The Chris Cuomo Project - The Real War for America Has Begun

Episode Date: November 6, 2025

Chris Cuomo breaks down what 2025's off-year elections reveal about America’s political realignment — and why he calls it the real war for the country’s future. Voters across the country sent a clear message: they’re tired of chaos, exhausted by extremes, and demanding something that actually works. In New York City, former Governor Andrew Cuomo lost the mayor’s race to Assemblymember Zohran Mamdani, a progressive voice from the same populist current that produced AOC and Bernie Sanders. Chris says that upset is part of a broader reckoning inside both parties — between MAGA, the politics of anger and grievance, and MEGA, the growing number of Americans weary of outrage and craving stability. And as both sides look ahead to the 2026 midterms, these results may be a preview of which message will win: rage, or results. Follow and subscribe to The Chris Cuomo Project on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube for new episodes every Tuesday and Thursday: https://linktr.ee/cuomoproject Join Chris Ad-Free On Substack: http://thechriscuomoproject.substack.com Support our sponsors: Go to http://Leesa.com for 25% off mattresses PLUS get an extra $50 off with promo code CUOMO, exclusive for my listeners. Save more than fifty percent on term life insurance at http://selectquote.com/CHRISC today to get started. http://kalshi.com/?utm_source=chriscuomo Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Get no frills delivered. Shop the same in-store prices online and enjoy unlimited delivery with PC Express Pass. Get your first year for $2.50 a month. Learn more at pceexpress.ca. You are being deceived. What these elections mean is not what you are being told. I'll put it simply. The real war has now begun.

I'm Chris Cuomo. Welcome to the Chris Cuomo Project. This is not an end. It is not a definitive moment. It is an indication of what is to come. And I'm not trying to frighten you because it depends on what you want. But I will tell you that I know more than most because I am not a passive observer. My brother, ran for mayor of New York City, I knew he was not going to win, and he did not. And I can tell you why, not based on how I feel, not based on my bias on the exit polls and the inside data and research and anecdotal experience of what happened on the trail and what won. Look, I'll give you an easy headline. Why did Zoron Mamdani win in New York City? Easy. He's the Democratic nominee, and they

almost always win in New York City. And it's a little bit more complicated this time. Why? Three-person race? Yeah, except two of them were Democrats. Or one of them is what a Democrat used to be. And one of them is what a Democrat may wind up being. So it's a little bit more complicated, but that's why he was the prohibitive favorite. It's not about him. He's a mascot for the party, but now also a movement. Now let me give you a couple of their data points. he was elected by Outer Burroughs, right, imbalanced Outer Burroughs versus Manhattan, and by foreign-born people,

which is not scary to me, but is indicative. Okay? Then you had another contingent, which is an important part of the analysis, which is aggrieved young people from the ruling class who are not living how they wanted to, who want to reject themselves, appropriate the oppression of other,

have an explanation for their angst, where they can blame someone else, and that was delivered. Now, there are, this is a strange marriage, and there are huge risks to this, but we now know what the battle lines are in this country. So here's what to ignore. The victory lapse. I told you so, this is great for us, and now the Democrats are on this, or now the Republicans are on the down, or this is great for Republicans. All the victory lapse, all the feet. all the rationalizations, that is all clickbait. That is people selling you shite on social media to expand their following and give you a false sense of their insightfulness.

Okay? I'm telling you that's what it is. These people do not know what I know because they were not part of a campaign and they were not watching it in real time and they were not having it studied with money to understand it, right? They're just guessing and reading our own. other people's thoughts, which is fine, which is fine, but it is not as useful as what we're going to talk about here. Nothing has ended, okay? I made a list of notes for you guys.

This is just the beginning, okay? I'm not surprised by where we are. I am not surprised by my brother's race. I am not surprised by the other races, even though they give us two very competing messages within the Democratic Party. And there is metaphor within metaphor here. The national elections were one kind of thing for Democrats. New York City was another. What Abigail Spanberger, governor-elect of Virginia, what Mikey Sherrill, governor-elect of New Jersey mean to the Democrats and to the state of play in our politics is different than AOC and Mamdani, her mascot in New York City. They are very different things. And they are in opposition. to each other and I think I know which one wins out and why overall in our country. And I will

take you through it. New York City is not the exception. People who like to say, oh, New York City's weird. New York City's a one-off. New York City's not like the rest of America. Listen, the rest of America is always in a position of approach to what is happening in New York City. New York City is the ultimate laboratory of the American experience. of diversity, of competing interests, of the next, as opposed to just the now or what may be next. Okay? So New York City matters. Just because it's nothing like where you live doesn't mean that it doesn't dictate a lot of what will happen where you live. Okay. So it is not the exception. It is the canary in the coal mine. And you watch what happens in New York. And it is a laboratory of the spread of fundamentalism.

