Show full transcript 0:28 It's a difference you can feel, so curl up, try any of our avocado mattresses in person 0:33 at an avocado mattress store or 600 premier retail locations nationwide. 0:38 Find out which of our five comfort levels is right for you, because buying a mattress shouldn't 0:44 be a guessing game. 0:45 And there's no one-size-fits-all when it comes to better sleep. 0:48 Find your comfort. 0:50 Come lie down at Avocado. 0:51 Visit AvocadoGreenMatches.com to find a store near you. 0:55 That's AvocadoGreenMatches.com. 0:58 AvocadoGreenMatress.com. 1:08 Hey everybody, welcome to the weekly show podcast. 1:11 My name is John Stewart. 1:12 I will be your host and guide throughout this podcast. 1:15 It is Tuesday, October 20th. 1:17 The elections are in two weeks, two weeks from today. 1:21 We will learn. 1:22 Can you hear the people sing? 1:25 Singing. 1:29 I am not a prayer, but I cannot take this anymore. 1:34 more. I must be able to believe I live in a country that can see the disaster that our 1:41 wagon has been hitched to and can make corrective moves that can get us to not a better place 1:51 even immediately, just the hope of getting to a better place. I truly want to believe 1:57 that these will be a very anxious couple of weeks. Now, ultimately, look, we'll deal 2:04 is what we deal with whatever happens happens continue to still work hard no matter what 2:08 but the hope is that some measure of relief and understanding will be delivered on that day 2:17 and I really hope that people are fired up and ready to get out there and and vote 2:24 and and send a message that this is all entirely unacceptable and to that it you know we're 2:33 lucky today, we've been talking to different candidates in different swing 2:36 states and things like that. 2:37 And we're going to do it again today. 2:39 We're going to have on ourselves. 2:40 It's one of the most, uh, I think talked about races in the entire country, 2:45 given that it's a swing state, uh, Michigan, and that the democratic, uh, 2:49 candidate is a, uh, I don't know if we have scary music Muslim. 2:55 Did I don't, did we have a sound effect there? 2:57 Most likely we did not because we, we are not a morning radio show. 3:02 But we're going to talk to this gentleman today who was the Democratic Senate candidate. 3:06 So let's get right to it. 3:13 And so we are delighted to be joined this morning by Dr. Abdul El Sayed. 3:17 He is the Democratic nominee for the United States Senate in Michigan. 3:24 How are you, sir? 3:25 I am well all things considered. 3:27 I existentially tired, but grateful to get to do this and honored. 3:31 How long is the run? 3:32 What's the, because you've been through a bruising primary and now you're in the final 3:38 run of the general election. How long has this process been for you? 3:42 Believe it or not, we kicked off in April of 2025. 3:45 Oh, for God's sakes. Let me get a pen. Hold on. Let me start doing the calculations here. 3:49 I'm 14 days left. 3:50 What is the final run up feel like? Do you feel present in this? Are you just sort of 3:56 a buoy in an ocean being dragged through? What's the feeling? 4:00 I mean, honestly, the day-to-day is just, you're constantly being moved from one thing 4:06 to another, but you're constantly being greeted mainly by people who are really excited about 4:10 what they are part of. 4:13 And I'll be honest with you, my family immigrated from a place where there is no democracy. 4:18 There's no chance to run for office. 4:20 Did you come from Egypt? 4:22 Yeah, my family immigrated from Egypt. 4:23 And there is no democracy. 4:25 There's no running for office. 4:26 And, you know, I ran before in 2018 and when it was all over, I realized I really loved 4:34 this work, but it's not the kind of work you can just do. 4:36 And for eight years, I didn't get the opportunity to do it. 4:40 I was working in public health doing other work that I loved. 4:43 But, you know, I've been doing this for 18 months and right now with 14 days left, 4:49 I'm just so grateful to have been able to do this and I want to do it the best 4:53 I can for the next 14 days. 4:55 And at its best, what you're doing is you're having a conversation about who we are and 4:58 who we want to be and what that means for the future we want to build. 5:01 And it's a real privilege and a moment of a lot of gratitude, honestly. 5:06 And I don't know how it's all going to end up on election day, but I'm honored that 5:10 this many people have been so inspired by what we're doing and how we're doing it. 5:15 And I try to live in that, right? 5:17 Just a space of gratitude for the ability to do it because I don't take it for granted. 5:22 Actually, in history, I get to be born in the United States, I get to participate in 5:25 democracy at all. 5:26 I get to participate in democracy in the greatest country in the history of the world. 5:30 I'm just really grateful. 5:31 So, you know, as tiring as it gets, and as... 5:34 Are you resigning, sir? 5:35 That sounds like... 5:36 No. 5:36 No, you're ready to rock this thing. 5:38 You know, you are, but there's a moment when you think about it like a race, like 5:42 you see the checkered flag, and you're racing as hard as you can, and you don't 5:47 know how it's all gonna end up, and you're focused, of course, on talking to every 5:50 last person. 5:51 But the thing about democracy is like we focus on the competition of the thing, but it's not a competition 5:55 It really is about trying to reach to people and talk about 5:59 What they need in their lives and what you can do to deliver that like that's a real privilege 6:03 And you know I trained in medicine and the thing I love about about medicine 6:06 You know in the moments people will give you the worst information 6:10 About about their life on the on the worst day of their life because they think you can help and you're out there with 6:16 armed with the information you have and knowledge and your empathy in your ear and the ability to 6:21 like be that person who people trust with that to try to do something about it. That's a gift 6:26 and politics is the same way when you let it be. And so I just take this as the same kind of work 6:31 on a larger platform and at a larger scale. And so at its best, you're really locking in 6:38 on the challenges people face and what we can do to solve them together. And that's what I 6:42 try to stay locked in on. So what are you, you know, as you go here, what have been the 6:46 best environments because I'm always curious, you know, there's a wide array of events that 6:51 people do when they're campaigning and then there's also obviously the more kind of conflict 6:56 oriented interactions that you have with people that might disagree with you or with 7:01 the candidate that you're running against. 7:03 But what forums have you been in where you feel like you're able to actually connect 7:10 to people in what they're going through and where they can be revelatory about those issues 7:18 and can inform you best, like as someone who is trying to get to maybe the core of the issues 7:27 that people are struggling with, where have you found those moments to be most revealing? 7:33 There are two, one, anytime anybody invites you into their home, that's their space. 7:40 And just the fact that they invited you in says a lot. 7:43 And often, you know, there are kids in the home and when they look at you, they're looking 7:50 at you and then looking at their kid and looking at you. 7:52 And every time they look at their kid, it's like they're remembering the purpose of 7:56 the question they ask. 7:58 And those are the moments that I find the most meaningful. 8:00 And then in a question and answer at a town hall, right? 8:04 Because, you know, town halls are as old as democracy 8:07 and people come, they bring their questions 8:10 and they ask them in front of their neighbors. 8:13 And there's a moment where we collectively 8:15 get to talk about the challenge. 8:16 I mean, we're still doing town halls. 8:18 They're a lot bigger than they used to be 8:19 but we still take open questions. 8:22 But like, it takes me back to the beginning 8:24 of the campaign when the rooms were like 25 8:26 and 30 people deep. 8:27 And we'd have these really intimate moments. 8:29 And the thing about it is somebody would ask a question. 8:31 And then as they ask the question, you look into the audience and you see everybody's 8:35 health's head nodding because they just touched on a nerve. 8:38 And I think great politics is about being able to surface a pain that is collective, 8:45 but that people thought they were holding on their own, you know? 8:47 And you see that moment unlock. 8:50 And if you can speak to the core of the problem and what could be done about it, 8:55 it's almost like you get to do a certain kind of like civic chiropractic. 8:59 the healing. Yeah. Yeah. It's like, it's like, you have a little adjustment, you know, you know, 9:02 you ever seen one of those videos on Instagram or TikTok where like the chiropractor like does 9:07 this little thing and all of a sudden you see this look on this patient's face or like, oh my 9:09 god, you just unlocked all my pain. Everything feels better. Right. There's a moment where you 9:13 can do that. Or broke their neck. I mean, that's, that's the other side of it. 9:16 Not only we don't do that, like, no, we don't want to do it. I mean, this is not a Trump 9:18 show. Okay. What, what have been the issues when you say like somebody expresses a pain 9:25 in their life and you watch it resonate in the room. 9:28 Are there certain issues that you have found specifically that you found those moments in? 9:36 Is it affordability? 9:37 Has it been a story about healthcare? 9:40 Is it cycle of life stuff? 9:42 I'm trying to take care of my parents. 9:44 Where have been those moments of resonance? 9:47 It's three things. 9:48 The first one is anything having to do with care, healthcare, childcare, senior care. 9:52 You hear it all the time. 9:53 And somebody says, you know, I had a woman come up to me, she's like, I had an emergency 9:58 appendectomy and my insurance only covered $395 of it. 10:01 Wow. 10:02 And like, whenever those stories get shared at a town hall, everyone's like, yeah, no, 10:06 that happened to me. 10:07 Yeah, yeah. 10:09 Or I'm worried about my parent, they're getting older and they're needing care and 10:13 I can't offer it. 10:14 And I'm, I'm losing hours at work because I got to stay home with my parent. 10:19 I don't know what happens next. 10:20 In fact, the problem is I actually know what happens next and I don't know what 10:23 I'm going to do about it. 10:24 And then the third one where this often comes up is just this dread about AI and it shows 10:29 up in they're going to put a data center in my backyard or my kids never going to have 10:33 a job despite the fact that they took $60,000 in debt to go to school to get a degree and 10:38 I've told them their whole life prepared them for this and they're going to graduate 10:41 into an economy where there's like no job for them because of AI or I heard about 10:45 this thing called hugging face. 10:47 I didn't know such a thing called hugging face existed. 10:49 What does that mean for me? 10:50 So now, you're literally doing town halls with people in Michigan and people are like, 10:54 what about these agentics that are going into the hugging phase and doing, yeah, no, I can 10:57 imagine. 10:58 It's terrifying. 10:59 No, you'd be in the middle of Michigan and people are like, hey, recursive self-improvement. 11:02 And you're like, okay. 11:04 Yeah, how long is it going to be before it's recursive and then it can self-improve 11:07 and then the hugging phase is going to, yeah, it's terrifying. 11:10 Like I don't want my face hugged. 11:11 Like I want my face caressed, but I'm hugged. 11:13 Now, how do you make changes, you know, is the process of running for office? 11:19 Is it the kind of thing that you have to make adjustments then to the policy prescriptions 11:24 that you're making? 11:25 Like how does this all come together? 11:27 Because, you know, I imagine the schedule is so busy and so much of it is reactive 11:33 to whatever they think the moments are. 11:35 are, how are you able to take those stories and then turn them into what look like affirmative 11:43 policy choices that you could make? 11:45 Because I imagine that changes the more you hear. 11:48 Well, it changes how you talk about it. 11:50 But a lot of times, I mean, this is the thing, right? 