The Young Turks - Bipartisan Love

Episode Date: February 4, 2022

United States Special Forces carried out a major raid in northwest Syria in the early hours of Thursday morning that reportedly resulted in the killing of more than a dozen people—including six children and four women. In a statement hours after the operation, U.S. President Joe Biden said that ""thanks to the skill and bravery of our Armed Forces, we have taken off the battlefield Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi—the leader of ISIS."" The Democrats’ Senate majority is temporarily gone. President Biden thanked Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell “for being my friend” during National Prayer Breakfast. A historic, iconic bridge in Rotterdam is to be temporarily taken down so Jeff Bezos' enormous yacht can reach the sea. Locals are worried about the risk of damage to the monument. Daughter swears she got her mom off QAnon by getting her addicted to Wordle instead. 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. One of the hardest parts of getting older is feeling like something's off in your body, but not knowing exactly what. It's not just aging. It's often your hormones, too.

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A survey found 86% of women lost weight, 77% saw an improved mood, and 100% felt like themselves again. Start your next chapter feeling balanced and in control. For a limited time, get 15% off your entire first order at happy mammoth.com with code next chapter at checkout. Visit happy mammoth.com today and get your old self back naturally. Thank you. Well, we have Turks, Jake, you got, because they're all right. So a bunch of fun things happening, but also a bunch of disastrous things, as always. So we're gonna start with drone strikes in a second, but then we're gonna go to Lindsey Graham, who had one of the funniest stories I've ever seen.

Yes. Then we're gonna go to manly men. Are they toxic or are they secretly interestingly good guys? Oh my God, that's story. That's a roller coaster. It's a roller coaster. There are highs, there are lows. You feel for them, you don't feel for that.

You don't know what you're going to feel, right? That's what I love. I love about that story. Yeah, well, that's what I love about the young Turks. You don't know what you're going to feel, but you're going to feel something. Okay, all right, let's get started. Well, we begin with some international news. The leader of ISIS blew himself up during a special ops mission to capture him in Syria.

President Joe Biden announced the news about Haji Abdullah during a recent press briefing. Let's take a quick look at what he had to say. The United States military forces successfully moved a major terrorist threat to the world, the global leader of ISIS, known as Haji Abdullah. Haji Abdullah oversaw the spread of ISIS-affiliated terrorist groups around the world after savaging communities and murdering innocence. He was responsible for the recent brutal attack on a prison in northeast Syria holding ISIS fighters, which was swiftly addressed by our brave partners in the Syrian Democratic forces.

He was the driving force behind the genocide of the Ossetian people in northwestern Iraq in 2014. We all remember the gut-wrenching stories, mass slaughters that wiped out entire villages. Thousands of women and young girls sold into slavery. Rape uses a weapon of war. And thanks to the brave of our troops, this horrible terrorist leader is no more. that as our troops approach to capture the terrorist and a final act of desperate cowardness, he, with no regard to the lives of his own family or others in the building, he chose to blow himself up, not just in the vest, but to blow up that third floor rather than face justice

for the crimes he has committed. So since he decided to do a suicide bombing in close quarters with other individuals, including his own family members. There were civilian deaths as a result. This special ops mission took about two hours, and apparently there were plans in place where they were working on this mission for several months now. And several residents told the Associated Press that they saw body parts scattered around a house in the village of Atme near the border with Turkey. They spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals following the raid, which they said involved. helicopters, explosions, and machine gun fire. Now, no U.S. troops were injured or killed during

this mission. And I should also note that while, yes, it's good news that the leader of ISIS has been killed, fact of the matter is he's going to be replaced. There he is, Haji Abdullah. He will be replaced with another ISIS leader. In fact, this was the biggest U.S. military operation in Syria since the October 2019 killing of then ISIS leader, Abu Bakar al-Baghdadi. planned for months since at least December when U.S. commanders became certain that they knew that he was staying at this home in Atme. And so yeah, it's overall good news, but what I also found interesting was the decision to send special ops to capture him rather than using a drone strike. And there was a specific reason for

that. We'll get to those details in a moment. But, Jank, what do you think? I don't know what to believe because the U.S. has such little credibility after one of these raids. So they say he blew himself up and that's why the civilians were killed. Maybe. I'm being just totally frank with you guys. Maybe that's true. But there's also an excellent chance that it isn't true.

So after bin Laden was killed, I thought it was terrific. And I'm glad that they use special forces. Not drones. We'll get into that in a second again. But when they said that he hid behind his wife, I was like, yeah, that's the most obvious propaganda I've ever heard. So I, you know, good, bin Laden is dead, but you don't need to add the BS on top, right? And of course, a couple of weeks later or a couple months later, they were like, okay, maybe he didn't hide behind his wife, okay? And maybe half the things we said were totally not true. Yeah, that's what we thought. You do needless propaganda. So am I positive that it was this guy who detonated and killed the civilians?

