8/25/26: Abdul Unleashes On Jesse Watters, Hasan Piker Controversy, Darline Graham Flailing, Jamie Belsito MA Candidate

28:15That's odoo.com.

28:45or call 562-314-4603 for more details. 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. 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. 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.

29:31Since 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 balanced account required to be eligible for cashback points. Limitations, terms and conditions apply. The South Carolina Senate runoff featuring Lindsey Graham's sister, Darlene Graham, Senator Darlene Graham, is tonight. And Donald Trump has put in everything. I mean, not literally everything, but for Trump by Trump standards, everything this cycle, at least.

30:05Let's actually start here with E4. Trump has put more than$800 ,000 from his own PAC into backing Darlene Graham, who he's also, of course, endorsed over Ralph Norman, seen as a much Trumpier candidate, by the way. Trump and Norman have gone back and forth over the years. But he's a populist Republican, and Darlene Graham is, well, we don't quite know. It's unclear how much Darlene Graham knows what her political identity is, actually, because she struggled so badly in this question about foreign policy. Actually, a couple of questions about foreign policy have been going massively viral in mega circles, actually just generally in political circles, because it hurts.

30:43It hurts to hear these. It's just so painful and uncomfortable. Let's take a listen. E1. Are Taiwan and the South China Sea national security issues for the United States? And if so, why or how? I'm just going to be honest here. I'm not on national security. I'm not that informed on national security, but I do support the military. My brother was in the Air Force for 33 years, so I will do everything I can to support the military. My dad was in the Army. I'm not a polished politician up here. National security is not my thing, not my area of expertise, but I do support the military. I tripped up on one question last night regarding Taiwan.

31:31But, you know, I've said many times I'm not a politician, certainly not a career politician. I don't speak politician. You know, I was just honest. Of course, Taiwan is our friend. But I think people in South Carolina are more worried about making ends meet. They're concerned about boys and girls sports. All right. So my friend Al Weaver at Notice actually just reported in the last hour that now top Republicans are indeed expecting Darlene Graham to lose this. That is despite the endorsement of the president of the United States, almost a million dollars from the president of the United States is pack.

32:05And this fascinating scheme happening under the surface, Ryan, by lobbyists, solar lobbyists to that part again. They think Darlene is going to lose. They think Darlene is going to lose. That's the latest headline in Notice on the campaign. I can actually. Yeah, the headline is literally Republicans expect Darlene Graham to lose the South Carolina runoff. Is it Tuesday? It's today. Oh, it's today. Yeah, it's today. It's today. So not like a great for Darlene Graham, but she does have this huge boost from solar lobbyists who detest Ralph Norman. Now, a lot of lobbyists want Darlene Graham to win.

32:41I can read a couple of quotes I got from sources recently. One says, this is the best possible, best of all possible outcomes for the swamp. A blank slate senator with no convictions or clue to what's happening and a staff with decades-long K Street connections. It's corporate lobbyist's dream scenario, which might also be why Donald Trump decided to dump$800 ,000 into the race. Another source said, the South Carolina primary is D.C. money interest for someone who has never played the D.C. game well. That would be Ralph Norman. A Darlene Graham win keeps the money flowing to a cadre of consultants, lobbyists, and special interests.

33:12It's no wonder they are spending heavily for her. She did have a K Street fundraiser right after advancing to the runoff. Again, no surprise. What is a bit more surprising is the scheme from clean energy lobbyists to get Northam, Ralph Northam, out of the—I keep saying Northam because of Virginia. Ralph Norman, yeah. I just did that in my head. But anyway, trying to get him to be Ogles or Chip Royd. This is really, really interesting. We can put this E &E, Politico E &E headline up on the screen. This is E2. Solar company executives and supporters spending$1 million to defeat hard-right Republican Ralph Norman in his campaign for Senate could see their work backfire, Politico just reported in the last few days.

33:59The Invest in Tomorrow coalition, that's a PAC backed by the clean energy industry, which is itself their biggest donor, is a crypto guy, kind of interesting, announced last week it was going to campaign against Norman. This is after the PAC spent big. They report to unseat Andy Ogles in Tennessee this month. So they spent$2 million to get Ogles out of office. They spent big to get Chip Roy, who also lost his primary. And they're taking a page from the AIPAC book and not running any ads on clean energy, but just quietly exacting their revenge on Republicans who fought hard to undo the Biden clean energy grants and money with the one big, beautiful bill.

