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the bully Pulpit Series has been going
on since 2008 and we invite all
presidential candidates to come to South
Carolina CU it's the first in the South
primary for the Democrats it's now
probably going to be first in the nation
we'll figure out we're going to fight it
out with New Hampshire I guess I'm going
to turn things over to Lily Jank is a
unique candidate because he was born in
turkey and he immigrated to the United
States at age 8 yuger has become a
prominent voice in the realm of media
political analysis and social advocacy
and has helped Foster critical
conversations on topics that impact each
and every one of us please help me
welcome presidential candidate Jen
yuger thanks for coming out I appreciate
it unfortunately today I come to you to
talk about an Insidious form of
discrimination that the Democratic party
leadership and the DNC is practicing uh
it is discrimination against uh
naturalized citizens so um in order to
understand the Discrimination which I'll
come back to and give you the details of
you have to understand our perspective
as naturalized citizens now most people
aren't of course it's a country of 330
million people uh naturalized citizens
are 25 million Americans so if you're
not one of us you probably have never
even thought about this issue and I
don't blame you for that it's outside of
your experience and the idea that we
can't run for president um seems normal
to everyone and not that big a deal why
does it seem normal because we all
learned it in eth grade in Civics class
it was one of the few things that sticks
in your mind about uh the presidency oh
yeah you've got to be born here right
and if you're not a naturalized citizen
you don't think that that's that big a
deal in terms of discrimination most
folks aren't going to run for president
anyway right but from our
perspective it's very different our
parents uh came here because they love
this country and think about that for a
second you imagine uprooting where you
were from Imagine your house your
cousins your family your friends and
saying I'm going to leave here because I
love another country so much that I want
to go and live there I believe in that
country I have hope in that country and
I believe that's where the dream is the
American dream and I want to I want my
kids to be able to live that dream so
all of our parents did that and I want
to thank all the Immigrant parents out
there you have no idea hard day worked
and I can't ever thank them enough and
they sacrificed everything for us to
have a shot at the American dream and
they followed all the rules you know for
naturalized citizens almost all of us
are documented we came in we did
everything right or at least our parents
did everything right and and they
brought us to this country and what is
the first thing that I was greeted with
when I was an 8-year-old kid that had
moved to East bronic New Jersey when I
say I'm from uh turkey the first thing
I'd hear is haha you can't be
president now it's a tiny thing again
especially if you're not on the
receiving end of it you happen to see
that in a school somewhere you think
like what's the big deal so what you you
know what if I said you know you can't
be a dentist what so then be something
else right but that's not what we hear
what we hear is you're not really one of
us you're not really a full citizen
you're not really fully American and in
fact there was actually a good example
of this just yesterday I was on C-SPAN
Washington Journal and one of the
callers called in angry and he said
you're not allowed to run you're not
even a
citizen so a lot of you here today are
educated and you know that that's not
the case we are citizens but for a lot
of people in America they don't even
think we're citizens just based on that
one thing of that's in the original
Constitution that says you have to be
naturally born
so no we are citizens in fact the
Supreme Court ruled in Schneider V Rusk
that naturalized citizens have to be
treated exactly the same that we cannot
be treated as second class citizens here
I'm going to give you actually a quote
from that from that decision this
statute proceeds on the impers
impermissible assumption that
naturalized citizens as a class are less
reliable and bear less allegiance to
this country than do the native born
this is an assumption that is impossible
for us to make the Supreme Court has
already said it is impossible to
distinguish between naturalized citizens
and natural-born citizens they said you
cannot treat us as second class citizens
why are we still having this
conversation look guys I want you to
understand from an emotional level and a
personal
level that I barely remember growing up
in Turkey I was eight when I came but I
remember loving the Pittsburgh
Steelers I Remember Loving Jersey Subs
and pepperoni pizza with extra cheese I
Remember Loving playing on the softball
field in miltown and then grabbing ice
cream nearby I grew up as an American in
American culture with an American
identity and at every turn and
especially in this run I've been met
with the same discrimination you can't
