The MeidasTouch Podcast - The ‘Kind’ Party Wants to Starve Babies (with NY State Sen. Alessandra Biaggi)

Episode Date: May 20, 2022

On today’s episode of The MeidasTouch Podcast, we have an incredible show! We sit down with the State Senator representing New York’s 34th District, residing on the Chair of Ethics & Internal Governance Committee and Running for U.S. Congress in NY-3, Sen. Alessandra Biaggi! The remainder of the episode, the brothers break down the latest news you need to know! We cover it all: Pennsylvania primary updates, why Fox “News” is now sending conflicting messages about the insurrection & why Republicans are NOT the party of kindness (no matter what Elon Musk suggests). If you enjoyed today’s episode please be sure to rate, review and subscribe! As always, thank YOU for listening! DEALS FROM OUR SPONSORS: Upstart: https://upstart.com/meidas AG1 by Athletic Greens: https://athleticgreens.com/meidas Better Help: https://betterhelp.com/meidas Support our friends' podcasts! No Lie with Brian Tyler Cohen: https://briantylercohen.com/podcast/ The Daily Beans: https://www.dailybeanspod.com/ Remember to subscribe to ALL the Meidas Media Podcasts: MeidasTouch: https://pod.link/1510240831 Legal AF: https://pod.link/1580828595 The PoliticsGirl Podcast: https://pod.link/1595408601 The Influence Continuum: https://pod.link/1603773245 Kremlin File: https://pod.link/1575837599 Mea Culpa with Michael Cohen: https://pod.link/1530639447 The Weekend Show: https://pod.link/1612691018 The Tony Michaels Podcast: https://pod.link/1561049560 Zoomed In: https://pod.link/1580828633 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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If you have questions or concerns about your gambling or someone close to you, please contact Connex Ontario at 1-866-531-2600 to speak to an advisor free of charge. BetMGM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with iGaming Ontario. It's midterm primary season and the GOP is in chaos. Meanwhile, Republicans are voting against the baby formula. They're voting in favor of domestic terrorism. What in the world is going on? And Republicans are cheering the release of Martin Shkreli. I guess they're just pro-criminal now, just randomly rooting for

the strangest political party in the world. And of course, we have Alessandra Biagi as a guest state senator representing New York's 34th district. She currently is the chair of the Ethics and Internal Governance Committee. She is running for U.S. Congress in New York's third. Our hometown. Includes our hometown of Plainview. A candidate running to be a member of Congress from Plainview, New York. Fellas, can't wait to have Alessandra on the show. But anyway, we have a great show for you. Welcome to the Midas Touch podcast.

Ben, Brett, and Jordy with you today. Happy birthday, Ben. Happy birthday, Ben. Let's go. Ben, turning the whopping age of 30 years old today. Ben, only 30. Wow, that's pretty good right there, Ben. I actually have no idea how old Ben is.

Like zero. I'm going to say 36. I believe you're being sincere about that too. I actually have no idea how old Ben is like zero. I honestly, 36. I believe you're being sincere about that too. I believe you're being sincere. No, but Ben is turning. Yeah, no, Ben is turning 37 this year. As crazy as that is wild. How do you feel about that? And Ben is currently trending on Twitter. Happy birthday, Ben, which is a pretty incredible thing. So thank you. Shout out to all the Midas mighty who are sending Ben happy birthday messages enough to make it trend on Twitter. That's pretty good. Yeah, that's so funny. That's a great birthday present. At the same time, Elon Musk's bid for Twitter totally collapses to be trending

on the top 25 for my birthday on Twitter. Special shout out to the Midas. What is going on with that? What is going on with that guy? I mean, I just want to say Jordy and I last week when when you had to leave, we were talking about the Twitter situation and Elon Musk. And we said, like, this is about to get extremely messy. Like, there's musky in here. There's Jordy's musky in here. And the day later is when this whole thing just started tanking and he started going completely off the rails. And it's just it's just nuts. It's just chaos.

OK, Elon Musk, if you are skeptical of Elon Musk, but generally kind of on the fence and you try to balance the evidence when it comes to Elon Musk, like, well, Tesla is a pretty good innovation. And did he, you know, start PayPal? Well, he was definitely involved in PayPal. Did he start Tesla? No. You know, but did he pioneer SpaceX? Like he did a lot of great things objectively that are impressive. But at the same time, you have a whole lot of negative associated with it and specifically with the way he runs and operates businesses. And so if you're on the fence, the way he's handled Twitter has to make you no longer on the fence. This person is a bit of a maniac and is everything that's wrong

with the billionaire class in America, just like whiny and complaining, gaslighting, trolling and gaslighting. Like it is really just objectively sick to watch him whine and complain over a deal that he insinuated himself into. It looks you know, it looks like market manipulation is is going on as well as how he's trying to tank the Twitter. It looks this is what it looks like. He's trying to tank the Twitter stock and try to renegotiate a deal he probably didn't want to do even in the first place. And it's all about attention, attention, attention and not being serious people. You know what? It's actually a good framing for the show, actually, because yesterday Elon Musk tweeted. He goes, in the past, I voted Democrat because they were mostly the kindness party, but they have become the party of division and hate.

So I can no longer support them and will vote Republican. Now watch their dirty tricks campaign against me unfold. So let's talk about, I guess, what he views as the kindness party, the Republican Party. Let's talk about the kindness of the Republican Party, because we've got a lot to talk about. And after we get through this segment, you let us know, is this the party of kindness? Who is the party of kindness here? Who is the party that is trying to help people here? We will let you, the listener, the viewer decide. And I believe I already know what your answer is going to be. So let's, should we start with these crazy midterm elections that happened this week? Biggest that happened were in Pennsylvania, Jordy, your home state. And I got to give a huge shout out to Jordy who has really called all these races to a T. I guess

that's what you get for being a true Yinzer. Did I say that right? Am I cool? Am I sounding okay? You said it, but I just want to specify Yinzer is very specific, hyper-local to Pittsburgh. Very specific, very specific. Why don't you give us the specifics on what happened in your state, Jordy? Wow. I mean, it was, where do we even start? First off, I want to just start with pollsters in general. Unless you are physically on the ground having conversations every single day with people from all sides of the spectrum here, I don't believe your poll. The polls had the Oz McCormick Barnett race early on Oz taking number one slot, Kathy Barnett taking two, and then McCormick coming in at a third place. Now, if we rewind this podcast about two or three episodes ago, we were talking about that poll.

And I told you guys, I told the brothers, I told the listeners, no, McCormick is a PA guy. People here really like McCormick, especially in Western Pennsylvania, which is the Pittsburgh side. And so what you saw come election day was McCormick had a really, really strong showing and was leading for almost the entirety of that first day. And now the breakdown of that Senate race is McCormick 31.1 percent, Oz leading it now at 31.2 percent of the vote. And Kathy Barnett still coming in with a hot 24 percent of the vote. Now, she's out of it. But I just want to say she's an insurrectionist. She was at the insurrection and we'll get into Mastriano later who won the governorship, but it is bananas here

in PA. One of the most exciting nights in primary history. And one of the things that I was so fascinated by in watching this whole process unfold is the machine, the right-wing media machine of Fox News and all these networks. How once Kathy Barnett started gaining in the machine, the right wing media machine of Fox News and all these networks. How once Kathy Barnett started gaining in the polls, they went on the attack against her, like ruthlessly attacked, just like Madison Cawthorn. And we'll get to Madison in a bit. But they started everything. Look at Kathy Barnett at the insurrection. Here's her at the insurrection. I'm like, dudes, you've been saying good things about the insurrection for the past two years. Are people supposed to think that that's a bad thing that she's at the insurrection now or a good thing? The messaging is muddied when you've hyped up the insurrection as for governor in Mastriano. We'll get to him in a second, but I just want to let you know how close this race was. 1,241 votes currently separating Oz and McCormick. And of course, the irony of it all is McCormick starts going, we're going to win this

