3707 - Primary Preview; Crypto's Diminished Power, For Now w/ Daniel Nichanian, Eleanor Davis-Diver

Summary

Podcast Summary: The Majority Report with Sam Seder

Episode 3707 – Primary Preview; Crypto's Diminished Power, For Now
Date: August 11, 2026
Host: Sam Seder
Guests: Daniel Nichanian (Founder & Editor-in-Chief, Bolts Magazine), Eleanor Davis-Diver (American Prospect)

Episode Overview

This episode dives deep into two main threads:

1. A detailed preview and analysis of the day's key primary elections across several states with Daniel Nichanian, focusing on the impact of intra-party battles and Democratic Party dynamics.
2. A discussion about the current state of cryptocurrency influence in Washington with Eleanor Davis-Diver, centering on legislative efforts, recent defeats and slowdowns for crypto lobbying, and the intersection with Democratic Party politics.

Interwoven are topical political news stories, irreverent banter, and the Majority Report’s trademark critical but witty tone.

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Section 1: Primary Day Preview with Daniel Nichanian

(Starting ~[29:36])

Key Races & Overarching Themes

1. Wisconsin Governor Democratic Primary

• Set-up: Open seat as the Democratic governor isn't running.
• Francesca Hong (left-wing, DSA-aligned) is leading in the polls, now facing a consolidated establishment challenge from David Crawley.
• Recent chaos: Two original frontrunners (current and prior Lt. Governors) dropped out late, affecting early voting patterns.
• Establishment Democrats worry Hong is too far left to win statewide.

“It's been particularly chaotic because...the current lieutenant governor and the previous lieutenant governor, both dropped out of the race over the summer...And Crawley, who is now the main alternative to Hong, was out of the race as of mid July. He came back in, got the governor's endorsement. There's been a lot of interest among establishment Democrats to stop Hong.” — Daniel Nichanian [30:29]

2. Minnesota Senate Democratic Primary

• Angie Craig (centrist) vs. Peggy Flanagan (progressive).
• Craig is walking back Trump-era votes on immigration, reflecting shifting party dynamics.

“It's been interesting to watch her during the campaign have to walk that back, apologize for some of those votes. The politics of the Trump 2.0 era shifting from centrists...to apologizing for them in and of itself tells the tale of the last two years.” — Daniel Nichanian [32:31]

3. Connecticut Gubernatorial & House Race

• Gov. Ned Lamont is challenged from the left. Critique: too moderate, sided with Republicans on criminal justice.
• Rep. John Larson (78, Social Security advocate): Facing a younger, crypto-favorable challenger.
• Generational pressure and crypto money are core issues.

4. Other Key State Races

• Special elections in South Carolina (notably, Lindsey Graham’s sister running) and Alabama (redistricting fallout).
• Minneapolis DA primary: Will a progressive prosecutor carry on legacy of criminal justice reform?

5. Broader Trends

• DSA/socialist bench at the state level is growing, especially in Wisconsin (“socialist caucus”).
• High Democratic turnout is a trend, undermining narratives of fluke progressive wins via "low turnout surprise".

“In the state assembly where Hong is right now, there's actually a four-person team of Democrats who formed a socialist caucus including Hong and three others...So there's this bench forming...” — Daniel Nichanian [45:09]

• Republican primaries are reflecting further radicalization (e.g. Mike Lindell likely GOP nominee in MN).

6. Electoral Landscape and Party Dynamics

• Establishment stumbles: “The level of incompetence that seems to be here from all of these establishment channels... whether it’s the DNC falling apart, whether it’s Gillibrand and Schumer picking losers…” — Sam Seder [35:14]
• Progressive potential: A leftward shift is no longer “surprising,” but an entrenched trend.
• GOP threats: Hard-right figures and election-denier types likely to become nominees, especially in swing states.

---

Section 2: Vaccine Executive Order & Autism Conspiracies

(Starting ~[09:57])

Trump’s Anti-Vaccine Moves

• Trump’s pending executive order will undermine the childhood vaccine schedule—hepatitis B, COVID-19, flu vaccines “no longer recommended for all children.”
• Order encourages legal action for states blocking religious/medical exemptions.
• Public health threat: Sam and the crew emphasize real-world risks, especially for low-income children.

“This is the antithesis of public health policy. This is survival of the fittest. Couple of steps away from some eugenics...” — Sam Seder [14:01]

Autism Conspiracies

• Discusses RFK Jr.'s continued peddling of the vaccines-autism myth.
• Daniel and Sam dismantle pseudo-scientific arguments — “Explosion in autism” is due to broader, more accurate diagnosis, not environmental changes or vaccines.

“It's not just that we're noticing it more, it's being diagnosed. The range of diagnosis now is much larger. Objectively speaking, the range of behaviors...is diagnosed now on a spectrum.” — Sam Seder [18:39]

• Notable exchange:

“He says genes don't cause epidemics, but a guy who only wears jeans seems to cause some epidemics.” — Matt [23:22]

---

Section 3: Crypto’s Waning Power in Congress with Eleanor Davis-Diver

(Starting ~[57:00])

Recap of Recent Legislative Battles

1. The "Genius Act" on Stablecoins

• Opened the door for regulated issuance of stablecoins, despite instability risk.
• Backed by tens of millions in crypto industry spending, even drawing support from 18 Dem senators.

2. The "Clarity Act" – Stalling Out

• Would weaken oversight by shifting regulation to the less aggressive Commodity Futures Trading Commission and carve investment-product crypto out of securities protections.
• Initially expected to pass due to crypto lobbying power — but Democratic support has wavered.

“...Democrats in maybe swing states who were worried about losing their seat...18 Democrats in the Senate ended up voting for the Genius act, some of whom were getting a bunch of money from crypto...but then some of who just were scared they didn't want to cross crypto.” — Eleanor Davis-Diver [66:06]

Driving Forces for the Slowdown

• Trump’s direct profiteering from crypto tokens (e.g. $1.4B in gains, possibly in exchange for favors) has made crypto a potent symbol of corruption — scaring off Democratic legislators.

“It was slowed down a lot because of the corruption. They wanted to have a pass by July 4, but that didn't really happen. And now we're kind of in this midterm season where money in politics and outside campaign spending is a big issue on the trail.” — Eleanor Davis-Diver [73:28]

Crypto and Campaign Finance

• Crypto spending backfired in some primaries, and candidates now see association with crypto as a vulnerability, not a strength.
• “There's a threat from the left that if you [take crypto money], we will use it against you and it can be really effective.” — Eleanor Davis-Diver [75:13]

Remaining Swing Votes

• Centered on senators such as Jon Ossoff (GA), Ruben Gallego, Mark Warner, Ron Wyden, and Kirsten Gillibrand.
• Some (like Ossoff) are wavering; outreach to them could strengthen resistance.

“I would say that probably Ossoff is the one who is clearly not...talking about it. Like anti-corruption is kind of his shtick. So...if you want to [have impact]...I would say Ossoff for sure.” — Eleanor Davis-Diver [79:17]

• Next expected vote: September 15th, but passage remains uncertain due to inter- and intra-party opposition and banking industry pushback.

---

Notable Quotes & Moments

• On Democratic infighting and primaries:

  “The turnout we’ve been seeing from Democrats state by state by state have been, I mean, extraordinary for an off year election.” — Sam Seder [41:34]

• On the growing left/Democratic Socialist state-level presence:

  “There’s a DSA-endorsed candidate running for Francesca Hong’s seat and another member of the caucus facing a primary.” — Daniel Nichanian [45:09]

• Crypto and political corruption:

  “He dropped his financial disclosure revealing that he had made $1.4 billion so far in his second term off crypto. It’s important to note that most of that money just comes straight from the pockets of his investors…” — Eleanor Davis-Diver [68:23]

• On the perverse incentives for Trump-world and crypto legal “reforms”:

  “We don’t know how many of those people are rubes and dupes that are just fans of his or folks who are like, hey I need a pardon from my father in law who...was trafficking in child pornography or committed large scale fraud. So I’m going to buy $6 million of this crypto…” — Sam Seder [71:00]

---

Additional Segments/Timestamps

• [03:21] - Episode Opening & News Headlines
  (AOC egg freezing, Trump media’s losses, Fauci texts, police violence, etc.)
• [09:56] - Vaccine Policy, Autism Conspiracies, and Political Fallout
• [23:35] - First Ad Break
• [29:36] - Interview with Daniel Nichanian (see above)
• [57:00] - Interview with Eleanor Davis-Diver (see above)

---

Takeaways for Listeners

• Democratic primaries are reflecting a realignment, with progressives seriously challenging establishment picks and “fluke” upsets giving way to sustained movements.
• Republican primaries are often producing extremist, election-denier candidates, which carries both general election peril and messaging opportunities.
• Crypto’s clout in Congress faces real headwinds, as both corruption scandals and intra-party left criticism make former allies hesitant.
• Grassroots organizing and pressure from the left are demonstrably effective—not just in primaries, but in changing the incentives around major legislation like the Clarity Act.