Now, pause. Am I saying this guy's a terrorist? No, I am fucking not. Okay? I do not believe that about Mamdani. I know that will upset a lot of people. I'll get to that in a second because you're right to be upset. You're right to be scared in a way you never have been in America before. I get it. You're right. Give me a second. He is not a jihadi. He is a poser. He is being manipulated and influenced by real ones. You're right. Okay. But that's not what he is. And Islamism in the extreme, which is the concern not being a Muslim. Being a Muslim is not the problem. Okay? This infection within Islam called Islamism that mootches off of Islam is absolutely a problem. And you cannot look anywhere on the planet and show me where it works well for anyone,

except a bunch of bearded dudes who like to rape everybody else. Okay? You can't show me because it doesn't exist. But I'm not saying that's where we are. I'm saying we are now allowing the play of dangerous ideas. With MAGA, what scared me? That people were pissed off? No, that's the purpose of politics, is to give air to your grievance.

Then what was it? White fright. trying to get white people to believe that everybody who isn't is the problem playing to Christian nationalism playing to extreme ideas that's what worried me and pissed me off about MAGA okay because I felt that you were being fed poison I see it in mega as well all right the pendulum has shifted MAGA doesn't have the outrage anymore

MAGA doesn't have the energy anymore why they're in power the power of oppression the power of grievance the power of outrage is against the system, is against the man, it's against the machine. It always has been since ancient Sumerian dynamics. Okay? So it is swinging and it is picking up momentum and that's what these elections are showing us. Maga now has an equal opposite that is even greater in size and scope and depth of grievance called mega. Because just as Trump was fuel for his people, he is, jet fuel for the resistance to him and those ideas. So, of course, scare whitey, scare whitey, scare whitey, now what is it? Same kind of vibe of, hey, brown people, they'll never let you

sit at the table. And by the way, this message may work for you white people who don't like being white anymore. And people from the ruling class who came for what's now called privilege, which we used to just call opportunity, which maybe is becoming a privilege in this country, and that's terrible. But you want to appropriate the oppression of these other people because you want to be a victim too, and you want to be angry at somebody too and not yourself. That's a pretty catchy message. We've seen it before. We saw it in the 60s with the people who glommed on to the Black Panthers, who were not just righteous pro-suffrage people. They were pro-violence and aggression and animus more than anything else.

And the movement was better without them. Yes, I get to say that. I'm an American. You don't have to be black to have a comment on our politics that influence minorities. We have to stop that. The same way, me talking about Islamism and bending over backwards like a yogi to say that it's not just being Muslim, you can't keep meeting it on the left with, you're an Islamophobe, you're an Islamophobe. anyone who is saying that to you beware of them because they know it's bullshit they're just trying to keep you from identifying what is absolutely inimical to the american cause you cannot have fundamentalism and extremism as the way here in competing and competing value systems and that's what we're allowing again i am not against the fundamentalism of extreme islamism and anti-

Western corrosiveness, then I am white fright, neo-nationalist, Christian nationalist, crazy ass, us and them on the right. They are equal poisons. My problem is, as I was explaining to the brothers here a second ago, we're in a system that everybody's picking chocolate or vanilla, and I'm telling you, ice cream is not a strategy for skinny. It's killing you. You don't want to hear it, man, because you're chocolate of vanilla. You're not even seeing that what you're eating is killing you and keeping you from ever being anything like what you want to be. That's my challenge. Your challenge is to see what you're eating, to see what you're being fed, to see what you're being offered. Support comes from Lisa.

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Like NCIS, Tony and Ziva We'd like to make up her own rules Tulsa King We want to take out the competition The substance This balance is not working And the naked gun That was awesome

Now that's a mountain of entertainment Paramount Wolf Next point Pendulm's picking up speed I told you that the move from maga to mega is going faster and farther than it did the other time why that's the way conservation of energy works right for every action there is an equal opposite reaction sometimes it can be greater what if there are additional forces applied and there are and there are now why is this happening in part because we're in a binary structure it's got to be pendular it's got to go whoop whoop whoop you're in power we hate you you're to blame for everything it's a very simple dynamic why well when you're in power What do you have to own? Reality. The status quo. Prices are what they are. Right? Inflation is what it is. Ah, and then we're going to come to the magic word. You want to know what the magic word is? The key to the code? You want to know? Affordability. Everybody's going to start saying affordability. On the right, you know, we're about affordability. On the left, affordability, affordability. Guess what? Everybody's right. But this is not the new catcher.

