The Young Turks - Big Lie Lies

Episode Date: February 28, 2023

Energy Department says lab leak most likely caused pandemic. Mississippi GOP governor now backs longer Medicaid for moms. Dilbert distributor severs ties with creator over racist remarks. Host: Ana Kasparian, Cenk Uygur Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You're listening to The Young Turks, the online news show. Make sure to follow and rate our show with not one, not two, not three, not four, but five stars. You're awesome. Thank you. Woo! It's up! All right, well, I'm the young Turks, Jane Hugh Grant and Casparan with you guys. We've got our usual bevy of corruption.

and catastrophes and controversies. All three Cs are here. Oh my God, Jenk, all four Cesar here. Okay, so without further ado, Anna Casperi. Well, why don't we start with this? There's a report today that another intelligence arm of the U.S. government, this is inside our energy department, has joined the FBI in concluding that COVID began with a lab leak in China. If we end up determining, if our intelligence community over time determines this is the majority view, and it's the U.S. government's view, that this was a lab leak in China and that government covered it up, what should be the consequences?

Now, before we get to Republican Senator Dan Sullivan's answer to Chuck Todd's question, I think it's worth visiting the reporting on the allegations regarding the lab leak and how it might have led to the coronavirus pandemic. This has to do with a new report based on new intelligence by the energy department. And while the energy department has come out with this conclusion, they say that it is a low confidence conclusion. And the intelligence community overall is still divided in regard to where the virus originated from. So here's what we know so far. Some officials briefed on the intelligence said that it was a relatively weak, or it was relatively weak, and that the energy department's conclusion was made with low confidence suggesting its level of certainty was not high. While the department shared the information with other agencies, none of them

changed their conclusions, officials said. Now, it is important to keep in mind that there is one intelligence agency that tends to agree with the energy department here, and that's the FBI. In addition to the energy department, the FBI has also concluded with moderate confidence that the first emerged accidentally from the Wuhan Institute of Virology, a Chinese lab that worked on coronaviruses. We'll get to the other agencies in just a moment, and we'll also get to Sullivan's answer to Chuck Todd. But, Jank, initial thoughts. So there are two major things to look out here for. First of all, did it come from a lab leak? Nearly impossible to know, I'm not a damage Jim, I'm not a virologist. Having said that, did you hear what Anna just read you guys?

It came out of the city that has a Wuhan Institute of Virology, a Chinese lab that worked on coronaviruses. Man, that is an awfully large coincidence. And that's what I've thought throughout that that was an awfully large coincidence. Now, in the beginning, people swore up and down that it was natural and not from a lab. We'll get back to that in a second. Actually, can we address that right now? Because one thing that's become increasingly clear to me, especially over the last year, is that I don't know who to trust.

Yeah. Right? I certainly don't trust reporters because reporters treated this initially as if it was nothing more than a crazy, unhinged conspiracy theory. Yeah. So who do you trust, right? You can't trust the legacy media outlets because that was their narrative. Right wing media, you know, tends to go in the direction of it was definitely a lab leak,

but they have their own biases. So what do you trust? Who do you trust? Even the intelligence community in the United States is divided on this issue. And it's not just about the coronavirus pandemic guys. It's about every single political issue. I don't know who to trust. Yeah.

So I'm going to make it worse before I make it better. Okay, go ahead. So first of all, the main organization that put out a report saying it was definitely from a natural occurrence was the World Health Organization. normally fairly reputable and trustworthy, except for the fact that in this particular case, China demanded that half the people on the panel be from China. And so it was a very, very questionable finding, but it was reported as if it was legitimate. That's right. That's exactly right.

And so that makes it worse. Second of all, you think, well, okay, now it's pretty settled. I mean, the energy department, the FBI even saying more so that they think it was a lab leak. And come on, the Wuhan virology labs right there. One of the chances it's not, okay, but be careful of the new reports too. Why? Because now all of a sudden you've got Republicans like the one we just showed you in the beginning and Democrats who are more hawkish and inclined towards neoconservatism coming out saying, this is the fault of the Chinese Communist Party.

Uh-oh. So remember we've been reporting about how we're starting to do more war. mongering towards China, the Pelosi visit, the arms sales to Taiwan, the Chinese spy balloons and the other rando balloons we shot down as if it was, they were Chinese, et cetera. So now here comes the war drums. Yep. So be careful, be careful, not just with, hey, what was COVID? Where did it come from?

That's very important. We have to track that down scientifically because for the next virus that comes out, it's critical that we know the truth, the medical, scientific truth behind how it emerged. But it is curious that all of a sudden our government is starting to say Democrats and Republicans and almost all of them neocons, pro-war legislators coming out and saying, Chinese communist, what does this have to do with communism? What are you guys talking about? It says nothing to do with communism whatsoever. And if there was an accidental lab league, As you say, Jink, I think the world deserves to know about it.

