Latest / Breaking Points with Krystal and Saagar / 6/24/26: Zohran Clean Sweep In NYC Elections, Pro Israel Dems Destroyed

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6/24/26: Zohran Clean Sweep In NYC Elections, Pro Israel Dems Destroyed · Breaking Points with Krystal and Saagar

0:00
Speaker 1: Hey, guys, Saga and Crystal here.
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Speaker 2: Good morning, everybody, Welcome to Breaking Points. We have an
0:34
Speaker 2: extraordinary show for you today because there was a political
0:37
Speaker 2: earthquake in New York City last night. As zoron Momdannie
0:42
Speaker 2: candidates swept the field in their races for federal office.
0:46
Speaker 2: Two Democratic incumbents have been tossed out. Truly, truly an
0:51
Speaker 2: extraordinary political night. Ryan Grimm was there for the whole thing.
0:55
Speaker 2: He got lots of exclusive interviews. He is going to
0:57
Speaker 2: join us both for that analysis and also over as
1:00
Speaker 2: my co host this morning, so we will dig into
1:02
Speaker 2: all of those races and what it will mean going
1:05
Speaker 2: forward for the Democratic Party and also for the country.
1:08
Speaker 2: Also keeping our eye on Iran and the way Congress
1:11
Speaker 2: could thwart any potential deal coming together. Doctor Tree de
1:15
Speaker 2: Parsi is going to join me to give his analysis. There.
1:18
Speaker 2: We've got a stunning report from the Washington Post about
1:21
Speaker 2: the way that Tulsi Gabbard has been taking orders, marching orders,
1:25
Speaker 2: and getting talking points from her guru throughout her political
1:29
Speaker 2: career and even potentially into her time here as Dni.
1:33
Speaker 2: The reporter on that story is going to join me
1:35
Speaker 2: to explain the wild story of how he got access
1:38
Speaker 2: to this treasure trove of materials with regard to Tulsi Gabbard,
1:42
Speaker 2: There's a big fight going down between Elon Musk, the
1:45
Speaker 2: richest man on the planet, and Roe Kana, actually his
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Speaker 2: representative in Silicon Valley. Elon is now threatening to sue Roe.
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Speaker 2: Roe is responding this is all over what Elon did
1:56
Speaker 2: to Usaid and also rose continuing efforts to push taxes
2:00
Speaker 2: on the rich. And finally, we did not want to
2:03
Speaker 2: lose sight of what is happening in Sudan, where another
2:06
Speaker 2: mass atrocity is being threatened so we'll break down what
2:10
Speaker 2: we know and why nations around the world are sounding
2:14
Speaker 2: the alarm about a potential human catastrophe that is on
2:18
Speaker 2: the verge of happening there in that war torn country.
2:22
Speaker 2: So before we jump in, guys, thank you so much
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2:37
Speaker 2: All right, with all of that being said, let's go
2:39
Speaker 2: ahead and jump into these extraordinary election results. So Zorn
2:44
Speaker 2: Mandani backed a number of DSA candidates, both for federal
2:48
Speaker 2: office but also for state legislative offices, and he swept
2:53
Speaker 2: across the board. He also endorsed Brad Lander, who's not
2:55
Speaker 2: technically a DSA candidate, against them incumbent Dan Goldman, as
2:59
Speaker 2: a said before, truly a political earthquake. Let's take a
3:03
Speaker 2: listen to a little bit of Zorn celebrating these extraordinary
3:06
Speaker 2: victories at Claire Valdez, who who was able to win
3:11
Speaker 2: an open seat there at her victory party.
3:13
Speaker 3: Let's take a look, my friends.
3:17
Speaker 4: I know many of you have been canvassing for months
3:23
Speaker 4: and at those campuses, at those fundraisers, at those events.
3:29
Speaker 5: When we introduce our candidates, we use a language of home.
3:35
Speaker 4: We say the next assembly member of the next state senator,
3:38
Speaker 4: the next congressperson. Tonight we use a language of fact.
3:47
Speaker 5: So please join me and welcoming up to the stage, Assembly,
3:52
Speaker 5: we went Diana Moreno, I def believe David Organ.
4:06
Speaker 6: I'm definitely.
4:23
Speaker 5: They're the one, the only Palder.
4:34
Speaker 2: Absolutely massive night for him, where he answered his critics
4:38
Speaker 2: going up against a bunch of Democratic power brokers. We'll
4:41
Speaker 2: get into more of that with Ryan in just a second. Also,
4:45
Speaker 2: just as a reminder, Zorn launched his slate of candidates
4:49
Speaker 2: at the federal level with this incredible ad during the
4:52
Speaker 2: NIXT playoff run.
4:53
Speaker 3: Let's go ahead and take a look at.
4:55
Speaker 4: That New York. We know anything's possible with a great teams,
5:00
Speaker 4: and I'll block billionaires from buying our elections.
5:04
Speaker 5: I'm Maria Alissa IVI Lechevalier, and I'll defend New York
5:06
Speaker 5: by abolishing ice.
5:08
Speaker 7: I'm claiveal DAEs, and I'll stand up against bad landlords
5:11
Speaker 7: and greedy corporations, get out and vote.
5:15
Speaker 4: This is the team, this is our year.
5:18
Speaker 2: I'm Brad Lander, I'm Claivell DAEs, I'm Marie A Liisa
5:21
Speaker 2: Ivi Lechevalier.
5:22
Speaker 3: And we approved this message.
5:25
Speaker 2: I mean, I don't know that their opponents really ever
5:27
Speaker 2: stood a chance. Just take a look of that ad.
5:29
Speaker 2: Let's put the actual results up on the screen here
5:31
Speaker 2: before we bring Ryan in. Let me just break these
5:34
Speaker 2: down a little bit for you guys. So hold on this.
5:36
Speaker 2: This is New York seventh Congressional district, commonly known as
5:39
Speaker 2: the Commie Corridor. So Nitti Velaskaz, who was herself a
5:43
Speaker 2: very powerful member of Congress, powerful inside of New York,
5:46
Speaker 2: had her own power base. They're progressive congresswoman. She retired
5:50
Speaker 2: and she endorsed Antonio Renoso, who had a slew of
5:55
Speaker 2: sort of you know, established power player endorsements, a bunch
5:59
Speaker 2: of unions behind timnity of Alaskaz herself. So in a
6:03
Speaker 2: relatively progressive candidate, but not as clear throa did a
6:08
Speaker 2: you know, opponent of genocide and you know, in favor
6:12
Speaker 2: of moving away from the current status with regard to
6:16
Speaker 2: Israel status quo. Claire Valdez, who had the endorsement of DSA,
6:20
Speaker 2: had the endorsement of Zoron Mom Donnie also Hassan Piker
6:24
Speaker 2: will talk a little bit more about Hassan and the
6:25
Speaker 2: way he deserves some credit here as a kingmaker in
6:27
Speaker 2: these races as well. In any case, with their backing,
6:31
Speaker 2: she was able to defeat Antonio Reinoso, who did not
6:34
Speaker 2: come out of nowhere. He was the Brooklyn Borough president.
6:37
Speaker 2: And not only did she win, she wins here overwhelmingly.
6:42
Speaker 2: This is a twenty one point victory. Close to twenty
6:45
Speaker 2: one point victory with ninety two percent of the votes
6:48
Speaker 2: in was not even close. Let's go to the next one.
6:52
Speaker 2: We can break this one down as well. This is
6:54
Speaker 2: the twelfth district. Now, in this one you didn't have
6:57
Speaker 2: a Zoron candidate. The differences between these the top candidates
7:02
Speaker 2: in this race were less along the lines of Israel
7:06
Speaker 2: and Palestine and genocide. Michael Lasher was the choice of
7:11
Speaker 2: retiring Democrat Jerry Nadler. This was another open seat. Alex
7:15
Speaker 2: Boris has really positioned himself as an AI critic. You
7:18
Speaker 2: can see that did pretty well for him, but not
7:21
Speaker 2: enough for him to be able to overtake Michael Lasher.
7:24
Speaker 2: There were tens of million dollars spent from AI packs
7:30
Speaker 2: in this race. We'll get Ryan to break those dynamics
7:32
Speaker 2: down for us when he joins. Let's go ahead and
7:34
Speaker 2: take a look at the next one, thirteenth district here,
7:37
Speaker 2: this one was the real shocker. So ADRIANO Espaiat, Democratic incumbent.
7:45
Speaker 2: I believe he's been in office for five terms, so
7:48
Speaker 2: long term. You know, he's been there for a decade.
7:51
Speaker 2: I actually was living in this district when he got elected,
7:53
Speaker 2: it was quite a while ago. He is the chair
7:57
Speaker 2: of the Congressional Progressive Caucus. He is again a real
8:03
Speaker 2: power broker. This is not a backbencher. This is someone
8:05
Speaker 2: very influential within the Democratic Caucus. Of course, had all
8:09
Speaker 2: of the establishment backing. Daria Liza Avila Chevalier, who we
8:14
Speaker 2: just had on the show along with Claire Valdez the
8:16
Speaker 2: other day. She was an organizer at the Columbia University
8:21
Speaker 2: student encampment. She was motivated in part by her disgust
8:25
Speaker 2: over the treatment arrest of Machmud Khalil and Congressman Espayat's
8:29
Speaker 2: failure to stand up for him and to to fight
8:33
Speaker 2: for him, and his support of the brutal tactics against
8:36
Speaker 2: those protesters, against those pro Palestine protesters. She was subject
8:41
Speaker 2: to incredible racist attacks and smears in the final days
8:45
Speaker 2: and weeks of this campaign, and yet here she is,
8:49
Speaker 2: having never sought elected office before, with all of the
8:53
Speaker 2: establishment players backing Espayat, she was able to knock him off.
