Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez On Local Elections, Tucker Carlson, Nancy Pelosi, Dems Rebranding + More

Wake up that ass in the morning The Breakfast Club, yes it's the most dangerous morning show in the world The Breakfast Club Charlemagne to God Angela Yee DJ Envy had to leave and we have a very special guest in the AOC building, what's up, how are you ? feeling like I'm good, I'm good, I feel good, I mean, it's election day, yeah, there's nerves, there's a lot of things, you know, there's a lot at stake, but I'm feeling, I'm feeling good, I'm feeling determined, well you. re I think you're feeling good I'm worried about New York you know yeah I was reading your opponent um Tina Forte has like a one percent chance yeah something crazy like that but you're here because obviously New York is in a It's a crazy time right now, what do you attribute that to, especially as you look at the gubernatorial race?

I mean, there's so much going on right now, I mean, just socially and everything we've been through in the last two years, I think a lot of that. is culminating in this moment, I think there are a lot of narratives in the media that culminate in this moment, I think a lot of people don't know what's up and what's down, and what's down is up, but you know it's being discussed. a lot about crime and public safety, health care, wages and union struggles, and all of this is leading us to this moment where we feel the stakes are high, and especially here in New York, we have Lee Zeldon running for governor.

I work with him. He's a member of Congress, right? and this guy isn't even trying to be almost like the way Mitt Romney is trying to position himself as a

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moderate Republican, he's not even trying to be like he's totally anti-choice, heh heh. He wants to roll back all the bail reform laws we've worked so hard to pass. He's, you know, Trump supporter, all that, yeah, election denier, all that, he was up, he was here, do you really think Democrats need a rebrand? The reason I say that is because I saw Stacey Abrams say it's not that voters have a lack of enthusiasm, it's that they have a lack of trust in the entire party and that's affecting all of them in their individual races, what do you think of that?

I think when I'm in these rooms with other members of Congress, I think there's a real struggle to try to get people to express the policies that they want to express in a way that appeals to everyone, as if that's the core problem. is that you have Democrats running in very, you know, less diverse, predominantly white and wealthy suburban communities, and then you have Democrats like me who represent the Bronx and those are two completely different universes with very different realities, that's an understatement, yes, yes, no. but seriously, I think it becomes difficult for the party to come together and say this is what we believe because they think some things are too extreme.

I think other things are too conservative or out of touch or whatever, and yeah, I mean, I think it can be difficult. I think it can be difficult to say what a party stands for, whereas a Republican party a lot of what a lot of the communities they represent are very unified, much

more

homogeneous, much more so if you were running for the Senate. in West Virginia, as a Democrat, do you think you would exactly beat me? I'm like me, a completely different thing, probably not, but you'd have to be a Joe Manchin type Democrat, so I wanted, here's the thing like yeah, but also a state. like West Virginia was blue, like the southern states were blue, not that some of them have been red for a long time, but some of them, a lot of places go red in the '90s, not the '50s, '60s or '70s, they went red in the '90s and a lot of it has to do with economic policy, a lot of it has to do with NAFTA, trade and a lot of anti-union policies, so you don't necessarily have to be like Joe Manchin, I think. that you can be more progressive in an economic sense, um, but um, but the fact of the matter is that he, you know, is the one who has represented West Virginia for a long time, why are people so afraid of progressives, why progressive messages become socialism and everything else, like why, well, I think our entire political system is beholden to big money.

Both parties have really large factions that really respond heavily to Wall Street, so there are incentives in both parties, like incentivizing 100 members of the Republican Party and then there. There are incentives and good parts of the Democratic party to label people who want to guarantee health care in this country as extreme, who want to pursue across-the-board pay increases that will lower the bottom line of many people on Wall Street to rate us. it's too extreme to brand us as Way Beyond The Pale, far left, etc., and there's too much incentive to equate someone like me with someone like Marjorie Taylor, green, right, as if we're supposed to be equally extreme on both sides, except that there is only one. of us here who don't believe that American democracy should exist and that's her right, but she emits white supremacists, yes, you don't emit prejudice, I'm sorry, no, but you know the right also uses that as a weapon because for many people it is feel the equality. like oppression, they're like wait a minute, what do you mean I can't, I can't have these things that I've always had that were unfair, so, you know, I think there's a universal incentive to flag? the things that we believe as extremists, but then you look at American history and you look at the greatest champions in American history and honestly, none of them were capitalists or Martin Luther King Ella Baker Malcolm X like these are all people.

