Breaking Points with Krystal and Saagar - 10/27/25: Binance CEO Pardon, Zohran Rally, Bill Maher Trashes Zohran, KJP Confronted On Gaza

Episode Date: October 27, 2025

Krystal and Emily discuss Binance CEO pardon, Zohran rally, Bill Maher trashes Zohran, KJP confronted on Biden Gaza coverup.   Mike Callicrate: https://www.mikecallicrate.com/    To bec...ome a Breaking Points Premium Member and watch/listen to the show AD FREE, uncut and 1 hour early visit: www.breakingpoints.comMerch Store: https://shop.breakingpoints.com/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Transcript
Discussion (0)
Starting point is 00:00:00 This is an I-Heart podcast. Johnny Knoxville here. Check out Crimeless, Hillbilly Heist, my new true crime podcast from Smartless Media, campside media, and big money players. It's the true story of the almost perfect crime and the Nimrods who almost pulled it off. It was kind of like the perfect storm in a sewer.
Starting point is 00:00:21 That was dumb. Do not follow my example. Listen to Crimless, Hillbilly Heist, on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Two rich young Americans move to the Costa Rican jungle to start over, but one of them will end up dead and the other tried for murder three times. It starts with a dream, a nature reserve, and a spectacular new home. But little by little...
Starting point is 00:00:50 They lose it. They actually lose it. They sort of went nuts. Until one night... Everything spins out of control. Listen to Hell in Heaven on the IHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I live below a cult leader, and I fear I've angered her. Wait a minute, Sophia. How do you know she's a cult leader?
Starting point is 00:01:15 Well, Dakota, luckily it's I'm not afraid of a scary story week on the OK Storytime podcast. So we'll find out soon. This person writes, My neighbor has been blasting music every day and doing dirt rituals. And now my ceiling is collapsing. I try to report them, but things keep getting weirder. I think they might be part of a cult. Hold up. A real life cult?
Starting point is 00:01:35 And what is a dirt ritual? No clue, Dakota. Find out how it ends. Listen to the OK Storytime podcast on the Iheart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, guys, Saga and Crystal here. Independent media just played a truly massive role in this election, and we are so excited about what that means for the future of this show. This is the only place where you can find honest perspectives from the left,
Starting point is 00:01:56 and the right that simply does not exist anywhere else. So if that is something that's important to you, please go to breakingpoints.com, become a member today, and you'll get access to our full shows, unedited, ad-free, and all put together for you every morning in your inbox. We need your help to build the future of independent news media, and we hope to see you at breakingpoints.com. All right, so we have a new corrupt pardon coming from the Trump administration.
Starting point is 00:02:21 This one from Binance founder, commonly known as CZ, Caroline Leavitt was asked to defend this deal. Let's go ahead and take a listen to what she had to say. On the pardon of Changping Zhao, apologies if I'm mispronouncing that name, finance has significant business interests with World Liberty Financial, the president's family's crypto company. How do you respond to the allegations from Democrats that this is a corrupt act? I would respond and say the president is exercising his constitutional authority to grant
Starting point is 00:02:50 clemency requests. And the president in the White House have a very thorough examination of every pardon request that comes to the president's desk. It is thoroughly reviewed by the White House Council office. And I spoke with our great White House counsel about the pardon after it happened. This was an overly prosecuted case by the Biden administration. Even the judge in the case admitted that the Biden administration was pursuing a egregious oversentencing of this individual. And the previous administration was very hostile to the cryptocurrency industry. So the president wants to correct this overreach of the Biden administration's misjustice, and he exercised
Starting point is 00:03:28 his constitutional authority to do so. And to the Democrats, I would just say, there's nothing more corrupt than what President Biden did on his way out the door, pardoning his extremely corrupt son in many of his associates. Oh, my God. So what aboutism I am so sick of? Just so you guys, so let's put D2 up on the screen to give you guys the backstory. So first of all, if you're not a crypto person. Binance is a giant in the space. I think it processes some like two-thirds of all crypto transactions. So this is an incredibly powerful company that he's created. It's also- Like being that a visa or something. It's also an incredibly sketchy company that he is created. And this is, I've done, you know, did a lot of digging into this character because
Starting point is 00:04:10 there were a lot of questions when SBF was taken down and CZ was involved in that, by the way. But then there was a bit of a run on Binance. There's a question whether they had sufficient reserves. They at that time really didn't have any like accounting to back up the claims that they were making publicly. Their allegation, there were long-time allegations, including some that were, you know, borne out and the company took action on with regard to insider trading because one of the things that's really important about Binance to understand here is that if they decide to list your whatever shit currency, then it's incredibly important. Crystal Coleman. Yeah, exactly. So if you have insider knowledge that they're about to list it
Starting point is 00:04:45 and they're about to tout it, oh, well, guess what? You can make a lot of money off. of that. So in this sort of wild west space. So according to the New York Times, they say Mr. Zhao had pled guilty to money laundering violations in 2023, served four months in federal prison after a year's long investigation by financial regulators and U.S. prosecutors to seek the pardon. Zhao hired lawyers and lobbyists with ties the Trump administration, while Binance struck a business deal with World Liberty Financial, the Trump family's crypto startup. This was not just any business deal, by the way. We're talking about a $2 billion. business deal that they did with Trump's family crypto startup. Mr. Zhao is the most powerful executive,
Starting point is 00:05:25 they say, in the crypto industry worth an estimated $85 billion. He commands a vast social media following of worshipful investors who view him as something of a crypto Oracle. With a few well-time posts in 2022, he helped prompt a market panic that resulted in the demise of FTX. That was San Pegman Freed's entity, the exchange that was once one of Binance's top rivals to spearhead his clemency push, Mr. Zhao hired Teresa Goody Guillen, a former Securities and Exchange Commission lawyer, who also happens to represent Zach Whitkoff, the son of Trump's Middle East advisor, working alongside that lawyer was Chez McDowell, a lawyer and lobbyist who is a long-time hunting companion of Don Jr. It's not a name, though. That's a made-up name. I don't believe that's
Starting point is 00:06:10 a real name. Both are, I think, fake names. Goody McGeehan and Chez McDowell. Chez McDowell. Anyway, Mr. McDowell was apparently spotted with Trump Jr. at the White House last week. So did the $2 million deal, I'm sure said all kinds of nice things. God only knows whether he was funneling money into Trump's shit coin because we have no transparency around that. Certainly possible as well. And then hired a friend of Zach Whitkoff and Don Jr. to get this deal done. That's how this White House operates.
