The Majority Report with Sam Seder - 3610 - The Future of Democrats and the Desperation of Centrist; The Cuba Blockade w/ Hasan Piker

Episode Date: March 27, 2026

It's Casual Friday on The Majority Report   On today's program:   Donald Trump says he "doesn't care" about making a deal with Iran because nothing proves one's indifference more than blurting it out loud every chance one gets.   JD Vance tries to drum support for the war effort by asking the public to imagine an Iranian with a nuclear suicide vest.   Twitch streamer, Hasan Piker - in NYC to cover the Tax the Rich rally with Bernie Sanders in the Bronx this Sunday - joins the program in studio to wrap the week's news.   In the Fun Half:   At CPAC, the largest conservative conference in the U.S., Nick Shirley gives one of the least inspiring speeches ever recorded.   Donie O'Sullivan interviews CPAC attendees and reveals a generational divide amongst GOP voters over the war in Iran.   We take a look at some Mayor Mamdani's recent sewer socialist victories including labor victories against large chain stores and saving millions in cutting government waste.   On Fox News' The Five, Dana Perino asks Trump a serious question about the situation in Iran, but the president gets distracted by how attracted he is to Perino.   Senator Ruben Gallego (D-AZ) calls Merrick Garland a coward for not moving to hold the president and GOP accountable post January 6.   all that and more   No Kings Protests across the country this Saturday, March 28. Check out NoKings.Org to find the protest closest to you.   Check out longtime MR listener Jim Di Bartolo's new graphic novel F*ck Billionaires   To connect and organize with your local ICE rapid response team visit ICERRT.com The Congress switchboard number is [phone]. You can use this number to connect with either the U.S. Senate or the House of Representatives. 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 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: SUNSET LAKE: From 3/27-3/30 we have a BOGO Use coupon code "Left Is Best" (all one word) for 20% off of your entire order at SunsetLakeCBD.com  Follow the Majority Report crew on Twitter: @SamSeder @EmmaVigeland @MattLech On Instagram: @MrBryanVokey 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

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Friday. That means Monday is casual Monday. Tuesday. Casual Tuesday. Wednesday. Casual hump day. Thursday. Casual thursday. That's what we call it. And Friday.

Casual Shabbat. The Majority Report. With Sam Cedar. It is Friday. March 27, 2006. 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, Hassan Piker. The San Piker show? Is that what that's called? Stream, yeah. stream. Also on the program today, Pentagon weighing, moving another 10,000 ground troops to the Middle East. As Trump extends the timeline for Iran by 10 days in terms of negotiations, he claims Iran asked for it, but Iran denies that they asked for it. Meanwhile, tomorrow, the third national no-kings protest. And late last night, the year,

U.S. Senate funds DHS without ICE or Customs and Border Patrol. Republicans sort of caved. Meanwhile, DHS Inspector General launches an investigation into contracts handled by Christy Knoem and Corey Lewandowski. Also on the program today, Trump to become the first president to have his signature on American currency. Trials reveals that ICE lied about its authority to arrest at immigration courts. The Education Department losing its headquarters as Trump administration continues to dismantle it. All this and more on today's majority report. Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, it is casual Friday.

Casual Friday. Hello, hello. We are back. We are back. Yes. Full crew. Full house today. I have to say, you're looking very tan. Yeah. Yep. Yep. You know, I did work out there. Not sure. I know you don't care about promoting the show. In fact, you actively disincentivize it. But I did take one day to go to the pool. Is that okay with you? It sounds like somebody was listening to the show a little bit while they were gone. You didn't even pay for, so I don't know why you care. I mean, listen, we're happy to subsidize a couple of Pena Coladas by the pool. And by subsidize, you mean what exactly?

Pay you wages. Pay me wages. Well, pay part of the, pay part of the Pina-Colada. I mean, out there, they get pretty expensive. So you don't want to get too carried away. Which is why you didn't pay for any of it. never asked right

so stop bitching things have gotten a little bit testy out there it sounds like somebody might have gotten an offer from crooked media anyways it is really like when don draper went out to

LA yeah totally doesn't come back doesn't come back she was wearing sunglasses until right when I brought her up I didn't pick up on that chill vibe out there I guess though Well, we're all back in New York, as it were.

We have a guest in studio today, and he'll be coming shortly. Overnight, the Senate passed a deal to essentially fund DHS without ICE or Customs Border Patrol. The Democrats didn't get much by way of reforms to ICE, although I think in this bill there is body cams for ice to the extent that that means anything. I don't know why it would. We have seen them. They're videotaped almost now constantly. They will be able to continue to wear their masks, although they don't seem to be wearing

them as much at the airports. But I think they're going to start more these days. they will probably go without funding and have to rely on the huge slush fund that they got last year in the budget bill that Chuck Schumer essentially and Christian Gillibrand made it possible to pass. I don't know how else to articulate that. We've seen that they have the ability to force a government shutdown. We have seen that the Republicans get blamed for it because they control the. government. And I think what happened last night was a function of two things. One, Trump saying that he was going to unilaterally fund the TSA, which would have set a, it would have been illegal, but it also

would have set a precedent. But I think what also was happening was Republicans and Democrats, both in the Senate and the House, are on recess for two weeks. They're all flying home. And airlines like Delta said that we're no longer letting you skip security. You've got to go through actual security. And I think honestly, they were afraid of dealing with their constituents at the airports. I saw Senator Blackburn was filmed this morning and kind of getting jeered at for

as she's looking to go on vacation or at least maybe she was flying into Washington. I'm not sure. But yeah, like Trump's theories that the Democrats are getting blamed for this. I do not agree. I do not. agree. I think it's clear. And so they've passed this. They're still going to get some grief because the house is supposedly going to pass it today. If there's enough people around, because many people suspect the house may have taken off. I mean, this is something that passed last night at 2 a.m.

