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- [00:00]
John Podhoretz
Foreign.
- [00:09]
Jon Buddoriz
Expect the worst Some drinks and pain
- [00:12]
Eric Gertler
Some die of thirst no way of
- [00:15]
John Podhoretz
knowing which way it's going Hope for
- [00:18]
Jon Buddoriz
the best Expect the worst Hope for the best. Welcome to the Commentary Magazine daily podcast. Today is Tuesday, August 4th, 2026. I'm Jon Bud Horiz, the editor of Commentary magazine, inviting you again to join us on November 8th here in New York City for the 17th annual Commentary Roast this year of Ron Dermer. It is our signature event of the year fundraiser. High spirited good time had by all. Previous roastees have been Natan Sharansky, Tom Cotton, Ben Shapiro, Jonah Goldberg, Dick Cheney, Joe Lieberman. I mean, I can't even Dan Seynour. I can't even Bari Weiss. And so this year is Ron Dermer, the right hand man to Bibi Netanyahu. It should be a wonderful evening. It's an expensive ticket, but it's worth your time, it's worth your money, it's worth supporting Commentary for and you'll have a great time. And how many rubber chicken dinners can you say that about? In fact, we don't have rubber chicken. We have better food than that at the venue at which we have this event, which I'm not gonna tell you about because I don't want anybody coming to protest. You'll find out if you decide to come where we're doing it, and you do that by going to commentary.org roast for details. And at that event, you will meet my panel right here. Executive editor Abe Greenwald. Hi, Abe.
- [01:52]
Abe Greenwald
Hi, John.
- [01:53]
Jon Buddoriz
Senior editor Seth Mandel. Hi, Seth.
- [01:56]
Seth Mandel
Hi, John.
- [01:57]
Jon Buddoriz
And Washington Free Beacon editor Eliana Johnson. Hi, Eliana.
- [02:01]
Eliana Johnson
Hi, John.
- [02:05]
Jon Buddoriz
Donald Trump this morning announced that for every strike or effort to close do anything in the Strait of Hormuz, we're going to blow up a bridge in Iran. This is getting comic. I'm sorry, I wish it weren't comic. I wish that all of this was some kind of a delaying, temporizing tactic for the shock and awe that will soon follow and will show that all of this was a feint and a dodge. It doesn't seem that way to me. And I just think the wheels, as I said yesterday, are coming off the tricycle. And it's worth noting. I think it's fair to say that the details that we are now privy to about the reflecting pool disaster that Jeanine Pirro, who is as sort of like slavish maga water carrying as a Trumper, can possibly be, found it necessary to dismiss the charges of vandalism that she had originally brought. Based on what? If you Read the dismissal documents seemed to be an argument that the federal. The officers who arrested the guy who was indicted didn't really tell the truth about what was going on. And that all the evidence suggests that the job that was done by the contractor on resurfacing the reflecting Pool was incredibly incompetent. And Trump then getting angry at Pirro for dismissing the charges and saying that she folded like an umbrella because he wants somebody to be prosecuted for what is apparently not a crime is despicable. I don't know. There's no other word for it. It is despicable. He is misusing the Justice Department. This is the 17,000th misuse of the Justice Department, including things that one we are maybe even intrinsically, emotionally kind of enjoying, like indicting James Comey, which should never have been done. His involvement in pushing the indictment of James Comey, which is a complete breach of all proper decorum when it comes to the prison, the executive branch and criminal charges, the slush fund, all of that. He is really covering himself with ignominy here. The one thing that was possibly the mitigating factor that suggested that this second term was going to be an important and valuable moment for the United States was the successful prosecution of this war that apparently is no longer being successfully prosecuted. So we have the tariffs, we have the excessive use of ice, we have the sort of inability to deal with the inflationary spiral and all of that. And then we have the misuse of the Justice Department, and we now have the incompetent prosecution of the war. So I am now back to feeling extraordinarily discontented with the president as a person, as a leader, as a political figure, and as a person, as a man. Anybody want to come at me? Come at me.
- [05:45]
Abe Greenwald
Well, I won't come at you because I'm in agreement. But I will say this. He can make it up to me. If at some point down the line he makes good on this Iran threat and actually does something, commits himself to this world historic barrage that he's been talking up or does something to open the strait and get at pickaxe mountain, then I'm okay on balance. But I don't see evidence of that happening
- [06:32]
Jon Buddoriz
any.
- [06:33]
Eliana Johnson
I'm less sure about that. My theory of Trump from the outset was that he will keep us safe, for there are. There's a barrier around him when it comes to foreign policy because he doesn't want to be made to look weak.
- [06:59]
Seth Mandel
He.
- [06:59]
Eliana Johnson
He doesn't want to appear weak on the international stage. That would appear to be being disproven as we speak. But I'm open to the idea that he may prove me correct. He may yet prove me correct in the way that Abe suggests that he may find it intolerable to be humiliated as he is being humiliated, to be made a fool of as he is being made a fool of, and to continue engaging in what has become a predictable back and forth. And this president is anything but predictable. So while I share your disappointment, particularly at the state of the war, I remain open to and hopeful to the possibility that he does do a final strike. And one thing I would note about the Piro thing, while I share your feelings about the, you know, silliness of it, is the reporting does note that he was blindsided by it, which I think for all of us who have engaged in, and it's particularly important in this administration in managing up that, that that is a mission.
- [08:21]
Jon Buddoriz
But I mean, it's not a miss morally. I mean, so he was blindsided. Who gives a F that he was blindsided? They only indicted the guy on trumped up charges because he wanted a fall guy for his idiot choice of the contract.
