0:02

The Majority Report with

0:04

Sam Cedar. We are

0:07

every day's casual Friday. That

0:10

means Monday is casual

0:12

Monday. Tuesday casual

0:14

Tuesday. Wednesday

0:16

casual hump day. Thursday

0:19

casual Thursday. That's

0:22

what we call it.

0:24

And Friday casual Shabbat.

0:26

The Majority Report with

0:29

Sam Cedar. It

0:36

is Friday, April

0:38

18th, 2025.

0:41

My name is Emma Vigeland in for Sam

0:43

Cedar, and this is the five -time award

0:45

-winning majority report. We

0:47

are broadcasting live, steps

0:49

from the industrially ravaged Gowanus

0:51

Canal in the heartland

0:54

of America, downtown Brooklyn, USA.

0:57

On the program today, Representative Greg

0:59

Casar of Texas, chair of

1:01

the Congressional Progressive Caucus, will be with

1:03

us. And later in the

1:05

show, Cody Johnston of Some More

1:07

News joins us to break down this

1:09

week in news.

1:12

Also on the program, Senator Chris

1:15

Van Hollen was finally able

1:17

to meet with Kilmar Abrego Garcia

1:19

in El Salvador. He

1:21

is alive, thankfully. Great

1:25

job, Van Hollen. The

1:27

Fourth Circuit Court of

1:29

Appeals, in opinion, written by

1:31

a Reagan appointee, issues

1:34

a scathing rebuke of the

1:36

administration's efforts to defy the Supreme

1:38

Court. Speaking

1:41

of those guys, SCOTUS says

1:43

they will hear arguments

1:45

for Trump's attempt to ban

1:47

birthright citizenship, which is

1:49

a 14th Amendment protection. The

1:53

American citizen detained by ICE in

1:55

Florida, for being

1:57

Latino it seems, basically, has

2:00

been released. Trump's

2:03

approval rating is beginning

2:05

to tank. He's

2:07

at 45 % now, well

2:09

under the first quarter

2:11

average for previous presidents

2:14

since polling began, which

2:16

is 60%. That's usually

2:18

the honeymoon period. Trump

2:22

is scaling back the White House's

2:24

annual human rights reports defying decades

2:27

of precedent. Meanwhile,

2:29

dozens more have been

2:31

killed in Gaza as Israel's

2:33

genocide continues unabated, including

2:35

a photojournalist whose documentary had

2:37

just been selected for

2:40

the Khan Film Festival the

2:42

day before. The

2:46

US says it will abandon Russia -Ukraine

2:48

peace talks if they don't make

2:50

progress in the next few days. There's

2:54

an E. Coli outbreak in 15

2:56

states right now. If you didn't

2:58

hear about it, well, that's because

3:00

the FDA is choosing not to

3:02

publicize it. That

3:05

same FDA is also

3:07

planning to end its routine

3:09

safety inspections for food. Gotta

3:13

have growth. Time to read the

3:15

jungle by Upton Sinclair. It's

3:17

good for the economy to

3:19

sell rotten meat. Why

3:22

doesn't Australia want our meat when

3:24

we don't inspect it? Trump

3:27

is set to cut

3:29

the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau

3:31

workforce by 90%. Just

3:33

200 employees would remain. And

3:36

lastly, good news. The

3:39

Liberal -Wisconsin Supreme Court rules

3:41

that Democratic Governor Tony Evers

3:43

can lock in a school

3:46

funding increase for 400 years. All

3:50

this let's go. I mean look

3:52

at what happened in Texas. We

3:54

don't want any vouchers in Wisconsin

3:56

all this and more on Today's

3:58

majority report welcome to the show

4:00

everybody. It is casual Friday. Hello

4:02

Russ Hello Matt Very excited for

4:04

our conversation birthday Emma. Oh, thank

4:07

you very much. Yes, it is

4:09

my birthday I am 31 not

4:11

a fun age not an interesting

4:13

age, but Yes, I am 31

4:15

years old. It's a fine age.

4:17

It is a fine age, but

4:19

it's just nothing notable, although you

4:21

kind of run out of notable

4:23

birthdays. Yeah, those are by 21

4:26

or by 30. Maybe there's like

4:28

one in the 60s. That's nice

4:30

or something. Yeah. Yeah. 33. These

4:32

the age of Christ that's coming

4:34

up. Oh, OK. Well, then I

4:36

will finally ascend to my final

4:38

form. Two years to develop a

4:40

mosaic. I'm

4:43

halfway there. Well. But we

4:45

finally have some good news. Let's

4:47

start with this. Senator

4:49

Chris Van Hollen was able to

4:51

meet with Kilmar Brigho Garcia yesterday in

4:53

El Salvador. We

4:56

were not sure if he was still alive based

4:58

on how the administration had been conducting itself. This

5:01

is the footage or these are the

5:03

photos here. You can see that they gave

5:05

him his clothes back and put a

5:07

hat on. He's wearing a hat. I don't

5:09

know if that was the hat he

5:11

came with. we

5:13

know that they shave

5:15

their heads in sea cot

5:17

this notoriously torturous prison

5:20

um... prison uh... in el

5:22

salvador the these are

5:24

the photos that bukelle posted

5:26

actually so the uh...

5:28

i just want to can

5:30

you find the original

5:32

from van holland because it's

5:34

important to note that

5:37

the bukelle the president of

5:39

el salvador photoshop these

5:41

um... It's interesting that they

5:43

did this in in

5:45

no he photoshopped it look

5:47

at the original photo

5:49

It's interesting that Bukele Allowed

5:51

for this to even

5:54

happen and that there was

5:56

that created this which

5:58

was in part due to

6:00

the fact that Van

6:02

Hollen, give him immense credit.

6:04

This is what democracy

6:06

looks like in action. This

6:09

is a senator showing up for

6:11

his constituent when the rest of

6:13

the world looked like it had

6:15

abandoned him and say, you know,

6:17

there's all these right wingers like

6:19

he's on the constituent. OK, well,

6:21

his wife is his wife is

6:23

an American citizen and Frank and

6:25

constituents don't include voters. Consituents also

6:27

are just people that you are

6:29

supposed to be. the democratic representative

6:31

of small d that's what this

6:33

country is supposed to be about

6:35

even people that don't vote for

6:37

you if you're a senator in

6:39

that state you're supposed to be

6:42

representing them and then holland is

6:44

putting chuck schumer to shame here

6:46

by showing what it actually means

6:48

to stand up for the american

6:50

people but in this photo you'll

6:52

see the water glasses are just

6:54

water glasses and then when you

6:56

go back to bouquets uh... Photo

6:59

of this meeting. You'll see

7:01

that he has put the

7:03

this photo has salt on

7:05

the rim of the glasses

7:07

and maraschino cherries The Nazi

7:09

to make it look like

7:11

it's a Cocktail let's go

7:13

back to his caption Kimmel

7:15

are Kilmar Obrego Garcia miraculously

7:17

risen from the death camps

7:19

and torture now sipping margaritas

7:21

with senator van Hollen in

7:23

the tropical paradise of El

7:25

Salvador Obviously

7:28

very conscious about the optics

7:30

of Seacot, which is, looks like

7:32

a concentration camp and seems

7:34

to function as one. He was

7:36

calling him a terrorist, what,

7:39

like 48 hours ago, 72 hours

7:41

ago? And now he's making jokes about,

7:43

look at how great this person

7:45

is treated, that we just, you know,

7:47

it's like there, it's like a

7:50

hotel or something. And it's really important

7:52

that this happened for fighting the

7:54

Trump administration. because they're calling him

7:56

a terrorist, but they let him out. This

7:59

means that Bukele can release

8:01

him. This means that

8:03

their explanations for why he can't be

8:05

sent back to the United States are

8:07

completely bunk, which we already knew that. But

8:10

you see by the fact that he

8:12

is out of Seacawd in these photos that

8:14

Bukele has the capacity to do so. He's

8:17

choosing not to do so under

8:19

the direction of the Trump administration because

8:21

he's functioning as their contractor And

8:23

you also heard Van Hollen repeat that

8:25

when he spoke to the vice president in

8:27

El Salvador, who said, you know, the

8:29

Trump administration is paying us to do this.

8:31

And that's why we're not releasing him,

8:34

which means that they're flagrantly violating the Supreme

8:36

Court's order. But

8:38

this is how like they're on

8:40

their heels. This is how you stand

8:42

up to a bully. Van

8:44

Hollen is showing what leadership

8:46

really looks like in the face

8:48

of fascism and authoritarianism. And

8:51

then we also have the Fourth

8:54

Circuit, the Federal Appeals Court in

8:56

Virginia, which rejected the Trump administration's

8:58

attempts to stay the judge, Paula

9:00

Zenis, his order to facilitate the

9:02

release of Abrigo Garcia. This

9:05

judge who wrote this opinion

9:07

is named Harvey Wilkinson. Wilkinson

9:09

is a Reagan appointee,

9:11

a conservative judge. And

9:14

the Fourth Circuit, this is a

9:16

scathing, scathing opinion that goes after

9:18

the Trump administration's actions here. I

9:20

just wanted to read part of

9:22

it because it's so well said.

9:25

Let's pull this up. Upon

9:28

review of the government's motion, the

9:31

court denies the motion

9:33

for an emergency stay pending

9:35

appeal and for a

9:37

writ of mandamus. I've actually

9:39

never heard that before. This

9:42

is why I didn't go to law school. The relief

9:44

the government is requesting is both

9:46

extraordinary and premature. While we

9:48

fully respect the executive's robust assertion

9:51

of its Article II powers, which,

9:53

by the way, is the part

9:55

of the Constitution that vests the

9:57

president's authority in foreign affairs, and

9:59

that's supposed to be shared with

10:01

the legislature, but that's what that's

10:03

referring to, basically, the administration's invocation

10:06

of foreign policy to make these

10:08

determinations and to violate him of

10:10

his due process. We

10:12

shall not micro manage the efforts

10:14

of a fine district judges attempt Attempting

10:16

to implement the Supreme Court's recent

10:18

decision It is difficult in some cases

10:20

to get to the very heart

10:22

of the matter, but in this case

10:24

it is not hard at all

10:26

The government is asserting a right to

10:28

stash away residents of this country

10:30

in foreign prisons without the semblance of

10:32

due process that is the foundation

10:34

of our constitutional order Further it claims

10:36

in essence that because of the

10:39

has rid itself of custody that there

10:41

is nothing that can be done. This

10:43

should be shocking not only to judges,

10:45

but to the intuitive sense of liberty

10:47

that Americans fall removed from the courthouses,

10:49

from courthouses, still hold dear. The

10:52

government asserts that Ebrego Garcia is a terrorist

10:54

and a member of MS -13. Perhaps,

10:56

but perhaps not. Regardless,

10:58

he is still entitled to due

11:00

process. If the government is

11:02

confident of its position, it should

11:04

be assured that position will prevail

11:06

in proceedings to terminate the withholding

11:08

of removal order. Moreover, the government

11:10

has conceded that the Brego Garcia

11:12

was wrongly or mistakenly deported. Why

11:15

then should it not make what was wrong

11:17

right? The Supreme Court's

11:19

decision remains as always our guidepost. That

11:21

decision rightly requires the lower federal courts

11:23

to give due regard for the deference

11:25

owed to the executive branch in the

11:27

conduct of foreign affairs. That

11:30

would allow sensitive diplomatic

11:32

negotiations to be removed from public

11:34

view. It would recognize as well that

11:36

the facilitation of a braggle Garcia's

11:38

return leaves the executive branch with options

11:40

in the execution to which the

11:42

courts in accordance with the Supreme Court's

11:44

decision should extend a genuine deference. That

11:47

decision struck a balance that does

11:49

not permit lower courts to leave Article

11:51

2 by the wayside. So basically

11:53

this is being generous with the government's

11:55

claims. But here they

11:57

reassert why the Trump administration

11:59

is in violation. The Supreme

12:01

Court's decision does not, however, allow

12:04

the government to do essentially nothing.

12:06

It requires the government to facilitate Abrigo

12:08

Garcia's release from custody in El

12:10

Salvador and to ensure that his case

12:12

is handled as it would have

12:14

been, as it would have

12:16

been had he not been improperly sent

12:19

to El Salvador. Facilitate is

12:21

an active verb. It requires

12:23

that steps be taken as the

12:25

Supreme Court has made perfectly clear The

12:27

plain and active meaning of the

12:29

word cannot be diluted by its constriction

12:31

as the government would have it

12:33

to a narrow term of art. We

12:35

are not bound in this context by

12:37

a definition crafted by an administrative agency

12:40

and contained in a mere policy directive.

