6/26/25: Cuomo Bends Knee To Zohran, Wall St Panics Over NYC Election, Scott Horton On Iran Strike Intel
01:09:17 Share

This is an iHeart Podcast. This July 4th, celebrate freedom from spills, stains, and overpriced furniture with Anabay, the only machine washable sofa inside and out where designer quality meets budget-friendly pricing. Sofas start at just $699, making it the perfect time to upgrade your space. Anabay's

pet friendly stain resistant and interchangeable slip covers are made with high performance fabric that's built for real life you'll love the cloud like comfort of hypoallergenic high resilience foam that never needs fluffing and a durable steel frame that stands the test of time with modular pieces you can rearrange anytime it's a so

Offers are subject to change and certain restrictions may apply.

Wells Fargo seeks broad impact in their communities, focused on supporting customers and communities through housing affordability, small business growth, financial health, and more. Donated over $2 billion to strengthen local communities over the last five years. Wells Fargo, the bank of doing. Learn more at wellsfargo.com slash say do. Support includes contributions from Wells Fargo & Company, Wells Fargo Bank N.A., and the Wells Fargo Foundation.

T-shirts that get it.

Hey guys, Sagar and Crystal here. Independent media just played a truly massive role in this election, and we are so excited about what that means for the future of this show. This is the only place where you can find honest perspectives from the left and the right that simply does not exist anywhere else. So if that is something that's important to you, please go to breakingpoints.com, become a member today, and you'll get access to...

our full shows, unedited, ad-free, and all put together for you every morning in your inbox. We need your help to build the future of independent news media, and we hope to see you at BreakingPoints.com. Good morning, everybody. Happy Thursday. Have an amazing show for everybody today. What do we have, Crystal? Indeed we do. As you guys probably already know, Zoran Mamdani 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? And also the big freakout is on.

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 Sagar's take on the whole thing and what it all means. Also, lots of news continuing to unfold with regard to Iran. The great Scott Horton is going to join us to break news.

latest down. The Ayatollah has emerged with a message. There's actually a press conference going on today with Pete Hegseth as the Trump administration continues to insist that those strikes were successful in obliterating Iran's nuclear program. So we will get all of those details. Also, a couple of interesting media appearances. One from Joy Reid, who

Drop some real truth bombs on CNN, I guess, now that she's unshackled from MSNBC. It's interesting to watch her go. So we'll play that. And we also had a great Candace Owens 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, 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, I have a couple of additional interesting media segments. So Bernie Sanders joined Joe Rogan, got some clips from that. And another Joe Rogan-linked segment we're going to do here. So disgraced men's lifestyle influencer, Liver King, was just arrested for making terroristic threats

Joe Rogan. So we'll break down all of that for you. It's just a wild story. He has clearly had a complete mental break at this point. Absolutely. And for those asking what the tie-in is, it's 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 by continuing our coverage of the situation. Also, it's been a really very serious two weeks. So, you know, let's do something nice. Let's lighten it up with a little terroristic threats. Let's lighten it up a little bit. But, I mean, it's always fun to see an influencer fall from grace in handcuffs. I'm sorry. I've been waiting for it.

I mean, especially this guy. He's a complete and total charlatan. He's a total con artist. But yeah, if you guys haven't watched, I watched the Netflix documentary on Lever King last night with Kyle. And I knew your monologue was in it. Yes. But it really was like the whole thing built to a crescendo. I have not watched it. I've only heard this from other people. And Sagar's monologue is like the conclusion that wraps the whole thing up is pretty cool. You know, that's the way you guys watch the show. You're ahead of the curve. There you go.

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 for quite a long time. All right, let's get to Zoran. You guys did a great job of covering all the election results live, but a lot has happened since then. Yes, indeed. So to back up, we'll start with Zoran Mamdani, his victory speech, just to get a flavor of what he was talking about as he clinched the Democratic primary victory. Let's go ahead and take a listen to a little bit of that. 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 have shown the power of the politics of the future. As FDR said, democracy has disappeared in several other great nations. Not because the people dislike 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 confusion and weakness. In desperation, they chose to sacrifice liberty in the hope of getting something to eat. New York, if we have made one thing clear over these past months, it is that we need not choose between the two. We can be free and we can be fed. We can demand what we deserve.

And together we have built a movement where everyday New Yorkers recognize themselves in our vision of democracy.

So you get a little taste there of the talent and the rhetoric that helped to lead to this completely shocking, pretty overwhelming success here for Zoran. 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 really have to kind of discard some of your, the expectation was this would be 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. It's got to go to ranked choice voting, but Cuomo's already conceded. He did best in racially mixed precincts here. Cuomo did best in precincts which were either heavily white or heavily black. So in the more mixed areas of the city, that is where Mamdani did the best.

Let's go ahead and put the next piece up on the screen here about the class coalition he was able to build. And, Sagar, this was, to me, some of the most fascinating breakdowns that we saw were in terms of the class demographics that made up Mamdani's base.