The fact that the World Health Organization investigation into this was heavily biased in favor of China is absolutely ridiculous. And if I recall correctly, that bias wasn't initially reported, right? It wasn't until the Biden administration found out that there was a pro-China bias within the World Health Organization's investigation into it, that he ordered his own investigation. And then after that, it turns out that you have all of these mixed signals or signs coming from various intelligence organizations. Let's go to the other agencies, for instance. For other intelligence agencies and the National Intelligence Council have concluded with low

confidence that the virus most likely emerged through natural transmission, the director of national intelligence's office announced in October of 2021. And like the low confidence, moderate confidence, who do you trust, especially given all of the other agenda items that both lawmakers and government officials have in mind when it comes to geopolitical issues. Okay, so I'm going to give you a very self-aggrandizing answer first and then potentially what you consider more real answer, right? Look, guys, who can you trust? How about us, right? When it appeared that all the scientists were saying that it was natural born, we said my recollection and you guys, everybody can look it up and they often do, right?

Was that, hey, I'm like, all the doctors and scientists are saying that it's natural. Okay, I guess it's natural. And then Wuhan labs, the virology labs in Wuhan, and then it became not unanimous. And I was like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. That is an unbelievable coincidence. The virology lab is right next to the outbreak. What were the chances, right? And so, and so like we were, we said that years ago, right, under Trump.

ownership of what I said, okay? Because I said that there was no evidence of it, right? If I remember it correctly, right? I wasn't completely dismissive of it, but we didn't have evidence and I'm not going to repeat, you know, theories that we don't have hardcore evidence to back up. Yeah. So I don't know what to believe. And when you say trust us, we don't know. We don't know. No, but that's exactly why you should trust us because we're not driving an agenda here. We're sharing all of the information that we have filled with uncertainty. When you see people saying right wing media, mainstream media, we know, okay? How do you know? Are you a virologist? Did you trace the, you know, the DNA or whatever of the virus? I don't even know

the terms. Exactly right. So of course we don't know for sure. We don't have access to those things that were not those scientists. And neither is the guy at Fox News or MSNBC. Okay. But what we know is things that, what we can ascertain together, right? It is, again, I'm going to, it is, it's Seems to me logically, here, I'll give you an example. Remember Mark Sanford was governor of South Carolina, goes on the app, they said he was missing for a while. And they said he was on the Appalachian Trail and they couldn't reach him because he was hiking for days. And I said, look, I don't know, I'm not next to him, but I would be shocked if that were true.

That's not, I very, very likely it is not true, right? And at the time, it was considered outrageous to say that. A beloved governor says he's on the Appalachian Trail. He must be on the Appalachian Trail. He was on a trail already. For sure. turns out he was in Argentina with his mistress. Okay, so in this case, you have the Wuhan virology lab that works on coronaviruses,

and a coronavirus outbreak happens right next to it. It's not, you know, it is very likely that it came from the lab, in my opinion. But I'm telling you it's my opinion, and that's called honesty. So one of the reasons why it's been so difficult to determine with great certainty or, you know, just a little more certainty than what we've heard so far is that it seems as though the Chinese officials are making it difficult to research this and investigate this. In fact, I want to give you a statement from a Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman. COVID tracing is a scientific issue that should not be politicized, Mao Ning, a Chinese foreign

ministry spokeswoman said of the energy department's conclusion. She then repeated calls for the United States to, quote, stop defaming China by raising the lab leak story. Theory. Or theory, I'm sorry, theory. And then this is the part that really gets to me. China also spread conspiracy theories by suggesting COVID may have been a product of U.S. biological weapons programs. Here, I'll give you two more logical conclusions, guys. So number one, she says, oh, the U.S. is politicizing this.

So I see you've learned a trick or two from slimy American politicians. Okay, no, you guys are, the Chinese government is covering up any attempt to investigate where it actually came from, which by the way is another giant clue that it was their fault, right? And so for her to say that the U.S. is politicizing it, when they've made a political decision to cover up what might be a crime, the original crime scene, is hilarious and obviously hypocritical. Now, was it on purpose? That's another layer. And that I think does get to look, whatever you want to call conspiracy theories, right? I'm positive, I never called the lab leak a conspiracy theory

because I always thought it was logical, okay? So, and please go and find whatever we said about it. We're own up to anything, and my guess is you're going to find me saying that at some point in one of the coverages. Anyways, but in terms of actual conspiracy theories, the U.S. and China are like, oh, did the Chinese Communist Party do it on purpose? And the Chinese are like, oh, did the U.S. do it on purpose? Okay, but about a million Americans died, 700,000 Chinese have died.

That would be the worst plan in history. It's not impossible. There's a lot of incompetence in governments, but I don't think anybody did this on purpose, killing nearly a million people in your own country. And hurting your economy. And absolutely pulverizing each other's economies. Because government officials don't care about human lives. They care about money at the end of the day.

They care about their economy at the end of the day. would they do this on purpose to negatively impact their economy, including the world economy? I doubt it. Yeah, it is not likely. Let's put it that way. Yeah. So with that said, though, luckily, you know, we have all these competent government officials, members of Congress, who are really looking out for our best interest. So they've got a game plan, right? Well, why don't we hear from Republican Senator Dan Sullivan on what the game plan is?