Starting point is 00:06:41 Yeah, Whitkoff. So Zach Whitkoff is the founder. of the Trump crypto firm World Liberty Financial. And so the world liberty financial of it all actually even dwarfs the fact that Binance has hired like Ballard Partners, which is a very, that's where Pam Bondi and Susie Wiles had lobbied before entering the administration. So yes, they're, they've hired the lobbyists and all of that. But what does that even matter when your so, your family is so heavily invested in a similar,
Starting point is 00:07:13 Well, actually in something that benefits from the industry, that CZ is so powerful that the industry benefits. Like, if he gets a cold, the industry, if he sneezes, the industry gets a cold. It's that type of relationship. And the other thing I wanted to mention from the New York Times coverage here, that, sorry, it's just a little bit amusing to see it put like this. Long considered the crypto industry's richest man, Mr. Zhao, a Chinese-born executive who now lives in the UAE, admitted that he had violated the law by failing to install rigorous compliance compliance systems at finance. That allowed people in countries under sanctions and terrorist groups like
Starting point is 00:07:50 Hamas, al-Qaeda, and the Islamic State to move money on his platform. So while everyone is right now calling Zora Mamdani a jihadist, here you have a man being pardoned that, according to the times, allowed terrorist groups like Hamas al-Qaeda in the Islamic State to move money around. complicit perhaps might be the word interesting um let's put coffee zella's tweet guys this is d4 up on the screen of just to give you the timeline of like the business transactions here and of course he is losing his mind over all of this he says backstory cz's pardon so november 2020 binance and cz plead guilty four billion dollars plus mine march 2025 trump world liberty financial launches a stable coin called us d one stable coins are like backed
Starting point is 00:08:40 to currency or I think in this case, yeah, treasury bonds. March 2025, $2 billion investment into Binance by MGX, May 2025, $2 billion investment was paid for in USD1. So $2 billion going into this WLFI's stable coin. May 2025, CZ admits he applied for a pardon, October 2025. CZ gets a pardon result. USD1 is backed by treasuries. This is. yields $60 to $80 million per year for World Liberty Financial, so long as finance does not redeem that $2 billion in USD1. So he sort of breaks down here for you, the timeline and the net cash benefit directly into the pockets of the President of the United States. And, you know, we could have pulled, and maybe we will in a future show, Tucker is out there saying,
Starting point is 00:09:36 I think that Bitcoin is a CIA op, which is interesting as well because he's like, you know, they're like using this as another way to steal from you and control you, et cetera. Trump previously had been very skeptical of crypto. He said he didn't like that it was a competitor to the dollar. That was his initial instinct. Well, that instinct changed dramatically when he received money from industry insiders and then himself realized how much he could personally cash into the two to billions of dollars. on, you know, his own crypto coin, the way that, you know, his supporters flooded money in and then in addition, it's a just naked way for people to directly bribe him. So Trump's personal net worth has skyrocketed.
Starting point is 00:10:21 I mean, most, really think about this. Most of Trump's net worth at this point has come about since he was inaugurated this second time around. So already, obviously, a tremendously wealthy guy, the bulk of his net worth. is from his direct corruption during this presidency. Yeah, this is Forbes in June. Crypto now accounts for most of Donald Trump's net worth. So an estimated $3.3 billion of his total $5.5 billion lies in, quote, the buzzy industry,
Starting point is 00:10:52 according to Forbes. But what that means is it's all come just in the last year or so. This is a man who has been known, renowned, as a billionaire for decades. And a tabloid fixture, his entire show was based on his business success. And now most of his net worth isn't from any of that. It's from crypto. And of course, crypto, you can argue, was built on his reputation and the coin is built on his reputation, whatever.
Starting point is 00:11:16 But it's not any, it has nothing to do with real estate. There's nothing to do with real anything. Well, yeah. These are just, I mean, it's just a purely. Fake estate. Imaginary. Yeah. Imaginary, you can't even call it an asset.
Starting point is 00:11:32 It's just speculation. It's just a pyramid scheme. That's all it is. But he is the scammer in chief, you know. And so that's why it disgust me to hear Caroline Leavitt being, well, what about Hunter Biden? Like Hunter Biden and his freaking paintings and Burisma and whatever, if you guys had a problem with that, that is nothing. And I did have a problem with it. 100%.
Starting point is 00:11:51 It is nothing compared to one of the scams that Trump has run in the second term. One of the corrupt deals that they have struck. It's just wild. Not to mention, you know, in the CZ case. demonstrates this incredibly clearly the way that if you get on his good side and you hire the right people and you got enough money, the laws don't apply to you. You can get away with whatever. This president is actually antithetical to law and order, truly. Because, yes, if you're Letitia James, he's going to dig up some mortgage application that you made a mistake
Starting point is 00:12:25 on and fixed later on, and he's going to throw the book at you, if you're George Santos or one of the other 10 Republican congressmen who committed crimes, you'll get off scot-free. If you're rich enough to pay your way in and willing to, like, kiss the ring, then you'll get off scot-free. It's a crime spree. It's an open season for a crime spree
Starting point is 00:12:46 if you happen to be one of his friends are wealthy enough to buy that kind of access. That's the other part of this. Like, with some of these Hunter Biden deals, there's a very strong evidence that foreign policy was being manipulated by Hunter Biden laundering his family name and selling access. This is the entire crypto industry that Donald Trump.
Starting point is 00:13:07 Like, why is Trump making so much money in crypto? Why is he getting these great deals through? It's because of what he's doing for the crypto industry. Like, what he's doing for this industry that he himself was once deeply skeptical of that many Americans are deeply skeptical of. And that includes huge concentrations of power, much to the chagrin of people. We interviewed someone on this recently who used to be super involved in Bitcoin world.
Starting point is 00:13:29 That's right. Peter Ryan, I think, yes. Yeah, he came on the show and talked about the dream, sort of like the dream of the internet. It's the same thing with the dream of crypto, that it would be decentralizing power. And right now it's very, very clearly doing the opposite. Yeah. And Trump, his net worth is tied to that industry's fortune and favor.
Starting point is 00:13:51 And that's part of the, it's not just that Trump is enriching himself, it's that he's enriching himself at the sake of the economy, because crypto is now a significant, what's the best way to put it, manipulator of the entire economy. Yeah. Like the entire economy has- It's completely intertwined. Yeah, it's intertwined. And these people are too big to fail. Like, there's, you know, at some point in the future will probably be on the hook for some
Starting point is 00:14:15 kind of a crypto bailout. Yeah, you know. That's right. Yeah. So I did want to give credit. Rokana has, as I, you know, trained on this problem, especially with regard to the president and his family's corruption. He's introducing a bill to ban this sort of crypto trading for members of Congress and for the president.
Starting point is 00:14:34 Let's go ahead and take a listen to what he had to say. In response to Trump's pardon of the former Binan CEO, you heard what Senator Elizabeth Warren said. If Congress doesn't stop this kind of corruption, Congress owns this kind of corruption. Explain to me how exactly Congress can do that. Elizabeth Warren is spot on. look, we have a president who is enriching himself and his family in an obscene wealth that is unprecedented in American history. And people need to wake up to what's going on.
Starting point is 00:15:07 It's corruption right before our very eyes. I mean, you had a foreign billionaire who was convicted criminally of money laundering to Hamas and to Iran. And he invests money in the president. family's stable coin, and that basically helps him get a pardon. And the president's family is making millions of dollars as president of United States. I'm introducing a resolution to say that we need to stop the president, his family, or any members of Congress from trading in crypto, and certainly from accepting any money
Starting point is 00:15:43 from foreign governments or foreign entities. It is corrupt. So I appreciate Roe making moves on this bill. I don't know how. I doubt it'll even come to a vote. But, you know, if it did, I don't see how you can, I don't see how you can oppose it. Like, I'm sure if you ask the American people, what, 95% would be like, yes, of course. There should be a ban on this type of, you know, trading and the direct corruption that it enables. But, you know, that's, you want to talk about a democracy problem. That's the kind of democracy problem that we already have. That is the congressman from Silicon Valley for what it's worth. Yeah, it's a great point. I mean, think if you're like on the fence about this, no. Nobody has a better front row seat to corruption in this industry than Roe. But, you know, we, Sagar and I interviewed Shouykaa Shaka Body, who's running for Congress against Nancy Pelosi in San Francisco. And Sager asked him a question about, like, well, what about these, you know, rich tech guys?