So Cuomo did the best among the very poor and among the very rich. So billionaire class, all in for Cuomo. Mamdani 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. But

that's really where he had his strength. 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 Mamdani was so strong with young voters and did something that, you know, the Bernie campaign promised to do, that leftist campaigns often promise to do, which is to shift the demographics of

of the people who actually turn out. It appears that Zoran, in addition to winning groups that he wasn't necessarily expected to and building inroads into groups he wasn't expected to, he also did change the composition of the electorate where it was much younger than typical New York City mayoral elections ultimately are, and that's how he's able to secure the seat. Yeah, it's very interesting. 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 hundred, this is gonna sound crazy for people who are in Alabama. If you make a hundred grand in Manhattan,

you're basically rent poor. You know, it's like you're effectively like paycheck to paycheck. You're working class. Yeah. No, look, again, I know this sounds nuts to everybody else who lives, but if you've ever lived in New York, I mean, I'm serious, like a 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. And good luck to you being able to even go out to eat like a couple of times. So that's my, you know, first kind of thing, 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 it, the majority of black voters, and there was a big, like, racial split. Mamdani did very well in a lot of these mixed districts. At the end of the day, I don't think it really matters all that much. The only thing that

means is winning the primary. And we will also find out during the general election what his general broad appeal is. But also, look, I mean, all of this like working class, not working class, 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. He won a

of rich people too, like middle class as well. In fact, middle class suburbanites, if they hadn't voted for Trump, they 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. 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. Having a four-year bachelor of college degree is one of the major signs

It just is what it is. And so when you put that into a city like New York with one – I mean I can't even imagine. Like the median income I believe on the island of Manhattan is $102,000 per year. That's a median income.

And then actually, if you restrict it and you like leave out, I think some parts of above a certain street, it skyrockets even higher. Well, what do you think they all do? 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 blacks.

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 the end of the day, how he will perform in the general election is, of course, an open question. We have the news about Andrew Cuomo. Is he officially not running? It was a bit confusing. Let's put A4 up on the screen. Let's put it up there. So,

Just to explain, in New York, there are multiple ballot lines. And Andrew Cuomo already 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...

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. It ends up not being close. 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-endorsed Mom Donnie, and his campaign told us that some 80% to 90% of Brad Lander votes are ultimately going to end up with Mom Donnie. So in 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 Post's phrasing here, after blistering primary defeat to Zoran Mamdani. And I think probably one of the things that happened here, put A4B 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 33-year-old who came out, democratic socialist, Muslim, who came out of nowhere from 1% of the vote, and he beat you. And we threw $26 million in 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 backing Cuomo, not because I like the guy, but because I thought he was going to 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 back Mom Donnie. That's because of the support Mom Donnie got from Brad Lander, who Gordon said he ranked first. Quote, I feel like

people misunderstood my 250k 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. The other thing I noted, Sagar, is that Bill Clinton

who had endorsed Andrew Cuomo and even recorded a robocall for him and was, I guess, his highest profile endorsement. He also came out and said, you know, and was wishing Zoran good luck in November. So that was an indication to me as well. But, you know, this is the thing for Cuomo, too. 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

But people hate him. Yeah, and they should. Like, he's 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 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 to his campaign. I wanted to be able to make whatever corrupt business deals and do my transactional politics thing. That's what my 250K 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 have the opportunity to stick the knife in, some of them are going to do it. Absolutely. It's also just such a massive referendum here on the Democratic establishment. CNN's Harry Hinton did a good job of breaking some of this down. Let's play A6, please, just to explain it. 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. There are really only two that I could think of that are anything like this. And that was back in 89 for mayor when David Dinkins

won over third, three-term mayor Ed Koch. Koch was running for a fourth term. The voters 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 national picture, think back to 2018, New York's 14th Democratic primary, going for Congress, when AOC beat House Democrats

caucus chair Joe Crowley. This to me is very much like that, energizing young voters, 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

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. This is a recent poll from Reuters, 62% of Democrats nationally say their party leaders should be replaced. Democrats who identify as liberal nationally in 1994, 25%. You go to 2004, 33%, 2014, 43%. Now the majority of Democrats nationally identify as liberal.

Take it to the bank. I think he's obviously correct. We've been talking about Democratic Tea Party like this is what it is. This is the Eric Cantor loss in 2014. People have been like, oh shit. You know, I mean, Eric Cantor famously spent more at the Capitol Grill, which is a steakhouse here in Washington, on steaks than

his opponent Dave Brat spent on the entire campaign. Very similar, you know? He wasn't even in the district. He wasn't even there. He was here. On the night that he lost to Dave Brat. This is all old Washington lore, but it's important because you can just 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 Zoran campaign. He ran a very effective campaign. It was preposterous to make this thing a whole

In fact, that's probably my best takeaway from this is AIPAC taking the biggest L of all time, doing second best amongst Jewish voters. But more importantly, that the PSYOPs don't work anymore. A lot of people are also waking up to it. 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 Gaetz tweeting out Zoran's video about make halal eight bucks again.

And people are like, yeah, I wonder why this won. You know, again, 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. Even, I don't even know, in the last 10 years, every time I go back, I'm like, what? What now? I don't drink anymore. I was at a bar recently and they were like, oh, $21. I heard somebody ordered a $22 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. Yeah.

I was like, what? I was like, what has happened here? But that's reality. That's life from food to halal. And just talking about that is very important. So if we want, we can move on to that and talk about some other reactions. 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 New York first candidate where everyone else, oh, I'm going to Israel, go to Ukraine, whatever. Zoran, will you pledge to go to Israel? And he's like,

I'm going to be here in New York delivering for New Yorkers. Oh, lo and behold, that's actually a 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 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?

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. And I think it actually turned into an asset for him, 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

Cuomo won Jewish voters, but he did very well among Jewish voters. So forget about your caricaturish idea that every Jewish person out there is hardcore committed to Netanyahu'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 AOC moment was. And the reason for it is because of those numbers that Harry Enten 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 all all this plays out. But I guarantee you, they're going to be more primary challenges. People are going to see this. They're going to be inspired. Twenty twenty eight is going to be very interesting because

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, we can put, go ahead and just roll through these, Eric. We've got, you know, Bill Clinton and Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries weighing in. Hakeem Jeffries and Schumer say congratulations effectively, and they're going to meet with him. But

They still haven't said they're endorsing him for the fall. This is your Democratic nominee in the city that, you know, Schumer's obviously statewide, but Hakeem Jeffries, you know, represents a district inside of New York City. And you can't even say, like, good luck in the fall. We're behind you. This is your Democratic nominee.

