Jerri Green on Tennessee’s Governor Race as Trump Faces Mounting Political Pressure

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Donald Trump's former supporters continue to leave in droves. Let me show you what we're seeing. This is a Trump 2024 voter in Michigan. Here's what he's got to say. We're seeing this throughout the country. Let's play this clip. You voted for Trump in 2024. Why'd you vote for him back then? I mean, I was, I think I was like 19. I might've just freshly turned 20. Just the things he was promising. You know, he was promising a better economy. He was promising cheaper houses. He promised that the housing market was going to go down. And now I'm seeing him say like, he doesn't care about the housing market. He doesn't care about the housing market. He doesn't care about the housing market for American citizens, you know? So I just feel like it's what the Republicans, it was a lot of promises, a lot of buildup, and then they just fell flat. And it's like, you can say that, like, give it time. They're still working on it, but that's not what it seems like to me. Now, Elon Musk and Donald Trump's oligarchs can post on social media over and over again. Things like Tallarico hates Texas. Tallarico is a creep. Tallarico is pure evil. I mean, literally Elon Musk was making hundreds of millions of dollars on social media. They're making hundreds of hundreds of posts, but people aren't buying it. They know that Trump and Musk and this entire disgusting regime has really just crippled the American dream, has really hurt the American people. Take a look at this other non-Democrat who just voted blue all the way in Tennessee. I just voted at the Edmondson Pike Library in South Nashville. It took maybe five minutes. The line was non-existent. Not because I'm a Democrat, not because I align perfectly with the Democratic Party or think that the Democrats have all the solutions to our problems, but because the Republicans have revealed themselves to be a corrupt, dishonest, white supremacist cult of pedophiles and their enablers. The line is better than the fascism that the Republicans have been sliding into for the past decade. So go vote. Vote blue top to bottom. Save our democracy. Now, how about the former governor of Kansas over here, Bill Graves? Here's what he's got to say about the latest Trump rally in Kansas. He says it shows how desperate Trump is. It shows how desperate mega Republican extremist Senator Roger Biden is. He says it shows how desperate mega Republican extremist Senator Roger Marshall is. And actually, the Democratic candidate, Adam Hamilton, huh? That guy's a superstar. Here, let's play this clip. What does it say to you that President Trump is in your state? He is in Kansas tonight with two weeks to go. Well, first of all, it says what an incredibly poor job Roger Marshall has done as an incumbent United States senator. In fact, I have yet to understand what platform he is running for reelection on. I mean, as you just outlined, gas prices, grocery prices, the cost of everything is just sky high. The tariff wars have hurt the agricultural sector significantly. I mean, ironic that they're in Wichita, where Trump has taken potshots at one of the leading employers in that city, Bombardier, which essentially is Learjet, been a fixture in Wichita since the late 1950s. So, I mean, the fact that this is happening is is a testament to how poorly Republicans have performed Roger and others and the president in Washington. Let's take a look at some of the polling data from the YouGov economist poll. You take a look at Iowa. Donald Trump is negative 23 there. You take a look at Kansas, where I just showed the former Republican governor Bill Graves. Trump is negative 17 in Kansas, folks. How about Tennessee? I showed you that clip before of the voter from Tennessee, who's not a Democrat. Trump is negative nine there. Look at this poll in Tennessee. This needs to be getting more attention as well. The Democratic candidate for governor, Jerry Green, an incredible public defender attorney over there, is neck and neck with MAGA Republican extremist Marsha Blackburn over there. And you already see the, have you heard this, what's going on in Tennessee right now? It seems that the MAGA extremists are trying to rig the voting machines, according to certain people who voted, including Stella Parton over there. Let's just take a look what our correspondent, Aaron Parnas, who also has his own media company. Let's see what Aaron had to say about what's going on in Tennessee. Let's play it. I had to go back three times and correct my vote because it kept defaulting to Marsha Blackburn. I would never vote for her for anything. I'm putting this out there because when we vote, we take it seriously, but we try not to hold the long lines. Do it anyway. Don't let them rig the election. Now, here's the thing. When you are voting in these machines, make sure the one you click is the one that stays. Be alert. Spread the word. Follow for more. I talked about Iowa for a moment. Remember, Trump is negative 23 in Iowa. Remember in that Iowa rally, that guy running for the second congressional? There's a guy by the name of Joe Mitchell, the ultimate Trump bootlicker. Well, now video surfacing of this MAGA Republican running for Iowa's second congressional district, Joe Mitchell, newly unearthed video of MAGA candidate in Iowa. Joe