-Okay. -Oh, Bailey has joined us, too.
Oh, fantastic.
There we go for testing.
Senator Elizabeth Warren
and Bailey, who's just off camera over there,
welcome to The Daily Social Distancing Show.
Thank you. It's good to be here.
Um, let's jump into the biggest news right now in this moment,
the hottest political issue-- the Supreme Court.
The Senate are going to be hosting,
uh, holding their-their confirmations.
Um, they're gonna be voting for Judge Amy Coney Barrett.
Obviously, this has been a huge, huge fight
right now in America
because the Republicans have basically broken the rule
that they invented when Merrick Garland was up
for-for his nomination, or even being considered.
Where do things stand right now?
And is this basically a lost cause,
and now people need to look at the election
to-to fix the mistake that has happened here?
So, look, we always start with what is at stake here.
Why are the Republicans breaking their own rules?
And the answer is because they want to get rid of health care
for tens of millions of Americans.
They tried to do that by votes in Congress,
and they lost by a single vote.
So now they've come back.
There will be a case the week after the election.
That means that the Affordable Care Act could be tossed out.
Mm-hmm.
Tens of millions of people could lose their health care.
Tens of millions of people
with pre-existing conditions lose their protection.
And the Republicans are determined
to do that, notwithstanding the fact
that most American people don't want them to.
Their chance to do that is this Supreme Court nominee.
So here we are. Think about this.
We're in the middle of a pandemic,
month eight, no plan.
220,000 Americans who have already died,
followed by an economic crisis,
followed by a racial reckoning that is upon us,
and what do the Republicans say we have to do?
We have to spend time...
They have to spend time trying to steal a Supreme Court seat.
It really has gotten a lot of people riled up
because they feel like this is a last-ditch attempt
by the Republicans to maintain their hold on a court
that could decide people's lives for 50 years to come.
It's even more than that.
It's a court that could decide much about their lives,
and it's an extremist minority opinion.
Most Americans want us to keep health care.
Three out of four Americans want us
to keep the rule of Roe versus Wade.
Americans want us
to attack environmental disasters and protect unions,
and Amy Coney Barrett has already said "No, no, no, no."
So it's a way for a diminishing minority
to direct this nation in their extremist ideology,
and I just... It's just wrong.
And that's why people are so upset about it.
What do you think the path is for the Democrats, then?
-Do they have to relook at the Supreme Court? -Listen.
What do you think the Democrats need to be doing
post the election should Biden win
and should the Democrats win the Senate?
I've already said it.
I think everything should be on the table, period.
Hmm.
Let's, um... let's talk
about what should be done post the election.
You've been somebody who's been very progressive
from the beginning.
You-You fought against the big banks,
you fought against, you know, microlenders,
you've fought against all of these-these institutions
that have held so many American families back
and crippled them in debt.
There's no denying that their money is everywhere, though.
You know? Um, are you ready to fight
with the Democratic party post the election
to say, "Hey, we need to get the money out of our side, as well,"
even though people may see that
as being detrimental to the cause?
I believe in holding everyone accountable.
Let's get to November 3rd.
That's absolutely critical.
We need to take the White House, and, golly,
right behind that, we have got to be able to flip the Senate.
We must flip the Senate.
And we should expand our majority in the House.
I want Democrats to win up and down the ticket.
I want us to spend one day celebrating after that happens.
Right? Big party. You ready?
And then, right back to work.
Right back to getting in this fight
for the things we care about.
In this fight for hardworking families.
In this fight for people
who are getting crushed by student loan debt.
In this fight to save our planet.
Those are the things we've got to be back in.
Hold all of our elected officials accountable.
Let's talk a little bit about that fight.
There are many young Democrats who are voters who say,
"I'm gonna vote for this party, but one thing I don't want
"is a return to normal, the status quo,
because the status quo wasn't working."
Joe Biden has, in many ways,
positioned himself as the "back to normal" candidate.
Now, many have said, "Look, we have no qualms
"with you being back to normal
"because Trump has taken us to tends of the Earth,
"but there is going to be a certain discussion
about how the Democrats handle themselves going forward."
Do you look for Republican approval,
even if you have the House and the Senate?
Do you look to win over the Republicans
the same way Obama did and was criticized for
when he had the power that he had?
Are the Democrats going to be like, "No,
"we've got to get things done,
and this is how it's going to be"?
Look, the American people are hurting.
People are dying from this virus.
People were suffering without medical care
before it ever came along.
People are getting crushed by debt.
Home ownership rates are way down.
The black-white wealth gap
has gotten completely out of control.
So, look, we need to speak to the moment,
and that means we need to deliver for the American people.
I'm not about Republicans and Democrats.
I'm not about those politics.
I'm about delivering for the people who need us,
and that's true all across this country.
How do you think that changes...?
-It's true in housing and health care, all of it. -Yeah.
How do you think that changes on the ground?
'Cause you are such a policy wonk.
