Vibes Only

Is Mamdani a Kingmaker? How DSA Swept New York's Primaries

• Brian Derrick & Glennis Meagher | Political Strategists • Season 3 • Episode 8

Share episode

Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.

0:00 | 33:05

Zohran Mamdani is being called a kingmaker, and after this week's New York primaries it's easy to see why. Is the Democratic Party fundamentally shifting left, or are voters simply desperate for an alternative to the 70-year-old status quo?

This week on Vibes Only, we break down the massive shockwaves from the New York primary elections. From Mayor Mamdani’s new proported kingmaker status to the DSA's historic triple-crown victories upending powerful establishment machines, we look at how young, energetic hustlers are changing the face of campaigning in 2026.


Plus, we dive into the heartbreaking $27 million super PAC blitz that took down AI-reform candidate Alex Bores, why Trump is blocking his own bipartisan housing bill over the SAVE Act, and the terrifying reality of national security flying blind after the expiration of FISA. Pull up a chair cause the vibes are chaotic this week, but the analysis we are bringing - it is sharp.


Vibes Only is a weekly political podcast hosted by Brian Derrick and Glennis Meagher, two political operatives turned creators breaking down the news of the week in politics, elections, and culture with new episodes EVERY Thursday morning!


EPISODE LINKS

Today, Explained Episode with Alex Bores

Tulsi Gabbard Expose by The Washington Post

OATH CANDIDATE OF THE WEEK

Send us a text!

Watch us on Youtube

Follow us on Instagram 

Oh, we're on TikTok too

Follow Brian on IG 

Follow Glennis on IG

BRIAN:

Welcome back to Vibes Only, where the New York primary results are the absolute center of the universe today.

GLENNIS:

We're talking Mamdani's New York City, the DSA gaining traction, and celebrating Chevalier's big win.

BRIAN:

And big surprise, federal politics are a mess right now. FISA lapsed, Trump's refusing to sign a major bipartisan housing bill. Plus, we're gonna be talking about Kris Mayes for Pride Month, and why ice cream prices are so damn high.

GLENNIS:

We are breaking down all of the chaotic vibes. Let's get into it.

BRIAN:

Hey, Glennis

GLENNIS:

Hey, Brian. How are you?

BRIAN:

I'm good. I'm waking up in Mamdani's New York City.

GLENNIS:

The headlines are saying Kingmaker. I am not in Mamdani's New York City. I am in Ingmar Bergman's Fårö. It's spelled like Pharaoh. I don't speak Swedish.

BRIAN:

We have so many elections that we need to talk about. Big, big primary day, not just in New York, but also South Carolina, Utah, and elsewhere. It's gonna have a really big impact on the midterm elections.

GLENNIS:

I have a lot of questions for you. Brr. Let's start with DSA because this is- Okay … what I'm seeing in the headlines. Mamdani, Kingmaker. I don't know if you saw Hasan Piker direct to camera saying, "You're gonna have to pay me more because I'm worth more because nine of my candidates won."

BRIAN:

No, I did not see that.

HASAN PIKER:

Hey, after tonight my price went up. You have to be a Democratic socialist if you want some of this fucking shine.

GLENNIS:

Okay, Hasan. Big, big, big, big night for DSA, Democratic Socialists of America, especially here in New York.

BRIAN:

The three congressional races. People were probably most familiar with Brad Lander, who ran for mayor against Mamdani, against Dan Goldman in New York's 10th Congressional District. That's southern Manhattan and parts of Brooklyn. We all knew that Lander was going to win that race. Lander, citywide official, very popular everywhere in New York- Yeah … is kind of a beloved figure 'cause he went all in- Exactly … on, on Mamdani. Yeah. Goldman is just a guy. He's just this dude. He's one of the heirs to the Levi Strauss- Yeah fortune. That's the thing. He won the seat in like a fucking 30-way primary with- Mm-hmm… 20-something percent of the vote, and then he held it because no one- Mm-hmm … really challenged him. But I don't think he ever had a firm grip on the seat, unlike some of the other incumbents.

