 11:59
  Speaker 4: I think the Congress is the purse string and the
• 12:03
  Speaker 4: declaration of war is in the purview of Congress. And we,
• 12:07
  Speaker 4: the Democrats have already on a number of occasions passed, uh,
• 12:12
  Speaker 4: war powers resolutions. If our, if our Republican, if our
• 12:17
  Speaker 4: Republican colleagues had voted with us, we, we would have,
• 12:21
  Speaker 4: we would have been able to put a stop to this. So,
• 12:24
  Speaker 4: so now that the people have stood up last Tuesday,
• 12:26
  Speaker 4: let's see where we land. But I think we ought
• 12:28
  Speaker 4: to put a war powers resolution back on, on the
• 12:31
  Speaker 4: table and push our, our Republican colleagues and others, whoever,
• 12:38
  Speaker 4: to hear what the American people are saying.
• 12:40
  Speaker 2: Do you believe Chuck Schumer is the right person to
• 12:43
  Speaker 2: lead this new Democratic Senate majority?
• 12:45
  Speaker 3: Because you said you're open to hearing about new leadership.
• 12:49
  Speaker 3: So does that mean that you.
• 12:51
  Speaker 4: I think we need fresh vision, fresh ideas, and I'm
• 12:56
  Speaker 4: open to hearing whoever thinks they have that. Do you
• 12:58
  Speaker 4: think he is— The process for choosing the leader will
• 13:03
  Speaker 4: come up soon enough, and I'll be engaged with that.
• 13:07
  Speaker 4: But right now, I'm focused on delivering, and I will
• 13:10
  Speaker 4: not tolerate any leader that's not going to take on
• 13:13
  Speaker 4: this corruption in government. And I'm not just talking about
• 13:17
  Speaker 4: with the president, whether it's a cabinet member, members of Congress.
• 13:22
  Speaker 4: We need to ban members of Congress from trading stocks.
• 13:26
  Speaker 3: I agree.
• 13:26
  Speaker 4: That's something I impose on myself. even though legally I
• 13:30
  Speaker 4: don't have to because I think everyday people shouldn't be
• 13:34
  Speaker 4: wondering if we're making decisions based on their self-interest or
• 13:38
  Speaker 4: our own. So I won't tolerate a leader that won't
• 13:40
  Speaker 4: take on this corruption, who will not take on the war,
• 13:44
  Speaker 4: and who will not have an honest conversation about this
• 13:49
  Speaker 4: growing wealth inequality and the fact that people can't pay
• 13:51
  Speaker 4: for health care. I think they're worried about my voice.
• 13:54
  Speaker 4: Somebody brought me some water.
• 13:56
  Speaker 3: You keep clearing it, that's why. They know you're a pastor.
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: Listen, man.
• 13:59
  Speaker 2: The only pastor I see can talk for a long
• 14:01
  Speaker 2: time and not take a sip of water.
• 14:03
  Speaker 3: Or wipe his head.
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: I didn't take note of that.
• 14:08
  Speaker 2: He'll be up there for a long time and won't
• 14:11
  Speaker 2: take a sip of water.
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: Well, I need a sip of water.
• 14:16
  Speaker 2: Another, another criticism of democratic leadership is something you were
• 14:19
  Speaker 2: speaking to earlier. They often say that the establishment sometimes
• 14:22
  Speaker 2: seems more determined to like going after progressive challenges than
• 14:26
  Speaker 2: challenging corporate power.
• 14:28
  Speaker 3: Do you think there's truth to that criticism?
• 14:31
  Speaker 4: I was on the ground, uh, trying to, to help, uh,
• 14:36
  Speaker 4: brother Al Sayad, uh, get elected, uh, spend some time with,
• 14:40
  Speaker 4: with Abdul. Um, I was on the ground with Dr.
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: Annie Andrews. I was on the ground with Scott Cologne,
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: who I think is going to win Mississippi. I hope so.
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: They are all different.
• 14:57
  Speaker 4: But what ties them all together is a sharp focus
• 15:01
  Speaker 4: on affordability, which Donald Trump says is a hoax. Find
• 15:04
  Speaker 4: another way to tell me that you don't understand the
• 15:06
  Speaker 4: struggles of ordinary people. So I think we will and
• 15:09
  Speaker 4: we ought to have a spirited debate. inside of the
• 15:12
  Speaker 4: caucus about how we deliver for people. And I know
• 15:18
  Speaker 4: that there's been much made of the ideological spectrum of that,
• 15:23
  Speaker 4: but I think that's a good thing. I think we
• 15:25
  Speaker 4: have a big tent and we have to have a
• 15:29
  Speaker 4: real spirited debate about how we deliver healthcare. Like how
• 15:33
  Speaker 4: is it that we're the wealthiest nation on the planet
• 15:36
  Speaker 4: and people don't have access to healthcare? One of the
• 15:38
  Speaker 4: things we, and starting with the 10 states, including Georgia,
• 15:42
  Speaker 4: which is why I'm so excited about Keisha Lance Bottoms' election.
