Breaking Points with Krystal and Saagar - 2/11/26: Cuba Regime Change, Trump Threatens Iran, Nest Surveillance, AIPAC Crushed In NJ

Episode Date: February 11, 2026

Ryan and Emily discuss Cuba regime change, Trump threatens Iran, Guthrie Nest surveillance, AIPAC crushed in NJ.   Analilia Mejia: https://x.com/Analilia_Mejia    To become 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.

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According to President Donald Trump, we are in high-level negotiations with Cuban officials. According to Cuban officials, that's not happening at all. Let's roll Donald Trump from last weekend. What do you want out of a Cuban deal? Well, Cuba's a failing nation. It has been for a long time, but now it doesn't happen as well

to prop it up. So we're talking to the people from Cuba, the highest people in Cuba. Let's see what happens. I want the people that came here that were horribly treated by Cuba to be taken care of, to be able to go back and do what they have to do. You know, they have their family there. They haven't been able to see them in years, many, many years. So I think we're going to make a deal with Cuba. It's in back to Texas. It's in bad check. Cuba's in bad check. Cuba has humanitarian problem. So this set up a very odd situation where you had both

publicly, you had top Cuban officials saying there are not talks happening and privately the drop site multiple Cuban officials told us we would love to have talks about everything. Democracy, human rights, direct foreign

investment, Trump Havana, like you name it. They are they see that the objective conditions are changing. And they are open to negotiations. They're like, we will talk. If you can do Mara Gaza, why not turn some of that investment towards Havana? I mean, all seriousness, people, like, when you have Jared Kushner out at Davos being like, here's my slideshow.

Right. Yes. Yeah, exactly. And so a senior administration official told us, we're like, why is Trump saying that? He said, quote, he's saying that because that's what Marco is telling him. So, according to our sources, Marco Rubio is telling Trump, yes, there's. these high-level negotiations going on. With the idea being that in a couple weeks or a couple months, he'll say, you know, we tried

and it didn't happen. They were recalcitrant. You know, you can't trust these commies. So we just need to do, you know, complete and total regime change. He wanted to do complete regime change in Venezuela. He lost that argument, but he did get rid of Maduro. He doesn't want to just replace the president of Cuba with another. president from the Communist Party.

Well, and that's a significant distinction between Venezuela and Cuba at this point. I mean, Cuba has, and you can explain this better, but the odds that if you tap in somebody in Cuba, you don't necessarily have a compliant Delci Rodriguez in Cuba because you have this like vast infrastructure of... Although at this point you might, like, because they're so... Well, that's the question. Because they're so beaten down. Right, but I mean, like Cuba has a decade.

long tradition of communism. It's a one-party state. Yeah. So Trump has cut off all oil. He is, and he told Mexico, if you send any oil, you're getting tariffed and sanctioned. And so Cuba has responded by cutting fuel to significant parts of the island, focusing on the tourist area where that brings in hard currency and nursing homes and hospitals. they're trying to scale up solar panel installation as fast as they possibly can, but it's dire. Like, it's a crisis-level situation.

Now, what's interesting is into this confusing situation came a report that there were actually talks going on between Cuban officials and the CIA in Mexico. And look, let me be extremely clear. That is possible. Yeah. The CIA is capable of doing things secretly that I am not immediately able to discover. That is possible. Like, there are rumors out there that John Ratcliffe met with Raul Castro's son.

Like, that's a rumor that's out there. It might be true. I don't know. I don't know where Ratcliffe is every single thing. Okay? So just saying that. Might be true. I thought he was your boss.

Yeah, that's right. He runs all of this. So, but where does this news actually? come from. So let's put up this next element. This is an amazing kind of meta media story because we're going to talk about how kind of news becomes news. So Politico wrote this article slash news letter with a headline, could a Castro become our man in Havana? And it's about these meetings between Raoul Castro's, the alleged meetings between Raoul Castro's son and the CIA happening. down in Mexico. But then if you read through the Politico report, here's basically a timeline of

how this happens to. So February 2nd's Politico reports published. Go backwards, February 2nd, article in 14Y Media that basically reports that these talks are happening. That's by a kind of dissident blogger who lives in Havana. And she, you know, well-known, well-known blogger who was critical of the government. She had written that these talks. were happening. But then if you read through her post and you click through it, you get to a January 31st post by Carlos Cabrera Perez. This timeline is incredible. On Facebook, published in Spain. So this is a Spanish, it's a Cuban guy, lives in Spain. And if you read through, I don't know if we have his post here or not, but if you read through his post, you can find it linked to an art.

