8/25/26: Abdul Unleashes On Jesse Watters, Hasan Piker Controversy, Darline Graham Flailing, Jamie Belsito MA Candidate

This is an "I Heart" podcast, Guaranteed Human. I'm Munga Shategular and I'm back with a new season of my podcast "Skyline Drive". This time I talk to scientists, biopunks, cormugians, blues owners, super seniors, and go us top cryotherapy lab to try to understand this obsession with living forever and what it means for all of us. And I get into a bit of trouble along the way. I'd say probably start bone smashing. That doesn't work. Make you look more defined. They say it works. I don't know. Get a skyline drive, how to live forever on the "I Heart" radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Hey, this is Hayes Davenport. And Sean Clements. We host the podcast, Hollywood Handbook. Each week we talk to someone in show business and try to help them with their careers and see what they have to offer us. Everyone has a good time and no one gets mad at their publicists for letting them do our show. 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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, Add 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. It's been an eventful couple of days in the Michigan Senate race. It's a blow up around a SoundPiker at Abdul-El-Sahed at Mike Rogers. And so Abdul-El-Sahed appeared on Fox News with Jesse Waters. Let's roll a little bit of that. So the question, again, like Jesse, you have not asked me one time about the issues that people actually care about in Michigan. You don't want to talk about gas prices. You don't want to talk about groceries. You don't want to talk about health care. You don't want to talk about the stupid trade war that's about the destroying the whole interview talking about that stuff. That's destroying, that is destroying our own military. You don't seem to want to talk about any of those things. You want to bring up all this culture war that, you know, I'm not here to talk about the war. We talked about gas prices in the Green New Deal, okay? If you want to do an interview, I'm up every time you can do the interview, okay? You're doing the greatest thing. Jesse, like, I mean, you could play this game if you want, but like, you could keep doing the greatest things if you want. You told me we're going to come up for a conversation and when we have conversations, I think it's okay to also ask questions. I just want to understand what you're getting at here. I'm getting at it. I'm getting at it. I'm getting at it. I'm getting at it. Whether you think men should play the next US Senator in Michigan. I'm interested in getting money out of politics, putting money in your pocket, and passing Medicare for all. You're full of mystery and care about what sports kids play. You're full of mystery. It's a big issue. It's a big issue. Because like, I, I, I, I, you guys come to me and I was like, you stole that issue last time. Deserved to hear about. All right. So you want to answer that question. Well, what is you? You want to answer the question? Well, what is you? Go ahead, Jesse. What is you? Should men play women's sports? You have daughters, right? I think that, look, I, I played sports in my whole life. It's sort of an important part of my life. I'm grateful for the opportunity to play sports. And at the end of the day, the decision of who gets to play what sports ought to be decided by the people who govern sports. I'm running for US Senate. Jesse is insane. I'm out here trying to take on like the, the health care crisis in Big Pharma and you're asking me about who gets to play what sports. It's silly. It's a kind of big thing if you've been following the news recently, Abdul. Let me ask you about the politics. We'll get to your race. Let's do a race right now. Please be serious. Like, I'm, I'm here with you. I want to talk, I have a conversation about the issues that matter. Let's do it. Let's talk about the things that people actually talking about. Okay. Now, what, what did you think of that back and forth? Well, there's more, right? There is. There is. So you want to do the next one first? I think the next one would be helpful because I want to say I think they're, get at something similar. Same, same debate. It goes a little deeper. That's why I know about it. So you think it's okay for a parent to slash his kids staying on the university? You think that's okay. I mean, do you, so do you really want to have this conversation? Are you circumcised? Yeah. Yeah, but I mean, that's a personal question. Okay. Doctor. You probably should want to move on. I probably should want to move on. A circumcision's different than castration. I think it's, it's a, it's a problem. It's a problem that you think that you get to decide what happens. That's where it became a disaster for Abdul Al-Sahed. I, I, yes, I did not think that that was a good talking point, but I don't know if that was a talking point or not. I don't know if he came up with that on the spot. I feel like he came up without the spot. Let's hope. Because that's bad. Yeah. But that's why I wanted to play both of those because I think the, what he was going with Jesse Waters is probably, I think, if you are a progressive candidate, populist left, but have, it's some 10 years of, I should say 10 years of some baggage on cultural issues. If you're in a swing state like Michigan, meaning there's a, you're, you're going for this, this minority of voters were swing voters who want to hear mostly about economic issues right now in a tough economic climate, then actually saying that the right is distracting by obsessing over cultural issues is politically a decent line. I do think that that same group of voters wants to hear something that you believe, they want to believe that you believe what you're saying on this issue. And if you can't pass that litmus test, which I think is where Abdul Al-Sad is struggling in the interview, it's like, does he really believe that castration and circumcision are the same thing? No. But was it a clever way to make Jesse Waters laugh in the interview and just kind of get out of a tough spot? Perhaps. But it's now going to be on tech talk everywhere, Instagram everywhere, and it looks like a really unserious response to a question that you should be able to have a pretty basic answer to. And so I get the distraction line. I think there's some political heft to it in a bad economic situation, which obviously we are in right now because of their own more. I don't think it works if you can't also combine it with a common sense answer to a question like that. Yeah, I think that's right because it ends up, so I think it is true that they're trying to use culture word to distract from this other stuff. And it is good to point that out. But if you just keep saying that, it starts to look like you're using the economy to distract from your unwillingness to just give a quick answer to the question and move on. You don't have to dwell on it for 15 minutes. Right. But just a quick answer. And I thought on the sports question, they're