DONKEY: Haley Stevens Breaks Party Lines After Primary Loss To Endorse GOP Rival She Once Bashed

Charlamagne Tha God (0:13)

Charlamagne the devil?

Yeah, it's Donkey of the day. For Monday, November 2nd, goes the congresswoman Haley Stevens of Michigan. And I want everybody to learn a phrase today. And that phrase is establishment self-preservation, because I need y'all to understand that the biggest divide in American politics isn't always Democrat versus Republican. Quite often, the biggest divide in American politics is the Democrat political establishment versus anybody trying to change that establishment. Okay, and what happened in Michigan this weekend is a perfect example of that. And it's a perfect example of why folks don't trust politicians.

It's an example of why people believe Democrats and Republicans are two wings on the same bird. Okay, see, Haley Stevens ran for the Democratic nomination for United States Senate against progressive Dr. Abdul El-Sayed. She lost and Abdul won the primary by, I think it was less than one percentage point or something like that. Now, you would think the story ends there. Okay, you ran, the people voted, they chose somebody else, that's democracy. And at first, Haley Stevens accepted that. Okay, she endorsed Dr. Abdul El-Sayed, but Sunday morning, okay, yesterday morning, two days before election day, Haley Stevens woke up and decided, you know what, Democrats might actually win this seat in Michigan and we can't have that. So let me endorse Republican Mike Rogers instead. The same Mike Rogers she previously warned voters would help Donald Trump advance his authoritarian agenda. Now, I don't know if you saw her on Anderson Cooper, but when Anderson asked her what changed, she didn't have much to say. Let's listen.

SPEAKER_2 (1:48)

And it's just an interesting change. And I think a lot of people are curious to try to understand it.

Charlamagne Tha God (1:58)

Was that a question, Anderson?

SPEAKER_2 (2:00)

No, I wanted to see if you wanted to fill in the silence, but you don't.

Charlamagne Tha God (2:02)

Oh, look. Yeah.

SPEAKER_2 (2:07)

Look. Michiganders are going to the ballot box.

Charlamagne Tha God (2:17)

Haley Stevens, I don't care about your personal disagreements with Dr. Abdull, I don't care if they're over Israel, I don't care if it's his association with Assam Pike, or the fact that you were told not to attend his campaign events. I don't care about none of that, okay? I don't care about any of those stated reasons that you gave for supporting Mike Rogers, okay? People can evaluate those for themselves.

But me, Leonard and Kelby, Charlamagne Tha God, I got three questions that I know the answer to. I know the answer to every single one of them. I'm just asking them for S's and Giggles this morning, okay? Number one, what happens when the establishment doesn't like who the people choose? Okay, see, everybody loves democracy when democracy goes their way. Everybody believes in the will of the people until the people exercise their will and choose somebody they don't like. And that's where the conversation about establishment self-preservation begins. It's not vote blue no matter who. It's vote blue unless APEC says not to. Okay, these politicians spend years building relationships with donors and lobbyists and organizations and party leaders. And those relationships can become part of their political identity. And then along comes a candidate like Dr. Abdul Sayed challenging the direction of the party. And suddenly the question becomes whether those established relationships matter more than party unity and the will of the actual people. Okay, my number two question, is it really Democrats versus Republicans or is it establishment power versus people trying to change the system? I know the answer to that one too. Okay, I'm just asking answers this morning, all right? Because we know the truth. We keep acting like everybody with a D next to their name have the same priorities. They don't, okay? And sometimes the difference within a political party are so deep that the people involved find themselves closer to somebody in the opposing party on certain issues, okay? Haley Stevens and Abdul El-Sayed have serious agreements about things that I mentioned earlier, you know, Israel, American foreign policy. But Mike Rogers didn't suddenly become a Democrat. Nothing he's talking about changed. His political positions didn't magically change overnight. So how does Haley Stevens reconcile supporting him with the policies she spent years advocating? And I want to be clear, not every establishment Democrat has turned against Dr. Abdul, Chuck Schumer, Nancy Pelosi. A lot of Democratic leaders have condemned Stevens' endorsement and continue to back Dr. Abdul El-Sayed, which tells you something else. Even the establishment isn't united about where the line should be drawn. But we also know in the Democratic Party, somebody has to be the bad guy to appease the corporate donor class. If the corporate donor class thinks that all Democrats are becoming progressive and becoming the next Zoran or Dr. Abdul El-Sayed, trust and believe they will stop giving up those corporate dollars. Now my number three question, I already know the answer to, isn't this the kind of thing that makes people distrust politicians? The answer is yes, hell yes it is. Okay, think about what voters are being asked to believe. Every election, politicians tell us how consequential the election is. They tell us what's at stake. They warn us about the policies. The other party will advance if it wins. Then suddenly a disagreement within their own party becomes so serious that they're willing to support the very candidate they previously warned us about. That don't make no damn sense. Okay, now crossing party lines isn't automatically wrong. There are circumstances where people genuinely believe the principles require them to do that. But if that's your decision, you got to explain it, okay? And when Anderson Cooper asked you a straightforward question about what changed, that's your opportunity to make your case. You had nothing to say, okay? And I don't care about how somebody hurt your feelings or excluded you from a campaign event. Okay, I need you to explain the policy differences, explain the principles, explain why your previous warnings no longer apply, because here's what bothers people about politics. They hear politicians talk about principles, but sometimes those principles seem to change depending on who's winning, who's losing, and who's being included. And that's why I keep coming back to establishment self-preservation.