The Young Turks - Biden v Dank Nugs

Episode Date: March 20, 2021

Rep. Lee Zeldin gets upset at Politico when they wouldn’t let him weasel out of acknowledging that Biden won the election. 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. Bexie! Bexie! Dreamy! See my team! See my tea!

Street my tea! Street likeee! Bigotee! Yeah, let's see my team. Look, I got to confess, this power panel might be just a tad too powerful. So that's just a situation in hand, but we're going to have to deal with it and we'll do make the best we can. So Jank Uger, Dr. Rashad Ritchie, Wozni Lombre, we're bringing it, it has been brought. I'm just telling you. Okay, so it's great to see you guys again, looking forward to doing the stories together.

Dr. Rashad Ritchie now has a show on our network on top of being an excellent radio and TV commentator in Atlanta, which is going to be very relevant. But it's called Indisputable Follows Damage Report on Twitch, Twitch.tv slash TYT. Waz, of course, is part of the woke bros, so he will be wide awake the entire show, okay? So that's happening. All right, so great to have you guys with us. Let's just do it. Let's do it. Let's get into the stories.

First one is, well, first of all, let me just tell you about all the stories real quick. Republicans, of course, trying to take away voting rights in the most hypocritical ways you can imagine. Of course. And then hypocrisy from Biden as well, especially on the war on drugs. So we got, and that story on the war on drugs, I got amazing facts for you, okay? Amazing. So we'll get to that in a little bit as well. All right, so let's get started.

So we've got Republicans who kind of don't know what to do with the fact that their voters are delusional, but yet they have to front as sane human beings. they think in order to get elected, but they're not even positive. So they're trying to find a way to walk this line. First up is Lee Zeldon. He's a Republican of New York, and he's, of course, one of the folks who said, oh, I'm Trump. I mean, of course Trump on the election. I'm questioning everything that ever happened. Voter fraud. I mean, there's no instances of it, but I'm deeply, deeply concerned about it.

So the question is, is he going to continue to do that, especially because apparently he's thinking of running for governor in New York. And if you want to win a general election in the state of New York rather than his conservative district, well, you're going to have to get crossed back over to being sane. Let's see if he can pull it off. Can you unequivocally state that Joe Biden won the presidential election? And just to remind viewers, you voted against certifying the results in Arizona and Pennsylvania. Can you unequivocally state that? Yeah, Joe. One is the president of the United States, and that's how you become the president of the United States. But one that I said, I ask it very intentionally that he won

the presidential election. Yes. And then I went on to continue an answer. If you'd like to give my answer for me, you could go ahead and do that. But I'm, I thought I was going to be here to answer my own questions. No, no, I'm not giving your answer. I'm just saying, you said he is the president, and I was asking, did he win? Okay, you're asking me now for a third time, and I've said yes twice. So I don't know how many more times you want me to say yes and what your agenda is. But really, it's a bit ridiculous to be asking me a third time. But please, go ahead and ask him again. I just clarifying the answer to make sure that he has it right.

You have a fourth time. I mean, I don't know. I wouldn't call that a question. Go for a fifth time next too. Is every time I speak a question? We can keep going. Let's do it a six time. Okay, that was not six times. But to be fair, the guy, it was three times. You saw it on the video.

And there's a reason why they're asking, whoa, what's your agenda, man? Well, their agenda is to see if you believe that Joe Biden actually won the presidency, or if you're one of the liars in the Republican Party who keeps claiming he didn't without any evidence at all to appeal to your base. That's a super fair question in a political context. But I think to be fair to Zeldon, he did say yes twice. So that's my take on it. Rashad, let me start with you. What do you make of Zeldon before we go on to McCarthy?

First of all, Zeldon is the guy, one of the guys who voted against certifying the election via the electoral college. So that was the context of the question, and it was relevant just as you said because of his previous vote. And to me, he did try to skirt around the win word and say he is president. And that's what they caught. And then he did go on to say yes. But here's the thing, man. Who in the hell gets that offended by such a simple question? This guy was so offended by one of the simplest questions anybody on the planet Earth could be asked. Do you think Joe Biden won the president? And you can ask a second grader that question and you get a simple response.

But for him, he got really defensive. And let me say this also. This individual really is trying to figure out a way to hold on to the crazies. Because he wants the voting base associated with those who still proclaim that somehow there was massive voter fraud. And Donald Trump should be the legitimate president today. So he's trying to hold on to these guys. And we're in an era right now where politicians are picking the voters and the voters are not picking the politician.

And that's what you see happening in the legislation across this country. Yeah. And so I want to be clear, by the way, that was political reporter Ryan Lizzo who was pressing him. And then another political reporter Tara Pomeyari who jumped in and just wanted to clarify and then had Zelda start randomly counting. But, Was, before I get to you, actually, let me go to the McCarthy clips and get your reaction to those. Because McCarthy, of course, the leader of the Republicans in the House, even more relevant than Zelda.

Zelda's in the news because he's thinking of, like I said, crossing over and trying to win a general election and a state, in which case he has to completely change his MO, because these are politicians, right? And go from, I don't know what reality is to, oh, yeah, I've always been a favorite reality. So let's go to Kevin McCarthy, and this is an interaction he's having with Monorajou from CNN. And let's see if he's in the reality-based world. The Iowa race, in your view, what is different between the efforts there to overturn the elections in the House versus Donald Trump's efforts to overturn the elections in Congress that you support it? I disagree with the premise of your question.