getting closer to a good answer, which was, I'm running for U.S. Senate as ridiculous as I even have to have a position on this. It should be up to the sports, the commissions, like the various commissions that regulate this stuff. I think what you could start with is to say, everyone agrees that sports needs to be fair. Neil DeGrasse Tyson, I thought had a fairly good answer, I don't know if you saw this recently where he said he was a college wrestler. And he was like, and remember when he was a high school wrestler, he was like, I think it was college. And he said, I wrestled in the 190 pound category because it wasn't fair. If I wrestled against a 120 pound person or a 240 pound person. And so we have long understood the idea, he even talked about in rowing, they got heavy rowers and light rowers because it's unfair. He's like, so for a long time in sports, we have decided that because of biological differences between different athletes, we have created different categories to make sure that there's fair competition. And as we are transitioning into this new world, we can't deny that we're entering a new world, what we have to do is continue to update the way that we're creating fair categories of people. And then what that looks like can be left up to people who are experts in this, but you can say, I agree with you that there is some unfairness in the way that we're applying the old way to the new world. You can just say on average, boys have physical advantages over girls in sports and that can put girls in danger. And so I trust this to be worked out at the state local level. But fundamentally, I agree with that point, we're now working out on the state level. Right, because what people have seen is as soon as a candidate who's maybe a left populist and Zora Mamdani has handled this very, very well. He's not running on the federal level and it was the Obama administration that issued that dear colleague letter that said you have to re-gender identity into Title IX when it says no discrimination on the basis of sex. That is what federalized this right away, which is where it does make it hard for the left to point the finger at the right and say, well, you're, I mean, I think it was Charlotte claiming that God who accused in this canter freedom of disrupting women's basketball. He literally disrupted women's basketball, but women's basketball was disrupted in high schools around the country by the Obama administration and by the left that said you now have to gender identity into this, which means there will be some boys, not many, but there will be some boys on local levels that are going to play basketball, and we have seen problems with that. Many people around the country have seen problems with that, and if you can't have an answer that sounds like you believe it, I would have been so interested to see how Graham Platner handled this because it's been a big issue in Maine with Janet Mills, fighting the Trump administration on it. I think Platner is a true believer in gender ideology, like sort of Judith Butler level genders on a spectrum, and there's interchangeability. I think he's a true believer in that, and that's fine. I totally disagree with it. Most of the country disagrees with it. I think he really believes it. Those are the cases where I think it's interesting because if you say what you really believe, I think you get away with it better than trying to, like, groping to say, "Don't use circumcised," because that looks like you're avoiding saying what you believe, which is, on average, like, he's a football player, he knows. He knows. Right. And also, come on, circumcision. What are we doing? It was kind of funny. It was, it was kind of funny. I thought, like, overall, Abdul crushed it, but a couple of, and the problem though is that those couple of moments are going to probably get circulated for a very long time, among voters who, the exact ones that he was trying to reach by going on Fox. Yes. He went on Fox for a reason, because he thinks, and he started out beautifully. He's like, "Jesse, thanks for having me on. You and I both agree that Microdris is totally beta," just, he's like, "I didn't agree with that." Yes, you did. You laughed. That's pretty good. He began by shoving Microdris into a locker, and so he's trying then to win over the people who are like, "Yeah, Microdris is kind of beta, Florida lobbyists sell out." And so, those people were with him, and he's hammering it on the billionaires, where Jesse is like, "I want to, you know, profit from the fruits of my labor." And Abdul Al-Sai said, "Buddy, like, billionaires don't labor. They make money because their money makes money. And you tax a tiny bit of that money, they're still making lots of money. I want to, you know, basically tackle wealth, not work, you know, to rob Gary's economics. And I'm sure a bunch of people watching there were like, "Yeah, of course, billionaires don't labor. Bosses don't labor. That's not how they make their money." And then he gives those couple clips where those very same people are going to be like, just another liberal. Right. Or. They're going to be disappointed by them. Right. And again, I think this is an economic election. There's no question about it. Like, way more votes will be decided by the economy than they will be on this issue. But when we're talking about 20-28 and what can come in the future, and also some close elections where you do need to convince, like suburban moms in Michigan who care about those dads in Michigan who care about this and see, like, it hasn't visited every community but it has visited many communities and you've talked to track athletes who, you know, because a couple of people in the state are competing in the opposite sex category, it does create problems for then dozens of girls because just if you have one boy in the league that's outrunning the girls, that does, like, affect all of the other girls down in the tournaments and those sorts of things. So anyway, all this is to say, economy is the major issue, but it's still a hurdle for optimal, I'll say, and other Democrats to overcome, and they have not quite nailed the messaging on it. Yeah, and it is good for Democrats, I think, to have to go out and test this stuff. Like, so I'm glad I'm glad that he's out there trying to test these messages, these talking points or whatever they are, because I think your point is the right one at the beginning, that people want you to sound like you believe what you're saying. Yes, exactly. Like, and if they think you're lying about this, then they're not going to believe you on your other stuff. That's like, you put it better than I did. I think that's exactly right. And, of course, and they don't think that he thinks castration and circumcision is the same thing. Exactly. Like, nobody thinks that. Right. Especially not a doctor. It was a little too cute by half. Yeah. No. Hopefully, maybe it's cute enough that people are like, ah, he's just joking. But he's also facing this, another round of a Hassan Piker controversy. Yeah, absolutely. It's