← Breaking Points with Krystal and Saagar
Breaking Points with Krystal and Saagar
6/25/25: Zohran Defeats Cuomo In NYC, Trump Rages At Iran Nuke Strike Failure & MORE!
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- [00:00]
Ryan Grim
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- [01:38]
Emily Jashinsky
Hey, guys, ready or not, 2024 is here, and we here at Breaking points are already thinking of ways we can up our game for this critical election.
- [01:45]
Ryan Grim
We rely on our premium subs to expand coverage, upgrade the studio, add staff, give you guys the best independent coverage that is possible. If you like what we're all about, it just means the absolute world to have your support. But enough with that. Let's get to the show.
- [02:04]
Crystal Ball
All right. This is the legendary New York reporter Ross Farquan, who has his own substack, the Metropolitan Report, the Metropolitan Review, also a columnist for New York Magazine, longtime reporter here in D.C. in New York. What are you. Sorry, D.C. we're not in D.C. we're in New York. New York City. What are you seeing?
- [02:27]
Ryan Grim
Huge, huge showing for Zoron tonight. Honestly, I am taken aback by how large a lead he has.
- [02:35]
Crystal Ball
What.
- [02:36]
Ryan Grim
What's. What's the current numbers right now?
- [02:39]
Emily Jashinsky
You can look on the screen there. I've got to see.
- [02:41]
Ryan Grim
What does it say?
- [02:41]
Emily Jashinsky
It's about the same. Zoran's at 43.8% with 81% of the vote in Zoran.
- [02:49]
Ryan Grim
I feel safe saying Zoran is going to be the Democratic nominee for mayor in New York City. I don't like to call elections, but I think, I think we're getting very close to there. I don't see how Cuomo pulls this off, honestly, at this point. Maybe there's some last burst in these final 20% of votes, but he holds a really significant lead in an election where it looks like more than a million people voted, a million Democrats voted. This, this is a realignment election. This is.
- [03:18]
Emily Jashinsky
What, what is, what do you mean by that, Ross?
- [03:21]
Ryan Grim
This, this means that more than any election I can remember, far more than AOC Joe Crawley, far more than, I don't even know, some gubernatorial race somewhere. There has been a massive shift in how people vote. At least in the largest city in America, where a man who was governor for 11 years, who had the entire political establishment quite literally behind him, who had a super PAC spending close to $30 million, is losing by a significant margin to a 33 year old socialist state assembly. That is something that even the wildest leftist forecasts could not predict. And so I had not looked at the vote yet by neighborhood and by precinct. My assumption is with a win like this, it cannot be written off as, oh, it was low turnout. Oh, it was, it was the gentrifiers. Oh, it was this, it was that. You have this many votes. You are getting a multiracial coalition, you are getting a working class coalition, you are getting upper class people and you're getting young people. So I want to dig more into the data, but right now this is a stunning, it's a massive upset. Honestly, you could call this one of the biggest upsets in American political history. I think I'm going to put it in there. Cuomo ran an awful campaign. I don't, I don't. As much as I'm going to credit Zoran, Cuomo ran an atrocious campaign, the laziest campaign I've ever seen. But this is still a monumental showing.
- [05:04]
Crystal Ball
Absolutely. Go ahead, Crystal.
- [05:05]
Emily Jashinsky
I was just going to ask about the attacks on Zoran, accusing him of being an anti Semite, and you know what it means, this very clear rebuke of that tactic, which I think in any year now in New York City, you can tell me, because you're the expert, would likely have been pretty successful, you know, would have been a very difficult thing to overcome.
- [05:27]
Ryan Grim
Yes, so. So 10, 10 years ago, maybe even five years ago, if you said a candidate who is pro Palestine, openly pro Palestine and had Been an anti Zionist, does not identify it like that.
- [05:40]
Emily Jashinsky
And as a Muslim.
- [05:41]
Crystal Ball
Yeah.
- [05:41]
Ryan Grim
And as a Muslim, if you took all these things and five years ago you would have said no way. And now he has run up a huge margin in a very diverse city. The Israel lobby must be absolutely. I don't know what's going to their head because you don't see rebukes quite like this very often in politics.
- [06:05]
Crystal Ball
Do you remember the Jessica ramos story from 2014? So during the 2014 Gaza war, Jessica Ramos, who has gone full circle, she went left and now she endorsed Andrew Cuomo and this and you know, ran running and she got 0.4%, I think in the first round. She said, there's a New York Post headline. It's one of the funniest things I've ever seen. Maybe even New York Daily News. It says, law lawmaker expresses sympathy for people in Gaza. That was the headline. No context was needed. That was a scandalous. It was understood to be a scandalous thing. She had to apologize because she wrote a Facebook post that said, like that. Sad that so many people are getting bombed.
- [06:44]
Ryan Grim
And I remember that 2014 summer very well because the entire Democratic establishment lined up with Israel. Literally. You had massive rallies. Every so called progressive Democrat was there cheering on Israel, cheering on the bombardment. And the shift from there has just been seismic. And we know the generational shift is happening. That has been ongoing. But now you have an election like this one, you see, it's bigger. It's actually bigger. So I am really, as someone who thinks highly of Zoran's political talent and saw him for a long time going places to see this kind of result and other new. Have new results come in. Where are we at right now? Yeah, so here, Ross, this is Adam Carlson, pollster Adam Carlson, who has said, stick a fork in it. Zoran Mamdani will win the first round of the Democratic primary. So we have a pollster calling it, period. So it's done that. That's that it's finished.
- [07:48]
Emily Jashinsky
Right.
- [07:48]
Crystal Ball
Because he's not going to get. He's not going to win Brad Lander's votes.
- [07:51]
Emily Jashinsky
Right, so that's right.
- [07:53]
Ryan Grim
I'm looking at this map right now. Zuron won three out of five boroughs.
- [07:57]
Ross Barkin
Wow.
- [07:59]
Ryan Grim
So, Ross, like, you know, is this similar to an AOC moment where someone like this wins and then the squad.
- [08:07]
Ross Barkin
Comes afterwards and it spreads across the.
- [08:09]
Ryan Grim
Country to other races? Or do you view this more as.
- [08:12]
Ross Barkin
A very unique race in a vacuum?
- [08:14]
Ryan Grim
What's funny is this race is far more impressive than AOC's race, but I don't know if it's going to be as influential. I don't know yet. I can see Zoran being turned into a boogeyman because he's Muslim, because he's openly socialist, even the way AOC is not. I can see Democrats around America, some excited and some feeling consternation. I don't know. 2018 was sort of the height of resistance, blue wave politics. I actually do not know. I think Zoran is undoubtedly a leader on the left. He might be the leader and this is all said and done, leading the largest city in America if he wins the general election. That's a really good point, I think. I think, though, how other Democrats approach him is going to be fascinating. Some are going to be very excited and embrace it. Some are going to want to run the other way. It's going to be more complicated. But the scale this race was waged on is like a statewide race. New York City is larger than most states in America. It's a very diverse city. It's ethnically diverse, religiously diverse. Politically diverse, too. It's not just all lefties. It's a very complicated city. And so for someone to win and win so convincingly, to come from behind all. Tomorrow, you're going to. I'm sure you're going to hear a lot of explanations from sort of the center. They're going to say this, that. But it will. I think it's falling flat because turnout was big. Democrats.