GLENNIS:

Yeah, I can speak from experience as he was my elected. I was not like, "Ugh, Dan Goldman's got my back." To your point, Brad Lander was very likable. He's done a lot of great work for the city, and I think, you know, you can look back on his mayoral and that was, he was laying the groundwork for the district. That one was to be expected. Let's keep going.

BRIAN:

Yeah. Uptown, running against Adriano Espaillat in the 13th.

GLENNIS:

Upper West.

BRIAN:

That was a bigger surprise. Espaillat has been in Congress for like five terms and has a political machine up there. If you remember, I was a- Mm-hmm… campaign manager for a race inside that district, and so I've been on the doors and have talked to many, many voters in that district. And just a couple of years ago, Espaillat was the most powerful political figure there, and he lost to- Who?… Darializa Avila Chevalier. Is that right?

GLENNIS:

You know, you're, you're, you're barking up the wrong tree here, Brian. You know that I have

BRIAN:

trouble- Sorry, guys. She was one of two DSA candidates that won with Mamdani's endorsement. It's a big deal for her to beat Espaillat. He was the chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, was a pretty powerful dude, and is old. How old? I'm gonna guess 72. How old do you think? Oof, nailed it.

GLENNIS:

71. I, I was gonna say in his 50s. I thought he was much younger than that, but Brian almost just spit out his coffee. But maybe in my mind's eye I'm thinking of someone else.

BRIAN:

50s? Mama.

GLENNIS:

But I just saw a photo of him. Maybe it's 'cause it's really sunny where I am and I couldn't see the screen properly, but I was like, "Oh, he's not that old." But anyway, okay.

BRIAN:

70s. 70s.

GLENNIS:

Okay.

BRIAN:

And then there was an open seat. It was Nydia Velázquez's seat. She had endorsed Reynoso and he lost to- Mm-hmm … Claire Valdez. And so these three candidates, Lander, Chevalier- Valdez all win. Big upsets in two of those cases. Now we are reading the very predictable think pieces- Headlines … around- Yeah… is the Democratic Party now socialist? Is this going to change everything for the Democratic Party? And I think that they're all pretty stupid, but what are your thoughts?

GLENNIS:

I'm noticing more and more, like Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Washington Post, the headlines are being reworded to be clickbait and- Yeah … rage bait at times. Seeing the headline Kingmaker, Mamdani endorses, like triple crown. I do think that the Mamdani endorsement was obviously paramount here. I also think there was an extremely strategic ad in the campaign that happened in, during the Knicks finals game. Hmm. That… Did you see this?

MAYOR MAMDANI:

New York, we know anything's possible with a great team.

BRAD LANDER:

I'm Brad Lander, and I'll block billionaires from buying our elections.

DARIALIZA AVILA CHEVALIER:

I'm Darializa Avila Chevalier, and I'll defend New York by abolishing ICE.

CLAIRE VALDEZ:

I'm Claire Valdez, and I'll stand up against bad landlords and greedy corporations.

GLENNIS:

If you're just thinking about like name and face recognition, a week and a half out before early vote starts, that is extremely strategic. Do I think the politics of New York City make the politics of the Democratic Party nationally? No. We've talked about this many, many times. Do you think a Graham Platner can get elected in New York City? I don't. We talked about this when Mamdani first got elected, that he would become a symbol both good and bad, right? We're seeing that with the headlines now, like, "Well, let's see what happens with these Democratic socialists in Congress." And it's like they're, they're one person, and they're very, very junior in Congress. They're not gonna be able to do that much, if anything at all, besides caucus and try to push the Democrats slightly more left, but if you don't have the people to do it with, then you're not doing it.

BRIAN:

I know that I'm gonna get shit for this, but for me, it is less about voters swinging left or really identifying with the platform of DSA, and more about them saying no to the status quo and not having alternatives. I don't think that most people who voted for Lander, Chevalier, or Valdez, a majority of them I don't think could name what the DSA platform is. They're done with the Democratic Party of the last 20 years, and DSA is the only organized opposition to that. It's the only organized entity that's providing a meaningful departure from those politics while still speaking to progressive values overall.