11:52 This is why the parallel of the medicine works so well. 11:55 People will tell you, oh, I've got this pain. 11:58 And you're like, oh, okay. 11:59 Based on my knowledge of anatomy and physiology and pathophysiology, what might be causing 12:03 that pain and you have sort of a differential diagnosis. And then there's, you know, exams 12:07 that you do to try to figure out which of the diagnoses or which of several it is. 12:12 So you're triaging. And as a political candidate, you're kind of triaging a society 12:16 of what's the most urgent care needed. Exactly. And then the policy prescription, 12:22 though, is like, how do you treat appendicitis? Well, there's a treatment for appendicitis. 12:27 It's appendectomy, right? And you want to be able to demonstrate to somebody, hey, look, 12:33 Like, this is the manifestation of this particular societal illness that you are feeling. 12:38 Here is the solution set based on an understanding of public policy that we think can address 12:42 it. 12:43 Now, the heart part about it is like, you know, there is no one set decision we have 12:48 to go and work that decision through the political process. 12:51 And the tough part about it is like, this is where the analogy crumbles. 12:54 It's like there are like a set of like Wario doctors out there, namely MAGA. 12:59 You're going to go Mario, you're going to go Mario card on this. 13:01 You're going. 13:01 You're running for Senate and you're going Mario Kart on me? All right. But you know what I'm talking about, right? 13:07 You're like, of course. Exactly. So, I mean, but this is the thing about it is that I think too often 13:12 we don't campaign like most campaigns because I, you know, I've done the work of listening. I've been out there for 18 months. 13:19 I mean, in the early days, we were really listening before we had proposed, you know, all of the specifics around all of our policy solutions. 13:25 as you put it together. 13:26 And so you hear it and then you sort of map it to the policy and then from there you're 13:30 talking about the policy that you need to pass but the thing about me, I think most 13:35 people have probably interacted with our campaign at some point on something, TikTok 13:38 Reels, you saw me on getting a colonoscopy on CNN or something. 13:43 Wait, did you really get a colonoscopy on CNN or is that a joke? 13:46 It's more like a political colonoscopy on CNN. 13:48 Oh, okay, fair enough. 13:49 All right. 13:49 There we go. 13:50 A metaphor. 13:50 It's a metaphor. 13:51 A metaphorical colonoscopy. 13:53 All right. 13:53 But the thing is like, I just say the same thing because I'm not, I don't take money 13:57 from corporations. 13:58 I'm not out here trying to triangulate between what my donors and what my voters think. 14:03 I'm here for voters. 14:04 I want to work for working people. 14:06 And so maybe it makes it easier for me because at the end of the day, I don't have to worry 14:09 about like, is this thing that I said going to piss off some donor over there, some 14:13 special interest, like, you know, special interests, they are dead set to make sure 14:17 to beat me. 14:18 They've spent a historic amount of money to do so. 14:21 But in my case, I'm like, look, the only thing I got is I'm going to tell you what I think I'm going to say it everywhere. 14:26 I'm going to say it the best I can and you know, God willing people support me. 14:30 And if they don't, that's okay. 14:31 But I'd rather not be in the United States Senate out here without the ability to actually solve the problem 14:37 because I've, you know, lied through my teeth all the way up. 14:49 Yo, these guys, I wish this thing exploded. 14:54 I wish this was the thing that everybody talked about, about news. 14:57 Ground news, it compares coverage on stories across news outlets, 15:02 compares them across international coverage. 15:04 We're not getting the information that the world is necessarily getting. 15:09 We live in a bit of a kind of a, I don't know what you would call it. 15:14 I guess you would say bubble would be the way you call it. 15:17 So it helps you differentiate how the world is seeing the events in this country, 15:21 how we are seeing it, how we're seeing the events in the world. 15:25 it's remarkable. It compares how each outlet frames the same story and allows 15:31 you to get the context to help you understand your own thoughts, your own 15:39 conclusions about the information that is being fed to you and it is being fed 15:47 to you purposefully. You can even see news sources, 15:51 is Factuality Rating. You can see who's funding them. What? What? Transparency. Subscribe for 16:03 40% off unlimited access by scanning the QR code on screen or go to ground.news.js. Make 16:11 sure you use our link so they know we sent you. Again, that's ground.news.js. 16:24 You know, you've reflected a lot on how what you like about politics is somewhat what you 16:31 like about medicine in that it's kind of prescriptive. 16:34 You're getting, people are telling you the symptoms of the difficulties they're having. 16:38 You're diagnosing what it might be and giving them a prescriptive or a remedy that they 16:43 might be able to use to ease that pain, which makes me think to myself, why didn't 16:50 you then become a doctor, is it, because it sounds like something that is very much 16:57 a process embedded in the way you think. 17:00 So why did you make the decision to pivot from that? 17:04 So when I graduated medical school, I had done a PhD in public health and finished medical 17:08 school and I'm in my final year in medical school and I'm starting to realize that 17:14 so many of the challenges I'm trying to face sit downstream of a set of systems that 17:19 make people sick in the first place and keep us from actually healing them. 17:23 And it's not to say that you can't get good healthcare in the healthcare system, it's just 17:26 that you have to be a very particular kind of person to get good uncomplicated healthcare. 17:31 And I really, I went to medical school in large part because I could go 15 hours to 17:36 my family's native Egypt or 15 minutes from where I grew up and I'd cross 10 years difference 17:39 in life expectancy. 17:40 And in order to solve those problems, I realized that you needed to be the kind 17:44 of doctor that worked on the system and not just in the system. 17:46 And so a lot of what I've tried to do has been around, you know, addressing the circumstances 17:52 in society that keep people ill or stop them from getting the health care they need. 17:56 I went into public health, rebuilt Detroit's health department, Ledwyne County's Department 18:00 of Health, Human and Veteran Services. 18:01 We guaranteed glasses for kids. 18:04 We took on corporate polluters. 18:05 We made prescription drugs less expensive. 18:08 We eliminated $100 million, up to $700 million when the program's all over of medical 18:14 debt. 18:14 that we made sure that after Flint, kids weren't drinking lead in their schools. 18:20 That's the kind of work that my career has been about. 18:22 I wrote the book on Medicare for All. 18:24 So in some respects, it's like saying, well, do I treat the problem one patient at a time 18:30 frustratedly or do I try to go upstream as folks in public health talk about it to try 18:35 to understand why the system is so broken and how to fix it? 18:39 And then the other thing about it is, my whole life, all of my mentors had told 18:42 me I'm gonna run for office. 18:43 I'm like, that's some crazy bullshit. 18:44 Did they really? 18:45 I mean, so my college graduation, I was like, I was the valedictorian of my class at Michigan 18:49 and I got to give the student commencement speech, which was a real honor. 18:51 All right. 18:51 There's no need to go valedictory. 18:54 No need to go valedictorian on me. 18:56 That's hurtful. 18:57 That's just hurtful. 18:58 But look, I'll tell you this, I'm a child of immigrants, okay? 19:01 So I'm here feeling pretty good about myself and my parents make it very clear. 19:06 They're like, we're not going to hear you. 19:08 We're going to hear Bill Clinton, who is the actual speaker. 19:10 Oh, Bill Clinton was the speaker at your graduation? 19:12 Yes. 19:12 So so I give my speech president Clinton gives his speech he he like praises me in his speech was real honor 19:18 It gets my dad to clap for me for the first time 19:20 I didn't even see it. He was in the audience my parents told me it like my my siblings told me about it afterwards 19:25 But after the speech president Clinton comes up to me 19:27 He's like son, you know why you go to medical school, which is not a question people ask you when you go to medical school 19:31 I'm like a brown and Muslim so what we do 19:33 But also I love people. I love science. I want to serve and he said that's great 19:38 But you got a gift for communicating and maybe someday or run for office 19:40 I was like, really nice that you say, I've got an 11 letter first name. 19:45 Got sounds that come out of parts of people's throats. 19:46 Most people don't know they have. 19:47 People like me don't get to run for office. 19:49 And it's funny because he thought about it for a second and then he chuckled and walked 19:53 away. 19:54 This was 2007, right? 19:56 2008, President Barack Hussein Obama runs and waits. 20:00 Is that, was Obama's victory a clarion call for you? 20:04 Was it, wait a second, if that name can make it, because it's clearly something 20:09 You had a little bit of an interest in was that was that the moment that you thought it becomes a possibility? 20:15 Honestly, it was 2004 watching him give that DNC speech really though. We're not we're not blue. We're not red. We're purple 20:23 Yeah, but he was it was also just like I had never seen politics who look like him 20:28 or sound like him and implicitly look like me at all right and 20:33 And he just, I mean, I was doing dishes. 20:36 I literally, I like stopped when he started to give that speech. 20:40 And I was like watching, you know how you have the TV on? 20:42 I was doing dishes in my parents' house. 20:43 And I just stopped. 20:45 I like, suds are falling from my hands. 20:46 I'm just watching this man give this speech. 20:49 And then when he won in 2008, when he ran, right? 20:52 The way he ran, when he won in 2008, 20:54 I still didn't expect that I was ever gonna run 20:56 for office, you know, at that point, 20:57 I was on my way to Oxford to do a PhD. 21:00 I was in medical school when he... 21:02 Wait, so you're validating to an image and then you're on your way to Oxford to do a paycheck. 21:06 You're annoying me now. 21:07 Now I'm annoyed. 21:08 Listen, man. 21:09 Look, look, look. 21:10 I'm just a brown kid who's a child of immigrants with a gigantic chip on my shoulder who had 21:17 to prove it. 21:18 I just, I study way too much in my life. 21:20 But yeah, look, I mean, and I'm really grateful. 21:23 Like, I'm grateful that he was a president of my 20s, but I still didn't think it 21:27 was the right thing for me. 21:28 I wanted to be a physician scientist. 21:29 I thought I was gonna be a neurosurgeon my dad still annoying me annoyingly reminds me he's like hey 21:34 You could have been a surgeon. I'm like I could have been a surgeon. Oh wow 21:37 Are you surprised Abdul because it's you know the way you describe the mechanism of like the immigrant experience? 21:45 And why because I hear this a lot in first-generation second-generation immigrant 21:50 Families and my parents had that experience 21:53 That the expectation was 21:55 Because this isn't about you. 21:58 This is about the sacrifice that we made to get you here, and you will not squander that 22:05 opportunity, young man. 22:07 There's a real pressure that is put on those children of first generation, second generation 22:15 to not squander the sacrifice to get to this place of opportunity. 22:21 I think that's part of it. 22:22 I'll crystallize it for you. 22:23 Like in the mechanism day today, I love playing sports right played football wrestled play the cross like but my dad's rule is no a no play 22:30 You know if if you don't get straight a's like if you get a single B 22:36 You don't play you sit. Wow. Yeah, you will not play. I'll pull you from the team. I would not have played 22:43 Yeah, I 22:44 Really enjoyed playing so like for me. I was like, alright 22:47 but the other part of it was this like in my in my middle school years 22:51 my parents would ship me off to Egypt. And I'd spend my time with my Tata, my grandmother, 22:57 smartest person I ever met, best storyteller you've ever heard. Like really, never got to school. 