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Sam Cedar
I'm gonna tell you something. The other day when Emma was on the program and she said that she was hungover, honestly, the first.
Emma Vigland
What are you doing?
Sam Cedar
What? You said it.
Emma Vigland
Oh, yeah.
Sam Cedar
Well, you can. Okay. So the. Honestly, the first thought I had and I didn't want to get into it on air was, oh, good thing you didn't. Why didn't you. Why didn't you have your zbiotics?
Emma Vigland
Well, I forgot, but now we know that I was actually getting really sick, so I have an excuse.
Sam Cedar
You don't need to talk about that. You're backtracking on that. But the point is, Zbiotics is a pre alcohol probiotic drink. It is the first genetically engineered probiotic invented by PhD scientists to tackle rough mornings after drinking. And here's how it works. When you drink, alcohol gets converted into a toxic byproduct in your gut. I used to think it was all dehydration. It's not. It's the buildup of this byproduct that's the blame for your rough days after drinking. Well, what pre alcohol produces is an enzyme which breaks this byproduct down. All you got to do, you make pre alcohol your first drink of the night, you drink responsibly, and you're going to feel your best the next day. I think we're actually out of it in the office, but when we do sort of like our debate coverage or whatever it is in the evening and we know that maybe things may get a little bit. May have a couple of drinks. Zbiotics is the first thing that I drink so that the next morning I can come on this program and be fresh as a daisy. Honestly, this stuff is great. It really works and it's incredibly helpful. You know, I don't drink like I did when I was a kid, but if I have a couple of drinks, I don't want to pay for it for the next day and I get up the next morning, I can do my exercises with as regularity as I do, which is not that regular, but. But I come in and again, I can do the show, no problem. And maybe that might be helpful for other people involved with the show.
Emma Vigland
I need to keep it in mind. It has been helpful when I've remembered, but I didn't have any left in the office to steal.
Sam Cedar
So I noticed how that was working. From the crack of the bat at the stadium to the start of the wedding season to the roar of the engines in Indy, May is packed with back to back reasons to be out. Don't Let a rough morning after keep you on the sidelines. Pre excuse me, drink pre alcohol zbiotics to stay ahead of it and make the most of every Saturday this month. Go to ZBiotics.com Majority to learn more and get 15% off your first order. When you use Majority at checkout. ZBiotics is backed with 100% money back guarantee so if you're unsatisfied for any reason, they're going to refund your money. No questions asked. Remember to head to zbiotics.com Majority use the code majority at checkout for 15% off. It is Zbiotics Zbiotics. We'll put the link at the podcast, in the podcast and YouTube description and Majority FM. And now time for the show. It is Wednesday, May 13, 2026. My name is Sam Cedar. 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, Brad Lander, candidate for New York's 10th congressional district. Also on the program, Isaac Saul, politics reporter and founder of Tangle News on the myriad of Trump enrichment scandals that nobody seems to pay much attention to. Also on the program today, classified assessment. Iran retains much of its missile capabilities as Pete Hegseth threatens to rename the Iran war. Sledgehammer
Emma Vigland
oh, like orange juice and vodka?
Sam Cedar
Yes it was.
Emma Vigland
Oh, I'm not off my game. See, see, see?
Sam Cedar
She doesn't even drink.
Emma Vigland
I don't even drink.
Sam Cedar
Wholesale inflation spikes. That is also not a drink name. It's the biggest increase since the post COVID lockdowns. Nebraska Democratic primary leaves independent Dan Osborne in a good position versus sitting Senator Ricketts. Progressive, who was outspent 10 to 1 at least in Nebraska's second, appears to have lost. South Carolina lawmakers decide against gerrymandering Jim Clyburn seat away. The DOJ is considering paying off a payoff to Trump in his lawsuit against the irs. Incidentally, Trump's former defense attorney is the head of the DOJ and I bet is owed some money from Donald Trump. Meanwhile, Trump appoints a private prison executive to head Ice Cash. Patel says he'll take a test to assess his alcohol drinking. The Trump regime fires another FEMA vet from FEMA leadership. Georgia Governor Kemp makes some metro Atlanta races nonpartisan because the Republican brand is trash there. Tennessee House Republicans strip nearly all Democrats of their committee assignments and Mamdani secures New York state money and trying to close the Eric Adams budget deficit in New York City. All this and More on today's Majority report. Welcome, ladies and gentlemen.
Emma Vigland
It is hump day.
Sam Cedar
It is hump day. And look who's back.
Emma Vigland
I'm back. Yes. You may be able to hear it in my voice slightly. I, I got pretty sick this whole weekend at the cancel Mother's Day plans, everything like that. So not thrilled about it, but I'm actually quite happy to be back. It's great. Great to not just be sitting in my bed watching inane Netflix stuff. God, they really have run out of interesting cases to do docu series on. I watched one that was just completely stupid and I wasted my whole day. But, you know, I'm back. I'm back.
Sam Cedar
Okay. Well, you seem pretty giddy. Ain't nothing going to slow me down.
Emma Vigland
Okay.
Sam Cedar
A sledgehammer is a cocktail and it does involve vodka and orange juice. It just adds an ounce of lime juice, which is what makes it a sledgehammer according to bevy.com.
Emma Vigland
that's very nice. That's very nice.
Sam Cedar
Well, I'm on a, you were right, drinker.
Emma Vigland
I am on a cocktail right now called DayQuil. So I'm gonna be a little bit silly today.
Sam Cedar
Okay.
Isaac Saul
Okay.
Emma Vigland
It makes me feel very weird. I mean, it is kind of methy. Right.
Sam Cedar
Can you send word to Brad Lander's people that things may get a little awkward
Emma Vigland
keeping it together?
Sam Cedar
She was offered a tour, sushi and
Isaac Saul
poker with the boys.
Sam Cedar
All right. There are new inflation numbers came out today. As you know, yesterday we heard that the consumer price index shot up several percentage points, almost 4% which was the outpacing wage growth for the first time since 2023. Core inflation also shot up. That's stripped of gas and food. So it suggests that things like tariffs and perhaps sort of things that are downstream from energy costs, obviously petroleum does a lot of things is what's driving inflation. And today wholesale inflation numbers for April were released and it jumped 6% in April on an annual basis, which is the biggest increase since 2022. And that suggests also, even if, because it's in part was in trade services, that you're starting to see the implications of tariffs now as well as obviously energy cost. But Donald Trump, he's not bothered by this because he's got a bigger fish to fry. And that is Iran's make believe nuclear weapons in a war that's not a war.
Emma Vigland
He keeps slipping up now and just calling it a war when he's, he was calling it an excursion or an incursion or a little jaunt or, I
Sam Cedar
mean, he literally said they don't like
Isaac Saul
it when I call it a war.
