Latest / Breaking Points with Krystal and Saagar / 10/29/26: Bibi Says Arabs Rigged Elections, Abdul Exclusive Interview

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10/29/26: Bibi Says Arabs Rigged Elections, Abdul Exclusive Interview · Breaking Points with Krystal and Saagar

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  Speaker 1: Good morning, everybody. Happy Thursday. We have an amazing show
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: for everybody today. What do we have, Crystal?
• 0:20
  Speaker 2: Indeed, we do. Big, big show today. The man of
• 0:23
  Speaker 2: the hour, Abdul El-Sayed, is going to join us exclusively.
• 0:27
  Speaker 2: There are certainly a lot of things that he will
• 0:29
  Speaker 2: probably want to react to. A lot of questions, of course,
• 0:31
  Speaker 2: we have for him in the final stretch here. We're
• 0:34
  Speaker 2: also taking a look at what's happening in Israel. Bibi's going,
• 0:37
  Speaker 2: stop the steal. Oh, my God, the Arabs are voting
• 0:40
  Speaker 2: style there. And we've also got increasing indications that we
• 0:44
  Speaker 2: are likely to be headed back to war with Iran
• 0:46
  Speaker 2: after our own midterm elections tomorrow. We got a big
• 0:49
  Speaker 2: focus on the midterms today. Zachary Danini, who has been
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: tracking the early vote, is going to join us and
• 0:54
  Speaker 2: break down the polls and what he is seeing in
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: the early vote trends. We've also got some blockbuster polls
• 0:59
  Speaker 2: from The New York Times that we wanted to dig
• 1:01
  Speaker 2: into specifically. And we still got our eye on what
• 1:04
  Speaker 2: is going on with AI, where there was a New
• 1:07
  Speaker 2: Mexico hospital system that was hacked. And also Bill Gates
• 1:11
  Speaker 2: saying that we may be headed into the most chaotic
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  Speaker 2: 20 years in human history. So all of that and
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  Speaker 2: more this morning.
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: Yes, that's right.
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  Speaker 3: It really helps other people find the show. But as
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  Speaker 3: Crystal said, we're going to go ahead and start with
• 2:10
  Speaker 3: a very important piece of news here on Iran. Let's
• 2:13
  Speaker 3: put it up here. A1, please, from The Wall Street Journal.
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  Speaker 3: Noga actually mentioned this yesterday in our segment. But The
• 2:20
  Speaker 3: Wall Street Journal putting out this.
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  Speaker 4: The U.S.
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  Speaker 3: Is warning the Gulf of possible short, intense renewal of
• 2:26
  Speaker 3: Iran war strikes after the midterms. They have now told
• 2:30
  Speaker 3: several Gulf Arab countries to be prepared for a short,
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  Speaker 3: intense military campaign. The communications through military channels are a
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  Speaker 3: growing number of indications.
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  Speaker 4: The U.S.
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  Speaker 3: And Israel are readying a new launch of heavy combat
• 2:43
  Speaker 3: operation against Iran. This will likely be targeted towards their
• 2:49
  Speaker 3: energy infrastructure. In addition, we're also seeing what we usually
• 2:52
  Speaker 3: do with a bombing campaign, some sort of last minute
• 2:55
  Speaker 3: fake diplomatic effort to try and say, hey, we tried.
• 2:58
  Speaker 3: So let's put the next one up here on the
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  Speaker 3: screen from Axios. I can also share a little bit
• 3:03
  Speaker 3: more on this. They say Iran has pressed to make
• 3:05
  Speaker 3: new concessions pressed to make new concessions, massive post-midterm strikes loom.
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  Speaker 3: So what they say is the Qataris are working to
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  Speaker 3: convince Iran to allow UN inspectors to visit its bombed
• 3:16
  Speaker 3: nuclear sites in return for some small sanctions relief from
• 3:20
  Speaker 3: the United States. Iran has pushed back on this at
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  Speaker 3: every single term. There have been some initial statements by
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  Speaker 3: Arachi and others in the public that they're willing to
• 3:30
  Speaker 3: consider diplomacy, but for them, they will only consider a
• 3:33
  Speaker 3: return to the means dramatic sanctions relief in addition to
• 3:39
  Speaker 3: no more attacks in the Strait of Hormuz. I think, though,
• 3:42
  Speaker 3: and part of the reason we're going to be covering
• 3:44
  Speaker 3: much of these Israel elections is the fact that Brett
• 3:47
  Speaker 3: Beebe is an interim or an interim prime minister, a
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  Speaker 3: caretaker prime minister, if you will, while they look for
• 3:53
  Speaker 3: some sort of majority coalition and potentially a new election.
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  Speaker 3: In my opinion, Crystal, it makes the strikes dramatically more
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  Speaker 3: likely because he will be pushing Trump behind the scenes
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  Speaker 3: to try and save his skin in a potential forthcoming
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  Speaker 3: election or to swing how things go in Israel, potentially
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  Speaker 3: even forestalling some sort of formation of a new government
• 4:12
  Speaker 3: if they find themselves under bombardment.
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  Speaker 1: I do know and I can share this. Others have
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  Speaker 1: reported this as well.
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  Speaker 3: It does appear that there is a last minute kind
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  Speaker 3: of real effort.
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: Going on behind the scenes where J.D.
• 4:23
  Speaker 3: Vance apparently has made direct contact with some of the
• 4:27
  Speaker 3: top members of the Iranian government. Again, this has all
• 4:29
  Speaker 3: been reported out there as well to try and again
• 4:33
  Speaker 3: to forestall something. But You know, given the track record
• 4:35
  Speaker 3: of how those previous peace talks have gone, nobody should
• 4:39
  Speaker 3: hold their breath. The government is going towards these major
• 4:43
  Speaker 3: energy infrastructure strikes. The price of oil remains well over
• 4:47
  Speaker 3: $ 110 per barrel. Gasoline on Election Day is going to
• 4:51
  Speaker 3: be at least $ 4. 30 a gallon nationally. And that's just
• 4:55
  Speaker 3: the reality. And it's only going to go up from here,
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  Speaker 3: given the situation right now. The strikes look more imminent
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  Speaker 3: than ever before.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, no, I think that calculation, I think your analysis
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  Speaker 2: of that calculation is unfortunately correct. I mean, in terms
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  Speaker 2: of the hopes of any sort of a negotiation bearing
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  Speaker 2: fruit in the near term whatsoever, what has changed about
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  Speaker 2: either side's calculations?
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  Speaker 1: Nothing, right?
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  Speaker 2: The basic math remains the same for Trump. He cannot
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  Speaker 2: withstand the L that he would have to take to
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  Speaker 2: sign on to something again that looks like the memo
• 5:30
  Speaker 2: of understanding he tried. He couldn't sustain it. So that
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  Speaker 2: hasn't changed. For the Iranians, they are suffering economic pain
• 5:36
  Speaker 2: through the blockade, but it is not so much that
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  Speaker 2: it is going to topple the government. It is not
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  Speaker 2: so much that it is going to bring them to
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  Speaker 2: their knees or force them to make concessions at the
• 5:44
  Speaker 2: negotiating table that they were not going to make before.
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  Speaker 2: You talked some about Netanyahu's political calculation, which I think
• 5:50
  Speaker 2: is correct. I think we should also think through some
• 5:52
  Speaker 2: of Trump's likely political calculation. And this is something that
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  Speaker 2: Professor Pape has been talking about and brought to our
• 5:58
  Speaker 2: viewers on our show, which is that he's very likely
• 6:01
  Speaker 2: to suffer severe midterm losses. He is very likely to
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  Speaker 2: try to do whatever he can to deny that he
• 6:08
  Speaker 2: has suffered said midterm losses. And into that already chaotic moment,
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  Speaker 2: something that he will perceive as further benefiting him is
• 6:16
  Speaker 2: more chaos. Well, what could provide more chaos? What could
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  Speaker 2: provide a potential justification for emergency national security measures? going
• 6:25
  Speaker 2: back to war with Iran, conjuring up some sort of
• 6:28
  Speaker 2: threat as we've been hearing floated. Oh, my God, there's
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  Speaker 2: theoretical attacks on American officials or diplomats overseas. Those sorts
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  Speaker 2: of things may play into his hands and be even
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  Speaker 2: more appealing to him, not to mention the betters calculus
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  Speaker 2: that we've talked about here many times, which is that
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  Speaker 2: he has no way to achieve what he wants to
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  Speaker 2: achieve at the negotiating table. He is extremely, extremely, extremely
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  Speaker 2: unlikely to achieve what he wants to achieve through military means.
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  Speaker 2: But there is at least some shred of possibility there
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  Speaker 2: and one that the Israelis will certainly be selling bigly
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  Speaker 2: to him. So I think it makes it entirely likely
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  Speaker 2: that since they're the only ones who are telling him
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  Speaker 2: what he wants to hear, hey, here's a way to win,
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  Speaker 2: here's a way to secure your legacy, that eventually he
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  Speaker 2: goes in that direction.
