3558 - Iran Attack Imminent?; ICE Ramps Up Terror Campaign w/ Trita Parsi

Summary

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Podcast Summary: The Majority Report with Sam Seder

Episode 3558 – Iran Attack Imminent?; ICE Ramps Up Terror Campaign w/ Trita Parsi
Date: January 13, 2026
Host(s): Sam Seder, Emma Vigeland, Matt Leck
Guest: Trita Parsi (Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft)

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Episode Overview

This episode centers on two major topics: the escalating ICE operations and violence in Minnesota and across the U.S., and the rapidly evolving political crisis in Iran, including mass protests and the possibility of a U.S. military confrontation. Expert guest Trita Parsi provides in-depth analysis on Iran, the roots and trajectory of protest movements there, and the dangerous political maneuvering by the United States. The hosts also break down the latest developments in immigration enforcement, DOJ resignations, and implications for domestic politics in the U.S., especially the Democratic leadership’s response.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. U.S. Political Headlines and Context (06:22–09:01)

• California Wealth Tax Proposal
  Gavin Newsom vows to block a proposed 5% one-time wealth tax on billionaires, leading the hosts to lament the priorities of political leaders protecting the ultra-rich.

  • Quote: “The idea that we should live in a society where we should care what a billionaire's concerns are about losing 5% of their existing wealth… that's the minimum that they make annually if they didn’t have any income other than the investments from their wealth.” – Sam Seder (07:01)

• Minnesota Lawsuit Against ICE
  The Twin Cities file a lawsuit to stop what’s described as an "ICE invasion," illustrating heightened federal-local tensions.

• Other news headlines: DOJ resignations over lack of police shooting investigation, Supreme Court debates on trans athlete bans, bond market concerns.

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2. ICE's Escalating Operations and State Violence (09:16–24:00; 44:45–56:56)

• ICE & Border Patrol Violence
  Reports of increased ICE violence, including illegal detentions, physical abuse, and the tragic shooting of Renee Good, a mother and activist, in Minneapolis. ICE is described as acting with near-complete impunity, targeting civilians—including legal asylum applicants and U.S. citizens—using racial profiling.

  • Quote: “This entire outfit is just a bunch of literally jackbooted thugs.” – Sam Seder (10:03)
  • Quote: “It’s not hyperbolic to compare it to the Nazis. It’s not.” – Emma Vigeland (48:59)

• Video Analysis: Fox News & ICE Agent Defense
  Examined the rhetoric used on Fox News to justify violence against protesters, particularly how victims are stripped of humanity for political purposes.

  • Quote: "He is basically trying to dehumanize her … as if they were firing at a target." – Sam Seder (13:11)

• Mass DOJ Resignations
  Four top DOJ officials resign in protest over the Department’s refusal to investigate the ICE shooting. The FBI shifts focus to investigating the victim and her family for “activist ties.”

  • Quote: “Very important to let ICE agents know that they're going to be found out. ... They can hide their faces and they can lie to their neighbors about what they do, but at the end of the day, their name is on a docket somewhere.” – Sam Seder (19:24)

• Calls to Action
  The hosts urge listeners to pressure Congressional leaders to restrict ICE funding and remove DHS slush funds in upcoming budget appropriations.

  • Quote: “There needs to be pressure right now by the Democratic Party on this budget process and Schumer doesn't want to miss.” – Emma Vigeland (15:23)

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3. Expert Interview: Trita Parsi on Iran’s Crisis (24:45–44:17)

A. Update on the Iran Protest Movement (24:57–28:00)

• Protest Rhythms:
  Protests appeared to be waning after severe government crackdowns (up to 1,600 killed by official U.S. estimates). Still, Parsi underscores that protest movements ebb and flow, and the core grievances remain unaddressed.
  • Quote: "A couple of days of a lull is in and of itself not necessarily an indication of a new trajectory.” – Trita Parsi (24:57)
  • Quote: “There's an element of violence within the protesters that we simply have not seen before. And it's very brutal—that in and of itself, both the brutality of the government and the fact that there's an element of violence within the protest may in and of itself be the reason why the protests are dying down.” – Trita Parsi (27:21)

B. Drivers of Protest (28:00–30:37)

• Economic Collapse as Spark:
  The primary trigger was the collapse of the currency, but anger has expanded to total regime opposition.
• Role of U.S. Sanctions:
  Parsi condemns U.S. and Israeli policies that worsened economic crisis to engineer regime instability, noting these often radicalize protest movements.
  • Quote: "The calculation… was you have to create such a desperate situation that people feel that they are better off risking their lives… than allowing for any other type of process to take place…” – Trita Parsi (29:10)

C. U.S. & Israeli Intervention and Its Domestic Impact (30:37–35:26)

• Backfiring of U.S. Rhetoric:
  Trump and Netanyahu’s pronouncements of support for protesters instead provide the regime justification for greater violence and repression; for the first time, Iran’s conventional army joins crackdown operations previously left to the Revolutionary Guards.
  • Quote: "Instead of seeing that Trump’s threat caused defections... we're actually seeing a consolidation, at least at this point." – Trita Parsi (32:07)

D. Prospects for U.S. Policy & Regime Change (35:26–39:18)

• Trump’s Calculus:
  U.S. assets still deploying; Trump may hesitate given risks of major escalation, despite brash rhetoric.

  • Quote: "He wants to keep it that way. He wants to keep, in a way that no one can really calculate what his next steps are.” – Trita Parsi (37:34)

• Entrenchment of Iranian Regime:
  The Iranian state’s decentralized, revolutionary design makes quick regime change unlikely compared to cases like Iraq or Libya.

  • Quote: "Undoubtedly Khamenei is a very critical person in all of this, but taking him out does not necessarily cause the full collapse of the regime." – Trita Parsi (41:24)

E. Protest Movement Evolution Since 2022 (42:31–44:06)

• Building on Previous Women’s Rights Protests:
  Each protest cycle radicalizes further, with more participants believing force is required for change.
  • Quote: "Every time that happens, the next set of protests tends to be more radical and more of the belief that there is no way to actually get change unless you completely overthrow the government." – Trita Parsi (43:36)

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4. ICE’s Authoritarian Turn: Recent Documentation (44:45–61:20)

• Targeting & Abuse of Civilians
  Multiple videos show ICE agents racially profiling, harassing, and physically assaulting legal immigrants, asylum seekers, and even U.S. citizens—including a documented incident of ICE kidnapping and beating a 17-year-old Target employee for filming them.

  • "They brought him, dumped him in a Walmart parking lot... They tortured him. This guy right here? Yeah. You okay, man? No, I'm not okay, bro." – Sam Seder (57:13–57:28)
  • "That's a child. That's child abuse." – Emma Vigeland (58:16)
  • Reports of deaths in ICE custody surge; transparency is lacking, and Congress is blocked from visiting detention sites.

• Democrats’ (and Media’s) Complicity
  Discussion centers on the bipartisan building of ICE’s power and funding, with frustration at the insufficient Democratic leadership response.

  • Quote: “Who led us down this road of fascism? It's the members of the media and the Democrats that thanked ICE or took this administration at face value...” – Emma Vigeland (61:20)

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5. Political Messaging & Calls to Action (68:29–75:07)

• Public Support for Abolishing ICE
  New polling shows a plurality support for abolishing ICE; disconnect between grassroots politics and congressional leadership.

  • “46% support abolishing ICE...versus 43% who oppose it.” – Emma Vigeland (68:34)

• Democratic Messaging Failure
  Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC) is highlighted as the only major Democrat currently pushing the clear message:

  "My position has always been clear that ICE funding should be cut. ... All that extra money that everybody's paying right now in their premiums...is taken out and given to ICE. ... You get screwed over to pay a bunch of thugs in the street that are shooting mothers in the face." – AOC, quoted by Sam Seder (71:15–72:19)

• Strategic Advocacy
  National Immigration Law Center’s template for lobbying Congress to restrict ICE funding is promoted; emphasis on collective action, both digital and handwritten advocacy.

