The Young Turks - Bad Sinema

Episode Date: January 15, 2022

Senator Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona said she would not support undermining the Senate filibuster to enact new voting rights laws, presenting a major obstacle for President Biden’s drive to push the protections through Congress. CNN featured an explosive showdown between former Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) surrogate Nina Turner and Jonathan Kott, former senior adviser to Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV). Bernie Sanders and two of his Senate colleagues on Friday demanded that the Wall Street behemoth BlackRock, the largest shareholder in Warrior Met Coal, intervene on the side of Alabama miners as they continue their strike for fair wages and benefits. Conservatives are ripping Supreme Court Associate Justice Brett Kavanaugh online after he sided with the court’s liberal wing to save President Joe Biden’s vaccine mandate for health care workers. Attempts to remove books from school libraries have increased, spurred by activism from conservative parent groups and resistance to teaching socially progressive ideas in schools. Hosts: John Iadarola, Nina Turner, Francesca Fiorentini 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. Strike, Three my team, Three my team, Street Strike first,

Strike hard hard, No, no mercy, and drop it. Welcome everyone to the power panel. And yes, some of us at least have been watching Cobra Chi recently. Anyway, I'm John Aderola, very lucky to be joined, albeit remotely, by Francesca Fiorentini, who co-hosts Fantastic Mondays on TDR. Thank you, Francesca, for being here. Sure.

And Nina Turner, Nina, how's it going? It's going, baby. How you doing? I'm glad to have you here. I'm glad to have some power hour on the power panel. That's double power. I've run the numbers. And so very excited to have you here. Jenk is obviously out. But Jared Jackson will be taking over in a little bit for the second hour. I believe being joined by Adrian Lawrence and Ben Glebe, if I'm not incorrect. So we should have two awesome hours coming up, but I'm very excited for this hour, although we will have to talk about a topic that, while important and dramatic, involves some political figures that are hardly the favorites. I think it's safe to say of everyone on the panel. So we are going to be talking about Mansion and Cinema. Apologies to both of you ladies in advance. That's fine. So we're about to launch into it, everybody. If you wouldn't mind hitting the like button sharing the stream so the people know we're live.

That would be great. And with that, why don't we jump into our first topic? I share the disappointment of many that we've not found more support on the other side of the aisle for legislative responses to state level voting restrictions. I wish that were not the case. Just as I wish there had been a more serious effort on the part of Democratic Party leaders to sit down with the other party and genuinely discuss how to re-forge common ground on these issues. So that was Senator Curson Cinema, explaining why she supports voting rights bills. In the same way that she supports all sorts of other legislation that have no chance of passing so long as the filibuster remains. But she's not going to do literally anything to change or reform the filibuster. She won't even go so not far as to require people filibustering to actually filibuster. Nothing. No reform at all.

And in that speech, in the clip that you just saw, she implies that there is a theoretical world where a nationally elected Republicans might be willing to be a party to stopping state level Republicans from effectively getting rid of democracy, stopping people from voting, all of that. and that because we haven't reached that hypothetical world, it's obviously the Democrats' fault for not extending enough of an olive branch to these Republicans. What do you two think about this? So we'll start with you, Nina. It's a joke. I mean, really. The woman just might as well go and fess up that she doesn't care whether or not democracy

is safe or not. This is really just about her, because if it was about democracy, then she would be fierce and trying to convince her Republican colleagues if they need, obviously they need convince them, but to convince them that end in the filibuster to vote on voting, to have a vote on voting rights is the right thing to do. But she's not serious. She's just playing games and she's hiding behind the Republicans.

But this is really how she feels. She wants the filibuster to stay and play, so they don't have to take up anything serious. Yeah, she's completely bad faiths about it. I mean, it's so ridiculous. and putting that on even footing, right? Saying that, you know, just as I wish Republicans would help us, you know, it's also the Democrats. It's, it is not actually also the Democrats unless you're talking about yourself, a senator cinema.

It is you who is standing in the way of getting voting rights enshrined in this country. It's just insane. It's like, you know, gee, I really wish like, you know, the person who was like stabbing me with a knife right now would participate in removing that knife, but man, they really, it's almost like they are a murderer. The idea that Republicans are going to get on board with like, you know, she's like, oh, and I'm just so sorry that my Republican colleagues aren't also on board with the voting race. Yeah, because they're literally currently stripping them away from people. They're busy. They're busy taking them away. Why would you ever expect them to do otherwise? We're looking to you. Yeah. And you're not showing any

leadership. Yeah, yeah, 100%. Look, this morning when Brett Ehrlich and I were talking about this, he said that this is the sort of topic that more so than most drives apathy for the people who even still have the stomach that they can pay attention to this sort of stuff, is that the stakes are incredibly high, whether we'll have elections that are worth a damn. Also, the other stakes are anything that Joe Biden might potentially do. And one obstacle to progress are Republicans who are 100% operating in bad faith, who have no interest in, let's just keep it real, any legislation ever passing in the Senate in any form, other than potentially maybe another round of tax cuts. They will approve right-wing justices to the Supreme Court

and other levels of the federal judiciary and occasionally pass tax cuts. And that is it. They will- And the military budget, John, in the military. Yeah, that's true. That sort of stuff has to have. know how to find bipartisanship when it comes to the military industrial complex. But it's not, okay, the right wing looks out at the country at their base and they identify problems that their base is experiencing. And they just want to get out there and debate how we're going to solve those. And maybe the Democrats see different problems or at least have different solutions to them. There is none of that.

