June 26, 2025 • 37 mins
Gare and Mia discuss the New York City mayoral primary and what it means for the Big Apple and the future of the Democratic Party.
Sources/Links:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yxyXXVoi514
https://www.nytimes.com/live/2025/06/24/nyregion/nyc-democratic-primary-election-mayor
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DKvdChiOFLv/
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Cool Zon Media. This is it could happen here. I'm
Garrison Davis. Today I'm joined by Mia Wong. I am
reporting from the beautiful and sunny People's Republic of New
York City, and we are Zoe back. It is Clover
Dimes Squares on suicide Watch. Zomentum is sweeping the nation.
(00:26):
Zoramum Donnie has won the Democratic primary for the mayor
of New York City, beating veterans sexual harasser Andrew Cuomo.
It was it was quite a night in New York
last night. We are recording this Wednesday morning. The final
ranked vote will be done in about a week, but
(00:47):
Cuomo has conceded the race to Zoron, who has declared
a pretty decisive victory.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
It's been very funny. Seeing the dashing and weeping of
the Quotmo camp has been very funny. New York has
officially been upgreen from a Tier two to a Tier
one point five Chinese city. Given give it another decade,
it'll it will have entered Chinese civilization. The vibes are good.
The vibes are good well.
Speaker 1 (01:11):
The only difference is that now we will have an
actually communist government in a city instead of the fake
state capitalist governments of the Chinese mega.
Speaker 2 (01:20):
City objectively more Communists to one point five Chinese city government.
Speaker 1 (01:28):
An American bogeeli Uh. It was. It was a pretty
exciting night in New York last night. I and many
people were not expecting a clear result so soon. I
think Cuomo conceded around ten to thirty as the vote
was still coming in, but it was pretty clear that
Zoron did a like very very impressive, very impressive sweep,
(01:52):
really solid turnout across the boroughs. Just to like get
a sense of like where we were at, Like I
got to announce to of a pretty a pretty large
room full of trans people at the Metropolitan Bar that
Cuomo conceded to Zoron, and Zoron has won. And I
had not felt better in months. It was really invigorating.
(02:13):
This was like the first like ray of hope in
a political sense that I've that that it's been like
so deeply felt nothing ever happens, camp is is is
finally finally taking it. So jover for nothing ever happens.
The shear, the sheer like joy and excitement being in
like a room of like one hundred, one hundred queer people,
(02:37):
as as as Cuomo gets defeated and Zoron securing the primary.
It was it was just invigorating. In many ways, this
feels a lot bigger than even like AOC's win a
few years ago. And it feels so much more real
than like the Sanders campaign really ever did, because New
York is such as like a it's such a condensed,
(02:58):
concentrated area. Now it has not quite like an inevitability,
but of a pretty strong certainty of what's going to
happen come November in the general election.
Speaker 2 (03:09):
Yeah, And I think the thing that's maybe in some
ways the biggest deal about this is that New York
was like the capital of the giant sort of right
wing backlash inside the Democratic Party to twenty twenty Yeah, right,
Like this is the city that elected Eric Adams in
twenty twenty one.
Speaker 1 (03:25):
Right, Like it just straight up a cop is ruled
for like four years by just like.
Speaker 2 (03:31):
This unhinged corrupt alliance of like fucking real estate developers
and like unhinged right wing billionaires and the cops who
ran this really really effective sort of politics of like
the demonization of unhoused people and like anti immigrant politics
and the shift right in this in the Neu Democratic
(03:51):
Party like single handedly shifted the entire country to the right.
You could literally see where the New York media market
was in the twenty twenty two elections. You could see
on them map who was getting the news because it
was so right wing. And that's just broken, that whole thing,
Like this place was just like which was like the
capital of the kind of revolution broke and that whole
(04:11):
tide like you can it's you know, in the same
way that like Hunters Thompson talked about how you could
see like you could see them with the tide of
the sixties broke standing in Vegas, Like sitting here right now,
you can see the place where the tide of that
right wing surge in New York broke. And it was
last night we saw their high points. Yeah, they couldn't
elect the fucking sexual predator. That was as far as
(04:32):
they could go.
Speaker 1 (04:33):
A Cuomo too, Like, like I know some people are
slightly annoyed about like the outsized influence of the New
York mayoral election affecting everybody who's like online and cares
about politics in the United States and even and even abroad.
But this is like not not only as New York,
like the biggest city in the country. This is like
(04:55):
more so a representative battle for the future of the party,
and like what the future of democratic politics, not just
the Democratic Party but literally like like democracies and like
what the future of politics in this country is going
to be is kind of emblematic over how this race went.
Are we going to go back to the same old
establishment dem Party stuff, Clinton's Cuomos, Obama, Biden Harris or
(05:21):
are we actually going to legitimately chart a new course
forward to counter this fascist element taking power across the
country and against nearly all odds, and like thirty million dollars,
the underdogs actually would and pulled it off really strongly,
and this really is like the battle for the future
of the party. Early turnout was massive for this primary.
(05:44):
In the final three days of early voting, we saw
like the youngest demographic of voters come out in high
high numbers. One quarter of early voters were first time
Democratic primary participants, and young voters between the ages of
twenty five and thirty four made up the largest share
of early turnout. And this was all up against the
entire forces of the Democratic Party establishment coming together in
(06:08):
the past few months, just specifically to stop Mamdanni from
taking the primary election. There was twenty five million dollars
of super pac funding behind Entrew Cuomo, which is the
largest in New York City mayoral history. This pack was
backed by Michael Bloomberg, Door Dash, Bill Ackman Trump funder,
and this pack allowed Cuomo backers to spend three times
(06:30):
as much money than what Quomo's actual campaign legally can.
In comparison, Mamdannie's pack had just one point two million
dollars plus five hundred thousand in anti Cuomo spending from
the Working Families Party. In an attempt to seal the deal,
the Cuomo team got the coveted Bill Clinton endorsement, really
(06:54):
really forming like the toucher's alliance with Cuomo.
Speaker 2 (06:57):
And Clinton, Bill Clinton, Bill Clinton, there's world more sex
pest for you to endorse.
Speaker 1 (07:02):
It's time for you to endorse Donald Trump. What moral
job like that? That really was like emblematic of like
the type of Democratic party that Mamdanie was up against,
right and the one that working people of New York
and people around the country we're hoping might finally get
defeated after it's won one over on Sanders for the
(07:25):
past like eight years, and last night it finally happened.
Speaker 2 (07:30):
Yeah. And I also want to say, like, this is
not just when we're talking about the sort of political
apparatus of the Democratic Party being deployed in support of Cuomo.
It wasn't just like the DoorDash guys like bringing out
their checkbook. It was like the actual internal political machines
of a whole bunch of very very important and influential
local and sort of mid level political officials, through their
(07:53):
entire political machines behind Cuomo and then got fucking rolled
in ways that are just absolutely hysterical. Entire political machines
basically just got annihilated trying to stop this. It was
It reminds me in a lot of ways of like
the way that like a bunch of the old machines
broke in in Chicago with with Brandon Johnson were like
(08:16):
you wed like Mike Madigan making one last appearance the
most powerful figure in Illinois politics for thirty years and
just gets crushed in that election. So this was both
a money efforts and a were using your political machines
on the ground to try to do this, and they
fucking lost.
Speaker 1 (08:33):
And it rules there were photo shopping images of Zoron
to make him look more brown and Muslim. Yeah, they
were making his beard longer, they were making his skin
and his hairy darker. Like, they were pulling out all
the stops and it didn't work.
Speaker 2 (08:48):
It was a Clinton two thousand and eight, like Barack
Hussein Obama, like burther conspiracy shit. Yeah, like, that's the
last time I remember this party being this racist, like
very specifically in these lines.
