El-Sayed: Dems need a leader who will ‘deliver on the mandate that we just got’ — Transcript

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1. 0:00Back in May, Abdul Elsa predicted he
2. 0:02would win by seven points. Six months
3. 0:06later, he in fact beat Mike Rogers by
4. 0:09seven points to become the senator elect
5. 0:12from Michigan. And Senator elected joins
6. 0:14us right now. Thank you very much for
7. 0:15being here.
8. 0:18>> It's an honor to be with you. Thank you
9. 0:19for having me.
10. 0:20>> Congratulations on your victory. What
11. 0:22message did that send? Your victory in
12. 0:24Michigan.
13. 0:26We built a campaign to get money out of
14. 0:28politics, put money in your pocket, pass
15. 0:29Medicare for all. We faced an
16. 0:31unprecedented amount of spending against
17. 0:33us. And yet, we were able to come out
18. 0:35victorious, both in a primary, outspent
19. 0:3711 to1, and then in a general where we
20. 0:38got outspent by $110 million. The
21. 0:41reality of it is though is that politics
22. 0:44can be what it was meant to be by our
23. 0:46framers. where we have conversations
24. 0:47about who we are and who we want to be.
25. 0:49We go across our state and have those
26. 0:51conversations in living rooms and town
27. 0:53halls and VFW halls, in basements and
28. 0:56churches and synagogues. And the the
29. 0:59Michiganers decided that we want
30. 1:01something that's a little bit different
31. 1:02than 30 second ads bought by big
32. 1:04corporations and special interests
33. 1:05flooding our airways. And I think it
34. 1:07proves that we really can have
35. 1:08government of the people, by the people,
36. 1:10and for the people if we are willing to
37. 1:12fight for it. Have you heard from Mike
38. 1:13Rogers yet?
39. 1:16Not that I know of. I think he had a
40. 1:18flight to catch to Florida.
41. 1:19>> Wow. Um, so let let's start with the uh
42. 1:22the big news out of the White House.
43. 1:24Steven Miller as the new chief of staff.
44. 1:26Uh what what message do you think that
45. 1:28sends uh to the country and to your
46. 1:31ability to get something done with this
47. 1:32White House?
48. 1:35>> Well, the same kind of incoherent
49. 1:37messaging that we've seen out of the
50. 1:38Trump administration for a very long
51. 1:40time. He says he wants to be
52. 1:41consiliatory. He says he wants to work
53. 1:43with us toward our end to actually
54. 1:45deliver on the affordability uh mandate
55. 1:47that the American public called for in
56. 1:49my state and so many other states. And
57. 1:51then he decides to hire the most broken
58. 1:53man to continue to run the most
59. 1:55dysfunctional White House that we've
60. 1:57seen. I don't know what Steven Miller
61. 1:58has actually contributed to our culture,
62. 2:01our society in any real way except for
63. 2:03to make us more angry, to stoke the
64. 2:05worst kind of fear and vitrial, to
65. 2:08weaponize ICE in our streets, to take
66. 2:10American lives. The real question is why
67. 2:12appoint this man White House chief of
68. 2:14staff if you want to have a productive
69. 2:15relationship with a Congress that
70. 2:17actually intends to deliver on the
71. 2:19mandate that the American public has
72. 2:20just given us. And we'll wait to see.
73. 2:22>> On Friday you said that Democrats should
74. 2:24drop the decorum and treat Trump, these
75. 2:27were your words, as the unserious fool
76. 2:30that he is. So how is that going to
77. 2:33work? How are you going to deliver on
78. 2:34your promises? You're calling the
79. 2:36president unserious fool that he is.
