← The Majority Report with Sam Seder
The Majority Report with Sam Seder
3593 - Delgado's Vision for New York; Trump's Assault on Housing w/ Jesse Coburn, Antonio Delgado
01:19:10
It's Hump Day on the Majority Report On today's show: The government has shut down as Republicans continue to spread lies about undocumented immigrants receiving free health care under the Democrats initial offer. Former OMB Manager under Trump, Mick...
Loading summary
Transcript235 lines
- [00:00]
Emma Vigland
You are listening to a free version of the Majority Report. Support this show@jointhemajorityreport.com and get an extra hour of content daily.
- [00:13]
Sam Seder
The Majority Report with Sam Cedar. It is Wednesday, October 1, 2025. 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, Jesse Coburn, reporter at ProPublica, covering housing, transportation, cities and infrastructure on the Trump administration's assault on public housing. Then Lieutenant Governor of New York Antonio Delgado challenging sitting Governor Kathy Hochul in the 2026 Democratic gubernatorial primary will be here. Also on the program, Government shutdown day one. Republicans immediately run to the microphones to lie as to why the government is shut down. Have no fear. Trump will fund the Argentine bailout and continue his ICE goons operations across the country. Pete Hegseth complains that generals are too fat and Trump says US Cities to become war game sites. Meanwhile, new economic numbers in a surprise to some, I guess US private payrolls declined precipitously. Trump pulls clown car. Economist nominee for the Bureau of Labor Statistics guy roundly criticized as being unqualified. Course the government is shut down, so we won't see any of those statistics. U.S. eases South Korean worker visas rules in wake of its disastrous Hyundai raid. Reagan appointed federal district judge finds the Trump regime violated the first Amendment in targeting non citizens over Gaza. Protests very important ruling. Everyone in the country regardless of their status is protected by the first Amendment. Constraints on our government by our constitution. DOJ using the face act, an act used to protect abortion clinics to sue pro Palestinian protesters. Gaza City exodus is overwhelming aid efforts in southern Gaza and just breaking the Supreme Court allows Lisa Cook to continue to be a fed. Sit on the fed board of course, because capital uber alleys. All this and more on today's Majority Report. Welcome, ladies and gentlemen. It is in the words of Emma.
- [03:40]
Emma Vigland
Viglan, jump the gun, damn it. Damn.
- [03:44]
Sam Seder
Is in the words of Emma Viglan.
- [03:46]
Emma Vigland
Bring me on here. Brian. Hello. Oh, I'm on.
- [03:50]
Sam Seder
Oh, we don't see that thing anymore. We get. We're missing that window. We can't see that window. Yeah, I need that window back. All right, well, I'm here and you already said your catchphrase that you came up with that has really caught on. Every six months will remind people of that bad joke, that full on dad joke. It's part of my brand now.
- [04:16]
Emma Vigland
Keep going, keep it going.
- [04:18]
Sam Seder
We got a lot to talk about the government has shut down. There were three Democrats, or I should say three who caucus with Democrats who voted to in favor of ending conversation on the Republican continuing resolution. That was Fetterman. Surprise, surprise. Angus King, who also voted in that way in March. And Catherine Cortez Masto in Nevada. It is really important that you call your Democratic senators and tell them to hold the line, particularly if you are in New Hampshire or in Nevada, because Maggie Hassan is one of those Democrats who voted the last time around. Jackie Rosen, also in Nevada. Gallego is also one who needs encouragement.
- [05:29]
Emma Vigland
Kirsten Gillibrand, look at who voted and capitulated to Trump the first time around. I think it was around 10 Democrats, if I remember correctly. In the Senate, they should be prime targets for calls.
- [05:42]
Sam Seder
The good news is that Gillibrand has a, I think it is a full weekend junket in a wine cellar in Sonoma Valley.
- [05:54]
Emma Vigland
Wine cave.
- [05:55]
Sam Seder
Wine cave in Sonoma Valley. Forgive me with. Is it Haley Stevens?
- [06:01]
Emma Vigland
Yes, the apac.
- [06:05]
Sam Seder
So they are going to be rallying in support of wine producers, sommeliers, wine reps and collectors. Wine collectors.
- [06:19]
Emma Vigland
Wine collectors. I mean, we have a big tent in the Democratic Party.
- [06:23]
Sam Seder
Yes. All of those sommeliers, wine representatives, wine collectors and wine producers. They are all. There's room for all of them in the Tuscan inspired spa. Exactly. Which is.
- [06:40]
Emma Vigland
But if cold plunges. Yeah. Pro Palestine. Obviously you're not in the town 10, but it's a big 10. It's a big 10.
- [06:45]
Sam Seder
It's A big 10. All right. But let's get to some of the Republican talking points that are being rolled out. Speaker Johnson went out there and he, you know, it's frustrating to watch the host say and I saw Kaitlin Collins do this as with him as well. They to their credit, they basically say you're lying. None of what you're saying is true. But then they let him finish his, you know, his lie. Later in the program, we will specifically address J.D. vance's lie. But understand they were always going to lie about something. So it's not like this government shutdown is giving them a unique opportunity to lie. What it is doing is it's giving the Democrats a unique opportunity to press their point, whether it's specifically about this budget or about the Trump administration at large. Understand, we are right at the precipice of the economy going into the crapper. Jobs numbers are down, inflation is up. That is a, it's not even a recipe for stagflation. That's almost the definition of stagflation so there's a big opportunity here for Democrats to come out and while they're shoving microphones in their faces and carrying it on the news, to carry this message. But here's the Republicans attempt. And of course, it's focused on immigrants. That's all they got this morning. The Democratic proposal is designed to prevent millions of Americans from losing their health insurance, losing Medicaid coverage or paying higher health care premiums. Why are you against that?
- [08:45]
Mike Johnson
That's an absurd statement, what you said there. Let's be clear about what happened last night. No, George, let me tell you what happened last night. Everybody can go and review the facts for themselves. 44 Senate Democrats voted to reject a clean, nonpartisan continuing funding resolution to keep the United States government open. The Democrats said instead that they wanted to give health care to illegal aliens instead of keeping critical services provided for the American citizens. That's what happened, plain and simple. Every Democrat in the House, except one, voted against the clean continuing resolution. It was nonpartisan in nature. There are no policy riders on it that Republicans favor it. It's exactly, exactly what Chuck Schumer and other Democrats voted for in March. But they've changed their tune.
- [09:28]
Emma Vigland
Can you posit. I'm sorry, that is why it was so essential that Schumer not cave in March, because then he has that talking point there. Why it's important to shut down the government now is because a clean continuing resolution, as he's referring to, would be an extension of the already hurt, horrific budget that those Democrats agreed upon and caved to earlier this year. It gives them less of a leg to stand on right now when they allowed it to get to the floor and allowed the budget to pass.
- [10:05]
Sam Seder
It's why that there needs to be more made of the fact that Donald Trump is breaking the law by going around and not funding things that we have appropriated right now. Schumer did mention this when he came out of that meeting yesterday after praising Donald Trump or two days ago mentioned that as a pocket rescission and impoundment, which, you know, again, we know what that means because we do that for a living. But normal Americans do not know about the 1974 Impoundment Act. All you need to say is Donald Trump is abusing his story with tariffs and with spending, and there's no point in us passing a budget if he's going to do that. But let's, let's, let, yes, let's. But you're right, you know, that was.
- [10:52]
Emma Vigland
So much stronger if they had all stood in opposition to the horrific budget that strips.
- [10:57]
Antonio Delgado
We wouldn't.
