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Elon Musk gets called a lot of names by a lot of people, but not many elected officials find the courage to call him a âdickâ without fear of the DOGE bros coming for them, unless youâre Senator Tina Smith that is, the Democrat from Minnesota who sat down for a wide-ranging interview with Mehdi in her office on Capitol Hill.
âIt's so important that we speak out, that we speak the truth, that we don't hold back,â says Smith, a progressive Democrat who found Muskâs move to email federal employees asking them to list their weekly completed tasks a step too far for an unelected billionaire.
âI felt so angry for everybody who had gotten that email, understanding they were under so much pressure and so much uncertainty anyway, and I'm like⊠Who are you? Like, what gives you the right?â The answer? Trump, but Smith has a theory about that:
âTrump is responsible, but don't you think that sometimes he's happy to have Musk out there, sort of absorbing some of that attack?... itâs all performative.â
The senatorâs harsh words are not exclusively reserved for Musk and Trump though, as the Minnesota senator is just as unfiltered in her criticisms of the Democratic Party to which she belongs, a party that she describes today as being âtoo cautious.â
âI think Democrats have to have a real reckoning about the fact that the relationship that we thought we had with voters, our base voters and others, that relationship is not that great. It's weak. People don't think that we're standing up for them.â
The Minnesota senator recently announced that she will not be seeking reelection next year, making this her final term as an elected official. âI think there's great power in coming, serving for a while, doing everything that you can, and then moving on,â she tells Mehdi.
If you are a paid subscriber, you can watch the full interview above to hear why Smith thinks Democrats should be âgetting the hell out of Washington,â the Biden administrationâs support for Israel, and her response to Mehdiâs questions on leadership, Chuck Schumer, and more.
Note: This interview was taped just prior to Fridayâs controversial cloture vote in the Senate.
Free subscribers can watch a 10-minute preview. Consider becoming a paid subscriber today to watch the full interview.
In case you missed them, here are some of our other interviews with House officials:
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In this weekâs episode of Mehdi Unfiltered, Mehdi is joined by Democratic Rep. Jim Himes to discuss his censure vote for Rep. Al Green, the detainment of Mahmoud Khalil, and the âpro-fascist instinctsâ of Elon Musk.
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Antisemitism is sadly very much alive and well in the US, but conservatives want you to believe it is located in the placard-waving crowds at pro-Palestine rallies, or the student protests on college campuses, rather than within their own bigoted ranks, where talk of âgreat replacementâ and Nazi-looking salutes are all the vogue right now.
The conservative moment in the US has even taken to declaring liberal Jewish critics of Israel as not Jewish enough, says one leading Jewish expert on antisemitism, who warns against the conflating of antisemitism with anti-Zionism.
âItâs called us JINOs, âJewish in name only,ââ Lara Friedman, President of the Foundation for Middle East Peace, tells Mehdi on âMehdi Unfiltered.â
âIt's a framing that started not with this Trump administration, it was there during the Biden administration, was there during the previous Trump administration⊠it has almost become a cult-like fealty that is demanded to Zionism and the state of Israel.â
Friedman has not been shy to point out the hypocrisy displayed by people who are outraged by phrases like âfrom the river to the sea,â but are seemingly unbothered by Nazi-looking salutes on stage here in the US.
âThat brought forth the biggest wave or tsunami of vitriol against me I've ever experienced, which really boiled down to âshut up you⊠and fill in your epithetsâ followed by the word âJewâ. Outright anti-Semitism, including from Jewish people,â she says.
Some of the concerns and fears that members of the Jewish community in the US are feeling right now are based on real trends, Friedman says, but those concerns and fears are aimed at the wrong group.
âThe people that they are afraid of are not the right wingers whoâŠattacked a synagogue in Pittsburgh. The people they're afraid of are the people who are trying to speak out for Palestinian lives and rights.â
If you are a paid subscriber, you can watch the full interview above to hear Friedman explain the way in which the rightâs cynical cozying up to Israel is a way of laundering antisemitism, the dangerous threat posed to free speech by the controversial IHRA definition of antisemitism, and why everyone should pay attention to what Steve Bannon and Elon Musk are saying and doing.
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In Part Two of Mehdiâs interview with Joe Walsh, the former Republican congressman turned Never-Trumper, Mehdi challenges Walsh on his support for Israelâs war on Gaza.