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Memorable Quotes & Timestamps

• On ICE's violence:
  "It's not hyperbolic to compare it to the Nazis. It’s not, of course." – Emma Vigeland (48:59)

• On U.S. sanctions fueling Iranian unrest:
  "Their calculation...was you have to create such a desperate situation that people feel that they are better off risking their lives going out on the streets..." – Trita Parsi (29:10)

• On U.S. & Israeli intervention:
  "Instead of seeing that Trump's threat caused defections... we're actually seeing a consolidation, at least at this point." – Trita Parsi (32:07)

• Critique of Democratic inaction:
  “The Democratic leadership cannot use that incredible gift that they've just been given...so desperate to make sure that no one knows...they exist as a political party.” – Sam Seder (74:17)

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Notable Moments

• ICE beating and kidnapping a teenage U.S. citizen for filming them:
  “They brought him, dumped him in a Walmart parking lot... Slam this man up in the parking lot. Slam. Torture this guy.” (57:13–58:16)

• Parsi’s analysis of the new, more radical Iranian protest movement:
  "Every time you have protests ... and the government’s response, by and large, is just to clamp down...the next set of protests tends to be more radical..." (43:36)

• AOC’s concise dismantling of ICE:
  “All that extra money...that the government and the ACA subsidies...given to nearly a trillion dollars in health care was taken out and given to ice. ... You get screwed over to pay a bunch of thugs in the street that are shooting mothers in the face.” (71:15–72:19)

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Conclusion & Takeaways

• The episode provides a stark account of escalating authoritarianism and violence in both U.S. domestic policy (ICE, Congressional paralysis) and international relations (Iran, potential for war, impact of sanctions).
• Trita Parsi’s expert analysis underlines the complex motivations and dangerous feedback loops between U.S. interventionism and domestic crackdowns in Iran, as well as why regime change is a fantasy.
• The Majority Report hosts push listeners to demand more from Congressional Democrats and expose the bipartisan complicity in enabling ICE’s abuses.
• The show closes with a call to advocacy, emphasizing direct lobbying to restrict ICE and DHS funding.

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For Further Action:
Use the National Immigration Law Center's template or call your representatives directly to urge opposition to increased ICE/DHS funding and demand accountability. Watch for ongoing developments in Iran and Congress’s looming budget decisions.

[End of Summary]

Transcript

[Sam Seder]

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[Emma Vigeland]

Yes, that's what I taught you the other day.

[Sam Seder]

Yep. See I remembered it. And that was almost a week ago.

[Emma Vigeland]

Yes.

[Sam Seder]

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[Emma Vigeland]

But the point is football.

[Sam Seder]

The code again is new flower at Sunset Lake Sabade.com the sale runs through January 18th so you got about five days at 11:59pm Eastern. As always see the site for full terms and conditions. Remember these guys are have a great product, no pesticides and their movement Partners Sunset Lake Sabade.com new flower for 30% off their pre rolls. Now time for the show the Majority report with Sam Cedar. It is Tuesday, January 13, 2026. My name is Sam Seder. This is the five time award winning Majority report. We are broadcasting live steps from the industrially ravaged Gowanus Canal in the heartland of America, downtown Brooklyn, usa. On the program today, Trita Parsi, co founder and executive vice president of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, on the protests in Iran and the possibility of US Strikes. Meanwhile, Minnesota and the Twin Cities sue the feds to stop the ice invasion taking place there. This as four DOJ officials quit over failure of the Department of Justice to investigate the shooting itself as the FBI decides to investigate the killing's victim to see if she had any activist ties. Supreme Court oral arguments begin over trans athlete bans in high school and college sports, the bond market, Republican senators, federal bank, I should say central banks across the world freak out as the White House now distancing itself from its investigation of Jerome Powell at the Fed EPA to stop using lives saved in calculating the value of lessening air pollution standards. Judge strikes down Trump's block of offshore wind projects. A 19 year old Christianist claims responsibility for burning Mississippi's oldest Jewish synagogue. Gavin Newsom vows to stop California's push for a small wealth tax on billionaires. I repeat, Gavin Newsom vows to stop California's push to impose a small wealth tax on billionaires.

[Matt Leck]

Shout out. Rona.

[Sam Seder]

Eric Adams accused of a crypto meme coin pump and dump and pump. And day two of the largest nurses strike in New York City's history. All this and more on today's Majority Report. Welcome, ladies and gentlemen.

[Emma Vigeland]

It is Newsday Tuesday.

[Sam Seder]

Newsday Tuesday. Yes, indeed. And we have Trita Parsi here. We interviewed him just about an hour ago and already things have, you know, may have changed. It's hard to know, but very helpful to understand the situation in Iran. And then we have a lot of news to get to today. We will get to it. Someone's asking about the Liz Warren speech. I think we have a couple of clips from that. It just won't get too deep into it right now. But the wealth tax that is being proposed in California, to be clear, is a 5% one time wealth tax on billionaires. Only billionaires.

[Emma Vigeland]

Yep.

[Sam Seder]

And I don't have my phone from because somebody do the math on that. 5% is what? $500,000 for a billionaire.

[Emma Vigeland]

I don't ask me to do math.

[Matt Leck]

This is really the wrong place to ask that sort of question. But 50 million is 5% of 1 billion.

[Sam Seder]

Okay, if 50 million is 5% of.

[Matt Leck]

That'S according to homework studies.

[Emma Vigeland]

So.

[Sam Seder]

So $50 million for someone who has 1000 millions. Is that what it is?

[Emma Vigeland]

Yes.

[Sam Seder]

Okay, I'm shutting down.

[Emma Vigeland]

I Said without much confidence, but yes, 1,000 millions.

[Sam Seder]

It's just, who cares? They're billionaires. When you have, I got to imagine, like when you start to get around, like $200 million, there's no way that the added money impacts your life in any way. It will impact what you own, maybe, but it doesn't impact your life. There's nothing in the world you can't do with $250 million. You can have three or four $25 million homes. I don't know where you can find that. Four places where you find $25 million homes. You have your private jet. There's nothing you can't do. You may not be able to own an island, but you can visit it for as long as you want and stay in as nice accommodation as possible. The idea that we should live in a society where we should care what a billionaire's concerns are about losing 5% of their existing wealth again the following year, like, that's just what they. That is the minimum. The minimum that they make annually if they didn't have any income other than the investments from their wealth. 5%. You can go out and get a CD if you're willing to do the $10,000 minimum for 4% at this point. Like, that's how much money they make just by having that much money minimum annually.

[Emma Vigeland]

Yes, yes.

[Sam Seder]

I mean, like Miriam Adelson spent 200 million on getting Donald Trump elected.

[Emma Vigeland]

And.

[Sam Seder]

We'Re worried about $50 million. But Gavin Newsom has vowed to prevent that from happening.

[Matt Leck]

That's State of Democracy 2026.

[Emma Vigeland]

Keep tweeting, buddy.

[Sam Seder]

But he is going to show Donald Trump a thing or two if Trump runs again in 2028.

[Emma Vigeland]

Oh, yeah.

[Sam Seder]

All right, let's get to the. What's been happening in Minnesota? And we just. I just got an im. I just want to say this a heads up for people if you are in that area. Just got an im. I just saw this that somebody from Massachusetts saw. Oh, here it is. Bingo. Dango. Several car carriers of SUVs delivered to Burlington, Massachusetts, ICE facility the other day. Concerned ICE is going to give Boston the Minnesota treatment.

[Emma Vigeland]

Stay vigilant, folks.

[Sam Seder]

Folks in Minnesota have been fantastic, but they are dealing with such a level of violence now coming from ICE and Border Patrol, whatever. This entire outfit is just a bunch of literally jackbooted thugs. Here is Greg Bovino helpfully wearing his Nazi uniform on Fox News, showing his face.

[Emma Vigeland]

You know, he's the guy that will show his face because the rest of his minions won't. But Bovina will walk amongst his masked officers very proudly to lead the Gestapo in America.

[Sam Seder]

And here he is on Fox News, we should say it's also being reported that the, the Minneapolis ICE shooter, that guy, John Ross, I think was his name, right?

[Emma Vigeland]

Yep.

[Sam Seder]

He apparently told his longtime neighbor that he was a botanist, not an ICE agent for the past 13 or 14 years. They should be embarrassed and they also should be worried about a truth and reconciliation commission.

[Emma Vigeland]

And Ken Klippenstein has some reporting on this that despite the public faith case, ICE agents internally are a little bit concerned.

[Matt Leck]

Scared little boys.

[Sam Seder]

And they should be. They should be concerned.

[Emma Vigeland]

Yep.

[Sam Seder]

Because we will not forget. Here's Greg Bovino on, on Sean Hannity's program. Oh, I could see that. But you know what, the rhetoric keeps getting ratcheted up and it gets worse and worse and worse. And, you know, now we've had an.

[Trita Parsi]

Opportunity to look at that video. There is no ambiguity for anyone with.

[Sam Seder]

Eyes to see that the individual that ended up getting shot in this case.

[Trita Parsi]

Had been taunting officers along with her.