phrase that just means what we've always known in politics, which is the pocketbook wins, which is that the wallet wins, which is that it's the economy stupid, as James Cargill said, oh, that's not what this is. That is not what this is. How? Let me explain. The economy, the rising tide, lifts all bodes, trickle down. Any of these things are about the we, okay? The we. What makes the markets move? What makes all these metrics that we lookout move so that everybody is happy, right? Or as many as you can make. Not affordability. Affordability is, I don't have an affordability issue. If you have a job where you are making decent money able to save, you don't have an affordability problem. Affordability is about people

who are looking to change the system. Okay? Affordability means we have to find a way for some to have less so more can have more. That is different than any of the economic messages that have been familiar in the past. I'm not judging it. I'm just telling you to see it for what it is. Now, they're going to be competing over those things, but they don't know what they're playing with because they don't give a shit. They just care about beating the other side by showing that they're worse. So they'll just keep ratcheting it up and everything's getting more extreme. And people who aren't there yet keep saying, ah, I don't think so, you know, there's no real risk. There's no real risk.

Yeah, there is. Why do you think there's more violence in our politics? Why do you think it's getting worse? This is not what we've dealt with in the past. You've got to go back and start looking at the 60s. And all the issues that came together in it were going to be there again. I don't know that it'll be organized around a bad war. It could be.

But it could be an economic war at home. It absolutely could be. It absolutely could be an economic war at home. And a battle of who gets to win and what that looks like. That's what affordability is about. And it's real. And the grievance is real. and the grievance is even more real than it was for MAGA.

Because there is no easy blame of the brown menace and putting up a big wall. There's no easy fix like that. Running around the country arresting everybody who didn't come in here the right way, no matter how they're doing all the right things once they got here. That's easy. Bad look. Bad politics, in my opinion, in terms of connecting with the majority, but that's a choice structure.

But what's being pitched with affordability is going to be a lot more. That's about cutting fat. This is going to be about digging right into muscle and bone. And I'm not giving you an opinion about how I feel about it. I've got to see how it manifests. But that's what it's going to be. Affordability is not, we need to see the stock market go up. Affordability is maybe there shouldn't be a stock market.

Maybe everything should just be book value. So you shouldn't be able to get that rich. Maybe we shouldn't have billionaires. Maybe the top should be taxed 80%. Why? So that we don't have such a big division between the top and everybody else. Now, do I agree with these positions?

No. That's not the point. See, there's too much of a premium right now and looking at these elections through the lens of whether or not I'm happy about them. No, I want you to see them for what they are so you can make choices about what to be. Right?

And MAGA is, now going to be the small version of mega. Why? Because the outrage is on the outside. Maga and Mega are so formatively and functionally and foundationally similar. It's scary.

Okay? Right? Grievance. Of course. I don't like how things are. Who do I blame? Identity politics. Of course. Culture war, of course. Overlay of extremes. White fright. is, hey, maybe, you know, being open to the idea that there shouldn't be in Israel and there's fundamentalist movements or maybe there are other ways to look at the world, same equal

opposites of extreme ideas. Okay. Now, on top of that, you now have more people because of Trump and reaction formation to MAGA, you now have an even bigger group. Now, no, no, Kings, I don't think, should be sold short as just an extension of this extreme growth within the left. I don't think that's fair and I don't think it's true. That single day of protest across the country was not fringe players. It was mostly just like MAGA was working class people, prime of life people who are disgusted with how things are being done. And the rejection of the system is everything. Look at the mascots. Trump and Mom Donnie, okay? Trump and AOC. They line up as, no, they're nothing alike. They're everything

alike. They check all the same boxes. They're disruptors. They don't work within. They don't work with others. They are disruptors and attackers. They are rejected by the system. They are seen as unworthy of their positions. So what does that tell you? Enemy of my enemy, man. That's my friend. That's my friend. Men, how do you see this manifest? So why don't the flaws of Donald Trump or Mamdani, why don't they resonate the way they do for everybody else? Why do these guys get different rules?

They don't get different rules. They are a rejection of the rules because they are a rejection by the people who don't like the people who make the rules. So it's not that they don't see his flaws or his flaws. Nobody says they want to be these people except for their money, right?

