The Young Turks - Admission of Guilt

Episode Date: September 1, 2023

Trump lashes out at DeSantis as he manages hurricane: "What a shame for Florida!" Trump lawyer accidentally admits that he's guilty on love TV. Colorado governor defends "Don't Tread on Me" flag after a student was told to remove the patch. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton pursued perks beyond impeachment allegations, ex-staffers say. Trump inflated net worth by $2.2 billion, NY attorney general alleges. HOSTS: Cenk Uygur (@CenkUygur) & Ana Kasparian (@AnaKasparian) SUBSCRIBE on YOUTUBE: ☞ https://www.youtube.com/user/theyoungturks FACEBOOK: ☞ https://www.facebook.com/theyoungturks TWITTER: ☞ https://www.twitter.com/theyoungturks INSTAGRAM: ☞ https://www.instagram.com/theyoungturks TIKTOK: ☞ https://www.tiktok.com/@theyoungturks 👕 Merch: https://shoptyt.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You're listening to The Young Turks, the online news show. Make sure to follow and rate our show with not one, not two, not three, not four, but five stars. You're awesome. Thank you. Woo! It's up! All right. Welcome to the Young Turks, Jank Yugar, Anna Kasparian, Andrew Singh, and Taylor Steffensmeyer. They already joined up. They're like, I know this show is going to be awesome. I'm in the join button. Okay, you can do likewise, of course, become a young tourist. Remember, do the show with us.

We do have a lot of stories for you guys, including one of Trump's co-conspirators accidentally confessing on national television. Guys, how do like literal lawyers, people who have passed the bar, how do they not know that you shouldn't incriminate yourself by speaking to the press? The bar is low. Wow. Nice job, guys. All right, fun for everybody. So that's among the stories that we have for you guys. DeSantis, hurricanes are all over.

So let's get started. Let's get started. Donald Trump is lashing out at Florida Governor Ron DeSantis over his handling of Hurricane Adalia. And before we get to Trump's latest rant, we should give you an update on the category three hurricane when it hit US land and what the aftermath of those storms were. So let's go to the video here where you will see the coastal town of Steinhachie Marina, which was completely underwater yesterday as a result of this category

three hurricane. So it actually strengthened overnight into a category four hurricane as it approached the Gulf Coast, which means it was delivering sustained winds of between 130 and 156 miles per hour. Now the storm luckily weakens slightly as it first made direct contact with the coast, although it was still delivering sustained winds of 125 miles per hour. Now later, the storm made its way to Georgia and South Carolina, flooding roadways and causing all sorts of property damage. Luckily, so far, as the reports indicate, there have been no fatalities reported, but there is plenty of property damage. And so I want to go to the next video because it'll show you what I'm talking about in regard to just how devastating

this has been for people who have lost their homes and their businesses. Catastrophic storm surge up and down the Florida coast, up to seven feet. Hurricane Edalia flooding downtowns, leaving homes destroy. Idalia is the first major hurricane to hit this part of Florida's big bend on record. No! And now thousands returning home to see. see whether their homes and businesses survived. Like Shannon and Jordan Keaton, who evacuated and rode out the storm 30 miles inland with family.

Longtime residents of Cedar Key, one of the areas hit hardest by the storm. So there's still no power, no like no sewer, no water, nothing. My house is fine. There was no issues here. My restaurant is another story. It was quite a bit of damage there. Now keep in mind, it's the beginning of hurricane season. And while there haven't been any fatalities, obviously there was quite a bit of property damage, not just in Florida, but also in the other states where it was downgraded to a storm, Georgia and South Carolina. But the property damage and the high cost of making repairs and trying to get some semblance of normalcy following these hurricanes and these extreme storms and weather

events, it's just so expensive that insurance companies have stopped providing insurance to individuals who want to open new policies. In fact, State Farm is the latest example in the state of Florida that has a stop providing insurance to homeowners there. And there are similar trends happening in other states as well, California being one of them in regard to the wildfires. It's an ever-growing problem. And so for anyone who thinks that the impact of these extreme weather events that are partially fueled by the climate emergency are far away in the future, obviously you're mistaken, we're seeing more frequency of these types of hurricanes and these extreme storms, more frequency of these wildfires that are exacerbated by extremely

dry conditions. And so it's hard not to comment on these stories without bringing up the element of climate change, the angle of climate change. And while Trump was attacking Ron DeSantis, Jank, didn't have much to say to the people of Florida who were devastated by the storm. We'll get to that in a moment. Yeah, so although I think the Trump did have legitimate criticism of DeSantis, again, we'll get to it. Look, these hurricanes are no joke. So now you guys all know this, but some of the parts of it are amazing. So some people go to a hotel thing, they'll be safer. And the roof of the hotel rips off of the building. And so there's with somebody with their kid there and there's, can you imagine how scared they were when the

roof of the hotel flies off? And propane gas tanks explode sometimes in situations like this. The story of there's a bay called Deadman's Bay and how the flooding was so extreme around it. And so if you're wondering, you know, sometimes they say two people died. They died actually a little bit before the hurricane hit. It was because of weather, but it was, you know, depends on how you can. There was a guy who was trying to get out of, we're trying to move a tree out of the way and another tree fell on him and he died.

