CSPAN - DNC & MSNBC Host Democratic Party Chair Forum

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Feb. 1, 2025 04:30-06:11 - CSPAN

01:40:49

DNC & MSNBC Host Democratic Party Chair Forum

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jen psaki

msnow 10:33

ken martin

d 09:17

marianne williamson

08:38

symone sanders-townsend

msnow 12:02

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jonathan capehart

msnow 04:58

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Speaker	Time	Text
Next DNC Chair? 00:15:08
unidentified		At 7 Eastern this morning on C-SPAN. C-SPAN Now or online at c-SPAN.org.
		On Capitol Hill, the Senate returns Monday at 3 p.m. Eastern to continue debate on President Trump's cabinet nominations.
		Senators will vote to confirm Christopher Wright to be Energy Secretary, as well as to advance the nominations of Pam Bondi to be Attorney General and Russell Vogt as White House Budget Director.
		The House gavels in Tuesday at noon Eastern.
		Later in the week, members will consider legislation to permanently classify fentanyl-related substances as Schedule I drugs that have the strongest controls and penalties.
		Watch live coverage of the House on C-SPAN, the Senate on C-SPAN 2.
		And all of our congressional coverage is available on our free video app, C-SPANNOW and online at c-SPAN.org.
		Thursday morning, President Trump joins lawmakers on Capitol Hill for the annual National Prayer Breakfast.
		Live coverage begins at 8 a.m. Eastern on C-SPAN 2, C-SPAN Now, our free mobile app, and online at c-SPAN.org.
		The Democratic National Committee meets Saturday to elect a new leader.
		Watch live coverage of the meeting starting at 10 a.m. Eastern here on C-SPAN on our free video app, C-SPANNOW, or online at c-SPAN.org.
		Up next, we'll show a debate between the candidates vying to be the next chair of the DNC.
		This was co-hosted by the committee, as well as MSNBC and the Georgetown Institute of Politics and Public Service.
jen psaki ▲ ● ▼		Okay.
		All right, everyone, we're ready to get started.
		Exciting.
		I love the enthusiasm.
		First, I just wanted to welcome everybody in the audience, everybody watching at home.
		I want to thank Georgetown University and Mo and the community for having us all here today.
		I also want to thank all the candidates because you've all put yourself out there.
		I know you all have differences on some things, which we're going to dive into tonight, but you all want to make the Democratic Party stronger.
		So I want to thank you all for that.
		We're going to dive into opening statements in just a moment, but just for the benefit of all the candidates, everybody watching at home, everybody in the audience, I'm going to go through the rules of this evening.
		Bear with me.
		It's important for everybody to know.
		Okay, first of all, in order to participate today and to qualify for the February 1st ballot, candidates must have submitted 40 verified DNC member signatures by Saturday, January 25th at 8 p.m. Eastern.
		Obviously, they have all done that.
		Officers for the DNC will be elected by a majority vote of DNC members during the DNC winter meeting, which takes place from January 30th today through February 1st.
		The chair's race is on Saturday, as everybody here and here is probably already knows.
		This forum is going to take place over the course of 90 minutes, beginning with 30-second opening statements from each candidate and concluding with 30-second closing remarks.
		The order of the opening statements was done by random drawing preceding the forum, and closing statements will occur in reverse order.
		We, the three of us, moderators, have been given exclusive control of the questions and the flow of discussion.
		Neither the DNC nor any of the candidates have previewed these questions.
		During the audience portion of the questioning, the DNC members from the eastern region will be the priorities, but there will also be questions, could be questions from other DNC members from other regions, and we may be asking some of the questions as well from people who are not in attendance today.
		Candidates may not receive the same questions throughout the forum, but they will be afforded roughly the same amount of speaking time.
		That is our shared objective up here.
		Candidates will not be afforded time to respond to other candidates unless so directed.
		We may ask follow-up questions, and if we do, we will provide a time limit for those follow-up questions as well.
		Candidates will have 90 seconds to respond to each question asked.
		There's a timer available for all of the candidates.
		Once a candidate's time has elapsed, we will inform the candidate and their microphone may be muted if needed.
		We hope we don't get there.
		Crosstalk is not permitted during this forum.
		And finally, candidates are not permitted to use earpieces, cell phones, messaging services, or other electric applications or devices during the forum, though they may have written notes.
		That concludes the rules.
		So everybody knows.
		Jonathan, why don't you kick off the opening statements?
jonathan capehart ▲ ● ▼		All right.
		Thank you very much, Jen, and we'll begin with the opening statements.
		Each candidate will have 30 seconds, and we'll start with Dr. Quintessa Hathaway.
unidentified		Good evening, everyone.
		It is my desire to be the next DNC chair.
		And I just want to give you all a little bit of something that's been on my heart here over the last couple days.
		You fight on, you fight all.
		You fight on, you fight all.
		When your government is doing you wrong, you fight on go, you fight all.
jonathan capehart ▲ ● ▼		Thank you.
		Thank you, Dr. Hathaway.
		Next up, Faz Shakir.
unidentified		I'm not going to follow that.
		I jumped into this race late because I didn't felt like the ideas were not meeting the moment.
		And at this moment, the DNC needs to be on a war footing.
		Donald Trump campaigned as a populist.
		He's governing like an oligarch, doling out special favors to billionaires who want to kiss his ring.
		The working class is looking for a political home.
		If we are smart, if we reject billionaire influence, take on corporate power, stand with striking and organizing workers, build our strong media channels, we will rise again.
		We'll be a people-powered DNC.
jonathan capehart ▲ ● ▼		Thank you very much, Mrs. Shakir.
jonathan capehart ▲ ● ▼		Ben Wickler.
unidentified		As we grieve the horrible crash yesterday, as we reel with shock at the horrors that Trump is visiting on communities across this country, we need a DNC and a DNC chair who's ready to bring the intensity, the focus, and the fury to fight back in this moment when our country is reeling and waiting for leadership.
		I've done this in Wisconsin, a state rigged to be read.
		I've done this in the fight against the repeal of the Affordable Care Act.
		If I'm the DNC chair, we will meet this moment now with the fight it requires.
jonathan capehart ▲ ● ▼		Thank you, Mr. Wickler.
jonathan capehart ▲ ● ▼		Okay, thank you.
unidentified		Ken Martin.
ken martin ▲ ● ▼		Thank you so much.
		First, let me just say to Gina Reepass and, of course, all of the folks in Kansas, look, this was really tragic yesterday, what we saw happen, right?
		But it shouldn't surprise any of us, of course, that the president today decided to inject politics into that, saying, of course, this was the fault of President Biden, President Obama, the air traffic controllers, and DEI of all things.
		If we don't understand right now what this fight is about, we have to bring this fight to the American people and stand up and call this for what it is.
		It's chaos, and it deserves a party that's going to fight.
jonathan capehart ▲ ● ▼		Thank you, Mr. Martin.
		Okay.
		Jason Paul.
unidentified		My name is Jason Paul.
		Why am I here?
		Because over 20 years, I've dedicated my life to working in Democratic politics.
		And my main takeaway over that time is that how we do things just isn't working.
		I feel like those of us in the audience and in the watching know that it isn't working.
		What we need is to reach is to fix it.
		It's going to require that we reach for the moon.
		I've had plans to do that, but what we all do together is how we get to the moon.
jonathan capehart ▲ ● ▼		Thank you very much, Mr. Paul.
jonathan capehart ▲ ● ▼		Mary Ann Williamson.
marianne williamson ▲ ● ▼		Thank you.
		It is difficult for the minds to absorb the enormity of this moment.
		Fascism is literally in the House.
		We have a very sobering mission, and it is one that tens of millions of Americans are hoping that we get right.
		And we will get it right by transforming the Democratic Party.
		We will become as audacious with our vision for this country as the Republicans are audacious with theirs.
		And we will do it by being exciting, by being motivating, and inspiring and amazing.
		And if I'm chair, I promise you we will.
jonathan capehart ▲ ● ▼		Thank you, Ms. Williamson.
jonathan capehart ▲ ● ▼		Martin O'Malley.
unidentified		This is a moment of profound crisis in our country.
		The sort of crisis we have never seen before.
		This is therefore not a normal DNC election.
		This election calls out for change, cries out for new leadership to meet this moment.
		The choice for all of us as Democrats is do we have the courage to embrace change and rise to this moment?
		I believe we do, and that is why I'm running for chair of the DNC.
symone sanders-townsend ▲ ● ▼		Thank you.
jonathan capehart ▲ ● ▼		Thank you very much, Mr. O'Malley.
jonathan capehart ▲ ● ▼		And Nate Snyder.
unidentified		I believe we need leadership that's ready for a crisis, and I believe I'm that leader.
		As we mourn this tremendous loss of life, we have a president who is spewing fear, who is spewing lies into an extremist narrative of hate.
		And I think the largest and biggest threat that we have to national security is the Republican Party.
		We need to push back with everything we got, and my intention is to disrupt, dismantle this propaganda lie machine.
		I hope I can get your vote.
jonathan capehart ▲ ● ▼		Thank you very much, Mr. Snyder.
symone sanders-townsend ▲ ● ▼		Simone I'm gonna kick off our make sure my mic is on you You got me.
		I'm going to kick off our questioning tonight.
		I'm going to kick off our questioning tonight.
		And I will just have you know, we are going to ask the questions from this stage.
		There will be a moment where we will take questions from the audience.
		But I would ask.
		Thank you so much.
		We are, I appreciate, we appreciate your enthusiasm.
		We are going to ask the questions from this stage.
		We'll ask that you please take a seat.
		We'll ask that you please take a seat.
unidentified		This is a question we're going to ask.
symone sanders-townsend ▲ ● ▼		All right, we're going to ask that question.
		We understand.
		We understand that there are many issues that people are very passionate about, and we are going to endeavor to get to all of those tonight.
		I will note that candidates will have 90 seconds to answer each question.
		And again, we won't ask everyone the same question.
		I want to start with something you all touched on, because since taking the oath of office, President Trump has unleashed a flood of executive orders, like just a couple.
		He's attempted to end birthright citizenship.
		He's attempted to eliminate DEI programs, although I'm unsure what DEI stands for.
		He has frozen congressionally appropriated aid.
		He has pardoned 1,500 January 6th defendants.
		today he took to the White House press briefing room to speak disparagingly during a tragedy.
		I'm going to start with show of hands question.
		Who thinks that the Democratic Party, the Democrats, have responded sufficiently to Donald Trump's first almost 11 to 10 days in office?
		Show of hands.
		Who thinks the Democrats have responded sufficiently?
		No one's hand went up.
		Ms. Williamson, why didn't you raise your hand?
marianne williamson ▲ ● ▼		Well, the Democratic Party as a whole did not respond at all.
		A profound dereliction of political responsibility.
		In terms of specific Democrats, whether it has to do with J.B. Pritzker, Governor Walls has been great, Jasmine Crockett's been great.
		There have been some wonderful statements.
		Chris Murphy out of Connecticut has been great, but there's no cohesive message.
		And that's what the Democratic National Committee needs to be.
		We have some golden threads, but we need to build the loom.
		And that's what I would do as chair is to collate and curate all these really quite extraordinary voices that we have in the Democratic Party, but to create a communication system so that every day we know what are the best things that are being said by Democratic leaders throughout the country, make sure that these things are pushed out to candidates, make sure that we ourselves are pushing them out on media.
		Right now, what has happened has only increased the decline in the sense that the Democrats don't know what they're doing.
		I feel actually, no matter which of us gets there, that will end next week.
		We will hit the ground running.
