Trump Admin Spiraling As Dems Rise Up Against Funding Israel

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1:11All right, joining me today on iHip News is Brad Lander, who has spent years fighting for working families as an affordable housing advocate, city council member, and New York City comptroller. You saw him put his body on the line to protect immigrant neighbors when ICE agents arrested him at 26 Federal Plaza and cross-endorsed Zoran to defeat Andrew Cuomo, which back-to-back loser Cuomo is. Now he's running to represent New York in its 10th congressional district. How lucky would we be to have Brad Lander in the U.S. House of Representatives? Welcome.

1:51Brad Lander:Good morning. Great to be here in your New York studio. I know. I know. I'm a new New Yorker. I'm starting to feel New Yorker-ish. I've been here six months now. Yeah. I raised my kids here. I came in my early 20s. I raised my kids here. They were born here. They still don't consider me a real New Yorker. Oh, they don't. Really? It's a big curve. Okay. I just want to start off with rapid fire questions, because I think sometimes politicians give long answers. So these are yes or no questions. Rejecting corporate PAC money. Yes or no? Yes. Abolish ICE. Yes or no? Yes. Tax the rich. Yes or no? Yes.

2:30Okay. As a parent in New York, if a parent is scared that their trans kid, kids, healthcare will be taken away one or two sentences as to what you would say to that family right now.

2:43Brad Lander:Unfortunately, right now they have real reason to be scared because Because NYU Langone and Mount Sinai that provided gender affirming care for trans kids, puberty blockers, have both stopped providing that health care in response to Trump threats. People are working hard to sue. That's a violation of New York City's state and the city and the state's human rights law. And there are some other organizations that provide it. We're fighting like hell to get it back. Yeah. One thing I loved during Zoran's campaign, because I come from Oklahoma City where I have friends that are raising a trans daughter and they have to move.

3:18They cannot raise their child in Oklahoma because the government is so cruel with their laws and judgment towards them. But I loved that Zoran in his campaign said that he wanted New York to be a sanctuary city for LGBTQ plus people. And coming from a red state, it's so needed.

3:36Brad Lander:And of course it has been. That's what Stonewall is about. There's a great organization called The Door that I do a lot of work with because now they are the place where young asylum seekers go. I met a kid from Sudan whose parents were killed by the RSF, comes to New York, The Door helps them. The door was set up because lesbian and gay kids were, you know, who had to leave home from all around the country started coming here in the 60s and 70s. It's part of what makes New York great is all these people coming to be creative here. It has to be a sanctuary. And of course, we can make it a place of welcome in our government, in our culture, in our neighborhoods.

4:13Brad Lander:But restoring that gender affirming care for those kids is a critical part. I agree. Okay. And then last, cut off military aid to Israel, yes or no? Yes. Yeah, I agree. What made you change your mind about military aid in Israel? Well, I have been for conditioning aid to Israel since before October 7th. I actually wrote an op-ed back in the spring or summer of 2023 calling for an end to the blank check. I mean, unconditional aid is not compliant with the Leahy Law. All aid is supposed to be consistent with international law, with human rights. And right now, I mean, unconditional U.S. support for Israel's destruction of Gaza, which I do consider a genocide.

4:57Brad Lander:Terrible, of course, for Palestinians, but terrible for Israel, now terrible for the whole Middle East shredding U.S. credibility. So I will sign on to Delia Ramirez's Block the Bombs Act and the Ceasefire Compliance Act. But we shouldn't provide more military aid until Israel is complying with human rights and international law. I completely agree. I think it's really coming from a place like Oklahoma, where you see all of these working class people that pay their fair share in taxes and they don't have health care. They have a root canal. They're going to be underwater, bankrupt. I mean, potentially bankrupt.

5:38Root canal could be, you know, three or four thousand dollars, people living paycheck to paycheck. And then you think about the blank checks that we just send over there. And furthermore, I worry about bigotry a lot. And I feel like the best way to combat bigotry, whether it be anti-Semitism, transphobia, Islamophobia, is by telling the truth. Telling the truth. I mean, how could you? Right now, Israel's committing more crimes. And we have to say it.

6:03Brad Lander:I mean, first, how could you ask a struggling family in America that can't afford their health care or their housing to understand how there is billions of dollars for this war with, you know, reckless, illegal, unjust, no clear purpose, raising their own prices. And there's not enough money to help, you know, pay for their health care or their child care or their housing. It just makes no sense. That's why working families are fed up. But yes, I mean, on foreign policy, Trump is a sociopathic imperialist. You know, we saw that in Venezuela, in Greenland, and absolutely in this war. But that is built on a broader set of hypocrisies and failures in foreign policy that Democrats as well as Republicans own.

