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Hello and good morning! Mehdi here. Thank goodness it’s Friday, amirite? Although, having said that, ending this week means we’re starting next week, and next week… is MIDTERMS week. American democracy, no exaggeration, is on the line. Yes, again. (FYI: I’ll be live in Michigan with Zeteo’s Prem Thakker on Tuesday night, so do join our livestream on Substack and YouTube then.)
In today’s ‘First Draft,’ it’s time to thank the Clintons (yes, the Clintons!) for doing what many centrist Democrats refuse to do ahead of these midterms. And it’s also sadly time to mourn the loss of one of the great actors of our time, the one and only Sir Patrick Stewart aka Captain Jean-Luc Picard aka Professor Charles Xavier.
Let’s get into it – oh, and no paywall on today’s ‘First Draft,’ so do share with your friends and colleagues and get them to sign up too.
Even the Clintons Get It – So Why Can’t the Rest of the Centrists?
I’ve never been a fan of the Clintons.
Bill’s triangulating presidency dragged the Democratic Party to the right on everything from welfare to crime to foreign policy. Hillary backed the disastrous Iraq and Libya wars and then lost to Donald Trump.
In recent years, they’ve both been ardent advocates for Israel, too.
Remember Bill going to Michigan – Michigan, of all places, home to one of the largest Arab-American populations – in the final days of the 2024 presidential campaign, to tell voters that Israelis “were there first” in Palestine and that the Israeli military had been “forced” to kill Palestinian civilians?
Remember Hillary repeatedly lecturing pro-Palestinian protesters about their supposed ignorance of Middle Eastern history and accusing them of being brainwashed by TikTok?
Yes, those Clintons.
But credit where credit is due.
Because in recent days, as Republicans have escalated their vile, racist, and Islamophobic attacks on Abdul El-Sayed, the Muslim and Arab-American Democratic Senate candidate in the crucial swing state of Michigan, and as a depressing number of centrist Democrats have either looked the other way or actively joined the pile-on, two unlikely voices have spoken up.
Bill Clinton. And Hillary Clinton.
Yes, really.
In South Florida the other day, the former president delivered an impassioned defense of Islam and Muslims, condemning the Republicans’ relentless attempts to divide Americans along religious lines:
“I’m tired of people denigrating Muslims for being Muslims.
“The Koran says, and I first heard this from my daughter, who read the Koran from start to finish when she was 15 years old, and she said, ‘Dad, read this.’
“‘Allah put the different people on the earth not that they might despise one another, but that they might come to know one another and learn from one another.’
“There are bad actors in every faith because we’re all flawed human beings.
“But the religious wars, the culture wars, I’m just tired.”
On this week’s episode of ‘High Stakes,’ Hillary Clinton’s new podcast with journalist Kara Swisher, the former secretary of state and Democratic presidential nominee took aim at the GOP’s anti-Muslim fearmongering against El-Sayed. Republicans, she argued, are trying to get Americans to “not vote their interests, but vote their fears”:
“[Mike Rogers’] surrogates and a lot of the independent expenditure media is really fearmongering against El-Sayed as a Muslim, trying to link him to the Muslim Brotherhood, and all of that… I’m just tired of that, and I hope people are tired of that. Judge somebody on who they are, what they stand for, what they produce… This is not about woke, this is about broke. If you can’t win on affordability, if you are bankrupting the country and enriching yourself personally, try to divert attention.”
Now, I never thought I would find myself saying this, but Bill and Hillary Clinton are right.
They’re right to call out the bigotry. They’re right to condemn the fearmongering. They’re right to stand up to the Republicans’ cynical attempt to weaponize a Muslim candidate’s faith.
The Clintons say they are “tired” of the GOP’s relentless and cynical anti-Muslim bigotry.
But my question is: Why aren’t the rest of the centrist Democrats? Where is their outrage?
Why did Rep. Haley Stevens, who was defeated by El-Sayed in the Michigan primary in August, go on CNN on Wednesday night and lambast her fellow Democrat over an ad he had nothing to do with while saying not one word about the racist attacks he has had to endure from the right? Why is her fiancé proudly voting for Republican Mike Rogers, who has agreed with people who call El-Sayed a “terrorist” and whose own faith adviser has called Islam a “death cult”?
Why is Rep. Josh Gottheimer, one of Israel’s most strident defenders in Congress, indulging GOP smears against El-Sayed and telling interviewers, “There’s no way I am ever coming out for El-Sayed right now”?