GLENNIS:

I would say that I think Working Families Party would have a bone to pick with you by saying that there's no alternative. But I completely- Who

BRIAN:

were their candidates in these races? Who were their, who were their people? Where were they?

GLENNIS:

Yeah.

BRIAN:

Like name one, like- Strident WFP candidate that was up in a primary yesterday

GLENNIS:

Well, yes. Your point being that-

BRIAN:

Right. Right… GLENNIS: I know working families to the Democratic ticket that you can vote on. And I mean, I'm not, I'm not saying that WFP is useless or that they're not doing good stuff. All I'm saying is in these races, which are now creating this narrative, in these races, the choices f- in the eyes of voters seemed to be status quo, another 70-year-old, another five-term incumbent- Mm-hmm another person running an old playbook and saying the same shit that I've heard, or Young, energetic person who's meeting me where I am, who's showing up in my news feeds, who is at the community events, who's doing the shit, who's hustling, who sounds totally different, sounds like my neighbor, sounds like my friends-

GLENNIS:

Mm-hmm

BRIAN:

who happens to be DSA. That felt like the choice that people were offered. All that anyone's talking about is, like, the DSA component. Let's talk about- Mm-hmm … the first component of that too. Mm-hmm. Because I genuinely think that it's both, and I think that a lot of the candidates that we're putting up are incapable of meeting that Mamdani-level bar- Mm-hmm and energy of campaigning in

GLENNIS:

2026. Working Families Party does really tremendous culture work, and they are trying to do that narrative work, and I think, and, and often places successfully. But if you don't have the right candidate on your ticket, you're not gonna land the plane nationally to get more recognition on the party's work. I don't identify as a Democratic Socialist of America. It, it- Glennis

BRIAN:

is a socialist, a card-carrying paid member of DSA, and I want everyone to know that so that she-

GLENNIS:

Which I would not, I would not be… I, I mean, my husband is Swedish. I spend a lot of time in Sweden. Like, I'm aware- Yeah, yeah … of the benefits of Swedish democratic socialism. I do not think that the Democratic Party of the country is going to turn into one big DSA. This point that you've made, that we will continue to make on this podcast, is that Democrats writ large have to find a way to message correctly, strategically, efficiently to the American working people on the economy and their lived experience. Can we talk about New York 12? Because there was a candidate who you endorsed, Alex Bores. Is that correct, Bores?

BRIAN:

Cor- Yeah. I, I al- I always say Bores, and it's Bores. Bores. Okay. Alex

GLENNIS:

Alex Bores. Alex

BRIAN:

Bores. I'm gonna keep saying Bores. Never

GLENNIS:

once in my life have I correctly pronounced a name. I think it's like with my own last name. I, I, like, struggle with other people's. Anyway, Alex Bores, New York 12. I did feel that he was a candidate running who had a real lived experience. I think he was like one, if not, like, two people ever who had run for office, had a computer science degree. Yeah. Um, which is crazy to think about how we operate in this world, and our legislators I don't, don't have that academic education, and someone who the first AI guardrails policy in, in the country helped create and pass that. So it was someone who was really advocating for, like, a smart approach to AI, and I could not vote, uh, in New York 12, obviously. I don't live there. But I was excited about his candidacy for that reason, and he unfortunately did not win the primary.

