Congressional candidate Elizabeth Lee is a nationally recognized nurse, board-certified patient advocate, and reproductive healthcare policy expert with over a decade of experience advancing access to care. She built a career helping thousands of patients navigate complex medical, financial, and ethical barriers—while also advising lawmakers on federal IVF and reproductive health protections. @NurseLee4AZ
Today’s conversation covers Right to Dissent regulations that prevent the boycotting of the Israeli government, the ever-looming threat of Turning Point USA-backed candidates outspending Democrats in local and national elections, and where Democrats are failing to meet the calls of their constituents.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Broadcasting from the Hip Hop Weekly Studios. I'd like to
welcome you to another episode of Civic Cipher, where our
mission is to foster allyship empathy and understanding. I'm your host,
Ramsey's job. Big shout out to q Ward, who is
out on related business, but have no fear today. Congressional
candidate Elizabeth Lee is a nationally recognized nurse Board certified
patient advocate and reproductive healthcare policy expert with over a
(00:23):
decade of experience advancing access to care. She built a
career helping thousands of patients navigate complex medical, financial, and
ethical barriers, while also advising lawmakers on federal IVF and
reproductive health protections. You can find her online at Nurse
Lee for a Z. Welcome back to the show. Sorry,
I had marbles in my mouth just now. Ah nerve better,
(00:44):
but I'm working on.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
It, no problem.
Speaker 1 (00:46):
Thank you so much for having me back. It's also
a pleasure. Of course. The last time we were here,
we had sort of a pretty intense group chat. We're
gonna talk about that in a sec. But I know
that you've been making some some strides in your campaign
and been learning some lessons along the way, So bring
us up to speed since we last spoke. What new
(01:09):
things have developed? What new things have you learned? And
what should listeners nationwide be advised of in terms of
what you've discovered on this road toward the Congress of
the United States Fromyora. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (01:24):
Well, for those of you who don't know this already,
I am running for the fifth Congressional district in Arizona.
It's a seat that's only ever been held by a
white man, it has been Republican held for ten years,
and it's currently held by Andy Biggs, who is running
for governor, and so it represents a unique opening to
(01:45):
a seat that we haven't had in a long time. So, yes,
I am running for the US Congress seat. And reminding
your question.
Speaker 1 (01:53):
Again, what sort of what things have developed?
Speaker 2 (01:56):
Yes, yes, this is last Yeah, So what I've learned,
you know, started to realize over the past month or
so as I looked around and started seeing a coalition
forming that nine months ago people told me wasn't possible.
They said that district is too red, it's too conservative,
it's too whatever. And we have proven them wrong at
(02:17):
every past because we have been bringing together this incredible
coalition of community members and retirees and high school kids
and just bringing everybody together has has shown me that
when you show up for people and you do it consistently,
(02:40):
you do it in earnest, you show up with the
genuine desire to learn, to grow, to build. That's important
to take what you hear, what the privilege of someone
else's story, and turn it into something amazing. And that's
exactly what we've done done and it just so happens that,
(03:04):
I mean, that's the job and also that's not how
the job has been being done. And with that, I
think that we may very well see this new generation
of congressional candidates shock a lot of people. And I
think that getting a lot of new faces in Congress
is really going to be critical to breaking a lot
(03:25):
of the molds that have gotten us here and that
keep us here. But that's been one big lesson is
when you show up for people truly, when they need you,
where they need you, you learn what you need and
then they see they can trust you, they can see
people can see what kind of representative I plan to be.
Speaker 1 (03:45):
One of the things that I've been paying particular attention
to is that I know a lot of people are
retiring from Congress. I know that there's a lot in
the way of opportunities for those new voices to kind
of make their way. But also i've known, I've noticed
rather that there is a particular brand of pushback that
(04:12):
I would associate with this administration that is coming from
Republican voters. And I think that where we would normally
see a reliably red district on an electoral map or
(04:33):
something like that, you start to see it kind of
pushing toward the blue. And in a lot of instances
it's it's I think I think it'd be safe to
call many of these districts purple. Now you know, they're
they're really competitive for for people that want to get
(04:56):
in there and you know, make some changes.
Speaker 2 (05:00):
In the last six months, we've seen elections all across
the country that have been you know, wild surprise elections
of progressives, of people who are just a different breed
of energy coming in. And yeah, it's very it's very exciting.
Speaker 1 (05:17):
So here's one of the things. First thing I want
to do is make sure that you know here in
the studio that you can I just sun, yeah, you're
going to ask me next, Yeah, there you go, So
you can follow along but so do us a favorite
discuss the attacks on constitutional rights and wars of choice,
(05:37):
and then the right to dissent, because there's that's been
a term that's come up quite a bit. Yes, and
I know that's something that you know a little bit about.
So first, first, let's focus on the constitutional attacks.
Speaker 2 (05:50):
Yeah, I mean, I would say the easiest place to
probably start that conversation is to look at the constitutional
attacks on immigrants in this country. However those immigrants ended
up here is actually not important. They are here and
they are human, and we're still seeing due process rights
(06:11):
torn away from people. People are being shipped all across
the country. I have a patient in the Florence Detention
Center here in Arizona that's being medically neglected because he
is in nice attention and he's not getting due process.
So I think you start there by saying, I think
it's helpful to when you're talking to the other side,
(06:34):
so to speak, is to sort of say, if they
can do this to these folks, they can do this
to you and anyone else. And I think that, you know,
from a constitutional perspective and what's demanded of us as
a country and our Congress, it's quite surprising that we've
(06:56):
gone into this war of choice with Iran and our
you know, we just sort of keep blundering into these
into these disasters because our our leadership of this country
lacks the confidence, they lack, the compassion, they lack the
real life understanding of what happens when you write policy.