Why did Senator John Fetterman falsely accuse El-Sayed of being “pro-Hamas”?
Why can’t Nancy Pelosi bring herself to even say El-Sayed’s name, referring to him only as “this new person in Michigan”?
Meanwhile, there is deafening silence from the top of the Democratic Party. Where on earth is Senator Chuck Schumer? Has anyone heard from him recently? Has the man who wants to be Senate majority leader again issued any statements or given any interviews denouncing the bigoted attacks on the Muslim Democratic Senate candidate in must-win Michigan? How about Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, chair of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee? Then again, Gillibrand has been no stranger to Islamophobic fearmongering herself, infamously referring to Zohran Mamdani, the Muslim Democratic mayor of New York, as a supporter of “global jihad.” As for Schumer, he handpicked Haley Stevens as his candidate in the Michigan Senate Democratic primary.
The bigotry from right-wing Republicans is off the charts. It’s disgusting, but it isn’t surprising.
What’s surprising, shocking even, is how many supposedly liberal, supposedly tolerant, supposedly anti-racist centrist Democrats seem utterly unbothered by that bigotry when its target happens to be a Muslim. Some remain silent. Others join in.
I would go so far as to argue that Republicans get away with their vicious racism and bigotry because so many centrist Democrats – with the thankful and notable exception of the Clintons this week! – go along with it. The same centrist Democrats who proudly profess to be against racism and bigotry when the targets of it aren’t Muslims.
As John Stuart Mill famously observed: “Bad men need nothing more to compass their ends, than that good men should look on and do nothing.”
But in this case, many centrist Democrats aren’t merely looking on and doing nothing. They’re actively making the bad men’s jobs easier.
🇮🇷 Iran War Updates
Mixed message: Iranian state TV confirmed Maj. Gen. Mohsen Rezaei, secretary of the Supreme National Security Council, received a message from Vice President JD Vance. Iran did not say what it was about. Donald Trump said it was about medical supplies. U.S. media outlets said it was about trying to restart peace talks. Trump is reportedly planning to strike Iran again after next week’s midterms.
Worse than the crime: Discussing a visit to the Gulf, Democratic Senator Chris Murphy charged the Trump administration with pursuing “a cover-up… a dizzying and coordinated attempt to try to hide from the American people and from Congress the costs and the consequences of this war.” Dems, he said, would work to end the war if they retake the House and Senate.
General knowledge: Asked about Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s firing of Lt. Gen. Brett Sylvia, the Pentagon’s top planner, Trump appeared to think the general, accused of leaking and referred for criminal investigation, was a woman. “She’s got problems,” Trump said. “She’s gonna have big problems. We’re very much looking for leakers.”
Dire Strait: U.S. Central Command denied Iran’s claim to have captured a drone near the Strait of Hormuz. Tehran said three tankers hit mines while attempting to exit the contested waterway, all catching fire and being abandoned.
Beat the blockade: Reuters said Iran has “created a secret network of military agencies with global reach to import at least $2 billion in hardware, explosives and heavy-duty trucks since January 2025, evading both the US naval blockade and Western sanctions.”
Wider war: Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen said a Saudi airstrike killed 13 in western Taiz province, whose governor said the city of Taiz, besieged by the Houthis, was now “in famine.” The Houthis denied it. Saudi air defenses intercepted two ballistic missiles aimed at Riyadh.
Lebanon latest: Lebanese President Joseph Aoun said progress was elusive on talks for the withdrawal of Israeli forces in the south of the country. Lebanese officials say continued strikes impede efforts to disarm Hezbollah, which Israel wants to defeat. Israel says Lebanon cannot be trusted to deal with the Iran-backed group.
Rest in Power, Captain Picard 😢
I’m not sure I’ve ever shared this publicly, but I’m a bit of a Trekkie, so Patrick Stewart’s death at the age of 86 on Wednesday hit me pretty hard.
Growing up, I loved watching ‘Star Trek: The Next Generation,’ which aired in the late 1980s and early 1990s and starred Stewart as Jean-Luc Picard, the second-most famous, but undeniably the best, captain of the USS Enterprise.
Watching Stewart, a Shakespearean stage actor with a “commanding baritone voice,” deliver rousing monologues as Picard gave me chills. The clip above, from the 1996 movie ‘Star Trek: First Contact,’ is one of my favorite scenes involving Stewart.