---

Resources/Links Promised in Episode

• Bolts Magazine – Daniel Nichanian’s coverage
• Eleanor Davis-Diver's reporting for The American Prospect
• Further info/links are in the show notes and YouTube description

---

Tone: Characteristic Majority Report blend of snark, irreverence, and earnest political analysis—cuts through both anti-vaccine misinformation and crypto spin, calls out party-internal failings, and credits grassroots, insurgent victories.
Best for listeners interested in: current Democratic Party debates, electoral strategy, progressive movement-building, and political money’s influence, especially from new-tech sectors.

---

Transcript

[Sam Cedar]

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[Matt]

but we've done a couple.

[Sam Cedar]

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[Daniel Nakanian]

the

[Sam Cedar]

Majority Report with Sam Cedar. It is Tuesday, August 11, 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, Daniel Nakanian, founder and editor in chief of Bolch magazine to discuss tonight's primary elections across the country. Then Eleanor Davis, diver writer, editorial intern at the American Prospect. His most recent piece, crypto Democrats are ghosting the industry. Also on the program again, it is primary day in Connecticut, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Vermont, Alabama, special elections, South Carolina, California. Meanwhile, the White House used a plane full of journalists and White House staffers as a decoy for a possible attack on Trump.

[Matt]

Fake news, real meat shield.

[Sam Cedar]

The American Academy of Pediatrics says Trump's executive order, scheduled to be signed within days to undermine the childhood vaccine schedule is dangerous. New report US has revoked at least 175,000 visas and the disgraced supposed anti sex trafficking NGO our rescue. You remember the CEO had to resign in 2023 because of trafficking. Gets $250 million to represent migrant children. AOC attacked by conservatives for freezing her eggs because they're weird. Trump media announces a massive loss that I'm sure they will somehow figure out how to fill their coffers again. Republicans release all of Anthony Fauci's phone text showing that he was responsibly weighing safety concerns over vaccines.

[Matt]

Got him.

[Sam Cedar]

Cop who shot and killed Corey Ruiz in in Madison, Wisconsin is named as the investigation continues. And in today's gastro gastrointestinal old party Republican diarrhea project Taylor Farms recalls prep foods containing jalapenos for salmonella concerns. All this and more on today's Majority report. Did I? Oh, I didn't. I thought for a moment that I had forgotten to say Minnesota. Welcome, ladies and gentlemen. Thanks for joining us. Emma Vigland out today. Meanwhile, we've got the primary tonight. We're not going to be doing late night primary coverage. We're mostly still recovering from last week's. It is brutal.

[Matt]

Five and a half hours.

[Sam Cedar]

There was a time in my youth where I was like, let's just go through the next day. But I am, I am no longer that age. And I think I said this last Wednesday. I look over in the way that I gauge most of my behavior, whether it's like, oh, I should be at this point in prep Based upon, like, when Matt comes in, but I'm watching Emma and I'm like, oh, she's getting drunk. She's getting drunk. I can get drunk. And then I realized, oh, she's not coming in tomorrow, but I am.

[Matt]

She also was the one who was like, we should do primary coverage.

[Sam Cedar]

She thinks the idea. Exactly. I mean, it's fun to do. I think tonight is going to be a little bit less dramatic. But still pulling for Lindell big time. We will get to the prospects. Mike Lindell running for governor in Minnesota. That. It's a selfish. It's a selfish wish. I'm not going to.

[Guest or Producer (possibly David Griscom or another staff member)]

That one's for us.

[Sam Cedar]

That one's for us. We deserve at least one. Also, just some house cleaning. The majority. Sam Cedar apparently was named number. I think it's 14 out of the top 40 progressive politics podcasts on Feedspot. So I thought I'd mention that. I think we're one of the few independent ones and I would spend. To the extent that we're not. We're. There are other independent ones. I think we're the only ones that are not getting institutional money or part of a big platform. So. Good for us.

[Matt]

Don't want to close that door, though, was it?

[Sam Cedar]

No, no, no, no. It's wide open. Send. Send the checks. 14 is around where I like to be. Top 15%. That's what I like to do.

[Matt]

Nice.

[Sam Cedar]

I guess out of 40, that's not. Math is also. Math is also not my strong suit also, I should say. And we'll put a link to this in the podcast and YouTube descriptions. I did Zatteo's We're Not Kidding with Mehdi Hassan. We recorded the other day, but it's live as of yesterday. And it's a great opportunity for people to see that I have legs.

[Daniel Nakanian]

That's it.

[Sam Cedar]

I mean, I think. I think the conversation's also good. But whenever I meet somebody who watches the show, they're always surprised that I'm not like a torso two feet tall. It is like the number one response I get from everybody is like, oh, you. You have legs. And so people can see the legs there.

[Eleanor Davis Diver]

All right.

[Sam Cedar]

Good stuff. Really on a roll today, Bobby Kennedy's fevered wet dreams have come to fruition. And we are watching the administration begin to. And we should say that on the CDC website, there has been statement that implies there is no evidence that. Or maybe explicitly says there's no evidence that vaccines don't cause autism. To the extent that one can have evidence of improving a negative. It is Pretty clear that they do not. But Bobby Kennedy has decided that there was never any autism before the 90s. And it is. It is both contrary to what medical professionals tell us, contrary to what neurological professionals tell us. It was very much undiagnosed. And I will say I have at least two friends who were diagnosed at almost my age. Being on the spectrum, I don't know what it says about me that I never noticed. That's my close friends. I can imagine. I've taken the test and I stopped it right there. But I'm up on that listing. But by the time you get to our age, on some level, you've worked, you've created workarounds to deal with this. And who knows what would have been helpful at a younger age on these spectrums. But here is Donald Trump announcing that vaccinations for hepatitis B, COVID 19, and the flu, among others, are no longer recommended for children.

[Medical Expert or Doctor (unnamed)]

So at year one, you should have five separate visits for vaccines rather than giving them all in the same day. Very importantly, vaccinations for hepatitis B, COVID 19, and influenza.

[Sam Cedar]

I just want to stop right there for one second. There is no evidence that having the vaccines simultaneously increases any type of medical risk. There is a medical risk. With every medical intervention you could possibly have. Take aspirin, Tylenol, you know, allergy medication. There will be people in the population who will have adverse effects. But think about who can afford to take five days off of work, maybe to go in and get a vaccine, Or who have access to hospitals. We know all these rural hospitals are closing now. You will necessarily have children going without these vaccines because of this policy. Go ahead.

[Medical Expert or Doctor (unnamed)]

All in the same day. Very importantly, vaccinations for hepatitis B, COVID 19, and influenza, among others, are no longer recommended for all children. In addition, this executive Order directs the Attorney General to advance legal challenges against states that violate children's rights to religious or medical vaccination exemptions for the ex.

[Sam Cedar]

In other words, we don't mind putting kids into schools who are unvaccinated in this situation. And so for students who might have immunological issues with taking a vaccine, they're now at higher risk. This is the antithesis of public health policy. This is survival of the fittest. Couple of steps away from some eugenics, and you can be sure that wealthy people will make sure that their kids are properly vaccinated and will have the means to do it, be able to send the nanny down if they have to, or whomever it is to get the five separate vaccinations but once again, the first people who are going to suffer are low income kids, kids living in poverty. Now why is Trump doing this? Well, if you've seen what he's seen, you would probably react the same way. That's number two.

[Medical Expert or Doctor (unnamed)]

At one year you should have five separate visits for vaccines rather than getting them all in the same day. And I saw this early on and I've seen proof of it, where they have a vaccination thing looks like the size of a bottle of soda poured into a little child's body. And bad things happen in many cases, in too many cases because this is an explosion, this is an epidemic.

[Sam Cedar]

There it is. We've heard from the doctor in chief.

[Matt]

Did you, you got your kids vaccinated, I assume?

[Sam Cedar]

Oh, no, no, no, no, of course not. No, of course I did get my kids vaccinated.

[Matt]

Did you see a bottle of soda?

[Sam Cedar]

The 20 ounce? Yes. It's like maybe, maybe you saw a picture of a baby getting, just drinking a bottle of soda.

