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All right, Good morning, and welcome to Counterpoints. The neocons are on the march here sacking the Trump administration.
That looks like it's two thousand and four again here, indeed.
It really is.
We're going to talk about Trump's personnel choices. Who's out Over on the Senate side, Republicans are going to pick a new leader.
That's right, Mitch McConnell's the longest party leader in the history of the Senate, so he's they're voting on his replacement as we speak right now.
So we'll have a full breakdown of that. Tons of interesting stuff to go through.
And it looks like Vladimir Putin is trying to claw back as much territory from Ukraine and the curse region before Trump comes in and tells him it's over.
Potentially.
Trump said, it can't happen when I'm in there.
No, he'll make a deal.
Just going to make a deal.
So Putin's getting ahead of the deal.
So there is actually a lot of jocking going on around the world awaiting Trump's swearing in on January twentieth. And we're going to talk about this kind of joint North Korean Russian offensive that's underway.
Yes, I mean, just incredibly important development in the history of this war. And Ryan, we have a guest. We'll be going over recent developments in Gaza.
With Yeah, Dropsite contributor Abu Baker ahb Ed, who was a sports journalist before October seventh, has kind of been forced into kind of wartime correspondent duty. Yesterday was the thirty day deadline that the State Department and the Defense Department had given to Israel to to measurably improve specific metrics in Gaza or else face consequences to the tune of losing access to US weapons. That deadline was yesterday.
They met none of those metrics. Things have gone backwards, And we'll talk to Abu Baker about what he has found and talk about his recent piece for drop site. And we'll also play some footage from yesterday's State Department briefing, which may be a new low for this State Department, because they are the ones that sent this letter. They're the ones that set this deadline, they're the ones that set the metrics, and they're the ones that then have to pretend like they never did any of that.
You're going to want to stick around for the footage from the briefing if you haven't seen it. And all kinds of crazy political things going on in New York City pre usual, but actually it was even more interesting than usual.
And so we have a mayorial.
Candidate Socialists or hand Mom, Donnie, who was elected in that twenty it was either twenty eighteen or twenty twenty that when there was a upsurge of kind of DSA candidates getting elected to the New York City Council and also the State Senate and State House. Now he's going to run for mayor on a sweeping progressive platform.
That's exciting.
Hey, we'll see what happens. Excited to talk to him.
All right, let's start in our a block with new Trump appointment. It's just an absolute flurry coming out from the Trump Vance press list last night. These announcements were like coming every ten minutes.
Fell furious, Yeah, yeah, damn it. Ryan. Let's start with Pete Hagg's death. So, if you're not familiar with Pete Hagg sath.
He is a long time Fox News contributor, which is probably where most people are.
Familiar with him before Trump doubt right.
Then sure that is where Trump got to know him. But he has been named the Secretary of Defense appointment. He's been named as Trump's nominee for Secretary of Defense. And you know, I actually got a little bit ahead of the curve saying he's been named Secretary of Defense because most of the time you can kind of assume that I'm curious, genuinely, even with the Republican Senate what happens with the Pete Hagg Seth nominee, because it was.
A full blown freakout.
Lobbyists were furiously texting Politico reporters who.
The f is Pete Hagg said.
You can imagine the whaling and gnashing of teeth that was happening literally at the Pentagon when this announcement came out around what like nine pm last night.
Just sort of exploded. Even for Trump.
This was a quote that a lobbyist gave and I actually I think it's kind of funny. I mean, I agree with it, not in the way that the lobbyist does. But even for Trump, you're sort of grading on a curve with his weird appointments, this one sort of was surprising still even in its weirdness. But before he was over at Fox, Pete Hegseth was He's from Minnesota. He went to Princeton undergrad, Harvard Kennedy School for his masters.
Trump loves those credentials.
He really loves those credentials.
Although Pete Hegseth says that he sent his Harvard degree back, he mailed it back to Harvard and.
Then he Trump loves that even more.
I'm sure Trump loves that.
He enlisted and served in Iraq and Afghanistan. He has two bronze stars, he's decorated, and he went and worked with a group that both of us are pretty familiar with, which was the Concerned Veterans for America.
Who was the CEO of that group. So it's a pretty I mean, it is a pretty unorthodox pick. There's just no question about it.
Talk more about him at the end of this block.
It's kind of an America first guy, but also like a messianic kind of Israel supporter in a like over
the top way. One of the one of the one of his top accomplishments previously in lobbying Trump was to talk him into pardoning Eddie Gallagher, who became this kind of hero on the right or for some elements of the right, but committed like just straight up war crimes and became this kind of cause to leb like because you try to find some some factions, try to find the worst war criminal and then defend them to then expand the bounds of like of what's possible and for
And Hexath was in on that and lobbying Trump on that, on that pardon.
Yeah, he was definitely lobbying Trump on the pardon. Sager posted last night he said, I know this about Pete Hegsath on Ukraine. At least he's absolutely solid about ending the war. And I also know the Pentagon brass will absolutely lose it over his pick. They tried to nuke him in the first term, but it seems he may get the last laugh. That's an allusion to Trump attempting to nominate Hike Seth for Veterans' Affairs last time he was president, and it just didn't work because exactly some
of the reasons we're talking about. There was this institutional opposition or even like discussed plucking someone from a news courts studio in Manhattan and bringing them.
To an appointment in DC.
Now, that's why I'm genuinely curious what happens in the Senate with this nomination. There's a lot of on the right people are pretty damn happy about it because it's sort of sticking it to the Pentagon and you know, saying like basically, screw your credentials, screw your I mean, obviously he has the Ivy League pedigree, but you know,
screw your Jake Sullivan's like this guy. You know, he might not talk like Jake Sullivan, but he has a better sort of on the ground understanding both of where the public is and where everyone else is and where like what happens if you're an actual coment that veteran, et cetera, et cetera. That said, there's obviously concerns you could imagine like a Lindsey Graham having about the managerial task of actually overseeing.
The Pentagon and also Lindsay Graham, and he Lindsey Graham's not really in America first, or he's he loves every war,
including the one in Ukraine and elsewhere. And so if exit is going to be pushing back against some of those conflicts, even even if he is kind of more militant when it comes to say is or not more than Lindsay Graham and when it comes to Israel, but equally so it'll be interesting do you think that, How do you think how do you think recess appointments and the Senate are even going to factor in here, because we'll learn we'll know more by the end of this show,
perhaps when the Senate votes. Senator's voting this morning on who is leader will be. Trump had said that he wants a leader who's going to allow recess appointments sticks so can through. We'll see how the Senate feels about that, because that's the Senate sacrificing some of its pas to the executive. What's your sense, will or will he just name acting people?
I think he would gladly named acting people. And that's kind of the leverage he has over the Senate to confirm people. So yes, I mean that's the Senate leader. I think we'll probably acquiesce to recess appointment because if.
Your pentagon's secretary, you want it to be you want a confirmed position because he's going to have problems managing the Pentagon as it.
Is, right, And it's a good point.
If he's not an officially confirmed member of the cabinet, then his enemies inside the bureaucracy will use that.
So ah, sorry and see you on that.
Yeah, you're not actually in the job, so when you are, let us.
Know, right, that's a really good point.
So that's a I think probably another reason that they're gunning for the recess appointments, which basically is just an easier way for the Senate to get around appointing. Do you want to explain the recess appointment. Let's talk about it a little in the Senate block.
Basically, in the Constitution, it says if the if the Senate is recessed, which it used to be back when they traveled, you know, from Wyoming into Washington by horse for many months, if the Senate was in recess, then the president could appoint somebody and that person would serve
until like you know the next terms recess or whatever. Yeah, and so what what previous presidents have done is they try to get their Senate leader to kind of go into recess for a certain amount of time so that they can then put people into office through a recess appointment.
Without noment, without going to the nomination.
Bush tried to do this a lot when Democrats were were blocking him, and Bush would try to, Like presidents try to do it because even if their own party controls the Senate, sometimes because it's the Senate is just slow and annoying, right, and so that's why you often see if you turn on c SPAN and it says they're in pro forma session. The reason it's they're in pro formace session is because then they're not in recess. That's to block the president from making any appointments.
Right, We're not doing any work, but we could, so don't try to.
We are prepared to work, So.
Don't try to slip anybody through here.
Last thing I think about Pete HeiG Seth here as Dan Caldwell, who is I think he used to work at Concerned events he posted last night. I have known Pete heggs Seth for over a decade. Like a lot of that, his foreign policy views evolved as the Forever wars dragged on and their costs. Sword If you're calling him a neo Kon, you have no clue what you're talking about.
I think that's accurate.
Right.
There's some clips dropping of Pete haig Seth talking about Ukraine early in the war, talking about different con He changed his mind on a rock for example, he was like a vehement defender of the war in Iraq, which is sort of understandable. When he served, he had a different level of insight into the conflict than a lot of the keyboard jockeys now criticizing him for that. But his views have shifted like many people, and that's to
his credit. I would say it's being intellectually honest with yourself to especially having served and coming back and sort of looking at American forign policy through a different lens. So you know, there's there's something very interesting about this appointment. It is completely unorthodox. It is Trump loving Fox and Friends. I get all of that. I also think it's like the Pentagon is an abject disgrace right now, and it's going to be actually sort of enjoyable to watch the freak out and.
Dan Caldway you mentioned there is he's a strong anti war, anti neocon, hugely voice.
Yeah, and I.
Think this makes this show interesting because it would be easy to flatten Hexeth as just the maniact that he is when when it relates to Israel, and we'll talk about that in a bit, but it's much more complicated and nuanced than that.
Yeah one percent.
Yes, Yeah, he's he's shifted along with a lot of people who sort of watched the experiment of post Vietnam imperialism play out and has been a part of like that actual experience. So he's an interesting guy.
I've him before. He's pretty thoughtful.
So Dan and can the people at Concern Bets. Now it sort of gets pegged as a coke group, uh, and it was funded by the Cook brothers.
Coas have interesting.
The Cokes partly fund the Quinci Institute for Responsible Staycraft, were a tree to Parsi and others are so Cookes are interesting when it comes to foreign policy, right.
So it's just sort of funny to see that the.
Money to the Soviet unions. So you gotta love that. I'm not making that up. Go google that.
So it's it's just funny to see him get pegged as a new kind of We'll talk more in a moment, but we also have to get to the the Elon and.
They get back to foreign policy.
But yes, like we said last night, there was a flurry of appointments coming out after what like eight pm.
We had the show basically set, and.
Then you know, we kept getting more and more, one of which was the news about Elon Musk and the fake Ramaswami now heading up the Department of Government Efficiency or a DOJA.
