
A Democrat’s Guide to Challenging Trump on Iran, ICE, and Dollars (w/ Rep Ansari)
From Assembly Required with Stacey Abrams by Assembly Required with Stacey Abrams
April 28, 2026 · 1h 4m · Episode 81
About this episode
Stacey Abrams discusses challenges to authoritarianism in the US with Representative Yassamin Ansari, focusing on issues related to Iran and ICE detention centers.
What can international pro-democracy activists teach us about taking on authoritarianism here in the US? Stacey opens the show with reflections from the Salzburg Global Forum Democracy Resilience Conference featuring reformers from Bolivia, to Hungary, to Nepal. Then she’s joined by Representative Yassamin Ansari, a freshman from Arizona and the only Iranian-American in Congress. She tells Stacey about her opposition to Trump’s war with Iran, the horrific conditions she’s seen firsthand when visiting ICE detention centers, and how we demand a practical response to the competing harms coming out of Washington. For a closed-captioned version of this episode, click here . For a transcript of this episode, please email transcripts@crooked.com and include the name of the podcast, episode title, and episode date. Learn & Do More: Be Curious: Check out the Substack “ The Anti-Authoritarian Playbook” by Scot Nakagawa, President of the 22nd Century Initiative. Solve Problems: Step Six in the “Ten Steps to Freedom and Power” is disruption. Visit Stacey’s Substack “Assembly Notes” to read her recent post about taking action. Do Good: Visit the nonprofit FreedomforImmigrants.org to…
People in this episode
Host: Stacey Abrams
Guest: Yassamin Ansari
Topics covered
- authoritarianism
- democracy
- ICE detention
- US politics
- Iran
- activism
Keywords
- authoritarianism
- democracy
- ICE
- Iran
- activism
- politics
- Yassamin Ansari
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: Salzburg Global Forum, FreedomforImmigrants.org
Places: Iran, Arizona, Washington, Bolivia, Hungary, Nepal
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