Speaker 1 (08:59):
And it failed, and it didn't work. It failed. We'll
talk about some of the actual results and Zorn's campaign
itself after this break. All Right, we are back. It's
(09:19):
a beautiful sunny day in New York. It's actually way
too hot. There's a massive heat wave going through the
entire East coast. New York has been like one hundred
degrees the past few days. Thank god, it was one
hundred degrees on the day of the election. It kept
all those Cuomo supporters home. We're calling him Mandate of Heaven,
Mandani good stuff. So let's let's let's talk about the
(09:43):
actual results so far. So as of as of this morning,
Wednesday morning, we got ninety three percent of the vote
in on the first rank. Mundanni has forty three point
five percent versus Cuomo's thirty six point four and zorn
Ally brad Lander with eleven point three, followed by a
whole bunch of others. Now, really, as soon as like
(10:05):
numbers started coming in, like after the early vote, which
which we expected Woul would lean in favor of Zoran,
but after more and more results started coming in, Manhattan
started to looking more and more orange. And that's the
that's color at the times as using for Zoron. And
this was the first like sign for me that Zora
might be having a pretty good night, because people were
(10:26):
expecting that you know, pretty big chunks of Manhattan and
certainly like Staten Island in the Bronx would be would
be going towards Cuomo decisively or at least if this
if this was going to be Cumba's night, that's what
we would be seeing. And that's not what happened. The
northern tip of Staten Island leaning towards Mom Donnie, and
really most of Manhattan except for the upper west side
(10:48):
and the upper east side went to Zoron. And that
is like super super I guess, like surprising, but like
positive surprise, like surprisingly, this is this is like this
is great. Yeah, like a really really strong night. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (11:02):
One of the most interesting trends of this was that
Mondommy just just absolutely annihilated like every Asian district up
up fifteen, up fifteen and not Okay, so you would
kind of expect this in South Asian districts. He went
into a bunch of what are generally pretty conservative, like
like Chinese districts and like Queens and shit, and just
(11:24):
fucking rolled them. Yeah, like in like South Brooklyn, like
a very very powerful sort of like right wing Chinese
political machine like went to war against them, just annihilated.
Speaker 1 (11:33):
Right.
Speaker 2 (11:34):
The Asian vote in general had kind of been trending
right in the last half a decade based on sort
of like anti immigrant shit, anti homeless shit and all
of that, just like instantly pivoted.
Speaker 1 (11:45):
Everything's out. The astoria in Queens just just full full
zor on. Yeah, and like just rolled these districts.
Speaker 2 (11:51):
And I think this is a thing where I think
we're gonna talk more about the ice stuff later, but
I genuinely think part of what we're starting to see
here is like.
Speaker 1 (11:58):
Brad Lander, who and the MVP brad Lander honestly like
like a critical part of this who knows to him
like absolutely, Like we certainly have different opinions on some
key issues, but he really pulled out the stops to
make sure that Cuomo does not get in and helped
Mamdanni defend against some pretty pretty horrific yeah is homophobic attacks.
Speaker 2 (12:17):
Yeah, and like, and that alliance I think was actually
was really really important because it meant that the kind
of like left flank of the liberals and the progressives
and sort of social democrats weren't fighting each other, which
has been what's happening in like fucking every other city. Yeah,
is that these two factions go to war and then
like just the fucking sex predators win the election because
of it, and shere you get a very very important
(12:38):
strategic alliance that allows a bunch of people to vote
for Mamdanni who wouldn't have And this, this sort of
alliance that they've forged here was just like stunningly successful,
basically like outperformed expectations basically everywhere. I think this is
also a kind of decisive anti ICE thing because both
(12:58):
Mamdanni and have been actually straight up on the front
lines of like anti I stuff. Lander famously got arrested
for trying to get in the way of a just
hideously illegal disappearance of one of his constituents and got
fucking arrested for it. And I think that stuff we're
seeing the political impacts of everyone being like, holy shit,
(13:21):
they're trying to deport like every no migration in this country.
Speaker 1 (13:23):
Yeah. Madanni up six points with the Hispanic up five
with white plus fifteen Asian. Quomo is up eighteen percent
with the black vote, and Quomo like underperformed there too,
he did underperform.
Speaker 2 (13:38):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (13:38):
One thing that's interesting is the medium income levels. Mamdani
did better with middle class and high income vote middle
class up ten, high income up thirteen, whereas Cuomo did
better up thirteen with lower income, which I mean, this
is like some classic We see this a lot in
(13:58):
like national elections, where like people vote against their own interests.
This is weird. This is like what the Republican Party
gets so much of their support from. So this is
also like education bracket difference.
Speaker 2 (14:12):
Yeah, and I think some of it also is like
a lot of the voters who would have voted vandor
and would not have supported Mamdani, like were given permission
to back him, and that boosted his vote share.
Speaker 1 (14:22):
A lot, Yes, but like in terms of like why
lower income is swinging towards Cuomo. Yeah, specifically people making
under fifty k year swinging more towards Cuomo, even though
Zoran is running a campaign specifically for those people. That
is also largely up in the Bronx.
Speaker 2 (14:38):
I will also say, like, the other thing that's very
weird about the way these are tabulated is because it's
it's tabulated by area, not by the actual people, yes, correct,
which means you can get these things where like you
see this Trump sometimes where like it looks like he's
doing really well in like.
Speaker 1 (14:53):
A district with like a really with like really low.
Speaker 2 (14:56):
Median income, But what's happening is like every single rich
person in that district voted and then no one else did. Yeah,
So the numbers are a bit weird when when when
you're looking at these sort of like priestin counts. Yeah, votes,
but yeah, it's it's been a I don't know, it's
a it is a constant trend in the bar Oho.
I guess this is everything that was actually very very
different from Chicago, where in Chicago it was like basically
(15:16):
pure income line for Brandon Johnson, the sort of like
vaguely left person.
Speaker 1 (15:23):
There is like New York is a very like middle
class city in a lot of ways, Like there's a
lot of people in the middle class bracket, a lot
of people in the lower class bracket as well, but
in terms of like like medium income levels, there's like
a huge, huge number of like middle class voters. Specifically,
like the vote map for the for the middle income
(15:43):
is so much bigger. I think it is worth highlighting
what made Zorn's campaign special, right, Like people are probably
pretty familiar with like the slick videos, which, yeah, he
was really good at making videos. He is a great communicator,
probably his biggest, biggest strength is his ability to be
like personable and is of just a pretty good public speakers,
(16:08):
great at communication. His mom's a relatively well known filmmaker,
and not super surprising that he put he put a
lot of work into making sure his like online tv
as were like top notch. One of the more unique
things that he did is a huge focus on multi
language outreach, which like, obviously New York is a city
of like dozens and dozens and dozens of languages, and
(16:31):
the Quoto campaign did not focus on that, but This
was a huge, huge focus of Zoron's campaign. Like when
you signed up for phone banking, you got to go
through a massive drop down menu of languages to phone banking,
and Zoron himself was like speaking multiple languages. On the
campaign trail, he had a huge, huge volunteer ground game.
(16:53):
It was canvassing door Knox phone banking. My apartment had
people stop in multiple times in the past week alone.
The biggest focus of his campaign itself was a focus
on affordability. I want to Play a ad that started
running on TV and online about two weeks ago. This
is one of his less personal ads, right like as
opposed to his ads where he's like walking around New
(17:13):
York talking to people, like addressing straight to camera, that
kind of stuff, which is kind of in the staple
of his campaign. So like this ad is not that
it is more like a classic political ad, but I
think it still hits really hard. And like this this
one like kind of brain wormed itself into my head
because of how like concise it is, and it hits
(17:34):
so many things that even because of like the last
like general election, right like the twenty twenty four presidential
it reflects the things that a lot of voters are
concerned about which is affordability, even if that means they
will vote against their interests and vote in support of
these like crazy tariffs. But I'm going to play this
thirty second ad here. There is a myth about this city.
Speaker 3 (17:54):
It's the lie that life has to be hard in
New York. I believe we can dare tchep for groceries,
we can raise the minimum wage, we can freeze the
rent for more than two million tenants and build hundreds
of thousands of affordable homes. It city government's job to
deliver that. We are done settling for less. Are you
(18:15):
ready for.
Speaker 1 (18:16):
A city we can afford? A witness? Right? Do you
posy rendering licens? So that was the main app that's
been going across TV the past two weeks. This is
this is his like final final push, and it addresses
this like a conception of New York that's definitely been
in my mind ever since I was a kid. I
always thought, this is a city you can only live
(18:37):
in if you're you know, very rich, if you're well off,
and like, upon visiting here for the first time, I
just realized how much that isn't true, how much this
is like actually a working class city. How many people
keep this massive like concrete machine running who do not
live in like a Manhattan penthouse. Obviously, and yes it
can be challenging, but we've like almost abandoned this place
(18:58):
as like a zone of combat, as like a place
to actually like build like an affordable, an affordable, stable life.