- [09:45]
Crystal Ball
Oh, yeah.
- [09:46]
Emily Jashinsky
I was just going to say there's. There's never been a Muslim mayor of New York City. There's never been a socialist. Some people have likened him to LaGuardia. You know, can you spell out, do you think that there are parallels with. LaGuardia is considered, you know, one of the best mayors of New York City of all time.
- [10:02]
Ryan Grim
Yeah, I mean, I mean, there's certainly. LaGuardia is sort of the progressive ideal of big city mayors. Now, LaGuardia wasn't as a come from behind candidate as Zuron was. LaGuardia was a liberal Republican running against the Democratic machine, but he'd been a popular congressman. He'd been kind of building a political operation for years. I mean, I mean, Zoran Mamdani was mostly unknown as recently as five to six months ago and is now poised to become the mayor of America's largest city. This is, no offense to Chicago or to Boston or to any of these places, but this, this city is a massive, massive place. And So I think LaGuardia is a parallel, you have the sewer. Socialist mayors of the early 20th century, the mayors of Milwaukee were socialists. I think Duran is coming from that good government reform mod, delivering public services, delivering public goods. He's not running on ending capitalism, mostly because mayors cannot end capitalism. It's a very economics first campaign and it's a good. I think it's a good message for all Democrats.
- [11:12]
Emily Jashinsky
He could take out Wall Street. That would strike a blow at capitalism.
- [11:16]
Crystal Ball
Make them pay their parking tickets.
- [11:18]
Ryan Grim
Try. This brings up a question I wanted to ask, which is you often see from the primaries, the general election, the. The pivot to the center. How do you expect Zoran, you followed his campaign so closely, you've talked to him. How do you expect him to handle now actually going citywide and having to appeal not just in a primary?
- [11:40]
Crystal Ball
And let me piggyback onto that. What do you think this does to Cuomo running in the general?
- [11:44]
Ryan Grim
I was very sure before this night that Cuomo was running in the general election as an independent with a massive super PAC behind him. That may still happen, but this is a convincing victory for Zoran. This is a large victory. This is not two points. This is very big. So for Cuomo, it's going to be harder to pivot into being the super PAC candidate. Now, I think Zuron is going to have to do outreach to a lot of different interest groups, communities that he did less of in the primary because he is going to be mayor. Even though he ran against the power elite, the power elite sought to destroy him. You're mayor of New York City. You're going to have to take meetings with financiers, with developers. It will happen. So the pivot might not mean any new policy or kind of any rhetorical shift necessarily. But I think he's somebody, he's very charismatic. He likes to deal with people he will talk about to anyone. So I expect there to be significant outreach to a lot of the groups that have been most hostile to him. I think he's smart enough to try to attempt as big attempt as possible. But look, there are forces in the city that are going to want to destroy him and destroy his morality. That is a fact. And they tried with de Blasio, and this is much bigger than de Blasio was. It was a center left progressive Democrat who came out of the political establishment. This is something very different. So these hedge fund finance types, they will think of ways to destroy him. Zoran might still have breakfast with them.
- [13:25]
Crystal Ball
Ross, it was partly ways, like they would destroy him.
- [13:27]
Ross Barkin
Like, what could they do to him.
- [13:28]
Emily Jashinsky
As well, yeah, it was partly Cuomo who was trying to destroy de Blasio. I mean, I remember the battles they were having.
- [13:36]
Ryan Grim
Yeah, so Cuomo, absolutely. I think they're going to appeal to Kathy Hochul. Hochul is a centrist Democrat. I think they're going to look to Hochul to kind of be a check on Zoran if he's mayor. Look, I think the super PAC failed miserably, but they can always spend more money. And when you're mayor, perhaps those attacks land differently. There's a media apparatus that is some, is depending on what outlet, very hostile to Zoran. The New York Times and New York Post editorial boards were very anti Zoran. So there is a sort of media establishment that is against him now. Younger journalists and media types like him. So I think there's a generational divide where older media is opposed, younger media in favor. He will have a lot of challenges if he becomes mayor and I do expect these, these forces to work against him. It'll be very interesting to see how he, how he deals with that, how he works with them.
- [14:29]
Emily Jashinsky
Well, and Ryan and Ross, either one of you guys can reflect on this. It's very fraught for the left because anytime you have a leftist who does a poor job of governing, it's an indictment of the entire left. If you have a centrist who fails at governing, that was just one guy.
- [14:45]
Ryan Grim
Like Eric Adams or Andrew Cuomo.
- [14:50]
Crystal Ball
Also, if you have, if you have a leftist who is good at governing like Michelle Wu in Boston, you never hear about it again.
- [14:56]
Ryan Grim
You don't know it. Yeah, now that's the interesting. With Zuron, everyone was like Brandon Johnson, Brandon Johnson. I tweeted this and wait a second. There's a progressive Elizabeth Warren acolyte governing Boston with a 61% approval rating. Why can't Xeron be Michelle Wu? In fact, I think there are real parallels there in Zorron. Zoran is a competent person. He's very bright. I think he's going to hire very good people if he's mayor. I think he's going to attempt a sort of reformist, good government type administration because look, it's important to do the public, the progressive leftist policies, the things he ran on. But good government and anti corruption is very important here because Eric Adams was so corrupt. It's going to be very important for Zoran to not be embroiled in any scandals because he will go down fast if that happens. He can stay clear and have a very clean administration. That's going to go a long way. And I think he will.
- [15:52]
Emily Jashinsky
Are you sad to see you going to jump?
- [15:55]
Crystal Ball
Well we're going to let Ross go. Oh if you have one more question because we're going to Andrew Epstein communications director for is going to join us in a second but do you have a wrap up question for Ross?
- [16:04]
Emily Jashinsky
I do have a wrap up for Ross which is aren't you going to miss Eric Adams content creation?
- [16:09]
Ryan Grim
He's a great content creator and he's running in the general election so he's going to be content creating through November. This is very interesting right now because Cuomo is down so much. Eric Adams who is left for dead, he's going to try to be the power elite candidate. He's going to go to these financiers, the Bill Ackman's of the world, the Michael Bloomberg. Know what Momo? This guy blew it. Come back to me, support me. So look out for that too.
- [16:37]
Emily Jashinsky
Interesting. Ross. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
- [16:41]
Ryan Grim
I mean I call him for New York Magazine. My substack Ross Barkin Political Currents look on the substack. Subscribe to it. Lots of mayoral race writing to come.
- [16:52]
Crystal Ball
Yeah Ross, thanks so much. Really appreciate it.
- [16:58]
Ryan Grim
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- [17:26]
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- [18:28]
Emily Jashinsky
Megan.
