11/7/25: Republicans Cope, Airlines Shutdown, Ritchie Torres Challenger & MORE!

Summary

Breaking Points with Krystal and Saagar

Episode: Republicans Cope, Airlines Shutdown, Ritchie Torres Challenger & MORE!
Date: November 7, 2025
Podcast by: iHeartPodcasts

Episode Overview

In this Friday episode of Breaking Points, Krystal Ball, Saagar Enjeti, and the team break down the fallout from the recent U.S. elections, the mounting airline shutdown caused by the ongoing government closure, and a deep dive into the challenge against Congressman Ritchie Torres by Michael Blake. The episode explores themes like affordability and cost-of-living in political messaging, the fragility of independent journalism in the face of legal threats, and what the future may hold for both parties as they navigate increasing polarization and practical governance challenges.

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Key Topics and Discussions

1. Legal Threats to Independent Journalism: The Dropsite Libel Suit

[03:33–05:48]

• Ryan updates the team on ongoing legal challenges facing Dropsite, which is being sued under UK libel law after publishing an investigation into systemic bias at the BBC regarding Israel coverage.
  • Dropsite and writer Owen Jones face high legal costs (~$40,000 so far), but community fundraising (over $50,000 overnight) is helping.
  • The libel suit doesn’t allege factual errors, just that the conclusions were damaging—highlighting the difference between UK and US press freedoms.
• Larger concern: Precedent that expensive lawsuits could chill independent media.
  • “If you come after us, like, we will defend ourselves and we have a community of readers who will help us defend ourselves.” (Ryan, [04:44])
• Krystal and Emily discuss how such “process is the punishment” strategies by powerful entities threaten journalistic independence.

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2. Election Fallout: GOP “Cope” and the Changing Political Chessboard

[09:22–26:23]

• Emily and panel review surprising Democratic wins in VA and NJ, noting margins were much larger than Republicans expected.
  • Quote—on Democratic messaging: “Even these sort of Spanberger, Mikey Sherrill types have kind of unlocked the key to... actually challenging MAGA on some of those actual questions that people go to sleep with and wake up in the middle of the night with. And that's... a revelation.” (Emily, [10:25])
• Republicans' explanations for losses:
  • Low GOP turnout, “happiness” among voters, and misaligned focus on social wedge issues over pocketbook concerns.
  • Krystal critiques this: “The key to an election defeat is happiness.” ([12:52])
• Noted Republican “coping” from figures like Vivek Ramaswamy and J.D. Vance, pivoting quickly to say the party must focus on affordability/cost of living.
  • “You have to focus on affordability and cost of living. Then Donald Trump came out and said the same thing. He's like, they have this new word: affordability.” (Emily, [18:01])
• The group discusses how Republicans' cultural tactics are now out of sync with voters’ real economic anxieties, referencing Zoron’s victory and the shift in Democratic strategy away from “woke” peak issue politics.

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3. The Ongoing Government Shutdown and Airline Chaos

[28:02–32:27]

• Krystal and Saagar discuss deepening impacts of the shutdown:
  • 42 million lacking food stamps, rising desperation.
  • Federal judge forces administration to pay out benefits, but Trump administration appealing, extending hardship ([28:12]).
  • Air travel chaos: with air traffic controllers unpaid, the government enforces a 10% across-the-board reduction in flights ([30:41]).
  • “Never in modern U.S. Aviation history has the federal government done an across the board cut of flight capacity like this.” ([31:00])
• Blame game over shutdown: Dems think Trump admin will take the hit with the public, especially as Trump-aligned officials become the public faces of these crises.

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4. Debunking Economic Narratives

[32:27–34:49]

• Play clips of Trump touting lower prices; panel quickly fact-checks:
  • “Crystal, you have been debunked, actually. Everything is cheap and everything's down.” (Emily, [32:58], sarcastically)
  • Community notes and personal experience show that government stats are often manipulated or misleading, so lived experience tells the real story.
  • “Controlling CBS News is only going to get you so far because people live in the world. They go to the grocery store... nothing Barry Weiss tells them is going to change that.” (Ryan, [34:18])
• Democrats appear dug in: refusing to cave on shutdown until Republicans allow a vote on subsidies ([35:22]).
  • Republicans fear setting precedents (filibuster, court manipulation) that could be turned on them by future Democratic administrations.

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5. Steve Bannon’s Existential Warning to the GOP Base

[39:05–40:42]

• Clip of Steve Bannon warns if the GOP loses midterms/2028, “some in this room are going to prison, myself included.”
  • “If we lose the midterms and we lose 2028, some in this room are going to prison, myself included.” (Steve Bannon, [39:13])
  • Panel notes the shift in U.S. culture toward a more existential and escalated sense of political stakes and the dangers of normalizing “lawfare.”
• Discussion of political prosecutions, norms, and the risk of tit-for-tat legal battles—“You don't want to be the type of country where anybody who runs for office does so with the expectation that they could go to prison because the incentive structure is just a disaster in that case.” (Emily, [41:40])

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6. Challenging Ritchie Torres: Interview with Michael Blake

[51:08–82:52]

• Michael Blake (former DNC Vice Chair) joins from Puerto Rico, launching a primary against Congressman Ritchie Torres in NY-15, the nation’s poorest district.
  • Critiques Torres for absenteeism, ties to AIPAC, focus on foreign policy over local issues, and receiving major funding from national groups while Bronx residents struggle.
  • “If you care about the Bronx, you care about Puerto Rico. Which is exactly why I’m running for Congress, because you need someone who’s actually going to fight for the people in the Bronx; and Richie Torres is, once again, absent.” (Michael Blake, [52:00])
• Blake’s journey:
  • Born in Bronx, Jamaican heritage, product of NYC public schools, has crossed paths with Zoron, shares focus on affordability.
  • Outlines progressive platform: ending credit checks for housing, localizing median income metrics, Medicare For All.
    • “Credit scores for housing have to end. It is a institutionally racist, discriminatory policy...” (Michael Blake, [66:15])
  • Critiques Torres: “His focus on AIPAC and supporting AIPAC... is not having a focus on what the people need right now, which is better housing.” ([63:53])
  • Emphasizes linking foreign policy stances (Israel, AIPAC) with local cost-of-living failures; says every dollar sent to Israel is money not spent on Bronx schools, housing, or social services ([82:57]).
• Supports a full weapons embargo on Israel:
  • “There should be.” (Blake, [81:54])
  • “Every dollar we are spending on that, we are not spending on books in the Bronx.” ([82:57])
• Blake also forcefully supports protecting constituents from ICE, expanding safe spaces, and providing legal help, all rooted in his immigrant family experience ([78:07–81:00]).

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Notable Quotes

• On UK Libel Laws and Journalism:

  • “It's utterly insane how expensive this stuff is. But we are... 100% standing behind the story, and we’re planning to defend it.” (Ryan, [04:14])
  • “If you come after us, like, we will defend ourselves and we have a community of readers who will help us defend ourselves.” (Ryan, [04:44])

• On The GOP and Election Fallout:

  • “Even these sort of Spamberger, Mikey Sherrill types have kind of unlocked the key to... actually challenging MAGA on some of those actual questions that people go to sleep with and wake up in the middle of the night with. And that's... a revelation.” (Emily, [10:25])
  • “The key to an election defeat is happiness.” (Krystal, sarcastically, [12:52])
  • “You have to focus on affordability and cost of living. Then Donald Trump came out and said the same thing. He's like, they have this new word: affordability.” (Emily, [18:01])

• On Economic Messaging:

  • “Crystal, you have been debunked, actually. Everything is cheap and everything's down.” (Emily, sarcastically lampooning Trump, [32:58])
  • “People live in the world. They go to the grocery store, they see what a bag costs, they know what it used to cost... nothing Barry Weiss tells them is going to change that.” (Ryan, [34:18])

• Michael Blake Interview:

  • “If you care about the Bronx, you care about Puerto Rico. Which is exactly why I’m running for Congress, because you need to have someone who’s actually going to fight for the people in the Bronx; and Richie Torres is, once again, absent.” (Michael Blake, [52:00])
  • "Credit scores for housing have to end. It is a institutionally racist, discriminatory policy..." ([66:15])
  • “Every dollar we are spending on [weapons to Israel], we are not spending on books in the Bronx… It's a question around priorities, and mine is the Bronx.” ([82:57])

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Key Timestamps

| Segment | Time | Description | |---------|----------|--------------------------------------------------------------------| | Dropsite legal challenge | 03:33–05:48 | Ryan discusses lawsuit and the threat to indie journalism | | Election fallout—GOP reactions | 09:22–19:19 | Virginia, NJ results, GOP "cope," pivot to affordability | | Economic reality vs. narratives | 32:27–34:49 | Trump’s claims debunked, lived experience trumps propaganda | | Government shutdown impact | 28:02–32:27 | Food stamps, airline chaos, shutdown blame game | | Steve Bannon’s existential threat| 39:05–40:42 | “We lose, we go to prison,” panel unpacks the new “norms” | | Interview: Michael Blake | 51:08–82:52 | His challenge to Torres, Bronx policy, and stance on Israel |

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Tone and Style

The episode is lively, fast-paced, and forthright, weaving skeptical humor through deep policy discussion. The hosts maintain their trademark populist, anti-establishment edge, aiming to ground every national issue in real-world material consequences for working people. Interview subjects and hosts alike use candid, often colorful language but always draw connections between political drama and lived experience.

