6/25/26: Dems Panic After Zohran Sweeps NYC, DSA Chairs Slam Stephen Miller Smears

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We need your help to build the future of independent news media, and we hope to see you at breakingpoints.com. Good morning, everybody. Welcome to Breaking Points. Commie Takeover Edition, Ryan Grimm. Great. to see you, sir. Good to see you again. How you doing? Doing good. A lot to get into this morning. We've got the establishment in full meltdown over the election results in New York City. So you and I will watch that with a lot of interest and some delight. A lot of react to react to there. We also have the NYC-DSA co-chairs who are going to join us to talk about these wins, what they mean, what their plans are going forward. We've got a very bizarre situation unfolding with Trump who is refusing to sign this bipartisan housing affordability.

bill unless Republicans pass his like election rigging bill called the Save America Act. So he is literally holding affordable housing hostage to his like election rigging plots. So that's an interesting one. There was also a really messy, weird situation, a shouting match between Trump and Senator Bill Cassidy, who just lost his primary over a war powers resolution with regard to Iran that actually did pass the Senate with Bill Cassidy and Rand Paul's help. Things have progressed since there. I will not spoil the ending of how this is all unfolding, but very weird situation.

We also wanted to dig into these truly outrageous sentences that have been handed down in a case of ICE protesters down in Texas. Our friend Piscoe is going to join and give us the full legal analysis of what each of these individuals did, the sentences that have been handed down so far and why this is so extraordinarily different from the way these types of cases have been handled previously. And we've got Corey Doctoro joining us. He's the author of Inshitification. He has a lot of thoughts about how we should think about AI, whether it's a bubble, how you should approach the use of AI in your own life. And he has a new book out called Reverse Centaur.

That's part of the title anyway. That was the part that stuck in my mind about how to live in this new age of AI. Yeah, and I think that's going to be interesting. I think our audience is going to completely side with him, Although I think you and I have a lot of questions about his take here. Well, don't tell our audience who decide with yet. We can make our case, right? I think they're not going to be with us.

But that's okay. That's okay. All right. Before we get into the main blocks in the show, we did want to acknowledge the horrific situation that is unfolding down in Venezuela after a pair of dueling very severe earthquakes, 7.2 and 7.5 magnitude, terrifying images coming out of, Caracas and of other cities. The epicenter was to the west of the Venezuelan capital of Caracas.

Go ahead and put these images up on the screen, please, Eric. So the first video here is the airport in Caracas. This is, it's wild to me the number of people who got their phones out and recorded this because there are just unbelievable images coming out. I would just be running in terror personally as this is all unfolding. There are a lot of buildings down. This is in another Venezuelan city of Ligwira. You can see buildings that have collapsed there, smoke, filling the streets, you know, just scenes of really apocalyptic horror reminiscent of some of the war-ravage scenes that we've seen recently. Here's another image. I believe this is also from that city of Ligwira, which is to the west of Caracas, closer to the epicenter, but a lot of significant

damage in the capital as well. And Ryan, as of right now, the death count stands at over 160 people. Unfortunately, that is certainly going to rise and you have, you know, thousands who have been injured because you've had multiple of these high-rise buildings in a number of Venezuelan cities that have just completely collapsed. So rescuers are searching through the rubble trying to figure out, you know, if they can find survivors from those building collapses. Yeah, and a lot of these are old buildings that are not in great shape, particularly in Caracas. And you're looking at the damage to some of these. And you're going to be it's going to be a combination of either kind of a mass displacement event or people

you can just being forced to and choosing to live in the kind of buildings that would not pass let's say you know you're a typical building code and so fortunately LaGuarda is not a very big city but it looks like it was just completely devastated we'll be following this to see not just the kind of, you know, how big of a mass casualty event it was on this day, but what the effect is going to be and people's ability to remain where they are over the next weeks, months, and years. Yeah, and it's obviously a country that has struggled significantly in recent years with our sanctions and high levels of poverty and inflation, and we just kidnapped their

leader, so a lot of tumult resulting from that as well. So we will keep our eye on it. All right, with that being said, let's go ahead and transition to. talking about some of the establishment fallout and what people are saying, both on camera and off camera from the Democratic Party and the Democratic Party leadership about these incredible victories for Zohran Mamdani and Zohran Mamdani and the DSA wing of the Democratic Party. Ryan, I wanted to start with an oldie but a goodie here. James Carville, always colorful, you know, never a shrinking violet here, I would say, has some thoughts on what should come next for the Democratic Party. This is a

Let's take a lesson. In the New York Times reported, and I have the quote right here, I'll get to it. She is against past off all of abuse. She has attacked interracial relationships in the American flag. Lady, I ain't in the same party as you. I'm sorry. I just not. And I actually do think it's time for Democrats to.

talk the S word, schism. I really do. Everybody's always said, no, no, we're coalition, we're a big tent. And there's just some shit that I can't be in the same tent with. He's ready for a divorce. He's ready to break up with some elements of the Democratic Party. You know what's funny, Ryan is I don't know if you follow this, but Carville just, what was that, a week ago, two weeks ago, was out of vociferously defending Graham Platner, who has very similar ideological

views. I don't know if he said all the things that Dari Liza has said, for example, but Claire Valdez, Zohran Mamdani and Zohran Mamdani, I mean, they're very much in line on the vast majority of their ideological positions. Carvel's got no problem with him. So I do think there may be a little bit of a bias that comes with some of this commentary, but it does kind of echo some of the views that were expressed in, I guess, a little bit more of a soft way from Jamie Harrison. We can put A8 up on the screen, former DNC chair. This got a lot of attention. He says, I say this with no ill will or animosity. If you hate the Democratic Party, then please don't run for our nomination. Don't use our resources.

