11/5/25: Hasan, Sam Sedar, Cynthia Nixon React To Zohran Win, Zohran Triggers Fox Meltdown

29:07It is just a crazy, insane move, especially when the guy on the other side is telling people he's going to make it easier to live in New York City. And that is what's important to the average voter who is not going to believe the guy proudly marching in the pride parade. Not to repeat myself with proudly marching in the pride parade, But is bringing Sharia law to New York City. I mean, so I don't know. Like Vivek is, I think, sort of a squirrely politician, but he's completely right on those two measures. And he's running a gubernatorial race going across Ohio right now. Those are those seem to be pretty correct diagnoses.

29:50Yeah, if he wants to push affordability into the centerpiece of the Republican agenda, that's great. That's the whole point. That's what you want to happen. Let's get both parties working on it. Maybe they can half do it. so but yeah when he's talking about woke is he talking about Israel a little bit there too like is he saying that like maybe this like constantly badgering him to go visit Israel wasn't wasn't a good move it might have been that it might have been a combination of that and referring to because Vivek finds himself in the crosshairs with the Gripers and Nick Fuentes. And so when he mentioned religion and skin color at the end, I think he is, you know, he gets a lot of this as well for his own religious background, focusing on someone.

30:46I see him getting attacked at TPUSA events for not being Christian. Yeah, he gets that a lot. And so I think my understanding of what Vivek said is probably that a lot of it comes from that. Got it. Here's how Vance reacted. So just before we went, Into this recording, J.D. Vance posted around 11 a.m. East Coast time. First of all, he said you need the Republican coalition has lower propensity. And that means, quote, we have to do a better job turning up voters than we have in the past. He said, quote, we need to focus on the home front. The president has done a lot that has already paid off and lower interest rates and lower inflation.

31:22But we inherited a disaster from Joe Biden and Rome wasn't built in a day. We're going to keep on working to make a decent life affordable in this country. And that's the metric by which we'll ultimately be judged in 2026 and beyond. That is mom Donnieism. That's what we should probably say at this point, Ryan. And point three from JD is the infighting is stupid. I care about my fellow citizens, particularly young Americans, being able to afford a decent life. I care about immigration or sovereignty and I care about establishing peace overseas so our resources can be focused at home. If you care about those things, too, then let's work together.

31:53Trump, meanwhile, has been, I don't know if it's fair to say, crashing out on social. He's like, he's having a wild one. This is how Trump has been reacting. He right away said 13 hours ago, so that would have been around 1130 p.m. East Coast time, quote, Trump wasn't on the ballot and shut down were the two reasons that Republicans lost elections tonight, unquote, according to pollsters. He doesn't cite the pollsters. Incredible post. Then he posted about the ratings of 60 minutes. And then Republicans terminate the filibuster, get back to passing legislation and voter reform, President DJT, and then pass voter reform, voter ID, no mail and ballots, save our Supreme Court from packing, no two-state edition, et cetera, all caps, terminate the filibuster.

32:44And then he said, dot, dot, dot. And so it begins, all caps. Just a lot going on in the mind of Donald J. Trump last night, Ryan. Yeah, shutdown, I think definitely hurt them in Virginia. Probably hurt them in New Jersey. So I think he's right about that. His name not being on the ballot, yeah. So, no, I think those track. Calling on a filibuster to be removed. That's an interesting one in the wake of losing elections. And every time he does that, Thune comes out and says no. he's not going to do it. Yeah, I mean, but if Trump keeps hitting the drumbeat, at first I thought it was a negotiating tactic over the shutdown, but to post that twice in the aftermath of a pretty big Dem sweep was quite interesting.

33:34I saw Stoller making, I think it was Stoller making the, he was suggesting that Trump may worry that he's going to lose the Supreme Court case. Is it today that tariffs are getting? So the Supreme Court is hearing challenge to the constitutionality of his use of tariffs because Congress has delegated tariff authority to the president but not in a blanket way where you can just do it the way that he's been doing it. You know, just on a whim and for any reason. It's got to be an emergency and it's got to be targeted. He just did a formula and slapped it on the entire world. And at least two courts have struck them down.

34:20And so Soler's theory was that he feels like he's going to need Congress for tariffs. He's not going to get it with a filibuster in place. That's interesting. The court can rule that the tariffs were collected illegally and then you have to give them back, which will be a giant mess. We're pushing like a trillion dollars. There's like insane amount of money has come in on these tariffs paid for by consumers and businesses. But it wouldn't be the consumers and the businesses that would get the rebates. It would be whatever particular company like paid the tariff.

35:08So I think the Thrill Buster thing has something to do with that. Yeah, that might. There's an amicus brief in that case that's interesting, too, that suggests Trump could use another authority for it. We'll see if he – again, like another technical authority for it. So we'll see if they lose and end up gambling in that direction. But before we move on from Mom Donnie, Ryan, well, this is sort of a bigger picture one, too. I just wanted to flag some more exit polling. This one shows, for example, young women, 81 % for Mom Donnie in New York City. Surprising young women were not coming out in droves for Andrew Cuomo.

35:5080 % for Mikey Sherrill in New Jersey. 78 % for Spanberger in Virginia. That's according to NBC's exit polls. It looked, I think I retweeted this, it looked also like Mom Donnie did well. I should be able to find it here. I saw 64%. Yeah, here it is. He was plus 40 with young men. So between the ages of 18 to 29, Cheryl was up 10 with young men. Spanberger was up 14 with young men. And Zoran was up 40 with young men. Again, that's according to NBC News's exit polling. Yeah. The Democrats keep asking themselves, how do we win men? How do we win men? And they keep being told how you win men. And they're like, well, how do we win men without doing that?

36:36Without offering any of that. The lesson is actually just you can appeal to men the same way you appeal to women, which is just making their lives better. Promising to make their lives better. Right, right, right. But is there a plan B, a C? Do you have anything else? Yeah, right. I don't think that's going to require some tax hikes on the rich and not so sure about that. And Ryan, again, I just wanted to get your take on a little something going on here. This is Frank Luntz looking at some of these counties in Virginia. He says every single county in Virginia shifted blue word tonight. These analyses in The New York Times with the arrow are my new election night favorites over the last couple cycles.

37:19So look at this, Loudoun County, which was, we were talking about this a bit last night, the battleground of the parental rights movement in the Yunkin election. That was 12 points, shift to 12 points for Abigail Spanberg, of all people, 12 points. And this is with Winsome Sears running on that full slate of culture war issues. In fact, at her victory party last night in her concession speech, Sears mentioned three things like the car tax. I think it was girls sports and not to pull a Rick Perry, but I'm forgetting off the top of my head what the other one was. I think at that point she said, oh, it was expanding the economy in that order.

38:00And it was she's she's sort of a clumsy politician. And everyone now is like, oh, she just wasn't the right candidate. But they lost in New Jersey with a pretty good candidate, too. So I don't know that it was necessarily Winston Sears. A lot of it was political headwinds. But it's amazing that a lot of what felt like the future of politics to many people during 2020 and like capital PW peak woke, it's clearly not the golden ticket of the future in politics. And when you look over here, this is Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez telling MSNBC, a lot of people are willing to talk about party unity when it serves them, but not party unity when it serves everybody.

38:37We have a future to fight for. And we're either going to do that together or you're going to be left behind. So, Ryan, the question I wanted to ask you on that is people reading the future as sort of socialist because Zoran won in New York City. But then you also have these big triumphs for like Abigail Spanberger and Mikey Sherrill, where you're persuading kind of swing voters in places like Loudoun. obviously these are blue counties that went red but you're bringing people out you're remaking the electorate in a way that it didn't look like in 2021 and obviously there are persuadable spring voters even the fact that people went out and voted on those numbers to to form this kind of electorate means that they got them off their couches and so there's there's this bifurcation of these like fantasies of the moderate democratic establishment in spamburger and cheryl and like and Alyssa Slotkin and also Mamdani.

