MS NOW Highlights - June 22

[0:01] we knocked out everything now some of the fake news would say oh we didn't do it fast enough [0:06] you're from abc you're fake news go ahead the fake news media treats me very very badly look at all [0:10] the fake news back there watch that's a lot of fake news the news the fake news has no credibility [0:17] you know who's talking a big game the fake news media again everybody it's now five o'clock in [0:25] the east as long as donald trump has been in the public eye donald trump has been obsessed with how [0:31] he's seen by the public and through that he sees himself and how he's covered by the press as [0:39] thin-skinned and narcissistic as they come donald trump is taking his decades-long war with the [0:44] first amendment to new lows today a battle that started with smearing journalists as enemies of [0:50] the people culminated over the weekend with a comical but dangerous war on the truth in the [0:55] same way donald trump is going after people who exposed his no big contracts and failed [1:00] refurbishments of the reflecting pool he's doing that now with the press who dare to cover the [1:06] debacle with iran accurately last night he went on a tirade against journalists at the new york times [1:13] calling out a news analysis piece with the title quote what changed after almost four months of war [1:18] analysts say not much here's a little bit of what is in that piece of reporting quote neither the war nor [1:25] the agreement ended what u.s and israeli officials regard as the main threats emanating from iran that [1:31] country's nuclear program while heavily damaged was not eliminated its fate punted to future negotiation [1:39] the same goes for its ballistic missiles which the deal does not address by saturday even the most [1:44] significant immediate result of the deal iran's reopening of the strait of hormuz which trump had [1:50] identified as essential seemed at risk end quote trump had his usual criticisms of that piece of [1:58] analysis by saying it was fake and corrupt but then went further than that accusing the new york times [2:05] of quote treason treason is a crime punishable by death and then said he would add this reporting to [2:12] his already existing lawsuit against the new york times now nothing that they reported in that segment [2:19] i read you has been disproven by the trump administration but what's on display here is [2:23] that facts don't matter to trump he's a man who only believes good things about him to be true and [2:32] anything else that is true about him must be a lie it's an extremely dangerous trait to have in any [2:39] human being that anyone's in a relationship with but absolutely absolutely unprecedented in any sort of [2:48] leader or public official because this is not a real estate deal that you can just you know change [2:54] the numbers on or a new golf course opening or a party at mar-a-lago this is a war with another nation [3:02] 13 members of the u.s military have died more lives are at stake the global economy hangs in the balance [3:10] and a country's nuclear future will be determined that's why it's such a big deal that's why it's covered [3:16] the way it's covered accurately aggressively yeah all trump cares about is how he looks [3:23] and the stories about the war with iran and controlling the narrative to make himself look [3:28] good not even clear what that means anymore with his own coalition turning so dramatically against the [3:34] war and trump couldn't care less what is actually true we mentioned in the last hour his public [3:41] declaration to his supporters it happened in the year 2017 he told them to ignore the truth and that [3:48] statement remains as significant and frightening today as it did when he first uttered it just [3:54] remember what you're seeing and what you're reading is not what's happening i think the context there was [4:07] tariffs but you could now take that and lay it over tariffs and the war in iran and the reflecting pool [4:13] and the dead duck and on and on and on donald trump's ongoing war against the truth and why it matters [4:19] to every one of us is where we begin the hour some of our favorite experts and friends staff writer at [4:24] the atlantic tom nichols is here he's a professor emeritus of national security affairs at the u.s naval [4:30] college naval war college also joining us military analyst lieutenant general mark hurtling's back [4:36] he served as the commanding general of the u.s army in europe also joining us political analyst [4:41] former senator claire mccaskill is here claire i want to start with you and the political pushback [4:47] to someone so addicted to lies we've talked a lot about his coalition but i want to talk about the [4:53] other side for once because what seems interesting to me is that you have high level defections from [5:01] trump that show that this this strategy had a ceiling and a floor and i wonder what you think that [5:10] presents in terms of opportunities for the other side democrats and pro-democracy advocates and [5:15] independents and literally everybody else the 69 percent of americans who aren't approving of the [5:21] job trump's doing as president well it it all is very you know first of all it's exhausting um for [5:29] everyone and especially people who are paying close attention it's very exhausting uh the polling numbers [5:36] show that the majority of the country is rejecting his stilted version of the world his falsy false [5:44] information that he puts out on a daily basis and he is like in a hole and he can't quit digging so [5:53] really the democrats just need to keep stressing the things that people really care about and trump is [6:00] kind of making it worse every day um and i i listen i read mark's article in the bulwark about the iran [6:10] war and it is so