WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.760 --> 00:00:02.840 I don't want to give them my fear. I'm not 2 00:00:02.880 --> 00:00:04.920 going to give them my fear. I'm like, if you 3 00:00:04.960 --> 00:00:08.840 want to come, come because this is like this monster 4 00:00:09.160 --> 00:00:15.360 that feeds on our terror, and what they represent are 5 00:00:15.520 --> 00:00:22.680 people who eat fear. They sustain themselves on anxiety, and 6 00:00:23.520 --> 00:00:25.079 I'm not going to give them that. 7 00:00:29.280 --> 00:00:33.960 From Futuro Media and RX, It's Latino USA. I'm Mariao Posa. 8 00:00:34.240 --> 00:00:48.159 Today a conversation with Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio Cortez aka aoc SO. 9 00:00:48.280 --> 00:00:51.520 Dear listener, We're just a few days into President Donald 10 00:00:51.560 --> 00:00:57.000 Trump's second term, and well, it's been pretty intense tonight. 11 00:00:57.120 --> 00:01:01.040 President Trump's cracked down on illegal immigration is expanding not 12 00:01:01.080 --> 00:01:04.800 just ice officers, but other federal law enforcement agencies, sweeping 13 00:01:04.840 --> 00:01:05.759 across the country. 14 00:01:05.920 --> 00:01:09.199 We're going to be changing the name of the Gulf 15 00:01:09.280 --> 00:01:12.479 of Mexico to the Gulf of America. 16 00:01:12.760 --> 00:01:16.160 President Trump has signed several executive orders to reshape the military, 17 00:01:16.240 --> 00:01:19.600 including directive banning transgender service members. 18 00:01:21.520 --> 00:01:23.959 So on today's show, we're going to speak with someone 19 00:01:24.280 --> 00:01:28.040 who's been sounding off against Republican Donald Trump for years, 20 00:01:28.640 --> 00:01:32.480 but someone who's also criticized her own party, the Democrats, 21 00:01:33.000 --> 00:01:37.480 and that's Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio Grtez, who represents parts of 22 00:01:37.560 --> 00:01:40.839 Queens and also parts of the Bronx in New York City. 23 00:01:41.800 --> 00:01:42.720 Are you good? 24 00:01:43.440 --> 00:01:45.600 God? I mean considering right. 25 00:01:46.680 --> 00:01:49.560 We hadn't seen each other since twenty twenty one, that 26 00:01:49.680 --> 00:01:53.280 was shortly after the January sixth attack on the Capitol. 27 00:01:54.560 --> 00:01:58.880 This time we sat down in a small studio in Astoria, Queens, 28 00:01:59.160 --> 00:02:01.560 and we got to get to talk about what went 29 00:02:01.600 --> 00:02:04.360 wrong for the Democrats in the twenty twenty four election, 30 00:02:05.120 --> 00:02:09.160 also what Trump's return to the White House means for everybody. 31 00:02:09.880 --> 00:02:12.360 And at the same time we talked about the beauty 32 00:02:12.440 --> 00:02:16.240 and value that immigrants bring to the United States. But 33 00:02:16.360 --> 00:02:19.640 we started our conversation with something that was breaking in 34 00:02:19.680 --> 00:02:23.320 the news earlier that same morning. It was a video 35 00:02:23.360 --> 00:02:26.640 posted to social media of the new Department of Homeland 36 00:02:26.639 --> 00:02:31.120 Security Secretary Christy Nome in New York City. The video 37 00:02:31.200 --> 00:02:35.760 shows Immigration and Customs enforcement taking a man into custody. 38 00:02:36.120 --> 00:02:39.679 It was an arrest that, according to DHS, was part 39 00:02:39.760 --> 00:02:45.320 of a wider ice operation in the city. So your 40 00:02:45.360 --> 00:02:49.000 response to it's happening here in a so called sanctuary city. 41 00:02:49.680 --> 00:02:56.000 This administration is much more prepared and planned this time around, 42 00:02:56.120 --> 00:02:59.840 in terms of the kinds of chaos that they're trying 43 00:02:59.840 --> 00:03:06.919 to unleash. More than legal programs, more than policy, They 44 00:03:06.919 --> 00:03:10.560 are trying to invoke fear. This is for show, and 45 00:03:10.600 --> 00:03:14.280 so they bring in a bunch of agents. They bring 46 00:03:14.360 --> 00:03:18.400 in this whole army of people for television, all of 47 00:03:18.440 --> 00:03:20.320 this imagery, in order to invoke fear. 48 00:03:20.440 --> 00:03:21.400 The fear is real. 49 00:03:22.440 --> 00:03:26.960 That is how authoritarianism works. These are the tools to 50 00:03:27.000 --> 00:03:31.800 get us to sacrifice and surrender our civil liberties more 51 00:03:31.840 --> 00:03:33.480 than they take them. 52 00:03:34.480 --> 00:03:37.760 So you remember the last time we spoke in the Bronx. 