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TRANSCRIPT

Priyanka Aribindi: Its Thursday, March 7th. Im Priyanka Aribindi.

Juanita Tolliver: And Im Juanita Tolliver and this is What a Day where were officially strapping in for the reboot of the 2020 presidential election.

Priyanka Aribindi: Yeah, I am usually not a fan of the reboots. We are just going to have to make sure that this one ends the exact same way the last one did.

Juanita Tolliver: The same ending would be good minus, you know, that little bit of uh insurrection on January 6th? You know, we can go without that part.

Priyanka Aribindi: Right you are. That is the update I will accept. [music break] On todays show, Nikki Haley and Dean Phillips suspended their presidential runs. Plus, scientists apparently learned nothing from Jurassic Park because they say that they are getting closer to reviving the extinct wooly mammoth.

Juanita Tolliver: But first, tonight, President Biden delivers his third state of the Union address ahead of this Novembers presidential election. And his audience isnt well, exactly all in on his vision for the country. Itll include the Republicans who are trying to impeach him through his son, Hunter. Axios reports that Republican House speaker Mike Johnson asked GOP members to maintain decorum, but its almost like he doesnt know whos in his conference. Like, have you seen these people? Have you met

Priyanka Aribindi: Laughable.

Juanita Tolliver: these people?

Priyanka Aribindi: Truly laughable.

Juanita Tolliver: The state of the Union is a huge platform with enormous stakes.

[clip of Cody Keenan] Because its the one time where you get a big audience and you can take like, however fractured the country is, or however frustrated people are, how confusing things are. You can tell a story that tries to get everyone kind of on the same page. Youre setting a course for the country.

Priyanka Aribindi: That was former Obama speechwriter Cody Keenan, who recently joined Inside 2024. That is the exclusive series for friends of the pod. Part of the challenge for Biden tonight is to show people that he has still got the energy for the job. And as Keenan says, he also has to convince the public that hes the right choice.

[clip of Cody Keenan] For the people out there and there are a lot who say, why should I vote? Why does it matter? Well.

Priyanka Aribindi: Right.

[clip of Cody Keenan] What do you care about? Because I guarantee you, you care about at least three things. And on those three things, I will bet you there is an enormous difference between the two candidates. And theres a way to set that all up in a way thats not partisan, not political, but that just makes it super clear. And thats the type of thing that I would expect to see.

Juanita Tolliver: Contrast, contrast, contrast. Thats exactly what President Biden is going to be trying to do with his state of the Union address. But Bidens also got to get his progressive base bought in and energized.

Priyanka Aribindi: Right.

Juanita Tolliver: And there are several key issues where activists will be listening closely to what the president says, from immigration to the war in Gaza and more. And we wanted to know what they were hoping to hear tonight.

Priyanka Aribindi: Absolutely. We started first with abortion, which is a topic that weve covered extensively for the past few years on the show. Ever since the fall of Roe in 2022, abortion advocates on the state level have been fighting to protect and maintain a persons right to choose. In the audience for Biden tonight will be Texas OBGYN, Dr. Austin Dennard. In 2022, just after Roe fell, Doctor Dennard found out that she was pregnant. But during a checkup at 11 weeks, this happened.

[clip of Dr. Austin Dennard] I was looking at the ultrasound screen and realizing that our baby had a catastrophic diagnosis of acrania or anencephaly, which is the most severe form of neural tube defect that a pregnancy can have.

Priyanka Aribindi: That is a fatal diagnosis for a fetus. And Doctor Dennard found herself needing an abortion, but because she was in Texas, she needed to travel elsewhere to get that kind of care, and she described how careful she had to be given the states criminal penalties for anyone who assisted her.

[clip of Dr. Austin Dennard] I worried about whether or not we should be buying airplane tickets on our family credit card, because does that mean that my husbands aiding and abetting me?

Juanita Tolliver: Oh my God.

[clip of Dr. Austin Dennard] I didnt want to go alone. He wanted to come with me to support but was that considered aiding and abetting? Um, we were concerned about the safety of our family, too. If someone found out that I was going out of state for an abortion, were they going to come after my family, my children, would they try to take my license away?

