Useful Idiots
Useful Idiots with Katie Halper and Aaron Maté
AIPAC Panics After Zohran Mamdani’s Election Sweep
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AIPAC Panics After Zohran Mamdani’s Election Sweep

Plus, analyzing which progressive winners will be true to their promises and which are just talk

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CNN IS MELTING DOWN AS PROGRESSIVES TAKE OVER

CNN IS MELTING DOWN AS PROGRESSIVES TAKE OVER

In a huge week for the progressive left, Zohran Mamdani-backed candidates swept New York elections, signaling high tide for progressives across the country like the Hasan Piker-backed Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan.

On this week’s show we look at the Mamdani Sweep in New York City where progressive, populist, pro-Palestine candidates, backed by Mayor Zohran Mamdani, won important elections across the board in a huge rebuke to AIPAC and Israel.

As AIPAC and the entire Democratic establishment freak out about this successful insurgency, we speak with journalists Ross Barkan and Liza Featherstone about what went right for the left and how progressives can use this momentum to take back more power.

Useful Idiots: What’s your one-sentence takeaway from the elections?

Ross Barkan: It was a great night for Zohran Mamdani and he is emerging as the new political boss of New York politics.

Liza Featherstone: I wondered whether the left should have gone even bigger. Zohran won every single race that he endorsed and DSA won almost all of them. None of their incumbents were taken out and almost all their challengers won. If you’re not losing more, are you really trying hard enough?

Useful Idiots: Establishment Democrats are freaking out about these progressive winners, including Congressional candidate Darializa Avila Chevalier who sparked controversy with a now-deleted tweet saying “Fuck Kamala Harris.” What’s your response to this?

Liza Featherstone: I would just like [these establishment Democrats] to actually spend a day gathering petition signatures for a candidate. When I did that for Zohran Mamdani in Bed-Stuy, a Democratic stronghold, the biggest obstacle was people saying, ‘fuck the democrats.’

I would lead with ‘are you a registered democrat?’ and even normie, middle-aged ladies, white ladies, black ladies, you know, who are normally the base of the Democratic Party, would be like, ‘no, fuck them.’ Everyone’s fed up. Everyone’s fed up.

To see the full interview with Ross and Liza on why Trump has more respect for Zohran’s game than Dems do; how fearmongering around antisemitism is no longer working; whether Brad Lander is actually a progressive or just establishment-in-disguise; and where AOC was while Mamdani was endorsing candidates, please subscribe to our show.

You’ll also get the Friday Free-for-All: CNN IS MELTING DOWN AS PROGRESSIVES TAKE OVER

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