Zohran Mamdani didn’t just beat Andrew Cuomo — he buried him. In a race many expected to be tight or favor Cuomo through ranked-choice tallies, Mamdani delivered a knockout in the first round. The final numbers weren’t close: Mamdani pulled in 545,000 votes to Cuomo’s 428,000. That’s a blowout. And it happened despite Cuomo once polling at an absurd 80%. This wasn’t just a campaign upset — it was the end of Cuomo’s delusion that he could waltz back into New York politics on name recognition alon...
Jul 01, 2025•1 hr 25 min
Zohran Mamdani just reshaped New York politics — and maybe the national conversation too. I was on the fence going into the NYC mayoral primary. Mamdani’s campaign had energy, ideas, and a clear message, while Andrew Cuomo’s felt like a dusty rerun nobody asked for. But I still assumed Cuomo’s name, connections, and donor base would carry him through. I shouldn’t have. Mamdani didn’t just win — he torched the field in the first round. Cuomo saw the writing on the wall and didn’t even wait for ra...
Jun 26, 2025•1 hr 14 min
World War III is canceled — at least for now. That’s where we are after one of the most dramatic weeks I can remember. The United States bombed Iran’s nuclear facilities. Israel followed up with its own strikes. Iran responded with missile attacks on CENTCOM in Qatar. And somehow, through all that, we’ve landed at a ceasefire. It felt like this was going to spiral — like this was going to be Qasem Soleimani times ten. Instead, it fizzled. Iran’s missile strikes were calibrated, coordinated with ...
Jun 24, 2025•1 hr 16 min
The big headline, of course, this week is Iran. The White House says Iran has everything it needs to build a nuclear weapon. That’s where we are. Trump has about two weeks to decide whether to launch an attack. The reporting right now focuses on what kind of strike it would take to actually stop the program — could our bunker busters get the job done, or are those centrifuges buried so deep we’d need to soften the ground with conventional bombs first? There’s even been talk — not a plan, just a ...
Jun 19, 2025•1 hr 6 min
This is one of those moments where it feels like something fundamental is shifting. The MAGA coalition — that mix of influencers, voters, and operators who’ve been the core of Trump’s political power — looks like it’s fracturing. I’m not saying it’s done, I’m not saying the whole thing comes crashing down, but I’ve never seen this kind of strain. Not since Trump came down the golden escalator in 2015. And it all comes down to two issues: immigration and foreign intervention. The two things that ...
Jun 18, 2025•1 hr 36 min
A weekend so profound in it’s news that I am going to push this beyond the paywall. Let’s start abroad… Israel-Iran Conflict Erupts with Fatal Strikes The military confrontation between Israel and Iran intensified over the weekend, pushing the region toward a broader conflict. After Israel initiated Operation Rising Lion, Iranian ballistic missiles and drones pierced Israeli defenses, leading to 13 fatalities and hundreds of injuries. Iran, in turn, reported nearly 400 deaths, many of them civil...
Jun 15, 2025•47 min
Capitol Hill was a chaotic mess on Thursday, and Senator Padilla made sure all eyes were on him. He walked into a press conference, got into a scuffle, and wound up in handcuffs — all of it caught on tape. The footage, conveniently shot by Padilla’s own team, spread fast. If it was a stunt, it worked. Within hours, major Democratic voices like Pete Buttigieg were condemning the incident, claiming even Trump wouldn’t cross that line. The Congressional Hispanic Caucus rallied, heckled Speaker Mike...
Jun 13, 2025•1 hr 35 min
The ongoing Los Angeles protests started with ICE raids. Not a new thing in concept, but a new thing in tone and target. We’re talking work sites, immigration courts, restaurants — not jails or prisons, not the places where even the most progressive voices might begrudgingly agree law enforcement has some claim. But California law has essentially blocked ICE from accessing inmates for deportation. So instead of going after the people most would agree should be first in line, they’re now going af...
Jun 11, 2025•1 hr 34 min
The Big Beautiful Bill looked like it was gliding along. Sure, there were hiccups — Rand Paul grumbled about the debt ceiling, some MAGA accounts didn’t fully endorse it — but even then, it felt like controlled turbulence. Paul was performing his role as the token dissenter, the libertarian who always squawks about spending but eventually votes yes with a few tweaks. And he was already telegraphing his price: drop the debt ceiling hike and he’s in. Meanwhile, the House side wasn’t exactly throwi...
Jun 05, 2025•1 hr 40 min
Elon Musk set off a grenade in conservative circles this week, trashing the one big, beautiful bill Trump has staked so much on. He didn’t just throw shade — he called it a “disgusting abomination,” backed Rand Paul’s $5 trillion deficit claim, and waved the American flag emoji as punctuation. This wasn’t a random tweet. This was Musk choosing to detonate right as Speaker Mike Johnson is working the Senate hard to shepherd this bill into law. Johnson, for his part, did respond, claiming he had a...
