11/24/25: MTG Resigns, Zohran Trump Meeting, Zohran Endorses Hakeem Jeffries, Ukraine Peace Deal

23:41I mean, I don't think it was the sole factor, but having someone within the party who'd been a MAGA loyalist and a Trump loyalist specifically speaking out about the cost of health care. I think, you know, I do think that that mattered. And the fact of the matter is, as much as we would love to self-aggrandize about how important it is to be a podcaster, there's nothing like having actual power within the system, you know, in order to effectuate change. 100%. You talked about health care. Epstein was dead without her. I really believe. It's not just Massey. She led the charge. Her and she wrangled a few of the other votes.

24:14Her ability to stand up to the White House and say absolutely not. She did a lot of the media stuff, not just on health care. She's remained steadfast on Israel. I actually think that type of pressure was one of the reasons why they did ultimately go with the ceasefire deal, because they could see that some people like Marjorie and others were beginning to really crack in the foundation. If you think even Ukraine, I mean, a lot of the signature foreign policy stuff that's been fights that's been happening behind the scenes. Marjorie Tilligreen has been, in my opinion, on the good side of the issues and kind of leveraging her power and her voice.

24:47So there. So losing it, it's going to be a tough, tough loss because at this point, it's just Thomas Massey. Massey, you know, he's his own person. He's always – he's not MAGA, right? He's really his own guy. He's a libertarian. He's an ideological libertarian, relatively consistent in his viewpoint. But that, yes, is different than MAGA. There's no hate towards the guy. He is – he's always – he's been exactly the same. I've been many times on the other side of the issue for him. But Marjorie, I mean, for her, she had a real, I think, credibility and a voice. And so her loss is it's a it's a tough one, I think, for the country and for for the Republican Party, especially if you wanted to see a different direction.

25:24But it is what it is. I guess it's Donald Trump's party always has. People need to reconcile themselves to that. Let's get to Zoran.

25:34What do you do when the headlines don't explain what's happening inside of you? I'm Ben Higgins and if you can hear me is where culture meets the soul a place for real conversation each episode I sit down with people from all walks of life celebrities thinkers and everyday folks and we go deeper than the polished story we talk about what drives us what shapes us and what gives us hope we get honest about the big stuff identity when you don't recognize yourself anymore loss that changes you, purpose when success isn't enough, peace when your mind won't slow down, faith when it's complicated. Some guests have answers.

26:14Most are still figuring it out. If you've ever felt like there has to be more to the story, this show is for you. Listen to If You Can Hear Me on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

26:31This 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 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, to interview my friends, family, talk to police, journalists, whomever I can to try to find out what actually happened.

27:10Isn'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 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. Talking to your kids about the dangers of vaping can be hard. Getting them to listen to hot gossip is easy. So here's some drama you could share with your kid. Dude, did you hear about Cassie and Jake? No, but did you hear that vaping can cause irreversible lung damage and nicotine affects brain development?

27:49Nuh-uh. You don't need to gossip if you want to have an open conversation about vaping. So if you want to get tips on when and how to talk to your kids, visit TalkAboutVaping.org. brought to you by the American Lung Association and the Ad Council. So as you guys almost certainly know, Trump and Zoran Mamdani had a big meeting at the White House last week. A lot has developed since then. A lot of fallout. Zoran went on Meet the Press. But case you missed some of the highlights, let's take a look at a little bit of how that went. Look, I think that there are many things in our city where we have to own the responsibility of it, things that existed long before the president was the president.

28:27And those are also part of the message of our campaign was to take on a broken politics of the past. And I ran against a number of candidates who represented different versions of that past. And what we found time and again is that working people were left behind in the politics of our city. And what we're looking to do is put those people right back at the heart of our politics so that we don't have a situation where we're in the wealthiest city in the history of the world, and yet one in five can't even afford$2.90 for a MetroCard. Mr. President, you know, we had some interesting conversation and some of his ideas really are the same ideas that I have.

29:02But a big thing on cost, you know, the new word is affordability. Another word is just groceries. It's sort of an old fashioned word, but it's it's very accurate. We had discussions on something. I'm not going to discuss what they were, but that I feel very confident that he can do a very good job. I think he's going to be, I think he is going to surprise some conservative people, actually, and some very liberal people. He won't surprise them because they already like him. I called the president a fascist. And your answer was, both President Trump and I have been clear about our positions and our views.

29:37Are you affirming that you think President Trump is a fascist? I've spoken about. That's okay. You can just say yes. Okay. It's easier. It's easier than explaining it. I don't mind. I could not get over. Like, every time I watch back this meeting, I just can't get over it. It's wild. Yeah, I mean, we thought that he would be charmed by Zoran, but I could not have anticipated him being like, it's fine, you can call me fascist, it's all good. Like, we're best buds now, it's cool. I think Trump is charmed by him. I also think it shows Trump doesn't care about the Republican Party. And I think because going into the midterms, the plan was to try to use, Zoran was going to be like the new Pelosi.

30:17They were going to put him in ads all across the Deep South. They're like, this is why you got to come out and vote for a Republican. You got to stop communism. They want him to be the ultimate boogeyman. And Trump is like, yeah, no, I'm actually good. You know, for the Trump administration, I actually thought it was smart. You take the rising politician, you know, this new young voice on affordability. He's got this mandate. At the end of the day, like you take somebody who, you know, really understood the same forces that got Donald Trump elected. Not just I'm talking about the issues, but also the way that you get elected, being an insurgent, taking over party, beating establishment, coming in, actually reinventing campaign machinery, creating an incredible amount of buzz.

30:59It's a brand. Trump always respects that the most. And that's why I invited him, I think. And he wanted this image to try and conflate the two of them as kind of up against some sort of party establishment. I also think it reveals a couple of things also, is that the establishment Democrats clearly have much less respect from Donald Trump than somebody like Zoran Mamdani because Trump respects winners. And he also respects people who can reinvent something that is inside of an established system. This is New York City. This is one of the most machine political places in the entire world. So the fact that he prevailed is something that they had nothing but a choice.

31:34It also shows you, for Trump, is he's not wedded to party orthodoxy, and he doesn't believe a lot of this BS. I actually thought that the fascist line was, it kind of revealed the veil of kabuki from a lot of things. Like in terms of, oh yes, we call each other fascists, yes, we call each other communists, whatever. It's all in good fun, and it's kind of like the Dick Cheney funeral in reverse, where it's like, yeah, we all called him a war criminal, but whatever. It's just about a big club, and I guess he's reinventing kind of what that club means. For Zoran, I did, I mean, I don't know. I'm of two minds.