[Sam Seder]

Partner for an extended. Pause it for one second. I mean, I just want you to just pay attention to the way that Hannity does this. Go back because he is not going to talk about her gender. He is not going to say wife, like individual partner.

[Emma Vigeland]

Yep.

[Sam Seder]

And they do this because they don't want to remind people that this guy's agent shot a mother in the face at point blank range three times, two of which where there is absolutely no dispute the car had already passed like sideways. He is perpendicular to the car, shot her in the face. A mother of multiple children.

[Emma Vigeland]

But you have permission now to not feel badly about that geriatric FOX News audience because she's a lesbian and she was taunting them or she was in a relationship with a woman. That is what the permission structure that he's allowing for there. That's what that video leak was about, showing her partner and who and the fact that they were lesbians. And it's obvious in the video to give their, their supporters an excuse to basically be like, all right, it's one of our political enemies. So we're okay with this person getting shot in the face.

[Sam Seder]

And here he won't even, he won't even gender. I mean, he, like, he is basically trying to dehumanize her by making it as if like they were firing at a target.

[Trita Parsi]

But go ahead to see that the.

[Sam Seder]

Individual that ended up getting shot in this case had been taunting officers along with her partner for an extended period of. And then you hear her partner say to drive. She goes in reverse and right in the path of an officer. Now is that justified use of force? To me, that it's not even a close call. I'm sure we know, Sean. We call that means, intent and opportunity. Did that individual have the intent? Look at those minutes leading up to the shooting and we will see what I would consider some pretty important intent. Did that individual have the opportunity? Yes. Did that individual take that opportunity? Yes. A 4,000 pound missile is not something anyone wants to face, especially in a split second decision making process. In a very. I pause it for a second. This whole is means, intent and opportunity. He's. He learned this from watching svu. This guy has been in the border patrol for his entire career.

[Emma Vigeland]

Yeah. Since the 90s.

[Sam Seder]

Anything about law enforcement or. Or prosecutions, I mean, this is just shit. He watched, you know, SVU or whatever it is. Matlock, Go back just a little bit.

[Matt Leck]

Didn't know his voice sounded like that either.

[Sam Seder]

Intent is not something anyone wants to face, especially in a split second decision making process in a very already inhospitable environment. Hats off to that ICE agent. I'm glad he made it out alive. I'm glad he's with his family.

[Emma Vigeland]

Hats off.

[Sam Seder]

Hats off. I'm glad he made it out alive and is with his family.

[Matt Leck]

Why would you need to emphasize the split second nature of the decision unless he made the wrong one?

[Emma Vigeland]

Why is there. What is the standard that supposed law enforcement, which they shouldn't have the dignity of having that title but should be held to in terms of making split second decisions? What's the training for, if there is any at all? Because we have no indication as to what the training even is. This is like immensely important that we make sure that this appropriations stuff in Congress is centered around reining in the ice Gestapo. The deadline is January 30th. Call your representatives, call your senators and say we do not want you to vote for any appropriations that funds ice, that funds dhs, or at the very least that doesn't have a bunch of guardrails that are put in place. Including preventing all of the funds being transferred for detention without any oversight, which normally other agencies need congressional approval. That's not how they have operated with dhs. Congress should reassert its authority on that front. There needs to be pressure right now by the Democratic Party on this budget process and Schumer doesn't want to miss.

[Sam Seder]

Now reporting that at least four leaders of a Justice Department unit that investigates police killings have resigned in protest over the administration's Handling of the shooting in Minneapolis. Top leaders of the Criminal section of the Civil Rights Division have left their jobs to register their frustration with the department after the Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights, Harmeet Dhillon, decided not to investigate the ICE officers fatal shooting of Renee Good last week. I mean, this was not surprising that they're not investigating on a federal level. But the chief of the section and the principal deputy chief and the deputy chief and the acting deputy chief are the largest resignation at the DOJ since February. Meanwhile, the FBI who are assigned to this shooting are.

[Emma Vigeland]

Investigating, investigating the victim and her family.

[Sam Seder]

Good in her family. To see if they have any activist ties. Tomorrow we're going to be talking to Ken Klippenstein about the implications of the NSPM 7. The, the memo essentially that expands the definition of domestic terrorist group.

[Emma Vigeland]

Got it. It's NSPM 7.

[Sam Seder]

But that's what's going on here.

[Emma Vigeland]

Yes. And like when he says that, I mean, hats off to that ICE officer. Right? You know what they're trying to do here? They're trying to provoke somebody eventually to take violent action against an ICE officer so that they can justify some sort of Marshall crackdown. But the other thing that they're trying to do is to make sure that the ICE officers don't feel a little bit queasy about what they just witnessed. To basically say, hey, we will have your back no matter what. No matter if it's on video of you shooting a mom in the face point blank, we will lie to protect you. Go ahead, Matt.

[Matt Leck]

The Ken Klippenstein reporting has them encouraged to canvas their associates to get more manpower into ice. Like they're having trouble keeping people even with all this huge money we've decided to give it because it's wrong what they're doing. It's illegal. It's f.

[Emma Vigeland]

So that we talk about qualified immunity for police officers which prevents them in many parts of the country from being sued civilly. What, what, what the ICE Gestapo standard is apparently with the Trump regime is absolute immunity from, from all crimes.

[Sam Seder]

That's what claimed. Yeah, total immunity. We'll see. Very important to let ICE agents know that they're going to be found out. There are records. There are records somewhere. They can hide their. They can hide their faces and they can lie to their neighbors about what they do, but at the end of the day, their name is on a docket somewhere. In a minute, we will be speaking with Trita Parsi, co founder, executive vice president of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, on the protests that have been going on in Iran. And in some respects, like I say, we spoke to Trita about half an hour hour ago. These protests are unprecedented and we will see what is next. Obviously, Donald Trump sort of vaguely threatens.

[Emma Vigeland]

A.

[Sam Seder]

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[Trita Parsi]

So the latest is that already about two or so days ago the protests started to die down and now are at a level that we're essentially low enough for the government to feel the comfort to reopen the phone lines a little bit. Not entirely. Moreover, you had this very, very big rally yesterday that the government itself had organized in its own support. They had not framed it as pro government, but actually anti vandalism protest. And in that protest you had senior officials participating, walking. And that was a last minute decision. And it was again an assessment based on what the security situation was. Now, having said this, I think it's very important to understand protests have a rhythm in which they go up in highs and then down in lows. Just because you're in a lull does not necessarily mean that the protest actually is over, nor does it mean at all that the fundamental reasons that gave birth to the protests in the first place have been addressed. And as a result, the desire to go out and protest and object to what the government is doing is over. I would say that it would be a key test to see what happens this Friday if protests begin again and if it's at a very high level or if it really stays calm. That would be an indicator. To me, the fact that it's just a couple of days of a lull is in and of itself not necessarily an indication of a new trajectory. We should also keep in mind the government used a tremendous amount of brutality and force. The numbers you cited are different from the numbers that I've heard from the U.S. government, who has accounted about 1,600 deaths. And that may also be an underestimation. There's some opposition outlets that are putting out the figure 12,000. I've not seen any credible sourcing for that, but the USG is putting at 1,600. But also, they say hundreds of police officers and these Basij militias have also been killed. And let's say that it's 400. When they say hundreds, I don't know, perhaps it's 200, perhaps it's 500. But if it's 400, we're talking about one police for every four protesters. In a country that is not like the United States, with tons of weapons around. That's an extremely odd ratio. It does give you an idea that this time around, very much differently from previous protests, there is an element of violence within the protesters. Not all in any way, shape or form, but there's an element of violence within the protesters that we simply have not seen before. And it's very brutal that in and of itself, both the brutality of the government and the fact that there's an element of violence within the protest may in and of itself be the reason why the protests are dying down, because a lot of other protesters are not coming out when the violence is at that level from either side.

[Sam Seder]

What. Just walk us through. What are the issues that are driving the protesters?

