Latest / Breaking Points with Krystal and Saagar / 8/5/26: Abdul Wins In Michigan, Houthis Hit Saudi Ship, US Bails Out Japan
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: Hey, guys, Saga and Crystal here.
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- 0:33Speaker 4: A right, good morning, and welcome to Breaking Points. As
- 0:36Speaker 4: we continue our live stream that began last night thirty pm.
- 0:39Speaker 1: We took a slight break. We're back. We have some
- 0:42Speaker 1: results in which we'll get into.
- 0:44Speaker 5: You might as well actually have just had someone else.
- 0:46Speaker 5: I should have done a third shift. Yes, we should
- 0:48Speaker 5: have covered until this morning.
- 0:50Speaker 1: Yeah, then where was Sager.
- 0:53Speaker 4: Saga do the twelve thirty You could have the red
- 0:55Speaker 4: light on from twelve thirty to seven thirty and then
- 0:57Speaker 4: we'll pick up.
- 0:57Speaker 5: That would be a disaster for his woops. Yes, it
- 1:00Speaker 5: would so we couldn't. We couldn't have the.
- 1:02Speaker 1: Ring would be screaming for weeks.
- 1:04Speaker 5: Would not be good? Would not be good. Crystal is
- 1:07Speaker 5: with us as well. Ryan is going to run after
- 1:09Speaker 5: the first couple of blocks, so we're lucky.
- 1:11Speaker 6: What about my whoop score? Okay?
- 1:13Speaker 2: Does anyone care? Do you anyone care about what my
- 1:16Speaker 2: fitbit is telling me this morning?
- 1:17Speaker 6: That's what I want to.
- 1:19Speaker 5: Yeah, it's not quite the same, Crystal. Well, if you
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- 1:57Speaker 2: Right and just so people know when you go there,
- 2:00Speaker 2: To be honest with you, when I looked at the website,
- 2:01Speaker 2: I was a little confused. There's no like thing that
- 2:03Speaker 2: says free monthly trial. You just go and sign up
- 2:05Speaker 2: and you get the month for free. That's how that works.
- 2:07Speaker 2: So pretty good deal for everybody. If you've been interested
- 2:10Speaker 2: in trying it out, now is your chance. And we've
- 2:13Speaker 2: got not only election results, we've got stuff happening in Iran.
- 2:16Speaker 2: We are now bailing out the Japanese Yen, so that's interesting,
- 2:20Speaker 2: all because of again the Iran war.
- 2:23Speaker 6: We've got a major.
- 2:24Speaker 2: Epstein slash media slash banking scandal that is being broken
- 2:29Speaker 2: open by Ron Wyden.
- 2:31Speaker 6: We've got more.
- 2:32Speaker 2: Developments in the Max Miller saga. Bernie Moreno, his father
- 2:37Speaker 2: in law coming forward. We had a big Jag Tapper interview,
- 2:41Speaker 2: a photo of his daughter that was among the dropbox
- 2:44Speaker 2: files that was released.
- 2:45Speaker 6: So a lot to get to there.
- 2:46Speaker 2: And then we haven't actually delved into this, but Trump
- 2:49Speaker 2: was very very mad at Janine Piro because she had
- 2:51Speaker 2: the audacity to drop the charges against this guy that
- 2:55Speaker 2: he claimed had messed up his beautiful reflecting pool. And
- 2:58Speaker 2: actually she's dropped a number of charges against a number
- 3:01Speaker 2: of people at this point. So interesting to dig into
- 3:06Speaker 2: that palace intrigue.
- 3:07Speaker 6: I suppose, Yeah, that will.
- 3:09Speaker 5: Be interesting because Trump and Janina Piro that is one
- 3:12Speaker 5: of the most beautiful, long lasting relationships. So I must
- 3:17Speaker 5: discuss perhaps tells a little bit of what's happening inside
- 3:20Speaker 5: of the White House as well. Now, chrysl and Ryan,
- 3:23Speaker 5: you guys were up late. I was surprised at how
- 3:25Speaker 5: long the stream went last night, but we didn't have
- 3:27Speaker 5: a lot of closure. We didn't have a lot of
- 3:30Speaker 5: clear information coming out actually of the big Michigan race.
- 3:34Speaker 5: Hailey Stevens and Abdul l sayed, it's still really close,
- 3:38Speaker 5: with Abdul in first place for now, looking like that's
- 3:41Speaker 5: going to hold steady. But let's start by going over
- 3:44Speaker 5: to Michigan here and looking at some of the results
- 3:46Speaker 5: as you guys were covering it last night, tell us
- 3:49Speaker 5: how the night was transpiring a little bit closer than
- 3:53Speaker 5: people expected.
- 3:53Speaker 2: It looks like, oh yeah, so maybe we should start
- 3:57Speaker 2: with a one C, which shows you what the holes
- 4:00Speaker 2: were leading into last night.
- 4:03Speaker 6: They were across the board.
- 4:04Speaker 2: I mean, we were getting Abdul plus nineteen plus seventeen
- 4:07Speaker 2: plus sixteen all in double digits with a lead for him,
- 4:11Speaker 2: and so it seemed like all the momentum was on
- 4:14Speaker 2: his side, like he really opened up a gap. And
- 4:16Speaker 2: again this was every single polster going back.
- 4:20Speaker 6: You know what do we have there?
- 4:21Speaker 2: Like ten different poles that all had him with this
- 4:24Speaker 2: double digit lead. And that's the way the night started off.
- 4:27Speaker 2: It looked like it was on trend for this kind
- 4:30Speaker 2: of a blowout win for him. And then a batch
- 4:33Speaker 2: of results came in from the Detroit area and these
- 4:37Speaker 2: were the absentee votes where Hayley Stevens was really racking
- 4:41Speaker 2: up large percentages. And Ryan can talk a little bit
- 4:44Speaker 2: more about why that is. Those are basically the people
- 4:46Speaker 2: who had just gotten the ads and hadn't seen any
- 4:49Speaker 2: of the other pushback against them or been you know,
- 4:52Speaker 2: had a chance to be contacted by Abdul's campaign, et cetera.
- 4:55Speaker 2: So she was racking up big margins there, and all
- 4:57Speaker 2: of a sudden, it went from Abdul having this gigiantic
- 5:00Speaker 2: lead to the race being effectively tied. And from there
- 5:04Speaker 2: on we were just waiting to see what else would
- 5:07Speaker 2: come in from Wayne County. They were very, very very
- 5:10Speaker 2: slow in counting, but now we can put a one
- 5:13Speaker 2: up on the screen. NBC News has called it Abdul
- 5:16Speaker 2: l Sayad will be the Democratic nominee for the Senate
- 5:20Speaker 2: in Michigan. He has you know, he is declared victory.
- 5:24Speaker 2: Mallory McMorrow, who said she would go ahead and endorse
- 5:29Speaker 2: whoever ended up getting the nomination, she has now endorsed
- 5:33Speaker 2: Abdul and is backing him.
- 5:35Speaker 5: So, uh so, can we definitely not on that just
- 5:38Speaker 5: for a second. That shows Mallary McMorrow got four percent
- 5:40Speaker 5: of the vote. The NBC News said this, which is
- 5:42Speaker 5: all this.
- 5:42Speaker 2: Race kind of significant because it's a larger margin than
- 5:46Speaker 2: the difference between them.
- 5:48Speaker 6: Now the confounding factors.
- 5:49Speaker 2: I don't actually know who that benefits, because it seemed
- 5:52Speaker 2: like her supporters were fairly evenly split between McMorrow and
- 5:56Speaker 2: between Steven's and Abdullah Sayad. But in any case, she
- 6:00Speaker 2: decided to keep her name on the ballot, and that
- 6:02Speaker 2: may have ended up being a significant factor in the
- 6:05Speaker 2: outcome of this race.
- 6:06Speaker 4: Right Yeah, And the absentee ballots, you know, those are
- 6:09Speaker 4: heavily kind of nursing homes and senior centers, and it's
- 6:12Speaker 4: a it's a place where the organized Democratic establishment, to
- 6:16Speaker 4: its credit, still has the capacity to kind of to
- 6:19Speaker 4: galvanize that that vote and that went overwhelmingly for Stevens,
- 6:25Speaker 4: where whereas the rest of it, as you said, kind
- 6:27Speaker 4: of came out kind of a kind of a wash.
- 6:29Speaker 4: You know, close enough that Abdullahl size is likely. New
- 6:32Speaker 4: York Times is saying it's still too close to call.
- 6:34Speaker 4: And I wonder if some of that is the kind
- 6:36Speaker 4: of wishful thinking on the part of the editors versus
- 6:39Speaker 4: kind of overruling the data folks who are like, yeah, well,
- 6:42Speaker 4: it's kind of it's kind of over guys.
- 6:44Speaker 2: And if you look at the New York Times, if
- 6:46Speaker 2: you look at their analysis, you know, they have all
- 6:48Speaker 2: their lego how is so and so doing on their
- 6:51Speaker 2: benchmarks and what's likely to happen here? And I think
- 6:53Speaker 2: that their analysis is it is very likely that Abdullah
- 6:57Speaker 2: side will be the nominee over you know, if you
- 6:59Speaker 2: look at the bet apps, they all have them at
- 7:01Speaker 2: ninety nine percent. So I think there's not a whole
- 7:04Speaker 2: lot of vote left out there, and it's it doesn't
- 7:07Speaker 2: look like there's enough that would be pro Haley for
- 7:10Speaker 2: her to make up the gap of roughly one point
- 7:13Speaker 2: five percentage points here.
- 7:14Speaker 4: No, it seems like the Polsters need to go back
- 7:16Speaker 4: to the land lines because it does seem like they
- 7:19Speaker 4: missed the older vote in.
- 7:23Speaker 1: A significant way.
- 7:24Speaker 4: Maybe they've gone, you know, too far into the kind
- 7:26Speaker 4: of world of texting and online polls. There's still people
- 7:30Speaker 4: answering those landlines. Although you know, if you have a
- 7:35Speaker 4: landline at this point, it's it's just ringing constantly with
- 7:38Speaker 4: spam calls. So, you know, I do sympathize with the polsters,
- 7:42Speaker 4: but this was this is a you know, this was
- 7:45Speaker 4: a wild miss. You missed by more than ten points.
- 7:48Speaker 5: I was just gonna say, the Real Clear Politics average
- 7:51Speaker 5: had all said a ten point two. That's the average
- 7:54Speaker 5: of the polls so recent polls. That RCP average had
- 7:58Speaker 5: them up fourteen, fifteen, ten, sixteen, and thirteen. Now, the
- 8:02Speaker 5: last couple of polls were from the last week of July.
- 8:06Speaker 5: I suppose it's possible there was Stephen surge as a
- 8:09Speaker 5: bunch of money came in in the waiting days of
- 8:11Speaker 5: the race. Is that possibly explained some of the polling gap.
- 8:15Speaker 5: I don't know. I mean ten points is a huge miss.
- 8:18Speaker 2: Yeah, I think it's more that the universe. To Ryan's point,
- 8:21Speaker 2: that they were polling, they just they just underestimated the
- 8:25Speaker 2: number of older voters who would be in the electorate.
- 8:29Speaker 2: That's some of the at least early analysis I'm seeing here,
- 8:32Speaker 2: and look, to be fair to them, it's difficult to know,
- 8:34Speaker 2: you know, Zorn and New York completely changed that or electorate,
- 8:37Speaker 2: and there's way more young people than you would expect.
