6/26/25: Cuomo Bends Knee To Zohran, Wall St Panics Over NYC Election, Scott Horton On Iran Strike Intel

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
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Speaker 3 (00:25):
We need your help to build the future of independent
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Speaker 1 (00:33):
Good morning, everybody, Happy Thursday. Have an amazing show for
everybody today. What do we have, Crystal?

Speaker 2 (00:37):
Indeed, we do, as you guys probably already know, Zoron
Mondani has shocked the establishment in New York City and nationwide.
So we have some updates for you there, including Andrew
Cuomo is dropping his bid so what does this mean
for the general election?

Speaker 4 (00:49):
And also the big freakout is on.

Speaker 2 (00:52):
We got the Republican freakout, we got the Business CNBC freakout,
we got the Democratic establishment freakout, and I'm also really
excited to get Sager's take on the whole thing and
what it all means. Also, lots of news continuing to
unfold with regard to Iron. The Great Scott Horton is
going to join us to break the latest down. The
Ayatola has emerged with a message. There's actually a press
conference going on today with Pete Hegseth as the Trump

(01:13):
administration continues to insist that those strikes were successful in
obliterating Iran's nuclear program.

Speaker 4 (01:19):
So we will get all of those details.

Speaker 2 (01:21):
Also a couple of interesting media appearances, one from Joy
Reid who drops some real truth bombs on CNN. I
guess now that she's unshackled from MSNBC, it's interesting to
watch her go so play that. And we also had
a great Candice Owen's clip from Piers Morgan that we
will break down as well. In addition, we want to
keep our eye on the fact that the one big,

(01:41):
beautiful bill is moving. President Trump is pushing for this
to be passed rapidly, in spite of the fact that
some Republican leaders are expressing deep concern about the political
fallout of the Medicaid cuts. Also have a couple of
additional interesting media segments. So Bernie Sanders joined Joe Rogan,
got some clips from that, and another Joe Rogan linked

(02:02):
segment we're going to do here. So disgraced men's lifestyle
influencer Liver King was just arrested for making terroristic threats
against Joe Rogan. So we'll break down all of that
for you. It was just a wild story. He's clearly
had a complete mental.

Speaker 4 (02:18):
Break at this time.

Speaker 3 (02:19):
Absolutely, And for those asking what the tie in is
is because this show actually was featured in the Liver
King Netflix documentary at the end, and so we have
to bring things even more full circle continuing our coverage
of the situation. Also, it's been a really very serious
two weeks, so you know, let's let's do something that.
Let's written it up a little bit. But I mean,

(02:40):
it's it's always fun to see an influencer fall from
grace and in handcuffs. I'm sorry, I've I've been really
waiting for it.

Speaker 4 (02:46):
I mean, especially this guy complete he's a total artist.

Speaker 2 (02:49):
But yeah, if you guys haven't watched, I watched the
Netflix documentary on Liver King last night with Kyle, and
I knew your monologue was in it, yes, but it
really was like the whole thing built. I have not
watched though and heard this blog is like the you know,
the conclusion that wraps the whole thing up is pretty cool.

Speaker 3 (03:06):
Got you know that's that's where you guys watched the show.
You're ahead of the curve. We were one of the
only news channels that actually covered it at that time.
And no, it wasn't for clicks. I had been fascinated
by the story. It is quite a long time. All right,
let's get to zoron. You guys did a great job
of covering all the election results live. But a lot
has happened since then.

Speaker 2 (03:22):
Yes, indeed, So to back up, we'll start with Zoramandani
his victory speech, just to get a flavor of what
he was talking about as he clinched the Democratic primary victory.

Speaker 4 (03:31):
Let's go and take a listen to a little bit
of that.

Speaker 5 (03:33):
Tonight, we made history. In the words of Nelson Mandela,
it always seems impossible until it is done. And I
want to thank Brad Lander. Together we shown the power

(04:01):
of the politics of the future.

Speaker 6 (04:04):
As FDR said, democracy has disappeared in several other great nations,
not because the people disliked democracy, but because they had
grown tired of unemployment and insecurity, of seeing their children
hungry while they sat helpless in the face of government

(04:27):
confusion and weakness. In desperation, they chose to sacrifice liberty
in the.

Speaker 1 (04:34):
Hope of getting something to eat. New York.

Speaker 6 (04:38):
If we have made one thing clear over these past months,
it is that we need not choose between the two.

Speaker 1 (04:50):
We can be free and we can be fed. We
can demand what we.

Speaker 6 (04:59):
Desi earth, and together we have built a movement where
everyday New Yorkers recognized themselves in our vision of democracy.

Speaker 2 (05:11):
So you get a little taste there of the talent
and the rhetorica that helped to lead to this completely shocking,
pretty overwhelming success here for zora On. Let's go and
put this up on the screen in terms of the
coalition that he built, because there are some really interesting
numbers here and some really interesting things to glean. You know,
you really have to kind of discard some of your

(05:33):
The expectation was this would be, you know, heavily leaning
on white college educated and Asian college educated voters. The
way he was able to win with such stunning overwhelming
force and in the first round, which people didn't really expect.
I mean, technically it hasn't been called yet, has got
to go to rank choice voting, but Coloma has already conceded.
He did best in racially mixed precincts. Here, Cuomo did
best in precincts which were either heavily white or heavily black.

(05:57):
So in the more mixed area of the city, that
is where mom Donnie did the best. Let's go ahead
and put the next piece up on the screen here
about the class coalition he.

Speaker 4 (06:07):
Was able to build and saber.

Speaker 2 (06:09):
This was to me some of the most fascinating breakdowns
that we saw were in terms of the class demographics
that made up Mam Donnie's base.

Speaker 4 (06:18):
So Cuomo did the best.

Speaker 2 (06:20):
Among the very poor and among the very rich so
billionaire class. All in for Cuomo, Mam Donnie was strongest
among the sort of broad middle, so the working class
and middle class in New York City. And keep in mind,
in New York City, because it is so expensive, the
middle class is a little bit higher income than what
it would be considered nationwide.

Speaker 4 (06:42):
But that's really where he had his strength.

Speaker 2 (06:44):
And then we don't have these numbers, but there was
also obviously a massive generational divide, and that was perhaps
the most significant divide in this entire race is Mam
Donnie was so strong with young voters and did something
that you know, the Bernie campaign promised to do that
leftist campaigns off and promised to do, which is to
shift the demographics of the people who actually turn out.

(07:06):
It appears that Zorn, in addition to winning groups that
he wasn't necessarily expected to and building in roads into
groups he wasn't expected to, he also did change the
composition of the electorate where it was much younger than
you know, typical New York City mayoral elections ultimately are.

Speaker 4 (07:20):
And that's how he's able to secure.

Speaker 1 (07:22):
It's very interesting.

Speaker 3 (07:23):
There's a lot of Oh, he's the real candidate of
the rich, and he's the candidate of the poor. Again,
I would remind somebody that if you make a hunt
this is going to sound crazy for people who are
in Alabama. If you make one hundred grand in Manhattan,
you're basically rent poor. You know, it's like you're effectively
like paycheck to paye you're working class. Yeah no, look again,
I know this sounds nuts to everybody else.

Speaker 1 (07:42):
Who lives.

Speaker 3 (07:43):
But if you've ever lived in New York, I mean,
I'm serious, like one hundred grand, and you have to
think about state, local, and federal, what you're left home with,
and then what the average rent is for even a
one or a two bedroom apartment. Good luck to you
being able to even go out to eat, like a
couple of times.

Speaker 1 (07:57):
So that's my you know, first kind of thing.

Speaker 3 (07:59):
But also, you know, at the same time, I do
find the quibbling really annoying because you can kind of
find a narrative wherever it is, like, you know, Cuomo
won what is the majority of black voters, and there
was a big like racial split, cook.

Speaker 1 (08:15):
Mom, Donnie did very well in a lot of these
mixed districts.

Speaker 3 (08:18):
At the end of the day, I don't think it
really matters all that much. All The only thing that
means is winning the primary, and we will also find
out during the general election what his general.

Speaker 1 (08:26):
Broad appeal is.

Speaker 3 (08:27):
But also, look, I mean all of this like working
class now, it's like, guys, the only thing that matters
is winning. And you know Donald Trump, Yes, he won
many working class voters, Latino voters, et cetera.

Speaker 1 (08:38):
He won a lot of rich people too, like middle
class as well.

Speaker 3 (08:41):
In fact, middle class suburbanites, if they hadn't voted for Trump,
he would not have won the popular vote election, right,
So just taking the coalition for what it is, I mean, look,
it's not a surprise like the Democratic Party broadly appeals
to people who are college educated. If you've been watching
this show for the last five years, then you would
know that, like having a four year bachelor college degree
is one of the major signs of being liberal.

Speaker 1 (09:02):
It just is what it is.

Speaker 3 (09:03):
And so when you, you know, put that into a
city like New York with what I mean, I can't
even imagine, Like the median income I believe on the
island of Manhattan is one hundred and two thousand dollars
per year.