- [18:29]
Jamal Bowman
Megan.
- [18:29]
Ryan Grim
Megan.
- [18:30]
Crystal Ball
Megan.
- [18:30]
Emily Jashinsky
Megan. Would you prefer that I give you.
- [18:32]
Ryan Grim
A printout that you can read at your own pace? Megan. Yes, it's me. What a shock. Etc.
- [18:36]
Ross Barkin
On June 27.
- [18:38]
Ryan Grim
She is a smoking hot warrior princess.
- [18:40]
Emily Jashinsky
All right, meat sacks, let's get to work. Are you going to stand in my way?
- [18:45]
Ross Barkin
The BE is back.
- [18:48]
Ryan Grim
You think you learned your lesson the first time?
- [18:50]
Emily Jashinsky
Megan.
- [18:51]
Ross Barkin
Megan 2.0. Only in theaters June 27th for DPT 13.
- [18:56]
Crystal Ball
We're joined now by former congressman Jamal Bowman.
- [18:59]
Emily Jashinsky
Let's go.
- [19:00]
Jamal Bowman
Is that Crystal Ball right there?
- [19:01]
Crystal Ball
That is crystal ball.
- [19:02]
Jamal Bowman
What's up, crystal ball? What's up, yo, Crystal, you're great, yo, I love your work.
- [19:06]
Donald Trump
I love your work.
- [19:07]
Emily Jashinsky
Thank you. That's very good.
- [19:08]
Jamal Bowman
I've been doing that dope shit. I'm sweating because I've been hugging people.
- [19:12]
Crystal Ball
And celebrating because it's 120 degrees.
- [19:15]
Jamal Bowman
So excuse me for sweating and all that. What's up, homegirl? Is that Emily? I'm sorry, Crystal, but I'm sure you're great too.
- [19:24]
Ryan Grim
She is.
- [19:24]
Emily Jashinsky
What's up, Ryan?
- [19:26]
Jamal Bowman
You got some questions? What's some questions?
- [19:28]
Crystal Ball
What happened? Why was he able to do this in a way that candidates in the past haven't?
- [19:33]
Jamal Bowman
Well, Zoran is exceptional. He's an incredible person and an incredible candidate. He has the right values, he has the right policies. He's probably one of the best communicators we've ever seen. And he's exceptional, number one. Number two, his team is exceptional. They have like. I called his campaign manager, like a pianist, she struck all the right chords at the right time. Team Exceptional three. This is New York, mother effing city. So we're talking about diversity, beautiful people, language, culture, different ideas. And so the fear mongering and the bs, it's not going to work here the same, because this is New York City. So you put those things together in addition to, oh, by the way, capturing the hearts and minds of the people to the point where you got 30,000 volunteers knocking on a million doors. And Cuomo, you know, he's trying to coast, right? And the establishment, if they know what's good for them, they take this as the resurrection of their freaking pardon. So we'll see, man. But for me, it came down to all of that.
- [20:47]
Crystal Ball
No matter what. Mamdani got asked whether it was about Israel, whether it was about the culture war, whether it was about what, it didn't matter. He brought it back to affordability in New York City and freeze the Rent like it always back to his message. Is he just better at that than other Democrats and progressives or did he have almost a more different idea about like, no, everything is going to come back to this one thing? Yeah, I mean it felt different.
- [21:13]
Jamal Bowman
When you run campaigns, you have to be disciplined. So you have to be disciplined in your movements politically and disciplined in your communication. And he was disciplined in his communication. And that is hard to do because everybody's human, you got emotions involved, all kind of stuff. But he was very, very, very disciplined. So you got to be disciplined. And then secondly, again, he's an excellent communicator. So it's not just about cutting and pasting what they've done. It's about excellent candidates who are excellent communicators. And they have to listen, they have to be orators to a certain extent and they have to also be disciplined. So it's all of the above.
- [22:02]
Crystal Ball
Do you think this, does this open anything up for the Democratic Party? Like, does, does this open any.
- [22:07]
Jamal Bowman
If the Democratic Party is smart, and I'm speaking specifically Hakeem Jeffries, Greg Meeks, Jim Clyburn, Barack Obama, Kamala Harris, Biden, every, all the establishment leaders, they would get 100% behind Zoran for the general and they would do it this week to set the tone because they're not going to beat MAGA trying to do old establishment shit like they've been doing the last couple years. That's not going to work. And so they better understand. I wish they would have understood this before, but there are superstars in the Democratic Party. You know, AOC is one of them. You know, some people disagree with her. Whatever you disagree with, she's still a superstar. Now Zoron's another one. You gotta uplift your superstars, man. Like, you know, I'm a sports fan. You gotta let your great players make plays to win championships. You can't put them on the bench and say, we're gonna put some 70 year old white man in charge of some committee thinking like, that's what.
- [23:15]
Crystal Ball
May he rest his.
- [23:16]
Jamal Bowman
That's what. That's good for America. That shit don't make sense. I'm sorry, I don't mean to cut.
- [23:21]
Crystal Ball
Last one for me. And then you guys hurry up.
- [23:24]
Jamal Bowman
I got CNN in like Richie, seven minutes.
- [23:27]
Crystal Ball
Richie Torres. Doesn't this, doesn't this suggest that Richie Torres is vulnerable and somebody like a Jamal Bowman should run against him?
- [23:33]
Jamal Bowman
Inconsequential. Can we stop talking about Richie Torres?
- [23:36]
Crystal Ball
Not as long as he's.
- [23:37]
Jamal Bowman
Richie Torres is a wack motherfucker. Let Richie Torres keep doing his bullshit and let's keep doing our shit. We don't care about Richie Torres. Son, Richie Torres is not consequential. Please, let's lift him for him. We don't need Richie Torres.
- [23:52]
Emily Jashinsky
That conversation. One more, or was it nice to see AIPAC take this big loss tonight? And what does that mean for other candidates in the future?
- [24:00]
Jamal Bowman
Listen, I don't, I don't want to underestimate aipac because they have a lot of resources. So I don't really see this as a loss for them. I see it more as a win for us. And so, you know what, what, what I, I hope they begin to understand is your fear mongering, your hate, your racism, your money is not enough. You gotta actually like win on the issue. You gotta actually win on the issues. And, and, and have good values, right? Like, yo, we not support the killer that's starving of children. Like, we not supporting that because we're actually human beings.
- [24:37]
Emily Jashinsky
Yep.
- [24:38]
Jamal Bowman
Right. And so for them, hopefully, actually again, I put them in the Richie Torres category. Not about that. For us as progressives, we got this victory, but now we got a winner, General. And now we gotta show we can govern. I'm sorry. Maybe Zoron's coming.
- [24:55]
Crystal Ball
Here he comes.
- [24:56]
Jamal Bowman
Not yet.
- [24:57]
Emily Jashinsky
Good boy.
- [24:57]
Jamal Bowman
Not yet. Not yet. All right, we gotta hurry up. I'm sorry, I gotta CNN in like two minutes.
