Latest / Breaking Points with Krystal and Saagar / 6/9/26: Trump Booed At Knicks Game, Sports Gambling Scandal, Chris Rabb On Platner Controversy

Transcript

6/9/26: Trump Booed At Knicks Game, Sports Gambling Scandal, Chris Rabb On Platner Controversy · Breaking Points with Krystal and Saagar

0:00
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0:33
Speaker 2: So President Trump decided to attend the third game of
0:37
Speaker 2: the NBA Finals between the New York Knicks, of course,
0:40
Speaker 2: Trump being a native New Yorker himself, and the San
0:43
Speaker 2: Antonio Spurs. This happened at Madison Square Garden in New York.
0:47
Speaker 2: I don't know if you guys are aware of this,
0:48
Speaker 2: but Trump is not particularly popular in New York at
0:50
Speaker 2: this point. Nevertheless, he claimed after the game that he
0:54
Speaker 2: was met with mostly cheers, that it was very loud
0:56
Speaker 2: and enthusiastic. Let's take a listen to his take on
0:59
Speaker 2: what happened, and then we can show you what actually happened.
1:02
Speaker 2: You see, mayor Mom, Donnie at the game, I did
1:05
Speaker 2: not know.
1:05
Speaker 4: What did you think of the checks.
1:07
Speaker 5: You got from the Knicks fans night, I do it great?
1:09
Speaker 5: I mean I thought it was amazing. Actually, you mean
1:12
Speaker 5: when they had the camera on me, I thought it
1:14
Speaker 5: was very good. Yeah, it was certainly amazing. It was
1:19
Speaker 5: it was I think mostly cheers.
1:21
Speaker 3: It was.
1:22
Speaker 5: It was loud, and it was very.
1:24
Speaker 2: Enthusiastic, loud, enthusiastic, mostly cheers. He thinks, let's take a
1:30
Speaker 2: look at what actually happened, both at the game and
1:33
Speaker 2: outside at the watch parties. When Trump was put up
1:36
Speaker 2: on the screen during the national anthem, I don't know,
2:01
Speaker 2: that doesn't sound like mostly cheers to me. That sounds
2:04
Speaker 2: overwhelmingly like booze. And notably after showing him during the
2:09
Speaker 2: national anthem, which they probably did because they thought, well,
2:12
Speaker 2: maybe people won't boo during the national anthem.
2:14
Speaker 1: You're wrong.
2:15
Speaker 6: Yeah, they did not show him again. That was it.
2:18
Speaker 6: But they did catch him.
2:20
Speaker 2: Cameras caught him in a D one B napping towards
2:24
Speaker 2: the end of the game or actually, I don't even
2:26
Speaker 2: know what quarter this was in the game. But anyway,
2:28
Speaker 2: you know, he's an old guy, this is up past
2:29
Speaker 2: his bedtime, looks very high energy in this sympathize.
2:34
Speaker 6: You know.
2:34
Speaker 1: This isn't a Trump defense, but it's illically.
2:36
Speaker 3: It was like a you guys are popping off in
2:38
Speaker 3: our group chat and I'm like, yo, I'm going to bed.
2:40
Speaker 1: I'm like, I had decide.
2:42
Speaker 2: If you were at the game, you would not be sleeping,
2:45
Speaker 2: especially the game of like, you know, a team that
2:47
Speaker 2: you are supposedly care about and it's really close and
2:50
Speaker 2: it's very exciting, and you're just like napping.
2:53
Speaker 3: I wouldn't put myself in that position. I would never
2:55
Speaker 3: attend a game after eight thirty Is it called tip off?
2:59
Speaker 1: Is that right?
2:59
Speaker 3: So I'm not an Yeah, all right, tip off tip
3:01
Speaker 3: off for eight thirty pm. Yeah. It was an interesting
3:06
Speaker 3: little I have no idea why did it, especially because
3:10
Speaker 3: if you think about it for Trump, especially whenever it
3:13
Speaker 3: came to UFC, when we would watch those entry videos
3:18
Speaker 3: that he would do around twenty twenty four, especially during
3:21
Speaker 3: the campaign and immediately after that really was I mean, look,
3:25
Speaker 3: I don't know how indicative because UFC is generally probably
3:27
Speaker 3: the fan base is going to be a little bit
3:29
Speaker 3: more right wing, but it was evidence of like public acclamation,
3:32
Speaker 3: and there was a vibe to it. I think it
3:34
Speaker 3: was definitely part of the kind of vibes around Donald
3:37
Speaker 3: Trump in twenty twenty four, especially also I think immediately
3:40
Speaker 3: after his inauguration. Obviously, the UFC is returning to the
3:44
Speaker 3: White House South Lawn this time around for his birthday,
3:47
Speaker 3: technically part of the America's two hundred and fiftieth anniversary celebrations.
3:51
Speaker 3: But why I think that this matters beyond, you know,
3:54
Speaker 3: being funny is I'm not sure if you noticed. Do
3:57
Speaker 3: you remember we did that long segment from The New
3:59
Speaker 3: York Times about Trump and JD. Vance where Trump keeps
4:02
Speaker 3: bringing up that JD like dropped the Ohio state trophy.
4:07
Speaker 3: I think get at some and he's like, oh, well,
4:09
Speaker 3: you know, you just can't have that. I'm like, well, dude,
4:12
Speaker 3: you just showed up to you know, National Sporting at
4:15
Speaker 3: Madison Square Garden willingly, i will add, and got booed by.
4:20
Speaker 1: The entire crowd.
4:20
Speaker 3: I don't think it's the first time either that he's
4:22
Speaker 3: had at least some booze, even at the Super Bowl.
4:25
Speaker 1: I'm trying to recall maybe it wasn't the super Bowl.
4:28
Speaker 3: There was some major NFL game where you know, there
4:30
Speaker 3: had been mixed things, but he literally put himself in
4:34
Speaker 3: this position. Maybe I guess is some sort of like
4:37
Speaker 3: because he is a major New York fan. But look,
4:40
Speaker 3: these things, these symbols are actually the exact type of
4:43
Speaker 3: thing that Trump himself is obsessed with when it happens
4:46
Speaker 3: to other politicians. That's why I think it's important because
4:50
Speaker 3: he's starting to process for him.
4:52
Speaker 6: Yeah, that's sleeping too.
4:53
Speaker 2: I mean, you scarcely have a White House meeting now
4:57
Speaker 2: where Trump does not fall asleep at some point, and
4:59
Speaker 2: so so you know, I mean, he's.
5:02
Speaker 6: Old and it's starting to really show.
5:04
Speaker 2: And I think the way that it shows most clearly
5:06
Speaker 2: is how he just nods off all the time, or
5:09
Speaker 2: what the White House says are long blinks. Here's the
5:12
Speaker 2: other thing is he completely cursed the team. So the
5:15
Speaker 2: Knicks have been on an amazing thirteen game winning streak
5:19
Speaker 2: until this joker showed up and then they you know,
5:22
Speaker 2: the officiating also was terrible, but anyway, they lose to
5:25
Speaker 2: the Spurs. Trump is there. They were all kinds of
5:29
Speaker 2: like Epstein affiliated criminals who were in the crowd as well.
5:34
Speaker 2: You had Howard Lutnik was there as well, and like
5:37
Speaker 2: the front row, the whole thing just felt cursed, and
5:40
Speaker 2: it did from the beginning of put D three up
5:42
Speaker 2: on the screen. The lines that the fans had to
5:45
Speaker 2: go through to get into this event at all were insane.
5:49
Speaker 2: I mean, they had to wait their hours to go
5:51
Speaker 2: through security because of the President being there. And these
5:56
Speaker 2: are people who paid ten thousand dollars, you know, plus
6:00
Speaker 2: for these tickes. I think the cheapest ticket to get
6:02
Speaker 2: in was around eight thousand dollars, and so they had
6:06
Speaker 2: to go through these long lines. You can see most
6:08
Speaker 2: of the NYPD was apparently at Madison Square Garden to
6:11
Speaker 2: help to secure the event. I will say it looked
6:14
Speaker 2: like there was a lot of concerns that it tip off.