- [10:58]
Emma Vigland
Millions of people would if they did that.
- [11:01]
Sam Seder
But let's just let Mike Johnson grind this out a little more.
- [11:06]
Mike Johnson
Democrats voted for in March, but they've changed their tune. They changed their tune because Chuck Schumer is having political problems right now. That's just a simple fact and everybody knows it.
- [11:14]
Sam Seder
He.
- [11:15]
Mike Johnson
He's trying to outrun the far left portion of his base. So he's decided to inflict pain on the American people here.
- [11:22]
Antonio Delgado
Here are the facts.
- [11:23]
Sam Seder
The proposal does not provide health care for illegal immigrants. Illegal immigrants cannot buy health care under the Affordable Care Act. They cannot receive health care subsidies. Illegal immigrants are ineligible for Medicare, Medicaid, and the Children's Health Program. The Democratic bill does not make them eligible.
- [11:40]
Mike Johnson
It does, actually, because. Because what it does is it unwinds the changes that Republicans.
- [11:44]
Sam Seder
First off, okay, we don't need to hear him grind this stuff out anymore. The fact is that the, this bill only extends Affordable Care act subsidies, or I should say the one that the Democrats offered, extends Affordable Care act subsidies and tries to reverse the Medicaid cuts that are coming in 2026. Now, nobody knows, or I should say really into 20. Nobody is feeling those Medicaid cuts. We're about a month or two away from feeling the exploding premiums in the exchanges. And of course, that goes everywhere else. Everything else they're talking about. The idea that undocumented immigrants have access to health care under either Medicaid or under the Affordable Care act is not true. We, we have a law in this country that anybody who shows up in the ER with an emergency situation is treated regardless of their citizenship. But you cannot, as an undocumented immigrant, go in and get health insurance. Now, some states have chosen to expand their coverage, but that is not a function of what the feds are doing. That is a function of what they're doing with their own Medicaid programs.
- [13:09]
Emma Vigland
And the ACA in it statutorily explicitly says that if you are undocumented, you are not able to access or buy into the exchanges, even if you were to pay out of pocket. This was in the law. And Biden, towards the end of his lame duck term, changed allowed for dreamers who are a little half a million around dreamers in this country who have legal status allowed it, expanded the ACA to allow them to buy into it. But the Trump administration have already reversed it by saying that they under, under, like hhs, they are not lawfully present. So they've reversed even that. He has no leg to stand on. He's just explicitly lying.
- [13:53]
Sam Seder
Yeah. And that the the Dreamers, to be clear, are here because of prosecutorial discretion, that it that they do not technically have legal status because it was never codified under Obama or Biden for that matter, as a statute. As a statute, they were included as people who because of the prosecutorial discretion could qualify as having a legal status. And again, like you say, HHS reversed that, so there's no difference. But here is also two Republicans who are arguing there's no reason for the Democrats to pass a continuing resolution or a budget because the president has shown on multiple occasions he doesn't care what the budget is. He, he's going to spend the money the way he wants. Here is a quote and I think this is from Bloomberg. Representative Mike Simpson, Republican, Idaho I don't think the Democrats want to shut down either. Their concern right now, and it's a legitimate concern, is how can we agree to any deal when our OMB director, Russell Vote, will just impound the funds. In other words, not spend them and, and say we're not going to spend them there. Here is another quote from another Republican, a senior Republican member of the Appropriations Committee. Quote, if you're a Democrat, even just like a mainstream Democrat, your predisposition might be to help negotiate with Republicans on a funding mechanism. Why would you do that if you know whatever you negotiate is going to be subject to the knife pulled out by Russ Vote? So in other words, and let's be clear, I mean, this is they're talking about the White House and Donald Trump. It's not like Russ Vote is operating outside of that. They know that there's no point to this. Here is Mick Mulvaney, former chief of staff of Trump, who apparently because he's out of the business a little bit, he's not as slippery about lying and can't embarrass himself in the same way because he's probably working as a lobbyist somewhere right now. But here he is on News Nation. I don't know who the guy in the middle is, but the other guy is Brian Tyler Cohen. I see both sides not even agreeing on some of the facts here. You know, the Trump says Democrats want to give health care to illegal immigrants. You have Democrats who say this is about Medicare and Obamacare. If it's not even agreement that there that's where the hesitation I have is. That's where I would just say if you are hosting a news show and you have hesitate hesitation about the facts, there's an easy way to resolve this. You go to page 51 of the Appropriations bill that the Democrats offered and you will see. Subtitle Keep going. No, no, go down, go down. Subtitle D Medicaid. You will see there is nothing in there that refers to expansion to undocumented immigrants. Go ahead, go back.
- [17:20]
Emma Vigland
And as we've said before, the undocumented immigrants subsidize our health care because they still pay taxes, but they don't get the benefit.
- [17:26]
Sam Seder
But regardless, if this guy's just having a question of fact, I have an idea for you. Get the effing Internet now.
- [17:32]
Jesse Coburn
What's your job there?
- [17:36]
Sam Seder
That's where the hesitation I have is. That's where I'm concerned that we're even going to see anything. Nick, would you agree that not a single dime of ACA subsidies goes toward undocumented immigrants? Would you agree with me that what the big. I mean, did you say no? Wait a second again. Listen, we don't do this on this show.
- [17:55]
Antonio Delgado
I don't know if you've ever been on here before, but that's.
- [17:57]
Sam Seder
We don't talk over. We're not here to yell at each other. I'm not going to do this anymore. Jesse. Okay, all right, all right. That's the answer right there. No, can't even acknowledge. Brian. Brian. Mick responded. Mick responded. Brian responded.
- [18:12]
Emma Vigland
No, no, he rage quit. He's through, through his controller at the, at the tv.
- [18:19]
Sam Seder
Listen, they want to talk about whatever the big beautiful bill did. Whatever the big beautiful bill did, it's not its real name. Whatever that bill did has no, nothing to do with this except for the idea of not cutting all of those people on Medicaid, but in terms of like, and those people on Medicaid were never undocumented immigrants. And so they don't want to answer this question because they know that's the case. Now. The government is going to continue to stay shut down. This is probably going to last, I would imagine, weeks at a minimum. But at one point people are going to get these huge bills from the ACA in the exchanges and that's going to cause everybody's premiums to go up.
- [19:14]
Emma Vigland
And, and if Schumer, if Schumer caves and the only, in the end, the only thing he gets are the ACA subsidies and, and making sure that those health care costs don't go up. That is good for Americans. But know that that' Republicans secretly want, of course, because they are the, they timed the big ugly ass bill to have the Medicaid cuts where you're going to have between 10 to 12 million people uninsured by 2034. Because of these cuts, they timed it to hit right after the midterms. But as Sam says, these ACA marketplace expand or the ACA costs going up like this in the exchanges, that would be felt immediately.
- [20:02]
Sam Seder
In a moment, we're going to be talking to Jesse COBURN, reporter of ProPublica covering housing, and then Antonio Delgado.
- [20:15]
Antonio Delgado
The.
- [20:15]
Sam Seder
Lieutenant governor of New York, in a moment. But first, a couple words from our sponsor today. That sponsor is Babel the I gotta get this back out. Oh, sorry. I really wanted to say this one. Learning a new language opens the door to new friends and new cultures and maybe even a whole new life. For instance, maybe you have decided to start learning Spanish because maybe you think like Mexico's an option or Claudia Scheinbaum. Exactly. And it's just too difficult to learn French Canadian. So gross. But I've been listening to my babble on the way to work. It is. It's actually fun. It's a little awkward because you're walking down the street and you're sort of talking to yourself. But unfortunately in Flatbush nobody really notices. But I will say that it's been very, very helpful. And I just want to say. Marias Rojas, Barry on.