Okay. So if you challenged Arizona and Pennsylvania, would that have changed and lowered President Biden's numbers below 270? You supported the Texas lawsuit. You asked me questions every week. I just asked you a question. If you removed Arizona, but you weren't removing it, you were just asking the question about it. If Arizona and Pennsylvania were removed in electoral college, would President Biden's number lower below 270? No, but Donald Trump said that the Congress could have overturned the election that day.

So you're asking me the question. I'm answering your question. Let me answer your question since you asked me. Let me follow through. So you gave a premise that's not true. Donaldson tried to overturn the results in Congress and you support that effort. Well, now you're saying something that's not true. So let me answer your question and show you how your premise is not true.

All right, so let me get to the facts here real quick. So I got another video from McCarthy, but let me go to his quotes. Two days after the election, Kevin McCarthy said, President Trump won this election. this election. So everyone who's listening, do not be quiet. Okay, I'm not sure he pronounced it exactly that way. Now, granted, two days after the election, things were a little bit of a toss-up. But it looked like Biden was going to win, but he had not been declared yet. And so, but what we didn't think happened two days after the election was that Trump definitely what? No one thought that. No one on planet Earth thought that. And so it's different than

saying, hey, I'm not sure Biden's won yet. Then President Trump won. Everybody go make some noise at the Capitol on January 6th. Anyway, second graphic here is from the Hill. McCarthy endorsed a Texas lawsuit challenging the outcome in four states won by Biden, Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin, the case went as high as the Supreme Court, which dismissed it. And that's what Roger was alluding to there.

McCarthy's weak sauce excuses. Yeah, we challenged it in Congress. but the two states we settled on after the riot, rioters nearly killed us, was Arizona and Pennsylvania? That alone wouldn't have done it. But as Roger points out, your lawsuit would have done it. So you challenged it in every way conceivable. So was, your thoughts on this. McCarthy, he's deploying a very interesting political strategy, which is, if I would have gotten my way, say, with the two states, you guys would still have your liberal Joe Biden presidency. and I would still have my street cred with the people who Dr. Rashad labeled so elegantly as crazy, right?

Like he's trying to basically do that delicate dance of what? I don't want to like overturn the election. I just want a certain element of the Republican base to find me to be a credible Republican. And to be credible these days as a Republican means that you don't believe in democracy, any president, any Democratic victory. cannot be gained by, you know, legitimate means. And so therefore, President Obama was an illegitimate president for two terms. Joe Biden is now illegitimate. If Hillary Clinton would have won, she would have been illegitimate.

And so, you know, he wants to have it both ways. He wants to be able to go up in front of the corporate media and be seen as a respectable DC politician, but he also wants his street cred. And it's kind of hilarious to watch him try to walk that tightrope. 100%. In fact, let's go to more of the ensuing hilarity. Do you want to talk to Trump or you want to ask me the question? Because I'm here right now. And I'm showing where your question doesn't hold merit. Now let me show you another answer.

But you support the Texas lawsuit. Do you regret supporting that law? No, no. No, I don't. You know why? Because it's going to the court. Did you not support Donald Trump's effort to overturn the election in Congress? No, didn't we just answer this the first time you asked it? You can't even answer two, how many, how many electoral votes is taking against two seven? That's certain. You never raised any concerns about Donald Trump's efforts to organize the rally, to say that he could stop Congress. Oh, he does this every time.

Yeah, so look, let me clarify one thing, too. McCarthy, to Oz's point, is trying to say, look, Republican voters, don't get me wrong. I challenged them in the Biden victory rhetorically. I challenged it in court. I challenged it in Congress. I'm on your side. I think it was illegitimate. Now with Obama, it was obvious because he was black, right?

Exactly. He's not black. So I had to go through all this rigmarole to tell you that he is when was illegitimate. Now he's turning around and saying to the reporters, me, golly, gee. I mean, the courts, that's legitimate. and I can say anything I want. I back Trump. Trump's yelling from the rooftops.

It's all alive. There's millions of missing boats. Total. Insanity. Insanity. McCarthy's 100% behind Trump. He wouldn't kiss his ass. I mean ring at Mar-a-Lago recently.

And then now he has the audacity, Rashad, to say, well, I mean, look, technically when we challenged it in Congress after we were nearly murdered by Trump supporters. If we'd won on Arizona and Pennsylvania, it wouldn't have really overturned the election. Originally, we were planning to overturn the election because we were going to challenge six states. But after the mob came in and we were worried they were going to murder Mike Pence and he just narrowly escaped with his life, we then thought maybe not six states, two states, so I'm not guilty. What's your take on that? So first of all, the parallel between the first and the second, both of them became

significantly offended by a very simple question, right? And this back and forth continued. Now, here's the reality. He's trying to escape the penalty of principle. Here's the principle. If you could have gotten away with it, you would have stolen American presidency. That's the reality. That's what you filed in court. That's what you stood behind. And that's what you said. You say this was an illegitimate win by way of court filing. And if you could have gotten it done, you would have and you would have disenfranchised millions and millions of American voters in the process. The reality is these individuals are defying medical science by standing up with no backbone. They absolutely cannot state a simple fact and stand on a simple truth. There's a significant

difference between what the Republican Party used to be and what we see today. And that de-evolution did not start with Donald Trump. It definitely produced Donald Trump, but it did not start with Donald Trump. And now you have individuals trying to rewrite history during the context of present time. Just imagine that. They're trying to tell you something didn't happen when we clearly know it did. You know, there's an old parable that talks about how every battle that's written about where a man went against a lion, the man won.

