Breaking News from Pod Save America - Political Experts React To Weird Trump AI Video, Graham Platner and Zohran Mamdani

Episode Date: September 30, 2025

Dan Pfeiffer and Jon Favreau react to the week’s political ads and viral videos — including Trump’s racist A.I. clip, Graham Platner’s speech, and Zohran Mamdani’s latest ad. CHAPTERS 00:00 - Political Experts React is Back 01:24 - Trump's Racist A.I. Video 06:14 - Graham Platner's Viral Speech 13:44 - Zohran Mamdani Ad Campaign SUBSCRIBE to Dan's Message Box Newsletter: https://www.messageboxnews.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It's only getting every customer's order right. It's only a point-of-sale system connected by Spectrum fiber-powered business internet, helping you track hundreds of secure transactions. And it's all backed by 24-7 U.S.-based customer support and local technicians. It's only everything. Get business internet advantage free forever when you get four mobile lines from Spectrum. Visit Spectrum.com slash free-for-life to find out how. Restrictions apply.

Services not available in all areas. Welcome to PolitbuyxRexRex, I'm Dan. Fyfer. John Favreau, thanks for joining us. And we're back. The people have spoken. The show has been uncanceled. I didn't even know that's what we were doing until Ben Hethkoat told me yesterday afternoon.

He's like, I'm so excited. You're coming on our, we're coming back. Political experts react. You're coming on tomorrow. I was like, I am. Yeah, it was a grassroots effort. A lot of people were very upset that the suits, i.e. Elijah, had canceled the show. And like Friday Night Lights and The Wire and other fan favorites that the suits came after, the people spoke.

We are back on the air. The show is going to be a little different this time. In the old version of the show, we always focus on political ads. And the argument for that always was that political ads were the sign of what a campaign really cared about because what they were spending money on. I think 2024 showed us that political ads are much, much less influential than we have long believed. And so we're going to look at all kinds of political content. some will be ads, some will be social video, some will be just moments that happen in the world that tend to go viral that will influence the political debate. And so old show, new stuff.

So we're going to start with a video that the one and only Donald Trump posted last night after his meeting with congressional leaders were theoretically they were trying to come to some sort of agreement to avoid a government shutdown that will happen at midnight tonight. Let's watch the video. Look, guys, there's no way to sugarcoat it. nobody likes Democrats anymore we have no voters left because of all of our woke trans bullshit not even black people want to vote for us anymore even Latinos hate us so we need new voters and if we give all these illegal aliens free health care we might be able to get them on our side so they can vote for us they can't even speak English so they won't realize we're just a bunch of woke pieces of shit you know at least for a while until they they learn English

shouldn't they realize they hate us too? What was your reaction when you saw this video last night? My reaction was first I saw the picture, and I thought it was just a picture, and I sent it to you guys, and then I went on Truth Social, as I do, and saw that it was a whole video, and, you know, jaw dropped for a little bit.

My initial reaction was, I hope that someone in Schumer or Jeffrey's office or some Democrat somewhere is making an AI video of Trump that's politically beneficial to us to put out in response as opposed to just exclaiming how racist that was, which it certainly is. That video went up around dinner time West Coast last night, I think. At least that's when I saw it when you texted it to me. And we were recording this at 9.30 a.m. West Coast time. and I've seen no AI generated videos, which are famously very quick to generate since they use AI.

But I have seen a lot of people accurately describe it in Momonet as racist, including Leader Jeffries, who did it at a press conference with House Democrats this morning. I can't imagine there's any strategy to this, but if there were, what do you think it would be? I think the strategy is that that is very much the message that Republicans and Donald Trump are trying to get out about the shutdown, just in a much more vulgar way. But, you know, J.D. Vance is out there and Stephen Miller and everyone else saying that Democrats are shutting down the government to give illegal immigrants a trillion dollars for health care, which is just completely absurdly false. No evidence for it whatsoever. And this is just their version of a funnier and even more racist way of saying that. Democrats didn't actually even have to come up with their own AI video.

