The Young Turks - AOC's BRILLIANT Response To Racist Attack Ad

Episode Date: September 14, 2019

AOC responded to a racist attack ad in the best way. Ana Kasparian, Maytha Alhassen, and Ashlee Marie Preston, hosts of The Young Turks, break it down. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Welcome to the Young Turks, it's Ladies' Night on the main show, and we're about to drop it. I'm going to have a great show. Anna Casparian, Mait al-Hasson and Ashley Marie Preston, I'm super excited for today's program. I mean, I'm always excited, but this might be a historic TYT episode because both hours and both panels, all women, right? I just gotta give you a little piece of TYT history. When I started working here back in 2007, there were a total of five people here. It was a small company, small startup, and I was the only woman for five years.

And it's so crazy to see like how TYT's grown, I mean, of course, because of our members and the people who've supported us throughout the years, but how it's become way more diverse, you know, both when it comes to gender, when it comes to ethnicity, nationality, like, I just, I love it, I don't know, it's really cool to like reflect back and see it. So. September 13th, full moon, guys. Yeah. I think it's awesome too, because you all do it in such a natural way where it's

not forced, to where I was even talking to someone recently and even me being a trans woman to be able to add to the national conversation without my gender being at the center of the conversation, that's a very powerful gesture of allyship, so I'm here for it. Oh, thank you so much. I remember we had one moment, it was you, me, and Jank, earlier on when I was first starting to come on here, and we all realized we had a connection to Syria. And that was rare too, because I'm usually the one Syrian voice, the one Arab voice, the one Muslim voice.

So the fact that we had ancestral roots from the same place, again, it's just a testament to the way that you're organically bringing voices. Absolutely. So let's get into the news today. I gotta be honest, there are some disturbing news stories in the first hour and a lot of right wing violence that just kind of goes unchecked. And it's about time that people are held accountable for their actions because we're living in a day and age where right wing shootings happen on a regular basis.

That mass shooting that happened in El Paso, Texas was motivated. by the anti-immigrant rhetoric that we're hearing from the right wing on a regular basis. So we're gonna get to all that. But first, I do wanna just do a little housekeeping, give you a few announcements, and then we'll move forward. Our very own Mark Thompson is behind a great movie. If you wanna learn more about it, go to game changersmovie.com. It is all about the product that a lot of us like to eat, which is meat. It's a revolutionary new documentary about meat, protein, and strength, featuring world-class athletes on plant-based diets.

Again, it's called Game Changers, and you guys should definitely check it out. Again, to find more information about it, go to gamechangersmovie. com. I'm the vegan on the panel. I like that. I'm flexitarian vegan. Flexitarian, yes. Well, I'm not vegan-gelical, so I'm at the time that, like, judges people, like,

I know about, you know, yeah. Mark is the same way, which I really appreciate, because it's a very much. because it's, he's taught me so much and he's slowly and in a very friendly way pushed me in a certain direction that I think wouldn't happen if someone is coming at me from a more judgmental place. It's more of a, hey, I'm understanding, I used to be in your situation. Like Cory Booker, he talked about it last time at the debate when they asked him about his vegan diet.

Exactly. And you wouldn't have known unless he was asked. Yeah, and this is a big movie. I have heard of it in months prior, but I didn't know Mark was involved. with it. Yeah, that's amazing. Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jackie Chan, James Cameron, Chris Paul. A lot of interesting people are behind that film.

Also, an announcement that I've made several times on this show because it's one of my favorite partners at TYT, Aspiration. It is a financial institution that will not invest your money in the fossil fuel industry. And they pay you interest on your savings account. Please check them out, their FDIC insured. Go to aspiration.com slash t-y-T. And finally, this weekend, I'm going to be on CNN again, this time on Frederica Whitfield show.

So please check me out at 1 p.m. Eastern time, 10 a.m. Pacific. I'm really excited to have a conversation. I believe we're going to discuss the presidential candidates on the Democratic side, obviously, and the performance on the debates yesterday. So. I love that they have a taste of you and Jank, and they can't get enough after that. We'll see, we'll see, I hope so. I mean, they've been incredibly kind in allowing us to share our point of view and it's unfiltered.

And it's not something you often see in cable news, so I'm really grateful for that. All right, so let's get to a disturbing story. A hashtag urging people to boycott ABC is trending on social media following an ad that actually aired on a Sinclair-affiliated ABC station in Washington, D.C. The ad features a photo of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, representative from New York. And her image is burning. There is a comparison to her political ideology to genocide in Cambodia. And just to give you more information before we toss to this ad, it was paid for by a right-wing political action committee.

And the political action committee is founded by a failed congressional candidate. Her name is Elizabeth Heng, and it is incredibly disturbing. So I want to give you that warning before we watch. And with that said, take a look at this disgusting defamatory ad. This is the face of socialism and ignorance. Does Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez know the horror of socialism? My father was minutes from death in Cambodia before a forced marriage saved his life. That's socialism.

Forced obedience, starvation. Mine is a face of freedom. My skin is not white. I'm not outrageous, racist, nor socialist. I'm a Republican. Oh, you're not outrageous. So let me give you more details on this ad before we open it up to the panel. So during the first commercial break in the three-hour marathon debate session, viewers in

Washington, D.C. were treated to this 30 second spot that opened with this photo of AOC. Also, AOC, I didn't know about it until AOC had tweeted about it. This was last night during the debate. And she said, Republicans are running TV ads, setting pictures of me on fire to convince people they aren't racist. Life is weird. And she also said, know that this wasn't an ad for young conservatives of color. That was the pretense.