Co heads co chairs of the fake this fake commission.
Except it's not fake, it is real.
It's a not Basically, it's a private, non governmental commission that will be able to advise the government on what it ought to do.
It's giving Deloitte.
There is some maga.
McKenzie.
Yeah, there is a possibility that Congress could appropriate money for it and incorporate it somehow into the government.
That's possible, but they wouldn't want that because Elon would have to I'm sure Elon would whatever his formal role is at this department, non governmental department, he would then have a slew of conflict of interest.
The annoying paperwork. I'm sure.
Well, he might even have to, like for if he wanted to stay at this department of government efficiency, he might actually even have to formally disentangle himself financially from certain things, which is why this is not a government. It's why he's not being appointed to a government post, because you know, Trump admires his work on Starlink and Tesla and whatever else, and he would not be able to keep most of that business if he went.
In a government.
So I look forward to seeing what this what this commission does, and what it recommends should be should be interesting.
Now, do you have a similar take to many others that this was Ascuzie Wiles maneuver as incoming chief of staff to keep them as far away as the from the West wing or any type of governmental position as possible.
Not necessarily, because do these guys really want all the smoke that comes with being government employees. I think the Vake might, but and maybe he'll still get something else.
I was thinking that too.
This doesn't necessarily preclude him from Yeah, the Viveke thrown in there. It's just kind of funny.
So you know, there's there's a world in which you can also see this as a snub to the vake. I don't know if you saw Elizabeth Warren trolling this, but Elizabeth Warren was like, Okay, so you're you have a Department of Government Efficiency and you have co heads. You're just created the department to tackle waste with a physicition and for one person that includes.
Too, and there's some redundancies there.
It's also hilarious, of course, because Elon Musk loves the famasy state. Well, they create a new government agency every minute. Yeah, so the next minute he's going to create a new government agency.
Here we are take on government.
Agency because it's not even a government agency to your point, it's like a sort of a fake government agency.
It's you know, and we'll see it.
Like there's a lot of government waste, no question about it, and you can find some of it on the left.
You can find some of it on the right.
You can look at wasteful animal testing for example, as the White Coast white coat waiste guys do, or you could look at you know, all kinds of like bloated red tape nonsense. There's a lot of people on the right do. So you can find stuff and it's still not going to really make a drop in the bucket when it comes to the debt. You could literally eliminate the entire Pentagon budget and you're still not putting a
significant debt in the national debt. That's actual like math, that's how significant the.
Level of debt is right now.
So all that is to say, good luck too, Elon and Vivike. Also, this means Vivike said he has to take himself out of the running for the Ohio Senate seat. There's a world in which you can see this as a massive snub from Donald Trump. Vivike has been one of his loudest champions and defenders.
I'm not entirely.
Sold on that, because I think he's probably very excited to be alongside Elon Musk, the literal most powerful richest man in the world, heading up this.
Like what they see is this massive effort.
And Trump said they're going to be working alongside the White House and the Office of Management Budget. So omb that could mean basically a very limited type of role, or that could mean something really extensive, depending on how much they put into it.
Yeah, all the insight into that will come from mapping out the federal government will be extremely lucrative for both these gentlemen, no question about it.
Speaking of maniacs.
Well, actually that's a great point.
Yes, right before we get to that, Elon Musk does extensive business with the federal government. He has a huge recipient of subsidies. Right, so having him sort of with the sandbox to decide what's waste and what's not is there's a reason why it's not part of the government and it's an outside effort.
So this Gilded age level stuff, it.
Is actually Gilded Age level stuff.
And you know, alongside we're about to talk about Mike Hackabee, there was also an announcement Bill mcinley is going to be Trump's White House counsel.
Christinam was named as.
Homeland Security CIA director nominee as former d and I John Ratcliffe, Bob Littheuser is under consideration for quote trades are that kind of role He used to be ustr US trade representative. Yeah, So anyway, those are just some of the big names that were coming out over the course.
Of the day.
Yeah.
Still Ratcliffe before we get to Hockaby, Ratcliffe, he's kind of a you know, he he buckd he bucked the kind of intelligence community establishment yeah, wearing his first term.
Yeah, and it's.
Like a anti deep state guy from the deep state.
Is that How would you describe Ratcliffe?
I think that's a good way to put it. I believe he's bad on Piza. I'll have to double check that, oh for sure, but yeah, I'm going to Yeah, I'm pretty sure he caved on the seven o two stuff.
And it's not entirely surprising. But if you're anti deep state.
You're really an When he becomes a top spy, he's gonna want all the spy powers.
That's yeah.
Yeah, So that's you know, there's some interesting.
He's been critical a little bit of fiz Accord, et cetera.
Mike Huckabee named ambassador to Israel, famously Sarah Huckeby Sanders's father. The reason we know Sarah Huckeby Sanders originally is because she is his daughter, former governor of Arkansas. And so Hexeth is one of these christiansonists who believes that Israel is going to help usher in the Rapture or whatever. It's one thing to have your Pentagon secretary believing that, and you're like, maybe he won't. He'll just be executing some policy and he's focused on the entire world.
It's not just Israel. How could be is that variety of.
Christian Zionists and having him service the ampastor Israel is absolutely extraordinary and historic.
It's just an incredible moment.
We think we have some of him riffing on this right, let's put up a four here.
What happens next. It's about the end times and quite frankly, some of us think we may just be living then them. So Max Locato, is so good to see you. Thanks for joining us and welcome as we talk about the end of the world.
Well, Governor, I wouldn't be anywhere else.
I'm supremely honored to have these moments with you. And yes, I do believe we're not just in the end times. We're in the end of the end times. It's moving fast.
Max. When you say that, it scares a lot of people. They think, oh, no, the end of the world. That's just terrible. Your whole book is focused on quite a different perspective about the end times. You say in this book it's not something that we ought to be afraid of. It's something we ought to embrace and look forward to.
Okay, that didn't make me less afraid. Maxica does actually made me a lot more afraid.
The Mexicat is a very popular Christian author.
So tell us about well, let's play Hegsath and then tell us try to make us a little bit less scared about the period we're about that here's hexath theory. This is a four B.
But we are here in Jerusalem, and today Jennifer and I and others had a chance to go see the western Wall of the Temple Mount. The Western Wall tunnels so much of the old city, and as you stand there, you can't help but behold the miracle before you. And it got me thinking about another miracle that I hope all of you don't see too far away. Because nineteen seventeen was a miracle, nineteen forty eight was a miracle, nineteen sixty seven was a miracle. Twenty seventeen, the Declaration
of Jerusalem at the Capitol was a miracle. And there's no reason why the miracle of the re establishment of the Temple on the Temple Mount is not possible.
I don't know how it would happen. You don't know how it would happen, but I know that it could happen. That's all I have.
And a step in that process, a step in every process, is the recognition that facts and activities on the ground truly matter. And that's why going and visiting Judea and Samaria, understanding that the very sovereignty of Israeli soil, the Israeli cities locations, is a critical next step to showing the world that this is the land for Jews and the land of Israel. And I believe, as was mentioned, he said, you need to What was mentioned is you need to
buy the ticket. Don't just wish for forty years to win the lottery. Buy the ticket. I would submit to you in light of the support you have in Washington, DC, the support you have amongst patriotic Americans, amongst Evangelical Christians, amongst believers, amongst Republicans, even amongst some Democrats who can barely say it anymore in Washington, Buy the ticket, take your action, do what needs to be done here in Israel, because I truly believe this is a moment where America
will have your back. You have Donald Trump and the White House, you have Mike Pence as Vice President, you have Nikki Haley at the UN you have true believers in Israel and America that have your back.
Okay, So he's talking about these true believers nineteen seventeen. That's obviously a reference to the Balfour Declaration where Britain says that they support the establishment of a homeland for the Jewish people in Palestine. When he talks about ju Day and Samaria, that's the West Bank, talking about sovereignty over the West Bank. We'll talk about the later. The Israeli government is now saying they're going to annex the
West Bank. When he says the re establishment of the temple on the Temple Mount, Now we're talking biblical stuff here that we're not talking there talking revelation. Yeah, we're not talking about building a new temple by human hands, right, we're talking about ushering in the what's thatcond coming here?
Well, like, what are we talking about here?
So I thought of I was going to make this less terrifying. Actually, well, well he was speaking, which is I don't think it's going to make it better, though it.
Might be less terrifying.
But this is basically the worldview that has informed Christian conservative policy towards Israel. For I mean, I would say Post nine to eleven. That's where I mean, you obviously it's been around since before that, but post nine eleven, I think, is where it really and you probably watched this play out in the lots, is where it really sort of congealed into a powerful political force as our
policy in the Middle East became more aggressive. I shouldn't say more aggressive, but it's I mean, it's fair to say when you actually have ground invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan.
There was a lot of justifying.
It with this particular Christian evangelical worldview that gave it a lot of power, especially with a generation of Christians at the time. And I think Pete Hegseth talks a lot about Israel as through the conservative lens, as being a representative or a bastion of Western civilization. So I don't know to what importance he ascribes each version, like to what an importance is about.
That's the kind of the secular version of it both, right, the spiritual version is that Jews and Israel are going to be the cannon fodder for the apocalypse, right, and so bring the Lord's Savior back or something.
And I don't know if this again makes it less terrifying or more comforting. But that has basically been the engine of evangelical support for political.
Israel for a while.
Oneasy alliance political Israel.
It's reading the kind of nation of Israel as political Israel, as the country right now of Israel into different sections of the Bible, which is why people like Max Ocato and there are varying degrees of seriousness as people approach this, but it's why people like Max O Keato look at what's happening in the world and say we're in the end of the end times because you can kind of piece together parts of revelation from what happens in the news.
And Huckaby is rejoicing, He's not afraid. He's rejoicing. He's going to meet his Lord and Savior or whatever.
It's dispensationalism essentially, meaning so in what you're hearing heg Seth talk about, there is the Third Temple, and there are if you combine this with the fact that there are some net Yahoo allies or part of that right wing coalition that he kind of has to keep happy and keep together who are also trying to rebuild the Temple because they also are trying to usher in the Messianic age, and then in a real.
Temple they build an actual face.
They literally have the plans for building a temple, and what they have to.
Do is they have to do that to fulfill some of the prophecies of revelation, right.
Yeah, exactly, And so you have to reclaim control of the temple now, which is obviously not in Israel's control right now. That's why you see people like Ben Gaviera walking into like you've seen this over the last couple of years, and it terrifies a lot of people when you have like Ben Giver making a big point of going to the Temple Mount and all of that. It's an effort, a legitimate, serious effort to rebuild the temple.
