The Majority Report with Sam Seder - 3520 - Israel's West Bank Annexation; Trump's ICE Gestapo w/ Jasper Nathaniel, Brad Lander

Episode Date: June 18, 2025

Another busy day in the derailed circus train that is Trump's administration. On today's show, Tucker Carlson humiliates Ted Cruz into admitting that the US is involved in Israel’s war in Iran. Brok...en clock, etc. We talk to Jasper Nathanial about his piece for The Baffler titled “The Annexation of the West Bank is Complete”. Check his other work at infinitejaz@substack,com We are also joined by New York City Comptroller Brad Lander and discuss his detainment by ICE agents at an immigration court in Lower Manhattan. Here's a link to learn more about  Immigration Arc   In the (not so) fun half, we check in with a cadre of psychos. Mark Levin screams about Trump's legacy as a peacemaker. Border Czar, Tom Holman goes on a psycho-sexual rant about AOC and her work with immigrants. Sean Hannity spews the Iraq playbook but for Iran. We also watch NYC Mayoral candidate, Zohran Momdani, deliver a powerful statement on his anti-semitism accusations and the racism he has encountered as a prominent Muslim figure. All that and more, folks. Become a member at JoinTheMajorityReport.com: https://fans.fm/majority/join Follow us on TikTok here!: https://www.tiktok.com/@majorityreportfm Check us out on Twitch here!: https://www.twitch.tv/themajorityreport Find our Rumble stream here!: https://rumble.com/user/majorityreport Check out our alt YouTube channel here!: https://www.youtube.com/majorityreportlive Gift a Majority Report subscription here: https://fans.fm/majority/gift Subscribe to the ESVN YouTube channel here: https://www.youtube.com/esvnshow Subscribe to the AMQuickie newsletter here: https://am-quickie.ghost.io/ Join the Majority Report Discord! https://majoritydiscord.com/ Get all your MR merch at our store: https://shop.majorityreportradio.com/ Get the free Majority Report App!: https://majority.fm/app Go to https://JustCoffee.coop and use coupon code majority to get 10% off your purchase! Check out today's sponsors: DELETEME: Text MAJORITY to 64000 for 20% off your DeleteMe subscription Follow the Majority Report crew on Twitter: @SamSeder @EmmaVigeland @MattLech   Check out Matt’s show, Left Reckoning, on Youtube, and subscribe on Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/leftreckoning Check out Matt Binder’s YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/mattbinder Subscribe to Brandon’s show The Discourse on Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/ExpandTheDiscourse Check out Ava Raiza’s music here! https://avaraiza.bandcamp.com/ The Majority Report with Sam Seder – https://majorityreportradio.com/  

Transcript
Discussion (0)
Starting point is 00:00:00 You are listening to a free version of The Majority Report. Support this show at join the Majority Report.com and get an extra hour of content daily. The Majority Report with Sam Cedar. It is Wednesday, June 18, 2025. My name is Sam Cedar. This is the five-time award-winning Majority Report. We are broadcasting live steps from the industrially ravaged Gowanus Canal in the heartland of America, downtown Brooklyn, USA. On the program today, Jasper Nathaniel, writer at Infinite Jazz.com, and in the Baffler, writing the annexation of the West Bank,
Starting point is 00:00:56 is complete. Also on the program, New York City Comptroller mayoral candidate Brad Lander in the wake of his well-publicized detention by ICE
Starting point is 00:01:14 yesterday. Also on the program today, Donald Trump says the United States may or may not strike Iran. That's good to know. He's decisive. leader. Iran warns the United States to stay
Starting point is 00:01:30 out as it lines up its attack lines in the Middle East. Meanwhile, Supreme Court upholds the Tennessee ban on gender-affirming care for minors. Also, not only going to have implications on the 22 other states that have such a ban could potentially set up a ban on gender-affirming care for anybody.
Starting point is 00:02:02 Fed is expected to leave rates unchanged. Senate passes its crypto-so-called genius act unleashing a huge threat to our financial system. I believe it was 18 Democrats who were set to vote for that. Trump EPA seeking to reverse a ban on asbestos. Yes, asbestos.
Starting point is 00:02:31 John Fetterman to vote against Tim Cain's War Powers Resolution because bloodthirstiness never takes a day off. J.D. Vance begs the Republican Senate to pass the Reconciliation
Starting point is 00:02:48 rich giveaway bill by next week. and a truck carrying an M1 tank after the Trump Army parade kills a pedestrian in downtown Washington, D.C. Meanwhile, Taco Trump gives TikTok another extension. What is this bull? Come on, no side deals with TikTok. Alex Jones accused of hiding money from Sandy Hook parents. And a new documentary that exposes Jim Jordan's role in the Ohio State Predator cover-up is released on HBO Max.
Starting point is 00:03:37 All this and more on today's majority report. Welcome, ladies and gentlemen. It is Newsday Tuesday, but we had, well, no, it's not. I came in on Tuesday. It's hump day. Dang it. Yep. So close.
Starting point is 00:03:54 So close. You kind of lost. I think you lose a trademark if you make a mistake like the wrong. Oh my God. My pay is being cut in half. So close. Just with one mistake. Things were going so well around here.
Starting point is 00:04:06 We were all, we were starting two minutes early today. And there it goes. I just, a couple of things. I just want to a little house cleaning up front. On Wednesday of next week, we will have Chase Strangio, who argued that case in front of the Supreme Court that was decided today. I think it's the Scrimetti case, if I'm not mistaken. This is going to have really broad implications for trans folk across the board.
Starting point is 00:04:46 Because at the center of this case was an argument that in some way reverses Boston. that discrimination that has that could not take place but for issues of sex or gender was prior to this case found illegal so we will be talking to Chase on Wednesday about that obviously we have a lot of stuff to get to the one of the biggest stories of the 50 biggest stories that we have going on in addition to um the reconciliation bill david day and will be in friday we will be talking about that bill then um is of course the potential for uh the united States to get involved in a war with Iran and um it is creating some fissures on the right i think we talked about this yesterday the reason why we're seeing these fissures is because i think of the size in the
Starting point is 00:06:07 nature of the size of the right wing media now and the nature of media writ large because many of these fissures existed in the run-up to the Iraq War, but they were much more marginalized. But now, marginal fissures can push to the center more because of the nature of social media.
Starting point is 00:06:30 I mean, Fox News used to be the only show in town with all that funding behind it, and you have Tucker Carlson is backed by Elon Musk's money here, right? Yes. He has his show on X. I mean, the Daily Wire is falling apart, but you have the PBD guys, who knows how much money they're getting
Starting point is 00:06:45 from right-wing sources, there's just a lot of them, you can be a little bit more bespoke with your right-wing reactionary content now. And we should say, you know, I think I mentioned this yesterday, Janine Garoflo, I had co-hosted with Tucker Carlson back in 2003, whatever the name, Crossfire. And Tucker Carlson at that time was promoting the Iraq War, but he was. wasn't really into it, I think was the quote that I heard about their conversation backstage. And he later's on a radio program, like a morning zoo show, called the Iraqis monkeys, and said, I don't care about that.