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Conclusion & Takeaways

This episode of Breaking Points highlights the ongoing shift in American politics: a popular demand for politicians to address immediate economic realities over cultural grievances. The panel dissects both the Democratic pivot to affordability messaging, the Republican Party’s post-election soul-searching, and the perils facing independent journalism. Michael Blake’s candidacy against Ritchie Torres illustrates an internal Democratic battle over foreign influence, priorities, and the need for economic populism rooted in local experience.
For listeners seeking an insightful, inside-baseball review of this week’s seismic political events, this episode is essential.

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For more, support Breaking Points at breakingpoints.com

Transcript

[A]

This is an iHeart podcast.

[B]

I turned off news altogether. I hate to say it, but I.

[A]

Don'T trust much of anything.

[C]

It's the rage bait.

[B]

It feels like it's trying to divide people.

[D]

We got clear facts.

[A]

Maybe we can calm down a little.

[C]

NBC News brings you clear reporting. Let's meet at the Facts. Let's move forward from there. NBC News reporting for America at Lowe's this Veterans Day and every day verified military members, veterans and their spouses get automatic silver status in Mylos rewards with free standard shipping plus 10% off eligible purchases with no annual limit. It's one way we honor and give back to those who have served and still do. Learn more now@lowe's.com Military 10% discount can't be combined with another offer. Exclusions. Terms and conditions apply. Loyalty programs subject to terms and conditions. Details@lowe's.com Terms subject to change.

[A]

This is Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang from Las Culturistas with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang.

[D]

JBL Tour Pro3 earbuds are for those who don't conform to the standard. Yeah, I mean if you want to get into some touchscreen technology, how about the smart charging case Clear sound. These are not standard things.

[C]

You're only going to get them with.

[D]

The JBL Tour Pro 3, baby. And I love the sound of JBL and goes. These earbuds are packed with innovation because you can't stand out by following others. Touchscreen smart charging case for one touc control, instant EQ customization, true adaptive noise canceling and the one of a kind audio transmitter which can plug and play with everything from game consoles to in flight entertainment. What more could you want?

[C]

First doesn't follow.

[D]

Grab a [e-mail] Good morning everybody.

[B]

Happy Friday. How's everybody doing?

[A]

Hey guys.

[E]

Hello.

[C]

Hello.

[A]

Good.

[D]

How are you guys?

[A]

I think we're about to hear how, how Ryan's doing actually.

[B]

Yeah. Indeed. Well, first of all, Ryan, did you recover from. You've had a pretty intense week. Going to feel good thing and then making him back for your son's birthday.

[E]

And all that crazy. Ryan's crazy.

[D]

I'm putting my veins. I'm, I'm feeling good. Yeah. Like it's an invigorating week is what it is.

[B]

There you go.

[A]

Did you, did you microdose through it?

[D]

I didn't, I didn't even have to microdose through it. Also, I always remind myself that it's not really work. It's just, I just, I really like get to do stuff I enjoy doing and get to be at it, like, historic events. Like people who are actually doing work and waking up, like, before the sun. Sun is up. Out the door before the sun is up. Or, like, working on, like.

[A]

Well, we call that breaking points.

[D]

That's true. But still, that's only a couple hours they're doing that, and it's like 8, 10, 12 hours and then another job. So, like, that's the. Those are. Those are people who work. I don't. I don't even think of it as work.

[B]

People who know Kyle know that it's impossible to, like, get him out of the house to do basically anything, but even he watching the Zoron victory party videos was like, damn, we should have gone. I was like, you know that now. There's no way I could have convinced you to go in advance.

[A]

I saw the funniest post in response to Kyle's victory post, where he was playing music and smoking a cigar. Someone tweeted it and was like, damn, when did Kyle become Dominican?

[B]

He was proud of that. He was like, did you see this one?

[E]

So good.

[B]

Anyway, yeah. Should we jump in? Ryan, you've got an update for all of us. Dropsite is being sued, and in the uk, where the libel laws are insane. So you want to give us the tea here of what's going on.

[D]

Yeah. And this is also invigorating in a way, because this is. This comes with the. This comes with the territory of doing investigative journalism. And actually, we're not technically being sued. The writer Owen Jones, who wrote the piece for us, is being sued, and that's because of the complications of. Of UK libel law. They can go directly after him. But we are. We are defending the case. The reason we're talking about it now is that some of the documents became public recently, and the Telegraph reported about the case. Otherwise, we were just fighting this behind the scenes. But we've already racked up roughly, like, $40,000 in legal bills and are barely in the beginning stages of it. It's like. It's utterly insane how expensive this stuff is. But we are, you know, 100% standing behind the story, and we're planning to defend it. So we set up a legal fund that people can support overnight. We set it up yesterday. Overnight, people have given so far more than $50,000.

[C]

Wow.

[D]

So that's more than our bills so far. Now the bills are going to continue to rack up. If we win a full victory, there is a real expectation that we could actually recoup all those costs and that the BBC editor who's suing us would have to pay for our legal costs. And I do expect that that's likely to happen. But in the meantime, we've gotta, we have to, you know, the lawyers keep sending invoices and we have, that's amazing. We have to keep paying them. So thank you to everybody who gave overnight. We'll, we can put the link, I guess in the description or you can find it on my pin tweet. And the more we have, then the more it sends a signal to plaintiffs in general. Like, if you come after us, like, we will defend ourselves and we have a community of readers who will help us defend ourselves. We have liable insurance, but there's a significant deductible that you have to hit as people. Anybody who's in journalism or understands the idea of insurance, like, that's how that works. So we're nowhere near the deductible yet. And you know, every dollar you have to spend on that takes away from the journalism. So any, any help is, you know, deeply appreciated. And we, and we do expect that we're going to, we're going to win this.

[B]

You don't want to run piece too. I remember when this came out in depth investigation into systemic bias at the BBC in their Israel coverage. And so, you know, I understand why they were upset by it, but that you were saying they haven't really alleged that you got anything wrong. And I know you guys 100 stand by the reporting, right?

[D]

They say that our kind of conclusions are wrong, but they don't allege any errors. In fact, like, UK law is very strange. It's like. Yes, like, what do you mean?

[E]

Has it always been like that, Ryan? Because essentially they're alleging that you hurt his feelings. Right?

[D]

It's one of the reasons that I such a strident defender of the First Amendment. Like the First Amendment is actually meaningful, it actually matters and the UK doesn't have one and they deeply suffer for it. Crystal and I were just talking about, we don't quite understand how they have this coexisting of this rabid tabloid culture where they just recklessly publish all sorts of nonsense, yet also these bizarre libel laws. It's not clear how those two things coexist together. If anybody understands that. Maybe like, you know, elucidate that in the comments for us because it's really weird. It's like because this is a, this is a fact check piece, piece we took very seriously. There's, you know, it's, it's accurate. It's, you know, we stand behind it yet we're still, you know, getting drained of all this money to defend it in court. Where in the US A suit like this would be like, no, you don't have any case here.

[A]

Go. Yeah. My theory about that is always that it's be the way that people get around the laws is by burying things in crazy sourcing. So you get someone in the royal family, like associated with the royal family, tell you something crazy and then attribute it to a source. And that's how they. I don't know. That's my best theory, but I was gonna say right now also, people should realize if you. You don't wanna set a precedent in the wrong direction either, because with small indie media booming right now, the process can be the punishment. So if you start filing a bunch of lawsuits and people don't have money to defend themselves because lawsuits are extremely expensive. And CNN and NBC, they have, you know, the. All of the resources in the world bus lawyers that are on their staff. It's different than if you're just going after the indie publications who can be bankrupted just by the process.

[D]

Right, That's a great point. If powerful people or powerful interests think that they can shut down independent media by just lobbing a bunch of lawsuits at them, they're gonna. Then they're gonna keep doing that. So if you give, if you give on that, then they're just gonna keep going. But if you defend yourself and it actually ends up costing them, then they're gonna think twice. The next time they think about going after this outlet or any other independent outlet, be like, oh, wait, they have a huge audience that is going to support them if we come after them. So we have to then factor that in to our calculation of whether or not we want to launch this soon.

[E]

All right, well, we're going to keep that link in there. Let's keep funding Drop Site. Because like Ryan said, Drop Site is the tip of the spear against the BBC censorship regime and against many other.

[B]

Things, by the way. I think people know at this point how truly. And I mean, if we don't have Drop Site doing this reporting during the course of this genocide, there's just so many stories that would never have been brought to light. And I don't even think I have to say that. I think people just know that that's obviously the case at this point point. So heartening to see people backing you up with their. Their dollars and showing how much they support the work that you guys do.

[D]

Yeah. Appreciate you, Alton.

[E]

Yep, I will be making a sizable $20 donation at the end of the show. Okay. So we have a big show. We're have a lot to get to. We're going to try to fly through a lot of topics. We've got election stuff. We have more shutdown stuff happening with the airlines closing flights. And we have Michael Blake, he's a former DNC vice chair, I believe, and from the Bronx.

[D]

Yeah.

[E]

And he just announced, we met him at the, at the Zoran event, but we he just announced a primary run against Richie Torres. So we'll be speaking to him a little bit later in the show. But first we want to go to Emily. Emily, it was a big election, this a few days ago. What day is it? I guess it was this week. Still, it was revolutionary. You know, an underdog came from behind, challenged the entire system. I, of course, am talking about Abigail Spanberger in Virginia. Emily, what, what do you make of it? Because, because you left the livestream early. Any big reactions from you before we get to some of the cope.