Hamas's October seventh attack was called Aloxa flood, yes, and which which was named for.
Their response to those exact provocations.
Axa is the mosque that's on the Temple Mount, right and they would not even they would reject the term Temple Mount. And that's the so that's actually like really the croux of all this conflict. At the end of the day, it's Aloxa is an extremely important site for Muslims. It's where a lot, it's where Muhammad ascended to heaven from uh so, and that's the place of Solomon's temple if you're Jewish or you're Christian. So it's kind of
at the heart of the conflict. And that's where yes, this it's it's just as a piece of land, extremely important if you are interpreting what's happening right now biblically to political Israel as whenever you know, these prophecies talk about the nation of Israel or Israel as a collective. That's if you're interpreting that as political Israel, then yeah, you it's it's pretty easy to jump from point A to point B.
So we're all going to die maybe.
I mean, we are all going to die, right to be fair, that's true. Eventually we are all going to die. Now should we move on to Marco Rubio or one?
Producer Max says Emily, this did not make me feel anybody.
But I mean Max.
Producer Mac is from Georgia, so he's probably been surrounded by a lot of this.
Is he had his.
Chances saved and here he is, Uh well, Mac, you.
Know, some of some of the stuff does go into like pretty wacky territory pretty quickly, and I don't agree with this is just not where I come down on this, even as an evangelical. It's not where I come down in it. And it frightens me a lot too. So do I know or do I think that you know? Pete Hegseth is going to act on this. I mean, yeah, he's Secretary of Defense and he's very clear about how his religion informs his worldview. This is everything to my
Kuckabee who is now the ambassador to Israel. But do I think it will mark a significant departure. No, because we are so like we've already wrapped our arms around.
There's the good news right already, so maniacally like one directionally headed in that headed there, it's.
Not going to change that much.
Yeah, I don't know that.
It changes that the pedals already on the floor. Yeah, we're Yeah, excellent. Wonderf that made me feel better. We can also make ourselves feel better by reveling in the suffering of Marco Rubio, who two nights ago was reported to be named to be Secretary of State.
There was some interesting caveats in the reporting.
I think you and I were both immediately hearing from our sources afterwards that said, this is not actually a done deal, right, like he's leaning towards Rubio very strongly, and then probably Rubio still gets this position.
But we're almost.
Forty eight hours now away from the leaking of the appointment and there's still no official word. And if you just follow it along with that first block, you saw that he's been throwing official names out every ten minutes, and every time one comes out and it's not Marco Rubio, it's another flight to Marco Rubio, who is facing fierce
opposition from the world of Tulsa Gabbard, Tucker Carlson. I don't know this from my reporting, but you would imagine Donald Trump Jr. People like him are have said that they are opposed to people like Rubio who come from the neo kon wing, as you saw from that compilation that we just put up, and we can actually play a little bit of Tulsi from last summer talking about Rubio as well.
It's a six.
I think it would be a huge mistake for President Trump to choose him because he represents the neo con war mongering establishment of Washington, d C. Which stands diametrically opposed to the very policies that President Trump has always stood for, going all the way back to when he ran for president in twenty sixteen, through that first term in office, and the things that he's talking about wanting to do now, And it would just it would send the wrong message to a lot of folks who are
very concerned about the fact that we are on the brink of war with Russia and China and Iran and North Korea.
If Marco Rubio.
Is his vice president, then that is that is what we will face, and it will cause a lot of people to question what kind of foreign policy will actually be executed, will be the one that Trump wants and stands for, or will it be one that will continue the deep state neocon warmongers.
That was July tenth, right.
And so Rubio has adopted domestically a lot of Trump's or what do you call that, populist nationalist stuff when it comes to he's become more pro worker than he used to be. He's supportive of child tax credits and other supports for you know, working families. Foreign policy is just an unreac struct a neo con right.
So this is if we if we skip I had one element to a eight because Ryan just made the same point as Kurt Mills, who's the head of the
American Conservative He said, Rubio is a strange pick. He has won plot it's on the new right in recent years for his Catholic social conservatism and industrial policy economics, but foreign policy widely viewed as the area on which he is pre Trump also sets up a Hillary slash Biden dynamic with Advance and as if to kind of make Kurt's point, John Fetterman, this is a seven, waited in sort of he didn't have to say anything, but he went for it, he tweeted. Unsurprisingly, the other team's
pick will have political differences than my own. That being said, my colleague Senator Mark Rubio is a strong choice and I look forward to voting for his confirmation. This is the John Fetterman that ran on a full blown populist I would argue, even like Bernie adjacent.
They endorse Bernie. At one point had the endorsement of Bernie in one of his races.
His stenic campaign was in Pennsylvania.
But it was sort of the version of Tim Waltz that a lot of people really loved about John Fetterman is that he was talking to you know, voters in red counties with you know, on borderline, I would say democratic socialism and making people like it. So talking to Trump supporters and making people like it. So that's also part of Rubio's project on populous economics. There's no question about it. He has been really successful at sort of shoehorning those into.
The conservative movement.
He's been a part of a really good shift on the right.
Foreign policy ran you know this by than I do.
His approach in Latin America in particular has been quite aggressive. Neo conservative is unreconstructed. Neo conservatism is a great way to put it. He did vote against the round of Ukraine funding that got really controversial. What was this back in January February, although some have pointed out he kind of took a interesting route to get to why he was voting against it. I think he has shifted a little bit on you know, I think he's very disillusioned
with American foreign policy as a whole. But that doesn't translate into Latin America.
No, it's extremely dis Like the Miami Herald has a you know, it's already reporting that Cuba, Venezuela, any any country that is not run by a kind of right wing government. Right now in Latin America is panic at the possibility of Marco Marco Rubio becoming Sacra state of state.
Diaz Balart likely will be Chair of House Foreign Relations, So that'll be two uh you know, Cuban Americans who have a quite vengeful approach that they take towards Cuba in particular, but also anybody that that smells like Cuba to them, which is, you know, anybody kind of to the left of how via Mala uh so, and so yeah, that's that's that's dark. But he might not get it, which is wild. It be amazing if he if this falls apart.
Yeah, he truly at this point when Trump is going through Ratcliffe and Pete hag Seth and it's leaked to Maggie Haberman and I think she was she colled Bineline that with Jonathan Swan, both people who are like pretty well informed in Trump world. There was a couple of days ago now and Rubio world is pretty prepared for
this to happen. There was some bickering back and forth over the Rick Grannell Camp, former investor Germany and the Rubio camp, not the Rubio camp, but some like new right types people who are even just trying to report on this. There's been some bickering back and forth about whether Grenell is trying to backstab Rubio, and this is like a big imagine he is.
He says he's not.
He's never he haven't, he's never seen a back he hasn't liked to stay.
He says he's not. But it's hard to imagine that.
You know, Don Junior and Tucker Carlson are absolutely having input in this transition process. One of the funny bits of reporting is from Axios that Trump is basically hold up in a makeshift situation room at mar A Lago where they have prepared kind of video decks for him. When he names a person, they can like put it on a series of monitors, which I compared to the great scene in Princess Diaries too, when they're trying to choose a husband for me, H.
Show me his Fox appearances.
Yeah, and I think that's actually what's happening. So the reporting suggests that's what's happening, so that he can see how they would defend him. Probably explains why christinoam goes to DHS, which is a pick that I find is enormously objectionable for many reasons. But anyway, all that is to say, Rubio could end up not getting this Secretary of State position because there's jockeying against what some people
in MAGA world see. And Telsea Gabbard we're going to talk about her in the next block, but she would be one of these people who would see him as an unreconstructed neo con especially because of his support for cous essentially in Latin America, very similar like Rinston repeat foreign policy in Latin America that we've had for decades. He's obviously Cuban, so he has a very hawkish approach to the Cuban government and the sanctions regime.
He's been friendly with Boucht.
It's fine with that.
Yeah, Yeah, he's been friendly with Bukele. He's been friendly with me Lee. So those relationships are there.
And in case Trump is watching this from his little situation room, let's play one clip that we think ought to sway him in the opposite direction when it comes to some of these picks. Look, who is so excited about your picks, mister President elect?
Let's roll eight nine here.
I know Mike Walt's full disclosure is a friend of mine. I feel like this at least Stephonic Susie Wilds. This is probably about as team normal as you get when it comes to Donald Trump picks.
Well, I think Alice, whom I've known for many years, can certainly do a fine job at the UN And I think Mike Waltz will be a fine national security advisor. I should I should probably say I'll be for him or against him, whichever would help me more given my relationship with his boss.
So Trump's making that man happy with a lot of these picks.
He really is.
List Like, we just went through a huge list of different people in their careers and different points in their
careers and all of that. But if you are let's say you're Donald Trump Junior, or you are Tucker Carlson and you're looking at this list as that graphic in a five show just some of the upset in Trump world over Mark Rubio, that's going to extend you know this is there are a lot of people John Bolton is an example, but there are a lot of people who are more establishment types in Trump world who are looking at this and are really really happy because they
feel like it shows Donald Trump is surrounding himself with like quote a quote serious people. They're not going to be so happy about Pete heigseeth, I'm sure. And that's where the Senate rubber could meet the road when some of these senators are asked to actually vote on that.
But if they're actually asked to.
Vote on that, Let's move on to somebody who has not gotten picked yet, and that is a former Democrat and former Independent and now Republican, former congresswoman Tulci Gabbard, and puts C one up on the screen here, So she was you know, she's been jockeying, she's been close to Trump, She's made in roads to some of his team, yet is struggling so far to gain purchase inside the administration.
What's your read on this?
I mean, this is a hugely conspicuous absence. I don't know. I mean, you've phoned Tulsia Gabbard's career for a long time.
She was elected, Yeah, right.
Yes, absolutely, And if we put the next graphic up on the screen, this is B two. This is a quote that we got from someone who's inside the transition world. And explained it as thus, because Ryan and are both trying to poke around and seeing what is going on here, and this source said, Tulsi is not fully trusted by Trump world.
That is the bottom line.
If you're looking around and wondering why this woman who was used as a surrogate and a powerful surgeate at that, I would say one of Trump's most powerful surrogates, which is why he recognized that and used her all over the campaign. I mean, this is somebody who comes from She was what's the formal title co chair of the DNC or deputy chair of the DNC.
Well, yeah, she was. She was on that. She was she had feisce chair I think.
Something like that. Yeah.
So in twenty sixteen, and so Trump, the Trump campaign recognized that there was a lot of power in that message, much more powerful than the flip side of Kamala.
Harris using Liz Cheney.