What you just watched was a love letter to the GOP's white supremacist case. And at a time when we're seeing an increase of young men who are radicalized with right-wing ideology in this country, and we're seeing homegrown terrorism in this country in the form of these mass shootings, this type of imagery is unacceptable. And the fact that any type of television station would think it's a good idea to air something like this is unbelievable to me. There's so much to be said. I'm actually now teaching on a campus that has had multiple incidences of white supremacist

vandalism and violence. And recently there's a border initiative event that is happening for months at the school. And a white supremacist group vandalized all of the material. And watching the turning point put their table on campus and lorraine. And luring people in around this context is frightening to me. Because they are weaponizing that anxiety fear that they have. And it is so crazy that it's also done within the framework of socialism. We're just so emaciated when it comes to understanding political economy and also how it

is contextualized in global history. We have no idea what she's talking about in Cambodia. What happened in Cambodia was there was French colonialism forever, right? And the French, what they did was set up structures that favored one group of people over another, creating a lot of tension that happens in every colonial situation between groups of people. And in order to defeat the colonialism, there is a military-led campaign to do so. And so the most militarized group is the one that prevails, and the violence that she's referencing

is the Khmer Rouge's violence, and it was horrific, it was destructive. It wasn't because of socialism, it was because of that historical root. And also, the modern nation state is a violent entity. But we have no context to understand that, that's one thing, and two, it's just, they're also presuming racism by outwardly saying, her saying, I'm not white, by the way. Well, the first thing I notice is that in her opening statement about not being white, You clearly know that a middle-aged white man wrote that. Like, it was very clear.

You could see, like, her wheels were spinning in the back of her head as she was trying to remember the line and then give it to us with a straight face. Right. And I think that what's frightening and troubling beyond that even is that this is straight from Hitler's playbook. Absolutely. I think Mind Kampf. I think it's the Jews. Let's blame the Jews. If we can just put a face to your suffering and your struggles, or if we can put a face to these bodies,

that are laying here, that was terrible. I mean, who thought this would be perfect if we just open up with an image of AOC and her face burning, a brown woman's face who is being attacked by white supremacist. And we already know that when Trump retweeted a video of Ilhan Omar talking about 9-11 and contextualizing it for people, in the background, there was an image that had the slogan of an organization called Council on American Islamic Relations, Los Angeles. and it was in the background. Next day or day of, they got bomb threats.

So let's just also be clear, though. AOC, first of all, socialism, right? Getting a grasp and understanding what the textbook definition is. Furthermore, AOC did not create these ideals. She definitely has a strong voice, a strong presence, and she has a platform and an understanding from a first person perspective, what it's like to struggle being someone who came from waiting tables to now being in that position.

However, I think, again, it's an attempt to not only character assassinate, but quite literally, there are people sending bomb threats to people. Yeah. Sorry, really quickly. I just want to add something too, which is that the reason they're attacking socialism so vigorously is they're trying to conceal the actual terror of capitalism. And we don't even understand the robustness of the violence of capitalism because we don't go back to really where it originated and originated in chattel slavery and settler colonialism.

So the body count for that is far more exceed socialism. And we like we can't we don't care to ever bring that into the conversation. I mean, even today, I mean, even if you want to focus on the context of a capitalistic society today and think about the number of people who die as a result of, you know, the obsession of profit. Think about how many Americans die on a regular basis because they don't have the ability to afford healthcare in America. So it is kind of interesting how the right wing finds a way to twist our current narrative

to something that is just perverse and has nothing to do with what AOC is advocating for. And she did put out a tweet to reiterate what it is that she stands for. And when you really think about it, I think, you know, even the Republican base, even the voters would agree to most of these policies had it not been for the right wing media that really does twist these policy proposals and these ideas. So she writes, since the GOP will only get worse in their hysteria, let's remember who we are. We're fighting to guarantee health care in America to make education and housing dignified

and accessible, to save our planet, to set living standards, to establish justice at home and peace abroad. And so to take that political ideology and twist it into genocide in Cambodia is just sick. And even if you completely disagree with the political ideology that AOC has, think about where we are as a country right now and how we are grappling with an increase of violence. Putting out this type of violent imagery toward a young woman, a member of Congress is unacceptable. And this also shows you what Sinclair is all about. This is why it is dangerous to have any type of monopoly in media.

And the media consolidation that we're experiencing today is going to continue spreading this type of misinformation, this type of violent rhetoric and imagery. And it does nothing for a functioning democracy. You don't have a functioning democracy when you have this type of right wing hold on our media. Absolutely. So, and I'm gonna be honest, like I'm afraid for her. I'm afraid for her, I'm afraid for Representative Ilhan Omar, because we already know that people are willing to carry out acts of violence.

There are three stories in the first hour of this show alone that have to do with right wingers. I'm talking about public figures, I'm not even talking about voters, public figures, elected members of Congress, or I should say elected members of, you know, state legislatures who are threatening to shoot individuals that they disagree with publicly. That is what's happening in this country right now. And imagine if it was on the other side and the left used that kind of rhetoric. I mean, we already know what happens when Andy No, you know, gets any type of assault from

members of Antifa, right? And he has no problem with conspiring with right wingers when they want to carry out violence. But every single media outlet will go out there and condemn Antifa and Make it appear as though they are the equivalent of the right wing violence in this country. They are not, not even close. Let's call it what it is. This is a real problem. And I think our media enables it.

