The Young Turks - Biden Impeachment Inquiry

Episode Date: December 14, 2023

Gaza healthcare workers were "taken" by Israeli forces, says doctor, amid "horrendous conditions'' at hospitals. Exclusive: Recordings describe 2020 Oval Office photo-op where Trump was briefed on fake electors and Jan. 6. House votes to formalize impeachment inquiry into Joe Biden. White House open to new border expulsion law, mandatory detention and increased deportations in talks with Congress. HOST: Ana Kasparian (@AnaKasparian)] SUBSCRIBE on YOUTUBE: ☞ https://www.youtube.com/user/theyoungturks FACEBOOK: ☞ https://www.facebook.com/theyoungturks TWITTER: ☞ https://www.twitter.com/theyoungturks INSTAGRAM: ☞ https://www.instagram.com/theyoungturks TIKTOK: ☞ https://www.tiktok.com/@theyoungturks 👕 Merch: https://shoptyt.com ❤ Donate: http://www.tyt.com/go 🔗 Website: https://www.tyt.com 📱App: http://www.tyt.com/app 📬 Newsletters: https://www.tyt.com/newsletters/ If you want to watch more videos from TYT, consider subscribing to other channels in our network: The Watchlist https://www.youtube.com/watchlisttyt Indisputable with Dr. Rashad Richey https://www.youtube.com/indisputabletyt The Damage Report ▶ https://www.youtube.com/thedamagereport TYT Sports ▶ https://www.youtube.com/tytsports The Conversation ▶ https://www.youtube.com/tytconversation Rebel HQ ▶ https://www.youtube.com/rebelhq TYT Investigates ▶ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwNJt9PYyN1uyw2XhNIQMMA 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. Is bedtime a nightmare? If you fear the chance of accidental leakage and skin irritation, you need to try tennis sensitive care overnight pads. Its skin comfort formula acts as a barrier to help protect your skin. Try them now and have a smooth night. Woo! It's up!

Welcome to TYT. I'm your host, Anna Kasparian, and there is a lot of late breaking news to get to today. A lot of updates on the crisis in Gaza, the ongoing war. The House has officially voted to open an impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden. So we'll give you the details on that story a little later on in the hour. That's still developing, but it's a done deal. They've apparently voted on that. In the second hour, John Iderolo will be joining me to talk about a whole host of other stories, including Hunter Biden deciding to defy a subpoena, something that Republican lawmaker Jim Jordan has quite a bit of experience with.

And since he did defy that subpoena, they're planning on holding him in contempt of Congress. So we'll talk about that. In the bonus episode, a story you do not want to miss. We're going to talk a little bit about what food companies are doing to save money on their products while still charging us quite a bit more for the very snacks that we know and love. But do we really know and love them? Do we? You're going to find out in the bonus episode, tyt.com slash join to become a member. Members get exclusive content and they help to support our show and keep us independent and free from corporate influence. So thank you to our members for doing that and giving us a voice. All right, without further ado, I wanted to do. a somewhat lengthy update on the ongoing war in Gaza. There are some statements coming from Biden that were immediately walked back. So let's get to it. Israel has pressed ahead with its devastating offensive against Gaza's Hamas rulers, which could go on for weeks or months. On Monday, the Israeli army issued another announcement asking residents of northern Gaza to evacuate

south, with more than 90% of Gaza's 2.3 million residents being displaced within the besieged territory. The death and destruction that has largely impacted Palestinian women and children, mostly civilians, in the Gaza Strip at the hands of the Israeli defense forces, has become so extreme that But President Joe Biden briefly, briefly had a moment of clarity and called out the indiscriminate bombing that is currently taking place because of this ongoing war, because of Israel refusing to engage in a ceasefire or really take measures necessary to ensure that civilians are being protected.

So here's a little bit of Biden's criticism, but don't get too excited because he did in fact walk it back. Israel's military campaign is now sparking tensions with the White House. President Biden speaking earlier at a fundraiser today saying Israel is right to take on Hamas and has most of the world supporting them. But they're starting to lose that support by indiscriminate bombing in Gaza. And that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government has to change. You can't say there's no Palestinian state in the future.

The administration wants the more moderate Palestinian authority to take over post-Post. for Gaza. But Netanyahu is rejecting that, saying overnight, I will not allow the entry into Gaza of those who educate for terrorism, support terrorism, and finance terrorism. Today, six aid groups said the humanitarian situation in Gaza is in an apocalyptic freefall. An apocalyptic freefall, that has been going on for months now. And I just want to let you know that when this story broke yesterday, the statements that Joe Biden made in a closed door private fundraiser, I wasn't willing to give him any credit because I felt that, you know, he does this time to time where he wants to have his cake and eat it to, where he on one hand

will say, you know, we're urging the Israelis to be careful and to avoid civilian casualties while also making an appeal to Congress, applying fresher to Congress to approve another $14 billion in military weaponry and military support to Israel. You can't on one hand criticize what Israel is doing. And then on the other hand, through your actions, support what they're doing. And that's essentially what he has been engaging in. Biden has been supporting them both rhetorically, but also through these military support effort. With that said, of course, members of the Biden administration immediately walked back Biden's statements today.

