Transcript of AFSCME President Patrick Moran on Fighting for America’s Workers

Wo gibt's eigentlich die weißen Rosen aus Athen? Und wo regnet's für mich nochmal rote Rosen? Natürlich im Europa Rosarium Sangerhausen mit der größten Rosensammlung der Welt. Viele tausend Rosenarten warten auf Sie mit prachtvollen Blüten und herrlichem Duft. www.rosarium.de. Oh, MAGA Mike has gone full psycho like his Führer Donald Trump. As Trump continues to plummet in the polls, dragging down all the MAGA Republicans and destroying the Republican Republican Party with him. Karma, everybody. MAGA Mike was in Texas. Oof, the Republicans are polling so awful in Texas. It really looks like Texas could turn blue. So MAGA Mike's like, you can't vote the Democrats. They're gonna crash the stock market. They're gonna crash the markets. They're gonna crash everything. Watch MAGA Mike just totally have a psychotic breakdown on stage in Texas. Play this clip.

Reason that we are doing that is 'cause people like you understand The stakes are so high, right? This is for all the marbles. We cannot lose this midterm. I want you to imagine a nightmare scenario with these insurgent Marxist Democrats taking over the Congress. They would impeach the president on the first day. They've already said what they're going to do. They'll convert every committee of Congress into an investigative body. They'll spend every waking hour investigating the president and his family and the cabinet and going on this lawfare exercise. It would, it would roil the markets. It would undermine people's confidence in the U.S. and the economy. It would empower our enemies across the globe at the worst possible time. We cannot allow them to do that, okay? The problem that we have right now is the people coming behind us don't understand how dangerous these ideas are. They don't understand that socialism is a road to ruin. They don't understand that socialism is a step to get to communism. It's Marxist philosophy. They thought the communists— communism would be the utopia, the perfect society. They're dead wrong. Okay.

More from MAGA Mike right here where he's like, we need to defy history. We need to defy it. Here, play this clip.

Let me tell you something. There are brighter days ahead of us. Okay. Well, okay. This is, this is what we call a bridge election. What do I mean by that? I think it's the most important bridge election in the history of America. Why? Because if we just defy history and we hold the line and we get Tano elected and Eric and, and Teixeira and, and Monica de la Cruz here with a little while ago, we get all these guys elected. elected and we hold the majority, no matter how large. We just got to bridge it. Why? Because the next 2 cycles are much better days for us.

Why?

Do you know in 2028, that's the presidential cycle? Okay. How many of you know we have a much deeper bench than the Democrats do for the presidential? Okay. This is not a punchline. They're talking about running Kamala, Gavin Newsom, Pete Buttigieg, or AOC for president. Okay. I can't wait, Tano. I cannot wait for this. Okay. Now, 2028 is going to be a big, big year, but then it gets even better. Think of this. Texas, big thing in Texas, 2030. What happens in 2030? Listen, I'm about to tell you. The census, right? The decennial census. And when they count, when the census reflects the mass exodus out of the blue states, okay, you know, people are leaving California, New York, New Jersey, Illinois. Guess where they're going? Texas. All right. Right. They're coming to Texas. They're going to Florida. They're going to the Carolinas and Tennessee. And when the, when the When the census reflects that, we do reapportionment. Okay, the seats get reassigned in the House. We will have a flood of new Republican seats in red states. My friends, that's when we can get to the point we build a majority of 15 or 20 or 25 people like the good old days.

We don't have a one-seat margin anymore, guys. I don't have to be a mental health counselor every day. It'll be awesome. Okay, we have a big majority, but here's what it means. Okay, Texas gets more seats, guys. You're gonna have even bigger imprint on all this. All right.

Yeah, MAGA Mike looks like he's sweating up there. I mean, did you see some of the latest polls? You look at some of these congressional districts I talked about a little earlier where Donald Trump won in 2024 between 10 and 20 points. Democrats lead in Texas 15, Texas 28, Texas 34. Great work there with your gerrymander, Donald Trump, MAGA Mike, and Greg Abbott. Looks like a dummy-mander to me. More of MAGA Mike Johnson over here saying we need more Republicans elected to Congress 'cause that's the only way we can bring down inflation. Y'all were the ones who have increased inflation. What world are you living in? Listen to MAGA Mike right here. It's so dang delusional. Here, play this clip.

That's what's helped so many people. Now we got a lot more work to do. We need reinforcements to do it. You don't just flip a switch and get out of 40-year high inflation that Biden gave us, okay? It's a gradual process and we're getting that done. So great record to run on. We have far— second reason, we have far superior candidates, okay?