One response, if the issue that we're fighting the shutdown over is health care, president over the weekend tweeted an insane. video about medbeds, which is a non-existent technology that's supposed to bring you back from the dead, according to QAnon. Now, instead of actually bringing people's premiums down and not kicking them off their health insurance, the president is busy posting AI videos of fake technology that's supposed to bring you back from the dead. That's his idea of health care. And the Democrat's idea of health care is to actually bring your premiums down and to make sure that you don't get kicked off your insurance. So that is one difference that we're fighting over. Could have responded with that. And then maybe we would be talking about medbeds in health care,

as opposed to Donald Trump's racist video. Yeah, I mean, it's a little early to see how most Democrats have responded. One thing is, have you ever seen a Democratic elected official or party organization making AI video? No. I mean, the closest they've come is Newsom and Newsom's office putting out like AI photos and AI slop that are sort of funny and ironic. And yeah. There is this hesitancy to using AI in content creation among progressives. I don't know whether it's just the idea that it's sort of like dirty pool or the very legitimate environmental costs that come from using AI or just concerns about like displacement of workers. But there is this hesitancy around it that does, I think, put us a disadvantage. Because there is a version of this video that does not have, Hakeem Jeffrey in a sombrero, does not have sort of weird, does not have structure.

saying things that are, Chuck Schumer obviously would not say. You could just do the video and have them, like, not even a press conference, just have a video, an AI video of Chuck Schumer talking about maybe in a private conversation overheard that about how the real goal here is to give health care to undocumented people and have that go viral on the internet and make that much more effective. Like there is, there is a real danger with it. There is another option for why we're not seeing it from Democrats is that there is a severe lack of creativity in the Washington political class that they can't think outside the very narrow talking points of the day. Yeah, but that's what AI does.

That's what I'm saying. If you use AI, it solves the problem, right? That's how bad it is. But you still got to give it some prompts, you know? Yeah. I guess our problem is the prompts. The next video I want to look at is one that you tweeted and brought to my attention. It's a edit of a speech from Maine Senate candidate, Graham Platner.

Together, we are going to write a new chapter in American. history that leads us away from where we are now. And down the road, when we have beaten back fascism, when we have defended our democracy and our country and our freedom, let it be a different kind of freedom, the freedom to not be condemned to scraps and to struggle, but the freedom to live lives with dignity and fulfillment. The freedom to not be ripped off by a for-profit health care system. The freedom to have a roof over our heads that we own. The freedom to have time to build, to create, to love, to live lives not just of survival, but of fulfillment and joy. That is the vision. This is the opportunity before us. I would say you are a tough critic of democratic speech

making. I think I agree with much of your criticism, so I'm not criticizing you for being such critic, but you were provenly tweeted this message. So what struck you by it? Yeah, I'm, I'm donated. Right. It got me. Now look, at the beginning, you're not waiting for Janet Mills to get in the race? At the beginning, I was like, oh no, this is going to be a speech that I like, but that I am once again, I will be told by all of the data people and the polls that we must not talk about fascism and democracy because it does not land with the very working. people of which Graham Platner is a product and is trying to win over inmate. And I think that you could say that about the first 10th sex of the video. Then he talks about the economy. But he doesn't talk about the economy in terms of policies and plans and poll tested lines.

He talks about it in terms of values. And when I say values, I also don't mean bottom up, middle out, middle class, middle, this, middle, fuck that, bo, blah. He talks about it in terms of, like, I don't know, very inspiring, big sounding values about what people who at least grew up in America and know what America should stand for believe that, like, if you work hard here, you should have the freedom to not just survive but thrive, to not beg for scraps, to not be ripped off. All the messages that we do know poll well and test well, but sound phony. and sound sort of too small to people when they're actually spoken by people who want to lead us.

That sounds like what he sounded like just there is a leader. And he did it with the persona that is earned and not phony of a working class, you know, oyster fishermen. I, because you brought this to my attention and then I already had the bias of knowing you liked it,

I also liked it. And here's what I, I think it achieves it is very good. One, like, we are stuck in this interminable argument with the Democratic Party about fascism and democracy, like saving democracy, fighting fascism, and helping people with their number one issue, which is the economy and affordability. No one has really been a final way to do both. This does both, right, which is very important. Second, it offers hope for something better than we have right now and something better than we have had ever before. And that is the thing that has been missing in Democratic messaging since

the day Donald Trump won the election, is that we have, the best we could possibly hope for is a return to Obama era normalcy. That was essentially Biden's message. Kamala Harris's message did not really paint. There was not a specific picture of what something could look like or a hope for something better that we were going to build back. I mean, I know Biden said build back better, but that was it like that's my point. Yeah, no, that's my point. You need something big and aspirational, right? Like that is what the best campaigns are, the best messaging is. And then the third thing here is it's not just. And I think there is a sense that like we think that people only care about the bottom line, right? Like get me more money, make my food cheaper. But that is not an

end of itself. That is a way that allows you to do all these other things that are an important part of life that are fulfilling. Right. If you're being specific, it's like time with family, go on a vacation with your family, treat yourself every once in a while, take your kids out to eat. But here it's like a life of joy that you can get to a point where your overriding concern is not just making enough money that you're not in a state of panic about one medical emergency or one house repair that's going to put you over the edge is that you can have a life that you can enjoy. And I think that there's just something very powerful and simple, like it's simplistically powerful. And it's just like missing from so much messaging. It's like we are defeat Trump, defeat Trump.