insightful uh and he's right we talk about asymmetrical warfare all the time and nobody [6:18] knows what it means this is a classic example of asymmetrical warfare and what he stresses in that article [6:24] that's so important that trump has done and what most americans don't realize he has done is the permanent [6:31] damage he has that iran the iran war has done to our relationships to our relationships with the [6:38] good guys and the way he has handled himself with putin and chi and kim jong-un this is all about [6:47] hurting our relationships with the good guys in the world hurting our standing that is where the most [6:54] damage has been done is mark did a brilliant job of pointing out in his article today and [6:59] i certainly hope i know you guys are going to talk about it but i had to get jump in there and praise [7:04] it because i want everybody to read it that is paying attention because it's incredibly important [7:09] the things he talks about it is a new world when it comes to military success because of the success [7:15] of asymmetrical warfare by putin in ukraine and interfering in elections and now with this debacle in iran um [7:25] general hartling i'll read from from um your piece which claire has set up perfectly for us [7:30] um quote one thing is clear most of america's adversaries have largely concluded that defeating the [7:35] united states militarily is unlikely because of that decades ago they began shifting the competition [7:41] toward the very things that make american power effective the defining lesson of modern asymmetric [7:46] warfare may be that america's adversaries have stopped trying to defeat us where we're strongest instead [7:52] they seek to weaken the relationships confidence cohesion institutions and even the government [7:58] that amplifies american power explain it's interesting i got my first uh swipe at this [8:07] nicole back in 1998 when i was in the war college the kind of place that tom teaches at and first i ought [8:14] to say thank you to my uh to my missouri former missouri senator and form and uh current only cardinal [8:21] fan on ms now but we're the only two holding up that particular banner but uh what i'd say is i got my [8:29] first taste of this in china uh i was there in 1998 we were at the chinese war college in nanjing and we [8:37] asked them about what their operational exercise was in the war college and the answer we got was [8:43] they were uh portraying a re a re-take of desert storm but they were playing the iraqis to defeat [8:53] the americans and they were using methods uh that the iraqis had not used uh in that particular conflict [9:00] and what we've since come to know those as are asymmetric approaches and it's the application of [9:06] strategy tactics capabilities and methods to negate an opponent's strength while exposing his weaknesses [9:14] this is what we're seeing going on in iran right now you know some people think asymmetric attacks [9:20] are like the planes on 9 11 or the ieds in iraq and afghanistan but this is a pretty large example [9:27] of asymmetric warfare and it seems like people like secretary hegseth the president don't value places [9:35] like the war college where tom's taught for so many years to talk about how military operations [9:42] are evolving for the future and if we don't get it right it's going to come back to haunt us you can [9:48] have the greatest military in the world but if you don't do the other things that our government needs [9:53] to do you're going to be evaluated on how poor you are as a nation and how you're not coming together [10:00] and other nations are going to threaten you and in a world of complex threats it puts us in a really [10:06] bad position to state the obvious generally speaking having a bad president is bad for a [10:15] country right i mean you don't wish that on any country anywhere most particularly you don't wish [10:21] it on a country that you love having somebody at the top of a political pyramid who is corrupt who is [10:26] incompetent who seeks to stay in power even when he loses elections so he can build monuments to himself [10:33] and basically loot the place i mean that's just not good you you wouldn't wish that on any country [10:39] you certainly would not wish it on your own that said what we are learning right now what we are [10:45] living through right now is the fact that when you have a bad president turns out he's also bad at [10:52] pursuing the things that he wants for himself and you know if if you're up against someone with evil [10:59] intent the best you can hope for is that their intent will change but if you can't get that the next [11:06] best thing you can hope for is that they'll be an incompetent buffoon who fails at everything he tries [11:12] and in the case of donald trump what we are experiencing right now is his compounding failures [11:19] his blustering incompetence and his illiteracy kind of paying off for us as a country in in his failure [11:29] and incompetence he is right now lessening his own power his own sway even over his own party and [11:35] therefore he is lessening his ability to effectuate more harm to our country and so the huge prison [11:42] camps he tried to build for himself will have to be sold back at a loss or given away and his alligator [11:48] alcatraz has been emptied and now it will be boarded up or bulldozed and his subpoenas indictment and [11:54] indictments targeting his critics and his opponents are being thrown out as his failures and his incompetence [12:01] not only you know fail to serve but actively mess with even his own allies in congress miracle of [12:08] all miracle of all miracles now we've got congress suddenly awake you know saving that deep sea ocean [12:15] monitoring system and passing aid to ukraine and you know even passing union rights protections