10/8/25: Jon Stewart Begs Dems On Gov Shutdown, MTG Breaks With Party, Bondi Squirms On Trump Epstein, Cuomo Attacks Zohran

24:40And then she has a kind of a chat CPT, but a bunch of stats about how absolutely brutal it is for health insurance. She picks up on the illegals point again in the next one. If you want to do the toothpaste is out of the tube. She says the toothpaste is out of the tube on Obamacare. And the argument she's making here is, she says, trying to make clear that I think the entire system is messed up. She goes on to say, and this is, Ryan, is this what you were looking for? We are importing doctors from foreign countries because we don't have enough American doctors who are being strangled by health insurance companies and regulations.

25:14People with insurance are crushed by high hospital bills that subsidize uninsured people's hospital bills. The list of problems goes on and on. Ding, ding, ding, ding, ding. So that's where I would stop her. Yeah. All right. People with insurance are crushed by high hospital bills that subsidize uninsured people's hospital bills. Yet her party's push is to increase the number of people who are uninsured, which according to her own logic, and she is absolutely correct, only increases the costs for hospitals, which are passed on to people with insurance. Yeah. So what are you doing here? Like, so stop.

26:02What I would say is separate out your immigration policy and your healthcare policy. Stop trying to do them together. There's nobody coming across the border. Like zero. Actually less than zero. We have a net outflow of people probably at this point. You're rounding up everybody that's a little bit darker than me. You're doing your immigration policy. If you believe that uninsured people getting emergency treatment at hospitals because they can't afford to go to, they don't have insurance to just go to a doctor and do it the right way, drives up the cost for all of us, everybody else. Why do you want to do that?

26:42Like if you think that's bad, don't do it. I know that's a crazy idea. But if you think it has a bad policy outcome for Americans, you're American only, right? You guys are all American only. so hunting people who are actually here legally but you don't like their status because you think that biden shouldn't have given them the status that they currently have although even though it is legal status and they're in legal like they're in legal proceedings although the the hospital reimbursements do cover people who are not here legally right so do you want the government to do that or do you want the hospitals to charge americans more when they come in like what are you doing?

27:21Like if you think that prices are too high for your adult children, are you serious about that? If you're serious about that, then enact a policy that makes the prices come down, not something that just needlessly like goes after undocumented people. Like you don't like undocumented people. You're, you're showing us that like, there's no mystery. You don't like them. You're rounding them up. You're chasing them everywhere. You're throwing them into paddy wagons. You're putting them in tents. The alligator Alcatraz is still going. Uh, you're, You're making things as miserable for them so that they self-deport.

27:52You're doing it all. But then why also, just for pettiness, drive up Americans' health care costs? I'm trying to speak their language here. Americans, Americans, Americans. Right. You're driving up the health insurance costs for Americans just out of some sense of bitterness. Now, I guess the argument, well, if somebody from El Salvador understands that they can get free medical care at a hospital when they have a fever in America, then they're going to run through the Darien Gap and like pay all this money. Like that it's some pull thing. Stop. Like that's not serious. It does make it significantly easier to live here when you're, when you don't have, when you're.

28:33But the only other possibility is not happening, which would be you, when you show up at a hospital, you have to show your papers. And if you don't have the proper papers, you are denied care. And that's never going to happen. So we're going to treat people who are here who are sick and dying. We're going to do it. So the question is, how are we going to do it? Well, this is what I like about her argument is that she's tapping out of this stupid, stupid notion from Republicans that they should have their constituents and American taxpayers who are already paying crazy amounts in their health insurance.

29:09They should just expect them to trust that Republicans at some point will fix this broken system and in the meantime hold them hostage to a hike all because Biden is the one that put the subsidies in place. Like it is completely stupid. It's a ridiculous argument. Did the CARES Act have some subsidies? It may have. That was Trump. Yeah, it absolutely may have. So 2021 comes from Biden and that's where you explain. You broke this down in detail last week. that's where a lot of the premiums, which would be affected, because those are expiring at the end of the year. And so the Republican plan to fund the government would strip away those credit, or it doesn't extend them after they expire at the end of the year.

29:52And this is where Marjorie Taylor Greene is tapping into - No, I'm wrong. No cares. You're wrong. Okay. No cares. But this is where Marjorie Taylor Greene is actually tapping into something that it should be conventional wisdom. It should be completely obvious to people who are paid stupid amounts of money as lobbyists and consultants to these idiot politicians and Republicans. Seriously, people's premiums are going to become, they're already insane. They're going to become more insane. It's going to be on your watch and you're doing all of it just with this vague promise that at some point, Republicans are going to fix the entire healthcare system when they had all of the momentum in the world behind repeal and replace, could not land on a consensus replace part of repeal and replace precisely because of this.