Mehdi presses Walsh on his use of the term âgenocideâ to describe Russiaâs attack on Ukraine but his refusal to apply it to Israelâs attack on Gaza; on his smearing of the International Criminal Court for having âanti-israel biasâ; and on his refusal to condemn Israelâs mass displacement of Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, not just Gaza.
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âI think Americans are going to take to the streets. There's part of me that believes Trump wants Americans to take to the streets, because Trump wants to use the military.â - Joe Walsh
Former Republican Congressman Joe Walsh was once a proud ally of the right-wing Tea Party â the movement that many believe paved the way for Donald Trump.
But today, Walsh is no fan of Trump. In fact, heâs become one of the most vocal âNever Trumpâ Republicans and is now officially an independent, having endorsed Joe Biden in 2020 and Kamala Harris in 2024.
In this first of a two-part interview, Mehdi and the former Congressman discuss the fallout from Trump term two so far, the Democrats' failure to fully push back against him, and whether the US is heading towards civil war.
âThe Democrats seem to be caught flat footed,â Walsh tells Mehdi. âHe [Trump] told us every single freaking day during that campaign what he was going to do. He told us every day during that campaign he was going to be a dictator, a king, and for him to win and then be sworn in, and the Democrats really don't know how to react to it â that's been mind boggling to me.â
Walsh also explains to Mehdi why he believes the US is currently in a âconstitutional crisisâ and how Congress should have confronted billionaire Elon Musk.
âWe're supposed to have three independent branches of government⊠Congress isn't there,â Walsh says. âA healthy Congress would have hauled Elon Musk's ass in front of them under oath three weeks ago and just said, what in God's name are you doing?â
Mehdi asks Walsh whether he believes the US may be heading to civil war, to which Walsh replies: âHell, yes.â
Watch Part One of this discussion above, which we are making available in full to both free and paid subscribers, to hear Walsh on whether Harrisâs catering towards Republicans cost her the election; Elon Muskâs role in the White House; and why Democrats are still playing by the âold rules.â
Also, keep an eye out for Part Two of this wide-ranging interview, coming soon, where Mehdi challenges Walsh â a vocal supporter of Israel â on the Israeli governmentâs genocidal rhetoric and the many accusations of war crimes.
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New York City Mayor Eric Adamsâ days seem to be numbered as he faces mounting pressure â from New Yorkers and beyond â to resign.
The embattled mayor had faced charges related to bribery, campaign finance violations, and conspiracy offenses - until that is, the Trump DOJ stopped the charges against Adams just two months before his trial, in return for the mayorâs support for the administrationâs immigration policies.
Adams has denied the charges and stated that he will serve his full term, despite the national outrage, but one man is ready to step up if needed: New York City Public Advocate Jumaane Williams â the first in line to succeed Adams and become acting mayor.
While Williams has not officially joined in on the public calls for Adams to resign, he told Mehdi, âI am very, very clear that this mayor cannot lead this city based on everything thatâs going on.â
As Andrew Cuomo, the disgraced former Democratic governor of New York, reportedly considers a mayoral bid of his own, Williams doesnât hold back. âI believe we often confuse bullying with leadership and competency,â he tells Mehdi, referring to Cuomo, and saying how he hopes New Yorkers remember âhow harmful he was to New York City, how harmful he was to vulnerable communities, how harmful he was to black communities.â
We are making this interview fully available to all subscribers. Watch the full interview to hear the discussion, including Williamsâ views on how the immigration issue has been cynically weaponized by MAGA and the right.
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Award-winning novelist and journalist Omar El Akkad has just released his first non-fiction book titled One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This. The book follows his previous fiction novel, American War, which was named by the BBC as one of 100 novels that shaped our world.
The bookâs title, inspired by a viral tweet Akkad posted in October of 2023, gives you a good hint that the main theme is the genocide in Gaza. Akkad joins âMehdi Unfilteredâ to discuss the many themes in his book, what inspired it, and why so many are silent when they shouldnât be.
âI think there's a lot of people who have become very well versed in looking away and keeping their head down and then checking every once in a while, to see what the prevailing opinion is,â he tells Mehdi. Indeed, the silence from so many on the suffering of Palestinians is deafening, but it isnât new, nor is it exclusive to Palestinians, as he explores in his powerful new book.