- [21:47]
Emma Vigland
Wow.
- [21:48]
Sam Seder
Red Sox.
- [21:48]
Antonio Delgado
Sweet.
- [21:49]
Sam Seder
You could start speaking a new language with confidence. See the confidence in which I said that? Thanks to Babel's conversation based technique that quickly teaches you useful words and phrases without the things you actually about, the things you actually talk about in the real world. Red Sox did not come up in that there's over a dozen languages available to learn. You learn them at your own pace. They are brief, like 10 to 15 minute, like, you know, lessons essentially. And they have native speakers saying these things, both male and female. They're handcrafted by over 200 language experts, like I say, voiced by real native speakers and built with science backed cognitive tools like spaced repetition and interactive features to fit any learning style. Babel's tips and tools for learning a new language are approachable and accessible. It's like having a private tutor in your pocket. The interactive dialogue thing they have now is. It's taken me a while to get up there, but you can literally have a conversation with your Spanish. Well. Or any language tutorial. Super easy to stay engaged in these things. Again, they're only 10 to 15 minutes a day. It's obviously an app or you can use the website study found that using Babel for 15 hours is equivalent to a full semester at college. Like to remind my child of that with over 16 million subscriptions sold, Babbel's 14 award winning language courses are backed by a 20 day money back guarantee. So get talking with Babbel. We want you to learn another language. So I'm teaming up with Babel to give you 55% off subscriptions@babel.com majority get 55% off@babel.com majority that's 50 up to 55% off. It's spelled B A B B E L B A b b e l.com Majority babel.com Majority rules and restrictions may apply. We'll put the information in the podcast and YouTube description and folks, as you know it is October 1st and you know what that means. It's officially the spooky season. So it's time for you to get ready for Halloween. You're going to decorate your yard if you have one skeletons or you watch an unhealthy number of horror movies. Stock up on candy for the trick or treaters. But what about for you? What are you going to be doing when the mayhem starts to go out? Well, Sunset Lake has got you covered. 30% off all of their Sabad gummies with the Coupon code just treats 25. Sunset Lakes Vibe Gummies provide a gentle daytime lift with 30 milligrams of SAB a day and a micro dose of 1 milligram to het say my father is now using those to go to bed, that is. I hope I'm not speaking out of turn.
- [25:04]
Emma Vigland
Good development.
- [25:05]
Sam Seder
If you like something with a little more oomph, check out their Delta Nah gummies which contain 5mg of THA and 50mg of SABA day. Or if you prefer, attach a free experience. They got Sour bear gummies with 25 milligrams of Seb a day. Perfect for any time of the day. Of course I'm always chopping on these Focus gummies. They got relaxed gummies. They got a whole array. They have the good night gummies with melatonin. They've got a whole bunch of gummies and right now 30% off with the coupon code just treats 25 as in year 2025. So sunset like sabade.com use the code just treats 25. You will save 30% on all their gummies for sleep, for focus, for relaxation, for a little bit of Fun. Sale ends October 8th at 11:59pm Eastern. See their site for terms and conditions. We'll put that link in the podcast and YouTube descriptions. And as always, left is best will get you 20% off at that site as well. Quick break and then Jesse Coburn. We are back. Sam Cedar, Emma Vigland on the Majority Report. Joining us now, Jesse COBURN, reporter at ProPublica, covering housing, transportation, cities and infrastructure. That's a big portfolio, Jesse, and I would imagine most of the news, not great.
- [27:09]
Jesse Coburn
Yeah, hasn't been a great news cycle for my beat recently.
- [27:13]
Sam Seder
But let's talk about specifically in terms of housing and what's been going on at hud. HUD started off, it seems like their first agenda was to roll back any actions that they were doing to protect tenants or reverse discrimination. Just fill us in on that or, you know, maybe even just give us a tick tock through the Trump administration up to this point.
- [27:41]
Jesse Coburn
Sure. So Trump nominated Scott Turner to be his HUD secretary. Scott Turner is a deeply conservative Republican from Texas who served in the first Trump administration on his Opportunity Zone Council in the White House. And they wasted no time implementing his vision for housing policy at hud. You know, massive layoffs at the agency pretty much right away. There are a number of Doge staffers at HUD who were, you know, implementing lots of reforms right away. The first wing of HUD that really took a hit was the Fair Housing Office. That's the part of HUD that investigates and enforces, you know, housing discrimination and segregation laws. There are really steep cuts there.
- [28:34]
Sam Seder
And, and just ask you, the Fair Housing, does that cover all housing issues across the board, private and public, or just specifically with any type of public housing or Section eight?
- [28:48]
Jesse Coburn
Private and public. So, you know, private landlords discriminating against their tenants, you know, wanting to kick out a tenant because a woman is pregnant and wants to have a kid, or, you know, mortgage lenders who refuse to lend in black neighborhoods or, or cities that are engaging in wholesale segregationist policies. That's the sort of thing that that part of HUD goes after. And that work has really kind of ground to a halt under the Trump administration. They've shut down many major investigations into fair housing. I think that that office's staff has dropped by half, sort of just really gumming up the works of fair housing enforcement. And then on the housing assistance side of things, recently ProPublica obtained two proposals from the Trump administration, still unpublished, to dramatically change public housing. Section 8 housing vouchers, basically the nation's major rental assistance programs that serve some of the country's poorest residents by basically what the administration wants to do, we found, was to implement or to allow housing providers to impose pretty harsh work requirements and term limits on receiving that sort of assistance.
- [30:04]
Sam Seder
And so when we talk about hud, those are the two functions basically it serves. It's either protecting people's rights in the context of housing or providing some type of housing assistance.
- [30:17]
Jesse Coburn
Yeah, I mean, they actually do a lot more than that as well. Those are the main functions. They also give out billions of dollars in grants to communities across the country for community development programs. They actually do a lot of disaster release relief stuff which most people associate with fema. HUD does a lot of that as the housing finance is housed within HUD as well. So, you know, mortgage policy stuff that's also happening at hud.
- [30:41]
Emma Vigland
I mean, I just want to note, just because of the irony of all of this, that Trump back in the 70s, was sued by the DOJ for racial discrimination at his own properties and.
- [30:51]
Sam Seder
He had a consent decree.
- [30:53]
Emma Vigland
Yeah, I mean, this goes back very, very deep into his political history. Although the Republicans are all about this generally, but.
- [31:01]
Jesse Coburn
That's right.
- [31:02]
Emma Vigland
Go ahead.
- [31:03]
Sam Seder
All right, well, let's. So walk us through the. The idea is, how do we kick, I mean, from their perspective, how do we kick as many people out of public housing or public housing support through a Section 8 program? How do we do that as much as possible without explicitly saying we're going to do that? I mean, that's sort of what they did with Medicaid as well. We're just, they pretended they're cutting undocumented people from it, and they're just. They're just cutting people from it. And so walk us through what they are, what those requirements, or I should say, what those levers they're going to use to eliminate people, the help that we give people in terms of housing.
- [31:56]
Jesse Coburn
Sure. So HUD has drafted two major rules that it hasn't formally introduced yet, but seems likely that it will, that would just dramatically overhaul how these federal housing assistance programs work. The first rule would allow public housing providers and private landlords that rent to tenants, supported by things like Section 8 housing vouchers, to require those tenants to work in order to continue to live in that federally assisted housing. And it would allow those housing providers to kick those tenants out after two years. So, you know, if you live in public housing, you've been living there for 30 years, you know, you might have to leave two years from now, and you might have to work full time in those intervening two years.