[Trita Parsi]

Well, the trigger, of course, was the collapse of the currency, in which you saw traders and shopkeepers going out on the streets during the daytime and objecting to how the government has completely mismanaged the situation. Obviously, it's a difficult position for the government as well. I think we have to be fair, they don't have access to their own funds, funds that are in different foreign banks because of U.S. sanctions. And then the currency is under attack, and they can't even defend it because they don't have access to their own funds. But nevertheless, they've done tons of other things. Of course, mismanagement, corruption, that has contributed to the situation, but it quickly morphed into something else, which was an opposition to the regime as a whole, to the Islamic Republic, because at the end of the day, this is a profoundly unpopular regime. But we've also seen a trend, a clear trend of radicalization over the last 15, 20 years, in which every time there's protests, every time they're clamped down, the government doesn't meet the population halfway, doesn't do things, the next round of protests tend to become more radical, slightly more violent. This time, I think we're seeing a significant jump. Taking note that these protests are almost exclusively, at this point, taking place at night, when you can't see that. Well, when you cannot make an assessment of the size of the crowd, when it's easier for those elements within the protesters that want to use violence to be able to do so. This is not what we saw in 2009. This is not what we saw in 2022. And that radicalization, incidentally, at the end of the day, is primarily the fault of the government itself. But it is also the fault, in my view, of those who have pushed in the United States and elsewhere for policies that deliberately were designed to make the situation worse, who were pushing for sanctions that have really made the economy absolutely miserable in Iran. And it is the key reason, not the only reason, but the key reason why it is that way. Because their calculation, not all of them that push for it, but the ones that design it, was you have to create such a desperate situation that people feel that they are better off risking their lives going out on the streets, protesting and perhaps even using violence than allowing for any other type of process to take place to have changed. So they wanted things to become this bad in order for someone who was sitting in Maryland to be able to be seen as a viable candidate, because he clearly was not a viable candidate, and probably still isn't. If the situation was such that a critical mass of the population still believed that there was another way. They have eliminated. They've worked deliberately to eliminate those other ways, and then say, now there's no other option but violence but protests, and even having the US Or Israel bombed Iran.

[Emma Vigeland]

Can you talk about the United States and Israel then? That's a good way to speak about that. You have Trump basically, you know, saying that we're ready, we're standing back to assist, and using the killing of these protesters, as if this administration cares about that on principle as the pretext for potential intervention. But you also have Benjamin Netanyahu being very public about his support for these protests. Now, the people of Iran have seen the images of the genocide that we have. My assessment is that this just makes the demonstrators who are trying to change things within Iran even more of targets for repression, because then the regime can essentially say, you're acting as a US Or Israeli kind of foreign asset. And that's usually the pretext of for even more violence.

[Trita Parsi]

I think that is the way it has played out. I want to make the argument of the other side as well so that people understand that. But in my assessment, that is what has happened when Trump comes out and says, you know, I'm going to protect the protesters. If he felt that that was a deterrent against the government using violence, clearly the evidence points in the opposite direction. They clamped down really hard. They may have even clamped down even harder. Perhaps calculating that it is that type of a behavior that ultimately impresses a person like Trump, mindful of the fact that he does seem to have a certain weakness for these type of strong leaders that are willing to use force. But I would point to one piece of evidence that I think is indicative of how it has backfired in the Iranian system. The irgc, the Revolutionary Guards, were created because the revolutionaries did not trust the traditional army. The traditional army, of course, had been built up by the Shahs dynasty. So now, 45 years later, the army is still very much an independent institution. And in the past, when the government has tried to use the army or try to get the army to help with clamping down against protesters, they have absolutely refused and said that's not their job. And they've stayed out. For the first time, the army has come out and said that they're going to be involved in taking out what they called foreign interference and foreign terrorist cells inside the country. So instead of seeing that Trump's threat caused defections within the regime, we're actually seeing a consolidation, at least at this point, including measures that we hadn't seen before, which is that the army itself, not just the irgc, has been involved in some of the clampdown, or at least indicated that they will. And that, I think, is a clear indication that if the intent was to see defections, if the intent was to see that the government would be deterred and not go after the protesters, we've seen quite the opposite. Now, from the other side, the argument that is being made is essentially that the situation is so bad this government will use any force anyways. It doesn't matter. So the only thing that makes a difference is if the United States intervenes militarily. And you know, in the past, they weren't making those arguments explicitly. Now they are. I mean, the same son of the former Shah is explicitly making that argument and demanding that type of intervention. And they're dismissing the likelihood that the situation could come so bad that Iran would turn into Syria, because their argument is the situation is already that bad. It couldn't possibly become worse. That is an argument that was also used in 1979. And people felt that the Shah's regime was so brutal, there was no other choice but to go out and protest and overthrow it without necessarily thinking through what would happen afterwards. And what happened afterwards was in many ways a dictatorship that was even more brutal.

[Sam Seder]

And we should say he is the man you're talking about, the son of the former Shah is the man you're talking about in Maryland, who Trump apparently has said, as of today or yesterday, now is not the time to meet with him. I mean, this dynamic of. This dynamic of the. When you know Trump, I mean, we've seen this over and over again with multiple US Presidents, frankly, and vice versa. When you haven't, you can externalize the enemy in that way. It brings more cohesion domestically. I mean, so this is not the first time we've seen this dynamic. It also seems like Trump is, when things aren't easy, he ends up backing off a little bit, maybe to the betterment of the world on some level. So what is your sense of what happens now? Or at least what should we be looking for that will give us an indication of what is next?

[Trita Parsi]

So, according to reports, there going to be a decision or there's going to be a meeting at the White House today that will look at different options. I think part of the reason why it hasn't been yet is actually because all assets have not reached the region yet, but assets are being moved into the region. And what he decides, I think you put your finger on something very important. He, I think, was sold an image earlier on, because before the protests actually became very big on social media, there was a massive campaign to make him look as if they were much bigger than the image were. And already before they became big, and at one point, they became extremely big. But before that, there was this effort to try to say the regime is already on the brink of collapse. I think that was a deliberate strategy to convince Trump that this is going to be easy, just like you did Venezuela. You just need a little bit of a push. You can get credit for getting rid of this regime at a very low cost. And they kind of compelled them to start saying things such as, I'm going to protect the protesters, et cetera, et cetera. Now, when I think there is a realization that this is actually going to be much Messier. The Iranians have clearly signaled that if they are attacked this time around, they're not going to try to de escalate the situation and just strike back at empty American bases, but they will actually really go after US Assets in the region, and that that will then be a much messier situation than Trump has dealt with. You know, just a week or so after he said that the hemisphere, the Western hemisphere, is really what matters, he will then drag into a much larger conflict in the Middle East. So I think that, more than anything else, may deter him from taking action. But I think he is adamant about looking as if he is the one that is driving change. I mean, he had this tweet just now saying, urging people to go out and continue to protest and that he will not meet with any Iranian officials until they stop the clampdown. Well, the clampdown has kind of stopped already. I'm not saying that it won't start again. It may very well do so. But it seems to me that he's more trying to take credit for something that already has happened in order to pave the way to be able to pursue some potential deal rather than necessarily actually taking action. But then again, you never know, because whatever he says now, he may change his mind and then go in a completely different direction. And he wants to keep it that way. He wants to keep, in a way that no one can really calculate what his next steps are.

[Sam Seder]

Taking credit for something that's already happened would be perfectly consistent with what he's done in the past. Will you just briefly just outline why Iran? Well, I mean, I'm not quite sure that in Venezuela, we've seen regime change as much as we've seen sort of like personnel change, frankly, and maybe some decisions on, you know, how much they're going to pay off U.S. oil companies. But the oil companies don't seem that excited. But in terms of Iran, this is not a question of like, of one or two people. I mean, this. There are deep, deep institutions. I mean, you're still talking about the military maintaining positions that it had 45 years ago and, you know, other institutions that have come up since then. But again, now, you know, the guard is now 45 years old, or approximately. So will you give us a sense of just, like, how entrenched the Iranian regime is outside of, like, a couple of personnel? I mean, it doesn't feel like there's three people that we could, you know, take out and change things there. And where is the population, you know, largely speaking, in terms of support of the regime outside of the fact that like the economic issues.