30:37And what I like about what Marjorie Taylor Greene is saying is that, like, listen, I think it's true that those Biden era subsidies in the long term actually are, and some parts of Obamacare actually are causing healthcare to get more expensive and have over time. I get that. And that's what she's saying too, is like, it's true. But you are not fixing the system. You're just making the system worse by not extending the premiums, the relief. And so, yes, I get it that in the long term, all of these subsidies are making a bad system worse. But you're not fixing the system. And you're asking people to suffer and pay even more money into a bad system that you are not doing shit about in the process.

31:18It's completely, it's like the politics of it are insane. The substance and the morality of it is completely insane. And Marjorie Taylor Greene is the only person, the only person out here making this argument for Republicans. And like we hinted at it last week, or at least I did from the right hinted at it last week. But you hear absolutely nothing else about it from the right, essentially, even though it seems, Ryan, like a very, very obvious point. I think that's right. And I don't sound too harsh on MTG here because I'm like I'm with her on almost all of this. And I think she's getting to the right place.

31:48Like, I think what she's shown herself as willing to do is to be an independent thinker who follows her own logical train to its conclusion, whether or not that conclusion aligns with what she's supposed to think as a partisan. Right. Because she's supposed to think as a partisan that you're against these subsidies. Yes. But she worked it out independently. And she's like, wait a minute. No, I'm sorry. Like, this is not good. Like, we actually should be for this. So I think that if she's able to, this is a giant if, get past this whole illegals thing, she'll figure out that, oh, yes, uninsured people coming to hospitals causes huge problems to the system, which are then borne by Americans who have health insurance.

32:37We need to do something about that, whether whether it's some government subsidy for hospitals, which exists. And we and we just buff that up so that it doesn't get passed on to Americans, whatever it is, just figure out something. It shouldn't be the failures of the American government should not be the responsibility of these insured American people if we're not actually a democracy. Like, you know, if you're a real democracy and you screw up your policy, then yeah, that's on you. But we're not really one. So we should be held a little bit more blameless. And already there's a story here in NBC News.

33:14Trump has called senior Republicans to ask, quote, what's going on with Marjorie? The answer, MTG has become disillusioned with her party, especially after the White House talked her out of her Senate bid. Well, I would add to that. I think it's pretty obvious the pushback she's gotten on Israel. As again, she emphasizes an ardent supporter of Israel has been completely transformative for her in the way she looks at her own party. She's never been, you know, sort of lockstep supporter of the Republican Party. But I just think this is a the bigger point that I'll finish on. Ryan is just like the blinking red lights should be freaking Republicans out right now.

33:52And they're not listening to any of it. You have normie responses like the new Zach Bryan song about ice coming and knocking down on your door. And Republicans are ready to like Dixie Chicks 2.0. I think in the words of John Rich, Joe Rogan has said, what are you doing? Like cut this stuff out. And whatever we may or may not disagree with these guys on, like that is these are these are flashing red lights for Republicans that they feel like they have all of this cultural momentum after 2024. in a way that they thought they never could. They had Silicon Valley on their side, some people from Hollywood, some celebrities.

34:27Trump wins the popular vote. And now their grand project, I think they're wildly overconfident in their ability to sell it to the American people. It's not just that they feel like they have this generational opportunity to kind of reorganize the government because obviously they think that they do. It's a question of then what's part of that project and then how do you sell it? And right now they're so completely out of touch with their own voters, people who are like independent swing voters, people who are rural voters. It's not to say Democrats are in touch because they aren't either. And that's a sad statement on the system that basically nobody has is in touch with voters.

35:10And that's, by the way, how you end up in a situation where people are desperate and take matters into their own hands and do vigilante bullshit more and more in the future. And because they feel like the system isn't working anymore. Right. And Trump was elected because prices are too high. Life is too hard. Yeah. And everything he's doing is making things more expensive. And now Democrats are trying to save him from doubling health insurance premiums. And Marjorie Taylor Greene is trying to save him from doubling health insurance premiums. And Trump thinks that Democrats are communists and that what's wrong with Marjorie Taylor Greene?

35:46Here's an idea. Just don't double health insurance premiums. What do I know? It might actually work with your own voters. Yeah, who don't want to pay double for crappy insurance. Yeah, it's the instincts that like Steve Bannon has, not to keep going on about this, but on MAGA not wanting entitlements touched. Trump has always had that instinct too. But here, I mean, it should, again, be flashing red lights, abundantly obvious that just because these are Biden subsidies that in the long term are making a bad system worse, you don't double people's premiums. It's insane. And meanwhile, let's definitely also not do anything about Epstein.

36:22Yes, of course, because that's also something nobody cares about. Giant hoax. Welcome to the A-Building. I'm Hans Charles. I'm Menelik Lumumba. It's 1969. Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr. have both been assassinated. And Black America was at a breaking point. Rioting and protests broke out on an unprecedented scale. In Atlanta, Georgia, at Martin's alma mater, Morehouse College, The students had their own protest. It featured two prominent figures in Black history, Martin Luther King Sr. and a young student, Samuel L. Jackson. To be in what we really thought was a revolution, I mean, people were dying.