going on with this. I tried to figure out what was going on with this. So let's get into this a little bit. So, let's start with D3, actually. So this is Mike Rogers jumping on a deceptively edited clip that was circulating. So Mike Rogers says, "More calls for violence coming out of the al-Said campaign. There is his running mate, Hassan Piker, saying that if American Jews support Israel, they will be violently targeted because of it." This is all in reaction to Michigan Democratic Congressional candidate Jeremy Moss, who happens to be Jewish, saying he is unsure if he will be able to support Abdul for these very reasons. Absolutely disgusting. If Abdul Al-Said had any courage at all, he would call this out and disavow Hassan Piker once and for all. We're waiting Abdul. Let's play a little bit of what he said, but he said a version of what everybody basically agrees, which is, well, not everybody, not APEC, but his argument is, it is unfair, ridiculous, and dangerous to conflate all of Judaism with Zionism and the state of Israel to lump together all Jews and blame them for the actions of Israel is wrong. And so people should stop conflating those two things. That's what he was saying. They edited it in such a way that suggested that violence or something would be justified against Jews for their support of Israel, which is the complete opposite of what he was saying. He was sort of predicting that would be. Right, he's saying what you're doing by linking Judaism to Zionism is furthering anti-Semitism. So let's play a little bit of what was going around. This is D2. I mean, look, the anti-Zionist Jews in my community, you have a very tough job ahead of you. Well, you have to go back to your communities and try to get your elderly relatives to understand that this connection between Israel and Zionism that is expressed over and over again through a lot of these Jewish institutions, okay, is teaching people the idea that Jews are monolithic. And this is a dangerous. It is a very. Because look, it's a very dangerous mode of propaganda. And you want to know why? Because people don't fuck with Israel any longer. And if Jews in America keep putting this idea out there that they are singularly invested in Israel, eventually someone's going to come around and take action, not against the state of Israel mind you, but against American Jews, okay? We're teaching people the wrong lesson. So in the fuller context, it's pretty clear that he's making a very standard point. Mike Rogers, near a tanda and a bunch of others, you know, began circulating it and I can maybe put it in the link to the show. A more deceptively mashed together, multiple different clips, pulled together to make it kind of a much harsher like where he's justifying the thing. And so then Al-Sahed comes out and this is what I think he made a pretty huge mistake because they're now jumping on him. Al-Sahed comes out and you can put up D1. He says, he writes, "My statement on Hassan Piker's comments regarding Jeremy Moss." He says, "I believe all Americans deserve the right to advocate for what they believe without fear of violence. This is particularly true for communities that have been intimidated for their beliefs in the past, my commitment to Jewish safety is the same as my commitment to the safety of my own daughters. Anti-Semitism is a scourge and we need to address it in all of its forms and I stand against any rhetoric that puts the community at risk. But I want to be crystal clear, nobody speaks for this campaign besides me and my campaign spokespeople. And while politicians and pundits try to make this race about a Twitch streamer, we're going to be talking about gas, groceries, good schools, and healthcare because that's what Michiganers keep asking about. That's why I'm fighting to get money out of politics, money in your pocket and Medicare for all." Al-Sahed Piker responded to that by saying he thinks the entire statement was well said. He objected to the part at the top that says, "My statement on Hassan Piker's comments regarding Jeremy Moss because it bought into this frame that he actually had said something that he had not said when a smarter response from Al-Sahed would have been to say that was twisted and deceptively edited." And also, he's not on my campaign, why are you asking me about every little thing that this guy who talks for 10 hours a day says, "Now, you're a tandem and the people who have been spending months trying to bring Abdul Al-Sahed down have said, 'See, we told you, he's now distance himself from Hassan Piker. He never should have associated with Hassan Piker." anybody who associates with some piker needs to be rooted out of our politics uh. taking it as a victory why did it work i i i don't know months of bullying uh. i'm surprised by it honestly people you know that the mobs are the mobs are intimidating you whip up enough of a mob i don't know it's a it's a good question uh. because he was shameless about his affiliation with has on heading into the primary like they were at that pool party together right before the primary on the election day yeah right and so in the general election i mean but the point is he was doing the uh. kind of bold colors not pill pastels is the run ragan line of how like if you actually lean into what you more lately believe it's often politically better for you because people believe that you say that you believe what you say you're you believe uh. to kind of bring this full circle and so to then look wishy washi on his son i don't know that that's actually even politically helpful it seemed like his instincts were better that which is to say i'm standing by something that i believe in and your attendance bullying stock and work right you i think i think you're very much correct because she's now just rubbing it in everywhere and everyone else is jumping on it too we put up d five this is hakeem jeffries who's bells blood in the water the malicious claim this is a key jeffries the malicious claim that american jews are inviting violence against themselves is dangerous and anti-semitic there is zero justification for threats against the safety of our jewish brothers and sisters at a moment of rising hate we will fight the cancer of anti-semitism with the fierce urgency of now like he did not make a threat against our jewish brothers and sisters but like he did not do that he's just simply did not do that like it is a manufactured and fake thing but by issuing this statement uh. abdual kind of open the door for yes that's a good point his enemies to come in and for candidates around the country too it's not gonna happen and what they don't what with the left just never seems to understand is that people like jeffries people like near a tenon it is not obvious that they want to do it outside to win but you should not take for granted that they want to win everything they're doing suggests that they do not want him to win if populist candidates can win in states like main and michigan or and michigan seven uh. where will orange is running or ranny vegas and in california or