With unanimous consent. So we will keep you updated on that. In the meantime, let's do this coverage. The Pentagon has said that they're getting ready 10,000 troops to head to the Middle East. Trump has said that they're extending the deadline for talks by 10 days. He's claiming the Iranians requested it. The Iranians did not, according to mediators. And so, I don't know. We'll talk more about this with Hassan, but we're probably, I don't know, 50% chance a limited ground invasion to a place like Carg Island today. We'll find, I mean, I should say over the weekend, we'll see. Also when the markets are closed, by the way. Yep.

I mean, that's generally when he does it. When he talks stuff too. Yep. And we'll see. It could also be, you know, these 10,000 troops that may or may not. coming to the Middle East, maybe there as a stopgap. I mean, they are in, this is how a quagmire begins. And in fact, in many respects, they're in a quagmire.

By all reporting, Trump wants to end this war. But he now knows the Iranians have made demands for a truce, which involve essentially payments in the same way that, Egypt gets for the Suez Canal that Iran would get for the Straits of Hormuz. They have asked for... Sanctions relief. It's like maximalist demands. They know they have the leverage.

Exactly. And now there is talk. As you know, like one of the other ways that some of the oil is getting out of the Middle East is through the Red Sea. And there is now talk that Iran through... its proxies, the Houthis, may end up trying to shut the Balb-L.

Mandeb Strait, which is a Red Sea choke point, where some of the ships are getting out by basically sending the oil the other side from the Persian Gulf. So, we'll see. But here is Donald Trump. He sort of

does and doesn't care. about a deal with Iran. I'm the opposite of desperate. I don't care. In fact, we have other targets we want to hit before we leave. We're hitting them on a daily basis. I don't talk about you. I can't talk about specifics.

A lot of people say that wouldn't matter. Maybe it doesn't matter. Who knows? But I wouldn't talk. It's like the question of this young lady, yes, sorry about I'm embarrassed her. I don't want to embarrass you. Because I think you're of, I think she's a friendly reporter, so I'm sorry. But, you know, I can't say what we're going to do because if I did, I wouldn't be sitting here for long.

They probably, what is it called, the 25th Amendment? Has he been hearing about that a lot behind the scenes? That's the first time I've ever heard of the 25th Amendment. By the way, in this press conference, when I think being asked about Iran, he went into some long diatribe about Sharpies. feels like it's kind of relevant to the whole 25th Amendment thing. Yeah. Well, let's maybe get that for when Hassan is here. But it seems like what Trump is doing is, you know,

I think he is actually doing the madman theory, right? Which is something they talked about. Kissinger and Nixon talked about as a way of making what he's doing so unpredictable. that foes get nervous. I will say, I don't think anybody thinks that the Americans won in Vietnam. So the madman theory only goes so far. I do think that Trump successfully faked the Iranians out by negotiating with them on multiple occasions and then bombing them to make them feel, I guess, somehow lulling.

into safety that Trump was an honest broker. But I think they've learned that lesson. And I think at one point they just go, we don't, we don't care what you do. They have basically taken control of the situation. If you're in a position where you have to say, I'm not desperate. I don't even care. I think you're probably desperate. I broke up with you.

Exactly. I don't. My Tinder bios is. I'm not desperate. I just don't care. I'm so glad I don't think about you anymore. I'm not thinking about you at all. In fact,

I think about how often I don't think about you, and I'm amazed by it. Let's play this clip by J.D. Vance at that same cabinet meeting. This is, I guess, more of the expression of how much they don't care, that they are literally making up fantastical reasons as to why Donald Trump launched this disastrous excursion. When I say options, I think it's important the American people know, options for what? And it's options to ensure that Iran never has a nuclear weapon.

You talk about people who walk into a crowded supermarket and have a vest on, and they blow up the vest and a couple of people get killed and that's a terrible tragedy. What happens when what's on the vest is not something that can kill a couple of people, but can kill many, many tens of thousands of people. That is the most important American national security objective that is, exists for any administration at any time is you don't want the worst people in the world to have a nuclear weapon that's why the president is doing this that's why the president cares so much about this particular issue that's what iran's doing they're strapping well first in the backpack

of their terrorists they're putting uh the tani he see coates book and then a nuclear bomb so that they can be traveling nukes that's how that tech works right why would you still need to do the suicide bomb if you got a nuke because it's like bigotry That's the only thing. Because they're basically, that's what they try to say. They're basically like animals is there, is that they don't even care about their own lives or their children's lives. That's what the Israelis say about the Palestinians. But the fantasy here, like we're in like fictional territory.

You know, what if, I mean, why stop at a nuclear vest? I mean, what if they had a nuclear drone? What if they had a, what if they had a teleporter machine? What if they had a teleport a machine in Tehran, and they teleported into Macy's a nuclear weapon? But here's what the answer to that is. Why wouldn't we just deploy our nuclear vest containment weapons that we have? That surely, if we're going to do that fantasy, we could have this fantasy. This is just a, it's a variation of this.

device that we already have, all we needed to do is to deploy when a terrorist with a nuclear vest has a nuclear vest, we just need to deploy this device. Here, it's modeled after this vest. Do you have it? Come up. See, now we already have the technology. That is a vest that deploys when you're about to fall. All we need that to be is a... A thousand hertz. Yeah. All we need that to be is a vest that contains a nuclear explosion, and then we would be safe.

