FX, Hulu's The Weekly season 1 episode 8 recap: Hard Left

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THE WEEKLY “Hard Left” Episode 8 (Airs Sunday, August 4, 10:00 pm/ep) — Pictured: Sunrise bird dog training. CR: FX /

The Green New Deal

But this is only a jumping off point. Instead, Herndon turns the focus to the moderate Democrats who also dismissed the Green New Deal and the subsequent importance of the deal in the current Democratic primaries.

The Weekly transitions to 10 weeks before the first Democratic presidential debate where Prakash and other members of Sunrise Movement ponder the impact a Joe Biden presidential run would have on the Green New Deal’s momentum within the party. They joke that they’d love to see him say he’s not running but people should look at the Green New Deal.

Six weeks before the debate. Biden is in the race and he’s the immediate front runner. And now his team is saying Biden is going to come out with a “middle ground” on climate change. Of course the supporters of the Green New Deal (including Bernie Sanders) immediately shot back saying there’s no “middle ground” to be found here.

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Cut to a rally hosted by Sunrise Movement to support the Green New Deal. In attendance are Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez who both give speeches. Backstage, Gunn-Wright mentions how it’s mind-blowing that only six months after that fateful sit in, they have this platform.

After showing bits from Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez’s speeches, The Weekly plays a clip of Biden defending his stance on climate policy. Herndon then says that there are still those in the Democratic party that believe a moderate candidate is the only way to win the White House.

Herndon then introduces us to the Democrat organization Third Way and their co-founder Matt Bennett.

Bennett says that the biggest threat to the party being able to beat Trump in 2020 is nominating someone whose ideas make it difficult to win against him. He sees the decision of some Democrats to lean further left as dangerous and the way they’ll lose the election. He sees it as a gamble, one the country can’t afford to take because reelecting Trump would be devastating to the country.

Four weeks before the debate. More than half of the Democratic presidential hopefuls have signed on for the Green New Deal, Herndon says. But that’s not enough. Sunrise Movement wants them to pledge to not accept money from fossil fuel companies.

Herndon takes us inside a Sunrise meeting where they’re training members on how to ask questions in a way that will elicit a direct, on the record response from the Democratic nominees. They take turns practicing, trying different tactics (called “bird dogging”) to get the candidates to agree with their ideas and sign their pledge.

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