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Mint mobile.com. Welcome

0:36

to Deconstructed. I'm Ryan Grimm. The

0:39

Gaza War the world is watching unfold in

0:41

horrific fashion. Maybe the most devastating assault launched

0:43

on the small strip of Palestinian land, but

0:46

it is one of many that has been

0:48

launched by the Israeli Defense Forces over the

0:50

years. The last major war was

0:52

just two and a half years ago, and

0:54

it followed a similar pattern. But one

0:57

key thing was different. The largest

0:59

ever block of Democrats in the House

1:01

of Representatives took to the House floor

1:03

to denounce the assault in dramatic fashion.

1:06

The narrative around the attack was far

1:08

more balanced than it had been in

1:10

years past, and it led to President

1:12

Joe Biden calling Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin

1:14

Netanyahu and ordering a halt to the

1:16

operation in order Netanyahu grudgingly complied with.

1:19

Today's episode is part three of our

1:22

adaptation series of the audio version of

1:24

my new book, The Squad, AOC and

1:26

the Hope of a Political Revolution. Excerpted

1:29

here with thanks to Macmillan Audio. A huge

1:32

thank you to everyone who has bought the book

1:34

so far. And if you haven't, there's a link where

1:36

you can get it from an independent bookstore in the

1:38

show notes. And now onto

1:40

the final installment in our mini series. In

1:50

May 2021, the Israeli

1:52

government began pushing ahead with evictions

1:54

of Palestinians in the Sheikh Jarrah

1:57

neighborhood in East Jerusalem. the

2:00

eviction have rejected a proposal from an Israeli

2:02

court for them to reach an agreement with

2:04

settlers who are trying to take over their

2:06

homes. Israeli police have

2:08

been attacking Palestinians protesting against the

2:10

evictions in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood in

2:13

occupied East Jerusalem. It

2:15

was one more creeping step forward in

2:17

an occupation and annexation process that had

2:19

been underway for decades. But

2:21

what was new this time was the

2:23

reaction of Hamas, the government in

2:26

Gaza. The commander of Hamas's military wing has

2:28

warned Israel that it will pay a heavy

2:30

price if it doesn't stop the eviction. If

2:34

the Palestinian Authority wouldn't stand up for the

2:36

homeowners in Sheikh Jarrah, Hamas announced, they

2:39

would do it themselves if Israel didn't back

2:41

off its plan to evict the families. The

2:44

Israeli government did not back off, as

2:46

was to be expected, and Hamas responded

2:49

by launching rocket attacks into Israel, attacks

2:51

that were intercepted by the U.S.-built Iron

2:53

Dome air defense system, or

2:55

that otherwise crashed the earth. Israel

2:58

launched an assault on Gaza, and what

3:00

became known as the Gaza War of 2021 broke out.

