Vote Blue No Matter Whoops!
Democrats are searching for ways to win over voters ... but not endorsing the guy who won over voters
June 26: Trump and Wall Street agree: Mamdani must be stopped … Dem leaders who cried ‘Vote blue no matter who’ congratulate Mamdani without endorsing him because it’s not as if you should just vote blue no matter who … American intel on Iran to have uproarious road tour through Capitol Hill this week … EXCLUSIVE: Slain missionary’s family calls out accused Minnesota assassin Vance Boelter for lying about his past …
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If there’s one thing Pres. Donald Trump and top Democratic officials can agree on, it’s that the guy who energized young voters and boosted turnout (despite a Muslim name and virtual anonymity before this year) is definitely not for them.
After New York state Assembly Member Zohran Mamdani beat the money and the establishment and the xenophobia and the ageism and the norms and the conventional wisdom to lock up the Democratic nomination for New York City mayor, Republicans are rushing to demonize him and establishment Democrats are rushing to demonetize him.
The GOP quickly picked up on exactly the same scare tactics that failed to stop an unknown Muslim immigrant from overcoming disgraced former Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s (D-NY) name recognition and billionaire bankroll to ensure that Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) has more company as one of Americas most popular politicians.
Trump, who used to be the change guy and is now the let’s-change-from-him guy, ”wrote,”
It’s finally happened, the Democrats have crossed the line. Zohran Mamdani, a 100% Communist Lunatic, has just won the Dem Primary, and is on his way to becoming Mayor. We’ve had Radical Lefties before, but this is getting a little ridiculous. He looks TERRIBLE, his voice is grating, he’s not very smart, he’s got AOC+3, Dummies ALL, backing him, and even our Great Palestinian Senator, Cryin’ Chuck Schumer, is groveling over him. Yes, this is a big moment in the History of our Country!
Agreed! Other Republicans had shit to say, too, which they don’t bother to do with Democrats who don’t threaten them.
Vice Pres. JD Vance: “Congratulations to the new leader of the Democratic Party.” From your lips to whichever god you believe in this week’s ears.
White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller: “NYC is the clearest warning yet of what happens to a society when it fails to control migration.” As if New York isn’t America’s #1 city by virtually every metric precisely because of its diversity, including being a city of immigrants.
Turning Points USA founder Charlie Kirk: “24 years ago a group of Muslims killed 2,753 people on 9/11. Now a Muslim Socialist is on pace to run New York City.” As if Kirk’s party hasn’t been fulfilling Osama bin Laden’s wildest dreams since 9/12.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) posted an AI image of the Statue of Liberty wearing a burqa. As if Greene hasn’t spent her career spitting on the immigrants whose pathway here was lit by that torch.
As Pres. Franklin D. Roosevelt said, “We know now that Government by organized money is just as dangerous as Government by organized mob. Never before in all our history have these forces been so united against one candidate as they stand today. They are unanimous in their hate for m[amdan]e—and I welcome their hatred.”
It’s vital to clock that Republicans aren’t trying to scare voters about Mamdani. They’re trying to scare invertebrate Democrats out of learning from him.
Sure enough, Democratic leaders yesterday took a break from barraging people with emails — about how important it is to support anyone fighting Trump — to be mum as fuck about whether they would support the guy who Democratic voters literally already picked.
Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY): No endorsement. And Schumer’s from Brooklyn.
House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY): “…a strong campaign that relentlessly focused on the economy and bringing down the high cost of living…” but no endorsement.
Gov. Kathy Hochul (D-NY): No endorsement.
Democrats looking for how to win are looking at Mamdani and thinking, I didn’t mean win that much. Let’s not overdo this! Blue no matter who, but not that blue!
Here are some other Democrats who apparently don’t accept Vote Blue No Matter Who:
Rep. Tom Suozzi (D-NY): “I had serious concerns about Assemblyman Mamdani before yesterday, and that is one of the reasons I endorsed his opponent … Those concerns remain.” (Suozzi apparently had no concerns about boosting the Christian group that helped back Uganda’s LGBTQ+ death penalty, in case you’re unsure about Suozzi’s concern discernment.)