elsewhere if those populace can win the entire mode of politics that came jeffries in near a tan and represents is rejected they would rather lose those races to the republican then lose their position in the party is the iron law of institutions as it's known and so stop thinking that if you just capitulate a little bit to them that they will then get on your team they're not they're not the only thing that can keep them on the team is shame because it's too embarrassing to be publicly oppositional to your party just to your point about opening the door up this morning's political playbook so read by pretty much every bellway insider the headline is literally how do you solve a problem like piker that's the head by winning there's no political playbook is no piker problem you see and you solve it by winning yeah well not by losing and trying to cut like cut an entire portion of your coalition out again it's to me it's like they solve it by losing in the last like that to their mind if if they can say look left one primaries in michigan and main and we lost to them that solves the problem of piker by losing to republicans like that's their goal it's like in the last couple of weeks establishment democrats have decided to make and republicans obviously and maybe it's happening because republicans have moved into general election season a lot of these races and they know that they can try to make a boogie man out of us on piker but it's like the last two weeks establishment democrats it's like you they are the ones who just discovered like the dav math he's banned another talking constantly about like man this guy dav math is it's like they just discovered their new favorite and some dm me the other day uh. beg me to give Dave another shot so did you do that i said i was uh. i trashed a apparently on the show you trashed a math is that's fine i said fine enough you can do it sure why not like why not uh. meanwhile who is the mic Rogers we put up this uh. this final on this is d4 so mic Rogers i don't know if we cover this if you guys cover this last week um. rogers a pack said after they law after the pale stevens lost that they were going to spend tens of millions of dollars against al-siet backing mic Rogers mhm general election uh. now mic Rogers was told them he doesn't want them doing that publicly because they're too toxic and abdual side is going to use a pack support of him so he proposed a bunch of uh. schemes that are illegal to vary very degrees one of them was how about i just hire all of your super pack staffers onto my campaign and you just give me all the money which if it comes from the super pack like that's illegal if they just uh. set and which is how would kind of have to go like you cannot coordinate like that you can not allow to do that he's like what if you just have a whole bunch of fundraisers for me instead and so right now as we speak he's out in los angeles doing according to the new york times three straight major mega donor a pack fundraisers so that the money comes directly to his campaign so that when reporters like me say you know he's supported by a pack incident what no he's not but what are you talking about well but see this is interesting he's running away from a pack for a general election but while running to los angeles to raise money from a pack of course but they like it it's a very telling moment after all of your years of reporting that a general election establishment republican candidate like michael rogers is actively trying to distance himself from a pack by the schemes obviously which are fair injuries ridiculousness but in the meantime establishment democrats still think that up to all say ed needs to sprint away from has on piker as my graduate is spreading away from a pack right it's a pretty strange situation yeah he's also running away from data centers he just said he supports a one year moratorium on data centers wild times so yes the problem of some piker is a is really actually a problem for republicans uh. if them or if the democratic establishment was interested in forming a coalition with the left to be republicans but obviously they are not in republican voters i mean the people who turn out in midterms are not there there tend to be higher propensity which means they're all the republican voters who are on one pretty particular side of the israel policy debate or so let's let's move to south carolina which uh. trump is weighing in hard uh. behind lindsay graham sister and this is a staff report and shong clements we host the podcast hollywood handbook on the big money players network our show is extremely accessible the first time listeners each week we talked to someone in show business aka the biz and try to help them with their careers and see what they have to offer us everyone has a good time and no one gets mad at their publicists for letting them do our show we've had a lot of great guest like sarah sherman not that great i actually can you help me can can can can you help me shape this yeah how about we flip it on his head no how about we flip the screen okay what is the surprise one then who actually you think is the straight man is actually the one who's acting weird adam scott love this entire time you've been expecting adam samler to come to visit the show i i would never know that i have you never set expectations for something like that has like if the universe allows for something like that to happen i am open to i'm always going to accept you know danie mcbride fine yeah saw this fragile masculinity exuding i could smell it walking on the hallway to be honest with you as i got to know that's exactly the need nope fragile masculinity yeah been still or no because a lot of times in out of context people don't get it or even know what a circle is you know what i mean like girl i go with just so stated uh everyone's so dumb and fake right fake and and also not interested or just like oh i've got my life i don't care about your life and a lot of other big shots that wouldn't be where they are without us oh and by the way will feral told us personally he loves the show and he wants to be a guest on every episode but he's just so busy listen to all your handbook on the iHeartRadio app apple podcast or wherever you get your podcasts on the new podcast solita we share the messy reality of traveling alone as a woman i can wait four hours for the next bus or this random dude is offering me a ride on his motorcycle i choose option b i'm julie bignero and i travel by myself because it's a rare space where i can say yes without asking anyone else first i'm on a mission to reclaim the word solita trading the pity for possibility every time i tried to be alone i kept meeting people and they were like you smiled at us not a lot of people smile around here. It's when you're alone that you're most receptive to the world as it is and not the lies you're sold about it. It can be a time where you push your limits, change your mind, or wake up to a new version of yourself. So whether you're a solo travel veteran or you're too nervous to