Well, the reason is because the man got to tell the story, okay? And here's what's happening in front of us. You have men and women of a particular political ideology who are literally trying to tell a different story than the truth that happened. You know, Jake, I want to hit on something that Rashad said, because it's very poignant. The Zeldin guy is a guy from Suffolk County, Long Island, my neck of the woods, you know, This is where the Hamptons are, Montauk, et cetera, et cetera. This is basically adjacent to New York City where a lot of people, a lot of yanks like

myself back in the days, we would like to think of ourselves as, you know, cosmopolitan, sophisticated, yada, yada, yada. And we would, you know, we would condescend the people like Rashad down in Georgia, like, oh, you guys are with the hayseeds, you guys are with the crazy people, You guys are with the hillbillies. And the bottom line is this Zeldon dude represents a district in Long Island, and he's participating in exactly the same crazy rhetoric that anybody, I'm talking about the most stereotypical base GOP voter, would be down with. And I find that to be just fascinating. Yeah, my last thought on this is, look, Bernie Sanders in the 2016 primaries,

got robbed in 100 different ways, right? So they only did six debates. They funneled money from the state DNCs into Hillary Clinton's campaign. It was basically money laundering. The media was brutal to them. I can go on and on and on. But did he win the 2016 primaries? No, he did not win them. That's like five years ago. It's got Hillary Clinton won the primaries. She went on to the general election and she lost Donald Trump. At no point did progressives or Democrats ever deny reality? You could say, hey, look, here's the reasons why he lost. Here's why it was unfair. Here's why it was rigged against them. Here's X, Y, and Z. But never did we say that 2 plus 2 equals 5 and that Bernie's has secretly been the president for the last five years. There is no like being on going, no, I got a deep state. Bernie's been the president for five years. Plus he's going to be president on April 4th, it's going to be amazing. Or you know what? Look, Kudan could say he's president, Trump's going to come back and be president on April 1st. And they'd all believe it. They're like, oh, no, no. Of course it's on April Fool's Day, because they want you to think we're

fools, but where that actually shows that we're geniuses. And not only will you get the most like far right radical lunatics to believe that, but now all the way up to their leadership. They all have to walk this line between sanity and insanity. And that's the current day Republican party. So, all right, we got to take a break. When we come back, we got more for you guys, including not only the Georgia story we were referring to in powerful speech there from Reverend Warnock, now Senator Warnock, but also Joe Biden's insane policy on drugs in the White House.

And it's not that he loves him. All right, we'll be right back. We need to talk about a relatively new show called Un-F-The-Republic, or UNFTR. As a Young Turks fan, you already know that the government, the media, and corporations are constantly peddling lies that serve the interests of the rich and powerful. But now there's a podcast dedicated to unraveling those lies, debunking the conventional wisdom. In each episode of Un-F-The-Republic, or UNFTR, the host delves into a different historical episode or topic that's generally misunderstood or purposely obfuscated by the so-called

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All right. All right. Some viewer comments during the break here. So first of all, let's go to Parker in YouTube super chat saying, is this a top 10 all-time TYT Friday power panel lineup? I guess. So that's very nice. We appreciate that.

I love this one. Gabby Mathis says, wheat has been legalized in Arizona. And at age 66, I will give it a try now. How's that for all? Okay, Gabby, I think you're going to like it. Don't tell Biden. Don't tell Biden. We'll talk about that late.

Okay. Folks who just sign up on YouTube right now, Chanel Quinionis and Rebecca Glymph. They hit that join button below, became American heroes. Not a big deal. All right, now I'm going to Twitch real quick. Ashro Sekpi is new, but give to 10 subs on top, look at that. Coming in strong on Twitch, where you could of course check out Rashad's show, Indisputable. Not a big deal.

Kind of a big deal though. Huge deal. In fact, how big it is is indisputable. Exactly. So Twitch.tv. The one-way dragon gifted a sub, Darkhawk gifted a sub. Zuna 2 has been with us for seven months and said, love TYT and everything you give us. Thanks so much for keeping us sane during these trying things.

sane during these trying times. Shars and 75 has been with us for six months using Amazon Prime because it's free for you guys if you have Amazon Prime, but we get the money. Enjoy these Bezos bucks, they added. And thank you for all that you do and been watching. Listen since 2009. Well, you make this show possible, so we appreciate it. We'll be back. All right on Young Turks, Jank Rashon, I was with you guys, we got more Republican treachery, to talk about. But this time Democrats fight back, and you'll see why. And how? That's a really interesting part. All right, this story comes out of Georgia. So there they go again. The Republicans in Georgia trying to block future voters. Their voter purges are legendary. That's why Brian Kemp's governor

right now. He purged voters when he was Secretary of State. And because shockingly enough, it turned out to be a lot of minority voters. And then he barely went over Stacey Abrams if he had not done that in what appears to be in definitely legitimate and likely illegal way, right now he would not be the governor. So the Republicans are used to cheating. Now they usually, as we told you during the election mess, they cheat before the elections. And Trump was trying to cheat after the elections, which is more brazen and harder to pull off. Whereas the Georgia Republicans are like, hey, you knucklehead, there's work with us. Look at all this cheating we normally do before the elections. So they did that again. They were supposed to introduce a two-page bill

that was supposed to address voting rights, i.e. take away voting rights. She, I wonder if that's ever happened in the South with black voters before. Anyways, instead, they go, hey, that bill was not toxic enough. Here's a 93-page bill, an hour before the vote. And it takes away a lot more stuff. So let me go to common dreams for a quick explanation. Democratic lawmakers, they explain, as civil rights groups are accusing Georgia's state Republicans of launching an ambush attack on the franchise.