campaign. We're going to have tens of thousands of mail-in ballots come in that have to be counted. Unfortunately, we won't have a resolution tonight. So now they're relying on the mail-in ballots to see if it's going to give any of them enough of a lead to avoid a recount. The margin of victory for a recount is if it's under 0.5%, which is where it is right now. But suddenly, guys, mail-in ballots, totally cool, totally cool in the Republican Party. Remember, mail-in ballots were always something in the past before Trump that was actually supposed to favor Republicans. And the thinking was that because Republicans were targeting older voters, that the older voters didn't want to actually show up on voting day and then they would vote early by mail. And so actually a lot of the mail and ballot stuff

that was out there was pushed by Republicans until Donald Trump believed that mail-in ballots were going to hurt his chance to win. So like the cult they are, they had to change positions that mail-in ballots are not good. I think back to the John Kerry, George Bush race, and George Bush is in the news by calling the Iraq and the United States invasion of Iraq to be unlawful. He was trying to refer to Russia and Ukraine, but it was the worst Freudian slip in history. But an accurate decision of one man to launch a wholly unjustified and brutal invasion of Iraq. I mean, of Ukraine. Iraq. I mean, of Ukraine. Iraq, anyway. Seventy five. Remember, the Bush made a ton of Freudian slips like during the presidency. I haven't seen that much in a long time. You forget that that's what that's what he was known

for. But you remember that like John Kerry would flip flop on like a nuanced policy issue? And the whole thing was like he flip flopped, flip flopper, flip flopper. There was the whole ad, which we made a Trump ad about and conspired by that ad. And it was the ad of Kerry windsurfing, I believe, going back and forth in whichever way the wind blows. John Kerry, I think it was made by Stuart Stevens, actually, who we've had on the show. Yeah. And in this case with Republicans, flip-flopping doesn't even do it justice because there is no principles to begin with in an authoritarian regime and a cult. It doesn't matter. All that matters is the pursuit of power. And you go back. Have you ever heard the quote, Brett and Jordy, the banality of evil? I was reflecting on this term, banality of evil. And it's such

an interesting term because it explains that sometimes the evilness itself, the person committing the evil, it is so normalized that it's not even sure you have the people who are like overtly want to have these horrible, sick agendas. But sometimes evil just becomes such banality to it that it's just ingrained in the fabric of what they do. And so at the end of the day, you have someone like a Mitch McConnell who pursuits power for the ends of power. He's destroying lives. He's taking away his own rights in the process. And then you have people like Kathy Barnett who literally want to overthrow him. at the expense of humans, even if that means genocide, even if that means discrimination, even if that means hate. And that's what we see with the GOP. So, yeah, you have David McCormick now touting mail in ballots, how he's going to win with mail in ballots. You have Trump saying that Dr. Oz should declare victory and claim that the elections are rigged. Meanwhile, Democrats are

just having normal small D Democrat elections like, OK, you had Fetterman run against Lamb. They had normal conversations, like incredibly respectful to one another. Fetterman had to go to the hospital. And, you know, where their thoughts are with Fetterman, who's recovering from a stroke still. He seems to be doing very well, though. That's that's awesome. But like the outpouring of support for Fetterman when that happened, the outpouring of support for Fetterman when he won by Malcolm Kenyatta, by Conor Lamb. I mean, that's what I want to see in a country. That's what I want to see in a political party. You do things respectfully. You duke it out. And then wherever the chips may fall, you go, you know what? Good game. Let's all fight together. Let's win this thing in November.

And that's how democracy that's actually even when it used to be Democrats and Republicans, you'd go at it. But it would be like, I want I called so and so I gave him my thanks. I told him that we support you. The country stands behind you. You know, that just doesn't exist anymore with these Republicans who legitimately want to destroy America. We're talking about Republican hate. I mean, how much more can it be bodied in state Senator Doug Mastriano, who now has the he's now the Republican nominee for governor. He's going against Shapiro, who Jordy played basketball against. And this Doug Mastriano talk about banality of evil. I mean, this guy's as evil

as you get. Yeah, this guy is a literal January 6th insurrectionist, was there on the day alongside the Proud Boys and everything. The irony of this is what we were talking about earlier, what I was hinting at, is you have Sean Hannity, you have the whole Fox News ecosystem attacking Kathy Barnett. And as a January 6th insurrectionist, while they are supporting Mastriano, who is also at January 6th. So you got to say, what's the difference? Well, they just pick their horses. Consistency doesn't matter. And I guess you also got to factor in Kathy Barnett is a black woman. He is a white guy.

Fox News takes a different approach to each of those. And now you actually have an insurrectionist on the ballot for a major political party in Pennsylvania, in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, who has said that he is going to make an abortion ban his priority, who has said that he's going to make his priority putting in a secretary of state who can decertify elections is one of his goals. He wants to make sure that the people who are running those positions are able to decertify elections so that what happened in 2020 never happens again. I mean, this guy is an authoritarian threat. His entire platform is the following. Just this is what his platform is. Elect me because in 2024, I will steal and rig the election for Donald Trump or whoever the Republican nominee is. Elect me and I am going to, no matter what

the results are, declare Pennsylvania for the side of Trump or the MAGA candidate. I don't know. That's his only there's no other actual position. Here's what I'm going to do for Pennsylvania. Here's what I'm going to do for workers. It's I will overthrow the election. You saw what happened last election. Elect me. I'm going to overthrow it. And his speech after was so boring and bland. Jordy, we were talking about this the other day. Like he gets to give his victory speech. It's just awkward and stilted. And like his main message was like,

so yeah, when I get in there, I'm going to ban mask and vaccine mandates. And I'm in Pennsylvania. What mask, what mask and vaccine mandates? I go into, you could go into stories here anywhere you want without a mask. I live here. I'm telling you.

That's what you can do. There's no mask mandates. So that was his number one priority there. Number two, we're going to ban critical race theory. Okay. So your first two priorities are two non-existent things. That's why you're running for governor. I think it was very telling that immediately when he won,

everybody switched over to Pennsylvania for the governor's race to a lean Democrat favoring Shapiro because this guy is a radical unhinged nut. Shapiro is an incredible candidate. AG of the state has won statewide numerous times. And so all in all, this is good news for Josh Shapiro and his candidacy, but very scary to have somebody like Mastriano this close to the governorship in Pennsylvania. The real danger with him, besides the boogeyman of CRT and these made up mask mandates they're trying to project, he's vehemently anti-choice. That's one of his big platforms that he is running on. I mean, if we could put a billboard up in the state, I'd say it would be a good idea,

but I actually fear that it would rally up the crazies here. It would be Mastriano, anti-choice, pro-insurrection. The guy is a lunatic. He wants a full abortion ban. What was the V word that you just used there, Jody? Veminently. What's what's veminently mean? Veminently.

Yeah. What's the definition of that? Veminently. Veminently. There you go. As you Long Islanders would say. I like that it's a combination of vehement and venom. Venomently.