23:04 She was illiterate. Ninth to 14, grew up in Alexandria, Egypt, had eight babies of her own, 23:09 two of them died before their first birthday. My dad was her eldest. He watched his two siblings 23:13 pass before he turned five. And it was recognizing the accident of history. I mean, 23:18 My dad was an amazing student. 23:19 There was a reason no A, no play was a thing 23:21 because like he literally studied my life into existence. 23:24 I'll never be able to repay that. 23:26 And he gets to come to America to do a PhD in engineering 23:30 and gets to make cars in Michigan, 23:33 which is the dream for this kid, right? 23:35 Right. 23:35 So that's how you ended up in Michigan. 23:37 He was engineering the cars. 23:38 Exactly. 23:39 Okay. 23:39 And he worked for GM. 23:41 But in some respects, 23:42 it's also realizing that I'm like, man, 23:44 you know, when I was a kid, 23:45 I'd have teachers be like, 23:46 oh, you're smart and you work hard. 23:47 I'm like my grandmother was smart and worked hard. She got nothing. Right. And it's not about 23:52 smart and work hard. It's smart and work hard if you're lucky enough to have the opportunity for it. 23:56 So you recognize this. You never resented the kind of grind that you had to do because you looked at 24:02 it as it wasn't an obligation. It was a privilege and that you had family members that you were 24:08 looking at like, no, those people struggled. I'm living the dream. John, I'll tell you, 24:13 like on my worst day, I have a nicer life than most of my cousins. Right. Could ever dream 24:16 Right. 24:18 You know, like... 24:18 Are they still... 24:19 Are there's a lot of your family still there? 24:21 Almost my whole family's still there. 24:22 Right? 24:22 I think there's one other family member that immigrated to Canada. 24:25 But like, you know, I just... 24:27 So it's one of those things where you're like, wait a second, wait a second. 24:30 I get this incredible gift and I get a front row seat to the life I should have had but 24:36 for the opportunity to be born and raised in America. 24:39 And so in some respects, like as I matured and I got older, you realize you owe 24:43 that something. 24:44 And my grandmother, I remember, I remember I was 13 years old, it was one of the first 24:48 trips I'd gone on by myself. 24:50 And you know, when you go back to your family's homeland, they, I had two suitcases, one with 24:56 my stuff and one with all the gifts. 24:58 So now I'm like, I'm just like giving out all the gifts to all my cousins and feel myself. 25:02 You're the messenger that has to bring all the back and forth and. 25:06 Yeah, but like, but like, I'm not feeling like the man, right? 25:08 And my, my, my grandmother pulls me aside. 25:10 She's like, how do you become sit down? 25:12 So I'm sitting down with her. 25:13 She says points to one of my cousins that one smarter than you are damn right off the bat points to the next one 25:18 That one taller and better looking that one is nicer than you that one 25:22 But she told me every one of my cousins and but she was making a really important point because I asked her in the end 25:26 Of this I'm like I'm like, you know like she's tore me down to size and and I asked her is like well 25:30 To like what do I have going for me? She's like you have the best thing of all 25:33 I was like, okay. All right 25:35 She's like you get to go home at the end of the summer to America the rest of your cousins stay here 25:38 Dude. 25:39 And then like, it's a reminder, you're like, I have opportunity that my cousins don't have 25:43 and not everybody has that. 25:44 And the crazy thing about it is this. 25:46 My grandmother's understanding of America was like the 1950s movies that were translated 25:51 on TV and EJ. 25:51 Right. 25:52 Happy days. 25:54 Like, she couldn't have imagined that I could go 15 minutes from where I grew up 25:56 and there were kids whose opportunity set looked a lot more like my cousins than 25:59 mine. 26:00 Oh, that's interesting. 26:01 And, you know, like I, growing up really, it was one of those things where I'm 26:05 I'm like, no, no, no, I want whatever I got, 26:08 I want to be able to use it 26:09 to make sure that other folks get the opportunity I got. 26:12 And so it's been the sort of through line of my career. 26:14 And, you know, it's a reason I went to medical school. 26:16 It's a reason I decided not to train clinically, 26:18 went into public health. 26:19 It's the reason I went into public service. 26:21 It's the reason I'm running now. 26:23 And so a lot of folks will look at me and they say, 26:24 oh, well, that guy's got like a chip on his shoulder 26:26 and doesn't back down. 26:26 I don't back down. 26:27 Because I also know that like, 26:29 what are you gonna take from me? 26:30 Honestly, like I had a better life 26:31 than most of my cousins anyway. 26:33 What are you gonna take from me? 26:34 You know, like, I don't have to be a United States Senator, but I do not want to be a 26:38 United States Senator who plays this game to get to where everybody thinks you actually 26:42 have some power, only to be hamstrung, to do the thing with power that you were supposed 26:45 to do in the first place. 26:46 So, I'm going to tell you what I think, and if I don't win this, see, okay, but I'm 26:50 not going to lie to you, and I'm not going to tell you that I am okay with a certain 26:54 series of bipartisan consensus that have been manufactured by a few folks with 26:58 a lot of money. 26:59 I'm not okay with that. 27:00 And when you see that, you know, the surprising, because I think people in other, you know, 27:04 they always talk about, well, there's the third world and then there's America, 27:07 and not understanding that in America, in the way that we have it, there are millions and 27:13 millions of people suffering through the same kinds of economic deprivation and the same 27:18 kind of difficulties that those in these other countries are feeling like, well, that, 27:23 that would never happen in America. Was that surprising to your family to see that? 27:29 I think for my dad definitely, you know, my dad immigrates here, he goes to Detroit, 27:34 to Wayne State and his dad sold vegetables in a fish market. So he never trusted the, 27:39 you know, the stuff at Kroger and he would go, we have this amazing outdoor market called the 27:43 Eastern Market. So we would go to the Eastern Market and it was, it was an eye-opening experience 27:48 for him because immediately he comes to America in a struck by American poverty. 27:53 In, you know, like minutes walk from the eastern market, you have a deep amount of poverty. 27:59 And I'll just say this. 28:00 The poverty that we have in America that afflicts predominantly black folk in this country and 28:05 rural folk in this country is categorically worse because if you think about it, it happens 28:11 in a context in which we assume it doesn't exist or the broader public doesn't talk 28:15 about it. 28:16 Right. 28:16 And it also doesn't have to exist. 28:18 that it is, you know, when they talk about, it's one thing I always say, you know, they 28:22 say there's an affordability crisis. Well, it's not a crisis. It's the inevitable result 28:27 of a system that is rigged towards these outcomes. There is a certain underclass that our system 28:34 requires to function in the manner that it functions. This is the end result of it. 28:41 This is exactly the choice. When we make a choice where an economy is more interested 28:45 in making it easier for a billionaire to make a second billion than anybody out there 28:50 to make their first 100,000. 28:51 This is what happens. 28:52 First 10,000. 28:53 First 5,000. 28:54 I mean, look, you can go to communities in Detroit, median income is $14,000 a year. 29:00 And their schools look like they did 50 years ago. 29:02 And meanwhile, we're out here creating all these tax gaps, the one big, ugly bills 29:06 cutting healthcare for those folks while it's creating tax loopholes for the richest 29:11 people to make a second billion under the argument that somehow this is good 29:14 for our economy. 29:15 it's insane. How many billions do we spend buying bombs and tanks for other people's 29:21 countries that go and kill other kids when we should be spending on schools and health 29:25 care for our own kids? It doesn't make any sense. 29:27 So these are the types of messages that I would imagine would resonate. And as I'm 29:33 reading up on it, they're saying, well, they'll say it is struggling a bit in Detroit 29:38 and he lost Detroit to Hailey Stevens when he was doing it. That seems like the kind 29:43 of message that would resonate completely and totally in communities that have been suffering. 29:51 So is your message resonating there? 29:54 Are you surprised that there's still this conversation about, well, geez, Mike Rogers 29:59 is going to do great. 30:00 Mike Rogers is the opponent that you're running against, is going to do better in 30:05 Detroit than people thought he would. 30:06 But what's going on there that makes this message maybe not resonating in the same way? 30:13 Let me say three things about that. 30:15 First, it's easy to manufacture a narrative online if you want to. 30:18 There you go. 30:19 That's the easy to manufacture a narrative for somebody like Mike Rogers. 30:22 He opened up what, 16 days left in the election, opens up a Detroit office, invites a whole 30:25 bunch of suburbanites to come and open it for him. 30:27 Are you suggesting, sir, that the narrative I've been reading about in the papers 30:30 may not be accurate? 30:32 I am intimating that it may, in fact, not be accurate. 30:35 What? 30:36 Well, that is it. 30:37 The second thing is, you know, in my primary, we got outspent 11 to 1, $70 million spent 30:44 against us. 30:45 That is a record spent. 30:46 In the primary. 30:47 In the primary. 30:48 This is, this is too Democrat. 30:50 This is Democrat on Democrat violence, $70 million spent against another Democrat. 30:54 $70 million. 30:56 Holy shit. 30:57 So why do they spend that money? 30:59 It's not just like, you know, shits and giggles. 31:00 It's not like they're just having fun spending that money. 31:02 They spend that money because it's effective. 31:03 And if you look at the ads that they ran, it was an ad arguing that President Obama 31:07 had endorsed against me and took an op-ed that I wrote 15 years ago about the Let's 31:11 Move campaign from the First Lady, intimating that somehow I'm disrespectful to women because 31:16 I wrote an op-ed with a few critiques about that program saying it's a good program but 31:21 here's some limits on the program. 31:22 So it was $70 million spent specifically to break my relationship with the community. 31:27 And I was up 20 points on July 4th, headed into a month before the primary, 31:31 and then they spent that much money. 31:33 And I still took 40% of the black vote. 31:36 Now, here's the thing about it. 31:38 If you look at dollars per vote spent, right? 31:41 And if you take the argument that advertising works, 31:43 well, I think our narrative is pretty good. 31:45 The problem is that far fewer people heard that 31:47 than they heard the mis and disinformation 31:49 about me in attack ads. 31:51 Let me ask you a question though, 31:53 because I hear this sometimes a lot. 31:56 Is there anything though that you did 31:58 or that you said that you thought actually that was a mistake and it did it did cause 32:06 some conflict or friction with between the black community because there are real issues 32:12 there between the Arab community and the black community things that you might have said 32:16 that you know might have rubbed them the wrong way like the spends in those things 32:21 I understand it can be tough but what are some of the things that you think could 32:25 It could have gone better that you had done. 32:28 Look, I've been leading with Black folk in the city of Detroit, almost my whole public 32:32 service career. 32:33 City of Detroit, rebuilt the health department there, Wayne County served in the county. 32:39 And my work, I hope, speaks to what my intentions and my work is about. 32:45 That being said, right, there are a lot of sources of tension. 32:49 Too often, if you're in the city of Detroit and you interact with somebody who looks 32:51 like me, it's not a good experience. 32:53 It's behind both proof glass and a gas station or a party store. 