The Majority Report with Sam Seder - 3708 - How We Build On Progressive Victories w/ Bernie Sanders, John Nichols & Usamah Andrabi (M)

Episode Date: August 12, 2026

It's Hump Day on The Majority Report On Today's program: On the way home from the NATO summit in Ankara, Air Force One was forced to land in England because of a threat from Iran. Donald Trump was the...n snuck onto a second plane via a catering truck, while the press remained aboard Air Force One. President Trump was asked about why he allowed the members of the press to remain on Air Force One if it was too dangerous for him to stay. Trump tried to claim that the second plane was actually the more dangerous plane. What a hero, laying his life on the line for the press. John Nichols, journalist and executive editor at The Nation, joins to discuss the Wisconsin primaries and the rise of independent candidates. Check out John's great piece in The Nation: "Is 2026 the Year of the Independent?" Usamah Andrabi, communications director and spokesperson for Justice Democrats, joins to discuss what has been JD's most successful primary cycle for endorsements. Senator Bernie Sanders (D-VT) joins the program for a conversation about the wave of progressive candidates winning their primaries across the country. In the Fun Half: Peggy Flanagan, on primary Election Day, reaffirms her platform in a post on X, citing ripping ICE apart, passing Medicare for All, etc. Flanagan went on to win big. The GOP nominee for Senate in Minnesota, Michelle Tafoya's message to voters on the war on Iran is to be a patriot and deal with the rise in gas prices. Mike Lindell is refusing to concede his campaign for the Republican nomination for governor of Minnesota. STAY IN THE RACE, MIKE! Tim Pool spends 10 minutes belaboring a mindless metaphor about molecules and atoms in an attempt to explain how socialism doesn't work. all that and more. To connect and organize with your local ICE rapid response team visit ICERRT.com The Congress switchboard number is (202) 224-3121. 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: DELETEME: Get 20% off your DeleteMe plan when you go to www.joindeleteme.com/MAJORITY and use promo code MAJORITY at checkout. RIDGE WALLET: For a limited time only head to ridge.com and use code MAJORITYREPORT at checkout for 10% off your order SUNSET LAKE CBD: Head to SunsetLakeCBD.com and use code BIRTHDAY26 at checkout to save 25% on everything sitewide. Spend over $100 and get a bonus gift on top of it all. Sale ends August 17th at Midnight.  @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 YouTube channel: https://ww.youtube.com/Th3Discourse Check out Ava Raiza's music here: https:/www.youtube.com/@avaraiza

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Starting point is 00:02:11 It is Wednesday, August 12th, 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, we are. are loaded. John Nichols, writer, executive editor at the nation.
Starting point is 00:02:43 It's most recent co-written with Bernie Sanders, it's okay to be angry about capitalism on the races last night and the rise of the independence. Then
Starting point is 00:03:00 Osama Andrabi, communications director, spokesperson for justice Democrats. to discuss their successful endorsements in 2026 primary cycle. And then we shall have the senior senator from Vermont, Bernie Sanders, who co-wrote a recent book with John Nichols. Also on the program today, Flanagan walks away with it in Minnesota. Meanwhile, Francesca Hong loses by half a point in Wisconsin. Larson loses in Connecticut.
Starting point is 00:03:47 And Mike Lindell lost his race, but of course said that something was a foul in the voting. Yeah, something weird happened. He shouldn't concede. He should stick it out. He has not conceded yet. Ticket to the courts. Inflation up, wiping out all wage. gains.
Starting point is 00:04:10 Ice plans to equip their thugs with electric shocking gloves. $20 million worth. David Ellison threatens California. If you don't settle our antitrust case, we're going to pull Paramount out of California. By U.S. and Houthis fire on ships in the Strait of Hormuz and Dead Sea, respectively. This, as Iran maintains, checkmings. Checkmate. Supreme Court Justice Sam Alito has earned over $2.9 million from his fossil fuel holdings over the past.
Starting point is 00:04:49 Ten years or so. Oh, and not coincidentally, July, the hottest month ever recorded in the United States. New York City Council to probe the prediction market platforms, so you all love out there for false marketing practices. And the Mamdani endorsed bill in New York City requiring Amazon to actually employ its delivery drivers will face off against the top Amazon New York City lobbyist Chuck Schumer's daughter. All this and more. on today's majority report. Welcome, ladies and gentlemen.
Starting point is 00:05:46 Emma is out today. She's going to be upset about missing Bernie Sanders on the program. Well, yeah, it's fair. I mean, this is, we're in, like, we have some type of competition now. Well, it's not like Bernie Sanders is particularly flexible with this calendar. Yes, that's true, I guess. but Emma will be back tomorrow. Physically, I've heard he's very flexible, though.
Starting point is 00:06:13 I don't know how to respond to that. No Sleep Till. Please tell me you have Tom Tiffany's victory speech from his Wisconsin win, the way he pauses before every phrase suggested he may be at a Nick Shirley reading level. Let's pull that up. Canuck Comrade, does Emma ever work? What are you talking about? was just gone for like four weeks and I'm going to be gone next week for another week.
Starting point is 00:06:44 Not next week, but half of the week. Be that as May. We will get to these races. Obviously, we're going to be talking about Wisconsin with John Nichols. One of the most knowledgeable people on the planet, Wisconsin politics. And we will, of course, do full coverage on Mike Lindell. Peggy Flanin. I'm still not giving up on that, Roast.
Starting point is 00:07:18 Walked away with it. But this is a story that is getting a significant amount of attention because the President of the United States was apparently okay with the idea that we're going to have a plane load of, journalists and White House staffers, the less important ones, on a plane as a decoy for what they thought might be an Iranian attempt to assassinate Donald Trump. Now, as you know, Donald Trump has made it absolutely clear over the years. The Israelis have two that it is perfectly legitimate. to attempt to kill a civilian leadership.
Starting point is 00:08:13 And so, of course, Trump takes this seriously and has absolutely zero interest in protecting anybody who is not named Donald Trump. Here is, this is, now this is video of Trump pretending to go on, or he actually goes on Air Force One, everyone in the plane, including the press, believe that Trump is on the plane as they fly back to the United States from Ankara. And watch what happens here. You can see Trump entering into, oh, you're going to go back a little bit because we didn't. You can see Trump entering into normal plane ride. Yeah, here I go.
Starting point is 00:08:59 Dum-de-d-d-dum. And you'll notice one thing, okay, pause it right there. Keep it up. The press was told to put your windows down in the plane. And then you can see the airport catering truck, and they apparently had to use food to lure Trump out of the plane. It's filled with Big Macs. Wait.
Starting point is 00:09:26 Are there Eclare's there? I smell sick. And the catering truck has one of those like, it's not a shipping container. It's obviously like about half that size. But what it does is it elevates up. And so he must have just walked into it. So let it roll here.