Starting point is 00:16:37 Like, aren't you going to have to cater to them? And Shokat was like, well, even though there's, you know, more probably millionaires per capita in this area than most parts of the country, they still are a tiny percentage of the electorate. Right. So if you're actually catering to the, you know, vast, working class in the, you know, in the Bay area and in San Francisco specifically, you still have a much larger base of voting support than if you're just trying to cater to
Starting point is 00:17:02 these few multimillionaires and that, you know, that Roe appears to be operating on a similar logic here. Yeah. You know who else is operating on a similar logic? Who's that? Zoran Mamdani in New York City. Not catering to the oligarchs. Honey, they gave this morning. In the new podcast, Hell in Heaven,
Starting point is 00:17:22 Two young Americans moved to the Costa Rican jungle to start over, but one will end up dead. The other tried for murder. Not once. People went wild. Not twice. Stunned. But three times.
Starting point is 00:17:40 John and Ann Bender are rich and attractive, and they're devoted to each other. They create a nature reserve and build a spectacular circular home high on the top of a hill. But little by little, their dream starts to crumble. And our couple retreat from reality. They lose it. They actually lose it. They sort of went nuts. Until one night, everything spins out of control.
Starting point is 00:18:09 Listen to Hell in Heaven on the I-Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I live below a cult leader and I fear I've angered her. Well, wait a minute, Sophia. You know she's a cult leader. Well, Dakota, luckily it's I'm not afraid of a scary story week on the OK Storytime podcast, so you'll find out soon. This person writes, My neighbor has been blasting music every day and doing dirt rituals, and now my ceiling is collapsing. I try to report them, but things keep getting weirder.
Starting point is 00:18:40 I think they may be part of a cult. Hold up, Sophia, a real-life cult? And what is a dirt ritual? No clue. But according to this person, contractors are tearing down the patio to find out what's going to on with her ceiling and her neighbors are not happy. Well, she needs to report them ASAP. She did.
Starting point is 00:18:58 And now they've been confronting her in really creepy ways all the time. So do we find out if this person survives their neighborhood cult or not? To hear the explosive finale, listen to the OK Storytime podcast on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. The Big Take podcast from Bloomberg News dives deep into one big global business story every weekday. A shutdown means we don't get the data, but it also means for President Trump that there's no chance of bad news on the labor market. What does a bacon, egg, and cheese sandwich reveal about the economy? Our breakfast foods are consistent consumer staples, and so they sort of become outsides indicators of inflation. What's behind Elon Musk's trillion dollar payout?
Starting point is 00:19:43 There's a sort of concerted effort to message that Musk is coming back. He's putting politics aside. he's left the White House. And what can the PCE tell you that the CPI can't? CPI tries to measure out-of-pocket costs that consumers are paying for things, whereas the PCE index that the Fed targets is a little bit broader of a measure. Listen to the big take from Bloomberg News every weekday afternoon on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Starting point is 00:20:17 So we are just over a week out. from this New York City mayoral race, which is looking like a fate accompli at this point. But Zoran held a big sort of culminating rally last night. I know Ryan had a reporter on the ground. Our own Griffin was there in the crowd as well. AOC was there. Bernie was there.
Starting point is 00:20:36 And actually, Kathy Hochel, and it's kind of interesting. This will get into some of the dynamics. So you guys can go ahead and put this slideshow up on the screen while I'm talking. You could see, I mean, massive crowd. People waiting outside. I think people got turned away. It was, you know, really high energy and pretty electric from the folks that were there on the ground. And you can feel that just from watching the videos as well.
Starting point is 00:20:58 Looking at the pictures. I mean, this is just packed. Yes. And it was a beautiful fall night and, you know, they got great weather and all of that kind of good stuff. There you got Stavis and you got Bernie and Zoran there. Quite a picture. That's quite a moment. Quite a moment in time.
Starting point is 00:21:13 I'd love to be privy to that conversation. Yeah, exactly. But in any case, you bring. bringing together Bernie AOC and Kathy Hockel for Zoran is interesting because Hockel is like a moderate. She's like standard issue Democrat. She's tried to govern as a moderate. She has opposed. So Zoran wants to raise taxes on the rich to fund his proposals, specifically his proposal for free child care, which is of the things that he's proposed. That's the biggest one to be able to pull off in terms of the, you know, the various programs that he's put forward. And she has said in the past
Starting point is 00:21:49 that she was opposed to it. So let's take a listen to this. This is the crowd chanting at Kathy Hokel to tax the rich and her having to deal with that in real time and respond to it and almost losing control of the crowd at one moment.
Starting point is 00:22:06 Let's go ahead and take a look at that. Let's go ahead. Taxes, Mexico, rich. That's the rich. All right. I hear it tax the rich. Tax the rich, yeah.
Starting point is 00:22:18 Yeah. I can hear you. You have the power. They're everywhere, and they're terrorizing innocent people. And they're going to do something. Do something. So they're yelling at her there, do something when she's talking about, you know, ISIS abuses of power, et cetera. And I think it's pretty significant shift for this moderate establishment Democrat to feel the heat from the, you know, I shouldn't, I'm not even going to say the left of the party because this man is the Democratic nominee.
Starting point is 00:23:09 He won overwhelmingly. This is just the base of the party that is like, we are going to hold you to account and we understand where you're falling short and you're going to yell at you to your face even at this rally. At the very end, Zoron came out like a little bit early to, you know, get the crowd sort of back in line and put his arm around her and give her some support because she's there obviously to support him. But the fact that you have these figures all coming together now behind Zoran and him really kind of running the show and putting pressure on the sitting governor to back his policies is quite an extraordinary moment. Yeah, and I'm beating this dead horse, but it just does remind me so much of the years between like 2010. in 2015. Actually, there's almost something Trumpian about it when Ted Cruz was railing against Donald Trump and then, you know, two months later, campaigning with a smile on his face next to Donald Trump. It has that feel to it. Or, you know, when everybody was raging against
Starting point is 00:24:04 Sarah Palin, and then Sarah Palin was the hottest ticket in the Republican Party. Like, that was the best way to get an endorsement circle, like 2012, was from Sarah Palin. And so you had all of the establishment figures sort of gritting their teeth. And so, you know, smiling in photo ops with the Sarah Palin's or the like the Ted Cruz's at a certain point. So it has that feel to it. And it just reminds me of that that poll from over the summer that found Democratic voters' satisfaction with their own party is super similar to what Republican voters' favorability of their own party was during the Tea Party years. When you hear, because I think one of the things about that chant is, and this gets to the appeal of Zauron, is that, and we'll talk about. this later, I think, but he's got, he's always got a smile on his face. He's, he's not a sort
Starting point is 00:24:52 dour socialist, right? Like, he's a happy populist, which is a hard thing to do. It's not an easy thing to pull off because you're talking about people's immiseration and corruption and doing it with a smile on the face makes a big difference, but that crowd was really angry. You could kind of hear it in the chant. That was a, that crowd was angry at Kathy Hokel, really, really angry, which is why she sort of had to say, I hear you. It's like when you, like, your mom is driving and you're like, I want lunch. Like, give me, like, pull over. Like, when are we going to eat?
Starting point is 00:25:24 She's like, I hear you. I hear you. We're getting, man. Let's just get a little bit further down the road. That's what that was. Yeah, well, and so that's why, first of all, the margin of his victory is going to be closely watched. You know, I think people are looking at, okay, does he get over 50%?
Starting point is 00:25:38 Right. Because if he wins over 50%, then there's no cope around, like, oh, we could have had the, like, the majority position was anti-Zoron. And so if we just had a different, better candidate, not Andrew Cuomo, maybe we would have won, right? If he gets under 50%, there will be a lot of that cope, for sure. The majority of New Yorkers voted against Soron. So that's number one.