And MAGA Mike's like, we've got a wonderful, record to run on, everybody. We passed 800 pieces of legislation, landmark stuff. Dude, you didn't even work. I don't even know when Congress was in session. I felt like it was déjà vu. Every video I did was like, MAGA Mike shuts down Congress. And y'all were like, again, Ben? I'm like, yeah, they don't work. They don't do anything. All you did was pass the disastrous budget bill, which you called the big beautiful bill, which ripped away healthcare from people, destroyed people's lives, shut down rural healthcare facilities. But okay, go on, MAGA Mike. us about all the legislation that you did, sicko. Here, play this clip.

We got the votes delivered anyway, and we have an extraordinary record to run on. We passed over 800 pieces of legislation, landmark stuff to fix the mess that we inherited from the Biden-Harris years. Okay.

Yeah. MAGA Mike's just not right at all. And then MAGA Mike does a weird Donald Trump impression, and he talks about one of the candidates on stage next to him, and he's like, MAGA. He's like, Mike, Isn't this guy from Central Casting? Look how handsome he is. Look how, look how good looking he is. Are you attracted to him, MAGA Mike? Really weird stuff here. Let's play this clip.

Let me give you the words of the president himself. Mikey straight out of Central Casting. Okay, that's what he says. He says, look at him, Mike. He's so handsome. He's so strong. Mike is a lot bigger than you. Yes, sir. I'm, I know that big things come in small packages, sir, but also in big ones. Okay. China.

While the MAGA Republicans are doing that, labor unions are organizing. The American people are sick and tired of that crap right there. I wanna bring in Patrick Moran, the new president of AFSCME. I just interviewed him, just was elected as the new president of AFSCME. They represent what, 1.4 million, uh, workers at the federal level, at the Let me bring him in because we'll talk about the issues that I know you care about. Here, let's bring him in. Now I want to bring in Patrick Moran, the president of AFSCME. There was a recent election, elected as the new president of AFSCME, the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees, representing over 1.3 million active workers and retirees at least. I'm sure that number keeps on going up. Patrick, Patrick, I want to start by just Reflecting on, you know, you've been a fighter in the labor movement your whole life, labor leader from Maryland, now leading AFSCME. Talk to us about where we are right now, end of August. Obviously, from the Trump regime, it's pretty clear to everybody whether you're a D, an R, an independent, whoever, labor is under attack. I think we're seeing people recognizing that more and more every day.

But talk to us about where we are in this moment and what you're doing.

Right. I think— thanks, Ben. First of all, I'm honored to have been elected president of AFSCME, a union of more than 1.4 million members who dedicate their lives to communities and continue our legacy as a union that fights for justice and we win. I think that's quite obvious in our history and the results. Look, we're in an unprecedented time for American working people. We're facing huge affordability issues. They're closing down the potential for people to vote. But first and foremost, the services that our members provide are under attack, whether that's at the federal level or the state level or the county level. And we intend to push back as we always have. Our union has a long history from the Great Depression to the Great Recession, from the Memphis sanitation workers' strike in 1968 to the longest public employee strike in Garrett County, Maryland. Our union is made up of changemakers, hellraisers, and fighters. And as a lifelong organizer, I recognize the key to our success is exactly that, is organizing. More members in any union means more power. And so we can build an economy that works for people that work and rewards work and not just wealth.

As you know, and you've talked about, Ben, on your show, as I've heard, Billionaires have amassed an unprecedented amount of not only wealth but power, and they're using it. They're using it to attack working people, whether that's at the affordability level or the affordability crisis, or they're using it to twist and move their influence in the electoral sector. There is no satisfying their greed. The only way to fight back is to get organized. And it's how we reclaim our power and ensure that we all have a voice in the future that we're working towards.

You know, oftentimes there are these euphemisms that are being used to describe this economy where the wealth gap is so great. Sometimes it's referred to as like the K-shaped, where above the horizontal line, you have all these billionaires who are thriving, um, you know, with, with all the stuff that's going on. And then below it, you have most people who are, who are workers who have just been absolutely screwed over. Um, and, you know, you have Donald Trump out there and you have people in this Trump regime saying, this is it, this is the golden age, this is what we wanted, this, this is what we built. And, and, and I think that this is the golden age. This couldn't be— this couldn't be worse. And, you You know, you had these people who came in here, you know, and they made pitches, you know, to people in your unions and other unions across the country. And they said, we're going to fix it, we're going to make it better. But they knew a lot about the pain, Patrick, because they were the ones causing it. They knew the insight because they were the arsonists.

Right.

And I hope people are waking up. Do you see a difference? I mean, look, I'm sure you must have been disenchanted and upset when you saw what was happening a little bit in labor and some of this stuff coming from the oligarchs catching on and people in labor were buying into some of this stuff. It seems we're seeing a shift now. Are you seeing a shift now?