- [32:38]
Sam Seder
Okay, wait a second. So those are two separate requirements. Right. You're saying you're only limited to public housing for two years, which is. I Mean anybody who's moved knows like there's a cost associated with that. Not to mention that there's no guarantee that you're going to be able to afford other housing. So these are two separate requirements. One is the automatic kickout after two years and then the other is the work requirements. Let's take the, the work requirements. A landlord who's getting Section 8 vouchers can be in charge of assessing whether you are working or not. And like, like that sounds like one of the most effed up things I've ever heard aside from. And we'll get into sort of the generic implications of so called work requirements. But is this every member of a household, Is it just one member of a household? How does it work?
- [33:33]
Jesse Coburn
So the work requirements would apply to quote, unquote, work eligible adults. So basically if you're elderly or disabled, you wouldn't know. A housing provider could require this of you. And there are other smaller carve outs if you're pregnant, if you're a college student, this couldn't apply to you. But for pretty much every other work eligible adult and that includes parents of children. So if you have a child ages 7 or older, this could apply to you also.
- [34:02]
Sam Seder
So wait, aren't we supposed to be encouraging stay at home moms?
- [34:08]
Jesse Coburn
Yeah, well, you know, I think, you know, this administration, Scott Turner in particular, you know, they strongly associate welfare with this idea of broken families, single parent households and you know, and this sort of culture of dependency on government assistance. And so I think that's really what.
- [34:25]
Emma Vigland
They'Re targeting here and just to paint a picture for people because the overall numbers you cite in your piece are really horrifying. Four million people could lose federal housing assistance under these two new rules. And for folks that are unaware, it's like what the average in terms of people's income, average family is making less than $20,000 annually that is reliant on this federal assistance. So to Sam's point about moving to all of these kinds of points about having a private landlord allowing them to see if you are working and having them come to you and they can evict you based on that, assessing your disability. Yes.
- [35:13]
Sam Seder
I mean it's horrifying saying that you're, I don't recognize the college you're going to. I mean what like there's a whole like the amount of problems involved in that is seems stunning to me. And these are all just like, these would all just be civil actions, I guess, on the part of the landlord. Right. Or like to just sue and then have the payments on Section 8 cut off. But I imagine we have an administration that's going to be very open to the idea of it being challenged and maybe even like a default agree with the landlord unless proven otherwise. Yeah.
- [35:49]
Jesse Coburn
And I think another thing you could see is you could see states adopting laws that say if you rent to section 8 renters or if you're a public housing authority in our state, you have to have work requirements, you have to have term limits. So you could see this sort of being adopted de facto by whole states.
- [36:09]
Sam Seder
I think you mentioned in your piece about this, Georgia's experiment with work requirements for Medicaid recipients. We've talked about it many times in this program, but just retell what they found with that experiment.
- [36:26]
Jesse Coburn
I'm actually not familiar with that experiment, but I did look a little bit into the research generally on work requirements in welfare programs. And apparently what researchers have primarily found is that they don't really effectively promote employment, but they are very effective at removing people from benefits. So, so they're good at kicking people off of benefits. They're not terribly effective at getting people who receive benefits to work more.
- [36:54]
Sam Seder
Well, sorry, I may have seen that somewhere else, but I'll just remind people that in Georgia, not only did it do the things that you talked about, it also ended up costing an extra like $600 million because apparently there's work to be done to find out if somebody has worked. And so you need to build that apparatus. Where are we now and how is the government shutdown going to affect things?
- [37:20]
Jesse Coburn
I think that, you know, these proposals are probably on ice for the time being. The big news out of HUD yesterday related to the shutdown was there is a massive banner across the webpage that was basically blaming the shutdown on Democrats. I think that something that other federal agencies have been putting out as well, that sort of messaging. But you know, they talked about introducing these requirements in the last Trump administration. They never got around to it. But I think the fact that they, you know, already have rules drafted this early in the second Trump administration indicates that they're serious about putting this through. And I just want to mention the second rule as well, because we haven't touched on it, which is targeting basically immigrant households receiving federal housing assistance. These are so called mixed status families in which some members of the household are in the country legally and eligible for assistance and others are not, either because they're undocumented or they have some other immigration status that makes them ineligible for benefits. HUD wants to kick all of those households out of federally assisted housing. So the way it's worked so far is that the government has allowed those people to be supported by federal housing programs, but it prorates the subsidy they receive so that the government is not actually providing any financial assistance to the undocumented family members. But now HUD is saying, no, we want all of those people to leave. And so under this other rule, those 20,000 families would likely be kicked out. 16,000 of those families are families with kids. So that's who this would be affecting. And as part of that rule, HUD also wants to require that anyone who applies for or receives housing assistance, anyone in public housing or Section 8, if they're a citizen, they have to prove it. So they have to either provide a birth certificate or a passport to show that they're actually citizens. And sort of, to your point, Sam, earlier, about the administrative costs of all this, it's going to create this massive bureaucracy and kind of red tape around housing assistance that experts who I spoke to think is going to result in a lot of people just being kicked off of their benefits simply because they don't have a birth certificate or they don't have time to go get one or whatever, or it's going to create these massive administrative overhead costs for these public housing authorities who suddenly you are like the passport checkers of the whole federal housing program. So that's the other rule that's also in the works right now.
- [39:39]
Emma Vigland
And this is all in the shadow of the Faircloth Amendment, which I still think does not get enough attention. The idea that we have had a cap on the construction of federal public housing since 1998 or 1999 or whatever since it's been passed. Like these are. It's already a threadbare system, whether it's public housing or, you know, Section eight or what you're talking about, or the subsidization for some of these other privately held units and living spaces, there's just not enough public housing as there is, let alone what we're seeing in terms of them trying to kick people out based on racist and xenophobic ends. Explicitly with the immigration piece.
- [40:24]
Sam Seder
Yeah.
- [40:25]
Jesse Coburn
And I think what's worth noting here as well is what the administration, what its overall picture for housing is. I mean, if you look at the Trump budget proposal, they want to cut public housing, Section 8, these rental assistance programs, by like nearly 50%. They want to turn these programs into block grants, basically just hand them over to the states and say you deal with it. So, you know, their ambition is to dramatically curtail the federal government's efforts to help poor people afford housing.
- [40:51]
Sam Seder
And just to be clear, if I am a single mother of two, my children were born here in the United States. They are American citizens because we still have birthright citizenship in this country. I am undocumented or my visa has expired, or I am still, at this point, people are getting deported, even if they have documents and are in the process of applying for citizenship or applying for a green card or applying for any other type of visa. So I don't even want to say undocumented necessarily. The federal government gives me not three portions, essentially, of Section 8 funding, but two for the three of us. So we either have to live in a smaller apartment than would be called for for an individual with two kids, or we subsidize it in some fashion. Everybody gets kicked out. Under this Trump proposal, these kids are essentially made unhoused.
- [42:08]
Jesse Coburn
That's right. And what's interesting about that is because the government isn't subsidizing everyone in those mixed households. Those households actually pay more. And so by enacting this proposal of kicking out all the immigrant mixed households and replacing them with fully eligible households, it's going to cost the federal government, like, an additional hundreds of millions of dollars every year to provide federal housing assistance. So, you know, for a government that is reportedly obsessed with cutting costs, this is actually going to dramatically increase costs for this administration.
