Here are two. It is. You guys all know Jake and I have had some strong opinions in regard to the outcome of the 2024 presidential election, but what do members of the Democratic Party really think? Well, luckily, here to talk to us about that very issue is Congressman [00:00:16] Ro Khanna, someone who is always willing to come on the show, always willing to take some tough questions. So Congressman Khanna, thank you so much for joining us. Thank you. I'd love to talk about Elon Musk's tweets back and forth with me and Jake. But we can talk about the party of course as well. [00:00:33] I can't believe you guys are even tweeting at him. I mean, we should be in our hermetically sealed bubbles where we don't ever talk to anyone we disagree with on anything. - Anyway, that worked. - Out so great for Democrats recently. All right. So let me just start off with a simple question, because it is something [00:00:48] I've been thinking a lot about. Congressman Khanna, who is the leader of the Democratic Party. We don't have one right now. And that's not a bad thing. I think it's a good thing that, in some ways, the establishment has totally been [00:01:04] defeated in terms of the people who had a stranglehold or the powers of position, and I think it's wide open, and there is a lot of great talent of young people in our party, and this is an opportunity for a whole new generation to rise. [00:01:21] But the reality is we don't have a clear leader of the party. I like that you're taking a glass half full approach to this, but the reason why I ask is because I don't know what the Democratic Party stands for. [00:01:37] I really don't. - I can answer. - In one sentence. We stand for tackling inequality in a modern economy. The reality is, you have districts like mine that have $12 trillion of wealth that's gone in the hands of a few. You've got people and places who have been left out, [00:01:56] and our entire mission should be to tackle that fundamental inequality in America. So, Congressman Khanna, this election seemed to have defeated two wings of the Democratic Party, leaving only your wing behind. But I'm not sure that that's the message everybody got. [00:02:12] So let me just flesh that out first, and then I want to talk to you about what? The future of the Democratic Party. So there's the establishment wing, Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden, Kamala Harris. This is now their second time losing Donald Trump nearly lost three times. Joe Biden won by 43,000 votes in three swing states in. [00:02:27] Well, they did lose three times. Now they lost. Hillary Clinton lost, Joe Biden lost, and then Kamala Harris lost. Yeah, in a sense, Joe Biden lost in this one as well. So, I. Mean, he was pushed out of the race because he didn't have the poll numbers. I think it was three losses as I counted. - Right. - And to a guy that they say is, you know, [00:02:45] despotic and clownish and buffoonish, so, you know, that's not a good look for the establishment Democrats. If they can't beat a guy that they think is has dictatorial tendencies and is not very intelligent. So. Okay, so they're in a lot of trouble. They will regroup. [00:03:03] They will come back with billions of dollars to try to defeat your wing. Right. And then you've got the identitarian left that focuses almost exclusively on identity politics. And they suffered a very heavy blow in this election as well, leaving only the populist left. [00:03:19] The Bernie 2016. And I would argue the Young Turks wing of the party. Right. So now that's our impression. Now, it's easy for us to say that because we're in the wing that seems to be of have been vindicated. But does anyone else in Washington think that. [00:03:37] I said to someone, if Bernie Sanders was 15 years younger, there's no doubt in my mind he'd be president in 2028. Not a doubt in my mind. Now, there are other people in the that wing, populist wing. Not just me, but others. [00:03:52] And that's I wouldn't make that statement about any of us, because Bernie, of course, ran and has credibility and has been saying this for 40 years. But I do think for the first time there is a reckoning with what went wrong. You kind of have Sanders unleashed. I mean, he's saying now publicly what he said privately to many of us. [00:04:10] And you have people like David Brooks nodding along, and you have people moderate Democrats saying, yes, I agree. You have Chris Murphy, who was, you know, never supported Sanders, saying, you know, Sanders has something to teach us. So I've never seen more openness to actually. [00:04:25] Bernie Sanders. And I say that not because of him as a figure, but the wing of the party you're talking about. Right. So, but when you look at the rest of the Democratic Party in the House, for example, where you are. Do you think they've begun to learn any lessons? [00:04:42] Because I would, and I'm curious, super curious about this and genuinely curious because I'd be shocked if they learned any lessons. My guess is that they're right now in the middle of blaming the voters and figuring out which corporate robot is going to be the best representative in the next presidential election. [00:04:59] Well, look, I think some of the House members are having introspection and learning lessons, but the House is the sort of lagging indicator of the people in the House. You know, presidential candidates actually tend to be much more forward looking because you actually have to win