It's all bad faith. It's all fake. It's all at the behest of their donors. But then also another layer of it is, oh, well, we can't even overpower them because cinema, but she is operating in at least as bad faith. All of her arguments about tradition, it means absolutely nothing. And she is, we have had obviously corrupt politicians for as long as America has had politicians. We've had them.

All our lives were used to them. But I almost feel as if she is somehow a more insidious version of it. It is so obvious that she does not care and is not willing to even pretend to care about anything about our political system. Representation, ethics, some sort of obligation to her constituents, to her party, to her president, to literally anything. It just feels as if she is spinning in her face with every word that she says. And for a regular person to tune in occasionally to the news and see that she's one of the people that's going to determine whether anything happens or not, I have to be understanding that would drive me away too. Yeah, first of all, and I agree, Mansion and Cinema has been,

they have been given too much power in this scenario, just far, just way too much power. And they, you know, there's some lines and a rap song, getting high up your own supply. And that's exactly what they're doing right now, to the detriment of this country. And this is a woman, right, who tweeted time and time again about how, Congressman John Lewis was her hero. Hello, somebody. How is he your hero and you won't even stand up and fight so that the John Lewis voting rights act is passed? So we can put some action behind those words.

He can't be your hero. Those just empty words. She's full of it. And it's not just them, you know, Senator Chris Coons, you know, Senator John Tester, Senator Mark Kelly. You know, I mean, those names kind of cropped up too. an article that I read that they kind of don't know what to do on the filibuster. What do you mean you don't know what to do? Yeah.

Get rid of it. Yeah, because they're afraid. They're afraid that the floodgates are open. They're afraid that once Democrats actually grow a spine, they might have to deliver something for the people. It is so easy to lose and then fundraise off of your losing, right? Fundraise off of, oh, they're obliterating abortion rights. They already are. They've been doing this.

doing this. Republicans have a plan, okay? They're think tanks, they're lobbyists. They're, you know, the Steve Bannons and the other sort of like, you know, whatever basement dwellers, they have a plan and they've been enacting it to incredible results. Yeah. What is the Democrats plan other than losing and fundraising and making sure they can still insider trade their stocks? There is no plan that speaks to the American people. They are so out of touch. And Kirsten Cinema is a perfect example of that. And the only thing, I'll say about power is I am frustrated too that there's so much power in these two senators. And that just tells you about the Senate. The Senate is so unrepresentative. It is so anti-democratic.

In fact, it was set up to protect minority rule in and of itself to say nothing of the fact that more Republican senators represent fewer American people. And that Kirsten Cinema and Joe Mansion of West Virginia represent a fraction of the Democratic senators. who represent many more people who want things like voting rights, build back better act passed. So it's almost like it's good we have, it's terrible, but it's good we have this problem because it allows us to laser focus on the systemic issues. It's not just their personalities, it is the fact that the Senate leads to this kind of corruption,

to this kind of entrenched power. Yeah, yeah, and the amazing, you're totally right about the fundamentally unrepresent, and intentionally unrepresentative, and, And I'd say like purposefully creating inequity in being able to translate popular opinion into legislation. The Senate is designed to make that very, very difficult to do. And you basically have to be rich to actually run and win. Oh, and then you also have to raise tons of money from other people who have tons of money. Oh, but then also we're going to make it so that even if you get 51 senators, it's not enough. You have to get to 60 now. We're just going to

magnify the inequity that's already baked into the system. Well, I'm going to make you in the audience, I apologize, suffer through just one more clip where she explains what is supposed to be her thought process on the filibuster, bearing in mind, of course, that she doesn't mean a single word that she's about to say. These bills help treat the symptoms of the disease, but they do not fully address the disease itself. And while I continue to support these bills, support separate actions that worsen the underlying disease of division infecting our country. The debate over the Senate 60 vote threshold shines a light on our broader challenges. There's no need for me to restate my longstanding support for the 60 vote threshold to pass legislation.

There's no need for me to restate its role protecting our country from wild reversals and federal policy. It is a view I've held during my years serving in both the U.S. House and the Senate. And it is the view I continue to hold. It is the belief that I have shared many times in public settings and in private settings. Yes, so Curs in Cinema, like me, like many of you, probably would prefer for America to not descend into fascism. But we don't want to be divisive about it. I mean, we don't want to do so. Like, they're stripping away people's ability to vote and installing people as state as secretaries of state that are going to overturn the results purely because Trump won't win in these states.

