Kamala's Strategy Shift: A Costly Election Mistake | Ana Kasparian DSH #862

Don't feel that our democracy has really represented their best interests.

Our democracy is broken.

I mean, the fact that our media is celebrating the fact that Kamala Harris was able to raise a billion dollars for her campaign is pretty sick because they see that as, oh, she's succeeding in her campaigning.

I see that as, wow, there's a lot of corruption flowing into Kamala Harris's campaign.

All right, guys, we have Anna here today, two weeks until the election.

How are you feeling?

I feel great.

I mean, it's going to go how it's going to go.

I'm not the one out there campaigning.

So we'll see.

Yeah, I think, well, I don't know if you believe all this polymarket stuff and these betting sites, but it's looking pretty lopsided on those websites.

I mean, I'm not a gambler.

I don't go on polymarket.

So I don't know much about that.

From my understanding, people are just betting on who they believe is going to win, right?

And so the

people engaging in that think that Donald trump is going to win 62 at the moment yeah i mean it's not a poll so i think um for those who happen to support donald trump i wouldn't put too much weight behind polymarket bets i would look at the polling i would look at the average of polling especially as it pertains to some of these swing states and that's a better indicator of how the election's going yeah some of these uh polling seems to be shifting though lately it is yeah over the last few weeks kamala harris has kind of been paralyzed in the the polls, whereas Donald Trump has been closing in on her.

Certainly in the national polling, she had a comfortable lead at one point and he managed to close that lead.

And I think it has a lot to do with a pivot that she has decided to make in her campaign for whatever reason.

It's not working out for her, but she's still going in that direction.

Yeah, you're talking about her going on podcasts.

Well, no, I'm actually talking about the fact that she's decided to bear hug neocons and she's also decided to move away from some of the more positive, optimistic messaging and instead lean into what we've been hearing from Democrats about Donald Trump for so many years now, which is, you know, he's anti-democratic, he's Hitler, you know, the same negative messaging.

Clearly, that negative messaging has been less and less effective in Democrats' campaigning.

And I don't understand why she went from something that clearly was exciting her base to now bear hugging a neocon like Liz Cheney or Dick Cheney and essentially positioning herself as someone who might be able to skim off of the Republican electorate.

You know, there's some portion of Republicans who don't love Donald Trump.

And so she thinks that she might be able to convince them to join the Democratic Party.

And not only do I think that's a faulty campaign strategy, I personally would not want to absorb neoconservatives into the Democratic Party.

Like, what are we doing?

Yeah.

So I've had a lot of issues with how she's been campaigning lately.

Yeah.

I guess she saw Trump kind of taking RFK and Tulsi over to the Republican side and wanted to implement that strategy the other way around, maybe?

I don't know if that's what informed her decision to do this, but it was a bad decision.

And I don't, I think she's making a mistake in thinking that there is any popularity attached to neoconservatism.

Yeah.

Bush-era Republicans are incredibly unpopular, politically speaking.

And it's because of the decisions that they made during the Bush era, the endless wars that we got involved in, the innocent individuals and civilians who got killed as a result of that.

You know, when you look at the young male population and how they're kind of tilted toward Donald Trump, all you have to do is listen to what their concerns are.

And there are a lot of young men who are worried that they might get drafted into fighting a war.

And instead of focusing on those legitimate substantive concerns, I think Democrats are making the mistake of just labeling people as either sexist or in some cases racist.

Leaning into the identity politics might make sense in some instances, but I think it's really important for the party to actually stop and listen to what the voters are saying.

Don't just blame them or smear them as being bad faith actors or individuals who have malice in their hearts.

Yeah, I would definitely, as a 27-year-old, I'd be concerned with a mandatory draft.

That hasn't happened in a long time, right?

No, it hasn't happened in a long time, but things do feel out of control.

I mean, there's, you know, of course, ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine.

Then you have an ever-expanding war in the Middle East, which I'm even more concerned about.

You know, just recently there was a terror attack against Turkey, and now Turkey is bombing multiple countries in retaliation.

So things do feel incredibly unstable as it pertains to geopolitical matters.

And I think that young men have a point.

And I don't even think the Democratic Party is aware that young men are concerned about, you know, a possible World War III or a possible draft that they might have to deal with.

I haven't heard anyone on the Democrat side really talk about that concern.

Right.

Well, how can you when you're appealing to neoconservatives who love this kind of stuff?

So, and is that a policy you lean more towards Trump on, the war stuff?

Because he wants to end the wars, right?

Well, I think Trump talks a big talk when it comes to peace, but, you know, his behavior when he was president, he didn't start new wars.

I'll give him credit there, but he came awfully close to it.

I mean, he was about to do a strike on Iran.

Luckily, he called it off.

I think he called it off because there is a significant portion of his base that doesn't want war.

And to his credit, Trump is better at listening to his voters as opposed to Democrats.

And so I think that stopped him.

But I also want to just mention he ripped up the Iran nuclear deal, which was the best way to prevent Iran from building nuclear weapons.

And it was a multilateral deal where there were other Western allies involved and there were safeguards in place.

There was the ability to check and make sure that Iran wasn't building nuclear weapons.

And what really upsets me is that Trump ripped up the Iran nuclear deal on behalf of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu because he's been trying to egg the United States into engaging in war with Iran on behalf of Israel.

Really?

Yes, absolutely.

So when he ripped up the Iran nuclear deal, that paved the way for Iran to go ahead and try to develop nuclear weapons.

Then that gives Israel the excuse to go the United States into engaging in war with Iran, right?

Like there was no reason to rip up that deal.

And so, I mean,

I am concerned that the amount of campaign cash flowing into Donald Trump's coffers to the tune of $90 million from Miriam Adelson will persuade him to go along with what the Israeli government wants to do.

And in my view, the current Israeli government is incredibly irresponsible, incredibly belligerent, and is not just merely looking to take out terrorists or terror organizations.

They're looking to annex the West Bank, territory that belongs to the Palestinians.

They're looking to annex part of Lebanon and northern Gaza.

