Happy Wednesday! Swin and Andrew here. You’re right now waking up to a post-2026 midterms America, and holy mother of god, was that bad… if you have an “R” next to your name and official title. Was it catastrophically bad for Donald Trump and the Republican Party? Yes. Was it somehow a more painful night for them than they thought it would be heading into it? Also yes.

In today’s ‘First Draft,’ we dive right into the epic conclusion of this year’s high-stakes election cycle, and what the Democratic Party’s victories and the GOP’s electoral slaughter mean for the next two years of Trump’s fascist presidency. Plus, we round up some of the night’s other key results.

Let’s read in.

Subscribe now

‘Utter Bloodbath’

On election night, Mehdi and Prem livestreamed from Michigan. Andrew was covering Troy Jackson in Maine. And Swin was at the Ohio Democratic watch party in Columbus, Ohio. All three states are now sending Democratic senators to Capitol Hill next year – and that was just the tip of the night’s anti-fascist iceberg. Throughout the evening, there was one word that Swin kept hearing and reading from panicking Republican sources – those in the Trump-Vance administration, longtime GOP operatives working on competitive races, big-time conservative donors, and so forth:

“Bloodbath,” or, as one Trump adviser put it: “Utter bloodbath.”

By the middle of the evening, the White House and the larger constellation of national GOP power knew how bad it was. It was a staggering catastrophe for the Trump presidency and his MAGA-fied Republican Party – a stunning repudiation by the American people of President Trump’s agenda of senseless war, ravaged economy, wholesale corruption, and constant barbarism at home and abroad.

Subscribe now

Trump’s party lumbered into election night knowing it would be bad, perhaps even really, very bad. But many of these Republicans, as they told us as the clock ran well past midnight, were not predicting Tuesday’s midterms would be this titanic of a disaster for the Republican Party. For instance, several of them told us their worst-case scenarios for Tuesday did not involve Texas swinging as hard toward the Democrats as the GOP stronghold did on Election Night.

“That was worse than we imagined,” a senior Trump administration official told Swin in the middle of the night.

Read more

Did you miss Zeteo’s election night live stream? Catch the full replay now and relive the exciting night as results came in!

Mehdi and Prem were LIVE from Michigan where Abdul El-Sayed declared victory to become the first Muslim Senator in U.S. history. The historic win came as Democrats took control of the House and Senate, outperforming in many states in what has turned out to be a blue tsunami (Watch to see how Prem coined a new word for it).

The live stream featured an all-star roster of special guests, including Rep. Greg Casar, Mahmoud Khalil, Michigan State Rep. Alabas Farhat, former Rep. Andy Levin, United Auto Workers president Shawn Fain, Dearborn Mayor Abdullah Hammoud, and more.

Subscribe now

Mallory McMorrow, who ran against El-Sayed in the primary, noted that, “We have to completely change this [Democratic] party from the ground up. And I worry that if we didn’t do that, then Democrats would deserve to lose.”

And former Rep. Jamal Bowman predicted that Haley Stevens “is going to go down as the ultimate villain of this American reckoning.”

Meanwhile, senior political correspondent Swin Suebsaeng reported live from Ohio, where Vivek Ramaswamy suffered a humiliating defeat in the race for governor against Democrat Amy Acton.

Watch to see Mehdi and Prem’s live reactions to some of the biggest political earthquakes in modern history, and Mehdi calling out Elon Musk for his failed efforts to keep Texas red.

We’re sharing this live stream without a paywall, but covering election nights like tonight are not cheap. If you want to support Zeteo’s work and see more coverage like this, please consider upgrading to a paid subscription today. If you’re already a paid subscriber, consider making a donation here.

Share

Other Zeteo stories you may have missed:

Democrats have taken full control of the U.S. Congress in a massive repudiation of Donald Trump’s authoritarian presidency and his gross mishandling of the economy.

The blue wave that observers have projected for months ended up being a blue tsunami Tuesday night. Democrats are expected to win a significant majority in the House of Representatives, and they’ve already flipped seven Senate seats held by Republicans.

For the first two years of Trump’s second term, Republicans have held a governing trifecta, denying Democrats much opportunity to block their agenda or hold the president and his corrupt administration accountable. That’s about to change: With control of the House and Senate, Democrats will be able launch formal investigations, and the president will no longer be able to ram through legislation.