And to see a candidate just directly address this is
so invigorating. He ran on freezing the rent free buses,
a pilot program for city run grocery stores, free to
low cost childcare, raising minimum wage, and he didn't cave
(19:20):
or waiver on controversial issues or apologize or redact for
past statements. He got really good at deflecting when people
asked him about like previous statements about how you know,
the NYPD is terrible. He did really good about moving
towards talking about how NYPD should not be handling people
in like mental health crises, how there should be other
(19:40):
public safety workers who can help people in distress who
are not the NYPD, and just a very very slick
job handling some like massive massive amounts of anti woke attacks,
referencing like the twenty twenty era of politics. Let's go
on a break and then talk about his acceptance speech
and the reaction from the National Democrat and Republican parties. Okay,
(20:16):
we are so back. So the past few months, Democrats
have been asking this question like, how do we how
do we reach young voters, how do we reach the
young white to male vote. We need like a Joe
Rogan of the left, all these types of crazy things.
And you had this guy Zorrod who started to get
(20:37):
massively popular with young people, including young young men, and
that you saw this entire party mobilized to stop him,
to suppress any any movement that Zorna was able to make.
And David Hogg, who is currently also being rat fucked
by the Democratic National Committee, has been campaigning with zor
(20:59):
On the past few weeks and he he said a
few days ago, quote, the same establishment that is spending
millions to destroy Zoron will say in a few months
that we need to spend millions on polling and testing
to win back young people. Open your goddamn eyes. It's free.
And yeah, he's right, this is the solution. The solution
is staring them in the face, and they were wanting
to stop it.
Speaker 2 (21:19):
Ye, young people are begging you to co opt them,
and they won't do it because they know what they
would rather have Nazis and one percent higher taxes.
Speaker 1 (21:27):
They want to be co opted and like actually fight
for something, like actually have something to strive for, and
like that's something that the Democrats have been so resistant
to the past eight years. Like even even Joe Biden's
campaign wasn't like fighting for anything, it was to like
return to normal. Kruml Heris's campaign wasn't really fighting for
anything either. It was just to stop Donald Trump. And
(21:48):
this is like this campaign wasn't just about beating Cuomo.
It was also about like envisioning an actually positive future
of the city. And I was legitimately surprised that Cuomo
can seated so early on in his speech he said, quote,
tonight was not our night, Tonight is his night. He
deserved it. He won. And from the moves that Quem
(22:10):
was making, it seems like he's probably not gonna run
as an independent in the general like he maybe have
been planning to if it was closer. It does not
seem to be going that direction. It seems like he's
kind of realized that his career is finished. Yeah, he
got rolled go back to the suburbs. Motherfucker Ugh Chuck
(22:30):
Schumer called soron Wednesday morning and posted quote, I've known
Zora Mamdannni since we were together to provide a debt
relief for thousands of leaguered taxi drivers and fought to
stop a fract gas plant in a Storia. He ran
an impressive campaign that connected with New Yorkers about affordability, fairness,
an opportunity. I spoke with him this morning and I'm
looking forward to getting together soon. Alkim Jeffries said, congratulations
(22:54):
is Zar Mumdani on a decisive primary victory. As having
been Mumdannie ran a strong campaign that relentles focused on
the economy and bringing down the high cost of living
in New York City. We spoke this morning and planned
to meet in central Brooklyn shortly. The top dogs are
bowing down.
Speaker 2 (23:10):
All these Chuck sub retreats are just straight up please
don't primary me, because AOC is going to beat him
by thirty.
Speaker 1 (23:16):
He's gonna get primary like he's done to obliterated. But
I was expecting slightly more resistance, and it seems like
parts of the Democrats have like realized that this actually
is the future of the party now and there's no
use fighting anymore. This is the way to go. Yes,
it goes against what all like the consultants are saying
right to be like, you know, the Democrats went too woke,
we went too far to the left. We have to
(23:36):
return to the center. Even though that's what we've been
doing for the Democratic Party for eight years. This election
shows how much of that is like a complete bullshit
lie that no, it's not about going too far left,
it's about actually wanting to fight for something real. And
I'm kind of surprised that these these two top dogs
are giving in to the zmentum. I think also, and
(23:58):
this is the thing, like my friends brought up, is
that like mom.
Speaker 2 (24:02):
Downy like isn't really like AOC no, no, no.
Speaker 1 (24:08):
This is something like very very important for like New
York politics, which is like he's.
Speaker 2 (24:11):
Not like like obviously politically he is, but like he's
not a complete outsider to New York politics. All these
people know him, they know him from like legislative shit right,
and he has like relationships with them in a way
that would be very very different if if he was
like I don't know, just like some like a complete
outsider who'd been like a protest leader or whatever.
Speaker 1 (24:31):
He has. He has proven himself.
Speaker 2 (24:33):
He has like tense relations but like yeah, but like
he like these people know him, and that's something that
can matter a lot in terms of like how these
reactions play out and in terms of like how desperate
they are to stop him.
Speaker 1 (24:46):
The Attorney General of New York was making like Obama
two thousand and eight references, being like this, this was
the energy in New York last night, and I wasn't
around for the two thousand and eight residential election. I
mean I was alive. I just don't remember because I
was also in Canada. But it did feel pretty exuberant
last night walking around Brooklyn. And like this absolutely still
(25:09):
is like a rejection of the Democratic Party establishment. That's
what these results show. And we have to like claim
a firm victory now, like hard line with with with
such a strong fist that like any potential fuckery in
the future, whether it's from like other Dems or from
the Republicans like from Trump right, like they're obviously willing
to arrest the New York City Controller, so like any
(25:31):
potential fuckery needs to look so much worse. People have
to close ranks around zoror On like immediately and like
strengthen him. He needs to be like the face, Like
if they're going to take this guy down, he needs
to be like the face of everything. For like the
next while, we're sort of seeing like slightly smaller sharks,
like trailing around the wake of the shark. Like you
(25:52):
were talking about the Democratic co turreying General Leatitia James,
who gave a really really compelling speech, like I actually
think she's like a better speaker than any of the
people involved in this race.
Speaker 2 (26:02):
And she is like she is one hundred percent primary
in the governor, like not one hundred percent, but like
probably primary in the governor next year. Like this is
you know, like people, people are sort of people have
been flocking around this for a while and I think,
I don't know this is this is some real doesn't
take a weatherman to see which way the winds are blowing.
Shit Like they are, Yeah, they are, they are, they
(26:24):
are living in fear, they are they are bending the knee,
they are et cetera, et cetera.
Speaker 1 (26:31):
Very funny, And now the Republican Party is going to
be on the attack. The baton's being passed from establishment
Dems to the Republicans to try to take down Zoron,
or at least paint Zoron as this new like radical
face of the Democratic Party, like like racism levels are
gonna They're gonna reach never before seen heights. It's going
to be like Post nine to eleven all over again.
(26:52):
The National Republican Congression Committee is already calling Zoron the
new face of the Democratic Party, which yeah, he should be.
That's like fucking bring it if you want, just like
a breath of fresh air, I would recommend watching some
financial news from from Wednesday morning. Oh it's so good.
Speaker 2 (27:10):
Hot Commy Summer, Baby, Hot Commy Summer.
Speaker 1 (27:13):
Who I Am? Executions in Central Park are about to begin.
Speaker 2 (27:20):
The Workers Republic is established, the Commonwealth of Labor rules.
Speaker 1 (27:24):
We're waiting for Chairman Madani to make the final call.
Lists are being made. Only you can ford the Soviets
seize your workplaces at the time is now. I don't
want to play a brief click from c NBC. If
you've seen where what Batman is up against in Gotham
(27:45):
and what the guy running for mayor is up against,
that's what it reminds you of. They're taking Wall streeters
and make him walk out onto the ice in the
East River as and hope and then they fall through.
I mean there is a class warfare. That's so what's
happened here? I think it's a rich type. There's a
(28:06):
division within the Demo. Whoa, that's right, there is a division.
Speaker 2 (28:13):
Long live the revelation, baby.
Speaker 1 (28:16):
Eat the wretch. There is a division of the Democratic Party.