Starting point is 00:09:46 And then once they had him, the ship, the catering truck drives away and goes into another plane. Got to cater this plane too. It's got a special little meal on it. Wait, but are there, is there more food in the other plane?
Starting point is 00:10:02 Okay. Diet Coke's on me. here is Donald Trump explaining that in fact, no, he wasn't part of endangering the lives of, is it dozens, maybe tens, I don't know, of journalists in this plane in Air Force One. No, in fact, he was basically putting himself in front of the fire. It was pressed. It was white out the signals on it. Well, this one went over to England where it was shown to the soldiers. But this one went over to England because the soldiers wanted to see it.
Starting point is 00:10:49 And it stopped, and they showed it to the soldiers. And we did a switch over there. And it was really as for the military. And I just have to do what they say. They go for safety, and I have to do what they've said. Why was it too dangerous for you to fly on Air Force One? Well, I don't know. I think actually the plane that I flew on was at greater risk. Why do you say that?
Starting point is 00:11:11 Because that would be the plane. I think that we, that they would be more likely to go for. So you can see, like Trump's trying to avoid, uh, the, uh, questions as, you know, the, uh, the army guys wanted to see the plane. And so we just decided to fly to the, uh, military base to show the army guys the plane. What, you don't support the troops? And then he's asked, why is if it's not safe for you to be on that plane? Was it safe for all these other people? And his argument is actually no, the plane that I was on was less safe. Now, aside from the fact that, aside from the fact that, well, if the military
Starting point is 00:12:03 in charge and they just put you on a less safe plane. Are you not concerned that the military is trying to do something? Try to get rid of you? And if it was the case that somehow the plane he got onto was the least safe one, why not just get all of the journalists off of the original plane that you were on? That's how much I care about the press. Because I wanted to... The troops wanted to see the press.
Starting point is 00:12:37 America without a press is not a country at all. And actually the most dangerous place was in that catering cart when I was shutting across the tarmac. That's how they moved Taylor Swift. Now, we should say that reportedly that it was Israeli intelligence that told Trump that he was in danger. Obviously, there's a lot of reason to doubt. Israeli intelligence is operating in the interests of any entity other than Israel. They're not like America. They actually place their interests first.
Starting point is 00:13:15 And but it's also been reported. And again, the sourcing of this is, you know, that Iran has shown interest in assassinating Trump. But why? He's perfect for that. And some level, now they're like, we want to dip him in amber and have him be president forever. But apparently Congress is curious as to like, did you specifically endanger these people? I mean, you should. And also, it is very, very, very rare that there is no public knowledge or.
Starting point is 00:14:02 or at least congressional knowledge of where the president is at any time. Even on 9-11, there was only a two-hour period where there wasn't that the press was unaware of where George Bush was. And then he, on 9-11. And he had flown to an air base in Nebraska. and they did not inform the press where he was until he had landed at that air base. So this is a rather controversial. I am so desperate to ask a Trump supporter about this event and have them repeat back. He decided to go on the more dangerous plane.
Starting point is 00:15:01 Just built like that. I mean, completely insane. But in a moment, we're going to be talking to John Nichols. He is the writer and executive editor at the Nation magazine. It's most recent book co-written with Bernie Sanders is, it's okay to be angry about capitalism. Then we'll be talking to Asama Androbby, communications director, spokesperson for justice Democrats,
Starting point is 00:15:25 on yesterday's results and to others. And then we'll be talking to Senator Bernie Sanders, about both the elections and other sundry things. But first, a word from our sponsors. Have you ever thought I should really be doing something to protect myself from things like scammers or identity thievers or hackers or hackers or stalkers for that matter? but you don't know what to do. Well, here's what you do. You go to www.com. Join delete me.com slash majority. You enter the code majority. You will get 20% off a service, delete me, which will remove your personal information that's being sold online. I have been using Delete Me for over a decade, well over a decade now,
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Starting point is 00:22:33 All right, quick break. When you come back, John Nichols, writer and executive editor at the Nation magazine. We are back, Sam Cedar on the majority report. Emma Viglin is out today, joining us by phone. John Nichols, the executive editor and writer at the Nation magazine, his most recent book, co-written with Bernie Sanders. It's okay to be angry about capitalism.
Starting point is 00:24:56 John, we have both authors of that book on. the program today. We'll be talking to Bernie Sanders later in the program. I, at the top of the show, said that there's probably no one in the world who is more informed about Wisconsin politics. So let's start there from last night. The Francesca Hong loses by half a point. What do you tell us what went on there? Sure. Francesca Hong, who I think probably your listeners are pretty familiar with, is a state representative from Madison, very progressive, a member of Democratic Socialists of America. And she's been really kind of the dynamic progressive legislator for a number of years. She got into the governor's race as a real outsider.
Starting point is 00:25:49 The thinking was that, you know, she would raise the flag and maybe, you know, mount an interesting ideas-based campaign. what happened was twofold. She worked harder than anybody else and did a really remarkable campaign at the grassroots in every corner of the state. Small towns, farm country, big cities, urban neighborhoods, built this amazing coalition and started to take off.
Starting point is 00:26:19 Even then, the party leadership didn't take her very seriously. And then something amazing happened. All of the, prominent contenders in the race ran into some kind of trouble or another. The sitting lieutenant governor, who was sort of, you know, pretty much the inside choice, ran into huge financial problems, had to quit a race. The former lieutenant governor ran into trouble, had to quit his race. The head of economic development for the state, who was supposedly going to have a lot of support from business,
Starting point is 00:26:52 had to quit her race. And suddenly, you ended up in a situation a few weeks ago, where A, Francesca Hong had a great campaign going, really strong grassroots campaign, and B, she, you know, her opponents had sort of stumbled all over the place. And so it sort of looked like she really had a significant chance to win this thing. And at that point, the governor of the state, Tony Evers, who is a relatively center-left governor, is very well-liked. But he was retiring, Democratic governor, suddenly said, I'm pulling one of the candidates who withdrew from the race, Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley, back into the race. I'm going to tell him, you know, hey, if you get back in the race, I'll endorse you in campaign with you. They did that barely two weeks ago, less than that.
Starting point is 00:27:47 And then they hit the trail. And Evers really campaigned incredibly hard for Crawley and made an arrest. which I would debate on a number of fronts, but made an argument that Hong would have a very hard time getting elected in November, that Crowley would be easily elected, and basically created a lot of doubt among Democrats in the state about whether Francesca Hong, who was leading in the polls, could win the election. Now, what's interesting about this is that we all know that Democrats talk a lot about electability. But in Wisconsin, that's a huge issue. It's a huge kind of weight on folks because they all went through Scott Walker's governorship. And so they get very scared about losing the governorship. And result was, in the final days of the campaign, there was this great churn. A lot of people really wrestling with where they were going to go.