53 00:03:38.000 --> 00:03:40.880 We had a great conversation, but I remember that I 54 00:03:40.960 --> 00:03:46.240 was like, oh my god, AOC, she's dealing with stuff. Yeah, 55 00:03:46.440 --> 00:03:50.040 And what happened was that it was months after January sixth. Yeah, 56 00:03:50.080 --> 00:03:53.480 so tell us where you are right now, considering that 57 00:03:54.160 --> 00:03:57.520 Donald Trump has now pardoned. Yeah, the people who were 58 00:03:57.560 --> 00:04:00.080 coming after you, and. 59 00:04:00.120 --> 00:04:01.680 That day changed me. 60 00:04:02.200 --> 00:04:05.560 It just there was a before that day and there 61 00:04:05.600 --> 00:04:12.440 wasn't after that day. And I had a moment where 62 00:04:12.640 --> 00:04:16.560 I very concretely believed that I was going to die. 63 00:04:17.160 --> 00:04:19.640 I was locked in a bathroom. There was banging on 64 00:04:19.680 --> 00:04:21.400 the door, and I didn't know who's on the other side, 65 00:04:21.600 --> 00:04:24.680 I feel like my mind took whole inventory of my 66 00:04:24.760 --> 00:04:27.960 life and was like almost making peace with the fact 67 00:04:27.960 --> 00:04:33.440 that this was about to happen. I felt like afterwards 68 00:04:34.040 --> 00:04:37.479 I had a lot of things that I needed to 69 00:04:39.279 --> 00:04:43.800 reflect on, and in some ways it was like kind 70 00:04:43.839 --> 00:04:47.080 of a gift, but in other ways it was very 71 00:04:47.160 --> 00:04:51.040 challenging and very very difficult. But I think now, like 72 00:04:51.480 --> 00:04:51.920 I need. 73 00:04:51.800 --> 00:04:52.359 To interrupt you. 74 00:04:52.400 --> 00:04:54.320 When you say this was a bit of a gift, 75 00:04:54.640 --> 00:04:58.480 you're saying that kind of having to experience that confrontation 76 00:04:58.600 --> 00:05:01.400 with life death, but also so looking at the trauma 77 00:05:02.160 --> 00:05:04.760 that you then had to face and grow from. 78 00:05:04.839 --> 00:05:06.360 So help us to understand that. 79 00:05:06.839 --> 00:05:09.360 So, my dad died at a very young age when 80 00:05:09.400 --> 00:05:14.800 I was when I was eighteen, and right after he 81 00:05:14.960 --> 00:05:20.680 passed away, of course you feel like the devastation of 82 00:05:20.720 --> 00:05:24.360 a loss, but I also felt an immense amount of 83 00:05:24.480 --> 00:05:31.200 gratitude because I got to know him, Like I got 84 00:05:31.200 --> 00:05:35.920 to be raised by this person. And so in times 85 00:05:36.160 --> 00:05:44.560 of tragedy and travesty and devastation, there's also these gifts 86 00:05:44.600 --> 00:05:48.159 of clarity. When I was like kind of locked in 87 00:05:48.240 --> 00:05:51.000 that bathroom and I thought that it was over at 88 00:05:51.000 --> 00:05:57.400 that point, and I was raised in a religious context. 89 00:05:57.520 --> 00:06:01.360 I'm a spiritual person, and I felt like, you know what, 90 00:06:01.640 --> 00:06:05.960 if I'm going to be taken in this moment, then 91 00:06:06.680 --> 00:06:10.479 it means that that is what is supposed to be. 92 00:06:13.560 --> 00:06:21.120 And I say that because now, yeah, like Trump pardoned 93 00:06:22.880 --> 00:06:28.840 virtually all the January sixth insurrectionists, including specifically people who 94 00:06:28.960 --> 00:06:37.560 were arrested with specific threats against my life, and I 95 00:06:37.680 --> 00:06:40.840 kind of feel like I don't want to give them 96 00:06:40.880 --> 00:06:43.839 my fear. I'm not going to give them my fear, 97 00:06:45.000 --> 00:06:50.320 and I feel more like squaring up than anything else. 98 00:06:51.320 --> 00:06:57.560 I'm like, if you want to come, come, because this 99 00:06:57.800 --> 00:07:05.440 is like this monster that feeds on our terror, and 100 00:07:05.640 --> 00:07:11.120 what they represent are people who eat fear. They sustain 101 00:07:11.240 --> 00:07:17.080 themselves on anxiety, and I'm not going to give them that. 102 00:07:18.200 --> 00:07:24.120 These people need cynicism, they need apathy, they need chaos, 103 00:07:24.400 --> 00:07:27.960 they need anxiety, and