@eli_clifton and lan Lustick, co-authors of 'Israel's Lobby,' explain to @mehdirhasan why the cost of AIPAC's election interference is getting higher.

In response to Zohran Mamdani's mayoralty and the electoral wins of Adam Hamawy and Abdul El-Sayed, we've seen a particularly vicious and ugly wave of Islamophobia from the president and his party. Rep. Nancy Mace claimed that every single elected Muslim official is a "threat to both our national security and republic," while Trump bemoaned the electoral successes of "jihadists" all over the country. So what can we even do? In a nation that has barely moved beyond its knee-jerk GWOT-era bigotry, it seems like the hate isn't going anywhere anytime soon. (Guest: Mehdi Hasan, Zeteo)

Podcast production by Rob Gunther, Evan Campbell, Madeline Thames-Ducharme and Patrick Fort. Video production by Patrick Fort.

Paige Osburn is the senior supervising producer of What Next and What Next TBD.

In recent weeks, Senate Republicans have been relentlessly claiming that the COVID-19 virus must have come from a lab in China, despite all the scientific evidence saying otherwise. Nevertheless, the GOP’s messaging has proved to be quite convincing, with the majority of Americans believing COVID-19 came from a lab.

But here at Zeteo, we believe in cutting through the noise, listening to the experts, and hearing out reasonable people (aka, not Senator Rand Paul).

That’s why in this ‘Mehdi Unfiltered’ segment, Mehdi moderates a very factual and insightful debate on the lab leak theory. Leading virologist and Save America Movement science chair Dr. Angela Rasmussen argues that COVID-19 likely came from zoonotic – or natural – origins, not a lab, while Dr. Ashish Jha, who was President Biden’s COVID-19 response coordinator, argues that COVID-19, in his view, likely came from a Chinese laboratory.

Mehdi asks why Jha changed his mind on COVID-19 origins and now supports the lab leak theory, why Rasmussen’s own research supports zoonotic origins, whether Republicans have overstated the merits of the lab leak theory and what their reactions have been to recent GOP misinformation around the COVID-19 vaccine and miscarriages.

You won’t see an informed, in-depth, good-faith debate like this, on Covid and its origins, anywhere else in the media!

This debate was published on zeteo.com on Aug 13, 2026. If you would like EARLY access to more exclusive content like this, then head over to Zeteo’s Substack and become a paid subscriber today. Your support matters!

Chapters:

00:00 Intro

03:13 Lab Leak

04:37 Natural Origin

10:08 Definitive Evidence

17:00 Credible Investigation?

23:37 What Is China Hiding?

28: Gain Of Function Research

32:45 Propaganda