- 8:39Speaker 2: It's hard to know who's going to turn out in
- 8:42Speaker 2: a general election, let alone in a primary election. But
- 8:46Speaker 2: for every single one of them to have had this
- 8:49Speaker 2: gigantic double digit miss is quite extraordinary, you know, I'm wondering.
- 8:55Speaker 2: I'm just thinking about from Look, a win is a win.
- 8:57Speaker 2: So the left is looking at that, all right, our
- 8:59Speaker 2: guys getting through, you know, and against extraordinary odds. Right,
- 9:03Speaker 2: we have to sort of the bar got reset when
- 9:06Speaker 2: we started seeing all these polls. It's like, oh, how
- 9:08Speaker 2: big is the margin going to be? But we have
- 9:10Speaker 2: to keep in mind he was up against what at
- 9:13Speaker 2: eleven to one spending deficit, sixty two million dollars came
- 9:16Speaker 2: in from Hailey Stevens like they really put everything they
- 9:20Speaker 2: could behind her. She ran all the ads making it
- 9:23Speaker 2: look like she was endorsed by Obama, which I think,
- 9:25Speaker 2: you know, was a clever strategy and I think had
- 9:27Speaker 2: certainly had a significant impact they went with, you know,
- 9:31Speaker 2: from the the I E. Side, They went with all
- 9:34Speaker 2: these ads claiming that Abdul hates Michelle Obama and is
- 9:36Speaker 2: a secret sexist. I think that also damaged to him
- 9:40Speaker 2: with abortions, the electoral singing your tune there, and then
- 9:47Speaker 2: the endorsements that came in for her. You know, you
- 9:49Speaker 2: had Jim Clyburn come up, you had Gretchen Whitmer, who
- 9:52Speaker 2: had said previously and Gary Peters, who had said previously,
- 9:55Speaker 2: we're not going to get involved in this race, and
- 9:56Speaker 2: when they saw what direction it was going is actually,
- 9:58Speaker 2: we are going to get involved in this race. And
- 10:00Speaker 2: Whitmer is a very popular figure, especially with Democrats in
- 10:04Speaker 2: the state of Michigan. So they pulled out all of
- 10:07Speaker 2: the stops here, from the money, the endorsements, the ads,
- 10:11Speaker 2: the you know, the sort of cynical direction, the weaponization
- 10:14Speaker 2: of identity, and the sowing of discord between you know,
- 10:17Speaker 2: Arabs and Muslims in the Detroit area. Like they did
- 10:20Speaker 2: it all, and they still came up short. So I
- 10:23Speaker 2: think it is even though it's much narrower than expected,
- 10:26Speaker 2: I think it's an extraordinary victory for the left, the
- 10:30Speaker 2: ascendant left, and now Ryan we get to see if
- 10:34Speaker 2: our theory of electability in a swing state, if that's correct.
- 10:38Speaker 2: And I have to tell you after seeing I'm curious
- 10:41Speaker 2: for you guys. Take Haley outperformed in the sort of
- 10:45Speaker 2: more white rural parts of the state in spite of
- 10:47Speaker 2: the fact that she really had no campaign to speak
- 10:49Speaker 2: of outside of the Detroit area. She just the ads
- 10:54Speaker 2: spend alone. And you know, I think, frankly some discomfort
- 10:58Speaker 2: with musclim man named Abdullah's I think that's part of
- 11:01Speaker 2: what was missed in the polls as well. And so
- 11:04Speaker 2: it does make me concerned that this general election, even
- 11:07Speaker 2: as it's a very strong Democratic year, is going to
- 11:10Speaker 2: be tough for Abdul. It is definitely going to be
- 11:13Speaker 2: a dog fight and is very uncertain what will ultimately
- 11:17Speaker 2: happen there.
- 11:18Speaker 1: Yeah, it's going to be tough.
- 11:19Speaker 4: And on the Wayne County vote, we were talking last
- 11:21Speaker 4: night about how in twenty twenty four, I think there
- 11:24Speaker 4: were about one hundred and ninety five thousand votes in
- 11:27Speaker 4: the Democratic primary in twenty twenty four in Wayne County
- 11:30Speaker 4: and we were kind of gaming out what it would
- 11:32Speaker 4: look like if you saw a twenty five percent increase
- 11:36Speaker 4: this time around, and you know what the margins would
- 11:39Speaker 4: look like, as you Jumping twenty five percent in two
- 11:41Speaker 4: years is a pretty huge number.
- 11:43Speaker 1: It's rare to see.
- 11:44Speaker 4: So far, we're looking at I think two hundred and
- 11:46Speaker 4: ninety thousand votes already and well there could be you know,
- 11:51Speaker 4: thousands more, few thousand more still counted. So you're looking
- 11:54Speaker 4: at a fifty percent increase in turnout in Wayne County
- 11:59Speaker 4: from twenty twenty four to twenty twenty six. So that's
- 12:03Speaker 4: going to be key for Abdullah side to go in
- 12:06Speaker 4: and persuade those people who voted narrowly for Hailey Stevens
- 12:12Speaker 4: or we're looking at overall five point win for Stevens
- 12:15Speaker 4: in Wayne County.
- 12:16Speaker 1: He's going to need all of those Hailey Stevens people
- 12:19Speaker 1: to come his way.
- 12:20Speaker 4: And I don't think he can count much on Gretchen Whitmer.
- 12:24Speaker 4: Maybe Gary Peters because he wants he actually wants to
- 12:27Speaker 4: see Democrats win the Senate, but the rest of the
- 12:30Speaker 4: party establishment. I don't think outside and the left should
- 12:34Speaker 4: rely on that. I think it should be as nice
- 12:37Speaker 4: as they can be, as conciliatory, like welcome them in
- 12:40Speaker 4: and like it makes space for them, but absolutely do
- 12:43Speaker 4: not count on them, because just as you and I
- 12:46Speaker 4: are talking about this being a test case for the
- 12:50Speaker 4: entire premise that populism, you know, from the left can
- 12:54Speaker 4: win in swing seats, whether it's Will Lawrence, or whether
- 12:58Speaker 4: it's out of California or Maine or here, this being
- 13:00Speaker 4: the test case, the powers that be recognize that as well,
- 13:05Speaker 4: and so for them it is it is a real
- 13:09Speaker 4: question that they won't talk about much, I think publicly,
- 13:13Speaker 4: but privately are weighing the question of how much do
- 13:17Speaker 4: we want this Senate seat versus how how much do
- 13:20Speaker 4: we not want to set the precedent that this populism
- 13:24Speaker 4: can win, versus the true reward of Wow, look, you
- 13:30Speaker 4: guys got what you wanted and he lost. So don't
- 13:33Speaker 4: ever bother us again with any of this.
- 13:36Speaker 2: And with an I towards twenty twenty eight exactly and
- 13:39Speaker 2: who you know would be able to to gain the
- 13:43Speaker 2: Democratic nomination for presidency. So yeah, it's a big prize
- 13:46Speaker 2: for them ultimately to watch Abdul, you know, quietly, watch
- 13:50Speaker 2: ab Duel go down.
- 13:52Speaker 6: That would please them a lot, especially if.
- 13:54Speaker 5: The if the polling starts to show Rogers running away
- 13:57Speaker 5: with it before Labor Day, and then maybe a little
- 13:59Speaker 5: bit into the fall, that'll be I would imagine Ryan
- 14:03Speaker 5: and Crystal that's going to be a sign to Democrats
- 14:06Speaker 5: in Washington. So whether they go all in or they're
- 14:10Speaker 5: kind of tapid, right.
- 14:13Speaker 4: Although yes, it's going to be very difficult dance for
- 14:18Speaker 4: them because they have to you know, publicly, they have
- 14:20Speaker 4: to publicly want it. But also when Washington people have privately,
- 14:24Speaker 4: Democrats privately have been saying, you know, it's not obvious
- 14:28Speaker 4: that holding Congress going into the twenty twenty eight election
- 14:31Speaker 4: is better for Democrats. Like that might sound strange to
- 14:34Speaker 4: people outside of Washington who were like, wait a minute,
- 14:36Speaker 4: I thought you're a political party and you want more
- 14:39Speaker 4: votes and you want more power.
- 14:41Speaker 1: But no, that's not all. That's not how all Democrats think.
- 14:43Speaker 4: There's an argument that that's made in Democratic elite circles
- 14:47Speaker 4: that if you have Congress, then even though you don't
- 14:51Speaker 4: have much ability to restrain Trump, you then to the
- 14:57Speaker 4: voters look partly responsible for whatever is happening being in
- 15:00Speaker 4: the world and they and the best place for Democrats,
- 15:03Speaker 4: as far as the establishment is concerned, has always been
- 15:06Speaker 4: completely out of power and blameless and without any responsibility
- 15:10Speaker 4: for anything, so that they can then kind of just
- 15:13Speaker 4: run against whatever screw ups uh uh and corruption the
- 15:18Speaker 4: Republican whoever that may be, is engaged in. So so
- 15:22Speaker 4: it also fits into that strategy. Just say, we we tried,
- 15:28Speaker 4: we did everything, we did everything we could for Abdullah's side,
- 15:30Speaker 4: but he just fell short. So the so my point
- 15:32Speaker 4: is you rather than cry about that, you have he
- 15:35Speaker 4: has to lock in, and so does everybody who did
- 15:38Speaker 4: everything to get him over the hump here. They have
- 15:42Speaker 4: to lock in from now to November.
- 15:44Speaker 7: Uh.
- 15:44Speaker 4: The work to be done in Detroit is immense, and
- 15:48Speaker 4: the work to be done in the royal and suburban
- 15:50Speaker 4: areas is significant as well. That it's it's there for
- 15:53Speaker 4: the taking, but you know nobody, nobody's going to hand
- 15:56Speaker 4: it to you. It's the point like they're like this,
- 15:58Speaker 4: this campaign and this national movement is going to have
- 16:01Speaker 4: to do it on its own.
- 16:02Speaker 6: Yeah, that's right.
- 16:03Speaker 2: Let's go ahead, actually and take a listen to Abdel
- 16:05Speaker 2: gave a speech last night before the race had been called,
- 16:09Speaker 2: when you know by anyone, but already striking that conciliatory
- 16:14Speaker 2: tone with Democrats saying we all have to come together
- 16:17Speaker 2: to defeat Mike Rogers. Let's go ahead and take a
- 16:20Speaker 2: listen to that.
- 16:21Speaker 8: And however we might feel about the campaign we've just
- 16:26Speaker 8: come through, I want you to understand that it pales
- 16:30Speaker 8: in comparison to the cynicism, in comparison to the corporatism,
- 16:37Speaker 8: in comparison to the lies.
- 16:40Speaker 7: Like Mike Rogers and Donald Trump are going to tell,
- 16:44Speaker 7: there is so much more that unites us. However much
- 16:49Speaker 7: we might disagree with our Democratic opponent, there is so
- 16:53Speaker 7: much more that unites us than divides us.
- 16:56Speaker 8: And so to.
- 16:57Speaker 7: All of our supporters here tonight, watching on TV tomorrow,
- 17:02Speaker 7: we begin to mend fences.
- 17:05Speaker 8: Whatever happens tonight, we have.