[Trita Parsi]

So if you take a look at Saddam's regime, for instance, or Gaddafi's regime, these were regime that deliberately designed the state in such a way that without them everything would collapse. They wanted that as a deterrence against any overthrow. So once you do take out Saddam or you did take out Gaddafi, the rest of it just very quickly collapsed. And to some extent, Assad's regime was that way as well. Not by design, but in other ways, the Shah's regime was very similar. Three Iranian generals during the time of the Shah could not even schedule a meeting on their own, just to talk about what they're going to have for lunch next week, because the secret service would think that they're plotting an overthrow. And then at the same time, the Shah was making all decisions, he kept all critical decision making, including non critical decision making, in his own hands, which then led everything to him. Everything circulated around him. And you had a situation in which people didn't dare to bring him bad news. So the Iranian generals even went to the Israelis and asked Moshe Dayan to go and brief the Shah on the actual situation in the country. Because no one within the system even dared to give the truth to the Shah. That's not the current situation in Iran. The current situation with this system, which is a revolutionary government that designed the government to be able to be able to resist a counter revolution, power is much more dispersed throughout the system. Undoubtedly Khamenei is a very critical person in all of this, but taking him out does not necessarily cause the full collapse of the regime. And there will be elements there that have their own interest to continue to try to keep the regime up and in place. Do they have support in the population? They do have a support base. It's been usually estimated to be somewhere near 15 to 30 or 25%. I would say that at this point is probably closer to 15, if not lower. And I think every time there's been a major crisis of this kind, their own support base has also shrunk. And I think we saw that, particularly after 2022, with the clampdown against the women protests, that there were a lot of conservatives that would wear the veil, but do not believe that it should be mandatory and certainly not worth the kind of clampdown that the government did back then. So their support base has definitely gone down, but it is not so low that it means that it can easily be overthrown or that they aren't entrenched. They are nevertheless the ones that are controlling the security apparatus. So trying to use a Venezuela blueprint for Iran, which I suspect Trump would like to do, he's high on his own supply and is probably skewing his risk assessment, I think is going to be a bit foolish. I don't know enough about Venezuela, but based on what I have seen, I think it is sufficiently different of a system that that blueprint in and of itself is not necessarily a fit unless it is profoundly changed. But bottom line is what has been sold to Trump, I think, is that this is simple, that this is just a small push, low cost, you can make it happen. This is not a person that in principle is against war or in principle is against regime change. He's just in principle against getting stuck in situation or going into situations that doesn't have a clear exit and a clear quick path to victory.

[Emma Vigeland]

Lastly, you mentioned the 2022 protests about women's rights following Mahsa Amini's death. Can you give us a sense of whether or not this protest movement built off of that? If these are different constituencies that are coming out, is there an infrastructure around the resistance that is continuous from that point to now? And can you assess that for us?

[Trita Parsi]

Those are great questions and I don't have answers to all of them, certainly not some of the last. But what I can say though, it is building off of it, but perhaps in a different way, because these are not the same slogans necessarily. This is a very different touch and feel. You know, as I mentioned, there's a violent component that we haven't seen before. With the way it's building off, though, is that every time you have protests of this kind of and the government's response, by and large is just to clamp down. In the case of Masa, there were compromises. I mean, the veil is not being implemented in the same manner at all. In Tehran right now. The government knew that they lost that fight, but they retained power. But the fundamental situation has not changed. Every time that happens, the next set of protests tends to be more radical and more of the belief that there is no way to actually get change unless you completely overthrow the government. And even if that necessitates using force, et cetera. I'm not saying that's the majority, but that is the trend line that we're seeing not just from 2022, but all the way from 1999 student protests to the 2009 protests to the 2017 protests.

[Sam Seder]

Tarita Parsi, Co Founder, Executive Vice President, Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft thanks so much for your time Today. I know you're very busy these days. Really appreciate, appreciate it.

[Trita Parsi]

Thank you so much for having me.

[Emma Vigeland]

Thanks so much.

[Sam Seder]

All right, we're going to take a quick break. We'll be back in just a moment. All right, we're back. Sam Cedar, Emma Vigland, majority Report. We got a lot more to cover in terms of ice. I guess we should.

[Matt Leck]

We'll do it.

[Sam Seder]

And we're going to go a little long. I guess that's the bottom line. Let's start with what's happening in Minnesota. We're basically watching ice, as far as I can tell. I mean, they, they are expanding their violence, and part of it is a function of, I think that they're. The pressure for them to increase their numbers is growing. My understanding is that despite the fact that they've been offering tens of thousands of dollars to hire new ICE thugs, they're not getting as many recruits as they want. They've cut down the training time to literally five or six weeks.

[Emma Vigeland]

Good news is they're not carrying any weaponry, right?

[Sam Seder]

Yeah. At least they're not just kidding.

[Emma Vigeland]

Like, they're in, like, the middle of a war zone.

[Sam Seder]

It does seem like they can go just to, like, some, you know, weapon store and pick out what you want. We got you covered. Whatever you feel comfortable with, guys. And reports are that they're coming from Minnesota as far west as Oregon. The I'm also hearing from folks who work in the immigration field that they are now going after people who are in the process of having their asylum claims adjudicated. So in other words, they are here legally. They have done no crimes, they have done no violations, they have followed the law. And the law is if you apply for asylum, you get a hearing, you get they, they adjudicate that claim. People who are in the process of that now are getting rolled up. Here is ice, though. And again, this is, you know, we've talked about the Kavanaugh stops. We'll talk about it. More ICE is going around. They're walking through parking lots. In this instance, they're walking through a charging station for EVs, presumably looking for Uber drivers or Lyft drivers or other rideshare drivers. And they're looking for ones that are not white. And that's how they are deciding as to whether they go up and approach people for their id. Now, look, you are not obligated to give your ID to ice. They are border enforcement or they are immigration enforcement. And you're not obligated to do that unless they have probable cause. And the Fact that you are black or brown is not probable cause. Now, of course, a lot of people want to avoid getting beat up, and a lot of people don't know their rights, and so this is what's going on. But watch these guys just patrol this. I mean, it's. It's so grotesque.

[Emma Vigeland]

Looking into cars. Papers. More. Hand over your papers.

[Sam Seder]

There you go.

[Matt Leck]

Just want to point out all the people with whistles in the background.

[Sam Seder]

Yep.

[Trita Parsi]

You know what?

[Emma Vigeland]

The.

[Sam Seder]

Papers, please.

[Emma Vigeland]

Your paper.

[Sam Seder]

I mean, it really did sound better in the original German.

[Emma Vigeland]

That's in Casablanca, right?

[Matt Leck]

What's that?

[Emma Vigeland]

The.

[Sam Seder]

The Casablanca.

[Emma Vigeland]

Well, I mean, that's the. That's the phrasing, but whatever.

[Sam Seder]

I'm.

[Emma Vigeland]

But. But. Not to. Not to be downplayed at all, obviously. It's deeply authoritarian and scary, and it's not hyperbolic to compare it to the Nazis. It's not, of course.

[Sam Seder]

I mean, that's what they're doing. And now they have decided. And it's particularly worse when Bovino goes around. I mean, there's a reason why you see the. You know, the greatest amount of violence when Bovino's there, because then all these losers who work for him and are so embarrassed by it that they cover their faces with masks. They need to show off and provide him with some violence so that he feels good. So he needs something to go back to his hotel and. And, you know, get some R and R with. So the. The. The thoughts of the violence provide him, you know, his release at the end of the day, I guess. But here he is going into a. I think this is a target. And this story has come out in bits and pieces, but apparently what happens is there is an observer there at Target. I don't know if the guy worked at Target. I think he did, and he saw that ice is coming there, and so he's like recording them. And then they all basically gang tackle this guy who's an American citizen. We have this in three parts and ends up getting beat up and just left out on the side of the road. You doing all right?

[Emma Vigeland]

Huh?

[Sam Seder]

I'm not doing all right. What's that? I'm not doing all right. I'm not doing all right. Back up. Yo, see that recording? They're here. What's all doing?

[Matt Leck]

Back up.

[Sam Seder]

You're good? Oh, absolutely, absolutely. Oh, back up. I'm walking here. Back up.

[Matt Leck]

Good.

[Trita Parsi]

Sh.

[Matt Leck]

Hey, that's.

[Sam Seder]

What a nice guy. I know.

[Emma Vigeland]

You realize how small you. Huh?

[Sam Seder]

None of your business. That's what you. All right.

[Emma Vigeland]

See that?

[Sam Seder]

Getting his phone out and again, what they're doing when they do that. What they're doing when they do that is they. They have a database. And they're either adding you to that database as just a. As an activist, or they're comparing your. Your picture to a database that assesses your immigration status or your citizenship status. Again, not whether you've committed any crime, not whether you've committed any civil violation. If you are here and awaiting asylum meetings, you are here. Leg. All right, continue. Just getting my app to your guys. Look at that bunch of y' all right there.

[Matt Leck]

Again, this is just a.

[Sam Seder]

This is.

[Matt Leck]

This part is the big tech boondoggle of the fascist takeover of our country. There's contracts for all these companies that are providing this, and they should be protested as much as these, you know, brown shirt thugs.

[Sam Seder]

We should also be clear. This is not investigations. This is not. This is not enforcement. This is. I'm going to teach you that. You can't make fun of me. This is Big Brother puffing his chest. Exactly. This is like the baby bully on out at recess. I'm going to show you that I'm the one wearing the uniform here. This is about as like small men story as you can possibly get.

