Mehdi Hasan & Dave Weigel

Molly Jong-Fast (0:00)

Hello, welcome to Fast Politics. I'm Molly Jong-Fast, and we have a great show for you today.

Later in the show, we'll talk to Semafor's Dave Weigel about Chris Van Hollen's challenge to Chuck Schumer for Senate Majority Leader. But first, we have Zeteo's Mehdi Hasan to talk about whether Dems should try to bully Donald Trump. Welcome, welcome Mehdi.

Mehdi Hasan (0:27)

Thank you for having me, Molly.

Molly Jong-Fast (0:28)

So first, we're going to do something exciting here. We're going to cut to a Jesse Cannon clip.

Abdul El-Sayed (0:33)

Appealing to him, maybe to his ego, to his transactional approach. I mean, no, that's not what I'm saying. But I'm saying- That's actually exactly what you're saying. You're not using those words. He's a narcissist and the way you manipulate a narcissist is to flatter them. Because in his mind, the only thing that matters is how much praise he's getting at any given moment. Now, you're doing the opposite.

Mehdi Hasan (0:54)

You recently called President Trump the dumbest f-ing guy who ever was president on a podcast.

SPEAKER_4 (0:59)

You've also said Democrats should drop the decorum and treat the president as the unserious fool that he is.

Mehdi Hasan (1:05)

Why are you taking that approach?

Abdul El-Sayed (1:07)

Because he's a bully alongside being a narcissist.

And the only way you deal with bullies is to stand up to them. Because here's the thing about it. Bullies don't bully you because they necessarily care for the thing you have. They bully you because they like to bully you because it makes them feel strong.

Molly Jong-Fast (1:26)

So that is Senator-elect Dr. Abdul El-Sayed from Michigan talking about how he wants to engage with Trump.

Mehdi Hasan (1:38)

He's got a point, doesn't he, Molly?

Molly Jong-Fast (1:42)

I don't know what works. I think there are sort of two ways to do it. You either try to sycophant him or you bully him.

I don't know which works.

Mehdi Hasan (1:52)

There's a third way, which is the Zoran Mamdani way, which is neither bully nor sycophant.

Molly Jong-Fast (1:55)

Right.

Mehdi Hasan (1:56)

Do some kind of black magic, some kind of, I don't know what he's done with Trump, but he has Trump around his little finger. Trump loves Zoran Mamdani and I don't quite get it.

Molly Jong-Fast (2:04)

But I think Zoran has some kind of magical power because we have whales in the Hudson River. So I don't know what's happening.

Mehdi Hasan (2:15)

He has some magical powers. We have Park Mamdani.

There is different schools of thought. I know James Tallarico is talking about sending bills and getting Trump on board.

Dave Weigel (2:22)

To be fair though to LBJ.

Mehdi Hasan (2:24)

To be fair to El Sayed though, he's also played to Trump's ego. He was on my show two days after he won the election last week. He looked straight down the camera and he said, Donald Trump, we'll call it Trumpcare. You can put your name on it. We'll just pass Medicare for All, you'll be super popular, history will remember you and I'm happy to call it Trumpcare.

I think, look, as silly as that sounds, people like Donald Trump, again, like Bernie Sanders has said, Abdul Al-Sayed has said, you can't write anything off. You don't know which direction this guy is going to go in. The guy used to be a pro-choice, anti-gun, pro-healthcare Democrat, friend of Bill Clinton. Apparently, he told Joe Biden, according to Biden's new memoir, we would have been friends if you weren't President Joe, we would have played golf together. He has no core beliefs. I mean, he's a racist by instinct and upbringing, but he doesn't have any core political ideology. We know that. He doesn't care about abortion. He doesn't care about anything. So yes, if there's a small chance that you could win him over by sucking up to him, I mean, I couldn't do it. That's why I'm not a politician. You probably couldn't do it. But if there are some Democrats who are willing to take one for the team and go be a sycophant to get it, maybe having said that, I don't think it's either or, right? I think you're going to see from Abdullah Sayed, you're going to see the moments where he says, Trump care, we'll put your name on it, Mr. President. Just do it. I'll work with you on healthcare. On the other hand, he calls him a narcissist. He called him the dumbest fucking person who's ever been president.

When he first got the nomination, Donald Trump called him a piece of shit and a reporter said to Abdullah Sayed, he's called you a piece of shit and he said, well, at least I don't shit in my pants, which a lot of Democrats loved because they've been waiting years for someone to talk back to Trump like that. It's part of El-Sayed's popularity. Some people call it cocky, aggressive.