- 17:09Speaker 7: A responsibility to assure that we unite, to make sure
- 17:14Speaker 7: that Mike Rogers never sees the inside of the US Senate.
- 17:19Speaker 2: And you know, in terms of Mike Rogers, he's got
- 17:22Speaker 2: a tall hill to climb here too, because he's got
- 17:24Speaker 2: a man named Donald Trump in the White House and
- 17:26Speaker 2: he's going to have to answer for every insane, stupid,
- 17:29Speaker 2: destructive thing that that man does between now and November.
- 17:34Speaker 2: In a very dismal climate both politically for Republicans economically
- 17:39Speaker 2: in terms of the level of pessimism, the Iran war
- 17:42Speaker 2: obviously no end in sight here gas price is still
- 17:45Speaker 2: very high, so it's a brutal climate for him and Democrats,
- 17:51Speaker 2: you know, outside of the elected establishment and the elite
- 17:55Speaker 2: tastemakers and the party. Outside of that circle, they are highly,
- 17:59Speaker 2: highly elite energized to take the Senate and send a
- 18:03Speaker 2: message to Republicans into the country that the Trump administration
- 18:08Speaker 2: is unacceptable and that there is you know, a wave
- 18:11Speaker 2: building to shift power in the other direction.
- 18:14Speaker 5: And let's keep going to the down ballot races because
- 18:17Speaker 5: Will Lawrence is an example of some of that energy.
- 18:21Speaker 5: We can put a two on the screen and Crystal
- 18:23Speaker 5: and Ryan explain to us, you were watching these results
- 18:26Speaker 5: come in last night as well, explain to us what
- 18:27Speaker 5: this means in the kind of broader constellation of DSA
- 18:31Speaker 5: style wins that we've seen. Obviously, we're going to get
- 18:33Speaker 5: into the Corey Bush lost last night, So kind of
- 18:36Speaker 5: a mixed bag, but this is a big one.
- 18:38Speaker 1: Yeah.
- 18:39Speaker 4: Matt Masden there that you see finishing third, he had
- 18:42Speaker 4: millions of dollars spent on behalf of him.
- 18:44Speaker 1: He was.
- 18:45Speaker 4: He's a candidate of that what's it called the bridge,
- 18:48Speaker 4: like the Liz Smith operation, the same one that did
- 18:52Speaker 4: Mallory McMorrow and.
- 18:54Speaker 1: That kind of politics.
- 18:57Speaker 4: Both of Will Lawrence's opponents were made in a line
- 19:00Speaker 4: A Democrats, like one of them Navy seal who carried
- 19:04Speaker 4: the nuclear football for Obama. That's Matt and then Bridget
- 19:07Speaker 4: was ambassador of Ukraine, you know, who stood up to Trump.
- 19:10Speaker 4: It's like you couldn't kind of do better if you're
- 19:13Speaker 4: trying to recruit house Democratic candidates for the Democratic primary base.
- 19:18Speaker 4: And yet Will Lawrence, co founder of Sunrise, on the
- 19:21Speaker 4: back of his opposition to both genocide and data centers
- 19:25Speaker 4: in the district, is beating both of them fairly, fairly comfortably.
- 19:30Speaker 4: And this will be another test, and it's probably useful
- 19:36Speaker 4: for Abdell side to have him here because he is
- 19:38Speaker 4: going to be doing everything he can to bring Michigan
- 19:43Speaker 4: State University District, which is in his district, that bring
- 19:47Speaker 4: those folks out to vote, but in general, to make
- 19:50Speaker 4: the case that populism is viable in mid Michigan. He's
- 19:55Speaker 4: going to go up against Tom Barrett and incumbent Republicans.
- 19:58Speaker 4: So this is not one of these DSA candidates who
- 20:02Speaker 4: wins and can now go around the rest of the
- 20:04Speaker 4: country just electing other DSA candidates like he has to
- 20:07Speaker 4: flip a red seat and trying to run up those
- 20:10Speaker 4: margins and beat Tom Barrett is going to be I
- 20:12Speaker 4: think very helpful to Abdulah's sides showing that this is
- 20:16Speaker 4: this is not a culture war that he's waging. He's
- 20:19Speaker 4: not trying to bring communism to mid Michigan. He's just
- 20:24Speaker 4: going to fight against these data centers and kind of
- 20:28Speaker 4: actually be conservative, like conserve what people love about mid Michigan.
- 20:35Speaker 4: So that will be that will be fascinating Crystal. Any
- 20:42Speaker 4: thoughts on Lawrence kind of you know, fairly comfortably beating
- 20:47Speaker 4: these two.
- 20:48Speaker 2: Democrats, Well, it's I mean it's also a bit of
- 20:52Speaker 2: a centrist in disarray kind of a story because I'm
- 20:54Speaker 2: sure that there is a lot of recriminations looking at
- 20:57Speaker 2: you know, he didn't get fifty percent of the vote,
- 20:59Speaker 2: so no guarantees that if it was head to head
- 21:02Speaker 2: him versus one of these other candidates that he would
- 21:04Speaker 2: have lost. But I'm sure they're going to think that
- 21:06Speaker 2: that's the case. So there's a lack of coordination there
- 21:10Speaker 2: problem that's an issue. There is a similar dynamic happening
- 21:13Speaker 2: in the Wisconsin governor's race with Francesca Hang, the DSA candidate,
- 21:19Speaker 2: really benefiting from that dynamic as well. Although she has
- 21:22Speaker 2: such a lead that although who knows what the poll
- 21:24Speaker 2: or whether the polls are right at this point or not,
- 21:26Speaker 2: but she has such a lead that it seems unlikely
- 21:29Speaker 2: even if it was a had to head battle there
- 21:31Speaker 2: that she would be defeated.
- 21:32Speaker 6: But we'll see.
- 21:32Speaker 2: That primary is next week, So now I think, well,
- 21:35Speaker 2: Lawrence is a very compelling candidate. I think we were
- 21:37Speaker 2: all impressed with him when we interviewed him, and the
- 21:41Speaker 2: data center critique is very natural for him because obviously
- 21:44Speaker 2: as a founder of the Sunrise movement, and he's deeply
- 21:47Speaker 2: concerned about environmental issues, and that is one aspect of
- 21:52Speaker 2: what the whole country is deeply concerned about with data centers,
- 21:55Speaker 2: and it's only going to become more of an issue.
- 21:58Speaker 2: I saw, I can't remember which state it is, was
- 22:00Speaker 2: in there was a ballot initiative to block a data
- 22:05Speaker 2: center in a certain area that was successful. After the
- 22:08Speaker 2: local officials had approved it, the public said we want
- 22:12Speaker 2: to say in this and we're able to get that
- 22:14Speaker 2: on the ballot in their area, and they fully rejected it.
- 22:18Speaker 2: Adding to some there's some three hundred data center bands
- 22:21Speaker 2: or moratoriums in place across the country at this point.
- 22:24Speaker 2: So he'll be part of that burgeoning movement. And to
- 22:27Speaker 2: your point, Ryan, having him on the ground, working in
- 22:30Speaker 2: collaboration with Abdul and his team is going to be
- 22:34Speaker 2: very important.
- 22:36Speaker 6: Let's go to a three.
- 22:37Speaker 2: We can put this was the other big race for
- 22:39Speaker 2: the left in Michigan. This is Donovan McKinney versus Street Thanadar.
- 22:44Speaker 2: This is a Detroit area district. Right now, you've got
- 22:47Speaker 2: Donovan McKinney up here by a few points, by about
- 22:51Speaker 2: three points in about three thousand votes. That one has
- 22:56Speaker 2: not been called yet. They say there's about seventy three
- 23:00Speaker 2: percent of the expected vote in. It definitely looks very
- 23:05Speaker 2: good for Donovan, but still enough vote out for it
- 23:09Speaker 2: to be too close to call. But you know this
- 23:12Speaker 2: is a this is a big one too, because you
- 23:15Speaker 2: have a lefty taking out here a Democratic incumbent, and
- 23:19Speaker 2: anytime that happens, you know, it's very difficult to unseat incumbents.
- 23:25Speaker 2: And you know, this is a district that does have
- 23:27Speaker 2: a lot of a beloved Democratic incumbent, yes, beloved by all,
- 23:33Speaker 2: And this is a district with a large black population
- 23:36Speaker 2: as well, and so in terms of some of the
- 23:38Speaker 2: challenges that the left has with black voters and older
- 23:41Speaker 2: black voters in particular, you know, Donovan McKinney appears to
- 23:45Speaker 2: have been able to overcome some of that trepidation in
- 23:48Speaker 2: his battle here against Tritanadar.
- 23:51Speaker 4: Donovan in our interview recently had a kind of a
- 23:54Speaker 4: funny line about the DSA because he.
- 23:57Speaker 1: Has had a bit of a rocky relationship with DSA.
- 23:59Speaker 4: He and ed up getting Metro Detroit dsay's endorsement, and
- 24:04Speaker 4: I think that, you know, that really helped.
- 24:06Speaker 3: And he had.
- 24:09Speaker 4: People from all over the country, all of these different
- 24:12Speaker 4: campaigns at Adam ham Away, a lot of heros on
- 24:16Speaker 4: and on and on came in and brought staff and
- 24:19Speaker 4: volunteers as well, and with the hope of a relentless
- 24:24Speaker 4: get out the vote effort kind of overcoming what was
- 24:27Speaker 4: what was a polling gap. So it seems like this,
- 24:29Speaker 4: you know, this coming together so far as working for McKinney.
- 24:33Speaker 4: There's thirty eight thousand votes outstanding and he has to
- 24:37Speaker 4: you know, maintain this this three thousand vote lead. But
- 24:40Speaker 4: he in our interview he said something funny, but I
- 24:42Speaker 4: don't know if you remember exactly how he put it
- 24:44Speaker 4: when we asked him about his relationship with the DSA,
- 24:46Speaker 4: is like, I love the DSA. I agree with them
- 24:49Speaker 4: on basically everything, but man, they talk a lot and
- 24:54Speaker 4: sometimes it's not very helpful. It was some version of that,
- 24:58Speaker 4: and I think the DA he needs to listen to
- 25:00Speaker 4: people like Donovan mckinneyse like, what whatever it is he's
- 25:03Speaker 4: telling you about what's not working on the ground in Detroit, Like,
- 25:06Speaker 4: listen because he agrees with you. And yes, you can
- 25:09Speaker 4: complain about what you know, where he's been in the
- 25:11Speaker 4: past and some things he's with you now. He wants
- 25:15Speaker 4: to see Abdulla al Saiah when he endorsed you know,
- 25:18Speaker 4: they cross endorsed each other. Having him running is a
- 25:23Speaker 4: a is a great bridge. The The thing that outside
- 25:26Speaker 4: has going for him, uh, is that the older black
- 25:30Speaker 4: community in Wayne County is still very well organized. The
- 25:34Speaker 4: younger black community as the churches, you know, the church
- 25:37Speaker 4: attendance has gone down and like the just the collapse
- 25:40Speaker 4: of kind of American society generally in the last couple
- 25:42Speaker 4: of decades has become disaggregated. But the older voters are
- 25:46Speaker 4: still very well organized. So if you can get the
- 25:48Speaker 4: word out that we're gonna we're going to overcome these
- 25:52Speaker 4: differences and we're going to pull together, and this is
- 25:56Speaker 4: a rainbow coalition.
- 25:58Speaker 1: You know, it was Michigan that almost.