and [12:21] telling him no you can't have your stupid ballroom and i know it's it's not to say he's not doing [12:28] incredible harm having a bad president is bad i mean here's the aerial view of the damage he's done [12:35] not just to the white house right i mean but to the whole area around the white house the bulldozing [12:43] he did for the stupid ballroom the whole disaster that he has made there he really has turned the [12:49] reflecting pool into a disgusting chemistry experiment that now maybe kills ducks at least three dead as of [12:55] tonight with a local animal rescue group saying they're going to basically conduct autopsies on [13:00] two of the dead ducks and they hope to get the results in the next few days meanwhile trump's having [13:05] his federal agents arrest anyone who touches the reflecting pool so he can try to blame other [13:10] people for how much he's messed it up and we really are going to have a fourth of july celebration [13:15] of the nation's 250th anniversary that's just going to be donald trump holding a rally for himself in [13:21] washington and he really did just lose a war i mean headline tonight in the wall street journal [13:29] u.s allows iran to sell oil in dollars for first time in decades yeah we have to because they beat [13:35] us in a war and so now we have to pay them to reopen the strait of hormuz iran won a war against the [13:41] united states they retain their missile and drone systems and their nuclear program they keep their [13:46] radical theocratic theocratic regime in place they may even get to charge fees for the first time [13:53] for anybody transiting the strait of hormuz and as of today they get to start trading oil in dollars [13:58] for the first time in decades because they won and trump lost and so trump has to pay them and he's now [14:06] been forced to release them from sanctions and so they're released from sanctions for the first time [14:10] in decades i mean before donald trump the united states used to at least be seen as the military power [14:15] that ensured freedom of navigation all over the world right in the seas and oceans of the world [14:21] now iran this backwater supposed regional power has proven that we can't do even that even as it [14:32] cost us all our missiles and interceptors to prove that we couldn't do it so our deterrence factor from [14:39] having the largest and most expensive military in the world that's kind of kaput at least we have [14:46] no allies left in the world thanks also to donald trump i mean having a bad president [14:51] is bad we will talk tonight on this show about him bringing more bizarre and inflated criminal [14:58] charges against people protesting against him we're going to talk in just a moment about the [15:02] washington post's new reporting that trump in his infinite wisdom appears to have put a cult member [15:07] in charge of the nation's entire intelligence apparatus the sect she belongs to is described by [15:12] people who've gotten out of it as a secretive authoritarian religious cult there's now evidence reported by [15:18] the washington post that her cult leader apparently has been giving her very detailed very very specific [15:24] commands on what exactly to say and what to do as a public official and she's been doing it to the [15:31] letter i mean none of this is good none of this is good but trump's failure is now obvious inarguable [15:41] and consequential enough and his behavior is bizarre and indefensible enough that his own power is in [15:48] free fall his perceived strength and therefore his political sway is at a low ebb i mean in the last [15:57] few days of reporting we've learned that he's reportedly been seen super gluing gold gewgaws to [16:04] the walls of the oval office personally manning the super glue tube he also couldn't manage hooking the [16:12] simple clasp on a medal of honor so he yanked and fiddled and tied the thing onto the man's neck like a [16:20] shoelace with a bow this happened at an actual medal of honor ceremony that really happened live and [16:29] in person i mean he really has done this to the reflecting pool on the national mall and people [16:35] have responded by declaring that they're team algae and they're rooting for the green goo to win even if [16:41] it means trump loses elected republicans really have no way to explain away his disastrous loss to iran and [16:50] so they're calling it things like quote the worst foreign policy blunder in decades and saying things [16:55] like i think the president is receiving some very poor advice but the chicago protesters he tried to [17:04] prosecute not only got all the charges against them dropped now the trump administration is going to have [17:09] to pay all their legal bills too and now in some of the trumpiest places in the country like california [17:14] shasta county trump supporters are being voted out of the county government in recalls and primaries and [17:20] general elections one right after the other and in iowa trump's gubernatorial candidate lost in the [17:25] republican primary and in georgia trump's gubernatorial candidate lost in the republican [17:30] primary and in oklahoma trump's gubernatorial candidate couldn't get it done and has to go to [17:36] a runoff tonight the a1 headline in the washington post is this democratic turnout is up even in republican [17:45] districts quote more voters are casting ballots for democrats compared with the numbers in previous [17:51] midterms fueling the party's hope for big wins in november right now the opposition to president [18:00] donald trump is ascendant and trump is flailing in ways that are obvious to everyone he's a laughing [18:07] stock and his policies are failing and being abandoned and his supporters are fleeing and did i [18:15] mention that the opposition to him is ascendant yes the