Breaking Points with Krystal and Saagar - 5/21/26: Israel Panics After Flotilla Abuse Video, Ryan Exposes Schumer AI Screwup, Tom Steyer Confronted By Griffin

Episode Date: May 21, 2026

Ryan and Saagar discuss Israel panics after flotilla abuse video, Ryan exposes Schumer's AI screwup, Tom Steyer confronted by Griffin.   Tom Steyer: https://www.tomsteyer.com/ Juan David Rojas: https://substack.com/@rojasrjuand    To become a Breaking Points Premium Member and watch/listen to the show AD FREE, uncut and 1 hour early visit: www.breakingpoints.com    Merch Store: https://shop.breakingpoints.com/   See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an IHeart podcast. Guaranteed Human. Hey guys, it's us. The Jonas Brothers. I'm Joe. I'm Kevin. And I'm Nick. And guess what? We created our own podcast called, Hey Jonas.

We invented a podcast? Well, we didn't invent it. We just contributed to it. We're the first people to do podcasts. We get to ask other people questions because we're sick and tired of being asked questions. Well, sick and tired is a strong way to put it. But, you know, tired and sick. Tired and sick.

Listen to Hey Jonas on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you. you get your podcast. Just listen. We don't care where you hear it. Another podcast from some SNL late night comedy guy, not quite. Unhumor me with Robert Smygel and friends. Me and hilarious guests from Bob Odenkirk to David Letterman help make you funnier. This week, my guest, SNL's Mikey Day and head writer Streeter Seidel, help an a cappella band with their between songs banter. Where does your group perform? We do some retirement homes. Those people are starving for banter. Listen to humor me with Robert Smigel and friends on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Winning on Clay is an art. The rallies are relentless. And at the French Open, only the toughest survive. I'd know. I competed there for decades. Join me, Renee Stubbs, on the Renee Stubbs' tennis podcast for no-nonsense breakdowns of the biggest matches, the toughest players, and the moments that define Roland Garris. She's an outsider to win the French win. And she likes Clay. Listen, Lina Rubakina is arguably the best player in the world right now. And I actually can on any surface. Listen to the Renee Stubbs tennis podcasts on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Presented by Capital One, founding partner of IHeart Women's Sports.

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 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.

So the Israeli establishment has found the guy who is responsible for all of this, and his name is Itamar Abengivir, the Minister of National Security in the state of Israel. He's under fire across the board in the country because of a video or multiple videos that he himself posted to social media, showing himself and his colleagues abusing hundreds of flotilla activists that have been detained in Israel. So there you see them throwing a young woman down on the ground. There's a smiling Ben-Gavir. He's waving the Israeli flag as he has these. detainees hunched over.

They're roughed them up. They're dragging them around. They start singing the Israeli national anthem. With him while singing here, he's saying, you know, basically say, you need to say, I love Israel to this detained protester. He did something. What's curious in here, he's dragging, they're dragging more around. What's curious is that he did a version of this on video the last time Flotilla actually.

activists came through. I remember. It was not quite as, I guess there wasn't as long. It was just a few seconds of him kind of, kind of, being abusive. He's done in Palestinian prisons too. He always does it. A long, a lot of times. He goes into Palestinian prisons and like, glories in the sadistic nature of the treatment. This time, though, it has really blown back on him. And you're getting condemnations from across the war. and even across the Israeli spectrum, saying that this is not, also, by the way, this is something you should know as we talk about this. Ben-Gavir is the head of the prison system.

Prison system has been in the news globally lately because of the systemic abuses reported towards Palestinians by Nicholas Christoph at the New York Times. A couple weeks ago, we ran a co-written kind of first-person piece by two women, a German and an American who had been on the last flotilla. And they described their experience in this prison system. One of them was brutalized on multiple occasions. The other was raped. And this is a German and an American, the two countries, two Western countries that are most supportive of this government. And so let's run through some of the backlash that it's Marban Gavir is getting.

We put up D2 here, Israeli Minister of Foreign Affairs. You knowingly caused harm to our state in this disgraceful display and not for the first time. You have undone tremendous professional and successful efforts made by so many people, from IDF soldiers to foreign ministry staff and many others. No, you are not the face of Israel. don't even know where to start from that. Let's start with that. Let's go to D3 before we like collapse into like some psychedelic type of seizure.

All right. So as Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu and Foreign Minister Tsar have made clear, Itamar Ben-Gavir is reckless grandstanding as not representative of government policy. I am Israel's top diplomat in the United States at the heart of our most important alliance. Ben Gavir's antics take a sledgehammer to our diplomatic efforts, while Israel's enemies gleefully jump on every unfortunate nonsense to discredit and demonize. The provocateurs of the flotilla charade were properly detained in accordance with international law and will be deported to their home country's end of story. They were picked up, by the way, many, many, many, many, many, many, many miles from it from Israeli territory. way, way, way out in international waters.

So that part is just not remotely true. And they're just trying to deliver stuff to guys that want. The other thing, they just let them, they don't have, it's just a bunch of boats. It's not that much stuff on the boats. Just let them deliver the humanitarian aid. Like, it's going to be okay. You're like a pretty big military.

You know, if they sneak in a baseball bat, I think you're going to be okay. Mike Huckabee even upset and put up defense. here. Mike Huckabee says that Ben Gavir, quote, betrayed the dignity of his nation. This is not who we are. In D5, real quick. European leaders from Belgium to Ireland, Spain, like Italy. So left wing, right wing, center, Canada, everybody but the United States was bothered by Ben Gavir. Well, no, even the U.S. Well, Huckabee. I just played Huckabee. He's our ambassador. I don't think of Huckabee as American anymore.

It literally didn't click. Yeah, that he's actually a United States. He's a spokesperson for the Israeli government. Once upon a time, people actually did think that. Yeah, man, I mean, look, I have seen criticism before. Why? So much Israel coverage. Here's my thing.