Sorry, it is complete and total gibberish. In fact, if you have, if you have, if you have, if you If you have any thoughts on that, I'll see if I can find, I'll find that. Well, no, it's made it like you were saying. It's quite a window into how news becomes news and how things snowball like that. I mean, even so, it's pretty, this is pretty egregious, I would say. I know you see this stuff from time to time, but this is pretty egregious. So this is, so Carlos writes, on Facebook, exclusive, breaking news, General Castro Espeen. This is Alejandro Katser Espeen, who is Raoul's son.

doesn't put his first name in there, whatever. Returns to Havana, awaiting a response from the White House. Cuba, he writes, Cuba and the United States concluded this morning local time, their first round of talks in Mexico with a, quote, principle of agreement to initiate a transition to democracy pending final approval of the White House, unquote, reported a source close to the government of Claudius Shinebomb, who has followed the plastics without participating in them. He'll return this weekend to Havana.

He's transferred to a senior CIA official. And like I can't even read it's I can't even read this. It's like, you know, so like kind of incoherent and weird. And like if you go through this, you're like, okay, this is just kind of Facebook slop. This is just total gibberish. Like like I said, maybe Ratcliffe is meeting with Alejandro. I don't know. Yeah. I certainly would not base it on this article. So this article then gets turned into a dissident article in Cuba. Politico picks it up. And then in Washington, it's like, oh, these talks are happening.

I guess these talks are happening. We put up this next time. So I reached out to Politico, and I was like, hey, but just curious, like, did you guys have any information that whether these talks are happening or not? And the comment I got back from Politico is, quote, as the item makes clear, Politico was highlighting chatter about talks, not reporting that talks had in fact taken place. Incredible. Again, maybe the talks are happening. But Politico's like, I'm sorry, you thought that we were reporting something that was happening? No, no, no, no, no.

It was a meta story all along. The meta story about chatter. It was chatter about talks. Just relax, right. And the U.S. spends tens of millions of dollars every year funding these, like, dissident publications around the world. I mean, we arguably, I mean, I don't even, I haven't looked at the numbers yet, but it's probably the bare bones remaining operation of U.S. AID. Yes, because they got shut down and Rubio came back in and saved all of that propaganda money. Now, 14 YMedia doesn't know evidence that they get it, but other outlets that do get it, like then picked up on this reporting. Or people who are talking. They chatter. So the U.S. funds, through this NED, which is CIA cut out, funds these news outlets, which like source, like some Facebook slop and turn it into an article.

And then Politico says, well, there's chatter. And it's news. Anyway, so maybe there's talks, maybe there's not talks. But we certainly have no way of knowing from what we're being told. Meanwhile, Amerizuela, if we call it that, is now we can put this last element up on the screen, sending oil to Israel. Yeah, it's crazy. So, yes, the U.S. controls Venezuela's oil flows now. and through a middleman is brokering oil sales from Venezuela to Israel.

As the Venezuelan, the current Venezuelan president has said, they're committing a genocide, we should not do business with them. Yeah. Trump's like, I don't care what you want to do. Yeah. I'm in charge. Well, if Venezuela is a template for potential activities in Cuba, which obviously we are already talking about some of the distinctions that are significant,

but if Trump sees some type of like limited operational, where you end up with the vice president in charge and a two-year timetable or whatever they've landed on in Venezuela towards Democratic elections allegedly, then, I mean, it's obvious, I'm just purely talking about this from a political perspective. We've talked about this before. Imagine Trump sitting next to Raul Castro watching a baseball game.

It wouldn't be Raul Castro now, but that's what Obama did and the right freaked out. you can see Trump doing that, right? Like, you could see Trump easily doing something like that and understanding that he could transform Havana back into what Roy Cohn and the people Trump spent time with in the 70s and 80s remembered from the 40s and 50s.

And again, this is not a statement on whether that's good or bad. I'm just saying the political opportunity for a thaw with Donald Trump right off the coast where he has his own resorts. Not only that, as we reported in the piece, in I think it was 2008, Trump registered the Trump Havana trademark. And he has been re-upping it every year. That's fascinating. So Trump is no stranger to the potential benefits to American companies of ending this blockade.

And I keep hearing people online, if communism worked, why does it have to rely on the United States? the U.S. is blocking Mexico and Venezuela from sending oil to Cuba. Like, that is not just America not trading with Cuba. They're not letting anybody trade with Cuba. And they call them a state sponsor of terrorism. And so that means that basically nobody in Europe or South America or anywhere else can, like, do business with them because then they will then get sanctioned. The latest thing they're saying is that there's actually like- Hesbel and Hamas.

Yeah, Russia and China, because they're a little bit immune from sanctions. Yeah. The latest thing is, oh, actually Cuba's like a hotbed of like safe haven for Hezbollah and Hamas, which is like, what are you talking about? It turns out there's like some Palestinian students. Yeah, I mean, I don't know. With Palestinians here in the United States, are we a hotbed of like Hezbollah and Hamas? You know how they would answer that question.

Like the lawsuit against Ramiza Oz Turk who wrote the entire. Which was thrown out, by the way, some good news. Just yesterday. Yeah, the judge said drop this against this. She wrote. She's co-authored on op-ed, get off of her. To boycott. To literally, to divest.