Because Mamdani is playing to a base of people he shares nothing with except choice of music. Right? Because he's a netball baby. For real. For real. Like never had a job. Right? The same way you looked at Trump and said, this guy's never had money that he didn't fuck up and was given to him. Right? It's the same. So then why wasn't it enough to disqualify them? The same reasons that the people who are pissed off against the people in power refuse to let the people in power dictate to them who's worthy of the job. And yes, it's a little perverse, and yes, it's frustrating. Yes, it's confounding. But that's what it is. That's what it is. And that's why attacking the mascot doesn't work.

What does? I don't know. Because the accurate answer to the question is more of the same. The answer to MAGA, I used to say, is be in the business of better. Show that I get why you're pissed off. Let me fix it. Who is proposing a fucking fix? tell me so what was trump i'm going to put a wall around us i'm going to get rid of all of them right

and then i'm going to cut the taxes for the top and it's going to be great for everybody these were these were clumsy inadequate inarticulate unintelligent unintelligent unsurious solutions to the issues involved and you're seeing it now everything that's going on why chaotic and active and you've got to give it to trump that he's a busy be. None of the things that are supposed to matter are going in the right way, except maybe how you feel, but that's about to change my brothers and sisters on the right, because you now have an equal and greater opposite, who are pissed at you. Now, some of the people will move, by the way, because they're still aggrieved. What they're really upset about, unless they're just

pure culture warriors, is not only extant, is not only still there, but in many cases worse. that's why you see so many people protesting for no kings that are white and middle-aged. I thought they were a MAGA. No, they used to be part of the Democratic base, but they are pissed off by a system that is unfair to them. So Trump and Mamdani are mirror images of one another. You have to see it for that, not because of a preference structure, get out of that. But I just still, I just still like Trump. in a way, and I don't know.

Mom, Donna, you know, there's smile and the optimism. I just think, and I just think we had to try something. All of these things are fine. Feel any way you want, but don't be fooled. Feel any way you want, but don't be fool. Okay? This, MAGA, is this. Mega.

It's the same formula. Extreme outrage and grievance against the system, finding someone to other eyes, finding someone to blame, to be outraged against and to want to put down with no solution. Free, free, free, state run, nah. It's not going to happen. He can't make it happen. It's not going to happen.

And I never felt that was a fair avenue of criticism. Mayors just don't do that much, let alone anything radical, okay? Giuliani's big move was getting the squeegee guys off the streets and having cops actually arrest people for crimes that were already on the books. And look, it worked. broken windows was a great crime-stopping thing. Didn't have equal access, didn't have an equal balance of opportunities and avenues to dignity for people. So you didn't address the underlying reasons for crime, but you definitely dealt with crime better. AOC, what are her fixes?

A government wage for everybody. What? What? Grocery stores. You're going to go to a state-run grocery store? That's what you're going to do? Really? You've been to Russia? You want to see what those look like? You see a repo man? Come on. The point is it's not about the solutions. It's about the blame for the anger. Look, it's so obvious once you start to see it. Mamdani's acceptance speech, he starts with the father of socialism, and he ends with my father. And look, I get that a lot of people are pissed off about that. I don't have any problem with him using my father's words. Is he like my father? No, I get he wants to pretend he is because he is the child of immigrants and he's an outsider and people didn't want

him, but he's nothing like my father. He's a dilettante. His parents have money. He's never had a job. My father worked his ass off in a grocery store when he was seven. He didn't even speak English until then. This guy is a well-groomed, articulated salesman, just like Trump. In a different way, a different charm, but same thing. Neither one have anything to do with the people who are backing them. Now, Mamdani has some different guys pulling his strings than Trump did, but I don't like either of the guys, the sets of people who are doing it. I don't like these fundamentalists and these people who absolutely, absolutely are embracing it open to ideas that are extreme and anti-American. And no, I am not an Islamophobic.

I am pro-diversity of religion and type in this country. I'm not a huge fan of religion, period, but that applies to Jews, Christians, and Italians, and Muslims. And so that's not a thing for me. And anyone who was accusing me of it, I now accuse back as being part of someone who wants to cede extremism. And maybe for the worst reasons, right? Which is what? Prophet. Medi Hassan, Dave Smith, Tucker Carlson, the Pod Bros. Fuentes. What are they all playing with? Profitability. Extreme ideas. And they just happen to luck into a system that amplifies outrage for profit. Social media. It would have never happened in any of the legitimate media platforms that have accountability and responsibility attached to them and government oversight and lawsuits and all these other checks. Why? Because they got to. to think about what they say. I don't get to just go on tonight and say, hey, man, we need to go and