[A]

The margins were just, I mean, you guys, your guys's analysis, I think, is what I shared. The margins were higher than what Republicans expected in Virginia and New Jersey. And just before we went to air, I was reading Politico Playbook this morning and Mikey Sherrill has a quote in it where she says, if I'm talking to you about abortion and you can't pay your rent, then we're not having a conversation. I'm paraphrasing her, but that's the gist of what she said to Politico Playbook. And I feel as though even these sort of Spamberger Mikey Sheryl types have kind of unlocked the key to finally, after 10 years, actually challenging MAGA on some of those actual questions that people go to sleep with and wake up in the middle of the night with. And that's a, I think, a revelation. It shouldn't have been that hard, I guess, but I think that's where we are. I think that's how Zaron beat Andrew Cuomo. And in the meantime, what we've seen is Republican reaction being, well, we have a little bit of a copilation. That's what we're calling it, Griffin, a copilation. This is Representative Lisa McClain on CNN explaining what happened on Tuesday to Jake Tapper.

[D]

The politics of this for a second because, you know, President Trump told Republicans earlier this morning, according to a source talking to cnn, the Republicans are getting killed politically on the shutdown. And if you look at what happened last night, it is hard to say that there is anything in the election results. And I'm looking at not just like, I get it, New Jersey's a Democratic state, but looking at Republican counties, looking at Republican sheriffs that lost their jobs.

[E]

It'S hard to see anything last night.

[D]

That was an endorsement of what the Republican Party is doing right now.

[A]

Now.

[B]

Yeah. Well, let me give you the other side of that, of that story is voter turnout from Republicans was not high. Not, not high at all. But I think part of that reason.

[A]

Is because Republicans for the most part.

[B]

Are happy with what's happening. The borders closed, crime is down in place. Inflation under Biden used to be 9%. It's now down to 3%. Interest rates are down, mortgages down. Let me, I know, Let me just finish.

[D]

Let me just give you the.

[B]

Let me just give you the other side. I shop at the same grocery store everybody else does.

[A]

So you6 are up.

[B]

Is there more work that needs to be done? Absolutely there is. That's why in the working families tax.

[A]

Cut, we did just that.

[B]

We.

[E]

So, Emily, the take is that people are too happy that the key to an election defeat is happiness.

[A]

Too happy to vote for winsome roll. Sears obviously like the. Because she's saying Republican turnout is low. But that's, I mean, this was part of what J.D. vance wrote the next morning as well, that low propensity, the Republican base is now the low propensity base and more needs to be done. I actually think that's, that's true. I mean, anytime you have midterm cycles or off year cycles, then yes, you need to be focused on mobilizing your own voters, especially if they tend to be low propensity voters. But in a place like New Jersey where Donald Trump was actually close to Kamala Harris, like the margin was closer than people realized. What, what we're looking at is the Republican Party losing swing voters. And that's, I mean the margin for Mikey Show, I think ended up being about 13 points, about 15 for Spamberger. Double digit wins in states where Jay Jones out.

[B]

Kamala Harris.

[A]

Yeah, there you go.

[B]

And it's a lady. The lady who leaked the text. The Republican lady who leaked the text lost her seat. I mean that like that's the most dark woke moment I've ever heard in my entire life, which is so true. But yeah, I mean, I sort of.

[D]

What was the relationship between those two that they were sending these kind of texts? That's what I want.

[B]

I wondered, right?

[D]

Where are the investigative reporters? Where the tabloids. Speaking of the UK tabloids, where's the Richmond tabloid that's gonna. Like, on earth, Richmond. What's going on? What's going on with these two?

[B]

I'll ask that guy, Ben Trivet, not Larry Sabato, if he can. If he can dig into that.

[D]

I bet they all know, like, I bet they all have some rumors going around, but they.

[B]

Well, that's probably why she was, like, reluctant to release. Because, you know, normally, first of all, why are you texting Republicans that stuff? Why are you texting anyone that stuff? But especially.

[A]

Yeah. Why would you put that down in writing? Yeah, that's like your dark thought. You put it in the back.

[D]

They both married. What's. What's the situation here?

[B]

I don't. I don't know. And the other thing that I saw is. I don't. This. This person he was talking about that he was gonna had the two bul. Bullets for. This is like a totally unremarkable state legislator. Like, I have no idea what this person did to whatever. I mean, when I first saw the story, I was like, oh, that's probably like the text. They're probably blowing it out of proportion. And then I read the text and I was like, holy hell. Yeah. And I mean, it is like, on the one hand, Emily, I think you're right that Zoron really led the way with the affordability message, and Democrats saw how powerful that is. Now they're not going to embrace all of the Zoran policies, but they were like, oh, this guy's onto something. He's onto something so much that he was able to go from 0% in the polls to really, like, defeating by a landslide this political zion with all the dollars behind him, not to mention other, you know, Brad Lander and Scott Stringer and Ryan, you were pointing this out, other, like, significant progressive figures in the city. This stuff is potent. I do think that they leaned into that messaging. I also think that it really. Democrats were ready to vote for anyone with ad by their names. It did not matter where your ideal, what your messaging was, where you were ideologically, whether you threatened to murder your political opponent and their children didn't matter. They were going to vote for you. And, you know, it was certainly. Look, the turnout thing is trite and cliche to say, but there were also, I think it was. The New York Times did an analysis. There were also some Trump voters who switched sides. Abigail Bamberger, I believe, won like 9% of the people who self identified, you know, told pollsters that they were Trump voters. And that may sound like a small number, but when you're talking about, you know, midterm election, when you're talking about the next election, that level of a switch from one party to the other is actually massive. And then obviously you saw huge swings in demographics that Republicans have been really proud of, picking up gains in Latinos in particular, young men in particular, demographic groups, by the way that they have based their gerrymandered maps on, holding on to some portion of, you know, really putting in to jeopardy their plans to redraw things in a way that are going to be more beneficial to them. And so I mean, I'm genuinely curious from you, Emily. Like, I know what J.D. vance is saying publicly, like, oh, this is no big deal. These were blue states. I don't believe for a second that he thinks that you can't lose by 20 points in two statewide races in Georgia and think that this was like one off, nothing to see here or lose your super majority in Mississippi and be like, oh, this was just some blue state stuff. Nothing, you know, don't worry about it. So privately, what are people saying? Privately, what are people thinking about what happened here and like how or if they're going to adjust in any sort of way?

[A]

Well, I think so. Vivek Ramaswamy had probably the most, I think, popular response, as odd as that may be to say, and it was echoed by Vance in his own post where eventually Ramaswamy and Vance just converged on the same message, which is that you have to focus on affordability and cost of living. Then Donald Trump came out and said the same thing. He's like, they have this new word affordability later in the day.

[D]

And he said forget about affordability.

[A]

Yeah, yeah, people. I mean, long lost word. It's like, what did he he calls, there's like, what does he say? Like refrigerators at some time, groceries.

[B]

The other one word he loves. Yeah, great.

[A]

People forget about the word. Yeah. But so, so I think people are and it's insane again, but I think it's especially been, I know, Chris, you also want to talk about the Heritage foundation stuff. But I think it's especially been the, the contrast between the entire professional right in Washington, D.C. focusing relentlessly on leaks coming out of a think tank while you get creamed in a midterm election cycle where I'm pulling up the data here. Like independents swung big in a lot of these key races towards Democrats. And that was not the case in 2024. So when you see numbers like that and you look at what the right has been focused on the last couple of weeks, it Puts it in pretty stark relief. And so, I mean, it's like, I feel like it's pretty obvious. But then these professional people should not need reminders that normal human beings have to pay their bills. But it's one of those lessons you'd think the Republicans might have learned from 10 years of Donald Trump. Sorry, my phone just went off. But have not.

[B]

I would submit that the problem isn't so much the debate over like Nick Fuentes and Israel and whatever, it's the fact that there's a question of whether Nazis are allowed in the coalition and the way that extremist policies and ideologies are expressed from the top of the party and the way that that is incredibly repellent to a lot of normal people. You know, I mean, Stephen Miller's on the other side of the quote, unquote Jewish question. But this is the guy who's leading all the immigrations. They just did some like, we're only taking white refugees thing. You've got the mask that's in the street, the, you know, now the Kavanaugh stops where you can just overtly racially profile every day. There's news stories coming out about how Greg Bevino lied in court, how they're tear gassing two year olds, you know, how they're bragging about how their marksmanship after they shoot an American citizen five times in the back. And so what, what I said is, you know, I think people actually will put up with a lot of authoritarianism, but only if they're getting some shit out of it, not just for the sake of sadism. Like we're not all psycho terrorists like Stephen Miller. So, you know, if it was making the trains run on time and people's rents were coming down, whatever, then I think, yeah, people would be like, well, it's not great, but what are you gonn the way that they do with, let's say Bukele, right, where they had a massive crime problem and his, I don't think that I would never support his policies, but they genuinely brought the crime down. People are like, yeah, what are you going to do here? You have an administration where their authoritarianism is making things more lawless, injecting more chaos, more criminality into their streets, in their communities. And at the same time they're cozied up to a bunch of oligarchs giving away giant tax cuts to the rich. Your rent is going up, your groceries are going up, your energy bills are giving going up. Which by the way is related to giving the store away to the Oligarchs who are putting these data centers into your town and what are you doing? You're throwing yourself Great Gatsby parties and building yourself an elaborate gilded multi hundred million dollar ballroom which seems to be the thing you actually care about versus anything else that's going on in the world. So you know, I, I think voters are getting the message like oh, you were lying when you claimed you cared about me in my life. You were lying when you said that you cared about the affordability crisis. That was just political language meant to sucker me into voting for you. And so if you're a Democrat, like all the, you know, the mass thugs in the street and all of that hyper energizes you. If you're an independent, you're, you're appalled at that and you are very disappointed and unhappy with the state of the economy which some 70 plus percent of voters say is. And if you're a Republican, you're like pretty depressed because you know there were some, look, you said you were going to release Epstein files. You didn't do that. You said you were, you know, you said you're going to be looking out for me. I'm not feeling that great and I'm not ready to vote for Abigail Spanberger, but maybe I'm just not going to have time on that day to get out and vote. So to me it's not a mystery of what went wrong here. But you know I, I feel, and Sagar kind of raised this point, I feel a little bit like when Democrats would start to say like oh, we got to re message, we got to talk more about this, we got to talk more about that. It's like no, you don't need to talk more about affordability. You actually need to deliver for like you have a reality problem and unless you're going to do a total 180 on you know, pull the National Guard out of the cities, pull the mass thugs out of the streets, really do some unorthodox things for Republicans that are going to change people's material conditions like immediately you are in for a massive reckoning come 2026. And I think that cake and a lot of, look, a lot of things can happen but in a lot of ways that cake is pretty much baked.