Starting point is 00:28:49 And I think, you know, obviously to the amazing pollsters, who all got it wrong. and to frankly, I would argue to the amazement of many of the participants in the race itself, at the end of the day, Crowley pulled out roughly a 3,000 vote win out of, you know, 800,000 that roughly 800,000 votes cast. The, some people say that, you know, Wisconsin's got an open primary. we don't know how many Republicans there, but voted. The supposedly her big lead may have depressed some people's turnout, but the number of people who voted seems to me to be extraordinary. Like the, I mean, just put that in context for us because she's going to end up with around 300,000 votes, which in
Starting point is 00:29:52 any other Wisconsin primary would be a clear win. Well, let me put it this way. Francesca Hong is now the second highest vote getter in a Wisconsin gubernatorial primary
Starting point is 00:30:07 in history. In history? 3,000 votes behind David Crowley. Wow. More or less, yeah. So, at least in recent history, there were some, you know, you can have a quirky primary
Starting point is 00:30:18 where, you know, you don't really have an opponent and somebody piles up all the votes. But where you've had a contested primary, Francesca Hong got a vote that is in excess of what past winners of contested primaries got, including the governor, the city governor, Tony Avers, who came out of a contested primary a number of years ago. And so the way to understand this is, Hong got, as a Democratic socialist, running a deeply grassroots-oriented campaign that spoke a lot about, you know, some fundamental issues of economics, but also adopted new issues, became very outspoken on a moratorium, on data centers, on, she had a whole plan for regulating AI at the state level that was as sophisticated as anything you've seen at the national
Starting point is 00:31:10 level. I cover these issues. I can tell you that for sure. She also, you know, like, her policy agenda was incredibly detailed. Her, you know, her campaign style, Is there different than a lot of other politicians? And I think one that national media really struggled to understand. But as a candidate, she would go out, you know, she literally did five, six, seven stops a day, went to very small towns, had no qualms about going into any cafe or bar or, you know, Union Hall, whatever. And she'd sit down with people and say, what's on your mind? How are you feeling?
Starting point is 00:31:48 You know, what's worrying you at this point? And she integrated that into a campaign that linked the worries of the state, the real frustration, things that she was getting in real time with policy proposals. And the last thing I'll tell you is she didn't put a lot of emphasis on fundraising. And as a result, while so many candidates spent all their time talking to donors, she spent basically all the time talking to voters. And it created a loyalty. So even at this late stage in the race where there was a great deal of. attacking her by, you know, folks who went after old tweets she had written and, you know, Stan she had taken on issues in the past, whatever.
Starting point is 00:32:31 You know, all of the standard kind of Fox News and even CNN attacks, even as all that was happening, tremendous numbers of people, basically half the voters who, you know, voted between the two major candidates, stuck with her. And they stuck with her in places like Ashland up along, say, along, like, South Superior County, she won. Superior, and that's in Douglas County up along St. Lake Superior, down in Southwestern, Wisconsin, in Vernon County, rural farm country, and in, you know, Dane County, Madison. So even as, you know, Crowley came up, a significant portion of that Hong Bay stuck with her because I think she had made real connections with them.
Starting point is 00:33:15 I mean, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, my assessment, and we did not really cover this race that much. I mean, uh, governor's races, we just don't tend to do as much. But, uh, my sense was, uh, great organizer, um, uh, not as, um, you know, sort of like an, a, a natural candidate, like some of the others we've seen, um, in, in the high profile races like, uh, Abdul, or, or Mamdani or something like that and make these comparisons only because their politics are very similar. And that the votes for Crowley, or I should say at least a significant portion of the votes for Crowley were out of either a sense that Hong can't win the general election. We should remind people the presidential election, the last. The last four presidential elections in, or three at least, in Wisconsin, have been decided by under 30,000 votes, if I remember correctly.
Starting point is 00:34:28 Each one. Yeah, it's basically back to 2000, the only two, you know, clear majority wins that really, you know, resonated in any kind of way in Wisconsin or for Obama. Otherwise, we're going back to 2000, all the races decided by under 30,000 votes. And often governor's races decided, you know, historically by very, very close margins as well. And how much was the idea that Crowley had executive experience and Hong did not? I think that was brought in to the mix at the end. And I think the governor and Crowley talked about that as a factor that they suggested was to Crowley's. benefit. It probably has been the county executive of the state's largest county, a county that has a
Starting point is 00:35:25 population, you know, bigger than some states or comparable to some states. So he has governed at, you know, a large place at executive level. But I don't think that was necessarily decisive. I think it was a part of the mix. One thing is Wisconsin, you know, has had legislators who've been elected as governor before and had people who come from unexpected places, even a college president some years ago. And so I think at the end of the day, what happened with Hong was she built a tremendous amount of loyalty with people that she had actually come into contact with, you know, just this incredibly intensive campaigning going all over the state. Her final swing, to give you an example, is last Thursday she left Madison, went down to the
Starting point is 00:36:15 southwest corner of the state to Platteville, which is a, you know, a college town middle of a farm country. Then up to Baroque, which is more of a farm county, over to La Crosse, up to O'Clair, or I think up to Oaklair, then all the way up to Superior on Lake Superior or Minnesota and places like that. Cut across the northern part of the state through, you know, smaller towns, smaller cities. came down the eastern shore or the western shore of Lake Michigan, stopping in town after town, went through the Fox Valley, went to Green Bay, and talked about how the Packers are publicly owned,
Starting point is 00:36:52 and that's a good example of, you know, what you can have public ownership achieve. Then, you know, down into Milwaukee, you know what I'm saying? It's like, you've rarely seen somebody campaign this intensely at any level of government. And so a tremendous number of people had met her. And once they had met her, I think a lot of them really liked her and really connected with her.
Starting point is 00:37:14 You are right that she didn't run the kind of glib or, you know, the standard campaign. Right. Soundbites, a lot of, you know, of all that. And I give you a good example. She's a huge Milwaukee Bucks fan. And when the Bucks were in the playoffs, she got a huge Bucs symbol tattooed on the back of her leg. lower leg oh yeah
Starting point is 00:37:41 very big and she would expand it if they won games and stuff like this and I'll tell you you can go to a lot of places around Wisconsin
Starting point is 00:37:50 if somebody's showing their bucks tattoo you've made connections that go beyond politics and what do you make of you know some people are talking about the lack of endorsement from
Starting point is 00:38:06 or we just put up a clip of the of the of the tattoo pretty substantial tattoo that is a pretty substantial tattoo and for the box no less I mean I can see doing it for the Celtics but all right nevertheless
Starting point is 00:38:21 I had to but people are some are suggesting that had Sanders or AOC or both endorsed Hong that may have made the difference. What's your sense of that? I know that both of them have said that they don't really endorse much in, or they
Starting point is 00:38:44 pretty much don't endorse in gubernatorial races. And so I think that when you have a close race like this, you're going to have people speculate about a lot of things that might have shifted it, right? And I will tell you that certainly there's no questions that people you're talking about are popular in Wisconsin. And so, you know, could that have been a factor? Sure. That's something that people talk about. But are there other factors that I think also come into the mix?