I haven't had a chance because you guys did such a great job yesterday to react to the Thomas Massey thing. How can you not now have to be? hyper-focused on this country. This country is so dramatically influential that the Kentucky Commonwealth of Kentucky's fourth district gets $35 million poured into it by three billionaires, all of whom are acting to protect the interests of this foreign state. So yeah, actually, at a certain point with our tax dollars that are backing it, with the expansionary goals that it has across the region, dragging us or coercing us or joining us, whatever adjective you want to use, into this war in Iran, and then now to have multiple states on our books with BDS laws, all of that was known.

But then finally here to have Israel as the final and most important factor in this Kentucky 4th District race, how can you not now have to focus entirely on the behavior of this nation, what we are forced to tolerate as citizens of the United States, to see how its dramatic influence basically enables this type of barbarism abroad. Not only enables, pays for, protects at the diplomatic stage. And if you dare question it, and if you dare say, hey, there's something wrong with that, their actors here in the United States will spend millions to destroy your political career. This does not also, though, absolve the president of the United States who has decided to join forces, you know, with these two.

And so, man, I got to tell you, I've been sitting in like a form of depression since Massey Lawson. I didn't even like a lot of the stuff that he stood for. I hated him for so many different things. It drove me crazy, but there's an iconoclastic element to him. He's not, honestly. Yeah, I mean, he is, as a citizen. Yes. But he's not, you know, I disagree with him on so many different things.

But just his level of bravery to just kind of stand up and be like, yeah, I don't support this actually. I have a well-grounded rule of principles. And then, you know, to see the Creighton who replaced him, Goulrin. You know? Didn't debate. Didn't do anything. Didn't debate, nothing. And I think the most depressing element of it, Ryan,

is that all those billionaires in conjunction with the president could convince however many of these, you know, boomer, Fox News people just be like, yeah, all right, he's right. With like these AI ads. That's the other crazy thing. There are all these AI ads that these 70 plus people watched where he's walking hand in hand with Ilhan Omar and AOC, this like fake AI CCTV video. up to a hotel lobby. I know.

And then it shows him walking with AOC and Elon Omar into a hotel room while they're saying he's engaged in a thruple. Like, we get sort of like metaphorically what they're trying to say. We know that it's AI. Yeah. If you're 72 years old, which is like half of the Kentucky primary electorate, sitting at home watching 50 of those on Fox News, you're going to be like, oh, that's weird.

I liked Massey, but I didn't know he was in a thruple. caught in a hotel room. It's disgusting, you know, the way that it has. And it honestly does make me, like, despair. I didn't use to, I've never, but until very recently, I was never a blame the voters person. Now I'm like, I mean, what do you do?

What do you do? Now, to be fair, the idea that this would have happened in a general election is bullshit. It's a closed primary. They spent billions of dollars. They basically, you know, this was the hardest, sorry, millions of dollars, but it's the hardest of the hardcore

kind of Republican-based. They don't speak for all of us, so let's make that very clear. If he had made it to the general, he would have won overwhelming. There's no question about it. But, I mean, you do have to say, it's like, wow, okay. I mean, look, the rules are what they are. Maybe we attack the rules. That's a fool's errand. I've been around long enough to see every election reform issue crash and burn. You know, you're right, actually, it's worse. There was all this like pipe dream about ranked choice vote. It's like, it's nonsense. We all know it, right? You know, oh, third party. Yeah, yeah, that works out real well,

doesn't it? We're stuck with the system that we have, and with that one, I don't know. I really feel despair. It's possible that this murder was done so out in the open that it's like a George Floyd moment on the right. Like, you guys sat there and watched

them put their knee on Massiefer and extinguished life, its political life, and just did it in front of everybody. maybe it doesn't matter. What did George Floyd do? It brought out a lot of people into the streets, and we actually didn't even get any police reform through Congress.

And then to look at the older voters, they don't even see it as a scandal. They're like, yeah, good. He, you know, he screwed over Trump. He worked with the Democrats or whatever. And, yeah, for a lot of younger Republicans, I mean, maybe you're right, but, you know, let's be honest. You know, most in the social media age and all this,

people will scroll past something else. Massey is the, I mean, you know, him coming out, making the Tel Aviv joke and driving anybody crazy, I loved it. I loved it. And then it just showed how, you know, the still, the pro-Israel bias in our, you know, Jake Tapper being like, oh, that's not why Massey why. You're like, dude. I mean, even now. Yeah, they spent $20 million for shits and gigs. That's what they did, Jake. Barely. Barely. I don't know. Yeah. So it's like, that's why I think pairing these two things together, you know, the Ben Gavir thing, like this is what it's about, people. Like, this is, like Miriam Edelson and the. these other people, they wake up every day and they're like, how can we protect this nation? And then they spend their money here in the United States, which I guess is legal in the Kentucky 4th District. And enough Fox News boomers, because Trump said so, they just come out and they're like, yeah, okay, let's do it. That's the system we have. Is that even democracy? I guess, right? Now, for those concerned about the status of the 400 plus activists, I'm told by a spokesperson person for the flotilla, that they're all being deported today. And it's a result, really,

of Ben-Gavir's face plan here that it appears that Netanyahu said, like, just get them out of here immediately, like, get them back to their home countries. Because previously, they kept them for up to, you know, days and weeks, a kind of abusing them in Israeli prisons to try to prevent them from going. One of the authors, one of the co-authors of the piece that Dropsite, Noah Abyshag Schnaul is being detained and went again for DropSight to cover this even after they brutalized her last time. I look forward to kind of hearing. Well, I actually don't look forward to hearing what was done to her this time. At least it was shorter this time. One of the activists there was the sister of the president of Ireland, Catherine Connolly, friend of the show, as some may

recall. Let's roll the Irish president talking about that. I'm very worried about her, and I'm also very concerned about her colleagues on board. I've been very busy today. I've been in the Irish Community Center in Hammersmith, which was wonderful, a magnificent display, and then I met with King Charles. I haven't really had a chance to get details in relation to my sister, and indeed, equally importantly, her colleagues at the home. Meanwhile, Tucker Carlson causing problems over in Israel,

What'd you think of your man's interview here? Oh, I mean, I thought it was great. There was actually even a Horat's column that came out from an opinion column. He was like, that was the first time truth about Gaza. It's been spoken on Israeli television since October 7th. Somehow it was Tucker, apparently, that decided to do it. Here he was with the liberal host over there on Israeli Channel 13, where he basically stumped them multiple times, saying,

it's pretty ironic for you to be calling Iran a terror regime when you just murdered thousands of innocent children in Gaza. Let's take a listen. Well, I campaign for Trump. I spoke with the Republican National Convention. I defended Trump for many years on Fox News. What happened was the war with Iran, which I don't believe serves the interests of the United States.