âIt is very difficult to find somebody who was on board with apartheid in South Africa. Everyone's against it, in hindsight. That avenue has always been available.â The more time passes, the more it seems everyone was on the right side of history. But in Gazaâs case - the first live-streamed genocide - Mehdi asks Akkad if looking away is the same as it used to be.
âI think operating under the systems of power that we have generally, relies in large extent on looking away, and this was much, much more difficult to look away from,â Akkad says.
You can click here to buy a copy of Akkadâs latest book âOne Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against Thisâ and also, do share your review with us in the comments below!
If you are a paid subscriber, you can watch the full interview above to hear what Akkad considers as the âmost instructive form of failureâ in the mediaâs coverage of the genocide in Gaza.
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âAs citizens of democracies, we will be primarily concerned with situations where our own governmentsâŠour own political classes, our media classes are complicit. And that is what is going to outrage us long before we get outraged about what is happening in East Timor or Myanmar.â
Thatâs just one of the many reasons Indian Author Pankaj Mishra has spent so much of the past year advocating against Israelâs war on Gaza, and has now even gone as far as to write a whole book on the subject â The World After Gaza: A History.
The book is of course inspired by Mishraâs London Review essay and lecture, âThe Shoah After Gazaâ â which drew up controversy last year, after the Barbican backed out of hosting Mishraâs lecture, all before he even gave it.
âIâm not actually quite sure what happened there at the Barbican, but they certainly pulled out at the last moment, fearing that they might also attract the same malicious charge of antisemitism,â Mishra says.
Asked whether he was ever concerned about being accused of antisemitism himself, Mishra said, âWe've seen horrific things in the last 15 months. There's so much more to fear at this point than the charge of antisemitism.â
On the topic of censorship, Mishra criticized the way in which last yearâs pro-Palestine student protests were suppressed and sabotaged by those in power.
âThe way in which mainstream newspapers, mainstream politicians collaborated in demonizing those student protesters and then obviously kind of crushing them... that was one of the most horrific events of the last year, obviously in addition to what was going on in Gaza itself,â Mishra tells Mehdi. âI still think that those student protesters, even though they were crushed and silenced, offered us a modest hope.â
Mishra also went on to draw parallels between the state of Israel and his home country of India, specifically in relation to what India is doing in Kashmir.
âThere are sort of these parallels not just between Israel and India, but also various other post-colonial states, including Indonesia for that matter,â Mishra explains. âWhat we look at is essentially a state â a newly sovereign state â unable to deal with problems of dispossession, the problems that obviously emerged during the creation of these states, and resorting to really naked violence to solve these problems.â
Click here to buy a copy of Mishraâs book, âThe World After Gaza: A History.â
Watch the full interview with Mishra to hear him discuss the implications of Israelâs impunity, US President Donald Trumpâs re-election, and his spats with far-right writers Jordan Peterson and Niall Ferguson.
Free subscribers can watch the first 6 minutes of the interview. Become a paid subscriber to watch the full 24-minute interview and join the conversation in the comments below!
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Donald Trump hasnât even been in office for a month, and already, his administration is dismantling key agencies of the federal government, including USAID. Much of this work is being done by shadow president Elon Musk, whose so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has been wreaking havoc on key systems at the Treasury, the Department of Education, and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
If DOGE really plans on cutting $2 trillion from the federal budget, thereâs one place progressives say he can start: the Pentagonâs whopping $850 billion budget.
âIf youâre going to say that youâre going to deal with government waste and youâre not going to be dealing with the Pentagon, youâre just one big hypocrite,â Ben Cohen, progressive activist and co-founder of the ice cream brand Ben & Jerryâs, tells Mehdi.
âIf the Pentagon were a publicly held company, the executives would be in jail today,â Cohen says.
For Matthew Bartlett, a Republican strategist who served in Trumpâs first-term State Department, DOGEâs efforts to destroy USAID are a big concern.
âIâm all for reforms, but you would be naive not to recognize the miracle work they do each and every day around the world,â Bartlett says.