[Emma Vigeland]

And in stature right there.

[Sam Seder]

Every single one of y'. All. Look at that. Just gonna get a pick.

[Emma Vigeland]

Hold on.

[Sam Seder]

Go ahead, take a pic. Right there.

[Matt Leck]

Appreciate.

[Emma Vigeland]

You.

[Matt Leck]

Come on.

[Sam Seder]

Hey, don't touch him. Don't touch him. What are you doing?

[Emma Vigeland]

Come on.

[Sam Seder]

Yo, you. I work you. Yeah, he works you. Look at that. You what? You relax now. Look at that. There is not a single thing that that guy is doing other than swearing at that. At that thug. Not a single thing he's doing.

[Emma Vigeland]

He's walking.

[Sam Seder]

He did not initiate a contact. He is walking backwards throughout the entire process. This guy just doesn't like being made fun of and. All right, continue. So they grab this guy. You can see they.

[Emma Vigeland]

They jumped this guy in the target and the teenager, right? Apparently he's a teenager.

[Sam Seder]

Don't tread on me. Free speech. All that bullshit that we years now that you're keeping me from, from mocking trans people or the fact that you.

[Emma Vigeland]

Had to get vaccinated and maybe had a card to enter some businesses at some point. This is literally people going around asking for people's papers and the boot of the state beating people up for daring to document the human rights atrocities that our government's engaging in. Oh, my God.

[Sam Seder]

Look at that.

[Emma Vigeland]

Six of them.

[Sam Seder]

Five of them.

[Emma Vigeland]

Oh, yeah, you guys are all on video.

[Matt Leck]

Seven feds around the skit.

[Sam Seder]

I think they got. They grabbed the other guy too. At this point, Anybody else going ask where the. The wars are. You guys don't have the right. Jonathan. I let Garcia. I'm literally a US Citizen. Get the out of here. Why are you kidnapping our citizen?

[Matt Leck]

Get in there.

[Sam Seder]

Why are you.

[Emma Vigeland]

Why. Sir, give us your phone number. We'll call. We'll call your family.

[Sam Seder]

Give your.

[Emma Vigeland]

Give us here the phone number.

[Matt Leck]

Jesus.

[Sam Seder]

What's your name? What's your name? We'll find your family. What's your last name? All right, there's that. That. That tall guy is now claiming that he was assaulted by the guy that he initiated contact with that he tackled. Give us your. What's the phone number we should call?

[Emma Vigeland]

Okay, so he gives his phone number.

[Trita Parsi]

That's my mom.

[Sam Seder]

That's your mom. I'll call you. And your first name is Christian, Right? All right, now we're gonna go to the third video where after the guy has been left out, right?

[Emma Vigeland]

No, no, there's another part.

[Sam Seder]

This is number nine, right?

[Emma Vigeland]

No, the part. Three. Nine.

[Sam Seder]

Yes, number nine.

[Emma Vigeland]

They found the teenager eight minutes away.

[Sam Seder]

Some people started a Target target parking lot. They brought him, dumped him in a Walmart parking lot.

[Emma Vigeland]

That's the most American thing I've ever heard. Apparently, you know, I mean, not much.

[Matt Leck]

Infrastructure we have here.

[Emma Vigeland]

Here he is, and he has visible injuries.

[Sam Seder]

This guy right here, they let him out of the vehicle. They tortured him. This guy right here? Yeah. You okay, man? No, I'm not okay, bro. Crazy. My man's bleeding. Bleeding. They slam me on the ground. We gotta be able to call somebody. This is ridiculous. We. You. You got family around? You got somebody here, man? Come on. We. We. We in here. Come on, man. You work here, don't you? No, I work at Target. You work, bro, Come on, bro. It's okay. You got so crazy, man. Slam this man up in the parking lot. Slam. Torture this guy.

[Emma Vigeland]

He's 17, apparently. So. That's a child. That's child abuse. And we're seeing abuse of prisoners of. Of. Of. Of female detainees, assault, and they're. They're holding migrant teens at this facility. Some of the. The migrant teams that they've rounded up in Pennsylvania, that's been known and has a documented history of sexual and physical abuse. It's almost like they're doing it on purpose.

[Sam Seder]

How do we, as a country. How do. How does our elected leaders allow for squads of fully armed and masked men to go around abduct teenagers, American citizens, for simply swearing at them? Put Them in the back of a car, beat them up and then dump them 10 minutes down the road. Law enforcement, how is it that we're allowing that to exist in this country? That's what we have now. I mean, you just saw like, you know, who knows how many more of these there are. We know that there are a dozen occasions of people being shot at by ICE agents in the course of their duty. And we only have good video on a couple we saw when they murdered somebody. But how many of these instances do you think exist that where we have footage from where the guy's being dumped off 10 minutes away. We watch as a 6 foot 5, masked, buffed up ice agent tackles him for swearing at him. You mock me, I'm going to tackle you. We're going to beat you up, we're going to shove you in the back of a, of a car and we're going to dump you on the side of the road. I mean, what the, this is the shit that we would talk about like, you know, with and soon, right? Like, how far off are we from. We're just going to dump the dead body on the side of the road. This is, this is like the stuff that we would like. How dare we finance this shit in Central America.

[Matt Leck]

How many deaths have happened in Alligator Alcatraz and what's going to and what.

[Sam Seder]

Will change for four people detained in by ICE and immigration have died in 2026.

[Emma Vigeland]

Yes. 32 people died in ICE custody in 2025. It was the agency's deadliest year in over two decades. And we still don't have full transparency about that. How do we know? How do we know? It's a complete black box. They're blocking members of Congress from going into these facilities and checking on the conditions.

[Matt Leck]

You had to have people staking out Alligator Alcatraz, checking for ambulances coming and.

[Emma Vigeland]

Going, and nearly 75% of the people held in detention have no criminal convictions. As they talk about these being criminals and as there were a lot of people who took this at face value, I mean, we got to repeat this. Who led us down this road of fascism? It's the members of the media and the Democrats that thanked ICE or took this administration at face value and said they're just going to go after the criminals, which by the way, was the Obama deportation regime. That's what he prioritized. We knew exactly what they were going to do here.

[Matt Leck]

Why are they going after people that are showing up to their hearings to try to get naturalized as citizens? At first I thought it was just because, you know, they know the schedule and they can get it out. There's another reason. And it was. Would you just have to remember that ICE agents are cowards and that is when they go into courthouses, they are checked for guns.

[Emma Vigeland]

Also, ICE's budget now is equivalent to Israel's entire military budget. I believe so. I mean, the point is that this is the imperial boomerang in many ways. This is fascism coming home. And if you're going to oppose Zionism and you're going to talk about that as the existential threat that it is and the genocide in Gaza, you also have to oppose when those same systems are used here on Americans. And I don't care what your citizenship status is. These are Americans. These are our neighbors. And these are the exact tactics you see in the west bank as well.

[Sam Seder]

Let's go to.

[Emma Vigeland]

Like, I'm just. Sorry, just. But with the killing of Renee Goode, like, the way that this is like a kangaroo court situation, this is what happens with Israel and how they kill Palestinians. It's here. Now.

[Matt Leck]

Look at the Democrats who thanked ice, and just look at that list and then just pick a name at random and see if they took money from the Israel lobby.

[Sam Seder]

Here is ice, who essentially grab a man at a gas station in St. Paul for videotaping them again. It is legal for you to videotape. It is legal for you to swear at ICE agents. You're not allowed to impede them. But if you're walking backwards and they're just strolling around Target, it's not clear that they were doing anything there other than going to the bathroom. Here is. This is footage in St. Paul. You okay? You're back. You're back. Don't touch me. Don't touch me. Get back. Get back. Touch me. Don't touch me. Hey.

[Emma Vigeland]

Stay back.

[Sam Seder]

Stay back.

[Matt Leck]

Texas patch on that pig's arm.

[Sam Seder]

These are just thugs. These are just thugs. Can't regulate their emotions. Scumbag thugs.

[Emma Vigeland]

Yep. And their faces are covered, too, because we are going to find out eventually who many of these. These guys are. And when the administration is post recruitment videos that have, like, literal Nazi and proud boy signifiers in them, you know who they're appealing to. Stand back and stand by. That's what Donald Trump said about the white nationalist group, the Proud Boys. And they have stood by and then waited for their opportunity to get hired as the Gestapo to break apart families and brutalize teenagers. And that's what they've been doing over the past, I don't know, a Few months.