night is still coming and it's still dark and [18:24] we'll talk about a lot of that tonight here on the show but right now just look around be aware of where [18:30] you are these dark nights are short and the days are endlessly long right now don't waste them this [18:39] is the time there is a new explosive report investigating now former director of national [18:45] intelligence tulsi gabbard's ties to a religious sect called science of foundation raising questions [18:52] about whether a spiritual guru had extraordinary influence over her policy making her politics and [18:58] virtually every move she made on camera for years washington post investigative reporter john swain [19:04] obtained hundreds of confidential memos detailing guidance allegedly sent to gabbard from 2011 to 2017 [19:12] including when she was in congress evidence swain says points to the memos coming from a man named [19:18] chris butler head of a breakaway sect of the hari krishna group someone gabbard has called her guru the [19:25] washington post compared gabbard's remarks in 32 tv interviews between 2014 and 2016 with talking points [19:32] allegedly sent to her and found that on 24 occasions gabbard used language sent to her in those memos [19:40] almost verbatim other times gabbard used different words but promoted basically the exact same ideas [19:46] a chief of staff for gabbard told the post in part quote the attacks on director gabbard's faith and loyalty [19:52] are not only false they are a blatant example of anti-hindu bigotry and a pr firm connected to the [19:59] religious sect also told the post quote hindu phobia anti-hindu religious bigotry that's all this is [20:06] when a hindu public figure has a spiritual teacher or shares views with a hindu religious figure that [20:11] alone is somehow evidence of sinister control let's bring in washington post investigative reporter john [20:18] swain it's good to see you uh what an incredible piece here but i want to back up for a moment how [20:25] did you get a hold of that trove of confidential memos and end up tracking down this story back when [20:34] tulsi gabbard was nominated by president trump to be director of national national intelligence in november [20:39] 2024 i was looking into tulsi gabbard and her relationship with her guru trying to find out [20:45] this question this issue of how much influence did he have on her and at the time i kind of struck out [20:52] i didn't get anywhere and someone i spoke with at the time who's in the same religious group the science [20:58] of identity foundation reached back out months later and through our conversations it led to her [21:05] checking an old email inbox and in that inbox remarkably were hundreds of memos that she and others [21:12] around the guru had received during tulsi gabbard's time in congress and they contained what appeared [21:18] to be firm directives guidance advice sometimes verging on orders uh for things that tulsi gabbard [21:26] should do or say john you know a lot of members of congress they have ties to influential pastors around [21:34] the united states some of whom are very controversial themselves so what did you find in this reporting that [21:39] struck you as different or wholly unusual when you think about the relationships that a lot of [21:46] politicians have with religious figures around the united states sure and of course you know members of [21:51] congress have rabbis and priests and imams and tulsi gabbard herself had said that her relationship [21:58] with her guru was was just like that it was a spiritual relationship he was her spiritual teacher [22:04] she was asked back in 2019 directly did he ever politically mentor her and she was emphatic she [22:10] said no no um what we found in these documents however is that in addition to spiritual advice and [22:18] advice about her faith gabbard was receiving extensive detailed directives for what legislation to [22:26] propose what to say in press releases what to say in tv interviews as you highlighted and i think it's [22:34] pretty clear that that kind of relationship that kind of advice and directives and guidance [22:40] far exceeds the regular relationship that a member of congress would have with a religious leader where [22:47] we're not going anywhere near the details of of director gabbard's hindu faith we're not talking [22:55] about the theology involved here the the claims of hindu phobia sort of missed the point i think which is [23:01] that this is about political guidance and directed for a public official on what she should propose in [23:08] the house what she should say in public statements and she you know members of congress are on committees [23:14] that deal with very important things and this level of advice and and guidance is is pretty extraordinary [23:22] for anyone who hasn't the chance to read the piece i want to read an example that you cite from 2014. [23:28] a memo says important to do must tweet around 9 a.m it contained a pre-written tweet with a link to a [23:35] video on the plight of kurdish fighters in the syrian in a syrian city which was under siege by the [23:41] islamic state extremist group then came this tweet from gabbard carrying out a wish list in another 2014 [23:48] example a memo contains policy instructions that warn to avoid delays in medical treatment veterans should be [23:55] able to get care at any hospital and be reimbursed by veterans affairs and they should be able to do [23:59] so without first obtaining government approval actually put forward legislation get it done the [24:06] speaker said it is highly highly unusual i mean you have other instances too where there's advice about [24:14] things to say in television hits and then you're able to find the exact moments where she's gone on a [24:19] network like gone with wolf blitzer at cnn and says