They just do. Stop drawing the false equivalencies. We know where the radicalization happens in this country. And it's not happening on the left. I think it's why we also see the strong attack on progressives like Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders, because they're talking about these things that are generational. Like you talked about like chattel slavery, all these different things that have happened. Our country has a dark legacy and egregious past around not only how we've responded

or treated communities of color and indigenous folks, but more specifically what happens when you get on the heels of white supremacy. And I feel like right now what we're witnessing is white supremacy on its deathbed. And so it's backed into a corner and it's like flailing with the blade, just cutting anything that gets in close proximity to it. And so I think that for people like myself, I didn't get it into politics really until like 2015. So I knew that there was a part of me that wanted to know what was happening in the larger

conversation, but just thinking, how does all of this language like socialism and liberal and progressive and this and GOP and what is that really like what is that really saying underneath it all? I think sometimes we need to simplify it. And I do believe that helped Trump somewhat in the election even because. Because he didn't have the language or the scholastic aptitude to be able to approach these people with all of these terms. He spoke to them in a way where he was talking to them, not over them.

And so we, progressive, Democrats, we have to get to a place where we learn how to make these conversations more accessible. So I love the way that AOC just came out and said what it is. She restated the mission. This is what we're here to do. Anything else is just noise. Let's focus on the nuance. Yes, and I'm sure she's getting, you know, as usual, barrage of threats and harassment

on social media. She's fighting for us every single day and it takes a lot of courage to do it in today's climate. So show her some love, give her a note of encouragement and try to inspire her the way that she's inspired us because she's out there fighting for us, we should fight for her. We gotta take a break. When we come back, we have some good news, including Elizabeth Warren's latest proposal on social security. I think it's fantastic. And Jank also had a sit-down interview with Bernie Sanders. We're going to show you some clips and have a discussion about it. We need to talk about a relatively

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all at the same time. Right back. Welcome back to TYT. I want to get straight into the rest of the news so we don't run out of time. And we're going to start off with Elizabeth Warren. Elizabeth Warren has proposed her plan for Social Security. In fact, she'd like to give Social Security recipients a raise to the tune of $200 a month. She was quoted as saying, it's time Washington stopped trying to slash Social Security benefits

for people who've earned them. It's time to expand Social Security. And let me be clear, we've certainly earned them. Social Security is a program that Americans pay into. They pay into it through their taxes. You see it taken out in every single pay stub. And so it's nice to finally hear candidates talk about how they want to make sure that it remains solvent and that we get the benefits that we're entitled to.

The largest portion of her plan, raising benefits for 64 million recipients by $200 a month, would cost more than $150 billion in its first year. But of course, with everything that she's proposed, she's got a plan for how to pay for it, and she is going to pay for it on the backs of the country's wealthiest. So Social Security recipients get an average of $16,248 a year in benefits, and Warren is proposing to give them a raise of $2,400 a year. The plan would also overhaul how annual cost of living increases are calculated so that benefits increase more rapidly over time.

So I love this because it takes into account inflation, the cost of living. The numbers actually change an increase along with inflation, which is something that we haven't been experiencing lately with Social Security. It would create a new social security credit for people who leave the workforce to care for family members, a benefit that Warren says would make the Social Security net program more fair for women. So I love that as well. And I just want to just quickly juxtapose that with the proposals that we've seen from people like Senator Marco Rubio. Marco Rubio's proposal is, well, let's say you have children and you want to take leave so you can care for your baby. Here's what we'll do.

We'll let you borrow against Social Security, but then you would have to wait a little longer to retire. So let's say you're planning on retiring at 67 and you take some money out in order to take care of your kids. Well, then you're going to have to delay your retirement by a year or so. I love that Elizabeth Warren's like, no, no, we're not going to do that. In fact, we're gonna fund social security in such a way that working mothers would be able to take some time off to care for their children and fathers, by the way, and then they can

go back to work when they're ready. And this whole plan, when people are asking, well, where is it gonna come from? How much is it gonna cost? It's gonna tax the extra rich, and you know the extra rich has been boycotting taxes for for a while. So they actually are indebted to us. And what they've done with jobs through depressed wages, through breaking unions, they owe us this.

Anybody that is an employee should feel like their employer should be accountable to this through their taxes. And the other thing is, we're actually gonna be saved money, right? There's gonna be a $1 trillion reduction of our federal budget. Right. I think ultimately, the thing I love most about Elizabeth Warren is she's about family, and that's all members of the family, including our senior citizens. And when we talk about where's the money going to come from, I don't think people really

understand how wealthy America is. Like, I don't, even when we talk about the 1%, the 1%, the 1% is a large span. So we know that the average American household brings in a little under 74,000 a year. The bottom of the totem pole for the 1% is around $740,800. And the median of the 1% is 125 times that amount. So when we talk about money, the money is there. It's a matter of how we are appropriating that money and who we're holding accountable to pay in taxes and who we're giving the breaks to. I know the other day we talked about subsidies when we're talking about health care cost.