Subscribe now

“We’ll work with the Democrats,” Trump told the New York Times Tuesday evening. The president even claimed he’ll accept the election results. On Fox, meanwhile, Trump said: “I have the power of veto.”

Democrats won GOP seats in Iowa, Kansas, Maine, North Carolina, Ohio, South Carolina, and Texas. Former Governor Roy Cooper has long been expected to win North Carolina. The other states were mostly considered toss-ups, or thought to lean Republican.

Kansas elected its first Democratic senator since 1932, as Methodist minister Adam Hamilton beat GOP Senator Roger Marshall.

In Ohio, former Senator Sherrod Brown, who lost his seat in 2024, regained a place in Congress by beating Senator Jon Husted.

Texas state Rep. James Talarico easily defeated scandal-plagued Attorney General Ken Paxton, the first time Democrats have won a Senate seat in the Lone Star State sine 1988.

In South Carolina, which had not elected a Democrat to the U.S. Senate since 1998, Annie Andrews defeated Republican Senator Darline Graham. At Trump’s urging, Graham was appointed to the seat in July following the death of her brother Lindsey Graham, the prominent Trump ally and long-serving GOP senator. It was Lindsey Graham, of course, who furiously lobbied the president to launch the U.S.-Israeli war in Iran – a decision that likely cost Republicans control of Congress.

Share

In Iowa, state Rep. Josh Turek, defeated Republican Congresswoman Ashley Hinson – securing the majority for Democrats.

Dems quickly built on that majority in Maine, with five-term GOP Senator Susan Collins reportedly conceding to Troy Jackson, the former state senate president. Jackson became the nominee this summer after Graham Platner was forced to drop out.

Democrats also held onto the Senate seat in Minnesota, with Lieutenant Governor Peggy Flanagan projected as the winner against former NFL sideline reporter Michele Tafoya

Dems could still expand their Senate majority. Results are still coming in from Michigan, and polls only just closed in part of Alaska.

Zeteo’s Mehdi Hasan and Prem Thakker are currently streaming live from Michigan, where Abdul El-Sayed currently holds a small lead over Republican Mike Rogers. Tune in now!

WATCH ZETEO'S YOUTUBE LIVE NOW

Check out more from Zeteo:

It’s a high-stakes battle for Senate and House control, with the 2026 midterm election results starting to roll in. Democrats have flipped their first Senate seat of the night with Roy Cooper’s win in North Carolina, Senator Jon Ossoff has defended his Democratic seat in Trump-loving Georgia, and Republican Ashley Moody beat out the progressive Angie Nixon in Florida.

WATCH NOW ON YOUTUBE LIVE

Mehdi and Prem are live NOW in Detroit, as we await results in two of the most closely watched Senate races of the year: Michigan and Texas. They’re speaking to people on the ground at Michigan Democratic candidate Abdul El-Sayed’s headquarters, where we’ve already heard from former Senate candidate Mallory McMorrow and former New York Congressman Jamaal Bowman.

And we’ve got so much more coming up! Tune in on YouTube or Substack RIGHT NOW to hear from Dearborn Mayor Abdullah Hammoud, former Michigan Rep. Andy Levin, and more!

Supporting our live election coverage are Zeteo’s Swin Suebsaeng in Ohio to see Vivek Ramasawmy’s gubernatorial campaign until the end, and Andrew Perez in Maine to report if this is finally game over for Sen. Susan Collins. Safe to say, Zeteo has both you and the news covered this election night.

Share

Watch our ongoing live midterm election coverage on YouTube or Substack to support independent journalism as Zeteo delivers the results as they are – unfiltered and without a hidden agenda.

We’re bringing this livestream to all subscribers without a paywall. If you believe in the work we do and want to see more of it, do consider becoming a paid subscriber. And if you’re not ready for the commitment, then a donation would still go a long way.

Subscribe now

“The Trump administration may be within days of launching a nuclear strike on Iran,” according to a solemn tweet posted Sunday by far-right talk show host Tucker Carlson.

Subscribe now

Carlson’s tweet, which bizarrely claims former President Barack Obama opposed recent peace negotiations, in no way means that Donald Trump is actually preparing to use the bomb against Iran. The Trump administration loves, to the point of parody, “leaking” hypothetical war plans – or peace plans – to pressure Tehran or to soothe markets. Or, as Carlson’s neo-Nazi rival Nick Fuentes alleges, Carlson fabricated the story so he can later claim that Vice President JD Vance, whom Carlson praises in the tweet and has improbably promoted as a principled anti-war presidential candidate, successfully averted nuclear disaster.