almost exactly what she has been told to say when [24:26] you've spoken to experts and as you you did all this work for the story what kind of questions does [24:32] this raise for you a lot of this material comes from when she was serving in congress but of course [24:36] she was just the nation's top spy chief what are the implications of that she was and i should say [24:43] as you point out these memos with guidance and directives stop before she left congress in terms [24:49] of the the ones that i have access to we don't know if they're they continued in those years afterward [24:54] but there was a second half to this story um which was that followers devotees of her guru [25:01] for years ran an initiative to boost tulsi gabbard online they posted comments on social media [25:08] they replied to newspaper articles on newspaper websites and what i was able to find was that [25:14] that side of things at least did continue right up to her nomination as dni through her presidential [25:21] campaign in 2020 and i found that accounts that were operated by her faith group in the years sort of [25:30] a decade ago were continuing to tweet in her favor in support of her when she stepped down as dni just [25:37] in these recent weeks so it really indicates that there is this ongoing relationship to some extent [25:43] between tulsi gabbard and the faith group the question of whether the guru was giving advice [25:51] um in in more recent years remains open and you know i'd love to be able to look into that um i don't [25:57] have access to documents that show that but you know we continue to to report well if you do um i would [26:04] love to have you back on to hear all about it incredible work extraordinary story john swain thank [26:10] you thanks andrew and philip are back with me it seems like it's commentary on the department of [26:17] justice from these cities so i'd like to make everyone remember something which is that in minnesota [26:26] renee good was shot and killed alex pretty shot and killed another individual was shot unfortunately [26:33] he didn't die the locals are investigating they asked the department of justice for something that [26:42] is routine that happens all the time which is not that they get exclusive access they don't want to [26:49] take the evidence from the feds they just want to have access to that evidence that the feds have [26:55] that the state doesn't have so they can do their independent investigation and what is todd blanche's [27:00] response to that mr i cannot believe that the locals don't want to work with us he has said the [27:07] department of justice is not turning that over that what i mean it is outrageous why would you do that [27:16] if you want don't want and if you want to find out what happened you would turn it over and have an [27:22] independent investigation that happens all the time that is not happening that is todd blanche's decision [27:28] um he his confirmation hearing the way i look at it is this is this is the midterms i mean for people [27:36] who think that oh this is like we have to worry about the midterms down the road um that is true [27:42] but if you are interested in the rule of law it is what are the senators um going to do on his [27:49] confirmation because you have seen and you we just talked about it the undermining of the rule of law [27:55] in up one side and down the other every career person that i know who worked in the department [28:01] of justice is outraged judges are outraged um this is not a political issue it is not a partisan issue [28:09] it is just unbelievable what todd blanche has been perpetrating just i want you to stay on this point [28:14] because i believe he's met with cassidy he's met with grassley he's met with cornyn interesting that is [28:20] interesting to me because it says that he knows he has to shore up republican support i think he can [28:25] lose three republican votes in that final confirmation hearing when you say that that that the midterms [28:31] are on the line here i think what you're saying is you're going to need some republican senators who [28:36] rebuke blanche as the nominee but if they do where does that then leave us with him as an acting ag yeah [28:42] well you know what that's like what it says is that the senate said no to him that you know what [28:48] that that itself is fine i mean there's yes the midterms will still be an important matter but [28:54] saying no for the senate to say this is a line beyond which we will not go let's remember another [29:01] thing that he did under his watch um the department of justice sought to indict six sitting members of [29:09] congress what was their crime their crime that was they were investigating was speaking we just talked [29:17] about free speech these are members of congress speaking the truth about what is the obligation of [29:24] members of the military and they here it was so weak that the grand jurors refused to indict that [29:33] that's how far the todd blanche justice department has gone and to me it is so incumbent on democrats and [29:43] rational senators to make sure that um the senators who are going to vote for him that there's a cost to [29:51] it um because the the the record here is so dispositive and it should be in the senator's own self [30:00] interest because they see exactly what todd blanche is willing to do when it's literally indicting members [30:08] of congress with no evidence i wish that it was the indicting members of congress or what transpired [30:13] in minneapolis that would get those republicans to move i actually think it's this weaponization fund [30:18] because they know it is deeply unpopular with their own base and even though they've said it's dead [30:22] it's not yeah i mean all this goes back to a broader question which is to what extent is donald trump [30:29] being