6:15
Speaker 2: Half the crowd wouldn't even be in the building. But
6:18
Speaker 2: it looks like people you know, showed up early into
6:20
Speaker 2: what they needed to do to get inside. The whole
6:23
Speaker 2: area here around Midtown Manhattan was closed off, which I'm
6:27
Speaker 2: sure was a nightmare for the restaurants and bars that
6:29
Speaker 2: expect to make a lot of money because of their
6:31
Speaker 2: you know location next to Madison Square Garden. So not
6:35
Speaker 2: great there as well. But you know your point about
6:38
Speaker 2: like the optics of it getting booed in his hometown
6:43
Speaker 2: cursing the team he had Stephen A. Smith and others say,
6:46
Speaker 2: even PbD said he he's going to get blamed if
6:48
Speaker 2: they lose, which they lost, so congratulations sir. And if
6:51
Speaker 2: the Knicks go on to lose the whole series when
6:54
Speaker 2: they started up to nothing and they you know, if
6:57
Speaker 2: they go on a losing streak after Trump comes and
7:00
Speaker 2: versus them at their game, then I think everyone is
7:02
Speaker 2: going to blame him for that as well.
7:03
Speaker 1: I think so.
7:04
Speaker 3: I mean, people are sports fans of a very very
7:06
Speaker 3: superstitious you know, I do want to I don't want
7:08
Speaker 3: to harp on this.
7:09
Speaker 1: Maybe I have too much.
7:10
Speaker 3: I do think what's happening here with MSG is really
7:14
Speaker 3: bad and sad for the country whenever it comes to
7:17
Speaker 3: those ticket prices. And I have been stuck on it
7:19
Speaker 3: for a while because I do think it's one of
7:23
Speaker 3: those last Like if you think about it, what the
7:24
Speaker 3: Knicks have not been to finals in several years, right
7:27
Speaker 3: like almost thirty years.
7:28
Speaker 1: It was the nineties.
7:29
Speaker 3: I believe that the last time they were there, So
7:31
Speaker 3: there's probably an entire generation of people who grew up
7:34
Speaker 3: and who are rooting for the team, stuck with the team,
7:37
Speaker 3: let's say, in the bad times, and then all of
7:39
Speaker 3: a sudden, Madison Square Garden becomes like the hot it
7:42
Speaker 3: places to be.
7:42
Speaker 1: And look, I'm not naive.
7:43
Speaker 3: New York has always been a playground for the rich,
7:46
Speaker 3: but you could, generally, I assume expect that you could,
7:49
Speaker 3: if he splurge a little bit, be able to sit
7:52
Speaker 3: in the nosebleeds or standing room only type seed. But
7:55
Speaker 3: when tickets are going for six, seven, eight, nine, twenty thirty.
8:00
Speaker 3: Apparently some report Madison Square Gardens sold two court side
8:05
Speaker 3: tickets for a million dollars each, it just becomes completely
8:10
Speaker 3: out of reach for everyone. Nobody expects that average Joe
8:14
Speaker 3: can sit courtside. I generally expect that a middle class
8:18
Speaker 3: person would be able to afford a slight splurge, like
8:21
Speaker 3: if they saved up and have something in savings in
8:23
Speaker 3: their lifelong fan would be able to go.
8:26
Speaker 1: Maybe again, maybe I'm very naive. That's kind of what
8:28
Speaker 1: I expect.
8:28
Speaker 3: I don't expect people to go to the US Open
8:30
Speaker 3: final per se, which is like a little bit smaller,
8:32
Speaker 3: but I'm thinking, okay, you should be able to go
8:35
Speaker 3: maybe to a game that's just not it's not gonna
8:37
Speaker 3: happen anymore. And I genuinely think that's tragic, Like I'm
8:40
Speaker 3: watching it happen for all of these major sporting events,
8:44
Speaker 3: from the NBA Finals to obviously the Super Bowl has
8:47
Speaker 3: been like this, you know, for years, it's always been
8:49
Speaker 3: like a status symbol. But I think it's going to
8:51
Speaker 3: happen at the everyday level, especially if the Knicks are
8:54
Speaker 3: good now in the future, many of the diehard fans,
8:58
Speaker 3: maybe if they're not season ticket I bet you next
9:01
Speaker 3: year it'll become like a vibe thing for New Yorkers
9:03
Speaker 3: with a lot of extra money. As I've mentioned with
9:06
Speaker 3: the US Open, it's literally happening with the US Open,
9:09
Speaker 3: and every year, you know, stuff starts to go viral
9:11
Speaker 3: inside of these stadiums about oh, this is the viral
9:14
Speaker 3: one hundred dollars hot dog that everybody has to have,
9:18
Speaker 3: or this is the eighty dollars cocktail everybody is drinking.
9:22
Speaker 3: You're like, yeah, like, how how are everyday people supposed
9:26
Speaker 3: to just be able to go and to have, you know,
9:29
Speaker 3: just a good time for Yeah, And I don't know,
9:32
Speaker 3: there's something about that I'm watching this happen across all
9:34
Speaker 3: of sporting hotels, everything, flights, and it just seems tragic
9:39
Speaker 3: for anybody who's just well, every day working person.
9:42
Speaker 2: Let me tell you where you can still get a
9:44
Speaker 2: good deal on an NBA basketball ticket.
9:47
Speaker 6: You're in Washington at the Wizards.
9:49
Speaker 2: They'll practically pay you to go to those, although they
9:53
Speaker 2: should be a little bit better this year, so maybe
9:55
Speaker 2: the ticket price is going to go up, But yeah,
9:57
Speaker 2: Kyle and I like to go to those games, beg
10:00
Speaker 2: especially when we actually went and watched when the San
10:03
Speaker 2: Antobio Spurs came to town because we wanted to see Wendy,
10:05
Speaker 2: which was really cool to get to see him, and
10:07
Speaker 2: tickets for like nothing, but you know, it's not going
10:10
Speaker 2: to be the most competitive game because the Wizards were
10:12
Speaker 2: literally the worst team in the entire league. But yeah,
10:15
Speaker 2: we went to one game at MSG this year. It
10:19
Speaker 2: was during the NBA Cup, which then next ended up
10:22
Speaker 2: winning the n Season tournament, and even for a regular
10:25
Speaker 2: season game, like the tickets were crazy expensive. And I
10:29
Speaker 2: think the Knicks are a bit of an outlier because
10:31
Speaker 2: it is the New York market, et cetera. But you know,
10:34
Speaker 2: baseball games, football games, same deal. What used to be
10:38
Speaker 2: like an attainable luxury outing for a working class or
10:43
Speaker 2: middle class family is increasingly just like everything else in
10:46
Speaker 2: our economy, a playground for the rich. You know, while
10:50
Speaker 2: Trump was snoozing in his luxury box there, the mayor
10:54
Speaker 2: of the city, Zoramm Donnie, had a slightly different experience.
10:58
Speaker 2: Apparently he paid a thousand bucks to get a standing
11:00
Speaker 2: room only ticket, which I actually didn't even know was
11:02
Speaker 2: a thing. In any case, Let's take a listen to
11:04
Speaker 2: Zoron for a moment, as from a.
11:09
Speaker 4: Spark all going to as being.
11:13
Speaker 2: Obviously for commation quality, and I saw a selfie of him,
11:17
Speaker 2: uh with you know, the people that he went with
11:20
Speaker 2: from somewhere up in the nosebleeds has a very different
11:24
Speaker 2: experience for him. And he did something to the World Cup,
11:26
Speaker 2: you know, it's coming to New York and he did
11:29
Speaker 2: something cool, which I think is just emblematic of his
11:31
Speaker 2: style of leadership, which you know, really does try to
11:35
Speaker 2: look for little ways to make life nicer for people
11:40
Speaker 2: in the city or even for tourists coming to the city.
11:42
Speaker 2: They published this whole map and schedule of different free
11:45
Speaker 2: events in the city, either for residents or people who
11:48
Speaker 2: are coming in from out of town. These are the
11:50
Speaker 2: kind of things that he pays attention to. And so
11:53
Speaker 2: they had a lottery for affordable World Cup tickets that
11:56
Speaker 2: people could could sign up for, and he actually called
12:00
Speaker 2: some of the people who won the tickets to inform them.
12:03
Speaker 2: And Zoron himself is like a gigantic soccer fan, which
12:06
Speaker 2: comes through in this video. So this show's both like
12:10
Speaker 2: his approach to governance and his approach to communication, which
12:14
Speaker 2: I just think is.
12:15
Speaker 6: Like the most effective.