34:45And interestingly, they have now put a bunch of money behind Darlene Graham, essentially a million dollars into this runoff on behalf of Darlene Graham, who's the only other candidate in the race, to make sure that Ralph Norman doesn't make it. And it's personal for them. Norman had previously been the co-chair of the Congressional Solar Caucus. He was a champion of solar. And then he flipped on it. And now he's a huge opponent of it. And so I think if he had just been a kind of bog standard opponent who was always against Solar, they probably just leave him alone. But because of that betrayal, they wanted to make an example of him.

35:37And also, I think to your point, Darlene Graham is, they believe, malleable. A blank slate with her brother's staff that is deeply tied to K-Stream. Right. But that's interesting that they might fall short on this one. But yeah, Tom Matsey is the... Let's put this on the screen. So Tom Matsey, he basically got his start at the AFL-CIO. Then he was a top operative for Move On, which is when I met him 20 years ago. So you know this guy. Yeah. He's been around D.C. Yes. And then in but he left politics early 2010s to launch a clean energy company. And the clean energy company was a huge success. So what's unusual about Tom is that most most people in the progressive world don't know anything about business.

36:37Like to be a little blunt about it. It's like the opposite of the conservative donor world. All they care about is business. Right. Whereas he is a very successful businessman and he understands how business operates. He's also a ruthless political operative. And so, yeah, he took a page out of the Super PAC, in particular, APAC playbook. to go because when they went in and ran ads uh in the ogles race the chip roy race they weren't just like apac never mentions israel they were not saying you know vote for this person because they're good for solar or bad for solar they were saying like these are the you know they're basically just cutting typical 30 second attack ads um what i would expect that they'll start doing is taking the apac plan one step further which is you know now apac very often completely disguises that it's even them.

37:31So it's one thing if your ad doesn't mention Israel but at the bottom it says paid for by United Democracy Project because then you can Google that and find out that United Democracy Project is APAC Super PAC. What they've started doing now is they'll say paid for by Elect Chicago Women. Incredible. If you Google Elect Chicago Women, it like just formed a week ago. You're like, well, where's this money coming from? And you don't find out until after the election that it was APAC money. And so I would expect if it starts to become a liability, that it's solar money that's playing in these races, that they'll just do the APAC thing and call it elect South Carolina women or elect Lindsey Graham's sister.

38:21So this group that Matzi is running, the Invest in Tomorrow coalition, the biggest donor is a man named Chris Larson. So$6 million of the$6.8 million this PAC has are from Chris Larson. Chris Larson, fascinatingly, is right now being protested. His home is being protested by Sunrise activists because of his support of Flock and his financial ties to Flock. He is a crypto, I think he's a billionaire. He's a... Ripple. Yeah, Ripple Labs. Ripple guy. Yep. And so he's a massive crypto billionaire. And he's plucking off. I mean, just on paper, he's just picking off people who pissed him off. He's using literally his millions of dollars to just say, buy Andy Ogles, buy Chip Roy, buy Ralph Norman.

39:09We'll see if that actually happens. But it's really like on paper, it's the exact type of like APEX style behavior that should have not Not just the left, but absolutely everybody up in arms. It is just disgusting, oligarch behavior. And it is so interesting in this case that he's doing it for presumably clean energy, purposes of clean energy, kind of crony clean energy type behavior. But he's currently being protested by Sunrise versus the Board of Flock. It's a crazy DC story. It's so funny. Like, they do so little climate stuff anymore. The sun is rising over all of the issues. Like, yeah, flock sucks.

39:48But what does Sunrise have to do with that? It's very, yeah. Yeah, that's fair. It's just kind of become a vehicle for whatever young people are upset about at the moment, which is fine. And Larson is invested in surveillance technologies. And so it's, you know, you'd see why they're targeting him. But it's funny that he's this clean energy guy who's literally trying to pick people out of Congress and make sure that they don't get elected because they didn't support the clean energy subsidies. Like it's just this is a truly fascinating D.C. story. Right. And the other thing I would say is most of the donors, the major donors to APEC, Super PAC, are Republicans.

40:33and one of the things that has been so frustrating on the Democratic side has been to watch Republicans intervening in Democratic primaries. So I guess I would say how do you yeah how do you like it? How do you? She's on the other foot now. Crazy. Kind of sucks doesn't it? Yeah. Kind of like to just do your primary. Talk about actual. Talk about the issues that are relevant to your primary voters. Without distortion from people who are claiming to talk about the issues relevant to primary voters. I should be talking about something else. Yeah. All right, Ryan. Well, speaking of all this, we have a candidate to get to.

