The Majority Report with Sam Seder - 3687 - Trump Hijacks Science Funding; Minnesota's Senate Race w/ Elizabeth Ginexi, Peggy Flanagan

Episode Date: July 14, 2026

It's News Day Tuesday on The Majority Report On today's program: ICE murders another person in cold blood, this time a 26-year-old father was shot in the head in Biddeford, Maine. In the wake of the murder, protestors swarm Susan Collins' office. Collins voted to provide a additional $70B in funds to ICE earlier this year. Elizabeth Ginexi, former NIH program official for 22 years and publisher of an eponymous Substack newsletter, joins to discuss how a little-noticed OMB rule could gut NIH and community funding. Minnesota Lt. Governor Peggy Flanagan joins to talk about her campaign for U.S. Senate. In the Fun Half: Italian American New Yorker's feelings are hurt over getting left off an immigrant enclave map of the city. PBD tries to capitalize on this "outrage" as a way to attack Mayor Mamdani. Marco Rubio makes his case for dismantling the Internation Criminal Court. Haley Stevens backed by tens of millions of dollars releases attack ads that label Abdul El-Sayed as sexist and mislead audiences into thinking that Obama has endorsed Stevens. Meta's CTO tries to sell Meta glasses as a way to remember people's names. Clavicular is surprised by the backlash he has received while visiting Israel over the footage from January where he is seen singing "Heil Hitler" by Kanye West. All that and more. Tell your Senators to block the NDAA until it is stripped of the proposal to integrate U.S. and Israeli militaries. Join Emma for a virtual DSA event: Workers Deserve More: DSA's 2026-27 Program Launch on Tuesday, July 14 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 AM Quickie 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: COZY EARTH: Go to cozyearth.com/MAJORITYREPORT for an exclusive 20% off. FACTOR: Go to FactorMeals.com/majority50off and use code majority50off to get 50% off and free daily greens per box, with new subscription only, while supplies last until September 27, 2026. SUNSET LAKE CBD: 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.

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. It's Sam Cedar. It is Tuesday, July 14th, 2026. My name is Emma Vigeland, in for Sam Cedar, and 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, Elizabeth Genexe, former NIH program official, will be with us to discuss Russ Votes and the OMB, gutting the federal funding for scientific research. And later in the show, Peggy Flanagan, lieutenant governor of Minnesota and candidate for U.S. 17 minutes. Senate. We'll be with us to discuss her race. Also on the program, Ice Kills Again, this time in Maine.

He was a 26-year-old father named Hoan Sebastian Guerrero, legally authorized to work in the U.S. A witness says that they saw him bleeding from the head. The U.S. attacks Iran for a third night. Trump threatens Strait of Hormuz tolls, which, by the way, they say, said we're illegal if Iran does it. And then he walked it back because some estimates came in showing it could double the cost

of shipping for oil and other key products, which is kind of why you guys don't like the tolls when Iran does it. But Secretary of State Marco Rubio penned an op-ed, calling for the dismantling of the international criminal court. Trump terminates three million. acres of federal lands to open them for drilling and brags about it. Doesn't he like Teddy Roosevelt? Not that part?

Guess so. How sweet the senator looks to honor Lanzi Graham in a bipartisan manner with Russian sanctions as tribute. At least they can do after Russia killed him. I am going to be so mad when we do that Josh Hawley clip. He's 2017 Rachel Maddow now, I guess, this right-wing populace. I have the same haircut. Yeah, I thought it too. South Carolina's governor has appointed a member of Lindsey Graham's family to serve out the rest of his term.

I was shocked to know he had a family, his sister. The death of 18-year-old Nolan Wells presses for a full investigation into what could be a hate crime. Some good news. The LAPD will let its contract with surveillance giant flock expire after public outrage. And lastly, more states join the lawsuit to block Paramount Skydance's $11 billion acquisition of Warner Brothers. The total is now 12 states. All this and more on today's majority report. Welcome to the show, everybody. it is Newsday

Tuesday Sam is still out doing Hollywood things as we will vaguely say he'll pop in probably tomorrow at some point but his schedule

is up in the air he will be back at some point I promise but or he's just going to ascend into a stratosphere of a celebrity and forget all about

that all of us that's also possible and you know perhaps someone very entrepreneurial like myself, maybe gave a call to some casting agent.

String them along a little bit? And said, you know, maybe you want to distract him for a little bit while I cement my power base here at the majority report. I don't want to give away all of my tactics. But if some person were smart about that kind of thing, they might try to flatter somebody with the possibility of, you know, being in a TV show. I don't know.

Could be a good idea if someone's goal is to eventually take over the show. So more horrible ICE news. This time in Maine, after last week, ICE killed a father of three in Houston. It took six or seven days for it to happen again. This time in Maine, the victim has been identified as 26-year-old. Hoan Sebastian Guerrero. He's the father of a three-year-old girl, and not that it should matter

at all, but Guerrero was authorized to work in the United States. He has a social security number, and of course ICE was not intending to target him, but because ICE is a

agency that is built on racial profiling, they still still killed him and identified him as somebody that they were going to target. He looks like a kid himself. 26 year old is a kid. I mean, whole life ahead of him.

Three year old. It's agonizing to think about this. And we don't have full details yet, but what we're seeing now is that ICE used their SUV to ram into the passenger side of his sedan. Then they surrounded the vehicle, and per a witness report, they saw him bleeding from the head,

and then per another witness report, they say that his daughter was in front of, was there, and she was still in her pajamas. She's three years old, as Matt just said. And the guy was just, yeah, like getting ready and heard something when he sounded like fireworks, so he looks out the window.