[A]

I'll toss it to Ryan and Griffin after that. I mean I think the fact that they don't even talk about it and they're like looking back and realizing that the President spent the last year roughly focused on foreign policy. Obviously they had their one big beautiful bill but they're looking back and saying the last three months, like, why was nobody talking about this? And I think with that Mikey Sherrill quote, you can interchange a lot of things from abortion. You could put in talking about Israel, talking about, you know, whatever else Trump has talked about. And many different. The, the White House, like getting rid of the East Room. Right.

[B]

Yeah. I mean, all the ads in Virginia, a big proportion of the Republican ads in Virginia were about transgender issues. You know, and yeah, people are like, maybe I don't agree with her, but you know what? I'm, I'm struggling out here and I'm not voting for another Republican right now.

[A]

Yeah. And that's. I posted about this afterwards is like, you. It's not like Capital P, Capital W, Peak woke anymore when Youngkin came in and was able to talk about a lot of these things. The future politics doesn't look like 2021. And that should have been fairly obvious. If you want to talk about those things, if you want to. First of all, you have to be careful to actually talk about what matters to people. And if you insist on talking about them, because those things do matter to some people, to many people, then you should tie it back into the conversation about, like, elite. Bernie does this all the time about elite distractions. But you probably, you could go further. You see, these are the same people sewing discord in your school district that are also bankrupting you and making your life miserable in a myriad different ways. But Republicans don't believe that, and centrist Democrats certainly don't believe that. So. But yeah, I think, I think they do need to hold that.

[B]

You're actually the one constantly bringing it up. You know, you'd be like, my opponent's obsessed with this thing that I just cannot stop talking about Twitter 247 and have spent millions and millions of dollars on. And she's not saying anything about, you know, order to make.

[A]

Spamberger didn't talk about it. Right, right. And that's the difference between 2024 and 2025 is Spamberger's not talking about it.

[D]

Yeah. And real quick, because I know we got to move because we got Blake coming pretty soon. A couple of things that she said, she said grocery prices are down. That's not true. Grocery prices are up. She said energy prices are down. I think gas prices are down about 10 cents a gallon since Trump took over, but electricity prices are absolutely through the roof. And she said mortgage rates are down, which is true. Mortgage rates when Trump came in were close to 7. Now, I think today they're at around 6.2 still, but that's still way, way above what people want and need to be able to unlock the housing market. And the way that he has brought down rates so far is to destroy the economy, like, to, to produce, you know, we're seeing like record amounts of layoffs. Somebody said more, more fir month than since 2020, 2002. We don't have the data on it because the government's shut down. But when the new data comes in, it's probably going to be shocking. And that, that deterioration of the economy has finally sparked the Fed to reduce interest rates, which flows into mortgage rates. So it's like, okay, good, good job getting, you know, mortgage rates down by like, you know, 60 basis points, but at the cost of like a deteriorating economy.

[B]

I turned off news altogether. I hate to say it, but I.

[A]

Don'T trust much of anything.

[C]

It's the rage bait.

[B]

It feels like it's trying to divide people.

[D]

We got clear facts.

[A]

Maybe we could calm down a little.

[C]

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[E]

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[B]

Yeah, I was gonna say I, I'd like to play the Steve Bannon sot. If we've got that, we'll do that.

[E]

And then we'll get to airlines.

[B]

Yeah. And then because. Yeah, go. While you're pulling that up I can just update people a the airlines piece, though, because as the shutdown, you know, continues on and Democrats, I think, feel pretty vindicated in their positioning given the electoral romp that they were able to pull off this week. Meanwhile, you have 42 million people who don't have, are not receiving food stamp benefits on which they rely. You have a federal judge who first ordered the Trump administration, hey, you do have emergency funds. You have to tap that Trump administration, as they frequently do, we're like, oh, yeah, we'll try and we're getting around to it and blah, blah, blah. Court came and said, no, you have till this Friday to pay out 100 of the benefits that are owed. Now the Trump administration is appealing that. So people continue to go without this food benefits. And, you know, you're starting to see the stories of I had to go dumpster diving in the Walmart parking lot to be able to feed myself and my family. You know, I, I have to pick, do I put the $50 I have in my back bank account towards half a gallon of gas to, you know, to, to go to the food bank or to go to the store or, you know, if I have to go to work, like, I genuinely don't know what I get I'm gonna do. So I'm already. Because it's not like the food stamp benefits are super luxurious to start with. By the end of the month, they're gone and you're waiting for that next tranche to hit. And so, you know, people really feeling the pain there. And now we already have a lot of chaos in the air because there's been every day you see ground stop here, ground stop there, ground stop because air traffic controllers are not getting paid. I saw somebody share online, like, the $0 pay stub that they receive for working as an air traffic controller. And now the government is going to enforce a 10% cut on all airline flights to deal with the fact that, you know, you still are shut down and people aren't getting paid. And so people are not showing up to work and they're taking their leave, et cetera. Not to mention, like, these are the kind of jobs where you really want people to be, like, locked in and not having to worry about, am I going to be able to, like, pay my health insurance premium and make my rent this month? So, you know, as we head into Thanksgiving here, people with no food stamp benefits and looking at the air travel situation, which is already a nightmare, and wondering if their holiday plans are even remotely possible at this point. And I feel like you know, we're already at the place where these things are becoming incredibly painful.

[E]

Let's hear a little bit from the airlines.

[D]

Let's put this all into context.

[C]

The US handles about 45,000 flights a day. A 10% reduction of that is worse than the worst cancellation day of the.

[D]

Past year, every day until the shutdown ends. So this is not a small tweak.

[C]

Aviation's a multi billion dollar industry, and.

[E]

When you slow the system, you slow.

[C]

Commerce, air travel, supply chains, deliveries nationwide. The clock is really ticking now. Never in modern US Aviation history has the federal government done an across the board cut a flight capacity like this. And now it seems that passengers are going to be the one paying for it.

[D]

I'm going to a conference in Lisbon on Sunday night. And so I don't think they're canceling the transatlantic flights for, like, economic and geopolitical reasons, but who knows? We'll see. Maybe, yeah, we'll get there on Wednesday, but maybe I'll, maybe I'll actually be there.

[B]

Maybe you'll be around.

[A]

And it's just the idea that everyone is going to see this and blame Democrats when Republicans are in power. It just, I mean, like, I, I understand Democrats are the ones withholding their votes. I get that. But I think what Trump has realized just since the elections, if these leaks are to be believed, is that they're the ones that are in power and people are pointing the fingers at them. So when Sean Duffy is the one who's the head of transportation and has to go out and talk about this, they're like, oh, this is the Trump guy. Right? Like, that's just the association people make in their minds. This is the, this is the Trump administration who's telling us about these shutdowns. And it all goes back to them.

[B]

Yeah.

[E]

Trump has been saying, you know, energy costs are down, which we have a clip of right here. So he's huge.

[A]

It's true.

[E]

This is his pivot to affordability. Let's take a listen.

[D]

Talk about the cost of Thanksgiving and the cost of living through Thanksgiving and enjoying Thanksgiving for Joe Biden 25% more than it is for me at a later time. Our energy costs are way down. Our groceries are way down. Everything is way down. And the press doesn't report it. The press reports whatever the con people say. You know, I called the Democrats con men and women.

[E]

All right, so, Crystal, you have been debunked, actually. Everything is cheap and everything's down.

[B]

Well, I did see there was a community note which are getting, I think Rarer at this point. But on this, on this clip of the president, apparently the Walmart basket of goods he's talking about contains, like, eight fewer items than it did last year. And they swapped in, like, the Walmart brand for the brand names or whatever. So we're not comparing apples to apples here. Not that any of you needed me to tell you that, because you all exist and presumably eat food and purchase it at some store somewhere, and so have some awareness of what the prices are doing right now, which is really the problem. Like, you know, I think we're not getting economic data from the government because of the shutdown. Even before that, there was a question of whether we're getting data at all or accurate data. I think there was a sense from the Trump administration that if they just fudged the numbers that they'd be able to lie to people about what was going on with the economy. That is not going to work because people have their own direct, tangible experience of what's in my bank account. Can I afford the things that I could afford previously? Am I making it to the end of the month? Do I have sufficient money for rent? Can I ever dream of owning a home or paying my health insurance premium? You know, so I don't need, like, a government statistician to tell me how things are going for me economically in my own life. He. Go ahead, Ryan.

[D]

No, I was just saying. Exactly right. Trump's consolidation of the media is like, obviously that's helpful to him, but controlling CBS News is only going to get you so far because. Exactly. Like, people live in the world. They go to the grocery store, they see what a bag costs, they know what it used to cost. They see their checking account, they, they see, they, they know what they used to have at the end of the month, and now what they now have at the end of the month. And, you know, nothing Barry Weiss tells them is going to change that. So you can only, you can only go so far with the, the, you know, the control of the media.