3:04

In the late afternoon, a barrage of

3:06

Hamas rockets streaked out of Gaza

3:09

toward Jerusalem. They appeared to

3:11

do minimal damage. But

3:14

Israel responded immediately with airstrikes,

3:17

which the Palestinians say injured

3:19

and killed civilians, including nine

3:21

children. In

3:24

Gaza war's past, the Washington ritual

3:26

had always been repeated. We

3:29

also recognize Israel's legitimate right to defend

3:31

itself, to defend its people and its

3:33

territory. Israel had

3:35

a, quote, right to defend itself, each statement

3:37

began, even if the support

3:39

for that right was occasionally caveated with

3:41

a hope that Israel might decide to

3:44

respect human rights and, perhaps, if it

3:46

saw fit, limit civilian

3:48

casualties. This

3:50

war was different. In

4:00

the United States, the tenor of

4:02

the coverage was far less sympathetic than it

4:04

had been, with images of

4:06

Israeli police attacking protesters in East

4:08

Jerusalem and reports of widespread

4:11

casualties from the Israeli strikes. Today

4:14

some a rise in violence between

4:16

Israelis and Palestinians. Violence

4:18

which both sides threaten could get worse

4:20

still. Serious violence

4:22

broke out on Friday around Jerusalem's

4:25

Al-Aqsa Mosque. Christians

4:28

furious with Israeli curves on

4:30

gatherings during Ramadan hurled rocks

4:32

at police who fired stun

4:34

grenades. Some

4:37

landing inside the mosque itself. There

4:40

has been increasing levels of concern called

4:42

a nation and statements from the international

4:44

community, from the European Union, from the

4:47

US State Department and from several members

4:49

of Congress specifically about those possible evolutions

4:51

from those of those houses only in

4:54

the shaked-around neighborhood. Mark

5:00

Pocan, the Madison, Wisconsin congressman

5:02

who had previously co-chaired the CPC,

5:05

reserved an hour of time on

5:07

the House floor on May 13th

5:09

and Democrats paraded through to denounce

5:12

the assault. Today's special order hour

5:14

is not just about the violence

5:16

that has occurred in the last

5:18

week in Israel and Palestine. It's

5:21

not about the

5:23

activities of the last month including

5:26

the displacement of Palestinian families

5:28

in Sheikh Jarar that

5:30

have been largely overlooked in this region. But

5:34

in many ways it's about what's happened over

5:36

the last year, the last decade, the last

5:39

several decades that has dehumanized

5:41

and violated the human rights

5:43

of too many people in

5:45

this important region. It

5:47

was like nothing the US Congress had ever

5:49

seen. Omar, standing in

5:51

the well of the House, bluntly

5:54

but not inaccurately, called

5:56

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin

5:58

Netanyahu an ethno-nationalist. The

6:00

Israeli government and their

6:02

far-right ethno-nationalist

6:04

leader Benjamin Netanyahu

6:07

has legally raised Palestinian

6:10

ancestral homes, leveled

6:13

entire neighborhoods, and

6:15

violently suppressed any

6:17

resistance. This is

6:19

all to make way for illegal

6:22

Israeli settlement outposts designed

6:24

to displace Palestinians from their homes

6:26

and prevent a future Palestinian state.

6:30

Talib added, I am a

6:32

reminder to colleagues that Palestinians do

6:34

indeed exist, that we

6:36

are human, that we are allowed to dream.

6:40

We are mothers, daughters, granddaughters.

6:43

We are justice seekers and are

6:45

unapologetically about our fight against

6:47

oppressions of all forms. Omar

6:51

recalled her own experience as an 8-year-old huddled

6:53

under a bed in Somalia, hoping

6:55

the incoming bombs wouldn't hit her home next.

6:59

As a child, I lived through a violent

7:02

civil war that destroyed

7:04

my home, hooked my family

7:06

apart from each other, and

7:09

killed many of my family and friends. I

7:12

can still remember being just 8 years

7:14

old, hiding under

7:16

the bed, hearing bombs go

7:19

off outside my window, and

7:22

wondering if we were going to be hit

7:24

next. It

7:27

is trauma I will never, I will

7:30

live with for the rest of my life. So

7:33

I understand on a deeply human

7:35

level the pain and the anguish

7:38

families are feeling in Palestine and

7:41

Israel at the moment. Presley,

7:44

the elder of the squad, and the

7:46

least inclined to challenge the status quo

7:48

on Israel-Palestine, spoke directly

7:50

to the political guardrails put up around

7:53

members of the House of Representatives and

7:55

then ran right through those guardrails. We

7:58

cannot remain silent when our government since

8:01

3.8 billion of military aid to

8:03

Israel that is used to demolish

8:05

Palestinian homes, imprison Palestinian children, and

8:07

displace Palestinian families. A budget is

8:09

a reflection of our values. I'm

8:12

committed to ensuring that our government

8:14

does not fund state violence in

8:16

any form, anywhere. Many

8:18

say the conditioning aid is not a phrase that I

8:20

should utter here, but let me be

8:23

clear. No matter the context, American

8:25

government dollars always come with conditions.