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  Speaker 1: Very, very good point.
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  Speaker 3: And then let's turn to Israel, right, in terms of
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  Speaker 3: what's happening there, because they're already setting the ground for
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  Speaker 3: the exact same thing. Let's put A3 up here on
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  Speaker 3: the screen. This is a translated tweet from Netanyahu yesterday.
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  Speaker 3: He says, to mobilize voters. The Likud party is transferring
• 7:46
  Speaker 3: to the police, the Shin Bet and the elections committee
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  Speaker 3: hundreds of testimonies and pieces of evidence regarding election theft
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  Speaker 3: in Arab polling stations. Thousands of envelopes of cash and
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  Speaker 3: ROM slips, threats and violence against polling station members voting
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  Speaker 3: with double identities, discrepancies between the number of envelopes and
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  Speaker 3: the number of voters. We demand from the police and
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  Speaker 3: the Shin Bet a thorough investigation into election theft.
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  Speaker 1: By Arab parties.
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  Speaker 3: The latest line, Crystal, is basically, that because the Arabs
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  Speaker 3: voted a bunch, that clearly they must have been paid
• 8:18
  Speaker 3: to do so. They are alleging Amit Sehgal and Netanyahu,
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  Speaker 3: you know, mouthpiece journalist, which Anoga correctly clocked yesterday, was
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  Speaker 3: saying that it's something about Bedouins getting paid envelopes of cash.
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  Speaker 3: So apparently the Bedouin, critical Bedouin constituency of Israel is
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  Speaker 3: getting paid by the Qataris to come out and vote.
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  Speaker 3: Of course, Amit and Netanyahu are not mentioning the fact
• 8:45
  Speaker 3: that Likud has its own Qatari bribery scandal currently working
• 8:49
  Speaker 3: its way through the Israeli court system. But I do
• 8:52
  Speaker 3: think that you put you got to put this stuff together,
• 8:55
  Speaker 3: both from Donald Trump and from Bibi, because as Bibi
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  Speaker 3: is in the fight of his political life, remember, he
• 9:00
  Speaker 3: could go to jail if he ends up losing this.
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  Speaker 3: He has nothing to lose. Pushing Trump and manipulating him
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  Speaker 3: and creating the situation where a return to hostility is
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  Speaker 3: with Iran happens is only beneficial to Bibi, whose entire
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  Speaker 3: pitch to the Israeli public is I am the wartime leader.
• 9:19
  Speaker 3: And he's gotten out of multiple trial dates, just postponed
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  Speaker 3: court hearings out of his own problems by always citing
• 9:29
  Speaker 3: national security and the ongoing war, either in Gaza, with Lebanon,
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  Speaker 3: with Syria, with Qatar, with Iran now in this case.
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  Speaker 3: So I feel like this is very, very important.
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  Speaker 1: Also, just to show everybody.
• 9:41
  Speaker 4: Oh, go ahead.
• 9:42
  Speaker 5: Yeah.
• 9:43
  Speaker 2: Well, I was just going to say there's such a
• 9:45
  Speaker 2: deep irony in the fact that, first of all, Netanyahu,
• 9:49
  Speaker 2: when he's talking to American audiences, loves to tout the
• 9:53
  Speaker 2: equal rights that Arabs have. And there were so many
• 9:57
  Speaker 2: pro-Israel types out there, including our own ambassador, Mike Huckabee,
• 10:01
  Speaker 2: who put out a post who said, oh, isn't this incredible?
• 10:04
  Speaker 2: Israelis and Arabs are voting. Well, you know, it kind
• 10:07
  Speaker 2: of gives away the game because the quote unquote Arabs,
• 10:09
  Speaker 2: Palestinian citizens of Israel are also supposed to be seen
• 10:12
  Speaker 2: as Israeli, by the way. But they all were celebrating. Oh, look,
• 10:16
  Speaker 2: this can't be apartheid. Look how they're all voting. Here
• 10:19
  Speaker 2: we go. Josh Gottheimer, Israel's Arab citizens, men and women
• 10:22
  Speaker 2: turning out in historic numbers. to vote, they can vote,
• 10:25
  Speaker 2: run for office, serve in the Knesset. Rights denied to
• 10:28
  Speaker 2: many Arabs and women across much of the Middle East
• 10:30
  Speaker 2: are critical ally in the fight against terror. Israel's the
• 10:33
  Speaker 2: only democracy in the region and today shows it. But
• 10:36
  Speaker 2: the minute that they actually do vote in numbers where
• 10:39
  Speaker 2: they actually control the balance of power here, number one,
• 10:43
  Speaker 2: they're completely smeared in this racist, falsified, you know, scam
• 10:47
  Speaker 2: attack from Netanyahu. Number two, Noga educated me from your
• 10:52
  Speaker 2: segment yesterday that Netanyahu's posting and his party's posting about,
• 10:56
  Speaker 2: oh my God, the Arabs are voting. You got to
• 10:58
  Speaker 2: get out to the polls. This is existential, is actually illegal.
• 11:01
  Speaker 2: So if you want to talk about the people who
• 11:03
  Speaker 2: are apparently violating election law in Israel, you have to
• 11:06
  Speaker 2: look at Netanyahu, have to look at Likud. And then
• 11:09
  Speaker 2: the other part is, There is a majority anti-Netanyahu coalition
• 11:14
  Speaker 2: between the Eisencott and the rest of that bloc and
• 11:17
  Speaker 2: the Arab parties. But there is basically 0% chance that
• 11:21
  Speaker 2: they form that government.
• 11:23
  Speaker 6: Why?
• 11:23
  Speaker 2: Because it's thoroughly unacceptable to the Jewish majority. So how
• 11:28
  Speaker 2: is it that you're considered like you have equal rights
• 11:31
  Speaker 2: and you can participate, but you can never be part
• 11:34
  Speaker 2: of any sort of governing coalition because the country itself
• 11:39
  Speaker 2: is so racist that that is considered thoroughly unacceptable? Noga,
• 11:44
  Speaker 2: I would love to talk to her more because she
• 11:45
  Speaker 2: pointed to some polls claiming that the opposition bloc actually supported,
• 11:50
  Speaker 2: the voters themselves supported making common cause with the Arab parties.
• 11:54
  Speaker 2: I saw some polling that told the total opposite story,
• 11:57
  Speaker 2: that the overwhelming, I'm talking 80% of the Jewish Israelis
• 12:03
  Speaker 2: were completely against any sort of coalition forming with the
• 12:08
  Speaker 2: Arab parties in government. So I think it shows you,
• 12:11
  Speaker 2: and that's before we even talk about the West Bank
• 12:13
  Speaker 2: and Gaza. These are territories that are obviously completely under
• 12:17
  Speaker 2: the control of Israel. And do those people there have
• 12:19
  Speaker 2: equal rights? Nothing approaching it. So it is just a
• 12:22
  Speaker 2: deep irony to me, Sagar, that at this moment, you
• 12:27
  Speaker 2: could have a majority coalition. And because there is a
• 12:31
  Speaker 2: total racist unwillingness to partner with with the Arab parties. Instead,
• 12:36
  Speaker 2: you are de facto just going to allow Netanyahu to
• 12:39
  Speaker 2: remain in power indefinitely. And this is very much, you know,
• 12:41
  Speaker 2: the story of Israel right now.
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: Absolutely.
• 12:44
  Speaker 3: I mean, don't forget also, you know, Bibi or somebody
• 12:46
  Speaker 3: took over Israeli citizens' phones and was like, hey, Arabs
• 12:49
  Speaker 3: are voting.
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: You guys need to go out and vote.
• 12:51
  Speaker 3: Can you imagine on election day if you got a notification,
• 12:55
  Speaker 3: one of those like emergency alerts on your phone where
• 12:57
  Speaker 3: you couldn't do anything else and they're like, hey, blacks
• 12:59
  Speaker 3: are voting.
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: You need to come out. I mean, what the hell
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: is going on?
• 13:04
  Speaker 2: Look, I mean, look, given we're going to talk to
• 13:06
  Speaker 2: Abdul in a little bit, they're basically doing the oh,
• 13:09
  Speaker 2: my God, Arabs might vote in the Michigan race here.
• 13:11
  Speaker 2: So it's not actually that far fetched to me. And
• 13:13
  Speaker 2: it is not.
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: You're not wrong, Crystal. But I'm talking about like the
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: emergency alert system.
• 13:19
  Speaker 3: Right.
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: I mean, yes, that is next level.
• 13:21
  Speaker 5: Yeah.
• 13:22
  Speaker 3: There are gradations, I think, to all of this just
• 13:24
  Speaker 3: to show everybody how Israelification has reached our own shores.
• 13:28
  Speaker 3: Here's Mark Levin. He talks a lot about how he's
• 13:30
  Speaker 3: a patriotic American. talking to his fellow patriots in Israel.