• 15:45
  Speaker 4: We're one of 10 states that hasn't expanded Medicaid. So
• 15:50
  Speaker 4: four of those states elected Democratic senators last Tuesday night.
• 15:55
  Speaker 4: So I look forward to working with the senators from Texas,
• 15:57
  Speaker 4: from North Carolina, from South Carolina, from Mississippi to talk
• 16:00
  Speaker 4: about Medicaid expansion. We need to stop the bleeding from
• 16:05
  Speaker 4: these cuts that they're putting in place that.
• 16:08
  Speaker 1: Will land in January.
• 16:10
  Speaker 4: But then we need to lay out a bold vision
• 16:15
  Speaker 4: about how we provide health care for everybody. And the
• 16:17
  Speaker 4: fact that everybody doesn't have health care in America, that's
• 16:21
  Speaker 4: not because of a poverty of resources.
• 16:23
  Speaker 1: It's a poverty of moral imagination, moral courage.
• 16:27
  Speaker 3: Absolutely.
• 16:27
  Speaker 2: But why do you think establishment Democrats like to go
• 16:31
  Speaker 2: after progressives more so than they do like they like
• 16:34
  Speaker 2: to challenge corporate power?
• 16:36
  Speaker 3: It feels like they have more of a.
• 16:38
  Speaker 2: Fight with the progressives than they do actually challenging the
• 16:42
  Speaker 2: corporate power that you know that.
• 16:43
  Speaker 3: We need to be taxing.
• 16:44
  Speaker 4: Both parties are much too beholden to corporate interests. That's
• 16:49
  Speaker 4: what I was explaining in that whole thing, that example
• 16:51
  Speaker 4: I gave you around Medicare being able to negotiate the
• 16:55
  Speaker 4: price of prescription drugs. I'm glad that Democrats got something
• 16:58
  Speaker 4: done on it, but when you look at the incremental
• 17:01
  Speaker 4: way in which we were able to do it compared
• 17:03
  Speaker 4: to where you would like to land, it is clear...
• 17:06
  Speaker 4: that whether you're talking about big pharma or some of
• 17:08
  Speaker 4: the oil and gas or all these various, uh, corporate interests,
• 17:13
  Speaker 4: they have an outsized voice in our politics.
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: But what has made that worse is citizens United.
• 17:20
  Speaker 4: And this, uh, extreme right wing Supreme court, uh, made
• 17:25
  Speaker 4: that awful decision with citizens United. It's doing a lot
• 17:29
  Speaker 4: of damage to our, to our democracy. And, um, which
• 17:34
  Speaker 4: is why part of what we got to do is
• 17:35
  Speaker 4: we got to pass some legislation that will undercut Citizens United.
• 17:40
  Speaker 2: I've also seen you be outspoken about, you know, the
• 17:43
  Speaker 2: humanitarian crisis in Gaza.
• 17:44
  Speaker 3: You've said that there should be a ceasefire.
• 17:47
  Speaker 2: Do you believe that Democratic leadership have been willing to
• 17:50
  Speaker 2: challenge the Israeli government when its actions conflict with American
• 17:55
  Speaker 2: values and international humanitarian?
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: Well, I can tell you what I've done.
• 17:59
  Speaker 4: You know, when I look at what's happened in Gaza—
• 18:04
  Speaker 4: It is a humanitarian catastrophe. The moral atrocities there are undeniable.
• 18:16
  Speaker 4: There's an acronym in Gaza, WCNSF, Wounded Child, No Surviving Family.
• 18:27
  Speaker 4: I mean, I can't think of a worse way to
• 18:30
  Speaker 4: start your life. Start life, Wounded Child. No surviving family.
• 18:37
  Speaker 4: Netanyahu is a war criminal. And it's been, you know,
• 18:43
  Speaker 4: frustrating watching what's unfolded there. The people of Israel, by
• 18:47
  Speaker 4: the way, don't like him either. He's very unpopular, but
• 18:50
  Speaker 4: he's still in power. And so I think what this
• 18:53
  Speaker 4: moment requires is American leadership. And, you know, I have
• 18:58
  Speaker 4: taken votes apart from my party. to limit weapons to Israel,
• 19:05
  Speaker 4: to point out the fact that we've got to make
• 19:07
  Speaker 4: sure that we center American values and that we are
• 19:11
  Speaker 4: not aiding and abetting anything that runs contrary to that.
• 19:15
  Speaker 4: That's part of the asset test for me. And so
• 19:19
  Speaker 4: I've voted on these joint resolutions of disapproval, all of that.