Emma Vigland
Well but what do you mean they don't like it? Meaning it's illegal? Cuz Congress is supposed to authorize it. Yeah. Constitution doesn't like it.
Brad Lander
Yeah.
Sam Cedar
And here is Donald Trump but making it clear. And this is, I have an idea on what he's trying to go for here.
Brad Lander
When you're negotiating with Iran, Mr. President,
Sam Cedar
to what extent are American financial situations motivating you to make a deal? Not even a little bit. The only thing that matters when I'm talking about Iran, they can't have a nuclear weapon. I don't think about Americans financial situation, I don't think about anybody. I think about one thing. We cannot let Iran have a nuclear weapon.
Isaac Saul
That's all.
Sam Cedar
That's the only thing that now aside from that being cut for ads across the country I would imagine as we speak, it shows sort of like just the absolute adolescent brain that is driving this entire excursion against Iran. They're going in for negotiations. They are. And Emma, you could talk about this, you know, Pakistan story that seems to be somewhat bunk, but they are going into negotiations with Iran and Trump is out there trying to prove to Iran that, that he doesn't. He is no way influenced at all by the politics in this country. And so he's not worried whatsoever that Americans are dealing with inflation, that we are on the brink of a global recession. And all of these sort of accompanied oil shortages and energy shortages and shortages maybe in chips and in fertilizer and spikes in food. He's pretending he doesn't care because he thinks this is going to scare the Iranians. And meanwhile you have the threat that the Pentagon is considering renaming the Iran war if the ceasefire collapses. Sledgehammer. The President must know what he's doing.
Emma Vigland
I mean I'm, this is scared.
Sam Cedar
This is like honestly like if I tried to pull this on my 13 year old son, something so ham fisted, like if you don't agree, if you don't agree to go to bed in the next 30 minutes, I'm gonna change the name of your phone to not hear anymore.
Emma Vigland
Yeah,
Isaac Saul
you're double grounded as opposed to just single grounded.
Emma Vigland
I mean that's what they're doing with the straight of Hormuz too.
Sam Cedar
Have you heard of I'm blocking it Double secret prob. I mean this is to think that this is going to influence the Iranians. They can see polls, they can see gas prices, they can see people like they can see inflation numbers going up. They can get that, they get the same, you know, assessment of the economy as we do here at the Majority Report.
Emma Vigland
They're quite in tune with the American domestic political situation, as. As has been clear with their propaganda videos that working both on Americans and the rest of the world, and I
Sam Cedar
would say significantly more so than we or Israel is in tune with what's going on in that country 100%.
Emma Vigland
Although Israel, I think, is well aware that, like, their intelligence assessments are always rosier. And they just found the sucker. Trump, whose ego is large enough, who finally agreed to this and, like, was okay with the Mossad operations prior to that and thought he was being really clever, but then blurts out, oh, we're arming the Kurds, and all this stuff. But the Pakistan thing is important. Just to touch on that, because there was a story in CBS in our packet this morning about how Pakistan, they are the mediators, now tasked with brokering this peace deal, hopefully between the U.S. israel and Iran. And CBS, now owned by pro Trump Zionists, came out with a story about how Pakistan has been allowing Iran to use its bases, which I saw Fox News repeat, but I haven't seen other outlets repeat that, that credibly. And then you have Lindsey Graham repeating that and saying that Pakistan is doing that. And then Netanyahu came out on CBS and said, Pakistan has a bot farm that's going after Israel. This is very similar to what they've done previously with the Qatari mediators when there was Qatar meeting between Hamas and Israel and the United States for Gaza, they bombed Doha, and they also basically accused them of being on Hamas's side. So Israel, whenever things get closer and diplomatic negotiations get a little bit more likely to succeed, they attack the mediators. And they're doing that with their asset Lindsey Graham, and the media assets that they have in CBS here in the United States. And we'll see if it works on Trump. It's worked on him before.
Sam Cedar
Yep. Well, the Iranians better get on it, or we're gonna change the name of the war to Sledgehammer.
Emma Vigland
The paperwork. They're gonna have to change all of their paperwork and white it out and change it to Sledgehammer or now to something else.
Sam Cedar
Hegseth is gonna go around in a Thor costume. In a moment, we're gonna be talking to Brad Lander, former New York City Comptroller and candidate for New York's 10th congressional district, challenging sitting Congressman Dan Goldman. But first, a couple words from our sponsors. You know, I used to go around with the big fat wallet. Was it big fat because I had so much cash in it. No, it was because you have so much extra, like, material on a wallet that I gotta lug around. I don't want that. I want something that I can just carry my cards in that is durable. It's not going to get ratty after, like, six weeks of walking around with it. And I want one, frankly, that is also gives me a little sense of security. And hello, here is my Ridge wallet. I don't want to show you my credit cards in there, but I've got good idea. Thank you. And not only is this RFI ID protected, so nobody's coming around with their. What is it called? Hopper Sweeper? No, it's a hopper, I think Flipper. Flipper. That's what. Saul has one. Saul has one. My son has one. And he can read RFID chips. And so it's not that hard to get. To get hold of these things. And this protects it. And on top of it, I got a little tracker card in it. So if I ever lose it, which I'm very good at not doing, but if I ever did, I'd know where it is. And I've paired it with these babies, which is my key chain. But it's not really a chain. It's much cleaner, much easier in your pocket.
Emma Vigland
Oh, and it doesn't stick you like that?
Sam Cedar
No, it's completely folded in. The only thing is that when you go to, like, an airport, they go. They look at it and like, what is this? They think it's like a.
Emma Vigland
You go, it's the future.
Sam Cedar
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We are we are back Sam Cedar on the Majority Report with Emma Vigland. And it is a pleasure to welcome to the program Brad Lander. He is the former New York City Comptroller and is currently a candidate for New York's 10th congressional district. Brad, welcome to the show.
Brad Lander
Great to be with you both.
Sam Cedar
Now you were supposed to be on trial this week, if I'm not mistaken. Tell us why. Was this like a speeding ticket type
Brad Lander
of thing or this was for my arrest in September with about 75 other activists at 26 Federal Plaza when most people saw me get arrested. That was back in June and I was just trying to accompany immigrant neighbors. I went back every week after that and In September, about 75 of us said we have to do more to put our bodies in the way and to demand to see what ICE is doing in those detention facilities. So along with 10 other elected officials and about 75 New Yorkers, we went to the 10th floor and demanded access. And we said we wouldn't leave until they gave us access to what a federal judge had said was a human rights violation. And eventually they arrested us. And I'm taking my case to trial because we can't be afraid of these brown shirts. And the crime is not what we were doing demanding access. The crime is what ICE is doing. And that's the case I'm gonna make. There's a new witness that basically the government didn't put on the witness list that has some information bearing on the case. And he's out of town. So the trial will be June 10th. And so I spent this week back doing more court watching at 26 Federal Plaza. Ice is still there deporting our neighbors.