Starting point is 00:39:15 Yes. Francesco Hong did not do a lot of TV on her own behalf. She did focus on a thing that is traditionally done. There obviously were some interviews, some TV hits in the last. last week that were, you know, that her critics and her unhelpful. I mean, yeah, I mean, they went for it. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:39:42 They were unhelpful. I mean, there was, you know, there's no, and, you know, the, we're in an era where if you are running with those politics, the bar for, you know, the level of scrutiny that you're going to get is five times that of. you know, Crowley, for that matter. And so, you know, you need to be that much more adept in those, in those spaces. It's not fair, but it is the reality in which, you know, when there's an insurgent, sort of like political movement, you're going to face more resistance, obviously.
Starting point is 00:40:26 And so it creates a higher level of scrutiny and requires. more of a candidate. And I imagine she's never, you know, I don't know why any, you know, a politician, you know, in Wisconsin, particularly, you know, outside of the governor, is going to get that level of national scrutiny. Yeah. I mean, it was, it was pretty remarkable in the last stages. And so I'm very cautious about this, this thing, oh, this was a factor, or that was
Starting point is 00:41:01 a factor. This thing made the difference or that thing made the difference. What I will suggest to you is this. Francesca Hong came from almost nowhere, right? You know, like on the political scale, she was building something from the margins. And she built something that was very organic. It was rooted in the state. And it got to a point where she had people all over the state in small towns and, you know, places that hadn't seen a Democrat in quite a while putting up her signs and campaigning for her. There was this energy. And I think one of the things that I would emphasize at a very high level is that she understood some emerging issues better than most candidates I've seen any place.
Starting point is 00:41:57 And one of them was AI Data Center. Right. Wisconsin is a state of lakes, okay? I mean, it's just lakes and rivers. You know, we like to explain to people that we have more lakes in Minnesota. We're just not as bragy about it. And so this is a state that has a lot of pristine areas, and the data center construction folks love it.
Starting point is 00:42:24 They all want to come and build data centers all over the state. as a result, the data center rights are big in Wisconsin. They're big all over the place, including in many liberal areas, conservative areas, you know, all over. And Huang got very, very good about talking about that very comfortably. It's notable that yesterday in some of her final appearances where she was voting and then talking to reporters and stuff like that, you know, somebody said, well, what's the first thing you would do as governor? of Wisconsin. And she said, call a special session of the legislature and put a moratorium on the construction of AI data centers.
Starting point is 00:43:07 Now, two years ago, would anybody have said that in X grace? No. You know, I mean, no. And yet, she was confident to put that right out front. And the mix is that's exactly what I would, you know, think a candidate would say, if they're thinking not just about the primary, but about a general election, where you might we're trying to build coalitions that cross lines of, you know, left, right center. Let's turn to your, the one of your recent pieces that I found really interesting.
Starting point is 00:43:41 You know, obviously Flanagan, one big in Minnesota, you guys are neighbors, not you in Flanagan, but Minnesota and Wisconsin. And I think that must, I mean, what do you think that, I mean, just very brief. briefly because we don't have, we don't have too much time left. I want to get to this other independent. But what do you make about that disparity that Flanagan wins by, you know, these are not, you know, it's not apples to apples per se, but it's, you know, it's relatively, it may be apple to, you know, it may be stone fruit to stone fruit.
Starting point is 00:44:20 Let's put it that way. What do you make of that, of the disparity of these outcomes? I think there's a number of factors. One, just to give you at the heart of the matter, Flanagan is the sitting lieutenant governor of the state and a very high profile figure. And so she started her race in fairness in a different place. She also had the endorsement of the Democratic Farmer Labor Party, which is a different Democratic Party than most parties around the country.
Starting point is 00:44:53 It's really organized down to the county and precinct level because they have a caucus system there. And, you know, the reality is that people get together many times during the year to do politics stuff. And Flanagan was really a part of that. And so she had a kind of a built-in base that was tremendously helpful to her. There's one other thing that I would put in the mix, too. You cannot, I've been up there quite a few times. You cannot underestimate the impact that the ice surge in the Twin City,
Starting point is 00:45:26 not just on Minneapolis, but on the whole state. And there is simply no question that on that issue, Blanagan identified herself as someone who was very determined to fight against Trump and ICE, whereas Craig said a lot of the right things, but her record was not as strong. Yeah, I think that, I think that's a great point. All right, let's talk about your piece about the sort of the rise of independence. we're seeing them particularly in some of the Midwest and in the West in general
Starting point is 00:46:02 to the extent that we're seeing in many places where it seems like there's there's two types of these independents. One is one that has like real issues with both parties.
Starting point is 00:46:17 There are some candidates that you talk about in your piece that have committed to not caucus with either Republicans or Democrats. I want to get to that in a second. And then there are others who are like, in a different context, I'd be running as a Democrat,
Starting point is 00:46:33 but the Democratic brand is toxic, regardless of the fact that people largely agree with my policies. Let's just start with this thing about not caucusing. Tell us who
Starting point is 00:46:49 the candidates that you've been following that have said they're not going to caucus. And what does that mean exactly? Like, they will not vote for the leadership. What does it mean not to caucus in this, in practical terms? In practical terms. First up, most of the candidates I talk to said they wouldn't caucus with either party. That's generally where it's at. Some say it more boldly than others.
Starting point is 00:47:17 But the fact of the matter is most of them are saying something along that line. Some of them will do a little bit of a twist on it, and they'll say, once I get there, I'll try to figure out the lay of the land a little bit and see what works, but I'm not inclined to. Others have said, I absolutely won't. Here's the bottom line about caucusing or not caucusing, and I've covered the Senate for a long time, looked at it in a lot of ways. You can vote for leadership, even if you're not in a caucus, right? In fact, let's say you had two or three independents in there.
Starting point is 00:47:50 Yeah, I don't even know. We saw that almost where people were going to vote. Democrats were going to get involved in voting for McCarthy or not. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. And here's one of the fascinating notions how quickly this could change the Senate if a group of independents come. And many of these independents are very locally based or rooted in their own issues, a lot of ag issues because it's more in rural in some farm states, but also a lot of economic
Starting point is 00:48:18 issues. And many cases are economics very similar to Bernie Sanders, right? Real discomfort with monopolies, et cetera, blah, blah, blah. So let's say that you've got this group of independence, and they are saying, we're, you know, we want to see what our options are here. How might that change who each party puts forward for leadership in the Senate, right? Might the Republicans suddenly say, oh, my goodness, we've got to put forward somebody who's at least a little more engaged, you know, with some of these economic issues. So they were going to reject, you know, I mean, I don't know how the Republicans have finds such a person, but you know what I'm saying. And maybe the Democrats look around for somebody who is a little more in touch with economic
Starting point is 00:49:00 populism. So right off the bat, you get a churn there. And then when it gets to serving on committees and things like that, which is where a lot of the power in the Senate is, you don't have to join a caucus to be, you know, accepted on a committee, right? You know, that's how it's always worked, right? You know, the Democrats and Republicans divide things up based on their strength. But we've had, you know, agreements in the past where you had like a 50-50 split in the Senate or something like that, where there's kind of been an acceptance of more people on one committee, less on another, things like that. What I would tell you, and I think this is the thing that's pretty interested, Sam, is that we have so many discussions right now about reorganizing the Senate and what a mess the Senate is and how poorly it operates on so many levels.