felt feeling held accountable and in any regard right and clearly todd blanche does not feel as [30:35] though he's been held accountable he's being rewarded for what he's and all these things you've talked [30:37] about happened most of them happened before he actually got the tap to be uh actual ag uh so to [30:43] whom is donald trump and to whom are the people around him feeling as though they they have to worry [30:48] about right trump clearly only worries about the base i have a column that's coming out tomorrow that [30:52] looks at why his base remains so disinterested in these questions of what america's all about like [30:59] these interests they just are not worried about the idea of democracy in this particular context and the [31:04] reason why is because they feel as though donald trump is fighting for something else right and [31:08] so all the republican senators who do as a general rule attest to the idea that these ideals of america [31:14] are important and that we should preserve the rule of law and justice that all of them are sort of [31:19] beholden to this thing that the base doesn't care about and therefore donald trump doesn't care about [31:23] and so we see todd blanche as this pivot point and he should be and there are a lot of senators who still [31:28] are probably not going to be able to get past that point but most republican senators are they're going to be [31:32] fine with blanche in the same way they've been fine with everything else uh because they understand [31:37] that the the group to which they trump and therefore they are accountable is simply the [31:41] base and the base doesn't care there was some news that broke while we want to air i want to make sure [31:45] that i i get you in on it um a federal judge just quashed subpoenas aimed at minnesota governor tim [31:50] walls and minneapolis mayor jacob fry related to their refusal to cooperate with the federal government's [31:55] immigration action so we don't have the rationale yet for what why the judge quashed it but my [32:02] suspicion is that this is going to follow very much what we saw judge bosberg a federal judge in dc do [32:10] in connection with the federal reserve and jerome powell and again an incredibly unusual move [32:17] you had a judge quash a grand jury subpoena and what he said was it was done in bad faith that there was [32:25] no good reason there was nothing there to investigate other than it being a pretext we just talked about [32:32] this idea of judges looking behind that's what judge bosberg did i cannot tell you i i was in the [32:39] justice department for 21 years served under republicans and democrats this doesn't happen and when i say it [32:44] doesn't happen it's that the government doesn't act this way and thus there's no need for judges to make [32:49] these kinds of rulings but i i strongly suspect we're going to see reasoning that follows what [32:55] judge bosberg said in connection with the jerome powell federal reserve subpoenas quashing those [33:01] because it looks so identical that there's like what's the they are there i mean what does anyone can [33:06] anyone sitting here say what they did that was possibly a crime what is the there there is really the [33:11] name of this entire season andrew weissman thank you so much great to be here [33:15] we are 133 days away from the midterm elections and tomorrow new york votes in a state with 26 [33:25] congressional districts exactly one is likely to change hands in november none of what happens [33:31] tomorrow will determine which party controls congress and yet by tomorrow night the democratic [33:36] party may look meaningfully different than it does tonight whether that's a crisis or a correction [33:42] depends entirely on where you sit every fault line running through the democratic party in [33:47] 2026 progressive versus moderate outsider versus establishment fighter versus folder is on the [33:53] ballot tomorrow and at the center of it all is a 34 year old man who holds no congressional office [33:59] leads no party committee and is six months into his first term as the mayor of new york city [34:04] zoran mamdani has put his name and his movement behind just three congressional candidates running [34:09] tomorrow he says the three will fight for everyday working new yorkers take on corporate greed [34:14] protect immigrant communities so let's take a closer look at mamdani's chosen candidates and their [34:19] races in new york's seventh congressional district mamdani is backing state assembly member claire valdez [34:25] she's contending in a race for an open seat that covers parts of queens and northern brooklyn in new [34:31] york city's 13th district which includes parts of the bronx and upper manhattan mamdani is backing the [34:36] community organizer daria lisa avila chevalier she's running against adriano espayat a five-term [34:43] incumbent and the chair of the congressional hispanic caucus he's been described as the [34:47] informal dean of new york latino politics and he spent decades mentoring a generation of dominican [34:52] and latino leaders the stakes of that endorsement are hard to overstate but the endorsement getting [34:58] the most attention is in new york 10 which spans lower manhattan and parts of brooklyn in that race [35:03] mamdani is backing former city comptroller brad lander but the alliance between mamdani and lander [35:09] didn't start with this campaign it was forged during last year's mayoral election lander and [35:14] mamdani were opponents who nevertheless found commonality with each other and in new york [35:19] city's ranked choice election with a crowded field of candidates they made the competitive bet [35:24] of cross endorsing one another mamdani urged his supporters to rank him as their first choice [35:29] and lander as their second choice