after GOP lawmakers transformed a two-page bill limiting who's permitted to send absentee ballot applications into a sprawling 93-page omnibus package that would significantly alter election laws and curtail voting rights. As Janine Elson, the Director of the N.A.C.P. explained the no omnibus bill, quote, combines nearly every tactic to disenfranchise black voters that we've seen to date. She continued to say, this is a hijacking of democracy. democracy in plain sight. And then you go to Georgia public broadcasting that did research on this. And they found out that a recent analysis by GPB News, that's them and the Center for Public

Integrity, found many proposed voting changes would disproportionately impact non-white voters. What a shock. And prevent local officials from taking steps to cut down on the lines. Now, Democrats have decided to fight back, and they're fighting on two fronts. One, on this particular issue in Georgia, but two, they're introducing federal regulations that would permit more voting. So Senator Warnock, who, of course, is from Georgia and just won that Senate race in Georgia, is now, and he was Reverend Warnock, he's still Reverend Warnock, but he's now also Senator Warnock, decided to give a speech on this, which is very understandable, especially on increased voting rights. And I thought it was particularly poignant. So let's watch. I stand before you saying that this issue access to voting and preempting politicians' efforts to restrict voting is so fundamental to our democracy that it is too important to be held hostage by a Senate rule, especially one historically used to restrict expansion of voting rights.

It is a contradiction to say we must protect minority rights in the Senate while refusing to protect minority rights. minority rights in the society. Colleagues, no Senate rules should overrule the integrity of our democracy. And we must find a way to pass voting rights whether we get rid of the filibuster or not. All right, two parts that I love. First, he said, wait, now we're protecting minority rights in the Senate because this filibuster procedural business. But we're not actually protecting minority rights in the country, the voters. So help me understand how that makes sense.

And the reality is, and that's why the speech is important and powerful, is because they actually, that's the whole point of the filibuster. It's so ironic to take away rights from minorities. So let me give me this stunning fact. I got more on this and a giant twist in the story. The twist is so, it explains to you how politics works in a nutshell. So don't go anywhere, you need to hear the twist. Okay, but before that, guys, stunning fact is between 1877 and 1964, every single time that

the filibuster was used, it was to block civil rights for African Americans. So the filibuster is not coincidentally racist, it is meant to be racist. It was not in the Constitution, the Founding Fathers were against it. They inserted it as a Senate rule to protect the ability of the South to terrorize black people through lynchings, et cetera. And when you say, oh, lynchings, that sounds, hey, Jake, that sounds extreme. No, a lot of times when they filibustered, they literally filibustered anti-lynching laws. The filibuster was used for pro-lynching reasons.

It's not an exaggeration. That is a historical fact. So you'll excuse me if I agree with Reverend Warnock that I'm not overly worried about protecting the privileges of racist senators that have used a filibuster against civil rights for its entire history. Let me let you guys step in here, Waz, you go, and then I'll come back to the twist in the story. You know what else I enjoyed was he did a little nice little political maneuver there where

where he essentially positioned democracy as bigger than one Senate rule, right? And so he's given his democratic colleagues who haven't yet come to the idea that we should abolish the filibuster, just period, plain and simple. He gave them cover. He's like, I'm gonna let y'all have y'all cover by positioning this thing that I'm talking about as bigger than these rules, bigger than us. It gets to the core of the nation itself as a self-governing democracy. and you can't be a self-governing democracy if you're denying the franchise to a huge swaths of your

citizenry. And so I kind of enjoyed the sort of beautiful ballet that he did up there politically to his sort of weak-minded Democratic Party colleagues. Let me add something to that. The Senate rule for the filibuster is not constitutional, it's not statutory. It is the equivalence of an office rule. That's it. So you're telling me that an office rule is going to stop the progress of millions of Americans. And what kind of progress are we talking about? One, we're talking about voting. Obviously, voting is fundamental because it retains all of the other rights that we're trying to fight for. Number two, raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour. Number three, getting the George Floyd Act passed and on and on and on. You get none of

these things done without eliminating the filibuster. So if you don't start with characterizing it properly as an office rule, as an office rule and nothing more, then you probably don't get to the next step. And now you're talking about losing the House, losing the Senate, and getting absolutely nothing done in the future. And you were elected. Joe Biden was elected with the most votes of anybody ever running for president in the history of this country. That has to mean something. And I'm afraid, my fear is, he's such an institutionalist that he's going to Let this moment bypass him, which means it bypasses us. Yeah, those are such excellent points.