Support of a student Senate resolution that passed. Yeah. So anyway, you know how that question would be answered. But, no, I mean, you and I would disagree on potential Natsack threats that come from Cuba, if it's still hardened against the United States with Russia and China. But, but that's why there's an argument. a conservative argument even for a thaw with Cuba

it's actually kind of the argument Obama made They don't want this Cuba doesn't want this And it's not good for anyone All right Ryan Let's go ahead now and talk about Iran So Benjamin Netanyahu Guess who's back?

Back in Washington yesterday There's this weird thing that he does Where he always brings his dirty laundry I think that Clearly he's just filling it with like listening devices Because he's been busted and Israeli the delegations have been busted, like inserting listening devices all over the place, including who was the British Prime Minister, Boris, what's his name?

Oh, Boris Johnson. Boris Johnson was like, yeah, I call it Netanyahu, like, bugging my bathroom. Many such cases. Basically, if Netanyahu is really bringing his dirty laundry here, he hasn't had to pay for his own laundry for the last year. Because, like, diplomats and, you know, visiting delegations, we have this thing where we'll wash your laundry. for free. So anyway, he's back again. He's back. We can put this element up the screen. He's back because he wants a much more robust attack on Iran. He's very frustrated that these talks are still happening. So Barack Ravid called Trump yesterday. Trump picks up when Barack Veed calls. I love it.

And says, yeah, I might send a second carrier strike group. Right now I've got the Abraham linking out there, but I'm going to hit him so hard. You know, they're not going to know what could possibly hit them. You put up E. My favorite, by the way, I always mention this, is when Zelensky is taking a question from Barack Ravid and says, you always seem to know what's said on my phone calls. Yeah, no shade. This guy's a scoot machine. Wasn't he IDF?

Everybody in Israel, whose Jewish has to do IDF. I think he did some type of intelligence. I don't know. He was a reserve. He publicly said. during the protests around Netanyahu's attempt to take over the courts that like he joined the reservist strike he's like I'm not going to serve right as long as you're trying to take over the court so there are lines and he's willing to draw um so put up e2 it's from New York post

nervous Netanyahu pushes pushes up trip to DC for high-stakes Trump talk as US huddles with Iran so Netanyahu was supposed to come later um but But according to the New York Post and other reporting, he's frustrated that the attacks haven't happened yet or that Trump isn't sufficiently carrying Israel's water in these negotiations. Because Trump keeps saying that these are nuclear talks and that he wants an agreement around Iran's nuclear weapons. We've been told that that's the big problem for a very long time. Netanyahu is saying, no, no, no, it's not just that. You also have to make them get rid of their ballistic missile program, which would mean that and limit them so that they couldn't reach Israel,

which would mean that it would allow Israel then to attack Iran whenever it wanted, and Iran could not defend itself by firing missiles back at Israel. They also want, Netanyahu also wants Iran to stop supporting Hamas, Hezbollah, and the other kind of degraded proxies that they have in the region. And Zon Netanyahu is saying if they don't agree to all these conditions, which they're not. Like, if you're Iran, would you agree to basically disarm? No. So they're not going to agree.

They're not going to agree to that. And so then he wants Trump to bomb them again on Israel's behalf. Well, and so this is, I think, one of the significant points. is you have Netanyahu who was urging, well, obviously urging U.S. action in the 12-day war, got his wish, and lots of Netanyahu allies in her own government, got their wishes. Trump is very proud of Operation Midnight Hammer. So to make this argument that there's still a nuclear Iranian threat undercuts the argument Trump made for Midnight Hammer.

And so that's the disconnect that needs to be explained to Trump in this case. I keep telling you that it was the most beautiful thing and the pilots were so proud. And then CNN said they missed and the pilots cried. Right. And that was so rude of CNN, it's treasonous. Right. They should be locked up and look. And so now Netanyahu is like going to make the pilots cry again.

Well, you remember, I mean, the week after midnight hammer, the conversation or the debate was over exactly how much damage was done to the nuclear sites. And there were 100% conflicting reports all over the place. And it started to look. I mean, the administration's claims to have had this generational wipeout that set Iran back years and years. That was already dubious at the time. And now you have Netanyahu essentially making that same argument again. Yeah, right. To Trump, who was touting this generational wipeout of Iran's nuclear technology.

Right. And also you've had Netanyahu privately admit in meeting minutes that have since been leaked and made public. that Iran was years away from a bomb. When Netanyahu talks on the American media, he says, he would say that they were days or weeks away. And we need to move now. When he speaks privately, they're years away. Right. So they were years away before those beautiful B-1 bombers

and the brilliant bombers carried out their mission. This was the argument at the time, that the goalpost is always being shifted. Yes. Always being shifted. So you can risk starting a game of nuclear chess over claims that are going to change, you know, a week later, even if you do it. Right.

Right. And you can imagine anyway. So Trump is meeting with Whitkoff and Kushner ahead of this meeting. We'll see. I want to watch Polymarket, see who's putting any money down. Maybe Whitkoff gets some information over. See what the Whitkoff boys here? Yeah, so there'll be, I'm sure, interesting press conference later in the Oval Office.

