IHIP News: 🚨 Dem SLAMS FAILED Party Leadership, DEMANDS Chuck Schumer RESIGN Immediately!

What this episode is about

Congressman Ro K Connor criticizes the current leadership of the Democratic Party, calling for a transformation towards a more progressive, worker-oriented platform that prioritizes the needs of everyday Americans over corporate interests. He advocates for bold policies, including ending military sales to Israel, reforming immigration enforcement, increasing taxes on billionaires, and expanding access to healthcare and education, while emphasizing the importance of clear and honest communication in political leadership.

Key takeaways

• Forget corporate donations; we need a true 'party of the people' or risk becoming a corporate accessory.
• Saying 'Medicare for All' is clearer than 'renewing the American dream'—simplicity is key in political promises.
• The House is where the action is; a lively chamber beats the Senate's echoing silence any day.
• Courage as charisma? Bold actions can outshine flashy speeches; voters crave results, not rhetoric.
• In a world of chaos, why are Democrats still playing patty cake? Boldness isn’t just for the GOP.

Who speaks in this episode?

• Ro K Connor (Host) · 23 min speaking

What is discussed, and when

1. 0:00 – 5:00: Democratic Party, Chuck Schumer, Captain America, Donald Trump
2. 5:00 – 10:00: Captain America, Donald Trump, Chuck Schumer, California City Detention Center
3. 10:00 – 15:00: Democratic Party, New York, New York, Captain America, Elon Musk
4. 15:00 – 20:00: Democratic Party, Donald Trump, Jeff Bezos
5. 20:00 – 25:00: Democratic Party, Captain America, Donald Trump, Marshall Plan for America
6. 25:00 – 27:02: Captain America, Democratic Party, Hakeem Jeffries

Notable quotes from "IHIP News: 🚨 Dem SLAMS FAILED Party Leadership, DEMANDS Chuck Schumer RESIGN Immediately!"

• Billionaires more. We need to be for Medicare for all. We need to be for $10 a day child care. We need to be for free public college and a thousand trade schools. We need to be…

  about Democratic Party · at 1:11

• Like Donald Trump is out there saying crazy things Let's conquer Greenland. And then we're like poll testing whether we could be for Medicare for all.

  about Donald Trump · at 2:00

• I agree with Schumer, I've called for him to step down as minority leader, and I don't understand why we're even talking about no new funding, right? Like they were saying, Oh, Ro,.

  about Chuck Schumer · at 3:40

• I feel like if we had a different speaker and I've had speak not minority leader Jeff on.

  about Hakeem Jeffries · at 6:33

• Fifth generation Americans want to see is a Democratic party that says that's not America. That is we are going to stand up against that because it's a violation of our faith.…

  about Captain America · at 10:15

• For decades. I think for decades we would have it like in like you mentioned earlier in FDR style. Rain, let's talk about the billionaire tax. I read an article on the way here…

  about Billionaire Tax · at 11:02

• The reality, look, let's look at some just basic economic facts in this country. I represent a district in Silicon Valley that is a third of the national wealth. A third of the…

  about Silicon Valley · at 13:19

• Do going to do business as usual and yeah, we won't have the ICE raids and we won't do dump tariffs and we're not going to insult Mark Carney, but we're just going to allow the…

  about Medicare for All · at 14:47

Who and what is mentioned in this episode?

People

• Donald Trump — Person · Referenced political figure / antagonist · 5 mentions · first at 1:55
  Used as the central foil for the discussion: Democrats' resistance strategy, ICE funding, authoritarian risk, and an example of blunt political messaging; also referenced as signing an Epstein-related law.
• Chuck Schumer — Person · Referenced Democratic leader (Senate) / subject of criticism · 4 mentions · first at 3:07
  Criticized as not meeting the moment; guest says he has called for Schumer to step down as minority leader and faults Senate posture on ICE funding and broader leadership.
• Hakeem Jeffries — Person · Referenced Democratic leader (House) · 3 mentions · first at 3:07
  Discussed as part of Democratic leadership; guest argues Jeffries has more progressive pressure in the House and was helpful in building an Epstein coalition, but should be tougher.
• Jeff Bezos — Person · Referenced billionaire (example/foil) · 2 mentions · first at 12:01
  Mentioned as an easy-to-villainize billionaire in a discussion about taxing extreme wealth and the political economy that protects billionaires.
  So, there's two things. Number one, it's easy to villainize Jeff Bezos. It's easy to villainize Oh god, it's so easy to villainize Elon Musk or Peter Teal. But it's the system,.
• Elon Musk — Person · Referenced billionaire (example/foil) · 2 mentions · first at 12:04
  Cited alongside other billionaires as a symbol in the wealth-tax conversation; used to contrast individual villainization with systemic critique.
  So, there's two things. Number one, it's easy to villainize Jeff Bezos. It's easy to villainize Oh god, it's so easy to villainize Elon Musk or Peter Teal. But it's the system…
• Peter Thiel — Person · Referenced billionaire (example/foil) · 1 mention · first at 11:48
  Mentioned as another prominent billionaire in the critique of wealth concentration and political influence; grouped with Bezos and Musk.
  I think they would pay in billionaire taxes. like these guys are so entitled that they're willing to buy JD Vance and spend all of this money but cannot give it to the country that has a system that has made this them this way.

