The Breakfast Club - INTERVIEW: Mehdi Hasan On Mamdani's Mayoral Win, Combatting Hate, Government Shutdown + More

Episode Date: November 5, 2025

Today On The Breakfast Club, Mehdi Hasan On Mamdani's Mayoral Win, Combatting Hate, Government Shutdown. Listen For More!YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@BreakfastClubPower1051FMSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Extremely. Listen to Health Stuff on the IHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And she said, Johnny, the kids didn't come home last night. Along the central Texas plains, teens are dying, suicides that don't make sense, strange accidents, and brutal murders. In what seems to be, a plot ripped straight out of Breaking Bad. Drugs, alcohol, trafficking of people, There are people out there that absolutely know what happened. Listen to Paper Ghosts, the Texas Teen Murders, on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Robert Smith, and this is Jacob Goldstein, and we used to host a show called Planet Money. And now we're back making this new podcast called Business History about the best ideas and people and businesses in history.

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Hold up. Every day I wake. Wake your ass up. The Breakfast Club. You're all finished or y'all's done? Morning, everybody. It's DJ Envy. Just hilarious.

Salameen Nagar. We are the Breakfast Club. We got a special guest in the building. Yes. He's here to talk about a lot, especially post-election coverage. Ladies and gentlemen, Mehdi Hassan.

Welcome. Great to be back, guys. How are you, man? How do you feel, first of all, I know y'all was partying all last last? Yeah, you got to be tired. Partying, I was doing a live stream. It was very noisy in Brooklyn.

You can imagine there was some noise made at this historic. election night event and the voice took a hit but yeah it was uh very historic we were there all night we were alive all night i want to ask you a question first of all have you seen this the front page of the new yf post this morning let me see okay oh wow it says on your marks get set zoe socialist mondani wins race for mayor the red apple what do you think of that what i think is it didn't work during the election campaign i can't believe they're still trying this shit i mean the new york post rupert murdo they tried they threw every they threw the kitchen sink at this guy

and it didn't work. You won a majority of the vote. In the last days, they were like, if only Slewa pulls out, the whole campaign was Slewa pull out, doesn't matter if Sleeward pulled out. He won more than 50% of the vote. You won a majority in New York.

You won more than a million votes. It's been, I think, something like this is 60 years since a New York Merrill candidate won over a million votes. So none of this stuff worked. They'll keep going after in the billionaires. And I pointed out last night, Duran Moundani did not just be Andrew Cuomo and Curtis Slewa.

So Rammandani beat Bill Ackman and Michael Bloomberg and Reed Hastings and James Murdoch and the Walmart woman and the Home Depot guy and DoorDash and Airbnb and all the billionaires and corporations who threw all that cash at him. What do you think about Bill Ackman reaching out last night? What did you think of that? First of all, it was a very short tweet. Bill Ackman writes these war and peace Tolstoy tweets, very short tweet. I tweeted last night, thoughts and prayers to Bill Ackman and Elon Musk. This guy spent his entire campaign attacking. He suggested that Zoroamandani is some crazy jihadist terrorist radical.

And for people that don't know who he is, he's a hedge fund manager. He's worth about $10 billion. I envy the people who don't know who he is. I wish I didn't know who he was. He spends a lot of money and time online. And what's interesting is it's why people hate politics in this country, right? It's so cynical. He spent the entire campaign saying, that guy is a terrorist.

He hates Jews. Like the most extreme incendiary rhetoric. And then he wins. He's like, hey, man, I'll work with you. You need me? I'm here for you. Hold on. I thought you just told us the end of the world was going to happen

if this guy won. Like, make your mind up. But I do have a question. So a lot of people were saying that, um, Donnie promised a lot. I saw you in an elevator. And some of the things he said free and rent freeze, eliminating fans for city buses, universal child care, building a large number of affordable housing. And they're going to be on a raise and taxes. He's going to fund all this by raising

taxes on the top earners and corporations. Building 200,000 houses. So he's going to be on a timer. So what do you say to those people? Could he get, he'd get all those things done with everybody against him in politics, I should say. Well, what's interesting is that everybody is not against them. The public are with him, right? He's got a massive mandate.

Donald Trump is a man. Let me just put context. Donald Trump is a man who's never won more than 50% of the vote. In 2016, he lost a popular vote, still beat Hillary. In 2020, he lost popular vote and everything else to Biden. In 2024, last year, he got 49. something percent of the vote. He never hit 50%. Have you listened to how Republicans taught?

Like they own the place. We have a mandate. Millions of people voted for this. The people are with Trump. You need to have democratic leaders who are willing to do the same thing. I want to hear Zoran Mamnani in every speech go, more than a million people voted for me. Like, that should be his line in every interview at the start and end

the very time he talks. Because that is his mandate. Those are the people who are with him. And the fact that you were able to just reel off his policies. Because he said it so much. Yeah. And because it works, right? Like Hillary Clinton ran with like a 700-page policy platform.