Don't rely on our volunteers. Don't use our infrastructure. Don't ask Democrats to invest their time, money, and energy in your campaign. Focus on building the party you actually support. Political parties are not perfect, but they're built by millions of people who knock doors, make calls, organized meetings, and fight for the values they believe in. If you don't believe in the party, then don't ask its members to carry you across the finish line. You know, obviously, like the most obvious response to this is I think the voters in the Democratic Party get to

decide whether who gets to be in the party and who they want their nominee to be. That is democracy, which is something the Democratic Party leadership has frankly struggled with. But the other thing, Ryan, that was amusing to me, is this would be the same camp of people who when people actually do run as third party candidates, like a, you know, a Jill Stein or something, lose their minds over that and act like they're, you know, complete traitors and fascists and spoilers and how dare you. The reality is they just don't want real anti-corporate views to be expressed anywhere on the political spectrum. They want them to be pushed down of the Democratic Party. They don't want them to run as third parties. They just want them to go away and not exist.

Right. The phrase our volunteers and the phrase our time, energy, and money is wild coming from Jamie Harrison. It's like, a volunteer's time is not yours. He's the DNC chair. You don't own that volunteer. You don't own that, that you don't control that person. If you pay them, like they're a lobbyist and then you make them a DNC member, then yes, then you own that in the sense that you have built that relationship. But a volunteer, if a volunteer decides to canvas for a candidate, the DNC doesn't own that. Like, that's their free will. You need to go out and present something more appealing to them.

Now, on the Carville point, it's interesting. I actually think there should be kind of a complete and total amnesty for, you know, anybody that said anything during Woke 1. Like if you said something about the American flag or the interracial relationships or, you know, she had this weird tweet about colonizers, dating people or whatever. It's like, look, we're going to declare bankruptcy on Woke 1.0. We're all moving on. And I did an interview on Carville's podcast several years ago.

People could probably go find it, where I said to him, look, you're complaining about this woke stuff. It was you and your 2016 Hillary Clinton campaign that really supercharged this stuff because you didn't want to fight Bernie Sanders on economics, on class. You wanted to fight him on the questions of racism and sexism and homophobia. And you declared Bernie Sanders in his entire movement to be these awful things. and that actually, you know, ending racism doesn't actually break up the big banks. So why are you talking about, or breaking up the big banks doesn't end racism? So why are you talking about breaking up the big banks? You created this maze of insanity that became this albatross around the Democratic Party's neck.

So if people followed you into that maze, you can't then pick up their tweets from like 2019 and say, oh, they can't be in the party anymore. Now, if it's 2026 and you're still talking like that, okay, well, then you really haven't filed for bankruptcy on Woke 1.0, and we can talk about that. But there has to be a way to kind of turn the page. And if the left is willing to overlook war, bankrupting the entire country through the subprime crisis and the financial crisis, the immense amounts of corruption, that have, like, drained the possibility of achieving the American dream from people. So that's willing to overlook that and still work with the kind of Carville winning of the party. And I think they can overlook some weird tweets that were actually really galvanized by the kind of Clinton wing of the party itself.

True. And we're going to talk with the DSA co-chairs about Letitia James's, Letitia James' comments in the wake of these victories. I mean, she's someone who's seen, she's certainly a progressive. You know, she's seen, she's not DSA, but she's Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez endorsed her, didn't endorse others, but did endorse her. And she came out and said that there's hurt feelings tonight, particularly in communities of color. So it's, again, this weaponization of identity, whereas if you look, look at Claire Valdez's coalition, look at Daria Liza's coalition, you know, look at Brad Lander's coalition. Daria Liza, it looks like one, black voters in her district. So this very tribal, you know, plea to identity is once again being used by the, you know, the more moderate portion of the party. So that hasn't ended.

And of course, we see it deployed in accusations of anti-Semitism all the time. And that's been, you know, we'll get to some of that, which, of course, there's been a complete meltdown from a lot of corners, both of the Democratic Party but also of the media. Go ahead, Ryan. Just real quick on Letitia James. She was the first working families party candidate ever to win without fusing on the Democratic line. Wow. Like she literally came in as a non-democrat and shook up the system.

I'm Munges shit together and I'm back with a new season of the podcast Skyline Drive. This time I'm diving into a rabbit hole of peptides, organoids, blood boys, blue zones and brain replacement to try to understand what this longevity obsession is all about. and what it really means to live forever, for all of us. I learned about some rad science. I can make a brain for you, and then we can test what draw is the best for your brain, as opposed to his brain. Here are some hard truths.

I would expect Indians to age faster, but I did not expect it to be almost a four to five-year acceleration. And get myself into a world of trouble. I'd say probably start bone smashing. That doesn't work. To make it look more defined. They say it works. I don't know.