32:57 You're being cat-called, you're being denied a bathroom, you're being sold goods that nobody 33:01 should be eating. 33:02 You're saying in terms of like small business owners that, I mean, there's always tension 33:07 in communities between small business owners that don't look like the community and the 33:11 community that is going there. 33:13 And it's even bigger. 33:14 Like I would argue that a lot of these business owners have not done what they 33:19 needed to do to build relationships and have been deeply disrespectful if not racist. 33:22 just in these communities. 33:24 And I've tried to be on the right side of those issues. 33:26 You know, when I was health director, 33:27 both in Detroit and Wayne County, 33:29 I worked to hold a lot of these folks accountable. 33:32 At the same time, right? 33:33 Like most folks haven't interacted with me, 33:35 but they probably have interacted with one of those folks. 33:38 The other thing I'll tell you is that, 33:39 you know, in the 2024 election, 33:43 the question of uncommitted became a serious issue. 33:47 Break that down a bit. 33:48 So for people that are listening that don't understand, 33:51 and there was in the 2024 election, 33:54 a large portion of the community in Michigan 33:57 that felt that Gaza was not being addressed. 34:00 Right, and it was about the primary, right? 34:03 It was about an uncontested primary 34:04 where President Biden, frankly, shamefully, 34:07 backstopped the genocide in Gaza 34:10 and folks wanted to send a message. 34:12 And frankly, they borrowed from the political tactics 34:15 of the community, of the black community 34:17 when it came to apartheid in South Africa. 34:19 They said, look, we are not going to abide this, watching our tax dollars go to kill, 34:26 for some people, their cousins, literally. 34:28 And so the community said, look, we're going to vote uncommitted in the primary. 34:32 And at that point, it was an open, it was a close primary. 34:34 Nobody else was running against the president. 34:36 And then, you know, I supported uncommitted for a reason because I wanted to send a message 34:41 to my own party. 34:42 I'd run for governor in 2018. 34:43 It's not my first time. 34:44 I wanted to send a message to the party. 34:47 Now, after President Biden dropped and Vice President Harris became the nominee, I endorsed 34:51 her the next day. 34:52 I was the first Arab Muslim leader to do it and I endorsed her because I knew whether 34:56 you saw this from the eyes of a child in Gaza or the eyes of a child in Detroit, that Trump 35:00 would be worse. 35:01 And I spent a very, very frustrating 106 days both on the phone with Arab and Muslim 35:07 leaders trying to be like, guys, don't you remember the first thing he did when 35:09 he got elected last time as a whole on Muslim ban? 35:11 And then also on the phone with the Harris administration being like, hey, there needs 35:15 to be some daylight between the president's policies and this campaign's policies. 35:19 And in the end, there was no budging and we saw what happened. 35:22 But I tried to be on the right side of that both times, both times. 35:26 So you're balancing that. 35:27 So the idea is they feel like by putting uncommitted, you might have hurt Kamala Harris's chances 35:35 there. 35:36 And so the black community might feel like, all right, that guy, that guy wasn't a 35:41 soldier for us when we needed him, that his issue was more important. 35:46 Except for, except for, I personally was, whereas a lot of folks who looked like me 35:51 were not, right? And I, again, I endorsed the vice president. In fact, the vice president endorsed 35:55 me. She came and campaigned with me in this general election just about a month ago. 36:00 And then all that flips around, and now you've got a problem with the Jewish vote 36:04 in Michigan. It's a very complex little dance that everybody has to do. 36:10 And the thing that you'll get with me is in the end I'll always side on principle, right? On principle 36:16 I endorsed uncommitted on principle. I endorsed the vice president when she ran and on principle 36:22 I oppose our our 36:25 Unconditional foreign military aid to foreign governments generally like and it's not just Israel. It's Egypt. It's Saudi Arabia 36:30 It's Pakistan. It's Jordan and I you know when it comes to the question 36:35 Well, it's also the autocracies. These are all military obligations in places where democracy 36:42 does not live. That and, you know, it's like we are so incoherent and so hypocritical when it comes 36:49 to our foreign policy, right? Even just take the question of Israel on its own terms. Every 36:54 single president has said that they support a two-state solution. And we are out here 37:01 We're aiding, arming, and abetting the very government that wants to foreclose on the 37:06 second state telling us that we are supporting a two-state solution. 37:11 I'm like, no, we're not. 37:12 We are actually actively not. 37:14 There is a full on genocide in Gaza. 37:16 There's full on apartheid in the West Bank. 37:18 Our tax dollars subsidize it. 37:20 But so even so, when you speak with that, and I appreciate the candor, obviously, 37:25 and so much is made of the semantics of this. 37:28 But, when does principle that you stand on and moral courage get in the way of empathy 37:37 or understanding of different communities that you have to balance in your home state 37:44 of Michigan? 37:44 Because your passion for it is so clear. 37:48 But if I'm from Michigan, I might think, why do I give a shit about that anyway? 37:52 Well, John, bring it. 37:54 Look, bring it. 37:55 Detroit public schools. 37:56 Yes, sir. 37:56 just had $700 million invested in that building. 37:59 Now we're getting somewhere. 38:01 Come on. 38:02 Bring it home. 38:03 They still are behind $1.8 billion. 38:08 We just authorized $2.8 billion of 2,000-pound bombs 38:14 for a foreign government. 38:16 And a 2,000-pound bomb never gave a kid an education. 38:19 It never fed somebody, never provided health care. 38:21 So people are like, oh, Abdul cares more about the West Bank. 38:24 I'm like, no, I don't. 38:24 So the money that we are spending to subsidize apartheid in the West Bank is money that should 38:28 be used on the West side. 38:30 That's our money. 38:31 It should be spent here. 38:31 We got a $1.5 trillion defense budget that we're working on. 38:35 And wars we shouldn't be fighting. 38:37 Why? 38:37 Right. 38:39 Because our ostensible ally came and lobbied for a war that they had clear war aims 38:43 in. 38:43 Right. 38:44 It's like, if you're walking with your friend in the woods and there's a bear 38:46 and your friend pokes the bear and now you're running from the bear, you're 38:49 like, yeah, well, who's more dangerous? 38:51 The bear or my friend? 38:51 And I'm like, I'm just like, and what kind of friend put you in a position where you're 38:54 now fighting a bear? 38:55 Well, your friend is kind of an idiot. 39:04 You've heard me talk about fast-growing trees, right? 39:07 They've advertised on the show a couple of times. 39:10 And you know how I feel about trees. 39:13 I'm a fan. 39:14 I find them to be most pleasing visually. 39:19 I like what they're about in terms of making their own food through the conversion of 39:23 sunlight. 39:25 I like how they take carbon dioxide, do something with it. 39:33 I can't remember exactly what, but I think they might turn it back into oxygen. 39:36 Well, I've got some news for you people. 39:39 Fast growing trees has changed their name. 39:43 They're just trees now, trees.com. 39:45 That's it. 39:46 Because why, why just fast growing trees? 39:49 Why should fast growing trees get all the, the pub? 39:52 Why should fast growing trees have all the RIS? 39:54 is slow growing trees are trees too. 39:57 They do just as well with all those other tree things 40:00 that I mentioned earlier. 40:02 Now it's just trees.com, which I think simplifies thing, 40:04 quite frankly, to the point where I think I needed them too. 40:08 Trees.com. 40:08 They're America's largest, most trusted online nursery 40:10 and they're alive and thrive. 40:12 Guarantee promises your plants arrive happy and healthy. 40:14 So please, please, I cannot beg you anymore. 40:21 Go to trees.com. 40:24 Right now they have great deals on planting essentials. 40:26 Up to half off on select plants 40:28 and listeners to our show get 20% off their purchase 40:31 when using the code TWS to check out. 40:34 That's an additional 20% off better plants 40:39 and better growing at trees.com 40:42 using the code TWS to check out. 40:45 Trees.com code TWS. 40:48 Now's the perfect time to plant. 40:50 Let's grow together. 40:51 use TWS to save today. Offer is valid for a limited time." Terms and conditions may apply. 41:04 Your opponent, Mike Rogers, holds a special place of disdain in my life. 41:10 You and me both. 41:12 Well, I'll tell you why, and it goes along with this. It's this paper patriotism of guys 41:19 that claim the mantle of, I love the troops, I respect the, never forget the heroes in 9-11, 41:26 This guy, Mike Rogers, was a real pain in our ass in 2010. 41:34 We were trying to get this Droga Act, which was for 9-11 first responders in their healthcare 41:38 through Congress. 41:39 And he was a particularly obstinate, oh, that's just a New York problem. 41:46 He voted against it all while talking about how much he respects and we owe the heroes 41:53 of 9-11. 41:53 And I'm a patriot and all that. 41:55 And it was all bullshit and I cannot tell you he holds a special place along with like Senator 42:01 Mike Lee, the same kind of bullshit of never forget the heroes of 9-11 and this country 42:07 was attacked, we got to stand up and we're the patriots and we're the patriotic party. 42:11 And he stood in the way of these individuals that he called heroes getting the healthcare 42:18 that they needed based on the selfless heroism that they displayed down in 9-11. 42:22 So I, and I apologize for the rant on that, but man, does that hold a special 42:29 contemptuous place in my heart for individuals like that? 42:32 Truly. 42:32 And John, I got it. 42:33 I got to credit you for your incredible activism in standing with folks. 42:37 Oh, no credit to me, believe me. 42:39 It was all these other guys, but I'm telling you. 42:40 There are a lot of folks, but you helped lead the fight. 42:42 He was a, he was a problem in that fight. 42:45 I mean, this is who he is though. 42:47 He, he lacks the moral ability 42:51 to hold himself accountable for his own positions. 42:56 And so he can both lie to you and say 42:59 that he is a real patriot 43:01 and he would never, ever, ever fail our first responders 43:05 and then literally look at a first responder 43:09 who had part of a limb amputated 43:12 because of his heroism on 9-11 and tell them 43:16 that I'm actually gonna actively vote 43:18 against your health care because it's a newer problem. 43:20 No, that's John, the individual you're talking about, his name is John Field and he runs a 43:25 foundation for first responders in New York and he was the guy who's, you know, kind of heroic 43:30 efforts pushed this thing through to its limits. So, yeah, I am very familiar with your opponent 43:38 and boy do I hope that, and it's interesting to me because so much of the campaign, 43:45 I mean, if we're being honest, you know, 43:49 you're talking a lot about your background 43:51 and how it informed your desire for public service. 43:55 They're talking about your background 43:58 and how it informs your dual loyalties to America. 44:05 How, so it's, I find it's such an interesting dichotomy 44:11 that as you tell your personal story, 44:14 It really forms what your desire for public service is, and right now it's being utilized. 44:21 We'll talk about, you know, you were at a town hall and this young Tommy, we'll call him, 44:26 I believe his name was Tommy, asked you to disavow the Muslim Brotherhood. 44:30 Now, this guy, Tommy, apparently turned out to be a Republican operative who worked for 44:35 Josh Hawley, Senator Josh Hawley. But what does it say that your opponent is not interested 44:41 in what part of your immigrant story drove you to service but it's the part of your immigrant 44:49 story that makes you worthy of suspicion. It's that I have, my family has an immigrant 44:57 story in the first place and he's going to use that to distract people from the actual 45:02 issues in this race because the actual issues in this race are that the guy who called 45:07 them up and asked him to run Donald Trump, took us to a war we had no business fighting 45:11 and now you're paying for it, both in your taxes and at the pump and at the grocery store. 