Latest / The Real News Podcast / Rep. Justin Pearson: MAGA Eliminated My Congressional District. I'm Still Running.

Transcript

Rep. Justin Pearson: MAGA Eliminated My Congressional District. I'm Still Running. · The Real News Podcast

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  Speaker 1: We're in Philadelphia at the twenty twenty six net Roots Conference,
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  Speaker 1: and I'm sitting with Representative Justin Pearson from the Tennessee
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  Speaker 1: House of Representatives, who is now running for the US
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  Speaker 1: House of Representatives. Representative Pearson, thank you so much for
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  Speaker 1: joining us. I know you only have a few minutes,
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  Speaker 1: and we got so much to talk about, so I
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  Speaker 1: kind of want to just throw a couple things at
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  Speaker 1: you and let you go right, gotcha. The like, Tennessee
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  Speaker 1: was the first state to redistrict you know, it's congressional
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  Speaker 1: maps after this Supreme Court hearing, so you know you
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  Speaker 1: were at the center of that. What the heck can
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  Speaker 1: people do about this? You know, like attempt to rig
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  Speaker 1: the midterm elections and everything moving forward. Second, you are
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  Speaker 1: in like in Memphis, you know, one of the epicenters
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  Speaker 1: of this data center crisis, Black brown communities being poisoned,
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  Speaker 1: energy being taken, billionaires ruining everything. So like, what is
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  Speaker 1: it like on the ground in Tennessee? What can be
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  Speaker 1: done at the state level and what do you hope
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  Speaker 1: to accomplish at the national level with this by being
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  Speaker 1: a member of the House of Representative.
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  Speaker 2: I say thanks so much again for having me but look,
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  Speaker 2: the first problem is we are seeing a deleterious impact
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  Speaker 2: to our democracy with the Supreme Court now being captured
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  Speaker 2: and operating as a partisan entity instead of an independent one.
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  Speaker 2: The consequences of that are real. We have a new
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  Speaker 2: district now with fifteen counties. But listen, go to vote
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  Speaker 2: justinja dot com, sign up to volunteer, you can phone
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  Speaker 2: bank from anywhere in the country. And it's going to
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  Speaker 2: take a mass mobilization effort for us to win, but
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  Speaker 2: it is possible. And they didn't make it impossible for
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  Speaker 2: us to win. They just made it more difficult. And
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  Speaker 2: we're okay, taken on a challenge, but our message is clear.
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  Speaker 2: We are standing up against billionaires in a status quo
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  Speaker 2: that has not worked for people. We understand that politically,
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  Speaker 2: Democrats and Republicans too often have done the same things
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  Speaker 2: that have led us to the consequences of decisions where
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  Speaker 2: billionaires have captured on government are polluting the air that
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  Speaker 2: we breathe taken the water that we drink and polluting
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  Speaker 2: it just for their companies to make more profits. So
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  Speaker 2: we're a voice for working class people and addressing these
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  Speaker 2: issues head on. At the state level, we've introduced the moratorium,
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  Speaker 2: similar to what Senator Sanders and Congresswomen AOC and others
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  Speaker 2: have been putting forward. And at the national level, that's
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  Speaker 2: going to be some thing I push for. We have
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  Speaker 2: to slow this down, address the causes and the issues
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  Speaker 2: of working class people, and stop billionaires from taking over
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  Speaker 2: our government and our country.
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  Speaker 1: And do you think that the Democratic Party is ready
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  Speaker 1: for that? You know, especially with you know, the twenty
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  Speaker 1: twenty four autopsy being so sparse on real critical details
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  Speaker 1: of what the party did wrong to lose to Trump again.
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  Speaker 1: What do you think it's going to take to you know,
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  Speaker 1: defeat Maga Trump and the Republicans today.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, we have to build power. We have to make
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  Speaker 2: sure that we are increasing our turnout, our education, our information.
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  Speaker 2: We have to go to places other people have not gone.
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  Speaker 2: We went to knock some doors in rural communities. We
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  Speaker 2: knocked on doors where someone said, you know, no one's
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  Speaker 2: ever been here in the forty years that I've lived here.
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  Speaker 2: That is what it is going to take, precing by precinct,
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  Speaker 2: county by county, state by state. And we can't negate