[Sam Seder]

Here is another instance of ICE illegally attacking an observer who is doing nothing. This guy's in his car. There's no impeding here. They just can't find anybody else to harass. In that moment, They smash his window again. There is no claim that this person was undocumented or any of that. Look at it. He's giving him a chokehold and now he's going to put his knee right on his shoulder. This is in his neck, incidentally. It is illegal in Minnesota to do this for very obvious reasons.

[Emma Vigeland]

Yep.

[Sam Seder]

And this is a guy who is on the ground getting his. A knee to his neck because he dared to videotape ice.

[Emma Vigeland]

And this is what we're saying about what they're trying to provoke here. They. They are trying to provoke a response so that they can. They can use the Insurrection Act. That is the goal.

[Sam Seder]

We are now. It is now January 13th.

[Emma Vigeland]

In.

[Sam Seder]

18 days. 17 or 18. My math is bad. There needs to be. The budget deal comes to a head. The House passed some spending bills for some agencies. Unclear how the Senate's going to deal with it. They may take up these separate bills. The House was going to vote sometime this week on DHS is funding, but they have held off on voting on that specific agency because of what's going on in Minnesota with the idea, I guess, that maybe things will die down a little bit. Chuck Schumer is desperate, desperate to just pass whatever funding is, you know, the, the Republicans want to pass in the Senate so that he doesn't have to exist as a political player because he believes that if we do nothing as Democrats, we are more likely to do well in the elections. Now, of course, that is absurd. And aside from it being just a bad strategy, increasingly you see Democratic approval ratings drop along with Republicans because people are waiting for Democrats to do something. And we know the polling from the last government shutdown.

[Emma Vigeland]

Yeah.

[Sam Seder]

And we can see the polling today for what people are saying about ice. About ice.

[Emma Vigeland]

There was a. Now YouGov skews a little bit more to the left, but this is now. YouGov economist just came out this morning. It's a plurality opinion. 46% support abolishing ICE according to this now, versus 43% who oppose it.

[Sam Seder]

And that's abolishing ICE.

[Emma Vigeland]

Abolishing ICE.

[Sam Seder]

Never mind saying we're not going to okay funding for a rogue agency that.

[Emma Vigeland]

Is absent any real national messaging from leadership on this front. That Chuck Schumer's problem is that local law enforcement should be doing a better job of Collaborating with ice. This is absent messaging from the opposition party. This is entirely organic. And we've seen that it can dissipate as quickly as it comes. You could seize on this opportunity to actually fundamentally abolish the agency. But that's exactly the point. I see Matt going like, shrugging because.

[Matt Leck]

Hakeem Jeffries and Chuck Schumer.

[Emma Vigeland]

Hakeem Jeffries and Chuck Schumer. It's ideological. It's ideological.

[Matt Leck]

This is the, I'm sorry, like building up these kind of walls and this sort of hatred of the other. It is a Zionist behavior. And then they can't do it.

[Emma Vigeland]

But it also means that they. But, but, you know, Schumer's hopefully a dead man walking a little bit to a degree. And you can put pressure on your lawmakers, regardless, to build this up to the point where we could hopefully abolish the agency. Do you want me to just. It was a good opportunity.

[Sam Seder]

Here's the low hanging. Here's the low hanging message that exists. Okay, this is super obvious. This is number six. Here's aoc again, so easy at this point in terms of the messaging. So obvious. And she's so far the only one who's delivering this explicit message. I would imagine we are hours, if not, you know, we are days, if not hours away from hearing other Democrats now realize, oh, this is the messaging that's going to work. And essentially saying, I'm sorry, Jeffries, I'm sorry, Schumer. I'm not going to go along with just rubber stamping this budget.

[Emma Vigeland]

And before people get upset about her phrasing here, she specific. She's already clarified that she continues to support abolishing ice. She's talking about cutting it here specifically to, in reference to the appropriations bill. She clarified that on Twitter this morning.

[Sam Seder]

Government funding. We're about to run out of money. What should be the red lines when it comes to ICE funding? You know, when it comes to dhs, should there be policy or reduction in funding, which would be the options?

[Emma Vigeland]

I mean, you know, in terms of which deadlines line up with which goals, that's a, that's a tactical decision to be made. But my position has always been clear that ICE funding should be cut. We're seeing what they're doing with this reckless explosion in funding. And mind you, just, just so everybody knows, I want everybody to understand you, the cuts to your health care are what's paying for this. All that extra money that everybody's paying right now in their premiums, all that extra money that you're paying it is paid for with it is all of that extra money that, that the government and the ACA subsidies that was given to nearly a trillion dollars in health care was taken out and given to ice. So understand how these dots connect. You get screwed over to pay a bunch of thugs in the street that are shooting mothers in the face. That's, that is what this administration's doing. That's what the Republican Party did.

[Sam Seder]

The messaging doesn't get better than that. And people complaining about what. I mean, it's unbelievable. The idea that a politician shouldn't, shouldn't message to a, like the people. Like I can't even, I can't even begin to entertain the idea that people have an issue with that. That is the message that needs to be adopted. But the problem, the problem, the reason why Chuck Schumer can't say that is because if Chuck Schumer says that, then he has to hold the line and actually not just rubber stamp the budget for DHS when it comes up for a vote. If Jeffries also echoes that very obvious messaging. You have two things that are happening right now in this country in terms of like, we have an affordability crisis that is most acute at this moment when it comes to health insurance and most acute in that sector with people who, with acas, but of course, who had ACA subsidies. But of course, you know, everyone's paying more for their health insurance because of this. And we have an explosion of fascism where we have thugs on the street attacking people, teenagers for swearing and observers for videotaping and shooting people in the face for trying to protect or make immigrants aware of ISIS presence. And she has wrapped it up in a bow with about, you know, in, in less than 90 seconds. Yeah, for, for the messaging. And the Democratic leadership cannot use that incredible gift that they've just been given because they are so desperate to make sure that no one knows what that they exist as a political party in.

[Emma Vigeland]

This moment and copy paste that messaging for Israel funding too. This is a question of priority priorities by our government. And you know, the, the people fundamentally understand that they're getting screwed. And the question is, what are our tax dollars going to? It's not going to improving my life, it's not going to changing the cost of living crisis. It's not going to my rent, it's not going to my wages, it's not going to my health care. And you can say it is going to the secret police here in the United States and it's going to fund a genocide in Gaza. And whoever is able to make that message simple for people. And we can shift that money away, claw it back and bring it to you for your life, for childcare, for health care. If you can harness that messaging, you'll be the candidate in 2028. No question. No question.

[Matt Leck]

The idea that there's this hostility to big government and then the Republicans send fascists to shoot people face and Democrats are still afraid of doing single payer, it's crazy. But I don't know if we want to draw this connection even more finely. Wesley Bell was asked by, I think KSDK News about his vote to thank ICE last year and his response isn't super impressive. If we just want to run this real quick.

[Sam Seder]

Former Congresswoman Cori Bush pointed out your vote to thank ICE or express gratitude to ICE last year, that resolution was about a thwarted terrorist attack in Colorado. That's all it was. And so unfortunately, that's how the DC machine works with messaging, is to try and misconstrue meanings and things of that nature. But that's what it was about. Okay, okay. You still voted for it. I mean, look, everybody gets the idea of like, you put certain things into message bills and this and that, but what was it? 75 House members.

[Emma Vigeland]

75.

[Sam Seder]

Okay. To thank ICE, which means that over 125 Democrats didn't. And this is simple. Like, you just don't look at this like it's success for politics. It was so obvious that ICE was going to be a problem. That ICE has been a problem. So obvious. None, Maybe, maybe, maybe somewhere there's a video of somebody going up to one of those 125 plus congresspeople who did not vote for that. Are you against the thwarting of terrorist attacks in Colorado? Because if we just take him at his word here, then what he's guilty of is absolute political malpractice. And it is. It's political malpractice. None of this is in any way surprising. The whole reason why we wanted Chuck Schumer to shut the government down the first time and he didn't was because it basically paved the way for the big, beautiful bill, which politics is about momentum. When they have a tiny, tiny margin and they feel like they have impunity, they have brought the Democrats to their knees, which is exactly what they did in that first budget fight. They brought Chuck Schumer to his knees and had Chuck Schumer waddle up on his knees and hand it to them. They were far more able to maintain discipline to vote for that big, beautiful bill that put Almost a trillion dollars into ice. I mean this is so obvious for.

[Matt Leck]

An administration that J.D. vance was saying we don't have the luxury of due process because it's such an emergency. Okay, give them a billion dollars and not, sorry, understating it and then not even push them on the due process thing.