Wow.

And so I need to hear something a little more substantive from Donald Trump pushing back against the Israeli government.

And I have not heard any of that.

I've heard him basically engage in rhetoric that would only enable Netanyahu and the Israeli government.

He's very pro-Israel, right?

Yeah.

From what I've seen.

I didn't know he got 90 million from what's her name, Ariel Swaidosen.

Her name is Miriam Adelson.

Miriam Adelson.

And she's like

a hardcore pro-Israel individual, which by the way, you can be pro-Israel, but I don't think that the United States should be funding their war.

I don't think that the United States should be aiding and abetting the slaughter of innocent civilians.

And that's currently what's happening right now.

And I want to be clear, this is unfortunately a bipartisan agreement.

Democrats and Republicans have only enabled the Israeli government.

So this is not my way of blaming Trump while giving the Biden administration a pass.

The Biden administration has handled this poorly, to say the least.

But I don't have much faith in Donald Trump on this issue either.

I have noticed that.

Both sides are back in Israel.

That's interesting.

Do you think it's always been that way?

It hasn't always been that way.

In fact,

there have been some examples in the past, including Ronald Reagan, including George W.

Bush, of all people, who I believe is a war criminal.

He was willing to leverage American military support to Israel and basically say, we're not going to send you guys any more assistance until you stop slaughtering innocent people.

So the fact that we had presidents in the past who were willing to pump the brakes, you know, gave me a little bit of hope.

But things have changed as the Supreme Court has allowed for unlimited campaign donations to flow into super PACs representing various candidates.

I think that the corruption in our political system is what informs most of the decisions that our politicians make.

Agree, especially on the war side.

I talked to a lot of veterans.

I have them on the show.

A lot of them, when they found out the real reasons they were sent over to these places, they live with regret because they're out here thinking they're doing a good thing.

And then they come home, find out.

I mean, mean my heart breaks for them because especially when you think about the bush years how many of our men and women in our armed services were deployed multiple times to iraq or afghanistan wars that we should not have been fighting wars that we did not win

and then they come back home not only do they realize that they fought a war that they shouldn't have been fighting They're abandoned by our government.

Some of them have severe mental health issues as a result of multiple deployments.

And we have, as a country, abandoned them.

They're struggling with PTSD.

It's disgusting.

I mean, there's so many veterans on our streets homeless right now.

And when I hear our Congress essentially approve more and more aid, military aid, more and more funding for weaponry, for wars abroad, it...

It infuriates me.

We need to take care of our own.

Enough is enough.

I'm with you on that.

Yeah.

So any foreign aid at all you think or just

be selective more selective yeah i would be more selective and when we talk about foreign aid you know i'm not against providing you know defensive capabilities to our allies but offensive weaponry i think we start getting into super shaky territory so when we're giving Israel 2,000-pound bombs that they're dropping on hospitals, universities, schools, refugee camps, do we feel good about ourselves?

Should we be funding that?

Yeah.

You know?

That's dirty money right there.

Israel had a budget surplus not too long ago.

In 2021, Israel had a budget surplus.

Last time the United States had a budget surplus was in 2001.

Whoa.

Why are we funding their weapons?

That's crazy.

Someone needs to answer these questions.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And we keep funding more and more.

Yep.

And it's, it's mind-blowing.

As our American citizens are currently struggling with drug addiction, housing, health care.

I mean, we have so many issues in the U.S.

that have been broken, that remain broken, that our politicians pay lip service to when they're running their campaigns.

But then once they get elected, all of a sudden, they forget about these issues.

You know, they know how to talk a big talk, but when push comes to shove, they rarely represent the American people in their best interests.

And I think, you know, when you look at someone like Donald Trump, the Democratic Party seems to have a difficult time time understanding why their messaging about how he's a threat to democracy isn't working have they stopped to consider the fact that maybe

these americans don't feel that our democratic process has valued them

maybe they don't feel that our democracy has really represented their best interests our democracy is broken i mean the fact that Our media is celebrating the fact that Kamala Harris was able to raise a billion dollars for her campaign is pretty sick because they see that as, oh, she's succeeding in her campaigning.

I see that as, wow, there's a lot of corruption flowing into Kamala Harris's campaign.

Same with Donald Trump.

I mean, obviously he's taking a ton of money from big dollar donors as well.

And so what ends up happening is you end up with this political system that represents the billionaires and the corporations who have the means to pump a ton of money into these super PACs.

And these politicians listen to the American people less and less.

And what I'm noticing right now with Kamala Harris's campaign is the vast majority of Democratic voters and independent voters, by the way, want us to stop funding Israel's war, but her donors do not want that.

And so you have this tension.

And rather than, you know, side with the people and what the base wants, what the voters want, she wants to keep taking that money.

and avoid even addressing the issue.

So if you ever hear her answer questions about Israel and where she stands on it, you know, she engages in word salad, not because I think she's dumb or she doesn't know what she believes, but because she knows that conflict between the donors and the voters, and so she'll engage in the word salad to avoid answering the question.

Right.

Something's got to give.

This system is broken.

Yeah, it sounds like a conflict of interest.

Do you think they should change who can become a donor and who can't be?

I think we need to have public financing of our elections.

I think the decisions that were made by the Supreme Court were awful and need to be reversed.

I do not believe that money is speech.

In order to actually save our democracy, we would need to reverse the damage that's been done by allowing all of this money to flow into campaign coffers.

Right.

Because if you don't have hundreds of millions, you're not going to become president.

That's exactly right.

How is that a democracy?

If I wanted to run for president, I'd have no shot.

Yeah.

You know, the fact that you'd need to raise a billion dollars in order to compete, that's insane.

Insane.

That's why Bernie Sanders didn't make it far, right?

Well, Bernie Sanders didn't make it far far because the Democratic establishment wouldn't allow him to make it far.

They did everything they could to prevent him from winning the Democratic primary in 2016.

Then they denied that they engaged in that activity.

But then, when

Joe Biden had his horrible debate performance, it was interesting.

