8/12/26: Major Wisconsin Elections, Trump National Emergency Before Midterms, Zohran Targets Wealthy NYers

22:50I don't think they would admit that out loud.

22:51Emily Jashinsky:Right. But I think it wasn't that they thought their support wouldn't be enough to get her over the top. It was that they were afraid that it would be enough to get her over the top and they didn't want her there necessarily. necessarily. From the Republican perspective, there was a leak of a memo that Ken Clippenstein saying they're actually really afraid of her. They think that she's kind of a secret sleeper candidate who can rally the kind of independent voters to her cause, particularly because it's data center opposition. I'm not sure that was the case, though. What did Republicans really think about whether or not they could beat her?

23:30Emily Jashinsky:I was going to say, and they put millions of dollars, Brian, you saw this. Republican PACs were spending millions of dollars to boost her just as her surge started. I went back and looked at the dates and the polling surge coincides when Republicans decided to run this campaign saying she's too liberal for Wisconsin, hoping that it would boost her with leftist voters. Yeah. You know, Republicans were looking their chops to run against Francesca Hong. I don't think there's any question about that. The reality is that Wisconsin is a really interesting state to be looking at, not just because it's the tightest state in the country, but because it really does have a deep, deep history of working class politics, which is to say the GOP, particularly in the Trump era, has been shifting in direction of trying to work and scoop up those working class voters that have been doing a good job.

24:10It's part of what has solidified their rural base. But Democrats have in many ways had a long history of working class politics, the union history, all that. It wasn't all that long ago that rural areas that are the Republican base were at times voting for a blue collar Democrat were more competitive. So, you know, on paper, there was potentially an opportunity for someone who was going to come in and focus on that working class economic populism from the left to try to make something happen. But Hong really wasn't that candidate. And her candidacy ended up really being kind of more of like a Berkeley-esque Madison type candidacy that the Republicans were working really hard to define as super extreme.

24:46And they were going to do that in a bigger way. And I think, Ryan, to your point, she wasn't focusing on the economic issues that might have tried to tap into that economic populism on a deeper level. So, you know, now where we go is we were going to have this kind of really interesting test of like, okay, is, you know, Trump aligned, strong conservative Tom Tiffany going to be able to continue to tap into the working class vote, maximize the rural vote the way he needs to do all that stuff, while Hong tries to kind of change that around? Because the reality is that there are folks who thought about voting for Bernie Sanders before they voted for Donald Trump.

25:15There are split ticket voters like that in Wisconsin. But we're not going to get to see whether she was that that candidate to even get through the Democratic primary. So now we're going to have a little bit more of a conventional lineup.

25:24Emily Jashinsky:I would have loved to have seen that, honestly, because I'm looking at some of these results and maybe we can put them up on the screen in post. She got trounced in many rural counties by David Crowley, which is interesting because he's from Milwaukee County, which is not also like, you know, Milwaukee and Madison, that's where everybody like in rural counties laughing at it. Like, oh, you're from Milwaukee or you're from Madison. But, you know, she, it looks like she did okay in Marathon County. It makes sense with Wausau up there, but Oneida, Lincoln, Marinette, I mean, she lost—he had 46 percent to her 28 percent.

25:56Emily Jashinsky:And in the primary and the general, Brian, I know you have a great focus on rural voters. He won the Wow counties also, which is worth pointing out. But in the primary and the general, it's a tough environment for Republicans going forward. I mentioned you're a working farmer. Um, rural voters do not want data centers, at least in Wisconsin. That's my read on it. You can correct me if I'm wrong, but she was running against data centers. Um, things with fertilizer, diesel prices, like there's a real squeeze in rural Wisconsin right now that Tom Tiffany's certainly going to have to deal with that the Republicans are going to have to deal with across the country.

26:34Emily Jashinsky:Um, I think Ryan, we're going to talk about Kansas as well. So can you talk to us a bit about the rural versus suburban dynamics in Wisconsin? Because they actually might be more broadly applicable across the country. Yeah, absolutely. This is something that I'm looking really closely at when we have our bipartisan Badger Battleground poll come out at the firm where I work, Platform Communications. We're in the field actually right now to try to get a sense of where this stuff's going to shake out. And as you said, given my background and my focus on writing about rural voters, it's something I think about a lot.

27:00The farm where I grew up, where my dad is still farming and my sister's working, take it over, taking a huge hit around diesel prices. Farms like ours are dealing with that on top of gas prices all families are dealing with, on top of fertilizer prices, all kinds of issues. And what it really ties back to is, look, the economic angst, and this is where Ryan's point is really important, the economic angst and frustration that voters feel in general is particularly strong with rural voters. They've been losing farms at a rate of 45 ,000 a year for a century, 45 ,000 a year for 100 years, right? So that means that we've had an economic core slipping away.

27:31We've had communities shrinking as people leave. We've had jobs disappearing as the Rust Belt thing hit on top of all that. So when you talk about the economy and its ups and downs, rural voters have been dealing with an economy that is essentially declining, even when unemployment and the stock market are going in the right direction. So those economic issues and being able to talk about how you're going to address that from the left or the right is crucial. And so these rural voters are going to be more important than ever now because we have a situation where Tom Tiffany is going to have to figure out how much can he maximize that rural vote.

28:02Certainly he's going to want to work to eat into the suburbs, get some of that Republican support that they used to have years ago.

28:09Emily Jashinsky:That's going to be tough, Brian. It's going to be harder. And I think that the reality is that Hong created a really big, ripe opening. And it was going to be a situation where maybe Republicans can say, hey, let's do our rural voter base and let's also work our way back into those suburbs a little bit because Hong created such an opening. Because the culture war stuff can kind of neutralize the inroads because you have like independent type swing affluent educated swing voters who say, ah, prices are too high. I don't like Trump, but I'm not so sure about this whole like weird. I don't I didn't shave my legs today.

28:44Emily Jashinsky:Tweets that Hong has been putting out over the last 10 years. They might vote for a conventional Democrat, but they're not going to cancel Thanksgiving. Right. They're not going to stop drinking beer in late November. And so the reality is that that was a big opening for Republicans. Now, the flip side is that Crowley has spent a decent amount of the primary trying to demonstrate that there wasn't a lot of difference between him and Hong on a policy level. And so the Republicans are going to be jumping all over that. And his challenge is going to be put together that traditional suburban urban democratic coalition and show that he's more of a mainline Democrat.

29:14And the Republican challenge is going to be how do they try to force him to look as extreme as Hong was and run up the scoreboard in rural Wisconsin. and that row vote is ever more crucial now because Hong didn't make it through. And so let me ask you about Kansas while I've got you. So the Democratic Senate Super PAC conducted a poll in Kansas, which they told me startled them when they got the results back. And so they've shared that with us. Roger Marshall, incumbent Republican senator, polling at 46 percent. And this is before kind of the favorables and all the all the different things are said to the voters about them.