[Guest or Producer (possibly David Griscom or another staff member)]

He saw AI something.

[Sam Cedar]

Here is Bobby Kennedy who has been an anti vaxxer for at least 20 some odd years. In 2003 and 04 he was convinced that the presence of thimerosal, this was his argument then, that the presence of thimerosal, which is mercury, a preservative that would maintain the shelf life essentially of vaccines, was causing autism. The Marisol was removed from the vast majority of vaccines, particularly childhood ones around 2002 or three, I think it was. And the idea was within three or four years we should see a drop in autism rates. That did not happen. When I specifically asked Bobby Kennedy, somewhere around 2012, I don't know where that interview is, you claimed it was the Marisol at that time it was a legitimate question or thesis. The, the Marisol was taken out. How do you explain this? I did not. I don't know at that time if I was aware or even if he had moved on to other reasons vaccines cause autism. And his claim to me was the, the Marisol was actually never taken out which easily provable if that was the case, but apparently not a single doctor all across the country bothered to test any of them at any time. Here is RFK Jr claiming that there has been an explosion of autism that we weren't aware of at the time.

[Daniel Nakanian]

The industry likes to say one of the talking points which the press loves to parrot is oh, we're just noticing it more but this is an absurdity

[Sam Cedar]

and this is positive for a second. It's not just that we're noticing it more, it's being diagnosed. The, the range of diagnosis now is much larger. It is like this is not a subjective question. Objectively speaking, the range of behaviors of and neuro atypical behavior or states of being is diagnosed now on a spectrum. There is no, there is no argument about that. The noticing part is what these guys do. They just happen to notice it more. You know why Bobby Kennedy notices it more? Because he got fixated on the vaccine vaccination. Harm posited a theory that was born out of a study in the Lancet by a guy named Wakefield in the early aughts or late 90s, I can't remember was which was found to be fatally flawed. In fact faked and the Lancet retracted it. But when you go out there and put yourself out there, all of a sudden everybody who has a kid with autism comes to you and you start to notice it more. You know what I notice more? People are really into politics. It's weird.

[Medical Expert or Doctor (unnamed)]

Good.

[Daniel Nakanian]

But this is an absurdity. And this is an assertion that has been debunked again and again and again by peer reviewed literature. It's also demonic by common sense because we were just noticing it more. We would notice it in older groups. We're not, we're only noticing it in kids who were born.

[Sam Cedar]

Pause it again. This is not true. We are noticing it more in adults.

[Eleanor Davis Diver]

It is.

[Sam Cedar]

By the time you're an adult again, you have. But for the most severe cases, you have work, you have established workarounds.

[Matt]

Right. But those adults got the COVID vaccine.

[Daniel Nakanian]

Oh, right.

[Sam Cedar]

Okay. That's why we notice it.

[Matt]

Duh.

[Sam Cedar]

Bobby Kennedy doesn't notice it in adults because he never really listens to anybody else anyways.

[Guest or Producer (possibly David Griscom or another staff member)]

It was in a giant gilded bubble.

[Sam Cedar]

Exactly.

[Daniel Nakanian]

Or we would notice in older groups. But we're not, we're only noticing it in kids who were born around 1989 or after the older generations. You're not seeing those increases. Something happened in the mid-90s that changed our children and it has to be an environmental exposure because genes don't cause epidemics. You can provide a vulnerability.

[Sam Cedar]

Now again, the idea that there's like an increase in autism that might be a function of environmental things like we know for a fact. We don't know for a fact, but it's quite clear that there is a strong. I don't know if that's been proven from a causal standpoint, but there is a very, very, very pronounced correlation internationally around the cutting back in lead in gasoline and drops in crime rates because Lead is a neurotoxin. And so it's quite possible that there are environmental factors, but what we know is it's not vaccines. And we can wait another three years after we see a rise in child mortality because of the flu, we see a rise in child mortality because of hepatitis, we see a rise in child mortality, long term illness because of a whole host of vaccines that they don't get and may be exposed to. And then we can check in three years if autism rates have dropped. But it's an experiment that no one in that room will be paying for. It's an experiment that low income kids and families will.

[Matt]

He says genes don't cause epidemics, but a guy who only wears jeans seems to cause some epidemics.

[Guest or Producer (possibly David Griscom or another staff member)]

Yeah, it's the guy who wears jeans to work out.

[Medical Expert or Doctor (unnamed)]

Exactly.

[Sam Cedar]

All right, in a moment we're going to be talking to Daniel Nikanian to get a preview of today's primaries. A couple of words from our sponsors Want to thank zocdoc for sponsoring today's episode. Zocdoc has not only helped me find a dentist when I was on the road and had a dental emergency. Help my kids

[Guest or Producer (possibly David Griscom or another staff member)]

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[Sam Cedar]

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[Medical Expert or Doctor (unnamed)]

it is.

[Sam Cedar]

School's about to start. Well, not really. Actually we got about three weeks but once my schedule settles down, set up the Factor Meals for Saul and I and it's Incredibly helpful. My routine has been completely up in the air and once I settle back in, settle back in with factor and I've been doing the trying to do, you know, not dieting but trying to be conscious of what I eat. So I'm doing the Mediterranean diet. They have a bunch of different options. You could do keto, you could do, you know, protein based. You could do chef's selection, family friendly. I've been doing the Mediterranean so like a salmon and chickpeas or like shrimp with cauliflower and leeks and I don't know, some other type of spice. Spice. I can never remember the names of them. But Saul is big into steak these days and so a filet mignon or they got a Mac and cheese with beef shredded beef. He loves Factor makes chef crafted dietitian designed ready to eat meals so you don't have to choose between real food and convenience. Oh, I got my dad some too. He's been, he's been not able to cook as much and he loves them. Want to thank Factor for supporting the majority report? Go to factor meals.com Majority50OFF use the code majority50OFF to get 50% off in one free breakfast item per box for one year. Every factor Meals designed around what supports a healthier lifestyle and nothing that doesn't. Factor Meals are ready in two minutes. It's why I understood why people had microwaves. They don't require any prep time, no cleanup. So even when your days are out of control, your schedule is broken. Eating well, still super easy. Every week you're going to find over 100 nutrient dense menu items to choose from. New options like salmon burgers, shredded pork and more. Plus add ons you're going to crave like pumpkin flavored cheesecakes and protein shakes. Let's eat real. Head to factor meals.com majority50 off and use the code majority50OFF to get 50% off in one free breakfast item per box for one year while supplies last until October 31, 2026. That's code majority500OFF at factor meals.com majority50OFF at factor meals.com see the website for more details. We'll put the link in the podcast and YouTube descriptions. Quick break. Daniel Nikanian. We are back. Sam Cedar on the Majority report. Emma Viglund out today. Joining us now, founder and editor in chief of Bolt magazine to discuss tonight's primary elections in. Let's see if I can remember this. Minnesota, Connecticut, Vermont, Alabama, Wisconsin, special election in South Carolina and one in California. Did I remember all of Them.

[Daniel Nakanian]

It's all I have.

[Sam Cedar]

Okay, that's good. Well, we should say that I always go to Bolt on the day before a primary and the day after a primary because you have the most comprehensive rundown local races. The implications, you've been on this for years now, the implications of sheriffs because they will have deals with ice, etc. Etc. And, but let's talk about some of the top line ones, obviously Wisconsin and Minnesota. And there's a big race in Connecticut too, from my perspective, not just in terms of the governorship, but, but in terms of Larson there. But walk us through some of those races and let me know what, what, what the situation is.