Rep. Laura Gillen (D-NY): “Socialist™ Zohran Mamdani is too extreme to lead New York City … His entire campaign has been built on unachievable promises and higher taxes, which is the last thing New York needs.”
Gillen doesn’t even represent the city, so it’s understandable she has no idea what the fuck New York needs. But also, parse her language: Are Mamdani’s promises bad or destructive? Nope.
According to Gillen they’re “unachievable,” which is a slam only on things people would want to be achieved. She’s acknowledging how popular and effective Mamdani’s platform is; she’s just saying it’s not doable. Well, maybe. But it’d be a fuck-ton more doable if Gillen and other Gilli would get the fuck behind it.
Mayor Eric Adams, technically a Democrat — although he worked for Trump earlier in his mayoralty when he was recruited by the Justice Department — is running as an independent in November and called Mamdani a “snake-oil salesman.” That would present a conflict of interest for Adams, a well-known snake-oil wholesaler.
Hilariously, Democratic fat-cat donors who had backed Cuomo are now turning to Adams, Semafor reports. “There is going to be overwhelming support in the business community to rally around Adams,” said Richard Farley, a partner at Kramer Levin Naftalis & Frankel. Considering that Adams’s popularity now stands at only 20%, statistically speaking that means Farley is now up against Kramer, Levin, Naftalis, and Frankel.
And the official engine of Democratic Party centrism, the rich-people-funded “group” Third Way, officially advised Democrats not to Vote Blue No Matter Who.
Third Way Communications Director Kate deGruyter said, “You’re seeing Democrats already come out and making clear to voters where they have deep concerns and where they oppose the extremes of the far left.”
No one’s polled on this, so I’m polling it out of my ass, but everyone saying Mamdani won by running on affordability is wrong. Mamdani won by running on his solutions for affordability. How do I know?
Everyone has been running on affordability issues since even before James Carville rudely advised an unknown person that it’s the economy, stupid.
Republicans promise to fix it with tax cuts…for rich people. Democrats promise to fix it with bureaucratic tinkering: “Good news, poor people who can’t afford child care, we’re gonna give you an opportunity to access scaled tax rebates!”
Mamdani’s fixes, we’re being tsk-tsked, just won’t fly outside New York City.
Karen Tumulty, with whom I sometimes agree, wrote condescended:
“I don’t know how far Mamdani will get as he seeks to turn his agenda — a rent freeze! free buses! government-run grocery stores! — into reality.”
This is, in a word gif…
…but let’s look at Mamdani’s fixes, shall we?
Free child care
Free buses
Rent freezes
City-owned grocery stores
Paying for it with higher taxes on the rich.
Can these play outside New York City in this wild, sci-fi future Mamdani’s crazy voters are fantasizing about? Let’s consider the evidence…
Free child care - New Mexico already has free child-care for every family making less than four times the poverty rate. Fox rounds up other states — not all blue! — moving in the same direction, with bipartisan support.
Free buses - Kansas City’s KC Streetcar, oh, and some New York City buses, briefly, under, ahem, Mayor Eric Adams.
Rent freezes - Economists tend to think rent freezes turn rental units into condos, but plenty of places, including New York, have resorted to them over the years. (It seems to me the solution probably involves ending or limiting corporate commodification of residential housing.)
City-owned grocery stores - Government-supported grocery stores already exist in Communist hotbeds such as St. Paul, KS, and Atlanta, GA, with more on the way in Madison, WI, and Chicago, IL.
Higher taxes on the rich - These can be found in the history books for the entirety of America for, like, most of the 20th century. That’s right, crazy radical Muslim socialist wants to implement tax rates less high than we had during America’s economic golden years.
Note that Trump didn’t shit on any of Mamdani’s policies. How come? Cuz Trump’s stupid, but he’s not that stupid.
Tumulty (almost) makes the case that Cuomo lost because he’s “deeply flawed,” which is too generous because it makes it sound like Cuomo is largely good stuff, but just not perfect. Cuomo is death incarnate. Ruination. Three out of Four Horsemen.
But also, Tumulty says Cuomo’s flaws stood in sharp contrast to Mamdani’s “talent and optimism.” I’m sorry, but hold the fuck on. Right up until polls closed Tuesday, Mamdani was the flawed candidate.