Walk them out onto the ice. We're sending him onto
the ice is all on hand in hand with the
Bain and Chilly and Murphy are gonna be sending them
on to the hunts and the spirit of occupy lives.
Oh my god. Bill Ackman Cromo and Trump Backer said quote,
(28:42):
I was a bit depressed when I woke up this morning,
but now I'm optimistic. I have a great idea on
New York City, and I will share it as soon
as I can. We are looking into legal issues. Good luck,
good luck, Bill, have fun out there. Oh no, they're good.
Wait this is they're just gonna do perspers again. Who cares?
Speaker 2 (29:01):
Oh no, bring it, bring it. I will say like
this this coverage, like I like, people don't understand how
one Hinges coverage is going to be like in Chicago
when when when Brandon Johnson won the election, Brandon Johnson
is like significantly to.
Speaker 1 (29:14):
The right, yeah of mom, Donnie.
Speaker 2 (29:16):
Right when Brandon Johnson won the election, the Chicago press
went so insane that all of them pretended to be
pro immigrants. Oh yeah, Like do you understand how unhinged
the press has to get here, because like like one
of Johnson thinks that he was like fucking over like
immigrants here and he was like this immigrant the shelters
are putting put in where substandard and people are getting sick,
and like we had the best coverage of immigration issues
(29:39):
under Biden in the country because specifically that was the
thing the reason to attack him.
Speaker 1 (29:43):
I'm super curious what The Times is gonna do because
like they've also pulled out all the stops the past
the past few weeks to try to to try to
stop Zoran. It's gonna be unhinged the winds blowing in
his direction now though, like I don't know what they're
gonna do.
Speaker 2 (29:58):
I don't know, Like I think that specific class of
people is just going to hate him until the end.
Like I think I think, like like David Brooks is
going to be writing calls about how there are like
pigrams going on, like on the streets, like Brett Stevens
is gonna be like I don't know, they're gonna go
to call it like super Lebanon, Like it's gonna be
like levels of unhinged no one's ever seen before.
Speaker 1 (30:20):
Now, speaking of the Times, Obama's tree strategist was quoted
in a New York Times article Wednesday morning, quote, there
is no doubt that Trump and Republicans will try and
seize on him as a kind of exemplar of what
the Democratic Party stands for. The thing is, he seems
both principled and agile and deft enough to confront those
sorts of confrontational plays. I do want to read off
(30:43):
from a Fox News screenshot this morning showcasing Zoron's horrific,
terrifying communist platform, which includes housing freezing rent, building afford
level housing, creating city owned grocery stores whoa there are
free buses, raising the minimum wage to thirty dollars by
(31:03):
twenty thirty, and LGBTQIA plus protections, expanding and protecting gender
affirming care citywide, making NYC and lgbtq AI plus sanctuary
City and Trump proofing NYC to end ice cooperation. Hell yeah,
thank you, thank you Fox News for that, for that
great list of reasons.
Speaker 2 (31:24):
It's so to like Zaran Mamdani, I think I think,
I think it's actually genuinely really important. She us like
the only Democratic candidate in fucking ages who actively campaigned
on like putting more funding in the trans healthcare like
sixty five million dollars of funding. Yeah, fucking being pro
trans wins. Being anti trans gets your ass kicked back
to the suburbs.
Speaker 1 (31:42):
Like fucking Cuomo, eat shit, eat shit. Your Democratic strategists
fuck off and die. Eat shit.
Speaker 2 (31:49):
You will be the ones in the fucking graves that
you were digging for us, Like, fuck off, we have
dun your electoral grapes.
Speaker 1 (31:58):
This is why when I was at this like it's
open Mike at Metropolitan last night, like the whole room
just like lit up in cheers, because yeah, like we've
been we've been dealing with the past like six months.
This idea that, like trans writes is like the thing
that's killing democratic politics and fucking know it isn't.
Speaker 2 (32:15):
Yeah, and quote Quoto, Cuoto ran as a fucking transphobe
because he is and it didn't work. This is the joint,
joint feminist transgender victory over the forces of the turf
sex predator.
Speaker 1 (32:27):
Fuck them to wrap up my stuff here. I do
want to play one minute from Zorn's acceptance speech, which
I think uh speaks for itself, and.
Speaker 4 (32:38):
It's where the mayor will use their power to reject
Donald Trump's fascism to stop mass ice agents from deporting
our neighbor.
Speaker 5 (32:56):
I to cover an our city as a model for
the Democratic Party, a party where we fight for working
people with no apology.
Speaker 4 (33:15):
A life of dignity should not be reserved for a
fortunate few. It should be one that city government guarantees
for each and every New Yorker. If this campaign has
demonstrated anything to the world, it is that our dreams
(33:36):
can become reality.
Speaker 1 (33:41):
I sure hope this is the model for the Democratic
Party going forward. Mia, you wanted to close on a
sad note.
Speaker 2 (33:49):
Yeah, I was really depressed this entire night because I
remember feeling a lot like this in like twenty twenty
three in Chicago.
Speaker 1 (33:57):
Yeah, because this happened in Chicago. Yeah, well this but
a version of this.
Speaker 2 (34:02):
Yeah, And like obviously Brandon Johnson was like significantly to
the right of like everything that's been happening in New York,
like not not he wasn't like a right winger, but
he was like you know, like the local DSA had
conflict with him from other stuff, but like, you know,
I remember feeling like this, and then one year later,
like swat teams like deployed by the mayor that he
claimed he didn't send, were beating up art students outside
(34:24):
like literally in the middle of downtown for trying to
have a Palestine encampment. And you know, like my bitter
cynical personally got rap fucked by the Mayor's office.
Speaker 1 (34:34):
Yeah, like cynicism on this is like it's gonna be weird.
There's gonna be a lot of shit that sucks this.
This guy is like advocated defunding the police and is
attacked like the NYPPD for years. Yeah, and now he's
intensively gonna be in charge of it, and he's he's
not gonna be able to abolish the NYPD like that that's
not gonna happen. No, So there's gonna be a degree
(34:55):
of like you know, moratl like crisis, Like he's gonna
have to work against some of the things that he
stated he believes in.
Speaker 2 (35:02):
Yeah, and on a structural level, there's there's a really
significant problem here, which is that like the moment you
become the leader of a capitalist city, right, it becomes
your job to keep the economy running. And the problem
is that like keeping keeping a capitalist economy running means
you have to your job is now maintaining growth for
for this economy, right, and maintaining growth through the economy
(35:23):
means figuring out how how to have corporation continue to
make more and more money. And that's not compatible with
being a socialist. And everyone who has ever tried to
like deal with this crisis, you either like you you
have two pass It's like one you become a capitalist, right,
and we see this fucking all over the place, right,
(35:45):
it's like you know, it's it's it's Barcelona and Camboo
coming into power, which is like this sort of like
left wing council kind of like books to Nite thing,
and then they immediately start like evicting migrants, right or
two or two you actually do the thing, you do
the thing you do, you do the actual socialism, and
we fucking we like you know, this is this is
the begetting of the end of fascism in a way
(36:06):
where we see a fundamental change in the structure of
our economic system, and that can be the outcome of this,
but we have to build it, not him, like.
Speaker 1 (36:14):
And I think the most he's gonna be able to
do is provide a bit of a safer zone for
us to operate in in New York. Yeah. Yeah, he's
going to be introducing more like social democratic like policies,
Like he's gonna make the city like financially easier to
live in. Yeah, things will suck less, which is good.
He is going to to the end of his power
fight against Trump's efforts to deport your neighbors, and like,
(36:37):
that is so much better than both what Croma would
do and Eric Adams, who is actively collaborating with the
Trump administration. So this man's not going to actually be
the least algae. He's not actually going to be the
guy that ushers in the Red Revolution, which is not
even something I necessarily want. But I think what he
can do is make this an actually better place to
(36:58):
live right now. Yeah, and specifically make it a better
place to live as the national politics in this country
are controlled by a fascist and a cabinet full of fascists. Yeah,
and he can make the largest city in the country
the rock upon which the tide of fascism breaks. And
that matters, That does well, That does it for us today,
(37:18):
greatest city in the world. Cheer one point five Chinese city.
Let's go. It Could Happen Here is a production of
cool Zone Media. For more podcasts from cool Zone Media,
visit our website coolzonmedia dot com, or check us out
on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen
(37:39):
to podcasts. You can now find sources for it could
Happen here, listed directly in episode descriptions. Thanks for listening.
