← Breaking Points with Krystal and Saagar
Breaking Points with Krystal and Saagar
9/29/25: Eric Adams Drops Out, Trump Calls For Portland Invasion, Shane Gillis Calls Out Riyadh Comedy Festival
00:52:08
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- [00:00]
Krystal Ball
This is an iHeart podcast. If you're waiting for your AI to.
- [00:09]
Saagar Enjeti
Turn into ROI and wondering how long.
- [00:14]
Krystal Ball
You have to wait, maybe you need.
- [00:17]
Saagar Enjeti
To do more than wait. Any business can use AI. IBM helps you use AI to change how you do business. Let's create smarter business.
- [00:30]
Zoran Mamdani
IBM.
- [00:35]
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- [01:35]
Saagar Enjeti
Stop settling for weak sound.
- [01:37]
Zoran Mamdani
It's time to level up your game.
- [01:39]
Saagar Enjeti
And bring the boom.
- [01:40]
Zoran Mamdani
Hit the town with The Ultra Durable LG XBoom Portable speaker and enjoy vibrant sound wherever you go. Elevate your listening experience to new heights because let's be real, your music deserves it. The future of sound is now with.
- [01:54]
Saagar Enjeti
LG XBoom and for a limited time.
- [01:57]
Zoran Mamdani
Save 25%@LG.com with code fall25 bring the boom XBoom hey guys, Sagar and Krystal here.
- [02:07]
Krystal Ball
Independent media just played a truly massive role in this election and we are so excited about what that means for the future of this show.
- [02:14]
Zoran Mamdani
This is the only place where you can find honest perspectives from the left and the right that simply does not exist anywhere else.
- [02:20]
Krystal Ball
So if that is something that's important to you, Please go to BreakingPoints.com, become a member today and you'll get access to our full shows unedited ad free and all put together for you every morning in your inbox.
- [02:30]
Zoran Mamdani
We need your help to build the future of independent news media and we hope to see you@breakingpoints.com.
- [02:39]
Krystal Ball
Eric Adams dropping out of the mayoral race in New York City. He is the current Mayor. As you know, he has been enmeshed in so many corruption scandals I can no longer Keep track. He was indicted. Then he was unindicted by the Trump administration and what appeared to be a corrupt quid pro quo. His approval rating was like the lowest in mayoral history. In New York City. He was polling incredibly poorly. Didn't even try to win the Democratic primary. Just decided he was gonna run on these, like on a separate party line, which is allowed for in New York City. In any case, after much rumor and speculation, he is officially dropping out. Let's take a listen to a little bit of his announcement.
- [03:15]
Zoran Mamdani
Who would have thought that a kid from South Jamaica, Queens, growing up with learning disabilities, could one day become the mayor of the greatest city in the world? Only in America can a story like this be told. It is not always easy to see the impact of good policy in just three years. I also know some remain unsure of me after the unfortunate events surrounding my federal case. I was wrongfully charged because I fought for this city. And if I had to do it again, I would fight for New York again. And yet, despite all we've achieved, I cannot continue my re election campaign. The constant media speculation about my future and the Campaign Finance Board's decision to withhold millions of dollars have undermined my ability to raise the funds needed for a serious campaign.
- [04:24]
Krystal Ball
So he was polling in single digits here. Quite a fall from grace from a man who once hailed as a potential future of the Democratic Party. And now he didn't even try to win the Democratic primary. Had to withdraw before election day. There had previously been rumors, saga that the Trump administration was trying to get him out of the race. They want him and Sliwa to drop out of the race. So it's a head to head between Zoron and Cuomo because Cuomo pulls the strongest against Zoron, even though even in the head to head, Zorin is still beating him. So that's what they were trying to make happen. Apparently. The reporting suggests, I can't remember if I saw this in New York Post or where I saw this, but that the Trump administration was really only willing to offer Adams the Saudi Arabia ambassador job if they were also getting Sliwa out of the race. Since Sliwa was unwilling to get out, then they were not willing to offer him that job. Hence why he stayed in longer after. There were all these rumors that he was going to take that job. But I guess it just became, you know, it became clear he was going to be absolutely humiliated. He was polling in the single digits.
- [05:24]
Zoran Mamdani
Sliwa seems to be legit in terms of. He's like, look I'm lifelong in New York. I just want to run for governor or I want to run for mayor, and that's what I do. I'm not really interested in anything else, which I kind of like.
- [05:34]
Krystal Ball
I respect.
- [05:35]
Zoran Mamdani
He doesn't have national ambitions. He's just like, this is who I am.
- [05:38]
Krystal Ball
This is my thing.
- [05:39]
Zoran Mamdani
Right? I like it. By the way, breaking news literally just happened. Trump just tweeted about Zoran Mamdani. I'll read it here. Self proclaimed New York Communist Zoran Mamdani, who is running for mayor, will prove to be one of the best things to ever happen to our great Republican Party. He's going to have problems with Washington like no other mayor in the history of our once great city. Remember, he needs money from me as president in order to fulfill all of his fake communist promises. He won't be getting any of it, so what's the point of voting for him? The ideology has failed always for thousands of years. It will fail again. That's guaranteed. Don't know why he thinks that that is helpful in any way, considering that. I mean, that's like a campaign cut for Zoron to be like, trump says, don't vote for me, so you should. What? It's New York City, bro. The smartest thing you could do is stay the hell out of it or be like, yeah, actually Zoron is great, or something like that. You know what I mean?
- [06:22]
Krystal Ball
I read it as an admission of defeat, basically. I mean. Cause he's like, listen, the pretext of, the subtext of that tweet is like, zoron's gonna be mayor. And then think about how extraordinary it is that. I know with Trump we just take these things for granted. But for the President, United States to be like, I don't like who the voters chose for this city, so I'm just gonna cut them off, all funds. That is insane. Any other president, we would be talking like, impeachment. I mean, we would be losing our minds about it. And with Trump, it's just like, yeah, of course Trump doesn't like Zoron and voters picked Zoron, so he's just gonna like, try to screw over an American city. Crazy, crazy stuff. But I think the writing is pretty clearly on the wall now. Sliwa doesn't look like he's getting out. Even if he did, Zoran still has a commanding lead over Cuomo, roughly the same lead that he had when he beat him in the primary. And remember, the primary polls underestimated Zoron's support because he remade the electorate. He genuinely brought out a different electorate than had previously been seen in Democratic primaries or in a general election. Way more young people came out to vote. So it's actually possible that they're underestimating him. Once again, we got a Cuomo reaction to Eric Adams dropout. We can put up on the screen as well to see how he is responding. Says the choice Eric Adams made today was not an easy one. I believe he's sincere in putting the well being of New York City ahead of his personal ambition. We face destructive extremist forces that would devastate our city through incompetence or ignorance. Is not too late to stop them. Mayor Adams has much to be proud of in his accomplishments. Only in New York can a child raised in a tenement in Bushwick who once worked as a squeegee boy and a mailroom clerk, rise to become mayor. Whatever differences we may have, Eric Adams story is undeniably one of resilience, a testament to the spirit of the city. I'm sure Cuomo would like to get a, you know, Eric Adams endorsement on his way out the door. Not that it would make that much of a difference. But he did, was commanding, you know, some single digits of support. He had some base, a small lingering base of support that Cuomo would hope to be able to inherit from him. And I think largely will, largely will inherit that base of support. Let's go ahead and take a listen to Zoran's reaction. What do you think the impact of.