And you know, Telsey Gabbard's a great speaker, and she's a good surrogate for Trump and trump Ism, and so she's a recognizable face that was all over shows like My and Kelly talking about Donald Trump. And now even as there leaks about her eyeing as that first graphics at a Defense secretary job. She's totally I mean, he's he's he's.
Even went with Pete Hegsa.
You know, this is another source told me someone who is a senior administration official in Trump won. She is the universal pick amongst base conservative Mago World for Department of Defense. So this was before the Heike Seth announcement came out. So she even has purchased with Mago World. There are people in mago World who really really love her.
But because she's as my understanding is, because she's such a new convert to trump Ism, Trumpell just doesn't fully trust her with one of these positions, which is, uh, she's beloved by the base, so if she ends up with absolutely nothing, that speaks to a level of distrust that I think has been kept from public.
Yeah, and as somebody who's in Trump will put it to me, he said quote she rubs people the wrong way sometimes, which actually that follows her from the from the Democratic Party, like that was a problem she had over there as well. Maybe some of this is misogy, not saying that's limited to Republicans at all, but also you know, she's interesting, different and iconoclastic and that can rub people the wrong ways. So there is some personal stuff going on here. The source also said he thought
that she was still in the running. Now it's still in the mix. Talk being talked about for Director of National Intelligence, which is wild, like, you know, because she was a couple term member of Congress. To move from there to the Director of National Intelligence would be rather extraordinarily, but also reflects the the you know, the way that Trump has kind of up ended things and made things that would be completely impossible and a previous era possible.
Well, Steve, if she gets that, I'm sure she's trying to be in the race for it. There are other people who would imagine might be ahead of her, but she does have I think. I mean, her foreign policy departs from even Trumps on insignificant ways. Syria is a good example, you know, like that, and from Hagsas in very significant ways.
It's a very interesting foreign policy. She's like, she's far right when it comes to like Hindu nationalism, aligned with the Modi, basically a huge supporter of the war on terror, like drone strikes, and some of the Islamophobia or some of the hostility to political Islam that is inherent in some of that far right wing Hindu nationalism is present in her support for global war on terror, and support for the global War on terror is not really consistent
with the kind of America first, like you know, try to attempt to retrench American power projection. So your point about theia is is is a good one.
So she's against regime change wars, but.
Supportive of lots of drone strikes against Muslims. So it's like it's there's yeah, it's she's she's different.
She doesn't fit neatly into one box or the other. Meaning if you're just she.
Sorted out, she fits neatly into kind of like a Modi box.
Well, but one box in Trump the other in the United States exactly. So yeah, if you if you don't fit into one of the like you're not fully in. You couldn't perfectly be described like in the Tucker box and the Don Junior box or in the Marc Rubio box.
And so if you're the elements of her that all different factions like but all different facts differs are uncomforable with different elements of her.
Right, which would mean that you don't have a lot of like full throated advocates for an actual substantive defense position. Maybe she'll get something that is like more involves a ceremonial, public facing representation of the administration's policies.
I don't know, there's probably something like that around, but it is.
I think given how heavily she was used on the campaign trail, given how much she is absolutely beloved by the Maga bass it's it's sort of interesting that she may end up with nothing super substantive, and.
We'll see, and she might she might get a big job. You see, as we.
Speak this morning, right now, Republican senators are casting secret ballots for their new majority leader in the Upper Chamber. Their options are the very enticing trio of John Thune, John Cornyn, and Rick Scott. I said that sarcastically, obviously, but it looks like right now there's some leaks coming out of the meeting, which is happening again as we're speaking, it looks like it's going to be John Cornyn.
That could obviously change. So why does any of this matter?
There are some obvious reasons and then some less obvious ones too. With a majority in the Senate and likely majority in the House, Republicans will be able to pass major legislation. When Donald Trump is inaugurated in January, the Senate confirms cabinet and court nominations. The Majority leader sets the tone and makes procedural decisions with massive consequences, even if all of this is often obfuscated by very confusing
inside baseball. Here's how our friend Rachel Bouvard, a longtime Senate staffer, including on the Steering Committee, put it in The Federalist yesterday, channeling what I think is fair to say the broader sentiments of the conservative world, Rachel wrote, quote, for Senate Republicans, this means closing the book on the Mitch McConnell era of governance marked by heavily centralized management and open hostility to the Trump agenda and the Republican base.
On November thirteenth, they will elect.
A new leader for the first time in nearly eighteen years and have a chance to usher in a new leadership that is accountable to the conference and the priorities of the evolving base of the Republican Party. So the Majority leader is the party's chief negotiator if he won't go to the map for it, let's say, cutting Ukraine funding or a hardcore border bill. MAGA senators and Donald Trump can't do that much about it other than exert public pressure, which is powerful, and then play hardball in
smoke filled back rooms. So why is this a problem for Republicans? Trump is claiming a mandate, so why would any of the options for majority leader be a thorn in his side on these issues. John Thune and John Cornyan are longtime allies of Mitch McConnell, who has made no secret of his personal disdain for Trump. Thun and Cornyn, both from Red States, joined the Senate in the bush Yars.
Rick Scott entered politics as Florida governor in the Tea Party wave, and then joined the Senate in twenty nineteen, where he quickly.
Aligned himself with the MAGA movement.
In twenty twenty two, as McConnell insisted on his tradition of not releasing a policy agenda, Scott sought to fill that vacuum with a plan to rescue America, that was what it was called. He courted conservative thinkers and journalists, including myself, seeking to establish himself as the populist alternative to McConnell, operating on the understanding that McConnell was ailing and also deeply unpopular at the time. Scott was talking
to people again. I had conversations with him about all of this, really laying the groundwork, and it was a clever move. He was buying goodwill with people who would be in positions to offer public support of him, including
people in the Senate, including people in the media. But backlash over the plans points on the social safety Net, which were used by Democrats in their campaigns, brought about a consensus in some Republican circles, actually in Republican circles generally, that Scott was kind of in over his head, got ahead of his skis. Nevertheless, after the GOP's disappointing twenty twenty two midterms, Scott scored ten vot votes in the
secret ballot election for Senate leader. McConnell still got thirty seven, but picking off ten was pretty impressive given that a lot of Senators were being publicly asked by reporters to say how they voted. National media is now acting like Rick Scott's challenge basically came out of nowhere.
It did not.
He has been laying the groundwork for this over the course of several years and sensing an opportunity to either change leadership or pressure.
Them to be better.
Mike Lee really followed in the footsteps of the House Freedom Caucus recently. The Freedom Caucus obviously pushed Kevin McCarthy to make all kinds of concessions in exchange for their votes for his speakership, and Lee put out a list of parliamentary demands to empower conservatives. He's been working hard in public and private to push the list and to push Rick Scott's bid. The demands are super granular. They sound super granular, but would be pretty consequential.
Consequential.
Lee wants four weeks of time for debating and amending omnibus bills. He wants a floor schedule for appropriations. He wants to reform something called filling the tree in the amendment process. And he wants term limit on leaders and then goals to be stated upfront every year. Trump himself has treated the question of recess appointments as a litmus test for the next leader. Ryan and I had talked
about that earlier in the show. Getting through recess appointments would allow him to fill up his cabinet quickly and without pushing members to take controversial votes.
Now, it's all similar stuff to what happened with Kevin McCarthy.
Demands that kind of harken back to the Tea Party years when conservatives were demanding leadership listened to the base. Lee of course, would arguably be a better and more appealing and charismatic leader than Rick Scott himself, but Lee's libertarians lash populous streak means he almost surely would not be able to secure enough votes from a conference that
still includes Centrists like Susan Collins. Earlier this year, Donald Trump Junior tweeted quote Rhino Senators John Thune and John Cornyan both want to replace miss McConnell once he finally gets put out to pasture. Both of them also voted to send billions more to Ukraine. Mega must do everything in our power to either stop to stop either of
these Rhinos from ever becoming Senate leader. Both men are seen as being aligned with more of the donor class than the base on foreign policy and the border, voting as Ukraine hawks and supporting Senator James Langford's trojan horse. McConnell pushed border deal earlier this year. To say the very least they are out of step with most Republican voters, but just about anyone in a leadership position in Congress is going to be, which is why the bench of
potential successor to McConnell isn't very deep. It's either two friends of his or the one guy crazy enough to take those guys on. Rick Scott is not perfect, but he's made a political calculation that populism is where the votes are, so that means the MAGA agenda will clearly be better off with him in power, even if he's an unlikable ambassador for the cause and struggles to actually
get anything done. Now, those are both serious problems, and recognizing Scott's odds, MAGA operators in the conservative movement seem to have secured some concessions from John Cornyan, who's politically ambitious enough to recognize that it's wise to pull a little bit of a McCarthy here and give those guys something. Just last night, he released a Dear Colleague letter saying that he's with Rick Scott and actually with Mike Lee on some of those priorities about how they could reform
Senate procedures. So if MAGA world, if conservatives can defeat John Thune. It'll be a win either way for MAGA, which would have simply got nothing if Lee hadn't mounted this effort behind the scenes. And it's a win for actual conservative voters, by the way, who will also now have a little bit more of a voice in DC. Whether you like MAGA populists or not, this will empower anti establishment voices. The real question now is just how much it will empower them. So, Ryan, you've covered the
Senate for a really long time. Some of this is actually left over from the Harry Reid era. You covered Harry Reid very closely. Filling the tree, I think is a process that Harry Reid was sort of a pioneer of,
at least in recent history. So I'm curious from the perspective of somebody on the laugh the anti establishment wing of the Democratic Party has played a little bit more nicely with Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi now Kim Jeffries than the Freedom Caucus guys and Ted Cruz and Mike Lee did, especially in the Tea Party era Ran Paul
as well. Some of this is sounds great even from like a bipartisan perspective, like actually having four weeks of debate on omnibus omnibus bills, having your party leader say what your goals are at the head at the beginning of every year.
I don't know.
It actually just seems like a way to make the Senate work better.
Right, But just like the Freedom Caucus reforms that they successfully extracted, when the rubber hits the road, they get tossed out, Like bills still get put on the floor and moved quickly through despite promises that all you'll get seventy two hours to look, everybody will get to amend, like all all of these promises that they make about you know, democracy end up kind of just getting tossed out when in reality. But yes, from from a just small D democratic perspective, it would be nice if we
had democratic institutions again. Yeah, no, I mean at some point you're like, hold on, You've got the president, the Supreme Court, in Congress. And then if Congress is run by four people who are all from red or blue states and basically cannot be voted out. So the four people being you know, the House Democratic Leader, House Republican Leader, Senate Democratic Leader, Senate Republican leader.
They call them the firm. Those are the big they call them the Big Four.