They said we have to do it. Start to really consider a world where people come before profits more seriously and what that looks like now. What do you think is going on with Kathy Hoco versus Liz Eldon? How did she manage to close the gap the way she did? I mean, I watch a lot. of ads, but what do you think it is that attracts people when it comes to pitting them against each other? I think there are two things, I think there is, like the Republican operation itself and then I think there's also a media operation, um, when we talk. about this crime narrative lee zeldin i think he really ascended this crime narrative and complained about new york city and really leaned into this media narrative that new york city is like a terrible place riddled with crimes that you'll walk past his House, yeah, yeah, and you know, I think, but the thing is when you really look at what he's trying to do, he's trying to make this problem worse, not better, because it was the Democrats who In recent months we approved the first major weapon.

Reform bill in 30 years, right in this country, we were the ones that closed the boyfriend loophole where people who committed domestic violence could get a gun, which was one of the biggest drivers of gun violence in this country that he didn't want. to do that you know he's this he didn't do that you know it was really us and the driver's seat there were Republicans who got on board with that but it didn't happen until the Democrats were in charge and not only that but um . but when you look at what's driving a lot of the gun violence in New York City, it's guns that don't come from New York state, but from red states that have rolled back all of their gun protections coming from Georgia, South Carolina, Ohio. and lee zeldin is trying to make new york gun laws like those states which will make our shootings explode even more but why has he caught up?

You know, in these surveys, I think the media, if you look at the reports on the actual level of crime and any changes in the level of crime are in no way consistent with the explosion in media reports about the crime and I want to make it clear that any level of crime affects a family, it is a trauma, but there is really no justification for reporting on these things going up three four. five hundred percent, which affects perception, a lot of people think that crime has gone up when in reality we see that shootings have gone down, when we see that the huge indicators of the most violent crimes in New York City have gone down.

Crime on the subway has increased, but let's also keep in mind that Crime on the subway increased after they sent so many more officers to the subway system, which also tells us from a political perspective that adding more police officers to the subway does not solve this problem, so there are other things that can solve this problem. We had the governor. Here last weekend, one thing that worries me about some Democrats is that they still seem to feel like they can play nice with the fascists, yes, they are still talking about the Republican Party like they are the good old conservatives.

They grew up like this, this is different and that worries me, it's like you can't see it as it is, you know it and you can't say it. I'm like, uh, yeah, I mean, it's hard because, um, I think. Some people feel caught between a rock and a hard place, like they're running in these areas where it may be more competitive and have a lot more Republicans, but I think there's an instinct there to be nice and try to play games. K to win people over, but the cost of that is that we're normalizing, that's right, more and more abnormal erratic violent behavior and it's like they're increasingly treating it like these people are rational and they're actually not.

Lee zeldin didn't want to acknowledge that he voted and wanted to overturn the US presidential election so should someone run for office if he's not even going to acknowledge the results of an election why should people acknowledge him? Ask Ed. God forbid he wins, why should he expect his election results to be recognized if he refuses to recognize any election results he doesn't like? Do you think the whole system is not fair, but if you win, it is fair? sense and that's their whole game and I think it's very important that people also hear that because of mail-in ballots and early voting, many states have passed laws that don't allow those ballots to be opened until Election Day, which means that those ballots are not counted and therefore there are many races that will not be called tonight because many of the ballots are mailed and the Republicans have already indicated that, as some of the top Republican lawyers and Ya They're ramping up this rhetoric that they're going to try to declare victory early or that any race that's not declared by the end of tonight is going to be suspect and that they're going to try, you know. essentially sets up this claim that they're going to try to say it was stolen, that's what Carrie looks like she's running for governor in Arizona, she was saying that she wins no matter what the results are, she's not going to say that she will. accept whatever the results are, she will only accept it if she wins and this is what fascism looks like, this is what fascism looks like, that's what it is, it doesn't matter how you vote, I win, I win or I lose, I win and it's very important that let's call that because this is the dangerous thing about that, let's say Carrie wins, Carrie Lake loses today because of her rhetoric, she's setting people up to have a little God forbid mini on January 6th in state capitals all over the country.