(07:22):
And the right to dissent is something I'm really passionate
about right now, because you know, I had some very
close friends who lost friends or family members in Israel
on October sixth, and I up until that point, did
not entirely understand the grip that Israeli money has on
(07:43):
our politics and exactly how much money we send to Israel.
And so when I became aware more aware of this,
and it's now about fifty percent of people recognize and
say that, you know, that's that's bad influence to have
that much in fluence. But what's particularly concerning about it
is the right to dissent laws that can block you
(08:09):
from boycotting Israel. So they can say we'll only give
you these funds if you promise not to.
Speaker 1 (08:15):
Boycott Israel, or if you hire people that boy yeah,
that will promise not to boycott.
Speaker 2 (08:21):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, and to me, when it's one specific
group of people, you just have to ask yourself, why
why are they so so intent on legislating that behavior
(08:43):
that we wouldn't need to legislate if we weren't dropping
bombs and using our taxpayer dollars to kill innocent civilians.
But that's not a popular take, and that's not a
take even a lot of people that I see or
you know notice around right now that are running for office,
not just in Arizona, but all across the country. There's
a lot of people that aren't that need to step up.
(09:07):
They need to step forward and be brave enough to
say this is wrong. It is not okay that patients
in Israel get six cycles of IVF for free. I
have patients here in the United States, all across the
United States that have taken out second mortgages to afford
that treatment that our taxpayer dollars are going to support.
(09:29):
So when you add that to these right to dissent pieces,
I think that becomes a very dangerous territory.
Speaker 1 (09:38):
I want to circle back to that in a minute,
but for now, I want to share a story with you.
I think you might get a kick out of this.
So you're speaking about a tax on the constitution. This
is something that we've covered quite a bit on the show.
I came across a video of a woman who was
(09:59):
dry and she was detained by ice. Indeed, I shared this.
She rolls down the window and interacts with the officers.
The officers say, we pulled you over because we suspect
that you are not a citizen. Are you a citizen?
(10:22):
And she says, have I committed a crime? And the
officer says, well, we ran the license plates and we
believe the person that this car is registered to is
not a citizen in the United States. Can you show
us your idea? And then she says she's speaking in Spanish.
(10:42):
The first thing she says is that I don't speak English.
Can you speak to me in Spanish? The officer says, yes,
I can speak to you in Spanish, and the rest
of this is in Spanish. By the way. The uh.
The woman then says, you know, okay, so am I
under arrest or am I being detained? Because if I'm
not being under arrest or being detained, then I don't
(11:03):
have to, you know, show my ID. And you already
admitted I haven't broken any laws. So you know, my
assumption at that point is I'm free to go. I'm
effectually this is what she's communicating. He says, well, yes,
you are under arrest, and she says, well, if I'm
under arrest, bear in mind, I recognize a police officer's
(11:24):
right to arrest me. I do not recognize an ice
officers to capacity to arrest me if this officer has
no basis for that arrest. And this is simply speculation,
because this is still the law at least where she was.
The ice officer then says well, yes, you are under arrest,
(11:46):
and then she pulls out this red card and she
like reads it to him. It's so great. She goes,
you know, I will not answer any more questions because
once he says you're under arrest, She's like, okay, I
will not answer any more questions. I demand that to
see an attorney. You know, I will not submit to
any searches. I will not blah blah blah the whole thing.
(12:06):
And then the officer says, well, I still need your ID.
She reads it again. I will not submit to any searches.
I will not answer any question, blah blah. Reads it again.
I demand to see an attorney blo the whole thing,
and then he steps aside. He grabs the other officer
with him. They step off screen because she's being filmed
by the person in the passenger seat. The officer step
(12:29):
back and they have a little sidebar. He walks back
up to the window and he says in Spanish, have
a nice day, and she says thank you, and then
drives off. And I thought that that was wonderful. So
to the point that you're making, you know, the Constitution
is being sort of ripped to shreds by this administration.
(12:52):
I think that there's a big part of this administration
that recognizes that chaos is more effective than actual attempts
at dismantling the conversation because if there's confusion, people won't
even try to challenge if you assume or presume the
authority that these officers show up with in that specific instance,
(13:14):
but in other instances too. As Q and I we
talk about this, this chaos, this muscle velocity. Every day
we wake up to a new trauma and we assume
that this is all somehow there's a legal basis for
all of this, and their philosophy, this administration's philosophy is
if we throw one hundred percent at the wall, if
(13:35):
seventy percent of it sticks, we win. Forget getting tied
up into court with over twenty percent trying to advance
a one hundred percent agenda. Let's throw it all at
the wall. Right back to the point I'm making here,
knowing what your rights are, and this again, I want
(13:55):
to focus on the most vulnerable population in this moment,
which in my estimation would be immigrant population or people
at various points in the immigration process, because I think
the ready assumption for most people, certainly most conservative people,
is that if you are not a full US citizen,
(14:15):
then you are here illegally, and that is not factual.
Speaker 2 (14:18):
Correct, That is not factual, right, right.
Speaker 1 (14:20):
There's different levels of a relationship that people might have
with this country. Some people might have visas, some people
might be have green cards, some people might be you know,
there might be people who are seeking asylum. There might
be people who simply just cross the border and are
just hoping for the best right. But all of those
(14:42):
things are treated as illegal by voters because they've been
conditioned by Fox News unfortunately, and by ICE agents. So
I wanted to take a moment and speak to that
and then again, as I mentioned, we'll circle back to
the right to loss. But your thoughts on what I.
