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When Itamar Ben-Gvir, Israel’s extremist far-right Minister of National Security, made a recent visit to Capitol Hill, he ended up crossing paths with a group of pro-Palestine activists. That group included award-winning Palestinian author and journalist Laila el-Haddad, whose books include ‘Gaza Mom: Palestine, Politics, Parenting, and Everything in Between.’

El-Haddad joined Mehdi on set in Washington DC to discuss the confrontation, which she caught on video and shared widely on Instagram.

“I personally looked at him and said, ‘You were responsible for killing my family members in Gaza,’ el-Haddad tells Mehdi, adding that Ben-Gvir “was shouting back at us, and he had to be restrained because he was trying to lunge at us.”

Discussing the role the last Democrat administration had with regards to Israel-Palestine and the 2024 presidential election result, Laila el-Haddad also notes that the genocide in Gaza will be Joe Biden’s “lasting legacy,” saying his failure to take a stand against Israel “is one of the reasons that we have Trump sitting here today.”

If you're a paid subscriber, you can watch the full interview above to hear el-Haddad reflect on the Uncommitted movement in 2024, the Trump crackdown on college campuses, the newly introduced West Bank Violence Prevention Act, and what happened to a lawsuit she was a plaintiff that aimed to hold the Biden administration accountable for their complicity in genocide.

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As Donald Trump and the Republican Party fight to pass his “big, beautiful bill” to cut taxes for the wealthy and gut federal spending for key federal agencies and social support programs, a new podcast miniseries from The Lever is pulling back the curtain on how Republicans became the face of the anti-tax movement.

David Sirota, the founder and editor-in-chief of The Lever and a former speechwriter and senior adviser to Bernie Sanders, joins Mehdi to discuss the podcast, “Tax Revolt”, and the surprising state where the movement took off in the 1970s: California.

Sirota tells Mehdi that while “Democrats were the Santa Claus of spending programs,” Republicans realized they could be “the Santa Claus of tax cuts.”

But as Sirota explains, Republican voters are beginning to sour on the idea of tax cuts as more people have learned that while this “Santa Claus” provides gifts “to the very richest,” those benefits aren’t trickling down to those who need them most.

“We’re living through a time where you can see every day the actual real-world effects of prioritizing tax cuts over a government that can accomplish the most basic necessities that we need it to accomplish,” Sirota tells Mehdi.

You can click here to listen to The Lever’s new podcast miniseries, “Tax Revolt”, which is available wherever you get your podcasts.

Paid subscribers can watch the full interview above to hear Mehdi and Sirota discuss the parts of Donald Trump’s playbook that trace back to the early days of the tax revolt, the lasting impacts of a California ballot measure that has made it nearly impossible to raise taxes in the state, and whether AOC is the heir to Bernie Sanders’ movement.

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It doesn’t take much under Trump’s authoritarian system of governance for anyone to find themselves in the crosshairs of one agency or the other. For attorney Clay Jackson, it was the simple act of telling an immigrant family their rights and offering to find them pro bono counsel.

“I'm licensed in three states. Every one of those states has a rule that says lawyers have an obligation to provide pro bono assistance to people in their community, I thought it was that simple.” Sadly for Jackson, it was not.

Following his meeting with a family, Jackson received a visit from state agents who refused to identify themselves, and then accused him of obstructing an immigration investigation. When Jackson went public with the story, he was immediately fired.

“I didn't think that doing something like this would cost me my job,” he says, “When I see big white shoe law firms, quote, ‘make a deal’ with a presidential administration that's pretty clear in its intent to test every single constitutional boundary that exists, it would be impossible for me as an attorney to tell a client that their interests are represented to the fullest extent.”

Watch the full interview above to hear Jackson’s account of how he thinks he was targeted, the status of the family he was helping, and whether this was a high-level attempt at intimidating lawyers who help immigrants under threat of deportation.

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It’s been over a month since shocking footage emerged of masked ICE agents arresting Tufts Doctoral Student Rümeysa Öztürk, after her visa was terminated simply for co-authoring an op-ed in the student newspaper calling for the university to divest in Israel.

Since then, Rümeysa has been confined to an ICE detention center in Louisiana, where her US Representative, Ayanna Pressley, met with her late last month.

In this powerful interview for ‘Mehdi Unfiltered,’ Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley tells Mehdi about the “harrowing” conditions Rümeysa has been facing in her detention center – which Pressley says, “has a long documented history of human rights violations and abuses.”

“She suffered several very severe asthma attacks while there, received inadequate medical care. There has been no religious accommodation, in fact, not only on a dietary aspect, but when it comes to a space to pray, a Quran. Her hijab was removed without her consent by one of the nurses,” Pressley tells Mehdi.

Pressley emphasizes to Mehdi how the Trump administration has completely ignored due process, and explains just how dire the implications of Rümeysa’s case are for the country.

“This is laying the ground foundationally and will be a threat to everyone. This means that this could be you tomorrow for suffering a miscarriage, because in Trump's America, that's been criminalized. This means this could be you tomorrow for reading a banned book,” Pressley says. “With this dictator in chief, simply because you have a dissenting opinion from his worldview, you could find yourself incarcerated.”

During the second half of the interview, Mehdi asks Pressley about President Donald Trump’s first 100 days of his second term, as well as the state of the Democratic party.

“I do not believe, Mehdi, that this is about weathering the next four years. I believe this will dictate the next 100,” Pressley says to Mehdi.

Paid subscribers can watch the full 26 minutes of this engaging interview with Pressley, to hear her discuss Trump and Republicans’ plans to potentially cut Medicaid, reporting that Democrats were told to stand down on visiting wrongly deported legal resident Kilmar Abrego Garcia, and Congresswoman AOC’s decision to pass on seeking a leadership position in the House.

Free subscribers can watch the first 5 minutes of the interview. This is a conversation you won’t want to miss, with Pressley completely unbarred in her answers. Consider upgrading to a paid membership to watch it in full.

Congresswoman Pressley recently joined Substack. You can find her at https://substack.com/@reppressley.

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Mehdi speaks to BAFTA-winning, Oscar-nominated Palestinian Director Farah Nabulsi about her latest film, 'The Teacher,' which centers around the struggle of Palestinians living in the occupied West Bank through the lens of a school teacher there.

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In this segment of Mehdi Unfiltered, Lindsey Boylan, former Cuomo aide who blew the whistle on his sexual misconduct, speaks to Mehdi about the former New York governor’s mayoral bid.

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In this week’s episode of Mehdi Unfiltered, Mehdi is joined by The Atlantic's Derek Thompson to discuss his new book with Ezra Klein, 'Abundance,' and the criticism it's received from progressives.

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In this segment of Mehdi Unfiltered, free speech advocate Nico Perrino talks to Mehdi about the Trump administration’s attacks on student protestors and the media, and the right’s free-speech hypocrisy. 

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In this week’s episode of Mehdi Unfiltered, Mehdi is joined by MSNBC host Chris Hayes to discuss his new book, ‘The Siren’s Call: How Attention Became the World's Most Endangered Resource.’

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In this week’s episode of Mehdi Unfiltered, Mehdi is joined by Iranian-American relations expert Trita Parsi to discuss the possibility of a US-Israel-backed war with Iran, and the threat of it all going nuclear.

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