Not at all positive. Biden has been trying to avoid civilian deaths, which is a good thing, right? But it would certainly be bad PR for him if we're the ones who did the civilian deaths. I'm just going to give you two quotes here that make you realize why I'm questioning it. Local residents, first responders and generals who witnessed the U.S. Operation Thursday said it included helicopters and F-16 warplanes, which bombed in Sheldar area in northwest Syria ahead of the airdrop rate. We're really sure that that wasn't one of the bombs that landed and that it was the suicide bomb that he happened to conveniently have by him.

Maybe, maybe not, but get a load of this. Anna told you about the body parts everywhere, unfortunately, but one more important quote. Images also showed U.S. made explosive devices scattered near the scene, including one from Colorado-based Ensign-Bickford Aerospace and Defense Company. Is that the one the ISIS leader had? Maybe. I don't think so.

Right. And if he did, well, then that, they should answer why and how in the world did the ISIS leader get a bomb from Colorado. So there's some parts of the story that I'm not sure about. I'm not saying that there lies is 50-50 at best. Right. I think you make a really good point. And I was watching the Pentagon spokesperson and his press conference just today. And he seemed to get kind of irritable.

whenever a reporter asked about civilian deaths. And so it seemed like he didn't really want to get into too many details about what the special ops mission entailed, what was their plan, why were they there for two hours, was that the original plan for them to be there for two hours? There were many questions that weren't really answered in the context of that press conference. So I think that you're right to be skeptical. I'm also skeptical about that, especially when you consider the fact that the Biden administration is trying really, really hard to avoid any type of criticism in regard to civilian deaths.

And of course, that follows the disastrous drone strike that the administration had carried out in Kabul, Afghanistan, as they were trying to get U.S. troops withdrawn from the country. Yes. So look, as we're going to get into here, Biden is doing less drone strikes. And I'm curious what you think, Anna, about the special forces. But I prefer the special forces because there's going to be less civilian deaths. And yes, we take more of a danger regarding that. But that's what we signed up for. That's what cops signed up for, firefighters and the military signed up for in order so that those little kids don't die.

Now, in this case, they happen to die anyway, either because of our negligence or because of the ISIS leader. But I think it's good that they're making an extra effort. But by the way, as you'll see in a second, less drone strikes doesn't necessarily mean less killings. Right, exactly. So I actually want to get to the drone strike discussion by starting with this statement from Biden during the same speech. Let's watch. Our forces carried out the operation with their signature preparation and precision. And I directed the Department of Defense to take every precaution possible to minimize civilian casualties. Knowing that this terrorist had chosen surround himself with families, including children, we made a choice to pursue a special forces raid at a much greater risk to our own people, rather than targeting him with an airstrike.

We made this choice to minimize civilian casualties. So he says we made that choice to minimize civilian casualties. How many civilian casualties were there in this operation? what we know so far, the death toll could actually increase in coming days. But as of now, here's what we know. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the strike left at least 13 people dead, including four children and three women. The white helmets have reported higher numbers. So once we get confirmation on the final death count, we will of course let you guys know about it. But I agree with you, Jank, in regard to

Going through a special mission like this, you have far more at stake, so you're far less likely to act based on faulty intelligence. When it comes to a drone strike, you know, the stakes are much lower for the United States and the military. And so oftentimes the drone strikes are used even when they're not really sure whether the target is what they're striking. That's what happened in Kabul, for instance. drone strike was meant to target ISIS, and instead they targeted an innocent civilian and

killed several members of his family, okay? So the Biden administration is trying to avoid the criticism that they received as a result of that drone strike in Kabul. And to be sure, in the beginning of the Biden administration, there was a significant reduction in drone strikes. And I want to give you those numbers. This is reporting from Jeremy Scahill over at The Intercept. He writes, Biden did not authorize a single known strike for the first six months of his presidency. On the day of Biden's inauguration, his national security advisor, Jake Sullivan, quietly issued an order to roll back Trump's loosening of rules surrounding drone strikes, specifically one that bestowed on military commanders the power to authorize such strikes in undeclared war zones. What a disaster like Somalia and Yemen without direct permission from the White House.

But there's a big butt. Biden broke his streak here, right? So Biden broke his no drone streak with a series of drone attacks against al-Shabaab in Somalia in July of 2021. Despite the notable reduction, at least two of the strikes conducted under Biden have killed civilians, including the now infamous August 29th attack in Kabul, Afghanistan that killed 10 civilians, seven of them children. Yeah. So look, everything requires nuance. And so sometimes one of these tactics is better than others. Sometimes killing a leader makes a difference a lot of times it doesn't. So let's then look at this in the context of all of that. First of all, in this case, in when we deal with ISIS, in the past, I have said that killing their leader back in the day would make a big

