Shadi Hamid: The Left Should Learn to Love American Power
The Gist
Mike Pesca
4.4 • 3.6K Ratings
🗓️ 12 December 2025
⏱️ 47 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Shadi Hamid joins to discuss his new book, The Case for American Power, arguing that progressives' retreat from global engagement is a mistake. He contends that while the Left often views U.S. hegemony as intrinsically immoral—citing the legacy of Iraq and the tragedy in Gaza—the alternative of withdrawal often leads to greater atrocities, such as the unchecked devastation in Syria. Hamid makes the case that moral righteousness without power is toothless, and that ceding the global stage to bad actors or rival superpowers creates a more dangerous world. Plus, Mike critiques the Sunday show trend of grilling Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on the price of bananas and Tonka trucks, arguing that "gotcha" questions about specific items ignore the reality of inflation as a composite number.
Produced by Corey Wara
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | It's Friday, December 12th, 2025 from Peachfish Productions. |
| 0:07.4 | It's the gist. I'm Mike Peska. |
| 0:09.4 | And I have one plea for the upcoming Sunday shows to be aired this Sunday. |
| 0:13.7 | I don't know who the guest list is. |
| 0:15.3 | I could find out, but that would ruin the thrill of a man my age. |
| 0:19.7 | The frisson of excitement, Chris Matthews, once described it as the chill running up and down |
| 0:25.4 | his leg when I see who the guests are on the Sunday show, sometimes even mix up the |
| 0:29.7 | panelist. |
| 0:30.4 | Who is Donna Brazile going to give her gumbo recipe to? |
| 0:33.8 | Or make an analogy about how the cock rolls in her gumbo recipe represent, I don't know, |
| 0:39.3 | maybe the forgotten Oregonian working class. |
| 0:42.4 | So here is my play. |
| 0:44.6 | I don't know if Scott Besson, Treasury Secretary, is going to be on Fox News Sunday or CNN State |
| 0:50.7 | of the Union or this week, this week. |
| 0:53.6 | I do know that in the last couple weeks, he has been on the other two Sunday shows that I |
| 0:59.0 | have not mentioned, Face the Nation, Meet the Press. |
| 1:01.8 | And in both those cases, we heard a variation of the same question, the same answer. |
| 1:06.0 | And this is what I don't need. |
| 1:07.1 | I don't need another one of these. |
| 1:09.2 | It's not just Bessent who gets these questions. It's people who are |
| 1:12.6 | doing the interviewing, asking the so-called tough question on behalf of the so-called people |
| 1:18.6 | about the price of, I don't know, coffee, bananas, Tonka Trucks. Here is Margaret Brennan, who I very much like, |
... |
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