by Taya Graham and Stephen Janis | Jul 7, 2026 | Democratic Party, Democrats, elections, Inequality Watch, midterms, Politics and Movements: US, Socialism, video
Establishment Democrats have racked up disastrous electoral losses over the past decade—so why are they furious when their own party actually wins? Taya Graham and Stephen Janis break down the meltdown of Democratic “centrist” operatives and pundits after recent socialist victories in New York and Colorado, from James Carville calling for a party “schism” to Rep. Josh Gottheimer’s panicking about the future of the party on CNN. Plus: we revisit our interviews with actual Mamdani voters—the people the mainstream media refuses to talk to.
Credits:
Production / Post-Production: Cameron Granadino, Stephen Janis
Transcript
The following is a rushed transcript and may contain errors. It will be updated as soon as possible.
Taya Graham:
Establishment Democrats have racked up a lot of losses over the past decade. So why are they so angry when members of their own party win and how do they need to change if they ever want to win again? Well, Steven Janice and I will break down the profound need for change for Democrats in this episode of the Capitol Hill Inequality Report. Hello, my name is Taya Graham and welcome to the Are You Serious Edition of our Inequality Watch Capitol Hill Report? As in, are you serious Democrats that you don’t want to listen to your own voters? And are you seriously going to brush off the results when Democratic socialists win as some sort of existential threat to your party? Well, we’re going to unpack what’s at the root of this state of denial and provide some analysis of why Democrats might not be able to overcome the fact that they are more afraid of socialism than losing.
Of course,
by Taya Graham and Stephen Janis | Jun 15, 2026 | Economy, health care, Inequality Watch, midterms, Politics and Movements: US, video, Voting Rights
Rep. Summer Lee argues in this interview with TRNN that the best path to good policies like Medicare for All is to take billionaires’ money out of politics and to fight for electoral reforms, and explains her concerns about the Trump administration’s push to interfere in the upcoming 2026 midterms.
Credits:
Production: Taya Graham/Stephen Janis
Post-Production: David Hebden
Transcript
The following is a rushed transcript and may contain errors. It will be updated as soon as possible.
Taya Graham:
Can our democracy survive the influence of billions of dollars being poured into our politics? Well, that’s why I’m here at the Netroots Nation in Philadelphia in order to speak with Representative Summer Lee about the push to abolish Super PACS, the push to overturn Citizens United and whether or not we can look forward to some serious interference in our midterm elections. Congressman Lee, last time I saw you, you were talking about the Abolish Super PACS Act, which you co-sponsored with Senator Sanders. First, can you just give me just a quick rundown on how that works?
Rep. Summer Lee:
Yeah, so think about it this way. If you are a regular person, me, you, the people we know, you have a contribution limit on what you can give to somebody who’s running for federal office. If you are a millionaire or a corporation, yeah, you have that if you give directly to the candidate, but you can just get around it by giving to what we call these super PACs. So these super PACs are PACs that are not necessarily directly connected to a candidate. They legally can’t confer, but there are workarounds and with those PACs,
by Taya Graham and Stephen Janis | Jun 12, 2026 | Epstein, ICE, Inequality Watch, Politics and Movements: US, Trump, video
As part of our continuing coverage of Trump’s multi-pronged push to interfere with the upcoming midterm elections, we have been talking to a variety of voices on what they fear most from the administration. In this discussion with Democratic Congressman Jamie Raskin, he accuses the Trump administration of constructing a private police force within the federal government and seeking to fund an extrajudicial efforts to also interfere with free and fair elections.
Credits:
Production: Taya Graham/Stephen Janis
Post-Production: David Hebden
Transcript
The following is a rushed transcript and may contain errors. It will be updated as soon as possible.