votes to become president. [00:05:15] A lot of these members of Congress remember, some of them have elected in 1980, 1990. And the ones who are in leadership have been there long, right. And so you have people who are elected by a very different electorate. Same thing, true in the Senate. And that's why you actually have a far more conservative makeup [00:05:34] of House and Senate leadership than you have of the grassroots of the party. Has there been any meetings in the House yet where there's been a post-election discussion of what went wrong? We've had some, but we're going to have more. But there was not the same usual total adulation of a leadership. [00:05:55] There were people who were saying, look, we got to have conversations. If you feel catcalls, few interruptions, and now we're going to have substantive discussions. But, and the Progressive Caucus had had a two hour or an hour and a half conversation about what went wrong. And people were pretty blunt, in terms of, things that need to be done differently. [00:06:15] Congressman Connor, you represent a district in in California, the state that I'm from, born and raised, state I'm currently in. And I'm curious if you were surprised to see that Donald Trump managed to flip ten separate California counties from blue to red? [00:06:34] And what are your thoughts on what motivated voters in those counties to vote for Trump overwhelmingly over Harris? I was surprised, I mean, by the magnitude of, his showing in California. I was surprised by his showing in my district. [00:06:49] I mean, I ran ahead of, Vice President Harris. But the reality is, everyone in the Bay area got 4 or 5% less than we did, usually because Trump was so strong in Harris and underperformed in California. [00:07:05] That's not criticism of her. It's just the facts. You know, I think people in California, obviously, you know, the homeless problem is huge. There's a feeling that basic public safety hasn't been kept in communities. Both of those were big issues. [00:07:21] And there was a concern that sort of democratic governance hasn't been as effective as it should be in Sacramento, and that I think that hurt the Democrats across the state. And then Donald Trump campaigned in California. [00:07:37] I mean, he came and he came not just for fundraisers but for rallies. I understand that Vice President Harris was focused on the swing states, but that also played a role. Yeah. Do you think real quick on that, do you think that crime might have [00:07:52] played a role in California and the and the sense of growing anarchy? Yeah, I mean, I called it public safety. You could call it crime. I mean, absolutely, there's it's undeniable. Look at Dan Lurie, one in San Francisco. He was saying, look, we can't have the pendulum has swung too far. What happened in California is they had this thing called, [00:08:09] as you may know, three strikes law. You commit a third crime and you're in jail for life. And people thought that was ridiculous. If your third crime, you were convicted of marijuana possession, maybe some other drug thing, and then you go and you steal 500 bucks, you shouldn't be in jail for life. And so rightfully, there was a rebellion against that and a rebellion [00:08:27] against putting mass incarceration. People in in just in jail, especially, especially for drug possession. But you can't go from that to say, well, if someone commits carjacking or crashes into Walgreens and steals things or those masked with guns into these stores, that they're going to be no prosecutions or repercussions. [00:08:44] And so the pendulum, in my view, swing swung way too far in the other direction. And now people are coming to a more balanced view. Yeah, I. Think that's undeniable for everyone except the radical left. So now let's get back to The Congress and the House in specific because, [00:09:01] Representative Khanna, you know, you and us had a big disagreement and, during the Biden years about the Pramila Jayapal Trust Biden strategy. And we thought it was going to be a failure. [00:09:17] And if we're being honest, it was, and so the all of the things about bringing back paid family leave bring back all these progressive priorities. Never came back. And and so Manchin and Sinema got everything they wanted, etc.. Okay. Bygones be bygones. [00:09:32] And and and our audience deeply appreciate you coming on to discuss that even when we disagree. Right. And that's important. Super important. They respect you for that. So but what I'm most curious about is have people learned lessons, like when you say the Progressive Progressive Caucus had a meeting, [00:09:50] like what I'm afraid of is you guys, after the election, there's going to be like this little bit of like, oh my God, should we change something? And the minute that there's any legislative fight, we're going to go back to trust. Jeffries. Trust. Schumer. Don't don't ever disagree with your colleagues. [00:10:08] Don't ever fight your colleagues. Let's just let the Democratic leadership do whatever they want. So can you reassure us in any way that that's not going to happen this time around? Yes. I think there's, a recognition that there was a fundamental failure [00:10:25] of the Biden-Harris administration, which is to pass things that would have immediate impact on people's lives. Many of us I'm very proud overall of the Inflation Reduction Act and the climate legislation we got and the American Rescue Plan. And yeah, we