12:42

And then this other part here

12:45

is important too. Facilitation does

12:47

not permit the admittedly erroneous deportation

12:49

of an individual to one's

12:51

country's prisons that the withholding order

12:53

forbids and further to do

12:55

so in disregard of an... Court

12:57

order that the government not

12:59

so subtly spurned I think we're

13:01

good at this point, but

13:03

you can just see how definitive

13:05

this was and This is

13:07

we're not even down this road

13:09

But the government's actions here

13:12

violate the amendment which

13:14

guarantees due process that is

13:16

I mean it's made clear

13:18

even though I think that

13:20

If a Braco -Garcia is to

13:22

return to the United States,

13:24

he would have to try

13:26

to challenge this in court

13:28

or sue on those grounds.

13:30

But it's also an Eighth

13:32

Amendment violation which prohibits cruel

13:34

and unusual punishment. He's

13:36

been sent, without due process,

13:38

to a torturous facility which, let

13:41

me remind people, they

13:43

are packed in like sardines.

13:46

Skin disease and disease

13:49

spreads because they are

13:51

constantly touching one another.

13:53

It's so packed. They

13:55

have no blankets. They have

13:57

no pillows. The

13:59

LED lights are blaring over

14:01

them in their basically steel

14:03

barracks. They can't speak to

14:05

one another. They

14:08

can't get a lawyer. They can't

14:10

speak to a lawyer. They can't speak to their family.

14:12

They can't look outside. They can't be

14:14

outside. No sunlight. get health care.

14:16

Can't get health care. Hundreds have died

14:18

at this facility because of these

14:20

conditions. That is

14:22

the definition of cruel and unusual

14:25

punishment under the 8th Amendment. The

14:28

administration is so in violation of

14:30

the Constitution that it's almost difficult to

14:33

find which amendments they're not violating. Human

14:35

Rights Watch estimates based

14:38

on official data that there

14:40

are 109 ,000 people held

14:42

in prisons with an

14:44

official capacity of 70 ,000. The

14:47

Bukele and the Trump administration can no

14:49

longer claim that they cannot release him

14:52

because we just saw that they can

14:54

What are the arguments that they're gonna

14:56

make in court now? Because

14:58

they have shown themselves to

15:00

be complete liars. They are

15:02

testing the bounds of the

15:04

Constitution. There's no question but

15:07

they're also i think burning a

15:09

lot of political will that they

15:11

didn't need to but they're just

15:13

such fascist that they couldn't help

15:15

it there was an article in

15:17

the the american prospect by ryan

15:19

cooper which breaks this down i'll

15:21

just read a little of this

15:23

about it's called the anti -immigration majority

15:25

is a mirage and there are

15:27

a lot of folks that are

15:29

more centrist in the democratic party

15:31

that say that we should be

15:33

abandoning the immigration fight because It's

15:36

Trump's best polling number, in terms Gavin

15:38

Newsom called it an 80 -20 issue,

15:40

and I think it's really suspicious that

15:43

he's echoing people like Charlie Kirk. People

15:45

mentioned 80 -20 issues. I

15:48

think it's kind of a red flag to me. You mean

15:50

Charlie Kirk, the guy he played patty cakes with on his show

15:52

and said his son loves? Exactly. Oh,

15:54

that Gavin... It's an 80 -20 issue,

15:56

bro. Who was married to the

15:58

conservative Fox News commentator. The

16:01

best is yet to come, lady. Kimberly

16:03

Guffoil. Okay. This

16:05

is the popularism that is a

16:07

disease in the Democratic Party. They act

16:09

like they don't have control over

16:11

polling and how things poll and they

16:14

can't change public opinion by using

16:16

the bully pulpit. Well, here this article

16:18

shows that just Donald Trump's inhumanity

16:20

and his actions have changed polling. Imagine

16:22

if there was a united Democratic

16:24

opposition that was pushing this narrative. The

16:27

Gallup poll on whether Americans think

16:29

immigration should be increased or decreased

16:31

shows a curious pattern. From about

16:33

2001 at the height, At a

16:35

high of 65%, there was a

16:37

steady decline in the fraction of

16:39

respondents who favored less immigration with a

16:41

corresponding upward trend in the faction

16:43

favoring more. The lines

16:46

briefly crossed in mid -2020 with

16:48

a plurality in favor of increased

16:50

immigration, but starting in 2021,

16:52

there was a sudden jump back

16:54

toward restriction. This

16:56

is around the time the Democrats started conceding this

16:58

point, by the way. During

17:01

the 2024 campaign, Donald Trump

17:03

consistently received his highest approval

17:05

ratings on immigration. The

17:07

fraction of people saying that immigration

17:09

is the most important issue in the

17:11

country jumped from 9 .2 % in

17:13

2021 to 14 .6 % in 2024. And

17:17

Trump's xenophobic stance seemingly paid

17:19

off even among Latinos who would

17:21

be the targets of his

17:23

mass deportation agenda. He was the

17:25

first Republican to win the

17:27

Rio Grande Valley. which is chock

17:29

full of mixed status families

17:31

since 1912. Post -election

17:33

reporting saw many anecdotes of unauthorized

17:35

immigrants themselves saying they would have

17:37

voted for Trump because surely he

17:40

wouldn't deport hard -working people like themselves.

17:42

But now that support is

17:44

fading fast. Most recent

17:46

polls show the priority of

17:48

immigration plummeting and majority disapproval

17:50

for Trump on the issue. In

17:53

the most recent YouGov economists

17:55

poll, he is now 11

17:57

points underwater, down 16 points

17:59

since he was inaugurated. Among

18:01

Latinos, he is now

18:03

46 points underwater on

18:05

this issue. And

18:08

that's all. I mean, that says

18:10

it all. If just Donald Trump's

18:12

inhumanity and his actions by themselves

18:14

can change public opinion like this,

18:17

imagine if we actually message

18:19

on our side. Imagine. And

18:21

I would like to say like hopefully

18:24

on a hopeful note maybe we're at

18:26

the end of a lie because this

18:28

anti -immigrant sentiment it also corresponds to

18:30

the post financial crisis You know downturn

18:32

of people's economic outlook This is going

18:34

after immigrants is not the solution to

18:36

that and I think more and more

18:38

people are realizing that they've been sold

18:41

something false and they've been misdirected away

18:43

from the actual cause of people's lack

18:45

of wage growth and lack of you

18:47

know a better life that they thought

18:49

they would have Absolutely.

18:52

All right, we're going to be speaking to

18:54

Representative Greg Kassar in just a second. All

18:56

right, quick break, and we'll be back with

18:58

Representative Greg Kassar. We

19:42

are back and we are

19:44

joined now by representative greg kassar

19:46

congressman representing texas is thirty

19:48

fifth district and also chair of

19:50

the congressional progressive caucus. Representative

19:52

kassar thanks so much for coming on the show

19:54

today. Yeah thanks for having me

19:56

on and looking forward to talking with you and

19:58

folks at home. Absolutely let's

20:00

start here because it's the biggest

20:02

story of the day. Senator

20:05

Chris Van Hollen was able

20:07

to speak with Kimmar Abrego Garcia

20:09

and see him in person.

20:11

There was a proof of life.

20:13

There were some concerns that

20:15

he may not even be alive

20:17

because this prison is very

20:19

notorious for its abuses and sometimes

20:22

people die there. What was

20:24

your reaction to this fairly successful

20:26

mission by Senator Van Hollen

20:28

going to find his constituent down

20:30

in El Salvador? Well,

20:32

first, I'm so grateful for

20:34

Senator Van Hollen's leadership and

20:36

also so grateful that Mr.

20:39

Abrigo Garcia is alive. And

20:41

I think this really shows

20:43

how the Trump administration does not

20:45

have to always be on

20:47

the front foot on everything and

20:49

how when Democratic leadership and

20:51

people in elected office listen to

20:53

our constituents and stand up

20:55

and really fight back, that we

20:57

can put the worst authoritarian

20:59

on the planet like Bukele on

21:01

the back foot that we

21:03

can put the Trump administration on

21:06

the back foot that we

21:08

can save lives and that we

21:10

can make some of these

21:12

abuses and horrors a real national

21:14

story because I feel like

21:16

we're getting hit day in and

21:18

day out by these constitutional

21:20

abuses taking away people's basic rights.

21:22

And folks at home want to know,

21:24

is there anything I can do

21:26

about this? I think speaking up and

21:28

encouraging your leaders folks like Senator

21:31

Van Hollen to stick up and fight.

21:33

I think we could see how

21:35

we could start to turn the tide

21:37

because they didn't just let Senator

21:39

Van Hollen meet with Kilmer Garcia because

21:41

they wanted to. It's because I

21:43

think they had a sense that they

21:45

had to because the public was

21:47

starting to get the sense that the

21:49

president of the United States is

21:51

talking about sending just anybody to a

21:53

prison camp outside of American law

21:55

in El Salvador. And that is

21:58

not popular in this country. I

22:00

think folks really speaking out really start

22:02

to make a difference. And we need

22:04

to be getting back on the front

22:06

foot, even on issues like immigration, where

22:08

the Trump administration is going so far

22:10

outside the law and being so abusive of

22:12

people's baseline constitutional rights. This isn't about

22:14

public safety. What the

22:16

president is doing is about taking away the

22:18

baseline rights of every single American immigrant

22:21

or not. uh... i'm

22:23

glad you say that about the

22:25

the popularity of because on on

22:27

the surface right uh... donald trump's

22:29

best issue when it comes to

22:31

polling is immigration uh... but i've

22:33

been frustrated by some conversations i

22:36

hear in liberal circles where there's

22:38

this tendency for some reason to

22:40

respond to polling as if it

22:42

is static and unchangeable as if

22:44

Democrats can message in a way

22:46

that changes the conversation around immigration.

22:49

I grew up in the suburbs

22:51

of New York City going to

22:53

Ellis Island and being told by

22:55

my teachers how immigration built this

22:57

country and how important it is

22:59

to have immigration. Is

23:02

there beginning to be a consensus

23:04

within the party that this is

23:06

the kind of thing that they

23:08

can positively message around how immigration

23:10

makes us stronger? We

23:12

can't always play defense. Otherwise,

23:14

The Republicans just fill the vacuum

23:16

and fill the void with

23:18

their own propaganda and they continue

23:20

to move the polling in

23:23

their direction. Look, immigration

23:25

issues did not poll great when

23:27

Trump first was elected into

23:29

office. But then when we

23:31

started pointing out that he

23:33

was putting kids in cages and

23:35

deporting innocent families and taking

23:38

our limited law enforcement resources away

23:40

from gun traffickers and cartels

23:42

and pointing it instead at innocent

23:44

workers. then the numbers

23:46

shifted. And as actually

23:48

being a pro -immigrant party that

23:51

also cared about law and

23:53

order in a good economy and

23:55

being pro -immigrant, that actually helped

23:57

us take back the house

23:59

during first Trump administration. So

24:01

I do think it's time for us

24:03

to get off the back foot and start

24:05

pointing out just how nuts it is

24:07

that this guy wants to take away birthright

24:10

citizenship that allows so many of us

24:12

to be Americans when we were born and

24:14

raised here rather than citizens of some

24:16

other country that we've never known. It's

24:18

so nuts that he's talking about

24:20

sending Americans to prisons in El

24:22

Salvador where you can't contact a

24:24

lawyer, where a US senator has

24:26

to come find out if you're

24:28

even alive. And so look,

24:30

as somebody that has been working in the

24:32

labor rights world and as a labor organizer

24:35

in the past and in immigrants rights, I

24:37

think we do have lessons to learn from

24:39

eight years ago that organizing and getting on

24:41

the front foot and get on offense works.

24:43

But we also need to remember that we

24:45

need to connect our pro -immigrant message to

24:47

the vast majority of the American people. This

24:49

is the last thing I'll mention on this

24:51

point. Back when I was a

24:53

labor organizer here in Texas, before I was

24:55

an elected official, we'd organized on

24:57

construction sites where you had lots of citizens

24:59

and non -citizens all on the site and

25:01

you wanted to organize folks into unions to

25:03

push back to raise wages for everyone. And

25:06

instead of just saying immigrant rights or

25:08

human rights, which of course they are,

25:10

but instead of just going with that

25:12

message, we would talk about how these

25:14

big moneyed interests wanted there to be

25:16

two different classes of people. That if

25:18

they could scare people and say a

25:20

certain group of folks, immigrants have less

25:23

rights than citizens, then it was easier

25:25

for them to work some folks over

25:27

time without ever having to pay them

25:29

their overtime wages. They could push down

25:31

wages for everyone. And so I think

25:33

we need to get back to a

25:35

place where we say these immigrant rights

25:37

and the equal rights of everybody that

25:39

actually defends your rights as a citizen.

