Democrats should be doing victory laps right now, after President Donald Trump’s rambling State of the Union address is already polling as the least popular SOTU speech of the century.
Yet, the party still appears to be in worse shape than ever before, suffering from their own record-low approval ratings.
Perhaps that’s why people like Rep. Seth Moulton, a 47-year old Iraq War veteran, are calling for a change in leadership, as he challenges 79-year old Senator Ed Markey for his Massachusetts Senate seat.
“He hasn’t helped us win. And that’s what we need to do right now in this moment,” Moulton says to Mehdi, saying he would not vote to keep Chuck Schumer as leader of the Democrats in the Senate.
In this wide-ranging and challenging interview with the centrist Democratic congressman, Mehdi asks Moulton whether he can beat a progressive incumbent senator with such high approval ratings, and also challenges him on his own voting record in the House.
Mehdi specifically brings up a GOP-led resolution Moulton voted in favor of last November – one that condemned the “horrors of socialism,” after Democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani’s historic mayoral victory in New York City.
“Does that mean you’re denouncing AOC and Bernie Sanders and Zohran Mamdani?” Mehdi asks Moulton.
“No, absolutely not… I actually read resolutions,” Moulton says to Mehdi before explaining and defending his vote.
Mehdi and the congressman also discuss the moment where Moulton’s staff had to escort out his SOTU guest – 19-year-old Marcelo Gomes da Silva, who was detained by ICE last year – during Trump’s speech, after DHS threatened him on social media.
“It should be abolished, but also it should be prosecuted,” Moulton says of ICE, as he urges his party leadership to get behind these policies.
But what about Moulton’s views of his former friends at AIPAC? The Netanyahu government? Military aid to Israel? Mehdi challenges Moulton on all of the above, and their conversation is definitely worth a watch, from start to finish.
Paid subscribers can watch the full interview to see Mehdi press the congressman on Hakeem Jeffries too, and hear Moulton explain why he thinks the Epstein files expose “two Americas.”
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