8:58
Speaker 2: Why because of the mood of the Democratic base and
9:02
Speaker 2: because of the endorsement of Zoran Mamdani and also potentially
9:06
Speaker 2: some very significant phone banking from the Hassan Piker community,
9:09
Speaker 2: which I do think plays a role in here, especially
9:11
Speaker 2: given the fact that this race was relatively close. This
9:14
Speaker 2: one is truly the most shocking and an absolute political earthquake.
9:19
Speaker 2: And then, last, but not least, let's take a look
9:22
Speaker 2: at this race between Bradlander and Dan Goldman. Goldman being
9:26
Speaker 2: a Democratic incumbent here, this is a lower Manhattan district
9:30
Speaker 2: primarily Bradlander just not even close here. You know, thirty
9:35
Speaker 2: point victory. You just don't see this. Typically with incumbent candidates,
9:40
Speaker 2: sometimes they lose. That in and out of itself is extraordinary,
9:43
Speaker 2: but losing by thirty points, thirty plus points is truly wild.
9:48
Speaker 2: You guys will remember Bradlander we've also had on the
9:51
Speaker 2: show a few different times. He was a mayoral candidate.
9:54
Speaker 2: But when you realize that, you know, the path was
9:56
Speaker 2: not open for him. He made the decision to endure
10:00
Speaker 2: Zoron Mom Donnie. They did sort of like a co
10:02
Speaker 2: endorsement leaning into the primary. He was one of his
10:05
Speaker 2: most important validators, especially you know, sort of assuasion concerns
10:10
Speaker 2: in the Jewish community. Blander himself being Jewish and was
10:14
Speaker 2: an important part of that coalition that brought Zor On
10:16
Speaker 2: Mom Donnie to victory. Zoran backed him in this race
10:19
Speaker 2: and it ends up not even being close. Last thing
10:23
Speaker 2: before we bring Ryan in, if we could put a
10:25
Speaker 2: seven up on the screen, just to show that the
10:28
Speaker 2: the demptee party vibes were not exclusively in New York
10:32
Speaker 2: last night. This is analysis from Tanielho does a great
10:35
Speaker 2: job following all of these elections. He says, across New
10:38
Speaker 2: York and Maryland, I'm counting twelve Democratic incumbents who lost
10:43
Speaker 2: or in one case, are trailing to a challenger to
10:45
Speaker 2: their left. Two Congress members those what we just talked about,
10:48
Speaker 2: both in New York. Four state senators two in New York,
10:51
Speaker 2: two in Maryland. Six state House members, five in New
10:55
Speaker 2: York and one in Maryland. So twelve Democratic incumbents falling
11:00
Speaker 2: to left wing rivals, some extraordinary upsets in New York City,
11:06
Speaker 2: and a lot to dig into now with Ryan grim
11:08
Speaker 2: who's there on the.
11:09
Speaker 3: Ground joining us.
11:13
Speaker 2: Now, we've got our very own Ryan Grimm, who is
11:16
Speaker 2: there in New York City. And Ryan we usually call,
11:19
Speaker 2: we affectionately refer to this version of the show with
11:21
Speaker 2: you and I hosting as the Commie Takeover, and I
11:24
Speaker 2: think the name has never been more apt than it
11:27
Speaker 2: is perhaps right now.
11:28
Speaker 7: I think that's right. I'm joining you from a hotel
11:31
Speaker 7: in the Commy Corridor where I don't think the commedis
11:33
Speaker 7: went to bed last night. I think they are still up,
11:36
Speaker 7: and this vendor is going to go at least some
11:39
Speaker 7: time into next week.
11:41
Speaker 3: So what was the energy?
11:42
Speaker 2: Tell us what you did yesterday, who you talked to,
11:44
Speaker 2: what your impression was of why these races went the
11:47
Speaker 2: way they did. Obviously, the big headline takeaway here is
11:49
Speaker 2: Zora and Mom Donnie. His entire slate of candidates swept
11:52
Speaker 2: across the board, including he took some extraordinary risks here,
11:56
Speaker 2: you know, Daria Liza versus the chair of the Congressional
12:01
Speaker 2: Hispanic Caucus, taking on the Brooklyn Borough president and Nidia
12:06
Speaker 2: of Alasquez's choice and all the unions, you know, all
12:09
Speaker 2: that backing down ballot. He also, you know, picked a
12:12
Speaker 2: number of fights that turned out victorious.
12:14
Speaker 3: Here.
12:15
Speaker 2: Is that your sense is that Zorin really made the
12:17
Speaker 2: difference here where their other dynamics play playing out that
12:19
Speaker 2: you would point.
12:20
Speaker 7: To, Yes, So I was. I spent most of the
12:23
Speaker 7: day in Harlem yesterday because I figured if if it
12:27
Speaker 7: was going to be a huge sweep, then it was
12:29
Speaker 7: going to be Daria Lisa that kind of put the
12:31
Speaker 7: third of them over the top. And talking to canvassers
12:35
Speaker 7: out there, what they told me, actually, one of them
12:37
Speaker 7: said that on the door the voter learned about Darya
12:41
Speaker 7: Lisa from breaking points. That was kind of interesting. But
12:44
Speaker 7: other but other than that, what they were saying is
12:47
Speaker 7: that when the race was sleepy, she was kind of
12:51
Speaker 7: she was competitive, and they thought that she had a
12:53
Speaker 7: real chance. But then after he endorsed the understanding of
12:58
Speaker 7: the race among voters that they were communicating with went
13:02
Speaker 7: from zero to sixty all like all of a sudden.
13:05
Speaker 7: The day before you were like, oh yeah, I think
13:08
Speaker 7: I've heard of Darry something maybe to then after Mom
13:12
Speaker 7: Donnie endorsed, everybody they spoke to was like, oh, yeah,
13:15
Speaker 7: that's she's the one that Mom Donnie is supporting. I'm
13:17
Speaker 7: supporting her. It was they said, it was like night
13:20
Speaker 7: and day from his endorsement. So and I think that
13:24
Speaker 7: part of the feature, the benefit of these kind of new, inexperienced,
13:30
Speaker 7: untested candidates for Mom Donnie is exactly that that they
13:35
Speaker 7: don't actually have their own outside of DSA, which you know,
13:39
Speaker 7: he's kind of the leader of at this point, outside
13:43
Speaker 7: of day, they don't have their own kind of political
13:45
Speaker 7: base and their own political track record, and so they
13:48
Speaker 7: are just kind of loyal foot soldiers now of this
13:52
Speaker 7: of this DSA Mom Donnie movement that is rising in
13:56
Speaker 7: New York City. So yeah, you know, once Brad Lander's
14:02
Speaker 7: race was called at like nine oh eight or something nine,
14:06
Speaker 7: which may a friend was emailing me and saying that
14:11
Speaker 7: among Democrats, that's the biggest loss of an incumbent in forever,
14:16
Speaker 7: Like you'd have to go back really far.
14:19
Speaker 3: Liz Chang in terms of the point differential, right.
14:22
Speaker 7: Liz Cheney got washed, I think even worse than Dan Goldman.
14:25
Speaker 7: But not a whole lot worse. I mean, she got hammered.
14:29
Speaker 7: But on the Democratic side, you know, even Joe Crowley lost,
14:33
Speaker 7: you know by like fifteen or something like that. He
14:36
Speaker 7: just got absolutely annihilated. And so then once he lost,
14:39
Speaker 7: and then the early vote comes in and Claire Valdez
14:42
Speaker 7: is is significantly ahead, and then she gets called by
14:44
Speaker 7: like nine thirty ninety five. The mood at the at
14:48
Speaker 7: the Darrel Lesa headquarters was a bullion and then you know,
14:52
Speaker 7: the wins at the at the at the state legislative
14:55
Speaker 7: level just kept rolling in and it it was kind
14:58
Speaker 7: of stunning to some people who thought that the attacks
15:02
Speaker 7: on her being a Muslim Haitian who you know, said
15:06
Speaker 7: f Kamala Harris, Like they thought that combination would be
15:10
Speaker 7: enough for the kind of older voters in the district
15:13
Speaker 7: to turn them off. But it didn't. And if you
15:17
Speaker 7: imagine you're Kamala Harris right now thinking about running for
15:20
Speaker 7: president in twenty twenty eight, like the biggest issue in
15:24
Speaker 7: that race was that tweet of hers, and she's still won.
15:27
Speaker 7: That has to really, I think shake things up for
15:31
Speaker 7: the Democratic Party bosses.