I mean, they're already in Arizona with the guns. trying to exactly, they're here like this, this is what Jim Crow is like, you know, people talk about fascism, they talk about, you know, Nazism, Nazism, but you know, even then, a lot of fascist movements in the early 19th century were inspired by Jim Crow. The fact of South America and the woman you're competing against she was there in January, she was there in January, so what was she doing there? As an insurrectionist, she does not recognize the results of the election and the thing is, if these people are running here in New York City, they are running everywhere.

I don't even think that should be allowed, like they can't be allowed to run for office. If on January 6th you were at the Capitol rioting and endangering people's lives, think about being black and brown and if you have certain things on your record, you're not even eligible for certain jobs, but they can apply for the

elections

, tell me how you got Ron. DeSantis sent people arresting black men who fulfilled their debt to society, served their time, got out, want to reestablish their lives and be productive members of society and he's here arresting people and defending things like Florida basically has uh kept taxes

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and that's why she's here arresting people whether it's right or wrong the fact is she's scaring people enough to not show up because they're afraid so tell me how you have Rhonda Santos here arresting people black. and brown men in the state of Florida, people in general, and then you have people here who were rushing to storm the capital on January 6th and are actually running for office in record numbers right now, like you're at McDonald's . and you do a tour at McDonald's andyou hit someone, you can't go to work at McDonald's after that, no and I don't like it, you know what I'm saying, I don't see how you can get a job in Congress if you're in public housing and you live in public housing and You have a friend who comes and when you leave, your friend is stopped and frisked and discovers that there is some grass on top that you could have, you could be denied housing. for the rest of your life.

Wow, you know, we actually have a bill that tries to change this, but that's the bar. That's the standard that so many black and brown and poor communities are held to, but I mean this is really a story of two. Americas and there is a lot of fear when talking about race and I think sometimes this is one of the One of the problems we have as a party is that we get too scared and when you look at some of the most controversial issues that we have as a country and some of the issues The most controversial issues that I think the Democratic Party struggles with are issues of race when they talk about crime and mass incarceration and immigration, these are like the three issues that there seem to be no good answers to because we have a problem with the race debate. and how it translates into policies in this country.

I'm glad you said that because when you hear it, you hear the vice president or Mr. Clyburn say that racism when you ask them about racism exists in this country and they say, oh well, no. Not really or whatever, how does that affect legislation when there is race-based legislation that relates to these deaths? I think what I think it is is when people struggle to connect the dots. I think there are a lot of people who will recognize that racism exists and like this theory, like yeah, it exists, it's a concept, you know, but I think people have a hard time connecting the dots on how it shows up in policy because they'll claim that a lot of things are not racist or if you look at our mass incarceration system, our prison system and if you look at the public safety debates and everyone seems like they're just trying to compete to meet Republican rhetoric, which is that the way that crime is reduced is, in quotes, tough. on crime the only policy to make us safer is to simply free up thousands more cops to skyrocket police budgets that way it's the only answer when we know for sure there is no evidence, very little or often no evidence .

There is evidence that really supports that this action, that those policy responses actually make us safer, but there are other policy responses that do make us safer. how all these things are portrayed in the media, but I feel like we need to portray that more because I don't feel like the message is surprising, yes, the progress that has been made, we hear a lot of negative things, yes, and no. Listen to a lot of what's going on so you might not hear that, yeah exactly, and I think it's also because a lot of people want to avoid that and that's what I'm talking about, like the Republicans define the area and then the Democrats .

It's like we fall into this trap every time instead of being able to stand firm on the policies we've passed. I mean, it's also a lived experience because if I hear that shootings have decreased by 36, but every time I turn on the news I see shootings. or I'm listening to it discreetly. I think I don't believe that exactly and it's also because the area is being flooded with all these reports that are not consistent, the volume of reports is really not consistent with the volume of changes that we are seeing on the ground and that's when I think it's important to talk about how the media is not as objective as an observer, no, not at all, they are an active participant in our politics, it is and I have done that.

I saw it from day one, I mean the night I was elected, I was actually laughing because I never saw this because like I was in the Bronx, I didn't see all the TV media coverage outside of the

local

news . like that immediate night and you know, months later someone showed me a clip from I don't know like NBC or something, it was Brian Williams and they showed this clip and he was like breaking news, this far left radical Social this is not Fox News, right, these are the main media outlets, right, these are the main media outlets, like five minutes after I was elected.