6:51Brad Lander:Because all these years of saying rules-based international order, while the U.S. did what the president wanted in the Iraq war and in unconditional support for Israel's destruction of Gaza, anyone can see that's not consistent with international law, with human rights compliance. And once the rules don't apply to the people in power, it's hard to ask folks to have confidence that government democracy is meaningful, that it'll deliver for them. And that's when if somebody comes along and points at someone to blame. And yes, of course, that's always going to be Jews or trans kids or Muslims or immigrants.

7:32Brad Lander:And that's how we got here. And we've got to get out by standing up to Trump and protecting our neighbors. But we also have to take on corporate power, speak the truth about foreign policy and human rights, give people some reasons to trust their elected officials. Yeah. And I appreciate that you mentioned the Democrats attributing to this, because I think in order for us to realize how we got in this situation, we incubated this moment. It's not all about Trump. It's really about failures and not meeting the needs of people in this country that left a vacuum for him. And your challenging incumbent, Dan Goldman, is a Democrat that I believe would vote differently with you on this military aid to Israel.

8:20And I think that you have to listen to the people right now and you have to listen to your own party. And 80 percent of the Democrats do not have a favorable view of this. And I personally believe, because I come from a place where bigotry is a little bit more mainstream, that when you see the actions of what Israel and the United States together are doing to Palestinians, and you hear real bigots like Tucker Carlson or Nick Fuentes making a 30 second, 60 second clip like, Like, this is not America first. These politicians are putting Israel first. When people don't have the full scope of things, it can incubate a lot more bigotry.

9:12And so -

9:13Brad Lander:The same with AIPAC. I mean, I don't like what AIPAC is doing to our democracy. I've never taken a penny from them. I never will. You know, creating these shadow PACs that then don't even spend on their issue. It's really corrosive to democracy. But I don't like saying that out loud if you – I mean the same people, if Tucker Carlson and Nick Fuentes are criticizing AIPAC, they're building on a well of anti-Semitism. And it's really hard to pull apart legitimate criticism of Israel for genocide and war crimes and a well of anti-Semitism that can be exploited politically and that just grows and metastasizes.

9:57Brad Lander:It is why speaking honestly is important. I believe it's why it's important for American Jews to do that. It's one reason I'm running. I mean, Dan Goldman is for unconditional U.S. military aid to Israel, regardless of settler violence in the West Bank, regardless of violations of the ceasefire, regardless of this reckless war, takes many contributions from, you know, is endorsed by AIPAC, takes many contributions. And I just – it is an important time for moral clarity, for honesty. But yes, it has to be done with the basic idea that we're going to fight bigotry against everyone. That's my thing.

10:36Brad Lander:And the Jews have a real responsibility to play here. This is my thing. I think that Democrats have got – we have to have democratic voices like yours in the forefront of the party right now. because the messaging of some of the Democrats, like your opponent, Dan Goldman, that these people's rights are the most important. And then Islamophobia, transphobia, all of that is down a ways. We have to link them all together. And this is how it's just so easy to call out Tucker Carlson. Tucker Carlson has no problem calling gay people the F slur. He'll just say it whenever. Nick Fuentes has no problem saying that he's a Nazi.

11:17Marjorie Taylor Greene has no problem saying vicious things about trans people. And I think the lesson of the Holocaust and the lesson of all forms of bigotry are you cannot leave one group aside. That's right. That all of universal rights are connected and attached. And I just think it's a real moment for people right now, particularly American Jewish voices, to stand up and say, this is an affront to my people and to Judaism that we would vote to give money to a military force, as the BBC has reported. Over 160 kids were executed by IDF soldier snipers in the head or in the heart. Like that we cannot, there's no planet anywhere in the world say we're for democracy, we're for universal human rights.

12:09But yet here's some money for you to go execute kids.

12:13Brad Lander:And I mean, selective empathy moves so quickly, you know, for a minute, you know, the war in Iran was about protecting Iranian protesters, very brave. And then as soon as that girl school was hit with the missile, you know, we're trying to, you know, Trump's trying to have us look the other way. I mean, look, the core Jewish value that I learned growing up and that I teach my kids is B'Tselem Elohim, this idea that everyone is created in the image of God. So, of course, equal in a human rights context, but also with a spark of the divine. And if you think that way about your own kids and everybody else's kids, you come to a different approach to foreign policy.