Sam Cedar
The governor announced that there's going to be, and folks have been working on this in the Senate and the assembly, that New York City and New York's cooperation with ICE is going to be restricted, at least to some extent. How would that implicate, you know, what's going on at the Federal Building?
Brad Lander
Well, look, what I wish the governor would do is get on board supporting the New York for All Act. That's what immigrant activists are pushing. That would genuinely restrict collaboration between state or local law enforcement and ICE all across New York State. The restrictions that the governor is proposing are much softer than that. And I don't know that they'll make that much difference in New York. Now, there is in the budget a bill that would not allow law enforcement officers to wear masks in New York State. We'll see what happens if that passes. And ICE officers who don't identify themselves, who don't carry judicial warrants, generally continue to wear masks. So that I do support. But I'd like to see New York for all past.
Isaac Saul
Great.
Sam Cedar
Yeah, that. I think, as she has it now, there can be casual or unofficial contact between ice. And that seems odd. Yeah.
Brad Lander
Look what happened last week out in Bushwick. A lot of people saw that video. You know, it's not clear whether there was collaboration in advance, whether ICE gave the NYPD notice, but there were NYPD on the scene. And then what they did was essentially protected the ICE officers without asking them. Hey, one, not for nothing, you're wearing a mask and you've got no identification. How do we know you're actually law enforcement? Two, do you have a judicial warrant? What if that's a US Citizen that you're picking up? So, yes, allowing that kind of collaboration, I believe is a mistake.
Sam Cedar
Let's turn to your race for a moment. New polling has come out. Dan Goldman's pac, we should say. You know, Dan Goldman. I mean, it's. I don't know how much he needs a pac. He's got a lot of his own
Emma Vigland
Money, I think he funded it with his own money.
Brad Lander
Right, well, so here's the deal. Dan Goldman is a quarter billionaire. He's the heir, one of the heirs to the Levi's fortune. He has put millions of his own dollars into his campaigns over the years and just put another million in a couple weeks ago. He still takes money from Wall street, from crypto, from APAC donors to the tune of millions of dollars. And he's got a red box on his website pleading for corporate funded super PACs to start attacking me. So, and one of those super PACs is who funded this poll. But I'm pleased to say even Dan Goldman super PAC funded poll has me up five points.
Sam Cedar
Will you explain that red box? Cuz that I find that fascinating. I don't know if people understand this because a candidate is not supposed to coordinate with a super, but there is like, it's basically like you go down, you write a piece of chalk on a mailbox and you put a package there and they come by and pick it up.
Brad Lander
I don't think people really appreciate how corrupt this system is. Like people know that all this money in politics is gross. But there's this idea that Citizens United, you know, I don't know, it means you can't coordinate. But what Dan Goldman is doing and what is, you know, apparently legal is you can put on your own campaign website a webpage and I guess technically it's okay because it's public, even though it's not linked from anywhere else on his website unless you have the URL, you don't know where to go, but there it is. And it basically says, hey super PAC funders, you know, voters need to know the following things and starts to do
Sam Cedar
this is how we plan to attack Lander. And so, you know, no need to
Emma Vigland
coordinate when we just put our game plan out there.
Brad Lander
You can put media assets up on it. I mean, it's really appalling. And you know, let's also remember, you know, in New York City I passed the toughest independent expenditure disclosure act in the country. We're not allowed by the Supreme Court to ban ies, but you can require that every single donor be identified. And we even required that the top three donors on any ad or piece of mail have to put their names on the ad. That would pass muster in Washington, but you sure won't see Dan Goldman supporting.
Emma Vigland
Well, can you talk a little bit more about Dan Goldman? Because this is my district. Very excited that you are running and challenging him because he first got elected with a split Field on the progressive lane. And we spoke to Yulene New, I guess last week or two weeks ago, just about her reflections on that race and why she chose to stay out and that you're kind of the horse to bet on to the left of Dan Goldman here. But he really relied on that split field and a lot of less voters who were a little bit less engaged. But how he presented himself to voters was, I'm the fighter against Donald Trump because he has this background as being a lawyer in the impeachment. But you have like, actually you're going to trial, you stood up to ice, you're putting your body on the line. How are you drawing that contrast when he can say, kind of have that layup? Oh, I'm the impeachment guy.
Brad Lander
Yeah, look, this is a five alarm fire for our democracy and for working families. And establishment Democrats like Dan Goldman aren't getting the job done. They don't know how to put it out. They can see the house is burning. You know, they know Donald Trump is locking up our neighbors and kicking people off food stamps and taking us into reckless and illegal wars. But instead of standing up to the billionaires who put him there, they just keep taking their money. So, yeah, so, I mean, Dan Goldman takes crypto money and voted with Republicans to deregulate crypto. Dan Goldman takes AIPAC money and continues to support unconditional aid for genocide. So, you know, I'm making a bunch of contrasts. One, I fight with working people. When he ran four years ago, he opposed Medicare for all. He knows it's a progressive district, so he's moved to his left and says he supports it now. But we need people who are going to fight who put their bodies on the line. When Elon Musk and Trump stole $80 million from New York City, I found it demanded Eric Adams go into court to get it back. Look, I'm a proud Jewish New Yorker, but I hate what unconditional US Military aid to Israel is doing in Gaza and Lebanon and the West Bank. Trying to speak up with moral clarity. I believe people want a fighter and not a fundraiser.
Sam Cedar
You know, I am sort of like amazed by. I don't think this is the, it's not the. This is an extremely blue district, let's put it that way. And it's a pretty progressive district as far as the blue districts go. I mean, I don't know where it would stand across the country, but it's pretty up there.
Brad Lander
Poll that by his super PAC has both the Working Families Party and DSA more popular. Than Dan Goldman in the New York Times.
Sam Cedar
Yes. And I, I think like he's trying to, he, I mean, he knows that like he's going to try and have his PAC buddies attack you from the left in some ways, which is sort of hilarious. But I think it does show his commitment to corporatist principles when he, you know, he's doing, he is taking this money, he is running this way, he is voting this way, despite the fact that he's in a district that he knows is significantly progressive, more progressive than, than he was. He could have easily pivoted in a way, you know, over the course of the past two years and rejected crypto money, rejected all this stuff and he didn't.