If then the only way that you can as a voter influence power is by switching parties from Republican to Democratic, since none of the representatives or senators have any power because they're just at the you know, they're just at the whim of this this Big four. Like, how different is that than China? Like in China, like the the government is responsive to people's will, not through democratic elections because they don't want to get overthrown and want to make people happy.
They want to keep prices all, they want to keep the economy growing.
I'd rather have elections, sure, but if all your elections can do is narrowed down to this tiny margin, it's not that impressive of a system from a democratic perspective.
So a lot of the objectionable foreign policy that most voters would say, if you put this in front of me in a ballot referendum, I would vote it down, most of it gets packed into these omnibus bills that aren't really debated on. So the senators just say, this was my leverage at the last minute. That's just what
we had to do to get this other priority. And if you have more debate on omnibus bills, you probably will get a slightly more representative foreign policy because senators will have to take a little bit more heat for having these conversations in public.
So that's at least I.
Mean cornyin last night, literally last night came around and he put out a Dear Colleague letter essentially agreeing with a lot of the tenets of the Lee plan that.
Rick Scott had pushed.
And so a source told me, basically, this is a win for us either way as long as it's not John Thune. So if they come out of this with either Rick Scott or John Cornyn, Mike Lee wing, the conservative wing is going to feel pretty good about it, even though people like Tedgers do have long time connections with Thune because he was a McConnell, he's obviously McConnell ally and McConnell deputy. You had to have good relationships
with him. You had to make inroads with him in order to get anything done, which I mean Rick Scott, how much can.
He get done.
He's broadly disliked by a lot of people, and he's putting out things about how he was a business leader, trying to convince some of the establishment people to come over to him because he was a business leader. And now Eve and I could talk about his record as a business leader.
He oversaw basically the greatest medicare fraud in the history of the United States. Somehow is not in prison and instead is on the cusp of being a Senate majority leader. John Cornyn, yeah, is an old school Chamber of Commerce Democrat from Texas Republican.
Yeah yeah, did I say Democrat?
But a lot of people on the right would be like, yeah.
Yeah, And he would have been a Democrat in the sixties seventies from Texas. Actually he may even have been when he was younger, because that's it was a one party state, but it was a democratic state back when the LBJ was around.
Uh.
He has spent decades or at least close to two decades raising money for his colleagues in the Senate Republican conference and is very attentive to their needs and is well liked by them. And so if he wins, it'll be because that old school method of winning power still works. Like he when these people were running for the Senate for the first time, he was there in their district raising money for them, connecting them with donors, you know, making making sure they won, and people feel a real
loyalty for that. When when Rick Scott was in charge of electing senators who put out some stupid plan where he was going to like tax half the country it.
Was entitlements that people were like, you're cunning, so strange.
What are you doing?
Yeah, like you're making it harder for us to win election rather than easier when your job is to make it easier. If Rick Scott sneaks through, it'll be because the establishments split them, split their votes between Thune and Cornyn, which would be an impressive own goal on their.
Part, right, Yeah, and a couple of other things to mentioned. Trump has so far stayed out of the race, and obviously that you mean they're voting now, even jad Vance, who's there, it's.
Very clearly Rick Scott.
Yeah, yes, although you know Cornyn is obviously trying to be really friendly with those folks. And I think Trump just wants whoever wins. That's probably the correct theory, so why he stayed out of it. Jad Vance wouldn't say who he was voting for, according to at least the earlier reports were getting when he was or who he was supporting when he.
Came to the Senate today.
So Trump is on Capitol Hill today, he's actually.
Going to talk to people. He's going to the White House.
That's another important like subplot in today's crazy news cycle with all the appointments and all of this going on. But Mitch McConnell is the longest serving party leader in the history of the sign it. So that's why this is extremely consequential. Thun and Cornin had a lot of negative things to say about Donald Trump over the years when it came to things like the Access Hollywood tape. Obviously they voted differently than a lot of the Mega
when would want them to in Ukraine. So there's this real deep seated fear that they will do everything they can to undermine the goals of the Mega agenda when it's actually you rubber meets the road in legislation and even just as their fundraising and negotiating and all of that stuff, you mis McConnell is seen as somebody who, going back to the Tea Party years, was undercutting the hard right in fundraising and at his Senate leadership fund and.
With those various groups.
So it's a it's a pretty consequential position and definitely a new era in the GOP.
Yeah.
Interesting up next the Russian counter offensive and Cursk as both sides away kind of Trump's intervention in this conflict, so we can put D one up on the screen. It's very hard to know what's going on in the war between Russia and Ukraine, obviously because both sides are pushing in a propaganda but you know, according to the Ukrainian forces, the last couple of days have been among the highest rates of casualt is almost two thousand a piece into two straight days for Russian forces as they
have launched a counter offensive. Now Ukraine does not break down, you know how that includes, you know, whether that includes you know, killed, wounded, or taken prisoner.
But the reason that it's.
It's plausible that Russia is suffering huge cases that they are trying in the space of a couple of months to take back as much territory as they possibly can before Trump is torn in.
On January twentieth, over the weekend, you can put up D to here.
There are a lot of reports that Russia was massing, you know, fifty thousand troops for this curse counter offensive.
Many of them actually North Korean special forces.
So this is this is where because what they're trying to do, and what court what they claim that they have successfully been able to do is mass this fifty thousand person fighting force without taking troops.
Away from anywhere else on the on the front lines.
And so it would stand to reason that because they are just throwing as many people as they can at the Ukrainian defenses, that they are indeed suffering, you know, significant casualties.
But that doesn't mean that they will ultimately be able to be.
Stopped because they just have they have more manpower than Ukraine does at this point. Now, obviously the defensive line is much easier to maintain with land mines and with with drone technology. And you know, meanwhile, Russia is launching
enormous numbers apparently of suicide drones at the Ukrainians. So this is going to be hell on Earth probably for the next several weeks or months, as as the two sides jockey for position ahead of what they both expect will be some kind of a forced ceasefire.
You put up the third element here.
This is an article from Newsweek making the same point. Russia racing gets time to retake Kursk ahead of ahead of Trump ceasefire.
That's I think an interesting way to frame this. And you talked about that when we opened the show up a little bit. And I guess, how connected do you think this is? I mean, this is happening against the backdrop of all of these actually fairly hawkish appointments. I'm genuinely heterodox, but like fairly hawkish appointments coming out. So how connected do you think this is from Donald Trump?
I should say, how connected do you think this is the potential shift in policyunder Donald Trump, which, by the way, we don't actually know would what it would be because Trump repeatedly over the course of the campaign trail hedged on his plan. He said he doesn't want to say his plan because it would be telegraphing too much to
world leaders. Obviously, people are worried that Trump is going to appoint people who are or Trump already has appointed people for example, Rubio didn't fully back the Ukraine spending just several months ago, and that Donald Trump will be more aligned with Tucker Carlson on You Crane and heal a point, Tulsa Gabbard and Robert F. Kennedy junior powerful positions, and he'll be listening to them. So far, that's not really what is foreign policy looks like it'll be shaping
up to be in the second administration. But how connected do you think it is to the possibility what we're seeing right now is connected to the possibility that there's a hawkish shift in Washington.
I think it's completely what we're saying here interesting, Yeah.
Because Biden's been pretty hawkish.
Not hawk I think that Putin really does feel like uh and Zelenski feel the same way.
I think that that that Trump.
Is going to try to end this war so that he can deliver on a kind of campaign promise, and he and Trump has said that there has to be a negotiated end to this, and so I think everybody feels like they the end is coming. Whether Trump can actually enforce an end is an open question, but people think that he's going to try.
You put up we can put up D four here.
This is Fox News reporter Trey Yinst who's saying, you can't understand how challenging the front is right now for Ukrainian forces. Updated maps show multiple Russian advances in Donetsk. This comes as reports indicate fifty thousand Russian in North Koretan's order staging for a counter offensive a curse.
So they're making it, making advances in donuts while also.
Pushing here as well to against a very much depleted force.
Uh.
Zelensky just the other day, actually we can put up D five here. This is at a press.
Conference with European media where Zelenski said, look, we're not you know, Trump can try to push me into a deal, but I'm not.
I'm not going to make one.
Zelenski said, I believe that President Trump really wants a quick decision unquote to end the conflict, but he added, quote, it doesn't mean that it will happen this way. Zelenski's stressed that a peace process must be just and not risk leaving Ukraine vulnerable.
Quote.
Trump wants this war to be finished, as Zelenski continued acknowledging that while everyone shares that goal, Uh that you know, Ukraine is not going to be kind of pushed around, so like there is That's that's Lensky's claim. So everybody is aware that Trump wants to end this. What that actually means, what Trump does with that, and what that means on the ground is the thing that they're fighting fighting through now.
And obviously if Putin is able to make significant advances, it gives him leverage to any potential.
Right now, Ukrainian Ukraine is in Russia. Yeah, which, right, Ukraine.
Has hoped with no plan to exit, right, and some.
In Ukraine I hope like, Okay, this is our leverage then to get back Ukrainian territory.
Right, We'll give you back this Russian territory. Right, So we'll say this. You know this.
It's almost twenty twenty five, and this is war that's been going for years that really shouldn't be.
This is awful and North Korea's involvement is also I think disconcerting one. I mean, wrapping all of the nuclear powers into one conflict.
What could go wrong?
Yes, come on, yeah, all right, Ryan.
We we have a guest lined up that is very eager to get this perspective, someone who you've worked with, a drop side who's written.
For drop site about Baker Abed.
A reporter from dary Bala joins next to talk about what conditions are like there after the already day deadline given by the United States to Israel to increase humanitarian aid has expired, so stick around for that. Joining us now from Daari Bala Gaza is Abu Baker ab Ed, contributor at drop site News.
Abu Bacher, thanks so much for joining us.
Thank you so much for having me as well, and let's start.
We can put your dispatch up on the screen here. This was in drop site yesterday. Incredible first person report that also gets into a lot of the kind of technical details as well as what's going on. I just want to read a quick portion from it for people's they can get a flavor for it. You write, I dream of food every day. I imagine our fridge full of meat, lettuce, milk, and cheese. I sometimes talk to myself at night when I'm hungry and have nothing to eat. I dream of when I was able to sit at
a dinner table with my family again. My nephew and niece, both two years old, wake up every day crying for an egg. Their mothers don't know what to do. To distract them a bit, we show them videos of eggs on the internet. You also, you know you write about some anecdotes where a mother breastfeeding a baby, waiting in line for hours for something and just coming up empty. But your story also gets into the data and the stats about what is what is getting what is getting in.