Concepts & topics

• Democratic Party — Concept · Core topic · 13 mentions · first at 0:19
  Main subject of discussion, focusing on its need for reform and progressive policies.
• Captain America — Concept · Core topic · 7 mentions · first at 0:42
  Central theme of the episode, discussing the state of the nation and its future direction.
• Ice King — Concept · Key argument · 2 mentions · first at 0:46
  Discussed as an agency that needs to be dismantled due to its human rights violations.
  What happened in Gaza was a genocide. We need to say there are no more military sales to Israel. We need to say we need to tear down ICE, not just no masks and body cameras.…
• Medicare for All — Concept · Strategy · 2 mentions · first at 1:11
  Presented as a key policy proposal for the Democratic Party to adopt.
• Marshall Plan for America — Concept · Strategy · 2 mentions · first at 1:19
  Proposed as a comprehensive plan to address economic inequality and rebuild communities.
  Billionaires more. We need to be for Medicare for all. We need to be for $10 a day child care. We need to be for free public college and a thousand trade schools. We need to be…
• Billionaire Tax — Concept · Strategy · 1 mention · first at 11:06
  Advocated as a necessary measure to address income inequality.
• American Dream — Concept · Key argument · 2 mentions · first at 1:26
  Critiqued as a vague concept that politicians use without clear policy backing.
  Schools. We need to be for a Marshall Plan for America. And we need to say things simply which are concrete. I'm sick of politicians saying I'm for the American dream. I'm for…

Places & events

• Silicon Valley — Place · Headquarters · 1 mention · first at 13:23
  Described as a region with significant wealth concentration and economic influence.
• California City Detention Center — Place · Setting · 1 mention · first at 9:18
  Mentioned as a site of immigrant detention and human rights abuses.
  They're brown and they say, Here's my passport. I'm carrying it in the United States of America. I went to the California City Detention Center and I met with these immigrants…
• New York, New York — Place · Setting · 3 mentions · first at 10:50
  Mentioned in the context of political and economic discussions.
  Here's what pisses me off about the billionaires. Like the ones here in New York, you just mentioned Mam Donnie.
• Bucks County — Place · Setting · 1 mention · first at 8:44
  Mentioned as the congressman's birthplace and a place of personal significance.
  Was like mom the Air Force has the passport. It'll be fine. And so to see a country and I grew up in a time in Bucks County where teachers believed in me, little league coaches…

Full transcript with timestamps

0:00 All right, welcome back to IHIP News special episode with Congressman Ro K Connor, our fearless warrior who is advocating for the Epstein survivors, advocating for democracy, but also advocating for a more progressive, more worker friendly, more reach more of the people Democratic Party, ditching corporate donors and having an actual political party that really is of the people, by the people, for the people, not for the corporations.

0:32 We need a new moral vision in this country and for our party. And we need an FDR-like moment for the Democratic Party. And we need to speak simply, plainly, and in truths. We need to say what happened in Gaza was a genocide. We need to say there are no more military sales to uh Israel. We need to say we need to tear down ICE, not just no masks and uh body cameras. that we got to tear down the agency that is terrorizing Americans, terrorizing immigrants, and have a new agency like we had, by the way, since 1940 to 2003 that actually respects human rights. We need to be clearly for taxing billionaires more. We need to be for Medicare for all. We need to be for $10 a day child care. We need to be for free public college and a thousand trade schools. We need to be for a Marshall Plan for America. And we need to say things simply which are concrete. I'm sick of politicians saying I'm for the

1:28 American dream. I'm for renewing the American dream. I'm for standing for human rights. I'm for the American family. I'm for every kid having a shot. I'm for a high floor low ceiling. I don't even know what the what it what does it mean? Where do you stand? And that is the problem with the Democratic party. people, Republicans come up to me and they say, "Look, Ro, I don't agree with half the things you just said, but at least you say what you believe." And you know, one of the only lessons we should learn from Donald Trump is like he's not afraid to say what he thinks.