Cool Zon Media. This is it could happen here. I'm
Garrison Davis. Today I'm joined by Mia Wong. I am
reporting from the beautiful and sunny People's Republic of New
York City, and we are Zoe back. It is Clover
Dimes Squares on suicide Watch. Zomentum is sweeping the nation.
(00:26):
Zoramum Donnie has won the Democratic primary for the mayor
of New York City, beating veterans sexual harasser Andrew Cuomo.
It was it was quite a night in New York
last night. We are recording this Wednesday morning. The final
ranked vote will be done in about a week, but
(00:47):
Cuomo has conceded the race to Zoron, who has declared
a pretty decisive victory.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
It's been very funny. Seeing the dashing and weeping of
the Quotmo camp has been very funny. New York has
officially been upgreen from a Tier two to a Tier
one point five Chinese city. Given give it another decade,
it'll it will have entered Chinese civilization. The vibes are good.
The vibes are good well.
Speaker 1 (01:11):
The only difference is that now we will have an
actually communist government in a city instead of the fake
state capitalist governments of the Chinese mega.
Speaker 2 (01:20):
City objectively more Communists to one point five Chinese city government.
Speaker 1 (01:28):
An American bogeeli Uh. It was. It was a pretty
exciting night in New York last night. I and many
people were not expecting a clear result so soon. I
think Cuomo conceded around ten to thirty as the vote
was still coming in, but it was pretty clear that
Zoron did a like very very impressive, very impressive sweep,
(01:52):
really solid turnout across the boroughs. Just to like get
a sense of like where we were at, Like I
got to announce to of a pretty a pretty large
room full of trans people at the Metropolitan Bar that
Cuomo conceded to Zoron, and Zoron has won. And I
had not felt better in months. It was really invigorating.
(02:13):
This was like the first like ray of hope in
a political sense that I've that that it's been like
so deeply felt nothing ever happens, camp is is is
finally finally taking it. So jover for nothing ever happens.
The shear, the sheer like joy and excitement being in
like a room of like one hundred, one hundred queer people,
(02:37):
as as as Cuomo gets defeated and Zoron securing the primary.
It was it was just invigorating. In many ways, this
feels a lot bigger than even like AOC's win a
few years ago. And it feels so much more real
than like the Sanders campaign really ever did, because New
York is such as like a it's such a condensed,
(02:58):
concentrated area. Now it has not quite like an inevitability,
but of a pretty strong certainty of what's going to
happen come November in the general election.
Speaker 2 (03:09):
Yeah, And I think the thing that's maybe in some
ways the biggest deal about this is that New York
was like the capital of the giant sort of right
wing backlash inside the Democratic Party to twenty twenty Yeah, right,
Like this is the city that elected Eric Adams in
twenty twenty one.
Speaker 1 (03:25):
Right, Like it just straight up a cop is ruled
for like four years by just like.
Speaker 2 (03:31):
This unhinged corrupt alliance of like fucking real estate developers
and like unhinged right wing billionaires and the cops who
ran this really really effective sort of politics of like
the demonization of unhoused people and like anti immigrant politics
and the shift right in this in the Neu Democratic
(03:51):
Party like single handedly shifted the entire country to the right.
You could literally see where the New York media market
was in the twenty twenty two elections. You could see
on them map who was getting the news because it
was so right wing. And that's just broken, that whole thing,
Like this place was just like which was like the
capital of the kind of revolution broke and that whole
(04:11):
tide like you can it's you know, in the same
way that like Hunters Thompson talked about how you could
see like you could see them with the tide of
the sixties broke standing in Vegas, Like sitting here right now,
you can see the place where the tide of that
right wing surge in New York broke. And it was
last night we saw their high points. Yeah, they couldn't
elect the fucking sexual predator. That was as far as
(04:32):
they could go.
Speaker 1 (04:33):
A Cuomo too, Like, like I know some people are
slightly annoyed about like the outsized influence of the New
York mayoral election affecting everybody who's like online and cares
about politics in the United States and even and even abroad.
But this is like not not only as New York,
like the biggest city in the country. This is like
(04:55):
more so a representative battle for the future of the party,
and like what the future of democratic politics, not just
the Democratic Party but literally like like democracies and like
what the future of politics in this country is going
to be is kind of emblematic over how this race went.
Are we going to go back to the same old
establishment dem Party stuff, Clinton's Cuomos, Obama, Biden Harris or
(05:21):
are we actually going to legitimately chart a new course
forward to counter this fascist element taking power across the
country and against nearly all odds, and like thirty million dollars,
the underdogs actually would and pulled it off really strongly,
and this really is like the battle for the future
of the party. Early turnout was massive for this primary.
(05:44):
In the final three days of early voting, we saw
like the youngest demographic of voters come out in high
high numbers. One quarter of early voters were first time
Democratic primary participants, and young voters between the ages of
twenty five and thirty four made up the largest share
of early turnout. And this was all up against the
entire forces of the Democratic Party establishment coming together in
(06:08):
the past few months, just specifically to stop Mamdanni from
taking the primary election. There was twenty five million dollars
of super pac funding behind Entrew Cuomo, which is the
largest in New York City mayoral history. This pack was
backed by Michael Bloomberg, Door Dash, Bill Ackman Trump funder,
and this pack allowed Cuomo backers to spend three times
(06:30):
as much money than what Quomo's actual campaign legally can.
In comparison, Mamdannie's pack had just one point two million
dollars plus five hundred thousand in anti Cuomo spending from
the Working Families Party. In an attempt to seal the deal,
the Cuomo team got the coveted Bill Clinton endorsement, really
(06:54):
really forming like the toucher's alliance with Cuomo.
Speaker 2 (06:57):
And Clinton, Bill Clinton, Bill Clinton, there's world more sex
pest for you to endorse.
Speaker 1 (07:02):
It's time for you to endorse Donald Trump. What moral
job like that? That really was like emblematic of like
the type of Democratic party that Mamdanie was up against,
right and the one that working people of New York
and people around the country we're hoping might finally get
defeated after it's won one over on Sanders for the
(07:25):
past like eight years, and last night it finally happened.
Speaker 2 (07:30):
Yeah. And I also want to say, like, this is
not just when we're talking about the sort of political
apparatus of the Democratic Party being deployed in support of Cuomo.
It wasn't just like the DoorDash guys like bringing out
their checkbook. It was like the actual internal political machines
of a whole bunch of very very important and influential
local and sort of mid level political officials, through their
(07:53):
entire political machines behind Cuomo and then got fucking rolled
in ways that are just absolutely hysterical. Entire political machines
basically just got annihilated trying to stop this. It was
It reminds me in a lot of ways of like
the way that like a bunch of the old machines
broke in in Chicago with with Brandon Johnson were like
(08:16):
you wed like Mike Madigan making one last appearance the
most powerful figure in Illinois politics for thirty years and
just gets crushed in that election. So this was both
a money efforts and a were using your political machines
on the ground to try to do this, and they
fucking lost.
Speaker 1 (08:33):
And it rules there were photo shopping images of Zoron
to make him look more brown and Muslim. Yeah, they
were making his beard longer, they were making his skin
and his hairy darker. Like, they were pulling out all
the stops and it didn't work.
Speaker 2 (08:48):
It was a Clinton two thousand and eight, like Barack
Hussein Obama, like burther conspiracy shit. Yeah, like, that's the
last time I remember this party being this racist, like
very specifically in these lines.