Cohen points out that defunding USAID not only takes food out of the mouths of people who are starving; it results in âessentially killing newborn babies by getting rid of HIV/AIDS treatment for their moms.â
In recent days, Trump has touted his plan to âtake overâ Gaza and said in a Fox interview that Palestinians wonât have the right to return to the territory. Itâs a move Bartlett says âis more than problematic.â
âFor a lasting peace to ever be a notion in this world, the Palestinians need to have sovereignty,â Bartlett tells Mehdi. âThey need to have their homeland returned to them.â
If you are a paid subscriber, you can watch the full panel discussion with Ben Cohen and Matthew Bartlett above to hear Mehdi question the latter about why and how he served in Trumpâs first administration, and to hear Cohenâs response to whether Trumpâs plan for Gaza amounts to ethnic cleansing and why parent company Unilever is trying to suppress Ben & Jerryâs stance on Palestine.
Free subscribers can watch a 4-minute preview. Do consider becoming a paid subscriber today to watch the full interview and let us know in the comments below who you would like to see on âMehdi Unfilteredâ next!
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Last week, Democratic Congresswoman and âSquadâ member Ilhan Omar became Elon Muskâs latest target on Twitter, after he falsely accused her of breaking the law for sharing legal advice to undocumented immigrants.
In this interview on âMehdi Unfiltered,â Rep. Omar sits down with Mehdi to discuss Muskâs attack on her, as well as the ongoing effort to dismantle federal agencies funded by Congress.
âHe wakes up lying. He goes to sleep lying,â Omar said. âAnd frankly, I don't think he understands the laws of this country. I don't think he understands the Constitution. I don't think he understands the power that we have as members of Congress. And I don't think he understands or thinks that people are entitled to rights under the Constitution if he doesn't like them.â
Omar slams freshman GOP House Member Brandon Gill who launched his own attack on her by saying that the US would âbe a better placeâ if Omar â a lawmaker and a US citizen! â were deported.
âI'm at the point where it's become really hard to have an intellectual debate with any of these people because the level of stupidity that they are displaying every single day is frankly embarrassing,â Omar tells Mehdi.
Since the interview took place, Rep. Gill has doubled down on his attacks on the congresswoman, urging his supporters to sign a petition for her deportation in a fundraising email.
Omar also criticizes Trump and Muskâs claims of massive fraud in the government agencies they are attempting to shut down.
âNo one has shown us a single example of the fraud that he's [Musk] finding. What âfraudâ is, is what we as members of Congress debated and decided to fund legally. That to him is fraud,â Omar says.
Watch the full interview to hear Rep. Omar discuss the need for the Democratic Party to get more aggressive and use the leverage it has; Trumpâs plan for the US to illegally take control of Gaza; and JD Vanceâs suggestion that the White House can simply ignore court rulings against Trumpâs executive orders.
Itâs a fascinating and wide-ranging interview. Free subscribers can watch a 5-minute preview; paid subscribers can watch the whole thing. To access the full interview, do please consider upgrading to a paid subscription.
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Last week, US President Donald Trump signed an executive order freezing US aid to South Africa, saying that their new land ownership law â meant to address the legacy of apartheid â âblatantly discriminates against ethnic minority Afrikaners.â This came just days after Elon Musk railed against the law on Twitter, calling it âopenly racist.â
In this interview, South Africaâs Ambassador to the US Ebrahim Rasool sits down with Mehdi to discuss the new law, as well as Trump and Muskâs decision to âinterfereâ with South Africaâs internal politics.
âEven his [Muskâs] own supporters back home are reeling under the impact of what has been occasioned,â Rasool tells Mehdi. âThey know that there is no land confiscation. They know that 30 years later, this is the most benign land reform that has come in. They know that Afrikaners and whites own 70% of the land to this day and all the farms â mostly â in South Africa.â
The ambassador also discussed the countryâs ICJ case against Israel, which the Trump administration cited as one of the reasons for freezing aid to South Africa.
âThe growing consensus in South Africa is that whatever we've experienced in South Africa is on steroids in Palestine,â Rasool tells Mehdi. âThe template of apartheid has been completely magnified⊠That is the kind of DNA that we recognized as South Africans.â
Rasool criticized Trump and Musk for meddling in other countriesâ politics, telling Mehdi that, âSouth Africa will not be falling into the temptation that President Trump and Mr. Musk have fallen into themselves, and that is to interfere in the internal politics of other countries, as was done with Britain and Germany and others.â
Watch the full interview above to hear the two discuss South Africaâs new coalition government, reports that South Africa may give Muskâs companies a pass on the countryâs Black empowerment rules, and Rasoolâs response to Trumpâs plan to take over Gaza.
