Did Democrats just change direction? The fight inside the party isn’t over yet. Let’s go Off Script

Hello, everyone. I'm Craig DeGrelli. Welcome to Unbiased Updates Offscript

The news moves fast. This is our chance to slow it down and make sense of it

Coming up on the show today, Michigan picked a nominee. But did Democrats just pick a direction

We go beyond the results to what Abdul El-Sayed's win may say about where the party is headed next

The landscape has changed and Democrats seem to be more motivated to elect someone that is going to energize the base

and stand for taking on Republicans with much more bold policies. Plus, America has spent decades building jails

But what if we've been building the wrong thing? Our legal reporter tells us about one New York program

that's been quietly testing whether stable housing can keep some of the country's most vulnerable people out of jail or less money

To house one person on Rikers Island costs on average $556,000 per year

to house someone with supportive care at a place like St. Francis costs $33,000 per year

And the Justice Department says the controversial anti-weaponization fund is gone. So why are some legal experts saying it could come right back

We start today with what matters, the story everyone's talking about, and the questions

it's leaving behind. Michigan just gave Democrats their first big test of the 2026 midterms, and it may have given us a preview of where the party is headed

Progressive candidate Abdul El-Sayed has won the party's nomination for U.S. Senate

after a hard-fought primary that pitted two very different visions of the Democratic Party against

each other. So was this just one state's primary, or does it tell us something bigger? That's where

I wanted to start with Straight Arrow senior politics reporter Ozzy Pabura

After being hit with about 60 or 70 million dollars worth of oppositional advertising

to come out ahead is a sort of remarkable feat. Now remember, El-Sayed had run for governor a

couple years ago, the same year that Haley Stevens was elected to Congress. Haley Stevens had won her

raise, Abdul El-Sayed did not win his. But in 2026, the landscape has changed and Democrats seem

to be more motivated to elect someone that is going to energize the base and stand for taking

on Republicans with much more bold policies. Polling had actually showed Abdul El-Sayed

leading by a greater margin. So Haley-Steven sort of beat expectations, which really calls into

the question how great polling can be if you get into certain local races. But Abdul El-Sayed had

led for much of this campaign and really, really demonstrated his ability to galvanize support

around the state. Having said that, Ozzy, I'd like to get your thoughts on this. David Axelrod

who's the CNN political expert, former Obama administration, higher up, said this is now

going to be a tough hold, so to speak, for Democrats. With Jerry Peters not running for

re-election, he's a Democrat, so this might be a difficult hold for Democrats. And then Politico

is quoting a poll from Epic and MRA saying that Mike Rogers, in a recent poll that I cited

leads Abdul El-Sayed by 46 to 43 percent. What do you make of the fact that at least

in some areas, it looks like this might be an uphill battle for El-Sayed, who just won the

primary? You know, CNN reported earlier that Mike Rogers had told his supporters that if

Abdul El-Sayed wins, that Rogers feels he'll be in good shape to take the seat for Republicans

Now, remember, Michigan has been represented by two Democrats in the Senate, but Donald Trump won Michigan twice in the presidential elections

Now, in between those two victories, Joe Biden won Michigan as well

So the state has gone back and forth and it has recently split control of the state legislature between the parties So it is a state that both parties feel very strongly about trying to hold on to And Abdul El his supporters have made the argument that if you run a moderate

Democrat, they're not going to recite the base and they're not going to offer anything as bold

or unique to motivate voters to come out. Voters who have toggled back and forth between the parties

Abdul El-Sayed has said, we have tried that before. Let's do something different. Let's do

something bold. And generally, there seems to be, in a lot of races, this notion that people in both

parties are dissatisfied with the establishment. The El-Sayed Stevens race had shined a light on

what some are calling the Democrats' civil war, progressive far left versus establishment

centrist. What does his narrow victory say going forward toward November? That those divisions are

real, they're deep, and the people on either side of those really are having trouble mending fences

and coming together. Now, both El-Sayed and Stevens both told their supporters it's really

important to come together and beat Mike Rogers and Republicans in the general election, but it is

going to take some work. Democrats, this has been one of the touchstone campaigns that people think

are going to decide how other Democrats are going to run their races heading into the midterms