39:34So what is the lesson that is going to be taken away? Is it going to be Zoran was a fluke? If Sliwa had gotten out of the race, it all would have been fine. We could have won with the worst candidate ever, Andrew Cuomo. Or is it going to be, you know, this is all, everything is new. Like, what's the lesson? So let me actually play some Cheryl here, because I think it's actually important to understand what she really ran on in order to be able to answer that question. So here's Mikey Sherrill. I am fighting for you. I'm fighting for affordability. I'm fighting to get your costs down. I'm declaring a seat of emergency on day one freezing utility rate hikes.

40:23I said last night, I said, you know what? I'm not playing, right? I'm not doing a 10-year study. I'm not writing a strongly worded letter. Abundance. I'm declaring a state of emergency to drive your costs down. And that's just where it starts, because as I'm looking to the budget, I'm increasing that first-time homebuyers program so you can get your foot in the door. Try to build your family's generational wealth. I'm taking on those landlords who are colluding to drive up your rental prices. Will my opponent do that? No. His biggest donor is one of those guys that's being investigated right now.

41:04So this is the fight. And at every single level, I have been willing to take on this fight and I will fight anyone when it comes to fighting for the people of New Jersey. Thank you. That's my commitment to you. Fascinating. Yes. And so back in September, Crystal and I made fun of Democrats for how poorly Spanberger and Cheryl were doing in the polls. And Cheryl continued doing poorly in the polls up through New Jersey. So we now have like Neera Tanden and all of her like mob kind of like being like, you shared this poll from September where they were not doing well. and look, now they won by a lot.

41:44Aren't you guys morons? And to me, it's like, if this is what qualifies as democratic centrism, then the left has won. And I'm glad to eat whatever crow that you want me to eat and say that, okay, yes, if Mikey Sherrill runs by saying she's going to declare a state of emergency to bring prices down in the state. She's going to crack down on landlords who are colluding to raise prices. She's going to help people buy homes. And she's going to, you know, across the board, not a long committee, across the board, she's going to immediately make affordability the thing that she's going to do. And she's going to do that by fighting against the greedy landlords and breaking them up.

42:40And she can do it because she's not taking their money and the opponents are. If that is what qualifies as democratic centrism, then Neera Tanden, amazing, wonderful. That's terrific. You got me. Welcome to the party. No, no, no. It's your party. It's your party. Let them think it's their idea. And if they run with it, great. That's the whole point. And Jayapal talked about this on the stream last night, but it's important to underscore. People like Sheryl and Spanberger actually were quite good in 2022 when it came to the child tax credit and actually a lot of the kind of climate money. And they wanted to show voters that they were doing something, that they were making their lives materially better and in particular, they fought very hard around the care economy stuff.

43:34And they lost that fight. And Democrats are much and the country is much worse off. because they lost that over in the Senate. But these are a different kind of centrist Democrats in the sense that they're actually trying to make regular people's lives a little bit more affordable and better. So it's not as if they just picked this stuff up. They were in 2022, the new Democrats, which are the offshoot of the business wing of the Democratic Party, really rallied around the child tax credit in particular. And if that is what qualifies as the right wing of the Democratic Party, then that's a total victory for the populist side.

44:18And we'll be gracious about it. Good. Wonderful. Congratulations to Mikey Sherrill. Well, maybe you'll be gracious about it, Ryan. You and Crystal will be gracious. Everyone will follow our lead and be gracious. So we're again talking about double digit wins here for Spanberger and Cheryl. So 57.2 percent for Spanberger, 42.6 percent for Sears with 95 percent of the vote in here on Wednesday morning. Jay Jones, Jay Jones, who Republicans thought they actually might beat. Even he won by what it's looking like six points. So 52.8 percent, more than half the vote and 46.8 percent for Miara's. We are looking at Mikey Sherrill at 56.2 percent with 95 percent of the votes in to Cittarelli at 43.2 percent of the votes in.

45:05And of course, Zora Mamdani right now with 91 percent of the votes in is at over 50 percent of the vote. He's at 50.4 percent. And Andrew Cuomo is at 41.6 percent. Incredible stuff, Ren. Yes, indeed. Yeah. So big night for Democrats. I don't know what kind of breaks it puts on Trump. I don't know how connected he feels to the electorate and the polls at this point. He seems to have the least amount of responsiveness of any president ever, including his first term of kind of reaction to the public will. But this is a pretty big expression of that will. So I guess we'll see. Yeah, not entirely different from what happened in 2017 or 18.

45:50And I was talking to a consultant last night, a GOP consultant last night, who was looking back on those races. And we were reflecting on how heavily they were influenced by Russia collusion narratives. But you'll remember, Ryan, health care was also a huge fixture in those elections. And, you know, Virginia, obviously, the conversation about federal workers and Doge, that's front of mind for people, so probably contributes to the easy win, even for somebody like Jay Jones in that state. But Trumpism, you know, if you're one of the professional Republicans here in Washington that doesn't believe Donald Trump should run for a third term, as even he seems to be conceding, he won't at this point.

46:25Then right now you're looking really seriously at how J.D. Vance is analyzing these election results. And you're realizing that you've got about three years left to kind of coast on MAGA, which has never worked in down ballot races unless Donald Trump, as he put it on True Social correctly, is at the top of the ballot. So that kind of artificial sugar high is coming to an end for Republicans, and they need to figure out. Winsome Sears was seen as somebody, in fact, that could be Glenn Youngkin was seen as somebody who could be Trump without – Trumpism without Trump. That could be the kind of early model for the future with persuadable voters and can keep the MAGA coalition of working class, multiracial working class coalition coming to the polls.

47:12You know, these these elections are low propensity, but that's you have to win a whole lot of low propensity elections to have national power. So that's a huge question, obviously weighing on the minds of many, many Republicans right now. Yep. Yes, indeed. All right. Well, we have so many reactions. There's nobody that you would want in your corner apart from Ryan Grimm or other than Ryan Grimm and Griffin to grab the most high profile people who are just milling about a campaign party because you guys got it's like Stefan. That's what I was thinking about last night. It was like a Stefan sketch.

47:50Like we have everyone. Lena Kahn, a star of Sex and the City, Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal. And Khan alluded last night to a role she was going to play in the Mamdani administration. She just said at a press conference that she's going to join the transition team. So that's that's going to be very good because, you know, Lena Khan is one of the most is one of the most effective implementers of the kind of populist antitrust vision. Democrats. It's one thing to, you know, write a paper about it or talk about it on a podcast. It's a whole other thing to actually go to court and go to and go to the lawmakers and put something into actual practice that combats that corporate power.

48:41And so, you know, she has been doing that and thinking about it and getting it actually done. And so if she's, you know, involved in the Mamdani transition, that's, I think, very good news. Fascinating. And so make sure that you stay tuned to hear exactly how everyone was reacting. We're about to roll this now. It is like a Stefan sketch, all of the people that you would ever imagine, and then some of the people you would never imagine hearing from. The Reggie Boys Mamdani livestream. Incredible, Ryan, and incredible that you made it home for the birthday breakfast today too. Yeah, and got him these Philadelphia Eagles Crocs in New York that are very cool.

