Ceasefire Questions With Chris Hayes (VIDEO)

Edited by Sam Thielman

JUST A QUICK ONE from me today. I know I've been writing this newsletter at a heavier clip than normal since the U.S./Israel-Iran War broke out. 

I was in a car headed to 30 Rockefeller Plaza yesterday to speak about the attack on al-Udeid on Chris Hayes' MSNBC show All In when President Trump declared a ceasefire… and neither the Israelis nor the Iranians had accepted it yet. By the time I got on Chris' set, it seemed to make more sense to lay out the important open questions about what comes next rather than getting out ahead of rapidly unfolding events. 

Obviously this morning, events got even less certain, as Israel launched a post-ceasefire bombing sortie, and Trump, with absolutely no acknowledgement of his massive reversal in position, declared himself frustrated with both Israel and Iran. The two-and-a-half months since April 7, when Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu met in the White House, make it difficult to believe that this ceasefire is genuine and not cover for a restored offensive. But I think this short video of our conversation still lays out the major open questions remaining. 

The Washington Post piece I mention is here.  

One thing I didn't say on Chris' show: the only way a ceasefire can be genuine is if it extends to Gaza. The enormity of the danger of an active war against Iran has eclipsed the horrors that Israel continues to visit upon the Palestinians. We cannot lose sight of them. There is no separating the genocide in Gaza from the regional war that the genocide sparked. 

ALSO, if you're in New York City and are registered as a Democrat, make sure that before 9 p.m., you vote in today's mayoral election—for Zohran Mamdani (#1) and Brad Lander (#2), and don't rank Andrew Cuomo at all. Sam prefers Brad over Zohran, which is cool, but we agree on the dangers of a Cuomo mayoralty. Zohran Mamdani poses no threat to Jewish New Yorkers like me (and like Brad Lander). But Andrew Cuomo and the oligarchs backing him are a massive danger to us all. You can be certain that Cuomo will bring this city to new heights of unaffordability, because that's what the money behind him wants. I would also suspect that Cuomo's NYPD will cooperate thoroughly with ICE. [Just to elaborate on that point a little: City & State finds that the Super PAC created by billionaires Mike Bloomberg, Bill Ackman, and burrito taxi operator DoorDash to boost Cuomo and smear Mamdani has spent an astounding twenty-four million dollars. On a municipal primary. In support of an incompetent sex pest who doesn’t live here. That is the vast majority of all outside spending in all the primaries.—Sam]

I've been canvassing for Zohran. Today in the baking heat—be careful out there—I did poll visibility for him outside the location where I personally vote. The late morning was an absurd time to be doing so, since most people are at work, but I had a window, and I wanted to take advantage of it. Many more people than I expected, representing the gorgeous mosaic that makes up my born-and-bred home of Flatbush, were out and on their way to the polls. For all the propaganda against Zohran, I got a grand total of two people hostile to him. Many if not most of the people I spoke to were enthusiastic Zohran voters, and those who weren't were receptive to him. It also felt very nice to see my neighbors, talk to them by name, joke around and otherwise keep each others' spirits up in this baking heat. Please stay hydrated out there. 

But stay out there! At 6 p.m. at Crown Heights' coolest, Anyone Comics, I'll be signing IRON MAN Vol. 1: THE STARK-ROXXON WAR—out today—and doing a Q&A until 8. Bring your I VOTED sticker and I'll have some extra treats for you, for free! The nearest train is the 2/5 to President Street, or the B44, which Zohran has promised to make fare-free. The energy will be great! 

BEFORE WE GO, make sure you check out this excellent Nick Schwellenbach investigation into Stephen Miller making money off Palantir as Palantir makes money off of you via its DHS/ICE/DOGE contracts for gigantic, siftable databases containing your highly revealing information. Miller would do it all for free, but the financial conflict matters. And he isn't the only Trump administration official Nick finds investing in Palantir. 

And similarly, don't miss this Devlin Barrett piece revealing that Erez Reuveni, the Justice Department lawyer who lost his job after telling a court that Kilmar Abrego Garcia's extraordinary rendition to El Salvador was a mistake, heard senior Justice Department official Emil Bove instruct subordinates that they needed to tell the courts "fuck you" if any judges tried to stop renditions after Trump baselessly invoked the Alien Enemies Act.