Starting point is 00:49:52 And you might, if some of these independents won, yet an almost instantaneous revisiting of how the Senate operates. And then, you know, my sense is that the Democratic Party would end up in a better position there. if they're smart, because by and large, many of the things that the Democrats want, or at least a lot of them do, are things that many of these independents could work with. I mean, it seems almost, you know, impossible that this wouldn't be a benefit for Democrats only because most of these independents are running in places where Democrats can't win or haven't won for decades. And so just taking a Republican, an R off the board, a sure Republican vote off the board is a benefit in the Senate. You nailed it. That's exactly the point.
Starting point is 00:50:48 And most of these candidates are folks who are very pro-union, and a monopoly. They vary on a lot of other issues. But, you know, by and large, they are. They are economic populists and they are kind of anti-corporates or very, very uncomfortable with corporate power. And so there'd be a lot of space where I do think you'd find agreements. You might find difficulties. Remember, there are, and I know Sam, this is going to be a shock for you.
Starting point is 00:51:17 There are corporate Democrats. I've heard tell, yeah. Rumor there, too, who might not be uncomfortable with all this. And so suddenly a lot of the, you know, a lot of things get more complicated here. but what I would tell you is this. And it's an important thing to understand. This may or may not be a blue wave year, right? But see, our media doesn't really know how to cover politics very well.
Starting point is 00:51:42 So they always assume that you've got a red wave or a blue wave or it comes about even. In reality, sometimes you have an anti-president wave, right? In this case, President Trump, he is very, very unpopular. You look at the polling from states all over the country. And there are a lot of people out there who are not particularly enthusiastic about the Democrats, but they really don't like Trump. What a lot of these independents create is an option for those people to vote their concerns, especially some of their economic concerns, but not vote for a Democratic Party that they just don't like for a variety of reasons. And this is another interesting part of it, a Democratic Party that has really withered to such an extent. that it just hasn't been a real force in a state.
Starting point is 00:52:32 It doesn't have that structural presence. And I'll give you this one good example from Brian Banks, one of the guys I interviewed. Fascinating thing. He's a, you know, really pretty dynamic guy. He's had a lot of jobs. He's worked in nature. He's worked in universities.
Starting point is 00:52:48 He's done all sorts of stuff. He, four years ago, he decided, even though he is a lifelong independent, to run as a Democrat. He took the Democratic nomination for the U.S. Senate in South Dakota. He ran a credible campaign. And he did this thing where he would go out to small towns across South Dakota, and he would say, how are you? I'm running for the Senate.
Starting point is 00:53:13 I want to talk about three issues with you, and I bet you agree with me on at least two of them. And so he'd say the three issues that break up ag monopolies or something like that. And the person he's talking to would say, yeah, I agree with you on that. And the next, yeah, I agree with you on that. Third thing, yeah, I agree with you that. You're great. What are you? And the question, what are you?
Starting point is 00:53:34 Was what political party are you in? Yeah. Right? What are you? And he said that he's these really kind of jovial, exciting conversations with people. And he'd say, well, I'm a lifelong independent, but I'm running as a Democrat. And the faces would drop, you know? And they would, sometimes obscenities would be uttered.
Starting point is 00:53:55 You know, it was sort of like the conversation ended. And he said what he came away from was a realization that whether he liked it or not, the Democratic Party, which he was never that big a fan of either, you know, just it was a barrier. And so he's come back four years later. He is running as a independent. And the Democratic, they had a lot of debate, a lot of rough, you know, kind of, you know, inside, outside struggle. Party Party candidate has now stood down. So it's essentially this guy against the Republican incumbent.
Starting point is 00:54:32 And some of the polling shows a pretty competitive race. It's going to be interesting to watch, and I can't recommend your peace enough. In fact, we're going to link to it at Majority.fm and in our podcast and YouTube. John Nichols, Executive Editor, The Nation Magazine, the most recent book, It's OK to be angry about capitalism. Thanks so much for your time. Really appreciate it. Always a pleasure.
Starting point is 00:54:59 I'm honored to be with you, and I promise you, I'm running around after the Wisconsin primary today, so there's a lot of stuff going on. I promise you the next time that we talk, I will be in, you know, full living color. No problem. We have a wonderful photo of you. I appreciate it. I sure you do. All right.
Starting point is 00:55:18 Okay, man. Take care. Bye-bye. Okay, folks, we're going to take quick break. We come back. Osama Andrabi, communications director, spokesperson for Justice Democrats. We are back. Sam Cedar on the majority report. Emma Viglin out today.
Starting point is 00:56:20 Joining me now, Osama Andrabi, communications director, spokesperson for justice Democrats. Usama, it's been quite a primary season. It's still ongoing. But this primary season has been about as dramatic as we've seen, I think, in a while and it is the um uh the we have an insurgency and it's coming in the form and uh in some instances as uh from uh ds a members and it's coming in the form of uh progressives who uh may share a lot of uh same issue set uh at least there's a significant sort of uh crossover in the van diagram and you guys have been uh playing in these uh primaries as it were extensive
Starting point is 00:57:09 intensively. Give us a sense of where we're at. Yeah, you know, this is our most successful cycle to date. We are on track to send seven new progressive leftist members to Congress in Washington, which is the most we've ever sent in one cycle. The first cycle was our biggest, which is when we had the initial squad kind of go to Congress. And now we're nearly doubling it with an opportunity to send as many as 10 with two top twos in California and Justin J. Pearson. election now being a general in November. And so I think it shows a really clear sign that Democratic voters are ready to move on from a corporate establishment that's failed them time and
Starting point is 00:57:51 time again decade after decade and finally lead with candidates who have a real positive and affirmative vision for how to tackle working class communities most important crises like affordability, be it through Medicare for all or ending taxpayer funding for a genocide. And I don't think this work happens overnight. You know, I think a lot of folks want to look at this as some sort of aberration of a cycle, but it's taken cycles of work to get to this. It's taken some pretty terrible losses. We're coming out of our work cycle to date, losing two incumbent members of Congress. But I think the work that we did in the off season, you know, it feels like in general, the Democratic Party suffered pretty bad losses across the board in 2024. And it feels
Starting point is 00:58:29 like the left went home and did our homework to understand how to unite our coalitions, how to coalesce around particular candidates and how to really build movements that people could see themselves in and it feels like the establishment came back even weaker and talked about an autopsy report for about a year and a half that didn't even come out. There's there's there's there's two things. I mean, uh, um, one, it also occurs to me that we're in an interesting place where, um, the money, the major sort of like, uh, funders that we've seen playing in these elections that took out progressives in the last cycle.