But you Democrats are being very divisive about having a problem with that. And so, look, this is her argument or her argument. She doesn't mean it. It's what Nina was saying. It's a shield against having to do anything. But Biden, seeing all of this, we've now been through months and months and months and months. of cinema and mansions views on the filibuster and their unwillingness to change anything, even though in some cases they do, she's talking about how the filibuster is in Violet, you can't

ever change it. She just voted to do a carve out for raising the debt ceiling less than a month ago. And so let's not pretend, again, nothing that she says does she mean. He says he's not sure about the voting bill, Biden, he's not sure about the voting bill's future after cinema reiterated her opposition and said, like every other major civil rights bill that came along. If we miss the first time, we can come back and try the second one. We miss this time. We miss this time. Okay, so he'll come back, like they're coming back for the reconciliation bill. So if he does that, if we come back, what is supposed to be

different? What is he going to do to get through to her or to mansion? And honestly, what could he do to get through to them, considering that they don't feel any obligation to their constituents or the country. They don't care about any of that. Do either of you have any ideas about what he either will do or what you think he should do? Yeah, well, I say gas up the jet and just go on and get on into, go into West Virginia and Arizona. I mean, he's done everything. He's been very diplomatic towards these two. This woman waited till this man was in Georgia. talking about the importance of voting rights, which is true. And then the very next day, Francesca, not two days, not three days, not a week.

The very next day, this woman through the president of the United States under the bus over voting rights. We're not talking about a disagreement about pro-life or pro-choice or how you're... No, we are talking about the fundamental foundation and pillar. of democracy is that one person, one vote, unfettered access to the ballot box for everybody. No matter how they want to vote. And this woman, the very next day said, no, sir, no sir, not happening. Not happening. She's as smart as the devil.

Remember, that's what Biden said, giving her credit. Wow, she's so smart. It almost sounds like you're not as smart as she is. And here we have the proof. You cannot find a way to pressure her. You're rolling out the red carpet. It's not working. It's time to go to Arizona.

It's time to go to West Virginia. And beyond that, you know, something that we're going to talk about in a little bit as the rest of the gas up, the jet line is cancel student debt. You know, I've been racking my brain this week. As you see what happened in the Supreme Court around, you know, the testing mandates and the vaccine to this filibuster stuff, I'm tired. I'm tired of dealing with these senators. Just let's get some executive action off the ground. Let's mobilize the National Defense Production Act. Let's get people test, send them to every single man, woman, and child in their homes.

Let's cancel all federal student debt. It's the one area. Just take your avenues, see your openings. I'm terrible at sports, but I know a little bit about football. You've got to find your openings and make a rush for it. That's what the windows are closing. The walls are closing in on this presidency, not only to save himself, to save the party, but to save American people.

You know, we would never, God, the three of us, we would never be this much in Biden's corner, wanting him to win so hard. If it didn't, if it weren't because we are all and the well-being of working Americans are resting on whether or not he can fight. Yeah. You know, in the middle of another pandemic surge. So yeah, Francesca, one party has lost his ever loving mind, as my grandmother would say, and the other one won't use its own power. You know, the squad members get billified for holding up this president's agenda saying do not separate the BF from the B to the third power.

Don't do it or we'll never get B to the third power. They get fussed at and how can you do this and we'll never. Meanwhile, back at the ranch, those two mansion and cinema get invited to the White House over and over and over again. Yeah. It's something wrong with that picture. Yeah. You know what I'm going to only, like I agree with what Nina said about the refusal to use their power in that the Democrats actually want something to be done won't use their power. And they have an obligation to use their power because the people are suffering and they've made promises.

But to use sort of a sports analogy, like, you know, it's a thing in some sports basketball and stuff like that. you know, there's kneeling football. When you are like way ahead in the game, you run out the clock. There's no incentive for you to open yourself up to losing control of the ball and letting the other team score. So like if you're the debt, if you're senior Democratic leadership or you know, a politician Nancy Pelosi who's been in power for literally decades and you yourself are worth $100 million and everyone you have spoken to for the last 10 years is worth at least $20 million. Why would you do anything? Why would you be willing to risk any change, any chaos, any instability? You're way ahead. You've got 100 points on the other team with the other team

being the working class. And so a case can be made. They've used their power. They don't need to use their power anymore because they've got everything that they want already. And they control the entire Republican Party. They control 98% of the Democratic Party. It's, like, a case can be made that she's just the most brazen element of it. But, yeah, Biden, he had an obligation to use his executive power, even if Mansion and Cinema all of a sudden were the best progresses of the country. And legislation was just flying through the Senate, he would still have an obligation to use the power that he has. But in the absence of literally anything being done by the Senate, they've, they've passed like two bills.

in a year, for him to refuse to do what he can, the few things that can be done, that it doesn't matter one bit what Mansion thinks about it or what Cinema thinks about it. Cinema can cry all she wants if he can't cancel student loan debt. She can't stop him. Yep. And he won't do it. I got to say, however much disdain you have for cinema, you should have at least as much for Joe Biden, because he should be angry at her. He should he should cancel $50 billion in student loan debt today and say tomorrow I'm going to do another $50 billion until you revise the filibuster. And you know what? I'm going to I'm going to shut down a coal plant each day, Joe Mansion until you, like figure some sort of leverage. Like it's difficult. I'm not saying it's

easy. These people don't feel accountable to virtually anything, but there's got to be a pressure point. There's got to be some leverage you can use. And he's just, what do we got? After a year, he's coming out and occasionally raising his voice a little bit while refusing to even use their names. And we're supposed to be impressed by that. It's pathetic. I just have to add one thing. You know, we've talked a lot about moderate on moderate or centrist on centrist crime lately, you know, and the fact that the people killing the president's bill are not progressives, as Nina Turner just said. And I think that, you know, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, We have to keep in mind that Kirsten Cinema's bad faith argument around the filibuster is actually

a crystallization of the BS bipartisanship like mantra right there. Like we have to work together, work together, work together, look at where it's gotten us. Like you can hate and I think a lot of, you know, centrist, liberals, moderates, they're mad at cinema, oh, we're mad at cinema, but we hate progressives more. No, no, no, no, no. Look who's tanking your agenda. It's the idea of bipartisanship when by the way, let us remember all her like backtracking around history.