So, but relatively low casualties, especially for the severity of storm, whereas for example at Fort Myers, just a little while back, 149 people died. So why the big disparity? Because this is a very remote rural area that was hit, whereas Fort Myers

was very populated. So it's not the severity of the storm that's the difference. It's where it hit. where it hit that made the difference in the number of fatalities. It was a gigantic storm when it first hit land. And so look, obviously how everybody's reacting is relevant, including DeSantis and Trump, and there's a lot to criticize there as well.

Yeah, so there's a lot to criticize all around. I do want to note that Ron DeSantis is ready and willing to play nice with Joe Biden in the federal government when it suits him and when it benefits him. We'll get to that later. But first, the whole Trump angle to the story. So on truth social, Trump was attacking Ron DeSantis and his response to the hurricane. He wrote, so now it is learned that Governor Ron DeSanctimonious unnecessarily approved a 20% hike in Florida electricity rates, the largest in history by far after taking a $9.5 million campaign contribution from money machine, Florida Power and Light and subsidiaries. He continues to argue, next up to check out is the insurance industry where

DeSanctis gave up the store. His campaign and poll numbers have crashed to a point where it doesn't much matter anymore. But what a shame for Florida. Now, look, the issue with the insurance companies, I don't think you could place that blame squarely on Ron DeSantis. You're seeing the insurance companies decide, you know what, it's just costing too much money to provide insurance considering the frequency of these extreme weather events. So they're refusing to provide coverage as a result of that. Now, you can blame climate deniers and their role in leading to us, leading us to this day. But I do want to give Trump a little bit of credit because he was accurate about one thing. Ron DeSantis is close and cozy ties with the utility company that was

cited here, Florida Power and Light. In fact, this was a story that we had covered previously back in 2022 when it broke. But lawmakers in Florida had passed a bill back in 2022 to get rid of someone who is named J. R. Kelly. He led Florida's Office of Public Council for 12 years. He was really the individual who ensured that the utility companies didn't price gouge the people of Florida. And turns out that Florida Power and Light had essentially lobbied pretty hard for the state lawmakers to oust this man, J.R. Kelly, and they got their way. They passed that legislation, and wouldn't you know, Ron DeSantis could have done right by his constituents and vetoed that bill, but he did quite the opposite. He signed that bill, effectively ousting J.R. Kelly, and immediately the rates for the utility company went up significantly. So DeSantis signed the bill. Kelly resigned a few months later. And soon after Kelly left, the man hired to replace him as public counsel helped FPL, that's the utility company, negotiate a nearly $5 billion rate increase, the largest rate hike the state of Florida has ever approved.

And by the way, before his reelection campaign, FPL had in fact donated about $3 million, not the amount that the 9.5 million might be the case at this point. But up till his reelection campaign, they had already donated about $3 million to Ron DeSantis specifically. Yeah, so look, obviously we're going to be honest about all the politicians as usual here, not so obvious in all shows. But so first of all, Donald Trump has a huge problem in being socially awkward that people don't talk about. They talk about DeSantis being socially awkward. But Donald Trump has no ability to show empathy to anyone. So when Puerto Rico was hit by a hurricane, he went there and started throwing paper towels at people and having a good time. And people are like, you're here to comfort people who have been absolutely devastated by this hurricane.

Here, he has no off button on ass. So he's like, oh, Rod, you take the bad ass, time to make fun of him because of the hurricane. You live in Florida. Can you show a tiny bit of empathy for anyone in the state? In fact, Jake, I have to show you this because let's actually, we're going to go to A4 next. Because just yesterday, Trump has launched his new, you know, side hustle as a content creator. He put out like 50 videos by the time we aired the show yesterday. And he, of course, attacked Ron DeSantis quite a bit.

And keep in mind, the hurricane hit land just yesterday. And this is what Trump was putting out in regard to Ron DeSantis. Let's watch. Great polls just out. Leading by 40, 50, and even 60 points. Who expected that? I did. De Sanctimonious is crashing.

Perhaps the party should come together. People should drop out of the race. We unify. and we beat Biden and the Democrats. They should be easier to beat. There were even Republicans that were irritated about this. I want to give you an example. This is a guy who works over at town hall, a conservative publication.

While DeSantis is busy prepping his state for a massive hurricane, Trump has attacked him in four separate videos tonight. Oh, and Trump hasn't posted about the hurricanes at all, unreal. Yeah, look, he showed absolutely no sympathy for anyone in the capital or in D.C. on January 6th, when they told him that his vice president might be murdered by his own supporters, he said he had a coming. The man does not have an ability to empathize with any other human being. So we talk about DeSantis being awkward. Trump has that in spades when it comes to showing just one ounce of decency. Now, having said that, he's absolutely right about DeSantis' corruption.

