Mehdi Unfiltered

President-elect Donald J. Trump has once again revealed his blatant disregard for the US Constitution, touting his plan to end birthright citizenship for the children of undocumented immigrants.Of course, Trump being Trump thinks he can end it all by himself, via simple executive order – rather than the required constitutional amendment. But, as Mehdi points out in the video above, Trump not only would be defying the plain text of the 14th Amendment, he would also be going against over 100 years of judicial precedent.Watch the short video above to see Mehdi rebut the right-wing critics of birthright citizenship, dismantle Trump’s lies on this issue, and brings receipts dating all the way back to the 1860s.Paid subscribers can comment below.Check out some of our other stories from the past week: 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

The United Nations’ Special Envoy to Syria, Geir Pedersen, joins Mehdi Unfiltered to discuss the country’s new leadership, the path forward, and the UN’s role in it all. Addressing the latest attacks by Israel on sites within Syria, as well as the Israeli military incursion into the buffer zone next to the occupied Golan Heights, Pedersen tells Mehdi that these are illegal under international law.“The message to Israel is that this needs to stop. What we are seeing in the Golan is the violation of the 1974 agreement. This is a very serious issue.”Given the UN has listed the Nusra Front as a proscribed terrorist organization, and given Abu Muhammed al-Jolani and his Nusra Front spin-off Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) led the offensive against Assad and now controls much of the country, Mehdi asks Pedersen about the UN’s approach towards HTS going forward.“This creates obviously challenges and I have been very open when it comes to this… The messaging coming out so far has been good… What we now need to see when they are in Damascus, and of course, they are not alone in Damascus, is that this vision is actually implemented.”A precursor to opening a political pathway for such groups will of course be changing their “terrorist’ designations, something that Pedersen says he is willing to take to the UN Security Council.“My message to the Security Council will be, yes, it's time to have a deeper look at this and see if it's possible to delist. But as I said, only if these things happen.”Given Pedersen’s six years as Special Envoy for Syria, Mehdi also asks about the UN’s role over the last 14 years.“We all failed the Syrian people,” Pedersen responds “and the United Nations, for many, will be the face of that, and we have to take responsibility for that.”Watch the full interview above to hear why Pedersen is cautious in his hope for Syria, and the steps he believes need to be taken to see “Syria developing now, in the next days, weeks, months and years ahead of us.”Please do consider also becoming a paid subscriber to Zeteo to support our independent journalism and make Zeteo the go-to place for exclusive interviews with high-profile guests such as this one!In case you missed it, here is Zeteo’s interview with a former child prisoner of Syria’s notorious Sednaya prison: 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

Meet rising Democratic Party star Anderson Clayton. At just 26 years old, she is the youngest-ever state party chair, representing the Democrats in the red state of North Carolina. But despite electing Donald Trump in the 2024 election, North Carolina’s red days may be soon behind it.Democrats secured the races for governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general, and secretary of state in this election. They even won enough seats to end the Republican supermajority in the state legislature.So why did voters elect both Donald Trump and Democrats, at the same time, in November’s elections?“I don’t think that a political party defines how somebody is going to vote on the ballot. I think that they are looking for a person right now, and that’s why it matters the types of candidates that we run,” Clayton tells Mehdi in this wide-ranging interview.While Democrats are playing the blame game on how Kamala Harris lost the election, Clayton says, “I don’t think anybody’s a lost cause. I actually think after this election cycle, we should be looking at every single person as somebody we're talking to.”But it’s not just talking to voters that’s key for Democrats moving forward. “We need to run young people,” Clayton explains. She continues, “They're 60% more likely to vote for a young person on the ballot regardless of what political party that they're affiliated with. And I think that we have to look at young people as a voting bloc that wants to see themselves represented.”Many young voters aligned themselves with the Uncommitted movement this election given the genocide in Gaza. While some Democrats blame these voters for the election loss, Clayton believes that Democrats can learn something from it: “It was them using political power in the right way because it's something where it's not discouraging people from the political process. It's saying, ‘No, let's use it to have our voices heard.”’ She adds, “That's something where Democrats should be taking it and embracing it … because right now people do not want to build up the Democratic Party. It seems like people are more interested in going around it.”Watch the full interview to hear about political messaging in rural communities, the North Carolina GOP’s attempt to curb the incoming governor’s powers, and whether she’ll throw her hat in the ring for DNC chair. Clayton also reacts to Bernie Sanders’ criticism of the Democrats.We are making this fascinating interview free for all subscribers to watch, but please do consider becoming a paid subscriber if you’re not already! 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.comLike most years, New York City spent much of 2024 at the epicenter of the most pressing stories in the United States, from college campus protests for Palestine to the trial of Donald J. Trump, to the indictment of their own Democratic mayor, Eric Adams.“One of the few things [on] the ever-growing list of things in common between Eric Adams and Donald Trump is a sense of impunity and a belief that accountability does not apply to them,” New York Assembly Member Zohran Mamdani says to Mehdi.In an exclusive Zeteo interview, the 33-year-old Mamdani – who will be running against Adams in the 2025 New York City Democratic primaries – talks to Mehdi about calls for Adams to resign over his recent corruption charges, and whether or not the indicted mayor is trying to cozy up to Trump for a potential pardon.“What we've seen with Eric Adams is a continued insistence that he is not going to step down. In his own words, he is going to step up. He's not going to resign, he's going to reign,” Mamdani tells Mehdi. “I think he understands that his future is tied up with the sentiments of Donald Trump towards him.”Mamdani – a member of the Democratic Socialists of America – responds to the critics who say that it was progressives like him that not only cost Democrats this year’s presidential election, but also shrank their margin of victory in traditionally Democratic strongholds like the Big Apple itself.“I would ask them who was running the Kamala Harris campaign, what were the policies that were being run on? Who are the surrogates?” Mamdani tells Mehdi. “You are not going to see me in any one of these five boroughs, with Liz Cheney or Mark Cuban backing away from taxes on the wealthiest New Yorkers.”Watch Mehdi’s full interview with Mamdani to hear more on why Mamdani is running for mayor, how he would have responded to the pro-Palestine student protests, and how he would uphold the ICC arrest warrant against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.Free subscribers have access to a free preview of this interview. Become a paid subscriber to watch the full interview.