• 13:34
  Speaker 3: Let's take a listen.
• 13:35
  Speaker 5: To my fellow patriots in Israel, to the right wing,
• 13:39
  Speaker 5: to Likud and the other coalition parties, if you do
• 13:44
  Speaker 5: not get out and vote right now, you're going to
• 13:46
  Speaker 5: lose your country. You're going to lose your country to leftists,
• 13:52
  Speaker 5: to self-promoters, to Arabs who hate your country, want a
• 13:57
  Speaker 5: Palestinian state, want to undermine your defense.
• 14:01
  Speaker 4: What a complete and utter disaster.
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: So, yeah, that's his fellow patriots in Israel.
• 14:07
  Speaker 2: God forbid they want a Palestinian state. I mean, this
• 14:12
  Speaker 2: used to be the accepted position of, you know, the
• 14:15
  Speaker 2: bipartisan consensus in the U.S. was this fiction that we
• 14:18
  Speaker 2: were pushing for a Palestinian state. And now they just
• 14:21
  Speaker 2: come out and say it, that it's an existential threat
• 14:24
  Speaker 2: to them, that there would be anyone in government who
• 14:27
  Speaker 2: would want a Palestinian state and support that. So, no,
• 14:30
  Speaker 2: I mean, it's just that nothing is under wraps anymore.
• 14:34
  Speaker 2: It's all out front. And Trita Parsi, when we talked
• 14:37
  Speaker 2: to him about the new security doctrine in Israel, one
• 14:40
  Speaker 2: of the things they explicitly say is, We are choosing
• 14:43
  Speaker 2: the Jewish ethnostate character of the country over the democracy part.
• 14:48
  Speaker 2: Like we're abandoning this fiction that it's a democratic state. Now,
• 14:51
  Speaker 2: the Jewish identity comes first. And the theory is that
• 14:55
  Speaker 2: because of that, you already see the break with the
• 14:58
  Speaker 2: Democratic Party from supporting Israel, that this is going to
• 15:02
  Speaker 2: lead to an irrevocable break. with America, because at the
• 15:05
  Speaker 2: end of the day, our country is supposed to be
• 15:08
  Speaker 2: built on this idea of equal rights. And that's been,
• 15:10
  Speaker 2: you know, the project by and large of our country
• 15:12
  Speaker 2: is expanding those rights over time. And that, you know,
• 15:16
  Speaker 2: their commitment to a genocidal apartheid ethnostate was going to
• 15:21
  Speaker 2: lead to a break with the U.S. And so now
• 15:24
  Speaker 2: you can see this really front and center in this
• 15:26
  Speaker 2: election where they are choosing that ethno identity over race.
• 15:31
  Speaker 2: the quote unquote democratic character, even a fig leaf of
• 15:35
  Speaker 2: a democratic character.
• 15:37
  Speaker 3: Last thing on the U.S. front, at the very least,
• 15:39
  Speaker 3: is let's put a five up here on the screen.
• 15:42
  Speaker 3: This is a report actually out of the Jerusalem Post
• 15:45
  Speaker 3: and Israel.
• 15:46
  Speaker 4: U.S.
• 15:47
  Speaker 3: Sources telling them that Trump actually wants Ben-Gavir and Smotrich
• 15:52
  Speaker 3: out of Israel's government. The problem, though, is, of course,
• 15:55
  Speaker 3: there's no way Netanyahu could form a government without without
• 15:58
  Speaker 3: those people. And according to them, they say Trump believes
• 16:01
  Speaker 3: settler violence is undermining, quote, his regional vision and that
• 16:05
  Speaker 3: Ben-Gavir and Smotrich have been a problem for him because
• 16:08
  Speaker 3: they obviously continue to advance this policy of explicit, you know,
• 16:12
  Speaker 3: apartheid and just like killing straight up in the West
• 16:16
  Speaker 3: Bank with no justice. I guess you could say it's
• 16:19
  Speaker 3: disrupting his regional vision, but it is kind of a
• 16:22
  Speaker 3: ridiculous fantasy because Netanyahu himself is the person who also
• 16:26
  Speaker 3: happens to agree with that. And then just to say
• 16:29
  Speaker 3: also about kind of the direction and the future of
• 16:31
  Speaker 3: where this is going, we've previously played audio from this
• 16:34
  Speaker 3: guy before, Moshe Feinglin. He is now a member of
• 16:36
  Speaker 3: parliament or he will be a member of parliament in
• 16:39
  Speaker 3: the Israeli parliament. And here he was in a recent
• 16:41
  Speaker 3: interview with a Canadian journalist being asked, well, are you
• 16:46
  Speaker 3: worried about being a pariah?
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: Here's what he had to say.
• 16:49
  Speaker 7: When I see your people in Canada and in Europe
• 16:55
  Speaker 7: going together and being on the Islamo-Nazi side, you have
• 17:00
  Speaker 7: a very bad image here in Israel. And you have
• 17:05
  Speaker 7: to know that the real International Supreme Court The moral
• 17:10
  Speaker 7: International Supreme Court is the people of Israel here in
• 17:14
  Speaker 7: the biblical land. It's not the question of how you
• 17:17
  Speaker 7: see us, it's the question of how we see you.
• 17:20
  Speaker 4: And it says in the book.
• 17:22
  Speaker 7: In the Bible, those who blessed you will be blessed,
• 17:26
  Speaker 7: and those who cursed you will be cursed. And you
• 17:29
  Speaker 7: in Canada and all over the world should ask yourself,
• 17:32
  Speaker 7: are you going to be blessed or cursed? Are you
• 17:34
  Speaker 7: with the children of God or not?
• 17:37
  Speaker 1: So there you go.
• 17:38
  Speaker 3: Are you with the children of God or not? That
• 17:40
  Speaker 3: is his posing of the framework, if you will.
• 17:43
  Speaker 2: That's what a religious supremacist ideology looks like.
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: That's it.
• 17:48
  Speaker 2: We don't care. We don't care what the rest of
• 17:50
  Speaker 2: the world thinks of us. What matters is what we
• 17:52
  Speaker 2: think of you.
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: What we think of you.
• 17:55
  Speaker 2: Children of God. Got it.
• 17:57
  Speaker 4: Okay.
• 17:58
  Speaker 2: All right. All right.
• 17:59
  Speaker 1: We've got the man himself standing by.
• 18:01
  Speaker 3: Abdul El-Sayed, candidate for the Democratic candidate for the United
• 18:05
  Speaker 3: States Senate from the state of Michigan.
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: Let's get to him.
• 18:10
  Speaker 2: Joining us now is the man of the hour in
• 18:12
  Speaker 2: the Michigan Senate race, the Democratic nominee himself, Abdul El-Sayed.
• 18:16
  Speaker 2: By the way, Mike Rogers, you are invited. You can
• 18:19
  Speaker 2: come on our program whenever you want. We would be
• 18:21
  Speaker 2: happy to speak with you as well. Abdul, great to
• 18:22
  Speaker 2: see you.
• 18:23
  Speaker 4: It's always good to be with you guys.
• 18:25
  Speaker 2: Yeah, of course. So let's go and put B1 up
• 18:27
  Speaker 2: on the screen. So there's a recent poll that just
• 18:30
  Speaker 2: came out that has you up here by seven points,
• 18:33
  Speaker 2: if my math is correct. And over that critical 50
• 18:37
  Speaker 2: percent margin, there was another Glenn Gare poll that had
• 18:39
  Speaker 2: you up by six. CNN is out with a poll
• 18:42
  Speaker 2: this morning that has you up by seven. Does it
• 18:45
  Speaker 2: feel to you like you have a seven point lead?
• 18:47
  Speaker 2: Do you think this is what it's going to look
• 18:48
  Speaker 2: like on Election Day?
• 18:50
  Speaker 8: Well, I'll tell you, it really looks and feels great
• 18:52
  Speaker 8: on the ground, but we're not running like we're seven
• 18:54
  Speaker 8: points up. We always run like we're 10 points down.
• 18:56
  Speaker 8: So we're going to be hitting four or five stops
• 18:59
  Speaker 8: every single day for the next five days until this
• 19:02
  Speaker 8: election is up.
• 19:02
  Speaker 4: And I'll look up.
• 19:03
  Speaker 8: The only poll that matters, as you well know, is
• 19:05
  Speaker 8: the one that's taken on or ends on Tuesday, November.
• 19:10
  Speaker 4: 3rd at 8 p.m.
• 19:11
  Speaker 8: So we're going to keep working, keep talking to every
• 19:13
  Speaker 8: last voter, having conversations about who we are, who we
• 19:16
  Speaker 8: want to be and about why we need to get
• 19:17
  Speaker 8: money out of politics. Put money in your pocket, pass
• 19:19
  Speaker 8: Medicare for all.