lander urged his supporters to rank him as their first choice [35:34] and mamdani as their second choice that allowance has now followed them here and what makes it [35:39] remarkable is who lander is running against dan goldman came to national prominence when he served [35:45] as the lead democratic council in the first trump impeachment hearings he's now a two-term member of [35:50] congress goldman did not endorse zoran mamdani's mayoral campaign last year neither for the primary [35:56] nor for the general election he said he was concerned about mamdani's rhetoric about israel and [36:01] the jewish community that division over israel has carried over to goldman's race against lander and [36:07] it's emblematic of a larger struggling happening across the democratic party both lander and goldman [36:12] are jewish and running in a district with a large jewish population but they've got very different views [36:17] on u.s support for the israeli government goal lander has called israel's actions in gaza a genocide [36:23] he supports restrictions to u.s military aid to israel and he vows not to take money from aipac [36:29] on the other hand goldman has been endorsed by aipac and has received hundreds of thousands of dollars [36:34] from groups and individuals affiliated with it for mamdani's part he says the three candidates he [36:39] supports will be partners that he needs in congress to make new york a more affordable place for working [36:45] people to live joining me now is the democratic mayor of new york zaron mamdani mayor mamdani good to [36:50] see you here thank you for joining us well thank you so much for having me and you know before we [36:55] begin i just want to speak directly to new yorkers a year ago you shocked the world you took a chance [37:01] on me and for that i will be forever grateful tonight i come to you asking you to take a chance again [37:08] now the names may be different daria lisa brad claire but the fight is the same a fight to reject a [37:14] broken status quo a fight to reject the politics of hate division and fear a fight to reject the [37:20] politics of big money and small ideas and instead a vote for a city you can afford a vote for the [37:26] values that make us proud to be new yorkers tomorrow's election day let's show them who we are [37:31] so let's talk about the status quo what you call the broken status quo i spoke with hakim jeff jeff [37:36] last month about um uh about this these non-open seat primaries meaning there's an incumbent in them [37:43] and the possibility of progressive challenges against incumbents listen to what he told me well we're [37:49] going to continue uh to defend every single house incumbent ultimately however it's going to be up [37:58] to the people and that's the reality of serving in the house of representatives so that was intriguing [38:03] it's ultimately up to the people but the party is going has always backed incumbents if you're if two [38:09] of your three candidates win tomorrow uh uh you they will be the first to unseat a sitting democratic [38:16] incumbent in the country there have been two democratic incumbents who have been defeated that's because [38:19] they were redistricted into into challenging each other tell me why you're investing in this you know [38:25] i i think what we see in these candidacies whether it be of brad or dahlia lisa or claire is a fight [38:32] for a vision that has working people at the heart of it and that is pertinent in our city because we are [38:38] the most expensive city in the united states of america and it's also pertinent across the country [38:42] because we know that no matter where you live working people are struggling with the cost of living [38:47] crisis and in each of these campaigns and each of these candidacies i see champions who would not [38:52] only be partners of our affordability agenda in washington but also help to lead our party in a [38:57] new direction where we understand that at the heart of everything we do must be the dignity of working [39:02] class people that for too long have been in the rearview mirror of the democratic party let's work [39:06] through a couple of these dan goldman didn't just decline to endorse you for mayor he went on cnn and [39:11] said he was very concerned about your rhetoric said he didn't know if he was going to vote for you in the general [39:15] um and by his own uh words he didn't is there a personal element to your decision to endorse lander [39:21] over goldman you know the only personal element of it comes from my admiration of brad and someone [39:27] that i've gotten to know not only as a colleague but also as a friend and as you were sharing earlier [39:31] we were both running for the same position last year and yet what we both understood is that if we [39:36] want to bring a new kind of politics to our city we also have to embody that and the two of us [39:41] joined hands and showcased what it could look like if politics had a little bit more sincerity at the [39:46] heart of it instead of the typical cynicism that drives so much of it and brad is running a campaign [39:52] where he is showing what it looks like to use the words of mr rogers to be a good neighbor and i can't [39:58] wait to see someone who's not just had my back but has had the backs of new yorkers whether they're [40:03] immigrants whether they're small business owners whether they're people who are being unjustly detained by ice [40:07] to finally be able to go to congress and have the back of this entire city and brad lander has [40:11] constantly gone to court he's been arrested for doing it in fact he was just found not guilty of [40:16] those charges a couple weeks ago he's called what israel is doing in gaza genocide dan goldman will not [40:21] use that word he also won't use the word occupation to describe israel's