32:07I have always thought that him taking a fight with Trump would be good to his political benefit. What I thought that that meeting showed me, and this is actually heartening because I think this is a good thing, I think Zoran actually cares about doing some of the stuff that he ran on, which is awesome, okay? Because at the end of the day, if you get defunded by the feds and you just end up in all this brawl with Tom Homan, ICE, and all that, It's not going to be, you know, you're not building 200 ,000 affordable housing units. It's just not going to happen. You're going to be focused on trash, your city services, your subway.

32:40You would have huge problems, New York State. And he said, you know what? I got to swallow my pride. I got to schlep to the oval. He didn't give too much. He didn't pull a Grish and Whitmer, right? Like he stood his ground. And, you know, if you're a New York City voter, you know, I was very cynical about Zoran's ability to deliver just because, you know, I kind of thought he was like a politician. You know, at the end of the day, these guys just mostly care about what they like getting elected. But I was like, oh, man, no, he actually like he wants to do the stuff he ran on. And this is reality.

33:11Trump is the president. So you got to charm the president. You need money or the very least. You got to keep the spigot on. If you really want the subway, if you want free subway, free buses or 200000 housing units, HUD. Right. You're going to have to work massively with the housing and urban development, you know, and that agency. So I think that's what he wanted. And so, look, I don't know. Perhaps it's a vision, a new vision of leadership. It's the Scheinbaum model from a lot of the left. And I respect the hell out of him for the way that he did it. I really do. Well, your point is an important one, which is, you know, Trump was very obsequious.

33:46I mean, going out of his way in that clip we played, we have a lot of the same ideas. You know, I think he's going to I think he could make New York great again. I thought the question he got about would you feel safe living in New York City? He's like, absolutely, no problem. Emily's question, too, about are you standing next to a jihadist? I mean, that was the one that was really the most devastating to the Republican Party, and especially Elise Stefanik trying to run for governor in New York. Now, I think she was going to get blown out anyway. But this certainly doesn't help her case because they were very much trying to make him into this national boogeyman that they could use in districts across the country.

34:21Trump totally took the air out of those tires. Now, we got to say, like, I think the confrontation may still be brewing, right? This is today. They had this chummy meeting. Next week, Trump could be pissed off at Zoran and be sending in the ICE agents and the CBP and threatening their funding again. Like, I think we probably will see that eventually come to pass. But you're right about Zoran. You know, he, I believe, feels the weight of this office and the weight of the movement that he represents. He thinks very much about like the sewer socialists and the need to actually deliver. And he believes, I think, that his political project will live or die by whether or not he's actually able to govern effectively.

35:04So just through this meeting already, he's at least pushed off into the future the mass invasion of federal agents into the city, which even just that, even if the federal funding isn't threatened, then you're having to deal with that. And that's what the news is about. And it's a major problem, a major distraction from you trying to get your agenda passed. So I think he feels that very heavily. And while Trump was being, you know, was praising him and sort of contorting himself to be on Zoran's side, Zoran didn't give an inch in terms of what he viewed. He was not. He was very cordial to the president.

35:40You know, we talked about how much he appreciated the meeting, how he appreciated the opportunity for a partnership. but he didn't bend on his principles. And I think that mattered a lot in terms of how this was received. After the meeting, I thought there would be some left or some liberal like upset. There was a little tiny bit of that, but mostly people were just impressed with how he was able to handle himself. And, you know, this sense of him coming into the meeting, taking control and really sort of, you know, getting out of Trump what he wanted to get out of Trump. Zoran went on with Kristen Walker, meet the press yesterday.

36:16And there's some interesting exchanges there in particular about that moment we played where Trump's like, yeah, go ahead and call me a fascist. It's fine. Let's go ahead and take a listen to how Zoran handled that interview. Mr. Mayor-elect, just to be very clear, do you think that President Trump is a fascist? And after President Trump said that, I said yes. So you do. And that's something that I've said in the past. I say it today. And I think what I appreciated about the conversation that I had with the president was that we were not shy about the places of disagreement about the politics that has brought us to this moment.

36:47And we also wanted to focus on what it could look like to deliver on a shared analysis of an affordability crisis for New Yorkers. Yeah, I don't know. You just can't, Sagar, throw this man off his game. I don't know. I will say, internally, it makes no sense, right? Because it's one of those things that's like, well, if you think he's a fascist authoritarian, then why would you meet with him? And it's like, well, why would you try to work together on some shared agreement, right? You know, that's literally the opposite of the theory of any resistance. So in my opinion, it's kind of fake. But look, it would be fake and it would also be weak if he backed down in terms of what he said.

37:18I will just say again, I mean, what I am so impressed by is every Democrat in the country knows how to win right now. It's easy. You don't have to do shit. At this time, people are mad at Trump. They will never blame you. So you just stand up and you say, screw you, Trump. And you want Trump to go. Look at what happened to Brandon Johnson. This guy was a bum in the city of Chicago, dead. Trump saved his ass. Same with Pritzker. It's not like Pritzker was popular. This is not just an American story, by the way. You know, I've shared some of my reporting here. The president of Colombia, he's afraid that they're gonna lose the election.

37:55He is desperate to get sanctioned by Trump. Trump bailed out Lula down in Brazil with those tariffs. He screwed the Bolsonaroistos. Anywhere that Trump is seen as attacking you, it boosts your popularity. You literally didn't have to do anything. It would be to Zoran's benefit to have mass ice raids throughout the city. It would be to his benefit to get cut off. Because then you literally don't have to do anything. You could just go on MSNBC all day long and be like, oh, it's fascist, it's authoritarian. Not do nothing. Every single one of your voters will back you because they blame Trump for not delivering on the promises.

38:30This time I was like, man, wow, he actually cares. It's a rare thing in politics, okay? I've very rarely seen it. I think the Claudia Scheinbaum model is actually the model because she already had high popularity and she has one of the highest approval ratings of any world leader around the world. And the way she has handled Trump has not been to have this extremely confrontational approach. It is very reminiscent of what Soran just pulled off in the Oval Office of I'm going to stand firm. I'm not going to get pushed around, but I'm also going to do a bit of a charm offensive, right? I'm going to play to his ego.