• 19:20
  Speaker 2: So there have been a lot of national conversations happening,
• 19:23
  Speaker 2: and we will get to that in a moment. But
• 19:25
  Speaker 2: I wanted to ask you, just being on the ground,
• 19:27
  Speaker 2: you know, talking to voters, what do you think are
• 19:30
  Speaker 2: the sort of critical swing issues? What are the concerns
• 19:33
  Speaker 2: that are being most raised with you, whether it's on
• 19:35
  Speaker 2: the phone, at the rallies, at the doors? What are
• 19:38
  Speaker 2: you hearing from people on the ground about what is
• 19:39
  Speaker 2: mattering most to them?
• 19:40
  Speaker 8: It was affordability, affordability, health care, corruption, affordability, chaos. I mean,
• 19:48
  Speaker 8: people are looking at this and saying it. cost me
• 19:50
  Speaker 8: 80 bucks to fill up my tank. I don't know
• 19:52
  Speaker 8: if I'm going to be able to have enough to
• 19:54
  Speaker 8: buy two pounds of ground beef, which is what I needed.
• 19:57
  Speaker 8: If I mix it with enough hamburger helper, maybe I'll
• 19:59
  Speaker 8: be able to stretch it for another couple of days
• 20:01
  Speaker 8: for my kids. People are worried about the fact that
• 20:04
  Speaker 8: right now it feels like nobody actually cares about them.
• 20:06
  Speaker 4: Look at Donald Trump.
• 20:07
  Speaker 8: He's more interested in the drapes in a ballroom or
• 20:10
  Speaker 8: what my name is, rather than talking about why he
• 20:13
  Speaker 8: got us into a war he can't get us out
• 20:14
  Speaker 8: of and why we're having a tariff war with Canada
• 20:17
  Speaker 8: and why the big ugly bill is stripping people away
• 20:20
  Speaker 8: from their healthcare. You know, here in Michigan, we just
• 20:22
  Speaker 8: watched our regulators approve another double digit increase in premiums.
• 20:26
  Speaker 8: We watched another approval for a rate hike in utilities.
• 20:28
  Speaker 8: And that just is the par for the course now
• 20:31
  Speaker 8: for the last couple of years. And people are asking,
• 20:33
  Speaker 8: all right, I don't know that I can continue to
• 20:34
  Speaker 8: make things work. And that's really, really frustrating folks.
• 20:38
  Speaker 2: So let's talk a little bit about your primary opponent,
• 20:41
  Speaker 2: Haley Stevens. She's been making a lot of news lately. First,
• 20:45
  Speaker 2: an appearance on CNN. You know, she said she's still
• 20:47
  Speaker 2: on the team with you, but sort of refused to
• 20:49
  Speaker 2: say your name explicitly. And we learned her fiance is
• 20:54
  Speaker 2: endorsing your opponent, Mike Rogers. Last night, she turned up
• 20:58
  Speaker 2: on CNN and was asked about some of these things.
• 21:01
  Speaker 2: Let's go ahead and take a listen to her response here,
• 21:04
  Speaker 2: where she affirms that she does still endorse your campaign.
• 21:07
  Speaker 9: And I know a lot of people watching are probably saying, okay,
• 21:10
  Speaker 9: but couples certainly don't have to agree on everything, definitely
• 21:13
  Speaker 9: not politics. But do you agree with your fiance and
• 21:16
  Speaker 9: his sentiment here on this race?
• 21:20
  Speaker 10: No, like a lot of households across America, we're a
• 21:23
  Speaker 10: household divided. I still very much want our Democratic nominee,
• 21:29
  Speaker 10: his name is Abdul, to win this race. There's so
• 21:33
  Speaker 10: much on the line. But I will be honest, there
• 21:37
  Speaker 10: are a lot of voters in Michigan. I was out
• 21:40
  Speaker 10: knocking doors earlier today in Macomb County and they are
• 21:45
  Speaker 10: still undecided and they are hurt and they are confused.
• 21:49
  Speaker 10: And this is why I think our nominee is in
• 21:54
  Speaker 10: a very strong position to denounce the hateful ads that
• 22:00
  Speaker 10: have hurt people. You know, we've got one with Tucker
• 22:03
  Speaker 10: Carlson who is a racist, anti-Black, white supremacist, apologist. And
• 22:09
  Speaker 10: we've got another that's blaming Jews for the cost of groceries.
• 22:15
  Speaker 2: So, Abdul, what is your response to all this? I
• 22:17
  Speaker 2: also understand you're going to be campaigning with Alyssa Slotkin,
• 22:19
  Speaker 2: who happens to be Jewish, by the way, the current
• 22:22
  Speaker 2: Democratic senator from Michigan. But Haley Stevens has said she's
• 22:25
  Speaker 2: not campaigning with you down the stretch. So what do
• 22:27
  Speaker 2: you make of what's going on here?
• 22:29
  Speaker 8: We're building a big coalition, and it includes folks who
• 22:32
  Speaker 8: want to stand up to Donald Trump who want to
• 22:34
  Speaker 8: take on the insanity of the Iran war, who want
• 22:37
  Speaker 8: to take on the ridiculousness of these tariffs, who want
• 22:40
  Speaker 8: to stand up to the notion that Donald Trump could
• 22:43
  Speaker 8: have yet another rubber stamp in the Senate, who want
• 22:47
  Speaker 8: to make sure he doesn't get another two Supreme Court nominees,
• 22:49
  Speaker 8: who believe in religious pluralism and equal rights under the Constitution,
• 22:53
  Speaker 8: who believe in the right to choose, who believe that
• 22:56
  Speaker 8: people should have more health care, not less. And, you know,
• 22:58
  Speaker 8: folks have their priorities in this race. Uh, I'm, I'm
• 23:01
  Speaker 8: thankful to, um, to Congresswoman Stevens for her support early, uh,
• 23:05
  Speaker 8: in the general election. And we're going to keep building
• 23:07
  Speaker 8: that big, broad coalition that we know is going to
• 23:09
  Speaker 8: deliver the victory in November. But big point here is
• 23:11
  Speaker 8: that I'm not just running to win a seat. I'm
• 23:14
  Speaker 8: running to win the future. And I've been very clear
• 23:16
  Speaker 8: on where I stand, uh, on all of these issues.
• 23:18
  Speaker 8: And so, you know, for some folks, they, they might
• 23:20
  Speaker 8: have higher priorities than defending our democracy and that's fine
• 23:23
  Speaker 8: for them. Um, that is their choice. That's the beauty
• 23:25
  Speaker 8: of democracy. Uh, but for me, it's about standing up
• 23:27
  Speaker 8: to Donald Trump, standing up for our democracy, standing up
• 23:29
  Speaker 8: for our rights. and making sure that people can afford
• 23:31
  Speaker 8: their lives.
• 23:32
  Speaker 3: Yeah, Abdul, in that ad, America First, which you have
• 23:36
  Speaker 3: cast yourself as, you included me, and I guess thanks
• 23:38
  Speaker 3: for that, as well as with Tucker Carlson. One of
• 23:41
  Speaker 3: the critical parts of that, though, and we've had a
• 23:43
  Speaker 3: lot of discussions here about that, is that it wasn't
• 23:44
  Speaker 3: just about foreign policy. A lot of it was about immigration.
• 23:47
  Speaker 3: And so we have the immigration section of your website.
• 23:50
  Speaker 3: And I think the question is, is that you've named
• 23:52
  Speaker 3: a lot of things on immigration that you disagree with
• 23:54
  Speaker 3: the Trump administration on. But can you name something that
• 23:58
  Speaker 3: you disagree with Joe Biden and Kamala Harris? Like, what
• 24:00
  Speaker 3: would you have done differently on immigration if you were
• 24:04
  Speaker 3: a United States senator at that time? Do you think
• 24:06
  Speaker 3: that they did anything wrong while they were in office?
• 24:09
  Speaker 3: It was a key part of why they lost the election.
• 24:12
  Speaker 4: We needed tougher border security.
• 24:14
  Speaker 8: We need to make sure we know who's coming in
• 24:16
  Speaker 8: We need to make sure that they're coming in for
• 24:18
  Speaker 8: reasons that are legal and justifiable based on our immigration laws.
• 24:24
  Speaker 8: But customs and border protection are different than ICE. ICE
• 24:27
  Speaker 8: is about internal enforcement. I've been clear that we need
• 24:30
  Speaker 8: a safe, secure border, but also the way that ICE
• 24:33
  Speaker 8: has been weaponized against the constitution itself by this administration
• 24:36
  Speaker 8: is dead wrong. And it's inconsistent with the constitution of
• 24:39
  Speaker 8: our country. And so that's where I deeply differ from
• 24:43
  Speaker 8: the Trump administration. But yeah, I think we need a safe,
• 24:45
  Speaker 8: secure southern border. We need to know exactly who's going in,
• 24:48
  Speaker 8: what's coming in, and making sure that the things we
• 24:49
  Speaker 8: don't want are not coming in. Similarly, the things that
• 24:52
  Speaker 8: we don't want coming out are not coming out. You
• 24:54
  Speaker 8: think about the outflow of guns and dangerous weaponry that
• 24:58
  Speaker 8: falls into the hands of cartels in Mexico. We don't
• 25:01
  Speaker 8: want that either. And so making sure that we're securing
• 25:03
  Speaker 8: our border, that's a place where I would have differed
• 25:05
  Speaker 8: with the Biden administration.