		We will have a new playbook, and we will make sure that from this point forward, for me, it has to do with a DNC policy institute.
		We will have the best thinkers, the best leaders, and also we need a whole new paradigm of the way the chair and the DNC itself talks to the caucuses, talks to the councils.
		We have extraordinary talent in the DNC, in the membership of the DNC.
		But people do not ask their opinions.
		Their expertise is not used.
		Their skills are not exploited.
		And if I am chair of the DNC, all that stops.
		We're going to be exciting.
		We're going to have within ourselves the level of depth and relationship that leads to the NCC.
symone sanders-townsend ▲ ● ▼		Thank you, Ms. Williamson.
		Mr. Shakir, you didn't raise your hand either.
		I would ask along those lines then, if you're elected the DNC chair, what immediate steps would you take specifics to respond to the current environment beyond fundraising and listening sessions?
unidentified		When you think about the DNC's power and authority, oftentimes in these moments of crisis, people are looking for a leader.
		And the tools that they're available, Chair Harrison and others have used, is there's a DNC studio, there are networks of state parties, there is a research department who all need to be mobilized to disseminate facts and information in real time.
		Part of the concern that a lot of people have is the pace of information is not coming fast enough.
		Did you wake up this morning with the fire in your belly to hear and see this first?
		Are you the first person to tell us this?
		Then when we go to our states, our wonderful state parties, we utilize them.
		We say, hey, we need some actions.
		If he is freezing Medicaid, right?
		We need to identify Medicaid recipients.
		They are working at Walmart.
		They're working at McDonald's.
		Why these billionaire corporations are putting them on Medicaid is a different issue.
		But we identify them.
		They say, we fight with you.
		We're going to ask you to fight your state legislatures, identify points of action to fight in the states, fight your federal representatives, take down Russ Vogt, Trump's OMB director, give them tangible actions.
Master Narrative in Legislation 00:01:38
unidentified		Draw people in to tell them what they do.
		That's what they're looking for.
		Give them a plan of attack quickly.
		And I think as DNC chair, I have the capacity, I have the track record, and I think the confidence of a lot of Democrats that they would follow a direction if I said it for them.
symone sanders-townsend ▲ ● ▼		Thank you.
symone sanders-townsend ▲ ● ▼		Mr. Seider, same question.
unidentified		Well, I think, I mean, before we get to any of this, I think we need to really look at what we're facing here.
		So spending years and years at Department of Homeland Security fighting domestic terrorism and violent extremists, I think we need to come to reckoning that the president is forwarding something called a narrative that's based on a white supremacist narrative called the Great Replacement Theory.
		That's his master narrative that's feeding into everything.
		It's language in the EOs.
		It's a language in his legislation.
		It's a language in the attacks that we heard today attacking DEIA and especially the disability community as well.
		This is all put out to a specific plan.
		We don't as Democrats have a master narrative yet into where we can push back.
		Yes, it includes defending the rights and civil liberties of working families and working people.
		Yes, it stands for supporting all these communities that are being attacked.
		To get into sort of the specifics of what I would do, one of the things really has to do with the spread of mis and disinformation, as I mentioned.
Fundraising Solicitations Dominating Dialogue 00:08:08
unidentified		We lack the capability to detect, to thwart, to disrupt, and share information with our state parties, our allies, our territories on what that information is.
		It is a current blind spot, and until we know what that landscape looks like, then we are going to be shooting in the dark.
		So what I would do is I would first build that capability.
		It'd be an analytics center, and I would partner with organizations like the Center for Internet Security.
		And that way, once we know the landscape, then we can start punching back and really fighting.
symone sanders-townsend ▲ ● ▼		Thank you.
		I want to take a look back to the last election cycle.
		You do not pardon me.
		Thank you all so much.
		We appreciate, can I just note, can I note we appreciate your enthusiasm and we have a number of questions we'd like to get to.
		If you would please take a seat, ma'am.
		If you're willing to stay silent, we would love to have you stay.
		But we have a number of questions that we're going to ask.
		And please, you all don't know what we're asking.
		No one has seen our questions on this stage.
		Give us an opportunity to get the questions from these candidates and the answers that we all know you want.
		I see my Sunrise family over here.
		Give us an opportunity to ask the questions, please.
		Thank you.
		As I was saying.
		We are going to take a look back, to look forward.
		And Mr. Wickler, I want to start with you, because when President Biden stepped down this summer, it was a month before the convention.
		It was weeks before the first certification deadlines in Ohio.
		The Democratic National Committee specifically faced an unprecedented scenario.
		There were many people that had thoughts.
		Some folks called for a new primary.
		Others wanted to ignore the Ohio deadline and take a contest to the convention floor.
		There were, as everyone knows here, other ideas.
		My question to you is, what would you have done if you were the chair?
unidentified		We had a process to choose our nominee, and that is for the delegates to the Democratic National Convention chosen through elections in all of our states to be able to vote.
		And I remember that moment when the call came through.
		I was sitting on my back porch.
		I was on a phone call, and then I got the alert that President Biden had decided to end his campaign and then to pass the torch.
		I put my phone down, I took a deep breath, and then we called a Zoom call of our delegates to the DNC.
		What I found in that moment was what I think state chairs across the country found, which is that the people chosen to choose the nominee through a process that we built moved with lightning speed.
		There was a vote.
		We voted for Kamala Harris to be our nominee.
		And we're proud of that vote.
symone sanders-townsend ▲ ● ▼		Thank you, Mr. Wickler.
		Dr. Hathaway, I'm going to ask the same question to you.
		Would you have done anything differently?
		I'm sorry to interrupt.
		No, I'm sorry.
		Everyone, please.
		We cannot.
		I am going to.
		I am going to ask if the audience would please give us an opportunity to ask the questions.
		And if you are not going to give us an opportunity to ask the questions, we are going to simply ask you to leave.
		We will not be able to get through this evening.
		We will not be able to get through this evening if you all continue to interrupt.
unidentified		Our planet is running out of time.
unidentified		Our planet is running out of time to yell.
symone sanders-townsend ▲ ● ▼		And we are running out of time in this forum.
		Again, I would ask, if anyone else feels the need to disrupt, please stand up and do it right now.
		I want to give you your opportunity.
		I want to give you your opportunity.
		Do it right now.
		That being said, I hope we don't see any more disruptions.
		I'm so sorry, Dr. Hathaway.
		Please answer the question.
unidentified		Can everyone hear me?
		Thank you, Mr. Faez.
		The youth of this nation are crying for their voices to be heard.
		I'm sorry for the disruption.
		I'm going to apologize on their behalf.
		But when I tell you a youth movement must rise up here in the United States of America that's equivalent in voting power, we're going to have to get this country registered to vote.
		10 million new voter registrants, youth mobilization, social activation, mass voter turnout, citizenship education.
		That is what it's going to take in order for a serious, intentional, methodical, strategic revolution to happen in this country for us as Democrats to win races up and down and all around the ballot in this country.
		No longer can any voice be silent when it comes to issues and matters of the heart, our humanity, the vibrancy, and lifelong longevity of our party.
		We've got to make some serious intentional changes, people.
		So when I hear the children, I'm telling you all I'm going to be responsive to their needs as well as everyone across every economic spectrum, everyone against every type of background.
		That is the leader I seek to be for the DNC.
symone sanders-townsend ▲ ● ▼		Thank you, Dr. Hathaway.
		Mr. Paul, you have also been critical of the way in which I think the party has been running.
		You've talked about the need to do things differently.
		I would ask, what specifics would you like to put on the table?
		Obviously, the climate issue, the climate crisis that our country is facing is something that not just the people who have stood up in this room care about, but I think many Democrats in this room and frankly people across the country regardless of who they voted for in the last election.
		What specifics would you do to respond to the real concerns that young people specifically have about the party not meeting the moment?
unidentified		Well, I would start by saying I signed climate the pledge that they wanted me to sign.
unidentified		So it's a little surprising.
symone sanders-townsend ▲ ● ▼		I don't know what is the pledge for people to do.
unidentified		So the Sunrise asked the candidates on the stage to ban the corporation donations, which Obama had a ban on, not be involved in, discourage people, I think it was discourage people from being involved in primaries and keep billionaires from spending money in Democratic primaries.
		And there were sort of three action items.
		I signed it.
		I believe Marion Williamson also signed it.
		Not to criticize anyone who didn't, but I think it's a little odd when people on the stage agree with you that you then yell at them, even if when people agree with, you know, it would be nice if you said these people agree with us, so maybe that's a good direction.
		In terms of specifics, I want 10,000 organizers.
		People talk a huge amount about how we're going to sort of communicate, but the number one communication that anyone gets from the Democratic Party is a fundraising solicitation or a near fundraising solicitation, sign a petition, and then it's just a fundraising solicitation.
		If you want to do real work to beat Robert Kennedy from getting confirmed, which I absolutely do, that's really hard to do when people are flooding the zone with scammy asks.
		I know it's not a very big issue in the grand scheme of the climate, but if we can't talk to each other, then we can't solve anything.
		And we can't talk to each other because of this.
symone sanders-townsend ▲ ● ▼		Thank you.
		I want to ask specifically about something that came up.
		I want to ask, we're going to continue to go forward.
		I want to ask specifically about something that came up during the election.
Excuse Us Climate 00:02:52
symone sanders-townsend ▲ ● ▼		And I will direct this question to you, Governor O'Malley, and to you, Mr. Martin.
		We're going to continue to go forward.
		About one-third of Donald Trump's advertising, campaign advertising in October of 2004.
		Pardon me.
unidentified		We'll wait a second. Thank you.
symone sanders-townsend ▲ ● ▼		So we're going to continue to, we're going to continue on.
		Again, about one-third of the Trump campaign advertising in October of 2024 was dedicated to, and I'm going to use quotes here, gender-changing surgeries for a small number of trans incarcerated and undocumented immigrants.
		These particular...
unidentified		This is the Green Romans again.
		Well, teachers, we don't hate to get a counterpart.
		We've sculpted up.
		We knock on doors and we get betrayed by establishing honesty.
symone sanders-townsend ▲ ● ▼		I think it's important to say here, I think it's important to say here, we respect people's opinions.
symone sanders-townsend ▲ ● ▼		And it is definitely understandable that there is a lot of passion in this moment because the issues in this moment is so the stakes are hot.
jonathan capehart ▲ ● ▼		The stakes are high and the issues are very important.
jonathan capehart ▲ ● ▼		And look, I can understand why people want to jump up and yell out their questions to these people who hope to lead the party.
symone sanders-townsend ▲ ● ▼		I just, I come back quick.
unidentified		Hey, you, your breasts.
symone sanders-townsend ▲ ● ▼		Okay, hello.
		Let's get to the climate emergency.
		Let's get to the climate emergency.
		Jinsaki, excuse me, excuse me.
		We're going to address, we're going to skip ahead.
		Jinsaki's going to ask about the climate.
		We're going to go to climate.
		Let's go.
