President's only primary opponents are Marianne Williamson and Robert F Kennedy,
Jr, haven't been any rumors about anyone else even thinking about jumping in.
Will you be supporting Joe Biden for reelection?
>> I believe, given that feel, yes.
>> In an interview with John Favreau of Pod Save America,
representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez announced that at least for
the time being, she will be endorsing Joe Biden's, his reelection bid.
Now, right before Favreau asked AOC about whether or not she'd endorse Biden,
he also asked her to explain her thoughts on Biden's time as president so far.
So, let's see what she had to say in response to that question.
>> In general, how do you think President Biden has
handled his job over the last four years?
I think he's done quite well, given the limitations that we have.
There are areas that I think were quite strong when he came right out
of the gate with the American rescue plan.
And of course, the Inflation Reduction Act was a massive step in terms
of our climate agenda but there are also areas that I think could have gone better.
The President and
I think the Democratic Party in general continues to struggle with immigration.
>> When it came to the goals that the Biden administration failed to accomplish,
AOC mentioned something that the, I would say more corporate wing of
the Democratic Party likes to use it as an excuse.
And that is the legislative filibuster,
I just wanna quickly go to that video and then Cenk will go off [LAUGH].
>> There's so much more that we could do, so much more that we should do.
We have major structural issues in this country,
and I think it starts with the United States Senate.
And I think that until we have senators that are willing to stand up and
stare the filibuster in the eye and
stare a lot of structural issues about the Senate in the eye.
The United States Senate will be what holds back
this country from an enormous amount of progress.
>> So, look, Cenk, [LAUGH] On one hand, I wanna be fair, right?
So, right now she's saying, given the field, given what the Democratic
primary looks like, yeah, I'm throwing my support behind Joe Biden.
I don't begrudge her for that, right?
>> I do, but okay, keep going.
>> So there's that, the filibuster and
the structural issues she mentioned are legitimate issues, and she's in the House,
the legislative filibuster is in the Senate.
I would have loved to see Senate Democrats actually fight to reform
the filibuster situation or just throw out the filibuster entirely.
I know there's some disagreement in regard to the consequences of doing that,
so I'm just trying to be fair in parsing out what she's saying there.
At the same time, it is frustrating because the whole point of pushing a more
progressive wing of the Democratic Party was
to essentially have a group of elected lawmakers in the Democratic Party.
That would challenge the corporate Democrats and push the party overall
to the left, especially on economic issues and that remains to be seen.
>> No, yeah, it remains to be seen, as in they haven't done it at all and
let's see if they do.
There's three different issues with what AOC just said, one is about the primary,
I'll get to that in a second, number two is whether Biden has been good enough so
far and the third one is the essential core of the problem.
So, she's wrong on all three, so number one,
central core of the problem is not the filibuster.
The central core of the problem is that her colleagues are corrupt and
they take corporate cash and do whatever their donors tell them.
The filibuster is just a tool they're using to block progress.
If it wasn't a filibuster, they'd use another tool to block
progress because the problem isn't some sort of, golly, gee,
I just can't get past that random hurdle.
That's procedural, you can't get past a procedural,
that's not the core of the problem at all.
If you think that the filibuster is the problem and not the campaign financing,
sorry, but that you just missed it, you missed the whole thing.
And I don't think that AOC thinks that, I think AOC is saying that cuz the number
one crime in Washington is criticizing a freaking colleague, okay?
And so she's, in my opinion, purposely misidentifying the problem,
so that's an enormous issue right there.
Secondly, did Biden do a good enough job?
[SOUND] Come on, guys, no, I don't want progressives joining in, gaslighting us.
Remember when progressives said $15 minimum wage was a layup and
that their buddy Joe Biden was definitely, definitely going to pass it?
And what's the first thing Joe Biden threw under the bus?
The $15 minimum wage goes out on television as soon as he's elected.
Goes, I don't know, about $15, it's gonna be hard, gonna be hard to do it,
he said it in the Super Bowl interview, he said it in another interview and
right away they took it right out of the bill cuz he was lying.
[SOUND] You can't say that in Washington, that is a powerful,
elite person and at the head of our beloved party.
The party matters so much more than the voters, who cares about the voters or
the policies?
The party must be protected, no, he didn't do it, he was never gonna do it,
public option.
>> Hold on, hold on,
I got to just interject really quick on $15 an hour minimum wage.
Remember, there are states like Florida,
red states like Florida that had a $15 an hour minimum wage on the ballot, right?
As a ballot initiative that voters can directly vote on and
they overwhelmingly approved it.
So, when we hear from Democratic lawmakers or Democratic officials arguing
that accomplishing things like $15 an hour minimum wage is challenging or difficult.