And by the way, again, find this on any other show. You won't. They only pick sides and and argue for those sides. Gavin Newsom in California has done something incredibly similar with the electric companies. He's also taking a ton of money, also around $10 million. Again, I don't know Trump's figure. We know the $3 million. Trump makes things up all the time. But both DeSantis and Newsom have taken millions upon millions of dollars from electric

companies and then done their bidding. This is what's wrong with the system. Even if they were good people, which I significantly doubt, When they go in and they were offered millions and bribes, they do exactly what the bribers tell them to do. So that is absolutely an outrage. On the other hand, DeSantis is doing a good job of coordinating with Biden. And so you can see what honest reporting looks like when you're not obsessed with proving that DeSantis is a bad guy or Trump is a bad guy or Biden's a bad guy, but actually assessing what they did in this particular situation. Absolutely.

You know what? Why don't we end on the friendliness, the almost novel friendliness that you'll notice between Joe Biden and Ron DeSantis whenever disaster strikes the state of Florida? This was certainly the case following Hurricane Ian last year. That was in late September of 2022. And so without further ado, I want to go to some videos on this. So basically Joe Biden had put out a statement praising Ron DeSantis. He had said the following. This is graphic 9. I was down there when the last major storm, and he's referring to Hurricane Ian, hit.

I spent a lot of time with him walking from community to come. community, making sure he had what he needed to get it done. I think he trusts my judgment and my desire to help. And I trust him to be able to suggest this is not about politics. It's about taking care of the people of his state. And in response to that, Ron DeSantis also had some complimentary thing. Well, I wouldn't say complimentary, but he had a much more civil tone. So why don't we go to the very last video here. President Biden just spoke at the White House. He said he had a chance to speak with you that even though you guys don't agree politically during times like this, you can put politics aside.

Is the feeling mutual? Yes, we have to deal with supporting the needs of the people who are in harm's way or have difficulties. And that has got a triumph over any type of short-term political calculation or any type of positioning. This is the real deal. You have people's lives that have been at risk. We don't necessarily have any confirmed fatalities yet, but that very well may change. And then you have people whose livelihoods have been turned upside down. And so they need support.

It would be fantastic if politicians can maintain this type of mentality to do right by the American people in general. And not just, you know, play nice when resources are needed following a tragic disaster. Yeah. And so the Republicans do this more. So we tell you when the Democrats are wrong. But when Hurricane Sandy hit, or by the time he did it, it was Super Storm Sandy hit New Jersey. The Texas delegation among the Republicans were like, no, don't care, don't want to fund it. When they got hit with a natural disaster, they're like, we have to fund it right away. We have to fund this, right? And so there are massive hypocrites about it. And it's really frustrating to see. But I'm glad that Biden and DeSantis are getting along here. so that they can actually serve the people of Florida. DeSantis also said in that same press conference, you loot, we shoot. I understand looters are, of course, despicable in a situation like this. After families or business are already devastated, then you come in and pick them apart. So I don't mind the frustration.

I totally get it. But you don't do anything about climate change. You went on a debate stage just the other day and pretty much said it's not a big deal and you're not going to do a goddamn thing about it. And then when you get hit by hurricanes, all of a sudden you pretend to be sympathetic. Well, if you were really sympathetic, you would try to do something about climate change

so the hurricanes are not this severe, especially in the state of Florida. And then your big solution afterwards is, it's okay, we're not going to do anything about the core problem, but we will shoot you afterwards. So it's not to say that he's shooting the citizens who live there, but threatening to shoot people is not the greatest solution

for hurricanes. and they should be more proactive, but they never are. And we gave the credit to Trump for pointing out to Santos' corruption. But let's be honest, Donald Trump is record-breaking in this corruption, including several hundred million dollars he took from Sheldon Aedelson and did his bidding on those particular demands that his donor had. So Maga has this twisted idea that Trump is the one pure one that isn't corrupt, which is hilarious and ridiculous.

I explain all of his corruption related to Aidelson in my new business. book, Justice is Coming, t-y-t.com slash justice to order. All right, we're going to take a break. When we come back, we've got more news to get to, including a big controversy over a 12-year-old students, don't tread on me patch. What was the outcome of that controversy? Don't miss it. We've got that and more coming right up.

All right, back on TYT, Jared Kay, Doug Murphy, Jank Uger, Anna Ksparian. Everybody's here. All the members do the show with us. Thank you for allowing us to do honest reporting and try to bring a little bit of positive change in the world. You could join either through the join button below on YouTube or if you're not there, TYT or even if you are there, TYT.com slash join where we have a wonderful community. TYT.com slash join. Casper. All right, let's get to our next story involving January 6th conspirators essentially

incriminating themselves on national television. So there were, you know, several things. Some people had urged that Vice President Pence simply had power to reject electors whose certification was still pending in legal contexts. I don't believe that, but go ahead. I don't believe that. I don't either. I agree with.

And I explicitly told Vice President Pence in the Oval Office on January 4th that even though it was an open issue under the circumstances we had, I thought it was the weaker argument, and it would be foolish to exercise such power even if he had it. There are many things wrong with John Eastman and his interview on Laura Ingram's show. For one, he, you know, lies. Laura Ingram does little to push back, even though it's seems like it in that video. And even though he lies, he proceeds to incriminate himself. So first we're gonna expose what Eastman really wanted Pence to do.