- [08:40]
Eliana Johnson
That's all true, but like, if your goal is, you know, to manage the boss and he is the President of the United States, like, it is good practice regardless of who your boss is and he is the democratically elected President of the United States, to go and tell him, hey, we're going to put in our legal filing here that we bungled this, that the renovation of the reflecting pool was carried out hastily and it's going to be reported a bad story is coming. I mean, the worst case scenario is what they did, which is for him to read about it in the news.
- [09:20]
Jon Buddoriz
So if he wants to be mad at Pierro and fire Pirro, that's fine with me. She's probably, you know, it's probably, that's whatever. I mean, she was the district county of Westchester County. Therefore she has experience being in this kind of prosecutorial role, unlike a lot of people that he has put in roles that they are totally improperly in, like RFK Jr. But nonetheless, that's a problem. If she didn't handle it right, she didn't handle it right. The main point here is that somebody was unjustly and inappropriately and wrongly cited for a crime, and he is angry that that person is being let free, whereas he should be happy because the crime wasn't committed and justice is being done. But he doesn't care about justice. He has no interest. He only believes in power and So I take your point that Pirro made a mistake, but when it comes to what we're talking about, that's between him and Pirro, or that's between Pirro and her professional consultant on how to perform her job properly, if her job is political and not simply a law enforcement job, which is what it really is. I mean, until Trump came along, the president had nothing to do with the U.S. attorneys anywhere. I mean, they might fire them, they might agree to fire them, but the idea that they would reach down and have personal relationships with U.S. attorneys and involve themselves in individual indictments of federal crimes, that is something that he has brought to this show. That is not. There is almost, I mean, there is very little if there is any precedent for that. And it was always a misuse. And now we actually have, like, an individual case of misuse. That is undeniable, and that is outrageous. Seth, I'm sorry.
- [11:21]
Seth Mandel
I would just say that the other problem with this is that the information space, he can. There are legions of people who are happy to believe that the deep state is working against him and all this other stuff. And he also knows that if you get, you know, if you get his version out there, you know, it'll get picked up and recycled for a while before this stuff can happen. And so I, for me, it's like, I'm not even so sure we're setting the record straight anymore. I worry about the ability to set the record straight. Like, whatever ends up happening here, this guy gets exonerated and, you know, we'll find out, you know, what really happened and all that. To me, it's like, well, you know, some of the country is going to find out what really happened, and a chunk of the country is, is never actually going to, like, his supporters in a lot of cases are in this cone of, of protection the way that he is to a certain degree. And so, you know, I'm not even so sure that we have the record straight. I think that we're going to end up having, you know, like, 2, 2 50% going at each other. Like, half the country is going to think that it was an Olympian who did it, and half the country is going to think, maybe only not because it's so crazy in this instance, but I feel like the echo chamber that the president has, that any president has, especially this one, but has at his disposal kind of like poisons the, it ruins the, it ruins the finish on the Reflecting pool before you can, you know, get the truth water in. I don't know. I tried to do Something with that metaphor gave it a shot.
- [13:06]
Jon Buddoriz
Yeah, I liked it. I liked it. But I think the problem here is that this is the deep state. If you hate the deep. If you think the deep state is a danger. The use of the Justice Department as a political tool to make the president's preposterous argument that there was a sabotage campaign to make the reflecting pool look bad, that's where it's like, this is where the unjust use of the federal government comes in. And you have the Justice Department, you have the U.S. attorney's office in the District of Columbia. You have the Secretary of the Interior making excuses. What is the deep state? He is the deep state. I mean, I'm sorry. And so therefore, if you have ginned people up in fear and hatred of the deep state, I'm not entirely sure you can control it or contain it. If people get the art, get it down. That in fact there wasn't some kind of plot to destroy the resurfacing of the reflecting pool. That argument never made any sense anyway. The reflecting pool is a public site visited 24 hours a day in one of the most trafficked touristy places on earth. Nobody was in there for hours figuring out how to destroy the reflecting pools. Resurfacing. That's insane. If there had been footage of it somehow from cameras, it would have been shown to us. It was insane from the get go. It's embarrassing. And he is embarrassing himself and acting like a cad and a monster. Like, you're not supposed to misuse your law enforcement powers by arresting people to make yourself look good. That is an impeachable offense. It is a firing offense for any police department. You know, if you found out that a cop, that the police chief had done this in some place, you know, that that police chief would be fired. It's just. Just disgusting. I mean, you know, it's disgust disgusting.
- [15:18]
Seth Mandel
These powers be combined with the compensation fund because that I always. I always looked at the compensation fund in that way, like as a way to shield people who had gone through the justice system that, you know, and had had everything adjudicated and then the President sort of handing out money to shield them from the consequences of it. That the compensation fund, to me was. Was maybe even a better example, because I can almost believe for a second that Trump was fooled into something or whatever, that people lied to him about the reflecting pool so as not to upset him. But the compensation fund is the president deciding who he's going to specifically dole out money to while in office.
