His Worst Nightmare! MAGA Panics Over This Progressive Candidate Taking Over

(upbeat music) Joining me on IHIP News is Los Angeles City Council member and candidate for mayor, Nithia Rahman. Nithia, welcome to IHIP News. We are hoping that this is a big stop for all people running for office. Tell me, you're in a heated primary with Karen Bass and Spencer Pratt. And what I took from that was that people in LA are pissed right now. - So it has that a lot of Democrats were throwing parties for Spencer Pratt. What happened? What's the breakdown for those of us that don't live in LA? - Well, I think you're right that people are fed up here and what you saw in that primary election was that two thirds of voters didn't vote for an incumbent mayor, which in a city like Los Angeles is incredibly rare that almost never happens. But I think that that speaks to how exhausted people are with the state of things here in this city, where this mayor has proven to be unprepared for emergencies, whether it was the palisades fire last year or whether it was the Boyle Heights fire that happened just a couple of months ago. People are fed up with a city that is pricing them out every single week. And that this city hall doesn't seem to be focused. This mayor doesn't seem to be focused on the cost of housing and bringing down the cost of housing, which is pushing working families out of this city. People are fed up with the fact that our essential services, things like street lights, things like sidewalks are broken and just not getting fixed in the city of Los Angeles right now, the time to fix a broken street light has gone from a month to a year under this mayor. And that is the second largest city in the richest country in the world. And I think people are just very, very tired of what feels like an establishment politics that just does not care about them. - Yeah, I recently moved to New York. I've been a New York resident now for a year. And I have the luxury of living in Mom Donna's stand. And this guy, like people, he's reminding us of what government is supposed to do. And he's everywhere. He is everywhere on bikes, on foot, all over the city. But somebody can just like Instagram story like, "Hey, Mom Donna, there's a pothole here." And he just, he has mobilized people to fix shit and to do stuff. And it's like, "Oh, okay, this is the way government is supposed to work." What do you think the breakdown is with Karen Bass? I had her on the podcast. I don't know, probably a year and a half ago. So I really liked her. I think it was before the fires and all that. But you know, a lot of people in America are not focused on what goes on in specific cities, other than Fox News, just saying their hellscape, you know, communist shit holes and whatever. So what has happened? What is the breakdown with Mayor Bass? That has caused people to be so mad that they would throw parties for Spencer Pratt, which that's what shocked me the most. Yeah, so this is, yeah, it is a very blue town. And I think the frustration is very, very real here with the Mayor. And I just want to say about Mayor Mamdani. I think for me, like I'm a big-hearted progressive, right? I'm here because I'm an urban planner by training. I love cities. And to me, if a city can work for its residents, it is like the purest expression of how government can play a positive role in people's lives. And I feel like Mayor Mamdani is absolutely doing that in New York. He is proving to people what it means to believe in government again at a time when not just in cities, but across the entire country, people are just turning away from government. They're losing trust and faith in our national politics. And I think almost across the ideological spectrum, whether you're left, whether you're right, whether you're center, I feel like the commonality is that you've lost trust and faith in the system. And I feel like if you can fix a pothole, if you can fix a streetlight, if you can address an encampment, we have so much street homelessness here. If you can address an encampment, that is a restoration. And if you can do it, the way that Angelino's want to, by the way, which is they want to do it by housing and sheltering people and offering services. That's what they vote for over and over again. They tax themselves to deliver services to people who are living on the street because they want to respond to the crisis on our streets with compassion, with services and with care. But what I have seen and what Angelino's are seeing in this mayoral administration is a kind of complacency like we'll get these taxes. And we don't have to prove that this works. Homelessness, street homelessness in the city of Los Angeles after the mayor's signature program spent hundreds of millions of dollars and the entire system has spent even more than that actually went up citywide under this mayor's leadership. Because the her administration is not doing the kind of oversight and accountability work that you need to really deliver results on the ground. But that's possible to do. In my district, I saw a 49% reduction in un sheltered homelessness in the people who are living on the street. And since I've been in office, I've cut the number of people living on the street in my district over and over and over again. And I've been reelected in a more conservative district that was redrawn to try and get me pushed out of office because I have been so focused on delivering results for people and I think that's what Angelina knows deserve. They want results. And to me, the truest mark of progressive government is actually a city government that works for people. And that's what I want to do. So let's get to the nut cutting of what seems to be a big storyline, whether it's your race or a race for the United States Senator in Michigan. And this is the way I see it. You have establishment candidates and they could have an R next to their name or a D next to their name. And then you have progressive candidates who are really running a people-powered race and then we're seeing results from a people-powered candidate that turns into a people-powered mayor in Mamdani. But the narrative is that you or Abdullah Sayed or Zoran Mamdani are going to be these crazy commies that are going to be bad for business and you're going to tax all these rich people and it's just going to be a shit show and it's just going to be a disaster. And this propaganda, Nithia, has been really successful. The propaganda that corporate-powered politicians use to keep the status quo. It's been super powerful. So my question for you is, their claim is that you're going to be radical. I'm sure on Fox News, they're going to do some hit job ratchet piece on you that you're some commie radical black job, right? Which they do on me all the time and I can tell you it's a badge of honor. But what, let's talk about this radical shit. What is radical that you want to do and just explain