In the Financial Times, there was a report in which one U.S. official said that Biden's remarks were not part of an orchestrated attempt by the White House to put pressure on Netanyahu, but we're off the cuff and random. In other words, don't worry Netanyahu, we're not actually going to apply pressure or deny you any military support as you continue to slaughter innocent women and children in the Gaza Strip. Don't worry, we still have your back, even when you are publicly saying that you will go against our policies and what we wish, if that were, in fact, our official policies toward Israel, right? So one thing that's become abundantly clear in recent days is that Israel has absolutely no interest in allowing for a Palestinian state. They're saying it out loud in interviews. Benjamin Netanyahu has made that abundantly clear. And you know, the war now is I want to give you the death toll, the casualties, because every day the numbers keep rising, every day the apocalyptic situation gets worse. The war now in its third month has brought unprecedented

death and destruction, with much of northern Gaza obliterated. More than 18,000 Palestinians killed, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry. 70% of them reportedly children and women, and over 80% of the population of 2.3 million pushed from their homes, meaning displaced from their homes. And I want you to just for a second put yourself in the shoes of these Palestinians, knowing that their homes are completely destroyed. Think about how comforting it is to be in your own home. So come home after work and be in your own little bubble, your own little refuge, your own

little safe space. That is what's currently being denied to these Palestinian civilians. The conditions in the northern half of the strip are unlivable. And I believe that that is very much intentional, especially given the public statements that members of the Lakud Party have been making recently about how they will not allow for a Palestinian state. Now those numbers that I just shared with you do not include the bodies that are currently trapped underneath the rubble. You know, the rubble that was the result of buildings that were bombed by the 2,000 pound bombs that the United States has

been supplying Israel with. So EuroMed Monitor actually does their own count of civilian casualties. And what they do is they also include the number of people who are very likely dead because they were trapped under the rubble and no one was able to, you know, retrieve their bodies because remember, the Gaza Strip has also run out of fuel, which means the heavy machinery that they usually rely on to dig through that rubble is inoperable. They can't use it because they don't have the fuel to run those machines. Now, Euromet Monitor said that 23,012 Palestinians have been killed so far in the intense Israeli air and artillery attacks on the Gaza Strip, including 9,077 children, as hundreds of additional children remain trapped under the rubble of destroyed

buildings with little chance of survival, the total number of children deaths is likely to exceed 10,000. And how can your heart not break when you read numbers like that? When you see the kinds of videos that we've been seeing day in and day out. This is why I have a hard time believing that social media, that algorithmic manipulation on TikTok is what's turning, you know, certain Americans against supporting Israel's effort in Gaza. We see these videos and it makes us sick to our stomachs. I would feel the exact same way if it was happening to Israeli civilians. But it's not happening to Israeli civilians, it's happening to Palestinian civilians,

and it's wrong. And hearing from the White House here and there about how like, oh, you know, maybe they should do a little more to mitigate civilian casualties, it's just not enough. Actions speak louder than words. And we haven't really seen much action from the White House in regard to protecting civilian lives. Now, according to Euromed Monitor, they note other figures, including the fact that 700,000 children have been affected by Israel's, you know, what Israel is currently doing with the bombardments, with the artillery fire. And that number also includes those who were killed, injured, and internally displaced. Euromed Monitor further estimated that between

24,000 and 25,000 children in the Gaza Strip have lost one or more parent, and approximately 640,000 have had their homes destroyed or damaged, leaving them without a place to live. There was a video I was watching today. It was an international news organization, and it featured a little girl. She couldn't have been older than six or seven years old. Both of her parents are gone. She's an orphan now. She was receiving what little medical treatment they can provide right now in the Gaza Strip.

And I just, my heart just broke for this little girl to lose both of her parents. I don't know what her fate will be. It's just absolutely devastating. Now, what Israel is planning to do is flood the tunnels in the Gaza Strip. The IDF is now flooding Gaza's tunnels in some, what they're saying, limited regions of the strip. I wouldn't take anything that either Hamas or the IDF say at face value, I would take anything either side says with a grain of salt until we have a third party that's a little more fair kind of looking into and analyzing the situation clearly. But they have been thinking about flooding those tunnels for quite some time.

At first, I was under the assumption that that would be a good way to get Hamas militants out because I'm under the assumption that they're hiding in the tunnels. But there are some complications here. Number one, remember, there are still Israeli hostages and other hostages in the Gaza Strip, they're very likely in those tunnels. And the reason why I say they're likely in those tunnels is because the hostages that have since been freed have said that they were kept in the tunnels. So flooding the tunnels with seawater obviously, very obviously puts the lives of those hostages in jeopardy. There's also some concern that flooding those tunnels with seawater would contaminate whatever's left of the drinking water in Gaza. So there are certainly some complications and some issues there.