12:16
Speaker 2: Genuinely, I can't think of a politician that does it
12:18
Speaker 2: better in the entire country.
12:19
Speaker 6: Let's go ahead and take a look at that.
12:21
Speaker 7: Hi is the Cindy.
12:21
Speaker 6: You signed up for our affordable World Cup ticket program
12:24
Speaker 6: and I just wanted to personally let you know you
12:26
Speaker 6: got a ticket.
12:29
Speaker 7: It's incredibly weird, the best news ever sounds.
12:32
Speaker 1: Have you ever been to a match before? No, I'm not.
12:34
Speaker 3: I try to.
12:36
Speaker 1: But then you're going to take to the game, my husband,
12:39
Speaker 1: my brother in law.
12:41
Speaker 6: I'm gonna let you pick between your.
12:45
Speaker 3: Dad and.
12:47
Speaker 2: So it's the sort of thing like is this world changing? No,
12:50
Speaker 2: Although for those people it's very exciting, but it's at
12:53
Speaker 2: least nice to see a mayor or a politician who's
12:57
Speaker 2: looking out for not just like you know, your material needs,
13:01
Speaker 2: but also your desire to live an enjoyable life that
13:05
Speaker 2: has these little experiences and luxuries in it as well.
13:08
Speaker 3: Look, yeah, I mean, you know, got a lot of
13:10
Speaker 3: differences with Zoron, but I'm not going to deny these
13:14
Speaker 3: are the types of things which back in the day
13:16
Speaker 3: we would fantasize about Trump or any of these other
13:19
Speaker 3: types of politicians doing. I mean, Trump had some version
13:22
Speaker 3: of this in twenty twenty four if you recall no
13:25
Speaker 3: tax on tips, the McDonald's famous you know, Norman Rockwell
13:29
Speaker 3: leaning out of the window. These were iconic moments. And look,
13:34
Speaker 3: the truth is, we're just a long long way away
13:38
Speaker 3: from that.
13:38
Speaker 2: And I do think I thought, I did think in
13:41
Speaker 2: twenty sixteen, not so much this time around or twenty
13:43
Speaker 2: twenty or whatever, but I did think Trump would be
13:46
Speaker 2: more of this type of leader where and I remember
13:51
Speaker 2: very early on, remember that whole thing with the carrier
13:53
Speaker 2: factory that was moving overseas and they showed up. He
13:56
Speaker 2: paid personal attention to it. And again it was like
13:59
Speaker 2: a smaller of jobs, but for those people it means everything,
14:02
Speaker 2: and the signal of it really mattered, and I thought, oh,
14:05
Speaker 2: if he does this a lot like democrats will never
14:09
Speaker 2: win again. You know, it's going to be tremendously popular
14:12
Speaker 2: because of what it shows about the type of things
14:15
Speaker 2: that he pays attention to. And it's a different type
14:18
Speaker 2: of you know, he has personalized the White House, but
14:21
Speaker 2: it's all personalized around like you know, him and his
14:24
Speaker 2: nepo kids and whoever's in his inner circle, making ungodly
14:28
Speaker 2: amounts of money and doing whatever hell they want, getting
14:30
Speaker 2: away with crimes left and right. I thought he could
14:32
Speaker 2: go in the direction of that style of personalized leadership,
14:35
Speaker 2: where like he is in a position to sort of
14:37
Speaker 2: dole out these gifts to the public and look very
14:41
Speaker 2: magnanimous and like he cares so much about them and
14:44
Speaker 2: their lives.
14:44
Speaker 6: And obviously that's not the path that he.
14:46
Speaker 3: Well, they haven't me that, you know, with the Iran
14:48
Speaker 3: War really from the beginning, a lot of it in
14:50
Speaker 3: terms of the way that they've gone or just been
14:52
Speaker 3: so opposite. I mean, part of the reason I do
14:55
Speaker 3: think is are on one was not just social media.
14:57
Speaker 3: I mean, look, I also think that these small things,
14:59
Speaker 3: not just even just speaking very cynically. It's like, look,
15:02
Speaker 3: by the way, rent prices in New York has gone up,
15:05
Speaker 3: in case anybody's noticing. But guess what if you start
15:08
Speaker 3: doing all this World Cup FIFA organizing watch parties, some
15:12
Speaker 3: people will forgive you. Right, they're not going to pay
15:14
Speaker 3: as close to attention. And I'm not saying it's just
15:17
Speaker 3: bread and circus. I think it does genuinely care, but
15:19
Speaker 3: there is something to putting on at least an enjoyable circus.
15:22
Speaker 3: Right now, I wouldn't say that the Trump circus is
15:24
Speaker 3: all that enjoyable, and.
15:26
Speaker 6: So circus which is the dark one, right.
15:29
Speaker 3: So in this case, I mean, these are the types
15:31
Speaker 3: of things where you should be focused on everyday, you know,
15:35
Speaker 3: normal experiences and you know, in an absence like for example,
15:39
Speaker 3: Trump cares a lot about Washington, d c. Beautification, which,
15:43
Speaker 3: by the way, I actually think is cool, Like it's
15:44
Speaker 3: good to have a nice capital city with fountains and
15:48
Speaker 3: all of that. It gets zero public attention because of
15:52
Speaker 3: the Iran by the way, rightfully, because the war is
15:54
Speaker 3: a lot more important. But that's kind of my point
15:57
Speaker 3: is that if you had a situation where I don't know,
16:01
Speaker 3: let's say, even the Feds preempt something. In Los Angeles, yeah,
16:04
Speaker 3: we have the immigration raise, but you also have the
16:07
Speaker 3: FEDS coming in and preempting. Maybe the Palaisates fire is
16:10
Speaker 3: a good example preempting passing some sort of law and
16:14
Speaker 3: being like every single thing is going to be rebuilt
16:15
Speaker 3: at cost. I mean a lot of people would be like, listen,
16:18
Speaker 3: I don't like Trump, but hey, got my house built.
16:20
Speaker 3: That's the type of stuff which people really remember. You
16:23
Speaker 3: could go no tax on tips was one initially which
16:26
Speaker 3: people cared a lot about. However, unfortunately, with inflation, grocery,
16:30
Speaker 3: et cetera. I don't think it's worked out too as
16:32
Speaker 3: much for their overall pocketbook.
16:34
Speaker 1: But these are the individual types of things.
16:37
Speaker 3: If I think, especially to a lot of the politicians,
16:40
Speaker 3: things that I respect on them were, you know, really
16:42
Speaker 3: famous programs in US history, the New Deal era, the CCC, Work,
16:46
Speaker 3: Progress Work, the WPA, like those types of administrative projects.
16:50
Speaker 3: It's not that people, you know, necessarily, it's not what
16:53
Speaker 3: the people were like, Wow, these rest stops are great.
16:55
Speaker 1: Although they are great by the way, but you know,
16:57
Speaker 1: it gave people a job.
16:59
Speaker 3: Everybody could read the books about how people for years
17:02
Speaker 3: they would put pictures of FDR up in their house.
17:06
Speaker 3: You know, they would literally put them up next to
17:08
Speaker 3: pictures of Jesus Christ. This is a very religious population.
17:12
Speaker 3: You never really had that before in US history. That
17:15
Speaker 3: style of leadership, it really matter. There's a long way
17:18
Speaker 3: away from the Knicks, but you know, it's kind of
17:21
Speaker 3: bringing up I think a lot of the ways that
17:23
Speaker 3: we've seen this administration go, and they had a lot.
17:27
Speaker 1: Of promise, they had a lot of ability.
17:28
Speaker 3: I really do think, as you said, there were so
17:30
Speaker 3: many signs from Carrier, especially in twenty twenty four when
17:33
Speaker 3: I think back, you know, when you win households under
17:36
Speaker 3: one hundred thousand as a Republican like that, that's a
17:38
Speaker 3: huge event, Like you really could and and the fence
17:42
Speaker 3: can do a lot for a household making under one
17:44
Speaker 3: hundred thousand to make your life materially better.
17:48
Speaker 1: We just haven't really moved in that direction. Unfortunate.