difference, and I think that I was proven right by that. The original leader was Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, and unfortunately, he was brilliant as a tactician. And that's how they took half of Iraq and Syria seemingly overnight. And I thought, this is a rare situation where if you took out a leader, yes, you would be replaced by another leader, but they wouldn't be nearly as good. And so, and since when al-Baghdadi was taken out, you never really know, right? And so the U.S. says a lot of things, and half of it isn't true, but it looks like they actually did get al-Baghdadi and then ISIS massively declined afterwards, right? And it was clear, it was a rag-tag group led by a guy who was unfortunately really smart, right, other than the fact that he was a monster morally,

right? And so this guy took his place and didn't do that great a job, he'll be replaced by another Schlep. So this one probably doesn't make as much of a difference. And again, I don't know how much of it is US propaganda. If he really was the leader, that killed all the Yazidi, then I shed no tear whatsoever, right? I'm shed no tear under any circumstance for this guy. But we don't know, like, if he truly was that particular monster. If he was great, right?

But is that why ISIS came about in the first place? No, ISIS came about in the first place, not because there's just random, evilous, evil monstrous guys wandering around, and the U.S. is a good cowboy that comes around and guess, no, we started the Iraq war, and they made the Sunnis furious because they lost power in Iraq. It was bound to lead to fundamentalism, which was bound to lead to terrorism. And that's what we predicted on here. We've been on there for 20 years.

We said that was going to happen during the beginning of the Iraq war. We were right. And then afterwards, everybody pretended as if like, oh, God, damn it, they hate us because they hate us. These terrorists came out of nowhere. So we keep doing all these bombings in Somalia, Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, and we think that there's going to be no consequence. But this is the consequence. ISIS is the consequence. Right, exactly.

And so what we end up doing is dealing with the symptoms of our failed foreign policy rather than giving our foreign policy a good, hard, critical look and changing course. But with defense contractors in the pockets of all of these members of Congress and with, corporate rule dominating the United States, there's a very clear reason why we don't take a good, hard look at our foreign policy and change course. Yeah, and the last reason to support the special forces, as opposed, I'm not saying they should do special forces all the time, I'm not saying it's good to have folks stationed abroad. It creates other issues and other problems. And by the way, Biden has cut down the drone strikes, but he's increased the number of strikes from jets, ships, etc. So at the

end of the day, he's killing more people than Obama did and less than Trump did. So it's a very mixed bag. But one of the other reasons why I prefer special forces to the other options is because you make sure you got the right guy. Exactly. And so that was very critical in the bin Laden rate, obviously. I didn't like that they threw his body into the water. Oh, trust us that we got him.

Well, you don't have a great track record on being honest, a Pentagon. You'll excuse me because I'm an actual, well, you know, I, hesitate and call myself a journalist because I'm mainly a talk show host, but since there are almost no real journalists in the country who would question the Pentagon, they just accept whatever the Pentagon says as if it's true. So no, I don't accept what the Pentagon says. And so I wish that they had actually brought Bin Laden. They had shown the pictures. I don't care how mangled his body was. And then you bury him. Oh, we're worried that they'll do terrorism around his grave site. We're Americans. We shouldn't be worried and scared of terrorists.

Oh, we're so scared, we throw them overboard. But the bottom line is, yes, if you can verify that you got the right guy, that is clearly better than a drone strike, it was his phone, we think, we hope we got the right guy. Oh, there goes six kids and four women, but we'll hope for the best. That's the worst case scenario. Well, let's take a brief break. When we come back, we'll talk a little bit about how Lindsey Graham is a clown, and the media just takes what he says at face value and prints it. It is insane. We've got that story and more

when we come back. All right, back on TYT, Jane Canana with you guys. News. Senator Lindsey Graham has been lobbying real hard to get Biden to nominate J. Michelle Childs as his Supreme Court pick. Now, as we've shared with you, She has a history of representing employers over the best interests of employees, even in discrimination cases. She has worked for law firms that have a clear mission to help corporations engage in union busting. So you kind of get a sense of why Lindsey Graham is pushing for this specific individual. And she is considered one of the favorites for Biden.

So we'll see how this all goes. But there has been a pretty big update in the Senate that could basically, lead to Lindsay Graham getting his way. But before we get to that, Politico interviewed Lindsey Graham about why he supports Michelle Childs. And he opens the interview with a story that is not true. I'm speculating that it's not true, but let me go ahead and read it to you and you can judge for yourselves. He says this, three guys in pickup trucks came up to me and said, she seems like a nice lady. I'm tired of this Harvard Yale stuff, the great equal. is the garbage dump because everybody's got to throw out garbage, I was just struck by what

they thought. No, no, three guys in a pickup truck did not come up to you. It just, it didn't happen. It's a lie. Okay. I would not print that. No, no, this is the funniest story ever, and Politico's hilarious for printing it. I mean, if I was a reporter, I would have been like, well, Senator, that's an obvious lie. That's a preposterous lie. So can you tell us what actually happened. So he said three guys in pickup trucks. So he's by the garbage dump. We don't know where. Guys in pickup trucks pull up, presumably to throw away their garbage. They recognize Lindsey Graham as a senator. They know that there's a Supreme Court opening. They know the person who is third most likely to get that opening. They know her by name. They know that she did not