I think it's destructive to the United States and to the world, but mostly to the United States. I'm an American. That's what I care about. Do you generally believe Israel would try to harm you because of your opinion? Do I believe Israel would try to harm me? Yes.

I mean, of course, I don't know. I hope not. I don't want to be harmed. Yeah. But... So Israel is the most violent states in the world, even more than Iran? Are you serious?

No country... And I say this with sadness, but no country has boasted more about killing its political opponents than Israel, of course, about its assassination programs, the prime minister of Israel gave a golden pager to the president of the United States. I was there. It is never allowable, period, for any person to kill an innocent. You can't kill a child.

The child did nothing wrong. It is always immoral to do that. You can say, well, I did it for this reason, but it doesn't make it right. It's always wrong. And civilized people understand that. That's what civilized people are. That's the definition of a civilized country. A country with you. But it seems like, right. But it seems like when you speak about Israel as the most violent state in the world, you forget to mention that it is the most attacked state in the world from so many enemies, like any other country in the world. So if you don't put this equation together, it seems like we are doing it for fun or that we lost our morality. This is self-defense. Well, Israel has definitely lost its morality.

there's no question about that. The United States would caving to Iran terror regime that controls now also the Hormoz pathway and the terror ring that it created in the Middle East, maybe it would be even worse for any citizens in the world, not only in Israel, but also in the United States. And this is exactly what Donald Trump said. He said that the United States would have been in danger

So you don't believe Donald Trump? I don't believe Donald Trump. And I also think as an Israeli, you should pause before using the phrase terror regime since you live in a country that just murdered thousands of children in Gaza. We should all pull back a little bit on the rhetoric like that.

I'm not defending Iran. But I'm just saying the terror regime, it's a little hard to hear that from an Israeli right now, I have to say. The government of Iran's behavior is in some cases disgusting, to me, and immoral. But the behavior of the Israeli government in Gaza is disgusting and immoral. Of course, Israel's not a democracy in any sense.

There are millions of people who live under Israeli control who cannot vote. Ooh, all right. Again, like Harat said, you do not hear that ever, period, in Israel. In fact, you're more likely to hear, like, dancing jigs about why every child in Gaza should be killed and why it makes them happy. In a yoga class. Yeah, in a yoga class or someone like that. about why doing yoga in a bomb shelter was the most traumatic experience of their life. That's more like a free press essay, right?

No, like it was. How I discovered Nirvana in an Israeli bomb shelter. I'd be almost certain to come from the free press at some time. That interview, I thought, was explosive, I think, for how simply confronting them with, like, basic facts, like that point about democracy. Right. They don't even talk about that. It's like a hidden thing that manifests as a shadow or a ghost where they call themselves democracy.

And if you say it enough times, then they try to make it true. But when you point that out, you're like there are millions of people under your control. They're like, it's like the compute goes wrong. Same with terror, you know, calling him a terror state. So anyway, I loved it. I think everybody, the whole thing is available. It's 46 minutes long if you want to. Maybe we'll link in the description.

But he also gave a opening monologue, which is kind of what inspires some of my thoughts about Massey when I was talking about earlier today that I listened to on my way in. And I was like, wow. I mean, it was profound in its sense of like betrayal from Donald Trump and kind of analyses of how we got here. And look, there are many criticisms of, you know, he helped Trump. He campaigned for Trump, supported Trump. I get it. You know, I did too. But the thing is is that being on the other side of it now, it's like, how do you make sense of something?

something like this. And I do think that, you know, that monologue, these types of confrontations on Israeli television are a path to get there. At least I hope so. At least I hope so. No notes. All right. Ryan, you've got a story for us. Let's hit it, my man. I do indeed. Canadian women are looking for more. More to themselves, their businesses, their elected leaders, and the world are out of them. And that's why we're thrilled to introduce the Honest Talk podcast.

I'm Jennifer Stewart. And I'm Catherine Clark. And in this podcast, we interview Canada's most inspiring women. Entrepreneurs, artists, athletes, politicians, and newsmakers, all at different stages of their journey. So if you're looking to connect, then we hope you'll join us. Listen to the Honest Talk podcast on IHeartRadio or wherever you listen to your podcasts. Hey, it's us to Jonas Brothers and guess what? We have some big news. What's the news? Huge news. We created our own podcast called Hey Jonas. We invented a podcast? Well, we didn't invent it. We just contributed to it. We're the first people to do podcasts. Pretty, yeah, pretty wide. range of podcasts throughout there.

But this one's extra special. So how do we actually come up with a name, Hey Jonas, guys? I honestly don't remember. I think it was on a call about what we should call it. Well, we were thinking I'm originally calling it one of the early names of our band. Before Jonas Brothers was... This is how you guys remember it going down? Yes.

I have a very different memory of this. We were talking about a thing, a bit for the podcast, where people could call in and say, hey Jonas. and then I wrote down on my little notepad, Hey Jonas, and offered it up as a potential title for the podcast. But thanks for remembering that, guys. Listen to Hey Jonas on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast.