No one knew what it was. Donald Trump said ban Muslims, build a wall. People remember that stuff. So it was political genius to communicate with those kind of simple, popular appears. Is he going to pull it all off? We will see. I mean, we know that he doesn't have the power to do everything on his own. Luckily, the governor is now an ally. Cathy, even though Schumer and others wouldn't back him, he did get the backing of the governor. I interviewed Tish James last night, the Attorney General. He's got the backing of some big figures in the state. Well,

will that be enough. We will see. We will see whether the smile and the charm and the charisma and the people power will get Albany to do some of this stuff because he can't do it on his own. You're right. Well, Governor Hogle already says she's not going to raise the taxes. She said she's not going to raise taxes, but she also said she supports his plan for universal childcare. So at some point, the robber's going to hit the road. How do you pay for it? It can only be through raising taxes on rich folks. Can it be free bus service in New York City? I mean, there could be anything you want. I mean, realistically, could that happen? I live in a country where Donald Trump is present. I mean, I'm not to the bus to school every day.

I mean, I live in a country where the guy from Home Alone 2 is president threatening to annex Greenland. And you tell me if free buses are realistic. I think a lot of things are realistic. if you put your, I mean, Democrats are always trying to lower the ambition. And Republicans are like, we'll do whatever the hell we want. We'll conquer countries. We'll bomb things. We'll do all sorts of insane things. And Democrats are like, oh, can we do this little bit for poor people or marginalized people

or people who need help? And I just think, come on, New York, biggest city in the country, richest city in the country. You can't do this stuff. Yes, you can. I want to see them do it. You know how. I really do.

And by the way, if they block him, I mean, this is a man who will run again on this platform. I mean, FDR ran in the 1930s on the basis that, look, they hate me the rich people, and I embrace their hatred. And I can very much see if he doesn't get things through, and it's clear it's because of the opponents, he'll run on that again in a few years time. I want to ask about that. How does he navigate the government overreach that is absolutely going to happen from Donald Trump? It's a good question. I asked Tish James the same question yesterday.

I mean, all Democratic attorneys generals have been dealing with this issue in California, in Illinois. We know Donald Trump is now going to use his excuse to send in the troops. to cut funding. I mean, it's insane that he posted on his social site at the weekend. You know, if you vote for Zara Monday, if Zara Mundi was, I will cut funding. Like, that is the classic mob boss.

That is crazy. Just extortion. The country's biggest, richest city, the President of the United States says, I'm not going to send you any money if you don't vote for the guy I want. By the way, the guy he wanted was Andrew Cuomo. So I just think that's,

look, I don't know if there's any solution to this stuff. I think it's not going to, it can't be Mundany on his own, right? The whole point about Donald Trump is you can't beat him on his own. You can't beat. What he does is he goes after institutions and people one by one, like the bully in the playground, and takes them out one by

one. The only way you beat Donald Trump is with solidarity, with people sticking together, not people throwing each other under the bus, big universities, big tech companies, all trying to curry favor. I actually thought the best part of Zoran Mandani speech last night was when he went after Trump and made it very clear. He said, the way you respond to oligarchy and authoritarianism is not with the appeasement they crave, but with the strength they fear. And he said, You get rid of the conditions that create despots like Trump. You don't hear that enough in the Democratic Party. All you hear from the Democrats is we've got to get rid of Trump

and back to business as usual. What Zaramam Dani is saying, and Bernie and others have said is, you can't just get rid of Trump. You've got to get rid of the next Trump. And that means getting rid of the conditions that created Trump. Can you vote out an authoritarian regime? Like, you know, because I see everybody celebrating. Yeah.

And I'm like, relax. The guy's still in power. I don't care how. He is, minimum. Yes. I don't care how unpopular he is. He's got a lot of power, and he can use that power to, you know, get rid of a lot of the checks and balances that, you know, still exist. Can you vote that out in 2006?

That's, I mean, that's the $64,000 question. It's something I've been worried about since 2018, 2019 when I said he's not going to leave after 2020 and he tried to stay on. Look, the guy is selling merch for 2028. He's visiting world leaders. He takes them to a closet in the White House and he shows them 2028 merch. Schumer and Jeffries comes to the overall as he chucks the 2028 merch at them. He said the other day, oh, you know, I'm not going to run as vice president and do that again, but he never fully rules it out because, of course, he wants to stay in office.

And I think that is the big question. Are we going to have free and fair elections in 2028? But the way to ensure that we do have 2028 free election, or at least try and ensure it, is to make sure they don't control every branch of government. And what last night's blue wave, and it was a blue wave, what that shows us is actually that Democrats are on a very good path in terms of winning back the House next year. If they don't win back the House next year, then I don't think we see the back of this guy. I just think there's nothing to stop him at all.

How should Democrats look at last night? And what I mean by that is, Jersey, you expect Jersey to go blue. Mayor race in New York City, you expect that to go blue. Prop 50 in California, that's the blue state, right? Virginia, you kind of expect that. The margins. Margins were huge.

Okay, so how should this be something they look at and be like, okay, this is a step in the right direction for us? It's 100% a step in the right direction, especially you look at the Virginia House, for example, which is seen as a bellwether, they won back a bunch of seats from the veto-proof majority there. So Trump took a beating in all these places, especially in Virginia where he fired a bunch of federal workers, Doge, all of that, had a huge impact.

But look, it's across the board. It's in special elections in Georgia. It's the prop 50 was a two to one vote. I think Gavin Newsom would be very pleased with that result. There was a statewide race in Georgia, which they won as well. You go through the list. In Maine, they rejected an attempt to limit early voting and all sorts of other voting methods. So it's really, really interesting that across the board, they did well. The margins were big. I mean, Mikey Cheryl, it was looking very close in New Jersey just last week. She actually was a blowout, right? So I do think the margins are big. It does bode well for them going into next year.