37:021968, the murder of Dr. King, which traumatized everyone. The FBI had a role in the murder of a Black Panther leader in Chicago. This story is about protest. It echoes in today's world far more than it should, and it will blow your mind. Listen to The A Building on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is Ryder Strong, and I have a new podcast called The Red Weather. It was many and many a year ago in a kingdom by the sea. In 1995, my neighbor, Anna Trainor, disappeared from a commune. It was hard to wrap your head around. It was nature and trees and praying.

37:45I'm in drugs. No, I am not your guru. And back then, I lied to my parents, I lied to police, I lied to everybody. There were years, Ryder, where I could not say your name. I've decided to go back to my hometown in Northern California, interview my friends, family, talk to police, journalists, whomever I can, to try to find out what actually happened. Isn't it a little bit weird that they obsess over hippies in the woods and not the obvious boyfriend? They have had this case for 30 years. I'll teach you sons of bitches to come around here and my wife. Boom, boom. This is The Red Weather. Listen to The Red Weather on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

38:28You know Roald Dahl, the writer who thought up Willy Wonka, Matilda, and the BFG. But did you know he was also a spy? Was this before he wrote his stories? It must have been. Our new podcast series, The Secret World of Roald Dahl, is a wild journey through the hidden chapters of his extraordinary, controversial life. His job was literally to seduce the wives of powerful Americans. What? And he was really good at it. You probably won't believe it either. Okay, I don't think that's true. I'm telling you, the guy was a spy. Did you know Dahl got cozy with the Roosevelt's, played poker with Harry Truman, and had a long affair with a congresswoman?

39:04And then he took his talents to Hollywood, where he worked alongside Walt Disney and Alfred Hitchcock before writing a hit James Bond film, How did this secret agent wind up as the most successful children's author ever? And what darkness from his covert past seeped into the stories we read as kids? The true story is stranger than anything he ever wrote. Listen to The Secret World of Roald Dahl on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Attorney General Pam Bondi wandered over to the upper chamber for a little bit of Epstein question and no answer session with the senators.

39:40Let's roll B1 here. Retiring Dick Durbin. Attorney General Bondi, why did you publicly claim to have the Epstein client list waiting for your review and then produce nothing relevant to that claim? Senator Durbin, if you listen to my entire clip on that, I said I had not reviewed it yet, that it was sitting on my desk along with the JFK files, the Martin Luther King files. And I said I had not yet reviewed it. Why was the July 7th memo unsigned? The July 7th memo came from the FBI and the Department of Justice. Director Patel answered those questions very clear. And, you know, Senator Durbin, I find it very interesting that you refused repeated Republican requests to release the Epstein flight logs in 2023 and 2024.

40:30You fought that. Did you take money from Reid Hoffman campaign donations? I will quarrel with you as to read somebody that you mentioned I never heard of. Reid Hoffman. So who gave the order to flag records related to President Trump?

40:48To flag records for President Trump? To flag any records which included his name. I'm not going to discuss anything about that with you, Senator. Eventually you're going to have to answer for your conduct in this. You won't do it today, but eventually you will. Can't imagine who would have given that order. Can you? I mean, it's hard to say. There's so many possibilities. Actually, you know, it's funny. There are really so many possibilities. It could have been anyone who wanted to protect the president other than the president, or you just don't even need to say anything. Yeah, right. That's true.

41:21Sheldon Whitehouse also a little bit of back and forth. It's role B2. There's been public reporting that Jeffrey Epstein showed people photos of President Trump with half-naked young women. Do you know if the FBI found those photographs in their search of Jeffrey Epstein's safe or premises or otherwise? Have you seen any such thing? You know, Senator Whitehouse, you sit here and make salacious remarks once again trying to slander President Trump left and right. when you're the one who was taking money from one of Epstein's closest confidants, I believe. I could be wrong, correct me, Reid Hoffman, who was with Jeffrey Epstein on multiple occasions and the senator sitting right next to you tried to block the flight logs from being released.

42:13Yet you're grilling me on President Trump and some photograph with Epstein? Come on. The question is, did the FBI find those photographs that have been discussed publicly by a witness who claimed Jeffrey Epstein showed them to him? You don't know anything about that. Okay. If you weren't watching that, her face at the end. She looked like she was in physical pain. This also underscores why it would be cool to have an actual opposition party. Because so Reid Hoffman, for people who don't know, is a link. He's the LinkedIn billionaire and has spent ungodly amounts of money trying to smash the left, the left wing, the populist wing of the Democratic Party.