go to Harvard and Yale. Totally. And then they'd really like her and they wanted to tell Lindsay Graham that. There's a 0% chance of that story being true. But look, we might be unfair. So I just, I want to make sure we cover our bases. There could have been a pickup truck soire where these gentlemen consider J. Michelle Childs to be a household name. So much so that they are fully informed on her educational history. Oh, you know, you're on to something because he might have been at a, a donor fundraiser and just to have fun since the politicians will do anything for them,

they make them go dumpster diving. And they're like, hey, the checks at the bottom of the dumpster, go let's watch Lindsay scrounge for it. By the way, we like that corporatist one, okay, we like that she didn't go to Harvard to Yale, use that talking point, get in the dumpster. Okay, that's the only way this story has a chance of being true. Lindsay Graham, you're a frickin' joke. What a ridiculous story you told and Politico do some real reporting. 100% on the political point. The one thing I want to say, though, is be cautious of anyone who markets Supreme Court nominees as blue collar. And that's what we're seeing happen right now, not just with Senator Lindsey Graham. Representative Jim Clyburn, a Democrat, has repeated

the same nonsense. And what they keep pointing to is the fact that she didn't go to Ivy League schools, she went to state schools, state colleges, which is fine. Who cares? But like, what is her history? What is the substance behind her rulings? What kind of, like, what kind of work is she done as a lawyer? That's what fascinated me. That's what we covered on the show. We gave you details about what her work history really looks like. Listen, someone like Lindsey Graham and also Tim Scott. Tim Scott is also very supportive of her. They're not going to be in favor of anyone who has done good work on behalf of labor. That's the way that they were trying to make it seem, but it's abundantly clear that's not the case. Now with that said,

unfortunately, something happened recently in the Senate, which really has put the Democrats slim majority in the Senate in jeopardy. One of their own has suffered a stroke. So this is Senator Ben Ray Lujan, a Democrat from New Mexico serving his first term. He suffered a stroke and has required surgery to relieve brain swelling. Fortunately, his office reported that doctors believe he'll make a full recovery, now barring any complications, the senator could return to work in four to six weeks. The Democrats obviously want to confirm a Supreme Court. One of the hardest parts of getting older is feeling like something's off in your body, but not knowing exactly what. It's not just aging. It's often your hormones, too. When they

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entire first order at happy mammoth.com with code next chapter at checkout. Visit happy mammoth.com today and get your old self back naturally. Nominee as soon as possible. And considering the fact that they would now need at least one GOP senator to sign on, well, they might be paying close attention to what Lindsey Graham is saying. They might be more willing to nominate her. Listen, I'm just going to keep it real, regardless of what happened, even if they maintain their slim majority in the Senate, I have no doubt in my mind that they would have ended up confirming a pro-corporate Supreme Court nominee anyway. But this makes it even more clear to me that it's likely to happen. Yeah, by the way, keeping it real, so first of all, we hope he's okay, obviously, and they say he's going to be okay, that's good news. But keeping it real, he's going to be back in time to vote.

so they don't have to panic and pick someone that the Republicans like. If you pick someone the Republicans like, that means they're going to work for corporate interests, period. Period. Period. There is no other alternative. Lindsay Graham isn't going to pick a pro-labor judge to go on the Supreme Court. He's going to pick someone who's for the average American worker and thinks your wages should be higher. He thinks your wages should be lower. There's no way that Lindsay Graham would, or any other Republican, Tim Scott or otherwise would be in favor of a judge that would be within miles of the left, let alone progressive, let alone for the average American voter, okay? So they don't have to panic.

If they panic or go, okay, okay, we'll pick the corporate one, right? They always wanted to pick the corporate one, and they'll just be using this stroke as a sick excuse for doing what they always want to do. And in terms of the politics of the stroke, yeah, they're going to, I guess, need his vote, but they might not because they might pick the Republican option, right? And so if they pick the Republican option, they don't need him at all. I mean, it's a Democrat, and they're thinking of picking the Republican option. This is so sick.

I'm so, I, it's impossible to have any more disdain for the Democratic Party. No, they're embarrassing. They're the most humiliating embarrassing. You remember the main thing they told you, you got to vote for Democrats, you got to vote for Biden because the Supreme Court picks. So now he's thinking of picking it won that the Republicans won. Yeah. It's insanity. But anyway, so if the last, if the senator who had the stroke comes back, you know,

what are they, other than this pick, maybe, what do they need them for? They're not, Joe Manchin said right before the other guy had the stroke that buildback better is dead. That's a quote, dead, okay? They're literally not going to vote on anything for three more years except the standard budget, defense, corporate pork, all that. But for the, all the things that Biden said was his agenda, it's already done. It doesn't matter if they have 50 senators or they have one senator.