Brad Lander
Yeah, look, this is the arrogance of corporate Democrats. You know, he could have endorsed Zoran, maybe not in the primary, but in the general election when he was already the Democratic nominee. This is someone who, look, he voted to censure Rashida Tlaib with Republicans. His animosity toward the left just, it's who he is, it comes through. And yeah, he knows it's a progressive district, so he's happy. Yeah. To beg corporate super PACs to hit me from the left in an effort to get him back in office. But still he's made clear he wants to keep voting for both offensive and defensive weapons for Israel. Again, he voted for crypto, both the Genius act and the Clarity Act. Yeah, I think he thinks he knows better.
Sam Cedar
Let's talk a little bit about what's going on with the Voting Rights Act. And the entire playing field has shifted in the past like week and a half in terms of like the Democrats opportunity to take over the House. They now need like a 3 or 4% minimum bump just to make up the difference in 3 or 4 seats. I'm talking like in aggregate. What, aside from what Democrats need to do to get elected in this. But what do they need to do once they have power? And of course part of that's incumbent upon having a Senate and a president. But what's the plan to deal with the power imbalance? Never mind. Sort of like even just the policy standpoint, but to get us back to a place where, you know, we actually how Americans vote end up being represented in the who gets elected.
Brad Lander
Yeah, look, in the short term we've got to do what we need to, to win. There are places like New York where we're not going to be able to redistrict this cycle, but we should be able to redistrict next cycle. And we've got to do it. And obviously, mostly what we have to do, I believe in both 26 and 28, is just prosecute the case that, you know, Trump and MAGA Republicans and their billionaires are screwing working people and that those folks who voted for Trump, if they want health care, if they want housing they can afford, need to be willing to join us to tax billionaires in order what we have to do to fix the politics. I mean, one thing I've been pushing is for Democrats to be willing to expand the Supreme Court because this court is what keeps giving away our democracy. And Elie Mistahl is the person who I've really been in dialogue with on this, who's done a good job of articulating the court has been expanded before, does not take a constitutional amendment. And we should go ahead and do it. And there are ways to do it that I think will work for the long term. I would love to see term limits as well. That probably would take a constitutional amendment. But after we win in 28, Kanahara, knock wood, the White House, the Senate and the House, we should expand the court and then propose a constitutional amendment imposing term limits and say to Republicans, look, we are expanding the court, like, you guys rigged this thing for too long. But let's work together to put term limits in place so that that expansion plays out in a more democratic way and not just a partisan one.
Sam Cedar
It's worth just mentioning that in terms of court expansion, traditionally the court has followed the number of people on the court, has been. Has mirrored how many circuit courts we have. And we now have 13. So that would be a good number.
Emma Vigland
Yeah, I like 13.
Brad Lander
Good.
Emma Vigland
13 sounds good, right? That's a great question, Sam. I'm curious if you are also in favor of ethics reform for the Supreme Court or ethics standards? I'd imagine that you are. But that also kind of brings me to the question about systemic change on campaign finance reform. What would you support in Congress in terms of rolling back Citizens United States? So you're not. All the races across the country aren't in a situation like you're in where you have an incredibly wealthy opponent who's able to spend his own money or really, I mean, I guess that could happen anywhere. But also get super PAC outside expenditure money to help this very wealthy candidate.
Brad Lander
Two things I'd like to do don't take overturning Citizens United. I mentioned in New York City, I was the lead sponsor of the Independent Expenditure Disclosure act, which requires disclosure of every contribution to a super pac. It's up on the Web for all New York City ies. And the top three donors for any ad have to put their names on the ad. And that has real impact. We still have outside money in New York City elections, but we don't have dark money. And Congress could pass that tomorrow. And obviously there's no reason not to do it. So that's 1, 2. We should get going with a voluntary pilot matching funds program that you would not be obligated to participate in, but that you could run for Congress on matching funds just like you could run for city council or mayor or now state legislature here. And that doesn't mean you won't have a quarter billionaire opponent with super PACs, but at least it means you could run a grassroots race raising money from your neighbors. And I think that that should require not only that you don't take corporate PAC money and that you agree to a max spend in the race, but some things you can do to discourage outside spending. I challenged Goldman to this people's pledge that Elizabeth Warren and Scott Brown took in 2012 to contribute money from their own campaign accounts if super PACs spent on their behalf. So that could make a real difference. But look, big picture, we have to get Citizens United overturned. And that's part of why we've got to expand the court. I mean, this court is in the pocket of billionaires. We need a court that would be in serving the American people. And we're not going to overturn Citizens United until we change it.
Emma Vigland
People don't realize, and just to put a button on that, how important the matching funds program was for Zoran Mamdani's victory. And I know you know this as well as anybody, Brad, but the fact that he was able to be competitive in the primary with Andrew Cuomo because of the 10 to 1 matching funds in New York, it is a democratizing force in elections that can combat this dark money in the interim period where we have to get the courts to make this illegal again, 100%.
Brad Lander
And you know our city councils now, majority women, majority people of color, lots of working class folks. And it's not only that the matching funds help you send your mail and put your ads up, but you run a race that's about democracy. You reach out to your neighbors. And again, you could see that in Zoran's race, even the way he fundraised helped him build momentum and energy. Even I had a front row seat watching that energy run right past me. But it was enough so that even when those super PACs started spending for Cuomo and trying to demonize them. Not only did he have the resources, but a level of grassroots support that is what our elections are supposed to be about.
Sam Cedar
Lastly, I know you're running for federal office, but is there any way that we can pass some type of statutory obligation for Andrew Cuomo to keep his promise and move to Florida?
Brad Lander
I just wish this is, you know, there's a couple of things Orion says he wants everyone to stay here. You know, there's a couple of billionaires and folks like Andrew Cuomo that I'm okay if they want Florida.
Sam Cedar
He promised. That's all.
Emma Vigland
I Cuomo, would never break a promise or lie.
Sam Cedar
Brad Lander, candidate For New York, New York's 10th congressional district if folks in New York City or frankly out of New York City want to get involved in your campaign, help out in some manner, whether it's door knocking or other ways, how would they do that?
Brad Lander
Go to bradlanderforcongress.com we're out knocking doors and texting and phone banks every day. Obviously, if you can chip in five or ten bucks to help me compete, I would be very grateful.
Sam Cedar
Brad Lander, thanks so much for your time today. Really appreciate it.
Brad Lander
Great to be with you both.
Emma Vigland
Thanks, Brad.
Sam Cedar
All right, folks, we're going to take a quick break. When we come back, we're going to be talking to Isaac Saul, politics reporter and founder of Tangle News, who has written a 6,000 word piece, he probably could have done 10,000 words on all of the Trump scandals to date. It is the everything everywhere all at once corruption story about the president's self dealing. We will talk to him in just a moment. It. Sam, We are back. Sam Cedar, Emma Vigland on the Majority Report. Pleasure to welcome to the program Isaac Saul, politics reporter and founder of Tangle News. Isaac, welcome to the program.