- [25:03]
Emily Jashinsky
Thank you, Congressman.
- [25:04]
Jamal Bowman
I'm listening.
- [25:04]
Ryan Grim
Thank you.
- [25:05]
Jamal Bowman
Thank you.
- [25:06]
Crystal Ball
Take the earbud.
- [25:07]
Jamal Bowman
Peace. Love y' all. Keep doing your work. Appreciate it.
- [25:10]
Ryan Grim
Thank you for having us.
- [25:13]
Ross Barkin
So we've got Andrew Epstein here. He was. What's your official title? The Communications Director. Communications Director.
- [25:20]
Ryan Grim
How are you feeling right now?
- [25:21]
Ross Barkin
Very confident, very excited. I mean, we found the early voting totals we walked into today where 200,000 New Yorkers had already voted for Zuram. We've won a majority of boroughs in early voting. And not just the kind of caricature of a left wing insurgent campaign. We are leading in the hearts of immigrant New York and South Richmond Hill and Corona. We're winning districts in the south shore of Staten island, all over Manhattan. We're competitive in the Bronx. We are building the multi ethnic, ethnic, multilingual, multi generational working class coalition that this campaign had always set at its North Star. And that's starting to show up in the data tonight.
- [26:03]
Crystal Ball
So when the. So what do you think you did differently to overcome the problem that the left has had, which is you can do well in what I think Michael Lang was calling the Commie corner, calling it what corner of Brooklyn, you know, you do well among the hipsters. Among the hipsters. But breaking out beyond that, it's what crippled Bernie Sanders campaign. What did you do differently that broke.
- [26:33]
Ross Barkin
Through is just correct a little or challenge some of the caricature, even of those voters that often get ascribed as the heart of insurgent progressive Democratic socialist campaigns. Yes, many people who vote for Democratic socialists have college degrees. Many of them have parents who have had middle class or white collar jobs. But they are also tenants in the most expensive city in the country and have struggled to actually realize any of that sort of educational attainment or cultural capital. You can't pay your rent with cultural capital. You pay your rent with money and people aren't making enough. So even among the kind of like caricature of our base voters, there's a different story to be told than I think has been. But we've also fanned out long beyond that. And we did it with a relentless focus on an economic agenda, rejecting all of the narratives about what this race should have or would have been about. I think a lot of candidates and pundits and consultants overcorrected from 2021. Zoran looked straight at.
- [27:37]
Crystal Ball
In what way? What do you mean?
- [27:39]
Ross Barkin
They thought this would be a campaign about first, about the corruption in City hall, about the kind of law and order messaging that became dominant at the end of 2021. Even that, I think was quite different in reality than what was said. Eric Adams said he was running to deliver both justice and safety as a police reformer. We said from the beginning, this is about the cost of living crisis. This is about 1 in 4 New Yorkers living in poverty. This is about the inability to pay rent, to pay your mortgage, to have raise kids in the city, to retire in the city. And we developed and Zoran went out with a program that was memorable and relevant and deliverable. And even as early as December January, Zoran would move around the city and they wouldn't just recognize him as like, oh, I liked your video, or you're really dynamic. They'd look at him and they go, freeze the red buses fast and free universal childcare. Right? And that is both the premise of the campaign and also how we intend to win a mandate for delivering those things. We don't want people to just elect Zoran because he's a dynamic figure. We want them to elect him to actually then hold him accountable to the exact policies he has laid out from the beginning of this campaign. And the second piece is that we would not have been able to deliver that message to voters without the largest grassroots campaign this city has ever seen. We knocked on 50,000 doors today alone in temperatures that felt over 100. We've knocked on more than 1.6 million doors since this campaign began. More than 50,000 volunteers all across the five boroughs. It's the combination of that focus on an economic agenda, on what we are going to do for people, not just what we have done for people, and the fact that that was being delivered by this incredible grassroots movement across the.
- [29:26]
Crystal Ball
City and the thing I've been writing about my entire career and has never really materialized is the idea that if you excite people, they will come out and vote for you.
- [29:37]
Ross Barkin
Yeah.
- [29:37]
Crystal Ball
And it never quite. But it never. It's. You can't find much evidence for it.
- [29:42]
Ross Barkin
Until today to do for them not just who you are.
- [29:46]
Crystal Ball
Right.
- [29:46]
Ross Barkin
What your character is.
- [29:48]
Crystal Ball
So freeze the rent.
- [29:49]
Emily Jashinsky
Yeah.
- [29:49]
Crystal Ball
Fastest fuss free like that.
- [29:51]
Ross Barkin
Right. And now if we win, if we win this nomination, if we defeat the other candidates in the. In the general, we want to be held to account for delivering those exact things that we promised. It's a.
- [30:02]
Crystal Ball
It's. It's similar maybe to Georgia. If you remember the Georgia Senate elections, Democrats were like, if you vote for us, we'll give you $2,000.
- [30:10]
Ross Barkin
Right. And give us the Senate version of that. And that worked out pretty well.
- [30:13]
Crystal Ball
People were like, I vote for you and you'll give me $2,000. Okay.
- [30:17]
Ross Barkin
There's a good deal in. In. In some corners of the Democratic establishment, the consultant class, that promising people things is like crass cheating. It's crass. It's kind of low. Politics shouldn't be about. Politics should be about, like, you know, your, Your. Your character, your, you know, what. You know, how. How good you sound, you know? No.
- [30:39]
Ryan Grim
So you shouldn't just do.
- [30:41]
Ross Barkin
You shouldn't just do Obama voice. You should give them something. You should give them something. Yeah. People deserve a lot more than they have right now in this country and in the city. And politics is about organizing those people to deliver those things and make life better and easier.
- [30:57]
Ryan Grim
I had a question for you about.
- [30:58]
Ross Barkin
Sort of the hinge points of this campaign.
- [31:00]
Ryan Grim
What were, like, the key markers that this campaign was growing?
- [31:04]
Ross Barkin
Were there moments that sort of made this campaign to get you to this moment here?
- [31:08]
Ryan Grim
I'm thinking about the AOC endorsement.
- [31:10]
Ross Barkin
Was there a first viral video? What were those hinge points for this campaign? There's a couple. I mean, it's.
- [31:17]
Crystal Ball
I mean, it was the breaking points bump, obviously.
- [31:19]
Ross Barkin
It was the breaking Points interview was Emily and Ryan. You know, it was. That was. Can I just say, I'm actually a very big fan of Breaking Points.
- [31:26]
Ryan Grim
Thank you, Andrew.
- [31:27]
Ross Barkin
You know, like, this is a little surreal.
- [31:30]
Ryan Grim
That's how we got.
- [31:31]
Ross Barkin
Hey, that's how we got here. We would not be let in if.
- [31:34]
Crystal Ball
You weren't a fan.
- [31:34]
Ross Barkin
So thank you. I have been yelled at today by pressing from around the world how they are not being allowed into this arguably small brewery. I said no drop site. Breaking Points. You're in.