8:28

The question at hand is should

8:30

our taxpayer dollars create conditions for

8:32

justice, healing, and repair? Or

8:35

should those dollars create conditions for

8:37

oppression and apartheid? Ocasio-Cortez

8:40

hit hard too. When

8:42

I first got here in 2019,

8:45

the Israeli government

8:47

refused to admit two

8:50

members of the United States

8:53

Congress, Rashida Tlaib and

8:55

Representative Ilhan Omar, into

8:58

the country, banned

9:02

members of this very body

9:06

because of who they were. Said

9:09

it was a sign of weakness. Do

9:13

Palestinians have a right to survive? Do

9:16

we believe that? She asked, reminding the

9:18

House that Israel had barred Omar and

9:20

Tlaib from traveling to the country. We

9:23

have to have the courage to

9:25

name our contributions. And

9:28

sometimes I can't help but wonder if

9:31

the reason we don't do that, if

9:34

we're scared to stand up to

9:36

the incarceration of children in Palestine,

9:38

is because maybe it'll force us to

9:41

confront the incarceration of children here on

9:43

our border. The clerk

9:45

of the House addressed Cori Bush. For

9:48

what purpose does the gentle lady from Missouri

9:50

rise? St. Louis and

9:52

I today rise in solidarity with

9:54

the Palestinian people, Bush responded. If

9:57

this body is looking for something productive to do

9:59

with three... dollars instead of funding

10:01

a military that police is and kills

10:03

Palestinians. I have some communities in St.

10:06

Louis City and in St. Louis County

10:08

where that money can go, where we

10:11

definitely need investment, where we are hurting,

10:13

where we need help. Let us prioritize

10:15

funding there. Prioritize

10:17

funding life, not destruction. The

10:20

squad was not alone. Representative

10:23

Betty McCollum of Minnesota rose to slam

10:25

the assault on Gaza. That's

10:27

the representatives Andre Carson of Indiana, Chui

10:30

Garcia of Illinois, and Joaquin

10:32

Castro of Texas. Tonight I'm

10:34

here to condemn violence. I'm

10:37

here to speak out in support of human

10:39

rights, political rights, and peace. I

10:41

rise today in solidarity

10:44

with the Palestinian people as

10:47

they face grave injustices,

10:50

violence, and certainly

10:53

abuse. Many

10:55

and Palestinian families want to

10:57

raise their children in safety

11:00

and in peace. And we've

11:02

got to take firm diplomatic steps

11:04

to support those goals.

11:07

These airstrikes, which have already resulted

11:09

in the deaths of civilians and

11:11

at least 38 women

11:14

and children, must stop. We

11:16

need a ceasefire now, and

11:19

the United States must help bring one about. As

11:22

chair of the House Appropriations Defense Subcommittee,

11:25

McCollum had influence over U.S. foreign

11:27

military aid. The unrestricted,

11:30

unconditioned $3.8 billion

11:33

in annual U.S. military aid

11:35

enables. It gives a green

11:37

light to Israel's occupation of

11:39

Palestine because there is no

11:41

accountability, and there is

11:43

no oversight by Congress. This

11:46

must change. Not

11:48

$1 of U.S. aid to Israel

11:50

should go towards the military detention

11:52

of Palestinian children, the

11:55

annexation of Palestinian lands, or

11:58

the destruction of Palestinian homes. which

14:00

then won them higher tier perks at conferences

14:02

and other events. But

14:05

the unprecedented display of progressive democratic

14:07

support for Palestinians amid the Gaza

14:09

War, as seen on the

14:11

House floor, was triggering. The

14:13

problem, Kor said, was, quote, the

14:16

rise of a very vocal minority on

14:18

the far left of the democratic party

14:20

that is anti-Israel and seeks to weaken

14:23

and diminish the relationship. Our

14:25

view is that support for the U.S.-Israel relationship

14:27

is both good policy and good politics. We

14:30

wanted to defend our friends and to send

14:32

a message to detractors that

14:34

there's a group of individuals that will

14:36

oppose them. In

14:41

September 2021, Congress prepared

14:43

to cut Israel a fresh check. It

14:46

was considering its latest bill to both avoid

14:49

a government shutdown and raise the debt ceiling.

14:52

A legislative maneuver needed to avert both

14:54

default on the debt and a global

14:56

financial crisis. And Pelosi decided

14:58

at the last minute to add a

15:00

billion dollars in new money to the

15:02

bill to replenish Israel's Iron Dome, which

15:05

had been depleted by the Gaza War. Iron

15:07

Dome is a purely defensive

15:09

system designed to safeguard all

15:11

civilians living in Israel. This

15:14

system was co-developed by the United

15:16

States and Israel and has saved

15:18

thousands of lives. The

15:21

round number had a symbolic,

15:23

slapped-together feel and was well

15:25

out of whack with what the United States

15:27

had previously provided, representing 60 percent

15:30

of the total funding given to the

15:32

Iron Dome over the entire last decade.