[Daniel Nakanian]

Okay, let's, let's start, I mean, let's, let's start with the biggest race, the one that's going to probably get the most attention tonight with the result, maybe probably the one that people watching already know the most about, which is the Wisconsin governor's race. It's an open race. The Democratic governor cannot, is not running, is not running for reelection. It's a state that Democrats are very interested in gaining full control of. They haven't had that for a very long time. And there's an open primary for governor today. It's been very chaotic. I'll get to that in a second. But sort of the reason it's gotten all this attention is that the frontrunner in polling is Francesca Hong. She's a left wing state lawmaker and she has a very large lead in the polls. And the establishment, the more centrist establishment in Wisconsin, has coalesced just in the past couple of weeks around David Crawley, her main opponent. And that's the race that's testing the left versus center divide of the party tonight. First and foremost, it's been particularly chaotic because the two of the frontrunners, the current lieutenant governor and the previous lieutenant governor, both dropped out of the race over the summer, both, I think roughly over the last month, which is very unusual. And Crawley, who is now the main alternative to Hong, was out of the race as of mid July. He came back in, got the governor's endorsement. There's been a lot of interest among establishment Democrats to stop Hong, who they think is too far to the left and cannot win the general election. And obviously Hong's allies disagree there. So that's number one tonight. And then maybe let's pair that with the second big Democratic primary. Again, sort of similar fault lines, though not as dramatic, which is the Senate race in Minnesota. This is also an open race. It's to replace Tina Smith, who is re retiring, who's not going to run for reelection. And again, there's two candidates there, Angie Craig, who's currently in the House, who's a more centrist candidate, and Peggy Flanagan, who is running as more of a progressive. What's interesting there is that Angie Craig has gotten a lot of pressure, a lot of flak from her left for some of her votes early in the Trump presidency, particular to support some harsher immigration enforcement. And it's been interesting to watch her during the campaign have to walk that back, apologize for some of those votes. The politics of the Trump 2.0 era shifting from centrists taking those votes early on for partial immigration enforcement to apologizing for them in and of itself tells the tale of the last two years, no matter what happens in tonight's primary.

[Sam Cedar]

So just going back to Wisconsin, and I will admit that we have not paid that much attention to the governor's race. We don't do as much coverage of governor's races as we do federal offices. Mandela Barnes, who was the lieutenant governor, dropped out. Like what happened, he just wasn't catching fire. And was he opening a lane for Hong in this instance?

[Daniel Nakanian]

So the first one who dropped out, the first lieutenant governor who dropped out was Sarah Rodriguez. She dropped out first. And, and that was because her campaign manager was, she said her campaign manager had misused the funds, she had run out of money, there had been some impropriety in the campaign and she dropped out. That seemed to open a moment where the establishment could have coalesced around Barnes because he was the only one left because Rodriguez had dropped that and Crowley had dropped that. And to the extent that the non hung wing of the party was divided, there was one candidate left instead, the governor and other Democrats sort of brought back in Crawley. Barnes seemed, according to reporting I read in Wisconsin Press, faced some allegations himself

[Guest or Producer (possibly David Griscom or another staff member)]

of

[Daniel Nakanian]

misconduct during the moment where he was dropping out. He wasn't catching fire anyway, and so he dropped out. And so as a result, Crawley is now the main alternative. But as a reminder, this happened in the past three weeks at most and early voting had already started. A lot of people have voted at a time where either Barnes or Sara Rodriguez were in the race. So the chaos is going to impact, we will see tonight, a substantial number of votes going to Barnes and Rodriguez just by virtue of the fact that people had already voted.

[Sam Cedar]

What are Hong's prospects in the general? I mean, that's ostensibly why the establishment is concerned. I suspect also they don't like to see another DSA person win. This is another example, though. I mean, and I should say I don't necessarily. I think I'm going to be happy with the outcome assuming Hong wins, and it feels like she's going to. But this is another example from the perspective of the establishment. They are the level of incompetence that seems to be here from all of the establishment channels, whether it's the DNC falling apart, whether it's the Gillibrand and Schumer picking losers in Maine and in Michigan, I mean, I mean by that literally, and perhaps in Minnesota as well, what are Hong's prospects in the general.

[Daniel Nakanian]

Right. First of all, you know, it's interesting because there's been the argument a number of times, if only the center had coalesced around someone else, they could have been on the left candidate. You know, we, we heard that in Michigan. I mean, this is a situation where there was the current lieutenant governor, the prior lieutenant governor, the county executive, Crawley of the state's biggest county, Milwaukee, a lot of voters. And no matter who you're putting up, you know, that's not working in Wisconsin and elsewhere. I think you said another DSA candidate. I mean, what's interesting about Hong, if she wins tonight and goes up, is that it wouldn't just be another DSA candidate at this level for governor's race. It would be a first. She'd be in a league of her own, running for a statewide office in a, in a swing state or a non swing state, as far as I can tell in the moment, for a governor's race. So it's, I mean, she's sort of, kind of, she's going to answer. We're going to see the answer to that question in the fall. It seems like the Democrats are already preparing to have to coalesce around her. I mean, assuming she wins or coalesce around whoever wins tomorrow in coming days, which I think what we're seeing right now, it's some of what, some of the answer to your question depends on how much Democrats also coalesced around her or not in Michigan last week, as soon as Abdullah said won Haley Stevens, Greg, Gretchen Whitmer immediately endorsed. I think whether that happens in Wisconsin is a question. The fact that it's not a federal race and means that the party label could function less as an immediate proxy for people who want to oppose Trump. But the dsa, the left argument is that they can bring voters to the polls who wouldn't otherwise vote or wouldn't otherwise be mobilized so that this is all going to be A test of that, of that theory.

[Sam Cedar]

If Hong wins, the Republican running against, assuming it's Hong, what can you tell us about him? Because there, I mean, Wisconsin can be pretty polarized state. And it's, you know, when Trump, by one vote, it has gone back and forth. It has a huge history of we talk about sewage socialism, we're talking about Milwaukee, and we're talking about, you know, Madison. And so there's a huge sort of like very strong progressive history in Wisconsin. But also over the past 15 years or so, it was a, almost like a laboratory for the Koch brothers.

[Daniel Nakanian]

I mean, it is interesting that the first potential, first governor was a socialist would, would be in the state that's known for the sewer socialism. Tradition is a very, very long, long time ago, but we are hearing about it again. So the Republicans Hong or Crowley would face in November is, is, is Tom Tiffany. He's currently in the House. He's actually quite far to the right. And Wisconsin is interesting for a state that has had Democratic wins in the past few years as a state that has had a lot of election conspiracy theories, a lot of people who tried to overturn the 2020 election, investigate it, and so on. And Tiffany has been definitely on the side of people who've raised, who've echoed false claims about the 2020 election, who I believe voted against the 2020 election certification. I mean, having someone like that as governor of a swing state is a big deal, especially because Wisconsin Republicans have not had the governorship since 2018 and so have not been able to pass the sort of election laws that we have seen in other states. So the question of whether Republicans have control of Wisconsin or Democrats is going to be a very important heading into 2028.

[Sam Cedar]

Minnesota, I guess it's, you know, we're going to see, I mean, it's fairly straightforward at this point. The polling has had Flanagan up. And again, this is another instance of Schumer and Gillibrand seemingly out of touch or incapable of assessing what's going on with, with Democratic primary voters. And we should be clear this is not. When we see these primaries and you tell me if I'm wrong, what we're not seeing is sort of like these surprise moments where, you know, in a low turnout primary, people are winning. Like, you know, when I'm thinking like AOC's win against Crowley back in 2018, there was a sort of like, there was a surprise element to it and Crowley was overconfident. And, you know, it's a low turnout election. And if you manage just to Get a little bit more in there, you can, you can win. The turnouts that we've been seeing from Democrats state by state by state have been, I mean, extraordinary for an off year election.

[Daniel Nakanian]

Yeah, I mean, that's certainly not the story from Michigan last week. Wisconsin, I don't expect that to be particularly low turnout tomorrow. It's also very, very highly for as far as the midterm primary go, these races are getting a lot of attention. So that's not the situation. I would say Minnesota is very different than Wisconsin in the sense that Flanagan doesn't have the anti establishment vibe or opposition of the sort we're seeing in Wisconsin or Michigan. But yeah, Angie Craig has been, has been the establishment favorite there. Another big difference is that there isn't. The electability argument, whatever you think of it, is not really on the table in Minnesota. Not that it's a reliably blue state, but Republicans have. Well, we could talk about Republicans in a second, but they're in Minnesota getting ready to probably nominate very far right candidate and election deniers aligned with Michael Lindell, which is also going to gonna sort of make them not very competitive in the fall, probably no matter who wins the primary there tomorrow.

[Sam Cedar]

Tell me that Doug Lindell has a. Mike Lindell has a very, very good chance of being the nominee.

[Daniel Nakanian]

He has a very good chance of being the nominee.

[Sam Cedar]

Thank you, Daniel.

[Daniel Nakanian]

He's running for governor. He's endorsed. He's endorsed. You know, he has his own candidate. He's winning the candidate in the Senate. I mean, would be. There are people running against him for the, for the primary for governor. But that's not what's happening in GOP primaries right now. And anyone who's really aligned with Trump has a clear advantage and Lindell is, you know, his. Mike Nedo. It's interesting that you know what, like Tom, what, what Tom Tiffany has done in Wisconsin and supported the overturning of the 2020 election and raised questions about it in a more respectable manner, quote unquote, than Mike Lindell. But the result wouldn't be that different than what Mike Lindell, for anyone who doesn't know him, really is one of the main funders of election deniers and election conspiracists all around the country. It's not that different.