So, Would Trump Use Nuclear Weapons in Iran?

Probably not. Here’s why:

Read more

The 2026 midterm elections have so many high-stakes races and candidates, but very few media organizations you can trust to cover them all; these are the moments Zeteo was built for.

Subscribe now

Join our election livestream TONIGHT, starting at 9pm ET (6pm PST / 2am GMT) to watch Mehdi and Prem usher in the results from Detroit, Michigan, and speak to people on the ground at one of the most-watched Senate races of the year, Abdul El-Sayed vs. Mike Rogers. But stay alert! We might go live as early as 8pm ET (5pm PST / 1am GMT) if results from other races start pouring in.

Speaking of other races, Zeteo's Swin Suebsaeng will support our live election coverage in Ohio to see Vivek Ramasawmy’s gubernatorial campaign through to the end, and Andrew Perez in Maine will report whether this is finally game over for Sen. Susan Collins. Safe to say, Zeteo has both you and the news covered this upcoming election night.

Every media organization in the U.S. will compete for your attention tonight; be sure to give it to an outlet that will deliver the results as they are – unfiltered and without a hidden agenda.

Share

Watch our live midterm election coverage on YouTube or Substack to support independent journalism on the night MAGA looks to bolster its numbers and take it away from you.

We’re bringing this livestream to all subscribers without a paywall. If you believe in the work we do and want to see more of it, do consider becoming a paid subscriber. And if you’re not ready for the commitment, then a donation would still go a long way.

Subscribe now

Good morning friends. Prem here, reporting on the ground from Michigan on a long-awaited 2026 Election Day – and we find out just how tired Americans are of Donald Trump’s authoritarian presidency and Republican control in Washington.

In today’s ‘First Draft,’ I bring you a story the corporate media has refused to touch this campaign season: We’ve seen the state obliterate free speech and unconditionally fund a genocidal government all under the flag of “Jewish safety.” But what, if anything, is being done about Arab and Muslim safety?

Plus, Trump’s pals at the Supreme Court reject his request to set aside 20,000 ballots in California, the president is ready to preemptively pardon Elon Musk, and a pardoned Jan. 6 defendant is charged with threatening to kill judges.

Come along for a read – and go vote!

‘Always Guilty’

On Monday, I spent time in Dearborn – the hometown of Ford Motor Company and the city with proportionally the largest Muslim population in the country. There, I met Michigan state Rep. Alabas Farhat, who I was surprised to learn was one year my younger, 26.

He invited me to join him at Al Ameer – a longtime local favorite that’s hosted the likes of Bill Clinton (who, once upon a time, encouraged a valedictorian Abdul El-Sayed to run for office). Farhat was quick to point to the portrait of Clinton’s 2016 visit on the wall the moment we stepped inside.

We shared a table’s worth of tomatoes and cucumbers and hummus and pita and fresh falafel and mujaddara, and talked about Muslim-sounding names and Nazis and which gets more scrutiny in the United States of America.

Subscribe now

The meal was one of a series of conversations I had with Muslim and Arab Americans, to listen to their experiences of living in a nation governed by a political party that largely hates them, overseen by a man who has sought to ban and criminalize and deport and bomb people who look like them.

We had these conversations near the end of a long and heated election season that’s seen vicious racism and Islamophobia hurled not just at Michigan Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed, but at the hundreds of thousands of people in the state who look or pray like him.

Read more

Zeteo’s editor-in-chief Mehdi Hasan joined ‘Piers Morgan Uncensored’ live on set in Washington, DC, today to set the record straight on the allegedly antisemitic campaign ad that Haley Stevens used as her excuse for un-endorsing Abdul El-Sayed and backing Michigan’s Republican Senate candidate, Mike Rogers.

“This was ginned up as a fake controversy by Haley Stevens, the charlatan … as an excuse for her doing what she was going to do anyways,” Mehdi tells Piers. He adds, “This idea that she joined Mike Rogers because of an ad that Abdul El-Sayed had nothing to do with is insane.”

Subscribe now

Mehdi rightly points out that the real scandal is the “old school white supremacist stuff” coming from the White House, including the Islamophobic attacks against El-Sayed, the president’s recent use of an antisemitic slur, and the racist Halloween post by Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins.