15:35

Senator Pat Leahy, who chaired the Appropriations

15:37

Committee, which doles out the money, told

15:40

reporters the request wasn't remotely an urgent

15:43

one. The Israelis haven't even

15:45

taken the money that we've already appropriated, he

15:47

said. Democrats, though,

15:49

were making a billion dollar point whether

15:51

the money was needed or not. But

15:54

so was the squad. Jayapal,

15:58

backed up by the now six members of the State of Israel, squad

16:00

and by Minnesota's Betty McCollum and Illinois'

16:02

Marie Newman threatened to take

16:04

the bill down if the money were included. Pelosi

16:08

relented and pulled the bill from

16:10

the floor on a Tuesday. Progressives

16:12

threatened to shut down the government if Democrats

16:14

left the Iron Dome provision in. The

16:17

revolt underscores the chasm between Democrats

16:19

over Israel and how the Democratic

16:21

leadership kowtows to liberals. The

16:24

Washington insider outlet Axios described the

16:26

stunning development for its readers. Why

16:29

it matters, there has never been

16:32

a situation where military aid for Israel

16:34

was held up because of objections

16:36

from members of Congress. Mark

16:40

Melman's client, Yair Lapid, not yet

16:42

prime minister, was serving at

16:44

the time as Israel's foreign minister. According

16:47

to a readout later provided by the Israeli

16:49

government, Lapid called Steny Hoyer

16:51

to demand to know what had happened.

16:55

Hoyer assured him that it was a technical glitch

16:57

and that the House would get Israel its money

16:59

quickly. Making

17:02

good on his promise, Hoyer moved

17:04

to schedule a new vote suspending the House

17:06

rules so the bill could hit the floor

17:08

on Thursday of that week. House

17:11

Majority Leader Steny Hoyer says Iron Dome

17:13

funding comes in a standalone bill later

17:15

this week. Omar spoke

17:17

with him the night before and pleaded for a

17:19

delay, arguing that a spending increase

17:22

that large needed to at least be discussed

17:24

and that there were other ways to move

17:26

the legislation. Why use this

17:28

moment, Omar asked him, to force a fiery

17:30

debate on the House floor? Doing

17:33

it this way would put a target on the backs

17:35

of the opponents, she said, with part

17:37

of her aware that this was the precise

17:40

purpose of hurrying with the vote. Israel

17:43

wants a standalone vote to show the

17:45

overwhelming support for Iron Dome, Hoyer told

17:47

Omar. Bowman and

17:50

Ocasio-Cortez both lobbied Hoyer for a delay

17:52

or for a different legislative vehicle. But

17:55

both were told the same thing. The

17:57

vote was going ahead. speech,

18:00

Representative Ted Deutsch charged to leave

18:03

with anti-Semitism for accurately referring to

18:05

Israel's government as engaged in apartheid.

18:08

I cannot allow one of my

18:10

colleagues to stand on the floor

18:13

of the House of Representatives and

18:16

label the Jewish democratic state

18:18

of Israel an apartheid state.

18:21

I reject it. Today

18:24

this caucus, this body, the

18:26

House of Representatives will overwhelmingly

18:28

stand with our ally,

18:30

the state of Israel, in

18:34

replenishing this defensive system.

18:37

Pelosi made an unexpected appearance

18:39

to claim that the proposed money was

18:41

part of a deal President Obama had

18:44

cut with Israel to fund Iron Dome.