And the situation is about to get a whole lot worse as the IDF prepares to do this. Because remember, they're not just going to flood the tunnels and be done with it. They're also continuing on with their aerial bombardments. They're pushing Gossans further and further to the southern border, the Ratha border. And there have been reports that they are, in fact, planning to put trying to push them out into Egypt. But Egypt refuses to open its borders specifically to avoid Palestinians being pushed out of their land and, you know, and giving the Israeli government what it wants in pushing Palestinians out of their land. With that said, right now I want to talk a little bit about the hospital situation because that is also dire. We've been keeping track of what's been happening in hospitals and it's worth talking about.

So across Gaza, only 11 hospitals at the moment are partially, not fully, partially functioning according to the World Health Organization. Richard Peppercorn, who is the World Health Organization's representative in Gaza, said the following. In just 66 days, the health system has gone from 36 functional hospitals to 11 partially functional hospitals. So one in the north and 10 in the south. And the reason for that is the aerial bombardments were mostly focused on the northern region of the Gaza's Yes, there were also bombardments happening in the south, but the intense bombardments were focused in the north. Now the IDF is focusing its aerial bombardments mostly in the south.

So there really isn't any region of the Gaza Strip that is safe at the moment. And so what remains of the partially functioning hospitals, I don't have a good feeling about what the future holds for them because they're going to continue getting bombardment, bombarded, and I don't know whether they're going to even be able to offer any medical care at that point. Now, Dr. Hossam Abu Safia, who is the head of pediatrics at Kamal, Adwan Hospital in Gaza City, said that the area where the facility is located saw particularly heavy bombing on Tuesday, followed by the arrival of Israeli troops describing the situation as very dangerous. He also had another allegation that should absolutely be investigated.

It's absolutely terrifying to hear that this is happening. He alleges that Israeli forces are arresting doctors and health care workers and that they disappear. No one knows where they're taken to, where they're detained. More than 70 medical staff are arrested and taken to an unknown area. according to Dr. Hossam Abu Safia, including hospital director Dr. Ahmed al-Kalut. Now, in previous reporting, the IDF and the Israeli government seemed to fess up to doing this. And their argument was, well, we need to interrogate them because we have some suspicions that these health care workers know where Hamas militants are.

And so we just want to ask them some questions. We just want to ask them some questions. But to me, considering the dire situation in these hospitals, considering the lack of health care available to these Palestinian civilians who are wounded through artillery fire and through aerial bombardments, it seems as though this is an attempt to deny people who need health care, the health care they need, while, you know, detaining these doctors on what I find to be false pretenses, right? They've detained hundreds of Palestinian men, civilians who had absolutely no tie to Hamas. We covered that story earlier this week where they were also releasing footage and photos of these men stripped down to their underwear, absolutely humiliated. By the way, doing that, releasing that kind of footage is also considered a war crime according to international law, which is single-handedly being dismantled by the Israeli government with the help of the United States government. And I have a real problem with that. And so it turned out that later the IDF said that of those men who were in that footage that was

spread, right? The men who were stripped to their underwear, only about 10 to 15% of them might have had ties to Hamas militants. But I wouldn't even buy that percentage, right? I wouldn't take anything they say at face value. I would want that to be investigated. In fact, the release of those kinds of videos and the fact they did this, they rounded up hundreds of men and did this to them, I think also needs to be investigated. But it does feel as though the IDF is able to operate with impunity. And the reason why I say that is because, you know, you have the United Nations Security Council voting to have Israel engage in a ceasefire. The majority of security council countries voted in favor of it. But all you need is one country with veto power to veto that

resolution. And that's exactly what the United States did. The United States vetoed the resolution by the UN Security Council to basically force Israel to engage in a ceasefire. After that, there were some moves made, and those moves included the general UN Council voting for a ceasefire. The only problem is, in that case, the resolution is non-binding. It's mostly symbolic, but it's also meant to apply some pressure to Israel. Israel's going to completely ignore it. So the vote in the 193 member world body was 153 in favor, 10 against 23 abstentions. Okay, so 23 abstentions.

And of course, the United States was among the countries who voted against that ceasefire. So when all of this was taking place, that story of Joe Biden saying that, you know, Benjamin Netanyahu needs to change and that there's indiscriminate. bombing taking place in Gaza. He said that as the United States was vetoing or voting against these resolutions in the United Nations for a ceasefire. So it's just really hard for me to really give Biden any credit when you hear this news out of the White House where they're wagging their finger at Netanyahu. By the way, as we know, Biden's White House walked back those statements. White House official spoke to the Financial Times and made it clear that Biden was just

talking off the cuff and it was random and that in no way is the U.S. government, you know, orchestrating some sort of pressure policy to get Benjamin Netanyahu to lay off Gaza and engage in a ceasefire. So that's where we are with the situation. It really is incredibly depressing. I think that it is telling that the United States has engaged in these votes in the UN, first vetoing the UN Security Council and then voting against a broader UN resolution to pressure Israel for a ceasefire. Because think about how that makes the United States look on a world stage. Think about how other countries are now perceiving the United States as we on one hand criticize the actions of Vladimir Putin, which we absolutely should. as we on one hand criticize the human rights abuses of other countries, like in China and