25:42

That defends your rights as a worker.

25:44

And I think the democratic and progressive

25:46

message needs to get on the front

25:48

foot, but also remain inclusive in that

25:50

kind of bigger, tense way. Is

25:53

that your experience as a labor

25:55

organizer that some folks who maybe

25:57

were here under were undocumented or

25:59

weren't full citizens as workers that

26:01

The threat of deportation or immigration

26:04

enforcement was often used by their

26:06

employers to perhaps strong arm them

26:08

into maybe more unsafe conditions or

26:10

lower wages because that seems to

26:12

be the under discussed element of

26:14

immigration enforcement is that if you're

26:16

somebody who is wants to unionize

26:18

or maybe is experienced harassment in

26:21

your workplace, you're going to be

26:23

a lot less likely to speak

26:25

up if you're fearful that ICE

26:27

is going to come and take

26:29

you away from your family. This

26:32

happens all the time, every

26:34

single day in every major city

26:36

and town in this country.

26:38

I cannot tell you how often

26:40

we had folks come in

26:42

from the restaurant industry, from the

26:44

service industry, from the construction

26:46

industry, not only who are being

26:48

underpaid and could be threatened with deportation

26:50

if they spoke up, but folks that

26:52

would work two weeks or a month

26:54

and then not be paid anything at

26:56

all. You know,

26:58

don't talk enough about how wage theft is

27:00

one of the greatest forms of theft

27:02

in this entire country. And what

27:05

I think we need to do if we

27:07

want to be a populist and economic

27:09

party based party again as Democrats, but

27:11

also a pro immigrant party is

27:13

that everybody's wages will go up

27:15

if we make sure that people

27:17

are all in the same playing

27:19

field and that immigrant workers have

27:22

the same rights to speak up

27:24

as everybody else and don't have

27:26

the threat of deportation hanging over

27:28

them. that we're gonna have more

27:30

unions for everybody if immigrant workers

27:32

can feel just as comfortable signing

27:35

that union card as a u

27:37

.s citizen worker so they really

27:39

this isn't just a human rights

27:41

issue this is an economic rights

27:43

issue for every single american and

27:46

and uh... on the immigration agenda

27:48

i can the democrats get behind

27:50

the agenda that you're describing an

27:52

affirmative immigration agenda not just the

27:54

congressional progressive caucus not just running

27:57

on some little trick that the Biden

27:59

administration did with, you know, oh, we

28:01

put this very right wing border bill

28:03

up in the Senate and the Democrat

28:05

or the Republicans killed it because Trump

28:08

didn't want to hand us a win.

28:10

This procedural cute point

28:12

was, I mean,

28:14

I think one of the worst

28:17

strategic moves of the campaign in 2024

28:19

because you're just hitting the Republicans

28:21

on their hypocrisy and you're not saying

28:23

what you believe in. Look,

28:25

voters want an orderly and

28:27

safe and legal immigration system.

28:29

And the challenge that we

28:31

face, and this is where

28:33

I'll be a little bit

28:35

more empathetic to the Democrats'

28:37

dilemma here, is that people

28:39

want a system that works,

28:41

but the Republican Party has

28:43

essentially become a daily arsonist

28:45

of the immigration system. And

28:48

so if you have a party

28:50

in the Republicans that wants to

28:52

make the being immigration system as

28:54

ill as possible, as difficult as

28:56

possible. Essentially, the cartels

28:58

couldn't have a better friend than the

29:00

Republican Party that want to keep

29:02

immigration as difficult as possible so that

29:04

they create a black market for

29:06

immigration. As Democrats, we

29:09

are seen as responsible for the immigration

29:11

system that is that we have. And

29:13

we need to not just blame the

29:15

Republicans for a broken system, but actually

29:17

have a proposal for what a good

29:19

legal system would look like. So folks

29:21

aren't sitting in tents and shelters at

29:23

the border, but instead can apply legally

29:25

and come here in a safe orderly

29:27

and legal manner. And to your

29:29

point, if we don't have

29:31

that affirmative vision, then we're always going

29:34

to be stuck into every campaign

29:36

cycle as we get closer to election,

29:38

going Republican light. and at that

29:40

point at the argument between republican republican

29:42

life a lot of people are

29:44

just gonna pick the real thing and

29:47

to be more specific uh... that

29:49

means red not maybe instead of all

29:51

this money going towards enforcement or

29:53

policing on the border uh... does that

29:55

include in uh... increase in funding

29:57

for processing expanding the pool of resources

29:59

for immigration courts

30:02

uh... to allow for folks to be able to

30:04

come in and then come back to their hearing

30:06

and have this system make more

30:08

sense as opposed to it being one

30:10

based on fear. Oh, yeah.

30:12

There's so much we have to do.

30:14

Yes. First of all, we got to

30:16

say, look, the folks that have been

30:19

here for years and years and years,

30:21

paying taxes, doing their job. Look, those

30:23

folks, they're basically US citizens, but for

30:25

continued inaction in Congress. First of all,

30:27

then second of all, we've got to

30:29

have a way that people can apply

30:31

to come here because so many people

30:34

when we say, well, just wait in

30:36

line and come here the right way.

30:38

That system doesn't even exist. It just

30:40

doesn't exist, period. So we've got to

30:42

create that pathway for people who are

30:44

fleeing desperation and violence and all these

30:46

problems across the Western Hemisphere to be

30:49

able to apply and have a process

30:51

for coming here legally. Otherwise, you could

30:53

just dump all of the money in

30:55

the world on continuing to enforce a

30:57

broken system. And then the last thing

30:59

that not enough Democrats talk about, and

31:01

I'm pretty unorthodox on this, even within

31:04

my own party, is we've got

31:06

to address the ways that the

31:08

United States own foreign policy drives starvation

31:10

and deprivation across the world and

31:12

pushes people to come here that would

31:14

rather be at home if they

31:16

could, but for some of the United

31:18

States own policies. Look, I'm

31:20

not a fan of the

31:22

Maduro regime in Venezuela in the

31:24

least bit, but we have

31:26

pursued a policy of starving innocent

31:28

people in Venezuela, hoping that

31:31

Maduro would hold elections when he's not going

31:33

to hold a free and fair election. Then

31:35

when a lot of folks from Venezuela show

31:37

up, we need to ask ourselves, was

31:39

this the right policy for us

31:41

to contribute to the very starvation and

31:43

problems that many of them are

31:45

fleeing? Of course, many of them are

31:47

their own government's fault, but they

31:50

aren't even voting for that government in

31:52

most cases. But why would we

31:54

go and then punish those people and

31:56

then let the Republicans weaponize that

31:58

issue against us? It's insane and we

32:00

can't keep doing it. Yeah, yep.

32:02

I think that's a great point. And

32:04

you bring up foreign policy, which

32:06

is obviously a very important and salient

32:08

topic for a lot of the

32:10

Democratic base when it comes to what

32:12

Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch

32:14

have called acts of genocide in Gaza.

32:18

I asked, we had Representative

32:20

Pramila Jayapal in the show

32:22

in January. She is

32:24

obviously your predecessor in

32:27

the Congressional Progressive Caucus. She,

32:30

I love that you guys have term limits. And

32:32

so that's like something just more democratic

32:34

about the, small d democratic about

32:36

the Congressional Progressive Caucus that I appreciate.

32:38

But this was her answer. And

32:41

I'm wondering if you have an update

32:43

on this from January. to my

32:45

question about whether or not the Democratic

32:47

Party has reckoned with how young

32:49

people may be disillusioned by what they're

32:51

seeing out of the Gaza Strip. Is

32:54

the party reckoning with how

32:56

the support for this slaughter

32:59

has potentially damaged the party's

33:01

brand long term for an

33:03

entire generation of young people and

33:05

also the voters you describe?

33:08

My honest answer to you is

33:10

I don't think that that conversation

33:12

is happening. i really don't i

33:14

think it's been frustrating to me

33:16

as somebody who shares uh... you

33:18

know and has been really vocal

33:20

on on gaza uh... and been

33:22

targeted for it by you know

33:24

by yeah i think her answers

33:26

longer people can check out the

33:28

full interview uh... if they'd like

33:30

but we have you for a

33:32

limited time a representative kassar uh...

33:34

is there an update to that

33:36

has the democratic caucus begun in

33:39

your opinion to reckon with

33:41

some of the effects of

33:43

what, how people view now

33:45

this past administration as a

33:47

party that supports such brutality,

33:49

when we drawn such a

33:51

significant contrast, frankly, after the

33:53

Bush administration wage that the

33:55

illegal war in Iraq, we're

33:57

back to square one, it

33:59

seems to me. Yeah,

34:02

we can't let. the

34:04

trump administration that is now

34:06

openly advocating for the complete ethnic

34:09

cleansing of god continued to

34:11

then try to message and say

34:13

that they're going to take

34:15

become the anti -war party within

34:17

the republican party at that point

34:19

that would just be so

34:21

devastating to us we have to

34:24

be and have a democratic

34:26

party be the party that is

34:28

for prosperity of our own

34:30

people and against violence here and

34:32

across the world and That,

34:34

I think, has led to

34:36

real consequences for so many

34:38

innocent people in Gaza. But to

34:41

your question, as far as

34:43

the Democratic Party really reckoning with

34:45

it, I agree with my

34:47

prior chair, Pramila Jayapal, that

34:49

that reckoning has not yet

34:51

happened. But one place where

34:53

I hope we can start

34:55

to have that reckoning in

34:57

that conversation is with some

34:59

of these early elections and

35:01

early primaries that we're going

35:03

to have. because the some

35:05

of the organizations that dump

35:07

in infinite amounts of money

35:09

for those candidates that want

35:11

there to be peace and

35:13

stability for innocent Palestinians and

35:15

Israelis alike. Now, you

35:17

know, we're talking about a situation

35:20

where the president the United States

35:22

is advocating for complete ethnic cleansing of

35:24

Gaza. And I hope that

35:26

Democratic primary candidates at least can

35:28

speak out against that. And we

35:30

will be having some of those

35:32

elections upcoming even this year. So

35:35

I urge folks that are watching

35:37

this year at home to pay

35:39

attention to some of those early

35:41

elections and see if we can

35:43

have the kind of reckoning within

35:45

our Democratic Party that big money

35:47

should not be determining who wins

35:50

these primaries. And that Democratic candidates

35:52

can and should do better with

35:54

the support of our base to

35:56

be willing to speak out against

35:58

what went from devastating horrific choices

36:00

by the Biden administration to a

36:03

total ethnic cleansing plan that we're

36:05

now facing down with Netanyahu and

36:07

Trump and Coots. Is

36:09

that a part of

36:11

what DNC vice -chair David

36:14

Hogg is focusing on? What

36:16

is your opinion on

36:18

that effort to potentially primary

36:20

some folks in Congress? I

36:24

haven't really gotten a chance to know

36:26

what the real details are of what it

36:28

is he's working on. What I will

36:30

tell you is that the Congressional Progressive Caucus

36:32

does have its own pack. We

36:35

are not an outside group, and

36:37

so we're, of course, going to be

36:39

different than outside organizations. We

36:41

participate in open primaries, of

36:43

which there will be many, usually

36:45

when there's retirements, and then

36:47

also, for example, there have been

36:49

the really tragic and early

36:51

deaths of some of our own

36:53

Progressive Caucus members. And so

36:55

in those open seats is where

36:57

oftentimes you've actually seen the

36:59

enormous spending and a progressive candidate

37:01

and oftentimes in a progressive

37:03

district have to face down a

37:05

much more centrist or corporate

37:07

other candidate and where this debate

37:09

on foreign policy really comes

37:11

to a head. And so I

37:13

think you will see that

37:15

in several of the open seats

37:17

because of retirement or because

37:19

we're filling the vacant seat. of

37:22

a member who has passed.