39:06Like this is a very easy to manipulate man. And so she, I think like Zoran really wants not just to have high, you know, a decent political standing. She wants to actually deliver for the people of Mexico. And so far she's been effective in, you know, being able to do that. And Trump came in and there was all sort of bluster about we're going to bomb Mexico, we're going to invade Mexico and all that stuff. That has not happened. They have been able to have a collaborative relationship. And, you know, that has been effective for her, both in terms of her political standing, but more importantly, in terms of the goals that she has as the president of Mexico.

39:43And so I actually think that that is probably the closest model you could look at for the way that Zoran is approaching this relationship with the Trump White House. Because like you said, you have to deal in reality. He is the president. He has tremendous power. He can make your life incredibly difficult and incredibly miserable and make it impossible for you to be able to actually accomplish your governing goals. Just an aside, we could put B3 up on the screen of how seemingly smitten Trump was at this meeting. He posted, he did a photo dump on Truth Social of their photos in front of the FDR portrait.

40:21He even posted the one of Zoran just solo there in front of the FDR portrait. This one of them sharing a moment there, you know, outside. So, you know, I think Trump was suitably impressed. And Trump, like, he just can't resist the star power of Zoran. And I think you're right, Sagar, that for Trump, this actually is a good look for him. Like, you know, makes it seem he's makes him seem like he's also pragmatic, like he's not an ideologue. You know, he's sort of glomming on to the new hot thing who's put affordability at the center. He also wants to associate himself with that message of affordability.

40:58He wants to associate himself with the star outsider who's coming at the establishment, etc. I think he probably likes the idea that this kind of needles Schumer and Jeffries and Democratic leadership as well. And he doesn't really give a shit about the fact that it's actually terrible for the Republican Party because at the end of the day, Trump is interested in what serves Trump. Yeah, of course. Look, in all cases, everyone there benefited, which is why I thought it was kind of fascinating and potentially a new model for politics. I'm like, hey, I would love to see more stuff like this. Let's go put B4 up on the screen just to give everybody an example.

41:33This is a very noteworthy tweet only for kind of insiders, but this is James Blair. James Blair is a very high-level White House official. He's the White House deputy chief of staff, and he's a 24-24 political director for the Trump campaign. This guy has an office in the West Wing. And here he's quote-tweeting a piece that says, Momdani says he and Trump share a commitment to the affordability agenda. He says yes. You know why? Because they're not stupid. At the end of the day, they can look at polls. They can see exactly where the wind is blowing. And they see the problem that they continue to face on the economy.

42:05That's why Trump is going to come out with some newfangled health care plan, which it's funny. For all the GOP talk of price controls, the Trump plan as currently floated is basically telling health care companies you're not allowed to raise premiums. It basically is a price control, which I think is fine. Hey, I'm cool with it. But he basically is like, we're not going to subsidize you anymore, and you're just not allowed to raise premiums at all. That's kind of where he has pushed the Republican Party. Not just Zoran, by the way. We talked about MTG, others that are working inside of the system now currently to try and at least address some of the anger or mitigate some of the pushback that will come next November in the upcoming midterm elections.

42:48They see this as a problem for them. So, you know, it is one where I really think it's just big picture. Trump is smart. At the end of the day, he understands brand and understands the power of people who can beat the establishment and people who have something different and interesting. And he says, you know what? I want to connect myself to that. That's why he's been a political entrepreneur from the very beginning. Zoran, the smartest and easiest thing for him to do would have been to not go and to pick a fight with the Trump administration. This was a gamble. And so you do have to give it to him.

43:23He didn't pull a Whitmer holding the folder in front of his face in the Oval Office. Right? That was disastrous. It looked horrible for her. He didn't pull a Whitmer. And, you know, again, maybe I'm just the only person who's shocked to see a guy who actually wants to do the stuff that he ran on. It's been a long time. I don't really see it all that often in politics. And so that's the only takeaway. You're like, clearly, he actually cares. He wants to get some stuff done. So New Yorkers, you know, I rescind my take. Maybe you actually will get what you voted for. I'm hoping for you, all right?

43:55I want 200 ,000 more affordable units in there. It'd be awesome to see. It really would. Just because it's, I mean, how many times have we seen this show, right? And, you know, we all know Spanberger, she's not going to do a goddamn thing. Mikey, Sheryl, all these other people, they're just going to stand. They're going to grandstand. They'll do some things on the margins. But anything transformation, it's not going to happen. A lot of these Democrats. So for Zoran, props to the guy. Seriously. It took skill to navigate that. I think one other thing that I'll say, and then we can just briefly touch on a little bit of the Republican reaction, but it also shows you the power of actually having an ideology that you're committed to because, you know, Zoran knows what he's about, right?

44:35Zoran knows what his goals are. He knows what he's about. And so when he goes, his message of affordability and just relentless focus on that, and here's how I'm going to make life livable for average people, I mean, that has completely reshaped the entire national conversation. You talk about Mikey Sherrill and Abigail Spanberg. I mean, Sherrill in particular really picked up on what Zoran was successful with in New York and incorporated a lot of that language into her campaign, including some specific promises about freezing the utility rates in the state of New Jersey. Trump clearly also, now he never talked really about, he never used the word affordability.

45:18Now he is using that and wanting to associate himself with that message. And that's why so much of the conversation, the entire conversation in that Oval Office presser is around Zoran's priorities, around his ideology, around what he wants to accomplish. And so I think it does show you the power of when you actually believe in something. And when that something happens to dovetail with the interests of American people, I mean, it is just an extraordinarily powerful force. It is obviously such a powerful force that you can go from 1 % in the polls to beating a political dynasty in just a matter of months.

45:54People were pointing out that that meeting with Trump happened almost a year to the day from that video that Zoran released where he was just standing on the street and nobody knew who he was talking to people who had voted for Trump about why they voted for Trump. So truly a sort of astronomical rise that, again, I think Trump can't help but respect and that has been so dynamic and so magnetic that it has completely reshaped the national conversation to the point of now you've got the Trump White House bending to some of those realities and having to feel like they got to put on a health care plan when on the campaign trail.

