America's Dumbass Dictator

33:07Did you see him on Air Force One? He just stands a straight face as Trump rambles about the dementia test and how Jasmine Crockett couldn't beat him in a dementia test. And Rubio is just standing there, just straight face. I wonder if he practices that in the mirror in the morning. Just how do I keep a straight face when this clearly insane boss of mine is saying so? But, you know, these people will sell out for anything. He wanted to be Secretary of State. He wants to run for president in 2028. So Marco Rubio, a man who knows better and just tolerates it. And I think history will judge the Rubios of this world much harsher than they'll judge the Peter Hegseths of this world.

33:39No, I agree with that. What have you had it with? We like to ask all of our guests what they've had it with. And then we'll dive back into beating up on establishment Dems and stuff like that. But right out of the gates, what have you had it with? So it's just what I mentioned a moment ago. You know what I've had it with most? The more I watch Trump, I've had it with our amnesia in this country, right? It's just Americans are like goldfish. We can't remember what happened last week, let alone last month or last year. We just are unable to retain things. And so people like Donald Trump are able to just do the craziest, most offensive criminal things.

34:13And we all just move on. We all say, oh, yeah, I forgot he sent an armed mob to the Capitol. Oh, yeah, I forgot he kidnapped kids at the border. Oh, I forgot that 100 ,000 Americans died from COVID that didn't need to die from COVID. I spent much of last year telling people, you know, Donald Trump's going to be bad. And they would say stuff like, he wasn't that bad the first time around. We survived term one. And I would say, actually, 100 ,000 Americans didn't survive term one that didn't need to die. And he helped enable their deaths with his incompetence during the pandemic. So it's the amnesia that kills me right now.

34:43When I talk to people, everyone just, it's always like reset day one, especially in our media. It's what's new? Look ahead. Don't look back. And I'm like, no, no, we have to look back. We can't forget what has been going on. What do you think about like, okay, one thing that has shocked me is the appeasement in advance, like ABC News and CBS News in 60 Minutes. I'm like, Harvard, you people have all the money, all the access in the world, and you're not fighting it. So why do you think that has been just people falling in line? It really surprises me. Yeah, it surprised me as well. I probably shouldn't be surprised because I'm quite a cynical person.

35:26But the speed at which it's happened has surprised me. Watching all those billionaires from the tech world lining up behind him at the inauguration. If Jeff Bezos is going to roll over, and he's what, second, third richest man in the world, then you wonder what are the rest of us supposed to do? It's not a great inspiring look. As someone pointed out, what is the point of having fuck you money if you can't say fuck you? What is the point of being that rich and going, oh, but I'm worried about this space contract or I'm worried about Washington? No, you are Jeff Bezos. You have made more money than most people in history combined.

35:57You don't need anything else. You can go buy an island and live somewhere else and speak the truth. But the problem is, is a lot of these people are not just cowards. They actually agree with Trump. I think a lot of these people in the elites were waiting for someone like Trump to come and bash minorities and yes, cut their taxes and deregulate their industries. But a lot of them think wokeness went too far. The civil rights era went too far. We've let all these women and minorities go way too far. And I think a lot of them secretly think Trump is a good thing. And so they can hide behind the, oh, he's bullying us.

36:26He's forcing us into doing this. But I think a lot of them wanted to go along with it because if you point out, they have a lot of money. These university presidents these media bosses, these tech billionaires, they don't all have to roll over to Trump. They choose to do that. And that is what's so shameful and why I think they will be judged against so harshly as the enablers of this stuff, because they could stop. And look, there's no solidarity in our society. This is a problem. People don't stick together. I said this at the No Kings protest recently. There are more of us than there are of them.

36:54But we don't give that impression if we're all atomized and cut off from each other and fighting from one another and throwing each other under the bus. One example I always give, the White House press corps, right? If you ever watch their press conferences with Trump, especially in the first term, he would say, you're fake news. I'm not answering that question. You. Why didn't the next reporter say, well, I'm going to ask the same question as the person before. And the person after me, if you ignore me, they're going to ask the same question. They never do that. They go, oh, he came to me, I'll ask my question.

37:20There's no solidarity amongst journalists when Trump is attacking them. And there is strength in numbers, right? The way the bully works, the way the fascist work is to to go after each person individually and make you think you're on your own. But if you stick together, then they lose. The problem is too many of our elites, too many of our institutions are not sticking together. Well, and I think it's so short-sighted of the Bezos, the Elon Musk's to bend the knee to this type of man, especially when you get to Cook of Apple. You know, Dumb and Dumber, that's what I call the Eric and Don Jr., right?

37:55Dumb and Dumber tried to launch Trump phone. These people are so depraved and absolutely advertise that the rules, the rule of law may apply to you, but it absolutely doesn't apply to us. What's going to keep them from doing a Putin play where they don't say, you know what? We think we want Apple. Yeah, we want that. That's what these people do. So he's already taken stakes in major companies. Exactly. And so it's so short sighted on their part. But I want to talk about little Moses Mike Grinder Johnson. He's somebody I like to pick on quite a bit because he's from the same area of the country that I'm from.