- 26:00Speaker 4: Propelled Jesse Jackson back in nineteen eighty eight to the
- 26:03Speaker 4: Democratic nomination on the back of a rainbow coalition. Then
- 26:08Speaker 4: this becomes that this becomes possible and McKinney could be
- 26:11Speaker 4: a key player, you know, keep bridge there.
- 26:14Speaker 2: I think, well, yeah, well, one other quick comment about
- 26:18Speaker 2: DSA is, you know, they are really gaining a reputation
- 26:22Speaker 2: as important organizing muscle on the ground, and so you
- 26:26Speaker 2: see more and more candidates reaching out for their endorsement
- 26:29Speaker 2: because even if it comes with a you know, the
- 26:32Speaker 2: socialist label that may or may not benefit them in
- 26:34Speaker 2: the district, just because they actually are a real member
- 26:38Speaker 2: organization with real ability and know what they are doing
- 26:42Speaker 2: and have demonstrated demonstrated some prowess in terms of contacting
- 26:47Speaker 2: voters and organizing and getting out the vote. It is
- 26:50Speaker 2: candidates are increasingly really seeing it as worthwhile to have
- 26:54Speaker 2: their backing and being a real difference maker in some
- 26:57Speaker 2: of these close votes.
- 26:59Speaker 5: Russell looking at what appears to be a double digit
- 27:01Speaker 5: loss for Corey Bush in Missouri to Wesley Bell.
- 27:05Speaker 4: Real quick before we go to Missouri, just just to
- 27:07Speaker 4: update people and what we talked about last night. There
- 27:09Speaker 4: were a bunch of other down ballot dsa slash lefty races.
- 27:14Speaker 4: Senate District one, Aosh lost an effort to Allston incumbent,
- 27:20Speaker 4: but in Senate District two, A bus Allawi, who has
- 27:23Speaker 4: I believe he's been on this program, former chief of
- 27:25Speaker 4: staff to Corey Busch, former stafford of both Andy Levin
- 27:29Speaker 4: and Rashida Talib, will be one in Dearborn and ousted.
- 27:33Speaker 4: The incumbent will be the first Arab American to go
- 27:37Speaker 4: to UH, to go to the state Senate. And then
- 27:42Speaker 4: it looks like ann Arbor the insurgents one an Arbor
- 27:46Speaker 4: Mayor race and elsewhere and a bunch of other races
- 27:50Speaker 4: that we talked about yesterday. It looks like not a
- 27:53Speaker 4: completely clean suite, but a pretty pretty significant, pretty significant one.
- 27:57Speaker 1: But not the case in Missouri.
- 28:01Speaker 5: Now where it stands in Missouri, as Wesley Bell has
- 28:05Speaker 5: let me pull this back up. Wesley Bell in District
- 28:09Speaker 5: one has fifty nine point two percent of the vote.
- 28:13Speaker 5: This is with just about all of the votes, and
- 28:15Speaker 5: Corey Bush is at thirty six point ninety percent, So
- 28:18Speaker 5: resounding victory for Wesley Bell. Not exactly a surprise. Are
- 28:22Speaker 5: we surprised at all by the margin of victory for
- 28:24Speaker 5: Wesley Bell?
- 28:27Speaker 1: I mean probably, probably not.
- 28:28Speaker 4: Unfortunately, this was a real long shot for her, and
- 28:33Speaker 4: I talked about this last night, but the weird internal
- 28:36Speaker 4: polling just showed that the negatives on Corey Bush really stuck.
- 28:41Speaker 4: And the main thing that they hit her for was
- 28:44Speaker 4: missing too many votes. You know, she talked about she
- 28:48Speaker 4: had two bouts of COVID, which is what led to
- 28:51Speaker 4: the the votes being missed. But it's not like they
- 28:55Speaker 4: give context in attack ads. And Jamal Bowman was telling
- 28:59Speaker 4: us last night on stream when he was going around
- 29:01Speaker 4: Saint Louis, you guys can take that off by now.
- 29:06Speaker 4: When he was going around Saint Louis, people were excited
- 29:08Speaker 4: about her, but would say like, wait, I saw, didn't
- 29:11Speaker 4: I say that she didn't do her job. She never
- 29:13Speaker 4: showed up to vote, like those ads were absolutely everywhere,
- 29:16Speaker 4: and they still hit her with voting against the infrastructure
- 29:18Speaker 4: bill in order to try to get the build back
- 29:22Speaker 4: better bill, you know, through and so the negatives on
- 29:27Speaker 4: Wesley Bell for whatever reason, weren't landing in the same way,
- 29:29Speaker 4: and she didn't have also didn't have the money this
- 29:31Speaker 4: time to kind of really drive those home.
- 29:35Speaker 2: Yeah, and didn't have a lot of you know, once
- 29:39Speaker 2: but you didn't have Bernie, you know, back in coming
- 29:41Speaker 2: to the district, there were you know, some she didn't
- 29:45Speaker 2: have all the sort of organizational endorsement pieces there. And
- 29:49Speaker 2: I also think, you know, just in terms of where
- 29:52Speaker 2: the left is strongest, I think there was you know,
- 29:54Speaker 2: this is a demographic area an area demographically that was
- 29:58Speaker 2: going to be a challenge as well. So it seems
- 30:00Speaker 2: like all of that was just too much to overcome.
- 30:03Speaker 2: So APAC did get at least one when there last night,
- 30:07Speaker 2: which I'm sure they'll be very very happy about. I mean,
- 30:10Speaker 2: just to remind people, when Corey Bush was originally defeated
- 30:14Speaker 2: by Wesley Bell, this was the most expensive at that time,
- 30:17Speaker 2: This was the most expensive primary that had ever happened.
- 30:20Speaker 2: Because they were bound and determined to get her out
- 30:22Speaker 2: of there, and they succeeded with her. With Jamal Bowman
- 30:25Speaker 2: as well, I think if she was an incumbent and
- 30:28Speaker 2: they were trying to run that same playbook. I don't
- 30:31Speaker 2: think that it would work, but there's a lot of
- 30:33Speaker 2: advantages to incumbency. And I think you're right Ryan that
- 30:37Speaker 2: some of the things, you know, the claims about absentee voting,
- 30:41Speaker 2: there were also some alleged sort of corruption stories involving
- 30:46Speaker 2: her and her husband that probably dinged her image in
- 30:49Speaker 2: the district as well. So all of those efforts paid off.
- 30:52Speaker 1: For them, right.
- 30:53Speaker 4: The things that land are you know, people think you're
- 30:57Speaker 4: if people think you're petty corrupt, like self dealing, and
- 31:00Speaker 4: if you're not and if you're not voting like that
- 31:03Speaker 4: like that it hits in these.
- 31:05Speaker 1: Attack ads, like because like for.
- 31:09Speaker 4: You know, I think for voters are like, you're getting
- 31:10Speaker 4: paid six figures, your job is to go vote, Go vote.
- 31:15Speaker 4: Like if I was there, they're thinking, if I was
- 31:17Speaker 4: getting paid six figures, I would vote. And like I said,
- 31:19Speaker 4: in attack ad, you don't get a chance to say, well,
- 31:21Speaker 4: here's the reason I missed these votes.
- 31:24Speaker 1: Yeah, it's just she had.
- 31:26Speaker 4: The worst voting record in Congress, you know, whatever the
- 31:28Speaker 4: whatever the hit hit was.
- 31:31Speaker 2: And I mean they tried as similar and the sort
- 31:33Speaker 2: of petty corruption front. They tried a similar tactic with
- 31:36Speaker 2: Abdul that I'm sure also dinged his image with all
- 31:39Speaker 2: of Hailey Stevens really spent a lot of time focusing
- 31:42Speaker 2: on where's your tax return, where's your financial disclosure, which
- 31:45Speaker 2: she ends up releasing, but you know, she'd raise these
- 31:48Speaker 2: questions about, well, where did this money come from? Where
- 31:50Speaker 2: did that money come from? And so to create this
- 31:53Speaker 2: similar impression and to mondy the waters as she was
- 31:56Speaker 2: getting hit hard for a sort of corruption by taking
- 31:59Speaker 2: all of this corporate and lobby money for her campaign.
- 32:04Speaker 5: Well, let's finally go to Washington District nine, where Adam
- 32:08Speaker 5: Smith has according to results right now, we've got fifty
- 32:12Speaker 5: three percent of votes in. He's not just advancing to
- 32:15Speaker 5: the general election, but had fifty one percent, So over
- 32:19Speaker 5: fifty percent of the vote there in Washington nine. The
- 32:24Speaker 5: Republican candidate Doug Basler at twenty three point eight percent,
- 32:27Speaker 5: So that's what the general election will look like. Again,
- 32:30Speaker 5: fifty three percent of the votes in. So we don't
- 32:32Speaker 5: know if these particular margins stick, but over the fifty
- 32:35Speaker 5: percent margin for Adam Smith right now.
- 32:37Speaker 2: Yeah, so this this will be a lock for him
- 32:40Speaker 2: in the general because it's a very liberal district. You know,
- 32:43Speaker 2: just sort of like suburban Seattle. Obviously, we had both
- 32:46Speaker 2: Adam Smith and his socialist challenger Kasha Masawant. In Washington,
- 32:51Speaker 2: they do top two primary, so everybody runs and what's
- 32:55Speaker 2: called a jungle primary, and then the top two move
- 32:57Speaker 2: on to the general election. So that's why you see Socialists, Republican,
- 33:01Speaker 2: Democrat all mixed together there in the results.
- 33:04Speaker 4: Yeah, and Doug Basler, the Republican, raised less than one
- 33:07Speaker 4: hundred thousand dollars in the primary, so you know he's
- 33:10Speaker 4: not a serious candidate. He's not going to be a
- 33:12Speaker 4: threat to Adam Smith because Shamas the Want is currently
- 33:16Speaker 4: in battling for third with Melissa Chaudrey. She's current results
- 33:23Speaker 4: have her with eight thousand little over eight thousand votes.
- 33:25Speaker 1: She's eight hundred votes ahead of Melissa Chaudry.
- 33:28Speaker 4: There's still about sixty thousand votes to be counted, so
- 33:32Speaker 4: it's possible Chaudrey could overtake her, but doesn't matter third
- 33:35Speaker 4: or fourth. Either way, you don't make it. You don't
- 33:38Speaker 4: make it into the top two there. Yeah, and Marie
- 33:43Speaker 4: Glusen Camperez, by the way, did win, and she did
- 33:46Speaker 4: make the top two. She had a left wing challenger
- 33:49Speaker 4: who was trying to squeeze her out of the top
- 33:53Speaker 4: out of the top two, but she made it through.
- 33:55Speaker 4: So it'll be her against a Republican to defend her seat.
- 34:00Speaker 8: Yeh.
- 34:00Speaker 2: So some interesting results there, and you know, I think
- 34:05Speaker 2: I think perhaps the lack of the DSA endorsement for
- 34:09Speaker 2: Kashama was significant there to just given again the organizing
- 34:13Speaker 2: muscle and when you have there were multiple challengers there
- 34:17Speaker 2: to Adam Smith's left, so there was you know, there
- 34:21Speaker 2: wasn't an ability to consolidate and be able to get
- 34:24Speaker 2: past the Republican.
- 34:26Speaker 6: Partisanship is a hell of a drug.
