Mehdi Hasan Debates: Iran War, Qatar's Dark Money & Racism In America | PBD Interview

**Mehdi Hasan** (0:11)
The future looks bright. My handshake is better than anything I ever saw.

**Patrick Bet-David** (0:16)
It's right here.

**Mehdi Hasan** (0:26)
We have a special guest in the house, one of the biggest MAGA spokesperson out there in the world, hardcore, hardcore MAGA, now a capitalist. He runs a very successful business now, after leaving MSNBC, he's crushing it. But it's great to have you on the podcast today, Mehdi Hasan.

**Mehdi Hasan** (0:42)
Thank you very much, thanks for having me.

**Mehdi Hasan** (0:43)
Yes, of course, of course. And obviously I've been watching you for many years, and we reached out, we said let's invite him on board. And then Rob said, Mehdi said yes. I said this is great.

**Mehdi Hasan** (0:53)
It took a long time to get to yes, but I'm here.

**Mehdi Hasan** (0:55)
Yes. So what took what took such a long time?

**Mehdi Hasan** (0:57)
I don't know.

**Mehdi Hasan** (0:58)
What were you worried about? Were you afraid of sitting with a capitalist? I don't know, we'll find out today. Is it like this guy's going to be?

**Mehdi Hasan** (1:04)
I don't know. I've seen your show. It's an entertaining show, and it's a very different format today. I don't know. I'm genuinely, I'm intrigued as to what we're going to talk about today.

**Mehdi Hasan** (1:11)
And I'm genuinely interested in learning your story.

**Mehdi Hasan** (1:13)
Okay.

**Mehdi Hasan** (1:14)
So tell me your story, your background.

**Mehdi Hasan** (1:16)
My background is, if the accent didn't give it away, I'm a British-American, I'm a dual national, British-American citizen, citizen of both great countries, born and raised in the UK. My parents, immigrants from India, moved to the UK in the 60s.

**Mehdi Hasan** (1:29)
What part of India?

**Mehdi Hasan** (1:30)
South India, Hyderabad. Best biryani in the world.

**Mehdi Hasan** (1:33)
Best beer?

**Mehdi Hasan** (1:34)
Biryani.

**Mehdi Hasan** (1:35)
Biryani, that's the best beer.

**Mehdi Hasan** (1:36)
I'm not going to be the guy who gives you beer recommendations.

**Mehdi Hasan** (1:39)
Okay, got it. So I went to Mumbai, I went to Mumbai eight years ago, and I spoke at IIT Institute. Yeah, it's a big, incredible place.

**Mehdi Hasan** (1:47)
But Hyderabad has better food. So I have to say that as a Hyderabadi. So my parents moved in the 60s and 70s to the UK. I was born in 79, I think we're similar in age, and I moved to the US 12 years ago, come February.
So it's been over a decade I've been here. Became a citizen in 2020, been a journalist all my life.

**Mehdi Hasan** (2:06)
What do you prefer, UK or, and I know, listen, I'm watching.

**Mehdi Hasan** (2:08)
Oh, this is a controversial question.

**Mehdi Hasan** (2:10)
Just ask me, I don't want to upset mom, so you don't have to answer it if you don't want to.

**Mehdi Hasan** (2:15)
They both have their brilliance.
I go back to the UK all the time, I'm heading out there next week, I get to go for work and pleasure, and I love going back to the UK. But the US, I got to say, the US has given me opportunities and open doors that even the UK I don't think could have done. And I think you hear that from a lot of black and brown folks from the UK, because I'm someone who's criticized racism, obviously, in the UK and in the US. But what's interesting is you talk to people in the media space, entertainment space, you look at someone like Idris Elba, you look at someone like my good friend, my old school friend, Riz Ahmed, Oscar-winning, Emmy-winning actor. They've all talked about how when they came to the US, they got more opportunities than they got in the UK.

**Mehdi Hasan** (2:54)
Why do you think that is? Is it just capitalism? Is it just business? Is it incentives?

**Mehdi Hasan** (2:59)
I think there's also, I mean, the country is a bigger country. I think we can sometimes forget when we live here how big, how this is a continent of a country. So just geographically, space-wise, there's more places to just do things. The UK is very heavily concentrated around London, right? The entire country. To the great consternation of people in Manchester, Birmingham, the entire economy is centred around one city. Politics is centred around Westminster and London.
And I think there's also, in England, we don't have the legacy of plantation slavery and the black struggle for civil rights in the US, but we do have a different kind of legacy of empire and that form of history to overcome. I don't know what the right word I'm looking for, but it's staid, stodgy, it's just an old way of doing things. You hit a different kind of glass ceiling in the UK. I'm not giving a pass to old kinds of racism and bigotry that still is in the US that we're still fighting with, but there is something about being a person of color and just having a little bit more ambition in the US. It's gonna get me in huge trouble with people.