My bigger worry is, not that they win the House. I hope they win the House. But then what do they do with that power? Like, I have no confidence in Hakeem Jeffries. I have no confidence in Chuck Schumer. I mean, Chuck Schumer was asked yesterday, who did you vote for in your city? And he could not say who he voted for.

Like, disgraceful doesn't come close enough to it. You are the leader of the Democrats in the Senate, and you can't say that you voted for the Democratic candidate in New York. And by the way, you said New York goes, you know, he's a Democratic city. But this guy was up against two candidates. He was up against a Republican and a famous Democrat with name recognition who was governor of the state. Terrible candidates, though. Terrible candidates. And I like Curtis as a person, but they're terrible.

Agreed. He got lucky. You need luck in politics. Donald Trump got lucky in 2016. You could argue with Hillary Clinton. But the point is they still outspent him. They still threw the kitchen sink in him. He still had all the billionaire support.

He still had the Cuomo name. If you go back nine months, we say terrible candidate, but he had the inevitability aura. It was like it's Andrew Cuomo's race to lose. He was leading in the primaries. This was the guy who was supposed to just naturally get it because of his name and experience and money. He didn't. He got disgraced twice. Let me ask, what does that mean for Democrats?

Because it seems like when the Democrats had somebody, they split like Voltron, right? You had Eric Adams now he's independent. You had Cuomo now he's independent. But they're Democrats, but they all did this to go at Mondani. What does that mean for Democrats? Because Republicans, I don't think we'd ever do that. Even if they didn't like the candidate, they would still stand behind them. I mean, it's a reminder that they keep nominating crappy Democrats.

I mean, the fact that Eric Adams was the mayor, the fact that Andrew Krober was the governor tells you volumes about the New York Democratic Party and how awful it was. And I think Mundani is a breath of fresh air. I was standing in that hall at Brooklyn Paramount last night, watching him speak, seeing the energy, the crowd, people crying. I'm thinking to myself, this is the guy they chose to reject. This is the guy Chuck Schumer couldn't even say he voted for.

This is the guy that, as you call him, Apak Shakur, couldn't turn up and actually until like the Friday before the race endorse him. What is wrong with these people? Do they not want to win? He won young men 18 to 29, according to the NBC exit poll last night, by 40 points. To put that in context, Cheryl and Spanberger won young men by 10 and 14 points. I'm downing won by 40 points. I'm old enough to remember a year ago when Democrats like, how do we get young men back? Do we need to go on podcasts?

How do we get young men back? This guy's doing it. He's giving you a playbook. And they're like, no, no, we don't want the playbook. We don't want this guy. The entire party establishment rejecting him. To the very end, Hillary Clinton asked at the weekend. She's like, I don't know.

I haven't our view. Like, none of them would come behind this guy with energy and charisma. So it's a real problem for the Democratic Party. If they decide to carry on, you know, the classic circular firing squad where they're all just shooting each other. On Monday, Spanberg, the woman who just won the governor's race in Virginia, she was attacking Mamdanias dishonest. I'm like, what are you doing? You're both on the eve of major elections. Why are you attacking him?

Like, is there not enough Republicans to attack? But that is classic Democratic Party. I think I saw it, correct me if I'm wrong, I saw a poll last night that he won just young people 18 to 29 by like 75%. I'm sure if overall. I didn't see the final number 18. But the male one is fascinating. He won women, of course, as well.

But the male one's fascinated because all I was told by pundits was like, young men don't vote. They're all conservatives now. We were told that all young men are conservatives. We didn't see that last night. We were told Latinos all conservative now. Last night, Democrats won back Latinos across the country. Guess what?

having a rogue, fascist, secret police and masks, picking up brown people off the street doesn't help your poll rating. What do you say to people that say, you know, because a lot of older people feel like he doesn't have the experience and that's what scares them. So what do you say to those individuals? And what is your thoughts on?

I will repeat my position. The guy from Home Alone, too, is President of the United States with his finger on the nuclear button. If Donald Trump can be President of the United States, anyone can be anything in this country. He is like the reverse American dream. And I think, look, yeah, he's been in the State Assembly for a few years. He made a very good point in the campaign.

He's like, look, my experience is not Andrew Cuomo's experience, but why would you want Andrew Cuomo's experience? I don't think people care about that stuff anymore. Look at Grand Platner in Maine. Guys are oyster fishermen, marine veteran, had a Nazi tattoo on his chest, and he's filling out halls.

People don't care. They want authenticity. They crave energy. They crave real people. They are fed up with the automatons and the robots and the corporate consultant-created candidates. They're done with it. I want to go back to Hakeem Jeffries and Chuck Schumer for a second.

Iran did give me hope that there are still free and fair elections, right? Because I'm going to be honest with you. I was like, they're not going to say. I was like, they're not going to let me. They're going to pull a rabbit out. They had something going to happen. Yeah, I was worried about the same thing. I'm like, right?

But he gave me hope that there's still free and fair elections. And he also gave me hope that Hakeem Jeffries and Chuck Schumer could be successfully primary. Yeah. I mean, Hakeem, I think, is more difficult. From what I hear, I'm not the great expert on every New York district. But Schumer, for sure. I mean, Schumer is so embarrassing. You see, like, you look at people like my good friends at Crooked Media, the Pod Save guys, and all those guys, everyone across every wing, almost every wing of the Democratic Party is like, what is wrong with Chuck Scho?