Oh, when Democrats used it, when Republicans use it, Republicans, they don't need to lift the filibuster rules anymore because they got everything they want. Like they're like, almost a, I got on my Supreme Court justice nominees. We're rolling back voting rights. We got a fascist in office. Like they, it's coming up for them. It's coming up roses for them. They are loving it.

So what are you talking about? like they won't the shoe will never be on the other foot again it'll always be in the republican's favor it already is in the republicans favor and she's against pulling back the sort of you know the the mantle a little bit more to the center because you know the dishes are falling off the plate here let me off the table a hundred percent yeah table cloth you know what i'm saying john and francesca y'all preaching the gospel baby i'm just like amen i'm about to leave about my skin right now. Thank you. Okay. It was also bear in mind they can pass trillions of dollars

of tax cuts through reconciliation. No filibuster is going to stop that. They care about the money and they care about the judges and that's basically it. The judges will give them the culture war stuff they want and if a progressive ever passes a piece of legislation in some hypothetical future, the conservative super majority will knock it down.

So we have a fun future looking ahead. But anyway, we're going to take our first break. When we come back, just a little bit more on cinema. We've talked about some of her motivations. Let's talk about what she sees her future being after this. Welcome back, everyone at the first hour of the power panel with me and Francesca and Nina. More to talk about. Let's jump into it. Why is cinema doing everything that she's doing? What is the end game? What comes after her point?

position as a senator for this term. Well, I, and I think a lot of people have always assumed that it was going to be leaving the Senate and becoming a lobbyist or sitting on some corporate boards cashing in as virtually every senator does. And inevitably, that is what she will actually do. But that's not apparently what she's planning to do. So this has been sort of touched on in reporting previously. But Amy Siskind on Twitter apparently knows some people who who know the senator, and here is what she revealed in a thread this morning. Cinema has a highly overinflated ego. Okay, that part is not shocking, but we're going to get to some stuff that might be. She believes since she has been able to work her way up and

accumulate so many academic degrees in a short time, she is a true superstar, head and shoulders above intellectually. The U.S. Senate, she believes, is just a stopping ground for her next step. She doesn't assume she will need to be reelected. This is something I imagined, but assumed she would be a consultant or something of that variety. That isn't what Cinema believes will be her next step. With her inflated ego and small circle of friends, many of whom she has alienated and lost, not pushing back, she has been living in an echo chamber.

The big money corporate donors are happy to feed this. And what is the result of that? Cinema believes she will be running for president in 2024, I am told. This self-styled bipartisanship she believes she speaks for will be her brand to run as the candidate in the middle. Not far left or far right. She has convinced herself, this is her calling, and she has it. We can debate whether she, in effect, is far right, I would say, being like a reactionary that allows actually literally nothing to be done by the government to help the people fits in quite well with their ideology.

But Francesca, she sees herself running for president. It doesn't say that she's running as a Democrat necessarily, but she sees herself as running for president. How do you think that would go? Yeah, I mean, it's maybe one step better. than Biden Cheney, 2024, as floated by Thomas Friedman. Thomas, I don't know how I still have my job at the New York Times, Friedman. So obviously, she wants to run for president. Obviously, she's got a giant ego.

Who is she speaking to? Like, let's say, just let's say she's not a trash person, which she is. I'm sorry. Imagine, you're like, all right, here I am, I'm advising. yes, Senator Cinema to run for president because people want a middle ground. They don't, they want like a Republican light. They're not MAGA and they're not Democrats. They're right in the middle.

Like Hillary Clinton who lost. Like who is voting for the Republican light? Anna says this all the time and my God, she's right. Nobody. Nobody wants Kirsten Cinema. The Democratic Party doesn't want Kirsten Cinema. Republicans sure as hell don't want Kirsten Cinema. They've got like actual like Maga behind them.

Yeah. She's not a Trumper. Who are you talking to? Nobody. So anyway, I don't know. I think I think Senator Turner would have better ideas than I would. No, no. Francesca, you're laying it down.

And I mean, just as all of this fervor was about, oh, those bad progressives, one of primary the president. Look no further. The obstruction is in your own corporate is bad. backyard and compliments of Senator Christian, Kristen Cinema. Oh, yeah. Yeah, running. Yeah, imagine if Bernie, like, Biden had come in, all these promises, he's wanted to be president for, like, I don't know, 80, 90 years. He finally becomes president. Imagine if Bernie had spent the entire time blocking everything that he wanted to do. The media would have lost it. Well, Cinema and Mansion have done that.

And they might be a little bit frustrated in the media, but not that frustrated. They've been kind of okay with her. No. And so. John, they get praise. They get lifted. They get invited to the White House. That's true.

