>> So over the weekend, we went to Iowa, had some fun.
We went to Des Moines first, gave a speech there.
First of all, Allison Harston spoke, then JD Scholten, who ran against Steve King, nearly
toppled him last time, we'll get him next time.
And then Richard Ojeda gave a very fiery speech, and then I spoke for way too long.
I did go for an hour and a half about, but If you thought I couldn't out-fiery Richard
Ojeda, I think I might have done it.
That is a good competition.
So anyway, the point was to announce a pledge and have you guys participate.
And it's a progressive economic pledge.
It's got five pillars to it, higher wages, $15 minimum wage, collective bargaining, and
that.
And obviously, not taking corporate PAC money so you can actually represent the average
American worker, not the corporations.
The second plank is Medicare for all, third the plank is Green New Deal.
Fourth is college for all so that everybody can live the American dream.
And then fifth is to end the corruption by getting rid of private financing of elections.
Now you can check it out at TYT.com/pledge, and we have asked you guys to sign it, and
a whole heap of you have, which is fantastic.
But we've also asked politicians to sign it.
Now as luck would have it, 19 of the top presidential candidates were in Cedar Rapids the very next
day.
So that's a two hour drive from Des Moines.
So for the folks that came to the rally, it's about 600 people, we were like, look, we didn't
tell you ahead of time and didn't give you much warning.
But could you guys come and find a way to drive to Cedar Rapids with us?
And about half, 250 to 300 of them decided, yeah, yeah, we can do that, I love you guys.
Okay, so we brought that crowd over to the Hall of Fame Dinner, where those 19 presidential
candidates were.
And and all of the candidates, or a lot of the candidates had their crowds too.
Kamala Harris supporters who you're seeing in yellow there, you had Elizabeth Warren
supporters, etc.
Great, that's awesome, that's America, that's democracy, I love it, right?
We had the largest and definitely the loudest, which was noted by the press.
>> No big deal.
>> They noted it in one line usually, and then they were like, I guess no point in asking
them what it's about.
We were only there the whole day.
Anyway, that's okay, we're gonna get to that.
Most important part is, did it work?
So we went and asked the presidential candidates that were there to sign the pledge, are you
a progressive or not?
Well it partly worked as you're about to see, but first, I want to give you a sense of how
the crowd was and how we were interacting with them.
Who's gonna fix it?
>> Me!
>> Who's gonna fix it?
>> Me!
>> All right, I love you guys, thank you.
>> TYT, TYT, TYT, TYT, TYT!
>> All right so they were in all these different groups, and then once went to go speak to
Amy Klobuchar.
And so half the group came across street with me, so there was this giant group crossing
the street.
So we were right next to the Klobuchar people, and they were like.
We're like no, no we come in peace, all we want to do is ask if you're gonna sign the
pledge.
It's totally okay not to sign it, as you'll see in a second.
But I did go to talk to Senator Klobuchar, and I said, hi, I'm Cenk from The Young Turks.
She said, I know who you are >> Klobuchar.
>> Klobuchar, no, so that was fun.
But look guys there's Senator Klobuchar, of course should talk to us, as you'll see here,
people we disagree with talk to us and had a very productive conversation.
But first, we ran into our first candidate right away in the morning, Marianne Williamson.
We asked her about the pledge, let's see how it went.
Marianne, you've heard about our progressive economic pledge.
>> Yes, I signed your pledge.
>> There we have it, first presidential candidate to sign the pledge.
For some, it's not so easy to do because Medicare for all is on there, Green New Deal, and a
lot of the candidates have said they don't want to do that.
Even a constitutional amendment, some have had hesitation, you have no hesitation?
>> Absolutely, those are the only two ways, now, that we can override Citizens United,
and it must be done.
You and I agree with that, that is the cancer underlying all the other cancers.
>> Bam, one for one, right out of the gate.
Okay so we're feeling pretty good, and 18 to go, at least on that day.
And I got to speak to almost all the candidates on that day, at least, we tried.
We did get stiff armed by a couple, okay.
But then we got to see one of the major candidates, Bernie Sanders.
It was a bit of a moment of truth.
Pledge yesterday, progressive economic pledge, are you going to sign, Senator Sanders?
I believe that's his signature.
>> That's an invisible, yes, the answer is yes, good job on that.
>> Thank you, so we now have two of the candidates signing.
I talked to Klobuchar, a second ago and obviously this is, and she's not ready to sign it.
And this is to delineate who the real progressives are because it seems like there's confusion.
>> What you put down there is kind of common sense, it ain't radical stuff.
It talks about the need for health care for all through a Medicare for all, single payer
system.
It talks about raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour, not a very radical idea.
It talks about making sure that we save this planet, right?
For our kids and our grandchildren.
I don't think that's a radical idea.
You're talking about getting money out of politics, ending the corruption that currently
exists.
We're with you and I'm proud to sign it.
>> So I just wanna say, Anna, real quick.