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Commercial Announcer
His dropping out will have on your electoral prospects?
- [08:32]
Zoran Mamdani
I think it's very much the same race. We have seen what over the course of this race, especially in the final weeks and months of the primary, that Andrew Cuomo wanted nothing more than a one on one fight with me. And we gave him exactly that. And then we beat him by 13 points. And we continue to be just as confident. And yet what separates us from these other candidates is that we're not focused on them. We're focused on New Yorkers. New Yorkers deserve leadership that is thinking about how to benefit the people of the city. And too often politicians, be it Andrew Cuomo or Eric Adams, the meetings that they have, or the phone calls with someone like Donald Trump, they're only speaking about themselves. It's time to actually think about New Yorkers.
- [09:07]
Krystal Ball
So he is relatively unconcerned. Interesting response too from Hakeem Jeffries, which we didn't pull as an element, but I'll just read to you. He says Eric Adams has served courageously and Authentically, for decades, as a member of the nypd, the New York State Senate, and Brooklyn Borough hall, and as our 110th mayor during his time in office. Violent crime is down. The building of affordable housing units is up. New York City has recovered from the COVID 19 pandemic. As is the case in any major city, there are challenges that remain, particularly as it relates to lowering the high cost of living. Yet it is clear that meaningful progress has been made in several important areas during the term of Mayor Adams. Thank you for your service to our city. Over the next few days, my entire focus will be on addressing the Republican health care crisis and funding the government. I will publicly weigh in with respect to the remaining candidates in the mayor's race well before the start of early voting. This is so insane to me on so many levels. First of all, there is a Democratic nominee. You are the Democratic leader in the House, and you still don't. Which of the remaining candidates should I choose? Like, are you serious? Second of all, this stuff he said about Eric Adams, way nicer than anything he's ever said about Zorin. And again, this man is so corrupt. Eric Adams, he was indicted. So many of his officials were either under investigation or themselves indicted or had to resign in disgrace. One of his supporters was just caught handing over a bag of cash and a potato chip bag to reporters. And this was apparently, like, common protocol. It is insane how corrupt this man was. And. And not only that, he appears very much. I mean, they basically came out in a minute to have struck this corrupt deal with the Trump regime to get out of his indictment. And you say nothing about that? All just rainbows and puppies and flowers and sunshine about what a great mayor he's been. If he's been such a great mayor, why is he at single digits in polling? Why was he unable to even run in the Democratic primary? Why is he having to drop out in disgrace and be one of the only New York City mayors in history? I believe the second in all of New York City history to fail to win reelection. Why? You have nothing to say about that. I mean, it's just actually insane. It's actually insane, and I can't begin to wrap my head around it.
- [11:18]
Zoran Mamdani
Yeah, I find it very funny. They just won't admit what's right in front of their faces. Almost weirdly. Never thought I would say credit to Kamala. She was like, hey, he's a Democratic nominee, so whatever. You know, it's one of those. This is where, you know, the partisan loyalty only goes one way. It's obviously just because of Israel.
- [11:35]
Saagar Enjeti
I don't know.
- [11:36]
Zoran Mamdani
I don't get it. What are these? What do they have on these people? I just. I'll never understand it. How can you be so just like militantly attached to, you know, sacrifice your own personal political ambition just about the question of Israel. But listen, potentially this, what we're about to show you is part of it. Let's put this up here on the screen from the adl. Jonathan Greenblatt, after Zoran, quote. I'm absolutely blown away by the sheer brazen audacity of Zoran Mamdani telling all of us in the Jewish community. Community who does and does not represent us. Because Zoran said the ADL does not speak for New York Jews. We don't need anyone, a political candidate or any non Jewish person to tell us who should speak for the Jewish people. Obviously no marginalized group is Monolith. But I am stunned by his arrogance in telling a minority community who should or should not speak to them. The vast majority of American Jews consider themselves Zionists and have strong ties to the state of Israel. Attending religious service at a synagogue known for anti Zionist activities does not show that you understand the overwhelming majority of the New York City Jewish community. I love that part. Because what he's saying at the end is actually that if you go to a synagogue which is not pro Israel, then they're not real Jews.
- [12:42]
Krystal Ball
That's right.
- [12:42]
Zoran Mamdani
And that he's the real Jew.
- [12:43]
Krystal Ball
Yeah.
- [12:43]
Zoran Mamdani
You see what we're. You see the circular logic that we're all doing here?
- [12:47]
Krystal Ball
No, that's right. I mean, there is so much to say about this exchange about the adl. So he says that attending this service doesn't mean that you understand all Jews or that can speak for Jews. Well, what does it say? That he's winning a majority of Jewish voters in New York. What does that tell you about between the two of you, who actually is responding more than the needs of Jewish voters in New York City? I mean, that's what's insane here. Like, Zoran is just factually correct at this point that the ADL does not speak for New York Jews. That is abundantly clear. It's clear in the way they vote. It's clear in what the polls say. Not to say that there aren't any Jews that support the ADL position. But the other piece, that is so. I mean, it's not even ironic. It's almost intentional. No one has done more to actually stoke antisemitism than the ADL and other outlets outfits like it that demand that all Jews be associated with the genocidal state of Israel. Yes. That is actually going to cause and is causing genuine anti Semitism. I'm sure you've seen we've been passing around some of these videos of him talking about what they're going to do and these extraordinary efforts they're going to take in order to make sure that they stamp out anti Semitism. And it's on the rise and it's spiking, it's out of control. It's like, then shouldn't you resign? Like isn't that your whole job is to fight and combat anti Semitism? Like if antisemitism is up 3000% or whatever nonsense numbers you've come up with, isn't that an indictment of your leadership that happened on your watch? So hey, the proof is in the pudding here. And I don't think it's like, obviously not fair to weigh at all at Jonathan Greenblatt's feet. But when you insist on tying every Jewish person to the horrific acts of the war criminal Benjamin Netanyahu and the genocidal state of Israel, yes, you are going to be stoking antisemitism cuz people are going to look at that in horror. And you're insisting, oh no, every Jew is associated, every Jew supports this, every Jew wants this done. It's insane to me, completely insane.