the more we give them that, 104 00:07:28.120 --> 00:07:31.680 the bigger they get. This is like, it's funny. When 105 00:07:31.680 --> 00:07:33.880 I was running in twenty eighteen, I often talked about 106 00:07:33.880 --> 00:07:36.120 like people were saying, why should you vote for Why 107 00:07:36.160 --> 00:07:39.320 should we vote for a waitress instead of this twenty 108 00:07:39.400 --> 00:07:44.480 year incumbent. Understandably right, I didn't have experience. They did 109 00:07:44.560 --> 00:07:47.760 what have you? And I often talked about the story 110 00:07:47.760 --> 00:07:51.559 of the Wizard of Oz, and this was my mom's 111 00:07:51.600 --> 00:07:54.000 favorite movie. And I know it's like in the zeitgeist 112 00:07:54.000 --> 00:07:57.720 now because it gets out, but genuinely, this has been 113 00:07:57.800 --> 00:08:01.120 like a story that has defined my famili's life. It 114 00:08:01.200 --> 00:08:03.720 was just like this piece of Americana that was so 115 00:08:03.800 --> 00:08:10.160 important and all of these big scary things. It reminds 116 00:08:10.200 --> 00:08:12.480 me of like at the end of The Wizard of 117 00:08:12.520 --> 00:08:15.480 Oz where you yank back the curtain and it's a 118 00:08:15.480 --> 00:08:21.840 little guy and it's a small, scared, incompetent little man, 119 00:08:22.720 --> 00:08:26.480 and I think we just need to remain focused. Yes, 120 00:08:26.960 --> 00:08:29.920 they are capable of immense amounts of damage. It can 121 00:08:30.040 --> 00:08:33.480 be scary. It's not something we ignore. It's not something 122 00:08:33.480 --> 00:08:37.280 we check out from, but we register it. We say okay, 123 00:08:37.440 --> 00:08:39.320 and then we figure out what our options are and 124 00:08:39.360 --> 00:08:41.080 we do the best we can day by day. 125 00:08:42.040 --> 00:08:45.960 So the sixty five million billion dollar question would be, 126 00:08:46.000 --> 00:08:47.760 and you know what I'm about to ask, which is 127 00:08:47.840 --> 00:08:52.439 I don't Yeah. After the election of Biden, then strong 128 00:08:52.480 --> 00:08:57.880 midterm elections, and then this, so what happened. 129 00:08:58.480 --> 00:09:02.000 There's there's a lot of focus back and forth on 130 00:09:02.040 --> 00:09:06.040 the presidential But I think what has not sunk in 131 00:09:06.760 --> 00:09:09.960 and what there has not been as much discussion about, 132 00:09:10.640 --> 00:09:13.320 is that it's not just that we lost the presidential election. 133 00:09:13.960 --> 00:09:19.280 We lost the Senate and we lost the House, which 134 00:09:19.320 --> 00:09:22.880 means that at the very least, if Democrats were able 135 00:09:22.920 --> 00:09:27.400 to win the House, we could stop bad things from happening. 136 00:09:27.960 --> 00:09:30.160 And it doesn't mean that we can always make good 137 00:09:30.160 --> 00:09:33.000 things happen, but it does mean we can stop bad 138 00:09:33.000 --> 00:09:37.360 things from happening. Now in terms of the election, there 139 00:09:37.360 --> 00:09:42.160 are so many different factors. I think it is just 140 00:09:42.240 --> 00:09:50.440 a fundamentally unfair position to be put into having to 141 00:09:51.520 --> 00:09:55.199 run a presidential campaign in ninety days. And I think 142 00:09:55.240 --> 00:10:01.000 that Vice President Harris she works so hard. Shortly after 143 00:10:01.600 --> 00:10:05.880 Trump lost in twenty twenty, he started his presidential campaign 144 00:10:06.480 --> 00:10:10.640 all over again, so he has three four years of 145 00:10:11.240 --> 00:10:18.880 NonStop campaigning. But I think structurally, overall, the Democratic Party 146 00:10:19.120 --> 00:10:23.840 has this confused message. We're supposed to be a party 147 00:10:24.000 --> 00:10:28.920 of the working class, and I think working class people 148 00:10:29.040 --> 00:10:33.640 have not been seeing government work for them, despite a 149 00:10:33.679 --> 00:10:36.600 lot of the things that the Biden administration did do. 150 00:10:37.240 --> 00:10:39.280 Biden Easley is probably one of the most pro labor 151 00:10:39.320 --> 00:10:42.280 presidents that we have seen in modern history, first president 152 00:10:42.520 --> 00:10:45.199 in American history to walk a picket line with the UAW. 153 00:10:45.800 --> 00:10:49.640 But then you have GAZA, which I think really tore 154 00:10:49.880 --> 00:10:54.240 up a lot of the mobilizing base in the Democratic Party. 