18:46

Additional financial support for Iron Dome

18:48

was part of the memorandum of

18:51

understanding negotiated by President

18:53

Obama in 2016. The

18:57

funding being appropriated today

18:59

simply continues and strengthens

19:01

this support. Voting

19:04

against the funding, speaker after speaker

19:06

said, would be tantamount to killing

19:08

innocent Israeli civilians. All

19:12

of this framing Ocasio-Cortez texted from the

19:14

Capitol, trying to lay out her frame

19:16

of mind starts to cross a new

19:18

line that we are

19:20

now removing and defunding existing

19:23

defense when the bill is

19:25

actually just shoveling on more. Meanwhile,

19:27

she continued, the vitriol started

19:30

to really heat up. AIPAC

19:32

has escalated to very explicit racist

19:34

targeting of us that very much

19:36

translates to safety issues. This

19:39

is creating a tinderbox of incitement, with

19:41

the cherry on top being that Haaretz

19:43

caricature of me holding and shooting a

19:46

Hamas rocket at a Jerusalem with Rashida

19:48

and Ilhan cheering on. Back

19:50

at home in New York, she said, rabbis from

19:53

City Island who were typically progressive and

19:55

on her side were sending out mass

19:57

emails warning that her vote would put

19:59

people's lives at risk, she

20:01

had even been banned from attending high holidays

20:03

in her district. Ocasio-Cortez

20:05

walked onto the House floor and

20:08

voted against the Iron Dome funding. She

20:11

and Bowman, in the neighboring district, had

20:14

gotten a barrage of calls and emails to

20:16

their offices urging them to support the funding,

20:18

but almost nothing at all from constituents telling

20:20

them to vote it down. Those

20:23

on the yes side were very clear, Bowman

20:25

told me, and very loud

20:27

and very consistent with why they believed

20:29

the vote needed to be yes. And

20:32

that's why I'm saying there needs to be much

20:34

more organizing on the left around this issue and

20:37

others. But back

20:39

in the cloak room, Ocasio-Cortez was

20:41

shaken. For the first time

20:43

in her life, she had been

20:45

trailed that week by her own private

20:48

security detail, the Capitol Police having refused

20:50

to offer protection. Even

20:52

as the FBI was investigating four credible threats

20:54

on her life, one of them

20:56

a still active kidnapping plot. The

20:59

other three members of the original squad,

21:02

Presley, Omar, and Tlaib, had

21:04

all cast no votes. The

21:06

two newest additions, though, were split, with

21:09

Tory Bush voting no, but

21:11

Bowman voting to approve the funding. In

21:14

the cloak room, AOC began to

21:16

tear up while telling Omar and Tlaib

21:18

that she felt she had to go out there and change

21:21

her vote. Alex, it's

21:23

fine, Omar said, embracing her. Just

21:26

don't go out there and cry. Omar

21:28

was a big believer in the mantra that

21:30

you couldn't let them see they'd hurt you.

21:33

Tlaib cut in. Ilhan, stop telling

21:35

people not to cry. They

21:38

all laughed, knowing Rashida's penchant for

21:40

letting her emotions flow freely down

21:42

her cheeks. It

21:44

may have been good advice from Omar,

21:47

but Ocasio-Cortez didn't put it into practice.

21:50

On the floor, she saw Pelosi,

21:52

who knew AOC was angry at being forced to

21:55

vote on the funding. Pelosi

21:57

approached her, telling her she hadn't

21:59

wanted to stay. stand-alone vote that it was

22:01

Hoyer who controlled the floor schedule who had

22:03

forced it. Vote

22:05

your heart, she told Ocasio-Cortez. AOC

22:09

broke down, this time on the

22:11

floor, with tears flowing in full view

22:13

of the press and her colleagues, some

22:15

of whom give a shoulder of compassion, others

22:18

giving awkward backpacks as they slid

22:20

past. She switched her

22:22

vote to present. Meanwhile,

22:26

New York Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez gets

22:28

emotional as the House passes $1

22:31

billion in funding to Israel's iron

22:33

dome. But ironically, the Squad

22:35

member didn't even vote no, changing your

22:38

vote to present as the measure passed

22:40

overwhelmingly. Speculation about the

22:42

tactical designs behind the vote quickly

22:45

shot through the press. Did this

22:47

nod toward the pro-Israel camp mean AOC was

22:49

angling for a New York State Senate bid?