And we were talking about oil companies, all of these large entities who've had generations of wealth that even stem from slavery, it's time that they finally pay their portion. Oh, absolutely. I mean, we subsidize businesses that have no, I mean, they're multi-billion dollar businesses and we're subsidizing them. We are giving them massive tax cuts, we are supporting them. By the way, while abandoning the small businesses that the right wing claims they care so much about, and just to give you some details on how the taxes would look in order to fund

this increase in Social Security benefits, Ward would impose a new 14.8% payroll tax on individuals who earn more than a quarter million dollars a year to be split by workers and their employers and a 14.8% tax on investment income that would apply to the top 2% of earners. So this is very much a tax increase on the most privileged people in this country, the people who earn the most, the individuals who received a $2 trillion tax cut under the Trump administration. And again, this is a very bold proposal. I think this is the type of, you know, this is the type of proposal or type of policy

where Elizabeth Warren shines. This is the kind of stuff that appeals to a lot of voters because it's all about redistribution of wealth and making a system or creating a system that's far more fair for the average American worker. And it's sustainable for generations to come as well. So it's like a complete overhaul of the system, like not just status quo, but actually looking at how we can move our country forward. Right, because we have a solvency problem.

We might not have Social Security if we don't do something to dramatically, economically restructure the program. And you know, the funny thing is, whenever it comes to social programs, we always ask, where's Where's the money gonna come from? When it's the military, when it's corporations, we never asked that question. We didn't ask that question after the banks caused a massive recession in 2008. That wasn't ever asked. Are we gonna bail out banks or not?

But no one ever said, where is the money coming from? I don't even feel like there was much of a debate about whether or not they should be bailed out. We were told by our lawmakers, they're too big to fail, we're giving them a bailout. It was more an announcement than a debate. And so finally, I think we're at a point. where the average American voter is thinking, yeah, when do we get taken care of? When do our tax dollars actually go back to making our lives a little better?

And I wanna remind you of what we're dealing with if we don't elect a progressive candidate as president, we're gonna get more of Donald Trump. And what does Donald Trump wanna do? Well, I'm gonna show you, this is Graphic 8. In the budget proposal that the White House released in March, Trump called for a $26 billion reduction in spending on Social Security programs, including a $10 billion cut to the Social Security Disability Insurance Program, which provides benefits to disabled workers. So remember, he campaigned as a populist, he claimed that he wouldn't touch Medicare,

he wouldn't touch Social Security, but then he turned around and proposed the exact opposite. Absolutely. It's despicable. It's despicable because he gets away with it too. And people are not checking for him, his base is not holding him accountable to this. And he's gonna run free and do whatever he wants because guess what, if it doesn't affect him, he doesn't care. He feels like he's beyond reproach.

And I think that that's what we're seeing an uptick of. Like it's always been there. But I think now it's just the unapologetic nature of it all, like in our faces. In fact, it's going back to the whole like Hitler strategy, it's part of wearing us down mentally so that we're so exhausted when they make the big move. Well, but this is what's so crazy too, though, is that. Hitler actually had social security programs that were enticing. That's terrible.

So he's worse than Hitler, because he is like, he's not giving them anything, and they're just settling for a wall. That's actually all they're settling for. A wall that they're going to fund through their tax dollars, right? Mexico's not paying for it. Money has been diverted from other government programs, including FEMA, in order to pay for this hate monument, which will do little to nothing when it comes to. to dealing with our immigration issues.

We have immigration issues, but this is not the right way to handle it. And so you're right, I mean, the- Especially when it's making the assumption that all immigrants are coming from Mexico. Right. They're only migrating from there. Like it's like, there's other, there's Canada, there's also people who fly in there. So it's- Oversaying their visas. Oh, happens constantly, especially with Europeans.

How about that? Exactly. So I love, I love the vision that we're seeing from progressive candidates. What is the action? I think that's what I'm waiting for. What is the action going to be? And it's why I feel, although I'm not gonna lie, sometimes Bernie supporters can be a bit toxic and a bit much, but Bernie himself, between Elizabeth Warren and Bernie, we need to get bigger

ideas. Absolutely. And look, I know what you mean about some of the voters, but I gotta be honest with you, it's not, I don't think it's unique to Bernie. I'm seeing it with supporters for almost every other candidate where look guys, you can't take critique of the candidates as a personal attack on you. And it's not a personal attack on them either. We need to have debate and discussion about the different policies.

Every single candidate has strengths, every single candidate has flaws and weaknesses. And if we don't, they're politicians, we have to hold them accountable. At the end of the day, we have to make sure that they work for us. If you don't apply pressure, then there's really no reason for them to work for us. I had a really great conversation with the Bernie supporter actually on Twitter last night. That was so beautiful. And she was like, you know, she's been doing a lot of that work in the Bernie camp and in the base being like, hey, you know, literally Bernie and Liz, they're cool.

Yeah. They're not. So we're out here feeding into this propaganda because let's be very clear. A lot of its GOP bots, all of these people that are like pulling puppet strings. And so people are taking the bait. At the end of the day, what I have loved about Elizabeth Warren so much is that she's very clear when media tries to come out and get her to trash Bernie or get her to trash Biden. She's like, look, find somebody else to do that.

Right now, my main focus is how are we going to get out of the rut that we're in? And I think that just like she said last night, I know the problem, I know how to fix it, and I'm ready to do what needs to be done to move things forward. And the fire that both of them possess, we need to focus our energy into getting them into the general. Absolutely. that they don't attack each other. This is not a smart strategy.

