RITCHIE TORRES Talks Zionism, LGBT, The Bronx

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Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Speaker 00

  I'm pro football Hall of Famer Brian Dawkins, and I lived for a long time with something I did not know the name of: major depressive disorder. I carried sadness and anger because I thought I could handle it alone, but I couldn't. Now I want to make sure others know that that support is out there. If you're experiencing similar symptoms, talk to a healthcare professional. Visit MDDAllies.com to watch my story.

• 0:25Speaker 01

  Paid partnership with Johnson & Johnson. Brian Dawkins has not prescribed Caplyta lumateperone.

• 0:37Speaker 02

  I needed more from my antidepressant, so my doctor added Caplyta lumateperone, proven to provide greater relief from depression symptoms than an antidepressant alone, building on my progress without starting over. Caplyta is for adults with major depressive disorder when used with an antidepressant and is available by prescription only. Individual results may vary. In clinical trials, weight gain was not common.

• 0:57Speaker 01

  Elderly dementia patients have increased risk of death or stroke. Caplyta is not approved for dementia-related psychosis. Call your doctor about new or sudden mood changes, behaviors, or suicidal thoughts right away. Antidepressants may increase these risks. Report fever, confusion, stiff muscles, which may be life-threatening, or uncontrolled muscle movements, which may be permanent. High cholesterol and weight gain may occur, as can high blood sugar, which may be fatal. Monitoring is recommended. Common side effects are sleepiness, dizziness, nausea, dry mouth, feeling tired, and diarrhea. These aren't all the side effects.

• 1:24Speaker 02

  Ask your doctor about Caplyta. Learn more at caplyta.com or call 888-252-4824.

• 1:30Speaker 03

  This episode is brought to you by The Home Depot. The Home Depot has everything you need to launch your holiday season in style. Upgrade your yard with this year's hottest holiday decor, including the show-stopping towering Santa. Oh, I like that one. And his impressive reindeer, both 8.5 feet and both designed with incredible detail that stands out day or night. When you want decor that delivers impact, The Home Depot has it. Make your home Santa's favorite stop with the holiday decor you want, all waiting for you at The Home Depot.

• 2:02Adam Friedland?

  I'm sorry dude. You're bummed. Your consultant told you not to do it? This, I like this guy a lot too.

• 2:11Adam Friedland?

  I'm sorry. I, I, I, uh, I appreciate your time. Listen, I don't, I don't get to talk to someone in the government that's, that's taking part of these big decisions like this and, uh...

• 2:22Speaker 05

  Well, only one of 535, so...

• 2:24Adam Friedland?

  Which one would like me? Virginia Fox?

• 2:29Speaker 05

  I don't know.

• 2:30Adam Friedland?

  You ever number?

• 2:31Speaker 05

  I don't ever number, no.

• 2:33Adam Friedland?

  Alright.

• 3:05Adam Friedland?

  Welcome to the Adam Friedland Show. I'm Adam Friedland. As always, thank you to our members and our patrons, the people that support our show. If you'd like to support our show, there's a link in the description of this video below to become a member, which gives you early access to all of our episodes. And there's also a link, if you prefer to use Patreon, in the description as well. And as always, guys, there are two additional tiers for those of you who'd like to get your name in the credits. This week, my guest was Ritchie Torres from New York's 15th District in the House of Representatives. I'd heard of Representative Torres, but I, before I researched for this episode, I'd never heard of his backstory.

• 3:49Adam Friedland?

  And frankly, it's kind of inspirational. I mean, he grew up in public housing, you know, single mother, a minimum wage. Uh, you know, he realized he was gay in elementary school. He attempted to take his own life in, in college. And he came back from a mental health crisis and became a member of the New York City Council and a member of the United States House of Representatives. He's the first gay black man in Congress. I mean, that's, it's, it's kind of like a movie.

• 4:18Adam Friedland?

  This is like a, I don't know what this is. It's kind of like, it becomes, it's a, it was unexpected.

• 4:26Adam Friedland?

  Representative Torres has been referred to as Israel's loudest advocate in the House of Representatives. And when, prior to this interview, I wanted to have a conversation that didn't resemble like a point-counterpoint, you know, just screaming match like we see online all the time. I wanted to try and get something different. And to be honest with you, when I expressed, I became emotional. And it fell off the rails and I wasn't able, as an interviewer, to get it back on the rails. I mean, there were like multiple topics that we didn't cover at the end. It was, frankly, it was exhausting for both of us.

• 5:05Adam Friedland?

  And yeah, it felt like it was a gotcha and I'm an activist and, you know, this is how this conversation goes nowadays. And so while I didn't get what I was initially, you know, looking for, I kind of still feel like it's important, I stand by what I said. And even if I'm like, my voice is high, don't, like, I mean, I think it's important to say what I said in the interview. And so, I don't know what it is. I mean, as a reporter, I don't even know if it's an interview, but I hope you, you know, make of it what you will.

• 5:47Adam Friedland?

  And, you know, next week, we're gonna have like, really, it's gonna be so funny. But this one, I think, is gonna be a different tone and, you know, enjoy.

• 6:01Adam Friedland?

  Ladies and gentlemen, Congressman from New York in the U.S. House of Representatives, Ritchie Torres, everyone, make some noise!

• 6:10Adam Friedland?

  I can't. Hello.

• 6:12Speaker 05

  What's going on?

• 6:13Adam Friedland?

  Hello. Well, I got two issues. First of all, you, your district is Yankee Stadium. That is one of your, that's one of your constituents.

• 6:22Speaker 05

  I represent Yankee Stadium, yeah.

• 6:23Adam Friedland?

  And I asked you how the Yanks were and you were like, I'm not. You didn't.

• 6:27Speaker 05

  So I love the Yankees, but I'm not a, I'm not a huge baseball fan.

• 6:29Adam Friedland?

  Oh, you just turned it off.

• 6:30Speaker 05

  And I'm not going to pretend to be a baseball fan.

• 6:31Adam Friedland?

  What about the zoo?

• 6:33Speaker 05

  I love the Bronx Zoo.

• 6:34Adam Friedland?

  Okay.

• 6:34Speaker 05

  The town of Quahog.

• 6:35Adam Friedland?

  Do you, do you consider the animals your constituents?

• 6:38Speaker 05

  I consider the Bronx Zoo indistinguishable from the United States Congress.

• 6:42Adam Friedland?

  Oh, does that crush in, like, if you say it to another guy in Congress?

• 6:46Speaker 05

  It crushes nowhere because I, you know, if, if I were actually, if I had any comedic talent, I probably wouldn't be in Congress.

• 6:52Adam Friedland?

  What do you mean?

• 6:52Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 6:53Adam Friedland?

  You want to be a stand-up comedian?

• 6:54Speaker 05

  You know, when I was a kid, I was a fan, not of baseball, but professional wrestling.

• 6:57Adam Friedland?

  Really?

• 6:57Speaker 05

  Yeah, I was a huge.

• 6:58Adam Friedland?

  Oh, we're the same age.

• 6:59Speaker 05

  Fan of the Rock.

• 7:00Adam Friedland?

  Attitude Era.

• 7:01Speaker 05

  The Attitude Era.

• 7:01Adam Friedland?

  Oh, my God.

• 7:01Speaker 05

  So I started watching in 1998.

• 7:02Adam Friedland?

  We had it so good at the time.

• 7:03Speaker 05

  Stone Cold Steve Austin, The Rock.

• 7:04Adam Friedland?

  Mankind.

• 7:06Speaker 05

  I thought that was golden age.

• 7:07Adam Friedland?

  Yeah, so, so was I.

• 7:08Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 7:09Adam Friedland?

  Yeah, that, we were watching Rock.

• 7:10Speaker 05

  And I did a huge Rock impersonation when I was a kid. Like, I was, I used to.

• 7:14Adam Friedland?

  I, like, knew of you as a congressman, but I didn't know your backstory. And, I mean, goddamn, wow. I mean, it's an incredibly inspirational story that you have.

• 7:24Speaker 05

  And unlike Joyce Santos, I have a true story.

• 7:26Adam Friedland?

  That, you, that's your op?

• 7:27Speaker 05

  I have, I have no OnlyFans account, but I do have a actual bio.

• 7:31Adam Friedland?

  Did he have an OnlyFans?

• 7:32Speaker 05

  Oh, yeah.

• 7:33Adam Friedland?

  In Congress?

• 7:35Speaker 05

  I'm not sure if he had it, but certainly it was generating in comparison after.

• 7:38Adam Friedland?

  He would have been the first, I mean.

• 7:40Speaker 05

  Who knows? I mean, I'm not closely, I'm not closely following the OnlyFans accounts of every member of Congress.

• 7:44Adam Friedland?

  It sounds like you can't stand this guy.

• 7:46Speaker 05

  No, just, you know, just, I want to.

• 7:48Adam Friedland?

  Do you miss him? He was pretty funny.

• 7:50Speaker 05

  You know, he was an endless source of comedic enjoyment, yeah.

• 7:53Adam Friedland?

  His tweet right before jail was amazing. He's like, the curtain closes, like, the, you know, she walks offstage. He, he was a, he was a real ham, George.

• 8:04Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 8:04Adam Friedland?

  Yeah. But he was a, you, he was a complete fraud, right?

• 8:08Speaker 05

  Total fraud, yeah.

• 8:09Adam Friedland?

  Yeah, because he bought like Birkin bags with campaign funds?

• 8:13Speaker 05

  And also he fabricated every aspect of his biography. It was not like he told one lie here or there. It was like the whole story was a complete fabrication.

• 8:20Adam Friedland?

  I feel like in this day and age, that's kind of like, that's part, that's in play. I feel like you could do it.

• 8:26Speaker 05

  No, it's, I've never seen.

• 8:27Adam Friedland?

  I feel like it's such a chaotic time, like, yeah, I went to Harvard Law School and I used to be the coolest guy in my school and I'm also Brazilian and Jewish and, what did he say?

• 8:39Speaker 05

  No, he said that his, you know, he had, his parents were Holocaust survivors.

• 8:44Adam Friedland?

  I like that.

• 8:45Speaker 05

  Ukrainian because of the war in Ukraine.

• 8:47Adam Friedland?

  He was also Ukrainian.

• 8:48Speaker 05

  And he had, you know, he was, he had friends who died in the mass shooting in Orlando.

• 8:52Adam Friedland?

  He's amazing.

• 8:53Speaker 05

  He like incorporated every current event into his life story.

• 8:56Adam Friedland?

  Pathological liars are great, but he took it all the way to the freaking, to the show.

• 9:00Speaker 05

  Although I, you know, he inspired me to introduce a bill that has, I think it's the greatest acronym in the history of congressional. The Santos Act.

