Vice President-Elect Kamala Harris: All the Women Who Have Worked
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Gaslit Nation Transcript 11 November 2020 “Klown Kar Koup” Vice President-Elect Kamala Harris: All the women who have worked to secure and protect the right to vote for over a century, 100 years ago with the 19th Amendment, 55 years ago with the Voting Rights Act, and now in 2020, with a new generation of women in our country who cast their ballots, and continued the fight for their fundamental right to vote and be heard. Vice President-Elect Kamala Harris: Tonight, I reflect on their struggle, their determination, and the strength of their vision to see what can be unburdened by what has been. And I stand on their shoulders. And what a testament it is to Joe's character that he had the audacity to break one of the most substantial barriers that exists in our country and select a woman as his vice president. Vice President-Elect Kamala Harris: But while I may be the first woman in this office, I will not be the last, because every little girl watching tonight sees that this is a country of possibilities. To the children of our country, regardless of your gender, our country has sent you a clear message: dream with ambition, lead with conviction, and see yourselves in a way that others may not, simply because they've never seen it before. But know that we will applaud you every step of the way. Sarah Kendzior: I'm Sarah Kendzior, the author of the best selling books; The View From Flyover Country and Hiding in Plain Sight. Andrea Chalupa: I'm Andrea Chalupa, a filmmaker and journalist and the writer and producer of the journalistic thriller, Mr. Jones. Sarah Kendzior: And this is Gaslit Nation, a podcast covering corruption in the Trump administration and rising autocracy around the world. Andrea Chalupa: We are all about Georgia in our opening segment. First, we want to congratulate everyone who did the Gaslit Nation Save Democracy Challenge and made 1,000 calls and/or sent 1,000 texts and wrote letters. Congratulations, you really did it. You helped save democracy. We're going to announce three winners selected from the submissions we received to join us on the show in the new year. Thank you so much to everyone. Andrea Chalupa: We have a new contest. It's called Save Humanity from Mitch McConnell. We need you now to make 1,000 phone calls for Reverend Warnock and Jon Ossoff in Georgia. Their opponents are clownishly evil, demanding the Georgia Secretary of State resign because their elections went into runoffs. Between now and the election day in Georgia–January 5th, 2021–we need to each commit to make 1,000 calls. We're going to select three additional winners, and since we are so all hands on deck for Georgia, the Georgia folks, meaning all of you who are making calls and sending those letters and texts, whoever does that and tweets us about it to @gaslitnation on Twitter, from the three we select, you'll each get a signed copy of Sarah's book, Hiding in Plain Sight and assigned movie poster of my film Mr. Jones. It will be signed just by me, and that is enough, okay? You don't need all these other signatures of all the glorious cast of the film, I am enough, damn it. Andrea Chalupa: You'll come on the show and scream in delight after Democrats take control of the Senate, sidelining Palpatine Mitch McConnell. If Democrats win both races in Georgia, then Vice President Kamala Harris becomes the tie breaking vote in the Senate. So, donate to both races, give as much as you can. Understand the massive war chest we created for Democrats, we needed that to keep those Republicans busy and on defense. Andrea Chalupa: To get us grounded in the big number one battle ahead, meet Jon Ossoff if you haven't already. All of us should know him by now. He's been helping lay a lot of important progressive groundwork in Georgia. Jon Ossoff is a Georgia native, a media executive, investigative journalist and small business owner. Jon and his wife Alicia, an OB GYN physician, both grew up in Atlanta. Andrea Chalupa: Since 2013, Jon has served as a CEO of Insight TWI, and now a 30 year old media production company that investigates corruption, organized crime and war crimes for international news organizations. According to Business Insider, Ossoff's opponent, David Perdue, "bought stock in a company that produces protective medical equipment the same day senators received a classified briefing on the coronavirus." Here's a clip of Jon Ossoff destroying David Perdue, who later refused to debate him again. Jon Ossoff: Perhaps Senator Perdue would have been able to