What A Day - Do Democrats Need to Fight Dirty?

Episode Date: July 10, 2026

A lot of Democratic voters want fighters in the battle against President Donald Trump and the Trumpified Republican Party, and it’s pretty obvious why. Even when Democrats control Congress and the White House, it feels like they focus more on making common cause with Republicans than on getting anything done. Brian Tyler Cohen is a progressive YouTuber who thinks that if and when Democrats win back the White House in 2029, they need to take the office they’ve won and run with it. His new book, “The Day After: How to Wield Power in a Post-Trump World” comes out next week. We talked about what it means for Dems to fight back in the Trump era.And in headlines: new details emerged in the ICE killing of a Mexican man in Houston, Trump dismantled a bipartisan board that oversees elections, and Israel reportedly told the U.S. that Iran hatched a new plot to kill Trump.Show Notes: Brian Tyler Cohen’s “The Day After: How to Wield Power in a Post-Trump World” – https://www.harpercollins.com/pages/thedayafter Call Congress – 202-224-3121 Subscribe to the What A Day Newsletter – https://tinyurl.com/y4y2e9jy What A Day – YouTube – https://www.youtube.com/@whatadaypodcast Follow us on Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/crookedmedia/ For a transcript of this episode, please email [e-mail]

I don't think Democrats should not do something, should prevent themselves from doing something, for fear of Republicans abusing that power at some untold point in the future. Like, they're abusing it now. We're watching democracy fall right now. I'm Jane Koston, and this is What Today, the show congratulating Colorado's Victor Marx on winning the GOPNitorial Primary on Thursday. He's a self-described, quote, high-risk humanitarian, who has claimed the following. He killed a man when he was seven years old, called in military airstrikes on 70 ISIS fighters as a civilian, but won't explain how exactly, and does exorcisms

over the phone. In short, he's a perfect Republican gubernatorial candidate. On today's show, we talked to progressive YouTuber Brian Tyler Cohen about his new book and how Democrats need to stop playing nice and start playing to win. Before we get into all that, here's what we're following today, Friday, July 10th. He did not deserve to die. He did not deserve to be reduced to a headline of Mexican man shot and killed by ICE. He deserved to live a quiet life as Lorenzo Salgado Araujo. That was Ronaldo Salgado on Wednesday, speaking the day after his father, Lorenzo Salgado-Orajo,

was killed by immigration and customs enforcement during an operation in Houston, Texas. Ayes said he was targeted because he was living in the country without legal status, and that he attempted to ram an agent with his vehicle, who then fired his weapon in self-defense. According to the Department of Homeland Security, Salgado O'Raho's car struck an ICE vehicle. But that story fell apart on Thursday when Texas Democratic Representative Sylvia Garcia

said Salgado O'Rajo, a Mexican national, was not the person federal authorities had been targeting in the operation. The Washington Post also reported the men who were with Salgado O'Rahoe said ICE rammed vehicles into their van, and he never used his vehicle against ICE. As a result of Salgado O'Rahu's killing, Mexico will request criminal charges over 17 Mexicans who died in ICE custody or during immigration enforcement operations by the Trump administration. President Donald Trump dismantled a bipartisan board that oversees elections on Thursday, weeks after the Supreme Court gave him more power to overhaul agencies. The Election Assistance Commission had resisted Trump's efforts to require would-be voters to document their U.S. citizenship before registering.

its job is to distribute federal grants to states, oversee the testing of voting systems, and maintain the national voter registration form. California Democratic Senator Alex Padilla, and New York Democratic Representative Joe Morelli wrote in a statement that the move, four months before the midterms, quote, is a blatant part of his plan to politicize our elections. According to the Wall Street Journal, Israel told the U.S. that Iran hatched a new plot to kill Trump. That might explain why he randomly brought up the possibility at the NATO summit on Wednesday. I'm number one on the kill list for Iran.