to my listeners what your radical policies are? And then we can assess, you and I can discuss, if we think they're radical in their common sense because this seems to be this messaging vortex that everything goes into. And I just want to simplify it down. To me, I think it's radical. They paint you as radical when you're pushing back against a system that's been in place for a very long time. And I think to me here in Los Angeles, what we are seeing is that voters here in LA are sick of the system. They're sick of this broken status quo. And the things that I want to do, again, maybe they are radical but I think the city should not be this expensive. I don't think the cost of housing should be so high that it is driving working people out of the city every single day. I think we can protect renters who are getting pushed out by unscrupulous landlords and that the city can stand up for vulnerable renters in a city that is majority renters, by the way. And I think we can build exactly the kind of housing that working families need by cutting red tape, by making sure that the city, which has historically stood in the way of housing, does not do that anymore, that we can actually build the housing that we desperately need. Everyone agrees there's a housing shortage here in LA. I want to build that housing and I want to make sure that people can still afford to build their dreams here in the city of Los Angeles. I want to address homelessness with accountability and with transparency. I want to make sure every single tax dollar that is going into our homelessness response is accountable and transparent to the people of Los Angeles. We've voted multiple times to tax ourselves to provide services on the streets and Angelino's deserve a system that delivers results and that is accountable to them. That is what we want. We want that. We want more investment not in boondoggles that are designed to get political campaign donations like this convention center expansion that's going to cost the city billions of dollars. Instead of doing that, let's invest in parks and green spaces. Let's plant 100,000 trees before the Olympics and make sure that this Olympics leaves a legacy of shade in a city that is cripplingly hot right now. These are the things that I'm talking about on the campaign trail. These are the things that are getting people excited. And I don't know, you tell me whether that seems radical to you. I think it feels very common sense. I think that when you break down a lot of the politicians, like the ones that are mentioned that aren't taking a lot of corporate pack money, they get falsely cornered as these crazy radicals, but really. If you want to call it radical for delivering for people, then, you know, guilty is charged. But he brought up the Olympics, which brings me to our current president, Donald Trump. And, you know, he likes to grandstand that he brought the Olympics in the World Cup and all of this stuff. And he's just, I mean, this guy is just completely unhinged and claiming recently that he was lifted up by two firemen out of the rubble. I mean, he's a really seriously sick person. I mean, something is really going on there. And he loves to be punitive towards blue states. That's a part of his policy, despite huge pockets and millions of people in California being MAGA supporters, triple trumpers, if you will. He loves to be punitive to blue states because that's the type of politics that MAGA is. So last year, the Trump administration deployed the National Guard to Los Angeles, admits ICE protests, and he's threatened to do it again. What would you do if you were mayor to protect the people in Los Angeles? And we know that ICE has arrested. The numbers of criminals they've arrested is abysmal. It's incredibly low. And they are separating children from their families, abusing people's human rights, killing people, et cetera. How would you address this? Because this is something that, I think, blue cities like yours, you being a woman of color, and let's just face it, he's specifically going to target that situation even more as he has Karen Bass and other women of color across the country. How are you, as mayor, willing to address federal overreach into your city? One thing that people saw when ICE was deployed on our streets last year, and Los Angeles was like the test case for how the federal government was going to attack blue cities. And to me, our mayor's response fell short in that moment and really undermined trust in the ability of the city to stand up for its people. A huge part of that response involved, actually, LAPD, being on our streets, our police force. And in many instances, appearing to actually protect ICE officers as they were horrifying, kidnapping, residents of Los Angeles, instead of protecting the people of Los Angeles from ICE. And I think that is a cultural problem that's embedded in the leadership of the department. And one thing that I would be very, very committed to changing is to make sure that our local enforcement understands that they are here to protect Angelino's and not to protect ICE that is doing such horrifying things on our city streets. I also want to make sure that we are at the forefront of pushing back, using every single tool that we have. Other cities have actually sued the federal government for unconstitutional actions, whether by ICE or by-- cutting off federal dollars for those cities and for programs. Los Angeles has not done as much using the court system to secure our finances, to secure our basic rights. And I want to make sure that I do that as the head of the city of Los Angeles. When I'm there, I'm going to ensure that we work with our city attorney to use every possible avenue to secure those rights. Angelino's want to see that urgency from their mayor. They want to see a mayor that is out there pushing back, using every possible tool that we have in our toolbox. And that is what I'm committed to doing. And I think that would be a very different feeling from the one that they've had under this mayor. I think that sounds really excellent. I think not bending the knee and not capitulating and taking on these bullies is at the epicenter of where everybody's resistance needs to be. Nithya, tell my listeners how they can support you and find you. Well, I'm at nithyaforthecity.com on socials for my website. We are up against an establishment that is raising a lot of money. So if people want to donate, if people want to get involved, if people want a phone bank, I invite everyone to get engaged in making sure that Los Angeles is a place that really works for every single one of its residents. And we can only build that dream together if we are all united against a really, really powerful and broken status quo. Nithya, thank you so much. Thank you for running. We need good, incorruptible people to run for office. And I wish you the best of luck. Thank you so much. [MUSIC PLAYING]