Factually! with Adam Conover - Zohran Is Teaching the Left How to Win

Episode Date: August 4, 2025

(In addition to your weekly Factually! episode, this week we're bringing you a monologue from Adam. This short, researched monologue originally aired on the Factually! YouTube page, but we are sharing audio versions of these monologues with our podcast audience as well. Please enjoy, and stay tuned for your regularly scheduled episode of Factually!)Zohran Mamdani is writing a new blueprint for the left to actually win. Visit https://groundnews.com/factually to stay fully informed, see through biased media and get all sides of every story. Subscribe for 40% off unlimited access through my link.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This is a HeadGum Podcast. So I spent a lot of this summer in New York and while I was there, something happened that gave me hope for America's political future for the first time in a long time. Or at the very least, New York's political future. Because Andrew Cuomo, the serial sexual harasser, friend of landlords and dude who's never been on a train without a camera crew, got crushed in the Democratic primary for New York City just complain about the subway or the lines at the MoMA or that they're walking here. But after the primary election,

everyone I encountered was so thrilled, they were smiling almost as big as Zoran. And look, Zoran isn't just exciting because he's not kissing Cuomo. Zoran is invigorating people across the country because he ran on the number one policy that Democrats have seen completely incapable of addressing, affordability. Look at the front page of this dude's website. Zoran Mamdani is running for mayor to lower

the cost of living for working class New Yorkers. This campaign is for every person who believes that the government's job is actually to make our lives better. I mean, yes, this is what we have been begging Democrats, or really any politician to campaign on, for years. Not just begging for votes to stop bad things from happening, not running on culture war bullsh**, but running on an actual plan to make life actually better for average people. That is how you win elections. And because he campaigned on affordability,

Zoran turned out voters in record numbers. It was the highest turnout for a mayoral primary in decades. And since activating apathetic voters is exactly what the Democrats say they need to do, it was kind of weird to see them throw this dude who just won a Democratic primary under the fare-free bus.

I mean, even after the Democratic voters of New York clearly chose Mamdani as their Democratic candidate, as of this recording, the Congressional Democratic leaders from New York, Chuck Schumer and Akeem Jeffries, still have not endorsed him. Other New York Democrats vaguely said they had serious concerns and called Zoran the absolute wrong choice for New York Democrats vaguely said they had serious concerns and called Zoran the absolute wrong choice for New York. New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand even accused him of referring to global jihad to kill all Jews.

And that was so ridiculously wrong and offensive that even Gillibrand wound up apologizing a few days later, saying she misspoke. Oh yeah, I often misspeak and accidentally sound like the dude who writes New York Post headlines. Whoopsie daisy. But you know, watching all these Democrats mean mugging Mom Donnie begs the question, why are the Democrats standing in the way of their own candidate, one of their most exciting candidates in years, someone who energizes voters and literally wrote a blueprint for how they can win again. Well, in this video I'm going to show you why Zoran's strategy is the Democrats' best chance to come back from the wilderness and actually bring America back from the brink of

autocracy. But only if they embrace it. But first, if you want to support the channel, head to patreon.com slash Adam Conover. You know, one of my favorite features on our Patreon community is our community book club. Last month we read Cashmere Hills, your face belongs to us, and up next we're reading and discussing Rashid Khalidi's The Hundred Year War on Palestine. So if you'd like to join us, head to patreon.com slash Adam Conover, we would love to have you. And if you'd like to come see me do stand-up comedy in person, I just announced my brand new stand-up tour.

I'm calling it the Big Divorce Energy Tour. If you'd like to come see me do stand-up comedy in person, I just announced my brand new stand-up tour. I'm calling it the Big Divorce Energy Tour. It's kind of like Big Dick Energy, but even better because I cry a lot more. I'm joking around. It's a really good time. I'm headed to Indianapolis, Indiana, St. Louis, Missouri, Oklahoma City, Tulsa, Oklahoma, Brea, California, Los Angeles at The Lodge Room, one of my very favorite venues, Tacoma, Washington, Spokane, Washington, Des Moines, Iowa, Atlanta, Philly,

