00:00But look, I think for each and every one of you, I know you've got a busy day ahead of you.
00:04I'm grateful for the work you do. I'm grateful for the focus, and my friend Ken, I've said this to you,
00:09the party in Minnesota, the DFL party, made it possible for a high school teacher with no money,
00:16no political experience to win a challenging congressional district, and I know this,
00:21candidates have a small piece of it. It's that infrastructure that surrounds them that makes
00:25that possible, and you're focusing on building the infrastructure in your states, and I want to be
00:33clear, if those who say, oh, our state is too hard to win a Senate race, or it's too hard to win a
00:39congressional race, or whatever, I'm talking about the important races we need to organize to win,
00:44like school board races that we need to win, city council races, mayors. So the DNC has a
00:54responsibility at the top of the ticket, and I think we know these elections have consequences.
00:59We know there would be a very different timeline, but it's not for the lack of the effort of everybody
01:03in this room. We just have to make the case to them that the alternative and what we provide,
01:10the quality of life, the enhancements, the ability to form a union or send your child to school
01:15safely, the ability to have thriving economies that work for everyone, not just that .00024 that
01:22Senator Klobuchar was talking about. They'll do just fine. They will be fine without our help.
01:28Trust me on that. But the focus that we have to make, and I know this is it, we cannot allow,
01:35and I was glad to hear Senator Klobuchar say this and all of you, we're proud to be a diverse party.
01:41We are proud of the diversity of this country. We're not shying away from diversity as a strength
01:48and equity as a goal, and inclusion being the air we breathe. That's what we should be doing.
01:54But what we have to be clear about is don't take the bait. It boggles my damn mind that in the midst
02:01of a military takeover our cities and the attempt to go into others, the flaunting of the rule of law,
02:08the cruelness, and the unconstitutional nature of the way they're attacking our neighbors,
02:13that the press finds the need to talk about, oh, there's a division in the Democratic Party.
02:19There's a division in my damn house, and we're still married, and things are good. That's life.
02:25That's life.
02:32We are strong.
02:35We are strong because we challenge each other. We are strong because we're held accountable.
02:40We're strong because we believe that there's a place for everyone here.
02:45Think of how easy it would be to be a damn Republican.
02:48Oh, what should I wear today? This stupid freaking red hat.
02:52What should I say today? I don't know. Just make sure it's cruel.
02:55Who do we listen to? That guy.
02:57Oh, the felon in the White House? Yeah, listen to him, and that will be fine.
03:01Now he's talking about burning flags. He's going to have flag burning or whatever.
03:04Because he knows there's a hell of a lot of flags with his picture on it that are going to get burned.
03:08There's a whole lot of that kind of crap that people are sick of.
03:11And I have to tell you, we can have our internal decision-making, our internal healthy debates,
03:21but I refuse to believe we do not have the luxury to fight amongst ourselves
03:26why that thing sets in the White House.
03:28So, I'm not telling anyone not to raise their voice.
03:39I'm not telling anyone to say,
03:41you are too damn old, man, look at you.
03:43I'm fine with that. We can figure that part out.
03:46But I am willing to say,
03:48each and every one of us are unified around the idea
03:50that this cruelty must end.
03:52This slow-rolling attempt at undermining democracy,
03:57and I always get in trouble for it, and I'll continue to say it.
04:00I don't think we do any favors when we don't name it.
04:02These are fascist policies meant to take away our...
04:05That is what they are.
Comments