And to, for us to the points that we are all making here, even in the midst of this rumor being floated out there, she still gets a call. Mm-hmm. Imagine that. She still gets a call by the president. No, exactly. I mean, what can you imagine if Vice President Harris gets passed over for a running mate for Kirsten? cinema because Biden thinks he needs to attack even more to the right. Yeah, like this is the world we live in.

I can imagine to me. Yeah. I do just want to flag that like I don't, I don't really, I just want to say that like the same actually Amy Siskind is like one of those people. She tweeted that out. She's just one of those people who actually like scores tries to take digs against progressives all the time. Oh, how come AOC and Ilhan Omar didn't vote for the, you know, the infrastructure bill. How dare they, they must hate roads. total bad faith stuff. So it's interesting because I feel like it's on the democratic establishment and the think tanks and they're a consultant. What are you doing about cinema? What are you doing? What consequences can you enact on Kirsten Cinema? I know a lot of people are asking Emily's list,

which supposedly supports, you know, pro-choice female candidates across the board. But is obviously not by any means a progressive entity. But like is Emily's list? Levying any pressure against Kirsten Cinema? Yeah, and like they're not, they're not shy about running primaries against progressives or look what they did to India Walton. Like when they want to destroy someone they don't agree with, they are absolutely brutal. But with cinema, it's, I mean, I don't want to be that mean. And so we have to suffer through her having lunches three times a week at the White House and Axios articles about her awesome spreadsheets and everything. It's, it is insufferable.

I'm going to say something and I'm not worried about this happening because Curson Cinema is insane if she thinks she could become the nominee that she would actually have a chance of winning. But let's say that hypothetically she does run and the world is insane. So maybe she could. She becomes a Democratic nominee. No, I'm not doing it. That's the line that I draw.

I hate people who've drawn those lines in worse circumstances saying that they wouldn't support certain candidates, even if it means a fascist take over the United States or whatever. But no, I'm not supporting Kirsten Cinema, not after all that she has done. It's not going to happen. I'm never going to have to make good on that promise, but I'm done. I'm out, not going to do it. So anyway, I do not think that it's going to happen. Nobody likes her. Literally like five people in Arizona like her.

She thinks she's going to take over the nation. I have a feeling that's probably not going to happen. Buttigieg will wipe the floor with her if it comes to it. And we know what I think about Buttigieg. First of all, you know she's running third party. Let's be real. She's joining the forward party? I'm sorry?

Is she joining the forward party? Sure. She, I don't know. Whatever the green party is when it's gone stank. It's like the, you know. She was green party way back, remember. I mean, that was a very, very long time ago, but. It was a long time ago, but, you know, and this is the other thing.

And like, I just want to say, like, if she were, if Bernie Sanders, remember obviously Senator Attorney, you remember how much he got called, you're not really a Democrat, you're not really a Democrat because you're an independent. And yet he's done more for the Democratic Party than probably anyone else in the last four years, right? And then if Kirsten Sinema, if Bernie Sanders had run third party, when he lost the primary, oh my God. If Kirsten Cinema loses a primary and runs third party, watch how the media will be like, I don't know,

maybe are we ready? Are we ready for Kirsten Cinema? Are we ready? Because her platform is safe. It's corporate friendly. It's safe. It's not even friendly. It is run by corporation.

Yeah. Yeah. And they'll do any and everything to destroy progressives. That's for sure. You know, there's a commentator on the Black News Network named Tesla. figure up. And she had tweeted one time. She said, why don't you go after these folks in the same way you come after Nina Turner? Go after these corporates in the same way you come after Nina Turner and other progressives. How about that? Why don't they just do that? If they did that,

cinema and mansion would be nowhere near the White House. And let me add this point, where are the colleagues in the Senate, with the exception of Senator Sanders? Because he, you know, he bringing the noise. But where are them other ones at? I would be giving cinema and mansion hell. You hear me? Yeah. About what they are doing. But the reason why they are not doing that is because some of them are hiding behind. Yeah. Yeah. And the people who aren't in elect office, you know, they may not love cinema necessarily. There might be a couple pieces of legislation they wish that would get passed. If they had it, if they could press a button and get rid of her, maybe they would. But But if she wins, how bad is that for them?

They're still rich. Okay, and so sure, the Republicans take over as a result and Democrats can never win another election, but what does that mean to a rich kind of liberal? Yeah, they'll outlaw abortion and they'll have to fly, you know, a kid who wants an abortion to Belgium or something, but they'll still be rich. What's the difference to them? Yeah. And honestly, they'd prefer the late night jokes under the next fascists, so as long as, you know,

shows were allowed to be on. So, yeah, these people, like, don't assume that all these people are our allies. They, this is a game to them. It's not life and depth. The stakes aren't that high. I'm not too worried about her third party run, by the way, because again, nobody would vote for her. Nobody. Yeah, I'm going to run third party and take everything too. No, nobody's worried about that. Well, I don't know, John. I mean, she is in the United States Senate. So, so much. somebody voted for, for sure. She'll get a few votes, but not enough. You are right.