It doesn't matter. And by the way, it wouldn't have mattered if they had 60 senators. Obama had 60 senators, they still barely did anything. They passed the Republican version of health care. So it was literally called Romney Care before it was called Obamacare. They're not going to do anything. Okay, now let's get back to Politico because we gave you that ridiculous made-up story that Lindsay Graham gave them and they just printed it. But the take here from Burgess Everett, Burgess, what are you doing, bro?

What are you doing? All right, let me give you a few excerpts from his political piece. He writes this. It's a graphic four. Graham is stumping hard for childs, arguing her public state school education. Pairs well with Biden's pledge to nominate a black woman. He's the most likely Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee to align with Democrats on a Supreme Court pick and send the nominee to the Senate floor with bipartisan support. And he's condemning his party's idea to try to block Biden's nominee for moving. forward by obstructing a committee vote.

I just don't think it's good for the process. Now later, much later in the piece, Burgess was willing to admit that Lindsey Graham absolutely signed on to the efforts to block Merrick Garland from being confirmed in the Supreme Court. Okay, thank you for noting that. But the rest of the piece just makes it appear as though Lindsey Graham's different. He's different from the other Republicans. Here's another example. At a minimum, Graham still seems to believe in deference to presidents on nominations. How could you write that?

How do you write that, Burgess? I mean, that's- How do you write that, Burgess? It's embarrassing, dude. We need to know. We need to know. How do you write that? Okay, more.

He says this, okay, so, okay, at a minimum, Graham still seems to believe in deference to two presidents on nominations, despite his fury at how Democrats handle the confirmation of Justice Brett Kavanaugh and his swing from vociferous Trump critic to ardent defender. Okay, so like, I don't know, Brett Kavanaugh was accused of attempted rape. And Lindsey Graham, in an attempt to defend Brett Kavanaugh and distract from what was really going on, like had a little temper tantrum during the confirmation hearing. I mean, he's comparing apples and oranges here, but he also quotes Lindsay Graham is saying, my job up here is to push back on the radicalization of the country.

And if you can find common ground, do it. Oh, that's fascinating. Why don't we take a look at a quick compilation of Lindsay Graham enabling one of the worst and most dangerous presidents, Donald Trump, enabling all the bad behavior in his presidency. Let's watch that. I actually like President Trump. He's been very nice to me. He's allowed me to be in his world.

He allows me to give my two cents worth about different issues when he was president. This is his party. If you don't get that, you missed a lot at CPAC. Let's just be honest, the bad guys were afraid of Trump. He's the most consequential Republican since Ronald Reagan. It's his nomination if he wants it. And I think he'll get reelected in 2024. And I'm not going to vote for anybody for leader of the Senate as a Republican

unless they can prove to me that they can advocate an American first agenda and have a working relationship with President Trump because if you can't do that, you will fail. President Trump deserves a Nobel Peace Prize and then some. President Trump is the most consequential Republican in the party. If Mitch McConnell doesn't understand that, he's missing a lot. As to President Trump, in that poll, you own the Republican Party, my friend. You are the hope of the future of conservatism, President Trump.

Well, he owns the Republican Party. It's his nomination. The president has a hell of a story to tell about what he did for this country, and more importantly, what he can do. This is the party of Donald Trump. If you think otherwise, you're in for a rude awakening. If you play Trump, you're going to be a big loser. If you play Trump, you're going to be a big loser. Let me just remind you of what Lindsey Graham said, and no challenge at all from the journalist here.

My job up here is to push back on the radicalization of the country. You can find common ground, do it. Listen, the only place where there is common ground among Democrats and Republicans is anything that helps corporate America. Now Burgess didn't write that, I think that that's objectively true, but that wasn't included in any of the reporting here. And look, to be fair to Politico, this narrative is repeated by corporate Democrats, like Dick Durbin, who said this, Lindsay Graham prides himself on independence.

And unpredictability, that I think is what you're seeing. And even Chris Coons jumps in with Senator Graham has a long history of supporting qualified nominees. Before the last few years where nominations have become divisive, partisan and bitter events, I'm hopeful that Senator Graham is simply hoping to continue what was a long tradition of supporting qualified nominees. Democrats disgust me. So they're helping Lindsey Graham do marketing for himself while Lindsey Graham is kissing Donald Trump's ass 24-7. And Durbin said he has a history of independence. The guy's lips are affixed to Donald Trump's butt, they might be stitched on there.