Speaker 1 (09:15):
That's a median income.

Speaker 3 (09:16):
And then actually, if you restrict it and you like
leave out I think some parts of above a certain street,
it's skyrockets. Even myral what do you think they all did?
They're all like highly college educated. Of course they're Democratic voters.
So yeah, I mean, we can make quite a bit
of this whole like working class black or whatever. But like,
to me, the only thing that matters is winning, and
the guy won so it doesn't really matter like at

(09:37):
the end of the day of how he will perform
in the general election is of course an open question.
We have the news about Andrew cuomo potential. Is he
officially not running? That's it was a bit confused put
it up there.

Speaker 2 (09:50):
So just to explain, in New York there are multiple
ballot lines.

Speaker 4 (09:55):
And Andrew Cuomo already.

Speaker 2 (09:57):
Was going to be on one of the non Democratic
party ballot lines for the fall. So the expectation very
much was that if he lost in the Democratic primary,
he would continue on to the fall. But that expectation
was built at a time when it was expected either
he would win or that it would be very close.

Speaker 4 (10:17):
It ends up not being close.

Speaker 2 (10:19):
In fact, the margin of victory in the first round
ranked choice vote is going to only be you know,
it's only going to grow when they actually factor in
ranked choice vote because the third place candidate, Brad Lander
cross indorsed Mam Donnie and his campaign told us that
some eighty to ninety percent of Brad Lander votes are
ultimately going to end up with Mom Donnie. So in

(10:40):
the wake of that crushing defeat, humiliating, I mean, you
can't even put words to it how humiliating this is
for Andrew Cuomo. Then it goes, you know, maybe he's
not going to be able to continue, And in fact,
it looks like, according to sources within the Cuomo camp,
he is going to drop his New York City mayoral
bid in New York phrasing here after blistering primary defeat

(11:02):
to zoron Mom Donnie, and I think probably one of
the things that happened here put a four B up
on the screen is that a lot of his donors
started to pull the plug. They're like, you know what, dude,
you got your ass kicked by a thirty three year
old who came out democratic socialist Muslim who came out
of nowhere from one percent of the vote, and he
beats you. And we threw twenty six million dollars in

(11:26):
super pac ads against this guy, and you got your
butt kicked. So listen to this, though, this is remarkable.
One of these big donors says, you know what, I
was just back in Guomo, not because I like the guy,
but because I thought he was gonna win and he's transactional,
and so I needed to make my corrupt deal. Specifically,
he says, this is Mark Gordon that he's now likely to.

Speaker 4 (11:45):
Back Mom Donnie.

Speaker 2 (11:46):
That's because of the support Mom Donnie got from Brad Lander,
who Gordon said he ranked first.

Speaker 4 (11:50):
Quote.

Speaker 2 (11:51):
I feel like people misunderstood my two hundred and fifty
k for Cuomo for real enthusiasm. It was basically, oh,
looks like Cuomo's coming back. We don't want to be
shut out. Let's try and get on his good side.
That's kind of how things work with Cuomo. It's sad
political pragmatism. I wish we lived in a world where
those sorts of things were not useful things to do.

(12:13):
The other thing I noted Sager, is that Bill Clinton,
who had endorsed Andrew Cuomo and even recorded a robo
call for him and was, I guess, his highest profile endorsement,
he also came out and said, you know, and was
wishing Zorn good luck in November, so that was an
indication to be as well.

Speaker 4 (12:31):
But you know, this is the thing for Cuomo too.

Speaker 2 (12:33):
Like, not only did you get humiliatingly defeated, not only
did you run one of the most piss poor campaigns
that all the New York experts say they've basically ever
seen anyone run but people hate him. Yeah, Like he
is a terrible person, and anyone who has an opportunity
to stick a knife in this guy is going to
because he is a tremendous asshole. Like this is not

(12:54):
breaking news. Everyone knows this about him, and so you
hear the way this donor talks about him, He's like, yeah,
I didn't want to get punished for not contributing us
to his campaign. I wanted to be able to like
make whatever corrupt business deals and do my transactional politics thing.
That's what my two hundred and fifty k investment here was.
It's not because I like the guy. So that's the
other piece, is because he's such an asshole when people

(13:17):
have the opportunity to stick the knife and some of
them are going to do it.

Speaker 1 (13:20):
Absolutely.

Speaker 3 (13:20):
It's also just such a massive referendum here on the
Democratic establishment. CNN's harrowyet and did a good job of
breaking some of this down. Let's play a six Please
just explain it.

Speaker 7 (13:30):
This was a political earthquake that should have the Democratic
establishment running scared. What are we talking about here, Well,
New York City primary upsets like Mondani's, this is truly
one for the record books. They're really only two that
I could think of that or anything like this. And
that's back in eighty nine for mayor, when David Dickens
won over third three term mayor Ed Koch. Koch was

(13:51):
running for a fourth term. The voter said, uh uh,
there was big turnout then, just like there was big
turnout last night. And of course more recently, if you
want to take a look at a name national picture,
think back to twenty eighteen New York's fourteenth Democratic primer
going for Congress, when AOC House Caucus chair Joe Crowley.
This to me is very much like that, energizing young voters,

(14:12):
energizing voters on the left, and providing what truly was
a historic night. You know, you think about democratic establishment,
you think about Democratic party leaders, pretty much all of
them were behind Andrew Cuomo. But the bottom line is
the Democratic base is fed up, done with the Democratic establishment.
This is true in New York, it's true nationally Democrats
who say their party leaders should be replaced. Look at this.

(14:33):
This is a recent poll from Ruyters zip so sixty
two percent of Democrats nationally say their party leaders should
be replaced. Democrats who identify as liberal nationally in nineteen
ninety four, twenty five percent. You go to two thousand
and four to thirty three percent, twenty fourteen, forty three percent.
Now the majority of Democrats nationally identify as liberal.

Speaker 1 (14:52):
Well, take you to the bank. I think he is
obviously correct.

Speaker 3 (14:55):
This is we've been talking about Democratic tea Party like,
this is what it is. This is the Eric Canter
loss in twenty fourteen, people being like, oh shit, you know,
I mean Eric Canter famously spent more at the Capitol Grill,
which is the steakhouse here in Washington on stakes than
his opponent Dave Bratt spent on the entire campaign very similar.

Speaker 1 (15:14):
You know, he wasn't even there, he was here, Yeah, exactly.
And this is all old Washington lore.

Speaker 3 (15:20):
But it's important because you can see that these stories
are as old as time. And yeah, look, I mean
we haven't even really talked about We talked a lot
about the Zoron campaign. He ran a very effective campaign.
It was preposterous to make this thing whole about Israel.
In fact, that's probably my best takeaway from this is
APAC taking the biggest l of all time, doing second
best amongst Jewish voters, but more importantly that the psyops

(15:43):
don't work anymore. A lot of people are also waking
up to it, and we can talk a little bit
here about the establishment reaction, but there's even a split now,
like on the right of people who are like, oh,
he's Muslim and others. Even Matt gets tweeting out Zoron's
video about make hahalal eight bucks again.

Speaker 1 (16:00):
Yeah, I wonder why this one? You know, it's again.

Speaker 3 (16:03):
You know, if you've never lived in New York, if
you've never been to New York City, like the cost
of living and inflation of literally everything is insane, Like
it's insane.

Speaker 1 (16:13):
Even I don't even know.

Speaker 3 (16:14):
In the last ten years, every time I go back,
I'm like, what what now? I don't drink anymore. It
was at a bar recently and they were like, oh,
twenty one dollar. I heard some recorder twenty two dollars
cocktail and I was like, oh, what is that? It
must be like some fancy mart. They're like, dude, this
is like well vodka.

Speaker 1 (16:28):
I was like what. I was like, what has happened here? Yeah?

Speaker 3 (16:31):
But that's reality, that's life, from food to halal, and
just talking about that is very important.

Speaker 1 (16:37):
So if we want we can move on to that
and talk.

Speaker 2 (16:39):
About Yeah, well just one two quick things. So, first
of all, all the questions about Israel actually allowed Zoran
to position himself as the America first or a New
York first candidate, where everyone else, Oh, I'm going to Israel,
go to Ukraine, whatever, Zoran will you pledged to go
to Israel. And he's like, I'm gonna be here in
New York delivering for New Yorkers.

Speaker 4 (16:57):
Oh lo and behold.