Juanita Tolliver: On top of getting a fatal diagnosis for her fetus, now, she had to deal with the ridiculous, harmful laws that Texas has around seeking abortion care. No one should ever have to think about this stuff.

Priyanka Aribindi: Her experience and the experience of helping her patients who struggle to get important reproductive care pushed her to become more politically active. And tonight, shell be at the state of the Union as a guest of her representative, Democratic congressman and Ted Cruzs new Senate challenger, Colin Allred. Here is what she is hoping to hear from President Biden tonight.

[clip of Dr. Austin Dennard] Were at a time now in Texas where weve just hit rock bottom. We have no access to care. We are unable to get any sort of reproductive support. Abortion care is essentially abolished in our state. I hope he spends a significant amount of time talking about reproductive care, and that there can be change on the federal level, um because really Roe was just the beginning. So hearing him talk about reproductive care and how important it is for us to have support is going to be key.

Juanita Tolliver: Key and a very relatable topic considering the number of states in this country who are trying to push forth abortion bans like weve seen inTexas.

Priyanka Aribindi: Abortion bans and these continued attacks, I imagine Alabama and latest IVF rulings there have even more people interested in this. So certainly something people will be watching for.

Juanita Tolliver: Another issue progressives are watching is the war in Gaza. You may remember that the Listen to Michigan campaign was wildly successful on Michigans primary day. More than 100,000 voters cast uncommitted ballots as a way to pressure the Biden administration to take action to prevent more deaths in Gaza. Layla Elabed is the campaign manager for Listen to Michigan. Shes a Palestinian-American and longtime community organizer. She also happens to be the sister of Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib. She spoke about what it was like seeing the campaign exceed their original goal of 10,000 votes.

[clip of Layla Elabed] Just seeing that number rise up more and more throughout the night. I mean, it felt really exciting. It felt really surreal and it felt really, really emotional especially, its making me emotional now. [laugh]

Juanita Tolliver: And the movement gained more momentum this week. On Super Tuesday, the uncommitted campaign pulled in 19% of the Democratic vote in Minnesota, earning 11 delegates at the Democratic National Convention and a similar movement to vote no preference got 13% of Democratic votes in North Carolina on Tuesday and 9% of the vote in Massachusetts. Elabed says that she hopes that tonight, Biden will at least acknowledge the uncommitted movement and the strong numbers of these protest votes. But she also wants him to take it a step further.

[clip of Layla Elabed] I would hope that at the state of the Union, President Biden would no longer take the stance that risks our democracy, but take the stance of what is right morally and ethically, and be on the right side of history and call for the end of our military aid for Netanyahu to carry out his war crimes and to demand that we have a permanent and immediate cease fire now to save as many lives as possible.

Juanita Tolliver: Yeah, it seems like half measures arent going to appeal to the Listen to Michigan or other voters who voted uncommitted.

Priyanka Aribindi: Definitely. Another issue that has become very important to so much of the electorate is immigration. In a Gallup poll released last week, Americans actually said that it was the top issue facing the country, and immigrants themselves face some of the biggest stakes here. Here is Bruna Sollod, a recipient of DACA or Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals. That is the Obama era program that protects undocumented immigrants who came to the US as children.

[clip of Bruna Sollod] Theres a very real chance that DACA could go away. Thats the reality that were facing when you have right wing attacks on programs that are so important to so many people.

Priyanka Aribindi: Sollod is the political director at the immigrant rights group United We Dream Action. Right now the legality of DACA is stuck in the courts. And last September, a federal judge in Texas ruled it unlawful. That decision is being appealed, and eventually the case could make its way to the Supreme Court. In the short term, Sollod is looking for President Biden to implement administrative policies that would help immigrants continue to support themselves here.

[clip of Bruna Sollod] There are things the Biden administration can do. Administrative policies to ensure that people are getting their work permits. A delay in a work permit can mean people are fired. Thats a very real thing that DACA recipients deal with when their renewals dont come in in time, a lot of their companies have to let them go. And so what does that look like when you dont have a job and cant pay your bills, cant support your loved ones. So there are administrative things that the administration can do to be supporting immigrants.