Well, no, so it's closed door. This is also interesting because it's a midterm year and the argument, seemingly from the wilds camp. They're not going to do the spray and all that? Yeah, seemingly the argument from the wilds camp is that there's been too much, well, too much focus on foreign policy and that Trump was constantly having foreign dignitaries. You heard this from Marjor Tiller Green in and out and making big shows of it because Trump loves looking like he's the alpha. in these pressers. But today's meeting so far is closed door. Sometimes that changes literally the last minute, like a minute before it's set to happen. So we'll see. You're going to be there? No. I was at the last one and it was so crowded and they took one question or something like that. So I feel like it's not entirely worth my time. So some interesting developments in the Nancy Guthrie.

Yes. Kidnapping. So speaking of espionage. Yeah. And so, and so, and And things are coming together in an interesting way for Ring. Yes. Because Ring had this Super Bowl ad where they're like, hey, we're watching everybody and we'll find your puppy. Well, let's actually just roll it. Yeah. We have this ad. You probably caught it during the Super Bowl ring.

Bear in mind is owned by Amazon. Nest, Barron Mine, is owned by Google. So this was Rings' Super Bowl ad that rubbed a lot of people rightfully the wrong way, F3. This is Milo. Hetser family. but every year 10 million go missing and the way we look for them

hasn't changed in years until now one post of a dog's photo in the ring app starts outdoor cameras looking for a match search party from ring uses AI to help families find lost dogs since launched more than a dog a day has been reunited with their family

be a hero in your neighborhood with search party available to everyone for free right now join the neighborhood at ring.com we welcome our overlords. This is called the Pet Protection Panopticon. Also, Mac, producer Mac was pointing out before a show, what was that? They said 10 million a day? I mean, 10 million a year or lost? I don't know. And they said more than one a day. So roughly 400 are returned in a year.

So 400 out of 10 million. And also of that 400, like 350 were probably found like, you know, three doors up. Right. And we would have found them anyway. So, out of that. of 10 million, like, how many did Ring actually recover? Yeah. Well, that wouldn't have been found otherwise. And this is about to get really dark because it's the FBI in this Nancy Guthrie case, which is horrible and keeps lingering and seems to be picking up, the investigation seems to be picking up steam just the last 48 hours.

The FBI released a series of photos and videos yesterday. So this is F1. This is going to be a mashup of some of what was released. so you can see a man in a mask go right up to the nest camera on Nancy Guthrie's Dory's and gloves. Looks like a white dude. And I would say like young-ish, 30s, 40s, maybe kind of tall, comes in and then ends up actually disabling the camera. So also people saying, looks like, I agree, a gun strapped on them and, of course, goes in. and then we know there's blood on the porch from News Nations reporting. So someone comes in,

grabs what looks like a, he looks like he's grabbing a bird's nest that was behind the actual nest camera. So comes in and then we know there's blood on the porch. So that does not look good for the prospect of finding Nancy Guthrie, 84-year-old mom of Savannah Guthrie of NBC. And people noticed, huh, this is nest footage. It says nest on the footage. Interesting, because investigating said she did not have a subscription to nest. That was a point made by the Pima County Sheriff, Chris Nanos. He said right after she disappeared that a camera, NBC reports, a fix to her door had been disconnected, that she did not have a subscription that would have saved video and that investigators were trying to work with a tech company on the difficult forensic task of

recovering any video. Well, what does that mean? Because if you don't have a subscription and your camera is disconnected, how could there be any forensic task, even a difficult one, that would result in recovering video? So Cash Patel is now saying the FBI got the video from quote, back-end systems. Again, this is a company that is owned by Alphabet. Ring is the competitor owned by Amazon. These are not random small businesses. These are defense contracting companies. Ryan, that is I mean, the pitch is going to be, if this information, she's disconnected or whatever, it helps them find Nancy Guthrie, God bless, we are all going to be so happy. It is going to become a pitch just like the puppy ring commercial that you need these.

Everyone put a camera on your door because we'll be able to scan people's eyes. We'll be able to find people in these emergency situations. It doesn't matter if you have a subscription. We're watching. Yeah. And who's back end? The NSA's? Like... It's crazy. The cost would be a little more forthcoming about where this footage came from.

Backend systems. Yeah. So once again, everybody's suspicion feels like these things are listening to me. No, you're crazy. They're not listening to you. Oh, later admit. Yeah, they're actually listening to you. Or just disconnect it. If you're worried, just disconnect it. Yeah. Yeah. And it's not storing the footage if you don't have a subscription or if you don't pay for the like higher end subscription. Yep.

Got my car stolen and the police were like, got the footage and I was like no. But it turns out maybe they did. Well, we don't pay for any wealth. Now we do. We pay for everything and don't come anywhere near us. But at the time, we did not. And so I'm like no.

But so we don't have the footage because we don't have paying for this like storage or whatever. Well, the local police might not. the federal government might, to your point. Exactly. Somebody's got it. Because the local police said, well, she didn't have a subscription. It was disconnected. And then the FBI sweeps in a week later and says, we got it from back-end systems.