49:25Whoa, that's awesome. Well, Packers versus Eagles coming up too. So I don't want to ruin his birthday, but you guys are going down. We'll see. We'll have to watch it again. All right. All right. Now enjoy the reactions live in the ground from the Mamdani Victory Party. This is writer 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 and a trainer 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 I could not say your name.

50:14I'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.

51:10Do you want to say anything? Hey, Naomi, what's up? Thanks for coming on. We need some happiness. We need some joy. We're going to get it. Yeah. Were you out on the streets today? Yeah. What did you say? I mean, a lot of people were very happy to have voted. I was canvassing with Jews for Zorham. Excellent. And, you know, we actually went back to the Grand Army Plaza where we had had this big action a year and a half ago outside Chuck Schumer's house, the Seder in the streets. And I had given a speech then and I had said to Chuck that the kids are with us now. And what did he say? The kids just elected.

51:53Zoran Mamdani. The kids are with you, I think. What did Chuck say to that? We're in this whole movement. And this generational divide that is ruptured over the genocide is a huge part of why it's possible for Zoran to be elected, which he will be. I know he hasn't been yet. But yeah. I mean, the other thing that I tried to convey in the canvassing I've been doing the past couple days is just like, even though these disgusting ads are all about fear of Mamdani, it's actually fear of the coalition. It's actually fear of what becomes possible when people connect across divides. So that was my like, I feel that, you know?

52:29Yeah. Were regular people coming up to you or were you mostly just going to the doors you were supposed to do? like we were we were outside of a polling a polling place like a voting place so um people were talking to people as they went in as they came out yeah yeah i mean people who voted for zoram were very happy to talk about how they voted for him or were going to vote for him people who didn't were like fair enough yeah i didn't get into any arguments excellent what about you what did you see today uh i i i have only been here for a couple hours um but everybody everybody i talked to was like oh yeah i vote for that guy or i voted for that person or like ignore like just regular people on the street yeah um yeah i think and they were saying like i think he's gonna win like by a lot they were pretty so yeah am i correct in saying chug schumer said he didn't say who he voted for and who do you think he voted for i think he fucking voted for bulma yeah i think no doubt about it yeah i think he should resign i mean if new york overwhelmingly elects duran what do you think what do you think he did he's supposed to represent the city right what do you think he did that that bernie didn't do he managed to basically you know change the electorate and bring people out and excite people who hadn't been involved in politics before.

53:54Bernie didn't quite pull that off in 2020. Why do you think, is it because it's a concentrated media market and he was able to reach more people more directly? Going from state to state in the primary caucus system, it's like you go to a state, you have no idea there's an election going on. And it's just all of a sudden on a random day on August 5th or whatever. I think he would be the first person to say that he is part of a lineage, a part of a movement, that what he's doing wouldn't have been possible without Bernie. I think that part of what it means to not be the first to try is that there is more of a sense of play, more of a sense of actual joy, having fun.

54:41And I think the fact that people in New York channeled all of their fear and rage about Trump into electing Mamdani and doing it in the spirit of being like not just anti -fascist, but the antithesis of fascism, like in terms of fascists want uniformity. fascists want this like like intense discipline and the whole campaign was about celebrating the cultural and linguistic diversity of the city was this love letter to the city it was about like hey like let's not be afraid of cities they're actually kind of incredible they can be better yes but they're amazing and there's I think in the face of so much like anti-urban rhetoric coming from Trump it was really about time for New York to fall back in love with itself it really did come across that Zoran loves New York City And it really also looks like Andrew Cuomo really dislikes New York City.

55:37Yeah, and all the billionaires who are threatening to leave. Right, vote for us or we're going to leave. Right, they have no commitment to this place. Whereas his whole campaign was like, I love this city enough that I'd like to be able to afford it and stay. And stay with my family and stay with my community and friends. Like, it's the polar opposite message is. So I love that, you know. Like, fuck, like, you know, the people who want to blast themselves into outer space and build their bunkers and just extract from cities and extract from humans. Like, yeah, it was so sharp, that delineation.

56:08So, yeah, I think it was it was different. Yeah. Yeah. But Curtis Lee, too. He seems to authentically love New York. We'll give we'll give I like a true New York character. Yeah, for sure. Yeah. Anyway, good to see you guys. Yeah. See you too. Yeah. Yeah. Former gubernatorial candidate. I'll hold the mic for you. Cynthia Nixon. Welcome to the Dropsite and Breaking Point stream. So were you out canvassing today? I was in rehearsal today, but my wife was canvassing in Washington Heights. What accounts for this victory? What accounts for this victory is Zoran Mamdani, who is, you know, a once in a generation leader and the movement that he has built, 90 ,000 volunteers.

56:54But also that he is we have finally found a way to show the Democratic Party we can actually offer an alternative to MAGA that makes us the party of working people again. And not just saying, vote for us, we're not Donald Trump, but actually vote for us because we're offering you concrete things that are going to make your lives better. One thing that he seemed to do in the immediate wake of the primary was consolidate a lot of the institutional democratic support in a way that was almost surprising. Like the labor unions and others who Cuomo had kind of had a stranglehold on for a very long time.

57:35he was able to say, no, no, I won the primary. And what did he do, as far as you understand, to be able to do that? Because if those institutional forces stay on the sidelines and then move over to Cuomo, maybe you have a different race. I mean, I wish that the leaders of the Democratic Party did that. But I think in terms of the unions and that more institutional support, I think they got into a room with Zoran and they watched what he was able to do in the primary. They watched how he was able to mobilize and inspire people going from 2 percent, almost no name recognition against a multi-term dynastic governor.

58:19And I think, you know, people are skeptical about Zoran. It's hard to be skeptical once you get into a room with him and you talk to him. Kathy Hochul said recently that she heard the people at the rally saying tax the rich, but it's going to take more than one energetic rally to change her mind. What is it going to take to change her mind? Because he's going to need her in order to get a lot of his agenda done, but I would assume that she's going to need him as well. Yes, I think that Zoran needs all of us to make his platform a reality, But I think it's very important to the older generation of Democrats to actually see the writing on the wall and seeing finally we have a way of offering people something that is going to invigorate the party.

59:08And I think you ignore the writing on the wall at your peril. Did you last thing from me? When you were watching the campaign, was there anything where you were like, damn, wish I'd have done that?

59:22No, I mean, you can't. You can't compare me and Zoran. You just can't. Different ballgame. Totally. Yeah, yeah. We had another question from another team member. Emily asks, do you think audiences respond to Gilded Age like they respond to Zoran? The parallels between that time and now. I mean, I think the thing about the Gilded Age, it's a beautiful show. And it shows a lot of the glitter of the Gilded Age. And I think we're living in another Gilded Age. And I think that Zoran is laying bare kind of the horrors of an era like the Gilded Age that we're living in now, where there is so much income inequality and people cannot put food on the table or get health care.

1:00:11Well, Cynthia Nixon, thank you. So last one. I remember you were also at AOC's 2018 primary night victory. How do you compare that night to this, Zoran's primary night to this night? I think it feels very the same. I think it's all in a line. And I think, you know, the granddaddy of us all is Bernie Sanders. And we are all Bernie Sanders' children. And I think AOC's victory was improbable and magical in the same way that Zoran's is. And I think that we are just going to keep going. thank you so much back y 'all oh my god I'm so starstruck guys I love the guild age I self identify as a Miranda seeing her on our screen I was like holy shit I can't believe this I love you Cynthia I know you can't hear me I love you thank you for all the great memories congressman Jayapal great to have you It's great to be with you.