He heard him say, I tried to stop. And there's video we won't play off, this program because it's disturbing of him them opening the door letting his I don't know lifeless body at least limp body fall out his head hit the pavement the head that they just shot and then they cuff the body oh yeah oh yeah they were they did the same thing in Houston when he was bleeding out cuffing him cuff covering your tracks I guess right I mean Renee Good was alive.

I mean, this looks like a similar thing. If this guy could say I tried to stop. Renee Good was reportedly alive for minutes and they wouldn't let first responders to get there. These are just murders and they lie. And it's the exact same lie every time. Oh, I was afraid for my life. These are, they are out there to make people afraid for their life. How about you figure out a way to not be afraid for your life, maybe, if you're going to be in this line of work?

Like the fact that this is the constant excuse, could we have some infrastructure that changes that? We can't. Anybody that's not talking about abolishing this agency is not a serious person at this point and they're complicit in the terrorizing of our communities. Here is some footage, oh, I should also say, like in Houston,

not wearing body cameras. Again, here is Fox News showing how there were protests outside of Susan Collins Maine office following the shooting in Bideford, Maine. 17 minutes past the hour right now, anti-Aist protests outside the office of Senator Susan Collins after a deadly shooting in Maine involving an ICE agent. This is Betoferred where the shooting happened about 25 minutes south of Portland. Our correspondent Alexis McAdams is reporting live here in New York City.

She's got the latest details on what is happening there. Alexis. Hey, Sandra. So as you can see here on your screen, this is a live look at what's going on in Maine. agents are trying to piece together everything that happened as witnesses tell local media that ICE agents surrounded a car and repeatedly ordered the driver to get out. Then seconds later, we're told they heard gunshots and it was also captured on surveillance video. Listen to this. As we mentioned, some of the footage is so gruesome. We're not going to play it here. But Troy Jackson, who a lot of the Platner volunteers think is the best candidate to carry their campaign forward was at these protests.

This is also DSA endorsed I'll just add. In the main gubernatorial race endorsed by DSA, he showed up to show solidarity with the protesters he believes in abolishing ICE as well. So that's all going on in the backdrop of main politics right now. And this was another important point by Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, because in June, around a month ago, a month and change, the House voted to send $70 billion to the Department of Homeland Security and ICE,

which is the second time under the Trump administration or the second Trump term that they've sent a package of multi-billions of dollars to the Department of Homeland Security to ICE. And it was an 115-day, essentially standoff because Democrats were refusing to fund ICE and border patrol

in the wake of the killings in particular of Prattie and good we know now that ICE has killed 11 people on our streets including this latest instance and that standoff worked Republicans did end up circumventing

Democratic Democrats I should say by going through reconciliation to fund ice. But AOC makes the point that this is why funding is the key issue here. Here she is on Capitol Hill responding to this latest killing. Here's one. Any reaction to the ice killings in Maine and Texas? I'm still taking a look at all the details. But once again, this is not. I said this a couple of weeks ago that the, that I would not be surprised. if when ICE funding started up again, that we would start to see more civilian deaths at the hands of ice. And that's exactly what has happened. When you open the trenches with all of this money that Republicans have now funneled to ICE without any oversight or anything, you're going to see abuses of power. And that's exactly what's happening. You notice that, you know, we didn't see things like this happening with the same degree of regularity when we froze the ICE funds. And now that

they've been opened up again, we're seeing multiple incidents now. Thank you, Congressman. And that point is central to understanding why funding and the issue of abolishment is the only issue that we should be for, not the only issue, but the primary issue that we should be foregrounding here. These are institutions that respond to incentives and funding and not finger wagging and body cameras on top of the fully funded institution that's already doing this, for example, which actually when you look at the technology companies and even what ICE wants, that would be putting forward this technology for body cameras, they love it. They love it because it gives, yes, in these more narrow instances where ICE is killing people that might provide evidence,

but for the overwhelming majority of interactions with people, it's going to be another way to gather surveillance, to surveil them and gather biometric facial recognition data that Palantir has in terms of these contracts with ICE. Like, anybody that's talking about body cameras, absent abolishment, is, as I say, not a serious person for those reasons. Because AOC lays it out. You can see and track the level of violence and lack of accountability and map it onto when funding comes in and out. So let's not let anybody obscure what power is here. Money is power. state infrastructure and the way that it's funded in that manner is power.

And you can't just put a cherry on top of a turd and say, hey, body camera time. We're going to fix this whole thing. No. No. This agency should not exist. In a moment, we were going to be talking about Trump and the OMB's assault on research funding. But first, a word from some of our sponsors here. One of our favorite sponsors is Cozy Earth.

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We will put the link at in our podcast and YouTube descriptions and at majority.fm. Now I'm starving. We are back and we are joined now by Elizabeth Genexe, former NIH program official for 22, years and publisher of her eponymous sub-sac newsletter, so you can look up her name, here to discuss how this new OMB rule could gut NIH in community funding. Elizabeth, thanks so much for coming on the show today. Well, thanks for having me. I think this is such a boring topic, and that's why most Americans haven't heard of it. And it's why I tried over the past 45 days to scream at the top of my lungs, so to speak, on substack and make it interesting.