Free subscribers can watch a 6-minute preview of the interview. To access the full interview, consider upgrading to a paid subscription.
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Do you ever wonder where the world will be in 50 years?
This is the key question that award-winning filmmaker Asif Kapadia â best known for his films âDiego Maradonaâ, âAmyâ and âSennaâ â seeks to answer in his newest work, â2073.â And the answer is a lot scarier than perhaps the flying cars we imagined for the future.
â2073â gives us a look at just one of the possibilities if the world continues to devolve at its current pace. A world almost unrecognizable as citizens of âNew San Franciscoâ face the fall of democracy and the harrowing effects of climate change. (Be sure to watch the exclusive clip from the film at the end of the interview above.)
âI thought the whole world feels really dystopian â everything that happens every day that I read, everything I see happening around me â and I thought, how do I express this feeling, this fear about where we're heading?â Kapadia tells Mehdi.
He continues, âMy main aim with this film was to kind of almost have a God's eye view of the whole world. Because my background is from India, I've worked in Brazil, I've worked in Europe, I live in the UK, I've worked in the US. I just saw the same kind of elements, the same playbook happening everywhere.â
Thus, â2073â depicts the confluence of climate change and the rise of authoritarianism in the dystopian city of New San Francisco, where thereâs no privacy, no freedom, no democracy. The film is a warning of what is to come if we let oligarchs go unchecked.
But itâs not all doom and gloom, because as much as â2073â serves as a warning, it also is a call to action.
âThe film is there to create a dialogue for us to be talking now, for you, for me, for everyone to be saying, what can we individually do? I don't think it's as simple as putting a neat little moment at the end of the film and saying, if you do this, everything will be great. I mean, the struggle is much more complex and the fight for freedom and democracy is much more layered than me just saying go out and vote. There's something else going on here and we're going to have to talk about it,â Kapadia explains.
He concludes, âI think partly it starts at home. It starts with you, starts with your kids, it starts with your family, your parents, your aunties and uncles, but then also a kind of wider community about what are we going to do to protect ourselves from what is happening. We're not crazy. This stuff is happening. And I think the film, part of the process of showing it, has been almost therapy for people.â
Watch the full interview above to hear what Kapadiaâs take is on the mainstream mediaâs coverage of the issues he highlights in â2073â, and the exclusive clip, only for Zeteo paid subscribers
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âThe left has ceded the space on antisemitismâŠand the right has smartly and strategically filled that void.â
Thatâs one of the big takeaways from award-winning British journalist and broadcaster Rachel Shabiâs new book, Off-White: The Truth About Antisemitism.
Shabi recently sat down with Mehdi for a wide-ranging interview about her book, the conditionality of whiteness for Jewish people, and why progressives need to establish their own trustworthiness when speaking out against antisemitism. âWeâre going to have to do this work despite the bad-faith actors,â Shabi said.
âWe need to be building our own credibility as people who care about and fight against antisemitism when we see it, including from the right, which is getting worse,â Shabi added.
Shabiâs book also explores the ânewâ antisemitism, which is pushed by supporters of Israel to demonize pro-Palestinian voices.
âThe effect has been not only to silence and chill speech on Palestine at this urgent moment, which is bad enough, but itâs also completely degraded the tone,â Shabi said about false claims of antisemitism.
Click here to buy a copy of Shabiâs book, Off-White:The Truth About Antisemitism.
Watch Mehdiâs full interview with Shabi to hear more about pushing back against the right-wing weaponization of antisemitism, how Christian Europeans are responsible for the divide between Israel and Palestine, and the dangers of conflating anti-Zionism with antisemitism.
Free subscribers have access to a 9-minute free preview of this interview. Become a paid subscriber to watch the full 31-minute interview and join the conversation in the comments below!