29:55Just a straight up head to head. Roger Marshall, 46 percent. Adam Hamilton is a megachurch pastor who's running against the Iran war and Trump's tariffs at 45 percent. So head to head after the primaries, Marshall and Hamilton locked in basically a statistical tie in Kansas. Kansas often shocks the country in the way that it votes when it comes to constitutional amendments. You know, anti-anti voters are generally across the board kind of anti-corruption, pro-liberty, whether whether it's, you know, whether abortion rights or abortion or other kind of libertarian. kind of issues in Kansas. So it kind of confounds the typical partisan dynamics.

30:42What do you think of this? Before this, I'm not even sure I could tell you who was running on the Democratic side in Kansas, but now down by one point, like, is this a mirage? Or do you think that the current environment, given what you were saying about fertilizer prices, farm collapse. Kansas is a manufacturing state. If the tariffs were working, running against tariffs would not be working for Adam Hamilton. Why do you think it's this close? And do you think this is a mirage or is this a serious race now? It's a great question. I mean, every state is always a unique political animal. You're right.

31:16The Kansas has some unique attributes as does Wisconsin. A lot of the battleground states are all unique in one way or another. Kansas is for sure. But I think it's a reflection of the tough midterm environment. And there's no question about that. And any Republicans who aren't looking at the environment knowing that they're going to have to be running uphill are not being realistic with themselves. And any Democrats who are looking at this and thinking that they're going to seize the mantle, they've got to understand that the mantle to seize is around economic issues. This midterm election is going to turn on those economic issues.

31:42The rural voters are going to either power GOP victories or mitigate their losses, or the rural voters are going to stay home and allow Democrats to have a bigger chance at having a bigger win. they're all going to be animated by these economic issues. And that's why I think the point about, you know, who's focusing on those economic issues is crucial. You know, whether you have a democratic socialist or a more conventional Democrat, are they coming out and seizing that economic message in an effective way that actually connects with voters they've lost a lot of connection with? Or on the other hand, the GOP tying their message that has traditionally resonated with, you know, actual policy change about what they're going to do about this economic reality.

32:18You don't control everything about what's going on in the economy. That's what's hard about it. all these politicians are always trying to claim the upside and run away from the downside.

32:25Emily Jashinsky:But you control tariffs if you're Republicans. Yeah, well, and you've got a variety of things that are creating economic strains right now that both parties have to figure out how they're going to grapple with by fall. Final question for you, Brian, is just what do farming communities want to hear from candidates this fall? Yeah, I think farm communities want to hear what are you going to do to change the economic status quo? What are we going to shake this up? And it not only means addressing high costs, it does mean that. What are you going to do to address high costs, whether they're fueled by what's going on of Iran or trade disputes or just general inflation from years past, whatever it was.

32:55They want to hear what you're going to be doing to address those issues. But it also has to be on a deeper level. It can't just be, yep, structural. It's not only those costs. That is a flashpoint. But remember, these are families that have been seeing economic decline for decades. When we look around and say, hey, the unemployment rate's looking good. Stock market's looking good. People are feeling good. People in rural areas aren't feeling that. They're saying, when in the hell were the good years? So it's got to be a deeper, more structural message about the economy for either party to make inroads.

33:21Emily Jashinsky:Oh, Brian Reisinger. Everyone, go please check out his book. Brian, where can people pick it up? Yeah, absolutely. You can find Land Rich Cash Pro on Amazon, anywhere else you buy books online. It's also in bookstores nationwide. And I just appreciate anybody who wants to take a look at what's going on with our rural communities and figure out a way to get in the conversation from all different political viewpoints and figure out what to do about it. Thanks so much, Brian. I appreciate it. Thanks. The washer won't start and the laundry's already piled to the ceiling. Hopping on grandappliance.com.

33:49Great idea. I heard they have next day delivery. Uh-huh. I'm seeing that too. And they have a bunch of GE options in stock. Oh, that's great. We've always had good luck with GE appliances. This one looks perfect. Scheduling for tomorrow. Gosh, Grand really makes it easy. Another crisis averted by the team at Grand Appliance. Visit GrandAppliance.com today. Grand Appliance. Appliance experts since 1930. This is Jacob Goldstein from What's Your Problem? Running a business is hard enough. Don't make it harder with a dozen apps that don't talk to each other. One for sales, another for inventory, a separate one for accounting.

34:25That's software overload. Odoo is the all-in-one platform that replaces them all. CRM, accounting, inventory, e-commerce, HR. Fully integrated, easy to use, and built to grow with your business. Thousands have already made the switch. Why not you? Try Odoo for free at odoo.com. That's odoo.com. This is Ashley Akinetti from the Ben and Ashley I Almost Amos podcast. Ben, I've been reflecting a lot lately on how many big life moments our listeners have experienced with us. Yeah, it's pretty wild. They've watched us go from dating shows to engagements, weddings, babies, buying homes. Every stage comes with new decisions.

35:08The milestones are the fun part, but the planning is where things get real. That's why Klarna stands out. Klarna gives people smarter tools to help manage everyday money with flexible ways to pay, cash back that builds automatically, everything in one place, and support that makes everyday decisions feel less overwhelming. Since life moves so fast, the right tools can help you feel more confident. Download the Klarna app today or visit Klarna.com to learn more. California resident loans made or arranged pursuant to a California finance law license and MLS number 1353190. Clown a balance account required to be eligible for cashback points.

35:48Limitations, terms and conditions apply. All right, moving over to Minnesota. Angie Craig absolutely annihilated her race against Lieutenant Governor Peggy Flanagan. Looking at a 20 point loss, Craig throughout her career has had the support of APAC. She kind of tried to publicly distance herself a little bit from APAC in this race, told them not to be so outwardly aggressive in their support. APAC did organize a ton of behind-the-scenes fundraisers for her. And she also got tens of millions of dollars in dark money from this group called Center Forward. We don't know where that came from. A lot of it was C4.

36:27We may never find out where that money came from. Turns out it didn't matter. the progressive Peggy Flanagan who had the support of Elizabeth Warren first. Elizabeth Warren was first out of the gate to get behind her and then Bernie Sanders just kind of blowing Angie Craig out even as interestingly polls were showing that Flanagan had a lead coming into the final weeks but then the polls shifted and right before the election the most recent polls had Craig actually up by a point or two. we can put up a seven as well if you guys watch the friday show you know matt little a matt little progressive candidate trying to replace angie craig in minnesota's second district ends up trouncing his uh his apac back opponent matt klein as well as another candidate kayla burgh who finished a distant third in this race that's despite you know millions of dollars um spent either against Little or for Matthew Klein in that race.

37:37This result matches the polls that we talked about from last May. If you go back and watch that segment, there were internal polls that Little had released in May. Then millions and millions of dollars were spent to try to change that result. And after several months of that and several million dollars getting burned, it's the exact same result.