37:25

And so I think you'll be seeing that coming up

37:27

here this year. We won't have to be waiting until

37:29

next year, I think, for some of that. And

37:32

last question on this topic, I just

37:34

think it's important to really nail this

37:36

down here. I'm still hearing

37:38

essentially every Democrat talk about the

37:40

two -state solution as the goal

37:42

right now. And I just want

37:44

to be clear that it appears

37:46

that Israel's attempting to take the

37:48

entirety of the West Bank and

37:50

is ethnically cleansing the whole Gaza

37:52

Strip, which in practice would create

37:54

a one -state reality. This

37:58

messaging isn't urgent enough

38:00

to address what's happening

38:02

there. Can there

38:04

be discussions within the Congressional Progressive

38:06

Caucus or will there be

38:08

about what a future Israel -Palestine

38:11

position looks like? Because we're using

38:13

talking points from like 20

38:15

years ago to talk about the

38:17

situation there. Yeah,

38:19

I mean, it's such a... Look,

38:21

I'm gonna be honest, it's

38:23

such a sensitive... topic for you

38:25

know amongst members of Congress

38:27

I have of course within the

38:30

Congressional Progressive Caucus nearly 100

38:32

members who vote all different sorts

38:34

of ways on this issue

38:36

and what we're trying to bring

38:38

people together around is how

38:40

do we stop the killing how

38:42

do we at least in

38:44

the immediate term just stop the

38:46

continued just daily death and

38:48

famine and withholding of aid and

38:51

human rights abuses in both

38:53

the West Bank and in

38:55

Gaza for the good of everyone

38:57

there. And so I think

38:59

you're right. Talking about this, the way

39:01

we talked about this theoretically years ago, no

39:04

longer addresses the issue. I have a lot

39:06

of trouble. I'm going to be honest here

39:08

to folks watching on the show, a lot

39:10

of trouble talking with that big of a

39:12

group of people about what the vision is

39:14

for five or 10 years from now. But

39:16

where I can get folks together is to

39:18

say it is just devastating. what

39:21

has been going on, and we've got to

39:23

find a way to make it stop. The

39:25

level of death, the conditions for people there

39:27

is just unacceptable, and it

39:29

should be unacceptable for any body

39:31

of conscience. And so right now, I

39:33

do think that sort of putting

39:35

aside the talking points that were so

39:37

1990s and 2000s does make sense

39:39

to me. I don't have

39:41

the best idea for you on this

39:43

show about where we had five

39:46

or 10 years from now, but right

39:48

now I'm just trying. to say

39:50

hey how do we organize to say

39:52

stop the bombs right here you

39:54

you gotta uh... deal you know look

39:56

at right in front of you

39:58

as well as long -term and have

40:00

long -term and short -term strategy i totally

40:02

get that uh... from on the

40:05

more positive direction on the long -term

40:07

strategy piece this anti oligarchy tour that

40:09

you were a part of uh...

40:11

with a o c and bernie sanders

40:13

seems to be just absolutely picking

40:15

up incredible steam and you have this

40:17

mascot of elon musk but really

40:19

just the multiple republican billionaires that are

40:21

in donald trump's administration that put

40:24

characters to the the public of of

40:26

like what oligarchy looks like what

40:28

billionaire capture of our government looks like

40:30

um is that a vision that

40:32

you see going forward for the democrats

40:34

as the messaging on kitchen table

40:36

issues is about how tariffs are affecting

40:38

the economy and he's so turbulent

40:40

and causing all of these issues there's

40:43

also this other piece of like

40:45

Now, we've got attacks the rich and

40:47

it seems like the base is

40:49

completely there. The base

40:51

is there and the base is getting

40:53

bigger on this issue. When I was

40:55

on the fighting oligarchy tour and went

40:57

and did the Tucson, Arizona stop with

40:59

Bernie and AOC, they said, look, we've

41:02

got the high school gym rented out.

41:04

It fits about 2000 people. That's pretty

41:06

good for Tucson. We showed up

41:08

and I thought we were already at the high

41:10

school. We were five blocks away and that's how

41:12

long the line was. 23 ,000

41:14

people didn't fit in the gym, took

41:16

over the whole football field, and

41:18

it was the biggest rally in Arizona

41:20

history, and it's only gotten bigger

41:22

since then. And when I talked to

41:25

people standing in the line as we were getting

41:27

ready for the event, there were lots of folks

41:29

who said, I wasn't with Bernie seven or eight

41:31

or nine years ago, but damn,

41:33

I think maybe he was right this entire

41:35

time, because before when he was talking

41:37

about billionaires running the government behind the curtain,

41:40

now they're running the cabinet meetings. Now

41:42

they're... the richest man on earth is

41:44

bragging about running the government on Twitter

41:46

every day. And so this is a

41:48

moment within all of this despair and

41:50

all the horrible stuff. Of course, we

41:52

have been talking about. There also is

41:54

an opening for us to transform the

41:56

Democratic Party into the kind of party

41:58

that can excite not just our base,

42:00

but bring in disaffected voters and independence

42:02

folks that might be more socially conservative

42:04

than you and I on some issues.

42:06

But say at the end of the

42:08

day, we need a party that says

42:10

we shouldn't have the richest guys on

42:12

earth. buying politicians in order to skew

42:14

their economy in their own favor and

42:16

screw over everybody else. And that

42:19

is the kind of message that held

42:21

together FDR's coalition. That's the kind of

42:23

message that held together JFK and LBJ's

42:25

coalition. That's how you build the next

42:27

new deal. That's how we pass social

42:29

security and Medicaid and Medicare was by

42:31

being a party that could hold most

42:33

of the country together by saying, wherefore,

42:36

working people But just, as you said,

42:38

just saying we're four working people, maybe

42:40

nobody hears that kind of a standard

42:42

message. We also have to have a

42:44

villain and show folks who we're willing

42:46

to fight against. And those villains

42:48

are very clear right now. Well,

42:51

that's positive and encouraging to

42:53

hear a representative, Greg Casar,

42:56

chair of the Congressional Progressive

42:58

Caucus. Thanks so much for your time

43:00

today. I really appreciate it. Thanks so much

43:02

for having me on. And the last

43:04

thing I'll mention related to those villains, folks

43:06

may not know at home. that Elon

43:08

Musk's term and allowed time in the Trump

43:11

administration technically ends on May 30th. We

43:13

don't believe that he'll necessarily follow the law

43:15

and leave them. So we have a

43:17

real chance to fire Elon Musk if folks

43:19

again raise their voices on that issue

43:21

over the coming month. Appreciate

43:23

it. Thanks so much. Thank you guys.

43:25

Bye. Bye. All right, folks.

43:28

Quick break. And when we come back,

43:30

we're going to be speaking to Cody Johnson

43:32

of some more news, having some fun

43:34

with some more news. Be right back. Thank

43:38

you. We

44:27

are back and we are

44:30

joined now by Cody Johnson

44:32

of the wonderful YouTube channel.

44:34

Some more news. Cody,

44:36

thanks so much for coming on the

44:38

show today. Thank you so much for having

44:40

me. Obviously a huge fan. Happy birthday

44:42

also. Thank you. Thank you. Yeah,

44:44

it's your channel. Everybody has been

44:46

like messaging us saying you have to

44:49

come on. We played a little

44:51

bit of one of your videos the

44:53

other day. Can I ask

44:55

like, how long does it

44:57

take for you to put together

44:59

40 -minute long, like very well

45:01

-produced, progressive YouTube. I

45:03

love the video essay

45:05

format, but you churn

45:07

out a video essay

45:10

format in way so

45:12

quickly. It's incredible. Thank

45:14

you. It's

45:17

rough for some weeks than others. We

45:19

do try to plan ahead. It's

45:21

like you're saying, 40 minutes an hour. Pretty

45:24

heavily researched and so we have right

45:26

like a whole we have a whole

45:28

process from start to finish Oftentimes we'll

45:31

come up with stuff that we kind

45:33

of know like it'll be relevant For

45:35

a long time and knowing that okay.

45:37

Well, we filmed this even though it

45:39

was written a month ago We can

45:41

sort of plug in current events and

45:43

keep it going But you know a

45:45

Ben Shapiro episode or whatever that's months

45:47

of uh just sort of like packing

45:50

in as much as you possibly can

45:52

and it's also the year or so

45:54

before where all these clips are coming

45:56

out and he's saying whatever um so

45:58

it really does depend uh sometimes it's

46:00

just like oh something happened this week

46:02

we need to just do something on

46:04

that topic and our head writer will

46:07

just be like no emails this week

46:09

i'm just doing this It's

46:11

it's really well done and you're

46:13

funny in it But also providing

46:15

everybody with all of like the

46:17

information that they need on that

46:19

topic You mentioned Ben Shapiro. You've

46:22

done some deep dives over there

46:24

into that crew. What the hell

46:26

is going on at the daily

46:28

wire? Nothing good doesn't seem it

46:30

seems like they're falling apart I

46:32

mean, they're like all their people

46:34

are being fired or leaving. I

46:36

know Jeremy boring is gone Um,

46:39

because they're all losing money because

46:41

if you pump a bunch of money

46:43

in from a billionaire for ideological

46:45

purposes, maybe the output needs to be

46:47

bringing in enough to sustain yourself.

46:50

I assume it's because they wanted to

46:52

be Amazon Prime was the problem,

46:54

right? They're doing a streaming service and

46:56

they have they're doing like a

46:58

some like King Arthur epic show and

47:00

they're trying to do like the

47:02

non -woke snow white. And if you

47:04

pump money into that, and the product

47:07

isn't very good, then you're not

47:09

going to be making money from it.

47:12

So it seems like they just wasted

47:14

a lot of money on vanity

47:16

projects and trying to be like the

47:18

anti -woke Hollywood, whatever conservative Hollywood they

47:20

wanted to be. And

47:22

you can't do everything. It

47:24

also seems like that media that old

47:27

way of like there was this

47:29

the internet and youtube became a

47:31

thing then creators started blowing up

47:33

and there were companies that were

47:35

like how can we monetize this

47:37

how can we create little mini

47:39

companies that are about content creation

47:41

and the daily wire is one

47:43

of them but they had so

47:45

much money backing it but like

47:47

i'm even seeing this in sports

47:49

media too where it's just folks

47:51

are more drawn towards just going

47:53

to creators that they appreciate and

47:55

these independent creators with subscription models

47:57

whether it's sub stack or. Ghost

48:00

or other ways that that

48:02

people are accessing that content it

48:04

feels like that is just

48:06

more of the trend these days

48:08

and the daily wire guys are

48:11

like they're getting. Smacked

48:13

by Candace Owens and even some of

48:15

their these other streamers are Brett Cooper

48:17

right there. Everyone that they had for

48:19

a while and then pissed off for

48:21

whatever reason and then right didn't make

48:23

it work Yeah, you're building up these

48:26

personalities and that's you know for better

48:28

or worse. That's what people gravitate towards

48:30

And I'm sure people were like well

48:32

Candice is saying this right thing and

48:34

now I'm gonna go to her daily

48:36

wire lost me because they're not keeping

48:38

up with whatever Anti -Semitism is really big

48:41

now or whatever. Yeah So yeah, so

48:43

I think they you know, they just

48:45

aren't they like pumped all this money

48:47

into a plan that wasn't going to

48:49

work long term, it seemed. But

48:52

they have the backing

48:54

because their ideological project is

48:56

the point, right? They're

48:58

not there. They're not really there to

49:00

like get return on investment in like

49:02

the normal way. It's just sort of

49:04

like if you put out propaganda for

49:06

us, that helps us in our ideological

49:08

project as opposed to just doing good

49:10

work or whatever. Yeah, I

49:12

think that's right and it'll

49:14

be fun to watch how that

49:16

unfolds back to the real

49:19

news and the politics of the

49:21

day So I want to

49:23

play this old clip of Chuck

49:25

Schumer from a month ago

49:27

a little under a month ago

49:29

This is around the time

49:31

that he completely caved on the

49:34

continuing resolution and decided to

49:36

give up all of the Democrats

49:38

leverage Well, because

49:40

of you, you know Yeah,

49:42

you know what these days it'd

49:44

be really bad if the

49:46

government stopped working in a government

49:48

shutdown Oh wait The government

49:50

already has stopped working because Elon

49:52

Musk and the doge groipers

49:54

are slowly shutting everything down and

49:57

Making it non -functional and stealing

49:59

all the data from our

50:01

treasury. It's insane and You also

50:03

have to show as we're

50:05

seeing with Chris Van Hollen You

50:08

have to show strength. That's the

50:10

only thing that these fascists know how

50:12

to respond to that's the only

50:14

way that you can fight them politically

50:16

Schumer, but he's gonna fight This

50:18

is what he said. I'm he just

50:20

needs time. He needs time. Okay,

50:22

so this was maybe it's it's been

50:25

like three and a half weeks

50:27

since he said this Maybe he's gotten

50:29

there Look, this is an extraordinary

50:31

moment. It does require extraordinary action. If

50:33

he defies the Supreme Court, then

50:35

we are in uncharted territory that

50:37

we haven't been in for a

50:40

very long time. And our entire

50:42

democracy, this whole beautiful enterprise of

50:44

democracy that we've had for over

50:46

240 years, is at risk. And

50:49

look, I believe

50:51

that if Donald Trump should

50:53

defy the courts, Public

50:55

the public will rise

50:58

up We will run Democrats

51:00

will fight it in

51:02

every single way and I

51:04

believe You know autocrats

51:06

only succeed Kristen if the

51:08

public lets them Keep

51:11

going keep going. What about

51:13

the Senate? Seeed

51:18

Kristen if the public lets

51:20

them but if the public

51:22

is so so angry and

51:24

takes action, and certainly we

51:26

Democrats will, it will

51:28

trigger a mass movement from one end

51:30

of the country to the other, something

51:32

that we haven't seen in a very

51:34

long time. Hell yeah. I'm

51:37

fired up. The public. Yeah.