So as you compare the conditions that you've been able to report on over the last you know, several weeks and a month, and if you compare those two several months ago, how how do those compare? Because of the State Department said Israel has one month to improve, did things improve?
Not at all? No, unfortunately, because I've been like caring from the secretary blinking like for over like since the start of this genocide. But he's absolutely been mine because what we see on the ground is that even a humanitarian organization so not allowed to operate well across the territory.
But at the same time I need to tell you is that even aid is not disputed well to families like for example, a lot of families here are growning in pain and growning in hunger every single day because there is no aid reaching them on a very daily basis. Because these people have been displaced, they have no hope at the moment, they don't work, their families don't have anything to do with this war because they're not a party to this war. So these say that if there
are humanitarian organizations work on the ground. So why are we not receiving aid every single day? And I can tell you that there are many families here in particular around me where I am at the moment, and they can tell you that since the start of this genocide they haven't received any eight boxes at all at all, literally at all. And let me start with myself. I haven't received anything from the start of this war. But it's very important to tell you that our main objective,
our main home is that this war must stand. We don't need aid, we don't need anything. But what we've seen over the last two weeks in particular, is that people have been falling out a lot to bring in some aid, to bring in flows of aid and quite
you know, enhance the humanitarian situation inside gards. But instead the United States has sent more weapons, there's reading more bonds, it's killed much more families, many more families around CAUs here and there that at least over the past two weeks, it sister start to all they like, over the last thirty days and we're talking about more than one hundred people have been killed in dur And yesterday. Since we're set a place here once more time, and two children
were killed, many others were unjured. So it's a very apocalyptic situation here.
And I know you're familiar with all of the arguments from people in the Western particular who will say the reason this food isn't getting to the people who need it is because of her mask and her masks to blame for people. If people are hungry, it's because of her mask. But then a lot of people will add to that argument that it's some mythical famine and it's not really happening.
Those two positions are sort of mutually exclusive. But what do you say to two people.
Who just cannot what is the way for you know, food to actually get to people who desperately need it? You know, how can countries go ahead?
Yeah?
Yeah, I mean like there's some sort of you know that warplanes aid work planes like through eight upon us and this has been rebated over the course of time, But this is a humiliation. This way and method has killed hundreds of people. Like there is an eight box throw like thrown over a tent and it just damaged
this tent and be all inside it or killed. But the way is, the safest way is is to open the two crossings that Israel has closed past thirty days and since May, because the right crossing has been for since May. And you mentioned something again like Emily, I'm not a political person, but what I've seen on the ground yesterday, because people haven't been aware of that. A lot that on Twitter, but they deleted it. Then I mean in Almagaza refugee cap except for gods, that is
so cluss for me to me. If things are like what people are thinking about, then why yesterday they are not for me? They're not have mass fighters because there are local security forces, that's what we call them, That's how we should call them. Yesterday they intercepted the work of a group of gangs and melicias that tried to hit Jack and Aid the truck coming from Calmbo cell
And to Central Conzo. So if it is about Hamas, if we talk about that, then why this why the local security forces yesterday risked themselves and went out just to intercept this work. This absolutely discussing and disgraceful work.
But we need to know that these people, these gangs are assigned business is really military to cause chaos and to cause this sort of confusion and turmoil among people and deprive thousands of families trapped the territory from this very important aid because I myself and a lot of families, every single family around us here in the south, they're in the north, they are buying maid and we buy that by extremely excessive and unimaginable prices, and the prices
are skyrocting. But also it's very important to know that the aid we're getting either to uran to emilate with the audience. People like respect us. We are humans like you. The aid we're getting is absolutely if the lowest equality they sin does absolutely the lowest equality. Talk to people here, they have had many times like severe gastro entritis, habrit artists, a virus, and then when they are dispatch at the hospital. We've been talking to doctors from the ground and they
told us that it is because of this aid. Because this aid is absolutely so bad, it doesn't make any sense. It tastes so bad. So do not allow the flow of aid to get into the terre tree, into gods at the Besis enclave and then send us or dispatch
some sort of very bad quality. Eight. That is not the case because we are a human students like we are We're accepting the fact to be starved, but do not humiliate us and dehumanize us by sending such so called ape that you are sending us, which is absolutely non you know, non peachable. All.
Yeah, you write in the article about how how much of the flower is completely bug infested, that pet food is becoming, uh, you know, something of a staple. But I'm wondering if you could elaborate a little bit more on what you were saying about the gangs who are kind of who have have risen up, because there is a lot of uh, suspicion from from outside. They say, how is it that the IDF How is it that
Israel is allowing all of these gangs to flourish? You know that they're able to say, drones are you know, flying constantly everywhere. They can see the armed gangs going around, you know, hijacking aid, they attack, they attack a mass if they are able to see them.
But they allow yet they allow these gangs to go forward. How what is the relationship here?
I mean, like there is a very important thing to know, which is that, like all, what is happening on the ground. Because I've been speaking to some merchants from the ground, and what they can tell you is that all thinks, all of these events, the train of events is happening near Carmobzell. It's all about that area, which is which is the crossing through which things are allowed to enter
the strap. But what happened here is that the Israeli military is send the guad copters and drones to like for surveillance tasks and to watch over what is happening nearby. And then when they say because they mark their you know their gangs, and they're as signed to gangs and militias, so they see one like a hart from their gangs, they directly upon this group of people, for example, if they are local security forces, because there is a difference
between a gain. There's a difference between the resistance fighters who are Hamas fighters for people who are fighting this really liblitary, and a difference between the low security forces. Local security forces are absolutely civilonious. They have nothing to do with hamas, so they are not hamass to bomb
them and kill them. So that is what is really having relationship is that we've seen here in their black mindseft that a group of people in the southwest of they can have been armed by those really liblitary weapons
and et cetera. So when you talk about it, like Hamass doesn't have the ability to have such weapons, so you can expect that these people are goes in such a great deal of panic among people, even that during the night hours, like some people are getting out of their houses, they are then you know, held at gunpoint by these gangs and they are threatened just like together
everything they have. So a lot of people have gone through such an experience because of these gangs who have creative such carriers, and a lot of people have lost
many things. Like for example, a merchant has a big amount of money coming out to like going out to bring some goods or something, and of course there are unimaginable crisis and then they have such money and then those gangs signed by Israeli military and the Israel army are going to face them, confront them and take all this money from them under the threat of gone fire and you know, killing.
Them, yeah, Israel.
Israeli politicians have talked about the strategy of propping up and arming gangs in order to kind of sew dissension inside of gods and to undermine hamas.
Is that people's understanding of what's going on.
I mean there is, yeah, they really know, but it's just because that like there's a lot of chios and supportunity, so we don't know where aid does go. I'm very sorry that people have to know to understand events that those gangs, it is very surprising and chucking. But we've seen this on the ground, which is those gangs sometimes belong to the humanitarian organizations working on the ground. So
for example Honora or World such Eekitchen. I'm not getting say I'm saying for example, but I've seen people who are responsible for this sort of acts in the territory, stealing and jacking rugs, they belong to those humanitarian organizations. I've been speaking to people and outside, like the audience. I'm telling them all the time that the humanitarian organizations do not operate well, not only because they are under
the threat of the Israeli military. No, because most of them, like some of them at Sile, are responsible or liable and viable, and they are the mastermind of these acts of hijacking, et cetera. So we will understand and know that these are humanitarian organizations are also responsible for what they are going through. The starvation force upon them. But the main reason we need to know that all of
this has because of Isuel literacy. So there is nothing to do with the civilians or the local security forces. The local security forces are doing the very best. They are exerting strenuous efforts to secure the flow of aid in the interview. The interview aid to all people around the cause it simply bumps them. So that's what is really happening on the ground. And people have to also
realize the fact that is like signing people. And we are in a time that people would easily give up for principles and there you know, they're I mean create just to find some sort of living and try to resist them. It's such incredibly harsh circumstances, so they are easily bombosled and deceived and persuaded. But there is real army to work within such a very you know, a very bad and moral way.
Ranger, we play the State Department club.
Yeah, let's roll.
I wanted to get your response to the State Department spokesperson Vitam Patel.
Yesterday was the deadline for Israel.
The deadline set by the United States and metrics set by the United States that deadline hit yesterday, and here's how the State Department responded and when to get some of your response to it.
And that's well, Vatampateel, this is E five.
Did you bother to put in three hundred and fifty trucks a day? If it doesn't matter, I'm not going to speak to the I mean, you keep saying you're not going to speak to specific metrics, but you guys are the ones that made this specific.
We didn't.
We didn't give the Israelis thirty days to do all this stuff.
You guys did. And now those thirty days are up.
And as you heard from everyone so far, and these aid groups that came out last night, they haven't met them. And all of a sudden, you say that the metrics that you put out don't matter.
We've never said I had never said that they don't matter. What I said was, I mean, these are metrics exactly like you've put out.
It's not a rabbit point.
Its meaning I don't want to take up time getting into a specific tit for tat on like truck numbers.
But what's your response to that exchange between Matt Lee.
I've seen that, Yeah, I've seen that yesterday I saw it. But it's a really as I told you that they are just manufacturing the genocide in Gaza. They are reliable for every brutal act of killing children, disempoweing them and dismembering them. Uh, and they are not allowing any shot
bit to get it. They're just lying to people all around because everyone here knows, like from the ground charp tell them like I can tell you the man a few sid nieces are who haven't exceeded five years old, they can tell you that the United States is killing us because they have you know, they have that sort of notes right now of what the United States is about. Because it's really important to know that the United States
is compab trating the genocide in Gaza. And you can see right now how many like there is a full generation of amputees in You can go out and what any of the seasons in gars so either in the south and the north, and you can see at least two three people amputated. And this is a result and a symptom of this is as American genocide have an underground.
So the United States have never ever wanted this and like look I've been like I'm not a particular person it once again, but one I can tell you that the United State States have never wanted base, and it's responsible for every conflict that is happening across the law, even in your create, even even in Soudan, because they are aremen, the rs F that is responsible for the
generoside that. So it's the United States. The United States have never wanted base, and it will continue supporting and funded genocide in Cauca and army industry because it's visually it's their friends. It's there, you know, a lie, you know, staunch chest, you know, friend of c But again, I mean like if the United States ever ever cared about us, this would end from a very very call from binding in the beginning or week of this war. Just it
was something put there. It was just simply but Hamas tought it like the fighters, the resistance as we called it, told the Israeli military that we could think exchange prisidents. And what we know so far is that after week this really army has goed more of that five thousand people in Glaza. So this sort of retaliation is more of that. This is more of a disproportionate response to
what Hamas did the seventh. Okay, But then when things were put and the conditions were put by you know, by Hamas and resistant fighters here, this realimitaries said no, and they put one condition, which is not to into Gaza, not to invade us are because this sort of havoc upon the city. But then he said no, Biden, could it change things and could force Israel not to go ahead with its annexation in the files of plan and
to be seeched in life. But again Binding wants the world wants to erase Gods because it's getting benefits from occupying the land a very you know, a very tiny tread that is that is full of you know, matter of sources, like sources like gasp because you can see the pier there that has been built many months ago.