They've never done it. And maybe if there's substantive critiques, they exist. But I haven't even really seen them go after each other at all. Not at all. It's always been the star gets even. But like from like when Susan Sarandon and all these folks are like, oh, you know, this. And it's like, we already have enough of that in the White House. I thought the whole idea here was to replace the energy that we have in the White House.

And so we don't change that by becoming a left version of the right. If we're not careful, we're going to lose everything. I totally agree. We can't be out here risking at all over like tweets and memes and like we really have to get serious about this. About somebody who could potentially be worse than Hitler. Yes. So let's move on to Jenks interview with Bernie Sanders because it was pretty fantastic.

We're gonna post the full interview for you guys to check out. But for the purposes of this discussion, we chose a few clips that we'll talk about. So Jank Yugar had a sit down interview with Bernie Sanders in Houston. And there were some topics that I thought were super fascinating, including a very vulnerable moment that Bernie Sanders had in response to the attacks he's dealing with in the corporate media. Take a look. There's nonstop attacks against you.

And I kind of assume that you were used to it. But you're a human being, and all they do is attack you. And you know, there's a famous, now infamous segment on MSNBC where the woman says that you make her physically ill, etc. How do you feel that? How does it affect you personally? It hurts. I'm like, you're right.

I am a human being. I'm used to it. We understand that we are taking on the system. The system is a democratic establishment. You know, the system is the corporate media. So I'm not going to, you know, it's not only the attacks. I'll tell you what's even worse. In fact, there have been instances where the polling numbers have been up on the wall.

and I'm ignored, where we're doing well. You know, it's like there's an attempt to make our views invisible for the exact reason that you said. They are popular views. Well, the idea that we can take on the insurance companies that have health care for all, the idea that we can take on the drug companies, the idea that we can take on Wall Street,

is that even within the realm of discussion? You've got six financial institutions that have assets equivalent to half of the GDP of America. Do you think that's an issue we might want to talk about? They need to break up the banks so they don't do what they did 11 years ago. So what it's more than the attacks is the attempt often by the mainstream media to kind of make us invisible, that our issues are not important. I am not important.

I'm not going to tell you that that does not hurt. It does. I thought that was a great answer because a lot of people, myself included, sometimes forget in the heat of the moment that the people that we're having discussions about are at the end of the day, people. And I don't consider Trump part of that equation. He is just so incredibly cruel and divisive that- And disconnected. Yeah.

But just for the purposes of the Democratic primary, you know, these are people who do have emotions, who do have their vulnerable moments. And, you know, every time I watch. these debates, I mean, even last night, the exchange between Julian Castro and Joe Biden, the stuff about Biden's memory. Like, it made me a little uncomfortable. Even though I think policy is fair game, go at it, you know, get passionate about it. Like the personal attacks, you get it from other candidates, but the media is just insane these days. It's kind of productive too, because I even had that critique one time of like Buttigieg

Even when I was like all of these like cute little jabs that are kind of ages, be very careful because most of the people who are actually turning up at the polls who are voting are that same demographic. And so like when we take these kind of like, I know like in the moment it's very like entertainment based, but really being mindful of who it is that you hope to represent and being sensitive to those narratives and those experiences. Yeah, absolutely. And you know, Bernie is also somebody who's taking the ages.

Jabs too. What I love about what he said was that it wasn't necessarily about him. It was about how corporate media is delegitimizing the concerns of the population that he is representing, which is a significant portion of Americans. And what, you know, Jenk was talking about too, is they don't understand what it means to be a populist candidate to support the vision and the desire of a big majority of people makes him popular, and to discredit that by throwing up a poll that shows that he's far from the top, shows or is insinuating that people who appreciate or are invested in Bernie's vision,

their issues and desires don't matter either, and they're a far shot from the top. But that's why one of the biggest thumbs up that I saw of the night were it was toward Elizabeth Warren. They were assessing her strategy in both, and all of the things. debate so far, whenever someone would kind of make a jab or, like, say something, she hasn't responded. She goes right back into talking about minus when she was like, if you're not going to, like, think about how you can change things, why even run for president or that kind of, other than that, which was very matter of fact, right?

Right, right. Right. Right. That wasn't anything that was, like, attacking their personhood or any of that. But I do think that there has to be for someone to take on Trump, they're going to have to have that resilience, like that extra something that's like, you know what, I know what this is, I see what it is, I cannot break my focus, I can't internalize this, and I have to be head on with this.

And I think that I don't know that there's been a presidency, like a race even like this before. Anything like this, yeah, you're right. And I love the point that you made about how it's not necessarily about him, it's about the message being minimized and belittled and brushed under the rug neglected. And imagine, I mean, you see how certain candidates are rising in the polls. You see how the message from progressive candidates like Bertie Sanders is really resonating with the voters. And to see corporate media just completely ignore that.

It's not just ignoring the candidate. It is ignoring the entire movement, which consists of so many people who want real change in this country. So how does he get his message out, right? There seems to be this dismissive nature toward progressive candidates in the mainstream media. And if there's a media blackout, how do you effectively get your message out as a candidate? He talks about that in this next clip. How do you get to the American people when there's this wall between you and the message you're trying to get out?

