Joining us now is Democratic presidential candidate John Cougar.
- Jake, how are you doing, dog? - I'm good, I'm good.
So there's a lot I want to ask you about, because there's been one kerfuffle
after another in the various states that have basically prevented you
from even appearing on the ballot.
And so earlier this week, I covered what happened in the state of Florida.
So you will not be appearing in Florida on the ballot.
And more importantly, Florida has decided to just cancel their Democratic primary.
Yeah.
So, now several other states today actually have done something very similar,
which, we can get to in a minute.
But in the case of Florida, Anna, they have a rule in the state that if
there's only one person on the ballot, they cancel the election entirely.
So in, in and they were supposed to hand in all of the names of the people running
to the secretary of state of Florida.
The Democratic Party was, at the end of November, and they contacted
us a day before that and said, to all three campaigns, none of you will be on.
And we said, why?
We we reached out, we did all the right procedure.
And they said, oh, there was a meeting on October 29th that, there was no
public notice that we were going to do this presidential ballot issue at.
And since you guys didn't magically know that, and we asked if you had
any supporters there, we asked if there was a Biden supporter
and Biden was the only one.
So where he's the only one that we put on there.
But the bottom line is, it's they're showing their hand.
They're basically saying, we don't want any Biden challengers.
We're doing secret meetings.
We're making sure we're doing every trick in the book to make sure that not just me,
but no challenger is on the ballot against Biden, right?
Because typically, you know, it's a corporate Democrats
versus the progressive candidates.
But in this case, it appears that there's an orchestrated effort.
And I'm speculating when I say orchestrated effort.
I want to get your your thoughts on that, but it seems as though
there's an orchestrated effort to squash the possibility of a genuine
Democratic primary at a time, by the way, when Joe Biden is polling poorly
and at a time when Joe Biden's campaign is making it abundantly clear that we must
vote for him because Donald Trump is a threat to our democratic process.
Well, yeah, it's very hard to make the case in the general election
that democracy is on the line when you're canceling elections
in the primaries, right?
So at a bare minimum, it is terrible fodder to give to the Republicans
for if they'll turn around and say, what do you mean?
We had primaries and we let everybody run against Donald Trump.
And he won fair and square, whereas Biden prevented people from,
running against him.
And so, all right, is it really Biden?
Well, he picked the leadership of the DNC, no question.
And we know for a fact that our campaign that the DNC reached out
to the state party in Arkansas and told them do not put him on the ballot.
So they are calling state wow, state by state, particularly against me.
But now, again, they're showing their hands in Florida and a couple
of other states where they're just trying to cancel the election entirely.
But so, I mean, I want to ask Jamie Harrison, who is the head of the DNC.
So are you pro discrimination? Because that's what it looks like.
You're saying that I should have less rights than you.
I would fight for Jamie Harrison's right, even if we don't agree politically.
But he is saying not only will he not fight for my rights
as a naturalized citizen or the rights of 25 million other Americans, but that he's
actively going around saying, please discriminate, please make sure
that you take away his civil rights.
So that's who Jamie Harrison is. And and obviously Joe Biden picked him.
Okay, I gotta I gotta ask you so. Arkansas.
Like we were under the impression that you were making history in Arkansas,
that you were going to appear on the ballot as part of the Democratic primary.
But then you get word that, no, the state has reneged
on what they had previously told you, and you will not appear on the ballot.
Yeah. So here's what happened.
In that case, the DNC calls the state Democratic Party.
The state Democratic Party actually was heroes and said, no,
we're going to put them on the ballot.
So thanks to all the Arkansas Democrats. Thank you.
And so they then say to us, yes, you're on the ballot.
We call the secretary of state to make sure, because they just need
the approval of the Democratic Party.
Normally, that's how it proceeds in Arkansas.
And they say, oh, yes, you're definitely on.
You're on the website.
Here's a picture of the website and you being on it as a candidate.
So they bother to do that and we have it. And that's, that was our documentation.
There was.
And now we had approval from the Secretary of State
and the Democratic Party in Arkansas.
And then a day before they're set to, you know, make it public.
Who's on the ballot?
The secretary of state in Arkansas says, no, we changed our mind on junk,
and he's not allowed on that.
That's crazy. So we've got Florida, Arkansas.