unidentified		We'd like to ask some of these questions on your business.
jen psaki ▲ ● ▼		Give us a moment.
unidentified		Thank you.
jen psaki ▲ ● ▼		Okay.
		Thank you all for your thank you all so much.
		We really appreciate you all being here.
		I just want to restate.
Dark Money in Politics 00:15:31
jen psaki ▲ ● ▼		We want to hear your opinions.
		We're just asking the questions so you can all hear from these candidates and people at home can hear.
		Okay, let me start by asking a question more formally that someone asked.
unidentified		We're just saying a climate emergency.
unidentified		What will we do?
jen psaki ▲ ● ▼		Thank you all.
		Obviously fundraising, as you all know, is a big part of the role of the Democratic National Party's chair.
		It's a very important part of the discussion we want to talk about.
		It's a challenge because it's funds state parties, but also you have to make decisions about who you will take money from.
		So we'll be discussing that in just a moment.
		Just want to make sure everybody can hear at home.
		Okay.
		Thank you.
		He made quite an exit.
		We'll give him that.
unidentified		Okay.
jen psaki ▲ ● ▼		Okay, let me start with this question on the fundraising front.
		Because it was asked before, and again, we respect the passion.
		These are important questions, and we want to get to them as we said we would.
		Please raise your hand if you would be for supporting a ban on corporate PAC donations to the Democratic National Committee.
		Okay, and let's have a discussion about this.
		Mr. Martin, you said that there are a lot of good billionaires out there who have been with Democrats, who share our values, and we will take their money.
		But we're not taking money from those bad billionaires.
		What is a good billionaire and what is a bad billionaire in your view?
ken martin ▲ ● ▼		I'm going to say this because I think it's really important, right?
		Many of us on this stage want to end Citizens United.
		We want a complete overhaul in our campaign finance system.
		We want to get dark money out of politics, right?
		And for me and for many folks here, as we raise money, we only raise money from people who share our values.
		I will make this commitment to everyone.
		I will work my ass off to make sure we push to get the corrosive impact of money out of politics.
		We've got to change this.
		We raised and spent over $10 billion just last year in 2024 on elections on the Democratic side.
		And the presidential race, $2.5 billion.
		It's obscene.
		We've got to reverse course.
		We also have to win elections, not at any expense.
		We've got to get dark money out of politics.
		We've got to end Citizens United.
		We need a complete overhaul of our campaign finances.
		And my commitment is we will not take money from corporations that are union busting.
		We will not take money from corporations that are polluting our planet.
		We will only take money from people who share our values.
		That's a DNC that I'm going to lead.
jen psaki ▲ ● ▼		See, there's support for that in the room, Mr. Martin.
		Let me ask you a follow-up question because clearly there's a lot of passion on the climate crisis.
		I think that's a concern everybody on this stage shares.
		Will you take any money from oil and gas companies?
ken martin ▲ ● ▼		No.
jen psaki ▲ ● ▼		Is there anyone on this stage who would take money from oil and gas companies?
		Let me just ask this.
		Is there anybody on the stage who would take money from oil and gas companies as the DNC chair?
		Okay.
		Just to answer some of your questions that I know are of concern, which we wanted to get to and we told you we would get to.
		Okay, let me ask you, Mr. Wickler, you didn't raise your hand either.
		I just read a statement that Mr. Martin made.
		What were you thinking?
		You've raised a lot of money for the Wisconsin Democratic Party when you heard him say that.
		And do you agree with his assessment?
		Do you have any differences on how you would approach fundraising?
unidentified		We're in a moment when our country is spinning out into oligarchy.
		The richest people in the world are part of the Trump administration trying to shred the way our government works, hand off chunks to the ultra-wealthy, and rig our system against everyone else.
		And to fight back, we need all the help that we can get.
		We need to work with the union movement.
		We need to work with small donors.
		We need people who have money that they can give so we can fight for working people to make this a country that works for all of us, no matter what we look like or where we live.
		And we cannot lie down while Republicans punch us in the face.
		This is a fight.
		And this is a fight that in Wisconsin, it's taken record fundraising for us to fight back against some of the biggest Republican donors in America who poured $29 million into a super PAC in order to defeat Mandela Barnes.
		He lost by one percentage point.
		Now, look, we totally agree.
		We need to end Citizens United.
		We need to get dark money out of politics.
		We need fundamental campaign finance reform.
		But to do that, we need to win enough elections that we can change our laws.
		And that is our job at this party.
		And that is what we are going to fight to do.
jen psaki ▲ ● ▼		There are differences of view on this issue, which is why I think it's important to discuss it.
		Mr. Paul and then Ms. Williamson, I'd love to hear from you too, because you raised your hand that you would ban.
		You would not take money.
		Mr. Paul?
unidentified		Yeah, so I read the climate, I mean, I came up because I read the Sunrise Pledge.
		I'm a little bit frustrated that they then decided to turn this into Scream Night at the DNC forum.
		But I signed the pledge because we don't take very much corporate money in terms of money from directly from corporations.
		So turning it down is a symbol, and it's a symbol that doesn't cost us very much, and I think we should do it.
		At the same time, it's really easy to say we can get dark money out of politics once we get a law.
		But within our own party, we don't need a law to get dark money out of politics.
		We just need to have conversations with our candidates that say, don't take it.
		Don't use it.
		Don't encourage it.
		And if you set that as the standard, then we had this in Massachusetts.
		We had a people's pledge where all outside money was kept out between Elizabeth Warren and Scott Brown because they decided they weren't going to do it.
		And the penalty was like 25% of your money had to go to charity if you didn't spend it, if somebody spent outside money on you.
		And that was just enough to nudge people out of doing this.
		It wasn't that hard to sign.
		And sort of, I think it's sort of, I don't know what the rhetorical tell is behind the other candidates being unwilling to do this, but it's not a large amount of money.
		It sends a good message.
		I was happy to sign.
		Much happier than before, again, they hijacked the whole evening.
		But I was happy to sign because I think it's the right thing to do.
		I think we can moderate it.
		I think that having people believe that billionaires don't buy primaries, don't buy our party, is important, even if I'm not even sure that they have the influence that the people who claim that they do do.
jen psaki ▲ ● ▼		I'm going to get you in one moment, Ms. Williamson.
		I realize Governor Malley hasn't a chance to speak this evening, so I just want to get to him if that's okay.
		Okay.
		Let me move on.
		The reason, and certainly you can answer the corporate question or the one I'm about to ask.
		I'm going to give you a choice here since we're making the rules.
		Let me ask you, Governor Malley, the reason I'm asking about fundraising is as a number of people have raised, you have to have money to give to state parties, and it's just where is your bar going to be, which is why there is a question.
		And then it's a question of how resources are spent.
		So looking back at the 2024 election, Democrats spent $175 million in TV ads on abortion in the 2024 election.
		It's an issue I think everybody on this stage cares about.
		But I want to know from you, was that the right use of resources?
unidentified		Look, I was not involved in the campaign.
unidentified		I was not a state chair in the campaign.
jen psaki ▲ ● ▼		You're running for chair now.
unidentified		I know.
		And I'm going to answer your question.
		I appreciate you tossing one to me.
symone sanders-townsend ▲ ● ▼		Imagine Finn, I tried.
symone sanders-townsend ▲ ● ▼		You were interrupted.
unidentified		Thank you.
		Thank you.
		Yeah, it's a challenging night.
		Yeah, so I was hatched at the time.
		I was at the Social Security Administration.
		President Biden asked me to pull it out of a customer service nosedive, and thanks to the courageous men and women there.
		We did in pretty short order.
		The question that you were asking about the allocation, should we have run this ad, that ad, in my opinion, as a very interested American focused on this election, I believe, and this is from conversations with so many of you that were on the front lines in the campaign, that the hardest working people in our economy, the ones that are struggling to get by, the ones that work at McDonald's and are on Medicaid,
		they felt like we did not speak to their concerns.
		And now we are paying the price.
		You saw the poll today that had our party's ratings in the polls, like lower than it's ever been.
		We need to restore our brand.
		A piece of that is the integrity of whether or not we fight for people.
		I'm the only candidate I do believe so far, two of us.
		I've revealed the donations to my campaign, made it public.
		There's a lot of money.
		There's a lot of money floating around this campaign, and there was a lot of money that we're going to be able to do.
jen psaki ▲ ● ▼		Governor O'Malley, we're at time here.
jen psaki ▲ ● ▼		But I just want to go back to just my original question there, which is, do you think that money was correctly spent on abortion protection ads during the campaign?
unidentified		Look, Jan, I respect your ability to ask me that question to the people that objected on, I mean, that were standing up with regard to climate change.
unidentified		I was the first candidate for president in either party that put forward a proposal to get to 100% renewable energy by 2050.
jen psaki ▲ ● ▼		Mr. O'Malley, thank you for your time.
		I appreciate it.
		I'm going to ask Marianne Williamson if she would like to answer that question.
marianne williamson ▲ ● ▼		At this point, is this about the money?
marianne williamson ▲ ● ▼		Please state the question as you see it now.
jen psaki ▲ ● ▼		Well, I gave you the choice, so let me give you that choice again.
		Why would you support banning corporate PAC money?
		Or do you think the $175 million spent on abortion rights ads was the right use of resources?
marianne williamson ▲ ● ▼		Governor O'Malley just talked about the fact that the Democratic brand is basically in the toilet.
		And if I'm your chair, I'm going to be very honest.
		And if we're going to be very honest, we have to look in the mirror and we have to stop some of our hypocrisy.
		And one of our issues of hypocrisy is about money.
		We have to recognize that people see us as hypocrites.
		No, Reid Hoffman is not a good billionaire who supports the working class.
		This man has been trying to get rid of Lena Kahn from the beginning, and we know other things that he's done.
		But also, let's remember this.
		Hillary Clinton had more money than Donald Trump did.
		And we all know about the absurd expenditures of the Harris campaign.
		When the Democratic Party started taking corporate money in the 70s, that's when our moral authority began to leak out of the bottom of the boat.
		Bernie Sanders has proven that you can do this on small donations.
		When we become the people's party again, when we align our own ethics with what we say we believe in, when people can see that we are there talking about things like universal health care that a majority of Republicans as well as Democrats want, when we are there talking about tuition-free college and tech school, when we are talking about the $50 trillion transfer of wealth over the last 50 years, the fact that our system is rigged in the favor of a few so that they can get rich at the expense of everybody else,
		we won't even have to be begging from billionaires.
		So many people will be throwing their lunch money.
		They'll be throwing everything they possibly can, including a few good billionaires.
unidentified		Time.
jen psaki ▲ ● ▼		We're at time.
		Thank you.
		Faz, let me go to you.
		One of the things that has been raised, or the themes that have been raised by a number of you in your opening statements, is the need for change and the need to do things in a new way, which I think a lot of people are happy to hear about.
		You've talked about this quite a bit as well.
		In the weeks after the election, David Plough said that Republicans coordinate far more with super PACs, and Democrats need to stop playing by a different set of rules.