And that wall is the media saying, honestly, an alternate reality like Kelly Ann Conaway talks about. Right. Jake, I mean, this is clearly one of the problems. that we're having. You know, I don't mean to be overly dramatic here. We are taking on the entire system. That's what we're doing. And that's, I'm not a child. And I, believe me, my wife and I talked about whether we want to run for months up and now, should I, should I do it? We understand. It's not surprising. We are, you know, from the corporate media's perspective, it's only negative stuff. It's often making us look invisible. We're not there. And it's, I'm not going to tell you that it's not hurtful, and it's not difficult, but the corporate media is part of the problem. So the way

we do it is we have, I think, by far, the strongest social media presence of any progressive candidate, any Democratic candidate. And by the way, Donald Trump is nobody's fool. He is incredibly strong on social media. 60 million people on Twitter. That's just extraordinary. And we appeal to the progressive media, like yourself, Tom Hop, and other people. And I really do respect that because Both Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren have made a point to not only try to spread their message through traditional media, but they immediately go to independent news sources such as the Young Turks. I know that Bernie Sanders just had an interview with Kyle Kalinsky. I mean, it's so important to kind of break through and break out of the traditional media model because so many young people have cut the cord and they don't rely on cable news for their information. They do go online.

They do go to social media. So I love the fact that they're savvy enough to, you know, not necessarily bypass, but if there is a media blackout when it comes to corporate press, they're like, well, there's a giant audience waiting for us in new media. And they're also doing it like the old school way by Pigeon Carey or like, you know, actually showing up. That was one of the most attractive qualities about Warren's campaign that I loved more than anything.

First of all, I felt really ashamed of myself. I was like, this woman is like twice my, and. is out there working it, wearing it out. She's standing in these long lines, taking photos with everyone who wants to take one. And at first, by first glance, you're like, okay, we get it. Like she's trying to appeal to social media selfies and all that. It's that one-on-one interaction. And one of the main reasons why I met with most of the candidates before I made an endorsement

was because I knew that there is something indescribable about sitting across from another human being, looking them in their eyes. and receiving the energy and the promise from them directly, that sticks with you. And so the answer to that is when you can't break through to like corporate media, you definitely rely on the Young Turks and independent media in general. But you also hit the ground running. And we saw them, Warrenstein do that in Kermit, West Virginia. We saw them in like Iowa, all of these smaller places.

Right. One thing I wanted to just quickly add to buttress that point is, you know, there was a story recently about how many of the Democratic candidates who had taken a pledge to avoid big dollar donors and all that, they've given up because they realized, all right, there was like an initial burst of small dollar donors, but our campaigns kind of fizzled out. We're not able to raise any money through this process anymore. So now they're going back to the old model, they're going to fundraisers. And what's fascinating about that, and Jeff Weaver made this point.

Weaver is a longtime political advisor for Bernie Sanders. He said, look, when candidates aren't taking these big dollar donors and they're not going to these major fundraising events, they have time to go to rallies. They have time to connect with the voters, right? They have time to take the selfies, have these conversations. And I think that that goes a long way in appealing to the Democratic base because they're not just talking. They're not just throwing policy out there and expecting people to figure it out for themselves.

They're actually trying to connect with the voters. I think that's so important. Yeah, and while a strong digital game and digital organizing is powerful, you saw what happened with Obama, but Obama took, you know, big money as well, 2008, but a strong ground game is actually how you connect to voters on the ground. So you know the concerns, and you're invested in the stories that you hear. Elizabeth Warren is somebody who has been on, like, five programs in one day, and Bernie Sanders is somebody who's been out walking a lot of his media train around him, three miles ahead of them.

And so these folks who are in their, she's 70? I think she's 70, right? Elizabeth Warren. Yeah, she just turned 70, yeah. These folks in their 70s are outpacing everybody else. It's phenomenal. I'm just like, she's actually like on the ground, on the ground, like not and doing programs and traveling.

Even when they had to be down in Florida, she went to the encampment to actually see what was going on. Like, there's just, there's just, I think at the end of the day, we're seeing more value in social capital over monetary capital. And it's like, I appreciate that she's not doing big fundraisers with billionaires and doing all of that. We talked about this before Anna and I, that in the general, that's a whole different story because it's like we need to be able to beat Trump. But I think right now, this is the moment where we connect with the actual voters. And I do want to eventually have a longer discussion about that strategy because I am worried that if it, if she makes it to the general, it might turn some voters off. I'm talking about progressive voters who really don't want to see the money influence

our candidate, but that's a different discussion. It's a longer discussion and unfortunately we have to go to break. So let's do that. When we come back, we have more news for you, including more incitement of violence. At TYT, we frequently talk about all the ways that big tech companies are taking good control of our online lives, constantly monitoring us and storing our data. But that doesn't mean we have to let them. It's possible to stay anonymous online and hide your data from the prying eyes of big tech. And one of the best ways is with ExpressVPN. ExpressVPN hides your

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We hope you're enjoying this free clip from the Young Turks. If you want to get the whole show and more exclusive content while supporting independent media, become a member at t-y-t.com slash join today. In the meantime, enjoy this free segment. Welcome back to TYT. All right, so there is a theme in the news today, and it has to do with right-wing violence. By the way, Maita al-Hasin, Ashley Marie Preston, join in. I'm trying to hurry because I want to make sure we get to all of these stories.