- [31:47]
Ryan Grim
That's it. That's awesome.
- [31:48]
Ross Barkin
That's what it's going to be.
- [31:49]
Emily Jashinsky
Yeah.
- [31:50]
Ross Barkin
Some of those Room nine of Cinema.
- [31:51]
Ryan Grim
Some of those hinge points. Like, what were those moments?
- [31:54]
Ross Barkin
I mean, I think. I think one of them is one that I think Zoran went on to talk about, which was after Donald Trump was elected and everybody was in this state of shell shock. What was this about? What happened? What did we do? We said, let's just go ask people, like, let's go to the hearts of immigrant New York. Let's go to South Richmond Hill. Let's go to Fordham Road. Let's go to working class immigrant and black and brown neighborhoods that swung big for Trump. And just ask people, why'd you do it? And we really made a sign that said, let's talk politics. This was five days after the presidential election, stood on the corner and said, let's talk. And we heard again and again and again. I used to have more money in my pocket. Things used to be more affordable. The government is not delivering for me, but there are endless wars around the world, you know, and obviously Trump cynically and disingenuously spoke to those things, in addition to also promising to punish his enemy and, you know, playing on a kind of cruelty as well. He also said, cheaper prices end to worse. Right. And those are the things that we heard all over the city, especially in those neighborhoods. And when Zoran then said, I'm running for mayor to freeze your rent, make buses fast and free, deliver universal childcare, they said, I'll come back and I'll vote for you. And we are actually seeing that tonight.
- [33:10]
Crystal Ball
How much of that. And then if you guys don't have a question, but how much of that agenda, affordability, freeze the rent, buses fast and free, kind of flowed out of those conversations.
- [33:20]
Ross Barkin
So the kind of three pillars of this campaign preceded that. We launched the campaign on October 23, just a few blocks from here at a different venue in Long Island City. And we launched with those three signature promises. We have added more. We have Talked about more since that. But those have been the core three, and those are the ones that people remember and literally shout at Zoran as he moves around the city. And those have always stayed the same. And I think it's that focus, that relentless discipline on that agenda that has popularized it around the city and allowed us to stay the course, despite, as you know, a lot that's been thrown at us.
- [33:58]
Crystal Ball
There has been a bit like Bernie.
- [33:59]
Ross Barkin
With the Medicare for all thing.
- [34:00]
Crystal Ball
That's the phrase that we, Crystal or Emily have.
- [34:03]
Ross Barkin
Yeah, Emily, do you have any questions?
- [34:04]
Emily Jashinsky
Can you hear us? Okay, Andrew? Yes. Okay, perfect. I just wanted to ask you a little bit about all the attacks on Zoron, as, you know, anti Semitic, and how you guys thought about those attacks. Attacks, and also how he cope with them, because I know we saw a moment where he got emotional on the campaign trail in response to a question about that.
- [34:22]
Ross Barkin
It's painful. You know, it's. It's really painful to have those accusations, terrible, terrible accusations leveled at you when they're not true. And they've never been true, and they've never been who he is or what the spirit of this campaign has been about, which has always, in all. All of his politics has been about universality. Every single person deserves the same thing. Freedom, justice, dignity, peace. Everybody, no exception. That's been what's motivated his politics. And to have that twisted into bigotry or hate against any group of people, to have that and then to be relentlessly hounded about a very narrow set of questions when he has spent the whole campaign focused on lowering costs, delivering affordability, making the city work better for working people is difficult. And he has had moments of vulnerability where he's also said, I haven't been more vulnerable because of what happens, especially to people of color, to Muslims, when they express emotion, it can be twisted in a different way. He had that authenticity, genuine moment of profound sadness about that. But he's incredibly resilient and has spent, and just every single time, gotten back on why we're running this campaign. And that has broken through. It really has. You know, I mean. Yeah. So please.
- [35:51]
Ryan Grim
Oh, no. I was going to say, actually, now it looks like you guys are in a position, remarkably, to be talking to New Yorkers who are voting outside of just the Democratic primary. And if that's the case, people have been sort of relentlessly battered with that message from the Cuomo campaign and also the message that businesses are about to flee en masse and the city's going to collapse if Zoran becomes Mayor. So as you guys kind of may have to broaden your messaging now to people outside the den primary, what. What is your message to people who have heard all of the scaremongering about what could happen under a Mamdani mayorship?
- [36:26]
Ross Barkin
You know, one thing Zaran has said throughout this whole campaign is there is not an ideological majority in New York City, but there is a majority of people who feel disillusioned with the political system and alienated from the economic system and feel the strain of the cost of living crisis. And so I actually. I don't think the message really changes. I think it continues to be this relentless economic agenda, this focus on cost of living, on our core policies. We're already seeing that resonate beyond registered Democrats. And I think Zuron, in the same way that Bernie Sanders is one of the most popular politicians in America outside of.
- [37:07]
Emily Jashinsky
You. Just call on it.
- [37:09]
Crystal Ball
It's Brad Lander. Let me move.
- [37:11]
Emily Jashinsky
Okay.
- [37:15]
Ross Barkin
It looks like there's a little bit of chaos.
- [37:17]
Ryan Grim
It seems like.
- [37:18]
Ross Barkin
Is Brad Lander taking the stage? We don't have audio yet on this, but. Emily, what are you saying?
- [37:25]
Ryan Grim
Can you thank Andrew for us?
- [37:27]
Ross Barkin
Of course. Yeah.
- [37:30]
Emily Jashinsky
Thank you, Andrew.
- [37:32]
Ross Barkin
My pleasure. This has been such a pleasure and honor. I can't wait to listen.
- [37:36]
Ryan Grim
Congrats.
- [37:36]
Ross Barkin
We'd love to have you back sometime. My pleasure. Anytime. Thank you.
- [37:43]
Ryan Grim
Get ready for July 4th with early savings at Lowe's. Get up to 40% off select major appliances and get an additional 10% off two or more select major appliances. These deals are coming in hot. Lowes, we help you Save. Valid through 7. 9. Selection varies by location. While supplies last. See Lowes.com for more details.
- [38:05]
Emily Jashinsky
Visit your nearby Lowes on Colorado street in Kennewick. It's Megan.
- [38:13]
Ross Barkin
Are you ready for megansummer?
- [38:15]
Emily Jashinsky
Megan.
- [38:16]
Jamal Bowman
Megan.
- [38:16]
Ryan Grim
Megan.
- [38:17]
Crystal Ball
Megan.
- [38:17]
Ross Barkin
Megan.
- [38:17]
Emily Jashinsky
Would you prefer Meghan, a printout that.
- [38:19]
Ryan Grim
You can read at your own pace? Megan. Yes, it's me.
- [38:22]
Emily Jashinsky
What a shock.
- [38:23]
Ross Barkin
Etc on June 27.
- [38:25]
Ryan Grim
She is a smoking hot warrior princess.
- [38:27]
Emily Jashinsky
All right, meat sax, let's get to work. Are you going to stand in my way?