run you're not one of us you can't lead
us if you say to someone you can't lead
us what you're saying is we don't really
trust you you're not really one of us
and so look I'll give you a couple more
examples real quick Ted Lou is a United
States Congressman he actually happens
to be my congressman uh and he was born
in Taiwan and came over when he was
three years old doesn't remember Taiwan
at all growing up at all not one thing
he grew up in Cleveland he's from
Cleveland he became a United States uh
uh colonel in the Air Force okay he's a
colonel he risked his life for the
country but he's not allowed to lead us
uh Patrick B David a right-winger I
don't agree with him on politics I was
on his podcast and I found out he's an
Armenian Christian that was in Iran that
was born in Iran in 1978 they run from
Iran During the Revolution fearing for
their safety and their life and they
come to this great Haven the United
States of America couldn't be more proud
to be an American winds up serving the
101st
Airborne risks his life for this country
and then we say no you're not really one
of us
700 Medal of Honor winners were
naturalized citizens so they're willing
to risk their lives they're willing to
do everything for this country but at
every turn what all of us here is you're
not really one of us you're not really a
100% American you're not really a
citizen that is
unquestionably a form of discrimination
and so our parents and us we ask we love
this country and that's why we came here
and what we're asking for is for you to
love us
back I don't think it's too much of an
ask but unfortunately a lot of people
have treated it that way look I want to
address this real quick as to The
Logical moral and legal reasons why um
we should be allowed to run for
president first of all logically uh the
founding fathers were very clear as to
why they put that in the original
Constitution they were worried about an
austro Hungarian Prince coming into the
country and hijacking our democracy are
you guys worried that any austr
Hungarian princes out here this is an
anacronismo to the rightwing whatever
show I go on they all say well obviously
it's ridiculous obviously it's that
shouldn't matter at all anymore uh
nobody's going to co-opt America into
the Prussian Empire that no longer
exists so is an
or are you blocked by this anachronism a
thing that doesn't even exist anymore
which is what I'll get to in a second
any form of discrimination is a cancer
it doesn't just affect the person being
discriminated against it also affects
the person doing the Discrimination it
makes you an advocate of excluding
people and especially the Democratic
party should not be in favor of that so
I think that these are fairly clear so
let's go to the legal angle people will
say and it's the number one thing I've
gotten since I uh started this campaign
it's right there in the Constitution man
it says it well wait a minute It also
says in the Constitution that black
folks are three-fifths of a person
should be counted as three-fifths of a
person is pointing to that part of the
Constitution make any sense at all no of
course not it was amended out by the
14th Amendment we have a l a lot of
things in the con original Constitution
and even in the Amendments that have
been amended out for example in the
original Constitution you all were not
allowed to vote for senators the state
legislator would pick the Senators so if
you go to vote for the Senate right now
and somebody comes to you and goes no
way man you're not allowed to vote the
state legislature picks it's right in
the Constitution well yeah it's in the
original Constitution but it was amended
out and it's very frustrating and I get
it when the right-wing does it I get it
when the Republican Party does it but
when you see Democratic officials saying
no we should keep the discriminatory
parts of the Constitution that is crazy
it's totally nuts it's not at all true
so what does the 14th Amendment say it's
almost like a da Vinci Code you can't
believe you didn't see it before partly
because you know it's not your job to
look at the 14th Amendment and analyze
it but it's actually very very clear it
says all persons born or
naturalized have due process and equal
protection of the
laws they didn't say naturalized by
accident they put naturalized in the
amendment and they didn't say well we
don't really mean equal we mean equal
for everyone except the naturalized
citizens except we mentioned naturalized
no they meant equal and they meant
naturalized that's why it's in the
Constitution the plain meaning of the
14th Amendment is super clear all
persons born or naturalized have equal
protection that includes every right
finally we get to the Democratic
party we found out in Arkansas that the
DNC is calling State Party leaders and
telling them to keep me off the ballots
now we know in Arkansas and very likely
they did it here in South Carolina as
well so we were kept off the ballot in
South Carolina because the Democratic
party not voters not the courts the
Democratic party said we want to
discriminate against this guy we want to