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  Speaker 2: or neglect the South in particular, where the vast majority
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  Speaker 2: of black folks in the United States of America live
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  Speaker 2: with the bedrock of the Democratic Party. We need everybody
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  Speaker 2: to come to the South and support, whether that's virtually
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  Speaker 2: or in person, because this is the moment and this
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  Speaker 2: is the time to defend what we believe.
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  Speaker 1: And final question, like when you were going around talking
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  Speaker 1: to folks in rural areas in the cities, you know
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  Speaker 1: in the South, you know, people have a lot of
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  Speaker 1: ideas about who lives there, what they think, where their
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  Speaker 1: politics come from. What do you think people need to
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  Speaker 1: know about like the potential for building working class political coalitions.
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  Speaker 1: What are the issues that are uniting working people in
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  Speaker 1: Tennessee that the political pundit class just totally missing.
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  Speaker 2: It's economics. People are struggling financially. Everybody's dealing with the
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  Speaker 2: consequences of an Iran war that has led us with
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  Speaker 2: high gas prices, high grocery prices, and they wanted an
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  Speaker 2: economy that works for everybody, not just for the people
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  Speaker 2: at the top. Everybody wants to have Everybody we talked
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  Speaker 2: to you wants medicare for all, wants an expansion of
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  Speaker 2: healthcare in particularly in the state like Tennessee, where we
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  Speaker 2: have the highest number of people with medical debt. In
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  Speaker 2: the United States of America, sixteen rural hospitals have closed.
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  Speaker 2: Folks know that this is not the way that things
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  Speaker 2: need to be. This is not the way that things
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  Speaker 2: have to be, and they want to have voices that
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  Speaker 2: stand up to these billionaires building these data centers all
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  Speaker 2: across our state, all across our country, without regulations, without permissions,
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  Speaker 2: just doing it, taking farm land, taking communities land, destroying
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  Speaker 2: our water, and destroying our air quality. They want leaders
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  Speaker 2: that are going to fight for them and not just
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  Speaker 2: continuing the same political machine, the same status quo. This
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  Speaker 2: happened before.
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  Speaker 1: Sorry, final question, because we just talked to Representative Summer
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  Speaker 1: Lee and she had a great point, which is, like,
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  Speaker 1: the Republicans are trying to rig the elections and redraw
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  Speaker 1: these maps because they know that they are deeply unpopular
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  Speaker 1: and they can't win the popular vote. But like the
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  Speaker 1: reality of them trying to rig it and take away
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  Speaker 1: like the democratic enterprise like is very very real. So
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  Speaker 1: what's your message out there to folks who are already
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  Speaker 1: feeling defeated about the upcoming midterm election season and you
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  Speaker 1: know American democracy as such, Yeah.
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  Speaker 2: You cannot quit now. This is the time to give
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  Speaker 2: everything that you possibly can for this constitutional, democratic republic
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  Speaker 2: experiment that we have. The next six months are the
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  Speaker 2: most important six months, I think for all of us
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  Speaker 2: who are alive, because I don't ever think again, you'll
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  Speaker 2: see the stars aligning with the white supremacist president, States
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  Speaker 2: that are captured by that presidency, billionaires able to buy
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  Speaker 2: government in this kind of way. These six months, you
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  Speaker 2: actually need to knock more doors than ever before, make
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  Speaker 2: more phone calls to your family, making sure people are
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  Speaker 2: red devoting that they turned out. Support candidates whether they're
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  Speaker 2: in your state or outside of your state, especially in
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  Speaker 2: the South, who are dealing with the consequences of races redistricting.
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  Speaker 2: Now it's not the time to give up. Listen, I'm
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  Speaker 2: still running for Congress. My family hasn't given up, my
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  Speaker 2: community hasn't given up. So this isn't the time for
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  Speaker 2: you to sit down and sit back. This is the
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  Speaker 2: time to get engaged and get off the sidelines more
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  Speaker 2: than ever before, to defend what we believe