Tangle - Jamaal Bowman loses his primary.

Starting point is 00:00:00 Based on Charles Yu's award-winning book, Interior Chinatown follows the story of Willis Wu, a background character trapped in a police procedural who dreams about a world beyond Chinatown. When he inadvertently becomes a witness to a crime, Willis begins to unravel a criminal web, his family's buried history, and what it feels like to be in the spotlight. Interior Chinatown is streaming November 19th, only on Disney+. The flu remains a serious disease. Last season, over 102,000 influenza cases have been reported across Canada, which is Chinatown is streaming November 19th, only on Disney+. yourself from the flu. It's the first cell-based flu vaccine authorized in Canada for ages six months and older, and it may be available for free in your province. Side effects and allergic reactions can occur, and 100% protection is not guaranteed. Learn more at flucellvax.ca.

Starting point is 00:01:00 From executive producer Isaac Saul, this is Tangle. Good morning, good afternoon, and good evening, and welcome to the Tangle podcast, a place where you get views from across the political spectrum, some independent thinking, and a little bit of Isaac's take. I'm your host, John Law, and today we are going to be talking about Jamal Bowman's defeat in New York's 16th Congressional District primary. Before we get started, we have two small but important corrections to make from yesterday's newsletter. to make from yesterday's newsletter. First, we referred to Chelsea Manning as a U.S. Army intelligence officer when she was, in fact, an analyst. Second, we stated that the highest court in every state is the state's Supreme Court, which is actually not true in several states. In New York, for instance, the Court of Appeals is the court of last resort, which you can see in the link that

Starting point is 00:02:05 we use to back up our statements in yesterday's newsletter. Both our main story and our reader question yesterday were backed up by a lot of minute details, and we just flat out got those details wrong. These are our 110th and 111th corrections in Tangle's 255-week history and our first correction since June 20th. We track corrections and place them at the top of the podcast and the newsletter in an effort to maximize transparency with our readers and listeners. All right, with that out of the way, let's jump into today's Quick Hits. First up, the Supreme Court ruled 6-3 to allow hospitals in Idaho to perform emergency abortions to protect the health of the mother, despite the state's near-total ban on abortion.

Starting point is 00:02:55 Number two, in a 5-4 decision, the Supreme Court found that the Federal Bankruptcy Code does not authorize a liability shield for third parties in bankruptcy agreements, rejecting a key provision in a multi-billion dollar settlement with Purdue Pharma. Separately, the court blocked a major environmental protection agency initiative aimed at reducing air pollution that crosses state lines in a 5-4 decision. Number three, Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich's trial began in Russia on Wednesday. Gershkovich is accused of spying for the CIA, a charge that he, the Journal, and the United States State Department strongly deny.

Starting point is 00:03:32 Number four, President Joe Biden extended blanket pardons to thousands of former U.S. service members convicted of violating a now-repealed ban on consensual gay sex in the military. And number five, the first presidential debate of the 2024 election is tonight at 9 p.m. Eastern time on CNN. President Biden and former President Donald Trump will debate for the first time since 2020. The most expensive congressional primary in American history is over, and voters in New York have rejected left-wing Democrat Congressman Jamal Bowman.

Starting point is 00:04:16 Bowman lost to fellow Democrat George Latimer. In New York's Democratic primary, incumbent progressive Congressman Jamal Bowman lost to Westchester County Executive George Latimer. It is a race that highlighted the party's deep divide over Israel. Latimer bested Bowman by double digits in New York's 16th congressional district, which includes part of the Bronx and the suburbs outside New York City. Bowman is the first ousted member of the progressive lawmakers who call themselves the squad and just the third incumbent to lose their seat this cycle. On Tuesday, Representative Jamal Bowman lost to Democratic challenger George Latimer in the primary election for New York's 16th congressional district. The race was one of

Starting point is 00:05:01 the most closely watched primaries in the country and the most expensive House primary ever, with around $24 million spent on advertising alone. Latimer led Bowman 58% to 42%, with 88% of the vote counted as of this morning. Latimer will now face Republican Miriam Flisser in the district's congressional election on November 5th, a race that he will likely win as Cook Political Report rates New York's 16th district as a solid Democrat. Bowman, 48, was elected to the House in 2020 after defeating Representative Eliot Engel, a 16-term incumbent, in that year's Democratic primary. A teacher and school principal in the Bronx before serving in Congress, Bowman built his platform on progressive issues like Medicare for All, single-payer health care, and the Green New Deal. During his two terms in the House, Bowman was the primary