Speaker 2 (16:58):
That's actually pretty compelling message when you know they're trying
to pin you down as some anti Semite. And you know,
he also had a fantastic answer to does does Israel
have a right to exist as a Jewish state? And
he says, as a state with equal rights? What you're
against equal rights? That sounds to me like you're the
one who needs to be explaining your worldview if that's
where you are. So he handled all of that beautifully

(17:20):
and I think it actually turned into an asset form
which in you know, the city of New York, the
highest Jewish population in the entire country, you know, incredibly
significant vote, and he did quite well among Jewish voters.
I haven't seen the official numbers of whether he won
Jewish voters or quoma one Jewish voters, but he did
very well among Jewish voters. So forget about your caricaturish

(17:41):
idea that every Jewish person out there is hardcore committed
to net Yahoo's genocide. I mean, it's preposterous. That's actually
racist and anti Semitic. So that's number one. Number two,
the thing that I said on election night, and of
course it remains to be seen, is this could actually
be the moment that a lot of us thought the
Aos moment was, And the reason for it is because

(18:02):
of those numbers that Harry Enton put up, where the
Democratic base no longer is in league and in love
with the Democratic establishment. In fact, they are disgusted with them.
And so that is what has changed the possibilities and
created this particular landscape. So we'll see how all this
plays out, but I guarantee they're going to be more

(18:24):
primary challenges. People are going to see this, they're going
to be inspired. Twenty twenty eight is going to be
very interesting, you know, because you no longer have the
Democratic base just willing to go wherever the elite Democratic
establishment tells them to go. That represents an extraordinary break
of a sort that we have not seen in the
Democratic Party in my lifetime. So that's number one. Number two,

(18:46):
it can put go ahead and just roll through these
eric We've got, you know, Bill Clinton and Chuck Schumer
and Keem Jefferies weighing in. Keem Jefferies and Schumer say
congratulations effectively, and they're going to meet with him. But
they still have and said they're endorsing him for the fall.
This is your Democratic nominee in the city that you know.
Schumer's obviously state wide, but Kim Jeffries, you know, represents

(19:08):
a district inside of New York City, and you can't
even say, like good luck in the fall, were behind you.
This is your Democratic nominee. So to me, that's pathetic.
But the fact that they even put on anything that
was positive, I guess is noteworthy. And then here's Bill Clinton.
This was the one I found most noteworthy because he
actually says I'm wishing you success in November. And as
I said before, he had previously been behind Cuomo. So

(19:31):
Clinton seems to be saying, all right, I'm with you
now for the fall, for whatever that's worth. I mean,
as a sort of leader in the Democratic Party. Jerry
Nadler also very significant in terms of the New York
Congressional delegation. Jerry Nadler also happens to be Jewish, so
this is important too. And he says that Zorn's victory
is a seismic election that I can only compare to

(19:53):
Barack Obama's in two thousand and eight. He also concludes
by saying, I've spoken to him today about his commitment
to fight anti Semitism. We will work with all New
Yorkers to fight against all bigotry and hate. So having
the direct support of Jerry Nadler is considered the dean
of the New York Congressional delegation also significant. So just quickly,

(20:14):
before we move on to the CNBC meltdown and the
Republican meltdown and all of that sort of stuff, which
would be fun to get into. What's going to happen
now is they'll wrap up the rank choice voting allocations.

Speaker 4 (20:25):
Orn's gonna win.

Speaker 2 (20:26):
He'll win by a wider margin than you know the
numbers even show right now, and then it's on to
the general election.

Speaker 1 (20:31):
Cuomo.

Speaker 2 (20:32):
Apparently corn of those sources, if they're to believed, is
going to drop. Eric Adams, however, is still in, and
then you have Curtis Leewa, who's the sort of public
Republican nominee, is also in. So these people, you know
that we're going to talk about Bill Ackman and these
sorts who are desperate for anybody but Zoron are probably

(20:53):
going to have to rally around Eric Adams, who is
this hilarious idiot and cartoonishly corrupt by the way, and
you remember he appeared to have made some corrupt deal
with the Trump administration to have his charges against him dropped.
But that's kind of their last best hope. And Eric
Adams is pulling pathetically in the City of New York
because he was a terrible mayor and as I just mentioned,

(21:15):
cartoonishly corrupt, and the number of his aides who had
to resign or were indicted over you know, various scandals.

Speaker 4 (21:22):
Is I lost count at some point.

Speaker 2 (21:24):
So he's not exactly the you know, the strongest person
that you would would like to see if you're trying
to stop Zoran and especially with the amount of momentum
that he has at this time. So listen, they're gonna
throw everything they can at him between now and the fall.
I have no idea what sort of dirty tricks they're
gonna pull, but I do think he's in a fairly
strong position here, especially with Cuomo now stepping aside, because Quoma,

(21:46):
in spite of also being scandal ridden and obviously people
not having a particularly favorable impression of him, Cuomo is
still a big name in New York. You know, Cuomo is,
It's still a dynasty. He, you know, had all this
establishment backing behind him, and so to have him out,
I think Eric Adams is an even weaker There's no
doubt about it. Eric Adams is an even weaker candidate

(22:09):
than Andrew Cuomo was at this point.

Speaker 1 (22:13):
So let's get to the establishment freak out. It's been.

Speaker 3 (22:15):
It's been hilarious to watch CNBC, first of all, giving
us some of the best talking about how the rich
are going to get shot in the streets of New York.

Speaker 1 (22:23):
Let's take a listen.

Speaker 8 (22:25):
If you've seen where what Batman is up against in
Gotham and what the guy running for mayor is up against,
that's what.

Speaker 9 (22:32):
It reminds you of.

Speaker 7 (22:33):
They're taking Wall streeters and make him walk out onto
the ice.

Speaker 1 (22:37):
In the East River as and Hope and then they
fall through.

Speaker 4 (22:41):
I mean there is a class warfare. That's so what's
happened here?

Speaker 1 (22:45):
I think it is a rich type.

Speaker 10 (22:48):
It is not the closing of a steakhouse that David's
house loft fights to and you like to go to.

Speaker 9 (22:53):
You and I have had dinner there a few times. Yes,
and you and are going to recreate.

Speaker 4 (22:58):
The rents too high?

Speaker 9 (22:59):
You know what?

Speaker 10 (23:00):
The new mayor potentially of New York is going to
freeze the rents and everybody eats for free so they
don't have to worry. Really, yeah, but about the rich No, no,
well not shot. Yes, they get taken a yated.

Speaker 9 (23:14):
We have to go twenty three.

Speaker 10 (23:15):
We have to leave now that somebody else there he is, mom,
Donnie name the Democratic primary for mayor and potentially the
successor of Eric Adams. That said, there's still a general
election to come here.

Speaker 6 (23:29):
In New York.

Speaker 4 (23:29):
By the way, you know, of course we're here.

Speaker 10 (23:31):
We talked about it, but we are talking about a
two trillion dollars economy.

Speaker 1 (23:34):
Is you know, he wants to get the rents down.

Speaker 10 (23:37):
One good way to do it is without ball business
and drive everybody out.

Speaker 1 (23:40):
That'll bring the reds down.

Speaker 3 (23:42):
That's a very good put right a Jersey everybody. I mean, look,
I mean this, this gets again someone with my right
wing annoyance of it as if New York is functioning fine.
And I talked about this last time about all these
billionaire people who are going to leave the city has
become a playground for the rich. Anybody who has visited
Manhattan in particular can tell you this. It's not a

(24:03):
good way to live and sustain a multi million population.
Part of the reason why people are turning against it.
As I just referenced, let's think about this. If you
grew up like I did in the nineties and someone
was gonna tell you're gonna make one hundred and fifty
grand a year and be like, man, I'm gonna be
a baller show up in New York. It's like, good luck, buddy,
You're gonna be waiting at number nineteen in the ResQue

(24:24):
trying to get into the fiftieth best restaurant in New York.
And look, I know this sounds preposterous, but a lot
of people who live there, they live for this stuff,
and it creates like a class anxiety kind of. So
what you really see is that basically in least you
make less than a quarter million dollars. I don't think
you're living a very easy life in the city of
New York. And that's part of the issue, is that
a lot of it is basically like rolled up to

(24:46):
the very top. I also think a huge problem with
America cities is that they have become playgrounds, not just
for the American rich, but for the global rich. Again,
same thing if you walk around, if you're walking around
Soho or any of these other people, half people are
not even from here. They're like rich people from Russia, Senegal, wherever.
The entire world's population converges on Manhattan to basically buy

(25:07):
shit and to stay at fancy hotels and so and
the money exactly.

Speaker 1 (25:11):
So it just becomes this thing on.

Speaker 3 (25:13):
Top of everything where you know, the guy who wants
to eat hal all and just like live and go
to work is just basically priced out of everything slowly
and slowly and being pushed further out. And of course
you have people who have lived in the city for
generations where the same thing is happening. So it's a
it's really an economic story, and it's one that Bloomberg
really doubled down on. I mean, before that, it was

(25:34):
not thought of as explicitly the playground for the rich
of the entire global elite. There were pockets of that,
but I don't think that was the actual identity and
story of the city.

Speaker 1 (25:43):
But that's what it's become.

Speaker 3 (25:44):
So it's not a surprise to me that you have
a rise up against it. I mean, there's a Peter
Thiele email which has been going around and it's really funny,
and it's like, hey, guys, like if you have he's
like millennials turned towards socialism.

Speaker 1 (25:56):
He's like, I haven't posted socialism, but.

Speaker 3 (25:58):
When you live in a society with high levels student
debt and housing on affordability, it will not be shocking
that they will have less stake in the system and
choose something new.

Speaker 9 (26:06):
There you go.