15:33
Speaker 2: And my understanding Ryan based on an analysis I saw
15:36
Speaker 2: is that Daria Lisa is very diverse district that she's
15:38
Speaker 2: running to represent, one that I know relatively well.
15:42
Speaker 3: She won black.
15:43
Speaker 2: Voters in the district way in spite of, you know
15:47
Speaker 2: the fact that obviously there's an affinity with black voters
15:49
Speaker 2: and the first female vice president, and I know that's
15:51
Speaker 2: why a big part of why they were sending out
15:54
Speaker 2: those mailers that featured her tweet saying Kamala Harris.
15:57
Speaker 3: And ended up not being enough.
16:00
Speaker 2: Actually wondering if some of those like just blatantly racist
16:02
Speaker 2: attacks on her, calling to question her ethnicity, using the
16:05
Speaker 2: word Haitian as if it's a slur, floating some sort
16:09
Speaker 2: of like weird great replacement theory that she and Zoron
16:12
Speaker 2: were going to displace Dominicans and replace them with Haitians
16:15
Speaker 2: and Muslims in the district, et cetera. I'm wondering if
16:18
Speaker 2: some of that stuff didn't ultimately backfire on Sbaat it's
16:22
Speaker 2: certainly in retrospect now reads as quite desperate of a tactic.
16:26
Speaker 7: Yeah, I think that's right. I think certainly for some
16:28
Speaker 7: Dominican voters that kind of anti Haitian slur is going
16:33
Speaker 7: to land. But Esbiot has history in this district. Then
16:36
Speaker 7: he attempted a couple times to take Charlie Wrangle out
16:40
Speaker 7: and eventually succeeded in knocking out Charlie Rangle, who in
16:44
Speaker 7: the black community in Harlem extraordinarily popular, served for like
16:48
Speaker 7: you forty years up there kind of a larger than
16:50
Speaker 7: life figure before him was this guy Adam Clayton Powell,
16:54
Speaker 7: who served for like what another forty or fifty years
16:56
Speaker 7: like this absolutely legendary Harlem member of Congress. So he
17:01
Speaker 7: he broke that kind of train from Adam Clayton Powell
17:04
Speaker 7: to Charlie Wrangle And so that was only ten years ago.
17:07
Speaker 7: So he didn't so he didn't have a big kind
17:09
Speaker 7: of well of goodwill to draw on. And so then
17:12
Speaker 7: I think when you when he comes in and says, oh,
17:16
Speaker 7: well she's actually Haitian, it it felt it felt off
17:21
Speaker 7: and it and it did not work, particularly with that district.
17:23
Speaker 7: He also one of his big kind of slogans that
17:26
Speaker 7: he had up around in the district, he would say,
17:28
Speaker 7: an attack on one of us is attack on all
17:30
Speaker 7: of us, and it would be a picture of him
17:33
Speaker 7: and like tis James and the attack I'm like, wait,
17:35
Speaker 7: what is he talking about? Here. Oh the oh. He's
17:38
Speaker 7: saying that the attack is him getting a primary challenger,
17:43
Speaker 7: and it's like you're trying to lump us all in together. No,
17:45
Speaker 7: like you have a you have a primary challenge. He's
17:47
Speaker 7: not not attacking us here on that backfire too interesting,
17:52
Speaker 7: you know.
17:53
Speaker 2: I obviously Zorn, you know, comes out here as the
17:56
Speaker 2: king maker, and just like every single one of his
17:59
Speaker 2: can it's won the vast majority of those I think
18:02
Speaker 2: all of them except for Brad Lander who's not a
18:05
Speaker 2: DSA member, All of the rest of them were DSA members,
18:07
Speaker 2: So huge, huge win for DSA. But I also want
18:10
Speaker 2: to say I think Hassan Piker has genuinely been extremely
18:14
Speaker 2: impactful in his community. They reportedly phone banked like ninety
18:19
Speaker 2: thousand calls for Daria Eliza in the last days of
18:23
Speaker 2: this campaign. The campaign says that that result in at
18:26
Speaker 2: least two thousand voters going on to the polls for her.
18:29
Speaker 2: The margin of the victory is not a lot more
18:32
Speaker 2: than two thousand votes. Not to mention Ryan, you know,
18:36
Speaker 2: Centrist really decided starting with the Zoran campaign, that they
18:39
Speaker 2: were going to try to make Hassan and his most
18:42
Speaker 2: controversial statements a centerpiece of their attack on the left
18:46
Speaker 2: and talk about strategies that completely backfired. I think they
18:50
Speaker 2: successfully did, in a way make him a litmus test.
18:53
Speaker 2: But for a Democratic base that is overwhelmingly now disgusted
18:57
Speaker 2: with the genocide, pro palistine, opposed to the status quo
19:01
Speaker 2: of our relationship with Israel, in association with Hasan Piker
19:05
Speaker 2: became a symbol of, oh, you're on the good side
19:08
Speaker 2: of this issue. You're with the good guys that opposed
19:10
Speaker 2: the genocide. So not only in terms of the actual
19:13
Speaker 2: organizing that he did that may genuinely have helped to
19:16
Speaker 2: make the difference in this very close race with Daria Lisa,
19:19
Speaker 2: but also in the way that he became that they
19:21
Speaker 2: made him this litmus test. I don't know that I've
19:24
Speaker 2: seen a more foolhardy and disastrous political tactic that's been deployed.
19:28
Speaker 2: And you can see this not just in New York
19:30
Speaker 2: City obviously, I mean the other campaign that really stands
19:32
Speaker 2: out for this is Michigan and Abdul al Sayah, who
19:35
Speaker 2: has only surged to the lead in the polls since
19:38
Speaker 2: this whole flap about how dare you campaign with Hassan
19:41
Speaker 2: Piker and one of his opponents Malorie mcmorro, who chose
19:44
Speaker 2: the other side of that debate, has seen the complete
19:46
Speaker 2: collapsing of her political standing.
19:49
Speaker 7: Yeah, and he also I think played a pivotal role
19:52
Speaker 7: in helping to elect Adam Hamaway in New Jersey and
19:55
Speaker 7: then Chris Rabu nearby in Philadelphia. He went out and
19:59
Speaker 7: rallied with them, pained with them, and they embraced him
20:01
Speaker 7: in it and it helped them kind of pop off.
20:04
Speaker 7: I was with Hassan in Harlem yesterday while he was streaming,
20:07
Speaker 7: and you can, I mean, you can see it on
20:09
Speaker 7: the stream. The the reaction to him is is is wild.
20:14
Speaker 7: Like the number of people you know in that district, white, black, brown,
20:20
Speaker 7: new you know, new new residence, old residents, you know
20:23
Speaker 7: who know who he is under under forty five or so,
20:26
Speaker 7: all of them or under forty but a very broad base,
20:31
Speaker 7: and a ton of people were you know, coming up
20:33
Speaker 7: to him saying like they watched the stream regularly. They uh,
20:36
Speaker 7: they they voted because of him, you know, they got
20:38
Speaker 7: into politics because of him, and thanking you know, thanking
20:42
Speaker 7: him for kind of giving some meaning and giving them
20:46
Speaker 7: some purpose like the it feels like they have, which
20:48
Speaker 7: he talks about on the stream is like that to
20:51
Speaker 7: you know, channel your rage into your community and and
20:53
Speaker 7: get active, uh, in order to kind of push back
20:57
Speaker 7: against this the adomization and the kind of the depression
21:01
Speaker 7: that is that just comes about from the kind of
21:04
Speaker 7: modern society that we live in. So yeah, I think
21:08
Speaker 7: that all of these efforts by the New York Times
21:11
Speaker 7: or by Third Way, or by any of these other
21:15
Speaker 7: candidates to try to stigmatize him have only elevated his visibility,
21:22
Speaker 7: which then forces people to polarize around that question of
21:25
Speaker 7: good and evil, you know, moral and immoral. And I
21:28
Speaker 7: think you're exactly right that when people have to face
21:31
Speaker 7: those questions, it's certainly in a democratic primary they're going
21:34
Speaker 7: to come down on the side of good.
21:36
Speaker 2: Yeah, let's go and take a listen to just a
21:39
Speaker 2: little bit of as On reacting to some of the
21:41
Speaker 2: victories from last night. This is A eight and him
21:44
Speaker 2: talking about how he may change his endorsement process going forward.
21:47
Speaker 7: Hey, after tonight my price went up. You have to
21:49
Speaker 7: be a Democratic Socialist if you want some of this
21:51
Speaker 7: fucking shine a right.
21:53
Speaker 2: Sorry, So only DSA members may have flied out, I
21:57
Speaker 2: mean talk about DSA though, because obviously very important for
22:02
Speaker 2: Zorn's victory. You know, he deserves a lot of credit
22:05
Speaker 2: for the risks that he took and the selective nature.
22:08
Speaker 2: You know, he didn't jump on board with everything. He
22:11
Speaker 2: famously refused to endorse Chiosa against Takim Jeffreys and she decides, okay,
22:16
Speaker 2: I'm going to take a pass on this. Didn't endorse
22:17
Speaker 2: any of the challengers to Richie Torres. Torres is able
22:20
Speaker 2: to win, although you know, his challengers did get some
22:23
Speaker 2: chunk of the vote, didn't endorse and this one I'm
22:25
Speaker 2: a little bit bummed about. But Chuck Park actually came
22:28
Speaker 2: pretty close against Grace Meng with not a lot of
22:32
Speaker 2: support whatsoever. It seems like if he had had some
22:35
Speaker 2: endorsement in backing, he may actually have been able to
22:37
Speaker 2: get across the finish line there. And we spoke with him.