After that we're going to watch another clip from that very same interview in which Eastman might have just confessed his guilt live on television. So Eastman claims that he didn't think that Mike Pence had the power to overturn the election. But that was provably false. Just take a look at what Eastman told Senator Mike Lee. In their book, Peril, reporters Bob Woodward and Robert Costa describe an interaction the senator had with Eastman a few days before January 6th, there's a memo about to be developed, Eastman told Lee, I'll get it to you as soon as I can.

Lee received a two-page memo from the White House on Saturday, January 2nd, authored by legal scholar, it's funny to call him that, legal scholar John Eastman, Woodward and Costa Wright later. memo has been made public. In step three of six, it posits that Pence could simply reject electors from states where competing slates of electors had been submitted. So, oops, and Laura Ingram should have been prepared with that information to actually push back. But as we mentioned, Eastman ended up digging himself into an even deeper hole in that interview. Let's watch. What I recommended, and I've said this repeatedly, is that he exceed to request from more

than a hundred state legislators in the swing states to give them a week to try and sort out the impact of what everybody acknowledged was illegality in the conduct of the election. And I specifically said. Yeah, not everyone acknowledged it, but that was the argument that was being made, obviously. And there were obviously irregularities that everybody had seen, but whether that was, yeah, Whether it rose to the level of changing the outcome of the election, again, without a legal proceeding in the states that mattered, the argument ultimately was a difficult one to make. I mean, hence, here we are.

So, Jank, I mean, unlike John Eastman, I'm no legal scholar, okay? However, didn't he just confess to what he's currently indicted for? 100%. That's amazing. Guys, look, they don't, lawyers normally tell you if you're indicted for something and you're about to go to court, don't say anything in public because anything you say can and will be used against you. You all know that, right? We all watch television. That's what cops tell you when you're arrested. And lawyers tell you that 10,000 times over because maybe you slip up and you accidentally admit something. And that's why a lot of times they don't put the defendants on the stand because they don't want them to be. to contradict themselves, say something wrong. But these schmucks following Trump's lead are going all over television

and yapping and yapping and yapping. So they're going to make mistakes because they're guilty. Like if they were innocent, even then it's a bad idea. Because maybe you say something that can be twisted in a way that is used against you, right? But if you're guilty, what are you doing? Don't go on air, you moron. And so in this case, he's like, well, Well, look, first he says, I told Mike Pence that he did not have that power.

Brother, we have a memo with your name on it where you tell him he does have that power. That's already crazy to say that on television. And it's wildly contradictory. And why are you even saying that? Like the whole, like the only potential defense that could, they could possibly hang their hat on is, golly gee, we really thought he did have the authority, right? But now you're admitting on TV that you definitely thought he did not have the authority. He did not have the authority.

And then we got the memo written and signed by you that says he has the authority. That's already devastating. Then he goes and says, well, look, I don't think he had the authority. That's why I thought he should have delayed it for a week. No, bro. You just said that he didn't have the authority. You can't, like delaying it is the same as not certifying. You have to not certify in order to delay it for a week.

week. There is no process by which you go, time out. We're going to take out a timeout for a week. I send the Constitution. There's no timeouts in the Constitution. This is like saying, and I've told the story a million times, but my friends got into a fight when we were younger. They go to court. And now the idiot goes, Your Honor, I didn't punch him in the face. I punched him in the stomach. Still assault. And the judge in that case was like, thank you. I've heard all I need to hear. And that just happened. for the judge in that John Eastman's case, they just have to play that tape on Fox News and say thank you for the confession. We appreciate it guilty. So, Jake, as someone who has experienced taking

the bar and passing the bar, would you like to dispel the notion that there's any merit to doing so? I know, really. Guys, look, I never thought it was that impressive to be a lawyer, but But these guys have proven me spectacularly correct. I can't, I can't, I literally can't believe their conduct. Yeah. So look, guys, the fake elector scheme was super real. There's the memos proving it, including one of the memos called, what was it? Not a fake memorandum.

Fraudulent. Yes, fraudulent. They literally used the word fraudulent in the memo. And there's another email where they refer to fake electors. I mean, these are the keystone cops of lawyers to begin with. And they go to Trump and Trump's, Trump, by the way, heard overwhelming number of lawyers saying, don't do it. It's not constitutional, it's not legal, don't go anywhere near it. And Rudy comes in sauce, this guy comes in clownish.

And they're like, oh, I don't know, maybe we can do it. Let's get some fake electors in here. And then they go on air and pretty much admitted. And finally, look, for anyone who might be watching, who is genuinely under the impression that this prosecution, either the federal one, the state one, or both of them, is nothing more than a politically motivated witch hunt. These people are literally going on national television and admitting their crimes. I mean, they're making it too easy to prosecute them.

So I, a witch hunt would require, you know, fishing expedition and like trying to extrapolate some criminality over innocent behavior. He's on national television literally admitting that he engaged in the criminality that he's being prosecuted for. Here, last graphic, Eastman is accused of helping to craft the fake elector scheme and pressuring Pence to either reject electoral votes from certain states or delay. the joint session of Congress on January 6th, according to the 98 page indictment. Is that a wish hunt? You just heard him admit it.