• 25:07
  Speaker 3: Sure. I do have a second question here, which kind
• 25:09
  Speaker 3: of gets to the culture point on immigration. This is
• 25:12
  Speaker 3: one which has been a little bit more difficult and
• 25:14
  Speaker 3: kind of goes to the heart of our show. And
• 25:16
  Speaker 3: I think for a lot of people who are potential
• 25:19
  Speaker 3: Abdul Sa'ad voters, they will have to be people who
• 25:22
  Speaker 3: voted for Donald Trump in the last election. So I
• 25:25
  Speaker 3: mentioned immigration is not one of the only ones. Culture
• 25:28
  Speaker 3: is really a big part of this election as well.
• 25:30
  Speaker 3: You know, for many of us, we do remember that
• 25:32
  Speaker 3: you said defund the police in 2020. I know that
• 25:34
  Speaker 3: you did in a 2021 interview. You said that your
• 25:38
  Speaker 3: Medicare for All plan would cover you know, puberty blockers
• 25:41
  Speaker 3: for minors. These are issues which are very important to
• 25:44
  Speaker 3: a lot of households. I think, you know, kind of
• 25:47
  Speaker 3: a way of squaring of like what you really care about,
• 25:49
  Speaker 3: because that's what the question is. The question is, like,
• 25:51
  Speaker 3: are you a woke 1.0 guy or are you a
• 25:54
  Speaker 3: guy who actually cares about affordability? And so, I mean,
• 25:58
  Speaker 3: could you envision yourself if you want universal health care,
• 26:00
  Speaker 3: could you pass universal health care plan, which would not
• 26:02
  Speaker 3: cover puberty blockers for minors? Is that a compromise, I guess,
• 26:06
  Speaker 3: that you'd be willing to accept?
• 26:07
  Speaker 8: You know, Sarah, that's a hypothetical, but the big question
• 26:10
  Speaker 8: really is what is government for? Like, what is our
• 26:12
  Speaker 8: politics really about? And I think there are a lot
• 26:14
  Speaker 8: of people who want to distract us from the fact
• 26:16
  Speaker 8: that our politics have not addressed the material needs of
• 26:18
  Speaker 8: our lives by trying to make politics about cultural war.
• 26:21
  Speaker 8: To me, it's not even about cultural war. It's just
• 26:23
  Speaker 8: about rights. It's about whether or not we stand up
• 26:25
  Speaker 8: against the tyranny of government to tell people how they
• 26:28
  Speaker 8: get to live their lives or not. And to me,
• 26:31
  Speaker 8: that there is the real question. So to me, rights
• 26:33
  Speaker 8: are rights are rights are rights. And the question of
• 26:35
  Speaker 8: the kind of health care that you can get is
• 26:37
  Speaker 8: a choice between you, your doctor, and if you're under 18,
• 26:39
  Speaker 8: your parent. And I think that's the sort of challenge here.
• 26:42
  Speaker 8: And look, I'm not telling you anything you don't already know.
• 26:44
  Speaker 8: Conservatives for a long time had been fighting for right
• 26:46
  Speaker 8: to try legislation, which was about getting government out of
• 26:49
  Speaker 8: the way. And if you and your doctor decided that
• 26:51
  Speaker 8: there was a medication you needed, that you should have
• 26:53
  Speaker 8: access to that and government shouldn't tell you you can't.
• 26:55
  Speaker 8: Except for now, conservatives want to tell you what medication
• 26:58
  Speaker 8: you can or cannot have. depending upon what circumstances you're in.
• 27:01
  Speaker 8: So I'm just saying that, look, I want to stick
• 27:03
  Speaker 8: by that point, which is to say your doctor should
• 27:05
  Speaker 8: be your expert on your health or your child's health.
• 27:09
  Speaker 8: If you're in that situation, government shouldn't be in the
• 27:11
  Speaker 8: position of telling you what you can or cannot have.
• 27:13
  Speaker 3: Well, it's a bit complicated, right, Abdul, because, you know,
• 27:15
  Speaker 3: you're casting this as a conservative issue, but you've got
• 27:17
  Speaker 3: the United Kingdom, you've got Sweden, you've got Norway, you've
• 27:19
  Speaker 3: got multiple socialized health care systems, which I know that
• 27:21
  Speaker 3: you name checked in your book, which actually don't agree.
• 27:24
  Speaker 3: with your position on that and don't offer those under
• 27:26
  Speaker 3: socialized medicine.
• 27:27
  Speaker 4: So why?
• 27:27
  Speaker 3: And you actually, by the way, you have a board
• 27:30
  Speaker 3: certified pediatrician, Dr. Annie Andrews, who's potentially your future colleague
• 27:34
  Speaker 3: in the United States Senate, who doesn't agree with your position.
• 27:38
  Speaker 3: You had Josh Turek, another potential colleague of yours. I mean,
• 27:41
  Speaker 3: these are Democrats who I'm talking about. Like, do you
• 27:43
  Speaker 3: think they're conservatives?
• 27:44
  Speaker 4: Here's the funny thing about this question. Here's the funny
• 27:46
  Speaker 4: thing about this question.
• 27:47
  Speaker 8: You're less concerned about whether or not people have health
• 27:48
  Speaker 8: care and more concerned about whether or not some people
• 27:50
  Speaker 8: are going to get their health care.
• 27:51
  Speaker 4: Well, I mean, that's what you're focused on. We don't
• 27:53
  Speaker 4: have Medicare for all in this country.
• 27:54
  Speaker 1: Well, I'm just saying that there are a lot of people.
• 27:56
  Speaker 1: All right, cool.
• 27:57
  Speaker 4: Then we agree on that.
• 27:58
  Speaker 8: Let's let's focus on getting that done instead of talking
• 28:01
  Speaker 8: about who doesn't get the health care that they need.
• 28:02
  Speaker 3: I just last question is on this, because, again, to me,
• 28:05
  Speaker 3: it just comes down around issues of trust, which is, again, like,
• 28:08
  Speaker 3: are you going to fight, you know, for people who
• 28:10
  Speaker 3: disagree with you? That's the ultimate question. You're going to
• 28:13
  Speaker 3: have to win. By the way, I mean, to say
• 28:15
  Speaker 3: this is just conservatives. There are many Muslims in Dearborn, Michigan,
• 28:17
  Speaker 3: who also rioted against many of the things I'm just
• 28:20
  Speaker 3: talking about.
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: Right here.
• 28:22
  Speaker 3: So I don't want to say that this is explicitly
• 28:24
  Speaker 3: some sort of right wing coded issue. The point remains,
• 28:27
  Speaker 3: you know, who do you serve? Like, are you going
• 28:30
  Speaker 3: to serve the people? Are you going to serve the activists?
• 28:32
  Speaker 3: And you talked about culture war. You were one of
• 28:34
  Speaker 3: those people at the time. I've known you for quite
• 28:36
  Speaker 3: a long time. You were certainly kind of on the
• 28:38
  Speaker 3: bleeding edge of the left cause, you know, at that time.
• 28:41
  Speaker 3: So the question to me is just which is more
• 28:43
  Speaker 3: important to you?
• 28:44
  Speaker 4: That's it. What do you know? I'll just tell you this.
• 28:46
  Speaker 4: I'll tell you this. The point to me is this.
• 28:49
  Speaker 8: Government should be about protecting your rights and fighting for
• 28:52
  Speaker 8: your basic needs. That to me is what I've always believed.
• 28:56
  Speaker 8: And look, when it comes to these questions of defund,
• 28:59
  Speaker 8: that's a dumb word. And I think the idea that
• 29:01
  Speaker 8: we could ever address an issue as complicated as public
• 29:05
  Speaker 8: safety in a three-word sentence, a little bit problematic. And
• 29:09
  Speaker 8: so I've tried to make very clear what I believe in.
• 29:11
  Speaker 8: I believe everybody ought to get home safely. I believe
• 29:13
  Speaker 8: that we should be investing in retention, recruitment, retirement for
• 29:16
  Speaker 8: law enforcement, and also investing in things like behavioral health
• 29:18
  Speaker 8: response and community violence intervention to take on the public
• 29:21
  Speaker 8: safety challenges that we face. But where I am right
• 29:24
  Speaker 8: now is that the big challenge in our lives is
• 29:26
  Speaker 8: that our healthcare is about to get way more expensive.
• 29:29
  Speaker 8: And I get the goal of trying to parse into
• 29:33
  Speaker 8: how we turn this question about who has healthcare into
• 29:35
  Speaker 8: a culture war question. I just don't think politics are
• 29:37
  Speaker 8: for culture war. I think politics are for protecting basic
• 29:40
  Speaker 8: rights and providing basic needs. And that's what I'm going
• 29:43
  Speaker 8: to be fighting for. And here's the thing about it.