46:30All he said was he's got a concept of a plan. So, you know, I'll just – we don't have to play these thoughts because we've gone on now long enough. But you had lots of Republicans who have postured about how much they hate him and how he's an Islamist and he's a jihadist and he's doing Sharia law and he's a terrorist and all of these things. And they had to invent some fake reality where he was like trembling at the feet of Trump. Jack Posobiec, who was there in the White House, who asked some question to Zoran as well, was talking about – Zoran was quivering there. It's like, dude, come on. I mean, we all saw the meeting.

47:02Like, let's be real about what this looked like. Rudy Giuliani said that he was sick to his stomach seeing Zoran in the White House. And Laura Loomer, of course, is just like having a full blown crash out because she just I mean, she's an open Islamophobe, like just like the most bigoted person against Muslims that you could possibly be. So to see her guy Trump in there incredibly friendly with Zoran, who again has been made out to be this like radical Islamist jihadist boogeyman by the Republicans, there was there were a lot of different directions of cope going on from the right. Yeah, definitely.

47:38Because look, for them, it was easy. Like this is some stuff that boomers in Alabama get very upset about, right? Like, oh my God, New York City and all of this. And so for them, like taking away that. But look, I actually think that's a good thing because running on like low IQ Islamophobia is just boring. And, you know, it's a tried and true playbook, I guess, down in the South. But it also just, you know, it goes past issues, affordability. It's like if you can't critique anything else and if you don't have a solution, which they're currently being caught with their pants down, both on the economy and on health care.

48:11Yeah, you're going to get your ass beat. And, you know, if anything, it's kind of healing American politics.

48:19What do you do when the headlines don't explain what's happening inside of you? I'm Ben Higgins. And if you can hear me is where culture meets the soul, a place for real conversation. Each episode, I sit down with people from all walks of life, celebrities, thinkers, and everyday folks, and we go deeper than the polished story. We talk about what drives us, what shapes us, and what gives us hope. We get honest about the big stuff. Identity when you don't recognize yourself anymore. Loss that changes you. Purpose when success isn't enough. Peace when your mind won't slow down. Faith when it's complicated.

48:57Some guests have answers. Most are still figuring it out. If you've ever felt like there has to be more to the story, this show is for you. Listen to If You Can Hear Me on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

49:16This 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 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.

49:55Isn'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 a** 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. I actually drop better when I'm high. It heightens my senses, calms me down. If anything, I'm more careful. Honestly, it just helps me focus. That's probably what the driver who killed a four-year-old told himself. And now he's in prison. You see, no matter what you tell yourself, if you feel different, you drive different.

50:39So if you're high, just don't drive. Brought to you by NHTSA and the Ad Council. But why don't we get to the next part? because this is the side of Zoran the operator, which may actually make some leftists upset. Yeah, yeah. So I'll give my reaction on the other side of this. But as you guys have probably been tracking, Hakeem Jeffries, who is, of course, the leader of the Democrats in the House, has a primary challenger, a guy named Shiyose, who is a DSA member. He's a leftist on the Democratic City Council. He and Zoran were close. He was a supporter of Zoran, although he did actually jump into the primary game pretty late with, I think, a joint endorsement of a couple different candidates.

51:24In any case, Zoran had discouraged him from running against Jeffries. The suspicion is that he made some kind of a deal with Jeffries to get the endorsement prior to the primary, and part of that deal was like, I won't back a primary challenger. But not only did he not back Chiyose, but he actually went to the DSA endorsement meeting to speak out against endorsement of him. So he really is like using his political capital to undercut a challenger to Hakeem Jeffries. Hakeem Jeffries has come up through politics as an adversary to the left. He has sucked in his position just like on the merits. He has not done a good job, et cetera.

52:04So Zoran got asked in this Meet the Press interview, okay, so we know that you're backing Hakeem Jeffries in this primary, but do you want to see him as Speaker of the House. Let's go ahead and take a listen to how Zoran played this. Democrats win the midterms. Do you want to see Leader Jeffries become the Speaker of the House? Yes. Okay, that was a firm, quick answer. Yes. I mean, no equivocating, no word salad, no nothing. And I mean, I guess I'll start with the positives. I'm curious to get your reaction. You can put B8 up on the screen. Zoran's intervention and that DSA endorsement probably made the difference here because you had them voting not to recommend endorsing GSA's congressional run.

52:46This was the DSA electoral working group. Total of 1 ,205 DSA members voted. 555 voted to recommend. 626 voted again. So it was a pretty close vote. Very likely, again, that Zoran's intervention made the difference here. And so on the positive side, listen, if you're going to do it, I appreciate him not doing the word salad and just saying, yes, I'm behind him. That's it. Let's move on. I understand why. I understand the logic. I think it is a similar logic as the one that leads him to, you know, go to the White House and strike up a friendly relationship with Trump, which is that he feels that the end of the day, he wants to do whatever he can and be as pragmatic as possible in achieving his agenda.

53:28On this decision, though, I don't think that the calculation really works out because Jeffries is not the president of the United States. He does not have that level of power in New York City. He cannot thwart your ambitions to that degree. And I truly believe that whether it's Jeffries or Pelosi or Schumer or any of these Democratic establishment types, first of all, they're going to try to fuck you anyway because they always do. AOC has tried playing this inside game. It has gotten her effectively nothing, really, in terms of actual concrete policy deliverables. And the only thing they really respect is when you have power and they have to kowtow to it.

54:08That's what's been going on more with Kathy Hochul, where she saw the strength of Zoran's movement. And she has had to bend to his policy priorities. So in this instance with, you know, go throwing in behind Jeffries and being unequivocal about it and trying to undercut Chiyose, I think it is I understand the calculation he's doing it doing. I disagree that this is the right approach in this case, because I think that Jeffries will respond much more to power and you will get much more of your way if he is truly having to look over his shoulder at a primary challenger and having to accommodate himself to your goals and your power.

54:44I totally agree. And let's let's lay the flip side of everything I just talked about with Trump. Trump is capricious and three runs from now he could do it all over. And so now you're actually going to have the visual of you in the oval, and you have to deal with all the problems. Now here with Jeffries. And this is the theory behind the Trump meeting and the Jeffries endorsement is one and the same. I need to work with the political system in order to get my things done. Now we talked about this before he won, and I'll revert to my cynicism. Kathy Hochul, three days after the election, what did she say?

55:11Yeah, this whole free bus thing, it ain't happening. She literally said that. She's like, it doesn't have the support in Albany, so it's not going to happen. It's like, okay, well that was one of your signature actual possible deliverables. The next one, the most difficult thing he wants to do is build 200 ,000 units of affordable housing. You're going to need federal dollars for that. You're going to need some HUD. You're going to need zoning problems in New York City. You're going to need the political establishment in New York to be defeated. And you are also going to have to bulldoze this through with multiple different political systems.