It's almost worse than vehemently. But the one thing that I'm going to be interesting to watch, Jordy, and you've had a prediction on this too, that Republicans are not going to debate in the general elections of each of the states. Definitely will not. And normally what's supposed to happen in the common theory is that you have to like then go back to the center to appeal to the larger base in general elections. But these Republicans have staked such far positions. I don't know how you could actually go anywhere near the middle with these positions when your main platform for running for governor is banning none-existent things like CRT and mask mandates in

a state that has neither of them. And then when you have to go on stage and debate a serious individual like Shapiro, who talks about helping workers and helping people and improving education and all of that, like just what are these debates going to even like look like? Shapiro would mop the floor with Mastriano if they debated. Mastriano was going to run scared. That will be interesting to watch that. And we talk, going back, Brett, to that Elon Musk quote, trying to frame Democrats. He literally said, I support, Republicans supported a literal insurrection.

Literally everything a Republican policy is right now is how can we ban this to hurt this group of people? Like that's the policy. How do I ban this to hurt this to hurt trans people? How do I how do I ask a law that doesn't improve conditions? But how do I pass a law to outlaw something that will harm particular people where there's where they just simply want their rights to exist? That's their only policies that are out there today. And so when you look at this vote from last night, a hundred and we are we not going to mention Carthorne at all? We've got to at least talk about Madison. I just got to say it's another example. I mean, we all know the Carthorne story, but it's just another example of this right wing, this psychotic machine that

they have. I mean, they crushed this guy. They crushed this guy. Once he started talking about the cocaine orgies, he crushed this guy. And by the way, shout out to Patriot Takes because Patriot Takes was the account that exposed that clip about the cocaine orgies that led to this domino effect that led to the entire Republican Party eating their own and essentially kicking Madison Cawthorn out of the party. So huge shout out. Give him a donation if you can. I think that is just monumental work. If Patriot Takes doesn't post that video, Madison Cawthorn gets reelected. And Trump, of course, went to bat for Cawthorn right at the end. Hey, didn't work. Now we got

this guy, Chuck Edwards. To be honest, I don't know about Chuck Edwards all that much. I'm sure he is just as radical as Madison Cawthorn. And honestly, in terms of Democrats running in the district, it's probably better for us if Madison Cawthorn was running. It probably would have made our chances higher to win back that seat. But, you know, sometimes you just got to say this is better for America. It's better for America that we don't have somebody as irresponsible, as anti-democracy, as anti-Ukraine as Madison Cawthorn. I mean, he's like a literal insurrectionist. So I'm happy that he is out, regardless of how that impacts Democrats' chances for that seat.

And Ben, let's talk about the kindness of the Republican Party in those votes that you were speaking about, because there were a handful of votes last night. We'll talk about three of them. That speaks to everything that we've been talking about. So last night, 192 Republicans voted against funding to fix the baby formula shortage. They voted against that because they don't give a shit. They like the crisis. They want the suffering so they can use it as an issue to run on versus fixing the problem the same way they actually want to harm the economy. That's why Governor Abbott pulled the stunt on the border where he tried to shut down the border to harm commerce coming in from Texas. And that's why people like Senator Cruz tried to incite and support on the other border, on our northern border with Canada, another economic insurrection there where they tried to have encouraged like basically like they call it a trucker rally, but it was

not even real truckers. It was just the kind of standard GQP crazies like standing on bridges and preventing actual trucks and people who want to earn money from like going back and forth through the border. That's their policy is how do we harm America? And as you said, we constantly say on the podcast, problems arise in life. We're not problem free. Like there's going to be a crisis. It's why we elect presidents. It's why we elect legislators to handle these problems. And so what the Democrats do and what Biden does is how can we solve the problem? So let's introduce a bill that would provide twenty eight million dollars in emergency spending to tackle the shortage of infant formula and provide emergency funding for FDA inspection staff, resources for market data collection and helping the agency stop fraudulent baby formula for entering the U.S. marketplace. At the same time, Joe Biden institutes emergency orders to boost production for baby formula, something that Trump did not do during COVID, or Trump refused to do

during COVID, is what Biden invoked. And we're trying to solve it. What do the Republicans do? 192 vote against it and try to stall it and stop it and then blame it on immigrants. Yeah. Let's remember the Republican strategy to solve this problem because they did have one policy, Ben, that you're forgetting about. Their one policy was let's starve the immigrants. That was the Republican policy that they came up with. We need to starve the immigrants. We need to take away all the baby formula at the facilities on the border. That's what we have to do. No. And so not only did President Biden invoke the Defense Production Act to help this out, he's also using federal planes to actually fly in formula from

abroad. You got to remember the sources of the issue that we're having here and why America is like the only country that's having this issue. It's because we have a monopoly of like three companies who made baby formula. There was a contamination. The FDA had to shut one of the plants down. They needed to fix the contamination issue because babies were actually dying. And this was because the FDA decreased regulations under Trump for these facilities. And not only that, normally you'd be able to go, okay, well, let's get some, you know, let's get from Canada then. They have in Canada. No, we couldn't because the revised NAFTA deal made by Trump made it all but impossible for Canada to export baby formula into the United

States. So we couldn't even do it because of these Trump policies. And then you have all the Republicans trying to blame it on Biden, blame it on Democrats. Rick Scott had his press conference. Scott has got to be like the worst senator on the planet. And he goes, Canada has plenty of baby formula, not the United States. Yeah. Well, Trump's trade deal made it impossible for them to export that to the United States. So that's your guy. So like they just want all these distractions, distractions, distractions, distractions. Wasn't only that though, nine Republicans also voted against allowing low-income parents to use their WIC benefits. That's the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program

for women, infants, and children to buy other kinds of formula. This would ease restrictions. Currently, you could use WIC to buy certain kinds of baby formula, like those big brands, but there are other brands who aren't included when you use the WIC benefits.

And nine Republicans voted against it. Nine Republicans voted. This doesn't even require like anything. And it's the usual suspects, Andy Biggs, Lauren Boebert, Matt Gaetz, Louie Gohmert, Paul Gosar, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Clay Higgins, Thomas Massey, Chip Roy. I mean, I could have guessed those. You know, I could have guessed those if you didn't even show me these. So is this the party of kindness? Is this the kindness party? 192 who voted against fixing the baby formula shortage. Nine Republicans who voted against allowing low income parents to use WIC benefits to get expanded access to baby formula. This is kindness. And then this is why

we say the Republicans are not pro-life. They're pro-force birth. They don't care about you after you exit the womb. They're hateful, spiteful people. And then also you have the vote. 203 Republicans voted against a bill to combat domestic terrorism, a bill that would require the Justice Department, Department of Homeland Security and the FBI to open offices specifically dedicated to investigating domestic terrorism and create an interagency task force to combat infiltration of white supremacy in the military. The objection that Republicans had is the focus on white supremacy terrorism and that it didn't specifically mention left wing terrorism, something that actually isn't taking place and happening. But they wanted left wing terrorism mentioned in the bill, an earlier version of the same bill, the same bill

unanimously passed in 2020. And it just goes to show you really where we are now. We talk about it. You can't be bipartisan with Republicans. I'm just sorry. You can't. Democrats need to build a bigger tent. And we need to also recognize that sometimes we have to be bipartisan within our own tent to make sure actually at the end of the day, kindness is what prevails and the rule of law truly prevails. And from time to time, we may not like, and I know this is going to sound horrible to say, and everyone's going to say, Ben, Ben, Ben, what are you talking about? But I know it's his birthday. Cut him some slack. I'm going to say this. And I said this on the last podcast, and I want to reiterate it.