their treatment of the, you know, Uyghur Muslims, how can we on one hand have those criticisms while simultaneously enabling the slaughter of tens of thousands of innocent civilians in the Gaza strip? It's awful. It's shameful, and I'm embarrassed by it. Well, we got to take a break. When we come back. We've got more news for you, including, well, we're going to give you an update on the federal prosecution of Donald Trump in the election interference case. It looks like our homeboy cheesebro is speaking to prosecutors in other states where fake electors were implemented. So I want to give you that story and more coming up. Don't miss it. security, very limited income, get a few dollars in cola every year. Absolutely ridiculous. Totally.

Welcome back to TYT, everyone. I'm your host, Anna Kasparian. Just want to remind you all to like and share the stream if you're watching us online, and if you haven't done so already, really helps to support the show and get the word out on what we're doing, what we're covering, and what the progressive message is. All right, without further ado, though, we need to get to some of the investigations and legal issues that the very likely 2024 presidential candidates are dealing with. Let's start with Donald Trump and the election interference investigations taking place. New leaked recordings of former Trump lawyer, Kenneth Chesabro, show him basically describing a 2020 oval office photo up where he and other lawyers were

instructed to not egg on Donald Trump in this whole election interference nonsense, and basically let him know, listen, honey, you've lost the election, it's time to move on. That was the point of Trump's meeting with these lawyers. Now the recordings are from Michigan State Prosecutor's recent interview with Chesa Bro, an unindicted co-conduantyed co-conspirator who is cooperating with state investigators working on the whole fake electors case. Now, what's interesting is that Kenneth Chesabrough admits that even though the lawyers present at that Oval Office photo op, we're supposed to discourage Trump from moving forward with all this election interference nonsense, he confesses that, yeah, I actually did kind of

Egemon. So Chesa Bro is the guy who was responsible for writing a legal memo that transformed into a nationwide operation to overturn the results of the presidential election, right? The fake electors plot. And so here's what we learned from the tapes that have been leaked. On December 14th of 2020, the Wisconsin Supreme Court rejected Trump's lawsuits to nullify the state's election results. Days later, a guy named Jim Troopis, I believe. believe it is Jim Troopus and other GOP lawyers involved in the case flew to Washington, D.C., and they participated in this Senate hearing about election issues and also secured an Oval Office photo op with Donald Trump. Now Chesabro revealed that before the group of lawyers entered the

Oval Office, they were given clear instructions to not get Trump's hopes up about overturning the election. And look, it's not clear who gave that directive. We don't know who it is, but Chesabrough says that's what they were supposed to do. Now, Troopist told the line. He listened to the orders. He just finished leading Trump's failed election challenge in Wisconsin and bluntly told the president that it was just over in that state, time to move on. Now, Chesabrough details that situation in the leaked audio that you're about to hear. Clear that troops personally told the president there was zero hope for Wisconsin. As part of this message, I think crafted to try to get him to concede to just give up this

this long shot challenge. So there was a there was a conscious effort to deflect him from a sense of any possibility that he could pull out the election. Okay. So now he continues to say Chesa Bro continues to say, our marching orders were, don't say anything that makes him feel more positive than the beginning of the meeting. So let's just rehash what I what I just covered, okay? So you have the majority of the Republican lawyers in the Oval Office telling Trump, it's over, don't get your hopes up, you're not going to overturn the results of this election. But you have Chesabro egging him on with the fake elector scheme. And by the way, I should note the reason why Chesabrough is willing to

cooperate with these investigations is because he took a plea deal and he has immunity. So this essentially protects him while opening up potentially a whole host of issues for Donald Trump. But I do think there's a catch. And I'll tell you what that catch is in just a moment. But first, we need to hear more audio. So then the conversation shifted to Arizona. Okay, attorney Kenneth Chesabro at that point, deviated from the plan, implying to Trump that, hey, you could still win this. Let's watch. So I ended up explaining that Arizona was still hypothetically possible because the alt-electress had voted.

And I explained the whole logic that because the alter-electress had voted, we had more time to win the litigation. So it was, I think, clear in a way that maybe it hadn't been before that we had until January 6th to win. So he's giving Trump, honestly, false hope, clearly false hope. And I think that's what's going to complicate this case. Now, in this situation, obviously we're talking about a state that's investigating the fake elector scheme. But remember, you have legal experts, you have lawyers talking to Trump, some of which, like Kenneth Chesabro, are telling him exactly what he wants to hear and telling him that what they're about to do, based on what we know so far.

is totally above board. I don't know if that's going to work in Trump's favor. I don't know if he's going to effectively use that as part of his defense. Now Chesabrose spelled out the basics of the fake elector scheme, where Trump supporters in seven states would cast fake ballots and they would sign phony certificates claiming that they were the rightful electors. Obviously they were not. In fact, some of these fake electors are now facing criminal charges for what they did.