So let's get to Beto O'Rourke. Last night, during the Democratic debate in Houston, Beto O'Rourke unapologetically defended his call for a mandatory assault weapons buyback program. And as a result, a right-wing state representative in Texas put out a threat against him. State Representative Briscoe Cain said, quote, my AR is ready for you, Robert Francis. Robert Francis is Better Warwick's legal name.

And that is a threat. That is threatening a Democratic candidate with violence if he follows through with his proposal. Now, for those of you who are wondering what it is that Better Warwick said during the Democratic debate that fired this guy up so much, take a look at this video. You know, the critics call this confiscation. Are you proposing taking away their guns? and how would this work? I am if it's a weapon that was designed to kill people on a battlefield.

If the high impact, high velocity round, when it hits your body, shreds everything inside of your body because it was designed to do that so that you would bleed to death on a battlefield and not be able to get up and kill one of our soldiers. When we see that being used against children, and in Odessa, I met the mother of a 15, year old girl who was shot by an AR-15 and that mother watched her bleed to death over the course of an hour because so many other people were shot by that AR-15 in Odessa and Midland, there weren't enough ambulances to get to them in time. Hell yes, we're gonna take your AR-15, your AK-47. We're not gonna allow it to be used against a fellow Americans anymore.

Now again, Texas State Representative Briscoe Kane responded to that with my AR is ready for you, Robert Francis. And so this morning, Twitter decided to take that tweet down because it violates their terms of service. Twitter said the tweet from Texas State Representative Briscoe-Kane violated its rules against making violent threats and that it had removed the tweet the next morning. So what do you ladies think about this? Well, first of all, what is the follow-up to that?

Because, like, yes, we know that that's the digital space, but what's happening in real time around making a terroristic threat? Just to be clear, had that been a person of color, an activist, someone who's associated with an organization such as Black Lives Matter, they would have a field day. The Wright would eat that up. But because this is someone that feels there beyond a reproach and that they represent someone like the NRA who, as far as I'm concerned, a concern and San Francisco is, they're a terrorist organization. And so what does that look like in real time? What arrest needs to be made? That's a threat.

It is a threat and it's an incitement of violence. And this has been, this is not an isolated incident. There have been more and more of these statements by public figures lately, including Megan McCain talking about a civil war if there are any gun regulations passed by Democrats. I mean, it's- He's just gonna reach into her yoga pants and pull out a girl by. You people, I can't even, I'm sorry. It's just not, I just think that rhetoric matters and inciting violence like this is unacceptable.

It absolutely does, as I was saying in the break, I'm teaching my students in this inter-to-human rights class at the beginning of the semester, torture and genocide. And the preconditions for that, guess what, are always rhetoric. And it's always about marginalizing a group of people and making the threat public and not suffering any sort of repercussions beyond deleting a tweet. What was really interesting is that directly after the debates, Trevor Noah said, he commented on Beto O'Rourke saying this and saying, whoa, you're not afraid of them coming for you with their AR-15s.

And this joke became a reality, literally, like within minutes. And that shows you just how vile and vicious these folks are because they are in the scarcity mindset that they think that the white male against a government that is not of their vision, of their choosing, their very narrow vision in choosing. If they are elected, then they think that we're gonna like stash up with the guns and kill them all. Which, guess what? It hasn't happened.

Which is kind of what they thought even like during the Civil War again, like it's this it taps into this epigenetic fear that if we don't have some sort of control, they're going to come for us and they're going to overthrow us. And guess what? There have been government buyback programs in the US since 1974. They've been done on a municipal level and they've been from like Seattle to Baltimore. So this has happened. And I'm just curious why people want AR-15s and AK-47s.

But for me, the curiosity also extends to the state on an international level. I'm a big-time pacifist. I don't think anybody should have this military grade equipment, including governments. Yeah, that's a great point. And it's so interesting that they wouldn't at least open the door for gun reform. So even if you're not making a bold statement such as Betho O'Rourke, many, they're not even trying to have the conversation and instead they're scapegoating other causes like video games and they're like, oh, they don't, this generation doesn't have respect for, I think it was

a godlessness, yeah, all this nonsense about, oh, all we need is more religion in schools and it'll solve the problem. And we need gun control. If teacher has had guns, yeah, yeah, exactly, that's how we stop violence. Well, one more story for you. Let's move on. All right, so Tommy Laren was on Fox business, and there was a discussion about the need to protect Second Amendment rights because, hey, we need to protect ourselves from the big, scary immigrants

coming in. Take a look. You can't depend on the government to protect you at all times. That's what so many Americans forget is they put their safety and security in the hands of the government. The government is going to fail you. But the government, what I like about America is that we're the only country in the world where armed citizens are allowed, just in case the government. gets out of line. That makes America unique. It's one of the things that really appeals to me about

America. But you never hear about that. Well, that's what Second Amendment activists and people that are for the Second Amendment and Second Amendment rights remind people over and over and over again. And this is that you're right. This is your right to protect and defend yourself and your family. And all the things that the Democrats want to put in place, my goodness, if they want to open our borders, you better be sure that the people in Texas, the people in South Dakota, the people in the middle of this country, we're going to be armed and ready because we have to have a means to defend ourselves from who knows who's coming in. That's the thing, we don't know, and we have to be able to protect ourselves.