Starting point is 00:05:49 sponsor of one enacted bill, the empowering STEM Discovery Act, and served on the House Committees on Science, Space, and Technology, and on Education and the Workforce. Bowman's tenure was at times controversial. In October of 2023, he pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge after pulling a fire alarm in a House office building when there was not an emergency. Bowman claimed he pulled the alarm to try and open a door as he rushed to vote on a government funding bill. Over a year later, Bowman cast doubt on reports of sexual violence against Israeli women during Hamas's October 7th attack,

Starting point is 00:06:25 which became an animating issue in the primary. There was propaganda used at the beginning of the siege, Bowman said at a rally on November 17th. There's still no evidence of beheaded babies or raped women, but they still keep using the lie. Bowman apologized for those comments last week, but has remained an outspoken critic of the Israeli government, a stance he traces to a visit to the West Bank in 2021. Latimer, 70, is a former state legislator and current Westchester County executive who entered the race in December of 2023 with support from local rabbis and the Westchester County Democratic establishment. He campaigned as a moderate, staking out a pro-Israel stance and calling for bipartisan policymaking in Congress.

Starting point is 00:07:06 He faced his own share of controversies during the campaign, mostly centered on how he spoke about Bowman and his supporters. When you get as much money as you get from outside the district, your constituency is Dearborn, Michigan, Latimer said during a debate with Bowman earlier this month. Bowman called the comment an Islamophobic dog whistle. Latimer received significant financial support from the American-Israel Public Affairs Committee, which spent nearly $15 million on the primary as part of its pledge to allocate up to $100 million in primary

Starting point is 00:07:36 races against candidates critical of Israel's war with Hamas. While Latimer rejected the notion that AIPAC's spending proved decisive in the race, Bowman and his allies, like Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Senator Bernie Sanders, framed its influence as undemocratic. Bowman trailed Latimer in the polls throughout the race. With the loss, he becomes the first Democratic House lawmaker to lose a primary this year, as well as the first member of the S.Q.U.A.D., an informal title for

Starting point is 00:08:05 a group of eight progressive House members, to lose re-election. Today, we'll explore arguments from the left and the right about the outcome of the race, and then Isaac's take. We'll be right back after this quick commercial break. can you do this flu season? Talk to your pharmacist or doctor about getting a flu shot. Consider FluCellVax Quad and help protect yourself from the flu. It's the first cell-based flu vaccine authorized in Canada for ages six months and older, and it may be available for free in your province. Side effects and allergic reactions can occur, and 100% protection is not guaranteed. Learn more at FluCellVax.ca. Based on Charles Yu's award-winning book, Interior Chinatown follows the story of Willis Wu, a background character trapped in a police procedural who dreams about

Starting point is 00:09:10 a world beyond Chinatown. When he inadvertently becomes a witness to a crime, Willis begins to unravel a criminal web, his family's buried history, and what it feels like to be in the spotlight. Interior Chinatown is streaming November 19th, only on Disney+. All right, first up, let's start with what the left is saying. The left is mixed on the implications of Bowman's loss, with many saying groups like AIPAC will be emboldened by the result. Some argue that progressives should not overreact to outside spending on the race. Others say the result is a blow to progressives in New York. In MSNBC, Zeeshan Aleem called Bowman's defeat a big deal. Bowman's Israel position put him at odds with many of his constituents,

Starting point is 00:09:57 and it seems he could have done more to win them back. A more skilled lawmaker would have done more work to build trust with his diverse community at a time of exceptionally heightened emotions and rising bigotry against Jewish and Arab communities, Aleem said. It's not unusual for politicians to take positions that many of their constituents fiercely oppose, but pro-Israel groups exploited Bowman's vulnerability and targeted him with an unprecedented lobbying effort to take him down. AIPAC and other pro-Israel groups will likely use this victory to put other Democratic lawmakers