The argument, of course, is going to be, if we find out, they're going to say that it's stored, it's encrypted and only used for training these AI systems or whatever, which is not innocuous. It doesn't even sound innocuous. But there's potentially just a capitalist explanation behind all of this. there's probably something darker too, if this turns out to be the case, but it's that they're training their AI. Even if you don't have a subscription, they're training their AI, and you never have access to it. So insane, insane detail that people were right to pick up on when you have the local sheriff saying, no subscription is disconnected, and then the FBI sweeping in a week later

and saying, we've recovered the video. Quite interesting. And we'll see, this is a new development, so we're going to have to see how Google responds. And speaking of completely insane things, We didn't cover this because we don't know what the F is going on. But as you may have seen, the FAA announced that for 10 days, they're closing the airspace over El Paso. This happened early this morning. Yeah, they're now saying that they're like, what, shooting at drones, like cartel drones. That's a highly suspicious answer. What on Earth is going on in El Paso?

We know that they have the, what, Camp Montana, the massive detention facility inside for, Bliss, shutting it all down for 10 days. They catch some aliens. Actual aliens, not like illegal, like extra, I mean, like not from Mexico aliens. In about a matter of like two hours, they went from a 10-day closure to just a total removal of the FAA notice. So it's back open? It's back open. So you can bet Saga will have thoughts on that for tomorrow. House edition of breaking points. Ryan, close us out here with this interview you did with a New Jersey Dem primary candidate. So Annalia Mejia Mejia defeated a wide field of candidates, including the local party boss,

including the APEC-supported candidate, and including former representative Tom Milanooski, who had been polling slightly ahead, although Mejee was always a very credible candidate in this race because she had the backing of AOC, Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders, the entire kind of infrastructure, plus all the momentum behind it. There was a moment in the primary for people who were paying close attention in the district that went viral locally, and even a little bit nationally, at a Care, New Jersey Forum, all of the candidates were asked in a kind of repeat of the New York. Mom Dani debate.

But they were asked, will you refuse an APEC sponsor, a pro-Israel lobby-sponsored trip to Israel only? And do you believe that Israel's committing a genocide? Let's roll that clip because I think you're going to see how she kind of separated herself here.

I show hands. We hear would publicly decline to participate in a freshman congressional trip to Israel sponsored by pro-es-ro-Ronging advocacy organizations. Do you agree with the United Nations Commission of Encorey and many other human rights organizations that Israel has committed a genocide in Gaza? Show of hands, if you agree with the United Nations inquiry that Israel has committed a genocide

in Gaza. Please talk right now because this is not as fair question. Because genocide is dividing more. Okay, so we have to be dividing one side and the other. And Jimmy Carter, who's the only person who's the only person who's over at peace in the least, you cannot get peace. You cannot be peace. Sorry. Thank you, Joseph.

And so last night, while Emily was out partying at this YouTube conference, I sat down with Annalia Mahia. Not just me. Not just me. Not just me. There's like a conference in D.C. for like creators. We have to wrap soon because Emily's going to do a panel with Sager. Is that right? Who's on the panel? Somebody's on the panel. In any event, so this is a pre-recorded interview from last night with Mejia, who is now on her way, is the Democratic nominee for this district and the special election is coming up in April against a Republican challenger there. She'll then have to re-compete for the primary in June. Here's my conversation with Mejia. Joining us now is Annalia Mejia, who just used,

yesterday, was declared the official Victor. Tom Malinowski on Tuesday, conceded that there wouldn't be enough votes for him to mount a comeback with the final tallies in New Jersey's 11th District, which makes her the Democratic nominee headed towards the general election in Srebling. Annalia, thank you so much for joining us. Thank you. Thank you for having me. It's nice to see you again. It's been a while. Nice to see you, too. It has been. And one of the kind of privileges that, I get in kind of covering the progressive world now for 20 years or so is to see people move from one organization to another and one cause that all the same cause.

Yeah. Watch them kind of rise through the ranks. And then once in a while, somebody becomes a member of Congress that you don't expect. And let's say, you and me both. You and me both. And in your advocacy world, we refer to those people as electeds. Yes.

I don't know if the regular people know. It's a weird phrase because it's not, I don't know. What kind of word is that, electeds? Yeah, I usually, I shorten it to EO, elected official. I'm like, that's an EO. That's an EO over there. So now you are on the way to becoming an EO.

So let's first of all tell people the general election. Kamala Harris won this district by, what, eight points or something like that. So what, there's a moderate, well, they call them moderate. So we'll borrow the mainstream media's phrasing there. A Republican running in this district. What's the race looking like? And when is the general election for this special? I mean, I'm going to say I reject the idea that my opponent is actually a moderate.

