As we here at TYT I've been pushing
for, Bernie Sanders did try
to get the minimum wage increase,
the $15 an hour minimum wage
increase, added as an amendment to
the COVID aid package.
And so there was a vote and
every one of the senators had to go
on record, and so they did.
And they voted,
58 to 42 to block it from big added
to the COVID Aid Bill, which,
wait a second, 58?
That's not how many Republicans
there are.
And of course that means that
a number of Democrats also voted
against it.
And here are those Democrats, and
one Independent.
Joe Manchin, Kyrsten Sinema,
Angus King, Tom Carper,
Chris Coons, Jon Tester,
Jeanne Shaheen, and Maggie Hassan
all voting against adding the
minimum wage increase to that bill.
And look, I guess we expected that
there would be some, but it's quite
a few actually, Cenk and Koa,
more than I probably would have
predicted would vote against it.
>> No, I'm not surprised by
the number and some thought that
that was a reason or
excuse not to force a vote on
this because well then those eight
democrats would be on the record.
And the thinking there was that,
well, then it'll make it harder for
the $15 minimum wage to get passed
because they all went on the record
as being opposed to it,
and it's going to make it
harder to turn them around.
No, I do not believe that that
is the case at all.
I'm thrilled that,
by the way, a huge part of this, no
joke, no exaggeration, was the TYT
audience demanding accountability,
demanding it and getting it.
Now what we would have preferred is
to actually have the bill passed.
But we did get something
very important accomplished here.
Now we know who the eight
are, okay?
So now they're not hiding in
the bushes anymore.
because that's the game that
democrats always play.
It wasn't Schumer, it was Pelosi,
it wasn't Pelosi it was Schumer.
It was Biden, it wasn't Biden.
It was the parliamentarian.
But we're never going to vote,
we're never ever going to vote, so
you can't actually pin it
on someone.
Well, now we know who
the eight are.
We know who to pin it on.
And instantly we have
a petition, okay?
So there they are, okay?
Joe Manchin, unsurprisingly,
Kyrsten Sinema, who turns out
to be the worst of the worst,
giving Joe Manchin a run for his
money on most despicable democratic
senator, and probably winning.
Angus King, Tom Carper, Chris
Coons, those two are relevant,
they're from Delaware,
that's basically Joe Biden saying I
never wanted the $15 minimum wage.
Those are the two biggest allies
that Joe Biden has in the Senate.
That was Biden doing a Kyrsten
Sinema like dance as they vote no.
Jon Tester,
and we'll show you the Sinema stuff
in a minute, Jon Tester,
Jeanne Shaheen, Maggie Hassan.
Hey, Maggie Hassan,
you got an election in 2022,
good luck.
Good luck raising money from,
because as you're about to see,
I don't think a single progressive
should ever volunteer for
you, donate for you.
Not a single dollar, you got your
corporate friends, you got it,
you just told us you got it, I'm
just going to rely on corporations.
Have at it, Hass.
Okay, and I don't think they should
even be voted for.
I got a petition on that.
I'm curious what you guys think,
because I know that's
the controversial part.
But what if it were
Republican ones?
So they can vote the same way?
Okay, and so the petition is
tyt.com/petitions/thehatefuleight.
And yes, it's a play on the movie,
okay, but, it's also because of
the Sinema dance and the purse and
the cake and rubbing our faces in
it, and Manchin saying, I will kill
all of COVID relief just to
make sure you have lower wages and
profiting off of it.
All the money that they all
collectively make off of our
lower wages.
So if you're going to hate on us,
okay, then you're
The Hateful Eight, and we're never
going to vote for you, we're never
going to give you a single dollar.
Go kiss more corporate ass and
see how that turns out for you.
That's my take on it.
Koa, I'm curious what your take on
it is.
I know we're going right into
the story and there's so
much more that John's going to tell
us about this, but obviously saying
not even voting for them for
some will be a bridge too far.
But what's your take
on all of this?.