• 9:09Adam Friedland?

  And what was it?

• 9:10Speaker 05

  Stop another non-truthful office seeker, Santos.

• 9:13Adam Friedland?

  Am I sensing that there's like?

• 9:14Speaker 05

  The Santos Act.

• 9:15Adam Friedland?

  That the two of you guys as like, young, New York, gay, like Latino congressman, he's naturally like your foil. He's your Darth Vader.

• 9:27Speaker 05

  Let's just say like after he was expelled from Congress, I became the most prominent Jewish gay Latino congressman from New York. How's that?

• 9:34Adam Friedland?

  You're Jewish?

• 9:35Speaker 05

  No, I'm Jewish.

• 9:36Adam Friedland?

  You're Jew-ish. I'm lying. Oh, come on, I wouldn't wish this upon my greatest enemy. You don't want, you don't want any part of this, my friend.

• 9:42Speaker 05

  You've never heard this comment, he's Jewish, not Jewish?

• 9:44Adam Friedland?

  Yeah, I've heard a lot of people say that, but you don't, I'm just saying.

• 9:47Speaker 05

  No, but he invented the term.

• 9:48Adam Friedland?

  About you?

• 9:49Speaker 05

  No, he invented the term about himself.

• 9:51Adam Friedland?

  It's just a word with, yeah, about him.

• 9:53Speaker 05

  When he was confronted, you know, why did you lie about being Jewish? He said, I never said I was Jewish, I said I was Jew-ish.

• 9:59Adam Friedland?

  I would say that I'm, that I'm.

• 10:01Speaker 05

  But you're actually Jewish.

• 10:03Adam Friedland?

  Yeah, unfortunately, yeah, yeah, it's tough, yeah. I can't quit.

• 10:06Speaker 05

  No.

• 10:06Adam Friedland?

  I wrote a letter to Bibi and they rejected. They don't let you out. It's like the mafia, you know that.

• 10:15Adam Friedland?

  You know how you join is when you're a baby.

• 10:17Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 10:18Adam Friedland?

  Your parents have a party and then this like old wizard walks in and then he pulls your your your diaper off.

• 10:26Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 10:26Adam Friedland?

  And then your whole family looks at your beautiful baby penis and then he cuts the the part that I guess gives one pleasure later on in life and during sex and and then there's like a deli tray there and stuff. That's that's how you join the club.

• 10:40Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 10:41Adam Friedland?

  But we've been doing it for a while, though. I don't know. I don't mind it. You really didn't like my crude humor.

• 10:46Speaker 05

  I mean, you've endured for thousands of years, so something's going right.

• 10:49Adam Friedland?

  We're, yeah, yeah, I guess so. It's it's definitely the wizard and the baby's penis part.

• 10:54Speaker 05

  Yeah, well.

• 10:54Adam Friedland?

  I know, I'm being crude with a member of the.

• 10:56Speaker 05

  No, no, no.

• 10:57Adam Friedland?

  Of the legislative branch.

• 10:59Speaker 05

  These are important decisions that parents have to make.

• 11:00Adam Friedland?

  You know what's rude is that we're in an era where like talking to someone in the legislative branch is a it's a it's a privilege because it's so fucking crazy. And.

• 11:12Speaker 05

  Well, the privilege is mine. You're the one with the massive following audit. You were in The New Yorker. You know, I know that because you told me. Not because I read the profile, but you told me you were in The New Yorker. So congratulations on the profile. You know, you would be considered young in the United States Congress?

• 11:25Adam Friedland?

  Yeah, I mean, I've only been able to be president.

• 11:27Speaker 05

  My dating profile says I'm congressionally young.

• 11:29Adam Friedland?

  Congressional young?

• 11:30Speaker 05

  And congressionally attractive, just in case you're disappointed.

• 11:32Adam Friedland?

  That gets that gets some action.

• 11:34Speaker 05

  Is it a plus? Uh, it's not clear. It's not clear.

• 11:37Adam Friedland?

  It has to be.

• 11:37Speaker 05

  I mean, I work seven days a week, so that has a crowding out effect, but.

• 11:40Adam Friedland?

  Yeah, and you're with the the worst people on earth.

• 11:43Speaker 05

  Well.

• 11:43Adam Friedland?

  What are you what are you doing here, though? It's it must be tough.

• 11:47Speaker 05

  Yeah, one of my colleagues said to me that Congress is the best university in the world.

• 11:52Adam Friedland?

  Really?

• 11:53Speaker 05

  And because you just have access to some of the brightest minds, you can learn a tremendous amount.

• 11:58Adam Friedland?

  There's smartest guys?

• 11:59Speaker 05

  Some of the, yeah.

• 12:00Adam Friedland?

  Yeah.

• 12:00Speaker 05

  We certainly have access to some of them.

• 12:02Adam Friedland?

  It's like the Sorbonne or something.

• 12:03Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 12:03Adam Friedland?

  In Congress. How boring is it like to be in the government sometimes? What's the most boring part of it?

• 12:08Speaker 05

  I mean, I love it.

• 12:09Adam Friedland?

  You love it?

• 12:10Speaker 05

  Because of the variety.

• 12:12Adam Friedland?

  You like parliamentary procedure or stuff like that?

• 12:14Speaker 05

  I feel like no position has more variety than a house member. Because one day, you get to be local, state, national, and international at the same time. So one day, I'm receiving a pothole, a complaint about a pothole on Fordham Road, or pressuring the mayor to crack down on an open-air drug market in the South Bronx.

• 12:30Adam Friedland?

  And what do you do in Congress about that?

• 12:32Speaker 05

  And then the next day, I'm receiving a briefing from the CIA about rising tensions between the United States and China, so.

• 12:38Adam Friedland?

  What do you do about the pothole in DC, though? I'm just sorry.

• 12:41Speaker 05

  I use my platform to pressure the mayor to solve problems, or the governor.

• 12:44Adam Friedland?

  Adams, yeah. Can I guess who you were in school growing up?

• 12:48Speaker 05

  Sure.

• 12:49Adam Friedland?

  You were like a, were you student government?

• 12:52Speaker 05

  Uh, no, not student government.

• 12:54Adam Friedland?

  You were like a debate club, or?

• 12:56Speaker 05

  I was the captain of the law team.

• 12:57Adam Friedland?

  Law team?

• 12:58Speaker 05

  Yep.

• 12:59Adam Friedland?

  Oh, so you wanted to be a lawyer?

• 13:00Speaker 05

  Yeah, I had dreams of becoming either a lawyer or a teacher.

• 13:02Adam Friedland?

  So you did mock trial, right?

• 13:04Speaker 05

  I did moot court, and mock trial, but I was like a master of moot court.

• 13:09Adam Friedland?

  And what did you like? You liked the Atticus Finch-style, like, closing argument?

• 13:12Speaker 05

  So that's more, that was mock trial. But moot court is modeled after the Supreme Court or an appellate court. So you deliver an argument before a panel of judges.

• 13:20Adam Friedland?

  So you like the one with worse speeches? The one that's less, like, uh?

• 13:25Speaker 05

  No, because it teaches you to think on your feet. Yeah, it's less theatrical.

• 13:29Adam Friedland?

  So, but that was your prep for the game?

• 13:31Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 13:32Adam Friedland?

  You went to the show?

• 13:33Speaker 05

  It was the first time when I discovered I had a talent for public speaking. Or I thought I had a talent for talking.

• 13:37Adam Friedland?

  Early on, you grew up in a single mother home. You have a twin brother?

• 13:41Speaker 05

  Twin brother.

• 13:42Adam Friedland?

  Identical?

• 13:43Speaker 05

  He's biologically older, I'm temperamentally older.

• 13:45Adam Friedland?

  Identical, or no?

• 13:46Speaker 05

  Fraternal, we're fake twins.

• 13:47Adam Friedland?

  That's all right.

• 13:48Speaker 05

  Five minutes apart.

• 13:49Adam Friedland?

  I was on a date once with a girl who told me, the first date, she said, "I have an identical twin, I can't do it." I can't tell her secrets. She has her brain is connected to some other, another one of her?

• 14:00Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 14:01Adam Friedland?

  You can't trust these people.

• 14:02Speaker 05

  It's funny, when I was a kid.

• 14:03Adam Friedland?

  That's a prejudice of mine.

• 14:04Speaker 05

  People would ask me, "Where's your brother?" I'm like, "We're fraternal twins, not Siamese twins." Like, I don't know his whereabouts at every moment, so.

• 14:09Adam Friedland?

  But you're good at DC, right?

• 14:11Speaker 05

  I'm learning DC.

• 14:12Adam Friedland?

  You're still learning?

• 14:14Speaker 05

  Yeah, of course, I've only been there for three terms. It's the most complicated legislature on earth. No one's gonna master it in three terms. The problem with DC is not that it's corrupt, the problem with DC is that it's stupid. There's just so much absurdity in DC.

• 14:26Adam Friedland?

  I thought you said it's the smartest place in the world.

• 14:29Speaker 05

  Where you have access to some of the brightest minds. So like if you, if you want to learn more about artificial intelligence or quantum computing or energy, you can reach out to some of the best minds.

• 14:39Adam Friedland?

  Yeah, yeah. You can call any CEO right now.

• 14:43Adam Friedland?

  Calls up right now.

• 14:44Speaker 05

  People generally will take your call. I'm not calling him now, so. I don't know, I don't know.

• 14:48Adam Friedland?

  Your boy's was up. You said I'm not calling him now. You have his number.

• 14:51Speaker 05

  Well, I don't know.

• 14:52Adam Friedland?

  So what CEO is your best friend? What's the best one?

• 14:54Speaker 05

  Mention who's my best friend.

• 14:56Adam Friedland?

  Yeah, how many CEO friends do you have?

• 14:57Speaker 05

  I don't have many CEO friends.

• 14:58Adam Friedland?

  Well, you said you could call anyone on the phone in at any time.

• 15:01Speaker 05

  If I, if I, if I had a question about like AI policy, I probably could get a meeting with a CEO, yeah. That's true of any member of Congress.

• 15:09Adam Friedland?

  Yeah. Did you grow up in the district you represent?

• 15:11Speaker 05

  Uh, my father's from this, from Mot Haven. I'm from Throgs Neck Houses. So I grew up in a public housing development in Throgs Neck Houses, right across the street from what was formerly Trump Golf Course.

• 15:21Adam Friedland?

  Yeah.

• 15:21Speaker 05

  And I kid you not, as the golf course was undergoing construction, it unleashed a skunk infestation. So I tell people.

• 15:28Adam Friedland?

  On the project?