Like, it doesn't matter whether you like Mum Dany or not like Mike Day. You can't do that. You cannot build your entire personality around Vote Blue, no matter who, with a little asterisk. Unless it's the Democratic Socialist Muslim guy from New York, then you don't have to endorse him. I think that, I think he's embarrassed himself. AOC was at the event last night. She has been obviously a strong support of Mum Dany. A lot of people have divided us.

to whether they want her to run for president in 28 or do they want her to primary Chuck Schumer in 28? She obviously has a better chance of beating Schumer in 28 than she has a being president, which is just a bigger lift. You know, people like Chi or say from the city council, people were talking about him running up against, who said about Dick Cheney yesterday,

may he rest in piss, which upset a lot of Republicans. But we need that kind of blunt speaking. He's been talked about as a potential candidate against Jeffries. I think it would be difficult to primary a Hakeem Jeffries. I don't think so. Why do you think so? I think the machine is very strong in places like his district. I think I've seen reports about internal polling bigger, but look, anything's possible.

Zoran Mondani started at 1%. When I interviewed Zoran Mondani in December 2024, and I told him this to his face recently when I interviewed him again, it was a pity interview. I was like, all right, let's give this guy a platform. He's at 1%. He's a lefty, I like that. I didn't expect him to win. I'll be on very honest about that.

He was at 1%. And he beat Andrew Cromo twice. So yes, it can be done. And I think they should both be really worried, especially Chuck Schumer. I think, forget primoring, Senate. Democrats should be forcing his resignation right now. The guy is useless. There are many other Democrats who do a much better job, Chris Murphy, Brian Schott, Chris Van Hollen, people are going out and taking the fight to Republicans.

And meanwhile, Schumer's like, I will write you another sternly worded letter. And it's like, you're not the man for this moment. The reason I think they should be challenge is because when I saw Hakeem Jeffries on Jake Tapper this weekend. On the podcast Health Stuff, we are tackling all the health questions that keep you up at night. Yes, I'm Dr. Priyankawali, a double board certified physician. And I'm Hurricane Dibolu, a comedian and someone who once Googled, Do I Have Scurvy at 3 a.m? On health stuff, we're talking about health in a different way.

It's not only about what we can do to improve our health, but also what our health says about us and the way we're living. Like our episode where we look at diabetes. In the United States, I mean, 50% of Americans are pre-diabetic. How preventable is type 2? Extremely. Or our in-depth analysis of how incredible, mangoes are.

Oh, it's hard to explain to the rest of the world that, like, your mangoes are fine because mangoes are incredible, but, like, you don't even know. You don't know. You don't know. It's going to be a fun ride. So tune in. Listen to health stuff on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And she said, Johnny, the kids didn't come home last night.

Along the central Texas plains, teens are dying. suicides that don't make sense, strange accidents, and brutal murders. In what seems to be, a plot ripped straight out of Breaking Bad. Drugs, alcohol, trafficking of people. There are people out there that absolutely know what happened. Listen to paper ghosts, the Texas teen murders, on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Robert Smith. This is Jacob Goldstein.

and we used to host a show called Planet Money. And now we're back making this new podcast called Business History about the best ideas and people and businesses in history and some of the worst people, horrible ideas, and destructive companies in the history of business. Having a genius idea without a need for it is nothing. It's like not having it at all. It's a very simple, elegant lesson.

Make something people want. First episode, How Southwest Airlines, use cheap seats and free whiskey to fight its way into the airline business. The most Texas story ever. There's a lot of mavericks in that story. We're going to have mavericks on the show. We're going to have plenty of robber barons. So many robber barons.

And you know what? They're not all bad. And we'll talk about some of the classic great moments of famous business geniuses, along with some of the darker moments that often get overlooked. Like Thomas Edison and the electric chair. Listen to business history on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get it. Your podcast. In the new podcast, Hell in Heaven, two young Americans moved to the Costa Rican jungle to start over.

But one will end up dead. The other tried for murder. Not once. People went wild. Not twice. Stunned. But three times. John and Ann Bender are rich and attractive.

And they're devoted to each other. They create a nature as a. and build a spectacular circular home high on the top of a hill. But little by little, their dream starts to crumble and our couple retreat from reality. They lose it, they actually lose it. They sort of went nuts.

Until one night, everything spins out of control. Listen to hell in heaven on the I-Heart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Here we go. Hey, I'm Cal Penn, and on my new podcast, Here We Go Again, we'll take today's trends and headlines and ask, why does history keep repeating itself? You may know me as the second hottest actor from the Harold and Kumar movies,

but I'm also an author, a White House staffer, and as of like 15 seconds ago, a podcast host. Along the way, I've made some friends who are experts in science, politics, and pop culture. And each week, one of them will, be joining me to answer my burning questions. Like, are we heading towards another financial crash like in 08? Is non-monogamy back in style? And how come there's never a gate ready for your flight when it lands like two minutes early? We've got guests like Pete Buttigieg, Stacey Abrams, Lili Singh, and Bill Nye. When you start weaponizing outer space, things can potentially go really

wrong. Look, the world can seem pretty scary right now, because it is. But my goal here is for you to listen and feel a little better about the future. Listen and subscribe to here we go again with Cal Penn on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I have a lot of reasons. I think he should be challenged. I saw him on Jake Tapper

this weekend and they asked him, does he think Mondani is the future of the Democratic Party? And he was like, no, Congress, Democrats and Congress are. What does that even mean? Democrats in Congress? I mean, you could end every Hakeem Jeffrey's interview and say, what does that even mean? The man is a walking, talking word salad.