1:01:20It's a good night. Yes, it is. So there's a bunch of stuff we wanted to get from you. But first of all, just your reaction to Zoran Mamdani being the next mayor of New York City, overcoming this sort of cabal of billionaires and Donald Trump backing Andrew Cuomo to secure victory and looking like he's probably going to hit that 50 percent mark, too. It certainly does. And it is a great night to watch that race, to watch that campaign and to see the win. And he texted me earlier today and I said, you know, you've really transformed politics and the coalition that we knew could be built and on the agenda that is really going to deliver for working people.

1:02:00The turnout is spectacular. and I think that the you know the whole way in which he ran the campaign the way in which he stood up for his values the way in which he didn't leave anybody behind he brought everybody in the way in which even after the primary he was continuing to bring in new people despite the absolutely horrific horrific uh Islamophobic just I mean just it's hard to even watch that happening And it wasn't just from Republicans. It was also from Democrats. And I think that hopefully his win tonight resets the table and brings up all of the ways in which we as a Democratic Party have to continue to work and make affordability center, but also make justice for everybody center.

1:02:49Yeah. I mean, what do you make of Senator Schumer in particular refusing to back him, refusing to say whether he'd vote for him when his opponent is endorsed by Donald Trump and had to resign in disgrace, by the way? And also, by the way, also lost the Democratic primary by 12 or 13 points. So, you know, what is your what is your message to him? What do you make of that decision from him? I just think it's absolutely unacceptable. And I think that, you know, everyone should have come on board quickly, enthusiastically. We've been saying we want a candidate who can, you know, we want to, as a Democratic Party, be able to bring back working class voters, be able to focus on affordability, be able to bring in new people that haven't voted.

1:03:35Zoran Mamdani did all of those things. And I think that we will see the reckoning will be later for Senator Schumer and others. I think Kathy Hochul did it the right way. I think it was really important that, and she appeared with him several times, I saw, despite some pushback to her being there. But I think it is important. We are always told as progressives that we've got to unite around the Democratic nominee. That's what should have happened in this case as well. And can you talk to us a little bit about the Seattle mayoral race? We understand there's an insurgent candidate out there. We have an East Coast bias here that we acknowledge that we work against.

1:04:20Help us out. There's a big race going on where you're from. Yes, there's multiple big races. I mean, I think it's really important that we don't take just Zoran Mamdani's win, which is unbelievable, exceptional, has energized all of us, but that we actually look at what's happening in places across the country. And, you know, we had some backsliding in Seattle over the last couple of elections where we got a Republican city attorney in, unfortunately. We split progressive votes and a Republican made it into the city attorney's race, and it has not been a good thing. We got a very conservative Democrat in who served as council president and really pushed a lot of progressives, frankly, out.

1:05:03The council in Seattle became much more conservative. And so now what we have tonight is a number of very important races. The mayor's race is going to be very important. Katie Wilson, Transit Riders Union founder, has worked on a lot of really important progressive policies and got in late into the race, didn't get in until the spring and really built something, I think, inspired by Zoran, but also inspired by the work that she has done as an organizer. And so I think that this is, I do think this will be a closer race, but I think she has a really good shot of winning. And I think on top of that, we've got the city attorney's race where we have a fantastic candidate that I've endorsed.

1:05:51Erica Evans is running and I think is going to win and is going to win big, I hope. We also have the president that I mentioned, the council president, former council president that I mentioned, who's running for reelection. I think she's going to get pushed out with a big win from Dionne Foster, another really strong progressive who's been organizing, got a lot of our tax the rich, you know, tax fairness reforms on the ballot, was working as an organizer for years. And we are re-electing to a full term, a seat that was, we just won a year ago as a fill-in election, but now to a full term, a wonderful progressive candidate named Alexis Mercedes Rink, who has already done in one short year kind of a remarkable job on really turning the city council back towards a progressive lane.

1:06:43So all of those races really good. And then on our King County race, this is this may be another close race, but I've endorsed Girmay Zahilai, who is worked on hunger as an organizer a long time ago, is a lawyer himself, is on the King County Council, but running for the first time in 16 years for the King County executive seat. And Girmai is a refugee who came here when he was three years old. He has been a staunch advocate for immigrants and refugees. And all of these people together are going to allow us to stand up to Trump and stand up for progressive policies as Seattle has done for so much of our history.

1:07:23Um, it's been a very good night for Democrats across the board, sort of regardless of ideological leanings. You know, I have more centrist candidates like Abigail Spanberger, Mikey Sherrill doing very well in Virginia and New Jersey, securing those races. You know, you had two statewide races in Georgia go overwhelmingly Pennsylvania Supreme Court justices just kind of across the board, really, you know, democratic sweep. And, you know, I think a lot of this has to do with backlash against Trump, but I'm just wondering what your sense of the reaction from the electorate is and why this was such a big night and so many big wins for Democrats in states and different ideological leanings kind of across the board.

1:08:04Well, I think it just shows we don't have to have just one kind of Democratic candidate, right? We can have a number of different kinds to build coalitions for different races in different states and that we need everybody and that there are lessons to learn from New York City about how to energize a very diverse coalition, bring young people back in with an excitement that we haven't seen, but also from Virginia and from New Jersey, where both Mikey and Abigail, who I served with in Congress, and actually if you both remember the Build Back Better struggles pretty well, they were both very, very essential in pushing for universal child care here in the House during that whole debate.

1:08:47They were part of the moderate group that we reached out to as progressives and said, hey, let's be in this together. And they stuck with us. In fact, Mikey was on education and labor with me and really pushed back against attempts, even within our own party, to go for less than universal child care. And so I think that both of them did in different ways and to different extents, focus on affordability and on really popular populist policies that raise wages and that, you know, elevate working class struggles. And so, yes, it's not, you know, they're definitely running on a much more, in their words, pragmatic vision.

1:09:28But I would say that their policies, actually, many of them reflect the focus on affordability that Zoran, I think, really elevated and made so clear had to be central to any win anywhere in the country. That is true. There was this unusual for the Democratic Party shift where in 2022, it was the centrists and the kind of what would traditionally be called more of the corporate wing of the Democratic Party were pushing the party, saying, oh, we need some wins here on affordability, and particularly when it came to the child tax credit and other things. That was unusual, whereas in the previous cycles, it would be that wing of the party would be pushing for deficit.

1:10:13We've got to cut the deficit. We've got to cut taxes and that typical rhetoric there. Back on the Mamdani campaign, I'm curious, did you ever talk to leader Hakeem Jeffries, who he endorsed Mamdani a day or two ago, but kept getting asked and kept holding out and kept kept very reluctant yeah did you did did he talk to any of the progressives in the house about what's going on here or what like he was just i didn't how embarrassing is this yeah i mean i didn't speak to him about it um you know i know he represents brooklyn right um and it's one of the areas that mom donnie did so incredibly i think i got that right but you know one of the areas that mom donnie did so incredibly well in and i don't know what was going through his mind And I know other people in New York were talking to him.

1:11:03I was not one of those people. But I think that, you know, this is this shouldn't be a question. And I think it just goes back to, you know, the fact that there are big donors who didn't necessarily want Mamdani complicated politics with some of the New York Democrats. Unfortunately, I think that was really also outrageous to have Democrats saying, we don't, you know, we don't want we don't want that kind of person in our party. And I'm calling him a jihadist. Yes. I mean, I just think that all of that is, you know, we don't forget it, but we allow the victory of tonight to make our point very clearly that that Zoran Mondani is a remarkable candidate that we all should be celebrating.