Listen to Skyline Drive, How to Live Forever on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is Michael Rappaport, and my podcast, the I Am Rappaport Stereo Podcast, is unlike anyone you've ever heard. We're a variety show, and if you're looking for strong opinions,

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Right. Well, and here's the thing is the problem for Carvel is if we actually took seriously this proposal of like, okay, but, you know what? The people who oppose genocide are going to go in this party and the people who support it are going to stay in the good old Democratic Party, you're going to be pretty lonely over there. You're going to have a lot of electives with you. But that is the problem for these characters now is the Democratic Party, in terms of the base, there is no real schism. News media loves to write, oh, the schism and the divide and the Democratic Party over Israel. No. The only divide.

is between the elected leadership, which is completely out of touch and immoral, and the base. The base is over. While we're talking 90%, basically have a very similar view on this issue at this point. So I don't think you're going to like the way that that cookie crumbles. And that speaks to also the willingness to overlook things that Daria Lisa has said that are certainly, you know, would not poll well with the American public or even probably with Democratic primary voters. But when you're considering a moral landscape that includes people who have run cover for or actively supported the mass murder of babies and children, you look at like an uncouth tweet about the American flag and you're like, so what? You want to preach to me about morality, given what you people have supported? And then, of course, it's also against the backdrop of Trump and his entire party being completely insane and the authoritarian crackdowns and the ICE end.

invasions and, of course, the war with Iran, bombing little girls' school, continuing to push forward this genocide. You know, this Gaza peace deal, complete sham, Palestinians continue to be murdered every single day, which you guys have done incredible reporting on. You look at that moral landscape and you're like, you want me to be upset about this tweet that she sent out? I don't think so, right? I think that she has a much more moral position that is closer to my values than these

people over here. Yeah. Yeah, I think that's exactly right. Let's go ahead and take a listen to the ladies of the view talking a little bit about this exact topic and specifically tackling, you know, Dari Elisa and her views. This is A9. Let's listen. But the fact of pro-Palestinian and- No, there were pro-Hamil's chance to be taking place at this rally. October 8th, the only thing that had happened is that Israel had been attacked and people had been brutally murdered and raped. And so on October 8th, I don't think there needed to be rallies cheering on Hamas.

You're calling her an anti-Semi? Oh, I'm going to full-blown call her an anti-Semi. She would proudly call herself that, trust me. And I recall a lot of people talking about Zohran Mamdani and what a terrible mayor he was going to be and what an anti-Semite he was. And he has proven to be quite the opposite. And he's proven to be a kingmaker, a leader. Great for this city.

So, Ryan, she says that Dari Elisa would probably proudly call herself an anti-Semite. That is absolutely insane and frankly defamatory. And the freak out, not just over her, but over, you know, Brad Lander, who, is himself a Jewish man, but happens to have a much more moral and principled view with regard to Israel and all these tweets from, you know, Megan McCain, oh my God, Jews aren't saved to my beautiful Jewish friends. I stand with you. You're not alone. Well, guess what? Lots and lots of New York Jews just voted for Brad Lander, just voted for these other candidates who won, have been leaders in the movement against the genocide. Our top leaders in Zohran Mamdani's campaign,

and in his governing apparatus. So, you know, talk about woke 1.0. Like, I think Woke 2.0 here has gone further than anything we've seen ever in the past. Yes. Yes. I think New York 10, where Brad Lander won, probably has the second biggest Jewish population of any congressional district in the city. And those voters went overwhelmingly for Brad Lander.

So, like, I'm sorry for Dan Goldman, but you don't. Like, that does not mean that like all Jews in New York City are at risk here. To say that she is ipso facto anti-Semitic just for showing up at the October 8th rally just forgets the basic fact that we know now, because we know Dyerleases history, that she had been an activist on this issue for a very long time. And she feared and expected that it. Israel's response, which already had begun on the evening of October 7th. Hundreds had already been killed by the time that rally occurred.

And so, but even if that wasn't the case, history had told her, and history being like 2021, two years earlier, 2014, 2009. Like we're not talking about like ancient history here. History had told her. And the knowledge that it was the most right-wing government that Israel had ever had in place, that was in office at the moment and still is it. in office, that they were going to respond with a genocidal furor that was going to shock the world.

I had that expectation on October 7th. That was my first thought was this state in general, but this government in particular is going to unleash hell as a result of this. And if the argument is that she was correct but too early, I don't think there's anybody out there who's a normal person who's going to say, okay, well, you make a very good point. Yes, she was right, but she was right too early. She was right too quickly. Yeah. No, I mean, I remember, I remember covering October 7th. I remember the pit in my stomach. I remember all of us internally talking about what sort of hell was going to be unleashed. And, you know, it was, it was impossible

to wrap your mind around truly how just inhumane and disgusting and the siege and all of the the entirety of Gaza turned to rubble. And so, yeah, that she was there on October 8th, understanding the history, understanding the political dynamics, understanding what likely was to come. I think that's a point in her favor, personally. Let me just hit on this note, there were some somewhat surprising defenders against the mass blanket charges of anti-Semitism here, in particular Joe Scarborough, showed up to say, hey, if you want to point to rising anti-Semitism, I've got an idea of who is to blame and it's not Zohran Mamdani and Zohran Mamdani.

This is A1. Let's take a listen. I just, you know, hearing a lot of people say, talking about the anti-Semitism in New York City and last night proved the anti-Semitism in New York City and this is Zohran Mamdani's fault, this is so-and-so's fault, this is this left. No, no, no, it's not. It's really not. If you want to blame anybody for what happened last night, my opinion, if you want to blame anybody, my opinion, if you want to blame anybody, Jonathan, I think you have to blame Benjamin Netanyahu at Njahou. Four years of maximalist aims, four years of a historic goals in the Middle East, that anybody, anybody from Dr. Prasinski to even me could have told anybody over the past 20 years. It's not going to work. And I've said it all along.