discriminate against 25 million
nationalized citizens we don't think
that they're equal to us how dare they
think about leading this country they're
not fly Americans they're not real
citizens that's the Democratic party
saying
that so jimie Harrison's the head of the
DNC he's here from from South Carolina
if anyone tried to discriminate against
jimie Harrison for all my disagreements
with him I think he's a corporate
Democrat I think he's establishment I
think he's status quo I don't agree with
him on
policies but if someone tried to
discriminate against jimie Harrison I
would go to war on his behalf I would
fight that discrimination with every
fiber of my being but Jamie Harrison has
decided that power is more important and
guys why do you think anybody does
discrimination they do it to protect
their own power so here's Jamie Harrison
and Joe Biden saying who cares about 25
million Americans we're going to
actively call up State parties and tell
them discriminate exclude them the
Democratic par is in favor of exclusion
we don't want them to have full rights
we don't care what the Supreme Court
said we don't care what the 14th
Amendment said
discriminate that is not what the
Democratic party should be about and
that is not what America is about I
think it is deeply disappointing I think
that jime Harrison should be embarrassed
of himself for doing
that and it's a shame upon the
Democratic
party so look last thing that I'll ask
of you guys is well okay what is it that
I'm asking right so first of all to the
South Carolina Democrats we followed all
the rules we filled out the right forms
by the way we gave
$20,000 and that's $20,000 coming from
6,800 different donors at average of
$34 they took the money by the way and
they said you're not on the ballot
that's basically stealing from Little
grandmas and and and and American
citizens out there going oh yeah yeah
you gave to this guy because Against All
Odds you want him to rep present you and
be your voice haha we're going to take
the money we're going to take their
money and we're going to keep you off
the ballot is that what the Democratic
party stands for in South Carolina so I
have a very simple request I followed
every rule there was and the courts are
going to decide this issue anyway put me
on the ballot one more thing that's
important about that guys the courts
also look to see how people voted
there's a thing called a political
question Doctrine where they say if the
voters have decided in a certain
direction we're going to listen to to
the will of the voters but I cannot get
to the will of the voters if the
Democratic party is the one doing the
Discrimination if the Democratic party
is the one blocking me so I have that
same request of the DNC can you please
stop
actively asking the state parties to
discriminate against 25 million
Americans can you please be on the side
of righteousness and Justice instead of
on the side of exclusion and
discrimination it's not too much of an
Ask FEC has already ruled that
nationalized citizens can run for
president whether we are eligible to
serve as president is for the courts so
let the courts do their job and let the
voters decide if they think I should be
their leader and that will affect the
courts I I don't mind losing in the
courts that's okay I believe in this
system I believe in our justice system
I'm going to take it to the courts we
have a great case and we're likely to
win the case and I don't mind losing to
the in the case of the voters if the
voters say hey Jen I I hear what you're
saying but I like Joe Biden I you know I
I like my presidents who take naps
whatever right I like guys who are
status quo and I know he's not going to
give me any radical change he's not
going to give me big change he's gonna
give me tiny tiny tiny change and I like
that and I like that he takes the
corporate donations and then does
whatever his donors say good okay then
the voters decided that's how democracy
works okay hey I like that he's a 37%
and he's almost definitely going to lose
to Donald Trump I like that okay then
that's your call okay I believe in
democracy I believe in this system but
let the voters decide and for the voters
my ask of you is this one is put this
issue out of your mind the courts are
going to decide it no matter what so
just vote on the person you want the
person who's going to fight for you God
wouldn't it be amazing to have a
democratic politician who actually wants
to pass the bills that you don't have to
push and convince and plead and beg with
oh my God President Biden can you please
do Paid Family Leave No I you don't need
to ask me that's why I'm here cuz I need
to pass the bills I'm going to fight for
you but finally the thing that I want
most from the voters is to treat me like
a real
American that's why we came here we came
here to be Americans and to because we
we believe in this country and we love
this
country so I think it's the bare minimum
mask I hope it's the bare minimum mask
and so when you go to
vote that's that's my only ask of you
treat me as if I'm one of you and I
belong thank
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you