22:52

Was she worried that redistricting would bring

22:54

heavily Jewish New York suburbs into her

22:56

territory? Or was all of it just

22:58

becoming too much? Her

23:00

present vote was the epitome of

23:02

Ocasio-Cortez's effort to be the consensus builder

23:05

and the radical all at once. Voting

23:08

her heart, she felt, would have permanently

23:10

undermined her ability to serve as a

23:12

peacemaker on the issue. While

23:15

I wanted to vote no, the dynamics

23:17

back home were devolving so fast that

23:19

I felt voting present was the only

23:22

way I could maintain some degree of

23:24

peace at home, enough to bring folks

23:26

together to the table, because all

23:28

this whipped things up to an all-out

23:30

war, she said. Omar

23:32

and Talib held firm, though. I

23:34

rise in opposition to this supplemental. I

23:36

will not support an effort to enable

23:38

and support war crimes, human rights abuses,

23:40

and violence. We cannot be

23:43

talking only about Israelis' need for safety

23:45

at a time when Palestinians are living

23:47

under a violent apartheid system and are

23:49

dying from what Human Rights Watch has

23:51

said are war crimes. We should also

23:54

be talking about Palestinian need for security

23:56

from Israeli attacks. We must be consistent

23:58

in our commitment to the future. to

24:00

human life, period. Everyone

24:02

deserves to be safe there." And

24:05

the threats of violence ratcheted up. For

24:08

Muslim members of Congress, it's a level

24:10

no one understands. Omar messaged me when

24:12

speaking about the death threats the next

24:14

day. The anti-American rhetoric

24:16

is a violent beast, and our

24:19

vote yesterday makes it ten

24:21

times worse. The

24:23

next day, Bocasio-Cortez sent

24:25

a long note of apology to her constituents.

24:28

He wrote, the reckless decision by House

24:31

leadership to rush this controversial vote within

24:33

a matter of hours and without

24:35

true consideration created a

24:37

tinderbox of vitriol, disingenuous framing,

24:41

deeply racist accusations and depictions. To

24:44

those I have disappointed, I am deeply sorry.

24:47

To those who believe this reasoning

24:49

is insufficient or cowardice, I understand.

24:55

I am tired of ads barging into your favorite

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aura.com/safety to learn more and activate

25:42

the 14-day trial period. The

25:50

2022 campaign season heating up today with

25:53

a decision by former state Senator Nina

25:55

Turner to enter the race for Congress.

25:58

Turner launched a primary challenge of Congress. Congresswoman

26:00

Chantal Brown, who defeated Turner last

26:02

August in a special primary election.

26:05

Turner soon announced that she'd be seeking

26:07

a rematch against Brown in the spring of 2022. I

26:11

do firmly believe that the people of

26:13

Greater Cleveland need and deserve a championship.

26:16

That's when DMFI's reinforcements arrived in

26:18

the form not just of APAC,

26:21

but also of crypto and Silicon

26:23

Valley money, which flowed in. APAC

26:26

finally stepped into the Super PAC game in April

26:28

2022, funding what it called the United

26:32

Democracy Project. All right, so primary

26:34

season is now in full swing

26:36

with less than six months until

26:38

the midterm elections, and political Super

26:41

PACs are already spending millions. Some

26:43

dark money groups, including APAC's Super

26:45

PAC, United Democracy Project, have

26:48

dropped millions on boosting endorsed

26:50

candidates and attacking progressives in

26:52

those primaries. It would

26:54

go on to spend $30 million with

26:57

its first broadside being launched against Turner.

27:00

A third group joined in, called

27:02

Mainstream Democrats PAC, funded

27:04

by LinkedIn billionaire Reed Hoffman. Mainstream

27:08

Dems and DMFI were effectively the

27:10

same organization, operating out of the

27:12

same office and employing the same

27:14

consultants, though mainstream Democrats claimed

27:16

a broader mission. Strategic

27:18

and targeting decisions for both were

27:21

made by pollster Mark Melman, according

27:23

to Demetri Melhorn, a Silicon Valley

27:25

executive who serves as the political

27:27

advisor to LinkedIn's Reed Hoffman. The

27:30

thing that I believe is that everybody

27:32

from AOC to Liz Cheney needs to

27:34

be a part of the coalition to

27:36

prevent Mr. Trump from taking office again.

27:39

And so if AOC

27:41

is spending all of her time and energy

27:43

attacking Mr. Trump, and she's on my team.

27:46

EMFI also funneled at least $500,000 to Mainstream

27:49

Democrats PAC. Together, Melhorn

27:53

and Melman controlled the kind of money

27:55

that could reshape any race they targeted.