45:17 There's a tariff war with Canada because he's got a vanity campaign against the prime minister 45:22 of Canada. 45:23 And so now we're getting tariffed through our teeth, $5,600 what we're paying in Michigan 45:28 on average. 45:28 And people should know, Michigan and Canada, I mean, when you cross the border from 45:31 Michigan to Canada, it's not like an international trip. 45:34 It's like going from, you know, New York to New Jersey like it's it's it's like crossing a state border. It's exactly 45:40 I mean Detroit is the only place in the country you can go south to go to Canada 45:44 that that's how that's how intertwined we are and 45:48 You know and now we're paying for it and 45:51 He I mean he has the audacity is the crazy thing. He has this ad 45:55 That Debbie Staben now ran in the early 2000s 45:58 Standing in front of Windsor on the Detroit River talking about how much more expensive 46:04 prescription drug prices are here than they are, 46:06 except for he voted four times 46:09 against prescription drug re-importation. 46:11 I'm like, my guy, you did that, that was your policy. 46:15 And so he is just, I mean, it's like the hypocrisy 46:17 of the thing, he doesn't wanna talk about 46:19 how hard it is to see a doctor. 46:20 He doesn't wanna talk about air and water. 46:22 He doesn't wanna talk about any of these things. 46:24 So instead he just points to me and my name. 46:26 Donald Trump and JD Vance are in on the act. 46:28 They're doing all of this 46:29 because they don't wanna actually talk about their policies 46:32 and they think they've got red meat. 46:34 The thing they don't get is that I don't back down 46:38 and I'm not afraid of who I am. 46:40 I know exactly who I am. 46:42 And for years, I wrestled with the idea 46:43 of whether or not I could even do this because of my name. 46:46 And at some point, here's the thing about it. 46:48 I was raised by my dad and my stepmom Jackie, okay? 46:50 Daughter of the American Revolution 46:51 from the middle of the state. 46:52 Jackie? 46:53 Jackie, right? 46:54 I mean, grandparents are Jan and Judy Johnson. 46:57 Jackie El Sayed. 46:59 Jackie El Sayed, right? 47:00 And the irony of it is this my I have a little brother whose name is Osama long story, right? 47:06 So my parents named me he gave me a 11-letter first name 47:09 They're like we're gonna do a lot something a lot easier 47:11 And so 1992 rolls around 47:14 And they're like we're gonna name him Sam with oh on the front and a on the back 47:18 And then that asshole and Saudi Arabia went ruined it for him 47:21 But here's the funny thing my brother was Sam El Sayed. Okay, Osama 47:26 He he literally is a blood descendant of Abigail Adams 47:30 Oh, that's wild. 47:32 But that's America. 47:33 Right? 47:33 That is America. 47:34 And there are small-minded people who want to make America small like them. 47:38 America has always been big, particularly in Michigan. 47:41 Michigan people won't realize this is a microcosm of America. 47:43 You got Detroit. 47:44 You got Dearborn. 47:45 You got Grand Rapids. 47:46 And then you've got places like Cairo or places like Iron Mountain or places like 47:51 Escanobo. 47:52 Now what's Cairo? 47:52 Now, I'm not familiar with any of those Iron Mountain. 47:55 Where's that? 47:56 They're tiny little towns. 47:57 I was just in the last three days. 47:59 Yeah. Where we had like, by the way, 500 or 600 people in every one of those rooms. 48:03 And the thing about it is that Michiganders are this rare combination of being gritty and earnest. 48:09 Right. And we expect the best and give the best, but we're willing to work. 48:12 We just don't like being exploited by people. And a little overly nice for my taste. I've, 48:17 when I've been up there, the niceness almost starts to feel like sarcasm after a while. 48:22 You're like, wait. Sometimes, sometimes it is sarcasm, John. 48:25 Yeah. Oh, all right. I knew it. I knew it. 48:28 A Midwest nice. But look, but this is the thing about it. 48:31 Like people are good people. 48:32 And I've been a guy named Abdul and Michigan almost my whole life. 48:35 And I know that Michiganders are a lot bigger than what JD Vance 48:39 and Donald Trump and Mike Rogers want to make them out to be. 48:42 And so they're going to keep pointing to my name and my faith. 48:44 And we're going to keep pointing to your gas prices, 48:47 the price at the grocery store, the ability to see a doctor. 48:49 And I think we're going to win that exchange. 48:51 And I think we're going to win that exchange because Michiganders 48:52 are sick and tired of being told that they're too small. 48:55 And our vision of Michigan is a big Michigan where people reach across divides, and we're 49:00 going to keep believing and betting on that Michigan, and I feel pretty good about what 49:04 we can accomplish if we do bet on that. 49:06 Let me ask you, if you're reflecting on the challenge to close this thing out, is 49:12 do you have more difficulty right now convincing those that may cast suspicion at someone 49:21 named Abdul El Sayed from let's say the Republican side or maybe even from the Democratic side if we're 49:27 being honest. Or do you think you have more of a challenge of firing up those in Detroit or in 49:38 you know traditional Democratic constituencies that might not come out in the same numbers 49:45 because they're concerned about either your rhetoric with Israel or that you haven't done 49:50 enough to win over the black vote, like where would you say are the biggest challenges then 49:56 for you as you close down these final two weeks? 49:59 Can I try to reframe the question? 50:01 Please. 50:02 And I've seen you do this. 50:04 I've seen you reframe questions and now I'm going to look like a chump, but all right. 50:08 You're going to look great. 50:10 I think in politics, you know, you're asking two questions, one that's obvious and one 50:15 that's less obvious. 50:16 Yes. 50:16 The first one is, what do you say you're going to fight for? 50:19 What are you about? 50:20 I want money out of politics, money in your pocket, Medicare for all. 50:23 But the second question is the one where most politicians trip up. 50:27 It's how do I know you're going to fight for it? 50:30 And what we're doing here to answer your question, both questions, which is the harder part, 50:35 what we're doing here is just demonstrating that you can throw as much money from big 50:40 tech in big pharma and big AI and the utilities and the insurance companies and APAC at 50:45 me as you want. 50:47 But I am going to stand pat on my positions because it's what I believe and 50:52 I think whether you're somebody who's trying to decide, you know, what's this Abdul? 50:56 I'll say a guy about can I trust somebody named Abdul? I'll say it. Well, I see him taking it on the chin 51:01 Not for what he stands for but but just for who he is 51:04 And I see him standing strong, but there are legitimate. So but that gets me to my point. There are legitimate 51:11 that possible concerns in the black community 51:15 and in the Jewish community 51:16 that have nothing to do with your name, 51:18 things you've said, other things, 51:19 that you will have to convince them 51:23 that they have no need to fear your candidacy. 51:28 So it's not all, I don't wanna, 51:29 and this is just to push back and say, 51:31 I don't wanna give you the easy way out. 51:33 No, but the other side of it is, 51:34 this is a binary choice, well, it's a three-part choice. 51:37 You just stay home. 51:39 Okay. 51:39 All right. 51:39 Or do you support this guy named Abdul Al Sayed? 51:42 Or do you support the guy who is a sock puppet to Trump? 51:47 And two out of those three choices bias for Trump. 51:51 But you don't want to be the lesser of two evils. 51:53 You want to be the affirmative choice. 51:55 I want to be the affirmative choice. 51:57 But for a lot of people, the only way I prove to you what I'm about in the long 52:00 term is to show you what I've done, which I've tried to do, and to show you after 52:05 six years of my service what I've done. 52:07 I can't do that yet. 52:08 it, the six years of my service comes next. 52:10 But I also can remind you what Donald Trump is actively doing and what Mike Rogers has 52:15 done for 14 years while he was in Congress, and you talked about some of it. 52:19 That's just, that's just part of what his record has been. 52:22 And so the question I'm answering always is, what are you going to fight for? 52:26 And how do I know you're going to fight for it? 52:28 And I think if you recognize that in this moment, you are paying way too much 52:31 for gas and groceries because of Donald Trump, you are paying way too much to 52:35 a doctor or to have your prescription drugs because of the choices of Donald Trump and his party. 52:41 Do you think Abdul is going to credibly fight against those things? I'm showing you every day 52:45 that I will. And I think that is about making an affirmative choice. And I think that choice is 52:50 both why we're getting such huge crowds and enthusiasm in communities that they say that 52:55 Democrats shouldn't even waste their time with, but we go to and we speak in and we take 52:59 questions in and also why I'm hearing every single day from both Black and Jewish Michiganders 53:06 and from Michiganders who are part of the party who say, I cannot wait because I know who you're 53:13 going to be in office because you're showing me who you are right now because you're not backing 53:16 down, you're not triangulating, you're not telling me what you think I want to hear, 53:20 you are standing up and fighting for the things that we need and deserve and that's the best 53:24 I can do. 53:26 When you go into a room and maybe it's a skeptical room, and I don't know if you've had that experience, 53:31 have you had the experience where you've walked into a room? 53:33 Of course. 53:34 What is that? 53:35 Have you been able to turn that skepticism around? 53:38 What have been kind of the fulcrums and levers that allow you to do that? 53:42 And what does that feel like as that coalesces? 53:47 You know, there's this thing that too often people in my party do, which is like 53:52 They show up in pander. 53:53 They use the words. 53:54 And I've been pander too. 53:55 I'm a... 53:56 Well, every politician is, yeah. 53:58 Every politician, you know, but this is the thing I actually don't do. 54:02 Like I've gone into a room site and we had this town hall. 54:06 You're like Bill Burr when he goes into a room, if that just starts ripping the crowd 54:09 apart. 54:10 That's... 54:11 No, I'm not trying to rip the crowd apart, but like, you know, it was a room full 54:14 of very skeptical Jewish Michiganders. 54:17 Okay. 54:17 And in my... 54:18 In like right near my hometown, I grew up in a heavily Jewish community, I'm really 54:21 grateful for that. I mean, Judaism and the Jewish people, incredible contributions to 54:25 Michigan to America. Judaism is a beautiful faith. 54:28 The beautiful. I mean, the holidays can be a little bit of a drag sometimes. 54:33 Well, that's on you to decide, but I've enjoyed what I've been able to participate in. And 54:40 what I knew, it was a very icy room. But when the question around my commitment to 54:46 Jewish safety, which is sacrosanct, because the commitment to Jewish safety is a commitment 54:49 to safety for any of us it's the ability to practice your faith as you choose and 54:53 as somebody who's a Muslim who's being attacked for my faith like I don't want 54:56 anybody attacked for their faith. I'm Jewish and they're mad at me. Fair I mean. So you 55:00 can imagine. I can imagine and so you know I'm in that room and I told I told 55:05 folks I'm like look I'm gonna tell you straight up what I believe and you are 55:08 straight up gonna disagree with me but I want you to know something where I 55:12 agree with you I'm gonna be honest specific and direct and where I 55:19 Because in the end, I don't want anything but honesty and directness. 55:24 I want you to understand where I stand and I want you to decide where you stand relative 55:29 to me. 55:29 And I'll tell you this. 55:30 If the issues of preserving our democracy or standing up for reproductive rights or 55:35 standing up for LGBTQ rights or standing up against tyranny or standing up to Donald 55:39 Trump and these insane tariffs in this ridiculous war, if those issues are bigger 55:44 than you know what you're getting. 