It's often very difficult to be the only person on the stage who's telling the truth and the only person who is taking on what needs to be taken on. I look at my watch now. We're 17 minutes into this debate, and except for your little speech in the beginning, [00:00:16] we've had these three acting as if the race is between the four of us. The fifth guy who doesn't have the guts to show up and stand here, he's the one who, as you just put it, is way ahead in the polls. The fact is that when you go and you say the truth about somebody [00:00:33] who is a dictator, a bully, who has taken shots at everybody, I'm in this race because the truth needs to be spoken. He is unfit. This is a guy who just said this past week that he wants to use the Department of Justice to go after his enemies when he gets in there. [00:00:50] And the fact of the matter is he is unfit to be president. And there is no bigger issue in this race Megan, than Donald Trump and those numbers prove it. >> Speaker 2: So as we've been saying, Joe Biden doesn't want to have debates, doesn't want in many of these states to have a primary at all. [00:01:06] Despite saying that he got into this race to stop Donald Trump, he's not taking the opportunity to get the cameras on him. Talk about Trump and all of that, and Trump doesn't feel like he has to show up. But I wanna start with you, Representative Phillips, first on this. As of right now, Biden is still leading and Trump is also leading. [00:01:23] So is this a problem of the candidates or is this a problem of the electorate that we don't seem to have high enough standards for our candidates, that we expect that they should at least try to sell us on them? >> Speaker 3: Actually, I think this is a problem of two parties, and I think it's becoming self evident to those of us here on the Zoom tonight. [00:01:41] But I don't think it's evident enough yet to the country that they're being played by a duopoly that is literally suffocating democracy. Sadly, I thought it was only a disease of the right. As I know Marianne has discovered earlier than I and Bernie Sanders before us. [00:01:56] It's actually a disease that's afflicting the left as well. And I think we have to expose it, look forward to working together to do so. I've discovered also that the electorate is desperate. They're hungry, starving for debate, but they're not gonna get it from the two parties. [00:02:11] The two parties are actually working against it. And look it, from my perspective, when 70 some percent of the country wants neither Joe Biden nor Donald Trump to be the two nominees. And only one member of Congress out of 535 people, which is me, [00:02:26] is willing to say that quiet part out loud. That's all that you need to know about the disconnect between the electorate and the representatives. We have a perverse incentive system, it is corrupt. I'm finding more out by the day. And that's why I'm glad we're doing this. And I think we should all work together. [00:02:42] And it's not just Democrats. The leading candidates should debate, period. It should be a basic expectation, a qualification to even enter the presidential stage, period. And it's, enough of the nonsense. Doesn't matter your politics, it's a principle. >> Speaker 2: And it certainly seems like something that had always been a part of [00:02:59] the tradition. And we know based on recent polling, 68% say inside of the Democratic Party they want televised debates. Cenk, I wanna go to you next what do you think about this? >> Speaker 4: Yeah, obviously we should debate. And if we do, Dean is right, Marianne's right. What we would do is talk about how terrible Trump is, for example. [00:03:17] So not only did he say he'd be dictator on day one, but he shared an article from the Washington Post that said that he would become a dictator. He shared it favorably. Hey, look at this guys, I'm gonna be a dictator. It's unbelievable. He said that immigrants were poisoning the blood of our nation. [00:03:33] That is a direct Hitler quote. And Kash Patel and Steve Bannon were on the show the other day saying, we're not kidding. They're gonna take political prisoners. They are saying that they're gonna arrest their opponents in politics and in media and they have not laid out any specific charges. [00:03:50] In other words, we don't care that they didn't do anything wrong. They dared to criticize Donald Trump, we're going to arrest them. This is a massive, massive danger to our democracy. This is not a normal election. Meanwhile, Joe Biden is hiding. Look, whether you're debating us or you're out there on the stump making the case, [00:04:07] you've got to show up if you are going to be the candidate. And he hasn't even showed up. That's why his favorability is at 37. His unfavorability