Jun 04, 2025•1 hr 40 min
When it comes to tariffs, we’ve done the hokey pokey and turned ourselves around — and yes, that is what it’s all about. Trump’s Liberation Day tariffs are back on the table, and it’s been a wild 24 hours. Right after I wrapped our paid bonus episode, a three-judge panel ruled that Donald Trump doesn’t have the authority under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act — the IEPA — to unilaterally place tariffs on foreign nations. That law, which dates back to the 1970s, gives the president...
May 29, 2025•1 hr 29 min
This weekend, the New York Times ran a piece titled Six Months Later, Democrats Are Still Searching for the Path Forward , and it was bleak. The lead quote came from Anat Shenker-Osorio, a favorite of this show, describing Democrats as sloths, snails, and most devastatingly, a deer in headlights. That last one feels accurate, especially when you look at the post-election breakdown from Catalist , a Democratic-aligned polling firm. We’ll dive deeper into that next week with Michael Cohen, but the...
May 27, 2025•1 hr 10 min
The madman did it. Mike Johnson pushed the Big Beautiful Bill through the House in a razor-thin 215–214 vote, with one Republican voting present. It happened in the early hours of the morning, after an all-night session where, reportedly, one GOP member literally fell asleep during the vote. It’s wild how this keeps happening: Johnson, backed by Trump, threads the needle just enough to claim victory — first on his own speakership, then on the budget, and now on the crown jewel of Trump’s second-...
May 23, 2025•1 hr 40 min
Donald Trump went to Capitol Hill this week to push House Republicans across the finish line on his big domestic policy bill. Behind closed doors, he told conservatives not to “F— around with Medicaid,” and told blue-state Republicans to take the SALT deal on the table: $40,000 for four years, then snapping back to $30,000. That would cover about 90% of blue-state filers, but not the ones making the most noise. Even with Trump applying pressure, guys like Andy Harris and Mike Lawler are still ho...
May 21, 2025•1 hr 46 min
Joe Biden has aggressive prostate cancer. That news dropped as we were getting ready to record today’s show, and it immediately redefined everything I had planned for this episode. The White House says he found out late last week. But after everything we’ve seen — after everything we now know — I just don’t buy it. Not on its face. Not without skepticism. And certainly not from a team that has serially misled the public about this president’s health. This isn’t partisan. This isn’t about politic...
May 18, 2025•30 min
The Big Beautiful Bill is finally past the quiet phase. The behind-the-scenes negotiations have spilled into the open, and now we’re in the bloodletting. Speaker Mike Johnson wants this out of the House by Memorial Day, which means committee votes need to happen, and fast. But right now, the Budget Committee is a problem. Hardliners are balking — Ralph Norman, Josh Brecheen, and Chip Roy are all leaning no. They’re not satisfied with the Congressional Budget Office’s timeline for a cost estimate...
May 16, 2025•1 hr 24 min
Donald Trump is rumored to have a plan to receive a $400 million plane from Qatar, retrofitted to serve as Air Force One. On its face, it’s a straightforward diplomatic gift to the United States, meant to replace aging presidential aircraft. But the controversy kicked into overdrive with reports that this plane could eventually end up in Trump’s hands personally, via his presidential library. That’s where things get murky. Let’s start with facts. The two current Air Force One planes have been fl...
May 14, 2025•1 hr 24 min
Brian Kemp is out. No Senate run in 2026, and that shifts the entire field. Kemp was the Republican Party’s best shot at flipping the Georgia seat currently held by Jon Ossoff — and he knew it. He didn’t just flirt with the idea. He let it hang out there long enough for donors, strategists, and journalists to start treating it as likely. So when he made it official this weekend, it sent shockwaves through the Georgia GOP and national Republicans hoping for a clean, high-profile pickup in a battl...
May 06, 2025•1 hr 19 min
May 2025 might go down as the most pivotal month of Donald Trump’s second presidency. The post-Liberation Day disruption gave him room to play the chaos card — but that only lasts so long. Now it’s time to deliver. And according to what the White House is telling Congress behind closed doors, a lot is in motion. Sixty countries are either actively negotiating trade terms or exchanging paperwork with the administration. Congress is being told these deals won’t require their approval, which Congre...
May 02, 2025•1 hr 38 min
Late last night, the news finally came in: the Liberal Party of Canada pulled off the upset and held onto parliamentary power. It wasn’t pretty. It wasn’t dominant. But they survived — and a few months ago, that seemed almost impossible. They had everything working against them: more than a decade in power, a deeply unpopular former prime minister they had to jettison, and an electorate that looked ready for change. Yet when the votes were counted, the Liberals were still standing. And you can’t...
