The Intercept Briefing

• Democrats Swept Tuesday Night’s Election. Now What?

  On Tuesday, voters in Virginia, New York City, New Jersey, Texas, California, and Mississippi overwhelmingly supported Democratic candidates and ballot initiatives.In New York, despite facing racist opposition from both Republicans and much of the Democratic establishment, Zohran Mamdani sailed to victory. The new mayor-elect won over 50 percent of the vote in a three-way race. And in Virginia, Governor-elect Abigail Spanberger won with an even greater margin over her opponent, Winsome Earle-Sears, whose campaign weaponized transphobia in a vain attempt to defeat Spanberger.In California, as of Wednesday, nearly two-thirds of the vote favored redrawing the congressional map to counter Republican gerrymandering in Texas.The Intercept Briefing spoke with Amanda Litman, co-founder and president of the PAC Run for Something, and Maurice Mitchell, national director of the Working Families Party, to discuss what lessons Democrats and progressives should take heading into the midterm elections. Mitchell pointed to Mamdani’s and other Democrats' success last night at driving home a positive economic message for working-class voters as an important roadmap for next year.“There’s elements of [Mamdani’s] victory that are very particular to New York, that are very particular to him, but the politics and the conditions that are a part of the victory are happening all across the country,” said Mitchell. “It's clear that this was a wave election. And inside of that wave are a number of independent, progressive-minded folks who didn't wait their turn, who are willing to fight for working people.” Similarly, Litman argued that Democrats need to embrace a big tent that includes progressive voices. "You need candidates who know what they believe, who know how to communicate, who love the place they're running, and who can articulate why voters should want them to win,” she said.Litman continued, “Does every candidate need to have the exact same ideological profile? No. But also, the person who's running and winning a seat on the Iowa City Council is probably not a good fit for the New York City Council, and vice versa. And that's OK. To be a party that can win everywhere, which is what we need to be in order to stop authoritarianism and stop what the Republican Party has done, we need to have a big tent.” Listen to the full conversation of The Intercept Briefing on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen.You can support our work at theintercept.com/join. Your donation, no matter the amount, makes a real difference. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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• Kat Abughazaleh on the Right to Protest

  Illinois congressional candidate Kat Abughazaleh was charged earlier this week with federal conspiracy charges for protesting outside of Broadview ICE Processing Center last month.Along with five others, Abughazaleh was indicted on felony charges for assaulting and conspiring to injure law enforcement officers. The 11-page indictment alleges the protesters “banged aggressively” on a federal agent's car and “pushed against the vehicle to hinder and impede its movement.” They also allegedly scratched the word “pig” onto the vehicle.Abughazaleh, a candidate in the Democratic primary for Illinois’s 9th Congressional District, spoke to The Intercept Briefing just days after the charges were unsealed. “This case against me, this indictment, is a clear attack on free speech, freedom of association, the right to protest,” she says. “This indictment is so breathtaking in just how obviously it is trying to criminalize the right to protest. And it's ludicrous to me that any elected official that's sworn to protect the Constitution wouldn't look at it and think, where the hell are we right now?”At an earlier protest at the same facility, the former journalist was filmed being slammed to the ground by ICE agents. That video went viral sparking outrage, and she’s urging other elected officials to fight back. “I feel like we as citizens are told to do so much — and then our leaders aren’t matching that. Part of it is they’re scared. This is a scary time. And there are threats from the administration, but also supporters. We've had a rise in political violence,” Abughazaleh challenges. “And this sounds callous, but you asked hundreds of thousands of people to vote for you. You asked to represent them. This is a job. You need to do your job even if you're scared, because that's what people deserve from their leaders.”The protesters are set to appear in court for their arraignment on November 5. If convicted, they could face up to six years in prison.Listen to the full conversation of The Intercept Briefing on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen.You can support our work at theintercept.com/join. Your donation, no matter the amount, makes a real difference. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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• From Trump, With Impunity

  Once again, Israeli bombs rained down on Gaza. The latest wave of strikes killed more than 100 people, mostly women and children, according to health authorities. The bombardment marked the deadliest day since the weeks-old U.S.-brokered ceasefire between Israel and Hamas began on October 10 — a ceasefire Israel has repeatedly broken with impunity.“As the Trump administration likes to say, the ceasefire is still in place. And the media has parroted that as well. But an overwhelming amount of people that we spoke to on the ground are saying that there is no ceasefire with killings being at this rate. This is a continuation of the genocide,” says Intercept reporter Jonah Valdez. Palestinians “have a very crystal-clear view of Israel's policy and their goal of wanting mass expulsion from Gaza. ... Those who are surviving it and living it are seeing through the propaganda that the ceasefire is still in place.”On The Intercept Briefing, Valdez joins host Jordan Uhl and reporter Matt Sledge to explain why President Donald Trump “has a lot to gain from continuing to tell the public that there is a ceasefire” and to discuss the news stories published on The Intercept this week.“It's important to mention this layer of hope that exists. No one wants to call the ceasefire dead prematurely because if it surviving allows for other Palestinians and Gaza to survive,” Valdez adds, “then, you know, of course they have vested interest in seeing the truce live on.”And back in the United States, Trump’s pay-to-play approach to running the government continues unabated. Trump recently pardoned the billionaire crypto king, Binance founder Changpeng Zhao, whose company has done business benefiting the Trump family. “Binance overnight became the biggest customer of the Trump family venture, which is called World Liberty Financial,” Sledge points out. “I think a lot of skeptics out there are saying, like, ‘Boy, this sure just looks exactly like pay to play, like quid pro quo.’”Listen to the full conversation of The Intercept Briefing on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen.You can support our work at theintercept.com/join. Your donation, no matter the amount, makes a real difference. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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• The Struggle for the Future of the New York Democratic Party