“They’re losing. The economy is bad so they go immediately to racism, Islamophobia, and that’s why this ad is such a red herring,” Mehdi says. “This was always about Haley Stevens making an insane decision to jump ship.”

Watch the full debate on ‘Piers Uncensored’ above. Mehdi comes on at around 20 minutes and 50 seconds.

If you like the work Zeteo and Mehdi are doing, please consider becoming a paid subscriber. And if you’re already one, you can always help further with a donation.

Share

Check out more from Zeteo:

Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, has spent more money to buy this year’s elections – $474 million – than any donor in history, all to ensure Donald Trump can keep asphyxiating America’s democratic and constitutional order with abandon.

For Musk, that unfathomable sum means virtually nothing. It is roughly 0.05% of his net worth.

Subscribe now

Let us try to convey how little $474 million means to Elon Musk. If you compare his worth to the median American’s, Musk’s political spending this election cycle is equivalent to $116.

The obscene amount of cash Musk has dropped – to support 2026 Republican candidates and help preserve President Trump’s authoritarian, corrupt grip on both chambers of Congress – is akin to an everyday American going to the mall and buying both the new ‘Grand Theft Auto’ video game and a fancy coffee tumbler.

Read more

Subscribe now

Rahm Emanuel, a former senior aide for Clinton and Obama’s White Houses, who helped engineer a Democratic sweep of the House and Senate in 2006, joins Zeteo’s John Harwood to weigh in. The two also go back and forth on...

• Emanuel’s controversial track record as Chicago mayor and Obama’s chief of staff: “If you’re looking for perfection, look somewhere else.”

• Cutting off military aid to Israel

• How Democrats should go forward: “On Nov. 3, the Republicans are going to lose... What we do in 2027 will determine whether we have won.”

• His potential 2028 presidential ambitions

• ...and more.

This was a Substack live conversation on Zeteo.com and the Substack app where Zeteo subscribers could ask questions in real time. Be sure to subscribe to catch our next live show.

Subscribe now

Free subscribers can watch a 1-minute preview, and paid subscribers can watch the full, 42-minute conversation. Consider upgrading to a paid subscription and never hit a paywall again!

Share

Check out more from Zeteo:

Read more

Good morning! Martin here, delighted to bring you the news that matters for Monday, though “delighted” might not quite be the right word, and certainly I don’t think it’s quite right to give you my usual “Happy” Mondays musical link, given the squalid scenes unfolding in Michigan.

In today’s ‘First Draft,’ we’ll consider how Rep. Haley Stevens carried out a political betrayal for the ages, stabbing Abdul El-Sayed and her own Democratic Party in the back just two days before election day, to say she’ll vote for Mike Rogers. Yes, that Mike Rogers: the repulsive Trumpist Islamophobe and shamelessly corrupt swamp creature Stevens spent much of the year attacking. Stevens said she did it because El-Sayed told her not to come to a unity rally. Really.

Elsewhere, there were major developments in election-related lawsuits brought by the Trump administration as it stares defeat in the face; none of them good for Trump, his cronies, or enablers like Rep. Stevens. Judges in Alaska and California stood firm, for now, and that counts. There’s plenty more to take in, so let’s get on to the news.

Subscribe now

‘A Despicable Betrayal’

It might feel wrong to lead on Democratic Rep. Haley Stevens’s gutter treachery against her own party two days before the midterm elections, through her surprise embrace of Trumpism and MAGA, with the verdict of a party leader whose own support of Abdul El-Sayed in the Michigan Senate election has been disgracefully weak.

Subscribe now

What the hell. Even Chuck Schumer was absolutely appalled at Stevens’s actions.

“This is a despicable betrayal from Rep. Stevens,” the Senate Minority Leader said.

“Senate Democrats are united in our support for Abdul El-Sayed, because we know he will fight for the economic interests of working families in Michigan, unlike Mike Rogers, who is a tool of Donald Trump and billionaire donors.”

If for some reason you find yourself doubting Schumer’s sincerity, well, he endorsed Stevens in the primary so his own sense of betrayal, at least, is clear. And if you don’t believe Schumer about Rogers, the Republican with whom Stevens appeared? Ask Stevens herself.

Read more

With Donald Trump leading an authoritarian presidency, inflicting violence across America and the world, and jacking up the cost of living to unaffordable new heights, the 2026 midterm elections present an opportunity for voters, via the Democrats, to begin to impose checks on his deranged and lawless behavior.