So to me, that's pathetic. But the fact that they even put out 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 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 Zoran's victory is a seismic election that I can only compare to Barack Obama's in 2008.

He also concludes by saying, I've spoken to him today about his commitment to fighting anti-Semitism. We will work with all New Yorkers to fight against all bigotry and hate. So having the direct support of Jerry Nadler, who's considered the dean of the New York congressional delegation, also significant. So just quickly before we move on to the CNBC meltdown and the Republican meltdown and all of that sort of stuff, which will be fun to get into.

What's going to happen now is they'll wrap up the ranked choice voting allocations. Oran's going to win. He'll win by a wider margin than the numbers even show right now. And then it's on to the general election. Cuomo apparently, according to those sources, if they're to believe, is going to drop.

Eric Adams, however, is still in. And then you have Curtis Sliwa, who's the sort of kooky 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 Zoran, are probably 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 polling pathetically in the city of New York because he was a terrible mayor. And as I just mentioned, cartoonishly corrupt. And the number of his aides who had to resign or were indicted over various scandals is I lost count.

at some point. So he's not exactly the strongest person that you 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 going to throw everything they can at him between now and fall. I have no idea what sort of dirty tricks they're going to pull, but I do think he's in a fairly strong position here, especially with Cuomo now stepping aside because

Cuomo, in spite of also being scandal ridden and obviously people not having 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 than Andrew Cuomo was at this point.

We get it. There are too many car insurance companies trying to convince you that they have the best car insurance rates. We don't think we need to convince you. We're rude, and we do car insurance differently. We don't think it makes sense to only base your car insurance rate on things that have nothing to do with your driving, like your occupation or education.

We'll be right back.

Good drivers could save up to $900 a year when they switch to Root. We're taking an old industry and making it fair. Root Insurance, because better drivers deserve better rates. Download the app today and see how much you could save. Terms and conditions apply, subject to underwriting review. See Root.com for details.

This July 4th, celebrate freedom from spills, stains, and overpriced furniture with Anabay, the only machine washable sofa inside and out where designer quality meets budget friendly pricing. Sofa started just $699, making it the perfect time to upgrade your space. Anabay is

pet-friendly, stain-resistant, and interchangeable slipcovers are made with high-performance fabric that's built for real life. You'll love the cloud-like comfort of hypoallergenic, high-resilience foam that never needs fluffing and a durable steel frame that stands the test of time.

With modular pieces, you can rearrange any time. It's a sofa that adapts to your life. Now through July 4th, get up to 60% off site-wide at washablesofas.com. Every order comes with a 30-day satisfaction guarantee. If you're not in love, send it back for a full refund. No return shipping, no restocking fees, every penny back. Declare independence from dirty, outdated furniture. Shop now at washablesofas.com. Offers are subject to change and certain restrictions may apply.

Looking for excitement? Chumba Casino is here. Play anytime, play anywhere. Play on the train, play at the store, play at home, play when you're bored. Play today for your chance to win and get daily bonuses when you log in. So what are you waiting for? Don't delay. Chumba Casino is free to play.

So let's get to the establishment freakout. 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. Let's take a listen.

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 it reminds you of. They're taking Wall Streeters and make him walk out onto the ice in the East River as in hope. And then they fall through. I mean, there is a class warfare that's going. So what's happened here, I think, is a rich type.

It is not the closing of a steakhouse that David Zaslavs likes to and you like to go to. You and I have had dinner there a few times. Yes. And you and I are going to recreate that place. The rent's too high. You know what? 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 how about the rich? No, no. Well, no shot. Yes. They get taken away. Yes. They get taken away. We have to go. Twenty three. We have to leave now. Everybody else. There he is. Mom, Donnie. Maybe he's more about winning the Democratic primary for mayor and potentially a

the successor of Eric Adams. That said, there's still a general election to come here in New York. By the way, you know, of course, we're here. We talk about it, but we are talking about a $2 trillion economy. Yeah, it is. You know, he wants to get the rents down. One good way to do it is to stop all business and drive everybody out. That'll bring the rents down. That's a very good point. Right.

Which is pretty funny. I mean, look, I mean, this gets to, again, some of 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 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 90s and someone was going to tell you, you're going to make $150,000 a year. Be like, man, I'm going to be a baller.

Show up in New York, it's like, good luck, buddy. You're going to be waiting at number 19 in the Resi-Q trying to get into the 50th 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, unless 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 the very top. I also think a huge problem with America's 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 the 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 shit and to stay at fancy hotels. And to money launder. And to money launder, exactly. So it just becomes this thing on top of everything where the guy who wants to eat halal 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 really an economic story, and it's one that Bloomberg really doubled down on. I mean, before that, it was 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, but that's what it's become. So it's not a surprise to me that you have a rise up against it. I mean, there's a Peter Thiel email, which has been going around and it's really funny. And it's like, Hey guys, like if you have, uh,

He's like, millennials turn towards socialism. He's like, I'm opposed to socialism. But when you live in a society with high levels of student debt and housing unaffordability, it will not be shocking that they will have less stake in the system and choose something new. There you go. It's not complicated to me. Right. Literally at all. I think we also have to just level set about the...