Starting point is 00:59:09 essentially, you know, tech bro money in the form of either crypto or AI and APAC money. And now APAC's trying to be clever in sending their money to other PACs, whether it's Emily's list or other, you know, sort of, you know, more seemingly benign, I think, to your average voter packs. but the left, if you will, has been very successful in making that money a liability to some extent. And that seems to me to be a huge accomplishment within the context of these primaries. What are your thoughts on, like, is it just going to be like a sort of type of arms race where they're hiding the money in different ways or what? Yeah, you know, I think everything that APAC and these lobbies do is a response to our sort of movement strength,
Starting point is 01:00:10 and I think just exposes at every step how weak they are and how much they are losing the war of public opinion, right? I think when we first launched coalitions like reject APAC a few cycles ago, and we did polling in these districts, you know, APAC was unpopular, but the bigger number was that enough people just didn't know about APAC or about the crypto lobby or about the AI lobby. And I think similar to how, you know, it took Occupy Wall Street for us to understand the depths of which Wall Street corrupts our political finances or the fight for Medicare for all to understand how health insurance lobbies in Big Pharma truly are keeping our prices high. I think the movement to sort of organize against APEC and obviously the genocide that was being live stream for voters made people wake up to realize, you know, why is it that a majority of us support a ceasefire and an arms embargo, but only a minority of our representatives have been Congress do. and they realized that it is this right-wing lobby that is A-PAC. And that's why, you know, after spending $100 million and taking out two members of Congress last cycle,
Starting point is 01:01:09 thinking that they were really at just the start of their success, I think last cycle was Apex, apex, for lack of a better word. And I think it's only gone downhill from them for then. And, you know, nearly every race, we have gone up against them this cycle. They've had to hide their spending. And I think that proves just how toxic and unpopular they are within Democratic Party that you even have members who can only owe their seat to APAC spending, who are now starting this cycle saying, I'm not going to take APAC money.
Starting point is 01:01:37 I reject APAC support. And that shows just how powerful our movement is, even against a lobby that can spend $100 million every cycle. Talk to me briefly about endorsement strategy. Various entities that endorse, you know, come with either money or raising profiles. in some instances, it's lists of volunteers, et cetera, et cetera. The Justice Democrats strategy to the extent that I've known about it over the years is we're going to start in blue districts so that there's no charge of being a spoiler. And that's also where theoretically your strength is going to be the greatest.
Starting point is 01:02:22 And it's, you know, like, I used to play that board game risk. And, you know, you got to make sure you have enough, you know, strength in Cam Chaka before you go to Irtusk or whatever it is. And that plays out. And so I'm curious on the bubble. Like, when you look at a race where it's like, this person may not, you know, the chances of winning are 55%, but we love their policies 98%. Like explain to me that sort of like gray area where you're like,
Starting point is 01:02:59 we got to make a hard decision here. The deploying of our resources, our limited resources in this race, we don't anticipate it's going to provide as much material benefit for the movement today as opposed to in a year or two years or next cycle. Talk to me about those type of decisions. Yeah, you know, I think first and foremost, like, I think I was on with you all at the beginning of the year when we first sort of launched our candidate recruitment. And we sort of had a vision that we needed to go big this cycle no matter what, right? Last cycle was the first cycle we didn't endorse any new challengers.
Starting point is 01:03:37 And this cycle, we endorsed 15 new candidates and recruited a few ourselves to run for Congress. And we knew that we were never going to have millions of dollars to support every single one of those candidates, every single one of those races. But we need to spread the board out and we needed to show people that this was not a siloed conversation. This was not just happening in New York as much as some people really want it to be happening. It's happening in Dallas and Philly and Denver and Michigan and New York. And so let's not get it twisted and let's show people that this is something that voters across the country are looking for. And I think only when we were able to make that big of a swing were we able to send seven new members to Congress. And, you know, we are always going to be outspent and outresourced against lobbies like APEC that have already spent over $100 million and it's only fucking August.
Starting point is 01:04:25 And, you know, we're not even at November where they're going to spend, you know, who knows how much for people like Mike Rogers. And so I think we have to be, you know, we have to every cycle get better and better at pooling our resources. I think we've done, you know, we often lead the independent expenditure table for a lot of our candidates and are often some of the biggest spenders. But also, I think what our work looks like not just in resource spending is also we try and build the infrastructure for so many of these campaigns to even exist. Because what is spending wants us to feel is that working class candidates can't take on A PAC or multimillionaires like Shrihanedar or the crypto lobby who backed Shri. but we can show them that we can break down the barriers for working class candidates through groups like Justice Democrats to really build the infrastructure of a campaign, help them manage a budget, help them manage their finances, help them staff up and create an entire campaign team so that we don't actually need to spend $100 million to beat crypto and Shrikanada. And, you know, we can do it with a recruited candidate like Donovan McKinney, who is our first recruit of this cycle. And that's what happens when you give working class people the power to represent their own communities.
Starting point is 01:05:32 Well, Asama, we will link to the Justice Democrats site. People can follow along there, get a sense of what race is to pay attention to going forward. We still have a couple of more primaries. Asama Andrabi, thanks so much for your time today. I really appreciate it. Thanks, as always, Sam. Folks, we're going to take quick break. When we come back, we'll be talking to Senator Bernie Sanders, the senior senator from Vermont.
Starting point is 01:06:35 We are back. Sam Cedar on the Majority Report. Emma Viglin out today. I want to welcome back to the program. Senior Senator from Vermont, Senator Bernie Sanders, Senator, thanks so much for joining us. My pleasure. Let's just start with the primary results we saw last night. Some impressive victories for progressives near Miss in Wisconsin. What are your thoughts? My thought, Sam, is that all over this country, and we're seeing this in New York City, New Jersey, Arizona, Colorado, Pennsylvania, Montana, etc., etc., there is profound anger and discussed with status quo politics and status quo politicians, people want change. and what we saw last week in Michigan is Abdul al-Sayed had to take on over $60 million in outside spending. Unbelievable amount of money, and yet he managed to win yesterday last night in Minnesota. Peggy Flanagan won a very strong victory, also being heavily outspend. So to my mind, I think that if we can ring forth candidates who have the guts to take on the oligarchs, fight for working families, you're going to see more and more victories.
Starting point is 01:08:10 Let me ask you that one of the things that's happening here in New York City, obviously Zohraamam Dani wins in a really a stunning campaign over the course of last year defeats Andrew Cuomo. But more importantly in many respects is that he has been governing New York City incredibly effectively. I mean, both in terms of like providing material benefits for people, but also just sort of communicating in a fashion that makes people invested in the idea of being a citizen of New York, of being a part of a society, the idea that we have a, a certain connectedness. How does that translate? How does that, like, we have proof of concept here, right? And that theoretically is going to be used through the years across the country as an example of what a Democratic socialist governing looks like.