There were some Democratic lawmakers who were willing to come out and call a spade a spade, talk about how there were dirty tricks played to prevent Bernie Sanders from winning the 2016 Democratic primary.

And look at where we are now.

That led to a lot of

frustration and anger toward the Democratic Party.

I think the party actually lost a lot of people because there were voters paying close attention and they saw what kinds of games were being played.

And, you know, again,

if the core message in your campaign is we, the Democrats, will save democracy.

They also need to really consider whether or not their own behavior has been democratic.

Right.

Not just in regard to how they treated Bernie Sanders, but also in regard to what was going on in this election, where Joe Biden very clearly is suffering from cognitive decline that was hidden from the Democratic voters.

He wouldn't give press conferences.

You have all of these public figures in the Democratic Party providing cover for Biden, hiding the ball completely.

And then by the time it was obvious to everyone, because of his insanely bad debate performance, it was kind of too late.

And he refused to step down.

He was pushed out and Kamala Harris was anointed.

So we did not have a robust primary process to ensure that the appropriate or best possible candidate would be chosen by the voters to run against Donald Trump.

And I think now the chickens are coming home to roost.

Yeah, I was surprised people were surprised that his cognitive decline was that bad.

I knew for like probably a year or two before that debate.

I remember doing segments about it on TYT in 2020, and

everyone shouted us down.

Everyone was furious that we would have the audacity to bring up these concerns.

And eventually, I mean, we got gaslit on that issue in 2020 and we just kind of dropped it because we're like, okay, I guess we're wrong.

I guess we're seeing something that no one else is seeing.

But after four years, I mean, obviously the condition got worse.

And

look, I'm just sick of being lied to by a party that keeps pretending like they're, like they're on the moral high ground.

Right.

You know, you guys lied to your voters, you guys hid the ball and didn't give us an opportunity to vote for the best possible candidate in a robust primary process.

And it's wrong, it's unjust, but they just refuse to take any responsibility for that.

So you cover the good and bad on both sides on TV.

Of course.

You still are pretty neutral.

Well, you know, I did go through a phase of, I think, allowing my personal biases to cloud my

perception of reality.

And I believe I'm doing a better job now in seeing things for what they are.

And,

you know, I think that there's a problem with a lot of news organizations kind of pandering to their audience because they don't want their audience to be upset at them for being the messengers of unpopular

realities, I guess.

But you have to be willing to take some blowback and inform your audience about what's really going on.

Because the thing that I would not want to do is lie to my audience and have them feel totally shocked if the election doesn't play out in a way that they're expecting it to play out.

And when did that shift happen?

Was it this election?

I would say definitely this election.

So this is the election where I've finally just considered myself unaligned.

I announced that on a Substack post for Substack, where I'm, you know, now writing in more detail about my analysis on various political issues.

And

leaving the Democratic Party was more about the fact that this party no longer really represents me.

Doesn't mean the Republican Party does.

I don't identify as a Republican, but I'm definitely more independent and am more open-minded to voting for the candidate who best represents me.

And right now, in this particular election, I'm not seeing it.

But you're not going to vote.

I wrote in a a candidate.

Oh, you did?

Yeah, I wrote in Bernie Sanders.

I mean, obviously, he's not going to win or anything like that.

But for me, it was important to stay true to what my values are.

And neither candidate represents my values.

Wow.

Yeah.

Shout out to Bernie.

His 16 run was one of a kind.

It was amazing.

I remember being a college student at the time and seeing him everywhere.

People really resonated with him back then.

That man is the real deal.

I mean, he is not some phony politician.

He says what he means.

He's been saying the same thing for literally decades.

And what he says is correct.

He focuses on the people.

He focuses on what is broken in our system and what needs to be done to fix it.

It is a damn shame that Democrats squashed him and didn't allow him to,

in my opinion, be one of the best presidents in American history.

Would have been an interesting presidency, I think.

Yeah.

Would have been so different from everyone else.

He's principled.

I mean, how hard is it to find a politician who's principled?

Very.

And I respect that because he's still saying the same things he was 10 years ago.

That's exactly right.

Which is, I feel like, pretty rare in politics.

Yeah.

On the college stuff, on the student loan forgiveness, where do you stand on that whole debacle?

I'm in favor of college loan forgiveness, but I think it's also a band-aid on a problem that needs to be looked into and fixed.

So I want students to have some relief.

I want, I think it would actually improve the economy.

It would open them up to being able to start their lives,

have a marriage, have children.

I know that these are things that a lot of people want to do, but they feel like they're not financially stable enough to do it.

However, I do think that there's something broken in our education system, you know, in higher education.

There is a problem with how much these colleges are charging students for tuition, even with the massive endowments that they have.

I think that, you know, at this point, if someone is thinking about going to a four-year institution, they have to think of it as a real investment.

If you're going to major in something that isn't going to lead to gainful employment, you're going to be screwed.

And so, you know, the mindset needs to change with the incoming students, but the system also needs to change in that the tuition is ridiculous.

It's

overbloated and something needs to be done about that.

Yeah, I see guys like Charlie Kirk saying it's a scam and it's interesting when you look into the numbers of what percentage of people are getting jobs after and how much money they're investing into these degrees.

Yeah.

But it worked for you.

So you got the flip side of things.

Well, I went to a state school and, you know, I actually, my dream when I was in high school was to go to USC.

USC did something super shady and I ended up going to Cal State Northridge as a result of it.

So basically, when I was in high school, I went to community college and I got two years of community college done.

at the same time as graduating high school.

Wow, I didn't know you could do that.

Yeah, you can.

And so I started going to Los Angeles Valley College when I was super young.

Actually, I started off at Pierce College, took two courses there, and then I moved over to LA Valley College, starting in ninth grade.

And the reason why I did that is because, you know, my parents are immigrants.

They came into the United States as Armenian refugees.

And so growing up, we didn't have much.

And I did not want to place a financial burden on my parents when it came to college.

So I was thinking ahead, finished two years of community college at the same time I finished my high school degree.