I think anyone that won't denounce what the Trump administration is doing, won't openly denounce what ICE is doing to American citizens, won't openly denounce the turning of weaponry on American citizens. that are protecting and exerting their constitutional rights. That is extremism to me. But I, you know, this special election was to fill the seat vacated by Mikey Sherrill when she became governor. Candidates essentially had 10 weeks to run the most compressed timeline. That 10 week period began in Thanksgiving, Thanksgiving week when we had to collect signatures to get on the ballot,

Vote by mail ballots were released right before on December 22nd, right before the holidays. And then we held the special primary on Thursday, February 5th. That's a Thursday only in Jersey, y'all. But we were able to emerge victorious, even though, you know, I jumped in late. But we, as organizers, as you shared, I come from movement. I ran the New Jersey Working Families Party. I obviously I worked for Bernie. I was his national political director.

And my day job has been to be the co-director of the Center for Popular Democracy, which is this network of base building, power building organizations. But, you know, we as an organizer, someone with that kind of experience, we hit the ground. We knocked on doors hundreds of thousands of phone calls. And we emerged victorious almost two to one on election day. which I feel really proud about. And what's so intimidating to me about congressional districts is their vast size, like 700,000 or plus people.

Like that's just a staggering number of people. You can't know, you can't meet every single one of them. Now, in a primary like this, you end up needing, you know, a much smaller handful of votes. So when you went into this race, we're talking about North. Jersey. Like the now they're working class parts of every congressional district. So it's sometimes, this is suburban Jersey. This is a commuter town. Folks usually live here because they work in the city. They want access to the infrastructure. You know, they're pursuing green space or schools. They work in finance. They work in pharma. Farma. Like a ton of pharma.

So you won, you know, hedge funds, hedge fund guys, hedge fund women, private equity. pharma execs, like how? Like what? Okay. What did you do? Well, the first thing I'll tell you is I live in this district. Even progressives live in the burbs. I've been here for 13 years.

Some of them, some of us. Here's a deal. The truth is this economy is hitting everybody. See, when you double and triple health care costs, even it's individual, you know, small business owners, professionals, doctors, doctors, lawyers, architects, my neighbors were all complaining about the fact that they could no longer afford health care insurance, right, and to manage their families. When childcare costs are upwards of $24,000, $30,000 a year, I pay $24,000 a year for child care. So when you're talking about that kind of expense, or we may not turn, we may not spiral

off the price of eggs, but you combine all those things, rising health care costs, rising childcare costs. You know, these tariffs impacted small business owners wildly. And so you combine all of that. That was impacting community. I've lived here. I'm an organizer. I talked to my neighbors. I knew it.

So my message was we need to remove the stranglehold that big money has on our economy and our democracy. We have to remember that an oligarch is or an authoritarian is simply a corrupt politician who has gotten a taste from stealing from the people and they want to keep the grift going. So they have to be, they have to deter any kind of accountability. And an oligarch is essentially a corporate interest that has gotten the taste of stealing from their consumers, from their clients, from their workers. And they want to keep the grift going. And so they need less regulation in order to keep the jig up, right? And so the thing that stands between the authoritarian and the oligarch is an informed community. So I was knocking on doors, talking to people pointing that out.

And that message resonated with folks. Yeah. In my own life, I've talked to plenty of these upper middle class professional types. And they know that I have been kind of covering the Bernie AOC world for, you know, as long as they've known me. And so they'll talk to me at the soccer games or whatever about this stuff. And 2014, 15, 16, there was a lot of hostility from them to that world. Like they saw him as kind of hostile to, you know, their interest in what they thought the Democratic Party ought to be. Because these are mostly Democrats for the most part.

You know, that started to soften a little bit with with AOC. But 2020, they were still quite skeptical of Bernie. But now they're like, I think. think Bernie actually was right. They're open to him. They're definitely open to AOC, who, like, they now think of as, like, a Normie Democrat.

And I think part of it is that they believe that they're probably okay themselves, although they're not necessarily sure. But they're very worried about their kids, about what this country's becoming. And rightfully so. These are not the types of people that have, like, generational wealth.

They can, they're going to help their kids. They spend them in the nice schools. They're going to help them through college. but they're not going to like set them up for life. And so did you see that too? Like what is? Absolutely. Absolutely. I had folks talk about how they may be able to afford.

They may have been able to afford to buy a home, but they're worried about what's going to happen to their children. And the fact that private equity firms are buying up starter homes resonates with them and anchors them, talking about how we have to regulate that hits a nerve, because they could see that this basic thing that they took for granted for themselves is going to be out of reach for their children. When I talked to folks about, like I said, health insurance, I talked to a neighbor whose husband is a doctor. They are professionals and they were discussing shifting from comprehensive health insurance to catastrophic so that they could continue to afford their child's tuition.