41:08Let's pivot. 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 Why not you? Try Odoo for free at odoo.com That's odoo.com What it sounds like when you road trip to the iHeartRadio Music Festival In the all-new Hyundai Palisade Hybrid Wow, this is really nice inside The Palisade Hybrid has more luxury than ever Whoa, this sound system is awesome.

41:59Turn it up. More tech than ever. Sweet. You got the available built-in dash cam? And more range than ever because the Palisade Hybrid gets up to 600 plus miles of range on a full tank. So do we ever have to stop for gas? Visit HyundaiUSA.com or call 562-314-4603 for more details. 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. 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.

42:38The 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, NMLS number 1353190, clouded balance account required to be eligible for cashback points.

43:18Limitations, terms and conditions apply. I've seen a lot of weird financial shenanigans in my political reporting career, but a move pulled off by a Democratic candidate in Massachusetts 6th congressional district is a brand new one to me. The candidate is Tram Wynn, and she's running in an open race to replace Seth Moulton, who was running for Senate against Ed Markey on Tuesday. She's presenting herself as the progressive in the race, or at least one of the progressives. And she even got the recent endorsement of squad member Ayanna Pressley. She's getting new traction in the race thanks to spending from two super PACs.

43:51Following the money to both leads to some interesting places. One of them is called Pro-Choice Majority Action, and it's primarily funded by a separate PAC called Elect Democratic Women Action Fund. And both have served this cycle as vehicles to hide money from APAC's Super PAC, which is called United Democracy Project. Indeed, APAC so far has given EDW Action Fund more than$2 million of the$7 million total it has raised. So I asked Lenny Young, a representative of EDW and ProChoiceMajority, whether this particular money had come from APAC. And he said that it didn't, but he declined to say where it did come from.

44:29So far, they've dropped$450 ,000 in the past week, with much more expected in the final days. The other super PAC is called the Save America Fund. The largest donor to Save America, bizarrely, is the committee to elect Tram Wynn. So that money came in on October 21st, 2025, and it came from Wynn's state-level political action committee. Now, bear in mind that it is illegal to use money you raised for a state race on your federal race because the laws are different around how you can raise it. Two days after sending that money to the federal super PAC, she launched her race for federal office. Now, in the last two weeks of the campaign, the super PAC she funded is all of a sudden spending big to elect her to federal office.

45:24The super PAC works with Democratic megalor Mark Elias. So presumably he blessed this roundabout way of dodging federal campaign finance laws. But it's quite aggressive at best, if not illegal at worst. Now, back in 2024, meanwhile, Save America Fund worked directly with the super PAC Democratic majority for Israel. But there's no evidence they've done so this cycle. So joining us to talk about all of this is former state representative Jamie Belsito, who is also running in this race and also kind of running in the progressive lane. Jamie, thank you so much for being here. We really appreciate it.

46:04Thank you very much for speaking with me today about this race and very, very important, very important race that we have here in the 6th. Yeah. And the state representative Wynn, you know, also, I don't know, she's still in the legislature. She is. And she's and she's endorsed by the kind of moderate to conservative House House speaker there, which is, you know, to me kind of cuts against the progressive lane that she's that she's trying to run in. But I wanted to get your perspective on this race. So when you first jumped into the race, what did you understand about kind of the layout of where the various kind of super PACs were going to fall?

46:52Sure. And I have run for this race before, and I right out the gate said, people's pledge, no outside money, and APAC would not touch me with the 10-foot pole. I am a working mother of two. I'm a proud product of this district. I'm bringing almost 30 years of experience to this race, Ryan. I have been an elected town moderator, an elected state representative. I've flipped a district to Democrat that hadn't been held by a Democrat since 1858. And I'm the only Arab American woman ever elected to our state legislature. I'm also the founder of a national maternal health nonprofit that has been focused on reducing maternal mortality across our country.

47:37And I've been working with Congress for the past 10 years to gather over$125 million new dollars in federal funding, working with Congress to make sure that we're taking care of moms and babies. And when it comes to this race, I can say this. The Democratic Party is broke, figuratively and literally. and they've allowed special interests like the ones flooding into this race right now to dictate our policy. And I'm running for Medicare for all and end these endless wars. I called out the genocide as a sitting state rep and was told point blank by the Democratic Party, you'll never be able to run for office again.