Beautiful. What if they get a death ray? Well, if we get a death ray, then we need to come up with a special type of glasses that inhibit the death ray. But the idea that they're having to move to this, and it's just so late in the game for them to try and justify this. But it shows that, like, J.D. Vance is desperate to figure out some justification for that. this because he knows this stink is going to be on him. All right, we're going to take

a quick break and when we come back, Hassan Piker will be joining us. We are back. Sam Cedar, Emma Vigland on the majority report. It is a pleasure to welcome to the program. Hassan Piker of the Hassan Piker

show. Is that what you call it? The Hasanabe broadcast. There you go. Yeah. Okay. There I feel like I'm, this is like indecent. You're in the big chair now. This feels strange. Also, because you have a very strange thing that you sit on top of. Yep.

But it feels good. It feels, my booty feels good. I am a special butt killer. I am a remote with an image of the set behind me. And you are literally sitting in my seat. Yeah. And, uh, kind of, uh, kind of poetic. right? Yeah, I guess it's just, yeah, there it is. A vision of the future, future, and also your sciatica.

So that's, you'll have the opportunity for that as well. Brady and for Bletso. Let's take it easy. Why don't we say it's really more like, you know, post-Bradie? We could do that way. You're Brady and Hassan is Drake May. Yeah, let's do it. That way. The blood so was, that was better.

Football, whatever. All right. But let's talk about this, because I want to talk about you recently took a trip to Cuba, which upset some people because you provided medical supplies. One of a bunch of people actually went down there to provide medical supplies. I want to talk about that. I want to talk to you about Iran, and maybe if we have time, CPAC, but I have to say, I mean, it's a coincidence you're on.

we can talk about why you're in town but you have become in some very sort of like narrow circles like weird narrow circles the some type of like demon force that people think will help them electorally it's bizarre

and I mean like they they have attempted they've sort of scrolled through all the ways they can attack Mom Donnie. They went after his wife's, you know, social media accounts from when she was 15. They have tried it multiple times with saying like, you know, he shook your hand. You guys are friendly. You were supportive of him during the campaign. But what aft is going on?

Mallory McMorrow is doing it now? Yeah. It seems like it's the centrist route. it's when it's when it's when it's when a campaign is about to be quomo uh they just they just they just hit that yeah they just hit that line I think where uh they they they'll I mean this was fascinating for me because I'm not super familiar with Mallory McMorrow and I thought that she was like trying to be a war night and maybe like a more moderate more um more palatable centrist style progressive right yeah like she has the energy of like the friend in

the friend of elite in a rom-com in the 2010s, right? She was trying to lean into that indie thing. And she was actually kind of like, you know, copying a lot of Abdul al-Sayad's policies that he's been like a champion of from Medicare for all.

She's been, you know, outspoken to a certain degree on Israel. But then there was also some inconsistencies there because she went to APEC with a policy paper. And her staff was like, let's not, let's not allow APEC to get into this race, but we are kind of your person. And Apex is like, we're going to get into the race. So there was a little bit of inconsistency there.

But this, for me, this was a little bit of a shock, especially because like if you're trying to present yourself as like even remotely progressive, it's a very odd issue to, to polarize yourself on, to draw a line of demarcation on where you basically are saying, I'm with Stevens. I'm with the APEC side on this race where she, like the story starts with Abdul El-Said asked me to do a campaign rally with them. And I've never stumped with a politician running for office before. I mean, but I had collaborated with Abdul quite a bit up until this moment as I have with

many other, you know, elected representatives and politicians that are running. And I said, yes, it's supposed to be me and Summerlee. And I'm the little sad at Michigan State University and University of Michigan on April 7th. And when that came out on Politico, it just, it came off the heels of this Wall Street Journal, third way article that had come out a week prior as well, where they were like, Democrats, we need to make the tent smaller. We need to make sure that Hassan is out of the tent. Just Hassan, that this one guy, he needs to get the hell out of this tent. and and you're big yeah physically take up a decent amount of space in the the tent so so basically this happened where jewish insider went to virtually every single politician they possibly could go to that is like in some way shape or form connected to to michigan politics that is is silly enough in my opinion to make like ridiculous statements like this um slot came out and said

something like, I don't really know anything about Hassan. I've never heard of him. But he's an anti-Semite, I think. And it was like such a wild thing to just admit. It's like, you're, what the hell? You're... Can we read the quotes from McMorrow here, if we could

just go back? This is what she said to Jewish insider about Hassan. It is somebody who says extremely offensive things in order to generate clicks and views and followers, which is not entirely different from somebody like Nick Fuentes. Piker is a provocateur, to put it lightly, who says things that are misogynistic and anti-Semitic

and that the United States deserved 9-11. You'll never outlive that commentary on imperial blowback. But I have a different theory about this. I don't think this is electorally salient. Because we say Mallory McComo jokingly, because she ended up like the Cuomo strategy of trying to tie Mom Donny to you obviously didn't work. But this is, I think they see Stevens as cratering,

like the Schumer pick. Yeah. She's cratering a bit. And so McMorro is like, there's a pool of money here that I can access. And I'm going to audition here for these Zionist donors. And that's what she's putting out there. So she can't attack, she doesn't want to attack Abdul directly, but she's signaling like, I will be as Islamophobic as possible if necessary.

I will take this money and I'll be your representative since Stevens is falling apart. So I actually don't think it's about like winning votes here. I think this is about getting some money in her offers. No, absolutely. There is no, this is a 90-10 issue. So anytime you step on that landmine voluntarily, you're actually foregoing a lot of people that could have potentially voted for you as like a somewhat moderate, somewhat progressive pick. In Michigan. Yeah, in Michigan.