There's always blowback in the Middle East. The idea that you're going to be able to brutalize children and women in Gaza with bombing that looks indist on TV day in and day out for years, that you're going to be able to level half of Lebanon, that you're going to be able to continue to allow thugs to run wild in the West Bank and and and and and and and and brutalizing Palestinians, brutalizing Christians in Bethlehem, brutalizing Christians across that area along with Palestinian Muslims, especially Palestinian Muslims, blowing up Catholic churches in Gaza. I can, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I'm saying things that would relate to some of these people who are so shocked that Israel is in such

low standing in America right now. Forgive me for a quick digression. But I was always instinctively pro-Israeli, an anti-Palestinian growing up. You know why? Because when I was a young child, one of my first memories was the 72 Munich Olympics. When Palestinian terrorists killed Israelis and it was shocking. And we saw time and time again terror attacks throughout the 70s. That shaped an entire generation's views on that conflict. Well, what's shaping the views now? Images out of Gaza. Images out of the West Bank. Images out of Lebanon. Famine out of God. And an American president who tells Benjamin Netanyahu, Joe, you're unrestrained, until his war in Iran goes horribly wrong.

What do you think of that, Ryan? You know, I grade on a more generous curve, I think, than you do. And so I see that paper from Scarborough. I'm like, incredible progress. This is, like, you know, and he, I think also from a regular person, you know, the kind of person who's watching Morning Joe, that's great for them to, hear. Yeah. I think, but go ahead. I think you got some criticisms of it, which I don't necessarily disagree with. I mean, it's obvious. Like, okay, Benjamin Netanyahu, yes, but what about our own

political leadership? Like, what do you have to say about Joe Biden, who you, you know, he caped for longer than anyone else the best version of Joe Biden we ever saw, blah, blah, blah. Right. It's just very noteworthy to me. I get very, to me, it's such a red flag when anyone tries to pawn all of the destruction and carnage and anti-Semitism to off on this one individual. is democratically elected and has been many multiple times, is not some fringe outlying character in Israeli society. Just go take a listen to his quote unquote moderate opponents to see how much daylight there is between him and them on issues of, you know, human rights. There's zero daylight effectively. And then, you know, our own political leadership class

being incredibly, not just complicit, but I mean directly involved. So that's my, that would be my note on the paper, I guess. I put that note at the bottom. I put that note at the bottom, too, but still give him high marks to encourage him to continue doing good work. We've got our guest standing by, but just really quickly, I do want to mention, put A-11 up on the screen here because this is relatively extraordinary. We've got House Democrat anxiety rising after wins by Zohran Mamdani back candidates. Are we going to let them take over the party? One battleground Democrat told me they are so concerned about the rise of DSA.

They are having serious convos with donors about leaving the party all. together next term. I would encourage them to go. Go ahead. Josh Gottheimer, okay. Yeah, goodbye, Josh Gottheimer. Go be a Republican. And this is the problem, again, going back to the carval piece of, like, you can make that choice, but you've already really lost the base of the party is gone. You know, the Jennifer Welch's of the world are in a very different place today. Your average, normie, liberal voter is voting for Graham Platner, not Janet Mills, is voting for Abdul El-Sayed, not Haley Stevens. It's a very different dynamic. It's not just New York City. It really is a national reckoning. And Israel is the sort of most potent dividing line because

it does take in the D.C. political context, it shouldn't, but it does take some political courage to stand up and say, it's a genocide. I'm not taking the A-PAC dollars. We need a totally different approach to all of this. We actually do need to put human rights first. But it's a stand-in for, are you willing to make those hard choices? Are you willing to reflect the will of the people versus the will of the donor class? And obviously that has applicability in all sorts of issues across the board where the Democratic base and the majority of the American people, by the way, really want to see a different approach, a checking of the oligarch class, true accountability for the crimes that were committed by the Trump regime and their, and their

acolytes. And so, you know, Gaza and calling it a genocide and standing up against it are a touchstone that indicates to voters, you are the type of politician that is going to be different than the class that's in Washington today. Yeah, and we'll be talking to Corey Doctro at the end of the program about AI and what its effect is going to be on the economy and how we should think about that. And I think people would be a lot more scared of the idea of socialism if they weren't completely frightened about where capitalism is planning to take us and where capitalizes is telling us we're going to go, which is like the complete eradication of jobs. Like that's what they're, whether it's true or not, like, that's what they're telling

people is going to happen. So when you have a group, people are like, well, we have an alternative vision for society. People are going to like, okay, let's hear it. Right. Yeah. I mean, they're the ones that are out there like, we need a totally new social contracts. Like, okay, well, let's get started on that. Let's start talking about that.

And that's how you end up with a situation where, and this will be a good transition to our guests, where socialism is more popular than you. capitalism in the Democratic Party. DSA is more popular than Democrats in Congress. And there is just a real reckoning that is unfolding right now in the Democratic Party. It is not going to look the same after these midterm elections as it looked before. Indeed. I'm Munges Chitigula and I'm back with a new season of the podcast Skyline Drive. This time I'm diving into a rabbit hole of peptides, organoids, blood boys, blue zones and brain replacement to try to understand what this longevity obsession is all about and what it really means to live forever

for all of us. I learned about some rad science. I can make a brain for you and then we can test what draw is the best for your brain. As opposed to his brain. Here are some hard truths. I would expect Indians to age faster, but I did not expect it to be almost a four to five year acceleration. And get myself into a world of trouble. I'd say probably start bone smashing. That doesn't work.