		There were limitations by lawyers who limited this, and this is something a number of candidates running for office complained about.
		Do you agree with that?
unidentified		The devolution, the demise of power within the party structure, the Democratic Party, has meant that super PACs and other outside expenditures have played more of a role in politics, and it's become a play toy for billionaires, both in primaries and in general elections.
		And that is one of the reasons why I want to ban that kind of spending.
		I think you have to speak out boldly against billionaire influence in that direction.
		I would say about the corporate money, you know, they don't give it out of the goodness of their heart.
		When there is a reason why they would want to contribute to the Democratic Party, if you go stand with Amazon workers, yeah, I'll tell you Amazon's going to come calling.
		They might give you, hey, $15,000.
		Would you not send an email to your list about the fact that some of our Amazon workers went out on strike?
		That quid pro quo is what I'm after.
		I will also challenge everybody in this room.
		Bernie Sanders ran a 100% grassroots funded campaign.
		It was $250 million.
		In my first year running the ACLU, we went from 350,000 members to $1.8 million, raised over $100 million in that one year alone.
		I do not believe we would suffer from a lack of money if we had an ambition of being a grassroots-funded, 100% people-powered organization.
		Sometimes I see a lack of ambition of the fact that that could generate the sufficient amount of funding, that we don't have to rely on corporate money.
		And it bothers me greatly that if you shared the emails and the phone numbers with states, I believe they could be big partners in building up more money.
		Thank you.
jen psaki ▲ ● ▼		Let me ask Mr. Schneider and Dr. Hathaway, the question I just asked about coordinating with super PACs is important because it's something the Republicans did and the Democrats did not do for legal reasons.
jen psaki ▲ ● ▼		So I want to ask you, do you feel that there should be greater coordination with the super PACs, as the Republicans do, in order to have Democrats not tie their hands behind their backs?
unidentified		Well, I think one of the things that we need to be careful of is just thinking on how to win by replicating what the GOP does.
		I don't think we want to be on that playing field.
		That being said, there's better information, coordination, and convening that the DNC can do with our allies.
		And that's something that I think we're severely lacking.
		Like, look, I went to Naval War College, and one of the first things that we learned, an old adage, is if you show up to a fair fight, you've done something wrong.
		And so I think by coordinating, adding transparency, and things of that sort, we don't want to be fighting on a playing field with one arm behind our back.
		And so when it comes to independent expenditures, that's something that actually the attorneys and everything said was fine.
		However, as a party, we didn't do it.
		Why?
		I think it was all hands on deck, and we need to look at things and reimagine how we reached voters.
		I think another thing that goes to everything that we're talking about right now that I don't think has really been emphasized, yes, there is an emphasis on working families and looking at the money that they can give.
		Look, I was at SEIU, and we really looked at models on sustainable giving and building political power that way.
		And we learned this.
		We learned that the lowest paid worker gives the most because they knew that unions were fighting for them.
		And now we need to turn that dynamic to the Democratic Party and do the same.
Activating Across the Country 00:11:44
unidentified		I am going to pick up the phone from a union, a working person, far faster than I will with any billionaire out there because a donation from them comes and represents hundreds, if not thousands of people, as opposed to potentially somebody with an ulterior motive.
jen psaki ▲ ● ▼		Thank you.
		Dr. Hathaway, let me move on and ask you something else because you've actually run for office and one of the questions I think you all have been thinking about and everybody in the Democratic Party is thinking about is how to actually reach voters and how to do it in the right way.
		The Democratic Party raised more money than the Republican Party in 2024 and still lost the Senate, didn't win back the House and also lost the presidency.
		What are some ideas you have for the kind of formats, forums, ways to communicate as the DNC chair that hasn't been done to date?
unidentified		We are going to, that's an excellent question.
		We are going to have to beat the opposition, as I call them, in the streets as well as in the suites.
		What that looks like as a plan that I sent out just, I believe on yesterday, my first 100 days, we are going to have to activate across this country in the mode of town halls, doing a listening and speaking session, being down on the ground in the grassroots effort of the people.
		People are waiting, watching, and hoping that a new message comes out of the Democratic Party.
		It is going to take litigation in order for us to beat back the racial and partisan gerrymandering that has been afflicted across us, primarily in the southern United States of America.
		Right now in the Eighth Circuit, eight states cannot vote or cannot file litigation under the second section of the BRA, people.
		That is the portion of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 that says they cannot file racially injured cases in eight states right now.
		We hope that that case ends up appealing to the U.S. Supreme Court.
		Arkansas NACP versus the Board of Apportionment.
		We're going to have to communicate better on all playing fields in order for us to win back power.
jen psaki ▲ ● ▼		Thank you, Dr. Hathaway.
		Governor Romalley, let me go to you on this question of how to communicate more effectively.
		And I want to know specifically, give me two formats or outlets that you think you would do as the chairman of the DNC that a DNC chair would not typically do.
unidentified		Sure.
		I've called for in the course of this debate, and it's one of the positive things that I think all of us agree upon, is that we need to establish an information warroom within the DNC, the purpose of which would not only be to combat disinformation, misinformation, and rapid response, it would also be communications over time with the very people who feel like we weren't talking to them.
		And in many cases, we weren't.
		One senior Democrat told me that she was all for ground game.
		We were knocking on a lot of doors four weeks before the election with stone tablets.
		But the other guys had already been inside the doors over a period of time, speaking to people on channels where they now get their information, whether they're members of Hispanic communities, Vietnamese.
		I mean, we need to do a much better job of getting into the public square where people are actually communicating with one another, which means that we not only have to do instant real-time message testing, every time Donald Trump does something that harms American families, we need to take it right back to the kitchen table through the internet and channels that they trust.
		So, we also need to recruit more influencers, more creators.
		We need to welcome young people into the party instead of discouraging them.
		I mean, there's a reason why the other guys do a better job at this.
		They bring young people in who are natives and can communicate.
		We don't.
		So, those are a few of the things.
		The information war room is essential for us to communicate over time with people our message.
jen psaki ▲ ● ▼		Thank you, Governor O'Malley.
jonathan capehart ▲ ● ▼		Governor O'Malley, I'm going to invoke your name, but this question is not for you.
		I just want to pick up.
		I just want to pick up on what you were just talking about about the Republican Party and their way of putting out their message.
		And I really want this conversation to focus on misinformation and disinformation.
		Mr. Martin, you write on your website that the party needs to undertake, quote, a massive narrative and branding project to reestablish who we are in the eyes of American voters.
		How are you going to do that when tech titans are either creating algorithms that hype hate and misinformation while suppressing truth and whatever narrative you're trying to set?
ken martin ▲ ● ▼		Well, let me just start by talking about why we need a branding and narrative project.
		For the first time ever in American history, the perceptions of the two political parties has changed.
		Majority of Americans now believe that the Republican Party best represents the interests of the working class and the poor.
		Democratic Party is a party of the wealthy and the elites.
		That is a damning indictment on our party.
		That's not who we are.
		Yet that's what people believe we are.
		Perceptions and feelings matter in elections.
		More than anything, people vote their feelings.
		And to your point, we've got to do a better job of making sure people know who the hell we are and who we're fighting for and why.
		Because if they don't feel it, we have big challenges.
		And let me tell you the other piece we need to do.
		It's not a wholesale abandonment of our message.
		And I'll tell you why.
		In Missouri, we passed a minimum wage increase, paid family leave.
		We passed abortion protections, all by wide margins.
		Those same voters went down the ballot and voted for Trump and the Republicans.
		So anyone saying we need to start over with a new message is wrong.
		We've got the right message.
		What we need to do is connect it back with the voters and make them feel again that we're fighting for the issues that they're supporting, right?
		So look, last thing I would say.
		I agree with Nate Snyder.
		I agree with Martin O'Malley on this.
		We need an information war room that combats misinformation and disinformation in real time.
		They spent three years defining our party before we ever defined ourselves.
		That can never happen again.
jonathan capehart ▲ ● ▼		Thank you.
		Thank you, Mr. Martin.
		And Mr. Snyder, since your name was invoked, according to a report in Barron's days after the election, I'm quoting here, misinformation researchers at NewsGuard found 963 websites and 793 social media accounts that have repeatedly published false election information and 1,283 partisan websites masquerading as neutral news organizations during the campaign.
		You write on your website, quote, in an era of rapid communication, the DNC must operate 24-7 to counter misinformation and mobilize supporters in real time.
		How and be specific.
unidentified		Well, I think it's mostly a culture change just within the DNC.
		Look, we haven't come to the realization that when you're dealing with mis and disinformation and just content overall on the internet, it's okay to fail.
		Okay, I think we become risk-averse.
		We've become and have the culture of overproducing, sort of that really slick kind of ad that goes out with all the bells and whistles.
		What we're finding out is sometimes something that's based net roots and grassroots, and we're giving the autonomy to content creators, treating them like real professionals, garnering and fostering those relationships with the people who understand the environment and are able to go for it and be forced multipliers to do that.
		In order to do that more in a coordinated way, yes, we're talking about an analytical center.
		We need to arm them with the information of what's out there.
		We need to arm them also also knowing what the threats are.
		You mentioned those websites.
		We also need to go into new areas that the Democrats haven't, the Democratic Party hasn't typically had to wait in, like foreign malign influence.
		Okay, some of those websites are also pushed by foreign actors who are trying to disrupt and disturb sort of not only our processes, but cause doubt.
		And so, yes, there is a technical aspect of this that we need to put fast forward, but I don't want to ignore sort of the old school, old-fashioned looking at this, to where we also need to inform parents and teachers and coaches and those who can be credible messengers at the ground level who can also dispel the lies and the hate that, yes, may have a technical origin, but then are able to have those conversations.
		So it's not just one or the other.
		We need to have both.
jonathan capehart ▲ ● ▼		All right, Mr. O'Malley, I see you mouthing at me.
jonathan capehart ▲ ● ▼		You want in on this question, so I'll let you in on this question.
unidentified		My name was invoked.
jonathan capehart ▲ ● ▼		That's not how this works, but go ahead.
unidentified		Those were the rules.
		Go ahead.
		Did you tell me those are the rules?
		Yeah, I want to incorporate everything.
		I want to incorporate everything that Nate said, and let me add this.
		That war room, that information war room, would only be a hub.
		What we also need to do is hire professionals that are expert in digital communications in each of the states.