I hope our Democratic colleagues in the Congress can support that. I know the Republicans in the House are certainly supportive of that. But I think if that happens, we need to make sure every country in the world knows this. Look, this is a country that has no problem coming out and lying to the world. We just saw that with this Chinese spy balloon. It's the nature of a communist dictatorship to lie to their own people, to lie to the world. But I think that we need to make sure every country knows that and then look at what the consequences could be. obviously millions of deaths, huge economic impacts.

And it would once again show that the Chinese Communist Party is not only a menace, but the nature of these regimes is to lie to the world. And we need to make that clear to people. In other words, there is no plan. He called for hearings because that's what members of Congress do. They just do hearings. All day, every day, they do nothing else. Just hearings, just hearings.

So how do you confirm the findings of the Energy Department and the FBI? How do you know with great certainty that it was in fact a lab leak? And once you find out, and once you confirm that it is a lab leak, what is the course of action? Because I certainly don't want to engage in a hot war with China. That would be a disaster, right? So I don't know. I don't know what the future holds for this story, for this issue. And I don't really know what to make of what we're hearing from the energy department, to be quite frankly.

Yeah, look, guys, there's an excellent chance we're not going to find out ever where it actually came from. because both the Chinese and U.S. governments are giant liars. So that senator, what a joke. This communist Chinese party is no problem lying to the world. What do you think we do? George W. Bush, who you loved, said, we would never wiretap American citizens. And it turns out he was wiretapping American citizens.

We would never do torture. They were doing torture. Lie after lie after lie. And it's not just Republicans, Democrats lie all the time too. But Jake, to be fair, we've never acted on bad intelligence. I mean, come on, these guys are a goddamn joke. And then Chuck Todd, of course, let's all of that slide. As, oh, the beloved United States government and the beloved CIA have never lied.

It's absurd, right? Now, on the other hand, the hearings in this case, I say it's like the only hearing that the Republicans have proposed, which I think makes some degree of sense. Like, Hunter Biden's a rando and whether he did meth or whatever the hell he did, I don't give a damn. But if there's hearings as to where this came from and they look into how this could leak from a lab, that could have some value. So it's not totally worthless. Hey, that's the best compliment I can give to, especially the Republican politicians.

But let me end on the thing that I promised you earlier. Look, how do you tell what's right and wrong, right? So I asked Noam Chomsky's the same question when I interviewed him once here on the TYAT network. And his answer basically was, look, guys, you look for the facts, you look for the nuggets of indisputable. facts and then ignore everything else, okay? So he's like, the New York Times will put bias into every story, right? And it'll be a pro-status quo, pro-corporate bias, CNN, same, et cetera. Now you know Fox News, et cetera, MSNBC have their own biases, right?

So ignore anything like the Chinese Communist Party, oh, they're liars, we're honest. Ignore all that garbage. And only look at the facts. So in this case, what do we know? We've got two U.S. departments, energy and FBI, saying they think it was a lab leak. We got four American departments saying they think it was natural. In other words, we don't know, okay? So you make your own conclusions.

All right, we're going to take a quick break. When we come back, we've got more news for you guys, including the most unsurprising Rupert Murdoch-related story imaginable. And we'll also talk about some other stuff, including how Tate Reeves, the governor of Mississippi, has changed his tune on Medicaid, likely because he wants to get reelected. Of course. That and more coming right up. All right. All right. Back on T.O.T. Jenkins Anna, with you guys. Also, Jim. Jim Beck just joined up.

We appreciate it, brother. but he hit the join button below the video on YouTube. You could do likewise. You see us working hard for you guys, try to get honest reporting out there. You can be part of that answer if you join. TYT.com slash join. Thank you guys. Anna.

All right. Well, we've got an update on the lawsuit against Fox News for spreading election lies allegedly. Chairman of Fox News Corp, or I should say, Chairman of Fox Corporation, Rupert Murdoch, has decided to tell the truth during a sworn deposition where lying could get you in some trouble. During that sworn deposition, he admitted that some of the hosts over at Fox News assisted Trump in spreading election lies.

Now, I'm going to read you the transcript from the deposition, which was released today, was made public today, and here's how it went down. the attorney asked him, quote, you are aware now that Fox did more than simply host these guests and give them a platform, correct? And he responded with, I think you've shown me some material in support of that. The next question from the attorney was, in fact, you are now aware that Fox endorsed at times this false notion of a stolen election. Rupert Murdoch responds, not Fox, no, not Fox. But maybe Lou Dobbs, maybe Maria, meaning Maria Bartaromo. Of course, the lawyer asked for some clarification on that. We went through Fox

hosts Maria Barteromo, yes. He responds, yes, come on. Next question, Fox host Janine Piro. He responds, I think so. Now, final portion I want to read to you all before I go to Jank. Fox business host Lou Dobbs? Oh, a lot, he responds. attorney asks Fox host Sean Hannity. Murdoch responds a bit. So that's amazing. Is it? No, it's amazing that Rupert Murdoch was willing to go on there and go, yeah, our guys