It's just insane. There was a time when he used to be compared to Obama, which I don't know if that's just a racist thing. It's like a young black guy. He's about Obama. He's nothing like Obama. He's one of the most in eloquent people I've come across. He talks like a robot, even when he was trying to explain why he hadn't.

Do you remember when they were asking like, why haven't you endorsed Mamdani? He would be like, he would come up with all torturous sentences to explain themselves. I mean, this is what I mean. Why would you want a party led by a robot like Hakim when you can have a party led by a kind of dynamo like Zaran Mamdani. And that's just a same. simple as that, or an AOC, or many other people, or, you know, a grand platinum, people who actually have, I think people are just fed up of the old way of doing policies. We know that. We know that since 2016. The Republicans worked that out a long time ago. I think Democrats still haven't quite worked it out. They're still, in Maine, they're trying to run 77-year-old governor to be a first-term senator just to stop Graham Platna, this populist candidate. It's like they don't learn any lesson. Yeah, I think it shows how out of touch the Democratic Party is when they're giving Mondani credit. And he should get credit.

but giving him credit for using social media, galvanizing young people and talking about affordability? He told it a basic. I know. Like Obama did that in 2008. It's amazing that this guy had to come along. Remember how Mamdani becomes famous? He goes out in Queens after the presidential election.

And he just stops people and says, did you vote for Trump? Why did you vote for Trump? There's no hectoring. There's no heckling. Just has conversations with them. And at the end, he's like, well, I'm running for mayor. This is what I do. And they're like, yeah, we support that.

And I think those kind of conversations. It's not rocket science, as you say. to have that. But if you're a party that's captured by donors and the corporate class and special interests, as the Democratic Party, sadly is, especially at the higher levels, then it's very hard for you to have those conversations. Like you say, it's not rocket science. It's like, oh, people want cheaper rent and cheaper buses and more afford. Like, this is not rocket science. But if you, yeah, if you're beholden to people who say, it can't be done, you can't promise that, this is impossible. And one of the things he'd said in the speech last night is like, he has redefined

what is possible or impossible. Does this win foreshadow a shift in the national democratic strategy? Because, I mean, Medanian was the only progressive last night. Everybody else is pretty much establishment. Yeah, so I think that's what a lot of pundits are going to spin it as they're already spinning it as. Look at the, we got a CIA officer elected in Virginia. We got a former Navy pilot in New Jersey.

Who cares about the Democratic socialist dude in New York? I don't think people are going to buy it. I don't think any person looks at Spanberger and Shell with the great respect these two new women governors won great victories and thinks that is the future to go back to the question that Hakeem wouldn't answer. They're the future of the party. They're not. I mean, they are, you know, replacement level centrist Democrats who won on a blue wave. I think I saw a poll yesterday. The NBC exit poll said that 40% of people in New Jersey and Virginia said their sole reason for voting for Democrats was to be anti-Trump. So like as long as

you have that Trump weighing down the Republican ticket, Democrats will benefit from that. Zoramunani's offering something different. People aren't just voting for him because they're anti-Trump. That is not the energy that's coming, especially from young people. It's because he is offering a different sort of politics, a different sort of vision, somebody who is willing to stand with working people. He began his speech last night talking about the working class, which, again, many Democrats have not talked about for a long time. Platner is, Bernie does, AOC does, and now Mamdani.

So I hope they take the right listens, but I suspect they won't. I suspect they'll say, no, no, no, let's look at what the centrist did. And by the way, I mean, Abigail Spanberger, what did she run on? I don't know. Okay. If she's the model, okay, but what does she rather? This is the thing. And by the way, Mikey Cheryl, who won in New Jersey, she may be a centrist.

She ran on a very popular. Very popularity. Very popularity. She said, you know what she said? She said, I'm going to freeze electricity rates. That's right. How come we didn't have national debates about that? That's unrealistic.

You can't do that. In fact, a lot of people say it's illegal for her to do that, whether she'll be able to call a state of it. Point is, who cares? She said it. She's trying it. She showed that she gives her damn about what people care about. And, you know, the double standard is, man, oh, prove it, prove it.

Nobody said that to Mikey Sherrill. Yeah, we live in Jersey. That's all, I mean, I voted for Mikey Sherrill, and that's what I voted for. I voted for her because she was talking about affordability, because she was talking about lower in taxes, because she was talking about doing things like, you know. Electric bills are crazy. Yeah, that's my only reason for it. But isn't it interesting that she said should freeze electricity bills and that has not been a national scale?

Right. Because you only question the left wing guy. No, you're right. I do have a question. You know, have you spoke to Mamdani? The one thing that scares me about Mondani is when you see the post like that and you see the amount of heat he's getting. Do you speak to him about security and safe for? and how does he feel about that

because I've never seen so much hate you know you can question somebody but the hate that's coming out of these people sometimes I feel like it's going to be worse than that have you talked to him about security and make sure what I interviewed him just a few weeks ago it was a day or two days after a guy had just been arrested

for making death threats against his staff and that was before the last few weeks of this campaign where they really ratcheted up this kind of radical Islamic coming you see Ted Cruz was tweeting he's a literal jihadist I mean, let's just be clear to people watching. Trump said he hates Jews.