Yeah, it's like if it was the original witch hunts, the guy goes, the lady goes on TV, which obviously didn't exist back then. It's like, I'm definitely not a witch. Look, when I flew in on my broom after I'd done my boiling pot of water and cast a spell on all of you guys, Okay, and the spell was to make sure that you didn't know that I'm actually a witch. Okay, you can see why I'm innocent. You're like, you just admitted everything. I'm innocent because I don't have a pointy hat. Meanwhile, there are receipts published showing that the individual bought a pointy hat.

This is unreal. And Trump took their advice because he wanted to take the advice, the wrong advice, and you know you're taking wrong advice when they write you a memo saying this is fraudulent. Yeah, exactly. And you still do it anyway. flag, yes, that's a historical flag. So there, the reason that they do not want the flag, reason we do not want the flag. Is due to its origins with the slavery and slave trade. A 12-year-old boy in Colorado was kicked out of class at the Vanguard Charter School because of the fact that he was,

was wearing a backpack donning the Gadsden flag. That's the yellow flag that says don't tread on me, that has the snake on it. Now, Jaden Rodriguez was ordered to remove the flag, which features, again, what you're seeing on screen right now, the don't tread on me, you know, symbol. And before he was allowed to even go back inside. Now his mother didn't take so kindly to this. So in the meeting with his teacher, she decided to secretly record the conversation they were having. And as you can hear from their conversation, the school's officials apparently

believe that the flags, you know, the meaning of the flag is tied to slavery and racism, which isn't true. We'll get to the history of the flag and what it actually means in just a moment. But before we do, here's more from the interaction between the parent and the teacher. Like I said, we're following district halls is what we're doing. The last thing I want is him out of class. Yeah, he takes his classes seriously at studies. He does, he wants to get straight A's, he did that, and he made honorable when he was here before. He intends to do that again right now, but it's hard because he keeps missing class for this.

So. I understand that. Yeah, and I mean, we teach him to always stick up for your beliefs. And I mean, you're going over the revolution this for seventh grade. I mean, the founding fathers stood up for what they believed in. against unjust laws, this is unjust. Okay, I, like I said, we're upholding a policy that was provided to us, which we have to uphold. Okay.

So look, despite the fact that the flag has in recent years or maybe even recent decades been more associated with like the Tea Party and even right wing militias using it during their demonstrations and protests, fact of the matter is the flag does not date back to slavery, it doesn't. in fact, date back to the American Revolution, and even the Democratic governor of the state of Colorado came out and defended the 12 year old boy. Before I get to all of that, Jenk, did you want to jump in? Yeah, I'm in the look at the buttons of the kids. He had a lot of buttons on there, and some of them were right wing buttons. We caught you. Oh, right, it's okay to be a right winger in this country. There's plenty of right wingers. And so that's not a real reason to punish the kid. But he did, to be fair, to the administrators, he did have assault weapon buttons too, or patches or whatever. And they're right to have him remove those.

They just got overzealous. And I'm actually glad that the parents taped it. Because given all the attacks against teachers from the right wing, I would have had trouble believing that it would have, that they also said the Kat Gadsden flag on top of the assault weapon patches. But it turns out, They did. Right. Yeah, and I mean, look, I agree with you. I can understand, and I would agree with the educators for wanting him to take down the patches of assault weapons, especially given the context of, you know, a school campus in a country where we're constantly dealing with the tragedy of school shootings. But the conversation they're having, that exchange that they're having, is about the Gadsden flag. No question. That's why, look, I'm glad when we folks tape

cops and we see the abuse that they do, et cetera, because we've got to clean it up. In this case, it's a right winger taping a teacher, and the right winger is not doing anything wrong. They're being rational and reasonable, and so is the kid, right? And the administrator has it wrong. They just have it wrong. So I'm glad that it was on tape so that it could be addressed. And by the way, I mean, look, if you, for whatever reason, don't like the Gatson flag because of who it's been associated with in this country in recent years, just keep in mind that that's, you know, your political opinion, how would you feel if the school forced a student to take down their, you know, their gay flag, right? Like the rainbow flag. Yeah, the pride flag,

et cetera. No, I would hate it. I always tell you guys, you see it on the show. Always think about what if the shoe's on the other foot. And so look, again, I'm probably going to be the only one defending the administrators in any way. You see the assault weapons, then you see his main thing was that he's running for VP of Revolution, and he's got the gats of like, with the weapons on there, already you're a little bit alarmed, right? And so I can understand why they'd be alarmed, I can understand why they'd want to take the other patches off, but they're clear were, but at the same time, clearly overzealous. You cannot, it's sometimes the other side, whether it's the right wing or the left wing,

feels like, well, they shouldn't be allowed to say that. Like, I deal with it all the time with Wolfpack. We're trying to get money out of politics. You need a convention to propose an amendment to do that because Congress isn't going to do it. And the Democrats are always like, well, what if the right wing proposes their own amendment? In a democracy? Yeah. What if they propose it through Congress?