of the policies that he's proposing. I mean, you've got these CNBC guys. It reminds me so much of Chris Matthews talking about how they're going to take him in Central Park and shoot him if Bernie Sanders gets elected. Same vibe. We're talking about free buses. We're talking about five buses

government-run grocery stores. I mean, this is not like wild stuff. In fact, the bus thing polls at like 70 or 80 percent in the city of New York. 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

If you floated these policies in many cities worldwide, this would be like just very normal small ball kind of stuff. When we talk about freeze the rent, this is just on apartments that are already rent stabilized. This is a policy that's 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 respect and admire his posting abilities. But this was not his best work. Let's put this up on the screen from Trump. He says, it's finally happened. The Democrats have crossed the line. Zoran Mamdani, a 100% communist lunatic, has just won the Dem 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 grating. He's not very smart. He's got AOC plus three. That's what he calls a squad. Dummies all backing him. And even our great Palestinian Senator Kryan 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 Zoran does not, in fact, look terrible. But to me, it just oozes with envy. Like, I think...

for Trump to see this 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. Uh, yeah, I, I thought it was more like a Fox news boomer reaction. They're going, they're obsessed with Zorro over there. Uh,

Not even a good nickname, though. Come on. I was going to say, it's not a good nickname. It's just like objectively untrue. In fact, something I like about Zoran is that he does wear a suit and he is relatively clean cut. And, you know, his entire campaign basically conducted either in a shirt, shirt sleeves and a tie and or a suit everywhere that he goes. Let that be a lesson. Dirtbag Democrats who look like shit all the time.

Look, shout out to John Fetterman. The most successful one now today is who? Is Zoran Mamdani. So you should take that away. 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. So we're going to show you some of the lower IQ stuff. Let's put B3, please, up on the screen so people can take a look. We've got Marjorie Taylor Greene tweeting out a photo of the Statue of Liberty in a burqa. Or actually, no, what's the word? It's not a burqa.

niqab, I think that's what it technically is. Let's go to the next one. So just continue to show people. We've got Laura Loomer. There will be another 9-11 in New York City. Zoran Mamdani will be to blame. What else have we got here? Do we have anything else? You did it. You finally did it, you maniacs. You blew it up. Photo from the movie showing the Statue of Liberty there crushed.

On the beach. Let's continue, shall we? Shall we continue? Bill Ackman says, I have a great idea on New York City and I will share it again soon. His idea, by the way, is a writing campaign. Genius, Bill. You know, Bill. Oh, is that what they're doing? That's what he said. So, hey, Bill, here's my idea. Spend as much of your fortune as humanly possible. We could not wish you more success. Who are they writing in, though? He hasn't even picked a 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 that we've got for people. Yeah, as he says, we're looking into legal issues concerning potential for another candidate. That was his little idea.

You know, the thing is about it, and I guess, you know, this is the curse of like having knowledge, is like, guys, Zoran Mamdani is a Shia Indian Muslim. And I found out his mother directed Kama Sutra. So I would venture to say that the majority of the Hindu population in the United States is about 10 times more conservative than

Soran Mondani, she a Muslim whose mom directed Kama Sutra. Just so we're all clear. In terms of what's going on there. Zero indication that he's particularly religious in any way. He seems like a shit lip to me, to be honest. In terms of his own personal politics. Whatever. Fine with me. But my point is that there's like this the way that

they're talking about this seems like it's 2002 all over again. But I mean, look, I understand. 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 launched.

And ultimately, the stuff about socialism and AIPAC just fell flat. I mean, I get it. It probably feels really nice if you live in Pennsylvania, rural steel town, and you don't know anything about New York, and you're watching Fox News every day. But for the people who actually live there, 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 Zoran, I mean, mostly trace back to like his previous iteration as an identitarian leftist. Now, I would say that actually shows some 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 2020 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, and then also driving people out and hammering home the message of 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 for me. And so, yeah, to watch like the way that they're trying to make him into a lightning rod, and I think this will be interesting for Zoran because he really –

Guys like him, like with AOC, you get elected on a great promise, but now he's on the phone with Chuck Schumer. He's on the phone with Kathy Hochul. And listen, no matter what, New York is one of the richest cities on the planet. You're going to be dining with billionaires and having all these people in your offices, and people are going to be lighting your phone up, and you're going to be part of the Democratic establishment now, even if you are technically oppositional. And you have a choice, right? And so that actually will be his biggest test. It's not just governance, but it's

but in how he handles himself now as the official 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. Because he could go the AOC route.

he demonstrated a lot of pragmatism and coalition building in his campaign. I mean, the Brad Lander cross endorsement was genuinely huge. Brad Lander is the highest Jewish elected official in the city of New York. So having him vouch for Zoran and them cross endorsing, like rank him first and me second. Um,

Massively impactful. And Lander, Ryan described him as like the Elizabeth Warren 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 in 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 on with Tim Miller, who's more of a centrist-y kind of a dem. We had him here on the show when Sagar 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 core policy proposals that he wanted to focus on, but was also able to be pragmatic and reach out. Just to go back to the Republican critique, first of all, I mean,

so many of these are just like brazenly Islamophobic and racist. That's number one. Number two, the one that's really driving completely insane is like Stephen Miller and Charlie Kirk and others. But those are the two that I've seen prominently are claiming that the reason Zoran won is because of so many immigrants in New York. Guys, if only white people had voted, Zoran would have won by more. So like,

at least be accurate. I mean, the truth of the matter is it really is a coalition between he won white people and Asians by the 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. I mean, it really was.

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 feeling that he probably knows better. But if that's actually the lesson you're learning from this, you're not taking away the reality of what actually happened here, which, to Sagar's point, like—

Zoran's position was...

this city has been run for billionaires and I'm not going to run it for billionaires. I'm going to try to run it 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 the reaction has been

But you're right, Sagar, that some people on the right, Matt Gaetz 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.