Starting point is 00:25:57 Number two, though, I firmly believe his power is only likely to grow because we know a confrontation is coming with Trump. And we know New Yorkers are going to hate it, right? They already don't like Trump. They are going to hate the specter. We've already had some of these raids of these, you know, masked up. military outfitted, federal agents in their streets, you know, rampaging, the sort of scenes we've seen in Chicago, New Yorkers are going to absolutely revolt. You know, it's a city that really
Starting point is 00:26:27 takes its immigrant character seriously and truly has been built on these various waves of immigration. But even just beside that, it's a very proud city, like, what are you doing infringing on our territory? And I fully expect, based on what I've seen from Zoran thus far, that he's going to meet that moment very effectively. You know, I've, yet to see him, like, fail or fumble an important moment in his campaign, whether it's on the debate stage or an important interviews, et cetera. And so I think he's going to end up even more of, like, he's already kind of, you know, this, like, burgeoning rock star in the Democratic Party in our national politics. I think that is probably going to become even more the case. And so I
Starting point is 00:27:09 saw Elon Musk tweeted, like, this is the future of the Democratic Party, as if that's a negative thing. And I'm like, yeah, I hope that it is. I think it, I think, I think. he may be right that it is. And listen, we should, like, let's have, let's have a contest, right? Rather than doing this, you know, lame Kathy Hokel, Andrew Cuomo, Joe Biden style of politics, like, let's embrace the new young wave of left populism and unapologetically so and see, like, see how people respond to it. Because thus far, what we see is Bernie Sanders is the most popular politician in the country. Zoran is an up-and-coming, like, in the country. You've got Grand Planner in spite of all of his things coming out of nowhere
Starting point is 00:27:52 to challenge a sitting governor of Maine. And if two out of the three of the polls are to be believed winning that showdown thus far. So maybe this is the new direction of the Democratic Party. And if so, I think it has a lot more promise, certainly, than the old direction. Emblematic, of course, of that version of the Democratic Party is AOC, who was there last night and gave a barn burner of a speech. Let's take a listen to one of her highlight. city was built by the Irish escaping famine. Italians fleeing fascism, Jews escaping Holocaust, black Americans fleeing slavery and Jim Crow, Latinos, seeking a better life, native people standing for themselves, Asian Americans coming together in Queens, in Brooklyn, it's a Bronx,
Starting point is 00:28:43 in Manhattan, in Staten Island, in this country. So crowd obviously roaring and I think, you know, this will fit together with the next piece that we're going to do on Zora and all this like Islamophobic bullshit, calling him a jihadist, et cetera. But what she is laying out there is the pluralistic vision of America, which is direct contrast to the increasingly like blood and soil nationalist vision of America that's being asserted, not just by the Trump administration, but increasingly. by, like, right-wing influencers who are being quite overt at this point that, like, white people built this country. It's a country for white people. If you aren't white, you come under suspicion. If you weren't born here or your family hasn't been here from multi-generations, we can denaturalize
Starting point is 00:29:33 you. You aren't a true American, really rewriting the conception of, you know, how people have thought about America for a number of years at this point. And a theme of, you know, how people have thought about America from the beginning. Not that there's always been, you know, complete alignment in that view. But so what AOC is laying out there, I think, is a very important contrast in a vision for what the country is and what it means vis-a-vis the vision that's being asserted and trying to be made real reality by this administration right now. For Democrats and Democratic Socialists, there's quite a lesson to be taken from what happened during Trump 1.0 and then Biden. because backlash in polling to Trump's immigration policies inspired a fairly dramatic, what's the right word,
Starting point is 00:30:25 like liberalization of the Democratic Party's immigration policies. And this is where, like, Zoron's really going to have to sell. Because in New York City, there was a lot of backlash to the Biden immigration policies, which is why Eric Adams sort of changed his own tune on it. And the asylum policies, all of that. like the hotels, this was, you know, there was significant backlash in New York City. And so that means the, if Zoron wants to, he's been talking about how he wants to make New York or wants to keep New York as like a sort of prominent sanctuary city as a great sanctuary city.
Starting point is 00:31:02 I think that is a, you know, obviously I have deep political disagreements with that, but I really think that's going to be kind of interesting to watch because he's a great political salesman. And if that's, I mean, if that's what Zara Mamdani and AOC want, they do have to sort of come up with a different way to sell it because what happened before didn't work. Well, Trump is making that sales pitch for them right now. That's absolutely true. Because, you know, I mean, people see Chicago also a sanctuary city. And, you know, you see the scenes coming out of there of people just being harassed or even assaulted just because of the shade of their skin based on absolutely no evidence that they're here illegally.
Starting point is 00:31:42 alone that they've committed any sort of crime. Obviously, the apartment raid pulling all sorts of American citizens out on the street in their underwear in the middle of the night and arresting them, zip time, their kids, during the U-Haul vans, all of these abuses are playing out. And, you know, I fully expect Trump to, you know, move on New York in the same fashion. So I think, you know, I think Trump is making the pitch for them of like, okay, so there was dissatisfaction over, you know, the immigrants were were busting by and large by Texas government. or Greg Abbott, and that creates, you know, this friction in the city of, okay, well, what do we do with this influx of people and how do we handle them and how do we, you know, integrate them into the city and many of them don't have work permits. So they're like sort of inherently dependent on the, on the government to provide for them,
Starting point is 00:32:27 et cetera. So you had that. But then when you see the cost of this insane, militarized crackdown, you know, I think certainly the New York City public is already going to be on board for sanctuary policy. We already see a backlash against the raids that they've done in the city thus far. The actions at the, you know, the courthouse downtown where they're just immigrants who are coming in and are like doing the thing and going to the court dates like they're supposed to are then getting swept up and detained, assaulted at times, et cetera. So, you know, I think that that sort of sales pitch has already happened in an important sense. We can put E4 up on the screen.
Starting point is 00:33:07 We do have some early voting results just in terms of the boroughs. that are surging. So top line here is Brooklyn. People living in Brooklyn are voting their asses off. And that is Zoron's best borough. Laid off vice employees are coming in strong. They are coming in strong. And then the second best borough for Zoran, judging by the primary, is Queens. And Queens is also voting at extraordinary levels. Next is Manhattan. Then Staten Island, then the Bronx, are the two lowest-performing boroughs, and those are also Zoron's two-st, two-stst-to-est, two lowest-performing burrows. So who knows, maybe this is just the Sliwa surge. Could be, but it's looking like this turnout seems to indicate that Zoran
Starting point is 00:34:06 is cleaning up. And it would not surprise me if he outperforms the polls again, because he did during the primary. He unperformed the polls by like, I don't know, 12 points, at least 12 to 15 points in the primary because he changed the electorate. And so it would not, it would not be a shock if there was another polling underperformance because he is a politician that brings out a different electorate than pollsters are really able to capture, very Trump-like in that way, where, you know, it's predominantly young people, right, who normally pollsters discount, feel like, okay, they don't turn out that much. And this is a general election in a New York City mayor's race where typically the general election is a foregone conclusion. And yet there's all this energy and
Starting point is 00:34:49 interest around it. So that creates a totally different political landscape. So I would not be shocked at all if, you know, Zoran already the polls show him winning by anywhere from like 10 to 20 points. I would not be shocked at all if he outperforms the average of the polls right now, too. So I'm looking at this poll that producer Griffin flagged over the weekend because it's, it's just so funny, so rich, that Mamdani versus Sliwa is more competitive for Sliwa than Mamdani versus Cuomo. Like Sliwa, head-to-head with Sarah Mamdani is doing better than Cuomo, head-to-head was around Mamdani. I think it's by like one point, but it's still amazing. Yeah, yeah, yeah, because it's two points, yeah. Think of how contrary that is to all of the standard issue political.