It's called democracy. Yes, the right wing and the left wing have every right in the world to express their opinion, including a 12-year-old. So as I mentioned earlier, the Democratic governor of Colorado, Jared Polis, came out and defended the boy and also defended the flag. First, he did so through Twitter, or I should say X, formerly noticed Twitter. So I want to share that tweet with you. He wrote that the flag is a proud symbol of the American Revolution and an iconic warning to Britain or any government not to violate the liberties of Americans. It appears on popular American medallions and challenge

coins through today and Ben Franklin also adopted it to symbolize the union of the 13 colonies. It's a great teaching moment for a history lesson. By the way, I am a little bit worried about the fact that there are educators who were just chalking it up to nothing more than racism and slavery and just kind of ignoring what the actual history of the flag is. You shouldn't misinform the kids about what's really going on here. But nonetheless, let's also go to Jared Polis on CNN, defending the flag and the 12-year-old's ability to have it on his backpack. You've called the Gadsden flag a proud symbol of the American Revolution. What do you make of why this incident happened in the first place? Well, look, I call it a teaching moment.

You know, Abby, we all remember high school and college. You know, there's kids with pins on their backpacks. Maybe it's a feminist pin and anti-war pin. Maybe it's a conservative one. And, you know, that enriches the discussion, right? It's kids are trying out different things and, you know, the don't tread on me flag, the Gadsden flag is really an iconic American flag. It's flown over units of our military. You know, it's, of course, has it been adopted by the Tea Party and others? Sure it has, but a kid could have, I love the Tea Party pin on their backpack too. I mean, look, let's just let kids have their free expression in school.

And if they want to advocate for their political leaps, I think that's something that should be encouraged. It's all about free speech. It's a good opportunity to really go through the history and see the pride really as Americans, we should all take in the Gadsden flag. Rattlesnake, as Ben Franklin said, they never attack first, but they never back down once they're in a fight. And a lot of Americans identify with that spirit. I do like that spirit. And look, I do think that it's interesting to kind of discuss how certain symbols might get co-opted by a political group that you vehemently disagree with. I don't think it's fair to allow that to change your view of the political

symbol in question. Yeah, so look, of course. Look, first of all, this one's a little bit is a symbol these days, I am particularly cautious about it. Totally. I mean, I wouldn't put it on my car as a bumper sticker. No, that just me, yeah. It does, I will admit, it does message something about your politics today. For sure, although there's a twist that I'm gonna get to in a second. So if I see a don't tread on me bumper sicker on a car, which by the way I literally did today, just coincidentally, I'm not going to talk to that guy. That's nothing but trouble, okay?

So I haven't seen a left wicker with that in a while, except for the exception I'm gonna give you in a sec. But that doesn't mean he's not a lot to have it, right? And sometimes the left runs away from the American flag or the word patriot, et cetera. Partly because it's been, even the eagle, partly because it's been co-opted by the right wing. I'm not saying that it hasn't been co-opted, but I'm saying, no, that doesn't belong to them. And animals are innocent. So that's definitely true.

Although if you're a rodent, eagles less so. But anyways, no, the eagle, the American flag, the word patriot, that's all of ours. I'm way more patriotic than any right winger, and I love the American flag, so we don't run away from that. But if you don't want to put the Gadsden flag on, because there's a message of the sense, I get it. But they're allowed to have it all day long. Now the exception, one of our members, Psych Dragon just sent in a picture. I can't show you the picture, but I presume it's on their lawn. It is the Gadsden flag, and it says no step on snick. One of our viewers sent me a sticker of that, and it's still on my refrigerator. I love it.

It makes me laugh every time. Gadsden flag on our refrigerator, caught you. It's a meme that kind of makes fun of the gats and flag. Yes, and by the way, that is also allowed. Right, exactly. All right, well, with that said, why don't we take a quick break? When we come back, we've got more news for you all, including, let's see, what are we going to talk about next?

Ooh, ooh, Ken Paxton of Texas, facing some serious allegations of misappropriating taxpayer money. I can't wait to share that with you. Come right back and I will. All right on T. All right, back on T.O.T. Kaspur. All right. Big update on Ken Paxton. More allegations of corruption and abuse of taxpayer money have emerged against impeached Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton. Now, Paxton has been under federal investigation since

October of 2020 when multiple of his own handpicked lieutenants went to the FBI with allegations of bribery and other potential crimes. Now, they claim that he helped a wealthy donor by the name of Nate Paul fend off an FBI investigation. We're going to give you the details on that in just a moment. And back in the spring, Attorney General Ken Paxton became just the third person ever to be impeached in the state of Texas. Here's more on why he was impeached by his own Republican Party. He put the interest of himself above the laws of the state of Texas. Lawmakers began investigating Paxton back in March after he asked for $3.3 million in taxpayer money to settle a whistleblower lawsuit, filed by staffers whom Paxton fired after they went to the FBI with their corruption allegations.

The 20 articles of impeachment include charges of not only misappropriation of public resources, but also bribery, obstruction of justice, and conspiracy. Now there are even more accusations of misconduct from Paxton's ex-staffers, and they include alleged abuse of taxpayer money. They say that he even reveled in the perks that came along with his powerful office. Last year, Paxton's travels were extensive. Records show that after winning a Republican primary runoff against George Bush, not the George Bush you're thinking of, it's a different George Bush. Paxton spent two months flying. to cities in the Caribbean and Europe. It's unclear who paid for Paxton's travel, but the trips cost taxpayers a combined $91,000 for his security detail alone.