- [14:44]
Zoran Mamdani
Well, I mean, some would say maybe the ADL's entire point was to increase anti Semitism at a certain point because it's like they want it to go up so that they can fight back against it. I've always thought about that with the ACL or the Human Rights Campaign or any of these other people. Like I remember thinking about them and you know, when gay marriage got legalized, they have this huge building here in D.C. it's like, oh shit, now what do we do? And so you know, they created all these new campaigns or whatever. You could say they're legitimate. I think most of them are bullshit. But my major point is without the opposition, what do you do now? And actually we saw the collapse of this in 2022 where a lot of the pro life groups didn't come out to vote Republican. Cause they're like, hey, we got what we wanted. You know, I've always thought about that with sometimes you need the issue to be live and in some cases you want it to be worse in order to increase your funding and keep it circular.
- [15:31]
Krystal Ball
Well, and even when you consider the ADL being so tied in with the state of Israel. Ryan was making this point, you know, nothing benefits Netanyahu and his political project and the state of Israel more broadly than when there is this sense of rising anti Semitism around the world. Because this is why we need the safe haven for Jews. And that has been true from the beginning, from before the founding of the state of Israel. In terms of, you know, even some early Zionists, like they did not want the US and the UK to take in Jewish refugees because they thought that that would undermine the case that they were trying to make for this, you know, Jewish national project. So even on a bigger level, outside of just like interest group politics, since he's so tied in with the state of Israel and the Zionist project is, you know, clearly an ideological like, touchstone for him. Like, that's what drives all of his views, the sense that antisemitism is rising, he and Netanyahu feel benefits the state of Israel and creates more urgency around the project that they believe in.
- [16:31]
Zoran Mamdani
That's right. All right, hey, we've got Ken Klippenstein standing by, so let's get to him.
- [16:36]
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- [17:37]
Saagar Enjeti
Stop settling for weak sound.
- [17:39]
Zoran Mamdani
It's time to level up your game.
- [17:40]
Saagar Enjeti
And bring the boom.
- [17:41]
Zoran Mamdani
Hit the town with the ultra durable LG XBoom portable speaker and enjoy vibrant sound wherever you go. Elevate your listening experience to new heights because let's be real, your music deserves it. The future of sound is now with.
- [17:56]
Saagar Enjeti
LG XBoom and for a limited time.
- [17:59]
Zoran Mamdani
Save 25% at LG.com with code FALSE25.
- [18:03]
Saagar Enjeti
Bring the Boom X boom.
- [18:07]
Krystal Ball
There's a lot going on in Hollywood. How are you supposed to stay on top of it all? Variety has the solution. Take 20 minutes out of your day and listen to the new daily Variety podcast for breaking entertainment news and expert perspectives.
- [18:21]
Saagar Enjeti
Where do you see the business actually heading?
- [18:23]
Krystal Ball
Featuring the iconic journalists of Variety and hosted by co editor and chief Cynthia Littleton.
- [18:29]
Zoran Mamdani
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- [18:31]
Krystal Ball
Open your free iHeartradio app, search daily Variety and listen now. So President Trump has announced full force if necessary to the city of Portland, Oregon to break down that and also a lot else that's going on in the national security world. We are joined by Ken Klippenstein, fantastic independent journalist over on Substack who gets all the scoops. Great to see you my friend.
- [18:53]
Zoran Mamdani
Good to see you, Ken.
- [18:54]
Saagar Enjeti
Hey guys.
- [18:55]
Krystal Ball
All right, so let me first get you before we get to your reporting, let me get you to react to this Trump truth about Portland. We can put this up on the screen. Pretty wild that he puts this down. He says at the request of Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem, I'm directing Secretary of War Pete Hegseth to provide all necessary troops to protect war ravaged Portland and any of our ICE facilities under siege from attack by antifa and other domestic terrorists. I'm also authorizing full force if necessary. Thank you for your attention to this matter. So what did you make of this? What are we likely to see, Ken?
- [19:27]
Saagar Enjeti
Well, it's striking how many times he's done this in states in which the governors don't actually want the support, the mayors of these major cities don't want the support. And so what you really have here is federal government pitted against states. But the president has the power to federalize these guard forces and do these kind of things. So seeing, you know, his account of what he, what he sees is going on in Portland and then the locals, it's, it's sort of surreal how different, how different what the two groups see is.
- [19:56]
Zoran Mamdani
Yeah, Ken, I know this fits into some of your reporting so why don't we just go ahead and get to it. We'll put this up here on the screen about the national security memorandum here NSPM7 by administration insiders. For those who are not familiar, national security memorandums are often a statement of administration policy previously used by the Obama administration, Biden administration, et cetera to kind of set the scope for terrorism and or general policy of how all governments should flow. So here you say it, quote nspm7labels common beliefs as quote, terrorism indicators can you just tell us a little bit about what you found in that and what the broader implications are of the memorandum.
- [20:34]
Saagar Enjeti
Yeah, so what NSPM 7 does, and fortunately we know because NSPM 6 is classified, as are many of the National Security Presidential Memoranda, this is completely separate from the executive orders of which we've seen over two. And I think that might be part of why people missed it. I think the major media got it mixed up with the designation of the presidential executive order designating ANTIFA as a domestic terrorist organization. This is completely separate from that. And these National Security Memoranda are kind of big picture strategic realignments around whatever it is that they articulate. So they're, in my view, they're much more significant than executive orders. But what this does is it basically authorizes what are called Joint Terrorism Task Forces. These were mostly established after and in response to 9 11, that is thousands of troops or, sorry, thousands of FBI agents and local police who can be deputized into these Joint Terrorism Task Forces. It's kind of similar to the deployment of the National Guard in that you are kind of federalizing what would be local and state troops and assets. And what's interesting is this can be done even without the knowledge and in some cases consent of the state authority, the state legislature and the state governor. So what this does is it sets them on this target, which in this case is domestic. The phrase used repeatedly is radical left extremism and terrorism. And throughout the document it says, oh, we're just focused on, you know, instances of violence. But what it does when you have a counter, when you adopt a counterterror approach, what you're essentially doing is you're, you're getting into pre crime because what you're trying to do is you're trying to preempt the, the next big attack. And if that in the case of a biological weapons attack or a, you know, nuclear attack, that might make sense. But short of that, what you're doing is you're trying to preempt things that might not be necessary to do so. And when you want to preempt something, you have to try to predict that it's gonna happen. And the way you do that is by looking at speech. And so it has this list of different, you know, ideas that they consider. Indicia is the word they use. It's like Latin for indicators that are supposed to tell you that one of these attacks might happen. And when you look at them, these are huge groups of people, anti Christianity, anti family, anti.