We had previously covered what happened with you in New Hampshire.
They argued that you can't be on the ballot because you're not a naturalized.
You're a naturalized citizen. You weren't born here.
And then the fourth state is Nevada.
Are there any details about what happened in Nevada
that you want to share with the audience?
So real real quick on that, guys.
There's two and Anna, there's two, different issues here.
One is the constitutional issue with me.
And, and the other is just generally keep everyone you can off the ballot because
Joe Biden is so weak, we're worried he's going to lose to one of you guys.
And and it's not just losing.
If you remember, McCarthy didn't actually win.
Eugene McCarthy didn't actually win New Hampshire, but he came close enough
to Lyndon Johnson that Lyndon Johnson saw the writing handwriting on the wall.
And they're trying to prevent a situation like that where one of us gets into
the 30s or 40s in one of these states, and then Biden looks ridiculously weak
and is forced to drop out.
Right?
So that's why they're trying to block us in Florida.
And let me give you a quick update on that,
and I'll come back to my particular issue.
Right.
So now today, North Carolina and Tennessee have said no one's allowed on the ballot
other than Joe Biden.
What? Yeah.
Okay.
But how is this okay, how okay, I this is me commenting I get it.
But like, how is Biden going to make a point about how Donald Trump
is a threat to democracy, as he himself and the Democratic Party is working
real hard to go against the will of the American people, of Democratic voters.
They're not giving Democratic voters a voice.
Look, they very well might nominate Biden. It might not be an issue for him.
But my point is, they're not even giving voters a chance.
So there's two parts to that. To Anna.
That's exactly right.
First of all, they're saying to Democratic voters
in Florida, North Carolina and Tennessee, we're stripping you of your voice.
We don't want you to. We don't care what you think.
We don't care how you who you want to vote for.
We're going to shove a candidate down your throat and we're going
to take away all your options.
But by the way, democracy is on the line in the general election.
- Crazy. - Okay.
And so that's point one.
There's no dispute about that is millions and millions of Democratic voters
who now get to no say at all in who their presidential candidates going to be.
And this is particularly problematic at a time when the incumbent
is so low in the polling.
He's at 37% favorable, 59% unfavorable.
No political analysts in their right mind would think that he could do
a 22 point comeback.
And so and so they're saying not only are we going to take away all your choices,
but we're going to forced maybe the most unpopular Democratic
candidate of all time onto you.
Okay, so that's point one.
The point two is they're basically admitting we're worried.
We're worried that Jenk or Marianne Williamson or Dean Phillips,
a junior congressman, meaning like, hey, Marianne and I are outsiders
and Dean's been in politics for about six years or so, and they're
saying, no, that's Biden can't handle it.
He can't handle it.
Now, if I was the president of the United States and I had the same exact situation,
I'd be like, bring it. Great, I want debates, I want elections.
Why?
It's not just because it's the right thing to do and the fair thing to do,
but also because I want more press coverage of our side.
I want to go and make the case, and not only for the Democratic Party,
but for myself.
So if I was if I was a president and I'm in a debate, and with guys
that I'm, you know, will very likely beat right in that hypothetical, then I get
to say to the American people over and over again, why you should elect me.
Hey, I'm going to do paid family leave. I'm going to do lower drug prices.
I'm going to increase your wages.
That is hundreds of millions of dollars in free media that Biden is flushed down
the toilet and so is the Democratic Party, because there are.
They're going to lose to one of us.
And so that is that's really it's pathetic and it's undemocratic.
And so it's a giant problem by the way.
One other thing I'll note, and I don't know if you saw this story
or these headlines, but Biden is serious about running for reelection.
He's been fundraising like crazy over the last few days.
And during one of the fundraisers this week, he said that, you know, he
wasn't really thinking about running for reelection until he realized that Trump
is running in this election.
He feels that he is the best person to beat Donald Trump.
It's almost as if he's not aware of the polling and how much of honestly a risk
it is for the Democratic Party to kind of latch on to Biden's second terme.
Yeah.
So first, I'll say, look, if you're angry about your voice being taken away
and voters voice being taken away, even if it's just a protest of a dollar,
go to Jake for America.com and and help out our cause so we can keep fighting
this undemocratic principles that the DNC is trying to foist upon us
when it comes to Biden and I look.