BRIAN:

Yeah, I do live there, and that's why I'm a little depressed today. I wanted him to win. I did organize for him in the background and did what I could. But Michael Lasher, who did win with Jerry Nadler's endorsement, this is Nadler's seat, he's retiring, is not a bad guy. I sat down and had coffee with him. I thought about endorsing him. I think that he's cool, and I think he's gonna be a good congressman. I don't think that he's gonna fix the Democratic Party, and that's what got me excited about Alex- Mm … ex- exactly what we're talking about, that he seemed to be offering an economic message that wasn't an AOC-style message, but also was a significant departure from the establishment, from a Schumer, Jeffries type of- Mm-hmm politics. Him losing is a bummer. I think it has more to do with the $27 million of super PAC spending in that race against him and for his opponents, more so than it does the lack of traction of, of his particular message. But we need populist appeal from non-DSA-type candidates if you want that wing- Mm-hmm of the party to be more competitive in blue places. That wing of the party-

GLENNIS:

Yeah… BRIAN: already wins in purple places. There's lots of examples of that all year long. That's why the so-- like, is the Democratic Party socialist narrative is so stupid. Both of these things currently have to coexist. The left can't win purple districts, and the m- middle has no economic message that can excite Democratic voters. And so they- Yeah … need each other or need to be able to fix their own issues if they want to grow their wing of the party to be more influential than the other. And meanwhile, to your point, like, Fair Shake PAC and Leading the Future PAC, crypto, AI, i- industry PACs are spending tens of millions of dollars this cycle to make sure that they're propping up candidates who will support their agenda. Michael Lasher said, uh, in his speech that he would not be considering the interests of people who put money into this race. But I think we all know that's really not how government works. Elected officials are often bought and sold. I'm not saying Michael Lasher was bought and sold. Mm-hmm. But it, it was, it was-- A lot of money was spent.

BRIAN:

A lot of money was spent. Lasher was a co-sponsor of the same bill that Bores got all the shit for writing in Albany. So I do think that he's probably gonna be good on the issue generally, or at least his track record shows that he's probably- Yeah … gonna be good on AI regulation. But he's also not made it his whole personality, and Alex made it his whole personality, which somebody has to do, right? We need- Yeah … someone under the age of fucking 70 who can be on the beat and understand what these AI companies are up to and how they're pumping out trillionaires, and what we have to do in order to ensure that our entire futures are not stolen for the sake of other people's super yachts.

GLENNIS:

Yeah. I, I, I want to zealot when it comes to AI. I mean, like, crypto kind of already slipped out of our hands, and that industry is wildly deregulated, and the entire reason, for the most part, why Donald Trump gained $4 billion in net worth is because he is allowed to have his own stablecoin, a type of- Mm … cryptocurrency that is protected for him in the office of the presidency. Crypto is so out of control. I would advise Vibes Only listeners to listen to the Today Explained. Alex Bores was on it a couple days ago, and he does a really good job, I think a very effective job, talking about the issues that are in front of us with regards to AI.

BRIAN:

Yeah. Ugh. Yeah, I'm sure he's gonna go on- I know to do great stuff. He has a national profile now. He's one of the leading voices on the issue, so-

GLENNIS:

Mm-hmm… BRIAN: maybe he'll be third seat on Pivot LOL. That's a nerdy joke.

BRIAN:

We should have him on.

GLENNIS:

Um-

BRIAN:

I should text him.

GLENNIS:

Oh, yeah. Yeah, I would text him

BRIAN:

right now. I just thought about that. We should actually have him on. That would be fun.

GLENNIS:

Yeah, I would, I would love to have him on. I wanna talk about AI. I read the Axios this morning in the car, and I was like,"Ooh, my butt is clenched." Did you read it?

BRIAN:

Wait, which, which Axios, girl?

GLENNIS:

It was the AI portion. The one that was basically like, United States don't be so, like we're the best because China's doing- Oh, China … really well. Europe's- China … doing really well. We thought we were like kind of so secure in the AI world because we were like leaps and bounds ahead of people, um- Well, the- in terms of our technology… BRIAN: this is why I'm not all I think that that's a half-baked idea. I'm for regulation. I'm for smarter approaches to how to handle this, and I'm, I believe that it's an urgent crisis as a nation. But to say, "Stop, we're just gonna think about this for a couple of years," and pretend like China is gonna do the same thing, I'm very worried that we're gonna like poke our heads out when, when we're ready to chat about it, and the rest of the world is gonna be operating flying cars and shit that are all run by Chinese AI and software- Chips that they have back doors into every tech platform in the world. I know that it's not most people's everyday- Yeah … concern, but I- somebody has to be worried about that. Yeah. I guess my thing is I don't see why we can't do both. Why can't we be like consciously aware o- of, of how we're building AI, and we're not, we don't need to be a bull in a China shop, and we can think- Yeah about not impacting low-income communities first and worst with these data centers.

