The hosts react to Congresswoman Haley Stevens's endorsement of Republican Mike Rogers in the Michigan Senate race against Abdul El-Sayed. They argue that pro-Israel Super PAC money, which they say totaled about $55 million for Stevens, drove her reversal, and they present this as their own analysis.
The conversation also covers their criticism of Rogers' campaign staff and affiliations, the antisemitism debate, campaign finance and Citizens United, and the final push before Election Day. Listeners get the hosts' case for how outside money shapes candidate choices, along with the critics' arguments and the reactions they cite.
In this episode Jennifer Welch, Josh Welch
This episode's transcript on Haley Stevens and the Michigan Senate race was made with HappyScribe's Teams AI note taker technology.
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Congresswoman Haley Stevens has endorsed, uh, Mike Rogers, who is a full-blown MAGA thumper of the highest order. She claims she cares about human rights, she claims she cares about bigotry. Mike Rogers' campaign is one of the most bigoted campaigns I've ever seen in my entire life. Alright, here's Haley at a press conference with Mike Rogers outside of a Black church. Like, Mike Rogers gives a shit about the Black— the plight of Black Americans.
Play the clip.
I'm going to be with Mike Rogers, and I will tell you why: because we have to stand with country. We can't stand with hate. We can't stand with Hassan Piker. A friend of mine was talking about how—
Okay, she said stand with hate. You can't stand with hate and you're wound up about a Twitch streamer from California and you expect to be serious? It turns out you want to stand with country. You think you're standing with country, Haley? Here's new reporting from Dropsite about Mike Rogers' staff. Pop this up. Dropsite News, Mike Rogers' campaign spokesperson is a registered agent for Israel. Sounds like you are standing for country, but that's Israel. Here is the same registered foreign agent at the press conference.
Play the clip.
Organized, organized way. We're doing it in an organized way, please. Could we get outlet and name when we call on people? We'll start down here.
Okay. That is a registered foreign agent for the country of Israel, and here is the same registered foreign agent trying to censor the speech of an American citizen at this press conference. And I am sick to death of the Israeli government trying to censor American citizens' First Amendment. Play this clip.
That's my question for Haley Stevens: how are you supporting a candidate that stands so firmly with some of the policies that you stand so firmly against?
Look, nothing is perfect.
Haley's a traitor!
Haley Stevens is a traitor! Haley Stevens is a traitor!
I'm not! I'm not!
You traitor to the Democratic Party!
Absolute traitor!
Look, look who goes over there and tells him
enough. Who the fuck does she think she is to come over to our elections and censor Americans' sense of free speech? And Haley Stevens is a bald-faced liar who only gives a shit about Israel for some bizarre reason. I think maybe Josh, you might have 55 million reasons why she cares.
Well, yeah. I mean, once you dig into this, all of this is thread through political donations. All of this shows her loyalty to this pro-Israel, you know, Israel first. She received approximately $55 million in outside Super PAC money, all from pro-Israel Super PACs. Contrary to Abdullah El-Sayed, who received roughly $5 million in Super PAC money total. So that's more than 10 to 1. So when people ask themselves why she's taken this stance, why she reversed course, it's all about money.
She's bought and paid for by these pro-Israeli Super PACs. And that's the problem. And we saw this on Friday with Cory Booker, but that's the problem when you're leveraged like this. She's an American woman, she's married to a Jewish man, but she's American. You think to yourself, why is she doing this? Why is she doing this? Well, she's doing it because she's bought and paid for by these Super PACs, and they've given marching orders. They don't want Abdullah El-Sayed to be in the Senate. They've given these marching orders. We saw that on Friday with Cory Booker, even though he did it in a bad face.
They do not want it. This is about money. This is the problem with Super PACs and Citizen United. It threads through the whole thing.
Alright, and so the Israel lobby claims they care about antisemitism, right? That's their big thing. We're worried about bigotry. It's bullshit. They 100% are not. They weaponize antisemitism to use it as a means to censor free speech. And here's how we know this: because Mike Rogers' staff is full of Nazi sympathizers. Pop this up. U.S. Senate candidate Rogers taps students who defended Hitler group chat and spread misogynistic comments.
The Republicans' campaign brushed off the remarks, saying his volunteers have "varying viewpoints." So it's bullshit. It's bullshit that these people care about antisemitism. They don't. They use antisemitism as a means to censor and silence free speech of Americans. Look at what they did to the colleges, to the universities. They want to censor people who are critical of Israel. This is a cult.
Groups that are sensitive to criticism are a red flag that you're dealing with a cult. This is a cult. This is an anti-human rights cult that pathologically lies and is buying up our politicians. And Josh, you brought up Cory Booker, and there's not that big of a difference between Cory Booker and Haley Stevens, except for Haley Stevens' psychotic break on this. It's just much, much, much bigger. It's bizarre as shit for me personally to see Cory Booker, who was so good when he's speaking about the human rights of Black Americans.