• 19:24
  Speaker 4: But what I've learned, Charlamagne, over the last few years
• 19:27
  Speaker 4: watching this unfold, there's no replacement for presidential leadership.
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: On this question.
• 19:34
  Speaker 4: Because by the time the votes get to us, they're
• 19:37
  Speaker 4: tied with a whole range of other priorities. We have
• 19:40
  Speaker 4: not had real forward-looking presidential leadership that acts with courage
• 19:47
  Speaker 4: and principle wherever that lands. There's just no replacement for that.
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: You know, I'm from Georgia.
• 19:54
  Speaker 4: I'm just old enough to remember when an American president
• 20:00
  Speaker 4: took the leaders of Egypt and Israel down to Camp
• 20:04
  Speaker 4: David and wouldn't let them leave until they figured it out. Like,
• 20:09
  Speaker 4: we take for granted. that Egypt and Israel are not
• 20:11
  Speaker 4: mortal adversaries.
• 20:13
  Speaker 1: But Jimmy Carter.
• 20:13
  Speaker 4: Took them down to Camp David, and when all else failed,
• 20:19
  Speaker 4: he showed them pictures, two old men, he showed each
• 20:22
  Speaker 4: of them pictures of their grandchildren and asked them, what
• 20:26
  Speaker 4: kind of world do you want your children, is this
• 20:28
  Speaker 4: what you want your grandchildren to inherit? And he was
• 20:32
  Speaker 4: able to get that agreement between the two. So I
• 20:35
  Speaker 4: think I think sometimes you can be caught up in
• 20:37
  Speaker 4: a spiral so long that people can't even imagine that
• 20:40
  Speaker 4: you can get out outside of this, but we have
• 20:42
  Speaker 4: to insist on peace.
• 20:43
  Speaker 2: Well, when they, when they hear people like yourself say that,
• 20:45
  Speaker 2: you know, you voted for American military assistance to Israel
• 20:49
  Speaker 2: to come with some type of enforceable conditions to me,
• 20:51
  Speaker 2: that builds public trust.
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: Well, I think so for me. Yeah, I hope so.
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: It's for me, it's a matter of principle.
• 20:57
  Speaker 4: And, um, you know, um, uh, again, what I, I,
• 21:03
  Speaker 4: I have, what I'm, come to the conclusion watching this
• 21:06
  Speaker 4: and trying to do what I can as a member
• 21:08
  Speaker 4: of Congress, you really got to have presidential leadership on this.
• 21:12
  Speaker 2: I just think you have to be willing to challenge...
• 21:14
  Speaker 2: even your allies when their actions conflict.
• 21:17
  Speaker 4: I think part of what it means to be a friend,
• 21:20
  Speaker 4: you're not a friend of mine. If I can't have
• 21:21
  Speaker 4: an honest conversation, that's right.
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: So people that I'm really close with, right. You, you know, your,
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: your friends can tell you the truth. That's right. They
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: can tell you, man, I wouldn't wear it. Right. They
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: can tell you the truth.
• 21:31
  Speaker 4: And so, so, so those are conversations I'm encouraging and
• 21:36
  Speaker 4: participating in all the time. Uh, there's a long, um, uh,
• 21:41
  Speaker 4: partnership obviously between the black community and the Jewish community
• 21:45
  Speaker 4: with respect to the civil rights tradition. When Rabbi Abraham
• 21:49
  Speaker 4: Joshua Heschel marched alongside Dr. King, he said he felt
• 21:52
  Speaker 4: like his legs were praying. And so, you know, I'm,
• 21:55
  Speaker 4: I'm having those conversations not only as a member of Congress,
• 21:58
  Speaker 4: but as a pastor, uh, uh, in the, in the
• 22:02
  Speaker 4: black church with rabbis about where we are and, and
• 22:06
  Speaker 4: having honest conversations about our differences. Um, and also about
• 22:11
  Speaker 4: the ways in which we have important and strategic alliances.
• 22:14
  Speaker 3: That's right.
• 22:16
  Speaker 5: You talk about presidential leadership and needing better presidential leadership there,
• 22:20
  Speaker 5: and I know people are having this higher office conversation
• 22:22
  Speaker 5: about you and with you.
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: Oh, you heard about that? Oh, everywhere, everywhere.
• 22:28
  Speaker 5: That quote, I think it was Politico you were talking to.
• 22:30
  Speaker 4: So I'm up for re-election in 2028, and I was
• 22:35
  Speaker 4: just having a little fun with Jake Tapper. I said,
• 22:36
  Speaker 4: be assured that I'm running for high office. The Senate
• 22:38
  Speaker 4: is high office. So we'll see where we land.
• 22:41
  Speaker 5: How you doing that to us?
• 22:44
  Speaker 3: Hey, it's some great candidates coming out of Georgia.