• 29:45
  Speaker 8: As we get down the path of building legislation, my
• 29:48
  Speaker 8: hope is that in the same way that we've built
• 29:50
  Speaker 8: this campaign, we go out and have those conversations and
• 29:53
  Speaker 8: talk a little bit about with the people what we believe,
• 29:55
  Speaker 8: what is it that we actually think our system should
• 29:57
  Speaker 8: look like? Can we persuade folks to see it our way.
• 30:00
  Speaker 8: And I get that there's going to be disagreements between
• 30:01
  Speaker 8: me and other colleagues, many colleagues who agree with me
• 30:04
  Speaker 8: on a lot of different things. But that's the beauty
• 30:06
  Speaker 8: of American democracy is we have the right to have
• 30:08
  Speaker 8: the conversation. And try to persuade. But again, the big
• 30:11
  Speaker 8: question to me is less about who doesn't get the things.
• 30:13
  Speaker 8: It's more about can we provide those basic things in
• 30:15
  Speaker 8: the first place?
• 30:15
  Speaker 2: OK, so Abdul, the Republican campaign against you has really
• 30:21
  Speaker 2: and I don't think I'm exaggerating here. You can tell
• 30:23
  Speaker 2: me if I am has really boiled down to he's
• 30:25
  Speaker 2: got a weird name. Did you know he's Muslim? Did
• 30:28
  Speaker 2: you know he's Arab? The president called you a terrorist,
• 30:32
  Speaker 2: you know, a jihadist. You had Bernie Moreno yesterday basically saying,
• 30:36
  Speaker 2: since you're not a Christian, you shouldn't be allowed in
• 30:37
  Speaker 2: the Senate at all. And we had RFK Jr. making
• 30:41
  Speaker 2: his own unique contribution to this incredibly bigoted, in my opinion, conversation.
• 30:47
  Speaker 2: Let's go ahead and take a listen to what he
• 30:48
  Speaker 2: had to say recently.
• 30:49
  Speaker 6: There's 500 million Arabs in the world, and yet they
• 30:53
  Speaker 6: don't produce science. They don't win the Nobel Prize. They
• 30:56
  Speaker 6: don't win the field prize. They don't win the Wolf Prize.
• 30:59
  Speaker 6: They don't produce literature.
• 31:02
  Speaker 2: Your reaction to him and the other attacks that have
• 31:05
  Speaker 2: come towards you and, you know, apparently to 500 million
• 31:09
  Speaker 2: people around the world.
• 31:10
  Speaker 8: You know, it's rich watching a guy with zero scientific
• 31:13
  Speaker 8: credentials who's been appointed to one of the highest scientific
• 31:16
  Speaker 8: roles in government lecture Michigan voters who are on the
• 31:19
  Speaker 8: cusp of electing an Arab American with two doctoral degrees
• 31:23
  Speaker 8: who has published in the science literature. I just, you know,
• 31:27
  Speaker 8: prefer when they're telling on themselves, let them go ahead
• 31:28
  Speaker 8: and tell on themselves.
• 31:32
  Speaker 2: I have seen you taking a lot of positions on
• 31:35
  Speaker 2: AI and data centers and have really been hardened because
• 31:38
  Speaker 2: it's something we've focused on a lot here. Is that
• 31:41
  Speaker 2: something that you're seeing pop on the campaign trail? You know,
• 31:44
  Speaker 2: I know you mentioned earlier affordability, cost of living. Of course,
• 31:48
  Speaker 2: those are top issues for everybody in the entire country.
• 31:51
  Speaker 2: But is this something that you're seeing bubble up as well?
• 31:54
  Speaker 2: I'm curious from your on the ground perspective.
• 31:56
  Speaker 8: Yeah, I hear it almost every town hall I do,
• 31:59
  Speaker 8: and it touches on these affordability questions in a pretty
• 32:02
  Speaker 8: big way. You think about the things that are increasing
• 32:05
  Speaker 8: in price for people, utilities is a big one. And
• 32:08
  Speaker 8: then you think about chaos and the ability to control
• 32:11
  Speaker 8: what's happening in your community, the ability to do anything.
• 32:13
  Speaker 4: About those prices.
• 32:14
  Speaker 8: Data centers and AI hit at both of those issues
• 32:17
  Speaker 8: in a big way. You've got these huge corporations based
• 32:20
  Speaker 8: out of California where billionaires are getting to control A
• 32:24
  Speaker 8: technology that's on the cusp of running rampant and loose
• 32:27
  Speaker 8: where everybody's saying that this could potentially cause existential crises
• 32:32
  Speaker 8: for humanity. Meanwhile, at the best case scenario, it doesn't
• 32:36
  Speaker 8: cause an existential crisis for humanity. It just takes 50%
• 32:38
  Speaker 8: of our jobs. And then the physical manifestation is a
• 32:41
  Speaker 8: data center in your backyard that raises your utility rates
• 32:44
  Speaker 8: and potentially poisons your water. You can see why people
• 32:46
  Speaker 8: will be real frustrated by all of this. And where
• 32:49
  Speaker 8: I hear it the most is young people, right? Because
• 32:51
  Speaker 8: the impact that this is going to have on the
• 32:52
  Speaker 8: future of the economy is going to hit them the hardest.
• 32:55
  Speaker 8: And you hear it also in rural communities, which is
• 32:57
  Speaker 8: why this hasn't really baked out as a partisan issue.
• 33:01
  Speaker 8: This is a pretty bipartisan issue because too often, if
• 33:03
  Speaker 8: you think about the distribution of folks by politics, rural
• 33:07
  Speaker 8: folks tend to vote a little bit more conservatively, but
• 33:10
  Speaker 8: these are the folks who are watching these data centers
• 33:12
  Speaker 8: go up in their backyards. So we've been very clear
• 33:15
  Speaker 8: about trying to put AI under democracy, about pulling these legacy,
• 33:19
  Speaker 8: these AI corporations outside of legacy big tech, making sure
• 33:23
  Speaker 8: that they have government, excuse me, democratically appointed leadership, at
• 33:28
  Speaker 8: least 50% of their boards, that there's a government stake
• 33:32
  Speaker 8: in 50% of their value in case they do come
• 33:34
  Speaker 8: for 50% of those white collar jobs. And then talking
• 33:37
  Speaker 8: about things like AI no-goes, AI shouldn't be able to
• 33:39
  Speaker 8: fire a weapon, shouldn't be able to fire you, shouldn't
• 33:41
  Speaker 8: be able to deny you healthcare.
• 33:43
  Speaker 4: And we need an.
• 33:44
  Speaker 8: SEC or FDA style regulatory agency that sits inside these
• 33:48
  Speaker 8: companies to assess where and how the research is being done,
• 33:53
  Speaker 8: whether or not they're approaching that point of accursive self-improvement
• 33:56
  Speaker 8: that really could be the opening of Pandora's box never
• 33:58
  Speaker 8: to be closed again. And then when it comes to
• 34:00
  Speaker 8: data centers, we proposed way back in January in terms
• 34:02
  Speaker 8: of engagement that if you're going to build a data center,
• 34:05
  Speaker 8: we need a federal legislation that guarantees that all the
• 34:09
  Speaker 8: all of the labor that's going into them is union labor,
• 34:12
  Speaker 8: that they do not raise our utility rates, that some
• 34:14
  Speaker 8: of the revenue they create for utility companies is leveraged
• 34:17
  Speaker 8: to improve the reliability of our utilities, that they cannot
• 34:20
  Speaker 8: touch our water, and that all of these agreements are
• 34:24
  Speaker 8: negotiated in good faith, transparently, through community benefits agreements with
• 34:28
  Speaker 8: the right to say, no, we actually don't want this
• 34:29
  Speaker 8: in our backyard. And until then, I think we need
• 34:31
  Speaker 8: a local and state moratorium so that we get that
• 34:34
  Speaker 8: federal legislation and folks have peace of mind to know
• 34:36
  Speaker 8: that if they're going to put this in your backyard,
• 34:38
  Speaker 8: it's not going to raise your utilities, it's not going
• 34:39
  Speaker 8: to poison your water, and it's going to make your
• 34:41
  Speaker 8: local community rich.
• 34:43
  Speaker 1: Adil, I do have a question for you.