55:38They don't have much of an incentive right now to work with you. So if Kathy Hochul at the peak of Zoran, right after he gets elected, with all the buzz, is willing to come out and say, free buses, not happening. That's a problem, right? Because you're not having a lot of leverage in the political establishment. She may face a primary challenge. She still doesn't care. She's still not willing to go along with it. She does have a primary challenge from the lieutenant governor, Antonio Delgado. But that's my point. So even with the primary challenge, she's still not afraid in order to come out and say that.

56:04You've got to be afraid. I will say, though, I don't know if you saw this. She does want to – she has changed her position on raising taxes in order to fund affordable child care, which is another one of his major priorities. and maybe actually the most difficult one to accomplish. So expanding, you know, Bill de Blasio is able to expand to free pre-K. That was one that is, you know, that's a huge, that would be a huge major new program that requires new revenue. And she has signals she's willing to work with him on that. But again, I think that is because of the, you know, the power of his movement and her really reading the tea leaves about where the Democratic Party is.

56:40But, you know, so like, I get it. He doesn't want to have the relationship Bill de Blasio had with Andrew Cuomo, where they just absolutely hated each other's guts. That made it very difficult for de Blasio to govern. It really ends up, you know, putting a sort of rock around the neck of his mayoralty, even though he is able to accomplish the universal pre-K. So, like, Kathy Hochul has some genuine power and cards in this state. Obviously, President Trump does, as the president of the United States. I don't really understand what you need Hakeem Jeffries for. Yeah, I agree. Like, it may be there are things under this.

57:17I think it must be the case that there's some part of his power strike that I'm not seeing above the surface. But I don't really get what you need Hakeem Jeffries for, to be totally honest with you. And even putting that aside, again, I think playing some more hardball and showing some more strength, Like, especially when this guy, like, he barely passive aggressively endorsed you two days before the primary. And now we owe him this big debt. Like, I just I don't really understand the calculation that is going on here. Like I said, there may be things beneath the surface that I'm just not aware of that changes the calculation somehow.

57:56But I think in general, what we've seen from the left is that the approach to power has to be more muscular, showing more of the strength of the movement, showing, hey, you are going to pay yourself in your own district and have to worry about this primary challenge if you don't come more in our direction. To me, that seems like the much more effective approach to take. so I don't know. Maybe there are things going on here, dynamics, I don't understand, but I don't really understand what it is that you need so badly from Hakeem Jeffries that you're willing to just unequivocally back him, kneecap his primary opponent, et cetera.

58:33I think it's probably a backroom deal with power centers, right? Hakeem, he may not have no political popularity, he's still the freaking Democratic leader and he's got access to every billionaire in New York City who, if you wanna build housing, who owns all the housing? Who owns all the buildings? Like, you know, I really think that's the only possible explanation. If we think back to the Oval meeting, that was brokered by one of these, like, Trump-friendly real estate moguls, right? So you can see how—look, this is the problem, as I've always said, with governing New York. This is a city run by the filthy rich.

59:06Like, at the end of the day, you will have to confront that in some ways. You can go against it. You can try. I mean, they're probably going to defeat you. Or you can try to work with them, which in this case he probably is doing, in the case of Hakeem. I'll say what I think is the craziest is the DSA stuff because it's one thing to stay out of the race, which I think he should have done. I think the smartest thing would have been stay out. Don't endorse, but don't unendorse. But actively. Yeah, you could just say, listen, that's up to the voters. Bingo. Right? That's a classic thing. People do that all the time.

59:35I trust the people in New York. They're going to get to evaluate and make the decision. Right. Bingo. Nobody asked you. Nobody asked you to come out affirmatively to endorse him and then go to the DSA meeting and say, don't endorse him. I also, by the way, think this is a critical moment for the DSA because it's basically like the Republican Party in MAGA. It's like, do you work for Zoran or do you stick to your own guns? Like this is the most counter DSA thing I've ever seen is not endorsing Hakeem Jeffries' primary opponent. Like what are we doing here? I don't know. I don't understand it at all on their part.

1:00:10Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it is a real show of strength for Zoran with the organization for sure. You know, I mean, the things that I've seen are she just joined DSA relatively recently. So they feel like, oh, he's a little bit of an opportunist. He had said that he voted for Bernie in 2016. He wasn't actually registered to vote in 2016. so apparently there are a few things like that that make them a little skeptical of him but i don't know my view at this point is there's all this like oh well and then the other the other pieces i think it's a very difficult district to win like hakeem jeffries zoran won that district he did but jeffries is well liked there and apparently it's going to be difficult to win so that's the other piece so what i've heard from their perspective is number one i guess she has not been a DSA member for long.

1:01:05So like, OK, is this opportunism? You see the Zoran wave, you're jumping on it. Number two, he said he voted for Bernie in 2016. Apparently he wasn't registered to vote. Number three, the district, I think, is genuinely a very difficult one to win. Hakeem Jeffries is popular. Yes, Zoran did win it. But apparently Jeffries has a lot of standing in the district. You're going to have to win over some of those like older working class black voters that have been very difficult for leftists to be able to win. Now, Zoran won them actually in the general election, but in the primary, they were largely with Andrew Cuomo.

1:01:38So that's kind of the electoral calculus. I just, I don't, I think it's an old way of thinking to do too much of like, oh my God, can we win? Let me crunch the numbers, et cetera. There are so many left insurgent candidates coming out of the woodwork. I think it really, to me, the way to go is to back a whole slew of them. And then some of them are going to lose and some of them are going to get through. And some of them are going to get through that you would not necessarily expect because what we have going for us now on the left is that the liberal Democratic base largely agrees with us now in a way that they really didn't previously.

1:02:19They sort of bought into the project. They believe they're the strongest fighters against Trump. You know, they buy in certainly to the policy project, although that's never really been the problem. The Democratic leadership is really defenestrated and deeply unpopular with the liberal base. My view is just like, get behind as many of these candidates as you possibly can. And even if Xi Yose cannot win in that primary, Hakeem Jeffries having to worry about him, that's going to change the way he operates. That's going to change his political calculus. You can already see it with Richie Torres, who has drawn a primary challenger and is having to change some of the way he talks about Israel and tried it.