- [38:32]
Ross Barkin
The bee is back.
- [38:35]
Ryan Grim
You think you learned your lesson the first time?
- [38:37]
Emily Jashinsky
Megan.
- [38:38]
Ross Barkin
Megan 2.0. Only in theaters June 27th.
- [38:40]
Ryan Grim
WPT 13.
- [38:42]
Emily Jashinsky
Wasn't that delicious?
- [38:43]
Ryan Grim
So good. Your bill, ladies.
- [38:45]
Emily Jashinsky
I got it.
- [38:46]
Ryan Grim
No, I got it.
- [38:48]
Emily Jashinsky
Seriously, I. I just did first. Don't be silly.
- [38:52]
Ryan Grim
You don't be silly.
- [38:53]
Ross Barkin
People with The Wells Fargo ActiveCash credit card prefer to pay because they earn unlimited 2% cash back on purchases.
- [38:59]
Emily Jashinsky
Okay.
- [39:00]
Ryan Grim
Rock, paper, scissors for it. Rock, paper, Scissors. Shoot.
- [39:03]
Emily Jashinsky
No.
- [39:05]
Ross Barkin
The Wells Fargo Active Cash credit card. Visit Wells Fargo.com ActiveCash Terms apply.
- [39:13]
Emily Jashinsky
Guys, thanks so much for everyone who joined the live watch party of the Zoran vs Cuomo election last night. We were supposed to, during that live stream, get to covering a bunch of the new details regarding Trump and Iran and the leaked intel report that actually the attacks on the Iranian nuclear sites were not fully successful. But we were so busy covering the election results that came out much faster than anyone predicted because of the margin, the extraordinary margin of Zoran's victory was, didn't actually get to it. But that's okay because we've got some new comments from Trump out this morning that I want to go ahead and bring to you. So let me go ahead and put this up on the screen. So, as I just said, Trump is raging that a leaked intel report came out in multiple news outlets indicating that contrary to what he had said, those Iranian nuclear sites that we dropped, dropped massive bombs on, they were not actually completely destroyed. So he is very upset and he is disputing, by the way, that intel. And we'll get to more on that later. But just take a listen to what he is saying about the news outlets that revealed this information.
- [40:23]
Donald Trump
It did very bad, demeaned by fake news. Cnn, which is back there, believe it or not, wasting time, wasting it. Nobody's watching them, so they're just wasting a lot of time, wasting my time. And the New York Times, they put out a story that, well, maybe they were hit, but it wasn't bad. Well, it was so bad that they ended the war. It ended the war. Somebody said in a certain way that it was so devastating. Actually, if you look at Hiroshima, if you look at Nagasaki, you know, that ended a war, too. This ended a war in a different way, but it was so devastating. Also, they have out of Dubai just came that Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman, this is Iran's Foreign Ministry says it's near its nuclear installations were very badly damaged by the American strike. So what bothered me about these reports with fake reports put out by the New York Times. Failing. I call it the failing New York Times because it's doing terribly. Without me, it would be doing no business at all. But and by fake news, CNN and msdnc, all of these terrible people, you know, they have no credibility. You know, when I started, they were at 94% credibility. The media. Now it's at 16%. And I'm very proud of it because I've exposed it for what it is. But when I, when I saw them starting to question the, the caliber of the attack. Was it bad? Well, it was really bad. It was devastating. They were obliterated. But you can't get into the tunnels. They just put that over. That just came out. They can't. There's nothing. There's no way you can even get down. The whole thing is collapsed in a disaster, and I think so.
- [42:11]
Emily Jashinsky
There you go. That's what Trump is saying about all of this. And this is a pretty extraordinary development as well. Let me put this up on the screen here. So our own intel, this is the New York Times report that Trump is referring to here. There was clearly a leak from the intel community saying preliminary classified findings indicate the attack sealed off the entrances to two facilities but did not collapse their underground buildings. I'll read you a little bit of this preliminary classified US Report says the American bombing of three nuclear sites in Iran set back the country's nuclear program by only a few months. According to officials familiar with the findings, the strike sealed off the entrances to two of the facilities, did not collapse their underground buildings. Before the attack, US intel agencies had said if Iran tried to rush to making a bomb, it would take about three months after the US Bombing run and days of attacks by the Israeli Air Force. The report by the Defense Intelligence Agency now estimated the program had been delayed, but by less than six months. That report also said much of Iran's stockpile of enriched uranium was moved before the strikes, which destroyed little of the nuclear material. Iran may have moved some of that to secret locations. I suspect basic, you know, based on publicly available satellite information and other analyses of people who know a lot more about this than I do, I suspect that assessment is, in fact, correct. But also I strongly suspect that the people who are leaking this assessment of saying, like, what are you talking about? You obliterated these nuclear sites. You did it, you did. You barely accomplished anything. They moved all of the enriched uranium beforehand because they had such a heads up here and you didn't even destroy these facilities. And, oh, by the way, there are other facilities. So, yeah, you've set them back a little bit, but ultimately not that much. I am quite sure the people who are leaking that assessment are people who want us to go back to war directly with Iran. So the information they're putting out, which, again, I believe is accurate based on what we know publicly of, you know, what we were and weren't able to accomplish with these bombs that we foolishly dropped on Iran, they're trying to say, listen, you're claiming victory. You're claiming that Iran can no longer pursue a nuclear weapon. You, President Trump, have laid down foolishly, again, a red line saying Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon. You didn't accomplish that. So they're trying to push a continued logic to war. Now, this is all Trump's own fault because we've all been saying, you know, myself, Sager, Emily Ryan, like Dave Smith, all, you know, plenty of people who. And plenty of people probably within his own administration as well, Misty Bannon's and the Tucker Carlson's the world have been saying, no, the. If you actually want to try to prevent Iran from racing towards a nuclear weapon, you've just done the worst possible thing. The best thing you could have done is remain in diplomatic negotiations and be able to pursue an actual diplomatic settlement like, oh, the JCPOA that Trump got out of in his first administration. So by bombing them, he has created more logic for them now to pursue a nuclear weapon and made that much more likely. So he has given ammunition to the hawks and the neocons who want to keep this war going and want us to fully commit to total war with Iran. So this leaked intel report, this is the next sort of salvo from that group. Again, I think it's accurate. I think he's, you know, I think he's lying when he says this is these were completely obliterated and is just trying to be able to claim a victory. And so what they're trying to do is give ammunition to those who say, no, you did not, you did not destroy the nuclear weapons program. You yourself said they can't have a nuke. So that would mean you have to go back to bombing them. You have to re. Engage in this conflict and, you know, and get more fully invested in directly using bombs, destroying the Iranian capability. Because Trump himself really blew up the possibility of a diplomatic, very likely destroy the possibility of a diplomatic resolution at this time. So the next move from Trump, and this is again, absolutely extraordinary, this is from Barack Ravid. He says the White House sent to reporters a statement by the Israeli Atomic Energy Commission that claims US Strike on Fordo destroyed the site's critical infrastructure, rendered the enrichment facility inoperable. Ravid goes on accurately to state, this is a highly unusual case of the White House releasing a statement on behalf of an Israeli security agency. The statement was not distributed to the Israeli or international media by the Prime