• 34:45
  Speaker 3: During your debate, you infamously said seniors should have their
• 34:48
  Speaker 3: property taxes frozen. This puts you in league with Vivek Ramaswamy,
• 34:54
  Speaker 3: Greg Abbott. You have Daron DeSantis here. This is the
• 34:58
  Speaker 3: section there from your website. You know, the vast majority
• 35:01
  Speaker 3: of the people who watch the show, a lot of
• 35:02
  Speaker 3: people I meet who are excited about your campaign, they're
• 35:05
  Speaker 3: not seniors during the age of 65. This policy has
• 35:08
  Speaker 3: failed every single place that it's been implemented. It has
• 35:11
  Speaker 3: dramatically driven up housing prices for younger people. It has,
• 35:15
  Speaker 3: of course, also given even more of a benefit to
• 35:18
  Speaker 3: the wealthiest generation in American history. I mean, for somebody
• 35:22
  Speaker 3: who is trying to tackle the affordability crisis, why are
• 35:25
  Speaker 3: you advocating for a policy that's going to make housing
• 35:27
  Speaker 3: more expensive?
• 35:28
  Speaker 8: Yeah, Sagar, who says sometimes conservatives and folks like me
• 35:32
  Speaker 8: can't see.
• 35:32
  Speaker 4: Eye to eye? Look, I'll just tell you this.
• 35:35
  Speaker 8: To me, I want housing to be affordable. I believe
• 35:39
  Speaker 8: we need to build a lot more housing. I believe
• 35:41
  Speaker 8: we need to address zoning and licensing that gets in
• 35:43
  Speaker 8: the way. I believe that we need to address you know,
• 35:45
  Speaker 8: short-term rentals and the ways that they've driven up prices,
• 35:48
  Speaker 8: speculation in the way that's driven up prices. I want
• 35:51
  Speaker 8: people to be able to afford a home, but here's
• 35:54
  Speaker 8: what I hear. I'll be in communities all over the state.
• 35:56
  Speaker 8: And I talked to seniors and they say, look, I
• 35:58
  Speaker 8: paid off my house back in the nineties and I'm
• 36:00
  Speaker 8: about to get priced out of my home.
• 36:01
  Speaker 4: And you're like, how?
• 36:02
  Speaker 8: And you're like, well, my property taxes have gone up
• 36:04
  Speaker 8: so high that I just can't afford to stay.
• 36:06
  Speaker 4: Now I know, right.
• 36:08
  Speaker 8: In theory that that's an issue that's going to be
• 36:10
  Speaker 8: born generationally. And that If you subsidize, in effect, through
• 36:14
  Speaker 8: property taxes, housing for older folks, they stay in that
• 36:18
  Speaker 8: housing and it feels like a giveaway.
• 36:20
  Speaker 4: I get what you're saying.
• 36:21
  Speaker 8: But I want you to think about in the lived
• 36:23
  Speaker 8: experience of a family, what happens when.
• 36:27
  Speaker 4: A retired couple.
• 36:30
  Speaker 8: On fixed income can't stay in their home?
• 36:32
  Speaker 4: What do you think happens? Who pays the cost?
• 36:34
  Speaker 7: Sure.
• 36:34
  Speaker 3: Right. Of course, they could go to Medicare facility. They
• 36:37
  Speaker 3: might have to downsize, move to a smaller home. However-
• 36:40
  Speaker 3: Don't usually have the money.
• 36:43
  Speaker 8: I'll tell you what usually happens. What usually happens is
• 36:45
  Speaker 8: that their kids end up having to subsidize it.
• 36:48
  Speaker 4: That's what usually happens.
• 36:49
  Speaker 8: In fact, there's a person on my staff and he
• 36:52
  Speaker 8: was like, look, my parents are exactly in this situation.
• 36:54
  Speaker 8: And now my wife and I are on the cusp
• 36:56
  Speaker 8: of having to help pay property taxes for my parents.
• 37:00
  Speaker 8: So I get that in theory, you're correct about this.
• 37:03
  Speaker 8: In practice, People don't wanna see their folks get priced
• 37:06
  Speaker 8: out of their home that they grew up in. And
• 37:08
  Speaker 8: so what tends to happen is that cost gets borne
• 37:10
  Speaker 8: down on the next generation anyway, which of course prevents
• 37:13
  Speaker 8: them from being able to afford their own home. So
• 37:15
  Speaker 8: what I am saying is that I think there's an
• 37:17
  Speaker 8: opportunity for us to be thinking about how do you
• 37:19
  Speaker 8: do this in a way that doesn't force seniors out
• 37:22
  Speaker 8: of their home and does it also in a way
• 37:24
  Speaker 8: where you potentially could see it as an opportunity for
• 37:27
  Speaker 8: like the next generation to kind of buy into it.
• 37:29
  Speaker 8: There are ways to think about this, but what I'm
• 37:31
  Speaker 8: trying to solve is the notion that I don't think
• 37:33
  Speaker 8: seniors should be pushed out of their housing. And I
• 37:35
  Speaker 8: don't want the cost of that to be born on
• 37:37
  Speaker 8: the next generation in the way that cost of so
• 37:38
  Speaker 8: much of our aging right now is being born on
• 37:41
  Speaker 8: the next generation.
• 37:42
  Speaker 3: The point I'm trying to get at, Abdul, is all
• 37:44
  Speaker 3: politicians tell me about is fixed income. These people get
• 37:46
  Speaker 3: inflation-adjusted free income from the government, which is tax-free, by
• 37:49
  Speaker 3: the way, thanks to the horrible bill, which you correctly
• 37:52
  Speaker 3: shouted out. I'm not sure about Michigan state law. The
• 37:54
  Speaker 3: vast majority of states don't even tax Social Security benefits.
• 37:57
  Speaker 3: I hear a lot about seniors getting pushed out of
• 37:58
  Speaker 3: their homes. I don't hear a lot about young families
• 38:00
  Speaker 3: who get priced out of their homes because rent's going up,
• 38:03
  Speaker 3: because nobody can buy a home and the prices are
• 38:05
  Speaker 3: going up as well. So this is just, to me,
• 38:07
  Speaker 3: an issue of, you know, effectively, I'll call it what
• 38:10
  Speaker 3: it is. I think it's pandering to the people who
• 38:11
  Speaker 3: vote the most and who it's really generational warfare against,
• 38:15
  Speaker 3: you know, trying to pay their fair share. A lot
• 38:17
  Speaker 3: of seniors, when these people were middle-aged, paid their property
• 38:20
  Speaker 3: tax for these people's schools. And it just feels like
• 38:23
  Speaker 3: a break when they're already dramatically wealthy. And in that scenario,
• 38:27
  Speaker 3: you pointed out they could sell their house. They obviously
• 38:30
  Speaker 3: were paying more property tax. You got a lot higher
• 38:32
  Speaker 3: value that you're sitting on. It's not like you're sitting
• 38:34
  Speaker 3: on an illiquid, you know, depreciated asset.
• 38:37
  Speaker 4: And look, I see where you're coming from.
• 38:39
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 38:39
  Speaker 8: I think there's a lot that we can do to
• 38:41
  Speaker 8: address homeownership issues among young people.
• 38:43
  Speaker 4: And I want to do all of those things.
• 38:45
  Speaker 8: I also think, though, to be fair, We're watching as
• 38:49
  Speaker 8: there have been massive disinvestments in municipalities for a very
• 38:52
  Speaker 8: long time from the federal government because we're more busy
• 38:56
  Speaker 8: trying to figure out how to pass tax cuts for billionaires.
• 38:58
  Speaker 8: And then in order to address those deficits, we've watched
• 39:01
  Speaker 8: as property taxes have increased past the rate of inflation.
• 39:05
  Speaker 8: And who does that fall hardest on? So I think
• 39:08
  Speaker 8: the big issue here is less about the notion that somehow, ah, well,
• 39:12
  Speaker 8: the generations that came before them paid their property taxes.
• 39:14
  Speaker 8: Their property taxes were a lot lower. And we're seeing
• 39:16
  Speaker 8: substantially higher inflation in property taxes because, of course, there's
• 39:19
  Speaker 8: federal disinvestment in municipalities. So if you really want to
• 39:22
  Speaker 8: address the issue, the best way to do it is
• 39:24
  Speaker 8: to make sure that our federal government is invested in
• 39:26
  Speaker 8: the infrastructure needs of local communities and then property taxes
• 39:29
  Speaker 8: don't go up as high, and then you don't have
• 39:30
  Speaker 8: to worry about people being priced out of their housing.
• 39:33
  Speaker 8: But our federal government, because of conservative policies, tends to
• 39:35
  Speaker 8: do two things. Number one, we cut taxes for billionaires,
• 39:38
  Speaker 8: and number two, we go to wars, and then they
• 39:40
  Speaker 8: pull up the money that should be invested in our
• 39:42
  Speaker 8: municipalities to pay for things like water infrastructure in schools
• 39:45
  Speaker 8: and And then they push that back onto rate payers
• 39:48
  Speaker 8: and property taxes, property taxes go up. And then those
• 39:50
  Speaker 8: property taxes tend to push seniors out of their home.
