>> Joe Biden is continuing the trend of Democrats self-sabotaging by hinting that he's considering
Republicans in his Cabinet.
Now, that is a high degree of risk with very little payoff, especially since this is now
being floated in the middle of this election, where we keep hearing about how important
it is to beat Donald Trump.
Now, this is based on new reporting by Politico that provides some specific names as to which
Republicans could be serving on Biden's Cabinet.
And I do wanna note that some of these names have been vetted, meaning that the Biden campaign
has begun the vetting process, and this isn't just some rumor.
This appears to be a list of serious contenders in Biden's Cabinet.
So one person close to the Biden transition said it remains a priority to have options
from different parts of the ideological spectrum for the former vice president to consider.
>> Really?
>> No, it really shouldn't be a priority.
If the whole point is to get Donald Trump out of office because he's been so disastrous,
and if Donald Trump represents the Republican party now, meaning what Republican voters
want, you look at the polling, Republican voters love Trump, why would you want to bring
in that ideological perspective to your Cabinet?
Makes no sense, but let me give you some specific names.
Among the names being floated for possible Biden Cabinet posts are Meg Whitman, the CEO
of Quibi and former CEO of eBay, and former Ohio Governor John Kasich, who, by the way,
is one of the names being vetted right now, both of whom spoke at August's Democratic
National Convention.
Massachusetts GOP Governor Charlie Baker and former Senator Jeff Flake, both Republicans,
have also been mentioned, as has former Representative Charlie Dent from Pennsylvania, who resigned
from Congress in 2018 and became a lobbyist.
Lots of fun there.
Now Cenk, before you jump in, I just wannna remind you all of what the voting record was
for Jeff Flake, before he decided that he wouldn't run again.
He voted along with Donald Trump 81.3% of the time, and that's according to analysis
from FiveThirtyEight.
Representative Charlie Dent voted along with Donald Trump 93% of the time.
We gotta get Trump out office, it's really important.
It's a crisis.
Anyway, go ahead, Cenk.
>> So there's several different things here.
First of all, don't tell us how important it is to beat Republicans, and then at the
same time, tell us, I can't wait to put Republicans in my government.
That makes no sense at all.
And I know in Washington world, that makes sense, cuz how else would we get deals to
cut taxes for the rich?
Unless corporate Democrats and corporate Republicans work together, well, we don't want those deals.
The Democratic voters don't want those deals and the American people don't want those deals,
and I'm basing that on polling.
So second of all, look at how much they help Republican framing.
No, no, there's still moderate and reasonable Republicans.
Republicans are totally moderate and reasonable, it's just Donald Trump that's the problem.
But Charlie Dent, who agreed with Trump 93% of the time, that's a fact, that's not an
opinion.
That is not, hey, Charlie Dent went and looked respectable on television, Charlie Dent went
and said something slightly critical of Donald Trump two or three times in his life.
No, he voted.
Actions matter way more than anything else.
He voted with Trump 93% of the time.
Yeah, that's wonderful, I can't wait to put him in the Cabinet.
When you put someone in the Cabinet, you know what it means?
It means, theoretically, that they are the most qualified person in the country for that
job.
So you would be saying, I don't think there's a single Democrat in the country who's more
qualified than someone who voted with Donald Trump 93% of the time.
That's an insane thing to say if you're a Democrat.
God, they know nothing about politics.
Nothing!
And then you say, hey well, Cenk, come on, the guy's about to be President, how could
you say he knows nothing about politics?
Because over the long term, the Democrats constantly reinforced Republican framing.
That is why, during the Obama years and in the beginning of the Trump years, over a decade,
they lost 1,000 seats.
1,000 seats nationally.
And they have every demographic advantage.
When you look at the polling, they have massive advantages on almost every policy issue.
The Democrats, with the positions that they hold, almost cannot lose national elections.
But yet, somehow, they managed to lose to Donald Trump the first time around because
they're grotesquely incompetent.
And now, they come around and go, I'm gonna fill my Cabinet with Republicans after I asked
you to give me hundreds of millions of dollars to defeat Republicans.
It's insanity.
Now, one more thing at least.
So you're telling me you're looking across the ideological spectrum.
So, is Bob Reich going to be the Treasury Secretary?
>> Yeah, right.
>> Look, how about a moderate progressive?
Elizabeth Warren, is she gonna be Treasury Secretary?
Is she gonna be Attorney General?
Name a progressive.
Okay, here, let's have a lot of fun.
Senator Nina Turner, are you considering her for the Cabinet?
If I said that to the Biden team, I know what the reaction would be.