- [16:08]
Jon Buddoriz
Speaking of which the compensation fund. We are told Todd Blanche, the nominee for Attorney General, has agreed to the terms of the holdout Republican senators on killing off the compensation fund so that they will vote his nomination through as Attorney General, bring it to the floor of the House, and he will then be confirmed. What I'm reading is all these people saying there are holes. There are holes in this and there are holes. I don't really understand what the holes are. I don't understand how the compensation fund even exists in the first place. So I don't know where the holes are. It strikes me that if these holes are exploited once again, we get to 20, 19, 20, excuse me, 2027, and there's a Democratic House. I mean, how many things does he want to be impeached on if they make an agreement to close the compensation fund and then he starts spending money out of the compensation fund, how many there are? We now have like seven different things he could be impeached on. Does he want 8? Does he want 9? Does it matter to him? Like, what the hell? I'm back to talk to you about Brooklyn Betting. I've told you this story before that they came to advertise on the commentary podcast and they said, sent me a mattress to test and I got one for my son's room and I lay down on it and so did he and it was so comfortable that I got two more mattresses for each of my daughters. So I am a Brooklyn Bedding customer. I'm a Brooklyn bedding enthusiast. I'm big on buying things I know will last. Brooklyn Bedding is that kind of purchase. These mattresses are cost effective, but they're also built with long term durability in mind. And they're built right here in the usa. They use glaciotex covers, copper infused foams, temperature regulating materials to help keep you cool and comfortable all night long. I don't know how much more I can say except that I got them for myself, paid for them myself. And so should you go to BrooklynBedding.com and use my promo code commentary at checkout to get 30% off site wide during the back to school sale? That's right. That's BrooklynBetting.com and promo code COMMENTARY for 30% off site wide. Exclusive, exclusive with my code. BrooklynBetting.com promo code COMMENTARY.
- [18:41]
Eliana Johnson
Yeah, I think there's talk that, oh, they're going to say there's no compensation fund, but they'll actually rename it, you know, some other, you know, give it another name and it's a too clever by half thing. But my, I think that this is a real win, actually, for Cornyn and Tillis, who have managed to exact something from the president. And we haven't seen until now a lot of forceful pushback from Republican senators. And we got it here. They said no, they pushed back, and the administration appears to have yielded in an effort to put Blanche in the Justice Department.
- [19:35]
Jon Buddoriz
All right, so if we move on from this, it's primary day. Obviously all eyes are on Michigan. I don't even know why we're looking at Michigan. It seems to be like it's a foregone conclusion that Abdul El Sayed is going to win that race against Haley Stevens. I mean, I dream of the idea that there has been a systemic polling error and that there's going to be an ocean of people are going to come out of their houses as shy like some version of shy Tory voters and turn back this monstrous tide. But I don't see that happening. And I think, Seth, you know, we haven't talked about something you've just written about elsewhere in Michigan, but this is happening at the same time as the Attorney General of the state of Michigan, Dana Nestle, a progressive, progressive Jew who is not exactly, shall we say, famed for her profound Zionism, is now having to absent herself from public gatherings of Democrats because she openly said she is gonna get harassed. She is an elected official in the state of Michigan, a Democrat, and she is afraid of the rank and file in her own party coming at her for being a Jew in the state of Michigan.
- [21:11]
Seth Mandel
And she said also, I mean, I think, and there's probably more behind this, but she did say that there was also a party official or a party member who had called her a neo Nazi. For again, she is not, no, she is not known as some kind of like uber Zionist. What she's called a neo Nazi for is attempting to enforce the law by charging Hamas niks who set up. I mean, the particular case is that it was at the University of Michigan and there's a particular area at Michigan that is, you know, well, traveled through and central to campus and whatever. And they set up an encampment there. And they also brought all sorts of reportedly like, you know, stuff to cook food and whatever. And they created what the fire department said was a, a real fire hazard. And they asked them to take that stuff out and they wouldn't do it. So then the fire department said, well, then you all have to clear out if you won't. You know, it's like I clear the Fire stuff out was the, was the, was the compromise. But if you're just going to sit here then, then you know, they're absolutely, we, you know, we can't have this. So you got to clear out. And the cops came in to do so and people resisted arrest and you know, threw stuff and gotten the cops way. And so there was a clear, you know, the case doesn't go through. So I can say they are criminals. But the law breaking was not done in the shadows is my point. You know, without accusing them of something they haven't been convicted of, they did get in the cops way. They did resist arrest and all that stuff and they were charged with that. And the reason the charges were dropped was because Rashida Tlaib and others had produced this idea that Dana Nestle was being biased toward Jews, that she filed the charges against these pro Palestine activists and that it was bias, it was ethnic bias that did it. And it was very similar to remember Trump when he was running the first time, there was a judge who had been born, I believe in Mexico and he had, Trump had made the, the argument that this judge couldn't be trusted to adjudicate his immigration cases because he was biased because he was an immigrant or something like that. This was something, you know, very similar. And so, and eventually it turned into such a circus that she, she dropped the charges. But it was not because there was no evidence or anything like that. It was because the, the, the echo of, you know, she must be biased just overwhelmed the case. The judge was seen as slow walking the case and so they just kind of left her out to dry. And that's really the point. You know, that wasn't the point at the time, but that's the point to compare to the situation you're seeing now with Dana Nestle saying she doesn't feel safe attending the party, the national, the party's annual convention on August 29th. Because again, as before, she's being left hung out to dry. Nobody from the party is coming in, not nobody, but the party is not reacting and saying one of our highest profile, highest level state officials, you know, is being, is, is, is, you know, is being left hung out to dry here. We should come in and do something about it.
- [24:44]
Jon Buddoriz
Also just as, let me just ask you. She's being hung out to dry. She dropped the charges. Like she dropped the charges. So basically she behaved in an unethical and immoral fashion, giving in to the jack, joining the jackals, giving in to the mob. And guess what? Giving into the mob just makes Them thirstier for your blood. So I hope that she has taken the full measure of her effort to pacify the cannibals who are just now looking to put her in the pot and boil her so she stays in her house. They're not gonna argue. They can't do that. Right.
