All right, back at The Young Turks at the DNC, Jake Kasparian and Representative Ro Khanna joins us. Great to be on. All right. Great to have you both. So we caught a little bit of hope here ro. Yeah. Not only on winning the election. Nowhere near set, but I got us at like 52% chance of winning. [00:00:18] Right. - That's like where the. - Betting markets are, aren't they? Yeah, right around there. And a lot better than zero. So yes. But also hope that they might actually do some of the things they're saying. And so and we there's a little bit of a feeling in the air of this place [00:00:33] that things have changed a little bit inside the Democratic Party. Normally we run into a brick wall. Right. But all of a sudden the wall is giving away a little bit, not on the Palestinian issue, but on, but on other things, economically populist agenda. Tim Walsh, so many other things going in the right direction. Do you sense it? And and where do you think it's coming? [00:00:51] I think we have to take the long view and that progressives are slowly flowing in for a voice at the table. You look at 2020, you had Biden, Harris. Now Harris, I think, is to the left of Biden, and Waltz is to the left of where Harris was. [00:01:06] So you're moving in the progressive direction. You look at 2020, and no way would they have given AOC a main stage speech. Now they gave AOC a speech. They gave Jasmine Crockett, they gave Maxwell Frost and a number of other Raskin progressives. So progressives are front and center and the VP pick front and center on the stage. [00:01:26] We're integrating now. The biggest leap is the policy, and that we still have work to do on Medicare for all. Free public college taxing. Well, I don't want to sugarcoat things, but we're moving in the right direction. Yeah. I mean, Medicare for all I feel isn't even really in the bubble at this point. [00:01:44] And that's I mean, I wish it were, but there are other proposals that we're seeing from Harris. We had Adam Green on yesterday. He talked about the economic advisers that will be working with Harris. And that gave me a little bit of hope. And so, you know, assuming Kamala Harris wins the election, [00:02:02] what kind of Congressional battles do you see standing in the way of actually passing bills that would, you know, make the economic situation better for Americans? Well, first, it depends whether we have the House or the Senate. That's a big issue, because if she wins and we don't have the Senate [00:02:20] or we don't have the House, we're not going to get much done. But if we do get I do think if she wins and pulls it off, we will end up getting the House and Senate, given just the momentum it will take for her to win. And then I think, let's cap rent. I mean, that's part of our proposal. That would be immediate relief for families. [00:02:37] Let's make sure that we're expanding Social Security, putting more money in the pockets of working families. Let's expand Medicare to include dental, vision and hearing. That was the most popular thing in Build Back Better. Let's get childcare. These are areas where I think a Harris Walsh ticket would be open. [00:02:57] And she's always been pretty good on the care economy. And a lot of the proposals I'm talking about are in the care economy. Hey, don't scroll away, come back, come back. Because before the video continues, we just want to urge you to lend your support to tight U power our honest reporting. [00:03:12] You do it at t.com/team and we love you for it. So you know all of these conversations are except Palestine right? But other than that issue, it feels like the leadership of the Democratic Party [00:03:28] has made almost an active decision, not not just gradually, but in one that was conscious recently, in the last month to say, you know, let's actually unite the party, let's stop insulting progressives, let's, you know, bring them more into the tent, etc.. [00:03:44] Do you like was there a meeting? And you see that? Like, what do you think happened that precipitated that wall starting to open a little bit? I think look, the one thing I give the centrist wing, moderate wing credit for is [00:04:00] they know how to win and they want to win. And they saw that Biden had unified with Bernie and that won. And they knew that, this energy was magical that Kamala Harris got in a lightning bottle. No one expected it fully. I mean, people hoped for it and they didn't want to ruin that. [00:04:16] And the biggest way to ruin that is to pick a fight with the progressive wing of the party. And so every of all of the picks for VP, they went with the most progressive. In fact, I was talking to some I don't want to mention their names, but I was talking to some leading progressives and they were basically like, [00:04:31] well, they're not going to go with Waltz because that's the progressive pick and they won't go for some really conservative person. So we'll probably end up with, you know, this person who's, you know, a Beshear who's sort of fine with everyone. And we were shocked that, no, they went with the progressive choice. And that shows that the progressives are beginning to have in real power. [00:04:52] And and that's always been the critique that your critique of us is, well, you guys give good speeches, you put out good tweets, but you're not wielding actual power. Now we're starting to yeah. I want to air something that I'm concerned about. I want to get your thoughts on it, because there's a part of me, [00:05:10] I have this nagging feeling that the progressive rhetoric that we're hearing from the Harris campaign is kind of meant to placate progressives who are pretty furious over how Biden has handled Gaza. [00:05:26] And there's really no indication so far that Harris would be different from Biden. As it pertains to Gaza, and that is a political liability considering how fired up progressives are over that issue. Is the rhetoric on economic populism just meant to placate progressive voters, [00:05:44] just to get Harris to the finish line? No, because I think that the party has genuinely moved in a progressive direction on the economy where they haven't. On foreign policy, I think we saw this with the Biden presidency. Now, I believe, I believe if the election were tomorrow, Vice President Harris would win. But the election is not tomorrow. [00:06:02] It's November. And my fear is that if she doesn't make a clean break on Gaza policy and say, here is how I'm going to be different, the way Hubert Humphrey made a break from Johnson. And if something unfortunate happens in the Middle East, because that's a tinderbox there where we haven't gotten a cease fire, Israel and Hezbollah [00:06:21] are intensifying their attacks. Iran may retaliate. And if that becomes front and center and she hasn't made a break. That, to me, is the biggest risk. That's why I couldn't believe that they didn't give five minutes to a Palestinian American speaker. I mean, I looked at the speech that the speech was simply saying [00:06:40] that a lot of people in Gaza have lost their lives, and a lot of Americans who have family or know people in Gaza, and that we should honor their lives and that we should bring the war to an end and the hostages should be released. It was the most anodyne speech, basically asking for empathy. [00:06:57] There was no policy, direction. And this was a probably of all the things in the, the four days, in terms of progressives, this was the biggest mess of a layup. - I agree. - So but that's the thing right? It seems like that they're stuck. Okay. [00:07:13] So this is we're all in agreement on the speech. It would have been a layup. It was it was badly played. Even if you're not going to change policy, it would have helped you on the optics etc.. But the policy is what matters. And between now and the election, at some point it's going to dawn [00:07:28] on these protesters and the voters in Michigan, etc. They're never going to change their policy. And so then we're going to go back to the Biden situation. So what I. But the question is like, I'm I would be flawed and I, I'm with you like I was one of the people saying they're never going to pick Tim Walz. [00:07:44] And they did. Right. So okay. Like again hope grows just a tiny smidge. Right. But if they defied AIPAC and said if you don't get to a ceasefire, we'll do a weapons embargo, I'd for like, I'd fall down on the floor instantly. [00:08:03] I would it would be the most shocking thing that has happened in American politics. - Right. - So is there. Is there any chance that that could possibly happen No. Right. No. I don't think she's going to call for an arms embargo. But that's not what the uncommitted are asking for. I mean, that's their. [00:08:18] That's what they want as their top ideal situation. But they know that that's not, realistic. But what they're saying is, why can't you give a speech saying I'm going to enforce the Leahy Law? I'm going to enforce international law. I'm going to make sure that, aid is not going to be a blanket check to Netanyahu, [00:08:36] that if he continues to defy the American president, that it will be restricted. And that is something that 37 Democrats, including me, have taken a position in voting against, an unconditional blank check to Netanyahu. [00:08:51] Now, Jenk, from 2 or 3 years ago, that would have been five people voting against. Now they're 37. So there is progress. I think that the vice president needs to have a new policy. I'm not telling you all the details of it, but she can't just have the status quo. [00:09:07] One last quick question on Palestine. Am I wrong that if she said, hey if you don't get to a ceasefire, I'm going to stop the funding, that we would have a cease fire within the week. I don't know, but I certainly because I don't know what you know, [00:09:24] you got to have the pressure on Hamas too. I mean, I don't think Hamas is angelic here. And, you know, I don't know what Hamas is going to do. But I do think this, that the blank check to Netanyahu has not worked because Netanyahu is now making a demand that they have troops in the Philadelphia corridor at the Egypt, [00:09:41] Gaza border, as you know. And Egypt doesn't want that. The United States doesn't want that, and the Palestinians don't want that. So at the very least, we would get an honest proposal. And then if the if Hamas rejects it, which they very well may, then you do put all the blame on Hamas. [00:09:58] But right now you've got intransigence on Netanyahu, and he's not agreeing to the terms that the Americans want. Exactly. And I'm glad that you say that, because people seem to think that the reason why there isn't a ceasefire is only due to Hamas, but that is not the case, and Netanyahu is not engaged [00:10:15] in ceasefire negotiations in good faith. I feel that we are sleepwalking toward a war with Iran. And I'm curious if the Democratic Party, if the politicians within the Democratic Party are aware of that, and if they're concerned about that. - I'm very. - Concerned. I put out a week ago no war in Iran. Let's not get into a war. [00:10:35] I mean, Lindsey Graham is out there cheerleading for that. And look, the the there's a mistake, in my view, on the left and the right. The left says basically it's all the blame is Netanyahu. That's not right. I mean, it's not like Hamas is some great actor. I mean, they committed October 7th. They should be condemned and they have been intransigent. [00:10:50] But then the establishment basically saying it's all Hamas's fault. And that's just factually not true. Netanyahu's not agreeing to US concerns, in my view, the biggest risk to the world. The biggest risk for the United States and the biggest risk for Kamala Harris is the escalation of a war, potentially with Hezbollah or Iran in September or October. [00:11:11] And if I were the Democratic Party, I and President Biden and Tony Blinken and Kamala Harris, I'd be doing everything possible to avoid that and B, to show if they're Harris, that you've got a new direction. Because no voter. I don't care whether you're a Democrat, independent or a Republican [00:11:28] thinks that we've had a successful policy in the Middle East. How can you, when you've had 40 000 dead, 1200 Israelis killed and an ongoing war, it's by definition not a success. Yeah. So now let's go to the scenario where Kamala Harris wins. [00:11:43] Now we're back to the Build Back Better Wars. Yes. Right. Which are much, much easier in terms of the matter, but not like people dying in the same way. Yeah. But but they're also very difficult because now we're going to be back in that same quagmire. Right. [00:11:58] So if it goes like it did under Biden and they say, well, you know, we did this agenda, but now we're only going to do 10% of it or 15% of it. And you're, you know, you could disagree and say, 25 or we could, you know, argue over that, but the rest of it you're not going to get. And so don't pressure me. [00:12:14] And from now on, the correct policy should be trust. - Kamala, are we not going to happen? - That's not going to happen. And you already see that with progressives standing with the uncommitted delegates today, including me on in statements and tweets saying we are disappointed [00:12:31] that you haven't had a Palestinian American speaker. And if they start backing away, you'll have a robust, progressive, group that is now more confident in our role, because the one thing they've done in a good way is platform US. Maxwell Frost, AOC, Jasmine Crockett, and the American people said, [00:12:50] oh, well, they're not they're not crazy. They're pretty reasonable. And so I think that that they we are much more central now in the party. We're still, not in the power center, but we're not off the table. [00:13:06] - We're on the table. - Yeah. And one last quick thing about that, and it's kind of a tangent, but it's important, I feel the African American vote within the Democratic Party, which is pretty much the African American vote, starting to move in a progressive direction, whereas before, like the clyburn's of the world [00:13:25] were the bulwark for, in my opinion, not. I'm not putting words in your mouth for sure, but in my opinion, the bulwark of corporations and donors and conservatives, etc. Now we're seeing the Jasmine Crocketts and not just Ilhan Omar, not just the, [00:13:41] you know, the the squad, etc. That went in, to the Congressional Black Caucus. But it's starting to spread, and I'm seeing it in people that I talked to before. I would get pushback. Progressive. I don't know about that. Right. But now I'm getting old progressive. I like it, right. [00:13:56] Are you seeing that at all? Well, one, I think on issues of war and peace, actually, the African American community has been some of the strongest and loudest on the Palestine issue and including, Jim Clyburn. And that comes from the Kings Lewis civil rights tradition, Jesse Jackson tradition. [00:14:14] But I look at the African American community and you look at Jesse Jackson. He was running on Bernie Sanders, his platform in 1988 after 1984. So there is a deep progressive tradition that I do think we're building. And it's not just that, you know, younger African Americans. It's also the Progressive Party. [00:14:30] Progressive caucus has done a much better job of outreach. It used to be basically to northern white progressive movement, and now it's building broader coalitions. And so I think it's also a reflection on a new generation of progressive leaders [00:14:46] that really are looking to build a broad coalition. One thing I do want to say is Bernie Sanders deserves a lot more credit than he's getting at this convention. This convention is not his moment in terms of, you know, we got to win. We got to beat Trump. But he single handedly in his two campaigns, has shifted the Overton window [00:15:04] and direction of the Democratic Party. And you know, they have. Thank you Joe Biden I wish we had thank you. Bernie Sanders signs. Yeah. No, I love it. And I think you're right. And the guys the reason why, among many, many reasons why African American vote matters so much is the minute the establishment loses South Carolina to progressives is [00:15:22] the minute we get a progressive president. Okay Ro Connell, thank you so much for coming on. Great to see you. Thank you. Thank you.