He's so good when he's speaking about LGBTQ+ rights. And then it's just zipper, lock, throw away the key when the rights of Palestinians come up, or when any sort of criticism of Israel comes up. What's the through line? These politicians are bought and paid for by the Israel lobby. And here's just some more headlines pertaining to what a piece of shit Mike Rogers is. Pop this up. Rogers' campaign, Faith Coalition, has two ties to a church upended by child sex crime.
So what do we have so far? We've got Nazi and Hitler sympathizers, and of course, child sex crimes. Perfect for MAGA. Haley Stevens, what the hell are you doing? Here's another headline. Michigan Republican U.S. Senate candidate Mike Rogers surrounds himself with hardcore LGBTQ+ rights opponents. I don't know about you ladies, but wireless bras have always been a no-go for me. Uncomfortable, digging into my skin, a miserable experience.
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And after you check out, they'll ask where you heard about them. So please support our show and let them know that we sent you and experience the new standard in comfort and support with Honeylove. I'm sorry, this is not—these are not how human rights work, Haley Stevens, Cory Booker, and other corporate Democrats that take APAC money. You either care about all the human rights or none of the human rights. It's universal human rights. Because if you have a brand of politics that leaves one group that you think is somehow going to be special and protected, that's not how bigotry works.
Bigots keep moving the goalposts, especially white Christian nationalist men. You think you're going to be safe? You think American Jews are going to be safe? No. The reason that the Israeli government is all in on people like Mike Rogers is because they are willing to deny people human rights. And they don't really give a shit about the bigotry because they are bigots themselves towards Palestinians.
Yeah, and I want to circle back a little bit to Haley Stevens because she's shown that—and all of these politicians show that their first allegiance is toward money. It's toward money. So she's comparing an ad that was put up in Michigan and Abdullah El-Sayed's refusal to denounce it. She's claiming that his affiliation with Hassan Piker are all reasons that she would switch parties for country and go to the MAGA movement because those people support the country.
And it's absurd. Like, you think about it and it's absurd. So it creates this analysis that you look at only to reach one conclusion. And that is: somebody that gives her the money, that gives Cory Booker the money, one of these Super PACs, whoever, you know, they're all anonymous, has told them that, hey, this is a party line for us. We don't want you to support this candidate. So they both, like, did this about face last week. And I know Cory Booker has sort of gone back the other direction.
But—and this is what makes candidates like Haley Stevens relevant. Like, she ran in 2018, and as she's progressed, she's taken more and more and more money from Super PACs that are pro-Israel, to the tune of this year, like we discussed, $55 million. And think about that. Like, and Abdullah El-Sayed, he raised, just based on contributions from constituents, $50 plus million.
She couldn't do that. She couldn't do that. So these Super PACs, that's how they make these candidates relevant. It's about money, buying them. And that's exactly what they did. And that's why people like Cory Booker and Chuck Schumer, if they take this money, Super PAC money, that should be a disqualifier for them to be in any kind of leadership position. Because they're leveraged. They're leveraged.
And I would say that when you take money from groups that are committing a genocide and that support a government that commits a genocide, it breaks you. And that's why we're watching Haley Stevens with her psychotic break that's going on right now. This is why when I had Cory Booker on this podcast last year and I asked him, is Benjamin Netanyahu a war criminal? He filibustered. He couldn't answer it because he's bought and paid for. And Haley Stevens then decides to go on Anderson Cooper because on top of being completely broken and these tens of millions of dollars breaking her moral compass, she also has, like, main character energy at all times.
You lost, Haley, you lost. You took $55 million and Abdullah El-Sayed still beat your ass. But she goes on Anderson Cooper, and this is just the nuttiest thing I've ever seen. Play this clip.
It's just an interesting change, and I think a lot of people are curious to try to understand it.
Was that a question, Anderson, or?
No, I wanted to see if you wanted to fill in silence, but you don't.
Oh, look. Yeah. She can't defend this. She can't. It's indefensible. It's indefensible. We just showed you three headlines. Mike Rogers, he has people in his campaign that are Hitler apologists, Hitler sympathizers. We've got child sex crimes ties to his campaign. We have reporting that he has hardcore anti-LGBTQ+ rights opponents.
But Haley Stevens will take all of those groups, wad them up and throw them in the trash can, and then lecture. Lecture all of us that the number one thing we're supposed to hate in the United States is a Twitch streamer from California, who, by the way, stands up for all of these groups that now you are ready to squash all for the sake of Israel. It's just batshit insane. Thankfully, all of her staff has quit, and Steven's staffers are speaking out about her being owned by APAC.
Pop this up. So this is Danielle, and she worked for Haley Stevens in 2022. Over my time working there, I quickly learned that she was bought and sold by APAC, a Democrat from the middle of America, obsessed with foreign interests and willing to sell herself and us out for it. We won that race by 20 points with over $10 million in outside spending by APAC to oust another Jewish Democratic member, Andy Levin, all because he wasn't kowtowing to them.
I regret working for you, Danielle says this to Haley. I am disgusted that I helped keep you in Congress where you have rubber-stamped Israel's genocide against the Palestinian people, and now, a sore loser, you are siding with Republican candidate Mike Rogers, who is a Trump extremist. And then, Josh, APAC, taking a little victory lap on this, retweets her video that she made in the car about endorsing Mike Rogers.