book your first trip, I hope you listen to Solita on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts, I'm mungaShit together and I'm back with a new season of the podcast Skyline Drive. This time I'm diving into a rabbit hole of peptides, organoids, blood boys, blue zones, and brain replacement to try to understand what this longevity obsession is all about, and what it really means to live forever for all of us. I learned about some rad science. I can make a brain for you and then we can test what draw is the best for your brain as opposed to his brain. Here's some hard truths. I would expect Indians to age faster, but I did not expect it to be almost a 4-5 year acceleration and get myself into a world of trouble. That doesn't work. They say it works. I don't know. Listen to Skyline Drive, how to live forever on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. The South Carolina Senate runoff featuring Lindsey Graham's sister, Darlene Graham's senator, Darlene Graham, is tonight, and Donald Trump has put in everything, I mean, not literally everything, but for Trump by Trump standards, everything. This cycle, at least, let's actually start here with E4. Trump has put more than $800,000 from his own pack into backing Darlene Graham, who he's also, of course, endorsed over Ralph Normenstein as a much trumpier candidate. By the way, Trump and Normen have gone back and forth over the years, but he's a populist, Republican, and Darlene Graham is, well, we don't quite know. It's unclear how much Darlene Graham knows what her political identity is, actually, because she struggled so badly. And this question about foreign policy, actually a couple of questions about foreign policy that have been going massively viral in mega circles, actually just generally in political circles because it hurts, it hurts to hear these. It's just so painful and uncomfortable. Let's take a listen. E1. Our Taiwan and the South China Sea, national security issues for the United States, and if so, why or how? I'm just going to be honest here. I'm not on national security, I'm not that informed on national security, so, but I do support the military. My brother was in the Air Force for 33 years, so I will do everything I can to support the military. My dad was in the army. I'm not a polished politician up here. National security is not my thing, not my area of expertise, but I do support the military. I tripped up on one question last night regarding Taiwan, but, you know, I've said many times, I'm not a politician, certainly not a career politician, I don't speak politician. You know, I was just honest. Of course Taiwan is our friend, but I think people in South Carolina are more worried about making ends meet. They're concerned about boys and girls' sports. All right. So, my friend out, we've noticed, actually, just reporting the last hour that now top Republicans are indeed expecting Darlene Graham to lose this. That is despite the endorsement of the president of the United States, almost a million dollars from the president of the United States as PAC. And this fascinating scheme happening under the surface Ryan by lobbyists, solar lobbyists, too. Senate Party, again, they think Darlene is going to lose. They think Darlene is going to lose. That's the latest headline in notice on the campaign. I can actually, yeah, the headline is literally Republicans expect Darlene Graham to lose this South Carolina runoff. It's a Tuesday. It's today. Oh, it's today. Yeah, it's today. It's a Tuesday. It's today. So, not like a great for Darlene Graham, but she does have this huge boost from solar lobbyists who detest Ralph Norman. Now, a lot of lobbyists want Darlene Graham to win. I can read a couple of quotes I got from sources recently. One says, "This is the best possible, a best of all possible outcomes for the swamp. A blank state, slate, senator with no convictions or clue to what's happening and a staff with decades long, case street connections. It's corporate lobbyist dream scenario, which might also be why Donald Trump decided to dump $800,000 into the race." Another source said, "The South Carolina primary is DC money interest for someone who has never played the DC game well." That would be Ralph Norman. A Darlene Graham win keeps the money flowing to a cadre of consultants, lobbyists and special interests. It's no wonder they are spending heavily for her. She did have a case street fundraiser right after advancing to the runoff. Again, no surprise. It is a bit more surprising, is the scheme from clean energy lobbyists to get Ralph Northerme out of the, I keep saying Northerme because of Virginia, Ralph Norman. Yeah. I just did that in my head. Anyway, trying to get him to be ogled or chipped roared. This is really, really interesting. We can put this E&E, Politico E&E headline up on the screen. This is E2. Another company executives and supporters spending $1 million to defeat hard-right Republican Ralph Norman in his campaign for Senate could see their work backfire, Politico just reported in the last few days. The invest in tomorrow coalition, that's a pack back by the clean energy industry, which is itself their biggest donor is a crypto guy, kind of interesting. An ounce less week, it was going to campaign against Norman. This is after the pack spent big, they report to unseat Andy Ogles in Tennessee this month. So they spent $2 million to get Ogles out of office. They spent big to get Chip Roy, who also lost his primary, and they're taking a page from the APAC book and not running any ads on clean energy, but just quietly exacting their revenge on Republicans who fought hard to undo the Biden clean energy grants and money with the one big, beautiful bill. And interestingly, they have now put a bunch of money behind Darling Graham, essentially, a million dollars into this runoff on behalf of Darling Graham, as the only other candidate in the race, to make sure that Ralph Norman doesn't make it. And it's personal for them, but Norman had previously been the co-chair of the congressional solar caucus. He was a champion of solar, and then he flipped on it, and now he's a huge opponent of it. And so I think if he had just been a kind of bog standard opponent who was always against solar, they probably just leave him alone, but because of that betrayal, like they wanted to make an example of him, and also, I think, to your point, Darling Graham is, they believe malleable. A blank slate with her brother's staff that is deeply tied to K-Street. But that's interesting that they might fall short on this one. But yeah, Tom Matsy is the-- Let's put this on screen. So Tom Matsy, he basically got his start at the AFL CIO, then he was a top operative for move on, which is when I met him. 20 years ago. So you know this guy? Yeah. He's been around DC. Yes. But he left politics early 2010s to launch a clean energy company. And the clean energy company was a huge success. So what's unusual about Tom is that most people in the progressive world don't know anything about business, like to be a little blunt about it. It's like