There's been a lot of pressure on
Vice President Kamala Harris to
overrule the Senate
parliamentarian.
This is the unelected Senate
staffer who shared her
recommendation that the $15 an hour
minimum wage be stripped out
of the Coronavirus relief bill,
so the bill can pass through
a simple majority as opposed to
needing 60 Republican Senators.
I'm sorry, 60 Senators,
with support from Republicans in
order to pass.
Now, the important thing to note is
that Kamala Harris can overrule
the Senate parliamentarian.
The Senate parliamentarian is not
a god, the Senate parliamentarian
is not a dictator, the Senate
parliamentarian is simply someone
who shares his or her thoughts on
a certain provision and a bill.
And then the person presiding over
the Senate in this case,
Kamala Harris can overrule her.
And the question is,
will she do it?
Now, Kamala Harris to be sure
understands the importance of a $15
an hour minimum wage.
In fact, she says so
much during a recent interview that
I want to share with you.
Let's take a look at
the first part.
Take a look.
>> I've been fighting for
$15 an hour minimum wage.
Since the beginning of time,
it feels like most people may not
understand that $7.25 is
the current federal minimum wage.
You know what that means?
If you work 40 hours a week,
at federal minimum wage as it
currently stands,
you are earning $15,000 a year.
Which means that folks who
are working a full day's work,
a full week's work are existing
below the poverty line.
We passed the increased minimum
wage, and we are going to fight for
that, we're not going to give up
the fight even though
the Parliamentarian said that it
can't stay in our bill, but
it is one of my biggest priorities.
>> She says it's one of her biggest
priorities.
More importantly, the reason why I
started this with that video was
to show you that she understands
the importance of this issue.
And she also knows, as the Vice
President that she single-handedly
has the power to overrule
the Senate Parliamentarian.
And Natalie Moore in that interview
had asked her before she gave
you that long winded answer,
whether she intends to overrule
the Senate Parliamentarian,
she clearly didn't answer,
so there was a follow-up.
Let's take a quick look at that.
>> I just want to follow up given
that Parliamentarian rule,
will you use your authority as
Vice President to include it in
the release bill anyway?
>> Well, listen,
we were very disappointed in
the Parliamentarian rule, but
we are committed to working with
Congress to determine the best
steps forward and the bottom line
is nobody in our country should
work a full day's work and work 40
hours a week and live in poverty.
>> So, in other words, no.
I know how important this issue is.
I know that I have the power
to overrule
the Senate Parliamentarian, but no.
And I mean Cenk,
these kind of answers from
politicians are a dime a dozen.
But what drives me crazy is how
insulting it is to people.
I don't think people are so
complacent anymore.
I think they watch an interview
like that and think.
First of all, I mean
in the first video, she's like I
don't think most people understand
that minimum wage is $7.25.
No, they understand,
I'm pretty sure a lot of people in
the country understand.
Secondly, If you know it's
a serious problem,
if you know that people aren't
making enough money to live,
if they're working full time and
they're getting paid minimum wage,
they're not making enough money to
pay their rent, to buy groceries,
just to provide the essentials for
themselves, right?
Then why don't, you have the power
to include it in the bill, make it
happen and then do what you did.
Kamala Harris went to
West Virginia and
started doing interviews to tout
The Coronavirus relief package and
Joe Manchin was upset about that.
He had a temper tantrum about that
because he doesn't want his
constituents to realize what a bozo
he is, because it applies pressure
for him to actually do the right
thing by his constituents.
I don't know why all of a sudden
she's backed off, Cenk go ahead.
Yeah, so look, there's a lot of
good news in that interview.
And I'm actually super excited
about honestly what you guys helped
to start and have done here, but
first, I want to give credit
to Natalie Moore WBEC, excellent
questions, perfect follow up.
So, normally the Wolf Blitzer's of
the world will just skate right by
that as she gives it, I'm keep it
real and Obama like answer of,
it's one of my top priorities, and
that's why I'm not going to do it.
Well wait, what?
So, Natalie Moore being an actual
reporter was like wait, but you do
have the power to actually put it
in the bill, so are you going to?
And she gave the same answer which
is blabbity blah, which and I think
it correctly deduced was no, okay?
But look at this guys,
we've changed the tenor of
the conversation and
is it exclusively yes?
Of course not.
Every reasonable,
smart progressive out there ranging
from the Warren people all the way
to the Bernie people and
beyond, everybody is saying
several things at the same time,
which is because you needed it.
Why do you need Bernie to
introduce it?
We've gone over this and
he's going to introduce it.
Number two, you need Kamala Harris
to not rule in favor of a McConnell
filibuster on it.
And by agreeing with
the Parliamentarians advice,
you would be agreeing with
McConnell and making it a 60 vote
threshold for Democrats to include
the minimum wage and COVID relief.
Now, if it's one of your top
priorities, why would you do that?
Well, her excuse was no,
the parliamentarian.
But now, because it is
become a larger issue,
and did we have some part in that?
Well, some of the press
are giving us credit for
that because I think it's true.
And again, it's not us guys, it's
you, when you're making the videos,
you're using a hashtag,
you're signing the petition.
In this case,
it was hashtag Save Us Kamala.
Did it trend?
Of course it trended,
whenever we do anything together,
it trends.
We did it with don't kill it
Bernie, Bernie changed his stance
on it halfway, all right?
And in this case, Kamala's now
finally having to answer questions.
You're the Vice President, there is
absolutely no question is appointed
fact that the Parliamentarian does
not have any power.