I see somebody say he should be deported. Like it's, it's nasty form. They're putting up pictures of 9-11, right? They're using 9-11 against this guy who was what, 9-year-old on 9-11? Yeah, I'm not looking at that. Wake up New York. That's crazy. Michael Bloomberg funded the Super PAC that did that ad with the picture of his face over 9-11.

These people should be ashamed of themselves. Andrew Cuomo went on a podcast and laughed when the host said, well, he'd be cheering on another 9-11. Ted Cruz. I mean, it's so hypocritical. These Republicans spent weeks going on. about Charlie Kirk, right? Last time I came on your show, I think it was a day before or the day of the killing of Charlie Kirk. We spent weeks of Republican saying, if you say fascist, that means you're inciting hate again. If you call us a Nazi, you're going to get us killed.

Look at your language. They have spent the last few weeks calling this guy a jihadist. I want to be clear to your viewers. A jihadist in the eyes of the American political establishment are the people on the planes, the 9-11 planes, is ISIS, is Boko Haram, is Al-Qaeda. That is what you are comparing you to. That's what you're saying he literally is. Republicans have said, one after another, he's a terrorist, he's a jihadist, he's a communist, he hates Jews, he hates America, based on nothing. Of course that's going to incite hate. Of course there's going to be death threats. I do worry about a security. I hope he has good security now, now that he's the mayor, before he was the candidate. I think he had a couple of NYPD guys.

I hope they have a lot of security. It's actually, it's scary. The level of Islamophobic. I think, I talked to a lot of Muslims. I am Muslim. Wherever I go, I was in Texas at the weekend, previous week I was in California. Wherever I go and speak to Muslims, everyone agrees that the Islamophobia now is even worse than it was after 9-11. Wow. Why? Because they've had a 20-year head start to ratchet this stuff up. They're well-organized, they're well-funded, and they are petrified. I mean, you see the reactions last night from all the kind of daily wire guys and all those guys,

like New York's not real real city anymore. It doesn't contain real Americans. I mean, white supremacists are much more emboldened and much more organized than they were under George. I mean, just a reminder, I loathe George Bush. The man should be in the Hague. Dick Cheney died yesterday. I did not shed a tear. But George Bush after 9-11,

even George Bush, went to a mosque and said, Islam is peace. Let's not blame more Muslims for what happened. Can you imagine Donald Trump doing that today? Of course not. None of these Republicans would. And they are waiting for him to kind of pin more stuff on him. The hate is out of control.

And the hypocrisy from these people who spent the last month telling us, tone down the language, don't get us killed. And they're doing this stuff. I worry. What do you say to Mondani, though? And I would love to ask him this question. for Jewish people who have

real fear, right, or for, you know, Cuban. I was talking to a couple of my Cuban friends last night and they was like, he's a communist. I'm looking at it now. He's a communist. It's so obvious. Those that have not been affected by communism don't see it and don't care to see it. He's selling an unrealistic dream to unfortunately ignorant people and people who are easily swayed.

It's all BS. A guy who's never worked a day in his life living off mommy's money. Fidel Castro was charismatic and made promises. And when he took the reins, he killed his number two and declared he was Marxist. Cuba's been in the shits ever since? What do you say to those people? Why do you tell Mondani to handle those people? I would say to Cuban Americans, in good faith, Cuban Americans who worry about communism in Cuba,

I would say, I don't remember Fidel Castro's platform being fast and free buses, frees the rents, universal childcare to go back to how we began the discussion. Like, that is not communism. Like, you've got to go get a dictionary or educate yourself about what communism is. So Romaini is not a communist. He's a democratic socialist. He is what Bernie Sanders is. And in this country, by the way, democratic socialism is not even real. socialism. It's basically European social democracies, what the Scandinavians have. You know who have universal childcare? Finland, Iceland, Denmark, Denmark, Sweden. These countries have universal childcare. They're very nice places, very mild places. Go on holiday Americans. Go to Sweden.

It is not communist Cuba. Like, again, the incendiary rhetoric. And by the way, I would argue that that's actually a very good position for Mundani to be in. They know the socialist stuff doesn't work anymore because people are like, we quite like that. So now, have you noticed they ratchet it up? He's a communist. Trump said on 60 minutes. He's not a socialist. He's a communist. They've even ratcheted that up because they know their attacks aren't working. It's so cynical.

And on the front, on the anti-semitism front, last night in his speech he said again. He said, I will stand with Jewish New Yorkers against the scourge of anti-Semitism. He said it again. I interviewed Brad Lander last night, who was one of the main guys who endorsed him during the race,

one of his top allies, Jewish-American, standing up to this stuff. It's all BS. I would point out, by the way, one in three Jewish Americans, according to the exit poll. Jewish New Yorkers voted for Mandi. A majority didn't, but one in three voted.

A significant minority of Jewish people. This is not a monolithic community to Jewish community, like any community. There are different views. And a third of Jews in New York said, you know what? We like Zoran Mamdadi. We don't buy the BS about Zora and Mom Dadegh. And I've said this many times to people. Show me the one anti-Semitic statement he's made.