- [22:59]
Krystal Ball
Let me, let me read the Let me read the lifts because I have it in front of me so you don't have to remember all like 12 things or whatever because. So this is their definition of when they say oh, this is radical left extremist terrorists. This is their definition of what they're talking about and appears basically to be anyone who has been critical of Donald Trump, period. So they're looking at these indicators. Anti Americanism, anti capitalism, anti Christianity, support for the overthrow of the US Government, extremism on migration, extremism on race, extremism on gender, hostility towards those who hold traditional American views on family, hostility towards those who hold traditional American views on religion, and hostility towards the those who hold traditional American views on morality. What's more, you talk about the fact that the Trump administration, it's not like they're only targeting organizations or groups, they're also targeting individuals and quote unquote, entities that can be identified with any of those ideologies which as I just read off, are extremely broad and vague.
- [23:57]
Saagar Enjeti
Yeah, exactly. And it's important when you talk about individuals. Cuz ordinarily when you approach counterterrorism, the idea at least post 911 is you're supposed to map out these organizational structures like Al Qaeda or isis, which really do have resources and really do have funding to be able to do operational things. But the fact that they say individuals and entities I thought was a little bit chilling because again, the whole point of the counterterrorism approach is you're supposed to be responding to something that poses a profound threat to the stability of the state. If it's just an individual and if it's this whole list of different ideologies, is that really something that can carry something out like 9 11? I don't think so. And so, you know, I think the response is wildly out of proportion.
- [24:35]
Krystal Ball
What is, what is the entities piece? What does that bring to mind for you? Why is that a particular sort of red flag for you?
- [24:42]
Saagar Enjeti
Well, if you look at the domestic terrorist organization executive order last week targeting antifa, that rightly concern, that really caused a lot of concern because you know, you're supposed to. Foreign terrorist organizations are supposed to be what's designated because it's understood that when you treat something as terrorism that is a direct threat to the First Amendment because again, and you're getting into this business of how can we use ideology and belief systems to try to anticipate and monitor an attack that might happen. So it's supposed to be treated with a lot of caution. So they're completely throwing out the idea of the organization that's not even necessary anymore. In the case of Antifa, there was this whole debate about well, does it even exist as a coherent organized entity? Now they're just done with that and they're like, well now there's individuals and it's like, how much threat does one individual pose? Like do they have the, the operational capacity of Al Qaeda to be able, I mean we just saw, you know, on 911 some more records got released and we were looking at the amount of coordination that had to happen between the different cells. It's not trivial to carry out something big enough that, that, that can create a mass casualty event like that. And now it's like that even that standard's thrown out the window.
- [25:49]
Zoran Mamdani
Well, let's, let's push a little bit here, Ken. I think we all agree here Antifa is not an organized force. And I'm not some, you know, oh, left wing organizations or whatever are the ones that behind this. I largely think it's kind of bottom up very relative to the, let's say the terrorism craze of the late 2010s, so called lone wolf terrorists. People like the San Bernardino Pulse shooter.
- [26:10]
Saagar Enjeti
Right.
- [26:11]
Zoran Mamdani
These are people who were living normal lives, started getting into Al Qaeda propaganda, went mentally ill and killed a lot of people. And so I think most people would say yeah, I mean there should be some sort of federal government type response to it. I think you're basically saying it should be a local matter. I'm not sure I'm entirely there, although I am very uncomfortable with the way that a lot of the 911 post terrorism state was used because for all of the Pulse and San Bernardino stuff that they could point to, there were myriad cases, many of which we covered here on the show, which were basically entrapment, like not legally entrapment, but basically entrapment. Although at that time they had a material support for terrorism charge very easily at their disposal. I don't see how practically they could go down that road. So I know I threw a lot out, you threw a lot at you, but how do you grapple with that?
- [26:59]
Saagar Enjeti
Yeah, I would say that if you wanted to respond to it using the counterterrorism apparatus, a more effective way would be to have more focused indicia or indicators than like anti capitalism. That's huge. That's gotta be millions and millions of people. So even just from the perspective of efficacy, that's gonna lead you down some paths that are probably not gonna turn up much in terms of, you know, actionable.
- [27:25]
Krystal Ball
Yeah, I mean some 30 plus percent of Americans I just saw a poll identify as Democratic socialists at this point. So are they all, you know, anti cap? And you know, they used an example in the antifa executive order of anybody who quote unquote celebrated the, the killing of the health care CEO by Luigi Mangione. So I think that's the other important piece to get is what is material support for terrorism? Because this administration has really pushed to make it so that even just speech, even just rhetorical support for things that they find to be terroristic could constitute material support for terror.
- [28:04]
Saagar Enjeti
Right. And on this point I guess I should acknowledge, like, you know, you're right, my general view is that it's preferable to accept some amount of like tragedies happening in exchange for the First Amendment. And that's not a very popular position. But I guess I should be honest and transparent about that is my position. Because in this case I largely share.
- [28:25]
Zoran Mamdani
That about the second Amendment. I think it's important to say stuff like that.
- [28:28]
Saagar Enjeti
Yeah. And in this case, you know, I've already spoke. I'm gonna have a story shortly based on lawyers and legal experts who are now working with nonprofit organizations. And they're already hearing that they're gonna start curtailing stuff they're saying out of fear of the implementation of this order. So the, the chilling effect on speech is already happening. And to me that is something that, that should be of paramount concern to people. But if you look at the media coverage, on some level, I understand it because, you know, in the case of Charlie Kirk and these shootings, it's horrifying. And I understand that people want some sort of response to happen so that those things don't happen again. But I guess my view is that we should just proceed with caution about how you go about doing that. Because this memorandum in particular, it just feels like this sledgehammer approach to the problem when you look at the language. I mean, it is so broad, it's crazy to me. But that's my, yeah, that's essentially my position.
- [29:23]
Krystal Ball
I mean, it's also just very much aimed at whoever is their political opponents. You know, I mean, it's, you know, using, using this moment of heightened public anxiety and concern about left wing violence to further try to crush their political opponents and paint them all as terrorists. And yet Stephen Miller can put this tweet up on the screen saying we're witnessing domestic terrorist sedition against the federal government. The JTTF Joint Terrorism Task Force has been dispatched by the Attorney General pursuant to, and he name checks this memorandum, NSPM 7. All necessary resources will be utilized. And so when I first saw this, I was like, what the fuck is NSPM7? And then I saw your reporting and I was like, thank you, Ken. Now I understand. But, you know, just, can you sort of sketch this out? Like they're already putting this into effect. They're already. He says all necessary resources will be utilized. Like, what does this actually look like and mean in society? Or do we know actually at this point how it'll be really used?