the opposite of the conservative donor world, all they care about is business. Whereas he is a very successful businessman and he understands how business operates. He's also a ruthless political operative. And so he took a page out of the Super PAC and particular APAC playbook to go-- because when they went in and ran ads in the Oval's race, the Chip Roy race, they weren't-- just like APAC never mentions Israel, they were not saying vote for this person because they're good for solar or bad for solar, they were saying like these are the, you know, they're basically just cutting typical 30-second attack ads. What I would expect that they'll start doing is taking the APAC plan one step further, which is now APAC very often completely disguises that it's even them. So it's one thing if your ad doesn't mention Israel, but at the bottom it says, paid for by United Democracy Project, because then you can Google that and find out that United Democracy Project is APAC Super PAC. What they've started doing now is they'll say, paid for by elect Chicago women and if you Google Chicago women, it like just formed a week ago, you're like, well, where's this money coming from? And you don't find out until after the election that it was APAC money. And so I would expect if it starts to become a liability, that it's solar money that's playing in these races, that they'll just do the APAC thing and call it elect South Carolina women or elect Lindsey Graham's sister. So this group that-- uh. matzi is running the invest in tomorrow coalition the biggest donor is a man named chris larson so six million of the six point eight million dollars this pack has are from chris larson chris larson fascinatingly is right now being protested his home is being protested by sunrise activists because of his support a flock and his financial ties to flock he is a crypto i think he's a billionaire he's a ripple yet ripple guy yep and so he's that he's a massive crypto billionaire and he's plucking off i mean just on paper he's he's just picking off people who pissed him off he's using literally his millions of dollars to just say by and he'll go by chip Roy by Ralph Norman will see if that actually happens but it's really like on paper it's the exact type of like apex style behavior that should have not just left but absolutely everybody up in arms like it is a disgusting oligarch behavior and it is so interesting in this case that he's doing it for presumably clean energy purposes of clean energy kind of crony clean energy type behavior but he's currently being protested by sunrise there's a board of flock it's a crazy story so funny like they they just they do so little climate stuff anymore the sun is rising over all of the issues like I get flocks up but what is that it's it's very yeah yeah that's that's just kind of become a vehicle for whatever uh. young people are upset about it the moment which is fine and larson's investments surveillance technologies and so it's you'd see why they're targeting him but that's funny that he's this clean energy guy who's literally trying to pick people out of congress make sure that they don't get elected uh. because they didn't support the clean energy subsidies like it's just this is a truly fascinating dc story right in the other thing i would say is most of the donors the major donors to apex super pack are republicans and one of the things that has been so frustrating on the democratic side it's been to watch republicans intervening in democratic primaries so i guess i would say how do you yeah how do you like it how do you use on the other foot now crazy so it's done it yeah kind of like to just do your primary talk about actual talk about the issues that are relevant to your primary voters without distortion from people who are claiming to talk about the issues relevant to primary voters and that's okay yeah all right well uh. speaking of all this we have a candidate to get to uh. let's put on the new podcast solita we share the messy reality of traveling alone as a woman i can wait for hours for the next bus or this random dude is offering me a ride on his motorcycle i choose option b i'm july bignetto and i travel by myself because it's a rare space where i can say yes without asking anyone else first i'm on a mission to reclaim the word solita trading the pity for possibility every time i try to be alone i kept meaning people they were like you smiled at us not a lot of people smile around here it's when you're alone that you're most receptive to the world as it is and not the lies your soul about it it can be a time where you push your limits change your mind or wake up to a new version of yourself so whether you're a solo travel veteran or you're too nervous to book your first trip i hope you listen to solita on the i heart radio app apple podcasts or ever get your podcasts hey this is ace davenport and Sean clements we host the podcast hollywood handbook on the big money players network our show is extremely accessible to first-time listeners each week we talk to someone in show business aka the biz and try to help them with their careers and see what they have to offer us everyone has a good time and no one gets mad at their publicists for letting them do our show we've had a lot of great guests like Sarah Sherman not that great actually can you help me can you can you help me shape this yeah how about we flip it on his head okay how about we flip this around okay how what is the surprise one man who actually you think is the straight man is actually the one who's acting weird Adam Scott this entire time you've been expecting Adam Sandler to come to visit the show i i would never let go of that i have you would never set expectations for something like that it sounds like if the universe allows for something like that to happen i am open to i'm always going to accept you know Danny McBride fine yeah saw this fragile masculinity exuding i could smell it walking on the hallway to be honest with me as i go smell that i was like exactly no it's fragile masculinity yep Ben still or no i think there's a lot of times in out of context people don't get it or even know what a circle is you know what i mean like you're like oh what is so stupid uh everyone so dumb and fake right fake and and also not interested or just like oh i've got my life i don't care about your life it a lot of other big shots that wouldn't be where they are without us 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live forever on the iheart radio app apple podcast or wherever you get your podcast i've seen a lot of weird financial shenanigans in my political reporting career but a move pulled off by a democratic candidate and massachusetts sixth congressional district is a brand new one to me the candidate is tramwin and she's running in an open race to replace Seth molten who is running for senate against ed marky on twosday she's presenting herself as the progressive in the race or at least one of the progressives and she even got the recent endorsement of squad member iana pressley she's getting new