Speaker 1 (26:07):
It's not complicated to me, right literally at all.

Speaker 2 (26:09):
I think we also have to just like level set
about the radicalism of the policies that he's proposing. I mean,
you've got these CNBC guys. It reminds me so much
of Chris Matthews talked about how they're going to like
take him in Central Park and shoot him if Ergie
Sanders gets elected.

Speaker 4 (26:23):
Very you know, same vibe.

Speaker 2 (26:25):
We're talking about free buses, We're talking about five government
run grocery stores.

Speaker 4 (26:30):
I mean, this is not like wild stuff.

Speaker 2 (26:33):
In fact, the bus thing pulls at like seventy or
eighty percent in the city.

Speaker 4 (26:37):
Of New York.

Speaker 2 (26:38):
That's what they consider to be so radical and that
they're completely panicking over. So, you know, I think it's
important too to keep in mind that if you floated
these policies in many cities worldwide, this would.

Speaker 4 (26:52):
Be like just very normal, small ball kind of stuff.

Speaker 2 (26:55):
When we talk about freeze the rent, this is just
on apartments that are already rent stabilized. This is a
policy that's put and put in place in the past,
for example under Bill de Blasio. So it's really nothing
that crazy Donald Trump has now weighed in. Not his
finest post, I have to say, and you know, we
all very much sure his posting abilities, but this was
not his best work. Let's put this up on the

(27:16):
screen from Trump, he says, it's finally happened. The Democrats
have crossed the line. Zorn Mandani, a one hundred percent
communist lunatic, has just won the Dumb primaries on his
way to becoming mayor We've had radical lefties before, but
this is getting a little ridiculous. He looks terrible, his
voice is grading, he's not very smart. He's got AOC

(27:37):
plus three, that's what he calls a squad dummies all
backing him, and even our great Palestinian Senator Cryan Chuck
Schumer is groveling over him. Yes, this is a big
moment in the history of our country. I mean, to me,
not only not his best work. Obviously, the consensus is
that Zorn does not in fact look terrible, But to me,
it just oozes with envy, Like I think for Trump

(27:59):
to see the guy who's capturing all this attention and
the city that Trump, you know, loves and made his
name in and where he always wanted to be accepted
by everyone and beloved by everyone, That's what I take
out of this.

Speaker 3 (28:11):
Yeah, I thought it was more like a Fox News
boomer reaction. They're going or obsessed, absolutely.

Speaker 1 (28:18):
Say it's not a good nickname. It's just like objectively untrue.

Speaker 3 (28:21):
In fact, something I like about Zoron is that he
does wear a suit, and he is relatively clean cut.
And you know, if his entire campaign basically conducted either
in a shirt and shirts, leaves in a tie and
or a suit everywhere that he goes. Let that be
a lesson. Third bag democrats who look like shit all
the time. Look shout out to John Fetterman. The only
the most successful one now today is who is Zorn Mambani?

Speaker 1 (28:43):
So you should take that away.

Speaker 3 (28:44):
I will say, I do think that the reaction on
the right is very interesting because there's a low IQ
and a high IQ version.

Speaker 1 (28:52):
So we're gonna show you some of the lower IQ stuff.

Speaker 3 (28:54):
Let's put B three please up on the screen so
people can take a look. We've got Marjorie Taylor Green
tweeting out a photo of the Statue of Liberty in
a burke or actually, no, that is what's the word.
It's not a burke ni cop, I think that's what
it technically is. Let's go to the next one, so
just continue to show people.

Speaker 1 (29:12):
We've got Laura Lumer. There will be another nine to
eleven in New York City's or on, Mom, Donnie will
be to blame. What else have we got here? Do
we have anything else?

Speaker 9 (29:20):
You did it?

Speaker 1 (29:20):
You finally did it, You maniacs, You blew it up.

Speaker 3 (29:23):
Photo from the movie showing the statue of liberty there
crushed on the beach.

Speaker 1 (29:27):
Let's continue, shall we? Shall we continue?

Speaker 3 (29:29):
Bill Ackman says, I have a great idea on New
York City, and I will share it again soon.

Speaker 1 (29:34):
His idea, by the way, is a writing campaign.

Speaker 4 (29:37):
Genius Bill, you know Billy doing.

Speaker 9 (29:39):
That's what he said.

Speaker 3 (29:40):
So, hey, Bill, here's my idea. Spend as much of
your fortune as humanly possible. We could not wish you more.
So he hasn't even picked the person. That's the best part.
He just says he's going to fund a writing campaign.
Let's continue. There's one more here we've got for people. Yes,
as he says, we're looking into legal issues concerning potential
for another candidate.

Speaker 1 (29:58):
That was his little idea.

Speaker 3 (30:00):
But you know, the thing is about it, and I
guess you know this is the curse of like having
knowledge is like guys. Zora On Mumdani is a Shia
Indian Muslim. In his I found out his mother directed
Kama Sutra. So I would venture to say that the
majority of the Hindu population.

Speaker 1 (30:20):
In the United States is about ten times more conservative
than zora on Mamdani. Sheia Muslim. His mom directed yea
Kama Sutra. Just so we're all clear. Yeah, there's a.

Speaker 2 (30:30):
Hero invitation that he's like particularly religious in any way.

Speaker 3 (30:33):
He seems like a shit limb to me, to be honest,
in terms of his own personal politics.

Speaker 1 (30:37):
Whatever, Fine with me.

Speaker 3 (30:39):
But my point is is that there's like this, the
way that we the way that they're talking about this
seems like it's two thousand and two all over again.

Speaker 1 (30:47):
But I mean, look, I understand.

Speaker 3 (30:50):
I guess it works, you know, if you live in
Alabama or whatever. But I think what really the takeaway
should be is about the effective combatants of the attacks
that have been launch and ultimately the stuff about socialism
and APAC just fell flat. I mean, I get it,
it's probably feels really nice if you live in Pennsylvania,
rural steel Town you don't know anything about New York

(31:12):
and on watching Fox News every day. But for the
people who actually live there, like this stuff just completely
fell flat, and I think that should be a real takeaway.
In fact, I mean, again, the smarter kind of right
wing critiques that I have seen about Zoron, I mean
mostly trace back to like his previous iteration as an
identitarian leftist. Now I would say that actually shows some

(31:35):
of his political strength. He probably ran one of the
most post woke campaigns in modern left history. I would say, like,
you know, I have not seen a lot of identitarianism
from him. A lot of his twenty twenty tweets, I
get it, it was cringe, but the man mostly talked
about affordability. Mostly was like focusing in on issues that
were important to like the democratic base, like capital d

(31:57):
and then also driving people out and hammering home the
message if we want to make this a city that
is easier to live in. That's a good campaign. I mean,
I'm sorry, that just is That is the takeaway from me.
And so you have to watch like the way that
they're trying to make him into a lightning rod. And
I think this will be interesting for Zorn because he
really guys like him, Like with aoc you know, you

(32:20):
get elected on a great promise. But now he's on
the phone with Chuck Schumer, he's on the phone with
Kathy Hochel and listen, no matter what, New York is
one of the richest cities on the planet. Like you're
going to be dining with billionaires and having all these
people in your offices, and people are gonna be lightening
your phone up and you're going to be part of
the democratic establishment now, even if you are technically oppositionally

(32:41):
and you have a choice right, and so that actually
will be his biggest test. It's not just governance, but
in how he handles himself now is the official like
democratic nominee and how that works has a lightning rod
for what he'll turn himself into and what issues he
chooses to fight on. That'll be the most interesting for
me to watch.

Speaker 1 (33:00):
Could go the AOC route.

Speaker 2 (33:01):
He demonstrated a lot of pragmatism and coalition building in
his campaign. I mean, the Bradlander cross endorsement was genuinely huge.
Bradlanders the highest Jewish elected official in the city of
New York, so having him vouch for Zoron and then
cross endorsing like rank him first and me second massively impactful.
And Lander Ryan described him as like the Elizabeth Warren

(33:23):
of New York City. So you can imagine alternative universe
where Warren instead of like accusing Bernie of being secretly sexist,
where they're sort of been a coalition together. Now rank
choice voting encourages those sorts of partnerships. But not only
did he have that Cross endorsement. He also had Michael
Blake Cross endorsement as well, and he reached out to
the like abundance people went on with Derek Thompson went

(33:44):
on with Tim Miller, who's, you know, more of a
like centrist y kind of a dem We had him
here on the show when soccer was out and really
won them over as well. So he has demonstrated the
ability both to obviously stayed rock solid in his commitment
to Palestine, rock solid in terms of his policy proposals
that he wanted to focus on, but was also able
to be pragmatic and reach out. Just to go back

(34:06):
to the Republican critique, first of all, I mean, so
many of these are just like brazenly islamophobic and racist.

Speaker 4 (34:13):
That's number one.

