Cori Bush — Cori Bush Breaks Down the Issues with Zerlina

Speaker 1: Thank you so much for being here. Thanks for having

me. So everything on

Speaker 2: the Biden agenda is important. I think most Democrats would agree with that statement. But nothing is more important than the right to vote. It's really the issue that allows for all the other things to happen. What does it say to you that zero, A grand total of zero Republicans are even open to having a debate about this issue before the Congress today on this bill

It says what we've what

Speaker 3: we've seen and what we've known for such a long time, you know, making sure that

Speaker 4: that the people like me, that black and brown folks, that people who live in communities like where I come from, that our votes should not count. You know, what we've said for such a long time that the votes of black, brown, and indigenous people, you know, that those should be suppressed, it's just a desperate, racist effort to make sure that our voices aren't heard, to keep power where power is, and to make sure that the things that we need for our

Speaker 3: communities, that those things don't happen

because

Speaker 3: when that happens when we get what we're asking for we've been saying we need in this Build Back Better Act those things help to change the landscape in this country we're talking but but we're talking about basic things you know and so this is not what this is not what they want to see they don't want to see you know us black and brown and you know people who are just low-wage Indigenous folks, they don't want to see us whole. But that's okay. That's why we keep fighting for Build Back Better. And that's why the HR1 and HR4, both of them, John Lewis Voting Rights Act and the For the People Act, we need both of them. The effort today to get the Freedom to Vote Act, to get that passed, it's... It's a piece. It seems like it's pieces of both of those bills, but we need both of those bills. We need to make sure that we deal with campaign finance. We have to have campaign finance reform. We cannot not have that. That's why we're in some of the positions we're in right now. And I'm not willing to just sit back and allow this to happen without pushing that we end this Jim Crow filibuster

Speaker 5: It's a Jim Crow filibuster

Speaker 4: It's an old relic. of racial inequality and

Speaker 6: pain that our ancestors have had to walk through

So I want to talk about

Speaker 7: the filibuster because one of the things we've been covering on this show every day this week

Speaker 2: so far is the way in which money and politics is factoring into what Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema are doing right now. So Joe Manchin, obviously one of the holdouts on many of these bills right now. He said he could get Republicans on board

today

Speaker 2: for the voting rights bill but obviously that didn't happen and that brings me to the filibuster because in order to pass this voting rights bill the democrats are going to have to make changes to the filibuster but they also are going to need to keep senator manchin and sinema voting in support of the bill so what is your message to those two senators to those two white senators who frankly are standing in the way of uh you know the political power that those voters those voters of color that you were talking about That they voted, you know, in that you were talking about that they voted, you

Speaker 8: know, in members of Congress to have that power, utilize that power

Speaker 3: Right. And, you know, just starting with the fact that when people showed up to the ballot box that November, this past November, people voted for Democrats

uh

Speaker 3: overwhelmingly enough to where we have a democratic house senate and um and a white house

the fact

Speaker 3: that people showed up to vote for both of those senators when they ran they were voting for democrats they expect the expectation was that our values the the values of democrats the the basic ones that all of us agree on at least that you know and what are we talking about we're talking about basic rights that

you know are

Speaker 3: human rights for each and every person, regardless of what you look like. It is diversity. It is understanding intersectionality, if we want to use that word. It is appalling to me. And so to both of those senators and to anyone else that feels like we should not be working to make sure that both of these bills happen

How

Speaker 9: do you tell someone who has to put their child in

Speaker 4: daycare but cannot afford it, but they're supposed to also go to work low wage? I'm someone

who

Speaker 10: worked low wage for

Speaker 3: more than 10 years at one company, same company

and I couldn't

Speaker 3: afford to send my own kids to that same place where my children were, where I was working 10 years in. That was a policy failure. That was a choice that was made in this country that I had no control over. How do you tell someone that is making the decision between paying for their medications and paying their rent that, you know what, you just wait. You just wait and we'll figure it out. We'll figure it out at some other time for you

you

Speaker 3: know, my donors. I got to pay attention to my donors. I got to pay attention to what do you tell those people? What do you tell those people that are sleeping on the street every single day? What do you tell people that are living in public housing units that are infested? You know, what do you tell them if you wait again? Because we're not just saying wait right now. We're saying you wait again because you were waiting 10 years ago. You were waiting for that. You were waiting. You're still waiting. And we're going to tell you to continue to wait now, even though we have Democrats. are in the that are a majority in this country so no I won't sit back and and just and allow

Speaker 4: that so I'm hoping that Sinema that's that that are those senators Sinema and Manchin that they remember every single person in their state and every single person in this country that's waiting for these investments and let me just let me just add one

Speaker 3: more point

to that

Speaker 3: money that can go to help our climate, to fix our climate. What planet do we have after that? What are we looking towards in 20 years and 30 years and 40 years? What are we looking towards when we talk about community violence? We need those investments in my community. They may not need it in their community. They may not need it in their state, but let me tell you, in my state, in St. Louis, we need investments in community

Speaker 9: violence intervention. They may not need it, they can't look at Just me and my three that can't look at what makes sense to me, they were elected