- 34:27Speaker 2: You know, if you have an R or D next
- 34:30Speaker 2: year name, there's a certain block of voters that's just
- 34:32Speaker 2: going to be there for you. So you're not starting
- 34:34Speaker 2: from vote number one and you know it can provide
- 34:37Speaker 2: an advantage and then real.
- 34:39Speaker 4: Quick before we finish and put up a four, APEC
- 34:42Speaker 4: did have another win here. This is this is Haley
- 34:45Speaker 4: Stevens's district to replace her. The pro Israel candidate ended
- 34:52Speaker 4: up with nearly fifty percent of the vote, Ayisha Faruki
- 34:58Speaker 4: with thirty two percent, so fairly comfortable win, an expensive
- 35:02Speaker 4: win for the for the pro Israel crowd. Here in
- 35:07Speaker 4: Steven's district. But this will be I think probably a
- 35:11Speaker 4: prime target in the next cycle if if the opposition
- 35:17Speaker 4: can kind of consolidate around a single single candidate. They
- 35:20Speaker 4: had a bunch of different challengers and they could never
- 35:23Speaker 4: really kind of organize the energy behind us a single
- 35:27Speaker 4: one Kyle Blumcoast.
- 35:28Speaker 5: They're at thirty six percent. Oh yes, yes, in the
- 35:32Speaker 5: Upper Peninsula one yes.
- 35:35Speaker 1: Yeah, we had Kyle.
- 35:36Speaker 4: We had Kyle on He ended up also spent about
- 35:39Speaker 4: one hundred grand, ended up losing twenty points to in
- 35:42Speaker 4: his Democratic primary.
- 35:43Speaker 5: Interesting, interesting candidacy that we talked to him about data
- 35:46Speaker 5: centers as well, and we'll have honestly some similar things
- 35:50Speaker 5: to discuss next week after the Wisconsin results. So should
- 35:53Speaker 5: we move on to a run and updates everyone?
- 35:57Speaker 2: Just one last question for Ryan on the election, which
- 36:00Speaker 2: is just you know, what's kind of your overall takeaway
- 36:03Speaker 2: for the strength of the left within the Democratic primary
- 36:07Speaker 2: base and you know how people should be thinking about
- 36:10Speaker 2: these things overall.
- 36:11Speaker 4: You know, we did a survey with drop sit Ins,
- 36:15Speaker 4: the TAO sponsorous survey back and I think April it was,
- 36:18Speaker 4: and it basically found that Abdulla al Saiah did not
- 36:24Speaker 4: have a path to victory in a one on one
- 36:26Speaker 4: race against either Haley Stevens or Mallory McMorrow, and that
- 36:30Speaker 4: his only his only chance was if all three of
- 36:34Speaker 4: them stayed in. And it was right around that time
- 36:38Speaker 4: that we did our survey, we put our survey into
- 36:41Speaker 4: the field justice the kind of Hassan Piker thing was
- 36:44Speaker 4: was blowing up that where McMorrow and Third Way were
- 36:48Speaker 4: demanding that he be denounced, and that ended up polarizing
- 36:52Speaker 4: the race around him and around Israel, Israel Palestine, and
- 36:55Speaker 4: you know, sinking mcmorroll's candidacy. So if you would have
- 36:59Speaker 4: told me at the time that mcmore was going to
- 37:01Speaker 4: drop out and that Elside was still going to beat
- 37:05Speaker 4: Haley Stevens, I would have been very surprised because that
- 37:09Speaker 4: was a very tough path for him for him to win.
- 37:13Speaker 2: And if we had told you she'd also get the
- 37:14Speaker 2: Whitmer endorsement, she'd get on top of it.
- 37:17Speaker 4: Gary Peters would come in, Whitmer would come in, She'd
- 37:20Speaker 4: have sixty plus million dollars of ads telling people that
- 37:25Speaker 4: Obama was supporting her, and that you'd have almost three
- 37:28Speaker 4: hundred thousand people vote in Wayne County, and that he
- 37:31Speaker 4: would still win. I would have been I would have
- 37:34Speaker 4: been very surprised, and I would never have expected that
- 37:36Speaker 4: anybody would have been suggesting that there was going to
- 37:39Speaker 4: be a fifteen point victory. So I don't know where
- 37:42Speaker 4: on earth that that kind of came from out of nowhere.
- 37:45Speaker 1: Plus you if he also tell.
- 37:47Speaker 4: Me, oh, by the way, Donovan McKinney's going to come
- 37:49Speaker 4: from behind and win.
- 37:50Speaker 1: Let's see if he does.
- 37:51Speaker 4: But he's up now, and Will Lawrence is going to
- 37:54Speaker 4: win in mid Michigan. That's a pretty dominant performance for
- 37:59Speaker 4: the populace wing of the party, kind of across across
- 38:02Speaker 4: the but ideological and racial spectrum in a party that
- 38:06Speaker 4: is very obsessed with with identity. And it also came
- 38:12Speaker 4: as the party establishment, after having destroyed Graham Plattner, was
- 38:17Speaker 4: able to focus all of its energy on trying to
- 38:20Speaker 4: take down Will Lawrence, who they threw the entire kitchen
- 38:23Speaker 4: sink at. You know, Oppa was just coming relentlessly, and
- 38:26Speaker 4: Abdullah said they were going after him, him and Will
- 38:30Speaker 4: Lawrence with with really everything they had. And so that's
- 38:34Speaker 4: that's kind of how I take take it away, rather
- 38:36Speaker 4: than the squeaker, but it's it's going to be a
- 38:41Speaker 4: very tough race, and and they're gonna, like I said,
- 38:44Speaker 4: they're gonna have to really lock in. I don't know
- 38:46Speaker 4: what's what's your thirty thousand foot look this morning?
- 38:51Speaker 2: You know, what I was thinking about is like, you know,
- 38:54Speaker 2: in the past, the populous left, there have been lots
- 38:56Speaker 2: of sort of like moral victories where I was like, well,
- 38:59Speaker 2: we didn't win, but Bernie came really close. You know,
- 39:02Speaker 2: if only X and Y and Z had gone different,
- 39:04Speaker 2: really gave them a scare. I feel like now the
- 39:07Speaker 2: shoes on the other foot, where it's like the Centrists
- 39:10Speaker 2: are kind of taking like a moral victory, and you know,
- 39:13Speaker 2: I'm personally glad to be moving into the realm of
- 39:15Speaker 2: actual victories, not a moral victories. So I think you're
- 39:19Speaker 2: right that the bar has been raised so extraordinarily high
- 39:23Speaker 2: now that in another cycle, just taking out one incumbent Shritannadar,
- 39:30Speaker 2: if that holds, you know, with Donovan McKinney, that would
- 39:33Speaker 2: be seen as a really sort of landmark event in
- 39:36Speaker 2: the way AOC taking out you know, Crowley was this
- 39:41Speaker 2: kind of watershed moment, et cetera. So I think it
- 39:44Speaker 2: shows you how much the party has shifted, how much
- 39:46Speaker 2: the landscape has shifted. But also obviously you can see
- 39:50Speaker 2: the perils of the way they are able to fight back,
- 39:52Speaker 2: the amount of resource that they're able to bring to bear,
- 39:55Speaker 2: the frankly, you know, deeply cynical tactics that they're willing
- 39:59Speaker 2: to use. You know, the constant weaponization of identity is
- 40:02Speaker 2: a theme that goes back, you know, certainly to the
- 40:04Speaker 2: Hillary Clinton versus Burning campaigns as well. So, you know,
- 40:09Speaker 2: I think it's a I think it's a reminder that
- 40:12Speaker 2: there are still very very strong forces that will do
- 40:15Speaker 2: everything they can to oppose a true populist movement that
- 40:19Speaker 2: will oppose money and politics, will oppose oligarchy, and that
- 40:23Speaker 2: is to be taken seriously, both inside of the Democratic
- 40:26Speaker 2: Party and in the you know, the general election.
- 40:29Speaker 4: Yeah, nothing's going to be handed to anybody. If you
- 40:31Speaker 4: want it, you got to take it, that's for sure.
- 40:36Speaker 5: Well, we have some breaking news now. Actually in the
- 40:39Speaker 5: Red Sea. We could toss this tear shape up on
- 40:41Speaker 5: the screen. This is from the New York Times right now,
- 40:44Speaker 5: reporting this morning Huthy threatened to expand Red Sea attacks
- 40:47Speaker 5: and claim strike on Saudi tanker The who the these
- 40:51Speaker 5: they report said Wednesday they had struck a Saudi oil
- 40:53Speaker 5: tanker in the Northern Red Sea, and they threaten to
- 40:56Speaker 5: intensify attacks. They're in an effort to close quote unquote
- 40:58Speaker 5: all access routes to Saudi oil shipments. This obviously comes
- 41:02Speaker 5: as the Trump administration is struggling to get itself out
- 41:06Speaker 5: of the Iran conflict. More broadly, we can put b
- 41:11Speaker 5: one up on the screen. Now, this just yesterday. This
- 41:13Speaker 5: is going to be a st just one moment. I'll
- 41:15Speaker 5: set it up for US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessant is
- 41:19Speaker 5: saying on CNBC at least says of yesterday that a
- 41:22Speaker 5: deal was really, really close, and we also have some
- 41:25Speaker 5: details to come on a potential deal between between Iran
- 41:31Speaker 5: and Oman about opening the Strait of Hormuz. But for now,
- 41:35Speaker 5: let's start here just listening to twenty four hours ago
- 41:38Speaker 5: Scott Bessant talking about how very very close we were.
- 41:43Speaker 9: We've seen President Trump last week threatened what would have
- 41:48Speaker 9: been one of the largest military campaigns, or the largest
- 41:51Speaker 9: military campaigns since World War Two against the Iranians, and
- 41:56Speaker 9: now we are because of that, we are in talks
- 41:59Speaker 9: with the Irais, and I think there is a chance
- 42:02Speaker 9: we may have a deal today or tomorrow to open
- 42:06Speaker 9: the straight and move towards a more normalized position in
- 42:11Speaker 9: this conflict. And that's because if their air forces wiped out,
- 42:16Speaker 9: their navy is wiped out substantial portion, or their missiles
- 42:19Speaker 9: are wiped out. More importantly, their missile production capability is
- 42:23Speaker 9: wiped out. So anything that happens in the golf will
- 42:28Speaker 9: benefit Japan and indeed the rest of the world.
- 42:31Speaker 5: Joe, if we put the next element up on the screen,
- 42:33Speaker 5: the talks of how close this deal were sent the
- 42:36Speaker 5: stock market surging yesterday and now obviously there's also this
- 42:42Speaker 5: conversation from reading here from Joyce Karam at a monitor.
- 42:46Speaker 5: The next element shows reporting Hormuz deal seen close around
- 42:53Speaker 5: controls entry along exits around has the ability to intervene
- 42:56Speaker 5: in the waterway, potential service fee revenue split. That's according
- 42:59Speaker 5: to the New York Times. And bestment was of course
- 43:01Speaker 5: saying that this could happen any day. Crystal. Now that
- 43:05Speaker 5: there's additional conflict in the Red Sea and the huthis
- 43:09Speaker 5: seem to be escalating, what do you think this does
- 43:12Speaker 5: to the bigger picture in the Middle East right now?