48:17And here we are with APAC money trying to come in and buy this race. So as I understand it, because of the maternal health nonprofit that you were running, you've worked with some members of Congress in the past. Tell me about some of the conversations that you had before getting into the race with these members of Congress. I think this would be pretty edifying to people about how this stuff works. So I have great relationships on the Hill by way of the work that my nonprofit has done in this space. And I was brought into the room where it happened, so to speak, and was told to tow the party line.

48:59And that is not something that this race that I'm running to represent the people of the best district in the country where I am from, where I'm running, to make sure that we are not taking all the APAC money, all of the AI money, all of the cryptocurrency money. I mean, that was the directive to me. And I said, no, thank you. That's not who I'm planning on representing in the halls of Congress. I'm planning on representing folks who can't put food on the table, who are worried about their utility bills skyrocketing out of control, who can't find a place to live. At the beginning of this segment, I mentioned this super PAC, both Pro-Choice Majority Action and EDW Action Fund.

49:48EDW, yeah. Yeah. Did they mention any of those super PACs in relation to APAC or AI when you were in Washington? The specificities are on the PACs themselves. No. I mean, even as just as a citizen, when I hear Pro-Choice Majority Action, it doesn't correlate to me that that's an APAC shell, right? or the United Democracy Project, but you're seeing that these shell companies, I don't know what we want to call them, to be very frank with you, are funding mailers and putting people up on TV right now. And the focus was, the focus and the energy of that conversation was, take all the money, because the end goal is to get a woman in this position.

50:35And that did not sit well with me because this is, again, I spoke earlier why the Democratic Party has been influenced by special interests and people are not being represented. And I told them that I would not take the money. And then they've gone ahead to endorse the representative from Andover, Tronwin. So they said take all the money, take the AIPAC money, because the important thing is that a woman win this race. Now, Representative Lois Frankel is the one who chairs this EDW PAC and has been reported to be moving APAC money around. Did you meet with her? That's who I met with, yes. It was Frankel.

51:23Yes. And Ryan, I'll be transparent in saying I was unaware of her position within the organization. EDW, to me, sounded nice. so elect Democratic women, right? Of course, that's who I'm going to meet with. I'm a formally, you know, elected Democratic woman. So it did not indicatively say to me that there was anything that I should be concerned with. But when it was conveyed to me that it was time to lean in and take all the money. But, you know, again, the last time I checked, I am a woman, but I guess not taking the APAC money disqualifies me as a candidate. Well, elect certain kinds of Democratic women.

52:04There you go. Yeah, the disclaimer was not as transparent, but that's where it is right now. Yeah. Could you, just since you're, you know, in this race right now, explain to us a bit about how consequential this money and support is? Like, say you were taking APAC money and AI money. What does that mean for a candidate running in a district like this? Well, I'll tell you this. You know, we are on the doors. We've knocked 50 ,000 doors. We have 400 volunteers across this district. It's 39 towns and cities, right? And the prohibitive part of this is getting on TV, is putting out those mailers, is being on the streaming.

52:46And so if you aren't able to pay to play, for lack of a better term, it becomes somewhat prohibitive. Although I do have to say for us, we have the largest grassroots campaign. We are meeting people where they are. We are in their communities. And I'm from here. I, you know, like I'm a known entity in this, in the district that I'm running. But whether it be Tron or other candidates, the money that's flooding in from special interests is what's allowing people to be put on the streaming channels and on the TV channels. But I go back to the fact that this district here up the North Shore has a strong what I call a no BS detector.

53:30And I don't think people realize the bill of goods that they're being fed under the guise of pro-choice majority or the United Democracy project. And it's on purpose. It's on purpose. That's the part that is so hard against. AIPAC won't touch me with the 10-foot pole, but they have figured out a way to go around it so that people don't look at a mailer or a commercial and go, oh, geez, that's the thing we're talking about these days. We don't want to support that. So Tram Wynne about a week ago, I said at a forum and then also then she tweeted out, she said, as someone who fled an authoritarian regime because she fled Vietnam at the age of five, I know the devastating human cost of violence and displacement, the genocide in Gaza must come to an end.