Starting point is 00:10:28 on notice and warn them not to criticize Israel too strongly. But the reality is that this is the first victory that the group has notched against the squad, and this race involved a distinctly vulnerable candidate and a strong challenger, Alim wrote. One hopes that they aren't frightened out of taking the right position on standing in opposition to Israel's treatment of the Palestinians. And Jacobin Branco-Marketic wrote, AIPAC's defeat of Jamal Bowman disguises its weakness. Bowman's loss will soon be used, in fact already is and was before the polls even closed, by AIPAC and other pro-war forces to scare less courageous candidates and members of Congress

Starting point is 00:11:05 into line. Pro-Israel groups have framed the race as a referendum on Bowman's and the rest of the squad's stance on the Gaza War-U.S.-Israel policy and argued that these positions are out of step with a more centrist Democratic electorate. They've been assisted by much of the press, which you will soon see, helpfully spreading AIPAC's preferred narrative in coverage of Latimer's victory. This gambit of using Bowman's loss to convince others that criticizing Israel will end their careers may well work, but it really shouldn't. In reality, AIPAC's threat is more of a bluff than it seems, Marketic said. Across the country, AIPAC endorsed candidates who tended to be in non-competitive districts or even running unopposed. That way, when its endorsees won, regardless of whether or not their APEC endorsement actually

Starting point is 00:11:50 figured into the race, the lobby could then swoop in and loudly take credit. Bowman became such a major target of APEC's spending barrage, not because he was a critic of Israel, but because he was one of the few critics of Israel the organization could actually beat. but because he was one of the few critics of Israel the organization could actually beat. In New York Magazine, Ross Barkin said Bowman's loss is the start of a new era. Latimer's triumph could come at a cost. He defeated Westchester's first black congressman in a primary that polarized around race.

Starting point is 00:12:24 He angered many Democrats by claiming Bowman's real constituencies were in San Francisco and Dearborn, Barkin wrote. For now, Latimer fits comfortably with the Israel hawks in New York's House delegation, including the Bronx's Richie Torres. But life for him in Congress may only get more complicated. The Netanyahu government continues to antagonize the Biden administration, and Latimer's views on Israel bring him into closer alignment with Donald Trump. Progressives, meanwhile, have been dealt a grievous blow. Bowman was a rising star and someone who could have,

Starting point is 00:12:54 with enough time in the House, run for higher office, Barkin added. The squad without him is still large enough and may grow in the coming years, even if Cori Bush, another prominent member, also loses this summer. But Bowman's defeat marks the loss of a rare, if undisciplined, political talent. AIPAC and other moneyed forces will hope they've found a new blueprint for success, recruit a willing, well-known lawmaker to run against a progressive, and pump many millions into the primary. All right, that's it for what the left is saying, which brings us to what the right is saying. The right celebrates Bowman's defeat, suggesting his controversies were too much to overcome, even as an incumbent. Some push back on the notion that Bowman lost because of outside spending.

Starting point is 00:13:50 Others say the race illustrated broader divisions within the Democratic Party. The Wall Street Journal editorial board said voters rejected Bowman's antagonistic progressive politics. Political incumbents are hard to beat, but voters in Westchester County, New York, are through being embarrassed by Representative Jamal Bowman, the board wrote. Bowman pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor for his fire alarm stunt at the House office building. Last week on a WNYC radio show, he said he was sorry for denying Hamas's rapes. Several months ago, he said he regretted writing a 9-11 truther poem on his blog in 2011 when he was 35 years old and working as a middle school principal. Voters need a cheat sheet to keep track of Mr. Bowman's apologies, the board said. Mr. Latimer says he'll vote for legislation to codify abortion rates and transition the U.S.

Starting point is 00:14:30 away from fossil fuels, and we don't expect to agree with him on much other than that ousting Mr. Bowman is an act of political hygiene. May there be more such efforts in both parties. In red states, Stacey Matthews explored the finer print in Bowman's loss. The prevailing narrative against woke Democrats, and some in the media, in the aftermath of Representative Jamal Bowman's resounding defeat in the New York 16th Democratic primary Tuesday is that big-money special interest groups like AIPAC bought the primary by spending tens of millions in it to defeat Bowman, Matthews wrote. While it's true that AIPAC did indeed spend a lot of money in this race, at the end of the day, it's not PACs who go to the polls, it's the people.