Priyanka Aribindi: But she also says that when she hears the president speak tonight, she doesnt want him to get roped in to talking about immigration in the way that Republicans have painted it, as just this crisis at the border.

[clip of Bruna Sollod] We know that oftentimes presidents who are running will go to the middle. Theyll try to go out after those voters. Especially when you think about President Biden, Im sure hes thinking about what who are the Never Trumpers, right? Like, are there folks that would vote for Biden? And so I think his strategy sometimes hes like, okay, well, I can look tough on immigration. The reality is that he actually needs to speak to the progressive voters on the left, the voters who time and time again over the last few years, whether it was 2018, 2020, 2022, turned out for Democrats based on a progressive agenda that actually excited people. Those were the same people that turned out and took to the streets when the Muslim ban came out under Trump, when DACA was being taken away by Trump, there were a lot of allies, a lot of voters who came out in support of pro-immigrant policies. And so for him to just focus on the border or to just use, again, talking points from the Trump administration, it doesnt work for the voters, the multiracial class of voters that he actually needs to turn out in November and needs to win.

Juanita Tolliver: Hey, dont forget about the ones who brung you, right? Like, I think that

Priyanka Aribindi: Totally.

Juanita Tolliver: was the tone of this entire segment. So I appreciate her for saying that. One last issue that we heard from activists on, student loans and the economy. President Biden promised to cancel the debt of millions. The Supreme Court blocked plans to make it universal, but Biden has canceled nearly $140 billion in student loans. And Braxton Brewington from the nonprofit Debt Collective said the president should tout that tonight.

[clip of Braxton Brewington] President Biden has really started to clean up the mass of student debt, public service loan forgiveness, income driven repayment. These types of programs that were not working under the Trump administration and were being held up even under the Obama administration.

Juanita Tolliver: But Brewington hopes that the president says that hes not done, and that hell continue to fight to end student debt despite obstacles from the court. On top of student debt, however, Brewington said that its important that Biden speaks to how America has become unaffordable for so many and that he pledges to address that.

[clip of Braxton Brewington] The truth is the economy doesnt work for working people. Wages are stagnant and way too low. We have a health care, housing and education system that riddles people with mountains of debt before they are able to do things like start a small business, or start a family or get a home. And so it would be great to hear an affirmation of the economy not working for working people. And then people are gaslit into thinking that this economy is great, when truly people are working 2 or 3 jobs to get ahead. People arent going to want to hear that.

Priyanka Aribindi: Yeah, definitely something he will be needing to address because there are a lot of differing feelings about numbers and figures that we see versus how people feel in the real world.

Read the rest here:
Progressives Explain What They Want Out Of Biden's Big Speech - Crooked

News + PoliticsDeclaring the end of progressive San Francisco is a bit premature

Only 20 percent of the votes have been counted. And we have heard this story before.

The San Francisco Chronicle and The San Francisco Standard have both declared that this is no longer a progressive city.

That seems a bit premature to me.

The early results from last nights election do, indeed, mostly favor the wing of the Democratic Party that calls itself moderate but is actually, on economic issues, pretty conservative. (I call neoliberals conservatives.)

Ballot measures supported by the mayor that do things like give the police more authority to spy on us all and require drug screening for welfare recipients are passing easily.

The conservatives are heading for control of the Democratic County Central Committee.

But lets hold on a moment here before we pronounce a dramatic shift in local politics.

These results are based on a turnout of 20.9 percent. Four out of every five registered voters have not had their votes counted. There are, as of Wednesday, more ballots still outstanding (110,000) than have been counted so far.

And according to all the maps I have seen, the early ballots, the ones they count first, are overwhelmingly from the most conservative parts of the city.

Look at the data: 22.5 percent of the Democratic votes have been counted. But almost 29 percent of the Republican votes are in. One out of every ten votes counted so far was cast by a Republicans, who represent 7.4 percent of the registered voters.

The early returns always skew conservative, since the more conservative voters tend to turn their ballots in early.

Im not suggesting that the final results will change dramaticallybut only a few hundred votes separate the winners and losers in the DCCC, and its likely that at least a few more progressives will make the cut.

