Extremist ideology on the right is not just fringe thought, it’s now central to the conservative project championed by Republicans. Former GOP strategist Stuart Stevens says Democrats should meet this moment with moral clarity: “The Democratic Party needs to indict the GOP for being un-American.”

Ali Velshi comments on last week’s vote results: “‘Democracy is not a spectator sport’… You can’t just watch from the sidelines, and expect democracy to succeed. You have to participate and work at it… On election night 2025, in state after state, that’s exactly what voters did.”

Asylum-seekers in New York City believe they’re doing the right thing showing up to scheduled hearings in immigration court. But lurking in the hallways are ICE agents laying an “abduction trap” for them. New York comptroller Brad Lander urges Americans to see what’s happening for themselves: “You don't have to risk arrest or put your body on the line to bear witness, to sit in court and show up to let people know their rights."

Virginia Democrat Ghazala Hashimi makes history as the first Muslim woman elected to statewide office in the United States. “I think my message has been resonating with so many people who feel marginalized,” the lieutenant governor-elect tells Ali Velshi. “Our next steps have to be to respond to the crisis in the health care system that's resulting from the cuts to Medicaid.”

New York City’s mayoral race was dominated by one issue, the lack of affordable housing in America’s most expensive city. Brookings Institution Senior Fellow Andre Perry says, “The supply is not meeting the demand… We’re not building the kinds of homes and units” needed to address an affordability crisis that has spread nationwide.

Tenn. Rep. Justin Jones is compelled to run for office even when the odds are stacked against him and to serve, even as part of a Democratic super-minority in a deep-red state legislature. “And even when I vote,” he tells Ali Velshi, “I always write out my dissents because I want to send them as a love letter to the next generation to say, ‘This is where we stood. This is why we stood. And we hope that by the time you read this … in the history books, you know that we were laying the groundwork for you to inherit this victory.’”

A new documentary about Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalist Lynsey Addario profiles her career from the frontlines. “I think every single assignment has a different set of risks,” she tells Ali Velshi. “ Because, obviously, as photographers, there's no way to do my job from a hotel. I have to literally be in front of my subject.”

In 1981, Murad Velshi was running to represent his district in the Ontario Legislature. He never stood a chance, but he taught his 11-year-old son that running, losing, and trying again is what democracy is about. Six years later, Murad ran again— and won — becoming the first Muslim immigrant elected to Ontario’s Legislature, proving that democracy is often built at the margins long before it reaches the center. Decades later, in another major city, another Muslim immigrant has achieved the improbable: Zohran Mamdani, now the first Muslim and first South Asian immigrant elected Mayor of New York City— a reminder that democracy is sustained through courage, coalition-building, and showing up, especially when the odds say you shouldn’t.

AI is booming right now and it’s causing utility costs for everyday consumers to reach unprecedented highs. “There is increasing deployment of AI technologies behind the scenes, and that is definitely driving up these energy costs,” said University of Pennsylvania professor and Google researcher Benjamin Lee. “Right now, we're very, very much on the benefits side of the equation, and then we are paying whatever cost is needed to demonstrate those next generation capabilities.”

Ali Velshi is back at the Big Board to break down county results in Virginia and New Jersey which show how the map shifted blue from Donald Trump’s 2024 victory. While both Abigail Spanberger and Mikie Sherrill championed affordability, pollster Cornell Belcher says, “It's not just the cost of things. It's the nature of things in America.” He said Trump’s firing of federal workers, many of whom live in Virginia and his immigration crackdown in New Jersey, where one in four is foreign born, both contributed to GOP losses.

Democrats swept off-year elections — not because they ran as progressives or moderates, but because voters rejected Trump’s chaos and demanded relief from the affordability crisis. While Trump and the GOP try to distract with “communism” fear-mongering, Americans of all stripes turned out in record numbers to choose competence over MAGA extremism.

New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani is leaning into every aspect of his identity that sets him apart, even as powerful figures try to convince the country that diversity, equity, and inclusion are bad things. After Andrew Cuomo said in a recent interview that diversity is our strength but “can also be a weakness,” Mamdani criticized his opponent for being “Donald Trump’s puppet” and “Donald Trump’s parrot.” Vice President JD Vance also recently made remarks that’s receiving backlash for othering people who speak different languages. In response, Mamdani tells Ali Velshi, “The issue is not what language Americans are speaking at the dinner table, it's that they can't afford to put food on it.”

Sudan’s paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) seized the city of El Fasher in the country’s Darfur region, leaving a trail of blood and atrocities in their wake. Analysts warn that the two-year long civil war, which has triggered one of the biggest humanitarian crises in the world today, is being fueled by regional powers backing opposite sides of the conflict. The International Rescue Committee is a global humanitarian aid, relief, and development organization. Its CEO and President, David Miliband tells Ali Velshi “every humanitarian emergency is a political emergency.” 