1:02:57You know, he came out right away and said, we can't have these Islamophobic attacks on Zoran. Like you can see the way he's having to accommodate him and change himself in real time to make sure that he can defeat a potential primary challenge from his left. So in my view, if you have all of these Democrats having to look over their shoulder to the left and worry about what is coming, even though many, you know, or if not most of those challenges won't succeed just because of the power of incumbency, that's still going to change your political landscape. And we see that happen on the right. I mean, that's what the Tea Party wave did, right?

1:03:35You had people who lost in the primaries, but more than that, you had the whole Republican Party having to worry, like, what is coming for me from the right? And that changed in the overall approach to politics. So that's my view of the approach here, rather than being like, oh my God, I don't know if he can win. Just get behind as many of these candidates as possible who are strong on your issues. And Chiyose is strong on DSA's issues and has been a left voice on the city council now, so has a proven track record. That's my view of how to play this moment for DSA and for the left more broadly.

1:04:10Anyone out there, you're an idiot. If you're this whole like, oh, well, he didn't vote. Shut up, all right? This is politics. It's about opportunists. Who do you think you're dealing with? You think you're dealing with like normal, well-adjusted people? No. The way that you win is to make your side politically convenient. It's like when all those neocon Republicans started calling themselves MAGA, all right? That was a victory for MAGA. Now, you know, it should have come with something like in terms of, well, then you're gonna have to change it. So that's a critique. But why do they call themselves MAGA?

1:04:40That's what the voters wanna hear. That's what you do. That's how you win. You think that everyone just Pollyanna voted for the Civil Rights Act or everyone just Pollyanna just comes around like, oh, actually, I've had a total change of art here. No. All right. They do it for political opportunistic purposes. That's how you win shit. Read a book. These people are just so pie in the sky. Honestly, that's a loser mentality. I mean, I agree. The fact that it is now the cynical political move is to be a DSA member. Like, guys, take the win. That's great. You know, that has never been the case before.

1:05:17And now you're like, I, you know, are you are adopting their issue set. You're positioning yourself in their lane. Like, I don't really care what's in his heart. You know, I care about what political actions are being being compelled. And, you know, after the fact, if he doesn't stick to his principles, if he gets elected and doesn't stick to his principles, then you can unendorse. You can back a primary challenge or whatever. Do what you need to do to discipline your people who run with your backing. But, yeah, for now, just if they're with you, be with them. Make these Democrats have to fear you and worry about whether you're going to back a challenge or against them.

1:05:56Think about this. They're like he's a political opportunist because he lied about voting for Bernie. You should be happy about that. You should want people to lie about that. All right? Come on. It's like all these Republicans who all voted for like Jeb Bush and then they lie that they've been his Trump supporter. That's a victory for Trump. Morons. All right? I don't know. Yeah. This is where. I'm not even really sure. I mean, and I also am not really even sure that it's fair with regard to Chiyose because like I said, I mean, nobody says he's always certainly been a progressive whether he's like a newish DSA member or not.

1:06:25Like he's definitely broadly on the left. So this isn't like someone who just showed up and suddenly flipped all of their positions, you know. I don't know. Learn how to win. That's what winning looks like.

1:06:41What do you do when the headlines don't explain what's happening inside of you? I'm Ben Higgins. And if you can hear me is where culture meets the soul, a place for real conversation. Each episode, I sit down with people from all walks of life, celebrities, thinkers, and everyday folks, and we go deeper than the polished story. We talk about what drives us, what shapes us, and what gives us hope. We get honest about the big stuff. Identity when you don't recognize yourself anymore. Loss that changes you. Purpose when success isn't enough. Peace when your mind won't slow down. Faith when it's complicated.

1:07:19Some guests have answers. Most are still figuring it out. If you've ever felt like there has to be more to the story, this show is for you. Listen to If You Can Hear Me on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

1:07:37This 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 and drugs So 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?

1:08:21They 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. Talking to your kids about the dangers of vaping can be hard. Getting them to listen to hot gossip is easy. So here's some drama you could share with your kid. Dude, did you hear about Cassie and Jake? No, but did you hear that vaping can cause irreversible lung damage and nicotine affects brain development? Nuh-uh. You don't need to gossip if you want to have an open conversation about vaping.

1:09:01So if you want to get tips on when and how to talk to your kids, visit talkaboutvaping.org. Brought to you by the American Lung Association and the Ad Council. All right, let's get to Ukraine. But turning now to Ukraine, some major developments over the last couple of days on a potential Ukraine peace deal. There's been a lot of back and forth between the United States on whether a peace plan is either real or not. There is officially some progress, at least for right now. The United States, the Europeans and the Ukrainians met in Geneva over the weekend. This is what the Ukrainian lead negotiator had to say.

1:09:33Let's take a listen. We have a very productive first session with distinguished American delegation. We have very good progress and we are moving forward to the just and lasting peace. Ukrainian people deserve and want this peace more than anyone in this planet. We thank our big friends, United States and personal President Trump and his team to their commitment to bring this peace. And we will continue to work today, as Secretary said. We will be working and in coming days to join proposals. And we will also will engage our European friends. And of course, the final words will be of our leaders, of the President of the United States and Ukraine.

1:10:26and I hope that we can achieve the good progress today. Okay, so that was the words from the negotiator there for the Ukrainian side. There has been so much back and forth on a peace plan. There's a European counterproposal. Let's go ahead and put the next element up on the screen. I'm going to go ahead and read from some of the most key parts of what eventually was accepted by the United States as its outline for a peace plan. Here are the key points. Number one, the size of the Ukrainian armed forces would be limited to 600 ,000 personnel. Now, this is a sticking point around the size of the Ukrainian military.

1:11:07The Ukrainians and the Europeans pushing very, very hard against this. Ukraine currently has some 2 million people in the military, 900 ,000 active duty personnel. personnel. This was specifically a part which is being requested and being pushed by the Russian side because, of course, they don't necessarily want to sign a peace deal, some end to the war, which would also keep a massive, you know, major Ukrainian military there as some sort of demilitarized zone. And then, of course, keep the war continuing and make it so that some future, some sort of conflict may break out. Obviously, that's up to them.