- [42:42]
Sam Seder
Yeah, I mean, this is really just a way of cutting out this program and using, again, immigrants as the sort of like a selling tool. I mean, we're seeing this right now with the whole government shutdown.
- [43:01]
Jesse Coburn
Yeah, I mean, it's certainly of a piece with, you know, everything the administration is doing, you know, on the issue of immigration and, you know, and everything the administration has been doing in the housing space on immigration. I mean, HUD and DHS in March announced a data sharing agreement targeting mixed status households. Recently, the Washington examiner, the right wing news outlet, reported, based on HUD sourcing, apparently, that HUD wants to demand that every public housing authority, there's like 3,000 of them across the country, identify all of the mixed households to it. So, you know, there's been this sort of broad effort to identify all these families and so that it can kick them out.
- [43:41]
Sam Seder
Do we know if ICE has been sort of like ramping up its, its enforcement using the data they're getting from hud?
- [43:53]
Jesse Coburn
I looked into that a few months ago and spoke to public housing authorities across the country, and none of them really describe any uptick in ICE activity at their housing estates. I think it's maybe more of a practical issue than an ideological one. These mixed families are kind of scattered across the country. I mean, most of them are in California, Texas and New York. But within New York, there might be a handful here, handful there. And so it's not really as efficient as posting up an immigration court, for example, where you know that people who are coming through are going to potentially have immigration issues. There's also an issue of if you're trying to enter someone's private apartment, they technically need to give you permission in order for you to be able to enter, unless you have a certain type of warrant. So it's much easier to nab undocumented people in public space, which is why I think we haven't seen large scale raids in public housing yet.
- [44:52]
Sam Seder
Jesse COBURN, reporter of ProPublica, covering housing, transportation, cities and infrastructure. We're going to link to your pieces on this HUD memo and really appreciate your time today.
- [45:07]
Jesse Coburn
Yeah, thanks for having me.
- [45:08]
Emma Vigland
Thanks so much.
- [45:08]
Sam Seder
All right, folks, quick break. When we come back, Antonio Delgado, lieutenant governor of New York State, also candidate for governor in the 2026 Democratic gubernatorial primary. We'll be right back after this. We are back. Sam Cedar, Emma Vigland on the Majority report. It's a pleasure to welcome to the program. Antonio Delgado is the current lieutenant governor of New York State and also a candidate in the Democratic gubernatorial primary in 2026. Lieutenant Governor, welcome to the program.
- [46:04]
Antonio Delgado
Thanks for having me. Good to be here with you.
- [46:09]
Sam Seder
It's pretty it's not typical to see a lieutenant governor running against a sitting governor. And in fact, Hochul was the one, I believe appointed you at one point when she became governor. What give us a sense of why you made this decision.
- [46:36]
Antonio Delgado
Status quo is broken. It's not working for people. Every single day, every day, New Yorkers are being left behind. And what I have learned is absent bold, decisive, transformational change in this moment, we're not going to be in a position to restore people's confidence in this thing we call democracy. Just as a point of reference, in New York, one out of four folks are unable to afford basic necessities, basic needs. One out of four, two out of five households cannot afford basic necessities. Across the state, whether it's upstate, downstate, urban, rural, doesn't make a difference. People are being left behind. One in five kids in poverty, half those kids in deep poverty. And oh, by the way, a $254 billion budget right here in New York, third largest economy in the country if an independent nation, the ninth in the entire world, meanwhile, the largest wealth inequality gap of any state in the country. So here we are, the great blue state of New York and we're exacerbating economic inequality, which in my estimation is the poison pill of democracy. So until we actually right size this and move beyond the old guard establishment, broken system, machine politicians, we're not going to be able to fix this.
- [47:51]
Sam Seder
Expand on that notion of wealth inequality because that's something that we tend to talk about quite a bit around here. How does it end up breaking down democracy and also sort of the material condition of people?
- [48:08]
Antonio Delgado
Well, when I was growing up, so I grew up in Schenectady, working class family. My parents worked for General Electric back when GE had a major presence in upstate New York. I cut coupons, put clothes on, lay away, latchkey kid, come home, do my homework, leave it on the counter. I watched my parents work us up into the middle class and I actually believed, and my parents did too, that I had a better than 50, 50 chance of having a better quality of life. That story of upward mobility is essential to any growing sense of confidence in democracy. This idea of equal opportunity for all. Since my generation, I'm Gen X since my generation, the folks coming up behind us actually are going to do worse off. Worse off. Right now the average first time homeowner age is around 40. 20 years ago it was 28. The average rent right now is 7 times income. 30, 40 years ago it was 3 times. So even just the price of admission into opportunity on the part of the generation coming up behind us is too high to engage. And so if you're being priced out of the project of democracy, why even believe in it in the first place, right? Why do you actually decide to hold onto it if it's not giving you anything in return? So there's a sense of economic nihilism that sets in that is pervasive across race, across geography now. And I think it's fundamentally undermining our democratic system. Two thirds of folks right now can't pay, are actually living paycheck to paycheck. You know, they literally cannot survive right now beyond what's literally coming into them on a weekly basis in the richest country the world has ever known. And meanwhile, corporations are making more money than they've ever made and paying less in taxes. Those two things shouldn't go together. So yes, it is a profound sense of undermining when it comes to the very essence of what a democracy is meant to do, and that is to not Leave communities behind. But in fact, we have government actors on both sides of the aisle right now who are reinforcing economic inequality at the expense of everyday New Yorkers and everyday Americans.
- [50:13]
Emma Vigland
And I think that was kind of a fatal flaw in the 2024 Harris campaign with the focus on democracy, where it's how are you going to get people to buy into a system that has not been working for them? And there was not requisite acknowledgement of that, which it seems like your campaign is trying to correct. And I found it interesting. You know, you have a different approach to housing, which is arguably the biggest issue for New Yorkers, one of the biggest issues in the country. And you have a difference in strategy than Governor Hochul here, more focused on subsidies. What is your housing proposal for New York state, and how does it differentiate from the current governor?
- [50:57]
Antonio Delgado
I appreciate that the. The housing crisis is fundamental, and the strategy, and not just here in New York, I argue across the country with regards to democratic politics, is to leverage the private marketplace, and in particular big developers with tax credits, with the hopes that they ultimately build affordable housing. And essentially you outsource all of the state's capacity, both administratively, technically speaking, and you just say, please, private sector, with all your infinite wisdom, devised for us affordable housing when we know the driving mechanism for those private actors is profit. So here we are trying to work out a public good in partnership with the private sector, but the private sector has all the leverage because the private sector then uses its money to compromise political actors to give them what they want in exchange for what's called affordable housing. Why not build up our own state capacity, leverage the public dollars that we have, and then have statewide programs that give money directly to New Yorkers. So, for example, a statewide rental assistance program. Right now we have 7 out of 10 New Yorkers who are eligible for HUD rental assistance. And right now, our governor has proposed a $50 million pilot program. I would suggest a $250 million statewide program that lifts up all folks who are in need. Or how about a statewide first time homeowner grant program so that all those young families who are being priced out of the economy, priced out of the American dream, can actually have public dollars reinforce them at a time of real critical need? That, to me, is the difference. It's taking public dollars and investing them directly in public goods as opposed to taking public dollars and hoping through the lens of neoliberalism that the private sector and the free market will somehow work it all out for everybody else. That's just a more sophisticated version of trickle down economics, if you ask me.