totally lied about the election. Look, we all know they lied about it. But the head of Fox News and the guy who owns the network admitting that they lied about it in a case about how they lied about it, that's a little amazing. My theory on why he's admitting it is, he's like, look, man, I already have so many billions of dollars. I'm in my 200s, right? I don't know how old is 80s, 90s, whatever he is. His only remaining problem is going to jail. So he doesn't want to go to jail. So when he's under oath, he tells the truth. He's like, yeah, of course we lied about it. Of course the election

isn't stolen. But our, and to me, the most relevant part of all this guys is what I've been telling all along, both with Donald Trump and with Fox News. The reason they lie is because the base wants them to lie. Because they're captured by their audience. Yeah. No, it's audience capture on steroids, 100%. In fact, reading the text exchanges between various Fox hosts and, you know, Fox producers and all of that made it abundantly clear that on one hand, people like Tucker Carlson, behind the scenes thought the election lies were unhinged and crazy. But once he saw that the audience was abandoning his show and other shows on Fox to go watch content that's even more extreme further to the right, he panicked.

He's worried about the stock prices. Yeah. So we share that story with you guys a couple of days ago. And Tucker Carl says, do you see what's happening to our stock price? And he's so, and they say Sidney Powell is nuts. Okay, Laura Ingram, Sean Hannan. Tucker Carlson, they talk about how Rudy Giuliani is insane. But meanwhile, they keep bringing them on and go, oh, yeah.

Oh, we're so concerned about this stolen election. Oh, my God. Hey, audience, ludicists. Come back, come back. Look, guys, look, we're stuck. On the one hand, the right wing voters have been lied to a billion times by corporate politicians and corporate media, yes, including Fox News, to get them to be in favor of tax cuts for the rich. and they've been told a thousand lies about how it's gay people's fault, black people,

immigrants' fault, et cetera, right? On the other hand, right-wing voters want to be lied to. They love those lies, right? It's not just right-wing voters, okay? It's people in general, they want whatever news content they're consuming to reinforce their preconceived notions, and if you deviate even a little bit from that, there's backlash. It happens all the time. It happens on this show sometimes.

And you know what? Bring the backlash in, because I'm going to tell you guys the truth. And I'm going to tell you what I really think. And if you don't like it, sad day. I didn't end up working at TYT to be captured by anyone, whether it's corporate interest or an audience. Yeah. And so look, in a lot of ways, that's the hardest thing to avoid.

So look, somebody offers your X amount of money to do something bad. Most people take it. Let's keep it real, right? But if you're a decent moral person, it's a little bit easier to turn that down, right? But when your audience is say, oh, no, no, no, but be like, tell me these sweet little love. That's so much harder to resist, just as Joe Rogan. Okay, and so, but we do resist it. And we've done it time and time again.

I told you Obama was too conservative. And we lost tons of members. We told you, Anna, was absolutely brilliant in exposing Tulsi Gabbard so much earlier than anyone else had. We lost some members over that too. Oh my gosh, she's such a great progressive. Anna, how could you possibly tell the truth about her? We don't want the truth about her, right?

And on and on it goes, but we don't play those games. The point of this network is to do the news. And yes, we have our own perspectives and all the hosts have different perspectives. But the bottom line is you have to be factual. Because if you're not dealing with facts, you're just dealing in fantasy. A thousand percent. And look, and Fox News, at least Murdoch knows it. He's like, this is my business model.

What do you want me to do? But to look, but to be fair to us, TYT is not a publicly traded company. Right? So when you're a publicly traded company, the only thing that matters are your investors. Let's just keep it real, right? That's why Tucker Carlson was panicking about share prices, stock prices, because you got to do right by your investors, right? Who cares if you're spreading poison? Who cares if you're, you know, tainting the American public with all sorts of conspiracies and divisive content? We got to look out for the investors. We got to keep those stock, by the way, when I say look out for investors, I'm pretty sure Tucker Carlson and the other hosts own shares of Fox News as well or Fox Corp.

With that said, I do want to go to the last part of the excerpt or the deposition here where the lawyer asks, all were in that document, correct? Rupert Murdoch says, yes, they were, about Fox endorsing the narrative of a stolen election, correct? Murdoch says, no, some of our commentators were endorsing it. And the lawyer says about their endorsement of a stolen election? And he says, yes, they endorsed. Okay. And by the way, the only person that's been let go is, what's his name?

Lou Dobbs. Lou Dobbs. Janine Piro's still there. Tucker Carlson's still there. Sean Hannity's still there. Laura Angram, Maria Bartromo, who's just as nuts as Lou Dobbs. And Murdoch knows it. Yeah.