Starting point is 00:15:12 And long before AIPAC got involved in this primary fight, Bowman was already turning people off with his disregard of his constituents, as well as his duplicity on the issues of Israel. All Bowman had to do was not go back-crap crazy on the subject of Israel, especially after the October 7th Hamas terrorist attacks and other issues that mattered to his constituents. But he couldn't do it. At the end of the day, it was more about his national profile and the backpats he could get from the Hamas Caucus Squad DSA than it was about representing the people who sent him to Congress, Matthews said.

Starting point is 00:15:45 If your stances and attitude are at odds with the majority of the people in your district, then it's nobody's fault other than your own as to why you lost. In City Journal, Seth Barron wrote about Jamal Bowman and the Democrats' schism. Railing against money in politics is a quaint theme for Democrats these days. Decades ago, the Democratic Party regularly bemoaned the baleful influence of big money on elections, but we almost never hear about that anymore. It's no mystery why. The Democrats became the party of big money.

Starting point is 00:16:16 Almost every national election cycle sees Democrats outspend Republicans by hundreds of millions of dollars, Barron said. And that's why the incessant emphasis on AIPAC has ugly overtones. It doesn't require paranoid hypersensitivity to note that the constant repetition of AIPAC money in the current climate of rising anti-Semitism is more than just a dog whistle about Jewish wealth. Jamal Bowman will now exit elected office, but the schism within the Democratic Party that his defeat exemplifies will haunt the party.

Starting point is 00:16:45 Support for Israel has become a bright line for both sides," Barron wrote. Many have suggested that the 2024 Democratic National Convention, to be held this summer in Chicago, might resemble the famously contentious scene in 1968, when anti-Vietnam War protesters rioted in the streets and battled Mayor Richard J. Daley's police. But in 1968, the protests occurred outside the convention hall. This year, we will see pro-Hamas, AIPAC vilifiers inside the hall as credentialed delegates. All right, that is it for what the left and the right are saying, which brings us to

Starting point is 00:17:27 Isaac's take. Just a reminder that this is Isaac's opinion, and I am reading it in the first person. Jamal Bowman lost his race because he's not a very good politician. I'm going to say that again. Jamal Bowman lost his race because he's not a very good politician. Watching the reaction to Bowman's loss from the progressive left has been equal parts frightening and frustrating. The general tenor of the reaction was captured nicely by Breonna Joy Gray, a pundit and progressive activist who posts on social media like a surrogate for Bowman. Joy recently lost her job at the Hill after seeming entirely incapable of displaying any empathy while interviewing the sister of an Israeli hostage. After Bowman lost, Joy blasted

Starting point is 00:18:11 out this message to her followers. Black electeds are too afraid to tell their black and working class constituents the truth, that wealthy AIPAC-backed candidates are using foreign money to turn out wealthy whites and put Israel's interests over their own, but they need to get over it. They'll be called anti-Semitic anyway. So much is wrong and inaccurate about this tweet, but it is representative of the response that I've seen from much of the left, including some of the takes above, so I'd like to briefly address it piece by piece. Black electeds are too afraid to tell their black and working class constituents the truth. Presumably the truth is what Joy says next, that AIPAC is buying elections and putting up wealthy whites. The idea that anyone is afraid to say this is, of course, self-evidently false.

Starting point is 00:18:58 Jamal Bowman, a black elected official, spent the last few months of his campaign openly railing against AIPAC and telling voters exactly what Joy says Black elected officials are too afraid to say. In fact, Bowman and Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez came together in the final stretch of the campaign for a clownish rally where they both jumped around the stage like musical artists hyping up the crowd while Bowman promised to show fucking APEC the power of the motherfucking Bronx. After he lost, Bowman said this, we should not be well adjusted to a sick society. We should be outraged. We should be outraged when a super pack of dark money can