BRIAN:

Yeah. I'm, I'm not like OpenAI's cheerleader. I'm just saying I want a plan to win- Mm-hmm … not just a plan to… Like, for the American people to win longterm. That's all.

GLENNIS:

Yes. Yes. Fair. You're like- Um … a Chinese spy and have been this whole time. Okay. Okay, Brian, I know we live in New York and we think the world revolves around New York City.

BRIAN:

It doesn't.

GLENNIS:

But it doesn't. Although for- Well- … about a week and a half it did.

BRIAN:

Yeah, agree to disagree.

GLENNIS:

Yeah. Okay, I actually take that back. New York City is the center of the world, but not for elections. So what else happened this primary election?

BRIAN:

Yeah, there were some other ones. Ben McAdams won a moderate over a progressive in Utah. We just recently got results out of Maine, 'cause they take forever. We got Dunlap, he came out on top over a more moderate candidate there that the DCCC wanted. In South Carolina, Annie Andrews won. Not a surprise she'll be running against Lindsey Graham. Long shot. Mm. Jaime Harrison style race happening again there.

GLENNIS:

You know, with Lindsey Graham, sometimes I think about like how does he still have a job? I know. What does he actually do for South Carolinians that help their bottom line? He is spineless. The things that he has said about Trump to then only pivot and be like, "Daddy Trump," literally he's salivating at the mouth whenever he's around him. Uh-

BRIAN:

Well, they love that … and he- They

GLENNIS:

love that. I know they love Trump.

BRIAN:

Let's talk about some other stuff going on in Congress, yeah?

GLENNIS:

I don't know what's going on in Congress.

BRIAN:

No, I got you. I got you.

GLENNIS:

Okay, great.

BRIAN:

The main bomb that has been thrown into DC by Donald Trump, aside from the hydrogen peroxide dumps into the Reflecting Pool, has been that he now refuses to sign any legislation until the SAVE Act passes, which it has no path. The first thing that happened was he had put up a nominee for the Director of National- Mm-hmm … Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard's former post, and then he took it back and said, "No, you can't have him. You're gonna have this shitty guy, Bill Pulte, until you pass the SAVE Act. And then Congress just passed the first bipartisan housing bill in almost 40 years, meant to increase the production of housing and bring down housing costs, which is a good thing. Okay. Objectively good. Like positive. Yeah, Trump's first real legislation, if-- in my opinion, because- Mm… everything else has just been a budget bill, which is not the same thing. First major piece of legislation during Trump's term, and now we're talking about this live. This is happening in real time. Mm. He's saying he won't sign it until the SAVE Act passes. And so he's setting this new standard that he will not sign any legislation until an unpassable bill becomes law. The SAVE Act is regulatory, meaning it requires 60 votes in the Senate or for Republicans to eliminate the filibuster, neither of which is possible given current vote counts. It is truly him fucking himself in the worst way, and I honestly love it.

GLENNIS:

Meanwhile, though, FISA is also lapsed right now. Correct. So- Oh,

BRIAN:

good one. I forgot that one. Correct… GLENNIS: 70% of all intelligence president gets every single day, the-- our, our intelligence systems are currently no longer legally able to obtain that intelligence. So we're flying blind. Correct. And good on Dems for letting FISA lapse. Honestly, a year ago, maybe two years ago, Dems never would have done it. Mm. The same as with defaulting on the debt. We would always just cave at the last minute because we were too scared to let the bad thing happen, so we would- Uh-huh sometimes let a worse thing happen so that the bad thing wouldn't be our fault. Now, this time they were like, "No, fuck you. Let it lapse." Right."I don't care." And it did. And here we are. From the perspective of the intelligence community, super important.