That's one thing I've always admired about you
is, like, when you look at one issue, you go like,
"How do we start fixing the wealth gap?"
Where do you think we actually make a change? How?
So, here's the best part.
When this stuff comes to "on the ground"--
child care, for example,
or student loan debt--
you know what the thing is, stuff is really popular.
Our problem is... has not been,
with Mitch McConnell in the Senate,
that we couldn't round up enough votes for it,
-Mm-hmm. -it's that we couldn't get a vote at all.
Mitch McConnell keeps it completely off the floor
of the Senate,
so no Republican has to take a vote on that.
Um, reworking corporate responsibility in America,
so they have a responsibility to their communities,
a responsibility to their employees,
not just a responsibility to make more money.
We can't get a vote on that
so long as Mitch McConnell and the Republicans are in charge.
So I think a big difference is going to be,
you get Democrats in and we can vote.
And then the second part, we got to get rid of the filibuster.
-Wow. -If Mitch McConnell comes in
and again tries to exercise a veto
over everything we want to do,
the way he did that to President Obama
and blocked one good plan after another,
then it's time for us to say, "No,
"that's not what the Constitution says,
and it's not what the American people say."
Mitch McConnell is not going to get a veto
in the next Senate.
Let's talk about what the DOJ is currently doing.
Elizabeth Warren, for a very long time,
was seen as the face and the voice saying,
"We have to regulate Big Tech.
"For too long they've been allowed
"to do whatever they want, and the laws haven't been keeping up
with how quickly they grow."
The DOJ has now stepped up and said that they're going
to be going up against Google, and it looks like
there may be some more suits coming,
uh, if they're still around, against Apple, et cetera,
but Google seems to be the first shot that has been fired.
Do you think that this is a step in the right direction?
Look, uh, our current attorney general
does things for politics.
I get that.
But I do think it is important
that we break up these Big Tech companies.
And-and my complaint right now about what they've...
uh, what the Department of Justice has done is,
their lawsuit is way too narrow.
They're only looking at one slice of Google's activities.
We need to be looking at all the parts
of what Google is doing, where it behaves like a monopolist,
and where it engages in predatory practices
that wipe out the competition.
And it's not just Google.
It is important to look at what's happening with Amazon
and-and Facebook, right?
And the reason I say this is...
markets can produce an enormous amount of value,
but for them to work, there has to be competition.
And so these... these giants grow up
that completely dominate the market.
Uh, AT&T, a long time ago, broke it up,
and then there was lots of innovation.
Microsoft. Right?
Brought pressure on Microsoft.
Didn't actually break it up at the time,
but created enough space
that the next set of tech could arise.
That's what we have to do,
because we live in a world right now
where these tech giants are stifling competition,
and we will pay a price for that as consumers.
So we got to put a stop to this.
It seems like you're fired up.
You've been on the campaign trail.
You're stumping for Joe Biden.
Um, your message hasn't changed.
If there is-- and I know this sounds crazy--
but if there is that undecided voter
who's out there-- I know there's, like, seven of them,
I don't know who they are-- but if there is that one person
who says, "Elizabeth Warren,
"I don't know what the difference is,
"I don't know whether it makes a difference
"voting for Donald Trump or not,
I don't see the difference in my life,"
what would you say to that person to win their vote?
Why is a vote for the Democrats the correct vote,
and not for Donald Trump?
You know, probably the biggest difference is health care.
Donald Trump and the Republicans
have tried from the first day he was in
to take away health care from tens of millions of Americans.
I'll add to that. Climate change.
Donald Trump and the Republicans have taken a crisis
and not only not attacked it, not done better on climate,
they've actually made it worse.
Withdraw from the Paris Climate Accord,
put a coal lobbyist in charge
of the Environmental Protection Agency,
permit offshore drilling,
permit drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Reserve,
making it worse.
And democracy. Donald Trump has said:
Hey, if the election doesn't turn out the way he hopes,
he's not even committed that he will leave.
I mean, just the notion of peaceful transfer of power,
it's right at the heart-- we pay attention to our elections.
That is Donald Trump.
That's who he is,
and that's who every Republican in the Senate is,
because they have enabled that man.
Every Republican in the House, they have enabled that man.
So that's who they are and what their party is.
The Democrats, we're in a very different place.
We believe that health care is a basic human right.
We see the crisis on climate,
and we realize we are running out of time
and that we must, we must attack the climate crisis head-on.
And on democracy, we fundamentally believe,
if every American citizen can vote, then---
and get that vote counted--
then that's how we build a stronger nation.
That's how we build a future together.
That's the difference between Trump and Biden.
It's also, right now,
the difference between Republicans and Democrats.
So I not only, undecided voter,
want your vote for Biden, I also want your vote
for Democrats up and down the ticket.
I know you have a very busy schedule,
I know the Senate is very busy right now,
so I'm gonna let you go, but thank you so much
for taking the time, and hopefully,
we'll get to catch up after the election
and see how things are coming along.
Let's do it.