Starting point is 00:19:36 spend $20 million to brainwash people into believing something that isn't true. We should be outraged about that. He doesn't seem very afraid to me. In her response, Joy reminds me of conservative pundits who go on national television and shriek about how you can't say there are two genders anymore, or you can't wish anyone Merry Christmas. In reality, no one is getting canceled for saying any of those things. It's the same kind of victimization nonsense. Of course, Joy and Bowman are both also wrong that wealthy AIPAC-backed candidates are using foreign money to turn out wealthy whites and put Israel's interests over their own. For starters, AIPAC is an American lobbying group whose donors are predominantly wealthy

Starting point is 00:20:16 Americans. Yes, they are a single-issue organization, like most lobbying groups, focused on promoting Israel's interests. But they aren't funded by foreign money and suggesting otherwise drums up disgust for Americans who care about Israel. Would Joy be saying the same thing if a lobbying group fighting for Palestinian statehood was dumping money into this race to support Bowman? Something tells me she would not. Second, AIPAC isn't the reason Bowman lost. Now, did AIPAC spend a record-setting amount of money in this race?

Starting point is 00:20:47 Yeah, they did. Did AIPAC attack Bowman and try and energize voters in his district solely on the Israel issue? Yes, they did. Do I wish money wasn't so central in American elections? Yes, I do. And yet, while I know it might be hard to believe the Jews—it's okay, we can say the quiet part out loud here—aren't orchestrating everything that happens in our country,

Starting point is 00:21:08 I think it's worth pointing out that some polls had Bowman trailing by 17 points before AIPAC spent a dime in the race. Not only that, but AIPAC had its own horrible record this cycle, failing to influence several much closer high-profile races it invested in. Bowman actually ended the race polling higher than he was even before they got involved, a fact nobody on the left, including Bowman, seems particularly interested in ruminating on. Some have blamed Bowman's loss on gerrymandering, and you all know how I feel about gerrymandering. I hate it enough that I'm tempted to join the chorus in support of Bowman. But here's the reality check. His district hasn't changed since 2020 when he won. Bowman likely would have romped with the pre-2020 map as he beat Latimer by 68 points in the Bronx. However, Bowman's shortcomings as a politician prevented him from adapting. As Zeeshan Aleem said in Under

Starting point is 00:22:01 What the Left is Saying, a more skilled lawmaker would have done more work to build trust with his diverse community. So maybe, just maybe, this was Bowman's doing. Maybe, and hang on to your hats here, folks, Bowman just isn't a great politician. Maybe getting caught pulling a fire alarm in Congress and then being criminally charged for it to delay a vote isn't attractive to voters. Maybe progressive politicians like Bowman who get elected at the height of the Black Lives Matter movement are becoming less popular now that the movement they attach themselves to is itself becoming less popular. Maybe his popularity is flagging because he broke with

Starting point is 00:22:40 Biden on two of his most popular legislative acts, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the Fiscal Responsibility Act. Maybe it was his 9-11 conspiracy theories. Maybe it was denying Israelis were raped on October 7th. Maybe cringey, curse-filled rallies that have little to do with local issues only resonate with a small segment of very online progressives. Maybe losing the endorsement of his longtime ally Mondaire Jones had an impact. If progressives want to get a handle on their movement, they need to stop blaming everything but their own candidates and policies. Until then, their efforts to push blame and save face will resonate with just as many voters as their campaigns, which is to say, not many.

Starting point is 00:23:32 We'll be right back after this quick break. Can trees help us grow more resilient to climate change? At the University of British Columbia, we believe that they can. Dr. Suzanne Simard and her team are connecting our future to nature. Their Mother Tree project could transform how we manage forests, capturing more carbon and safeguarding biodiversity for generations to come. At UBC, our researchers are answering today's most pressing questions. To learn how we're moving the world forward, visit ubc.ca forward happens here. Based on Charles Yu's award-winning book, Interior Chinatown follows the story of Willis Wu,

Starting point is 00:24:11 a background character trapped in a police procedural who dreams about a world beyond Chinatown. When he inadvertently becomes a witness to a crime, Willis begins to unravel a criminal web, his family's buried history, and what it feels like to be in the spotlight. Interior Chinatown is streaming November 19th, only on Disney+. The flu remains a serious disease. Last season, over 102,000 influenza cases have been reported across Canada, which is nearly double the historic average of 52,000 cases. What can you do this flu season?