Will Trump’s warmongering, vile racism, and brazen corruption be punished? Will Republicans pay a price for supporting the Trump-Israeli war with Iran, siccing masked ICE agents on communities nationwide, and covering up the Epstein Files?

…Or not?

We at Zeteo are breaking down the 2026 midterm races to watch, so you can understand what the results mean – and whether Republicans will face consequences for partnering with one of the most unpopular administrations in modern history, or how badly Democrats will have failed to meet the moment.

Without further ado, let’s read in.

Subscribe now

11 Senate Races to Watch

In the wake of the 2024 elections, the conventional wisdom was that the Senate would be out of reach for Democrats come the midterms two years later. That’s completely changed, and the Senate could actually flip.

Republicans currently hold a 53-47 majority in the Senate. Democrats must net four seats to take control of the Senate and overcome a tiebreaker vote from Vice President JD Vance. (That’s assuming Democrats’ pro-Israel fanatic Senator John Fetterman doesn’t leave the party… so they might even need to win five!)

Senate Races Democrats Hope to Flip

Read more

Zeteo is gearing up to cover one of the most consequential midterm elections in modern U.S. history, and we need all the support you can give.

It is going to be all hands on deck for team Zeteo on election night: Mehdi and Prem will be live from Abdul El-Sayed HQ in Detroit, Michigan from 9pm ET on Substack and YouTube; Swin Suebsaeng will be on the ground covering the major races in Ohio (hello Vivek Ramasawmy!), and Andrew Perez will be reporting on whether it is finally game over for Susan Collins in Maine.

Subscribe now

It takes a village to bring you the coverage we have planned on Tuesday night, and we can’t do it alone. Zeteo is 100% subscriber-funded, and to keep our work independent, bold, and unfiltered, we look to you, our subscribers – not corporate shareholders, billionaire owners, or algorithm games.

So if you’re a free subscriber, please consider upgrading to a paid subscription this week, where you can unlock all that Zeteo has to offer – from in-depth reporting to acclaimed documentaries.

You can also support our work with a donation. Even a little goes a long way.

After failing to force Michigan Democratic Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed to bow to her position on Israel, Democrat Haley Stevens endorsed El-Sayed’s Republican opponent on Sunday, two days before the election.

Over the past week, Stevens and her pro-Israel fiancé made various, escalating attempts to blow up the race. Stevens repeatedly demanded that El-Sayed condemn a random super PAC’s anti-Israel ad and take down his own campaign ad, which includes a clip of former Fox host Tucker Carlson slamming Republican nominee Mike Rogers.

Subscribe now

Stevens then announced Friday she would appear at a party unity event at a Detroit church Sunday with El-Sayed and Democratic Rep. James Clyburn, while again trying to force El-Sayed to commit to her views on Israel. El-Sayed released his own statement criticizing Stevens for “relitigating a primary that ended three months ago.” Reports soon trickled out that El-Sayed’s campaign would not have Stevens at any of his campaign events, and the candidate confirmed as much. “I don’t want any distractions,” El-Sayed said Saturday.

“As you may have seen, our Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate, Abdul, said that I was no longer welcome in his campaign and that I should stay away,” Stevens said in a Twitter video Sunday. “And he’s right, and that’s why I am endorsing Mike Rogers for the United States Senate today. I don’t belong in Abdul’s campaign.”

She suggested El-Sayed has been spreading “hate,” even though Rogers and Republicans – including President Donald Trump – have led an openly Islamophobic smear campaign against El-Sayed, who would be America’s first Muslim senator.

The move generated immediate backlash, including mass resignations from her official staff.

Michigan Democratic Party Chair Curtis Hertel said that Stevens’s decision “shows that she has abandoned everything she claims to care about,” and that the party “will not allow these eleventh-hour distractions deter us.”

DNC Black Caucus chair Virgie Rollins said Stevens “has revealed herself to be a sellout who used Black Michiganders for a political stunt.” Center for American Progress president Neera Tanden called the move a “betrayal” of Stevens’s supporters.

Stevens was the Democratic Party establishment’s pick in the Michigan Senate race, and had the public support of Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer. She narrowly lost to El-Sayed in the primary, despite having $30 million spent on her behalf by the pro-Israel lobby AIPAC.