[Sam Cedar]

I mean, honestly, aside from the personal pleasure that I know that my job will be more fun over the next four months or whatever it is if Mike Lindell is the nominee. But I do think that in the event that he is, this helps Hong significantly because of the point you just made because if Tiffany is ends up being like literally if I was, I mean I would be running ads, he's Wisconsin's Mike Lindell. That is going to be something that he's going to have to deal with. And I think Democrats on the Hill have gotten a lot more sort of like aggressive than saying to nominees who's won the 2020 election what happened on January 6th. And this very well may be a, particularly in Wisconsin, a tough thing for a guy like Tiffany to get past. And so that's going to be Mike Lindell could be doing a lot of work for a lot of people and bless his heart.

[Daniel Nakanian]

Sam Also, I just had another thing I wanted to share to earlier question about how much is this like a one off, a surprise that's happening, low turnout or obviously not because there's going to be high turnout. But there's also a bench now of people either aligned with DSA or with the broader idea of being a socialist like Hong that is being built at the state level. At the down ballot, we're talking about the governor's rate. But in the state assembly where Hong is right now, there's actually a four person team of Democrats who formed a socialist caucus including Hong and three others. And Hong is now running for governor. So DSA is trying to, quote, unquote, keep her seat. So there's a DSA endorsed candidate running for her seat and then there's another member of the caucus of the socialist caucus who faces a primary opponent today. And then two others are running uncontested. So not the most important race to watch tonight, I suppose, but in terms of just not isolating these one races on their own. But there's this bench forming, there's people trying to win reelection as part of that bench, people who are trying to oust them. And that we're seeing that we saw that in New York, we saw that in Maryland and Colorado state DSA candidates winning at the state level trying to win federal races. And this is the kind of thing that's important to watch as well.

[Sam Cedar]

Let's turn to Connecticut. There are two races there that one that I think are worthy of mentioning. One is there's a challenge to the sitting governor, Ned Lamont, who I think has governed Connecticut. I haven't followed it too closely, but in a way that I wouldn't be terribly appreciative of if I was in Connecticut, which I have mixed feelings about because Ned Lamont is the one who beat Joe Lieberman in the primary years ago. And in Fact, he announced his candidacy on air with me on Air America Radio. I was very excited about that. But he's become a lot more sort of like standard bog issue, I would say. And also a race with Larson in, you'll tell me which seat that is, I believe. Yes. And he, he's the only guy at age 78 that I think I'm rooting for. He has been a incredibly strong advocate for Social Security throughout his career, and his opponent is a little cryptoed up, as far as I can tell. What else can you tell us about those races?

[Daniel Nakanian]

Right.

So. Well, you already said a lot of what I would say. So the governor's race, Ned Lamont, who's running for reelection, is facing a challenger from his left, Josh Elliott, who's currently in the state House or state Senate, I think the state House. An example of what I was saying. Let me check, since I have it here, the state.

[Sam Cedar]

He's state rep.

[Daniel Nakanian]

The state rep. An example of what I was saying earlier when he, Josh Elliott, won against an incumbent for the state House a few years ago. And now, you know, challenging governor hasn't gotten as much attention. And Ned Lamont won a very easy victory at the convention, the party convention, a few months ago. But that's one to what Josh Elliott is, you know, saying that the state should be governed in a more progressive manner than what Ned Lamont has done. One example that comes to mind to sort of give an examp example of what we're talking about, we ran a piece in Boltz a few a couple of years ago already where Republicans were very upset that the clemency or parole commission in Connecticut was freeing too many people, was being too open to freeing people who have served a long sentence there in Connecticut. And they staged a press conference accusing the parole or clemency commission of going too far. And Lamont sided with Republicans. He froze the process, fired the head of the commission and replaced them. So that's one example that we covered, for instance, as to what we're talking about. And then, yes, there's at the House level, there's this primary that's really one of the many primaries this summer, this year where age is a very important factor. Larson, who's been in the House for 28 years, I believe, yes, 20 has been in the House since 98. So that's 28 years. He faced just two opponents who are a lot younger. There's actually another primary that I'm watching at the state House level in Connecticut where a Democrat has been in a safe blue seat and has never faced a primary opponent since 84, 1984. So that's 21 terms. She faces a much younger opponent that actually DSA endorsed, Connecting to our earlier conversation. But it's her first primary opponent in a safe blue seat since 1984. So, you know, there's our parallel elections just in the sense that there's a lot of pressure on the older generation of Democrats.

[Sam Cedar]

That's insane. I gotta say. I went to college in Connecticut and I was a freshman in 1984. That was a long time ago.

[Daniel Nakanian]

Well, I think a lot of, you know, we're going to see in a few weeks the Massachusetts primary where the incumbent Senator Ed Markey faces a moderate incumbent who's much younger. I mean that's, we've often, we've often seen the age argument or the general change argument be done by more progressive, more left wing candidates. But there's primaries coming up where the generational change argument is being made by people who are running to the right of the incumbent. So. But those are the major question there in those, in those races. Yeah.

[Sam Cedar]

All right, so what else? I mean, we're going to find out in South Carolina who's going to win the primary. This is a special election. Lindsey Graham's sister has decided to run, which was a surprise, I think to Republicans there. What else? Is there any other races that particularly you think would be of interest to people?

[Daniel Nakanian]

I mean, the one in South Carolina is interesting in part because there's a sitting House member. If a sitting House member Republican becomes the nominee, does that open, he's still running for his own seat. Does that open up a seat later on a vacancy at a crucial time if the House is close? The Alabama elections are also special elections because Republicans redistricted the state in a rush after the Calais decision came in April and the US Supreme Court, the conservatives allowed that. So that sort of canceled election that were already on the ballot in June in sort of, you know, in a number of states in a very rushed manner. And what's happening today is Republicans are basically deciding who is what, who's going to be the Republican who's going to be favored in November to win what is currently a majority black district, because that was redrawn to be a Republican leaning district. So Republicans are heading to the polls today to choose their nominee to win over a majority black district. And then maybe I'll to go even more down ballot. I will flag that there's a prosecutor race in Minneapolis, which is interesting. This is where George Floyd was murdered and the BLM movement in 2020 to cough.

[Matt]

Really.

[Daniel Nakanian]

This is where there's been obviously a lot of ICE violence in 2025, 2026, the prosecut, a progressive prosecutor who's not going to run for reelection. And there's a lot of candidates running there, some of whom are saying they want to continue in the tradition of the current progressive in office. Some of them saying as soon as they're elected, they're going to turn the page and today the primary. So we're going to see who advances to the general election. But that's an interesting one, both because of the progressive prosecution movement and Minneapolis being symbolic, but also because the ice, the current incumbent has said she finds it very important to prosecute ice. She's allied with other prosecutors around the country to talk about how to do that. Whether that tradition of local prosecutors trying their best to go after ICE agents, that's also at play today and also some of the issues that are being discussed. So if you're voting on your for county offices, prosecutors, sheriff, those are also very, very important.

[Sam Cedar]

Right.

[Daniel Nakanian]

All right.

[Sam Cedar]

Well, people will keep an eye on that. One last question about the going back to South Carolina, the Lindsey Graham had an opponent, Dr. Annie Andrews, I think her name is. And the polling was I mean, Lindsey Graham usually pulls it out. Not in this instance, as it were, but he was down by, I think he was up by five points in some of the polling I had seen. It's early polling. She seems like she has a real potential opportunity here in the general election. What's your sense of that? And who would be the weakest? I mean, Lindsey Graham's sister. I think there's Republicans there who are a little bit annoyed that she's running, that they were sort of feeling like, hey, it's my turn. If this guy goes, what's your sense?

[Daniel Nakanian]

It would have to be excellent years for Democrats of the likes you and I haven't seen in quite a while for that state to flip. But, you know, in 2020, Democrats thought that they could go after Lindsey Graham. They had a lot of polling showing that there was a tie in that race, that they thought that Lindsey Graham could be flipped as part of what a lot of Democrats for a lot of 2020 thought was going to be a blue wave year. The Democrats were very disappointed. I think Graham won by about 10 points. In South Carolina, the polling was arguably a little better at this equivalent point. But that result wasn't specific to South Carolina. Right. 2020 was disappointing. Obviously, Trump lost, but other than that, Democrats were very disappointed. At the result of a lot of elections down ballot. They didn't see the blue wave they were expecting. There was a lot of Senate seats that were reach seats that they were very excited about all year and didn't work out. South Carolina was one of them. So that was a function of environment. Just didn't pan out to be a blue wave or the huge blue wave. So in the best case scenario for Democrats, that's quite the reach state. But Democrats have not had success statewide there and I don't have the number on top of my head but in a long time. So certainly does not reach the level of Texas, Iowa, Ohio, Alaska, but certainly an open seat is one is is one to watch.

