Controversy is stirring at the Democratic National Convention amid protests from pro-Palestinian groups over the party's refusal to allow a Palestinian speaker, a Palestinian elected, a Palestinian, a, you know, delegate [00:00:15] to address the conference. Now, we're going to give you the latest on that growing controversy in just a moment. But first, I actually think it's worth talking about another fascinating update on the pro-Israel side of the Democratic Party. So Slate's Alex Salmon actually attended the launch party of something called [00:00:34] Zionist Action Fund, the brand new, unabashedly progressive, unapologetically Zionist, excitedly pro Kamala and Pro Democrats political arm of the pro-Israel nonprofit. Now, he says that what he saw at this sparsely attended party [00:00:54] made him think that there's actually a policy shift coming. But do we agree? Now we'll dive into it. So the group is branded as a Democrat loyal operation. Unlike more powerful and well-known AIPAC as we know, AIPAC has given a lot of money [00:01:10] to Republican candidates. But a Samons Sammons writes, If Zionist Action Fund was meant to be a counterweight to that, there was little evidence of this. Based on the lineup and the content of the speeches, it seemed more like a spin off. [00:01:27] No one said a critical word about the organization all night. Meaning of AIPAC? That's a bad sign. Okay, but let's keep going. Elon Goldenberg, the Harris campaign's, Jewish liaison, whose hiring [00:01:44] had been announced all of a week ago, tried to assure the attendees of Harris's record on Israel, which also seems like a bad sign. But let's keep going. Illinois Representative Brad Schneider also gave a speech and spoke to Salmon Salmon's afterward. [00:02:03] Did he worry that the ground was shifting within the party on Israel? With Biden on the way out and a more vocally critical Harris taking over? No, he said, Harris's rhetoric was less important than her actions, by the way. Something I've been saying, which he thought wouldn't change. [00:02:20] Listen to what she says, but watch what she does, he told me with a knowing look. Not great. Okay, but there are some good signs as well. And that good sign had to do with the fact that that party seemed to not really be much of a party at all. [00:02:36] As I mentioned earlier, it was sparsely attended, and also many big names that were supposed to be like keynote speakers at the event ended up dropping out like they didn't show up. And so Amanda Berman, founder of Zionists, [00:02:52] got on the mic and apologetically announced that both Representative Marilyn Strickland and Representative Jared Moskowitz had left before addressing the crowd. The number of party goers unaffiliated with the organization or its official program was low and dropping. [00:03:09] There was not an A-list or B-list or C-list celebrity to be found. So I have noticed this disconnect where, you know, you have the politicians, you have the Democratic Party completely in line with defending Israel, supporting Israel no matter what. [00:03:25] But the electorate is a little different, right? The Democratic voters, I mean, you look at polling, we're not just saying it. It's not a vibe that we're feeling. You look at the polling and it shows that the majority of Democratic voters would like a ceasefire. Yeah. So look, no, I don't see any change from the Democratic Party politicians at all. [00:03:44] I. But, you know, Kamala Harris has shocked me a couple of times in the last, three weeks. So I guess it's not impossible. And but before, three weeks ago, I would have said it was impossible. Right now I have it at 2% chance. So don't get excited. [00:04:02] She's very, very, very, very unlikely to change the position at the end of the day, guys. I mean, like the reason we only ever get 5 or 10% change on any issue is because the donors rule the place. I like how many times do I have to say it? And so we all keep having these nonsense conversations. [00:04:20] And, you know, I get frustrated with portions of the left like they're genuinely surprised. And they really think that Kamala Harris might change if you put enough pressure on. I love. Look. Keep going. I love pressure, I love activism, I love what the protesters do here. [00:04:37] Apparently 10,000 protesters are outside right now, so I don't want to be skeptical or cynical about that. I love when you guys, when we put out use our leverage, use our power and go forward. But but like this idea of like, gee, I wonder why she thinks this. [00:04:53] No. Come on. Of course it's the donors. So now to the party. The reason why it's sparsely attended is because now they're a little embarrassed because the voters have turned so much. It's not that they're going to change their policy, right? It's that they're trying to avoid getting caught on camera, [00:05:11] getting caught defending Israel. But now, because now they're worried, oh my God, it might cost me votes. Before it was like free money. I'll take millions of dollars and it's not going to cost me any votes, because mainstream media will cover my ass and tell everyone that I'm the moral one for killing as many Palestinians as possible. [00:05:27] Right. Or funding the genocide of Palestinians. So that's what's changed. But to me, the most telling quote was that Illinois Representative Schneider, who said basically, yeah, yeah, you can look at what she says, but what matters is what she does [00:05:43] with a knowing look, which that means. Yeah, of course, we'll say some things about, oh, Palestinians are human maybe. Right. But at the end of the day, money rules. Okay. So no, we're going to win. We have more money and she'll do exactly as she's told. [00:05:59] And if if you catch feelings