And the whole plan was get into USC, transfer two years of credits.

So I only have to pay for two years of tuition at USC.

USC refused to transfer the units.

They said they would only transfer one class, and that was English 101.

Everything else I would have to retake.

Whoa.

Whereas Cal State Northridge was like, Not only will we transfer the two years, we will also give you additional funding for college supplies, textbooks, things like that.

Cal State Northridge is also closer to where my parents live, so I stayed living with my parents as I went to college.

State schools are obviously a lot cheaper than going to a private university like USC.

So when I graduated college, I actually had a savings account of like $10,000 as opposed to student loan debt.

But, you know, I was...

a little more scrappy and a little more willing to think ahead.

Not everyone is going to do that.

And so I do think that there needs to be a rethinking of this entire higher education system.

So it

ends up actually benefiting people's lives as opposed to hurting people's lives.

Yeah.

Why do you think USC did that?

That they wanted you to pay more?

Of course they did.

Yeah.

They wanted me to pay at the, at that time, you know, $45,000 a year in tuition.

And I just, I was unwilling to do that.

And I was unwilling to demand that my parents do that.

Yeah.

I've learned way more from YouTube and podcasts and shows like yours than ever.

Like I went to college for a year and didn't learn anything.

Oh, that's interesting.

Where'd you go to college?

Rutgers.

I grew up in Jersey.

Yeah.

Super liberal

state.

Yeah.

I mean, look, I think real world experience is the most valuable experience.

You're going to learn the most by doing as opposed to sitting in a classroom.

But I went into college with a plan and I wanted to study journalism.

Now, some will argue you don't need a journalism degree to be a journalist.

And I agree to that to some extent, but I wanted to study broadcast journalism.

So there was a lot that I did learn, you know, editing, the technical side of things,

how to write for broadcast, how to write for print.

It's two different writing styles.

So if you're going in with a plan and you want to

go in with a specialty or an expertise, then I think it makes a lot of sense.

But I don't think that four-year colleges make sense for everyone.

and i think for some people you know going to a trade school and learning a trade is something that could be very valuable especially right now there is a severe shortage of workers in various trades and these are actually lucrative jobs i have a lot of respect for workers in the trades i'm kind of to some extent jealous like i love carpentry and i kind of want to do carpentry um but at this stage in my life i'm going to keep going in the direction i've been going in yeah no you can make six figures as an electrician oh yeah oh yeah and it's not the sexiest thing but i I mean.

I think it's super sexy.

I love it.

Yes.

I love woodworking.

Like working with your hands, building something, being able to like fix stuff in your own home rather than like calling someone to change a light bulb.

You know what I mean?

You don't see that in my generation.

Yeah.

We're not as hands-on as you guys and the boomers.

I'm not a boomer.

What's in between?

Millennial.

I'm a millennial.

Okay.

I'm the one after that.

Gen Z.

Gen Z.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I mean, millennials are definitely not good with their hands either.

Oh, they're not.

Yeah, I think, but the millennial generation, I think, is the generation that really started to be like pushed toward the college education route.

They were told, as long as you get your education and work really hard, you know, you'll be able to graduate and build a really nice life for yourself.

But that wasn't the case for a lot of people.

They graduated into an economic disaster.

an economic disaster in which the Obama administration decided not to punish the banks for, and the the banks were the ones who created the financial disaster.

So I think a lot of what we're seeing today in the political landscape is retaliation for the failures of the Democratic Party in holding these financial institutions responsible for what they did in destroying so many people's lives.

Yeah, I love how objective you are because you'll criticize Democrats, Republicans, doesn't matter for you.

Well,

There's truth and then there's political campaigning.

There's political propaganda.

And what do I want to do with my life?

Do I want to be a political propagandist or do I want to be a source of accurate information for people?

Now, I'm a human being and I have no doubt that I will make mistakes in the future because bias is a powerful thing.

But I'm doing my best to hold myself accountable and be as honest as I can

based on what I am seeing, what the evidence indicates.

And when you really focus on evidence-based reporting, there's a lot to criticize on both sides.

Yeah, that's that's rare in your space, I feel like, because there's crazy money offers in your space.

You've probably been offer crazy deals from sketchy companies, and that's respect that you turn those down.

So, there, yes, there have been some lucrative deals.

And

one thing that I would say about myself, and it's always been the case since I was a kid,

I have a difficult time following orders, and I have a difficult time not saying what I actually think.

And so, I wouldn't be able to survive in a context where someone is telling me to say something or demanding that I push a specific narrative.

I am willing to take a lot of blowback and a lot of heat as long as I'm willing or able to say what I really believe.

You know, so that's why you didn't last long in traditional media.

I didn't know.

You said you lasted like a year, right?

Yeah, I lasted about a year at CBS Radio.

That was my first job out of college.

And it just wasn't an appealing environment for me.

And I feel like that's like a dream job for people that specialize in journalism, right?

Oh, for sure.

Especially fresh out of college.

Journalism jobs are very difficult to come by.

That was true back then.

I mean, I graduated in 07 with my journalism degree, but it's especially true now.

A lot of newsrooms have just been decimated.

So.

Yeah, because the viewership's down, right?

Viewership is down.

There's a lot more competition with independent media.

I think newsrooms made a poor decision in divesting from the investigative arm of their operation.

And people just don't trust them.

There's a reason why more and more people are getting their information from social media.

I don't think that's necessarily a good thing, by the way.

I want to be clear.

But there's a reason for that.

And the lack of trust in media is something that legacy media outlets really need to come to terms with and maybe rethink the way that they're doing the news.

They're going to have to adapt.

They have to adapt and they have to realize that when they lie to audiences or or readers,

people aren't stupid and they're going to figure it out.

And when they do figure it out, that's it.

Your credibility is gone and people are no longer going to come to you for your information or for your reporting.

You know, there have been so many examples in recent years that woke me up.

You know, I kind of bought into some of these lies and then.

you dig a little deeper and you realize, oh my God, in context, the individual that they're attacking actually said X, Y, and Z.