38:34And I'm very familiar with these white evangelical hypocrites. Abundantly familiar. And I'll tell you, he gets on TV pretty much, I mean, three and four times a day on this. All the Sunday shows, CNN. And he propagandizes and he propagandizes and he propagandizes and he propagandizes. And I'm like, all right. I mean, he's he's dedicated to the cause. Like he's Democratic. The Democrats shut down, blah, blah. So then, you know, I wonder around the Internet and I'm like, well, where is Hakeem and Chuckles? Where are they? Why aren't they every day, all day talking about what a breathtaking religious hypocrite little Moses Mike Grinder Johnson is?

39:23Why aren't they saying this guy preaches to you that he and Jesus Christ are best friends, yet he demonizes the poor. He celebrates kids being zip tied and deported and celebrated from their families. It's such a layup, Mehdi. And it would actually penetrate in the religious South. And it's fucking crickets. And it drives me insane. It drives me more insane, dare I say. I actually wrote a piece for The Guardian about a month or two ago saying they got to go. Hakeem Jeffries and Chuck Schumer, no one genuinely believes they are the right men for this task. They are the right people for this. Nobody believes it.

39:59I interviewed multiple members of Congress and every single one I asked them, what about Chuck Schumer? What about Hakeem Jeffries? And they all take a deep breath and then they defend them. But you can see their hearts not in it. You can see in their eyes, they don't want Hakeem Jeffries. They don't want Chuck Schumer. It's just Democrats don't have the spines to actually get rid of them. There's a real, you know, there's a real loyalty and deference to authority and age in the Democratic Party, with Chuck Schumer in particular. I mean, why is Chuck Schumer even still leader of the Senate Democrats.

40:23They lost the Senate. When you lose an election, you should step down. You don't carry on as the leader after you lost the Senate. And it's just bizarre that he's still in place. He's super old. He's super weak. He hasn't endorsed Zoran Mamdani. Jeffrey's endorsed Mamdani literally, what, 72 hours ago or whatever it was, ridiculously at the very end, half-heartedly. They're both also not very good as communicators. So on the one hand, I'm very critical that they're always AWOL. On the other hand, when I see them on TV, I want to throw something at the TV because they're just not very good. Have you heard Hakeem Jeffries speak.

40:52I think I need, it sounds like it just came out of chat GPT. Like you just, what? It's so robotic. It's so garbled. And somebody asked him the other day why he hadn't endorsed Mandani. It was a couple of days before he did it. And he said, it's not that I haven't endorsed him. It's that I haven't articulated. I can't even remember what he said. It was just complete gibberish. So in a time when we need good communicators, they are not good communicators. At a time when we need bold leaders, they are not bold leaders. And on the faith run, I totally agree with you. I'm a person of faith. I'm a Muslim.

41:19It kills me that the Republican Party have decided to occupy all the space for religion and faith in this country, have basically tried to own religion and faith and moral values, even as they have this amoral, irreligious man in the White House who, when asked what his favorite book of the Bible was, said, like, all of it. He couldn't name a single verse or chapter. So it annoys me. And I think people like James Tallarico in Texas, who's running for the Senate, are interesting characters because they are willing to talk about their faith very openly and very proudly. And I think that I would like to see more of that.

41:48Obviously not from Democrats who don't have faith, each to their own. But those who do, those who are Christians or Jews or Muslims, talk about your faith. Don't let these people pretend that they are the people of faith when they are doing the most un-Jesus thing possible. They're like demonizing children and the poor and the refugees. As many people have pointed out, if Jesus were to come back tomorrow, I don't know what the Republican Party would do to him. I think they would be shocked at the color of his skin, first and foremost. I think they You bring up a really important point. So I'm an atheist, bizarrely, like the only atheist born and raised by atheist parents in the buckle of the Bible belt.

42:22And so I couldn't get you. They couldn't. I've been on the top of every prayer warrior list. I've been heavily recruited. I mean, you wouldn't believe the efforts. Despite all of that, they all failed because my mother sees religion is almost like a shortcoming, intellectual shortcoming. So I was kind of brainwashed the other way. Right. So but I do think America is one of the more religious first world countries. And we have a crazy Christian problem in this country that is never discussed. And when I grew up in a red state and lived in a red state, I was always relieved to know that people in blue states and the Democrats could win the White House and protect me in Oklahoma from the worst impulses of these crazy.

43:08Christians. And so it's been horrifying to see the ascension of the crazy Christians to the White House and them streamlining it. And I'm with you. As much as I don't like to hear politicians talk about religion, we're going to have to have the Andy Bershears, the James Tallaricos, remind Christians what their faith is supposed to be. And we had Andy Bershear on I've Had It a while ago, And he gave a very good argument about why he wouldn't throw trans kids under the bus. This is a Democrat in Kentucky with one who won twice. And he sat in our studio and said he would not throw trans kids under the bus.