>> I'm disappointed by it, but
like you I'm not surprised.
I think this is what centrist
politics often look like,
especially when you're looking
along how people vote.
I think, especially given that this
bill was tried and
presented during COVID relief,
I think it's really impertinent, so
we're talking about a very specific
moment in a lot of people
consciousness with the economy and
labor and all these, I mean,
I consider them more so
trend pieces than labor pieces.
But specifically about
how women are taking on so
much labor with COVID and
taking on all this care work that
they're not being compensated for.
And then effectively having
to homeschool children in the event
that they have any.
And then clean the entire kitchen
and the dishwasher and
do all the laundry and everything.
But on top of that, just making
sure ends are met and making sure
that people are food secure and
that housing is sustained.
I was reading late last
year from the National
Domestic Workers Alliance in the US
that specifically since
COVID has happened,
you're talking about cleaners
specifically in this country,
many of them who are mothers to
small children who haven't been
able to pay their mortgage or rent
in six months because of lost work.
And so in some ways,
I think that has the capacity to
overlap with service industries and
all these other places that clearly
have a more standardized minimum
wage as opposed to, in some ways,
just low income labor.
But I think it's very revealing in
terms of who certain Democrats
are often trying to play to when
there are opportunities like this.
Because they are rare.
I mean, votes like this to at least
reconsider the minimum wage don't
come along all the time.
So, it's really disappointing, but
not unexpected.
>> Yeah,
well of the eight that voted no,
I've been doing research to try to
figure out since most of them
haven't yet really explained it.
This is American politics, so
they won't have to explain why they
voted in a way that went against
the interests
of their constituents,
both objective and stated.
But I've been doing research on
each of them, the interesting thing
is that almost all of them say that
they are in support of raising
the minimum wage.
I found one article, [COUGH] it's
from 2014, main senators won't back
down on minimum wage bill,
they're going to fight to make it
happen even though the republicans
that voted against it, and
they've both voted against it now.
It's been seven years,
they're still voting against it.
Maggie Hassan, she was asked by
Manu Raju, he tweeted,
she wouldn't answer when I asked
her why she voted against an effort
to raise wage to 15, quote,
I have long been supportive
of increasing the minimum wage, I
asked her what was wrong with this
one and her aid interjected and
said she's late for a meeting.
Now he later added to that thread
with a statement that her office
had sent to him, that just said how
much she's in support of raising
the wage and she looks forward to
an opportunity to do it.
That's an interesting tactic.
Just say that you're for
the thing that you just killed.
I was trying to come up with
an analogy, and I think it's like
if somebody were to scream at me,
why are you stabbing me,
and I would say I'm just interested
in you keeping all of your blood,
I look forward to
future opportunities to maintain
the integrity of your arteries.
That doesn't help
you as you're bleeding out.
And all of them, so many of
them have said it and promised that
they're in support of this.
But now they have
the an opportunity and
they're not so interested.
But really fast, let me throw one
extra fact out, Cenk, and
maybe this will help to explain it.
Ken Klippenstein was very helpful,
the legendary Ken Klippenstein, for
tweeting out the net worth of eight
democrats who voted it down and
what do you know?
They're not like you or I at all.
They're actually quite wealthy.
Except perhaps Kristen Sinema,
we don't know for sure.
But the others,
especially Chris Coons,
these are multi millionaires,
who are perfectly willing to vote
down a minimum wage increase during
this devastating pandemic.
>> Yeah, so first on that point,
yesterday we showed you a story
that our own TYT investigative unit
broke, about how Joe Manchin has
invested in potentially several
companies that have lower wages,
one as low as $8.81 on average for
all their workers.
And that's because West Virginia's
minimum wage is $8.75.
So Manchin,
being the generous guy that he is,
paid a whole six cents more than
the minimum wage in West Virginia.
So now he'd have to pay $15 out of
his own businesses.
So funny enough, Joe Manchin
decided I'd rather keep the money
in my profits than pay my workers.
