Nancy Pelosi, edged out AOC in favor of another octogenarian politician because AOC is too fringe. The Democrats are trying to get away from that fringe. They think it affected their last election. They just got so fringey that everybody was saying, hell no, it scares us.
Transcript:
*This transcript was generated by a third-party transcription software company, so please excuse any typos.
Mike Papantonio: At the same time, Nancy Pelosi, what do you think about her trying to edge out AOC? Now, I would too, because AOC is too fringe. The Democrats are trying to get away from that fringe. They think it affected their last election. I do too. I think they just got so fringey that everybody was saying, hell no, scares us.
Farron Cousins: Look, I don’t think you can say that the Democratic party ran too far to the left in this last election, when they’re out there campaigning with Liz Cheney and their list of 300 Republicans who’ve endorsed them. They moved too far to the right. And that is what happened in this last election.
Mike Papantonio: Going into the election, did you think that, though? I mean, going into the election, would you have ever characterized it, now, we did a lot of stories on what the hell are you out here with a war criminal for? She would’ve killed a million people, just like daddy killed a million people in Iraq. She was the daughter of a man who should be in prison right now. And she supported him. Nancy Pelosi, I mean, excuse me.
Farron Cousins: Harris.
Mike Papantonio: Harris. So you have this thing that’s working that in my mind, I look at it and I just say she has to do something because she’s concerned about are we moving too far left? And that’s what AOC brings to the table.
Farron Cousins: Yeah. And look, AOC is obviously further left, but to the point of we need universal healthcare here in this country. We need the Green New Deal, which Nancy Pelosi trashed as that green new thing that they’re pushing a couple years ago. That’s how she described that.
Mike Papantonio: Did she say that?
Farron Cousins: Yeah. She called it that green new thing.
Mike Papantonio: Okay. I missed that.
Farron Cousins: So, if that’s considered far left, then I am proud to be a part of that too. But AOC eventually, because they did hold this vote Monday evening, she lost to Connolly, who was the person Pelosi was pushing. Connolly, a nice young 74-year-old. So it goes back to that gerontocracy we’ve got here. You’ve got AOC who maybe you like her, maybe you don’t like her, whatever it is, doesn’t matter. Replaced with a 74, not replaced, but edged out by a 74-year-old who shouldn’t be in office anymore. He is a centrist. He is a down the middle, like, oh, I don’t want to make this side mad or this side mad. So he is a very mealy mouthed blue dog Democrat, basically. Give me all your corporate money. AOC rejects the corporate money. And so I think this was a huge mistake.
Mike Papantonio: Okay, but look at the squad. The squad is in tatters right now. Okay. This thing, the squad that she was kind of the head of that whole thing. They have no influence. They’re not getting on committees. They’re falling apart. There’s a reason for that. Okay. I think the leadership structure within the party is saying, whatever happened last time, now I get it. You say, well, they tried to show that they were these right wing war fanatics by bringing in Cheney, Liz Cheney, and what was it, 132 folks that signed?
Farron Cousins: It ended up being over 300.
Mike Papantonio: 300 warhawks that signed this document that was supporting Harris. Now that doesn’t mean that that’s what the imagery was going into the election. Going into the election I think the imagery was, the American public thought these people have become wackos. That’s what I think was going on. And so they dressed it up by, let’s bring in Liz Cheney, whose daddy’s a war criminal, and she would bomb the hell out of everywhere, every place in the world if she could. She’s a nutcase. And let’s have these generals and right wingers sign this document to try to give us the appearance that we’re this moving to the right. And it didn’t work. That’s what I think happened. And now Pelosi’s looking at AOC saying, hell no, hell no. We don’t wanna go back to that imagery. That’s the way I see it.
Farron Cousins: Well, look, you may not be wrong about the imagery and obviously why Pelosi is doing that, but what she’s doing is stifling all new leadership. She is stifling younger blood. She is saying, let’s keep it in the old folks’ home instead of moving on as you should and letting new people take over the party. When the Democrats themselves are treating AOC and Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar as these weird people, when your own party is doing that, then yeah, the public is gonna think that. But that was your decision to do that. You as the Democratic Party made the decision to try to cast them as, we don’t agree with them, even though on the issues they support, overwhelming support from the public. When it’s not tied to a political party, universal healthcare, climate change action, debt-free college, they poll through the roof when not tied to a political party.
Mike Papantonio: Oh, okay. That’s interesting.
Farron Cousins: They support winning issues. Pelosi does not.
Mike Papantonio: Well, but whatever is projecting, that’s not being projected to the American public. They’re regarded as a bunch of wackos.
Farron Cousins: Right. And I think Pelosi started that. That wasn’t even coming from the right at first. That was coming from people like Pelosi.
Mike Papantonio: Really?
Farron Cousins: Yeah.