Speaker 2 (15:00):
Just share, Yeah, well, I mean I can illustrate this
due process disaster with a story of a man who
has taken He was had an active asylum case, a
Brazilian national, and in a day in January in Maine,
in a small town where he lived with his wife
and kids. He is an attorney in Brazil, or was
(15:23):
an attorney in Brazil, not practicing law here, but he
was doing construction work and there was an unhoused man
not far from him that he would often take to
work so he could get a day's work, and in
the process of one day getting you know, picking him up,
he was taken by ice. And he was sent from
Maine to Massachusetts, from Massachusetts to Louisiana, from Louisiana to Mesa,
(15:48):
and then from Masa now to Florence. Multitude of times.
His wife has lost contact with him. She's not known
where he is. He has effectively been stripped of his
right to hesitation because his wife is in Maine and
he is here, and they have two special needs kids,
so how is she going to get here? He has
an Act of Habeas corpus claim in Maine. That's still
(16:11):
just sitting. And when I go to the ice Attention
facility in Florence to visit him, and I go there
to his hearings, I hear the frustration even in the
judge's voice that is like she's looking at a situation
going You're like, you're stuck in an administrative sort of
hellhole almost. And I think that when we start taking
(16:36):
away people's due process under the law, what where does
it stop? Where does it stop? Because right now it's
these immigrants. But I think, you know, even in like
the disability community, there's a lot of concerns that they
would come for us next.
Speaker 1 (16:56):
Oh yeah, you shared that about your story in the past.
Speaker 2 (16:59):
Yeah, quickly, yeah, yeah, if you haven't heard before. I mean,
I was born with a rare genetic disease. It's discovered
myself by becoming a nurse and diagnosing it at age
thirty seven. But you know, it is considered a disability,
and I fight for a lot of disability rights, and
the disability community is very concerned that this type of
(17:21):
internment camp type thing is really, really, really dangerous, and
so yet he sits there rotting you away another two
weeks while they wait for hearings, and just technicalities that
are really holding people from their rights. You know, people
have the right to medical care. And yet in eloi
(17:45):
there's a woman who is being denied medical care for
advanced stage cancer that was in remission when she was
taken by ice, and the stress of being taken by ice,
and the lack of nutrition, lack of access to clean water,
lack of access to non spoiled food, her cancer returned
(18:06):
and she's not getting treatment for it. That is a
complete violation of everything we stand for sure.
Speaker 1 (18:15):
If I'm in I think it's safe to say that
these are things that you would continue to fight for
to advocate for upon your election to Congress, and people
that feel inclined to support you on your way should
visit that.
Speaker 2 (18:32):
They should visit nursely the number four asy dot com
and you can find us on socials at the same
nursely at the number four ASY.
Speaker 1 (18:41):
Okay, one of the things that I remember the first
time you came up to the show talking about is
that you would take your experience as a nurse a
decidedly data driven scientific approach to remedying issues, something that
(19:05):
is very dispassionate, something that is very logical and formatted
and what makes sense, and yet fueled by empathy. Yes,
to a congressional seat, and in your estimation, and I'm
inclined to agree, that is what was needed in Congress
(19:26):
and what is needed in this country. So forgive my
presumption in suggesting that these might be things that you
would carry into that seat. But it's based on conversations
that we've had, and I think.
Speaker 2 (19:40):
I'm right, absolutely without a doubt. These are you know,
that's and that's kind of what I say. This is
a job interview. I am interviewing with the people of
my district for a job, a job to go represent them,
to speak for their interests, to understand what it's like
to live their reality because I've lived it myself.
Speaker 1 (19:56):
Yes, I want to get back to that. Yeah, but
for now, let's now talk about the right to dissent
regulations we'll call them. So. In short years ago, before
October seven, before the war in Gaza, Israel had worked
(20:26):
into legislation that in order to I guess, do business
with Israel something like that, that yourself could not boycott
Israel and you could not employ people who will boycott Israel,
(20:48):
and that is an overreach that doubles as I guess
for a lot of people now it feels like an oversight.
They thought it was harmless in the moment, but that
rule has allowed is Real to fall back on it
and go after people who would hit the ground running. Now,
(21:09):
I'm a person that, when the time is right and
when the spirit moves me in a manner of speaking,
if people are outside, I'm outside too with my ganggang.
It's no problem, right, I'll take that bullhorn right there, yeah,
and go hit the streets. Right. Absolutely, I'll be right
there with you. Yeah, Okay, I appreciate that. But you know,
I'm not a studio gangster to borrow a term from
(21:32):
the nineties. You know, I get outside, right. I think
there's value in showing up. I think there's value in
putting your body out there. I wish I could be
the type of activist that I am in my heart,
But you know, the organizers, they don't ever want me
(21:52):
to do that because not very many people have platforms
like this one. Then they don't want me to run
into some funk that I can get himed up, and
I can't continue to share this sort of thing. However,
I know other people who are have a similar spirit.
They love to get outside and they are not afraid
of it. However, it's these right to dissent rules and
(22:16):
regulations that have gummed them up. Whereas in the past
they've been able to get outside and be a voice,
They've been able to be disruptors, they've been able to
be co conspirators, they've been able to be allies. And
this is something I've seen since the beginning of my
time in the space. You know, I started in twenty
twenty in this space. Prior to that, many people know
I was a excuse me, a broadcaster and I did
(22:39):
hip hop radio formats. I still do, but you know,
that was kind.