Hey, good drivers. Yeah, we're talking to you. The ones who don't speed, the ones who avoid those fender benders, and who always use their turn signal. Congratulations, you're a better driver, and that means you could get better rates with Route Insurance. It's time to stop paying for other people's bad driving habits. You know, like the ones who cut you off just to slam on their brakes. Woo!

or the lead foot speeding to work every day. With Root Insurance, you'll get a quote based primarily on your driving. Just download the Root app, drive around like you normally would for a couple of weeks, and boom, you'll get a quote that actually makes sense. It's that easy. Root. Because better drivers deserve better rates. Download the Root app today and see how much you could save. That's Root Insurance. Terms and conditions apply. Subject to underwriting review. See Root.com for details.

This July 4th, celebrate freedom from spills, stains, and overpriced furniture with Anabay, the only machine washable sofa inside and out where designer quality meets budget friendly pricing. Sofa started just $699, making it the perfect time to upgrade your space. Anabay is

pet-friendly, stain-resistant, and interchangeable slipcovers are made with high-performance fabric that's built for real life. You'll love the cloud-like comfort of hypoallergenic, high-resilience foam that never needs fluffing and a durable steel frame that stands the test of time.

With modular pieces, you can rearrange any time. It's a sofa that adapts to your life. Now through July 4th, get up to 60% off site-wide at washablesofas.com. Every order comes with a 30-day satisfaction guarantee. If you're not in love, send it back for a full refund. No return shipping, no restocking fees, every penny back. Declare independence from dirty, outdated furniture. Shop now at washablesofas.com.

Over the past six years of making my true crime podcast, Hell and Gone, I've learned one thing. No town is too small for murder. I'm Katherine Townsend. I've received hundreds of messages from people across the country begging for help with unsolved murders. I was calling about the murder of my husband at the cold case. They've never found her. And it haunts me to this day. The murderer is still out there.

Every week on Hell and Gone Murder Line, I dig into a new case, bringing the skills I've learned as a journalist and private investigator to ask the questions no one else is asking. If you have a case you'd like me to look into...

Call the Hell and Gone Murder Line at 678-744-6145. Listen to Hell and Gone Murder Line on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I think Zoran's biggest difficulty is going to be running headlong into the reality of New York. Like I've talked about it here on financing. It's like, good luck, man. I mean, your literal tax base relies on like 15 people who live in the city. That's a huge problem, huge problem.

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 funded by Albany. There's always this...

Huge fights between the governor and the actual mayor. I mean, this is like a decades-long thing. And I'm sorry I'm getting too in the weeds, but 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 listen, I mean, these things are also, you know, you can overpromise and then dramatically under-deliver. Remember, didn't New York pass like a right to housing or something like that? They have.

They have a right to housing or shelter. It's like, yeah. And that turned out to be a fucking mess. Whenever the migrant crisis broke out, it 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.

Or can be overstretched. And this is the reality. 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 policing. Again, like his old tweets on defund the police. I know he has recanted some of that stuff. But all it's going to take is like a moderate increase in crime. Oh, man.

They will hang you out to dry in a second. So 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 of how it all has to work. He has to govern effectively. There's no doubt about it. 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, the political system in New York has just not worked for like decades at this point. Well, there's two different potentials. 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 of the significant promises he made in his campaign. And then there's Michelle Wu in Boston who similarly, you know, elected quite young and has been quite successful and has been able to govern quite effectively.

and also comes out of the left of the party and is really popular in this city. You know, I also, I lived in New York City during the Bill de Blasio time. And so, Sagar, your point about like the entrance that he'll be up against are extraordinary. Now, luckily for me,

Zoran, if he does win in the fall, he's not going to have Andrew Cuomo as governor. Kathy Hochul is moderate, but Andrew Cuomo was actively in league with the Republicans. He and de Blasio despised each other openly, open warfare, and he did everything he could to try to block Bill de Blasio's core campaign promise of free pre-K. Now, de Blasio, to his credit,

credit, was able to actually get that through. And it's been a phenomenally successful and really important program in New York City, one of the few ways that New York City has really been able to expand services in a way that's been quite impactful for residents of the city, for ordinary working class residents of the city. But de Blasio, who I think, you know, much

much less effective communicator than Zoran doesn't have some of the star power of Zoran but his mayorality was really dragged down by a lot of those entrenched you know the real estate developers and the battles with Cuomo and all those sorts of things so there is no doubt that even Zoran gets in in the fall he's going to have you know a lot that he's going to have to cope with another thing people are pointing to is Brad Lander is currently the city comptroller and you know has uh

I think, is likely to be or potentially to be involved in Zoran'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 have that experience and that know-how are also going to be really critical. Let's talk about a little bit 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 like county Democratic parties getting behind Zoran as well. There have been others. Let's go ahead and put B5 up on the screen and we can go through some of these. So you've got Dean Phillips saying,

saying Democrats wishing to lose the 26th midterm should promote a 33-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 view. Let's put the next one up on this. Brianna Wu, of course, weighing in here. It's an excellent piece. How can someone lead America's most important city if they want to burn down the democracy that makes our way of life

in America possible? Like, what are you even talking about here? This is all over Zoran's defense of the phrase, globalize the Intifada, which became, you know, big fodder for the campaign, but in effect, it's a tech. Who gives a shit? This stuff drives me crazy. I know. I know.