37:57Emily Jashinsky:There's a drop site piece that you and Julian broke down some of the convoluted money trails. The way that the money was spent. It's so interesting. All these weird PACs that APAC has sometimes used. Pass-throughs. As pass-throughs. But also then some major ones. Emily's List went very hard for Berg, the third place candidate. Emily's List has taken significant amounts of money from DMFI and APAC. And I think those groups going forward, and so has 314 Action, they will say, well, in this particular race, this is not APAC money. Trust us, we're using the APAC money in other races. And I think that in future cycles, that's just not going to fly.

38:41Like, you can't take APAC money and not be then associated with APAC in every race that you participate in. I'm not here to give advice to Emily's List or Democratic Women or 314 Action or any of these PACs.

38:56Emily Jashinsky:You're going to do it anyway. I'm just telling you facts. This is not advice. So if you're fine with the association with AIPAC and you don't think it's an electoral liability, go ahead and keep taking that AIPAC money. If you think it might be an electoral liability. Well, they obviously think it's going to be an electoral liability because they're using pass-throughs. And they're hiding it. Yeah, exactly. So anyway, Minnesota got so little attention. It was very interesting compared to Maine, Wisconsin, and Michigan. But it was a very similar race, left versus corporate center. And the left won by 20 points.

39:43So Flanagan maybe benefited from that in the end. Like you can't like maybe if they did 50 million instead of 20 million or whatever ungodly amount they spent, it helped her get through. But either way, it's another kind of vote in the progressive block in the Senate, which is shifting significantly.

40:07Emily Jashinsky:Right. And that's actually a very interesting point. The composition of the Senate, what they might be able to accomplish if they're able to band together and vote as a block. Right. And probably another vote for Chris Van Hollen or some progressive challenge to Chuck Schumer. Wow. OK. And so Flanagan, by the way, she's not DSA. She was Bernie back, but she's DFL. But she would we would expect her to have a very like democratic socialist policy agenda. Yeah, I think she's going to be she'll she'll be heavily in the Troy Jackson, Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders, Abdul El-Sayed. Like you're going to have a substantial number of progressive senators and she'll be populist progressive senators and she's going to be one of them.

40:49Emily Jashinsky:And also, I think, makes the narrative about Francesca Hung much less clean, that this is a total rebuke of democratic socialism. Again, Flanagan, DFL, but she's very, she's pretty far left. It's a leftist. As we recall, when she came on the show, she said she's a fan of We've Got People. She's reading Ryan Grimm. So, I mean, that's bad news for the Senate establishment. If you've got we've got people, readers coming into the coming into the Senate. It's over for you. It's over for you. Wow. It's such such interesting results in the Kansas poll that we talked about earlier in this block, too. So interesting.

41:33Emily Jashinsky:Mike Lindell, I suppose we should mention, is refusing to concede. Shockingly. He was running for governor, was running for governor. Looks like he just didn't make it, didn't really come close to make it. It seems like he got a third of Minnesota Republican primary voters to support him. Sure. So not a total embarrassment. Did he need an endorsement of Lindell TV? I'm sure. Well, he left Lindell TV to focus on the gubernatorial run. That's why Lindell TV has suffered lately. I've noticed the quality of his programming. You were saying that actually last week. You said Lindell TV is slipping. It's not what it's been.

42:06Yeah.

42:06Emily Jashinsky:I should have mentioned that's what it was. So I'm glad that Lindell will be back at the wheel of Lindell TV. Some good news. Yes. A silver lining perhaps. The pillows are getting a little bit lumpier. Assuming he doesn't get to the bottom of some widespread fraud scheme. That's true. I'm sure he was robbed. Yep. All right. Let's get on to the next block. Donald Trump telling a, actually a Lindell TV host, now that you mentioned this is a perfect transition, what he might do about our elections. Trump showed up on the talk show of a MAGA host, Wayne Allen Root. And here's what happened, because just you're going to want to pay attention to what the host says and then how Trump responds.

42:47Emily Jashinsky:They were talking about potentially a national security emergency for elections. Let's listen. Let me put an idea in your head, OK, because it's so hard to get the Senate to do anything. Now they're on recess. They don't get anything done if they never get the Save America Act done. You have the right to declare a national security emergency for elections. And the Supreme Court ruled in 1983 under Reagan that INS versus Chata, that if you declare a national security emergency as the president of the United States, they can't challenge it. It can only be overturned by a two thirds vote of both houses of Congress.

43:26So if you do this in the next month, we will get photo ID, proof of citizenship and a limit to mail in ballots. And let me say that stranger things have happened. OK, I'll leave it at that.

43:39Emily Jashinsky:All right, we'll leave it at that. What did Trump say? Yeah, he kind of mumbled a little bit there. So the host goes on this extended monologue using his precious time with the leader of the free world. It's important to get into the details of this INS case from 1983. So Trump says, let me just say stranger things have happened. I'll leave it at that. After this guy launches into, again, a monologue. About how you can declare I'm an emergency and restrict voting. Right. Which, again, it may sound like just Trump chopping it up with a bananas Las Vegas talk show host on Lindell TV. I think this one is like cast.

44:17Emily Jashinsky:It's a simulcast on Real America's Voice and Lindell TV, to be fair. But that may be what it sounds like. But we don't love glossing over the leader of the free world saying, let me just say, stranger things have happened. I'll leave it at that. So, again, the Wayne Allen Root plan was if you do this next month, we will get photo ID, proof of citizenship and a limit to mail in ballots. Now, of course, one of the big problems that Republicans have with the Save America Act is that it's an injection or it's it's a seizure of federal power. over elections that some conservatives are uncomfortable with because of the federalist system that conservatives have long liked.

44:58Emily Jashinsky:I actually disagree with some of those criticisms, but we don't have to get into it just to say that would be if you have a national emergency declared for elections and Trump says, let me say stranger things have happened. I'll leave it at that. Within the next month, what that does to the federal control of elections, I don't know that you put that toothpaste back in the tube, right? Like once you've done that, it's very hard to undo that because Democrats then come in and say, well, you used this power. We'll use this power at some point too, because you did it. So that's a pretty big red flag.

45:36Yes, red flags are, I think, waving pretty proudly.

45:39Emily Jashinsky:We're numb to them. At this point. On the other hand, I don't think Trump has ever in his life as a politician shot down an idea. Like any idea that the media has put to him, whether it's right wing media or the kind of establishment media in the White House saying like, you know, do you think you might bomb Moscow? Or do you think you might bomb Keefe? He's like, stranger things have happened. He hates, I mean, I'm exaggerating a little bit there, but he hates taking anything off the table. I think he feels like it makes him look weak. However, he has been obsessed with controlling elections.