Washington D.C., and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Head to AdamConover.net for all those tickets and tour dates. I'd love to see you out there. So last year, after Trump once again won the presidency on a platform of lowering prices and falling asleep on stage, Democrats had a full-fledged come-to-Jesus freakout. They'd lost young voters, people of color, and the working class. Everyone was pointing fingers looking for someone to blame. And you know this is exhausting because any schmoe off the street could tell you

where the Democrats actually went wrong. It's that people in America can't afford sh** anymore. We're all working our asses off and none of us can afford a place to live, a college education, or even ass surgery to put our asses back on. It is bleak out there for the average American, and that is glaringly obvious to everyone outside of the Democratic donor class, and yet Democrats refuse to make affordability a central issue in their campaign. And this blunder was so big that even once true blue places like New York started to swing double digits towards Trump. But you know, even though the Democratic establishment couldn't see it, a little-noticed New York City mayoral candidate named Zoran Mamdani did.

In fact, right after Trump won, Mamdani hit the streets to ask people why they voted for Trump. And what would it take for you to vote for a Democrat in the future? Being able to pay attention to the regular Americans and their economic needs. Insulting us, playing on our emotions. All they do is shame you and they just want to use like glitzy campaigns and they get celebrities. They should make economics the forefront of their campaign. And then he turned those interviews into campaign promises. Get this, he listened to the voters and then he said he would do the thing they wanted him to do.

Zoran made the cost of living the centerpiece of his campaign, promising to raise wages and lower food prices. And instead of offering vague platitudes about lifting the floor and making this an America where everyone has opportunity. No, Mob Donnie talked about exactly how he could make people's lives better as mayor. Because my platform of a rent-freeze, fast and free buses, universal childcare, funded by Texas on the Rich,

could be the difference between you having to move to Jersey City and getting to stay in the five boroughs. I mean, it's so obvious from his campaign videos. You know how sometimes when career politicians run, even if they sound like they're trying to be empathetic and say the right thing, they sound like Lucille Bluth? I mean, it's one banana, Michael. What could it cost? Ten dollars?

Paid for by Cuomo for NYC. The difference is, when Zoran talks about those issues, it's clear he comes from a place of experience. That he actually lives in the same city as the voters and actually faces the same pressures they do, so he actually wants to do something about them. Like, let's watch this video, which I think is hands down one of the best campaign videos I have ever seen. New York is suffering from a crisis, and it's called halalflation.

Okay, so right off the bat, you can tell that Zoran isn't playing the part of a New Yorker. He is a fucking New Yorker. He's on the sidewalk in a big black puffer jacket, not because it looks mayoral, but for the reason every other New Yorker is, because it's fucking cold. This is the coat of someone who doesn't have a private car to take him place to place. This is the coat of a man who knows to duck when showtime starts on the 7 train. And talking about halal food as an affordability issue is brilliant. I lived in New York City for 10 years and I know when you're running late and you're

gonna miss your train but you need to eat something, chicken or lamb over rice is what you f***ing eat. But Zoran's not just getting relatability points, okay? Next, he does something extraordinary. He gives the mic to the working class people who serve the food, talking to the halal truck owners who make the food we eat about why exactly it has gotten more expensive. How much does a plate of halal cost right now from this truck? Ten dollars.

Ten dollars. Chicken of a rice, lamb of a rice, ten dollars. Ten dollars? Yeah. When you're a street vendor You have to pay for the food, the plates How much do you have to pay for your permit? Before it was 22k

20... 17 thousand How much is the license cost if you get it from the city? I think 400k And who are you paying? The permit owner You're not paying the city? No, no, no You pay the permit owner 22 thousand dollars just so you can sell this food?

Yes. And who is this? Random guy. Have you ever applied for a permit? Yeah, I applied and no come anything. It's long wait. Number 3800 something. These are the four bills that are sitting in the city council right now,

which would give these vendors their own permits and make your halal more affordable. But Eric Adams hasn't said a single word about them. If you own the permit, then how much would you charge for the plate? $7. $8. $8. Would you rather pay $10 for a plate of halal or $8? $8.