12:52Brad Lander:that this, the anti-fascists in Brazil who took on Bolsonaro have this great phrase they use, no one let go of anyone's hand. And it's just like the opposite of that first they came poem. You know, you're not going to let them come for trans kids. You're not going to, you know, give up on the humanity of Palestinian kids in Gaza. Everybody's created in God's image. You know, you've got to then turn that into thoughtful policy that, you know, getting them all health care and housing and child care and safety is hard work. But everybody knows that's where you should start. Jason Stanley. I went to the Bernie Sanders rally in the Bronx a couple of weeks ago with him, the professor.

13:36And he told me he saw a cartoon that said, first they came for the billionaires and they never came again. Okay.

13:46Brad Lander:We're taxing them now, too. So that's good. OK. How do moderates, if you get elected, OK, there's kind of this whole thing going on with the Democratic Party now. You have the corporate Dems and then you have the progressive caucus, which I think you're going to be in. I think you're going to win this thing. I think you are the type of Democrat we have to elect. I do believe that compromise is important. And I believe that as progressive, we cannot just nitpick at everything. And whenever we can make progress, we can. So how do you see, once you're in the House, you're our congressman, working with Dems in the House?

14:22Brad Lander:Let me praise the best thing I think that the Democratic caucus did together over the past year, because I think it's part of pointing the way forward. And that was by making the prior government shutdown fight about the health care subsidies. Like Democrats, moderates and progressives came together to say, there's a lot going on here. There's a lot we could fight about. Let's pick a thing that we know is important in people's everyday lives that affects their pocketbooks that Republicans are trying to wreak havoc on. And they agreed together to focus on health care subsidies, the fact that people's premiums were going to double on the exchanges and the Medicare and Medicaid cuts would take place.

14:59Brad Lander:And they all got together around that. And that was really effective messaging. I thought in that shutdown, people could see, wait, Republicans want to double my health care costs and that's what Democrats are fighting for. Okay, I'm for that. And then when they did double, now they know who to blame. So when Democrats have control of the House next year, this is the first thing we should demand, a restoration of those Medicare, Medicaid and healthcare exchange subsidies. I think progressives and moderates will be able to agree on that, get a win, demand that in the budget, show people that we are fighting and winning for them.

15:37Brad Lander:So absolutely, there are times like this primary for a fight where a progressive is saying this kind of mealy mouth millionaire moderate politics is not what we need. And then there are times to unite. We have to elect a speaker together. We have to pick what we're going to focus on. And yeah, absolutely. Okay. So one thing that I think is super cool is the way Kathy Hochul has been moving and working with the mayor of New York City. And I think that we need to applaud that. I think that it is incredible because I come from a red state that has Republican super majorities. And the last time we had a Democratic governor was in the early 2000s.

16:20Oklahoma was ranked 17th in education. Then they have a MAGA supermajority for 20 plus years. Now we're ranked 50th in education. So I know firsthand, boots on the ground, how devastating Republican supermajorities are. They're horrible. So to see Kathy Hochul, who I've had on this podcast, and I like, I really like her. I don't agree with any politician on everything. I just think that's cultish. But I've seen her move and move and move to listen to what her constituency and what the party wants. And so recently she is doing this pied -à-terre tax with Zoron to help make up for the budget deficit that Eric Adams left here when he left.

17:02And so pop up, you tweeted your opponent. So Dan Goldman says, I applaud Governor Kathy Hochul for this smart way to generate revenue from those who can and should pay their fair share of taxes. We need to unrig the system and tackle wealth, blah, blah, blah. And then you chime in, which I love this. I love this shit. This is stuff about politics I love. You said, no applause for Mayor Mom Donnie. This compromise wouldn't have happened without the mayor's leadership. He led the push for taxing the wealthy with no help from you. What do you have to say about that? I love it.

17:38Brad Lander:I will point out that before I did that, I had put up a tweet that both praised the governor and the mayor for the pediatry tax. They both deserve real credit, just as you are saying. This is a big deal. The pied -à-terre tax. So what that is is for homes in New York valued at more than$5 million owned by people who don't live there most of the time. So these are people who live somewhere else. Jeff Bezos near here has a pied -à-terre. He pays almost nothing in taxes. There was less than 1 % he pays of his income in taxes because it's all in stock. And then he doesn't even pay anything significant because there's not yet a pied -à-terre tax.