Speaker 2 (34:14):
Number two, the one that's really driving completely insane is
like Steven Miller and Charlie Kirk and others. But those
are the two that I've seen prominently are claiming that
the reason Zoron one is because of so many immigrants
in New York guys, if only white people had voted,
Zoron would have won by more so, like at least
be accurate. I mean, the truth of the matter is

(34:34):
it really is a coalition between He won white people
and Asians by them most, but some of the numbers
I saw also had him winning Hispanics and then closing
the gap with what the polling was showing with regard
to black voters and winning overwhelmingly among young black voters.

Speaker 4 (34:47):
I mean, it really was.

Speaker 2 (34:49):
A multiracial, cross ethnic coalition of both native born and
immigrants into the city. And so if you're grappling with that,
like you're just lying, you are not even you're not
depicting reality whatsoever. And so you know, with Stephen Miller,
like he's got his white nationalist project, and so he's
using this as propaganda for his campaign, I have a

(35:09):
feeling that he probably knows better. But if that's actually
the lesson you're laying from this, you're not taking away
the reality of what actually happened here, which to Soager's point,
like Zorn's position, was, this city has been run for billionaires,
and I'm not going to run it for billionaires.

Speaker 4 (35:23):
I'm going to try to run it.

Speaker 2 (35:24):
For your average New Yorker who is really struggling to
be able to stay in the city and survive. And
it should be no surprise to anyone that that is
a message that really resonated and resonated across the city.
I mean he even won places in like Staten Island.
He was winning like Brighton Beach. I mean places that
people did not expect him to do well he was
able to succeed. So in any case, a lot of

(35:46):
the reaction has been unhinged. But you're right, Sager that
some people on the right, Matt Gates was the most
noteworthy one to me, actually engaged with the substance of
what he was saying and sought to understand what the
actual appeal was, not this like insane racist fear mongering
that others were engaged in.

Speaker 3 (36:07):
I think Zoron's biggest difficulty is going to be running
headlong into the reality of New York.

Speaker 1 (36:12):
Like I've talked about it here. On financing, it's like
good luck, man.

Speaker 3 (36:15):
I mean, your literal tax base relies on like fifteen
people who live in the city.

Speaker 1 (36:19):
That's a huge problem, huge problem.

Speaker 3 (36:22):
Like again, you know, the entrenched interest and the permitting
and all this stuff. I get that it's really bad,
But what you think You're the first guy to ever
notice that the taxicab union has too much power or
that the permitting stuff for Halal. It's like it's a
byzantine system free buses, right, It's like, yeah, we'll see.
Last I checked, what is it? MTA is what half

(36:42):
funded by Albany. There's always these huge fights between the
governor and the actual mayor.

Speaker 1 (36:49):
I mean, this is like a decade's long thing.

Speaker 3 (36:51):
And I'm sorry, I'm getting two in the weeds, but
like that's actually what I think would be the failure
of a mayoral campaign by him is to come in
with these promises free baskets or whatever, and it can listen.
I mean, these things are also you know, you can
over promise and then dramatically underliver. Remember did New York
pass like a right to housing or something like that

(37:12):
they have a right to house in their shelter. It's like, yeah,
and that turned out to be a fucking mess whenever
the migrant crisis broke out and basically nearly bankrupted the
city and turned a huge portion of working class New
Yorkers against immigration. And so you can see how these
things can actually really like will not work out in
the same in the way that you want it to,

(37:33):
or can be overstretched. And you know this is the reality, Like,
you're not the president of the United States, you're the
mayor of New York. You've got city council that you have,
and then you have the governor on top, so you're
both like a figurehead with some power but not a
whole lot of power. And then same on you know,
policing again, like his old tweets on defund the police.
I know he has recanted some of that stuff, but

(37:53):
all it's going to take is like a moderate increase
in crime and go, oh man, they will hang you
out to dry in a second. So I see his
I see the treachery for his path, even if he
does get elected to be much more like in the
nitty gritty of the reality.

Speaker 4 (38:08):
Of how it all has to govern effectively.

Speaker 3 (38:10):
Yeah, I mean, and I think it's just really hard
in that city. I just don't I mean the way
that it works. I mean, you haven't really this the
political system in New York has just not worked for
like decades.

Speaker 4 (38:20):
Well, there's there's two different potentials.

Speaker 2 (38:24):
You know, You've got Brandon Johnson in Chicago, who has
an extremely low approval rating, has governed very poorly, has
been unable to deliver on some significant promises he made
in his campaign. And then there's Michelle wou in Boston
who similarly, you know, elected quite young and has been
quite successful and has been able to govern quite effectively,

(38:45):
and also comes down of the left of the party
and is really popular in the city. You know, I
also I lived in New York City during the BUILDE.
Blasio time, and so soccer your point about like the
entrants that he'll be up against, it's extraordinary.

Speaker 4 (38:58):
Now.

Speaker 2 (38:59):
Luckily for Zoron, if he does, you know, win in
the fall, he's not gonna have Andrew Cuomo as governor.
Kathy Hochel is moderate, but Andrew Cuomo was actively in
league with the Republicans. He and Deblasio despised each other
openly open warfare, and he did everything he could to
try to block Build A Blasio's core campaign promise of

(39:20):
free pre k Now.

Speaker 4 (39:21):
Deblasio, to his credit.

Speaker 2 (39:23):
Was able to actually get that through, and it's been
phenomenally successful and really important program in New York City,
one of the few ways the New York City has
really been able to expand services in a way that's
you know, been quite impactful for for residents of the city,
for ordinary you know, working class residents.

Speaker 4 (39:38):
Of the city.

Speaker 2 (39:39):
But Deblasio, who I think, you know, much less effective
communicator than Zoron, doesn't have some of the star power
of Doorn. But his mayoralty was really dragged down by
a lot of those entrenched you know, the real estate
developers and the battles with Cloma and all those sorts
of things. So there is no doubt that Zoron gets
in in the fall, he's going to have, you know,
a lot that.

Speaker 4 (39:58):
He's going to have to cope with.

Speaker 2 (40:00):
Another thing people are pointing to is Brad Lander is
currently the city controller and has I think is likely
to be or potentially to be involved in Zorn's administration,
and he is respected sort of broadly as being highly competent,
certainly understands the ins and outs of how the city works.
So assembling people like that on his team who do

(40:20):
have that experience and that nohow are also going to
be really critical.

Speaker 4 (40:23):
Let's talk about a little bit.

Speaker 2 (40:25):
Of the unhinged dem reaction, because while we showed you
some Democrats at least being willing to play ball, Bill
Clinton actually saying okay, good luck in November, I've seen
a bunch of the local county Democratic parties getting behind
Zoron as well.

Speaker 4 (40:39):
There have been others.

Speaker 2 (40:40):
Let's go and put B five up on the screen
and we can go through some of these.

Speaker 4 (40:43):
So you've got Dean.

Speaker 2 (40:45):
Phillips saying Democrats wishing to lose the twenty six mid
terms should promote a thirty three year old socialist devoid
of executive experience for mayor of America's largest city and
impeach a president who ended a tyrannical regime's nuclear threat
while achieving a ceasefire days later. So that is his
Let's put the next one up on Sabrianna Wu of
course weighing in here. It's an excellent piece. How can
someone lead America's most important city if they want to

(41:06):
burn down the democracy that makes our way of life
in America possible?

Speaker 1 (41:11):
Like?

Speaker 2 (41:11):
What are you even talking about here? This is all
over Zorn's defense of the phrase globalized the into fodder,
which became you know, big fodder for the campaign, but
in fact attack.

Speaker 1 (41:20):
Who gives a shit? This stuff drives me.

Speaker 3 (41:24):
Serious again, Like you know, I live here in this city.
I don't know Mayor Bowser's view of globalized the nor
do I care, right, correct, stop the bums from nodding
out and shooting up in the middle of the street
and knocking on my window.

Speaker 1 (41:39):
That's it, That's all I actually care about.

Speaker 3 (41:41):
It's like, you know, it's one of those things where, uh,
you know, we get lost in the sauce where I'm
just so happy that this failed at the ballot box. Yes,
I truly am, and that people were like, yeah, this
is bullshit.

Speaker 2 (41:52):
Yeah, oh god, I think we might have a least
staphonic reaction here. We can go to next where she's
apparently already fund raising off of mom. Donnie was the
next one, and then I think we had one last
one that we could go to as well of uh oh,
this is no surprise reverberation for mum Donnie winning ours.

(42:12):
Now have a real life socialist to run against yell
were warned this would happen. This was a response to
stephonic fundraising off him. And then put the next one
up on the screen. Andrew Cuomo should literally be sentenced
to effing death for running the worst campaign in our
history and letting a communist win.

Speaker 4 (42:27):
Literal death penalty. I am serious. So now who wants
to eat for it?

Speaker 1 (42:31):
Now?

Speaker 2 (42:31):
Who's doing the exp I would not Central Park, I
guess the center.

Speaker 3 (42:35):
I would say maybe for letting people die in a
nursing how about that?

Speaker 2 (42:38):
That's just me, you know, maybe that was a slightly
more important and more important thing for you to be
mad at Andrew Cuomo for is the fact that he,
you know, put elderly people with COVID back in nursing
homes where they infected other people and led to an
increase in the death rate, and then let a cover
up of it and lied about it to Congress and
to Congress and yeah, we're hanging out with your brother
and joking about your Yes.