43:02So just figuring out ways to go after specifically Bernie Sanders, AOC, Rashida Tlaib, Cori Bush, Jamal Boehm, the whole squad and anybody who's remotely adjacent to them. So that was Reid Hoffman's project. His whole idea is we're going to beat Trump by first smashing the populist wing of the Democratic Party, because in his theory, well, I think two theories. One is that he doesn't like the populist wing because they want to tax people. They don't like oligarchs. But his actual surface argument was those are unpopular people and Democrats would be more popular if it's just like the Dick Durbans in the White Houses of the world who don't really say anything offensive to anybody.

43:40and then they will win just by not being Trump. So that's this billionaire who became deeply involved in democratic politics and was also tight with this creep Epstein. So again, imagine if you had just an opposition party that could cleanly say, we don't have anything to do with Jeffrey Epstein because he represents the oligarch class. And we're not with them. But you're not going to find Mamdani on a plane with Epstein and it doesn't have anything to do with personal morality. It's just they're not floating around with the oligarchs. So it kind of allows this tap dance that Bondi's doing, yet it's still completely unconvincing.

44:23It's like, where are the photos? Where's the photos? There's photos. Where are the photos? You said you've got them on your desk. Right. Like, where are they? Right. No, I mean, actually, I think that point is important, that even with that ammunition, Pam Bondi comes into this hearing knowing that White House, for example, is connected with with Reid Epstein and that actually Dick Durbin has fought Marsha Blackburn in the past when Democrats were in power over the flight logs. All that's true, but Pam Bondi still had this complete, she was doing one of two things. She was either deflecting to blame Dems for their own connections or for their own corruption, which as Ryan points out, there's plenty to work with, but it looks like a deflection.

45:09Or as we saw at the end of that clip, she's just not answering. She's just standing there or sitting there blank faced or saying, I don't know, I don't know. So Adam Schiff, of all people, speaking of the... Schiffy Schiff. Speaking of corrupt Democrats, let's go ahead and rule Adam Schiff. Schiff, what I would say, actually, I can't believe I'm even saying this, like getting the better of Pam Bondi in this exchange. Schiffy Schiff is good in these hearings for the most part. He's not always on the up and up. Theater kid, maybe that's what this is. All right, B3. You were asked whether you consulted with career ethics lawyers, as you promised you would do, during your nomination hearing.

45:47when you approved the president receiving a$400 million gift from the Qataris. You refused to answer that question. You were asked who or what role you may have played or who played the role in asking that Trump's name be flagged in any of the Epstein documents gathered by the FBI. You refused to answer that question. You were asked whether Holman kept the$50 ,000 bribe money. You refused to answer that question. You were asked whether Holman paid taxes on the$50 ,000 bribe money. You refused to answer that question. You were asked, did career prosecutors find insufficient evidence to charge James Comey?

46:26You refused to answer that question. This is supposed to be an oversight hearing. Oversight? Excuse me. You can attack me after my time is over. Oh, who gets attacked all of us, including President Trump for your entire career? You can attack me later, and I know you've got plenty of candid attacks. We've heard them all day today. can't attack on you this is supposed to be regular order madam chair i'm trying to speak this is supposed to be an oversight here of the justice department and it comes in the wake of an indictment called for by the president of one of his enemies this is supposed to be an oversight hearing and it comes in the wake of revelations that a top administration official took$50 ,000 in a bag.

47:09And this department made that investigation go away. Oversight? It's like, we're talking practice? We're talking practice? So she got more questions about Tom Hellman. This is what Adam Schiff was alluding to. We can go ahead and roll B4. Is there a tape that has audio and video of the transfer of the$50 ,000? You would have to talk to Director Patel about that. No, I'm talking to you. I don't know the answer, Senator. You do know the answer to that. Don't call me a liar. I didn't call you a liar. You just said I know the answer. I said I don't know the answer. You have to talk to Director Patel.

47:44What I said is that investigation was closed. If you don't know, why don't you know whether there was a tape and video? Senator, I believe that was resolved prior to my confirmation as Attorney General. Do you think that it is of public interest for the people to know what happened to the 50 grand that the FBI turned over to Homan? Did you hear what I just said? That was resolved prior to my confirmation as attorney general. That's why I said I would not know. It's not resolved. There's$50 ,000. Homan has it or somebody has it. Do you have no interest in knowing where it is? You're not going to sit here and slander Tom Homan.

48:27And well, Tom Hulman did nothing wrong. They did indeed continue to ask questions about Tom Hulman, and she will continue to get asked questions about Tom Hulman. There's no doubt about that, Ryan. And I mean, the Epstein story is really the best illustration of the situation that people like Pam Bondi, Kash Patel, Dan Bongino and others find themselves in because they tagged along in MAGA world with this idea of draining the swamp and dismantling the deep state. And whether or not they were ever sincere or they ever thought Trump was truly sincere about that, they now find themselves in this position.