I like being number one on TikTok better, but I'm number one on the list for killing. I have more questions. Trump said that he's refusing to sign Congress's bipartisan housing bill because lawmakers refused to pass his super-controversial Save America Act to overhaul elections. His supposed concern that Democrats could terminate the filibuster if they take power.

Trump even ranted on true social, quote, I will no longer be able to call them Democrats again. The title of dumb will revert to the Republicans. This guy seems stable. As long as Trump doesn't change his mind and veto the bill, it will become law at midnight eastern. You know, since Trump has no record of flip-flopping, because again, he's super stable.

And that's the news. Let's talk about what Americans want from the Democratic Party. A lot of voters want fighters in the battle against Trump and the Trumpified Republican Party, and it's pretty obvious why. While Donald Trump does pretty much anything he wants and Republicans talk about how great and manly and also very smart and handsome he is, it feels like Democrats are stuck. Even when Democrats control Congress and the White House, it feels like they focus more on making common cause of the Republicans than on getting anything done. So it's no wonder that a whole host of Democratic candidates this year are running not just against the Republican opposition, but against Democratic Party business as usual.

Brian Tyler Cohen is a progressive YouTuber who thinks that if and when Democrats win back, the White House in 2029, they need to take the office save one and run with it. His new book, The Day After, How to Weald Power in a Post-Trump World, comes out next week. We talked about what it means for Dems to fight back in the Trump era. Brian, welcome to Water Day. Thanks for having me. Let's do it. So your book, if I could summarize it, you get to the point on page 28, which is that you make the argument that Democrats are too nice and it stops them from getting anything done.

You wrote, quote, the political truth is this. Democrats like to signal their virtues, while Republicans like to swagger their virility. And you make the comparison of like, Lucy will never help you kick the football. So what do you think Democrats need to change? I think Democrats have to stop being so deferential to norms and traditions and institutions and processes and procedures, the filibuster, the parliamentarian. There's this sense that when Democrats actually get into power that they are there to protect the institutions, not to usher in some outcomes. And we have to get past that. Like, if Trump has shown us anything, it's that you can barrel through a lot of these hurdles and

barriers that have been erected. The problem is that Trump has done it for self-enrichment. My argument is that Democrats need to do it for health care, for voting rights, for climate change, you name it. Brian, have you heard of the idea of Chesterton's fence? No. So it's this idea of, like if you see a fence somewhere and you just knock it down, you probably will then find out why the fence was there in the first place. Yeah. So like the parliamentarian, the filibuster, there's a reason, I think people would argue, those people include me, that those things are there and that we would knock them down and then be like, oh, wow, I sure do wish we had the filibuster again. How do you think about that? Trump knocking through things to do bad things is bad,

but also knocking through those things is also bad. I don't think Democrats should not do something, should prevent themselves from doing something for fear of Republicans abusing that power at some untold point in the future. Like, they're abusing it now. We're watching democracy fall right now. The filibuster's already gone for Republican priorities.

There is no filibuster for tax cuts. There is no filibuster for judges. Those are the two things that Trump and Republicans care about. What there is a filibuster intact for is climate change legislation, increased minimum wage, health care legislation, I mean, all of the things that would benefit the vast majority of Americans. And so I think that we are in the worst case scenario. We are in the break glass scenario right now. And if Democrats don't think of a more creative way around this stuff so that we can actually protect and restore some semblance

of democracy, then we might be in a position where we lose it altogether. I mean, a lot of the things that Trump is doing right now is, as he himself says, to protect and entrench a Republican majority for 100 years. So these are not people who have any adherence to the concept of democracy. These are people who are only looking to consolidate their power forever. We'll get back to my conversation with Brian Tyler Cohen in a moment to talk about what Democrats need to do to win over the American people. But if you like the show, make sure to subscribe, leave a five-star review on Spotify and Apple

podcasts, watch us on YouTube, and share with your friends. More to come after some ads. What a day is brought to you by Built. We can all agree that housing is expensive. Rent, mortgage, it doesn't matter which one you're paying, it stings every month, but Built can make it feel a little better. Let me explain. Built started out rewarding members on the rent. Now, as of 2026, built members can also earn points on mortgage payments wherever they live. Every housing payment earns you points you can use toward flights with top travel partners like United and Hyatt, lift rides, Amazon.com purchases, and so much more. Personally, I'd redeem my points for fitness classes or a rent credit. But here's the most underrated part. Built members also get access to a neighborhood