1:11:51and that is helping the Democratic Party to rebuild itself. I mean, it's quite a contrast between, you know, what you just said, which is, listen, we got to have all kinds of candidates. We all got to work together. And I had a great relationship with Abigail Spanberger versus, you know, when you see a Hakeem Jeffries, a Kirsten Gillibrand, a Chuck Schumer, a Dan Goldman, who are saying, actually, no, we don't want we don't want the Zoran Mamdani of the world. We don't want to. We're not going to endorse them, even though the voters back them. We're not going to even say that we're willing to vote for them.

1:12:22We don't want that part of the party at all. So how do you, in a sense, unify with a group of people who are saying effectively, like, we don't want you? Well, I'm glad that Hakeem endorsed, that Leader Jeffries endorsed Zoran. I think that, you know, there were complicated dynamics there. But I want to be clear, like, I'm happy to say I don't want to be in the same party as Kyrsten Sinemarjo mentioned, right? I do still think that there is a need at some point in our country, in our country's future for multi-party democracy. Why not? You know, because I think that at the end of the day, you know, what we have right now is essentially a two-party system.

1:13:03and Bernie Sanders, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Zoran Mamdani, me, Greg Kassar, Maxwell Frost, we are all pushing very hard to really build up this part of the Democratic Party and stiffen the spines of others. And I think that the way we've held together, I will give Hakeem Jeffries a lot of credit for holding the House together on the shutdown vote, as an example, last time and this time and really pushing. We want to encourage that. And we want to make sure that we continue to show that our policies and our way of working is the right way to work, not one that, you know, tries to say the Democratic Party is only good if it represents moderate conservative establishment Democrats or independents.

1:13:50No, we actually need 90 million Democrats that didn't vote in the last election to or 90 million people that didn't vote in the last presidential election to come out and vote. And they're not going to be inspired by just the regular old same old, same old. They'll be inspired by some of the candidates we're seeing right now. And the way I see it, and I'm curious for your take on this, is that a night like this, with Zoran Mamdami winning so thoroughly, he's doing a huge favor to the Democratic establishment. I'm not telling you anything you don't know. There is an enormous amount of rage among the Democratic base and among independents at everything, but also at the Democratic Party itself.

1:14:33And what Mamdani is doing here and what Graham Plattner are doing, Maine and others are doing, they're finding a way to channel that energy and answering the problem that people have with Democrats, which is that they don't stand for anything, with here's what we stand for. Here's here's how you can channel this anger and this this rage into something hopeful and organized in another direction. So the reason I say they're doing them a favor is if they don't do that, what's what's plan B or C from from the Democratic Party establishment? What like an honest question, like what what are they going to do with all this anger?

1:15:12I really don't know. I mean, I just think that there is no answer other than to make sure that we are actually bringing people in, listening to them and standing up and fighting for them. And by the way, that doesn't mean just holding performative votes where you say, oh, it was a 60 vote threshold, but we voted for it, but we can't get it done. No, it means standing up and fighting for the things that we say we want to deliver and bringing everything we have to that fight. Because you're right, Ryan, those people will go the direction of the 90 million that didn't vote. And one of the most hopeful things tonight for me, whether it's in Virginia, whether it's in Maine, whether it's in Pennsylvania, in New Jersey, or in New York, or hopefully now in California with Prop 50 and with right here in Washington state, is that people are engaging again.

1:16:06They are actually believing that their vote matters and that democracy matters. And the only way we fight authoritarians and dictators and fascists and all the things that we are fighting right now is if people are engaged and if they they will only engage if they think their vote matters. And if they think that we want to listen to them and that we want to fight for them and that we're going to do something different than what we've done before. And so I just I feel, you know, I feel I'm kind of a hopeful, optimistic person in general. But tonight has really renewed a lot of my faith that if we just listen and if we actually fight for people and if we actually give a proactive, positive proposition vision, not just an opposition vision of what we're going to stand up for, we can bring people back in.

1:17:03And, you know, and that has to be a respect for all voters, all voters, not just not just the suburban, you know, independent or conservative Democrat or, you know, so-called moderate Republican, but actually our base of people that that wants to believe in us if we give them something to believe in. So Congressman, my last question for you, and I really appreciate your time this evening, is if you have visibility on the shutdown, I saw some news that some senators may be moving in the direction of caving. Do you have a message for them? Do you have a sense of some sort of deal or negotiations that may be coming together?

1:17:44Well, look, I just think that it is really important that we continue to hold the line. We have a president who today tweeted out that he was not going to listen to a court order ordering him to release SNAP funds. Now, his press secretary walked it back, but he hasn't. And we still have right now Americans who are looking at their health care premiums and making a choice about whether they're going to just get off of health care, which many of them will decide to do, so that they can pay for their medication or for their food. We have people right now who are going hungry because cruelty is the point from this Republican Party.

1:18:20And so the only way you fight a bully is not to cave, but to actually hold out. And most of the federal employees that I've talked to, I know this is a very tough time for people who are hungry, people who are, you know, losing paychecks, who are working without a paycheck, furloughed, all of those things. I am still hearing from people, you know, help us get food, get food into the food banks, all of that, but don't cave. Because if you cave, the minute we go back to work, he could just slash another several hundred thousand jobs the way he did before the shutdown ever started, 250 ,000 jobs that were slashed.

1:18:58And so I really do think that what we need to do is make Republicans come to the table to help us save healthcare or to, you know, agree to our demand to save healthcare, to restore SNAP. And yes, then we can reopen the government. Last one for me, you mentioned Maine. What is your, I'm sure you've been watching from afar, this, the fight going on in Maine between Janet Mills and Graham Plattner. How do you, how do you, how are you thinking about that, that race? And what have, what have you heard just from your, your colleagues who are kind of following the news there? You know, I haven't been that engaged on the Maine race.

1:19:39I would like to get to know Graham Plattner. I just haven't engaged on that. I will tell you that there are a bunch of candidates across the country that the CPC PAC, which I co-chair with Maxwell Frost and Greg Kassar, that we are looking at that we're super excited about. And I think that this is an opportunity. In some cases, we will have to figure out how we defeat the AIPAC candidate, Right. How we how we don't split progressive votes so that we end up with somebody who is not progressive on any realm or progressive except for Palestine or whatever it is. And so I think that these are going to be some some tough things that we're going to have to go through.

1:20:18But I also think that we've got some exceptional candidates that are stepping up that really have the opportunity to win. And we're excited that I think we'll have Christian Menifee is going to win his race in Texas. He's going to go to the runoff, I should say, which is great. And we have a couple of other races that we're watching closely. And I also think that the Prop 50 race is the Prop 50 initiative is is just really, really important because it shows what can happen when you refuse to accept what they're telling you is your new reality. Right. Right. Yeah. I think that's a great point. Yeah.

1:20:54And now you look and I think Missouri just dropped their redistricting plan. Right. So and we we saw Kansas. I think Kansas, at least what I saw was Kansas. But yeah, you're right. It was it was Kansas. My apologies. It was Sharice Davids. That's right. So I think that's really, really important. And so that's just another thing for us to remember is whatever seems like it's the reality today does not have to be the reality tomorrow. Yeah, very true. Well, Congressman, thank you. Congresswoman, thank you so much for your time. We really appreciate it. Thanks for having me on. Good to see you guys.

1:21:35Yeah, our pleasure. You too. Take care. For people who are new to this, which I doubt there are any, there was one of the most ridiculous debate moments ever where Andrew Cuomo says he won't even. Put this in your left ear. The debate moment was he won't denounce Hamas or Hassan Piker. And that was the thing that actually happened. I will not denounce Zohra Mamdani, but Zohra Mamdani will denounce me. under under the under the un charter occupied people have a right to a son piker it's true it's true people get so mad hi christmas hey how's it going um in fairness he he condemned your comments not necessarily you as a human being i will say well it's a tricky situation because like everything that they're saying about me they get kind of say about him too so it's like you know because he's also a 34 year old muslim socialist like let's be real The reason why they were attacking him was because, like, you know, it was Islamophobia.