Isaac Saul
Thanks for having me, guys. Glad to be here.
Sam Cedar
So you've written a piece, the everything everywhere all at once corruption story. Look at the president's self dealing, which, you know, really it's a great piece and just overdue in so much of this. Trying to keep up with this self dealing and corruption has been difficult because it is so enormous. It is. And it's like one of those things where it's almost too big to believe just in general. Just talk about that and then we'll go from there.
Isaac Saul
Yeah. I mean in the piece I sort of describe it as feeling like the country's kind of under a spell and the opponents of the president, Democrats, liberals who want to make this an issue seem overwhelmed, like they just don't know which story to kind of glob onto and make as the centerpiece of their criticism of his administration because there's so many and his supporters are just kind of tuning it out because it's become like the air we're breathing. I mean, we're just, we're swimming in it constantly. And with every new story that comes out, I think the shock factor just wears off and there's kind of this like nihilistic hold taking. You know, everybody's attitude is just everybody in D.C. does this and this is how it works. And people are corrupt and they make money when they're in office. And the Obamas got rich. And so I don't know why I should care about this. And you kind of see the reality as I think I tried to lay it out, which is just looking at all of these stories next to each other in succession, it's astonishing. And I think there's a really good case that we're witnessing the most corrupt administration in American history. I mean, and, and I don't say that lightly. There's a lot of exaggeration that comes with covering President Trump, but I really don't know who holds a candle to him when it comes to the self dealing and self enrichment.
Sam Cedar
Yeah, I don't, I don't, I mean, I don't think it's, we've, we've had corrupt presidents and I don't certainly you'd have to go back into the 19th century to even like, I think even come close, frankly. But, but put. I just want to stay on this point before we get through to the details because from reading your follow up piece on it, I learned like you, you wrote fairly extensively on Hunter Biden and those issues and the, the laptop and the, you know, the trading off his name to get a job on a board of directors that was pretty clear. Like it was because of his last name was Biden, et cetera, et cetera, which, you know, I think we've seen over and over again. That is sort of like there is like a sort of a baseline corruption or nepotism or whatever that you see in there. But what, like this, I mean, I got mystified by this too. And we barely covered the corruption angle, you know, and we're ideologues, we are committed against Donald Trump. But what is it that you, having done sort of like covered from both sides there, what do you see in terms of like the infrastructure on the nominal right and left? It's really more of a partisan thing, I think, than an Ideological one. What do you see in terms of the infrastructure that has that that makes The Hunter Biden $50,000 a month story like the end of the world, but Jared Kushner getting billions and negotiating on in negotiations on behalf of his third party? Essentially what it looks like, right? Like, how is it that those two things, the Biden stuff, got much more ink?
Isaac Saul
Yeah, well, I think it's things. First of all, I think there is just a literal reality that we are in information silos. And, you know, the news that you see is different from the news that a die hard Trump supporting MAGA person might see. So, you know, you can go to fox news.com right now and look at what the splash page is and go to the newyorktimes.com right now and look at what the splash page is. And they are very different. And there's very different audiences consuming the two news outlets. So something I heard from a lot of my readers, I have a pretty politically diverse readership, and something I heard from a lot of them was I didn't know 90% of this stuff, or I hadn't heard about all these stories, or seeing all of this together is kind of a shocking and disorienting experience, because I trust you and I think that you're being honest about this. But this is the first time I've heard about the Trump mobile phone or the deal that Kushner struck with the Saudis in 2022. I mean, these are stories that I think some people just aren't seeing. The second thing is, I think there is a core kind of ideology or underpinning attitude that exists for a lot of the people who board the president, which is they believe the system is broken and corrupt already. And they think that Trump came into office to kind of roll a grenade in the room and blow the whole thing up. And they support that. I mean, that's part of the appeal for the country, for Trump. So when they see him doing things that maybe they believe other swampy politicians are doing, the reaction is more like Trump's just playing the game and he's doing it way bigger and better than these other people and less like, oh my God, we're looking at an administration that is crossing new boundaries of corruption and self dealing. So like I said, there's a little bit of nihilism there. And I think some of that is just a core part of what's in the stream of the support for Trump is that the system has always been broken and corrupted and always screwing over a lot of Americans. And so there's just kind of like, of course this is what he's doing. So even when it breaks through, that tends to be the reaction. And that's kind of been what I've seen and my experience reporting on this,
Sam Cedar
I don't want to harp on this because, and I think like the second part really resonates because it seemed like everybody knew about Biden, Hunter Biden. Right. And I definitely believe that there are folks who follow Trump and on the right who are more sequestered. But the Biden stuff seemed to break out. Jake Tapper's gonna talk about that extensively, for instance. But they're not like the, the, the, the, the just the world of finance.
Emma Vigland
Liberty Financial Liberty.
Sam Cedar
Like you hear side mentions of it, but like they could do a six week. Maybe it's, maybe it's just also a function of like hearings. But we, it's not like we had, I guess maybe in the second term of the second half of the Biden administration, that's really what it was, was that there was congressional hearings. But I don't know, I'm just fascinated by that aspect of it. And I think that Trump's core base, the nihilism, you speak to the idea that like, well, he's, he's, he's taking from our enemies on some level and he's, he's our, you know, he's our guy. So he's doing this on, on, on, on our behalf. But let's, let's go through some of these things. You start with World Liberty Financial, because this could be just on a dollar basis, the biggest scam or scam. I mean, I like, it's so massive. Well, let's start with that. And then, you know, I want to make sure that we don't forget about the Syrian, the Syrian billionaire story that just sort of like, that was just sort of an afterthought. But go ahead with the world. World Liberty Financial.