27:57

The reason we invested in groups like the Mainstream Democrats and the American

27:59

people mainstream Democrats who elevated Chantal Brown

28:02

over Nina Turner is

28:04

we believe that Nina Turner was actually training

28:06

her fire on somebody other than Mr. Trump,

28:08

specifically Mr. Biden, who was actually at the

28:11

center of our team. Our

28:13

money is going to the mainstream Democrats'

28:16

coalition, which we trust to

28:18

identify the candidates who are most likely

28:20

to convey to Americans broadly an

28:22

image of Democrats that is then electable, Mel

28:24

Horne told me, saying he relied

28:26

on the consultants linked to DMFI to

28:28

make those choices. The

28:31

constellation of super PACs and dark money

28:33

groups around no labels, the political vehicle

28:35

for Josh Gottheimer and Joe Manchin kicked

28:37

into gear targeting progressives and

28:40

primaries around the country. And

28:42

then came the crypto. It's not a trade trade.

28:44

I'm trading crypto. I'm getting into crypto. With FTX,

28:47

you in? You getting into crypto? With FTX? Steph

28:50

and Tom are in? Oh,

28:53

I'm in, bro. Hoffman's

28:55

super PAC spent heavily while

28:57

crypto billionaire Sam Bankman freed.

28:59

His Ponzi scheme, having yet

29:01

to collapse, chipped in a

29:03

million dollars against Turner. SBF,

29:05

as he became known, ceded

29:07

his protect our future PAC with nearly $30

29:09

million and began

29:11

spending huge sums. Mel

29:15

Horne, Hoffman's right hand man,

29:17

was explicit about his purpose. Nina

29:21

Turner's district is a classic case study

29:24

where the vast majority of voters in that

29:26

district are Marsha Fudge voters. They're

29:28

pretty happy with the Democratic Party. And

29:31

Nina Turner's record on the Democratic Party is that

29:33

she's a strong critic, he told me. And

29:36

so this group put in money to

29:38

make sure that voters knew what she

29:40

felt about the Democratic Party. And

29:43

from my perspective, that just makes it easier for

29:45

me to try to do things like give Tim

29:47

Ryan a chance of winning a U.S. Senate seat

29:49

in a state like Ohio. Not

29:51

a big chance, but at least a chance.

29:54

And he's not having to deal with the latest bomb

29:56

thrown by Nina. So anyway, that's

29:58

the theory behind our story. support for mainstream

30:01

Democrats. Melman,

30:04

in an interview with HuffPost, acknowledged

30:06

that his goals extended beyond the politics

30:08

of Israel and Palestine. The

30:11

anti-Biden folks and the anti-Israel folks looked

30:13

to Turner as a leader, Melman said.

30:16

So she really is a threat to both of our

30:18

goals. His remark

30:20

was itself a case study in the

30:23

strength of Washington narratives to withstand reality.

30:26

The party's right flank, led

30:28

by Manchin, Sinema, was

30:30

actively undermining Biden's agenda, while

30:33

Turner's allies in Congress were the ones fighting

30:35

for it. In

30:37

response to DMFI's spending in 2020, the

30:40

group J Street, a

30:42

rival of APAC that takes a more progressive

30:45

line on Palestinian rights, launched

30:47

its own super PAC to compete. Its

30:50

leaders guessed DMFI would spend somewhere

30:52

between five and $10 million. If

30:56

the advocacy group could cobble together $2

30:58

million, said J Street's Logan Bayroth, that

31:01

would at least be something of a fight, given

31:03

that APAC and DMFI had to overcome

31:05

the fact that what they were advocating

31:07

for, unchecked, limitless

31:09

support for the Israeli government, regardless

31:11

of its abuses, was

31:13

unpopular in Democratic primaries. We're

31:17

always gonna expect the right to have more money,

31:20

given that they're operating off of the basis of

31:22

big donors. But that's a little

31:24

bit more of a fair fight, he said, of

31:26

the disparity between J Street and DMFI. But

31:29

now you add to what DMFI is doing,

31:32

$30 million from APAC, that's

31:34

just in a whole other realm, he said. It's

31:37

been a radical transformation in the

31:39

politics of Israel-Palestine, and

31:41

the politics of Democratic primaries. Going

31:49

into 2022, Turner was joined by

31:51

the biggest number of boldly progressive

31:53

candidates running viable campaigns in open

31:55

seats since the Sanders wing had

31:58

become a national force. We

32:01

have stopped all prosecution

32:03

for personal marijuana. That's what we did. Austin

32:06

City Council member Greg Kassar announced he

32:08

is running for Congress. Delia

32:11

banned politicians from becoming lobbyists.