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Itâs been a historic week in the United States as a man who was twice impeached, convicted on 34 felony counts, and incited an insurrection has now returned to the White House as Commander-in-Chief for the second time. Since Monday, Trump has issued a dizzying number of executive orders, compared himself to President William McKinley, and freed the same Jan. 6 rioters who tried to violently overthrow the government on his behalf just four years ago.
Who better to help us make sense of this unprecedented time and give it context than Heather Cox Richardson?
Richardson is a prolific Substack writer. Her newsletter Letters From An American has accumulated almost two million followers. Named one of USA Todayâs Women of the Year, Richardson is also a professor of 19th-century American history at Boston College, and even interviewed Joe Biden in the White House.
In a wide-ranging interview for Mehdi Unfiltered, Richardson sits down with Mehdi to discuss Trumpâs second presidency, the parallels with McKinley, and whether there has ever been someone like Elon Musk in US history. âThese tech bros have control over very large digital platforms that determine many of the ways in which we live,â Richardson tells Mehdi. âThey also determine our public speech, and that is truly frightening.â
Richardson also looks at how historians will evaluate Bidenâs presidency, what Democrats could do in order to rebound from their recent loss, and how to keep hope alive.
âOne of the things that I expect to see going forward is a much clearer articulation on the part of the Democratic Party of what they stand for and how they are going to implement that,â Richardson says. âAnd by the same token, the MAGA Republicans have articulated what they stand against.â
To hear more from Heather Cox Richardson and how the state of the US compares to key moments in history, watch the discussion above.
âI think the combination of the fact he is himself seemingly not at the top of his game and heâs delivering things that many people expected would not happen is going to mean heâs going to face a lot of unrest a lot more quickly than a new administration usually does.â â Heather Cox Richardson
If you are a paid subscriber, you can watch the full interview above to hear the two discuss whether Biden should have dropped out of the presidential race, the MAGA agenda, and whether Trump is an aberration of history.
Free subscribers can watch an 8-minute preview. Do consider becoming a paid subscriber today to watch the full interview and let us know in the comments below who you would like to see on âMehdi Unfilteredâ next!
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Between controversial salutes, inflammatory statements, and billionaires pretending to be normal people, thereâs a lot to take in from Donald Trumpâs inauguration. The newly re-elected president tore up Joe Bidenâs legacy with one executive order after another as a crowd of mostly rich and very rich people looked on.
âI think it's clear that a handful of billionaires are in charge, and Musk certainly has the most influence,â says Connecticut Senator Chris Murphy, who joins Mehdi to share his perspective.
âWhat you're seeing being constructed is essentially a kleptocracy in which the billionaires of this country are going to steal from the poor and the middle class.â
One of those billionaires, Elon Musk, spent day one of the second Trump era performing two Nazi-looking salutes on stage in DC. Despite his supporters denying it was a âHeil Hitler,â Murphy is not convinced.
âMaybe you could excuse that gesture if it wasn't coming from somebody who has a consistent history of identifying themselves with neo-Nazis and with anti-Semitic conspiracy theories. He literally amplifies some of the most vicious anti-Semitic conspiracy theories on Twitter.â
Mehdi pushed Murphy on his support for Israel since October 7, on the TikTok ban that Democrats voted for, and the increase in billionaire wealth on Joe Bidenâs watch.
And, looking forward, Mehdi asked the senator about the future of a deeply unpopular Democratic Party.
âIf we want to win,â says Murphy, who is considered to be a possible 2028 Democratic presidential contender, âyou have got to make economic populism and economic fairness the tent pole of your party, and you've got to build a bigger tent in which you have the courageâŠto bring in some people to that tent that might not line up with you on all the issues that I think are important.â
If you are a paid subscriber, you can watch the full interview above to hear Mehdi question Murphy on sending weapons to Israel, Kamala Harrisâ campaign, bipartisanship, and the normalization of corruption.
Free subscribers can watch a 15-minute preview. Do consider becoming a paid subscriber today to watch the full interview and let us know in the comments below who you would like to see on âMehdi Unfilteredâ next!
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Who is Marwan Barghouti? Why is he nicknamed âPalestineâs Mandelaâ? And why does Israel see him as such a big threat, even behind bars, that it is adamantly refusing to release him as part of the Gaza ceasefire deal?
This week on Mehdi Unfiltered, Mehdi goes on a deep dive into Barghoutiâs life, his activism, and most importantly, all the red flags around his trial and imprisonment by Israel.