[B]

Yeah, that's, that's totally true. So, I don't know. I mean, Ryan, do you think. I saw before the election there was some sense of Democrats being like, oh, maybe we'll take a deal. Then I saw there was, you know, Bernie Sanders was trying to rev up all the troops. Like they're, you know, you gotta stand strong at this point. I saw an Axios article that was like, Democratic members of the House and activists are telling leadership there will be hell to pay from the base if you guys cave at this point. So where do you think, you know, things stand in terms of how Democrats are thinking about this?

[D]

I think, I think Republicans are also and Curious Family's take on this, very motivated in the Senate to get a deal because Trump is putting enormous pressure on them to get rid of the filibuster. They don't want to get rid of the filibuster. They probably don't even have the votes to get rid of the filibuster. And so in order to get rid of that pressure, they need to go get out of this shutdown. So, you know, they're talking about Democrats want to vote. They're like, just give us a vote. Like, we're not demanding the subsidies. Like, just give us a vote on the subsidies. And we expect that if you put it on the floor, it will pass and then we open the government back up. So that I feel like Democrats are dug in on that, on that point.

[A]

Which means, I mean, so Republicans are never going to do that because it forces them to look like they're voting against the subsidies. It was actually a, I don't know if it was that Team Jeffries idea seems like a Schumer idea to me, but that's quite a, quite a clever trap. But what that will do is force Republicans to come to the table and give a little bit of something to get out of that public relations nightmare. Now, the substance of it is obviously a nightmare for everybody who's about to see a massive spike and is already seeing the massive spike. But that's how Dems are negotiating, by putting Republicans in a little bit of a PR pickle by making them vote on it. So that means Republicans are going to have to in all likelihood give something. And that's what been Trump has been absolutely resistant to doing. And if the, the midterm or the off year elections kind of broke his resolve on that question, seeing what happened just basically across the board with some running up the margins. Maybe that's the, maybe that's the sign that John Thune and Mike Johnson need to actually go to the table and have serious conversations about what, what policies there's give and take on.

[B]

Yeah, well, and part of the reason why Republicans are very adamant about not getting rid of the filibuster is I think it's starting to set in for them that they are not going to always be in power, that some of the wilder things that are being done by the Trump administration, they're starting to imagine, what if, what if President Aoc had those powers? What could she not that she would. Because, I don't know. Democrats don't seem to use power in the same way Republicans, Republicans did. But you are. It's also a different day. You just had, you know, Normie, liberal voters vote for a guy who threatened to murder his opponent, political opponent. So it's a different vibe out there than it used to be. We're no longer doing the, like, you go low, we go high thing. That's, that's out the window. So, you know, with the, like, the Supreme Court and the tariffs. Right. They were floating. Okay, well, could a future president declare a climate change emergency? I saw some reporting about Republicans privately being like, you know, if Biden had sent, let's. Let's say Illinois National Guard troops into my state of Arkansas, Oklahoma or whatever, we would have lost our damn minds. Not so sure about this precedent. And, you know, it's the same thing with the, the filibuster, where they're like, okay, if we get rid of that, they could add senators from D.C. they could add senators from Puerto Rico. They could, you know, they could add Cease's Supreme Court or at least term limit or age limit, the Supreme Court. These things would be more, much more on the table and would change some of the balance that right now is, you know, in favor because of Republicans. Rural dominance is kind of electorally favorable towards Republicans. So in, in that vein, there was a clip from, the clip from Steve Bannon that I've been itching to get to, where he told an audience like, hey, listen, if they win the midterms, some of us, including me, are going to jail. Let's go and take a listen to the way that he frames this.

[E]

And I will tell you right now.

[C]

As God is my witness, if we lose the midterms and we lose 20.

[E]

28, some in this room are going.

[C]

To prison, myself included. They're not going to stop. They are getting more and more and more radical, and we have to counter that. And what do we have to counter it with? We have to counter it with more.

[E]

Action, more intense action, more urgency.

[C]

We're burning daylight. If you look across every aspect of this, this, we have to codify what President Trump has done by executive order, right? We. We have to codify it.

[B]

Some tepid apostle.

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

If he's worried Republicans who don't, we've.

[D]

Got our boy covered. We're not. We're not letting the. We're not letting the AOC regime put Steve Bannon in jail. Come on. Don't worry.

[B]

I am not aware of any recent Steve Bannon crimes. I mean, he did already go to prison for some things, but, you know, we had the whole build the wall fraud and whatever. I'm not aware of any new Steve Bannon crimes. I do have some other people in mind who are committing crimes. I don't think Stephen Miller should feel comfortable with his, you know, ongoing freedom in a few. I think some of these things will be litmus tests in a Democratic primary. I don't think he's wrong about that. But they're, you know, their sense accurate or not. Right. Because again, I don't see Democrats using power in the same way that Republicans do. Their sense accuracy, whether that is accurate or not, that this is existential. I'm sure Emily is going to color the, you know, their approach to politics and the way that they, you know, conduct themselves from here on out.

[A]

Well, yeah, I mean, I think it already is.

[B]

I agree.

[A]

Yeah. I think Bannon went to prison for defying a subpoena, congressional subpoena. It was almost unprecedented. It may have literally been unprecedented. Maybe it happened one other time or any. You would know this, but it was. I mean, that after that, it changed the way a lot of people saw these things. Actually, I doubt that Stephen Miller is fully comfortable. I'm sure he understands that there could be significant legal challenges or whatever mounted by Democrats when they're back in power. And a lot of this, I mean, Biden declared an emergency to do student loan relief, and honestly, nobody really cared. That wasn't a major issue. That the public backlash was crazy over and. And partially the reason that a fairly career moderate establishment guy like Joe Biden did that is because Donald Trump violated lots of norms. And again, nobody cares seems to care. Maybe the one norm that there's been significant backlash to is lawfare against Trump. I think the public had a reaction to that that was overwhelmingly negative. But otherwise, something Ryan said, I don't know, six months ago just like, stays with me and haunts me. It's like, you don't want to be the type of country where anybody who runs for office does so with the expectation that they could go to prison because the incentive structure is just a disaster in that case. And it just creates a total rot that we've always been priding ourselves, that we've always prided ourselves in sort of having a system that's better than that, and the system depends on the people, and that's where are things are looking.

[E]

I have a question to Ryan on that. That doesn't make sense to me because then doesn't that just give people that like you, once you get an office, you can commit any crime. Isn't like so many of our problems built around the fact that none of these people go away?

[B]

Like the, there's no elite accountability.

[E]

The architects of like the Iraq war, like everything, like all true are still around. So, like, what are we supposed to do about that?

[D]

Both things are true. If you accept like that, you know, there are some norms that are. That we abide and like, let's say we don't torture people and that when Obama comes in, he launches an investigation into torture and did people break the law when it comes to torture? And if the public broadly across the board accepts that that behavior was outside of the norms of what we allow, then that does not create a precedent that everybody then assumes if they lose office that they're going to go to prison. Because there are a lot of countries where that is just an accepted kind of part of cost of doing business. I'm going to get into politics and I know at some point I'm going to get thrown out of office and I'm going to go to prison and then I'll probably get out of prison. Like, basically every prime minister in Pakistan has gone to prison at some point and then oftentimes comes back and becomes prime minister again. It happens. The current one, in fact. But if you start prosecuting people for things that are within the norms, that's when, just because they're your opponent, that's when it creates this unwillingness then to cede power.

[A]

And you don't get prosecutions for like, I don't know, war crimes or like crimes against humanity. You get ham sandwich prosecutions where it's.

[D]

Like cooked up stuff like this mortgage fraud nonsense where like clearly Letish James has like a second home where her niece lives in it. And the Trump administration gins up this fake prosecution to say like, oh, like she's act. This is actually a rental property and she claimed it as primary. It's like, rental. Who's the renter? There's no renter. It's her niece.

[E]

I get, I get it for the fake crimes. But like, so are we saying that Stephen Miller shouldn't like go to jail for his crimes?

[D]

So that, that's what, that's why I'm saying that you have to have full public buy in to go after people for crimes they committed while in office. Like, Nick's like Nixon, let's say he wasn't pardoned. The public was bought in on prosecutions because what he did was assumed to be outside the bounds of what was acceptable.

[A]

The public was outraged about the pardon. Yeah.

[D]

And people were okay that nobody's above the law. And so if you get the public's buy in, in both. Both parties, then you can do it. And you don't create a cycle of everybody just throwing each other in prison. So that's, that's the, that's the distinction there. Doesn't mean you can't have accountability. It just means if you throw everyone in prison for being on the other side, then you really undermine the ability of the elections to actually see a real peaceful transfer of power. Because.

[E]

So you can break a law, but.

[D]

You need a power so people can.

[E]

Break the law, but you need, like a popular mandate to break the law.

[D]

Yeah. Let's say Biden went through, like, Supreme Court's like, no, you can't do the debt cancellation. Which they told him and he's like, no, you're. That you're wrong. I can do that. Like, I disagree. And he just does it. Yeah. And the public is like, good. Yeah, F the Supreme Court on this, like, who's the Supreme Court to come in? They're wrong. And then the public's with you. Then, then you don't lock Biden up for that.

[A]

But this is why Bannon is scared, because Bannon went to prison for a fairly norm breaking prosecution over subpoena defiance. And nobody cared.

[D]

Right.

[A]

Like, the right cared, of course, like hardcore. And MAGA absolutely cared. But the media didn't come to his defense. The.