So, lucky me, I'm a senator, so
I get the vote on it, and
I'll kill it, so
that I can make more money,
although he apparently has plenty,
you can see from that list.
And this is among the reasons why
we call them The Hateful Eight..
So, now on the Manu Raju point,
I'm thrilled, and I want to give
him credit for the follow up.
Because for
40 straight years in this country
corporate democrats have said,
we look forward to doing x, right?
And then they'll vote against x, or
they'll secretly kill x, or they'll
never bring it up for a vote.
And then reporters go dutifully
report, this Democrat in favor of
x, right?
And this is a perfect example and
they're still doing it.
Joe Biden is in favor of the $50
minimum wage, no, he isn't.
He just had his vice president vote
no on including in
a reconciliation.
He had his two biggest allies in
the Senate vote no as a sign of,
don't get me wrong, I Joe Biden
from the State of Delaware, had my
two top allies from the State of
Delaware vote no, because I'm not
actually in favor of it.
The only way that it could be any
clearer is of Joe Biden flew
a plane over the Capitol with a big
banner that said,
I hate $15 minimum wage,
I'm lying, I never meant it, okay?
So, if any reporter writes that
Joe Biden is in favor of $15
minimum wage, they have a hilarious
view of facts.
That's, in fact, alternative facts.
And now the quote that John read
you is, but
all of them are over the top.
Well, you're going to see in
the next story,
the Kyrsten Sinema story.
She has a quote from 2014,
unconscionable not to pay $15
minimum wage, unconscionable.
She just did the unconscionable.
And every reporter in the past,
now they're getting better, that's
why I'm giving credit to the CNN
reporter who did a great job.
Every reporter would write,
democrats are awesome, they want
a extra minimum wage, Kamala Harris
wants a $15 minimum wage.
She just voted against it,
but okay,
they don't even appoint that out.
Parliamentarian don't,
you don't work for democrats,
you don't work for republicans,
you don't work for politicians.
If you're a reporter do your job,
it's called journalism.
And the headline should be
democrats kill higher minimum wage.
Because the republicans have
no control.
They couldn't have killed it if
they wanted to.
It was democrats who
chose to kill it.
Just, that's reality,
I wish to God it wasn't, but it is.
And by the way, I want to read you,
YT Prelude just did a YouTube super
chat in the middle of the show.
And I wanted to share it with you
because it's such a good point
by our audience.
He wrote could pledging not to vote
for them pressure the democrats
into throwing them under the bus
and running candidates other
than them in 2022?
That's part of
the reason to do the petition now.
If you do it right before
the election, well,
it's pointless because it has no
chance of success.
Then at that point,
it only helps republicans, right?
But right now we're two years
out from an election.
We have a thousand choices who
could run for these senate seats.
They say, no, don't be ridiculous,
the incumbent has to run.
Why, that's not a rule.
Do you know what percentage
democratic voters who want
a $15 minimum wage?
Not 14, not 12, $15 dominant wage.
Not generally in favor, no, $15,
82%.
Well, if you're against
82% of your voters, then you should
not be the democratic candidate,
so don't ever vote for them.
Look, guys, this is the bare
minimum, we're not talking about
Medicare For All, a great new deal.
Those are great things and
we want to get to those.
They're saying no, we were all
lying, we're not even going to do
the smallest progressive proposal.
So take them at their word, they're
liars, and they're never going
to do anything that they told you.
I mean, they're rubbing
your face in it.
Manu Raju asked that,
well didn't you just say,
I mean this is your quote about how
you want to increase it.
She's like, yeah,
I want to increase it,
that's why I voted to make sure
that we don't increase it.
Go find some other suckers.
tyt.com/petitions/thehatefuleight.
Never vote for them, never make the
mistake of giving them a dollar.
>> Koa, any final thoughts before I
move on?
>> I think those numbers that
Klippenstein tweeted out are pretty
revealing and I think they really
speak for themselves.
I don't think there's anything more
to say after you've seen that.