Now, that angered other officials who knew it would give Trump renewed hope that he could still somehow stay in office. Right after the meeting, Troopus said that Wright's prepos was extremely concerned with what I told the president about Arizona and about real deadline being January 6th and that he was going to do damage control. Reince was going to follow up and I mean, I was trying to mitigate whatever optimist I guess I created. It's really sad when we're now living in a world where Reince Prebus, if you can remember that guy, is the voice of reason. So incredibly depressing. So another source said that a visibly ticked off Reince prebus, intervened to shut down the conversation after he saw Chesabro whispering to Trump about election procedures. He's like, get out of here. Of course, Prebis and others ended up being right. Trump heard what he wanted to hear in that meeting. So he effectively ignored the legal experts, the lawyers who were telling him, you're not going to win this, this isn't going to work.

And instead chose to listen to Kenneth Chesbrough instead, the very man who's now spilling the beans, and basically offering testimony against Donald Trump and the other co-conspirators in these investigations. Now, afterward, Chesabro says that Prebus wanted to keep the meeting on the down low. Sorry, Prebis, obviously that didn't happen. And two days later, Chesaboro got a stern email from Troopis. The message said the following. Quote, Reince was very explicit in his admonition that nothing about our meeting with the president can be shared with anyone. The political cross currents are deep and fast, and neither you or I have any ability to swim through them.

Also during this interview, Michigan investigators asked Chesabro detailed questions including who designed the fake certificates that the GOP elector signed, and who was responsible for recruiting the Michigan participants? how did the sign certificates get from Lansing to Washington, D.C. And also he pointed investigators to Rudy Giuliani, who was pushing the idea of alternate electors very strongly and said former NYPD commissioner Bernie Carrick handled a lot of the organizational activity in Michigan. Trump campaign official Mike Roman was really effective at carrying out operational matters, Chesa Broe said. He's throwing everyone under the us. Everyone's under the bus. So he was picked to be the point person to help with the whipping operation on a state by state basis. So I do think that Chesterbrough's testimony is incredibly

valuable here. Now why does this all matter? What does this all mean? Well, Chesabrose testimony could be useful for the federal indictment that Donald Trump is facing for election interference. In Trump's federal case, prosecutors highlighted the pattern of Trump allies repeatedly telling him that he lost the election. See, this is why I'm worried because, yes, there were people telling him repeatedly that he lost the election, but there were also others, including literal lawyers like Kenneth Chesbrough, telling him, no, no, no, you could still win this. You get what I'm saying? So if Jack Smith is really leaning into this notion that, oh, everyone's telling Trump that you've lost, you've got no chance, you need to move on. And Trump,

decided to move forward with the fake elector plot anyway. Well, Trump's legal team can argue, well, there were also legal experts and lawyers telling him otherwise. And so can that be an effective defense? I don't know, and I'm not a legal expert, so I guess we're going to have to wait and see. But let me read the rest of that graphic for you. In Trump's federal case, prosecutors highlighted the pattern of Trump allies repeatedly telling him that he lost the election. This forms the basis of Smith's allegation that Trump widely disseminated his false claims of election fraud for months, despite the fact that he knew, and in many cases, had been informed directly that they were not true. So Jack Smith would have to prove that

Trump knew. And with Chesabro's testimony here, with the cooperation that he's providing in, various situations, in this case, the Michigan investigation. I think that that testimony can actually muddy the waters a little bit for Jack Smith's prosecutorial procedure here, what his plans are, what his strategy is. Now Smith has more examples of Trump being explicitly told by his lawyers that he would not be able to overturn the results of the election. That is true. As for Chesabro, he apparently isn't the only one cooperating with Michigan. Chesabro is cooperating with state investigators in Michigan, Nevada, Wisconsin, and Georgia, where he was indicted alongside Trump and 17 others and pleaded guilty in October to participating in the electors

conspiracy. In fact, he's listed as co-conspirator 5 in that Georgia election interference trial. And what I love is that he was the idiot. Like this is, this guy passed the bar. He's a literal lawyer, okay? This is the guy who in the memos used phrasing like fake electors. fraudulent electors. I mean, leaving a paper trail where you're acknowledging that what you're engaging in is fraudulent. It's unbelievable stuff. But that's where we are with Chesa Bro's testimony here. We'll see how this all plays out.