It's used because people are expecting right now, local experts are expecting the geographic you know, experts are expecting that this peer will turn into will be turned into apport, seaport to allow those real military or the Israelis to do you know, this sort of commercial transfers between other countries between Europe and Asia, because Gods is in Asia, so you can see that. Unfortunately, I'm sorry to say this. We very We're very hopeful people, and I'm just hopeful.
I'm only twenty one years old, but i can tell you I've processed that I will emerge from this with all. Again, I'm not a political person, but what is really happening is first for most and always is demetrated by the US. Could not infing like stay one month in Gaza without the support of these of the United States.
Well, and actually that might be a good opening here to rule E four, which is a clip of Code Pink activists anti war activists here in the United States some months ago approaching Senator Marco Rubio about his support for the Warren Gaza. And this is obviously as Marco Rubio now this was before, but now is being considered for a Secretary of State role here in the United States. So let's go ahead and roll e for Marco Rubio's response to the Code Pink activists in the Senate hallway.
I want you guys to get this.
I want them to destroy every element of promastic and get their hands on These people are vicious animals who did horrifying crimes.
And I hope you guys post that.
About the civilians every day.
Hamas stopped hiding behind civilians, putting civilians in the way.
Hamas knew that this was going to lead to this, so Hamas has stopped building their military installations underneath hospital.
So you don't care that fifteen thousand, you don't care about the babies that are.
I think it's terrible, and I think Hamas is one hundred percent to blame.
So that's obviously an ascendent view in the incoming Trump administration.
And I'm so.
Very representative. Go ahead, I'm sorry to.
Get you off this claim that it's all about Mass. It's all about what is happening like for example, I'm not Mass. I have no connection with that mass. My family doesn't have any relationship with any amassment. Okay, then why my being subjected to brutu and she and pure brutality and comparison and starvation. Then this is the question
a lot of families because of health ministry. It's just announced the day that Israel has completely wiped out more than four thousand and five hundred families with no survivors. Tell me, among the death all are more than seventeen thousand children, most of them are under five years old. What have they got to do with Mass. I mean, it's utterly despicable and utterly disgusting that people are still believing in these things. And again, Israeli military is asen.
The military self is born all those who have exceeded eighteen years old in their colony. I'm not going to say territory, Bob. Here you have the choice you never ever Hamas is going to tell you that you have your obliged to belong to us, never ever. And we have to know that there are four more than four political parties in Gaza. So where is Hannas in this equation that people are claiming talking about that we can justify the murder of more than seventeen thousand children, ten
thousand women. I mean, look, I'm truly fit up with that, like to the level of that. Even some journalists from the Times, the Sunday Times in the UK and other places like the Guardian have asked me about this sort of you know things that about Mass, about other spirit Already, we have nothing to do with that. Like a lot of people here, you talk about that least than forty thousand Hamass fighters. Okay, so how many families are in Gaza?
Much much more many many more than that. You're talking about more than two hundred thousand families, and why have full team like five thousand around five thousand families been wiped out with violence. Like for example, I'm gonna give you an example like Tom a Ryus whose name went fired when he was killed along with his wife in Gaza City. He was a chieved in with scholar and he was killed brutally called cold blood, along with his
entire family. And they are still under the rock. By the way, a lot of people are selling the what like my neighbors. A child was bombed like November last year, today today, ten days later from today, it's well marketing. Yeah, it's will market year now from the time he was bombed. And he's still he's still undergrable for one year, one whole year. He's five years old, he's a he is a disabled child. And then tell me what has he
got to do with him mask. Look, it's utterly irritated and I don't know, Like if you want to justify it again, it's very important trying animally to be a human for being a Germanist. If you're not a human, then don't be a Germanist. Like it's very simple as that there is a four people that has been exterminated at the moment, they have nothing to do with Hamas. Okay, and don't tell me that Hamas eyes behind civilians because look,
I'm not trying to say anything about this. But of course, of course, like from me, I don't see anyone like around it, and I don't know that just just want the killing of you know, many people, many innocent wives, like I've lost my entire ants family, Like I mean, what.
Have I to do with that?
I don't know what I can tell you that's justifying this.
This Yeah, and the man that that man is reported to be headed to become Secretary of State to replace Anthony Blincoln.
You know, what has been the reaction among people and.
Darry Bala or others that you've spoken to in Gaza to the Trump the Trump victory in the election.
Do people expect to get worse to stay the same? What's the what are people? What's the response?
There's a very good question. Yes, I wanted you to ask you this because like they have the same opinion of Trump. He's a genocide more cripple and that one binding is a genosa war criple, and we have no fault at all in Trump to upend the current situation at all at all, Like we don't have anything we need to remember that is that Trump, when he was the president of the United States, he announced and declared
Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. And he is responsible for the process of normalization with our countries with Israel. So this is something to remember that he is a cause for what is happening, because I'm sure if he didn't do that our countries. It's such a very difficult time and in the face of this sort of extreme adversity, did it really move and act and intervene to stop
what is happening in the ground. But I can tell you that even we don't know about politics, but we have had like Trump has just like does just have a bad reputation a people in Kasa, so it doesn't
have any good thing to do with us. And we will know and understand realize that Trump, that Trump will worsen the situation inside the besieged enc live, and that he will kill and be responsible for another virgin, renewed virgin of the genocide, that Jobe Bide the genocide, Joe bind It started in October the seventh of last year.
And just I'm curious on a personal level, if you don't mind, mind we asked. It's it's mid afternoon there now in Gaza.
What have you eaten so far today? And like what is what is your hope for what you might have before the day is over?
You can see how the electricity was cut off. This is one of the main things that that is happening right down in Gaza. So it's very expected that I'm to continue. You are spinning the light and I'm hoping, and I'm like a human being. I'm human being. I'm supposed to be a human being, and I'm just like wishing, hoping for a day instead of you, like for a moment, like give me like a moment of your life, of your worst day to me so that I can feel
at least that I'm a human. But our Veta software is that again, it's just like some loaves of bread, if you have some bread, if you have it even and they are made by you know, they are made by bug infested flower of course, because there is no flower that has been allowed to enter the stread. But at the same time, we have like as I wrote in this piece. We have some like safted this local plate and with some all of us. So that's what we eat every single thing. It's just one time. So
we are making a process. We're making a schedule payer you know, like we we we we minimize things. So every everyone has a pop a portion. Ifyone has to eat every single days, not eat you know, all day or you know, I mean like you can't eat all day. There's no way that you can eat all day. Now, it's just a small portion, a small part that you can eat all day because you want to maintain what you already have at your home. You want to maintain that.
So if you eat like a little bit more than what is expected, then what is I mean, what is like a lot of bread or some a lot of bread or something, then you will run after food. And this is something we want to try to you know, we want to avoid as people hearing Gaza. But as a twenty one year old person, I mean, this is not the first war I've been through. The first five five wars in Gaza have been many GM signs. Now
this is the biggest g inside I've been through. But I can tell you that I again I have hope. I have hope in people like you. They continue protesting and tackling the government every single day, and I hope that things will change because I will never and I can never lose hope at all at all, because I've been instilled into that to hope to life. No matter what circumstances are inflicted upon you, no matter what hell
is a flicker, We're going to be. And I'm telling you from here, I don't know if I'm going to survive this brutality, this hellish time, but I can tell you that if I shot along, if I survive this shot along, which I'm very hopeful about, we're going to be the leaders of a free world. All this young generation has been educated during this time about post On, about the double standards of the bustling community, the hypocrisy of an entire wistream media outfit, channel a network. It
will lead the prosparity of this free work. There will there will be free will lit by us. So no matter what happen, what has happened, noneally, and I'll give you breathe though, and I have everything to keep smiling no matter what happens, and no matter what's happening.
Well, I hope that for you, Aba Bakra, and I know that you've talked about wanting to return to sports journalism, you know, which was your which was your love before you were kind of requisitioned into into what you've been.
Doing for the past year.
I just want to thank you for you sharing these stories that's perspective with us and give you our our very best from everybody here.
Thank you so much. It was really important and very you know, very interesting to talk to you. But again, I just want to tell you one thing. In the end, it is about you that will lead this a change we hope in you, and please never ever think about leaving us alone, because you are the reflection of our whole and one hundred percent confident I'm prior of your work right and if you work emily, it is your responsibility to lead that a change and that it changed,
it should be marked by your names. And we're going to make this word free from the United States. That must be free from the States administration, of course, not it's people.
Yeah, all the best, we promise we will.
Everybody watching should check out Abu Baker's latest article over at drop sitews dot com. Just just a very very powerful dispatch. Thank you, thank you for what you do, and we promise we'll keep it.
Up in shuttle.
All the.
New York mayoral elections are coming up next June.
Joining us now is Zuon Mam Donnie, who was a candidate for election in New York State Assembly member.
Is that right, Yes, that's correct, Yes, I remember covering your first race.
Part of this kind of DSA wave that kind of swept its way into power in New York City and across the state and has kind of reshaped the politics in an interesting way.
What gave you the idea to jump from there to running for mayor?
You know?
The cost of living crisis. To be frank with you, New Yorkers across the five boroughs are struggling to afford even a shred of dignity in their lives, and Mayor Eric Adams has used almost every opportunity to exacerbate that crisis. He has raised rents on more than two million New Yorkers by nine percent, rates we haven't seen since a Republican was running city Hall. He has supported khan En when they put in an application to raise New Yorker's
utility bills by about seventy dollars a month. He has sat on his hands whenever he's had the opportunity to provide any kind of relief. And this is a position that New Yorker should look to as one that gives them respite from the economic crisis and the rest of their life, as opposed to one that is borning gasoline on the fire that is already consuming them now.
It's also kind of an interesting position to be in with someone as someone with your politics, where you have a lot of populism and you know, Alexandria Ocasio Cortez also someone from the DSA Wave, was posting on her Instagram over the last couple of days.
Asking people who voted for both her and.
Donald Trump, because she had some split ticket and some shifts in her own district towards Donald Trump, why they saw her, why they would vote for both her and
for Donald Trump. If you were talking to a voter who you know, for example, would be someone maybe who voted for Donald Trump and would vote for you, what's your pitch to them, even, you know, talking about the cost of living crisis, something that is probably very serious for a lot of people who may have voted for Donald Trump, how are you having those conversations basically as a.