There have been, there have been more than two dozen migrants who have died under U.S. custody during the Trump administration. These are individuals who are seeking asylum. They're running from violence in their own countries. There are people who are nonviolent, but the violence that they've been met with at the border, at the hands of our own law enforcement is despicable, it's embarrassing, it's humiliating to be an American and allow for this type of behavior to happen. And Stuart Varney, I mean, no one talks, that's the wonderful thing about America.

America is unique in that everyone can be armed, and if you don't like what the government's doing, you can open fire and murder people. That's the wonderful thing about America. No, that is a giant problem in America. Like this whole notion of, oh, we need the Second Amendment rights because it's going to help prevent a tyrannical government. I have news for you, we're dealing with an authoritarian president right now, who is literally thinking about keeping an eye on and surveilling people who have mental illnesses in order

to do something about gun legislation. So the onus is always on innocent civilians who pose no threat, instead of really rethinking, hey, maybe we should fund mental health care. That is part of the problem. Maybe we should do something about our rhetoric, which incites violence. I'm more worried about young white males showing up to my job and shooting people up because they disagree with our political ideology. Because that's far more likely to happen than an immigrant doing something violent to us.

Keeping it real, that's the reality. Which is why it's so funny that somebody like Johnny Joey Jones, this right wing pundit said that basically the reason all this gun violence is happening is because the younger generation doesn't have respect for life or death. And I would beg to differ that it's actually the older white men up in Washington who don't have respect for lives because they continue to line their pockets with money from the NRA. And more than anything, every time I hear Tommy Laron, aka Swastika Barbie, she, there is nothing about you that feels unsafe or you wouldn't have left your throne of unseasoned food over in South Dakota to come here to stir up all of these issues and to continue to be a puppet to the propaganda and the Patriots. Here's the facts, because you know me, I love receipts, I don't like to talk rhetoric. Yes.

So what we know for sure is that within the last 10 years, there's been 1.2 million Americans who've been killed because of gun violence. What we also know is that every year there's 36,000 deaths. We know that there's 100,000 injuries. And we also know that 2017 was the deadliest year with 39,773 murders. And- And that's an uptick, actually, of 16% from 2014. So when we talk about what the real danger is, Swastika Barbie's right, we can't trust the federal government.

We can't trust them to protect the lives of American people. Well, but yes, and thank you. That's amazing. But let's also be real, what are your A-Rs and A-Ks gonna do against a government that has nuclear bombs? Exactly, exactly. That is ridiculous. But you know, this is where the privilege plays in

to the whole story and the racism is very apparent, which is when you're an Oregon militia group, of course the government is not going to shoot back at you when you're shooting at them, but if you're the Black Panther Party, oh, you better believe that the government's going to come in and be afraid that you are protecting yourself with guns. And I bet Tommy Laren is not going to protect their rights or black people's rights to have guns to protect themselves from white supremacist terrorists. I bet that that's not going to happen at all. I know that by local law enforcement, the violence that we see black men and women face all the time.

Like, you know, our kids are armed with a bag of skittles and, like, they're literally being shot. And so I think, again, we're seeing us kind of like revert back to the politics of our country's origin, which is if we can't keep them under control, we have to be prepared to take them out. I got to make a final point and then we got to move on, but look. Look what you started. I know, I know, I'm going to talk about this Wild West border frontier mentality that is epigenetic, and it is part of all of this and what undergirds it and nourishes this bullshit. Sorry. Oh, damn.

Yeah, we can't curse. I can't. Sorry, we're technically over, right? I'm so sorry. Oh, God damn it. Okay, so final point. You probably should have shut me up. Okay, final point, final point, look, 22 people were just gunned down in El Paso, Texas, and right before

that shooter opened fire, he put out a racist anti-immigrant manifesto and then proceeded to murder innocent people in a Walmart. Rhetoric matters. I am far more concerned about the violent rhetoric rhetoric coming from the right wing and the violent actions and the murders that are happening at the hands of the right wing in America today than I am about immigrants or any other group of disenfranchised powerless people, okay? So I don't I don't know what it's like to live with this weird paranoia of powerless people coming after me. I mean, I'm sure that she shook and she's worried about it. I mean, it's all that she ever talks about. But she made the decision, Ashley, you're right, she made a decision to come here to Los Angeles. That's where she

lives. And if you're really genuinely concerned about immigrants and you're genuinely worried about your life because you think immigrants are so dangerous, why would you go from South Dakota to L.A., which is a very diverse place? I mean, that I just don't understand. And so is it a part of a grift or is it genuine fear? And if it's genuine fear, educate yourself and understand where the real threat is. Because they are not the ones who pose a real threat in America. They're the ones who are being brutalized and dehumanized at our border. More than six children have died in border patrol custody. It is disgusting, it is humiliating, and it's unacceptable.

And I'm looking forward to having this discussion at Politicon because it needs to be had. And hopefully we can do it in a civil way, but this is something that needs to be discussed because there's a giant difference between the two of us when it comes to discussing threats in America. I do not see immigrants as a threat. I'm not worried about my life when I come across immigrants, but I do worry when, you know, you have this type of rhetoric about shooting people because it's just not okay. It's not okay to have these conversations. It happens on a regular basis on Fox News.

Anyway, we gotta take a break. Thank you to Maita Al Hassan and Ashley Marie Preston, a new panel coming up. Come right back. 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 dot co slash t yt i'm your host jank huger and i'll see you soon