17:50
Speaker 2: Yeah, well, it relates to the block we just did
17:53
Speaker 2: on North Korea and the sort of you know, Chinese
17:56
Speaker 2: approach to growth and development, which you know, with all
18:00
Speaker 2: of these large construction projects really creates a visible manifestation
18:05
Speaker 2: of like the government's positive impact on your town and
18:08
Speaker 2: your life and you know that was not just the
18:11
Speaker 2: jobs that were created by the WPA. I mean, you
18:13
Speaker 2: and I both love the national parks that many of
18:15
Speaker 2: which go back to that time period, and you know
18:18
Speaker 2: which don't get recreated anymore, which we're still enjoying and
18:21
Speaker 2: living off the fruits of. So in any case, interesting
18:24
Speaker 2: look at dueling styles of leadership.
18:26
Speaker 6: We'llyard there.
18:27
Speaker 7: There you go.
18:27
Speaker 3: Okay, let's get to soorsby turning now to the NCAA.
18:33
Speaker 3: I think people who watch the show know that I
18:35
Speaker 3: absolutely hate sports gambling, what it's doing to the integrity
18:38
Speaker 3: of the sport, how it's massively impoverishing an entire generation
18:43
Speaker 3: of young men here in America. And one of those
18:45
Speaker 3: people whose life it appeared to have been ruined was
18:48
Speaker 3: Brendan Sooresby. Let's go and put this up here on
18:50
Speaker 3: the screen. Brandon Storesby, some of you will recall, the
18:52
Speaker 3: quarterback for the Texas Tech had placed tens of thousands
18:56
Speaker 3: of dollars in wagers some ninety thousand dollars on professional
19:00
Speaker 3: in college sports over a four year period, including forty
19:03
Speaker 3: bets involving Indiana football when he was a freshman with
19:07
Speaker 3: Indiana in twenty twenty two. Now immediately everybody assumed Soorsby
19:12
Speaker 3: will never play again for texasday. In fact, it should
19:14
Speaker 3: ruin his career, and instead he actually appealed his case
19:19
Speaker 3: to a judge in Texas and has now been granted
19:22
Speaker 3: an injunction versus the NCAA after the rule that he
19:25
Speaker 3: could no longer play, and he will be eligible to
19:27
Speaker 3: play in twenty twenty six after serving a mere two
19:30
Speaker 3: game suspension. The reason why Cristal that this is unbelievably
19:35
Speaker 3: scandalous is it shows that there is now basically no
19:39
Speaker 3: punishment for violating the internal rules as long as some
19:42
Speaker 3: judge will allow you to do so. Now, I don't
19:45
Speaker 3: want to just focus here on the judge. I want
19:47
Speaker 3: to focus on the totality of how gambling is completely
19:50
Speaker 3: ruining this and how the amount of money that is
19:52
Speaker 3: slashing around is violating the integrity of the sport. It
19:56
Speaker 3: is creating entire cottage industries and black money of nia
20:00
Speaker 3: and sketchy deals. It is basically created this entire system
20:05
Speaker 3: in which you really cannot trust almost anything that is
20:08
Speaker 3: really going on. Because if you compare this to the
20:11
Speaker 3: way that previous regulations were there. For example, let's put
20:14
Speaker 3: E two up here on the screen here Washio an
20:17
Speaker 3: Iowa wrestler, Nelson Brands. He actually reacted very negatively in
20:21
Speaker 3: response to this who was had a suspension actually for betting.
20:27
Speaker 3: He had announced that he could come back in twenty
20:29
Speaker 3: twenty four after he was suspended actually for placing bets
20:34
Speaker 3: penalties from resulting the state investigation into sports wagering the
20:37
Speaker 3: spring of twenty twenty three. He never even faced criminal charges,
20:41
Speaker 3: but was suspended for the ncd LA for wagering on
20:44
Speaker 3: Iowa's football team. So he wasn't even wagering on the
20:47
Speaker 3: team that he was in, but he was still suspended. Yet,
20:50
Speaker 3: in this case, you have a person, a quarterback, who
20:53
Speaker 3: was literally gambling on the very games of a team
20:56
Speaker 3: which he was a part of and now facing a
20:59
Speaker 3: two game suspens. Just to give you an example of
21:01
Speaker 3: how insane this says, let's put E three up here
21:03
Speaker 3: on the screen. This is instances of active players that
21:07
Speaker 3: were caught betting on their own team. You have Pete
21:08
Speaker 3: Rose in the MLB banned for life, eight White Sox
21:11
Speaker 3: players banned for life, John tay Porter banned for life.
21:14
Speaker 3: I'm not going to try and pronounce this baseball player
21:16
Speaker 3: ban for life, brettit Stores being now college football suspended
21:19
Speaker 3: for two games. I'm not going to confess I'm not
21:21
Speaker 3: some big ncub a college football guy. But when I
21:24
Speaker 3: watch zero consequences like this happen, and a legal system
21:28
Speaker 3: and a school which wants to defend him, which wants
21:30
Speaker 3: to allow him to play, and no architecture of rules,
21:34
Speaker 3: what is the logical conclusion that all of these now
21:37
Speaker 3: multi millionaire college athletes can draw whenever they look at
21:41
Speaker 3: a case that is happening like this, is that there
21:45
Speaker 3: are no rules. You can violate them getting paid big money,
21:48
Speaker 3: you can do what you want. You can even gamble
21:49
Speaker 3: on your own games. The one last taboo. And I
21:52
Speaker 3: blame all of the leagues, the NCAA, all of these
21:55
Speaker 3: other people for getting into bed with these gambling companies,
21:58
Speaker 3: specifically for normalizing this in our society. The only thing
22:01
Speaker 3: that's shocking to me is how quickly that we start
22:04
Speaker 3: to see things like this happen legalized sports gambling. But
22:06
Speaker 3: what it's not even a decade old at this point,
22:09
Speaker 3: and we're already nearing worst case scenarios.
22:12
Speaker 2: So let me ask you a couple questions about those,
22:13
Speaker 2: because I don't know anything about it, except, you know,
22:15
Speaker 2: the couple of articles I read in preparation for this,
22:18
Speaker 2: So he claims that he has genuine gambling addiction and
22:22
Speaker 2: in fact went to rehab for that gambling addiction. I mean,
22:26
Speaker 2: I presume you think that gambling addiction is a real thing.
22:28
Speaker 6: I certainly do.
22:29
Speaker 2: I've seen people absolutely ruin their lives as he appears
22:32
Speaker 2: to have attempted to do over that. Do you think
22:34
Speaker 2: that there should be some consideration made for people who
22:39
Speaker 2: have a genuine addiction that they're struggling with, because it
22:42
Speaker 2: does seem plausible to me, given the fact, again the
22:45
Speaker 2: number of bets that he placed, and the profoundly I mean,
22:50
Speaker 2: he genuinely has come very close to ruining his entire
22:54
Speaker 2: life over this gambling scandal. You know, do you think
22:57
Speaker 2: there should be some consideration made for people who genuinely
23:01
Speaker 2: have a problem.
23:01
Speaker 3: Well, the thing was is as I again, as I'm
23:04
Speaker 3: not a total expert, but as I understand it, he
23:07
Speaker 3: still was being allowed to declare, I think, for the
23:09
Speaker 3: NFL supplemental Draft, So it's not like his entire ability
23:12
Speaker 3: to play was over. It was specifically here in the NCAA.
23:16
Speaker 3: But rules are rules, and while yes, I believe that
23:18
Speaker 3: gambling addiction is real and that people should have recourse
23:21
Speaker 3: and the ability to seek treatment. In fact, I encourage
23:23
Speaker 3: it for anybody's watching this show, and if you have
23:25
Speaker 3: a problem, that's what you need and you should do.
23:27
Speaker 3: But there needs to be consequences and integrity for the sport,
23:30
Speaker 3: especially with a long held tradition of any violation will
23:33
Speaker 3: result in a genuine ban from being able to play.