Well, yeah, I mean, on 2 fronts. One is I think people are seeing the golden age is golden for a select few, right? and it is not for the average person, the average working person, or even people that are a little more well-off than others, that it all seems like a ruse. It's fleecing people. And that hits across all sorts of specters. And look, the solution to that is getting out and getting organized and taking them on. Again, our union and all unions in this country now have an unprecedented approval rating. And we're going to go after that. We're going to give people and afford people the opportunity to get what they deserve, what they have earned. And that's a secure retirement, that's affordable healthcare, that's a strong, steady wage, and most importantly, a safe workplace. Because they are gutting that right now all over the place. And that's going to bring huge, huge disparity if we don't go after it. And we don't organize more folks. So, you know, next week I'm hitting the road and we're going to be traveling across the country to work on organizing campaigns and work with our members to get out the vote and grow our union and grow our power for all working people in the United States.

You know, I think about the different groups and jobs that fall within AFSCME. And, you know, you're talking about childhood education, behavior health, emergency services, environmental stewardship, healthcare, higher education, law enforcement. libraries, museums, cultural institutions, nursing, probation and parole, public administration, legal services, transportation, sanitation, and so much more. You know, and I think about the cruel and unusual policies by this regime. And it's like every day waking up and one of those things, one of these job descriptions are under attack. You know, whether it's on the nursing side, just to say—

Mm-hmm. You know what?

We don't consider that a professional degree anymore because if we don't do this, then we don't have to give certain types of federal funding. you know, or, you know, you know, childcare. We're just going to— we think that the children are the ones engaged in waste, fraud, and abuse. So we're going to take away the food from their mouths.

Yeah.

And then I— but then, but then I go, okay, this was your, like, dystopian vision. I said, okay, so surely where are Doge dividend checks that you promised if you did these things? Why is the deficit increasing? Why did the debt hit $40 trillion? So you've just tortured all these different groups that we've talked about right there, and you've screwed it up and you made the debt and the economy You double-whammied us. You screwed us.

Right. Well, and we're seeing that more and more, and that's why we're pushing back, and that's why we're fighting back at every single level, whether that's at the county level where you really see the hits and the effects of that, or at the state level, and at the federal level. While we have members coming down to talk to their legislators about what they're facing in the affordability problem. But not only that, just the recklessness of these cuts and the cruelty of these cuts, to be quite honest with you. And that's why our members are going to go out and vote in record numbers, and we're going to push them to do so because we have to be engaged. That's the only way we are going to make change, steady change, and move the ball forward is by going out Organizing more people, organizing our members around the issues, not around parties. We're not in the business of party building. Our job is to grow our union and to make sure that people have the opportunity to make a better life for themselves and their community. And that's what we are pushing and we're going to be pushing in the upcoming midterms.

Patrick, if people want to learn more about AFSCME or they're a current AFSCME member and they want to know, okay, I'm in this community, my hospital is getting shut down, or I'm getting screwed over here from this type of contract, or there's a consolidation and they want to get rid of my jobs over here with one of these.

Oh, what, what does that look—

what can they do? I mean, obviously within your network you're sending the emails and the message boards and, you know, you've got a complex—

Right.

But, but what should people know about what that looks like if they want to join the site and they're in Iowa or they're in North Dakota or they're in any state in this country?

Right. Well, we're in most of the states across the United States. They should reach out to their local union or their council, our AFSCME affiliate in their state, or they can always go to afsme.org, A-F-S-C-M-E dot O-R-G, and go in, tune in there, and they can get some direction as to where they can go in their individual state or their counties. And that's how they can first get involved. We really are pushing for more membership engagement. More membership engagement creates more awareness, more activity. And then at the end of the day, we build more. We gain more power and influence to make sure that services are provided, to make sure that our members are getting the resources they need in order to do their jobs. So, I mean, all of that fits together. At the end of the day, it's all about growing membership engagement and growing power for our members to ensure that they are providing the, the, the things they are supposed to provide and the services they are to provide in their communities.

I think this has been dark days for so many Americans. But I think the hope is now that we've seen it and this is Project 2025 raw and unfiltered, we can reject it not just for an election cycle, because my point, your point, is not about an election cycle. It's about generations and who we are as Americans. And do we support labor? Do we support workers? Do we support basic decency? And I hope the answer is yes. I know you're fighting for— to make sure the answer is yes. And we'll keep on doing that here. Patrick, congrats on becoming the president of AFSCME. And thanks for all your work you've done in the labor movement in Maryland for your career.

Thank you, Ben. Appreciate it and appreciate all the work, uh, The Midas Touch does. Take care. Keep it up.

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