55:45 Somebody who is going to stand up and fight back. 55:48 If the issue of Israel is bigger then you know what you're getting. I am going to tell you what I think 55:53 I'm not afraid of what I believe but the choice has to be yours 55:57 What I think people are used to is a politician coming behind closed doors and being like hey 56:02 I yeah, well, you know, I'm let me tell you what I think you want to say that to them 56:06 But you guys here's what the truth is 56:08 Yeah, but I don't want you to ever think because what that means then is that even where you disagree with me 56:13 You knew I had the courage to tell you what I thought 56:15 So when it comes down to the issues that you agree with me on you're gonna be like well 56:19 He's he has the courage to step up and fight. That's the best I can offer really 56:23 That's the best I can offer and it this is the problem 56:25 You know how many times I've been in a room like it's an iftar 56:28 Okay, and it's it's during Ramadan. There's an owner if Tars that the meal that happens after the the fast 56:33 The break fast after Ramadan, right? And so you'll have very well-meaning politicians who come in and say, you know 56:38 I fasted in solidarity with you. I'm like solidarity. There's food right here. I don't eat your solidarity 56:43 It's not like I'm starving. Okay. Like we got good food. It's delicious food. Probably the best meal you've got to have all week 56:48 I don't need your solidarity when it's here in this space and we're about to eat delicious food 56:53 I need your solidarity when people are coming for folks to try to take away the religious liberties or 56:58 People who look like me or pray like me are getting bombed by our tax dollars. That's what I need your solidarity 57:04 Right. Don't you don't you tell me that that you're in solidarity with me when it's easy 57:07 I need solidarity when it's hard and what I'm trying to prove out is look 57:11 Look, I am going to tell you what I believe and I'm going to stand pat. 57:15 So on the vast majority of issues on which we agree, you know where I stand. 57:19 And you know I'm going to go fight for him because I had the courage to tell you where 57:22 I disagreed with you. 57:24 And that's the thing too few politicians do. 57:25 So it goes back to that point that I'm making. 57:27 There's two questions that everybody's asking about a politician. 57:29 Number one, what do you say you're going to fight for? 57:31 And two, how do you know you're going to fight for it? 57:40 Hey, everybody, it's the fall. 57:44 You know that. 57:44 You're saying leaves are turning and there's a little bit of nip in the air. 57:48 But for me, the fall is a particularly consequential period of time, and I'm going to tell you 57:54 why. 57:54 In the springtime, it is the robin red breast that signifies renewal and it signifies 58:01 a return to the earth for so many creatures. 58:04 And for me, the signal of fall, more than Halloween, is the putting on of my fall bombas. 58:11 This fall, I cannot urge this enough. 58:15 Get the best socks that are out there, 58:17 and that is bombas. 58:18 They'll get you through. 58:19 They've got merino wool socks for the cold nights. 58:23 They've got sports socks for sweat 58:26 so that you're not bringing stinky dogs into the house. 58:31 Suede moccasins for, I'm gonna say canoeing. 58:35 I don't really know why you would wear suede moccasins. 58:37 You probably can't wear them for that many activities, 58:39 but they've got them because they've got everything because fall is the time of year where you treat 58:45 your feet. Head over to bombis.com slash weekly and use code weekly for 20% off your first purchase. 58:52 That's B-O-M-B-A-S dot com slash weekly code weekly at checkout. It's very interesting to me that 59:05 and look this is also a part and product of the aggregator system of the internet and it's 59:12 looking for these moments. 59:13 But a lot of the stuff I see on you 59:17 in my general travails as I'm flipping through things 59:20 is will you disavow Hassan Piker? 59:23 Will you disavow the Muslim Brotherhood? 59:25 Will you judging you by a variety of things 59:30 that are kind of associative and not affirmative 59:35 in terms of what you said? 59:37 Is that the experience that you've also been having? 59:40 Or am I getting a much more skewed vision of what you are experiencing? 59:45 You know, John, I've been on a town hall tour for the for the last two weeks. It took me to 59:52 10 different communities, a variety of communities rural city, but okay rural urban 59:57 But the questions that I get asked by media 60:01 Almost have nothing to do with the questions that I get asked in the room 60:06 Really? 60:07 Total disconnect? 60:08 Total disconnect. 60:09 And I'll have a whole gaggle, like a whole press gaggle right after. 60:12 And the folks in the room are asking me about AI, they're asking me about healthcare, they're 60:15 asking me about rights, they're asking me about how you're going to work with Republicans, 60:21 tell me about your leadership style. 60:22 They're asking me substantive questions because they're making a decision about who they want 60:25 their next US Senator to be. 60:27 And then I'll do a gaggle afterwards. 60:28 And it's all of these gotcha questions made for clicks on the media. 60:32 And I'll just, I'll tell you, look, I hosted a podcast, right? I've done this thing and I believe 60:38 in the role of the media. But part of the reason people don't trust media anymore is because it's 60:43 become so disconnected from their actual lives and it's made for the entertainment. 60:49 Well, it's part of the reason why also they don't trust government. 60:51 Right. 60:52 Because they see that government policy is also disconnected from their lives. 60:56 And that's the thing that they're getting with me. I think is that when I 61:00 stand in front of you and I take open questions. 61:02 We don't screen questions. 61:04 People are realizing that like, wait, 61:05 this is a guy who did work in government 61:08 to try to make it work, solving medical debt, 61:10 putting glasses on kids, making sure kids weren't exposed 61:13 to lead in their schools. 61:14 That's important stuff I actually agree with 61:15 and I want him to do. 61:17 And they're asking him all these questions in the press 61:20 and he keeps bringing it back to, 61:22 yeah, but you can't afford your gas, 61:23 you can't afford your groceries. 61:25 People can't see a doctor and they're all like, 61:27 yes, yes, yes, okay, fine. 61:29 But can we talk about Israel for the 15th time and you're like, we can, but the thing 61:33 I keep trying to tell you about that is I don't want my tax dollars subsidizing a foreign 61:36 military when it could be used to subsidize kid schools. 61:39 And they're like, yes, but you're evading the question like, no, I'm actually answering 61:42 the question that most people care about. 61:44 You just want to hunt for clicks. 61:46 Do you see it? 61:47 Is there any kind of synchronicity between is the media able to shape those narratives 61:53 to the point where you begin to feel them 61:56 in your interactions with regular people 61:59 that you're going around. 62:02 Like as you see the new cycle focus on Piker or Israel 62:06 or Muslim Brotherhood or any of those things, 62:09 does that bleed into, 62:12 or do you see the downstream effects of advertising 62:15 in your interactions with people? 62:17 The advertising definitely you hear. 62:19 You do hear, okay. 62:20 Well, is it true that you're gonna, 62:22 Yeah. 62:23 And you're like, well, let me just speak to number one, who's funding that and number 62:26 two, what my actual position is. 62:28 But more often than not, right, the sort of gotcha, click-baity stuff in the media specifically 62:35 in interviews, if anything, people come up to me even when they disagree with me. 62:40 Like I've had multiple Trump voters who are like, you know, I saw that interaction 62:43 with Tommy and thank you for standing up. 62:46 By the way, I love that. 62:48 I love that he's just named like Tommy. 62:50 me, just a random boy who stood up in the back, a little Dennis the menace of a child 62:55 to ask a question. 62:57 Dudes are a Republican operative implant named Tommy. 63:01 Actually, you'd be surprised how many people actually know that about him now. 63:05 Oh, know that it. 63:06 Yeah. 63:06 They know what he is. 63:08 And then they'll also say, look, I saw you on CNN, I saw you on MSNOW, I saw you 63:11 on Fox News, I saw you on whatever. 63:13 And they kept trying to get you on this thing. 63:15 And you know what? 63:15 Like you kept bringing it back to me. 63:17 So thank you. 63:18 And so in some respects, it's funny because like when that when that when the camera shuts off and we're all off the record 63:24 I'm like, how did you think that interaction was gonna go? 63:27 Right like because here's the thing about it 63:29 this is gonna get clipped and then it's gonna go on the internet and then everyone's gonna kind of look at that and be like 63:33 you know that guy's actually just talking about me and you keep trying to make him talk about everything else and 63:38 What what people think I'm gonna do is they're like, I'm gonna back down or I'm gonna give I'm gonna get more like no 63:42 I know what I'm here to fight for I'm here to fight for affordable gas groceries 63:46 The ability to see a doctor. I want money out of politics money in your pocket Medicare for all 63:49 That's what I'm here to talk about if you want to make me talk about foreign policy 63:53 I will but I'm gonna talk about it with respect to where our tax dollars are going and where they should be going 63:58 Right and and if you know the hard part about it is there is this sort of assumed thing 64:02 I mean let's just step back. We've got these these bipartisan 64:06 Consensus in politics and then you've got we do 64:10 Right, but like but here's the thing. This is what makes it so weird 64:12 The broad public generally agrees that the government should be giving us or guaranteeing 64:16 us health care. 64:17 Both parties don't. 64:18 So why is the difference? 64:20 Farmer money, insurance money, hospital money, same issue with foreign policy. 64:25 So I think one of the biggest issues though is if you really want to look, you know, 64:29 on a macro level at what these forces at play are, I think we have to look at the 64:34 Supreme Court decisions. 64:35 There's been three areas where they've made decisions on money in politics. 64:39 politics, they've made decisions on executive power, and they've made decisions on defining 64:46 corruption, a variety of decisions in all three of those areas that I think have made our 64:53 democracy really much more vulnerable than it needs to be because it allows for all the 64:59 influences that you're talking about. 65:01 You're exactly right. 65:02 And it's why my first point is always money out of politics. 65:09 Can I ask you a question? 65:11 Is there a possibility? 65:13 Who can introduce an amendment? 65:16 And I don't really know how the process works. 65:18 I know you can introduce amendments. 65:20 Does it have to come from a state? 65:22 Why doesn't a state introduce an amendment to the Constitution that makes these changes? 65:30 I don't understand why partisan gerrymandering is allowed. 65:33 out, I don't understand why Elon Musk can spend $500 million to avoid paying taxes to 65:41 get, you know, it's just, it's incredible to me. 65:44 So why do you think there hasn't been a process to try and amend the Constitution based on 65:50 that? 65:50 Because clearly the process exists. 65:52 I mean, I think too often I hate to say it, but there is, again, both parties play 65:56 at that game. 65:57 And I would love to see us do it. 65:59 But the other thing I'll tell you is I actually think that if we passed a law thinking like 66:04 about belt and suspenders when it comes to Citizens United, like just a law to push back 66:08 and make an act of Congress that says... 66:11 But Dave, I mean, McCain Feingold was sort of the reason why all those Citizens United 66:16 bills came out. 66:18 The reason why I say it is it looks like the law would be declared unconstitutional, 66:23 which is why I think you have to approach it from the level of an amendment. 66:27 It's the only reason why I say that. 66:28 I agree with you on the other if that would work, but overturning it feels like it would 66:33 need an amendment, not another piece of legislation. 