[B]

I mean, but it is also, Emily, I mean, let's not downplay what he did either. They wanted him to testify and he was just like, fuck you. And like, that also doesn't allow your system to function. Like, if people, if Congress, you know, has a subpoena power and power to investigate and they're going through, you know, the proper procedure and you're subpoenaed and you're just like, no, I'm not going to do it.

[D]

And if you're doing that on purpose, like, you can't.

[B]

We can't operate this way. Right. And I think there's a. Ryan, you raised this possibility like that may be what we're facing. If, if, if when Democrats take control of the House, for example, you could see, you know, a lot more of that where they, in theory, have some power. But if it's. If people just refuse to, you know, refuse to submit to the subpoenas and the administration refuses to comply, then you're at the mercy of, you know, whatever judicial process to say, like, no, actually, they do have this power, and you have to comply.

[A]

I just think when it happens in one direction. Oh, sorry, R. I was just saying, when it happens in one direction, that's where Bannon is. Like, people don't care.

[B]

People.

[A]

Like, it doesn't matter.

[B]

What's another. I mean, what's another equivalent Comey?

[E]

Right. Like, we were arguing about Comey the other week. I mean, it's different. Slightly different crime, but, I mean, kind of similar setting.

[B]

Comey didn't commit. I mean, I think the Comey prosecution is total and complete bullshit. And that's not to say I'm a Comey fan, but, like, give me an equivalent situation. There may be one. I'm not saying that there's not. I'm just not aware of an equivalent situation where you had a Democrat who was subpoenaed to, you know, testify before Congress and they're just, like, not doing, no, I'm not gonna do it.

[A]

So it has happened before. It's definitely happened before where other people have done it. But going to prison. Let's see. I'm looking up. I'm grokking it right now. Not really. I think a lot of it came from, like, Cold War Watergate days. Yeah. It looks like the last one before Bannon was, like, in the mid-80s.

[D]

And it happens to journalists. Like, journalists get subpoenaed for their sources, and journalists refuse to give the sources.

[A]

Judy Miller.

[B]

Yeah, she went to prison again, this is not like. That's. You know, that's not the same either, because that's, like, a principle. Just didn't want to say anything that was inconvenient for Trump, you know?

[A]

Yeah. Yeah.

[D]

But the point is. The point is it's not unprecedented to go to prison for refusing a subpoena.

[B]

Yeah. So, like, that's. Yeah. So your point is, even journalists who have, like, a good reason to refuse it have still been imprisoned for it.

[D]

Right. And that was a really awkward time for people because Judy was, you know, one of the most discredited reporters out there. But you still had to stand by the principle that protecting your sources, even if they're awful, like.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Even if you'd like to prison one. Yes.

[E]

Yeah.

[A]

Other examples like Eric Holder, Lois Lerner, those are good examples. But also Carl Rove, that's one of the things Ollie north was pardoned for and Elliot Abrams was pardoned for. Actually, I'm. I'm going deep now. That's. But anyway, yeah, it's a. It's. It's a bad situation. So it's bleak. It's bleak. It's bleak. I turned off news altogether.

[B]

I hate to say it, but I.

[A]

Don'T trust much of anything.

[C]

It's the rage bait.

[B]

It feels like it's trying to divide people.

[D]

We got clear facts.

[A]

Maybe we can calm down a little.

[C]

NBC News brings you clear reporting. Let's meet at the Facts. Let's move forward from there. NBC News reporting for America.

[E]

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All right. Joining us now is Michael Blake, former mayoral candidate, former vice chair of the dnc, former assemblyman from the Bronx who has launched this week a primary challenge to Representative Richie Torres. Michael, thanks for joining us.

[C]

Great to be with you. How are we doing today?

[D]

We're all doing good. You're joining us from Puerto Rico, I understand, which it seems like everyone in the New York echelon is there. Mamdani, I've seen a bunch of other people are in Puerto Rico. What's going on there? Like, why did everybody decamp?

[A]

Kathy Hochul.

[C]

Kathy Hochul. I mean, the elected officials that care about New York are here, which is why Richie Torres is not. And so we are here at the SOMOS conference. It is one of three major political events that happen for New York throughout the course of the year. And when you think about the Bronx and you think about New York, Puerto Rico is obviously intertwined. And so just yesterday I was able to go spend some time with Power for Puerto Rico, local nonprofit doing incredible things. Today I'm leading a session around democracy in the community. And if you care about New York, you care about Puerto Rico. And if you care about the Bronx, you care about Puerto Rico. Which is exactly why I'm running for Congress, because you need to have someone who's actually going to fight for the People in the Bronx. And Richie Torres once again is absent.

[B]

Griffin, can you. Yeah. Can you queue up his. Michael's launch video so we can all get a taste of that? Everybody watch. Watch closely, because there's a bit of a cameo from some folks that you might know here.

[D]

And as I was living in these slum conditions, the city was spending more than $100 million on a golf course.

[B]

Richie Torres invested in weapon makers just.

[D]

Exposed for secretly investing in genocide.

[A]

All these things I'm secret seeing about Richie Torres.

[C]

Since 2021, Richie Torres has represented New York's 15th congressional district, the poorest congressional district in America. In 2025, Richie has nearly $15 million on hand, largely from APAC, while many of his constituents barely have 15 to get by. So he spent the last 15 days hearing from the people about why they are ready for a change.

[D]

I saw Richie Tara as Adam Friedland. I know he suffered, but what happens to you is you get bought. It is so hard to keep your moral integrity once you start taking the money.

[A]

He profited from it.

[B]

He talks about that place far more often than he talks about the Bronx.

[E]

You were criticized for Blackstone donation, the.

[D]

Architects of the housing crisis.

[C]

What a. But you cannot be a representative in the city of New York. And you talk like that. Richie Torres sucks.

[D]

Not as long as Richie Torres is a wife.

[C]

Cares more about BB than he. Cares about the Bronx. More about APAC than he does about your academics. So you want to stay with someone who only wants to care about himself, or do you want to have someone in me and Michael Blake who actually wants to care for the people? I'm reimagining what the city can look like. I'm named after Jamaican prime ministers. Michael Manley, Alexander Bustamante. We're up Crested and Burnside. Remember the days back in the day when you go to Woolworths to go shop, Stay key, go kick it. Whose track record has spoken for itself for years. So when we think about why elect me? Think about cost of living and affordability. We can give people a better chance. Think about a new vision when it comes to education. I rolled out an extensive education plan. And lastly, show the vision of how we can bring real change to the district.

[B]

So, Michael, I think the. The ad speaks for itself. The launch video speaks for itself in terms of the case against Richie Torres. I also will say, I don't know that our audience needs the case made against Richie Torres. I think they're all on board with. With wanting to see a change there. But just give our audience A little bit of a sense of who you are. How'd you end up in this place? You know, your sort of political journey to this moment.

[C]

This is home for me, Crystal. You know, I'm born and raised in the district. I grew up Crested in Burnside. I always tell people, you know, I'm a PS79,118 deal with Clinton High school kid. My elementary school is the one that Jonathan Kozo wrote about in Savage Inequality. My high school is the one that has the largest alumni association in the world. So James Baldwin County Cullen, Charlie Rangel. And we have for decades been the poorest congressional district. We're a place that's constantly disrespected. My family's from Jamaica. I'm actually going to be going down next week to go check on families in Jamaica and figure out how we mobilize in the community. My full name is. I'm named after Jamaican prime minister. So I always tease my mom that her and daddy are the reasons I am this. You know, I am the epitome of a Jamaican stereotype of tree jobs. So I'm a preacher. I'm a public servant and journalist. I'm doing this because we deserve better in the Bronx. I'm doing this because right now we have someone who is not focused on what's actually happening on the ground. We're actually not helping people buy wages. We have longer pantry lines. Krista Reiner. But earlier this week, I was at a seven day Adventist church where there were more than 400 people standing in line at a weekly food pantry. So you have a scenario where we're not being helped, we're not being represented. And someone in Richie Taurus who just doesn't give a damn about us. And when we think about the moment that's at stake right here, as we just saw with Zoron's win, who I proudly cross endorsed. We cross endorsed each other in the mayoral primary. I said very clearly, if it's not me, it should be him. Because we were talking about the most important issue that people cared about, which is cost of living. And people are ready for a new generation of leadership, and they're tired of these folks who don't give a damn about them. And Richie Torres is that. That's why I'm running, by the way.

[D]

Yeah. For people watching the book, Savage Inequality is a searing portrait of education. The education crisis of inequality in America. That's amazing that you went to that school. People, everybody should check that. Check that book out.

[C]

I was there at the time. He wrote about It. Brian James Carter.

[D]

Did you know him? Because didn't he speak? Didn't he teach at the school for a while?

[C]

I knew. I actually got to meet Jonathan afterwards. James Carter was my principal. And I said often, Principal Carter was, I think, the only black man I could remember in an education role until I got to college.

[D]

Wow, wow, wow. So we want to talk about the Bronx soon. As the, as the, as your launch ad makes clear, like you're, you're, you're hitting him on from both directions, saying that he's too focused on his support for Israel and not focused enough on the, on the Bronx. What has been your own journey, you know, when it comes to support for Israel? My understanding, you tell, correct me if I'm wrong, you took, you took an APAC funded, you know, trip, which is the thing that, you know, most politicians are offered an APAC trip to Israel to get the propaganda version. When was that? What was that trip like? And what has your journey been like on. On the question of the US Relationship with Israel?