43:55Fast forward a few months later, I have Rahm Emanuel on the podcast and he immediately threw trans kids under the bus. And so it just amazes me this clash between the Democratic establishment who are structured, disciplined, and we're going to stay on message. And everybody in the country has moved on to this kind of fuck you breed of politics, right? And the Democrats try to stay so messaged and we're going to pull this and we're only going to speak to the polling. And now the Democratic establishment, to me personally, feels like the conservative party, that they want to preserve and conserve the status quo.

44:36And then you have these people, AOC, Mom Donnie, Sanders, filling arenas for a mayoral race. And the two fuckers from New York that should have ridden their coattails. I'm talking about Hakeem and Chuckles, no shows. Yeah. And I am I am I wake up every day and I can't decide am I more frustrated with MAGA or am I more frustrated with the Democrats? And quite frankly, at this point, I'm more frustrated with the Democrats, because like you said in your no king speech, there are more of us. Yeah, for sure. But they don't take advantage of that. And everything you're saying, I 100 percent endorse.

45:14Just a couple of things. One is not just Schumer and Jeffries. let's not forget Kirsten Gillibrand, the senator from New York, junior senator from New York, who also has not endorsed Mamdani. Not only has she not endorsed Mamdani, she lied and said that he supported global jihad. Apparently she called him and apologized. She didn't apologize to me and other Muslims who she smeared by extension. She didn't do a public apology. So Democrats have engaged in awful Muslim baiting and Islamophobia as well during this Mamdani race. And it is awful. And they know they couldn't fill a living room, let alone a stadium in the way that those three did on Sunday.

45:45The energy they know is on one side of the party. You're right about the crazy folks. One thing I want to say, though, is that, again, I don't want to cede the ground and say, it's the crazy Christians because they're Christians. I just want to remind your viewers and listeners, a lot of this, what we're seeing on the right is very astroturfed. It is very recent. It is very political, right? Up until the 70s and 80s, you didn't see stuff like this on the right. This stuff came out of the moral majority. It came during the Reagan era, the end of the 70s. this was even the pro-life movement is very modern, right?

46:17It doesn't go back 50, 100 years. So it's really interesting the way that they have politicized and weaponized the faith. And it is not all Christians. It is a very specific subset of right-wing politicized Christians and white Christians. Because when people say, oh, evangelicals, I'm always like, black evangelicals are not voting for Trump. A lot of Latino evangelicals are not voting for Trump. A lot of, it's like when we say working class Americans, actually white working class Americans, Black working class Americans are still reliably democratic. So we just got to be specific about the fact of who we're talking about here.

46:46It is a very narrow, specific group of people who don't represent a majority of Christians, let alone a majority of Americans. We need to make that clear so that they can't play the victim. Oh, you're picking on Christianity and Christians. No, we're not. We're picking on you. We're picking on this specific group of bigots who have weaponized faith. I'm a Muslim. I know all about people in religious communities who try and weaponize your faith. I spent 20 years dealing with people in my community who pretend that they're holier than now, but actually using religion for political purposes. And that's what we're seeing on some parts of the Christian right as well.

47:15And in terms of the democratic establishment, it's a joke. It's a joke. And it worries me because, A, I worry that they're not going to be able to take back the House. And that's our last bulwark against full on fascism in this country. And even if they take back the House, does anyone have any confidence that Speaker Jeffries is going to fight the good fight from the House against the Trump White House? Yeah. What do you think about Gavin Newsom, J.B. Pritzker? You have these governors that are really setting a good example of how to fight this regime. And so is there anybody like that? I mean, obviously, you've got Chris Murphy, but who would be better than Hakeem Jeffries in your mind?

47:53I mean, everyone. In the House, there are many people. If I had a crystal ball, a magic wand, whatever the phrase is, I would have someone like Jamie Raskin be the House speaker because he's a smart guy, knows the institution, super experienced, but also is always willing to fight. always willing to go on TV and give us a great soundbite, always willing to take on anyone, anywhere, has a moral backbone, as far as I can see, has taken strong stances on many issues. He came late to Gaza, but at least he came to Gaza and called for a ceasefire as a Jewish member of the House, unlike Hakeem Jeffries, who kind of was hard, what does Charlemagne call him?

48:31This idea of these guys are just so weak. They're so feckless. And again, I think we've learned from the 2024 election, we learned from Trump versus Harris that you've got to be a politician who is willing to speak off the cuff. You've got to be willing to go anywhere. You've got to be willing to take on anyone. You've got to be unafraid. You can't just be poll testing your messages all the time, focus grouping your messaging all the time. As we've seen with Graham Plattner, and I think he's made some huge fuck ups with that tattoo. But what's interesting about Plattner is that he comes out, he says his piece, he explains himself, and then he goes and does a town hall and double the number of people turn up, which tells you rightly or wrongly, I'm not saying whether it's right or wrong, but people don't care about a lot of things that Democrats have spent so much time worrying about.