And he didn't let them go. So look, my concern is we don't live in a fair country. We don't live in a just country. So if Fox News somehow miraculously wins against Dominion voting systems in this defamation lawsuit, what does that communicate to the news industry overall? I'll tell you what it communicates. This is the largest case ever of this type of defamation. And Fox News is here on the record in sworn testimony admitting they did it.

They lied about the stolen election. they lied about Dominion, they knew they were lying, right? And that's, it's enormous, right? Because in order to prove defamation, you have to show malice, intent. And here is Murdoch and the others clearly indicating intent. We knew we were lying and we did it anyway. And so my guess, Anna, is they did a calculation of how much is it going to cost us if we lose our audience to Newsmax and OAN, who's willing to 100% lie about the stolen election versus how much.

we're going to lose in a defamation case, right? But to your point, if it turns out that they win the defamation case, well, that's going to be a giant green light to everyone in media lie all you want. And it also- I mean, if Fox doesn't get busted on this, that means there are no rules, and you can't trust anything you see on the air, because everyone is allowed to lie 24-7. And proving a defamation claim against a media organization is an incredibly difficult thing to do. You have to prove something called actual malice, meaning they knew they were lying, they did it intentionally, right, with malicious intent. Now, I would argue, this is my opinion, based on the text exchanges that we have of various hosts and executives and producers over at Fox, it's clear they knew they were lying and there was malicious intent there.

But we'll see how it all plays out. And it's not just what the outcome would communicate to media and the U.S. overall, but it's also what it would communicate to American consumers of news who already distrust these institutions. Yeah, none of this helps. But last thing I'll leave you guys on, earlier in this show we were talking about, how do you know who to trust? Almost everybody in power these days lies, right? And rampantly.

Well, one place where they are more like to tell the truth is in court because that's where there are legal consequences, criminal consequences if you tell something that isn't true. That's why when Alex Jones goes to court, he says, oh yeah, Sandy Hook wasn't a hoax, totally lying about it, right? When he's on air, when he's in court, he tells the truth. And he says, oh, yeah, my shows meant to be entertainment, no one in their right mind would take it seriously, right? Tucker Carlson says no one in the right mind would take my show seriously. Of course, I'm lying through my teeth when I'm on air, okay? And so what, and now here comes Robert Murdoch, the guy who owns Fox News saying, well, of course we lie on air, here I am in a deposition under oath, and I'm telling you the truth.

And so that's one way that you could tell. What they say in court is worth a thousand times what they say on air or in public otherwise, and you see it clearly. All right, well, let's take a little trip to Mississippi for some other news today. for moms who just gave birth. Now, that might seem, you know, a little different for a Republican lawmaker, Republican governor in this case. But the problem is that his endorsement of the Medicaid extension seemed to actually be

a secret message to shut down the proposal. So let's get to the details, what happened. So previously, the state of Mississippi had granted women who had just given birth two months, just two months of postpartum Medicaid coverage. But when the federal government first declared COVID-19 to be a public health emergency back in 2020, Mississippi extended that coverage to last an entire year. Now, COVID's status as a national health emergency will expire in May. And unless Mississippi lawmakers act, by the way, that includes lawmakers in other states as well, the extended Medicaid coverage will also expire. Now, Reeves technically wrote

in favor of keeping the extended coverage yesterday, but pay attention to how many times his message contradicts itself. Okay, so let's go to the first graphic here. Here's Tate Reeves. To be perfectly honest, I haven't been swayed by the data that is at best incomplete and at worst, often misconstrued and mischaracterized by the more government benefits no matter the cost crowd. However, the fact is we live in a post-Dob's world. We, as Mississippi conservatives, led the charge to end Roe v. Wade, and I couldn't be more proud of that victory. I also believe that added stress will be felt by more Mississippi moms, we have to love them.

Now, let me be clear, before he released this statement, he was against extending the Medicaid coverage. All of a sudden, he backpedaled. We can speculate as to why in just a moment, but let me give you more from his statement. He says, we may even have to be willing to do things that make us philosophically uncomfortable. Yeah, like providing health care coverage to new moms, I guess. I'm willing to do that. As I've said many times, it will not be easy and it will not be free, but it will be worth it as more children. of God are brought into the world.

All of a sudden, you found the children of God. Interesting, yeah. Could it be because there's an election coming up? Yeah. So the main point of this story, guys, is everyone's a progressive right before the election. Right? Afterwards, they talk about cutting, cutting, cutting, spending that goes to you, cutting any benefits that go to you, cutting taxes for the rich.

Right, but right before an election, even the Republican governor of Mississippi is like, oh, Medicaid, oh, I'm pro-life. That's why I want to take care of the baby after it's born. But then why have you been opposed to it your entire career? And by the way, it's all a trick, of course. He puts a giant asterisk on it. He says, you know, if the legislature gets it to my desk, then I'll vote for it. Oh, but is the deeply conservative legislature of Mississippi going to get it to his desk?