And this is a doctor. So we have across this district, what I know, what I've learned in the 13 years that I've lived here, talking to my neighbors, engaging people, and this is probably true across America, that in our communities, you know, especially places in which, you know, on papers seem like they are economically stable, right? High home ownership, high education levels. People stretch to be here. And so if you lose a client, if you're a contractor, you lose a client. or if the prices for your small business go up, or just the instability of the moment,

make creates that precariousness. You start to spin. You increase your dependence on credit card debt or credit cards. You find yourself in credit card debt. Maybe you are house rich for cash poor. And so this economy is, in fact, hitting working class, working poor, and middle class people. And it's not surprising because we have an, like an undes, like an unborn. fair and imbalance in our economy and our democracy.

I mean, Bernie said it over and over. It's the billionaire class are trying to buy our democracy, and they're willing to trade democracy for an extra zero in their offshore bank account. You add that to the violence you are seeing in Minnesota, in Chicago, in California, and in this district, just today I heard about shops being fired. in Rockbury, New Jersey, just outside the district. We had on a Sunday morning, ICE agents go to early Sunday morning, go into a laundromat and arrest a teenager. We know that we have this precarious situation happening across the country, and people are concerned, rightfully so.

And I feel like it's, I'm curious if you've got this sense from people that it's two sides of the same coin in the sense that, They elected Trump, the country elected Trump because they wanted egg prices down and, you know, grocery prices down. And it was a stand-in. Those things were a stand-in for things we're getting on affordable. And instead we get this chaos and this violence. And so it's not just that they're against that. It's that this seems to be the only thing that Trump cares about. Like, is that why, like, I mean, did it resonate on both levels for people?

Yes, absolutely. I mean, you know, I saw a turning point after the murder of Mrs. Good in Minnesota. I saw folks who were very concerned about what was happening and how they could protect community. I saw folks who, you know, most certainly when Mr. Pruddy was murdered, also just find themselves in complete and utter shock. We had been having town halls in which we incorporated ICE trainings to make sure that people understood their rights so that people understood the difference between a judicial warrant and a administrative warrant so that they understood how they would protect themselves from undue and unfair illegal search and seizures. And, you know, speaking to the chaos, people are very, very concerned about what they are seeing out of this administration. most people what they desire is just the ability to live their lives, raise their kids, have an opportunity, and call it a day, you know, watch the Super Bowl to hang out with your friends. And what we are finding is this increasing, not only divisiveness, which, you know, at times we have seen in our country for sure.

I mean, this is a nation that has had its ups and downs. But what we are seeing in this moment, I think is just shocking and jarring our communities in terms. to action. I also think that, you know, I as an organizer, as a trainer, I've spent many years trying to teach my community and leaders about how we are in fact in an Overton window tug of war with, with MAGA and with Donald Trump for the last, like, it's hard to believe for 10 years. And in effect, for folks who are listening that are unaware, the Overton window is quite simply, what is the realm of the acceptable that we will accept from our government? Donald Trump has been trying to yank that all the way into fascism, in my opinion, and essentially shifted where the center, quote, is at.

Well, it is our responsibility to yank it back. And that means that we need to speak bold ideas. We need to elect bold progressives where we can so that we can recalibrate our nation back into greater normalcy and hopefully rebuild beyond what we had. But, I mean, we're going to be doing this for generations, I think. And any conversation of this race, of course, isn't complete without the complete and utter face plant that APEC took in this race. So people who didn't follow it.

Couldn't happen to a better crew? Better crew. So they took a gigantic pile of money. Yes, and lit it on fire. They didn't just light it on fire. So they threw it at Tom Malinowski, who was fairly pro-Israel, former member of Congress, former State Department official, who had the temerity to say that perhaps, you know, if Israel commits some particular grave human rights abuses, then we should consider potentially,

not promising, just maybe think about, you know, dialing back a little bit on some weapon systems. Which is the correct thing to do. if we are a sovereign nation, if we are a sovereign nation, do we give exactly, should we give a blank check to just anybody? No. But what they did

was go after. Go ahead. Exactly. Go ahead. No, no, no, you go ahead. Well, I mean, you witnessed it up close. But for that, they dropped, what, two plus million dollars. Ironically,

accusing him of being too close to Trump and for supporting funding for ICE, which is amazing. That A PAC, which is mostly Republican funded, is using Republican money to accuse somebody of supporting ICE and Trump. And it drove down, it drove

up his negatives. It drove, it hurt Malinowski in the final stretch. See, I wonder. I wonder about it. Yes, for sure, for sure. I will say, you know, I was on the doors and and on social and in community. I think Malinowski's supporters were very vocal in pushing against APEC and trying to tell voters what was happening. I joined in.

I most certainly stepped up and denounced what APEC was doing to Tom. But to be honest, when I first jumped in, I had stated that I would reject AAPC funding, that in fact every candidate should because this is what they do. Leopards eat your face. The interesting thing here is that, you know, really the lesson that A-PAC taught New Jersey 11, New Jersey and voters across the country is that they are willing to destroy friend or foe unless you commit to and pledge blind obedience. And that should, to me, that actually forget whether or not they helped elect me. me. It's the fact that they told on themselves so clearly that this is just, I hope it is a turning point. There are other special elections happening in New Jersey. Bonnie Watson Coleman announced that she wasn't going to run again. So there's a, there is a contest for her seat.