Indian-American. Muslim. Born in Uganda. Socialist. Antisemitic. Inexperienced. Stupid policies. Blah blah blah.
Voters didn’t just reject Cuomo, they rejected every single narrative-setter out there who tried to define Mamdani. The fact that Mamdani won despite the onslaught — and all the bullshit that was supposed to disqualify him — is a testament to the platform that galvanized 50,000 volunteers.
(Tumulty is also wrong that Rep. Mikie Sherrill (D-NJ) won the New Jersey gubernatorial Democratic primary on affordability; I live in Jersey, no one gave a shit. Her fixes were yet another mishmash of Democratic tinkering. She faced a much broader field that ran a much tighter race. The left split between two candidates who combined got more than Sherrill did. She likely would’ve lost if it were ranked-choice voting, pulling in a mere 34% — worse than Cuomo!)
Mamdani yesterday responded to the claim that Democrats are going too far left. “[I]n fact, what has occurred for far too long is the abandonment of the same working-class voters who then abandoned this party.”
MEET AMERICA’S BIGGEST SOCIALIST Y’know whose socialist tendencies haven’t damaged his popularity with voters one bit? No, not Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), although Sanders is far more popular than any “centrist” Dem.
Meet Donald John Trump, America!
As Timothy Noah writes for the New Republic, the purchase of U.S. Steel by Nippon Steel of Japan was approved by Trump — in his role as socialist president of the United States — on the condition of socialism!
That’s right, the deal only went through last week because Nippon Steel agreed to let the U.S. government become part owner of the company. Socialist part!
The U.S. holds what’s known as a “golden share,” which allows the U.S. to overrule decisions on some matters, like a socialist overlord!
And as The Fucking News newsfucked last week, that’s not Trump’s first socialisming. He’s taken over two fossil-fuel energy plants, forcing private owners to keep them running burning fossil fuels, because Trump likes burning fossil fuels.
The unneeded, unwanted takeovers will, obviously, cost tens of millions of dollars to people in the 15 states those power plants serve, if they use electricity.
OKAY, NOW LET’S HEAR FROM SANDERS “I think that the Democratic leadership is way out of touch. That’s not just me…that’s what the polling shows and it’s true,” Sanders told Politico.
“What Mamdani and I and others are talking about is the kind of change that benefits the working class of this country and is prepared to take on the billionaire class that has never, ever had it so good. That’s what the fight is about. I think that’s where the American people are. Whether or not the Democratic leadership will understand that or not, I don’t know. But that is the future of the Democratic Party and politics in America.”
THE MONEY Wall Street assholes are leaving tracks of tears in their piles of blow1.
Stocks of predatory corporate landlords also fell like tears … in … rain.
Hedge fund billionaire Dan Loeb announced, “It’s officially hot commie summer,” revealing that his money has made him so stupid he posts without knowing the difference between a Communist, a socialist, and a democratic socialist.
Partnership for (Rich) New York City’s Kathy Wylde said Mamdani “terrifies taxpayers and employers.” (Author Hamilton Nolan noted that, “A secret, never-mentioned fact is that the people who voted for Zohran are also taxpayers.”
Billionaire John Catsimatidis told Fox (obvi) that if New York “goes socialist,” he’ll close his private, profit-taking food stores. Catsimatidis owns the grocery chain Gristedes, pronounced “Gree-dee.”
OTOH Kudos to Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY), a prominent New York Jewish leader for decades. He endorsed Mamdani in the November general election yesterday and said:
“Voters in New York City demanded change and, with Zohran’s triumph, we have a direct repudiation of Donald Trump’s politics of tax cuts and authoritarianism … [a] seismic election for the Democratic Party that I can only compare to Barack Obama’s in 2008.”
OH, AND ABOUT OCASIO-CORTEZ Since the day she first won her own Democratic primary, paving her road to Congress, Republicans — and centrist Dems — have done to her what they’re doing to Mamdani.
So how’s that going?
New polling this month found that Ocasio-Cortez is more popular than Trump. And Vance. And every other Democrat not named Obama.
Not in her district. Not in weirdo, crazy New York City (that reflects America’s diversity better than most red states and has more people than 38 fucking states). Ocasio-Cortez is more popular than every non-Obama Democrat nationally.