• 22:46
  Speaker 2: I mean, that's the other thing that gives me such
• 22:48
  Speaker 2: a case for optimism, Senator, because this is the first
• 22:52
  Speaker 2: time in a long time that I can look and say,
• 22:54
  Speaker 2: there's some really good, high-quality candidates on the Democratic side.
• 22:58
  Speaker 2: I can count, like, I can say you, I can
• 23:01
  Speaker 2: say John Ossoff, I can say, you know, Governor Shapiro,
• 23:05
  Speaker 2: I can say Governor Wes Moore, you know, I can say.
• 23:09
  Speaker 3: Even Dr.
• 23:10
  Speaker 2: Abdul El-Sayed at some point, you know, there's a lot
• 23:13
  Speaker 2: of people I can look to and just say, there's
• 23:14
  Speaker 2: some really high, and not even just the president, just
• 23:17
  Speaker 2: some great, high-quality.
• 23:18
  Speaker 3: Candidates and leaders out there.
• 23:21
  Speaker 4: Yeah, very proud of her, and known her for a
• 23:24
  Speaker 4: long time. Look, this is an inflection moment for our country,
• 23:28
  Speaker 4: not just the party. And I just think we ought
• 23:30
  Speaker 4: to have the bold, honest conversations. And we can't give
• 23:34
  Speaker 4: in to the politics of scarcity that tries to convince
• 23:37
  Speaker 4: us that we can't think big about how to deliver
• 23:40
  Speaker 4: health care for everyday people, about the fact that workers
• 23:44
  Speaker 4: ought to have a livable wage. They ought to be
• 23:46
  Speaker 4: able to retire with dignity, send their children to good schools,
• 23:49
  Speaker 4: be able to see a doctor when they need to
• 23:51
  Speaker 4: see a doctor. that we ought to be able to
• 23:53
  Speaker 4: have access to universal pre-K in our country. You know,
• 23:58
  Speaker 4: when you know that age between zero and three, the
• 24:01
  Speaker 4: power of that, the science shows that literally the brain
• 24:06
  Speaker 4: is growing and the parts that you don't engage atrophy.
• 24:11
  Speaker 4: And so if we really wanted to change the world,
• 24:12
  Speaker 4: we would invest a whole lot more in zero to three,
• 24:16
  Speaker 4: zero to four.
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: I'm a head start, baby. Me too.
• 24:20
  Speaker 3: You are?
• 24:20
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 24:22
  Speaker 4: So Head Start, I'm one of two members of the Senate.
• 24:26
  Speaker 4: Of course, we've got some new ones coming now.
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: I don't know. We'll see. Who's a Head Start baby.
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: And then.
• 24:31
  Speaker 4: Growing, you know, in high school, Upward Bound put me
• 24:34
  Speaker 4: on a college campus. So a kid growing up in
• 24:37
  Speaker 4: the housing projects could imagine that I belonged.
• 24:40
  Speaker 1: In college because I was already on the campus hanging out.
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: trying to talk to college girls.
• 24:47
  Speaker 4: And then Pell Grants and low-interest student loans enabled me
• 24:51
  Speaker 4: to get through Morehouse College and earn a PhD. Head Start,
• 24:56
  Speaker 4: Pell Grants, low-interest student loans, Upward Bound, all good federal
• 25:01
  Speaker 4: public policy that provided a path for a kid to
• 25:04
  Speaker 4: go from the projects to Dr. King's church to the
• 25:09
  Speaker 4: United States Senate. What keeps me up at night is
• 25:13
  Speaker 4: the recognition that it would be harder now. If I
• 25:17
  Speaker 4: were that 15-year-old kid now, it'd be harder for me
• 25:20
  Speaker 4: to get from there to here.
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: And we've got to fix it. I think people, we've
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: been going backwards, and people feel it.
• 25:28
  Speaker 2: Yeah, there's two things in this country I always say.
• 25:31
  Speaker 2: If you can make people feel, you'll always have success.
• 25:35
  Speaker 2: If you're a politician, if you can put more money
• 25:37
  Speaker 2: in people's pocket, and if you can make them feel safe,
• 25:40
  Speaker 2: you'll always have success.
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: Yeah, hope.
• 25:42
  Speaker 2: Hope, when you hear Democrats talk about affordability, right, how
• 25:46
  Speaker 2: much can you really accomplish without confronting corporate America?
• 25:50
  Speaker 3: You've got to challenge the pharmaceutical companies. You've got to
• 25:52
  Speaker 3: challenge the health insurance. You've got to challenge these monopolies.
• 25:54
  Speaker 3: You have to.
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: You do.
• 25:56
  Speaker 4: And look, part of what I want to see is
• 25:59
  Speaker 4: billionaires spending a whole lot less on our elections and
• 26:05
  Speaker 4: much more in taxes.