23:36
Speaker 3: And I think, by the way, it's not just me,
23:38
Speaker 3: it's really a lot of the other people who are
23:40
Speaker 3: even involved. So I'm not sure if we have this
23:43
Speaker 3: story for example, but we've had multiple actually instances of
23:48
Speaker 3: other athletic directors who are apparently considering not even playing
23:52
Speaker 3: Texas Tech or scheduling games against them because they see
23:56
Speaker 3: how what kind of precedent and problem that this is
23:58
Speaker 3: going to set not only Texas Tech allowing this play,
24:01
Speaker 3: but also actually creating a situation where they're going to
24:05
Speaker 3: normalize this throughout all of college athletics. I also want
24:09
Speaker 3: to highlight E six now for example, and that's really
24:11
Speaker 3: why I wanted to do the segment, is this is
24:13
Speaker 3: one of the few times I would be on the
24:15
Speaker 3: NCUBA side, who obviously look, they've conducted themselves ridiculously. Even I,
24:19
Speaker 3: as a casual fan, am aware of this. But what
24:22
Speaker 3: they show is they're trying to leverage this situation into
24:26
Speaker 3: congressional action. As they say, the NCAA strongly disagrees with
24:30
Speaker 3: the courts ruling the stores of the case and is
24:32
Speaker 3: deeply concerned about the damaging, far reaching, and broadly destabilizing
24:35
Speaker 3: ramifications of this outcome, which undermines and corrupts the integrity
24:39
Speaker 3: of sport. The NCAA is committed to supporting student athlete
24:42
Speaker 3: mental health, but must continue to aggressively defend against actually
24:45
Speaker 3: as a defraud college athletics and threaten competitive integrity such
24:49
Speaker 3: as betting on one's own sport. And they're using it,
24:52
Speaker 3: or at least trying to to push for some sort
24:55
Speaker 3: of regulatory mechanism which would stop so much of the
25:00
Speaker 3: genuine chaos where we have people and students and coaches
25:03
Speaker 3: being paid and leaving mid season and nobody has any
25:06
Speaker 3: idea what their team is going to look like, and
25:08
Speaker 3: the tens hundreds of millions of dollars of money that
25:11
Speaker 3: are moving through all of these bank accounts, and the
25:14
Speaker 3: reason why I highlight about corruption and craziness is like
25:17
Speaker 3: the level of insanity that we're getting at is let's
25:21
Speaker 3: put E five for example.
25:23
Speaker 1: Here on the screen.
25:24
Speaker 3: You now have states which are now trying to pass
25:28
Speaker 3: laws which would exempt income tax for nil earnings for
25:33
Speaker 3: their top college athletes. This is a proposal by multiple
25:36
Speaker 3: different states simply to remain more competitive in drawing these
25:41
Speaker 3: top college athletes. We're already the coaches and the players
25:44
Speaker 3: now are drawing insane salaries. The coaches always have, but
25:47
Speaker 3: now the players themselves also earning I have no problem
25:50
Speaker 3: with college students earning money, but what you are watching
25:54
Speaker 3: is basically a total free for all in the system,
25:57
Speaker 3: which again I'm from a college sports town, like this
26:00
Speaker 3: is a religion, and it has thrown it into such
26:03
Speaker 3: chaos that there is no governing authority body, no set
26:07
Speaker 3: of rules, no even real standards that is outside. And
26:11
Speaker 3: then you have judges in some of these cases apparently
26:13
Speaker 3: you know they're looking at the area a lot of
26:15
Speaker 3: Texas tech fans who are ruling on behalf of their
26:18
Speaker 3: own sports team and setting it really horrible precedent.
26:21
Speaker 2: I think, oh, that's an interesting point that the judge
26:24
Speaker 2: may be self interested.
26:26
Speaker 6: Yet and I never judge you about that.
26:27
Speaker 3: Many of the judges in the appeal are all Texas
26:29
Speaker 3: Tech graduates.
26:30
Speaker 2: Just for the record, Yeah, that NBC Sports piece that
26:33
Speaker 2: you had up earlier that I was talking about congressional action,
26:35
Speaker 2: the author of that piece actually makes an interesting case
26:38
Speaker 2: of you know, the real answer here may not be
26:40
Speaker 2: in like congressional regulational though that may be required as well.
26:44
Speaker 2: But if you had the players in a union where
26:48
Speaker 2: you had a negotiation between the union and between the
26:50
Speaker 2: NCAA to establish these rules, establish an arbitration process, you know,
26:56
Speaker 2: establish even rules regarding how payments work to these athletes,
27:01
Speaker 2: then you would have a much more established system with
27:04
Speaker 2: buy and from both sides versus you know, the way
27:07
Speaker 2: the nc DOUBLEA operates right now, and you know it
27:09
Speaker 2: has changed somewhat, but I was an NCUBA athlete at
27:12
Speaker 2: one point. Is they come up with their own rules
27:16
Speaker 2: just from on high and because they're a monopoly, like
27:19
Speaker 2: you have no other option. If you're going to be
27:21
Speaker 2: a college athlete, you're going to be the under the
27:23
Speaker 2: unc double A, you default must subscribe to the rules
27:27
Speaker 2: that they lay down.
27:29
Speaker 6: You have no power in.
27:30
Speaker 2: That situation, and so it does seem like a better
27:33
Speaker 2: approach would be for the players to be unionized, so
27:37
Speaker 2: you know, as you do in other professional sports league,
27:39
Speaker 2: so that there is a negotiation, there is a buy
27:41
Speaker 2: in process, you have representatives for the players, you have
27:43
Speaker 2: representatives for management, and you know for the league itself
27:47
Speaker 2: that come to decisions and have an arbitration process to
27:51
Speaker 2: figure these things out. That seems to me like there
27:53
Speaker 2: a better situation than what exists currently.
27:55
Speaker 1: You're totally right.
27:56
Speaker 3: I also want to put up this post from Van Lathan,
27:58
Speaker 3: who apparently is a fan of the show, and he
28:00
Speaker 3: had some good analysis.
28:01
Speaker 1: I'm going to read some of it here.
28:02
Speaker 3: The judge set a very interesting precedent here in the
28:04
Speaker 3: Storesby case. Part of Sooresby's argument was that the NCAA's
28:08
Speaker 3: hard and fast no gambling rules are bs because of
28:10
Speaker 3: the close ties between college sports and gambling companies. The
28:14
Speaker 3: judge bought that, at least in part, which softens the
28:17
Speaker 3: argument for strict penalties for gambling on games, even games
28:20
Speaker 3: your team is playing in, as long as the NCAA
28:22
Speaker 3: maintains any type of relationship, even through broadcast partners, with gambling. Essentially,
28:28
Speaker 3: the judge has said the NCAA can't really tell you
28:30
Speaker 3: to get out to gamble anymore, because they are also
28:33
Speaker 3: making so much money off of it, tangentially via these
28:37
Speaker 3: broadcast rights, which are worth hundreds of millions of dollars.
28:40
Speaker 3: That's not the entirety of the judge's reasoning, as he says,
28:42
Speaker 3: this is just an injunction, but that certainly is an
28:45
Speaker 3: interesting development. Now he's right, obviously this can go to appeal.
28:48
Speaker 3: But I think his point is so so important, And
28:50
Speaker 3: that's why yesterday I was criticizing a lot of these
28:52
Speaker 3: sports podcasters who will come out and be like, oh,
28:55
Speaker 3: this is ruining the integrity of the game.
28:57
Speaker 1: And literally in the middle of it.
28:58
Speaker 3: And they'll be like, why, by the way, this is
29:00
Speaker 3: my promo code, you know, idiot to bet five dollars
29:04
Speaker 3: and win potential two hundred.
29:05
Speaker 1: And they were like, well, we don't play in the games.
29:07
Speaker 3: I'm like, yes, but you have created this entire ecosystem
29:11
Speaker 3: where gambling itself underwrites why so many people watch the games,
29:15
Speaker 3: so many people are betting on the games, massively impoverishing
29:18
Speaker 3: it funds everything normalized. How do you think Brendan sorezb
29:20
Speaker 3: even found out about sports gambling? You think he really
29:23
Speaker 3: would have had the ability to place these types of
29:26
Speaker 3: wagers when sports gambling was not legal. No, we all
29:30
Speaker 3: know this, These crazy ass parlays and other things literally
29:33
Speaker 3: didn't exist. What do you found a bookie maybe to
29:36
Speaker 3: bet that spread possible, but this level of insanity ninety
29:40
Speaker 3: thousand dollars and the number of bets he was making
29:42
Speaker 3: it simply is impossible. And that was normalized, created and
29:45
Speaker 3: is propped up by a lot of these same sports podcasters,
29:49
Speaker 3: the broadcasters. You have ESPN analysts who are out there
29:53
Speaker 3: talking about how bad it is. Meanwhile they're still shilling
29:55
Speaker 3: and show the live odds down in their cairons. I mean,
29:58
Speaker 3: this is exactly why you have to fight so hard
30:01
Speaker 3: against the normalization and this creation of these types of standards,
30:05
Speaker 3: when not even a decade ago they would have testifified
30:08
Speaker 3: before Congress and said that betting itself would be ruinous
30:11
Speaker 3: to the integrity of the sport. And now they're literally
30:14
Speaker 3: in league with them. So I apologize. I got out
30:16
Speaker 3: of the specific details on college football wrong. Like, I'm
30:18
Speaker 3: not a big college football person, but I do know
30:20
Speaker 3: many people in my life who are, and all of them,
30:23
Speaker 3: including many of the athletic directors as I'm reading in
30:26
Speaker 3: others are out here saying what a disaster this type
30:30
Speaker 3: of decision is and what the precedent of this will set.