And in her home state, after years of Republican attacks, how do Republicans feel about her? After she was first elected, a March 2019 poll found that only 6% of Republicans viewed her positively, while 51% had an unfavorable view.
Polling this April found that 60% now have an unfavorable view…but 21% see her favorably.
So, no, Republican attacks aren’t the problem. Democratic capitulation to Republican attacks are the problem. And if Democrats are going to abandon Vote Blue No Matter Who, they’re going to learn that cuts both ways.
Non-Mamdani Quickies
There’s new information out today about accused Minnesota murderous freak-job Vance Boelter, thanks to new reporting yesterday by, oh hey it’s me! One sliver of my new reporting: We learned what Boelter did right after high school: He spent three years in college from 1985 to 1988…but failed to get a degree until 1996. The meat of the story is Boelter’s claims about his relationship with a slain missionary. The missionary’s family got in touch with me after I first wrote about Boelter and gave me the facts, including documentation. Spoiler: There might be some truth to what Boelter said, but there’s definitely some bullshit. Reminder: You made this story happen by supporting TFN and my original-reporting Substack, you magnificent Newsfuckers. (Flashback: Best-selling author Jeff Sharlet and I discussed Boelter’s Christianity, and America’s, here.)
Fun times on Capitol Hill as everyone tries to figure out, in hearings today and tomorrow, just how much Pres. Donald Trump is lying about U.S. intelligence on the effects of his illegal strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities. (Probably not to be mentioned: How much Trump lied before the strikes.) Hilariously, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard says the U.S. has newfound new evidence to support Trump’s claim of total obliteration, which he claimed without evidence until it was newfound.
Congressional Democrats are concerned Trump will order another (illegal) strike on Iran. But, hilariously, Trump has now made it impossible for him to ever strike Iran’s nuclear facilities again, because it would prove he’s lying about destroying them.
The Trump-Justice Department yesterday sued every single federal judge in the state of Maryland for not letting him do what he wants. His lawsuit challenges the judicial right to put deportations on hold in cases where the targeted deportee has filed a writ of habeas corpus, the legal tool predating the United States of America that ensures people can be heard in a fucking court before tyrants drop them into bottomless holes. The good news is that, hilariously, Trump is asking judges to rule on whether other judges can rule on shit.
Former Vice President Mike Pence wrote to a Jan. 6 convict who refused to accept the pardon of Pres. Donald Trump. “Your honorable decision speaks volumes about your commitment to the Rule of Law and I wanted to pass along my genuine respect,” Pence wrote. “I am certain that your willingness to accept responsibility has inspired many Americans by your example of integrity and faith,” he lied.
TCB
ME BEING NON-RECLUSIVE! If you missed my live chat with fellow Substacker Michael Fanone yesterday, you can check it out here, albeit unlive. Mike’s a former Washington, DC, cop injured during a terrifying encounter in the Jan. 6, 2021, clash at the Capitol. We talked about cops and the rioters and the future of democracy and all kinds of stuff and I really enjoyed hearing how he thinks about things. Thanks to everyone who joined us!
ORIGINAL REPORTING Next up on my to-newsfuck list is an exclusive about Homeland (sic) Security Secretary Kristi Noem. I’m hoping to get that up by tomorrow or this weekend over on my Jonathan Larsen Substack for original reporting. You can sign up for and support that work here.
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Go get ‘em, kids! If Zohran Mamdani can win, anything’s doable…
TFN creator and writer Jonathan Larsen co-created Up w/ Chris Hayes and wrote for Countdown with Keith Olbermann at MSNBC, helped launch CNN’s Anderson Cooper 360° and Air America Radio, and has also worked at The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and The Young Turks.
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Free buses here in Olympia, WA. The city determined it saved money compared to collecting fares and everything that involved.
"Congressional Democrats are concerned Trump will order another (illegal) strike on Iran. But, hilariously, Trump has now made it impossible for him to ever strike Iran’s nuclear facilities again, because it would prove he’s lying about destroying them."
As if that would bother him a lick. He'll deny that he ever said it, and that someone else lied to him, and Iran whipped up a bunchy of dirty bombys, and then send them bombers out!