Well, we deal with boring and wonky here all the time, so I can guarantee you, you are not the most boring topic that we've had on this show before. And people should check out your substack and newsletter to stay updated on this, because just a little background on you, you're a 22-year veteran of the NIH, meaning you've worked in the federal government through multiple administrations, or you had, including the first Trump term, you resigned and took the early retirement, which allowed you to keep some benefits as they were gutting the federal workforce. What made the second Trump term so different than the first one? Yeah, I think it's a great question. The first Trump administration,

they sort of left NIH alone until the pandemic hit. There were a couple of wacky things here and there. I remember, for instance, hearing rumors that Kelly Conway was going to come over and help with the opioid epidemic research, which seemed weird. But there wasn't anything, you know, you might giggle about. But there wasn't anything traumatic until COVID hit. And then, you know, of course, everything seemed to start going south from there. But we weathered the storm, and there was the sense that on both sides of the aisle, the National Institute, of Health is pretty popular because we produce all the major medical breakthroughs for the American people, and the return on investment is consistently positive for every dollar that

is put into NIH. We get about 256 cents in economic output on the other side. So, you know, we all thought, oh, we'll be okay in the second term. But little did we know that it was a document called Project 2025. Have you heard of it? We have. We have. We've definitely covered it extensively on this show, but I'm sorry that you had to deal with it in practice. Yes, yes. So it was swift, and they had an unexpected assist from Elon Musk and his Doge boys, and they were quite ridiculous and terrifying at the same time, gutting programs, eliminating whole agencies like USAID, and they did quite a lot of damage to the Health and Human Services, our colleagues over at the CDC and FDA, and of course,

NIH was not immune this time. So while many of the leaders thought, oh, they don't leave us alone, they were wrong. And as soon as they came in and really stopped all of our and started canceling our grants because they were doing AI searches on the grant terms and looking for woke terminology and nonsense like that. It quickly became clear that my job was no longer what it used to be. And I was also at a place that's slated to be eliminated by Russell Vote, and I didn't know how it would turn out. And because I was eligible for the early retirement, I decided instead of,

staying for the trauma, I would get out. I mean, it's unconscionable that you were put in that position as a veteran of public health who'd served the American public for over two decades. And I think that public health piece, the public service piece, is what is so threatening to right-wing forces and what United, say, Project 2025 and Doge. You know, before we get into specifically this rule change and the imminent danger of it, I just love your reflections a little bit on how mistrust in science from COVID and the stoking of that level of conspiracism impacted your work in the federal government prior even to your resignation. Yes, that's a really great question.

And I think what the folks on the far right, and you know, we're talking about extreme libertarianism here, people who just basically don't believe that our tax dollars should go to things like biomedical research. But unfortunately, it's popular. So they have to have a hook, right? And what they generally do when they want to get a hook is they try and scare people. And they use mis and disinformation. That's their go-to, right? I think it's a playbook from Putin and other authoritarian who like that, that playbook. And it plays well.

They can make TikTok videos and X videos, outlandish tweets that people believe. So there was a whole slew of mis and disinformation that was pushed out during and after the COVID pandemic, blaming Dr. Tony Fauci, blaming a lab lead. blaming NIH specifically saying that somehow NIH funded the research that led to a lab leak. And there's no evidence for any of this. All of the available evidence, and you know, it was very hard to get evidence from China, but the evidence that we have gotten and the consensus among all the reputable epidemiologists and biologists out there is that this mostly likely was a jump from animals.

to humans, perhaps through the marketplace or some area in China, not a biodastair lab leak. But it had traction. And in the first Trump administration or at the end of the Trump administration, we had a lot of research, in fact, that was looking at the spread of mis and disinformation via social media and a lot of efforts to try and combat that with more effective public health messaging. And a lot of that research was shut down because Republicans demonized it.

And there are researchers whose whole careers were destroyed because they were tracking and found that almost all of the mis and disinformation about COVID was spread by a very small handful of bad actors on the Internet not it was not a groundswell of people that were doing this. And the Republicans who were in charge of Congress at the time shut all of that down. So we kind of had an inkling of this, but I don't think anyone realized that they would then, in the second term, use all of that as an excuse for dismantling not the agency. And that pretext leads us, I guess, to the current day.

We had a caller, one of our viewers last week who alerted us to the severity of what is happening here. And I believe that yesterday the public comment period ended. We have an IAMR who wrote in Science's political saying, so happy you're talking about the OMB proposal yesterday ended the public comment period with 94% of the over 300,000 comments opposing this. So despite that comment period ending, there was a lot of pushback. What does this rule say and what does it mean? Right. So the Office of Management and Budget is just an office in the White House that is sort of a pass through. Congress, as you know, appropriates the money for programs and any kind of program you can think of from science programs

to social service programs, health programs, education service programs, disaster programs, programs for seniors, programs for veterans. You know, we can go on and on and on. A lot of those appropriations are dispensed through the agencies via grant mechanisms. And for the better part of a decade or more, the OMB has been the sort of passed through, and they have had in the Code of Federal Regulations, here's where the boring parts come in, in two CFR part 200, was a sort of rule book, if you will, for how those grant dollars should be dispensed and best practices for audits and what the costs were allowed for, and so on and so forth. So it was typically called by most people the uniform guidance document because it would provide uniform guidance to each of the

independent federal agencies who then had experts like NIH and NSF and DOE and on and on, have the policy and grants experts to make sure that those federal dollars in grants are sent out within the law following policy and so on and so forth. And so that, you know, we could track the monies, make sure it's properly spent, that there's no fraud, there's no abuse. So we are all, you know, dialed in for that for decades. In fact, the science agencies in particular have been expert at this for over 80 years, right? So this was just a guidance document. And Russell vote in his second term here, learned a lesson from the last time. When he's tried to cancel grant programs, just outright, he gets sued.

and usually the courts say no and that's what happened. Well, it violates the statute. I mean, it violates the law. A rule can't override a statute. So at least in theory. Yeah. And right there, he wasn't using a rule.