Hell no. No, that gets blocked in the Mississippi House every time. There's an enormously right-wing leader for the Republicans in the House, and he doesn't, He would never allow any Mississippi citizen to be helped by the government of Mississippi. Philip Gunn, House Speaker, Philip Gunn. Yeah, Philip Gunn's one of the worst people. Okay, so of course, so Tate's like, oh, yeah, college, you even get to my desk, and all of a sudden I'll care about the moms of Mississippi.

So why is he panicking all of a sudden? He's losing by four to a Democrat in Mississippi. That's how unpopular is. And get a little of this amazing fact. 60% of the kids born in Mississippi are born into a family that uses Medicaid. 60%. So now, why is he having to change his position to a progressive position because he's down four? Well, because he now, can we be honest?

Can we be real here? Because now white people are using it in Mississippi at rates. They've always used it. They've always used it more than black people. But as a percentage, okay? as a percentage are using it so much in Mississippi that he's like, I can't call on welfare queens anymore. I can't demagogue about it anymore because my own voters are using it.

Oops, I'm going to have to pretend to be progressive. A lot of poor white people in this country. Yep. Especially in states like Mississippi. Now with that said, I do want to note that just two weeks ago, he did not have a strong stance on it. In fact, he refused to issue an opinion on whether or not, it should be extended for a full year.

The postpartum Medicaid expansion, what I've said in the past and continue to say today is the data is incomplete at best. Really, is the data really that incomplete? What data are you referring to? In fact that 60% of children are born into families that rely on Medicaid? Anyway, I think it's something that they're working on in the legislature, and I think they should continue to work on it. We don't have great data.

So again, that's an issue we're continuing to work on. It's just, this country's a joke, man. It really is. Yeah. It's a joke. You know, look. Real quick, remember, the Affordable Care Act allocated federal funding for state Medicaid. And a lot of southern states in particular refuse that Medicaid money, right?

It's just their ideology. They're against helping their own constituents. And you know what? Medical debt in the south particularly is sky high. There's a huge gap between northern states and the medical debt represented there and southern states and the explosion of medical debt in those states because of the fact that those states did not expand their Medicaid programs for so long. Well, now that's time for another stunning fact. So look, the red states generally do way worse than the blue states in almost every category.

So that's why it's always hilarious when like red state legislators are like, oh, yeah, we want a national divorce or Marjorie Taylor Green who's in a blue state, right? Oh, we want a national war. It's so good. We don't want any of the blue states. Really because Mississippi is near the bottom, like usually 48th to 50th on every category, you know, poverty. Life expectancy. Life expectancy, maternal death, education, you name it. The state. The state. that have been run longest by Republicans are the ones that are always in the absolute worst shape, okay? So look, that's a fact and you could look it up and you could say, oh yeah, but there was like a three year window that a Democratic state didn't do as well. And by the way, there's plenty of problems in the Democratic blue states too and largely because of our institutionalized corruption, right? But the red states have done miserably because

of Republican rule, that's a fact. But guys, the Medicaid issue is larger than Mississippi Bureau of Red States. Stunning fact number two is now 50% of all kids born in the entire country are born into Medicaid. 50%. Oh my God. I couldn't believe that fact when I read it today. Okay.

So what is, and why is that happened? And this is where you'll never see this anywhere else. It's happened because companies have realized we pay them so little. Don't worry. That way we don't have to pick up their health care. will unload it on the government. That's right. Okay, and Walmart kind of invented this trick,

and now almost all the big companies are using it. Okay, I'm going to pay you poverty wages, so you're literally in poverty, and I have to go get Medicaid for your health care. So the answer to all of this isn't any of this nonsense about extending Medicaid for a little longer? I mean, yes, they should. The red states should use it when it's offered, et cetera.

But you have to have universal health care, like all other developed civilized countries. There's a reason why they all do it. And we're the only ones that don't do it. It's the corruption here is so rampant. But no, those larded up companies that are the drug companies, the pharmaceuticals industry, the health insurance companies, they're robbing us blind with the help of the United States government. Yes, Republicans, but also corporate Democrats that will not. not pass Medicare for all or any other universal health care under penalty of law.

The Joe Biden's, the Nancy Pelosi's, the Chuck Schumers, they hate it because they work for corporations. We've got Dilbert when we come back. Don't miss it. All right, back on T.Y.T. Jank and Anna, with you guys. And Greg, too. Greg Kellermeyer just became a member. And Kelly Kay, you're awesome for gifting two young turks memberships. She added, hey, lovely people, gifting subscriptions in honor of my horse's 30th birthday. Okay, well, there you go. Thank you. We appreciate it anyway, for any reason. Go ahead. will no longer publish the Gilbert comics because the cartoonist, Scott Adams, has been accused of engaging in a racist rant during one of his live streams over the weekend. Now we'll show you examples of the rant in question, but before we do, let me give you some context on what sparked his commentary on race. Now in the video, Adams discussed a poll conducted by right leaning Rasmussen reports that said 26% of black respondents disagreed