Mitchell shows him complaining that he doesn't have a big dick is what he says. He's whining and says his dick isn't big. And then he starts to make disparaging and racist comments about black women. Mitchell recently presented Donald Trump as the president of the United States. Donald Trump with a man of the century award earlier this week, but when he was younger, on tape whining about small dick. Here is what he said at the Iowa event. Let's play it. And they've never given you the Nobel Peace Prize, by the way, which is a disgrace. So what I came up with, Mr. President, is a new award. It's called the Man of the Century Award, okay? And here's the video of him saying that he has a small dick. Let's play it. I don't have a big dick. You don't? I have a big dick. Do you? All right. I want to bring in the interview that I just did with the Democratic candidate for governor of Tennessee, an incredible, incredible candidate. Let's bring in the interview I just did with Jerry Green. And I don't want people to be sleeping on that Tennessee governor's race. I want to bring in Jerry Green, the Democratic candidate for that Texas governor's race. You're running against the Trumper through and through. You don't get more Trump extremists than Marsha Blackburn. She may have an R next to her name, but it should probably have Mar-a-Lago ballroom, golden ballroom arch next to her name because she's not even really a Republican. I mean, she is just a Trumper. That's all she does. Trump says this. Yes. Trump says this. Yes. Now, this race is a statistical tie in the polls. And I know people are focusing on a lot of other races. And I want to zoom in on this race because it's the last poll I saw is two points here, one point there, three points, statistical tie. And this is the type of race that I think can surprise people. And it really shouldn't. If you know what's actually going on in Tennessee right now. So let me ask you, do you think that we'll get into your background in a bit and we're going to do a broader interview. But first, I mean, do you think you do you speak into a lot of people in Tennessee? You feel this is you've got a real shot. We really do. Everywhere we go, we're getting crowds of hundreds and we're ordering thousands of yard signs even up until these last few weeks. We have a real grassroots movement. We've raised millions of dollars and our average donation is still just fifty dollars. That means real Tennesseans are actually giving what they can. And what we're seeing, the energy, the momentum is so exciting and we haven't seen it in decades here in Tennessee. But, you know, Tennessee is not really a red state. It's a non-voting state. It's a gerrymandered state. And the great news is you can't gerrymander a governor's race. Marcia Blackburn seems to have always just taken it for granted that she was going to win, that she's been in politics her whole life. She's been the senator representative. You know, she's people know her in Tennessee. So I don't think she thought that she was going to even have a race. But she is having a race. Why do you think that is? I mean, why do you what do you think is happening in Tennessee? What are you hearing from the people? You know, it's a combination of things. I feel like a lot of Tennesseans, whether they're Democrats, Republicans or independents, are really fed up with the chaos and they are feeling the effects of the Trump administration that, like you said, she is locked up. She is locked up. She's like you said, she is lockstep with whether it's, you know, groceries, gas, utilities, just life is unaffordable. The American dream seems out of reach. But in addition to that, people are really savvy these days about corruption and following the money. And she's in the pocket of APAC and CoreCivic and voucher schemers and Big Pharma and Big Data. And all of that is hurting Tennesseans and they can see right through it. Plus, she's just not talking to anybody. She won't do debate. She won't do halls and they're sick of having a representative that's not representing them. Talk to us about your background, how you got in the race, what should people know about you? So I'm a Tennessean through and through. I was born and raised in Memphis. I went to college in Knoxville. I did leave for a little bit to go to Georgetown Law School, came back to Nashville and became a juvenile public defender. So I've lived across the state and my whole life has been about public service. I'm now back in my hometown of Memphis where I serve on the city council, the first Democrat to ever hold my seat in 200 years. So I know something about fighting and winning a seat that's been held by Republicans. And I also am the chief public defender now. Those are my day jobs. But the most important thing that you should know about me is I'm a mom. I have special interests. They're not APAC or groups like that. They're my three kids, Beau, Vivian, and Wilder. They are nine, 15, and 16. And that's who I'm fighting for, for my kids to have, you know, this trillionaire who lives in my backyard not destroy their environment, for my daughter to have the same rights her grandmother had, for my youngest, who is autistic, to be able to go to a good public school. And I think people understand that nobody's going to fight for Tennessee like a mom. I think to fight for Tennessee, you have to fight. And it doesn't seem like Marsha