Speaker 1 (08:59):
And it failed, and it didn't work. It failed. We'll
talk about some of the actual results and Zorn's campaign
itself after this break. All Right, we are back. It's
(09:19):
a beautiful sunny day in New York. It's actually way
too hot. There's a massive heat wave going through the
entire East coast. New York has been like one hundred
degrees the past few days. Thank god, it was one
hundred degrees on the day of the election. It kept
all those Cuomo supporters home. We're calling him Mandate of Heaven,
Mandani good stuff. So let's let's let's talk about the
(09:43):
actual results so far. So as of as of this morning,
Wednesday morning, we got ninety three percent of the vote
in on the first rank. Mundanni has forty three point
five percent versus Cuomo's thirty six point four and zorn
Ally brad Lander with eleven point three, followed by a
whole bunch of others. Now, really, as soon as like
(10:05):
numbers started coming in, like after the early vote, which
which we expected Woul would lean in favor of Zoran,
but after more and more results started coming in, Manhattan
started to looking more and more orange. And that's the
that's color at the times as using for Zoron. And
this was the first like sign for me that Zora
might be having a pretty good night, because people were
(10:26):
expecting that you know, pretty big chunks of Manhattan and
certainly like Staten Island in the Bronx would be would
be going towards Cuomo decisively or at least if this
if this was going to be Cumba's night, that's what
we would be seeing. And that's not what happened. The
northern tip of Staten Island leaning towards Mom Donnie, and
really most of Manhattan except for the upper west side
(10:48):
and the upper east side went to Zoron. And that
is like super super I guess, like surprising, but like
positive surprise, like surprisingly, this is this is like this
is great. Yeah, like a really really strong night. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (11:02):
One of the most interesting trends of this was that
Mondommy just just absolutely annihilated like every Asian district up
up fifteen, up fifteen and not Okay, so you would
kind of expect this in South Asian districts. He went
into a bunch of what are generally pretty conservative, like
like Chinese districts and like Queens and shit, and just
(11:24):
fucking rolled them. Yeah, like in like South Brooklyn, like
a very very powerful sort of like right wing Chinese
political machine like went to war against them, just annihilated.
Speaker 1 (11:33):
Right.
Speaker 2 (11:34):
The Asian vote in general had kind of been trending
right in the last half a decade based on sort
of like anti immigrant shit, anti homeless shit and all
of that, just like instantly pivoted.
Speaker 1 (11:45):
Everything's out. The astoria in Queens just just full full
zor on. Yeah, and like just rolled these districts.
Speaker 2 (11:51):
And I think this is a thing where I think
we're gonna talk more about the ice stuff later, but
I genuinely think part of what we're starting to see
here is like.
Speaker 1 (11:58):
Brad Lander, who and the MVP brad Lander honestly like
like a critical part of this who knows to him
like absolutely, Like we certainly have different opinions on some
key issues, but he really pulled out the stops to
make sure that Cuomo does not get in and helped
Mamdanni defend against some pretty pretty horrific yeah is homophobic attacks.
Speaker 2 (12:17):
Yeah, and like, and that alliance I think was actually
was really really important because it meant that the kind
of like left flank of the liberals and the progressives
and sort of social democrats weren't fighting each other, which
has been what's happening in like fucking every other city. Yeah,
is that these two factions go to war and then
like just the fucking sex predators win the election because
of it, and shere you get a very very important
(12:38):
strategic alliance that allows a bunch of people to vote
for Mamdanni who wouldn't have And this, this sort of
alliance that they've forged here was just like stunningly successful,
basically like outperformed expectations basically everywhere. I think this is
also a kind of decisive anti ICE thing because both
(12:58):
Mamdanni and have been actually straight up on the front
lines of like anti I stuff. Lander famously got arrested
for trying to get in the way of a just
hideously illegal disappearance of one of his constituents and got
fucking arrested for it. And I think that stuff we're
seeing the political impacts of everyone being like, holy shit,
(13:21):
they're trying to deport like every no migration in this country.
Speaker 1 (13:23):
Yeah. Madanni up six points with the Hispanic up five
with white plus fifteen Asian. Quomo is up eighteen percent
with the black vote, and Quomo like underperformed there too,
he did underperform.
Speaker 2 (13:38):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (13:38):
One thing that's interesting is the medium income levels. Mamdani
did better with middle class and high income vote middle
class up ten, high income up thirteen, whereas Cuomo did
better up thirteen with lower income, which I mean, this
is like some classic We see this a lot in
(13:58):
like national elections, where like people vote against their own interests.
This is weird. This is like what the Republican Party
gets so much of their support from. So this is
also like education bracket difference.
Speaker 2 (14:12):
Yeah, and I think some of it also is like
a lot of the voters who would have voted vandor
and would not have supported Mamdani, like were given permission
to back him, and that boosted his vote share.
Speaker 1 (14:22):
A lot, Yes, but like in terms of like why
lower income is swinging towards Cuomo. Yeah, specifically people making
under fifty k year swinging more towards Cuomo, even though
Zoran is running a campaign specifically for those people. That
is also largely up in the Bronx.
Speaker 2 (14:38):
I will also say, like, the other thing that's very
weird about the way these are tabulated is because it's
it's tabulated by area, not by the actual people, yes, correct,
which means you can get these things where like you
see this Trump sometimes where like it looks like he's
doing really well in like.
Speaker 1 (14:53):
A district with like a really with like really low.
Speaker 2 (14:56):
Median income, But what's happening is like every single rich
person in that district voted and then no one else did. Yeah,
So the numbers are a bit weird when when when
you're looking at these sort of like priestin counts. Yeah, votes,
but yeah, it's it's been a I don't know, it's
a it is a constant trend in the bar Oho.
I guess this is everything that was actually very very
different from Chicago, where in Chicago it was like basically
(15:16):
pure income line for Brandon Johnson, the sort of like
vaguely left person.
Speaker 1 (15:23):
There is like New York is a very like middle
class city in a lot of ways, Like there's a
lot of people in the middle class bracket, a lot
of people in the lower class bracket as well, but
in terms of like like medium income levels, there's like
a huge, huge number of like middle class voters. Specifically,
like the vote map for the for the middle income
(15:43):
is so much bigger. I think it is worth highlighting
what made Zorn's campaign special, right, Like people are probably
pretty familiar with like the slick videos, which, yeah, he
was really good at making videos. He is a great communicator,
probably his biggest, biggest strength is his ability to be
like personable and is of just a pretty good public speakers,
(16:08):
great at communication. His mom's a relatively well known filmmaker,
and not super surprising that he put he put a
lot of work into making sure his like online tv
as were like top notch. One of the more unique
things that he did is a huge focus on multi
language outreach, which like, obviously New York is a city
of like dozens and dozens and dozens of languages, and
(16:31):
the Quoto campaign did not focus on that, but This
was a huge, huge focus of Zoron's campaign. Like when
you signed up for phone banking, you got to go
through a massive drop down menu of languages to phone banking,
and Zoron himself was like speaking multiple languages. On the
campaign trail, he had a huge, huge volunteer ground game.
(16:53):
It was canvassing door Knox phone banking. My apartment had
people stop in multiple times in the past week alone.
The biggest focus of his campaign itself was a focus
on affordability. I want to Play a ad that started
running on TV and online about two weeks ago. This
is one of his less personal ads, right like as
opposed to his ads where he's like walking around New
(17:13):
York talking to people, like addressing straight to camera, that
kind of stuff, which is kind of in the staple
of his campaign. So like this ad is not that
it is more like a classic political ad, but I
think it still hits really hard. And like this this
one like kind of brain wormed itself into my head
because of how like concise it is, and it hits
(17:34):
so many things that even because of like the last
like general election, right like the twenty twenty four presidential
it reflects the things that a lot of voters are
concerned about which is affordability, even if that means they
will vote against their interests and vote in support of
these like crazy tariffs. But I'm going to play this
thirty second ad here. There is a myth about this city.
Speaker 3 (17:54):
It's the lie that life has to be hard in
New York. I believe we can dare tchep for groceries,
we can raise the minimum wage, we can freeze the
rent for more than two million tenants and build hundreds
of thousands of affordable homes. It city government's job to
deliver that. We are done settling for less. Are you
(18:15):
ready for.
Speaker 1 (18:16):
A city we can afford? A witness? Right? Do you
posy rendering licens? So that was the main app that's
been going across TV the past two weeks. This is
this is his like final final push, and it addresses
this like a conception of New York that's definitely been
in my mind ever since I was a kid. I
always thought, this is a city you can only live
(18:37):
in if you're you know, very rich, if you're well off,
and like, upon visiting here for the first time, I
just realized how much that isn't true, how much this
is like actually a working class city. How many people
keep this massive like concrete machine running who do not
live in like a Manhattan penthouse. Obviously, and yes it
can be challenging, but we've like almost abandoned this place
(18:58):
as like a zone of combat, as like a place
to actually like build like an affordable, an affordable, stable life.