To make it look more defined. They say it works. I don't know. Listen to Skyline Drive, How to Live Forever on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. This is Michael Rappaport, and my podcast, the I Am Rapaport's Stereo Podcast is unlike anyone you've ever heard. We're a variety show. And if you're looking for strong opinions, funny opinions about sports, entertainment, politics, pop culture, and whatever else catches my attention, then subscribe now. This kid, Jafar Jackson, is as good as Rami Malik as Freddie Mercury, and it's as good as Timothy Sharmulay as Bob Dylan.

And I say that with love and respect for both of those actors. And I don't know how many Oscar nominations they give out, I don't know if it's five, six for best actor. 150% this kid Jafar Jackson should absolutely positively get nominated for his portrayal as Michael Jackson. Listen to I Am Rap Report on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. I am Rapiport Podcast.

I'm Emily Oster. I'm an economist and data expert. And I'm Perry Wilson. I'm a medical doctor. And this is our new podcast. wellness actually. Because you're getting a staggering amount of health and wellness information nowadays, and some of it is awesome.

And some of it is, well, actually, bullshit. Fortunately, we're both people who know how to read studies, parse data, and can tell you what's worth trying out and what you can safely ignore. Each episode, we tackle the health news of the week and then take a deeper dive into a misunderstood health and wellness topic, like... What's the deal with peptide? What's the deal with GLP-1s? What's the deal with creatine?

What's the deal with cupping? What's the deal with sleep? So join us for a weekly dose of sanity. It might actually be just what the doctor. Or the economist. Ordered. Listen to Wellness Actually on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

So President Trump was asked about the sweeping DSA Zornamam Dini victories in New York. city in the Oval Office. It's always fun to hear President Trump talking about the mayor of New York. Let's listen to his reaction here, B1. Great night for Democratic Socialist candidates last night. In the New York primaries, they swept and knocked out two incumbents. You're from New York. Why do you think it is that now the endorsement of Zohran Mamdani means more than the endorsement of Hakeem Jeffries? Well, they're going radical left. They're going really. You know, you talk about the Democrat socialists.

You took really, it's really a communist. These people, I watched that woman last night. That's not a socialist. I know socialist. That woman is a communist. And, you know, what they don't say is that I was 16 and 0 last night. But mine were a little more boring, a little more mainstream. There were Republican conservatives.

But we were 16 in 0. And if you look over the last two and a half years, we're about 340. and just about oh. That's pretty good. But nobody writes that. But he picked three. They won. They beat a guy named Dan Goldman, who's, you know, loser. He was one of my prosecutors, one of my many prosecutors that they used on me. Dan Goldman, not a good prosecutor, fortunately, but he's now looking for a job. I was very surprised to see, you know, because he's a pretty liberal guy. When they go more liberal than Dan Goldman, they're really into Never Neverlander. We can put up B2 here because it really was a historic sweep across the board. Of course, you had the three races at the federal level if you'd throw in Brad Lander, which we'll talk about that in a second as well as a significant number down at the state legislative level and elsewhere. So joining us to kind of break all.

All of this down are the two co-chairs of New York City Democratic Socialists of America, Gustavo Gordio and Grace Mouser. Grace, Gustavo, thank you so much for being here. Yeah, and I was fortunate enough to get to run into both of you guys on Tuesday night. Grace, you were up at the Daria Lisa election night event. Gustavo, you were down at the Claire Valdez one later. Grace, I wanted to start with you. Donald Trump also, later in his comments, continued his bromance with Zohran Mamdani.

So even though he's talking about all of the communists that are taking over to New York City, he still seems to personally have a lot of affection for Zohran Mamdani. What is your response to somebody like Trump, though, who says, you know, somebody like Dan Goldman, that's about his leftist, New York City, ever ought to be. And what is he missing about the city that he grew up in? And I think he's missing how unhappy people are with the state of American politics.

You saw over, we counted over 170,000 people voted for socialists in New York City on Tuesday night. That is indeed because of our organizing, because we knock doors, because we mobilize people. but it's also because people are deeply dissatisfied with what's happening in our state and also throughout our country. If people were happy with the war that Trump started in Iran, if they were thrilled that we were busy invading other countries, I think he would be seeing a lot more success. His numbers would be up. His favorability would be up. Everyone would be absolutely clamoring for his endorsement. but that's not happening at all because what he's doing is immensely unpopular. And socialism is on the rise. It's getting more and more popular than ever.

And that's because we're actually talking about what matters. And more importantly, we're delivering what matters. We're delivering material improvements for working people. So Mayor, Zohran Mamdani, had a bit of a different view of this week and the victories that you all were able to secure. Let's go ahead and take a listen to a little bit of what he had to say. What you all have shown this evening, whether for State Assembly, State Senate, or Congress, is that a year ago, it was not the end of a political movement. It was the beginning.

And let's hear it for a politics. For a politics that will never forget working people. For a politics that is ready to write a new chapter in our party's history. And for a politics that realizes the old politics that got us to this crisis is not the politics that's going to get us out of this crisis. It's time for working people to be back at the heart of our politics. These are the champions who will do it. Thank you all so much.