Isaac Saul
Yeah, sure. So the, the cryptocurrency to me is kind of the biggest story of the Trump administration. It's the most novel thing. It's the one that I led my piece with, which is that the Trump family in 2024 launched a cryptocurrency firm called World Liberty Financial. And By December of 2025, they'd profited at about a billion dollars from proceeds and held another $3 billion in unsold cryptocurrency tokens. This is a fortune that is larger than the entire Trump family real estate portfolio. So the very thing that made Trump famous His sort of ackman, as his supporters would put it, as a real estate developer. Proof that he is this brilliant businessman. That fortune was exceeded in just what he's done in cryptocurrency since he got reelected. And the same time that he is running this crypto firm where he's like on board and the Suns are participating in it and they're raising money, he's also cutting crypto regulation. He's making decisions about crypto regulation. He's pushing to sort of quote, unquote, unleash the industries outing the potential of digital currencies to help the US Economy. He's also launching his own cryptocurrency coins. So, you know, in this space they're kind of called shitcoins because they don't actually have any value. They're based solely on social hype. The kind of moment that they get from being a funny joke. You know, you might remember there were like dogecoins and things like that. And Trump basically launched a coin with his name and then hyped it up, promoted it as a presidential candidate and then as a president. And then the value of the skyrocketed and then he sold a bunch of the crypto coin, devaluing it. So all the people who invested lost a bunch of money while he ran away with a bunch of money sold off at a huge profit. And it wasn't just him. Melania Trump launched own crypto coin as well, this kind of coin. And they're making money hand over fist using the White House to host dinners for people who are the biggest holders of the coin world. Liberty Financial is taking investments from all manner of kind of shady characters. I think the most famous one is Justin sun, who.
Sam Cedar
Yeah, hold on. Before we get to Justin sun and before we get to the actual dollars, Isaac, we got to just take a quick break because we're getting. Mike is cutting in and out for us. We're going to take quick break and fix that. We'll be right back after. Okay, we're back. Sam Cedar, Emma Vigland. We're talking to Isaac Saul. He's politics reporter and founder of Tangled News. He's written sort of like, as far as I can tell, the most comprehensive to date litany of the President's self dealing in corruption, we should say. And you wrote about this in the subsequent piece. There was a whole lot of like, sort of like garden variety corruption that you didn't even get to because of the nature of just how big and extensive the corruption was. And we were talking about World Liberty Financial, which was. Which is his crypto company, not to be confused with his actual meme coin. And you were just about to get into how the. The. The crypto company was sort of like a. Maybe a laundering facility in some instances, for bribes and payoffs and whatnot. And he is being sued by Justin sun, who is a crypto billionaire who's being investigated for fraud. It seemed like son got the pardon, right. Was it the pardon or just sort of got the investigation ended and then turned around and sued Trump for extortion.
Isaac Saul
Yeah.
Sam Cedar
Which.
Isaac Saul
There's kind of these two remarkable stories related to World Liberty Financial. And thank you. I appreciate your patience with my tech stuff. The first is, yes, this Justin sun story, he was being investigated by the sec. So he's got the government kind of kicking his door, and he's being accused of all manner of shady things. And he gives an investment to World Liberty Financial. It's a massive $75 million investment by buying the Liberty Financial crypto coin. And then magically, after he puts the $75 million up, the SEC investigation comes to this sort of settlement where he pays, I think, something like $10 million. He was facing hundreds of dollars, potential penalties, so it's a huge relief for him. And then he gets involved in World Liberty financially, kind of comes on. He gets. He gets. The investigation drops. He joins the team. And after a few months of working at World Liberty Financial, he's now turned around and sued them, alleging that they're not letting him sell any of the crypto coin that he holds through World Liberty Financial. So they basically frozen his assets and that they were trying to pressure him into buying the stablecoin that Trump wanted to launch through World Liberty Financial. And it's turned into this huge mess with the Trump administration. In my piece, I said, you know, it's kind of hard to identify the villain here. There's just so much sort of ugly, slimy stuff happening here. Just like the worst of the worst sort of exchanging money for dropping investigations coming in. And then everybody's trying to screw everybody over and leverage each other. And now he's ended up again without this SEC investigation, but also suing the Trump administration. And the other thing that was remarkable that happened with the World Liberty Financial Group was that they hired two people or partnered with two people to work on this crypto venture who had been sanctioned by Trump's government for running a transnational criminal group. So the Trump administration sanctions a group of transnational cyber criminals, and a month later, World Liberty Financial being run by the Trump family actually partners with two of the people who were sanctioned by the Trump administration. And just like this is the kind of company they're keeping. And it's the sort of thing that would end a congressional investigation. I think if Democrats had one chamber or if there were enough Republicans stand up and say, this is something we should bring people before Congress to testify about.
Sam Cedar
It's like, catch me if I can. Right. Where they hire the, where the FBI hires the. That's the Trump administration. Yeah. All right, let's. We got the Trump meme coin thing, which I think people sort of understand because, like, we. There were podcasters who were doing this where they would just hype up their meme coin and they would sort of like do a pump and dump type of scheme.
Isaac Saul
Yeah, it's, you know, the people in the industry call it a rug pull. And it's basically just you create this meme coin that has no intrinsic value, there's no use for it, there's nothing about it that should be profitable. But if you're one of the early people who gets in and buys the meme coin and then there's a bunch of hype and this kind of social contagion effect and more people buy it, that drives the price of it up. But the people were sort of on the ground floor. The original people can sell their huge holdings of the coin at any time. And when they do that, losing those people devalues the coin because it has, again, no inherent value other than how many people are buying it. And so what Trump did was he launched the Trump coin leading up to the inauguration, after he got elected, there was all this hype about it. He posting on his Twitter account about how he's host dinners with the people who are the top holders of the coin. So now you can buy millions of dollars of the coin in order to get assets one on one or an in person dinner with the president. So all these people do that, pay, pay, pay, pay, pay. And then at some point, there's a huge whale exit from the coin, which is Trump selling a bunch of his profits, devaluing the coin. And so it's lost something like 97% of its value from its peak. Which means that if you were one of the Trump supporters who follows the Trump, follows the president on truth social media and you see him say, go buy Trump. We're going to make you rich, whatever. And you give him $5,000 sometime in the week that the price peaked, you now have something like $50 of that $5,000 that's left over. So.
Sam Cedar
And he probably walked away with $4,900 of that.
Isaac Saul
Right. I mean, what the Financial Times did probably the most thorough reporting on this, and they ballpark that Trump was profiting something like 200, $250 million just from the Meme Coin alone. Just from the structure of the coin, how he launched it, how much was bought, what the exit looked like, how he sold. I mean, again, this is Financial Times is like a pretty reputable news source whose investigative reporting is right in the strike zone of this kind of thing. And they sort of laid out how they made the calculations and how they came to that. And, you know, it's one story that occupies a whole paragraph in my 6,000 word piece on this. Just to paint you a picture of how many different things are in this story and how many different stories like this we've witnessed just in the first 15 months of the Trump presidency.
Sam Cedar
We're still having a little bit trouble with you, Mike, but let me just ask you this. If I were to do that, I'm not suggesting I'm going to floating up, but if I was to do that thing with the Meme coin, would I go to jail?