Speaker 4: to represent more than just those that fill their war chest

Well, one of the things

Speaker 7: that you said before was that a lot of this stuff is really basic

Speaker 2: And you mentioned affordable child care. Universal pre-K is another thing that's being considered. Also, home care. We were talking a little bit before we went on air. Home care is

essential

Speaker 2: essential to support American families and you know predominantly those jobs are women of color are holding those uh have hold those positions can you talk about the the human infrastructure package a little bit more and the items included in that package that you don't think should be removed from this bill because they're that basic and essential to American families

Speaker 4: Absolutely. So again, child care, we need, I want to see universal child care, you know, but right now we're talking about something different, you know, I believe that means tested and but pre-K, universal pre-K, you know, we need to have that our children should be for those that want to send their children to school, whether it's three years, four years old, preparing them for for their first year of kindergarten. We need to have that in place for each and every person. How do they start? How do we build that

Speaker 3: foundation if we won't prepare our children? And like you said, home care. We need

to be able to

Speaker 3: put mom and grandma and, you know, and papa. If they can stay at home, let them stay at home and let someone be able to take care of them in the comfort of their home and pay. We have to pay people to do this type of work, making sure that paid leave is in place, you know, a paid leave, four weeks

of paid leave

Speaker 4: Leave is a very tough thing because oftentimes you're not ready to go back to work. I've had to I've had to be on paid leave before. Mine ended up being in 12 weeks. I needed more than the 12 weeks. So four weeks is just not enough. You know, when we talk about child tax credit, the child tax credit has been helping so many families right now, having that money coming in every single month

Speaker 3: We need to continue that. That should that should be permanent. But I know we're talking about right now one year

Speaker 4: earned the earned income credit, earned income tax credit. That one would remain. And so that's good that that would be in the bill. And I believe that one would be permanent. You know, as we're talking about housing, the money for restoration and renovation of public housing units, the money for

housing

Speaker 4: Our unhoused community to make sure that those investments, the investment in housing of $100 billion, though, is not enough. We're talking about the entire country. We're talking about what could actually take people off the street and keep people who are about to be put on the street off the street. That is our work, and it's more than $100 billion. So we need more of an investment and investment there. um and we talk about climate a civilian climate corps yes we appreciate the fact that that those investments will be there but we need so much more you know we talk about clean energy you know we talk about the um making sure that we president biden he had a goal of 50 emissions reduction

by 2030. That

Speaker 3: has to happen. You know, and the thing is, we're talking about the president's agenda. We're first talking about the president's agenda that we agree with. We're talking about President Biden's agenda that we're trying to push. This is not the progressives agenda. This is not, you know, Cori Bush's agenda. This is not squad agenda. This is

Speaker 4: the president's agenda that we are that we are in agreement with. And especially the way it was before, before it was stripped down and knocked down. And now it's down to what, 1.8 between 2.2 trillion, you know

Speaker 6: because 3.5 trillion was already the compromise. That's

a that's a really

Speaker 2: important point for folks to understand. I mean, we talk a lot about the numbers, but I think, you know, the compromise was down to the 3.5. And you just went through so many of the important items that are included. My last question is actually

on

Speaker 2: a different topic, which is Rahm Emanuel. So the current Biden nominee for ambassador to Japan is the former mayor of Chicago, Rahm Emanuel. And during his confirmation hearing today, Laquan McDonald came up. He was killed by the police in Chicago seven years ago today. And the former mayor acknowledged that he didn't go far enough and says he thinks about it every day. But do you think the Senate should block his confirmation because of his behavior during that case

Speaker 4: Yes, yes. I believe the Senate should block his confirmation. I've been very vocal about that. I don't believe

Speaker 3: that we should allow someone who was in a position of power that used that position to not represent every single person in his community, that used it in a way that hurt Laquan McDonald's case, that hurt his family, that hurt the community, and that also set a precedent. We cannot allow that. And what are we saying if we say that you can

Speaker 9: be a part of this cover-up? Where 16 shots, 16 shots in the

Speaker 3: body of a human being killed him, not that Rahm Emanuel killed him, but the 16 shots that took him out

That

Speaker 3: this human being's life was not worth this person feeling like, you know what, this mistake because I made it as a mayor, I shouldn't, you know, maybe I could step back and do more community work

Maybe I

Speaker 3: could step back and do some advocacy in another way. Maybe me being promoted is not

the place

Speaker 3: because my work is not the place because my work is to make sure that black lives do matter and black lives can't matter just by sign. Black lives and in the fact that black lives are saved when we start showing that black lives have been saved and black lives are getting better that there's a better quality of life for black people and I help with that. That is the work that I would be looking for him to do because he messed up. So like let's let's go back and fix that. Being promoted to be an ambassador to Japan is not the way because then also are we saying that you know what you can do these these horrible things to black people when you can be president of the United States. You know you can do these very public things. Um, and, and harmful things to black people and you can get promoted to great positions of power. No. And

it is not okay

Speaker 11: for his family. It's not okay for his family

It's not

Speaker 11: okay for the loved ones and, and, and friends of, you know, of Laquan McDonald