You know, there's a a lot of misrepresentation happening in the press right now.

Yeah.

When I see one guy getting attacked from like 20 different outlets, I'm like, all right, what's actually going on here?

No, I used to not question it at all.

I used to just believe it, but now you kind of have to critical think, right?

Well, people base their opinions and, in some cases, their reporting on sound bites or clips.

And I think that someone who's actually very prone to being attacked in this way is Donald Trump.

Yeah.

Because of the fact that his rally speeches go on for hours.

I mean, that guy loves to talk.

And so, what ends up happening is some bad faith actors will clip out or cherry pick his terrible moments.

And there aren't, sometimes he says things that are unhinged, totally unhinged.

And so you'll see that clip.

And if a reporter or journalist bases their entire reporting on those clips, as opposed to going back and watching the rally and putting it in context, they're going to make terrible mistakes.

And so a recent example of that was when they accused Donald Trump of saying that if he doesn't win the election, there will be a bloodbath in the country.

And so they try to present him as someone who is advocating for or inciting violence if he doesn't win the election.

So I went in and watched his statement in context.

I was curious, okay, was there more to this statement?

And it turns out he was talking about the auto industry, the economy, and how he believes that if the Democratic Party wins, there will be a bloodbath in the auto industry, in the economy.

And so we reported on that and we made sure that we gave the proper context because i don't want our audience and i don't want people in general to fear things that they don't need to be fearful about and in that case he didn't say that there would be a bloodbath in the country like a violent you know backlash if he doesn't win the election that's crazy but the average person is not going to do that research they're going to see the headline and then believe it average person is trying to put food on their table yeah average person doesn't have the time the most most valuable resource of time to do what journalists are supposed to be doing.

We're supposed to be providing a public service.

And I think that to some extent, the opposite has happened with some of these outlets.

And when they don't understand why they're losing readers or losing audiences, when they don't understand why their debunks of Donald Trump aren't working,

they should do some self-reflection.

Yeah.

You know, they need to do better.

And I think if they do, they could maybe potentially earn that trust back.

But what I've been noticing is these organizations and these institutions have decided to kind of lash out at the average American or smear the average American as opposed to listen to the average American and what their genuine concerns are.

I think the people in this country are wonderful.

I really do.

I think the vast majority of people in America are good people who want to do the right thing, but they feel that they've been let down by our institutions.

And rather than lash out at them, I think those employed by our institutions, those who have been elected into our institutions need to listen to them.

Yeah.

When you talk to journalists, do you sense they're frustrated that they can't write about the truth?

I don't really sense that frustrate.

I mean, those conversations don't really happen.

I mean, I don't think journalists.

are under the impression that they're being told what to write and say.

I do think that there are pressures that maybe

they're not fully cognizant of, but they do listen to.

So audience capture, I think, is a good example.

You know, if you are

providing information through a partisan lens, well, then you're going to cultivate an audience that's going to expect a partisan point of view in the way that you report the news.

And if you then decide, okay, well, I'm coming at this from a Democrat lens.

If you then start to criticize the Democratic Party for something that they legitimately did wrong, well, there's going to be backlash from your audience.

And a lot of people are not going to want that backlash.

So they're just going to go along to get along.

I see a lot of that happening on the right and the left, by the way.

I think that's an issue with a lot of content creators on YouTube.

I think that's the case with a lot of

mainstream media outlets on television.

And you just have to be willing to take the heat because i think the truth is more valuable right than your personal emotions and feelings which you've done great at because you've gotten some heat over the years i mean i've gotten heat thank you for saying i've done great at it it's been difficult you know uh there are days where

i feel very alienated and there are days when you know look at the end of the day i'm a human being and so

When people are dog piling and I'm just trying to do my best, there are days when I feel like crap.

So I, you know, lost it the other day because someone got upset at me.

We did a segment about these statements that Ben Shapiro had given at UCLA

because there was

just this wonderful student.

I don't know anything about this student, but I give him a lot of credit.

He's a Jewish individual himself.

I believe he was even wearing a yarmulke.

So he's obviously devout.

He stands up and he asks Ben Shapiro, you know, don't you have a problem with how Israel has prosecuted this war?

You know, when you consider how many innocent civilians have been killed?

And Ben Shapiro basically said that he, no, does not at all criticize them and in fact, like celebrates the way that they've prosecuted this war.

I found that offensive and I wanted to cover the story.

So we're covering the story.

And

I basically said, like, I don't know if Shapiro is lying or if he just doesn't know.

And then I proceeded to provide evidence for why I think what the IDF is doing is wrong.

Someone in the audience who doesn't think I'm left-wing enough criticized me for not calling Ben Shapiro a liar outright.

It was a second of what we were talking about.

It was the most irrelevant portion of what we were talking about.

But I just, I flipped out because I'm like, we just did a 25 minute story.

where we skewered Ben Shapiro, but it wasn't good enough because I'm not pure enough for them, right?

Like I have to roll around in the mud and engage in all sorts of gross tactics in order to please them.

And so I flipped out and I regret flipping out.

I shouldn't have let that person get under my skin, but it wasn't just about that one person.

It was about literally now multiple years of people

just riding me.

over the fact that I want to be a lot more fair and a lot more honest and a lot more accurate in what I am reporting and sharing.

I don't know if, I don't know if Ben Shapiro was lying.

What I do know is that we all live in our own media bubbles and what I'm exposed to in the news might be very different from what you're exposed to in the news.

I know that I was in a media bubble for a while and I wasn't exposed to certain stories and certain perspectives that would have given me a more comprehensive perception of what's happening in this country.

And so I went out of my way to diversify my media diet and make sure that I have a full view of every story.

And so since I've had that experience, I'm a lot more willing to accept that some people might not know everything that I know.

Some people might not be exposed to the same information that I'm exposed to.

So instead of coming at people with accusations of bad intent or bad faith behavior, how about giving people information and seeing how they react to that information?

I think that's a far better way of moving forward.

Way better.