You are right. But they voted for. Arizona, get your senator. Mm-hmm, mm-hmm. And they are, you know, they are. They're, you know, I think like, you know, Representative Gallegos is thinking about a run. There's other people think about a primary run.

The time to start is yesterday, obviously, on that. But I do think that, I feel like when cinema was elected, I don't know, Senator Turner, maybe you have a better thought. When she was elected, it was very, it was very much a blue no matter who, and it still is. Oftentimes people, it's blue no matter who. And I think thanks to Bernie Sanders, thanks to Nina Turner, thanks to the squad,

thanks to a new, a Democrat showing that there is a different way, that there is a progressive way. Cinema's not, obviously, is not holding up to the cinema test, right, for Democrats. So blue no matter who, out the window, it is, what are you standing for? And how can we hold you accountable? That's why when people take pledges that they will not accept fossil fuel money or dark money or big corporate pack money, that matters. That means something. When cinema was elected, she didn't have to make those promises.

Right? But we're in a different moment now. So it's good and we do, but we have to be more eyes wide open about these Democrats that we elect. Exactly. We do, Frances. And blue no matter who can get you killed. And that's not hyperbole. That's not over the top.

You think about the fact that over there in that Senate, first of all, the bill back better, which was already gutted, is gutted even more and it's resting over there. You got those two saying, oh, you know, expanding the child's tax credit. Well, maybe, maybe not. You know, not pushing for lowering prescription drugs for people in this country, both young and seasoned who need medicine to either live, like flat out live or to enhance. their quality of life. Nope, nope, not going to do it. All the way to what's happening now,

trampling over voting rights, for God's sakes. So Blue, no matter who, can get you killed, literally. On that note, we're going to go into our second break. We come back. Last more news.

Don't go anywhere. Welcome. back, everyone, to the TYT Dojo. We're doing a power panel. Me, Francesca, and Nina, we got more. Let's jump into it. Today, three senators. So we've got Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, and Tammy Baldwin have written a letter to a billionaire CEO, Larry Fink, telling him to support the workers of Warrior Met Coal, who have been on strike now for getting close to 300 days. And this is a strike that here on TYT we've talked about before and other shows on the network. And outside of that and maybe vice or, you know, like democracy now might have checked in a little bit,

has largely gone unnoticed despite the fact that it's a very long running strike in a sector of the economy that politicians and media pretend to care a lot about coal workers. It's like a stereotypical, like working class thing, literally digging coal out of the ground so that we can have energy. They pretend all the time that they care about it. But when those workers are suffering and want help, suddenly they're not interested anymore. I don't think they like coal workers. I think they like coal companies. I think they like coal CEOs.

And I think that's about as far as it goes. But anyway, we want to remind you a little bit about what this strike is about. So take a look at this. Over a thousand coal miners that Warrior Met in Brooklyn, Alabama, had been on strike since April 1st. No country! No coal! No country! No coal! The miners accepted steep pay cuts to save the mine from bankruptcy several years ago. Now, Warrior Met is making hundreds of millions in revenue, but the workers haven't seen a dime. They have made it known that they have the money to take care of these guys that are on strike, but they choose not to. Yeah, we're just ready to go back to work.

You know, the only thing holding us back is Warrior Mets, you know, lack of good faith, you know, negotiating. Guess what? I lost them, and I got fired. I got fired. Now, shortly they brought me back, but they fought me every step of the way. So Warrior Mets doesn't care about their workers. So these senators are trying to get Larry Fink to step in.

He's the CEO of BlackRock. BlackRock is the largest shareholder of Warrior Met. I have a feeling I know how that's probably going to go. Their attempt to get through to him. But just a little bit more information. It said in the video there that these workers made a bunch of concessions to save the company from bankruptcy. So that worked, the company didn't go under. And what happened after that?

How has the company repaid them by not repaying them? So this is back in 2016. In 2017, Warrior Met rewarded $1.4 billion in dividends to wealthy shareholders, handed out bonuses of up to $50,000 to executives. And now they've offered their workers, and the workers are not accepting, a mere $1.50 raise over five years and has refused to restore health care and pension benefits that were taken away from them five days ago. So they're doing okay. You got some stock buybacks, some dividends, you got bonuses for executives. Regular workers, though, are being left out. So

what do you think about this, Nina? It's mind numbing. It's heart numbing. It's immoral. And I love to see. I'm glad that these senators are uniting to call all these fools out, because that's exactly what they are. The workers made the sacrifice, you know, like that collective sacrifice so that no one would lose out. And this is the repayment that they get. They need to rain down hellfire on this company. Seriously. This is, this is immoral. Yeah. Meanwhile, their stock price, 250% increased during the pandemic. Thanks to those workers who saved them from bankruptcy. I mean, I'm reminded of like, you know, the factory takeovers back when like, you know, the Argentine economy collapsed and workers were like, what do we do? Let's run it ourselves. I'm like, let's do that. Like, when all the rich go to Mars or

wherever, you know, they're like little Peter Thiel floating island tax haven, like let's just really see the means of production. Obviously, we transition the coal mines to like, you know, wind and solar and all that. And we treat people. I'm just, I'm just future tripping here, you guys. Let me, let me have that moment. But, you know, it's great that senators are putting pressure and bringing some attention to this and like just shout out to more perfect union and Kim Kelly who's been doing an amazing job covering this and other strikes and and and mainstream media doesn't talk about this at all at all no no no they love they they love they're like oh let's talk about just cinema and mansion mansion mansion and cinema who's going to be next