49:14I can't say a gaffe. I can't say this wrong sentence. I can't say that word. No, Donald Trump blew all that up. And we're in a very different environment now. And it's interesting that you mentioned the, Jennifer, you mentioned the swearing is interesting because what they think they have to do now, I've seen Chuck Schumer started swearing, started F-bombing. They think that's what it means to be like bold and unafraid. No, no, The swearing has to have a purpose. You have to be swearing about something. It has to be backed by a platform. It's like people who go, Momdani's got great videos. Yeah, he does have great videos.

49:43But in the videos, he's saying things that people resonate with. It can't just be one or the other. You need the slick messaging and the bold rhetoric and the not give a fuck attitude. But you also need to be pushing stuff that people want to hear and do. I think the Democratic establishment, the Gillibrands, the Schumers, Hakeem, Booker, who I had some issues with. You did a great job. You probably did a better interview with Cory Booker than I've seen any mainstream TV anchor do in the last decade. Oh, my gosh. That's high price. It's 100%. Everyone I know, I was playing pickleball last night.

50:19There's an admission because I'm old and I can't do any actual proper sports. I play pickleball, too. Okay, then I've just insulted you. But I'm old and unfit and I can't play any sports. So I went to play pickleball and I mentioned that I'm coming on this podcast today and the other three guys went, the Cory Booker woman. every single one they immediately they knew you from cory booker i love i think those types of democrats um are so out of touch and they think what's happening in new york is just something crazy that's happening in new york because new york is new york and they are fucking around right now and they're going to find out that what's happening in new york is happening all over the place that Trump did one of two things to you.

51:02He either made you a worse person and you capitulated to all of your worst impulses and you're fine with a bunch of shit that you would have never been fine before. That third, that triple Trump, that third time broke a lot of people. And then when he won that time in 24, it caused a lot of people that I know, rich ass white women with husbands that own oil and gas companies to turn and march their noses to the left. And their husbands joke around with them now that they're commies because that's how far left they've gone. And these are people that live in deeply red states. And this is happening, not just to white women, not just to our age group, not to young people, boomers, you know, Fox News first said, uh, that no King's March is going to be all these crazy terrorists, Hamas supporters jihadists then they're like oh look at all these crazy boomers it's happening everywhere and the bookers the Jeffries the Gillibrands they don't have a clue as to where the party is going and it is so frustrating that it's like literally teed up the moment is here and it doesn't take that much to rile up you know MAGA that administration they're all bluster.

52:20And with a sharp minority leader in the house that could whip everybody into shape, I think that we could really build a resistance. But I also want to say this because I want to say this every chance I can get. As a woman that lived in a red state, I only recently moved to New York. I would have crawled through 10 feet of concrete to vote for a corporate Democrat. And I still would. I would still go and vote for a Cory Booker. I would vote for a Jeffries. I would vote for Schumer. If the alternative is Mike Johnson. Yes, because it means that women will not have to have their rapist baby. It means a lot.

52:59It's a lifeline for a lot of marginalized people in these red communities that are often the collateral damage of these MAGA policies. And so, I don't know. I just get, I share all of your frustration with it. But I think every time we have one of these politicians on, we should do everything we can to hold them accountable, to move them. Because we have the leaders we have. And you guys have done that well. A lot of these politicians have been told now, right, post 2024, post-Harris-Rogan debacle, go on podcast. That's where you need to go. So they're going on podcast and then they get surprised at what they get asked on the podcast.

53:37And I think that's a fascinating dynamic, not just on your brilliant show, but on other shows I've seen. Gavin Newsom was on with Van Lathan recently. He was asked about APAC and you could tell he's never been asked about APAC before. So it's interesting that the podcasts are kind of setting a different scene. They just don't get it right. They think that if you swear a bit and you go on some podcasts, that is connecting with the debate. And it's not, right? Graham Plattner gets it and AOC and Mamdani get it. And the Mamdani thing is so infuriating because they spent months after 2024 saying, how do we connect with young men?

54:07How do we have a dynamic candidate? How do we have someone who's young and not old. Like he gave them everything. This guy just comes up and he's connecting with young people. He's connecting with Republicans and independent voters who are switching over to him. And you just like, and the establishment says, okay, we're not going to back you. We're not going to support you. We're not going to endorse you. Even though we endorsed Eric Adams within seconds of Adams winning and Adams won narrowly. Mamdani won the primary by a landslide. Schumer endorsed Adams, called him the future of the party. Right?

54:34So first, First, apologize, Chuck Schumer. Number two, endorse Zoran Mamdani. Number three, quit and let someone else run the Senate, whether it's Chris Murphy or Brian Schatz or whoever it is, someone younger, more dynamic to take over Chris Van Hollen, who I have a soft spot for. I think there are a lot of people out there who can do a better job. And as you say, Trump is there for the taking. If you can't beat the Democratic establishment lost to Donald Trump in two out of three elections. And I would argue they probably would have lost in all three had it not been for COVID. Let's just be very honest.