Share

Since the primary, Stevens had not made appearances alongside the Democratic nominee. Whenever she was asked about El-Sayed, she’d deflect, and eventually, begrudgingly, say she was supporting the ticket.

That changed this week. Alongside Stevens throughout all this has been her new fiancé, Jason Turkish, an attorney who has donated thousands to her, as well as a slate of other pro-Israel politicians including Democrat John Fetterman and GOP Senator Susan Collins.

Turkish announced Wednesday he would be voting for Rogers, and proceeded to be featured on several news outlets – including Fox, Tucker Carlson’s former employer – to attack El-Sayed and promote Rogers. He even appeared alongside Rogers and Texas senator Ted Cruz at a campaign event. All the while, as the unity event was breaking down, Turkish was said to have been involved in negotiating terms to ensure his fiancée’s participation – even though he was actively supporting El-Sayed’s opponent.

In conversations with the New York Times on Friday, Stevens told the paper she was still supporting El-Sayed. She suggested that, in early 2025, she and El-Sayed had both committed to supporting each other’s campaign if the other won.

Turkish, for his part, told TMZ, “I don’t think she’s going to be supporting Abdul El-Sayed very much longer.”

Minutes before Stevens endorsed Rogers, the Detroit News reported that Haley Stevens’s “official staff including her longtime chief are resigning from her office this morning.”

In August, Stevens tweeted that “Mike Rogers will be another rubber stamp for Donald Trump’s dangerous agenda. We can’t afford to give MAGA another Senate seat in November.”

Apparently, ensuring Congress remains as pro-Israel as Haley Stevens is more important.

Subscribe now

Have a tip for Prem and Andrew? Send via Signal to premthakker.35 or aperez.03.

Check out more from Zeteo:

In the midterm elections on Tuesday, U.S. voters face another test – of our values, judgment, and commitment to defending the American experiment. It ought to be easy.

In recent years, we’ve flunked. Despite his obvious unfitness, Americans handed Donald Trump the presidency in 2016. Even after he incited a violent insurrection against the constitutional transfer of power, we handed it back in 2024.

Subscribe now

But things have changed dramatically in two years. Trump has shown unmistakably that he poses the threat to liberty, security, and prosperity that the American Founders feared.

Read more

Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and Gaza are paying the price for an election they can’t vote in.

While Israel’s political future dominates headlines, its “full lockdown” of the occupied West Bank and ongoing bombings in Gaza received far less attention. Whatever the outcome of Israel’s election, the result will be the same: more of the occupation, dispossession, and killing that Palestinians saw this week.

Israel killed at least 15 Palestinians, including a 6-year-old girl shot in the neck, in separate incidents across Gaza this week, while simultaneously terrorizing Palestinians, journalists, and activists across the occupied West Bank.

Subscribe now

In Hebron – a total closure of which was ordered after Palestinian gunmen killed two Israeli soldiers – occupation forces forcibly displaced thousands of Palestinians, demolishing homes after giving some families just minutes to collect their belongings.

There, Israeli police also arrested U.S. journalist Jasper Nathaniel and activist Andrey Kharzhanovsky after illegal Israeli settlers attacked them – yes, you read that right.

While Israelis flocked to voting booths to decide who leads the oppression and occupation of Palestinians next, here is what Palestinians who don’t get a vote had to endure this week:

Saturday, Oct. 24 – Hundreds of Families Displaced in Hebron Amid Israeli Lockdown

Read more

As Senator Jon Ossoff rallied supporters in Morrow, Georgia, Democrats began to chant “Yes we can.” Ironically, it came the day that Dolores Huerta, the United Farmworkers organizer who popularized the Spanish version of “Si se puede,” died. But to add another layer, Barack Obama, who adopted the slogan in his 2008 presidential campaign, was in the building.

When Ossoff introduced Obama, the first-term Georgia senator running for reelection nicked another line from Obama, asking the crowd if they were “fired up” and if they were “ready to go.” Obama seemed to size up the young buck, calling him the common-sense choice in the race.

“It’s not because he looks like a Kennedy, all handsome in the videos,” Obama said, before citing how Ossoff learned from the late civil rights activist, Rep. John Lewis, for whom Ossoff interned. “It’s because he learned from his mentor and my mentor – one of the greats. John Lewis – what it means to stir up some good trouble. That’s what he’s been doing on your behalf.”