32:13

In Congress, she'll ban shady money, too. I'm

32:15

Maxwell Alejandro Frost, and I've been making sure

32:18

they hear from us for 10 years. Vermont's

32:21

Becca Ballant, a leader who

32:23

brings Vermonters together. There

32:26

was Gregorio Kassar in Austin, Delia

32:28

Ramirez in Chicago, Maxwell Alejandro Frost

32:30

in Orlando, Becca Ballant in Vermont,

32:33

Summer Lee in Pittsburgh, Nita Alam

32:35

in Erica Smith in North Carolina,

32:38

Donna Edwards in Maryland, Andrea

32:40

Salinas in Oregon, Marie

32:42

Gluson-Camp Perez in Washington State, and

32:45

John Fetterman and Mandela Barnes running

32:47

for Senate in Pennsylvania and Wisconsin,

32:50

both coincidentally their respective states'

32:52

lieutenant governors. Also

32:54

in Oregon, Jamie McLeod Skinner

32:56

was challenging incumbent Kirk Schrader, one

32:59

of the most conservative Democrats left in Congress

33:01

who had made it his personal mission to

33:03

block the Build Back Better Act and

33:05

to stop Medicare from negotiating drug

33:07

prices. He's taken 650,000 from Big

33:09

Pharma and voted against letting Medicare

33:11

negotiate prescription drug prices. Schrader voted

33:13

with Republicans against raising the minimum

33:15

wage and against COVID relief. So

33:17

it's no surprise that just days

33:19

after January 6, Schrader joined Republicans

33:21

again to oppose holding Donald Trump

33:23

accountable, stating that impeaching Trump would

33:25

be akin to, quote, a lynching.

33:27

Luckily, there is a real Democrat

33:29

in this race who will take

33:32

a stand to address the crises

33:34

we're facing. I'm Jamie McLeod

33:36

Skinner. I've never taken a corporate dime, and

33:38

I'm running for Congress to fight for working

33:40

families. On January

33:42

31, kickstarting the primary

33:44

season, Jewish Insider published a list

33:46

of 15 DMFI House

33:49

endorsements, nearly all of them

33:51

squaring off against progressive challengers. The

33:54

constellation of progressive groups that played

33:56

in Democratic primaries scrambled to respond.

34:00

The loose coalition consisted of J Street,

34:02

Justice Democrats, Sunrise

34:04

Movement, Indivisible, the

34:06

Working Families Party, the Congressional

34:09

Progressive Caucus PAC, and Way

34:11

to Win. Because

34:13

Justice Democrats had been unable to form

34:15

a collaborative relationship with the Squad, it

34:17

hadn't been able to raise the kind of small

34:20

dollars that AOC or the Sanders campaign could. This

34:23

meant it was increasingly relying on the small

34:25

number of left-wing wealthy people who wanted to

34:27

be involved in electoral politics and

34:30

were okay angering the Democratic establishment.

34:33

This left the organization without many donors,

34:36

but with enough to stay relevant. Collectively,

34:39

the groups would be lucky to cobble together $10

34:41

million, up against well more

34:44

than $50 million in outside spending,

34:47

and that's before counting the money that

34:49

corporate-friendly candidates could raise themselves. Remarkably,

34:52

the Squad and Bernie Sanders were

34:54

conspicuously absent from this organized effort

34:57

to expand their progressive numbers. In

34:59

the summer of 2020, facing down

35:01

their most intense opposition from within the

35:03

party, the four members had created a

35:06

PAC called the Squad Victory Fund. But

35:08

in the 2022 cycle, it raised just

35:10

$1.9 million. And a

35:13

close look at the finances shows that it spent

35:15

nearly a million dollars to raise that money, renting

35:18

email lists to hit with fundraising requests,

35:20

advertising on Facebook, and so on. The

35:23

remaining million was doled out mostly to the

35:25

members of the Squad. Had

35:28

the Squad worked collaboratively with the

35:30

coalition of organizations, lending their name,

35:32

attending fundraising events, and the like,

35:34

several million dollars could have been

35:36

raised. If Sanders had turned

35:38

on his fire hose, the resources

35:40

available to the left would have been considerable.

35:44

As it was, the left had to

35:46

find a way to even the playing field and,

35:48

to a handful of progressive operatives, Sam

35:51

Bankman Freed seemed like the only

35:53

path left. Tired

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