Speaker 1 (42:59):
Look, years since we litigated this, but of course, yeah,
we will never forget. Probably.

Speaker 3 (43:03):
Look, I think Zorn was a very effective candidate. I
think he did well. It's obviously a shock to the
democratic establishment. They would do well to listen for him personally. Really,
it's going to be a great battle test. I think
AOC dramatically failed that test and basically became like a
woke stooge and was, you know, a hilarity. Also let
down a lot of the progressive movement, and now she's
trying to slowly come back after Trump won the election.

(43:26):
But I'm not sure she'll ever regain that type of credibility.
If he continues in this post woke campaign and tries
to deliver, he has a shot, but I think he's
up against absolutely insane odds, just considering the way that
that system works. I'd read it a little bit about
LaGuardia and how effective he was. Yeah, it just seems
to me that those institutions are so decayed, and especially

(43:49):
because at that time period it was just less captured
by money.

Speaker 2 (43:53):
I mean, I mean he had to go up against
the Tammany Hall in Trench, you know, political democratic, political
astablishment of the parallels.

Speaker 3 (44:01):
It's not genuinely insurmountable, like it's like it's such an
unlivable place in a way like affordability wise, and it's
so captured by these titans, you know those what's that
it starts with.

Speaker 1 (44:12):
A V like the Vornado realists.

Speaker 3 (44:14):
They own like all of Times Square, you know, and
they can just shut you down. It's effectively like a
private government of all of these landlords and all these
other people who if they come and pool together, they
can leverage their resources to basically buckle you. And not
to mention they still own you know, City Hall, and
then they always have Albany in their back pocket.

Speaker 1 (44:34):
It's such an insane state, and I would I would never.

Speaker 9 (44:37):
Want that job.

Speaker 2 (44:37):
I this, to be honest with you, this is making
me miss New York City. So I love New York City, Yeah,
I miss I miss living there.

Speaker 4 (44:46):
I mean it's a difficult.

Speaker 2 (44:47):
Place to live in a lot of ways, but it's
also there's such there's just so such vibrancy, you know,
the truly like the melting pot, all the different ethnicities
and all the different neighborhoods and character like you could
explore or that city for your whole life and still
be surprised.

Speaker 4 (45:03):
By the things that you find.

Speaker 2 (45:04):
So I don't know, Zorin has rekindled my sort of
love affair with that city. But you're not wrong about
the odds that he's up against, you know. I will
say he ran a very effective campaign, demonstrate a lot
of sort of like managerial competence, didn't have any like
weird woke left wing meltdowns within the campaign. Staff was
highly competent. They executed full lawlessly and he's got a
lot of important allies who do have experience in the city.

(45:27):
So you know, I don't think the residents of New
York are looking for him to be able to effectuate
the socialist revolution and have you know, make their lives
like I don't think they. I think they understand he's
not going to have a magic wand is what I'm
trying to say.

Speaker 4 (45:39):
So it's going to be crucial that he.

Speaker 2 (45:41):
Deliver on some of these key promises that people can
notice that they can sink their teeth into that make
them feel like, Okay, he did what he's at least
trying in fighting to do the things that he said
that he was going to do, and critically that he's
you know, an effective, competent manager. The trash is getting
picked up, the snow is getting removed, all the sorts.

Speaker 1 (45:59):
Of crime services.

Speaker 3 (46:01):
And then make sure that you at least can tangibly
show people on cost, because that's what screws every you know,
sometimes they'll tangibly deliver on services, but then the crime
goes up. And it's like again, if you look at
all of the history, it's so so difficult just because
again you don't really have like total power over it,
and there's so many intersecting interest groups. But it'll be interesting,
it'll definitely be interesting to watch. Elly, all right, let's

(46:23):
get to Scott Horton.

Speaker 1 (46:24):
He's standing by joining us now. Is Scott Horton.

Speaker 3 (46:29):
He is the director of the Libertarian Institute and the
author of Provoked and great friend of the show.

Speaker 1 (46:33):
It's good to see you man, Thanks for coming back.

Speaker 9 (46:35):
Thank you both very much for having me this morning.

Speaker 1 (46:37):
Absolutely, we got a lot of Iran stuff to get
to with you. Scott.

Speaker 3 (46:40):
First and foremost is a new statement from the Iyatola Comane.
Let's go and put it up there on the screen.
He's spoken out for the very first time. There was
some speculation as to whether he'd been disappeared. Basically this
entire time, nobody really knows where he is, striking a
defiant tone there, basically declaring victory over the US regime
in his so it is interesting at least.

Speaker 1 (47:02):
For what some of the posturing is. We also have bosting.

Speaker 3 (47:05):
From the Iranians with this idea that their nuclear program
has not actually been all that severely degraded. This is
now a massive fight here in Washington. As you and
I are speaking right now, the Defense Secretary Pete Heggsath
is berating the media for reporting the previous intelligence estimate,
and we also have the Director of National Intelligence, Telsea

(47:26):
Gabbard coming out backing up Donald Trump.

Speaker 1 (47:28):
We can put that up.

Speaker 3 (47:29):
There on the screen, says new Intelligence confirms that the
POTUS has stated numerous times Iran's nuclear facilities have been destroyed.
If they choose to rebuild, they would have to rebuild
all facilities entirely, which would take years to do so.

Speaker 1 (47:41):
She then goes after the propaganda media.

Speaker 3 (47:44):
So, first your reaction to that, and I understand you
also wanted to expand a little bit on some comments
you've made previously here on the show.

Speaker 8 (47:51):
Yeah, I really, well, I'm ultimately still right anyway in
the end, but I oversimplified a point when I was
talking about uranium versus plutonium nukes and Iran's various potential
roots to the bomb, and you guys comments section called
me out immediately and correctly. So the first thing was
just a complete scrip where I just mixed up Batman

(48:13):
and little Boy.

Speaker 9 (48:14):
Little Boy was the Hiroshima bomb.

Speaker 8 (48:16):
Batman was the Nagasaki bomb, which wasn't I did get
this part right. Was the plutonium implosion bomb, and that
is almost universally the type of bomb that is miniaturized
and married to missiles. What I overstated was I think
I said that it was virtually impossible to make a

(48:37):
uranium implosion bomb, which is not really right.

Speaker 9 (48:40):
That was oversimplified. The real point is.

Speaker 8 (48:43):
If because Iran has no plutonium root to the bomb,
because they don't have they didn't never mind what's been
bombed now, but they never had a reprocessing facility necessary
to clean the impurities out of plutonium to use it
for weapons fuel, so they didn't have that root to
the bomb at all, and then their uranium root to
the bomb. The presumption was that if they made a bomb,
it would be a gun type nuke.

Speaker 9 (49:04):
Because that would be the easiest and cheapest to make.

Speaker 8 (49:06):
That if they raced to a bomb, they could do
that quickly, whereas if they were It is possible to
make an implosion bomb out of uranium, but it's much
more complicated and would require a lot more testing. And
there have been a bunch of false accusations about them
working on those implosion systems at parch In, for example,
which turned out to be a bunch of propaganda that

(49:27):
was later debunked. But so my point still stands in
that if they had broken out from the treaty and
said we're going to make nukes.

Speaker 9 (49:36):
Now.

Speaker 8 (49:36):
They could either race toward a gun type nuke, which
is essentially undeliverable, or they could plow it along and
try to get an implosion type bomb and figure out
how to make one and marry that to a missile.
And I believe that must have been what the intelligence
assessment had been referring to a couple of weeks ago,
saying that it would take them up to three years

(49:57):
to have that done if they had were openly seeking.
So the point essentially still remained. It was just that
I had screwed up, first of all, the names of
the bombs we dropped on Truman dropped on Japan, which
is a stupid error. And then secondly, I had essentially
just overstated the limitations of a uranium bomb, and that
essentially they would be forced to make a gun type

(50:19):
nuke and would not have an implosion option available, which
is not correct. It just it would take a lot
more effort for them to do so, and it would
give America is there, a lot more time to launch
an aggressive war against them in order to prevent them
from getting that far.

Speaker 9 (50:33):
So that point essentially still stands.

Speaker 8 (50:35):
And I believe I made that same screw up on
Pierce Morgan and on the Jimmy Door Show. So this counts,
I hope as corrections for those two. Actually try to
invite myself back onto both to correct the same error,
because I really hate being wrong about anything. People in
my position are positioned trying to oppose these wars.

Speaker 9 (50:52):
We can't afford to be wrong.

Speaker 8 (50:54):
And I certainly was not trying to, you know, oversimplify,
to deceive anyone or anything.

Speaker 9 (50:59):
But physicial did so. So I want to make sure
that we get that straight.

Speaker 2 (51:03):
Yeah, and we appreciate your commitment to that kind of precision. Scott,
It's part of what gives you so much credibility here.
So what do you make of the battle over the
intelligence assessment of how badly damaged these nuclear nuclear facilities
ultimately were?