		And we need to make sure that they actually know how to do this, and then they become the links in their own state.
		Further, we need to regionalize the directors.
		We have regional directors at the DNC, but we need to get them out of headquarters and actually in the regions.
		And to Nate's point about the battle rhythm that we need to create, we do waste way too much time responding to falsehoods and attacks, and they metastasize.
		They continue to roll.
		So if we're not filling up the pipeline with truth, they're going to fill it up with lies.
		But we also need to recruit a whole network within the states of people that can speak credibly in places all across America, but online.
		And connected to that is raising up and challenging a whole army of young people that are waiting out there to get in this game to save our republic by making our party stronger and making these changes now.
jonathan capehart ▲ ● ▼		And so, Mr. Wickler.
		So it's a wonderful segue to you, Mr. Wickler, because you say you write on your website that you will institute, quote, a 21st century war room that overwhelms the GOP lie machine with a faster moving, heavy-hitting on-offense communications operation with a permanent campaign mentality to shape the news environment and put the right on defense.
		How are you going to do that when the algorithms push down, push out of public view the very messages that you all will try to push out there if you become DNC chair?
unidentified		So algorithms, there's probably thumbs on the scale trying to push down Democratic narratives and lift up Republican narratives.
		But we also know that they're looking for engagement.
		They're looking for eyeballs.
		They're looking for clicks.
		And the way that we feed that machine is by understanding what people respond to, which is stories, human beings, real life.
		When we fought back against the repeal of the Affordable Care Act, the way that we did it, I was at Move On, I built Move On Strategy, working in partnership with the House and the Senate, with grassroots organizations all across the country.
Addressing Misogyny Through Truth Telling 00:08:26
unidentified		It was to work with people whose lives were on the line and to make sure that they went to where Republicans were and told them that if you passed this bill, my life could end.
		We're in a moment now where Democrats have a 33% approval rating, Republicans have 36% approval.
		A poll today showed the percent approval for cutting Medicaid, America's biggest insurance program, it's 12%.
		America does not want what Trump is trying to do to America.
		And if we fight back and we put working people at the center of that fight telling their stories, we can ensure that people see things play out that show that Democrats are getting off the mat and fighting back.
		And when we do that on every platform, in every state, in every language, when we do that by creating a party that works with people across the country who use their own voices and who work with elected officials to show who we're for and who they're for, then we can overwhelm the algorithm with the kind of stuff that people actually want to share because it shows that we actually give a damn about people's lives.
jonathan capehart ▲ ● ▼		Thank you, Mr. Wickler.
		We only have five minutes left in this round, so I'm going to have a show of hands.
		How many of you believe that racism and misogyny played a role in Vice President Harris's defeat?
unidentified		Okay.
jonathan capehart ▲ ● ▼		So that's good.
		You all pass.
		All right.
		So Faz, I'll come to you on this one.
		Given that President Trump ran and openly, well, he openly and consistently employed racist and misogynistic rhetoric on the campaign trail.
		We cannot ignore the role of fear and hate in Vice President Harris's defeat.
		How would you, as DNC chair, handle voter prejudices while also addressing their real concerns about substantive policy issues?
unidentified		I want to answer that while I discuss the media thing because I've been for now four years, four years ago, launched a media organization, run a media organization called More Perfect Union that focused on doing video-based journalism.
		And it has wildly succeeded.
		We had 400 plus million views last year.
		The YouTube channel is now over 1.4 million subscribers.
		By comparison, the Democratic channel has 76,000 that started in 2006.
		What is going on?
		It isn't a problem of tubes and pipes.
		It is content.
		You have to wake up every day with a direction of what type of content will work on these platforms.
		Now, in my view, in this moment, and this kind of answers your question, the power of the Democratic Party is people.
		We put videographers on the ground working with our state parties.
		When Trump attacks, he goes after Medicaid.
		We tell stories about the people on Medicaid.
		I promise you, when you put a McDonald's worker or a Walmart's worker on a video explaining how my life is helped by Medicaid, it will be both good content, it gets out of the partisanship, because often those pieces of content may be in red states.
		They may be people who voted Trump.
		But if we focus on these kinds of economic justice issues, I believe we have an opportunity to bring people in who may not agree with us on racial, cultural, and other social justice matters.
		But when they see the Democratic Party put economic justice as a primacy issue, I do believe that is our long-held proud lineage.
		That's what they want to support.
jonathan capehart ▲ ● ▼		Dr. Hathaway?
		Same question to you.
		How would you, as DNC chair, handle voter prejudices while also addressing their real concerns about substantive policy issues?
unidentified		Race is a social construct, same as misogyny.
		It's a social construct.
		Both are woven into the fabric of this country.
		And to end both of those or to create greater progress, it is going to require many of all racial, ethnic, national backgrounds, gender, and sexuality to address some things that make us feel uncomfortable.
		We're going to have to have some conversations and be willing to not simply converse about them, but lead with a new conviction.
		And I know that's hard, but racism has not gone away since 20 people of African descent came upon these shores at Jamestown, Virginia in 1619, and it's going to require us to think and behave in a new way.
		It is systemic.
		It is structural.
		When it comes to addressing diversity, equity, inclusion, access, and belonging, that is for all people of the United States.
		That must come across the voting line as well.
		This is everyone's America.
		Our story has a new form of glory that must come to our shores as well.
		When it comes to addressing misogyny in our voting, well, when I ran in 22, that was the highest number of African American women that have ever ran across this country.
jonathan capehart ▲ ● ▼		Time.
jonathan capehart ▲ ● ▼		Almost time.
unidentified		Okay.
jonathan capehart ▲ ● ▼		You got, well, you only have three seconds left.
		I'm sorry, Dr. Hathaway.
		Ms. Williamson, same question to do.
		How do you handle voter prejudices while also addressing their very real substantive policy concerns?
marianne williamson ▲ ● ▼		Well, they are not mutually exclusive at all.
		We tell the truth.
		You know, you've talked a lot about how do we handle all the lies and the disinformation.
		We handle all of that by being greater truth tellers.
		The Democratic Party tells the truth, but we need to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.
		I don't care.
		You can look all across the board at anybody's race or ethnicity.
		They are being economically screwed in America today.
		And that is the truth that everybody needs to hear in terms of the electorate who's not getting what they need from us.
		And I was a TikTok sensation when my presidential campaign began, and I know why, because I was telling the truth, that there is a matrix of corporate powers.
		It has to do with insurance companies, pharmaceutical companies, big food companies, big ag, big chemical companies, gun manufacturers, big oil and defense contractors, and they are holding our nation hostage.
		Their short-term profits have replaced humanitarian and democratic ideals.
		Their undue influence on our government has turned Washington into a system of legalized bribery.
		These are what Franklin Roosevelt called the economic royalists.
		And when people see us standing against them, what they see now is the Democratic Party trying to have it both ways.
		We want to help people, but we won't go so far where if we cross the line, that's going to offend our donor base.
		All the Democratic Party has to do is do the right thing.
		Stand for your values.
		Stand for the working people of the United States.
		Unequivocal advocacy.
		Show them, as Fez was saying, people are not dumb.
		People are smart.
		And when they see that, they will vote for us.
		They'll come home if we do the right thing.
jonathan capehart ▲ ● ▼		Mr. Paul, I think you know what the question is.
unidentified		Isn't it the same one as we're talking about?
jonathan capehart ▲ ● ▼		It's the same one.
unidentified		Okay.
		So good.
		I was thinking a lot about that question.
		I think the major problem that we have in this country politically is that there's an other.
		And that most of the time, the way that we come to think of each other across the political divide is as the other.
		I think that's completely true over lines of race and gender.
		But I think it's also really now true, super true about partisanship.
		And I think that a lot of people don't know any Democrats in large charts of the country that are very rural and very red, and they don't really know a Democrat who they like.
		And if you don't know anyone who you like of that group, whether it's a partisan group or a racial group or the little, everyone, gender is a more complicated question because almost everyone knows someone of the opposite gender.
Dignity and Democracy 00:10:55
unidentified		But the bottom line is if we don't have those human conversations again, we're not going to get anywhere on any of these issues.
		And I think it's very clear that we look at the, I look to think about this 2020 exit poll a lot.
		The best question that wasn't a directly partisan question to determine whether or not you would vote for Trump or Biden was whether you thought the criminal justice system treated everyone fairly.
		If you thought the criminal justice treated people unfairly, which is true, then you voted for Biden like 80-20.
		But if you thought that it treated everyone fairly, then you voted for Trump like ND-20, and 80-20.
		And I don't think that we have those lived experiences.
jonathan capehart ▲ ● ▼		Time.
jonathan capehart ▲ ● ▼		And Simone.
symone sanders-townsend ▲ ● ▼		You know, I had some questions I wanted to ask at the beginning, but I was apparently an easy target, so we'll try this again.
		Because I want to follow up on something that Jonathan is touching on, and I want to ask you all a very specific question.
		You've all talked about the messaging, Big Tent, completely understand that.
		But there are some very specific targeted attacks that Democrats have, that has been lobbed on Democrats, particularly in this last cycle, and I don't think they'll be letting up anytime soon.
		In October of 2024, a large part, about one-third of Trump's advertising budget, went specifically to this one ad.
		It was about gender-changing surgeries for a small number of transgender incarcerated undocumented immigrants.
		These particular ads ended with the line, Kamala is for they, them, President Trump is for you.
		Governor O'Malley, I want to start with you.
		How specifically, how should Democrats respond to this attack?
unidentified		We need to respond forcefully.
unidentified		We need to respond right away.
symone sanders-townsend ▲ ● ▼		Specifically.
symone sanders-townsend ▲ ● ▼		What should you say in response?
unidentified		What we should say is that in our country, we believe in the dignity of every person.
		What we should say in our country is that, thank you.
		What we should say in our country is that we are all in this together.
		What we should say in our country is that's a distraction because he doesn't want you to really focus on the fact that he and his billionaire boys club are going to take it to you with every decision they make if they get in.
		So in my experience, and I do believe I'm the only person up here that's run for office and been elected.
		You cannot let these attacks fired, Governor.
symone sanders-townsend ▲ ● ▼		Go on ahead, though.
unidentified		Pardon my letter.
		I didn't say any names.
		I didn't say anything.
		But you cannot let these attacks go by unanswered.
		You have to hit them hard, and then you have to pivot back to the main issue in our country right now.
		Well, there's a couple now.
		One is our economy.
		The other is the dismantling of our republic in fast order.
		But you have to hit them.
		You cannot stare at your shoes and not answer that.
		This year we did a lot of staring at our shoes as a party instead of answering it.
