The DSA, through people like justice Democrats, is not actually interested in beating Republicans, representing a fundamental strategic difference from Rahm Emanuel.
Rahm closes his DSA argument by pointing to a justice Democrat figure quoted in Tom Edsall's column who admitted disinterest in beating Republicans, contrasting that with his own conviction that Trump is an existential crisis. ✦ AI generated
Rahm Emanuel · All-In Podcast · 2026-08-13 · original ↗
starts at this moment · 61:47
“I think we should talk about DSA before we wrap.”
And there was a person the other day in Tom Edel's party and Tom Metsel's column uh who a justice Democrat part of the DSA network who said they're not interested in beating Republicans. Well, now I appreciate the honesty. I am I think Donald Trump is an existential crisis. You think Barack Obama, Nancy Pelosi or Hakeim Jeff are an existential crisis? I don't. And we have a fundamental strategic difference. We have a fundamental policy difference and we have a fundamental political difference. Go to your own party. Stay there. I'll see you in November.
verbatim transcript · starts at 61:47
61:30education. I wanted to be an early childhood educator when I went to college and I took a system that William Bennett called the single worst in America to where Shawn R and Stanford called it the single best of the top 100 and it took everything of my soul to get it there. >> Yeah. We need to take the high school years, let alone the standards and accountability in the elementary years,
61:53and revamp them as in the three things I talked about that fit together. B average, community college is free. 50% which I would set as a goal is 100 have to graduate with college credit under their belt. And third, nobody gets a diploma that doesn't tell us what they're doing next. College, community college, branch of the armed forces, certification school. I'm not just about college. You're 500
62:17to 600,000 electricians short just for data centers. Broadband 150,000. You can't build submarines because we don't have pipe fitters and plumbers. Okay. So, I'm You want to be a pipe fitter? Great. You want to be a physician? Great. You want to be a physical therapist? Great. Have an education system that actually reflects the economy and skills that we need. >> Yeah, that's a good point. And and and
62:41my concern, Rahm, comes from since you get the you make a lot of you make a lot of great points and you make some that I disagree with, but that's what we're all about. And as I zoom out, I mean, I look at our $7 trillion a year spend in the federal government, 5 trillion a year in revenue. We're 2 trillion short. We've got 40 trillion in debt, 30 years at 5%.
63:01That's 2 trillion a year in interest expense. We have to figure out a way to reconcile the fiscal condition of the federal government to have a future for our kids. And so for me, every everything comes down to this like cost model. And I'm like, where are we spending money that we're inflating costs and it doesn't make sense to do it. So I have I have a slate. Look,
63:21>> and by the way, Rahm, this was something that Trump promised he would do with Doge and other cuts and it [clears throat] was it was all it was all snake oil salesman. Look, I don't accept redistribution and I don't accept the corruption. You can't have capitalism or economic freedom with corruption as a as a grounding principle. It's against the rule of law which is key to capitalism
63:48and economic freedom and redistribution doesn't solve anything as it relates to growth. I believe in five things that are essential to grow the economy and grow incomes and so people are no longer living paycheck to paycheck. One, everything we've just talked about on education and training from prek to BA. Two, the dignity act as I said as it relates to immigration. Three, modernize our energy system. Visav Texas is the
64:18best example in the United States. And I said that three, four, 10% levy on all predictive markets and online sport gaming and it has to go to the NIH, National Science Foundation, and DARPA. double our dollars into research. Fifth, a tax code that does not reward wealth preservation, but wealth creation. This tax code is an abomination as it relates to economic freedom. Control the overall spending for the next 5 years so it can't grow