Adam Hamaway, right? Yes. And there is, there is this, you know, again, I think, you know, candidates in that race are speaking out against APEC. Now you have even moderates and Republicans speaking out against AAC and their practices. And to me, that is the biggest lesson. It's this idea that unless you pledge blind obedience, you know, this entity will come after you. And the only way in which we free ourselves of it is to disempower them by not. taking their money and by calling them out for what they've done. And yeah, in the, in Bonnie Watson Coleman's district, there's a guy named Dr. Adam Hamaway, who you know, I'm sure, who was a doctor who's gone repeatedly to to Gaza, to do missions there.

I remember when he, when he first launched, somebody asked him, are you going to refuse A-PAC money? It's like, well, Israel was like blocking him from leaving Gaza and like blocking water from getting into the hospital where he was working. I think pretty safely. Safe to say. Where he's going to come down on this question. But so what have you heard from other Democrats? So once you win the now, now you've been endorsed by Mikey Cheryl, by the governor,

well, the governor, she's now governor, but but by a host of establishment Democrats. So you're now, because you're now the party nominee. Corey Booker, the delegate, the congressional delegation, as well as. my opponent. You know, this is primary. Corey Booker's an interesting one. So like what did they tell you about what they thought of Apex intervention in the race? Honestly, what we mostly spoke about was how we needed.

This was a moment for us to turn and build unity. That primaries are about, you know, sifting out ideas and seeing what resonates with voters. And then the general, we have to come together. both Cory Booker, Senator Booker, and Senator Andy Kim have both committed to me their support not only through this primary, but all the way through to November, or better yet, this general, this special general, and all the way through to November. I have, you know, I'm receiving the support of institutional players and the party itself. But here's the thing, right? the truth is that organizers, activists across the country, in order for us to be effective, we actually have to know who the power brokers are. It's not about for organizers and really for

the left, the way in which we build governing power is not just to call the question and throw rocks from the outside, but it's for us to understand that while proximity to power is not power, So we don't kiss up to the institution, but we do come, you know, we do play ball. We do have to use our leverage and our power to be able to demand a seat at the table so that we can negotiate together. And so I'm not surprised that there is unity like lining up behind to me because that's what we have to do in order to beat MAGA and Trumpism. But also, I've known these players for, you know, the last 25 years. There have been times in which we have disagreed. There have been times in which I have pushed them hard.

But then when we get into alignment, we get into alignment. And that's what I think we need to do in this moment without capitulating, without giving up on our morals and values. At this moment, what we are focused on, what I am focused on doing is making sure to consolidate and work, collaboratively across the party so that I can emerge victorious in this special general on April 16th. But, you know, I will remind folks who are listening, then I have to run in another primary in June and then again a general in November. And so, you know, I do think that Trump, MAGA, Trumpism is probably going to make my job a little easier in that respect because their overreach is going to continue. I think the Democratic Party is shaken up across the country

and most certainly in New Jersey to be more vocal and aggressive in resisting and pushing back against MAGA and their overreach and their extremism. My focus right now is getting through this April general on April 16th, and then I'll be running again this June in the regular primary and then again in November for the regular general. And so that means, you know, ensuring that I am uplifting the concerns of regular voters that I'm consolidating not only Democrats, but frankly, independence. And I think, you know, MAGA, like I said, Maga, Trumpism is making my job a little easier, sadly, with their overreach and violent authoritarianism. By the way, has your delegation member, Josh Gottheimer, has he called yet?

He actually did send me a note congratulating me. Amazing. I thought that was a pleasant surprise. Excellent. Well, Annalia Maha'a Mejia, the Democratic nominee for New Jersey's 11th District. Thanks so much for joining us. And congratulations on the upside victory. Thank you.

Hopefully I'll join you again soon. I'll be smooth. And in studio, can't wait to see you guys in Washington. Oh, yes. Yes. That's going to be awesome. Thank you, man. Appreciate you.

You later. You got it. Bye. All right. So that's on Lillia Mejia. On our way to becoming a member of Congress. And I would expect reelected again in November. We'll see.

Amazing that one of the wealthiest districts in the country is going to send a kind of Bernie Krat to Congress. And I think it's an extraordinarily significant development for the reshaping of the Democratic Party. Right. For a long time, it's been Roe Kana, who's a representative, kind of Bernie Democrat, who represents one of the wealthiest districts in the country. And if anything, the populists have been, you know, we talked about this research from CGCN, the lobbying firm that shows populists are from the poorer districts, Freedom Caucus, squad, they're representing the poorer district.

So it is a very interesting development on the left. Yeah, not so much anymore. I'm right. Well, we will see you on Friday, Crystal and, Tiger, be back here tomorrow. Yep. And make sure to subscribe if you haven't yet. It helps us so much if you just subscribe for free to the channel, like, comment, all of that.

But if you want a premium subscription, that's awesome too, breakingpoints.com. See you later. This is an IHeart podcast. Guaranteed human.