55:03Trump probably would have won reelection in 2020 had it not been for the pandemic. So they lost in two out of three, almost lost in three out of three. And they're still lecturing the rest of us on what the right way forward is, what the best electoral strategy is, how to beat Trump. No, you failed miserably. Let other people have a go. Let other strategies work. Try and listen to people who actually talk to people on the ground. And the only answer for why they're not doing that with Mamdani, for example, or even just Plattner as well, pre the Nazi tattoo, it's got to be two reasons. I know it's depressing.

55:33It's two reasons. One is they are corporate Democrats who just don't like what Mamdani stands for. He's going to raise taxes and hurt the rich and their donors don't want them to do that. And number two is it's Islamophobia. It's the brown Muslim guy who is running and also criticizing Israel at the same time. By the way, the onslaught of Islamophobia over the last 72 hours, especially on places like Twitter, but generally has been insane, not just from the Republican Party and Fox, but from Andrew Cuomo, from Eric Adams, from all these people, where the hell is the rest of the Democratic Party?

56:05Where are the leadership? Where not just Schumer and Jeffries, where are all of the Democrats? Why are they not standing up and saying, how dare you come after our mayoral candidate like that? How dare you go after millions of Muslim Americans? We've heard so much about antisemitism in the last few years. And antisemitism is a scourge in this country. And people should speak out against antisemitism. But the same politicians who loudly spoke out against anti-Semitism. I don't hear from them when people are going after Mamdani, when people are saying deport Zoran Mamdani, when people are going after Ilhan Omar.

56:32I don't see those same politicians speaking out for their fellow Muslim Democrats. And it is truly shameful. I think that the Islamophobia is the main reason with Mamdani because it is having a moderate Muslim that makes a sanctuary city for LGBTQ plus people goes against the narrative that I was raised around that, oh, these Muslims have all these wives and they blow shit up and they throw gay people off the buildings. And just by default in my early 20s, I was Islamophobic. I didn't realize that I was, but having been raised by an atheist, I had a default setting to judge all religions inherently.

57:23But then you pile on 9-11 and then what tidbits I did get. And race? I mean, Muslims tend to be brown? Yeah, they're anti-gay and all of this stuff. And I had a lot of gay friends. I was an interior designer. So I was a little bit, not a little bit, I was, I was Islamophobic, but I evolved from that. And Momdani represents something that is the establishment, both the Democrat and Republican, a huge arrow right into that argument because he is a moderate Muslim. And I have evolved and I have learned that every religion has its crazies. We have the white evangelical, have their roots in the KKK that I call the crazy Christian problem in America.

58:04Muslims have their crazies as well, but the overwhelming majority of people from both faiths are peaceful. They want to live their life and they use that as some sort of focusing for their own personal serenity. And so I think that that is why you get people that don't stand up. But I will say I was very impressed with Kathy Hochul standing up for him the other night. And I really liked her a lot for them. 100%. Given the lack of noise from other Democrats, the governor's words were important and her endorsement earlier on was important. I would just say two things on that. Number one, the mixed messaging doesn't work for his opponents, right?

58:43They don't know how to attack him. So Andrew Cuomo is like, he's a radical jihadist. And then he's also like, but he's super liberal. Hey, Muslim voters in New York, he supports prostitution, but he's a radical jihadist. Make your mind up. Is he a radical jihadist or does he want legalize prostitution. The messaging is all over the place. I saw yesterday someone saying, he's funded by Soros. So he's an anti-Semite who's funded by the most famous Jewish billionaire in the world. Make your minds up. You can't have it both ways. But they keep doing that. And the message doesn't stick because it's so ludicrous.

59:12I saw some Republican the other day say he wants an Islamic theocracy in New York. And I just posted a picture and a quote tweet of Zoran and Tish James at a pride rally saying, is this what you think Islamic theocracy looks like? The guy marches in pride rallies, right? A lot of conservative Muslims don't like that about him. With a trans flag. I mean, like, it's not just that he was in the pride parade. He's got actual policies that support the LGBT community. And let me just say something really quick. I want to say something. We have some friends in Oklahoma City, and they have a trans daughter.

59:43And the policies are so horrible in that state. Their only option is to move out of a state and take their kids from schools that they know and neighborhoods that they know and friends that they know, because that's what MAGA super majorities do to marginalized people. So when you see Azoran Mamdani say we are going to be a sanctuary city, that is a lifeline of compassion and empathy that goes at the heart of the narrative that a lot of Americans have been sold that Muslims are anti-gay radical jihadists. And then this guy's marching around with a trans flag. I fucking love it. I love it. The other interesting point on the whole Muslims are anti-gay and anti-women and that is the modern Republican Party.