Just listen. We don't care where you hear it. Another podcast from some SNL late night comedy guy, not quite. Unhumor me with Robert Smygel and friends. Me and hilarious guests from Bob Odenkirk to David Letterman help make you funnier. This week, my guest, SNL's Mikey Day and Headwere writer Streeter Seidel, help an

a cappella band with their between songs banter. Where does your group perform? We do some retirement homes. Those people are starving for banter. Listen to humor me with Robert Smigel and friends on the IHeart Radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. All right, Saga,

so we got a wild one for you today. Have you ever accidentally spent $9 million and gone, oops? So the Iowa Democratic primary. is on June 2nd. And it pits Zach Walls,

as a state senator, against Josh Turek, who's a state representative, they have pretty much similar politics. One of them, though, Josh Turek has said he would support Chuck Schumer as majority or minority leader. Zach Walls has said he would not do so.

And so Chuck Schumer has come into Iowa and spent $9 million of Democratic money, supporting Josh Turek. He has spent most of it through this organization called Vote Vets. And a bunch of it has also gone through this organization called Majority Dems. Now, majority Dems you may have heard of. This is kind of a Liz Smith. It's called The Bench. It's this, they're trying to become a party within a party. They're organized by this guy, Seth London, who is what's called a donor advisor. There are so many rich people in this country with so much money that we have created an industry of people

that are called donor advisors. These are people who do exactly that. They advise donors on how to spend their money. Seth London loves abundance. He's an abundance guy. And so he has advised a bunch of donors that if they want to create abundance within the Democratic Party,

this kind of centrist-branded thing, the way they're going to do it is through this organization with Liz Smith called Majority Dems. And so Majority Dems, they're behind Mallory McMorough, for instance. They're behind Josh Turek. Now, the argument, you can't say, well, we're spending $9 million to support the Schumer backing guy because he backs Schumer.

This is democratic money that people are donating so that he can take back the Senate. It wouldn't really fly if you said we're doing this because he likes Schumer. So what they've said is that Josh Torek is more electable. And let's put up this first element where they explicitly make this argument. So this is Rohan Patel, actually former top executive at Tesla, who's now top guy over at Majority Dems. Rohan Patel says, the district Torek holds was held by a Republican who Josh defeated. He expanded on that performance in the next election in a Trump plus nine district. Zach, meanwhile, has represented one of the bluest districts in the state and has never run against a Republican.

The electability argument in this case isn't a close call. All right, so that is a very explicit claim that Rohan Patel is making. The district at Tora Koltz was held by a Republican who Josh defeated. Rohan Patel was at Tesla. He's a technocrat. These are the smart people. You and I, Sagar, are the kind of populist idiots. You know, we're filled with rage, but we don't really understand how the system works.

These are the quants. These are the people who have run the numbers, and they're going to calculate our way into prosperity and abundance. That's their entire pitch. Now, the problem here is it's just actually not true. But Rohan isn't the only one who got this wrong. Put up these next elements. At least three different major profiles of Torek said that he flipped a red district. Here's one correction that the Atlantic had to run. This article originally misstated the nature of Torricks previous electoral victories. Here's a correction in NBC News.

A previous version of this article mischaracterized Torricks electoral record. He won a state legislative district that was redrawn to be more Republican leaning, but he didn't flip a Republican district. Now, to let you in on how corrections are written, you always try to make the error seem as benign as possible. These are articles talking about how this guy's electable organized around a central fact that he flipped a republic, district and then they learn later he did not actually do that so how to smart people make a mistake

like that this is where this gets really fun okay so if a few weeks ago you asked chat gpt about josh toorek's 20th house district here's what it used to tell you go ahead and put this one up electoral history a long-term pattern mostly republican in recent decades ray sorenson from 20 19 to 2023, before that, Clell Baldler, before that, Walt Rogers. So 12 consecutive years of Republican control before Torek. So that's what ChatGPT would tell you. That's pretty impressive. Gotta be it.

That's, man, I flipped the seat. Now let's say we do our own research, which is, I think, what ChatGPT did by going to Wikipedia. So let's pull up Josh Turek's Wikipedia page. So at the top there it says Josh Turek, American politician, wheelchair basketball player. We can talk about that a bit. Serving as a member of the House of Representatives

from the 20th District. If you'll notice in there that the 20th District there is purple because I clicked on that as ChatchipT and maybe Rohan and maybe the Atlantic also clicked on. So, all right, let's click on that. Let's take us to the page of the Iowa's 20th House of Representative District. Now, if you look at the bottom there,

2019 to 2023, Ray Sorensen, Republican, 2023 to 27, Josh Turek. So there you go. He flipped the 20th. The old fight in 20th, went from Republican to Democrat under the banner of

Josh Turek. Whose banner we will now ride to victory and flip Iowa from Republican to Democrat because nobody else can win in Western Iowa like Josh Torek. But let's keep clicking just for fun. Okay. So if you click on

Ray Sorensen. You'll see that he is anything but defeated. Ray Sorensen now represents the 23rd district of Iowa. So what happened? They redrew districts in Iowa, not much actually, but the census came out. They redrew the districts and they renumbered them too. So Durek as represents a district that has been voting for Democrats for decades. He represents Council Bluffs. This is such a Washington moment. Counsel Bluffs is in Western Iowa. Look it up on the map.

It's a suburb of Omaha. It's urban and suburban. It's not rural Western Iowa. It is in Western Iowa. But it is really. part of the Omaha metro region. So TORC represents a democratic district. Sorensen, despite the claims that Torek tossed him out of office, never ran against him.

Torek and Sorensen didn't run against each other. And Sorensen is still in office. So I reached out to all the different people involved here because I was like, wait, so what's going on here? we've got three news outlets, plus this top numbers guy over at the Super Pack backing TORC, all thinking that TORC flipped a seat. How on earth did that happen? Like, did you just screw it up?

Did you, or did somebody lie to you? So that's what I was curious about. Does somebody lie to you? And why is Torek not out here correcting the record? So got a statement from Liz Smith's organization, the bench. They said, Rohan misspoke here and acted on his own. No one fed him the stat. Our decision to support Josh is based on his being the best candidate in the race

and the only one who can take on Ashley Hinson in the fall. So Rohan just misspoke. Okay. How do you, like, what do you? Yeah, how did you do that? So where'd you get this? Where'd you get this stat? How did the Atlantic misspeak?