traction in the race thanks to spending from two super packs following the money to both leads to some interesting places one of them is called pro-choice majority action and it's primarily funded by a separate pack called elect democratic women action fund and both have served this cycle as vehicles to hide money from a pack super pack which is called united democracy project indeed a pack so far has given edw action fund more than two million dollars of the seven million dollars total it has raised so i asked Lenny young a representative of edw and pro-choice majority whether this particular money had come from a pack and he said that it didn't but he declined to say where it did come from so far they've dropped four hundred and fifty thousand dollars in the past week with much more expected in the final days the other super pack is called the save america fund the largest donor to save america bizarrely is the committee to elect tram win so that money came in on october 21st 2025 and it came from wins state level political action committee now bear in mind that it is illegal to use money you raised for a state race on your federal race because the laws are different around how you can raise it two days after sending that money to the federal super pack she launched her race for federal office now in the last two weeks of the campaign the super pack she funded is all of a sudden spending big to elect her to federal office the super pack works with democratic megalore mark elias so presumably he breast he blessed this roundabout way of dodging federal campaign finance laws but it's quite aggressive at best if not illegal at worst now back in 2024 meanwhile save america fund worked directly with the super pack democratic majority for israel but there's no evidence they've done so this cycle so joining us to talk about all of this is former state representative jamey balsito is who is also running in this race and also kind of running in the in the progressive land jamey thank you so much for being here we really appreciate it thank you very much for speaking with me today about this race and very very important very important race that we have here in the six yeah and the state representative win you know also I don't know she's still in the legislature I believe she is and she's yes and she's endorsed by the kind of moderate to conservative house house speaker there which is you know to me kind of cuts against the the progressive lane that she's that she's trying to run in but I'm I wanted to get your perspective on this race like what so when you when you first jumped into the race what But what did you understand about the layout of where the various super PACs were going to fall? Sure. I have run for this race before, and I write out the gate, said, "People's pledged no outside money, and APAC would not touch me with the 10-foot pole. I am a working mother of two. I'm a proud product of this district. I'm bringing almost 30 years of experience to this race Ryan. I have been an elected top moderator and elected state representative. I've flipped a district to Democrat that hadn't been held by Democrats since 1858, and I'm the only Arab-American woman ever elected to our state legislature. I'm also the founder of a national maternal health nonprofit that has been focused on reducing maternal mortality across our country. And I've been working with Congress for the past 10 years to gather over $125 million and new dollars in federal funding, working with Congress to make sure that we're taking care of moms and babies. And when it comes to this race, I can say that the Democratic Party has broke figuratively and literally, and they've allowed special interests, like the ones flooding into this race right now, to dictate our policy. And I'm running for Medicare for All. And to these endless wars, I called out the genocide as a sitting state rep, and was told point blank by the Democratic Party, you'll never be able to run for office again. And here we are with APAC money trying to come in and buy this race. So as I understand it, because of the maternal health nonprofit that you were running, you've worked with some members of Congress in the past, tell me about some of the conversations that you had before getting into the race with these members of Congress. So I think this is pretty edifying to people about how this stuff works. So I have great relationships on the hill by way of the work that my nonprofit has done in this space. And I was brought in to the room where it happens, so to speak. And it was told to, you know, to the party line. And that is not something that this race that I'm running to represent the people of the best district in the country where I am from, where I'm running, to make sure that we are not taking all the APAC money, all of the AI money, all of the cryptocurrency money. I mean, that was the directive to me and I said, no, thank you. That's not who I'm planning on representing in the halls of Congress. I'm planning on representing folks who can't put food on the table, who are worried about the utility bills, skyrocketing out of control, who can't find a place to live. At the beginning of this segment, I mentioned this Super PAC, you know, both pro-choice majority action and EDW action fund. EDW, yeah. Yeah, did they mention any of those Super PACs in relation to APAC or AI when you were in Washington? The specificities around the PACs themselves, no, I mean, even as a citizen, when I hear pro-choice majority action, it doesn't correlate to me that that's an APAC shell, right? Or the United Democracy project. But you're seeing that these shell companies, I don't know what we want to call them, I'm to be very frank with you, you know, our funding, mailers, and putting people up on TV right now. And the focus was, the focus in the energy of that conversation was, take all the money because the end goal is to get a woman in this position. And that did not sit well with me because this is, again, I don't know. I spoke earlier, why the Democratic Party has been influenced by special interests, and people are not being represented. And I told them that I would not take the money, and then they've gone ahead to endorse the representative from Andover Tramwin. So they said, take all the money, take the APAC money because the important thing is that a woman win this race. Now Representative Lois Frankel is the one who shares this CDW pack and has been reported to be moving APAC money around. Did you meet with her? Is that, and can you tell me? >> That's what I met with. Yes, it was Frankel. >> Yes, and Ryan, I'll be transparent in saying I was unaware of her position within the organization, EDW, to me, you just sounded nice, so elect Democratic women, right? Of course, that's who I'm going to meet with, I'm a formerly elected Democratic woman. So it did not, it did not indicatively say to me that there was anything that I should be concerned with, but when it was conveyed to me, that it was time to lean in and take all the money, but again, the last time I checked, I am