See now it looks like the
progressives are going to give in
and they're going to give Manchin,
Sinema Biden and Pelosi the vote
that they want on the corporate
backed infrastructure bill.
And they're going to pass their
version of the build back,
better bill.
But there was no guarantees that is
going to pass the Senate.
We think that is a surrender.
We think that is a terrible deal
and blindness and Manchin I'm sorry
Manchin has said he might vote no
anyway, despite progress is
giving them everything they wanted.
So now you guys know that you've
seen the details of it.
We've covered it.
Now, the question is, what is there
anything they could do about it?
Well, this is where bad leaders
would tell you, well, golly gee,
there was nothing we could do.
Well so I want to be constructive
here, right?
And if you're going to have
critique, you should have an answer
for what the alternative is.
So here's alternative.
You do correct planning and
strategy.
So six months ago,
three months ago, two months ago,
even two weeks ago.
What you say is here are my red
lines and
I am not under any circumstance
moving off those red lines now
you have to but you can't bluff.
It has to be real and you have to
be willing to sink the bill or
go back into another set of painful
negotiations.
And if you say, well,
I'm not willing to do that.
Well then you're going to lose.
That's just how negotiations work.
If you say ahead of time, you
signal that you will give the other
side everything they want,
they'll just take it all.
So if someone really strong had one
in Congress, like say Nina Turner,
what she could have done is just
pull two other progresses.
They just need three progressive
votes in the house.
That's it and
say these are red lines and
there's no way in the world we're
going to move off of them.
But guys, you have to be realistic
and practical, you can't say
everything in your red line.
But pick two giant ones that that
got negotiated away that are
incredibly popular like lowering
drug prices, 88% popularity, paid
family leave over 70% popularity.
If you can't win on those,
you can't win on anything.
So you draw your headlines.
Now, that first part
is fairly obvious.
The second part is the part that
current date, progressives
apparently cannot do and
will not do but need to do and
it's going to freak them out when I
tell you this, it's not going to
freak any of you out.
You have to play hardball.
And so if I was in those
negotiations, I would hope that if
Nina was in those negotiations,
what she would do.
Well, let me just speak for myself,
what I would do is I would go
in and say Senator Manchin, I know
we're cordial and friends and
I'm happy to go out to lunch with
you anytime you want, etcetera.
But but within this room we're
going to do negotiation for
our voters.
So you're going to have
to deal with me as it is, okay.
And what I'm telling you is,
we're going to give you your bill,
the infrastructure bill that you
planned out with corporations and
we want to return this bill.
And if we don't get it and
you don't say yes to our red lines,
it's okay.
Everybody is free
to do your senator.
I'm a senator, whatever those
circumstances are okay.
But what we're going to do is
destroy your reputation and
you might think, that's not
going to work or that's too rude.
But I am going to do
that every day, me and my allies,
we're going to take turns
on the floor of the House,
of the floor of the Senate.
And we're going to tell people
about your donors one by one and
we're going to say,
you're the most corrupt senator
that America has ever had.
And we're going to make you
the poster child for corruption.
Now, already, Bernie's out,
Jay Paul's out.
They would never ever ever do that.
In fact, the mere suggestion would
offend them to
their sensitive core, right?
But guys, this is politics and
you don't play politics for fun.
You played so you can pass bills
that affect people's lives and
you think Manchin wouldn't
be affected by that, you're wrong,
he would be deeply affected by that
as long as you're not bluffing.
And if he says no,
yeah, I am offended.
I'm not going to do the bill,
then you start on day one, you hit,
he's the number one recipient of
coal oil and gas money.
Now, that should be obvious.
Probably a lot of,
if you watch this show, but
if you watch mainstream media and
nobody knows it, right?
And want to outline your donors,
then we're going to move on to your
own personal wealth and
how you have it in coal.
And how you made $5 million dollars
and you've got another
$5 million dollars in wealth and
we're going to embarrass you and
embarrass you and embarrass you.
If you sink our bill,
we sink your career.
That's actually hardball.
Yes, it would definitely work.
And if it didn't work with Manchin
after you obliterated his
reputation and everyone in
the country despise them.
Then when you turn to Sinema,
she said, okay, what do you need?
What do you need
if you're not willing to do that?
You're not a strong leader because
you're worried about offending
people you have personal
friendships with or relationships
with instead you're hurting the
voters because you're not willing
to use something in your arsenal.
The progressives in Congress.
I've said it 1000 times.
I love him, but
they've never called out corruption
of democratic colleagues.
They started to a tiny bit around
the edges on TV in this round.
No, you have to be willing to say
he takes money from oil companies
and he sold you out because of
those legalized bribes.
If you're not willing to say that
you have no leverage.
And that's why you go around saying
there's nothing I could do and
then Manchin wins that we lose.