1:11:38They didn't necessarily have to invade in the first place. Not justifying it, just explaining from their side, but this is a a huge sticking point for the Ukrainians and the Europeans, but one that was accepted by the U.S. and was apparently requested, or at least negotiated with the Russians. Number two, this is the big sticking point too. Ukraine agrees to enshrine in its constitution. It will not join NATO, and NATO agrees to include in its statutes of provision that Ukraine will not be admitted in the future. I would say this is the biggest sticking point out of all of them, Crystal, and this is the one which is directly countered in the European peace proposal that is put forward.

1:12:15Let's go back and rewind the clock all the way to the very beginning. What was the number one reason that Russia said that they invaded Ukraine? NATO. They said, we want an assurance that Ukraine will never be in NATO. And then if you want to rewind the clock even further, it's NATO that actually invited Ukraine and Georgia to be in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in the first place, which was a huge sticking point between the U.S. and Russia, specifically NATO and Russia, about encroachment, all that. We've gone a million times through the justifications, and for the U.S. side as to why it was a good plan, we've explained some of the Russian security objections to increased NATO encroachment in their traditional territory.

1:12:59Nobody said that they should have invaded, not justifying it in that way at all, but it is a political reality whenever you're a nuclear-armed state with some 9 ,000 warheads. At the end of the day, they did invade Ukraine. And of course, it's not like their military did all that well in the first couple of years. It's only recently with brute force and manpower they've been able to achieve any military success at all. But the truth is, is we are where we are. There are probably a million or so people dead, hundreds of thousands who have been wounded, millions who have been displaced from Ukraine.

1:13:30The Russian military and the Russian people, more importantly, do not seem to care whatsoever that hundreds of thousands of their countrymen are being led to slaughter in Ukraine. They just don't care. It's kind of remarkable, honestly. It's not really something that I would have predicted. I thought it might have gone the way of Afghanistan. But they're in a much stronger position than they were in, let's say, a year or so into the war, when the ability of the Ukrainians to actually mount a real counteroffensive could have happened. Putin's point from the beginning, at least in these negotiations, has been, I'm really not going to give up much.

1:14:04Some of this territory, which I'm asking for, I'll either take it through blood or you can give it to me right now and we can stop the killing. And then we can sign some sort of overarching peace agreement. But in my opinion, the European and Ukrainian position remains delusional. You are not going to be in NATO, period. It would actually be insane to give you NATO membership at this point because parts of your country, which you claim is yours, is literally under military occupation by a nuclear armed state of foreign power. You can invoke Article 5 at any time. And, you know, there's a case, I think at least somewhat, given Putin's reaction, the Russian people's reaction and more, that NATO membership actually is just a non-starter for a lot of the Russian population, their political establishment and Vladimir Putin and their ability to continue and to fight this war.

1:14:53So what are we all going to do here? I'll just say what strikes me the most is that even this peace deal, which guarantees, gives security guarantees for the remainder of Ukraine, that that's still not enough for the European. This is the best thing you could possibly get. You're basically getting some sort of NATO Article 5 style guarantee without being inside of NATO. Yes, you have to give up part of territory which are currently under Ukrainian occupation. That's a bitter pill to swallow. I understand. I just read a testimony from a Ukrainian soldier on the front line who, look, I am cherry picking, but he was like, guys, there's nobody here.

1:15:28It's all destroyed anyways. And we're probably going to lose it in the first place. To be fair, 50 % of some Ukrainian soldiers also say that they don't want to accept the peace deal. But I don't know. I mean, this entire thing, it's a boondoggle. It's a money laundering operation of upper proportions on the Ukrainian side. insane corruption scandals that have been happening there day after day. Their own military, the average age, somewhere between 40 and 50 years old. Yes, they've stood firm, and you've got to, of course, give them credit for it, but they don't have a chance of holding any of this territory in the long run.

1:15:59You're going to lose it no matter what. I mean, it's just going to happen. The only question is how much money, how many lives, and how much longer this thing has to continue. So I really don't know. I mean, I don't really think there's a weapon system in the world absent a nuke that we could give the Ukrainians that could help them accomplish their military objectives at this point. So it's pretty delusional. Yeah. I mean, I think we should acknowledge the deal is that as proposed is disgusting and unjust based on the fact that the Russians were the aggressors. You know, it includes giving up parts of so all of Crimea, Luhansk and Donetsk, even parts that the Russians have not been able to take militarily at this point.

1:16:38Kherson and Zaporizhia will be frozen along the current contact lines, but those other regions you're just handing over to Russia. You have the limits on Ukrainian military size, and they're looking at this going, okay, but they just invaded us, and now you're limiting our ability to be able to fight back. And there's other pieces of this. I mean, the economic part of it is effectively, I mean, it's like colonial exploitation. It's certainly another effort to make billions of dollars for Trump and his family and Wyckoff or whoever else is going to get their money grabbing hands on this. It is a disgusting and unjust plan.

1:17:14Okay, now we have to deal with reality. What are the alternatives? And, you know, it may be that through the negotiations, you can make this slightly more, you know, more just towards the Ukrainian side. It's not going to be fully just. There's no doubt about that. But you can, you know, maybe you can change some of the territorial requirements. Maybe you can lift a bit of the size of the military that will be allowed. Maybe you can change some of the different terms, et cetera. This is far from a done deal. But the reality is, if you're going to end the war at this point, it's going to be a hideous deal.

1:17:48It's going to be hideous. It's going to be hideous. It's going to be unfair. It's going to be unjust. It's going to be all of those things. The question is, is the continuation of the war more hideous and more unjust? Is it going to lead to an even worse outcome? And unfortunately, I think that is where we are. Unless we're willing to go all the way in and be boots on the ground with them and go to a full-blown war against this nuclear-armed superpower, which I don't think is in the best interest of our country or the world, unless you're willing to do that, you're talking about continued horror, continued war, continued blood and death.

1:18:27And very likely, Russia ends up taking these parts of the territory that are being offered in this deal to begin with. So it's ugly. You know, it's an ugly, if we're going to end it now, it is going to be an extremely ugly end. But what's even uglier is to continue the war in this manner and just continue to bleed down an entire generation of Ukrainian men. Yeah, it's look, I get it. It's tough. And it's very easy for me to say I live in the most powerful military in a country with the most powerful military in the world. It's not up for negotiation. But that's not the case for the vast majority.