18:14Brad Lander:So this is a smart, you know, we don't need people owning vacant housing in New York. A great idea to charge an additional tax. It's going to raise$500 million a year to pay for universal child care in our schools and, you know, our streets, our parks. It's a great idea. It only happened because Zoran campaigned hard to say not only do we need universal child care, which Governor Hochul then quickly said, let's work together on. He said to keep it, to pay for it over time, maybe you got money to pay for it one year, we're going to need to do some new revenues and they've got to focus on taxing the rich.

18:51Brad Lander:He had proposed an increase in high income earner and corporate taxes. She came back with this Pied-a-terre tax. It's great. Soran celebrates it. Let's take that as a win, as an example that it wouldn't have happened without a progressive push, demand, organizing. That was that Bernie rally in the Bronx. People went up to Albany. The governor started by saying, no, I'm not going to do it. But then she did. She could see people are organizing. She found a way to do it. This is progressives and moderates working together. But yes, Dan Goldman never once spoke out in support of an effort to tax the rich in Albany.

19:29Brad Lander:And then in the moment of, you know, congratulations, could not come to just congratulate Mayor Mamdani for this big win. And let's not forget, he did not endorse him even in the general election after he was the Democratic nominee for mayor running against sexual harasser Andrew Cuomo. So you would think maybe in a district that overwhelmingly voted for Zara on at this moment of a great win, he would just slide into that tweet. Props to the mayor. Yeah. And I think it's disgraceful that Dan Goldman and others didn't speak out against all of the horrific Islamophobic attacks against the mayor.

20:12And Kathy Hochul did that. She was very, you know, she has showed to be a stand up politician, willing to move, willing to compromise, willing to listen to the people that have been left behind. But here's what I just get the biggest kick out of is the billionaire bedwetting that's going on. So these pied -à-terres, that sounds sweet and cute and quaint.

20:36Brad Lander:Yeah, the French word makes it sound so lovely. Right, it sounds like a little thing. A lot of these pied -à-terres are$5 million or more. Some of them are$238 million. And, of course, there is this billionaire. And I don't believe he lives in New York City, does he? Bill Ackman is the guy who writes these novels on Twitter. He's just bedwets on Twitter like every chance he can get. He's going crazy now about all of this because these non-residents who spend millions of dollars on NYC apartments, help drive New York City's economy. And he goes on and on that they don't send their kids to public schools and they're no train.

21:17And what I have to say to this is Bill Ackman has a bank account that could choke a bull, right? And the bedwetting that I see from Elon Musk, from Bill Ackman and others, when I live in New York now, I take the subway, I use all of the things the city can. And I see that there is a robust working class that is the engine, the fuel and the oil behind making the city what it is. And what's so cool about living in New York versus Oklahoma City, which I love Oklahoma City, but New York is a main character. You live in this city that is like this main character in your life. Like I've just crossed the street and I'm like, oh my God, there's the Empire State Building.

22:01It's just, it's magic. And there are so many people that work and ride the subways and do working class things in service industry hotels. And they are who make this city what it is. And to see these billionaires wet the bed over this with an assist from some people online that I like to call capitalists with no capital, that support the billionaires. It's just wild to see it. And then somebody roasted Bill Ackman on Twitter, we should be able to tax Bill Ackman 50K every time he tweets about NYC. What do you have to say about this?

22:42Brad Lander:I mean, first, your point is so right. Like what makes, I mean, there are fortunes made in New York City, of course. Yeah, and I don't besmirch that. What makes New York great is all the people that are here. We mentioned those like queer kids coming from all around the country and immigrants coming from every part of the world. I mean, what the city has been for Jews for a century, getting the shit kicked out of us all around the world and then coming here. And now if you're a mayoral candidate, you got to say what your bagel order is. That's true in every way. An amazing Puerto Rican city and Dominican city and black city and Chinese city.

23:15Brad Lander:I mean, go to Chinatown or Sunset Park or Flushing. And that's why it's great to be here. It's where the energy comes from, the creativity, the next great business ideas also. And we like having rich people here and celebrities here, but they have to fit into the city. And that means we need the resources for good public schools and a subway that works. And, you know, this is why delivering universal child care, making it more affordable because the housing is so damn expensive. And so the idea that you would complain about a tax on people's second or third or fourth or fifth homes worth more than$5 million, it's just preposterous.