Speaker 8 (51:18):
Yeah, well, you know what, not in the real benefit
of the doubt sense, But just my feeling is I
think Trump is probably right that the dam which was
you know, what they were hoping to get. And part
of that is just because I know of the precision,
their ability that they've had for many years to be

(51:39):
able to drop a missile right down a chimney flight
in a window. It's been this way since the Rock
War one. And for them to drop a dozen or
more fourteen I guess it was. They said, thirty thousand
pounds shape charge. You know, these these these charges are
meant to blast right down and they're thirty thousand pounds,

(52:02):
and then they drop them over and over and over
down the same few holes. I imagine they can get
quite a bit of damage done down there.

Speaker 9 (52:09):
And now their question was.

Speaker 8 (52:11):
Whether they had destroyed, you know, all the urious centrifuge
facilities and so forth. I'm really not sure about that obviously,
but you know, Seymour Hirsch had a thing where his
sources are telling him that they actually didn't think that
they could reach all the centrifuge facilities down there, and
that wasn't what they were trying to do. Instead, they
decided that they would just essentially hit every entrance and

(52:33):
every air shaft and every tunnel available and to just
seal the place off. Anybody down there be buried alive
and no one on the surface that would be able
to get down there again. And the one option would
be that they would be able to do you know,
a major mine shaft type operation like they did this
rescue mission that he refers to years ago I think

(52:53):
in Peru or South Africa or something with these guys
were buried very deep down for a very long time,
and they did get down there. But then we can
bomb him when they're in the middle of trying that
would essentially be the threat, right, So that sounds the
least credible to me that they know what they're doing.
We're talking about the US Air Force. Can they put
firepower on a target and collapse the tunnel?

Speaker 9 (53:12):
Sure they can so.

Speaker 8 (53:14):
And then they did, virtually, I believe, you know, destroy
everything of real value at Isfahan, which is where they
had the conversion facilities where you take the uranium ore
turn it to yellow cake and then refine that or
convert that as they call it, to uranium hexafluoride gas,
which you need to enrich up to higher and higher
percentages of you two, three to five. Then you have

(53:35):
to convert it back into metal again. And they apparently destroyed.

Speaker 9 (53:38):
All of that.

Speaker 8 (53:40):
And then, by the way, so there's this guy David
Albright as a group called Isis which he called it
that before the Islamic State guys.

Speaker 9 (53:50):
And he's kind of a very pro israel simp.

Speaker 8 (53:53):
You know, I don't really like him, but I do
respect his technical expertise.

Speaker 9 (53:58):
And his group has put out a pretty.

Speaker 8 (54:00):
Thorough report from commercial satellite pictures that they got where
they run through fod Oh, Isfahan, Natance, and a couple others.
Apparently there's been severe damage done at Natans as well.
And I think Trump's crowing because the Air Force is
telling him we did it, and he and by the way,
this is announced yesterday that they're going to have talks

(54:21):
next week, and it seems like Trump's position is going
to be, look, man, I destroyed virtually your entire program.
No point in rebuilding it because I'll just bomb it again.
So just don't. And then, as he put it yesterday,
I don't even think we need a new nuclear deal.
We're just going to go on. They're just going to
not have a nuclear program anymore. And I'm not really
sure about that. The AA to Hole obviously has a

(54:42):
huge incentive to be defiant, as he was in that speech.
There's probably a likelihood that it's true, as they bragged
that they already have another secret facility up and running,
or at least they're working on getting it.

Speaker 9 (54:57):
And I've been warning all along.

Speaker 8 (54:59):
I'd be happy to be about this, I don't care,
but the anti war forces in America have warned all
along that the threat, of course is that if we
attack them, then they'll make a nuke, Whereas this whole
time they had acquired essentially a latent deterrent instead of
going as far as having an actual nuclear weapons.

Speaker 9 (55:20):
So flip a coin, I guess we'll see how it
works out right.

Speaker 1 (55:24):
So that's the thing, Scott.

Speaker 3 (55:24):
Everybody's trying to parse this language, and if you really
do look at it precisely, like for example, we can
put the next one up there.

Speaker 1 (55:30):
This from the CIA director.

Speaker 3 (55:32):
The CIA Director John Ratcliffe released his statement, CIA can
confirm a body of credible intelligence indicates Eron's nuclear program
has quote been severely damaged by the recent targeted strikes.
This includes new intelligence, et cetera. But the word severely
damaged is what really struck to me, because I mean, look,
I know that Trump and the politicians are rhetorically, but

(55:53):
obliteration to me means basically non existent, whereas severely damaged
is more in the realm of well, it's technically repairable.
Especially when you pile on top the secret facilities. Like
you said, I also do believe that there's a lot
of intra governmental leaking going on, because what's the incentive
of somebody leaking saying that the strike wasn't all that credible. Well,

(56:13):
we got to go back and we got to go
to do it again, right, And so then there's a
lot of politicization here of the intelligence as well. So
parsing those two things, you still think, like you said,
that secret facility is technically a possibility, but it may
not necessarily be months as that initial initial assessment said.

Speaker 8 (56:31):
Yeah, there's so much that we just don't know yet.
But and I think the most important variable in it
all is the Iyatolus reaction. Either we just made him
mad and now and and plus all the guys around
him too, they're all just going to be demanding, you know.

Speaker 9 (56:49):
Further, you know, nuclear development.

Speaker 8 (56:53):
We'll just build a new isfahan, We'll just build a
new nutence, We'll just do whatever we have to do
to keep going. Or is it the case that, hey,
the United States of America called his bluff and ultimately
their latent nuclear deterrent wasn't enough to stop US and
their mid range missile deterrent wasn't enough, and they didn't
dare right.

Speaker 9 (57:12):
They shot. And this is such an important point too.

Speaker 8 (57:15):
This is the madman i Atola who only wants to
bring on the apocalypse. He's willing to lose his whole
nation in a first strike against Israel. They've told us
for twenty five years here or some point there. But
now he did the same thing that Trump did after
he killed Solomani, and previous to that, in the summer
of nineteen when they had their back and forth over
Katibal Hesblah in Iraq, which is a Shite militia backed

(57:38):
by Iran there and back and forth between them and Americans,
they shot down the drone.

Speaker 9 (57:43):
I believe it was in the summer of nineteen, and
then it.

Speaker 8 (57:45):
Was after Solimani in the beginning of twenty they bombed
the empty corner of an American base in Iraqi, Curdistan,
which did give guys some concussions and things. It wasn't
completely harmless, but it was obviously meant to be essentially
a symbolic response, the same thing that they did when
the Israelis killed the Hamas leader in Tehran in a bombing,

(58:08):
and then they also had struck the Iranian consulate in
Syria and killed important Iranian officials there. They launched that
missile salvo at Israel, but they announced it beforehand and said,
you know, especially get all of your defenses ready. This
is because the Ayatola, I'm sure be terrible to live there.

(58:29):
But he is essentially cautious in foreign policy because and
I'm sorry I'm repeating myself, but I've been saying this
for a very long time. If you're the Ayatola, what
are you gonna do with a problem like the USA?

Speaker 9 (58:41):
Right?

Speaker 8 (58:41):
America has an incredibly powerful air force. Even with conventional weapons,
we could obliterate Iran cities and they couldn't do nothing
to us. They couldn't sail a boat within a thousand
miles of our shores ever.

Speaker 9 (58:54):
Right, So what's he gonna do?

Speaker 8 (58:56):
Just get into a brawl with Donald Trump and lose
so badly when he could try to calm it down.

Speaker 9 (59:02):
And so what do you do?

Speaker 8 (59:03):
He launched an attack at an American base in Iraq,
and an American base are most important based at Cutter,
Sentcom headquarters at al You did air base in Cutter
and as Trump said in a tweet, thank you very
much for the prior warning that you're going to launch
this symbolic attack and let us, you know, shoot it
down and this kind of thing. So the Iatola there

(59:24):
was telegraphing very obviously, I do not want to fight you.

Speaker 9 (59:28):
Please, let's call this off.

Speaker 4 (59:29):
So yeah, it's almost like we're here to do now.

Speaker 9 (59:33):
He's too he could drop ted tomorrow.

Speaker 2 (59:36):
Yeah, it's almost like they're rational actors and not the
like you know, end time psychopaths that we've been sold
on who are ready to nuke Kansas at the moment
that they have the opportunity, or Tel Aviv for that matter.
Let's talk a little bit about the other nation state
involved in this conflict.

Speaker 4 (59:50):
That would be Israel.

Speaker 2 (59:51):
Guys, if you could put see five up on the screen,
this is, you know, the axis between the American neo
cons and also the Israelis. You've got ark Levin here
praising net Nyaho for his new speech thing. Israelies have
never been more united, the air world has never been
more appreciative. Net Nyaho is a truly remarkable leader. And
this is with regards to speech where Nat Yahoo says

(01:00:12):
we must complete the campaign against the Iranian Axis, defeat MS,
bring about the release of all of our hostages, and
he says in there as well, we have.