• 15:28Speaker 05

  So I tell people I've been smelling the stench of Donald Trump long before he became president, but they were, he was infested with scums.

• 15:35Adam Friedland?

  What's a, like, you grew up in New York City, so.

• 15:37Speaker 05

  Born and raised in the Bronx.

• 15:38Adam Friedland?

  Our president is an outer borough New Yorker, effectively.

• 15:42Speaker 05

  Yeah, from Queens, yeah.

• 15:42Adam Friedland?

  Right, he, he wants to present that he's a, that he's like Mr. like Goldman Sachs, but really he's a New York City real estate guy.

• 15:50Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 15:50Adam Friedland?

  Is that correct?

• 15:51Speaker 05

  He was never respected in the real estate industry. He was known to like rip off his contractors and he was seen as a joke within the industry.

• 15:56Adam Friedland?

  Yeah, he, he figured out that if you keep someone in a lawsuit long enough, you don't have to pay them.

• 16:02Speaker 05

  He was more known for his self-promotion and marketing.

• 16:04Adam Friedland?

  Yeah.

• 16:04Speaker 05

  Than he was for his actual effectiveness in real estate.

• 16:07Adam Friedland?

  Yeah. Have you ever, what have your interactions been with the president?

• 16:11Speaker 05

  No interactions.

• 16:12Adam Friedland?

  You've never met him?

• 16:12Speaker 05

  Never met him, have no desire to meet him.

• 16:14Adam Friedland?

  Let's practice it right now.

• 16:15Speaker 05

  Feel like he's the worst person on earth.

• 16:16Adam Friedland?

  You don't want to meet him once? You're in the government, though, you gotta meet the president.

• 16:20Speaker 05

  He's the devil.

• 16:21Adam Friedland?

  He's the devil?

• 16:22Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 16:22Adam Friedland?

  You gotta say, you gotta have a good burn for the, for the president. Let's practice, I'm the, I'm Trump. What's up, I'm Trump. Nice to meet you.

• 16:31Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 16:33Adam Friedland?

  That's your, no, you just bombed.

• 16:36Speaker 05

  So what should I do?

• 16:37Adam Friedland?

  You can't sit there like that with some weird smile like that.

• 16:39Speaker 05

  I'm gonna shake Donald Trump's hand?

• 16:40Adam Friedland?

  Yeah, you have to say like, you're doing like the Holocaust right now in this country. Like you're, you have to say like you're ruining this country right now. Like seriously, why don't you say something like that? You're an asshole. You've sent the Marines into-

• 16:59Speaker 05

  Okay, well, we'll practice, okay.

• 17:00Adam Friedland?

  Okay, go ahead. Let's get it, let's, come on dude.

• 17:03Speaker 05

  Mr. President.

• 17:03Adam Friedland?

  Yeah.

• 17:04Speaker 05

  How are you? I'm looking for, hopefully you can release those files.

• 17:07Adam Friedland?

  The Epstein, that's your, no, come on dude. First of all, you guys already lost on Epstein.

• 17:12Speaker 05

  Yeah, we lost on Epstein?

• 17:13Adam Friedland?

  You guys lost on Epstein.

• 17:14Speaker 05

  He's obviously in the files.

• 17:14Adam Friedland?

  Well, half of the files is your guys too, right? So you got, you know, half the files is your guys too, so that's why you guys didn't do this years ago.

• 17:23Speaker 05

  My view is, release the files and let the dice roll where they may.

• 17:25Adam Friedland?

  Uh huh, uh huh. You guys lost on Epstein.

• 17:28Speaker 05

  Why did we lose?

• 17:28Adam Friedland?

  His crappy excuse, like everyone, his whole base doesn't really care.

• 17:33Speaker 05

  Yeah, they moved on.

• 17:33Adam Friedland?

  What we found is that they actually don't care. MAGA didn't really care.

• 17:36Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 17:37Adam Friedland?

  Yeah. You guys really are having a rough one right now, I think.

• 17:40Speaker 05

  What's your advice for us?

• 17:42Adam Friedland?

  Um, I don't know, I mean, you're the, you're one of the guys, so, uh, I'll tell you what I'm seeing.

• 17:50Speaker 05

  Yeah, please, tell me.

• 17:51Adam Friedland?

  I really wanted to give you your whole story about where-

• 17:53Speaker 05

  You want me to tell my story?

• 17:54Adam Friedland?

  No, no, no, because I want to talk about this, but-

• 17:57Speaker 05

  You clearly don't want to hear my stories.

• 18:00Adam Friedland?

  I've been trying to toss it to your story, which is fucking, that's a Hallmark movie. We'd open this up like this guy's, you're the first, uh, black, uh, gay guy to be in the government. Gay guy, gay man to be in the government. Gay guy is, you can't say that, to a-

• 18:16Speaker 05

  First Latino and black gay member of Congress.

• 18:20Adam Friedland?

  First Latino and black and gay. It doesn't roll off the tongue, that one.

• 18:23Speaker 05

  Yeah, too many identities.

• 18:24Adam Friedland?

  Yeah, yeah. First black president. Obama crushed it with that one, yeah. First Latino and black and gay.

• 18:30Speaker 05

  Once you have a first black president, everything else becomes less impressive.

• 18:33Adam Friedland?

  How many LGBT members of the, of Congress are there?

• 18:39Speaker 05

  There are quite a few, like more than 10.

• 18:40Adam Friedland?

  More than 10?

• 18:41Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 18:42Adam Friedland?

  And there's 100 Senate, how many House?

• 18:45Speaker 05

  435.

• 18:46Adam Friedland?

  435.

• 18:47Speaker 05

  So 535 in total.

• 18:48Adam Friedland?

  Are there any, no Republicans, right?

• 18:51Speaker 05

  Who are openly LGBTQ.

• 18:53Adam Friedland?

  Oh, you're saying you're spilling the tea right now?

• 18:56Speaker 05

  Well, my, my running joke is the LGBTQ caucus is the only caucus that can expand without winning an election. We just have to take members out of the closet.

• 19:05Adam Friedland?

  Would you do that? You were in the closet in your life, right? Like, what are the ethics there? It's really interesting, because like.

• 19:10Speaker 05

  Would I out members?

• 19:12Adam Friedland?

  If you see a closet gay Republican, like advocating for something that is.

• 19:16Speaker 05

  Would I out him?

• 19:18Adam Friedland?

  Well, it's, it's advocating for like a takeaway gay marriage or something like. What, what's the rule there? Because you were in the closet yourself as a young man. And it's a painful thing, I would imagine.

• 19:30Speaker 05

  Yeah, no, you have to go through the, yeah, it's a process.

• 19:32Adam Friedland?

  You found out in middle school?

• 19:34Speaker 05

  I realized that I was a gay in middle school.

• 19:36Adam Friedland?

  When was it? Titanic? Leo DiCaprio?

• 19:38Speaker 05

  No.

• 19:40Adam Friedland?

  I didn't realize at all.

• 19:41Speaker 05

  It's not Leonardo DiCaprio.

• 19:43Adam Friedland?

  Wait, what? How was it? What was it?

• 19:45Speaker 05

  I forget exactly how I realized, but.

• 19:47Adam Friedland?

  You forgot? No, you don't forget. You gotta have a better story. You're a politician. Titanic, Leonardo.

• 19:53Speaker 05

  I'm not often asked about my coming out story in the Bronx, so.

• 19:56Adam Friedland?

  Why not? It's an interesting story, right? And like, you're, you're Puerto Rican. Was you, you were afraid of experiencing homophobia in your community or?

• 20:05Speaker 05

  I grew up in the projects, so it's a machismo environment.

• 20:09Adam Friedland?

  And what about in your family? Was there a, like, when did you come out to them?

• 20:14Speaker 05

  Sixteen.

• 20:14Adam Friedland?

  Sixteen?

• 20:15Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 20:15Adam Friedland?

  And was that when you came out?

• 20:18Speaker 05

  No, then, then I came out gradually over time. And then when I ran for office when I was 24, I decided to be out to everyone, to run as an openly LGBTQ candidate. That was back in 2012.

• 20:29Adam Friedland?

  When you were at school and stuff, you didn't tell people that you were gay?

• 20:32Speaker 05

  Yeah, I was telling more and more people over time.

• 20:34Adam Friedland?

  I thought you were at an assembly or something.

• 20:36Speaker 05

  Yes, I was at a debate competition where I said I was a gay American.

• 20:39Adam Friedland?

  So that's, that's coming out?

• 20:41Speaker 05

  Isn't that like a Jim McGreevy moment, though? Remember he said I was a gay American?

• 20:45Adam Friedland?

  Yeah.

• 20:46Speaker 05

  He gave the speech. That's such a dated reference.

• 20:47Adam Friedland?

  You were a kid coming out of the closet. Don't diminish that experience.

• 20:50Speaker 05

  Yeah, I was back in.

• 20:51Adam Friedland?

  No, that's your story. Why, why would you say that that was just a debate competition? It has to be scary.

• 20:55Speaker 05

  No, I agree. It was terrifying.

• 20:57Adam Friedland?

  What led you to do it at debate?

• 20:58Speaker 05

  Yeah. I don't know. I felt. I just felt, you know, it's interesting.

• 21:03Adam Friedland?

  Did you see something that you were like?

• 21:04Speaker 05

  Yeah, so I was browsing through MySpace.

• 21:07Adam Friedland?

  Yeah.

• 21:07Speaker 05

  And I ran into the profile of a teacher.

• 21:12Speaker 05

  Who identified as gay. And it was the first time I knew of a person in my social universe. Who was openly LGBTQ. And so, I approached him and.

• 21:22Adam Friedland?

  Your social universe, you chilled with your teachers?

• 21:24Speaker 05

  Or people in the world I knew, I guess.

• 21:26Adam Friedland?

  You were. You hung out with adults.

• 21:29Speaker 05

  And not socialized by teachers.

• 21:31Adam Friedland?

  Yeah, yeah. So it was the first adult or person that was openly gay.

• 21:34Speaker 05

  Yeah, in my, yeah, because I grew up in a world where no one was openly gay.

• 21:38Adam Friedland?

  Yeah.

• 21:39Speaker 05

  And I just spontaneously came out. It was the first time I ever had acknowledged my sexuality to someone.

• 21:46Adam Friedland?

  Do you feel like sharing your story like and making it all the way to Congress? That has to be an inspiration to people that grew up in a place like that, no? That must feel good, no?

• 21:57Speaker 05

  It does.

• 21:57Adam Friedland?

  So why are you diminishing it on the show right now?

• 21:59Speaker 05

  I'm not diminishing it, but I feel.

• 22:01Adam Friedland?