with the statement, quote, it's okay to be white. In his video, Adams called black people who rejected that phrase a hate group. Now let me pause for a second because it's important to understand what might have motivated the response from some of the respondents. And I should also note that Rasmussen leans conservative. And that's pretty well known. But in case you didn't know, it's important for you to know that. Now, the anti-defamation league has labeled the phrase it's okay to be white as a hate slogan because it started over at 4chan, at least that's what they claim. And it was a response to some of the concerns about racial tensions in the country, some calls for equality in the country. And so it was basically meant to celebrate whiteness,

guess in these forums. And so if you are, let's say, a black respondent to this survey and you know that history, you might have a negative reaction to it without really trying to conclude that it's not okay to be white. Right? So I think that context is kind of important here. Yeah. So let me add just a tiny bit more clarity too. Rasmussen doesn't just lean right. It's trash. It's 100% right wing, even puts out right wing conspiracy theories. And it's a little confusing because Rasmussen used to be a legitimate polling organization. I don't know when and how they made the turn, but the way that you could tell that they're trash is their actual polling, which is what they're supposed to be doing. For example, in the 2020 elections,

they were wildly off. They keep saying, oh, if I was going to win everything, Trump's the best, he's totally going to win. He's they have winning by large margins, then it loses by 7 million votes. No, they're a dumpster fire. So they ask questions like this to antagonize people. Thousand percent. I mean, it's a ridiculous and intentionally provocative poll, right, to drive further racial tensions and division in the country. And like clockwork, you have this cartoonist, Scott Adams, take the bait, and engage in

the rant. So let's watch. I'd like to focus a lot of my life resources in helping black Americans. So much so that I started identifying as black to just be on the team I was helping. But it turns out that nearly half of that team doesn't think I'm okay to be white, which is, of course, why I identified as black so I could be on the winning team for a while. But I have to say, this is the first political poll that ever changed my activities. I don't know that that's ever happened before.

Normally you see a poll, you just look at it, you go, eh, whatever. Oh, this is interesting what other people think. But as of today, I'm going to re-identify as white because I don't want to be a member of a hate group. I'd accidentally joined a hate group. So if nearly half of all blacks are not okay with white people, according to this poll, not according to me, according to this poll, that's a hate group. That's a hate group. And I don't want to have anything to do with them. All right.

So he keeps saying nearly half of black people think it's not okay to be white. When the poll says that 26% of the black respondents disagreed with the statement, it's okay to be white. What he's referring to is the 21% of black respondents who were unsure of how to answer that question. Yeah, look, I don't know what the real number would be if a non-trash organization asks the same trash question. And by the way, I don't know what it would be for white people if you ask it about black people either, okay? Or Asians or Christians or Jews or any of these groups. I guarantee you that there'd be a very unhealthy number in every category, not just in the ones

we like or something, that would say it's not okay to be fill in the blank, okay? Because people got issues, man. We're all obsessed with race and our tribes. So tired of it. And yeah, it's absolutely Okay, but Scott Adams was a moron. So I used to identify as black. He thinks that's cute. Like, oh, yeah, if you can identify as a woman, I can identify as black. Okay, I got it. You're an idiot. And now all black people are a hate group, all black people. My favorite part of all this whole spiel was he's like, you know what, that's it. I'm not associating with black people anymore. Really? Did you have a lot of black friends before? Yeah, seriously. Okay, no, but with that said, I want to go to the next clip because the next clip, man, I think the next clip was actually

the really bad part. So let's watch. The best advice I would give to white people is to get the hell away from black people. Just get the way. Wherever you have to go, just get away because there's no fixing this. This can't be fixed, right? This can't be fixed. You just have to escape.

So that's what I did. I went to a neighborhood where, you know, I have a very low black population. He then referenced Don Lemon and alleged that Don Lemon even admitted that he felt safer in a wider neighborhood and that bad things happened in a majority black neighborhood. Look, I don't know if that reference is accurate. I don't even care what he's saying is pretty gross and disgusting and only further divides the country at a time when division is killing the country. Yeah. So look, they put us in a situation where we have to say things that are obviously

true, like this guy's obviously a racist. He says, get away from all black people. It's like the definition of racism, right? But no, the right wing says, nope, not racist. You guys are being politically correct and this poor guy is getting canceled. I can't believe that he they're canceling. So whether you're supposed to run this cartoon from an avowedly racist guy in places like the Cleveland plane dealer. And what's one of the newspapers that can't cancel them. Yeah, they did. They did. They canceled them. Okay. Oh, no, they're canceling racist. Okay, cry about it. I don't care. But what they said was, do we have an obligation to print the work of a white supremacist to our majority black readers? That's an insane. That's an insane.

entitlement complex you guys have, right? So I'm now I'm paraphrasing what they said, okay? I'm saying you have an insane entitlement complex. I demand that my racist positions be shoved on the throat of all Americans. I demand it otherwise I'm being canceled. They have no obligated, they're not the government. They have no obligation to run your stupid racist cartoons. Here, let me put it in a different context that's not as divisive, I guess, since it's not having to do with race. We're never invited on corporate media. Want to know why?