- [30:22]
Saagar Enjeti
Well, in regards to the intelligence collection and the monitoring of those indicators that we were describing, a lot of that will happen on the intelligence side. And so we won't see that. What we will see is the tapping of these JTTFs, the Joint Terrorism Task Forces, which I think is going to be a kind of more extreme example of the deployment of the National Guard, because in the case of the National Guard, and I said in the story, I really don't want to sound like I'm being, you know, hyperbolic or overstating things, but this really is what. What some of the more, you know, exaggerated reporting on the National Guard has been. Because the National Guard, the military, can't engage in law enforcement. They don't actually have the authority to do that. When you talk to the troops, as I have in both LA and dc, they're under strict rules of engagement orders. That's not to say that I think it's good that we're deploying it. I don't think it's healthy for society to have troops stomping around, even if they're limited in what they can do. That being said, they're quite restricted in what they can do. A lot of the National Guard are just regular guys, locals that are integrated in the community. And so I think some of the reporting around the idea that they're just going to open fire on people, I don't think that's really, you know, I don't think that's the concern. I think the concern should be more what is the effect on the democratic culture. But in the case of the Joint Terrorism Task Forces, they can engage in law enforcement directly and they can be federalized by the President without the support of the state legislature and the governor. So I really think that this should be something that a lot of the critique that has been leveled at the National Guard should be. Should be focused on to cope a little bit.
- [31:51]
Zoran Mamdani
Maybe here, Ken, material support for terrorism was a real thing because ISIS was a foreign terrorist organization. Even this whole antifa. Trump said he was gonna designate antifa in the first term. It didn't happen because you actually can't designate a quote, domestic terrorist organization. You can't. You know, supporting the Open Societies foundation is just like not open, is not material support for terror. Now I mean, you could use tax rod or you could say, you know, some sort of other weaponization of government for sure. But that does that allay any of your concern more just about how much of this is just for show, how much of this is just to placate a lot of right wing influencers on Twitter who are calling for blood, when in reality like US jurisprudence is like pretty clear about what actual terrorism means. Now you can employ a lot of other types of laws to make their life hell. I'm not disputing that whatsoever. But how much of this is for theater?
- [32:42]
Saagar Enjeti
I would say that I'm on record saying that a lot of the National Guard deployments were theater. Creating these images of guys stomping around and then you actually watch the videos and they're picking up trash and things, things, you know, because, because of that, because of that Roe that I was just talking about. They really are limited in what they can actually do in this case. You know, charges that they levy are going to have to stand up in court. And so that's an important form of oversight that is not changed by the executive order. That said, I'm more concerned about the subtle effects on speech that I was just describing, which is not NGOs and organizations and groups saying, you know, maybe we wanted to say this thing, but all with all this heat in the form of the memorandum, and not just the Joint Terrorism Task Forces, but the IRS auditing these organizations and trying to find things to say that they're, you know, supporting. Whatever. Maybe we're not going to go ahead with this project or say this controversial thing. So that's kind of a more nuanced concern, I guess than like the black helicopter sort of thing. But, but it's a real one that we're already seeing in the case of how the JTTFs are going to be deployed to make cases against people. That has yet to be seen. And I don't know the answer to that yet. But, but Stephen Miller's comment, I was amazed by how quickly he said we are activating them. And that says to me that, that they're taking that part of the memorandum more seriously than one might expect. And lastly, just in reporting all this, I was curious myself, do they really believe this stuff? Not just this specific thing, but like the Kind of general approach to stuff is terrorism thing. And I've been struck by how much, and to some extent, I feel some empathy. I think something traumatic, a friend of theirs got killed, and they're responding to it. And what I found is, like, in large part, they really do think that there's some network orchestrating these things and that we're going to find the network. So it struck me as pretty sincere. A lot of it where I expected it to be more along the lines of political signaling in theater.
- [34:32]
Krystal Ball
Yeah. I mean, last thing from me, just in terms of its implementation and reading the television, whatever. I mean, you have this back and forth with Gavin Newsom and Stephen Miller, where Newsom calls Stephen Miller a fascist. And then you have people who are saying this is incitement to violence. Right. Effectively, like, this speech is out of bounds, and it's incitement and it should be criminalized. You had Pam Bondi saying this thing about, like, there's a difference between free speech and hate speech. She sort of backed that up like. Like, walk that back. Because there was a backlash. And then Trump comes out and says basically the same thing. So this is their view, is that this sort of speech should be out of bounds. It should be criminal. You should be viewed as a terrorist if you say these sorts of things. And we know the way that this government has worked to make that reality. We saw it first and foremost with student visa holders in particular, and the crushing dissent of them for. Crushing of their dissent for things like writing op eds, et cetera. But it seems like this is an attempt to expand that, to also direct those powers at American citizens. And the last thing to get from you, Ken, is this is something you've said to me before, is like, part of why we're in a more dangerous era than post 2001 is because the technology is much more effective. Palantir is a thing now. The ability to. You don't have to have individual FBI agents, like, searching up people's social media history. You can have AI troll through everything all of us are saying anywhere online and flag who's saying something. Anti capital, who celebrated Luigi, who said something untoward about Charlie Kirk. And that can be done automatically in a way that requires almost no human beings to be involved. So I think that's part of how people need to process this dystopian moment is that the technology has progressed much further, so it's much easier for the federal government to act in authoritarian ways.
- [36:37]
Saagar Enjeti
Yeah, totally. I mean, we're in a position where, because of large language models and things like that. The state is able to process things on a scale that we couldn't even imagine 15 years ago. And so this historical protection that we had against government incursion and interference into fourth amendment rights, unreasonable search and seizure, which is that the NSA can collect everything, but good luck going through all of it, that is increasingly melting away. They will be able and increasingly are able to go through all these things. And what we need to have is an attendant response by the Congress, by the legislature to try to enshrine those rights in a way that, that they're protected from these breakthroughs in technology. And I've seen nothing of the sort in the last couple of years. So that's really going to be the challenge of the next decade or so, I think.
- [37:31]
Zoran Mamdani
I totally agree. The AI question powered with government is really scary. It also is one where is anybody in the future going to give it up? No. Like these contracts are all going to stay for the power. So I really appreciate your answer earlier about chilling. I think that is very poignant. And one that is the cleanest and easiest hit is that government action which does chill speech even for people. It's like with the FCC thing, you know, they were arguing. Oh, we didn't directly get involved. It's like, yeah, but at the end of the day, like, you know, everybody's gonna think about it.
- [38:03]
Krystal Ball
The message was sent network tv.
- [38:05]
Zoran Mamdani
I think that's very well said. And I think that, you know, I'm sitting with that. I really am.