Starting point is 00:07:31 Semi-literate, I think, was positive. And so his lack of interest in engaging in that part of the world has been consistent, not necessarily for reasons that you might agree with, but just because. Ruted in bigotry, as is all of the right-wing isolationism, whereas I don't want to waste my time with these dirty, you know, people in the Middle East, basically is fundamentally what they'll say, or if it's rooted in this kind of like anti-Semitic conspiracy theory that the Jews are starting all the wars. 100%. Understand. You can be, you can have an issue with Israel because, it is an ethno-nationalist state running an apartheid regime among other problems
Starting point is 00:08:18 or you can have an issue with Israel because you see as a Jewish nation because they don't have a problem these people did not have a problem with South Africa I can assure you of that Tucker literally told Trump about the South Africa white genocide conspiracy theory in 2018 Trump tweeted thanking him
Starting point is 00:08:38 for bringing it to his attention and now we're bringing over white refugees from there Nevertheless, particularly in a run-up to war, any type of fractures are helpful, and, you know, like we say, a broken clock is right twice a day. You still don't want to carry around that clock to tell you time. But this was an interesting exchange with Tucker Carlson and his fellow podcaster, Ted Cruz, who also moonlights as a senator. How many people living around, by the way? I don't know the population. At all?
Starting point is 00:09:17 No, I don't know the population. You don't know the population in the country you seek to topple? How many people living around? 92 million. Okay. How could you not know that? I don't sit around memorizing population tables. Well, it's kind of relevant because you're calling for the overthrow of the government.
Starting point is 00:09:36 Why is it relevant, whether it's 90 million or 80 million or 100 million? Well, pause it for a second. Now, this is where Ted Cruz, a law school student, lawyer, former moot court debater, is pretty good. Why is irrelevance, whether it's $80 million or $90 million or $100 million? I get news for you. Had Tucker said it's $16 million, Ted Cruz would have said, what difference does it make it? $16,000, $20 million, $18 million? Yep.
Starting point is 00:10:08 Ted Cruz had no idea that Iran was so large. Absolutely, I will go to my grave. I will tell you that had Tucker Carlson said, it's 20 million that Ted Cruz would not have batted an eye and would have said, what's the difference? 21, 25. Tucker should have made him guess. It was interesting to see also the glee on Tucker's face where he feels like he got him.
Starting point is 00:10:36 He did. The reason it's relevant, Ted, is, as Tucker Carlson said, you're calling for regime change in this country, which was also almost identical to the calls prior to the Iraq War, which is half the size of population and a fourth in the size of geography. Because you're calling for the overthrow of the government. Why is it relevant, whether it's 90 million or 80 million or 100 million? Why is that relevant? Because if you don't know anything about the country. I didn't say I don't know anything about it. Okay, what's the ethnic mix of Iran?
Starting point is 00:11:04 They are Persians and predominantly Shia. Okay. No, it's not even, you don't know anything about Iran. So, actually the country. I am not the Tucker Carlson expert on Iran. You're a senator who's calling to the overthrow in the government and you don't know anything about the country. No, you don't know anything about the country. You're the one who claims they're not trying to murder Donald Trump.
Starting point is 00:11:26 You know, I'm not saying that who can't figure out a say. I don't know why. We should probably do a little breaking news here. 90 million people trying to kill Donald Trump. Yes. That's the nature of the country, the entire country, trying to kill Donald Trump. Also, why are they doing that? People are going to a history lesson?
Starting point is 00:11:49 Maybe because we did an assassination on one of their top leaders. This should, this, there's no basis for this claim. The shooter, there's no evidence that we've seen that the shooter was more than a lone wolf trying to make a name for himself. but this is him, A-PAC, a wash in A-PAC money, Ted Cruz, doing Netanyahu's bidding, trying to appeal to Donald Trump's Messiah complex, that apparently he's completely bought into that he now has a mandate from God that saved him. Like, the reporting says that that is what he truly believes after the assassination attempt. So he's trying to appeal to his ego here. Yeah, God did that. Right. And it could work. That's what's scary, because Trump has no moral character.
Starting point is 00:12:30 Well, the irony is that I am quite convinced, although I'm not exactly sure of this, that Trump at one point did reference George Bush, George W. Bush, wanting to invade and overthrow Saddam Hussein because Saddam Hussein had a plot to kill George Herbert Walker Bush. I mean, I would never protect my dad, but me? Wait a second. All right. Go back just a little bit. Senator who's calling to the overthrow in the government and you don't know anything about the country. No, you don't know anything about the country. You're the one who claims
Starting point is 00:13:08 they're not trying to murder Donald Trump. You're the one who can't figure out and it was a good idea to kill General Soleimani and you said it was bad. You don't believe they're trying to murder Trump. Yes, I do. Because you're not calling for military strikes against them in retaliation.
Starting point is 00:13:20 We're carrying out military strikes today. You said Israel was. Right. With our help. I said we. Israel is leading them, but we're supporting them. Well, this, you're breaking news here because the U.S. government last night denied the National Security Council spokesman
Starting point is 00:13:34 Alex Pfeiffer denied on behalf of Trump that we were acting on Israel's behalf in any offensive capacity at all. We're not bombing them. Israel's bombing them. You just said we were. We are supporting Israel. You're a senator. If you're saying the United States government is a time, we're with Iran right now. People are listening. God.
Starting point is 00:13:53 Honestly, like, it is fun to watch. Tucker Carlson's creepy, petty, cackle, weird cackle deployed against someone who is equally creepy, cackling, and loathsome. I mean, this is, if there was ever a moment where we should play the drop, let them fight, this is it. You know, when you see, this is your face when you accidentally reveal state secrets. on Tucker Carlson's program. Do you remember this? That was that
Starting point is 00:14:36 the porn that Ted liked. So that was that woman making that face. That's my joke for the day. I mean, he just revealed that we were involved which Trump is denying. It's the royal week. It's the royal we as in me and the Israel lobby. In the 51st state.
Starting point is 00:14:55 I mean, this is first off, I mean, aside from fact that Tucker Carlson tricked Ted Cruz into admitting that we, the United States, or maybe he means his family, is involved in helping the Israelis bomb Iran. Iran, this, I mean, this is so dangerous because if Iran is in the position of not being able to pretend that the United States is not involved in this, they're going to have domestic pressure to attack U.S. assets, and then Donald Trump is going to attack.
Starting point is 00:15:40 I mean, that is where we're at at this point. And fortunately, you know, Ted Cruz may be considered enough of a joke, and Tucker Carlson's program is considered enough of a joke that this was not going to be taken seriously. But this is how close we are to getting sucked into this. And Donald Trump is obviously, like, going back and forth. It depends on, you know, which of his last advisors he will be talking to. You know, Tucker Carlson and Sean Hannity are going to have to duke it out in some arena or something.
Starting point is 00:16:18 But we are very, very close to getting sucked into this. And the reason the size of the country so relevant is because of how much of a boondoggle Iraq was, just compare it and Iraq we killed up to a million people like this was such the fact that this country's memory hold this is crazy and what Trump is hearing from Netanyahu is, Hezbollah
Starting point is 00:16:40 is severely weakened, Syria Assad was toppled who was allied with the Iranians and with the Russians and that this is the time to strike. This has been the wet dream of neocons since the pre-Iraq war days and what he's hearing from Netanyahu
Starting point is 00:16:57 and all of those other Hawks in his administration, which, you know, whatever he can be swayed, is, now's the time to strike. And that's why it's so important that, because we're not in power right now. It's only the Republicans in the House and Senate. If Tucker Carlson and Marjorie Taylor Green are going to say, don't do this, we have to take it for right now. All right. In a moment, we're going to be talking to Jasper Nathaniel, writer at Infinite Jazz. Substack writing, also in the Baffler, a huge piece, the annexation of the West Bank.
Starting point is 00:17:28 is complete. But first, a word from our sponsor, Delete Me, is a product that I've been using for now 10 years. In some respects, for obvious reasons, now with even more reasons. But originally, I was using this because I wanted to make it more difficult
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Starting point is 00:20:05 majority to 64,000 that's majority to the number 6400000 message and data rates may apply we'll put the um put that information in the podcast and youtube descriptions going to take quick break We'll be right back with Jasper Nathaniel, and then later in the program, New York City Comptroller and mayoral candidate Brad Lander. Thank you. We are back, Sam Cedar, Emma Vigland, on The Majority Report. I want to welcome back to the program, Jasper Nathaniel. He is a writer at Infinite Jazz.com. I want to recommend this newsletter to everyone.
