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Useful Idiots with Katie Halper and Aaron Maté

Useful Idiots, LLC
Useful Idiots with Katie Halper and Aaron Maté
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410 episodes

  • Useful Idiots with Katie Halper and Aaron Maté

    "The chance of AI World War is now 50% in the next 30 years"

    27/06/2026 | 17 mins.
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    Watch the Friday Free-For-All: CNN IS MELTING DOWN AS PROGRESSIVES TAKE OVER https://www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/p/cnn-is-melting-down-as-progressives?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
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  • Useful Idiots with Katie Halper and Aaron Maté

    AIPAC Panics After Zohran Mamdani’s Election Sweep

    26/06/2026 | 31 mins.
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    Watch the Friday Free-For-All: CNN IS MELTING DOWN AS PROGRESSIVES TAKE OVER https://www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/p/cnn-is-melting-down-as-progressives?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
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    On this week’s show we’re analyzing the Mamdani Sweep in New York City where progressive, populist, pro-Palestine candidates, backed by Mayor Zohran Mamdani, won important elections across the board in a huge rebuke to AIPAC and Israel.
    So as AIPAC and the entire Democratic establishment freak out about the electoral loss, we’re speaking with journalists Ross Barkan and Liza Featherstone to dissect what went right for the left and how progressive stars like Mamdani and Hasan Piker can leverage this victory into a more controlling stance in the Democratic Party.
    Useful Idiots: What’s your one-sentence takeaway from the elections?Ross Barkan: It was a great night for Zohran Mamdani and he is emerging as the new political boss of New York politics.Liza Featherstone: I wondered whether the left should have gone even bigger. Zohran won every single race that he endorsed and DSA won almost all of them. None of their incumbents were taken out and almost all their challengers won. If you’re not losing more, are you really trying hard enough?Useful Idiots: Establishment Democrats are freaking out about these progressive winners, including Congressional candidate Darializa Avila Chevalier who sparked controversy with a now-deleted tweet saying “Fuck Kamala Harris.” What’s your response to this?Liza Featherstone: I would just like [these establishment Democrats] to actually spend a day gathering petition signatures for a candidate. When I did that for Zohran Mamdani in Bed-Stuy, a Democratic stronghold, the biggest obstacle was people saying, ‘fuck the democrats.’I would lead with ‘are you a registered democrat?’ and even normie, middle-aged ladies, white ladies, black ladies, you know, who are normally the base of the Democratic Party, would be like, ‘no, fuck them.’ Everyone’s fed up. Everyone’s fed up.To see the full interview with Ross and Liza on why Trump has more respect for Zohran’s game than Dems do, responses to CNN fear mongering that Jews are no longer safe in New York City after the election, whether Brad Lander is actually a progressive or just establishment-in-disguise, and where AOC was while Mamdani was endorsing candidates, please subscribe to our show.
    00:00 Intro
    02:00 Dana Bash's Zionist Meltdown
    07:49 Sean Hannity cries over Brad Lander
    09:02 Ross Barkan and Liza Featherstone interview
    09:42 What the Progressives MISSED this week
    16:07 Is it GOOD Zohran can't run for president?
    30:05 Why wasn't AOC there?

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  • Useful Idiots with Katie Halper and Aaron Maté

    The US-Israeli relationship continues to break as the Trump Admin moves forward with Iran deal

    22/06/2026 | 1h 2 mins.
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    Watch the Friday Free-For-All: Even Hillary Clinton is Turning On Israel https://www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/p/even-hillary-clinton-is-turning-on?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
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  • Useful Idiots with Katie Halper and Aaron Maté

    BOMBSHELL: JD Vance Turns On Israel After Iran Deal

    19/06/2026 | 55 mins.
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    Watch the Friday Free-For-All: Even Hillary Clinton is Turning On Israel https://www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/p/even-hillary-clinton-is-turning-on?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
    Join us LIVE on Youtube every Monday at 10am EST for Monday Mourning, where we watch the Sunday morning news shows so that you don't have to.
    This week, after months of demanding Iran’s unconditional surrender, Trump suddenly backed off his regime-change war, signing an MOU (Memorandum of Understanding) with Iran.
    And what’s even more surprising than this apparent admission of defeat and push for peace is the Trump administration’s sharp turn on Israel, with Trump distancing himself from Netanyahu and Vice President Vance directly calling the Israelis out:
    “You have seen people within Bibi’s cabinet who have come out and attacked the deal and in some ways very personally attacked the President of the United States.If I was in the Israeli cabinet, I might not be attacking the only powerful ally that I have left anywhere in the entire world.What is your exact proposal? You’re a country of 9 million people. You can’t just kill your way out of solving every single national security problem that you have.”So to discuss the peace deal, whether it can withstand Trump’s turbulent negotiation tendencies and expected sabotage from Israel, and why the administration is turning against its ally Israel, we spoke with two Iranians: Trita Parsi, author and executive VP at the Quincy Institute, and Negar Mortazavi, journalist at the Center for International Policy and host of the Iran Podcast.
    Trita Parsi: The doubt of US power over Israel has now been completely blown up with the statements of JD Vance. I suspect that we’re going to see more of it, particularly if the Israelis continue to sabotage in the manner that they have been and probably will continue to do.What JD is doing there is not just changing the conversation about Israel. He’s changing the paradigm of U.S.-Israeli relations. He’s clearly pointing out to them how isolated Israel is today, and how few friends it has, which should not be a surprise.And at the same time, he’s reminding the Israelis the tremendous leverage that the United States has over Israel, even though most presidents have not had the backbone to use that leverage. But he’s reminding the Israelis of the extent to which the United States can really put a tremendous amount of pressure on them.Negar Mortazavi: This is incredible. It’s unprecedented. And now J.D. Vance, even Donald Trump, are starting to sound like America-first, anti-war skeptics of militarism, everything that was part of the political discourse in the campaign.I mean, it’s unfortunate that it took two wars, which also, by the way, took thousands of lives in Lebanon. But I think we see a gap and it’s very public and it’s widening. And this also comes after three years of genocide in Gaza, which has already created a gap between Israel and the U.S.Even in Congress now, across the political structure, you’re seeing the beginning of a movement. There are members of Congress or candidates running for elections who say they don’t want to accept money from AIPAC. That has become an unprecedented thing that is publicly being said.It’s a historic week, and extremely complex in terms of what the deal signifies and the shaky path it could have moving forward. Trita and Negar help us dig into the details and parse through the propaganda. This episode won’t be paywalled.
    If you want to support our work, please consider subscribing. You’ll get our recap of the craziest and most cringe-worthy reactions to the deal across corporate media in the Friday Free-for-All: Even Hillary Clinton is Turning On Israel.
    00:00 Intro
    01:30 Dems are MAD at Trump for ending the war
    05:21 CNN Anchor is SHOCKED Iran should be able to defend itself
    06:29 JD Vance calls out Israel
    08:59 Trita Parsi responds to JD Vance
    29:13 Negar Mortazavi breaks down the deal

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  • Useful Idiots with Katie Halper and Aaron Maté

    Trump Announces New Peace Deal with Iran, Causing Bipartisan Panic

    15/06/2026 | 1h 8 mins.
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    ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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About Useful Idiots with Katie Halper and Aaron Maté
Useful Idiots is an informative and irreverent politics podcast with journalist Aaron Maté and podcaster/writer Katie Halper. Episodes feature analysis of the political news of the week and exclusive interviews, with humor, commentary and dissection of why both Republicans and Democrats suck. Join Aaron and Katie as they examine important stories that have slipped through the cracks and what the media got wrong – and laugh about whatever is left to laugh about.
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