GLENNIS:

Mm-hmm.

BRIAN:

Must-have for national security, and we're not h- we don't have it because Trump would rather have his attack dog in charge of the intelligence community rather than, um, protect American lives.

GLENNIS:

Totally. An unqualified attack dog. Like this person- Yeah, Nepotism … is grossly unqualified to do this job. Okay, this is a, a brief aside, but I almost want to assign you homework to read this article- Ooh … so we can talk about it next week, which is- Tell me … the Washington Post exposé on Tulsi Gabbard. You have to read it.

BRIAN:

I saw this. I saw this. It's like she's, she's answering to some guru or like some sort of- Yes … religious leader is the one- Yes … that's like whispering in her ear and telling her what to do.

GLENNIS:

Yes, I read the piece yesterday. It is shocking, and it should disturb people that Tulsi Gabbard was-- is a talking head for someone else.

BRIAN:

Hmm. But

GLENNIS:

who is the person? I'll leave it there

BRIAN:

No, who's the guy? Who's-

GLENNIS:

Uh, this, this white guy or the woman, whatever. Okay I forget his name. Uh, Tulsi Gabbard, uh, her parents and herself are Hare Krishnas. Okay. And they followed this leader in Hawaii. I wanna say his, his name is Bob. This white guy who doesn't use a computer. He talks only through his, like, kind of like assistant network, and that's how he communicates to people. But it's kind of made to be like a Netflix documentary, but unfortunately it has to do with the national security of the United States of America being potentially influenced by some cult leader named Bob. Generic white man that, you know- … has leveraged Hare Krishnaism to, uh, infiltrate the mind, body, and soul of his followers.

BRIAN:

A lot of MAGA just generally seems ready to be scammed at any moment. They love to- Yeah … be a victim so much that it feels like they are, like, throwing themselves into unsavory situations to be victimized.

GLENNIS:

The number one scammer in the world, Donald Trump-

BRIAN:

Of

GLENNIS:

course … is the president of the United States of America.

BRIAN:

Absolutely. Absolutely.

GLENNIS:

Which, and my last thing I'll say, this is an internet thing. Did you see the photo of the contractor who was hired to do the Reflecting Pool?

BRIAN:

Yeah. Somebody said, someone on the internet said he looks like he's trying to kill The Aristocats.

GLENNIS:

It's this guy in this, like, three-piece, like, magenta suit with a huge cigar hanging out of his mouth at all times. Like, no shit the al- the algae has taken over the Reflecting Pool when this guy who's got all those materials off the back of a truck and probably has never done anything like this ever in his life was given the contract.

BRIAN:

The Reflecting Pool saga is so dumb.

GLENNIS:

It's so dumb. It's so expensive.

BRIAN:

It's so dumb. I, I can't stand that it happened in the first place. I can't stand- Mm-hmm … that we spent that much money on it. I can't stand that it didn't work. I can't stand- I know … that Donald Trump is blaming it on absolutely absurd, cartoonish villains who somehow va- vandalized it. I can't stand that now it's gonna be gated off for probably, like- Mm-hmm … years as they tried- Mm-hmm … to hide it from everyone. The

GLENNIS:

public.

BRIAN:

And,

GLENNIS:

and- Yeah… BRIAN: I can't stand how He has managed to make one of the most American monuments so deeply un-American by infringing on people's democratic rights. It actually made it to Sweden because there was a Swedish reporter who was talking about it, and she's like, "Da, da, da, da, da, doo." And the National Guard was like, "We're gonna detain you."

SWEDISH REPORTER:

Inte så blått, snarare grönt eller gult. Och faktiskt också Hello. Could

SECURITY GUARD:

you please refrain from touching the wall?

