Welcome to the Empire Files podcast. I'm your host, Abby Martin.

And this is Mike Prysner.

Earlier this month, an anonymous Reddit user posted bombshell audio of a surreptitiously recorded meeting between Los Angeles City Council President Nuri Martinez,

council members Kevin de Leon and Gil Sidio, and L.A. Labor Federation President Ron Herrera.

All are Democrats. The L.A. Times picked up the story and exposed it. On the hour-long recording,

they are appallingly racist, openly disparaging several minority groups they represent, while

freely embracing corruption and discussing

plans to siphon more power with redistricting schemes. We usually don't cover local

politics, but we live in Los Angeles. Not only is LA the second biggest city in the heart

of the empire, but it also won in a landslide for Bernie Sanders in

the 2020 primary. And right now there's a lot happening locally that's elevating DSA figures into

positions of power and posing a real threat to the Democratic Party establishment.

The story is so significant that even President Biden has weighed in calling for the resignation of all three who at the time of this recording, none have left office.

This story is so shocking and such an emblematic example of how electoral politics works across the country that we feel like we had to break it down.

So we're joined by Josh Androski, hilarious comedian and activist based here in L.A.

That's been working closely with some of these DSA campaigns.

Many of you Empire Babies may recognize Josh's voice from some of our episodes,

the CIA Death Squad in Afghanistan, where he wrote and narrated

the hilarious satirical commercial in the beginning. We first met Josh working on the Nithia Raman

campaign a couple years ago, and I also did an interview with her for Empire Files, which ended up

as a major left-wing victory in the city and plays into the current scandal in a very big way.

Full disclosure, Josh is a political player himself here in LA City Council campaigns, but

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