1:00:33It's so ironic. People come to me like 20 years ago, I said some shitty things, which I've regretted many times and people keep throwing it in my face. I always laugh and think that was me 20 years ago. The funny thing is, if I said that stuff today, you would embrace me in the Republican Party. Like all the things they pretend to hate Muslims for, they love. They're homophobic. They're misogynistic. Like, or their stereotype type caricature of extremist Muslims is what MAGA is right now. So there's a great irony about, you know, every accusation is a confession. And what you're accusing Muslims of being is what you actually are, you know, intolerant, bigoted, anti-democratic.

1:01:07Oh, you don't believe in democracy. That's MAGA. You don't support women's rights. That's MAGA. You're anti-gay. That's MAGA. Like go down the list. All the things they accuse Muslims of actually apply to this party themselves. So it's sheer hypocrisy that they weaponize to go after minorities. And I would say this one day, I just want to be very clear. People say, oh, you know, Mumdani doesn't represent most Muslims. A lot of Muslims struggle a great deal with gay rights. I just want to be very open on gay marriage. Right. As you know, growing up in the South, the Bible, the Koran, these are books that have very specific teachings and values on relationships.

1:01:37I just want to be open about that. But the reason why Muslims want to stand right now with minority, other minority communities is it's just, it's not rocket science, right? We're all in this together. It's what I said at the start. There has to be solidarity. We're not going to throw the gay community on the bus. And I hope the gay community is not going to throw the Muslim community on the bus because they're coming for all of us. Right. Listener, the hot book of the summer. Take two. Listener, the hot book of the summer is now the cool book of the fall. It is in Trump's America, I can tell you with absolute certainty, the best book that has ever been written.

1:02:14And believe me, a lot of people are talking about it. everybody's talking about it everybody's talking about it it took us one day to write it because we're on day one because we took a cognitive test and it was book right done all right anyway please buy our book it's a great way to support us it is a really fun read for the fall curl up with your pumpkin spice lattes and just enjoy living the american dream and dipshit Trump's America.

1:02:51I was going to ask you, and I follow you on Twitter, so I've seen... I apologize in advance for that you follow me. No, no, no, no, no. I like it. You have to follow my rants. No, but I like it because it's like, this is the most obvious thing in the world, but these people aren't getting it. But I know since Mondavi came on board, there's been a lot of Islamophobia and you said it's really ramped up. Prior to, between the time you got in the United States, or what you said right before Trump came down the escalator. Yeah, 2015. Now, I feel like from my very white privileged woman view, that racism has become kind of like emboldened, empowered against all, you know, sex, race, religion.

1:03:36Have you noticed an uptick or has it been the same? No, 100%, it's gotten worse. And it's one the most troubling parts of the last decade, which is, as Jennifer pointed out earlier, Donald Trump brought out the worst in people. The single biggest legacy of Donald Trump, aside from a 6-3 Supreme Court, is that he has emboldened these people. Historians will come back if we have historians. They will write about this era as the era in which he basically allowed the worst people to crawl out from under rocks where they had been pushed to by the civil rights movement, by all the progress we made on race and gender and rights.

1:04:12And that's what depresses me most. It's the big picture. Donald Trump could disappear tomorrow and what he has unleashed cannot be put back in the bottle. The racist genie is out of the bottle. The undermining, all these taboos we created around race, certain things you can't say, you shouldn't say, you shouldn't do. That's all kind of gone. He has single-handedly kind of broken it down. And we're in a very, very dark place. And if you look at, you know, you look at that young Republicans chat that came out recently, some of them weren't so young, of course. But like, it's not surprising to those of us who've watched the last 10 years.

1:04:44There's an entire generation of young people, especially young white men, who have known nothing but Donald Trump, right? That is what they think a leader is. That is what they think an American is. That is what they think is how they should behave. That is how they think they should speak. That is what they think they have permission to say. I don't think you could unroll a decade of Trump. The cultural social impact of Trump is so massive that it's going to be with us for many, many decades to come. I don't think we can just unwind this. It's going to have to be redoing the 1960s onwards all over again if we can even pull that off in a social media age where everyone's in their echo chambers.

1:05:17So it is very depressing to see how bigotry has been mainstreamed, how everything that you thought. I mean, let me give you one example. In the first term, Donald Trump said, hey, the squad should go back to the countries they came from. It was one of the most racist things he said in his first term. And that was about Ilhan Omar, AOC, Ayanna Pressley, Rashida Tlaib, three of whom are born in the United States, all four of whom are citizens. It was a controversy for a while, right? Oh, he said something racist. He was asked to challenge it. Today, that seems quaint. Today, they're like, deport everyone, deport Mamdani, deport Ilhan Omar.

1:05:47So they keep ramping up and the Overton window of what is acceptable to say or not to say keeps moving further and further to the far right. And you're emboldening all of these white... Look, just this week, we had Tucker Carlson host Nick Fuentes, right? That kind of stuff, even that would have been seen as crazy five years ago. Today, it's like, oh, that was expected. Yeah. And it's just so, there's so many sub stories to the cultural breakdown. Like if you think about Pete Hegseth's pastor that was on 60 Minutes that talked about women losing the right to vote and death penalty for homosexuals, that I can say back to tying it back to, uh, Christians views of Islam and the Muslim faith where I, where we grew up, um, Ryan Walters, he was the, I'm sure you've heard of him, the, um, uh, superintendent, superintendent.

