So joining me now, Senator Nina Turner from Ohio.
She was just involved, of course, in the contentious Ohio 11 race in Cleveland.
Senator Turner, welcome back to The Young Turks.
>> Glad to be here with you here Cenk.
>> All right, so, we, we didn't get the result that,
that you were looking for again this time around the second race combined.
And it looks like about $6 million dollars were spent against you,
at least in the two races.
To give people to context, Ohio 12 which is right next to you.
A combined $3,000 were spent.
So, it's obvious given Hillary Clinton the first time, Joe Biden this time,
Clyburn, Democratic leadership, Trump packs, Trump donors,
Democratic donors, oil lobbyists, drug companies, etcetera.
They were worried about you for some reason.
Do you know why they were so
concerned about making sure that you didn't get into Congress?
>> Yeah, because they know that I held from the Congresswoman,
Shirley Chisholm School of the Democratic Party, which is unbought and
unbossed, and that I would stand up for the people relentlessly as relentlessly
as they stand up for their corporate owner donors.
That's why and they knew that I would embarrass them for
the things that they have not accomplished on behalf of the poor,
the working poor and the barely middle class in my district and in this country.
>> So I wanna come back to what they have not accomplished in a second, but
you mentioned Shirley Chisholm.
I noticed the other day that Hillary Clinton at The Met Gala had some names
soon into her address and one of them was Shirley Chisholm.
And I thought that was a little bit ironic given that Shirley Chisholm mainly railed
against moderate democrats just like Hillary Clinton.
I don't know that you saw that you were in the middle of your import race.
But what's your take on Hillary Clinton claiming ownership over Shirley Chisholm
in that sense?
>> No, I didn't see it.
And, hypocrisy is nothing new to neoliberals.
>> Yeah.
All right yes.
And Hillary Clinton of course wanted to give advice,
first time around on how to win.
Just real quick remind me of Hillary Clinton beat Donald Trump.
Well certainly not know did not and in the state of Ohio did not either,
Trump won the state twice actually.
>> That's interesting, yeah.
We'll be looking forward to her advice later on how to win.
Let's note that Donald Trump has an I Q that is probably in the single digits.
Okay now you talked about how you said you might embarrass them for
the lack of action that they're taking and for
the fact that they're following their corporate donors.
Now the democratic establishment in Washington says no, no they've done
plenty, you don't get voting rights and they're never going to vote on it again.
You don't get $15 minimum wage and they're never going to vote on it again.
And by the way on women's rights, they're not going to bother trying to take
away the filibuster, which means it has no chance of passing and they know that.
Do you think that that's somehow being
more democratic to give up on all of those democratic priorities?
>> No less democratic in terms of what this party is supposed to stand for.
Uygur, there are two major parties in this country,
obviously I'm not saying anything that is new to anyone.
The point is, is that one of these parties should be working on behalf of the people
who need it the most.
And that is not to let the recalcitrance and the mayhem of the republicans,
let's not let them off the hook.
But my party has the majority in both chambers and they have the presidency and
they need to act like it.
People are literally dying, they're losing their livelihood, the're losing their
lives, millions of people have died from Covid, if we had or had universal health
care in this country, we might have been able to save more lives.
So it is things like that, increasing the minimum wages you laid out there,
that the Democrats could have done and still can do before November to ensure
that Democrats are changing material conditions and giving the people something
they can feel for real instead of tweeting all the time as if they are powerless.
They're not powerless, they have the power, people gave it to them in 2020.
>> But to be fair, if they took away the filibuster, yes,
they could pass a row on a national level.
So all these rights would be protected and yes, they could pass voting rights.
So everybody could vote and be safe in that and
end this insanity of Gerrymandered districts.
But if they took away the filibuster,
then they would have no excuse to not do things like paid family leave and
$15 minimum wage and lower drug prices, which all hurts their donors.
I mean, don't you want to be fair to their donors without the filibuster, those poor,
poor corporate donors would have no protection at all.
>> Well, there it is.