Gustavo, I'm curious, how much momentum have you all gained from Zohran Mamdani's victories and then from these victories Tuesday night? how many new members have been added to New York City's DSA chapter? Yeah, you know, these have been transformative wins. And when we have these huge victories, they become moments of political awakening for ordinary people. So when we endorsed the mayoral campaign back in 2024, we were at 5,900 members. Just a couple of weeks ago, we were at 14,000 members. And in the nights since these victories,

we've added, I think, almost 400 members or maybe more. So we're probably pretty close to 15,000 at this point. And, you know, we're going to keep welcoming new members, having absorption events because that's what keeps us going. That's what allows us to grow. And Gustavo, I actually saw a right-wing commentator talking about how he thought part of the success of DSA, and obviously it's the values and people agreeing with the messaging that you all are putting out. But also this sense of community, like we're doing something together.

We're not just isolated on our phones like doom scrolling. There's a positive vision that we can enact into the world. I feel like that has been a really central part of Zohran Mamdani's, both his campaign, but now his governing style, which has made him really broadly appealing across the city. How much do you think that that plays into the appeal of DSA and organization like yours in a moment like now? Yeah, it's a huge part of our organizing, you know, where we always joke DSA is the answer to the male loneliness epidemic. We focus, of course, on electoral campaigns, running candidates. We contest for in the legislature.

We try to pass legislation. We work in the labor movement. But when we're doing our new member orientations, we always say that a core arm of what we do is building community. So we've really invested quite a lot of capacity into building social spaces. we have a run club, we have a soccer league. Our canvases themselves always have a social afterwards. People make friends that way. You know, for young people, it's a pretty,

DSA is a pretty good way to meet new people in the city. Can you elaborate on that a little bit for people who maybe are outside of the city too? Like, because I think it's, you joke about it being a cure to male loneliness. female loneliness is a thing too. Loneliness is a thing, and you actually do seem to be doing, you know, very serious work pushing against that, even if that isn't the kind of purpose of it,

but the purpose kind of creates that. If you're out, if you're somewhere else outside of New York City, if you're in New York City, I guess search up New York City DSA, it's probably easy to plug into at this point, but if you're outside of New York, you don't have a chapter, like how hard is it to start a chapter? How hard is it, like, how hard is it, like, how hard is it, is it to join one?

Sure. At this point, we have so many chapters all across the country that there aren't that many parts of the U.S. that are not served by a DSA chapter, although it is possible to start a new one if you go to DSA, USA,org. But for one of the things that we started to implement a few years ago was standardizing a DSA 101 format. This is a welcoming, kind of orientation for people who are thinking about joining or have already joined and want to know what to do in their chapters. It's something that basically every DSA chapter does now. And we started pioneering it here in New York. And actually, one of the very first major events that Zeranam Dani did when he launched his campaign was join us for, at the time to us, it was it seemed like

a mega DSA 101 where we had, I think, of 400 people. back in the fall of 2024. And he gave his own story of how he joined DSA. And the reason that he did so was because we were the only organization who thought it was possible to run anti-Zionist candidates at the local level and actually win. So, you know, there are different ways to plug in all across the country. And we take membership very serious.

We think the members lead the party, not, we don't lead from the top down. I'm Munga shit together and I'm back with a new season of the podcast Skyline Drive. This time I'm diving into a rabbit hole of peptides, organoids, blood boys, blue zones and brain replacement to try to understand what this longevity obsession is all about. And what it really means to live forever for all of us. I learned about some rad science. I can make a brain for you. And then we can test what draw is the best for your brain, as opposed to his brain. Here's some hard truths.

I would expect Indians to age faster, but I did not expect it to be almost a four to five year acceleration. And get myself into a world of trouble. I'd say probably start bone smashing. That doesn't work. Make it look more defined. They say it works. I don't know. Listen to Skyline Drive, How to Live Forever on the IHeart Radio.

app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. This is Michael Rappaport, and my podcast, the I Am Rappaport Stereo podcast, is unlike anyone you've ever heard. We're a variety show, and if you're looking for strong opinions, funny opinions about sports, entertainment, politics, pop culture, and whatever else catches my attention, then subscribe now. This kid, Jafar Jackson, is as good as Rami Malik as Freddie Murr. Mercury, and it's as good as Timothy Shamaulay as Bob Dylan.

And I say that with love and respect for both of those actors. And I don't know how many Oscar nominations they give out. I don't know if it's five, six for Best Actor. 150% this kid, Jafar Jackson, should absolutely positively get nominated for his portrayal as Michael Jackson. Listen to IAM Rap Report on the Iheart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. I am Rapaport podcast. Bill, why is my eye twitching? Does this mean I'm in perimenopause?

Maybe I have adult ADHD. I need to look this up. Where's my phone? Juliana, your phone is hot to the touch. I think it's asking you for a break. You know what? Maybe I should just ask chat GPT. Or maybe we can ask an actual human.

Yes, like a couple sex therapist. Whoa, that escalated quickly, but okay. Because I have questions. We have questions. And I bet every. Everyone has questions. Like, is it normal to sleep in separate bedrooms? We do that. How about this one? Is bribing your kids bad parenting or just negotiating? Oh, and I still do need to know why was my poop green that one time? Hypothetically, right?

Okay, well, instead of letting the internet guess, we've got actual people answering these exact questions. And laughing with us has got to be better than spending three hours down a rabbit hole online. Listen to Bill and Juliana. The podcast. On the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or where you listen to your podcasts. Grace, I want to get your thoughts on some of the coalition critiques, I guess, of who is DSA and who's voting for DSA candidates. There's a bit of a divide that has emerged, you know, from sort of the establishment Democrats and the Republicans.