46:24Emily Jashinsky:Yes. He said, so this is - For many years. USA Today's write-up of his response to Root there is to connect it to comments that he made back in February, which, again, it's easy to get numb to the things that he says, to your point. But he said back then to Dan Bongino, the Republicans should say, we want to take over. We should take over the voting in at least many, 15 places. The Republicans ought to nationalize the voting. We have states that are so crooked. So could that just look like him giving another big primetime dud of a speech about it? I guess possibly. But you can't be numb to it because he is clearly, to your point, obsessed with this question of what he can do if his legislation's stalling in Congress to make something happen.

47:11Now, what the states would do is another question. So let's say he declares this emergency. He's going to target, obviously, Pennsylvania, well, California, because there's some, you know, tight races there. Michigan, Wisconsin. I mean, there are tight races all over the country for the House, but also he's got some tight ones for the Senate.

47:39But North Carolina, the governor is running for Senate. There are a lot of these states where he's going to try to bend them to his will. He has already, because they have, if they are already controlled by Republicans completely, he has already bent the districts so far to his will that there's no point in monkeying with the voting because you've already made voting basically irrelevant in those states. Like this outcome is going to be what it's going to be, you know, whether it's Alabama or whatever else. Now, Texas could be interesting. That's one place where you could imagine a tightening of voting influencing the Senate race and also some House races that could be close.

48:26Emily Jashinsky:And obviously right now they have this problem that they somehow dealt with in 2024. But after 2020, Republican voters were disillusioned and a lot of people were just not showing up or just saying, I don't think my vote is going to count because of what Trump was saying about the 2020 election. And so they're obviously very concerned about that as well. Do Republicans even turn out to vote when you're telling them that everything is crooked and the system is rigged to prevent their votes from counting as people expect them to. So it's a political problem for Republicans as well. And so for Trump to, another thing kind of reading into his response, for him to say, let me just leave it at that, the indication or the implication seems to be he's got something cooking when you're saying, let's just leave it.

49:19Emily Jashinsky:That's what he's suggesting. Yeah. Yeah. Now, ProPublica has a big new report about Trump's mortgage fraud investigations, which is quite an interesting, quite an interesting investigation. The headline here is Trump's own mortgages match his description of mortgage fraud records reveal. So they write the Trump administration has argued that Fed board member Lisa Cook may have committed mortgage fraud by declaring more than one primary residence on her loans. We found Trump once did the very same thing he called deceitful and potentially criminal. They write in 1993, Trump signed a mortgage for a Bermuda style home in Palm Beach, Florida, pledging that it would be his principal residence.

50:00Emily Jashinsky:Just seven weeks later, he got another mortgage for a seven bedroom marble floored neighboring property, attesting that it, too, would be his principal residence. Again, that is exactly what he has accused Lisa Cook of doing on the who's on the Fed. But that's what he's accused her of doing. There's some good evidence that Lisa Cook did that. But obviously, it's a weaponized attack on on Lisa Cook. And he went after Tish James. That one completely fell apart because she was honest about it the entire time, it seems like. But yeah, like now it's 1993 when they have Trump busted here. But it is kind of comical.

50:41And it's outside the statute of limitations.

50:44Emily Jashinsky:ProPublica has receipts from media because Trump's real estate agents told the Miami Herald at the time that he had, quote, hired an expensive New York design firm to dress them up to the nines and lease them out annually. And he's declaring this as residence while his real estate agent is saying this. In an interview, Shirley Weiner, ProPublica reports, the late real estate agent's wife and business partner, who was herself later the rental agent for the two properties, told ProPublica they were rentals from the beginning. That is the wife and business partner of the real estate agent. They were rental properties for the beginning.

51:20Emily Jashinsky:President Trump never lived there, which is different from Lisa Cook. Yes, she turned it into a rental, I think, for a family member. But in Trump's case, he literally never lived there. Yeah. The idea is that you are less likely to default on a mortgage if you're living in it than if it's a rental property, which makes perfect sense. And so because you're less likely to default, you get a lower interest rate. So Trump illegally, through a con, got a lower interest rate for these mortgages. It's something that rich people do. Yes. It's something that if you can afford a second house and you don't have any scruples, you can go ahead and do that.

51:56But now my only pushback would be if you are a bank and you're lending money in the 90s to Donald Trump, I have no pity for you.

52:05Emily Jashinsky:Yeah. Like the chance you – apparently that he repaid these loans. Yes. Miraculously. They report that the loans have been paid off. A highly unusual circumstance here. Yeah. Trump actually paying a debt. Yes. So it worked out for the banks. And they say it's also well outside the statute of limitations for mortgage fraud. So it's not actionable, but it's a great example, like a textbook example of exactly what they're trying to get Lisa Cook for. Right. And, you know, all of us who really thought that Trump was more of an upstanding public figure. Yeah. Are going to be going to be disappointed here.

52:40Never meet your heroes.

52:41Emily Jashinsky:But I don't think Trump would like he himself. What did he say in 2016? He was like, I know the system. I alone can fix it. That's a paraphrase. but I don't know that he would be terribly offended if people brought this up because we all know what he's doing with Lisa Cook and it's a raw exertion of political will, which is potentially what he could be plotting with the election system as well. He's very frustrated about the Save America Act. He's very frustrated about the Iran War, obviously. So in some sense, it's potentially a dangerous time. What we really need to do is take these billionaires' money away from them and that's what we can talk about next.

53:13Next, the pied-a-terre tax in New York City is under attack by the New York Times, Donald Trump, and a Staten Island judge. Ugh, hon, the ice cream has turned to soup. I think the fridge is finally dead. Hopping on grandappliance.com. Great idea. They were awesome with the Samsung Ranger microwave we bought last year. Oh, they have matching Samsung in stock and next-day delivery. Let me see. Oh, yeah, that looks perfect. I hope we get the same delivery crew. Those guys were awesome. Agree. Total pros. Another crisis averted by the team at Grand Appliance. Appliance experts since 1930. This is Jacob Goldstein from What's Your Problem?

53:54Running a business is hard enough. Don't make it harder with a dozen apps that don't talk to each other. One for sales, another for inventory, a separate one for accounting. That's software overload. Odoo is the all-in-one platform that replaces them all. CRM, accounting, inventory, e-commerce, HR, fully integrated, easy to use, and built to grow with your business. Thousands have already made the switch. Why not you? Try Odoo for free at odoo.com. That's odoo.com. This is Ashley Akinetti from the Ben and Ashley I Almost Famous podcast. Ben, I've been reflecting a lot lately on how many big life moments our listeners have experienced with us.

54:38Yeah, it's pretty wild. They've watched us go from dating shows to engagements, weddings, babies, buying homes. Every stage comes with new decisions. The milestones are the fun part, but the planning is where things get real. That's why Klarna stands out. Klarna gives people smarter tools to help manage everyday money with flexible ways to pay, cash back that builds automatically, everything in one place, and support that makes everyday decisions feel less overwhelming. Since life moves so fast, the right tools can help you feel more confident. Download the Klarna app today or visit Klarna.com to learn more.