1:22:40Yeah. So it was a unique predicament. But I like to see the silver lining where, like, I tanked it for Mahmoud, his dad. Like, instead of them focusing on his dad and his academic work, they had to focus on me instead. Yeah, there was a rich vein they could have tapped with his dad. If they would have gone after his dad, there's all kinds of stuff there. Yeah. I mean, don't give them more off. Well, it's over now. It's too late. Brian can't stop being a journalist. That's right. So how long have you been here? Have you been out canvassing or what's been your situation? No, no. I just got in. I got in for CricketCon originally.

1:23:18I'm going to D.C. I think Zoran's about to deliver a speech, I suspect. Oh, no. Cuomo's conceded. Bitch. Cuomo. Very sad. But, yeah, I came in for Crooked Con in D.C., but I was like, I got to see this happen in real time, you know? So I showed up. Was this the first race that you were mentioned this much? Yes. What was it like? I hope it's the first and last. No, it's the beginning. I don't like it. I don't like it at all. I actually hated it, as a matter of fact. because, look, I got a lot of haters. I don't like being the, contrary to what people might think, I don't like being the center of attention because I'm just a megaphone the way I see myself.

1:24:10I try to offer a platform to people that I think are doing right. And that's what I did with Zoron. And it's obvious that I have some high-profile big donors that are not exactly fond of what I have to say. And I think a lot of it has to do with Israel, if we're being real. I think it's mostly to do with Israel, as a matter of fact. Hassan, I was just going to say, did you see they're trying to denaturalize Zoran? They're trying to deport him, all the things they threaten you with. They're also trying to threaten to use the 14th Amendment to keep him from being sworn in. How serious do you take that kind of stuff?

1:24:53I mean, you have to unfortunately take everything that this administration is saying is a joke seriously, because what they test out as jokes sometimes do become serious policy provisions. But I think that Zoran has the people's backing, so it's going to be quite difficult to do that in a very high profile manner. It's just it's just another battle that we have to fight. it is what it is but unfortunately that's what this administration is entertaining it's very dangerous but uh we will push back you and you've watched a lot of these candidates when did you notice that he was going to do something different than the traditional kind of progressive populist candidate and like what did he do right that others missed i got a lot of friends in the dsa out here i got a lot of journalist friends who hit me up and was like this guy's the real deal and he was at like one percent at that point I was like I don't know who this guy is but he's handsome he seems nice it's a long shot but I'm always gonna be on board if someone is out there putting working class politics first and foremost at the center of their campaign I'm always gonna be there by their side and I'm really glad I did because I mean look Look what can happen when you do center the working class in your policy, in your politics.

1:26:19It's good politics and it's good policy. It is, and this is kind of an obvious point, but it's crazy walking around this city today, riding through the trains, taking in the massive size of this city, and then knowing this guy is going to be the mayor of this. That's right, baby. We're doing white boy jihad. We're doing woke sharia. The Islamic caliphate. Well, I guess that's more like a sunny thing. I'm just, as a Sunni Muslim, I assume he's going to do the caliphate. But I don't know. He's a 12-er. So who knows? I don't think so. Yeah. Who knows? There is division, as Andrew Cuomo correctly pointed out.

1:27:00There is big division. That's right. Amongst the Muslim masses. He says Zoran is divisive because he's not a real Muslim because he's a Shia. Yeah. That was crazy. That was. maybe he's been hanging out with what's his face? Ahmed Shara or whatever. No, no, no. He's been hanging out with fucking Jolani. Oh, yes. Yeah. Jolani's like, yeah. We've got Cuomo's speech right now happening. He's got nothing we need to hear. Let's be real. I'll watch it later. I hope he can suck my entire dick, Andrew Cuomo. That's what I have to say to Andrew Cuomo. Suck my dick from the back, bitch. you fucking failed because you're a dumbass loser who spent the last three weeks of your fucking stupid ass campaign being like oh this twitch streamer he's the mastermind behind 9-11 i was fucking 10 years old bitch fucking stupid ass motherfucker he lost twice he failed twice yeah failed twice oh my god he won how delicious and then failed twice running against a muslim Socialist candidate you have to hang your head in shame.

1:28:08You can't ever run ever again You can't even be the fucking dog catcher. You're done. You're done. What do you think he does next? I don't want to say I don't want to say I hope he does next You think the full right wing turn? He's helping with the lawyers on that, right? Yeah, I hope he has the same fucking performance that he showed here on the ICC court case who's a defense attorney dumbass loser and fuck all the billionaires and millionaires that fucking burned millions of dollars on this fucking campaign oh suck my dick oh my god it feels so good maybe uh maybe cuomo can get arrested here that the new york post reported that a million new yorkers are ready to leave the city did you see this article yeah i did i hope they're ready to flee we're gonna see the airport tomorrow olivia reingold with the free press came up to me was I was like, that's my article.

1:29:02I was like, really? Was that Olivia here today? Were you as proud? Yeah, she is here. Olivia Reimel is here. Were you as proud of that one as you were when you denied the starvation in Gaza? Yeah. A million people are going to leave the city, but they couldn't be bothered to vote for Cuomo? Yeah, I hope they're going to pack up their bags. They're going to sell their place. They're going to leave the city. I'll buy it all. I'm the wealthiest socialist in America. I'll buy it all. I'll buy all of them. And I'll give it to the people. Wait, Olivia Reingold is here? Isn't this like the least safe place for her?

1:29:35You know? It's just, she's so brave. Right. She's so brave. She's in the lion's den. In the lion's den of Sharia law. Incredible. Yeah, woke Sharia. Wow. Well, if she's watching, she's welcome to come join the stream. Of course. Thank you so much for having me. Drop site news, baby. It's the best. You guys are the goats. Appreciate you, baby. 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 and drugs.

1:30:16No, I am not your guru. And back then, I lied to my parents. I lied to police. I lied to everybody. There were years, writer, 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 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.

1:30:59All right, so Zoran just gave his speech. We're bringing Julian here. We've got Julian here. What's going on, Julian? Julian is a speechwriter for Zoran Amdani, helped craft this one. And we were just talking briefly. I noticed some rhythm rhyme meter that was a little bit like, stylistically, not the substance, is societalistically reminiscent of Obama in Iowa. And you were saying, yeah, they're actually, you did. Because they're, like, I covered Obama. I'm an old man. Say yourself. Old man. And he made a lot of promises. Yeah. And the one the Republicans made for him for, this will be the moment that the seas begin to receive.

1:31:42Sure. And this will be the moment, this is the time. I noticed what Mamdani said, we're going to look back on this which we've done a lot earlier. Starting in 2008 when you could have started doing it but you didn't. Tell us a little bit about the speech that he gave tonight and why he gave it. Thank you. First of all, this campaign is one built on a change that we haven't really seen the likes of a generation now at this point. On this campaign are those who grew up in the era of Obama. So we learn to speak, how to communicate, but also how to express hope through political presence. And some overlearned it.

1:32:25You've got Democrats like Josh Shapiro, for instance, just sound exactly like Obama, but it's like you're not Obama. So it's weird. Well, I think one of the takeaways from this campaign, the success of this campaign, is that if you have only the style, that's not enough. You need the style and you need to pair it with the substance. and he has a rhetorical ability, he can get these oratorial heights that very few can and he's not doing it by trying to imitate the cadence, which is like, I would say, like a later way of hitting these heights. But he's trying to speak in this inspirational language and simultaneously offer this message of change, this message of hope that is deeply rooted in material, tangible improvements.