Apr 29, 2025•1 hr 2 min
David Hogg, the vice chair of the Democratic National Committee, announced he’s spending $20 million through his group, Leaders We Deserve, to primary sitting Democratic incumbents. He’s targeting safe-seat veterans, mostly older members, and it’s kicking off a full-blown internal fight. DNC chair Ken Martin isn’t having it. He’s proposing a rule that would ban DNC leaders from participating in partisan primaries — meaning Hogg would either have to step down or drop the activist role. The rule’s...
Apr 24, 2025•1 hr 8 min
There’s a civil war happening inside the MAGA coalition, and unless you’re really in the weeds, you probably haven’t heard much about it. It’s not being covered seriously, either by the traditional media or the independent press. And that’s a shame — because it pits two foundational visions of conservatism against each other. On one side, you have Grover Norquist and his ironclad “no new taxes” pledge. On the other, you have Steve Bannon and his populist charge to eat the rich. Norquist has spen...
Apr 23, 2025•1 hr 33 min
In a recent Oval Office meeting, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni sat across from Donald Trump as part of a European Union effort to navigate the ongoing trade turbulence. The meeting was cordial enough. Meloni emphasized transatlantic unity and expressed hope for deeper economic collaboration. Trump, however, was unmoved. He praised Meloni personally, but made his stance clear: the U.S. is not in a rush to finalize trade deals. According to him, tariffs are “making the United States rich,”...
Apr 18, 2025•1 hr 3 min
It was just last week when the Trump administration hit pause on its Liberation Day tariffs — except when it came to China. Not only were they excluded from the pause, they got slapped with additional hikes, escalating what had already started to look like an all-out trade war. Then came Saturday morning’s Customs and Border Patrol announcement, which seemed to undercut all of that: nearly 60% of Chinese exports, including smartphones, laptops, and semiconductors, were apparently exempt from the...
Apr 16, 2025•53 min
Liberation Week has come and gone, and now we’re in the pause phase. The tariffs? Temporarily stalled. The market? Down, then up, then down again. We’re in a holding pattern — with one major exception: the trade war with China is not only still on, it’s intensifying. So what did we learn from all this? The answer starts and ends with Trump. The Democrats have branded him the “chaos president,” and they might not be wrong — but maybe not in the way they think. I don’t believe Trump sees chaos as ...
Apr 10, 2025•1 hr 6 min
After several days of panic in the markets, the Dow Jones Industrial average is rebounding . Why? It seems as if the Liberation Day tariffs may be leading to new trade deals. The market swoon and lack of clarity has put the Trump administration in the wilderness. Is the goal to really bring all trade deficits to zero? Do we want our children screwing together iPhones as a career? Or is this just a set up for Trump to schedule a month long rose garden signing ceremony where world leaders line up ...
Apr 08, 2025•1 hr 40 min
“Liberation Day” has come and gone. The massive tariff announcement from the White House that landed just after markets closed on Wednesday. It’s a sweeping 10% universal tariff on all goods, effective Saturday, April 5th, with even higher rates for countries like China (34%), the EU (20%), Japan (24%), and an eyebrow-raising 46% for Vietnam. Cars assembled abroad? They’re getting hit with a 25% tariff starting May 3rd. Put simply, the market didn’t take kindly to this. It’s been a financial blo...
Apr 03, 2025•1 hr 10 min
Fight: Inside the Wildest Battle for the White House is a detailed account of the unraveling within the Democratic Party, and it starts with a shocking reality: Co-authors Jonathan Allen and Amie Parnes didn’t originally intend to write this book. The result is a work that skips over primaries but captures, in vivid detail, the implosion of Joe Biden’s re-election effort as 2024’s political battles came to a head. Reading it, I was stunned at the depth of denial w ithin the Biden White House. Th...
Mar 31, 2025•1 hr 15 min
Elise Stefanik, once considered a front-runner for Donald Trump’s vice presidential slot and more recently tapped as the next U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, has been asked to withdraw from the nomination. The directive came directly from Donald Trump, urging her to return to the House of Representatives — a move that has left many observers puzzled, especially since Stefanik had already begun a farewell tour of her district. This surprise reversal raises questions about the strategic rea...
Mar 28, 2025•1 hr 24 min
This week, something truly surreal happened — or was revealed to have happened — thanks to, of all people and places, Jeffrey Goldberg of The Atlantic . He was added to a Signal group chat that included essentially all of the national security members from Donald Trump’s cabinet. It’s one of the most Veep -like scandals we've seen in a long time. I even saw one joke online that the person who added him must have thought he was Jonah from Veep . Now, I’ve got one big point to make, and then a few...
Mar 26, 2025•1 hr 44 min