Isaac Saul
Yeah, I think there's a pretty good chance that if you did something like that with the Meme coin, you would end up standing before a jury and probably facing some pretty serious fines. I mean, again, there are people like this all over the world who are being charged for crimes that involve scamming people out of their money in cryptocurrency schemes that look pretty similar to this. Now, look, the people who buy this stuff have some responsibility, don't want to just pretend like there are ways to do this that are legal and for people who have the responsibility to invest in this. But our standard should not be, oh, these people are so stupid, they got scammed. It should be, the President of the United States is participating in a scheme where he's knowingly ripping off a bunch of his supporters.
Sam Cedar
Of course, if I was to do that, I wouldn't. My defense wouldn't be, I'm sorry, the people who listen to the show are just idiots and, you know, let me get away with it. And so why wouldn't I do that? All right, well, let's just. I just want to go through a list. I want to encourage people. We'll obviously link to your piece and have. But this is the list that I just sort of derived from what you've written. And I doubt I got everything, but we've got the world Liberty Financial, the Trump meme coin, the sort of double dealing with the uae. I mean like there's all sort of like side, side. There's, there's not one scam associated with one scam. There seems to be like multiple angles off of the multiple scams. Kushner's affinity partners, private equity firm, they're raising billions of dollars from people that he seems to be representing in the Iran US talks. And neither one, neither the US nor the Iran are the ones giving him that money. But the UAE and the Qatar with the plane, there all seems to be some type of side deals. Like I'm convinced the Iran war was as much, some interest, some entity was going to pay Trump in some fashion in some manner and was like encouraging him. You should do this with Iran. They may have undersold what, what the excursion was going to be, but that he's, he's, he is personally benefiting it from in some way. The other is Trump mobile phone. We have a video of this. We will play it in a bit. But that is just a pure like we are developing a phone. It's going to be American made, it's going to be gold laminated and give us $100 and it's a deposit. But it's no guarantee that we're actually going to make it. It was sort of like Kickstarter but less, like, less, I don't know, constraints on what they could just do. They just basically collected hundreds of thousands of dollars, maybe millions of dollars on the Trump phone and it just seems like it's not going to happen. What was it the, the drone company that his sons have bought into that are now gotten a big contract from the Pentagon. What else do I got here? I mean it goes on just to
Isaac Saul
put a pin in that one too. Again, we spent four years talking about Hunter and his $50,000 a month Barisma position that he had when Vice President Biden was Vice president. And then the potential that he was maybe setting up some post vice presidency business arrangements for Joe Biden to make some money off of and cut him into. The Trump sons are getting $4 million contracts from the Pentagon in companies they're invested in that are selling things like drones and stuff for war directly to the Department of Defense. I mean, that story alone, again, one sentence in my entire article is the kind of thing that could have been a months or years long scandal in an era that we lived in two or three years ago that we all seem to have just moved on from.
Sam Cedar
I guarantee you if we have a Democratic President. We will return to that ERA within weeks, 100% guaranteed. The IRS, or I should say the DOJ, is now contemplating settling in Donald Trump's $10 billion lawsuit against the IRS. And the guy in charge of deciding whether or not they're going to settle and give Trump maybe even 10 cents on the dollar, which would be a billion dollars, is Donald Trump's former defense attorney. Literally probably a guy that Trump owes money to is going to decide how much money the US Government gives to Donald Trump. The bribes around the inauguration, the bribes around pardons, like it seems to be an open secret that it costs like 1 to $1.5 million to get a pardon.
Isaac Saul
Yeah, the, the part economy, as I think it's been rightly described, is one of the more grotesque things to me specifically because when Trump ran in 2016 on kind of draining the swamp and addressing the sort of grossness of what we often witness in Washington D.C. i was sitting on my couch nodding my head, agreeing with him. I mean, a lot of the stuff he said in that 2016 campaign was true about some of the sliminess of the politicians that we've all sort of had to tolerate. Now he's in office and he's pardoned more than half of all the Republicans who have been not accused but convicted of federal crimes in the 21st century. Informal Republican members of Congress who do things like steal money from their donors, commit Medicare fraud, steal money from the town coffers that they're the mayor of. He's literally just going around giving out pardon, in some cases wiping clean the restitution that these people owe their victims. So there are these instances where the fraudsters owe hundreds of millions of dollars to the people they've defrauded. And in the process of pardoning them, Trump is also wiping out restitution. So those victims don't actually see the money that they're owed for the scheme that they were a victim of. And he's just doing this left and right. And yes to your point, the way that we understand how it works from there's been a lot of great reporting about this from axioms. The New Yorker, New York Times, Wall Street Journal is essentially that people pay somebody close to the president sometimes millions of dollars to bring their pardon case to the president. Basically sit down with him and hey, I think you should give this person a pardon. Sign this piece of paper. And he's doing it. And we know he's doing it. Cuz sometimes he gets asked about these pardons. He'll say things like I don't even know the guy. I just. He was a huge supporter and they mistreated him and so it feels like he deserved to get out of prison or get his, you know, his record wipe cleaned. And it's just happening at a clip that's literally hard to keep up with.
Sam Cedar
Well, we will put a link to your piece at Tangle News and can't encourage people enough to send it around it. It's going to need to be updated on a fairly regular basis is my suspicion. And it really is stunning to see it all in one location. And I think it's great work. Obviously a lot of work went into it. Isaac Saul, politics reporter, founder of Tangle News the piece is the everywhere, the everything everywhere, all at once corruption story. I'm pleading with you to look at the president's self dealing. Very important to and frankly in the event that the Democrats take the House, a primer for what I hope will be a series of congressional hearings ongoing for the next two years straight. Isaac Saul, thanks so much for your time today. I really appreciate it.
Isaac Saul
Yeah, thank you guys for having me. I appreciate the patience with my tech issues and hope to do it again sometimes.
Sam Cedar
No worries. We have been there many, many times. Appreciate your time. All right, folks, that's it for us today. We're gonna head into the fun half of the program and wherein we will have fun. Yes, theoretically.
Emma Vigland
Yeah.
Sam Cedar
Folks, it's your support that makes this show possible. You can become a member@jointhemajorityreport.com when you do, you know, only get the free show, free of commercials, but you also get the fun half and you can IMs on the fun half and of course you help the show survive and Thrive. Join the MajorityReport.com Join the MajorityReport.com is where you can join the Majority Report at. Join the MajorityReport.com Also Just Coffee Co op, fair trade coffee, hot chocolate. Use the coupon code. Majority get 10% off. Support farmers in Chiapas. Support a co op in Madison, Wisconsin. Support this program. Get the Majority report blend. Get any of the other good stuff. Join the MajorityReport.com Excuse me, just coffee co op. I got. I get distracted because we put that video up about the Trump phone. The Trump phone is amazing. It is amazing. Like if you've ever. And we'll play this video in the fun half. If you have ever like got something on it's Kickstarter and what's the other one? Indiegogo or something.