They can't decide whether they want to say DSA is all white people or the problem is DSA as all third world brown people. We can get a flavor of both of the. these directions from BATIA-Ungar Sargan went with the, what has been the original critique, B-5, that Dari Elisa Chevalier lost the Bronx part of the district by 30 points. She also lost predominantly black and Hispanic areas. She lost lower-income areas by 10 points. She won with younger voters and higher-income voters and won majority college-educated areas by 20 points.

So this is basically the idea that, okay, sure, you can win in the commie corridor because it's this dentrifying area. You have highly educated young white people that like you. but the coalition doesn't really extend to communities of color. But now we have a new critique that's launched by, you know, Stephen Miller certainly said something like this, Matt Walsh, and also Jesse Waters on Fox News articulated a version of this. Let's take a listen.

Crazy communists to right-wing tough guys. Is that how America is supposed to be? Because that's the way it looks. These people don't believe in borders, capitalism, our founding fathers. They're here to steal, punish us, and then throw around welfare. This is a third world takeover. This is what happens when you import the third world.

Did you know that New York City is 70% non-white, 40% foreign-born, 50% of the apartments, they don't even speak English, not even their first language. These three women who Zohran Mamdani endorsed weren't even born in New York City. Weren't even raised in New York City. They're carpet baggers. Carpet baggers, Jessica. And everyone's talking about like, oh, Zohran Mamdani, oh, you got all this juice. Like he's this like harmless novice politician on a hot streak.

This guy is trouble. This guy is a Trojan horse. And communism is going to take over the Democratic Party. And then we're going to have to beat it because you can't do anything else besides beat it to a poll. So, Grace, what is your response to both versions of that critique of, the coalition that supports DSA and then supports these candidates. I'll take the more obviously evil and immoral one first. The right-wing critique about the left and about New York City is just disgusting.

It's so silly to be so afraid of people who did not grow up the same way you did. nativism should never be a requirement. We're in a moment where our Supreme Court is considering making non-U.S.-born citizens fearful over their very rights that have already been granted to them by our government. And DSA unapologetically stands in solidarity with those communities, people who came here many generations ago, but also people who arrived in the United States. yesterday. I mean, it's particularly funny hearing that kind of critique coming from a political commentator who can't even say the mayor of New York's name correctly. But Zohran Mamdani,

as well as many of candidates in DSA, are continuing a great legacy of immigrants who have come to the U.S. to build an economic and political future who have fleed prosecution for a number of reasons who have come to the U.S. for any number of reasons. And New York City, as well as America, I would remind Mr. Waters, does not have a standard language. You're not required to speak English as a first language. And that's what makes us strong. And I think you see that. New York City's the powerhouse, the economic and political powerhouse of the country. And that is in large part due to the immigrants I live here. Yeah, and New York City is kind of a particularly absurd place, I think, to level that critique

since it's been a place of, you know, immigrants for, you know, hundreds of years, whether Irish, you know, Italian and so on, it's just constantly evolving, you know, Greek neighborhoods, et cetera. But I am also curious, you guys ended up winning, it seems like Harlem, which cuts against this kind of, this root. documentary graphic that the New York Times had put out, it does actually seem that with black voters in Harlem, Dari Elis actually seems to have beaten Adriano Espaillat. How, like, what do you think it was that her, that about her campaign that was able to do that, even though, because I think the, the critique that, that are more kind of white activists in DSA than kind of on average, say,

in Harlem. Like, I think that, like, those numbers are probably true. Yet, they were able to win over those voters in Harlem. So what, like, what, what, what was able to bridge that divide? Yeah. A big narrative. Oh, I'm sorry. Go ahead. Gustav. I'll say working class people of color in New York cannot afford to live here. 77% of Latinos cannot afford the true cost of living for black New Yorkers. The numbers are not far off. And our candidate, are speaking to their needs. They're talking about a working class economic agenda that's going to side with

the working class over the billionaire class. And we're running against people like Adriano Espaillat who are trying to actually divide the working class against each other through racist attacks, that Latinos cannot have solidarity with black people that Haitian is a term that should be a slur.

You know, New Yorkers, this doesn't, land with New Yorkers. I was actually astonished that when we ran Darya Lisa, the racist attacks coming from Esbyat's camp, it was something that they thought could succeed. I think, if anything, it moved voters closer to us. Now, her district is about 50% Latino.

The electorate is about a third black. There's just no way to win a race in this district with only a white electorate. I'll also add that in New York City DSA, first of all, our steering committee is very multiracial. I think it's about 40% Latino. And where we are growing the fastest is in Upper Manhattan and the Bronx. We've almost tripled in size there. Actually, we probably definitely have tripled in size there by now since the Zeran campaign launched.

And the new members coming in are a pretty multiracial cohort. It's about 25% Latino. It doesn't quite look like the rest of DSA. And I think that's what happens when you build a mass movement that's actually reaching working class people at scale. Yeah, because bottom line is whether you're a young person in New York City, whether you are a person of color who's a long time resident, you are all struggling with these same issues of affordability and an out-of-touch political class and life just being made very difficult for you on a daily basis. Grace, let me get your response to that as well, but let me add one more piece to it here because it's not just the right. We had Letitia James who had something to say about the DSA victories this week as well. Guys put B6 up on the screen.