There are some other elements to the federal indictment that Trump is facing for election interference that I want to get to. So let's get to it. On this vote, the a's are 221 and the nays are 212. The resolution is adopted. What you just witnessed was a little bit. of strikeback that the Republicans are engaging in. In regard to Joe Biden, they voted in favor of opening an impeachment inquiry. And it is very much politically motivated. The very Republican members of Congress who voted in favor of this impeachment inquiry have acknowledged that there is no evidence yet to prove that Joe Biden has done anything wrong and that they're voting in

favor of this because, well, I mean, the impeachment inquiry could allow us to do an investigation. Now, mind you, an investigation into Joe Biden and these allegations that he enriched himself through foreign business deals, it just doesn't, there's nothing that holds water. There's been no evidence presented yet. But they're moving forward with it, despite the fact that that investigation, without a formal impeachment inquiry, has been going on since Joe Biden got elected. Like, you guys have had access to thousands of documents. You've heard testimony from Hunter Biden's close business partners and have failed to find a shred of evidence that incriminates Joe Biden. But make no mistake, this is also a politically motivated effort. And some of them are

pretty clear about that as well, saying, look, I mean, look what you're doing to our candidate. Look what you're doing to Donald Trump. He's facing a federal prosecution for election interference, and we're going to go ahead and strike back with our own investigation into Joe Biden. It's just Look, if there were evidence of Joe Biden doing anything illegal, I actually have no problem with them opening an impeachment inquiry, but there is no evidence. And so this is purely politically motivated, and it's such a waste of time and resources. But nonetheless, let's get to the lawmakers who voted in favor of this and what their allegations are. So of the Republicans in the House of Representatives, 221 of them have just voted in favor

of opening the impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden, and this includes Representative Ken Buck, who, as you guys might have remembered, previously said that he was leaning against voting in favor of a formal impeachment inquiry because there was no evidence incriminating Joe Biden. Up until this point, House Republicans have not had enough votes to legitimize with a full chamber vote, their ongoing inquiry into whether the president has committed an impeachable offense in connection to his family's foreign business dealings. The probe has struggled to uncover wrongdoing by the president, which is why it hasn't garnered the unified support of the full GOP conference.

So the inquiry was launched in September by former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy. There was a lot of pressure for him to do it. The far right wing of the Republican conference had been pushing for him to do it. And he's like, I really want to maintain power. So I'm going to do what they want. Then he later was ousted from that position, and then a few months after that announced that he would no longer seek re-election and would be leaving his seat before the term is even over. Now, that inquiry, again, was launched by Kevin McCarthy. The shift to formalize the inquiry is procedural. So last month, White House counsel Richard Stobber rejected GOP subpoenas and requests for transcribed interviews with staffers, Biden family members,

including the president's son Hunter and their associates, arguing that the probe is illegitimate because the House hadn't voted to authorize it. And this ended up frustrating the moderate Republicans who said that they would back an inquiry to help House investigators enforce their subpoenas and obtain the information they need to complete their probe. But I also want to be clear about something. Biden has been cooperating with this investigation. They have handed over thousands upon thousands of documents. And they have, the Republicans investigating this have found nothing. So it's just ridiculous to make it appear as though they haven't been getting, you know, the information that they've wanted from Biden's White House. And even as Republicans issue

new subpoenas and schedule more depositions, including with the president's brother and son, they still have not uncovered credible evidence that backs up their claims against Biden. And there's only been one hearing related to the inquiry since its launch. And that's definitely something worth getting into. So give me a second on that. So the expert witnesses called by the Republicans acknowledged GOP investigators hadn't yet presented enough evidence to prove their accusations. And remember, there was also that closed door testimony that Devin Archer, one of Hunter Biden's

former business associates gave to the House Oversight Committee, James Comer was like on the news, like bragging about how they they managed to secure the testimony of Hunter Biden's former business partner, Devin Archer. And Devin Archer is going to testify things that will incriminate Joe Biden. We're going to finally find that Joe Biden did in fact enrich himself through foreign business dealings and did it on the down low. Guess what Devin Archer said? Exactly the opposite. of what James Comer claimed he was going to say. In fact, James Comer did not even show up to that closed door session to hear what Devin Archer had to say. So again, I don't really have a problem with anyone in any position of power being investigated if there is probable

cause, if there is real reason to believe that they engaged in illegality. And as you you guys know, it's not like I have this loyalist mentality toward the Democrats or Joe Biden. I certainly don't. But I do have a problem when I take a step back and I look at the entirety of our government, the conditions that Americans are living in, the problems that we're facing and how they just keep getting worse year after year. And I can't help but get incredibly angry seeing members of Congress engage in politically motivated investigations that will lead to nowhere. that will waste a ton of resources, while neglecting the American people who they are supposed to be representing as public servants. That is my problem with this. But here's where we're at.

We have an election season coming up. And again, if Trump might possibly be harmed by the very real indictments that he's facing due to very real evidence that's been presented, Well, then Republicans are going to fight back with their own phony investigation into Joe Biden. And we're just going to have to deal with it. Anyway, we got to take a break. When we come back, we've got more news for you, including, well, I want to talk a little bit about insider trading in Congress. There's another unbelievable case that just shows you how much rot there is in the House of Representatives. Don't miss it.

We've got that and more coming up. What's up, everyone, welcome back to TYT. We are going to cover that insider trading story in the second hour. But we do need to talk about what Biden is willing to engage in just to secure some military funding for you. Ukraine and Israel. So let's talk about that. We also need Congress to make the changes to fix the broken immigration system here at home. My team is working with Senate Democrats and Republicans to try to find a bipartisan compromise, both in terms of changes in policy and provide the resources we need to secure the border.