I think it's a legitimate conversation about how much mental decline he's had.
How do you look at your down 24 points on the economy?
You're down 19 points on jobs.
You're now losing younger voters, 0% chance of winning if a Democratic
candidate has lost younger voters.
Now Trump is at 40% with Arab American voters and Biden's at 35%.
Wow.
You've lost Arab American voters to a guy who said he would
ban Muslims from the country.
I mean, you really can't be any worse of a candidate.
And so and now this guy who is obviously in some form of senility, thinks
he's the only one who could beat Trump.
He's in a disastrous situation where he said 15 points lower than when he
barely beat Trump the last time.
And apparently he doesn't realize it like it's a real question.
Has anyone in the white House sat Joe Biden down and told him,
hey brother, you're 15 points lower than when you last ran against him
and now you're losing last poll.
He's losing by eight and and he's got to win by five to win the Electoral College.
Has anyone at the white House told him what day it is
and the fact that he has a terrible chance and every and he's that he's 13 points
lower than a generic Democrat.
- That's crazy. - But it's a serious question.
And the press should ask Joe Biden, do you know you're 13 points lower than a
generic Democrat, that any Democrat other than you would have a much, much higher
percentage chance of beating Donald Trump?
Maybe he just doesn't even know. And Anna, one last thing about that.
That's really important.
Saudi Arabia obviously has an excellent relationship with the Trump family.
Right. $2 billion to Jared Kushner, the golf courses being used by the PGA etc.
that and live that Saudi Arabia bought.
We all know the history of Saudi Arabia and the Trump family.
Saudi Arabia basically controls international gas prices.
They sure do.
So if right before the election, the Saudis jack up gas.
Prices, and the way they would do that is by withholding production of oil, right,
to to lower the, the, the supply of oil, which would translate
to higher gas prices.
Yeah.
And so if they do that, gas prices go up right before the election.
A sitting incumbent president is toast. Biden or not.
Biden, you can't have an incumbent president
that is this weak and can be rocked by anything that happens in the news.
If, let's say, Governor Shapiro from Pennsylvania is running, you can't pin gas
prices on the governor of Pennsylvania, but they will definitely pin it on Biden.
And the Saudis will almost definitely jack up the gas prices at the end.
It's guaranteeing a Trump win.
This is the biggest political malpractice of our lifetimes.
So what are you and the other Democratic candidates going to do about this?
There were some reports that in response to Florida
canceling its Democratic primary, you guys were considering a potential lawsuit.
So where are you with all of that?
So in the case of Florida, where it's all three of us, we're doing,
our campaign is going to do an implementation challenge next week.
And an implementation challenge says to the DNC and the Florida Democrats,
you have to follow your own rules.
Here are the rules that you clearly, clearly violated.
And so you have to put us back on the ballot.
The problem is now the Florida law says that we can't go back on the ballot
because and Republicans run Florida.
Okay.
So so the Democrats, that's why they waited.
They said, oh, we had the secret meeting on October 29th, and we told you
on November 29th, but why did you why did you wait a month to tell us
so that this exact situation would happen and go, sorry, we cheated, but it's
too late now because the Republicans won't let us put you on the ballot.
So, okay, if that's the case, we never had that election.
I mean, that's a stone cold fact. That's not arguable.
That election is not going to happen. Wow.
And then Biden says that should be my delegates.
Why? Wait, wait, let me get this right.
You should have all the delegates of an election.
That didn't happen.
No. And as I said in a press conference earlier, okay.
Then I claim all the delegates.
I have just as much of a right to the delegates as he does.
We're both in the race. And so there was no election.
And, you know, look, will I be willing to compromise at some point and say, there's
four of us in the race and all four of us should get a quarter of the delegates?
Maybe we'll have to negotiate that. No, I'm being dead serious.
I know it sounds funny, but he has no right to those delegates at all.
- I mean, at all. - I agree he feels entitled to them.
- But there was no primary election. - No, you can't say there's no election.
But we think Joe Biden won. Yeah, that's not a thing.
That's not a thing at all.
So that's the all three of us for me, very likely we're going to sue
the state of South Carolina.
Okay.
And because they took $20,000 of our money.
Okay.