• 39:53
  Speaker 8: So I'm just saying that I would much rather us
• 39:56
  Speaker 8: tax billionaires invest more in local infrastructure and then watch
• 40:01
  Speaker 8: as our property taxes don't go up that high and
• 40:02
  Speaker 8: then people don't get priced out. But in the interim,
• 40:05
  Speaker 8: I'm hearing from a lot of seniors and young people
• 40:07
  Speaker 8: who are like, yo, my parents are about to lose
• 40:08
  Speaker 8: their home and I can't let that happen. Because in reality, right,
• 40:11
  Speaker 8: in reality, in like the real world, When your parents
• 40:14
  Speaker 8: are struggling and you're like, hey, they're about to lose
• 40:16
  Speaker 8: their home, you're gonna help them. That's the real world.
• 40:18
  Speaker 8: And you're gonna do that because your parents did everything
• 40:20
  Speaker 8: for you. So as much as you're right, in theory,
• 40:22
  Speaker 8: people would just sell their homes. It would liquefy an
• 40:25
  Speaker 8: asset that they've had. It would clear up housing infrastructure.
• 40:27
  Speaker 8: It's just not how it works in the real world
• 40:29
  Speaker 8: because too often people say, hey, look, I can't afford this.
• 40:31
  Speaker 8: And their kids are gonna be like, all right, let
• 40:33
  Speaker 8: me help you because that's what good kids do, right?
• 40:35
  Speaker 8: And I just think that we would like to address
• 40:38
  Speaker 8: that circumstance. I think this is one approach among many
• 40:41
  Speaker 8: to make sure that seniors can stay in their home
• 40:43
  Speaker 8: to make sure that we're funding local infrastructure and to
• 40:45
  Speaker 8: make sure that young people can afford a home to
• 40:47
  Speaker 8: build a family.
• 40:48
  Speaker 2: Abdul, last question for you. Put B5 up on the
• 40:51
  Speaker 2: screen here. People who want to see you win, who
• 40:55
  Speaker 2: are watching around the country, are concerned that maybe the
• 40:58
  Speaker 2: Islamophobic attacks are working. You know, there's this poll that
• 41:01
  Speaker 2: came out that found 38 percent of voters say they'd
• 41:04
  Speaker 2: be less likely to vote for a Muslim candidate. Um,
• 41:09
  Speaker 2: do you think that is having an impact? Like, do
• 41:10
  Speaker 2: you think that this strategy that the Republicans have deployed
• 41:14
  Speaker 2: and the president has deployed and you're seeing, you know, uh,
• 41:17
  Speaker 2: VEK Ramaswamy and also by the way, echoed, um, and
• 41:20
  Speaker 2: from legacy media in a lot of corners, do you
• 41:22
  Speaker 2: think that this is working?
• 41:24
  Speaker 4: You know, I've been in my whole life.
• 41:26
  Speaker 8: I think for a lot of folks, this is the
• 41:28
  Speaker 8: first time they're seeing this, uh, live and live in color,
• 41:31
  Speaker 8: but I just want to remind everybody, you know, from
• 41:33
  Speaker 8: my perspective, there are always a few very small-minded people
• 41:37
  Speaker 8: who carnival bark.
• 41:38
  Speaker 4: They're very loud.
• 41:39
  Speaker 8: They want to speak for everybody, but they don't. You know,
• 41:41
  Speaker 8: when I kicked off this race, I took a bet
• 41:43
  Speaker 8: on the goodness of Michiganders. And over the last 18 months,
• 41:46
  Speaker 8: I've seen nothing but that goodness. People are open-minded.
• 41:49
  Speaker 4: They're big-hearted. They're earnest. They're gritty.
• 41:51
  Speaker 8: Invite you into their living rooms and their VFW halls.
• 41:53
  Speaker 8: I've met people who never met somebody who prays like
• 41:56
  Speaker 8: me or looks like me or whose family comes from
• 41:59
  Speaker 8: a place like mine. And they use that as an
• 42:01
  Speaker 8: opportunity for a conversation.
• 42:02
  Speaker 4: Who are you and what are you about? Like, That's
• 42:05
  Speaker 4: what I took a bet on. People are good.
• 42:06
  Speaker 8: And I think what we're going to see is a
• 42:08
  Speaker 8: rejection of this kind of effort to smear me. Because
• 42:12
  Speaker 8: at the end of the day, they're going to keep
• 42:14
  Speaker 8: talking about me and my name. And I'm going to
• 42:16
  Speaker 8: keep talking about gas and groceries, the ability to see
• 42:18
  Speaker 8: a doctor, the ability to breathe.
• 42:19
  Speaker 4: Clean air, drink clean water, to afford a home.
• 42:22
  Speaker 8: So, you know, in the end, those are the issues
• 42:24
  Speaker 8: that are affecting people. And I'm taking a bet on
• 42:26
  Speaker 8: how good people in my state are and how big
• 42:29
  Speaker 8: our country is. And as much as, you know, we
• 42:32
  Speaker 8: have continued to live with the historical consequences of some
• 42:37
  Speaker 8: of the worst things. The thing that our country does
• 42:40
  Speaker 8: better than any other place in the world is that
• 42:42
  Speaker 8: we correct. Sometimes it takes too long. Sometimes it hasn't
• 42:45
  Speaker 8: been done yet. But we're good at seeing the future
• 42:48
  Speaker 8: and trying to correct. And I believe in that.
• 42:50
  Speaker 4: And I believe that people who try to drag us
• 42:51
  Speaker 4: back to that.
• 42:52
  Speaker 8: Will ultimately lose. So the story's not yet told. I'm
• 42:54
  Speaker 8: looking forward to November 3rd. And for anybody out there
• 42:57
  Speaker 8: who wants to reject what we're seeing out of Trump
• 43:00
  Speaker 8: and Vance and Kennedy and Rodgers, If you want to
• 43:02
  Speaker 8: build an America bigger enough for everybody, you have that
• 43:05
  Speaker 8: opportunity to make sure that you're reaching out to people
• 43:07
  Speaker 8: that you know in Michigan. People in Michigan, make sure
• 43:10
  Speaker 8: you get out to vote on or before November 3rd,
• 43:13
  Speaker 8: because at the end of the day, it is our
• 43:14
  Speaker 8: democracy and it is our country and we get to
• 43:16
  Speaker 8: decide which direction it goes.
• 43:17
  Speaker 3: Last question for you, Abdul. Just one second here. I
• 43:20
  Speaker 3: do want to make sure, because you've talked about this
• 43:22
  Speaker 3: before on sports betting. You said that it's bad. I
• 43:24
  Speaker 3: want to know, it's been legal in your state since 2020.
• 43:27
  Speaker 3: If you're a member of the United States Senate, would
• 43:28
  Speaker 3: you vote to outlaw sports betting nationwide?
• 43:31
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I think it's been a real problem.
• 43:33
  Speaker 8: I think we, you know, outlaws, I'm not for bans,
• 43:35
  Speaker 8: but I'm for vastly curtailing the degree of marketing, the
• 43:39
  Speaker 8: ability to serve sports betting advertising, the ability to intertwine
• 43:43
  Speaker 8: it with any kind of sports entertainment. I think we
• 43:45
  Speaker 8: need to put very, very clear limitations on where it
• 43:48
  Speaker 8: can be. You know, and at the end of the day,
• 43:50
  Speaker 8: I don't believe in banning anything, but I do believe
• 43:52
  Speaker 8: in making sure that you can't be pernicious about where
• 43:55
  Speaker 8: you put it, that you're not preying on people with
• 43:58
  Speaker 8: problem gambling and and that we are protecting people from
• 44:01
  Speaker 8: the consequences of this.
• 44:02
  Speaker 2: All right, Abdul, plug the website and tell people what
• 44:06
  Speaker 2: to do in the final days. We really understand how
• 44:09
  Speaker 2: busy you are and are so grateful for you taking
• 44:11
  Speaker 2: the time this morning.
• 44:12
  Speaker 4: Abdul for Senate.com, get involved.
• 44:15
  Speaker 8: You can knock doors in Michigan, phone bank for us
• 44:17
  Speaker 8: from anywhere, text bank, but especially to my sisters and
• 44:21
  Speaker 8: brothers in Michigan, we've got a critical election. So just
• 44:23
  Speaker 8: make sure that your voice is heard. Crystal and Sagar,
• 44:26
  Speaker 8: it's always great to be with you. Thank you for
• 44:28
  Speaker 8: a great conversation. and being one of the few places
• 44:30
  Speaker 8: that you can go to actually have a substantive conversation
• 44:32
  Speaker 8: about property tax.
• 44:34
  Speaker 1: Thank you very much, Abdul.
• 44:35
  Speaker 2: I'm not getting that on CNN.
• 44:37
  Speaker 3: Yeah, you've got, well, maybe six more years of fighting
• 44:40
  Speaker 3: on these issues, potentially.
• 44:42
  Speaker 1: Thank you very much, sir. We appreciate your time.
• 44:44
  Speaker 7: Thanks, Abdul.
• 44:44
  Speaker 2: Good luck. We'll see you on the other side.
• 44:47
  Speaker 4: Thank you, guys.