over that, you're catching feelings over the whole system. You could hate me for being the messenger. But if you still don't know the donor's rule. All of politics. Hello. Welcome to America. Hey, don't scroll away. Come back, come back. [00:06:14] Because before the video continues, we just want to urge you to lend your support to TYT. You power our honest reporting. You do it at t.com/team and we love you for it. Yeah. No you're I think you're right about that. And you know, another bad sign has to do with the way that the uncommitted movement [00:06:32] has been treated during the DNC. So there are Palestinian Americans who are delegates to Kamala Harris. Palestinian Americans who are elected into office on a state level, on a local level, they're here. We're not talking about, you know, activists who might say [00:06:51] something crazy on stage but we're talking about individuals who are fully supportive of the Democratic Party, fully supportive of Kamala Harris. They're part of the uncommitted movement because they're trying to use their leverage to pressure Kamala Harris to do the right thing. And what they're asking for, in my opinion, is incredibly reasonable. [00:07:08] Please allow one of us to speak. And they provided a long list of electeds, a long list of delegates. Again, people who are supportive of the Democratic Party, people who are Democrats themselves to allow the Harris campaign [00:07:23] to pick like the DNC to pick give one of these individuals an opportunity to speak. And the DNC, the Democratic Party has rejected that. Now, let's talk a little bit about the details involved here. So yesterday, pro-Palestinian leaders of the uncommitted national movement [00:07:41] began a sit in outside of the DNC after being told by party officials that they will not get a speaking slot at all. For context, the group has been calling on Vice President Kamala Harris to endorse an arms embargo. And look, do I think that Kamala Harris would support an arms embargo? [00:07:59] Unlikely. Right. But they want to at least be able to make their case. And here is Abbas Allawi, a DNC delegate from Michigan and the leader of the uncommitted movement, explaining exactly why the group has decided to stage this sit in. [00:08:15] After initially indicating that they were having productive conversations with the DNC. Let's watch. We've been making a request of the Democratic National Convention for a Palestinian-American to speak from this stage. We talked to members of Congress. We talked to party leaders. We told them all we need a Palestinian American to speak from the stage. [00:08:33] And we were negotiating with the Democratic Party. We're telling them, hey, here's a long list of Palestinian Americans you can choose from. And they said, okay, we're considering it. We can't tell you. Yes, but we also are not telling you no. And that's a good thing. A few hours ago, they called and said, I have an answer for you. The answer is no. And that was all they said. [00:08:49] We think that's unacceptable We think that this is the party where we shouldn't be silencing people's voices, even when we have disagreements about policy. And so we sat right here, me and my fellow delegates who ran out of options on the inside. So we're standing here on the outside, leaning into our power as regular everyday people and asking you to join us in asking [00:09:09] the party we need to see a Palestinian American speaker from this stage tomorrow. Actually, today, Thursday is the last day of the convention. They need to add someone to the program immediately. Now that is the, you know, inside info about how those negotiations went. [00:09:29] But what's really amazing is I think the Harris campaign and the Democratic Party realizes that this is a misstep. Like, why not allow one of them to speak one slot like it could have happened earlier in the week? They just want an opportunity to be represented. Right? [00:09:44] And it turns out that now reporters are being briefed on something that's a complete and utter lie. This is according to Mehdi Hassan. Reporters are being briefed. It seems that the DNC accepted Democratic State Representative Laura Roman as a Palestinian speaker for tonight on the stage, but uncommitted turned her down. [00:10:05] That is simply not true. It's a lie. Being told, I assume, by DNC spinners. Now, on the defensive, uncommitted are the ones who pitched her. They did pitch her. In fact, I attended one of their press conferences today, one of their meetings [00:10:21] today, and they specifically mentioned her as one of the individuals that they pitched to speak at the DNC. So this is a complete and utter lie by the Democratic Party. And there's still some time for the DNC to put her on the stage tonight for two minutes. That's all they're asking for, Jake. [00:10:37] - Yeah, those. - Are guys again. Let me explain how politics works. Up on the suites at the very top of the - United Center are, donors that actually. - Had to pay. A certain amount to get those sweets, and that number just to get [00:10:52] in the building is $500,000. Okay. And almost all the donors don't want a single Palestinian speaking. They would be furious. Furious if a Palestinian spoke. So that's why the Palestinian is not going to speak, and that's why they're going to lie about it. [00:11:08] That's why they like that. Look, the difference between me and the activists in this case is that I can't. I love their effort, but I think that they have some hope that it could work. And I and again, I love hope, and I wanted to have it, but I've been [00:11:26] in politics long enough to know when it comes to AIPAC and the donor money. In this case, you have they're never going to allow it. It's not there's no way they'll do it. Okay. So