And to see a candidate just directly address this is
so invigorating. He ran on freezing the rent free buses,
a pilot program for city run grocery stores, free to
low cost childcare, raising minimum wage, and he didn't cave
(19:20):
or waiver on controversial issues or apologize or redact for
past statements. He got really good at deflecting when people
asked him about like previous statements about how you know,
the NYPD is terrible. He did really good about moving
towards talking about how NYPD should not be handling people
in like mental health crises, how there should be other
(19:40):
public safety workers who can help people in distress who
are not the NYPD, and just a very very slick
job handling some like massive massive amounts of anti woke attacks,
referencing like the twenty twenty era of politics. Let's go
on a break and then talk about his acceptance speech
and the reaction from the National Democrat and Republican parties. Okay,
(20:16):
we are so back. So the past few months, Democrats
have been asking this question like, how do we how
do we reach young voters, how do we reach the
young white to male vote. We need like a Joe
Rogan of the left, all these types of crazy things.
And you had this guy Zorrod who started to get
(20:37):
massively popular with young people, including young young men, and
that you saw this entire party mobilized to stop him,
to suppress any any movement that Zorna was able to make.
And David Hogg, who is currently also being rat fucked
by the Democratic National Committee, has been campaigning with zor
(20:59):
On the past few weeks and he he said a
few days ago, quote, the same establishment that is spending
millions to destroy Zoron will say in a few months
that we need to spend millions on polling and testing
to win back young people. Open your goddamn eyes. It's free.
And yeah, he's right, this is the solution. The solution
is staring them in the face, and they were wanting
to stop it.
Speaker 2 (21:19):
Ye, young people are begging you to co opt them,
and they won't do it because they know what they
would rather have Nazis and one percent higher taxes.
Speaker 1 (21:27):
They want to be co opted and like actually fight
for something, like actually have something to strive for, and
like that's something that the Democrats have been so resistant
to the past eight years. Like even even Joe Biden's
campaign wasn't like fighting for anything, it was to like
return to normal. Kruml Heris's campaign wasn't really fighting for
anything either. It was just to stop Donald Trump. And
(21:48):
this is like this campaign wasn't just about beating Cuomo.
It was also about like envisioning an actually positive future
of the city. And I was legitimately surprised that Cuomo
can seated so early on in his speech he said, quote,
tonight was not our night, Tonight is his night. He
deserved it. He won. And from the moves that Quem
(22:10):
was making, it seems like he's probably not gonna run
as an independent in the general like he maybe have
been planning to if it was closer. It does not
seem to be going that direction. It seems like he's
kind of realized that his career is finished. Yeah, he
got rolled go back to the suburbs. Motherfucker Ugh Chuck
(22:30):
Schumer called soron Wednesday morning and posted quote, I've known
Zora Mamdannni since we were together to provide a debt
relief for thousands of leaguered taxi drivers and fought to
stop a fract gas plant in a Storia. He ran
an impressive campaign that connected with New Yorkers about affordability, fairness,
an opportunity. I spoke with him this morning and I'm
looking forward to getting together soon. Alkim Jeffries said, congratulations
(22:54):
is Zar Mumdani on a decisive primary victory. As having
been Mumdannie ran a strong campaign that relentles focused on
the economy and bringing down the high cost of living
in New York City. We spoke this morning and planned
to meet in central Brooklyn shortly. The top dogs are
bowing down.
Speaker 2 (23:10):
All these Chuck sub retreats are just straight up please
don't primary me, because AOC is going to beat him
by thirty.
Speaker 1 (23:16):
He's gonna get primary like he's done to obliterated. But
I was expecting slightly more resistance, and it seems like
parts of the Democrats have like realized that this actually
is the future of the party now and there's no
use fighting anymore. This is the way to go. Yes,
it goes against what all like the consultants are saying
right to be like, you know, the Democrats went too woke,
we went too far to the left. We have to
(23:36):
return to the center. Even though that's what we've been
doing for the Democratic Party for eight years. This election
shows how much of that is like a complete bullshit
lie that no, it's not about going too far left,
it's about actually wanting to fight for something real. And
I'm kind of surprised that these these two top dogs
are giving in to the zmentum. I think also, and
(23:58):
this is the thing, like my friends brought up, is
that like mom.
Speaker 2 (24:02):
Downy like isn't really like AOC no, no, no.
Speaker 1 (24:08):
This is something like very very important for like New
York politics, which is like he's.
Speaker 2 (24:11):
Not like like obviously politically he is, but like he's
not a complete outsider to New York politics. All these
people know him, they know him from like legislative shit right,
and he has like relationships with them in a way
that would be very very different if if he was
like I don't know, just like some like a complete
outsider who'd been like a protest leader or whatever.
Speaker 1 (24:31):
He has. He has proven himself.
Speaker 2 (24:33):
He has like tense relations but like yeah, but like
he like these people know him, and that's something that
can matter a lot in terms of like how these
reactions play out and in terms of like how desperate
they are to stop him.
Speaker 1 (24:46):
The Attorney General of New York was making like Obama
two thousand and eight references, being like this, this was
the energy in New York last night, and I wasn't
around for the two thousand and eight residential election. I
mean I was alive. I just don't remember because I
was also in Canada. But it did feel pretty exuberant
last night walking around Brooklyn. And like this absolutely still
(25:09):
is like a rejection of the Democratic Party establishment. That's
what these results show. And we have to like claim
a firm victory now, like hard line with with with
such a strong fist that like any potential fuckery in
the future, whether it's from like other Dems or from
the Republicans like from Trump right, like they're obviously willing
to arrest the New York City Controller, so like any
(25:31):
potential fuckery needs to look so much worse. People have
to close ranks around zoror On like immediately and like
strengthen him. He needs to be like the face, Like
if they're going to take this guy down, he needs
to be like the face of everything. For like the
next while, we're sort of seeing like slightly smaller sharks,
like trailing around the wake of the shark. Like you
(25:52):
were talking about the Democratic co turreying General Leatitia James,
who gave a really really compelling speech, like I actually
think she's like a better speaker than any of the
people involved in this race.
Speaker 2 (26:02):
And she is like she is one hundred percent primary
in the governor, like not one hundred percent, but like
probably primary in the governor next year. Like this is
you know, like people, people are sort of people have
been flocking around this for a while and I think,
I don't know this is this is some real doesn't
take a weatherman to see which way the winds are blowing.
Shit Like they are, Yeah, they are, they are, they
(26:24):
are living in fear, they are they are bending the knee,
they are et cetera, et cetera.
Speaker 1 (26:31):
Very funny, And now the Republican Party is going to
be on the attack. The baton's being passed from establishment
Dems to the Republicans to try to take down Zoron,
or at least paint Zoron as this new like radical
face of the Democratic Party, like like racism levels are
gonna They're gonna reach never before seen heights. It's going
to be like Post nine to eleven all over again.
(26:52):
The National Republican Congression Committee is already calling Zoron the
new face of the Democratic Party, which yeah, he should be.
That's like fucking bring it if you want, just like
a breath of fresh air, I would recommend watching some
financial news from from Wednesday morning. Oh it's so good.
Speaker 2 (27:10):
Hot Commy Summer, Baby, Hot Commy Summer.
Speaker 1 (27:13):
Who I Am? Executions in Central Park are about to begin.
Speaker 2 (27:20):
The Workers Republic is established, the Commonwealth of Labor rules.
Speaker 1 (27:24):
We're waiting for Chairman Madani to make the final call.
Lists are being made. Only you can ford the Soviets
seize your workplaces at the time is now. I don't
want to play a brief click from c NBC. If
you've seen where what Batman is up against in Gotham
(27:45):
and what the guy running for mayor is up against,
that's what it reminds you of. They're taking Wall streeters
and make him walk out onto the ice in the
East River as and hope and then they fall through.
I mean there is a class warfare. That's so what's
happened here? I think it's a rich type. There's a
(28:06):
division within the Demo. Whoa, that's right, there is a division.
Speaker 2 (28:13):
Long live the revelation, baby.
Speaker 1 (28:16):
Eat the wretch. There is a division of the Democratic Party.
Walk them out onto the ice. We're sending him onto
the ice is all on hand in hand with the
Bain and Chilly and Murphy are gonna be sending them
on to the hunts and the spirit of occupy lives.