First of all, I love the way you framed it as an office rule, except it's slightly worse. It's a pro-lynching office rule. Exactly. Okay, I don't know why we'd want to keep that rule. I mean, imagine if you had that in an actual office, you have any idea how quickly you get pulled into HR? Right. So, all right, let's keep it real on that. Okay, but you guys are both making a really good point, which is that that, look, what we're

worried about as progressives is that Democrats don't actually want to pass the $15 minimum wage. They don't actually want to, by the way, they don't even want to pass the George Floyd rules. Let's keep it real. Oh my God, we'll lose the cops and the suburbs and all that stuff, right? So they're just trying to pass HR1, which would expand voting rights because it helps them. Now it's a great thing, it helps all voters, right? But yes, they're mainly concerned about it because of their own purposes. That's why Reverend Warnock has to be like, okay, you know, I know some of you care about this office rule. But, you know, this thing's really important, remember, right? And even Manchin's like, oh, it's going to help me win. Maybe I make it accepted. Right.

Yeah. Okay. So now, Warnock had another more powerful part of this speech. And it's going to lead to the twist in a second, okay? So here he talks about all the people and the sacrifices they made to get us those voting rights. Let's listen. Ryan Hold Niebuhr was right. Humanity's capacity for justice makes democracy possible, but humanity's inclination to injustice makes democracy necessary. John Lewis understood that and was beaten on a bridge defending it. Amelia Boynton, like so many women, not mentioned nearly enough,

was gassed on that side. same bridge. A white woman named Viola Luiso was killed. Mega Evans was murdered in his own driveway. Schwarner Cheney and Goodman, two Jews and an African-American standing up for that sacred idea of democracy also paid the ultimate price. I love that point so much because so all those folks lost their lives so you can get a chance to vote. Now we're going to let it slip away because of an office rule. No, no, that's

not going to stand, okay? So now here comes an unbelievable twist. The Republicans have withdrawn some of the worst parts of this bill in the state of Georgia. Nobody saw that. They're probably deeply moved by Senator Warnock's speech. They probably saw all the activists and they were like, oh my God, you guys are right. It was only black people who were targeted. Holy cow, okay? So man, we didn't see that. Thanks for pointing it out. So let's find out why. Let's find out why. So we're going to go to the Hill. Read Wilson reports. Top Republicans in Georgia State Legislature are backing away from a controversial plan to eliminate no excuse absentee voting and to do away with early voting on Sundays after increasing

criticism from voting rights groups and hold. Okay. Why just survive back to school when you can thrive by creating a space that does it all for you, no matter the size. Whether you're taking over your parents' basement or moving to campus, IKEA has hundreds of design ideas and affordable options to complement any budget. After all, you're in your small space era. It's time to own it. Shop now at IKEA.ca.

Now, so far I'm reading this, and I'm thinking, these folks never cared about Medgar Evers. They did not, they didn't look at that Warnock speech and get grow of conscience. And voting rights groups in Georgia. The Republicans are going to care about voting rights groups in Georgia. I'm like, I cannot wait to see how this sentence ends. Although if you watch the Young Turks, you know how it's going to end. Here we go.

And the state's largest businesses. Say it with me. Of course. So this is how our so-called democracy works. So I had one last line from the bottom of the article. So Atlanta-based Coca-Cola and Home Depot publicly opposed the new restrictions proposing the Republican-sponsored bills. And voila, all of a sudden they're gone.

So Dr. Richie, you're from there. Is Coca-Cola and Home Depot the most powerful things in the state of Georgia? Well, they are to the Republicans. Now, let me show you how diabolical this is and taking no credit away from my brothers and sisters who are advocates and activists in this state. I was at the Georgia General Assembly today. One of the lawmakers, he's chair of the Democratic caucus named Billy Mitchell. He said, Rashad, we're going to go back, so far back in the state.

People are going to start having to count jelly beans to vote again, right? Here's how extreme the strategy is. And I want everyone to follow me on this and understand how strategic these individuals are. They packed the bill so that there could be a semblance of a victory on the other side. Taken away souls to the polls. We're talking about weekend voting was something that the governor, the Republican governor, already said he didn't want in there anyway, but they put it in there. Now that's gone.

So what you have here is this overpacking of the bill, the most extreme version of the bill, and then they take away some elements and then these Fortune 500 companies get to do a victory lap with other Republicans as well as giving some credibility to the activists and folks that are really apolitical get to say, oh, this must be a kumbaya moment. Let's be real. This bill still makes it illegal to give mama them water if they're waiting in line. It makes it a misdemeanor crime if you give someone a drink of water while they're waiting in one of these lines that they have made long themselves. Also, the bill still makes it illegal for you to send a voter in the state of Georgia a piece of mail that says, hey, would you like an absentee ballot to vote? Something

that was done universally in this state and led by people like Stacey Abrams. So a lot of what the bill still does takes away conveniences. And here's the kicker, man. The bill still says that if you want to vote by way of absentee, you must either present a copy of your ID or a copy of your driver's license number or state ID number inside of the package of your ballot to absentee vote. And it still takes away the county's ability to have voter ballot boxes, a certain number of ballot boxes in their own counties. Counties can't make the decisions on their own. And if they try to do it, that is also. against the law. So those things are still in the bill and still extremely detrimental to the conveniences that we need in our democracy. Yeah, look, while we're having a coconut smile about corporate America, while we're having a coconut smile about how corporate America is helping us get to the right goal here a little bit. And by the way, part of the reason I think

that the Tucker Carlson's and the Fox News of the world are starting to turn against corporate America. Like, they're seeing corporations go, yeah. At TYT, we frequently talk about all the ways that big tech companies are taking control of our online lives, constantly monitoring us and storing our data. But that doesn't mean we have to let them. It's possible to stay anonymous online and hide your data from the prying eyes of big tech. And one of the best ways is with ExpressVPN. ExpressVPN hides your IP address, making your active ID more difficult to trace and sell the advertisers. ExpressVPN also encrypts 100% of your network data to protect you from eavesdroppers and cybercriminals.