Emma Vigland
GoFundMe or.
Sam Cedar
No, not GoFundMe like indiegogo, this is like where they have like these great inventions. And you know, the, in the, in the fine prints, like, this is not a promise that you're actually, are actually going to build this. And so, you know, sometimes you're like, oh, I'm going to get the. I mean, I've got. And some good stuff off of there. Like trash can that opens up like this. We can talk about that later. But, but you know, sometimes you're like, oh, I'm gonna get this. This electronic thing. It looks like it's so cool. Whatnot. And then you just see, you know, what, what was it that. It was like a. Maybe it was a bike helmet, like a specific bike helmet. And it just never. You can't tell. Is this a scam or did they really have production problems with the factory and the, the plastic? You see all the comments. That's exactly what this Trump phone thing is. Except for there's no comment section. There's nobody to complain to. It's just like one random dude on Instagram gets on, you know, in his F150 with his sunglasses and is mad. Pretty sure Tesla is doing the same thing with something too, aren't they? Oh, they definitely do it with the. They did it with their solar shingles. Yes. I knew people. 100 bucks. You get the. Like, I'm going to be on the list for solar shingles. What.
Isaac Saul
Whatever happened?
Sam Cedar
Nope.
Emma Vigland
Yeah, they haven't they done that with waiting lists for cars as well.
Isaac Saul
I mean, Tesla literally had Tesla fanboys deliver cars off the production line to people who bought them for free. People. People volunteered to drive.
Sam Cedar
Well, that's okay, but take the money and say that you're actually like on a list for.
Isaac Saul
They didn't get paid.
Emma Vigland
They didn't get paid. They're just Elon fanboys.
Isaac Saul
They did it because they love the technology.
Emma Vigland
Oh. Oh, poor boys.
Isaac Saul
Yeah, it was all men.
Emma Vigland
And no, I didn't check. I didn't say men.
Sam Cedar
Yeah, right. What's happening in the Matt Leckian media universe?
Isaac Saul
Yeah, we had a Florida focused show yesterday with Thomas Kennedy, who's a immigration rights advocate and writer down there, talking about this, the collapsing economy, the hole that the alligator Alcatraz is driving into the Florida state budget and who they can blame because Democrats haven't had power in that state for a very long time. So check that out. Patreon.com leftrecotting to get the Sunday show, folks.
Sam Cedar
See you in the fun. Half. Left is best. Jamie and I may have a disagreement.
Emma Vigland
Yeah, you can't just say whatever you want about people just because you're rich.
Sam Cedar
I have an absolute right to mock them on YouTube. He's up there buggy whipping like he's the boss. I am not your employer. You know, I'm tired of the negativity. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to upset you. You're nervous. You're a little bit upset. You're riled up. Yeah, maybe you should rethink your defense of that. You idiots. We're just going to get get rid of you. All right, but dude, dude, dude, dude, dude, dude. You want to smoke this joint? Yes. Do you feel like you are a dinosaur?
Brad Lander
Good.
Sam Cedar
Exactly. I'm happy now. It's a win, win. It's a win, win, win.
Emma Vigland
Oh, hell yeah.
Sam Cedar
Now listen to me. 2, 3, 4, 5 times 8467-9065-0145-7238. 56, 27, 1 half. 5 8. 3.9 billion.
Emma Vigland
Wow.
Sam Cedar
He's the ultimate math nerd. Don't you see?
Isaac Saul
Why don't you get a real job instead of spewing vitriol and hatred?
Brad Lander
You left wing Limbaugh.
Sam Cedar
Everybody's taking their dumb juice today.
Isaac Saul
Come on, Sammy.
Sam Cedar
Dance, dance, dance. Grandpa, I had my first post coital scene with a woman. I'm hoping to add more moves to my repertoire. All I have is the dip and the swirl. Fine.
Brad Lander
We can double dip.
Sam Cedar
Yes. This is a perfect moment. No, wait. What? You make under a million dollars a year. You're scum. You're nothing. Excuse me? Fuck you, you fucking liberal elite. I think you belong in jail. Thank you for saying that, Sam. You're a horrible, despicable person. All right, gonna take a quick break. I want to take a moment to talk to some of the libertarians out there. Take whatever vehicle you want to drive to the library. What you're talking about is jibber jabber.
Emma Vigland
Classic. I'm feeling more chill already. Good.
Sam Cedar
Donald Trump can kiss all of our asses. Hey, Sam. Hey. Hey, Andy. Are you guys ready to do some evil? Hitler was such an idiot. You think I might be a Nazi?
Emma Vigland
Agreed.
Sam Cedar
No. Death to America. You. Yes.
Emma Vigland
Wow.
Sam Cedar
Wow. That's weird. No way. Unbelievable. This guy's got a really good hook. Wow. No worries. Let's, let's. I want to just flesh this out a little bit. I mean, look, it's a free speech issue. If you don't like me.
Emma Vigland
Hey, hey, hey, hey.
Isaac Saul
Shut up.
Sam Cedar
Thank you for calling into the majority report.
Isaac Saul
Sam will be with you shortly.
Episode 3643 – Trump's Corruption Enumerated; Defeating a Corporate Dem Congressman w/ Isaac Saul, Brad Lander
Date: May 13, 2026
Host: Sam Seder
Guests: Brad Lander (NY-10 Congressional Candidate), Isaac Saul (Tangle News Founder)
This episode of The Majority Report delivers a deep dive into two major themes:
Both segments connect the dots between money, power, and accountability in American politics, drawing vivid contrasts between status quo “corporate” Democrats and true progressive actors, and exposing the mind-boggling normalization of corruption under Trump.
[04:08–15:42]
[24:15–42:19]
[24:15–27:45]
[27:45–33:58]
[31:16–34:48]
[34:48–41:19]
[41:19–42:19]
[44:37–71:51]
[44:37–48:55]
[53:16–71:46]
[66:45–68:39]
On Trump’s Iran statements:
On the normalization of corruption:
On Democratic failures in the face of corruption:
On campaign finance loopholes:
The show maintains its signature blend of sharp, irreverent political analysis, exasperated humor, and thorough policy breakdowns. The hosts’ frustration with political corruption and corporate Democratic cowardice is matched only by their incredulity at the Trump family’s audacity and the nation’s apparent normalization of such flagrant abuse.
This episode provides a sweeping indictment of money in US politics—showing how both Trump’s open grift and establishment Democrats’ corporate coziness erode real progressive politics. Through both interviews and banter, Sam, Emma, Brad Lander, and Isaac Saul illustrate just how “overwhelmingly normal” corruption has become—and how urgently the rules must change for true accountability and democratic representation.