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Don't let stigma stand in the way of support. Start therapy with BetterHelp. Sign up and get 10% off at BetterHelp.com. That's better help.com slash wad. Let's get back to my conversation with Brian Tyler Cohen. So some of this would mean that Democrats would not only have to act differently, but they need to run different candidates. And I think that there's this idea that Democrats need to run very buttoned up candidates like James Talariko or John Ossoff to win. Do you agree with that?

No, not necessarily. I think somebody, I heard somebody online describe them as smooth growing cases. just like these long, like people who for their entire lives knew that they were going to run for office and so made sure not to make any missteps. I actually don't, I don't think that's the case with like John Ossoff. I think he's a really compelling candidate. I think Democrats have to be okay with running candidates who resemble the districts that they're running in. And that's going to look different in Texas than it's going to look in New Jersey and New York, then it's going to look in Maine or Michigan. And I think that's okay. Like, there are people for whom a more buttoned up

candidate. I mean, James Telerico is highly religious. Would that work in a place like New York? Probably not. I can't imagine that that would be what gets out of the primary. But obviously, especially effective in a place like Texas, that's okay. Like, the curse and the blessing of a big tent party is that we're going to have to be okay with running people and electing people. that look really different from each other. The Republicans have the benefit of having a really homogenous tent. Their only longstanding principle is adherence to whatever Trump has said that morning. I mean, Trump has flip-flopped on his own priorities in the course of days.

I mean, he was for the housing bill until he wasn't. Now he won't even sign his own housing bill, something that he promised on the campaign trail. He was against war until he engaged in a war with Iran. Now he won't end it. So I think that having different candidates running in different places who look vastly different from one another who espoused different ideas is okay. It's going to be more frustrating, I think, for the general electorate, but I think we have to be more tolerant of people who look and sound differently. It's funny you reference the smooth-growing thing, because that was a piece

written by Ken Klippenstein in favor of Graham Platner. And in a lot of ways, Grand Platner kind of fit the bill of a Democrat who was running for his area, a candidate running on the concept of change, that he's imperfect, but he's different. It's a redemption story, and he would fight hard for the people of Maine. Obviously, that seems to have not worked out, as anyone would have wanted to. So when we're thinking about what an ideal candidate looks like, how and where should Democrats draw the line? Because there's a real temptation, and I think you and I have both seen it, to say, like, we're looking for, you know, someone who's going to talk tough, someone who's going to, fight back, but also like sometimes you wind up getting an asshole. Yeah. Look, there's not going to be

some perfect prescription on what what a candidate should look like or sound like. I think that, I think that Graham Platner resonated because in large part, he was a dynamic, charismatic candidate who also espoused like a good deal of anti-establishment sentiment that I think is popular right now. Obviously, you know, he lied about about the baggage that he held, which would eventually come out. But look, I don't think that there's going to be like one perfect type of candidate. I think that generally you want to run candidates who are going to be able to operate in this media ecosystem who are comfortable talking online because that's where the vast majority of people get their information. Now more people get their news from YouTube than they do

from linear TV and who are willing to not be in office to protect a status quo that I think so many people have railed against. That will look like Graham Platner. That will look like Zorn Mamdani. That will look like a whole raft of people who are running right now against the establishment who don't necessarily sound identical to each other. Even James Telerico, you know, certainly doesn't sound like like Graham Platner, but is kind of running on this same idea that we need a government that operates differently than how it's operated before, a Democratic Party that's operated differently from how it's operated before. And so I think you can have that diversity in what it looks like. But yeah, I mean, look, Graham Platner had specific baggage, I think,