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: So we need to have that conversation.
• 26:09
  Speaker 3: And I want the legislation that makes sure those tax
• 26:11
  Speaker 3: dollars go to the right place.
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: Oh, absolutely.
• 26:12
  Speaker 2: Because taxing the billionaires, because this country makes trillions of dollars.
• 26:15
  Speaker 1: Yeah, what are we going to spend? That's right. Sure,
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: priorities always matter. That's right.
• 26:20
  Speaker 5: Do y'all think, for both of y'all, do y'all think
• 26:22
  Speaker 5: that some people confuse DEI and what it was set
• 26:25
  Speaker 5: out to do with what you're talking about, Charlemagne, with
• 26:28
  Speaker 5: really pushing back against those corporate arenas and where the
• 26:31
  Speaker 5: money is spent?
• 26:33
  Speaker 1: You asking me?
• 26:34
  Speaker 5: Both of y'all. Either one of y'all.
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: You the senator. I'm not sure I understand the question.
• 26:39
  Speaker 5: I feel like for the everyday person or like people
• 26:41
  Speaker 5: who are, who mostly are affected by these on the
• 26:44
  Speaker 5: ground things like DEI and inclusion and all that, right?
• 26:47
  Speaker 5: Do you think that those people confuse DEI with what
• 26:51
  Speaker 5: it means to make your politician fight back against these
• 26:53
  Speaker 5: big corporates and the billionaires and where the money is
• 26:55
  Speaker 5: going and the tax dollars?
• 26:57
  Speaker 4: Look, I'm not wed to anything, you know, what you
• 27:00
  Speaker 4: call it, you know, And they have found a way
• 27:05
  Speaker 4: to malign the whole idea of diversity, equity, and inclusion, which,
• 27:11
  Speaker 4: you know, equity is in the Bible.
• 27:14
  Speaker 1: You know, diversity is all of it.
• 27:18
  Speaker 4: How do they manage to make diversity, equity, and inclusion
• 27:21
  Speaker 4: cuss words? So I'm at a point where I don't
• 27:24
  Speaker 4: care what you call it. I'm focused on results. I
• 27:27
  Speaker 4: want to make sure every child has a chance. And
• 27:30
  Speaker 4: what we've tried to do through these programs various programs
• 27:33
  Speaker 4: is to force people to at least have to take
• 27:35
  Speaker 4: a look at your resume, to think about where you,
• 27:37
  Speaker 4: you know, and to have equity centered in the conversation.
• 27:41
  Speaker 4: There may be some other tools, other ways of getting there,
• 27:47
  Speaker 4: you know, that take into account race, but also just poverty, class,
• 27:52
  Speaker 4: all of these things. I think the sooner we recognize
• 27:56
  Speaker 4: that the country is strong because of its diversity and
• 27:59
  Speaker 4: not in spite of it, then we're on the road
• 28:02
  Speaker 4: to building the kind of country that's worthy of our children.
• 28:05
  Speaker 2: This is why I want to see y'all vote to
• 28:06
  Speaker 2: get rid of the Electoral College. Because Tuesday showed me
• 28:10
  Speaker 2: what America really thinks of diversity.
• 28:12
  Speaker 1: Yes, man! Yeah. You know? Yeah.
• 28:15
  Speaker 4: I often think about what it's like to live in
• 28:17
  Speaker 4: a state where you don't feel like your vote matters
• 28:20
  Speaker 4: as much.
• 28:20
  Speaker 1: Mm-hmm.
• 28:22
  Speaker 4: I think a serious reset and conversation about a whole
• 28:26
  Speaker 4: range of things that expand the democracy.
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: Mm-hmm.
• 28:31
  Speaker 4: Because we think that that has been an ongoing project, right?
• 28:34
  Speaker 4: Over 250 years, you have these ideals, one person, one vote,
• 28:38
  Speaker 4: the democracy. But it's an ongoing, continuing project. Senators used
• 28:44
  Speaker 4: to be appointed by the state legislatures. You've got the
• 28:47
  Speaker 4: electoral college. You've got one of the things that would
• 28:50
  Speaker 4: be at the top of my list in terms of
• 28:52
  Speaker 4: expanding the democracy, obviously dealing.
• 28:55
  Speaker 1: I'd like to pass the.
• 28:57
  Speaker 4: John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, which will deal with
• 28:59
  Speaker 4: partisan gerrymandering.
• 29:02
  Speaker 1: We'll restore Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act.
• 29:06
  Speaker 4: We'll ensure in Mississippi, for example, I think we're going
• 29:08
  Speaker 4: to win Mississippi, but Mississippi is one of the hardest
• 29:12
  Speaker 4: states to vote in. If they had robust early voting,
• 29:16
  Speaker 4: weekend voting, I think they would have already.