How did NBC News mispeak? How did local NPR, which also did it? How did they misspeak? Wild. So anyway, the entire premise of his electability argument is based on him flipping the seat, which it turns out he did not flip. Now, what they will also say is that counsel bluff,

this kind of area voted for Trump, yet he hauled on. He won by like six votes in House District. There's not many people voting. You're like, oh, that's cool. He's a Democrat who won at the local level while Trump won at the national level. That means he's probably electable. That's cool.

That would be usually a decent argument. The problem is that is the pattern that has held in Council Bluffs since LVJ. It's just, you know how there are these regions? They're trending away from that, but there are these regions that split their ticket. And Council Bluffs is one of them. Council Bluffs, votes for Stimson, votes for Democrats at the local level, and votes for Republicans at the presidential level.

It's just what they did, and Turuk happened to be wrapped into that. Now it gets us to the part about his rationale for the candidacy. So he was born with Spinal Bifida, and that is in his early ads, his bio ads. And he says that because his father, was a veteran in Vietnam

that exposure to Agent Orange produced the spine to be true and that he's going to and that as a result he's going to fight for veterans in a lot of the more recent ads that part of the bio

is fading and it starts blending with this veteran because the group that is supporting is called boat vets and it starts to look like like he's a vet. Now, anybody who's followed it very closely knows that that's not the case. But the more recent ads, starting to blur it just a little bit. I'm curious for your take on this. So let's roll one of these ads that has enormous amounts of spending behind it from vote vets.

My dog knows that I start early. I enlisted out of high school. I rose to the rank of colonel. I pushed myself. Born with spina bifida. Josh Turik has done that his whole life. Now Josh is running for Senate to end the corruption in white. Washington. He'll ban Congress from trading stocks, hold Donald Trump accountable for abusing his power. And he's not ticking a dime in corporate pack money. Josh Turk's a fighter. He's who Iowa needs. Vogue vets is responsible for the content of this ad. Yeah, that's right on the line there, Ryan, where I'm like, wait, what? It doesn't make it 100% clear. If I had watched that cold without knowing a little bit of what you're talking about, I would have thought, oh, he must have gotten

injured in combat or something like that. Let's watch the transition again. So here's the transition from this colonel who we get the bio of the colonel. By the way, he never mentions he was deployed, which is kind of interesting. So we get this bio of the colonel, why? He's not running. Josh is running. We get the bio of the colonel. So let's just do the transition again.

Play that one more time. I enlisted out of high school. I rose to the rank of colonel. I pushed myself. Born with spina bifida. Josh Turrick has done that his whole life. Now Josh is running for Senate to end the corruption in Washington. Yeah. It's a little like, huh?

Yeah, if you're just watching it like at home, you kind of come away with, yeah. And then at the end, he says he doesn't take corporate pack money in an ad paid for by vote vets, a super PAC funded by Chuck Schumer and his major donors. If we can put up the next element, this was one that somebody flagged for me too. Josh Turrick has spent his life in the toughest battles. Ah, I see. Now, he's been very clear that he's had spinal bifference. since he was a child.

He's never said he was a veteran. But these vote vets ads, like that's a little like... Right. That's on the line for me. That's pushing. And the reason this could be risky is if you poll Iowa voters

and you find that like a significant chunk believe that he's a veteran, Republicans then can come at him and say you thought that he was a veteran, he's not. Now, he never said he was. But look at these ads, you believed it, you were fooled. And so it creeps into this like accessory to stolen valor type situation that Republicans could potentially hammer him. Right. And I just think zooming out,

your point is they used an AI error. They spent nine million bucks. And nine million dollars other people's money. They basically had an AI error. They didn't track it all that closely. And people in DC and all these other donor advisors is like, oh, let's just throw some money. Yeah, he's from Western Iowa. So, actually he's from Omaha. A vote vets comment. They say, quote, we are proud to support Josh Turek because he knows firsthand the generational costs of war. He was born with spina bifida due to his dad's military service and had 21 surgeries before

age 12, which we've said in our advertising. True. It's true. Josh will be a strong advocate for veterans and military families, which Congress needs to fight back against the Trump administration's devastating cuts to VA. He has talked a lot about the VA. Absolutely. Josh has been fighting his whole life, and with Donald Trump in the White House, Josh will be exactly the kind of Senator Iowa needs. So anyway, so that's that's their take. Let's finish with the guy that they're going against. So Zach Walls, he became this viral sensation in like 2011. You might remember this when he stood up in the Iowa legislature and talked about his two moms.

Oh, that guy. He's that guy. He's back. Yeah, I remember him. Now here we are 15 years. God, he was like 20 years old. Yeah, he was 20. Yeah, he was a child. Because we were the same age. That's why I remember this. Totally. Even I were at the same age. Yeah. It was a great speech. Yeah. It was moving. So anyway, so here's Zach Walls, now state senator, talking about Hinson, who's going to be the Republican opponent. This one company from Utah bought 15 communities across the state, three of them in my Senate district. Two in Johnson County, and then one in Cedar County, the more rural part of my district. And as their state senator, I took it upon myself.

to go knock doors in my communities to hear from my constituents by people about what was going on. And the stories I heard were heartbreaking. I met a woman named Candy. Candy was a widow and her late husband had saved up, bought her this beautiful double-wide trailer, and she had a place to call her home. And she was worried about her own home. She was terrified about what happened to her neighbors. And I was so angry about what I was hearing that I was able to take these stories.

And I went to my Republican colleagues. we brought together a bipartisan group. We hammered out a bill that we could all support. And as a freshman, I got that bill with the help of people like Candy and her neighbors who came to the statehouse to fight for that bill. We got it through the Senate 48 to zero. Everyone assumed this was a done deal. And then two days later, you get a text message asking me to come over to the house side for a closed door meeting about my bill. And I remember it like it was yesterday, walking in.