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We want gay people to buy our products. You know, this bill is terrible. Let's take out the two worst parts of it, but keep the rest of the trash in there because we still like to sell Coke to black folks. Right? Right. And so that, and until Trump and the populace took over, the Republican Party, Party was run 100% by the Chamber of Commerce.

And now they've got to do a balancing act between the Chamber of Commerce and the racists. Like the racists were always there, but they just took it for granted. They weren't empowered. The Trump wing empowered them. So now they're saying those, that version of the Republican Party is saying, we don't give a damn about Coke or Home Depot. We do not want black people to vote, okay? I don't care what Coke says.

And that's why there's a little bit of a civil war within the Republican Party. But there's still terrible things in this bill was. You know, I have so many thoughts about this. Obviously, you know, morally this is repugnant. It's just the worst thing you could possibly do as a lawmaker is disenfranchise your constituents just on purpose. Like, you know, it reminds me of as a New Yorker of the Pantsagin Law. It's like these people aren't criminals, so we just criminalize their behavior and just sort of work backwards that day. So it's like, oh, these black people are doing souls to the polls?

Let's take that out. Let's do this. Let's make that somehow, you know, nefarious and, you know, some type of tactic to maneuver for mass voter fraud. But, you know, and I would like to ask Rashad about this. They got smoked in places like Cobb County and some of the white suburbs in Georgia, places that it was unheard of, unheard of that a Democrat could do well in. And their answer is to disenfranchise black aunties and grannies? I don't understand that. Is that a good strategy, Rashad? Well, it's a massive manipulation strategy. And the reason why there's massive manipulation is because they cannot come up with a massive message to actually get people to vote for them. So let's be very clear about what's happening right now.

You have, as I said earlier, politicians picking the voters and the voters not picking the politicians. That's what they hope to accomplish in these new statutory laws. Here's something that went underreported in the state of Georgia. Not only did Georgia deliver for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, and they deliver for Ossoff and Wernock, Georgia also delivered places like Cobb County, as you said. Cobb is spelled C-O-B. When I was a teenager, Cobb stood for count on being busted and caught out being black. That's how extreme it was in Cobb County.

Now Cobb County is flipping. Gwinnett County is flipping. You have record turnout in places like Fulter County, DeKalb County, Clayton County. That's because of the conveniences of early voting, absentee voting, weekend voting, soles to the polls. Remember, 16 years ago, Republicans in the state of Georgia, they're the ones that passed absentee voting. They're the ones that said, okay, no excuses anymore to absentee vote. Why? Because they launched a campaign for their elderly white constituents to vote from the ease of their homes. That's why they said it was all good until black folks learned how to do it.

Progressives learned how to do it. Young folks learned how to do it. Members of the LGBTQ community stood up and did it in record numbers. Now all of a sudden there's a voter integrity issue. And here's the icing on the cake. The people leading this charge said there was no voter fraud. The governor of Georgia said no voter fraud took place. The Secretary of State Raffinsberger, the chief elections officer said no voter fraud took

place. However, they're making laws to address massive voter fraud in the state of Georgia. They are literally legislating on lies in order to appease a demographic based on rumor, conjecture, and insane conspiracy theories. No way to run a government. That's no way to even run your own household. And that's how our leaders have decided to take leadership during this time in our democracy. Right. And remember, everybody, during the Jim Crow era, they also had plenty of excuses for not letting black people vote. It's not like they just said, no, we're just not going to. They said, oh my God, they got to pay this and they have to do that. They always had excuses. This is just a new Jim Crow with new excuses. So, all right, we got to take a break here. When we come

back, apparently the gongue is not allowed in the White House. So we're going to talk about the hypocrisy of that and the details of it will bother you. So come back and get bothered. How's that for a tease. You know, I'm going to be able to be. I'm going to be. So, you know, I'm going to be able to be. You know, I'm going to be. I don't know.

All right, back on TYT, there's so many great comments here. Let's go to our member section first. Lulabelle 321 says, hey, Jank, just wanted to wish you a happy 51st birthday on Sunday. Well, I thank you. I appreciate it. Happy birthday. Thank you, guys. I remember your birthday because it's my birthday, too.

I'll be 50. I've been a member now for three years after getting the membership for myself for my birthday. One question, would a hero wish me a happy birthday back? I hope so. Well, Lulu Bell, I guess. Yes, happy birthday, Louis Bell. Happy birthday. And look, guys, I like the way Lilibel's thinking there.

So if you want to get a birthday present for me or you, okay, get membership. If you're on YouTube, you hit the join button below, easy, P's in. It's really not much money to be keeping it real, okay? You can go to t.y.com slash join. You can do it through Amazon Prime, which is no money at all. On Twitch, you could also subscribe in other ways on Twitch as well. We appreciate it. In fact, Nicholas Curry just did that.

We don't know if it's any relation to stuff. BP 8599 just did it as well. We appreciate it. Anna extracts salt from our enemy's tears, writes in, I was going to feed my baby. Then Jenks said, don't go anywhere because you've got to hear this twist. I guess my two-year-old can wait. That person got their priorities together.