$8. I'd pick $8 the way to go. If I was the mayor, I'd be working with city council from day one to make halal eight bucks again. How was the taste? It tastes like ten bucks, but it should be eight. He shows you the exact bills that could be passed and how he could push them forward as mayor.

So in less than two minutes, he's identified a problem most New Yorkers face, he has explained the source of the problem and how to fix it and identified a way that he could literally improve the city If you elect him, it is the perfect campaign ad. Now watching Zoran talk about the food that he eats as a New Yorker And how he's gonna bring the price down Well, it really stands out when you compare it to the way his opponent Andrew Cuomo talks about these issues Cuomo said he avoids bagels to keep his girlish figure, and that his favorite breakfast sandwich order is an English muffin with bacon, cheese, and egg.

If you have never lived in New York, it is hard to explain how psycho this is. It's called a bacon, egg, and cheese. This is a gasp so big, it would be like if a presidential candidate called the American flag the old blue, red and white. Go back to f**king Massachusetts, a**hole! And you can see that same man-not-of-the-people energy in Cuomo's ad on the affordability crisis. York City has an affordability crisis, but we will rise.

The minimum wage will rise. I raised it to the highest in the nation as governor. I'll do it here. I mean, first of all, what in the stock footage is this version of New York? How did he find a street corner in a city of millions of people with nobody on it? And why did he just use a random Latino dude wearing an apron looking vaguely proud without ever talking to him or identifying him in any way? It's like an uncanny valley AI copy of Zoran's ad. Zoran interacting with people

lets that Cuomo play with this baby's foot like he's a witch with a house made of candy. He's clearly assessing that baby's foot for a stew. How does it have this exact vibe? This whole video, Cuomo comes across as a guy who's never even met a poor that wasn't on his payroll. And most importantly, Cuomo barely addresses what he would actually do about the problems

of affordability. He talks like a politician, not like a New Yorker. He ends the ad with this weird call for all New Yorkers to rise. Because there's a simple solution to a crisis, you act. So let's rise together. I mean, I gotta say, making a campaign ad that sounds like a boner when you're running from a sexual harassment scandal is almost as dumb as calling it a bacon, cheese, and egg. Look, my skin crawl's just saying the words in that order. When Zoran was offering

specifics and relatability, Cuomo was offering vague hand-waving and awkward handshakes. And that's why Zoran won. That source, by the way, is from our sponsor, Ground News. You know, if you've been following how the media has covered Zoran's candidacy, you know how important it is to understand how bias affects political reporting. That is why I like the Ground News bias comparison feature so much. Like here, if you look at the high factuality left leaning sources, you can see that they are actually covering the role that Islamophobia played in this election.

While right leaning mixed factuality sources are calling him a bad example. And if you click on the more centrist sources, you'll see reporting on Mamdani running on affordability. So if you're interested in understanding how political bias affects the news you read and you wanna make sure you get the real story, well guess what, you can join me and get ground news for 40% off if you use my special code, Factually. Go to groundnews.com slash factually to be more informed.

So even though Cuomo was humiliated in the primary, the dude is running again in the general. And last week, he literally said that if he loses to Zoran a second time, he'll move to Florida. Which honestly, that could be another campaign ad for Zoran. Zoran is gonna rid New York of sexual assaulters one elderly politician at a time. Good f***ing riddance, Andrew. You won't have to eat

any of those pesky bacon cheese and egg bagels in Miami, buddy. Get the f*** outta here. But for now Cuomo's giving it one last shot. So what tactic is he trying to use to defeat Zoran? Well, since he couldn't win on charisma or specifics, he's chosen a different route. He's attacking his opponent on something that had nothing to do with New York, Israel. Cuomo called anti-Semitism the most important issue of the campaign, which is weird because even Jewish New Yorkers didn't rate it as their first

issue. They ranked it fourth after, you guessed it, affordability. But that didn't stop Cuomo from running on a vague platform of conflating anti-Zionism with anti-Semitism, plugging his anti-Semitism charity that doesn't appear to actually do anything, and even signing up to be a lawyer for Israel's prime minister in his trial for war crimes. Which, you know, doesn't really sound like he's a dude who'd be invested in being mayor. He literally announced a side hustle halfway around the world backing up a genocide.