Starting point is 00:21:49 We'll put that link in the podcast. and YouTube description. And you can see it down below if you're watching on YouTube, folks. Oh, great. And there it is right down there. And also has a piece in the baffler. The annexation of the West Bank is complete. Jasper, welcome to the program.
Starting point is 00:22:10 Just starting off, we know that Donald Trump made promises to Miriam Adelson in 20, 2020, and that was, I will move the capital, or we will recognize the United States, will recognize Jerusalem as the Israeli capital. I ended up, at one point, I think he said, I gave it the Golan Heights just as like a bonus gift. And this time around, she gave him about $120 million for the promise of supporting the annexation of the West Bank. And in the meantime, the Israelis have basically been gearing up to this. well, you know, arguably for 30 or 40 years, but certainly more intensely over the past five.
Starting point is 00:23:00 Yeah. I mean, do we think Donald Trump can point to the West Bank on a map? Is there any chance at all? I mean, I honestly, I think that for Trump, he just, it just doesn't even cross his mind. So I think that when, like, you hear Smotrich talk about this huge opportunity now that Trump is president. to basically have sovereignty over all, you know, what they call Judean Samaria. And I don't know that it's like an ideological thing as much as it's just, as I write in this piece, the idea of the West Bank remaining the part of the sort of Palestinian state when that two-state solution finally comes around
Starting point is 00:23:43 was just like the sort of central tenant needed for Western governments to maintain this fiction. that there was a second Palestinian, or that there was a Palestinian state coming. And Trump doesn't even pay lip service to that. So I think that Smotrich and the right wingers are basically just like, okay, time to go nuts. All right. Well, let's tell us who, for folks who don't know, who is the finance mentor, Bezal Smotrich? Yeah, Bezal Smotrich. He's, he grew, he actually was born in the Goan Heights in a settlement.
Starting point is 00:24:21 there. And now he lives with his family in a settlement in the West Bank. I mean, I'll put it this way. He was one of these sort of extremist settlers that you see on TV today, or on the internet in videos, like raiding Palestinian villages, throwing rocks, lighting their cars and homes on fire. That's what he grew up doing. And he's very open about that. But when he was younger, there was actually sort of an adversarial relationship between the settlers and the military in many cases because the military wanted to maintain order and Smotrich was at odds with them
Starting point is 00:24:59 and he was arrested several times actually and even charged with, I think, support for terrorism, but don't hold me to that. And then he became a lawyer and he started a group whose job was to basically fight the state of Israel when it ruled against constructing illegal outposts or settlements and that sort of a thing. So he's been fighting against the state his entire life, basically.
Starting point is 00:25:25 Fast forward, he becomes a politician. He's a member of the Knesset. And then he becomes the finance minister at the end of 2022 when Nanyahu basically was forced to form a coalition with these like extremist parties in order to come back into power. That's the background on him. I can get into sort of like what's happened since then if you want. Well, I guess I'm a little bit curious if you could flesh out, Jasper, how the religious fundamentalist extremists in Israel, like, what is it overstated to say
Starting point is 00:26:00 that they were in opposition recently? I'm not talking about when Smotrish was coming up because since October 7th, the alliance of the most religious fundamentalist Israelis and these far right parties and Lakud has been fairly seamless. I mean, you hear some palace intrigue and drama, but largely they've been a unified front in both the genocide in Gaza and then the annexation of the West Bank. That's true for the most part, but actually right up until they struck Iran, the coalition was pretty much at its most fragile point it's been in years, specifically because Nanyahu obviously wants this forever war, but they're running out of troops.
Starting point is 00:26:43 reserves don't want to show up anymore. They were getting ready to basically abolish this rule that said that the ultra-Orthodox yeshiva students don't have to serve like everybody else. So they were getting ready to hand out draft cards to all these people in Yashiva, studying Yashivas. And some of the religious members of the Knesset were basically rebelling against it. And there was just a no confidence vote. I can't remember if it was right before or right after the Iran strikes.
Starting point is 00:27:10 But he was right before. Thursday. the Thursday before the strikes. Yeah, and, you know, perhaps they knew what was coming. But I think, like, for all intents and purposes, they've been a unified front across pretty much everything. Just before we go into what Smoktrak has been doing, and on some level, like, I think what we're seeing is
Starting point is 00:27:36 there has been a decades-long project to create, facts on the ground, where they will put, where Israel will create settlements that will just make it harder to make an argument that this, that this land can be returned to Palestinians, that, and to sort of almost like break some of the social structure of Palestinians living in the West Bank. And that has accelerated at an incredible rate over the past, particularly like four or five years. But give us a sense of how the Israeli government works so that we can understand how Smotrick has been able to position himself and has been given the authority to essentially almost in some ways unilaterally go ahead doing this. And I want to make it
Starting point is 00:28:36 clear. I'm not saying that there isn't culpability to go across the Israeli leadership because they have willingly gone along with it. But he is sort of almost politically protected on some level and been in a unique position to implement this project. Yeah. No. I mean, this has been pretty well reported in Israel and there's been a little bit of reporting of it in the U.S., but not nearly enough because most people that I talk to who are following all this pretty closely actually are not even aware of this sort of reverse coup that Smoddrich pulled off. So basically, when Israel occupied the West Bank in 1967 after the Six Day War, they began a formal military occupation, which is actually like an internationally recognized status. And because
Starting point is 00:29:27 of that, there are actual legal obligations to adhere to the laws from the Hague Convention and in Geneva. And those laws, in essence, say that the occupying power is temporarily administrating the territory and must protect the well-being of the occupied residents. So they're not allowed to do anything that is against the well-being of the residents or anything that would form like a temporary, excuse me, a permanent presence of Israel there. And so I want to be very clear, like the military occupation in the West Bank is unspeakably cruel. I've witnessed it firsthand. I mean, of course, I'm sure all of your listeners are very familiar with this, and they uphold just a brutal apartheid regime. But in a strange way, the military occupation has provided
Starting point is 00:30:16 some insulation against these really expansionist politicians in Israel, because every move that the smotechers, the settlers want to make to expand settlements, to change laws, all these things, they have to contend with the lawyers, with the military, who are, you know, I'm not going to say they're pro-Palestine, but these are lawyers. Excuse me, these are lawyers. And they're like, at least nominally adhering to a set of laws. And I'll say the military, you know, it's certainly full of ideologues now, and I'm sure it always has been, but they are not the same, the people who have run the military in Israel are not these, like, die-hard, messian. figures like Smotrich, who think that it's, you know, their purpose on earth to take over
Starting point is 00:31:05 the West Bank. They're there to basically rule with an iron fist, to maintain order. And so all that is to say that when Smotrich wanted to begin his sort of take over the West Bank, he understood that what he had to do was undercut that system of military rule, because that's what was posing all these different obstacles. So right after the election in 2022, so in early February, 2023, Smotritch forms an agreement with then defense minister Yoav Gaunt. It's sort of unclear exactly where the pressure was coming from on Gaunt to do this, although again, like it was a very fragile coalition, Smotritch had a lot of power at that point, but they form an agreement to make Smotrich an additional minister in the ministry of defense. Like, that's his actual title.