That's right. And then let me go to Sophia's smart off as quickly as I can. Ignorice is truly blessed. I've gotten so much more educated in the years that I've been watching TYT. I find myself angry than I've ever been, but I'm hopeful. I just need to know what I can do to help. Biden's failing us. Don't worry, we got you. All right, back on the Young Turks, Jank, Roshana, and was with you guys today, hell of a show. So we've been beaten up on Republicans because they more than deserve it. Let's turn to the Democrats now.

So buckle up, brace for impact, Joe. All right, so Joe Bynes White House to do something strange. They said that they were going to be more lenient on marijuana, and apparently they are about one to two inches. So let's bring it down for you guys. According to Daily Beast, dozens of young White House staffers have been suspended as to resign or place in a remote work program due to past marijuana use. Oh, my God. And you know, look, I don't know if there, anybody's been fired over having a cores light back in 2017 or 2007, but that'll probably be next because this is scary times, man.

So let's see what else is in this disastrous plan, Daily Beast continues. The policy has even affected staffers whose marijuana use was exclusive to one of the 14 states and the District of Columbia where cannabis is legal. Oh great, they got fired for doing something legal, okay. Sources familiar with the matter also said a number of young staffers were either put on probation or can because they revealed past marijuana use in an official document, they filled out as part of the lengthy background check for position in the Biden White House. They of course made the mistake of being honest in Washington. That is a mistake you usually do not recover from.

So then we continue. In some cases, staffers were informally told by transition higher-ups ahead of formally joining the administration that they would likely overlook some past marijuana use, only to be asked later to resign. Oops. Okay, just kidding, right? Like, oh, come this one? Oh, you smoke back at 87. Okay, Obama did it too, who cares? Oh, I got you, you're fired. What? What the world is going on? So former White House staffer said this, The Daily Beast, the policies were never explained. The threshold for what was excusable and what was inexcusable was never explained. So now they gave this weak sauce explanation that I'm going to get to in a second. But I want you to understand the overall rules, because Biden thinks he's being lenient by not

finding anyone and everyone who's ever even looked in the direction of a plant that's green, right? All broccoli, macanadies, no, gone, right? So the current rules are for the FBI, an applicant can't have used marijuana in the past three years. Okay, at the NSA, it's only one, are they not merciful? The White House, however, largely calls its own shots. And the shot that they called is, yeah, no, we're going to fire you guys. Now, Jess Saki, the spokesperson, says, look, only five people were fired technically for this. She doesn't say how many were never accepted in the first place,

which is the majority of the problems, because they fill out the application, and then later They go, ha, ha, psych, you filled it out and said you once did marijuana, you know, why did you bother having them fill it out? Why were you trying to hire these folks? This is so stupid. They explained, no, no, no, no. They say this decision was made following intensive consultation with career security officials and will effectively protect our national security off, thanks God, while modernizing policies

to ensure that the talented and otherwise well-qualified applicants with limited marijuana use will not be barred from serving the American people. So, Was, again, there's an, I'm going to give you the background on Biden and why he's the worst on Warren drugs in a second. But in this particular case, help me try to understand what are they doing? I mean, what's the point of this half measure? Well, if you have these junior staff members, these at these entry-level positions,

too busy eating Doritos and Twinkies, and not. saving us from ISIS. You can have disaster on your hands, Jank. That's all I can think of. I can't understand this level of, you know, just puritanical authoritarian approach to staffing the government, while we're having every single state down there be like, look, we're done criminalizing this weed thing. We've established that it has medicinal uses. We've established that it's much better for people than the crap that the pharmaceuticals companies are peddling. We've established all these things to be fact. It's not even theoretical anymore. But yeah, the Biden administration wants us to think that these kids might have too many edible brownies.

Yeah, and Rashad, look, this is also a civil rights issue. It's not that black folks smoke marijuana any more than white folks do it. Of course, they smoke at the same exact rate. Just coincidentally, of course, Blacks happen to get arrested four times the rate of white people who are smoking marijuana. And yet we have a Democratic administration with a black vice president who won because of black voters now telling us they're going to continue to be draconian, but only 90% of Trump on this marijuana issue with their own staff. Yeah, this is quite sad. And let me be very clear, the administration is effing up on this one. Let's look at what you just brought up as a civil rights issue. Yes, marijuana use is statistically,

the same between black communities and white communities. However, there's something called prosecutorial discretion. And the first prosecutor is the cop that shows up at your door. And if that cop says, listen, it's just minor marijuana. We're not even going to arrest you for it. Just calm down. Take a chill. Let's drive you to another location. If there was an incident, then that person never gets charged. That person never gets arrested. But statistically, the black person will see a judge almost every time in that situation. Let's also talk about how ironic this is, a hypocritical this is. You mean to tell me that President Barack Obama can be president, but he could not have been a junior White House staffer?

You need to tell me that Bill Clinton could be president, but under these rules could not have been a junior White House staffer. And this goes back to the institutionalism of Joe Biden. Remember, he's old wine in a new wine skin. That's what he is, and he's desperately trying to figure out how to be a leader during this time. On something like this, he needs to sit back and let others kind of figure out who are progressive, figure out how this policy should work. Nobody should be penalized for having marijuana use.