then it leaves us in a super hard spot. [00:11:41] Trump sucks. He's awful. He's a danger to democracy. All this stuff. Kamala Harris is now pretty good on a lot of issues. Tim Walz has got us all excited, but on this, they're never going to move. They are addicted to the money, right? [00:11:58] So they go and ask the guys upstairs, hey, what are we allowed to do? Well please, please can we have one person and we can vet their speech and they could say, just be benign and say Palestinians are human. Are we allowed? And the donors go, no, no. Not allowed. And Kamala Harris goes, okay, okay, okay. [00:12:13] Look, look, if you if you think if you think there's something else going on, you're totally wrong. That is what I just described is exactly what happens. Yeah, I, I've communicated this on the show so far, but I'm going to say it again, the feel here, the atmosphere here is celebratory. [00:12:33] Everyone's excited. It's a super positive, optimistic environment and you want to be part of it. Like it's so tempting to be part of it, to be celebratory with them. But there's like this dark Cloud of the Gaza situation. [00:12:50] That makes it impossible. It really does. It really does temper in my mind internally the celebratory nature of all of this. But look, guys, what tempers it for me is I know that cash rules everything around [00:13:06] me literally in this convention, right? So you think that she's going to do Medicare for all? No. There's a 0% chance she's going to do Medicare for all. Why? She went up to the suites and they told her, no, it's okay. Yeah. Okay. Right. Is she going like, is she going to do some of the proposals that she suggested? [00:13:22] We're super hopeful that she might. So nuance. Nothing is binary. Things are not black and white. So what Biden did 15% of his agenda. So he got like, they have to like pretty pretty pretty. Please, can you allow us to win just to squeak through just a couple of proposals. [00:13:39] So I said last night on the coverage, look, if Kamala Harris does 25 to 35% of our proposals. It'll be like record breaking and we would be very, very excited, right? I just don't like this whole round of like, oh, I think we're going to get everything. [00:13:55] Oh, it turns out the drug companies and the oil companies and AIPAC and the banks want again. Of course. So look, I get so frustrated because people like Larry Lessig and myself and others have been saying for so long, if you don't get money out of politics, [00:14:12] you're going to lose on every other issue. When is it going to get through the heads of everyone involved in Democratic politics? You're not going to win until you get money out of politics. This isn't about Palestine. This is about donor money. [00:14:27] Now, I have been critical of AOC's speech at the DNC, mainly because of one line. There were other parts of her speech that I wasn't crazy about, but I'll give her a pass, right? Like, okay, it is what it is. Everyone's excited. You're going to celebrate Kamala Harris. It's fine. [00:14:42] But the one line about how she is working tirelessly to secure a ceasefire in Gaza was just a flat out lie, and it really bothered me. And I'm happy to report that I'm not the only person who was bothered by it. Representative Ilhan Omar called her out. Let's take a look. [00:15:00] It's been unconscionable for me in the last ten months to witness my colleagues in this administration refusing to recognize the genocidal war that is taking place in Gaza. [00:15:16] To not see the mothers who have lost countless children. The babies whose dead bodies are being dug out. To not understand that working tirelessly for a. [00:15:33] Ceasefire is really not a thing, and they should be ashamed of themselves. For saying such a thing, because we supply these weapons. So if you really wanted a ceasefire, you just stop sending the weapons. [00:15:49] It is that simple. That's right. Thank you to Representative Omar for speaking the truth, I appreciate that. Yeah. I mean, look, I don't understand some portions of the left. Like, people get mad at Anna for saying AOC said what she said [00:16:07] wasn't true on the DNC stage. And now Ilhan Omar says it and people are like, oh, yeah, I guess that's true. I know people love to hate on me. It's totally fine. It's so frustrating anyway. So guys, for all the people supporting Palestine, I love you. Keep going, put on all the pressure because your pressure is not that it's [00:16:25] going to lead to a policy change, it's that at least it's beginning to expose how politics actually works. And you're not just doing it for the Palestinians. I love you. If you just did it for the Palestinians, you'd already be angels, right? But you're also exposing how money controls all of politics [00:16:43] because, like, the reporters are starting to get embarrassed because the reporters are like, well, I mean, it's, it's a policy issue. And I guess they have a policy disagreement. What's the disagreement? Kamala Harris says there should be a ceasefire. Well, how can you get a ceasefire? It's actually super easy. [00:17:00] You threaten to withhold the funding? Done. Cease fire immediately. You. They won't even threaten to withhold the funding. Why? There's only one answer. And it's not a policy disagreement. It's corruption. So go spread the word. [00:17:17] And so. And then other Democrats will catch feelings. No, only Republicans are corrupt. When our guys stuffed their faces full of AIPAC money and big pharma money, they're angels and they have a policy disagreement. No they don't. This is corruption through and through. [00:17:33] Thanks for watching. If you become a member, you get to watch all this ad free. Except for, of course, this ad still hit the join button below.