We'll figure out what comes next later. And we should start talking about what's going to come next because that is how we're actually going to win is that we can paint a picture of something much better, something we haven't had before. And I will say one more reason it's powerful is because of who it's from. Yes. If that message was delivered by an overly educated coastal city elite like ourselves. Yes. I don't know who you're talking about. many people who are in the Democratic Party. It would still be a good message, right? But one thing that I think the Democratic Party has done is it treats working class Americans

in the middle of the country or in rural America as like subjects to be studied. This is what Axelrob always say. Like we're anthropologists, right? And we're like, what do they need? Oh, they care about the economy. So we must give them more economic messaging. And here's Graham Platner, who is one of those Americans. speaking in a really big, inspiring way about the kind of country he sees.

And he has, I've heard him talk about how he spends most of his days on his job talking to Trump supporters. And because those are his friends. And they don't necessarily argue about all the cultural world politics, but they argue about the fact that all these fucking corporations and rich people are ripping them off. And so he is of this world and yet can still speak in a way and speak in this value-laden language that is about something bigger. And I think that we patronize people like that, like at our peril and have for some time. Yeah, it's the, we've been doing this since the,

What's the Matter with Kansas days, where just the idea is working people are too stupid to understand or too uneducated or too tricked by the media to understand that what is in their interests vote for Democrats. When in fact, people have quite a pretty good idea of what they're voting for. We may not agree with the choices they make, but they make those choices. And so you have to, treat voters as if they're smart. And that drives people bananas. And if it drives you bananas, you probably shouldn't be in politics. If you like this video and you like Pots of America, I promise you you'll love my newsletter of the message box. It gives you in-depth political analysis of what's happening, talking points and message guidance. You can win arguments with your

MAGA uncle about the crazy stuff Trump is doing and actionable steps on what you can do in your life to help defeat Trump and MAGA extremism. I hope you'll consider subscribing to message box. The link is in the show description. The third and final video we're going to watch is one that the Zoran Mondani campaign put out a couple months ago or a couple weeks ago, I guess. If Elijah had not canceled the show, we would have been thriving in just going, we do whole specials on the Mondani campaign because of how much great content they've put out. But now that we're back, this is the most recent of those sort of viral videos I wanted you to look at. August in the Hamptons.

Ocean breezes, oversubscribed Tracy Anderson classes, parking wars. And this year, with a New York City mayoral election looming in the fall, a freakout that the most sumptuous of summer staples hasn't sued. Even overpriced lobster salad can't seem to make people out here feel better. A veteran political fundraiser said, everyone is talking about it all the time. What they are talking about, for the most part, is whether anyone, specifically former Governor Andrew M. Cuomo or Mayor Eric Adams

can beat the Democratic socialist Zoran Mamdani. In June, he dared to say on Meet the Press. I don't think that we should have billionaires. The Hamptons is basically in group therapy about the mayoral race. In other words, the plutocrats are panicking. Okay, for those who don't know, this is the actor Morgan Specter playing his character,

or I guess for the type of contrary purposes, a version of his character. He plays on the HBO Macs show, Guilded Age. First question of you, John, do you watch the Guilded Age? No. should I? It's excellent. I was going to watch it, but then Katie Miller told J.D. Vance that it's gone woke.

That's because they have introduced a black character. Oh, well. Yeah. Then she is correct, of course. Put that aside. What do you think of the video? I loved it. Obviously, there is some populist sentiment against the elite, wealthy, rich, big corporate, all that kind of stuff, right?

And I think that there is a place for. anger towards that class and towards the ultra-rich. But I do think it's more effective if it is on behalf of the people who are suffering because of this gigantic gap between the very, very rich and everyone else. I think that the other way to go after the ultra-wealthy in a way that is probably more appealing to more people is through mockery and humor. And we have really lost that as a party. We have not been able to do that. And that was just funny. It, it paints them as hysterical, elites. They're hysterical, yes. Our, our buddy, Abdul, El-Said is running for Senate in Michigan. And he has this great video, too, where he's like, no one, no one really needs $100 billion.