As a matter of fact, the moral of the story is if the government asks you to fill out a document and they're requiring you to submit information about prior drug use, lie. That's the only moral of this story at this point, because this is what happens when you have to fill out something that you feel empowered and safe because they have lured you into this false sense of security and they have campaigned on this new reality as it relates to marijuana use in America. And all of a sudden, we see exactly what we see. An institutional approach that bears no weight and how a person actually performs their job

at this level. Rashon, that is such a brilliant point about Obama and Clinton. I had not thought about that. I did the hypocrisy. Don't forget W, Jank. We got some W in there. Was, I was doing something a whole lot more than marijuana, brother. That's right.

That's exactly right. But I pointed out the hypocrisy of those elitist presidents of both parties, but connecting into this issue, that's right. Obama couldn't have hired himself as a low-level staffer. Exactly. It's insane. It's insane. Now, to W, every report says that he used to do Coke, tons and tons and not like Coke Pepsi. Let's keep it real. Let's keep it real. Okay. And so now you're telling me, oh, but Joe over there or Bob smoked marijuana like three months ago, and that doesn't qualify. I'll get out of here. And so the hypocrisy. But speaking of which, now Joe Biden, during the campaign when his son was brought up, said don't judge him. because he had some serious drug issues.

And I agree with-sheets, right? But now he's turning around and judging people with far less than not even any issues. Yeah, and I was really proud of Joe what he said about his son, because that to me, that's the human approach. That's the compassionate approach. That's the approach that you and I and everyone else here would take. And I was proud of him in that moment, not proud of him in this moment. That's exactly right, but the problem is Joe Biden a lot of times acts like a Republican. Well, if it happens to me, then I've got empathy, right?

If it happens to you, not as much empathy. In fact, that brings me to who started a war on drugs in the first place. And believe it or not, the factual, correct, empirical answer is Joe Biden. Yeah, okay. So now Nixon had a huge role in it, no question about it. And then it falls into a little bit of a lull. And Joe Biden then pushes first Jimmy Carter, then Ronald Reagan. And Reagan won't even sign the draconian Bill Biden co-author of Strom Thurman.

Tom Thurmond and he says no, Reagan says it's two right wing. And then Biden pushes George Bush senior to sign the bill. Now let me give you some context with a brilliant story that they intercepted. They explained Biden helped lead the push for the Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1986, which lengthened sentences for many offenses created the infamous 100 to 1 crack versus cocaine sentencing disparity and provided new funds for the escalating drug war. Eventually with his co-sponsorship of the Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 19- His long sought after drug czar position was created.

These and other laws lengthen sentences at the federal level and contributed to an explosion of federal imprisonment from 24,000 people locked up in 1980 to almost 216,000 people in 2013. And David Stein who wrote the piece also explained. In 1989, Biden criticized President George Bush, that's H.W. Bush, anti-drug efforts as quote, this is Biden's quote. tough enough, bold enough, or imaginative enough, the president says he wants to wage a war on drugs. But if that's true, what we need is another D-Day, not another Vietnam, not a limited war fought on the cheap. So was, Biden was the guy who started this war in the first place.

And now we're hoping he gets hope he's the one that ends it. Because forget the staffers, just legalize the damn thing. What do we have? What kind of insane conversation are we having? It's democratic party freaking just, hypocrisy just distilled. This is supposed to be the party of compassion. This is supposed to be the party of normal, everyday people. These are young people who are, like that they're interested, talented young people would be interested in service at all. Should be applauded and should be encouraged. Instead, like, I'm supposed to believe that smoking a duby is the end of the world.

I just, I can't believe this. Yeah, Rashad, I'm going to give you the last thought here, but this pace of change is too gradual. You know, it's not even a tranquilize, ironically war on drugs. They're using the tranquilizing drug of gradualism, as Dr. King said, on this level of change. So are we ever going to get a Democratic Party that actually takes action? You will. You will eventually get it. But here's what may happen.

You're going to have people so irritated by the process of gradualism, by these massive promises, and then the underdelivery of those massive promises. The Democratic Party itself is going to transition into a whole new party. Thank God. And let's be very clear about why we're here in the first place. Bill Clinton significantly slowed down the progression of the Democratic Party. When he got elected, he became the moderate of moderates. All right, there was a time when bipartisanship was actually a decent word. It's not during the time of unprecedented tribalism and politics, the party of no, no, no. And I want to remind everyone, you know that stimulus check that millions of Americans are getting? You know those unemployment benefits that are extending.

The Senate didn't give you that. Democrats in the Senate gave you that. Republicans didn't want to give you that. And there are some Democrats that really didn't want you to have that. And until we get rid of those individuals, we will never have true progress in this nation. We need something done, and we need it done in a massive way. And Joe Biden, he's dragging his feet. He's trying to work with the other side.

And this is not the error for that. Seems to be tripping over, if you will. Well, all right. Waz is going to stay with us. Rashad's got to go. Davis Hoosier's going to join us next. Everybody check out Indisputable Rashad Ritchie's show on our network on Twitch. E.Y.T. I need you to check that out. And I am trying to give you, it's after damage report,

by the way, guys, I just want to give you the time on it. And it's on Mondays, okay? So, Rashad, thank you so much. And we'll be right back. Thanks for listening to the full episode of the Young Turks. Support our work. Listen to ad-free, access members, only bonus content, and more by subscribing to Apple Podcasts. Apple.co slash TYT. I'm your host, Shank Huger, and I'll see you soon.