[Sam Seder]

We are six months away. Well, actually now I guess we're only four months out from when Chuck Schumer said, well, according to my plan, it's all gonna fall apart by September. They're all gonna abandon Trump. Well, they might, they might abandon Trump. Maybe, maybe Bovina will be their candidate in 2028. Yeah, but it ain't getting better.

[Emma Vigeland]

But that's.

[Sam Seder]

And it's not going to get better with Chuck Schumer saying like, okay, but.

[Emma Vigeland]

But, but, but even the embedded in that is the myopia and the malpractice of focusing purely on electoralism. Like, I mean it is just unbelievable how they basically are just white knuckling it to the midterms, the American public be damned. Like, why do you think that people don't support the Democratic Party and it's as, as Donald Trump right now. It's because they refuse to stand for anything. And they folk and they make it so obvious that they're so nakedly self interested.

[Sam Seder]

But you know, if their self interest was in any way.

[Emma Vigeland]

But it's not tethered to reality. Yeah, but, but they want to eke it out and they want to win on their terms. That's the problem too.

[Matt Leck]

Yeah. His terms are antithetical to what anyone should be.

[Sam Seder]

Right.

[Emma Vigeland]

And, and, and, and, and on their terms too, means this dereliction of duty of leadership, of reining in dhs, of.

[Sam Seder]

Ice, talking to Bill Ackman. And Bill Ackman had a point.

[Matt Leck]

I mean the number one donor to Jonathan Ross.

[Sam Seder]

Well, 10,000 is not much for him to be fair. $10,000. He's a billionaire, Matt. I mean, come on. Couch cushion change. Come on. That's. Yeah, he just found that. It's. That, that could have been like his personal her DM for his dog walker.

[Matt Leck]

All right, Warren and all those folks, hurry up, get him out of there.

[Emma Vigeland]

That's what I mean. I'm, I'm. That Warren speech seems to be an indication that they're trying to make a move.

[Sam Seder]

But as we move, we'll play for, we'll play something.

[Emma Vigeland]

But as we implored last week, like it's got to happen. There's only so much of a move.

[Sam Seder]

You can make if you haven't been able to convince other senators. And so you know what, clearly what they're doing is, and she's coming public on this, is creating that pressure so that other senators come, come along on board for this.

[Emma Vigeland]

I get it.

[Sam Seder]

All right, we got to take a break. We're going to head into the fun half.

[Emma Vigeland]

Can we just promote this? Just because to wrap up our arguments here, I saw this. The National Immigration Law center has a really easy tool. We'll put this in the link below to implore Congress to do what we're actually asking for. You can input your name and address and stuff, and it will send it to your legislatures, but you can just scroll down a little bit. You'll see what the asks are in the template. Keep going. It's here. So it'll enter your name and then it talk. It says, I urge you to refuse to vote for the appropriations bill that increases funding for ice. Also said you have to demand that they strengthen restrictions around ice. And Border Patrol's ability to conduct dragnet arrest operations based on their race and accent, et cetera, ends Border Patrol deployment to our cities. Also, this is important, limits DHS's reprogramming and transfer authority, including specifically preventing reprogramming and transferring funds for detention. Because it's a slush fund here, DHS transfer funds usually require for other government agencies, approval from Congress. But because this Congress has given carte blanche, the Department of Homeland Security, they've been just shuttling around funds also to Donald Trump's buddies, as well as for mass immigrant detention. And that's where that money has been going. So these are kind of very basic asks that you can just use here and fire off an email to your representative.

[Sam Seder]

Also, while you're at it, you can use this as a template to call your representatives and tell them the same thing. And if you actually took, if you actually took this and wrote it out in freehand and mailed it to them, it would be worth like literally like 600 people in your district. They've done it. That's the way they, they have these calculuses. A form email counts for so many people that you represent. Phone call more A, an email that you would write that would be not necessarily a form letter, but would be, would he be, would be more and more to write freehand at this point means that you represent like a, I don't know, some like astronomical number of people or if it's, if it's rational. There may be other. They get, they get letters that are maybe not so rational, but. All right, just a Reminder, your support is what makes this show happens. You can become a member by going to jointhemajorityreport.com when you do. You know, I get the free show, free of commercial commercials, but you also get the fun half and you can IMs. We're going to take phone calls in the fun half and I'm going to turn it on just when we go to break. But I only want today. We got one hour left. We're not going to take too many phone calls. Only want Minnesota people. Only want Minnesota people for today. And then maybe we'll have a day this week where there's. We're not allowing any Minnesota people. But today we want to hear from Minnesota people on the ground. 646-257-3920 will be right back after this. Oh, Matt, what's happening on the mat Leck Media universe? Yeah.

[Matt Leck]

Left reckoning coming up right after Majority Report today, talking with Motachik about her piece on Marco Rubio, who turns out to have deep state narco trafficking connections that coincide with Iran Contra and the JFK assassination, which I am ashamed that I had no idea about until I read Moe's piece. And also a candidate for lieutenant governor Marco Velez in Texas. So check that [e-mail] left reckoning.

[Sam Seder]

Okay. We'll be right back. Three months from now, six months from now, nine months from now. And I don't think it's going to be the same as it looks like in six months from now. And I don't know if it's necessarily going to be better six months from now than it is three months from now, but I think around 18 months out, we're going to look back and go like, wow.

[Matt Leck]

What?

[Sam Seder]

What is that going on? It's nuts. Wait a second. Hold on for. Hold on for a second. Emma, welcome to the program. Matt, do fun. What is up, everyone? Everyone. Fun hat. No. Me Keen.

[Emma Vigeland]

You did it.

[Sam Seder]

Fun hat.

[Emma Vigeland]

Let's go, Brandon.

[Sam Seder]

Let's go, Brandon. Fun hat. Bradley, you want to say hello? Sorry to disappoint everyone. I'm just a random guy. It's all the boys today.

[Emma Vigeland]

Fundamentally false. No. I'm sorry. Women.

[Sam Seder]

Stop talking for a second.

[Emma Vigeland]

Let me finish.

[Trita Parsi]

Where is this coming from?

[Emma Vigeland]

Dude?

[Sam Seder]

But, dude, you want to smoke this?

[Trita Parsi]

7A.

[Emma Vigeland]

Yes.

[Sam Seder]

Hi, Mickey. You safe? Yes. Is this me? Is it me? It is you. If it's me. Oh, it's me. I think it is you. Who is you? No sound every single freaking day. What's on your mind?

[Trita Parsi]

We can discuss free markets and we can discuss capitalism.

[Sam Seder]

I'm gonna go snow white. Libertarians.

[Matt Leck]

They're so stupid.

[Sam Seder]

Though common sense says of course.

[Emma Vigeland]

Gobbledygook.

[Sam Seder]

We nailed him.

[Emma Vigeland]

So what's 79 plus 21?

[Sam Seder]

Challenge. Matt. I'm positively quivering. I believe 96. I want to say. 8 5, 7, 2, 1 0, 35. 5011 half. 3, 8, 9.

[Emma Vigeland]

11.

[Matt Leck]

Person.

[Emma Vigeland]

$3,419 hundred. 5, 4.

[Sam Seder]

$3 trillion. Sold. It's a zero sum game.

[Emma Vigeland]

Actually. You're making me think less.

[Sam Seder]

But let me say this. You can call it satire.

[Trita Parsi]

Sam goes to satire on top of it all.

[Matt Leck]

Yeah.

[Trita Parsi]

My favorite part about you is just.

[Emma Vigeland]

Like every day, all day, like everything you do.

[Sam Seder]

Without a doubt. Hey, buddy. We see you. All right, folks, folks, folks.

[Emma Vigeland]

It's just the week being weeded out, obviously.

[Trita Parsi]

Yeah.

[Sam Seder]

Sun's out, guns out. I. I don't know.

[Emma Vigeland]

But you should know.

[Sam Seder]

People just don't.

[Matt Leck]

Like to entertain ideas anymore.

[Sam Seder]

I have a question. Who cares?

[Matt Leck]

Our chat is enabled, folks.

[Sam Seder]

I love it.

[Emma Vigeland]

I do love that.

[Sam Seder]

Gotta jump. Gotta be quick. I gotta jump. I'm losing it. Bro. Two clock. We're already late and the guy's being a dick. So screw him. Sent to a gulag.

[Emma Vigeland]

Outrageous.

[Sam Seder]

Like, what is wrong with you? Love you. Bye. Love you.

[Emma Vigeland]

Bye.

[Sam Seder]

Bye.