And he proves it like how no one needs, like, a hamburger that's like, like, like, stacked 12 hamburgers high. And he tries to, like, eat that throughout the video and he can't. And I was like, that's a great way to illustrate that people don't need $100 billion, and it's kind of funny. And I had a good friend who has voted for many Democrats in the past. In fact, hasn't voted for Republicans, said, okay, I understand this. But like, this whole thing about the Democrats, that there shouldn't be billionaires, 100 billionaires, like, come on.

That's just, it's, what about the people who create wealth in this country and I was like, let me just ask you something. Do you really think people need $100 billion? Could any of us spend $100 billion? Do we want to eliminate people who make $100 billion? Or do maybe we think that, I don't know, if you make $100 billion, perhaps you should pay more in taxes than someone who is working class. And then I was kind of like joked about it. And that works a lot better than being like, fuck you, fuck you.

And I think that Mamdani, his whole tone is that. Like it's very clear where he stands on wealth inequality and populism. But to do a video like that, it is funny. It's something that people are going to share. and it makes his critics look silly, which is, I think, the most important thing you can do about your critics. You can be an angry warrior or a joyful warrior,

and you can still be righteous in both cases. And I think that there is real value in being a joyful warrior who makes your campaign seem fun. It has always seemed like that campaign is having fun. It seems like a campaign you want to be part of, whether it's the videos, whether it's him going to the Wu-Tang concert, whether it's the great halal video, halal cart video he did, or it's the scavenger hunt they did for to get people to get involved

to the committee. It seems fun. But you never question who or what he's fighting for. And there is, you're right, there is a lesson for every politician in there, but particularly Democrats in the Trump era, is that you can have fun. You can be joyful and still be righteous and strong in your convictions. It doesn't make, does it mean you were taking the threat of fascism, plutocracy, economic inequality less seriously if you can do it in a way that feels inviting to people, right? Because you may be concerned about all these things, but not angry, right? Or feel different.

You just want to have, you just want to have a message in a campaign that's invite or movement that's inviting the people. And Mondani has done that so on this video embodies that. What is one of our most memorable hits on Mitt Romney from the 2012 campaign? The car elevator. How much fun do we have with the car elevator? Or is it the America the Beautiful ad, one of the greatest ads in political history? Yes.

Yes. And that's what, like, it's, you know, and the one that Republicans who are now all never Trump Republicans get angry about is, you know, the ad that suggested that, you know, he was at Bain and he fired people and then I think someone got cancer. I can't even remember, like, what the ad was, but people were like, you basically accused him of killing someone. Yes, yes. And that's not the never Trump Republicans. It's the like, form.

were never Trump, but now pro-Trump Republicans who now blame, they blame the entire rise of fascism in this country on how we treated Mitt Romney. And it's, but it's like I still stand by everything we did there, but. 100%. But if I had to do it over again, I would do more car elevator stuff and less of the like, oh, he's responsible for killing people stuff, just because, not because I don't think it's the right or wrong thing to do, but because I'm trying to win an election. I'm trying to appeal to people who might be like, oh, yeah, that guy is fucking ridiculous

us with his fucking car elevator. That's crazy. Have you contemplated doing a he's killing people, but in a funny way? Just saying. Also, I was done for the record that the adding question was not run by the Obama campaign. Right. That's a third party super PAC, yes. Thank you. Thank you for the-

Because I would do an entire daily podcast relitigating the 2012 election and explain to people why the way Mitt Romney ran his campaign by running to the right on immigration is actually more. And then begging Donald Trump for his endorsement is actually why we're in this not Barack Obama. I think you and one of our bulwark friends should do that podcast. Me and Tim Miller. You and Tim.

Yeah. That was great. John Favro, thank you for appearing on the return and hopefully not last episode of podcast with rec. We never know the sort of Elijah is hanging over us at all times. Yikes. So if you like it. So if you like this video, here's what you have to do.

Elijah is, he's like an old school railroad. Barron, like Morgan Specter. And so he will list the bottom line. So if we cannot generate sufficient subscriptions to the Pod Save America YouTube channel through this video, we're going to get the axe again. We're going to get the axe again. This will be it. Subscribe to the channel and then share it. Share this with friends. Yes. And if you are, if you happen to be a subscriber to the friends of the pod program and you are in our Discord, I want you to say something about it. Tag Elijah. Tag him on Twitter. Tag him on social media. Find him on every platform. I think he's on true social, get them there, find his Pindaris page, let him know. Political Experts React is here to stay.

Thank you so much, everyone, and we'll see you next time, maybe.