And this is, I said this as well, but like this is precisely the same issue that took place in Michigan that costs. the Democrats, the election in Michigan, you know, sending Bill Clinton out there to talk about Judea and Samaria, and then sending Richie Torres out there to, like, give assurances to the voters in Michigan that, like, the genocide will continue. These were major mistakes. And this is precisely why Michigan was lost. And it wasn't just the Arab vote either. It was a lot of people of good conscience that were very frustrated with the Democratic Party's lack of interest in addressing their demands. Now, you know, harm reduction voting in theory or in practice is, I mean, in theory, it's correct. In practice, it's clearly a demonstrable failure, but it doesn't matter. People don't make those calculations, right? So, like, they're going to see this once again and remember exactly why didn't want to vote for the Democrats initially. It's going to create voter apathy or at least not, it won't make voters enthusiastic. about McMorrow at all.

I mean, that was the problem that we had during, I mean, I think there's a reason why they have hid that, the autopsy that the DNC did. And I think, you know, at the time, it was quite clear just from talking to sort of outside supportive organizations of the Democrats that they were having trouble motivating their own people, who are the people to go get the vote out, because when you depress the activists, it becomes like a first, second, third order problem in terms of getting people out

who are just not that involved in politics. But I do find this, like, and I think Emma, you know, Emma's point is basically nailed it as to what value you bring in terms of a pinata. It is funny to watch, you know, I've seen a couple of pundits, jump on this. People who are, people wouldn't really know their names, but folks who've been writing about democratic politics for a long time, I have, you know, people can find my tweets. I have a

particular issue with that guy. I find him always on the wrong side of these things for literally decades. But be that as it may, it is fascinating how you have become an avatar for the narrowest group of people and they are just adamant about they're just talking to themselves. I mean, you know, like, we're in a weird era where Twitter is far less relevant than it used to be in terms of influencing the media narrative. It's still, you know, there's a story there and there's still ways to pulling stories, although, you know, a lot of the stuff is sort of like garbage and slop these days. But it used to be that Twitter, if there was a fight on Twitter,

it would shape the narrative in the mainstream media by getting into the bloodstream of a lot of writers. And that doesn't happen anymore. Like, you know, it just doesn't happen in the same way at all. It's sort of like what happens in Twitter stays in Twitter. And it's sort of like... My theory on that is the writer's... to your point. I think it builds to what you're saying, Sam, we're seeing the gutting of newsrooms across the country and billionaires capturing our media institutions. And now most people are

getting their information from social media and things like that. And that's algorithmically determined. And there's also this influx of bots. Like there was some a little analysis on the Chapel Rhone controversy. She left her agency Wasserman over the founders ties to Jeffrey Epstein and very publicly came out about it. Plus, she's pro trans, pro-Palestine, all of that. This campaign against her for her security, allegedly being rude to a girl in Brazil, has been the top story on Twitter for about a week. A fabricated story as well.

It wasn't even her security at all. She was, like, completely oblivious to what had taken place. Right. But it also, it's the exact same thing that's happening to you. There is something that's very well financed that is artificially inflating these stories and they're taking advantage of the fact that we do not have, like, a very robust journalistic infrastructure anymore

and the information ecosystem, the commons of information has been completely captured by capital. Yeah. And they're basically faking popularity

and popular narratives through these sorts of bodden initiatives. In my case, it's, I mean, I think I saw something similar to this

in the Cuba stuff. So there is a, there is a tendency for like things that go super viral to cause like at least some editors to pay attention to and then like do coverage over. But yeah, I mean, this has been ongoing for like the past two weeks where it's always the same

narratives over and over again. It's the same stuff that Richie Torres even talked about in the buildup to the election where he was trying to get me deep platform from Twitch. Well, now he's woke now. He's calling out settler terrorism. But I mean, even that in and of itself, I think, is proof that like this conversation. is over, right? Amongst the masses, this conversation is over. So these guys are just basically trying to create this weird pressure on politicians who are definitely a lot more tuned into

media responses and a lot less tuned into what the constituents are saying or what the broad majorities of the base are saying because they're not going to be able to, you know, stop me from appealing to the masses. My position is the position of the masses. It wasn't the case post October 7, but it is now, right? So I think they're just trying to be like, don't talk to this guy, this guy's dangerous. We can't have someone like him speak directly to politicians and have politicians associate with him. And it's far beyond just Israel as well. Israel is a major part of this. But I think it's a group, it's a collection of different interest groups, right? Most of these are very unfavorable lobbies for,

for sectors that that want to focus on making sure that the Democrats continue putting corporate profits over the interests of people from probably healthcare to to definitely like whatever mishmash of things that third way is supposed to represent, you know, the interests of billionaires. And it's weird because they've singled me out as this like beacon for all of this, but I keep stressing this over and over again, like you take me out, let's say, right? let's say you successfully de-platform me or politicians don't want to come on my stream and they don't want to appeal to my audience fine who cares right but you're not addressing the problem if you look at the polls democrats are still not exactly very favorable they're not viewed favorably and there's a

reason for that that's the reason for that is exactly what i'm communicating all the time and and you know i'm just one person i'm a megaphone i'm not like i'm representative of a real mass politics in this country, as you guys are as well. And that's what's so fascinating that these guys think, like, as long as we cut off the head of the hydra, that, you know, it's over. We'll be able to deal with this. And then politicians won't actually listen to these people. And they'll listen to me instead, you know, guy who has been responsible for every electoral defeat for the last multiple decades. It is, it is. It is. just a fascinating moment because I think there is a fear amongst those sort of like

third way types, establishment types, you know, some are ideological, some are just sort of like, don't care about any ideology other than maintaining their positions. And, you know,

and it comes in like where, you know, there's stories about how the Republicans are so frustrated about how they can't attack Mom Dani. They can't find anything. thing. Yeah. And on some level, like, you are one of, like, it's almost like you're one of the, the branches sticking out of a cliff, and they're just grabbing at whatever they can grab. And I think it does have salience amongst, like, again, like, you know, some fundraising, some donors.

