John Heilemann talks to Patrick Gaspard, president of the Center for American Progress and President Obama’s former director of political affairs. In this segment, John asks Patrick to give Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer’s performance a letter grade. Gaspard pushes back on Heilmann’s request, and reflects on Schumer’s accomplishments throughout his career. He reaffirms Schumer’s concern that Democrats are running out of time when it comes to filibuster reform, and he harkens back to when Martin Luther King Jr. took a stand against the filibuster.
Watch the full episode of Hell & High Water to see Heilemann and Gaspard discuss President Biden’s push for voting rights legislation and filibuster reform in the Senate, and the political realities standing in the way of both; the prospects for Democrats heading into the 2022 midterm elections, and why Gaspard remains optimistic despite the enormous headwinds facing Biden and his party; and how the legacies of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Nelson Mandela, and Frederick Douglass have shaped Gaspard’s philosophy and approach to politics.