80. 2:40Well, let's talk about how he is an
81. 2:42unserious fool. Think about this war in
82. 2:44Iran that every single president had
83. 2:46resisted fighting because of course it
84. 2:48was a dumb idea because there's this
85. 2:49place called the Straight of Hermuz that
86. 2:50everybody could have told you would have
87. 2:52been a choke point on energy. He does
88. 2:54this in a moment when energy is
89. 2:55single-handedly upholding the S&P 500
90. 2:58because of the power uh of of of AI
91. 3:01corporations building data centers right
92. 3:03now, which we also have to start
93. 3:05addressing because of course that's run
94. 3:06a muck. Let's talk about the foolishness
95. 3:09of a tariff war with Canada. Canada. I
96. 3:12mean, I'm from Michigan. It's the only
97. 3:13place in the country you can go south to
98. 3:15get to Canada. And you know, Canadians
99. 3:16are really nice people. And yet, here we
100. 3:19are paying $5,600 a year. Let's talk
101. 3:21about the foolishness of gutting
102. 3:23Medicaid to pass tax cuts for the
103. 3:25richest people in America. And we're
104. 3:28about to watch that nuclear bomb go off
105. 3:30in the form of those cuts uh taking hold
106. 3:33uh in January. I mean, this is
107. 3:34foolishness. So look, if he wants to act
108. 3:36serious, we are happy to work alongside
109. 3:38him to actually address these issues. He
110. 3:40is the president of the United States.
111. 3:42But if he wants to continue to fool, he
112. 3:43will hire people like Steven Miller to
113. 3:45run the White House. And he gets to
114. 3:46choose where he goes next. The American
115. 3:48public have made their choice. They want
116. 3:50affordability. They want accountability.
117. 3:52They want to be able to afford their gas
118. 3:53and their groceries and to see a doctor.
119. 3:55And we intend to get those things done.
120. 3:57>> Well, let me ask you, when um Mayor
121. 3:59Mandani was running for office, Trump
122. 4:01called him terrible names. He
123. 4:03mispronounced his name intentionally
124. 4:05just like he did with you and then they
125. 4:07ended up actually having somewhat of a
126. 4:09working relationship. Do you see is that
127. 4:11any possibility
128. 4:13with you and Trump? Look, I've never met
129. 4:15the man. I am I He is the president of
130. 4:18the United States. I am the the US
131. 4:19senator elect from the state of
132. 4:20Michigan. I am happy to meet with him
133. 4:22like I'll meet with anyone who can
134. 4:24advance the goals I ran on to get money
135. 4:25out of politics, put money in pockets,
136. 4:27pass Medicare for all. I've said this if
137. 4:29if he wants to pass Trump Care for All,
138. 4:31which will guarantee health care to
139. 4:32everyone and put his name on it like
140. 4:33he's putting his name on everything, I'm
141. 4:35game. Let's let's see if he wants to do
142. 4:36that. So, I haven't had any outreach.
143. 4:38I'm happy to sit down with him to talk
144. 4:40about how we can serve the Michiganers
145. 4:42who just elected me.
146. 4:43>> So, you you also had some choice words
147. 4:46during the campaign for for Chuck
148. 4:47Schumer. Uh here's what you had to say
149. 4:49about him back in July.
150. 4:52If you're a big bank that wants to
151. 4:55collude against us, I AM DANGEROUS. IF
152. 4:58YOU'RE A monopouist who WANTS TO RAISE
153. 5:00OUR PRICES, I'M DANGEROUS. If you're
154. 5:02CHUCK SCHUMER, I'M PRETTY DAMN
155. 5:04DANGEROUS.
156. 5:06>> So So that was obviously during the
157. 5:08primary he was endorsing your opponent.
158. 5:09But uh in what way or you still think
159. 5:12you'll be dangerous to Chuck Schumer?
160. 5:16>> Well, Senator Schumer and I figured out
161. 5:18how to work together on the three
162. 5:19pragmatic goals we had. We wanted to
163. 5:20take back the Senate. We wanted to win
164. 5:22this Michigan seat. And he wanted to see
165. 5:24me elected as the next senator for
166. 5:25Michigan, as the Democratic candidate in
167. 5:28that race. I want leadership who is
168. 5:30going to deliver on the goal of getting
169. 5:31money out of politics, but money in
170. 5:33pockets, past Medicare for all. As you
171. 5:35know, a vote is a choice between two or
172. 5:36more options. I don't know what those
173. 5:38options are, but I am committed to
174. 5:40making sure that we can deliver on the
175. 5:42goals that we need, and we need action
176. 5:44now. And so I've had my criticisms of uh
177. 5:47the the the now soon to be um or the
178. 5:50currently the minority leader
179. 5:52>> soon to be majority leader talk a little
180. 5:54bit about
181. 5:55>> potentially. Here's the question though.