Starting point is 00:35:34 logic that like Cuomo's the guy, it has to be Cuomo. It's like, Cuomo versus Zoron, Cuomo could win. It's like actually all along, you know, first of all, do you not understand how hated this guys? Do you not understand how incredibly lame he is and lazy, by the way, and what a bad campaign he's running? And you still think like he's the guy where you want to send all of your millions and put all of your hopes into?
Starting point is 00:35:59 Yep. And he's at, so that poll actually had 8.5% of the electorate undecisely. decided, which is, that's a pretty significant chunk of the electorate, if that poll is correct. Now, again, to Crystal's point, polling in New York City races can be really difficult. So we'll see where it ends up going, but that is for Cuomo. I mean, the primary should have been enough to embarrass him out of politics, out of public life. Truly. Because of what he, the situation that he put Democrats in by running and trying to consolidate all of the money and then losing.
Starting point is 00:36:34 to a 33-year-old Democratic Socialist state senator. And yet he persisted. Nevertheless, nevertheless, he persisted. Indeed. In the new podcast, Hell in Heaven. Two young Americans moved to the Costa Rican jungle to start over. But one will end up dead. The other tried for murder.
Starting point is 00:37:01 Not once. People went wild. Twice. Stunned. But three times. John and Ann Bender are rich and attractive, and they're devoted to each other. They create a nature reserve and build a spectacular circular home high on the top of a hill. But little by little, their dream starts to crumble, and our couple retreat from reality.
Starting point is 00:37:28 They lose it. They actually lose it. They sort of went nuts. until one night everything spins out of control listen to hell in heaven on the I-heart radio app Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts
Starting point is 00:37:44 The forces shaping the world's economies and financial markets can be hard to spot Even though they are such a powerful player in finance You wouldn't really know that you are interacting with them And even harder to understand Donald Trump's Trade War, 2.0, is only accelerating the process of de-dollarization, which in a way is jargon for people turning away from the dollar.
Starting point is 00:38:11 That is where the big take from Bloomberg podcast comes in, to connect the dots. How unusual is a deal like this? Unprecedented. Every weekday afternoon, we dive deep into one big global business story. The biggest story of the reaction of the oil market to the conflict in the Middle East is one of what has not happened. Katie, you told me that ETFs are your favorite thing. They are.
Starting point is 00:38:34 Explain that. Why is that the case? And unpack what it means for you. Our breakfast foods are consistent consumer staples, and so they sort of become outsized indicators of inflation. Listen to the big take from Bloomberg News every weekday afternoon on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I live below a cult leader, and I fear I've angered her. Well, wait a minute, Sophia.
Starting point is 00:39:00 How do you know she's a cult leader? Well, Dakota, luckily it's I'm not afraid of a scary story week on the OK Storytime podcast, so you'll find out soon. This person writes, My neighbor's been blasting music every day and doing dirt rituals, and now my ceiling is collapsing. I try to report them, but things keep getting weirder. I think they may be part of a cult. Hold up, Sophia, a real-life cult? And what is a dirt ritual?
Starting point is 00:39:24 No clue. But according to this person, contractors are tearing down the patio to find out what's going to going on with her ceiling and her neighbors are not happy. Well, she needs to report them ASAP. She did. And now they've been confronting her in really creepy ways all the time. So do we find out if this person survives their neighborhood cult or not? To hear the explosive finale, listen to the OK Storytime podcast on the Iheart radio app,
Starting point is 00:39:49 Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. There's been a subplot. I don't know if it's a subplot or a four plot anyway, playing out in this race as well. though, because Zoran has been really throughout the campaign, attacked an extremely racist way just because of him being Muslim. Cuomo was on this radio show, and the radio host said something like, oh, my God, can you imagine if Zoran had been mayor during 9-11? And then the host was like, oh, he would have been cheering.
Starting point is 00:40:23 And Cuomo just chuckles along with this, right? Disgusting stuff. Zoran actually was in New York City on 9-11. He was a kid, and he was horrified by. as everyone was. Sliwa said something like, oh, we can't allow New York City to become Europe. So this really, this is their final push. Like everything they've thrown at Zoran has completely failed. All of the supposed scandals they tried to dig up have been complete nothing burgers. You know, the latest I saw like someone was posting, oh my God, he had sushi at a nice
Starting point is 00:40:50 restaurant with his wife. Can you believe the socialist like eats nice sushi? The other one that I just saw was some New York Times or something like this reporting on, when he ran for school president and promised juice and wasn't able to fulfill his promises. Like, this is what they've got on this guy, okay? So they've just decided to go to complete naked Islamophobia and racism in the final phase. And Zoran, who has tried to really keep his,
Starting point is 00:41:16 yeah, as a Democratic socialist, try to keep his program incredibly universalist, felt the need, like, okay, I got to stand up for myself. I've got to stand up for Muslims in the city. And so he gave a speech, talking about these attacks and what they mean. And like I said, trying to speak up for Muslims in the city. Let's go ahead and take a listen to a bit of that.
Starting point is 00:41:37 Yesterday, Andrew Cuomo laughed and agreed when a radio host said that I would cheer another 9-11. Yesterday, Eric Adams said that we can't let our city become Europe. He compared me to violent extremists. And he lied again and again when he said that our movement, seeks to burn churches and destroy communities. The day before that, Curtis Sliwa slandered me from the debate stage
Starting point is 00:42:08 when he claimed that I support global jihad. And every day, SuperPack ads imply that I am a terrorist or mock the way I eat, push polls that ask New Yorkers questions like whether they support invented proposals to make halal food mandatory, or political cartoon, that represent my candidacy as an airplane hurtling towards the World Trade Center.
Starting point is 00:42:35 But I do not want to use this moment to speak to them any further. I want to use this moment to speak to the Muslims of New York City. I want to speak to the memory of my aunt. who stopped taking the subway after September 11th because she did not feel safe in her hijab. I want to speak to the Muslim who works for our city. Whether they teach in our schools or walk the beat for the NYPD, New Yorkers who all make daily sacrifices for the city they call home
Starting point is 00:43:23 only to see their leaders spit in their face. So you can see Emily, him being very emotional there. What did you think of his decision to address this at the end of the race, which I think entails some risks? You know, I mean, up to this point, his approach had been, I'm just going to kind of like ignore that this is happening, stay above the fray. Like you said before, he tries to keep his campaign like relentlessly positive.
Starting point is 00:43:49 Yeah. You know, always, always smiling. always putting forward, like a positive vision for the future, even as he has come under, you know, incredibly ugly attacks. I remember the Cuomo people in the primary, too, they're putting out these mailers where they, like, lengthened his beard and darkened his skin, again, to try to make him look like some scary jihadist. We do that with Sogher, by the way, in all of our promotional graphics. Just to help me to win the debates with him. Just give me that a little bit of an edge. But, you know, you had that, you have, you had, and this is not just coming from Republicans, by the way.