Compromise is how democracy works. And I'm ready and offered compromise already. Holding Ukraine funding hostage in the attempt to force through an extreme Republican partisan agenda on the border is not how it works. He's about to support extreme Republican agenda at the border. That's how it works. How do we know this? Well, new reporting indicates that Biden wants military funding for Ukraine and Israel so badly that he is in fact willing to give into the anti-immigration demands of Republicans to get it. Now, at least that's how the press is framing the whole situation. But I would venture to say that the framing is inaccurate. I would frame it entirely differently because my read of this

situation is that Joe Biden wants these hardline policies at the border because whether you want to accept it or not, we do have a broken immigration system. And as a result, we are in fact dealing with a migrant crisis. And it's unfair to the migrants. And it's unfair to the local communities that are trying to find shelter and resources for the migrants as they come in. Now, this has turned into a giant political liability for Joe Biden, especially in areas of the country that are typically thought of as democratic strongholds. These are communities that are most affected by what's happening with the migrant crisis. So I believe that what Joe Biden is doing here is pretending like, you know, I had no choice but to engage in these negotiations and compromise

with Republicans because I really wanted that military funding for Ukraine and Israel. So let's back up and give you the full context. The White House indicated that it would support a new, far-reaching legal authority to allow U.S. border officials to summarily expel migrants without processing their asylum claims. The measure would effectively revive the Trump-era Title 42 pandemic order and allow officials to pause U.S. asylum law without a public health justification. Okay, I don't, I'm not even sure he would be able to do that. Remember, the reason why they ended Title 42 was because the coronavirus pandemic was considered officially over. And so Title 42 was challenged in the courts, and the courts are like, yeah, there's no public health emergency. You've got to wrap this up. So I'm curious to see how this all plays out. Can they just re-implement Title 42 without a pandemic, without any kind of public health issue? And it'll just stay that way. We'll see. The administration would also back a nationwide expansion of a process known as expedited removal that allows immigration officials to deposition.

support migrants without, okay, without court hearings if they don't ask for asylum or if they fail their initial asylum interviews. So it's a way of fast-tracking people who they don't believe would qualify for asylum and getting them out of the country. But it gets even more ugly, okay? So moreover, the White House would be willing to mandate the detention of certain migrants who are allowed into the country pending the adjudication of their claims. It's unclear how this provision would work since the U.S. government has never had the detention space to detain all migrants who cross into the country illegally. I know how it's going to work out. I know exactly how it's going to work out. They're going to open up more private prisons and they're going to detain these migrants seeking asylum in these facilities. That's what they're going to do. Look, that's my speculation and that speculation is well informed based on what administrations have done in the past.

It's just not a good sign because I don't think that this is the correct solution to our migrant crisis. I'm not one of these people who has my head in the sand and doesn't acknowledge that there is a migrant crisis. There is. But I feel that that is partly the result of our broken immigration system, the fact that we don't have enough immigration judges to process asylum seekers quickly. The fact that we are not creating a pathway to citizenship for the undocumented immigrants who happen to be in the country and have been in the country for quite some time. Now, there's a lot of reform that needs to take place. And that reform can't happen unilaterally at the executive branch. That reform needs to happen in Congress. But Congress is too busy with their faux investigations, with their speakership ousters,

with their nonsense drama and their theatrical hearings to actually pass legislation that would reform a broken immigration system. And I have a huge problem with that. Now, it sounds like we are going to go back to relying more and more on private facilities to detain migrants. And administration officials and some Senate Democrats have also previously indicated a willingness to raise the initial screening standard for so-called credible fear interviews that migrants have to passed to avoid being deported under expedited removal. So again, I want to really, really emphasize the fact that I don't think that this is something that Biden doesn't want. And he's pressured into it because he has no choice. He's got to get that military funding to Ukraine and

Israel. First of all, the military funding to Israel should really be questioned entirely, considering the war crimes that are being committed right now. And considering the fact that the Israeli government humiliates Joe Biden almost on a regular basis by telling, you know, the world stage that they have no intention of allowing for a Palestinian state. They have no intention to dial back their military operations that have slaughtered tens of thousands of innocent Palestinian civilians. And then the situation with Ukraine, I think, is a little complicated too. I'm far more willing to provide some support to Ukraine. But there really needs to be a strategy in place. We need to know what the strategy is to defeat Russia. And it just

feels like there's a growing number of lawmakers, certainly on the right, but even Democratic lawmakers who are questioning whether simply writing blank checks to Ukraine is the right way to ensure that there's peace in the end and that Ukraine has some victory. And remember, Biden's considerations for more stringent immigration policies are upsetting some core members of his voting base, that includes immigration or migrant advocates, progressive Democrats, and also Latino lawmakers. For now, the White House is claiming that Biden is considering compromises, and that doesn't mean that all of those compromises will be implemented. But honestly, I think they will. And why do I think they will? Because I think Biden actually does want more restrictive

immigration policies because the migrant crisis is hurting him politically. So let's get to that. The migrant crisis has been impacting, as I said earlier, some of the blue cities that Biden would need to clench the 2024 presidential election. Voters, many of them who happen to be people of color, have been pretty furious about the meager resources that they were already dealing with. But now those resources they feel are being diverted to migrants. So Chicago in particular is currently working on building a winterized tent shelter for migrants. And the local community is pretty furious about it. The Brighton Park facility drawing backlash from Chicago residents at a heated community meeting last week. What does housing look like for our own residents who are houselessness, who need affordable housing, our seniors, those resources that asylum seekers are getting in one place.

