📱 If our emails sometimes get buried in your inbox, we’ve got another way for you to keep up to date: the new Zeteo app.
asserted
you → bury → date
Thank goodness it’s Friday, amirite?
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it → thank → goodness
Although, having said that, ending this week means we’re starting next week, and next week… is MIDTERMS week.
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week → say → week
(FYI: I’ll be live in Michigan with Zeteo’s Prem Thakker on Tuesday night, so do join our livestream on Substack and YouTube then.)
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I → join → Substack
In today’s ‘First Draft,’ it’s time to thank the Clintons (yes, the Clintons!) for doing what many centrist Democrats refuse to do ahead of these midterms.
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Democrats → ’ → midterms
And it’s also sadly time to mourn the loss of one of the great actors of our time, the one and only Sir Patrick Stewart aka Captain Jean-Luc Picard aka Professor Charles Xavier.
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it → ’ → time
Let’s get into it – oh, and no paywall on today’s ‘First Draft,’ so do share with your friends and colleagues and get them to sign up too.
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them → let → friends
Even the Clintons Get It – So Why Can’t the Rest of the Centrists?
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Clintons → get → Centrists
Bill’s triangulating presidency dragged the Democratic Party to the right on everything from welfare to crime to foreign policy.
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presidency → triangulate → policy
Hillary backed the disastrous Iraq and Libya wars and then lost to Donald Trump.
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Hillary → back → Trump
Remember Bill going to Michigan – Michigan, of all places, home to one of the largest Arab-American populations – in the final days of the 2024 presidential campaign, to tell voters that Israelis “were there first” in Palestine and that the Israeli military had been “forced” to kill Palestinian civilians?
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military → remember → civilians
Remember Hillary repeatedly lecturing pro-Palestinian protesters about their supposed ignorance of Middle Eastern history and accusing them of being brainwashed by TikTok?
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Hillary → remember → TikTok
But credit where credit is due.
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credit → credit → ?
Because in recent days, as Republicans have escalated their vile, racist, and Islamophobic attacks on Abdul El-Sayed, the Muslim and Arab-American Democratic Senate candidate in the crucial swing state of Michigan, and as a depressing number of centrist Democrats have either looked the other way or actively joined the pile-on, two unlikely voices have spoken up.
Bill Clinton.
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voices → escalate → on
In South Florida the other day, the former president delivered an impassioned defense of Islam and Muslims, condemning the Republicans’ relentless attempts to divide Americans along religious lines:
“I’m tired of people denigrating Muslims for being Muslims.
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people → deliver → Muslims
“The Koran says, and I first heard this from my daughter, who read the Koran from start to finish when she was 15 years old, and she said, ‘Dad, read this.’
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she → say → this
“‘Allah put the different people on the earth not that they might despise one another, but that they might come to know one another and learn from one another.’
uncertain
they → put → one
“There are bad actors in every faith because we’re all flawed human beings.
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we → be → faith
“But the religious wars, the culture wars, I’m just tired.
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I → ’m → ?
On this week’s episode of ‘High Stakes,’ Hillary Clinton’s new podcast with journalist Kara Swisher, the former secretary of state and Democratic presidential nominee took aim at the GOP’s anti-Muslim fearmongering against El-Sayed.
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podcast → take → Sayed
Republicans, she argued, are trying to get Americans to “not vote their interests, but vote their fears”
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Americans → argue → fears
:
“[Mike Rogers’] surrogates and a lot of the independent expenditure media is really fearmongering against El-Sayed as a Muslim, trying to link him to the Muslim Brotherhood, and all of that…
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surrogates → fearmongere → that
I’m just tired of that, and I hope people are tired of that.
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people → ’m → that
Judge somebody on who they are, what they stand for, what they produce…
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they → judge → what
This is not about woke, this is about broke.
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this → wake → ?
If you can’t win on affordability, if you are bankrupting the country and enriching yourself personally, try to divert attention.
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you → win → attention
Now, I never thought I would find myself saying this, but Bill and Hillary Clinton are right.
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Clinton → think → this
They’re right to call out the bigotry.
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They → ’re → bigotry
They’re right to condemn the fearmongering.
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They → ’re → fearmongering
They’re right to stand up to the Republicans’ cynical attempt to weaponize a Muslim candidate’s faith.
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They → ’re → faith
The Clintons say they are “tired” of the GOP’s relentless and cynical anti-Muslim bigotry.
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they → say → bigotry
Why did Rep. Haley Stevens, who was defeated by El-Sayed in the Michigan primary in August, go on CNN on Wednesday night and lambast her fellow Democrat over an ad he had nothing to do with while saying not one word about the racist attacks he has had to endure from the right?
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he → defeat → right
Why is her fiancé proudly voting for Republican Mike Rogers, who has agreed with people who call El-Sayed a “terrorist” and whose own faith adviser has called Islam a “death cult”?
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adviser → vote → Islam
Why is Rep. Josh Gottheimer, one of Israel’s most strident defenders in Congress, indulging GOP smears against El-Sayed and telling interviewers, “There’s no way I am ever coming out for El-Sayed right now”?
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I → indulge → Sayed
Why did Senator John Fetterman falsely accuse El-Sayed of being “pro-Hamas”?
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Fetterman → accuse → Sayed
Why can’t Nancy Pelosi bring herself to even say El-Sayed’s name, referring to him only as “this new person in Michigan”?
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Pelosi → bring → Michigan
Has anyone heard from him recently?
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anyone → hear → him
Has the man who wants to be Senate majority leader again issued any statements or given any interviews denouncing the bigoted attacks on the Muslim Democratic Senate candidate in must-win Michigan?
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who → want → Michigan
Then again, Gillibrand has been no stranger to Islamophobic fearmongering herself, infamously referring to Zohran Mamdani, the Muslim Democratic mayor of New York, as a supporter of “global jihad.”
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Gillibrand → refer → jihad
As for Schumer, he handpicked Haley Stevens as his candidate in the Michigan Senate Democratic primary.
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he → handpicke → primary
…and 82 more, not listed.
The Aporia