22:39
Speaker 2: He seems like a great guy and a great candidate
22:42
Speaker 2: as well. But talk about what this means for DSA
22:46
Speaker 2: and their role in the Democratic Party. I saw CNN
22:48
Speaker 2: with some polling that says, you know, DSA and socialists
22:51
Speaker 2: in general more popular than Democrats in Congngresce at this point.
22:55
Speaker 2: So it should be no surprise that in democratic primaries
22:58
Speaker 2: you increasingly see DSA backed candidates rising.
23:02
Speaker 3: To the top.
23:04
Speaker 7: Yeah, and WITHCHSA, it was interesting way that he approached it.
23:08
Speaker 7: He did it kind of democratically. DSA is very famously
23:11
Speaker 7: a very democratic organization internally, and he, like any other member,
23:16
Speaker 7: kind of went to the New York City DSA and
23:19
Speaker 7: made his case for why they should not endorse him
23:23
Speaker 7: at this moment, just strategically and tactically, and he narrowly
23:28
Speaker 7: won that vote. And without that support, you know, she
23:31
Speaker 7: wasn't able to go forward. You know, clearly he wanted to,
23:35
Speaker 7: you know, focus his energy on other races. I think
23:38
Speaker 7: you're right by the way that I in Park should
23:40
Speaker 7: probably run again in two years. And if he gets
23:43
Speaker 7: you know, if he gets any attention at all, I
23:46
Speaker 7: think he can he can win. He can win that race.
23:49
Speaker 4: You know.
23:50
Speaker 7: New York, of course, is a little bit unique when
23:53
Speaker 7: it comes to the ability to have that you know,
23:55
Speaker 7: this many kind of young professionals in their twenties and thirties,
23:59
Speaker 7: and it's hard to replicate it everywhere around the country,
24:04
Speaker 7: but in major cities like Philadelphia and Chicago, where you
24:08
Speaker 7: do have you know, urban cores, you're seeing you know,
24:11
Speaker 7: similar ability to kind of come together, and it really
24:16
Speaker 7: it really shows the holiness of the kind of coalitional
24:20
Speaker 7: politics that say, like New York City's WFP represented in Brooklyn,
24:25
Speaker 7: like they they got behind Antonio Reinoso, who had the
24:29
Speaker 7: support of basically all the labor unions, all these non
24:33
Speaker 7: all these nonprofit progressive organizations that have you know, memberships
24:38
Speaker 7: and that you know do work in the district, and
24:43
Speaker 7: they didn't have the kind of manpower behind it like
24:45
Speaker 7: it did not there's something broken between it and voters,
24:49
Speaker 7: Like they weren't able to turn that out. So they're
24:51
Speaker 7: going to have to do some real thinking about, you know,
24:55
Speaker 7: why why DSA was able to you know, build so
24:58
Speaker 7: much power in New York City whereas they could. But
25:03
Speaker 7: they are the you know, they're they're the predominant force
25:06
Speaker 7: in New York City politics at this point. And just
25:09
Speaker 7: you know, basically, you know, eight years ago was when
25:13
Speaker 7: Jujune of twenty eighteen when AOC won her shock primary,
25:17
Speaker 7: and from then to now they have become not just
25:21
Speaker 7: a player, but dominant.
25:23
Speaker 2: I want to talk a little bit about AOC because
25:26
Speaker 2: in some ways, I know, she endorsed down ballot some
25:29
Speaker 2: of the same candidates as Zorn and they were predominantly successful.
25:33
Speaker 2: She not only didn't endorse any of the victorious federal candidates,
25:38
Speaker 2: she hasn't endorsed against any Democratic incumbents.
25:42
Speaker 3: And so, you know, that creates.
25:45
Speaker 2: She's had this like sort of very no risk strategy,
25:49
Speaker 2: doesn't want to rock the boat with her relationships inside
25:52
Speaker 2: the house. That's, you know, apparently the reason why. Also,
25:54
Speaker 2: she decided not to endorse her own chief of staff,
25:56
Speaker 2: Shoycott Chaker body in a way that you could have
25:59
Speaker 2: very much, which made a difference for him too. And
26:02
Speaker 2: so while Zorn is rightfully being recognized as like this
26:06
Speaker 2: king maker, now, it's pretty wild to see AOC, who
26:11
Speaker 2: in a lot of ways kicked off this moment in
26:13
Speaker 2: this movement that you know, ultimately builds to where we
26:16
Speaker 2: are today, seeing her being absent from the movement, that
26:20
Speaker 2: it's very easy to imagine her being the one that's
26:23
Speaker 2: getting all the credit now, Like, look at all the
26:24
Speaker 2: power AOC has, and yet she's decided to facto to
26:28
Speaker 2: effectively be an incumbent protector since she refuses to endorse
26:31
Speaker 2: against any of them, I find that pretty you know,
26:35
Speaker 2: pretty extraordinary. And she wouldn't even endorse Brad Lander for example,
26:38
Speaker 2: in a race that was almost a slam dunk against
26:41
Speaker 2: Dan Goldman. And it's easy to take that for granted
26:44
Speaker 2: because that was kind of a foregone conclusion the margin
26:46
Speaker 2: was so large. But as you rightly point out, anytime
26:49
Speaker 2: any incumbent goes down, that's pretty wild. So what do
26:52
Speaker 2: you make of AOC being on the sidelines for this
26:56
Speaker 2: big empty party moment? Because I think it's a you know,
26:59
Speaker 2: I think it's a in terms of, you know, as
27:01
Speaker 2: someone who wants to see these candidates succeed, it's unfortunate
27:05
Speaker 2: to see the level of power that she could bring
27:07
Speaker 2: not being brought to bear in these instances. But also
27:10
Speaker 2: if she has bigger national ambitions, it really seems like
27:13
Speaker 2: a massive political missed opportunity for her, right.
27:17
Speaker 7: I mean, we've been talking about, you know, kind of
27:18
Speaker 7: mom Donnie in the DSA through this whole conversation because
27:21
Speaker 7: she absent to herself from it. The Dan Goldman example
27:25
Speaker 7: is really perfect because can you imagine if the shoes
27:30
Speaker 7: on the other foot, You know, if AOC had a
27:33
Speaker 7: credible challenger in her district, do you think Dan Goldman,
27:36
Speaker 7: of all people, is going to give her the respect
27:39
Speaker 7: of incumbency and not support that. Like so she's giving
27:43
Speaker 7: you know, she's throwing her waysh in and endorsement, but
27:46
Speaker 7: like she didn't help Brad Lander. She's doing this for
27:51
Speaker 7: people who whose political project is to destroy her. Yeah,
27:57
Speaker 7: now that's not the case with that with Brooklyn seven
27:59
Speaker 7: would Claire Valdez and I saw her after her victory
28:03
Speaker 7: last night, and and AOC was one of the few calls,
28:06
Speaker 7: uh that that Claire took that was an open race
28:09
Speaker 7: like that that there wasn't even an incumbent. There was
28:12
Speaker 7: different there is that Nidia of Alaskaz, who a Puerto
28:15
Speaker 7: Rican congressman who's retiring and had been had had become
28:19
Speaker 7: something of a mentor to AOC and on Capitol Hill,
28:22
Speaker 7: was retiring and she wanted Reinoso, and so she pushed
28:26
Speaker 7: very hard for AOC to stay out of the race,
28:28
Speaker 7: and AOC, out of respect for for that relationship, decided
28:32
Speaker 7: to do so. But that's an that's an interesting decision, like.
28:35
Speaker 2: This is a retiring Donnie had a kind of a
28:38
Speaker 2: similarly difficult decision because he didn't he is that the
28:42
Speaker 2: one where he actually told her like, oh, I'm not
28:44
Speaker 2: gonna oh it was as where there was a pledge
28:48
Speaker 2: that was made, but he's supportive of him.
28:51
Speaker 7: Yeah, and Mom Donnie very well could have come up
28:54
Speaker 7: with some type of candidate that both you know, Ndia
28:57
Speaker 7: of Alaska is a w FP and DSA could all
28:59
Speaker 7: agree on that that that there was a path to that.
29:02
Speaker 7: But but they decided, no, we're going, we're going to
29:05
Speaker 7: we're going to fight this, We're going all the way
29:07
Speaker 7: for it. And then AOC stayed out of it. And
29:10
Speaker 7: then yeah, also stayed out of uh of the of
29:13
Speaker 7: the SB race, even though even though you know, a PAK,
29:17
Speaker 7: which would love to see AOC project destroyed, was spending
29:21
Speaker 7: millions to try to boost SPO. But yeah, the difference
29:24
Speaker 7: and ruthlessness between her and Mom Donnie is is is
29:28
Speaker 7: interesting there because to your point, yeah, all the reporting
29:31
Speaker 7: is and this is my understanding too, that when Spot
29:34
Speaker 7: endorsed after the primary has endorsed Mom Donnie, Mom Donnie's
29:39
Speaker 7: you know, promised not to primary him or or to
29:42
Speaker 7: get behind the challenger. And yeah, he did that, which is,
29:47
Speaker 7: you know, shows kind of how cutthroat he is, which
29:49
Speaker 7: is unusual on.