Show me one. Just one statement. There's not one. They was pointing the rap lyrics. I can't remember what the lyrics are, but they was telling me these rap lyrics. No, there was rap lyrics about he was supporting a group of Muslims who had been detained at the time. It was a very controversial case during the war on terror. during the Bush period, the Holy Land Foundation folks who were accused of channeling money

to Hamas. That's a civil liberties issue. You can disagree or agree with it. That was his position. I challenge anyone to find me a state from from Zoran Mamdani, where he says something, anti-Jewish, anti-Semitic. In fact, it's the opposite. He spends his time cherishing diversity. He is the diversity candidate. It was Andrew Cromo who went on MSNBC and confused Eugene Daniels with Jonathan Kpa, two black men got them wrong way around and said, well, diversity is not, you know, that's not our strength and all this crap that we're hearing. So I just, it's so cynical the weaponization of anti-Semitism against, let's be honest, it's not about anti-Semitism, it's about the fact that he's anti-Israel, the fact that he's a

critic of Israel. And it's a conflation of the two. He's very unapologetic about his criticism of Israel. That's what pissed all these people off. Let me ask you about that, because, you know, I did CNN last night with Ben Shapiro, and he referred to him as anti-Israel. And I was like, is it fair to say he's anti-Israel, or is he anti-Israeli government that is, you know, committing war crimes. Yeah. And God. Well, he's definitely anti that, as every person. with a heart should be. If you're not anti this Israeli government, you're a sociopath.

But in terms of the actual, they would argue, let me just be fair to the critics. The critics would say he is anti-Israel, because when he was asked, does it have a right to exist as a Jewish state? He says he believes it has a right to exist with equality for everyone. And this is, and this goes to the debate around Zionism and the nature of a Jewish state. Zoroamamnani's position is, I'm an American. I believe in equal rights for everyone. I want that everywhere. Israel doesn't have that. Palestinians aren't full first class equal citizens. in Israel, even inside of Israel. So that's what I support.

The funny thing is, he also says that about Saudi Arabia. He says that about India, right? He's criticized the Indian government for its nationalism, ethno-nationalism. He's against ethno-nationalism. We're Americans. We should all be against ethno-nationalism. So it's all exaggerated, I think, a lot.

But you're right. Fundamentally, he's against genocide in Gaza, as are most Americans. As are 40% of American Jews think it's a genocide in Gaza. Again, not a monolithic community. But that's what really annoyed Bill Ackman. That's what annoyed Ben Shapiro, not anything to do with anti-Semitism. That's all been completely cynically weaponized against him.

And you'll see that as mayor. People will be fine. I've got another question. About the government shut down. The ACA premiums have already gone up. They're set for the year. Democrats, we appreciate the effort. But isn't it time to reopen the government?

I mean, who's in charge of the government? Republicans, but you still need those eight Democrat votes to vote. Yeah, because of the filibuster. They now want to get rid of, by the way. Yeah, yeah. I've spent years saying. And, by the way, I don't care who's responsible for. It's a bipartisan, it's going to take a bipartisan effort.

But isn't it time to reopen the government? Yeah, of course it's time to reopen the government. But the Republicans are in charge of the government. You cannot have a... But they still need the Democratic vote. But you cannot have a political system that always relies on only the Democratic Party being the responsible party.

America cannot survive. We've created... It's like having toddlers, right? The Republican Party are a bunch of toddlers. And everyone else has to be the adults in the room. And that cannot continue indefinitely. And at some point, I'm glad Democrats have drawn a line, even with Schumer and Jeffries,

where they're saying, you know what, it's up to Republicans to govern responsibly. It's up to Republicans to stick to their pledges. But we know they can't. But that's the problem. But we know they can't. The reason I say, with the greatest respect, my friend, you're part of the problem.

You can't say we know they can't because that immediately gives Republicans a pass and puts the entire American democracy, American government, American economy, only in the hands of one party should have to deal with it. I agree, but we know Republicans aren't going to do the right thing.

Rent is due. You know, they're talking about cutting snap benefits. People got child care to pay a light bill. card notes, we need groceries, like we need the Democrats to say, okay, we know y'all not going to give us no concessions. We fought the good fight. We're going to vote to reopen the government. The problem with that argument is, if you're worried about human suffering, the counter argument is that reopening the government on Republican terms increases human suffering. Yes, but the elections in 2006. So now you can say Republicans are responsible for your

humor or suffering. Republicans are the reason you got high health care. So let's change this in 2006. I don't have the numbers off top of my head, but a lot of the stuff that Trump did in the big, beautiful bill, all the horrific stuff, they very smartly delayed that till after the midterms kick in a lot of the pay. The premiums, a lot of the pain. So look, there's a strategic argument for doing what you're saying. I don't believe. I've been around long enough to know that this always ends with the Republicans benefiting from Democrats rolling over, and I'm glad to see Democrats not rolling over. Now, I'm with you, but it's hard to see all this human suffering. I agree, but human suffering cuts both ways. These food banks are sold, the lines of the

New banks are so long. 100%. You know, we got government workers calling up here every day. But the fact that you and I are talking about Democrats are not Donald Trump starving Americans and saying, he said at the weekend, he goes, I will know. A court, let's just be very clear. A court has said he must release the funds to pay for SNAP. And he said, I'm not going to do it.

That should be the conversation. It's not should Democrats open the government. It's should Donald Trump follow the lawyer. I'm just saying the government should be reopened. We just know it takes a bipartisan effort to do it. Yes, Republicans are the main issue here, but we can't act like it. You know, eight Democrats need to vote. It would be interesting to see if they get rid of the filibuster nuking.

