Empire Strikes Back - August 6, 2026

**Cenk Uygur** (0:00)
You're listening to The Young Turks, the online news show. Make sure to follow and rate our show with not one, not two, not three, not four, but five stars.
You're awesome. Thank you.

**SPEAKER_2** (2:41)
Merge.

**Mark Penn** (2:47)
I'm so upset. Oh my God.

**SPEAKER_5** (2:50)
Let's see how Earth responds to that.

**Cenk Uygur** (3:34)
Well, The Young Turks, I'm your host Cenk Uygur, and today my guest host is Corbin Trent. Corbin is an interesting cat, we'd love to see that behind him. But I like that it's got the fist that was in my book cover, and it's got T, and then I think it's TYT, but it's TVA.
Okay, that'll get into the conversation a little bit later. So Corbin was a communications director at Just Democrats, and then had a communications for AOC.
He's the founder of A Fight Worth Having, and a publisher at America's Undoing. So what we're gonna talk about today is a couple of things. One, the Empire Strikes Back, so they're ready to go after Abdul El Said, but it's not just Republicans, it's not just APAC, but the Democratic establishment joining in in a lot of ways. Completely, but in important ways that we're gonna explain to you guys. And of course, the media, most of all, the media despises anyone who's trying to do right by the average American voter. A little bit later in the program, twisty twist, is Trump right in buying steaks in private companies? Conservatives are super mad at him, they say socialism, is it? And is it a good thing or a bad thing? We'll discuss that a little bit later. And then Trump apparently very angry with Hegzip, is that right? And well, what difference would that make? And then unfortunately, we do have a story about just one of the most horrific bombings that you've ever heard of in Gaza, of course, in the middle of a theoretical ceasefire with Israel. Okay, before we get started, Corbin, how are you doing, brother?

**Corbin Trent** (5:08)
Man, I'm doing real well. I think things are looking up, things are doing well for me. So yeah, I'm good. I'm excited. I've been writing my fingers down to the bone. I've been working and enjoying it. How about you?

**Cenk Uygur** (5:21)
All right, good, good. I'm good. I just like you, there's dark times, but at the same time, all of a sudden hope.

**Harry Enten** (5:29)
So-

**Corbin Trent** (5:29)
Yeah, I mean, I'm not like an accelerationist, but hey, I think that there, I think people are waking up, man. I think people are waking up and then always gets me excited.

**Cenk Uygur** (5:37)
Yeah, absolutely. All right, so well, they're going to strike back as I said, so let's get into the first story.

**Harry Enten** (5:45)
You go back to April at this point in the month, Dems had a 79% chance. Look how that number has fallen dramatically. Down we go in the Lake Michigan. Now we're talking about just a 59% chance.

**Cenk Uygur** (5:57)
That's Harry Antin from CNN explaining that Abdullah Said is in a lot of trouble because he won. The Democrats might not win. There's chance of winning according to Kalci's way down to 59% which is actually an excellent chance of winning.
So we're gonna get into the deception of that particular segment in just a little bit. And I'm gonna explain to you the several different ways that that segment was meant to deceive you.
And my opinion of Harry Antin is going way, way, way down.
So this is now done this half a dozen times. So, it's getting to be pretty outrageous. But of course, all of the establishment is striking back against Abdul El-Said. And they're doing it in different ways. Some predictable and some a little bit more subterfuge.
So there's gonna be establishment Democrats in here. There's gonna be AIPAC. There's gonna be some of their donors. But mainly the national media is the people who are trying to prevent Abdul El-Said for winning and we're gonna prove our case as we always do. So let me start with things you won't be surprised by. Jewish Insider has a story saying, Jewish Democrats in Michigan weighing crossing party lines after El-Said's Senate primary win. Now, it's that title is misleading because they show no polling to indicate that Jewish Americans, the actual voters are against Abdul El-Said. And as we saw in New York, tons of Jewish Americans voted for Mamdani and he's more popular in that category than Netanyahu is, right? They're mainly talking about Zionist donors. So they explain, Hanan Liss, a Democratic fundraiser and Jewish leader who splits his time between Michigan and Israel, was among those who had told Jewish Insider before the primary that he would vote for Rogers in the general election. If El-Said won the nomination, noting he knows, quote, many Jewish Democrats who planned to do the same. Of course, what he really means is many radical Zionists who are giant donors, and they will pretend to speak for all Jewish Americans, even though the polling indicates that they're actually in the minority of Jewish Americans. But as you see here, Israel first says, yeah, I pretend to be a Democrat, but no, I will very actively help defeat the Democratic candidate, cuz Israel is way more important than any other policy and all the other policies combined. That's a literal fact. So they're not Democrats, they're not Republicans, they're just radical Zionists who would like to purchase our Congress on behalf of Israel. That's obviously, they're telling you, he just said, I don't care if you're Republican or Democrat, I want you to work for Israel. So they continue, one Democratic fundraiser in Michigan who spoke on the condition of anonymity to address a sensitive subject said he was absolutely certain that several large Jewish Democratic donors will be supporting Rogers. Cuz they're not Democrats, they're only Israel first, which leads us to Mark Penn. Mark Penn is always characterized in the media in a deeply misleading way as Bill Clinton's pollster. Now is it true that he was? Yes. Is it true that that is the main thing that defines him now? No, Mark Penn is very conservative, pushed Bill Clinton in a conservative direction, often helps Republicans, and is a massive Israel first advocate inside America. So it's painted as top Democrat concerned about Abdullah Saeed. But in reality, Mark Penn couldn't care less about the Democratic or Republican parties. He serves Israel, but here he is.