And the purpose of his travel is even unclear. We don't know if he engaged in this travel for official business purposes or government purposes. I would venture to say that is not the case. But you know, we live in a country where people are innocent until proven guilty, so we'll see what happens as this gets investigated. Last year, Paxton's lifestyle included more international trips than Texas's governor and lieutenant governor made combined and a previously unreported visit to Qatar to watch the World Cup. There are also accusations of behavior that raised eyebrows among employees at all levels of Paxton's office, including requesting special license plates, but never paying the $12.50

to acquire them. And if you think that's petty, believe me, I got some details that get even pettier before we get to that jink. The coconut cake's my favorite. You guys are going to love this. You got to stick around for the coconut cake. Yeah. So look, the main thing here is he must have thought that he was above the law. And to be fair to him, that is how Republicans have been for at least 20 years in this country. So he's, I mean, look, recently you got Trump and Trump has broken dozens of laws. And he never got held to account until a couple of months ago. And so, but you don't need Trump. I mean, Republicans have been doing crazy corruption

with no accountability at all, especially in the red states where they all this guy had to do and he did it in his last reelection. At that point, they already knew the FBI was investigating. They already knew seven staffers, now eight, but back then seven staffers had said, no, no, this guy's really, we're all Republicans. This guy's really guilty, right? And they also knew that he was getting investigated by the state for different improprieties related to financial dealings, right? And but he came out and said, I love Trump and we should have overturned the election. They're like, oh, you win right away, right away, easy. Even in the Republican primary, where he ran against George P. Bush, who's the nephew of George Bush. And so there's a, and he had had

a previous position, was a perfectly good candidate within the Republican field. No, I support Donald Trump, it doesn't matter how much of a criminal I am, put me back in and the voters did. And so what's shocking about the story is not his over the top corruption or the coconut cake. What's shocking about the story is that the other Republicans are holding him to account. Mad props, by the way. Seriously, mad props to his staffers who did the right thing. Because when you think about other Republican politicians, Jank, like let's say Rick Scott, the former governor of Florida, who is now in Congress, he committed one of the biggest Medicaid fraud schemes in American history and was not held accountable for it.

At the time, the single largest Medicare fraud in American history, billions of dollars had to, these company had to admit that they were guilty. They had two separate books that they maintained to do the fraud, had to pay a fine of nearly $2 billion. I mean outright criminal Rick Scott but no the company's guilty but the CEO that did the plot wasn't guilty instead he's in the Senate right now and the Republicans are like oh you're you got rich by robbing little grandmothers but we love you we love you let's make you governor let's make you senator et cetera in this case the main credit goes to the staffers who go who said no no

no we came here to serve the people we happen to be conservative it doesn't mean we're in favor robbery, right? And it shouldn't mean that at all. A little bit of credit to the politicians too because they impeached them and now he's being tried in the Texas Senate. I say a little bit because they knew about these improprieties for years and years and years and years. And finally he got impeached when he attacked the House Speaker, Dave Phelan, a fellow Republican for being drunk while being on the floor of the house. Was he drunk? Well, we showed you. you the video on an early show, and there's some chance that it was. But an hour after he attacked the House Speaker, the House Speaker released evidence against him and said, we're going to impeach

him. Oh my God, there's, the Republican Party is incredible in some ways. Now, with that said, let's actually name names and give the proper people some credit, because David Maxwell, the attorney general's former head of law enforcement and one of eight deputies who reported him to the FBI, I told investigators that Paxton once bought a $600 sports code from a hotel store while at a conference and build it to the events organizer, Jesus Christ, and he was apparently all about the money, according to David Maxwell. He said he was all about the money, he always had his handout, and let's get to the coconut dusted cake. Because yes, it is the pettiest element to all of the allegations, but it's also, in my opinion, the most telling in regard to who

Ken Paxton is and what his character is really about. So apparently around Christmas time, for years, a Texas grocery store, H.E.B sent a coconut dusted cake to the attorney general's office, which everyone in the office got to enjoy. The staff members were able to enjoy. That changed after Paxton was elected, according to three former employees of his executive office. One said Paxton once told staff not to touch the cake because it was for his birthday, which is on December 23rd. Another said Paxton once had the cake brought to a Tex-Mex restaurant for a staff lunch, but never served it. The third recalled watching Paxton and an aide walk out of the office carrying the cake box, according to required gift logs kept by Paxton's

office, the cake was worth $45. She just took the cake home for himself. Yeah, I mean, the tail of the coconut cake is hilarious, right? And he's like, do you have the cake? Do you have the cake? We have the cake, ladies and gentlemen. And it's like, dun dun dun dun dun dun. Can you imagine doing that, Jane. Can you imagine like there's something the office looks forward to, right? Like every year there's a fan of the show or a local business that like sends us goodies to celebrate the holidays and like Jay, Jake just walks out like with the with the goodies. No, no, I, you know, we don't need a hypothetical example. Craig makes these delicious Christmas cookies. Right, that's right. Like I look forward to Christmas

now a quarter of the reason I look forward is for Craig's cookies, right? And the minute that does hit the stands, okay, everybody's looking forward to him. If I took them in, I was like, done, done, done, and I'm like, like, so look, guys, there's three things here that are super-telling. One is the coconut cake, as hilarious as it is. Not because of the $45, nobody cares about the $45, okay? But because he's being a douche to his own staff. Exactly.