Minister's office, which is responsible for the Atomic Energy Commission's press. So just like the U.S. trump relied on the Israeli assessment that the Iranians were actively pursuing A nuclear weapon, discarding our own intelligence community, discarding the assessment of the iaea, the international body that was monitoring this. He relied on the Israelis convincing him, no, no, no, I promise they were pursuing a nuclear weapon. That's why you have to bomb. Now you have the President sharing not our own intelligence community assessment of what happened here, again, the Israelis assessment of what happened here. Just absolutely extraordinary and so unusual what is going on. And the same time, you know, there's a lot of indications that the Iranians were able to strike significant BL against Israel. Let me just show you a little bit of the Iranians after this quote, unquote, ceasefire, however long this holds, or whatever it means at the moment, there are a lot of Iranians who were out in the street. You can see them celebrating here because, you know, if you think about it from their perspective, they took much more, very likely, although it's kind of difficult to tell, they took much more significant blows certainly in terms of the death toll and the infrastructure toll than the Israelis did. But the Israelis goal was regime collapse or regime change. Israeli's goal was to destroy the Iranian nation. The Iranian nation was not destroyed. The government is probably actually stronger and enjoys more credibility based on the reports we've gotten with the people. So from that perspective, the Iranians feel like they've achieved a success because they were able to exact enough damage on the Israelis that the Israelis kind of had to take this ceasefire and at least take a break. Now, you know, I'm very skeptical that this is going to be an end to the conflict because I don't think Bibi Netanyahu woke up today and was like, you know what? Iran can, let's live and let live my multi decade goal of destroying this country. I'm all finished with that. I'm all through. And you can see that from the, you know, the leaked intel report is an indication that the people who want more war, they are still going to work and they have some tools and some leverage because of the corner Trump has backed himself into. In a lot of respects, they still have some leverage to try to effectuate their outcome of total and complete war. So the Iranians feel actually that they have something to celebrate right now because they feel like they were able to do enough damage to Israel that that's what created the compelling reason for Israel to need to regroup. We had the reports that there were low on interceptors. You know, the military sensors really kicked in hard to keep us from seeing how widespread the extent of the damage was. But let me Go ahead and show you this. President Trump himself admitted that the Israelis took quite significant damage. Let me go ahead and, and play this from, for you as well. This is also from that Naito summit.
- [49:47]
Donald Trump
Look, you know, they've got a country and they've got oil and they're very smart people and they can come back. Israel got hit very hard, especially the last couple of days. Israel was hit really hard. Those ballistic missiles, boy, they took out a lot of buildings and they've been great. Bibi Netanyahu should be very proud of himself, and they've really been great.
- [50:10]
Emily Jashinsky
So he says there that Israel was hit very hard. Steve Bannon echoed a similar sentiment and explains, and I think he's right about this, explained that the part of the reason for the ceasefire right now is that Israel needed to be saved, in his words. Let me go ahead and play for you what he had to say.
- [50:31]
Donald Trump
Yesterday they took the, this cease fire.
- [50:33]
Ross Barkin
Was as much to save Israel.
- [50:34]
Donald Trump
That's the hidden story here. They bit off way more than they could chew.
- [50:38]
Ross Barkin
They were played out as far. Yesterday was a brutal day for the.
- [50:41]
Donald Trump
Citizens of Israel, Took horrible incomings, particularly.
- [50:45]
Ross Barkin
In Tel Aviv and I guess Bersheba also. They needed this because they're running a defensive ammunition.
- [50:53]
Donald Trump
And President Trump stepped in there with the help of Qatar.
- [50:57]
Ross Barkin
Look, you know, we can't, we've come a long way since seven years ago.
- [51:01]
Donald Trump
When Qatar, you know, would not work with us on stopping the financing of.
- [51:08]
Ross Barkin
Islamic terrorism, the financing of it. And they come a long way.
- [51:11]
Donald Trump
They've stepped in the middle of the.
- [51:13]
Ross Barkin
Situation in Gaza, and they stepped in the middle here. And President Trump is going his way to praise him, and he's not going out of his way to praise Netanyahu's government, which I think is getting to be an issue.
- [51:24]
Emily Jashinsky
So pretty interesting comments there. He said, you know, the ceasefire really was to save the Israelis, very counter the media narrative. But as I said, I think there's something to that. That's not to say that the, especially the initial Israeli onslaught in Iran was quite devastating. You know, the number of officials who they were able to assassinate, you know, the amount of infrastructure they were able to destroy. But it's also very clear they were depending on, they could not accomplish their objectives, and they still can't accomplish their objectives, which are regime collapse without the United, the assistance of the United States. And so we were reading all these reports from Wall Street Journal and other places that this, as this war went on, it was a race between, okay, how many missiles do the Iranians have and how many interceptors do the Israelis have? And some of the tension between, you know, Israelis was spilling out into the public. The, at the amount of damage that the Iranians were able to, you know, were able to effectuate within Israel. You had citizens who of course are, you know, having to go into underground bunkers every day. Life is completely disrupted, the airport is completely closed. And so I, I do think that, that the reason why Israel was willing to accept the ceasefire at this point was a chance to regroup. Now, that doesn't mean they're done. Far from it. I'm, I guarantee you Netanyahu is scheming right now how to get this thing kicked off again. And those are incredibly powerful, powerful forces. We also don't have a track record of Donald Trump in any way consistently standing up to Israel at all. In fact, I think you should continue to be, you know, maybe he's earnest in his frustration with Netanyahu, we don't know. But it's also possible that this is also theater because we've seen theater deployed in the service of furthering this conflict directly from Donald Trump before. So in any case, where we are this morning is Trump is very upset at the leaks from the neocons about the assessment that the nuclear sites were not destroyed. He is using Israeli intelligence to try to, you know, assert that, no, no, no, it accomplished the goals. But because of the way that he has backed himself into a corner of destroying his own diplomatic negotiations, putting in place a hard red line of Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon, he's left himself vulnerable to these sorts of, you know, these sorts of manipulations to try to get this thing kicked off again. And that's assuming that he himself doesn't share the goal of the Israelis of getting back into this conf after some sort of a pause, which I don't think we can put off the table either. The last piece that I wanted to share with you is we're getting the first polling in about how popular Trump bombing these Iranian nuclear sites ultimately was. I will tell you with the Republican base and specifically with the MAGA base, it's now that Trump did it, it's very popular. 94% of MAGA aligned Republicans. Republicans say they support the strikes. Even though before Trump did it, the numbers were not that great for, you know, they were still like kind of favorable but pretty mixed. Once Trump did it, you now have 94% of self identified MAGA Republicans who are like, oh, Trump did it, so it must be great. Broadly though, the public, much less Supportive. And let me go ahead and play this Harry Enton clip and then I'll tell you a little bit on the other side why I think this is actually pretty extraordinary that these numbers even initially are as low as they are.