155 00:10:55.080 --> 00:10:57.760 It's not about like did it lose us voters? I 156 00:10:57.800 --> 00:11:00.640 think it really lost us more baalizers. 157 00:11:01.120 --> 00:11:04.280 And you know, for you personally, I remember seeing that 158 00:11:04.400 --> 00:11:08.040 video of you being confronted with protesters raising the issue 159 00:11:08.040 --> 00:11:12.880 of GASA, talking about the word genocide, criticizing you, and 160 00:11:12.920 --> 00:11:14.360 you getting visibly upset. 161 00:11:14.640 --> 00:11:24.000 Yeah, you can call it a genocide if you're. 162 00:11:21.080 --> 00:11:23.880 Not playing there's a genocide happening, you're not actively against it, 163 00:11:24.080 --> 00:11:24.560 you're lying. 164 00:11:26.960 --> 00:11:29.640 And I think there's been a lot of misinformation at play. 165 00:11:30.320 --> 00:11:33.439 I think, to me, that's sometimes where my frustration has 166 00:11:33.480 --> 00:11:36.280 come from. That's sometimes where my heartbreak has come from. 167 00:11:36.600 --> 00:11:42.160 Because I have no problem with, of course activism, but 168 00:11:43.400 --> 00:11:47.920 to me, if you're going to take the enormous steps 169 00:11:48.640 --> 00:11:53.720 of confronting a public figure, then you can probably be 170 00:11:53.840 --> 00:11:58.840 bothered to do a basic Google search, And the amount 171 00:11:58.920 --> 00:12:03.920 of misinformation that has exploded because people are chasing retweets 172 00:12:04.040 --> 00:12:09.760 of a lie has been really painful. We are on 173 00:12:10.160 --> 00:12:17.280 the platforms of billionaires, and these billionaires modify these algorithms 174 00:12:17.320 --> 00:12:21.160 and they wield them politically. It was really hard watching 175 00:12:21.280 --> 00:12:28.520 people and communities that I am aligned with fall for 176 00:12:28.840 --> 00:12:30.680 right wing misinformation. 177 00:12:31.360 --> 00:12:32.800 So you feel like you were a victim. 178 00:12:32.840 --> 00:12:35.479 You were being set up with a lot of misinformation 179 00:12:35.520 --> 00:12:38.800 as opposed to I should have been clearer, I should 180 00:12:38.840 --> 00:12:41.600 have said something differently, done something differently. 181 00:12:41.880 --> 00:12:44.760 I mean, I feel like, if we want to talk 182 00:12:44.800 --> 00:12:48.600 about individual decisions or moments, that's one thing. But the 183 00:12:48.720 --> 00:12:52.520 idea that I was somehow late to this, I think 184 00:12:53.000 --> 00:12:56.920 is a complete falsehood and lie. I was a original 185 00:12:56.920 --> 00:13:00.760 co sponsor to the ceasefire resolution, basically as soon as 186 00:13:00.880 --> 00:13:04.720 Congress was back in session after October seventh, I was 187 00:13:04.800 --> 00:13:09.840 one of the first members of Congress period to designate 188 00:13:10.040 --> 00:13:12.760 what was happening in Gaza a genocide in a speech 189 00:13:12.880 --> 00:13:15.360 on the House floor directed towards President Biden. 190 00:13:15.880 --> 00:13:19.240 If you want to know what an unfolding genocide looks like, 191 00:13:19.679 --> 00:13:24.120 open your eyes. It looks like the forced famine of 192 00:13:24.240 --> 00:13:26.559 one point one million innocents. 193 00:13:27.160 --> 00:13:27.959 It looks like. 194 00:13:28.000 --> 00:13:32.600 Good and decent people who do nothing or too little, 195 00:13:33.520 --> 00:13:34.040 too late. 196 00:13:35.080 --> 00:13:38.160 It was almost like not amplified at all. At the time, 197 00:13:38.720 --> 00:13:42.920 which is fine, but I don't control that right. I 198 00:13:43.559 --> 00:13:48.280 was up there in early spring. And for me, if 199 00:13:48.280 --> 00:13:51.800 we want to talk about you know why, I don't 200 00:13:51.840 --> 00:13:56.199 call it a genocide on day one. To me, that 201 00:13:56.400 --> 00:14:01.720 term is significant, It is important. It is something that 202 00:14:01.840 --> 00:14:04.840 must stand up to scrutiny at the International Criminal Court. 