49:04And Epstein is the best illustration of it, of being the deep state and being defensive of their actions as part of the deep state. And so not only does it allow Democrats to have this new, I don't know if I can call it moral high ground. I don't really think anyone has a moral high ground here, but this ability to sort of claim the populist mantle and say, we're trying to get questions about or we're trying to get answers about all of this different corruption, whether it's Epstein, whether it's a bribe in a kava bag, which is the allegation around Tom Holman. And Bonnie's doing her best to undercut it by pointing out, hey, you guys have problems too.

49:44But she's the one in power now. Right. And also, where's the$50 ,000 that was in the kava bag? It's still in the kava bag. It's a very hard question to what about. Haven't you taken 50 grand in a kava bag? Let me just start over because this one apparently is too confusing for you to just answer directly. Where's the$50 ,000 that was in the kava bag that he took? in order to steer contracts. Well, and are they even saying that he did take it? Like, this is, we don't have a lot of ideas about... Yeah, I mean, the reporting was that he took it. Right, but is the DOJ right now saying that he actually took it or that he didn't?

50:25Because... Right, they're not saying. Although the White House at one point said, that's misinformation. Right, right. But it's like, okay, well, that's your opinion, man. And Holman has said, I did nothing criminal, I did nothing illegal. So it sounds like Holman probably accepted a bag. I will say. With$50 ,000. Right, right, right. I will say there's some stuff in the story you could potentially, potentially, I don't know what percentage chance this is, but you could potentially look at entrapment. But they're not saying enough to, I mean, if it was a cut and dry entrapment case, they would be out there talking about how Tom Holman was entrapped by the deep state.

51:02They should have asked if he wanted to like blow up a bridge with his paintball buddies. Then he'd be doing life in prison. Crazy times. Crazy times. So, yeah, not an easy day for Pam Bondi, nor will it be as she continues. She will continue to have to sit for these hearings. Welcome to the A-Building. I'm Hans Charles. I'm Menelik Lumumba. It's 1969. Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr. have both been assassinated. And Black America is at a breaking point. Rioting and protests broke out on an unprecedented scale. In Atlanta, Georgia, at Martin's alma mater, Morehouse College, the students had their own protest.

51:42It featured two prominent figures in Black history, Martin Luther King Sr. and a young student, Samuel L. Jackson. To be in what we really thought was a revolution, I mean, people were dying. 1968, the murder of Dr. King, which traumatized everyone. The FBI had a role in the murder of a Black Panther leader in Chicago. This story is about protest. It echoes in today's world far more than it should. And it will blow your mind. Listen to The A Building on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is Ryder Strong, and I have a new podcast called The Red Weather.

52:25It was many and many a year ago in a kingdom by the sea. In 1995, my neighbor, Anna Trainor, disappeared from a commune. It was hard to wrap your head around. It was nature and trees and praying and drugs. No, I am not your guru. And back then, I lied to my parents. I lied to police. I lied to everybody. There were years right where I could not say your name. I've decided to go back to my hometown in Northern California, interview my friends, family, talk to police, journalists, whomever I can to try to find out what actually happened. Isn't it a little bit weird that they obsess over hippies in the woods and not the obvious boyfriend?

53:04They have had this case for 30 years. I'll teach you sons of bitches to come around here and my wife. Boom, boom. This is The Red Weather. Listen to The Red Weather on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. You know Roald Dahl, the writer who thought up Willy Wonka, Matilda, and the BFG. But did you know he was also a spy? Was this before he wrote his stories? It must have been. Our new podcast series, The Secret World of Roald Dahl, is a wild journey through the hidden chapters of his extraordinary, controversial life. His job was literally to seduce the wives of powerful Americans.

53:43What? And he was really good at it. You probably won't believe it either. Okay, I don't think that's true. I'm telling you, the guy was a spy. Did you know Dahl got cozy with the Roosevelt's, played poker with Harry Truman, and had a long affair with a congresswoman? And then he took his talents to Hollywood, where he worked alongside Walt Disney and Alfred Hitchcock, before writing a hit James Bond film. How did this secret agent wind up as the most successful children's author ever? And what darkness from his covert past seeped into the stories we read as kids? The true story is stranger than anything he ever wrote.

54:16Listen to The Secret World of Roald Dahl on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Speaking of Justice Department targets, Andrew Cuomo. The theme today is corruption. Yes. So Andrew Cuomo still running for mayor of New York City. Eric Adams has dropped out. I saw Bill Ackman begging the beret wearing Curtis Sliwa. Sliwa, who? People keep finding like archival clips of Curtis Sliwa being a real one. Like this guy's fun. Who's not fun? Andrew Cuomo. Here he is on Stephanie Rule. There is no governor in the United States of America, no elected official, who fought more with Donald Trump than I did.

55:03None. You share a lot of his same donors right now. There are a lot of New Yorkers who are very excited about your campaign, who are also very excited about Donald Trump. Don't tell me that's not true. Are there New Yorkers who gave money to me and gave money to Donald Trump? Of course. Of course. Why is that an of course? Well, why not? If you are a New Yorker, you know Donald Trump, you know me, many of them would give money to Donald Trump and give money to me. And money— Why? What do you and Donald Trump share in common? We're New Yorkers. They know me, they know him. But let's just stay on this, and I don't want to take too much more of your time because I'm surprised by this.