1:06:42Yeah. Yeah. They are really, um, uh, they want, they're the Christian Taliban. They want a Christian nationalist country. They want to force in the most toxic, codependent way their religion, their form of white evangelicalism onto everybody. Which they don't practice. Let's just be clear, right? They're often exposed as hypocrites in their private lives and in their public lives, as you pointed out, they support policies that demonize the people Jesus championed. All right. Now we're going to play our world famous game called Had It or Hit It. Oh my God. Welcome to Had It or Hit It. I would hit it.

1:07:19Had it. Had it. I hit it every day, sometimes twice a day. Mehdi, had it or hit it Jerry Seinfeld? Oh, had it. Can't stand Jerry Seinfeld. I grew up watching Jerry Seinfeld. He was the least funny member of that show to begin with. And now in his old age, he's become this kind of genocidal, smirking ghoul who goes around blindly supporting Israel, saying ridiculous things like the Free Palestine Movement's worse than the Ku Klux Klan. Jerry, you were the worst member of Seinfeld and you're a worse human being now. I like it. All right. Had it or hid it, domestic air travel. Oh, I've had it with domestic air travel.

1:07:56I travel every weekend. I travel all the time. Domestic air travel in this country, I don't know why it hasn't radicalized Americans onto the streets. And don't tell me it's only because a minority of Americans fly. A lot of millions of Americans fly. It is horrifically bad. I can't tell you how bad it is compared to other countries. I'm fed up with the delays. I'm fed up with the cancellations. I'm fed up with the shitty airports. Donald Trump was right. There you go. That's the only time I'll ever say it. Donald Trump was right. In 2016, when he ran for president, he said, we have shitty airports compared to the rest of the world.

1:08:24It was the only true thing he said when he ran for president in 2016. I've just, I've had it with. Think about one thing that he did that should tell every working class MAGA person that voted for him. The Biden administration made it to where if the airlines canceled your flight or it was delayed, that you got a refund. He immediately, immediately reversed that. Immediately reversed it. And then fired a bunch of air traffic controllers. And now we have seemed to have more accidents. They're such dipshits. It's just, you know what pisses me off? Just the celebrating of the villains. And then that our villains are total dipshits.

1:09:01I'm like, we're losing to these fucking dorks. Yes, which brings us full circle to, we're losing to them because the other side is led by Chuck Schumer and Hakeem. Fuck. Bipartisan dorks is what they are. All right. Moving along. Had it or hid it, Antifa? Hard to describe. What is Antifa? I don't know what it is. I am Antifa. No one's told me what it is. I am Antifa. I am anti-fascist. Yeah. I mean, if you're anti-fascist, then obviously I would hit it. I mean, I've spent my life opposing fascism, both abroad and at home. America has a long, glorious history of stopping fascism in the World War II.

1:09:38But if it's just kind of amorphous, weird group that they've decided is this boogeyman. They said recently, oh, we've got the, we've, we found the wife or the girlfriend of the founder of Antifa. I'm like, who, who is the founder of Antifa? Winston Churchill. Like who is the founder? Is it FDR? Like who is the founder of Antifa? I don't know who that is. It doesn't exist. It is a classic boogeyman from these people. They're not even trying. Like they just made up this group that has everyone, people don't walk around with an Antifa membership bag. They're like, I'm Antifa. It just doesn't exist.

1:10:06Good luck with that. It's amazing. Like he's done executive orders going against Antifa. And I'm like, it's not real. You don't sign your name. It's crazy. You know, you know what is real? The Oath Keepers and the Proud Boys and all these militia men that he pardoned and commuted sentences for on January 20th, and which the Democrats never went after with the same vigor they should have gone after. Think about this, Maddie. We are from Oklahoma City. I was there, and so was Pops, when the federal building was bombed by right wing. And they blamed Muslims, by the way. Yeah, they did. Timothy McVeigh and these other connected right wing, white rage male extremists.

1:10:50Okay. And after that, and you're talking about, there was a daycare in the Alfred Primera building on the first floor. I'll never forget firemen were carrying out little babies' bodies. And since that happened, that state continues to vote for every single county, all red, for a political party that provides cover for right-wing extremism. The success and the ambition of that movement to radicalize people against their country, against their best interest has been breathtaking. They have been incredibly successful. Their ability to then project onto the other side, everything they're doing. So they go around after Charlie Kirk's, they're saying the other side of domestic terrorists, the other side are inciting terrorism.