29:50
Speaker 3: The on the left, it is very unusual.
29:53
Speaker 2: In fact, I don't recall ever seeing it so it's
29:56
Speaker 2: pretty incredible. You know, a couple of the So I
30:00
Speaker 2: watched some of the CNN coverage last night, and you
30:03
Speaker 2: and I are co hosting again tomorrow, will do a
30:05
Speaker 2: whole thing on like the media reaction and the establishment reaction.
30:08
Speaker 3: We'll get it. We'll get into all of that. So
30:09
Speaker 3: never you worry.
30:10
Speaker 2: But you know, a couple of things that I heard
30:13
Speaker 2: from Republicans and from the Neurotandans and Corey Bookers of
30:17
Speaker 2: the world is like, well, this is still if you
30:21
Speaker 2: look at the watch parties or the victory parties, it's
30:24
Speaker 2: still mostly these young white professionals. And that's what DSA
30:28
Speaker 2: ultimately is. You know, my view is that's an increasingly
30:31
Speaker 2: difficult not that there isn't some truth that like in
30:34
Speaker 2: terms of the bedrock, like the core sort of organizing
30:37
Speaker 2: base of the DSA. I think there is some truth there,
30:39
Speaker 2: but it becomes a very difficult argument to sustain when now,
30:44
Speaker 2: just with the victories last night, you had extremely diverse
30:48
Speaker 2: districts that were one in every borough of the city
30:51
Speaker 2: save for Staten Island.
30:53
Speaker 3: So how can you look, for.
30:54
Speaker 2: Example, at Daria Lisa, who obviously herself is not white,
30:58
Speaker 2: and who won the you know, majority of the black
31:01
Speaker 2: voters in the district and say, oh, this is just
31:03
Speaker 2: a thing for for white gentrifiers in these in these neighborhoods.
31:08
Speaker 7: Yeah, and I think if they only one with these
31:12
Speaker 7: like gentrified neighborhoods and it's a bunch of gentrifiers that
31:16
Speaker 7: are doing the organizing, then I think you have a
31:20
Speaker 7: pretty clean hit on that. But both in mom Donnie's
31:23
Speaker 7: mayoral race and then in Espaot here, I mean, Brooklyn
31:28
Speaker 7: seven is so gentrified that it's kind of beyond there's
31:31
Speaker 7: it's very like that's just what it is. But in Harlem,
31:35
Speaker 7: like you were saying, you know, they diary Lisa won
31:39
Speaker 7: a significant portion and probably a majority of the black
31:42
Speaker 7: vote in Harlem. So what I would say to people
31:45
Speaker 7: who were like who were skeptical of this this element
31:48
Speaker 7: of politics, is that, Okay, yes, it is true that
31:53
Speaker 7: in the past a lot of voters would support somebody
31:57
Speaker 7: like in Espaot and you feel like those voters kind
32:00
Speaker 7: of getting pushed out by these people who are coming
32:02
Speaker 7: in and they've got their laptops and they're really good
32:05
Speaker 7: at this block by block organizing. But what's so critical
32:09
Speaker 7: is that they're not doing it with big money. They're
32:11
Speaker 7: not doing it with corporate money, they're not doing it
32:14
Speaker 7: with apax support. They're doing it with small dollars, which
32:18
Speaker 7: means that it is a it is a clean fight.
32:21
Speaker 7: It's it's bringing actual democracy to these districts. And so
32:26
Speaker 7: the previous supporters of ESPAYOT if they don't like exactly
32:31
Speaker 7: what Naria Lisa is doing, they actually now have a
32:34
Speaker 7: way to influence her with their just individual voices and
32:39
Speaker 7: with their organized voices in a way that they didn't
32:42
Speaker 7: when it's organized money that is controlling the districts. And
32:46
Speaker 7: so it really opens up, you know, possibilities for kind
32:50
Speaker 7: of all voters in the in these districts.
32:53
Speaker 2: Yeah, I also, you know, I sort of object to
32:55
Speaker 2: the idea of dividing people along these racial lines. In
32:57
Speaker 2: any case, you know, the young white profile nationals who
33:00
Speaker 2: moved into these districts are also desperate for affordable housing
33:04
Speaker 2: and you know, and to and support for genocide. So
33:07
Speaker 2: there's I think also a lot more common cause and
33:10
Speaker 2: common you know, concerns among these voting blocks than is
33:14
Speaker 2: sometimes portrayed where they you know, I mean we saw
33:17
Speaker 2: it in Daria Lisa's race, where they tried to exploit
33:20
Speaker 2: ethnic divisions and obviously didn't end up working on Esbaiyat's behalf.
33:25
Speaker 7: So on that point, yeah, DSA has been objectively, if
33:28
Speaker 7: you count the races that they've wanted the state and
33:31
Speaker 7: federal level, the most successful actually in Queens, which is
33:35
Speaker 7: Queens doesn't get as much attention as as Brooklyn or
33:38
Speaker 7: the Bronx or Manhattan for whatever reason, but Queens is
33:42
Speaker 7: the most diverse, uh, one of the maybe the most
33:46
Speaker 7: diverse kind of urban area in the world.
33:49
Speaker 3: Surely is like the melting pot of the world.
33:52
Speaker 7: It really is, it really is, and they are more
33:55
Speaker 7: dominant there than anywhere else, and so that should tell
33:57
Speaker 7: you something about the way that their class politics are
34:00
Speaker 7: able to bring so many diverse people together.
34:04
Speaker 2: The other thing that I have heard Ryan is, oh, well,
34:07
Speaker 2: this doesn't really matter because it's just New York City,
34:10
Speaker 2: and New York City is different, and so you know,
34:13
Speaker 2: that's nice for you, but this is not going to
34:15
Speaker 2: be replicable in other places, to which I would say, okay, well,
34:19
Speaker 2: let's take a look at grimd Platner does main count.
34:22
Speaker 2: Let's take a look at Abdul Sayad Michigan. I think
34:25
Speaker 2: is a pretty important state in the country. So we're
34:29
Speaker 2: going to talk a little bit more in the minute
34:31
Speaker 2: in a minute about the way, you know, positions on
34:33
Speaker 2: Israel have really become central to all of this. But
34:36
Speaker 2: I think anyone who's trying to deny that there is
34:38
Speaker 2: a kind of nationwide reckoning that is happening in the
34:41
Speaker 2: Democratic Party is just ultimately deluding themselves.
34:44
Speaker 7: Yeah, and also just throughout history in New York has
34:47
Speaker 7: really driven American politics, Like it was a crucible of
34:50
Speaker 7: the anti slavery kind of politics that then surged. It
34:54
Speaker 7: was the progressive reformers really were dominant in New York
34:57
Speaker 7: first before they kind of became national in the early
35:01
Speaker 7: nineteen one hundreds. FDR obviously comes out of New York.
35:05
Speaker 7: Like the idea that New York is this kind of
35:07
Speaker 7: separate entity from the rest of the United States ignores
35:10
Speaker 7: the fact that the politics there usually end up influencing
35:14
Speaker 7: national politics relatively quickly and in a profound way.
35:19
Speaker 2: The last argument I heard is like, well, careful what
35:21
Speaker 2: you wish for Daria. Liza has some I think it's
35:24
Speaker 2: fair to say radical views, you know, against cops and
35:27
Speaker 2: borders and like the things that they caricature that Kamala
35:31
Speaker 2: Harris is saying like she actually holds some of those
35:34
Speaker 2: views and took down some tweets. We asked her about
35:37
Speaker 2: it the other day, the famous you know Kamala Harris line,
35:40
Speaker 2: et cetera. I know that there's a lot of angst
35:43
Speaker 2: in the Democratic Party that like, oh my god, now
35:45
Speaker 2: they're going to say we're open borders. And I'm like,
35:48
Speaker 2: they've been saying that all along, So I'm not sure
35:50
Speaker 2: that really changes the game for.
35:51
Speaker 7: You here, right, So right, they've been saying your open borders,
35:55
Speaker 7: they're saying your prison abolition, and so yeah, now they
36:00
Speaker 7: and now they can point to her. I would say,
36:02
Speaker 7: just don't don't have candidates. They're so bad that you
36:04
Speaker 7: lose to people like like that. I mean, I mean,
36:07
Speaker 7: come on, like, it's it's pretty it's pretty embarrassing. And
36:11
Speaker 7: at the same time, when the Republicans have Randy Fine
36:14
Speaker 7: in the House and Donald Trump in the White House,
36:17
Speaker 7: I think the public's kind of willingness to get worked
36:20
Speaker 7: up about kind of you know, one individual's you know,
36:24
Speaker 7: out there position on one thing is pretty limited.
36:28
Speaker 2: Yeah, And I also, I mean, I hate the comparison
36:31
Speaker 2: between you know, someone who wants a different system of
36:34
Speaker 2: using and more immigrants and someone else. Let's an entire
36:39
Speaker 2: let's do a Holocaust just out in the open.