55:18California resident loans made or arranged pursuant to a California finance law license. NMLS number 1353190. Klarna balance account required to be eligible for cashback points. Limitations, terms and conditions apply. President Donald Trump is lashing out at Zoran Mamdani's pied-a-terre tax after a court ruling. Let's put up C1 here. Here's Trump on Truth Social. The New York City pied-a-terre tax is costing New York City and state a fortune in that the money, we're going to figure out how he does his math here, this Trump math, in that the money eventually to be gotten is very little compared to the taxes paid by the tens of thousands of people who are fleeing the city never to return.

55:58Okay, I get it. Florida, Texas, and numerous other states are making an absolute fortune. This dangerous political experiment in New York will destroy what was once a great city and state. It's pure amateur hour, and it's hard as President of the United States of America to sit back and watch it happen, especially to a place I once loved. Financial and then social ruin is a 100 % certainty. And then the radical left jihadists charge congestion pricing on top of everything else. We know that congestion pricing is definitely part of Sharia law. This doesn't work in America and must be stopped now.

56:29Now I am looking to see if the federal government has any legal right to avert this disaster before it is too late for the millions of people who cherish New York and want to see it thrive as opposed to becoming a filthy, crime-bred, decrepit place of mockery and scorn. Make America great again. president, DJT. So this is coming as the New York Times and a Staten Island judge are launching, as well as a bunch of very, very rich people in New York City, are launching a collective campaign together. We put up C2. The New York Times has been kind of crusading against this policy. This is maybe a week and a half ago.

57:09Rollout of New York City's second home tax is confusing some residents. So some residents that own very expensive homes and don't live in them got letters suggesting that they might have a slightly higher tax bill. And that was very confusing to them.

57:24Emily Jashinsky:Although some people who did live in the homes. Some people that did live in the home. They also got a letter. Yeah, send a selfie from the home. All right, you're good. Just tag Mom Donnie on social media. We know how to solve your problems with the city. Like this shouldn't be confusing. It certainly does not deserve a New York Times headline. New York Times celebrated again, we can put up C4 here, when a judge is ruling on second home tax deal deals temporary setback to Momdani. That's actually a headline that they had to edit because they first, when this Staten Island judge paused the order, they were like, boom, win, major win.

58:01It was kind of a celebratory like, ha, the pied -à-terre tax is on hold now. only for the mayor then to appeal the ruling, which automatically had it going forward again. And it's like, oh, this was just a very minor speed bump from this Staten Island judge. Now, here's what's fascinating. The attorney who is leading the charge for these super wealthy homeowners, as a former deputy mayor under Eric Adams, himself put C4 up on the screen. So his name is Randy Mastro. This is an article from 2021. Randy Mastro purchased the 5 ,500-square-foot home in 2016 for$14 million. The circa 1925 building, which is located less than a block from Museum Mile, has six bedrooms, three and a half bathrooms, five wood-burning fireplaces, five fireplaces in New York City, a full-floor master bedroom suite, and a large back garden.

58:59Mastro told Real Deal, We love everything about the townhouse and the neighborhood, but we have been living outside the city for most of the past year. and intend to continue to do so. Hence, at this point in our lives, we simply don't need such a large place in this city. No, you absolutely do not. We completely agree with that. That was 2021. He listed it.

59:19Emily Jashinsky:You don't need this coffee, Ryan. I don't need it. I actually don't need it. He listed it for$17 million in 2021. Nobody bought it for that. So he, according to property records that we reviewed, he pulled it off the market, and so he still owns it. I emailed him yesterday to ask if he lives in it or if he still doesn't need it. He did not get back. We'll update viewers when he does return. So as a result, he would be susceptible to this pied-a-terre tax. At minimum, it's a$14,$15 million home. So joining us to discuss this, Andrew Bard Epstein, was the communications director for the Mamdani campaign, consultant to progressive political organizations and candidates, happen to be in D.C.

1:00:04We're very excited to be able to get him in studio. Thanks for being here. Honored to be here. I'm a premium sub, a long-term watcher. I've been on a couple times, usually just on primary night and general election night in the chaos of our victory parties in New York City. So very, very exciting to be here with both of you. All right. Well, everybody do like Andrew, become a premium sub. There you go. Yeah. Yeah. So walk us through the current status of this fight over this pied -à-terre tax. And it applies, my understanding, as if it's a condo that you don't live in. So it's a straight up little pied-a-terre.

1:00:37You own it in Manhattan. The limit for that is a million. For a home, it's much higher. It's a little different. It's about the distinctions between condominiums and cooperatives. And New York City's very confusing and convoluted methods for assessing property tax and land value. We can maybe bracket all of that or go down a single land tax value trend here. But no, I mean, there's a couple of things to understand about this lawsuit and where it stands, both who's filing it and what it stands. I mean, first of all, it's important to understand that the lawsuit itself doesn't challenge the legitimacy of the pied -à-terre tax.

1:01:13They're quite explicit about this. This is about a confusing rollout that they're challenging in court and going back and forth with different judges on whether the rollout can continue or not. But it's worth stepping back and understanding the significance of this breakthrough generally. I mean, a pied-a-terre tax, figuring out how to tax luxury non-primary residences in these fabulously wealthy global cities where so many people around the world have apartments that they use as storehouses of wealth. They don't visit them very often. This is a challenge for cities all over the world and something that New York state policymakers have been trying to tackle for more than a decade.

1:01:48But at every turn, they were defeated by the real estate lobby. You get to the beginning of this year and, you know, we ran on a campaign that required new revenue, not just to plug the fiscal gap that Eric Adams had left and Deputy First Deputy Mayor Randy Mastro under him. The absolute catastrophe they left in New York City's budget that confronted the new Mamdani administration with a multibillion dollar fiscal gap. There also needed to be new revenue to fund the ambitious expansion of the affordability agenda that he ran on and won that required new revenues. But if you recall, Governor Hochul at the beginning of this year said not a penny in new taxes from the wealthy or anyone else.

1:02:25The mayor pushed. The movements behind the mayor pushed. And eventually we got this breakthrough that had eluded lawmakers in New York State for more than a decade. It's a new tax that is attempting to capture revenue from a population that is very skilled and resourced at avoiding paying taxes. So it's going to be complicated to roll out. But it's important to remember that Randy Mastro, who did everything he could in the final year of Adams administration to sabotage the incoming Mamdani administration, has now taken every opportunity as an outside lawyer to attack the administration. There's a whole bunch of other lawsuits he's filed over the past eight months.

1:03:04And, you know, I mean, it's funny to see President Trump evoke congestion pricing and the radical jihadis behind it. Randy Mastro himself was the attorney hired by the state of New Jersey to challenge congestion pricing in court. Kind of a nefarious character in New York politics. I wonder about people who cast themselves largely as public servants who can afford a$14 million second property that they visit occasionally. But I'm confident that this will come out. And he can hold it for five years. He can hold it for five years. I mean, he's had it for more than five years, but in 2021, he told us he didn't need it anymore.