The Jig was standing as it had been from the beginning. They saw what we were fighting for. They saw that we want to guarantee medical care. They saw that we wanted public universities to be free in this country. They saw that we want to support a strong labor movement and they said no, we're going to frame her as far left as the contrast to which all the quote-unquote moderates fell apart. like you know more sensible rational people will be confronted instead of taking seriously what we were saying correctly and so and so, just like they played an active role there, are playing an active role in their decision to exploit their coverage on the crime in a way that is completely inconsistent and disproportionate to reality makes them active participants and also on social media because they are not checking us.

Twitter and Facebook are not trying to point out any kind of misinformation that's going on between In this election I saw you on Twitter arguing with Elon Musk. Do you plan to get out of there? I know you have a lot of followers there, so it's important that you provide the information you need, but at the same time. You're like? I don't know this platform anymore. I mean, for me it will be. We will have to see. You have a billionaire who decided that he wants another toy in his sandbox, um, but he's very, you know, he's into a lot. you're in financial trouble right now, like you bought this for a lot more money at an overvalued price and now you're going to take on a lot of debt to buy Twitter and now you're in a place where you're struggling to figure out how to make more money from this.

Are you going to pay eight dollars a month? No, why would you give eight dollars to a billionaire? No, you are underestimating the stupidity of America. They're definitely going to give that man eight dollars. dollars for a check for a verified check they are going to do it no, no I now said that everything you say is inaccurate so how do we know that what you just said is accurate? Well, then no, I mean, it's good, it's good. It's a good question because many people in my position do wrong things. I would say that it is important to analyze the numbers for someone in my position, a politician, to make a correct statement: murders have increased or crime has increased.

Until now it is not enough to say that it is okay, crime has increased and then, because from that objective analysis people will say yes, but it is important to investigate, delve into what is in those numbers, yes, cry for what It happened when a lot of people went up. as of 2020, like a lot of the things they talk about, they say crime increased from 2020 when we are all in our house and no one was outside, so almost any level of crime will be higher than it was when we were all at home and there are a lot of statistics that are based on that so when you look at some of the shootings in the city, when I talk about what's happening, I'm talking about recent statistics from October 2022 and um and we can look that up in New York City The NYPD has a database called compstat, you can look things up there, but I also think it's important to follow real experts in these fields and look, I mean, you guys had olayemi um, yeah, La love, you know, and I'm a big fan of her work and what she does studying Rikers Rikers is in my Congressional layout and, um, when you follow experts in these fields, they can break It's better to write down some of these numbers so you, but if your main source of statistics is a politician, you know it's important that we cite our facts, but we also need to understand the space a little better and You know, I think one of the gifts of social media is that you don't have to read the news every day to do that.

I mean, one of the gifts of Twitter is that when you follow reputable people, you have a lot of reputation. People and I go out of there and go find, yes, other sources and reputable people cite their sources and usually there will be multiple sources, so that's really what we need to look at, we need to incorporate a lot more thinking. critical of our environment because people will be here saying anything, literally anything that is correct when we say things like democracy is on the ballot or, you know, I like to say that this country is rapidly approaching fascism.

Can you break that down in terms of the Bronx because I don't think so? I don't think, I don't think people understand what we're saying, I was, I was saying the same thing as when people say that democracy is on the ballot or that our democracy is on the line that doesn't communicate the point. we're in and I think the reason people use those terms is because they don't want to use that word fascism, they don't want to say that word because it sounds, quote, alarmist, but they called us alarmists when they said Roe v Wade was on the verge of being repealed they said oh no, like you're exaggerating they said we were exaggerating when we said we didn't think Trump was going to acknowledge his loss in the election, they did They didn't take us seriously when we said we were saying that on the 6th January was going to be violent and they didn't believe us.

We have to use this word fascism and what does fascism mean? There is a kind of academic term for fascism. but then there's also the living reality and, in terms of this living reality, a lot of this is about our individual power being taken away, period, real fascism is really, you know, in this country American fascism is really the union main force of white supremacy. with just oligarchy and unfettered capitalism and we see it in how it plays out because when you look at who finances the far right in this country it's the billionaires, billionaires, you have Elon Musk here supporting and telling people to vote for a political party. that they will not recognize the results of an election, because once they get into power, they will write the checks, they will let the fossil fuel industry burn us to ashes, they will allow the private prison industry to explode, which they did, they will and that also includes our prison system includes both our immigration cultural system and our internal cultural system.