Oh my god. Bill Ackman Cromo and Trump Backer said quote,
(28:42):
I was a bit depressed when I woke up this morning,
but now I'm optimistic. I have a great idea on
New York City, and I will share it as soon
as I can. We are looking into legal issues. Good luck,
good luck, Bill, have fun out there. Oh no, they're good.
Wait this is they're just gonna do perspers again. Who cares?
Speaker 2 (29:01):
Oh no, bring it, bring it. I will say like
this this coverage, like I like, people don't understand how
one Hinges coverage is going to be like in Chicago
when when when Brandon Johnson won the election, Brandon Johnson
is like significantly to.
Speaker 1 (29:14):
The right, yeah of mom, Donnie.
Speaker 2 (29:16):
Right when Brandon Johnson won the election, the Chicago press
went so insane that all of them pretended to be
pro immigrants. Oh yeah, Like do you understand how unhinged
the press has to get here, because like like one
of Johnson thinks that he was like fucking over like
immigrants here and he was like this immigrant the shelters
are putting put in where substandard and people are getting sick,
and like we had the best coverage of immigration issues
(29:39):
under Biden in the country because specifically that was the
thing the reason to attack him.
Speaker 1 (29:43):
I'm super curious what The Times is gonna do because
like they've also pulled out all the stops the past
the past few weeks to try to to try to
stop Zoran. It's gonna be unhinged the winds blowing in
his direction now though, like I don't know what they're
gonna do.
Speaker 2 (29:58):
I don't know, Like I think that specific class of
people is just going to hate him until the end.
Like I think I think, like like David Brooks is
going to be writing calls about how there are like
pigrams going on, like on the streets, like Brett Stevens
is gonna be like I don't know, they're gonna go
to call it like super Lebanon, Like it's gonna be
like levels of unhinged no one's ever seen before.
Speaker 1 (30:20):
Now, speaking of the Times, Obama's tree strategist was quoted
in a New York Times article Wednesday morning, quote, there
is no doubt that Trump and Republicans will try and
seize on him as a kind of exemplar of what
the Democratic Party stands for. The thing is, he seems
both principled and agile and deft enough to confront those
sorts of confrontational plays. I do want to read off
(30:43):
from a Fox News screenshot this morning showcasing Zoron's horrific,
terrifying communist platform, which includes housing freezing rent, building afford
level housing, creating city owned grocery stores whoa there are
free buses, raising the minimum wage to thirty dollars by
(31:03):
twenty thirty, and LGBTQIA plus protections, expanding and protecting gender
affirming care citywide, making NYC and lgbtq AI plus sanctuary
City and Trump proofing NYC to end ice cooperation. Hell yeah,
thank you, thank you Fox News for that, for that
great list of reasons.
Speaker 2 (31:24):
It's so to like Zaran Mamdani, I think I think,
I think it's actually genuinely really important. She us like
the only Democratic candidate in fucking ages who actively campaigned
on like putting more funding in the trans healthcare like
sixty five million dollars of funding. Yeah, fucking being pro
trans wins. Being anti trans gets your ass kicked back
to the suburbs.
Speaker 1 (31:42):
Like fucking Cuomo, eat shit, eat shit. Your Democratic strategists
fuck off and die. Eat shit.
Speaker 2 (31:49):
You will be the ones in the fucking graves that
you were digging for us, Like, fuck off, we have
dun your electoral grapes.
Speaker 1 (31:58):
This is why when I was at this like it's
open Mike at Metropolitan last night, like the whole room
just like lit up in cheers, because yeah, like we've
been we've been dealing with the past like six months.
This idea that, like trans writes is like the thing
that's killing democratic politics and fucking know it isn't.
Speaker 2 (32:15):
Yeah, and quote Quoto, Cuoto ran as a fucking transphobe
because he is and it didn't work. This is the joint,
joint feminist transgender victory over the forces of the turf
sex predator.
Speaker 1 (32:27):
Fuck them to wrap up my stuff here. I do
want to play one minute from Zorn's acceptance speech, which
I think uh speaks for itself, and.
Speaker 4 (32:38):
It's where the mayor will use their power to reject
Donald Trump's fascism to stop mass ice agents from deporting
our neighbor.
Speaker 5 (32:56):
I to cover an our city as a model for
the Democratic Party, a party where we fight for working
people with no apology.
Speaker 4 (33:15):
A life of dignity should not be reserved for a
fortunate few. It should be one that city government guarantees
for each and every New Yorker. If this campaign has
demonstrated anything to the world, it is that our dreams
(33:36):
can become reality.
Speaker 1 (33:41):
I sure hope this is the model for the Democratic
Party going forward. Mia, you wanted to close on a
sad note.
Speaker 2 (33:49):
Yeah, I was really depressed this entire night because I
remember feeling a lot like this in like twenty twenty
three in Chicago.
Speaker 1 (33:57):
Yeah, because this happened in Chicago. Yeah, well this but
a version of this.
Speaker 2 (34:02):
Yeah, And like obviously Brandon Johnson was like significantly to
the right of like everything that's been happening in New York,
like not not he wasn't like a right winger, but
he was like you know, like the local DSA had
conflict with him from other stuff, but like, you know,
I remember feeling like this, and then one year later,
like swat teams like deployed by the mayor that he
claimed he didn't send, were beating up art students outside
(34:24):
like literally in the middle of downtown for trying to
have a Palestine encampment. And you know, like my bitter
cynical personally got rap fucked by the Mayor's office.
Speaker 1 (34:34):
Yeah, like cynicism on this is like it's gonna be weird.
There's gonna be a lot of shit that sucks this.
This guy is like advocated defunding the police and is
attacked like the NYPPD for years. Yeah, and now he's
intensively gonna be in charge of it, and he's he's
not gonna be able to abolish the NYPD like that that's
not gonna happen. No, So there's gonna be a degree
(34:55):
of like you know, moratl like crisis, Like he's gonna
have to work against some of the things that he
stated he believes in.
Speaker 2 (35:02):
Yeah, and on a structural level, there's there's a really
significant problem here, which is that like the moment you
become the leader of a capitalist city, right, it becomes
your job to keep the economy running. And the problem
is that like keeping keeping a capitalist economy running means
you have to your job is now maintaining growth for
for this economy, right, and maintaining growth through the economy
(35:23):
means figuring out how how to have corporation continue to
make more and more money. And that's not compatible with
being a socialist. And everyone who has ever tried to
like deal with this crisis, you either like you you
have two pass It's like one you become a capitalist, right,
and we see this fucking all over the place, right,
(35:45):
it's like you know, it's it's it's Barcelona and Camboo
coming into power, which is like this sort of like
left wing council kind of like books to Nite thing,
and then they immediately start like evicting migrants, right or
two or two you actually do the thing, you do
the thing you do, you do the actual socialism, and
we fucking we like you know, this is this is
the begetting of the end of fascism in a way
(36:06):
where we see a fundamental change in the structure of
our economic system, and that can be the outcome of this,
but we have to build it, not him, like.
Speaker 1 (36:14):
And I think the most he's gonna be able to
do is provide a bit of a safer zone for
us to operate in in New York. Yeah. Yeah, he's
going to be introducing more like social democratic like policies,
Like he's gonna make the city like financially easier to
live in. Yeah, things will suck less, which is good.
He is going to to the end of his power
fight against Trump's efforts to deport your neighbors, and like,
(36:37):
that is so much better than both what Croma would
do and Eric Adams, who is actively collaborating with the
Trump administration. So this man's not going to actually be
the least algae. He's not actually going to be the
guy that ushers in the Red Revolution, which is not
even something I necessarily want. But I think what he
can do is make this an actually better place to
(36:58):
live right now. Yeah, and specifically make it a better
place to live as the national politics in this country
are controlled by a fascist and a cabinet full of fascists. Yeah,
and he can make the largest city in the country
the rock upon which the tide of fascism breaks. And
that matters, That does well, That does it for us today,
(37:18):
greatest city in the world. Cheer one point five Chinese city.
Let's go. It Could Happen Here is a production of
cool Zone Media. For more podcasts from cool Zone Media,
visit our website coolzonmedia dot com, or check us out
on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen
(37:39):
to podcasts. You can now find sources for it could
Happen here, listed directly in episode descriptions. Thanks for listening.
It Could Happen Here News
Hosts And Creators
Robert Evans
Garrison Davis
James Stout
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