like this little palace intrigue BS but this is what matters this is who we're talking to and here's my other thing I would like to see Joe Biden speak out on this but not just speak out with, you know, words and pressure, but, but look, let's get some, let's get some version of a Green New Deal through. Let's, we're in an emergency, we're in a pandemic, honestly, whatever it takes to help out workers like these coal miners. Let's talk about a just transition. Let's talk about a Green New Deal. This is the kind of ideological and political groundwork that you have to do. If you want to get people on board with your vision, It's a perfect time to lay out that vision for what a green new deal, what a workers,

a green new deal that benefits workers could look like. Exactly, yeah. And we don't see it. And thank you for putting the spotlight on some who have been covering it well. I sort of get why, like I don't expect, you know, Anderson Cooper to visit or whatever. Like I don't expect boast on CNN or MSNBC. They don't generally care about workers. But he can wear like a T-shirt though, John.

He can wear like a, you know, he loves wearing the tight-fitting. He would, he's in pretty good shape. But here's the funny thing. And obviously, I'm going to lay out a question and everyone in the audience is going to scoff. They're going to laugh. And I'll get it. Where's Fox News? Why is Tucker Carlson, the right-wing populist, not reporting on locate?

Where's Jesse Waters? Where's Sean Haney? These are like, they, they actually care about the workers of America who have been left behind, you know, the mind, literal. Coal miners, where's Trump? Why is he on the picket lines? They're populous. They would never, Tucker Carlson wouldn't be within a mile of a speck of coal that might land on his lapel. But they have this aura of being like they're the ones who are actually concerned about workers.

And I'm like, I want these workers to get what they need. But I would also love to know, like, because there's got to be some conservatives in, like, among them, do they feel the lack of interest? Breitbart ain't there? Bannon's not, he's not going there. They're coal workers. It's like, like, once the right has, like, they don't care about the soldiers. They don't care about them getting health care when they come back or anything. And they pretend to like the cops, but they're perfectly fine with right-wing insurrectionists, beating them to death with fire extinguishers and flags and stuff. But at the very least, they're supposed to love coal miners.

That's their thing. And yet nothing for nearly for 288 days, nothing. It's ridiculous. Yeah. The coal miners should feel betrayed really. This is class warfare. This is a real life and real time example of class warfare. The working class willing to make a larger sacrifice, a sacrifice for the greater good.

And then the company store itself once is. it's extra buzzing right now, turning their backs on the very people that helped them not only be solvent, but to be better than solving, class warfare. So they should feel betrayed by these folks. Yeah. Well, with that, I think we have just enough time to talk about one more topic, and it is an important one. So let's jump into this with the minutes we have remaining. The SCOTUS is now ruled on the Biden administration mandates, which as we discussed at length this morning on TDR, I will remind you, because you will almost never hear it, are not vaccine mandates.

There are mandates that mandate either vaccinations or testing. The testing part is always dropped off in the discussions of this. Seems like something we should note. But in any event, the court struck down the president's mandate, which used OSHA, the occupational safety and health administration to compel private employers to force employees to either get jabbed or submit to regular testing. Biden was handed the defeat by a six to three decision with only the court's liberals dissenting. Six three is a number you're going to want to get used to for the next 15 years or so, maybe 20, because it's going to crop up in a lot

of cases. Really devastating ones too. So that one went the way the right wingers want. Get rid of the mandates. Allow COVID to spread as freely as it wants. Allow it to feed on the American people. So they liked that. But Brett Kavanaugh is finding himself facing the scorn of the right because he sided with Chief Justice John Roberts and the court liberals to save a mandate for medical facilities which accept Medicare or Medicaid payments. The mandate for health care workers there to comply with vaccination or testing scraped by in a 5-4 decision. So the right is not happy about that. It's a much more minor mandate in terms of how many people. people would affect, then the private employer one.

The private employer one would have covered 80 million employees. It was believed, I think, that it would have saved something like 2,500 lives. Feel free to check that number. Those lives will now be lost. And the right is very angry about the minor loss that they had here. Fox News writer Kyle Becker tweeted, Kavanaugh's selection earns a facepalm for the Trump administration. You would think after left is smeared his reputation with false rape allegations,

he wouldn't give them the time of day. Thank the turtle in charge of the Senate for his nomination. So his argument there is that because lefties were mean to him, he should rule differently than he thinks is just when he gets into the Supreme Court. That's an interesting position. Ron DeSantis had this to say, we won six three on that, the first, which is good, but honestly, this is a no-brainer. Anybody who's not a far-left jurist is going to go that way.