30:34
Speaker 3: Just to show the absolute like jungle mentality of all
30:37
Speaker 3: of this. With literally billions of dollars that are moving around,
30:40
Speaker 3: it's only a matter of time before something even worse
30:42
Speaker 3: happens like this, like that FBI case that we saw
30:45
Speaker 3: it with the with the NBA. There's going to be
30:47
Speaker 3: so many more in the future, and there's there's no
30:50
Speaker 3: reason for it. We just we didn't have to be here.
30:52
Speaker 3: There was no reason to.
30:53
Speaker 2: Be well, and to depersonalize it from those specifics of
30:55
Speaker 2: sourcebecause I don't think accused of like fixing games, point
30:59
Speaker 2: shaving or anything like that. But if you just told
31:01
Speaker 2: people like, Okay, we're gonna have the system where you
31:04
Speaker 2: can bet on you know, little tiny things that happen
31:07
Speaker 2: and how many points, whether a player gets injured, whether
31:10
Speaker 2: they sit out the game, you know, all these like
31:12
Speaker 2: tiny little prop bets and all of these insane parlays.
31:16
Speaker 6: There's going to be tons of money at stake.
31:18
Speaker 2: Everyone's going to be in on it, from you know,
31:21
Speaker 2: the leagues and the journalists and you know, all the
31:25
Speaker 2: big players are going to be in on it and
31:27
Speaker 2: making tons of cash. You're going to have players, some
31:29
Speaker 2: of whom come from not a lot of money, who
31:31
Speaker 2: are going to be you know, have people throwing money
31:34
Speaker 2: at them to oh, just like play a little bit
31:36
Speaker 2: not quite as hard in the second quarter. You don't
31:38
Speaker 2: have to change the whole result of the game, but
31:40
Speaker 2: just do a little bit less than you would have done,
31:42
Speaker 2: get a few like, get fewer rebounds in this you know,
31:47
Speaker 2: particular moment. Are you going to have players who are
31:49
Speaker 2: going to do that? Yes, of course you are. And
31:54
Speaker 2: so that's where that doesn't excuse it, Like those players
31:57
Speaker 2: are still responsible for their own actions, just as Soresby's
32:01
Speaker 2: responsible for his actions in this instance. But is that
32:04
Speaker 2: going to be a surprise to anyone that that is
32:07
Speaker 2: what this system generates and creates? Of course not so.
32:10
Speaker 2: Obviously it's going to undermine the integrity of the game.
32:13
Speaker 1: Yep, absolutely right. All right, we got Chris Raps standing by.
32:16
Speaker 1: Let's get to it.
32:19
Speaker 2: So to discuss the future of the Democratic Party this morning,
32:22
Speaker 2: we are very fortunate to be joined by Pennsylvania State
32:25
Speaker 2: Representative Chris rab He is the Democratic nominee for Pennsylvania's
32:29
Speaker 2: third congressional district. Welcome toer. Congratulations, thank you so much. Yeah,
32:34
Speaker 2: of course we followed your election with interest. You had
32:38
Speaker 2: a lot of powerful forces going against you, a lot
32:40
Speaker 2: of interesting things that happened there. What do you think
32:43
Speaker 2: is the message that you're pretty you know, clearcut fairly
32:46
Speaker 2: overwhelming victory in this primary sense to the party.
32:50
Speaker 7: Yeah, it was a stunning.
32:53
Speaker 4: Defeat of entrenched politics here in Philadelphia, in the bluest
32:57
Speaker 4: congressional district in the entire nation, where we had had
33:00
Speaker 4: an open seat, no incumbent on the ballot, first time
33:03
Speaker 4: in thirty five years, against a political class that was
33:07
Speaker 4: united against.
33:09
Speaker 7: This progressive and it was a fifteen point win.
33:13
Speaker 4: And I think it's a resounding affirmation that organized people
33:18
Speaker 4: beat organized money every time.
33:21
Speaker 2: And you seem to be taking a very I don't
33:23
Speaker 2: know that it's a novel approach, but you've gone out
33:26
Speaker 2: of your way to go on campaign for other candidates,
33:28
Speaker 2: both in cumbents who you support, like Summerly, who you're
33:31
Speaker 2: likely to serve with in Congress, others who are challenging
33:36
Speaker 2: incumbents and are running sort of upstart campaigns across the country.
33:40
Speaker 2: Why has that been important to you. What role do
33:43
Speaker 2: you feel like you are serving and that you want
33:45
Speaker 2: to serve well.
33:47
Speaker 4: To be clear, I'm a movement candidate, and that means
33:51
Speaker 4: the movement has allowed me to have a collective victory.
33:56
Speaker 4: And that means that whatever political capital, whatever momentum I
34:00
Speaker 4: have as the presumptive next member of Congress for the
34:04
Speaker 4: city of Philadelphia, means I got to pay it forward.
34:07
Speaker 4: And it's also my best interest. I want to come
34:09
Speaker 4: in with it largest boldest progressive class of members in
34:15
Speaker 4: US history. So the only way you can do that
34:17
Speaker 4: is by showing up for others who are viable, substantive candidates.
34:22
Speaker 4: And I'm really excited about are not just taking back
34:26
Speaker 4: the House. I mean, there's a big difference between having
34:29
Speaker 4: a democratic majority and having a party that knows how
34:33
Speaker 4: to lead in the belly of the beast and in
34:36
Speaker 4: the most adverse times in modern history. Those are two
34:39
Speaker 4: different things on the Venn diagram of national politics. So
34:44
Speaker 4: I want to make sure that we have a critical
34:46
Speaker 4: subset of Democrats.
34:48
Speaker 7: Who are going to vote.
34:51
Speaker 4: In furtherance of shared prosperity and fighting fascism and taxing
34:56
Speaker 4: the ultra wealthy and having structural changes that the base
35:01
Speaker 4: is demanding, but corporate Democrats refuse to acknowledge or commit to.
35:08
Speaker 2: You were critical of Democratic Leader Hakim Jefferies, which became
35:12
Speaker 2: a campaign issue actually for you. One of your opponents
35:15
Speaker 2: had some pretty interesting things to say about that. But
35:17
Speaker 2: I'm just curious, since you have won the Democratic nomination,
35:20
Speaker 2: just so people know Pennsylvania's third congressional district, it's one
35:22
Speaker 2: of the most democratic in the entire country, so very
35:25
Speaker 2: much expected that you will be sworn in with the
35:27
Speaker 2: next class of members of Congress. How has the party
35:31
Speaker 2: responded to your victory? Have you had any outreach from
35:35
Speaker 2: you know, the sort of establishment leaders of the Democratic Party.
35:39
Speaker 3: Oh?
35:39
Speaker 4: Absolutely, They've all reached out to me quickly, and I
35:43
Speaker 4: appreciate that outreach. We got to build relationships, we got
35:47
Speaker 4: to figure out how we can work together. But I
35:48
Speaker 4: would I would push back a little bit. I would
35:51
Speaker 4: say I was critical of came Jeffries per se. But
35:53
Speaker 4: it's just when someone tries to, you know, say will
35:56
Speaker 4: you support him? My answer is, what is any candidate
36:01
Speaker 4: for majority leader for Speaker of the House are they
36:07
Speaker 4: How is their leadership going to resonate with how I
36:10
Speaker 4: got elected to office and who else is running. I
36:12
Speaker 4: don't know who's running, so you know, I think that's important.