Stewart passed away from Alzheimer’s disease and Lewy body dementia just 51 days before the U.S. release of ‘Avengers: Doomsday,’ in which the award-winning British actor reprised his other famous Hollywood sci-fi role as Professor Charles Xavier, leader of the X-Men. Stewart played Xavier, aka Professor X, in six ‘X-Men’ movies between 2000 and 2014.
I admired him not just for his acting, but for his politics too: He was a loud critic of Donald Trump, an opponent of Brexit, a supporter of the Palestinians, and a lifelong socialist.
In 2003, in an interview with The Independent, Stewart said some of his fellow British actors thought he was “slumming it” for agreeing to play characters in Hollywood sci-fi shows and movies.
“What crap! What snobbery!” he said. “For huge numbers of people, I will always be Jean-Luc Picard, and that’s fine.”
Indeed. Rest in power, Jean-Luc, rest in power.
🗞️ What You Need to Know
Golf war: Donald Trump claimed a staffer was “hit violently in the chest” by a golf ball at the East Potomac course he wants to renovate, due to holes in driving-range netting. The president is looking for ways to circumvent legal scrutiny.
Contractual matter: Trump erupted over news that while at the DOJ, his former lawyer Alina Habba Mildon signed a $50 million deal with a Venezuelan family in search of a pardon. Furious, Trump said she should give some of the money to his presidential library and relinquish the deal, the New York Times reported.
Faked Alaska: The DOJ reportedly issued new subpoenas in the matter of how a man with the same name as Senator Dan Sullivan landed on the ballot in Alaska. Trump continued to fume over the reported role of Democrat Mary Peltola’s campaign. GOP Gov. Mike Dunleavy said he would not commit to certifying a Peltola win “if we conclude that there were things that should not have happened, that are illegal.” The NYT showed how spoiler candidates are used by both parties.
Midterms madness: Trump made the death of South Carolina Senator Darline Graham’s brother, Senator Lindsey Graham, all about himself. Looking to California, Trump repeated his voter fraud lie. In Kansas, he scrapped a rally for struggling Senator Roger Marshall. CNN polls found Kansas and Maine too close to call but Dems leading Senate races in Michigan and Texas. Trump said Black and Jewish voters in Michigan would be “crazy” to vote for Abdul El-Sayed. Democrats will send Rep. James Clyburn and Rep. Haley Stevens to campaign with El-Sayed. CNN said Texas Dem James Talarico was targeted by AI robocalls from a super PAC funded by Elon Musk.
Election attacks: A law firm linked to Musk started an “election integrity” operation, Wired said. The DOJ ordered U.S. attorneys in California to subpoena local and state officials over supposed illegal voting, Bloomberg scooped. Colorado’s secretary of state said federal monitors in a county in a swing district would be stopped from talking to voters or accessing voting equipment. Washington state said a DOJ list of supposed noncitizen ballots was “deeply flawed.” A federal appeals court looked set to block a DOJ bid to resume ICE crackdowns on alleged illegal voting. Attorney General Todd Blanche personally charged four misdemeanor voting and voter registration crimes.
Immigration insanity: A federal judge barred ICE from making racially discriminatory stops in Southern California.
It’s on, Elon: Democratic Senator Chris Van Hollen and Rep. Robert Garcia will seek to close a loophole that allows billionaires to make campaign contributions while profiting from government contracts, the Washington Sun said, detecting a sign of things to come if Congress changes hands.
Watch Now!
*WATCH OUR NEW AIPAC DOCUMENTARY* Zeteo Pulls Back the Curtain on the Pro-Israel Lobby
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🧠 Pop Quiz!
In 2017, the late great Patrick Stewart compared Donald Trump to an infectious disease. Which one?
Keep your eyes out for the answer below!
🌏 Anywhere But America
🇵🇸 Don’t forget Gaza: Two people were killed and one wounded in an Israeli strike on a civilian vehicle. More than 74,000 have been killed by Israel in Gaza since Oct. 7, 2023, more than 1,570 since the supposed ceasefire last October.
🇮🇱 Evidence-free claim: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party amplified unproven claims that Arab parties “stole” Israel’s election, in which such parties performed strongly and Netanyahu was confirmed to have lost his governing majority though Likud remained the biggest party. A justice of the Israeli Supreme Court said “serious suspicions” of foreign interference had been brought before him.