Speaker 4 (01:00:20):
No intention of taking our foot off the gas.

Speaker 2 (01:00:22):
We must complete the campaign against the Iranian Axis. At
the same time, guys, if you could put C three
B up on the screen, this was a truth from Trump,
which I will spare you reading all of this way
too long thing, but in essence, here he is praising
bb net Nyahoo lavishly and calling for the corruption charges

(01:00:46):
which he has been facing inside of Israel to be dropped.
He says he's been going through this horror show with
regard to these corruption charges since May have twenty twenty
unheard of.

Speaker 4 (01:00:56):
This is the first time a.

Speaker 2 (01:00:56):
Sitting Israeli prime minister has ever been on trial, and
calls them politically motivated. So, in any case, what do
you make of how the Israelis are assessing this moment?
And you know, what do you think is going on
here with this Trump truth in praise of Netanyahu.

Speaker 9 (01:01:16):
Well, I think everything's coming up lakud, right.

Speaker 8 (01:01:18):
I mean, they have been, you know, largely successful in
the annihilation of the society that Palestinians and the Gaza
strip the settlers are on the move, expanding in the
West Bank. They've taken all the territory up to the
Latani River in southern Lebanon and taken a major chunk
out of Syria. They've completed, with the help of the Turks,

(01:01:42):
the al Qaeda revolution and takeover of Syria and the
end of the Bathist regime there, which was led by
Ola Whites who were close to the sites.

Speaker 9 (01:01:50):
And close to Iran.

Speaker 8 (01:01:52):
They, you know, through the pager attack and aerial attacks,
they have severely crippled Hesbala as well as has killed
their leader, Nocerala. They got America to come in and
help them to severely cripple at the very least Iran's
nuclear program.

Speaker 9 (01:02:09):
We don't know exactly, you know, as we've been.

Speaker 8 (01:02:12):
Talking about what the how that's going to play out
with the consequences of that will be. They still have
the hooth thees and the hooth These are hard to kill.
Barack Obama and Donald Trump already tried to kill them,
and Joe Biden a little bit for about eight years
there and didn't win anything. All they did was, you know,
wars the health of the state unless you lose, and
in this case, they didn't lose, and so the people

(01:02:35):
of Yemen are more united around their government now than
probably ever before under you know what the academics call
the rally around the flag effect. I know a reporter
that I interviewed years ago, or I've interviewed them a
ton of times. I'm Nasser Arabi from Sannah, said, oh,
we're all hooth these now, not that they are, but
the same way Americans supported George W.

Speaker 9 (01:02:57):
Bush.

Speaker 8 (01:02:57):
Somebody attacks us, then it's us versus you, if that's
how it is. And as he put it to me,
he said, well, George Bush is from Texas, right, but
when he's the president of the country, he's not just
a Texan. He's the president of the country and he's
respected as such by the people of the whole country,
not just the Texans of course. So it's the same
thing when the sites from the Sada province are in charge.
You attack the country, you attack the country. And now

(01:03:21):
there are splits, and you know in the south they
have the STC and all that, but overall, the who
the these have proven to be a very difficult target to
take out from the air, and who's going to send
in ground troops there? And This goes back to are
hypothetical about Iran, which I sort of trailed off instead
of wrapping up that. If they decide to double down

(01:03:41):
on their nuclear program, then we go back to what
Netnyahu said the other day, which is, you know what
would solve this problem permanently killing the Ayatola and having
a regime change there one way or the other, which
they may even be able to accomplish by air if
they have real intelligence. Trump threatened, I know exactly where
you are. I could kill you right now if I
wanted to the other day, you know, if a week ago,

(01:04:05):
and so.

Speaker 9 (01:04:07):
By the by their logic, if if.

Speaker 8 (01:04:10):
They're right, if even uh the guys uh you know
Mark Dubois from the Foundation for Defensive Democracies saying, well,
now that Israel started this war, America better go in
there with their big bunker busters efficient or else now
they're going to break out toardon nuke. Well, they still
might now try to break out toward nuke, in which
case the logic is that the problem isn't solved yet.

(01:04:31):
We got to keep killing Mola's until the problem is solved,
until we comparachute in a monarch, or we can have
maybe we'll have Alkeada interact takeover in Iran too, since
they've done such a great job in Syria for US.

Speaker 3 (01:04:42):
You know, listen, you know that Donald Trumpler is shaking
the guy's hand and uh uh shaking the guy's had.

Speaker 1 (01:04:47):
It's it's unbelievable.

Speaker 8 (01:04:49):
He has a very strong past. Trump said, look it up.
He told Frontline. He's like, yeah, I killed American soldiers
in Mosul and Ramadi.

Speaker 9 (01:04:56):
That's the strong pass that Trump's referring to.

Speaker 8 (01:04:58):
It.

Speaker 3 (01:04:58):
Well, we got to take out the Eyetola because American soldiers.

Speaker 8 (01:05:02):
And this goes the whole thing. Israel's en the means
are the she Heites. But it was not Hasbala that
knocked our towers down. I'm sorry, I'm such a broken
record on this, but this is all treason because the
Likude hates Iran. Right, But America could have normalize relations
with Iran back in the nineteen nineties. Hell Ron Reagan
was selling the missiles in the mid nineteen eighties after Beirut.

(01:05:22):
Within a couple of years, he's selling the missiles so
big in Brazilski and Alexander Haigh wanted to normalize relations
in nineteen ninety three, the Iyatola came begging George W.
Bush to get along with the Golden Offer in two
thousand and two. So, you guys hate the Taliban, you
guys hate Saddam Hussein, you guys hate al Qaeda, let's
work together. Yeah, And the neo conservatives said no, because
Israel hates the shea Hites more. Now, somehow that matters

(01:05:45):
more than who hit the Pentagon.

Speaker 2 (01:05:48):
Let me ask you one last question here, which is
the Iranians are trying to claim and assert some sort
of victory and project that they effectively, like were able
to effect enough damage inside of Israel that Israel felt
the need to accept this ceasefire. And there was reporting
about Israel running low on interceptors. And I think the

(01:06:08):
other way they're claiming victory is basically like you all
wanted to destroy us and collapse the government, and the
government is still here and our nation is still here.
So what do you make of, you know, their sort
of celebration and their claiming of a victory in these circumstances.

Speaker 8 (01:06:24):
Well, in the first case, there there may be some
truth to that that they still have missiles in reserve
and Israel's running out of sparrows and iron domes and
patriots and whatever that they had to shoot them down with.

Speaker 9 (01:06:37):
There may be some truth to them.

Speaker 8 (01:06:38):
I'm sure there was some pressure on the Israelis on
their side of it, because a lot more missiles did
get through than they thought. As far as the second part,
I think that's sort of propaganda, you know, trying to
portray a little bit of a position of strength there,
you know, domestically, trying to save a little bit of

(01:07:00):
face there. But it was I think it was Donald
Trump that that said we're calling a halt here short
of regime change. I think if he had given met
Yahoo permission to keep going where it'd shared the intelligence
is where we think the Ayah Toola is go ahead
and get him, then they absolutely could go that far.

(01:07:22):
You know, anybody could probably just picture, you know, just
from memory, B fifty two's over North Vietnam, just what
they call carpet bombing, just pouring dumb bombs out of
the belly of those gigantic heavy bomber planes that we have.
And there's pictures people seeing profile pictures of B two's
doing the same. But the B fifty twos, especially America,

(01:07:44):
could really devastate. He it was credible when he ordered
Donald Trump, don't forget, ordered the evacuation of Tehran. Yeah,
and the implication, you know, it was like, geez, I
don't think he's going to nuke him, but what is
he going to do?

Speaker 10 (01:07:57):
Like?

Speaker 9 (01:07:57):
What is even the.

Speaker 8 (01:07:58):
Implication there are now in the implication, which was the
most minimal one was just, oh, he was going to
encourage the Israelis to keep hitting government targets in that city.

Speaker 9 (01:08:07):
He was.

Speaker 8 (01:08:07):
They weren't going for terror bombing of the neighborhoods on
the vast scale that they could. But boy, even that
threat sure sounded like it and was going very far here.
So I would expect for the population and the political
establishment inside Iran to be more radicalized and more defiant
than ever. It's only natural, really, unless the ayah Toola

(01:08:30):
just slams his fist down, says no, I'm in charge here,
and I say, boy, we better be conciliatory now because
of our position of weakness, which.

Speaker 9 (01:08:37):
I think is doubtful, right, But that's what it would take.

Speaker 8 (01:08:41):
It would take him telling, you know, shouting at everybody
else to shut up. I'm the one deciding, and I've
decided that we're going to have to play a little
bit meek in the face of this madman or whatever.
But I don't know how anyone could fairly expect that
to be the result of this.

Speaker 3 (01:08:55):
Frankly, we'll see Scott. Thank you so much for joining us, man,
We appreciate your analysis.

Speaker 4 (01:08:59):
Great to see us guy.

Speaker 9 (01:08:59):
Thank you both so much. Yeah, I really appreciates you.

Speaker 6 (01:09:16):
M

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