		Social Security, for example, all of the mailers.
		She wants to tax your benefits and let illegal immigrants take, destroy, and bankrupt your trust fund.
		Many of you saw it.
		You're nodding.
		Did we respond?
		No response.
		And that's, we cannot look at our shoes.
		Hit them, and then back to the economy.
symone sanders-townsend ▲ ● ▼		Mr. Martin, I want to know your thoughts on this, Mr. Martin.
symone sanders-townsend ▲ ● ▼		How Democrats did not respond to the specific, oh, no.
jonathan capehart ▲ ● ▼		Mr. Martin.
symone sanders-townsend ▲ ● ▼		Mr. Martin.
		Ken, I'm going to ask you.
		Okay.
		All the chairs sitting next to each other.
		The state party chairs sitting next to each other.
		How would Democrats respond to this ad during the election cycle?
		And I haven't spoken to a person in a battleground state or otherwise that didn't see the ad.
		How do you think Democrats should respond to these type of attacks?
		And do you agree with Governor O'Malley here?
ken martin ▲ ● ▼		I absolutely agree with Governor O'Malley.
		Our party has to live its values.
		And you can do both.
		I thought Governor Bashir's op-ed in the New York Times several months ago was absolutely right.
		We can focus on what unites all parts of our coalition, right?
		Think about this in Minnesota.
		What unites a corn farmer with a steel worker on the Iron Range with a new refugee in the Twin Cities?
		It's economics, right?
		It's kitchen table issues.
		It's what Faz was talking about.
		At the end of the day, we can focus on that, the things that unite.
		But when people are being harassed and bullied and pushed out of conversations and attacked, of course we're going to live our values because I agree with Governor O'Malley.
		Everyone has dignity.
		Our party believes that no matter where you're from, no matter where you live, no matter who you love or who you are, you have dignity and we're going to fight for you.
		And that's what we're going to do as a Democratic Party.
symone sanders-townsend ▲ ● ▼		I want to move on and ask a couple questions about the nominating process.
		Let me start with a show of hands question.
		And I'll say, you know, when the nominating process has concluded, for folks that do not know, the DNC ends up becoming an extension of the Democratic nominee's campaign.
		I'm wondering, a show of hands, who thinks that this should continue to be the process going forward?
		That the DNC is an extension.
		The DNC becomes an extension of the nominee's campaign.
		Who thinks this should continue to be the process going forward?
		Confidently raise it.
		Okay, let's talk about it.
		Faz, you first raised your hand, Faz.
		I want to go to you first, and then Ben, I want to hear from you because you're like, maybe kind of, I don't know.
		Faz.
unidentified		Does it mean?
		I want to hear the opposition to this because, you know, do you want to win the presidency?
		In my view, if a presidential nominee is chosen from the Democratic Party, I would like that person to be staffed with good, talented researchers, communications, digital people who presumably the Democratic National Committee has been hiring some of the best and advice working on this for a long period of time.
		If you do your job right, you have both the research done to tell the candidate about the opposition that they're having to deal with.
		You've got state parties prepared to align and have a grassroots network that is going to help the candidate get their message out.
		I'd like to hear the opposition.
		I don't understand why you wouldn't want a Democratic National Committee helping to make sure we win the damn presidency.
symone sanders-townsend ▲ ● ▼		Ben, Mr. Wickler, I'll let you respond.
		I will also note to clarify my question here.
		When the party becomes an extension of the nominee's campaign, the Democratic National Committee is no longer in charge.
		The campaign is in charge.
		And you, in answering, raising your hand, said, Mr. Wickler, kind of, oh, I don't know.
		So why are you iffy on this point?
		And you don't have a clear, you support it or you don't?
unidentified		So here's what this means.
		This means we absolutely have to win the presidency.
		And the Democratic Party needs to do everything in its power to make sure we do that.
		And there are thousands of other offices on the ballot.
		We need to flip state legislatives.
		We need to elect governors.
		We need to elect treasurers and attorneys general.
		We need to win a Democratic House and a Democratic Senate.
		And the party does all of that.
		That is what state parties do.
		That is what we do as Democrats.
		And in Wisconsin, we've invested tens of millions of dollars while we were fighting to win the presidency.
		We invested tens of millions of dollars in our state legislative races.
		We flipped 14 state legislative seats.
		We invested in Tammy Baldwin's Senate race, and she won her race because Republicans turned out for Trump, but they didn't vote down ballot.
		Well, Democrats voted for Harris and Baldwin and Democrats down ballot in our state.
		We need to be a party that thinks big because to win the power to deliver for working people across race and ethnicity across this country in every state, not just in battleground states, we need to build a party that builds from the ground up as well as the top down.
		That is what I will do if I'm chair.
		And our mission is to empower Democrats everywhere in this country to be able to win elections and deliver.
symone sanders-townsend ▲ ● ▼		Thank you.
		I want to ask one.
		I want to ask one more question, particularly about the DNC primary calendar.
		It is a point of great interest to the DNC members and a point of great contention, frankly.
		And Mr. Martin, this question is going to be for you.
		You and Mr. Wickler have both said that DNC members should decide the 2028 primary calendar and that basically the chair shouldn't have their thumb on the scale or make promises that they can't keep.
		Understand, you're on the record on that.
		But my question is, what factors should go into deciding what the 2028 calendar should be?
		And is diversity important to you?
ken martin ▲ ● ▼		Absolutely it is.
		And I would just say that's what we have to start with, is making sure whatever calendar we put forward respects the traditions and diversity of our Democratic Party.
		But I've said all along, no chair should have their thumb on the scale.
		This should be a conversation by our whole party.
		Elected leaders to the DNC, elected members of the RBC, and of course people outside of the party, stakeholder groups and voters and others should really be weighing into this.
		I want to make sure the process of selecting the calendar is fair and transparent.
		But most important, the guiding principle on our calendar should be that it's rigorous, it's efficient, it's fair, it battle tests our nominees so we can win, and it respects the traditions of this party and the diversity.
		We can do that, right?
		But no chair should be already having an outcome in mind and directing this towards that.
		We have to guard against perceptions that somehow the DNC is putting its thumb on the scale for a particular candidate or, you know, booting candidates off ballots.
		We shouldn't be doing that.
		At the end of the day, we need to, we are the Democratic Party and we should be Democratic, right, as a Democratic Party.
		And let me end with this.
		Let me end with this.
		It is really, really, really important that that calendar that we put forward battle tests our nominees so we win.
		Because at the end of the day, if we don't win the presidency, God help us all.
		So we have to go into this really strategic, really thinking this through the right way.
		No one with a preconceived notion of what that calendar should look like.
symone sanders-townsend ▲ ● ▼		I think Jim's going to take some crowd questions.
jen psaki ▲ ● ▼		All right.
		We're going to take some questions from the DNC members and Georgetown students in the audience.
		And just so everybody understands how this is going to work, I love the show of hands.
		There's lots of good questions.
		But these are questions that were pre-solicited from DNC members.
		I think we noted in the beginning that it was from kind of East Coast DNC members and Georgetown students since they are so wonderful to host us.
		So thank you.
		I think this is our first questioner here.
		This is Scarlett Goldberg.
		She's class of 2027.
		We love the early engagement, Scarlett.
		Go ahead.
unidentified		The 2024 election proved that the DNC does not adequately cater to the needs and desires of the American working class.
unidentified		As DNC chair, how do you plan to incorporate working class Americans and progressives who feel abandoned and excluded by their party?
Admission Is Key 00:03:27
jen psaki ▲ ● ▼		Who would you want to direct your question to, Scarlett?
unidentified		I think I would leave it up to anybody who feels passionate enough to answer.
jen psaki ▲ ● ▼		We probably only have questions.
		Time for two.
		This is an excellent question.
		We have a lot of enthusiasm here.
		Ms. Williamson, you haven't spoken in a while.
		Do you want to start?
		Governor O'Malley, then you can go second.
		Ladies, first, go ahead.
marianne williamson ▲ ● ▼		Young people and progressives will feel no longer neglected and abandoned by the Democratic Party when we no longer neglect and abandon them.
		One of the primary progressive issues has been universal health care, Medicare for all.
		We should talk about things like the fact that the minimum wage has not been raised federally from $7.25 an hour.
		We should do more than give lip service to the PRO Act.
		We should actually be doing more to talk about the suffering that people go through in this country.
		One in four Americans live with medical debt.
		Over half of our bankruptcies are medical bankruptcies.
		People are selling their blood plasma in this country.
		70% of Americans say that they live with constant economic stress.
		There is so much despair out there.
		And in 2016, when Trump won, I was as shocked as everyone, but I wasn't surprised as other people I knew because I knew how much anger there was out there.
		This time I was as horrified, but I wasn't shocked either because of the despair that's out there.
		Young people think buying a home is probably unattainable.
		They can't even imagine having some of the economic opportunities that their parents had.
		They look at climate change and know that within 20 years, whole swaths of continents could be uninhabitable because of the heat, implosion of food systems, implosion of economies, up to 200 million environmental refugees, although then stop enabling the Democrats who stand for that, kids.
		But when we stand for the things that young people and progressives say they care about.
jen psaki ▲ ● ▼		Thank you so much, Mr. O'Malley.
jen psaki ▲ ● ▼		Governor O'Malley, go ahead.
unidentified		Thank you.
		Once we elect a new leader, and we urgently need a new leader, that leader needs to admit that we failed to connect to the concerns of the hardest working people in America, the hardest working people in our economy.
		That admission is going to be really important because until we make that admission, no one's going to believe us when we say we are going to change our party to change our country to deliver better results for the hardest working people in America.
		That admission is very, very important.
		But equally important, we'll be communicating over time to that group of people who left us, people we thought would never leave us, people we thought we were fighting for in East Baltimore, West Baltimore, in rural areas that felt like we didn't care, we didn't get it, we didn't know.
		We need to communicate with them over time to reinforce our brand and our purpose as a party, which is the economic health and well-being of every man, woman, and child in America.
Failing Working People 00:06:47
unidentified		Now, we didn't do that when we were in the White House as well as we should, so we couldn't make the closing argument at the end.
unidentified		But now we'll have to do that over the next two years to take back the House by reminding people every day, our working people, this is what Donald Trump is doing to hurt you, and this is why we're fighting against it.
jen psaki ▲ ● ▼		Thank you.
		I appreciate it.
		We have to get some more questions from the audience, but we'll get around.
		Okay, the next question is from David Green, who is a Washington State DNC member.
		Go ahead, Mr. Green.
unidentified		And Jen, I'm also an alum, having graduated from the School of Foreign Service in 1979.
		Hoya Saxa.
		Hoya Saxa.
		David.
		I have a question that I'd like to go to one candidate, but I would like the other commentators, all of you, to respond to us by email and or text because you know how to reach us.
		We've been getting your messages.
		I have a two-part question, and Jen, please ask, you decide which one's going to answer in person.
jen psaki ▲ ● ▼		See you, Mr. Schneider.
unidentified		Glad to ask.