- [25:26]
Seth Mandel
But there's an argument to be made. More than that. There's an element of the case that, you know, I also, when I wrote about this at the time, criticized. It's kind of getting in the weeds. But, yes, there were. She did not handle this perfectly, without question. And she shifted the blame to some private parties that I found reprehensible and said so at the time. I mean, she made her bed, so to speak, you know, in a lot of ways, as you're saying. But also, I think you have to remember that when you, when you give the mob what they want, it's not just that you appear weak and they smell more blood in the water. It's also that on some level, they feel like you are agreeing with them. If I, if somebody tells me I can't, I'm a law enforcement official and I can't charge people because my Jewishness was. Might get in the way, then to me, I have to drag myself across the finish line if I'm barely conscious to finish that case. Whatever happens with the ruling, what I can't do is say, oh, well, all right, let's just make this go away. And I think that that's part of what's been happening a lot, is that this attempt to mollify the, the Gaza left, so to speak, is not just, oh, they're weak, we can just keep stampeding over them. It's like no one's arguing with us. We're saying Jews are too biased to be attorney generals. And the attorney generals seem to agree, and the party's not really objecting. And so they kind of see their worldview as vindicated in a weird way.
- [27:06]
Abe Greenwald
I keep coming back to what the national co chair of the dsa, and I forget the woman's name. I'm sorry, but what she said on Fox News a week and a half ago, Megan Romer. Thank you, Megan Romer. She said that. I'm paraphrasing only slightly, if at all, that the way they intend to get power is to make life the unendurable is a direct quote. So unendurable for people in power that those in power will cave to their demands rather than continue to fight. In this case, those in power certainly is going to mean anyone who rules against the Masniks and certainly a Jew who does so. And so to Seth's point, yeah, this is how they feel they win. They feel they win by forcing you to say yes, by forcing you into their camp. That's it. They don't care if they convince you with facts or arguments or anything like that.
- [28:22]
Eliana Johnson
This is not just about Dana Nestle as Abe suggests. Haley Stevens took the stage at the Michigan Democratic Convention and was jeered and booed and intimidated. And Zoran Mandani in New York City stood outside Ken Griffin's apartment and broadcast his address 18 months after the UnitedHealthcare CEO was gunned down in broad daylight. Mamdani just published a searchable database of the names and addresses of those who may be subject to his pied a terror taxes of those who own second homes in New York over valued at over $5 million. And he said these people aren't contributing what they should. And Haley Stevens then says, after saying Abdul El Sayed is an anti Semite, that oh yeah, of course I'll endorse him. I'm a team player. This behavior is menacing and across the
- [29:35]
John Podhoretz
board
- [29:37]
Eliana Johnson
in the Democratic Party.
- [29:39]
Jon Buddoriz
Let's not forget Adam Smith, the congressman from Washington who literally said that he voted against aid to Israel because he was frightened by the mobs who had come and harassed him at his house and had beat and had punched one of his or had beaten up one of his either campaign workers or staffers and therefore he voted because of what happened. Now that was an astounding thing to admit. Like if I were him, I would have kept my mouth shut. I mean, I still can't believe that he said what he said because he should of course then immediately resign as a if he said I can no longer serve in this world because I am now being asked to vote. I'm voting falsely out of fear for myself and therefore I can no longer be a proper. I am not fulfilling my constitutional oath here as a member of Congress. He didn't do that. Because now anybody can say anything about anything and we forget it like four days later. But yeah, this is the atmosphere we have.
- [30:45]
Abe Greenwald
And don't forget while we're at it, Scott Wiener, the California state senator who was almost lynched at the San Francisco Trans March after caving again to the Hamas next.
- [31:02]
Eliana Johnson
But it's another way in which our broader culture is downstream of campus culture. Because one of the first times in which we saw this widespread behavior was on our college campuses after October 7, 2023, in which left wing socialists married to Islamists heavily influenced by the DSA and Marxists, intimidated Jews and conservative students with this kind of behavior, made no go Jew zones. And now we're seeing it seep into our broader politics and nobody in Democratic leadership is speaking out about it.
- [31:52]
Jon Buddoriz
That is a really interesting.
- [31:53]
Seth Mandel
And we should say, by the way, just quick, that what Eliana mentioned, the convention that she mentioned was there's an endorsement convention in the spring or early summer and then there's the full convention. The endorsement convention that Eliana is talking about was where Haley Stevens was booed and heckled and stuff. That was also the one that because of the way that the office holding rules work in for the Unit for State Universities, University of Michigan, Michigan State as well, this is, it goes through a, an electoral process. It's a political position. And so at that endorsement convention, the Democratic Party, there was Jordan Acker, who was the, a trustee, Democratic Party's trustee at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. And he had been harassed badly over.
- [32:49]
Eliana Johnson
His home was vandalized, his car was vandalized.
- [32:52]
Seth Mandel
People showed up at his house.
- [32:53]
Eliana Johnson
That's right, vandalized.
- [32:54]
Seth Mandel
And he was named in the, in the, in the indictment that the, of the, of the, you know, what was essentially a RICO case of these making terroristic threats in Wisconsin, I think, and Michigan people remember a bunch of students at Michigan were actually, and ex students were actually indicted by the Justice Department,
- [33:12]
Eliana Johnson
including by a snapper on the El Sayed campaign.
- [33:16]
Seth Mandel
Right. So Jordan Acker was one of the victims of this thing that is, that has now resulted in federal indictments. At that convention, the Democrats nominated Amir mcled to replace Jordan Acker. They nominated against the sitting Jewish trustee at Michigan who had been the target of all this harassment and chose instead Amir Macled, who by the way, had, I believe had represented even some of the, some of the, you know, encampment. Those charged with the encampment, whatever. But Amir Makled then, you know, of course he went on to campaign with Abdul El Sayed and all these things came full circle. But that was a moment where the Democratic Party said, this guy's being harassed for being Jewish. Yeah, we agree. Let's get rid of him and elevate a guy who was on record defending the people who harassed him.