In the end, though, we will have a fairly conservative outcomelargely because of who voted. The Chron noted that in an update this afternoon. The Department of Elections will release more results Thursday at 4pm.

As I said last night, many of the conservative voters turn out anyway, and the mayors attacks on the poor and promotion of the police brought out more of those voters. And the billionaire money made a huge difference, particularly in the DCCC race.

The biggest problem for the progressives, particularly younger voters, was the lack of anything at the top of the ticket to inspire them to vote.

People on the left in San Francisco, by and large, are not happy with Joe Biden. So, either as a protest or as a matter of disinterest, some of then stayed home.

Check out this chart, from the Department of Elections. Turnout is highest when theres something at the top of the ticketand that is also when progressives do best.

In November, if theres a candidate progressives can support running for mayor, theres a good chance that the presidential race and the mayors race will bring out enough voters on the left to make a big difference in the supes races and on ballot measures.

The impact of the tech workers who have moved to town in the past ten years is becoming real. At first, they werent voting; now, apparently, they are. We all knew this was going to happen; as longtime activist Calvin Welch likes to say, who lives here, votes here, and as displacement forces out the working class and communities of color, the city gets more conservative. The Yimby pro-market approach to issues like housing, and the pro-police approach to social problems, has become more appealing to the wealthier residents.

Maybe wave after wave of gentrification will ultimately usher in a neoliberal majority on the Board of Supes and a more conservative body politic.

But Ive been around a long time. In the 1980s, the city was run almost entirely by economic (and often social) conservatives like Mayor Dianne Feinstein, who had more than six call-up votes on an at-large board. Frank Jordan, a former police chief, was elected mayor in 1991. In the later 1990s, Mayor Willie Brown controlled the supes and his pro-developer politics dominated the city. The left was always in the minority and on the ropes.

Gavin Newsom get elected mayor by attacking poor people with a ballot measure called Care not Cash, which passed with a clear majority.

The DCCC used to be controlled by the old Brown-Burton Machine, which made sure that progressive Harry Britt, the heir to Harvey Milks supervisorial seat, lost a generational, defining Congressional race to machine candidate Nancy Pelosi.

Conservative election outcomes are not new. Neoliberal mayors have run San Francisco for much of past half century.

But recent years have shown a remarkable uprising of progressive candidates and causes. The young, organized, diverse left in this city is as strong as Ive seen it.

So after all this time, Im not ready to write the obituary for the progressive city.

Read more:
Declaring the end of progressive San Francisco is a bit premature - 48 hills - 48 Hills

Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA), using ruthless tactics belied by his cherubic face and upstanding public persona, has won the California Senate primary, according to the Associated Press.

Steve Garvey, a former professional baseball player, is projected to come in second almost entirely thanks to Schiffs maneuvering. The millions Schiff spent on ads boosting Garveys profile with Republican voters helped edge out Reps. Katie Porter (D-CA) and Barbara Lee (D-CA), both of whom would have posed an actual threat to Schiff in the general election (Californias jungle primary lets two candidates of the same party go through to the general).

Porter Sen. Elizabeth Warrens (D-MA) proteg, who gained a national profile by taking CEOs to task at committee hearings, armed with her omnipresent whiteboard and Lee famous for being the only member of Congress to vote against authorizing military force after 9/11 are both considered more progressive than Schiff. But a lack of left-wing consolidation around either woman, as well as the lack of involvement by key groups like EMILYs List, left the progressive flank of the party split. Schiff got the moderate lane to himself.

Schiff has also been incredibly successful in riding his high-profile role in Donald Trumps impeachment trial to national fame, becoming omnipresent on cable news. It didnt hurt that he won the endorsement of Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), a famed fundraiser.

Schiff will virtually certainly win the seat of the late Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) in the fall, taking over for Sen. Laphonza Butler (D-CA) who was, ironically, appointed by California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) so a Black woman would again represent the state. The state will now be without a woman in either of its two Senate seats for the first time in over 30 years.