First person I see is the lobbyist representing these big companies. And the second person I see is a state representative who's holding my bill, shaking her head. That state representative is now a member of Congress. And she's my Republican opponent in November, Ashley Hinson. And I was in the room and I watched as Ashley Hinson killed my bipartisan bill as a favor to that lobbyist. And after this was over, I looked up how much money this lobbyist had bundled for her re-election campaign. You want to guess how much it was? 50 grand.

$1,500. Ooh, cheap day. And you will never guess, though, who was some of her biggest supporters in her campaign for the U.S. House, or who did a fundraising event for her in the Senate campaign just a few months ago. So when we talk about this connection between, you know, the rigged economy and the corruption of our politics, I saw that firsthand as a freshman legislator. And look, I will tell you this, I was excited to run against Joni Ernst. But when I found out I was going to be running against Ashley Henson, I jumped out of bed the next morning. All right, so he's probably going to lose after $9 million got dumped on his head.

But what's ironic is that the race is not over. He's, Zach Walls is actually still in it. If it was really true that Turc was the most electable candidate by Miles, $9 million spent by Washington should put him way over the top. Like, it should not still be close. Like that kind of undermines your own case. Anyway, we'll be tracking this one. All right, so there we go.

You had a candidate who might have technically been able to win and all that, and instead they backed them guy because of an AI error. You can't make it up. That may be terrific ways. We'll see. This is why we love Ryan. Only he could uncover something like this. Okay, we have a pre-recorded interview here.

Our great Griffin Davis actually sat down with Tom Steyer, the gubernatorial candidate. He pressed him on all kinds of questions. So, without further ado, and by the way, let me just mention again, his suit looks fantastic in this interview. Meanwhile, Tom Steyer is not wearing a suit, and you will see why that matters as the power dynamics shift towards Griffin as he forcefully pushes him on all the issues. Let's take a list. Canadian women are looking for more.

More to themselves, their businesses, their elected leaders, and the world are out of them. And that's why we're thrilled to introduce the Honest Talk podcast. I'm Jennifer Stewart. And I'm Catherine Clark. And in this podcast, we interview Canada's most inspiring women. entrepreneurs, artists, athletes, politicians, and newsmakers, all at different stages of their journey. So if you're looking to connect, then we hope you'll join us.

Listen to the Honest Talk podcast on IHartRadio or wherever you listen to your podcasts. Hey, it's us to Jonas Brothers, and guess what? We have some big news. What's the news, new? Huge news. We created our own podcast called, Hey Jonas. We invented a podcast? Well, we didn't invent it.

We just contributed to it. We're the first people to do podcasts. Pretty, yeah, pretty wide range of podcasts. We're starting a train. but this one's extra special. So how do we actually come up with a name Hey Jonas, guys? I honestly don't remember.

I think it was on a call about what we should call it. We were thinking I'm originally calling it one of the early names of our band before Jonas Brothers. This is how you guys remember it going down? Yes. I have a very different memory of this. We were talking about a thing,

a bit for the podcast where people could call in and say, Hey Jonas. And then I wrote down on my little notepad Hey Jonas and offered it up as a potential title for the podcast. But thanks for remembering that, guys. Listen to Hey Jonas on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Just listen. We don't care where you hear it.

Another podcast from some SNL late night comedy guy, not quite. Unhumor me with Robert Smigel and Friends. Me and hilarious guests from Bob Odenkirk to David Letterman help make you funnier. This week, my guest, SNL's Mikey Day and head writer, Streeter Seidel, help an a cappella band with their between songs banter. Where does your group perform?

We do some retirement homes. Those people are starving for banter. Listen to humor me with Robert Smigel and friends on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hello, breaking points. Griffin here, and we're here with California governor candidate, Tom Steyer. Tom, how's it going? I would say I'm having a ball.

Yeah? You would say, I am having a ball. Okay. And let me say this. People always ask. ask me. You know, is it really hard? And I'm like, it's really fun. I actually feel like this is such a privilege and such a joy to get to go around and meet California. I'm going to go out today and talk to, you know, a few hundred Californians. And I get to go around every single day

and meet people and learn stuff. And Californians are great. This state is great. It's fun. No one should be feeling sorry for me. Let's have some fun. I only got you for a few minutes. I got a lot to ask. So I talk to people. They say they'll never trust a billionaire. What do you say to them? Well, I can understand why people are skeptical of buildingaires. That's for sure because so many of them seem like such selfish people, so self-absorbed, so entitled, so insensitive. But let me say this. I didn't inherit a penny. I started a business, ran it for 27 years, walked away from billions of dollars because I wanted to give back to the state of California.

And my wife and I have said, we're going to give our money away while we're alive to good causes. And you're for tax the billionaire? I'm the one. I'm the only person who's for taxing the billionaires in the state of California is the one billionaire on the ballot. Sure. So you're for taxing the billionaires because, you know, I think people have a problem with billionaires because they feel like that wealth should be redistributed elsewhere, but also because people feel like billionaires are a threat to our democracy. Now, some of your opponents have accused you of paying for influencer campaigns, paying influencers to promote your campaign. Are you paying influencers? And we have never paid for an endorsement. We pay people for their time.

They're small business people. They can put up whatever they want, but we have... Has any of it been negative? I don't read it. I don't follow it, honestly. Look, and it could be, and that's not the problem. This is, we do this, and so does everybody else. It's just we do it openly and we report everything.

And so the Bissera campaign, which has been running from answering questions from people like you, who've been running not to talk to reporters, not to answer questions from Californians is saying, oh, you know, they're trying to change the subject. The topic in California is the people of California and why it's not working for the people of California when the state as a whole is killing it. That is the question. And they're scared to talk about that. So you don't think if someone accepts money from the campaign that they would pull questions, do softball interviews, obviously they'd do positive content about you. Look, they can do whatever they want. But we're not paying anyone for endorsements or outcomes. People actually are supporting our campaign. I don't

know how closely you've looked at the campaign. People are supporting our campaign because they like our campaign. I mean, this race, Griffin, everything talks about how complicated this race is. This race is not complicated. There are three people in this race. There's a mega-republican. Steve Hilton. And he's British, which is rough. Well, he's originally Hungarian, just seeing now. Oh, okay. Worse, maybe. I'm not sure. I'm sorry to Hungary. To California. Okay. There is a corporate Democrat who's taking money from the health insurance. Which one's that? Javier Bissera.