- [34:18]
Jon Buddoriz
I'm back to talk to you about Brooklyn Betting. I've told you this story before that they came to advertise on the Commentary podcast and they sent me a mattress to test and I got one for my son's room and I lay down on it and so did he and it was so comfortable that I got two more mattresses for each of my daughters. So I am a Brooklyn Bedding customer. I'm a Brooklyn Bedding enthusiast. I'm big on buying things I know will last. Brooklyn Bedding is that kind of purchase. These mattresses are cost effective but they're also built with long term durability in mind and they're built right here in the usa. They use Glaciotex covers, copper infused foams, temperature regulating materials to help keep you cool and comfortable all night long. I don't know how much more I can say except that I got them for myself, paid for them myself and so should you go to BrooklynBetting.com and use my promo code commentary at checkout to get 30% off site wide during the back to school sale. That's right, that's brooklynbetting.com and promo code commentary for for 30% off site wide exclusive with my code brooklynbetting.com promo code commentary August is the perfect time to hit reset before the autumn rush begins. And honestly I can't think of a better place to start than my closet. That's why I love shopping at Quint's. If you're still hanging on to the same worn out basics, Quint makes it easy to upgrade. For example, I just bought a bunch of linen shorts because frankly I've been losing a little weight and I need some shorts that fit and these are fantastic, comfortable, breathe and very very good looking. Everything at quince is priced 50 to 80% less than similar brands. They work with ethical factories and cut out the middleman. So you're paying for high quality, not brand markup everyday staples that work harder like their ultra soft organic cotton tees and premium Mongolian cashmere sweaters which I've been telling you about for years. And it's not just clothing. Quince has become my go to for everything from hotel quality bedding and bath essentials to premium cookware and travel must haves. I also just got a new Quince wallet. Just to give you a sense of how this goes, upgrade your everyday Download the Quince app for app exclusive offers or go to quince.com commentary get free shipping on your order and 36065 day returns now available in Canada and the UK too. That's Q-U-I-N-C-E.com commentary. Let's talk about this idea of politics being downstream from the Academy because this I think is a fantastic observation. It's an emendation of Andrew Breitbart's famous statement that politics is downstream from culture, that sort of Hollywood sets the agenda for politics or pop culture sets the agenda for politics. According to a survey that I saw and remember, the dsa, Democratic Socialists of America is actually a very small group. I mean, it's now 10 times the size it was three years ago, but it's still. And obviously people, millions and tens of millions of Democrats are telling or if polls are accurate, are saying that sympathetic to its causes. But it's still like 100, 120,000 people who are actual members of the DSA. According to a survey I saw yesterday or the day before, 96% of them are white college graduates. 96% of them are white college graduates. So this is a socialist movement of upper middle class people. If there's anything that determines whether or not you are in the upper middle class, it is being a college graduate. You're a thought worker. You're not going to work with your hands. You are. So what we have here is a movement that of people who are recently or have in the last 15 years come through colleges and have brought the lifeblood, the lifestream, the ideas and the feelings and all of that that they bathed in for four years into the real world outside of the campus. And we've always thought that real reality, we get people and they finally, they get to the real world and reality bites and they're gonna learn that all of their fantasies about whatever about justice and all of that have to give way to the fact that they need to make a living, they gotta pay rent, they're gonna get married, they have to have kids, they have to get a mortgage, and, and all of this will temper them, right? And in fact, the evidence of the last 15 years is that nothing tempers them. That in fact, there is no change that comes from the confrontation with reality. Rather, reality, time and again, is forced to conform with their delusions. You know, the George Floyd delusions, the masking delusions. I don't know, I mean, 10,000 different things where the country's behavior changes to conform to these ideas rather than this relatively small group of people. Remember, you know, only 30% of people in the United States get a four year college degree. 30%. So they are not a majority. They're nowhere near a majority. But they are ruling the way in which our society is setting rules for itself. And their rules are awful.
- [40:11]
Eliana Johnson
And recall the text messages that came out that were subpoenaed by the House Education and Workforce Committee. What did Chuck Schumer tell the leaders of Columbia. And what did we see the leaders of all these elite college campuses do when faced with the intimidating, malicious, bullying behavior that we now see among left wing DSA politicians? They folded. They didn't push back. They didn't speak out. They didn't stand up for what was right. Chuck Schumer was texting the leaders of Columbia. Don't worry, the investigations will pass. The Republicans will be out of power. We're going to win back the House. It was a preview of what we're seeing on the national scale. On a national scale now.
- [41:14]
Jon Buddoriz
Important point, Chuck Schumer. Yeah, good.
- [41:16]
Abe Greenwald
No, no, make this Schumer point first.
- [41:19]
Jon Buddoriz
No, no, no. I was going to transition. You go ahead and then I'll transition to something else.
- [41:24]
Abe Greenwald
I was going to say, you know, I got something wrong. At the start of the post 10-7-13 explosion on campuses. I had thought that one of the things that, that this accomplished was opening up for the general public the extent of the madness in elite schools. I think most people had no idea, why would they, of how radical the ideas that were floating around on these campuses were and that this would be a good opportunity for the general American public to see this stuff and go, wow, things have taken, without my knowing it, a wild turn in academia. This is what they're teaching kids. This is what's going on on campuses. We have got to get ourselves straightened out here. This is a mess. And instead, as you say, John and Eliana, what happened was everyone's like, okay, I'm in. It doesn't look that bad.
- [42:36]
Seth Mandel
There was reason I would defend.
- [42:38]
Abe Greenwald
New York Times is okay with it, you know.