He would just use an executive order and say, we're going to cancel everything woke, right? Gotcha. And so the courts would say, no, that's arbitrary. You can't do that. So this new rule, this rule, which was an old rule, he decided, okay, I'm going to get around the courts. And here's how I'm going to use it.

going to use the uniform guidance document. And I'm going to rename it. It's no longer going to be uniform guidance. It's going to be called regulation for federal financial assistance. And if you look at this 400-paid document, every place where the word guidance previously was written has now been replaced with the word regulation. I'm sure they used AI. Yeah, I guess who the regulator is, him, right? And instead of allowing the different agencies the autonomy to spend these dollars according to their individual statutes, this document now centralizes the control and says that any grants that are going to be given must now be approved by political appointees. So rather than each agency who has a process mainly at NIH

and the science agencies, we would use scientific peer review processes to figure out what we were going to spend. Now, instead, it will be someone from the Trump administration who will decide which science grants will be paid, which education grants will be paid, which disaster grants will be paid, and so on and so on and so on. And not only that, every grant program now must be deemed to effectuate the priorities of the administration. So they can say, you don't fit what we think is our priority and we are going to cancel you or we're not going to find you. So these are the big changes now. They can cancel at will. They can cancel anything that they consider woke or anti-American and they keep throwing out these fake justifications

saying that they're trying to get rid of fraud, waste and abuse. But they never show any evidence of any of that because there is none. It's a lie. But they're using those. same mis and disinformation campaign strategies to justify the existence of this rule. And it will basically take control away from Congress and say, whatever Congress appropriated, we don't care. We're going to be the say-so of what grants are allowed to be given in the country. So what does this do to the very nature of scientific research when there's at its outset no impartiality. Yeah.

It's really crazy. By law, in statute, the science agencies are required to rate the grants that come in to them by scientific peer review. And that's how the decisions are supposed to be made by law. And so now that process will continue, but in a sense, it will will be a sham because, and this is actually, unfortunately, already starting to happen and has been happening at the National Institutes of Health in advance. So they're sort of obeying in advance. Grants that get great scores in the scientific peer review and the scientists like me who want

to fund a particular grant now have to send that grant up to some political person at Health and Human Services who then reviews it again. And it takes them, A, A, a long time, and B, they come back with comments that sometimes make no sense because these are not people who are qualified to judge these grants, and they've already been judged. So we're seeing instances of grants that are not being paid that are perfectly ready to go. We're also seeing instances of whole programs of research being canceled for non-scientific reasons. A perfect example. We are on the verge of creating a cure for HIV AIDS with a vaccine. And they have completely canceled and shut that down. We could have had this going and a cure for that within the next

five years. And now we're not going to. I mean, it's just, I mean, this is eugenicist in its, in its impulse. I mean, that gets me my blood boiling right there. They've canceled research on pandemic preparedness. They've canceled any research on MRNA vaccines, which were pivotal in saving lives during the COVID pandemic. And they're shutting down any and all research that involves looking at minoritized populations or people who experience health disparities, right? So if you are in a group that is more likely to get sick or more likely to get diabetes, for some reason, we're not allowed to study that and we're not allowed to spend our dollars on that anymore

because it's considered DEI, which is ridiculous. I mean, it might be DEIA, which is accessibility. I mean, this is also going after people with disabilities. I saw Trump yesterday say something about how he's a believer in the horse race theory, talking about Lindsay Graham, essentially saying some people have genes and survival of the fittest that will let them survive and some people don't. Like that is what his impulse is. And it means that anybody who's marginalized if you have HIV AIDS or if you have some sort of disability, he doesn't think it's worth the federal government's time to look into ways to help you. And like, what does this do for the United States's role internationally in medical research?

I mean, this might be the end. Yes, it's bonkers. So for the last 80 years, we have been a leader in biomedical research for the world. And it has led to outcomes that the private market would not have funded, right? You know, you can see like, let's say heart disease. heart disease leading cause of death in the United States, and NIH-funded research has led to a 56% decline in heart disease from 1950 to 1996. Cancer transformed, right? We've got treatments for lung, breast, prostate, childhood cancers. We have immunotherapies now, and that has converted previously

fatal diagnoses into manageable conditions. Do we really want political appointees to choosing, to choose which one of these new treatments should go through to a phase three clinical trial. Do they have the expertise to do that? No. And then on health disparities, the NIH is statutorily required to study health disparities. And we're also required, as is the National Science Foundation, to diversify the workforce. So to fund trainees from all different backgrounds because you know what, that makes for better science. That makes for better outcomes. When we have diverse perspectives and diverse populations participating in our scientific endeavor,

we get better outcomes. There's research that proves all of this. And all of that is being shut down based on ideological reasons that because they can't say to the American people what their actual reasons are, which is they don't want the money to go to this. make things up. They say NIH caused the pandemic, which is false. They say there's waste foreign and group abuse, there's false. And then you even have ridiculous things. Some of the Congress people say that they're finding transgender mice experiments, which is also