Seriously. Again, like, you know, I live here in this city. I don't know Mayor Bowser's view of globalizing, nor do I care. Yes, correct. Stop the bums from nodding out and shooting up in the middle of the street and knocking on my window. That's it. That's all I actually care about. It's like, you know, it's one of those things where, 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. Yeah. Oh, God.

I think we might have a Elise Stefanik reaction here we can go to next where she's apparently already fundraising 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 –

Oh, this is no surprise. Reverberation from Omdani winning. Ours now have a real life socialist to run against. Y'all were warned this would happen. This was in response to Stefanik fundraising off of 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 modern history and letting a communist win. Literal death penalty. I am surprised.

serious. So now who wants to eat the rich? Now who's doing the exhibitions in Central Park? I guess it's the center. I would not say for letting Zoran win. I would say maybe for letting people die in a nursing home. How about that? That's just me. You know, maybe that was a slightly more important, 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. Yeah.

And to Congress. And, yeah, we're hanging out with your brother and joking about your class. Yeah, look, it's been years since we've litigated this, but of course. We will never forget. I think Zoran 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. But I'm not sure she'll ever regain that type of credibility. If he continues in this like post-vote 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 read a little bit about LaGuardia and how effective he was. It just seems to me that those institutions are so decayed and especially because at that time period, it was just less captured by money. I mean – Well, I mean he had to go up against the Tammany Hall entrenched political – Democratic political establishment. That's one of the parallels.

It just seems 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 a V, like the Vornado realist. 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. It's such an insane state and I would never want that job. I truly would not. To be honest with you, this is making me miss New York City so much. Really? I love New York City, yeah. See, I'm not. I miss living there. I mean, it's a difficult place to live in a lot of ways, but it's also, there's just such vibrancy there.

You know, the truly like the melting pot, all the different ethnicities and all the different neighborhoods and character. Like you could explore that city for your whole life and still be surprised by the things that you find. So I don't know. Zoran 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, demonstrated 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 fast.

flawlessly. - Yeah, they did very well. - And he's got a lot of important allies who do have experience in the city. 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 gonna have a magic wand is what I'm trying to say.

So it's going to be crucial that he 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 – he's at least trying and fighting to do the things that he said that he was going to do. And critically, that he is an effective, competent manager. The trash is getting picked up. The snow is getting removed. All those sorts of things. It's like crime –

services, 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. Oh, yeah. All right. Let's get to Scott Horton. He's standing by.

Hey, good drivers. Yeah, we're talking to you. The ones who don't speed, the ones who avoid those fender benders, and who always use their turn signal. Congratulations, you're a better driver, and that means you could get better rates with Route Insurance. It's time to stop paying for other people's bad driving habits. You know, like the ones who cut you off just to slam on their brakes. Woo!

or the lead foot speeding to work every day. With Root Insurance, you'll get a quote based primarily on your driving. Just download the Root app, drive around like you normally would for a couple of weeks, and boom, you'll get a quote that actually makes sense. It's that easy. Root. Because better drivers deserve better rates. Download the Root app today and see how much you could save. That's Root Insurance. Terms and conditions apply. Subject to underwriting review. See Root.com for details.

This July 4th, celebrate freedom from spills, stains, and overpriced furniture with Anabay, the only machine washable sofa inside and out where designer quality meets budget-friendly pricing. Sofas start at just $699, making it the perfect time to upgrade your space. Anabay's

Pet-friendly, stain-resistant, and interchangeable slipcovers are made with high-performance fabric that's built for real life. You'll love the cloud-like comfort of hypoallergenic, high-resilience foam that never needs fluffing and a durable steel frame that stands the test of time.

With modular pieces, you can rearrange any time. It's a sofa that adapts to your life. Now through July 4th, get up to 60% off site-wide at washablesofas.com. Every order comes with a 30-day satisfaction guarantee. If you're not in love, send it back for a full refund. No return shipping, no restocking fees, every penny back. Declare independence from dirty, outdated furniture. Shop now at washablesofas.com.

Over the past six years of making my true crime podcast, Hell and Gone, I've learned one thing. No town is too small for murder. I'm Katherine Townsend. I've received hundreds of messages from people across the country begging for help with unsolved murders. I was calling about the murder of my husband at the cold case. They've never found her. And it haunts me to this day. The murderer is still out there.

Every week on Hell and Gone Murder Line, I dig into a new case, bringing the skills I've learned as a journalist and private investigator to ask the questions no one else is asking. If you have a case you'd like me to look into...

Call the Hell and Gone Murder Line at 678-744-6145. Listen to Hell and Gone Murder Line on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Joining us now is Scott Horton. He is the director of the Libertarian Institute and the author of Provoked and great friend of the show. It's good to see you, man. Thanks for coming back.

Thank you both very much for having me this morning. Absolutely. We got a lot of Iran stuff to get to with you, Scott. First and foremost is a new statement from the Ayatollah Khomeini. 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 U.S. regime in his statement. So it is interesting, at least for what some of the posturing is. We also have posturing 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 people

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is berating the media for reporting the previous intelligence estimate. And we also have the Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, coming out backing up Donald Trump. We can put that up 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. She then goes after the propaganda campaign.

media. 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. 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 routes to the bomb.

And you guys' comment section called me out immediately and correctly. So the first thing was just a complete scrub where I just mixed up Batman and Little Boy. Little Boy was the Hiroshima bomb. 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, right?

What I overstated was, I think I said that it was virtually impossible to make a uranium implosion bomb, which is not really right. That was oversimplified. The real point is, because Iran has no plutonium route 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 route to the bomb at all. And then their uranium route to the bomb, the presumption was that if they made a bomb, it would be a gun type nuke because that would be the easiest and cheapest to make. 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 par chin for example which turned out to be a bunch of propaganda that was later debunked um but so my point still stands in that if they had

broken out from the treaty and said, we're going to make nukes now. They could either race toward a gun type nuke, which is essentially undeliverable.