Oh, yeah. But it doesn't, we have gone past the point where, well, first off, on the, from the center to the left, there is no figures like, you know, like, like that have the relevance. I mean, the Nick Fuentes on one side is an obvious like Nazi in many respects. Maybe Nazis is not the right term. Maybe KKK revenge, whatever it is. And I don't know that his audience is as big as the right thinks it is. But the problem is that he represents a big. strand in the party.

And they know that and they can't really offend that strand. It's not the same dynamic that's happening from the center to the left, which is there's an actual like ideological fight. And some of it also happens to be sort of like, there's also like a fight over partisan tactics that sometimes align with that ideological fight and sometimes doesn't. On the right, the problem is they're attacking themselves. when they attack Nick Fuentes, they're attacking the basis of their electoral strength. On the center to the left, when they attack you, they're attacking a rising sentiment from the center to the left.

And so it's a different dynamic. And it's not like, you know, it's fascinating how much effort they're putting into a project that is completely irrelevant for what they ostensibly weren't. Yeah, I wouldn't even say irrelevant. I think it's counterproductive. Yeah. It's actually, it's actually bad, especially because they're leaning into it, like their angle of attack is a 90-10 issue for the base, a 90-10 issue. So positioning yourself as being antagonistic to one of the largest anti-Sinist voices in the country when 90% of your base is on board with this message is is so idiotic. You're not actually

you're not actually accomplishing anything other than the fact that you're stating your position and you're saying, just like we did in 2024, right, that we will win without you. And it's not me. There are,

I meet people all the time. I go to Minneapolis, go to these protests. I meet people that are like 65 years old, right? They're lifelong liberals. And they have that exact same resentment and the exact same anger

that I have for Democratic feckless. Democratic incompetence. Those people didn't arrive at that conclusion because they are, you know, lifelong fans of mine. They arrived to that conclusion because they saw the Democrats lose to Trump twice, an incompetent, imbecilic fascist, twice with the same exact method of pivoting to the moderate mythical center. Like pivoting to the mythical center to find the mythical moderate voter, it was a failure. And this also is reflected in the communique. the way that the third way is talking about it,

the way that Mallory McMorro is talking about it, the way that Haley Stevens is talking about it, where they say, Hassan is our line in the sand, right? And what he represents is our line in the sand, which is insane. But no such criticisms exist for Gavin Newsom having Ben Shapiro on his podcast,

having Charlie Kirk on his podcast, having Steve Bannon on his podcast, and then agreeing with those people, conceding to their talking points, And that to me demonstrates exactly the moral rot at the heart of the national politics of the Democrats represent. This is the issue. You don't have a problem with Ben Shapiro. You said you wanted to find a Joe Rogan of the left.

You said, I was that guy. I never said I was that guy. I always said you can't podcast your way out of this problem regardless. Right. And yet, and I believe you wanted to. to pull this up. Oh, this is from Fox News a year ago. Democratic Michigan State Senator Mallory McMarle told political in a new interview this week that the party needs to occupy prominent cultural spaces like Joe Rogan's podcast to reach voters.

She noted that snubbing these opportunities because of political differences contributes to the impression that the party is, quote, elite. Quote, instead of snubbing your nose at those people, which is the perception that a lot of people have of Democrats, is that we're elitist and we're academic. And we look down on people who don't watch traditional Hollywood movies. I don't know. Oh, God. Whatever.

Well, I mean, but there's also dovetails with the Graham Platner story that we covered yesterday, where he's, like, leading right now Janet Mills in this Emerson poll by 20 points. And the strength is that is with men, also with young men. Like, I feel like I may be hallucinated around three to four months of discourse about how the Democratic Party really needs to appeal to young men. And I see you as like an influencer, or not influencer, but an on the, an honest. online version of that dynamic where, no, they want to win in a specific kind of way. And they would actually rather lose.

They would rather lose. I mean, I'm at this point now. This class of Democrats would rather lose crafting the constituency that they want than change course. And that's why there's no other option but defeating them. There's no other option but defeating them and extroating them from the party. We don't have the same goals. We do not have the same goals as the people that are attacking. in Hassan right now. We want to win, actually. They want to win in a very specific kind of way.

And it's a less advantageous way. One, I think it's less likely to win in the short term and two, in the long term. When we're talking about like building a political brand and a party and a constituency, like I was on the left hook with Wajahad Ali yesterday. And we were talking about, I was thinking about how I had this debate about with Catherine Rampal and MSNBC about whether or not it wouldn't be better if there was a Republican in Joe Manchin's seat. And don't you want to win? Don't you want to win? First of all, it's a false choice.