- 43:15Speaker 2: Well, I mean, the funny thing is Scott Bessont talking
- 43:17Speaker 2: about We're going to have a deal, but the deal
- 43:19Speaker 2: isn't with US. It's between Iran and Oman and so
- 43:23Speaker 2: and when you say a revenue split that is going
- 43:25Speaker 2: to also not involve US. That is between Iran and Oman,
- 43:29Speaker 2: and I was.
- 43:30Speaker 5: Saying it has nothing to do with the bigger, the broader.
- 43:33Speaker 2: War, Yes, exactly right, and Iran is saying, no, we
- 43:37Speaker 2: are not negotiating with the United States right now. And
- 43:40Speaker 2: I think the HOOI you know, action this morning really
- 43:43Speaker 2: shows that for their view, the war is very much
- 43:46Speaker 2: still on and they're still going to enforce their red lines,
- 43:49Speaker 2: both you know, in the Red Sea and with the
- 43:51Speaker 2: Straight of Horn moves.
- 43:52Speaker 6: So nothing has really shifted.
- 43:55Speaker 2: If anything, the acceptance from the US of this Iran
- 44:00Speaker 2: Oman negotiation is another acknowledgment of the weakness of our
- 44:05Speaker 2: position because you know, just to back up what happened
- 44:08Speaker 2: here is we had this mu memo of understanding. There
- 44:12Speaker 2: was some ambiguity in the language around what would happen
- 44:15Speaker 2: with the Strait of Hormuz, but the Iranians certainly understood
- 44:18Speaker 2: it as we are going to retain control because we
- 44:21Speaker 2: secured that on the battlefield and we have no intention
- 44:23Speaker 2: of giving that up. The US trying to undermine that
- 44:26Speaker 2: deal and see what they could get away with by
- 44:28Speaker 2: establishing these separate corridor through the Strait of Hormuz. Iran
- 44:34Speaker 2: was not having that, and so that's why we ended it,
- 44:36Speaker 2: and then we ended up in this, you know, tit
- 44:38Speaker 2: for tat situation, which is basically where we are today.
- 44:41Speaker 2: So you know, it continues to be one of the
- 44:45Speaker 2: primary issues in terms of the conflict, and the Iranians
- 44:48Speaker 2: have no intention of ever giving up control over the
- 44:51Speaker 2: Strait of Hormuz. So for besant to you know, tout
- 44:55Speaker 2: this quote unquote deal as something that's positive for the
- 44:58Speaker 2: US's kind of extraordinary spin to this because again it's
- 45:02Speaker 2: it's sort of de facto and admission of how little
- 45:04Speaker 2: control and leverage we have in all of this. I
- 45:08Speaker 2: want to put up I think this is B six
- 45:10Speaker 2: up on the screen. Every day we learned something new
- 45:13Speaker 2: about how little we have left in our stockpiles. So
- 45:17Speaker 2: yesterday we learned that we are virtually out of long
- 45:21Speaker 2: range missiles. Now we get some reporting from CNN that
- 45:25Speaker 2: the US military is used up nearly eighty percent of
- 45:28Speaker 2: key missile interceptors as commanders worn once again that stockpiles
- 45:32Speaker 2: are dangerously low. So that's the other thing that is
- 45:36Speaker 2: I guess amusing about beston talking about, Oh, we destroyed
- 45:38Speaker 2: their navy, we destroyed their air force. You know, we've
- 45:41Speaker 2: kind of destroyed ourselves here. There's a reason why Trump
- 45:44Speaker 2: issues these threats and then backs off because not only
- 45:49Speaker 2: does he, I guess realize that even if he acted
- 45:52Speaker 2: on these alleged threats, it would be unlikely to change
- 45:56Speaker 2: the dynamics of the negotiating table, but we also just
- 45:59Speaker 2: literally don't have what we would need to do to
- 46:03Speaker 2: go forward with the sort of mass bombing campaign that
- 46:07Speaker 2: we launched this war with.
- 46:08Speaker 9: Yeah.
- 46:09Speaker 5: Reading from the CNN report here, Trump decided to back
- 46:11Speaker 5: off after talking with Middle East allies on Saturday, who
- 46:14Speaker 5: told him they were afraid of Iranian retaliation, specifically retaliatory
- 46:17Speaker 5: attacks on their energy infrastructure. According to an official a
- 46:20Speaker 5: senior Trump official, Trump aregried to hear them and around out.
- 46:23Speaker 5: He subsequently told Hexath to stand down for now, but
- 46:26Speaker 5: is not taking the planned strikes off the table for
- 46:28Speaker 5: a future date. And again in the CNN report, it
- 46:32Speaker 5: says golf allies have also raised fresh concerns about how
- 46:35Speaker 5: a shortage of air defense systems could impact their ability
- 46:39Speaker 5: to warn off potential Iranian retaliation. If Trump decides to
- 46:43Speaker 5: escalate the ongoing conflict. It is just a stunning embarrassment.
- 46:49Speaker 5: I mean not stunning because it's surprising, but stunning because
- 46:52Speaker 5: the administration slept walked into exactly what would have been predicted.
- 46:59Speaker 5: Was predicted in several months ago. This is what we
- 47:01Speaker 5: were leading up to Crystal, So it's not surprised to
- 47:06Speaker 5: I guess people who were always skeptical of this. We
- 47:09Speaker 5: would be here in August if the conflict was still
- 47:12Speaker 5: going on. I think Trump said at the beginning it
- 47:14Speaker 5: was going to be three to four weeks at one point.
- 47:15Speaker 5: I mean, his timeline was obviously all over the map.
- 47:18Speaker 5: But we're now it's August fifth, and now our golf
- 47:23Speaker 5: allies are worried because our interceptor supply has been so
- 47:27Speaker 5: depleted that they wouldn't be able to fight off an
- 47:30Speaker 5: Iranian attack. It is such a dramatic contrast with how
- 47:35Speaker 5: our power was being described by our leaders in early March.
- 47:40Speaker 2: Yeah, and it really underscores why you had top military
- 47:44Speaker 2: official saying we have to choose at this point, given
- 47:47Speaker 2: how low our stockpiles are between defending Israel and defending
- 47:50Speaker 2: the homeland. Forget about the Gulf Arab allies or our
- 47:53Speaker 2: bases in the region. I mean, most of those, I
- 47:55Speaker 2: think have been basically abandoned at this point. There's been
- 47:59Speaker 2: as or trenchman in Jordan than you had, you know,
- 48:02Speaker 2: that deadly attack in Jordan as well, with the Iranian
- 48:05Speaker 2: showing that they could they could hit us there as well.
- 48:08Speaker 2: So you know, the whole situation in every respect is
- 48:13Speaker 2: a complete disaster. And yet I don't think that Trump
- 48:18Speaker 2: and the US have felt enough pain for him to
- 48:20Speaker 2: accept what would be required, which is, you know, to
- 48:23Speaker 2: effectively acknowledge defeat at the negotiating table.
- 48:26Speaker 6: He keeps trying to.
- 48:27Speaker 2: Find a way out of that impossible predicament, which is why,
- 48:31Speaker 2: you know, I continue to be fearful of him doing
- 48:34Speaker 2: something truly insane, you know, whether it's an invasion, whether
- 48:37Speaker 2: it's a tactical nuke, something of that nature, to try
- 48:40Speaker 2: to get himself out of the absolute bind that he
- 48:43Speaker 2: has placed himself into.
- 48:45Speaker 8: Yeah.
- 48:45Speaker 5: And meanwhile, Brett Stevens, this is interesting, very pro Israel
- 48:49Speaker 5: columnist at the New York Times is warning about this
- 48:52Speaker 5: public letter that Matan Vilnai, is, a retired deput chief
- 48:56Speaker 5: of staff to the IDF, sent Trump just a few
- 48:59Speaker 5: days days ago. And this is actually Brett Stevens worrying
- 49:03Speaker 5: about a potential third into Fada. So in the New
- 49:06Speaker 5: York Times, Stevens is writing, there's an immediate danger in
- 49:09Speaker 5: that the spiraling West Bank violence, which is what vill
- 49:12Speaker 5: and I warned Trump about, could easily produce a third
- 49:15Speaker 5: into Fada that an exhausted Israel can ill afford militarily
- 49:19Speaker 5: or diplomatically, to say nothing of the human cost in
- 49:21Speaker 5: both Israeli im Palestinian lives. There's still a greater long
- 49:25Speaker 5: term rist that the NISA Yahoo government's excuse making for
- 49:27Speaker 5: Jewish lawlessness and terrorism leads to what the scholar and
- 49:29Speaker 5: diplomat Michael Or in an oppression commentary from two thousand
- 49:33Speaker 5: and nine called the hemorrhaging of sovereignty. So, Crystal, we
- 49:38Speaker 5: are now again in August, after we heard all of
- 49:41Speaker 5: the rosy outlooks in March that were being in those
- 49:45Speaker 5: same people that were promagating those rosie outlooks. We're telling
- 49:48Speaker 5: everybody who predicted what's coming to pass right now, where
- 49:52Speaker 5: you have chaos in Israel. You have chaos in the
- 49:55Speaker 5: US military and no end in sight in this conflict.
- 49:59Speaker 5: Potentially looking at is is really supporters saying a quote
- 50:05Speaker 5: third into Fada because of spiraling violence in the West Bank.
- 50:10Speaker 5: It is a complete and total disaster. And it is
- 50:13Speaker 5: a complete and total vindication for people who were predicting
- 50:16Speaker 5: it and being dunked on constantly in March and April
- 50:19Speaker 5: about what was to come.
- 50:21Speaker 2: Yeah, and obviously I have a million issues with the
- 50:24Speaker 2: way Brett Stevens frames this thing and always putting, you know,
- 50:27Speaker 2: Israel's interest above anything else, including international law or basic
- 50:32Speaker 2: human rights, et cetera. But to see him use the
- 50:35Speaker 2: words Jewish terrorism, I think is you know, very significant
- 50:39Speaker 2: in the New York Times as a conservative calmness in
- 50:41Speaker 2: someone who is a die, diehard supporter of the Zionist cause.
- 50:45Speaker 2: And you know, in terms of the West Bank, obviously
- 50:48Speaker 2: we've been covering the programs there the extraordinary and it's
- 50:51Speaker 2: not just you know, the settlers who are committing that violence.
- 50:55Speaker 2: They're very much backed up by the IDF. Those attacks,
- 50:58Speaker 2: how are state sanctioned. They have been, they have escalated
- 51:02Speaker 2: dramatically over the past several years, but specifically in the
- 51:05Speaker 2: past several weeks. And in addition to that, Israel has
- 51:09Speaker 2: really been trying to economically squeeze the West Bank and
- 51:14Speaker 2: you know, sort of starve them in that way as well. So, yeah,
- 51:18Speaker 2: you're going to get people who are very angry about that.
- 51:21Speaker 2: Anyone would be very angry about that. You're going to
- 51:23Speaker 2: get a lot of people who are very desperate in
- 51:25Speaker 2: an existential way. And no, that's not good for the
- 51:29Speaker 2: people who are being you know, who are having their
- 51:32Speaker 2: land stolen and who are being abused and assaulted and imprisoned.