It would be Nina Turner, we would never consider her.
Well, she's one of the leading progressives in the country.
You pull progressives right now, I challenge you.
I bet you she comes in the top two, but let's be generous and say top three.
Okay, so you would never, ever consider someone who's incredibly popular with progressives,
but Republicans who vote with Trump 90% of the time, come on in, Biden administration
is open for business.
If on top of all this, they name a lobbyist slash democratic consultant, especially a
lobbyist, someone who works for corporations, as his chief of staff, then you'll know.
And it's not us progressives, it'll be Biden's team declaring war on progressives and saying
no, we're gonna stuff the Cabinet with the Republicans and lobbyists.
And we were kidding, we were never gonna do it.
All we're gonna do is, yes, we'll protect democracy, we're not fascist, so you dodged
the bullet on that one.
But everything else, business as usual, we're gonna go back to the corporate machine, crushing
all of you until Democrats lose the next election.
>> During the Obama administration, we had a President who was overwhelmingly concerned
with criticism from the right wing.
He was constantly trying to appease them.
He was overwhelmingly concerned about how Fox News was covering him.
And so now, we get Trump, and some people are under the impression that Trump would
be so terrible that it would create some sort of revolutionary moment in the country, where
we would move toward progressivism.
But what we're gonna get with Biden is actually gonna be worse than what we experienced with
Obama.
Because Biden is starting to flirt with the idea of bringing in Bush-era Republicans.
Did we all forget about how awful the Bush administration was?
Now, the names that I mentioned as as possible Cabinet picks, I'm sure were influenced by
the fine people over at the Lincoln Project.
Again, Bush-era Republicans who very much hate Donald Trump but did some pretty disastrous
things in promoting Bush's policies when he was in charge.
And so, I'm worried that yes, we're going to, in some ways, stop the bleeding when it
comes to the dismantling of our democracy, but when it comes to policies, Cenk, I think
you're 100% right.
These names that are being floated right now, essentially promote an ongoing war between
the neoliberal faction of the Democratic Party and the progressive wing of the Democratic
Party.
And it's degrading.
It's degrading as a progressive to read names like this, and then have someone like Joe
Biden and other establishment Democrats package it up as, no, no, no, this is all about unity.
I don't want to engage in unity with bad people, right?
Would you want to engage in unity with serial killers?
No, there are good people and bad people.
Reasonable people, unreasonable people.
Why do we want unity with unreasonable people?
It makes no sense.
>> Okay, and Further School of Keeping It Real, John Kasich nearly won the Republican
nomination in the last election, in 2016, not 20 years ago.
He came in the top three, arguably top two, depending on how you look at it.
He almost beat Trump.
So, you are considering bringing one of the Republican standard bearers in the country
into your Cabinet?
And then, think about how that affects 2024.
Likely, Biden is not going to run for re-election in 2024.
Then, what did you do?
You set up John Kasich perfectly so that he could win, not only the Republican nomination,
but the Presidency.
Who would be that monumentally stupid?
And by the way, Kamala Harris.
Hello?
Anybody on Kamala's team?
I know if it's a progressive, you guys are out there trying to make sure they don't get
any Cabinet positions, so they won't challenge Kamala Harris when she runs in 2024.
Hello, McFly?
Kasich is gonna run against you, why would you put him in the Cabinet?
God, these people are unbelievable.
But to be fair to them, Obama put a Republican in the Cabinet, he reached across the aisle.
That's why he got so many votes from Republicans.
As you all remember, zero votes.
None.
Zero.
Not only did they not vote for the Affordable Care Act, they tried to kill it over 50 times
while Obama was President, and then another 20 afterwards.
And what did Obama get for reaching out across the aisle and for putting Republicans in his
Cabinet?
We all know that it was nothing.
So why would you repeat that mistake and help Republican framing, and help Republican reputations
while you're doing it?
Look, one of our members wrote in a funny comment, he's got a funny handle too.
His handle is Nipple Pierced Cenk In Skinny Jeans.
Makes me uncomfortable every time I say it, but you could have me say those things too,
if you're a member.
Tyt.com/join.
So anyway, he wrote in, hope Trump won't be in Biden Cabinet.
Team of rivals.
Republicans are so reasonable.
I mean, we gotta beat Trump!
And so if you're willing to put someone who agrees with Trump 90% of the time in the Cabinet,
I don't know, is Biden considering Trump?
I know he would never consider real progressives in the Cabinet.
God forbid.
That's his base.
The ideological spectrum ends before we get to his base but extends all the way into Trump
space.
Well played, Democrats.
Genius move.