If you ran a populace in West Virginia, I think that they would have a better shot. But two, what does this do to the long-term brand of the party with Joe Manchin representing it as a Democrat? He destroyed the expanded child tax credit, plunged millions of people back. into poverty and that happened when Biden was in power. So with his leverage as the as the most conservative Democrat, he watered down the agenda of the Democrats to the point that it hurt them electorally. Like there has to be discipline about who's allowed into the party on on the end of like centrism as well because that's what drags it down. Yeah, because whether we like it or not, people are not looking at their elected representatives as individuals. Most people when it comes

of the general election, look at the national party. And the national party is judged by its weakest members, because they're weakest members, the rotating villains that they always find enough votes for to undermine populist agendas that the Biden campaign ran on, right, in 2021 on. That is what people look at. They don't think, oh, well, the pro act was about the past, but then Mark Kelly was like not on board with it. They don't think, oh, we were going to raise the minimum wage of $15 an hour, but like, I guess the Senate parliamentarian stopped us. Like in some ways, you don't have to be super, you don't have to be super tapped in to make this correct assessment. Of course people are going to make this assessment because at the end

of the day, you're not delivering the goods. You make that assessment even more so when you're not tapped in. Yeah, exactly. You don't know those internal dynamics. But here, that is why, I mean, that is why that that is indicative in my estimation as to um schumer being um both a really weak leader and also ideologically out of touch with uh where he where the people are i mean look he democrats have won in special elections uh you know in almost record numbers and And there's every reason to believe they're going to overperform in the midterms. But Democratic approval is incredibly low. And it's a problem.

That type of stuff catches up with you. And Schumer has, you know, I think the fact that they did not completely cave on this DHS funding. I mean, remember, the initial ask was for reform regarding ICE, which, they theoretically could have held out in this, this DHS funding for, they didn't. They sort of like both sides were able to walk away from this saying that they got what they wanted on some level. And a Republican certainly took more of a beating because of the shutdown. But people forget that the reason why ICE is going to be funded, regardless of them not getting

their $28 billion this year, is because they got $140 billion. extra last year when Gillibrand and Schumer and basically gave space for five or six others to vote for that bill and it was just a failure of seeing where things

were going and it hurts the Lincoln Riley Act voting for the Lee. I mean on and on. All these people are running away from those votes now and it's impressive how poorly they can do and how, you know, individual Democrats coming out and in certain areas can win, I guess we'll see down the road.

You know how you don't step on those landmines? Maybe you, maybe sometimes you listen to a person that's outside of your orbit, outside of your immediate circle, a guy who's not in D.C. all the goddamn time. Maybe, you know, a content creator like myself. I don't know. these are things that I was warning about at the DNC. These were things that I was warning about after Donald Trump got elected. I was very critical of a lot of Democrats who leaned into the immigration panic and look where we're at now. It's like these polls are going to change when people realize the cruelty necessary to maintain this system of violence, to do mass deportations. People are going to react to it.

And they did. And we even saw successes in places like Minneapolis where the government had to straight up retreat. and they even collected a scalp in the process. I think that Kirstie Knoem leaving the Department of Homeland Security or getting downgraded in her position had a lot to do with the administration's need to release a pressure valve. Aside from like the obvious corruption, but everybody's doing it, apparently. It's all the rage. Let's talk a little bit about Cuba.

I know you've got to go soon, but you tell you. me when you got to go. The, your trip to Cuba, I want to hear about that. If we have time to talk a little bit about Iran, but was this your first time to Cuba? Yeah.

I've never been to Cuba before. I mean, I've read a lot about Cuba. I find that hard to believe, but let's just pretend that. Yeah, I've gone secretly. Yeah. Yeah.

It was, Ben Rose, before I went out there, said that you're going to be very sad when you see, like, what we've done to this country, what we've done to these people. And he was right. At first, I was taken aback.

I mean, I can't believe how beautiful the island is. I can't believe how beautiful the people are. There are some of the coolest, nicest, most resilient people I've ever met in my life. And then I was, first, you know, I was excited to be there. Then I was a little sad seeing these dilapidated buildings, you know, it looks like a bomb exploded inside of them and thinking about, like, why? Cuba is the way it is, like why it's been kept so poor. And then I was angry. It was unbelievable. I mean, we experienced the rolling blackouts ourselves as well. I spent most of my time doing

interviews with, you know, ordinary Cubans, doctors, neuroscientists, and, and I even interviewed the vice minister of foreign affairs, Cocio. And so I was outside of the progressive international orbit like code pink activities i didn't really participate in anything uh that they were doing but it was um i mean i got to see you know these these blackouts in person it was it was uh it was really eerie you know we were using a generator that my friend had a solar power solar panel generator like battery thing that he had uh to be able to conduct our uh you know broadcast and and interview people. And, you know, once we shut off the generator,

if the generator runs out of power, you're like reminded you're like, oh my God, every, like there's no street lights. It's just pitch black, darkness, everywhere. And yet the people were still persevering through it all. You know, we saw people playing dominoes around the streets with like, I mean, while using their phone light, you know, life, just kept going.

and part of what I have come to understand is that the design of the American version of economic terrorism with sanctions is purposely made to be invisible so that the the battle is ideological so that you can make the argument that like actually we're not doing anything you could just do trade what do you mean it's just communism that's like kept these people port. It's like very clearly designed that way. It's also very clearly designed to create a class structure within this country as well. One of the things that that we found out even after we came back from Cuba was that no oil had been sent to the island for the past three months except for private businesses, including the hotel that we stayed at. There's only a couple hotels that you can stay at, the American government has made it illegal to stay at, you know, the thousands of hotels that exist in Cuba for American citizens. You can go to jail for up to 10 years and you have to pay a fine of $250,000, which is like so unbelievable.

I think people understand this dynamic because, you know, I had been there about 25 years ago on an OFAC license. And so it was basically, but they have changed the terms of that license to limit where you can go. So where money actually, I mean, they're doing it to try and spur some type of like revolution. Yeah. No, they're trying to create a,

they're trying to create a capital ownership class, right? And Cuba has already given, Cuba has already reformed quite a bit in their economy, but it's like still very difficult to institute full-blown systemic reforms and liberalize or marketize their economy while they're under this like insane blockade where you know even if you have a grain of Cuban sugar in anything that is is any commodity, any food product that's created anywhere around the world, the United States of America won't purchase it and it's the largest consumption engine on the planet.