All day. Independence? Lindsay Graham, my John McCain, whatever you say, I'll do it, whatever you're, Donald Trump, I love you, I love you, I love you. Independence? Lindsay Graham, independence. You guys are all a joke, okay? And then, you know, when Burgess wrote that, you know, he, Lindsey Graham believes in deference to presidents, he blocked Merrick Garland for over a year. I mean, you put it like in paragraph 187 in your article. So presumably you know that. So why did you print in another part? He's known for not having deference to president's. elections. That's just, and he was one of the most vocal guys in the Republican Party. No, no, no, no. We don't care. It's just a Democratic president. We don't care about anything. We're not going to confirm, okay? We're not even going to have hearings. You guys are all a joke. And then finally, you know, Burgess, you know what you could have done.

You could have been a reporter and asked an actual question, a policy question. Oh, do you like her because she's pro-labor or against labor? Exactly. No one has thought to ask that. No one. Okay. The American prospect is the only publication that took the time to actually look at what she has done in her career. No other publication gave a damn, which was infuriating. Yeah, and that would put Lindsay Graham in a tough spot because he'd either have to say, yeah, I like that she's pro-labor, which would get him in a lot of trouble with his donors, or he'd have to say, no, I like that she's anti-labour.

And I know that he would evade the question, but it might help if you ask, an actual question of a politician instead of kissing his ass for the entire piece. And I know that, by the way, because a bunch of guys in pickup trucks drove up to a garbage dump and told me what a bad reporter Burgess Everett was. Oh, yeah, I remember that debacle. Yeah, no, it happened. Write it down, Politico. All right, well, if that story wasn't infuriating, this next one will probably get under your skin.

So, President Joe Biden decided to speak at the National Party. prayer breakfast, which of course is organized by the Nefarious Fellowship Foundation, a right-wing organization. Now, it's really important for him to do so apparently, because how else would he find the time and an opportunity to tell Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell just how much he loves and appreciates him? Let's watch. Mitch McConnell, Mitch, I don't want to hurt your reputation, but we really are friends. And that is not an epiphany we're having here at the moment. We've always, you've always done exactly what you've said,

your man of word, and your man of honor. Thank you for being my friend. Yeah, 100% of my focus is on stopping this new administration. I think the best way to look at what this new administration is, the president may have won the nomination, but Bernie Sanders won the argument. about what the new administration should be like. We're confronted with severe challenges from a new administration and a narrow majority

of Democrats in the House and a 50-50 Senate to turn America into a socialist country. So we thought it was important to follow Biden's ridiculous complimentary statements in regard to Mitch McConnell with what Mitch McConnell has clearly stated about his war path against the Biden administration. That is what he said previously. After Mitch McConnell not only said that, but of course Republicans have been obstructionists since, Biden's like, hey, Mitch McConnell, I don't mean to hurt your reputation. Everyone's like, is Biden going to play hardball for once? No, of course not. We really are friends. We're great friends. Lots of ass lap football happening in the White House and Capitol Hill. It's disgusting. So look, I know in the old days and probably still

today in mainstream media, they love that. They're like, oh, Biden and McConnell are such good friends. Oh, that's so great. They're screwing over the country together. Well, it's a new day in America, and I got news for all of you ass kissers in Washington. We don't like that. That's not something that appeals to Democratic voters. I know what they all think. Oh, progressive radicals. They don't believe in being in love with Mitch McConnell. Yeah, no, you're right. Guilty is charged. We don't. We think Mitch McConnell is a much. monster. We don't find it to be a positive thing that you're really, really good friends with him and that you like him. Is he honest? Are you joking? Are you joking? He's one of the most

dishonest people in American politics. He's hurt the American people so much. He's helped to lower your wages, take away health care from you, and a thousand other things, taking away rights from women, gay people, you name it. Mitch McConnell is the heart of darkness. And so when Joe Biden tells us that he's great, great friends with him. I lose all respect for Joe Biden. And if you're one of those old school guys who are like, no, I think they should just love each other. And we don't agree.

We don't agree to love monsters. Would you have been just as happy if Joe Biden was like, oh, Donald Trump, what a friend, what a wonderful, wonderful friend of mine. I love Donald Trump. Mitch McConnell is arguably worse than Donald Trump. So no thank you. Yeah, because he's actually strategic and carries out what is. goals are, including the goal of blocking Obama's Supreme Court nominee.

I don't know if Biden remembers that. He was the vice president at the time. So is that what friends do? I mean, are those the kinds of friends you keep? I guess. I mean. Yeah, I mean, and that's the other part of it. Look, Mitch McConnell in that clip that we played for you guys right after the Biden clip, slapped Biden right across the face. And Biden's bleeding from the lip, and McCona looks at him and goes, and sit there and bleed all day, you're going to do something about it. He might ask for another. And you know what Biden did?

On July 18th, get excited. This is big! For the summer's biggest adventure. I think I just smurf my pants. That's a little too excited. Sorry. Smurfs. Only date is July 18th.

He was like, I love you, man. Please, I'm your friend. I want to be your friend. using that guy, that pathetic, drooling, so-called president is going to fight Republicans? He'd rather make out with Republicans than fight them. He's not going to fight McConnell. McConnell's his best friend. Guys, this is what we're trying to tell you.