• 29:18
  Speaker 1: Called the race for Scott Collin by now.
• 29:21
  Speaker 4: But all of these Democratic reforms that expand the democracy,
• 29:26
  Speaker 4: including D.C. statehood, is what I'd be, you know, are
• 29:30
  Speaker 4: among the things that I'd be fighting for.
• 29:32
  Speaker 2: What would have happened if people like Scott, people like
• 29:35
  Speaker 2: Angie Nixon would have gotten more support from the Democratic establishment?
• 29:40
  Speaker 3: A lot sooner?
• 29:41
  Speaker 1: Well, you may have heard that that is the exact
• 29:43
  Speaker 1: case I've been making.
• 29:45
  Speaker 4: Like I, over the last few weeks in particular, I
• 29:49
  Speaker 4: was in the South and saying to Democrats that Democrats
• 29:55
  Speaker 4: ignore or diminish the importance of the South at their
• 29:59
  Speaker 4: own peril. As goes the South, so goes the nation.
• 30:04
  Speaker 4: We've seen that time and time again in the history
• 30:06
  Speaker 4: of this country. It is right now the fastest growing
• 30:09
  Speaker 4: region in the nation. And it's growing in every, it's
• 30:13
  Speaker 4: the only region that's growing in every population.
• 30:19
  Speaker 1: Section.
• 30:20
  Speaker 4: Every population is growing in the South. You've seen Black
• 30:23
  Speaker 4: folk who migrated over seven decades to the North.
• 30:27
  Speaker 1: A lot of folks have migrated back to the South.
• 30:31
  Speaker 4: And then when you look at what the Supreme Court
• 30:34
  Speaker 4: did with this awful Calais decision, which basically encourages partisan gerrymandering,
• 30:42
  Speaker 4: I think part of what happened the other Tuesday night,
• 30:44
  Speaker 4: what you saw in the South, was members of our
• 30:47
  Speaker 4: multiracial coalition saying, you will not diminish our voices. I
• 30:52
  Speaker 4: think Democrats need to continue to channel that righteous rage
• 30:56
  Speaker 4: and fury in a state like Mississippi. which is, in
• 31:00
  Speaker 4: my view, a blue state that just needs to be organized.
• 31:03
  Speaker 4: A lot of black people there. Mississippi has a greater
• 31:08
  Speaker 4: percentage of its voting population are.
• 31:11
  Speaker 1: Black voters.
• 31:13
  Speaker 4: They got more black eligible voters than any state in
• 31:17
  Speaker 4: a nation, or greater percentage.
• 31:20
  Speaker 1: It's 38% black.
• 31:22
  Speaker 4: And so you have all you need to build a
• 31:26
  Speaker 4: multiracial coalition that will not only deliver this Senate seat,
• 31:31
  Speaker 4: but I think could deliver another one and even a
• 31:33
  Speaker 4: governorship in a state like Mississippi.
• 31:35
  Speaker 3: I want to ask you about accountability.
• 31:37
  Speaker 2: What does accountability for alleged corruption in the Trump administration
• 31:40
  Speaker 2: actually look like? Because, you know, Hakeem Jeffries said Democrats
• 31:44
  Speaker 2: weren't focused on revenge, but we all know revenge and
• 31:47
  Speaker 2: accountability aren't the same thing.
• 31:50
  Speaker 3: So what does it look like?
• 31:51
  Speaker 4: Well, look, when you, as I listen to voters, We've
• 31:55
  Speaker 4: got to focus on people's costs. But as I pointed out,
• 31:58
  Speaker 4: the cost and the corruption, they're part of the same coin.
• 32:03
  Speaker 4: And it would be malpractice not to investigate what is
• 32:10
  Speaker 4: clearly the most corrupt administration in the history.
• 32:15
  Speaker 1: Of our country. So there are oversight committees.
• 32:18
  Speaker 4: I think those investigations ought to begin in earnest so
• 32:22
  Speaker 4: we can hold people accountable, so we can get to
• 32:23
  Speaker 4: the bottom of the corruption. while at the same time
• 32:27
  Speaker 4: we have to remain very, very focused on the ways
• 32:30
  Speaker 4: in which these costs are literally suffocating people. Like they,
• 32:35
  Speaker 4: you know, you can't afford gas to get to work.
• 32:39
  Speaker 4: You can't afford groceries. When you can't afford groceries and
• 32:44
  Speaker 4: your children are hungry, everything else is theoretical.
• 32:47
  Speaker 1: That's right.
• 32:48
  Speaker 2: What happened in Georgia that made Georgia elect a black woman,
• 32:53
  Speaker 2: Keisha Lance Bottoms is the first governor, first black governor,
• 32:57
  Speaker 2: John Ossoff, Jewish man, won re-election again. You're a black man,
• 33:02
  Speaker 2: of course. What is happening in Georgia that's making all
• 33:05
  Speaker 2: of this possible?