51:39

We're coming for you, whoever. Oh

51:42

yeah. Um, I

51:44

just love the outsourcing of

51:46

it. The public will rise up.

51:48

Dude, Van Hollen just pantsed

51:50

you. Just by sho - like,

51:52

You know how you get the

51:54

public to show up? By showing

51:56

fight yourself. And I think that's

51:58

under the dictionary definition of leadership.

52:01

It's so embarrassing, um, empathetic

52:03

to just like let that happen

52:05

and not address. Cause like, I mean,

52:07

even to your conversation a little

52:09

earlier, you can't just be like, well,

52:11

it's not popular. So we shouldn't

52:13

do it or it's not polling well

52:15

or you can't just. put your

52:18

finger to the wind and see what

52:20

you should do if you don't

52:22

have moral clarity and you're not trying

52:24

to actually like get a message

52:26

out with some sort of communication to

52:28

like bolster public opinion or uh

52:30

or push back on it or be

52:32

like you're saying it's leadership it's

52:35

communication is such a huge part of

52:37

it and if you're not pointing

52:39

out why this is wrong or this

52:41

is wrong or this is illegal

52:43

i know it's at this point it's

52:45

like But sir, that's illegal. It's

52:47

a little like, yeah, everything they're doing

52:49

is illegal now. So what's the

52:51

point in saying it? But if you're

52:54

not communicating that, then the people,

52:56

they might do it without you, but

52:58

you need to do your job,

53:00

I guess, is the point. It's very,

53:02

it's just very frustrating to see

53:04

people in that actual leadership. sort of

53:06

defer to like well once the

53:08

people had enough once the polling says

53:11

we should do something we will

53:13

absolutely do something we promise but that's

53:15

what democracy supposed to be which

53:17

is supposed to be you're doing that

53:19

for us not us doing it

53:21

for you now you want to say

53:23

something but I just want to

53:25

insert a quote from David Brooks recently.

53:28

Oh god. I know. Okay, which

53:30

he says it's time for a comprehensive

53:32

national civic uprising. It's time for

53:34

Americans and universities, law, business, nonprofits, and

53:36

the scientific community. Now I'll just

53:38

say David Brooks used to be a

53:40

Marxist. If he was still a

53:42

Marxist, he might might spare an inclusion

53:45

of workers in that uprising. But

53:47

anyway, yeah, Americans and you live. Yeah,

53:49

this is kind of a professional

53:51

class up right now. Yeah, yeah.

53:53

Americans in universities, law, business, nonprofits,

53:56

the scientific community and civil servants

53:58

to and beyond. Okay,

54:00

to form one coordinated mass movement. Trump

54:02

is about power. The only way he's going

54:04

to be stopped is if he's confronted

54:06

by some movement that possesses rival power. Well,

54:08

there you go. I mean

54:11

David Brooks didn't think I'd ever

54:13

say that, but good job to

54:16

him. I mean, this

54:18

is radicalizing. This administration

54:20

is causing people to

54:22

rethink some of their preconceived

54:24

notions. I saw Bill

54:26

Crystal say, when

54:28

are we going to apologize to the

54:30

abolish ICE people? The

54:32

other day. Isn't

54:34

that incredible? I see that every day.

54:37

You know, it's sometimes couched in irony or

54:39

whatever, but the sentiment of like, yeah,

54:41

the resistance lives were right the whole time.

54:43

This is what it is. They call

54:45

they like they a lot of people knew

54:47

what was happening. It was

54:50

accurate. The call was correct. The

54:52

prediction was correct. And now they have

54:54

this opportunity, the Trump administration

54:56

just do it all. And I think people

54:58

are like, oh, oh, my gosh, I didn't know

55:00

they were going to do all of that.

55:02

And it is a it's one of those things

55:04

that's like it's very

55:06

disheartening in a sense because

55:08

The writing's been on the wall

55:10

for years and years and

55:12

years. Yeah, and it's really upsetting

55:14

that things have to get

55:16

bad for people to realize what's

55:18

going on But it does

55:20

seem like that is what is

55:22

happening right not even on

55:24

immigration issues even on like all

55:26

all this stuff But abolish

55:28

ice was Just

55:30

when AOC, Alexandria

55:33

Ocasio -Cortez was elected

55:35

in 2018, this was

55:37

the blaring, most radical opinion that she

55:39

had. Right? Can we put the

55:41

crystal thing up just because it's amusing

55:43

to me? You

55:45

know, just

55:47

to verify that that wasn't hallucinating. Bill,

55:50

Bill Crystal. Who

55:52

is now at the bulwark? So

55:54

I think he's, his politics have

55:56

changed, but... Absolutely. Never Trump

55:58

outfit, right? Right. but like

56:00

these are the people the same

56:02

folks that were saying no

56:04

it's the progressive left saying things

56:06

like abolish ice are the

56:08

problem within the party he says

56:10

where does the polish ice

56:12

movement go to get its apology

56:14

and this is important because

56:16

ice is has been naturalized by

56:18

the right ice was an

56:20

outgrowth of nine eleven and the

56:22

war on terror as was

56:24

the department of homeland security We

56:27

can look back 25 years

56:29

in the past to analyze

56:31

how we've created a national

56:33

security surveillance state in reaction

56:35

to 9 -11 and during

56:38

the war on terror that

56:40

is now being used to

56:42

terrorize the people, our own

56:44

citizens, our neighbors, other people

56:46

in this country. And you

56:48

have even some of the resistance

56:50

liberals coming around to that point.

56:53

Yeah, it's it's quite something to

56:55

see because this is all I'm

56:57

saying yeah 2018 that was the

56:59

most radical thing AOC was saying

57:01

and it's something that Like never

57:03

Trumpers are so interesting because like

57:05

you see this sort of very

57:07

very slow progression. You're sort of

57:09

dragging them Forward these are all

57:12

conversations that were being had in

57:14

2018 all the stuff that we're

57:16

talking about today 2017 2018 2019

57:18

the entire first term and it's

57:21

Like slowly realizing why they're never

57:23

Trump in the first term is

57:25

very much like oh, he's he's

57:27

boorish. He's like, oh, we don't

57:29

like his personality. He's so like

57:31

unpleasant Right, but now after like

57:33

one term of him you get

57:35

some Biden and then this it's

57:37

like oh I get why we

57:39

I understand, like his personality is

57:41

actually linked to policy and it's

57:43

linked to this political movement. And

57:45

like you're saying, this path is

57:48

very clear from, you know, you

57:50

can also point to like so

57:52

many things about Reagan and then

57:54

obviously the Bush era and here

57:56

we are. And it's just funny

57:58

to see sort of like over the

58:00

span of 10 years, all these guys

58:02

go like, oh right, I was wrong

58:04

all along. This

58:06

sucks, this sucks now. Um,

58:09

so good for them, I guess, better

58:11

late than never. Right. faster

58:13

than Chuck's humor, apparently. Do you

58:15

think that helped because,

58:17

uh, Biden got so

58:19

unpopular? Like, I think that even

58:21

though we obviously had major

58:23

problems with Hillary Clinton, um, and

58:25

it was tough for me

58:27

to vote for her in the

58:29

general election after that very

58:32

brutal primary with Bernie Sanders. And,

58:34

you know, I did it because Trump

58:36

was a threat, but. We were kind

58:38

of more in the minority, unfortunately, within

58:40

the Democratic Party. She was still a

58:42

very popular figure. I

58:45

think Biden was so, like,

58:49

people were so outraged

58:51

by the cover up

58:53

about his mental acuity,

58:55

really. I think Democratic

58:57

voters, they were angry that he

58:59

put us all in this position

59:01

again. And of course, with his

59:04

support for the genocide in Gaza, Polling

59:06

hadn't been catching up yet, but the base

59:08

was angry about that, too. Although

59:11

they now flip and they're more angry when

59:13

Trump's in office, which is really a partisan thing,

59:15

but it happens on both sides. Yeah.

59:17

Yeah. I wonder if that

59:19

made it easier for people to

59:21

all kind of realize, like,

59:23

maybe we shouldn't just be default

59:25

trusting somebody who's ever been

59:27

in the same room as Obama

59:29

or something like that. Yeah.

59:32

Yeah. Seems like, I mean, the

59:34

Biden's ability is still I think unfolding

59:37

and people's mistrust there and just

59:39

sort of yeah, you put all your

59:41

eggs in this basket and I

59:43

don't know I think that The it's

59:45

just that we're we have all

59:47

this this quick backlash to a backlash

59:49

to a backlash to a backlash

59:51

so much now We're ping -ponging all

59:53

the time. It's so fast every week

59:55

every month every year and people

59:57

Just forget so quickly about anything. I

59:59

think also being Being able to

1:00:01

be like oh look biden so old

1:00:03

and he's this and you're pretending

1:00:05

that he's the smartest like sharpest guy

1:00:07

in the room or whatever I

1:00:09

believe you um and so you're doing

1:00:11

this and then so you have

1:00:13

this like but we need some sort

1:00:16

of guy who can finish a

1:00:18

sentence but in doing that you forget

1:00:20

you forget about trump you forgot

1:00:22

all about him um you see this

1:00:24

even in uh like the like

1:00:26

gen like gen z polling some boomer

1:00:28

polling about trump's approval where it's

1:00:30

like oh right oh He's terrible and

1:00:32

obnoxious and we don't want him

1:00:34

around. But during the campaign, you don't

1:00:36

really think about that. You think

1:00:38

about what's in front of you, which

1:00:40

is all this hell Biden stumbling

1:00:42

through life kind of. And so they

1:00:44

swing over there and now the

1:00:46

reality sets in. I just

1:00:48

wish people had stronger

1:00:51

memory. Object permanence. Like

1:00:54

let's play this because

1:00:56

we're kind of on the

1:00:58

topic here. There,

1:01:00

there's been, I guess, it

1:01:02

was announced this week that

1:01:04

David Hogg, who is the

1:01:06

new vice chair, one of

1:01:08

the vice chairs of the

1:01:11

Democratic Party, is launching an

1:01:13

effort to primary Democrats who

1:01:15

are incumbents, who basically

1:01:17

calls you

1:01:19

know, sleep at the wheel, I think, was

1:01:21

the phrase that he used. And the

1:01:24

group is called Leaders We Deserve. they're

1:01:26

apparently going to be spending around

1:01:28

20 million dollars in deep blue

1:01:30

districts so this is a bit

1:01:32

of the justice democrats model except

1:01:34

with somebody who is associated with

1:01:36

and a part of the dnc

1:01:38

so i want to

1:01:41

wait on i'm encouraged by this announcement

1:01:43

i want to wait to see

1:01:45

what the criteria is for an incumbent

1:01:47

primary challenger before i thought it

1:01:49

right however however the fact that they

1:01:51

understand that this is necessary is

1:01:53

interesting and important uh... but not everybody

1:01:55

does here's old james carvel and

1:01:57

i'm glad we're playing this today because

1:01:59

if sam was back to hear

1:02:01

this he might actually have an aneurysm

1:02:03

uh... This is

1:02:05

Carville's react. This he has

1:02:07

one mode. It's only protecting the

1:02:09

worst incumbent most geriatric Democrats

1:02:11

ever although I guess he was

1:02:13

on board the Biden dropout

1:02:15

train maybe the one time broken

1:02:17

clock situation, but This is

1:02:20

his reaction to hogs initiative Well,

1:02:22

maybe as I said, maybe

1:02:24

they need to split off from

1:02:26

the Democratic Party and call

1:02:28

themselves a socialist I don't know

1:02:30

urbanists central city. You know

1:02:32

why they're doing it. They looked

1:02:34

at MAGA And they did

1:02:36

what we see all the time

1:02:38

when you don't have better

1:02:40

minds and better ideas. This is

1:02:43

why you were so transcended

1:02:45

in politics is Okay, Carville when

1:02:47

was that that was before

1:02:49

I was even born 1992 That's

1:02:51

what they're referring to I

1:02:53

mean, there's they're playing their audience.