That's a great point, though, because so many people are exposed to just one side.

Totally.

I was like that for a while too.

And I had to start branching off because I was having on so many conservatives on the show that I was just only seeing their side.

Exactly.

And look,

it's really hard sometimes to absorb or listen to a perspective that you very clearly disagree with.

But it makes you stronger in your own arguments if you're going to engage in a debate, a political debate, right?

And I think what the left has actually gotten wrong in recent years is they've kind of like roped themselves off from anyone that disagrees with them on anything.

And now when I see some of them engage in debates with right-wingers,

they haven't had the opportunity to sharpen their arguments.

And so I'm seeing them engage in like shallow talking points that are easily debunked.

And it's not a good look.

You know, when it comes to my values, if you go issue by issue, I'm very clearly on the left.

But there are areas where the right actually made some good points.

But if you haven't been exposed to those points, you're not going to know how to

offer a

substantive retort.

You're not going to know how to argue in good faith.

What I see is a lot of falling back on, oh, you're a Nazi.

A lot of like stupid name calling.

And that's not really effective.

That's not going to win over hearts and minds.

Yeah, I agree.

I was watching the Ben Shapiro 1 on 25 on Jubilee last night, which is a super left platform, I'd say.

And all the comments were like, these kids aren't making good points.

I haven't watched, I've watched one exchange.

I haven't watched the whole thing.

So I can't really comment on that.

But yeah, look, when you are forced to argue in favor of your argument, like of your point of view, when you have to essentially deal with someone who disagrees with you and you have to make your case, that makes you sharper.

That makes you smarter.

That makes you better in your argument.

And so this whole thing about you shouldn't platform X, Y, and Z because this person is bad or this person believes things that we don't believe.

I totally disagree with that.

You went on a debate with Ben, right?

I debated him.

Yeah.

I debated him at the Pennsylvania Chamber of Commerce.

They invited me to debate him.

That was a legit debate, I think.

The second time he had me on his show, and that was more of a conversation.

Got it.

Although we did argue a little bit.

It went well then if he invited you on the show.

Well, yes, because I felt that he was coming at me with, you know, good faith arguments.

I still disagreed with him, but he didn't treat the debate as a blood sport.

And as long as you don't treat it as a blood sport, I think that it provides for a real exchange and an actual substantive debate.

And that's why I like his debates.

I'll watch his debates, but there's this new kid.

I don't know if you've seen him, Dean Withers.

No.

You haven't seen him?

He's just like hot right now, but it's all this clickbait stuff.

Like it's just getting people riled up.

Yeah, people really like conflict, but it's just not conducive to improving things in this country in any way.

Yeah.

So you just agree to disagree with him.

Yeah, I disagree with him on a lot of things.

I mean, he has some.

perspectives that actually infuriate me.

Like his views on Israel infuriate me.

Well, he's that one makes sense for him.

He's true.

But it's his identity.

So I get it.

It's been

an exercise in,

you know, self-control.

But what I really want to do is find ways to bring people together.

Even if they have disagreements, I want to find ways to get Americans to understand that we should have a shared identity as Americans, regardless of what our political affiliation is.

I think this country needs to heal.

And one of my biggest regrets is I did go through a period of time where I really did feed into that conflict,

you know, unwittingly in regard to how damaging it was to the country.

I don't know how big my role was in that.

I don't want to take full responsibility for the divisions in this country, but I played some role.

And this is my way of trying to improve, do better, and find ways where we can bring people together.

Yeah, when you think of a division, you obviously think of Trump, but it could go as far back as Obama, too.

Yeah, you know, Obama gets a lot of heat for allegedly dividing the country on race and things like that, but I disagree.

In fact, Obama really went out of his way to avoid talking about race.

I think what Obama did to divide the country or lead to where we are today is his unwillingness to hold the big banks and Wall Street accountable for destroying the economy.

I think that's what led to a lot of anger in this country.

And it essentially paved the way for someone like Donald Trump.

So you didn't want those bailouts.

You wanted the banks to fail, basically?

100%.

Yeah.

How would that change things, do you think?

I mean, it would change our financial institutions.

I don't think we should have any institution that's too big to fail.

I don't think that the taxpayer that got screwed over by these banks and their predatory activity should be held responsible for bailing these banks out.

Right.

It's unacceptable.

Yeah, because when you deposit money, they can loan it 10 times, right?

I mean, that's exactly what happens now.

Are they still doing now?

I mean, look, these banks, like, I'll give you a perfect example.

These banks will,

I mean, the Federal Reserve prints money.

They get access to all this capital.

And the whole point for the Federal Reserve to do that was, you know, during the economic collapse,

was to free up capital so these banks can loan money to small businesses and Americans who needed it.

And they didn't do that.

They did the opposite.

So that was the big solve for the financial collapse that only empowered these big banks that continued foreclosing on people's homes.

Like that money would have been better spent on the American people to keep them in their homes.

Instead, so many Americans lost their life savings.

They lost shelter.

They lost so much.

So

can you imagine the amount of rage that led to among the electorate?

And then you have someone like Donald Trump come in who speaks to that rage.

And of course they're going to support him because he is speaking to a frustration that these people have been dealing with for so many years.

Now, look, I just think Democrats still haven't caught on to that.

And they're still, you know, engaging in negative campaigning about how he's so dangerous and how he's so terrible and how he's so racist and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

And look, it's not working because

that message kind of falls on deaf ears.

When most people are concerned about whether they're going to be able to pay for food, housing, education for their kids, childcare for their kids.

These are bread and butter issues that historically the FDR Democrats, you know, really did speak to and made the Democratic Party incredibly powerful as a result.

They have moved away from those issues.

because of the corruption in our political system, because they're now funded by corporate interests.

So now the party of FDR has become the party of corporations, and the American people are smart enough to pick up on that.

Yeah.

Yeah.

It's almost like these corporations are really

running the show.

100%.

Because they're donating the most and they kind of tell them what to say.

I mean, let me just give you a little example of this.

Okay.