Starting point is 00:31:53 So you've got the Minister of Defense, which was gone at the time, is now Katz. And then you had the additional minister in the Ministry of Defense, which was Smotrich. And Smotrich was given power over this newly created organization inside the Defense Department called the Settlement Administration, which was basically created to just own all things related to the settlements and to just route everything away from the military and to these political appointees that Smotrich was making while still being nominally under this sort of military structure. So that's the basic like structural change he created. And we should also say he's also the finance minister at this time outside of the defense department or the IDF structure. So he has a separate like a base of power, if you will. He controls. He's like basically the secretary of the treasury. And so he's got this sort of like
Starting point is 00:32:52 he's approaching this from like almost two from two different angles. Yeah, there's this quote during a conference, I think it was last June. He's speaking at one of these like settler conferences that was not open to the public, but it leaked.
Starting point is 00:33:08 And he's talking about how he's been able to get just this inordinate amount of funding to go into building settlements, into settlement roads, into illegal outposts, basically like just a disproportionate amount of Israel's state federal budget went into the settlements and he explains it by saying he makes a joke he says
Starting point is 00:33:28 the minister of finance and the um the minister of finance and the additional minister of defense know each other so somehow there was budget and what he's saying is they're both me so i make the call for what we're going to do i confirm the budgets we routed all away from the military lawyers and yeah he's been able to just basically go nuts um so The way in which, talk about the division of the West Bank into sort of three different categories, A, B, and C. Because that seems to be the sort of his backdoor way of getting out from under, of choosing which areas in which there is not the same sort of like restrictions from a military perspective. Yeah, I think that the way it's helpful to think about this is like he has two different fronts on this, this war against. what I'll call the military occupation, which is really what it is.
Starting point is 00:34:25 So one front is basically eroding the green line that separates Israel from the occupied West Bank. And what that actually means is all of the laws that currently govern Israel, they're passing all this legislation now to make those laws govern the West Bank as well, which, again, is not what it's supposed to be. This is a military occupation. It's not part of the state of Israel. But now all these different laws in Israel are also laws in the West Bank.
Starting point is 00:34:51 which is in effect annexation. So that's sort of part one of it. Part two of it is from the inside, which is what you're describing, Sam. Basically, after the Oslo Accords 2 in the mid-90s, they divide the West Bank into areas A, B, and C. Area A is ruled in theory entirely by the Palestinian Authority, security, and administrative stuff.
Starting point is 00:35:19 Area B is Palestinian Authority administered, but IDF and PA joint security. And then area C, Israel controls everything. But Israel doesn't own that land. They don't own any of it, or they're not supposed to at least. And so part of what they're doing now, like the big news in the last week or so, is they're doing this land registration process. So what that basically means is that the Israeli government, is auditing land rights across all of Area C in the West Bank, which is 60% of the West Bank.
Starting point is 00:35:56 And all of the deeds that are owned by actual Palestinians, which most of them date back to Jordanian rule, they're just no good in the eyes of Israel. Of course, PA deeds are no good in the eyes of Israel. So any land that's not currently registered, in other words, any land that's registered to Palestinians, Israel is now just naming state land. So what that means is that all this area, all this land in area C is now basically becoming Israeli land. And so a lot of the laws that they're passing in the policy initiatives to your question, Sam, are about just having Israel take over full control of area C. But then a lot of the laws also are about trying to sort of undermine that division two. So allowing them to treat area B and area A the same way that they would treat area C. That makes sense. Yeah, it does make sense. And I'm
Starting point is 00:36:44 curious if you could just explain. I know you've been to the West Bank often and done reporting there on the ground. Like, one, what this, what, uh, the, the, the slow rolling annexation looks like in, in practice. But two, even prior to like this escalation post-October 7th, um, the, this was, uh, in process is my understanding where, uh, Palestinians would try to get recourse via the Israeli court system. And it was almost universal every single time the Israeli courts who for some reason have dominion over this, even though it's supposedly Palestinian territory, would always side against Palestinian claims of their deeds and their land rights and basically say, no, actually, this gets to be your house is Israeli now. Yeah. It's hard to imagine why the Israeli court system would be prejudiced against the Palestinians. but suffice to say, you're right, Emma, like all of this started before October 7th. I mean, it's been going on for decades, but it really escalated at the end of 2022 when this new government came in. And, you know, the judicial coup that there were huge protests in Israel before the war, a lot of that was about, like, undermining the judiciary system's ability to have oversight
Starting point is 00:38:08 over law so that this government could just like make all the calls. After October 7th, though, a couple of things happened. One of them is that, again, like legally, according to international law, Israel has the right to act in accordance with security in the West Bank. So after October 7, Smotrich basically takes this idea of security and broadens it to encompass any activity at all by the Palestinian Authority, which is the governing body over Palestinians in the West Bank. And so based on that, they're able to stop construction, to do demolitions, to go into areas A, B, and C, and conduct military operations. So they basically just, like, turn security into an umbrella term is the first thing. The second thing is that, frankly, like, to the extent that people in Israel cared about the settlement movement and were against it, they just, at the very least, stop paying attention to what was happening there.
Starting point is 00:39:08 And just, you know, that is basically what Smokchurch has really capitalized on is understanding that not only people stop paying attention, but they'll do anything for security. And like the settlers in the West Bank really frame themselves as like the security buffer between Israel and Jordan and the rest of the Middle East. And basically just everything that's happened since October 7, there's nothing really categorically new. Everything's just gotten much worse. And so what that means is, like, one tangible example, outposts, which are basically illegal settlements, even by Israeli law, which used to get occasionally torn down by the military, Smotrich and Ben Guevira actually just actually, like, put a stop to that. So now settlers can go form outposts wherever they want, and they're doing it systematically, like right next to Palestinian communities, and then they go and terrorize them until they leave. And I think, like, over 60 communities have actually picked up and left since then. So that's just like one tangible thing.
Starting point is 00:40:09 Obviously, movement restrictions have gotten much worse. The settlement building is just, I mean, I call it my piece a period of abundance because they have essentially just got rid of every check and balance to be able to just build whatever they want from a settlement perspective. So, you know, I don't want anybody to think that like Smoturch came in and started all this. This had been going on for a while, but he did sort of an extraordinary job of getting rid of all the obstacles in the way so that, they could just take over more land and force the Palestinians off the land.
Starting point is 00:40:39 And we should say that at least in the immediate wake of the October 7th attack, people were pointing to the removal of IDF soldiers from the Gaza border to the West Bank to enforce the expropriation of property that Smotrick was involved in leading up from 2022 into 2023 because they were basically committing programs for lack of a better word at that time and the military was there to essentially protect the perpetrators of those. All right, we have just a little bit of time. Tell us about E1 and this project, because this seems to be sort of the, I don't want to say the coup de grob,
Starting point is 00:41:35 but this seems to be the sort of the big physical, the culmination of this notion of facts on the ground. Yeah, E1 is a very like strategic plot of land that basically extends from East Jerusalem, which is like technically just outside the West Bank on the west. And then it goes through Jerusalem directly to a settlement. And then it, what it does is it, it cuts off Palestinian East Jerusalem from the West Bank,
Starting point is 00:42:10 and it cuts off the Palestinian villages in the northern occupied West Bank from the southern occupied West Bank. So it's a strip of land that basically would take like the three ostensibly Palestinian administered parts of East Jerusalem and the West Bank and just cut them off from each other in the same way that, you know, Gaza is cut off from the West Bank, basically. And because of that, it's been, for various reasons, like very taboo for Israel to do any building there.
Starting point is 00:42:40 In other words, like the Western governments that support Israel almost unconditionally, but again, need to maintain that idea of a potential two-state solution, have forbidden Israel from building an E-1. And there's actually an instance when in 2023, I think, yeah, in July 2023, so a couple months before October 7th, Smotcher tried to start building there. and the Biden administration actually rebuked them and said, you can't do that. And they backed off.
