Hasan Piker on the Democrats' Bullies and Republican Nazis

Runaway Country with Alex Wagner

Crooked Media

Politics, Government, Society & Culture, News

4.8 • 12.8K Ratings

🗓️ 13 November 2025

⏱️ 74 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Democrats and Republicans may seem worlds apart politically, but both parties are running into a similar problem – getting pushed into uncomfortable positions. Less than a week after election wins across the country, it only took 7 Democratic Senators and one Independent to wipe away the feeling of victory and instead cave to Trump and the GOP’s bullying on the government shutdown. Republicans, however, have their own problems as exposed by the rift over Tucker Carlson embracing far-right antagonist Nick Fuentes. This week, Alex is joined by Zohran Mamdani’s political strategist, Morris Katz, and twitch streamer and political commentator, Hasan Piker, to break down how politicians can find their backbone again.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, it's Alex. Over the last month, thousands of federal workers went without pay because of the government shutdown. With paychecks on hold, many families are still struggling to put food on the table. That is why the labor force is stepping up. They've been distributing grocery cards to help federal employees and their families buy the basics, things like peanut butter and jelly, lunch for the kids, and dinners for
0:21.8	the week. But the demand, as you can imagine, is still overwhelming. Over a million federal
0:27.0	workers were affected by the shutdown, and the labor force has had to pause new requests
0:31.5	until more donations come in. You can make a real difference today. A $10 gift helps buy
0:37.3	essentials, $50 covers lunches for two kids for a week, and $250 fills a family's grocery cart.
0:44.5	Go to the labor force.org slash crooked to donate and help reopen the program for families still waiting.
0:51.9	That's the labor force.org slash crooked. Let's make sure no family goes hungry.
0:58.7	Hi, everyone. On election night last Tuesday, the country saw a full on blue wave, a series of dramatic
1:05.9	wins for Democrats and significant losses for conservatives. So it's kind of hard to believe that just a few days later, Democrats in Congress folded.
1:15.3	What just happened in the Senate chamber was an absolute disgrace.
1:18.9	I just, I can't stress it enough.
1:21.7	I'm just so pissed off and just what's going to happen to so many people.
1:27.0	You just heard New Jersey Senator Andy Kim's reaction on CNN.
1:31.5	The government shutdown is over.
1:33.8	And the Democratic strategy in all of this?
1:36.5	questionable.
1:37.6	The health care subsidies Democrats were fighting to extend are still very much said to expire
1:42.5	at the end of this year.
1:43.6	And those tax credits would have prevented millions of people, like Lindsay, who we spoke to last week, from paying two to three times what they currently do for health insurance.
1:53.5	By way of an explanation for this, Democrats who defected to end the shutdown pointed to Donald Trump's punishment of federal workers and people who take airplanes and also the 42 million Americans who receive food stamps.
2:08.2	Now, Democrats say the fight on health care isn't over and maybe it isn't.
2:12.1	Maybe voters will blame Republicans for the turmoil and take their anger to the 2026 voting booth.
	...

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