a woman, but I guess not taking the APAC money just qualifies me as a candidate. >> Elects certain kinds of Democratic women. >> There you go, yeah, the disclaimer was not as transparent, but that's where it is right now. >> Yeah. >> Could you, just since you're in this race right now, explain to us a bit about how consequential this money and support is, say you were taking the APAC money and AI money, what does that mean for a candidate running in a district like this? >> Well, I'll tell you this, you know, we are on the doors, we've knocked 50,000 doors, we have 400 volunteers across this district, it's 39 towns in cities, right? And the prohibitive part of this is getting on TV, is putting out those mailers, is being on the streaming. And so if you aren't able to pay to play for lack of a better term, it becomes somewhat prohibitive. Although I do have to say for us, we have the largest grassroots campaign, we are meeting people where they are, we are in their communities and I'm from here, you know, like I'm a known entity in this, in the district that I'm running, but whether it be triumphant or on the candidates, the money that's flooding in from special interest is what's allowing people to be put on the streaming channels and on the TV channels. But I go back to the fact that this district here, up the North Shore, has a strong, what I call a no BS detector, and I don't think people realize the bill of goods that they're being fed under the guise of yet pro-choice majority or, you know, the United Democracy project. And it's on purpose, it's on purpose, that's the part that is so hard, I guess, APAC won't touch me with the 10-foot pole, but they have figured out a way to go around it, so that people don't look at a male or a commercial and go, "Oh, geez, you know, that's the thing we're talking about these days, we don't want to support that." So, Tram went about a week ago, I said it a forum, and then also then she tweeted out, she said, "As someone who fled an authoritarian regime because she fled Vietnam at the age of five, I know the devastating human cost of violence and displacement, the general genocide in Gaza must come to an end, it's time to stop writing blank checks for forever wars." So, what's your reaction to that, and what's your sense of why APAC that has been significantly funded by APAC would be okay getting behind somebody who says the genocide in Gaza must come to an end? So, I've been very transparent, again, Ryan, on this, you know, I have family that still resides in Syria. As an Arab American woman, as a mother of two, as somebody who has their own nonprofit and taking care of mothers and babies, we've been watching a live stream genocide on Instagram for years now, and let us be frank, this has been an ongoing issue for over 70 years, and I have been incredibly outspoken to the point where I've received death threats. I was put into the local Jewish newspapers as the anti-Semite next door, and people have decided to use this issue as politically expeditious to signal to folks, "Oh, I'm a progressive," but up until recently, even during our candidate's forms, the rep from and over did not believe that there was a genocide. Secondly, is real committing genocide? Okay, we have a split there. And that's insulting because it's been part of our foreign policy, our U.S. tax dollars, going to fund a foreign military to murder and kill people, and this is the reality of where I've always stood and why I am receiving the pushback that I'm receiving right now because they do not want someone like me in Congress. And last question. So, the race is on Tuesday. What are you finding to be the major fault lines in a open democratic primary like this? How are people trying to differentiate themselves and what are voters kind of demanding at this moment? This is all about money, right? When we continue to allow special interests to dictate how people know who's running, what our policies for the United States are going to be. We will never have many. care for all we will have forever wars. We will continue to ingratiate our military with this state of Israel. We will never have clear representation of the people by the people for the people in this district. It will end up turning into data centers and people continuing asking why Kant I afford my food bills because our money is going towards for-profit health care or making sure that the government is giving ICE gloves that can electric shock people. It's all of the monies, it's all the special interest monies that continue to run, not just the GOP in the Trump administration, but the Democratic establishment party. I am a Democrat. I am running to take care of my district because when I was a congressional intern for Joe Motley, 30 years ago in South Boston, it is when you take care of the people in the district, you make sure there's food on the table, a roof over their head, and you try to help them get a job. I have 30 years of fighting for the regular people and people are looking for someone like me to represent them. Without the money, we are just meeting people where they're at and that I will continue to do until Tuesday, but we need to let the American public know that whether it's Matt Little or Malachiroz or will Lawrence these PACs will continue to try to influence what the American people should be voting, who they should be voting for, and what decisions are being made on their behalf. Well, Jamie Belltito, candidate for Massachusetts' Congressional District. Thanks for taking some time. The election is coming Tuesday a week from today. Thank you so much for joining us. Thank you. That was a really interesting interview, Ryan. Pinkwashing. You call it pinkwashing. Yeah, so elected Democratic women was launched in 2018 after the women's march and the height of anti-Trump. And now it's just flush with APAC money, and it's very interesting to hear that Louis Franco privately is saying that it's the same thing. There was some tea. That was some tea. That was some strong tea. Yeah. Good stuff. I'm going to call Iana Pressley too. Get her comment on this is not how I think people expect Democratic primary politics to unfold on the progressive side. I would imagine it's not. That's dirty. Yeah. Well, you're going to be in with Saga tomorrow, Ryan Brosho, and then Saga Thursday too, or Crystal Thursday. No, Saga, or you? I don't know. We'll figure that out. We'd like to do the planning on the air. Just me. We'll do it live. Well, breakingpoints.com full subscription free month trial is still going head on over there. If you're interested, otherwise Ryan and Saga, we'll see you back here tomorrow morning. Have a great one, everyone. I'm Mengesha Teaguevler, and I'm back with a new season of my podcast Skyline Drive. This time I talked to scientists, biopunks, cormugians, blues owners, super seniors, and Goa's top cryotherapy lab to try to understand this obsession with living forever, and what it means for all of us. That doesn't work. They say it works. I don't know. 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