Starting point is 00:43:08 And so it's been like actually in the works for 30 years, like it was Yitzhak Rabin, who initially had the idea, you know, the great progressive Israeli leader. And so now basically they're doing it. And they're getting ready to start building settlements there. It'll be the biggest settlement expansion in decades. And it is, again, it's going to effectively just, turn the West Bank into even more of a patchwork than it already is of Palestinian territory. And, you know, I guess at that point we'd be talking about like four or five Palestinian states.
Starting point is 00:43:44 So maybe a six-state solution in the end. Right. I mean, this is what I just feel like gets so missed in and increasingly less so, because obviously the brutality in Gaza is hopefully waking some people up. but like the fracturing of the landmass in and of itself is a way to undercut the idea of a Palestinian state. There was like Zach Beauchamp of Vox maybe 10 years ago wrote that he thought that there was a bridge between Gaza and the West Bank, which is not true. But like that that's the reason that there's no bridge or no connection is because it's much harder to create a state when they're when they're divided into five, six little small. smaller territories.
Starting point is 00:44:30 Yeah, and let me just make, put a fine point on that. Smotrich, no, he's, he's very savvy. He's not like, I think Ben-Gabir is a big idiot, and he's been effective in various ways, but Smotritch is much more sort of, like, technocratic and behind the scenes. And he said many, many years ago that he thought, like, announcing that Israel had annexed the West Bank would be a mistake, because that could trigger blowback from the U.S. from different western states. So what he basically said is we need to establish facts on the ground, like you said, Sam,
Starting point is 00:45:05 but not just like in the form of building and construction, but also in the form of laws so that all of the laws of Israel apply to the West Bank as well, so that when we're out of power, as in if one day, you know, the left of Israel is actually able to get its act together and rule Israel, you know, a fantasy perhaps. But even if that were to happen, And they would have an entirely new legal infrastructure to contend with in order to, like, reverse everything that happened that essentially de facto annexed the West Bank. So with that, with that in mind, I mean, as Smotra has basically, there are three things that can happen to the Palestinians.
Starting point is 00:45:48 They can get absorbed into Israeli society, I guess, but presumably as, as, you know, as second-class citizens. I mean... For example, like, there was a report that they're not even letting the Palestinians of Israel into bomb shelters right now. Yes. And we should also say, there is also...
Starting point is 00:46:13 I have been asked in a debate once, did you know that there are no bomb shelters in Gaza? It also seems that even within the context of Israel and certainly within the West Bank, there are bomb shelters, not because they're made privately, but because the Israeli government provides money for it. And in Palestinian communities that are occupied,
Starting point is 00:46:37 they are not allowed to build bomb shelters. They're not only at this point. But so there are three things. One is they will get absorbed into Israeli society as second-class citizens. Two is they will just decide to leave. because their lives have been made so miserable, self-deport, I guess, although it's not really deporting, it's really self-exile. Being cleansed, being cleansed, yeah.
Starting point is 00:47:09 Or they'll die. And we've seen that project take place in Gaza. But are we, like, the interesting thing about Smotrick saying he doesn't want to sort of publicly say that we're annexing the West Bank. at one point the argument that Israel is not an apartheid state which is still sort of like
Starting point is 00:47:32 I mean it's gaining more traction it's gaining more traction in Israel for that matter but every time they do this it becomes more and more clear there is a single state sort of that exists right now
Starting point is 00:47:45 and it just so happens that it has second third fourth class citizens depending on which how they're situated in Palestinian areas. Yeah, I mean, the three-step process or the three options that you're describing actually dates back to a 2017 proposal that Smotrich put forth called the Decisive Plan,
Starting point is 00:48:12 and the idea was like, it's time to take decisive action in the West Bank to establish sovereignty. And, yeah, the three choices that Palestinians would be left with after having all these new facts on the ground, was number one, yeah, they could accept their role basically as like colonial subjects, more or less, and, you know, like devote themselves to the state of Israel, pledge allegiance. Number two, actually generously, Israel would pay them to leave to go somewhere else. And they really emphasize this to make the point that, like, they're, you know, benevolent. They're not just going to kick them out. They're going to pay them to go move somewhere else.
Starting point is 00:48:49 And option three is they fight death. And I think that, you know, like a lot of people ask, like, when is it going to happen? You know, when is this civil war going to, or when is the war going to break out in the West Bank? Or when are they going to ethnically cleanse it? And I think that the point that that sort of misses is that, I mean, it's really just, it's happening. It's happening in real time. And I think Smokurch is very aware of the fact that everybody's looking at Gaza. now everybody's looking at Iran.
Starting point is 00:49:22 And yes, we hear these sort of one-off stories of these settler attacks or, you know, you hear about the siege on the refugee camps in the West Bank. But the sort of bigger picture that they have completely undermined the legal structure that separates the West Bank from Israel while, like, ramping up the violence and essentially getting rid of any enforcement against violent Israelis in the West Bank, They have effectively annexed it. I mean, it is Israeli territory now, and the Palestinians there. The lucky ones, so to speak, are living as subjects.
Starting point is 00:49:59 What did he call it? The decisive what? The decisive plan. Yeah, that's a fascinating way to get around having to say, like, the final solution. Yeah. Jasper Nathaniel, we will put a link to this piece in the baffler and also a link to your Substack newsletter, which I can't encourage people to sign up for more. That's at Infinite Jazz.substack.com.
Starting point is 00:50:28 Thanks so much for your time today. Okay. Thanks a lot, Sam and Emma. Take care. All right, folks. We're going to take a quick break, and in a moment we'll be back with Bradlander. He is the New York City comptroller and candidate for New York City mayor in the upcoming primary and also, I guess, facing charges for attempting to request a warrant from ICE agents in New York City yesterday. We'll be right back after this.
Starting point is 00:51:16 Thank you. We are back, Sam Cedar, Emma Viglin, on the Majority Report, joining us now Comptroller of New York City and mayoral candidate, Brad Lander. And Brad, before the break, I had said that you were facing charges because of what took place yesterday. Just explain to us what the status is. I think a lot of people have seen, certainly on this program, we played it, the footage of ice agents essentially wrestling you and grabbing you behind destroying your suit coat buttons and whatnot. But what exactly is the situation in terms of charges right now? No charges have been brought against me and I'm told that the case is under review and we'll have to see what happens.
Starting point is 00:52:42 You know, but the individual that I was walking out with at Gardo, he, we presume, is in ICE detention. He has no lawyer. You know, he theoretically has 30 days to appeal the decision, but he doesn't know how to do that or have any lawyer or means to do it. So I'm going to be just fine. I'm a lot more worried about it. I just want to start with what were you doing there? And I know this is not the first time you've been doing this. But what were you doing, you're working with an organization?
Starting point is 00:53:17 Just walk us through what the situation was. I was serving as what's called a friend of the court through an organization called Immigration Arc. That's a coalition that has, you know, attorneys and others and then asks volunteers to come observe immigration court proceedings. Things changed about three weeks ago when DHS started doing this, what they called, dismissing cases. which sounds good, but it is not good. It actually strips people of their status and makes them subject to expedited removal. That's what happened to that Bronx high school student, Dylan Contreras.
Starting point is 00:53:54 And once it started happening, Immigration Arc encouraged more people to come, sit in the courtroom, bear witness, and if people have that happen to them, escort them out of the building. So I've done it now three times, three weeks ago, two weeks ago, and yesterday. five of the seven times I've done it.