While Schiff lacks the progressive bona fides of Porter and Lee, he does meet what will be a key Democratic litmus test for candidates for the upper chamber from here on out: He supports ending the filibuster, along with more expansive proposals to nix the Electoral College and expand the Supreme Court.

Porters loss may ultimately cost the most: Of the three, shes the only one that gave up a competitive House seat to run, in a cycle where the House majority could come down to the wire. The Cook Political Report currently rates her district leans Democratic.

Follow this link:
Schiff Beats Out Split Progressives On Glide Path To California Senate Seat - TPM

Toplines & Key Facts:

Primary Election

The Texas Democratic Primary election resulted in wins for almost all of our Progress Texas endorsed candidates. Michelle Vallejo took home 75% of the votes and will face incumbent Republican Monica De La Cruz in the November election for Congressional District 15.

State Representative Julie Johnson received 50.1% of the vote winning the Democratic nomination outright, in a crowded field of candidates, for Congressional District 32 (Congressman Colin Allreds seat).

Former math teacher and Dallas ISD high school principal Sam Eppler won the Democratic nomination for U.S. Congressional District 24 with 59% of the votes. He will face incumbent Beth Van Duyne in the November election, an uphill battle in a heavily gerrymandered district.

Labor union organizer Lauren Ashley Simmons received 50% of the votes in Texas House District 146, and will advance to the May 28 runoff election against incumbent State Representative Shawn Thierry. We are proud to continue supporting Lauren as she makes the final stretch to victory.

With just more than 59% of the votes, U.S. Congressman Colin Allred (TX- 32) won the Democratic nomination and will face Ted Cruz for the U.S. Senate this fall. We are extremely proud to have endorsed State Senator Roland Gutierrez, who ran a strong campaign that displayed fiery and steadfast support for the families of Uvalde. We look forward to whats next for Senator Gutierrez as he continues serving constituents in District 19 and pushing progress forward in Texas. We want to congratulate Congressman Allred for his win, and are excited to have a strong challenger for Ted Cruz. Allred is a skilled fundraiser with national Democratic backing who we plan to support to become the first Democratic candidate to win statewide office in Texas since the 90s.

Lastly, we want to thank Texas Railroad Commissioner candidate, Bill Burch, for a great primary election. It was a pleasure to get to know him, and we congratulate winner Katherine Culbert as she took the win as the Democratic nominee.

We congratulate all of the Democratic incumbents who won their elections outright, and look forward to electing more progressives and putting democracy over dictatorship in the general election.

Progress Texas supports a stable democracy, a dependable energy system, health care for all, an end to gun violence, a just immigration system, reproductive freedom, economic opportunity, workers rights, public education, and human decencyalong with democracy and human rights abroad. Its all on your ballot in November 2024.

Read this article:
Progressive Wins and Losses in Texas' Super Tuesday Primary - Progress Texas

In the weeks leading up to Tuesdays primary election, voters in two of Texas most populous counties were bombarded with warnings that their safety hinged on voting down two reformist district attorney candidates.

Incumbent Travis County District Attorney Jos Garza was lenient on rape and child sexual assault and put a political bullseye on police officers, his Democratic primary opponent Jeremy Sylestine alleged without evidence. Mailers sent by a dark money group baselessly accused Garza of filling Austins streets with pedophiles [and] killers.

In Harris County, incumbent District Attorney Kim Ogg, who was elected in 2016 on a reformist platform but later veered right and fought against cash bail reform, claimed she was facing a primary challenge from progressive Sean Teare because she did not agree to open the doors of the jail to violent offenders.

Despite the fearmongering, voters in both counties overwhelmingly chose the candidates promising to reform the criminal justice system. Garza and Teare were declared the winners on Tuesday night after early returns showed Garza with 67% of the vote and Teare with 75%.

Anonymous dark money organizations spent untold dollars promoting lies and peddling misinformation to try to scare voters into turning their backs on progress, Garza said in a Tuesday night victory speech. This community didnt take the bait, and Im so grateful to all of you for that.

Although both candidates will face Republican challengers in the November general election, they are running in counties that lean Democrat.