- [42:40]
Seth Mandel
Yeah, no, I just want to defend your, your instinct because there was reason for you to believe that they would react that way because they reacted that way during remote class, during remote school, during COVID Right. We had this, that, that had turned a wave against the Democrats because as we said at the time, for the first time, people, parents were watching class go on because it was in their home and they were sitting there going, is that what you're learning? Is that what you're. This is how your teacher talks? This is how, this is the lessons that you guys have. Whatever. They were horrified by what they saw now that they got to see what was going on in the classroom. So I, I mean, Abe's, you know, point is even stronger in that sense, which is that we know that they, there is the capacity in the public to, you know, to find revulsion at what's really going on in the classroom. And they didn't in this case, you
- [43:39]
Abe Greenwald
know, I think it's because I just want to say this is my own. I'm trying to, like, you know, figure out why I got it wrong. I think I underestimated the power of using antisemitism, in particular to corral people to your cause. It's not, you know, and I've said this before, it's like if we were three years after the killing of George Floyd, by then, Democrats, institutions, everyone was backing off of, defund the police. You know, like, it had sort of. The wave had sort of, you know, died out. This just grew and grew, became more institutionalized, gained more cover for itself over time. And I really think that is the ingredient that is the difference that enabled these thugs to get the kind of support that they got. As I said, when it first broke out, I would have thought average Americans would look at this and go, what? They're waving Hezbollah flags. They're. They're pro Hamas. What is this? Like? This doesn't even look like America. How can you know? But here we are.
- [44:58]
Jon Buddoriz
Well, I was just going to point out that we have these data points that came out yesterday, the monthly reports from the NYPD on crimes. And the story is that 70% of the hate crimes in New York City in the month of July were targeted at Jews. And jews make up 10% of the population. So in New York City, therefore, you know, they are massively over. We are massively overrepresented among the targets of hate crimes. And here is the interesting fact. You can't. And there's an acceleration here because there were 15 such hate crimes in July of 2025. There were 33 in July of 2026. So even though these sound like small numbers, in a city of 8.5 million, we have a doubling of the number of hate crimes from the year before Mamdani to the year of Mamdani in the month of July. And the number of hate crimes since January 1, 2026, is up 10% pretty much to 360 from 329 last year. But in 2022, that's the year before October 7, when we were talking then about how it had become increasingly dangerous, particularly for visible Jews, Jews who were kipot or had pais or dressed in the garb of the Orthodox. It was becoming increasingly dangerous for them, sneak punch attacks and things like that on the streets of Brooklyn. In 2022, the total number of hate crimes against Jews was 290. And just this year alone. Excuse me, Overall hate crimes. 290. This year 360 and it's only half of the year done. So assuming that this will remain relatively constant, we will have a doubling of hate crimes and an increasing and a, an exponential increase in the number of hate crimes that are specifically targeting Jews. Because it was 50%, 40% in 2022 and it's now 70% in July of 2026 in the city in which the anti Zionist mayor, who supports demonstrations outside synagogues and the like and calls the prime minister of the one Jewish state war criminal whom he would like to arrest, the permission structure that he is giving to expressions of hate against Jews. Abe is saying that there was some kind of weird permission structure for this after October 7th because we assumed that sort of decent people, overwhelming number of decent people would say, my God, what are you people doing? What is this? You're supporting terrorist groups you're supporting. And yet apparently it's kind of okay. It's kind of okay that it's open season on Jews. And in fact, one of the two largest political parties in the United States has basically now come out and said that it is okay to target you. Because as Eliana says, even the opponent of the most anti Semitic candidate ever to run for major office, realistically run for major office in the United States, Abdul El Sayed, his opponent now says that it's okay for him to be an anti Semite. If she loses to him, that is something. It's unthinkable that you would sort of do that. If, then, if he wins, will you support him? Thing I remember 1990, got to tell this story over and over and over again. David Duke was the Republican nominee for governor in the state of Louisiana in 1998. Every major leader of the Republican Party said, do not vote for David Duke. He is ahead of the American Nazi party. Do not vote for him. Vote for the Democrat. Do not let David Duke become governor of Louisiana. Who is saying that about Abdul El Sayed? Who will say that in September and October about Abdul El Sayed? Will Chuck Schumer, the Guardian at the gates of Jerusalem? Will he say it? No one congresswoman in Michigan has said she cannot support him because of his anti Semitism. Where is 120 Congressmen standing up and saying he should not be voted for? That was the President of the United States intervened in the race in Louisiana against David Duke. There's no difference between Abdul Al Sayed and David Duke. Arguably, Abdel Al Said is worse than David Duke because David Duke came out of nowhere to win that race. And Abdul El Sayed was actually legitimately a legitimately hired public health official in the state of Michigan.
- [50:38]
Seth Mandel
By the way, I was running for years
- [50:43]
Abe Greenwald
when David Duke made his entry into political life, or the run up to trying to. He said to his fellow Klansmen and whomever else his inner circle, let's not use the language we were using anymore. Let's tone it down. Let's not use the N word. Let's not speak the way they would expect us to speak. And no one said, okay, he's different. He's changed. You know, He's redeemed himself. He's no longer the fiery, angry young man now. You know, he's just. Because, you know, you don't give cover to that. It's a naked disguise. It's a naked ploy. Never works that way with the anti Semites of the left.