• 33:05
  Speaker 4: We've been doing the work for more than a decade,
• 33:08
  Speaker 4: and I think when it happened, it felt sudden.
• 33:11
  Speaker 1: It wasn't sudden.
• 33:14
  Speaker 4: We've been on the ground registering voters, the recognition that
• 33:19
  Speaker 4: demographics are not destiny, and so Stacey Abrams was an
• 33:24
  Speaker 4: important person in that work and leader. I think she
• 33:30
  Speaker 4: saw it clearly more than a decade ago. I was
• 33:33
  Speaker 4: there working alongside her registering voters. And then I decided
• 33:37
  Speaker 4: in 2020 to give people something to vote for. So
• 33:40
  Speaker 4: I ran for the United States Senate. But here's the
• 33:43
  Speaker 4: lesson in this moment. We were telling folks that as
• 33:48
  Speaker 4: you look at Georgia and what's happening, we were telling
• 33:50
  Speaker 4: folks that we could flip those Senate seats that we
• 33:54
  Speaker 4: could turn, we could flip the state. And every time
• 33:58
  Speaker 4: we lost, there was the temptation to pull back. Remember
• 34:04
  Speaker 4: in 2014, we had two famous Georgia names on the ticket,
• 34:08
  Speaker 4: Carter and Nunn, children, grandchildren of legacy personalities in Georgia.
• 34:17
  Speaker 4: That was a heartbreaking year. We lost in 2014. Uh,
• 34:20
  Speaker 4: but each time we lost, the margins got smaller. John
• 34:23
  Speaker 4: Ossoff lost his first race, but all of those things
• 34:27
  Speaker 4: built us to where we finally got. And then in 2021,
• 34:31
  Speaker 4: Ossoff and I flipped those two Senate seats. Who would
• 34:33
  Speaker 4: have thought we would have flipped two Senate seats, uh,
• 34:36
  Speaker 4: at the same time. So my message to, to my
• 34:38
  Speaker 4: party is that, um, regardless of where we land with Mississippi,
• 34:43
  Speaker 4: and I think we're going to get that one as well.
• 34:46
  Speaker 1: We should be in Mississippi today.
• 34:49
  Speaker 4: Uh, registering voters, mobilizing voters, educating voters, helping voters to.
• 34:55
  Speaker 1: Know that their vote will be protected.
• 34:56
  Speaker 3: I think South Carolina, too.
• 34:57
  Speaker 1: South Carolina, absolutely.
• 34:59
  Speaker 3: Florida.
• 35:00
  Speaker 1: Florida. Texas. Texas.
• 35:02
  Speaker 2: When you see Keisha Lance Bottoms defeat a billionaire, I
• 35:04
  Speaker 2: think he spent $ 200 million or something like that. What
• 35:08
  Speaker 2: does that tell you about the limits of money in politics?
• 35:10
  Speaker 4: Well, that was the contest, right? And it was a
• 35:15
  Speaker 4: thing that I was praying about. It was a classic contest.
• 35:18
  Speaker 4: between message and mission on one hand and money on
• 35:21
  Speaker 4: the other. And I'm glad that at least in this episode,
• 35:26
  Speaker 4: this time, the message and the mission won. I think
• 35:30
  Speaker 4: that the people of Georgia, after being made familiar with
• 35:35
  Speaker 4: a billionaire president who promises that he can just deliver
• 35:40
  Speaker 4: and you ought to trust that he knows what he's
• 35:42
  Speaker 4: doing because he's a billionaire, I think people have already
• 35:44
  Speaker 4: seen that movie. They're literally watching it play out in
• 35:47
  Speaker 4: real time This man spent $ 200 million of his own money,
• 35:51
  Speaker 4: a lot of which he made on Georgia taxpayers, profiting
• 35:54
  Speaker 4: from hospitals closing. I think the question before Georgia voters
• 35:59
  Speaker 4: where that race is concerned in part was, is Georgia
• 36:02
  Speaker 4: for sale? And the people of Georgia stood up and said,
• 36:06
  Speaker 4: absolutely not. Georgia's not for sale.
• 36:08
  Speaker 3: I got one last question.
• 36:09
  Speaker 2: Because I really think that we have to stress this
• 36:13
  Speaker 2: over the next few months, right?
• 36:16
  Speaker 3: What should a working class voter.
• 36:19
  Speaker 2: who supported Democrats, expect to be different in their life
• 36:24
  Speaker 2: a year from now? Because you still got a president
• 36:26
  Speaker 2: in the White House who's got a lot of veto power.
• 36:29
  Speaker 5: Oh, he posted the hat with the veto.