36:41
Speaker 3: So there is there is that as well.
36:44
Speaker 2: Lastly, before we move on to the Israel piece, let
36:47
Speaker 2: me put up a seven because we have, you know,
36:52
Speaker 2: kind of a list here of some of the other
36:54
Speaker 2: races from Taniel. I put this up earlier as well.
36:58
Speaker 2: But it wasn't just New York. We've got New York
37:01
Speaker 2: and Maryland. I know you were following some of these
37:04
Speaker 2: races in Marylands. I wanted to get you awig on
37:05
Speaker 2: this in particular, Taniel says, I'm counting twelve Democratic can
37:08
Speaker 2: comments who lost or in one case our trailing to
37:11
Speaker 2: challenge her or the left, two congress members, four state centers,
37:14
Speaker 2: six state House members. And then he breaks all of
37:16
Speaker 2: that down. So what was noteworthy in Maryland to you
37:21
Speaker 2: in particular, Ryan, that you were following.
37:23
Speaker 7: Actually, I've got it. Looks I know they were going
37:25
Speaker 7: after the Senate leader, and I've got a check to
37:28
Speaker 7: see if he was one of the ones that went down.
37:31
Speaker 7: He was standing in the way of the redistricting effort
37:35
Speaker 7: that Democrats wanted to do. I'll check that we can
37:38
Speaker 7: talk about out tomorrow. But yeah, down in southern Maryland,
37:42
Speaker 7: we covered this race a little bit. This guy Apak
37:44
Speaker 7: Adrian Boafo, who was a former Stenny Hoyer aid and
37:49
Speaker 7: got twelve million dollars an APAC and Crypto support. He
37:53
Speaker 7: wound up winning, but in a it was a crowded
37:56
Speaker 7: field of literally twenty four candidates, and so he wound
37:59
Speaker 7: up with thirty two percent of the vote. So I
38:02
Speaker 7: haven't done the math yet, but twelve million dollars to
38:05
Speaker 7: get that that pore of a performance gave kind of
38:09
Speaker 7: Apak the only thing that they could celebrate last night.
38:12
Speaker 7: They did a big They did their their their line
38:15
Speaker 7: they always use being pro Israel is a good policy
38:18
Speaker 7: and good politics. Congratulations to Adrian Boofo, you know, so
38:23
Speaker 7: such great politics that normally they kind of funnel the
38:26
Speaker 7: money behind a different pack, like they did with with Spayot.
38:30
Speaker 7: But so they did. They won that race. But otherwise
38:34
Speaker 7: just a brutal night for them. And even there, like
38:38
Speaker 7: you lost sixty eight percent of the vote, like not
38:41
Speaker 7: that impressive.
38:45
Speaker 2: The one race that had a real different dynamic was
38:48
Speaker 2: the which was that Upper west Side Upper east Side
38:51
Speaker 2: does dreg again were on twelve thirteen whatever. That one
38:53
Speaker 2: was Michael Lasher, who was the the candidate you know,
38:56
Speaker 2: chosen by Jerry Nadler to succeed him. He ends up
38:59
Speaker 2: pulling it off. Is pretty close with Alex Boras. Boras
39:02
Speaker 2: ever really positioned himself as an AI critic. Tens of
39:06
Speaker 2: millions of dollars of AI pack money flowed into this race.
39:10
Speaker 2: I know you followed this closely. Isn't this one where
39:13
Speaker 2: the anthropic AI pack, which is supposedly pro regulation, back
39:16
Speaker 2: Boras the open AI pack backed Lasher.
39:21
Speaker 3: It became a bit of a central issue.
39:22
Speaker 2: I know voters were telling some of the reporters in
39:24
Speaker 2: the area that that was part of what they were
39:25
Speaker 2: voting on Israel. Did loom Is large in this race
39:28
Speaker 2: because the candidates had kind of similar, relatively you know,
39:32
Speaker 2: status quo friendly positions on Israel? So what did you
39:36
Speaker 2: see as noteworthy in that particular race?
39:39
Speaker 7: Yeah, that that it was. It was closer I think
39:42
Speaker 7: than people thought it would be, which suggests that there
39:46
Speaker 7: is a decent amount of anxiety, you know, in particularly
39:50
Speaker 7: in that district, but also I think everywhere about the
39:53
Speaker 7: role that AI is playing. There was some fear that
39:56
Speaker 7: if boris lost that that would be signal to Democrats
40:01
Speaker 7: that they need to just completely bend the need to
40:05
Speaker 7: AI or risk you know, getting you know, massively the
40:10
Speaker 7: way they did on right exactly. But I don't think
40:14
Speaker 7: the results signal that to Democrats. I think they I
40:18
Speaker 7: think it remains kind of an open fight, particularly because
40:22
Speaker 7: the public is just so hostile on the other side
40:25
Speaker 7: of this issue. So yes, like the AI money might
40:28
Speaker 7: come at you, but voters are going to come at
40:31
Speaker 7: you if you if you're connected with their higher electricity bills,
40:35
Speaker 7: and and and also all of the kind of anxiety
40:38
Speaker 7: tied to the massive economic disruption that that AI promises
40:42
Speaker 7: to bring.
40:44
Speaker 2: Let's talk about Israel, because I do think this was
40:47
Speaker 2: really central in many of these races, but in particular
40:52
Speaker 2: those three in New York City, you know, with daria
40:56
Speaker 2: A Liza in particular, so she was an organized her
41:00
Speaker 2: at the Columbia University encampments. Now she's going to be
41:03
Speaker 2: their member of cars, Like she was just just not
41:06
Speaker 2: long ago getting arrested as a protester and now she's
41:09
Speaker 2: going to represent that district. Pretty incredible turnabout. She said
41:13
Speaker 2: she was really motivated by the treatment of Mackmoud Khalil
41:17
Speaker 2: and Representative Spot's failure to stand up for him when
41:22
Speaker 2: he was arrested. You had a chance to actually speak
41:25
Speaker 2: with Mackmun Khalil, who was there, you know, in the
41:28
Speaker 2: district and is close with Daria Liza.
41:31
Speaker 3: Let's go ahead and play a ten.
41:32
Speaker 6: There are consequences of abandoning abandoning good communities. There are
41:39
Speaker 6: consequences of supporting a genicidal state. So I really feel
41:43
Speaker 6: sort of like some sort of justice. Although my fIF
41:46
Speaker 6: is not final yet, but even if I get deported,
41:49
Speaker 6: to me, the fact that the American public now is
41:52
Speaker 6: well aware of APEX tactics, very very you know, like
41:58
Speaker 6: theirty tactics. That's enough for me. Like, even if I
42:01
Speaker 6: get the fourth at least now we're getting that change.
42:04
Speaker 6: We're getting, you know, like not only with that Elisa
42:08
Speaker 6: we have, you know, Claire Valdet has also won her
42:13
Speaker 6: campaign Adam hum We and the course press rob in
42:17
Speaker 6: the past. So this is to me, it's really like,
42:20
Speaker 6: I feel sort of like some sort of justice, And
42:23
Speaker 6: I got some sort of justice. Even if you don't
42:25
Speaker 6: get it from the course, at least I'm getting it
42:27
Speaker 6: from the public opinion.
42:28
Speaker 2: And by the way, the Trump administration is still trying
42:30
Speaker 2: to deport him, which is what he refers to there.
42:33
Speaker 2: I mean, there is something really beautiful and poetic about this.
42:36
Speaker 7: Yeah, and he so Drek, Lisa and he knew each
42:40
Speaker 7: other from the from the encampment, from from their work
42:43
Speaker 7: and activism, and when when he was grabbed, his wife
42:47
Speaker 7: reached out to their member of Congress, which is what
42:49
Speaker 7: you do. She's an American citizen. She called her member
42:52
Speaker 7: of Congress. Then he would he would not He in
42:55
Speaker 7: the office just wouldn't respond, did nothing. And so she
42:59
Speaker 7: eventually got AOC and other members of the New York
43:02
Speaker 7: congressional delegation to help kind of make some noise about it.
43:05
Speaker 7: And it was, you know, immediately a very national story.