- [38:10]
Krystal Ball
Can you tell people where to, where to support your work? You've been doing an incredible job lately and thank you. Not just lately.
- [38:16]
Saagar Enjeti
Yeah, I, I, I run a newsletter@kenklippenstein.com. you can find me there.
- [38:20]
Zoran Mamdani
Nice. Next time we're gonna fight about your trans piece, but we didn't have time today. Okay. All right. All right. We'll get to Rion.
- [38:26]
Saagar Enjeti
Screen check.
- [38:27]
Krystal Ball
All right, thanks, Ken.
- [38:28]
Saagar Enjeti
All right, bye guys.
- [38:31]
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- [40:01]
Krystal Ball
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- [40:15]
Saagar Enjeti
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Krystal Ball
Featuring the iconic journalists of Variety and hosted by co editor in chief Cynthia Littleton.
- [40:23]
Zoran Mamdani
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- [40:26]
Krystal Ball
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- [40:32]
Zoran Mamdani
All right, let's get to Riyadh. There was a great confab currently taking place, the Riyadh Comedy Festival, made famous to much of the Internet by Tim Dillon, who which we'll get to here in a little bit. But nonetheless, many of America's best and brightest flew to Riyadh, accepted large checks for their comedy festival. And we have a little bit of a preview of what we can show everybody. Let's go ahead and put it up here on the screen. What do we have exactly? We've got probably the best stand up comedian in the world, Dave Chappelle, who joined the Riyadh Comedy Festival, Chris DiStefano, much of the biggest comedy influencers, I guess you could say, who joined over there. Not a particularly big audience, but you had Kevin Hart rocking his whoop strap just like I am. So shout out to Kevin, who also by the way appears in a lot of DraftKings commercials. I've certainly noticed that. But the point being broadly that many of the biggest comedy stars of the US decided to go over there. And why I think it's interesting.
- [41:33]
Saagar Enjeti
From.
- [41:34]
Zoran Mamdani
A broad like question of culture is how much can money buy in terms of your ability to say what you want. Because the thing is, I think if you would put some of these people together, many would be, I think, quite critical of the Saudi government. Now, the Saudi government realizes that, which is why a literal kingdom monarchy is holding a, quote, comedy festival to try and whitewash their image, just like they do with liv golf and all that. Some people in America are like, hey, who cares? I'm like, well, you know, 9 11, but whatever. Guess we're gonna move past that. But the point about their snowflakery remains very important. Let's put this up here on the screen. You'll recall Tim Dillon famously was like, hey, I took the bag. I made $300,000 for Saudi Arabia from Saudi Arabia to go and speak at this comedy festival. And then he told jokes where he said, quote, they heard you said about them having slaves. Dylan recalled his manager telling him in a previous conversation, they didn't like that. Quote, I addressed it in a funny way, and they fired me. I certainly was gonna show up in your country and insult the people that are paying me the money. But, I mean, he was doing it certainly on his podcast. But it does kind of make you think here about, well, what is the price of all this Saudi money and what is the purpose that they're doing it? And should we want, you know, our best and brightest in comedy or whatever to be involved? Shout out to Shane Gillis, who, you know, he's a history guy. So here's what he had to say. Let's put it up here on the screen. He said, a quot I took a principal stand. You don't 911 your friends after he turned down, quote, a significant bag for an appearance. Nice that Shane actually has read a book here and obviously knows what he's talking about. But, yeah, I just. I don't know. For me, it's like the live golf thing. By the way, I had friends, you know, at the comedy festival. I guess I don't begrudge people taking money, but what it is for me is you gotta look at the purpose of, like, why they're doing this. And they want, you know, they want to basically use their billions to make the entire country forget about 9 11. And by the way, it's working because there's only one or two people who basically decided not to do it on those purposes. You can go back to the days after 9 11, where the bush administration stepped in to try and protect the government of Saudi Arabia from pushback. There's all these articles from the New York Times and others. I encourage people to go and read about the amount of money that the Saudis spent on a PR campaign to make Americans forget about 9, 11, 15 of the 19 hijackers.
- [43:57]
Saagar Enjeti
9, 11.
- [43:57]
Zoran Mamdani
And we invaded who, right? Iraq. And so it's one of those where at the end of the day, 1. From live golf to Uber, I mean, their money is so. It's so. Ever present in venture capital in Silicon Valley, you'd be hard. You know, people talk about silent speech on Israel. People. I mean, you'd be hard pressed to find one or two venture capitalists who run big funds who would say something about Saudi Arabia, Uber, CEO. Right. For example, huge amounts of Saudi money involved Twitter, previously, Facebook. I mean, many of these companies have huge amounts of Saudi money influence that they. It's like a convenient cash cow. Not to mention politically. Think about Jared Kushner, who went to the Saudi royal family for their sovereign wealth fund whenever he was raising money. And internal documents later came out that MBS personally greenlit the investment, even though the Saudi managers were like, hey, he's not gonna give us a good return. He's like, oh, it's not about that. He's like, this is about politics, right? This is what we're paying for. So I look at within that, and it's scary because you watch how easy the money's able to penetrate now from Liv Golf, ufc, right? With all the Emirates and all these Gulf monarchies, they have endless amounts of cash. And I think they've read us very carefully, which is if you throw money at these people, eventually they will forget and we'll all just move on. And, yeah, it's been 24 years, and they won.
- [45:20]
Krystal Ball
So for the Saudi side, I mean, 911 is one thing. You also have, obviously, the murder and chopping up with a bone saw of Jamal Khashoggi, who was a journalist, wrote for the Washington Post columns that the crown prince didn't like. And so that was the fate that he was met with. Widespread human rights and labor abuses, mass crackdown on free speech. And that may be the. And of course, the enforced famine and what many call a genocide in Yemen, but the free speech one is worth pausing and sitting with here for a moment. Comedians should be and have been at the vanguard of standing up for freedom of expression and free speech. This regime is the polar opposite. And that even bleeds into what these comedians had to agree to as a condition of their employment here. We can put F5 up on the screen. So this is from a comedian who was offered, you know, given an offer to attend this riyadh Comedy Festival. Some significant amount of money was ultimately offered and they published some of the restrictions that artists were required to adhere to. So it says content restrictions. Artists shall not prepare or perform any material that may be considered to degrade, defame or bring into public disrepute, contempt, scandal, embarrassment or ridicule. A the kingdom of Saudi Arabia, including its leadership, public figures, culture or people B the Saudi royal family, legal system or government and C any religion, religious tradition, religious figure or religious practice. So they all, every one of them, including the ones who code more left wing like a Bill Burr, they all accepted this set of criteria and curtailed their own freedom of speech in exchange for money. And you're right, Sager, like these comedians are not the only one. They're Mariah Carey's performed there, Justin Bieber's performed there. And in every there's they put their money into golf, they put their money into tennis, they put their money into race car driving. Into car driving, like electric sports racing, on and on and on. Hosted these major entertainment festivals, major artist fairs to bring in the top artists from around the world, et cetera. And the hope is that people will forget about all of that other stuff. And that's actually Tim Dillon. I did a monologue on this. You guys can go back and watch. When he originally accepted the cash and did his bit that ends up getting him fired, his whole the whole shtick was, you're paying me enough to look the other way. And that's it. And that is the deal that these comedians have accepted. That is the deal that's being offered by Saudi Arabia is basically, we are going to pay you more than anyone else will pay you. I mean, these are big paydays, especially for certain of these comedians. We will pay you more than you're actually worth. And in exchange, you are going to look the other way. You're not gonna say any of the things we don't want you to say and you are going to help us launder our reputation. And the sa. This is actually the biggest backlash that I've seen to one of these things.