Speaker 2 (22:42):
Of the bulk of and are quite good at it.
Speaker 1 (22:44):
Thank you. Yeah. And it was a DJ and but
mostly radio personality. That's kind of my longer, the longer
path that I've had in this career. And knowing that
in twenty twenty when this type of broadcasting became more relevant,
that protesting and showing up was so important when especially
(23:10):
when you did not have the ability to show up
at a poll in that moment and let your voice
know and you can still let your voice be known
by a demonstration, that sort of thing that really matters
to a lot of people, people who just want to
get out in fellowship and know that they're not crazy
for feeling the way they feel. If nothing else right,
These right to dissent laws or I don't want to
(23:31):
call them laws, but regulations have been exceptionally problematic for
those people, and it was to be I don't even
want to be fair. It feels like the evil type
of genius right now. I want to make sure that
as often as I have a mic and an audience
to say that ramses Ja Rudy King Taylor the second
was born, will live his life and will die crazy
(23:54):
about Jewish people. I love Jewish people with my whole heart.
I teach it, I will live my life and to
the degree that I am able to protect Jewish people.
The nation state of Israel is a decidedly different beast's.
Being critical of a government is indeed what we do,
no matter what government it is. That's right. And so
(24:14):
I want you to talk a little bit more about
more about that. Maybe is there a way to regulate
that what maybe your tenure as a congressional representative might
do as far as that's concerned. And I guess the
most important question is have you taken money from APAC.
Speaker 2 (24:31):
No, I have not and will not take money from APAC.
And I really appreciate that you drew this sinction that
you know, wanting to protect people from these right to
dissent laws is not the same as being anti Semitic,
just as you said, like, we can love the Jewish
people and deploy and say that Benjamin Netanyahu and his
(24:54):
administration is deplorable. I mean, just like all around the world,
I don't want people to conflate me with on our
right and say like that I accept that I most
certainly do not accept that right.
Speaker 1 (25:05):
Neither do you.
Speaker 2 (25:05):
So I think that there's like it's really, really really
important to draw the distinction, which is I can be
critical of the Israeli regime and also love and protect
and hold space for our Jewish brothers and sisters.
Speaker 1 (25:20):
I want to take a moment. I want you to continue,
but I want to credit Q for that, because Q
is the person that initially made it a point to
every time we again have a mic and an audience
to make that distinct. Yes, but please continue.
Speaker 2 (25:34):
No, it's really important because I think that in these
divided times, folks are very quickly swept up in a
pick this or that binarya yeah, pick this or that,
pick this or that. A woman approached me the other
day about the school voucher program here in Arizona. There's
school voucher programs all over the country that are experiencing
very similar problems as we are here in Arizona. And
(25:57):
you know, I think it's it's about being being transparent
and open about you know, it's not this or that.
There can be fraud. You can be a legal and
upstanding user of the voucher system and still there can
also be fraud. Those two things can happen at the
same time. So I love hearing you say that, and
(26:20):
I frequently say that, please do not conflate the two, sure,
because it is that this or that binary action that's
putting us in these buckets to where we cannot come
out and discuss.
Speaker 1 (26:33):
Yeah, well, I'll add to that that you know on
this show, in this program, it just happened quite a
bit that folks will sometimes in the comments, sometimes on
the street, suggests to me that I am being antisemitic
(26:55):
because of my advocacy for the Palestinian human beings, right,
and it's so interesting. I've shared this story on this
program before and I'll share it with you now. But
my first real world foray into Jewish culture was when
(27:16):
I was in high school. I went to a high
school that had a ton of Jewish people, and these
people were like visibly, they would wear like yamakas and
kipas and they would, you know, like someone would have
more traditional clothing, and it was just and these were
the people I played basketball with and we listened to
bone Thugs and harmony together and you know, this is
just there. You know, were kids, right, and then you
(27:40):
get a chance to learn what makes a Jewish person
versus what makes you know, a Muslim person or a
Christian person or whatever else. And you know all that stuff.
You couldn't make heads or tails of it when you're
a little kid, but you do recognize that these Jewish
people and the Muslim people and everyone else, they always
(28:01):
treated me very kind. They were very kind to me.
They loved me and my big o afro and all that.
You know, these are my guys, right. So one of
the things that I learned to do when I was
very young was I recognized. And I think I might
have learned this from Muslim people, but Jewish people observed
(28:22):
this as well, that Muslim folks, when there is pork
at the table at which they eat, some of them
will consider the entire table unclean. Wow, and it's not
just what's on your plate. So knowing that, knowing that
Muslim people and Jewish people observed that same rule, I
(28:47):
never wanted to violate a table of fellowship with my
Jewish brothers and sisters, with my Muslim brothers and sisters.
Now I knew more Jewish people at the time and
throughout my life. It's just I've been very fortunate in
that way. But I'm crazy about Muslim people too. I
think Islam is a beautiful faith just the same. However,
in this moment we're talking about Judaism. I made up
(29:11):
my mind when I might have been I don't know
fourteen fifteen, that I would never eat pork ever, so
that I never had to worry about making the mistake
of accidentally having pepperoni on a pizza at a table
with someone who might be Jewish or Muslim. And I
hadn't known that yet, because I don't want that table
to be unclean. To this day, I have not eaten pork.
(29:33):
I've told that story many times, and of course that
happened long before October seventh. But you know, the people
in the comments that say, oh, you're being anti Semitic, No,
I've actually lived. I put into practice actual loving, you know.