is at 59, he's 22 points underwater. He's 13 points lower than a generic Democrat, which the three of us or any other Democrat would fill that slot. [00:04:24] 13 points lower. He's losing to Donald Trump, who is a deeply unpopular politician who says he wants to be dictated. He's losing to Trump in the last poll by eight points. And a Democratic candidate must win by five in order to win the Electoral College. Then there's that number again, Joe Biden down by 13. [00:04:42] And when you're down by 13, you need to be in front of every camera fighting like hell to come back. Does it look like Joe Biden's trying to make a comeback? No, he's constantly taking a nap in a cave somewhere, in a bunker. And what does he do? He sends out his minions to stop elections in the primaries, stop debates, [00:05:00] stop any discussion. Well, then we're not getting our message out. We as the Democrats, you should be joining us in fighting Trump and fighting like hell to represent Democratic voters. Do you see any of that energy and gumption from Joe Biden? Honestly, barely can finish sentences. [00:05:16] Look guys, I don't mind if people are angry with me for saying things that are obviously true. You ask anyone in your private life, what do you think of Joe Biden? Every single one of them is gonna say he's too old. But yet the Democratic Party in supporting this leader who's acting in [00:05:32] authoritarian ways is saying, we're okay with losing democracy. We're okay with losing this election to Donald Trump as long as we don't offend Joe Biden. Well, the three of us don't agree and I think that Joe Biden needs to actually make his case to the American people, and he hasn't even done that against us or Trump. [00:05:49] >> Speaker 2: Marianne, I know you've been very critical of the lack of debates and what they're doing at the primaries. You started off talking about that. Is this just fear from Biden, is it apathy, is it entitlement, is it disrespect for the Democratic process? Why have we ended up with the sort of Democratic primary, or [00:06:05] lack thereof, that there is right now? >> Speaker 9: First of all, it's exactly what Cenk said. It's that the president doesn't feel he needs to say anything because he knows that he has a machine that's taking care of business for him. And that's a problem. And that is the DNC and how the whole party operates in state after state after state. [00:06:22] Making sure we're not on the ballots, making sure that we're not debating the president, etc and everything that Cenk said was true. We need to be out there talking about our counter-narrative to the Republicans. We need to talk about what the Democrats stand for in 2024. [00:06:38] What does Biden say, other than finish the job? But there's something else as well. And that's a sort of disturbing psychological characteristic of too many Democratic voters. We've been trained to keep our political conversation so shallow that even in the Democratic Party, we sort of farm out our critical thinking. [00:06:56] There's this parroting of these pale, stale platitudes. We are going to vote for Joe Biden. He won before, therefore he'll win again. Which to me is like saying to an actor, you won the Oscar last year, so surely you'll win it this year when it's a different movie this year. [00:07:14] So I find it disturbing that so many Democrats who consider themselves so concerned about democracy are treating Dean and Cenk and myself like we're doing something wrong. I'm old enough to remember when Eugene McCarthy primaried Lyndon Johnson and [00:07:34] when Bobby Kennedy Sr primaried Lyndon Johnson. There's nothing in the constitution that gives some special assignation to incumbency. And when those men ran against Lynn Johnson and it was very important that they did because that helped end the Vietnam War, nobody thought it was weird. [00:07:51] We just thought it was democracy. So democratic voters and the fact that they're willing to go along with this craziness from the DNC. I hope more of them will wake up and remember that there's nothing in the constitution or even in our traditions contrary to what they would have you believe. That would indicate that it's the DNC that should be making this decision. [00:08:09] Rather, it is the people and the people alone who should be making this decision. And if they did, and they really heard Cenk and really heard Dean and heard me in the debates, I think that Joe Biden would have serious contenders and I think that's what he's really afraid of. >> Speaker 2: I heard you, Marianne. I agree with a lot of what you said, including on the Oscars. [00:08:27] I would love for Brendan Fraser and Michelle Yo to win again, but I don't think that it's going to happen, unfortunately. But I'll be tuning in.