Or they could plod 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 to have that done if they were openly seeking one. So the point essentially still remained. It was just that I had screwed up, first of all, the names of the

We dropped on Truman dropped on Japan, which is a stupid error. Um, and then secondly, I had essentially just overstated the,

the limitations of a uranium bomb and that essentially they would be forced to make a gun type nuke and would not have an implosion option available, which is not correct. It was just, it would take a lot more effort for them to do so. And it would give America and Israel a lot more time to launch an aggressive war against them in order to prevent them from getting that far. So that point essentially still stands. And I believe I made that same screw up

on Pierce Morgan and on the Jimmy Dore show. So this counts, I hope, as corrections for those two. I actually tried to invite myself back onto both to correct the same error because I really hate being wrong about anything. People in my position, our position, trying to oppose these wars, we can't afford to be wrong. And I certainly was not trying to

you know, oversimplified to deceive anyone or anything, but I essentially did so. So I want to make sure that we get that straight. Yeah, 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 facilities ultimately were? Yeah, well, you know what?

I'm not in a real like benefit of the doubt sense, but just my feeling is I think Trump is probably right that the damage 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 able to drop a missile right down a chimney, fly it in a window. It's been this way since Iraq war one and for them to drop a

a dozen or more, 14, I guess it was, they said, um, a 30,000 pound shape charge. You know, these, these, um, these charges are meant to blast straight down and they're 30,000 pounds. 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. And

Now, their question was whether they had destroyed all the various centrifuge facilities and so forth. I'm really not sure about that, obviously. But Seymour Hersh 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 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 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 in Peru or South Africa or something where these guys were buried very deep down for a very long time and they

They did get down there. So he, but then we can bomb them when they're in the middle of trying. That would essentially be the threat, right? So that sounds at least credible to me that they know what they're doing. We're talking about the U S air force. Can they put firepower on a target and collapse the tunnel? Sure they can. So, uh,

And then they did virtually, I believe, 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 U-235. Then you have to convert it back into metal again. And they apparently destroyed all of that. Yeah.

And then, by the way, so there's this guy, David Albright, has a group called ISIS, which he called it that before the Islamic State, guys. But,

And he's kind of a very pro-Israel simp. I don't really like him, but I do respect his technical expertise. And his group has put out a pretty thorough report from commercial satellite pictures that they got where they run through Fordo, Isfahan, Natanz, and a couple others. Apparently there's been severe damage done at Natanz as well. And I think Trump's crowing because the Air Force is telling him we did it. And by the way, this is

announced yesterday that they're going to have talks 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 ayatollah obviously has a 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. Right. Or at least they're working on getting it. And I've been warning all along, I'd be happy to be wrong 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 weapon. So flip a coin, I guess we'll see how it works out.

Right. So that's the thing, Scott. 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. This is from the CIA director. The CIA director, John Ratcliffe, released a statement. CIA can confirm a body of credible intelligence indicates Iran'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 out to me because, I mean, look, I know that Trump and the politicians are rhetorically, but obliteration to me means basically nonexistent, 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, 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 that secret facility is technically a possibility, but it may not necessarily be months as that initial assessment said. 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 Ayatollah's reaction. Either we just made him mad and now and plus all the guys around him, too. They're all just going to be demanding, you know, further, you know, nuclear development. We'll just build a new Isfahan. We'll just build a new Natanz. 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? They shot. And this is such an important point, too. This is the madman Ayatollah 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 25 years or something like that. But now,

He did the same thing that Trump did after he killed Soleimani and previous to that in the summer of 19 when they had their back and forth over Qatib al-Hezbollah in Iraq, which is a Shiite militia backed by Iran there and back and forth between them and Americans. They shot down the drone, I believe it was in the summer of 19. And then it was...

After Soleimani in the beginning of 20, they bombed the empty corner of an American base in Iraqi Kurdistan, which did give guys some concussions and things. It wasn't completely harmless, but it was obviously meant to be essentially a symbolic attack.

The same thing that they did when the Israelis killed the Hamas leader in Tehran in a bombing. 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, essentially get all of your defenses ready. This is because the Ayatollah, I'm sure, would be terrible to live there.

but he is essentially cautious in foreign policy because, and I'm sorry if I'm repeating myself, but I've been saying this for a very long time. If you're the Ayatollah, what are you going to do with a problem like the USA, right? America has an incredibly powerful air force. Even with conventional weapons, we could obliterate Iran's cities and they couldn't do nothing to us. They couldn't sail a boat within a thousand miles of our shores ever, right? So,

So what's he going to do? Just get into a brawl with Donald Trump and lose so badly when he could try to calm it down? And so what did he do? He launched an attack at an American base in Iraq and an American base, our most important base at Qatar, CENTCOM headquarters at Al-Yudin Air Base in Qatar. 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 guy thinks, so the Ayatollah there was...

telegraphing very obviously, I do not want to fight you. Please, let's call this off. So, yeah.

It's almost like they're rational actors. He's an old man, too. He could drop dead tomorrow. 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 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. That would be Israel. Guys, if you could put C5 up on the screen, right?