>> Yeah.
>> Look, I didn't know that he was going to sign it that quickly.
I think it makes sense, I think he's right, it's kinda the minimum.
That's why it's not that hard and it's okay if you're not a progressive candidate, as
we're gonna see a couple in a second.
For you to say, hey no, but these are my ideas.
But if you are a progressive candidate, it's not that hard.
It pretty much is the bare minimum.
>> Yeah, and I liked the way that it just clearly outlines which policies a candidate
needs to support in order to be considered a progressive because right now, the label
of progressive is a popular label.
And I see it being exploited.
I mean, you guys talked about it during the rally.
And I think that the whole purpose of this pledge makes a lot of sense.
The comment I was going to make is is less substantive in regard to the interview you
had with Bernie Sanders.
I can't stop looking at your face while you're interviewing him cuz you look so excited to
be talking to him.
>> No, I gotta tell you something, no, no, no.
I was super excited the whole day to talk to everybody, as you're see in other interviews
too, cuz I love this stuff.
>> You look like a kid whose parents just gave him a Nintendo 64.
>> So later in today's program we'll show you my interview with Michael Bennett too.
And there, we didn't agree, but so still fun, man, tons of fun, if you ask me.
I love politics and what I care most about is policy.
So now let's go to a candidate who didn't agree with us, now we're not surprised by
this.
Cuz John Delaney came in here, sat down and had a longer interview, which went great.
He was very happy with it, I was too, cuz it helped delineate the issues.
That's all we're trying to do, and so we had a similar conversation at the time.
Let's see how that went.
>> So there's five pillars, higher wages, $15 minimum wage.
>> I'm for that.
>> Collective bargaining.
>> I'm for that.
>> And representing the American worker and not taking corporate PAC money.
>> And I'm not taking corporate PAC money.
>> Great.
>> We're good on all those.
>> Green New Deal, and just two points to that.
Not everything else, just getting off of fossil fuels in 10 years, and rebuilding the energy
infrastructure in the country, and trying to create millions of jobs.
>> I'm for getting to net zero by 2050.
And I have a plan to do that, and I think it's the best plan.
And so I'm fully committed to getting the United States of America by net zero by 2050.
And also effectively building a whole new industry in the United States of America that
cannot only save us, but save the world.
>> Okay, and Medicare for All?
>> I am for universal health care, as you and I talked about, where every single American
gets basic health care as a right, for free.
But I'm also for giving them options, and that's where you and I respectfully disagree.
>> Right, so that's super clear.
So, you won't be signing the pledge cuz you don't agree to a couple of the planks.
But I really appreciate you outlining your positions on those all issues.
>> I appreciate how clearly you ask the questions, it makes it easy for people like us to answer.
>> See, not so hard, right?
And we're gonna go to Andrew Yang in a second.
But I think John Delaney, it's fair to call him an establishment Democrat.
I'm not sure that he would argue much with that label.
But he gave clear answers and that's lovely, that's what you want.
And we did a longer version of that in the studio, did a shorter version right there.
And so now you know what John Delaney's positions are.
And by the way, some of you might like those positions.
You might think, hey, I don't think we can get there in 10 years.
To get off fossil fuels, I think maybe by 2050 we could do it, and others might say
hey, that sounds like a middle ground approach and I'm not in favor of that, at least it's
clear.
>> Mm-hm.
>> So I really appreciate that Delaney did that.
And so for the politicians that were not engaging, just calm down, and have a conversation.
And then make your case to the American people based on where you actually stand.
So now let's go to a non-establishment politician and an outsider, Andrew Yang.
So he didn't sign the pledge either.
But listen to how he handled it instead, watch.
I am so aligned, as you know, with everything on that list.
I have a slight difference in approach on a couple of them.
For example, I want to give every American worker $1,000 a month, which would be a $6
an hour raise for everyone.
It would also include caregivers and parents, people like my wife, who is at home with our
two kids.
So it's a different way of getting money into the hands of workers.
I completely agree that no one should be working full time and be poor in this country.
But I have a slightly different approach, and so when you look at the language and it's
like do I sign on because I'm just trying to give people cash and not have to go through
the employer?
So I'm spiritually 100% aligned with everything on that list.
Getting money out of politics, healthcare for all, getting the cost of education down,
and making sure that people aren't swallowed up by this mountain of debt.
But some of the mechanics, I have a slightly different approach.
And I'm not sure if I'm meant to sign based on the spirit, or if the mechanics are actually
like that.
>> You want to say hi to our guys?
>> I would love that.
>> Andrew Yang, everybody.
>> See, look at that.
It turns out you can disagree on some things, agree on a lot of other things.
And then still have a moment to say hey, you know what, we appreciate your honesty.
An so great job by Andrew Yang there.
Please watch the fuller interviews, they're pretty short to begin with.
They're about five minutes apiece.
We will put them up on our YouTube channel, also on TYT.com.