Garza, a former public defender, and labor and immigrant rights attorney, was elected Travis County district attorney in 2020. In an interview with The Appeal, he promised to prosecute police violence, cease prosecution of low-level drug offenses, oppose the construction of a new jail, work to protect immigrants from deportation, rarely seek prison sentences longer than 20 years, and never seek the death penalty.

Garza has made good on some of those promises. He indicted 19 police officers for assault during Black Lives Matter protests, started a restorative justice program, and expanded pretrial diversion programs to avoid conviction and incarceration for certain offenses. He also joined several prosecutors who pledged not to prosecute people for abortions after the Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wade.

Unsurprisingly, Republicans and law enforcement groups mobilized to oust Garza. Last year, state Republicans passed a law allowing prosecutors to be removed from office for declining to prosecute certain offenses. All prosecutors exercise discretion in choosing which cases to pursue, but this bill was clearly aimed at removing progressive prosecutors. Shortly after the bill passed, the Republican candidate who lost the 2020 district attorney race to Garza wrote a petition for Garzas removal. Harry, who was living in Florida, recruited Travis County residents to file the petition.

Sylestine, who started his career as a public defender and then spent 15 years in the Travis County district attorneys office, was recruited by a group of wealthy business people who insisted, inaccurately, that crime had risen in Austin under Garza and that his reforms were to blame. In fact, incidents of homicide, rape, robbery and burglary have deceased since Garza took office, according to Austin Police Department data. Sylestines campaign attracted support from Austins police union and a group called Save Austin Now, which pushed to reinstate criminal penalties for being homeless in public.

Elon Musk, the billionaire CEO of Tesla, which is headquartered in Austin, emailed his employees on Tuesday, encouraging them to vote for a new district attorney who will actually prosecute crimes. Musk, who also owns X (formerly Twitter), urged his 175.4 million followers on the platform to vote for a new DA, in a post that was deleted by Wednesday morning.

The truth is, Republicans tried to infiltrate our primary, Garza said during his Tuesday night speech. How did that work out for them?

Ogg, who lost her primary reelection on Tuesday, made history in 2016 when she became Harris Countys first openly gay top prosecutor and the countys first Democratic DA in decades. In a county known as the execution capital of the U.S., Ogg promised to reduce the use of the death penalty, supported misdemeanor bail reform and diversion programs for low-level marijuana possession cases.

Shortly after Ogg took office, a federal judge ruled that Harris Countys bail system was unconstitutional. Initially, Ogg praised the ruling and the class action lawsuit that brought about the decision. But in 2019, she reversed course, and fought against a proposedsettlement, which would largely end the use of cash bail for misdemeanor offenses.

Around that time, Ogg complained that too many dangerous misdemeanor offenders were avoiding pretrial detention, listing people accused of domestic violence, stalking and driving under the influence.

During her time in office, Oggs rhetoric increasingly aligned with the anti-reform camp. She accused the countys mostly Democratic judges of being too lenient in setting bail amounts.

We are fighting those bonds low, insufficient bonds daily in court, Ogg said in 2022. It has become the new battleground for public safety.

That year, Oggs office filed criminal charges in more than 4,500 cases that judges said lacked probable cause. Meanwhile, 28 people died in custody while awaiting trial in the overcrowded Harris County Jail. More than 40% of Oggs January campaign contributions came from the bail bond industry.

Teare, a former prosecutor in Oggs office, told Bolts, a criminal justice and voting rights publication, last month that Ogg fostered a culture of fear in her office where prosecutors are wary of dismissing weak cases, allowing pretrial release or offering plea deals for lower charges. On his website, Teare states his support for misdemeanor bail reform, linking to a study that found it did not lead to increased crime. Unlike Garza, Teare has not pledged to not seek the death penalty.

In an interview with Texas Monthly, Ogg accused Teare of running a campaign of political tricks backed by Jewish billionaire investor and philanthropist George Soros, a common talking point among right-wing conspiracy theorists and anti-Semites. Although a Soros-funded PAC contributed ad buys and polling help to Teare, Soros also spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to elect Ogg in 2016, Texas Monthly noted.

Go here to see the original:
Progressives Win Two Texas District Attorney Races - Yahoo! Voices