Kat Abughazaleh Tells Congressional Democrats To 'Stop Waiting For Permission'
Guerrilla Press' debut episode, featuring Abughazaleh, is available on all major podcast platforms and YouTube
With Donald Trump wielding seemingly ever-growing power on a daily basis, many Americans have started to believe that Congressional oversight is a thing of the past. While there are glimpses of backbone from the GOP-dominated institution, like a handful of Republicans joining Democrats recently in an attempt to end the United States’ actions in Venezuela, no significant resistance has manifested.
This past Sunday night, Illinois Congressional 9th District candidate, Kat Abughazaleh, joined Guerrilla Press for its debut live podcast recording from Chicago’s world-famous improv comedy theatre, The Annoyance. During their conversation, she was asked why Congress is not doing its job and what she would do if elected.
“Even people in Congress with the best of intentions are always worried about electability,” the young candidate said. “A lot of representatives spend all their time doing this thing called call time. They literally, their office is right outside Capitol Hill. They literally spend four to even eight hours…. most of my opponents spend eight hours a day calling rich people and asking for money.
“Because even with the best of intentions, even if they’re not just worried about power, they’re like, ‘Well, if I want to get good stuff done, then I have to get elected again. And I can’t get elected again unless I raise the money. And I can’t raise the money unless I cater to rich people.’ And so that’s a big part of it.
“Also, a lot of it is this idea of just constantly moving to the right. I used to have this joke when I did stand-up, where I said compromise isn’t just about doing anything. If 50% of the country wants to exterminate all racial minorities, and 50% of the country wants to exterminate zero racial minorities. You don’t just compromise and kill 50% of minorities. That’s not how that works.”
The line drew a loud cheer from the packed crowd. The two hosts, comedians EJ Cameron and Nick Hausman, chuckled and lamented how they did not expect to be doing math during the interview.
“Stop being allergic to the idea of leverage,” she continued. “Why did we put people through all of the pain of the government shutdown if we were going to cave in the first place? Leverage your fucking vote.
“If we can’t do it against the Republican Party, then don’t do it against the Democratic Party. Hakeem Jeffries, you’re not getting my fucking vote until you agree publicly to my demands or someone else steps up and takes their place. Stop waiting for permission, just do it.”
Guerrilla Press returns to The Annoyance Theatre tomorrow night, Sunday, January 25, for its latest live podcast recording. Their guests will be WTTW on-air host Geoffrey Baer and Annoyance founder Mick Napier.
Guerrilla Press is available on all major podcast platforms and YouTube. Full audio and video versions of the show can be found at the bottom of this page.
If you use any quotes from this article, please give a h/t to Guerrilla Press