1:11:40The other side are extremists when they're actually describing themselves. It is messaging genius, evil genius messaging. It really is. Okay. Last one. Had it, oh wait, No, two more. This is a really good one. Okay. Had it or hit it, the Louvre heist. Oh, I would say, if I say hit it, people are going to say it's because they were Algerians and he supports the Muslim. But come on, it was super entertaining. I thought so too. Come on, a daylight robbery at a place that was like in the Netflix show, which I never watched, everyone kept pointing to, which was about the people robbing the Louvre. Anyone who watches a good crime caper cannot not enjoy that new story.

1:12:19Yeah, I enjoyed it because it was a respite from like the crime that's happening that everybody's normalizing in our country. And I was like, OK, this is a classic crime. Like they had their plan. They had the cherry picker thing. They knew what they were going to get. It was organized. I would for me, it was just a very welcomed respite because in a world of incompetence, we saw incompetence. Well, cleverly designed. Yeah. Get them to do the White House ballroom. Yeah. But do you know, did you guys see where they were going down in the cherry picker and they dropped the crown and then they were unable to retrieve it?

1:13:00Yeah. So they dropped the crown. It goes in between these two fences and the people that worked at the Louvre found the crown. OK. All I saw was that all I saw that there were some Algerians involved. And as a Muslim, whenever there's a crime committed, every Muslim texts each other and says, I hope it's not a Muslim. Please don't be a Muslim. That's our reaction to any crime anywhere in the world. Yeah. Yeah. All right. Last one. Had it or hid it the United States of America? Oh, no, hid it. I'm not going to give up on the U.S. yet just because some freaks think that they can end constitutional democracy and end America before its 250th birthday.

1:13:33I've spent the last week fighting with crazy right wingers online telling me I'm not a real American. And all I think to myself is I'm way more American than you because I actually believe in what America stands for. You want to turn it into some fascistic, theocratic dictatorship. I actually believe in free speech. I actually believe in free and fair elections. I actually believe in equality before the law. So, you know, ironically, here I am going around quoting Ronald Reagan, who famously said that America, unlike other countries, I hated Reagan growing up. I was a child of the 80s. But here I am saying Ronald Reagan was right.

1:14:02See, on your show today, I've said Donald Trump was right once. Ronald Reagan was right. He said that unlike other countries, you don't move to another country and become that citizenship immediately. In America, you do. If you sign up, if you take your oath, if you're loyal to the country, if you believe in the Constitution, you are an American. As much as these MAGA people want to pretend that America is a white Christian country, that is not what the founders intended. That is not what the Constitution says. And therefore, no, I have not given up on America. I will fight to keep America democratic and free as long as I can.

1:14:33I just want you to know, I know this won't provide comfort, but I just want to point out that the same people that tell you that you're not a real American, they also go after the white women that were born. I was born in Dallas and pumps in Oklahoma City. They tell us that we're not real Americans as well. So they, for them, their definition of being an American is thinking exactly like they do, which is the most un-American starting point that you can ever have. Okay. Medhi Hassan, this was so great. I hope we collab more and more. It was great. I would love to. Thanks so much for having me.

1:15:10Great conversation. Yes. All right. Bye. Bye-bye. Okay. I really, I just think he's so smart. I could talk to him for like two hours. I could talk to him for hours and I was this close. I mean, this close from saying, Medhi, I know you and Jennifer are, It's a social media friends. And I want you to be my social media friend. But I thought that might just look a little bit desperate because I'm so fucking jealous. So jealous. He's really, you know, one thing that he does, I'd ever do this. I don't fight with people online just for my serenity. Like I have a Twitter, but I have it locked and I don't communicate with anybody on Twitter.

1:15:47I just use it to mine for information. And then I don't really ever read my Instagram comments anymore or, and I never get on TikTok just because I think if I was fighting with people online and then I also had to consume the news, I think it would fuck with my serenity too much. So I admire the people that can, like that he can actually get in there and engage with those people because I, I can't do it. You know, I got an email. They asked me to be on Jubilee and I think Medi had done it. I should have asked him about it. What is it? I don't, Jubilee is where they put you in the center. And then you, oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

1:16:21There's Trump supporters and you debate with them. And I just thought, I've been doing that my whole life in Oklahoma. Right. Like, you know, I just, I don't know, but I admire him for all of it. All right. Listen, make sure you buy our book. It's called Life is a Lazy Susan of Shit Sandwiches. Pumps is modeling the book right now. It is linked right below in the show notes. And if you're on YouTube, make sure you subscribe to our channel. Same thing if you're listening on audio and pumps, tell them. We will see you next Tuesday and Thursday.

1:16:58Listen up, patriots, gaytriots, and natriots. We have a new podcast that has dropped. It's called IHIP News. It's Monday through Friday, every day, 15 to 20 minute hot takes on the political landscape of the United States of America, always served with a side of petty grievances. We are on all the available platforms, Apple, Spotify, Google, whatever you get your podcast and YouTube. Please go rate, subscribe and review so that we will chart upwards with America's greatest legal mind. Pumps, what does an eagle say? Caw-caw. A little bit more enthusiasm. Caw-caw. That's it. That's the patriotism that this country needs right there.