36:16
Speaker 4: It's not about the individual, it's about who seeks that
36:20
Speaker 4: position to what end, and that has to be aligned
36:23
Speaker 4: with the electorate and the constituents I seek to represent
36:28
Speaker 4: on January third. But I also know that it's a
36:33
Speaker 4: body of four hundred and thirty five. You need two
36:35
Speaker 4: hundred and eighteen votes to get anything done, and we
36:38
Speaker 4: have to figure out what we can agree on and
36:40
Speaker 4: the things we can't agree on, how those of us
36:42
Speaker 4: who are left of the party to move the party forward,
36:47
Speaker 4: and those are things that have to happen simultaneously.
36:50
Speaker 2: So you say you're not a no on Hikeem Jefferies'
36:52
Speaker 2: potential speaker, but you're a we'll see, Yeah.
36:56
Speaker 7: I mean.
36:58
Speaker 4: I need to know who's running, right, I mean, reality
37:01
Speaker 4: is he could be the only one on the ballot, right.
37:04
Speaker 7: So it's a non issue there, But that's not to me.
37:07
Speaker 4: That is not as important as how we hold whomever
37:12
Speaker 4: is running and whoever wins to account. And that's not
37:15
Speaker 4: based on my personal preferences or it's based on how
37:20
Speaker 4: I got elected. If those leaders work for the members,
37:26
Speaker 4: the members put them in those positions of power, how
37:30
Speaker 4: do we hold them to account and how do they
37:33
Speaker 4: express their willingness to do the things that a larger
37:36
Speaker 4: subset of Democrats and Congress want. And you know that
37:40
Speaker 4: is going to be a back and forth. You know,
37:43
Speaker 4: we also have to understand too that for the folks
37:45
Speaker 4: we may not prefer in leadership or in office at all,
37:49
Speaker 4: but who are going to be there serving in whatever
37:52
Speaker 4: capacity For those of us who are there with them,
37:55
Speaker 4: our responsibility between election cycles is holding our own colleagues
37:59
Speaker 4: to account and moving them towards the moral center, not
38:03
Speaker 4: the political center. And that is something that people should
38:08
Speaker 4: want their newly elected incumbents to do, because listen, we
38:14
Speaker 4: have a clear villain here. You know, it's Trump, it's
38:17
Speaker 4: mag extremism, it's fascism, it's late stage capitalism, it's any
38:21
Speaker 4: number of things. But we can't make our colleagues the enemy.
38:26
Speaker 4: They may be not on the same page with us,
38:28
Speaker 4: but it's our responsibility to make them do better. And
38:32
Speaker 4: we have seen some progress when we have, not myself
38:37
Speaker 4: quite yet, but others in Congress get some of their
38:40
Speaker 4: colleagues to stop taking a pac money. That's a win.
38:43
Speaker 4: And we need to respect that, and we also need
38:46
Speaker 4: to understand that that comes with certain risks for the
38:50
Speaker 4: people who have been funded by folks we don't believe
38:52
Speaker 4: they should be funded by, which also means we need
38:55
Speaker 4: to support them if they're truly understanding of why that
38:59
Speaker 4: dynamic is so problematic.
39:01
Speaker 2: I wanted to get you to weigh in on what's
39:03
Speaker 2: going on right now with Graham Platner up in Maine,
39:06
Speaker 2: because I do think it has some important fissures here
39:08
Speaker 2: in terms of the direction of the Democratic Party. You know,
39:11
Speaker 2: his ideological program in yours not exactly the same, but
39:14
Speaker 2: you're more or less in the same lane, and have
39:16
Speaker 2: you know, similar views of the world, And certainly you
39:18
Speaker 2: know I've been clear cut, clear throated opponents of genocide,
39:23
Speaker 2: of APAC funding, and the influence of.
39:25
Speaker 6: The Israel lobby.
39:26
Speaker 2: He has faced a number of allegations, some of which
39:30
Speaker 2: he's you know, acknowledged, that he had a very rough
39:32
Speaker 2: go of it after serving in the military, that he
39:35
Speaker 2: had a drinking problem, he has PTSD, that he engaged
39:39
Speaker 2: in toxic behavior and relationships, other aspects of which he's
39:42
Speaker 2: completely denied. There was an allegation from a Republican political
39:46
Speaker 2: operative that he had grabbed her by the shoulders forcefully,
39:49
Speaker 2: that he had yanked her by the hand out of
39:50
Speaker 2: a cab, that he had put her arm behind her
39:53
Speaker 2: back and pushed her inside of a room. Again, she
39:55
Speaker 2: says this occurred, He denies it, and The New York
39:57
Speaker 2: Times was unable to confirm it. I wonder what you
40:00
Speaker 2: make of the allegations and also what has been seen
40:04
Speaker 2: as extreme scrutiny into his life that doesn't seem to
40:09
Speaker 2: be matched with a level of scrutiny into others who
40:12
Speaker 2: do not challenge the oligarchy and do not challenge, you know,
40:15
Speaker 2: APAC and the status quo on Israel as aggressively as
40:19
Speaker 2: he does.
40:20
Speaker 4: Yeah, you know, this is a This is challenging for
40:23
Speaker 4: me because I felt that folks who have been identified
40:29
Speaker 4: as hard scrabbled populist, left of center white guys get
40:34
Speaker 4: far more leeway than folks like me, black progressives, and
40:40
Speaker 4: that's a double standard that is largely based on race.
40:43
Speaker 4: And I think that's a conversation we need to have.
40:45
Speaker 4: If I had some problematic tattoo that related to white folks,
40:52
Speaker 4: I don't think I would be viable even in the
40:57
Speaker 4: majority black district, because I think the money would not
41:02
Speaker 4: be there for me to.
41:02
Speaker 7: Run the campaign I needed.
41:04
Speaker 4: I think there's a clear double standard that the Left
41:07
Speaker 4: have to has to talk about as it relates to
41:09
Speaker 4: our racial politics and what is acceptable. And you know,
41:13
Speaker 4: I also have PTSD. I have actual PTSD, and I
41:18
Speaker 4: also have political PTSD because in this state we elected
41:24
Speaker 4: a fake populist in Fetterman, and when I feel Fetterman vibes,
41:30
Speaker 4: I get very very nervous. I don't know Platner. I've
41:33
Speaker 4: not followed his race closely. I've had, you know, a
41:36
Speaker 4: grueling ten month campaign. I'm just coming out of so
41:40
Speaker 4: now I'm really seeing what's on the landscape of opportunity
41:44
Speaker 4: in the House and the Senate. But I do think
41:47
Speaker 4: we need to hold space for folks with genuine grievances,
41:52
Speaker 4: and we need to.
41:53
Speaker 7: Have a process for those folks who.
41:56
Speaker 4: Are expressing legitimate concerns about the behaviors and choy of candidates,
42:01
Speaker 4: but to do so in a way that is in
42:06
Speaker 4: the spirit of restorative justice as opposed to the spirit
42:10
Speaker 4: of the politics of personal destruction.
42:13
Speaker 7: And I think that is something that.
42:19
Speaker 4: Is really really necessary, because what we don't want to
42:22
Speaker 4: do is to silence or erase the voices of people
42:26
Speaker 4: who have felt.
42:27
Speaker 7: Real harm, particularly women.
42:30
Speaker 4: But we also have to make sure that we do
42:33
Speaker 4: not feel that there's a class of candidate that has
42:37
Speaker 4: to be perfect. There are no perfect candidates, and we
42:40
Speaker 4: also have to make sure that those candidates acknowledge their faults.
42:44
Speaker 4: Everyone has them, and how we work through them. So
42:48
Speaker 4: if he said I have a you know, it's I
42:51
Speaker 4: understand when someone says I made a bad choice as
42:53
Speaker 4: a young man and I was struggling with addiction and
42:56
Speaker 4: that sort of thing.
42:57
Speaker 7: We need to hold space for that.
42:58
Speaker 4: But you also may have intervening years or decades where
43:02
Speaker 4: you did not do any further introspection about what you've done,
43:06
Speaker 4: so that you can feel a sense of atonement that
43:10
Speaker 4: other people can value as legitimate long before you ever
43:14
Speaker 4: considered public office. We can hold those two truths at
43:18
Speaker 4: the same time.
43:19
Speaker 2: So you don't believe he's done sufficient atonement to have
43:22
Speaker 2: sought public office.
43:24
Speaker 7: I don't know.
43:26
Speaker 4: I don't know, but I think that is something that
43:29
Speaker 4: needs to be addressed before November three.