Starting point is 00:44:24 This is, this is Cuomo, who is allegedly a demurried, Kirsten Gillibrand, calling him a jihadist. Berthers originally came from the Clinton campaign. So it's been bipartisan ugliness. And there's also, I mean, not that anyone cares about, like, philosophical consistency, but on the one hand, they're like, he's so far left in the queer liberation and here's some crazy shit. I know, I know. And on the other hand, he's. like ushering in Sharia law. So which is it guys? Come on, which is it? This is the, and actually from someone who is like very skeptical about political Islam, my argument to Elise
Starting point is 00:44:58 Stefanik rocking around calling him a jihadist is that you're like politically that is insane. What you are doing is softening it so that if you actually had somebody who was like a Sharia follower who ran for office, that has no meaning anymore. Just like all of the the other terms that were leveled that people like Elise Siphonic and she argued against it lost so much of their meeting because they were just being tossed around to people who you thought like her, let's say her argument against Zeramam Dani would be he is going to give aid in comfort to jihadists. That is different than him being a jihadist, even if you believe that argument, which I don't believe that argument, though we probably would disagree on his imam photo op and all
Starting point is 00:45:45 of that, but, like, you are completely, you're completely making that term, like, meaningless. If you were calling Zeramamani, who's marching in the pride parades, a jihadist. Like, stop it. That is so stupid. And it is so counterproductive. On the political level with that speech, I thought it was really interesting because one thing that he's careful to do is always be a glass half full guy. Yeah. I don't blame anyone, especially. people, you know, like even women who run for office, like, I don't blame anyone for seeing the world as glass half full after going through that experience, or glass half empty, I'm sorry, when you're in the middle of an experience like that. But politically, it's one of his
Starting point is 00:46:29 benefits that he actually gives New Yorkers a ton of credit. And he always sees New York as glass half full. And so I think the implication of that speech was truly, I forget, I should have pulled out one of the lines in particular, but it's truly that New York is a place where people experience deep, widespread Islamophobia. And that isn't to discredit Islamophobia that people actually experience in New York. But I think he has been careful. This is just the political strategy of it to give New Yorkers a lot of credit, to give Americans a lot of credit, and to always be sunny and optimistic. So I don't blame anyone for not being sunny and optimistic. Politically, I thought that was just a, it was a different approach from him. I mean, can you blame him when Randy Fine
Starting point is 00:47:13 member of Congress is right now attempting to denaturalize him. No, no, of course not. Of course not. Or he's being called a jihadist. Exactly. And that's the thing is like there has been an upsurge in Islamophobia in a truly, again, bipartisan way post-October 7th that has resulted in now. I mean, I see Betty Hassan all day long getting told like we're going to denaturalize
Starting point is 00:47:40 you, Will Chamberlain and all these characters, Matt Walsh, like, going to war with him, and we're going to denaturalize you and you're not a real American and we want you out of our country, blah, blah, blah. This is just commonplace discourse, mainstream discourse. Now, that happens to be coming from the right, but as I said, you have plenty of Democrats who have indulged in this as well because they can't defend Israel anymore. So instead, they have to smear and dehumanize Muslims in particular, and Arab Muslims specifically, but Muslims in particular.
Starting point is 00:48:10 And so this is the reality of the... America that we live in. And so I, you know, I think it makes sense for him to address that directly because I think that he's probably speaking to a lot of people in the way that they feel their grasp on being, you know, considered real Americans in a full part of the fabric of society kind of slipping away from them and that even Democrats who in the past have defended them are sort of allowing that to occur. Speaking of which we have Bill Maher, who, you know, was taking a similar attack on his show, attacking Zoran for being a citizen of Uganda and, like, weirdly blaming Zoran for the policies that are in place in Uganda, as if he has
Starting point is 00:48:57 any power, control over that, or supports those policies. Let's go ahead and take a listen to E7. The issue now that Andrew Cuomo is bringing up in New York is that he is a Ugandan citizen. Uganda is a country where they kill homosexuals. So somebody who is a dual citizen can't be mayor of New York or? I would renounce, if I was the dual citizen with a country whose policy, the government policy, was we kill homosexuals. Yeah, I would renounce that citizenship. I don't, and to not, and he also, I think that is buying into a fear.
Starting point is 00:49:33 I think that is buying into a fear framework that is not good, it's not good, it's not good for the country. It's not good for the country. You shouldn't be afraid of it. I think the way that Cuoma, I think the way that Cuomo is closing out this race and really, and really race baiting and really leaning in on, you know, what, you know what, just because it's done for the country. I don't think that's good for the country. I understand. But just because something is done by people in Africa doesn't mean it's always okay. Now, I'm going to guess, Emily, that Bill Maher has not had any problem with the Israeli dual citizens in the country or indicated that, you know, their continued Israeli citizenship. would indicate that they, you know, for sure, support a genocide, et cetera. Yes, but, Crystal, Israel has the greatest pride parade.
Starting point is 00:50:18 Have you heard about the Tel Aviv Pride Parade? Many times, actually. Weirdly, a lot I've heard about the Tel Aviv Pride Parade. Have you heard about the Ugandan Pride Prieta? Probably not. So now you can see Bill Maher's logic. You're giving me something to chew on here. Yes, something to think about, something to think about.
Starting point is 00:50:34 When I'm siding with Kate Battingfield in an exchange, something's gone wrong. That's all I can say. rails here. All right. Well, we promised KJP, so let's get to KJP. Let's do it. In the new podcast, Hell in Heaven, two young Americans moved to the Costa Rican jungle to start over, but one will end up dead.
Starting point is 00:50:59 The other tried for murder. Not once. People went wild. Not twice. Stoned. But three times. John and Anne Bennett. are rich and attractive, and they're devoted to each other.
Starting point is 00:51:15 They create a nature reserve and build a spectacular, circular home high on the top of a hill. But little by little, their dream starts to crumble, and our couple retreat from reality. They lose it. They actually lose it. They sort of went nuts. Until one night, everything spins out of control. Listen to hell in heaven on the unresolved. My Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. The Big Take podcast from Bloomberg News dives deep into one big global business story every weekday.
Starting point is 00:51:54 A shutdown means we don't get the data, but it also means for President Trump that there's no chance of bad news on the labor market. What does a bacon, egg, and cheese sandwich reveal about the economy? Our breakfast foods are consistent consumer staples, and so they sort of become outside. indicators of inflation. What's behind Elon Musk's trillion dollar payout? There's a sort of concerted effort to message that Musk is coming back. He's putting politics aside. He's left the White House. And what can the PCE tell you that the CPI can't? CPI tries to measure out-of-pocket costs that consumers are paying for things, whereas the PCE index that the Fed targets is a little bit broader of a measure. Listen to the big take from
Starting point is 00:52:41 Bloomberg News every weekday afternoon on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I live below a cult leader, and I fear I've angered her. Well, wait a minute, Sophia. Adia knows she's a cult leader. Well, Dakota, luckily it's I'm not afraid of a scary story week on the OK
Starting point is 00:52:58 Storytime podcast, so you'll find out soon. This person writes, My neighbor's been blasting music every day and doing dirt rituals, and now my ceiling is collapsing. I try to report them, but things keep getting weirder. I think they may be part of a cult? Hold up, Sophia. A real-life cult? And what is a dirt ritual?
Starting point is 00:53:17 No clue. But according to this person, contractors are tearing down the patio to find out what's going on with her ceiling and her neighbors are not happy. Well, she needs to report them ASAP. She did! And now they've been confronting her in really creepy ways all the time. So do we find out if this person survives their neighborhood cult or not? To hear the explosive finale, listen to the OK Story Story. Time podcast on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Well, as Karin Jean-Pierre continues her book tour, which has been a wild ride already,
Starting point is 00:53:52 she stopped by MSNBC and got pressed specifically. This has been a long time coming in the last week of her book tour. She really had not faced this level of questioning over the Biden administration's policy on Israel and Gaza. She got pressed by Aiman Molydeen on it this weekend. Let's take a look. You stood at the White House podium, speaking on behalf of the administration. You defended U.S. policy in Gaza at a time where there were mass civilian casualties, journalists being killed, whole families being wiped out, hospitals being bombed. And the international community was calling it what it was at the time, saying it was a violation,
Starting point is 00:54:29 it was war crimes, and you defended the administration's policy. When you look back at that moment, do you regret any of the positions that you advocated for on behalf of the administrations, the positions you take. Do you feel that you are complicit in advocating a narrative that turned out to be wrong? No, I appreciate the question because one thing that I really want to make clear is that I was speaking on behalf of the president. That is the job of the White House press secretary. I'm not speaking for Karin-Jon-Pierre.