- [52:54]
Sam Seder
Let's talk about universal health care. What does that mean when the rubber meets the road in the context of A, what you can do in New York State as opposed to on a federal level, and B, what it means relative to the question of affordability, you know, how much healthcare insurance or actual healthcare are you talking about providing versus making it broadly affordable?
- [53:29]
Antonio Delgado
I support the New York Health act, which would create a single payer system right here in New York. The thing that I, that drives me wild, crazy about health care is this idea that we're not paying for health care, we're paying for insurance. We're paying for companies to basically extract as much profit as they possibly can at our expense. And that is basically the entirety of our system. And the notion that we're going to continue to allow folks to go bankrupt, continue to be denied over and over and over again, continue to have to go through God knows how many obstacles just to appeal a denial is insane. When we are literally in the richest country the world has ever known, and on top of that, one of the richest states, we have the capacity here to actually sustain ourselves and the cost savings, upwards of $60 billion annually. Once you get beyond the insurance company's bureaucracy, middlemen, infrastructure, red tape, and of course the profiteering mentality, you get beyond all those components and the savings actually start pouring in. And ultimately it's a moral question too. Who are we as a nation if we're not prepared to treat health care as a genuine human right? So both morally, economically and I would say even politically now, where we have an actor right now in Washington who is dead set on gutting health care, gutting Medicaid, gutting the entire social safety net, New York has a responsibility to lead in this moment. We have the wherewithal. We are the financial capital of the world. We have among the most billionaires, the most millionaires. We have the capacity to lead in this moment and demonstrate for all of us, America, what it means to actually not leave anybody behind.
- [55:07]
Sam Seder
Give us a sense of like, you know, how you're going to do this, both as a, as an, as an electoral, as an electoral question, but also in terms of like the coalitions, right? I mean, there's big money in New York. New York is a very, very diverse state. You were a congressperson in between the 18th and the 19th, which used to be the old 19th and 20th, that district, the 20th in particular, which just a little bit north of where you, the congressman was a very sort of like pivotal District. Gillibrand served there go either way, as we've seen. And at one point there was like the new. The Congressman Sweeney who was in the.
- [56:03]
Antonio Delgado
Let me, let me, let me, let me clarify one thing. So I just want to be clear, just so, because I'll make sure the listener knows the. The district that you're referring to is actually redrawn in 2010.
- [56:14]
Sam Seder
Yes.
- [56:14]
Antonio Delgado
And then I ran in 2000. I ran eight years later in 2018. When it was drawn in 2010, no Democrat, including Gillibrand, no Democrat had ever won the district as drawn. 2010, it was a 90% white district. It was the 8th most ruled congressional seat in the entire country. Obama did win the 19th in 2008. Trump, though, won that the district in 2016 by seven points. And at that point, no Democrat had ever won the district. So when I ran and we flipped that seat, I became the first person of color to represent upstate New York in Congress, the first Democrat to actually represent the district. And then we won it again in 2020 by 12 points and outperformed Biden by 10 and won eight counties that Trump himself won at the same time in 2020. And so to take your question, where I think it's going, we can build a coalition here that is rooted in a populist message that speaks to the economic pain that our small family owned farms, over 5,000 were in my old district, the 27,000 small businesses on those mom and pop stores across those main streets in those rural areas that I saw decimated both prior to Covid and during COVID who are being left behind by the concentration of power and monopolies. We have an opportunity to connect that pain to every other New Yorker in the Bronx and Manhattan, to the Teamster truck driver, to the young family or the young mother who's trying to work a job in a factory or somebody's working in a bodega. We have the ability to connect all this economic pain across race and across location in this state in a way that I don't think has happened in a very, very long time. And it's been long, long overdue. And that is how you build a coalition. That's why I was proud to get the endorsement of Citizen Action, a people power grassroots campaign. I don't take corporate PAC money. I take people's resources, the people's desire to want to fight for something deeper than what we currently have. Governor Hochul, she does take corporate PAC money. She's entrenched in corporate power. There's a key distinction here. And I think there's a real appetite for having the kind of candidates in government who can work beyond concentrated corporate power and tie their mission to the people's mission.
- [58:38]
Sam Seder
Give us a sense of one of the things that may be on the the plate of the next governor is working with the potential new mayor in Zoran Mamdani. Knock on wood. Give me your perspective towards this because when Mamdani was first won the primary, and I think maybe prior to that, Hochul seemed to be rather cynical about his opportunity to implement agendas that he's been talking about implementing in the city, which, you know, frankly are not particularly anything that we haven't seen. Maybe in Massachusetts or in Georgia. I mean, most of those ideas have all been implemented in one place or another. What's your perspective on the potential of working with Zora Mamdani?
- [59:33]
Antonio Delgado
I endorse, madame. Within the first 24 hours of his victory. One he's the Democratic nominee and I think it speaks volumes that so called leaders of the Democratic Party wouldn't rally around the Democratic nominee. That speaks to a sort of outdated mindset of risk calculus that I think is way behind the times and not remotely what we need right now in this moment. The fact the governor finally came around to support Imami months and months later I think is a testament to the fact of what we're actually building in terms of my campaign and the grassroots movement that is going to continue to put a lot of pressure on her throughout this process. What Mondame is proposing requires something very important. It requires raising taxes on billionaires. It requires raising taxes on big corporations who fund the programs that he's talking about. The governor may have endorsement three months late. She's also though refused to say she will raise taxes. Billionaires. She will raise taxes on big corporations. And her logic, by the way, is she's afraid that they will move to Palm Beach. Now last time I checked, the vast majority of folks who are leaving the state of New York make between 30 and $60,000 a year because they're being priced out of New York and they're not moving to Palm Beach. So it speaks to who she surrounds herself with, typically the donor class, which is why she's divorced from the reality of everyday New Yorkers. So yes, I'm very excited to work with somebody like Zoran who understands in this moment that to say you want to address the affordability crisis is not enough. You have to be willing to attack economic inequality. If you actually want to address the affordability crisis. You have to be willing to have a desire to say we have to redistribute and reallocate resources in a way that will lift up all communities. It is not a sustainable endeavor. And the notion that is a non starter for her, it speaks volumes in my opinion.
- [61:35]
Sam Seder
Lastly, in the event that you become governor, what role does a New York play versus Illinois or a Massachusetts or, you know, I mean, California, obviously. Fifth largest economy in the world. What role does it play in terms of a national model in your mind?
- [61:59]
Antonio Delgado
I think it's a great. It's a great question to end on, because that's what keeps me up at night is what is New York's role right now? You know, obviously the goal is to protect New Yorkers and fight for all New Yorkers, but this is New York. You know, this has long been the state that has been the beacon of hope for the world over. You know, whether it's our immigrant community, whether it's those who have been fighting the good fight for women's rights, for the suffrage movement, the founding of the naacp, the labor movement, the LGBTQ movement, Stonewall. There's so much that this state has historically been a part of when it comes to progress and living up to our democratic ideals. And there's a reason why I think Trump is so aggressively, despite being a New Yorker himself, I think he understands what New York represents to New Yorkers and to the country and to the world. And we are the tip of the spear when it comes to perfecting our union as a nation. In my estimation, we're also the financial capital of the world. Right. So we're resourced, we're multicultural. You know, we're the epicenter of tolerance and compassion, of diversity and equity and inclusion. You know, we are the embodiment of everything Trump is trying to tear down. And it is incumbent upon us to have leadership in this moment that is determined to meet the moment. And that is not a political mindset, to be to be clear. It's not. It's a moral mindset. If you're not willing to think beyond your self preservation and your political positioning in this moment, then you shouldn't be in the business of public service. Matter of fact, you probably should never have been, but certainly not in this moment, because Trump is beyond politics. He's a chaos agent. He's a morally bankrupt chaos agent that feeds off of our anxieties, off our fears, and does so in a very destructive, destructive, but uninhibited, destructive manner. We need uninhibited love, uninhibited compassion, uninhibited truth that has to go beyond your typical left, right divide. That's how I won in upstate New York, won over Trump voters. That's how we can win this entire state. But I think New York in particular has a moment to lead, and I don't feel it right now. There's a massive void and one of the biggest, most important stages in this country and in the world. So I think we have an opportunity here to really step up and fight and make it clear to folks that New York is here to defend what we've long represented and to make sure we have a future.