Starting point is 01:09:16 How is that replicated in the context of the Senate or the House? I mean, if Abdul al-Said wins, knock on wood. How does that communicated when it's not, you're not the exact, you're not in charge of it? All right. Zeran is an exceptional politician. And by that, I mean he is a remarkable communicator. He understands the issues. And he has shown a willingness to take on powerful special interest and stand up for work
Starting point is 01:09:56 families and what he has understood. And he and I had a whole lot of the sky. I was mayor for eight years. Yes. When people are lucky, they don't want you just giving all these great speeches. You know what they want you to do? Do your damn job. That means when it snows,
Starting point is 01:10:12 get to snow off the ground so kids can get to school, people can get to work. When there are potholes, fix the potholes. When playgrounds are dangerous for kids, get them repaired right away. Respond to your constituents. And he has done that extraordinarily well. So to answer your question, at a time when so many people, whether you're progressive or conservative,
Starting point is 01:10:35 are giving up on government, are dealing with horrendous bureaucracy, every single day, I'm asking, I am in trouble, my family's in trouble. Can government do anything? Get on the phone. Nothing happens. What Iran is showing is that government can work for working people. Now, how does that translate to an institution like the U.S. Senate? We're not administrators. We're a legislative body.
Starting point is 01:11:01 What it means is people right now are in trouble. They cannot afford health care. They cannot afford housing. They cannot afford retirement. They cannot afford to send their kids to college. They're worried about climate change. They're worried about artificial intelligence. So what we have got to do in the Washington, in the House and the Senate,
Starting point is 01:11:22 to say, we are here for you and we're going to move. It's not going to take us 20 years to get it done. We're going to do it, all right? So we throw out on the table. We ask a simple question of the American people. I don't give a damn if you're conservative, progressive. Why are we the only major country on earth not to guarantee health care to all people? And we know the answer, the power of the insurance companies and the drug companies
Starting point is 01:11:45 and other big money and trust in health care. Are we prepared to take them on and say that within a year, not 20 years, from now, not nibbling on the edges, we are going to begin the process of providing health care to all pay. We'll give you one example, all right, as a sponsor of the Medicare for all bill. First year, we lower the age from 65 eligibility to 55. We expand Medicare to governmental hearing and vision. We cover all children. Sam, you know what that would poll out there? Do a poll on it. I would say 80 to 90 percent people support it. Let's do it. Second year, we lower the age again. A couple of years, everybody is in. You do that. People.
Starting point is 01:12:22 say, oh my God, government actually could do something for me. I don't have to worry about my health care bills, okay? Raise the minimum wage to a damn living wage. All right, millions of workers are trying to get by on $12, $14 an hour. Can't do it. People say, oh, my God, I can now afford groceries. My life is a little bit below the damn housing that we need, et cetera. So to answer your question, being in a legislative body is different than being an administrator. But there is a lot that we can do to restore faith in government on the part of working families. But that, I mean, that percent, I mean, I, I remember interviewing you in 2004, Janine Grofalo and I interviewed it on the, on the radio.
Starting point is 01:13:06 And I remember specifically saying if we had 435 Bernie Sanders in the house, we would be in great shape. I mean, I guess technically speaking, all we really needed was like closer to 419 or 18, I guess. but I mean, excuse me, 218, but we don't have those numbers. And so I guess what I'm asking is both, like, what can the 7DSA who at the least are going to enter into the house and the progressive caucus? What can they do to communicate that we're doing our job to the extent that we can, but we need more from the people? That's a great question. And it's something I wrestle with, you know, as a United States senator.
Starting point is 01:13:53 I think we've got to take the case to the people. That's what I think. I think on, you know, as you know, people like me and Alexandria and others, we're far left, we're communists, we're not extremist. The truth of the matter is that the issues that we are fighting for is what the best majority of the American people want. So what we've got to do is get out of the beltway, which is an unbelievable bubble, and take it to the people. And when millions of people say, sorry, you guys in Washington, give up your goddamn campaign contributions for a change and start working for us, we can do it. But we've got to rally the American people around an agenda that makes sense for working families.
Starting point is 01:14:39 We've got to be very clear about what that agenda is. Go out, bring people in, and put external pressure on the Congress. You had a full slate. I mean, there's still folks who are running of endorsers, of endorses, I guess I should say, going forward. And I'm really fascinated by the, as we're watching this movement grow and watching more people get elected sharing the same issue sets. where do you um where how do you calculate you know uh where are you going to place endorsements and where not i mean we just had uh francesca hong uh lose by a hair in wisconsin uh and you know uh impossible to know you know exactly whether an endorsement from you or aOC would make a difference
Starting point is 01:15:34 but how do you like you know and i keep using the example of that game risk which i played as a kid where, you know, you don't, you don't move to Campchaca until you have enough on Eritusk or something. Like, how do you calibrate that? That's a good question. And, you know, something that we, in our political movement, think about a whole lot. I think for a start, we don't want to overextend ourselves and promise more than we can provide.
Starting point is 01:16:02 So we take, and second of all, I am a United States senator. Am I familiar with the agricultural problems facing things? farmers in Wisconsin? I am not. Do I know something about what's going on nationally? I do. So for a start, most of our focus, with a few exceptions, has been on U.S. Senate races, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, maybe elsewhere, in congressional races, a lot of congressional races. Also, we have supported dozens and dozens of what we call down-ballot candidates, people running literally for school board, city council, mayor, state legislature. Why are we doing that? And that is to create a sense a farm team. These are the young people who 10, 20 years from now will be national
Starting point is 01:16:51 leaders. We want to help them get elected, get the experience that they need. And then furthermore, when we look at a campaign, for example, you got wonderful victories that took place in mayor's races in Seattle, Washington, D.C. We were not involved in those races. So we, we can't do everything, but what we do, we want to do well and give the kind of support to those candidates that they may need. That's kind of the answer. I mean, that makes sense to me. Let me ask you this question. The South Carolina has moved into the front of the Democratic primary season for the presidential election. I know you have a little experience with South Carolina. What's your sense? Will that make a difference? I mean, because I know my instinct is to think
Starting point is 01:17:47 that like on some level, South Carolina is going to be perceived as a mulligan on something like that because there's going to be enough candidates who are saying, we're not going to compete in South Carolina. We're going to start this in state number two. I think I have a tendency to agree with you on that. But the other thing that I would say, Sam, is that we spend far too much. time. You know, we have never-ending campaigns in America. There are countries that have their national elections in a month. I always drag on year after year. I would say that right now, as Americans, we should be focusing on the enormous crises facing our country, massive income and wealth inequality, oligarchy, a corrupt campaign finance system, broken health care system,
Starting point is 01:18:31 highest rate of childhood, poverty of any major country on earth, seniors struggling economically. focus on the issues that's figure out where we go from here. And I think your national leaders will arise, you know, rise to the surface based on their abilities. You mentioned child poverty. I'm just curious. We cut child poverty almost in half over the course of the year. Over the course of the year. And then as a political body of the country, we just decided, that was interesting and it all melted away. I have theories about that. But like, what's your take on just how the country seemed to just sort of blow by that?