This is, you know, the axis between the American neocons and also the Israelis. You've got Mark Levin here praising Netanyahu for his new speech, saying Israelis have never been more united. The Arab world has never been more appreciative. Netanyahu is a truly remarkable leader. And this is with regards to speech where Netanyahu says we must complete the campaign against the Iranian Axis.

defeat Hamas, bring about the release of all of our hostages. And he says in there as well, we have no intention of taking our foot off the gas. We must complete the campaign against the Iranian axis. At the same time, guys, if you could put C3B 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 Bibi Netanyahu lavishly and calling for the corruption charges, which he's 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 of 2020. Unheard of. This is the first time a sitting Israeli prime minister has ever been on trial and calls him politically motivated.

So in any case, what do you make of how the Israelis are assessing this moment? And, you know, what what do you think is going on here with this Trump truth in praise of Netanyahu? Well, I think everything's coming up. Likud. Right. I mean, they have been amazing.

largely successful in the annihilation of the society, the Palestinians in 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,

The al-Qaeda revolution and takeover of Syria and the end of the Baathist regime there, which was led by Alawites who were close to the Shiites and close to Iran. They, you know, through the Pajar attack and aerial attacks, they have severely crippled Hezbollah as well as killed their leader, Nasrallah.

They got America to come in and help them to severely cripple, at the very least, Iran's nuclear program. We don't know exactly, as we've been talking about, how that's going to play out, what the consequences of that will be. They still have the Houthis, and the Houthis 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, war is the health of the state unless you lose. And in this case, they didn't lose. And so the people 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 him a ton of times, Nasser Arabi from Sanaa, said, oh, we're all Houthis now. Not that they are, but the same way Americans supported George W. Bush. 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 Shiites from the Sada province are in charge. You attack the country, you attack the country. Now there are splits, and in the South they have the STC and all that, but

Overall, the Houthis 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 our hypothetical about Iran, which I sort of trailed off instead of wrapping up. If they decide to double down on their nuclear program, then we go back to what Netanyahu said the other day, which is, you know what would solve this problem permanently? Killing the Ayatollah.

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, a week ago. And so by their logic, if they're right, if even –

uh the guys uh you know mark dubowitz from the foundation for defense of democracies and 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 toward a nuke well they still might now try to break out toward a nuke in which case the logic is that the problem isn't solved yet we got to keep killing mullahs until the problem is solved until we can parachute in a monarch or we can have maybe we'll have uh

Al Qaeda in Iraq, takeover in Iran too, since they've done such a great job in Syria for us. Listen, Donald Trump literally shaking the guy's hand. It's unbelievable. 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. That's the strong past that Trump's referring to. But we got to take out the Ayatollah because American soldiers... And this goes the whole thing. Israel's enemies are the Shiites.

But it was not Hezbollah that knocked our towers down. I'm sorry I'm such a broken record on this, but this is all treason because the Likud hates Iran. But America could have normalized relations with Iran back in the 1990s. Hell, Ronald Reagan was selling him missiles in the mid-1980s. After Beirut, within a couple of years, he's selling him missiles. Zbigniew Brzezinski and Alexander Haig wanted to normalize relations in 1993. The Ayatollah came begging George W. Bush to get along with the golden offer in 2002.

So you guys hate the Taliban. You guys hate Saddam Hussein. You guys hate Al Qaeda. Let's work together. Yeah. And the neoconservatives said no, because Israel hates the Shiites more. And somehow that matters more than who hit the Pentagon. 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 affect 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 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 their sort of celebration and their claiming of a victory in these circumstances?

Well, in the first case there, there may be some truth to that, that they still had 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. There may be some truth to that. 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 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 Netanyahu permission to keep going or had shared the intelligence as to where we think the Ayatollah is, go ahead and get him, then they absolutely could go that far. You know, anybody could probably just picture Netanyahu

You know, just from memory, B-52s 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 have seen profile pictures of B-2s doing the same. But the B-52s especially, America could really devastate. 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 them. But what is he going to do? Like, what is even the implication there? And it turned out 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. They weren't going for terror bombing of the neighborhoods. Yeah.

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

it's only natural really, unless the Ayatollah just slams his fist down and says, no, I'm in charge here. And I say, boy, we better be conciliatory now because of our position of weakness, which I think is doubtful, right? Like, but that's what it would take. 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,

I don't know how anyone could fairly expect that to be the result of this, quite frankly. We'll see. Scott, thank you so much for joining us, man. We appreciate your analysis. Great to see you, Scott. Thank you both so much. Yeah, really appreciate y'all.

Career changers, including veterans and active duty service members. Your transition starts here. Go from GI to IT in a matter of months. Become a certified cyber warrior with training at My Computer Career. Cyber security specialists are in high demand, offering IT pros great opportunities and a rewarding lifestyle while protecting our people, liberty, and treasured institutions from cyber threats.

Deploy your career in IT today. Learn more at mycomputercareer.edu. SkillBridge and other VA benefits are available to those who qualify.

This July 4th, celebrate freedom from spills, stains, and overpriced furniture with Anabay, the only machine washable sofa inside and out where designer quality meets budget-friendly pricing. Sofas start at just $699, making it the perfect time to upgrade your space. Anabay's pet-friendly, stain-resistant, and interchangeable slipcovers are made with high-performance fabric that's built for real life. You'll love the cloud-like comfort of hyper

We'll be right back.

The OGs of uncensored motherhood are back and badder than ever. I'm Erica. And I'm Mila. And we're the hosts of the Good Moms Bad Choices podcast.

Brought to you by the Black Effect Podcast Network every Wednesday. Yeah, we're moms. But not your mommy. Historically, men talk too much. And women have quietly listened. And all that stops here. If you like witty women, then this is your tribe. Listen to the Good Moms, Bad Choices podcast every Wednesday. On the Black Effect Podcast Network, the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you go to find your podcasts. This is an iHeart Podcast.