- [64:31]
Emma Vigland
And I know that was a great last question, but I'll just add, let me add one more because I didn't want to forget this in speaking about that. Do you have plans, if you are elected governor, to support, say, state divestment from the state of Israel? And do you recognize the notion that it is committing genocide, as the United nations has basically found?
- [64:58]
Antonio Delgado
What I have said, and I've said this repeatedly, you know, whether folks want to call it a genocide or not, what's most important to me is we cannot fund it. And I do, and I publicly said that we should not be arming the destruction of Gaza. We need a permanent ceasefire. We need to make sure there's humanitarian aid that goes directly into Gaza, and we need to make sure that we do not in any way shape or form continue and enable the destruction of innocent lives in Gaza. And so we as Americans have a responsibility, in my estimation, a moral responsibility, to make sure that we are not putting ourselves in a position, we are enabling this moral abomination.
- [65:38]
Sam Seder
Antonio Delgado, where can folks get more information if they want to help your campaign in one form or another? Where should people go? Presumably online, but I guess you probably have office.
- [65:53]
Antonio Delgado
Delgado for New York. Delgado4ny.com Delgado for New York. Delgado for NY.com and I will note, since you brought up support, New York has a public matching campaign. First time ever that the state is going to have a statewide elected race where the public will match, the state will match donations six to one. Any donation between $5 and $200 will get matched six to one. And we will hopefully become, I will become the first statewide candidate to qualify for public matching dollars. Truly making this a people powered campaign. That is to me most important in this endeavor to make sure that people understand this is a campaign grounded in the will of the people and not a few.
- [66:45]
Sam Seder
We're going to link to Delgado for New York@majority.fm. again, Lieutenant Governor, thanks so much for your time today. Really appreciate it.
- [66:55]
Antonio Delgado
Thank you for having me.
- [66:56]
Emma Vigland
Thanks so much.
- [66:58]
Sam Seder
All right, folks, that's the. That's the show. I found him pretty impressive. It was being a little bit, you know. Okay, last question.
- [67:16]
Matt
You guys avoided asking the real question.
- [67:18]
Emma Vigland
What was the real question?
- [67:20]
Matt
Where are the med beds?
- [67:21]
Emma Vigland
Oh, right.
- [67:22]
Sam Seder
Oh, yeah, we forgot to. We forgot to ask if he would be in favor of med beds. Every American will soon receive their own med bed card.
- [67:29]
Emma Vigland
Yeah, I like the, the, at least the supporting. Of course, you know, the, the reality of, you know, not funding it. That's what we can appreciate as well.
- [67:38]
Sam Seder
I also just want to say, like, you know, I have pretty good knowledge of that district that he came from. And again, the. The lines of that district between the 18th and 19th and what used to be the 19th and the 20th over the course of the past 20, 25 years have shifted. But that area really does have a real interesting mix of socio and economic and. And racial mix between Poughkeepsie and Dutchess county. And then across the river, Pat Ryan is now the representative of that. Of that district. Not great on things like immigration necessarily, but very good on stuff like on an economic populist vision and also very good on an awareness of partisanship, at least from congressional standpoint. Within the context of New York, that partisanship is really sort of less relevant because the Republican Party is increasingly irrelevant in this state. And it's really just a fight between corporate would be Republican Democrats and Democrats who have a, you know, a more populous vision. So that was.
- [69:08]
Emma Vigland
That's awesome.
- [69:09]
Sam Seder
Was good.
- [69:11]
Emma Vigland
Looking forward to supporting him in the primary.
- [69:14]
Sam Seder
Indeed. Yeah, indeed.
- [69:16]
Emma Vigland
It'll be fun. It's going to be so great to, you know, get closer to the midterms and we see hopefully some of these candidates, I mean, emerging even more and more.
- [69:26]
Sam Seder
Yeah, it's good stuff.
- [69:27]
Matt
Hulk is going to need to ride those buses and start talking about congestion price and a little bit more.
- [69:33]
Emma Vigland
Yeah, yeah.
- [69:34]
Sam Seder
How. How she had a huge success with the congestion pricing on number four or whatever it was.
- [69:41]
Matt
Bend it from Trump. Okay, thanks.
- [69:42]
Emma Vigland
Okay. After stopping it because Hakeem Jeffries was worried that, like, about, I mean, House Democrats being on the front lines. They were. And then turns out it's just a popular policy that everyone loves and you shouldn't be afraid of.
- [69:55]
Sam Seder
I will also say that I appreciate him referring to the so called Democratic leadership in the state.
- [70:06]
Emma Vigland
Yeah.
- [70:09]
Sam Seder
I'm hoping we get a very good candidate against Hakeem Jeffries.
- [70:14]
Antonio Delgado
We'll see.
- [70:19]
Sam Seder
All right. We're going to take a break, head into the fun half of the program wherein Emma will find out that Big Balls apparently was in her replies yesterday on X. According to Nyama, he probably still mad.
- [70:36]
Emma Vigland
About after when he supposedly allegedly got beat up in D.C. i tweeted not so big balls. And that made the rounds a little bit maybe.
- [70:45]
Sam Seder
Hey, my balls are big.
- [70:46]
Jesse Coburn
Yeah.
- [70:46]
Emma Vigland
Monitoring me for balls in their hands.
- [70:53]
Sam Seder
Who.
- [70:54]
Emma Vigland
Yeah, I wish I cared more.
- [70:59]
Matt
Anyway, I thought that was Steve Bannon's burner account, right?
- [71:03]
Emma Vigland
Yes. Yeah, near a tandem's mad at me.
- [71:07]
Sam Seder
Oh, that guy doesn't get many views. There's only 267 views on his.
- [71:12]
Emma Vigland
Is it the real guy?
- [71:13]
Sam Seder
I don't know. I'm gonna trust my friends in the government, folks. Just a reminder, it's your support that makes this show possible. And you can go to jointhemajorityreport.com we.
- [71:25]
Emma Vigland
Don'T have to discuss it.
- [71:28]
Sam Seder
Jointhemajorityreport.com wherein you can help this show survive and thrive. Not only that, you get the free show free of commercials and you get to IMS on the fun half and be the first one to let Emma know that Big Balls has replied to her. Also, don't forget, just coffee co op, rare trade coffee and hot chocolate. Use the coupon code. Majority get 10% off.
- [71:56]
Emma Vigland
Matt.
- [71:57]
Sam Seder
Yeah.
- [71:58]
Matt
Last night left wrecking who we are. 250 subscribers now short of 50k.
- [72:03]
Sam Seder
Come on, people, you got like 200 from that push yesterday. I did, yeah.
- [72:07]
Matt
It was a good push.
- [72:07]
Sam Seder
I got scorning.