You have Kamala Harris saying things like,

we need to do something about price gouging, or she said that she would want to do away with something called the filibuster in the Senate.

So the filibuster in the Senate is a legislative filibuster, which requires 60 senators, senators, 60 out of 100, to vote in favor of legislation in order for it to pass.

A simple majority does not stand.

So 51 senators vote in favor of something, that legislation doesn't pass.

You literally have to get 60 of them to vote in favor.

And so Kamala Harris argued.

that she would want to do away with the legislative filibuster in order to codify reproductive rights.

You would need to do that, right?

She says that, and then she's the good cop.

She has the bad cop, Mark Cuban, go on cable television and make abundantly clear, no, I'm against that.

She's not going to do that.

Why is Mark Cuban

dictating what Kamala Harris would do if she gets elected?

He's been very outspoken.

Yeah, that's a, that's a problem.

Yeah.

You know, I, I've never, because I've been following Cuban since Shark Tank season three or whatever, and he's so outspoken this election, something just seems weird to me there.

Well, he wants to be named the head of the sec and i think he's under the impression that he'd have a good shot at that if kamala harris wins i wonder why he wants that he's already got so much money sec huh oh casino right i have no idea like i i i'm i can't i i could speculate i guess but he wants that position it's been pretty clear and uh he also really dislikes donald trump so so i'm sure that's informing his decision to uh essentially be like a kamala harris surrogate but my point is

his interests conflict with the interests of the Democratic base.

And so these conflicts keep coming up over and over and over again.

And as Democrats keep siding with the moneyed interests as opposed to their base, they're going to keep losing people.

I think this is the first election in a long time where

you have,

you know, a big loss in voter registration for Democrats.

There are less Democratic

or there are less voters registered as Democrats.

And I just,

are they not noticing the bleeding?

Are they not noticing that, hey, you guys are campaigning about how,

you know, Donald Trump is a Nazi and he's a threat to democracy and he's so terrible.

And he does say really dumb things, you know, on the campaign trail.

But don't you guys ever question why it's so difficult to beat him?

Yeah.

Isn't that an issue with you?

Like, shouldn't you maybe reconsider what, what kind of message you're putting out there and what the party is representing?

But they don't do that.

And that's the frustrating thing.

And Trump's touching on a lot of different industries this time around.

I mean, going after big pharma.

I haven't seen Democrats talk about that at all.

Well, to be fair, I mean, Kamala Harris keeps bringing up the fact that there was legislation passed under the Biden administration that allows for Medicare to negotiate drug prices, but it's only 10 drugs and it's only the Medicare system that can do that.

So the price of pharmaceuticals doesn't come down for everyone else.

She talks about how they did manage to cap the price of insulin, which is a win and they deserve credit for that.

But it's so indicative of what we have seen from the Democratic Party through so many administrations in recent years.

They love to do 5% change and then pat themselves on the back.

and then lash out at voters who say, well, that's not enough.

It's not enough.

We do have a broken healthcare system.

And the fact that Americans are price gouged for pharmaceuticals, especially relative to what other countries are paying for the same drugs, is outrageous.

It's crazy.

And by the way, we fund their research and development through the National Institute of Health, which we pay for with our tax dollars.

Exactly.

So we are paying for their research and development.

And then these pharmaceutical companies turn around and price gouge us.

It's unacceptable.

And that's where I'll defend Cuban because he's got the cost plus drugs website.

But why is he the one fixing this?

You know what I mean?

It's crazy.

I mean, it shows what I wouldn't say it shows, but it lends credence to the argument that government can't do anything, that government is useless, right?

That government is ineffective.

And I think government should play a role in certain sectors of the economy or regulating certain sectors of the economy.

But when they are beholden to these corporate interests and unwilling to do that, well, people lose more and more faith in not just

government, but in our democratic process.

And that's what I need Democrats to understand.

You can't, on one hand, you know, make a big deal about saving our democracy while you are making a mockery of our democracy by not representing the people.

Do you want to see more of the power go towards communities, towards the state?

Well, I think local politics and local elections have a much bigger impact on people's day-to-day lives.

So

there's a lot of attention paid on

the national level, but I do think that there needs to be more robust reporting on a local level.

So people are informed about, you know, who to vote for or who best represents them

in their local races.

But, you know, there are issues that the federal government is responsible for.

Immigration is a good example.

That is a federal issue.

And right now, you have various cities across the country grappling with an influx of migrants without any real support from the federal government.

And that's unacceptable.

Yeah, the immigration one, that's probably the hottest topic this election.

Yeah, and I can understand why.

I mean, people think that this is just a Republican issue.

It's not.

Look at the city of Chicago and what the local community there is dealing with and how they're not just frustrated, they're angry.

And I'm not talking about Lily White individuals in the suburbs.

I'm talking about the black community in Chicago.

They are furious because they've been nickel and dimed by the government.

They have been dealing with all sorts of societal ills, the lack of housing, the lack of support.

And then all of a sudden, you have an influx of migrants who are able to cut in front of the line when it comes to some of these social services.

And they're pissed.

And I don't blame them for being pissed.

And I'm angry at the federal government for like abandoning these cities and not doing what's necessary to provide the resources to help them grapple with the failures of the federal government.

Yeah.

Okay.

Cause this is a federal government failure.

And the Biden administration totally dropped the ball and didn't give a damn about it until it became a political liability.

Yep.

Now,

with Donald Trump, you know,

his rhetoric is disgusting.

And I was just listening to a town hall that J.D.

Vance did on News Nation.

Chris Cuomo was moderating it.

And I think his messaging on immigration is way better than Trump's because Trump uses gross rhetoric that, you know, smears all of these people, the vast, vast majority of whom are not coming here to commit crimes, are not coming here to terrorize people.

They might be coming here to flee violence.

The majority of migrants who have been coming in in recent years are coming here for economic opportunities, which is not protected by our asylum laws.

I will admit that.

But to smear them all as like these dangerous animals, it grosses me out.

And it makes me less receptive to your message.