Starting point is 00:54:58 I was speaking for Joe Biden. That's every White House press secretary. That is their job. Well, you said now you speak for yourself. Hold on. Wait, wait. Let me finish. No, no, I know.
Starting point is 00:55:08 I just want to. We're almost out of time. I just thought, go ahead. I'm going to get to it. Obviously, what's happening is heartbreaking, heartbreaking. And to not say that and not to be clear about the devastation and the killings that we're seeing of families is just heartbreaking. And my, I would say, is that is not the way I believe people wanted it to turn out. But I didn't make policy. The president is going to write his book. He will speak to his policy. I'm going to let his foreign policy. I'm going to let his foreign policy. team speak to that. But it is heartbreaking. And I'm hoping that the ceasefire holds we need to get to a peaceful situation in the Middle East, to its peace agreement. And I know that's going to take a lot of hard work. But of course, that's not what I want to see. I mean, nailed it, stuck the landing 10 out of 10, crystal. Couldn't have been, couldn't have gone better for her. Everyone's buying the book now. And Amen, uh, follow back up and said, okay, uh, I get it. You were speaking for the president. Now you're speaking for yourself and still deflection along with some way of working in her, you know,
Starting point is 00:56:14 trailblazing identity into all of this as well. And I don't know, this, the book, her as a person, all of it is like tailor made to drive me insane because, you know, I, I knew her a little bit when I was at MSNBC. Yeah. And she came out of like the move on activist world. And I'm just like, how does this happen? And the answer actually is contained in the book. The answer is she doesn't care about policy or, like, anything, apparently. She left the Democratic Party because, not because of any of, like, the obvious reasons why one might, but because she felt they treated Joe Biden poorly. The Democratic Party was insufficiently pro-Biden, even though it clung until the bitter end until he glitched in
Starting point is 00:57:02 a debate. So now she's framing herself as a quote-unquote independent who's left the Democratic party because it was too insufficiently loyal to this daughtering, narcissistic old man who's facilitating a genocide. And then the other thing that she's pissed about in the book, apparently, is that they weren't sufficiently deferential to Kamala Harris. Again, not based on any, like, merit, anything that Kamala Harris had really done or achieved, but just the fact that she was also a historic, you know, identity, like, higher.
Starting point is 00:57:35 Yes. And had happened to be next in line. Like, so those are the things that she was mad about. And it's like, I don't know. It's such, to me, a perfect encapsulation of this particular mode of girl boss and boy boss politics. Yes. Where it's about your own personal, like, ambition and fulfillment. And the voters are there as a vehicle for, like, the, you know, the grandeur of Kamala.
Starting point is 00:58:06 Harris or of Hillary Clinton or of Joe Biden or of Corrine Jean-Pierre. That's what she thought the party was supposed to be in that when the voters didn't obediently fall in line and when there were other factions, by the way, of Democratic elites as well, who were like, we are going to lose to Donald Trump with this man. We have to do something. That was what she found so offensive. She could no longer be part of this party. And, Crystal, you teased this masterful Washington Post book review of Independent at the top of
Starting point is 00:58:34 the show. But let's get to it. We can put it up on the screen because what Crystal was just saying is actually encapsulated itself in this line from the review, which we should credit the author, Becca Rothfeld, for writing. Sheer says, Jean-Pierre is an artifact of an age that looks recent on paper but feels prehistoric in practice, the age of pantsuits, the word empowerment, the musical Hamilton, the cheap therapeutic entreaties to work on yourself and lean in to various corporate abysses. Independent is written in the outmoded register of one of those lawn signs, proclaiming that in this house, we believe kindness is everything, which have been firmly planted to no tangible electoral effect since 2016. And what I think is, what stands out from that observation, Crystal, is you mentioned
Starting point is 00:59:18 KJP doesn't particularly care about policy. And that's astute because it seems like what she cares about is identity. And it seems like the best sort of takeaway, or one of the better takeaways from that era, is how everything else was subjugated to identity in democratic politics. And when you subjugate everything else to identity, I think actually it's why when you and Saga were hosting Rising, originally it took off. I think it's why breaking points took off is because it was saying that's shallow. There are serious material concerns, spiritual concerns downstream of that. And all you care about is identity.
Starting point is 00:59:52 You've seen it over and over again in Creanjohn-Pier's interview. She's tried to kind of block and tackle by saying, I am a black queer woman. And that falls completely flat now in a way that it wouldn't have in 2019. Progress. Yeah, yeah. Let's put the next piece up on the screen, this other quote from this article. Really, you've got to read the whole review because every word is delicious, but it's a little too long to read all of it on air, but let me just read this part. Imagine parting ways with the Democratic Party, not because of its unwavering support of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahuas. He violated international law and waged a bloody campaign against civilians
Starting point is 01:00:26 in Gaza. Not because of its humiliating failure to mount meaningful opposition to Trump administration's assault on just about everything of value in the country. Not because it continues to run candidates in their 70s and 80s, one of whom opted to die in office at 90 rather than seat her seat to someone younger. Not because of its inability to expand access to health care or protect immigrants or tax wealthy or really get anything done at all. Not because of its politely non-committal affect and rhetoric of facile uplift or its members' tendency to address the public as if they're delivering the keynote at a corporate retreat,
Starting point is 01:01:00 not because the Democrats have no political vision, something of a liability for a political party, but rather because of the single sensible, if very belated thing they have done in recent memory, which was to usher a daughtering Joe Biden out of the 2024 presidential race. So she left the Democratic Party, not because of its many failing, but because of the one halfway intelligent thing, halfway moral thing that they did in the, you know, past little stretch, that's the thing that was the straw that broke the camel back, camels back for her. So, I mean, it sounds like it is just a platitude-laden, like, vacuous black hole of thought based on this review and others that I've seen, too, commenting who actually, you know, read the whole thing. I'm sorry, guys, I'm not going to subject myself to that.
Starting point is 01:01:50 But it really is, I guess it's heartening in a sense that, yeah, these arguments from her at this point that we should have just back Kamala Harris because she was next in line and there shouldn't have been, it's good that voters didn't have any process. and how dare you even think that maybe there should have been voter input to this? And, you know, and that all of her facilitating and running cover for a genocide should be forgiven because she was just speaking for the president, oh, by the way, did you know I'm a queer black woman? I mean, all of this does such a disservice to the many extraordinary and accomplished and morally courageous black women and people of color that are out there. Like, for you to claim the mantle, like, you represent all of them when you were both a, you know, like a failure at the skill level, which is why John Kirby had to be brought in constantly to save your ass. Yes. And a failure, most importantly, on the moral level and continue to be a failure on the moral level, even now when you're not, when you're detached from the administration can speak plainly about what you actually think about these things.
Starting point is 01:02:57 Like, how dare you hold yourself out as some beacon of any identity group? when you have failed in such key and critical regards at a really critical moment for the country? And this is the problem with subjugating content to identity and subjugating substance to identity is that you end up actually undercutting the work that people who have those identities actually are contributing.