1:02:55

I guess right like Yeah,

1:02:59

like yeah, we remember we remember

1:03:01

but I don't I actually had

1:03:03

to watch a documentary to remember

1:03:05

it because I was born in

1:03:08

1994 can we update like our

1:03:10

Our democratic political savance, please transcendent.

1:03:12

That's why it gets to just

1:03:14

sit on the couch in a

1:03:16

t -shirt like It's why you

1:03:18

never see him out of his

1:03:20

house or you know a part

1:03:22

of any real campaign Transcendent pundit

1:03:24

on no, what's his new news

1:03:26

nation? I was going to

1:03:28

say, James, you're on TV, but I don't even know if that's

1:03:30

true. Right. What is News

1:03:32

Nation? Shout out

1:03:34

to Chris Cuomo, by the way, on News Nation.

1:03:36

I used to work with him. He's the

1:03:38

only person who likes to take their shirt off

1:03:40

on the internet more than Jair Bolsonaro. Not

1:03:45

for medical reasons, in his case. No,

1:03:49

I want to keep hearing. and send

1:03:51

it in politics, is that, and I

1:03:53

always find it so cheap when people

1:03:55

say, oh, Jim Carvel, oh yeah, it's

1:03:57

the economy's stupid. No, no, no, that

1:03:59

wasn't your genius. Your genius was, I'm

1:04:01

not gonna be what beats me. What

1:04:04

you see with Bernie and AOC

1:04:06

right now is MAGA Playbook. MAGA Playbook,

1:04:08

make the masses angry. Dave Hogg, that's

1:04:10

MAGA Playbook. Go after your own and

1:04:12

have a purity test. But what beats

1:04:14

you, you become that, you're not gonna

1:04:17

beat it. Well, I don't

1:04:19

think that most of the Democrats are

1:04:21

that, and maybe we need to

1:04:23

have a schism. Maybe we can form a governing

1:04:25

coalition. You know, this happens every time and

1:04:27

pull up all men or anything. When you come

1:04:29

in, you say, okay, you want to be

1:04:31

part of our coalition. But we're

1:04:33

next, and all the time... running

1:04:36

against us. But what if somebody sued

1:04:38

David Hawke? He's the officer of

1:04:40

the Democratic National Committee. He is the

1:04:42

vice chairman the Democratic National Committee

1:04:44

and he's running against other Democrats. I

1:04:46

would like to know when you

1:04:48

went to law school, does he have

1:04:50

a fiduciary duty? If

1:04:52

you work for News

1:04:54

Nation, you can't promote

1:04:56

CNN. If you work for somebody

1:04:58

else, you have a fiduciary duty

1:05:00

to your employer, which anybody can

1:05:02

understand. I think it's

1:05:04

good to maybe stop at the

1:05:06

fiduciary duty thing, because I have a

1:05:09

point I want to erase about

1:05:11

our sort of alligator friend there. This

1:05:15

is from a website called

1:05:17

Privacy International. It says Palinters

1:05:19

Predictive Policing Program in New Orleans. This

1:05:21

is from February 2018. Under a secret

1:05:23

deal beginning in 2012, the data mining

1:05:25

company Palinter provided software to a New

1:05:27

Orleans Police Department program that used a

1:05:29

variety of data such as ties to

1:05:32

gang members, criminal histories, and social media

1:05:34

to predict the likelihood that individuals would

1:05:36

commit acts of violence or become victims.

1:05:39

This partnership was extended three times

1:05:41

through February 21st, 2018. Even city

1:05:43

council members had no idea the

1:05:45

arrangement existed, though Palantir has used

1:05:47

its New Orleans work as a

1:05:49

reference for multi -million dollar contract with

1:05:51

another agency. here we go political

1:05:54

commentator james carville a paid advisor

1:05:56

to palantir says he is uh...

1:05:58

the driver of this project which

1:06:00

palantir describes as for that for

1:06:02

me critics believe the program is

1:06:04

kept secret because american southerners value

1:06:06

their privacy and it would have

1:06:09

inspired widespread outreach so i love

1:06:11

him talking about fiduciary responsibility i

1:06:13

i also love the idea that

1:06:15

he's uh... immediate Reflexive

1:06:17

reaction to is let's sue this

1:06:19

guy like like with this guy

1:06:21

saying we need to challenge these

1:06:23

old corrupt Democrats who are paid

1:06:25

off and not actually representing our

1:06:28

interests You know what makes sense?

1:06:30

We should sue him for all

1:06:32

he's worth because we they know

1:06:34

this 20 -something year old kid

1:06:36

doesn't have their resources It's so

1:06:38

good for David Hogg. Yeah, good

1:06:40

for David Hogg. It's so bizarre

1:06:42

like also isn't like just

1:06:44

suing people you're like mad at

1:06:46

or disagree with isn't that maga

1:06:49

stuff like yes just doing exactly

1:06:51

what you're talking about uh what

1:06:53

absurdity uh good for david hog

1:06:55

also like komo that's really frustrating

1:06:57

i know he does this a

1:06:59

lot but like it's just maga

1:07:02

it's just maga stuff being angry

1:07:04

Isn't maga stuff like being upset

1:07:06

about uh, like a policy or

1:07:08

the conditions of something That's not

1:07:10

like what maga is about. It's

1:07:13

so childish to be like, well

1:07:15

The the quality of maga is

1:07:17

that they're mad and if you're

1:07:19

mad about something that means that's

1:07:21

what you are primary or primary

1:07:23

Democrat or like doing they're primary

1:07:25

incumbents they they look at what

1:07:27

donald trump and the like his

1:07:29

wing of the party has done

1:07:31

as a major problem for the

1:07:33

republic for the establishment

1:07:35

Republicans, but the base loves it.

1:07:37

And the same thing would happen for

1:07:39

our side. So it's not in MAGA

1:07:41

stuff. It's just like being responsive to

1:07:44

what your voters want. If you think

1:07:46

about it, the Rainbow Coalition was proto

1:07:48

-maga. Yeah. It's just

1:07:50

like, how do you view politics? What do

1:07:52

you want people to do? You're

1:07:55

kind of comparing AOC to Marjorie

1:07:57

Taylor Greene in this way that is

1:07:59

so just... It's not even surface

1:08:01

level. It's above surface level. It's like

1:08:03

this atmospheric sort of vibe. Like,

1:08:05

well, they went up against their

1:08:07

party a little bit. Therefore, they're the

1:08:10

same. But obviously,

1:08:12

people want stronger

1:08:14

representation for what's going

1:08:16

on now. The

1:08:19

Republicans won. They

1:08:21

control all three branches of

1:08:23

government. The Democrats. For all

1:08:25

their other like occasional wins they're

1:08:27

losers and you need to win

1:08:29

in order to exercise power And

1:08:31

so you want people who can

1:08:33

win and then do things like

1:08:35

go to El Salvador Like that's

1:08:37

that's an action that Many people

1:08:39

in the party who have been

1:08:41

in the party for many many

1:08:43

many years would not do And

1:08:45

we're looking for people who have

1:08:47

that in have that dog in

1:08:49

them For this current era, which

1:08:51

clearly leadership is not capable of

1:08:53

contending with Right. Can I just

1:08:55

inject something here as someone who

1:08:57

worked at CNN when Chris Cuomo

1:09:00

was fired? This is

1:09:02

the other big irony is like you

1:09:04

could see his face sort of like

1:09:06

perk up when Carvel's like, well, you're

1:09:08

a lawyer. You can't come

1:09:10

on News Nation where he

1:09:12

now works and promote CNN.

1:09:14

Famously, Chris Cuomo was fired

1:09:16

for helping his brother secretly during

1:09:18

his brother's political crisis and

1:09:20

then lying about it repeatedly

1:09:22

on CNN, which is

1:09:24

why he got fired. And so it's

1:09:27

just like that's an extra layer

1:09:29

of irony. Thank you Russ. Great

1:09:31

point. And his brother

1:09:33

is running as the exact candidate

1:09:35

that those guys really want, which

1:09:38

is basically a Republican light Corporate,

1:09:41

stewed, representing APAC, representing all of

1:09:43

those moneyed interests. And you know

1:09:45

what? When they say we gotta

1:09:47

break off, I would love if

1:09:49

those guys broke off. Please, go,

1:09:52

actually, go become a Republican. I would

1:09:54

love you to become a Republican. Become

1:09:56

a Republican. Please. Or like the business,

1:09:58

the business liberals and take away that

1:10:00

right to take away. I mean, that's

1:10:02

what kind of happened the UK with

1:10:04

like the Lib Dem split from Labour.

1:10:06

But yeah, get out of there, but

1:10:08

also draw more from the right and

1:10:10

the capitalist to break up that party.

1:10:13

They should bring their message to the

1:10:15

suburban Republicans. And I really think that

1:10:17

they would be better served in that

1:10:19

coalition. Like the the amount

1:10:21

that we don't need James Carville

1:10:23

in to win elections cannot be overstated.

1:10:25

it's why like what why is

1:10:27

he on that show like what we

1:10:29

what are we doing why are

1:10:31

we having these nobody like you said

1:10:33

like nobody knows who this person

1:10:35

is either aside from that perfect 30

1:10:37

second clip just drenched in irony

1:10:39

and conflicts and just like wait what

1:10:41

wait a second yeah nobody knows

1:10:43

who this guy is and again james

1:10:45

you're on tv I'm not sure

1:10:47

like what are you doing? Yeah,

1:10:50

I don't I don't know what

1:10:52

I mean he it's like he has

1:10:54

he did the John Federman before

1:10:56

Federman the dressing down to make you

1:10:58

look like every man to just

1:11:00

hope that you're working with Palantir I

1:11:02

just think it's like maybe when

1:11:04

you say when you do a media

1:11:06

tour talking about how we should

1:11:08

play dead as Doge is happening maybe

1:11:10

you should disclose that you are

1:11:12

a Palantir asset I don't know perhaps

1:11:14

maybe maybe not though Maybe. I

1:11:17

don't wanna. I don't wanna.

1:11:19

Do what you want. Get away

1:11:21

with it. He's gonna sue

1:11:23

you for even suggesting it. Exactly,

1:11:25

exactly. The funniest part is

1:11:27

we didn't play like the 30 seconds before

1:11:29

this clip started. What they're talking about is

1:11:32

how important it is to get money out

1:11:34

of politics. Oh my god. That's the lead

1:11:36

-in, the lead -in to this exchange. Yeah,

1:11:38

rough. Oh, every

1:11:41

day. From all sides, it's

1:11:43

so delightful to see just so many people

1:11:45

just like, it's not even, I guess that's

1:11:47

not really lying. It's very

1:11:49

misleading and again, all these

1:11:51

sort of contradictions, but

1:11:53

you can just say whatever. It

1:11:55

doesn't matter anymore. Nope. Before

1:11:58

we let you go, So I wanted

1:12:00

to have just one fun clip talking

1:12:02

about this with you. People

1:12:05

may remember, I think

1:12:07

there's like a legendary old

1:12:09

clip of Michael Brooks losing it

1:12:11

laughing when he found out

1:12:14

Bolsonaro got COVID right? Yes, yes.

1:12:16

so we're keeping the spirit

1:12:18

alive because this man, He

1:12:21

can't, it's like the notebook.

1:12:23

He can't quit the hospital.

1:12:25

He's got to keep going

1:12:27

back. And So

1:12:29

does he have so it's not, much

1:12:32

munchausen's by proxy is when you

1:12:34

hurt your child to get attention. Well

1:12:36

by proxy is the it's of

1:12:38

the child, right so just Munchausen, I'm

1:12:40

not a doctor, I'll just say

1:12:42

this but my understanding is if you

1:12:44

just Munchausen, it's of yourself. Right.