- 51:37Speaker 2: It's certainly first and foremost not good for them. But
- 51:39Speaker 2: it's not good for anyone's safety to have this level
- 51:42Speaker 2: of endemic violence, you know. Turning back to the economic
- 51:47Speaker 2: piece here, we had some interesting comments again from Scott
- 51:51Speaker 2: Bessett talking about the state of the economy. And you know,
- 51:55Speaker 2: the thing is that if this was another region of
- 51:58Speaker 2: the world, perhaps you could put this thing on the
- 52:01Speaker 2: back burner and just have this sort of low grade
- 52:03Speaker 2: tip for Tad or the US could even just up
- 52:05Speaker 2: and leave and sort of like we'll figure it out later.
- 52:08Speaker 2: Because of how crucial this region of the world is
- 52:12Speaker 2: for everything in terms of the global economy with the
- 52:16Speaker 2: fossil fuels backing basically our entire economic structure, we don't
- 52:20Speaker 2: really have the luxury of that, so the economic piece
- 52:24Speaker 2: continues to really be at the center of this entire war.
- 52:27Speaker 2: So in any case, Bessett was asked about the current
- 52:31Speaker 2: state of the economy and means some interesting comments.
- 52:33Speaker 5: This is B five.
- 52:34Speaker 6: Let's take a listen.
- 52:35Speaker 9: So we are starting to see I got sick of
- 52:39Speaker 9: hearing about this K shaped economy. I can say here definitively,
- 52:44Speaker 9: the K shaped economy is over.
- 52:47Speaker 5: K shaped.
- 52:48Speaker 2: His economy is over. Just for people who aren't in
- 52:50Speaker 2: the know of what that means. It means that the
- 52:52Speaker 2: riches start doing really well and then everybody else is screwed,
- 52:55Speaker 2: and the K shape economy emily is certainly not over.
- 52:59Speaker 2: Especially gas prices are going to be one of the
- 53:01Speaker 2: things that hit working class people the hardest. Inflation is
- 53:04Speaker 2: one of the things that are going to is going
- 53:06Speaker 2: to hurt working class people the hardest, because you know,
- 53:09Speaker 2: budgets are already stretched, wages are not going up to
- 53:12Speaker 2: keep pace with the level of inflation, and just the
- 53:15Speaker 2: increase in gas prices alone. So the K shaped economy
- 53:19Speaker 2: is only further diverging at this point.
- 53:21Speaker 5: Well, yeah, we just mentioned earlier in the block, but
- 53:23Speaker 5: the stock markets were surging yesterday on this apparent news
- 53:27Speaker 5: that we were close to a deal. What that actually
- 53:29Speaker 5: means different question, as we talked about earlier. So when
- 53:32Speaker 5: you have markets stop being attached, Well, this has been
- 53:36Speaker 5: going on for a long time. It's actually where the
- 53:37Speaker 5: entire K shaped economy formula comes from, being detached from
- 53:42Speaker 5: the reality of the middle class on the ground. That's
- 53:45Speaker 5: not an end to the K shaped economy. It's like
- 53:48Speaker 5: exactly when you're seeing the mag seven take up what
- 53:53Speaker 5: is it like thirty percent of the S and P
- 53:55Speaker 5: five hundred somewhere around there. The stocks keep going up
- 53:58Speaker 5: and up and up. Meanwhile, well, in Michigan, which we
- 54:01Speaker 5: covered earlier in the show because it had so many
- 54:03Speaker 5: elections yesterday where populist candidates found success, gas is at
- 54:07Speaker 5: four to twenty eight according to Triple A's daily average
- 54:11Speaker 5: four dollars and twenty eight cents a gallon in Michigan.
- 54:16Speaker 5: So that's just a crazy thing to say. It's obviously
- 54:19Speaker 5: a political problem for Republicans going into the election, but
- 54:23Speaker 5: a genuine problem for Americans right now as well, Crystal obviously, yeah,
- 54:28Speaker 5: the K shaped economy is unfortunately alive, and.
- 54:30Speaker 6: Well, yeah, and we talked.
- 54:32Speaker 2: Ryan talked about how Democratic establishment maybe doesn't really care
- 54:38Speaker 2: all that much about taking back the Senate, and as
- 54:40Speaker 2: at I guess at the very least cross pressured on
- 54:43Speaker 2: whether or not they would want Abdula Sayah to win
- 54:46Speaker 2: in Michigan. But I don't think Trump really cares that
- 54:49Speaker 2: much about whether Republicans when in the Senate. He's certainly
- 54:52Speaker 2: not really acting like it outside of some shady behind
- 54:56Speaker 2: the scenes election brigging maneuvers that he's making.
- 54:59Speaker 6: But you know, I don't think that.
- 55:00Speaker 2: He is particularly committed to whether or not Republicans hold
- 55:04Speaker 2: onto the House or the Senate.
- 55:06Speaker 6: So you got a weird dynamic.
- 55:08Speaker 2: Of both I guess party leaderships being like, yeah, whatever.
- 55:11Speaker 5: Gas is over four dollars in Maine and in Ohio
- 55:16Speaker 5: as well, so major swing states. Saying the K shaped
- 55:21Speaker 5: economy is over on CNBC might be a good clever
- 55:25Speaker 5: way to spin and frame what he thinks is happening,
- 55:28Speaker 5: but it's obviously not accurate, and it's just completely the
- 55:34Speaker 5: more that they try to do exactly what we saw
- 55:36Speaker 5: the Biden administration do by saying it's fine inflation and
- 55:40Speaker 5: don't worry about it. We've got it under control, or
- 55:44Speaker 5: blaming the other person, or blaming like you cannot do
- 55:47Speaker 5: that when you're in charge. And I guess maybe that's
- 55:49Speaker 5: why Scott Beston is trying to come up with some
- 55:52Speaker 5: new spin. I don't know, that's my best guess at
- 55:55Speaker 5: what's going on there.
- 55:56Speaker 6: Good luck with that, buddy, Yeah, seriously.
- 55:58Speaker 5: All right, well, speaking of Scott best Boy, do we
- 56:00Speaker 5: have a story out of Japan. Let's get to it.
- 56:06Speaker 2: So, in a sign of the massive impact that the
- 56:09Speaker 2: Iran War is having on the global economy, certain things
- 56:13Speaker 2: are starting to break, in particular the Japanese yen, the
- 56:17Speaker 2: Japanese currency, which has taken a massive hit. And I'll
- 56:21Speaker 2: get into some of the mechanics. So though it's a
- 56:23Speaker 2: little bit complicated of what exactly is going on there,
- 56:26Speaker 2: but extraordinary scene here. We've got this Scott Besson almost
- 56:29Speaker 2: like he's right now on a grocery list. Put c
- 56:32Speaker 2: one up on the screen. We've got a notepad and
- 56:34Speaker 2: an ego eyed photographer was able to capture the note
- 56:37Speaker 2: that was written here. It says to do by Japanese
- 56:42Speaker 2: yen five to ten billion dollars. So the LDR here
- 56:49Speaker 2: is that because of the Iran who are causing all
- 56:52Speaker 2: kinds of problems for Japan, including surging inflation in a
- 56:55Speaker 2: place that has not had inflation famously for decades up
- 57:00Speaker 2: until COVID. Then they got a little bit of inflation,
- 57:03Speaker 2: but now you know, with gas prices going up in
- 57:05Speaker 2: Japan being an island, it has to import most of
- 57:08Speaker 2: what they consume. It's causing massive issues for them, and
- 57:12Speaker 2: so we're jumping in to bail them out and to
- 57:16Speaker 2: help prop up their currency. The reason we care about that,
- 57:20Speaker 2: and the reason we're doing that is not out of
- 57:22Speaker 2: the kindness of our hearts, Emily and or because we,
- 57:24Speaker 2: you know, love the Japanese and their great allies or
- 57:26Speaker 2: anything like that, although I'm sure the fact that their
- 57:28Speaker 2: allies certainly helps to make the case. But the reason
- 57:31Speaker 2: we're doing that is because in order for them to
- 57:35Speaker 2: be able to prop up their own currency, they were
- 57:38Speaker 2: going to have to sell off a lot of US treasuries,
- 57:42Speaker 2: and they are one of the largest holders of US treasuries.
- 57:45Speaker 6: In the entire globe.
- 57:48Speaker 2: So if they begin to sell off the holdings of
- 57:51Speaker 2: treasury bonds, that they have, that would in turn mean
- 57:55Speaker 2: that we would have to pay a higher interest rate
- 57:59Speaker 2: in order to get more people to buy our debt.
- 58:02Speaker 2: So that means our debt, which is quite high. Japan
- 58:06Speaker 2: actually has an even larger debt, which is part of
- 58:08Speaker 2: their problem because they've had de facto zero percent interest
- 58:10Speaker 2: rates for years and years and years. Our debt is
- 58:13Speaker 2: also quite high. If you have to pay a higher
- 58:17Speaker 2: interest rate on that, that puts a lot of financial strain.
- 58:21Speaker 2: And judging by the way Trump has you know, the
- 58:24Speaker 2: cycle of the Trump Taco in this war, and also
- 58:27Speaker 2: with regard to his tariff scheme, he is very closely
- 58:31Speaker 2: attuned and very paying very close attention to what that
- 58:35Speaker 2: interest rate is on the treasury bond yield. So that
- 58:39Speaker 2: is what's going on here. But again, you know, if
- 58:42Speaker 2: you want to gloss over some of the more technical mechanics,
- 58:44Speaker 2: the tld R here is that the Japanese are getting
- 58:47Speaker 2: screwed because of our war in Iran, and it has
- 58:51Speaker 2: reverberating impacts on us and our budget and the stability
- 58:55Speaker 2: is of our treasury market. So we are jumping in
- 58:58Speaker 2: to bail them out to the tune of five to
- 58:59Speaker 2: ten billion dollars.
- 59:01Speaker 5: Yep, I don't even know what to say, Crystal. It
- 59:09Speaker 5: kind of reminds me a bit. It's not it's obviously
- 59:10Speaker 5: apples and oranges, but it reminds me a bit of
- 59:13Speaker 5: Best and Argentina, which you and I covered I think
- 59:16Speaker 5: at the time. Yeah, he's just wheeling and dealing like
- 59:21Speaker 5: he still works at a hedge fund. That's what it
- 59:24Speaker 5: looks like from the outside.
- 59:26Speaker 2: Yeah, well, this is you know, part of how he
- 59:29Speaker 2: I mean, it really is. The way that he made
- 59:32Speaker 2: his fortune was working with George Soros on these currency trades,
- 59:37Speaker 2: and so that you know, this is his bread and butter.
- 59:41Speaker 2: This is this is where he shines. Propping up foreign
- 59:43Speaker 2: currencies and manipulating currency markets is kind of where he
- 59:46Speaker 2: does his thing. We can put see two up on
- 59:48Speaker 2: the screen just to see, you know, how much the
- 59:51Speaker 2: yen has fallen. This has the worries that drove Uncle
- 59:53Speaker 2: Sam to buy the yen. The weakness of the Japanese
- 59:56Speaker 2: currency was a problem not just for Tokyo but also Washington.
- 1:00:00Speaker 2: The yen had slid to a forty year low, indirectly
- 1:00:04Speaker 2: threatening to bump up US interest rates, and was throwing
- 1:00:07Speaker 2: a wrench in plans to pull billions of dollars of
- 1:00:09Speaker 2: Japanese investment into the US.
- 1:00:11Speaker 6: Let me explain that part of it.