43:31
Speaker 6: Absolutely is up to the voters to decide.
43:35
Speaker 7: Well's not just.
43:36
Speaker 4: Voters who decide who's a viable candidate. Viability is also
43:39
Speaker 4: based on how much money you raise, what your platform is,
43:42
Speaker 4: how you come into Are you a movement candidate or
43:45
Speaker 4: are you a candidate who says the right things in
43:48
Speaker 4: the right political moment to be aligned with a movement
43:52
Speaker 4: that shows considerable political power. I don't know. I have
43:56
Speaker 4: not watched his candidacy that closely to answer those questions.
44:01
Speaker 4: But those are conversations that need to happen within community
44:06
Speaker 4: and not on social media.
44:08
Speaker 2: So he just to be clear, he was a movement
44:11
Speaker 2: organizer in Maine, which is how he came to the
44:13
Speaker 2: attention of people to encourage him to run for office.
44:17
Speaker 2: The primary is today in Maine. His you know, opponent,
44:23
Speaker 2: main opponent was the former governor or current governor sorry,
44:26
Speaker 2: Janet Mills, who has suspended her campaign. You know, she
44:32
Speaker 2: is not particularly ideologically aligned with you. You know, she's
44:36
Speaker 2: more and much more supportive of our status quo with
44:39
Speaker 2: regard to Israel. She has, you know, done things like
44:42
Speaker 2: veto tax hikes on the rich in the state of Maine.
44:47
Speaker 2: She's had an adversary relationship with labor unions. You know,
44:51
Speaker 2: if you were looking at this race, like do you
44:53
Speaker 2: think that voters would be off better off choosing her
44:56
Speaker 2: because she's had fewer personal controversies than Graham.
45:01
Speaker 4: No, it's but as a matter of how we hold
45:03
Speaker 4: the people who we would prefer in office to account.
45:08
Speaker 4: I think that's the issue, right, because sometimes we vote
45:10
Speaker 4: for people well, sometimes we vote for people right, and
45:15
Speaker 4: sometimes we vote for the person who we have a
45:17
Speaker 4: better chance of holding to account and making sure that
45:20
Speaker 4: the candidate functions similarly once in office, right, because you
45:27
Speaker 4: can it's very easy, particularly in these moments, to campaign
45:32
Speaker 4: as a progressive. It's radically harder to govern as a progressive.
45:37
Speaker 4: And I speak as someone who is currently in legislative
45:40
Speaker 4: session here in Pennsylvania and Harrisburg in the largest full
45:43
Speaker 4: time state legislature in the country.
45:45
Speaker 7: It is very hard to govern as a progressive.
45:49
Speaker 4: And so how we hold anyone to account, myself included,
45:52
Speaker 4: is by making sure that they fulfilled their promises that
45:57
Speaker 4: they made in the campaign on the campaig and making
46:01
Speaker 4: sure that they will sit down in earnest with people
46:04
Speaker 4: who have genuine concerns and priorities that may not be
46:10
Speaker 4: fully aligned by the time someone wins their primary.
46:15
Speaker 2: One more on this, because you mentioned you got you
46:17
Speaker 2: got Fetterman vibes from Platner. I want to explore that
46:20
Speaker 2: a little bit more so. Fetterman and Platner have actually
46:22
Speaker 2: been going back and forth with each other. Fetterman's been
46:25
Speaker 2: attacking him grand Platner has been responding, I think, called
46:28
Speaker 2: Fetterman and asshole. Let's go ahead and take a listen
46:30
Speaker 2: to a little bit of how John Fetterman went after
46:34
Speaker 2: Graham Platner.
46:35
Speaker 8: For me, as a Democrat, I'm never going to carry
46:37
Speaker 8: water for a guy that that calls, you know, an
46:41
Speaker 8: American hero, a dumb m efhort or someone that you know,
46:46
Speaker 8: smears Chris Kyle, you know, the American sniper and claimed
46:50
Speaker 8: that he's he's shooting innocent civilians. I mean, you've literally
46:54
Speaker 8: lost count And he also called rural Americans as racist
46:58
Speaker 8: and stupid.
47:00
Speaker 7: It's countless, it absolutely is.
47:03
Speaker 8: This is a guy that had a problem with me
47:05
Speaker 8: how I dress, but he seemed to have no problem
47:08
Speaker 8: posing in a towel at a disgusting website that consistently
47:13
Speaker 8: has serious problems about that kinds of deprivity.
47:17
Speaker 2: So I wonder if you could respond there to center Fetterman.
47:20
Speaker 2: But also I am curious for you to elaborate when
47:23
Speaker 2: you say that Plattner you're getting Fetterman vibes from him.
47:27
Speaker 2: What is it specifically that you're responding to there?
47:30
Speaker 4: No, I wasn't specifically referring to Platiner regarding Fetterman vibes.
47:34
Speaker 4: But here in Pennsylvania I get that when people say, oh,
47:37
Speaker 4: I like what you're saying. You know, you seem to
47:40
Speaker 4: be right on all the issues, but how do I
47:42
Speaker 4: know you're not going to be the next Federman? So
47:44
Speaker 4: that actually applies to me as well, when people are
47:47
Speaker 4: very traumatized in Pennsylvania and beyond, when they think that
47:51
Speaker 4: they're electing a progressive populist and they get something very different.
47:55
Speaker 4: I don't know Platner enough to weigh in on that specifically,
48:00
Speaker 4: but I can tell you that, you know, I don't
48:03
Speaker 4: know how many black folks you're polling or talking to,
48:06
Speaker 4: but all I can say is we need to have
48:10
Speaker 4: more conversations about what accountability looks like for folks who
48:14
Speaker 4: are running to the left, and making sure that we
48:18
Speaker 4: understand the intersexual nature of progressivism and ensure that folks
48:24
Speaker 4: racial politics are aligned with the populist politics that are
48:30
Speaker 4: trending so so well these days.
48:32
Speaker 2: That's all yeah, I think that's that's well understood. So
48:36
Speaker 2: last question for you, representative is you know when slash
48:40
Speaker 2: if but looking like when you get to Washington, what
48:43
Speaker 2: will be some of your your first priorities you would
48:45
Speaker 2: like to work on there? How will you operate in
48:48
Speaker 2: a way that you think is different from how a
48:50
Speaker 2: lot of other members operate?
48:52
Speaker 7: Sure?
48:52
Speaker 4: Well, just to be clear, I'm not an optimist by nature,
48:55
Speaker 4: but there's no Republican on the ballot, and they're more
48:58
Speaker 4: raccoons than Republicans in my district. So I think it's
49:01
Speaker 4: safe to say that I'll be in Congress on January third.
49:05
Speaker 7: So we have to detrumpify Washington, d C.
49:08
Speaker 4: All the choices, appointments, cuts, all of the structural fissures
49:17
Speaker 4: and such. We need to do what we can to
49:20
Speaker 4: restore or prepare for their restoration. And we also need
49:23
Speaker 4: to build a bold vision in a post Trump world.
49:29
Speaker 4: And you know, frankly, that may happen long before two years.
49:34
Speaker 4: What does that look like? So he's been a wonderful villain,
49:37
Speaker 4: but you know, people are struggling. They need to know
49:40
Speaker 4: what Democrats envision for society. With people closest to the
49:45
Speaker 4: pain struggling like never before, and making sure that we
49:48
Speaker 4: are clear with that message and consistent, and make sure
49:51
Speaker 4: that we hit all of those people, particularly folks who
49:54
Speaker 4: generally speaking, the Democratic Party counts out and disregards who
50:00
Speaker 4: really should be centered, the people closest to the pain,
50:03
Speaker 4: young people, poor people, black folk. I'm going to keep
50:07
Speaker 4: bringing up black folk. If we do not take care
50:09
Speaker 4: of black women, we will lose and we do not
50:12
Speaker 4: deserve to lead if we do not understand the primacy
50:16
Speaker 4: of black women. When we help black women, we help everybody.
50:20
Speaker 2: Future Congressman Chris rob thank you so much for joining
50:23
Speaker 2: us and taking the time.
50:23
Speaker 6: I appreciate it, my pleasure.
50:26
Speaker 1: Thank you guys so much for watching. We appreciate it.
50:28
Speaker 1: Riuting Emily tomorrow we'll see that