		But I'd like a response from all of you.
		All the DNC members would like a response from you.
		I have a two-part question.
		In the interest of transparency, please describe any potential conflicts of interest that might be associated with your current or prior employment or self-employment relationships as they relate to the Democratic National Committee and its operations.
		That's part one.
		Part two, if you are elected chair, will you serve the DNC as our chair exclusively and resign or withdraw from all existing employment or self-employment relationships?
		And if not, tell us why.
		You do the good.
		I got the great question.
		So over the past 25 years, I've served progressive and Democratic causes.
		Most recently, I just left the Biden administration serving at Homeland Security, fighting domestic terrorism, miss and disinformation, and violent extremism.
		I also served under the Obama administration doing the same thing.
		Previous to that, I had organized all around the country through four presidential cycles all around the country, from rural to urban to both coasts, various offices across the board.
		It was the Obama campaign that gave me my launching pad into government.
		Previous to that, I've worked for SCIU.
		I was an organizer in upstate New York, and yes, we've got to repair that relationship that we were talking about before.
		And I also served as a national coordinator with the same union.
		So all throughout, I've had those kinds of affiliations.
		I haven't had any affiliations that run contrary to our values, that have a conflict with me running as chair.
		And yes, I would be here 24-7 in D.C., serving and making sure that those connections and this, the DNC becomes a hub.
		However, I also want to make it very clear that we would push the DNC out into the states.
		We need to decentralize and support the states where they are as long as the territories.
		Because if we don't, insurrectionists, as we've seen, 1,500 of them were pardoned.
		38 were just released in South Carolina.
		They made it very clear they're for revenge.
		They may seek violence, and they're going to run for office.
		So yes, they will be on our ballots.
		And in order to do that, we need to empower the states to do so.
jen psaki ▲ ● ▼		Our next question is coming from, and it sounds like, well, we don't have time.
		We're going to get to as many people as possible, but you can reply.
		I think you know how to reach our last friend, Mr. Green, so after the forum.
		Okay, the next person is Carol Abney, who is a Tennessee DNC member.
		Go ahead, Carol.
unidentified		We all know that red states need extra help.
jen psaki ▲ ● ▼		So my question is for all of you.
unidentified		For the past 16 years, the transgender community has only gotten one at-large seat each time.
		Will you pledge to appoint more than one transgender person to an at-large seat?
		And will you commit to making sure those appointments reflect the gender and ethnic diversity of the transgender community?
jen psaki ▲ ● ▼		Since Carol wanted to ask this of everybody, and then I want to give Mr. Paul an opportunity to be fair for everyone to speak more.
		Would everybody here commit to that?
		Or is there anyone who wouldn't?
		Raise your hand if you would commit to what she just asked.
		Okay, I want to go to Faz in a second, but Mr. Paul, I want to give you time here to talk about why you raised your hand.
unidentified		I will tell you really briefly.
		I think that Governor O'Malley wants us to make a false confession, and I don't think that we should.
		Because I think that Joe Biden's work for working class people in this country was better than Barack Obama's.
		And so if Joe Biden's work for working class people was better than Barack Obama's, I think it's close.
		I'm not trying to get into a big fight about this.
		But the idea that we're going to say that we somehow failed as a broad matter and tell you we're really sorry we stopped caring about you is a confession that we should not make.
jen psaki ▲ ● ▼		Let me, Mr. Paul, and then, Faz, I want to go to you in a second on this because you didn't raise your hand, which is interesting and out of respect to Carol.
		But since your name was raised, I'm going to give you 30 seconds.
		Go ahead.
unidentified		Jen, thank you.
		I did say that President Biden didn't deliver, but I said that we failed to speak to the concerns of the people that left us.
		There's a big difference to that.
		We have to own the fact that we failed to speak to the concerns of the hardest working people in our economy.
		Or you can disregard what all of the polling says, which is they felt that we weren't speaking to their concern.
		So I am very proud of President Biden.
		I thought he was an excellent president.
		He delivered, but we didn't connect.
jen psaki ▲ ● ▼		Thank you, Governor O'Malley.
jen psaki ▲ ● ▼		Fuzz, let me ask you, why didn't you raise your hand in response to Carol's question?
unidentified		With all due respect to them and others, I don't like breaking out people by identity as the way in which we want to solve for how we constitute the DNC.
		I am frustrated by the way in which we utilize identity to break ourselves apart.
		I would like to see us focus on program and mission in which you bring your identity to programs that we would like to do at the DNC.
		Things like grassroots engagement, things like candidate recruitment from the working class, bring that background, help us accomplish program and mission.
		So to the question of building the at-large seats and the composition, I want to build people who see the program mission.
Building Economic Justice Together 00:03:49
unidentified		And then regardless of what background you might come from, I hope the first priority is building that economic justice vision that is inclusive.
		Listen, I worked at the ACLU.
		I am supportive of diversity and equity in all regards.
		But what I see lacking and what I often am frustrated about in our universe is we find that these caucuses, councils all separate us out and don't focus on what brings us all together.
		And then we find ourselves competing.
		Well, my own Muslim friends, you know, would like a seat as well.
		And name the next freaking identity group who will also ask for the same thing.
		We're competing over the wrong thing, competing over scarce resources.
		We should be joining together, programming mission to fight together.
jonathan capehart ▲ ● ▼		Okay, we are going to go to the audience and Frank Leone Leone, Washington, D.C. DNC member.
jonathan capehart ▲ ● ▼		You have a question.
unidentified		Thank you.
		I guess this is for Ben and Ken.
		We've touched on this, but what would you do to set up a 24-7 war room rapid response type operation to respond to Trump's outrages and put forth the Democratic alternative?
		And what role would DNC members and state parties have in delivering those messages?
jonathan capehart ▲ ● ▼		To both of them, but there's only 90 seconds on the clock.
jonathan capehart ▲ ● ▼		So which one do you want to hear from the most?
unidentified		Ken.
unidentified		Ken.
ken martin ▲ ● ▼		Well, let me just say, this is really critical.
		We absolutely have to make sure that we're standing this up.
		You heard Nate talk about this.
		You heard Governor O'Malley talk about it.
		And Ben talked about it as well.
		This is for us making sure that we have a war room at the DNC.
		Look, I'll give you an example.
		Just recently, the California wildfires, right?
		The Republican machine started spinning.
		Within hours, they had this erroneous conspiracy theory that somehow the reason we had water shortage issues in LA was because Governor Newsom blew up a dam to help Native Americans with fish, right?
		Save the fish.
		It was completely false.
		But what they did so successfully is they got it out to enough websites, enough online activity that the mainstream media started reporting on it.
		Governor Newsom, as he's trying to get his hands around this emergency, spent all day on his heels playing defense because we weren't able to respond quick enough.
		So what we need is an instantaneous war room using messengers on all platforms to combat that misinformation and disinformation.
		And it doesn't end there.
		This is what Nate's talking about.
		And Governor O'Malley.
		We can't just exist in the space of refuting what they're putting out.
		We need to be putting out our messages right away.
		We need to define ourselves before they define us.
		We can't play defense all the time and be on our heels, right?
		And Ben knows a lot about this, and he's doing it in Wisconsin.
		I'm proud of how Ben does this.
		We will scale up what Ben's doing in Wisconsin at the DNC.
jonathan capehart ▲ ● ▼		Time okay, and I believe this is our last question This is George.
		Oh, Simone's got questions.
		I'm sorry about that.
		Ignacio Sandoval, class of 28.
unidentified		Yes.
unidentified		To anyone, honestly, can you please tell me about the time you led an organization through a major change and what were some of the challenges you faced and how did you overcome those challenges?
jonathan capehart ▲ ● ▼		Hold on.
		So since it, wait, hold on, hold on, hold on.
		This will go off the cliff real quick.
		So what I would like to do is to give Dr. Hathaway an opportunity to respond.
unidentified		I am the founder and chief executive officer of an education and business consultancy.
Caucuses and Councils Pushback 00:15:04
unidentified		Under my leadership, I have two dynamic individuals, my program manager as well as my executive director who will also be present with me tomorrow.
		I threw them over into this political side too.
		And this also goes back to a previous question.
		Under my consultancy, I'm registered with a number of states as well as with the federal government as a contractor as well as a vendor.
		Under Democratic National Committee leadership, those operations will cease.
		So I will make that commitment.
		Also, while in the state of Arkansas and Arkansas still calls and pulls on my heartstrings, there are two individuals that I collaborate with when it comes to fighting social justice.
		We have led marches in Arkansas, especially when the death of George Floyd occurred.
		We had a march in Conway, Arkansas, up in Faulkner County.
		There have been a number of other things that I've worked on behalf of when it comes to fighting for social justice and economic liberation.
		I've worked on a number of campaigns throughout the South, primarily because that is where I'm originally from.
		Marched on the front lines when the women's march happened in Atlanta, Georgia, the tax march.
		I mean, I put my hand out there on the organizing front on several different occasions.
		So I'm telling you all that under new leadership, those things will be an extension of what I put in my seven-point platform that is listed on my website, quintessahathaway.com.
		Also, I released my 100-day plan that will be enfolded that I believe is a representation of the Democratic Party.
jonathan capehart ▲ ● ▼		Thank you, Dr. Hathaway.
symone sanders-townsend ▲ ● ▼		Simone.
		We'll have a couple more questions from the audience, and I want to invite John Verdejo from, he is a North Carolina DNC member to ask his question.
		And John, if you will, direct your question.
		Who do you want to hear from?
unidentified		Eenimeni Minimo.
		All right, I'm going to direct this question towards Mr. Ken Martin.
		But actually it's a two-part question, but I'm going to ask you first, Ken Martin.
		As chair, what would you do to ensure that we as DNC members can see the budget in its entirety at every meeting, which lays out profits, losses, expenditures, and who we are paying?
		Just the other part, and I want to say everybody's hands go up on this.
		Or not.
		Further, can you pledge to push for budget transparency to be enshrined in the bylaws so it does not become a one-off thing?
symone sanders-townsend ▲ ● ▼		Thank you, John.
		So we have the hands.
		The question was for the raise your hand.
		Can you pledge to push for budget transparency to be enshrined in the bylaw so it doesn't become a one-off thing?
		Mr. Paul, before Ms. Ken Martin answers, Mr. Paul, you didn't raise your hand.
		Just want to give you an opportunity, 30 seconds to tell us why not.
unidentified		I like transparency, but we also have the FEC reports.
		And I think there's a lot of hiding behind this conversation about transparency that's happened throughout this race that people say that they can't say what we're spending money on.
		We don't know what we do until we see the budget, until we see the budget.
		The FEC is not great.
		It's not everything, but it's about 90% of what we do.
		And I think we should comment on that 90% and not just hide behind the fact that we have budget transparency is not 100%.
symone sanders-townsend ▲ ● ▼		Thank you very much.
symone sanders-townsend ▲ ● ▼		Mr. Martin, talk to us about the budget.
ken martin ▲ ● ▼		Well, this is important.
		And I really, I think most of us on the stage agree that there needs to be greater transparency in the budget.