1:12:46

Here, Munchausen syndrome also known as a

1:12:49

Fictitious disorder imposed on self as

1:12:51

a mental disorder where individuals fabricate or

1:12:53

induce symptoms of illness or injury

1:12:55

in themselves attention or sympathy. That's

1:12:59

totally unrelated to the clip we're about

1:13:01

to show you Jair Bolsonaro in the hospital

1:13:03

again. This

1:13:15

is the music out of jocks. He's

1:13:21

such a hero. He's

1:13:44

like Michael

1:13:46

Jordan here at

1:13:49

home. There

1:13:51

he is. Sorry.

1:13:56

Who? Sorry, Who shared

1:13:58

that and who put music on

1:14:00

it? Jair Bolsonaro. It's

1:14:02

a hype update. Which

1:14:05

is why I'm not a nationalist I

1:14:07

think you know being Nationalistic is silly,

1:14:09

but I do think Brazil is the

1:14:11

greatest country in the world Can you

1:14:13

imagine if instead of what we have

1:14:15

now? Donald Trump was walking around with

1:14:18

a shirt off and like if these

1:14:20

were images Oh my god, I know

1:14:22

how joyful it is right now to

1:14:24

be a Brazilian only

1:14:28

um it's so good uh

1:14:30

it's like uh i want to

1:14:32

i wish it was what

1:14:34

what's that talk show where the

1:14:36

guests uh do dance down

1:14:38

the hallway now the jennifer hudson

1:14:40

uh show like that's all

1:14:42

i could think about during that

1:14:44

clip yeah it was a

1:14:46

little interview I mean, honestly,

1:14:48

it's like when you watch the NBA

1:14:51

playoffs and like LeBron or, you know,

1:14:53

whatever, Steph Curry is coming last out

1:14:55

of the tunnel and it's like, oh

1:14:57

my God, here he comes. You

1:15:02

may not like it, but this is what

1:15:04

peak male performance looks like that's the one

1:15:06

weird thing about fascism in 2025 as opposed

1:15:08

to like a hundred years ago where they

1:15:10

were trying to make it was like the

1:15:12

uber mentioned to be like a poster of

1:15:15

a guy looking like Superman or something like

1:15:17

that now It's like JD Vance whining that

1:15:19

people are mean to him on Twitter and

1:15:21

Bolsonaro being sick, right? It's

1:15:25

even the tech bros like

1:15:27

being little twerps and and Elon

1:15:29

Musk like just being the

1:15:31

most awkward guy imaginable who without

1:15:33

his wealth would not even, yeah. It

1:15:35

can't stop whining. It's so, uh,

1:15:37

it's very funny, but it is also

1:15:39

like, but you're in power right

1:15:41

now. Like, just shut up and do

1:15:43

the evil shit you want to

1:15:45

do. Like, it's only whining.

1:15:47

They're all like, you're the richest man

1:15:49

in the world. You complain about

1:15:51

a tweet. Like, just get it together.

1:15:54

It is a very funny, pathetic version

1:15:56

of fascism, which they all are. you

1:15:58

know um but it's just hard to

1:16:00

hide in this media environment maybe exactly

1:16:02

they like yeah like jd spends i

1:16:04

don't know what his job is but

1:16:07

it seems to be just tweeting at

1:16:09

random accounts and like getting into quote

1:16:11

tweet arguments with people and obviously lying

1:16:13

amidst it but being like i i'm

1:16:15

so tired of this emotional manipulation and

1:16:17

so i'm gonna Do it back to

1:16:19

you or whatever. It's like it's the

1:16:21

only way Trump lets him out of

1:16:23

his cage because like he basically completely

1:16:25

discarded him after the election. He he

1:16:28

was the bag man that brought the

1:16:30

skeptical Peter Teal on board and no

1:16:32

long. He has no longer and then

1:16:34

the what then the Internet made fun

1:16:36

of his appearance. And so he had

1:16:38

to do a week long tour where

1:16:40

he like shot a bunch of guns

1:16:42

and called them freedom seeds to make

1:16:44

himself feel better. Freedom. Did

1:16:46

it work? Did you see that? No.

1:16:51

It's either it's either a White House

1:16:53

official tweet or a JD Vance

1:16:55

official tweet and it's him in like

1:16:57

fatigues or whatever is shooting a

1:16:59

gun And it's like we're spreading freedom

1:17:01

seeds is the so the bullets

1:17:03

are freedom seeds. Here we go Yeah,

1:17:05

you just see even this internet

1:17:07

whiny little like Just

1:17:09

the least president of the United

1:17:11

States sending from see freedom seeds

1:17:14

downrange doesn't get more American than

1:17:16

that It's so weird and gross.

1:17:18

It's like this and Vance does

1:17:20

it the most the White House

1:17:22

obviously does it when they're with

1:17:24

their Honestly f'd up deportation tweets

1:17:27

with like the AI stuff and

1:17:29

all that but it's just weird

1:17:31

like Tweet like millennial

1:17:33

way of like posting irony pilled

1:17:35

online nothing Matt This is

1:17:37

why the Democrats best weapon is

1:17:39

sincerity and humanism like this

1:17:41

is this has a shelf life

1:17:43

people don't want these whiny

1:17:45

bitches all the time anymore like

1:17:47

come on here They don't

1:17:50

believe anything like half the stuff

1:17:52

they say it's just like

1:17:54

they need to post something and

1:17:56

they know the tone needs

1:17:58

to be how it is and

1:18:00

indignant it's great Yeah, even

1:18:02

like freedom seeds the freedom seeds thing I

1:18:04

don't think even appeals to most gun or

1:18:06

like I think it splits gun people I

1:18:08

think there's like certain type of like guy

1:18:10

who buys a gun and like fantasizes about

1:18:13

some sort of like Zombie scenario or maybe

1:18:15

a race or scenario that likes the thing

1:18:17

that the freedom seeds I think a lot

1:18:19

of you like what what are you talking

1:18:21

about right? It's it's the weird thing honestly

1:18:23

like it's that it's like every day they're

1:18:25

like it's they post something or they something

1:18:27

and it's like yeah, they Walls was right.

1:18:30

They're weird. It's very off -putting. And

1:18:32

I think we're seeing so much of

1:18:34

it, like obviously the actions of the

1:18:36

administration are very appalling. But I think

1:18:38

also the personality and the vibes are

1:18:40

so weird and off that that's also

1:18:42

off -putting for a lot of people

1:18:44

who they think they're playing to. But

1:18:47

ultimately, it's like, what is this?

1:18:49

You're just like... do you guys want

1:18:51

to get a cat turd online

1:18:53

like yeah you're so it makes them

1:18:55

look small but also what is

1:18:58

the freedom seeds thing supposed to mean

1:19:00

in the context of an administration

1:19:02

that is saying

1:19:04

they're anti -war exactly. So

1:19:07

like the bullets are so you're you're

1:19:09

just doing the bush neocon thing and

1:19:11

spreading freedom around the world through violence

1:19:13

and speaking of bush that's what must

1:19:15

have been like that I'm almost longing

1:19:17

for the days of his level of

1:19:19

like going away retirement kind of thing

1:19:21

where like maybe there was some manly

1:19:23

there's more manliness in him painting those

1:19:25

those paintings of dogs and whatever the

1:19:27

hell Bolsonaro's yeah like like Shiley confronting

1:19:29

his demons I guess in the bath

1:19:31

by himself like okay go do that

1:19:33

yeah it's also like I mean the

1:19:35

you know the van the freedom seed

1:19:37

thing I'm pretty sure was the same

1:19:39

week that He went to Greenland for

1:19:41

three hours and then did that speech

1:19:43

where he was talking about how like,

1:19:45

yeah, we're going to like provide you

1:19:47

with all the resources. We're going to

1:19:49

give you even more money. I think

1:19:51

he said like an extra $100 billion

1:19:53

more dollars for the military. And he

1:19:55

said the phrase like, if we ever

1:19:57

go to war or when we send

1:19:59

you to war and then you correct

1:20:01

himself, like if we ever have to

1:20:03

send you to war, they're the war

1:20:05

administration. They just have to

1:20:07

have this sort of veneer of light

1:20:09

but we also hate that we have

1:20:11

to we don't want to do the

1:20:13

war but they're gonna make us do

1:20:15

all these wars um it's very pathetic

1:20:17

um how did they how are they

1:20:19

we're supposed to think they're bringing masculinity

1:20:21

back and this level of just bitching

1:20:23

is i mean but it is the

1:20:26

fascist thing and to bring it back

1:20:28

to bolson arrow Both we

1:20:30

can start the opponents are

1:20:32

both incredibly strong and also super

1:20:34

weak and we are both

1:20:36

incredibly strong But also super weak

1:20:38

at the same time. It's

1:20:40

this actually contradiction that only is

1:20:42

reinforced by their very black

1:20:44

and white Dogmatic categories they have

1:20:46

all the talking points and

1:20:48

they're like We're

1:20:50

gonna like just like yeah,

1:20:53

we're gonna like destroy these

1:20:55

soy boys who are after

1:20:57

us. Oh, no Yeah, they

1:20:59

do that all the time

1:21:01

and they can't have it

1:21:03

both ways I guess because

1:21:05

it works for some people,

1:21:08

but it's just such an

1:21:10

obvious play and back and

1:21:12

forth Also, they are not

1:21:14

a spread given their whole

1:21:16

like fixation on keeping women

1:21:18

in the home. I wouldn't

1:21:20

call them spreading freedom seeds

1:21:22

Yeah, it's more of like

1:21:25

a chattel seed situation But

1:21:27

yeah gross Johnson Everybody's got

1:21:29

to check out some more

1:21:31

news. I mean, where are

1:21:33

you guys at? Over 900 ,000

1:21:35

subscribers at this point nine.

1:21:37

Yeah a little over 900

1:21:40

,000 We do a weekly

1:21:42

long form like written show

1:21:44

and then we have two podcasts beginning at

1:21:46

the end of the week where we talk

1:21:48

about all the things that too many things

1:21:51

happen. Well,

1:21:54

you guys do amazing work over there. Some more

1:21:56

news. We'll put a link to that in

1:21:58

the description below wherever people are listening to or

1:22:00

watching this. Yes. I

1:22:03

have to say this just in the context of

1:22:05

all the temple of it all. Check out my band

1:22:07

and I'm not being I'm not joking. Check out

1:22:09

my band. We're called the hot shapes. We're online. I

1:22:12

didn't name my band after

1:22:14

my podcast. Unlike

1:22:16

some brilliant artists. Yeah,

1:22:19

you didn't. OK, gotcha. I had to

1:22:21

say it. Sorry. Check

1:22:23

out that band. I got to check

1:22:25

it out, too. Cody, thanks so much.

1:22:27

Really appreciate your time today. I love

1:22:29

all the work you all do here,

1:22:31

especially in this era. It's so laser -focused

1:22:33

and sharp, and you don't

1:22:36

let all the stuff distract

1:22:38

you, and I really appreciate

1:22:40

it. I appreciate that, too.

1:22:42

Thanks so much, Cody. Alright

1:22:45

guys, with that we're going to

1:22:47

wrap up the first part of this

1:22:49

program, the free part of the program.

1:22:51

We're going to head into the fun

1:22:53

half. Got a little thing, some business

1:22:56

to attend to year. Oh, Jesus Christ. Thank

1:22:59

you. Thank you. Happy birthday. Thank

1:23:01

you so much. I'll look at that

1:23:03

fire in the studio. Boom.

1:23:06

Boom. Oh, is this Funfetti? It's

1:23:09

called birthday cake. Birthday cake. I

1:23:11

mean... Thank you

1:23:13

guys. Thank you so much. I

1:23:15

love this flavor. I'm not always a cake person,

1:23:17

so you took a risk here, but I

1:23:19

don't know where I put that fork. I may

1:23:21

have dropped it on the ground, whatever the

1:23:24

plastic fork that was over there and threw it

1:23:26

out. I'm sorry, Russ. I

1:23:29

didn't know if that was for me, but oh, I

1:23:31

have a spoon here. All right, don't worry about it.

1:23:33

Thank you guys so much. That's really sweet. But

1:23:36

I did get some beers for the

1:23:38

fun half, which I always enjoy doing sometimes.

1:23:40

Thank you on a Friday on a

1:23:42

special occasion. always enjoy doing sometimes. Sometimes.