There are so many things that Joe Manchin does that really bother me to the core. But Joe Manchin needs to stay a Democrat, because I'll tell you, if Joe Manchin was not a Democrat, you would have Mitch McConnell controlling the Senate. You would have no Katonji Brown Jackson as a Supreme Court judge. You would have no federal judges appointed by Biden. You would have literally zero, zero legislation passed. Zero. Because that is all Mitch McConnell would do. He would purposefully destroy every legislation from even happening. And so does it absolutely bother me that what Joe Manchin does? Yeah. But that almost feels like bipartisanship of the past, like someone who completely don't get me wrong. Manchin is like one of the most corrupt people on the planet as well. But but I know what you're saying. And that's why we also need to add on to our majorities. That's why we need to focus now as we get our candidates. We need to focus on

making sure that Fetterman becomes a senator. We need to make sure that we could get Ron Johnson out of office in Wisconsin. We need to elect someone like Tim Ryan in Ohio, someone like Val Demings in Florida. We need to be paying attention to all these races. North Carolina is winnable. We need to pick the races that we're able to win, and we need to hold the Senate in some states that are very important to hold. We need to hold Raphael Warnock's seat in Georgia. We need to hold Kelly's seat in Arizona, New Hampshire, Nevada. We need to make sure that we have a- Can you imagine, Brett, the Raphael Warnock debate? The guy's not going to debate Raphael Warnock. I can't speak a sentence.

The guy can't say a sentence. It'd be a disaster. You debate Raphael Warnock. I can't speak a sentence. And the guy can't say a sentence. Like, it'd be a disaster. You have Raphael Warnock, who's like one of the best orators on the planet. Like, just a brilliant, brilliant political mind. Just like a good person who really wants to help. Who's spoken out passionately about voting rights. And you have Herschel Walker, who literally, I don't think the guy could speak. Are they going to ask the, could you imagine that they're going to have to go?

They're going to have, they schedule how many debates in Georgia, at least two debates, two Senate debates. This is what I'm saying. They're not going to debate. It is not going to show up. And this is why I implore all the mainstream networks. Don't be too chicken shit. We saw it happen with Asaf and Purdue, and you guys did the right thing and you aired the

empty podium. Make sure you take that same energy for every single one of these debates moving forward. Don't remove the debates if a Republican refuses to actually show up to the fucking podium. And here's where I have some confidence that that's going to happen, Jay, because local media has actually been pretty good. I do want to say that I'm very critical of like the national media channels, but the local media that's in the communities themselves, even in the primaries, have been very, very good. They've been asking tough questions of the candidates, and I've seen that across the country, you know, and that's why we also need to protect local media. Let's bring in our guest. And I'm really excited for this interview. It was a great interview that we had.

And it's with someone who was running for to become a member of Congress where Brett Jordy and I grew up in Long Island covering our district. Her name is Alessandra Biagi. She's currently a state senator representing New York's 34th district, and she's currently the chair of the Ethics and Internal Governance Committee, and excited to share that interview with you. Wow, I'm pleased to introduce state senator Alessandra Biagi, representing New York's 34th district, and she's the chair of the Ethics and Internal Governments Committee. And she is running for United States Congress. Where else? But New York's third, which is the district that includes the Mycelis Brothers hometown

of Plainview. It's an honor to have you, Alessandra, on the podcast. Thank you for having me. I'm so excited to be here to talk about your, basically your origin story, essentially. Well, you misunderstand the interview. It's about your origin story, not our origin story. And so we want to know just from the outset, Alessandra Biagi, how is it that you became a state senator? You broke a important deadlock that gave Democrats important control in the state Senate and now running for Congress. So give us that backstory. So our viewers and listeners who may not know the story in New York, people know you, but give our national audience a little taste of your career. So I'm so excited to do that and also excited to be here with you guys. And I will just

say that for everyone listening and for all of you, I never had this on a vision board. This was not something that I dreamed about becoming. And I will, I say this almost in jest now, because I've been doing this for four years. I could not be more involved in state politics and local politics than I am. I never have been. And part of why it wasn't on the vision board, because it really wasn't in my mind as something that was like a sexy career, right? State government didn't seem exciting until 2016. And coming off of the Clinton campaign, which I worked on for two years, I was the deputy national operations director, losing on that race, frankly, not knowing like what to do. The federal government felt like it

was such a big issue. And I was this like one tiny person, like how was I possibly going to affect change on that scale? Obviously we know that one person can affect change on that scale, but at the time it just felt like, like, what do I do? So I moved back home to Pelham. I am four generations in the district I represent and also where I live. And I started teaching civics in people's living rooms because I really didn't know what else to do. And a lot of people kept coming to me and asking me, like, what do I do? Like, what's my ritual of democracy? How do I get involved? And is it marching? Is it running? Is it writing postcards? I did that for four months and then went to work for Governor Cuomo. And for those who are listening, Governor Cuomo was our former governor. I was an attorney for him. They gave me this bill to work on. It was called the Reproductive Health Act to codify Roe. And the long and short is it didn't pass. It didn't even make it on the floor for a vote. And I really didn't understand why. And when I looked really closely behind the curtain in Albany, which was not pretty, I

found my state senator who was a Democrat, quote unquote. He was running as a Democrat, elected as a Democrat and going to Albany and handing over power to Republicans, which was complete madness until 2017 and 2016 when everyone started paying attention. And so I decided I was going to run against him, even though at the time he was considered a kingpin, like one of the most powerful state senators had a $3 million war chest, all of which, by the way, he used against me. And so I decided to run because of that bill. And we won. And we won not just by a little bit, we won by 10 points because we built a coalition

and we had essentially like an army in the street fight that we took on with these people. And I really, honestly, I'm glad I didn't listen to the naysayers because everybody told me that I was absolutely out of my mind, which I think is a fair estimation considering what I was going up against, but I'm glad I did it because frankly, if we didn't, if myself and all of the others didn't run in 2018, then New York state would not actually be a place where Roe is codified, which as we know right now is such an important issue because the Supreme Court is poised, of course, to overturn Roe v. Wade. So before talking about your run for Congress, let's talk about the fight that you had to codify Roe into law and some of the other major issues and legislation that you pioneered and fought with other Democrats for that are helping the lives of New Yorkers now as a leader in the state Senate.

So what were those issues? And we could start with Roe. We can talk about maybe the Healthy Terminals Act and the sexual abuse survivor legislation that you passed. Awesome. Okay. So Roe, which thank God is codified, we codified it in my first month of office in 2019 in January. Thank God. We continued down that path. We did something called the Comprehensive Contraceptive Coverage Act to expand insurance coverage of contraceptives. We passed something called the BOSS Bill, which essentially says that an employer can't tell an employee how or what kind of health care to receive or not receive on their employer's health insurance plan. And then we continued. We did really record-breaking legislation around climate justice. We passed something called the Climate Leadership Community Protection Act, which is the strongest piece of legislation in the country on

a state level, something that every year in the budget we continue to fund, which I'm very proud of. And then as the chair of ethics, which just for everyone's context here, the ethics committee in the Senate was a committee that was essentially a dead committee. It only met two times in 10 years before I chaired it. And so when I won and I asked for the committee, everyone in the Senate Senate was a committee that was essentially a dead committee. It only met two times in 10 years before I chaired it. And so when I won and I asked for the committee, everyone in the Senate was like, are you nuts? Like, why would you want to do that? Nobody even cares about ethics in Albany. Albany is like one of the most corrupt places on the planet. And that's why I wanted to do it, because I was like, I can actually make this committee real. So we changed the rules on the

first day of our session. The committee was able to hold not only hearings, but to actually review bills. And because of the hearings I held in 2019 on sexual harassment in the workplace, the first, by the way, of its kind in Albany in 27 years, we were able to pass the strongest sexual harassment and anti-discrimination laws in the workplace in the entire country. And again, every step of the way, we had resistance. The other thing I'll just say that I'm really proud of, the Healthy Terminals Act, which you mentioned, which is a bill that gives airport workers health insurance. We fought the airline industries like tooth and nail. They tried to come to us and tell us that they were going to go

