Mehdi Unfiltered

“President Biden's inaction, given the suffering in Gaza, is shameful,” Senator Chris Van Hollen of Maryland tells Mehdi on this week’s ‘Mehdi Unfiltered’. “I mean, there's no other word for it.”It’s not often that a top Democratic senator and long-term party loyalist unleashes on a sitting Democratic president, but Van Hollen – who has been critical of the US’s unconditional support for Israel since October 7th – doesn’t hold back in this wide-ranging and exclusive conversation with Mehdi and Zeteo.“If the president doesn't mean what he says,” about holding Israel to account for the lack of aid going into Gaza, adds Van Hollen, “then he should stop saying it because he looks so weak.”For the Maryland senator, Biden has “essentially been played by Netanyahu from day one. And every time the President of the United States says ‘this is what we the United States think is in our interests, please do it,’ he gets the back of the hand from Netanyahu and refuses to take any action.”Van Hollen also criticizes the Biden-Harris administration for failing to uphold the humanitarian aid deadline they set for Israel last month, which has now passed, and questions their motivations.“My concern is this was a political attempt to try to send a message to voters a month ago that, ‘oh, the president really does care about the situation,’” Van Hollen tells Mehdi. Watch the full and eye-opening interview above to hear more about Senator Van Hollen’s top concerns over a second Trump presidency, whether Democrats have alienated working class voters, and what he made of the Harris campaign touting their endorsement from Dick Cheney.  This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit zeteo.com/subscribe

When chaos erupted in Amsterdam between Maccabi Tel Aviv and Ajax fans, photographer Annet de Graaf watched the violence unfold across the city first-hand. Her footage of Maccabi fans attacking a Dutch resident went viral, and was picked up by several media outlets, who then spun a different narrative that it was the Israelis being attacked.Headlines poured in about antisemitic attacks in Amsterdam. But these stories largely overlooked on-camera, blatant, anti-Arab racism from Maccabi supporters.In an exclusive interview, de Graaf tells Mehdi that outlets like CNN, BBC World News, and the New York Times “told the opposite of what happened in that footage.” She adds that they erased the responsibility of the Maccabi fans behind the attacks because “the truth is inconvenient.”Watch the video above to hear how de Graaf witnessed the violence unfold and how she’s handling the fallout from the misuse of her footage — and the threats against her from the Islamophobic far right in the Netherlands.For more on the Amsterdam rioting, and how it was misrepresented by the mainstream media, be sure to check out academic Marc Owen Jones’s latest piece for Zeteo: Innocent Israelis, Bad Arabs? How the Media Scripted Amsterdam's Soccer Violence This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit zeteo.com/subscribe

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit zeteo.comYou’ve seen Piers Morgan interview Mehdi plenty of times over the past year. This week, Mehdi and Morgan flipped roles for the first time, with our editor-in-chief sitting down for an exclusive interview with the controversial British broadcaster in New York. Their discussion starts with Mehdi offering a twist on a classic Morgan question: “Do you condemn Benjamin Netanyahu's terrorism against the children of Gaza?” As difficult as it is for a defiant Morgan to use the T-word to describe Netanyahu’s brutal actions in Gaza, he goes even further to avoid using the G-word to describe Israel’s relentless assault on the embattled strip.“I think to use the word genocide about what Russia is doing there is the wrong term, and I shouldn't have used it,” says Morgan.“I look at Piers Morgan, I say here's this uncensored person, very bold, outspoken, opinionated man. He says, ‘Syria is a genocide. Burma is a genocide. Ukraine's a genocide’… Israel? ‘No, it's not a genocide,’” Mehdi says to Morgan, perhaps stunned by the latter’s new stance.Oh, and wait until you hear Morgan’s response to Mehdi’s questioning about his amplification of the ‘beheaded babies’ lie!Our editor-in-chief’s exclusive interview with the outspoken British broadcaster was taped a day after former president Donald Trump held a hate-filled rally at New York City’s Madison Square Garden, which Morgan proudly attended. “My view of Trump has evolved a lot because I know him personally, I like him personally, some of the things he does I think are very effective, some of the things he does I think are completely wrong,” Morgan tells Mehdi. Mehdi presses Morgan to defend his friend Trump’s insane rhetoric, unhinged behavior, and long-standing racism. Morgan, you’ll be shocked to hear, pushes back hard. Watch the full and explosive interview above to hear why Morgan doesn’t think Netanyahu is a terrorist and doesn’t think Trump is a fascist, and what he makes of the US and UK media bias in favor of Israel. If you are a paid subscriber to Zeteo (thank you!), this exclusive interview is available to you in full, and you can also leave your comments below. Free subscribers get a 15-minute preview of this special interview with Piers Morgan. So do consider becoming a paid subscriber today! 

We all know Donald Trump said and did a lot of racist, offensive, and Islamophobic things when he was president the first time round - and is promising to do so again if he wins a second term next week. It seems, however, that he has not said or done enough to deter the endorsement of a growing minority of Muslim Americans, such as Imam Belal Alzuhairi of The Great Mosque in Hamtramck, Michigan.  “I never claimed that he is infallible,” Alzuhairi tells Mehdi. “I never claimed that he is a saint. I never gave him a blank check. I see him as a leader who, in our discussions, committed to supporting values that matter deeply in our community… We said these are the five points, he said I agree 100% with you.” The imam not only stood on stage at a Trump rally in Michigan to announce his endorsement, in what became a viral online moment, but he also separately met with the Republican nominee – something the Harris campaign, reportedly, refused to do (though they have met with other Muslim and Arab groups in that key swing state). “The other party [Democrats] does not have any time for us and does not have any regards for us as Muslims,” says Alzuhairi. “Now, they understand that… we're not in your pockets. I mean, we have alternatives.”Mehdi, of course, pushed back on the idea that Trump can be trusted or considered “the peace candidate” or the candidate of “family values,” in the provocative words of Imam Alzuhairi.You’ll have to watch the full interview above to hear how heated their discussion got!  This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit zeteo.com/subscribe