presence in the west bank in [40:27] gaza both of them are jewish and both of them want to represent a district with a large jewish population [40:33] so what does that tell us about the future of the democratic party that this has become such a major [40:37] fault line well i think for many it's a crisis not only in our politics but also in our morals [40:45] and what new yorkers are looking for are leaders who are able to say that they believe in human [40:50] rights no matter whom it applies to and i think you can see that in brad it's not just his willingness [40:55] to name the genocide for what it is or the occupation for what it is it's also his commitment to actually [41:01] co-sponsor the block the bombs legislation that would stop our country from being complicit as it is [41:06] in the continued massacring of palestinians uh through the israeli military's bombs and that's [41:13] what we want to see we want to see a new kind of leadership that is willing to chart a path forward [41:18] that invests in babies and doesn't invest in bombs what happens you tend to give off an optimistic [41:24] vibe so you probably don't want to answer this question but what happens if your candidates lose [41:28] is there an undercurrent to this whole dynamic that there's some danger doesn't go away after this [41:32] election cycle i mean will you get behind anybody who's a democratic candidate who wins tomorrow [41:36] night you know if whoever wins tomorrow night i'll be there to be a partner with them what i will tell [41:42] you is that i've taken all my time and thought about the fact that we could be seeing new yorkers [41:47] electing all three of these candidates to becoming next the next congress people representing our city [41:52] in the delegation in washington dc and i think whether you're talking about brad in new york 10 [41:57] daria lisa in new york 13 or claire valdez in new york 7 you see the opportunity to write a new [42:02] chapter in our politics and new yorkers are hungry for change and what they see in each of these [42:06] candidates whether it's fighting back against special interests looking to buy these kinds of [42:10] elections whether it's finally saying that it's time to abolish ice or whether it's to send a union [42:17] organizer to congress to make sure that the fight for working people is at the heart of our politics [42:21] each of these candidates has the answer to so much of what our party has been missing let's talk [42:26] about um new york 13 there has been reporting that uh adriano adriano espiad who endorsed you [42:33] after you won the primary when you're running for mayor um there's been reporting that you you said [42:39] you would endorse him uh what happened there you know the promise i made to new yorkers was to use [42:46] every tool at my disposal to fulfill the affordability agenda and one of those tools is to endorse candidates [42:52] who will help you to be the partner that you need at the federal level that's why i made the decision [42:57] to endorse daria lisa avila chevalier she is the son that she is the daughter of a single mother caseworker [43:03] who has spent her life fighting for working people and what we've seen in her track record is not just [43:08] freeing new yorkers that have been unjustly detained by ice but also in standing up and calling for a [43:13] foreign policy rooted in humanity you know i'll tell you tonight i was walking the streets of her [43:18] district with her we ran into a man coming out of a bodega with two packets of huggies in his arms [43:23] and he personified what she has often said which is it's time to vote for a congressperson who's [43:28] investing in babies not bombs the people of new york 13 are struggling to afford life in the nation's [43:34] most expensive city and yet what they've seen for so long passing as acceptable politics is spending [43:39] those tax dollars abroad as opposed to right here in our city let me ask you about uh the border [43:44] czar tom holman he said recently quote you're going to see more ice agents than you've ever seen [43:49] in new york city and it's coming um you seem to have a working relationship with president trump [43:55] uh and a lot of that has centered around your priorities as it relates to immigration and [43:59] affordability what do you make of what why why tom holman said that what it means no i think we'll [44:05] continue to see threats coming from the federal administration whether it's holman or others and i think [44:09] what they need to understand is that our values our laws they are not bargaining chips we are not [44:14] embarrassed of the fact that we are a sanctuary city we are proud of that fact and i've spoken to [44:18] the president directly as well as said so in public that i believe that ice is a cruel agency that does [44:24] nothing to further the interests of public safety it's why i agree with daria lisa avila chevalier [44:30] in that we have to abolish ice and what we need to do is create an immigration system that has [44:35] humanity back at the heart of it you know i'm the mayor of a city of eight and a half million people [44:39] more than three million are immigrants and i'm one of them and yet what we've seen this federal [44:43] administration's policies do is wreak havoc across our city and it's not just on those who do not have [44:49] documentation frankly it breeds a sense of fear among so many who call the city home where they [44:54] don't know if they're going to step out of their home and be profiled purely on the basis of the [44:58] color of their skin or if they can actually live the same life that they were hoping to live in this [45:01] city mayor mdani thank you for joining us we appreciate your time tonight it's such a pleasure thank you [45:07] thank you for having mealy new york city mayor zoran mumdani