- [51:36]
Jon Buddoriz
Well, let me give you another example, because this is something I'm mixed on, but I think is an interesting debating question. So the Met Gala, the major social event in New York of the year, the number one. There are now very few major social events left in the United States. You know, of these gatherings of ridiculous, you know, everyone going on the red carpet and all of that. So this is it, the Met Gala, run largely by Anna Winter, the editorial director of Conde Nast, former editor of Vogue. And there is always an honoree, and the honoree next year is going to be the designer John Galliano. John Galliano 10 years ago was at the center of a controversy relating to his personal antisemitism and Jew hatred. So Anna Wintour, coming up with this idea to honor John Galliano, went to Jewish organizations, including the Anti Defamation League, to ask them what they would do if she did this. And Jonathan Greenblatt, the head of the adl and others said, okay, fair is fair. Galliano has done the work. He came to us, he said he didn't know anything about this. We've met him, he's gone to Israel, he's toured, he's had meetings. He's become an ally, and it's fine. We will not oppose his being the honoree at the Met Gala. So I say, okay, well, he did the work. I understand that. Why is she picking John Galliano? That's my question. It's not that John Galliano in himself hasn't spent 10 years trying to repair his own soul from the poison and sickness that was in. It may well have done that and more power to him. And he deserves to be, if not honored, at least recognized for having seen the error of his ways. But I'm trying to think of, like, if there were somebody, if you had like, you know, an ex Klansman who had done the work with the naacp, and then they said, well, he's done the work, and then he was named to be the honoree at the Met Gala, would that be a quiet matter? Why did she pick him?
- [54:09]
Seth Mandel
Well, to add context to that, Anna Wintour is she almost single handedly resurrected John Galliano. She, after he made those comments, you know, was taken to court, found guilty of hate speech, hate speech, crimes, whatever, all this stuff. She was the first to have people wearing his stuff again, to endorse his designs and to, and to put him out there. She, she was the one who stepped out in front and said, all right, it's time for John Galliano to be kosher again. And that was only a couple of years after. Now, people can debate whether that's enough time. But important for the context here is that Anna Wintour has spent a decade and a half now almost trying to resurrect John Galliano. And at each stage that she's been able to do so, she pushes the next one one step farther. And this kind of honor is very rarely given to living designers. I mean, I think the Times said Galliana would be the third living designer to have his own, you know, the costume exhibition that comes along with the Met Gala. And so she's bestowing this honor on him that puts him in, you know, the pantheon. He's literally, you know, he's on Mount Olympus now. That's what she wanted to do. And this is, in a lot of ways, I feel like this is just Anna Wintour being Anna Winter. Like, she has a cultural power that most people don't understand because, including myself, really, because it's not as though I follow high fashion, but her, her power, her cultural influence is such that she likes to demonstrate it, just to demonstrate it and just to show her power. And she accrues more of it as people watch her go, oh, look, she
- [56:14]
Jon Buddoriz
can resurrect John Carter, but she is very culturally careful. Do not imagine that she sticks her neck out to be politically or sociologically forward. She is a Hillary Clinton endorser, not a Bernie Sanders endorser. She is a person who draws between the lines and stays very much within the consensus. She's a monster. She's awful. She's a terrible human being and she's repulsive and she is culturally powerful, but in a way that her cultural power is much, much, much less than it was 20 years ago. As her position as a fashion forward magazine editor no longer exists, since fashion magazines barely exist exist any longer. And she's a despicable person, but she does draw between the lines. So are we getting some kind of message here? Is this a cleansing of John Gallagher? I take your point that she's been doing it forever, but it is a very signal thing that she decided that in the three years after October 7, it was fine for her to make the honoree one of the world's most notorious antisemites, even if he is a healed antisemite or a former anti Semite. By the way, am I wrong? Am I being unfair?
- [57:51]
Abe Greenwald
But it also could be a bit at increased relevance given that, you know, the world of fashion, as you say, John, isn't what it once was and her status isn't what it once was. It's a way of plunging yourself right into the, you know, the conversation. But my opinion on cases like this, when someone says something horrible, racist, anti Semitic, and then is reported to have, you know, worked on themselves and all this stuff, I'm always just like, I don't want to have to decide whether or not I believe you, you know, that you, that you've become better. Just go away, you know, like, I don't. This isn't. Why is this on me to figure out what's in your heart if you really know that you've made yourself a better man.
- [58:43]
John Podhoretz
Good.
- [58:44]
Abe Greenwald
That's the most important part. I'm not even working with full information. I don't know what's in your heart. So how can I say yes, this looks right. Okay. This tips over. You've got my seal of approval.
- [58:59]
Seth Mandel
Well, let me take you, Let me add to that. And Don, I think this is a concern that addresses what you're talking about also. I mean, not addresses what makes it worse. It's an even worse than that situation. But the decision they came to was to make this a, you know, a, a teaching moment. What if we decided to unflinchingly confront the full body of John Galliano's work and life and career and shy away from nothing? And we can't ignore it because it was a very big deal, obviously, and remain so. So what if we do that and make it part of the exhibition? And my response to that is, I really like whatever you think about Galliano. I really don't want Anna Wintour running a fashion exhibition that is supposed to teach people about anti Semitism. This I don't want.
- [60:02]
Eric Gertler
I think
- [60:05]
Seth Mandel
whatever this is going to be, this is going to be a spectacle, you know, the embarrassment is far from over, I guess, is what I'm saying, because there's going to be things that are gonna come up routinely because Anna Wintour is the one in charge of this whole circus.
- [60:21]
Jon Buddoriz
I say it's even worse than that because the narrative is a foregone conclusion. You show him warts and all, because the end is a triumph. It's like when the, you know, it's like when somebody, when somebody cleanses themself. The third act is him becoming a hero after having been a villain. And then they convert and then they become a hero. So there's no teaching. It's just propaganda in favor of the narrative that antisemitism is something you can grow out of, which I'm not saying you can't, but that if it's a matter of eternal shame that you held these views, you might not want to be a totally public figure afterwards. Like you might not want to be giving people ideas that they should follow in your footsteps because what you did was disgraceful and morally unspeakable and that therefore you should live rest of your life with a certain modesty because you were a proponent of genocidal ideas.