[Sam Cedar]

Daniel McKanian, always a pleasure to talk to you. Nobody has a more comprehensive view of what's going on with these primaries and these elections. Like I say, down ballot, folks, head to Bolts. If you have any question about who's running anywhere, you will have the answer there. Daniel Nikkinian, thanks so much for your time. Really appreciate it.

[Daniel Nakanian]

Always love joining you. Thank you.

[Sam Cedar]

Okay, we're going to put a link, incidentally to Boltz in the podcast and YouTube descriptions. Until next time. Thanks so much. All right, folks, we're going to take a quick break. When we come back, Eleanor Davis Diver from the American Prospect on Crypto. Democrats are ghosting the industry and they're not doing it because they've decided there's a problem with crypto. We'll be right back after this. We are back. Sam Cedar on the Majority Report. Emma Viglin is out today. Want to welcome to the program Eleanor Davis Diver who's written a couple of pieces in the Prospect over the past couple weeks on the Clarity Bill and the gosh, I should have come up with like a some type of pun here. How it is rather cloudy. Its prospects are a little bit cloudy these days.

[Eleanor Davis Diver]

Yeah, Clarity is definitely a misnomer.

[Sam Cedar]

Yeah. Sorry about that, folks. Let's before we get into this, okay. And the story is how the Democrats that Republicans and the crypto business was counting on to sort of like push this through seem to have gotten like a little bit shaky, neat on this. But before we get to the Clarity act, tell us about the Genius Act. Let's go back, explain to us what was in the Genius act and how it passed.

[Eleanor Davis Diver]

Yeah. So last year the Genius act and the Clarity act was sort of introduced as a package deal. The Genius act focuses on stablecoins, which are crypto coins that are supposed to be pegged to a really stable asset like A dollar. They aren't actually very stable. They are always losing their peg. But the Genius act essentially opened the door for regulated stablecoin issuance. So if you're a crypto firm, you can go to the government and say, I want to issue stablecoins and they'll give you a license to do that. Basically, they'll give you a charter to issue stablecoin. The rules for that are being finalized right now. But it has opened the door for the crypto industry to sort of start weaseling their way into the regular financial system. It passed with over 100 Democratic votes in the House, 18 in the Senate. It was, you know, pretty easily. But the Clarity act, which is sort of it's its brother in arms, is having a lot more trouble.

[Sam Cedar]

Just so that people can understand the Genius act and what the idea of stablecoins, my understanding is like, you can almost think of it as like, like, you know, American Express rewards points or something like this. Except for these are one to one in terms of dollars and where you can use them is a function of the issuer and the, the relationships that they have. So, you know, I can take my AMEX reward points and buy some jeans at Old Navy or something and it would be one to one. And this is a way of. It's almost like selling gift cards and they'll entice people into it. Like Walmart may issue a stablecoin and say you get a 15% discount if you use Walmart stablecoins, but you're also sort of locked into buying their currency. And what can go sideways with that? Aside from the fact that like you get, you get locked in?

[Eleanor Davis Diver]

Yeah, I mean, there's a lot of concerns when it comes to stable coins. The biggest one is that there's sort of a bridge between crypto and the rest of the financial system. And as you know, crypto is always crashing, it's always having crises, there's fraud, there's what have you. And so when that happens, stablecoin can freak out. And that's sort of what happened in with Silicon Valley bank, is that circle stablecoin issuer had millions of dollars in bank and then FTX collapsed and everyone wanted their money out from their stable coin. The stablecoin issues were take your dollar and they'll give you one coin and then they'll take that dollar and they'll invest it in money market funds or treasuries. And then what they kind of want to do is give you a reward, as you mentioned. So there are different ways to do that. They want to give deposits like you'd be a traditional bank. But the companies can issue stablecoins if it gets to that point. There's maybe Meta or somebody was issuing some stablecoins to creators in Cambodia. There's whispers of that happening, but it could be sort of a company script situation where you get paid with your employer's stablecoin and you can only use it at that store. You can get locked into this money and then if you want to pull it out, if you want to say, give me my dollar back that gave you for the stablecoin, if everyone's doing it at the same time, it's not insured like a traditional bank account is.

[Sam Cedar]

So there's no. The capital requirements behind the stablecoin are deficient.

[Eleanor Davis Diver]

Right. I mean, it's just not protected at all like traditional banks are. None of crypto is protected at all. And that is one of the reasons it's so dangerous. And these two bills, they don't really fix that at all. The Genius act gives trust banks the ability to issue stablecoin. And they give these trust banks, which are regulated not at the same level as typical banks because typically they're not doing the same activities, but they give the stablecoin issuers the ability to perform the same activities that typical banks would just with these coins, which, you know, the Federal Deposit Insurance Fund isn't backing. So there could be a run, people could lose their money. And that is exactly what happened with Silicon Valley Bank. And yeah, no, it can be really dangerous. And if you're like a traditional bank and you start issuing stablecoin and there's a run on that, then that will ripple out into the rest of the sort of non crypto banking activities that just regular people, regular people's deposits, regular people's investments. So even if you're not invested in crypto at all, it will still touch you.

[Sam Cedar]

So let's move to the clarity bill. But we should say, when we talk about the Genius act, people are wondering, probably listening to this, why would anybody vote for this? And we can just use Bernie Marino as an example. He's got 40 million reasons to vote for that. To be fair, he may have a couple others that deal with inside knowledge as to the thing that Max Miller seems to be holding over his head, you know, But I don't want to grind this down to the bone, as it were. Or was it adult finder? I can't remember. But the point being crypto put a tremendous amount of money into races in 2024. Talk about that for a moment.

[Eleanor Davis Diver]

Yeah, so they put over 130 million into just congressional race in 2024. Sherrod Brown, who had Marino seat, was pretty anti crypto, pretty vocal about it, vocal about the concerns, some of which

[Sam Cedar]

was also on the Banking Committee, if I remember correct.

[Eleanor Davis Diver]

So they poured about $40 million into that race and helped take down Sherrod Brown. And that was a major victory for the industry. And that was sort of a signal to Democrats in maybe swing states who were worried about losing their seat that if you cross us, we will come for you and we will get you. And so 18 Democrats in the Senate ended up voting for the Genius act, some of whom were getting a bunch of money from, from crypto in those races who were like very pro crypto, advocating for it out loud, making speeches on the floor. But then some of who just were scared they didn't want to cross crypto. And so they maybe weren't on the campaign trail talking about it, but they did vote for the Genius act.

[Sam Cedar]

And there was an expectation that the same dynamic would be happening with the Clarity Act. What is the Clarity Act?

[Eleanor Davis Diver]

The Clarity act, it's sort of a market structure regulation. The crypto industry likes to call it like a rules of the road bill that basically sorts crypto assets into different buckets and then assigns those to either the securities and Exchange Commission or the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. And what it really does is it pushes the crypto assets which act basically as investment products. You know, like you trade them like investment products. You're trying to grow your wealth. It pushes them out of securities regulation that typically governs investment products. And so it takes away investor protections. It introduces these, again, these really volatile assets into the traditional financial system because it gives blockchain based investment products. That's what they are. A lot of exemptions from traditional regulations that are classy for the issuers. And the crypto industry really wants it. It's designed buying for the crypto industry. They want it because it frees them from a lot of regulations, but it also gives them this sort of like patina of legitimacy because they are associated with a lot of fraud and crime, rightfully so. People don't trust crypto at all, really. And so they're having trouble reaching the mainstream customer base that they really want. And so they really want this, this legislation to make it seem like they're regulated and they're safe and the government is backing them. And also at the same time, it's freeing them from a lot of the laws that should be governing their products.

[Sam Cedar]

Right. I mean, it reads as a regulation bill, but what it really does is preventing actual oversight and regulation of the tulips that they're selling. So what happened? It looked like this thing was going to pass. I know there was. I mean, a big reason is because Donald Trump, I guess there's a billion and a half reasons when we come to Trump as to why this. Some Democrats got a little bit weak kneed.