ridiculous. So almost every excuse that they give for implementing this rule, which will shutdown science is made up and dismiss and disinformation. Now, this doesn't just impact scientific research. I want to make that clear. I know we mentioned this briefly, but if you could lay out what this rule change would also impact. That's right. So in this country, we, a lot of states,

really rely heavily, ironically enough, the red states even more so, on federal dollars to provide many services to our citizens. So let's take education, for example, everyone's got public schools in their communities. A lot of the teacher training programs, a lot of the special education programs are, especially special education, can be kind of expensive because you've got a few numbers of students and you've got to have lots more resources. So there are federal grants that are dispersed to the states for these purposes. And those could be on the chopping walk. There's programs like Meals on Wheels, right? Very popular for seniors who are having difficulty getting around. They can have the services brought to them. That's a program that they want to cancel. Heating assistance

in the winter. How about broadband infrastructure? The Biden administration's infrastructure bills is allowing for broadband to be installed in rural communities around America. They want to cancel all these things. They don't want to spend money on programs that benefit the people.

And I'm afraid that this bill or this rule is going to be essentially giving them a free pass to just cancel anything that they want. As a matter of fact, just this past week, I was out riding my bike, and I took a break and I opened my phone and I saw a video on Instagram announcing that the transportation secretary, Sean Duffy, is going to cancel any transportation that is related to bike lanes in America because bike lanes are DEI. So get ready, folks.

If you have bike lanes in your community, that funding is going to get canceled because it's woke. I don't understand how diversity, equity, or inclusion is involved here, except to say, like, it's just people that care about the environment, maybe, God forbid. I mean, it's just astonishing. Well, I mean, there's a lot more I could talk to you about,

but people should check out your substack if they want. to learn more about this. Elizabeth Genexi, we will put a link to your substack down below in the video and episode descriptions and the majority.fm. Elizabeth, lastly, what can people do, even though the open comment period has ended, to raise the alarm about what's happening here? Well, the good news is that the tally came in late last night. We've got almost a half a million people who commented, which is amazing. But if you didn't get a chance to comment, or even if you did comment, we're recommending you send your thoughts about this directly to your electives, right?

You've got two senators. You've got a congressional rep. It's very easy to send them an email. Everybody has a webpage and you can click Bing and send an email. Send your comment to them. Send your outrage to them. Tell them that you don't want your community grants in the hands of Russell vote to be canceled because that's what's coming down the pike.

They will pick and choose the programs that they like and the programs. that they don't like. And I expect to see a lot of cancellations over the past year, they have tried to cancel over $30 billion in grants. And the court said no. So those things are now going to be on the chopping block. Well, thank you so much, Elizabeth. Really appreciate your time today. And as always, as I mentioned, we'll put all those links down below. And we also, in our description, always have the capital switchboard link that people can use to call. But as you say, written is probably better if you have the ability to do that. Thanks so much. Thank you. All right, folks, quick break. And when we come back, we'll be joined by Peggy Flanagan,

Lieutenant Governor of Minnesota, who is running for the United States Senate. We are back and we are joined now by Peggy Flanagan, Lieutenant Governor of Minnesota and candidate for United States Senate in a primary that is August 11th. Right, Peggy? That's right. Yep. All right. August 11th. So you heard it here first, folks, or hopefully not, because this is an important Senate race. You're facing off against Angie Craig, who has been backed by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, who hasn't had the greatest record thus far in this election cycle of picking candidates.

So what are you hearing from Minnesota voters about their satisfaction with Democratic leadership in general? I mean, I think as, you know, we've traveled all across the state of Minnesota, you know, I've done over 250 events, the majority of which have been in greater Minnesota. What people are telling me is that they are sick and tired of Democrats who are fighting from a defensive crouch, kind of enabling around the edges. And they certainly are over-governing by sternly worded letter. And I'd say just are pretty dissatisfied with Washington in general. And frankly, I am too, which is, you know, why I'm running for the U.S. Senate.

And when they say fighters, you hear that a lot. And sometimes I think that you can have Democrats that describe themselves as fighters, but it's not resonating in the same way. Like, for example, my district, Dan Goldman, was just unseeded by Brad Lander. And Dan was a previous impeachment lawyer for Trump. And even in the instance in Colorado with Milakiros' race, you know, she also was involved her opponent to get in the in the Trump impeachment. So that's like a that's a fighter, right? But I think people are not really resonating with the fighters that maybe fought but lost, right?

They previously lost and Trump got back into power. And there's a lot of anger about that. So how do you distinguish your fight from how other Democrats described their fight? Sure, absolutely. I mean, I think, you know, for me, the fight is for actual people and not for big corporations and special interests. And I think that is, frankly, at the root of almost every problem we are facing in this country right now. I think the difference between, you know, myself and my primary opponent and Congressman Angie Craig is, you know, that I am not taking a dime of corporate pack money. that essentially, like how she has fueled her entire political career, right? With, you know, crypto and health insurance companies, big oil, A-PAC. And, you know, I want to be beholden only to Minnesotans. And, you know, I can sleep just fine at night by saying I'm not taking corporate pack money. Because I think that's like how people in this moment are identifying fighters.