1:03:38Yeah.

1:03:39Emily Jashinsky:And you know, it's interesting because I think New York City is such a unique case. That's such an overused word, but I really mean it here in that like with California, we could probably, the three of us might have a debate on the wealth tax there. I think people genuinely will leave California. I don't think people will leave New York City because it's New York City. And if you're Ken Griffin and you're trying to operate in New York City and on Wall Street, you want to have that place where you can be taking the meeting. You can't get a place in Connecticut, New Jersey, it's completely different than having your spot in New York City.

1:04:08Absolutely. And I think the other challenges that a lot of these CEOs face when they beat their chests about leaving to Miami or Texas is that their employees don't want to go. They float these ideas internally or maybe can't. I mean, I've heard of multiple CEOs who have floated internally in their companies that, you know, we might we write Griffin himself was toying with the idea of not continuing this investment in new commercial property in New York City. They float this to their employees and their employees go, absolutely not. I'm not moving to Florida. No fucking way. Apparently the Citadel executives and staff, so Ken Griffin, he's the one that Mamdani did that video about outside of his$250 million apartment saying the guy's never here.

1:04:49So he said, I'm moving Citadel to Miami. And his employees were like, no, you know you're absolutely not. Yeah.

1:04:54Emily Jashinsky:What did you make of Scott Galloway who said he supported Mamdani saying he felt doxxed by the list? Well, you know, I have to be honest with you. I haven't actually, I don't really fully understand who Scott Galloway is or where he sits on the ideological spectrum. But I did see that. There's been a very intentional. Where does he sit? He has a podcast with. Kara Swisher. Yeah. But sort of positions himself as someone on the left, right? Yes. To a degree. He does. What he is doing, I assume, and what many in especially right wing media have done is conflated a couple different processes that New York City undergoes.

1:05:28One is publishing the list of all properties and certain asset classes that are potentially eligible for any kind of property tax. That's not really what this is about. This is about the letter sent to 17 ,000 homeowners, property owners, that the city identified as potentially being subject to this tax and giving them an opportunity to say, no, this is my primary residence. I mean, one thing that's been interesting is that in the process of going through this rollout, it has surfaced potential tax fraud from a whole bunch of people who pretend to live in other states where there's lower income taxes but actually spend all their time in New York.

1:06:01And there's been some reporting that the Hochul administration is actually looking at some of the cases that have been surfaced by this and being able to identify defrauding of the New York taxpayer. taxpayer. Yeah. So just to underscore that, underline that point. So people have been saying they live in Florida in order not to pay the New York state income tax to say, hey, I spend more than half my year here. And then they get a letter saying you owe a little extra because you live in Florida, not in New York City. And they're like, oh, no, no, no, no, no. I live in New York City. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

1:06:31Exactly. So then the state can be like, oh, okay, cool. Do you? Where's the 10 % income tax that you've been stiffing us on? One of the things that's been totally memory hold in this discussion, you talk about the Ken Griffin pied-a-terre, that quarter billion dollar home on Billionaires Row. That purchase in 2019 was actually what led then Governor Andrew Cuomo to embrace the idea of the pied-a-terre tax. He couldn't get it done. Did he really want to do it? Whatever. I don't know. But the point is the real estate lobby was powerful enough then to defeat it. It was not this year. And so there's a little bit of confusion that has been, I think, bad faith and stoked by some of the opponents of the administration, particularly people with very, very expensive second homes.

1:07:11Emily Jashinsky:Well, I think we should talk about the Siena poll that came out because it gets to all of this. A lot of people in New York state apparently not pouring out tears for Scott Galloway, who did say he supported the pied-a-terre tax. But we find in this new Siena poll, we'll put this up on the screen, Zora Mamdani's favorability statewide, not just in New York City, according to this new poll, 47 to 44 statewide in New York City. He's at 69 percent to 24 percent. Nice. Yeah, exactly. Are you surprised by these numbers? I'm not. I mean, it's funny because just yesterday or two days ago, The Wall Street Journal ran a story that said in its news section, not an editorial saying the honeymoon with Mamdani is over.

1:07:50And they cited different news cycles over the past couple of months. In the meantime, the mayor's approval rating has gone up 11 points since Siena last checked in in June. Which was high. Which was already quite high. Right. What I also love is that if you look deeper in some of these polls, and I don't know if it's the case with this one in Siena, but certainly earlier in the year, you'll find a high approval rating. You'll find an even higher number of New Yorkers who say they believe the mayor is working hard every day on their behalf. People who disagree with him ideologically, but see him out there hustling on the problems big and small confronting New Yorkers.

1:08:21I think that's a very fascinating gap in New York as people are desperate for a government that's energetic and getting things done and seeing visible improvements in their lives. So I'm not surprised by it. I think it confounds some media narratives. I mean, certainly in New York City, a great portion of the media and political class have been counting down the days before the honeymoon ends. They keep waiting for it. And many had convinced themselves that the mayor's endorsements in New York congressional primaries in June would be one of the things that might puncture the approval. Instead, those candidates he endorsed went on to win their primaries.

1:08:57And I think he's gained a lot more political capital for having made those interventions in New York politics alongside the real progress that's actually been made on the agenda. I think more than anything, the mayor's motivated by fulfilling the agenda he ran on, which seems like an obvious thing. But we know long years of Democrats running on vague things and then avoiding actually delivering them when they're in power. The central premise of what the mayor is doing in New York City is to say that when you vote for a program that we've put before voters, it's my job to now go enact that. And if you look at the program that was laid out in the campaign, there's been a lot of progress on universal child care.

1:09:32You have thousands of two year olds now getting seats, many more coming. We have a rent freeze in place. The bus infrastructure is proceeding rapidly to speed them up. The question of eliminating the fare is still a live one. But there's been tremendous progress on a number of different elements of the agenda. And I think New Yorkers are seeing that. They voted for a plan. He's now setting about to deliver that plan. And that's the whole theory of the case here in New York. And I've noticed a lot of mayor envy around the country. As people watch things get fixed and just basic things happen. And I'm like, oh, man, I went, why can't my mayor fix things?

1:10:09Meanwhile, he's going after Amazon as well for the way that it subcontracts out all of its deliveries. Let's roll C5 here. Special delivery. It looks like an Amazon delivery. And it drives like an Amazon delivery. And it's an Amazon delivery. delivery. Amazon is spending millions of dollars to convince you that this isn't an Amazon delivery. But all you have to do is see for yourself. My uniform says Amazon. If I don't wear this Amazon branded vest, disciplinary action will be taken against us. The workers' routes and hours are set by Amazon. So why isn't Amazon responsible for these vans? Because Amazon and other corporations have built a vast network of subcontractors that shield them from responsibility.