I mean, I know that Democrats want
a payment like the Parliamentarian
controls everything, he was on
the grass, she knows the secret
source that goes into every burger.
Is it no, the Parliamentarian
is zero power.
Kamala Harris has all the power and
so now she's
being called out on it.
And now it's a little bit more
embarrassing.
Now the rest of the press
looks into it.
But the thing is
about Save Us Kamala, we have
the petition too, TYT dot com slash
petition slash save us Kamala.
We framed it as
Save Us Kamala, why?
Because we're gullible people who
were, my god,
I think Kamala Harris is an angel.
But look if you think that k hype,
great.
But we're not trying to get her,
we are actually trying to help her.
If she makes this happen and
overrules the Parliamentarian,
she'd be incredibly popular, and
she'd be super hard to beat if
she runs for President in 24 or 28.
So, you save us Kamala and
you save yourself.
It's a no brainer.
In fact, if they think mentioned is
cinema are really going to
vote it down,
they don't even need the 60 votes.
Kamala Harris can have her cake and
eat it too, she could say that yes,
the minimum wage is in the bill and
then go Golly Gee,
there was nothing I could do,
corporate donors don't sweat
a mansion and cinema gilded.
It's actually a politically
savvy move.
But God the donors have so
much control.
She still hasn't done it.
But the more people ask and
the more Natalie Moore's of
the world do great reporting and
great interviews, the more we got
a shot at this thing.
All you need to little hope guys
and I would argue you use, and
now the rest of the press has
been argue you started that fire,
you started that hope.
So, this doesn't have to be
negative to Kamala Harris.
It could be wonderfully
positive to her.
She could be the hero that
saves the day.
But, let's not pretend that it
isn't her decision,
because it most definitely is.
>> And the thing for me and
I'm sure a lot of people who have
been frustrated by how
all of this is developed,
Cenk is just how politicians think.
And this happens on both the left
and the right.
This isn't an ideological thing,
but politicians seem to think that
all they need to do is pay us lip
service.
All they need to do is tweet about
how much they care about issues.
All they need to do is tweet their
outrage at how things have
unfolded.
And we'll be okay.
We'll be satisfied by their
outrage.
In my opinion,
performative outrage.
But no, you can't tell us that
you understand the severity of
the issue.
You can't tell us that you're
going to fight like hell.
And then when you find yourself in
the perfect position to actually do
something about it, you back off
and pretend as if you don't have
that power, you have that power.
There's a reason why she's in that
position and you don't get to pay
us lip service by talking about how
underpaid American workers are when
you refuse to do exactly what
you are empowered to do at this
given moment.
>> Yeah. >> So that's the part
that gets under my skin.
>> Yeah, and guys,
it's not this is easy.
We knew it was hard from the get
go but I said it was doable in it.
It's kind of fighters chance.
It certainly had a fighters chance
at some point.
So look, let's just last thing on
this because it's so important,
Anna is right.
The politicians are used to doing
talking points, i.e propaganda.
And in this case she says it's one
of my biggest priorities.
And normally,
the press then lets it go and
then publishes.
Kamala Harris says minimum wage is
one of our biggest priorities.
They never clarify.
She's the one that's killing it.
Isn't that amazing?
So the propaganda assumes that the
media is complicit and will help
them spread that propaganda and
that is beginning to break down.
Is starting to break down during
the Trump era, because Trump was
not part of the establishment and
the media went to a different
equation.
And now, people are beginning to
wake up and go, wait a minute,
aren't we
supposed to challenge them?
Because what she
just said isn't really true.
If it's your biggest priority, and
you can do it,
why wouldn't she do it,
[LAUGH] right?
I mean it's just such a simple
question but it took so
much effort on all of our parts to
break this 40 year lock that
corporate Democrats and Republicans
had on their establishments, media.
And that they did all those certain
points because they knew they were
going to get away with it because
we had no functioning media in
this country, but now we do.
And look at my critique by the way,
as you might have seen yesterday,
is fair and across the board.
So yes, that applies to
Kamala Harris.
Yes, she can change it and
be the hero.
For Bernie Sanders, yes, he's
introducing as an amendment but he
wasn't going to in the beginning.
Okay, so that was you guys 100%.
And then, now he's introducing it
as an amendment but let's keep
it real both for Bernie Sanders and
any other Democratic Senator
including Elizabeth Warren,
Ron Wyden and the others in
the Senate, but also for our
Progressive friends in the house.
One Senator or
six Congress people can block this
bill and force them to renegotiate.
It doesn't kill the bill,
it just forces them to renegotiate
it because there's no way that this
bill isn't passing.
Joe Biden must pass it.
And when Progressives including
the House of the Senate and
including Bernie Sanders, and
including some of our top allies,
when they choose not to use their
power, well, that's on them.
And that is a choice that they're
making.
So, did it have
to do with Kamala Harris?
Definitely.
Because if she doesn't
go the right way, we're never
going to get past the filibuster.
But, you could block the bill
anyway, even without that
filibuster, you could just to vote
no on the underlying bill.
And it would just take one Senator
or six Congress people to force
them to come back to the table and
actually start talking about
including the $15 minimum wage.
And right now, in Congress,
we don't have Kamala Harris doing
what she says is her top priority.
We don't have one
Democratic Senator who's willing to
block the bill.
Again, not kill the bill, lock it,
so we renegotiate it and
we don't have six Congress people
who are willing to do it.
That's very sad.
I hate to report it to you, but
it is true.