Republicans have their own problems. In Ohio, Congressman Max Miller and his former father-in-law

Senator Bernie Moreno, going at it publicly. Moreno calling on Miller to drop out amid

allegations that he abused Moreno's daughter. Miller was married to Moreno's daughter

Miller has vehemently denied those allegations and is staying in the race

Give me some ysis from where you sit as our senior politics guy of as this story turns on a daily basis

Well, you saw what happened in Maine when the when a Democrat who was who had won the Senate primary was accused by two women of sexual assault and one of them accused him of rape

He eventually dropped out. Here, Max Miller, this is the third person who has come out, who has been in a romantic relationship with him, who's accused him of assault

These are three different women over a number of different years who do not know each other

Miller has denied the accusations, has blamed his ex-wife and his ex-father-in-law for misrepresenting what he says is a very complicated and messy domestic situation

And very notably, Miller has pointed to Donald Trump refusing to drop out of races when he has been accused, credibly, by numerous people of assault

And Miller said Trump didn't drop out. He persevered and he won and that he's going to do the same thing

This is a fascinating test for Republicans. when someone who's been accused credibly of assault, of not just their ex-wife, but their own child

pointing to the leader of their own party, saying he didn't drop out among criticism and I won't either

It's not clear how this is going to play out, but it is very hard to imagine voters getting behind a candidate who is facing this kind of criticism

And we thank Ozzie for his insight. There's no shortage of opinions online

What's harder to find are answers. This is Now to You, where we take your questions, comments, and hot takes and dig for facts

We received this comment after Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche formally rescinded the Justice Department's proposed $1.8 billion anti-weaponization fund

Christopher on YouTube wrote, Blanche claims he rescinded it. It has not been legally tested and nobody should believe it

It's an interesting observation because there are actually two different issues here

The first is political. Todd Blanche issued a written order saying the fund is, quote, rescinded and shall have no force or effect

That was enough to satisfy Republican Senators John Cornyn and Tom Tillis

who had refused to support his nomination until the Justice Department put that promise in writing

But the second issue is legal. Blanche rescinded his order creating the fund

He did not rewrite the underlying settlement agreement between the Justice Department and President Trump Some of the lawyers suing over the fund argue that matters because the original agreement says it can only be changed with the written agreement of all the parties

They say Blanche's order may solve a political problem without fully settling the legal one

Cornyn has acknowledged this much. He said Congress couldn't force the president to change the settlement agreement

What senators could have done was require Blanche to put the Justice Department's

interpretation in writing before moving his nomination forward. So could the fund come back

The short answer is yes. An attorney general can generally issue a new order reversing a previous

one. So this administration could try to revive the fund later if it chooses to. But if that happens

it would almost certainly spark a new round of court challenges because the lawsuits over the

original settlement are still playing out. By the way, we love hearing from you. Keep those comments

coming into us here at Straight Arrow, you can leave them on our YouTube page or email us at

offscript at san.com. Okay, let's go inside the story now. You can read the headlines on Straight

Arrow, but this is where we go a step further, the details that didn't fit, the questions that

came up, and the reporting that shaped the story. Is it cheaper and more effective to house someone

with severe mental illness or keep sending them through the criminal justice system? That's the

question, Straight Arrow legal reporter Ava Federley set out to answer as she took a closer

look at a New York program built around what's called permanent supportive housing. And that's

where I started in our conversation. Permanent supportive housing is housing that is often

provided by nonprofits or state governments or cities that offers actually permanent housing

for those who are in need. The supportive part means that they typically have medical professionals

psychiatrists that are all on staff and typically on site at these buildings. And St. Francis

Friends of the Poor, that's a permanent supportive housing resident in New York City

they actually provide three separate buildings that all offer this style of housing. The requisites

for someone to become a resident there is that they have to have a severe mental health disability

and have been homeless for many years. You mentioned a little bit in your article about

the cost and I found it very interesting the cost per year of incarcerating someone versus

permanent supportive housing. Could you talk about the cost benefit ysis of the program

you profile versus being behind bars? For sure. Just looking at New York City, Rikers Island is, I would argue, the city's most

notorious jail complex. To house one person on Rikers Island or in any of New York City's

jails costs on average $556,000 per year for one person. To house someone with supportive

care at a place like St. Francis costs $33,000 per year. So you can see it's dramatically different