1:33:06And I think those two together are why we've seen a city that has come alive and really believe in a movement. I want to explore this idea because the hope and the passion that people had for Obama in 2008 and the aspiration that people had. This is the moment where we're going to turn the tide. We're literally going to turn the tide back. And it ended with such a disappointment. But without that hope, he almost discredited the idea of hope. But Mamdani tonight, hope is alive. So how do you balance that? Because there's so much cynicism. You hear hope, you hear Obama. But if you don't have hope, then there's no point in going door to door, knocking three million doors.

1:34:02I mean, hope is truly the most powerful thing. And it has carried this campaign through moments of immense doubt and moments where everybody was saying it's not feasible. But I think there's another parallel, too, which is that Obama came up really, you know, not at the start, but by the end, at the heart of the financial crisis. And this campaign right now, we are in one of the darkest moments in American history. We're in what some would call a perpetual constitutional crisis. and Obama offered this hope that resonated because people were sick of this broken system, just weighing them down and not offering the solutions to this incredible just trash heap of failure.

1:34:39And I think Zoran is the same, right? We have so much just like clear and obvious disappointment in front of us. We have elected leaders who are so clearly bought and paid for. We have legislation sitting there waiting to be signed that people will not sign. And it's almost like we're speaking different languages. And here comes Ron and he speaks in a way that people understand and resonates and has clarity and is straightforward. And I think, you know, it's a similar appeal to Obama. Obama spoke. It wasn't flowery. It was just this really truthful, heartfelt, direct way of resonating. And so to you, what are the key?

1:35:14What was he trying to get across with that speech? That speech? I mean, I think fundamentally it is this question of what is possible in America and who can make it possible. You know, he gave a speech last week at the House of Justice, Reverend Sharpton's center.

1:35:36And it was about the American straight history who have shepherded in freedom. Right. So Reconstruction and the New Deal. And it's not just asking government to do more. it's people insisting in wielding their political power. And I think we've seen that here today, right? Nobody thought this was possible in December. Nobody thought this was possible in February, but it was truly the people who overcame, you know, a shortage of endorsements or unions going the other way. And ultimately, these are institutions that are designed to respect and to follow what the people want. And I think the speech was saying the people have brought us to this point, this new age, as Nehru says that we're ushering in, didn't happen by accident happened because millions of New Yorkers or at least over a million New Yorkers manifested it.

1:36:20And yeah, because the Obama thing remains interesting to me because Obama was, you know, accused of being a socialist. Unfortunately, he was not. Sure. Accused of being born in Africa. Sure. Either way, he wasn't like it's kind of neutral. That's a neutral judgment wherever you're born accused of being a muslim zaron is zaron is guilty of everything that is and i think the other part is there's no apology right so often in our politics today there is a reflexive apology and i never want to compare ourselves to trump because i think there are no analogs but i do think that one thing trump does well is he never apologizes and so he's never on the defensive and i think that there are many who have sought to attack zaron for things he's not guilty of and a lesser politician who is less you know secure in their beliefs would have settled or would have apologized, would have bent over.

1:37:11That's not who Zoran is. And I think that's the success of this campaign. It's a fearlessness. It's, I'm a socialist. I'm not going to say sorry for being a democratic socialist. It's what I believe. And here, let me explain to you what I believe, but not from a defensive crutch. And also, just to break the fourth wall here,

1:37:34Mamdani and independent media are collectively like kind of moving into another area uh and moving into another era where like in general like the the speech writer for like cuomo would not be going on cnn to talk sure about the substance behind it they what they will the speech writer for cuomo would do is like write speeches for you know corporations later and then eventually write a book 10 years later and then and then tell you like where they got the ideas for the speech to the end rather than like just talk just just in a transparent and open way just talk about you know what what what's trying to be said and and and why like what is it about mom donnie that kind of like opens up his staff and others to like well we'll say this is this is my first my first interview so but still it's like i mean i think it really kind of goes back to what I was just saying.

1:38:32It's like a deep pride. You know, it's a real, there's no, this victory wasn't built atop half truths and concessions and, you know, let's hope this doesn't get out. It was incredibly making himself incredibly available, being interrogated in private and public. What do you believe? Do you really believe it? Isn't that crazy? We've never seen somebody running for this high role actually believe that and never flinching. And I think for those of us who have been lucky enough to work with him, to learn from him, to be part of this campaign, that has bled over, right? We are so privileged to not ever want to be ashamed of what we are doing.

1:39:13This is resonating with so many New Yorkers. It's resonating with my friends who have never cared about politics before. It's resonating with the city that feels awake. So all of us are... And one thing you did tonight, and I don't know if this was this was your idea or or not but like he did a kind of call and response with the audience where he'd say all right we want the buses to be fast and free yeah yeah so that's something he has been doing since even before i joined this campaign and i think one of the first times i ever saw him speak he um he did that and it was kind of one of those moments where you take a step back and you realize whoa there is power to this and it's not a power that's necessarily being reported you know he was getting maybe one piece in the times a month at that point but it was a real grassroots backyards of bars people's homes and everyone knew the words everybody was shouting it back and i think the other component of is it's a way of including people in the message and they're they're saying the three lines themselves right he's not imposing it he's welcoming people right it's like and he also seemed at least from the stage to be talking a little bit to the city and to in particular the city council or other state leaders who are like might be a little skeptical say like no this is we're very clear this is what we're doing this is what we're running on so as you guys are like coming into election day did you have a number in mind where you're like alright we hit this number then the city council has to come along we hit this number Kathy Hochul, like, Kathy Hochul is going to be feeling more pressure.

1:40:56You know, you have to remember that just as recently as February, he was polling at 1%. And so... Generously at 1%. Generously, right. As he likes to say, I was tied with somebody else. I always knew I would beat that guy. So I think there was hope and I think we're all really delighted to have gotten over 50%. But no, I mean, I think to have come so far and to have this level of support from the grassroots all the way up to the highest levels of state government is incredible. And it's a testament not just to him, not just his campaign, but to people raising their voices so loudly that they really can't be in court.

1:41:36When did you start working on this speech? And what do you need to know when you decide what speech to give? Because I also covered, as people watching know, the primary night. and tell me about that he kind of ripped up the speech it's like oh we're not going to spend the next week going over ranked choice voting numbers we're actually just gonna i'll say that this was a much less stressful process than the primary night speech where the whole thing was uh was rewritten and right i mean we had a few drafts and we had a victory speech but we had mostly worked on the too soon to call on primary night um and so we had to really quickly adapt it to a victory speech tonight we this was something that i started working on a week and a half ago in between a constant deluge of other speeches and he's been engaging with it for a week a few days at least since saturday and you know he i think the other thing about speech writing as you've alluded to earlier is it's a bit of a dying art it's not you know it used to be in the kennedy years, right, you had rhetoric was like a major in college.

1:42:41Now that's, I think, largely relegated to like Oxford. That's not such an American concept anymore. The long form speech has been cannibalized by two minute videos. But as we've seen tonight, right, it can still be incredibly powerful and impactful. And there's no better way to speak to a huge group of people. But for it to work, you have to have a principal who takes it seriously. Right. And he really does. He likes to read them he makes huge edits he infused it with his own personal stories and i think that's what makes him successful uh did he did he have time to practice it um i don't know he and i did not read it i read it out loud several times as far as i know he didn't read in front of me but i think he does a lot of it on his own it's a solid because he's also like he's just been 24 7 his calendar is an absolutely brutal thing hey here we go how you doing thank you so much Thank you.