find these people and get rid of them. My bosses would be like, whoa, our brand isn't about preaching death of people who disagree with us. That accountability matters. The idea of having no boss, that can be a good thing. It depends on how you are the boss of yourself and how you are. and we also have to see that the commodity is the same on each side outrage and destruction that's what it is that's what it is now there let's address the outrage that is fueling this it's obvious on a couple levels but now there is a competing one and i feel it here in new york city and i feel for those people yes jews are scared and you are right to be scared you have learned some really hard lessons Okay? You are not in the majority. You are not white. Even if you are Caucasian, you're a Jew, and you are being targeted, you are being demonized, and you need allies, and you need protection. And I am one. Now, if people take what I just said to say that I am an Islamophob, what does that say about them? So if I'm for the Jews and see what is being done for?

them, from them, to them. That makes me somehow anti-Muslim. Why? What are you trying to say being a Muslim is about? Be aware. See it for what it is. Okay? Support comes from select quote. So, life up, down, crazy, risk, reward, everything that's going on all around us all the time. What does it bring into sharp focus? You got to take care of the people that you're responsible for. Now, a big way to do that is insurance. You have to make sure that you're protecting the people that you need to protect. One way that we often forget is to figure out our life insurance. You've heard a life insurance, of course. But it's probably cheaper than you think. Why? The younger you are, the cheaper it is, right? You wait, it'll double.

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Conditions and exclusions apply. Now, my brother was never going to win. I would much rather he had won because he would have been better for the city. There's no question in my mind about that. But, you know, compared to Sliwa or Mammani, I mean, it's not even a close call. I would much rather be Andrew Cuomo today than Curtis Slewa. Slewa's got something to answer for. He was a spoiler, and he is more responsible for what happened in that election,

not only than Andrew, but Mam Dani. because maybe he'll get to 50% maybe and he'll say that's a mandate but it isn't it isn't because he should have had 70% of the vote and he didn't why because most people in new york city will reject the angriest versions of themselves that's why because they want things done that makes sense but when you're angry what are you not sensible Who's at their best when they're angry and outraged? Nobody. Now, why do I call it a war? Because it is a battle of outrage on each side.

It is not about ideas. It is not about solutions. It's about destruction. That's what it is. Mom, Donnie, AOC, Bernie, want to destroy capitalism. Now, can that be true? and at the same time, can the same mind believe that taxation, distribution of opportunity, creation of opportunity, how the system works should be shifted away from the top? Yeah, I believe that.

Give me an example. Did you know that the third largest health care subsidy in our government budgetary structure goes to who? You're probably tempted right now to say the ACA people, right? That probably sounds, or, or if you're on the right, you can, the next word is illegals, legals. I don't even know how your people say it anymore. Legals. Why, you're saying it so much is becoming mush in your mouth. But you're wrong.

What is the third biggest expenditure? Medicare, Medicaid, and then what? What? These guys are asleep. What? Subsidies from the government. to allow non-taxable income to private big corporations that provide health care to their employees.

The third largest subsidy in health care, bigger than ACA, bigger than the emergency health care reimbursements to states combined. What? Yeah, you didn't know that. Why? Because they're both protecting the powerful. The money that operates.

that operates politics. Wake the fuck up. Bernie's not wrong and the left's not wrong to say, the billionaire is the blah-d-d-double. He's taken a lot of money. But he's right

that that money is death for the democracy. And it is overweighted to the center of the Democratic Party and parts right. They're right about that on the far left. It's one of the only things.

I think they're right about. And that has to change. Why do private companies that are killing it on Wall Street, paying their top a gazillion dollars, choking labor, looking for AI to replace them, why do they get rewarded by the system? If it's the markets that reward you for those choices, that's one thing. But when the system is designed to allow you to tax those profits in the market differently or not at all, and the expenditure of you providing health care for your employees gets rewarded by allowing you to do it with that amount of money not counting as taxable. All you do for us is say that the money, that the value of what they give you in that health care opportunity doesn't count to you as income. Gee, thanks. Because for the 160 million people

who are getting their health care from their employer. Guess what? It ain't free. It's expensive and it's going up. I just got my letter. And I'm part of this big group in this union, Sag Aftera. And even with all those people, my rates going up.

Now, again, affordability does not apply to me. Right? And I don't thank God. I'm not price sensitive. Thank God. That's what prayers are about is money. Any problem that's something. with money is not a real problem. But the system that has put people in a position of desperation

where they cannot live and they have to look on social media at people who are able to have more than they can figure out how to use is going to make people angry. And that's what's motivating mega in a way that MAGA only imagined getting people outraged. Both of them are coming for the system. Both of them are coming for the norms. Both of them are being distracted by culture wars to not see that neither of these sets of mascots manipulating them have good solutions except to destroy what is.