Pop this up. They retweet it four different times. They retweet it. This is so maddening to me that we have a foreign government, and I don't give a fuck what government it is. The Saudis, the Israelis, it's all the same to me that want to come over to our country and then have foreign agents working on buying up prostitutes, some of the worst of us, the Haley Stevens of us, the Mike Rogers of us, buying them up. And then, to me, it makes perfect sense that Haley has aligned herself with Mike Rogers.
It's a real mask-off moment. I think a lot of these other Democrats that take a bunch of corporate PAC money just need to go ahead and do the same. Because now we know you're willing. You are absolutely willing to throw child sex crime victims under the bus, Hitler. You're willing to side with Hitler sympathizers and not Nazi sympathizers. You're willing to surround yourself with hardcore anti-LGBTQ+ people. You're just all fucking liars. They're all liars.
And what pisses me off the most about APAC and about the ADL is they actively want to censor our speech. We are Americans. We have the First Amendment, and we will not obey in advance. And we will use our First Amendment to call it out this fucking foreign agent over there running this press conference and telling the protester that called Haley Stevens a traitor, telling him to be quiet, to that registered foreign agent, get the fuck out of our country.
Get the fuck out of our elections. I am so sick of this shit.
And I want to thread this back to the Texas Senate race with Elon Musk funding Ken Paxton. And I know it's different money, but all of this is a product of Citizens United. All of this. You take these large, vast sums of money and put them behind candidates like Ken Paxton or Haley Stevens, and you make them relevant simply because they have access to so much money in the media. Because if she didn't have APAC, if she didn't have support from these pro-Israel Super PACs, she wouldn't have had a chance in that race.
And that race was close with Abdullah El-Sayed. But it was close. And he raised, in a grassroots effort, $50 plus million. She raised $50 plus million simply from pro-Israel Super PACs. So if you take that money out, look at this Ken Paxton-Tellerico. If you take Elon Musk money out of that race, it's not even close in any margin of error. But the thread here is outside sources paying money to candidates, buying them, and how they can manipulate the American voters with so much money, with ads, and target those opposing candidates with all this vile hatred and make races relevant that aren't relevant.
Like, we've seen Haley Stevens. She just about had a mental episode on Anderson Cooper. She's not a fit candidate. Like, she's not likable. You wouldn't listen to one of her speeches and say, "Man, I'm going to get behind her." She's only here because she's got access to all of that pro-Israel money. Just like Ken Paxton is only in that race because he's got Elon Musk. Neither of those candidates have any business running for office, nor would it even be close.
It's the best point. This is affirmative action for mediocre candidates.
Yeah.
That otherwise, if they had to play, "All right, Abdul, here's $5 million for you to campaign with, public funding, you know, however much it is, Haley Stevens, here's yours, run. Let's see who wins." The Abdullah El-Sayed, the Zoran Mamdanis, all of those candidates are going to win, and they're going to win solidly. But these candidates are morally bankrupt to begin with because they'll take that much money. Look at what's happened to Christian Gillibrand in New York. She used to be on the front lines of women's issues.
She used to be on the front lines of all of this stuff. Now she's taking crypto, APAC, all of this stuff. Crickets, pretty much crickets from her. This is the fight of our lives. The election tomorrow is the most important campaign I have ever, ever in my 52 years on this planet, I've ever voted in, ever. This is serious. This is all hands on deck. It's not time for Cory Booker to be like, "Oh, I want the Democrats to win," but he doesn't say, "You're goddamn right I endorse Abdullah El-Sayed." And I don't appreciate the bigotry being thrown at him.
Obviously, you know, Barack Obama or somebody called him and he sent out a tweet kind of cleaning that up. But this is all hands on deck right now.
And you shouldn't have to call him up. I mean, we're in the fight for our life. Have you looked at the other side? Have you looked at where democracy stands in this country, Cory Booker? Have you paid attention to anything that's fucking happening in the last six months for you to justify not supporting Abdullah El-Sayed to get the majority of the Senate? Like, where the fuck have you been? Seriously.
On top of that, he's an incredible candidate, but you know what he's different? Abdullah El-Sayed is completely a million times better than the Gillibrands and the Bookers because he's not a prostitute.
Right.
Because when he says he believes in universal human rights, he walks the walk and he talks the talk. And this is just, this to me, makes the argument that progressives and leftists have been making about centrist Democrats for a long time. They have a lot more in common with MAGA than they do with progressive values, than they do with Democratic ideals. All right, election eve, we had to get that off our chest. We're still going to win. Abdullah is still going to win, I think. I mean, I'm cautiously optimistic.
Make sure you are voting. Share in the comment section what you think about all of this. Let's just really be fired up. We've got 24 hours until Election Day. Let's really fire this up and go. Make sure you've ordered my book, Not Today: Fascists. And I mentioned Cory Booker in there, FYI. And we'll be back later with more news.
Haley Stevens has decided to back the Republican candidate running against Abdul El-Sayed.
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