And let's throw in the George Floyd Policing Act Two.
So much of what my party promised in 2020 is not happening.
And let us not forget the child tax credit.
By way of example, a real example that people can feel in real time,
it was a great policy position.
It took children out of poverty and my God,
because one senator in particular did not care to see that renewed.
It is not renewed and we have pushed or they have pushed children who are once
lifted out of poverty slightly right back there.
I mean, it doesn't get more ridiculous than that, but your point is well taken.
If you get rid of the filibuster, then all of the excuses are out the door.
>> Yeah, well,
I mean, do women really need to have control over their own bodies?
And by the way, I say that with intense sarcasm, but mainstream media
is pretty dense, so God knows how they'll quote that out of context.
So speaking of which, I want to ask you about that.
So since you criticized Democratic Party leadership from time to time, you were
painted as somehow against Democrats, as if you were for Republicans, would you
like to fight Republicans more or less than current Democratic Party leadership?
>> More and as I did when I served in the Ohio Senate,
where Republicans had supermajorities, I had to go up against them.
I was the minority whip in my caucus, just for that reason.
I mean, minority whip does a lot of things, but part of it is,
being part of a leadership team that takes it to the other party and
they were wrong most of the time and I did have to take it to them most of the time.
So I'm a very accustomed to being an environment where
Republicans have the majority and we gotta fight like hell.
And because legislatively, we didn't have control.
So you had to use the bully pulpit and
no one was more masterful using that than myself.
So yeah, we fight, Progressives fight the Republicans harder than
Neoliberal Corporate Democrats, but we find ourselves having to fight
a multipronged war and that is both against the corporatists in our party and
the corporatists in The Republican Party to.
>> So Senator Turner, you don't know this, but
the Democrat who won the primary in your neighbor industry in Ohio 12,
said that you're her role model and that she got into politics because she
saw you fighting back aggressively in the Ohio Statehouse and
at the time she didn't know you, but she was like, wow, who is this person?
And so it's funny how your inspiring Democrats to run and
to fight even though the mainstream media paint you as being against Democrats.
It's almost like it's an alternate reality, like, like Trump winning
the 2020 election or that Progressives who want to fight Republicans harder and,
and do more democratic policies or somehow more right wing.
It is the mainstream media also and Democratic leadership pushing and
alternative facts on, on what progressives true positions are.
>> Absolutely, I mean, we may have a few allies,
let me say that in the mainstream media, but overall the model,
the framing of the mainstream media is to make it seem like Progressives,
freedom fighting Progressives cuz Cenk, were fighting against too,
progressives is a name only, that we can come back to that at another time.
But to make it seem as though there's an equal on the other side, the radical,
there is no comparison to the radical right and freedom fighting Progressives,
because one thing about Progressives and certainly yet no one is perfect,
no views are absolutely a 100% in terms of being perfect.
We're not fighting for perfection, we're fighting for justice and
there is no way to say that a group that is fighting for Medicare for all paid,
paid leave, increasing the minimum wage, you name it, voting rights,
there's no comparison to that, to what the right wingers are trying to do.
So instead of being honest about freedom fighting progressives,
they try to make a false equivalency and it is a false equivalency.
A matter of fact, it's a damn lie equivalency cuz there is no similarity
between freedom fighting progressives and right wing,
right wingers who are trying to take away all liberties,
including a woman's agency to be able to control her own body.
You don't see, Progressives are not doing that.
Freedom fighting progressives are not doing that.
>> So next week we'll have a longer interview where we might talk a little
bit more in detail about those pinots, but I want to ask you one more question here.
You mentioned right wing policies.
Well, curiously, right now, as we speak Nancy, Pelosi and
Jim Clyburn are campaigning for Henrik Cuellar,
down in Texas, he's running against a young progressive Jessica Cisneros.
And Cuellar has not only been raided by the FBI and is notorious for
corruption and might soon be arrested for corruption, but he also is anti choice.
He has voted with Trump, he has voted with Republicans over and over again.