Starting point is 00:24:41 Talk to your pharmacist or doctor about getting a flu shot. Consider FluCellVax Quad and help protect yourself from the flu. It's the first cell-based flu vaccine authorized in Canada for ages six months and older, and it may be available for free in your province. Side effects and allergic reactions can occur, and 100 it for Isaac's take. We are skipping today's reader question since we gave a little extra space to our main story and Isaac's take. As always, if you have any questions, you can reach out to Isaac directly at isaac at readtangle.com. All right, next up is our under-the-radar story. Texas's statewide ban on early abortions could be

Starting point is 00:25:37 contributing to an increase in infant mortality, according to a recent study in the Journal of the American Medical Association Pediatrics. In 2021, Texas passed SB-8, also known as the Heartbeat Act, which prohibited physicians from performing abortions after a fetal heartbeat could be detected. According to the study's authors, infant deaths in Texas increased by 12.9% in the year following the bill's passage, while the rest of the U.S. experienced a comparatively lower 1.8 percent increase. Although replication and further analyses are needed to understand the mechanisms behind these findings, the results suggest that restrictive abortion policies may have important unintended consequences in terms of trauma to families and medical cost as a result of the increases in infant mortality, the study's authors said.

Starting point is 00:26:26 The JAMA Network has this story, and there's a link in today's episode description. All right, next up is our numbers section. George Latimer's lead over Jamal Bowman among voters in Westchester County, with 88% of the votes counted, is 63 to 37%, respectively. Bowman's lead over Latimer among voters in Bronx County is 84 to 16%. The percentage of New York 16 voters younger than 40 who said they support Bowman and Latimer, respectively, is 44% and 35%, according to an Emerson College poll released two weeks before the primary. The percentage of New York 16 voters aged 40 to 59 who said they support Latimer and Bowman respectively is 53% and 31%. The percentage of roll call votes missed by Bowman between January 2021 and June 2024

Starting point is 00:27:19 is 3.2%, higher than the median of 2 percent of votes missed among the lifetime records of representatives currently serving, according to GovTrack. The approximate amount raised by Bowman in the 2024 election cycle as of June 5th is $4.2 million, according to Federal Election Commission filings. The approximate amount spent by Bowman in the 2024 election cycle is $3.2 million. The approximate amount raised by Latimer in the 2024 election cycle is $3.2 million. The approximate amount raised by Latimer in the 2024 election cycle as of June 5th is $5.8 million. The approximate amount spent by Latimer in the 2024 election cycle is $3.2 million. And the approximate amount spent on advertising in the New York 16th primary by the United Democracy Project, the independent expenditure arm of APAC,

Starting point is 00:28:03 is $14 million, roughly 61% of total ad spending on the race, according to Ad Impact. And last but not least, our Have a Nice Day story. Philadelphia Parks and Recreation is collaborating with a D.C. startup and a local nonprofit to repurpose fallen trees and provide jobs for unemployed and underemployed young adults. The startup, Cambium Carbon, creates carbon smart wood from trees and material that can be used for a variety of furniture and building projects. Meanwhile, the nonprofit, PowerCorps PHL, employs individuals who have a lot of talent that hasn't been tapped yet, said co-founder Julia Helengas.

Starting point is 00:28:49 PowerCorp's PHL is able to connect them to longer-term opportunities. Next City has this story, and there's a link in today's episode description. All right, everybody, that is it for today's episode. As always, if you'd like to support our work, please head over to retangle.com and sign up for a membership. We'll be right back here on Monday. For Isaac and the rest of the crew, this is John Law signing off. Have a fantastic weekend, y'all. Peace. Our podcast is written by me, Isaac Saul, and edited and engineered by John Law.

Starting point is 00:29:24 Our podcast is written by me, Isaac Saul, and edited and engineered by John Wall. The script is edited by our managing editor, Ari Weitzman, Will Kabak, Bailey Saul, and Sean Brady. The logo for our podcast was designed by Magdalena Bokova, who is also our social media manager. Music for the podcast was produced by Diet75. If you're looking for more from Tangle, please go to readtangle.com and check out our website.

Tangle - Jamaal Bowman loses his primary.

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