1:11:01Amazon tells these subcontractors where to drive,

1:11:05Emily Jashinsky:who to hire, and what hours to work. I do all the work that makes Amazon all the money. This is why I'm proud to support the Delivery Protection Act, sponsored by Councilmember Tiffany Kalan. Because if Amazon is delivering your packages, they should follow the same rules of every other delivery. So what's he doing here? Why is Mamdani doing this? In some ways, this feels related. So if in the pied-a-terre tax, you have an attempt to try to deal with New York City being used as a kind of just wealth aggregator for distant billionaires and millionaires as one kind of tactic of the oligarchy, let's say, to store and protect their wealth.

1:11:45You have another fight over here, which is how some of the biggest and most powerful corporations in the world structure themselves to avoid accountability. In this case, it's the accountability of actually being responsible for the employees that they direct, manage, set the timetables for all the rest of it, but then wash their hands of that accountability when anything comes up because they say it's all a second, it's a subcontractor, it's something else. This is a bill that has been championed by DSA-endorsed City Council member Tiffany Caban from my hometown, the People's Republic of Astoria, for several years.

1:12:19It's gained a lot of momentum. It has the strong support of the Teamsters, which have been organizing Amazon delivery drivers in New York City for many years now. And I think the mayor's full-throated embrace of it is a huge breakthrough for trying to tackle the very complicated and effective ways that these powerful companies use to avoid any responsibility for the conditions that they are actually setting. It's setting up a fight now, of course. And I think David Dian and the American Prospect wrote about some of the lobbying efforts that Amazon is engaging in. Led by Jessica Schumer. Led by Jessica Schumer.

1:12:55The daughter of Chuck Schumer. A number of other lobbying firms. My guess is that they will focus their lobbying efforts on the city council speaker. I think the mayor has made very clear where he is on this. Owner of the Epstein plane, no relation. That's just no relation to me. No, no, it's not the Epstein plane. It's the plane that Jeffrey Epstein declined to buy. Yes. He said that plane is trouble. He's like, that's a little problematic for me, that plane.

1:13:21Emily Jashinsky:The Qataris tried to sell him a jet. Yeah, yeah. But it ended up somehow in the Menon portfolio, which continues to reveal fascinating things. It was a CIA torture plane, basically. Yeah, yeah. Yes, that's exactly right. And Epstein was like, with that tail, I'm not flying into the Middle East. I do think there's something going on with Council Speaker Julie Menon where, like, I think we all kind of knew she was wealthy. She's, you know, represents a very wealthy Upper East Side district. Over the past few months, it's the scale of her wealth has been revealed in ways. First we learned about an$8 million apartment that the family owns.

1:13:52Then we learned she bought a private plane that Epstein didn't want. Right, right, right. Her husband did. Husband. No, but I do think that, like, it was actually somebody who follows New York City politics really closely. Like, I kind of put her in the category of, like, wealthy professional people who've had good jobs and own a nice home on the Upper East Side. I didn't, in my mind, put her in the category of like private jets and multimillion dollar second homes in the Hamptons. But apparently that is the case. So I don't know how that lobbying effort is unfolding. My guess and suspicion is if they're looking for some place to fight this, they're going to look to the city council.

1:14:26But it's gained a lot of support on the council. I mean, the mayor is amplifying it, embracing it. But this is also a bill that Councilmember Caban and others have worked for several years. So it's been kind of socialized in the council and I think really ready for a breakthrough.

1:14:40Emily Jashinsky:And how does or maybe to your knowledge, how is has the mayor and the team thinking about making sure prices also don't go up? If something like if Amazon decides to take this out on customers, what's the thought process there? Well, I'm not internal to the rollout or the or the plans of how they would deal with the implementation of this law. What I will say is that this is the challenge in so many fields of political and economic life is, you know, as you try to enact some kind of accountability or reasonable taxation structure or regulation. It is the threat that always hangs over, especially when you're operating at a city level, because they always claim, OK, we can go somewhere else.

1:15:16The truth of the matter is New York City is such a massive consumer market that I have to believe that Amazon is going to be careful with how they deal with it. And when you look at the mayor's approval rating that's going up, right, the whole logic of New York City politics, the common sense is you only have one place to go an approval rating as mayor. It's down, right? Like you kind of start and then it just goes down, down, down. It's gone up 11 points. And I raise that only to say that if Amazon were to take really drastic measures, right, manipulate their prices, for instance, or pass on the prices, whatever it is they could do.

1:15:51I don't know that they win that fight in such an open fight with the mayor of New York City. That's an interesting point. You know? Right. I don't know how this is going to play out, but I would be loathe to mess with this mayor and this New York City that is behind him right now if I were Amazon. And so as somebody who's been involved with some of the most important kind of left victories over the last couple of years, I wanted to get your take on last night's races. You had blowout victories in Minnesota by Peggy Flanagan, who had the support of Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren. And Matt Little in the race to replace Angie Craig blew out a APAC-backed candidate for the House seat there.

1:16:34But then over in Wisconsin, Fran Hong, who was polling significantly ahead, hit some serious headwinds in the last couple of weeks. And it looks like, as of now, it's been called for her opponent. She's about half a point short. I suppose that's within the margin of the recount. We'll see. What happened? Why do you think they won in Minnesota but lost in Wisconsin? Yeah, it's a good question. You know, for as long as I have been following or passionate about, you know, insurgent politics, going back to like being a high school nerd who loved Howard Dean, the thing that always that the Democratic establishment, it is they drop the electability bomb on her head.

1:17:16Right. There is nothing more powerful and persuasive.

1:17:18Emily Jashinsky:Well, Republicans were dropping it on her. That's actually true. That's true. Three million dollars. But, you know, I was hoping when, you know, if she won, right, I would get to come in and say, finally, Democratic primary voters are freeing themselves from the pundit in their brain who is always weighing electability chances. And I'm not dismissing that calculation. We have to beat Republicans. And that's an important consideration. But it is a roadblock to progressive primaries, especially where Democratic voters are convinced that a Republican is in a very strong position. And I think that that certainly was effective there.

1:17:54I mean, I think we're in an interesting cycle here. I mean, I really look at the insurgency that swept a lot of the Democratic Party this summer. I really trace back to, you know, Donald Trump's election in 2024 and the Democratic establishment having absolutely no answer for it whatsoever. They didn't know how to respond and they sort of receded. And into that void stepped in Bernie Sanders and AOC with the Fight Oligarchy Tour to name the problem that we're facing in this country, not just about one person, but about an economic class that is fleecing working people in this country. Zoram Amdani's victory in New York City, the primary victories that we've seen around the country.

1:18:31There obviously now have been some losses, but I don't think we can fully assess what's happening quite yet in the Democratic Party until we, number one, see that some of the progressive insurgents who have won primaries can defeat the Republicans. opponents in the fall. But, you know, it was funny to open up the New York Times app this morning and see the headline was that Francis Hong was upset in this. Like, this was an upset victory over Francesca Hong. Democratic socialists fall in Wisconsin. And I don't want to do this, like, cope thing of like. No. But the truth is, like, it is a remarkable moment we're at in American politics.