I mean, it's really just about allowing all of this to play out unfettered and the way they retain the political power to do that is by rallying this white fearmongering and they say to protect your own you need to support us like racism It was a big cheering factor but it also pays dividends, that's why you see billionaire people like the Mercers, that's why you see the Koch brothers, that's why you see uh, Elon Musk, that's why you see all these people aligning themselves with the right. Are you alarmed by this announcement that Donald Trump will make next week?

I mean, alarmed, like yeah, I mean, I guess surprised, no, no, I'm not surprised, alarm him. It's always alarming, this person is a violent person and will do whatever it takes, including throwing his own vice president under the bus and potentially, you know, ending his life like on January 6, these people came out . came to hurt Mike Pence and that was his own vice president and he was here like whatever happens, you know, this is a dangerous person who is also highly leveraged, we still don't understand his full financial picture, but it certainly seems that financially He is very attentive to many interests that are not those of the people of the United States and he will do whatever it takes to get to the top.

Do you think they will accuse him of anything? I mean, I think. While the case is there, I think the Justice Department would certainly have a case for multiple charges, including obstruction of justice, so if or when they charge him will be significant, there is some speculation as to why they would charge him. is trying. to announce voice charges at this time is to avoid charges or try to complicate and delay the Department of Justice from issuing charges. I don't think the Department of Justice knows how to punish that level of privilege because you know that this system is designed to protect that level of privilege.

It's true, it's true. I mean, there was a lot of time, so I mean how much time was spent - months, if not over a year - arguing and shaking hands over whether the President of the United States can be impeached. States that committed a crime or a former president that committed a crime and even the time it took to resolve that issue really speaks to how much impunity many positions of power have and that even extends to policing, yes, because they still have qualified immunity in this country, we can't even revoke it. I talked to Michael Cohen and he told me that, you know, I said if it was Obama they would have just impeached him and all he said was no, it's because he's a president who has nothing to do. that he has to do with race, I mean, I think if Obama did the things that Trump did, I agree, it wouldn't be the same, I agree, that's also howRepublicans act, yeah, I feel like Democrats tend to be, you know. very by the books I don't want to do this I want to make sure we can work together Republicans are like we're not working jobs it's not working it never worked it never worked and it's this idea that like you know like we're just being nice to them this is what they do, they take everything you give them and then they run with it like there's nothing, especially now, I mean, I think it's been that way for a long time, but especially now more than ever, like these aren't. people who are interested and the people who do, the few Republicans who do come out and try to work with the Democrats, they do it right away, yeah, it's over, yeah, what do you think of Nancy Pelosi and her husband?

Because I feel like there's not a lot of sympathy for something like that that should never have happened, but that's alarming. Me too, yeah, well, I mean, the thing is, it goes beyond sympathy, right? I mean, first of all, it's horrible what happened to her and what happened to her husband and her family, but what's not talked about, you know a lot about it when it's being discussed, it's like, oh, look at this Terrible thing that happened to this woman and her family. There was no politically motivated and radicalized assassination attempt on the third person in line for the presidency of the United States of America. through Fox News and right-wing circles there is a major media outlet, there is a major news channel that is fueling political violence in this country and we act as if it is normal, it is not normal, as I can tell you, 110, one of The biggest sources of death threats I get are Tucker Carlson, wow, every time that guy puts my name in his mouth the next day, I mean, this is what stochastic terrorism is, it's that indirect, it's like when you use a very large platform to turn up the heat and target an individual until something happens and then when something happens because it's indirect, you say oh, I had nothing to do with that, right?

Tucker Carlson God forbid anything happens, he plays a huge role in political violence like he comes to his doorstep. specifically no, I mean it's not something that happens, what does it mean to you or just in the country period to me, to the elected officials, any of their targets, any of their targets, because it's not even just the elected officials to whom he will address people who have like other reporters, but He will also address activists and defenders who also do not have resources or a protective infrastructure and it is extremely dangerous with this heat absolutely and you know that he was part of January 6, when just like the violence that occurred, so it played a role in How do you protect yourself against that?