He is very clear, he is against Roe.
He is against a woman's ability to choose.
Is it a betrayal of democratic principles for Pelosi and
Clyburn to go and try to make sure he gets elected into congress?
>> Very much so.
And, and they're not ashamed of it because for the most part,
they will not be called out on this.
People will make excuses.
They should absolutely not be in this race, even if they somehow wanted to see,
Cuellar lines up more even beyond the, they might disagree with him on
the abortion, but he lines up in every other way because he's a corporatist.
And so they're choosing to turn a blind eye to this thing and
be up on Twitter tweeting about how wrong the, the Republican controlled
United States Supreme Court is, instead of taking the molt out of their own eye
which is you have a young freedom fighting progressive that is standing up for
women's rights and other rights in this country.
But yet you choose the other guy.
It's basically like Wizard of Oz.
Don't look at the man and the woman behind the curtain, that's what's happening here.
The world is upside down.
>> So when Nancy Pelosi huffs and puffs and makes public speeches
about how she wants to get rolling back as law in this country.
But meanwhile fights with all of her being, in a race that she has no
business in in south Texas for an anti choice candidate, she's fighting tooth and
nail to make sure that there's another vote to take away women's rights.
Wouldn't that make her a giant liar and a hypocrite?
>> Hypocrisy is again Cenk nothing new to neoliberals and
and people should recognize that you can't do both of these things.
This man is the total antithesis of it without,
there's no half measure on where he stands.
He is the antithesis of this at the most pivotal time in this country's
history when it comes to Roe V Wade.
And so yeah, it is hypocrisy, that is what it is and people should see it for
what it is and call it out for what it is and not be afraid to equivocate.
We can't be mad at the, at the Supreme Court.
But then think it's okay for people like Clyburn and Pelosi to be in that
state rolling against a candidate that is standing up for women's right to choose.
You can't have both.
Learn that on Sesame Street when they do the segment of shapes,
one of these things don't belong, okay, all that we learned in kindergarten.
One of these things don't belong and what they're doing right now is wrong.
But Cenk I'll tell you this, corporatist democrats will do anything, even locking
arms with corporatist republicans, if it comes down to hurting progressives,
freedom, fighting progressive, that is for sure, and that is why they are down there.
By the way, Jessica Cisneros would of course be in much better shape to
win the general elections since she's not being investigated by the FBI in
the middle of the election.
But they don't mind losing the election to a Republican either.
Clyburn and Pelosi, they came for the corruption but they stayed for
the right wing policies in South Texas and back in Quar.
Nina Turner, have they seen the last of you?
>> That part on that one, no, absolutely not.
My resolve has just been reinforced because it is very, very clear that my
black girl magic must be all of that for them to spend $6 million against me and
two back to back campaigns from the president to coming into this race.
All the way to Cryptocurrency billionaires and all baronesses and
every all other manner of folks from B M F I to A pack, they made up packs, No,
they have not seen the last of me, they just made it so that sister Turner will be
totally unleashed as my mama once said, sometimes you get what you ask for.
So yeah, they're gonna get what they asked for.
>> Absolutely right.
I knew that they were incredibly scared of you when they sent the president to say,
no, no, no, no, no, no.
She would actually make us do the things that we were lying about.
Okay, well now at least your intentions are super clear when it comes to
fighting anti choice legislators.
They joined their side.
They literally joined their side.
But when it comes to progressive champion that actually wants them to
do the democratic policies, they are lions and
they bring all their lobbyist friends with them.
But no matter what happens, the is right here and we thank you for
joining us on The Young Turks.
We appreciate it.
>> It's great to be back on The Young Turks.
Cenk I gotta tell you there's a lot of love for
T Y T in Ohio 11 Congressional District.
I want you to know that I met a lot of people who watch and just adore your,
your network.
So thank you for all that you and the team.
They are due.
>> Thank you Senator Nina Turner, we appreciate it.
All right we'll be talking more to her next week.
We'll see what other revelations come out of that race.