Like, he's such a bad guy. He's just robbing from everyone. He's robbing slices of coconut cake at the Tex-Mex restaurant, right? You're going to eat the whole thing when you bring it home? Jesus Christ. He's the kind of guy who would, sounds like it. By the way, but the other part of this, which I promise I'd give you details about, has to do with a guy named Nate Paul, who's a Texas real estate developer,

and he contributed about $25,000 to Ken Paxton's campaign. Now, he got into some trouble. One of the FBI office back, and apparently Ken Paxton did him that favor. So documents filed by the House impeachment managers state Paul hired Paxton's reported mistress at his Austin firm, so Paxton could see her more easily rather than traveling to San Antonio where she once lived. He's accused of using a fake Uber account, so he could visit his mistress. And he also used burner phones and a secret personal email account as well in order to keep in touch with her. Now house impeachment managers

wrote in response to Paxton's motion to dismiss a trial that this guy, Nate Paul was facing. Uber records reflect drivers picked up Paxton under the alias of Dave Pee, a block from his home and ferried him to his lovers or Paul's properties more than a dozen times from August 6th of 2020 to October 2nd of 2020. Now, Paxton is also accused of using the power of his office, specifically to interfere with a federal investigation into Paul's alleged fraud and helping Paul avoid foreclosures of his properties. So according to that court filing, Paxton and Paul would often eat together and talk about Paul's desire to see the FBI sealed search warrant affidavit for Paul's properties. On one occasion, when Paul expressed his desire to see the FBI

search warrant affidavit, Paxton suggested that Paul can try an open records request. The significance is that Paxton's office would control the answer regarding whether Paul get the records. Paxton morphed the office of the attorney general into Paul's concierge law firm, the filing says. They also claimed that Paul bankrolled renovations at Paxton's multimillion dollar house in McKinney. And aside from being under federal investigation, Paxton is also facing state securities fraud charges that date back to 2015. Like this guy, it just has all sorts of issues. He's actually scheduled to return to a Houston courtroom in the state criminal case on October 6th. Yeah, so I started saying

the coconut cake is telling, but there's three other things that are telling. The $600 suit, not because of the $600, but because it's so brazen. The suit has absolutely nothing to do with the conference. He's like, so what? Just charge it to them, right? Shows you his intent, nothing to do with anything else. Then the two month vacation paid for day. And by the way, the $91,000 was for security. We don't even know if they paid extra for him to actually stay at different resorts, etc. when he went to Europe and the Caribbean for two months.

But what does that have to do with official business in Texas? Really a lot of important business going on in the Bahamas and Paris for the state of Texas. It's absurd. But of course, the most important one is the one with the real estate developer that Anna just told you about. That is very significant fraud charges. And of course he should be criminally tried for this, let alone impeached. And so really, this guy's paying off your mistress, et cetera. And then you're making sure that he doesn't get charged with fraud because you're the attorney general.

This reminds me of a guy that I interviewed a long time ago that wrote a book about the best way to rob a bank is to run a bank. And in this case, the best way to not go to jail is to be the, attorney general who decides who goes to jail and not he's been facing these charges some of these charges since 2015 and he and they can't prosecute him because he's the freaking attorney general insane so look Republican voters you you should do better it's true of the Democratic voters in other contexts too but you should do better than me like Trump in order to vote for a guy but also pick conservatives who are honest and decent and actually believe in the

things that you believe in but also reporters How about you actually inform the voters about the candidates and the potential criminality that they're involved in before they get elected into office? I mean, look, this isn't on a local level, but remember, George Santos is currently a member of Congress because no one looked into his record or his lies until after he got elected. That is a problem. That is a huge problem. That is a big flaw in our democratic process.

You can't have a well-functioning democracy unless you get the money out of politics. That's part one, but also, unless you have an informed electorate, you need actual journalism in order for that to work. Yeah, and this guy's won several elections, and he's had these things hanging over him for a long time. And so even if you think that, well, the press didn't do a good job in the first election, for sure, and well, a lot of people knew by the time of the second election, well, that's why I say the second election is more on the voters.

Guys, you had an excellent sense this guy was a crook. Just saying, I like Trump, shouldn't be good enough to override the fact that he's a crook. So I don't know if at this late date, Republican voters have still turned on Paxton or not, right? Like, facts matter. Doesn't it matter whether he robbed you or he didn't rob you? It definitely should matter. Agreed. All right, that does it for our first hour.

But when we come back for the second hour of the show, there is an update in the civil suit against Donald Trump having to do with financial fraud. Letitia James has shed some light on how much Trump has basically inflated his assets. We've got that and more coming up. Don't miss it. Thanks for listening to the full episode of the Young Turks. Support our work. Listen ad-free. Access members, only bonus content, and more by subscribing to Apple Podcasts,

at apple.co slash t yt. I'm your host, Shank Huger, and I'll see you soon.