Can you sue or, as a public figure and elected official, do you really not get the same protection? So, since the bar for defamation is so much higher, there are a lot of things that can be said. In the public sphere, just because someone says something bad about me doesn't mean he can go out and sue them, even if someone lies about me I can't really sue them and I think that's part of what he uses. as a shield, he knows he's targeting a legal class that can't really issue consequences and he uses it to generate an enormous amount of violence and all the while this guy cries like every time there's someone around the corner who you feel like it.

It's weird, you know, but he doesn't know something. I mean, I'm sure he's going to use this on his show, so yeah, I shouldn't say anything directly to him if I mean letting him use it as Tucker. whatever and you'll see in the meantime, sorry, you were saying while he cries every time someone is around, yeah, yeah, but I remember someone put his address there once or something, yeah, but the thing is like the thing is . that what really drives me crazy is that he drives a lot of this violence and threat, but in the meantime, I'm the one who has to pay for my own safety as a result of his actions, like I have to raise money for my own security. how tattered this system is and what happens if you speak up and you can't raise funds for your own safety, then you literally hide to be safe, whether you hide for a day or two days or a week, but then how much more Are we going to extend that?

And that is when we like the clarity of what we are experiencing begins to come into focus when people who criticize systems of power have to hide. Racial minorities are targeted to drive turnout because we know that targeting immigrants who speak out about crime drives turnout on the other side when we mischaracterize and play on stereotypes, um, when there are people who say it doesn't matter what happens. With the election results, I won't. I'll take it, I win when you have DHS reports that just came out last week showing that DHS was trying to manufacture terrorism under Trump, like saying BLM tracks people.

I mean, this is what the seeds of a blossoming fascist state look like. Yes, that is why we need to participate in this vote. I understand that, listen, not all Democrats are the same, sometimes for better, sometimes for worse, and I understand that it may seem like a lot of nonsense on your ballot, but to me I would rather have an election than no election and that is the direction in which these people want to take us to no election a true one party state one party state that's why I really enjoy listening to you because you say things that I feel like no one else is saying out loud like everything you said, that political violence is a hallmark of fascism, we know, like denying elections, a hallmark of fascism, but as you said, people are afraid to pronounce that word as if they were not talking about the urgency of the moment, yes, and so we try. using this kind of flowery language of similar democracies on the ballot, but that doesn't no, that doesn't connect like people don't know what that means democracy on the ballot, of course, I'm voting, you know, we like it.

I have to paint the picture here and they do it right, like they're always painting these scary pictures and I'm not even saying we vote out of fear, but they're constantly creating these Boogeyman so people will vote against it and I won't do it again. . I don't think we necessarily rely on fear or fear of drama, but I think we need to be clear about what's at stake and I also think that, on the other hand, we need to be clear about what we're going to do with power. we're going to send two more senators tonight and we're going to be able to occupy the chamber we're going to be able to codify Roe v Wade in this country, will they?

I mean, President Obama said he didn't do it right, he didn't have a Senate, that would do it and well, he did it in numbers, but you know, usually for at least four months he gave the numbers, yeah, like that which I mean, well, that's the thing is that he, he, the Democratic Party, I mean, this has always been this way, that's why I. get into trouble because I'm talking about the conservatism of the Democratic Party and that many times it has been more conservative than people think. We didn't have the votes to codify Roe v Wade because Democrats did not support codifying Roe v Wade under Obama. presidency that he may have, you know, President Obama may have had it, but he didn't have a Democratic Senate like Joe Manchin had and he had a lot more people like him now, now he has Raphael Warna Warnock Ossoff, people in the toughest races. , John Fetterman, people in the most difficult races who have already said that they are committed to passing Roe v you know, codifying Roe v Wade and so we get those that we're going to be able to do, that we hold the house, we're going to be able to do that, but We also need to engage people and be vocal about more because it's important that they don't just vote for any Democrat like we have to ask them if they're going to codify Roe v Wade, that's right, like we have to. press people on the issues because if they're not clear then they're giving themselves a way out, but when we do the actual counting we can get there, but you know, it does, it seems like this isn't even about debating taxes.