  New York City is on the cusp of an election in which what once looked impossible has begun to seem inevitable. Zohran Mamdani, a democratic socialist member of the New York state Assembly, is heavily favored to beat Andrew Cuomo, New York’s onetime Democratic governor and a former icon of the party establishment, in a race for mayor that has become among the most-watched in the nation.Cuomo and Mamdani articulate two vastly different visions for New York City — and where the Democratic Party is going overall. This week on The Intercept Briefing, Akela Lacy speaks to people hoping to see each of those two visions fulfilled.“Traditionally, we've thought about politics as left, right, and center,” says Alyssa Cass, a Democratic strategist who has worked on local and national campaigns. “Zohran offered a message that was less about ideology and more about disrupting a failed status quo that is working for almost no one.”Cass, who worked on Andrew Yang’s mayoral campaign in 2021, isn’t working for Mamdani but says his candidacy indicates “that Democrats can win when we have ideas.”In the view of Jim Walden, a former mayoral candidate who is now backing Cuomo, those ideas are “dangerous and radical policies.” He says Mamdani’s popularity is an indication that “there's going to be a flirtation with socialism and maybe some populist push” among Democrats. But “ultimately,” Walden says, “the party will come back closer to the center.”Chi Ossé, a City Council member who endorsed Mamdani, sees Mamdani’s success as evidence of the opposite. “We could have gone back to or continued this trend of electing centrist, moderate Democrats,” Ossé says. Instead, he thinks that New Yorkers want “someone who ran as a loud and proud democratic socialist who has always fought on the left.”While New York City is preparing for a general election, Republican candidate Curtis Sliwa is unlikely to win — turning the race almost into a second Democratic primary. “The party is now confronted with a choice,” said Lacy, “between a nominee who has become the new face of generational change in politics and a former governor fighting for his political comeback. The results could reveal where the party’s headed in next year’s midterms and beyond.”Listen to the full conversation of The Intercept Briefing on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen.You can support our work at theintercept.com/join. Your donation, no matter the amount, makes a real difference. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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• Trump’s Gaza Ceasefire Deal Is Already Failing Palestinians

  The first phase of the U.S.-brokered Gaza ceasefire deal began to move forward this week as Israeli and Palestinian hostages have been released and aid trickles in. “The crossings were partially reopened, so some aid is coming in — food, water, and medicine — but only a small amount compared to the huge need,” says Intercept contributor Taqwa Ahmed Al-Wawi. “People are surviving, but every day it is still a struggle.”“There is a pause in the bombing, and I say 'a pause' because there are still people being killed,” says James Zogby, the president and co-founder of the Arab American Institute.This week on the Intercept Briefing, we hear from poet and writer Al-Wawi about what it’s been like in Gaza over the first few days of the ceasefire. Then reporter and host Jonah Valdez speaks to Zogby who, along with a delegation of Palestinian Americans, are meeting with members of Congress to ensure the current ceasefire holds and to push for an arms embargo on Israel.“We were challenging members of Congress, not just on ending the weapons supplies to Israel because they've so abused them — in violation of U.S. and international law — but also to consider what are the needs of those who remain behind, the millions of Palestinians still in Gaza,” says Zogby. Valdez and Zogby dig into the details — or lack thereof — in Trump’s plan, how Israel is already breaking the ceasefire agreement, takeaways from past efforts to broker peace through the decades, and how the American public can continue pushing lawmakers to achieve lasting peace, healing, and reconstruction that benefits Palestinians. “Nothing's going to happen on the Israeli side in terms of concessions, unless there's a threat of punishment coming from the U.S. or the international community,” says Zogby. “That's what happened during Oslo [Accords]: The U.S. let Israel get away with murder, and they just kept doing it. If Donald Trump lets them do the same thing — and I fully expect that he probably will — then I don't expect this to move toward completion.”Listen to the full conversation of The Intercept Briefing on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen.You can support our work at theintercept.com/join. Your donation, no matter the amount, makes a real difference. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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