66:36 What if though, the way you thought about it, you said, okay, fine. 66:39 If the Supreme Court has interpreted the 14th Amendment to say that a corporation is a 66:45 person and money is speech, what if any support from a super PAC triggered equal opposite 66:53 public funding? 66:55 Fine. 66:55 We're not taking away your right to speak as a corporation. 66:59 Flood it more. 67:00 Yes, there's just going to be public funding that trucks in and says, look, this is going 67:05 to undo some of that. 67:06 Then I think you're talking about public funding that is upwards of $10 billion for 67:12 each election. 67:12 I don't think it's tenable on just the nature of the amount of spending. 67:18 I think we have to find a limit somehow. 67:20 I would propose a constitutional amendment that limits election seasons to a certain amount of time 67:26 Spending to a certain amount of limit takes away partisan gerrymandering and and doesn't allow for 67:32 You know the people that don't want any of their power. I'm talking about, you know 67:38 The technocrat class any of their power regulated removes their ability to create this vicious cycle where they get to buy 67:47 Political outcomes that they want 67:50 Let's do it. 67:51 Look, even when I get elected, let's go do it. 67:55 Money out of politics. 67:56 I mean, look, I want to try any and everything that addresses the fact that our politics are 68:00 bought and sold. 68:01 Yeah. 68:01 Right. 68:02 And, you know, I know it intimately. 68:04 I'm seeing it happen to us. 68:05 I mean, by the time this is done, there's never going to have been a candidate in Michigan 68:08 history who's had more money spent against them. 68:10 Primary and otherwise. 68:11 Right. 68:12 Upwards of $300 million. 68:13 Primary general. 68:15 Can I ask also, you know, $70 million on the primary. 68:18 And I know Haley Stevens, she endorsed you immediately. 68:21 I'm grateful for that. 68:22 And said all that. How important is that healing process with it? Because the Democrats are going 68:28 to be going through a type of kind of civil war tug, you know, tug of war back and forth as to, 68:34 you know, what direction they're going to go in? Because right now they're, 68:37 you know, sort of rudderless and relying on individuals. 68:41 What is that process like? And when you go through this bruising primary season, 68:46 and how do you put that back together again? 68:49 And how do you guys move forward in a more united? 68:51 Was that a difficult process? 68:53 And I know she hasn't really been out there that much. 68:57 You haven't campaigned together. 68:58 What are the residual downstream effects of that? 69:01 Well, she's been out there campaigning for us, 69:03 which I really appreciate. 69:04 And we're at the point of the campaign now 69:05 where everyone's kind of fanning out 69:07 and hitting as many people as they can. 69:09 But it's a recognition that whatever differences we have, 69:12 and there are real differences, 69:13 is, the risk of Trump and Trumpism are so much worse. 69:17 Mike Rogers is going to be a check on that, and it's a recognition that, all right, we 69:20 had a good scrimmage to decide who the starting team is going to be, and now let's go shoot 69:25 up on Friday night, because this is where we need to go. 69:28 Now, look, we're going to have an internal party discussion, of course, about who 69:31 we are and who we want to be. 69:32 And my hope is that we come out of this election season saying, hey, when we stick 69:37 to principle and we're clear on our principle, when we step aside from corporate and 69:42 and special interest money when we can speak directly 69:44 to the issues of working people, the power of a union 69:45 and the need to provide healthcare, we can win elections. 69:48 We can win elections anywhere. 69:49 And what we're proving in Michigan is that actually, 69:52 you know, if you look at the polling, 69:53 I do better among Republicans 69:55 than any other statewide candidate running right now. 69:57 Why? 69:58 Because say what you will about me. 70:00 You might not agree with me on everything, 70:01 but you know I'm not bought off 70:02 and you know I'm telling you what I think. 70:03 And I think it's just really important for us 70:05 to be recognizing that actually the difference 70:07 in our politics isn't red and blue, right? 70:10 The difference in our politics 70:11 is people who are locked out versus the people doing the locking out. 70:14 And I always want to be on the side of the folks who are locked out, 70:17 and I think Democrats need to be the people who are always on the side of the people 70:20 who are being locked out against the people locking them out. 70:23 Well, I very much appreciate you being here and taking the time. 70:27 You know, we all see it looks like it's going to be quite close. 70:31 I imagine... I don't know if you guys have internal... 70:33 I mean, I don't even know what polling does anymore. 70:36 It seems like... you know, I remember in the primary, 70:38 It looked, you know, the polls were saying it's Syedna blowout and then it was really really close 70:43 So I don't know if you're having a fear of that also happening in the general or if you have internal numbers that line up differently 70:51 But how how are you feeling about it going into these final two weeks? 70:55 We feel strong only because we're seeing 70:57 Support in pockets we didn't expect and a lot of support in pockets. We do expect we're gonna fight for every vote 71:03 You know, I don't trust any polls that there is no resting on laurels 71:06 we are going to burn through the last 14 days, and in the end, we're going to look 71:10 up and see what happened. But Michiganders are good people. They deserve a lot better 71:15 than they've gotten. They deserve way better than being exploited by a billionaire from 71:18 New York or a millionaire from Florida. And we're building a campaign that has been true to our 71:23 ideals. I'm proud of the campaign we've run. We're going to keep running and fighting 71:27 for every single vote to the end. That's what I trust in. I don't trust in polls. 71:31 Well, Godspeed, sir. Godspeed. Thank you. 71:33 Uh, and I really appreciate you being here and taking the time to talk to us, Dr. Abdul 71:37 El Sayed, Democratic nominee for US Senate in Michigan, a Michigander. 71:42 Thank you. 71:43 Appreciate you, John. 71:44 Thank you. 71:50 Folks, you know, this company, Admit Mobile, I don't want to give you a, keep you in 71:54 suspense in any of the things they got themselves. 71:57 Maybe the ad, uh, spokesman of the century, Ryan Reynolds, but apparently they need 72:03 a little extra push and they're bringing in, I guess, you know, it's like anything. 72:08 and you gotta sub in, one guy can't do all of it. 72:12 So you bring in a couple of scrubs, 72:14 see if they can push a few more over the finish line 72:17 and that's what this is. 72:18 That's me for Mint Mobile. 72:21 But the pitch basically essentially stays the same. 72:24 You got overpriced phone bills 72:26 and you can lose them by switching to Mint Mobile. 72:28 You know, the fucking thing's 15 bucks a month. 72:32 When you're looking for better, 72:34 what are you thinking, you're gonna grab one for nine? 72:36 It's 15 bucks a month. 72:38 high-speed data, unlimited talking text, largest 5G network in the nation. 72:44 To get your new wireless plan for just 15 bucks a month, go to mintmobile.com slash TWS. 72:49 That's mintmobile.com slash TWS. Cut your wireless bill to 15 bucks a month at mintmobile.com 72:56 slash TWS. That's it. There's no catch. Upfront payments of $45 for three months, 73:02 $90 for six months, or $180 for 12 months, plan required, $15 per month equivalent. 73:07 taxes and fees extra initial plan term only greater than 50 gigabytes may slow 73:12 when network is busy includes up to 20 gigabyte hot spot capable device 73:16 required availability speed and coverage varies cement mobile.com I really 73:22 hope they speed that up oh for fuck's sake I forgot to ask him if he 73:32 disavows the Muslim brother damn it we'll never know God I'm so stupid 73:38 It was right there. 73:40 While we're here, do you guys disavow the Muslim brotherhood? 73:42 He was sitting right there. 73:43 Are you Tommy? 73:45 Let's all just disavow it while we can. 73:47 But it is so interesting because it does, 73:49 it points to a couple of things. 73:51 One is the absolutely skewed perspective 73:54 that we get from the national and aggregate media culture. 73:59 Yes. 74:00 Which, I mean, it like, it must feel like bizarro world. 74:04 Yeah. 74:05 The fact that he said though that that doesn't really 74:07 trickle down to the race is interesting but that advertising really does matter. 74:13 Yeah and I think it reminds me of when we had Mikey Sherillon and there was like that 74:18 terrible ad that was running in New Jersey that was just like she literally was giving an example 74:23 of something she would not do and they clipped it and we're like she wants to do that. 74:30 No I thought can I tell you because I'm in New Jersey like and I was selling all the ads I 74:35 I was like, oh, she's not going to win. 74:36 Yeah. 74:37 Those ads made me really nervous. 74:39 And the fact that she blew them out was a real shock. 74:43 Yeah, let's hope for that again just one year ago. 74:47 But it's funny because beyond that idea 74:51 of the skewing of the national media and media in general 74:56 looking for only conflict points or only things 75:00 that can travel virally. 75:03 But compare that to, when he describes his immigrant story and you start to see the reason 75:11 he is why he is, was the pressure of recognized sacrifice getting to this country and the 75:20 opportunity that was going to be presented to him and him not wanting to fuck that up 75:24 and squander it versus how his immigrant background is used by the other side as a mode of suspicion. 75:34 And I thought he gave a great answer on that early in the campaign where he was like, 75:38 I think a lot of people can put trust in somebody that looks like me because I think 75:42 a lot of people are used to having doctors that look like me. Yeah. 75:47 Oh, that's interesting. 75:48 Depending on your HMO, sure. That's right. 75:50 If you have insurance, yeah. 75:52 Yes, you have that. 75:53 Emergency room is a different experience. 75:55 Yes. 75:57 But you also see like, he's a prickly dude. 76:01 Well, I mean, holy shit, what he's dealing with. 76:03 Yes. 76:04 While doing research for this episode, 76:05 there was a lot of moments where I literally said to myself, 76:08 oh my God, just the things that have been thrown at him. 76:12 Yes. 76:13 But I fucking love his bite back. 76:15 I really do. 76:16 You got it because it is beyond the pale. 76:19 I do wonder, you know, how effective it is 76:21 because they wouldn't do it if it wasn't in some ways. 76:27 Look, they don't have much to run on. 76:31 But unless they thought it was somewhat persuasive that the appeal 76:35 to the unknown dark man. 76:40 Isn't it like they must think, well, it's got to be worth something. 76:44 Absolutely. Yeah. 76:46 It's how Trump and Vance got elected to be honest. 76:48 And it's not a dog whistle. 76:50 It's like a loud fucking whistle. 76:52 that they are whistlin'. 76:55 And it's, it was so interesting to me is when you talked about the difference between 77:00 what they ask him, people that live in Michigan in the town halls, and then what they ask 77:04 him right afterwards from the reporters that are there. 77:08 I mean, maybe it's just the media that I get or from where I'm sitting, but they seem 77:12 a lot more interested in asking him to, you know, disavow Hassan Piker, disavow 77:17 all the time. 77:17 That's all I see. 77:17 Then they actually feel about asking anyone else answer for a president. 77:21 By the way, that is, if anybody's wondering, that is, that is ICE. 77:26 Yeah, coming from me. 77:27 And they're, and they're coming. 77:29 Or no, we know it's not ICE because ICE, no Siren. 77:32 Yes. 77:33 Just like a weird, you know, you know. 77:37 No Siren, no name tag. 77:38 Right. 77:39 Just a Camry, an unmarked Camry that drives up and four guys in masks come out. 77:46 By the way, they always say like, you know, 77:47 When they said they we had to shoot the guy we were looking for because he tried to get away from us and you're like, right. 77:54 Because to the person in the car, four random people with guns just ran up on me with no identification or know anything else. 78:02 So I'm getting the fuck out of there. 