Furthermore, this goes far beyond that and the fact that people's actual civil rights and liberties are at stake is another indicator that we are in this dangerous place in the country. I agree with you and it's interesting that you know that I've been saying that message has been hurting Democrats, as Democrats have focused on things like the economy instead of abortion, what do you think about that? Well, you know, we've been pushing, especially the progressives in the party, we've been pushing for a long time. More aggressive economic policy, um, but that requires addressing Wall Street and I think it's funny because sometimes I think some moderate parts of the party say they can't have their cake and eat it too, they can't fight more aggressive economic policies. when we govern and then complain that we are not talking enough about economics when we run for office like we did but we did a lot of things but we need to do a lot more like we were able to cap the price of insulin from 35 to 35 a month If you have Medicare you are insured, but what about people who don't have insurance?

But we were also able to limit the prices of your prescription drugs if you have Medicare. be more than two thousand dollars a year starting in January we are in the house we have passed a minimum wage of 15 now at this moment I feel that it needs to be 23 personally but we passed that, we have been able to and We passed the inflation reduction law and therefore We have been able to do that, we are creating nine million climate jobs in this country just because of the climate. We started doing it in August, but if we want to base it on the economy, then maybe we'll stop trying. to reduce the amount of student loan forgiveness that we're doing, maybe we'll try to stop talking down to, you know, like the minimum wage, it was the Democrats that voted against the increases, some Democrats in the Senate voted against it. of the minimum wage increase, so you know, I My recommendation is for people who are trying to blame the left, I mean, maybe listen to the left when we try to do things like expand health care and raise wages.

I have a couple more questions, I know you. I had to go back in July, people said you arranged your arrest, what was going on in that situation, no, I have my citation, I was arrested, when you are arrested whether you are handcuffed or not, it is standard practice, especially as an activist . that you put your hands back so you don't get caught for resisting or something and then Andy from the Bronx and I'm from the Bronx and I represent Rikers like Anne's like she's a woman of color, you know. I grew up in New York City to stop and frisk, like you don't get caught on more charges than what you're already caught, so, but I got arrested, I got prosecuted, and like you know, people call it performative or you know. things like that, but there are consequences like if I leave my office, I can't get it, I'll have trouble getting a security clearance again, like hmm, there are real implications, it's not just that, quote, you get arrested and you bounce and you pay 50 or Whatever there is now, there's a precedent now and we know it as people of color: since you're 15, you get pulled over by the police once and then all of a sudden, like it's all in your life, so you know . and it's not to equate them, I'm not saying I'm equating my life with that, but it's to say it's nothing and for the people who call activism performative, all activism has been performative in this country is designed to create. flashpoints of reaction and discussion and we need to talk about the fact that women in the states are and can be arrested for exercising their human right to bodily autonomy.

That's right now, we're not worried about your race, you have 99 possibilities. to win, but give us a prediction for the country, how do you think the underdogs will perform well? I'll start right, I'll start in New York if you're voting, if you haven't voted in New York yet. It turns out, um, you can go to iwillvote.com to find your polling place, your polling place and my recommendation is to vote along the New York Working Families Party Line, we are very fortunate to have Fusion voting, so if you vote for Tonto, you know I'm a Democratic candidate and I'm a Working Families Party candidate, all those votes get funneled to the same candidate in the end and the job fits if you think the Democratic Party should fight harder and do more to work. people vote along the WFP line and send that message as to what we are going to see tonight.

I really like it, on the one hand, I think people are sometimes being much more pessimistic than they are then. I think what can happen, but I think the polls are so wrong that I see Joe Biden saying we could lose the chamber and we might as well here's the thing right now. The Democrats are projected or, you know, statistically, quote-unquote, they're supposed to lose like 20-something seats, so there's a world where we outperform everything and we still don't hold the majority in terms of surveys, but we also turn out at this moment, it is breaking manyprojections and you know who is breaking them, in particular, the young people, right?

The young people who always speak badly about us. They always call us naive, they always say we didn't turn out to vote, they always say you know we didn't turn out, we are turning out in record numbers and by 2024, Millennials and Gen Z will outnumber people in the electorate. boom ages, you know people Baby Boomers and up, so if we really get out there and use this power, it's very possible that we could see a dramatic change in our politics in two, three, four years if we can hold on to our democracy, And you know. I think a lot of the turnout numbers are breaking some of the data from the early polls and it's really important that we don't listen to the polls as a determination, like, oh, it won't matter if I come to you.