Stephen Janis:
At the Real News Network, we have been covering the threat to midterm elections. Now, we came to the Networks Conference here in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to speak to Congressman Jamie Raskin. When he told us about what he thinks might happen in November should scare all of us. You know, you introduced a Blanche Act, is that what it’s called? Yes. Yeah. So the Senate just passed the reconciliation bill and did nothing to it. So what are your thoughts at this moment that can be done to prevent it and what are your concerns about this slush fund that has been proposed by the Trump administration?
Rep. Jamie Raskin:
Well, the vast majority of Americans reject the idea that the Trump regime should be able to take 1.776 billion of taxpayer money and give it to convicted criminals, Proud Boys and Oath Keepers and other extremists who tried to storm or who stormed the Capitol and tried to overthrow a presidential election. It’s outrageous and it violates about a dozen different federal laws and constitutional provisions. So
by Taya Graham and Stephen Janis | Jun 8, 2026 | elections, ICE, Inequality Watch, midterms, Politics and Movements: US, video, Voting Rights
Are President Donald Trump and MAGA Republicans publicly signaling that they plan to interfere in—and potentially rig—the 2026 midterm elections? If so, why is the media not taking the threat seriously? In this episode of Inequality Watch, Taya Graham and Stephen Janis investigate the connections between wealth inequality, political power, ICE funding, the influence of Super PACs on elections, and growing concerns about democratic accountability in Trump’s America.
Credits:
Pre-Production: Taya Graham, Stephen Janis
Studio Production / Post-Production: Cameron Granadino, Stephen Janis
Transcript
The following rushed transcript may contain errors. It will be updated as soon as possible.
Taya Graham:
Could President Trump and his MAGA Congress be planning to interfere with the upcoming midterm elections? Well, we have some evidence that might surprise you, which we will unpack on this episode of the Capitol Hill React Report. Hello, this is Taya Graham, myself, along with my reporting partner, Steven Janice, our Capitol Hill correspondence for the Real News Network. We report regularly on what’s happening in the nation’s Capitol, but with a twist. We examine the process of governance through the prism of the most powerful force in today’s politics, economic inequality. Now, before you say, tell you that seems sort of limited. Just let me explain a little bit before we get to the first video. Economic inequality is at its highest point in recent history. Just take a look at the latest report that showed American workers’ share of the economy has fallen to its lowest level since 1947.
That’s right. In 2025, the share of the economy that went to the people who actually make it run was 54% a historic low. Okay. So
by Stephen Janis and Taya Graham | May 21, 2026 | Article, Economy and Inequality, elections, Inequality, Inequality Watch, Politics and Movements: US, Voting Rights
by Stephen Janis and Taya Graham | May 13, 2026 | Article, ICE, immigration, Inequality Watch, Politics and Movements: US
Accusations that ICE is a giant ATM machine for private prison contractors have been a common critique of the Trump administration’s immigration policies. But a key congresswoman in the fight against the agency has taken the criticism a step further.
Rep. LaMonica McIver (NJ-10) says the push for profits within the mass deportation-industrial complex has put it at odds with the Trump administration’s goal of deporting millions of immigrants as quickly as possible.
For McIver, efforts to hold ICE accountable have become personal. She is facing up to 17 years in prison for making contact with an ICE agent outside the Delany Hall ICE facility in Newark, New Jersey. Federal prosecutors have charged her with three counts of forcibly interfering with a federal officer.
During an interview on Capitol Hill, the first-year lawmaker said she had spoken to multiple detainees at the Delany Hall facility who told her they had voluntarily agreed to leave the country, but were still being held in the US months afterward.
“When I go to Delaney Hall I speak to numerous detainees there. They tell me how they have signed a voluntary deportation agreement months ago and are literally still being held at the detention center,” she added.
“So this is all about money.”
ICE did not respond to our request to comment on the length of detention time for people who voluntarily agree to leave the country. However, their own statistics suggest that the average duration of a detainee’s stay has increased markedly.
Between September 2023 and September 2025, the average in-custody length of stay has risen by roughly a third. The average period of time a person is held has