And that is war. And that's why I call it that. Not because I see one as more inimical to the cause than the other. I don't. Let them keep battling that out and blaming me for not seeing what they see. You don't see that they're fascists. You don't see that they're terrorists.

That's all I hear. That's all I hear. War is coming. And it will not be about the mascots. It will be about who is manipulating them. Okay. Criticism of Trump. Criticism of AOC or Mamdani or any of the other mascots. That is not prejudice. Okay? That's not what it is. It's seeing what is behind the faces. What won the elections? Now, here's the problem, again, for the Democrats. Can you get where you want to be in the midterms by being Spamberger or Mikey Cheryl? Now, on one level, well, they apply two women. That's good. We're past that. We're past that. Everybody knows women are competent. Everybody knows you should have women in positions of power.

there's no man a sphere keeping that from happening. Not really, not anymore. They represent different things that I think matter more than that. Of course, gender inequality is a thing. I get it. We still couldn't even pass the ERA. I get it. I'm just saying it's not the full focus. What the full focus is right now is that Abigail Spanberger and Mikey Sherrill set up as what? Conventional, not radical, right? Spamberger worked for the CIA for a lot of years. She was a member of Congress. She was he is a member of Congress. I thought we hated Congress. Mikey Cheryl, same thing. She was a naval officer. She was a member of Congress. I thought we hated these things. I thought we hated the system. I thought we hated these things. Interesting mixed message. Why? Where are they?

Virginia, then New Jersey. Virginia, if there is an opposition movement to power in our politics, you see it in Virginia. Look at the last nine political cycles. and you'll see it, that if there is going to be reaction formation to who is in power in Washington, you'll see that reaction formation in Virginia. That's what made Trump's performance there against Kamala Harris so impressive on one level. However, that is what it is. So Spanberger winning there, even in the counties that showed biggest changes, show that it is. it is a bellwether of whether or not the administration has trouble and the administration has trouble.

Then you get to New Jersey, which is not as much of a bellwether until you look at the counties and see what the distribution of votes were versus not Trump because that's not fair because that's a presidential cycle. We're two levels of importance away from a presidential election. This is not a presidential election, or what they call a quadrenial election every four years. This is not a midterm election. This is an off-season election. So you should have had the lowest turnout. You did not in New York City. And by the way, you had good representation in these other two states of turnout also, especially

where they're early voting, which is why the right is going to be increasingly against early voting. And that is going to be part of this dynamic also. They want voter ID. Why? They're making it a security aspect, right? You're going to have all these fake people voting. You're going to hear that a lot in reaction to these elections. Why?

That's part of the scare tactic of the outrage movement. It can't be that their policies aren't working. It's got to be that there are people voting and it's rigged. It's rigged. It's rigged. Elon tried to say that my brother's election was rigged. No, it wasn't. My brother was running on a third party line.

Republican, Democrat, a main third party. And then you have the others. And Andrew was one of the others. That's the way the ballot was set up. I didn't like the outcome, but I'm not going to. to say it was rigged. Why? Because I'm reasonable. That's why, because I'm not about outrage and empty animus and just making you pissed off at things that I'm not going to fix. But they are. And that's why it's going to be that illegals are voting all over the place. There's so many

illegal votes, so many legal votes. And that's why they don't want voter ID. No, you want voter ID because you know it will absolutely bring down the participation level of voting. You don't want early voting, not because of security issues, because we haven't even had cases that show problems with real access, you know, security issues. Because you will absolutely bring down the participation. That's what you want. And that's why you're against them. And that will piss off these people over here. And it's outrage versus outrage. And the fringes has taken over. The few are now in charge of the many. And they are influencing the many. Now, but you don't see that in Virginia. You don't see that in New Jersey. Why? Because the majority is still the majority.

And even though the media and the power players are catering to these fringe things in social media, why? Because they're all shortcuts. Demagoguery has always been a shortcut. Populism has always been a shortcut to real change. Pissing you off versus fixing. Fixing is hard. Breaking is easy. Shut down is easy. Us versus them is easy. That. That's why the margins have gotten so small between the two sides, historically small. Why? Because that's what division gets you. That's what separating gets you.

You're winnowing down. Because that's what works for them. The Jews are scared today. The radicals on the left and the populist on the left and those pissed off at how things are, are happy today. MAGA is scared today. They are looking for reasons to fix their fear, not to fix the problems, but to fix their fear. And that's why you're going to hear about what? Rigged elections, illegal voting.