It makes me feel like we have to go, we have to go when you are pessimistic and think this could happen. It makes me feel more like I have to make sure I know and tell other people to go and yes. I'd rather do that than think, oh, we're going to win and if you're in Nevada, for example, the polls are within the margin of error, like they're at 50.4, they're like they're within one, two, three points. and what determines the determination is the participation and when the people who are not expected to attend, that's literally how I won my race, well, I won my rate, my polls had me like 35 points behind or down like or at 35, you know , it has been a little bit, but I was down, it was like 35 points and the reason why the polls were so wrong and so broken in my career is because I came out as poor people, I came out as young people, I came out as people from the class worker and me.

It turned out to be black and brown people and it turned out that you also meet young white people in a way that broke all the models, they don't count on us to attend, so yes, the survey is going to say that we are not going to lose anything. This is going to happen, but if you are a person who is usually excluded from our Democratic process and you vote, you break this system and you break what is predicted, living proof, yes, that's right and it wasn't just us, so we went out and did it . Again with Jamal Bowman ousted Jamal ousted a 20-something incumbent who was one of the most powerful people in the House of Representatives and we did it over and over and over again, so it's possible, but we have to believe that really we matter. because we do it if there's a red wave God forbid how close we are to ultimate democracy if that happens tonight um, you know, I think what's going to be a determinant is so close that the real one of the real fears here is that you know we have a Democratic president and so if we have a Democratic president and especially if we can make gains in the Senate or even keep the Senate, there is a limit to the bad things that Republicans can do, but they can inflict many Damage that they already said because the expense originates in the house.

They said they will not authorize the debt ceiling, a debt limit that would be catastrophic not only for the U.S. economy but for the global economy. They will do it to cut Social Security and Medicare. but the real fear in terms of our democracy is would they certify the 2024 election if it turns out in such a way that if they don't win it, basically that's the real fear here, and you know, I know there's legislation that has I've been going around Congress. to try to reinforce that protocol that was basically exploited on January 6, where it allowed people to believe in this illusion that Mike Pence had the power to not authorize the election, which is simply not true, but you know if that doesn't is fulfilled, then we have a very immediate Democratic risk in the little D, our democracy is that they do not vote to certify any election that they do not win, wow, that is real and they have already indicated it as such in places like Wisconsin and the rhetoric like the from Harry Lakes openly say that if you let us win this time, a Republican will never lose again, that's right, and that's not because they didn't actually lose because they won't give in and it's because they will try to take things by force and ​In the past they have said it with us, all of you, fascism, that's why you have to go, yes, right now, and then, you know, I talk about organization. the right of season, the right of low season and the right of season with elections, but what we do with those elections also matters, so it is important that people not only vote but also participate in a fight of some kind about whether it is important or not. you whether it's housing and see if there are housing organizing tenant unions forming in your area whether it's your workplace unionizing whether you know you're being exploited in your workplace whether it's criminal justice and whether whether you know how to organize abolitionists, I think It's important for people to get involved in the community and at the end of the day, that's our biggest long-term defense of this is that when we get involved in the community, it's a lot harder for these lives. travel the way we live.

It's such an exploitative time in history where people are very isolated and they're isolated because you have to get up first thing in the morning to go to work, work one shift, two shifts, come back, sleep, eat, and you do it. everything again and there is no time to take communion and in the past that's how it was this was the labor movement uh they demand eight hours of rest eight hours of work eight hours for whatever you want and whatever you want is when is that fabric is when you are in Girl Scouts is when you're at Elks club meetings, that's all kind of old school stuff that we think about at community meetings, like being involved in the community is one of our best defenses, so my recommendation to people is that they actually do that work. and it's not enough to be on Twitter like who you're with in person what you're building and it could be literally anything it doesn't have to be as quote-unquote explicitly political as people think it is even if you're just doing a food drive, even if You're just, you know, there's a lot of things that we do that people think aren't political, but they are, and when you participate in any way, even as a volunteer, you're building that social situation.

Fabric and you are inoculating yourself against that politics of division that is ALC, thank you for joining us today, of course, thank you and I'm going to go vote now, yes, let's do it. Polls open and close at 9:00 p.m. m. In New York State, it's fine. it's AOC it's The Breakfast Club thank you all