Okay. He's taking money from the health insurers. He's taking money from Chevron. He's taking money from the other oil drillers. He's taking money from the strongest lobby against single payer health care. He is the corporate who's taking their money and clearly feels like the corporate special interest deserve to run this date. And he said, you know, Chevron's not bad guys.

We need Chevron. We should drill more. And he doesn't have an environmental policy. For me, that's, you know, end of story. But the other thing, and there's one progressive Democrat in this race who's standing up to the corporate interests, and the corporate interests are spending tens of millions of dollars, a record amount in any campaign against me because they know that I will stand up for working people and I will go after the corporations that are driving up the costs that make impossible for working people to live here.

But do you think it sets a dangerous precedent? You know, we got union workers outside. They obviously view you as a good billionaire, but couldn't there be a bad billionaire that comes along and floods the race with influencers that are getting money from the campaign. Isn't that a dangerous precedent? Well, let me put it this way. There have been billionaires who've run in California before, and they've always lost. And the difference is I didn't just decide to do this. I've been doing this full time for 14 years. I walked away from my business 14 years ago. You can look at my record and see, I've taken on three times at the ballot, powerful corporate interest and beaten them.

I've registered 1.2 million young Californians. My wife and I have started a nonprofit community bank to lend money to the people that the commercial banks won't lend to because they're redlining. We've worked really hard to get a coalition to push free breakfast and free lunch for every school kid in California. We've had 20 people working for 11 years in Sacramento on every progressive legislation in this state. I didn't just fall off the turnip Trump. Right. Yeah. So it could be, it could be a bad billionaire comes along where you said bad billioners have run in the past and lost, but you don't think it's a dangerous precedent to flood influencers. Look, let me say this. Do I think that we need campaign finance reform? Of course I do. The only person

who is standing up to these corporate special interests is me. Should there be a cap? Look, it's a much more complicated question than just one thing. But it's clear, really the question here is, I'm the only billionaire in the ballot, but I'm not the only billionaire in this race. billionaires are giving money right now to all the other candidates. Billionaires are putting money in independent expenditures to fight me. I'm the one person who's pushing to tax billionaires like me more. The only person. No one else is standing up for that in this race, including Steve Hilton and including Javier Bissar.

Let's talk more about California. A lot of people feel like California is failing. And some people blame it on the overrepresentation of Democrats. Some people tell me they feel like we need a Republican. to counteract and bring balance back to the state. Why do you think California is failing? Well, let me start by talking about the Republicans. Let me just put that one to rest.

Have you heard any of the debates? Oh, I've lost them all. Okay, let me say. Steve Hilden is ridiculous. He's ridiculous. I mean, there is the fact that he's supporting Trump kicking millions of people off Medi-Cal. There is the fact that he's supporting ice raids.

There is the fact that he believes the war in Iran is good and that it hasn't caused gasoline prices to go up a buck and a half. There is the fact that he would extradite California doctors to Louisiana to be prosecuted criminally under Louisiana law for performing an abortion in California. Look, there is no way that guy has a idea in his head that makes sense he is a MAGA Republican. And the MAGA Republicans are trying to destroy this country. I don't want him destroying our state. Gotcha. So that is not, that is very clear.

The question in this mind, but there is a real question here. Yeah, about balance. The corporate special interests own this state. The oil companies clearly own D.C. And they're trying to buy California and stop cap and invest. I don't know if they're trying to stop that. They are absolutely ripping us at the pump. You know, their cost don't go up when the Iran war starts.

Nothing happens for them except their ability to charge more. And the head of the Western States Petroleum Association, which is the lobbying group for oil, said it's their first. fiduciary duty to extract every penny at the pump from Californians as a result of the Randmar. Do I trust those guys? Why would you? Let's talk about the train in nowhere. This is a big topic. Train was supposed to go from L.A., San Francisco. They spent $15 billion, haven't laid a single bit of track. Why did that fail? And like, what would you do to change that? Well, it was more complicated than that in terms of failure. They started, they didn't build a train

from San Francisco to L.A. They built a train from Bakersfield to Merced. Yes. And so there's no ridership there. But they did that because the federal government said they'd give them $4 billion if they put the train there. So they crazily decided to do it. Look, there's something going on in this state, which is true, which is we're not getting results in the real world. I mean, we're killing it in cyberspace. When you say California's not succeeding, let's be clear. California is half the growth in the United States of America. That's true. California is growing faster than any other state by a lot. The issue, is we also have the highest poverty rate in the country. We also have a school system that's delivering somewhere in the 30s out of 50 states. We do have a place where Californian working people cannot afford to live between really high housing costs, really high health care costs, electricity costs that are twice the national average. Everybody's getting ruined at the pump, but especially Californians and food costs. So there is a real issue here about building things physically in this state. That's for sure. So recently, about two months ago, you went on the

Hassan Piker broadcast. And he asked you if you believe that Israel was committing a genocide. And you said, you didn't really know what that meant. About two months, have you looked it up? Look, what I think is clear about this is the Netanyahu regime is committing war crimes. America used to be supporting them with money and armaments. We're now their open partners in Iran. clearly a mistake. Do I think, am I again, you know, do I oppose APEC? Look, I think they're a dark money organization. I don't think they should have, they have a place in American politics. Do I understand that there's something really wrong going on here? And that we're now open partners in it. Yes, I think I got that one. Why don't you think it's a genocide? You know, over 80% of Democrats and

over 50% of independents say it's a genocide. Why are you in the minority on that? I don't think, what I've said is, I'm calling it war crimes. I want it. I still, and some people get mad at me when I say this, but it's true. I don't understand how we possibly solve this without pushing for a two-state solution. The Netanyahu regime has been pushing to end the possibility of a two-state solution for as long as I can remember, for as long as they've been in. I don't think that there's any way to support them. I think what they're doing is not just morally reprehensive.