If you're not aligned with us, if you're not willing to go, you know, to the mat on the things that we really care about and call out, like, who benefits from it being this way right now, I think people, you know, people are over it and they're dissatisfied. And so that's, you know, what I define as a fighter is who are you fighting shoulder to shoulder, right, alongside, you know, and who has your back as well, right? And for, you know, for us, I'm super clear that this whole campaign is about the many versus the money. And, you know, I'm with the many. And I think that is what we're seeing happen across this country. And race after race after race is people asking the question, who are you fighting for and who are you beholden to? And we have an I AMER that says called Kat is my friend, writes in saying, thank you so much for having Peggy Flanagan on. I live in Minnesota and I've been seeing nothing but Angie Craig ads on social media and

YouTube lots of money being spent against her, which is what you alluded to there, how super packs in these dark money 501 C4 groups that have been spending, gosh, what I'm seeing a million dollars a week. I saw other, you know, figures in the millions as well with these dark money groups that are funneling money into your race and funding ads. against you. You mentioned crypto, but also APAC, oil companies as well. Tell us a bit about some of these ads and what their impact has been and who their funders are. Sure, absolutely. So, you know, there's been 13 million spent so far. It's like a tsunami of dollars that are

coming into this race, right? And we haven't seen anything like this in a Democratic primary election before. And so I think, you know, the thing that folks should be asking themselves is why, right? Like, why are all these, these dollars coming in in support of Congresswoman Craig? And I think the primary answer is because these special interests know that she'll do their bidding, right? In 2024, when she was running for Congress, the crypto industry spent a million dollars to support her in her race. That meant that, you know, she then turned around and voted a, for their dream bill, which I think ironically is called the the genius act. Yes.

Yes. Allowed Donald Trump, right, to enrich himself to the tune of, you know, $1.4 billion. It's because I'm so smart. It's because I'm a genius. That's why they called it that. Exactly. And so, you know, and like in Minnesota, we care a lot about the Minnesota State Fair and I hope you come check it out sometime.

because it's my favorite. And on the very first day of the state fair, Congresswoman Craig, was in Jackson Hole at a resort at a crypto conference. She's the only Democrat to attend, and she was essentially the opener for Eric Trump. So crypto invests, they know what they're going to get. The same with, you know, big oil. She voted to allow drilling on public lands. you know, health insurance companies who are backing her as well. She stands in opposition to Medicare for all. I'm for it enthusiastically. And I think this just continues to be, you know, that folks can

just see, you know, in real time, they're supporting her because they know that she'll do their bidding. And when it comes to APEC, they have been her largest funder throughout her entire political career. you know, and she's very strategically said, well, I don't take AAPAC PAC money in this race, but we know that, you know, they've held over 12 fundraisers for her, one hosted by the head of APEC. And so I don't take APEC money because my values don't align with APEC. And, you know, she is one of 16 Democrats total and the only Minnesota Democrat who voted in favor of sending, you know, 2,000-pound bombs to Benjamin Menyahu. And so this is, I think folks have really been paying attention to races across the country. And now, you know, there's a big focus on Michigan, as there

should be. But there is a race. I think that really is an example, right, too, of what is happening in this party and the kind of future that we want. We want corporate Dems who are, you know, essentially bought by special interest. We want people who are, you know, fighting for real folks. And, you know, that's the choice. I'm glad that people are starting to tune in to what's happening here. You mentioned APAC. And I think many Democrats are starting to realize why this issue is resonating with voters across the country. One, I think, you know, especially for young people, I say this anecdote a lot, but I got interested in politics during the Iraq War and the Obama campaign inspired me in that primary race. I was, you know, 14 or something.

but, or 13, but because I, I couldn't understand how anyone could vote for Hillary Clinton because she'd supported the Iraq war and the barbarity overseas and what that war really was. And it was a litmus test for humanity and values. And I feel that we're back here again with the, the genocide in Gaza. And the fact that, you know, it doesn't seem like Democrats really learned from that energy with the Obama campaign, Part of what catapulted him to victory was that he stood in opposition to the Iraq war. And the Democrats have lost a lot of moral standing on this issue, particularly with young people. How would you reclaim that in your candidacy?

And, you know, if you could expand on your views on blocking arms sales to Israel, for example. Sure. So I would say a couple things. Well, one, I am excited to hear about what radicalized you as a 14-year-old. I'm a mom of a 13-year-olds who absolutely is paying attention, and that's, you know, that's a, that's a good thing. You know, for me, I am very clear that we have to use every tool in our toolbox to prevent human suffering. The same values that I have that have been behind, you know, supporting free breakfast and lunch for kids at school are the same values behind, you know, not sending a, additional weapons to Israel.

The absolute devastation watching children suffer who don't have access to food or medical aid in this most recent report that came out from the UN that literally talks about the targeting of children and infants, I can't. I can't in good conscience stand by and say that that is okay. It is a genocide, and we have tools at our disposal that we should utilize when we see a crisis human rights violations. And so, you know, I spoke out a little over a year ago when Bernie Sanders introduced, right, his resolutions blocking, you know, weapons sales.

And that's all it took for APEC to send out a fundraising email, calling me a threat in support of my opponent. You know, and that's okay because I think we are in a moment where there is pretty clear what's white and what's wrong. And I know, especially as a Native American woman, the idea of a homeland is really important to me. And knowing that the suffering that's happening, Palestinians deserve self-determination.