Starting point is 00:54:14 I'm happy to say I was able to escort the individual or the family. Yesterday I escorted a family of four or Latino family with a four-year-old and a five-year-old, afraid they were going to get, you know, grabbed and able to export them out of the building. And, you know, that's what I wanted to happen every single time with that Guard out as well. Just to reiterate this change in policy, because you have an immigrant who is trying to apply for a citizen or I should say a legal status in this country. In fact, during this process, there's no better way to describe them as being legal. I mean, they are doing everything right.
Starting point is 00:55:01 These are people who crossed at the border and then immediately presented themselves to Border Patrol, were given a case number, were given a date to appear in court, mostly have filed asylum applications, and showed up at their hearing with the expectation that they'd have a chance to get on a path to get their case heard. Do they have credible fear of repression
Starting point is 00:55:27 if they're returned to their country? Yes, I mean, these are people who are following the legal process that is laid out under international and U.S. law. And instead of us following that process, what the Department of Homeland Security is doing, is stripping away their status and deporting them without ever giving them a credible fear, hearing, giving them a lawyer, or providing them just any of the basics of due process. So like when we say democracy is being ripped away, the rule of law is being eroded. That's what's happening in our immigration courts right now. and that's why Immigration ARC asks people to be there.
Starting point is 00:56:08 But so they dismiss the case, right, just to give people a sense. They dismiss the case and then why you're there and other people who are trying to help their neighbors is because they need an escort because ICE agents are waiting in many instances outside of the courtroom and taking them away. Yeah, in the elevator lobby. So, yes, you know, it's just imagine there's an elevator lobby and then there's a hallway and the hallway has courtrooms off it. And you don't know what the judge says,
Starting point is 00:56:35 okay, your case is dismissed next. And then that person walks out of the courtroom into the hallway. And then when they turn the corner into the elevator lobby, there's a gaggle of masked, non-uniformed, non-identifying ICE and federal agents who grab them. And so the idea of an escort is to give them a little information, about what has just happened in court and what is likely to happen, and to try to provide an escort who hopefully will be able to just walk with them,
Starting point is 00:57:10 you know, to the elevator and downstairs. And five of the seven times I've done it, that did happen, which was great, but two times. Okay. And just I just woke so that people understand when it's dismissed, is what would have happened five weeks ago would have been that they appealed it? or that or i think so they would not have dismissed this is new that they are dismissing people's cases previously you would be going along the path of an asylum application they would say okay where you know uh in a in another case uh last week uh i was with i was sitting in the court
Starting point is 00:57:50 and well a couple and they severed the cases even though they came together and they removed him well they didn't you know they they dismissed his case she got a court date a year and a half from now. So her case was not dismissed. That's what normally would have happened is come back in 18 months, bring a lawyer, and we'll start the process, essentially, of considering your asylum application. And that's what was happening for people. And now what they've started doing by dismissing the cases is never give you that chance and just move to expedited removal. Expedited removal, as I understand it, was something that previously had only happened at the border, that they would do it at the border,
Starting point is 00:58:32 but that if you got a court date and moved into the U.S., you and filed your asylum application, you would then have a credible fear hearing and get due process going, changing that, doing the dismissal and moving immediately to expedited removal, as I understand it, you know, five weeks ago was not a standard or significant process and has now become.
Starting point is 00:58:57 I want to, let's go. Yeah, can I just really quickly ask, you, Brad, just like, why the judges are going along with this? If, I mean, if the, if the government is asking this, shouldn't the judge be having an even hand here? Some judges do. I will say I have been in courtrooms. I was in one courtroom last week with a guy named Abu Bakr from Algeria. And the judge refused to dismiss the case. The judge gave Abu Bakr a little chance to explain why he's afraid of being deported back to Algeria. He explained why the judge said, it sounds like you should have a real credible fear hearing and your asylum case should be heard.
Starting point is 00:59:34 He refused to dismiss the case. And then he said to Abu Bakr, I am denying the government's motion, but I can't promise that they won't arrest you when you walk out of the building. So yes, now other judges are not doing anything like that. The judge yesterday, whose courtroom I was in, was extremely rude to me, was extremely rude to reporters, yelled at. us for just trying to come into the courtroom totally silently and listen and observe. And in one case yesterday, did such a poor job of explaining to the individual what his
Starting point is 01:00:12 rights were that the government lawyer spoke up and said, Your Honor, I don't think you said you have the opportunity to appeal the case. Like, that's how bad this is. like the government lawyer, the DHS lawyer, was correcting the judge in order to preserve, you know, the legal integrity of the hearing. It felt like a kangaroo court and some judges are objecting. I had a different judge who kind of quietly directed me to another courtroom. And I don't know enough about, you know, which immigration judges are which and why some are care about the rule of law Some seem to be going along with increasingly Gestapo tactics, but it looks to me like that.
Starting point is 01:00:58 And these are administrative judges, not, you know, Article III judges here. And we should say that if there was a process where someone could have theoretically filed their appeal before they get out into that hallway, they would be protected theoretically from these ICE agents. I mean, this is one of the things when you just think about the Orwellian stuff that's going on here. Like the fact that the judge tells you you have 30 days to appeal, but knows you don't have a lawyer. You haven't doesn't tell you where or how to appeal and knows you're about to be picked up by an ice agent who's going to put you in detention with no way of getting connected to anyone who could help you exert that. Right. Like it really makes you want to throw up. Let's look at this footage because then the other question is, is like, what authority,
Starting point is 01:01:52 did these guys, and frankly, whoever these guys are, they're just, as far as I can tell, they're dressed like they're, you know, providing service at a Banana Republic clothing store. Except they're mass, so you can't see who they even are. Let's take it a little bit further in here. And yeah, okay, so people will watch. And then I want to ask you about, like, you know, what authority do they have to detain you in this instance? and what the requirements are for them to present in terms of an authority, both to detain you and to detain the, um, uh, detain the, um, uh, the, the,
Starting point is 01:02:37 the, uh, the, the, uh, edgardo, who you were working with. You don't have a, you have a judicial warrant. This is not legal to a red take someone without a judicial warrant. Please don't put him in the elevator and then say, you have the warrant. We don't have a line for him. I will let go when you show me the judicial warrant. Where is it? Where is it?
Starting point is 01:02:57 I have to walk in my hand here. So show us. Let us stand. So let us stand. You want to take a warrant. Please stay back. Take it. Take it.
Starting point is 01:03:10 Stay back. Stay back. Please. Step back. Step back. You don't have the authority to arrest U.S. citizen. You don't have the authority to arrest U.S.
Starting point is 01:03:21 citizens. Sweet side, say that. You don't, I'm not obstructing. I'm standing right here in the hallway. I have to see the judicial warrant. Okay. And so you're, you're getting cuffed by some t-shirted guys. They're big.
Starting point is 01:03:36 They're strong. I can understand how that happens. What, like, when you went with them in the elevator and then to whatever, you know, room they kept you in for a couple hours, is my understanding. I mean, and they clearly knew who you were. I think it's been reported that they said, should we take the comptroller? So they clearly knew who you were.
Starting point is 01:04:02 They didn't need to put you in cuffs at that point because we can see that they've been able to take this person away. Like what, tell us what happened after that and who they were and what authority. Yeah, I mean, you know, I didn't get a lot of information. I mean, after that, they took me to first one floor and then a second, And I just sat in a room, basically, for four hours. And I, you know, I did not get interviewed or get much information.