cares about even fighting. I mean, to me, you know, I don't think she's going to fight. I think she's going to fight. Now, I get that, you know, her having to debate her record based on all of the harm that Trump has caused Tennessee with inflation and his trade wars against the world and the catastrophic war in Iran. You know, it may be hard for her to justify those things. And there may be embarrassing moments for her. And, you know, but that's part of it. You know, you got to show up. I mean, what does it tell you? You know, I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. What's kind of your message to her? You know, we have ASIN and people who clip these things and, you know, these clips go far and wide. So if Marsha Blackburn is watching this, like what's your message to her right now about her being so scared to debate you? Look, this is a job interview and everybody is seeing her for the coward that she is. She won't stand on a debate stage with me because she has no policies to stand behind. She's proposed over 500 pieces of legislation. Seven of them have passed and five of them are renaming post offices. That's what she's done for Tennesseans in her time in office. Her signature piece of legislation has led to the opioid epidemic that has caused 40,000 Tennesseans to lose their lives over the last 10 years. She's bought and paid for and she doesn't think she has to answer the questions of podcasters or the press or the people, most importantly. And this is a job interview and I'm just the only one showing up for it because I don't answer to dark money donors and a special interest. I actually answer to the people of Tennessee. So I think she should show a little backbone if she has one left and stop running into elevators, stop running from press in the airports and get on the stage and tell the people of Tennessee how she could make their lives better because she's had control for decades and everything has gotten worse. Now, pivoting briefly to your message to the people of Tennessee and to this country, what would you say? We have about seven million subscribers here. We obviously have a lot of links with Tennessee, Tennessee Brando. We work closely with Tennessee Holler. And, you know, we all we agree that Tennessee is actually not a red state. I don't know. They're like the whole country is a highly voter suppressed, oligarchical, infected with disinformation country, you know. And to me, it's just important that we we the people not be divided and stay united and really recognize the tactics that they've used to divide us and try to instill a sense of tribalism and gamification of politics that I think has really done a disservice to all of us and our interests and our livelihoods and and having our families just get, you know, have better lives. Instead, you have these oligarchs in there, 10, not one private jet, 10 private jets and 10 yachts and 10 mansions. And then they just want to cause more pain. So where can people learn more about you? And what's your final message? Well, you can find out more about our Day One plan about how we'll pay for it without raising taxes and how we're going to get to work right away. But I want to tell since you have the world watching that Tennessee is going to shock a lot of people. And we are on the front lines of fascism. They are implementing Stephen Miller's racist project 2025 as fast as they can. And they're testing it out here. They're getting the kinks worked out so they can put it in other states. I live in Memphis. We have over 1400 National Guard troops in my streets. We have ICE rounding up our neighbors, putting them on buses and sending them off to core civic concentration camps. We are testing what democracy will tolerate right here in Tennessee. So I know a lot of people are paying attention in Georgia or in Texas and great. I want those people to win too. But I need you to shift some attention here to Tennessee. Because what they're doing in Tennessee is running roughshod over our Constitution, over our rights. And we do have an incredibly unlikable opponent. She hasn't been able to crack 50% within her own party. And we have a third party candidate that is essentially a Republican that's spending $10 million attacking her and taking her votes. That means our threshold of actually winning this is lower. We have a shot in this race. And one that, like you said, is within the margin of error. And we need to show people around the world and in our country that the South has something to say that we're ready to fight back for people. So I hope that people go to our website, donate, volunteer, help us get across the finish line. We have like 11 more days and we can win Tennessee. 11 more days. Jerry Green from Tennessee. Thank you so much. Important governor's race. Appreciate you. Thank you. Everybody hit subscribe. Let's get to 7 million subscribers. of you who refuse to back down and how we get out. Scan the QR code, click the link in the description, or find it anywhere books are sold and order today. or basic medical care. You can help. The International Rescue Committee is on the ground in over 40 countries around the world, delivering urgently needed nutrition, health care, clean water, and other emergency supplies where they're needed most. And for a limited time, your gift can make an even greater impact. 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