- [48:25]
Saagar Enjeti
I hope so.
- [48:25]
Krystal Ball
The sad truth is that in every instance as artists have weighed this deal, is it worth it? Will the backlash to my reputation, will I be stained with this in a way that is more consequential than the payday I'm getting on the other side? In every case, the answer has been no. The answer has been in favor of taking the blood money and doing the performance. And in Tim Dillon's words, looking the.
- [48:49]
Zoran Mamdani
Other way Yeah, I know. Well, at the very least, he said what he thought, and they fired him for it.
- [48:54]
Krystal Ball
He ends up. Apparently, he got to keep some of the money.
- [48:57]
Zoran Mamdani
Oh, really?
- [48:57]
Krystal Ball
And then they have to perform. So. And I want to say, too, I think it was. So Rogan also said no, and I think it was Tim Dillon that he had on that he was.
- [49:07]
Zoran Mamdani
They talked about it.
- [49:08]
Krystal Ball
It was before Dylan had been canceled from it, and he was giving him a hard time about, like, taking this money.
- [49:13]
Zoran Mamdani
Yeah, I hadn't listened to the full thing. Look, my problem was, I don't know why, but somehow in this country, we all just started giving people a pass. I remember the live golf thing.
- [49:23]
Krystal Ball
Yeah.
- [49:24]
Zoran Mamdani
Our position was so unpopular in the golf. I don't watch golf. I'm not a golf guy. I'm more just saying, though, from what I understand in the golf fandom community, they're like, hey, brothers, get your bag. And I was like, oh, really? Like what? You're making hundreds of millions of dollars, and it's like, now you have to make $500 million or whatever. And we all just get to look the other way because you're accepting this for open, like, naked interference in American culture. And we're not supposed to have a take because we're all just supposed to sit and worship at the altar of golf so that you can make as much money as possible. I'm like, no, that's not the deal I signed up for. But I think this is a broad kind of problem, is we don't hold. Look, if we hold American comedy, Hollywood and all of that to a high standard, which I think we should, especially in terms of the effects of globalization. It's kind of analogous to what's going on right now with the NFL. But the NFL right now this year is playing a number of international games. And that's because. Because for them, they've hit the ceiling in America. Football is the most American sport of the top 100 broadcasts. 93 out of the hundred are NFL games. Like, it's ridiculously dominant. So do you know what they do? They're like, well, we can't make more money. This thing needs to grow, grow, grow. So let's play in Brazil. Let's play in Dublin like they just did. Let's play in London, in Spain. And because they want to grow the fan base and make it more international so they can make more money. But part of that is that what they're trying to do is use, like, globalization kind of in the same way that the Saudis are to Make American culture not beholden to American standards. And I think that's one of those where we really should hold these higher echelons of culture to the same standard that I think some people held the Riyadh Comedy Festival. And it's important. It's important to say no. Like, that's not happening. You don't just get to use the country as a springboard, as a cash cow or an atm. Same with the Saudis. You don't just get unlimited access to. To our capital markets. And yeah, I just think broadly, like, we've lost. Everything is degenerate, and it's just all about the bottom line. And at a certain point, like, people need to stand up and be like, no, we're not doing this anymore.
- [51:30]
Krystal Ball
Yeah. I mean, that was Dylan's thing, was like, the world is ending, so get your bag.
- [51:34]
Saagar Enjeti
Yeah.
- [51:34]
Krystal Ball
And I feel like that is a disgusting view. But I also feel like that is a very prevalent view. People feel like the collective project is kind of failing, so you just gotta get yours. I mean, at the national federal level, Naomi Klein talks about, like, she calls them sort of like, I can't remember, end times preppers. But at the national level, she has a great. I'm blanking on, like, the phrase she uses. But basically, like, we're going to suck up all the resources, whether it's the energy, whether it's the water, like, it's a free for all, a smash and grab. And that's at the national level. And then individually with each of these creators, influencers, comedians, people in their daily lives, that's the message that's being sent. It's just you got like, forget about the collective. You gotta get yours. And this is an expression of that. With the LIV Golf thing, I will say there's one slight silver lining. Kyle could update on whether this is still holding true. But because the level of golf for the guys that took the bat and went to live golf, the level of golf is not quite the same as the PGA Tour. And the length of the tournaments is shorter. So they have been struggling at, like, the major events because they're not used to the level competition. They're not used to the length of play. So there's been some backsliding for some of them, at least in terms of the level of their play, which is a little bit of, like, a nice, like, little bit of confidence for the guys who sold out and took the bag. Like I said, I had to check with Kyle whether that's still the case. But there's also a Lot. Whole separate storyline. We could talk about too, about the Ryder cup over the weekend. The Americans and the Europeans and how that all went down.
- [53:11]
Zoran Mamdani
Who lost? America.
- [53:12]
Krystal Ball
Yeah, okay. Yeah. And Trump went and made a visit. The American fans were absolutely outrageous assholes, like in a way that was actually unacceptable. A lot of Americans.
- [53:21]
Zoran Mamdani
No, I like that.
- [53:22]
Krystal Ball
You can't be screaming troll.
- [53:23]
Zoran Mamdani
Em.
- [53:24]
Krystal Ball
Screw screaming. Yelling on the backswing, like, okay, some level of ribbing or whatever.
- [53:28]
Zoran Mamdani
He's Irish.
- [53:29]
Krystal Ball
He's Irish.
- [53:29]
Zoran Mamdani
Yeah. Oh, famously, the most famously a fan of which would never troll or yell at anybody.
- [53:35]
Krystal Ball
Come on, listen.
- [53:36]
Zoran Mamdani
Get over yourselves.