By the way, you guys, like a lot of people in the audience sent that in.
Average folks sent that in, you know, grandmas.
Grandpas. I know because I have the letters, right.
Average of $30 a piece and the Democratic Party and Jamie Harrison are saying,
we're just going to steal it.
That is, by the way, that is insane.
So you have to spend a considerable amount of money to make it
on the ballot on in various states.
And so in some cases, they'll take the money and then tell you you're.
- Not going to appear on the ballot. - Yeah.
- And so that's crazy. - So now that forces us to sue them.
And now we need money to get our money back, let alone get on the ballot.
So Jake, for America.com, we appreciate it.
By the way, there's a ton of events that I want to tell you about
if we can in a second.
But so in this case, South Carolina has said, given only the reason
of constitutional reasons, in other words, you're not a natural born citizen,
but that is not their decision to make.
The FEC, the Federal Election Commission has said naturalized citizens can run.
The Supreme Court has said that naturalized citizens cannot be
treated as second class citizens.
They must have the same rights.
It was not a presidential case, but it and but they did cite the 14th amendment
and said it says all persons born or naturalized must have equal protection
and they cannot.
And discriminating against naturalized citizens is impermissible discrimination.
That is the Supreme Court.
So where does the state of South Carolina get off saying no,
we know better than the Supreme Court.
We're going to make a random decision on a constitutional law matter,
and we're going to discriminate actively against 25 million Americans
who are naturalized citizens.
They have no right to do that.
So we're going to take them to court, and we're going to win on the core
constitutional issue, and we're going to liberate 25 million Americans.
And we're they're finally going to be equal citizens.
So we're all sick of being treated as second class.
So finally, tell the audience about the events you have coming up
and how they can help support what you're doing here, because this is
something that goes beyond you.
You know what you're fighting for to ensure that there is equality
among those who are born here and those who are naturalized citizens.
That's incredibly important. So how can they support you?
Well, so this is really important, guys, because we very literally
need you in Florida.
We need about 20 Democrats to sign an affidavit to say, yes, I wanted to vote,
and they wouldn't let me vote.
And this is outrageous. Okay.
So go to Jake for America.com. You'll see.
You could give us your name and email at the bottom of the front page,
or you can go to events.
That's a separate tab.
And so in Florida we we need Florida Democrats to join our case.
It's not a civil case.
It's a direct case of the DNC and the Democratic Party in Florida.
In Arizona, we need to go collect signatures.
And it's if you pay a company, it's very expensive.
But if we do it together, we can do it.
And I'm going to go on Friday and Saturday and I'm doing a town hall about it,
which I'll tell you about in a second.
But Arizona, also in the Under Events page on Jang for America.com,
you can come join me in Arizona.
We go collect signatures together. By the way, that's called democracy.
That's beautiful.
That's people working together to go actually put us on the ballot.
And by the way, after you work hard on that,
as people have in different states for us, if they then reject us again, they're
basically slapping you across the face.
Yeah. Okay.
And then finally I'm doing a town hall on Friday.
It's going to be a 2:00 eastern and on under events.
You could also see how you can RSVP to that town hall, because I want to make
the campaign much more interactive now.
So yes, we really appreciate any funds that you send us a dollar 1100, whatever
you can afford, Jake for America.com, but also the volunteers to get signatures
to, to help us do affidavits in Florida, all those different things.
So come and the town hall, we're going to talk about how do we do this together?
Not just my campaign, but all of us.
How do we, as Democratic voters, start a rebellion and fight back against
the DNC, who's trying to cancel elections all across the country?
Love it.
So please help out if you want to basically fight back against
the undemocratic actions of the DNC.
And, you know, definitely check, check out all the events
that Jake is going to be doing.
Thank you Jake.
Hopefully we'll have you on again soon to give us updates on any progress
you're making with efforts to fight back against what Democrats are doing.
I appreciate that, and I just say last word is that, guys,
we're not going to give up.
Like this is not a a lot of people think like,
oh, are you going to drop out because you didn't get on a couple of ballots?
Hell no.
No. When they do illegal unfair practices, I double down.
So we're going to fight even harder and we're going to make sure that you get
justice because it isn't just about me.
It's about you guys.
You guys should get to vote and they're trying to take that away from you.
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