[Eleanor Davis Diver]

Yeah. I mean, so, you know, Trump has sort of been doing this corruption thing for a while this term. He's been pretty outwardly corrupt, if you may have noticed. And a lot of that has to do with crypto. And so a lot of Democrats who want to use this corruption messaging in the midterms against Republicans in general, they started to get a little antsy because the bill would pass as it is right now, would kind of give Trump a lot of money. It would help his crypto businesses, his crypto assets. As I said, it would give the industry the boost they need to enter the traditional financial system. And it was set up to really help out Trump's world, Liberty Financial, all of his crypto ventures. And so Democrats sort of started discussing putting in a conflict of interest provision to basically force Trump to put his crypto investments, his crypto ventures in a blind trust or something like that, so he couldn't make money off of it while he was in office. There was a lot of discussions about this over the summer. There was also some holdup over these stablecoin rewards that I mentioned earlier with the banking industry. They were pushing back on this. But yeah, there was a lot of holdup with Trump's sort of crypto corruption. And then he dropped his financial disclosure revealing that he had made $1.4 billion so far in his second term off of crypto. It's important to note that most of that money just comes straight from the pockets of his investors because he'll release a token and the price will go up and he'll sell it all and make a lot of money and then the price will collapse and all those people who paid him are left holding the bag. So.

[Sam Cedar]

And we don't, and to be fair, we don't know how many of those people are rubes and dupes that are just fans of his or folks who are like, hey, I need a pardon from my father in law who, you know, whatever it was was trafficking in child pornography or committed large scale fraud. So I'm going to buy $6 million of this crypto and if I lose My money. I lose my money, you know, and I write it off as a business, a failed investment, and I get a break on my taxes. And that's how this guy made a billion and a half dollars in a year.

[Eleanor Davis Diver]

Yeah, no, exactly, exactly. I mean, Justin sun, who was the biggest investor in World Liberty Financial, just came out complaining about how it was all fraud, but he invested that money to get off the hook for the fraud he committed, which the SEC under Biden was after him for and then was off the hook under Trump. But, yeah, so he's made a lot of money.

[Sam Cedar]

You got to appreciate the fact that he's like, you know, I was defrauded in my. In my endeavor to get out of my fraud charges. I mean, so I guess there is some honor amongst thieves.

[Medical Expert or Doctor (unnamed)]

But.

[Sam Cedar]

But he seems to be happy about it. We should just say yesterday. Yesterday, a federal judge dismissed the criminal charges against the Indian billionaire Gautam Adani and several of his co defendants. The DOJ killed the case. And the judge was like, I don't understand why you killed this case. I would be curious to know how much of World Liberty Financial crypto coins this guy bought or whatever it is.

[Eleanor Davis Diver]

Yeah, no, there are many, many examples of that throughout this past year and a half or however long of this happening of partnerships with World Liberty Financial or whatever. And then immediately the DOJ or the SEC dismisses a case or asked to drop a case, and the judge is like, what are you even talking about?

[Sam Cedar]

All right, well, so the Clarity act, there was a hope by the crypto guys who have all this cash, and they've been playing in the primaries and they haven't been doing so well, at least when it gets called out. And the idea was they were going to ram this through before the Senate recessed a couple of days ago, because the idea being you can't be this close to the general election. It's a little bit more toxic. They weren't able to do it. Do you have a sense. Well, first off, who are the Democrats they were relying on A, and then B. Do you have a sense of, are the Democrats feeling the heat because of Trump's corruption, or are they feeling the heat because the crypto money has now become toxic?

[Eleanor Davis Diver]

I would say it's a mix of both. I mean, in terms of the Democrats, there's sort of a cohort of vocally pro crypto Democrats like Kirsten Gillibrand, Ruben Gallego, Mark Warner, Ron Wyden, and then there's like, Jon Ossoff, who is running in Georgia, and That race, you know, I mean, he's favored, but it could go either way. Who they were hoping they could scare off with their money. But yeah, there's been, I mean it was slowed down a lot because of the corruption. They wanted to have a pass by July 4, but that didn't really happen. And now we're kind of in this midterm season where money in politics and outside campaign spending is a big issue on the trail. And there hasn't been a lot of like specifically pro crypto spending that's been an issue. But there's a race tonight in Minnesota, Peggy Flanagan, who's been talking about that crypto has been funding a lot of money into her opponent, Andy Craig, who was very vocally in support of the Clarity Act. And then there's a lot of other races where AI data centers have been a big thing. AI spending has been a big deal. And crypto and AI a lot of people that kind of goes hand in hand. And so the threat of money I think is maybe not as potent anymore because there's also a threat from the left that if you do this, we will use it against you and it can be really effective. So that's sort of what's happening.

[Sam Cedar]

What we saw last week in terms of $60 million worth of APAC and crypto money.

[Daniel Nakanian]

Right.

[Sam Cedar]

I mean a lot of that was sort of like was crypto money that Haley Stevens was getting was used against her. And it is this story. The reason why I find this story so fascinating and it's. You did a great job reporting it out is it really does show. I mean, look, look, I think there are some people like Gillibrand who they just, they want the money. They want the money. Their kid, her kid just got what, a $30 million.

[Eleanor Davis Diver]

Yeah. Progressives are coming after her for that now. Like that is now becoming a thing that people can be attacked for. Sort of more in the center.

[Sam Cedar]

I want to know the 22 year old. I mean as the father of a 21 year old, I want to know what it takes for a 22 year old to convince people that he should manage 30 million of your dollars. I suspect what it is, is you got to have a parent who's a senator who's going to usher in. And you know, and frankly, Chuck Schumer has worked in the same way when it comes to meta. His daughter works there. So there's that ilk. And then I think like Ossif is another example of somebody who's afraid of the money, but that fear of the Money coming in against him is now tempered by the idea of, like, there's a risk in that my opponent taking the money, because I can now weaponize that it is. This is a great example and manifestation of how money works. And the two types of, like, people who can be swayed by money in those instances. Really appreciate you coming on, talking about it. We will link to crypto. Democrats are ghosting the industry. What is your sense from your reporting as to how, when will they, I mean, I know they're going to come back with this legislation. The question is when? If you had to bet, what would you say when it's going to show up?

[Eleanor Davis Diver]

Well, they do have a vote scheduled right now for September 15th, I think right after they get back from the recess. The question is, is it going to pass? And I think it would take a lot for that to happen because not only do we have these Democrats who are kind of finally standing up, but some Republicans are worried about repercussions from their community banking lobbies, about the stablecoin rewards. So there's a lot, a lot. And then there's other law enforcement groups. There's a lot of issues that really have to be hammered out that they have not hammered out. And maybe they will, we will see, but they will, they will be voting on it. I will say, though, that the SEC and the CFTC have been essentially implementing everything that is in this bill that is so dangerous just by themselves. And really the reason that the crypto industry wants this is to codify that to law and to say, like, we have this regulatory legislative package that makes us more secure, but it's all happening. The SEC just announced an open meeting on Friday to talk more about crypto regulation, where I'm sure they're just going to push through more of the really dangerous deregulatory positions in the bill and without having to stop any of Trump's crypto corruption, profiteering, anything like that.

[Sam Cedar]

Well, it should be interesting. And they're going to need every Democratic vote they can get because Mitch McConnell, I suspect, is going to still be in rehab, wherever that is. Who are the Democrats you think that are like the most wavering and the best ones for people to contact to say, do not touch this genius act.

[Eleanor Davis Diver]

I mean, I would say that probably Ossoff is the one who is clearly not. He's not going out there. He hasn't been talking about it like anti corruption is kind of his shtick. So. And you know, he's the one, he's the only senator right now who's an incumbent running in a swing seat. The rest of them, there's a group of about eight or so pro crypto Democrats, a couple of whom I listed. And I kind of think that if they get maybe some something on the ethics provision, something on stablecoin, they want this. They want this bill. Even though they said no to the crypto industry last week, they still want that money. And I don't really know if anybody calling will help, but if you want to, there's a letter that was signed by Warner Wieden, seven of them or something. Gillibrand was not on there notably, but yeah, there's a group there that Gallego that could be worth calling, but I would say Ossoff for sure.

[Sam Cedar]

Ossoff and Gallego also, I think has, or at least has been sniffing around a run for presidency. I don't think he'll do it, particularly in the wake of the Swalwell stuff. But we will put a link to both that letter and your reporting. Eleanor Davis, divert, thank you so much for your time today. I really appreciate it.

[Eleanor Davis Diver]

Thanks so much for having me.

[Sam Cedar]

All right, folks, we're going to take a quick break and then we're going to. Head into the fun half of the program wherein we will have fun. I may take some of your phone calls. I may not. May take read some of your IMs. I may not. I'm making no promises except for we will be there on the other side

[Matt]

of the break, we may get into Tim Pool, which we haven't talked about because Emma can't even stand him for a second.