to him. But he doesn't own this idea of what a new Democrat in 2026 and beyond looks like. Brian, do you think we are in the middle of a Democratic Tea Party movement, the Tea Party, which was focused on the Republican establishment has failed us. We have to get these bombs out. We need to find candidates who don't sound practiced. We have to do anything possible, not just to beat the opposing party, but to beat members of our own party. Is that where we are? I think so. But I also think that, you know, the Tea Party was a separate entity from the Republican Party. Like, there were. was still, there was still a big swath of the Republican Party that existed separate from the Tea Party. I hope that what's happening on the left right now is not like an aberration. It's not a, not a bug, but a feature. I hope that the rest of the party, even those establishment folks recognize that having blind deference to, to our institutions and norms, is going to get you nowhere. Like how many times does Lucy have to put the football away from

Charlie Brown before he starts to recognize that she's not going to let him kick it. And so I do hope that that even the more establishment figures that remain in Congress, who haven't been primaried or who haven't retired, I hope that they adopt this general sense of a, fight to get where you need to go. And be, incrementalism is not enough to satisfy people. And again, that you have to be in government not to defend the institutions, but rather to deliver outcomes. Let's talk about the midterms.

And let's say Democrats pull it off, win back Congress, Senate in the House. They will still be governing millions of Americans who voted for Trump. What do you think Democrats need to do to convince the American people that they will fight for them harder than the Republican Party? And I think, more importantly, that they will represent them better than the Republican Party. I think if you just deliver for people on the campaign promises, you've done. made, that would be a really big step in the right direction. Like Trump garnered the support of a lot of people because he rightfully tapped into a sense of anger that the little guy wasn't being paid attention to. He talked about housing. He talked about rent. He talked about groceries. He got so

granular that he was talking about the price of eggs. And yet since he's taken office, we have seen because he launched a trade war, prices go up. Because he decided to engage in war with Iran, gas prices rise and inflation go up because he decided to direct his DOJ to suppress the Epstein files, those not get released because he decided to sign the Republicans one big beautiful bill, health care get gutted, food assistants get gutted. So this stuff isn't happening in a vacuum. It is a deliberate policy choice. If you have Democrats in office who decide not just to say the right things, but to do the right things, I think that's going to be a huge step in the right direction because it will be undeniable when housing costs go down because you have a Democrat

who deigns to sign the bill that Trump ran on, when you have grocery prices that go down because we're not engaged in a trade war anymore. Clothing prices go down. Electricity and energy prices that go down. That stuff will be undeniable. So I think in terms of being able to garner the support from a lot of people who we've lost, people will lie, but the numbers don't. And so I think once they see a lot of these bills and costs, the stuff that they're

contending with, start to ameliorate a little bit, I think that that's going to be a good step in the right direction in terms of showing people, not telling them, but showing them what effective governance for working class Americans actually looks like. Brian, thank you so much for joining me. Thanks for having me. That was my conversation with Brian Tyler Cohen, author of The Day After, How to Weald Power in a post-Trump world at July 14th. We'll link to his book in the show notes. Before we go, if you love women and who doesn't, hysteria is the place for you. This week, Aaron and Alyssa dissect the fallout from the latest Graham Platner allegations, the vital status of Mitch McConnell, and the BS Americans endured in the name of Freedom 250. Then they

discussed the National Institute for Reproductive Health, teaming up with Olivia Rodriguez's All-Female Music Festival. Tune into hysteria on YouTube or wherever you pod now. That's all for today. If you like the show, make sure you subscribe, leave a review. Be more like Neil the Seal and tell your friends to listen. And if you're into reading, and not just about Neil, the 2,400-pound Southern Elephant Seal, who has spent his bi-yearly trip to his birthplace, fighting with traffic signs and sleeping in the middle of the road. Like me, What Today is also a nightly newsletter. Check it out and subscribe at crooked.com. I'm Jane Coxton, and we should all be Neil Maxing, becoming larger, more ungovernable,

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