Barghoutiâs story, like that of most Palestinians, is a mix of struggle and hope. The former Fatah official, the political party currently led by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, is the most popular leader among Palestinians today. And while 89-year-old Abbas sets a low bar for competition, Mehdi explains what makes Barghouti still so popular after decades of imprisonment - and such a threat to both Benjamin Netanyahu and Mahmoud Abbas.
It is rare for any Palestinian to see an inkling of justice in Israelâs military courts. Red flag after red flag, Mehdi details everything that went wrong in Barghoutiâs trial, from torture to international law violations to a judge with a grudge, because there is no statute of limitations on injustice, especially when its victims continue to pay the price for it.
âMy father used to always tell me that hope is sometimes a privilege, and being hopeless is a privilege that we can't have as Palestinians.â
Also, Marwan Barghoutiâs son, Arab Barghouthi, joins Mehdi to discuss the latest on his fatherâs condition, his health after decades behind bars, and whether prison changed him from the leader he was.
âI don't think so,â Arab refutes, âI have my trust in God first and in my father, because he is someone who has been through a lot in his life.â Despite his hope, Arab is also well aware of his fatherâs difficult conditions in prison, especially since the October 7 attack.
âThe head of Ofer prison came to him and in front of other prisoners, he asked him to put his hands behind his back and to kneel, to try to tell the other prisoners that if I can humiliate your leader, I can humiliate you all, which he refused. So they forced him to do it, which got his shoulder dislocated,â Arab recounts, adding that many more torture techniques were used against his father including solitary confinement and sleep deprivation.
Watch the full interview above to find out why Marwan Barghoutiâs case should have never reached Israeli courts, and if Arab believes Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas would actually support his fatherâs release in 2025.
If you liked this episode of Mehdi Unfiltered, do consider becoming a paid subscriber today and let us know who youâd like to see on our show next!
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Have you ever been stuck with a subscription you just canât seem to cancel? Or how about buying tickets online that nearly double in price at checkout? (Yes, weâre looking at you, Ticketmaster.)
Weâve all been there. But thanks to the work of the current Federal Trade Commission (FTC), those days will soon be coming to an end with initiatives like âclick to cancelâ and policies cracking down on pesky âjunk fees.â
As the final days of the Biden Administration come to an end, outgoing FTC Chair Lina Khan reflects on some of the agencyâs biggest accomplishments and the legacy she will be leaving behind. âI think our record speaks for itself. I think all of the ways that we are delivering enormous benefits for the American people speaks for itself, and I'm just enormously proud of the just win after win that we've been able to deliver for the American people,â she tells Mehdi.
Khan, who was just 32 when she was appointed to her post in 2021, has been able to unite Americans across political lines for the FTCâs anti-monopoly work and has produced populist policies that the Biden administration can be proud of.
As she explains to Mehdi, âOne of the original insights underlying the antitrust laws and the anti-monopoly tradition in America was a recognition that deep concentrations of economic power would be dangerous for the American people. It would undermine their economic freedoms, but it could also pose political dangers.â
And as Jeff Bezos and Mark Zuckerberg cozy up to Trump, Khan warns, âextreme concentration of economic power can buy you political powerâŠâ
Khan also talked about how the FTCâs wins during her tenure are âdurableâ and could outlast the Trump administrationâs policies. To find out why, and more about her own plans after January 20, then please do watch the discussion above.
Paid subscribers can watch in full while free subscribers can catch the first two minutes of the conversation.
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It is less than two weeks until US president-elect Donald J. Trumpâs second inauguration, and between Elon Muskâs agenda-setting and all Trumpâs controversial cabinet picks, the soon-to-be 47th president is already setting the stage for an even more chaotic and corrupt term in office.
In this first âMehdi Unfilteredâ interview of 2025, Republican strategist and Trump Campaign surrogate Adolfo Franco joins Mehdi for a wide-ranging and, at times, heated interview on Trumpâs post-election moves. Watch the full segment above.
Mehdi also challenges Franco on Trumpâs 2020 election conspiracy theories, with Mehdi specifically asking Franco whether Trumpâs fringe and unconstitutional legal arguments about election certification from 2020 applied to the 2024 election results.