Our residents have to go multiple places for. Officials warning Chicago is approaching a breaking point. Tense full of desperate migrants lining Chicago's iconic Lakeshore Drive. Migrant shelters inside O'Hare Airport. A total of 17,000 migrants showing up since last August. And officials expect 1,200 per day to keep coming. Democratic Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker slamming President Biden for not doing enough. Writing, the federal government's lack of intervention and coordination at the border has created an untenable situation.

for Illinois, the White House blaming Congress for not acting and saying they've accelerated work permits and provided a billion dollars to cities nationwide. I don't want them there. But protests here are growing. To have the government come in and dump 300 people right next door to me, it is not fair. So again, this is a political liability for Biden. And look, I think that it is to some extent unfair. to place all the blame on Biden. I think the bulk of the blame is on Congress. Congress is

supposed to pass legislation. They are supposed to reform the immigration system, and they have failed to do so. Relying on the executive branch to handle this issue unilaterally is not the right way to go about it. And that's what we've been relying on for multiple administrations now. It's insane. And by the way, get a load of the transparent reporting touching on Democrats and their political interests in New York City. So let's watch. The growing migrant crisis here in New York City may put new pressure on President Joe Biden's reelection bid when it comes to big time fundraising. The situation has some people riled up throughout the city and across New York State. Representative Alexandria

Casio Cortez struggled to make her point amid all that chanting after she and Representative Adriano Espayat led members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus through a tour of the Roosevelt hotel, a location housing hundreds of asylum seekers. Outside, all that's shouting from the sidelines came from people, frustrated with New York status as a sanctuary city. Within the last year, 100,000 migrants crossed the southern border relocating to New York City. The city is still providing services to 60,000 people. These people are cutting the line, and as long as you continue to grant them free stuff, you're never going to stop the crisis at the border. So you get why I feel that the pressure from Republicans to implement hardline immigration

policies is something that Biden might actually want to implement, but he doesn't want the ire of progressive Democrats. So he's pretending like he doesn't and he's being forced to do it. But he's got to keep in mind that a lot of these progressive Democrats that he's trying to protect himself from any criticism from don't really support the military funding that he's saying that he needs to engage in compromises for. So the polling doesn't look good for Biden either on this immigration matter. A Reuters Ipsos poll concluded in September found that a majority of Americans, 54% agreed with the statement that immigration is making life harder for native-born Americans. Of course, there's a big difference between Democrats and Republicans,

some 73% of Republicans, and 37% of Democrats surveyed, agreed with with the statement, 37% of Democrats is far too high compared to what we've seen from Democratic voters in the past. And so when you consider that, when you consider how much trouble Biden is in swing states like Michigan, where you have a sizable Arab population that is not happy with his handling in the Gaza Strip, I think he's trying to find ways to fix some of the issues that are leading to low approval ratings for Joe Biden. And so Biden's more restrictive immigration policies, by the way, if he does, in fact, implement everything I listed earlier, might not even be enough for the far right Republican caucus

in the House. Because right now, he's negotiating with senators. That's where Democrats still hold control in Congress. But in the House of Representatives, it's an entirely different situation. You know, House Speaker Mike Johnson is further right than most Republican lawmakers, if you can believe it. The House of Representatives also has the House Freedom Caucus. They're further to the right. And so House Republicans earlier this year actually passed a bill known as HR2. And that includes stricter asylum and border provisions, including the reinstatement of migrant family

detention. So sick. And the so-called Remain in Mexico policy, which I believe Biden is still implementing as we speak. But it also included drastic limits on the humanitarian parole authority, which the Biden administration has used to welcome hundreds of thousands of refugees and migrants from Afghanistan, a country we bombarded and destroyed, certain Latin American countries, Haiti and Ukraine. So look, I feel that immigration is such an important part of the fabric of this country. And I am not in any way against allowing for migrants to come in. I do think our system is broken, though. I do think that we, A, need security at the border to some extent, but also need to find

a way to process asylum seekers quickly and fairly. That takes resources, that takes reforms, that takes real legislation and real debate in Congress. And I don't have much hope that we're going to get that. I hate to say it, but right now it just seems like a political football and Biden's playing playing the game. We gotta take a break. When we come back, John Iderola will join me. We're gonna talk about that insider trading story I was teasing you all about earlier. So don't miss it. We'll be right back.