182. 5:56Here's the question. I want to support
183. 5:58somebody who is ready to take action on
184. 6:00day one and we look I mean past this
185. 6:03prologue. So I have not been impressed
186. 6:05by what we've been able to do. Let's see
187. 6:07where we can go from here. We may very
188. 6:09well have a 56 seat majority. That is uh
189. 6:12unprecedented. So, if we squander that
190. 6:14opportunity, it'll have been wasted.
191. 6:15We've got to treat this as the floor,
192. 6:17not the ceiling. And the question to me
193. 6:19is, who wants to be the leader, who's
194. 6:20going to make sure that we deliver on
195. 6:22the mandate that we just got. Um, I want
196. 6:24to see who else is in the running. I
197. 6:26have been very, very committed to
198. 6:27somebody like Senator Chris Van Holland,
199. 6:29who I know has his eyes set on uh other
200. 6:31goals. Uh, but let's see. And, uh, and
201. 6:33I'm open, uh, to be talking to folks who
202. 6:35are ready to move the ball to actually
203. 6:38get things done. So, I I one last thing.
204. 6:40I want to play a clip from your uh
205. 6:42graduation speech uh when you were a
206. 6:44college kid. Uh this is 19 years ago.
207. 6:47Let's play a clip.
208. 6:49>> The Michigan difference is us. It's the
209. 6:53students. It's in the diversity of
210. 6:56names, faces, stories, and experiences
211. 6:59with which we decorate this great place.
212. 7:02I wish every person in the world who
213. 7:04believes that we are faded to have a
214. 7:06clash of civilizations and cannot reach
215. 7:09across the religious divides could have
216. 7:11heard you speak today. I just wish every
217. 7:14person in the world could have heard you
218. 7:17speak today. [applause]
219. 7:19Now, at that moment, you were on your
220. 7:21way to medical school. Uh did did that
221. 7:24college kid think he'd be where you're
222. 7:26sitting right now?
223. 7:29I never thought I could run for office.
224. 7:31In fact, after that moment, uh,
225. 7:34President Clinton came up to me. He
226. 7:35says, you know, son, why you going to
227. 7:36medical school? Which of course is not a
228. 7:38question people usually ask you when
229. 7:39you're going to medical school. And I
230. 7:40said, I love people and I love science
231. 7:41and this is how I want to serve. And he
232. 7:43said, that's great, but you know, you
233. 7:44got a gift for speaking. Maybe someday
234. 7:46you run for office. And it was really
235. 7:47nice of him to say. And I laughed in his
236. 7:49face. I said, "Mr. President, I don't
237. 7:50know if you saw my name. It's got 11
238. 7:51letters in it. People like me don't get
239. 7:52to run for office." The next year, I
240. 7:53watched a guy named Barack Hussein Obama
241. 7:55run for and win the presidency. both of
242. 7:57them. He saw something in me I'd never
243. 7:59seen in myself. And President Obama
244. 8:01showed me something in me I'd never seen
245. 8:03in myself. And 19 years later, I'm I'm
246. 8:05grateful to be the senator elect from
247. 8:06the state of Michigan. But more
248. 8:08importantly, I think Michiganers showed
249. 8:10that we reject the kind of divisiveness,
250. 8:12the kind of hate. Uh that was the
251. 8:14hallmark of the Rogers and Trump and JD
252. 8:17Vance campaign against us. They chose an
253. 8:19America big enough for all of us. And
254. 8:21even though, you know, in 2007 I
255. 8:23couldn't see it, I'm so grateful that
256. 8:24America showed or Michigan showed me
257. 8:26that in me and that America really is
258. 8:28big enough for any of us and all of us.
259. 8:30>> All right, Senator Elect Elsa, thank you
260. 8:32very much for joining us this morning.
261. 8:33We'll see you when you get to
262. 8:34Washington.