So who's going to buy Cuban sugar, right? Nobody. You've effectively shut off their, you've effectively shut off their industrial output by by instituting these sorts of sanctions for no real reason whatsoever and then simultaneously created a clash structure within this country so that there is actually enmity and there is actually animosity by design so that people look and they see that their roads are pitch black and there's not a lot of food and the only industry that keeps the island alive is the only way to get foreign currency into the island is through tourism it's like the last remaining sector basically and even then they're

suffering on that front too because of the rolling blackouts. But then the Cuban population are like, I can't get food. Everything is so expensive. But, you know, all these like random tourists are coming in. It must be the government that's like hoarding all of our resources and giving it to them. Like, that's what it's designed to do. And there hasn't been too much success so far. There hasn't really been any success at all. But it doesn't matter. It's still, it's unbelievably cruel. what we're doing to these people. You know, we're not giving oil to the aisle. We're not allowing other countries to legally trade with Cuba.

What we are doing is illegal. It's both collective punishment and it's ridiculous. Like, who are we to restrict what two sovereign nations can and can't trade with one another? It's legal for Cuba to trade with Mexico. It's legal for Cuba to trade with Canada and vice versa. It's illegal for America to try to implement this blockade. And yet no one speaks out against it.

And then on top of that, that the American design, the American sanctioned design that's supposed to be invisible is created in such a way where we're basically saying, oh, do you need oil and gas for your transportation so you can deliver medicine to hospitals and pharmacies? No, you can't have that. We will only allow oil for the hotels that are privately owned. You can maybe allow private ownership over your hospital system and then maybe we'll give you oil. Like, that's ridiculous. I mean, it's just like the entire concept, they're calling it a blockade, but no, that's what Cuba has been under by the United States for decades at this point. This is a siege. It's like a medieval style siege that is preventing oil and energy from getting in. And I saw Ryan's testimony about like what happens with the babies and incubators. Like, I mean, the, what Israel has done with this genocide has.

is emboldened, I think, further tactics like this and the Trump administration's running with it. Yeah, absolutely. And there's a lot of similarities. I mean, I interviewed a Palestinian medical student who alongside 250 other Palestinian students had come to Cuba to get free education, free education in their school of medicine in Havana. And he is going to join the International Medicine Corps, which, by the way, Marco Rubio has also restricted. not only have they destroyed the island or trying to successfully destroy the island's healthcare infrastructure in its entirety and collapse it and like kill people they're also stopping cuba from sending doctors on medical missions to other underserved countries cuba and its medical corps has sent more health care professionals to uh developing nations in the entirety of the g7 combined right cuba wanted to send us doctors

when Katrina, her pain Katrina happened, and we said, no, we don't want your doctors. Marco Rubio has forced countries, poor countries like Jamaica, into submission and forced countries like Jamaica into sending back the Cuban doctors now. And they have 100% coverage in Jamaica. Like they are offering health care to the entire country of Jamaica. And now so many people are no longer going to be able to get that. necessary life-saving health care. It's unbelievable. What politicians are you aware of that have an alternate plan for, I mean, I don't, you know,

Obama, I think, was the most liberalizing of the presence we've had in the past probably 50 years when it comes to Cuba. Maybe it's 60 years now. And I don't have a, sense of where the Democrats are. I mean, I, you know, there are guys like McGovern who obviously speak out about this, but I don't hear Democrats speaking too loudly about it. In many respects, it's like Florida's gone. So as a, as a, you know, sort of a national state, it seems to me. And so that should free up the Democrats in some respects to start like saying, what are we doing here. But I also don't even believe that like

I believe in the power of making a solid argument and just saying the truth. I think that there is there will always be a lot of right wing reactionary, you know, Cuban Americans who want to starve out this island and destroy it. But

I think at the end of the day they're like they remember even the Cuban Americans I've talked to remember a time when they could send money to their family members with ease, with much greater ease. Because right now it's very complicated. You have to like literally,

the most effective way of giving money to your family, like sending foreign currency to your family members on the island, is by just flying there, right? And getting an OFAC clearance and then flying there. Like we, I did that too, by the way. Like I had to get a note from the department of, I had to get a note from the treasury so that I could just like go to Cuba. And we had to inform the American government executive.

like the hotel we were staying at, like, you know, what we were doing. And the government was very clear about restricting what we could and couldn't purchase on the island. And those restrictions don't need to exist. This also shuts off from the academics I talked to. It shuts off academic cooperation as well, which is weirdly antagonistic to research and development, which I guess kind of is in line with what the Trump administration is doing here, simply on the domestic agenda as well, cutting our intelligence. funding in general, but it's unbelievable. I was talking to this neuroscientist, Dr. Mitchell,

who is, you know, part of a team that has been able to create the first successful Alzheimer's and dementia treatment. Okay. This is seen as like, by neuroscience, it's seen as like the last hill. This is the Mount Everest of like cures, right? And now it's being tested in Canada as well. going through clinical trials in Canada. And they were able to do that in spite of the ridiculous restrictions that's placed on them. For example, I'll give you one quick example. They'll purchase these like tubes, right, to test out like the compounds, the different chemical compounds that work with one another.