She said that it's a wake-up call and, quote, obviously there's some hurt feelings tonight, particularly in communities of color. What we have to do is sit down and see if we can come to some sort of understanding, which again is hard to scorn. with the incredibly diverse districts that were one with, you know, large multiracial coalitions here. I have a lot of respect for the Attorney General and I think we're on the same side on a lot of issues. However, I do think she's part of a misunderstanding of a progressive and establishment political class in New York that believes that leaders are always.

totally in sync with the electorate and with the people that they represent. In Betzai, which is a historically and predominantly black neighborhood and area of the city in central Brooklyn, we now have socialists at every level of government except for Congress. Congress, of course, is represented by a minority leader, Hakeem Jeffries. They won a majority of black voters. It wasn't close. We have a strong base of black socialism. We have very strong Latina, mostly leaders in DSA, in elected official positions.

These are just critiques that are stale and not reflective of what the electorate actually wants. They, yes, believe that demographic representation is very important. But what's more important is that you have a representative who is going to fight for you, who is speaking to your material conditions, and, boiling things down like this is neither narratively coherent to me, nor is it reflective of what we actually see in the voting patterns from Tuesday night. And last question for me, now that you're going to be sending a non-trivial number of socialists down to Washington, depending on what happens in November, you know, the socialist

block could make the difference between whether or not Democrats can kind of get over the 218 needed to not just form a majority, but also then kind of elect the speaker. There's obviously been a huge push by some people to just block Hakeem Jeffries from becoming speaker at all. My own read of that is that that's going to be very difficult because no

candidate has kind of risen to oppose him. And Nancy Pelosi's very inspiring slogan used to be you can't beat somebody with nobody. That was literally what she would run on. And she was correct. Like you need another name to run against. But in order to then

to get the rules package approved in order to get the vote across the board, Hakeem Jeffries will need this block of social support. So that's a moment of leverage where you could ask for anything out, whether you get it or not, but you could demand things like super PACs out of Democratic primaries, A PAC out of Democratic primaries, or policy concessions down the line when it comes to whatever you're asking for. Or you do the money, you know, the big money concessions,

which then presumably lead to the policy concessions, because if you can take the big money off the board, then they don't have the ability to kind of push back against popular ideas. Is this, is New York City starting, New York City, DSA is starting to strategize around what to do with this power in Washington? And is there anything you can kind of signal where people should start kind of exploring ideas? I think that it's definitely true that Hakeem Jeffries, if he, if the Democrats take back the House, he's going to have to earn the vote of socialists in Congress.

You know, they are there not to be accountable to him, but they're there to be accountable to the communities that have elected him. And I'm not sure that he's totally in sync with the working class in the districts that are electing Democratic socialists. So I think the demands that you've raised are going to have a lot of purchase, I think, among our base, forcing big money out of politics, making stigmatizing APEC, making them a non-starter within the Democratic Party. I think these are all demands that there's going to be a lot of interest around.

We've been so focused on just winning these campaigns. We don't get ahead of ourselves in starting to think about what the immediate next steps will be for governing, but that's what we're starting to do now. We're going to be meeting, setting up, you know, increasing our federal socialists and office committee. That's the body that we use to coordinate with our elected officials in DSA. And I think this will be one of the top questions if we do end up having, you know, a powerful block like that. Lastly, from me, Grace, so we played in our last block, James Carville kind of melting down and saying there should be a schism in the Democratic Party that people like Dary Elisa. They're not in the same party as him.

We had Jamie Harrison say these type of Canada should not be Democrats, should not run in the Democratic Party. You've got all kinds of articles in Axios and wherever about how freaked down establishment Democrats are in the House. One apparently said they're even exploring, switching to the Republican Party. You have sort of struck fear in their hearts. Are they right to be afraid? Not if they start doing stuff that we think will work. The reason that the Democrats have become weaker and lost ground not. only to the Republicans, but to us as Democratic Socialists, is because they have failed.

Not just since Trump took office in 2025 for the second time, but for years. And not just since Trump took office for the first time either. They have failed for decades to actually fight for material changes for working people. And voters notice that. They notice when you say something and then you do nothing to make it. in actuality. They notice when you label someone a fascist and you complain loudly in the press about them, but you actually don't fight to get them out of office, to fight as hard as you can for the people, the immigrants, the trans people, the children and women that they're throwing

under the bus. Everyone notices that. And if they're losing ground because of that, they should think about why that is. They should think about what they are doing and more importantly what they are failing to do that is making voters change their minds, vote for Democratic Socialists, and then worst case sometimes turn to Republicans and people who are running on fascist platforms because Democrats have failed to do anything. Well, Grayson Gustavo, great to have you both. Thank you so much. Congratulations on some massive victories this week. Thank you. Great to be here. Our pleasure. And last note for the audience, the nightmare for the party isn't over.

DSA has backed the candidate Malakiros in Colorado, who is up on Tuesday. Cori Bush is up October 4th, August 4th. She's running to come back into office after APEC spent many millions to ouster. I noticed that the prediction markets are now quite panicked that Bush, despite having not a whole lot of money behind her, has a very good chance now of coming back to Congress because there's these, these, like these forecasters are seeing the energy that's on the ground there. So these are a couple more to watch this block could continue to grow. But thank you both so much for joining us.

I'm Munga Chitigler, and I'm back with a new season of my podcast, Skyline Drive. This time I talked to scientists, biopunks, curmudgins, blues owners, super seniors, and Goa's top cryotherapy lab to try to understand this obsession with living forever and what it means for all of us. And I get into a bit of trouble along the way. I'd say probably start bone smashing. That doesn't work. To make it look more defined.

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