That's why they want the illegals here. That's why they want to give them free health care. Boogie man, boogeyman, boogeyman, boogeyman, boogeyman, but remember this, my brothers and sisters. The number three subsidy in our government is not the ACA, is not illegals in health care. it's private companies that give us what we still have to pay for anyway. Why do they get that? Because that's how the system works

and that's something you should change, but they're not going to change that. Why? They won't even talk about what I just said. You never even heard what I just said before. Why? Because the people in power take their money. I pointed it out at the conventions, remember? Remember?

The people in the boxes on high, laughing at everybody down below, thinking that they're running shit. When they're running shit, do Democrats take more health care money? Yep. but the Republicans take plenty of it. And it's the most money in the game.

Did you know that? Pharma, health insurance, health care, biggest money in the game. That's why it's so fucking lopside and getting more expensive for us while they're making more and more. Is that something you could change? Yes.

Are you going to change it with a guy who says free Palestine and wears a red mask on their face? No, because men with masks cannot be trusted. Whether they are ICE, people, who don't want to show their face or their badge number or a guy who would wear a kerchief when he's talking to one kind of audience

saying free Palestine and we must remold this society in our image they're not going to fix he's not going to fix he's going to fake he's a fake so was Trump nothing is better it's not how it works it's not what the that's not what the sale

proposition is it's breaking look let's test the proof if either of these movements were about better you would be fighting about tax rates the role of tariffs in that distribution of it the loopholes of it how it is structured and for whom policies you are not no one's even mentioning that to you just who to blame time for change change change change every election is a change election and it's who to be outraged at

and if you criticize anything that they're saying you should be outraged at you're somehow prejudiced racist right if you say anything about policing you're racist and uh you know anything about whites and anything the way you're racist here anything about how maybe free palisines not the best thing for a leader of a place that suffered 9-11 to say, Islamophobic, racist, even though they're not a race. You're a bigot. You're prejudiced. It's the same thing.

See it for what it is. This is not the antidote. It is a different poison. And if you don't like my chocolate and vanilla thing, it's pee-pee-poooo. Shit sandwich or piss soup. But they're both poison. And they won't fix things.

But they will break. They will break, and I'm sorry the Jews are afraid, and I understand why you are afraid, and you are right to be afraid, and I am with you. Now, what does that not mean that I'm fine with everything Israel has done in Gaza? Of course I'm not. How many people in my position have given money to organizations that help kids affected by the war in Gaza and told you about it? Why? Does it sound like I'm pro-fucking genocide?

That's listening to those extremes. Bibi Netanyahu, am I a fan? Who cares? I don't vote for him, but no. I don't like how he's done it. I don't think he's the right agent for peace. That's just my opinion. I don't like how this war was prosecuted. I don't like how aid was dealt with. I don't like how media access was dealt with. I do not think it was a genocide. And I will never see any legitimate state as in any way on. par when it comes to wrongdoing as a terror organization, let alone the one that perpetrated October 7th, let alone the one that is fucking with its own people right now, raping and killing and you don't give a shit when you want to say that you care about Gazans. So, Jews, I am with

you, and I am with you for a reason that have nothing to do with Israel, although I don't see a rational alternative to Israel being able to exist. I don't remember us take it. We didn't even take out Germany. We divided it in half. Fuck the Russians for all the stuff that they had They bled for years, millions more than the rest of the allies. I'm not pro-Russia. Certainly not now, but the facts are the facts. They fought the Nazis all the way across Europe and Asia. They thought they were going to get a lot of stuff for it.

They didn't. All right, that's the deal. But we didn't get rid of Germany. But you've got to get rid of Israel. Why? Well, you know, the way it came about. Oh, you mean like Pakistan? Should we get rid of Pakistan?

Come on. I am for the Jews. I will not let a minority be targeted on my watch. And I don't know what that will mean, but whatever it means, I am here for it. I am here for it. Would I do the same for Muslims? Of course. Of course.

If Muslims start being targeted for things to blame for what Islamists are doing all over the world in this country, if that's the reaction formation to Mamdani, once he sheds himself and comes clean about these scumbags that he has pulling his strings, and I start hearing about Muslims being beaten up in New York City. a fucking problem with me. 100%. 100%. Now, you're taking down people for

wanting to attack kids on Halloween and you're some ISIS radicalized scumbag and an Islamist. That's not a regular Muslim. That's like me seeing all Christians as some asshole who decides to blow up an abortion clinic.