• 36:30
  Speaker 3: That's what I'm saying.
• 36:32
  Speaker 2: So I'm not talking about what they expect to be
• 36:33
  Speaker 2: different in Washington. What should they expect to be different
• 36:35
  Speaker 2: in their household? Because that's what they're going to be voting.
• 36:39
  Speaker 1: On in 2028.
• 36:40
  Speaker 4: Look, I'm on the Finance Committee, on the Trade Subcommittee,
• 36:45
  Speaker 4: which deals with these tariffs. We've got to put a
• 36:49
  Speaker 4: stop to these tariffs that if you ended the tariffs,
• 36:52
  Speaker 4: that would bring people some economic relief that alone. And
• 36:57
  Speaker 4: so I'm going to be pushing my Republican colleagues to
• 37:00
  Speaker 4: vote with us on this issue.
• 37:01
  Speaker 1: Hopefully they will. If they don't, we will remind the
• 37:04
  Speaker 1: American people in 28 that they didn't.
• 37:07
  Speaker 4: Stick with us. But we ought to try to we
• 37:09
  Speaker 4: ought to make an earnest effort. To get rid of
• 37:11
  Speaker 4: these tariffs and not, you know, we don't want to
• 37:13
  Speaker 4: make it a political issue. I want to deliver relief.
• 37:16
  Speaker 3: But it might end up being a political issue.
• 37:17
  Speaker 1: But you ought to try to deliver relief.
• 37:20
  Speaker 4: Yes.
• 37:20
  Speaker 1: If you can.
• 37:21
  Speaker 2: But you got to make a spectacle of these things.
• 37:23
  Speaker 2: When you bring them to the floor and they bolt
• 37:25
  Speaker 2: them down, you got to let everybody know, hey.
• 37:28
  Speaker 1: So that's the beauty of Tuesday night, right? Because had
• 37:30
  Speaker 1: it gone the other way, we couldn't put anything on
• 37:32
  Speaker 1: the floor. That's right. That's right.
• 37:34
  Speaker 4: It'd be harder. So we control the floor now. So
• 37:38
  Speaker 4: we ought to put the tabs up. We ought to
• 37:41
  Speaker 4: put the War Powers Resolution, which is also driving up
• 37:44
  Speaker 4: people's costs and making us less safe. We ought to
• 37:47
  Speaker 4: put that up. We ought to put up votes on
• 37:50
  Speaker 4: these premium tax credits. Remember that we had an epic
• 37:56
  Speaker 4: fight trying to get them to do it, and they
• 37:58
  Speaker 4: decided not to. Maybe after getting shellacked like they did
• 38:05
  Speaker 4: Tuesday night, we can have a different kind of conversation.
• 38:08
  Speaker 1: At least I think that's what we ought to try
• 38:09
  Speaker 1: to do. All right.
• 38:11
  Speaker 2: Senator Raphael Warnock of Georgia, 2028 presidential.
• 38:15
  Speaker 3: Headed for higher office. He said y'all are.
• 38:19
  Speaker 5: A happy couple, you and Ossoff.
• 38:21
  Speaker 1: Ossoff and I, yeah, we work closely together.
• 38:23
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 38:23
  Speaker 1: And that's been good for Georgia. And now we got
• 38:25
  Speaker 1: a governor named Keisha.
• 38:27
  Speaker 3: Hey, that could be a hell of a ticket in 2028, Ossoff, Warnock.
• 38:29
  Speaker 3: That's what the people saying.
• 38:31
  Speaker 1: That's what the people saying.
• 38:32
  Speaker 3: No, for real, Warnock, Ossoff, however it goes, that could
• 38:34
  Speaker 3: be a hell of a ticket in 2028.
• 38:35
  Speaker 4: All right.
• 38:39
  Speaker 1: From your mouth to God's ears.
• 38:40
  Speaker 4: Okay.
• 38:41
  Speaker 3: All right.
• 38:42
  Speaker 5: That's what your mouth be saying to God, too?
• 38:46
  Speaker 4: God and I have had a wonderful ongoing relationship since
• 38:51
  Speaker 4: I was a child. And one of the things I
• 38:53
  Speaker 4: certainly pray about a lot is discernment. And I just
• 38:55
  Speaker 4: want to be able to use my gifts in the
• 38:59
  Speaker 4: best way, particularly in a moment like this.
• 39:01
  Speaker 1: All right. Honored to be here with you.
• 39:03
  Speaker 2: Thank you for coming, man. And Senator Raphael Warnock is
• 39:05
  Speaker 2: the Breakfast Club.
• 39:07
  Speaker 1: Hold up. Every day I wake up.
• 39:09
  Speaker 3: Wake your ass up.
• 39:10
  Speaker 1: The Breakfast Club.
• 39:11
  Speaker 3: You all finished or you all done?