- [72:08]
Matt
I gotta really, like, dig those depths more often. We had Gil Duran on talking about Peter Thiel's Anti Christ tour. Gil's great on that. And also had Gwen Howerton talking about the war on trans people in Texas.
- [72:22]
Sam Seder
We were just about talking about having to.
- [72:24]
Emma Vigland
I was immediately a little disappointed because.
- [72:26]
Jesse Coburn
Matt, sorry.
- [72:28]
Emma Vigland
But there you go.
- [72:29]
Matt
Yeah, we swooped in there and got the. Got the big Antichrist scoop. And also we went into. On the post game for patrons of Left Reckoning, Ezra Klein's identity crisis. And you know what his role is. And he doesn't know.
- [72:44]
Emma Vigland
So I listened to more of that last night. I just gotta say, in the first 15 minutes or 20 minutes, there's this section where TA Nehisi Coates talks about, like, how violence is a constant for black people in America and how it's cyclical and his experience about it. And Ezra literally says. He says something about how we. If we expand too far in our historical scope, we can't meet the moment he was. It was the most. I mean, it was the most condescending, dismissive thing I've ever seen about a black man and an intellectual speaking about the history of racial violence in this country. And Ezra basically hand waves it with a bunch of hot air.
- [73:26]
Sam Seder
It's like Antonin Scalia saying, like, look, you know, let's stop giveaways to black people in voting. Come on. In the part where you say.
- [73:35]
Matt
Where Tanisi's like, can you actually say what you think your role is? And Erzo says, I don't know what my role is. He basically, sorry, I lost my train of thought as I was watching Brian put me up. We'll talk about this in the.
- [73:48]
Sam Seder
In the final. Yeah, let's talk about vain. Matt was looking too much like, hey, we're. Wait a sec. I got those baby blues. You're.
- [74:01]
Matt
Put me up for this, Brian.
- [74:04]
Sam Seder
Have I got to do shoulder work twice a week now or. What's going on?
- [74:09]
Matt
Get my lats out.
- [74:14]
Sam Seder
All right, folks. Oh, I will be. Oh, yeah. Well, I'm going to be gone anyways through Thursday. But to those of you who celebrate Good Yontif, uh, tonight, it is a. Obviously, it is the holiest night of the year for Jews, and it's even more holy for those of us who come from Massachusetts, because this is the traditional. If you grew up in this way, where you had to go to Kol Nidra services and half the people you knew were wearing transistor radios because the Red Sox are playing in the. In the. The playoffs. So this is a particular holy night where you cold nidray. And the night where the socks sweep. So we catch me wearing forest green at Yankee Stadium. That's right. Yes. Brian's going to the game tonight. I'm so jealous.
- [75:08]
Emma Vigland
You made a. You made the mistake.
- [75:11]
Sam Seder
You.
- [75:11]
Emma Vigland
You made a prediction where you should not. Because that means that this is not.
- [75:15]
Matt
Emma thinks you just.
- [75:16]
Emma Vigland
You just destroyed your chances.
- [75:19]
Sam Seder
Prediction.
- [75:19]
Antonio Delgado
I thought you just said it was happening.
- [75:21]
Sam Seder
Yeah, it's not a prediction. It's happening.
- [75:23]
Emma Vigland
Yeah. Yeah.
- [75:24]
Sam Seder
The sweep.
- [75:24]
Emma Vigland
Yeah. Kamala Hare is gonna sweep all the swing states.
- [75:28]
Sam Seder
I didn't say that.
- [75:29]
Emma Vigland
Yeah, well.
- [75:32]
Sam Seder
Yeah. It's not the next. It's not the Giants. Yes. Despite the fact that I am going to celebrate a religious holiday, I don't believe in magic.
- [75:44]
Emma Vigland
Okay?
- [75:45]
Sam Seder
So I just believe in. In the socks. All right, we'll see you in the final 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 gonna look back and go like, wow. What? What is that going on? It's nuts. Wait a second. Hold on.
- [76:20]
Jesse Coburn
Hold on for a second.
- [76:24]
Sam Seder
Emma. Welcome to the program. What is up, everyone? Fun pack. No. Mi Keen. You did it. Fun. Pat.
- [76:36]
Emma Vigland
Let's go, Brandon.
- [76:37]
Antonio Delgado
Let's go, Brandon.
- [76:41]
Sam Seder
Bradley, you want to say hello? Sorry to disappoint everyone. I'm just a random guy. It's all the boys today.
- [76:47]
Emma Vigland
Fundamentally false. No. I'm sorry.
- [76:49]
Sam Seder
Women. Stop talking for a second. Let me finish.
- [76:52]
Antonio Delgado
Where is this coming from?
- [76:53]
Emma Vigland
Dude?
- [76:54]
Sam Seder
But. Dude, you want to smoke this? 7A.
- [76:58]
Emma Vigland
Yes.
- [77:01]
Jesse Coburn
Hi, sweetie.
- [77:03]
Mike Johnson
Is this me?
- [77:04]
Sam Seder
Yes. Is this me? Is it me? It is you. Is this me?
- [77:14]
Jesse Coburn
Oh, it's me.
- [77:15]
Sam Seder
I think it is you. Who is you. No sound. Every single freaking day. What's on your mind, sport?
- [77:24]
Antonio Delgado
We can discuss free markets and we can discuss capitalism.
- [77:27]
Sam Seder
I'm going to go smart. Libertarians. They're so stupid. Though common sense says of course.
- [77:32]
Emma Vigland
Gobbledygook.
- [77:33]
Sam Seder
We nailed him.
- [77:35]
Emma Vigland
So what's 79? 21.
- [77:37]
Sam Seder
Challenge, man.
- [77:37]
Antonio Delgado
I'm positively quivering.
- [77:39]
Sam Seder
I believe 96. I want to say 857. 210.
- [77:42]
Emma Vigland
500. 1.
- [77:43]
Sam Seder
1/ 2. 3. 8. 911.
- [77:46]
Jesse Coburn
For instance.
- [77:47]
Emma Vigland
$3,400. 1900.
- [77:49]
Sam Seder
5. Have 4. $3 trillion. Sold. It's a zero sum game, actually.
- [77:55]
Emma Vigland
You're making me think less.
- [77:56]
Antonio Delgado
But.
- [77:56]
Sam Seder
But let me say this. You can call it satire.
- [78:00]
Antonio Delgado
Sam goes satire on top of it all. My favorite part about you is just.
- [78:05]
Emma Vigland
Like every day, all day, like everything you do.
- [78:08]
Sam Seder
Without a doubt. Hey, buddy. We see you. All right, folks, folks, folks.
- [78:18]
Emma Vigland
It's just the week being weeded out. Obviously.
- [78:21]
Sam Seder
Yeah. Sun's out, guns out.
- [78:26]
Jesse Coburn
I. I don't know. But you should know.
- [78:30]
Mike Johnson
People just don't.
- [78:31]
Sam Seder
Like to entertain ideas anymore. I have a question. Who cares?
- [78:37]
Jesse Coburn
Our chat is enabled, folks.
- [78:39]
Sam Seder
I love it.
- [78:40]
Emma Vigland
I do love that.
- [78:43]
Sam Seder
Gotta jump. Gotta be quick. I gotta jump. I'm losing it, bro. Two o'. Clock. We're already late and the guy's being a dick, so screw him. Sent to a gulag.
- [78:55]
Emma Vigland
Outrageous.
- [78:56]
Sam Seder
Like, what is wrong with you? Love you. Bye. Love you.
- [79:03]
Antonio Delgado
Bye.
- [79:03]
Sam Seder
Bye.