bankrupt because we had because we asked them to spend like a dollar thirty more on each person to allow them to get access to health care. Meanwhile, they had just been bailed out. So we didn't buy it. We pushed through them and we did it. And then, you know, one of the last things I'll say is that as a child sexual abuse survivor, passing bills around sexual abuse and sexual violence has been really important to me. And it's been really interesting to balance the difference or excuse me, to balance between my stand that I take for criminal justice reform. I truly think it is one of the most important issues of our entire generation and time, but also balancing victims' rights and that you can actually stand for both. I also represent Rikers Island. So that's why it's key to really my

leadership. But the bills around sexual violence and sexual abuse were, I think, some of the things that I will look back on my time in the Senate and be the most proud of, because now in New York, because we passed something called Aaron's Law, children from K through eight will receive age appropriate education around sexual abuse. And so we know it's working because they've already started teaching it in classrooms. And these children were learning this in Rochester, New York, and eight kids got up in the middle of the lesson to report that their principal had been abusing them. And so these are the kinds of policies that I think, I hope to continue on the federal level, but really without a majority

in the state Senate, in the hands of the Democrats, we would never have been able to pass any of these things because so many of these bills had been prevented from even getting to the floor for a vote. So actually doing things for people versus hurting people, that sounds like a great, what a concept. So I got to tell you, the one reason that I am upset that you are running for Congress is I wish you could work with Midas Touch with us because I mean, I mean, I mean, seriously, that would have been incredible. But it's great that you're running for Congress. And I do hope that you win your race in Congress. And we need more leaders like you. And let us know that what are you talking about with people when you're going into the district? If you're going into Plainview, New York, and you're going into Bagel Brothers or La Piazza.

Bagel Brothers. It's called Bagel Boss, Ben. At least get the names right. At least know your hometown. Bagel Brothers. Come on, Ben. That's embarrassing. I just cringed inside Bagel Brothers.

It stays in the pod. If you're going to Golden Meyers. There you go. There you go. Someone's ordering an egg bagel cream cheese with a little schmear of lox. What are you talking about with the average Long Islander? Well, so first of all, I will say that this new District New York 3 is a really wild shape. And I think it's really fair to say that if you look at the map,

any reasonable person would look at this map and think to themselves, hmm, like how did this happen? Like, why does it look like a C cut into these weird little shapes? Redistricting, and I'll leave it at that for now. But it's five counties, just for anybody who doesn't know what New York three is.

It's Suffolk, Nassau, Queens, the Bronx and Westchester, which is a lot of territory to cover. There's a lot of similarities between the state Senate district that I represent right now and New York three, the state Senate district I represent is a suburban urban district. In fact, I represent a tremendous amount of the Bronx right now in the state Senate from the Northwest, which is like Riverdale, all the way to Hunts Point in the South Bronx. And so if you could just imagine those two worlds, and then Westchester County, which is one of the most wealthy and well-to-do counties in the entire country. And so the disparities of just income inequality and health inequality, and just frankly, inequality across the board on almost every single topic. The air is even different in Westchester and the Bronx. It's cooler in Westchester. It's not as

it's warmer in the Bronx. And so, you know, I think that the similarities between that and New York three have allowed me at least to, to understand how to even go about talking about some of these issues, but the same things I hear in my Senate district, I'm hearing in and on Long Island. And that's because I actually like to knock on doors. It's the thing that I think is probably the most important thing a candidate can do. So, you know, health, health outcomes, and also the cost of healthcare is a massive issue. I knocked on one door in actually Plainview and a woman answered the door and she's like, what do you want?

And I was like, well, I'm here, I'm running for Congress. I'm a state Senator. And she's like, what do you even do? Come on mom, that's no way to treat me. That's no way to treat Senator Biagi. You're gonna get us in trouble now, Brett. Just joking. I'm just-

Come on, through my band data, I'll pull the- Just joking, mom, just joking. So she answered, I'll pull the- Just joking, mom. Just joking. So she answered the door. She's like, what do you want? And I get it because people are tired of this. They're like, we voted for you guys. You know, nothing feels like it's changing.

I can say on the state level, things are changing. On a federal level, it does feel a little bit more challenging, especially because Democrats have power in every place they possibly could, but are not really using it. But we'll get back to that hopefully later. So she answered the door. She's like, what are you going to do for me? And I was like, well, what are the things that are most troubling to you? And she said, I have cancer. I am almost done with my chemotherapy. I've been living in this house my whole life. I'm in my seventies. I would like to retire. I can't ever retire. My teeth fell out of my mouth when I did chemo. And in order to get dentures, I had to refinance my home. Outrageous, like completely outrageous. And then we walked down the block and we get to

like, you know, another door and some guy answers the door and he's like, he's like, he's Italian as an Italian accent, clearly from my name. I'm very Italian. I felt really excited to talk to him. He was so proud I was Italian. And then he was like, Hey, listen, like we're okay. But like, I gotta tell you this street that we're on not one time in 40 years has anybody ever come down the street to even pave it. And like the holes in the street were just outrageous. So like infrastructure, basic things that government should be doing, people feel like they are not actually being heard. But in addition to that, because this district is on the water, whether you want to slice it that way or not, climate change and climate justice issues are like front and center. There's not a home or a door I've knocked on

where that person, their neighbors or their family members haven't had a flood in their home or their apartment building, or have lost a car or a loved one in some instances, because again, Queens is in this district. And if you just remember Hurricane Ida, most recently, people literally died in their basements because they flooded almost instantly and they drowned. And so there's so many things, I think, around the issue of climate to really allow us to move forward. And people just feel like nothing's really happening

as quickly or as urgently as it needs to be. So those are some of the top things, but affordability in every category, whether it's housing, healthcare, education, a huge problem, climate, a huge problem. And I think, unfortunately, what I am faced with every time I knock on someone's door is I have this like really massive responsibility, not just to say who I am and what I stand for, but to also like spark some hope and like really give them some kind of understanding that it's like not,

not all is not lost, but it is not easy. And frankly, the National Party has not made it easy for any of us to really sell the bill of goods that we're trying to sell here. So it's it is certainly a challenge, very different than 2018 and even very different from 2016. Yeah. And I'm trying to think back to exactly when it was. But I remember there was a batch of local elections in Long Island not too long ago and Democrats got trounced. And I remember the three of us as brothers talking about it because obviously Long Island means a lot to us. And it's probably because we're so close to it. It's our hometown. But we view Long Island as a bellwether of the country in many ways due to its makeup and for a lot of factors. So why do

you think it was that Democrats got trounced in that last election? What are voters not hearing from? So I have my theory and then I want to hear from you guys, like what you actually think is the reason, because I could I can hypothesize all day, but, you know, you probably have more intel there or at least understanding. So tell me if you think I'm at least close to what the reason is. So bail reform, which is being essentially blamed for like when it rains outside, it's like it's raining. It's bail reform. Like my car broke down bail reform. It's completely unhinged and out of control. So Democrats on the state level, myself included, we voted for bail reform. It's one of the most important things

that we could have done, honestly, to not criminalize poverty because the difference between whether somebody sits in jail like Rikers or goes home is whether or not they can post bail. Because just to remind everyone, right, when you're charged with a crime, you're not convicted. You're just charged. Nothing. You haven't been found guilty. So a jail is a place where people sit and wait trial. But in New York, we have like notoriously long wait times for trial that have led to people taking their own lives after they're released. So we did bail reform. It was really important in this most recent election on Long Island in 2021. The Democrats who ran, one of whom was my colleague in the Senate, Senator Todd Kaminsky, who ran for Nassau County DA,

they got like trounced. And what I think looking back on why I think that is, is because, you know, sorry, Todd, but this is the reality. Todd and Laura Kern, who ran, they ran like Republicans, right? They ran so, at least Laura, I know, like she ran in such a way that was like anti-bail reform, anti-criminal justice reform, was on Fox News, like was standing with law enforcement. And by the way, like there's nothing with like standing, you want to stand with law enforcement? Okay, fine. But like, here's the thing, okay? There's not a system on earth that can't be made better, including law enforcement. And all of us know that, like we can't put the genie back into the bottle on that.