While the Supreme Court has largely enabled Trump’s power grab, lower-court judges have risen to the moment, calling out government lies and defending the Constitution under historic pressure. Former federal judge Michael Luttig notes that, in the absence of a Supreme Court willing to confront Trump’s abuses, lower courts have taken the extraordinary step of speaking directly to the American people through their opinions— breaking with centuries of judicial tradition — because, as he puts it, it is a paramount obligation of federal judges ”to condemn what’s happening in America today.” If the Supreme Court fails to meet the moment, Luttig is blunt about who is left to defend democracy: “It’s we the people in whom all power resides,“ he says. “If the Supreme Court will not come to the aid of the country, then all that’s left is for we, the people, to take back the country through elections and protests. We have no choice.“ 

Federal judges across the country are issuing extraordinary warnings as Donald Trump tests the limits of presidential power and pushes the nation toward authoritarianism. In a rare move, Judge Susan Graber urged Americans to “retain faith in our judicial system for just a little longer,” as lower courts work to restrain Trump’s overreach. These judges aren’t just issuing rulings— they’re preserving the factual record at the very moment Trump is trying to erase history, collective memory, and truth itself.

Initially published as a famously censored novella for Lippincott's Monthly Magazine in June 1890, Oscar Wilde’s “The Picture of Dorian Gray” explores persuasion and corruption, sexual identity, desire, mortality, and societal obsession with youth and beauty. According to “Exquisite Things” author Abdi Nazemian, it is a story that has become a symbol of resilience

Professor Jason Stanley sees a signal for all in the deliberate destruction of historical sections of the White House that underscores the president’s authoritarian ambitions: “Trump is signaling there is no history; I am the start of history.” Stanley also breaks down how the president's open threats and brazen power grabs are intentionally designed to make Americans feel helpless and urges the opposite from Americans: “We have to be as loud as possible in this moment," Stanley says. "We have an enormous chill in the United States on speech. Now, that chill is something you have to resist.”

President Trump’s “Big Lie” is back, and it’s being marshaled ahead of upcoming elections. From federal monitors to voter purges, we break down his new election-interference playbook. Why experts warn of a slow-motion coup in the making, and what people can do now to stop it. 

If Congress lets ACA subsidies expire, insurance premiums will skyrocket for millions of people. It would worsen the ongoing maternal mortality crisis in the U.S. – especially for Black women. “It is structural racism [and] sexism,” said Dr. Joia Crear-Perry, Founder and President of the National Birth Equity Collaborative. Actress and maternal health advocate Tatyana Ali agreed with Perry, sharing that she personally experienced race-based violence and trauma while giving birth to her first child. “I always say that my story is one drop in a bucket that has been overflowing for a very long time, for generations,” Ali said. “There are historical reasons we're not listened to. More and more, we have maternal deserts in this country.”

The harsh reality of President Trump’s immigration crackdown is unfolding in cities across America. Reports of detained pregnant women and other terrifying encounters with ICE agents from alleged mistreatment to hospitalizations. New York City Comptroller Brad Lander and journalist and historian Garrett Graff join Charles Coleman to discuss ICE’s increasingly brutal tactics. “They cause chaos en masse then they show that to the world as if there is chaos..the cruelty is the point,” says Lander.

North Carolina has adopted a new Trump-backed map designed to give Republicans an additional House seat during the 2026 midterm elections. This could effectively unseat Democratic Congressman Don Davis, who represents the state’s majority-Black district, in what’s known as The Black Belt. “They met to take up a new map to attempt to predetermine…the outcome of an election 377 days away,” Davis said. “So we are sitting here in North Carolina without a budget. A lot of the schools are trying to figure out the future, what pathway they're going to head on, and decisions that need to be made. We're dealing with health care issues, but we're redrawing maps. Everybody's left scratching their head.” 

In a stunning move, President Trump has taken his “builder” image to new extremes by ordering the demolition of the East Wing of the White House to make way for a $350 million ballroom. Critics say the decision is an unprecedented overreach; a literal bulldozing of history and presidential norms. MSNBC Political Analyst Jennifer Rubin weighs in: “it’s not his house. It’s our house. He doesn’t have the right to do whatever he wants.”

Equal parts a meditation on young adulthood, a tribute to the power of friendship, and an examination of what it means to belong as an immigrant in America, “All My Rage” by Sabaa Tahir is proof we all need to be listening to what teenagers and young adults have to say. 

 Ahead of October 18th’s nationwide ‘No Kings’ Day, some Republican leaders tried desperately to rebrand the protest against President Trump’s policies, not just as un-American, but as anti-American. But, this Republic was founded on dissent. The right to peaceably assemble and to seek redress of our government is etched into our Constitution. And it has been the catalyst for progress for generations.

An estimated 7 million Americans took part in “No King” protests across the country, a mass act of peaceful dissent and patriotism. Yet, House Speaker Mike Johnson and his Republican colleagues called them “un-American.” But Prof. Eddie Glaude counters, “We won’t convince those folks that we are genuinely American… We are the salvation this country needs.”