Starting point is 01:04:30 So, and, you know, you heard the questions I was asking. First, I was asking to see the judicial warrant by which they were removing at Gardo. And then I was challenging their authority to arrest me. But I did not get a lot of information. You know, mostly I just sat in a room with a nice police officer. minding me for four hours and they're still sort of like contemplating whether they're going to um and we should say my understanding um uh from after uh talking to some immigration people is that um a judicial warrant is only necessary if they're going into someone's home or car
Starting point is 01:05:12 in this instance they don't need that warrant uh because the immigration, or I should say the ICE lawyer is in the other room, knows what their status is, and they can do this expedited removal. Give me, what is your perspective? Let's actually spend a minute on this, though, because this is someone who we did let in, you know, who we did give a court date to, who we allowed to file. an asylum application. So how it can be true that they can then, even though that person might have spent a year or 18 months here and was on path in a legal system to having their credible fear hearing, can all of a sudden become a non-person such that no judicial warrant is needed
Starting point is 01:06:08 and it's only ISIS word that removes him and will no one will ever see him again. I just, you know, that it may be that that's what is allowed. in some way. But that's what we're talking about when we talk about, like, the rule of law being undermined. What is the mechanism to challenge this? Like, I mean, do we even have, we have, it doesn't, it feels like this is such a, we're in such a gray area that we don't even know how we would go about challenging this. This is why I was there, you know, like this is like you try to show up at the places where you think things are happening that need to be called out. And yes, I don't know. He theoretically, has a 30-day appeal process, according to the judge, but no one has any idea what it is
Starting point is 01:06:54 and he doesn't have any ability to exercise it. And that is what I was trying to do. It's just insist that he deserves some due process, that he is being denied. And it's happening to thousands of people, which is why I'm glad that Congress members Jerry Nadler and Dan Goldman went down there today. I hope other elected officials will show up and do this. I encourage other New Yorkers to volunteer with the immigration arc, and people all around the country. I was glad to be out in the streets for the No Kings March, you know, this weekend with 100,000 New Yorkers and millions of people around the country. If you want to do more, here's something else you can do. Well, you mentioned that two congressmen come down to the federal building, check this out.
Starting point is 01:07:43 Where is our senators on this? Have you heard from Chuck Schumer on this at all? I mean, you know, I was without my phone for four hours, and I'll be honest, I have not caught up fully on my texts. And a lot of elected officials have reached out to me. And look, the governor came down there and helped me get released and said she's designating $50 million more so that immigrants facing deportation proceedings in New York will have law. which is great because, you know, it would have been way better for Edgaro than me would have been a lawyer. So I'm glad that the state's going to provide more funding. I want the city. I've been pushing for the city council in its negotiations with the mayor as they conclude the budget negotiations over the next 10 days to put up at least another $100 million so that, you know, folks will have attorneys when they're when they're in court. Five of the other mayoral candidates in my race
Starting point is 01:08:43 showed up yesterday, and I think that is great. Andrew Cuomo did not show up, but he did at least, I guess, put a statement out. I mean, bonkers, like corrupt, compromised Eric Adams showed, you know, one more time that he's on the side of Donald Trump and not New Yorkers. Eric Adams, basically, as far as I know, I think the tweet or the statement was something to the effect of like, you know, don't mess with the, the federal police, I guess. Eric Adams made very clear he is on the side of the officers who arrested me
Starting point is 01:09:21 and the officers who are officers who detained and are deporting Edgardo and ICE and Donald Trump and how New York got so, you know, whatever, he is bringing shame upon himself and upon our city. Luckily, we get to get rid of him as mayor very. Yeah, and I don't, I don't want to, you know, like the, in terms of Cuomo, I don't want to give him too much credit. But we do know that in 2018, many of his donors, and, you know, we haven't seen the breakdowns, but many of his donors benefit and profit off of ICE's work in this way because they are private detention. They have detention facilities. So this guy is wrapped up in that.
Starting point is 01:10:06 Oh, yeah, yeah. I mean, and this was so clear on the debate stage last week, you know, I made a lot of criticisms of him about the sexual harassment, which he has clearly done and never taken accountability for, about sending people to their deaths in nursing homes and lying about it. And I had invited one of those families there. The thing that caught him most off guard was when I raised this issue about these immigrant subway cleaners that he had forced the MTA to hire during the pandemic to do deep cleaning of the subway cars, but then cheated out of their wages and health care. And my office is pursuing the prevailing wage claim because that's what we do in the controllers office.
Starting point is 01:10:45 And we're going to win a couple million dollars for a few hundred subway cleaners. But what was fascinating was what he said on the stage was, you know, if they are illegal immigrants, those are the words he used. Basically, it's somebody else's fault. But like that's what's in his head is, you know, I'm nervous that it's going to be discovered that I took advantage of what he thinks of in his head as illegal. immigrants for his own hygiene theater. Like, that's who he is. And yes, I mean, his super PACs got, you know, a million dollars from DoorDash because DoorDash wants to buy the mayoralty so that they can rip rights away from immigrant delivery workers
Starting point is 01:11:28 who, thanks to a law I passed, have, get a living wage in New York City. So, yes, he, you know, yesterday got it right to say my arrest was wrong, but he will not defend immigrant New Yorkers. got a track record of abusing them. And DoorDash also was found by Letitia James, the state in New York State Attorney General, to have stolen tips that New Yorkers thought they were providing to DoorDash workers. But I am the statement, Cuomo didn't come down there, but he put out some statement about ICE abuse.
Starting point is 01:12:00 And it occurs to me that it sounds like it would be more likely that that statement, he would have sounded more like Eric Adams if he were in office, right? There's this sense that I think the solidarity with you and Zoran Mamdani and other even in the cross endorsing to say don't rank Cuomo. It's pushed him a little bit to make take some positions that I don't think are actually sincere. But it's interesting to see this divide. I want to return to this a little. Our top ranked Democrat in the House is from New York State. Our top ranked Democrat in the Senate is from New York State.
Starting point is 01:12:36 and as of recording this neither of them seem to have come to your defense and Kathy Hochel she came down there good for her but there seems to be really this divide between people that want to fight Donald Trump and who are aggressive about
Starting point is 01:12:53 it and people that want to cower away from it and in a primary right now we know that the former is what the New Yorkers and what Democrats broadly around the country want right now can you just speak about that dynamic emerging in the state? Yeah. Greg Casar, who's the chair of the Congressional Progressive
Starting point is 01:13:13 Caucus and a, you know, a Congress member from Texas is a good friend of mine from some work we did together when we were both city council members. And he says, you know, the line right now is not between progressives and moderates. It's between fighters and fakers. And yes, you can see that right now. You've got folks like me and Assembly member Mamdani and others who are out there fighting for the rights of all New Yorkers. And you have fakers like Andrew Cuomo who wants to say on stage, I'll poke my finger into Donald Trump's chest. But you could tell he's faking. He's never risked anything for someone other than himself in his whole life. So it's straightforward that he wants to like be redeemed for his sins, but he's not going to stand up and fight for immigrant
Starting point is 01:13:59 New Yorkers or anyone other than his donors and himself. And yes, I think this is an important time for Democrats to show which side of that line they're on, will you stand up and fight for the rule of law, fight for due process, fight for the 40% of New Yorkers who are immigrants. Now, look, I did have this conversation with the governor as I was going out because we have to find a way to fight, and we don't want to give Donald Trump an excuse to say,
Starting point is 01:14:28 now we're sending in the National Guard. He wants to strike fear into immigrant families. he wants to try to undermine democratic leaders and he wants to stoke conflict and that have an excuse to send in you're like ratchet it up. So, but this is where nonviolent tactics
Starting point is 01:14:46 are the perfect ones to use. Like we insist on the rule of law. We show up and bear witness. We put our bodies on the line, but we do it in that tradition of nonviolence, witness. And it's unfortunately,
Starting point is 01:15:03 to live at a time where that is what it's necessary. But that is what I was proud to do yesterday. It's how I would govern as mayor. And it's what I hope more people will do. One final question. I've had this question literally for decades. CompTroller. Why comptroller?