Corporate media gives you a fake story about theatrics. Oh, the Republicans and the Democrats are fighting. Do they look like they're fighting every once in a while? Biden slips up and tells you the truth. Corporate Democrats and corporate Republicans have always agreed with each other on economic issues. They've always agreed to screw us over on behalf of their donors. On this show, we've shown you dozens of examples of Biden doing that, let alone McConnell. So of course Biden likes McConnell.

They've screwed over Americans together for decades. So no, that is not heartwarming. What I saw there in Biden's speech was disgusting. Now I should add one of the things that's so important. It TYT investigates has uncovered that the National Prayer Breakfast, which is supposed to be bipartisan and we don't take a stance, et cetera, goes around the world trying to pass legislation against, I was going to say gay Americans, but actually gay people across the world. The entire LGBTQ community, including the one in Uganda, where they would have executed people for being gay. Exactly. Your heart war by, why are you giving a speech?

Everybody signed the petition. TYT.com slash petitions. No Democrats should ever go and kiss the ass of these monsters, these monsters. You know who funds the entire thing? We found out. Jonathan Larson has done wonderful, amazing reporting about this. TYT.com slash investigates. Go read it.

Turns out Franklin Graham is funding the whole thing. Franklin Graham is one of the biggest right-wing evangelical fundamentalists in the country loves Donald Trump. Last year, the idiot schmuck Biden went to the same breakfast. gave a speech, and then Franklin Graham afterwards used the speech to attack him and back Donald Trump. He pays for the breakfast. Biden like an idiot shows up at the breakfast. And Franklin Graham's like, ah, good. Idiot fell for my trap. By the way, because of our reporting, tons of Democrats, even including conservative Democrats like Tim Kane, have pulled out of the breakfast.

Because it's embarrassing. Before, they loved going. They didn't care about gay rights. They didn't care about workers rights. They didn't care about any of that, right? But now that it's exposed through our reporting, it's a little uncomfortable to go because then people are going to find out you don't care about gay rights at all, okay? So now credit to the ones that pulled out, they say, no, I do care. I do care, and I'm not going to go anymore.

By the way, I'll note Pelosi was not at the breakfast. She's there every year. She wasn't there this year. So they were making some good progress. But when it comes to Biden, he can't wait to kiss the Republican ass. loves this breakfast. All right, we got to take a break, but don't worry. When we come back, we have cheery news, including, you know, the Dutch port city of Rotterdam,

dismantling a historic bridge just so Jeff Bezos can use his new mega yacht. We've got that story and more when we come back. All right, back. Jane Canana with you guys. That Biden clip about McConnell, just the triple confirms. Kiss the next three years goodbye. Biden is a Republican. He's not going to do anything. We were right all along. All right. Casper. When you're a billionaire, you can literally get cities to dismantle historic bridges just so you can sail through to open sea with your mega yacht. And that's the case with billionaire Jeff Bezos and, you know, this little problem that he's been having with this

pesky little historic bridge in the port city, the Dutch port city of Rotterdam. So he is going to pay to have that historic bridge dismantled so he can get through with his mega yacht. It is one of the most insane stories, but honestly, in today's day and age, this is what we should expect. Now, Bezos, one of the richest men in the world, commissioned the building of the three mast yacht, which tops out at 130 feet high for the price of just $485 million. Now, the bridge, also known as the Konings Haven Bridge, is not big enough to let this yacht go through, and so it will be dismantled with Bezos himself footing the bill for the work. Now, Here's a photo of the bridge.

It is a historic bridge that was actually severely damaged during World War II. And so they recently finished renovating the bridge and restoring it completely. And there is legitimate concern that now that Rotterdam has agreed to dismantle it, just so this yacht can go through, it will be damaged. Right? They don't, like the locals do not want this. But it doesn't matter what the locals want. Apparently, even in Rotterdam, you've got billionaires running the show.

Of course, they run the show everywhere. First of all, let's note that the yacht is so large, it will not fit under that bridge. Yeah. That bridge is gigantic. I mean, it's got all the space in the world. And the yacht costs about $485 million. As Anna said in our production meeting this morning, it has an assistant yacht. I mean, not only does it have an assistant yacht, listen, we don't have a,

footage of the exact yacht yet because it's still under construction. However, this video will describe what is going to be in this yacht and what it'll include. So let's watch. This yacht, which has yet to be officially named, will most likely be his second yacht. The yacht is 417 feet long, spanning several decks and it will boast three enormous masts. Across its decks, you can expect sprawling lounges, snazzy bars, huge swimming pools, and enough entertainment to last you at least a year. The vessel is one of the largest sailing yachts ever built in the Netherlands. The yacht is currently under the name Project Y-721, and it has been a closely guarded secret. Well, until now, Project Y-721 also includes a support boat with its own

helipad, since the main vessel cannot have one thanks to the masts. The helipad, it seems, is in addition purely for his girlfriend, Lauren Sanchez, who's also a helicopter pilot, and Bezos himself has been taking flying lessons. It was odd at the time because Bezos apparently loathed helicopters, but he probably decided to give it a try so he could fly with his girlfriend. He's also going to have to worry about operating costs for the ship, which will average about $60 million a year. Great. I'm really happy that he's able to save so much in taxes so he can splurge on this, because one yacht really isn't enough. You know, everyone aspires to have two yachts, even if it means destroying not just this country, but many of the countries that Amazon operates in.