54:21It's time to stop writing blank checks for forever wars. So what's your sense? So where, you know, what's your reaction to that? And what's your sense of why a PAC that has been significantly funded by AIPAC would be OK getting behind somebody who says the genocide in Gaza must come to an end? So I've been very transparent again, Ryan, on this. You know, I have I have family that still resides in Syria. I as an Arab American woman, as a mother of two, as somebody who has their own nonprofit and taking care of mothers and babies, we've been watching a live stream genocide on Instagram for years now.

55:00And let us be frank, this has been an ongoing issue for over 70 years, and I have been incredibly outspoken to the point where I've received death threats. I was put into the local Jewish newspapers as the anti-Semite next door. And people have decided to use this issue as politically expeditious to signal to folks, oh, I'm a progressive. But up until recently, even during our candidates' forums, the rep from Andover did not believe that there was a genocide. Secondly, is Israel committing genocide?

55:44OK, we have a split there. And that's insulting because it's been part of our foreign policy, our U.S. tax dollars, going to fund a foreign military to murder and kill people. And this is the reality of where I've always stood and why I'm receiving the pushback that I'm receiving right now, because they do not want someone like me in Congress. And last question. So the races on Tuesday, what are you finding to be the major fault lines in a in a open Democratic primary like this? How are people trying to differentiate themselves and what are what are voters kind of demanding at this moment? It's, you know, this is all about money, right?

56:32When we continue to allow special interests to dictate how people know who's running, what our policies for the United States are going to be, we will never have Medicare for all. We will have forever wars. We will continue to ingratiate our military with the state of Israel. We will never have clear representation of the people by the people for the people in this district. It will end up turning into data centers and people continuing asking why can't I afford my food bills? Well, because our money is going towards for-profit health care or making sure that the government is giving ICE gloves that can electric shock people.

57:20It's all of the monies. It's all the special interest monies that continue to run, not just the GOP and the Trump administration, but the Democratic establishment party. I am a Democrat. I am running to take care of my district, because when I was a congressional intern for Joe Mobley 30 years ago in South Boston, here's what you want. You take care of the people in your district. You make sure there's food on the table, a roof over their head, and you try to help them get a job. And I have 30 years of fighting for the regular people. And people are looking for someone like me to represent them.

57:54And without the money, we are just meeting people where they're at. And that I will continue to do until Tuesday. But we need to let the American public know that whether it's Matt Little or Malak Kieros or Will Lawrence, these PACs will continue to try to influence what the American people should be voting, who they should be voting for and what decisions are being made on their behalf. Well, Jamie Beltito, candidate for Massachusetts 6th Congressional District, thanks for taking some time. The election is this coming Tuesday, a week from today. Thank you so much for joining us. Thank you. That was a really interesting interview, Ryan.

58:35Pinkwashing. You could call it pinkwashing. Yeah, so Elect Democratic Women was launched in 2018, after the Women's March and the height of anti-Trump. And now it's just flush with AIPAC money. And it's very interesting to hear that Lois Frankel privately is saying that this is, it's the same thing. That was some tea. That was some tea. That was some strong tea. Yeah. Good stuff. Well, I'm going to call Ayanna Pressley, too, get her comment on... This is not how I think people expect Democratic primary politics to unfold on the progressive side. I would imagine it's not. That's dirty. Yeah. Well, you're going to be in with Sagar tomorrow, right?

59:18Bro Show. And then Sagar Thursday, too? Or Crystal Thursday? No. Sagar or you? I don't know. We'll figure it out. Show up Thursday. We like to do the planning on the air. Just me. We'll do it live. Well, breakingpoints.com, full subscription, free month trial is still going. Head on over there if you're interested. Otherwise, Ryan and Sagar, we'll see you back here tomorrow morning. Have a great one, everyone.

59:55This 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. Why not you? Try Odoo for free at odoo.com. That's odoo.com.

1:00:54ChatGPT to work on your most ambitious ideas and projects. Get started at ChatGPT.com by selecting work mode. Available on Plus and Pro plans. What it sounds like when you road trip to the iHeartRadio Music Festival in the all-new Hyundai Palisade Hybrid. Wow, this is really nice inside. The Palisade Hybrid has more luxury than ever. Whoa, this sound system is awesome. Turn it up. More tech than ever. Sweet, you got the available built-in dash cam? And more range than ever because the Palisade Hybrid gets up to 600 plus miles of range on a full tank. So do we ever have to stop for gas? Visit HyundaiUSA.com or call 562-314-4603 for more details.

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