That's not me. I don't identify with that guy. He's not a Christian. He's a scumbag and a criminal. Feel the same way. It's completely consistent for me. But I get that their fear is real. And I understand why. And they are not wrong.

Just see what is happening and who is doing it. MAGA was a problem. Mega is a problem. And what happened in New York City means more to what will happen in the midterms than Virginia, then Maine, then Prop 50, then New Jersey, then all of it. because the mass movement is what will be determinative and you are seeing what it is and you are seeing who it is right now. The war has begun and it is between the fringes and it is time for the many to stop the few. With that, let's take a look at how we can quantify this battle. where are people willing to put their money in the same place as their mouth?

That takes me to my friends at Kalshi, who measure our politics in terms of what you're willing to bet on. And I think a really good example of the fringe focus is what the Supreme Court is doing right now. Why? The Supreme Court ruling on whether or not the president has exceeded the authority given him by Congress to, use tactics for trade in America's interest? This is a great laboratory, an example, a test of fringe versus the normative value of our institutions. How? If you read the 74 and 77 laws that deal with the president's ability to involve in trade and tariff, okay? You will see that in both examples, 74 and 77, they were very limited.

And it was not tariff everybody, everywhere all at once. It's not even a close call. So why are we even at the Supreme Court? I'll tell you why. One, this court is very open to expanding the president's power. Why? Because they're political animals. Seriously, you don't know that?

Look, there's a reason that these fringe movements are getting traction. Our institutions are not what they needed to be. They have to be improved. Their answer is just to destroy them. So Kalshi has the current betting markets, and there is a lot of volume on this bet, is that the Supreme Court will not rule in favor of Trump's tariffs. Why? Because the legislative language was very limited,

and that it doesn't even mention his ability to tariff, let alone the way he has. Okay? Was emergency measures and limited avenues. What's the problem? One, the court is open to expansion of his power. Two, Congress should be the one bitching about this. And they're not. Why?

Because they're run by the Republicans and they'll let Trump do whatever he wants. Same thing with military action. He's surrounding Venezuela right now. He's blowing up drug boats, he calls them. I don't know if they are. and they're not even saying anything. So the court has the ability to say, I don't think it's our job to judge whether or not

this law was supposed to be expanded this way when we weren't part of that process of designing the law. The people who did should be saying that. This is a political question, not a legal question. And they could very well say that, which would make people who are in this bet right now upside down, although it did just dip. Nah, it's still about that.

70, 30. No, they won't allow the tariffs. I think that it's not going to be as simple as yes or no on the tariffs for this court. But it does raise the problem of what's supposed to be the real arbiter here? Congress. Congress should be bitching about this. But they're not. And that's the problem. That's the fringe feel.

So I would See, the problem is here that Kalshi has defined this bet in a very clever way If the Supreme Court in VOS Selection Zing versus Trump Rules that Trump's tariffs are legal Before January 1st And the market resolves to yes And right now that is the short money.

It's 29 cents. I don't think that's what they're going to say. Now, I know Bill O'Reilly said on my show last night that they will approve the tariffs. And he is not a lawyer, and I don't think he's particularly perceptive on these questions, but it is binary, right? It is a 50-50, right? He's either going to be right or he's going to be wrong. They're either going to say yes, they're going to say, no.

I actually don't agree with that. I don't think it's going to be a straight yes or no. I think it's going to be a partial answer. Now, how will that resolve here? I think that means you lose the bet. I think if it's not a complete yes, they're in favor of it, then I think you probably lose. But it does show you where the smart money is. And I'll tell you, to nod in the right direction, because the president clearly exceeded the authority that was given him, even if Congress doesn't want to say anything about it, which is part of why we are fomenting these fringe movements.

Because every time you fall down on the job, you don't do the job, you reinforce the outrage that you need to be destroyed. And I'll tell you what, I'm down with the idea of not just betting on it, but making it happen. I think that you guys should vote against every incumbent in the midterms. you should vote against every incumbent in favor of third-party candidates who are willing to pledge to only stay there for a little while and to do something very specific that you approve up. That's what I think may be our best answer, certainly better than these fucked-up fringe movements that are about nothing but telling us why things are going to be worse. I do not want war.

I do not want this battle to continue. I want it to be about how we get better, not which side is worse, because the extreme ideas are getting more extreme, and it is going to tear us apart. Let me know. I'm Chris Cuomo. Thank you for subscribing and following. Thank you for checking me out on News Nation at 8 p and 11P every weekday night. There was a lot in this by design. Okay? Listen to it in pieces. Take it apart. Okay? The problems are real. I still believe our best way through it is together. Let's get after it.