[C]

Absolutely. Like all things, life is that journey. And it has been that journey to see the truth. So for context, I was an Obama staffer who came back to New York. I got elected to office in 2014. In 2014, I took that trip. I've been to Israel twice. I went to Israel AIPAC once, and I went with JCRC as well, Jewish Community Renal Council. And what you see very quickly is breathtaking in many ways of, yes, you can acknowledge and recognize the power and beauty that happens in all parts of our world. But I remember being a part of a meeting where an individual said apartheid is happening. And then the meeting was stopped. I recognize and saw the power of. When you have someone who was from Ethiopia who talked about the recognition of Israel and that dynamic, I get that and I saw that. I appreciated that. But Ryan, Crystal, everybody, that the journey continued thereafter because you start to then realize slowly that you are being given a side that's not giving the full picture. 2017, I spoke at an APAC conference, and particularly it was around black and Jewish leaders coming together for that moment. And I said, within one of those events, AIPAC had changed my life forever in that moment, because quite frankly, it allowed me to go to Israel, which I had never been before, to see it, which I'm also an ordained reverend, which obviously adds to this dynamic. You know, I was able to baptize people in the River Jordan. I was able to pray at the Western Wall, I was able to lead the Sermon on the Mount. But as soon as we came off stage, Bibi Netanyahu was speaking virtually. And when the reference of President Obama was made, the room started to boo. And that's when you start to realize that you are being pushed a message from AIPAC that is not fully true and direct and sincere about what is happening now. People will say to me, well, why did you continue to go to some of the meetings? Because, you know, at the end of the day with any journey, you want to learn what's happening. But then you get to a point where you say enough is enough on and what has happened? What has happened is that you have an organization in APAC where just earlier this year it was reported that 46% of their donors in Democratic primaries had also given to Republican races for the purpose of having a Republican light Democrat in these races. What has happened is that you have a genocide that is occurring. And as a human being to ignore that, that. And it's not just Michael Blake saying that, that's the United nations and so many others that are stating that you cannot ignore that. Let us also be very clear that to tell a black man who has endured racism and poverty and challenges, who also preaches that me being critical of a government does not make me anti Israel in the same way I've said to folks, if you could criticize Donald Trump, that does not make you anti American, kid. And we have allowed right now this game where people are trying to push me into a box and push others into the box from what's actually true. So where we're at right here today is that that journey is a continual one. And unless you were with me, where I prayed and cried with people because it was Jews, Christians and Muslims, they would pray together, who at the same time have now elected a 34 year old Muslim South Asian man as mayor who at the same time can acknowledge the magnitude of it. And then lastly, on a final personal note, in terms of that journey, World Central Kitchen and Jose Andres, many people have seen is a dear friend. Jose has been a blessing to me. He brought World Central Kitchen to the Bronx during COVID which I will say that in 2020 when we were focusing on feeding families, Richie Torres focused on raising money. One of the people in World Such in Kitchen, Zuri was one of the individuals that was killed by the attack that came from the Israeli government where they said, well, it wasn't our intention and that was not the case. And so when I ask people is to look at the breadth of it all. The journey has been very real for me. It's one where you understand that information is being given to you that's not fully comprehensive. But we're at today is you can say at the same time that, yes, what Hamas did is inhumane and at the same time that Palestinians losing their lives because of a genocide is inhumane. You can say at the same time that we must end anti Semitism, while at the same time we've got to end Islamophobia and others who are unwilling to say that should not be in.

[A]

All office One question I have from the ad. Based on everything you just outlined, it's, it seems to me, a calculated strategy. When you mention Richie Torres and apac, you tie that right back to what you discussed as your sort of central motive for running for office, which is affordability and cost of living. And I was just curious if that was intentional, if that is part of how you see making this argument. Because, you know, it's easy, especially when you're in the online discourse, to get down the rabbit hole of elite obsessions and having some of these fascinating conversations about history and all of that, but for a lot of average people, they're just trying to put food on the table. So was that a concerted strategy to tie these all together? And how do you see the connection between Torres being the kind of guy who takes money from AIPAC and is also maybe behind on economic populism that you.

[C]

That he's not focusing on the number one issue, which is cost of living. He's not focusing on how people need help. You know, look, I'm that kid that understands when we had to sell dinners on Saturday afternoons to pay rent, you know, that first year in the assembly when I slept on the couch because I couldn't afford. The dynamic of going back in Albany, like, like the reality is people are struggling. Even if they have multiple jobs, they are struggling. They're wondering how they're going to pay their bills. And I wanted to be very clear that, that his focus on AIPAC and supporting AIPAC as it is and continues to be, is not having a focus on what the people need right now, which is better housing. For example, Richie said himself that nycha New York City Housing Authority public housing is federal oversight. There was an explosion that happened at the Mitchell Houses just recently. Richie also was the chair of housing in the City Council. So, so when we think about the dynamic, it's been a continual failure of not fixing the problem when it comes to housing. When I talked, as I said in the ad, what would I do? End credit scores being used for Housing applications and have a local median income because area median income is not working for us on the ground. So to your question, Emily, I'm able to say, let me focus on helping people. When Richie has not been focused on helping the people people. When we talk about what's going on as it relates to Puerto Rico, the need for self determination, he has not been focused on this. When we talk about what's going on in the Caribbean and Jamaica, immediately I said, how do we help our Jamaican, our Dominican, our Haitian communities all at the same time? When we talk about what's going on in education, where schools are wondering right now, how is it that we're going to be able to help these kids go to school and graduate from school. I wanted to be very clear that all of those things have gotten worse under Richie Torres. And Richie Torres has made a decision that his focus is not the people of the Bronx. It has been to aipac.

[B]

Michael, tell people a little bit about what would your specific policy priorities be? You know, are you, are you a Medicare for all guy? Are you, you know, what are some of the things that you're really wanting to prioritize if you were elected to Congress first?

[C]

Everything's gonna be around cost of living and the economic issue. So I've talked about this a lot. Credit scores for housing have to end. It is a institutionally racist, discriminatory policy that you're telling someone who pays their rent on time, that pays their bills on time, that the reason why they are unable to get access to a new home is because of a credit score for. Because someone might have missed a bill by a day, but they paid their rent. It makes no sense whatsoever. It's purely to block people out the game. When we think about local median income, area median income does not work. When you have Westchester county and other counties being a part of what's calculated for AMI in New York, it's making it more expensive for us to have a home in New York. These are federal policies that have local dynamics that I talked about in the previous race because they're all intertwined because it impacts us here in the city. When it comes to health care, we do need a Medicare for all. We do need to be very focused on how we're helping more people to have coverage. Because what are we watching right now? We're watching every single day, people genuinely wondering, will I be covered for my health care? I'm wondering, do I have money for prescription drugs? I'm wondering, what happens for these bills? And so we have to be serious about this, as you all know. And when I work President Obama and the Affordable Care, there are things we could have gone further and we should have gone further. And this is the moment to do so right now. And I also think, Crystal, to the question of, you know, where do we stand in this moment? Because you're going to have individuals that are going to try to paint me and paint anyone that is critical, understandably, of being anti of communities. What people are looking for is how do you communicate a vision where everybody can win and thrive. And I can't represent an area like the South Bronx in the 15th district without understanding that everybody has to have a voice. Multiple times throughout the mayoral election, including the Thursday before the election, Richie Torres refused to endorse Zoram Hamdani specifically because he said of one community within the district, he stood by a man who had sexually assaulted women. Stood by a man where thousands of people died during COVID Stood by a man who had done all those things. And so while there's also policy priorities that I've just laid out, Crystal, there's also just the humanity that you got to have someone who's actually going to care for you and care for everybody and actually create a space that we can have some real conversation and not have someone. Richard Torres, who literally said when someone came up to him that he disagreed with to go fuck yourself. That's not what you need as a representative. I know that surprised people that are repping with Cus, but I am Jamaican from the Bronx, so you just gotta be ready for that kind of thing.

[B]

Michael, can you talk a little bit about. My understanding is Richie's approval rating in the district is pretty, pretty favorable. And, you know, can you talk about the difference between perhaps how he's perceived in the Bronx versus his image nationally?

[C]

Certainly. Well, I also would say favorability and job performance are not all intertwined in terms of how someone can get elected or reelected. Right. You had many people that had high favorability ratings who lost races itself, whether that be Eric Cantor, whether that be Congressman Crowley and aoc. I mean, we have seen that. And when you have that communication to let people know about what has not been happening, they shift pretty quickly within the district. Right. When you see the energy that has happened for us on the video, where more than 2 million views have happened on it thus far, that's not just nationally, of course, that's all across the board. It's people feeling that he is not being a voice for them, that he's not helping him, not representing them. In a serious and continual way. Somebody can show up to your church, they could show up to your community center, they could show up to your local school, but it doesn't mean they're actually fixing the problem. And what we will communicate is that you might like Richie Torres because he might smile in your face and try to be kind to you, but he's actually not helping you and your life has not changed for the better. And when you make that clear comparison, people understand that. Now nationally, because people have been clearly watching and what has been going on consistently, I think we could see how people feel about Richie. They feel that this is a man who by his own, the own data thing last was like 2,300% talked more about what was happening in another country than in his own community. People are paying attention to that. And again, I want to keep being real clear to everybody listening because what you're going to have happen and watching, because what you're going to have happen is like, well, are we trying to pull people apart? No, I'm just trying to keep it real. Trying to be real with you. That at the end of the day, just because someone shows up when it's convenient doesn't mean that they're helping you. And Crystal, I'm gonna make it real practical. Poorest congressional district in the country. People wondering if they're going to have food, people wondering how they're going to get groceries, people wondering how they're going to pay their bills. Man got $15 million. Why is he not using that money to help you? Why is he not putting it towards community efforts immediately and consistently at a higher and continual degree? Now he'll say, yes, I helped you and I got some federal funding here and there. But how you use this moment of leverage is real. And so, so people see him for who he is, which is why we have the energy that's happening right now. It's why we're going to start rolling out endorsements next week. It's why we're going to be showing momentum consistently. It's the reason why we have had people of all different spectrums from across the district already saying, we're ready.