Starting point is 01:19:16 It wasn't the country. It was a guy named Donald Trump and his big beautiful bill, et cetera. And, you know, the point about that was, and it's a very good point. We reduced childhood poverty by expanding the child tax credit over a period of years. we reduce it by almost 50%. That tells you that policy matters. Okay? We could do the same thing with childcare.
Starting point is 01:19:42 We could do the same thing with health care, with paid family and medical leave. Policy matters. And what we have got to do as progressives is come up with an agenda that makes sense for working families and push that agenda through. uh... one last question uh... since we brought up policy and i'll say that uh... i think we're going to have one of the authors of uh... the uh... uh...
Starting point is 01:20:10 your uh... uh... a i equity tax uh... we intend to interview uh... in the in the coming weeks but i gotta ask you uh... because it's my core brand proposition uh... about social security i know how uh... your is social security you've been a uh... a massive fighter over the years the promise act Are you, this is ostensibly a bipartisan bill that is in the Senate that reporting today I saw suggested that it's going to be brought up in the, in the, after the election with essentially setting up as far as I can tell some type of like Simpson Bowl style commission. Yeah. What are we going to do about this? Do we got to do this again?
Starting point is 01:20:58 We're going to beat it. We're going to beat it. I mean, it is wrong on so many levels, not the least of which, why would you have a lame duck Congress controlled by Republicans make a fundamental decision about the most important federal program? Why would you allow that to happen in a short period of time? In my view, you know, we have been fighting for Social Security reform, what the American people want, what AAR, P wants is lift the cap on taxable income so that Elon Musk doesn't end up paying the same amount into Social Security. Somebody making $184,000. That's the simple, straightforward answer. That's what I will fight for. We're going to defeat this Promise Act. All right. Do you promise? I promise we'll defeat the promise. I appreciate that. Senator Bernie Sanders, thanks so much for your time today. Really appreciate it. Thank you, Sam. Thank you. All right, folks. That's it for the the free half of the program.
Starting point is 01:22:01 We're going to head into the fun half. We had an extended free half of the program again today. Two days in a row. It was worth it. Kind of. Come for John Nichols and stick around for Bernie Sanders. Emma Seathing. What's that?
Starting point is 01:22:21 Emma is seething. Is she? Did she not know? I'm getting some texts. Oh, really? I got a, God damn it. Did you tell us? heard beforehand? No, I
Starting point is 01:22:30 just posted a picture of Bernie on the OBS stream and that's how she found out. Oh, on the OBS stream. Oh. Don't worry about it, grandpa. Oh, okay. Don't worry about a grandpa? The OBS stream.
Starting point is 01:22:44 She said all is right in the majority of port universe now because of post AOC. Right. I told her Bernie wasn't in studio, so we still got a ways to go. Yeah, exactly. Still got but this is the way it works. Snooze you lose.
Starting point is 01:23:02 Hit for tat. I'm very worried about the end of August, what she's going to be doing here. This competition is only going to improve the show. Claudia Shinebaum in studio. That would be Claudia Shinebaum and Larry Bird. Oh, yes.
Starting point is 01:23:30 I'll book you, O'Dell Beckham Jr. I failed to... Credited Toomburg. I failed to ask Bernie if he condemns Hassan Piker. Oh, we could have done 20 minutes on that. Sorry about that, folks. Folks, it's your support that makes this show possible. Go to join the Majority Report.com.
Starting point is 01:23:58 Join the Majority Report.com. Sign up to become a supporting member and help this show survive and thrive. We rely on folks like you and you and you and all of you to keep this show going. Join the majority report.com. Also, just coffee. We were heavily, we were a heavy Wisconsin show today. In Madison, Wisconsin, there is an amazing cooperative. coffee
Starting point is 01:24:31 roaster and seller. And they're in fair trade, of course, but they are incredibly supportive of their farmers in Chiapas and West Africa.
Starting point is 01:24:49 And they have great coffee. And it's very reasonably priced. And you can get the majority report planned if you want. Just coffee. Dot co-op. Matt. Yeah, yesterday on the Left Reckoning, talk to Yostin Hauga,
Starting point is 01:25:06 environmental economist on China and how they have passed us as we faf about about, you know, trans people playing basketball and immigrants. So check that out, patreon.com, so that's left reckoning. Quick break. Fun half. You are in for it. All right, folks, 646, 257, 39, 20. See you in the fun.
Starting point is 01:25:30 Oh no. Oh no. Are you ready? Who sent us this? Da-da-da-da-da-da-anarchy. Alpha males are back, back, back, back, boy, and the alpha males are back, back, back. Just as delicious as you could imagine. The alpha males are back, back, back, back, back, boys.
Starting point is 01:25:59 And the alpha males are back, back, back, back. Just want to degrade the white man. Alpha males are back, back, back. Take all of it. Goodbye. Alpha males are back, back, back, back, back. Snoblex has what?
Starting point is 01:26:14 The alpha males are back, back, back, back. You are a madman. And the alpha males are back, back. Oh no, Sam Cedar. What a, what a fucking nightmare. Yeah, or a couple of them. Just put them in rotation. DJ dinner.
Starting point is 01:26:30 Well, the problem with those is they're like 45 seconds long, so I don't know if they're enough for the brakes to be there. That's fucking nonsense. See white people doing drugs that look worse than normal white people and all white people look disgusting. And the alpha males are psyched. Fuck them. Fuck them. Snopfleck says what.
Starting point is 01:26:51 What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What?
Starting point is 01:26:56 What? What? What? Snoplin says what? What? A hell of a lot of bank. A hell of a lot of bank. Okay.
Starting point is 01:27:08 I'm making stupid money. Hell of a lot of bank. A hell of a lot of bank. Lives matter. Have you tried doing an impression on a college campus? I think that there's no reason why reasonable people across the divide can't all agree with this. Psych? And the alpha males are back, back, back, back, back, back.
Starting point is 01:27:39 And the Africans are black, black, black, black, black, African. And the alpha males are black, black, black, black, black, black. And the Africans are back, back, back, back, black. When you see Donald Trump out there, doesn't a little party you think that America deserves to be taken over by jihadists? Keeping it 100. Can't knock the hustle. Come up.
Starting point is 01:28:01 Fuck them. Fuck them. Things I do for the bigger game plan. By the way, it's my birthday. My birthday. Happy birthday to me, Jew boy. I have a thought experiment for you. And the alpha males are back, back.
Starting point is 01:28:16 Africans are black, black. Alpha males are black. Possible, possible, possible, possible, possible.

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