Starting point is 01:03:19 And it was the same problem with Kamala Harris and the Biden administration couldn't, they were so attached to these identity politics that when it was obvious Kamala Harris was not the best candidate that Democrats could have run, when it was obvious Kareemps, Pierre, who had been much touted for her identity politics, being the first lesbian in the role, and I think the first black woman in the role, they had touted that so much that
Starting point is 01:03:41 when John Kirby was clearly the better candidate to replace her, they could it, because they would be then boxing themselves into the corner based on their own arguments of replacing a black queer woman with a straight white man. And you can't do that, even if it's better for Democrats, even if it's better for the party, that you have somebody who can competently make the message of the party or sell the message of the party to the public. Couldn't do it. Yeah. Couldn't do it. Let's be clear. I mean, he's morally disgusting and abhorrent. But he was at least a better pitch man. But if you're just talking about technical skills. Yes, technical skill. Yeah. I mean, and yeah. And that's what it really comes down to is like,
Starting point is 01:04:17 okay, let's not ask the question the like identity characteristics of the person in power. Let's ask the question of what that person is doing for the various groups that we care about and for the country as a whole. And so that's why it ties in so closely with the politics of personal ambition, where everything is about like the fulfillment of this powerful person's dream for their life, you know, and how dare you get in the way of whatever, like, achievement, ambitious achievement they wanted to claim for themselves. And if they don't make it, it's because the voters didn't understand their greatness, not because they had any failings. No, it's so true. Wigel highlighted, he read it so that we don't have to.
Starting point is 01:04:57 Dave Weigel of Semaphore. Yeah. He says, the knock on KJP was that she was a lightweight who had to be layered by John Kirby. And her response is, he posted this excerpt from the book. Alicia Keys, the singer and Broadway producer, said DEI is not a threat, it's a gift. Shakira, the Latin American superstar, dedicated her award to her immigrant brothers and sisters, saying they didn't stand alone. Doichi, a brilliant up-and-coming artist who won Best Rap album, told all the Black Women's singer
Starting point is 01:05:20 on stage, like on the Grammy stage that they should take that as evidence that anything is possible. A pop superstar and actress Lady Gaga, who won the black woman. the award for best pop duo or group for a song she performed with Bruno Mars, why she needed to mention that, I don't know, gave a shout out to the trans and queer communities during her acceptance remarks. That's her argument. Okay, well case closed. What the hell? Again, this is somebody whose job was to be a persuasive messenger falling back on someone who won the award for best pop duo or group for a song she performed with Bruno Mars, lest you mistake Lady Gaga for somebody who did not win best pop duo or group
Starting point is 01:06:01 for a song to perform with Bruno Mars. Right. Got to get that in. Got to make sure that points made. What the hell. What a mess. Thumbs are cooked. We're all cooked. Well, actually, I mean, like I said, it's kind of hardening that, like you said, this will just fall in totally deaf ears. It's being rejected. Yeah. I mean, the fact that the Washington Post published this review is pretty remarkable. Yeah. I mean, it's Washington Post now. And I saw her, you know, Joy Reid, who used to work at MSNBC and I think was pretty close with with KJP. She was pressing her on these same things. with regard to Gaza, and the response was, like, exactly the same.
Starting point is 01:06:31 And Joy, you know, Joy has some cred there because she, very good case that she lost her job because of how forcefully she advocated for Gaza. And so, you know, when she was faced with the decision of, like, okay, my career or my principals, she chose the principles. So, you know, to see her pressing Korean-Jampier in that moment was also particularly, like, noteworthy and powerful to see. It's insane to try to have anyone believe, or that Corrine Jean-Pierre thinks anybody believes,
Starting point is 01:07:05 that she genuinely thinks Joe Biden was okay for a second term. Like, that is a crazy thing to ask people to believe. That's insane. Yeah. And yet she's, that's the predicate for her book. Like, okay, and let's just say she's just this total cynical, political actor cares only about her ambition. Yep.
Starting point is 01:07:25 Like, how much are you misreading the room right now? Who is this for? I know, right? Like, the idea of writing a book called Independent is so smart. But, man, did she get it wrong? Right. Yeah. Like, do the Lindy Lee.
Starting point is 01:07:38 You know, you can have, be the next PBD, like, her take. That's so funny. I think they're still in the market for someone new, you know. That's so funny. You could go, I was in there all the time saying, this is wrong. We can't do this. You know, do you have any proof of that? No, but I promise you, I was there.
Starting point is 01:07:55 And it was, it's a crime what the Democrats do to the public. Like, if you're just looking for how to get attention and further your career, the right will take you. Like, if you're willing to go out there and say you turn on the Democrats and you're going to spill their tea and, you know, air the dirty laundry, they will take you all day long. That lane is wide open for you. This thing you're doing is like a non-existent lane that I don't think ever existed, but certainly expired somewhere around like 2014. It's gone. Yeah, indeed. There we go.
Starting point is 01:08:23 All right, Emily, thank you. enjoyable as always. My pleasure. We got through all of it. Somehow. Yeah. Well, we were kind of deter. We were determined.
Starting point is 01:08:32 Yeah, I really wanted to get to that. So Sager was at the New Yorker Festival, right? Yeah. So he's, that's why I'm here, but Sagar will be back tomorrow. Yep. Yeah, he did a panel actually with Asaun Piker, which I want to know how that went. Awesome. I've not heard the feedback yet.
Starting point is 01:08:45 And they managed not to get deported. So big dub for both of those guys. Yes. Neither of whom are Heritage Americans in the lingo of the right. Not a Heritage American in sight on that. that New Yorker panel. Now, Sager and Ryan also have a huge scoop over at DropSite about the administration's Venezuela War. We have to call it that at this point. So when soccer's back tomorrow, I expect you guys are going to break that down. It's a huge. It's a huge story. There's some new
Starting point is 01:09:10 developments as well. And yeah, huge story, not getting nearly enough attention. And like, it looks like, I mean, it looks like it's happening. They're saying Maduro is either going to be toppled, like have to flee, killed. I mean, there's, uh, Yeah, it's, I mean, the regime change. Like, it seems like they have decided regime change is happening. It just is now a question of what that entails exactly. And you know what, Chris, I think maybe on the Friday show, one thing that would be good is even if soccer's there,
Starting point is 01:09:39 but even if he's not, have Ryan talk a little bit about the background of that story in the premium half for premium subs. So breakingpoints.com, if you want to see the second half of those Friday shows. Nice bitch. Yeah, we get the little background story on Ryan's amazing journalism and soccer's amazing journalism, too. So check that story out at DropSight. And tune in tomorrow to hear more.
Starting point is 01:09:57 All right, guys. Have a great day. I will see you tomorrow. media and big money players. It's a wild tell about a gang of high-functioning nitwits who somehow pulled off America's third largest cash heist. Kind of like Robin Hood except for the part where he steals from rich and gives to the poor. I'm not that generous.
Starting point is 01:10:43 It's a damn near inspiring true story for anyone out there who's ever shot for the moon, then just totally muffed up the landing. They stole $17 million that had not bought a ticker. to help him escape. So we're saying, like, oh, God, what do we do? What do we do? That was dumb. People do not follow my example. Listen to Crimeless, Hillbilly Heist, on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast.
Starting point is 01:11:14 Two rich young Americans move to the Costa Rican jungle to start over, but one of them will end up dead and the other tried for murder three times. It starts with a dream, a nature. reserve and a spectacular new home. But little by little, they lose it. They actually lose it. They sort of went nuts. Until one night, everything spins out of control. Listen to Hell in Heaven on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I live below a cult leader and I fear I've angered her. Wait a minute, Sophia. How do you know she's a cult leader? Well, Dakota, luckily it's I'm not afraid of a scary story week on the OK Storytime podcast, so we'll find out soon. This person writes, my neighbor has been blasting music every day and doing dirt rituals, and now my ceiling is collapsing.
Starting point is 01:12:07 I try to report them, but things keep getting weirder. I think they might be part of a cult. Hold up, a real-life cult? And what is a dirt ritual? No clue, Dakota. To find out how it ends, listen to the OK Storytime podcast on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. is an iHeart podcast.

There aren't comments yet for this episode. Click on any sentence in the transcript to leave a comment.