203 00:14:05.320 --> 00:14:08.680 It is something that is definitional. This is something that 204 00:14:09.120 --> 00:14:12.920 Palestinians not only are facing now, but this is also 205 00:14:13.640 --> 00:14:17.840 of course something that communities and peoples around the world 206 00:14:18.720 --> 00:14:22.280 have encountered. This is not something that we just say 207 00:14:22.920 --> 00:14:25.440 because of a bunch of comments on social media. This 208 00:14:25.520 --> 00:14:28.720 is something that we say because we are bearing witness 209 00:14:28.800 --> 00:14:31.520 to something that is transpiring before us, and that we 210 00:14:31.640 --> 00:14:35.640 have to make the In my context, in a legislative 211 00:14:35.640 --> 00:14:38.800 and legal context, I have to feel prepared to make 212 00:14:38.840 --> 00:14:41.080 the case. And by the way, it wasn't like a 213 00:14:41.160 --> 00:14:44.520 light switch went off. We immediately called for a ceasefire. 214 00:14:45.040 --> 00:14:48.280 I called it a human rights atrocity. And also, people 215 00:14:48.320 --> 00:14:51.440 are very angry at me because I call out anti 216 00:14:51.480 --> 00:14:54.080 Semitism where I see it, and I do think there's 217 00:14:54.120 --> 00:14:59.080 a distinct line and no condemnation of what the Israeli 218 00:14:59.120 --> 00:15:01.840 government is doing. It does not equate to antisemitism. Anti 219 00:15:01.920 --> 00:15:06.880 Zionism does not equate to anti Semitism. But anti Semitism 220 00:15:07.560 --> 00:15:11.680 is on the rise, and I'm not going to sit 221 00:15:11.720 --> 00:15:13.680 here and pretend that I don't see it if I 222 00:15:13.720 --> 00:15:22.240 see it, and so you know, that may put me 223 00:15:22.440 --> 00:15:26.720 in a certain complicated space for people, but it does 224 00:15:26.760 --> 00:15:30.880 not put me in a complicated space with myself, and that, 225 00:15:30.960 --> 00:15:32.200 to me is the most important thing. 226 00:15:37.400 --> 00:15:42.240 When we come back, Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio Cortez tells us 227 00:15:42.240 --> 00:15:44.880 what the Democrats need to do to win back voters 228 00:15:45.320 --> 00:15:49.520 and how she's trying to counter the Republican narrative around immigration. 229 00:15:50.360 --> 00:16:21.680 Stay with us, yes, and we're back, and we're going 230 00:16:21.720 --> 00:16:25.720 to jump right back into my conversation with Congresswoman Alexandria 231 00:16:25.840 --> 00:16:36.200 Casio Cortez aka AOC. So what happens now the external critiques, 232 00:16:36.360 --> 00:16:39.720 your critiques of the Democratic Party, the frustration with so 233 00:16:39.800 --> 00:16:43.120 many young people with the party. Right there are two 234 00:16:43.160 --> 00:16:46.920 years until the midterms. What can you do in these 235 00:16:46.960 --> 00:16:50.640 two years? And also understanding the way you say it, 236 00:16:50.680 --> 00:16:54.760 which is I was in fact targeted for missing disinformation, 237 00:16:55.440 --> 00:16:58.600 how do you change all of that so that the 238 00:16:58.840 --> 00:17:01.080 Democrats have a chance we need something. 239 00:17:01.040 --> 00:17:03.840 I mean, and I want to be clear, like I'm 240 00:17:04.160 --> 00:17:08.960 I don't feel like this is like a victim frame 241 00:17:09.200 --> 00:17:11.720 when it comes to misinformation. I just think this is 242 00:17:11.760 --> 00:17:14.560 the environment that we live in now. I mean, even 243 00:17:14.640 --> 00:17:16.879 right now, in this present moment, there's so much fear 244 00:17:17.520 --> 00:17:20.000 that people think that any police officer walking down the 245 00:17:20.000 --> 00:17:22.600 street could be indicative of an ice rate. We have 246 00:17:22.680 --> 00:17:25.880 so many people calling in ice raids, but there's only 247 00:17:25.920 --> 00:17:28.000 a couple of them that are actually ice rays, and 248 00:17:28.040 --> 00:17:30.760 so we have to every time someone calls something in, 249 00:17:31.160 --> 00:17:33.720 we have to send a person out there, and it 250 00:17:33.760 --> 00:17:36.800 can be a drain on resources. And so anyways, I 251 00:17:36.800 --> 00:17:40.480 say all of this because the misinformation environment is just everywhere, 252 00:17:40.600 --> 00:17:44.560 and the more a space thinks that they are immune 253 00:17:44.760 --> 00:17:50.080 to misinformation, the more susceptible and vulnerable they are to it. 254 00:17:50.119 --> 00:17:53.560 To be frank, because what we actually need are people 255 00:17:53.720 --> 00:17:57.000 who are just willing to just take a beat the 256 00:17:57.080 --> 00:18:01.960 moment you see something that is evoking an emotion, anger, fear, whatever, 257 00:18:02.400 --> 00:18:07.560 just take one beat to Google it verified. And it's 258 00:18:07.920 --> 00:18:12.040 really important to do because people will often amplify it 259 00:18:12.080 --> 00:18:16.040 out of good intention, right, but it needs to be verified. 