And so the lack of integrity and I think the lack of, frankly, like running on the values of what it means I'm a Democrat sitting at home watching somebody who doesn't even like, they look more like a Republican or sound more like a Republican, I don't actually want to vote for them. Why would I vote? I might as well vote for nobody or vote for the Republican, because at least those are the people who are going to stand for the things that they want to do. I'm not, by the way, advocating to vote for Republicans. But the point is, like, I just feel like they abandon their values. And so why would anybody vote? And there's this whole confusion. And, you know, the chair of the Democratic Party in the state, Jay Jacobs, is also the chair of the Democratic Party in Nassau. And he confronted me with this. And he was like, well, why could you run? You know, you're progressive. You stand for all these things like all these Democrats here have lost. And I was like, to be frank with you, this would be a very different conversation

if your candidates who were anti-bail reform had actually won. Maybe we should start standing for the things that we actually say we do and have like a united front of strength as opposed to constantly trying to be more like Republicans. It's so unattractive and deeply uninspiring. So that's my hypothesis. And I wonder what you guys think. I think it's a fair hypothesis. I think that Democrats too often run away from things that are popular because they're able to be messaged by Republicans as, oh, so you are pro-crime, you are anti-cop. And instead of embracing your position, defending it and saying, no, I support the police. I want

to strengthen the department by doing X, Y, and Z. And actually these reforms will help out. They run away from it and run as Republicans. I think that's a good point. I think there's a way to stick to your values and show people that you care about their problems and the things that are scaring them a hundred percent. I have to say, you mentioned the name, we went to Jay Jacobs' sleepaway camps, which I'm sure you know about. We did go to Jay's. So I used to know him as the camp owner, not the guy who runs the Democratic Party in New York. So it's such a bizarre thing to me for that name to come up in regards to what I do for a living now and not for going to him if I get hurt at camp or something. Anyway, let's switch subjects now. You spoke before about leading the charge to codify Roe v. Wade into law in New York. How do you think New York could be an example

for other states now in light of the Supreme Court decision to protect the right to choose? Sure. So this is going to be, I think, a question that we ask ourselves probably for the next couple of months until, when I say ourselves, I, blue states are going to askth century thinkers and rules of law. So that's just a preview of what's to come here. But places like New York and any democratically run state, at the very least least should be codifying Roe right so if any states have flipped their legislatures or flipped their governor's mansions to blue then what should be happening is we should see a codification of Roe in New York we did that in 2019 in the first month um in fact we didn't just codify Roe we took uh the place in the law that was allowing for abortion to exist out of the penal code, which is the criminal law, and we put it where it belongs into the health law. So that's another

just, you know, small little nuance that I think is important because it sends an important signal that this is healthcare. Abortion access is also reproductive access, is also healthcare. And so where you place it in the law matters. So that's number one, codifying it bottom, you know, baseline places like California codified it. Okay, great. So then what, well, having the right to access an abortion does not mean you actually can access it, right? The right to choose doesn't mean you can actually go to somewhere to actually get an abortion or even travel there. So that oftentimes comes down to money. So establishing or creating something called an abortion access fund, which is a bill

that I have, I introduced it actually in July of 2019. So after the legislative session where we codified Roe, my thinking was we have to keep going because Republicans clearly across the country are introducing bills in a coordinated way. It's not happening. So obvious, right? Like y'all are watching it. So establishing an abortion access fund, which again, hopefully this year will pass. It allows for New Yorkers to make voluntary contributions that will then be distributed through the Department of Health. Every state should be doing that. It's just a no brainer. The next thing I'll say, and I think this is one of the most important things, is that because these red states are not just saying that abortion is illegal, they are also saying if you leave this state and you go to another state and you get reproductive health care or receive an abortion somewhere else, we will literally penalize you. We will, we will prosecute you. We will, you know, make you pay civil fines. So in blue States, establishing a cause of action that a person who comes to New York or California

or any other blue state to get an abortion can then use as a counter suit to any state that's trying to sue you for just being able to access and really exercise your civil rights is another key thing. And I think we have to even get more creative than that and frankly go even further. And so, you know, these are two of the things that I think that we can do. But what I will say is that, you know, at the very bare minimum, places like New York, which right now can barely actually meet the need of the people who actually have to receive abortions, are going to see such an influx of people that we probably should even go as far as paying for people to fly here, honestly, because the alternative is going to be so many thousands and thousands of people dying.

And we obviously can't afford not to do that. Yeah, it's almost blue states have to really think about what it truly means to be a sanctuary city for women seeking abortion. And you're clearly not afraid to mince words, whether it be at Republicans or Democrats. And you tweeted recently, you said a whistleblower just gave us a seismic warning. Democrats in the Senate could suspend the filibuster on Codify Road tomorrow. Where is the accountability for Dems standing in our own way? In a way, Democrats like Manchin and Sinema, who I believe you're probably referencing, there might be some others, are holding us back in a similar way to the IDC, those kind of Democrats in names only that you challenged and defeated to get your

current seat. So if you were in the Senate, you know, I get that point. We need to hold them accountable. They need to take action. They need to do something. But what can we do? Actually told them accountable. Well, I mean, the long term, first of all, having a long term strategy is like part of what we can do. So part of the problem that I see that plagues the Democratic Party is that all that, and I'm really over-generalizing, so I apologize for anybody who's like, oh, eye roll, here she goes on her like soapbox. No, I expect the Democratic Party to be excellent. And I expect us to win things for the long-term because what we stand for, which is protecting people's civil

liberties and civil rights, is incredibly important and should be treated with care, just like the Republicans treat these issues with destruction and their level of vigilance. We should be doing the same, but for the positive outcomes that we hope for. Okay, so number one, having a long-term strategy, which we don't. So like, let's just be very clear about that. We don't even have a strategy at the state level. Okay. If we're going to talk about it this way to introduce the same kind of bill across the board in blue States, like red States do red States will put a bill in, in Tennessee. And before you know it, Alabama has that bill and they're introducing it into their legislature. Key thing that has to exist on the Republican side, it's called ALEC.

We don't have anything like that on the Democratic side. It's kind of crazy. So that's like, again, another baseline thing to do. But when it comes to what we can do at the federal level, I mean, Manchin and Sinema, who are, of course, Democrats, are two people that are part of the Democratic United States Senate conference. So I cannot imagine in my mind that there is not something that can be done to take away all the money going to their states or to literally physically, if we have to, move their offices out of the building and put them into the middle of the street. These are extreme things. It sounds almost crazy, right? It's like so hyperbolic, but like, think about it. There are two people who are determining the fate of half of this country's population, half of this country's

population. So 150 plus million people and their fate is going to be decided by two people who refuse to suspend the filibuster. It's insanity. And two people who represent so few people in comparison to the rest of the country. But what if they go, you're going to move my desk to the street while I'm changing my party affiliation to Republican? I and then we'll use all of our power. We see. And that's OK. So good. I'm glad you bring that up, because I think oftentimes, too, we make decisions based off of fear. And so they should go to the Republican Party if they want to go. Please just get out of this party, because what they do by being here is they break our ability to have power because they fracture our integrity to have the ability to have a strong foundation. So honestly, might as well go there.