1:19:08And by the way, if you look at your own history, you are lucky to be alive. I mean, that's the truth. You are lucky that you get to remain as a polity in the first place. You have accomplished actually something quite great. You held off the Russians from taking over your entire country. It's the Europeans and the U.S.'s fault for selling you a dream that you were going to survive completely intact and you were going to take back Crimea in the first place. We got way too high on their own supply. And then the military reality of what it's like to fight Russia started to set in. That is the case.

1:19:45I mean, look, the invasion of Russia was a disaster, actually for Russia in the initial beginning. But major countries with huge industrial bases, with oil and with nuclear weapons, they can absorb some blows. This has been the history basically of the Russian nation now for over 100 years. And all of the promised hopes of destroying the Russian economy didn't happen. Creating a coup against Putin, nope, didn't happen. The only coup that they tried against him completely failed and the guy, what did his plane crash or something like that, the Wagner group, dude. Yeah, he died. So there's no organized political opposition.

1:20:21Putin threw everybody in jail that he wanted to. If anything, he solidified his control over the oligarchs who he thought were getting too friendly with the European powers. And the people are mostly with him. People still continue to join the military. They're paying out high pensions. Their economy is a war machine, and it's humming. It's doing okay. None of these promises of how they were going to end the war ended up happening. And that was basically going to be the case from day one. Also, looking at this, even from what the Ukrainians are trying to demand, look how much better off they would have been back in April if they had just taken the peace deal in the first place.

1:20:54The U.S. and the Europeans sold them a false bill of goods. By the way, the Europeans, you know, I don't want to let them off the hook here. All they want, all they want right now is to keep this war going because they need the spigot and to basically keep their domestic political crises off to the side. They want the U.S. security umbrella. The longer the conflict goes on for them, it's good because it keeps them relevant in the eyes of the United States. It keeps it a live issue. And one of the worst things that could ever happen to the Europeans is if it ends. And right now there's all of these fights between the EU and the U.S.

1:21:27about withdrawing the U.S. from the eastern flank of NATO. Like they need that to keep going. So there's a lot of self-interest that's happening here at the same time. I just want to skip ahead to C4. just don't want to let the U.S. off the hook. And this is where probably my most sympathetic take from the Ukrainians comes is, can we really trust these people? I don't know, man. Because here's really what happened with the plan. The original plan that we just showed you leaked. The U.S. confirmed that that plan was real. Some U.S. senators condemned that plan. Then some U.S. senators said that Rubio called them and denied it was the real plan.

1:22:05The White House then denied that denial. and Rubio came full circle and said, yes, it was our real plan. So there is a lot of chaos that's actually currently happening behind the scenes. And we at the very least have to acknowledge that for the Ukrainians, because they're dealing with such a capricious and chaotic administration, this is the fate of their country. And, you know, it is a bitter pill to swallow. So I understand it. And they need to get their shit together if they actually want anything to happen because I'm personally tired of all this back. Zelensky comes, then they berate him.

1:22:37Zelensky comes, now we're friends. Zelensky comes along with all of these EU ministers, and we have the whole Putin summit, and shit doesn't happen. And then we're, oh, we're going to sanction Russia, actually. So everything is all over the place. And for all the Ukrainians who are crying right now, you guys have all been here before with Trump. He could change his mind literally at any moment. So don't be too assured that any of this is all that serious. So there you go. Yeah. No, that's true. I mean, the other part is like the, you know, I mean, the cash grab disaster capitalism aspect of it is obviously also disgusting.

1:23:10You know, and that's that is one of the areas where they're at odds with the Europeans, too, in terms of how they would use these Russian frozen assets. You know what they propose in the Trump deal is basically like, you know, some portion of it will be used for reconstruction. The other portion is going to go into a joint investment vehicle with Russia. And even the portion of the Russian assets that are being used for Ukrainian reconstruction are going to be done so led by, directed by the U.S. So, I mean, listen, we know how this administration operates. It's going to be, you know, a massive enrichment scheme for whether it's Kushner or Trump's, you know, other Trump family members, Wyckoff, his family members, other allies, whatever.

1:23:52Like, we can all see how this is going to go, which is utterly disgusting, right? So let's not put that to the side. One other aspect of this saga that you alluded to, it's just important to understand the political dynamics here, too, is obviously Zelensky has pushed off any sort of elections while the war was going on, saying, hey, we're in a state of emergency, state of war. We can't have elections. We've just got to continue in the direction that we are. He is embroiled. Ukraine has long been a corrupt state. Zelensky won initially on a promise to root out corruption. So this has been a deep concern for the Ukrainian people.

1:24:24There is a massive scandal with regard to basically their atomic energy agency, goes right into Zelensky's innermost circle, does not directly implicate him, but raises a whole lot of questions about what is going on here. So the other piece is if the war ends, then you're going to have elections and you're going to have somewhat of a reckoning around the corruption scandals that have come out increasingly during this war. So that is another piece of the backdrop here of, you know, the calculus for Zelensky himself. You're exactly right. There's been huge political scandals. In fact, Tucker Carlson just tweeted out this morning the Wall Street Journal is sitting on a major corruption story for one of Ukraine's closest political negotiators and that they won't run it because they don't want to sabotage the deal.

1:25:10I don't know if he's right. You know, we'll see what the journal says. But just wouldn't surprise me is all I'll say. You can scroll the headlines all day and still feel empty. I'm Ben Higgins, and If You Can Hear Me is where culture meets the soul. Honest conversations about identity, loss, purpose, peace, faith, and everything in between. Celebrities, thinkers, everyday people, some have answers, most are still figuring it out. And if you've ever felt like there has to be more to the story, this show is for you. Listen to If You Can Hear Me on my iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

1:25:46Over the last couple years, didn't we learn that the folding chair was invented by black people because of what happened in Alabama? This Black History Month, the podcast Selective Ignorance with Mandy B unpacks black history and culture with comedy, clarity and conversations that shake the status quo. The Crown Act in New York was signed in July of 2019. And that is a bill that was passed to prohibit discrimination based on hairstyles associated with race. To hear this and more, listen to Selective Ignorance with Mandy B from the Black Effect Podcast Network on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

1:26:20This is Ryder Strong, and I have a new podcast called The Red Weather. In 1995, my neighbor, Anna Traynor, disappeared from a commune. It was nature and trees and praying and drugs. No, I am not your guru. Back then, I lied to everybody. They have had this case for 30 years. I'm going back to my hometown to uncover the truth. Listen to The Red Weather on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is an iHeart Podcast. Guaranteed human.