43:10
Speaker 7: And it cuts the problem that SBL has there, which
43:13
Speaker 7: is that the old school kind of corrupt machine politics
43:18
Speaker 7: worked when the machine would at least be responsive to
43:23
Speaker 7: constituents like, Okay, we know that these guys are on
43:26
Speaker 7: the on the take, we know they're taking pride and
43:27
Speaker 7: other are friends with the realtors and the real estate
43:29
Speaker 7: lobby and everybody else. But if I have a problem,
43:32
Speaker 7: you know, if I get have a problem at work,
43:34
Speaker 7: if if I have a problem with the city. I
43:37
Speaker 7: can call the I can call my member of Congress
43:41
Speaker 7: and they have a constituent service operation that is going
43:45
Speaker 7: to be well oiled and that that's going to care
43:46
Speaker 7: because then when it's time to vote, we're going to
43:49
Speaker 7: come out and we're going to keep electing these guys
43:50
Speaker 7: even though we think that they're corrupt, Like that's that's
43:52
Speaker 7: the machine in the best case. But because he was
43:56
Speaker 7: so dependent on APAX support, he couldn't do that part
44:01
Speaker 7: of the constituent service for this very famous constituent and
44:05
Speaker 7: it became then this proxy for for everything else about him,
44:10
Speaker 7: and it really gave her, uh the kind of rationale
44:15
Speaker 7: the case, like why are you running? Like, oh, well,
44:18
Speaker 7: my friend got arrested in the district and he didn't
44:20
Speaker 7: care and we're like, oh, okay, that's that's a legit
44:24
Speaker 7: reason to run. Yeah, And I actually maybe we could
44:27
Speaker 7: roll this. I saw spat on Lenox Avenue Malcolm X
44:33
Speaker 7: Avenue yesterday outside of the Harlem Hospital and I got
44:36
Speaker 7: to put this to him, we can roll this. If
44:42
Speaker 7: you guys, you wouldn't have had to raise And I
44:54
Speaker 7: really actually do believe and maybe it's not just, but
44:58
Speaker 7: I do believe it's the case that if six months ago,
45:01
Speaker 7: if he had taken Mackmood Khalil's wife's calls, just done
45:05
Speaker 7: the bare minimum to help her and said, you know what,
45:08
Speaker 7: I'm not taking a pack support anymore like I took
45:12
Speaker 7: it in the past. I regret it. I don't like
45:14
Speaker 7: what they've done in Gaza. I'm not taking a pack
45:15
Speaker 7: support anymore because this is a genocide that's been carried out.
45:20
Speaker 7: Where does a challenger have any opening whatsoever to take
45:23
Speaker 7: him on? I don't see it, and I think he
45:26
Speaker 7: would have cruised to reelection.
45:28
Speaker 2: Last night well, and Valerie Fushi sort of tested that case.
45:32
Speaker 2: You know, she had a close call. She changed her views,
45:35
Speaker 2: repudiated a pack and she hung on, you know the
45:38
Speaker 2: other let's talk a little.
45:40
Speaker 7: So this actually was there last night. Oh really, Yeah,
45:45
Speaker 7: she didn't want to miss it. She flew up from
45:47
Speaker 7: North Carolina.
45:48
Speaker 3: That's awesome.
45:50
Speaker 2: This was my favorite tree from last night with in
45:52
Speaker 2: regard to darielza An sbaa from at Instrumentum, he said,
45:55
Speaker 2: taking out the chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus with
45:58
Speaker 2: a self described communist thirty two year old PhD student
46:00
Speaker 2: who tweeted fuck Kalmala Harris is beyond insane, Defcon one
46:04
Speaker 2: moment for the Democratic establishment. And you know, similarly, Claire Valdez,
46:09
Speaker 2: I feel like we sort of glossed over her a bit,
46:11
Speaker 2: but she won easily, like it was twenty plus points
46:16
Speaker 2: and she be the sitting Brooklyn Borough president. Well, by
46:20
Speaker 2: the way, is progressive in many regards. And so when
46:24
Speaker 2: you ask yourself, okay, well, how important was Israel in
46:27
Speaker 2: all of this? He had all about all the unions,
46:30
Speaker 2: working families, party, Nidia's Alaskaz, this power base is Brooklyn
46:34
Speaker 2: Borough president, which coveted position, et cetera. And it wasn't close.
46:38
Speaker 2: He got blown out. Uh you have to look at
46:41
Speaker 2: that and say there were there were two major differences,
46:44
Speaker 2: well three, I would say number one DSA organizing. Number
46:47
Speaker 2: twos are on mom Donnie, and number three you know
46:49
Speaker 2: APAC in Israel.
46:50
Speaker 7: And I think you don't get the first two without
46:52
Speaker 7: without the third.
46:54
Speaker 3: Yeah, of course, yeah, yeah.
46:56
Speaker 7: And when we had him on the show and he
46:58
Speaker 7: is you know, he has a record, he kicked ice
47:00
Speaker 7: out of Rikers, he's he has he took on the
47:04
Speaker 7: machine himself in Brooklyn. He's a he's a progressive up
47:07
Speaker 7: and down the board, except for the fact that he
47:10
Speaker 7: refused to take a stand on Israel and It's genocide
47:13
Speaker 7: until he ran for office, and so people it's people think, well,
47:18
Speaker 7: your people are too obsessed with digitals, and it's that's
47:20
Speaker 7: not what it is. What it is is that that
47:23
Speaker 7: tells people that he's not willing to fight for them,
47:26
Speaker 7: that he's not that he's not there when it's going
47:28
Speaker 7: to get hard, and they know that if you're going
47:31
Speaker 7: to take on corporate power, you're going to take on
47:33
Speaker 7: any other power centers, you have to be willing to
47:35
Speaker 7: do the hard things and tell tell the powers that
47:39
Speaker 7: be know even when it's and especially when it's difficult
47:44
Speaker 7: for you. And the fact that he didn't do that,
47:46
Speaker 7: I think like that really resonated with people because it
47:50
Speaker 7: and the fact that he did it then it's one
47:51
Speaker 7: thing you don't believe it, but then to do it
47:54
Speaker 7: as you're launching your campaign just tells people, oh, Okay,
47:58
Speaker 7: yes he's I like him, he's been great, but he's
48:01
Speaker 7: another politician.
48:02
Speaker 3: Was there Israel lobby money in that race?
48:06
Speaker 7: There was a lot of controversy because this I think
48:10
Speaker 7: real fight pack got in and we know for a
48:13
Speaker 7: fact that about two hundred thousand dollars of that money
48:16
Speaker 7: was teachers union money some other some other union money
48:20
Speaker 7: in this big super pack. Valdez was accusing it of
48:24
Speaker 7: possibly being a PAC money. We don't know yet. It
48:28
Speaker 7: seems more likely that it's real estate focused money. But
48:32
Speaker 7: so there's no no evidence yet that they got it
48:35
Speaker 7: because I think a PAC understood they I think they
48:38
Speaker 7: would have preferred Reno so obviously to Donnie's candidate, but
48:41
Speaker 7: they also understood that once reins So it was in office,
48:44
Speaker 7: if he'd have won, he's gone to them like a
48:46
Speaker 7: valued fouchet style, like he wasn't gonna he wasn't coming back.
48:50
Speaker 2: Yeah, the the politics of the district dictate that if
48:55
Speaker 2: he would want to hold on to that job, he
48:57
Speaker 2: would need to, you know, take those vote and position
49:00
Speaker 2: reposition himself fully and completely. Let's talk a little bit
49:04
Speaker 2: about Dan Goldman and Brad Lander. Goldman I don't think
49:07
Speaker 2: is as consistent and progressive. He's got some you know,
49:10
Speaker 2: some corporate centrist in him, for sure, more so than Reinoso.
49:14
Speaker 2: But also very clear here that the dividing line was Israel.
49:19
Speaker 2: You know, Brad Lander endorses Mom Donnie. You know, comes out,
49:24
Speaker 2: and I don't know that he would describe himself as
49:26
Speaker 2: an anti Zionist. He's not a DSA member. He's a
49:28
Speaker 2: little bit more you know, to the center than certainly
49:32
Speaker 2: like a Daria Lisa or a Claire Valdez. But also
49:34
Speaker 2: has made it plain that he opposes the genocide, he
49:38
Speaker 2: opposes these war crimes and human rights violations, and you know,
49:42
Speaker 2: wins handily. It was a foregone conclusion. Basically as soon
49:45
Speaker 2: as they close the polls Lander, you know, Lander was
49:50
Speaker 2: able to declare victory. So, you know, talk a little
49:53
Speaker 2: bit about the dynamics there and why that was such
49:55
Speaker 2: an incredible slam dunk for him. And by the way,
49:58
Speaker 2: I think one of the most heavily Jewish districts in
50:02
Speaker 2: the entire country, if not the most heavily Jewish district
50:05
Speaker 2: in the entire country.
50:07
Speaker 7: Yeah, that that really could have been Goldman's seat for
50:10
Speaker 7: life if he would have been kind of an even
50:13
Speaker 7: even a normal Democrat in that district. Instead, you know,
50:17
Speaker 7: he decided to make and he was this hero of
50:19
Speaker 7: the resistance leading the you know, Trump impeachment and Trump
50:23
Speaker 7: Trump won. He's like a real kind of resistance one
50:25
Speaker 7: point zero MSNBC type figure who rode that fame to
50:30
Speaker 7: then a divide, you know, a very divided race. If
50:32
Speaker 7: people remember there was Mandare Jones, youlyn knew, very split field.
50:36
Speaker 7: So he kind of squeaked by and never had a
50:38
Speaker 7: huge base of support and was able to win thanks
50:41
Speaker 7: to spending a fortune of his own money. He's a
50:44
Speaker 7: he's an heir of Levi Strauss, which also San Francisco's
50:47
Speaker 7: mayor is also a Lefa Strauss. Air's what's going on
50:50
Speaker 7: with his family, But he instead decided to be this
50:56
Speaker 7: hostile antagonist to Mamdani and to all of the protesters
51:00
Speaker 7: against the genocide, Like he became one of these, like
51:04
Speaker 7: the chief spokespeople against that. And I don't think he's
51:06
Speaker 7: still to this day like endorsed Mom Donnie, not in
51:09
Speaker 7: the definitely not in the primary, not in the general,
51:12
Speaker 7: and he still is kind of fighting with Mam Donnie constantly.