Populist, you know, I actually spent much of Sunday on Hillside Avenue in Queens and Fordham Road in the Bronx, which were two of the areas in New York City that swung most towards Trump, so even greater drop offs
of voting overall. And when I spoke to voters about why, they told me it was cost of living, that they remember having more money in their pocket four years ago, that they couldn't afford their groceries today, and it was despair over war and the genocide and Gaza, and a feeling that Donald Trump, as insidance here as we know this to be, was the only candidate speaking to them about a desire for a more affordable life and bringing
peace back to the world. And these are a lot of the issues, namely the economy and the inability to afford the price points that dominate people's day to day lives.
And so when I spoke to those voters and I asked them what would it take to bring you back to the Democratic Party, because many of them had previously been voting for Democrats, And they said, a focus on these very issues, and so I told them about my mayoral race and my opening promise to freeze the rent for every rent stabilized tenant, to make buses fast and free for the more than million New Yorkers who ride them every day, and to bring universal childcare into New
yorkers lives, whether their child is six weeks of age or five years, because these are the price points that are pushing New Yorkers out of the city that they call home.
And so the movement that you've kind of come out of and been been a leader of is kind of an entanglement of a couple of different currents. On the one hand, it's the it's the Bernie Sanders, We're going to make sure that you know you can afford you know, your rent, your college, your growth groceries, you can make sure you can live a dignified life. And then there's the more the cultural elements of it, which became associated with a lot of it. Defund the police, abolish ice, and.
On and on.
When you talk to when you talk to voters, what where do they see kind of that that wing of the party coming from. Do they associate it more with we're going to make people's material lives better or do they associate it more with the other elements that Fox News will talk about and Democratic Party leaders will kind of condemn.
Whenever there's some type of electoral problems for them.
Yeah, I would say that Bernie is probably the figure that loom's largest in voters' minds when thinking about the left wing of the party, and his response to Tuesday's election is one that has been found to be quite compelling to a lot of these very working class voters that I spoke to, which is a response that the Democratic Party left working class Americans a long time ago, and now working class Americans are leaving the Democratic Party, and I think that it is an association with an
inability to afford those day to day expenses. And you know, I would also say that at the same time as nearly half a million New Yorkers, fewer New Yorkers voted for Harris than had voted for Biden four years ago, we also saw the passage of Prop One, which was a proposal to enshrine reproductive rights and truly civil rights for all, including trans New Yorkers, pass it quite staggering
margins across the state. And I think that this is also indicative of the past across the country which passed on issues that should be central to the Democratic Party, and yet voters trust referendums more than they trust Democrats. And it's time that we ask ourselves why is that the case? And how can we deliver on those actual issues?
And in some sense, obviously the rumor candidate Andrew Cuomo is the perfect foil to this like left populism for all of the reasons. In the State Assembly obviously very familiar with the Cuomo legacy in Albany. So in what sense or how hard will it be should he enter
the race to kind of get people's attention. Is it easier to get people's attention because he has so many obvious vulnerabilities politically, But he'll come in with a lot of you know, built in media institutional knowledge with media organizations and ability to sort of suckle out of oxygen out of the room for himself.
What's the dynamic going to be like for you if that happens.
I think Andrew Cuomo knows that the longer he's in this race, the more difficult it is for him. And that's why he's yet to announce his candidacy because He doesn't want to expose himself to four or five six months of an actual inspection of his record. He wants to simply coast on the reputation that he used public dollars to burnish, a reputation he was more interested in than actually saving New Yorkers' lives at the height of COVID.
And what I am excited by is the opportunity to tell New Yorkers why we are in the situation we are in when we're looking at a mental health crisis. Here is the former governor who shut down so much of what would have been helpful in this moment to respond to these very crises. Here is the governor that cut hospital beds. Here is the governor that took an ax to almost every single kind of public institution he could find to ensure that it was not worth of
any funding in the future. And I think it's high time that he understands that accountability is a word that also applies to him.
Do you expect him to run as a Democrat or as an independent? Like, what's what are as people are gaming this out? What's your path of democratic nomination? And where do you Squomo fit into that?
I expect him to run as a Democrat, though I wouldn't put anything past Andrew Cuomo because I think he's more interested in power than anything else. My path to the Democratic nomination is to speak to the working class of New York City. You know, I say this as a socialist. I say this as someone who's running an
unabashedly progressive campaign. There are far more New Yorkers who feel left out by the economic policies of Mayor Eric Adams and Democratic leadership than there are that identify with any one political persuasion. And my goal is to go to every single one of the five boroughs on a regular basis and to speak to those New Yorkers about
how we could actually make their lives better. Not speak to them about values or ideas, but speak to them about tangible, deliverable policies that we can enact from the very beginning of a mayoralty that will literally make their life more affordable.
And how are you handling the crime question, because this is one of the Ryan kind of asked about this, but it's also you know, we've seen, like I've been talking to Rocanna a couple of times, we asked them about this. Actually on our show last week in California New York. Obviously New Yorkers have some, you know, concerns that are similar just in a material sense to what people in northern California Los Angeles have also been dealing
with over the last couple of years. And a lot of people would point, you know, voters might say, well, this is downstream of the defund the police movement, et cetera, et cetera. But just in conversations that you're having across the burrows, you know, there's obviously room between defund the police and reforming the police and all of that. So where's your conversation going when when people bring those concerns to you.
You know, most of the time they bring it to me in the context of public transit. They feel the least safe when they're thinking about subways and buses and things of that nature. And I think it's important to identify that because that means that the solutions to that feeling have to lie within those very places. And one of the reasons that we have been fighting for free buses is I led and won the first New York City free bus pilot in last year's state budget, where
we made one bus free in each borough. And what we saw is that by making that bus route free, assaults on bus drivers dropped by thirty eight point nine percent. And these are the kinds of assaults that they are not just assaults on the driver, they are also assaults on the passenger sense of safety in that moment. And if you're able to fundamentally transform the experience of getting on the bus getting to where you're going, you feel
that much more safe. And I think additionally, one of the reasons that many New Yorkers have identified feeling unsafe when they're taking the subway is the fact that the subway has become the de facto site of mental health crises across New York City. And it's critical that we actually understand that and respond to it in those varied places.
And what I mean by that is, at the same time as right now, where we have many vacant commercial units across the subway system, we could transform those vacant commercial units into mental health outreach centers. We could actually empower and create mental health responders so that the people that are responding to New Yorkers and crisis are not other New Yorkers or are not police officers, But are people trained specifically for that episode?
And what would that cause? What would that look like? How would you develop that program? So we're going to be putting.
Forward a proposals to create a new department, the Department of Community Safety, which would build on the successes we've seen in Philadelphia's Hub for Hope program in policies that even the BART system is implemented around mental health responsiveness.
And the cost is something that I'm quite confident will be within the costs we're already spending on police overtime, which nears about a billion every single year, or the Eric Adams proposal to spend two hundred and twenty five million dollars on creating a new cop city in Queens. This is all possible within the fiscal sense. It's just a question of if there's the political will.
What about Rikers It's still open. It's a complete travesty and a disgrace. Why hasn't Riker's been closed yet? How would you get it closed?
I think it hasn't been closed because Eric Adams simply has no interest in closing Roriker's Island. He has no interest in taking any kind of action beyond that of impunity when it comes to corrections, when it comes to policing. I have been to Rikers Island many a time. One of the last times I went to Rikers Island and incarcerated New Yorker tried to take their own life in front of a colleague of mine. That is the level
of despair we are talking about on this island. And it is a legal requirement to close Rikers Island in the next mayoral term, but Eric Adams speaks about the law as if it's the suggestion. So what I would do is from the very first day, I would make sure that we are following policies that make that legal requirement a reality and that we actually close Rikers Island. And we do so by ensuring that we are keeping
New Yorkers safe. And just to the question of cost that has come up, it costs around half a million dollars to have a New Yorkers have a New Yorker on Rikers Island, but we are only willing to spend about fifty thousand dollars sometimes to house those very New Yorkers, which would keep them out of that kind of a place. I think we have to realign our priorities.
One of the obstacles has seemed to be a neighborhood opposition to alternatives to Rikers, like how do you how do you overcome that?
I think one of the key things is there are a lot of people that we are throwing away putting onto Rikers Island that are actually need not be in that kind of a facility. They need not even be in a borough based jail, frankly, And I think what we need to ask ourselves is when there is a woman who is selling cotton candy outside of a school without a license and the police put her in cuffs and then she's visited by Ice the next day, do
you feel safer that she is in a cell? And I think that that's what's so offensive about Eric Adams's policies is they have nothing to do with sense. They only have to do with this sense of impunity on a day to day basis, and it stems across multiple agencies. How we haven't been willing to create new solutions to problems that have continued through multiple mayor allities.
Yeah, it's wild what people are in Wrikers for sitting there for a year, for having stolen like ten newspapers out of a box or like one guy, I know a sandwich, like just just complete in sandy anyway, or thank you so much for joining us. This is a race we'll be we'll be following pretty closely. It's gonna be interesting, no doubt.
Thank you so much for having me. It's such a pleasure.
I appreciate it. You've got it. That was Zorhan Mom, Donnie mayorl Canada.
The thing that makes his race possible actually is matching funds in the New York City mayoral race, So he'll have he'll have the resources to get his name out even without having you know, gigantic billionaires or real estate developers or whoever else behind him.
So although you interesting want to watch in a crowded race with matching funds, you could argue that it's a big advantage to Andrew Cuomo just because of name recognition.
Oh for sure, to Andrew Cuomo. You know he's going to be in the mix. Man might come back, that's for sure.
Yeah, that's for sure.
Also reports from Jake Sherman over at punch Bowl that Telsa Gabbard's in the mix.
For confirming our reporting here breaking points. So the slash counterpoints that.
She's in the mix for Director of National Intelligence. Pretty obvious that that would be, since it's one of the big foreign policy vacancies and she's yet to have gotten an appointment, that she's in the mix for that, although it won't you know, there's little she can do to probably alleviate the trust questions that wi't linger, which means if she is appointed to that position and she's not fully trusted by Trump world.
That's a pretty interesting dynamic too.
Yeah, we'll see gona be exciting.
Well, I'll be back here tomorrow replacing Sacer. We have a girl show, so I don't know what we can do to compete with the bro show, but we'll do O bus.
I'm sure it'll be I'm sure it'll be fun. No Friday show this week, No.
Friday show this week. Okay, though, I think everyone's all right.
We'll see you next week. We'll see you tomorrow. Bye.