I believe it's a crime. Yeah, but not a genocide. You recognize the Armenian genocide. Why don't you recognize this one? I will say this. I have asked people who are expert, international experts. Yeah. And they're very mixed on this. Well, that's actually not true. I've got human rights watch, Beth Selham. We had an international genocide scholars group over 500 that overwhelmingly called it a genocide. And the reason I'm pushing on this is because I think the majority of Democrats really feel like this is a moral

litmus test. And it is, but I'm, it is a moral litmus test. And I'm completely on the side of condemning what the Netanyahu regime is doing. I'm trying to preserve. the possibility of still having a two-state solution where everybody's dignity, everybody's self-determination is continued. And that's the only solution I see to this. So if I ask like a suburban mom in like Alabama, you know, not a politician, not as well read into any of this stuff as you and I are, but neither of us are genocide experts. I think the majority of experts have called it a genocide. That Alabama suburban mom, she's going to call it a genocide. And Alabama's suburban mom?

Yeah. I think there's moms all over this country that saw what happened. And I'm saying it's that, look. And like, what's that barrier? What I'm hung up on the word, what I'm hung up on is this is clearly morally wrong. This is clearly a crime against humanity. Yes, absolutely. Okay.

Spencer Pratt is gaining traction here in L.A. What are your thoughts on his candidacy? I honestly have not focused on Spencer Pratt, but it sounds to me from what other people tell me that he's a super right-wing guy and who's using a lot of anger to try and stir people up. And I'm absolutely opposed to that every place it comes out in our society. Why do you think he, I mean, for debatable on how much traction, but he's getting some traction, because I do think there's this feeling that L.A. is failing in some way. The Hollywood industry is failing.

There is a homeless crisis. People do feel like the city is failing. Let me say this. I think across California, people don't think government works. I think young people especially think they're being ripped off. They don't have never seen government help them make their life be better. That is an absolutely critical point. And it's true.

There's no question about that that people feel like, and I think you were talking about the train to nowhere. People know that. People think they'll never be able to afford a house in California. The average first time home buyer's age has gone from 28 to 42. Young people think they'll never buy a house. They don't think this state can work for them. Why can't we build here?

I think people think there's this battle between the state government and local city governments. How are you going to force building? So let me say this. As I know you've spent lots of time on my website, I don't have to go through every detail. One of the things that I'm doing really differently about housing is I'm saying on day one, I will call a special election to close a corporate tax loophole that's worth $20 billion and that money will go to the states, to the counties and the cities. And the reason that's important is there is a tussle between the state and the cities and the counties because the state wants there to be building of houses, but the cities and counties are responsible for the people who live in those houses and they don't have the money for it.

And therefore, as a result of old tax rules, they push back because they don't want to get stuck in an unfunded mandate or they put in an upfront fee that's up to 20% of the cost of the house. What I'm saying is, okay, here's $20 billion around this state. Now you can afford to have housing. And when I've talked to mayors about this, they've said, if you really do that, I'm in. Okay. Final question. So no, you've got to go.

Hollywood, we feel like Hollywood's dying out here. What are you going to do to save Hollywood? So let me say this. I'm a super competitive person. I am on Team California. Hollywood is by far the greatest collection of film and entertainment, talent, not the stars, but, you know, right down in all the jobs in the world.

People are trying to buy our business, buy the business that basically, Los Angeles invented. We can't let that happen. So there's, I have a long list of things we need to do, but it starts with tax credits. People shoot in Canada because it's cheaper or they shoot overseas because it's cheaper. How can you fix that? Part of it's tax credits. Tax credits? Part of it is looking at the regulations and trying to take that away. But in the long run, it's driving down costs, which is my whole campaign is about driving down costs for working people. Housing costs, health care costs. But in the short run, I don't want to lose this. Every tax credit,

it brings back $1.14 cents to the state of California. We can't lose this because people buy our business. That is not okay. And we can't lose this because we've been so, the perfect is the enemy of the good. We have so many expensive rules that small productions can't do it. I want to support that whole ecosystem as strongly as possible. It's very hard to rebuild an ecosystem.

So I don't want to lose it in the first place. Tom, thank you for time. Deal, Griffin. Thank you guys so much for watching. We appreciate it. Friday show for everybody tomorrow. Great Bro Show. Always good to see you, my friend. And we'll see you all later.

Hey, guys, it's us. The Jonas Brothers. I'm Joe. I'm Kevin. And I'm Nick. And guess what? We created our own podcast called, Hey Jonas. We invented a podcast? Well, we didn't invent it. We just contributed to it. We're the first people to do podcasts. We get to ask other people questions because we're sick and tired of being asked questions. Well, sick and tired is a strong way to put it. But, you know,

tired and sick. Tired and sick. Listen to Hey Jonas on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your Just listen. We don't care where you hear it. Another podcast from some SNL late night comedy guy, not quite. Unhumor me with Robert Smygel and friends. Me and hilarious guests from Bob Odenkirk to David Letterman help make you funnier. This week, my guest, SNL's Mikey Day and head writer Streeter Seidel.

Help an a cappella band with their between songs banter. Where does your group perform? We do some retirement homes. Those people are starving for banter. Listen to humor me with Robert Smigel and Friends on the IHeart Radio. Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. Winning on Clay is an art. The rallies are relentless.

And at the French Open, only the toughest survive. I'd know. I competed there for decades. Join me, Renee Stubbs, on the Renee Stubbs tennis podcast for no nonsense breakdowns of the biggest matches, the toughest players, and the moments that define Roland Garris. She's an outsider to win the French win. And she likes Clay.

Listen, Lina Rubakina is arguably the best player in the world right now. And I actually can win on any surface. Listen to the Renee Stubbs tennis podcasts on the IHart Radio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. Presented by Capital One, founding partner of IHart Women's Sports. This is an IHart podcast. Guaranteed human.