And I still believe that we can get to a place where we can have peace in the region and can do more than what we're doing now, but it's going to take sending leaders to Washington, who I think represent the majority of Americans and how they feel about their taxpayer dollars being spent, you know, in this way when there's so many people who are struggling right now here at home. And some of the struggles also include, you know, many people in Minnesota who at the

beginning of this year were victimized by ice terror. And gosh, this, we, in the past seven days, we've now had two more killings of people on the streets. And I don't care what their documented status is. There are our neighbors and they're Americans just like all of us by ICE. And Minnesota was at the forefront of activism against ICE at this time. And, and Minnesota, now, or earlier in the year, I should say. Now, is it true that your opponent voted for the Lake and Riley Act? That is, that is true. Okay. So could you expand on that and why, you know, how possibly somebody who voted for the Lake and Riley Act could adequately represent the people of Minnesota who so heroically stood up for ice, against ICE earlier this year? So, Emma, that's a good question. And like, that is, you know, the question I think that people should be asking.

It was not a surprise that Donald Trump has a mass deportation agenda. It was literally on, you know, signs behind him at every rally, like in all caps that said mass deportations now. You know, I remember the first training that I went to with the Immigrant Rights Organization was in December of 2024. for because we knew what was coming. And on the, you know, third day of the second Trump administration, Congresswoman Angie Craig was the only Minnesota Democrat to vote in favor of the Lake and Riley Act. And, you know, for folks just, you know, to let them know, the Lake and Riley Act essentially

strips due process away from immigrants and allows for the indefinite detention of adults and of children. And I believe that this was absolutely, you know, the policy that essentially gave, you know, Donald Trump and Stephen Miller the green light to terrorize our communities. As we have watched, right, the killing of Renee Good and Alex Pretti and now Joan and Lorenzo as well. This is, I think this is a core of this race. because not only did she vote for the Lake and Riley Act, she stood by that vote even after Renee Good and Alex Prattie were killed and only recently said that she regrets, you know, the vote. But she also voted to praise ICE while they were separating families in Los Angeles last

summer. So I think we can stand with the immigrant community all of the time, not just when it's politically expedient. And, you know, that's part of what this $13 million, is trying to do, reinvent, right, Congressman Craig's record, right? To essentially, you know, distract from the fact that she's voted with Donald Trump more than any other Minnesota Democrat and bragged on her website that she votes with Tom Emmer, 45% of the time. You know, those are not my homies. Those are not the folks that I am interested in aligning with.

And, you know, I think we are at a time when we get to have, you know, bold, courageous leadership that stands with the community and we shouldn't have to compromise our values in this moment, especially after everything that we have been through and what we continue to see play out from this, you know, completely lawless agency. We have a few IMs. I just want to read to you before we let you go, just from people who are in Minnesota. Nathaniel Hornblower says, I want to add that I am Jewish and I am voting for Peggy because of my beliefs. Josh from Minnesota writes in Peggy had the second best speech at the state DFL convention.

I don't know who is more mad at Kobe. Amy for the challenge or Peggy for being slightly upstaged, L.O.L. So I'm not sure what that's in reference to, but it seems like you get what. Heard. Yeah. Okay. Snark-Norovsky, Minnesota State Fair is awesome. Seedart Hot Dish on a stick. I kid be not.

Matt from Minnesota. Say it again. They're speaking my language. It's my favorite thing. I guess we have a lot of Minnesota viewers. Matt from Minnesota says, Peggy, please restock the pride pins. The stickers aren't lasting in the heat. So there you go. Absolutely.

And one last one, Nathaniel Hornblower, says, I also live in Minnesota and will be voting for Flanagan. I can't wait to attend her rally with Bernie on the 20th. So I guess that's a good place for us to kind of wrap here if you want to talk about that upcoming rally and also how people can support your candidacy if they would like to. Sure, absolutely. Well, thank you so much again for this opportunity to chat with you today. We're super excited that Bernie is coming to town. We're doing a rally at the iconic First Avenue, where Prince first got his starts next Monday,

20th, yep. And so it'll be Bernie, Senator Tina Smith, Congresswoman Ilhan Omar, and Attorney General Keith Ellison. So just invite folks to come and to rally as we get ready for this primary election. And people can visit Peggy Flanagan.com to learn more about the campaign to donate or to volunteer. We will put a link to that down below in the video and episode descriptions. I did have one more I am because this is not even a question, but hungover substitute teacher says tell Peggy Flanagan her earrings rock. So big hit, big hit the ear. I couldn't go. I couldn't in good conscience let you go without communicating a compliment about your earrings, woman to woman. I mean,

I have a strong earring game. And so I appreciate it very much. It's kind of my thing. Okay. All right. Well, thank you so much, Peggy Flanningin, Lieutenant Governor of Minnesota and also candidate for U.S. Senate, rather, against Angie Craig in the primary, which is on August 11th. 11, thanks so much for your time today. Peggy really appreciate it. Thanks so much, Emma. All right, folks, with that, we're going to wrap up the free part of this program and head into the not-so-free part, where we will take your IMs. Maybe we'll take a call or two, but we have a lot of fun sound today. I just want to plug a few different things. I sent this earlier, the link. It's an A-new policy link that you'll see.

So right now, if you would like to, there's a lot of calls to action, I think, in this episode, but this is fairly immediate and urgent. This is the most insane thing of this. I mean, I guess maybe I won't use a superlative. This is a very insane thing of this year. Yes, exactly. Good qualifier. There's been a lot.