So watch for John Delaney and so many others, Eric Swalwell, many others that were also
up there and had conversations.
So at the end of the day, how many people did we have that signed it?
So out of the 24 candidates overall, three Democrats have already signed it.
So Bernie Sanders, Marianne Williamson and then Mike Gravel's team heard about it online,
and they reached out to us, even though they weren't there in Cedar Rapids.
And they're like, we're gonna check with Mike.
And they just check with Senator Gravel and he's like, yeah.
And he went online and signed it immediately.
>> Nice.
>> So three, actually five down cuz three said yes, two definitely no.
But for good and interesting reasons, check it out for yourself.
And then finally the rest are, and very fair cuz we just did it the day before, announced
it the day before.
Said, let me read it and get back to you.
And how do you do that, this is a great way of doing it.
Here's Mayor de Blasio.
Love for you and take a look at it, it's got five planks, higher wages, Green New Deal,
Medicare for all, college for all, and an amendment to get money out of politics and
private financing of elections.
So can we send it to you and have you take a look?
>> You have to send it to me.
>> I want to tell you, first I just wanna thank you for everything you do to help build
a progressive movement, to help educate the people of this country.
I remind everyone, you were the first people in the media to predict that I would become
mayor of New York City cuz you saw the progressive movement building.
And you've been way ahead of the curve before.
I love what I'm hearing about the pledge.
I gotta read it first, but I am looking forward to it, and I have feeling we're gonna be on
the same page.
>> He knows how to appeal to you.
>> You were so right in your predictions, Cenk, you're so right.
You were the first one to predict it.
>> No, it's true, no seriously, guys.
He saw a video that I did when he was in third or fourth place and and no one expected him
to win the mayoral race.
And I said, no, this guy's running the right kind of race, and he's gonna win.
You know how much I love those predictions, but it was about him.
So he saw it and he's like, well, that was kind of awesome.
>> If only you were right in your predictions when it comes to taking bets with me.
Damn shots fired, okay.
So bottom line is we're looking forward to the other presidential candidates weighing
in.
But remember guys, it's not just about them.
There's also progressive groups and congressional people.
If you didn't see my speech on Saturday, I'm gonna tell you some great names that have
signed in a second, too.
But most of all we need you guys to sign it cuz the more people that sign it, the stronger
it is, and the more power that it has.
So I know this is a huge, outlandish number, but if a million people have signed the pledge,
then people like wait, that's a million Democratic voters in a primary.
I want to take a second look at that pledge, okay, so TYT.com/pledge.
And finally, the other folks who have signed, great progressive organizations like PCCC.
So go to boldprogressives.org if you wanna check out more about them.
Justice Democrats have signed, and Roe Conn, congressional representative Roe Conn obviously,
the first just Democrat, ever, and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
She's also signed the pledge and many others, including the legendary Anna Kasparian, and
other folks in the network, John Iadarola, Kyle Kulinski, etc.
But you could be part of that list as well.
So it's just to clarify where everybody is.
I think that's gonna help the process, cuz as Anna most accurately pointed out earlier,
a lot of people are hijacking the word.
And even Joe Biden is going around saying that he's a huge progressive.
But if you don't agree to almost any of the planks in the progressive pledge, I think
it's fair to say that you should probably use a different word.
It doesn't mean that your point of view is illegitimate.
Go make your case, those are your positions, you should defend them, but let's be clear
about what the labels are.
>> So let me just play devil's advocate for one second.
What would you say to those who would argue well, who the hell is Cenk Uygur to be the
arbiter of what is and isn't progressive policy?
>> Okay, first thing I would say is, how dare you?
>> Mm-hm.
>> Like Richard Ojeda, how dare you?
Okay, no, of course, the the point of having the other groups sign is so that you know
we didn't just make it up, right?
There are other progressive groups and other progressive leaders who've said yes, that
is the core of what it means to be a progressive.
And we're looking forward to more groups signing up.
By the way, a lot of you are in those groups and I explained to the guys in Des Moines
and in Cedar Rapids.
Look we're, we're loud and insistent, and the reporters pointed that out, they certainly
noticed that, but we're also polite.
We're very, very polite when we go up to these candidates or to your own groups or to anyone.
We just simply ask, do you want to sign or don't you?
And please take time to think about it cuz we don't want it to be an empty signature
that doesn't mean anything.
And once you've thought about it and deliberated on it, please give us a clear answer.
It's definitely not too much too ask for, so my guess is a lot of you guys will ask
more progressive groups to sign, and a lot of them will.
And the more groups that sign, the more legislators that sign, more candidates that sign.
And again most importantly, more of you that sign, the bigger and stronger that pledge
gets so that the media can't ignore it.
And look, honestly, that's one of the biggest problems, cuz the media generally doesn't
clarify.
They say, Sanders is progressive Biden is progressive, we're moving on.
>> Mm-hm
>> They're vastly different policies and that should be clarified.