  You should be proud of that. I was in the New Yorker yesterday, you were.

• 22:05Speaker 05

  I was in the New Yorker as well, back in 2016.

• 22:08Adam Friedland?

  Oh, okay, well, I was in it yesterday. So both of us are probably same.

• 22:13Speaker 05

  But you're at a much higher level than I am, so.

• 22:16Adam Friedland?

  No, you were, 2016, you were a Bernie doggy.

• 22:21Speaker 05

  I was, 2016.

• 22:22Adam Friedland?

  So wait, so go back to that, because it's interesting to me. So like, you had this mental health crisis in college, right? And did it stem, it stemmed from being gay? Is that what it was?

• 22:36Speaker 05

  Not only from my, I mean, I had a sexual identity, but I had a severe struggle with depression.

• 22:40Adam Friedland?

  Yeah.

• 22:41Speaker 05

  Which began in high school.

• 22:43Adam Friedland?

  Yeah.

• 22:43Speaker 05

  But then became worse in college. And I dropped out of college.

• 22:48Speaker 05

  And at some point even thought of committing suicide.

• 22:52Adam Friedland?

  Yeah.

• 22:53Speaker 05

  Underwent hospitalization, felt as if the world around me had collapsed. But then I began like taking an antidepressant, going through psychotherapy. And it just gave me a fighting chance to rebuild my life. So after a few years of hospitalization, I rebuilt my life and became the youngest elected official in America's largest city. I ran for the council. And then ultimately ran for the United States Congress, and here I am.

• 23:19Adam Friedland?

  And it was a few years that you were going through that?

• 23:22Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 23:22Adam Friedland?

  Yeah. And so, and what did you do, what, once you got out? What, how did you restart your life?

• 23:28Speaker 05

  Well, instead of going back to school, I went into politics. So I was a

• 23:32Adam Friedland?

  Uh huh.

• 23:33Speaker 05

  Housing organizer.

• 23:33Adam Friedland?

  You went straight to politics from there?

• 23:34Speaker 05

  Yeah, I was a housing organizer for New York City Council over, and then I ran for public office myself.

• 23:40Adam Friedland?

  I would have moved to like France or something.

• 23:42Speaker 05

  No, I couldn't afford to, I couldn't afford to move to France.

• 23:45Adam Friedland?

  Yeah.

• 23:45Speaker 05

  I grew up poor.

• 23:46Adam Friedland?

  You could figure it out. You get a ticket, you get to France. I don't know, you, busk. Do you know guitar?

• 23:53Speaker 05

  No.

• 23:54Adam Friedland?

  You get a guitar, put the, I don't know. Obviously, to run for office, you have to have a call to public service.

• 24:02Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 24:02Adam Friedland?

  You guys all say that. But like, you have to have a ambition, like, as well, right? There has to be part of it, right? Like, I want to do.

• 24:11Speaker 05

  I think an ambition to make a difference.

• 24:12Adam Friedland?

  Yeah, but you want to be, I want to be the president of the United, you know, come on.

• 24:15Speaker 05

  No, I have no desire to be president.

• 24:17Adam Friedland?

  Is your ambition purely just to make a difference? I mean, it's a very abstract term, too.

• 24:23Speaker 05

  My, my.

• 24:23Adam Friedland?

  What's your dream?

• 24:24Speaker 05

  My goal is to be the best elected official I can be.

• 24:27Adam Friedland?

  Uh huh.

• 24:28Speaker 05

  And then let the rest take care of itself.

• 24:29Adam Friedland?

  That doesn't work for me.

• 24:30Speaker 05

  Works for me.

• 24:31Adam Friedland?

  You could say like, I want to like, I want to make sure that.

• 24:34Speaker 05

  I mean, I would love to be.

• 24:35Adam Friedland?

  Say a better thing, like, I want to make sure that the kids in my neighborhood could, like, you know, have a better life or something. Saying the best that you could be is so abstract. You could, you could vote for anything, no?

• 24:44Speaker 05

  I mean, I can tell you why I ran into public office.

• 24:46Adam Friedland?

  Which is what?

• 24:47Speaker 05

  It was really about public housing. So, you know, born and raised in the Bronx, spent most of my life in poverty. And raised by a single mother, raised, we have us on minimum wage, which in the 1990s was $4.25 an hour.

• 25:01Adam Friedland?

  This is ridiculous.

• 25:02Speaker 05

  But the most formative experience of my life was growing up in public housing. And in New York City, there's an institution known as the New York City Housing Authority, NYCHA, which manages the largest stock of public housing in the country. It houses about a half a billion people. And it's been so chronically underfunded by the federal government that it has a capital need of $80 billion and counting.

• 25:26Adam Friedland?

  And, and is that issue something that affects your constituents? Because you represent the poorest district in America.

• 25:32Speaker 05

  And I represent one of the largest concentrations of public housing in the country.

• 25:36Adam Friedland?

  Yeah.

• 25:37Speaker 05

  And so you have, like, asthmatics who are struggling to breathe in their homes.

• 25:42Adam Friedland?

  You lived in unsafe circumstances as well, right?

• 25:45Speaker 05

  Yeah, I mean, I grew up without heat and hot water, molded conditions, leaking conditions. Like, these conditions, you know, this, the, the living conditions of public housing have become a humanitarian crisis.

• 25:57Adam Friedland?

  And

• 25:58Speaker 05

  I think, I think, you know, if, if, if Nycha were a city unto itself, it would be the largest city of low-income black and brown Americans in the United States. And it's the forgotten city of New York.

• 26:10Adam Friedland?

  In representing the, the poorest district in America, one of the smallest districts too, right?

• 26:16Speaker 05

  The most contiguous and compact district, yeah. And it was even more so before redistricting.

• 26:21Adam Friedland?

  And you have a third of your district lives under the poverty line. Is that correct?

• 26:25Speaker 05

  It's the lowest-income district. About a third of the district is enrolled in SNAP. Seventy percent is enrolled in Medicaid.

• 26:32Adam Friedland?

  A third of them, about a third are born in other countries. Is that correct?

• 26:37Speaker 05

  Significant immigrant population, yeah.

• 26:39Adam Friedland?

  What does that, what is the mandate that you have in DC representing those people?

• 26:46Speaker 05

  It's to make government work for the Bronx, to protect critical programs like Medicaid, SNAP, Medicaid, or Social Security.

• 26:53Adam Friedland?

  Is that what you carry with you when you're in Congress? Is that what you consider when you're like in a committee hearing or something?

• 27:01Speaker 05

  Everything should be centered around the Bronx.

• 27:03Adam Friedland?

  Yeah.

• 27:03Speaker 05

  And for me, the Bronx is not only where I live, it's who I am.

• 27:07Adam Friedland?

  Yeah.

• 27:08Speaker 05

  I tell my constituents, even when I leave the Bronx for Washington DC, the Bronx never leaves me. The most important lesson my mother taught me is never forget where you came from. And I'm from the Bronx and I will, I've lived in the Bronx my whole life and I probably will die in the Bronx.

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• 32:30Adam Friedland?

  Something interesting that's happened in the Bronx is in the last general election, from what I understand, there was the largest swing towards the Republican Party.

• 32:40Speaker 05

  Yeah, one of the largest. In 2012, Obama won, Barack Obama won 96% of the vote in New York 15 in the Bronx.

• 32:49Adam Friedland?

  Yeah.

• 32:50Speaker 05

  Flash forward to the 2024 election, there's a more than 22-point swing toward Donald Trump.

• 32:54Adam Friedland?

  Why is the Democratic Party losing the most vulnerable people in America, then? What do you attribute that to?

• 33:03Speaker 05

  Well, the Democratic Party is hemorrhaging support among working-class people of color throughout the country.

• 33:08Adam Friedland?

  Why is that?

• 33:09Speaker 05

  You know, Occam's razor holds the simplest explanation is almost always the best. The simple explanation is inflation and immigration.

• 33:17Adam Friedland?

  Yeah.

• 33:18Speaker 05

  We had the highest inflation in more than four decades, so if you're paying double or triple the cost for groceries and gasoline, you're going to lash out at those in power, at the establishment.

• 33:27Adam Friedland?

  So you say that the incumbency is just bound to lose that election, Biden.

• 33:31Speaker 05

  If the incumbency is perceived as failing, yes.

• 33:34Adam Friedland?

  Was there a way to win that election against Trump? If inflation is so bad, is it impossible to win that election?

• 33:40Speaker 05

  The odds were stacked against us because of inflation and the mismanagement of the migrant crisis. But, you know, if we had the benefit of a full primary process and if we had a stronger general election candidate, maybe we could have won. But I don't know for sure. But Donald Trump is a fatally flawed candidate, so maybe we could have won.

• 34:08Adam Friedland?

  You remember the least popular Congress probably of our lifetime?

• 34:12Speaker 05

  I think we are less popular than colonoscopies.

• 34:18Adam Friedland?

  It sucks, dude. Yeah, does it suck to be the least-

• 34:21Speaker 05

  I think there was polling that said we're more popular than cockroaches, but we're less. And more popular, and barely more popular than Ebola.

• 34:27Adam Friedland?

  You guys are losing Hamas for sure.

• 34:29Speaker 05

  Yeah, well.

• 34:30Adam Friedland?

  You guys are getting crushed by Hamas.

• 34:31Speaker 05

  Hamas might be more popular on college campuses than Congress.

• 34:33Adam Friedland?

  Oh, okay, okay, anyway, but I looked at a Gallup poll the other day. Dude, this is, I was actually started laughing, you just have to laugh at this. You guys are 23 right now. That's not bad.

• 34:46Speaker 05

  Higher than I thought.

• 34:46Adam Friedland?

  That's high.

• 34:47Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 34:47Adam Friedland?

  You guys, what is this? Oh my god, May 2024, 13?

• 34:52Speaker 05

  Means we have room for growth.

• 34:53Adam Friedland?

  13?

• 34:54Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 34:55Adam Friedland?

  That's you and the Republicans, 13.

• 34:57Speaker 05

  Yeah, well, the institution at large.

• 34:59Adam Friedland?

  13 is you poop your pants in front of the whole school. Uh, February 2024, 12%.

• 35:04Speaker 05

  Yeah, so it sounds like-

• 35:04Adam Friedland?

  What was happening that month?

• 35:05Speaker 05

  If Congress were not a, if Congress were a woman, you probably wouldn't go on a date with her, is that?

• 35:09Adam Friedland?

  Why?

• 35:10Speaker 05

  She's unpopular?

• 35:12Adam Friedland?

  No, I, what, she could be like beautiful, you know, like, what do you mean?

• 35:16Speaker 05

  No, she seems to hate Congress, so.

• 35:18Adam Friedland?

  I'm saying everyone does, right? I'm looking at the Gallup poll over there.

• 35:22Speaker 05

  Are you part of the 13% that approves, or?

• 35:24Adam Friedland?

  I think that we have to recognize the runway a little bit and, uh, what got us here, maybe?

• 35:32Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 35:32Adam Friedland?

  You know? Um, seeing the Marine Corps, uh, entering the second largest city in America and, uh, seeing the most vulnerable people in society just taken away from their children-

• 35:47Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 35:47Adam Friedland?

  And kidnapped and, uh, there are, there are, there are facilities in our country right now surrounded by alligators and stuff. There are facilities where there are cages with human beings in them who have not been afforded any due process. And the sad thing is, is that you guys are, um, you're polling behind Donald Trump right now and, uh-

• 36:09Speaker 05

  That's not true.

• 36:10Adam Friedland?

  The Democratic Party has lower approval ratings than Donald Trump right now.

• 36:14Speaker 05

  I think the story's more complicated there.

• 36:16Adam Friedland?

  What is that?

• 36:17Speaker 05

  Yeah, so the latest polling from CNN shows that the most important issue to Americans is inflation, the cost of living.

• 36:24Adam Friedland?

  Uh huh.

• 36:24Speaker 05

  And on the most important issue, Donald Trump is 25 points underwater.

• 36:29Speaker 05

  And since the November election, there's been a 34-point swing against him. And that we as Democrats are more trusted on inflation than he is. That's a huge swing.

• 36:37Adam Friedland?

  Why are you guys like killing him right now? That is a cherry pick. Come on. You know, that's a...

• 36:44Speaker 05

  I mean, inflation is the most important issue.

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• 38:49Adam Friedland?

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• 39:31Adam Friedland?

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• 39:52Adam Friedland?

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• 40:34Adam Friedland?

  Go to lucy.co/tafs and use promo code TAFS to get 20% off your first order. Lucy has a 30-day refund policy if you change your mind. I've, it's no shame. Again, that's lucy.co and use code TAFS to get 20% off. And here comes the fine print. Lucy products are only for adults of legal age, and every order is age verified. Warning: This product contains nicotine. Nicotine is an addictive chemical. Thank you, guys, and now back to the show with Richie Torres. I hope it's a good part.

• 41:08Adam Friedland?

  One thing that is understood is that you're in the House of Representatives and you have to run every two years.

• 41:13Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 41:14Adam Friedland?

  Like, how long do you have to wait till you just start running for the next one? After you win an election?

• 41:20Speaker 05

  I mean, you start immediately.

• 41:21Adam Friedland?

  Yeah.

• 41:22Speaker 05

  It's like you're in a constant state of campaigning.

• 41:24Adam Friedland?

  Is campaigning and going to fundraise and doing all this stuff, is that a distraction from the work that you have to do?

• 41:33Speaker 05

  It can, but I feel like if you're effective at governing, then it improves your ability to get re-elected. So if you're a good congressman,

• 41:43Adam Friedland?

  Yeah.

• 41:43Speaker 05

  you're going to be popular in your district and you're going to be well-positioned to be re-elected.

• 41:47Adam Friedland?

  Does it suck that you have to fundraise, right?

• 41:49Speaker 05

  It sucks. Fundraising sucks.

• 41:50Adam Friedland?

  Yeah. And like, because of Citizens United, like...

• 41:57Speaker 05

  It's nauseating to ask people for money, yeah.

• 41:59Adam Friedland?

  Do you feel like it's eroded people's faith in the institution, right?

• 42:03Speaker 05

  I feel like too much money is too much time spent on fundraising. Especially if you're a frontline member who has a fiercely contested general election every two years where tens of millions of dollars are spent. You could be spending more than half your time every week...

• 42:20Adam Friedland?

  At a banquet.

• 42:20Speaker 05

  No, or just call time, just dialing for dollars.

• 42:24Adam Friedland?

  You were criticized, I saw, for Blackstone donation, right? And it's understood that they are the architects of the housing crisis, pretty much.

• 42:34Speaker 05

  Yeah. I mean, you receive contributions from thousands of people or employees from all over the place.

• 42:42Adam Friedland?

  You can send it back and say, "Fuck off."

• 42:44Speaker 05

  Yeah, I'm not...

• 42:44Adam Friedland?

  So they're giving you a check just 'cause?

• 42:46Speaker 05

  I decide issues on the merits. I don't know what others do, but I decide issues on the merits.

• 42:50Adam Friedland?

  So it's a "just 'cause" check?

• 42:53Speaker 05

  Just 'cause.

• 42:54Adam Friedland?

  They're just giving you money just 'cause they think you're nice?

• 42:57Speaker 05

  I'm pretty sure that even there are lefty candidates who have gotten money from people who are employed...

• 43:02Adam Friedland?

  Blackstone.

• 43:03Speaker 05

  Yeah, rank-and-file employees, sure.

• 43:06Adam Friedland?

  I figured like you could, maybe if you're like this guy's

• 43:09Speaker 05

  You do know, you know

• 43:10Adam Friedland?

  This guy's making my constituents' lives worse. You could, you could be like, fuck you, I don't want it. I live, I'm in a safe, blue district. Right?

• 43:19Speaker 05

  People should judge me by my record, so. By the legislation I pass.

• 43:22Adam Friedland?

  Yeah.

• 43:23Speaker 05

  I work seven days a week. I'm visible in my district, I'm on the ground, I'm happy to if you ever want to take tours of my district, I'm happy to walk you through my district.

• 43:31Adam Friedland?

  Yeah, I'd like to, I mean, I've been to the zoo in Yankee City.

• 43:35Speaker 05

  Well, not the actual projects, not the amenities, not the institutions.

• 43:38Adam Friedland?

  Yeah.

• 43:40Speaker 05

  I can give you a sense of racially concentrated poverty in a place like the Bronx.

• 43:43Adam Friedland?

  So that's what my question is, is like

• 43:45Speaker 05

  Where do you live, which borough?

• 43:46Adam Friedland?

  I live in Brooklyn, yeah. And that's my question, like

• 43:49Speaker 05

  So you might be divorced from the experience of racially concentrated poverty.

• 43:52Adam Friedland?

  But what does that have to do with taking money from blacks? Like, I just feel like that's a deflection.

• 43:56Speaker 05

  Well, I think

• 43:56Adam Friedland?

  And I don't want to

• 43:57Speaker 05

  No, because I didn't

• 43:58Adam Friedland?

  I don't want to cut, like, an argument right now. I don't want to argue with you.

• 44:01Speaker 05

  If you want to question my ability to represent my district, I'm happy to show you what I do. I'm happy to bring you to my district.

• 44:07Adam Friedland?

  What I'm calling into question

• 44:08Speaker 05

  And introduce you to my constituents.

• 44:09Adam Friedland?

  What I'm calling into question is the institution, right? I'm calling into question the system, and you're functioning within a system, right?

• 44:15Speaker 05

  I've received contributions from tens of thousands of people, I can't keep track of every person. I'm not responsible for every person.

• 44:22Adam Friedland?

  You forgot

• 44:23Speaker 05

  I'm only responsible for what I do.

• 44:25Adam Friedland?

  Okay. So, so you

• 44:27Speaker 05

  So, I mean, you can, you know, you can play the gotcha game, but that's not

• 44:30Adam Friedland?

  I'm not trying to play the gotcha game. I think you're used to, like, Anderson Cooper 360, and I'm a guy, I'm from Compton Town Podcast.

• 44:36Speaker 05

  I'm happy to answer whatever question you have.

• 44:38Adam Friedland?

  Well, yeah, whatever. Here's, here's a question for you. I think, like, I think you've established yourself as the fiercest champion of the state of Israel in Congress.

• 44:53Speaker 05

  I've never described myself in those terms. I'm pro-Israel, but I those are terms.

• 44:59Adam Friedland?

  Well, I think maybe you've been dubbed that.

• 45:00Speaker 05

  Yes.

• 45:01Adam Friedland?

  Okay, listen, like, I'm a Jewish person, like, I have my own opinions on this, you have your own opinions, and this is a really frustrating conversation to see people have on the internet. I don't get an opportunity to talk to someone that's making decisions and supporting these things that are a huge deal to people right now.

• 45:20Speaker 05

  Sure, sure.

• 45:20Adam Friedland?

  One thing that I thought was interesting, and I want to start with you, is that you described your first trip to Israel in 2015 as a life-changing experience, and I just wanted, just to follow the narrative of like, you growing up and your struggles and then going into the government, like, what was that experience like, and what bred that passion for Israel in you?

• 45:45Speaker 05

  Well, since I grew up poor my whole life, I never had an opportunity to travel abroad.

• 45:51Adam Friedland?

  Yeah.

• 45:51Speaker 05

  The first time ever.

• 45:52Adam Friedland?

  Free trip.

• 45:53Speaker 05

  Went to a foreign country.

• 45:54Adam Friedland?

  So, it was life-changing because you went on a trip?

• 45:56Speaker 05

  Part of the reason, went abroad for the first time, life-changing, but also, you know, when you go to, when you experience the complexity of Israel, you go to the Old City.

• 46:05Adam Friedland?

  What did you see, like, what did you witness, like?

• 46:07Speaker 05

  Well, go to the Old City.

• 46:08Adam Friedland?

  Yeah, yeah, I've been there.

• 46:10Speaker 05

  Yadr Shem, which is the Holocaust museum.

• 46:12Adam Friedland?

  Yeah, yeah.

• 46:13Speaker 05

  Go to the Masara, where, you know, Jews committed mass suicide to escape enslaving at the head of the war.

• 46:18Adam Friedland?

  Of course, I've hiked the Masara.

• 46:19Speaker 05

  The Gaza envelope.

• 46:20Adam Friedland?

  Yeah.

• 46:21Speaker 05

  Went to Stayroth, spoke to the local mayor who said that...

• 46:23Adam Friedland?

  You went to Gaza?

• 46:25Speaker 05

  I did not go to Gaza, no.

• 46:26Adam Friedland?

  What did you say, Gaza envelope?

• 46:27Speaker 05

  No, Gaza envelope, which is, which is, which is right on the border with, it's Israel, but it's right at the border with Gaza.

• 46:32Adam Friedland?

  It's right next to the fence.

• 46:33Speaker 05

  Yeah, it's in the proximity to Gaza.

• 46:34Adam Friedland?

  What's at the Gaza envelope?

• 46:37Speaker 05

  Like, Stayroth.

• 46:37Adam Friedland?

  I've never heard that term before.

• 46:38Speaker 05

  Stayroth, Stayroth.

• 46:39Adam Friedland?

  Stayroth, yeah, with the rockets going in, yeah. How far is Stayroth from Gaza? It's like a mile or something?

• 46:45Speaker 05

  Yeah, within a mile.

• 46:46Adam Friedland?

  Yeah, it's right next to it.

• 46:47Speaker 05

  Yeah, striking proximity.

• 46:48Adam Friedland?

  Tough, it's a small place, the whole thing, yeah.

• 46:51Speaker 05

  I mean, that's why Hamas was able to so easily penetrate on October 7th.

• 46:55Adam Friedland?

  The, by getting over the fence.

• 46:57Speaker 05

  Yeah, and it's so close.

• 46:58Adam Friedland?

  Yeah. No, I mean, I just wanted to know because it seems like it was powerful.

• 47:02Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 47:02Adam Friedland?

  And it seems like it's informed your record and I, that's what's interesting to me. It's like

• 47:07Speaker 05

  Yes.

• 47:08Adam Friedland?

  Your story and how you got here and like, I think it's narratively what fascinates me.

• 47:14Speaker 05

  Maybe one day you'll give me a chance to tell it, though.

• 47:16Adam Friedland?

  Why are you annoyed by this question?

• 47:17Speaker 05

  I'm kidding, I'm kidding. Uh, so I spoke to the local mayor of Steroit.

• 47:21Adam Friedland?

  Steroit?

• 47:22Speaker 05

  Yeah. And he said to me that the majority of his children struggle with post-traumatic stress.

• 47:27Adam Friedland?

  Uh huh.

• 47:28Speaker 05

  Because families like his live under the threat of relentless rocket fire. And I remember seeing these bus stops doubling as bomb shelters. You know, I come from the Bronx where people live in fear of bullets and guns, but, um, you know, we in America do not worry about Canada and Mexico firing rockets into American homes and communities. You know, we're a country of 330 million people, we're surrounded by oceans and Israel's a tiny democracy the size of New Jersey, that's literally surrounded by both state and non-state actors that are intent on wiping it off the map, so.

• 48:00Adam Friedland?

  Yeah.

• 48:01Speaker 05

  You know, I left Israel with an empathy for the unique security situation that Israel faces.

• 48:05Adam Friedland?

  Did you visit the occupied territories while you were there?

• 48:09Speaker 05

  I went into the, not Gaza, but I went to the Palestinian Ramallah, Ramallah, so.

• 48:13Adam Friedland?

  Yeah, Ramallah.

• 48:14Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 48:14Adam Friedland?

  And what, what did you see when you were there?

• 48:17Speaker 05

  You know, we spoke to Palestinians who obviously have a much more critical view of, of Israel and, um...

• 48:23Adam Friedland?

  And that didn't resonate as much as, like, what, what was your takeaway from hearing?

• 48:27Speaker 05

  Look, I, I-

• 48:28Adam Friedland?

  You're hearing the mayor is Steroit, his, his children have PTSD, and then this guy is like, uh, Israel's screwing with me.

• 48:35Speaker 05

  Well, look, I'm in favor of a two-state solution.

• 48:37Adam Friedland?

  Sure.

• 48:38Speaker 05

  I feel like the just outcome lies not in the existence of a Jewish state to the exclusion of a Palestinian state, or the existence of a Palestinian state to the exclusion of a Jewish state, it's the coexistence of both. So I think, I want to see the struggle, the, both the Israeli and the Palestinian struggle for self-determination to be reconciled in the form of a two-state solution.

• 48:59Adam Friedland?

  A big topic nowadays is campus antisemitism.

• 49:03Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 49:03Adam Friedland?

  You've spoken out against it. I just want to know, what you identify as the examples of this type of antisemitism in elite academic institutions?

• 49:12Speaker 05

  Yeah, so there were students at a CUNY-Halal.

• 49:15Adam Friedland?

  Yeah.

• 49:16Speaker 05

  Where you had a violent, what I thought was an aggressive mob following them to a kosher restaurant in the heart of New York City.

• 49:25Adam Friedland?

  What were they doing, the mob? What was the mob doing?

• 49:28Speaker 05

  Just following them and then barricaded the restaurant and

• 49:33Adam Friedland?

  They were like chanting?

• 49:34Speaker 05

  hurled insults at the patrons and slamming the windows. You know, much of it is captured in video footage.

• 49:41Adam Friedland?

  Yeah.

• 49:42Speaker 05

  You know, harassing people simply for being pro-Israel Jews to me is wrong.

• 49:47Adam Friedland?

  Is there any other examples? Like, there's a restaurant, I mean, it's just like, all we're hearing about it's campus antisemitism, radical, radical, like, is there a link between Hamas and the protests? Like, is that established?

• 50:03Speaker 05

  There are students who have faced harassment and intimidation because of their beliefs. There are students who feel inhibited from expressing their Jewish or Zionist identity because of the atmosphere of intimidation or harassment on college campuses. You should speak to this.

• 50:17Adam Friedland?

  How have they?

• 50:17Speaker 05

  Are you denying that there's any campus antisemitism?

• 50:20Adam Friedland?

  I, well, I'll give you an example. I know a younger person that went to UCLA and was attacked, and is Jewish. It was with a group of Jewish people at a protest, and they were attacked by the Proud Boys.

• 50:38Speaker 05

  Okay, that's antisemitic, that's an antisemitic incident.

• 50:40Adam Friedland?

  No, but the Proud Boys were there for Israel. And those are the guys that did Charlottesville.

• 50:45Speaker 05

  The Proud Boys are there for Israel?

• 50:46Adam Friedland?

  Yeah.

• 50:47Speaker 05

  I mean, I think the Proud Boys is like white nationalists and white supremacists.

• 50:50Adam Friedland?

  I'm telling you right now.

• 50:51Speaker 05

  Who are anti-Israel, but okay.

• 50:52Adam Friedland?

  Listen, I'm like a comedian, right? Like, I hate when comedians, especially on the internet, like, speak from a position of authority with, like, about crap that they don't know about, you know? This is one topic I feel like I can speak on, and it...

• 51:12Speaker 05

  On college campus antisemitism?

• 51:14Adam Friedland?

  No, on antisemitism.

• 51:17Speaker 05

  In general, because you haven't been in college how long? Probably two decades, right?

• 51:21Adam Friedland?

  I'm telling you, my experience of antisemitism in the last two years. But the last two years have felt different in America. And I don't know if you've been on Twitter recently, now a ton of people are questioning the validity of the Holocaust having happened.

• 51:37Speaker 05

  Yes.

• 51:37Adam Friedland?

  Can you tell me with a straight face that that's, those are the 18-year-old kids at Columbia that are doing that?

• 51:46Speaker 05

  The eight-year-old kids at Columbia?

• 51:47Adam Friedland?

  Are they doing those posts about the Holocaust never having existed? You know who's doing it.

• 51:53Speaker 05

  No, we disagree here.

• 51:54Adam Friedland?

  You think that it's the...

• 51:56Speaker 05

  So I didn't... You don't put words in my mouth.

• 51:58Adam Friedland?

  It's people on the right. Let me tell you...

• 52:01Speaker 05

  You're suggesting that there's... You're suggesting there's no...

• 52:04Adam Friedland?

  Let me do my...

• 52:04Speaker 05

  You're suggesting there's no one on the far left that denies the Holocaust? Or downplays the Holocaust? That's an absurd statement.

• 52:09Adam Friedland?

  What? You're doing moot court right now. I'm telling you what it's like to be Jew... My experience being Jewish.

• 52:13Speaker 05

  Yeah, but there are others who have a different perspective.

• 52:15Adam Friedland?

  I'm trying to... See, you're... Why is one better than the other? Why is one more important than the other? I'm trying to share with you. You're in the government. I don't get a chance to talk...

• 52:23Speaker 05

  No, of course.

• 52:23Adam Friedland?

  Okay?

• 52:27Adam Friedland?

  I think hatred of Jewish people has exploded in this country. And I don't think it's... I think it's because it's of our support of what looks to be an absolute brutality.

• 52:44Adam Friedland?

  And I think that it's a...

• 52:45Speaker 05

  You think that's a justification for antisemitism?

• 52:47Adam Friedland?

  Here's the thing.

• 52:48Speaker 05

  You think Israeli government policies are justification for antisemitism? My view is there's no justification for antisemitism.

• 52:53Adam Friedland?

  I think that...

• 52:54Speaker 05

  There's zero justification for antisemitism.

• 52:55Adam Friedland?

  Okay, you're deflecting again.

• 52:57Speaker 05

  I'm not deflecting. That's my position.

• 52:59Adam Friedland?

  What does it look like to have a flag with a Jewish star and I'm Jewish? And for kids to be starving right now? And why is my government... I don't want to do this fight. Let's not do like yelling at each other thing. I really just... For me, it's... For me, I had the experience of...

• 53:16Speaker 05

  It just sounds like you're justifying antisemitism, which making me feel like...

• 53:19Adam Friedland?

  Are you crazy right now? Why would I do that? You're telling... You're doing the "I'm Hamas" thing?

• 53:24Speaker 05

  I'm not saying you're Hamas.

• 53:25Adam Friedland?

  It's not a winner.

• 53:26Speaker 05

  But it's... I'm not... I think there should be...

• 53:27Adam Friedland?

  We'll do a different... We'll do a different tack.

• 53:28Speaker 05

  Israeli government policy should have no bearing on... If you have disagreements with the Israeli government, you should voice your criticism of the Israeli government. But there is no justification for intimidation or harassment against American Jews.

• 53:42Adam Friedland?

  I'm telling you as a Jew right now that we are receiving a lot more hate because of what the people with the flag that has a Jewish star on are doing to other people right now.

• 53:53Speaker 05

  That might be a...

• 53:53Adam Friedland?

  And I'm telling you, as a Jewish person, what... How painful it is for us to say, and it hurts my stomach to say this. So you're gonna say, "I disagree. I disagree." That this is a genocide.

• 54:07Speaker 08

  And that hurts to say that a Jew can do that. It hurts because we grew up with the, with learning about what hatred is. We, we grew up learning about this. And the same year the state of Israel was established in 1948, the, the, the world saw the Holocaust and they established standards for what a genocide is. It was the same year. And the world said that this shouldn't be a thing that happens. You know, and, and, and I would just wonder like, like, it doesn't make sense to me, like, like, what, like, I don't know, it, it doesn't track to me why there's this fixation with kids at a school that, and two examples of people at a restaurant that, that there was banging.

• 54:52Speaker 05

  Two examples, I mean, there are, there are surveys on it.

• 54:55Speaker 08

  Give me the.

• 54:55Speaker 05

  Read the EDL surveys on it.

• 54:57Speaker 08

  It's hard, it's hard for me to talk about this in, in public.

• 55:01Speaker 05

  Clearly, I mean, you're.

• 55:03Speaker 08

  You're being a dick. That's mean.

• 55:04Speaker 05

  No, no, I'm not being mean, I'm just, clearly it's an emotional topic.

• 55:08Speaker 08

  All right, I'll share with you what happened.

• 55:10Speaker 05

  Enough.

• 55:10Speaker 08

  With, I lived there.

• 55:12Speaker 05

  I don't intend to be mean, so.

• 55:13Speaker 08

  Sir, I, I lived there when I was 18.

• 55:16Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 55:16Speaker 08

  And I grew up a Zionist. And we were told, and our whole community in this country is told, that we have to defend Israel and love Israel because it will stop the Holocaust. It will stop another Holocaust from happening. And I, my parents, my dad was born in 1951. That was six years after these atrocities. His friends' parents, he knew these people that had been through this hell, these skeletons. And, and it terrified us. And, and the understanding in our community is that we have to defend Israel. But it's, I lived there and I went to a set, a settlement at the end of my year there.

• 55:57Speaker 08

  And I looked down a hill at a Palestinian village and I saw how they lived. And I turned back and I looked at the settlement and saw how they lived. And people live in a, in a world where they're demeaned and dehumanized and surveilled constantly by people in, and this isn't in Gaza, by people in SWAT team outfits with, with semi-automatic weapons. And that's what the world is seeing. And you keep telling me that the problem is someone's getting yelled at at a restaurant? I'm sorry.

• 56:27Speaker 05

  You're conflating two different issues, so I don't understand.

• 56:28Speaker 08

  Please, just, please.

• 56:31Speaker 08

  Me saying this to you right now will hurt people in my own family, okay? Because, because this is a very important thing to us. And the fact that I still fucking care about being Jewish is embarrassing. I should just be a guy. But, but it, but this is, feels like a stain on our history. And it feels like it's changed what being Jewish is. Because what being Jewish is, is it Israel? Judaism has existed for 4,000 years. This is a country for 75 years. You know, like, it is the oldest, one of the oldest monotheistic religions. It's, it is, antisemitism is one of the oldest forms of hatred.

• 57:13Speaker 08

  People in my life are gonna be mad at me about this, but, but, but I'm saying this because I am Jewish.

• 57:22Speaker 08

  You know, and, and, and I don't understand why you would be...

• 57:29Speaker 05

  Look, how you defend...

• 57:31Speaker 08

  I, I wanna have a...

• 57:33Speaker 05

  I feel like I'm here to be lectured, not...

• 57:34Speaker 08

  Shut up. That's not nice. You can't talk that way. Why are one set of Jews more poor than, than others?

• 57:41Speaker 05

  No one's saying any, you're...

• 57:44Speaker 08

  What happened? You had, you went to the beach at, in Israel? What, you went to a restaurant or something?

• 57:51Speaker 08

  A nice restaurant? Like, listen...

• 57:54Speaker 05

  Never been, never, never even been to the Tel Aviv private rate, so...

• 57:57Speaker 08

  This is the year 2025.

• 57:58Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 58:00Speaker 08

  The world is seeing something that looks terrible. And it's being done in my name. And I don't know what to do.

• 58:07Speaker 05

  But the war began on October 7th.

• 58:09Speaker 08

  No, it didn't.

• 58:09Speaker 05

  Yes, it did.

• 58:10Speaker 08

  You're, you're ignoring...

• 58:12Speaker 05

  Yes, when Hamas systematically murdered and made, and you can, you know, you want, you wanna...

• 58:15Speaker 08

  Okay.

• 58:16Speaker 05

  Look, we're going down a rabbit hole. We fundamentally disagree.

• 58:18Speaker 08

  No, no, no, no, no.

• 58:18Speaker 05

  But Hamas murdered and maimed...

• 58:21Speaker 08

  No, you're doing the TV thing.

• 58:22Speaker 05

  And mutilated and abducted and tortured thousands of people. That's not television. That's a fact. That's reality. You can deny it. You can downplay it.

• 58:29Speaker 08

  I'm not denying October 7th.

• 58:30Speaker 05

  Well, you seem to be trivializing it.

• 58:32Speaker 08

  You're doing the, I'm pro- October 7th. You're doing, I'm pro Hamas.

• 58:34Speaker 05

  I never said you were pro Hamas. You're putting words in my mouth.

• 58:37Speaker 08

  It is...

• 58:38Speaker 05

  But you seem to be downplaying it.

• 58:40Speaker 08

  There, for the last 17 years, people have been under a blockade where they cannot leave.

• 58:47Speaker 08

  If you were born in a place and there's a fence there, and there's a guy with a gun on the other side, and he says you can't go anywhere, would you like that guy? If you treat people like animals, sometimes they're gonna lash out.

• 58:59Speaker 05

  Look, I sincerely believe,

• 59:02Speaker 05

  maybe I'm wrong, that if Palestinians were governed, not by a terrorist organization like Hamas in Gaza, but by a regime that was able and willing to make peace with Israel, the situation would be fundamentally different.

• 59:16Speaker 08

  The preconditions for this happening are undeniably something that the Israeli government was fully aware of.

• 59:27Speaker 08

  Why would Bibi Netanyahu...

• 59:29Speaker 05

  Do you think October 7th was justified?

• 59:32Speaker 08

  No!

• 59:33Speaker 05

  Okay, I'm happy you said that.

• 59:34Speaker 08

  Are you listening to what I'm saying right now?

• 59:36Speaker 05

  I am listening to what you're saying.

• 59:38Speaker 08

  Why would the Israeli government... Hamas wants to eradicate the Jewish people and the Jewish state? Is that right?

• 59:45Speaker 05

  That's what Hamas has said, yeah.

• 59:46Speaker 08

  Okay, then why would they directly give Hamas money, literally bags of cash in suitcases through the Qataris? Billion... Nearly, I think, over a billion dollars in cash during this last 17 years?

• 1:00:04Speaker 05

  That's a fair point. It's a great question.

• 1:00:06Speaker 08

  If one of those kids at Columbia wrote a $5 check to Hamas, you'd say, "Send them to Gitmo for being a terrorist."

• 1:00:13Speaker 05

  It's a fair point.

• 1:00:14Speaker 08

  Does that make Benjamin Netanyahu a terrorist? He's supporting terror.

• 1:00:20Speaker 05

  The United States... It seems to me the United States and Israel could have shut off the spigot and did not do so. I don't know why, but that was a failure. There's no question.

• 1:00:31Speaker 08

  I, um... I think that

• 1:00:37Speaker 08

  what I see is the reason why our government...

• 1:00:44Adam Friedland?

  Provides twenty-five billion dollars to something that looks this horrific to people. I think is the same reason, I think it makes it look like there's, that the Jews control the government, but really what it is, is the more boring answer. It's the reason why the government and you guys don't get shit done. It's the reason why Sandy Hook could happen, you guys can't do gun reform.

• 1:01:09Speaker 05

  Why can't we do gun reform?

• 1:01:11Adam Friedland?

  Because, because special interest groups can buy influence in our government.

• 1:01:15Speaker 05

  Which political party is against gun reform?

• 1:01:17Adam Friedland?

  The NRA has a power.

• 1:01:19Speaker 05

  It's the Republican party.

• 1:01:20Adam Friedland?

  We allow government, our government, to be flooded with cash and money. And it's, what's scary to me is that it looks, that people are starting to question the Holocaust ever happening. How could Jews, maybe they invented the Holocaust?

• 1:01:34Speaker 05

  You're blaming, you're blaming Israel for Holocaust denial?

• 1:01:39Adam Friedland?

  I'm blaming our, I'm blaming our government for supporting a genocide. But it is unfathomable in my heart, and it breaks my heart that we could be capable of it.

• 1:01:50Speaker 05

  I think we should move on.

• 1:01:51Adam Friedland?

  Why is that?

• 1:01:52Speaker 05

  We just fundamentally disagree, so.

• 1:01:54Adam Friedland?

  I don't think that, I think I'm talking to you like, about where I come from and that it feels different, and maybe I have a different perspective.

• 1:02:03Speaker 05

  You have a different perspective. I know people have a perspective that's different from yours.

• 1:02:08Adam Friedland?

  Yeah.

• 1:02:09Speaker 05

  With a much smaller platform than you.

• 1:02:11Adam Friedland?

  I'm not, I hate this conversation.

• 1:02:14Speaker 05

  I know.

• 1:02:15Adam Friedland?

  You know, I have it with my family, you know? It's, it's not something, and I love my family.

• 1:02:20Speaker 05

  If it were up to me, we would not be having this because we're speaking a foreign language.

• 1:02:23Adam Friedland?

  My family grew up in South Africa, right? We were like Jews from Eastern Europe that, literally, we thought we were going to Ellis Island. My grandma, all the grandees stayed.

• 1:02:35Adam Friedland?

  And my, my parents' whole generation of South African Jews left. And, uh, when I was a kid, like, growing up, I used to write all my, uh, like, uh, Who's My Hero essays on Nelson Mandela. And, uh, he was like a hero of mine, right? And, uh, he was also, you know, in prison, you know, for terrorism too. I don't want to get it, you're gonna go Hamas is what, I don't want, I'm not debating Hamas. He was called that. And, and he went to my synagogue, uh, after he got out of prison, my diva, and he, uh, and he spoke to like all the grandmas who like were still there. They didn't have to fucking move because black people could vote.

• 1:03:19Adam Friedland?

  And he said, tell your kids to come back because we need them to build our country. I don't know. I, I think that, um, I, I don't see what's wrong with people being afforded the right to vote.

• 1:03:33Speaker 05

  Do you think that's what Hamas means when it says, free Palestine from the river to the sea?

• 1:03:37Adam Friedland?

  To me, it seems like maybe if there's a recognition that people were cleared off their land in 1948.

• 1:03:45Speaker 05

  But there are those, there are those who only want a Jewish state and there are those who only want a Palestinian state.

• 1:03:53Adam Friedland?

  Then they can fuck off.

• 1:03:54Speaker 05

  And we should be advocating for the coexistence of Jewish state and a Palestinian state. I continue to believe, I continue to believe the two-state solution ultimately is the inevitable path forward.

• 1:04:05Adam Friedland?

  It's stupid.

• 1:04:07Speaker 05

  You know, there were, there were a thousand Jews who were murdered before the establishment of Israel, like a half a century before the establishment of Israel.

• 1:04:15Adam Friedland?

  Half a-

• 1:04:16Speaker 05

  A thousand Jews.

• 1:04:17Adam Friedland?

  Yeah, they were, they were killing each other, Jews and Palestinians, yeah.

• 1:04:20Speaker 05

  The Hebron massacre.

• 1:04:21Adam Friedland?

  I, it doesn't make sense to me, this, uh, in, in 2025-

• 1:04:26Speaker 05

  The only point was, was there was violence against Jews before the establishment of the state of Israel.

• 1:04:31Adam Friedland?

  There was violence against Palestinians.

• 1:04:34Speaker 08

  And there was an ethnic cleansing in 1948.

• 1:04:37Speaker 05

  I mean, the Hebron massacre.

• 1:04:40Speaker 08

  What are you talking about right now? You're in the government? And listen, I didn't want to argue-

• 1:04:45Speaker 05

  Wait, I'm sorry, you're not familiar with the Hebron massacre in 1929?

• 1:04:48Speaker 08

  What, you're saying that that justifies an entire ethnic cleansing in 1948?

• 1:04:52Speaker 05

  Israel was a-

• 1:04:54Speaker 08

  Well, this is such a- this isn't even a good argument.

• 1:04:56Speaker 05

  Hold up, Israel-

• 1:04:57Speaker 08

  What are you talking about?

• 1:04:58Speaker 05

  I didn't realize we were debating.

• 1:04:59Speaker 08

  I don't want to do it, but you say something like that.

• 1:05:01Speaker 05

  The Jewish state was established by international law, right? The UN passed a resolution that recognized the establishment of a Jewish state. And there were a number of Arab countries, including Egypt, that declared war on Israel. It was the War of Independence. And Israel won the war.

• 1:05:17Speaker 08

  The Palestinians didn't declare war on them. They were just people that were living there. And they were kicked off their land.

• 1:05:22Speaker 05

  And by the way, there were 800,000 Jews that were ethnically cleansed from the Arab world.

• 1:05:28Speaker 08

  Do you know what-

• 1:05:28Speaker 05

  You know, they were Jew- you know how many Jews there are in the Arab world?

• 1:05:31Speaker 08

  Not by the Palestinians.

• 1:05:32Speaker 05

  I'm not talking about the Palestinian- I'm talking about the broader Arab world.

• 1:05:34Speaker 08

  So why do the Palestinians have to bear the responsibility of the Algerians kicking the Jews out?

• 1:05:39Speaker 05

  You can relate.

• 1:05:40Speaker 08

  Why do the Palestinians bear the responsibility of Egypt invading in 1948?

• 1:05:44Speaker 05

  Israel's been a state for 77 years.

• 1:05:46Speaker 08

  Bro, it's so depressing what you're saying right now.

• 1:05:48Speaker 05

  You're proposing to undo an established state?

• 1:05:50Speaker 08

  No, I know people that live there. I have family that live there. I don't think that they should leave.

• 1:05:54Speaker 05

  Then what are you proposing?

• 1:05:55Speaker 08

  I'm proposing a democracy.

• 1:05:58Speaker 08

  I'm proposing an extensive demographic study of what was taken and what was lost. Extensive reparations for what was taken. And a truth and reconciliation process. Where we can end this shit. What we're seeing right now is that members of the Israeli government are talking about clearing that shit out. And Trump, our president, is talking about putting a fucking jet ski museum there. And you're- that's the reality right now.

• 1:06:26Speaker 05

  That is the far right, yes. That's a view that I reject, so.

• 1:06:29Speaker 08

  What, the far right? I'm talking about the government and the generals that are in charge of Israel.

• 1:06:34Speaker 05

  The Bengaviers, the Smoltrages of the world, that's a view that I reject.

• 1:06:37Speaker 08

  They're the cabinet.

• 1:06:38Speaker 05

  Yes, and I reject them.

• 1:06:39Speaker 08

  That's what Hamas is saying they want to do to Israel.

• 1:06:43Speaker 05

  I'm sorry?

• 1:06:44Speaker 08

  I mean, the same- that's the same they want to-

• 1:06:46Speaker 05

  I mean, Hamas murdered thousands of people, so there's no-

• 1:06:51Speaker 08

  So what does that mean?

• 1:06:52Speaker 05

  That Hamas is a terrorist organization for murdering innocent children and civilians.

• 1:06:57Speaker 08

  How many civilians have been killed in this war?

• 1:07:02Speaker 05

  The war is a tragedy, but...

• 1:07:04Adam Friedland?

  Ninety percent of them have been...

• 1:07:06Speaker 05

  But...

• 1:07:08Adam Friedland?

  Ninety percent of them have been civilians. They've killed journalists. They've killed journalists.

• 1:07:16Speaker 05

  People have been killed in a war, it's been a tragedy.

• 1:07:18Adam Friedland?

  They've killed people waiting for aid.

• 1:07:20Speaker 05

  But you're suggesting that it is the policy of the Israeli government to murder civilians? And that is a notion that I reject.

• 1:07:28Adam Friedland?

  You gotta like, listen man, you gotta be like a human being about this.

• 1:07:33Speaker 05

  People who are dying in the war, which to me is a tragedy, because war is a tragedy.

• 1:07:37Adam Friedland?

  Do you feel in your heart that this is what you're saying is right?

• 1:07:43Speaker 05

  If Hamas, if you remove Hamas...

• 1:07:45Adam Friedland?

  You don't actually think that?

• 1:07:46Speaker 05

  Well, I told you what I believe. Don't tell me what I believe. I've told you what I believe.

• 1:07:48Adam Friedland?

  Why would you believe that?

• 1:07:50Speaker 05

  Because there are people who see the world differently. I know it's a shock to you, but there are people who see the world differently.

• 1:07:56Adam Friedland?

  But why...

• 1:07:57Speaker 05

  I know that's a shock to you.

• 1:07:59Adam Friedland?

  Like, it seems a little bit like...

• 1:08:01Speaker 05

  The humanitarian crisis has deteriorated rapidly.

• 1:08:03Adam Friedland?

  I don't want to be disrespectful like this. But like it...

• 1:08:08Speaker 05

  You've been at various points.

• 1:08:09Adam Friedland?

  In what capacity?

• 1:08:10Speaker 05

  You've just been hostile.

• 1:08:12Adam Friedland?

  In what capacity?

• 1:08:13Speaker 05

  It's fine, don't worry. It's just been a gotcha interview.

• 1:08:19Adam Friedland?

  I think that my conscience is clear, especially as someone that's lived there, and seen it, and loved people that live there. And this sucks. I really didn't want to do this. And I think that you saw it as gotcha. Well, this is what people are talking about right now.

• 1:08:39Speaker 05

  Well, not in the South Bronx. People are not talking about Israel. People are talking about how to put food on the table and pay the bills.

• 1:08:45Adam Friedland?

  Yeah.

• 1:08:45Speaker 05

  Maybe in your world, that's what people are talking about. In my world, people are struggling.

• 1:08:49Adam Friedland?

  Yeah. Then why, if people are struggling in your world, are you paying 25 billion dollars?

• 1:08:55Speaker 05

  We have a seven trillion dollar budget in the federal government.

• 1:09:00Adam Friedland?

  Yeah.

• 1:09:01Speaker 05

  Right, less than...

• 1:09:02Adam Friedland?

  So it's not that much money?

• 1:09:03Speaker 05

  Less than 1%.

• 1:09:05Adam Friedland?

  So there's a little money went to Israel?

• 1:09:07Speaker 05

  In the grand scheme of the federal budget, yes, it's minuscule.

• 1:09:11Adam Friedland?

  I'm sorry, dude. You're bummed. Your consultant told you not to do it? I like this guy a lot, too. I hate this. This is so embarrassing.

• 1:09:20Speaker 05

  I don't have anything to hide. I'm willing to go anywhere.

• 1:09:23Adam Friedland?

  No, man.

• 1:09:25Speaker 08

  I'm sorry. I appreciate your time. Listen, having this opportunity is, for me, is a big deal. I don't get to talk to someone in the government that's taking part in these big decisions like this. And...

• 1:09:42Speaker 05

  Well, only one of 535, so...

• 1:09:44Speaker 08

  Well, I'll talk to another one. Which one would like me? Virginia Fox?

• 1:09:50Speaker 05

  I don't know.

• 1:09:51Speaker 08

  Do you have her number?

• 1:09:52Speaker 05

  I don't have her number, no.

• 1:09:54Speaker 08

  Alright. I appreciate it. I feel like you're mad at me or something? I gotta get a big laugh?

• 1:10:02Speaker 05

  Look, it's like Chaim and Roth from The Godfather 2. He said, "This is the life we've chosen." So, you know, I know what I signed up for.

• 1:10:11Speaker 08

  Is this what happens? This has been a terrible... I've been doing a terrible job. I'm rambling about Israel and being a Jew and the Holocaust. It's the most embarrassing stuff to talk about in public.

• 1:10:21Speaker 05

  I feel like everyone, every Jewish American, has a right, should have a right, to be who they are. To wear a kippah, to display a star of David, to be proudly and visibly Jewish, without fear of harassment or intimidation or violence.

• 1:10:36Speaker 08

  Well...

• 1:10:37Speaker 05

  I mean, the freedom to be who we are is fundamental for all of us.

• 1:10:40Speaker 08

  Well, I think that

• 1:10:43Speaker 08

  from where I'm sitting, Israel might be a threat to that.

• 1:10:47Speaker 05

  You know, you have that view, but others have a different view.

• 1:10:49Speaker 08

  Why are we still having this interview? This is exhausting. I'm sweating.

• 1:10:55Speaker 05

  We can end the interview.

• 1:10:55Speaker 08

  The AC's on. I'm just trying to find a button to shake your hand, dude. I don't want to fucking do this.

• 1:11:01Speaker 05

  Dude, we could've talked about so much other shit. No, I think you had an agenda to speak about this.

• 1:11:06Speaker 08

  I didn't have an agenda.

• 1:11:07Speaker 05

  I really didn't.

• 1:11:08Speaker 08

  It's your number one topic.

• 1:11:09Speaker 05

  It's not my number one topic. It's just not.

• 1:11:12Speaker 08

  It is your...

• 1:11:12Speaker 05

  It's not my number one topic. It's not my number one...

• 1:11:15Speaker 08

  What I saw. Well, look, from what I saw, from what I...

• 1:11:18Speaker 05

  I was not elected on Israel. You don't get elected in the South Bronx and...

• 1:11:21Speaker 08

  I'm not trying to make you feel bad or...

• 1:11:23Speaker 05

  No, but you... I just don't think you know what you're talking about.

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