Starting point is 01:15:22 Why not Controller? So I believe it is appropriately pronounced controller. And that it is a weird French misspelling of an English word. but yes some people propose to change it to just cheap financial officer um but you know i'm lucky to have the job of trying to protect the retirement security of teachers and municipal workers i like controller i just didn't never knew that about the spelling you say dad you've already way too controlling so don't go there you go uh well uh uh controller of uh of new york city uh mayoral candidate brandlander thank you so much for your time today
Starting point is 01:16:03 really appreciate it. And we will put a link also to Immigrant Arc. Sounds like a great organization and I would imagine needs a lot of volunteers increasingly. Thanks so much for your time today. Great. Thank you. Thank you so much. All right, folks. That is, I am blown away by the Comptroller controller thing. I had no idea. I'm going to use Comptroller. I just like it. I like it's a little added flare. I just on the heels of this. I've early voted yesterday. I'm going to be away on election day. And I rank Bradlander number two. Feel very, very good about that.
Starting point is 01:16:39 I think people, if you're in New York, you have to rank all five slots. You have to rank five, and you've got to make sure that none of them are Andrew Cuomo. And rank Zoron, I'm sorry, Brad, he's phenomenal. That's why I ranked him number two. But we have to rank Zoran number one right now.
Starting point is 01:16:58 There's two people who have the opportunity to win this race. And Brad Lander has been a great, good soldier standing behind Zoran without understanding. And, you know, I mean, I think he's the clear number two. Clear. I don't think anybody else even comes close. The rest of the three are just sort of, who can I get on that?
Starting point is 01:17:12 That's not Cuomo. I think we were a little critical of some of his, like, how his rent freeze half stepping for a little while. But like over, but that's, that's long gone at this point, given how Adrian Adams has cozyed up to DoorDash and to like, you know, not criticized ICE. There's clearly, in my view, in number two in this race. 100%.
Starting point is 01:17:30 But I'm still. Just can't get over this. I've been saying Comptroller for decades. It's actually pronounced Lynn Cheney. There you go, exactly. Deep cut. It's not that deep cut. It's not really a deep cut.
Starting point is 01:17:49 But I'm saying if it was clipped, if people just watch the clip of the interview, and then all of a sudden, Lynn Cheney comes up after Comptroller. But yes. That's what makes me so sophisticated. Charlie Jerk says Reminder to everyone no matter where you live Please phone bank for Zoron this week Latest poll
Starting point is 01:18:14 Has him down by 10 I think it is in the final ballot Maris poll I want to just I want to just be consistent with what I've been saying since the beginning You have good pollers who come out with good polls
Starting point is 01:18:31 but at the end of the day the difficult thing in this environment and in this dynamic I would imagine it's very hard to assess who's going to come out for this election like creating the likely voter model in this environment I mean it has gotten even more complicated now
Starting point is 01:18:55 with the lander stuff I mean in terms of like is going to be difficult so I would not get discouraged whatsoever and really at the end of day what difference does to make what the poll says at this point go and get your neighbors to vote get your friends to vote do not rank Andrew Cuomo that's number one but fill out all five of the lines there because that will help essentially keep Cuomo out of office. If people are curious, I posted this yesterday, but this was my ranking, Zoran Mamdani 1, Bradlander 2, Michael Blake, 3, Adrian Adams, 4, Zellner-Miree 5. I put Blake at 3 because he cross-endorsed with Zoron, and Adams' kind of pivot to criticizing him recently and also taking some shady super PAC money, wasn't thrilled with that.
Starting point is 01:20:00 put her at four and then also I think Jamani Williams for public advocate is a great choice still and Justin Brannon for Comptroller since Bradlander's running for mayor Controller Folks, it's your support that makes this show possible
Starting point is 01:20:18 you can become a member at join the majority report.com when you do you not only get the free show free of commercials you also get the fun half why wouldn't you do this? Where are you getting what like what where are you getting what? Where are you getting a three-hour daily show like this.
Starting point is 01:20:36 Good luck. It's Rogan. I mean, well, Rogan. I guess we're Rogan. It's our, it's us or Rogan. Rogan's not daily, is he? He's a few days a week, yeah.
Starting point is 01:20:46 Seriously? Not daily, but. Three. But, I mean, not of... Three hours with Douglas Murray. Not quite the fun half. Exactly. He doesn't do politics every day, right?
Starting point is 01:20:58 He mixes it in with... That's like Bono, and then... Some, you know, supporter of race, you know, like a race science and then, you know, a musician or... A guy on Herssey-L-Lean. Or a billionaire. Or a billionaire. Yeah, a billionaire or an athlete. A bunch of capitalists.
Starting point is 01:21:14 We should make it up. Just coffee.coop, fair trade, coffee, hot chocolate. Use the coupon code. Majority, get 10% off. Left Reckoning. Yeah, Left Reckoning last night. I had two great interviews, one with Adam Gable. AFNE about the costs of the big, beautiful billionaire bailouts,
Starting point is 01:21:34 Medicaid cuts, and also Hannah Hab 2 on Tigray and Ethiopia and Eritrean politics. So check that out. Patron of Compsos, I'm freaking. Hassan's on for 14 hours a day, but let me, give me a break. We'll see where he is in 25 years. See if he could even get up in the morning, for that matter. All right, see you in the fun half. from now, six months from now, nine months from now. And I don't think it's going to be the same as it looks like in six months from now. And I don't know if it's necessarily going to be better six months from now than it is three months from now. But I think around 18 months out, we're going to look back and go like, wow. What? What is that going on? It's nuts. Wait a second. Hold on for a second.
Starting point is 01:22:30 Matt Who's fun What is up, everyone? Fun hat No, me, Key. You did it. Fun hack. Let's go Brandon.
Starting point is 01:22:41 Let's go Brandon. Let's go Brandon. Bradley, you want to say hello? Sorry to disappoint. Everyone, I'm just a random guy. It's all the boys today. Fundamentally false. No, I'm sorry.
Starting point is 01:22:53 Women's... Stop talking for a second. Let me finish. Where is this coming from, dude? But dude, you want to smoke this? Seven, eight? Yes. Hi, is me?
Starting point is 01:23:06 Is this? Yes. Is it me? Is it me? It is you. It is me? I think it is you. Who is you?
Starting point is 01:23:22 No sound. Every single freaking day. What's on your mind? We can discuss free markets, and we can discuss capitalism. I'm going to guess my life. Libertarians. They're so stupid, though. Common sense says, of course.
Starting point is 01:23:36 Gobbled e gook. We fucking nailed him. So what's 79 plus 21? Challenge men. I'm positively quivering. I believe 96, I want to say. 857. 210.
Starting point is 01:23:46 35. 501. 1⁄2. 3-8s. 9-11 for instance. $3,400, $1,900. $6.5,4, $3 trillion sold.
Starting point is 01:23:56 It's a zero-sum game. Actually, you're making me think less. But let me. stay this. Poop. You call satire, Sam goes to satire. On top of it all,
Starting point is 01:24:06 my favorite part about you is just like every day, all day, like everything you do. Without a doubt. Hey, buddy, we see you. All right, folks. Folks, folks. It's just the week being weeded out,
Starting point is 01:24:24 obviously. Yeah, sundial guns out. I, I, I don't know. But you should know. People just don't like to entertain ideas anymore. I have a question. Who cares?
Starting point is 01:24:40 Our chat is enabled folks. I love it. I do love that. Look, got to jump. I got to be quick. I get a jump. I'm losing it, bro. Two o'clock.
Starting point is 01:24:53 We're already late, and the guy's being a dick. So, screw him. Sent to a gulaw? What is wrong with you? Love you, bye. Love you. Bye-bye.

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