And then what we can actually do is use all of our power and all of our money to actually primary these people and get them out of here. I don't believe that there's like one savior for everybody. You know how people are saying like mansion, he's the only one who can win in West Virginia. That's BS. That's a, that's a scarcity mindset.

If I have ever heard one that is not real, but they want us to believe it's real so that we keep up this like theme or myth around, like he's the only ones we keep up this like theme or myth around like he's the only one so we have to like be really careful with him that's nonsense there are literally so many people in West Virginia and if the Democrats actually built a bench another thing that we have to do if we built a bench and actually mentored this next generation coming up people like myself who are frankly like dying for a mentor to tell us like how not to stumble because sometimes we don't actually want to have to jump off the cliff in order to

get the thing done because it's really not necessary. But without the help of other people who've actually gone or walked that path, it makes it a little harder. Like these are the things that actually matter. So I feel like there are always ways to threaten other people's power. And I say, I use that word really intentionally because I do think that their power needs to be threatened. But I really don't believe that we're doing enough. And I'll just go, you know, say one final thing here. The president of the United States is arguably the most powerful leader in the entire world. He represents democracy, at least the most powerful and strongest democracy on earth. So you cannot tell me that the most powerful leader on earth cannot do something

to hold accountable to United States senators. It just doesn't, it just doesn't actually, it doesn't sit with me in a way that I can believe. So I, and I don't accept the frame because I feel like they have to do everything in their power and that I can believe. So I, and I don't accept the frame because I feel like they have to do everything in their power and that they're not. No, it's absolutely fascinating. And I want to take a step, quick step back here and talk about New York. I think our listeners and many people just around the country in general, they say New York, they say that's a blue state. We even said in this interview, but one of the crazy realizations that have come to me as I gotten older is it's more of a purple state these days. It's very, very interesting. Sort of the dichotomy of folks

that are living down there on Long Island specifically. I visited my hometown not too long ago and I was shocked by how many let's go Brandon flags I saw unironically flying around. And now granted, some of this might be me living in my own little bubble when I was growing up there, but I don't remember it being this extreme, this divisive. Have you felt the same stuff? Have you seen the same stuff? And what do you think, you know, that rise of Trumpism could be attributed to? It's such a good point in terms of like being young and not feeling like things were this polarized or kind of wild. And I think wild is a really good word because how you describe, right,

the go Brandon signs down the street from me, like one block away is a fuck Biden flag that children literally see when they're walking home from school every day and the people refuse to take them down. So it's just, you know, it's not like, and it's not like we live in the middle of the city, which I don't know why I even use that as an example, but frankly, anything goes in New York city. Like we're in a suburb. It's pretty quiet here. Like it's very aggressive. So like that flag is pretty, it's like, wow. Oh my God. I mean, I think, I think there's something about this that we don't really talk about.

And I really, I've given it so much thought because part of me, there's a part of me that really does actually want to try to relate to people who feel like they have to resort to a party that is, I know, not wholly aligned with their values, but for some reason they don't feel like they can either be part of the Democratic Party or feel welcomed or included in the Democratic Party. And I can only share how I feel through this example and story, which really began in 2016. So, and I was working on the Clinton campaign again, had never worked on a race before, let alone a presidential race. So I had no idea what was right or wrong,

or like what the rules are like, you just don't know. And so I was there and I just remember there was like a few key points, but one in particular where we had all this merch, right? If you go on the website, you could buy like women for Hillary or like dogs for Hillary. Like there were so many different groups, but there wasn't any group for men. And I just remember asking someone like, Hey, like where are like the shirts for men for Hillary? And they were like, Oh yeah. Like that's not like our target. Okay. Again, 50% of our, our population. And it's not to say that we weren't reaching out or calling men on the phone or texting them or knocking on their doors. But the point is that it wasn't part of the, it wasn't part of like the ethos necessarily. And I don't think anybody on the campaign would say we were

anti-man. That is not what I'm saying. But the point of me using that example is because I think it signified something to people who identify as men or identify as people who want to support Hillary as maybe like, hmm, I'm not really being spoken to here. It's interesting. Right. And so then take it one step further to where we are now. And I think it's like something that I even just heard this morning, which is there's a lot of young people who are politically active. They are outspoken.

They are taking stands against things that I didn't even think about when I was 16 or 17 years old. Racism, sexism, really being brave about how they are taking stands. And their classmates who, for example, might not want to take that kind of a stand are essentially being told that if you don't take a stand with us, you're racist, or if you don't take a stand with us, you're sexist. And so why I use that as an example is because a lot of also what happens on the left, I'm a proud progressive, is that there is a shaming and a making wrong of others who are not with us. I get it. I really do because it feels really good to point out injustices and also people who are causing harm,

but not everybody who doesn't stand with us is causing harm. Right. And we have to bring people in and enroll them here and not make them feel like they are bad because they don't agree with 10 out of 10 of the points that we care about. Like nine out of 10 is great. Even one out of 10 is amazing. Like join us, let's go. Like let's stand for people and their, you know, and their ability to like live freely despite who they are and what they stand for. But that's not necessarily the ethos of where we are right now. So there's the evolution of thought. And just, I think where people find themselves is very much like, well,

I don't want to be over there where they're yelling at me and telling me I'm like, I'm a jerk or I'm racist. So I'm going to go over here and I'm going to hide behind all the other crazy stuff. But like, at least they're not going to call me racist because like these people are out of their minds. They're racist and they're doing crazy things. So that's just my like very, um, my very primal basic understanding of it, but it's such a, it's a fascinating and interesting point too, especially when you talk about, Hey, you could agree with me on nine out of 10 issues. And all of a sudden we see it here at Midas touch. Oh, we agree with you on nine issues, but this one issue we don't see eye to eye on. So you guys are canceled. We don't follow

you anymore. I think the Democratic Party as a whole has to be, we're a big tent party. So let ideas and let the best ideas sort of win and rule the day. And so going back to sort of the flags that you have a flag by you, I saw flags flying you know, flying around like crazy. I'm talking, let's go Brandon flags, fuck Joe Biden flags, stuff like that in my hometown. I think one of the major problems is extremism like that. And I think by and large, like the average Long Islander doesn't like that extremism. Those kids' parents must hate the fact that they get off the bus and see an F Joe Biden flag. And, you know, the flags in my neighborhood, too, like that's got to infuriate the neighbors. And I just think Democrats need to talk with people and just show compassion and decency, because at the end of the day, that's what I think people are attracted to. I agree. And to be honest with you, there's a

there's a part of me that is like very I have a lot of rate. I'm not expressing it right now because I don't necessarily feel it fully at this very moment, but when people say things or do things that cause other people harm, whether they say racist things or they, you know, abuse them in some way, or they, um, just use their power to try to dominate over others. To me, that is like some of the most outrageous behavior. And so I have always tried to like think in my mind, like how can I like take a stand for this, but also, you know, not necessarily like squash

the people who might think the opposite. It's really a difficult needle to thread. And I felt like I really went through this a lot when I was being outspoken against Cuomo, our former governor who was a Democrat, because I could see the things that he was doing. I could understand the decisions he was making. I thought that he was completely egregious in the way that he acted. And yet there were so many Democrats who were like, yeah, but who cares? Because he literally is our only hope to the presidency or like, why are we eating our own? And so this kind of goes back to like the bigger question here,

which is like, it just depends what we're optimizing for and like what we're committed to. Like, I think that our party, any party or any like movement can't really be as strong as it wants to be if there are cracks in the integrity. And there are so many cracks in the integrity of both parties. And I think we can like build on them and heal them, but also build our political power. But the problem is that generationally, the generation that's come before me does not actually want to take a look at those cracks in the foundation. They just want to keep charging through and then wonder to themselves, why do we keep losing? Well, you know, I don't know. Without integrity, nothing really works.