But on the medical, the nurse mandate and the doctor mandate, Robertson-Cavanaugh joined with the liberals to allow the nurse mandate. Honestly, Robertson-Cavanaugh didn't have a backbone on that decision. That's the bottom line. And if that isn't enough, take a look at what Tucker Carlson had to say about Kavanaugh in particular. Right now, we have a three-to-one in terms of the number of the federal mandates that President Biden has tried to push. Three of them have been struck down so far, and only the one today with health care workers, which I disagree with. that has gone forward. So 10 million healthcare workers do have to get vaccinated if they wish

to keep their jobs in a covered facility, which is really unfortunate given the massive shortage that we have of health care workers right now in our hospitals. Yeah, with no help from Brett Cavdaugh, I notice, cringing little liberal. I'm sorry, I'm not going to ask you to respond to that. So easily among the creepiest people on TV and it's not talked about enough. But yeah, they got virtually everything that they wanted there. And they're frustrated with the prospect, the idea that nurses and doctors should either be vaccinated or be tested. They would prefer them to be sick with COVID as they are administering to patients coming to the hospitals. But yeah, they're not happy with Kavanaugh or John Roberts here.

What do you have to say about this, Francesca? Well, yeah, and the way that they're criticizing Kavanaugh using the rape allegation. and to say nothing of the dozens of investigations that were never pursued into Kavanaugh's background, which are still being investigated now, or hopefully, like the way they talk about it in such crass terms, people using terms like, oh yeah, Kavanaugh really dry humped this situation, or yeah, this is a real rape situation, like, it gives you a sense. Yeah, yeah. This gives you a sense of where we are as a country. You know, you have people like Kirsten Cinema and even Joe Biden thinking that somehow you can Republican whisper and these people are going to come around. No, they are, they are crass, they are immoral and they love being crass and immoral. They love the blood on their hands. They are proud of it. They are proud and they, you know, they parade around the idea of freedom, which doesn't exist. And it grosses me out. And so I'm just like, look, in the face of them having such little for nurses and doctors, what's our plan? What are we going to do about it? And so far,

we don't have anything. There it is. There it is, John. I'm just Francesculated down. Yeah, 100%. Yeah, no, it's, it's for, like, so it this by itself would be frustrating enough that it's not like, it's not like Biden has come up with like a 57 point list of the ways that he's going to save America from the pandemic. But, he's done a few things. He's certainly encouraged vaccination. He has in the areas where they felt they could pass, it's called passing constitutional muster when it's really passing an overwhelming conservative majority of the Supreme Court in terms of mandates. He has done that. But here's the thing that makes it even more frustrating. So they just

knock down the mandate. So 80 million workers will either not have to get vaccinated or won't have to be tested. So they will be potentially walking. with COVID without knowing, you will be exposed to more of your coworkers that won't know that they have COVID. And all the while, as the inevitable comes from that, which is more sickness, more hospitalization, more death, the right wing will then say, how come Biden's doing so poorly when it comes to the pandemic? He said he was going to have this thing under control. They criticize Trump. And yet Biden had so many deaths. Don't wear a mask. Don't get vaccinated. Don't comply with mandates.

Get as much COVID as possible. Cough in my mouth. And somehow they're still shocked that it isn't going so well here. So they're really having their pathogen and eating it too here. Yeah, the world is all the way upside down, down. Bottom line. Let's go on bottom line this. The world is upside down.

We in the twilight, don't. Yeah. Seriously. No, and you're totally right. They will say exactly that. Oh, I thought it was supposed to go so well. Yeah, you prevented it from going better. And by the way, liberals and Republicans alike, we're going to be hearing a lot of like, gee, what's going on with the labor shortage?

It seems like nobody wants to work. I don't ever want to hear the words labor shortage out of anyone's mouth ever again, ever. Like, stop. Stop with the upbeds. Stop with your, you know, your smarmy little like Wall Street executive, you know, sort of glass towel. Every tower takes on all this, people are staying home because they don't want to get sick. They don't want to infect their loved ones, right? And not to mention all that we're doing to protect the pig-headed anti-vaxxers still, at this point, still trying to keep them from dying.

But really trying to, we are the ones. People who are saying home, people are being cautious, actually are the ones who are trying to look out for nurses and hospitals, you know? Universal health care, Francesca and John, too. Let me just slide that on into this conversation. Because in the face of something of this magnitude, we got these folks on Capitol Hill that do not understand that this is the time to have universal health care right now while we got this kind of life and death crisis on our hands

in this country and in the world. Yeah, 100%. Totally. And hopefully we'll be a waking up sort of moment for a lot of Americans. Unfortunately, that is all the time we have for the first hour. So I want to thank both of you for joining me. Nina, as always, it was a pleasure to break down the news with you.

Everybody should become a member so that you can watch Power Hour every week with Nina. And Jake should be back next week for the next episode. Francesca, thank you. You're always on the damage report, which we appreciate a lot. Your show is actually coming up in just a couple of days. What have you got planned for the Situation Room this weekend? The Bituation Room. I'm going to talk to, we're going to talk about public health.

and how, you know, in addition to the vaccine, we need a broad public health plan, i.e. universal health care, but beyond that, right, within the current system, what can we do? So, yeah, bituation room at Franie Fi'O on YouTube, follow, watch. Awesome. Watch. Exactly. For all of you at home, Jared Jackson will be on in just a few, so don't go anywhere, but I will see you later. Thanks for listening to the full episode of the Young Turks, support our work, listen ad,

access members only bonus content and more by subscribing to Apple Podcasts at apple.co slash TYT. I'm your host, Shank Huger, and I'll see you soon.