[Sam Cedar]

Oh, really? Is that true?

[Matt]

Yeah.

[Sam Cedar]

I don't think I've ever picked up

[Matt]

on how he makes her skin crawl more than maybe any of the other people we cover. And I just wanted that out there. But we haven't really talked about him in about a month.

[Guest or Producer (possibly David Griscom or another staff member)]

Here's a good one for you, Sam. John Yu is on the five talking about declaring for the wnba.

[Matt]

Wait, what?

[Guest or Producer (possibly David Griscom or another staff member)]

John, you, you know, the architect of torture regime guy.

[Sam Cedar]

He's declaring for the N. Wn.

[Matt]

It's a bit that a bunch of guys are doing.

[Guest or Producer (possibly David Griscom or another staff member)]

Yeah, he's. He's saying he's gonna declare for the wnba.

[Sam Cedar]

Oh, good, good. You piece of garbage. I hope you. I hope you get in. I hope you get humiliated and then I'd like to see you tortured. What a scumbag, that guy.

[Guest or Producer (possibly David Griscom or another staff member)]

What a stupid country this is.

[Sam Cedar]

God.

[Matt]

God.

[Sam Cedar]

I mean, that guy was. Is just the lowest of the low. I can't. The I. He would be in my top 30 of people who are responsible for what's going on in this country today. I just say top 30. It could be lower. But this is the guy who worked in the Bush administration's Office of Legal Counsel in the DOJ and basically wrote the memo saying that torture was okay.

[Guest or Producer (possibly David Griscom or another staff member)]

The memo regarding the torture and military interrogation of alien unlawful combatants held outside the United States.

[Sam Cedar]

And then he what, he's at Stanford?

[Medical Expert or Doctor (unnamed)]

Yep.

[Sam Cedar]

Law.

[Guest or Producer (possibly David Griscom or another staff member)]

Now he's making fun of the WNBA and trans people.

[Sam Cedar]

What a piece of garbage.

[Matt]

Ennis Cancer also did that bit. He declared himself.

[Guest or Producer (possibly David Griscom or another staff member)]

It's a field day. There's, like, literally more men doing that bit than there are, like, trans people.

[Sam Cedar]

Honestly, I think there must be some project around this, like the. Like we're getting towards elections. Who are we gonna scapegoat? What's gonna be the Muslims and the

[Matt]

trans folk and the black women in the WNBA as well, of course.

[Daniel Nakanian]

Yeah.

[Guest or Producer (possibly David Griscom or another staff member)]

Oh, they're also going after white liberal women now. Ted Cruz literally has a tweet saying, God save us from the white liberal women. So, yeah, it's just all hate objects.

[Sam Cedar]

So funny how like, they're.

[Eleanor Davis Diver]

They're.

[Guest or Producer (possibly David Griscom or another staff member)]

Do they condemn Hasan Piker, is my question.

[Sam Cedar]

Well, that's the. I mean, you almost want to give it to them. At least they're going after a guy, but he's Muslim. And that's really the reason why. Folks, it's your support that makes this show possible. You can become a [e-mail] when you do, you not only get a get the free show free of commercials, you also get the fun half. And you can IM me and I can ignore. I can ignore your IMs. I don't do that. I try and read as many as I can do. It does feel like we have too much news and I just don't get a chance. But we will get there at some point. Maybe one of these Fridays at the end of August, maybe or the first week in September. I'll do like a open lines Friday where all we do is take IMs and phone calls and we'll do one story which will metastasize into an hour and a half, and then I'll take two calls and that'll be it. Anyways, join the majorityreport.com jointhemajoreport.com also just coffee, co op, fair trade coffee, hot chocolate. Use your coupon code. Majority get 10% off. It's a co op. It's in Madison, Wisconsin. Check it out. Meanwhile, whoa, look at the graphics.

[Guest or Producer (possibly David Griscom or another staff member)]

Did a little bit of graphic design last night. Episode no. David Griscom. He's out on vacation out in the American West.

[Sam Cedar]

So I. Oh, that must be why the graphics have just been graphics maxed.

[Guest or Producer (possibly David Griscom or another staff member)]

I got Jostin Hauga, who's an economist, a developmental economist at Cambridge University. Ever heard of it? Talking about China and development and the extent we've already been passed and we're here, you know, talking about trans people playing basketball and the Muslim threat as China basically out competes our key industries in a way that might be irrevocable. So we're gonna talk about that coming up in 75 minutes over on left. Reckoning.

[Sam Cedar]

Well, good job, Matt. By promoting China, there goes the reputation of the show we're going to take. We've seen it with Hasan Piker. He said, you know, Well, I don't explicitly grow China.

[Daniel Nakanian]

Yeah, right.

[Sam Cedar]

Saying that they're better than us.

[Guest or Producer (possibly David Griscom or another staff member)]

I mean, I'm making stuff.

[Matt]

They are still waiting on your cozy Earth Mao suit broadcasting from.

[Sam Cedar]

Hey, you know, honestly, I should wear a mouse suit just to. We should.

[Guest or Producer (possibly David Griscom or another staff member)]

But we're the exact one Hillary wore.

[Sam Cedar]

Just wear a Mao suit just to, like, show people how just absolutely stupid and moronic it is to complain about someone's wearing a Mao suit.

[Matt]

He knew what he was doing and it worked perfectly.

[Sam Cedar]

Oh, my God. See you in the fun. Half. Left is best. Jamie and I may have a disagreement.

[Eleanor Davis Diver]

Yeah, you can't just say whatever you

[Sam Cedar]

want about people just because you're rich. 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.

[Matt]

You know, I'm tired of the negativity.

[Sam Cedar]

I'm sorry. I didn't mean to upset you. You're nervous. You're a little bit upset. You riled up. Yeah, maybe you should rethink.

[Matt]

Think your defense of that. You idiots.

[Sam Cedar]

We're just going to get rid of you.

[Matt]

All right, but dude, dude, dude, dude, dude, dude.

[Sam Cedar]

You want to smoke this joint?

[Matt]

Yes.

[Sam Cedar]

Do you feel like you are a dinosaur? Exactly. I'm happy now. It's a win, win. It's a win, win, win.

[Eleanor Davis Diver]

Oh, hell yeah.

[Sam Cedar]

Now listen to the me. 2, 3, 4, 5 times 8479-065014-57238, 56, 27, 1 half. 5, 8. 3.9 billion.

[Eleanor Davis Diver]

Wow.

[Matt]

He's the ultimate math nerd.

[Sam Cedar]

Don't you see? Why don't you get a real job

[Daniel Nakanian]

instead of stewing vitriol and hatred? You left wing Limbaugh.

[Sam Cedar]

Everybody's taking their dumb juice today.

[Daniel Nakanian]

Come on, Sammy.

[Sam Cedar]

Dance, dance, dance. Grandpa, I had my first post coital

[Daniel Nakanian]

scene with a woman.

[Sam Cedar]

I'm hoping to add more moves to my repertoire. All I have is the dip and the swirl.

[Matt]

Fine, we can double dip.

[Sam Cedar]

Yes. This is a perfect moment. No, wait.

[Daniel Nakanian]

What?

[Sam Cedar]

You make under a million dollars a year.

[Guest or Producer (possibly David Griscom or another staff member)]

You're scum.

[Matt]

You're not paying. Excuse me?

[Sam Cedar]

Fuck you, you fucking liberal elite. I think you belong in jail.

[Matt]

Thank you for saying that, Sam.

[Sam Cedar]

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 jab.

[Eleanor Davis Diver]

Classic. I'm feeling more chill already.

[Daniel Nakanian]

Good.

[Sam Cedar]

Donald Trump can kiss all of our asses.

[Matt]

Hey, Sam. Hey, Andy. You guys ready to do some?

[Sam Cedar]

Hitler was such an idiot.

[Guest or Producer (possibly David Griscom or another staff member)]

That guy might be a Nazi.

[Sam Cedar]

Agreed.

[Daniel Nakanian]

No.

[Sam Cedar]

Death to America.

[Matt]

You. Yes.

[Daniel Nakanian]

Wow.

[Matt]

Wow.

[Sam Cedar]

That's weird. No way. Unbelievable. This guy's got a really good hook. Roar Hansen.

[Matt]

Wow.

[Sam Cedar]

No worries. 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.

[Eleanor Davis Diver]

Hey, hey, hey, hey.

[Sam Cedar]

Shut up. Thank you for calling into the majority report. Sam will be with you shortly.