- [55:06]
Ross Barkin
Yeah, these things are moving quite quickly, but these are initial readings. And I will say from a historical perspective, I am surprised that the net approval rating is so low on these strikes. And it's in two different polls. It's our CNN SSRS poll. 12 points underwater, one thumbs down. How about the Reuters Ipsos poll? Look at that. The exact same reading, minus nine points underwater, two thumbs down. And why am I so surprised from a historical perspective? Because usually airstrikes rate fairly highly. What are we talking about? Let's go back through the time machine. Net approval of U.S. airstrikes. You see it here, Iran -11 points underwater on the average. Compare it to ISIS back in 2014, 58 points in the positive direction. So this is a nearly 70 point difference. That is why I'm so surprised from a historical perspective because normally these airstrikes rate quite highly. But this one, you go back through history, it rates as the lowest that I could possibly find on the historical record.
- [55:59]
Emily Jashinsky
And that is exactly why it surprised me as well and why I was wrong, somewhat wrong in my assessment of what the popularity of these attacks would be. I was concerned that actually, you know, among certainly I knew the Republicans would support it and they do, but I thought some significant chunk of independence would as well, simply because throughout my life, people in this country have supported bombing other nations. And that's just the unfortunate fact the propaganda machine ramps up, up. People get the sense that this is going to be mission accomplished, that it's going to be quick and easy and painless and we're going to accomplish whatever goal we're being sold at the time. And so at least in the very early days, they're usually, as Harry Anton points out there, there's usually pretty broad support. The fact that there's not really is so noteworthy, so incredibly noteworthy. I would attribute it to a few things. Number one, there was so little effort at a propaganda campaign buildup. You know, it just was like all of a sudden we're supposed to be kind of out of nowhere convinced that what was going on in Iran was existential over the assessment that we got from our own intel community just a few months ago. I mean, I do think that that testimony from Tulsi Gabbard, which was played everywhere, where she's saying no, very clearly no, our assessment continues to be they're not pursuing a nuclear weapon. I think that really undercut the very haphazard and unimpressive propaganda efforts that came out of the Trump administration to try to justify this. So I think that's part of it. I think the fact that you, you know, now have this much more robust independent media landscape is another significant part of it where it's just, you know, if you're going to manufacture consent, you're going to have to do a lot more work than they were ultimately able to do. And so people just weren't really buying that this was necessary right now, that this was going to accomplish the goals, that this wasn't going to create incredible, tremendous risks. And then a third factor is just, you know, most of the country is very wary, understandably so, of getting involved in some new Middle Eastern quagmire, regime change, disastrous boondockle. So maybe most of the elites in this country haven't learned the lesson. But according to these numbers, the majority of independents and Democrats certainly have learned the lesson and are not willing to gamble the way that President Trump really did with these strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities. Now, where we are today, there's, you know, a possibility that things quiet down for a while. Again, I'm very skeptical, and I know soccer is also very skeptical that this is the end and it's wrapped up in peace forever, as Trump says. But we're also very fortunate that the Iranians decided, in response to our drop, dropping these, you know, a dozen giant bunker buster, 30,000 pound bombs on one of their key nuclear sites, attacking two other key nuclear sites, that their response to that was so muted and so theatrical, you know, it was just meant to be a show of, hey, we could get you in Qatar at your, you know, largest air base in the region, but we're going to tell you in advance to make sure there's no damage so that there's a possibility of some sort of a de escalatory off ramp. Now, I think the logic of the Israelis again, in agreeing to this ceasefire in this moment is not because they want the war to be over. It's not because they feel they've accomplished their objectives. Their objectives are regime change or regime collapse. That obviously hasn't been achieved. It's because they needed to regroup as, as Trump himself seems to indicate, as Steve Bannon says there, Israel needed a chance to regroup so that they could continue a sort of phased approach. But their desire to destroy this regime has not ebbed. They still continue to be incredibly powerful within this administration as we saw in the first Trump administration as well. And so, you know, my, my fear is that right now this is far from over. There are also some reports and I want to see this confirmed in more places that the Israelians, the Israeli and oh my God, the Iranians are withdrawing from the nuclear oversight regime, which I mean many. I'm not the only one to John Mearsheimer tell you this. Jeffrey Sachs will tell you this. Anyone who's looking at this from an objective perspective will tell you that what we have done has created all the incentive in the world for the Iranians now to develop nuclear weapons outside of an inspections regime in the same way, by the way, that the Israelis did. And we'll create a similar logic for other countries around the world. So we already have some early indications that that's exactly the direction that they're moving in. So that's what I've got for you this morning, Sagar and I'll be back with a regular full show tomorrow. We've already got some fantastic guests booked. I'm excited to, you know, to bring that to you. We'll have a full breakdown of all the latest with regard to Iran. Sure. We' continue to cover. There's been a delicious meltdown over Zoran's victory both from the Morning Joe types who are, you know, there's some real hard coping on the Democratic side. The Republicans are losing their minds. You've got these psycho groups. Zionist groups like Baytar Worldwide is saying that the Jews must evacuate New York City. I mean, based on the margin of victory here, I'm quite confident that Zoran probably won Jewish voters overall in New York City. So anyway, there's so much to talk about with that race continuing to talk about the what it's going to mean for the future and what the reaction has been. So I'm sure we'll have more of that for you as well. In the meantime, guys, enjoy your day. Thank you for your support and I will see you soon. It's Megan.
- [61:44]
Ross Barkin
Are you ready for hashtag Megan Summer?
- [61:46]
Emily Jashinsky
Megan.
- [61:46]
Jamal Bowman
Megan.
- [61:47]
Emily Jashinsky
Megan.
- [61:47]
Crystal Ball
Megan.
- [61:48]
Emily Jashinsky
Megan. Would you prefer that I give you.
- [61:49]
Ryan Grim
A printout that you can read at your own pace? Megan. Yes, it's me. What a shock.
- [61:54]
Ross Barkin
Etc on June 27.
- [61:56]
Ryan Grim
She is a smoking hot warrior princess.
- [61:58]
Emily Jashinsky
All right, meat sacks, let's get. Are you going to stand in my way?
- [62:03]
Ross Barkin
The bee is back.
- [62:05]
Ryan Grim
Do you think you learned your lesson the first time?
- [62:07]
Emily Jashinsky
Megan.
- [62:09]
Ross Barkin
Megan 2.0 only in theaters June 27th.
- [62:11]
Ryan Grim
With APT13 this prime day July 8th.
- [62:14]
Emily Jashinsky
Through the 11th, you can get a.
- [62:15]
Ryan Grim
Great deal on a new foot spa, transforming you into the queen of kickin it. Wait, this has bubble jets?
- [62:23]
Emily Jashinsky
Okay, shop great deals this prime 7.8.11.
- [62:27]
Ryan Grim
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