1:43:35No, no, no. Come on. You got to come on. All right. So we're now - The amazing Lena Kahn. Also joined by Lena Kahn, who's trying to creep up. That's what we've been talking about. Amazing. Amazing writer. All done. Truly. What'd you think of it? It was fantastic. Really hit all the right notes and was very touching. I was just asking him if he practiced the speech. I mean, if Zoran practiced the speech, he said he wasn't sure. And I was like, did he sleep the last three or four days? Like, what's your understanding? Not much. I mean, he was in the club. He was everywhere. He was up doing that walk, you know, across the bridge.

1:44:09It's also a testament to how much we believe in him that this whole campaign team was up to. You know, like, there were probably 30 or 40 of us walking across the Brooklyn Bridge at 6 a.m. But, no, he does not sleep. His constitution is, I don't know, unbelievable. It's unfathomable. But it's really amazing to watch. Are you going to help at all?

1:44:33I was thinking, let's say the Trump administration is like, you know what, we're actually not going to give any money. If the mayor could come back and be like, well, you need to talk to my lawyer, and the lawyer is Lena Kahn, I would think that that might give them a little bit of pause. What do you think? I think they have a lot of great lawyers. Of course, I want to help them succeed however I can. Sam, come on. All right, you're on. What happened? Zoran Mamdani, I think he's going to win. You're calling it? I'm calling it. I've seen enough. You've seen enough. I've seen enough. Are we looking?

1:45:11Oh, yeah. There you are. It's exciting. The amount of people hours that went into this is incredible. Three million doors knocked. It's incredible. A hundred thousand. 100 ,000 volunteers. That is... It's just incredible. To be able to mobilize that type of excitement. Huge. Is he going to be able to keep it up?

1:45:45He's saying that he's going to keep it up. That he's going to drive it at the city council members themselves or whatever. Tonight was a very aggressive acceptance speech. He was not humble. He was not humble relative to who he beat. He was humble relative to the people who helped him win. And I think that's the strategy. And I think, listen, the big challenge is going to be him going up to Albany and leveraging his vote he got today, leveraging the thought that Hochul has challenger to her left and basically saying, who's running it? Delgado, Lieutenant Governor. And he's running to her left.

1:46:35And that's a big deal. Come join the stream. Joined now by Simone Zimmerman. What's up, guys? So

1:46:48I'm here, I'm in it So Simone Zimmerman If you haven't seen the film Israelism Then you don't know her life story But we won't, you gotta watch it So We saw What are the numbers on the Jewish vote? 35 % or something 35 % probably 45, 55, somewhere around there I'm sorry, I mean I don't want to put out misinformation right now but I hear we won the Upper West Side, so I'm pretty sure the numbers might be higher right now. These exit polls are notoriously unreliable. Going into actual neighborhoods is the better way to do it. So what, like, I've heard a little bit of the same. Like, what have you heard?

1:47:29I mean, going into the election, we heard it was like 39 or something like that. So, I mean, what I'm seeing right now is like the Washington Post said 40 % of U.S. Jews think there has been a genocide in Gaza. 60 % say Israel's committed war crimes in Gaza. I'm expecting we're going to see somewhere between those numbers. The numbers of American Jews supporting Tehran are the people who see what is happening on the ground in Palestine and Israel are against it and also apply those values in New York City, want to build a city that's affordable, inclusive, diverse, and didn't pay into all the fear-mongering.

1:48:04What would it take for him to break 50 % in four years? Look, honestly, I think there's been a ton of misinformation. I have a friend who came to visit a couple weeks ago. She's across the country following the race with total enthusiasm. She goes to talk to family on the Upper East Side. She said she became an expert in Zoran's positions over the course of the weekends just because she had to fact check over and over again. So much misinformation. As Zoran said in his speech, millions of dollars have been spent on scaring people and lying to them. And so I think I really hope that as we have a chance to actually govern the city and build a welcoming, inclusive, safe and affordable city, we're going to see those numbers go up.

1:48:46And I hope more and more people in my community will experience what I've experienced, which is a campaign that is centering joy, love for the city, love for the people in it. And I think it was a winning message for a lot more people than we think it might have been. I honestly think there's a significant percentage of people who are under the impression that Sharia law is going to be imposed in New York City. And I think after two or three months, people are going to realize, like, no, actually, all he's doing is trying to get his free child care. And a lot of that's going to melt away. I think there's a built-in, there's going to be a built-in within the context of the Jewish community, there's going to be a built-in resistance.

1:49:35And I think a lot of that, frankly, comes from fundamentalism. There are fundamentalist communities in this city who will vote as a very consistent block. and I don't know that a portion of them are ever going to turn. But at the end of the day, New Yorkers are going to judge him based upon what he does as New Yorkers and not as Jews or Muslims or Italians or Ethiopians or whatever their identity is. the fact that they live in New York and that they need certain things to make their lives better is going to overpower all the misinformation they've been dealt over the course of months and millions and millions of dollars.

1:50:31Yeah. And is Brad Lander going to run for sure? Is that happening? Do you know? We heard earlier today it would. I mean, that's the rumor. it would be an interesting race and I'd like to see he's got a lot of goodwill I think amongst New Yorkers and you know I think it's an opportunity for solidarity to go two ways and there's a lot of New York politicians who have gotten very comfortable by relying on the machine and the machine just got broke. And I think that opens up a lot of possibilities for progressives in the city and to some extent across the country. Any final thoughts? I think we're going to wrap this stream up.

1:51:27What happened? I want to say something about Brad Lander, which is that one of the kind of lies that has been propagated about this campaign is that, as you said, that they're trying to enforce some kind of ideological conformity, ideological militia. like militancy and Brad I think is actually a refutation of that Brad is somebody who calls himself a Zionist and a supporter of Israel and is also showing up and articulating a vision of safety and belonging and inclusivity in this city and you know what people are loving it and are coming out with him he's been embraced by the campaign he is showing that when you actually help build the coalition the tent grows and I hope we're going to see more and more people understand that and join in to help grow this project now that we've won and have to actually govern that sounds sounds like you know he's running no no I don't know anything I'm just here celebrating it'll be fun it'll be a lot of fun yeah Dan Goldman really like it was like an inheritance to him I mean you just love to remember Dan Goldman one because there was three people right who split the vote.

1:52:35Ulan and Mondaire Jones. Mondaire Jones. And it escapes me now. But there were three who split the vote. And that's the only way he squeaked in. Yeah. So Lander is beloved in huge parts of Brooklyn. And he really did gain, I think, like a lot of respect from people. So him being the highest elected Jewish official in the city and campaigning with Mom Donnie, I think, gave a certain license to people to say, this is bullshit. Right. So let's see. I hope so. Sam Seder of the majority report. I will be on the program I will be on the program on Friday Possibly Maybe dress this well You never know whether I'm actually going to show up or not Or what I'm going to be wearing if anything at all

1:53:44I did that Anyway, thank you everybody What a night Crazy So exciting See you later This 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. Almost 30 years together, four kids, and some of reality TV's most unforgettable moments.

1:54:31We're taking you behind the scenes in our podcast, Between Us. With me, Heather Dubrow. And me, Terry Dubrow. The unfiltered, behind-closed-doors conversations you wish you could eavesdrop on. And plenty of, did they just say that moments? But what's the latest rumor? I'm gay, right? First of all, if I were gay, I would be gay! Open your free iHeartRadio app, search Between Us, and listen now. This is an iHeart Podcast. Guaranteed human.