The Midterms Start Now: Virginia Is a Bellwether
Gaslit Nation
Gaslit Nation
4.8 • 4K Ratings
🗓️ 24 September 2025
⏱️ 42 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Listen, we heard Trump today at the U.N. talking crazy, but also saying Ukraine can get its territories back, and then some. As in, occupy Russia? We’ll get into all that in this week’s bonus show out later this week for our Patreon members. We’ll also break down the crime cabal of Epstein, Trump, and Russia. More soon.
For now, Happy New Year! 5786, to be precise. As Jewish families dip apples in honey and blow the shofar, we’d all do well to take inspiration: resilience is the tradition. Which is good, because democracy needs that same resilience right now.
Fox News will tell you New York is a crime-hive communist brothel, while Donald Trump–the convicted felon, enthusiastic coup-plotter, and Orban fanboy–cheers on Christian nationalism like it’s a Russian gift basket of underage girls. Thanks to Trump, RFK Jr.–a human centipede of conspiracies–used our tax dollars to declare war on Tylenol. MAGA and their Christian nationalist Charlie Kirk tent revival want to drag us back to an idealized 1950s where everyone smoked indoors for their health and also had polio.
With MAGA using Charlie Kirk’s laser light show memorial to fire up their base, we must and can fight back. That all-important work is in the states. Look to Virginia: a bellwether of the 2026 midterms. This week’s guest, Shawn Werner, Organizing and Political Director of Sister District, joins Gaslit Nation to explain why the 2026 midterms start now. But will we even have elections?
Here’s some hope: groups like Sister District and the Democracy Security Project are training volunteers, protecting elections, and building the infrastructure we need to out-organize the new Jim Crow. Races to watch on election night, for any indication of a blue and angry red MAGA-regrets wave, include Kimberly Pope Adams in House District 82, Lily Franklin at Virginia Tech in District 41, and Leslie Mehta’s campaign for the House of Delegates. Win them, and we prove momentum is on our side–and we lay the groundwork to build a victory engine to overcome Trump’s desperate shenanigans in 2026.
Consider this episode your official invitation to Gaslit Nation’s Halloween Party with Sister District on Wednesday, October 22nd, from 6 to 8 p.m. ET. We’ll be dressed up in costumes like our lives depend on it and phonebanking for Virginia. Because democracy cannot defend itself. Fight back now, because fighting back in the MAGA Gulag will be infinitely harder. For more on how to join forces with Sister District in these precious days and weeks ahead, and plant seeds of hope wherever you live, check out SisterDistrict.com.
And again, don’t miss this week’s bonus show on Epstein, Trump, and Russia. Look out for that soon. To hear the full bonus show, out Thursday, be sure to join our community of listeners at Patreon.com/Gaslit to get bonus shows, all shows ad-free, invites to exclusive events, and more. Thank you to everyone who supports our independent journalism–we could not make Gaslit Nation without you!
Want to enjoy Gaslit Nation ad-free? Join our community of listeners for bonus shows, exclusive Q&A sessions, our group chat, invites to live events like our Monday political salons at 4pm ET over Zoom, and more! Sign up at Patreon.com/Gaslit!
Show Notes:
RSVP for our Halloween Party Phonebank with Sister District October 22 at 6pm ET: https://www.mobilize.us/sisterdistrict/event/847185/
Opening clip: https://bsky.app/profile/zohrankmamdani.bsky.social/post/3lzgxaahz4s2q
ACTION ALERT: Write postcards urging Democratic voters in California to VOTE YES on Redistricting to Save Democracy: https://www.mobilize.us/thirdact/event/777101/
ACTION ALERT: Send a duck to your rep in Congress to ask them to remove “quack” RFK Jr.: https://www.standupforscience.net/quack-o-grams
AOC makes appeal for Democrats' California gerrymander https://www.politico.com/news/2025/09/23/aoc-ad-california-gerrymander-00576018
What the Mayor Got Away With Has Already Changed America https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/20/opinion/trump-eric-adams-corruption.html?unlocked_article_code=1.n08.FYw4.R_lM6WOHHBMh&smid=url-share
Jimmy Kimmel & the FCC: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ohPToBog_-g
How We Got Here: https://www.gaslitnationpod.com/episodes-transcripts-20/2025/5/27/how-we-got-here
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | As the sun goes down tonight, the days of awe begin for our Jewish friends and neighbors. |
| 0:04.0 | Yamim Norahim. The high holy days begin with Rosh Hashanah, |
| 0:08.0 | when the Jewish calendar turns to the year 5786. |
| 0:12.0 | That number alone speaks to the endurance of this faith over millennia. |
| 0:16.0 | Its resilience despite wave after wave of persecution. |
| 0:19.0 | As we celebrate Rosh Hashanah, the sounds of the shofar |
| 0:22.6 | will echo across every corner of our city. |
| 0:25.6 | From Brighton Beach to Williamsburg to Riverdale, |
| 0:28.6 | families will gather to dip apples into honey. |
| 0:30.6 | Yom Kippur will soon follow. |
| 0:32.6 | On this holiest of days, Jewish New Yorkers will pause to reflect, |
| 0:35.6 | to atone, and do the hard work of looking |
| 0:38.0 | inwards. It is a tradition we could all do well to emulate, to build a city that feels sweet |
| 0:43.1 | and learns from what did not work in the past, where we are not afraid to admit our failings |
| 0:47.8 | and to grow accordingly, and where, above all, every New Yorker is safe and cherished by the city |
| 0:53.6 | they love. Shanat Tova, New York. is safe and cherished by the city they love. |
| 0:54.8 | Shanan Tova, New York City mayor. |
| 1:20.0 | And he is oh so cute and he has this creative organizing machine and all the ingredients to be the next Barack Obama. |
| 1:34.0 | And this time, he's actually a Muslim. |
| 1:36.3 | So expect Fox News to be on hyperdrive that New York City is this lawless hellhole when the reality is, |
| 1:49.4 | the lawlessness is coming from inside the haunted Scottish castle of masked orgies that is Fox News. And that is, of course, the lawlessness of convicted |
| 2:05.3 | felon Donald Trump and his criminal cabal of traitors who are trying to use Christian nationalism |
... |
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