And that's not the one, that's not the only thing. However,
I think it's important when we make that distinction to
(29:54):
say that these rules coming from Israel have crippled our
capacity to change the world for the better for all people,
Jewish people included. And I think that's really important for
us to bear in mind. Stay tuned, we'll be back
more after this
Broadcasting from the Hip Hop Weekly Studios. I'd like to
welcome you to another episode of Civic Cipher, where our
mission is to foster allyship empathy and understanding. I'm your host,
Ramsey's job. Big shout out to q Ward, who is
out on related business, but have no fear today. Congressional
candidate Elizabeth Lee is a nationally recognized nurse Board certified
patient advocate and reproductive healthcare policy expert with over a
(00:23):
decade of experience advancing access to care. She built a
career helping thousands of patients navigate complex medical, financial, and
ethical barriers, while also advising lawmakers on federal IVF and
reproductive health protections. You can find her online at Nurse
Lee for a Z. Welcome back to the show. Sorry,
I had marbles in my mouth just now. Ah nerve better,
(00:44):
but I'm working on.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
It, no problem.
Speaker 1 (00:46):
Thank you so much for having me back. It's also
a pleasure. Of course. The last time we were here,
we had sort of a pretty intense group chat. We're
gonna talk about that in a sec. But I know
that you've been making some some strides in your campaign
and been learning some lessons along the way, So bring
us up to speed since we last spoke. What new
(01:09):
things have developed? What new things have you learned? And
what should listeners nationwide be advised of in terms of
what you've discovered on this road toward the Congress of
the United States Fromyora. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (01:24):
Well, for those of you who don't know this already,
I am running for the fifth Congressional district in Arizona.
It's a seat that's only ever been held by a
white man, it has been Republican held for ten years,
and it's currently held by Andy Biggs, who is running
for governor, and so it represents a unique opening to
(01:45):
a seat that we haven't had in a long time. So, yes,
I am running for the US Congress seat. And reminding
your question.
Speaker 1 (01:53):
Again, what sort of what things have developed?
Speaker 2 (01:56):
Yes, yes, this is last Yeah, So what I've learned,
you know, started to realize over the past month or
so as I looked around and started seeing a coalition
forming that nine months ago people told me wasn't possible.
They said that district is too red, it's too conservative,
it's too whatever. And we have proven them wrong at
(02:17):
every past because we have been bringing together this incredible
coalition of community members and retirees and high school kids
and just bringing everybody together has has shown me that
when you show up for people and you do it consistently,
(02:40):
you do it in earnest, you show up with the
genuine desire to learn, to grow, to build. That's important
to take what you hear, what the privilege of someone
else's story, and turn it into something amazing. And that's
exactly what we've done done and it just so happens that,
(03:04):
I mean, that's the job and also that's not how
the job has been being done. And with that, I
think that we may very well see this new generation
of congressional candidates shock a lot of people. And I
think that getting a lot of new faces in Congress
is really going to be critical to breaking a lot
(03:25):
of the molds that have gotten us here and that
keep us here. But that's been one big lesson is
when you show up for people truly, when they need you,
where they need you, you learn what you need and
then they see they can trust you, they can see
people can see what kind of representative I plan to be.
Speaker 1 (03:45):
One of the things that I've been paying particular attention
to is that I know a lot of people are
retiring from Congress. I know that there's a lot in
the way of opportunities for those new voices to kind
of make their way. But also i've known, I've noticed
rather that there is a particular brand of pushback that
(04:12):
I would associate with this administration that is coming from
Republican voters. And I think that where we would normally
see a reliably red district on an electoral map or
(04:33):
something like that, you start to see it kind of
pushing toward the blue. And in a lot of instances
it's it's I think I think it'd be safe to
call many of these districts purple. Now you know, they're
they're really competitive for for people that want to get
(04:56):
in there and you know, make some changes.
Speaker 2 (05:00):
In the last six months, we've seen elections all across
the country that have been you know, wild surprise elections
of progressives, of people who are just a different breed
of energy coming in. And yeah, it's very it's very exciting.
Speaker 1 (05:17):
So here's one of the things. First thing I want
to do is make sure that you know here in
the studio that you can I just sun, yeah, you're
going to ask me next, Yeah, there you go, So
you can follow along but so do us a favorite
discuss the attacks on constitutional rights and wars of choice,
(05:37):
and then the right to dissent, because there's that's been
a term that's come up quite a bit. Yes, and
I know that's something that you know a little bit about.
So first, first, let's focus on the constitutional attacks.
Speaker 2 (05:50):
Yeah, I mean, I would say the easiest place to
probably start that conversation is to look at the constitutional
attacks on immigrants in this country. However those immigrants ended
up here is actually not important. They are here and
they are human, and we're still seeing due process rights
(06:11):
torn away from people. People are being shipped all across
the country. I have a patient in the Florence Detention
Center here in Arizona that's being medically neglected because he
is in nice attention and he's not getting due process.
So I think you start there by saying, I think
it's helpful to when you're talking to the other side,
(06:34):
so to speak, is to sort of say, if they
can do this to these folks, they can do this
to you and anyone else. And I think that, you know,
from a constitutional perspective and what's demanded of us as
a country and our Congress, it's quite surprising that we've
(06:56):
gone into this war of choice with Iran and our
you know, we just sort of keep blundering into these
into these disasters because our our leadership of this country
lacks the confidence, they lack, the compassion, they lack the
real life understanding of what happens when you write policy.