So that's kind of I just keep coming back to this really basic principle. But again, people have to be willing to want to also use their power. Not everyone wants to use their full power because sometimes it means that they'll lose their seats or lose, you know, you lose support from whatever group it was or is that actually supports them today. And the one thing Democrats are so it's, it's funny, but it's also sad. They're like, well, what's the secret? How do we do it? And then we start talking and we interview people like Gloria Johnson from Tennessee or Karen Berg from Kentucky or Mallory McMurrow, right? And they all flipped Trump districts. And by talking to people about the exact same things that you've been talking about,

and it's like, people, the roadmap is right there. Just be normal, communicate with people and we're going to win. Stop focusing on, you know, let's coming up with the best acronym of the day and isn't using three B's build back better, blah, blah, blah. No, just focus on the issues that matter to people. And they're going to be like, oh shit, these are some normal people. They're not like QAnon. They're not some weirdos like this. They care about me and my family. That's actually who the Democratic Party are. And the secret sauce, again, everything you've talked about. And so it's just such an honor to highlight that and to just, I feel your passion. When I leave an interview like this, I'm like ready to go.

And it's incredible. So just thank you so much for joining us. We're so grateful. Thank you for having me. Thank you for pointing that out. There really is no magic wand, right? It's like, you got to do the legwork. There's no shortcuts.

And you're not going to figure it out through a pole or, you know, through some other ridiculous way. You got to like actually do the work and we need to do the work in this party and in this country, because my God, do we have a lot of work to do? So I'm just glad we got to have this conversation. Well, with people like you, I'm happy. I'm optimistic. Alessandra Biagia, thank you so much. New York state Senator running for Congress in New York's third, my hometown, looking forward to it and rooting for you. Thanks so much for joining us on the pod. Thank you so much for having me. We'll be right back after these messages. For the most important news of the day,

massive news dump, handwritten contemporaneous notes, the Treasury needs to hand over Trump's taxes. With the most compelling interviews. Please welcome Congressman Adam Schiff. Molly John Fast. Mike McFaul. Andrew Weissman. Barb McQuaid.

Glenn Kirshner. Colonel Alexander Vindman. Former Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch. And all the appropriate profanity. Lawsuit to block that s**t. Captain Douche. Bulls**t. Immigration Executive Order.

Anyone that's stupid should just not be in Congress. Renowned cowardly f*** face Kevin McCarthy, the leader of the douche group. Even Mary Trump agrees. Joining this binder full of women curating the news from the left with appropriate f***ing profanity. Listen weekday mornings to The Daily Beans,

left-leaning news from a woman's perspective. We make the news bearable by making it swearable. So put some beans on it with Dana Goldberg, Amy Carrero, and me, Alison Gill. And who doesn't like that? And welcome back to the Midas Litch Podcast, Alessandra Biaggi, everybody. Jordi, what'd you think about that interview, man? It was a great interview. She's amazing. I can't believe she's representing our home district. Let's go. And Ben, of course, not here right now,

had to run to court. You might be saying, hey, where had Ben disappear after that interview? He is working away on his birthday. Happy birthday, Ben, though. Seriously, Ben, we love you. Even if you don't remember Bagel Boss and you call it Bagel Brothers, I mean, that was just so embarrassing. I can't even believe it. I think one point, I have to listen again, but I think one point in the interview, he said in Long Island and not on Long Island. And well, if you're from Long Island, you just know that's a cardinal sin right there. It's always on Long Island. But Ben, not trying to make fun of you too much on your birthday.

We love you, brother. Happy birthday. That's what happens. Getting up there, Ben. Getting up there. I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding. Then you have like Republicans now, Jordi.

I'm not sure if you saw this, like celebrating Martin Schrockelli getting out of prison. And I'm going to have difficulty saying the guy's name because I just cannot say his name. So just bear with me. I think he got it. I'm going to call him the farmer bro, because that's what he's known by. He gained notoriety for raising the price of an age drug by 5000 percent. He had served a seven year sentence at prison in Pennsylvania. Jordy, no visit. What's up with that? Definitely not visiting the farmer, bro. Definitely not visiting him. He's been banned from the pharmaceutical industry.

And now that he's out of jail, a criminal who raised the price of life-saving medication, Republicans are celebrating him. And you have Marjorie Taylor Greene saying, I hear Martin Kelly has been released, having paid his debt to society. 2016 energy everywhere you look, as if that's a good thing.

And she is not the only person who I saw on the right celebrating his release. And it's just a real sickness. It's a real sickness to celebrate somebody who is a scammer. It's a real sickness to celebrate somebody who raised the price of an AIDS and malaria drug by 5000 percent and say that you're that's a good thing. This is the party of kindness to Elon Musk. This is who Elon Musk wants to support. And this is why the gaslighting is so crazy. I saw Brian Tyler Cohen actually pulled up a wild thing that I never even seen before. But Elon Musk also, right after the insurrection, so the insurrection happens on January 6th, A day later, Elon Musk donates to the RNC. And then a day later, he donates again

to the RNC. So Elon Musk saw what happened on January 6th and then decided, let me give my money to those people. That's who I want to support. So it really just shows a sickness. It's a real sickness. It's a real gaslighting. But I am proud to be a part of the real party of kindness, the party that's actually trying to help solve issues. Huge shout out to Brian for that little fact. I truthfully didn't know. If you've been on YouTube or Facebook, we can guarantee you've seen a video from Brian Tyler Cohen. He has one of the top ranked political podcasts called No Lie with Brian Tyler Cohen, where he breaks down the biggest stories of the week and interviews the biggest names of politics. He sat down with President Biden, Kamala Harris, Elizabeth Warren, Katie Porter,

Jamie Raskin, Pete Buttigieg, Nancy Pelosi, and on and on. So when we say big names, it doesn't really get any bigger than that. So check out No Lie with Brian Tyler Cohen. See why he has more than 2 million subscribers across the social media platforms and why his videos have been viewed more than 1 billion times. It's a political podcast that cuts right to the point, focuses on the issues that you care about,'s a political podcast that cuts right to the point, focuses on the issues that you care about, and is a destination for our leaders in the House, the Senate, and the White House. That's No Lie with Brian Tyler Cohen, available anywhere you listen to podcasts. So folks, listen to that podcast, get the truth, understand what is

actually going on in this country. And we should be proud of these candidates. I'm so proud to have a candidate like AG Josh Shapiro running for governor. I'm so proud to be having Fetterman running. I'm so proud to be having Tim Ryan running. I'm so proud to have people like Alessandra Biagi running for office. These are all people who want to help other people. And when you're in politics, that is the only reason why you should take the job, because you want to help people, because you don't want to perpetuate problems for your own should take the job because you want to help people because you don't want to perpetuate problems for your own power, but because you actually want to make things better. This has been an episode of the Midas Touch podcast. Thank you for watching.

Thank you for listening. Remember to tell a friend, give us a five-star rating on your favorite podcast apps. If you enjoyed the show, it just takes a couple seconds. Leave us a little review. If you like, once again, happy birthday to Ben. Shout out to Brian Tyler Cohen. Thank you, Alessandra Biaggi. And Jordy, I will let you take us out with a shout out to. Shout out to the Midas Mighty.