- 1:00:13Speaker 2: So as part of our trade deal with Japan, you know,
- 1:00:15Speaker 2: they made one of these promises, We're going to invest
- 1:00:17Speaker 2: billions of billions of dollars, et cetera. Well, if you
- 1:00:20Speaker 2: have a very weak yen, that means it's going to
- 1:00:23Speaker 2: in their currency terms, cost much more to be able
- 1:00:27Speaker 2: to make those investments, and they wouldn't be able to
- 1:00:29Speaker 2: afford to invest as much in the US. So that's
- 1:00:32Speaker 2: the other way in which this was posing a problem
- 1:00:36Speaker 2: for Trump and for the US because they were unlikely
- 1:00:40Speaker 2: to make good on some of their commitments. Here, there
- 1:00:43Speaker 2: was a great video explaining some of the sort of
- 1:00:46Speaker 2: longer backstory.
- 1:00:48Speaker 6: Japan is a really.
- 1:00:48Speaker 2: Fascinating economy because they have, unlike most of the world,
- 1:00:55Speaker 2: they have had this long period of a either zero
- 1:01:00Speaker 2: percent inflation or even deflation.
- 1:01:03Speaker 6: So whereas we're very used.
- 1:01:04Speaker 2: To, you know, okay, things are going up in price
- 1:01:06Speaker 2: a little bit year over year, and obviously that's spiral
- 1:01:08Speaker 2: and escalated in the past few years, they've had this
- 1:01:12Speaker 2: in this long stretch, which was a problem for them economically.
- 1:01:15Speaker 2: Of price stability. So because of that, they have kept
- 1:01:18Speaker 2: their interest rates at zero percent. That means that if
- 1:01:23Speaker 2: you are a global financier, you can borrow money at
- 1:01:28Speaker 2: basically zero percent, you know in Japan, then you can
- 1:01:32Speaker 2: convert it and invest in anything, you know, any sort
- 1:01:35Speaker 2: of US tech stock or anything that's going to create
- 1:01:37Speaker 2: some sort of a return. So this Japanese carry trade
- 1:01:43Speaker 2: has been a very important part of investments, not only
- 1:01:46Speaker 2: in treasuries, which we've discussed about discuss but in our
- 1:01:50Speaker 2: entire stock market, you know, the tech build out.
- 1:01:52Speaker 6: All of that stuff.
- 1:01:54Speaker 2: So that's the other issue is maintaining that carry trade
- 1:01:59Speaker 2: and up being very important for Japan, for source stability,
- 1:02:03Speaker 2: for the US treasury market, et cetera. A YouTuber named
- 1:02:07Speaker 2: andre Jeek explained the dynamics here in a way that
- 1:02:11Speaker 2: I think was very understandable and got into the background
- 1:02:14Speaker 2: of what is going on overall in the Japanese economy.
- 1:02:17Speaker 2: It's worth listening to if you're curious about these sorts
- 1:02:19Speaker 2: of things. Let's go ahead and take a listen to
- 1:02:20Speaker 2: him explaining this carry trade.
- 1:02:22Speaker 10: Now, the Enkerry trade meant if you were a hedge fund,
- 1:02:25Speaker 10: or a bank or an investor. You could borrow yen
- 1:02:28Speaker 10: a zero percent interest converted to dollars. You could buy
- 1:02:32Speaker 10: basically anything in the world that paid you more than zero,
- 1:02:36Speaker 10: meaning you could buy US treasuries paying four five percent.
- 1:02:39Speaker 10: You could buy tech stocks, bitcoin, anything you wanted, and
- 1:02:43Speaker 10: you made free money. That's estimated to be worth trillions
- 1:02:47Speaker 10: of dollars of investments all around the world, funded by
- 1:02:52Speaker 10: borrowed Japanese money. So Japan was like, we want to
- 1:02:57Speaker 10: get in on this too. So Japan took its savings
- 1:02:59Speaker 10: over because for thirty years there was nothing worth buying
- 1:03:03Speaker 10: in Japan. Japanese pension funds, insurers, banks, households, they all
- 1:03:08Speaker 10: shipped their money overseas to get some of that interest,
- 1:03:12Speaker 10: and in the process, Japan became the world's biggest foreign
- 1:03:16Speaker 10: holder of US government debt, holding something like over a
- 1:03:19Speaker 10: trillion dollars of US treasuries. Japan's pension fund, for example,
- 1:03:23Speaker 10: the GPIF, which is the biggest pension fund in the world,
- 1:03:27Speaker 10: holds hundreds of billions of dollars in US bonds and stocks.
- 1:03:31Speaker 10: Just think about it like this, When the US borrows money,
- 1:03:34Speaker 10: when tech stocks go up, when bitcoin goes up, there
- 1:03:37Speaker 10: is a strong chance that somewhere in that process it
- 1:03:42Speaker 10: was partially funded by Japanese money. But remember this only
- 1:03:46Speaker 10: works because interest rates were zero. They are no longer zero.
- 1:03:52Speaker 10: Japan's interest rates are going up.
- 1:03:55Speaker 2: So as we know from our own you know, the
- 1:03:57Speaker 2: way our central bank operates. Okay, what do you do
- 1:04:00Speaker 2: you start to have inflation, which Japan in COVID and
- 1:04:03Speaker 2: now exacerbated by the Iran War, has begin to have
- 1:04:05Speaker 2: some inflation.
- 1:04:07Speaker 6: You raise rates.
- 1:04:09Speaker 2: So if you raise the rates, now this carry trade
- 1:04:11Speaker 2: no longer makes sense because you can no longer just
- 1:04:14Speaker 2: borrow you know, zero percent in Japan and then use
- 1:04:16Speaker 2: it to fund all these you know, tech stocks and
- 1:04:18Speaker 2: buying US treasuries, et cetera. And so that is creating
- 1:04:22Speaker 2: a lot of challenges for them. If they raise the rates,
- 1:04:25Speaker 2: then they're going to have you know, bond prices they're
- 1:04:28Speaker 2: very high. It is going to be a problem for
- 1:04:29Speaker 2: us in terms of our investment. They have this massive
- 1:04:32Speaker 2: amount of debt that they accumulated because they could borrow
- 1:04:34Speaker 2: at zero percent, so it didn't cause major economic issues
- 1:04:38Speaker 2: for them in the past. So when their interest rates
- 1:04:41Speaker 2: go up on their debt, it's a major problem. However,
- 1:04:43Speaker 2: then if you don't raise interest rates. That's when you
- 1:04:47Speaker 2: see these massive problems with the yen and the depreciation there,
- 1:04:51Speaker 2: and obviously inflation continues to climb. This is a major
- 1:04:53Speaker 2: problem for you know, a country of savers, so all
- 1:04:56Speaker 2: of their savings are being eaten away by inflation.
- 1:05:00Speaker 6: So they've really.
- 1:05:01Speaker 2: Been in this bind, which is why you know, they're
- 1:05:04Speaker 2: kind of damned if they do, damned if they don't,
- 1:05:06Speaker 2: which is why now the Treasury Secretary is deciding to
- 1:05:09Speaker 2: jump in and bail them out, because this problem is
- 1:05:12Speaker 2: creating issues for us as well, with our treageries and
- 1:05:16Speaker 2: with our stock market.
- 1:05:17Speaker 6: So I think it's just Emily.
- 1:05:19Speaker 2: The bottom line here is I mean, first of all,
- 1:05:21Speaker 2: I think a lot of people are going, wait, why
- 1:05:23Speaker 2: are we bailing out Japan? Like, isn't there aren't there
- 1:05:26Speaker 2: a lot of other things we could do with that
- 1:05:27Speaker 2: five to ten billion dollars in Japanese yen?
- 1:05:29Speaker 6: What is going on here?
- 1:05:30Speaker 5: We told that euros for the end, right.
- 1:05:33Speaker 6: I believe, so yeah.
- 1:05:35Speaker 2: But the other I think the broader point to make
- 1:05:38Speaker 2: here is just the global economy is very complicated, and
- 1:05:42Speaker 2: it's very interconnected, and we are really straining it with
- 1:05:48Speaker 2: what we've decided to do in Iran. So, you know,
- 1:05:52Speaker 2: I would not have been thinking about as we got
- 1:05:55Speaker 2: into this. You know, I'm thinking about oil markets, I'm
- 1:05:56Speaker 2: thinking about the obvious things. I wouldn't have been thinking about. Oh,
- 1:05:59Speaker 2: this is going to cause currency crisis in Japan that
- 1:06:01Speaker 2: we're going to have to intervene in or else. Our
- 1:06:04Speaker 2: stock market is going to fall apart, and our debt
- 1:06:06Speaker 2: is going to skyrocket in costs. That is a second
- 1:06:10Speaker 2: order of effect that myself, as a layperson, would not
- 1:06:12Speaker 2: have imagined. And they're even going to be third and
- 1:06:15Speaker 2: fourth order effects that even people who do this for
- 1:06:18Speaker 2: a living are not going to be able to foresee
- 1:06:20Speaker 2: because we saw that all unfold with regard to COVID.
- 1:06:23Speaker 2: So to me, it's just a sign of the level
- 1:06:25Speaker 2: of fragility in the global economy and how much it
- 1:06:29Speaker 2: is being stressed by you know what we've decided to
- 1:06:32Speaker 2: do with this warn Iran.
- 1:06:34Speaker 5: Well, not even just the economy. I'm reading from an
- 1:06:37Speaker 5: NBC news report. Actually I'm sorry, it's a Reuter's report.
- 1:06:40Speaker 5: This morning. With Korea is Kim yojung, the powerful sister
- 1:06:43Speaker 5: of leader Kim Jong un, warned on Wednesday that Pyongyang
- 1:06:46Speaker 5: would adopt quote unquote additional military options in response to
- 1:06:49Speaker 5: what she called Japan's transformation into a military power after
- 1:06:52Speaker 5: Tokyo test fired a US made Tomahawk cruise missile and crystal,
- 1:06:58Speaker 5: all of these pieces come together and emphasize just the
- 1:07:01Speaker 5: fragility of geopolitics right now. To your point about the economy,
- 1:07:05Speaker 5: to your point about the economy and being tied up
- 1:07:07Speaker 5: with Iran, this is this, This situation is obviously very fragile,
- 1:07:13Speaker 5: to say the least. I want to read from this
- 1:07:15Speaker 5: Financial Times piece that we can put up on the
- 1:07:17Speaker 5: screen as well. The headline is Japan vows further yen
- 1:07:20Speaker 5: intervention with US if needed. Japan has confirmed the historic
- 1:07:24Speaker 5: joint intervention the Finance Ministry intervened on Friday, and then
- 1:07:29Speaker 5: further they said, we will not hesitate to conduct further
- 1:07:33Speaker 5: joint intervention. That's such a weird way to put it.
- 1:07:37Speaker 5: We will not hesitate to conduct further joint intervention. It's
- 1:07:40Speaker 5: like a threat crystal at this point from Japan. Really odd.
- 1:07:46Speaker 2: Yeah, indeed, a very dicey situation here. So in any case,
- 1:07:52Speaker 2: one aspect of the war that is creating massive issues
- 1:07:55Speaker 2: for Japan, but also for the global economy and even
- 1:07:58Speaker 2: for our own debt and stuff market, so definitely want
- 1:08:01Speaker 2: to keep an eye on.
- 1:08:02Speaker 5: Yeah, absolutely new updates in the Epstein investigation from Capitol Hill.
- 1:08:07Speaker 5: Let's get to that.