Because we call out corporate media. And we call out the corruption. We call out the biases. We call it all out. We don't then come on the show and then whine about how CNN won't have us on or MSNBC won't have us on, right? We say what we say because we believe it. This guy is saying what he says because he unfortunately believes it.

And no one is obligated to feature his work anywhere. I thought it was a free market, right? Yeah, they hate the free market. They hate it. Meanwhile, later in the show, we're going to have a story about Donald Trump saying, I want you to make Kimmel Kinsult. I would have fired. He could, he made a joke about me.

And the right way, he's like, yeah, yeah, fire up, fire up. We love castle culture. We love cancel culture. Which one is it? Which one is it? So anyways, look, if you can't tell that guy's racist, I got really bad news for you. Okay, but I don't want to say it. I hate to be divisive.

I hate all black people. I don't want to be anywhere near them. You're racist. How dare you, my feelings are offended. All right, get offended. I don't give a damn. But by the way, for anyone in any poll that says it's not okay to be any race, don't be an idiot. Okay, so to say that white people are not okay, I don't even know what that means or black people

are not okay. What does that mean? Okay, please stop being unintelligent. I, God damn it, I hate saying that, but what do you want me to say when people say, oh, it's not okay to be a race? I don't know, I just, the discussion about race in America is unhinged. Certainly we've seen it on the But you also see some stuff going on on the left that I don't understand, right? Like segregation, but with the argument that the segregation is a good thing and it protects various groups of people, right? So on college campuses, for instance, a relatively new phenomenon is now having like segregated graduation ceremonies.

And it's so black graduates feel safe or whatever graduates feel safe, like what is this? I thought the whole point, or one of the best parts about college, is you get to go to a campus where you converse and debate with and, and, you know, have engagement with people from all sorts of different backgrounds. Yeah, so look, there's. So like what? Like, okay, so now segregation is okay as long as the left is doing it by using a left argument in favor of it? No, so look, that one's more complicated because if you say dorms, there's been predominantly African American dorms, for a long time, and yes, there is some value in feeling some degree of comfort as you're going to school. But on the other hand, when you have, there was an effort a bunch of years ago at a college to say some class should be only for black students. That's crazy. That's nuts. Why? Because they want to feel safe in class. No, guys, we all have to learn together.

You can't come into a school, whether you're black, Asian, white, it doesn't matter. and then go, okay, I don't want to be with white people, Asian people, whoever. No, no, no, no. We're all going to learn together. You want to have your own apartment, have your own apartment. You want to sit together in the cafeteria? That's everybody's choice. Everybody makes different choice.

For example, I told the story recently about how during Ramadan, I would go breakfast with the Muslim students back when I was Muslim, right? And then they asked me, hey, do you want to just eat with Muslim students all the time, like every day? And I'm like, no, I don't. Why would I only want to eat with Muslim students? I want to eat with everybody. Why would I randomly say to my Asian friends, black friends, Latino friends,

no, I don't want to eat with you. I only want to stick with my group. Right. How is that America? I think the distinction is if the students create a group for themselves, right? And that's their safe space, whatever they want to call it, have at it, right? I have nothing against that. I do have a problem with the institution baking it into their system.

Yeah, that is a problem. That's what I'm saying. Guys, so look, it's easy to get super frustrated as I am with guys like Scott Adams, who are over the top raises. And so he is, you just a country of 330 million people. What's more frustrating to me is how much support he gets online, right? Including by Elon Musk, by the way, who put out a couple of tweets supporting him, right? So, a Crimea River, Elon, I know your dad's emerald mind, didn't give you enough of a break. I know. People are being raised against you for being white. I know, Elon, I know. So that's super frustrating. But don't let that split us apart, right? Whether it's the right wing

or some of the absurd policies of the extreme left that are less of a problem, but still a problem, right? At the end of the day, we all got to live together. And there's no differences between the races. Whether you're black or you're white, it doesn't matter. For God's sake, go to, if Scott Adams had never met a black person in his life, he probably wouldn't be as deeply racist as he is. He's like, I try to get away from black people. I live in a white neighborhood. I try not to see that's why you don't know black people. That's why you don't understand them at all. You know what they're like? People. That's all they are, other human beings. Yep. All right, but don't forget, Jank. He did that after he tried to help them by identifying as black. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah,

I'm sure. And now he called blacks the winning team. Oh, I know, I know. You, Poor white folks in this country. Look guys, most progressives are white, okay? We're never going to discriminate against white people. That's insane. But to say that minorities have had all the advantages in this country, it's so counterfactual that you belong in an asylum if you think that. All right, that does it for the first hour.

When we come back, we'll talk about xylazine, otherwise known as Trank, infiltrating neighborhoods and destroying them. And after we talk about that, we'll get into some other news, including a significant uptick in the number of Americans experiencing what's referred to as the Sunday Scaries. What is it? And why are they feeling it? That and more coming up in hour two. 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 at apple.com slash t-y-t. I'm your host, Shank Huger, and I'll see you soon.