78:04 Yeah, you could use a little signage, buddy. 78:06 Yeah, it'll be it'll be really interesting. 78:08 I'm I'm in a little bit of a dark hole about the election. 78:14 Are you in? 78:15 But in the sense that, will there be any price to pay for the Republican Party in general 78:23 for acquiescing to the abject recklessness and, you know, megalomaniacal instincts of 78:33 this guy that's more interested in building ballrooms and monuments than making measured 78:38 decisions and getting us into a reckless war and just throwing out impulsive tariffs 78:42 that drive calls it. Like, will there be any, is there anything that can happen? 78:47 I have an anecdote about this, actually. 78:49 Jillian, thank God. 78:51 I'm going to sound like the New York Times. I was literally in a diner. 78:54 Oh boy. Is this a trend? 78:54 I was in a diner that is technically in the middle of this country, okay? 78:59 All right. 78:59 Whether it's blue or red, I won't say. 79:01 I assume you were there fact-finding. You were not there on your own. 79:04 I was in a fact-finding mission. 79:05 Is it New America? 79:06 It's New America. I was in New America. 79:10 And I, as I'm sitting down at my table, a man who's like in his 60s or 70s, he's getting 79:16 up with his wife. 79:18 And what I hear him say in a, in a drawl, which I, I don't think I have the confidence 79:22 to perform, but I'll say what he said. 79:25 I'll do it for you. 79:26 Tell me what to say. 79:27 He said, I don't like anything Trump's doing and none of them stand up to him so 79:32 I can't vote for the party anymore. 79:34 That is all I heard this man say. 79:36 right? And I said, I was like, we can go. 79:40 I don't need. I heard exactly what I wanted to hear. 79:44 It confirmed everything I need. 79:47 Have you ever had one of those moments like where you're sitting on the beach 79:51 and it's like six forty five at night and the sun is just setting 79:55 and it's that perfect moment. 79:56 And then all of a sudden a dolphin swims by and you're like, 80:01 did somebody cue that? 80:03 This is the simulation. 80:05 That sounds like they were in there and then they go, 80:07 couple number one, get up, say your line. 80:11 Cue the dolphin. 80:12 Move past. 80:13 Yeah, it was, I was, I heard exactly what I needed 80:16 so I can sleep easy at night. 80:18 From your mouth to God's ears. 80:19 I hope at some level that there's not a one of them 80:22 that deserves to be reelected because of their passivity 80:25 in the face of recklessness. 80:29 100%. 80:29 I think they're nervous. 80:31 I really do. 80:31 I have this sense that they're slightly nervous like Trump going to Kansas like they're just 80:39 There's something about that. I'm I'm feeling optimistic. I hope so. I you know, I've just 80:45 Because as we talked earlier, I think the national media is so disconnected from the reality of things that all they care about is 80:52 The horse race and creating narratives around blue wave and not blue wave 80:56 The tsunami and the polling is always so fucked and so wrong that I just really have no sense. 81:06 I know the country is hurting, but I also like my anecdote is, I can't even remember 81:12 where I was, but it was, I saw a commercial from Texas that is just a woman going, James 81:18 Talerico wants to make it illegal for you to object to transgender mutilations on children. 81:27 He wants you to go to jail if you don't agree with him. I can't vote for that. And you're just 81:33 like, what the fuck is happening? Now I got a swing. Brittany, let's hope the listeners 81:39 have some questions that pull us out of this morass. John, for the first question, there's 81:44 intro. Oh boy. Is it musical? Is it a drawl? Will Gillian perform it? Hopefully not. 82:04 John, as an up-and-coming musician, does it scare you that AI-generated music can already replace you? 82:12 Was that that I just danced to AI-generated music? You know what's sad? 82:16 I can never take that back. I just, my body just moved to the dulcet tones of AI-generated 82:25 music. I apologize to our listeners, to our audience. I found it pleasant and agreeable. 82:34 It somehow seeped into the synapses in my brain. It triggered dopamine. I was moving. 82:41 Many of you can't see it, even if you're watching this on YouTube. My hips weren't lying. 82:48 They were, and I feel right now, only shame. 82:53 I feel only shame. 82:55 The good news is I'm shitty enough as a drummer 82:59 that you don't need AI to replace me. 83:01 I can be I can be replaced by a child. 83:04 No, I can be replaced by a child 83:06 who's three months into their percussion career. 83:11 So yeah, it's scary. 83:13 No worries there. Yeah. 83:14 I've listened to music and I'm like, 83:15 I really like this and then finally be like, oh yeah, this is AI. 83:18 Yeah, no. 83:18 It just sounded like a regular jingle music. 83:20 Like, listen, if the worst thing that happens to us is all our jingles are replaced. 83:25 Yeah. 83:26 I think we'll consider ourselves lucky, but I don't think that's where it's going. 83:31 Questions kind of gave it away for me. 83:32 Yeah, I can't pronounce questions. 83:34 Yeah. Yeah, that's right. 83:35 Didn't quite sound. 83:37 Well, once they I'm telling you once I unlock that once I started going to Taco Bell 83:42 and the little box went, hello, what can I help you? 83:47 Oh boy, all right. 83:48 And by the way, won't answer you. 83:51 No. 83:51 They've decided, I think wisely, 83:54 let's not even create interactive prompts 83:56 because people are just gonna fuck with it. 83:59 So I do a lot of like, you seem like you're having 84:02 a good day. 84:02 No small talk, I can talk about. 84:04 The philanthropic on the flip side is like, 84:07 if you're mean to Claude, we're banning you. 84:09 Yeah, no. 84:10 But when you do that, the machine, the AI immediately goes to, like, do you want sauces? 84:17 Will you be paying with the app? 84:19 Exactly. 84:20 Always the first question. 84:22 What else do they want? 84:24 We touched a bit upon this, but John, Trump says, quote, the polls are fake. 84:32 So are we in for another Adelaide disappointing election? 84:35 Well, whether Trump believes them to be fake or not is not even the question. 84:39 Could we be in for another disappointment? 84:41 I think there is not anyone alive who has not felt the gut punch, the stomach dropping feeling 84:49 of the floor going out from underneath you and the lack of equilibrium that you feel 84:57 when the results, when you are shocked by what you believe your good fellow Americans 85:05 want to happen in this country. 85:07 Like that, to me, is the greatest feeling of disequilibrium is a sense that, oh, these 85:16 people around me want something I find not just a policy disagreement, but actually dystopian. 85:27 Like they actually want to create fear and disorder in communities of immigrants that 85:34 just really, like that have been here 20, 25 years, 85:37 just trying to get to work. 85:38 Like that's the part that I find I have trouble reconciling. 85:43 Can't wait. 85:45 No! 85:46 But isn't that, isn't the issue on elections? 85:49 It's, for me, it's almost never about like, 85:53 oh, this is gonna have policy disagreements 85:56 that I'm probably not gonna be on board with. 85:58 It's the feeling that those around you, 86:01 that that's what they wanted, 86:02 that there was a majority of people that said like, 86:06 oh no, grabbing by the pussy guy, that's for me. 86:10 Yeah, I mean, I think that's why 2016 was so destabilizing 86:14 for me was I literally felt like I had been lied to 86:18 my whole life, just about who we are, that kind of thing. 86:24 Can I tell you the moment for me 86:26 when Hillary Clinton said in the debate with Trump, 86:29 America is great because America is good. 86:34 And you're like, is that why, are we? 86:38 And America was like, have you known or not? 86:41 Yeah, no, actually, we're not. 86:42 You know nothing of my work. 86:44 Right, and you're just like, eh, it's a tautology 86:46 that doesn't call you during truna. 86:48 But the fact that we did it again, like that we decided, 86:51 or some people decided upon doing it again, 86:54 is really kind of where I... 86:56 and did it again knowing that now those dystopian goals were explicit. 87:03 Yeah, and after January 6th, I'll just never understand the people that thought that that 87:09 was permissible. That's a great point. I mean, there were so many red lines that you thought, 87:14 like, well, there's just no way. So I think that to me is, I think, Jillian, the perfect 87:23 word there was destabilizing. Yeah, and you're being told this by like Steve Kornacki. 87:29 I figure if I can't trust a guy whose sleeves are rolled up to here, I mean, 87:36 why would anyone roll their sleeves up to here if they weren't going to tell us the truth? 87:41 I mean, I could understand somebody lying with a sleeve over the wrist, 87:46 But here, with the truth forearm fully exposed, unacceptable. 87:55 More and more disheveled. 87:56 All right. 87:56 One more. 87:57 John, do you think Trump yells fake news because he can't yell, fuck you? 88:03 Here's the thing about Trump. 88:04 He can yell, fuck you. 88:06 And he's done it. 88:06 And he does it all the time. 88:08 Like, I don't think, I think he just, depending on, you know, he has a variety of responses, 88:15 like a sort of magic eight ball to things he doesn't agree with. 88:20 And fuck you is one of the responses. 88:22 And fake news is one of the other magic eight ball responses. 88:25 And he uses them all. 88:28 And it's all part of his kind of deep-seated core belief 88:32 that he can shape the reality that we all live in. 88:36 And unfortunately, he's had more success doing that 88:40 than we've had convincing him otherwise. 88:42 And that's on us. 88:45 I mean that going back to your point they're like if after January 6 he's like oh that's 88:50 fucking nothing I'll come back from that and we let it happen well who's shaping the reality 88:56 who's who's warping reality who's distorting it him or us like you're not delusional when 89:03 you're the president of the United States that's exactly right so who's living in the distorted 89:09 reality, those of us who believe that those things are disqualifying, or those of us who go, 89:14 nah, that's not even a speed bump on my path to total domination. Oh man. Oh, this is 89:21 fucking terrible. We're having a terrible- Broke my brain to get on the boat. Whatever happened 89:26 to the fun? Oh, the question. Get out and vote. We were all for a week. Please, 89:32 God, if there's, the people of France are burning down the country because their schools 89:36 are crumbling. We live in an utter political dystopian reality, and everybody's like, eh, 89:44 I don't know. Like, come on. Both sides. Let's, let's demonstrate that we recognize 89:51 the, the, the position, the urgency of now, the urgency of the moment. Yeah. Fuck yeah. Fuck yeah. 90:02 All right, well, thank you guys for yeah, all right, I'm gonna get out of it. I'll get out of it 90:08 It's this is gonna be a two-week two weeks gonna be over so quick church will used to call it the black dog 90:14 I'll be visited by the black dog over these next two weeks, which is 90:18 Also a Taylor Swift song 90:21 Is black dog really a Taylor Swift song sure is it about depression? It is but that's a secret. Oh, that's 90:28 It's it's a whole thing layers to it. I really got it. You know what? 90:33 I've got a delve back into the collection and start and start looking that's why I'm here 90:39 Brittany that is so it's one of the small reasons why you're here. You're here for many many 90:44 Other Brittany, how do they get in touch with us? How do they how do they keep us informed? 90:48 Twitter we are weekly show pod Instagram threads tiktok blue sky 90:52 We weekly show podcast and you can like subscribe and comment on our YouTube channel the weekly show with John Stewart 90:57 All right, thanks again to everybody who helps put this show together producer 91:01 Brittany Mamedovic, producer Jillian Spear, video editor and engineer Rob Vittolo, 91:05 audio editor and engineer Nicole Boyce, our associate producer Rebecca Rotenberg 91:08 and our executive producers Chris McShane and Katie Gray. 91:11 Thank you guys so much. 91:12 And we'll see you again next week. Bye bye. 91:20 The weekly show with John Stewart is a comedy central podcast that's 91:24 produced by Paramount Audio and Bustboy Productions. 91:40 Mount Podcasts.
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