SWEDISH REPORTER:

Okay. Yes, ma'am. Sorry, I didn't know that. No, please. I will totally refrain

SECURITY GUARD:

from it. If you done it twice, that will be the last time you can

GLENNIS:

get on. Okay. Any time after that, you will be detained. Imagine signing up for the National Guard- It's insane … only to find out that your job to protect the American homeland is just to protect the Reflecting Pool.

BRIAN:

It's not even to protect the pool. It's to protect the president's ego- … because he made a mistake. Yeah,

GLENNIS:

I know.

BRIAN:

Idiot. And he can't admit it. So DC's a train wreck. The Reflecting Pool is a good representation of where Republicans are at. They control the House, they control the Senate, they control the White House. They can't pass anything, they can't agree on anything. They hate each other. Trump's term is gonna go by potentially with him passing no major legislation. Budget bills don't count because you have to pass something through reconciliation, a budget bill every year. No major legislation. Absolutely wild. The time is tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, ticking away. Tick-tock. Normally nothing happens in the last, like, four months before, five months before- Mm-hmm … a big election. It's hard to get things through. The far right will be trying to, like, defend themselves in primaries. The middle is trying to defend themselves for a general, and so nobody agrees on anything. Yeah, we're gonna continue to watch it, but I don't wanna hear the Democrats in disarray narrative come 2027 when we- Mm-hmm … control the House, because this is a next level of dysfunction from

GLENNIS:

Republicans. The Republicans, yeah. Well, I don't wanna talk about Iran because there's no deal yet, and there's no deal until there's a deal. And as of right now, the deal is actually, like, worse than what Obama- Yeah … did. So sick of it. It costs the American people billions of dollars, American lives. It, I'm sick of it. But what I'm not sick of is the internet railing on JD Vance. Did you see that video of him? He joined Luca's, like, fake reading to kids podcast.

BRIAN:

Yes.

GLENNIS:

Did you see this clip?

BRIAN:

Yes.

GLENNIS:

He taps her on the leg and is like, "Good to see you." People aren't saying this. This is what my strategic examination of, of the footage is. She recoils. Watch it back. He goes to touch her, and she recoils away from him.

USHA VANCE:

That's right. Today's special reader is my husband, Vice President of the United States, JD Vance. Thanks for joining us today, honey.

JD VANCE:

Of course. Good to see you.

GLENNIS:

It's-- No, watch it. It's so bad. It's so depressing. And to think that she's, like, pregnant again, it's like

BRIAN:

Despite what the internet thinks, I think she humanizes him, and J.D. Vance needs no help. I came back from some time that I was unplugged for a couple of days. Mm. And this is what the news that I was catching up on was. I'm gonna read, like, a bunch of them in a row. The monthly cost of a medium-priced home was $3,120 in the fourth quarter of 2025. That is a 46% increase from the same time in 2019. Home ownership rate in the US fell for the second consecutive year. Thank you, Donald Trump. Mm-hmm. The largest decrease was among those under age 35. It's been a rocky road for ice cream fans, with the average price at scoop shops up 35%.

GLENNIS:

Is there oil in the ice cream?

BRIAN:

I know, you would think. Even if the Strait of Hormuz is fully open, gas prices will remain above pre-war levels for months. A majority of US families now have two parents who work full-time, a record high, 52%.

GLENNIS:

Did you see that clip of Trump talking about, "We have wars. We can't worry about daycare"?

BRIAN:

No, I did not

DONALD TRUMP:

We can't take care of daycare. We're a big country. We have 50 states. We have all these other people. We're fighting wars. We're-- We can't take care of daycare

BRIAN:

And then my last one, Americans are split on the American dream, with less than half believing that hard work gets you ahead. Among 18 to 29-year-olds, belief in the American dream has fallen from 50% when Joe Biden was president to 36% today. I point all of these out because those were not obviously part of the same story. It was story after story after story about how the economy is just pummeling-

GLENNIS:

Mm-hmm… BRIAN: normal people, and Finding a way to not just message on it, not just say like, "Affordability matters to me, too"- Mm-hmm … but meaningfully change that reality for people is the only thing that actually matters electorally from now through 2028 and even beyond. That is the whole ballgame. Mm-hmm. I want more people who get that. I thought that it was Alex Bores. I mean, it is, but like I'm, I'm sad- Yeah … that we're not gonna have him. But that is all the Democrats need to be talking about from now until November. And beyond. That's the other thing. How do we get the power back and keep the power by actually legislating with policies that help the American people?