260 00:18:16.200 --> 00:18:19.320 And if you're a person that's reporting it, take a picture, 261 00:18:19.800 --> 00:18:24.560 make sure it says ice on their back, Identify the time, 262 00:18:25.080 --> 00:18:29.600 the location. That information should be there, and it should 263 00:18:29.600 --> 00:18:32.240 be there if you amplify it too. There are a 264 00:18:32.320 --> 00:18:37.800 lot of families and parents in our neighborhoods that are 265 00:18:38.760 --> 00:18:45.159 legally transitioning guardianship over their children to someone else, and 266 00:18:45.240 --> 00:18:48.679 they're preparing to leave their children here and to return 267 00:18:48.720 --> 00:18:51.600 to their home countries so that they can start the. 268 00:18:51.600 --> 00:18:54.320 Clock on their return. 269 00:18:54.119 --> 00:18:56.680 On their return. Because for people who may not know, 270 00:18:57.240 --> 00:18:59.840 if you're here undocumented and you want a chance that 271 00:19:00.040 --> 00:19:02.639 coming here you can that way, first of all, you 272 00:19:02.680 --> 00:19:05.359 cannot be deported, and second of all, you kind of 273 00:19:05.400 --> 00:19:08.840 have to wait out a penalty period of about ten years. 274 00:19:09.359 --> 00:19:12.520 And so if their child is eight years old, they're 275 00:19:12.520 --> 00:19:15.439 making the heartbreaking decision to leave their kids here so 276 00:19:15.480 --> 00:19:19.200 that in ten years, when their child is eighteen, their 277 00:19:19.280 --> 00:19:21.719 child can maybe try to get their parent and reunify 278 00:19:21.920 --> 00:19:25.840 with them. And these are people who pay taxes, who 279 00:19:25.880 --> 00:19:29.960 are upstanding citizens, what have you. But anyway, so what 280 00:19:30.119 --> 00:19:32.680 do we do in the next two years? I feel 281 00:19:32.680 --> 00:19:36.760 like I have a famously tenuous relationship with the Democratic Party. 282 00:19:36.840 --> 00:19:39.040 I'm like, so when people say she's too close to 283 00:19:39.080 --> 00:19:39.880 the party, You're like. 284 00:19:41.880 --> 00:19:48.840 I'm like, h receipt please. I have a weird relationship 285 00:19:48.840 --> 00:19:56.320 with the Democratic Party. I am a dissenter. I don't 286 00:19:56.320 --> 00:19:59.280 believe in a two party system. But I also understand 287 00:19:59.359 --> 00:20:05.080 that the Democrat Party is a coalition and if we 288 00:20:05.200 --> 00:20:07.960 want the party to change, the balance of the coalition 289 00:20:08.160 --> 00:20:10.720 has to change. But right now, if you open the 290 00:20:10.760 --> 00:20:13.480 hood on the Democratic Party, what you have, I think 291 00:20:13.560 --> 00:20:15.560 is a bit of a power struggle over the last 292 00:20:15.640 --> 00:20:19.040 couple of years, and also a transformation how the party 293 00:20:19.119 --> 00:20:22.960 views itself. I think if you asked five years ago 294 00:20:23.240 --> 00:20:27.400 what the biggest fissures in the party are, I think 295 00:20:27.400 --> 00:20:31.520 people would say progressive versus moderate, like this neoliberal camp 296 00:20:31.600 --> 00:20:34.920 and the Democratic Party that is very friendly with corporations 297 00:20:34.960 --> 00:20:38.880 and business and always pushing to the center. Others would 298 00:20:38.880 --> 00:20:43.119 say pushing to the right. And then there is like 299 00:20:43.200 --> 00:20:46.960 this progressive camp, and even that progressive camp, like some 300 00:20:47.000 --> 00:20:49.679 of it is focused on working class politics, others of 301 00:20:49.720 --> 00:20:55.480 it are focused on more identity and identitarian politics as well. 302 00:20:56.119 --> 00:20:59.240 But I think that's changed now and I think there 303 00:20:59.400 --> 00:21:03.399 is