(07:22):
And the right to dissent is something I'm really passionate
about right now, because you know, I had some very
close friends who lost friends or family members in Israel
on October sixth, and I up until that point, did
not entirely understand the grip that Israeli money has on
(07:43):
our politics and exactly how much money we send to Israel.
And so when I became aware more aware of this,
and it's now about fifty percent of people recognize and
say that, you know, that's that's bad influence to have
that much in fluence. But what's particularly concerning about it
is the right to dissent laws that can block you
(08:09):
from boycotting Israel. So they can say we'll only give
you these funds if you promise not to.
Speaker 1 (08:15):
Boycott Israel, or if you hire people that boy yeah,
that will promise not to boycott.
Speaker 2 (08:21):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, and to me, when it's one specific
group of people, you just have to ask yourself, why
why are they so so intent on legislating that behavior
(08:43):
that we wouldn't need to legislate if we weren't dropping
bombs and using our taxpayer dollars to kill innocent civilians.
But that's not a popular take, and that's not a
take even a lot of people that I see or
you know notice around right now that are running for office,
not just in Arizona, but all across the country. There's
a lot of people that aren't that need to step up.
(09:07):
They need to step forward and be brave enough to
say this is wrong. It is not okay that patients
in Israel get six cycles of IVF for free. I
have patients here in the United States, all across the
United States that have taken out second mortgages to afford
that treatment that our taxpayer dollars are going to support.
(09:29):
So when you add that to these right to dissent pieces,
I think that becomes a very dangerous territory.
Speaker 1 (09:38):
I want to circle back to that in a minute,
but for now, I want to share a story with you.
I think you might get a kick out of this.
So you're speaking about a tax on the constitution. This
is something that we've covered quite a bit on the show.
I came across a video of a woman who was
(09:59):
dry and she was detained by ice. Indeed, I shared this.
She rolls down the window and interacts with the officers.
The officers say, we pulled you over because we suspect
that you are not a citizen. Are you a citizen?
(10:22):
And she says, have I committed a crime? And the
officer says, well, we ran the license plates and we
believe the person that this car is registered to is
not a citizen in the United States. Can you show
us your idea? And then she says she's speaking in Spanish.
(10:42):
The first thing she says is that I don't speak English.
Can you speak to me in Spanish? The officer says, yes,
I can speak to you in Spanish, and the rest
of this is in Spanish. By the way. The uh.
The woman then says, you know, okay, so am I
under arrest or am I being detained? Because if I'm
not being under arrest or being detained, then I don't
(11:03):
have to, you know, show my ID. And you already
admitted I haven't broken any laws. So you know, my
assumption at that point is I'm free to go. I'm
effectually this is what she's communicating. He says, well, yes,
you are under arrest, and she says, well, if I'm
under arrest, bear in mind, I recognize a police officer's
(11:24):
right to arrest me. I do not recognize an ice
officers to capacity to arrest me if this officer has
no basis for that arrest. And this is simply speculation,
because this is still the law at least where she was.
The ice officer then says well, yes, you are under arrest,
(11:46):
and then she pulls out this red card and she
like reads it to him. It's so great. She goes,
you know, I will not answer any more questions because
once he says you're under arrest, She's like, okay, I
will not answer any more questions. I demand that to
see an attorney. You know, I will not submit to
any searches. I will not blah blah blah the whole thing.
(12:06):
And then the officer says, well, I still need your ID.
She reads it again. I will not submit to any searches.
I will not answer any question, blah blah. Reads it again.
I demand to see an attorney blo the whole thing,
and then he steps aside. He grabs the other officer
with him. They step off screen because she's being filmed
by the person in the passenger seat. The officer step
(12:29):
back and they have a little sidebar. He walks back
up to the window and he says in Spanish, have
a nice day, and she says thank you, and then
drives off. And I thought that that was wonderful. So
to the point that you're making, you know, the Constitution
is being sort of ripped to shreds by this administration.
(12:52):
I think that there's a big part of this administration
that recognizes that chaos is more effective than actual attempts
at dismantling the conversation because if there's confusion, people won't
even try to challenge if you assume or presume the
authority that these officers show up with in that specific instance,
(13:14):
but in other instances too. As Q and I we
talk about this, this chaos, this muscle velocity. Every day
we wake up to a new trauma and we assume
that this is all somehow there's a legal basis for
all of this, and their philosophy, this administration's philosophy is
if we throw one hundred percent at the wall, if
(13:35):
seventy percent of it sticks, we win. Forget getting tied
up into court with over twenty percent trying to advance
a one hundred percent agenda. Let's throw it all at
the wall. Right back to the point I'm making here,
knowing what your rights are, and this again, I want
(13:55):
to focus on the most vulnerable population in this moment,
which in my estimation would be immigrant population or people
at various points in the immigration process, because I think
the ready assumption for most people, certainly most conservative people,
is that if you are not a full US citizen,
(14:15):
then you are here illegally, and that is not factual.
Speaker 2 (14:18):
Correct, That is not factual, right, right.
Speaker 1 (14:20):
There's different levels of a relationship that people might have
with this country. Some people might have visas, some people
might be have green cards, some people might be you know,
there might be people who are seeking asylum. There might
be people who simply just cross the border and are
just hoping for the best right. But all of those
(14:42):
things are treated as illegal by voters because they've been
conditioned by Fox News unfortunately, and by ICE agents. So
I wanted to take a moment and speak to that
and then again, as I mentioned, we'll circle back to
the right to loss. But your thoughts on what I.