55:43You think that something about Donald Trump makes someone give Donald Trump a check and Andrew Cuomo a check. What is that thing that the two of you both share? I think there are people who know him and people who know me. What are those things? The personal knowledge. He lived here. I live here. You may be a friend of Donald Trump. You may know me. You may contribute to him. You may contribute to me. There's no similarity. So there's, I mean, what are you going to do? This is ridiculous. His idea that Cuomo is the last one that Trump wants to be mayor. Like Trump is publicly actively campaigning for him, basically.

56:25Like who are you lying to? I love it when the politician is so bad that Stephanie Ruhle looks like Walter Cronkite. That's incredible stuff. I mean, she spotted that. She's like, hold on a second here. This is perfect. Yeah. Let's roll C2 also. You were not criminally charged, but investigators in the DOJ have found the claims credible. So what do you say to voters who have a hard time looking past this? Yeah, it's a good question. When the report was issued, I said I believed it was politically motivated. And it was. I didn't even know the allegations at that time. Right. It was done in a report.

57:07I didn't even know who the individuals were. We then spent five years. That report went to five district attorneys all over the state. No one found anything. It was then civilly litigated in court, the individual actions for five years. That came to nothing. I was dropped from the cases. So nothing came from those allegations. I did say if I offended anyone in any way, I didn't mean it. And I learned a lesson, a painful lesson, which is to be much more cautious about everything you say, any joke, any comment. I don't I won't kiss a person on the cheek unless they initiate a kiss. So it taught me a lesson just to be super cautious because there is a sensitivity that has evolved that is real.

58:14If people feel it, it's true. And it has to be respected. I mean, the other allegations were much more serious than kissing on the cheek. It's an incredible clip. Yeah. Anyway. That was on The View, by the way. First reception, the next one was on The View. I mean, Ryan, I don't, has anyone ever considered him? Because my memory is yes, to be a talented politician in his own right and not someone who coasted off his father's name and his family's connections. Because back in COVID, obviously, there were a million different stories at first about how brilliantly he was handling it in New York. But it just seems like so obvious that he's not a good politician.

58:56He's bad at this. And he thinks he's good at it because he's coasted, again, off of his name and his family connections for so long. Not exactly. What he is is he's a very good old school Tammany Hall, New York style politician. Which doesn't necessarily work in this media climate. He's not somebody who appeals to people. He very deliberately prevented New York from being a place where you could have mass democracy. I don't know if people know this story, but there was this thing called the Independent Democratic Conference that existed in the New York Senate, which Cuomo created and organized to caucus with Republicans so that Republicans would control, without having won the votes, would control the New York Senate.

59:47Why? You're like, wait a minute, hold on a second. That's the wildest thing I've ever heard. Why would a Democrat actively elevate the Republicans to control the Senate? Well, because then voters can't do anything and demand anything. Because all the demands then have to funnel through a divided Albany. And the system that he created was called three men in a room. And it was the leader of the Senate, leader of the Assembly, and the governor. Three men, one room. Three men, one room. and it didn't matter what you wanted. Like it didn't matter what you campaigned on. It didn't matter what voters said were their preferences out of New York.

1:00:26What mattered was what these three men in the room wanted and the way that they enforced discipline was through vengeance and also through doling out cash. You sign up with us, you're on Team Cuomo, you're going to get the spoils. You don't, you will never work in this town again. And so he was very good at that kind of Albany knife wielding and very good at setting up a structure that kept the public at bay. It was in 2018. So after Trump was elected in 2016, I cover this in my book, the New Yorkers started paying attention to politics for the first time. is that you would have, you know, turnout in these elections of like in the thousands.

1:01:17DSA is like shot in the arm. DSA, but also importantly, indivisible and these suburban women and women in the city who, and men, but driven by women who were like, wait a minute, what's the independent democratic conference? But it caucuses with Republicans? That doesn't sound right. And they're like, oh no, this is right. This is a thing. And they're like, wait, Cuomo did this? So they recruited a bunch of challengers to these fake Democrats. And along with the Mamdani wave, they beat, and the AOC wave, they beat these IDC people. They knocked them out. and then they finally made it actually democrat in the senate and democrat in the house assembly and then they no longer had an excuse of why they couldn't pass anything and so then they started passing a lot of clean energy stuff all sorts of prison reform like genuinely progressive stuff started getting done in new york and that was uh an absolute nightmare for cuomo and he started to unravel.