1:23:46

My words kind of sometimes

1:23:48

fall apart when I'm 99 %

1:23:50

of the time. Also

1:23:54

like. you know my mom was trying to

1:23:56

like just like let's all get together as

1:23:58

a family I'm like I got this I

1:24:00

got the wedding I'm under a mic like

1:24:02

I just feel like there's too much attention

1:24:04

on me so I get awkward and sometimes

1:24:06

uh Some blow over my words

1:24:08

and don't make eye contact. But anyway guys,

1:24:11

thank you so much. It's really sweet

1:24:13

for you guys to remember my birthday and

1:24:15

I'll have a bite. And then Matt, as

1:24:17

I'm doing that, will tell us what's happening

1:24:19

on left reckoning. Yeah, left reckoning. We had

1:24:21

Grace Thorvalson on talking about some anti -vax stuff

1:24:23

in Colorado and Jared Polis being a sort

1:24:25

of a libertarian caucus Democrat governor. So

1:24:28

check that out. We're going to do a Sunday

1:24:30

show. Patreon.com is just left reckoning for members. We're

1:24:33

just shy of a thousand members.

1:24:35

So if you want to get the Sunday

1:24:37

show, like the 900 and some other

1:24:40

people that get it, patreon.com slash left record.

1:24:42

And also subscribe to us on Twitch. All

1:24:46

right, folks, join the majority

1:24:48

report.com. If you'd like to support this show, please

1:24:50

do. It keeps us resilient in these turbulent

1:24:52

times. We will see you in the fun half.

1:24:56

Okay, Emma, please. Well, I just, I

1:24:58

feel that my voice is sorely

1:25:00

lacking on the majority report. Wait, look,

1:25:03

look, Sam is unpopular. I do deserve a

1:25:05

vacation at Disney World. So ladies and

1:25:07

gentlemen, it is my pleasure to welcome Emma

1:25:09

to the show. It is Thursday. I

1:25:12

think you need to take over for Sam.

1:25:14

Yes, please. Sir, I'm gonna, I'm gonna, I'm

1:25:16

gonna pause you right there. Wait, what? You

1:25:18

can't encourage Emma to live like this. And

1:25:21

I'll tell you why. So what's offered are

1:25:23

tort, sushi, and poker. I

1:25:50

just think that what you did

1:25:52

to Tim Pool was mean. Free

1:25:54

speech. That's not what we're about

1:25:56

here. Look at how sad he's become

1:25:58

now. You shouldn't even talk about it because

1:26:00

I think you're responsible. I probably am

1:26:02

in a certain way, but let's get to

1:26:04

the meltdown here I'm

1:26:30

losing my fucking eyes The people just

1:26:32

don't understand I'm not trying to be

1:26:34

a dick right now, but like I

1:26:36

absolutely think the US should be colliding

1:26:38

on me with a wife and kids

1:26:41

That's not what we're talking

1:26:43

about here It's

1:26:45

not a fun job That's

1:26:54

the real thing. That's the real thing. That's

1:26:56

the real thing. thing. That's the real

1:26:59

thing. the real thing. That's at work? thing.

1:27:01

gentlemen Joe Wilgen has done it again

1:27:03

Offered at work? That's a real thing That's

1:27:05

that awkward boy I think he might

1:27:07

be blowing it out of proportion Real thing

1:27:09

That's that awkward boy That's offered at

1:27:11

work? That's a real thing That's that awkward

1:27:13

boy Let's go, Joe Sushi

1:27:15

and awkward boy Take it easy, don't

1:27:17

work Sushi and awkward boy Things have

1:27:19

really gotten out of hand Sushi and

1:27:21

awkward boy It's a lose and off

1:27:23

work Lude Sushi, you don't have a

1:27:25

clue as to what's going on Live,

1:27:28

YouTube Sam has played the weight of

1:27:30

the world on his shoulders Sam doesn't

1:27:32

want to do this show anymore He

1:27:34

do it anymore It was so much

1:27:36

easier When the Majority Report was just

1:27:38

you And you were happy Let's change

1:27:40

the subject Bruh Ranger's a

1:27:42

nix, you're doing great Nah, shut up Don't

1:27:44

want people saying reckless things on your

1:27:46

program That's one of the most difficult parts

1:27:48

about this show This is a pro -killing

1:27:51

podcast I'm thinking maybe it's time we

1:27:53

buried the hatchet Left is best. Tronfilot

1:27:55

Torp foolish and tweet at

1:27:57

me And don't bitch That's

1:28:17

a tougher question than having answers. Incredible

1:28:24

Steam Song. Emma Viglin, absolutely

1:28:26

one of my favorite people. Actually

1:28:28

not just in the game,

1:28:31

like period. We

1:28:43

are back, folks. I should

1:28:45

have opened this with the mic. It

1:28:47

would have been very satisfying. But here's

1:28:49

my high noon. We're

1:28:51

enjoying Stella over there, I

1:28:53

believe. Cheers. Correct.

1:28:55

Cheers. Thank you guys. Happy

1:28:57

birthday to me. Enjoying a little beverage

1:28:59

for the fun half. It's been a long week. Feliz

1:29:02

aniversario, as Bolsonaro

1:29:04

would say. Feliz aniversario. You

1:29:07

got to flex that a little bit

1:29:09

more that you know three languages, right? Portuguese,

1:29:12

Spanish, and English.

1:29:15

There you go. The

1:29:19

amazing Grando. Interesting. Emma made a wish and

1:29:21

blew out the candle, but I've yet to

1:29:23

see any breaking news. Happy birthday, regardless. We're

1:29:27

almost there a whole week of

1:29:29

sandbien on vacation without any like... I

1:29:31

know. Bloomberg still around. I wonder

1:29:33

if his mission hit a snag. Congressional

1:29:37

baseball fan James Carvel's One

1:29:39

True Town is smelling the winds

1:29:42

of change like a cartoon

1:29:44

character smelling pie on a windowsill.

1:29:49

Humble Southern listener interesting seeing

1:29:51

more folks in GOP Kentucky

1:29:53

that are now signing nervous nervous

1:29:55

about tariffs and ignoring the

1:29:57

courts. Basic Republicans not Magicaltus

1:29:59

obviously. I haven't seen

1:30:01

that but that's interesting because as

1:30:03

I said before like both

1:30:05

Rand Paul and McConnell the senators

1:30:07

from Kentucky have been um

1:30:09

really outspoken against the tariffs in

1:30:11

part because of how massive

1:30:13

the bourbon industry there is there

1:30:15

and how important their relationship

1:30:17

is with canada as um a

1:30:19

trade relationship with that bourbon

1:30:21

it's smart for foreign countries to

1:30:23

target say musk proper musk

1:30:25

musk sort of uh investments or

1:30:28

red state stuff unfortunately and

1:30:30

that's i think like Maybe

1:30:32

it's Trudeau or those folks up

1:30:34

there in Canada. We're saying they're gonna

1:30:36

do that like yeah, it's it's

1:30:38

red states. We're gonna go out target.

1:30:40

Yeah Risu says can I get

1:30:42

the show far for my cousin Steven

1:30:44

who passed away this week only

1:30:46

a few years younger than Emma? He

1:30:48

was a huge Yankees nicks and

1:30:50

man city fan. I'm so sorry to

1:30:52

hear about your loss This goes

1:30:54

out goes out to Steven Lots

1:31:03

of very nice happy birthdays,

1:31:06

Mia Pink, Crotchy, Lori, Center

1:31:09

Spiral, Nate

1:31:11

the Great, Jules, thank you

1:31:13

all so much. Matt

1:31:18

from Brazil, just to add some

1:31:20

context to the Bolsonaro clip, he

1:31:22

always gets sick when he's under threat of

1:31:24

being imprisoned. See,

1:31:27

that's the thing is, we've done

1:31:29

this many times with Bolsonaro, countless in

1:31:31

fact, and... After like the fifth

1:31:33

or sixth time I start to feel

1:31:35

like it's it's not we're not

1:31:37

laughing at him Well, we are laughing

1:31:39

at him, but we're laughing at

1:31:41

him sort of having some sort of

1:31:44

fetishistic Hospital play thing going on

1:31:46

like it's very strange how often he's

1:31:48

there and how much he views

1:31:50

it as a photo op. Yeah J

1:31:52

.R. and Philly James Carville is a

1:31:54

function of our society's unlimited ability

1:31:56

to recycle old ideas. He's like the

1:31:58

political Marvel movie M

1:32:02

says Carvel talking, talked

1:32:05

at my university about,

1:32:08

or at the height of Bernie's first run. And someone

1:32:10

asked him what he thought of Bernie and he

1:32:12

essentially said young people were being stupid for liking Bernie

1:32:14

and that we just need to give up on

1:32:16

him. Joanna,

1:32:19

so glad Kogi came on. I love some

1:32:21

more news. I'm thankful for progressive content. I'd

1:32:23

be completely mad without it. Pandemic

1:32:28

anxiety, Chuck had to yield to

1:32:30

Trump because he made that anti -BB

1:32:32

speech and had to get back in

1:32:34

the donor's good graces. He tried

1:32:36

to strike BB and miss. He has

1:32:38

such bad timing. Dark

1:32:45

soul, Chuck Schumer calling for the public to

1:32:47

do vigilante justice before he has to do

1:32:49

his job. Plastic

1:32:54

Oceans. Dang, Emma didn't pull any punches

1:32:56

in that interview. Good to see. Thank you.

1:33:01

Tim in Toronto. Hey, I'm wondering if it's

1:33:03

worth talking about countering the narrative that because

1:33:05

Garcia is alive, Seacot must not be that

1:33:07

bad as per Bukele's reaction on Twitter to

1:33:09

Van Hollen meeting with Garcia. To be clear,

1:33:12

this is a huge win that Van Hollen

1:33:14

got and showed courage to find and meet

1:33:16

with Garcia. I just wanted to consider with

1:33:18

this victory what comes next. Well, he still

1:33:20

hasn't been released. i mean

1:33:22

i the man who's

1:33:24

the the hairdresser is

1:33:26

still in there there's

1:33:28

so many many people

1:33:31

many many people uh...

1:33:33

but you know uh...

1:33:35

where's the the hairdresser

1:33:37

from uh... who is

1:33:39

his senator we know

1:33:41

there's no excuse uh...

1:33:43

his name is andre

1:33:45

jose hernandez romero uh...

1:33:47

I'm trying to find

1:33:49

out where he lives. But

1:33:55

we'll see. I'm

1:33:58

not sure. Russ

1:34:00

will look into that.

1:34:02

But this happened because

1:34:04

Chris Van Hollen decided

1:34:06

to actually be a

1:34:08

real senator and leader.

1:34:13

But I agree 100 % that

1:34:15

this is only a step.

1:34:17

There are so many more

1:34:20

people. Even if Abril

1:34:22

Garcia was brought home today, which

1:34:24

would be amazing news, nobody

1:34:27

should be there. We should not

1:34:29

be sending anyone, even confirmed gang

1:34:31

members. We have prisons here. We

1:34:33

should not be sending anyone to a

1:34:35

prison where if someone is sent there

1:34:37

accidentally, we can't get them out.

1:34:40

That partnership has to be done. Yep.

1:34:45

Lily Cheney, please call Van Hollen's office

1:34:48

and thank him, especially if you're

1:34:50

in Maryland. MJS

1:34:54

617. Emma, there seemed to be a lot

1:34:56

of barrage of messaging yesterday coming from inside

1:34:58

the house that advocated for abandoning the immigration

1:35:00

issue because it remained a strong point for

1:35:02

Trump and polling. It all seemed very coordinated.

1:35:04

Harry Enting was at the tip of the

1:35:06

spear. Chris Eliza to

1:35:08

Gavin Newsom. It's a little

1:35:10

bit. It's a little bit

1:35:12

rich from the people who were not

1:35:15

able to understand the cost of living

1:35:17

crisis back during the last primary to

1:35:19

the point where it was a major

1:35:21

liability for the Biden and Harris campaigns.

1:35:23

Now all of a sudden saying we

1:35:25

need to stay focused to bread and

1:35:27

butter issues. As we mentioned yesterday, the

1:35:29

already stark collapse in tourism is a

1:35:32

material issue. That's not because of the

1:35:34

tariffs. It's because of what they're doing

1:35:36

at the border processing stuff. So

1:35:39

Like those folks, they're complicit.

1:35:41

There are Vici Democrats that

1:35:43

are collaborating with fascists and

1:35:45

don't actually... Chuck Schumer is

1:35:48

an anti -Palestinian fanatic, and he

1:35:50

leads the Democrats in the

1:35:52

Senate. He's not alone, also.

1:35:55

Yeah. Vince...

1:35:58

Lortho Emma folks like you help

1:36:00

me journey from 90s neocon to

1:36:02

bonafide Pinko Kami happy birthday and

1:36:04