>> Cenk Uygur was at the spin room during the first night of the Democratic debate,
and when you're in the spin room you get an opportunity to run into various candidates,
maybe some of their advisers- you get to do interviews.
Well, he conducted an interview with Marianne Williamson and talked a lot about Medicare
for all.
So let's her what she had to say.
>> Obviously I didn't agree with your Medicare for all answer but you did kill it on a couple
of other issues.
Okay.
>> You know when I said what I said I felt dirty after I said it.
You know I feel like you know I maybe had that I had to say it.
The needle really moved for me on that tonight.
Cuz hearing it from them and having to say to myself, you're agreeing with John Delaney
here.
You're really being pulled over here.
I felt that was going to have people like yourself like on my text, no!
>> There is this irony that you score so well when you talk against corporate rule.
And you did it again tonight.
And on the issue of Medicare for All you seem like you're stuck on that one.
It feels like you're almost in mid-evolution.
>> I am, I am, and I think that's the truth of the matter, but I think the needle moved
left today.
>> That's really interesting.
So you think the needle moved for you a little bit when you saw yourself in the middle of
the debate agreeing with John Delaney.
>> Yeah.
>> So before I jump in with my thoughts I wanted to hear what you ladies had to say.
>> Okay.
I thought it was really cool that she was open minded not to consider other people's
viewpoints.
And I think that's really strong and that is something I would want a presidential candidate
or anybody who's a politician, I think you should always be learning.
And also because it doesn't tether you to one corporation or one interest in any way.
So you can't necessarily be manipulated if you are open minded.
Then again, I also would like to think that she's done sufficient research and has come
to the stage with a complete knowledge base of not only what her competitors are saying,
but just what the options are so that she can articulate what is best for this nation
so that's kind of like a.
>> I think it's refreshing to hear a politician admit that there was some sort of change for
them and I think that Marianne Williamson also represents a pulse that is unheard on
a debate stage.
One that says, okay I am listening too.
I'm curious to see what you're saying and if that aligns with the ways that I've approached
this issue.
And she does later clarify that she was talking about a transition from public option, from
private insurance to in the future, everybody being on Medicare for all.
And so I think that through that conversation, it was eye-opening for her.
I've actually talked to Marianne Williamson a couple of times.
I used to go to her sermons on Monday nights.
And a lot of people in Los Angeles did.
And I can tell you that when I've talked to her about things like I said, thank you for
your tweets on Syria.
As she was exiting her whole body turns around she ran to me and she said, tell me what's
going on.
So she's curious in a way that I don't see from many politicians that have.
A script that they need to stick to and don't wanna veer very far away from.
>> Yeah, so I don't like politicians who stick to a script and refuse to evolve on issues.
Even when they're provided evidence indicating that their positions are wrong or short-sighted.
But with that said, I, that interview did not sit well with me.
Okay so I'm gonna try to be diplomatic.
This isn't a joke, right?
So just like the issue of Medicare for all and health care in America overall like that
is not a joke.
That is not something am interested in seeing a presidential candidate evolve on in real
time, right?
So the fact that she's, doing this debate, she had said on Colbert's show.
>> Yeah.
>> I don't want to be an agent of chaos in response to why she's against Medicare for
all, right?
Okay, so she's kind of all over the place on that issue.
It doesn't sit well with me.
With that said though, she has interesting things to say.
I actually do think she deserves a place on the debate stage because if I compare her
to, to Tim Ryan, John Delaney, I mean almost any other establishment candidate who's up
there especially just keeping it real, white male establishment candidate.
>> Right.
>> Been there, done that.
We've seen that throughout the history of America.
I want something different and it's not just because they're male, it's because they don't
bring anything to the table that's different.
Bernie Sanders is a white male, obviously I'm a huge fan is because he brings something
different to the table.
With Marianne Williamson, no one else on that stage talks about reparations as clearly as
she does.
She's actually thought this through, and I commend her for that.
But when it comes to the issue of healthcare, I'm not really interested in seeing someone
evolve on it in real time,
>> Right?
>> I want someone who knows what they're talking about and who, who has, you know, conviction
when talking about it.
>> Well, I think it's also about in this moment, really the conversation we were having with
John, decoding people's intentions for being on that stage, having that national platform.
And my hunch with Marianne Williamson is that she wants to revive or awaken a moral and
spiritual conversation that doesn't exist.
>> Mm-hm.
>> As a national discourse in America to the extent that we are talking about it at the
same time and watching the same thing.
It exists in pockets.
It exists as maybe a far Christian right conversation.
It exists maybe in Muslim spaces or Jewish spaces or we're not having a collective conversation
about the moral debt.
>> Yeah.
>> That we have resting on the wealth of centuries of free labor.
>> Yeah.
>> I think she would be great as a minister of social responsibility.
>> Sure, yeah.
>> Or good thoughts and happy places.
And, hey, I would love for her to run any kind of reparations set up, that'd be awesome.
But when it comes to collectively being a true presidential candidate, it doesn't seem
like she has those fundamental roots.
>> Definitely.
>> That we need for someone to know the issues, to have a command of them, and also, to be
able to guide.
In a lead on them that doesn't involve crystals and sage.
>> She actually signed TYT's progressive pledge, which specifically mentions that you have
to fight for Medicare for all.
She signed that, and then she went on Colbert's show and said she didn't want to be an agent
of chaos.
So she- that did not sit well with me either, obviously.
But she also talks, or clarifies, or tries to clarify her position a little more in this
next clip.
So let's take a look at that.
>> The argument that I think you made tonight will sound to people like you don't wanna
eventually wind up there.
>> No, no, God no.
My goodness.
I've never been that.
And that's really depressing that it sounded that way.
>> What do you view as the role for private insurance?
Let's put it this way, eventually, any role?
>> Eventually.
Eventually.
Eventually they're gone.
They are as they perform as greedily as Elizabeth was saying tonight.
It is horrible.
They take a lot of money and give as little care as possible.
I'm very aware of that.
I remember when I had my own daughter, and the doctor didn't want me to have to leave
the hospital that fast and the insurance companies made me.
>> You have to be clear, you have to speak with conviction.
You have to know what you stand for.
And out of all the issues, health care is not.
One of the topics you should be like wavering on.
So again I'm not as dismissive of her as others are.
Like people talk about the orbs and the crystals and like whatever, it's funny but it's not
something that disqualifies her in my eyes.
What does disqualify a candidate is someone who doesn't really know what they stand for,
especially when it comes to important issues.
That's just where I stand.
>> Now, online, I saw somewhere where she was kind of described as having Santa Fe aunt
syndrome.
Where she'll pray over you, and speak all these good things, but doesn't really have
those core principles to get it done.
And so I love to hear her speak, I love to hear the things that she says on certain issues.
But when it comes to getting it done, good.
>> Yeah, no like I said, I think she had a clear plan for being on this stage, the second
time now that she's been on.
And that is, I'm gonna inject a conversation we haven't been having and that is reparations,
especially from a white woman.
Because that clearly gets dismissed, if it's a black person who talks about reparations.
And so, I think she wanted to be on that stage to have that conversation.
And I don't know if she gave much thought to the other things that should be important.
>> Right.
That's a good point.