a generational confrontation happening within the Democratic Party. I 304 00:21:03.440 --> 00:21:05.000 think there's a lot of people that want to say 305 00:21:05.240 --> 00:21:08.919 we're a new party now or no. There's a lot 306 00:21:09.080 --> 00:21:18.040 more newly elected Democrats that are out there, but they 307 00:21:18.200 --> 00:21:22.399 are not by and large the decision makers in the 308 00:21:22.440 --> 00:21:26.200 Democratic Party. But a lot of those decision makers are 309 00:21:26.280 --> 00:21:30.359 still not just the same people but from the same 310 00:21:30.480 --> 00:21:34.840 school of thought. And so you can have new figures 311 00:21:35.000 --> 00:21:39.800 that still either ascribe themselves or have to appeal to 312 00:21:40.200 --> 00:21:45.400 people that still have to have this kind of understanding 313 00:21:45.440 --> 00:21:51.679 of politics. That is, I would argue ten twenty years regressed, 314 00:21:52.240 --> 00:21:55.720 the electoral coalition that Democrats went for and have been 315 00:21:55.720 --> 00:22:04.760 going for have largely been affluent vote and affluent white voters. 316 00:22:05.240 --> 00:22:08.600 And I think, especially when we talk about Latinos too. 317 00:22:10.480 --> 00:22:15.760 I will tell you, in our community, the anger was 318 00:22:15.880 --> 00:22:19.800 less about like, oh, we need to deport immigrants. The 319 00:22:19.920 --> 00:22:25.639 anger was actually how the Trump administration and the campaign 320 00:22:26.840 --> 00:22:31.439 was actually very surgical and very sophisticated about drawing a 321 00:22:31.440 --> 00:22:36.440 wedge between undocumented people and recent arrivals and asylum seekers. 322 00:22:37.119 --> 00:22:42.879 That resentment exists because of the lack of movement on 323 00:22:42.920 --> 00:22:46.439 a path to citizenship, and so I think what is 324 00:22:46.480 --> 00:22:50.919 being misread about the moment because so many people understandably 325 00:22:51.000 --> 00:22:54.879 are so disgusted with Trump that they tune him out. 326 00:22:55.240 --> 00:23:00.439 But as a practitioner of politics, if you did not 327 00:23:00.680 --> 00:23:04.200 listen to a single Trump rally, if you weren't listening 328 00:23:04.240 --> 00:23:07.760 to how they were talking to people this time around, 329 00:23:08.280 --> 00:23:11.879 you would miss that the Trump campaign was talking to 330 00:23:11.960 --> 00:23:15.480 people very differently this time around. I think they've learned 331 00:23:15.480 --> 00:23:19.440 from their mistakes. I asked a lot of Trump voters 332 00:23:19.440 --> 00:23:21.520 in my district, where do you get your news from? 333 00:23:21.800 --> 00:23:23.000 Who do you trust? 334 00:23:24.400 --> 00:23:28.439 Increasingly people are saying I want to hear from the 335 00:23:28.480 --> 00:23:33.480 politician themselves, and that they will believe what that politician 336 00:23:33.640 --> 00:23:38.000 says more than what the media says about that politician. 337 00:23:38.680 --> 00:23:41.280 And so when Trump says we're not going to deport you, 338 00:23:41.920 --> 00:23:47.080 We're only going after the quote unquote like rapists and murderers, 339 00:23:47.680 --> 00:23:54.679 people believe him. And what you do with when a 340 00:23:54.760 --> 00:23:59.960 lot of people believe a liar is a tricky scenari 341 00:24:00.760 --> 00:24:04.280 in which we find ourselves. People used to trust media 342 00:24:04.280 --> 00:24:09.440 outlets more than they trusted politicians, but then that credibility 343 00:24:09.480 --> 00:24:14.040 has eroded over time, and so this is the soil 344 00:24:14.080 --> 00:24:18.840 in which misinformation flourishes, in which you know, strong men 345 00:24:18.920 --> 00:24:21.919 can just say their things and people will just believe it. 346 00:24:22.320 --> 00:24:25.720 So you went on Instagram Live and you talked very 347 00:24:25.720 --> 00:24:28.919 clearly about immigrants. You're like, by the way, let me 348 00:24:29.000 --> 00:24:33.520 just tell you the facts, right, Yeah, So it seems 349 00:24:33.680 --> 00:24:37.439 trying to correct the narrative. What Alexandria wants America to 350 00:24:37.480 --> 00:24:40.520 understand about immigrants is well. 351 00:24:40.440 --> 00:24:41.240 There's two things. 