It was about as clear of a stamp of approval the former president could give for someone whose cadence and diction has been compared to Obama’s.

Subscribe now

Polls show Ossoff – who nine years ago launched a longshot bid for Congress in the suburbs of Atlanta before he flipped a Senate seat in a 2021 runoff race – comfortably leading against his Republican opponent, far-right Rep. Mike Collins. His campaign has also made it a point to clip his speeches and post them on social media, helping make him a viral sensation. His relative youth and good looks have led some liberal women to salivate over him, as The 19th reported.

So naturally, as a young senator who has a history of winning in a swing state, Democrats, pundits, and political prognosticators think he might be plotting his own run for the White House soon.

In Georgia, some Democratic voters told Zeteo they were open to the idea of Ossoff running for president.

Read more

With the elections only days away, the Trump administration is resorting to even more alarming efforts to interfere with the midterm elections.

In recent weeks, the president’s Justice Department has ramped up its targeting of Donald Trump’s political enemies, despite long-standing precedent to avoid taking actions that could influence elections. This week saw former FBI Director James Comey charged for the third time in 13 months, while a grand jury declined to indict former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson over her Jan. 6 testimony.

Meanwhile, FBI agents are worried about being ordered to seize voting machines, Trump has effectively called for the Alaska Senate election to be canceled and the prosecution of Democratic nominee Mary Peltola, and as Wired reported, ICE is carrying out one of the largest anti-left surveillance operations in the history of the United States.

And as all of this is happening, a new rape allegation against the U.S. president barely made headlines.

From expanding a criminal investigation into California voters to threatening election officials with criminal prosecution, here’s just a taste of what Trump and his cronies did this week that harmed democracy, undermined the U.S. Constitution, and hurt societies worldwide:

Subscribe now

Saturday, Oct. 24 – White House Might Issue Blanket Pardons to Junior Staff

The Washington Sun reported that the White House is looking into issuing mass pardons for junior staff, a move that has been pushed by several conservative organizations including the Heritage Foundation.

While one source says it’s unlikely Trump would pardon all junior administration staffers, the president could issue pardons for employees in specific policy areas, like deportations or war.

Sunday, Oct. 25 – Trump’s Racist and Islamophobic Attacks Against Abdul El-Sayed

Trump ramped up his Islamophobic attacks against Abdul El-Sayed, the Democratic Senate nominee in Michigan, calling him a “jihadist” and that he should “have to go through a metal detector before he’s allowed to go into the Senate.” He also said “any Jewish person that supports this guy should be ashamed of themselves.”

Later, El-Sayed clapped back at Trump’s racist comments, saying, “I’ll go through a metal detector if you’ll sit for a lie detector.”

Share

Monday, Oct. 26 – Trump Administration Charges James Comey… Again

The Trump administration charged James Comey with two counts under the Espionage Act, marking the third time the former FBI director has been charged by the president’s Justice Department in just 13 months. The charges accused Comey of mishandling national security information. Comey was charged via criminal information rather than a grand jury, as Trump officials sought to get the charges in under the wire, before the statute of limitations ran out.

In a video, Comey said he was innocent of the charges, and noted the new case against him “would almost be funny if it weren’t such an appalling abuse of the Department of Justice, one that we cannot become numb to.”

The charges were unsealed the same day a federal judge ruled the Trump administration illegally fired his daughter, prosecutor Maurene Comey.

Tuesday, Oct. 27 – Supreme Court Signs Off on Eliminating Immigration Rule

The Supreme Court allowed the Trump administration to move forward with the elimination of a Biden-era policy giving immigration judges the ability to suspend some deportation proceedings, including when someone is seeking humanitarian protections or other legal status.

The move was part of an unusual settlement agreement, between Trump’s Justice Department and the state of Texas, that opponents have described as “egregious collusion.”

Subscribe now

Wednesday, Oct. 28 – FBI Agents Fear Having to Seize Voting Machines

MS NOW reported that recent White House actions have raised concerns among some FBI agents who fear that they may be ordered to seize voting machines or undertake other measures that could interfere with the results of the midterm elections.

Meanwhile, Reuters reported that the Trump administration has issued more than 100 subpoenas in an effort to acquire voting records for tens of thousands of people across at least 13 states as part of its push to find noncitizen voters, which has already been proven to be exceedingly rare.

