Joining us now with a big announcement is Jake Yeager. Jake, how are you doing? Good. Anna, how are you doing? Pretty good. Pretty good. All right. I'm in New York, as you can tell, in a fun hotel room here. So, big announcement today. [00:00:16] We are launching a populist takeover of the Democratic Party. We're doing it through a rebellion. Pack rebellion. Com. So what does that mean? First of all, what are we concentrating on? Economic populism. So we are going to find candidates, and we already have. [00:00:34] And I'll tell you who some of those candidates are, that believe in doing, real populism. Not the kind of fake populism that Donald Trump and Elon Musk did and obviously not the establishment. So we're at the very center of the Democratic Party. [00:00:49] The six policy proposals are, incredibly popular. They all pull over two thirds. They're the most popular positions the Democratic Party has. And so our, revolutionary ideas. Why don't we do them first? And let's get a giant coalition to do this. [00:01:05] And we're planting our flag and saying we think the Democratic Party should go towards economic populism. And so we have an incumbent that is a sitting congressman who's with us, and has already joined the rebellion. We have several candidates who have joined the rebellion. [00:01:21] And as you'll see, they're about as populist as it gets. So, some portions of the party, the establishment, are basically in the Do Nothing camp, and some good folks are in the do everything camp maximalist position. We're in the camp of do the right things, and build up power and leverage, [00:01:38] regain the country and and most importantly in 2026, let's go win in blue, purple and red districts. Let's take power back from Donald Trump and then build a credibility in the leverage to be able to help in picking a 2028, [00:01:55] candidate for the Democratic Primaries, take back the Democratic Party and take back the country. And so this is a practical plan. It's a real plan. It involves real candidates. And again, with the most popular positions within the Democratic Party. [00:02:11] Let's go win. Let's take power back for the people. So how is this different from what was done through Justice Democrats, for instance? Right. So Justice Democrats started or launched with you, by the way, being one of the people who pushed for it. [00:02:29] And the idea was to get progressives to challenge Democratic incumbents. And that's how we have people like AOC in the House of Representatives. How is this different? Yeah. So great question. So I was one of the co-founders of Justice Democrats. And as our audience knows, we launched Justice Democrats [00:02:46] right here on Young Turks. And Ro Khanna again was the first person to sign up. He's your lead by leading. And that brother has a lot of courage. And he he's had the right idea all along. Economic patriotism. And I am proud to announce that Ro Khanna is now part of the rebellion. [00:03:04] So, super, happy to have him on board. He believes in new economic patriotism. That's his, term for it, and I love it. And he's in California 17 and is always leading the way. He's a co-chair, of course, of Bernie Sanders presidential campaign. [00:03:22] So, thrilled to have him with us. There's another face that you'll, remember in a second. But, Anna, to your question about how this is different this time around. Two things. Number one, back then, the timing was right to win some stunning victories, as we did in the AOC race and then arguably in Rashida Tlaib [00:03:42] and Ilhan Omar and Ayanna Pressley. And so, but unfortunately, the Democratic Party and the Democratic voters weren't quite ready for a takeover. They still had faith in the Democratic establishment. Now, obviously, we tried to warn them. [00:03:57] Bernie tried to warn them for year after year after year, saying that this establishment is never going to win, that you guys are missing it. It's not just that they don't have the right policies and they've been too corrupted by money in politics. [00:04:12] This is in a we're in a populist era, and if you keep running the most corporate, most establishment candidates, you can't win. But at the time, the voters were not quite ready to hear that message. After the debacle of 2024 with what happened with Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. The Democratic voters are in a very different place. [00:04:29] And number two, we're seeing with our most popular issues and what we're giving a solemn promise that we are going to pass those bills. And so if we don't pass those bills, there should be accountability. So I don't want this to be the same old, same old, you know, Democratic situation [00:04:44] where they come in, they, you you trust them, you put your faith in them, they win and then they don't deliver. So we're not going to do that. We're going to fight like hell to get these bills passed. And so the second way that it's a little bit different is that hold. On, hold on. [00:04:59] Can I have a follow up to what you just said? So I think one of the downfalls of justice Democrats is they didn't really have any type of accountability mechanism. So you spend all this time, all these resources and getting progressives [00:05:14] to challenge incumbents, they win. And then if they go in a different direction, well, what are you going to do about it? You get what I'm saying. So so is there a, you know, an enforcement mechanism in what you're trying to do here? Yeah. For sure. And so look, if you get in office and then we go, okay, paid family leave is up first [00:05:35] and you can everybody can go on Twitter to see the populist plank. But you could also go on rebellion now to see the populist plank. It started on time. It's just an idea now. It's being put into practice as a real plan. And so if we say paid family leave is up first and people then go, okay, [00:05:52] we're not going to fight on that. Our candidates, after they, we, you know, put blood, sweat and tears into getting them elected. No. You're out. No, this is not optional. So, unfortunately, I wish we had a better fight, in last go around. [00:06:08] And so here, I'll give you a specific example. I'm not trying to, you know, go after anyone here. I'm just telling you what happened because you asked a good question and how we're going to try to prevent it next time. So in the first bill that, Biden proposed Covid relief bill, they had $15 minimum [00:06:24] wage in there, and then they took it out. Well, the minute they took it out, that is when all the progressives in Congress should have risen up and said, no, no, that is our bare minimum. Ask if you're taking that out. You're saying you're not going to do any of the progressive priorities. No, we said $15 minimum wage. We meant $15 minimum wage. [00:06:43] We're voting no unless you give us $15 minimum wage. And if they had done that, they almost certainly would have gotten a pass, but they chose not to. And that applies to all Democrats. And of course, eight Democrats in the Senate voted against it. But you see, that's part of the problem, Anna. [00:06:58] This is a real challenge to the establishment, because if the establishment says no paid family leave or $15 minimum wage, etc. Are not going to pass and you need to be quiet about it, our candidates will not be quiet about it, because if if they are, they're gone, [00:07:14] then they're not part of the rebellion. This is not to for ego fulfillment. This is not to help anybody's career. This is to actually get the bills passed, because that's the only thing that actually affects the American voters lives. The rest is all about ego and careers. [00:07:30] And no one in this organization is interested in that. So are you saying that Rebellion Pack will essentially challenge the candidate? And if they don't go along with what a rebellion pack had supported them to do? [00:07:48] Yeah, absolutely. Okay, so like I said, if paid family leave pulls it 84%. If you're not willing to go to the mat for that, then you're not willing to go to the mat for anything. And so then you're not really actually part of the rebellion. So that's an easy decision. So there's two different parts to it. To be clear, there's the the campaigns. And then when you're actually in Congress. [00:08:09] So in the campaigns, they've all signed up for the populist plank. So again, you can see that at Rebellion Comm. And I've listed some of the, provisions for you. The others are anti war money out of politics. Don't let, private equity buy our residential homes. [00:08:28] They're driving up housing prices, negotiate drug prices through Medicare. It's insane not to, and and so Ro Khanna, by the way, calls himself a progressive capitalist. And and I say that I'm in favor of, democratic capitalism. [00:08:43] So what you're sensing here is we believe in democracy. We believe in the system. We love the Constitution. We love America, but we need the voters to check the excesses of corporations, the donors and corporate rule. [00:08:59] So the most important thing is money out of politics. So they're all going to run on those six. And then beyond that, we're not nitpicking. We're not doing purity tests. So if you want to be center left, far left, anything else along the spectrum? Totally fine. But we're focusing on economic populism and we're focusing on these six bills. [00:09:18] And we're going to get these passed. And then once you build up leverage and credibility, then you want to make the next pass and the next pass. That makes sense. But you've got to earn that from the American voters. And so this is 100% to serve the voters and not the donors. [00:09:34] That is, as usual, the very, very core core of it. So just let me say quickly, because it might seem weird that I'm, like, asking you questions about what you're doing here. When you and I work so closely on a day to day basis. You know, Rebellion pack and what you're doing outside of tight [00:09:52] is very much outside of tight. So I'm not involved in any of this. And so one of the other questions that I have is whether, you know, similar strategies are now being rolled out by folks like the vice chair of the Democratic National Committee, David Hogg. [00:10:08] He's going to use about $20 million in order to primary ineffective Democrats in safe blue districts. Is this something that you see yourself working with David Hogg on, or do you see your project as entirely separate and will not have any collaboration with Hogg? [00:10:26] So I love what David Hogg is doing. I'm totally in favor of it. I believe in primaries. I believe in, that the Democratic Party will be stronger if we have stronger, more contested primaries. We need the strongest possible candidates. For too long, the Democratic Party has anointed and their track record on the [00:10:43] candidates they have anointed is terrible. Uniquely miserable. So no, we're not interested in anointing or giving incumbents a pass. So I love what David Hogg is doing. Will we coordinate? We haven't yet. And we're just launching today. [00:11:00] I'm not opposed to it, but we've not had any communications about that. But, you know, everybody's got a slightly different strategy. From what I understand from the outside about, his strategy, they're mainly focusing on blue districts, and which is what we did [00:11:16] with Justice Democrats in the beginning. And nothing wrong with that. That's a perfectly good strategy. But in our case, Anna, we're doing blue, red and purple districts. We're doing them all. In fact, the first candidate, that is not in Congress has signed up is Richard Ojeda. [00:11:33] This brother is as populist as populist gets. He's a retired, retired army major. He was in Fort Bragg for 16 years, and now he's in North Carolina nine, which has Fort Bragg. So perfect guy and the perfect, race. [00:11:51] Now, that is a red district. That's not even purple. That's R plus ten. But if Ojeda for, NC, obviously North Carolina. Ojeda for NC. Make sure you go out there and help him. He's already raised over $300,000 in about a month. [00:12:07] He's doing great. And so Ojeda, had run in West Virginia because he had to go there because his parents were there and they needed to take care of him. And he was in an R plus 54 and almost pulled it out. This is so in R plus ten. Should be breakfast for Richard Ojeda. [00:12:23] So last time he ran he ran as a super populist. He was one of the first guys to run as a populist. We love his attitude. So super happy to have him as part of the rebellion, by the way. We have someone in an even more red district that's going to come out on May day, and he's another perfect populist candidate that I think you guys will love. [00:12:42] And he's running in a very red district, but he's got an excellent chance of winning it well as well. And Anna, what we're saying is these are super tough districts to run in. These are not anywhere near layups. In fact, these would be AOC like miraculous victories. [00:12:58] And we're still taking that risk. And we're saying, yes, we're behind that. Why? Because we have to have a strategy good enough to win general elections, even under difficult circumstances. So these guys are ready. They're tough. [00:13:15] And they can't wait to take on Republicans and flip Republican districts into blue districts, which then does two things. One is takes power away from Trump. If he loses Congress in 2026, he gets hamstrung a lot more and can't do these [00:13:31] crazy, authoritarian, unconstitutional impulses and actions that he's taken. And secondly, it proves out that we were right. The correct path is economic populism. If we can win an R plus ten like North Carolina nine with Ojeda, that means we [00:13:47] could win anywhere with our candidates. So we're really going for it here, both against Trump and the Democratic establishment, so that we can take the country back in 2018. All right. Where can people go to learn more about this, especially if someone's considering [00:14:02] maybe being a candidate for rebellion PAC. Okay. Thank you for asking that. So go to rebellion pac. Com because as you know, as Anna is alluding to there, there's a lot there. Number one, you could find out what we're about. You could check out the populist plank, see if you like it. [00:14:18] Number two, you could actually, if you want to run, you could, go and register there and apply with us, just like we did at Justice Democrats. So we we have a tough vetting process. We want great, great candidates, but we're super grassroots. [00:14:34] So. So put in your application. And this is how we found AOC when we did Justice Democrats. Her, brother submitted her, as a community leader when she was just a bartender. But she worked really hard on the community, and we liked that story. [00:14:50] And, and the other co-founders, were the ones who picked her, ran her campaign. They did a brilliant job, in that way. And by the way, the Young Turks audience raised $2.5 million for the Justice Democrats last time around. We're hoping to double that for rebellion PAC to give these guys firepower. [00:15:07] And we're going to be all over the media. So you can volunteer to help the candidates. You can, apply to become a candidate. Obviously, you could donate, which is really important to getting them up off the ground. And one last thing we're going to do, a messaging campaign here, [00:15:22] whereas the establishment Democrats are scared to death of doing media. We can't wait to do media. And yes, we'll do left wing, right wing, middle wing, independent online, mainstream media. Our candidates are not afraid to bring out their message. They love their message. [00:15:38] They think it's perfect for the Democratic Party and perfect for the average American. So we will go on any show and, and, and we will go and talk to those audiences and win them over. So we're at the very center of the Democratic Party. And part of our point here is if you can't pass your most popular bills, [00:15:58] are you trying? So here is us. Here we go again, getting caught trying. We're going to actually try to, run on these bills and then when we get into office, pass these bills. So we're going to challenge Trump. We're going to challenge the Democratic Party. [00:16:14] And the rebellion has begun. So last thing is, look, what we're doing here in essence, is planting our flag and saying, if you're an economic populist, you believe in, you know, a short way of describing it as Bernie 2016. Right. And you believe that we should give to the average American [00:16:32] and not to the donor class. Come to our side. Come join us and and help us take over the Democratic Party. If you're another wing of the Democratic Party, great. Plant your flag and say, hey, here's what we're doing. Here's the infrastructure we've built, here's our candidates, here's [00:16:48] what we're going to do in the primaries. Here's what we're going to do in the general election, whether you're to the left of us, to the right of us, to the center of us, wherever you are, plant your flag and say, this is what we're doing. Everybody come to whichever side you think makes more sense, and let's go help each other and let's go help Democrats win these elections [00:17:09] so that we can win the presidency in 2028 and do real populism, not fake populism of Donald Trump, where you give $5.5 trillion tax cut to corporations and to the richest people on the planet, and then call yourself a populist. Hell no. We give to the American people. We serve the American people. [00:17:27] We bring the Democratic Party to its roots, which is back to FDR. Back to what? The country loved us because we passed bills that changed their lives for the better. That's the Democratic Party we want to rebuild. All right, everyone, check that out. [00:17:43] At rebellion.com. Thank you. Jake, you've been very generous with your time. I hope you'll be back soon. Thank you, I appreciate it. Of course I will. And by the way, taking this message to News Nation at 825 eastern, you guys can all check that out. And then tomorrow morning, we're going to tape it, but you'll hear, [00:18:00] see it a little bit later, but on The Breakfast Club with Charlamagne tha God. And so check it out everywhere you can, and then you're going to begin to see all of our candidates. Ro Khanna. Ojeda, the person that we're introducing on May 1st and many more, all over the airwaves, we're going to bring the popular Democratic message to the American voters. [00:18:21] And our theory is they're going to love it. Every time you ring the bell below, an angel gets his wings. Totally not true. But it does keep you updated on our live shows.