Speaker 2 (15:00):
Just share, Yeah, well, I mean I can illustrate this
due process disaster with a story of a man who
has taken He was had an active asylum case, a
Brazilian national, and in a day in January in Maine,
in a small town where he lived with his wife
and kids. He is an attorney in Brazil, or was
(15:23):
an attorney in Brazil, not practicing law here, but he
was doing construction work and there was an unhoused man
not far from him that he would often take to
work so he could get a day's work, and in
the process of one day getting you know, picking him up,
he was taken by ice. And he was sent from
Maine to Massachusetts, from Massachusetts to Louisiana, from Louisiana to Mesa,
(15:48):
and then from Masa now to Florence. Multitude of times.
His wife has lost contact with him. She's not known
where he is. He has effectively been stripped of his
right to hesitation because his wife is in Maine and
he is here, and they have two special needs kids,
so how is she going to get here? He has
an Act of Habeas corpus claim in Maine. That's still
(16:11):
just sitting. And when I go to the ice Attention
facility in Florence to visit him, and I go there
to his hearings, I hear the frustration even in the
judge's voice that is like she's looking at a situation
going You're like, you're stuck in an administrative sort of
hellhole almost. And I think that when we start taking
(16:36):
away people's due process under the law, what where does
it stop? Where does it stop? Because right now it's
these immigrants. But I think, you know, even in like
the disability community, there's a lot of concerns that they
would come for us next.
Speaker 1 (16:56):
Oh yeah, you shared that about your story in the past.
Speaker 2 (16:59):
Yeah, quickly, yeah, yeah, if you haven't heard before. I mean,
I was born with a rare genetic disease. It's discovered
myself by becoming a nurse and diagnosing it at age
thirty seven. But you know, it is considered a disability,
and I fight for a lot of disability rights, and
the disability community is very concerned that this type of
(17:21):
internment camp type thing is really, really, really dangerous, and
so yet he sits there rotting you away another two
weeks while they wait for hearings, and just technicalities that
are really holding people from their rights. You know, people
have the right to medical care. And yet in eloi
(17:45):
there's a woman who is being denied medical care for
advanced stage cancer that was in remission when she was
taken by ice, and the stress of being taken by ice,
and the lack of nutrition, lack of access to clean water,
lack of access to non spoiled food, her cancer returned
(18:06):
and she's not getting treatment for it. That is a
complete violation of everything we stand for sure.
Speaker 1 (18:15):
If I'm in I think it's safe to say that
these are things that you would continue to fight for
to advocate for upon your election to Congress, and people
that feel inclined to support you on your way should
visit that.
Speaker 2 (18:32):
They should visit nursely the number four asy dot com
and you can find us on socials at the same
nursely at the number four ASY.
Speaker 1 (18:41):
Okay, one of the things that I remember the first
time you came up to the show talking about is
that you would take your experience as a nurse a
decidedly data driven scientific approach to remedying issues, something that
(19:05):
is very dispassionate, something that is very logical and formatted
and what makes sense, and yet fueled by empathy. Yes,
to a congressional seat, and in your estimation, and I'm
inclined to agree, that is what was needed in Congress
(19:26):
and what is needed in this country. So forgive my
presumption in suggesting that these might be things that you
would carry into that seat. But it's based on conversations
that we've had, and I think.
Speaker 2 (19:40):
I'm right, absolutely without a doubt. These are you know,
that's and that's kind of what I say. This is
a job interview. I am interviewing with the people of
my district for a job, a job to go represent them,
to speak for their interests, to understand what it's like
to live their reality because I've lived it myself.
Speaker 1 (19:56):
Yes, I want to get back to that. Yeah, but
for now, let's now talk about the right to dissent
regulations we'll call them. So. In short years ago, before
October seven, before the war in Gaza, Israel had worked
(20:26):
into legislation that in order to I guess, do business
with Israel something like that, that yourself could not boycott
Israel and you could not employ people who will boycott Israel,
(20:48):
and that is an overreach that doubles as I guess
for a lot of people now it feels like an oversight.
They thought it was harmless in the moment, but that
rule has allowed is Real to fall back on it
and go after people who would hit the ground running. Now,
(21:09):
I'm a person that, when the time is right and
when the spirit moves me in a manner of speaking,
if people are outside, I'm outside too with my ganggang.
It's no problem, right, I'll take that bullhorn right there, yeah,
and go hit the streets. Right. Absolutely, I'll be right
there with you. Yeah, Okay, I appreciate that. But you know,
I'm not a studio gangster to borrow a term from
(21:32):
the nineties. You know, I get outside, right. I think
there's value in showing up. I think there's value in
putting your body out there. I wish I could be
the type of activist that I am in my heart,
But you know, the organizers, they don't ever want me
(21:52):
to do that because not very many people have platforms
like this one. Then they don't want me to run
into some funk that I can get himed up, and
I can't continue to share this sort of thing. However,
I know other people who are have a similar spirit.
They love to get outside and they are not afraid
of it. However, it's these right to dissent rules and
(22:16):
regulations that have gummed them up. Whereas in the past
they've been able to get outside and be a voice,
They've been able to be disruptors, they've been able to
be co conspirators, they've been able to be allies. And
this is something I've seen since the beginning of my
time in the space. You know, I started in twenty
twenty in this space. Prior to that, many people know
I was a excuse me, a broadcaster and I did
(22:39):
hip hop radio formats. I still do, but you know,
that was kind.
Speaker 2 (22:42):
Of the bulk of and are quite good at it.