respond appropriately to the COVID-19 pandemic if you hadn't been fending off multiple federal investigations for insider trading. It's not just that you're a crook, Senator, it's that you're attacking the health of the people that you represent. You did say COVID-19 was no deadlier than the flu. You did say there would be no significant uptick in cases. All the while you were looking after your own assets and your own portfolio, and you did vote four times to end protections for pre-existing conditions. Four times. Jon Ossoff: The legislation that you tout, the Protect Act: it includes loopholes that specifically allow insurance companies to deny policies to Georgians with pre-existing conditions. Can you look now in the camera and tell the people of this state why you voted four times to allow insurance companies to deny us health coverage because we may suffer from diabetes, or heart disease or asthma, or have cancer in remission? Why, senator? Andrea Chalupa: Now, meet Reverend Warnock. According to his campaign bio, Reverend Raphael Warnock grew up in Kayton Homes public housing in Savannah. The family was short on money but long on faith, love and humor. Raphael and his 11 brothers and sisters were taught the meaning of hard work. Reverend Warnock's father was a veteran, a small businessman and a preacher. He spent the week hauling old cars to a local steel yard and on Sundays he preached at a local church. Andrea Chalupa: Reverend Warnock's mother grew up in Waycross, where she spent summers picking tobacco and cotton and still lives in Savannah today. She worked hard to raise Raphael and his siblings to know that they could do anything they put their mind to. Here's a clip of Reverend Warnock delivering the eulogy for 27-year-old Rayshard Brooks, who was murdered by a police officer in Atlanta earlier this year. Reverend Warnock: We have not worshiped in this sanctuary since March, but we had to come here today, because there's another virus in the land and it's killing people. There's COVID-19, and then there's what I call COVID-1619, and they are both deadly. And we have to fight both with the same determination and focus. COVID-1619 in this land, we've been trying to beat back this virus of racism since 1619, when 20 slaves arrived on the shores of Jamestown, Virginia. Mass incarceration is its latest mutation, but it is an old virus that kills people. Reverend Warnock: You don't have to be shot down by a police officer for racism to kill you. If you don't have access to health care, that'll kill you also. Andrea Chalupa: There's a lot of groups we can support on the ground in Georgia to protect and expand voting rights and to make sure every vote is counted in January. We'll link to a great list of those groups helping Georgia in the top of our show notes of this episode. Andrea Chalupa: Now, Stacey Abrams showed up for our country, so now we all have to show up for Georgia. From Ben Wikler, the Chair of the Democratic Party in Wisconsin, he wrote on Twitter, "There's a lot of totally correct talk about how Stacey Abrams was pivotal to winning Georgia. Folks, Stacey and her team were pivotal to flipping Wisconsin too and every other battleground. They worked with us to build massive, supercharged voter protection teams starting early. Stacey Abrams, we all have to keep in mind is not an overnight success, she worked for a decade to build an infrastructure on the ground to turn Georgia blue, and she had to work against a lack of interest and a lack of belief from the Democratic Party itself, which didn't give her the resources she needed in 2018 to counter the voter suppression in Georgia when she ran for governor, the voter suppression that ultimately stole that election from her." That's according to a report in Politico. Andrea Chalupa: I'm going to read from this now, because everybody needs to take a moment and understand that Stacey Abrams is a very classic example of two important things that the progressive movement must keep in mind. Number one... Oh, and the Democratic Party establishment, all of us in the resistance fighting against actual Republican fascism need to keep these two things in mind. Number one, play the long game. Fight like hell to plant seeds and fight like hell to make those seeds grow, and know that every failure is just fertilizer. You keep going. You keep marching. Andrea Chalupa: Number two, stop trying to win over white moderate voters. Expand your voting base by showing voters of color that the system does work for them, and that good things do happen when they vote and they get involved, okay? That's what she did here.