1:19:03Emily Jashinsky:Same with Abdul El-Sayed. Even that that's close. I mean, that Francesca Hong is a democratic socialist who came within a hair of winning the Democratic nomination against the full establishment of our party in the state. And so I think, you know, on the level of following politics nationally, we're trying to understand what the vibes are, where things are going, we're up, we're down, whatever. There are dynamics individual to those particular states. But if you look at the sweep of what's happening in the Democratic Party, I don't think the cat's going back in the bag. It's a real fight. And it's always going to have been a real fight with the people who run this party, essentially, and the Democratic voters who want to take it over.

1:19:39But I don't come out of this feeling sorely defeated. I think we're still on the move in this country in a real way. And we talked about this at the beginning of the show before you got here, but I really think that that electability itch got scratched, particularly by the Thanksgiving comment, not the tweet itself, but by her kind of sticking by it or not disavowing it. So as a communication, so basically, if you missed the first block, at some point she had tweeted, we should have canceled Thanksgiving in 1621 or whatever. And then she was asked about it on MSNBC or CNN, whatever. And she didn't, she kind of like gave a politician answer where she didn't say, you know, of course I like Thanksgiving.

1:20:25And in my theory is that Democrats who'd been willing to overlook the electability concerns up until then were like, oh, she's going to get absolutely murdered for this, especially in a November election.

1:20:37Emily Jashinsky:Well, that's a good point. But I actually want to tack on to that. Just when we were talking about the Siena poll finding Momdani being popular, it reminds me actually that he's such a you've you've seen this up close and personal. He's such a particularly appealing salesman. And I think part of it is that socialists need to be popular to sell this platform, which is new and different in modern politics. And if you can't have popular appeal because you're against or you appear to be against something that a lot of Americans like, something like Thanksgiving, it's harder to sell the policy to even Democratic voters.

1:21:12And I wouldn't put it past a 2014 Mom Donnie to have tweeted something like that about Thanksgiving. But as his communications director, how would you have advised him to respond to that during the campaign? How would you have advised Fran Hong and or future progressive candidates who are going to continue to get asked about tweets from 2013 to 2022? Like what what should she have said in that moment? And I do just want to preface by saying, you know, to my I think she's done something remarkable. I'm loathe a little bit to Monday morning quarterback with her and the amazing people on the ground in Wisconsin.

1:21:48What they've achieved is real.

1:21:49Emily Jashinsky:So you hate Thanksgiving. So I hate Thanksgiving, too. I will say, though, I've worked food service jobs in my life, not for nearly as long as Francesca Hong. And I remember not getting time off between Christmas and New Year's, for instance. It can really make you pretty grumpy about holidays if you're stuck in a kitchen. That's true. And to that point, I think that might have been a cleaner answer in a sense. I mean, I think the problem with, you know, I'm very familiar with 2020 tweets becoming the subject of multiple news cycles. Pre-liberation. Yes, exactly. And several others, you know, some about the holidays, you know.

1:22:28But I think the difference was, I think the voters are very willing at this point, I think, to look past things that you said on the Internet. a while ago. I mean, before it all imploded with Graham Plattner, he did win a Democratic primary in Maine, having been his internet comments resurfaced. I think the problem was, I think you got it a little bit with a politician's answer. I think it's that the answer seemed to almost validate the kind of culture war frame that you knew Republicans and the media were going to put onto it. Whereas I think one thing Mayor Mamdani was always so effective at was saying like, yeah, you know, I tweeted a bunch of stuff, but nobody really cares what my opinion is on this stuff.

1:23:11You should vote for me if you care about making the city affordable. You should care about me if you want. Or Thanksgiving dinner affordable, right? There might also have been a pivot to that kind of joke. And so I think, look, I mean, it was a little bit confusing to me generally why there was so much national media happening. I mean, certainly in the run-up to Mayor Mamdani's primary, we were really loath to book him on national media because of what was the upshot, really. You know, it was this was about getting in front of New York City voters, knowing that if we were successful in the primary, the opportunities for national media would come and we would be selective.

1:23:43But we also knew that their particular obsessions or focuses would be different than what voters in New York City were worried about. So you wouldn't have put her on that show to begin with? I don't think so. But I also but I but again, like I don't want to she has done something really remarkable and successful in here. I think the problem with that without spending on TV, which I think is also maybe a problem, too. I think you do need to You can't rely exclusively on television. But one of the things that was so successful for us in the mayor's race was how symbiotic the paid TV, the social media, the field program were.

1:24:15They were all feeding into and off of each other so that when you got a knock on the door from a volunteer, you're like, I know that guy from social media. Or you saw an ad that just repeated, I'm going to freeze the rent, I'm going to freeze the rent, I'm going to freeze the rent. And you know exactly what it is he's proposing to do. And that gets reinforced by some other touch. And so I do think you need TV in the mix. But the thing about that moment was that I think it instead of shutting down, dismissing and pivoting away from the kind of culture war fever that people want to get past and onto the things that matter, it sort of validated, participated in it a little bit in a way that I think was unfortunate.

1:24:51But that became the lodestar for the electability question, right? That became what people could point to and say, isn't this a big concern? In a way that never fully happened to Abdul, even though I do think the gap between his polling numbers and results probably meant that some people were convinced by the electability numbers. I also think what the polling, my guess is, and I'm curious if you agree, is that one of the reasons polling is so overrepresenting these Democratic socialist and populist insurgents is that those voters are the ones who are now motivated to respond to polls. I mean, the people who are excited about politics are people in this movement, whether they've made up a majority of a primary electorate or not.

1:25:32If they're getting a poll text, you know, whereas like a few years ago, you know, my friends on the left, they get a question. They're not going to engage with a poll. I mean, it's like the vibes are off, right? That's what some of the pollsters are saying. Are they saying that? That the response rate appears to be higher among people excited. I think that's definitely going on. But your vote counts whether it's excited or reluctant. Correct. The same. Correct. Good lesson. Correct. Yeah. All right. Well, thank you so much for coming by. Really appreciate it. Yeah, seriously. Pleasure to be here.

1:26:00Thanks so much.

1:26:39We'll see you next time. crisis averted by the team at Grand Appliance. Visit grandappliance.com today. Grand Appliance, appliance experts since 1930. This is Jacob Goldstein from What's Your Problem? Running a business is hard enough. Don't make it harder with a dozen apps that don't talk to each other. One for sales, another for inventory, a separate one for accounting. That's software overload. Odoo is the all-in-one platform that replaces them all. CRM, accounting, inventory, e-commerce, HR, fully integrated, easy to use, and built to grow with your business. Thousands have already made the switch.

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