1:02:24He then got saved for a little while by COVID because he kind of looked authoritative compared to Trump when he was doing his little TV things. But then people found out that he was killing old people in the nursing homes and covering up the stats. And then all the sexual harassment stuff came out. And for some reason, the story did not end there. Here we are in 2025 mentioning the brother's name. Go away, dude. Again, the story didn't end when he lost an election. He's sticking around. Yeah. Actually, everything you just explained about his mastery of the spoil system in Albany explains why he's also sort of like stone-faced, deadpanning to Stephanie Ruhle.

1:03:03It's, why do I share donors with Donald Trump? They know us. They know us. Right. My coalition is with Republicans. Literally. But also what we trade in is trust, like in this personal knowledge system that, duh, this is what we do in New York. Of course, People who know us know that they can get stuff out of both of us. That's what he's saying. That's the unsaid part of it. He's basically rephrasing George Carlin. He's like, well, why would they support me and Trump, Stephanie? Because it's a big club and we're in it. Yeah, right. It's perfect. Yeah. It's perfect. And it's, I mean, it's so true that if you pull the FEC records of most very successful people, whether they're in New York or elsewhere, you find some donations to ours, some donations to these.

1:03:50They know what they're all friends here. Let's roll C3. This is another another exchange that Cuomo had on The View. I am the last person President Trump wants as mayor of New York City because he dealt with me as governor. New Yorkers watch the movie every day. I during COVID, I was the governor. He was the president. we fought on a daily basis. He came with all his threats and all his power and might, threatened to put me in jail, had me investigated twice by the Department of Justice, threatened to cut off federal funds. So he would like Mondani to win? Mondani is a gift for him. A gift. He wants Mondani.

1:04:37Two reasons. One, going into the midterms, he will take a picture of Mondami running around the country and say, here's what happened to the Democrats. They are now communists. They hate the police. They legalize prostitution, legalize drugs. They want to elect this Democrat. No experience whatsoever. Being mayor of New York would be his first real job. It's good for Donald Trump because it's the excuse he needs to take over New York, which he said he will do. Mom-dom-me. They keep calling him Mom-dom-me. But Ryan, in that exchange, when Cuomo says he's Donald Trump's worst nightmare, Andrew Cuomo is Donald Trump's worst nightmare, just incredible, incredible point.

1:05:25Because I think actually it's true, Republicans to some extent know that they'll be able to run, just like they did with AOC, and they did this with Nancy Pelosi forever, but run the picture of Mamdani in ads and talk about him all the time and try to make him look like he's representative of where the Democratic Party is. That's all true. But Donald Trump does not want a Dem socialist running his favorite city in the world. It's like just also the idea that he's afraid of Andrew Cuomo is completely insane too what do you think trump's actual nightmares are what's it what's a dream these are the questions i imagine him dreaming that there's somebody counting his golf stroke i was just gonna say that i was just gonna say that they're like you you didn't have a four there calling him on it yeah that would be i had a four it's like you were four still in the fairway what are you talking about that probably is it's to the extent i mean if he dreams finds out and then there's all this footage and they're counting as strokes on the footage?

1:06:28In order to have nightmares, one must sleep. And Donald Trump does not sleep. So I'm skeptical of any of this. Probably why he doesn't sleep. He's probably scared of nightmares. Wow. It's going really deep here. So Zoran Mamdani posted his October 7th statement and it became, this is the most predictable news cycle in the world, a lightning rod for the broader Israel debate. We can put C4 on the screen. This is some coverage of it from Mediaite. And Ryan, this is one of your beats. One thing I would say just right off the bat is, well, here, you get into it. Do we have the statement? The statement is if you scroll down, there'll be some tweets with it.

1:07:08But yeah, here, you. Two years ago today, Hamas carried out a horrific war crime, killing more than 1 ,100 Israelis and kidnapping 250 more. I mourn these lives and pray for the safe return of every hostage still held and for every family whose lives were torn apart by these atrocities. In the aftermath of that day, Prime Minister Netanyahu and the Israeli government launched a genocidal war, a death toll that now far exceeds 67 ,000, with the Israeli military bombing homes, hospitals, and schools into rubble. Every day in Gaza has become a place where grief itself has run out of language. I mourn these lives and pray for the families that have been shattered.

1:07:46Our government has been complicit through it all. This must end. Occupation and apartheid must end. Peace must be pursued through diplomacy, not war crimes. And our government must act to end these atrocities and hold those responsible to account. These last two years have demonstrated the very worst of humanity. We must answer it by modeling the very best, a relentless pursuit of our higher ideals and an unwavering commitment to universal human rights. The Atlantic's David Frum, the mediaite notes, shared the statement and added, This is a genuinely useful statement. The chilly, formulaic language about the 10-7 atrocity, the intense, angry passion of the denunciation of Israel's self-defense.

1:08:27Together, they arrestingly reveal what the author cares about and what who he does not care about, unquote. So that's David Frum, who we will talk about later in the program. We just busted him writing speeches for the Israeli ambassador while also profiling the Israeli ambassador. But back to the Mamdani statement, you notice at the top it says he got blasted by both sides. The left really did blast him over this. What the left did say is that this line, Hamas carried out a horrific war crime killing more than 1 ,100 Israelis, is not factually true. Two, more than 1 ,100 Israelis and some foreigners were killed.