I was surprised to learn that some of the candidates slash slash subjects or clients

they are taught to live on less than $20 a day. Yes, it's interesting that it's actually taken from their social security and the employees

at St. Francis help each tenant create their own unique budget based on what their needs

are. So yeah, it's $17 per day, and that could include medicine and food. But they do take

their Social Security checks at the beginning of each month, make sure that rent is paid

and then from the rest of the money is how they create their budget. And I know you interviewed various subjects for your article, including someone named

Camilla Broderick, who noted that many jail cells lack, or jails I should say

lack proper psychiatric care. And you have a quote from her in there. What did

she mean by that and what did she emphasize? So Camilla is actually now an

employee She a program manager at St Francis in New York City She was previously incarcerated at Rikers Island for a drug charge and was put in the island mental health facility she said that there was maggots everywhere and human excrement on the

walls and that there was pretty much no care that was provided through Rikers Island at all

Camilla said that she has since actually earned her she's been released from Rikers she's earned

her master's in social work and now is working as a program manager at St. Francis. So she's in an

interesting position to be able to see how jails treat people who are suffering from mental health

issues versus someplace like a permanent supportive housing residence like St. Francis

Ava, let's talk about the impetus of the story. You took an interest in it and obviously it's a

It's a deep dive. Where did this come from in terms of the idea and how did it nurture and how did you come up with St. Francis, Friends of the Poor as the subject to your story

It actually came from one of the sources that I interviewed for my book, These Walls, which is about New York City's decision to close Rikers Island and invest more money in new jails

The source was actually Camilla Broderick, who now works at St. Francis and was previously incarcerated at Rikers Island

So she was the one who let me know what St. Francis is doing. And I was really curious to get inside and go check it out and see if this could actually help keep people out of jail, keep them safe, give them the care that they need, give them a roof over their heads indefinitely

and also see that actually it is significantly less than locking somebody up

If you'd like to read Ava's story, check it out here on the site or on the Straight Arrow app

We can't fit everything into unbiased updates, so here are a few stories we think deserve a second look

On Unbiased Updates this week, we showed you the wildfires that have destroyed more than 700 homes and businesses

around Spokane, Washington, forcing 65,000 people to evacuate. We've also been following major fires in France

Now Greece has been hit too. Flames are racing across hillsides west of Athens

leaving behind charred forests and sending thick smoke into the sky. But the biggest tragedy didn't happen on the ground

Two firefighting helicopters collided while battling the blaze, sending one of them crashing to the ground

Two people were killed. The crew on the second helicopter survived. Investigators are now trying to determine what caused that midair collision

Well, back here in the United States, July's record flooding left behind more than damaged roads and homes

In New Jersey, it also left behind a story of incredible bravery

Three children, two 10-year-olds and an 11-year-old, were swept into the swollen Passaic River

Just days earlier, police had posted video warning people about the fast-moving current

saying the floodwaters remained extremely dangerous. As the children struggled, authorities say a 10-year-old boy used his last moments to push his sister toward the rocks along the shore

Likely saving her life. She made it out. Her brother and the other child did not

Now many in the community are calling for physical barriers along the river, hoping to prevent another tragedy

All right, this is much more upbeat. Finally today, here's the kicker. A bright spot before we go

We've spent a lot of time this summer talking about how people are trying to beat the heat, right

Well, it turns out the animals have their own game plan. At the Beijing Zoo, keepers are helping their residents stay cool with misting stations, pools, and one of summer's best snacks, frozen watermelon

The giant pandas seem pretty happy with the arrangement. And as for the polar bears, they don't seem to mind either

A good reminder that when the temperature climbs, sometimes the simplest ideas work best

Ah, yes. Who doesn't like watermelon in summer? It's always refreshing, right? Yeah

Okay, that's it for us this week. Thanks for watching Unbiased Updates Offscript. If you've made it this far, please email us. Let us know what you think

Offscript at san.com. We love hearing from you, and we read them all

For all of us at Straight Arrow, I'm Craig DeGrelli. We'll see you next time. All right