And this is just another example of Cuomo and other mainstream Democrats being out of step with the public. Cuddling up with old baby bomb and BB isn't a great way to win Democratic votes. The vast majority of registered voters in New York City are Democrats and 60% of Democrats now sympathize more with Palestinians than with the Israelis. more with Palestinians than with the Israelis. Americans are tired of giving bomb money to countries with universal health care to oppress other populations, while hardworking Americans are selling plasma to pay for prednisone. And Zoran understood that. Sure, he made his position on Gaza clear, but he didn't center his campaign around our

foreign policy towards another country's genocidal war. He built it around issues that would actually improve the quality of life for actual New Yorkers. You know, the people he wanted to vote for him. And those same issues are broadly popular with Americans across the country, because Americans are suffering and they want help. And that is how Zoran won. By doing so, he supercharged voter turnout. 37,000 people registered to vote

in the 14 days leading up to the election, compared to just 3,000 in the previous election. That's over a thousand percent increase. Zoran brought an entirely new subset of voters, predominantly young people, who had previously tapped out of politics back into the election. And that is exactly what Democrats have been saying

they need to do ever since 2024. But instead of embracing his methods and treating him like the way forward that he is, they're denouncing him and running away from him after he already won their primary and became their fucking candidate. But you know, not all the Democrats have their heads stuck in the sand like this.

The good news is, at least some of them are starting to come around to the idea of, you know, learning to fucking win. Zoran recently went to Washington to brief Democrats on what made his primary campaign so successful. And you know, as much as I think they can learn from Mom Donnie, I think they also have a lot to learn from one of the people who lost to Zoran, Brad Lander.

Lander was the longtime city controller of New York, and while he never hit the level of virality that Zoran did, they agreed on a lot of issues. And so towards the end of the campaign, Lander and Mamdani took advantage of New York City's ranked choice voting and cross-endorsed each other. I mean, look how heartwarming that is! You know, Democrats always say they want leftists and progressives and liberals to stop attacking each other and unite to win elections. Well guess what?

In New York City, that's what they f**king did. And you know, I think a lesser man than Lander might not have done this because it turned out he was essentially sacrificing his own campaign to help the younger, charismatic, Mom Donnie win. Can you imagine Chuck Schumer doing that sh- I cannot. But Lander did it because he knew it was the right thing to do for the city that he loves. He put the people first. Not the donors, not some other government's foreign policy. He put the people first. not the donors, not some other government's foreign policy. He put the people first. And that is what the Democrats need to learn most of all,

to follow the example of Zoran Mamdani and Brad Lander and the thousands of candidates they've inspired towards what Americans have been begging them for, a better f***ing life. complain, be negative, kvetch. We don't like toxic positivity. No. Because it's toxic. We're not gonna sit there going, hey, look at the bright side.

Enough of the bright side. That's all anyone's talking about these days, the fucking bright side. So tune into some of your favorite comedians, some celebrities. Like Caleb Huron, Brennan Lee Mulligan, Alana Glazer, Busy Phillips, and Dan Soder. We let them come on on and we let them share

what's shitty about their life. We look at the things that seem nice on the surface and we go, why is it shitty underneath? It's a fun time, but it's a place you're gonna listen and go, oh, thank God I'm not any of those three people on that show right now. Yeah. I feel better about my life.

So please subscribe to us on Spotify. Apple Podcasts. Pocket Casts, or watch us on YouTube. New episodes every Tuesday. This is the downside. Hey, I'm Gareth Reynolds and I have a new podcast on Headgum called Next We Have. Now this show is for people with short attention spans, which is everyone. I mean, you're probably trying to skip this ad right now, but don't because you now legally have to listen to the show.

That's how law works. Next We Have is very simple. Each episode has three short segments. now but don't because you now legally have to listen to the show. That's how law works. Next we have is very simple. Each episode has three short segments. For instance Lisa Gilroy and I write insane revenge yelp reviews for callers who had bad experiences with the business. The Dough Boys play a game called Meal or No Meal and Stef Tolov and I go head to head on a thought provoking game called Guess That Sound.

The show is as dumb as it sounds and we probably have more fun than we should but it's a great of the show.