Listening to how J.D.

Vance handled the question, question, I thought he did a way better job than Trump does.

But the thing about Trump is he can't help himself.

And so he runs his mouth and he turns a lot of voters off who I actually think he could attract if he had a little bit of self-control.

Yeah, because I feel like we have a record-breaking number of independents this election.

Oh, for sure.

I've never seen this many.

Yeah.

I mean, a lot of people who were registered Democrats.

decided to register as independents instead.

I'm one of them.

Yeah, there's tons.

Yeah, I could see why he does it because he wants to scare people and tie an emotion to it so they vote.

But it's so counterproductive.

It really is.

When he does that, you know, I'll give you a good example.

So

Springfield,

Springfield, Ohio was obviously in the news in recent weeks.

And it was because of the rhetoric that Trump used to describe the migrant population there.

So big Haitian population.

And I'm going to just say, I mean, it's a small town.

And all of a sudden you have 15 to 20,000 Haitian migrants coming in.

That's going to be disruptive.

I totally understand that that's going to lead to some issues.

Let's actually address those issues rather than accuse Haitian migrants of stealing people's cats and dogs and eating them.

And look, it's gross in that it directs violence and hatred toward migrants.

And I don't agree with that at all.

But it's also counterproductive for Trump's campaign because people who might be receptive to his message or might be receptive to the idea that there are issues with immigration that we should find solutions to,

like feel repelled by him, feel grossed out by him.

You know, he's actually stepping on his own message by using the kind of rhetoric that he does.

Agreed.

Yeah.

I wonder why they all went there specifically.

That's such a random place to go, right?

There's a lot of demagoguing and a lot of gross stuff happening in our politics these days.

And I want to personally, personally lead by example and move away from that.

It's hard to get to where we need to be when our politicians are engaging in that rhetoric.

But look, I actually think if Trump had some self-control, I mean,

he'd wipe the Democrats out in this election.

Really?

Yeah.

I mean, he's

speaking to the issues that matter to the voters.

And

to all the Democrats who might be watching, to all the people on the far left who might be watching, who are angered by what I'm saying right now.

Okay, you can be angry, but while the Democrats are talking about how he's Hitler and how you shouldn't vote for him because he's so dangerous, he's talking about the economy.

He's talking about immigration.

He's talking about the issues.

And he is saying things.

I mean, look, some of the rhetoric I don't like, but when he talks about bringing jobs back to America, that's going to resonate with people.

When he's speaking to the frustrations that some cities are currently experiencing with an influx of migrants, that's going to be more appealing than hearing the Democrats fearmonger about Trump being bad.

So, this is not me saying that Democrats are worse or, you know, Republicans are better.

This is me saying Democrats have dropped the ball.

They need to take personal responsibility on that.

They need to self-reflect and they need to change the way they campaign.

Right.

Because they've had 12 of the last 16 years in office.

Yeah.

And now the economy is hurting and they're putting the blame on Trump, but 12 of the last 16 years were Democrats.

And that's an issue for Kamala Harris when she's, you know, trying to make the case for for, you know, her presidency because she's in office right now.

Yeah.

You know, and I'll just leave it there.

Yeah.

No, people forget she's still the vice president right now.

Okay.

So on your Wikipedia, I never know what to believe on Wikipedia, but I thought this was interesting.

It said you were atheist.

Yeah.

Are you still atheist?

Yeah.

I'm atheist.

I mean, look, I don't believe in organized religion.

I had a,

I had an experience this year that I'm not fully comfortable talking about.

I've talked about it a little bit on our show.

I don't know if it was like a spiritual thing.

It sounds kooky.

That's why I don't talk about it because I don't want people to think I'm kooky.

But, you know, I, I think that I'm more spiritual and I don't really know how to articulate what I mean by that.

But I don't believe in any organized religion.

I do not get any atheist energy off you.

Really?

Very purposeful.

Oh, interesting.

You seem to be very comfortable with like what you talk about.

Like when I think of atheists, I think of like kind of like a depressing tone almost oh i don't think that's true i think there's plenty of atheists who don't fall in that category well i used to be atheist oh interesting yeah maybe i'm just being biased because i'll at that time i was depressed and stuff but were you

were you part of like the new atheist movement it was when i was in high school and a little after so 20 50 2012 to like 2020 i'd say Is that the new lumen or no?

Yeah, I think so.

I mean, there was like a brand of atheism that was like, for some reason, particularly obsessed with the Muslim religion and they were very militant about that.

And that kind of turned me off.

I'm like, I just, I just don't believe in any of these organized religions, really.

I don't either.

Yeah.

So we agree on that.

Yeah, but that would sound spiritual.

But I feel that there is something.

I feel very connected to the world around me, if that makes any sense.

And it's not just people, like nature and there's something greater than us.

I don't know if you want to call that God, but there's, I don't know.

I just feel more connected to the world around me than I ever have.

Yeah.

You might need a little psychedelic experience.

I've had psychedelic experiences.

I did not like it.

Oh, wow.

Yeah.

Not a fan.

Yeah.

That's, that's, uh, yeah.

Well, it's your internal coming out.

So maybe you were dealing with something.

Oh, for sure.

All I did was lay on a park bench and sob like crazy.

It was terrible.

You got to be in the right state of mind, the right people around you.

I will say, though, afterwards, I mean, it felt like a million pounds was lifted off my shoulders.

By the way, this is like years ago.

So I felt better, but I just didn't enjoy the experience.

And I feel like if I'm going to be putting something in my body, I want to enjoy it.

Yeah, you know, I can relate.

I've had bad, bad moments on trips too.

Yeah.

And it's been fun.

Where can people keep up with you and follow you?

Thank you.

Yeah.

Social media, just look me up and a Kasparian.

And I have a new substack.

I write there and, you know, gives me an opportunity to be more nuanced in my views.

And that's over at uh casparian.substack.com.

Perfect.

We'll link below.

Thanks for coming on.

Thank you.

Yup, thanks for watching, guys.

Check out our stuff.

See you next time.