- [61:36]
Seth Mandel
And also I think.
- [61:37]
Jon Buddoriz
Yeah, go ahead, Elian.
- [61:38]
Eliana Johnson
ON it's better than that. Okay, it's taking us back 10 minutes or so, but I think all three of you maybe were saying, and Abe in particular, that you thought that when these protests roiled the campus and we saw this disgusting behavior that there would be people would be horrified. And instead we saw this metastasize into national politics, which I think is true. But I also think people were horrified, people were disgusted, people were shocked. And it wasn't the college educated elites who we are typically, you know, socializing with. But I do think it became a really potent political issue on the right. I think it mattered in the 2024 election. I think it will continue to be an issue that Republicans campaign on. Those hearings that Elise Stefanik and Virginia fox held in 2024, those captured the attention of the country. It seems like a long time ago now, but I do think that there was a national revulsion at what was happening. And what we're talking about is a problem in the Democratic Party. It is not so much a problem in the Republican Party where by and large, the people with these noxious views are being tossed out of Congress and except expelled and people are speaking up against it. We'll know more when the 2028 primaries get underway. But I do think what we saw was that people, by and large were horrified by what they saw. And that is why an institution like Yale is convening a panel on trust in higher education, and we'll see if they make any changes. But they did determine, like, we've got a serious problem here. We have a national crisis. And the problem we're talking about really is a Democratic Party problem and a failure of the Dems.
- [64:00]
Jon Buddoriz
Okay, I think that's totally fair. And one thing. I began this podcast by talking about despicable qualities of Donald Trump's presidency. And I did not adequately take measure as I was speaking about it, about the parts of his presidency that are the opposite of despicable, and the determination of the administration at the beginning to take on institutionalized antisemitism, particularly on campuses, but not only on campuses with the clear violation of federal civil rights law, including mostly Title VI of the Civil Rights Act. That was a noble, necessary, and very important undertaking and something for which not only should every American be grateful, because the violations of these laws should not. Universities should not be. No institution should be allowed to claim that it is, it is immune from being considered a player in these universal matters ruled by our laws. And that was sort of what was implicitly being thought and felt on the college campuses and other places in relation to this, including government contractors and the like. And that. That came to a screeching halt and has been to some degree reversed. And that is a heroic thing that the Trump administration did. It did not have to do it. It did not have to pursue it. Remember, electorally speaking, Jews didn't vote for Donald Trump, and therefore he owed Jews nothing in that classic sense. But he did. This is what he did, and this is what he directed his administration to do. And it remains a vitally important contribution to the American civic order. So that's to put something on the plus side of the balance sheet on the show as we bring it to a close, which I'm gonna do now. We'll be back tomorrow. For Abe, Seth and Eliana, I'm John Podhorts. Keep the candle burning.
- [66:41]
Eric Gertler
From the State House to the courthouse, in the emergency room, and in the classroom, Americans are losing trust in their leaders. In a 2025 U.S. news and World Report survey, 85% of Americans said government leaders care more about their own power than the people they serve. 73% are disappointed in healthcare leaders, 72% in business, and 68% in education. But there are still leaders worth believing in. I'm Eric Gertler, CEO and executive chairman of U.S. news World Report. This is the Best Leaders podcast sponsored by the Noble Reach Foundation. On this show, we'll go deeper into the story, stories, challenges and lessons of extraordinary leaders across public service, business, healthcare and education. You can find the Best Leaders podcast from U.S. news World Report on YouTube, Apple Spotify, Amazon Music, or wherever you get your podcasts.
- [67:42]
John Podhoretz
I'm James Patterson. I write way too many books. Welcome to Hungry Dogs. The title comes from my maternal grandmother, Isabel Zelvis Morris. Nan used to always say, hungry dogs run faster, James. And I've been running fast ever since. Here's what will be coming your way soon, and this is a really terrific list. I think you'll hear from some incredible people like Stacey Abrams. Yay. BJ Novak. Yay. Kathy Bates, Dolly Parton, Josh Gad. And Pope Leo. Okay, maybe not Pope Leo, but who knows, maybe he'll show up. Hungry Dogs run faster. Thank you, grandma, for turning me into a hopeless, obsessive compulsive. Listen to Hungry Dogs with James Patterson. That'd be me on Apple, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
- [68:39]
Eric Gertler
I started with one shop. No college degree, no big investors. It was just a willingness to work. Over time, that one shop turned into a multi billion dollar business called Crash Champions. All the lessons I learned along the way came from the grind. And that's what my show Pod Crash is all about. We have real conversations with people who've built things the hard way. We talk to founders, athletes, and blue collar leaders who kept going when things got tough. You'll hear stories of grit, leadership and growth. Plus real world lessons you can take back to your team and your life tomorrow.
- [69:13]
Jon Buddoriz
When you get momentum, you step on the gas.
- [69:16]
Seth Mandel
That's how you get separation from everybody else.
- [69:18]
Jon Buddoriz
I was at Harvard Law School. I was blah, blah, blah.
- [69:20]
Eric Gertler
I looked up. Let me tell you something. There's kids in my neighborhood putting in
- [69:23]
Jon Buddoriz
Sheetrock that are smarter than you.
- [69:24]
Seth Mandel
AI is going to disrupt a lot of stuff. It is never going to disrupt physical
- [69:29]
Jon Buddoriz
blue collar trade skill.
- [69:30]
Seth Mandel
And the guy just looked at me
- [69:32]
Jon Buddoriz
and he said, it's bloody impossible. So I asked him this question.
- [69:35]
Eric Gertler
I said, it's impossible. Unless that's Pod Crash with me, Matt ebert. Watch on YouTube and listen wherever you get your podcasts.