[E]

There was Ryan, go for it. And then I got a question.

[D]

Just, just real quick. Yeah, There was some real hope when he was elected in 2020 that as, as somebody who he grew up in public housing in the district, obviously like a very, very bright, like, hyper intelligent guy, especially compared to, you know, the rest of Congress, which I, as somebody who's covered it for 20 years, I can Tell you, they it struggles down there.

[C]

That man, that he would be maker. You just gave Ryan to the rest of them. But I appreciate that right there.

[D]

That he would, that he'd be a, a voice for the poor like that, somebody who, who came up in the poorest district and is now representing it and was able to articulate a vision of, of fighting back again against, against that, that, that finally there'd be. Because so, so many of the poorest districts are represented by people who take corporate PAC money, represented by people, Republicans in the Freedom Caucus. And they just, they don't stand up for their district. They stand up for the people that fund their campaigns. And that hope from Torres was dashed that, you know, because he, as you said, all he's talked about, you know, as far as the public understands is Israel. And whether you agree with him or disagree with them on it, like, that's. What does that have to do with the Bronx? So if you were able to get in, like, how would you be that voice for the Bronx? Like, what are, what are the, what are the issues that you would try to force into the national conversation that, that aren't there? Because these poorest districts in the country just generally not. There's some exceptions don't have representatives who speak on their behalf.

[C]

Well, to that question, Ryan, let's start from even the visual behind you about the squad, right? Like, Richie has not only just demeaned what's been happening elsewhere, he's demeaned his own Democratic members who are not aligned with him. Right. Consistently, repeatedly. You know, the disrespect he's had towards aoc, to Ilhan, to Rashida and others, and as relates to, even locally with the dsa, which he called a, a Mickey Mouse club and a Mickey Mouse party. This is the rhetoric of Richie Torres that he regularly does going back to the 2020 race. And, and I do think this is important because it's good context. I pretty much, for about four to five weeks spent my time feeding people, getting out ppe, getting out masks and helping people in the community. Richie was running a divisive campaign, effectively saying that we should not let one other person in the race because of their stances. And in particular, that was around saying that the homophobe is what his language was around Ruben Diaz senior. Right. That was Richie's argument on why he should get to Congress. Congress fundamentally. Right. And what has happened throughout, you have someone who stated that Governor Hochul is feckless and can deny her own abilities. But then he turned when he saw that Zorin had won the primary. This is a man who had cross endorsed Tish and then Zephyr teachout, quite frankly, for his own political protection. Right? This is a man that turned on city council when it comes to the right to no act around criminal justice. This is a man who was attacked, attacked women when it comes to those that have been a part of the women's march. I'm saying that to say for context that Richie has been this before he even got to Congress. And now people are seeing the consistency that he will throw you under the bus in a second for his own gain. And so for now, let's elevate what I have done in New York with the My Brother's Keeper program, where we're still the only state in the country to have a funded program where black boys and brown boys, young men of color can go to school and graduate from school. And it has now been expanded to our My sister keep program so that more of our students of color can go to school and graduate at a higher rate. Let's expand out a true effort around local median income because clearly the poorest congressional districts, not just us, will be substantially able to benefit if the housing that you are getting is more affordable. Right? Taking those kinds of steps will impact us in a very real way. And we talk about hope, right? Like, you know, clearly I was in the, you know, yes, we can, the Hope Fund. That's the order we came out of with President Obama and that through line. We need to be able to believe in our people right now.

[D]

Right?

[C]

None of us are perfect. There is no perfect candidate. Right. You're gonna have people you disagree with. But I do believe that I could restore a vision of what's possible within the district. A district, by the way, that voted for Zorn in the, in the general election this past week, a district that is 41% black, 37% Latino. A district where my previous assembly district is 100% within the district. So the people know our track record. And now it's about telling the story of how we're going to help and fight for you and say that if you are ready to move on from Richie Torres. My name is Michael Blake and I'm asking that you rock with me so we can go to Congress and fight for you.

[E]

I got another question, Michael, for you, something else that's affecting your community, which is ice. The day after the election, Mayor Alex Zoran Mamdani said that he would warn ICE officers against breaking the law in his city. But then recently, from the NY Daily News There was this scoop that the NYPD commissioner, Jessica Tisch got a heads up from the Trump admin that ICE agents were about to conduct their aggressive Canal street immigration raid. Do you think that Mayor Alexor Mandani should fire the NYPD commissioner to someone that's going to better follow his policies of fighting ice? And what would you do to support your community to defend them from ice?

[C]

So I'll separate appreciate the question. So that's obviously for the mayor to decide on if he keeps her or not because it's not really a fire incident like he's going to be the man in charge on January 1st there. I think it's very concerning that a heads up was given that ICE was going to raid on Canal street and there was not real protections that happened for folks. For anybody that doesn't understand New York City, Canal street is effectively immigrant entrepreneurs. Right. That's who's there. And as you know, my son of immigrant myself, my family's from Jamaica. If you got a heads up that people are going to roll on Canal street, you understand that a lot of people are going to get arrested and lives going to be destroyed and now will have that PTSD sitting with them of at any moment will ICE come back here? Right? So it's a problem, it's a deep problem that cannot be ignored in any possible way. What would I do? First, we got to be very clear that we designate our facilities, in particular our schools, our community centers, our places of worship as safe havens automatically so that it is very clear that ICE is not permitted into those spaces. That is something that is not currently happening. Which is kind of wild to think about that. Right? It's a reason why so many of us who are preachers have to be thinking regularly about virtual sermons because as we saw recently from national Latino evangelicals that they've had less people attending their services because they're afraid that ICE will show up there. Second is that we have to make sure that it is in multi languages, access to lawyers that can represent you immediately as well as the communication that is available, especially when you are dropping off your kids each another way. There was video that just came out just this morning name of ICE detaining someone in a car while the man was holding on to his baby having a seizure. And what was more important to them was to try to rip him away than his child being protected. Third, and finally for now, as it comes to this, we got to make sure that we're not empowering and putting more money into NYPD surveillance efforts that would be helping ICE to attack our communities. And one of the many questions that has been lingering around Richie is his support around drones has been very nebulous at best. And if you are helping ICE to make it easier to grab our immigrants, then you should not be representing our immigrants in the South Bronx. And as a son of immigrant myself, I actually going to say very clearly I know how the federal government should be working for us, and it is not right now because of Richie Torres.

[E]

All right, well, thank you very much, Michael.

[B]

Yeah. And if you can tell people where they can follow your campaign, how they can support you if they're interested.

[C]

I hope everybody's interested after hearing us right now. Come on. Not if. Right now. Come on, y'. All. So go to. Go to Michael Blake. Blake for Congress. Michaelblakeforcongress.com Follow us on Social. You'll see the handle Mr. Mike Blake. You'll see the handle Blake for the Bronx. And we need you right now. Look, this is going to be a grassroots campaign. We need you to donate. We need you to knock on doors because a lot of people are going to be coming for us that don't want us to win. But the people have shown right now that people are ready to win. So if you're ready and say we deserve better for the Bronx, my name is Michael Blake and I want to be a member of Congress and rock with [e-mail] One last question before you.

[D]

Go, because I think people will want to know how sharp a contrast we're talking about. Would you support a. A full weapons embargo on Israel?

[C]

There should be.

[D]

I mean, there we go.

[C]

Like, h. How can you. I know we got to go. I just like, like, how. How can you watch what's happening and be the same right now? Right. And. And again, I think what is happening in this space is that there will be people who hear what I just said and say, well, you're anti Israel. Absolutely not. It's not about being anti. It's about, I care for humanity. Right? Yes, you deserve to have safety. Yes, you deserve the security. But if you're watching babies and families, every dollar we are spending on that. We are not spending on books in the Bronx. We are not spending on making sure people have food and get all the pantry lines. We're not spending on making sure you can actually pay your prescription drug bills. It's a question around priorities, and mine is the Bronx.

[E]

All right, thank you, Michael. And we hope breaking points makes more cameos in your ads in the future. We're excited to see where our next clip appears. So thank you so much for your time.

[C]

I appreciate y'. All. Thank you.

[E]

You take care.

[C]

Take care.

[E]

All right. We are going to switch it over to the premium half now, folks. So if you want to sign up for membership breaking points.com it helps us do our journalism. It helps support us when we're under all sorts of attacks like Ryan BBC Attack and more.

[A]

Well, we're about to get to drop site reporting in the premium half, so.

[B]

That'S more Jeffrey Epstein Robstein Dropstein Drop.

[E]

Dropstein News Jeffrey Dropstone Dropstein.

[D]

I like it.

[B]

Yes, the Dropstein news is coming. Yeah, yeah, it is in Israel news, by the way. So it's got a lot.

[E]

We'll see you on the on the other side of that. If you want to sign up for a membership, you can go to the description here or in the pin comment of this video BreakingPoints.com you can sign up for a monthly or a yearly membership, get access to our full uncut ad free shows and the ability to ask us questions which will be answering in the second half. We'll see you all there.

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[B]

Make it rig showtime ladies.

[D]

Stand up straight and breeze into that.

[B]

Room like a storm no one saw coming.

[C]

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