BRIAN:

Mamdani is doing it. I don't think it's the only way, but it's the only way until someone else shows us another way. Mm-hmm. You know? Chuck Schumer ain't got it. Sorry, Hakeem Jeffries ain't got it. Whatever plan they have, I have yet to sort of see it, hear it, feel it in a way- Yeah … that is gonna stick with, with anybody. We need new blood, new faces.

GLENNIS:

Well, I'm not talking about presidentially here, but what I am talking about is Kathy Hochul is someone who I do think has very strategically and mostly successfully aligned herself with Mamdani in a way that, uh, has benefited Kathy, who has Buffalo blood. That's-

BRIAN:

Yeah, I know you ride for her

GLENNIS:

I don't ride for her. And like I, I do think- I just- You do … I just think that she- You do I don't ride for her. I just think that I appreciate- Planet Hochul Mahar. Yeah, I'm like jumping, uh, on tables in Buffalo on the weekend. Go Bills. No, but you know, she's an adept politician. Yep. And she saw Mamdani, and she knew that for a big chunk of the things Mamdani wanted to get done, he needed Albany, and he needed Kathy Hochul. And she said, "Take me to that soccer game, Mayor." You're right."I'm gonna sit in that box with you."

BRIAN:

And I think that she is a survivor, and she's sort of- Mm-hmm… showing how Democrats can adapt to survive, and she's doing like enough.

GLENNIS:

Yeah.

BRIAN:

And no one's showing up at a Kathy Hochul rally. It is not believable that Hochul is like the-

GLENNIS:

It

BRIAN:

is, is like it. And so that's where I- Yeah … the New York primaries this week, that's what they pointed to for me. Until you unlock what's the highest, I was gonna go with a Pokemon joke. Charizard. Like,

GLENNIS:

right.

BRIAN:

Whatever the fuck. A

GLENNIS:

Charizard card. Until you pull a Charizard card. Yeah.

BRIAN:

Until you have elite level center left organizing, messaging, then don't expect people to be aggregating there. They're gonna continue to aggregate where the party's at, and the party's at- Mm-hmm … the left because that's who's, like, delivering and getting energized and spelling out what a new path and something different can look like. Mm-hmm. As long as we lean into establishment type figures like Michael Lasher, who I think is a good guy, we're still going to have a ceiling on the types of voters and coalition that we can attract.

GLENNIS:

And it's my new favorite segment of the week. You're gonna tell me an oath candidate that you're particularly excited about and who could use some additional resourcing.

BRIAN:

Yes. In honor of Pride Month, we are going to say our oath candidate of the week is Kris Mayes, the Attorney General of Arizona, who is an out lesbian. In the state of Arizona, she stood in the way of the abortion ban that would have gone into effect in Arizona criminalizing doctors for performing abortions in the state. She won her race in 2022 by just, like, 280 votes out of 2.5 million votes cast, so super, super narrow win. Wow. And she is up again and is facing another- Okay really tough race. So she is our candidate of the week and highly recommend people slide into the link in my bio and support her.

GLENNIS:

Yeah. And if you or someone you know lives in Arizona, text that. And that margin is so small.

BRIAN:

Crazy.

GLENNIS:

Every vote counts. It's crazy. That's so small.

BRIAN:

Yeah. It hits. Just a, a little difference can make a huge change in the state, so get into it.

GLENNIS:

Love it. Go Kris Mayes. Thanks for listening. If you haven't already, don't forget to subscribe and follow wherever you get your podcasts.

BRIAN:

And we'll see you next Thursday as we check the vibes of the week.

Head Shot

Brian Derrick

Co-host
Head Shot

Glennis Meagher

Co-host