- [53:36]
Krystal Ball
Listen. Everyone including Americans were acknowledging this was like of a different level than what has been seen before. So even a lot of Americans were cheering for the Europeans because the American fan base were such incredible assholes. And you had Trump make a visit as well, which made it instantly partisan. In any case, I do wanna get to Marc Maron circling back to Riyadh and what he had to say about all of this. I mean, he's funny and self deprecating. Cause he's like, look, I didn't get invited, so it's very easy for me to be moral on this issue. But let's go ahead and take a look. Listen to what he had to say.
- [54:05]
Zoran Mamdani
Riyadh Comedy Festival.
- [54:06]
Saagar Enjeti
I don't know if you heard about that.
- [54:08]
Zoran Mamdani
This is true.
- [54:09]
Saagar Enjeti
There's a Riyadh, Saudi Arabia comedy festival. I mean, how do you even promote that? You know, like from the folks that.
- [54:18]
Zoran Mamdani
Brought you nine, 11, two weeks of laughter in the desert.
- [54:25]
Saagar Enjeti
Don't miss it.
- [54:28]
Zoran Mamdani
I mean, the same guy that's going to pay them is the same guy that paid that guy to bonesaw Jamal Khashoggi and put him in a fucking suitcase. But don't let that stop the yucks. It's gonna be a good time.
- [54:39]
Krystal Ball
So there you go. Him weighing in. So in any case, I do wonder.
- [54:44]
Zoran Mamdani
Because Mark, for people who don't follow all this, Mark has famous beef. I think with many comedians, Mark is, look, I mean, I think Mark. I don't think he would dispute this. He's woke. He's like a woke comic.
- [54:55]
Krystal Ball
Oh, yeah, he would definitely accept.
- [54:57]
Zoran Mamdani
Yeah, I think he would probably accept.
- [54:58]
Krystal Ball
He would lean into that label.
- [54:59]
Zoran Mamdani
All right, so Marc Maron is woke and he hates the quote, anti woke comedians. And so look, I don't know. I think a lot of it was personal for him too. He's also famously a personal prick. So how much of that is motivated? But at the very least, he wasn't wrong in his Set. So that's what we can say. I will say to Marc Maron, he was the OG or at least one of the OGs on podcasting and apparently he is retiring, which is kind of sad. I remember listening to his interview with Louis CK where they made up. I mean, this has got to be more. More than 10 years ago. And that's when I really got turned into the podcast medium. So I do want to give him his due. He did a lot.
- [55:34]
Krystal Ball
He's now with a bang, man. He's been throwing. He's been throwing bombs. He's been getting attention, like gaining. I feel like he's having a late career resurgence in terms of his relevance.
- [55:44]
Zoran Mamdani
Yes, because he's just a shitlib and he's just like voicing the same shitlib stuff that he always has.
- [55:48]
Krystal Ball
It's just that shitlibs are willing and angry. So much of comedy has become more right coded that for him to. A lot, a lot of it happened.
- [55:56]
Zoran Mamdani
It's only right coded to you because you don't agree with it. I mean, it's just one of those.
- [55:59]
Krystal Ball
Where like, I mean, they all supported Trump stalker. They all supported Trump's. That's what I'm talking about.
- [56:03]
Zoran Mamdani
Okay, but that's.
- [56:04]
Krystal Ball
I would consider that to be right.
- [56:06]
Zoran Mamdani
Wing, but that's my point is that it's more about countercultural and the culture for the last 15 years has been explicitly left wing.
- [56:13]
Krystal Ball
So let me finish my thought here. So I mean, you had a bunch of comedians support Trump, right. Endorse him and go to Zanagari, all that crap, right? And then so Marin now coming out and being very vocal against them like one of the few has of course gotten him a lot of, you know, a lot of attention and a lot more than, you know, he had been in recent years. So it's almost like the culture now has shifted the vibe shifted the right and now he's the one who's sort of like more counterpoint than being a critic.
- [56:42]
Zoran Mamdani
Oh, I agree with that.
- [56:43]
Saagar Enjeti
That's what I mean.
- [56:44]
Zoran Mamdani
I agree that's my take with Marin is that he's basically the exact same kind of. Of extremist shit lib that he's always been. Look, it's not denigrating. I appreciate some of the guys podcasts. He gets some good interviews and all of that. But it's now that what's happened is that because the country is explicitly run by the Republicans and there's been effectively like a total or at least 2024 post vibes was like total decimation cultural.
- [57:09]
Krystal Ball
Victory of a lot of culture, total.
- [57:11]
Zoran Mamdani
Cultural victory in every way. Now it is like vaguely countercultural. I saw a funny tweet that the most countercultural thing someone in Silicon Valley could do would be just be anti Trump and put pronouns in their bio and you're like, wow, you know, five years ago that was literally the dominant culture. So yeah, it is actually interesting from like a, you know, kind of counterculture point of view. And I do think he's got some clean hits in some ways where he's like, you guys won. So why are you still telling the jokes about the counterculture as if things have not changed a little bit? And I think he is correct in that way. And so I am curious to see where think, you know, kind of where the wind blows and who gets elevated with some of the new comedy. But anyway, that's just me. I don't know anything. All right, so that's my take broadly on the whole Riyadh situation. We will see you guys tomorrow for our Tuesday show. And we're about to do our ama. So there you go.
- [58:15]
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- [59:14]
Saagar Enjeti
Have you ever heard a story so unbelievable it just had to be true? Roofman is the jaw dropping new film about Jeffrey Manchester, played by Channing Tatum, a man who becomes infamous for breaking into over 40 McDonald's through the roof, then secretly living inside a Toys R Us for six months. With humor, suspense and heart, Roofman is a cat and mouse story that will keep you hooked until the very end. Don't miss Roofman. Only in theaters October 10th. This is Bo Nang from Las Culturistas and I'm Matt Rogers. Also a host of Las culturistas. Big news to share. Do you know what the perfect thing to bring to any party is?
- [59:49]
Zoran Mamdani
Bowen, we talked about this.
- [59:50]
Saagar Enjeti
I'm a person, not a thing. Oh, I didn't mean you. I meant Casamigos.
- [59:54]
Krystal Ball
Okay, chic.
- [59:55]
Saagar Enjeti
And honestly, the only other correct answer.
- [59:57]
Zoran Mamdani
The Casamigos margarita. That a sleigh?
- [60:00]
Saagar Enjeti
Ah, Casamigos.
- [60:02]
Zoran Mamdani
Anything is a sleigh.
- [60:03]
Saagar Enjeti
Anything goes with my Casamigos.
- [60:04]
Zoran Mamdani
Anything goes with my Casamigos.
- [60:06]
Saagar Enjeti
Bo, you're a poet. Please drink responsibly. Imported by Casamigos Spirits Company, White Plains, New York. Casamigos Tequila. 40% alcohol by volume.
- [60:13]
Zoran Mamdani
This is an I heart podcast.