AMY GOODMAN: We turn now to a major story that broke this
weekend. Juan?
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Well, former Labor Secretary Tom Perez has been
elected to lead the Democratic National Committee, beating out Minnesota
Congressman Keith Ellison in a contentious second-round vote that is seen as
determining the future of the Democratic Party. Congressman Ellison is the
co-chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus and the first Muslim elected
to Congress. He was widely backed by supporters of Senator Bernie Sanders and
the Democratic Party’s more progressive wing. Perez was backed by the party’s
establishment, including President Obama. He becomes the first Latino head of
the Democratic Party. After Saturday’s vote, which marked the first time in
more than 30 years that the outcome was not known ahead of the balloting,
Ellison’s supporters erupted in protest, chanting "Party for the people,
not big money."
PROTESTERS: Party for the people, not big money! Party for the
people, not big money!
AMY GOODMAN: Tom Perez quickly appointed Ellison deputy party
chair, which was a new position. Standing together, they both urged party
unity. This is Tom Perez.
TOM PEREZ: Where do we go from here? Because right now we have
to face the facts. We are suffering from a crisis of confidence, a crisis of
relevance. We need a chair who can not only take the fight to Donald Trump,
make sure that we talk about our positive message of inclusion and opportunity,
and talk to that big tent of the Democratic Party. We also need a chair who can
lead turnaround and change the culture of the Democratic Party and the DNC.
AMY GOODMAN: We go now to Washington, where we’re joined by Zaid
Jilani, staff reporter at The Intercept. His latest article,
"Keith Ellison Loses DNC Race After Heated Campaign Targeting Him for His
Views on Palestine." So, explain, Zaid.
ZAID JILANI: Yeah, well, it’s really interesting. Keith Ellison
started out very strong in this race. He received endorsements not only from
Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, but also from Harry Reid and Chuck
Schumer, from a wide variety of labor unions. I mean, in a way, he really was
the unity candidate in that he had brought together Sanders backers and Clinton
backers.
But as the campaign developed, we started to
see more and more negative hits pop up in the media. We saw one of the largest
donors of the Democratic Party, entertainment tycoon Haim Saban, who’s an
Israeli-American businessman, come out and say that he’s an anti-Semite, say
that he’s anti-Israel. The Anti-Defamation League called on Keith Ellison to be
disqualified. The night before the vote, delegates were getting emails from the
American Jewish Congress saying that, you know, Keith will be really bad for
the U.S.-Israel relationship and that he shouldn’t be confirmed.
There was a widespread sort of
smear campaign targeting Keith Ellison for his view about the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which is actually quite moderate. You know, he
believes in a secure Israel. He’s voted for aid to Israel most of the time. But
he also believes in rights for Palestinians. He opposes the blockade on Gaza.
He opposes the settlement construction. And he’s been vocal about that. And
he’s talked to both sides, and he’s been very close to both the American Jewish
community and the American Muslim community.
But, unfortunately, there are a number of
big donors to the Democratic Party who feel like moderation isn’t really what
they need, that what we need is a relationship between Israel where we have
absolutely no daylight. And this is all coming despite the fact that the DNC
chairman actually has no role whatsoever in setting Middle East policy, and yet
we still saw this campaign of innuendo and smears come out against Ellison.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And, Zaid, the particular role of President Obama
and his main staff on this vote?
ZAID JILANI: Well, it’s really interesting. The night before and also the day of, we saw
President Obama, his close aides, such as Valerie Jarrett, making phone calls
on behalf of Tom Perez, which is really interesting because what we saw here
was that there were forces close to Obama and close to Clinton moving in at the
last moment, when it appeared that Keith might be successful, to reassert their
control over the party.
Now, you have to remember that
one of Keith’s big sort of reasons for running for this position is because he
wanted to sever the link between big money and the operation of the Democratic
Party. And, of course, a lot of these members themselves are consultants.
They’re lobbyists. One of the men
who nominated Tom Perez during the convention is actually a corporate lobbyist
for the Podesta Group. You know, he worked for clean coal. He worked—so-called
clean coal. He worked for General Dynamics. I mean, this was literally a
lobbyist that was going around whipping votes for Tom Perez. So, I think what we saw here was that the party
asserted itself against a rising candidate to try to maintain control and to
keep power away from the grassroots.
AMY GOODMAN: After Tom Perez was elected chair of the DNC,
Donald Trump tweeted,
"The race for the DNC chairman was, of course, totally 'rigged.' Bernie’s
guy, like Bernie himself, never had a chance. Clinton demanded Perez!"
That’s what Trump tweeted. Bernie Sanders appeared on CNN’s State of the
Union Sunday. Host Jake Tapper asked Sanders if he thought Trump had a
point.
SEN. BERNIE SANDERS: No, he doesn’t have a point. That’s what
the system is. And one of the things that Tom is going to have to change is to
figure out how we elect national Democratic leaders. I am not quite
impressed with the process that now exists.
AMY GOODMAN: Tapper also asked Senator Sanders if he’d be
handing over his, what, 2 million or so member list to the DNC. He did not say
he would. Zaid Jilani, your response?
ZAID JILANI: Well, it’s really interesting. Right before Keith
Ellison was actually defeated, the DNC actually voted on a resolution that
would have barred corporate lobbyists and also corporate donations to the DNC,
and that resolution was voted down. And actually, a lot of the very same
arguments that were used at the DNC were used at the RNC over the summer, when
a few reformist Republicans tried to put up a similar resolution. You know,
they said, "Hey, you’ll be banning farmers and pastors and people who
represent domestic violence clinics." All these things are complete
nonsense, of course. But I think what you saw is, both parties have an addiction
to an establishment and to people who have a rooted sort of sense of power and
a sense of privilege, and they’re refusing to sort of turn over power to the
grassroots.
So when the Democrats ask for Bernie
Sanders’ email list, I mean, it’s not like, you know, Cory Booker can use that
list, and someone who gave $10 to Bernie Sanders is going to be enthusiastic
about giving money to someone who votes with big pharmaceuticals or someone who
votes with Wall Street or someone who, you know, helped smear Keith Ellison for
his very moderate views on Israel-Palestine. I mean, I don’t think that
list is a magic tool for the Democratic Party. If they want small donors like
that giving to them, then they should sever their link to the big donors. No
one’s going to be—you know, no one who’s poor or working-class is going to give
you money if they feel like their money isn’t going to influence, just the big
donors are.
AMY GOODMAN: Zaid, we have five
seconds. The significance of Ellison being made the deputy co-chair of the DNC,
a new position?
ZAID JILANI: Well, it’s not a
position in the bylaws. It seems like sort of an advisory role. But, you know,
it’s probably positive that he’ll be staying in Congress now.
AMY GOODMAN: I want to thank you for being with us, Zaid Jilani
of The Intercept. We’ll
link to your piece.
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