352 00:24:42.200 --> 00:24:47.119 First and foremost, this idea that people are immigrants or illegal. 353 00:24:46.760 --> 00:24:50.639 Et cetera. Like we're talking about ourselves. 354 00:24:50.880 --> 00:24:54.439 This is the fabric of our country, the fabric of 355 00:24:54.480 --> 00:24:57.800 our community. And when people say, oh, I think it's fine, 356 00:24:57.840 --> 00:25:00.480 they just need to be here legally, they're shut down 357 00:25:00.680 --> 00:25:06.320 all legal pathways day one. The CBP one app when 358 00:25:06.359 --> 00:25:08.040 they say, oh, you want to come here, enter through 359 00:25:08.040 --> 00:25:11.119 report of Entry. That was the app literally app for 360 00:25:11.240 --> 00:25:15.359 application both legal ways, the legal pathways, even. 361 00:25:15.240 --> 00:25:16.880 Though you're gonna have to wait in Mexico for who 362 00:25:16.920 --> 00:25:19.480 knows how many months under who knows what conditions, but 363 00:25:19.560 --> 00:25:21.480 you want to do it legally. 364 00:25:21.520 --> 00:25:22.879 You're so desperate to do it legally. 365 00:25:23.000 --> 00:25:28.160 Yes, So when you shut down legal pathways, you supercharge 366 00:25:28.480 --> 00:25:34.720 undocumented pathways. And so that's number one. If you don't 367 00:25:34.800 --> 00:25:39.000 want undocumented people in this country, which, to be honest, 368 00:25:39.359 --> 00:25:41.600 nobody wants documented people in this country. We want people 369 00:25:41.640 --> 00:25:44.159 to be documented, right, We don't want people living in 370 00:25:44.160 --> 00:25:48.000 the shadows and in fear. These are human beings, but 371 00:25:48.040 --> 00:25:52.240 they are also assets to the United States of America. Now, 372 00:25:52.280 --> 00:25:55.040 when I move to the economic case, I want to 373 00:25:55.080 --> 00:25:58.159 say first that yes, it is fraught, you know, because 374 00:25:58.200 --> 00:26:02.280 it is painful to see. Sometimes people only talk about 375 00:26:02.280 --> 00:26:06.800 the economic case because we're more than just a labor force, 376 00:26:06.880 --> 00:26:09.480 were more than just a people to be exploited. But 377 00:26:10.320 --> 00:26:13.000 let's be clear, the people who are voting in this 378 00:26:13.160 --> 00:26:18.840 way oftentimes don't respond to a case of compassion and humanity. 379 00:26:19.200 --> 00:26:21.120 And so if you want to be hard nosed about it, 380 00:26:21.800 --> 00:26:26.800 understand that America's immigration force and our community of immigrants, 381 00:26:26.840 --> 00:26:31.120 including and especially the millions of undocumented people in this country, 382 00:26:31.680 --> 00:26:37.879 are why America has prospered, especially why we survive the 383 00:26:37.920 --> 00:26:42.280 COVID nineteen pandemic, And for all of the people who 384 00:26:42.400 --> 00:26:46.760 cast to vote based on grocery prices and inflation. If 385 00:26:46.800 --> 00:26:50.960 you think your groceries are expensive, now wait until the 386 00:26:51.000 --> 00:26:55.680 farms are empty. If you think houses are expensive, now 387 00:26:56.440 --> 00:26:59.639 wait until there's no one building them. If you think 388 00:27:00.119 --> 00:27:03.639 that having someone in your home to take care of 389 00:27:03.680 --> 00:27:07.600 your ailing mother or grandmother while you have to go 390 00:27:07.720 --> 00:27:09.760 out and earn an honest living while you're at work. 391 00:27:09.960 --> 00:27:14.720 If you think that's expensive, now wait until that immigrant 392 00:27:15.000 --> 00:27:20.879 workforce is gone. Understand the consequences of what this means, 393 00:27:21.320 --> 00:27:27.919 because for America to not accept immigrants is the definition 394 00:27:28.160 --> 00:27:30.480 of cutting off your nose to spite your face. 395 00:27:31.720 --> 00:27:34.639 See, it is different geopolitics. A lot of things have 396 00:27:34.800 --> 00:27:38.680 changed on their side, but also in terms of Latin 397 00:27:38.720 --> 00:27:42.840 America and world politics. Right, So he went after Mexico 398 00:27:43.240 --> 00:27:43.960 with thinking. 399 00:27:43.760 --> 00:27:46.600 In terms of twenty five percent on Mexico and Canada 400 00:27:46.680 --> 00:27:49.280 because they're allowing vast numbers of people to come in 401 00:27:49.320 --> 00:27:50.600