You got to really ask them what they mean by that because it's not challenging as
a result of the electorate not wanting it.
The electorate overwhelmingly wants it,
including Republican voters in states like Florida, so, I just wanted to give that.
>> Yeah, 100%, look, here's another example, the one I always use,
paid family leave, does the public want it?
Is it challenging?
Is it difficult?
No, it's super easy, 84% of Americans want it, all you have to do is be strong.
74% of Republican voters want it, Republicans, why aren't you doing it?
Why aren't you doing it?
Why aren't you doing what three quarters of your voters want and
take it to the Republicans?
No, I can't find the Republicans, filibuster,
get out of here, Biden doesn't want to do it, look, I'm sorry,
man, if you still don't get that all right, well, what are we gonna then?
We got nobody to help us in Washington, 84%, by the way,
progressives in Congress, what are you doing?
Why don't you introduce it?
[SOUND] Okay, I know you can't do it in the House, but you could talk about it,
you could pressure the senators to do it.
You can't find a single Senator to introduce it when the Democrats control
the Senate.
Come on, you're not even trying, get out of, like, public option,
another one overwhelming, two thirds of Americans want it.
Bozo, I'm definitely gonna do the public option and
he didn't even propose it, didn't even propose it.
So, I looked at PolitiFact, good, wonderful organization overall,
but they're also part of group thing, and they're like, okay, well,
the public option in progress.
What do you mean in progress?
It's not in progress at all, never proposed.
>> True. >> Now, PolitiFact, you're trying to cover
Biden's ass by saying things that aren't even remotely true and
then they're like negotiating drug prices for Medicare.
Check, he accomplished it, accomplished it for ten drugs three years later and
thousands of drugs you can't negotiate prices on.
So, less than 1% of the drugs, less than 1%,
that's to cover the ass of the drug industry for the other 99% and
PolitiFact goes, check, mission accomplished.
And you know what happened?
Even with all of those things piled in,
PolitiFact is like he kinda did 27% of his agenda.
The real number is way, way lower and
AOC is supposed to be the leading fighter of progressives in the House.
She's like, yeah, good enough, no, I'm sorry,
I'm sorry, not remotely good enough.
And finally to the primary, we haven't even gotten started yet,
this is around the time when Trump came down the escalator in 2015.
And already not just Democrats, not just the corporate media that loves Biden,
that loves establishment Democrats, loves greasy corporate politicians.
Not just those guys, but progressives are saying it's over before it got started.
>> Yeah, that is look- >> come on.
>> I get that is definitely a warranted
criticism-
>> [CROSSTALK] Every part of it is warranted.
>> Because, look in the very least, you withhold your endorsement
in an effort to get some concessions, [LAUGH] Right?
But there was no effort at all here and
I think that's at the heart of your frustration.
>> Hey, by the way, it's not just AOC, no, we're always fair, Bernie, I love you,
Bernie, but what are you endorsing him now for?
Why don't you just endorse him, like, a decade ago?
What is this?
Hey, Bernie Sanders, AOC, all of these progressives in Congress,
what did you get for your endorsement of Biden this early?
Yeah, I'll let you take a minute with that, all right,
you were supposed to ask for something.
Elementary politics, they're constantly giving away their leverage, their power,
everything, just give it away, give it away, get away.
So, six months before any voting takes place,
all progressives in Washington are now doormats?
I'm sorry, but that's the reality, where are you?
Where's the goddamn fight?
I remember talking before they got elected about how they're gonna give a good fight
to the establishment and I gave them every opportunity, let's go, let's go, let's go,
let's go, nothing, nothing, nothing.
And finally look, guys, I think the other people might get into the race, I
think this race hasn't even begun yet but if you made me vote between Joe Biden and
Marianne Williamson, it is not remotely close.
Marianne Williamson, she has all of the right policy positions and she's honest,
she actually wants to do them, you can say, well, I don't like her.
She's spiritual, that's the reason you're opposed to her, cuz she's spiritual?
I don't like some of her form of spirituality, what is this?
You don't like her religious beliefs?
That's why you're against her?
She doesn't have experience in politics, wait a minute, the experience in politics
has turned into a disaster, are we winning with the experienced politicians?
The experienced politicians are the worst people on Earth.
No, it's not close,
Marianne Williamson is definitely a better candidate than Joe Biden.
But that's heresy in Washington, heresy cuz if you say it,
then the serious elite people, especially in the press, will not take you seriously.
[LAUGH] No, it has to be politician, it has to be one that's been around for
50 years, cuz experience of doing nothing is the most important thing.
No, no deal, no deal, no deal, if this is the answer, [LAUGH] We're screwed,
man, we need some massive game changer in American politics,
because apparently the folks we sent in, they're not even fighting anymore.