51:15
Speaker 7: And I saw somebody floating like, oh, maybe Goldman is
51:18
Speaker 7: now leading, you know, challenger to Mam Donnie. You know
51:22
Speaker 7: for reelections like bro Yes, he got absolutely destroyed in
51:25
Speaker 7: his own district, but he's going to be more popular
51:28
Speaker 7: in the in the rest of the city. But yeah,
51:30
Speaker 7: so that he made that his issue, and it did
51:35
Speaker 7: and it blew up, It blew up in his face.
51:37
Speaker 2: You know.
51:38
Speaker 7: The last couple of days of the race, the big
51:39
Speaker 7: scandal there was that he went into a coffee shop
51:43
Speaker 7: called Poetica and so his daughter could use the bathroom,
51:47
Speaker 7: and so I bought a coffee so to use the
51:49
Speaker 7: bathroom and later experience, Yes, later they realized that that
51:55
Speaker 7: was Dan Goldman. They said, this is this is blood
51:58
Speaker 7: lay his eight pac money and they refunded the money,
52:01
Speaker 7: and that became a public thing. Uh, you know, he
52:04
Speaker 7: said he talked about you know, he and his deventori
52:07
Speaker 7: as saying this is you know, anti Semitic. They were
52:10
Speaker 7: quite clear that this was aimed at his support of genocide.
52:14
Speaker 7: And interestingly, I talked to somebody last night who was
52:17
Speaker 7: following Espaot around and he said Espaot got thrown out
52:22
Speaker 7: of a bodega when they realized when the bodega owner
52:25
Speaker 7: learned that Spot was taking a pac money and is
52:28
Speaker 7: not Jewish, like this is it's the same thing, like
52:31
Speaker 7: you're a you're taking a pack money and you're supportive
52:34
Speaker 7: of genocide. We don't want your business, right, So that
52:38
Speaker 7: that is a completely separate thing. And I think it's
52:41
Speaker 7: inconvenient for Goldman that he was beaten by a Jewish opponent. Yeah,
52:48
Speaker 7: in a landslide.
52:49
Speaker 2: So it was like very you know, I mean, he's
52:52
Speaker 2: he's very proud of his Jewish herity. He talks a
52:56
Speaker 2: lot about that. It was very clearly central to Broadlander's identity.
52:59
Speaker 2: And and yeah, to your point, because he has a
53:02
Speaker 2: different position and doesn't take a pac money. He's not
53:05
Speaker 2: getting thrown out of bodegas or having his money refunded
53:08
Speaker 2: to him after the fact, because it's not about Dan
53:12
Speaker 2: Goldman being Jewish, it's about the position that he holds.
53:15
Speaker 2: And you know, so like running cover for a genocide
53:18
Speaker 2: that people find to be abhorrent and unconscionable.
53:21
Speaker 7: Right, Yeah, there's no protected kind of civil rights class
53:25
Speaker 7: of genocide supporter like that is that is some now
53:31
Speaker 7: Department of Justice under Trump. Certainly that you know, they
53:34
Speaker 7: tweeted that they're going to try to make a federal
53:35
Speaker 7: case of it.
53:37
Speaker 2: Which I do want to say, to Goldman's credit, he
53:40
Speaker 2: came out and said that's we shouldn't do that, right,
53:43
Speaker 2: He did not support their decision to go in that direction,
53:46
Speaker 2: But at the very same time, they have JD Vance saying,
53:49
Speaker 2: oh if everything, if everything's Jew hatred, then nothing is
53:51
Speaker 2: Jew hatred. You have the Trump DJ acting as if
53:55
Speaker 2: everything is Jew hatred and pursuing federal prosecutions based on
54:01
Speaker 2: you know, the opposition to someone supportive genocide.
54:05
Speaker 7: Yeah, yeah, but yeah, So to get beaten that badly,
54:09
Speaker 7: Like I said, like, it's the biggest defeat margin wise
54:12
Speaker 7: for a Democrat in I can't I can't remember when,
54:17
Speaker 7: not in my way a time.
54:18
Speaker 2: I feel like we're going to talk more tomorrow about
54:20
Speaker 2: the fallout from all of this, because I do think
54:22
Speaker 2: they are going to be a whole lot of holy
54:23
Speaker 2: shit moments going on right now of Democratic candidates who
54:27
Speaker 2: bet the way that Dan Goldman bet that. You know,
54:30
Speaker 2: it's always been safe politics to be pro Israel up
54:33
Speaker 2: until the past couple of years. It has always been
54:36
Speaker 2: that's where the organization has been. That's where like it
54:38
Speaker 2: has always been the safe political bet to do effectively
54:41
Speaker 2: the bear hug strategy when it comes to Israel, and
54:45
Speaker 2: in the Democratic Party that is just no longer the case.
54:48
Speaker 2: And I don't think anyone has described this better than
54:50
Speaker 2: Tanaheese Coats, who's like yeah, because if you aren't willing
54:53
Speaker 2: to stand up against genocide, why would we think you're
54:56
Speaker 2: going to stand up for democracy? Or I would add
54:59
Speaker 2: to that fight on any other issue where it requires
55:04
Speaker 2: standing up to power, to you know, the donor class.
55:07
Speaker 2: And we've got an oligarchy crisis in the country and
55:11
Speaker 2: the world that I think is extraordinarily grave and genuinely existential.
55:15
Speaker 2: If you're not willing to say a gen size a genocide,
55:18
Speaker 2: we have no chance of you, you know, going up
55:20
Speaker 2: against Elon Musk and the burgeoning class of trillionaires. So
55:24
Speaker 2: to me, it makes all the sense in the world
55:26
Speaker 2: that this has become a core litmus test. And then
55:28
Speaker 2: of course just the nature of how many horrific, unconscionable,
55:34
Speaker 2: stomach churning images of toddlers being murdered and young babies
55:40
Speaker 2: who are triple amputees. I mean, of course people are
55:43
Speaker 2: going to look at that with revulsion and say, if
55:45
Speaker 2: you did anything to run cover for this, I don't
55:49
Speaker 2: want anything to do with you. And I don't know
55:50
Speaker 2: how you even call yourself a democrat and pretend to
55:53
Speaker 2: posture like you care about human rights and morality and democracy.
55:57
Speaker 2: So there's just an overwhelming revulsion too. So the way
56:02
Speaker 2: that most Democrats, the vast majority of Democrats, comported themselves
56:06
Speaker 2: throughout the period of this genocide. The last piece I
56:10
Speaker 2: wanted to play here before we move on to the
56:13
Speaker 2: next topic is you were able to speak a little
56:16
Speaker 2: bit exclusively to Zoronmam Donnie last night where he reflected
56:20
Speaker 2: on what this all means and you know what voters,
56:24
Speaker 2: what sentiments they were trying to express. You want to
56:26
Speaker 2: set this up a little bit, Ryan, Yeah, this.
56:29
Speaker 7: Was Abe Yusuf was a drop site contributor. So he
56:33
Speaker 7: spoke at the Daria Lisa event and was then on
56:37
Speaker 7: his way out, and so Abe was able to grab
56:39
Speaker 7: him for a couple of minutes.
56:40
Speaker 6: Here.
56:41
Speaker 7: Let's roll that.
56:42
Speaker 4: This one is incredible. Daddie. Alisa began a campaign where
56:46
Speaker 4: she was up against every possible set of odds and
56:49
Speaker 4: she pulled off a victory that is helping to rewrite
56:52
Speaker 4: politics in our city and in our country. She is
56:55
Speaker 4: someone who brings a clarity, a conscience, and a conviction
56:59
Speaker 4: to a politics that has ot and been missing those things,
57:01
Speaker 4: and in a city and in a district that has
57:03
Speaker 4: been so desperate for leadership when it comes to putting
57:06
Speaker 4: working people back at the heart. She will deliver that,
57:08
Speaker 4: and it was an honor to be one part of
57:11
Speaker 4: this incredible campaign and to see her win alongside Brad Lander,
57:15
Speaker 4: Claire Valdez, and every single one of the state legislative
57:18
Speaker 4: candidates that I had the privilege of supporting. It shows
57:21
Speaker 4: that last June was not an anomaly. It was not
57:23
Speaker 4: an aberration. It was the beginning of a new kind
57:25
Speaker 4: of politics, and I cannot wait for what that next
57:28
Speaker 4: chapter is going to look like.
57:29
Speaker 2: I think supporters, supporters and detractors alike probably agree that,
57:34
Speaker 2: you know, last night shows that there is a new
57:36
Speaker 2: kind of thing that is happening, that Zoron was not
57:38
Speaker 2: a one off, that this is much more of a
57:40
Speaker 2: movement that is also not just about New York City.
57:44
Speaker 7: Yeah, no, yes, they're going to have to pay attention
57:46
Speaker 7: to that. And a credit ab for doing a better
57:50
Speaker 7: job with his Mike than I did with mine. But
57:52
Speaker 7: I'm learning, I'm trying