But we will be talking more about this subject in the fun half. but if you want to go to this link, you can tell your senator to block the National Defense Authorization Bill until it is this part about permanently merging the United States and Israel's defensive and intelligence capabilities is removed. Chris Van Hollen has been leading the charge on this a bit, but it's a very good chance that this gets. push through. Benjamin Netanyahu is a big fan of this. That's why he's going on TV and saying,

we don't need U.S. military support anymore. Because we are going to be the U.S. military very soon. Exactly. Everyone needs alimony when you could be married. There you know. So, that is dangerous. We actually, we want a divorce

from Israel. We don't want to be like pushed into this abusive marriage anymore. So if you want a divorce from Israel, right to your senators, and the link will be there. And you can just put in your information and tell them, not without debate, urge your senators to block the defense bill until U.S. Israel defense and intelligence integration is debated.

I mean, how did we get to this point? Why should we even debate it, actually, you know? Why should it? Well, actually, I'm being sarcastic. Why should it be even suggested by anyone, and not laughed out of the fucking room. We have a completely diabolical world order. And, I mean, a Congress, apparently, that is completely corrupted by this sort of stuff.

Like, this is absurd. What other country would we be doing this for? I mean, we're going to have, I mean, we talked to Brendan and Noah of blowback about their new piece on the Israel-U.S. relationship and that sort of thing. But, I mean, this is, and we're going to actually have a Brendan on a Jacobin show on Friday. But this is lunacy. that we would be thinking about integrating with these fucking lunatics.

More integration. More! We should, one, completely cast them off and not sell them any kind of, I mean, BB guns even. And they can figure out how to be good neighbors. And you can plug that Left Reckoning in Jacobin then when we're on that topic, Matt. Oh, yeah, there would be a Brendan James, Jacobin,

show on Friday. And coming up after the show today, a interesting show. We have Sam Karras of the Big Bend Sentinel talking about the Big Bend border wall, which everybody hates, except the contractors that are going to get the contract to build it. And Ishmael Johnson of Dallas Morning News talking about affordability in youth sports and soccer in particular, which I have to call it soccer because people get confused if I call out football. I understand. Don't listen to people like that. But, yeah, youth soccer, how expensive it is and how expensive sports get, he's got a great thing on that. Because Alexi Lalas is like, who's going to pay for all this free soccer? Well, it's like, Ishma makes a point, do you want to win?

Because other places are investing into broad talent and not just capitalizing on the individuals when they do elevate themselves above the field as we do in America, not just in soccer, but in basketball as well. We're not creating a good system when you just capitalize on the individuals. that instead of cultivating a broader set of talent. But anyway, that would be coming up after the show today. I'm instituting a new rule that if you write in and say that soccer is actually football, your band from the show, we're canceling your membership. We're canceling it. Words in English in different countries mean different things.

Again, it's a lift, not an elevator in the UK. I wouldn't be going up to them and going, it's elevator. Okay? I mean, pedantry is really, as somebody who is qualitatively tested very highly on sort of verbal and vocabulary stuff, like, it's very stupid to be peddent. I can't wait to sneak that in there. That was a wild way to say that. I'm pulling rank here. Now I really want you to drop below 10K on Instagram just to humble you a little bit.

Technically, you can't use that word this way. Yeah, I can. I just did. Look, I'm not someone to be getting. giving lessons in humility anyway. When somebody tries to be a pedant, I say this to them. You are not a New Yorker. You have no clue. Okay, I'm going to need to know the context, and apparently it's coming later.

But as a reminder, this show relies on your support. Join the Majority Report.com. If you don't mind, it helps us stay resilient. It's the best way to support us. It's the best way to support us and it helps this show keep chugging along. All right, quick break, and we're going to head into the fun half. See you there. Okay, Emma, please.

Well, I just, I feel that my voice is sorely lacking in the majority report. Wait, what? Look, Sam is unpopular. I do deserve a vacation at Disney World. So, ladies and gentlemen, it is my pleasure to welcome Emma to the show. It is Thursday. Yeah, I think you need to take over for Sam. That's police.

No, no, I'm going to pause you right there. Wait, what? You can't encourage Emma to live like this. And I'll tell you why. So I was offered a twirp, sushi, and poker with the boys. Twerp, sushi and poker with the boys. Who's offered a twerk? Yeah.

Sushi and poker. Bids. I just think that what you did to Tim Poole was mean. Free speech. That's not what we're about here. Look at how sad he's become now. You shouldn't even talk about it because I think you're responsible. I probably am in a certain way, but let's get to the meltdown here.

Dwerp. Oh. Susie. and oh sushi i'm sorry i'm losing my fucking mind so it's offered a twerk sushi and poker with the boys logic twerk i think i'm like a little kid i think i'm like a little kid little kid i think i'm like a little kid i think i'm like a little care i think i'm not trying to be a dick right now but like i absolutely think the u.s should be providing me with a wife and kids that's not what we're talking about here is not a fun job It's a real thing.

That's a real thing. Willie Walker. That's a real thing. That's a real thing. That's a real thing. That's a real thing. That's a real thing. That's like the way of the world on the shoulders.

It was so much easier. One of the majority report was just you. You're going great. Now, shut up. Don't want people saying reckless things on your program. That's one of the most difficult parts about this show. This is a pro-killing podcast. I'm thinking maybe it's time to bury the hatchet.

Left is best. Ultra. Violet. War. Hey, fun, Israel. A credible theme song. I Bumbler. Emma Viglin.

Absolutely one of my favorite people. Actually, not just in the game. Like, period.