got the checks, stimulus checks and the child tax credit. [00:10:40] But we we didn't get fundamental things like an increase in minimum wage, family paid leave, some relief on childcare, things you were talking about, and others and I and others were talking about. And I do think, we should have insisted on 1 or 2 fundamental things [00:10:57] that would have made a difference in people's lives immediately. Not five years from now, when a new factory came up. There are other people who are coming around to that view. In fact, I that was one of the points I made to Democracy Alliance, a group of progressive, activists and supporters today in a speech. [00:11:15] And I was I will give myself some credit, though I was perhaps wrong that we needed to fight more to to get some of those progressive priorities. If you remember, I in the House led the fight on insisting that we get a $15 wage. I called for the firing of the parliamentarian. [00:11:31] You and I have had conversations about how we get that wage increase. - I fundamentally believe. - If Joe. Biden and Kamala Harris had gotten the wage increase even to $13, that we would have won this election. I mean, Amlo did it so many times in Mexico. So, yes, there's a lesson for progressives that, yeah, you got good legislation, [00:11:49] but we just didn't do enough to get things immediately in people's lives. Maybe we wouldn't have been able to get Medicare for all, but we certainly could have got paid family leave or gotten some raise in the wage if we had fought harder. Okay, let me just stay on it for one more second, because what I'm [00:12:06] curious about is the culture. Because in the old days, as in a couple of weeks ago, if you said anything against Democratic leadership, it was considered sacrilege that you were breaking unity. Right. And what that led to was a stifling of any dissent or constructive critique [00:12:22] within the Democratic Party is my guess, is that that culture remains that there the next time, if you were to criticize Hakeem Jeffries, that all hell would break loose and they would say you were, you know, ruining unity and get back in line, [00:12:39] and how dare you? And we have to have a unified message that you didn't pick, but that corporate leadership picked a Democratic leadership pick. So am I. Am I wrong about that? Has the culture changed at all? Have you seen any inkling of the culture changing, or are they just going to go back to yelling at anyone who ever dissents? [00:12:57] I think there's some inkling. I mean, I've called for a housecleaning of the political operative class in D.C., and I had a senior leader in Congress who came up, and I thought he was going to be upset about it. He said, you're absolutely right. We need a cleaning of the house. Bernie has been much more pointed in his comments about the Democratic Party [00:13:16] abandoning the working class. Now, you know, I think if you, personalize it to, to Hakeem Jeffries, obviously, that's, that may, ruffle feathers, but I've seen more people being willing to critique the fundamental infrastructure [00:13:34] of the Democratic Party, which is actually the the bigger challenge. It's the consultants, it's the polling group, it's the fund raisers. It's. And more people are willing to speak out about that. Okay. Ruffle feathers need to be ruffled. There's no way to get political change without ruffling feathers. [00:13:51] But I hear you, and we've apparently taken some steps forward, so that's great. And by the way, you most on this show We'll back you up. You deftly introduce all those bills and. And that's a giant, giant difference. That's why you're on the show. So last thing. Not related to any of this. [00:14:08] You worked with Matt Gaetz on some anti-corruption bills. So I imagine you've got your deep concerns about Matt Gaetz and other areas. But people seem to be brushing his anti-war and anti-corruption record under the rug. [00:14:23] And so I'm not trying to brush his potential massive issues under the rug. Those exist. But was he pretty good on those anti-corruption bills you worked on him with? Sure. I mean. I have said publicly that he helped. [00:14:39] Me. And Bernie Sanders stop the war in Yemen and by getting Republicans and to support our war Powers resolution, first war powers resolution that ever passed in the history of Congress that we've worked on bills to try to ban stock trading by members of Congress, [00:14:58] ban PAC money, and he has been supportive of antitrust. That doesn't mean, though, that, it qualifies him to be attorney general. I think what I've called for, though, is that all of Trump's appointees [00:15:14] are entitled to a hearing. He Trump won the election, and in those hearings, he should be asked tough questions. One of the things I'd like to know is, does he stick to his position on legalizing marijuana? Will he make sure that the Justice Department really is not [00:15:30] going to politicize, any, retribution? Will he commit to having the ethics investigation be transparent? He's always said he's for transparency. Fine. Let the report come out. Have it be transparent. He can tell his side of the story. So I think he needs to be treated with a fair process. [00:15:48] There needs to be a hearing. And he should be open about all of these issues. All right. Representative Ro Khanna, thank you for joining us on The Young Turks. - Really appreciate. - It. Thank you. - Appreciate it. - Thanks very much.