Speaker 1 (22:44):
Thank you. Yeah. And it was a DJ and but
mostly radio personality. That's kind of my longer, the longer
path that I've had in this career. And knowing that
in twenty twenty when this type of broadcasting became more relevant,
that protesting and showing up was so important when especially
(23:10):
when you did not have the ability to show up
at a poll in that moment and let your voice
know and you can still let your voice be known
by a demonstration, that sort of thing that really matters
to a lot of people, people who just want to
get out in fellowship and know that they're not crazy
for feeling the way they feel. If nothing else right,
These right to dissent laws or I don't want to
(23:31):
call them laws, but regulations have been exceptionally problematic for
those people, and it was to be I don't even
want to be fair. It feels like the evil type
of genius right now. I want to make sure that
as often as I have a mic and an audience
to say that ramses Ja Rudy King Taylor the second
was born, will live his life and will die crazy
(23:54):
about Jewish people. I love Jewish people with my whole heart.
I teach it, I will live my life and to
the degree that I am able to protect Jewish people.
The nation state of Israel is a decidedly different beast's.
Being critical of a government is indeed what we do,
no matter what government it is. That's right. And so
(24:14):
I want you to talk a little bit more about
more about that. Maybe is there a way to regulate
that what maybe your tenure as a congressional representative might
do as far as that's concerned. And I guess the
most important question is have you taken money from APAC.
Speaker 2 (24:31):
No, I have not and will not take money from APAC.
And I really appreciate that you drew this sinction that
you know, wanting to protect people from these right to
dissent laws is not the same as being anti Semitic,
just as you said, like, we can love the Jewish
people and deploy and say that Benjamin Netanyahu and his
(24:54):
administration is deplorable. I mean, just like all around the world,
I don't want people to conflate me with on our
right and say like that I accept that I most
certainly do not accept that right.
Speaker 1 (25:05):
Neither do you.
Speaker 2 (25:05):
So I think that there's like it's really, really really
important to draw the distinction, which is I can be
critical of the Israeli regime and also love and protect
and hold space for our Jewish brothers and sisters.
Speaker 1 (25:20):
I want to take a moment. I want you to continue,
but I want to credit Q for that, because Q
is the person that initially made it a point to
every time we again have a mic and an audience
to make that distinct. Yes, but please continue.
Speaker 2 (25:34):
No, it's really important because I think that in these
divided times, folks are very quickly swept up in a
pick this or that binarya yeah, pick this or that,
pick this or that. A woman approached me the other
day about the school voucher program here in Arizona. There's
school voucher programs all over the country that are experiencing
very similar problems as we are here in Arizona. And
(25:57):
you know, I think it's it's about being being transparent
and open about you know, it's not this or that.
There can be fraud. You can be a legal and
upstanding user of the voucher system and still there can
also be fraud. Those two things can happen at the
same time. So I love hearing you say that, and
(26:20):
I frequently say that, please do not conflate the two, sure,
because it is that this or that binary action that's
putting us in these buckets to where we cannot come
out and discuss.
Speaker 1 (26:33):
Yeah, well, I'll add to that that you know on
this show, in this program, it just happened quite a
bit that folks will sometimes in the comments, sometimes on
the street, suggests to me that I am being antisemitic
(26:55):
because of my advocacy for the Palestinian human beings, right,
and it's so interesting. I've shared this story on this
program before and I'll share it with you now. But
my first real world foray into Jewish culture was when
(27:16):
I was in high school. I went to a high
school that had a ton of Jewish people, and these
people were like visibly, they would wear like yamakas and
kipas and they would, you know, like someone would have
more traditional clothing, and it was just and these were
the people I played basketball with and we listened to
bone Thugs and harmony together and you know, this is
just there. You know, were kids, right, and then you
(27:40):
get a chance to learn what makes a Jewish person
versus what makes you know, a Muslim person or a
Christian person or whatever else. And you know all that stuff.
You couldn't make heads or tails of it when you're
a little kid, but you do recognize that these Jewish
people and the Muslim people and everyone else, they always
(28:01):
treated me very kind. They were very kind to me.
They loved me and my big o afro and all that.
You know, these are my guys, right. So one of
the things that I learned to do when I was
very young was I recognized. And I think I might
have learned this from Muslim people, but Jewish people observed
(28:22):
this as well, that Muslim folks, when there is pork
at the table at which they eat, some of them
will consider the entire table unclean. Wow, and it's not
just what's on your plate. So knowing that, knowing that
Muslim people and Jewish people observed that same rule, I
(28:47):
never wanted to violate a table of fellowship with my
Jewish brothers and sisters, with my Muslim brothers and sisters.
Now I knew more Jewish people at the time and
throughout my life. It's just I've been very fortunate in
that way. But I'm crazy about Muslim people too. I
think Islam is a beautiful faith just the same. However,
in this moment we're talking about Judaism. I made up
(29:11):
my mind when I might have been I don't know
fourteen fifteen, that I would never eat pork ever, so
that I never had to worry about making the mistake
of accidentally having pepperoni on a pizza at a table
with someone who might be Jewish or Muslim. And I
hadn't known that yet, because I don't want that table
to be unclean. To this day, I have not eaten pork.
(29:33):
I've told that story many times, and of course that
happened long before October seventh. But you know, the people
in the comments that say, oh, you're being anti Semitic, No,
I've actually lived. I put into practice actual loving, you know.
And that's not the one, that's not the only thing. However,
I think it's important when we make that distinction to
(29:54):
say that these rules coming from Israel have crippled our
capacity to change the world for the better for all people,
Jewish people included. And I think that's really important for
us to bear in mind. Stay tuned, we'll be back
more after this
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