They'll look for a company that's not American. Because if the components are 10% American made or higher, then you can't sell it to Cuba. Tuba. Ridiculous. So they'll go oftentimes to European companies. They'll go to German companies or French companies because, you know, those are the ones that do, you know, specialized, highly specialized medical equipment and research equipment. So they'll go to this company and the company will send the test tubes out. But then there's, you know, you need to, you need to keep purchasing the chemical compounds from that company as well. You need to purchase these different tubing from that company as well. But then the company gets sold to an. American corporation. So now you have your bag of square one. And this happens all the time. From every single person I talk to, from surgeons, doctors, nurses, people that have played any role in trying to uplift Cuban citizens' lives, every single one has a story like this. There are hundreds of stories like this where they'll go to a company, they'll go to a European

company, a German one or a French one, they'll purchase this product, right? They'll purchase this like, you know, necessary thing, like medical equipment. And then a piece of that equipment fails, right? And they ask for a technician to come and solve this problem. They're going to say, sorry, sorry, we can't do that. We're worried about America. We're not going to do that. Or the company will get bought out by an American corporation. And then it's over. No more trade. You can't even purchase a screw at that point to fix the, you know, sometimes millions of dollars that you've spent on this piece of highly specialized equipment.

It's so insane, too, when you just step back and it's like, what is the possible threat that Cuba could represent to this country? The third of a good example. And that's at the end of the day. It's like a nakedly, that's it. I mean, they just can't have a society. where people's lives function and are to their benefit without a capitalist system. They just can't have that example out there, or it's going to be problematic.

It's going to spread. It's a little China close to home. How are you for time? Do you need to go? Yeah. Okay. Asan, we thank you for stopping by. I really appreciate it.

Thank you. I do want to take this time to condemn you. Just to make sure I'm on the, you know, so I, you know. I'll clip this and send it to Greenblatt. Please. Condemned and double condemned. I don't appreciate what you've probably smushed the my sciatica thing. And I condemn me for that.

I condemn me for that. My butt print is going to be permanently on your sciatica butt pillow. Yep. Love all this butt talk in the office. It's always so fun. I condemn it revealing my sciatica butt pillow. And that's it. But I'm on the record.

All right. Well, go to the one shot because I'm going to ask Hassan for a picture because you're not in studio, so I get to have a solo one with him. Sorry. Bye. All right. There we go. I'm sure I'm jealous.

Yeah. I mean, I'm kind of. Well, I can't, we could take a screen grab. Folks, we're going to head into the... We're going to, yeah, we're going to... Well, that's perfect. Look at the... This is my favorite part of this green screen.

This thing right here. Attention to detail. Yeah, look at that. It's unbelievable. That's awesome. I can put my hand through it. Folks, it's your support that makes this show possible. You can become a member

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hot chocolate, use the coupon code. Majority get 10% off of that. Also, check out our Discord. Majority Discord.com, and of course, the AM Quicky. Amquicky.com. Whitney Wimbish wrote a great piece yesterday, the day before, in the prospect. She's a great writer for the prospect.

She is, does our A.M. Quicky half time. Yeah, their halftime, Corey Pine, another great writer, long time A.M. Quiki master, writer. I don't know. You have a masters. Masters. The contributor? Contributor? Well, I mean.

I'm back. The Quiki. Matt, what's happening in the Matt Lechian media universe? Yeah, new Jacobin show today, Alex Scopic talking more about Cuba. He was also on the Neuester America aid trip and talking about all the different smears and, you know, BS from the haters, who as all the NBA players said about the NBA coach, George Carl, when the grass is cut, the snakes will show. And that's what's going on now. So check that out.

That's at 3 o'clock Eastern Time. and the Jacob and Meg YouTube channel coming up right after this show. What? What did I say? I'm just loving at the George Carl thing. Oh, also I will be on CNN tonight with Abby Phillip and then over the weekend I'm doing

this stream that I agree to with Crystal Ball and it's fundraising for a bunch of people that are candidates that are oppositional to the war in Iran. I think Platoners there, I think Malat. Curos? My girl, Malachiros, yes.

Some good candidates, sir. Some good candidates. So I'm working on the weekends. Also, just a reminder, folks. Just a reminder. No Kings rally happening tomorrow. Go to No Kings. Is it NoKings.org?

That's right. No kings.org. Find your local rally. Go out there. It's important to, you know, maintain the energy. Also, good opportunity to network with other folks and start to organize, because, you know, we'll need it. A quick break, and we'll be back after the fun half. Three months 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, hold on for a second.

The majority. Emma, welcome to the program. Hey. Fun hat. Matt. What is up, everyone? Fun hack. No me keen.

You did it. Fun hat. Let's go Brandon. Let's go Brandon. Fun hat. 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. Stop talking for a second. Let me finish. Where is this coming from, dude? But dude, you want to smoke this? 7 and 8? Yes.

Yes? It is you. Oh, it's me. I think it is you. Who is you? 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 go through. Libertarians. They're so stupid though. Common sense says, of course. gobbledygook we fucking nailed him so what's 79 plus 21 challenge met I'm positively quivering

I believe 96 I want to say 857 210 35501 1 1⁄2 8th 911 for instance 3,400 $900 $500 $54 3 trillion dollars sold it's a zero-some game

actually you're making me think less but let me say this poop you can call it satire Sam goes it satire On top of it all? Yeah. My favorite part about you is just like every day, all day, like everything you do.

Without a doubt. Hey, buddy, we've seen you. The week being weeded out, obviously. Yeah, sundown guns out. I don't know. But you should know. People just don't like to entertain ideas anymore. I have a question.

Who cares? Our chat is enabled folks. I love it. I do love that. Got to jump. I got to be quick. I get a jump. I'm losing it.

Two o'clock. We're already late. And the guy's being a dick. So screw him. Sent to a gulaw? Outrage. Like, what is wrong with you? Love you.

Bye. Love you. Bye-bye.