It would be interesting to see if they get rid of that filibuster because, of course, in the long run, that will help Democrats. They had a good night, last night. Reopen the government. That's all I'm saying. I agree with you, but I'm saying it's Republicans who have to reopen the government. It's a bipartisan effort. I mean, they control the House, the Senate, the Supreme Court, the White House.

I know, but it's still a bipartisan effort. I'm not saying, I'm not even saying Democrats are the problem. I'm just saying it is a bipartisan effort. Yeah. I'm saying give people their money. And I'm saying there's a pay. I'm saying there's a cost to doing that. And you know, where it's kind of disingenuous is if by some chance Republicans do make concessions, aren't you going to give the Democrats credit?

If the Democrats make concessions on health care. If the Democrats are Republicans. I mean, if Republicans make concessions on health care, aren't you going to give the Democrats credit? I mean, yes. So you got to give them the same credit now with the government being shut down. Yes, that they have a role to play, yes. But it's about, but the problem is who's responsibility? is it? That's the point. I don't think, again, it goes back to my thing. I can't treat

Republicans like children and toddlers. I don't think American democracy can survive if we only have a two-party system and one of the two parties is completely we just don't take seriously. They can do whatever the hell they want. They can break any law, ignore any judge, shut down any government program, end USAID, like the, and again, the costs of reopening the government, the costs of conceding on the Medicaid cuts and all of that stuff. Your point is, well, next year they can point in the midterms, but what about the suffering on that front until the midterms? What about the people are going to lose health care between now and the I agree with that, but man, that's one high bill to pay

as opposed to not being able to pay your rent, not being able to pay your car, not being able to pay your child care. Even if you have health care, now you still can't pay that because you're not making any money. I agree. It's a horrific situation. It's why I wish people are not reelected Donald Trump. Yeah. But we are where we are.

We got Donald Trump for another three years minimum, maybe longer as you and I fear. And Democrats have to be the adults in the wrong because of that. It has too many. I know we don't want him to be. Or it shouldn't be like that, But it is. No, but it isn't because I think you can.

We have to change the way we talk about politics, the way we organize the way with the media covers this stuff. Because the minute you do this, let's say they open the government tomorrow. Let's say these eight Democrats and fill up, whatever, they come in, government open up. What is that? What precedent does that set?

It just means that Republicans will keep doing this again and again, knowing to, you've got three more years of pain and suffering. Yes, but hopefully with the next, you know, year, you can say, look at your health care benefits. Your health care benefits are high as hell. It's because of Republicans. since 2026, y'all need to change this. So the Republican Party runs a completely opposite manual

when they're in opposition. They do everything they can. Obviously, to not make government work. They don't care if people are starving and can't pay their rent. But then they electorally benefit from that, right? They benefit from saying, ah, the government didn't work.

Ah, things didn't get through. And Democrats, unfortunately, I think, are going to have to use that playbook as cynical and ruthless as has to be. Jesus Christ. I don't see another alternative. You tell me what the alternative is. You're hoping that the government opens up

and things go back to normal, whatever normal is, and then people blame the Republicans. I'm not sure I see it. Yeah, I would rather the government be open, people would be getting paid, and we're having these arguments about health care and Republicans fucking shit up without, you know, people having to miss paychecks.

But if the government's opened up, this Democratic argument. I'm not Democrat, the Democratic Party argument is if the government's open up, you're going to have huge costs in the healthcare world. Once again, that's one bill as opposed to people not getting no checks to pay lights, rent, daycare,

like no money coming in. Yeah. It's horrible. It's just, it's an effort. up situation in this country. We shouldn't, by the way, can I just point this out to people who are listening and watching? I'm from the UK.

I have an immigrant to the US. No other country functions like this. There's no other Western democracy that has government shutdowns. There's no other Western democracy that has debt ceilings. This is all artificial crap that's in our system that needs to be fixed. Again, when the Democrats are in office, they need to fix the stuff so that we don't have this constant cycle of this nonsense. The people are like, this is why people hate politics to go back to what I said at the

stuff. Well, at least we got people like you here to bring some clarity to it. I appreciate it. Absolutely. Well, we appreciate you for joining us this morning. Thank you. Thank you for breaking it down. And I'm sure you'll be back sooner than later.

I appreciate it. Not to talk about. That always is. Thanks, guys. All right. When we come back, we got the latest with Lauren. So don't go anywhere. It's the breakfast club.

Good morning. Every day I wake up. Wake your ass up. The breakfast club. You're all finished or y'all's done. On the podcast, health stuff, we are tackling all the health questions that keep you up at night. I'm Dr. Priyank-Gawali, a double board certified physician. And I'm her.

Kondibolu, a comedian and someone who once Googled, Do I Have Scurvy at 3 a.m? And on our show, we're talking about health in a different way, like our episode where we look at diabetes. In the United States, I mean, 50% of Americans are pre-diabetic. How preventable is type 2? Extremely. Listen to health stuff on the IHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,

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The most Texas story ever. Listen to Business History on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcast. Or wherever you get your podcasts. Two rich young Americans move to the Costa Rican jungle to start over, but one of them will end up dead and the other tried for murder three times. It starts with a dream, a nature reserve and a spectacular new home. But little by little, they lose it. They actually lose it. They sort of went nuts.

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