🇨🇳 Chip chase: U.S. spy agencies found that Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang was in a “close relationship” with a Chinese executive suspected of “steering advanced Nvidia AI chips” to Beijing, the New York Times reported. Huang is a key ally of Donald Trump, who the Times said was briefed but chose to do nothing.
🇧🇷 Luxury exile: The U.S. allowed Flávio Bolsonaro and his family into the country on a visa “usually given” on “humanitarian” grounds after he lost a runoff to leftist President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, the Times reported. Trump aide Jason Miller organized a private jet to fly the Bolsonaros out, the Times said.
🇺🇦🇷🇺 Dirty diesel: Trump aides are leaning on U.S. firms to accept Russian diesel under Trump’s sanctions-waiving deal with Vladimir Putin, the Washington Sun said. But most firms do not want it, citing legal and reputational risks while Ukraine warns against “blood money.” The Wall Street Journal said Ukraine paused strikes on Russian refineries, under pressure from Trump. In Ukraine, a local truce held as aid neared Russian-held Oleshky. Elsewhere, strikes continued.
🇭🇹 Vote date: Haiti’s government said the first elections in more than a decade will be next July and October, amid questions about the presence of Salvadoran troops sent to fight criminal gangs and rescue four missing aviation technicians. Civilians have been hurt and killed in clashes between gangs and troops.
🙄 WTF?!
Give this man at Trump’s South Carolina rally, who definitely did not give Fox what it wanted, a medal. A big, gold, shiny medal. Superb, sir.
🧠 Trivia answer: “A very bad flu infection.”
📖 Weekend Reads
ICE Is Running One of the Largest Anti-Left Surveillance Operations in US History.
For Wired, Ali Winston reports on how “attorneys for 15 Minnesota residents facing federal conspiracy charges” arising from opposing ICE operations earlier this year “have obtained evidence of a sweeping, possibly unconstitutional spying operation carried out by Immigration and Customs Enforcement against left-wing social movements in Minnesota and beyond.” Describing a DHS weaponized against dissent, Winston writes: “Nothing of this scale has been seen in the United States… since the federal government’s counterinsurgency against the New Left and the anti-war movement in the 1960s and 1970s.”
Mike Rogers’s Wife Runs a Consultancy That Sells Government Access.
Admittedly, this piece from the American Prospect has a headline akin to “Dog Bites Man” and “Water Wet,” given its subject, Kristi Rogers, is married to one of the swampiest Swamp creatures of all, Republican congressman turned GOP Michigan Senate candidate Mike Rogers. It’s worth reading, as Rogers’ race with Democrat Abdul El-Sayed goes right down to the wire. “Ms. Rogers runs a Beltway trade group representing energy traders, mining companies, and manufacturers in their efforts to influence federal officials and federal policy,” Zachary Groz writes. “According to ethics watchdogs, Ms. Rogers’s position, which has not been previously reported, raises the potential for serious conflicts of interest should her husband win.”
Hospital beds for the nation’s sickest kids are disappearing.
For KFF Health News and CBS, Katheryn Houghton provides a devastating account of the appalling state of children’s healthcare under the Trump administration and a GOP Congress, a problem particularly acute for rural areas more likely to vote Republican. “Depending on the hospital,” Houghton writes, from Montana, “pediatric units – which are separate from neonatal intensive care units – can serve patients ranging from a few weeks old to well into their teens or early adulthood. As hospitals look to cut costs, many are converting those beds into more services for newborns or adults. As a result, pediatric intensive care has become centralized in medical hubs, requiring critically ill children to travel farther for lifesaving care.”
ICYMI From Zeteo
Zeteo’s Martin Pengelly contributed to this newsletter.
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you write of what the future needs to be to protect our democracy.... "centrist" means just that ..."swings both ways" and for whom? only for themselves... I am tired of this crap it needs to be exposed .. as Kinzinger wrote, and I paraphrase. some in congress look towards one thing after their time in congress... lobbyists.... it will continue to fill their pockets with obscene money...that's no better than trump just on a smaller monetary scale..
Thanks Mehdi. You're right we haven't heard much from the top leaders. Where's our Project 2026 and 2028? Where is that oppositional aor "shadow" government? I hope the blue wave brings some democracy back with stronger guardrails to stop constitutional law bending by fascists. How about some modifications to this court? The felon's going to load it up more before he goes and how about gestapo and concentration camp removal? And let's beef up the border to let needy families and workers in and the criminals out. We can do it.