		You know, I've been an officer for the last eight years, and I don't recall ever seeing the budget.
		And that's not, I don't serve on the finance committee, so that's probably part of the reason.
		But what I would say is this.
		We need to make sure that every dollar we spend is not only going to the places we need it to be spent, but there needs to be transparency in that.
		So to John, specifically to your point, I want to expand the committee from 10 to 25.
		I want to turn the Finance and Budget Committee into an audit committee to make sure that we're going over every contract, to make sure that we are looking at the financial statements, to make sure that we know how our money is being spent so we make sure it is spent by our values.
		I want to make sure that our contracts that we are letting out as a DNC reflect who we are and the great diversity of this party to make sure that we're spending it with minority-owned business, right?
		And women-owned businesses and smaller vendors, right?
		I want to really break up this consultant-industrial complex that we have in D.C. You know, I think all of us agree we're sick and tired of helping consultants build a house.
		All of us want to actually win the U.S. House back, and these consultants with all of their outdated practices and tactics, right?
		They're going to be gone when I'm the next DNC chair.
		And that's the type of transparency we need.
		Last thing I would say is when you pull back the curtain, you let the sunlight in, I'm disinfected.
		That's the way to do it.
symone sanders-townsend ▲ ● ▼		We're at time.
		We'll have one more audience question, but Mr. Whippler, I just, 30 seconds.
		Do you, how do you feel about the budget?
unidentified		I agree with Ken.
		This is exactly right.
		Let's start with auditing every consultant contract that we've got.
		Let's just spend in line with our values and the path to victory.
		Let's broaden this out.
		It shouldn't be a handful, a tiny group of people.
		It should be folks who represent the full diversity of our party across race, ethnicity, and geography across the country.
		People know how to win in their communities, and we should be spending in ways that actually allow us to lift up their voices and win elections.
symone sanders-townsend ▲ ● ▼		Thank you.
		Our next question will come from Mr. Joseph Salas.
		He is a California DNC member.
		And Mr. Salas, I understand you have a couple questions, and I think perhaps people might be able to raise their hands.
unidentified		I'll follow your lead.
		There we go.
		Joe Salas from the great state of California sending some California love from the 30-member strong delegation from California.
		Real quick, I'll make it quick.
		My teacher always taught me to be area and pithy.
		Would you support a Muslim caucus?
		If not a caucus, would you support a council?
		And if you supported a council, would you also give every other council of the DNC an executive board seat at the executive board?
		For those who don't know, that's the big boys and girls table.
		And would you also, to empower our caucuses not to dilute any power from them, would you give each caucus two seats at the executive board?
		Chair, vice chair.
		Currently right now is chair.
		That's all I got.
		Thank you.
symone sanders-townsend ▲ ● ▼		Thank you, Joe.
		Thank you, Mr. Salas.
		Mr. Salas has some hand raised questions and some more specifics.
		Let me start with the hand raised.
		Who on the stage here supports the formation of a Muslim caucus at the DNC?
		What did you say, Governor Malley?
unidentified		I said or council.
symone sanders-townsend ▲ ● ▼		Or council.
		And then I think Mr. Shakir has been clear with us about how he feels about these councils.
		Mr. Paul, you want to say anything about it?
unidentified		Just briefly, I don't think it's a good idea to do a Muslim caucus.
		If we're not going to do a Jewish caucus, we don't have one of those either.
		I think that's a bad idea to do for both or neither, but not for one or the other.
symone sanders-townsend ▲ ● ▼		All right, this is going to set off some things, Ms. Williamson.
symone sanders-townsend ▲ ● ▼		And then I'll come to you.
marianne williamson ▲ ● ▼		Often when an organization is failing, and we really need to understand how badly the Democratic Party has failed recently, often it's someone coming in from the outside that is brought in for a vision and a perspective that is not there.
		Someone coming in like myself, here's all these people on these caucuses and these councils.
		We're having a conversation like, are you going to have somebody have a seat on an executive council?
		It is all performative.
		So, so often somebody has a seat, but they still, like they're on the budget committee, they still don't know the money.
		People, even if they have a council, they have a caucus.
		If I were the chair, they would be listened to.
		It has less to do with whether or not they have a seat and whether or not they have actual power.
		This has to do with the money, has to do with the money to the states, it has to do with pushing out the decision-making to the states, it has to do with the consulting groups of the states.
		But if we only talk about the externalities of how we are organizing things, we're not getting to the deeper issue of the fact that the power and the money is held in the hands of a few in Washington.
		And until that stops, neither will the decline in our political.
symone sanders-townsend ▲ ● ▼		I want to give Mr. Shakir an opportunity to answer very briefly, and then Mr. Snyder, and then I would just there we and then we'll move to closing statements.
unidentified		I'll be fast.
		You know how I feel about breaking off identity.
		I will, Joe, I'll raise you on a Muslim chair.
		How about that?
		And I just, I want to, I want to urge you to think about the fact that bring those identities to the problems we need to solve.
		I want Muslims running for office.
		How do we get Muslim working class people?
		Let's point to program and mission.
		How do we get Muslims organized in Los to help support and vote for Democrats?
		That's a program and mission.
		Let's get into that, not separate ourselves out, get pats on the head for being in various identity groups.
		Thank you.
symone sanders-townsend ▲ ● ▼		Mr. Snyder, I just, a variation of this question: it seems to me that there is a kind of a pushback from some on the stage for the caucuses and the councils.
		Yet, in speaking with many DNC members, the caucuses and the councils and their representation is important to them.
		It is through many of these caucuses and councils that more marginalized communities gained power within the Democratic National Committee structure.
		So, what is your view on this?
unidentified		So, first, great to see you, Joan.
		Great question.
		I think we need to do it.
		And I think this goes to a deeper issue.
		So, throughout the whole entire forum process that we've all been a part of, I had the opportunity to speak to a number of American Muslim and Arab American groups in Detroit.
		Okay, it is no mystery that there have been a lot of energetic conversations in regards to the uncommitted movement.
		Okay, and part of what we saw, especially in Michigan, in Dearborn, we saw droves of that community vote the other way.
		And I don't think it was a matter of not being loyal Democrats.
		I think it's a matter of just not being heard.
		Secondly, we didn't show up.
		We didn't have a presidential candidate who went to Dearborn, go to Michigan, talk to the community, and that's what they were asking for.
		And so, first of all, we need to show up.
		Representation matters, okay, even if it's something that we don't agree on.
		One of the missteps that I think we also took, too, if we're going to be the big tent party and we're going to talk about social justice, even if it's something that some of us don't agree on, we need to be that big tent party.
		We should have had a speaker, a Palestinian speaker, at the DNC.
		And I say this too, just as somebody who's got a unique identity.
		I'm Jewish American, I'm Latino, I'm an immigrant, and I'm from Delaware.
		There's not many of us.
		But like that, that in itself, that is Big Tent as well.
		But I think we need to walk the walk.
symone sanders-townsend ▲ ● ▼		Thank you.
		We are now going to move to closing statements.
		We have made it, folks.
		Yes, each candidate will have 30 seconds, and we will go in the reverse order from which we started.
		Mr. Snyder, you are first.
unidentified		All right.
		Well, I think we all agree we're at a crisis point right now.
		I think we are dealing something that's outside of the norms as we Democrats have normally had to deal with.
		We've talked about fundraising and organizing and various other plans.
		Well, I think we are now seeing a narrative that is feeding into extremism.
		And we need all hands on deck and we need to recheck our assumptions.
		I've been through crises like these before.
		I've dealt with extremism.
		I know how they recruit.
		I know how they radicalize.
		And I know how to win and take them on.
		So I want to dismantle this propaganda machine.
symone sanders-townsend ▲ ● ▼		Thank you, Mr. Snyder.
unidentified		And I hope I can get your vote.
symone sanders-townsend ▲ ● ▼		Governor Martin O'Malley.
unidentified		This is a moment when America and everything that we believe in is crying out for our party to have the courage to change.
		And we will not make those changes with incrementalism.
		We will not make those changes by shifting around the plumbing of this party.
		No.
		We need new leadership.
		We need to get up for this moment.
		We are the only pro-democracy force left in our country who can save our republic.
		So let's get up for the fight and let's get up for great.
symone sanders-townsend ▲ ● ▼		Thank you Governor O'Malley.
symone sanders-townsend ▲ ● ▼		Ms. Williamson.
marianne williamson ▲ ● ▼		This historic moment in America has occurred in large part because the DNC, the Democratic Party has not transformed with the times.
		And we're here in order to make sure that that will change.
		A new chapter will begin next week in the life of this party, but also in the life of this country.
		Because what is about to happen is that for the first time, but in less than 100 years, a generation of Americans is having to defeat the lure of fascism once more.
symone sanders-townsend ▲ ● ▼		Thank you.
marianne williamson ▲ ● ▼		That's what our grandparents did and our great grandparents did.
unidentified		Thank you.
symone sanders-townsend ▲ ● ▼		Thank you.
symone sanders-townsend ▲ ● ▼		Mr. Jason Paul.
unidentified		Thank you.
		How did all of that shouting make you feel?
		And I ask that, not because I disagree with them, not because I don't think climate change is important.
		I ask that because that shouting did not make me feel really good.
		And the reason that matters is because I think that is what a lot of people think our party is like.
		They will come in, they will disrupt, they will shout, they will scream, they will not listen, they will not hear us, they will not be respectful, and that when we let people scream over us, we look weak and we can't do that anymore.
symone sanders-townsend ▲ ● ▼		Thank you very much.
symone sanders-townsend ▲ ● ▼		Kim Martin.
ken martin ▲ ● ▼		Thank you so much.
		And thank you all for being here tonight.
		You know, my old mentor used to say that we all do better when we all do better.
		But when we lose elections, many of us can't do better.
		There's consequences when you lose elections, right?
		And coming in second doesn't help improve people's lives.
		Losing by less doesn't help improve people's lives.
		What we have to do right now is be fiercely focused on uniting our party so we can win again, so we can build the infrastructure throughout this country, so we're building majorities that will help improve people's lives and make a difference.
unidentified		That's what we're fighting for.
unidentified		Thank you, Mr. Martin.
symone sanders-townsend ▲ ● ▼		You're our time.
		Thank you.
		Mr. Wickler, Ben Wickler.
unidentified		Since Trump took that oath without his hand on the Bible, this race has gotten very real.
		Across the country, people are asking, where are the Democrats?
		And as Democrats, we don't have the megaphone to make sure that people hear when we speak.
		This has to change, and Democrats, we can decide on Saturday to change it.
		Let's build a party that is ready for this fight.
		Let's raise our voices together in every state across this country so that kids wondering if their parents will be there when they get home from school know that Democrats are fighting for them.

Chapters

00:00:00 Next DNC Chair?
00:14:54 Master Narrative in Legislation
00:16:18 Fundraising Solicitations Dominating Dialogue
00:24:11 Excuse Us Climate
00:26:48 Dark Money in Politics
00:42:05 Activating Across the Country
00:53:34 Addressing Misogyny Through Truth Telling
01:01:46 Dignity and Democracy
01:12:26 Admission Is Key
01:15:39 Failing Working People
01:22:11 Building Economic Justice Together
01:25:45 Caucuses and Councils Pushback