ââOnly the vice president has the power to reject fraudulently chosen electorsâ â that's what Donald Trump said on January the 5th, [2021],â Mehdi says to Franco. âSo, I'm asking, if Kamala Harris had said on Monday âAdolfo Franco and Donald Trump said there was massive cheating in Pennsylvania, I reject the electors from Pennsylvania,â you support her power to do that?â
âI think she would have had a basis to do that had the election been close to her,â Adolfo says.
Mehdi asked Franco about Trump falsely claiming that he has âalways been in favorâ of the H1-B visa program, after Elon Musk announced he would go to âwarâ to protect the legal immigration program.
âThat's a lie, Adolfo. He said in 2016 in a presidential debate and across the campaign that the H-1B visa program was, quote, âvery bad,â âunfairâ for US workers and, quote, âwe should end it,â â Mehdi says to Adolfo.
âI donât think itâs a lie. I think heâs for the program, but it needs to be reformed⊠Itâs been a system thatâs been used many times to sue employers because of its use,â Adolfo responds.
On the topic of the H1-B debate, Mehdi and Adolfo also discussed a tweet Elon Musk agreed with on Twitter that referred to American workers as âr*tarded,â with Franco saying that Musk, âneeds to apologize.â
If you are a paid subscriber, watch the full interview to hear Mehdi challenge Franco on Trumpâs cabinet picks and their controversial records, the president-electâs flip-flop on the TikTok ban, and the dangerous misinformation Trump has been spreading about the New Orleans attack that took place early on New Yearâs Day.
Free subscribers can watch the first 12 minutes of the segment for free. To access the full interview, consider upgrading to a paid subscription.
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In 2023, Humza Yousaf made history when he was elected as Scotlandâs first minister, making him the first Muslim leader of a Western democracy. Yet, that term was cut short this past spring after Yousaf was forced to resign from the post, as his coalition government fell apart.
Since then, Yousaf has remained a backbench member of the Scottish Parliament.
However, in this exclusive interview with Zeteo in London, Humza Yousaf announces that he will not be seeking re-election to the Scottish Parliament in 2026, telling Mehdi that itâs time for him to âstep away from frontline politics.â
âI think the time is right for me to step down, step away from frontline politics and make way for the next generation of elected members,â Yousaf says to Mehdi.
In this wide-ranging interview, the former leader of Scotland discusses his fallout with the Green Party earlier this year, which ultimately led to the collapse of his coalition government, saying that terminating the power-sharing agreement with the Greens was, âthe right thing to have done.â
âMy successor is no longer encumbered with that deal, [he] can make decisions in policy that he wants to take forward in our country's interest without having to negotiate and compromise with the Greens. They can do that on an issue by issue basis, which I think is the best way to do it,â Yousaf says.
Yousaf also discusses the Middle East with Mehdi, telling him that the UK Labour Party is complicit in Israelâs genocide on Gaza.
âThere's no doubt in my mind at all they are complicit. And I hope and pray that I live to see the day that all of those who are complicit are held accountable for these crimes,â Yousaf tells Mehdi.
Mehdi asks Yousaf about his feud with billionaire Elon Musk, with the former first minister reiterating why he thinks Musk is, âone of the most dangerous men on the planet.â
Yousaf also sounds the alarm about reports that Musk has been considering donating to the hard-right Reform UK party (Musk has denied these reports).
Watch the full exclusive interview above to hear Mehdi and Yousaf also discuss the rise of Islamophobia and the UK race riots from this past summer, his partyâs catastrophic performance in the UKâs general election this year, and the Pakistani governmentâs continued imprisonment of former prime minister Imran Khan.
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President-elect Donald J. Trump has once again revealed his blatant disregard for the US Constitution, touting his plan to end birthright citizenship for the children of undocumented immigrants.
Of course, Trump being Trump thinks he can end it all by himself, via simple executive order â rather than the required constitutional amendment. But, as Mehdi points out in the video above, Trump not only would be defying the plain text of the 14th Amendment, he would also be going against over 100 years of judicial precedent.
Watch the short video above to see Mehdi rebut the right-wing critics of birthright citizenship, dismantle Trumpâs lies on this issue, and brings receipts dating all the way back to the 1860s.
Paid subscribers can comment below.
Check out some of our other stories from the past week:
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