1:09:11I don't think they're quibbling over the foreigners. We're killed on October 7th. But we know for an absolute fact that a non-trivial number were killed by Israel. Like that's like that. Israeli media has reported that as a fact. We don't yet know the number of it. It may take it under 1 ,100. Like that was the, that was what the left was saying. Aaron Matai. Right. Yeah. But I wouldn't say that the left was like piling on the state. No. Well, unless you can. Because also if the left would also acknowledge like if Hamas did not launch the attack, Israel would not have been, you know, enacted the Hannibal Directive to kill them.

1:09:49because it's this thing called the Hannibal Directive where Israel has a doctrine whereby it's better to stop the hostages from becoming hostages by killing them in some cases because then you don't have to negotiate over them you just kill them it's like you're like that well that's insane yeah that is insane but that's like a thing that is done it was done in some Kibitzim. It appears to have been done on the beach where I think 17 Israelis were killed. So it's a, we don't know the number yet, but it may be enough to take it under 1 ,100. Anyway, that's the quibbling from the left, but the right - Well, but I mean, they're right-wing Democrats that were upset with the statement too.

1:10:36Oh, I see. So they're saying that right-wing Democrats, yeah. And what's their argument that you shouldn't talk about, that you should only talk about what happened on October 7th and not the year since? So here's, not that anyone needs my very, very unsolicited political advice, seriously, but the way that I would look at it, I actually didn't see, I mean, I think the right-wing Democrats and the right-wing right-wingers, they just don't want any part, like nothing would have been good enough from Mamdani and there's no version of the statement that would have been acceptable to them. I also like I didn't think the statement was that bad.

1:11:15I would have just used the first paragraph on 10-7 and then used all the rest of it on 10-8 because I think it's perfectly reasonable on 10-7 to focus on the attack on the Israelis and then 10-8 go all in on the like slaughter of civilians in Gaza. 10-7 and 10-8 are different days. 10-7 is the day that Israeli civilians in many cases were attacked. 10-8 is the day that this disgusting, awful war began. And I would just separate it into two. But once again, I'm aware nobody needs that political advice from me. But that's kind of how I was looking at it. Yeah. And it also shows where we are in our politics that this is infuriating so many people because there are, so it's not just the 1 ,100 thing that people picked up on.

1:12:08But there are a lot of other things that I don't think anybody expects a public figure like Mondani to take the kind of maximalist position, but there are a lot of concessions embedded in this statement as well. He refers to the hostages still held, and the people still held were military. So people would say, well, those are prisoners. If you're captured in battle, you're a prisoner, not a hostage, or you're at least a captive.

1:12:37what else would be a complaint about here? I'm sure that people don't love that he referred to it as a war crime in the first sentence. Well, there were definitely war crimes carried out. But right, people would say... But even saying it's a war crime. Right, exactly. You could say that war crimes were included in the act of resistance. Right. So yes, right. There are significant concessions being made in here. That's a good point there on that one too. He's in a... I mean, yeah. He's in a very, very, very tough spot. There's no question about it. In New York is, I mean, the concentration of the Jewish population in New York is higher than it.

1:13:15Is it the highest outside of Israel of any major city? I think it's second to Tel Aviv. Yeah. But huge numbers of those, if not a majority, voted for Mamdani. Right. Yeah. I mean, I've seen a bunch of people pull out polls saying like New York Jews don't support Mamdani, Mamdani, but it's a pretty significant portion actually. Yeah, under 40. Definitely. Yeah, absolutely.

1:14:03I'll tell you that story and much, much more. What? You probably won't believe it either. Was this before he wrote his stories? It must have been. Okay, I don't think that's true. I'm telling you. The guy was a spy. Listen to The Secret World of Roald Dahl on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. All right, son. Time to put out this campfire. Dad, we learned about this in school. Oh, did you now? Okay. What's first? Smokey Bear said to. First, drown it with a bucket of water, then stir it with a shovel. Wow, you sound just like him. Then he said, if it's still warm, then do it again.

1:14:41Where can I learn all this? It's all on SmokeyBear.com with other wildfire prevention tips. Because only you can prevent wildfires. Brought to you by the USDA Forest Service, your state forester, and the Ad Council. On the Adventures of Curiosity Cove podcast, when peanut butter disappears from school, Ella, Scout, and Layla launch a full detective mission. Their search leads them back in time to meet a brilliant inventor whose curiosity changed the world. And this Black History Month adventure, asking questions, thinking creatively, can lead to amazing discoveries. Listen to Adventures of Curiosity Cove every Monday from the Black Effect Podcast Network on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

1:15:24This is an iHeart Podcast. Guaranteed human.