Thursday, Oct. 29 – Trump Administration Expands California Voter Investigation

The New York Times reported that the Trump administration is expanding its criminal investigation into California, issuing grand jury subpoenas to local election officials in relation to the Justice Department’s unsubstantiated claim that thousands of noncitizens are on the state’s voter rolls.

Meanwhile, Trump’s Department of Justice sent letters to election officials in all 50 states warning that they could face criminal prosecution if they violate any federal election laws, despite a federal judge warning the Trump administration this week to stop threatening election workers.

Friday, Oct. 30 – Trump Admin Plans One of the Largest Single Expulsions of Afghans

The Times reported that dozens of Afghan immigrants have been detained in Louisiana by the Trump administration, which plans to deport them to Pakistan, where they are expected to be removed to Afghanistan.

More than 150 Afghans are expected to be deported, according to the Times, which would be one of the largest single expulsions of Afghans. Among those slated to be deported are several who could face discrimination or persecution by the Taliban, including relatives of people who assisted the U.S. military and at least one gay man.

Share

Did you miss previous weeks of ‘This Week in Democracy’? Catch up here. And check out more of Zeteo’s reporting from this week below:

IN THE OPINION of the artificial intelligence giant Anthropic, an AI model should be permitted to kill or seriously injure up to 50 people at a stretch.

A larger death toll than that, according to Anthropic’s scrupulous moral accounting, should prompt government regulators to block the release of a model. Similarly, Anthropic contends that frontier AI should get to risk causing as much as $1 billion of damage before regulators intervene. All that is contained in the draft of a bill Anthropic is pushing to shape the long-awaited contours of an AI regulatory framework. “These are sensible policies we believe Congress should act on,” a company spokesperson told Politico. Remember this the next time Anthropic positions itself as the humane AI company.

Not that it’s much comfort, but AI researchers, with astonishing casualness, project that their products will cull far more than 50 people at a time. Last month, Anthropic senior researcher Evan Hubinger tweeted that he considers AI to have a greater than 10% chance of “kill[ing] all humans… within the next decade.” Hubinger was reacting to Jacob Coxon, who announced he had quit Anthropic because it, and rival OpenAI, were “gambling with our lives.” At least Coxon, like Miles Dyson in ‘Terminator 2’, had the moral rigor to stop committing harm; and Sarah Connor didn’t even have to shoot him first. It is a portrait of capitalist nihilism that people like Hubinger would continue to develop a technology they believe might bring about extinction.

Subscribe now

Coxon hastened to insist that AI researchers who make such predictions are not engaged in a “marketing stunt.” He said so because the handful of tech oligarchs who control AI are thoroughly untrustworthy. They have inflated an AI bubble that threatens the U.S. economy. Many suspect that such apocalyptic forecasts are cynical, backdoor assurances of AI potency that puff the bubble up ahead of long-expected IPOs. The overwhelming majority of us, who have no visibility into the labs, have no choice but to wonder whether those inside of them are building an extinction machine or simply engaged in now-routine fraud. Maybe both?

All these should be considered clues.

Read more

Nixon’s campaign is calling for Medicare for All, abolishing ICE, raising the federal minimum wage, and more. But it’s going to be tough for the Florida state rep: she’s been consistently polling several points behind her Republican opponent, incumbent Ashley Moody.

With the midterm elections just days away, Nixon joins Mehdi to discuss her campaign, why Moody refuses to debate her, and her recent allegations that Moody is sending people to Nixon’s bookstore to harass her family and staff members. Zeteo reached out to Moody’s campaign for comment about the accusation but didn’t hear back.

Subscribe now

“This is what people like Ashley Moody do,” Nixon says. “They like to distract against their policies, their failed policies, and place targets on people’s backs.”

Also during the interview, Mehdi and Nixon discuss:

• Her response to Bari Weiss-run CBS News mischaracterizing her comments on Cuba (“This isn’t the first time”)

• Far-right Trump ally Laura Loomer’s disgusting and racist attacks against her

• Whether or not she is a socialist, given her recent membership of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA)

• Why she told New York Magazine she’s considering leaving the Democratic Party after the election (“We don’t have a Black agenda.”)

This interview is being shared without a paywall. If you’re a free subscriber, do please consider becoming a paid subscriber to help us continue doing more bold and unfiltered journalism you won’t find elsewhere. If you’re already a paid subscriber, consider a donation to Zeteo to further support our work.

Share

Check out more from Zeteo: