Down Goes Stevens - August 5, 2026

**Cenk Uygur** (0:00)
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**Cenk Uygur** (3:09)
Welcome to The Young Turks, Cenk Uygur, Julian Andreone is in the house. Look at this. All right, Julian is from DropSite News, been doing some great work there along with Ryan Grim, Jeremy Scahill and many others. We quote you guys all the time. In fact, we have one of your videos later in the hour.

**Julian Andreone** (3:25)
That is a video, the first video that I have not asked any questions.

**Cenk Uygur** (3:30)
Yeah, that's right, we'll see why in a second. So real quick before we get started, since you haven't been on as a guest host before, tell us how you got to DropSite News.

**Julian Andreone** (3:38)
Yeah, I got to DropSite because I met Ryan while I was reporting on the Hill via a program through Northwestern University, which is where I went to college. And I was interviewing Bernie Sanders in the hallways. And Ryan picked up a quote that Bernie said to me while we were walking and he posted it. But like the guy that he is, he credited me. And I was just a sophomore in college. I didn't really have anybody following my work. But when Ryan Grim posts your name and your tag, people click on it and they check you out. And it kind of jump started sort of my love for political reporting. And people started to actually listen to what I was doing. And then years down the line, I came to him and pitched him this idea about going up to the Hill and pressing members of Congress and he was all on board. So it's just been, that's what it's been.

**Cenk Uygur** (4:24)
Yeah, Ryan and I have talked about having a reporter like you doing that in DC for about a decade now. So I'm glad he was able to do it and you've done some amazing work there. So glad to have you here.

**Julian Andreone** (4:35)
I appreciate that Cenk, thank you.

**Cenk Uygur** (4:37)
Yeah, no problem. All right, so on tonight's show, we got a lot of amazing stories for you guys. Obviously, the huge Abdul El-Sayed win and the fallout from it. How is the establishment reacting to it? Hilarious. Fetterman is in the news, that's one of the clips we're gonna show you from Julian. And Jon Stewart, also great interview with Fetterman that was in some ways perplexing, right? There's Mamdani Derangement Syndrome, that's later in the show. And also later in the show, we've got a bigger MAGA Civil War. This time, it's not over Israel, it's over affordability, interesting. Man, they are at each other's throats, including people within Daily Wire. The calls from coming from inside the house. So that's amazing. And then finally, at 8 o'clock Eastern tonight, we moved to Operation Joy. because yesterday we had Operation Joy where Abdul El-Sayed won. Today we're going to have Operation Joy as we normally do it at 8 o'clock. Okay, so let's get started.
Abdul El-Sayed wasn't supposed to win. He was in third place a couple months back. And a lot of the establishment was like, God, what an idea that a progressive against Israel would win a Senate privacy. Absurd, no chance whatsoever.
And of course, as a lot of you saw, he won.
And now all of a sudden, the establishment has a new talking point. So but wait, how could they have, what do you mean new talking point? We thought that this was the race that was going to decide it all. Haley Stevens, champion of the establishment, backed by Chuck Schumer, Kirsten Gillibrand, Gretchen Whitmer, and just about every other establishment. Democrat and 62 million in Aipac money and all of cable news, okay, that's your candidate, no question. She lost, right? No, no, if you listen to Politico, we lost. Wait, what? Okay, so here's how they start their story. Progressives didn't get the earthquake they expected. Moderates are relishing in their stronger than expected showing.
They're relishing a defeat? I mean, guys, you see it, right? They're not even trying to hide it. They're like, yeah, we're propagandists. We will take a devastating loss for the establishment and for Aipac, and we will try to spin it like it's in a centrifuge. So that it seems like the person who won loss and the person who got humiliated and couldn't win with 62 million dollars back in your own primary somehow won and is somehow a moderate. So let me give you more details and then we'll bring Julian in. Progressives, sorry, they say public polling in the campaign's closing stretch showed El-Sayed ahead of Stevens by double digits. And his campaign projected confidence they would deliver a decisive win that would cement the strength of the progressive movement in Michigan, a state crucial to the Democratic Party's prospects of retaking the Senate in November and eventually the White House in 2028 Okay, so so far, he was supposed to win by a lot apparently according to a bad poll, but he only won by a little.