Huge thanks to Ryan Grim, journalist and founder of Drop Site News, for joining us for a truly momentous episode. We have so much to cover, centered around Zohran Mamdani’s incredible victory in the New York mayoral election and tied to Democratic victories across the country, like that of Abigail Spanberger’s win in the race for Virginia governor. Of course, that also means covering the American right’s insane response to these elections, calling for restrictions on voting rights (for a deep dive on their continual push against fair elections, check out last week’s episode). And hey, we no longer share the earth with Dick Cheney! What a crazy week. Watch below:

We can’t exaggerate enough how important it is to have a proud, vocally self-identifying democratic socialist as the incoming mayor of one of the biggest cities in the world. (We even discuss how this has changed our perceptions of what’s politically possible and what could play well among New York City voters.) Now, maybe it’s no surprise, but it’s particularly galling that some of the biggest voices in the Democrat establishment notably refused to endorse him. Elected officials in the state and on the national stage went against the clear mandate from their constituents (Zohran won the Democratic primary!) and instead stood down in fear of backing a candidate who doesn’t support Israel’s genocide (and in fact has taken a strong moral stance against it). Now it’s clear that among New York voters, this fear of backing a pro-Palestinian candidate doesn’t actually exist. So why do their representatives cling to it?

Our faves (just kidding), like Ben Shapiro, have been engaging in some truly historic fearmongering about the election of someone who wants to make housing affordable and buses free. God forbid! They’re calling Zohran a far-left extremist, a totalitarian who will attack basic American freedoms. Like the voters of New York, clearly, we reject these ideas as rooted in hatred for working people, Islamophobia, and a refusal to recognize the outcome of a fair election. Clearly, in the eyes of the right, destroying democracy is okay, but these major conservative voices draw the line at recognizing a popular mandate among New Yorkers for improving the material conditions of the working class. This conversation lets us consider how these prominent commentators use their power and platforms to actually undermine the very principles and political programs that they profess, hypocritically, to support.

Again, we’re so grateful to the insightful Ryan Grim for joining us again on KK&F — one of our favorite friends of the show! Remember, you can listen to the audio of this episode when it’s released tomorrow night on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Pandora, and other major streaming platforms.