2:00 Like Donald Trump is out there saying crazy things like, "Let's conquer Greenland." And then we're like poll testing whether we could be for Medicare for all.

2:07 That that is that's what drives me crazy about the Democrats, the crowdsourcing what their opinion is. So, here's where I am and where a lot of my listeners are is we feel like the Democratic leadership is twofold right now. We need democratic leadership and we need ironclad resistance to the fascism and it feels like the leadership is really corporate vested and then there are progressive members of that like yourself and others and then you're seeing the base like myself I was a pretty you know MSNBC liberal voted blue no matter who harm reduction and I've really moved further to the left and that's happening in a vacuum. The polling is starting to fair that out.

2:56 I thought you moved the whole base. That was my my theory. But I I think the the real frustration is that and we have to just name names a little bit. Hakeim Jeff and Chuck Schumer just do not seem equal to this task. We have a crazy psychopath, a of epic proportions who is crazier than a house rat running the country. surrounded by people who will sit and pile effusive praise on him, adn nauseium, bring him trophies, and it seems like it would be the easiest thing on the planet to say no. And what got my attention is like, why do they keep playing patty cake with this guy? Why are we even talking about funding ICE?

3:40 I I agree with Schumer, I've called for him to to step down as as minority leader, and I don't understand why we're even talking about no new funding, right? Like they were saying, "Oh, Ro, you may have to come to vote tomorrow back. I'm rushing back to to DC." And I'm like, "Why are we even talking about no new funding for ICE?" They have $75 billion that was passed in the big ugly bill. We should not fund an additional dime in two weeks, in two months, in two years, not in Donald Trump's presidency until they tear down this agency and they start a new and they start with actually recognizing human rights. and they start with recognizing the human rights of actually Americans and immigrants. Now, I would say in with with Aake, I think there is a progressive energy and majority in the House that allows him to be bolder. I don't think he's going to say an additional dime on uh on funding for

4:35 ICE. Uh he stood his ground on the healthc care fight when Schumer uh caved. He was very helpful in in the Epstein fight in getting a coalition. So I but the difference is that there's a lot of progressive energy in the house. The you've got Greg Kazar, you've got Primila Jeal, you've got Jamie Rask. I mean I I don't want to leave people out, but there there at least 20 people, Delia RmIrez, uh who are really the the the the heart and soul of of the fight. And I I love serving in the House because, you know, you go over to the Senate, it's like no one you you it's a pin drop. Like you can't hear anyone, you can't talk. It's, you know, it's like, you know, and and then it's like being in detention on the house. You know, everyone's screaming, everyone's uh but it's much more the the American people and and the house has the fight.

5:20 The house gets the moment. The house gets that this is not a time uh for just going it along. And people are tired of speeches. You know, I everyone is looking for sort of the charisma and showmanship. I said courage is the new charisma. What people really want is action. Totally. They want principled action. They want actually to get things done to stand up. And what we showed with Epstein is if you're creative and bold, you can do things even if you're in the minority. Like we were in the minority. Exactly.

5:50 Right. And we got Donald Trump to sign the law. We've done Massie and I others. We've tried a lot of things that don't work. We tried war powers resolutions that don't work. But you've got to take shots on goal. You've got to be out there. You've got to be out there on the streets. You've got, you know, I went to Minneapolis after Alex Prey was shot and I stood there with third and fourth generation motans. It's not enough. A lot of these folks, they're well-meaning. They think, okay, you go to Congress, you uh, you know, you vote, you're in a committee. I often joke, they've got all these comm's people in committees. I was like, no one pays attention to what you're doing. Like, no one in the country is like watching these committee hearings. Get out there.

6:28 Be with the people. Be be bold. Take take steps to understand the moment we're in.

6:33 I feel like if we had a different speaker and I've had uh speak not minority leader Jeff on.

6:41 Oh, you have? Yes. He's been on the podcast before and um I understand I think he's goodnatured and wants goodness. I feel like there is what the people want right now and what would just be an electric lightning bolt that would make the turnout for the midterms too big to rig would be just some badass going, "No,

7:02 we're not giving you You're killing Americans. You're uh building buying warehouses to house people, aka concentration camps." That's what this budget, this ICE budget is going to do. They want to put human beings in warehouses and grade people on legal, illegal, uh, brownskinned. And then, of course, I read this article the other day. There's a guy from Ireland that has been in a he called it a concentration camp, his words, who had like a visa issue for four months. And so, when I think about that the MAGA movement, you know, we can say, oh, it's about white supremacy and it's only for rich white men. They wanted to kill Mike Pence. He was a Bible thumper, right? Right-wing Republican, a good soldier. He just wouldn't break the law at the tail end.

7:54 And they and they wanted to kill him for it. I just feel like this moment um I 100% agree with you that Chuckles needs to go. He's not the man of the moment. He's completely compromised by Israel in my opinion. And he that is his first and foremost action as a senator. No, he's bragged about it getting them support when you've got a genocide going on. And it's not me saying it's a genocide. That's what the UN finding is

8:20 genocide scholars. Yeah, that's what the scholars say. And you're then bragging about getting them more funding. But I I think we can get the house to a point of no new funding in the stand. I mean, for me, it's personal. I'm uh you know, as a son of immigrants. My my grandfather was in jail for four years uh as part of Gandhi's independence movement in the 1940s uh 1930s 1940s. I'm of Hindu faith. I grew up I was born in Philadelphia Bucks County. To this day when I go on overseas trips even though if I'm going in the Air Force uh planes my mom says don't lose your passport. I was like mom the Air Force has the passport. It'll be fine. And so to see a country and I grew up in a time in Bucks County where teachers believed in me, little league coaches believed in me. I was never told you can't do what you want just because you're a son of immigrants or have a different faith or look different. And now I go places and

9:12 people are in lines and they they they're brown and they say, "Here's my passport. I'm carrying it in the United States of America." I went to the California City Detention Center and I met with these immigrants who were detained. By the way, they put me in a room with 47 people and the prison warden left. So they're obviously not a security risk. They wouldn't do that if they were murderers or rapists. And one person talked about a shown me his broken nose, no medical care. Someone talked about having blood in his urine.

9:40 Can you get me a doctor's appointment? They can't get a doctor's appointment. People wanted to be voluntarily deported. They were that sort of sort of uh mistreated and they couldn't get voluntarily deported because there's no judge. It's all backlog because Steven Miller has a quota of two to three,000. Let's just fill these places and they're private detention centers so they don't want to spend the money on the food or the medical care or getting the legal processing. This is happening in the United States of America. And what the American people want to say, not just kids of immigrants. What third, fourth, fifth generation Americans want to see is a Democratic party that says that's not America. That is we are going to stand up against that because it's a violation of our faith. It's a violation of human dignity. It's a violation of the Constitution. And people want strength and they mistake, our party

10:34 mistakes strength. Oh, let's just get the the guy with the military uniform or law enforcement. No, strength comes from conviction. That's how Gandhi led. That's how Mandela led. That's why that's how why Bernie leads. Strength comes from moral conviction and standing on a moral ground. That's why Mandani was so powerful in what he did in New York. People knew he believed what he was saying. And I just think if we had that kind of leadership, we would we would have a sweeping majority. We'd have realignment in this country

11:02 for decades. I think for decades we would have it like in like you mentioned earlier in FDR style. Rain, let's talk about the billionaire tax. I read an article on the way here that state legislators, Democrats in states were drafting bills to tax billionaires and they're running into a problem. The governors, the Democratic governors. So, these state legislators are now having to battle their Democratic governors. Here's what pisses me off about the billionaires. Like the ones here in New York, you just mentioned Mam Donnie.

11:35 They spent more money trying to run a ads against him, Islamophobic ads against him to terrorize everybody than I think they would pay in billionaire taxes. You know, like these guys are so entitled that they're willing to buy JD Vance and spend all of this money but cannot give it to the country that has a system that has made this them this way. So, there's two things. Number one, it's easy to villainize Jeff Bezos. It's easy to villainize Oh god, it's so easy to villainize Elon Musk or Peter Teal. But it's the system,

12:10 right? the system that we're seeing right now, these governors in your home state, Nuome, put up a wall and advocate for billionaires, and they keep propagandizing us that, oh, this is going to be bad for business. And

12:25 I think it's such a leadership failure and not reading the room right now, this eat the rich French Revolution moment that the rest of us are kind of living in right now, right? to not be able to stand up to the billionaires and say, "No, we all need to chip in here. This is not sustainable. He's tearing down the DOJ. How are you going to take your contracts into court and have an economy if he tears down the DOJ? We're going to go straight the way of Russia." And it feels like there's no moral clarity within upper echelons of the Democratic party against billionaires and wealth tax.

13:00 Yeah. And you know, Newsman doesn't want to offend the donor base, but here's what they're missing. The younger progressives, they say to me when I talk about attacks on billionaires and 1% a year or 2% a year, they say, "Ro, I don't think they realize you're being nice. You're, you know, wait till we get into power." Like the reality, look, let's look at some just basic economic facts in this country. I represent a district in Silicon Valley that is a third of the national wealth. A third of the stock market is in my 50 mile radius. Apple, Google Nvidia Tesla Broadcom $18 trillion of wealth. The entire national stock market is 70 trillion. Income inequality in this country is at the highest it's been in 60 years. The worker share of income in this country is the lowest it's been in 75 years.

13:50 Young people, even with college graduates, are having a hard time getting a job because AI is eliminating some of those entry-level jobs. And then you've had the tariffs and you've had a slowing economy. And in all of this, you have billionaires in California having increased their wealth in the last 3 years 158%. 158%. And what we're saying is we're we want some percent a year. Now you could de do the details, okay? Don't tax voting shares, etc. But the broader point is we need everyone to have a stake in America. And you can't have a society, you can't have a nation half prosperous and half in decline. 70% of Americans don't believe in the American dream. And if we're gonna have a Democratic party that just says, "Okay, we're gonna stop Trump's craziness and we're gonna get back in there and we're do going to do business as usual and yeah, we won't have the ICE raids and we won't uh do dump tariffs and we're not

14:53 going to insult Mark Carney, but we're just going to allow the income inequality to continue, especially with AI, then you're going to have someone like Nick Fuentes come in 2032. We need to get in there and we need to tackle the fundamental economic divide that has ripped this country apart that has fueled such an anger at the elites uh at globalization at the demographic change and we need to say our highest mission is going to be the economic independence and security for people who haven't had a fair shot and that that to me I call it a new economic patriotism that to me should be our philosophy with a new moral vision And I I really believe we have a shot to to if we just looked at the energy that instead of dismissing them, Donnie, and others, if we looked at the energy these young people have, we have it much easier than President Obama was a a genius in terms of his oratory and all. He was going uphill in

15:49 2008. It was like, who is this guy there? There weren't armies there. Now we've got the armies, but we've got our own party fighting the armies. Yes. Mobilize the armies. Lead the armies. You've got the armies there. Let me ask you this. Do you think this corporate democratic centrist govern incrementally the way that the Democrats have been doing it the way that the corporate Dems and leadership want to do it now? Do you think that incubates an electorate that's primed to vote for authoritarianism or fascism?

16:22 I think it does because I think it makes people apathetic. I think people say, "Well, yeah, my life didn't change. I I I still have health care costs. I still have Medicare costs. The wealthy keep getting wealthier. What changed in my life? And so then someone like Demagogue comes in and says, "Well, I'm going to tear this whole system down because the system's not working." And they're like, "Yeah, how much worse can it get?" Well, it can get a lot worse. We're seeing you can have ICE raids. You can have uh social unrest. It obviously can get worse. But then we just promise them, okay, we'll undo the damage. Let's return to normaly. No, let's recognize that the that Donald Trump fundamentally was a s symptom of a broken broken system that we are living in something worse than the guilded age that we've got people who don't have healthcare. I mean, the the famous actor from Dawson's Creek who who couldn't afford cancer

17:12 treatment. So now his wife is has a GoFundMe page to keep her home because and and we're producing more wealth than ever before and we can't give everyone health care that a beloved actor can't afford it in this country. What hope is there for a firefighter or a nurse if they get cancer? So people want a clear direction and then they say, "Okay, Ro, but why not be pragmatic? Even if we win and if we don't have 60s votes in the Senate, then how are you going to get things done? How about we start with what our north star is? How about we start with what the society we want to see is and we fight like anything to get there? If I had started out with the attitude, well, we can't get the Epstein files released, row, how are we going to get it the president to sign it? How are we going to get the Senate to pass it?

17:57 How are you ever going to get the speaker to bring it up? I wouldn't have started in the first place. Now, have we gotten the whole files released? No. But you when you fight, when you make it a tenacious goal and when you have a northstar, you get progress and that's where the Democratic party needs to be. And I I think we would inspire people if we had that.

18:15 I completely agree. Do you think your centrist Democratic colleagues in the House understand the shift in the electorate, the shift in the blue and independent voters? Have in my opinion have really shifted away from corporate politics. Like a lot of people had no idea what Apac was a year, two years ago. I'm one of those people. I had no idea what

18:40 they're spending against me too. They're not happy. So now you have organizations like track Apac and I have these friends in Oklahoma City that never been that political before like we're not voting for a politician that takes Apac. The electorate is getting savvier. They're getting they're off the corporate media tit. They're on to uh the independent media getting facts. Do your colleagues understand this shift in the American electorate because it is everywhere. I don't think they fully get it yet. It's slowly I mean but what you have done and what you're describing I think is very important because it used to be I think in Trump's first term that there were a lot of resist liberals who said okay who's a who's going to put up the fight against Trump and who's not and there were people on the kind of centrist lane who said as long as we fight against Trump as long as we show that we've got the fight we're taking

19:36 him on it doesn't really matter if we don't say genocide it doesn't really matter if we don't text billionaires it doesn't really matter if we have national health insurance. So, we don't have to take on these powerful interests. Why upset the billionaires? Why upset Apac? Why upset the private health insurance companies? Let's just win the vote by showing that we have got spine and are going after Trump. And I don't think that strategy works anymore because a lot of the resist liberals have also understood that to really defeat Trumpism, we have to change our society. that some of the anger that Trump voters had was anger at a broken system. And if that system stays broken, you're going to continue to have uglier and uglier populism. And you know, my anger is not with people who voted with Trump. My anger is that Trump sold him a bill of goods and manipulated their legitimate anger. And my anger is with

20:31 our party not recognizing for decades what we did. I mean, hollowed out towns, rural communities. You go through, I'm sure you have, to places in uh in in Ohio, in Pennsylvania where I grew up. Okay. Steel left, aluminum left. What did we do? What when a kid growing up in my district, the world's their oyster? What's happening to kids in Johnstown, Pennsylvania and Warren, Ohio? And you're telling me, well, we can't get traditional manufacturing back. Yeah, we can have new industries, but what did we do there? Did we create childcare jobs?

21:02 Did we create elder care jobs? Did we create tech jobs? Did we did we have any plan for a Marshall plan for America? So, you're there and your life is worse off for for gener for your kids and you're sitting there saying, "Why shouldn't I vote for someone new who's going to tear it down?" And then Trump has combined this with race. Well, your life used to be better before Rose's parents got here. His nostalgia, his economic nostalgia is combined with the racial nostalgia. until we fix the economics, we're not going to build the kind of multi-racial democracy that I believe is our country's destiny.

21:37 And I think I agree with you everything you say. I also think the Democrats need to develop a 50-state strategy. I think uh Democratic representatives like yourself and others should go to states that aren't in your district.

21:51 Yeah. And let me tell you what happens in like super MAGA, supermajority states like Oklahoma. you have only one party rule and so then they start out crazing each other.

22:02 So you literally have like we were MAGA before MAGA ever came down the escalator, before Trump ever descended. So you have no mediating voice anywhere and so the electorate gets so confused and um involved in this kind of propaganda psychosis and if they were to hear Democrats come and say, "Look, I'm a Democrat. I am not a Satanist." because that's what they think.

22:28 And uh I think that the Democrats are going to have to invest in all 50 states and they might lose an election or cycle or two locally in Oklahoma or places, but it wasn't that long ago. Oklahoma had a Democratic governor in the 2000s. We were ranked

22:43 David Borne, right? No. Um uh Kylie, what was his name? Brad Henry. And um in the like 2009, Oklahoma's ranked 17th in education. Now we're 50th

22:56 because they cut the funds. Republican supermajority. They have the House, they have the Senate, they have the Supreme Court, they have the governorship. And this is my whole thing with all of the MAGA bedweters right now that are, you know, wound up about Bad Bunny. You have everything you wanted. You've got Trump. You've got a submissive little pipsqueak speaker of the house that will say, "Yes, sir. You want me to jump? How high?" Right? You've got the Senate. You've even got the Senate minority leader that writes strongly worded letters and you're still mad. Yeah.

23:27 You're still upset. Why are you upset? Because the system sucks. Because everybody's lied to you. Republicans have lied to you and Democrats have lied to you.

23:35 Exactly. And that type of messaging, you know, people can say, "Oh, they're liberal or they're progressive or they're leftist." And it's just it goes back to your northstar conviction. having conviction like we only have this one life and this is our country and are we really really going to give it up for this old queen Donald Trump I mean that's just this cannot be the end

23:56 and we've had so much sacrifice right I mean yes the sacrifice of people in World War II and on the Edund Pettis Bridge and in the Civil War and you know I fundamentally because of my life story I people when I was in law school I was with worked for Kathleen Kennedy Towns and the daughter of Robert Kennedy and one of the staffers said you really these great ideas and conviction but you know as an Indian-American of Hindu faith you'll never get elected so go work on this hill sometime and I found this country to be amazing I found that at any step where people said it's not possible you know the country is fundamentally decent and fair and I have spent since I got to Congress I was going to factory towns rural towns for 10 years to places like Johnstown to places like Warren to places like Paysville in Kentucky I was going on podcasts of people like Shan Ryan and Flagrant and conservative podcast. And

24:49 my belief is if we're out there and we don't lie about what we believe. I don't go there and say, "Oh, I'm not for immigrant rights or I'm not for ground." You know, I don't seed ground. But I say, "Look, here's what we really I understand the economic future. Let's talk about what's actually going to get your kids jobs in the 21st century. Let's talk about why the elite class betrayed so many communities. Let's talk about how we build a new national purpose." and you go there with respect and you go there with a vision and you go there with conviction, I believe most Americans, even if they don't vote for you, will say, "Yeah, okay. I see where he's coming from." And I think we we need a belief in this country, a goodness of this country, decency of this country, which I have because of my life experience. And then we need to have a conviction. And by the way, if it doesn't work, you know, so what's the

25:37 end of the deal? You you won't be in Congress. You you'll do something else. But that's how we make progress. That's how we move the country forward. You the only thing that I will say the survivors made Epstein happen. The only thing I think Massie and I had was a willingness to lose, a willingness to take risk. And I think anyone who wants to lead this party, whe in the house, in the leadership, in any place needs to say, "What are the things I'm willing to lose for? What are the things I'm willing to believe?" Mani started like 1%. You think he thought he was going to be mayor? No. Here's what he believes. And let it be out there. And if it's not you your time, fine. You've made a contribution to the country. I I really think that would solve so much of this this risk aversion of the Democratic party where people don't feel like we stand for something.

26:25 I completely agree. I want to thank you so much. And you have to get back to DC to keep fighting fascism.

26:31 Tell Hakee we want him to be a little tougher. I got it. We need it. We Well, you're an important voice. I you're such an important voice that in the week of Epste probably my busiest week of my 10-year career in Congress, I flew in this this morning and I'm flying back because what you're doing really matters. So, I appreciate it.

26:48 Thank you. Thank you so much. All right. We'll see you later, listener.

Questions about this episode

Who speaks in "IHIP News: 🚨 Dem SLAMS FAILED Party Leadership, DEMANDS Chuck Schumer RESIGN Immediately!"?

Ro K Connor (Host).

What is "IHIP News: 🚨 Dem SLAMS FAILED Party Leadership, DEMANDS Chuck Schumer RESIGN Immediately!" about?

Congressman Ro K Connor criticizes the current leadership of the Democratic Party, calling for a transformation towards a more progressive, worker-oriented platform that prioritizes the needs of everyday Americans over corporate interests. He advocates for bold policies, including ending military sales to Israel, reforming immigration enforcement, increasing taxes on billionaires, and expanding…

What is mentioned in this I've Had It episode?

17 people, works and ideas are mentioned, including Democratic Party, Captain America, Donald Trump, Chuck Schumer, Ice King, Hakeem Jeffries. Each one on this page links to its own page with every episode that mentions it.

How long is "IHIP News: 🚨 Dem SLAMS FAILED Party Leadership, DEMANDS Chuck Schumer RESIGN Immediately!"?

The episode runs 27 min; the transcript is about 5,049 words in 49 timestamped sections.

More from I've Had It

• All analyzed episodes
• Books mentioned on I've Had It
• People mentioned on I've Had It
• Sponsors mentioned on I've Had It
• Topics mentioned on I've Had It