So great, I'm really happy about this. This is awesome. And maybe we can dismantle other historical landmarks, you know? Yeah. Maybe we should dismantle historical landmarks that have absolutely no positive, you know, impact on Jeff Bezos, just to mess with people. Why not? Yeah, well, fascism couldn't take this bridge down. They rebuilt it as a sign of defiance. But it looks like capitalism, Ken. You just have to be. pay enough and then there it goes. So yes, they'll bring it back. And yet we don't worry, we get it, right? We know that it's created a couple of jobs there. That's the excuse that the politicians use every time, right? And I'm not saying they shouldn't build it there.

He's gonna build it somewhere, right? And so, but there was one good reason not to build it there. It's behind that bridge. And the locals don't want the bridge dismantled. So Bezos can bring is mega yacht and the assistant yacht and the helicopter through to get out of there. But look, guys, we talk about taxing the rich. Is it because, well, we hate the rich and we want to take their money? Guys, no, no, no, not for me. Look, I get it. It looks beautiful.

Yeah, sure, you'd want to be on it. I understand all that, right? But he's paying $60 million a year in maintenance costs for his half a billion dollar yacht. Don't tell me that they can't afford taxes. I mean, it's a trillion dollar company and in some years it's paid zero in taxes. That is unbelievably unfair. And by the way, why were they able to pay zero in taxes? Thanks to Donald Trump's tax cuts for the rich, which lower the corporate tax rate and did not do away with loopholes.

So that was Trump's version of draining the swamp. For Trump, draining the swamp wasn't about corporate interests. In his mind, the swamp includes soybean farmers, it includes factory workers, it includes migrant workers, it includes the powerless. He considers them the swamp monsters. So don't get that twisted. Yeah, I mean, all of his huffing and puffing about Jeff Bezos, and at the end, he did him probably the biggest favor of Bezos's life. He saved him billions of dollars in taxes. My theory is he wanted to drain the swamp so he could fill it with himself, right? He's like Jabba the hut.

He just filled a whole swamp with his body. So Donald Trump is the world's worst populace. Well, let's move on to a positive story. I want to end the first hour on this really positive story that also includes wordal, which up until now I rejected, but now I'm hooked. And I guess the word today easily. Oh, look at her bragging. I know, I feel really good about it.

Anyway, let's move on. All right. So, Q&N conspiracy theorists are not necessarily a lost cause. One of the worst things you can do is cut them out of your life because that means that they won't get any type of, you know, opposing opinion. You don't have the opportunity to maybe talk them out of the terrible things that they've learned online through these various groups. And a perfect example of that is this story.

involving a woman whose mother had gone down the rabbit hole of conspiracy theorism online. And apparently all it took was a popular game to de-radicalize her. So posting to popular subreddit Q&N casualties, her child Joe explained that they introduced their mom to Whartle almost against her will as she was putting so much time into chatting on telegram and watching conspiracy videos. So this popular word game changed her life. Now she spends as much as two to three hours per day playing bootleg word. More on that in a moment. On another site that lets you play as much as you like, I'm not even joking. That's the statement from Joe who was able to basically distract her mom with a fun game.

So she's not continuing to radicalize herself through these online conspiracy forums. And I absolutely love it. Now, for those of you who play Wordle, you usually get one word a day. So playing it for two to three hours seems like it makes no sense. But there are other versions that let you play an unlimited amount of games, which I got to look for it because that sounds fun. Okay. So it is, it's a hopeful story for sure. Because look, people are really easily influenced.

Otherwise, they wouldn't believe the insanity of Q&N. I mean, Q&NN started insane with leaders in the Democratic Party, but also in Hollywood and other places leading a child sex trafficking ring where they not only molest kids, but then killed them and drink their blood. Okay, so that was like instantly was cuckoo for cocoa puffs. There was not a single moment where it wasn't insane. But then it went even more insane in different offshoots that people are actually hooked on, well, JFK Jr. and JFK are going to come back and they're going to make Donald Trump

president again and we all got to go to Dallas. That's a real thing. And real family members got hooked on it and they're living in a compound in Dallas now, I believe. And so because guess why? Because the date that JFK Jr. was supposed to come back, you're going to be shocked to find out he didn't. Okay. So it's easy to call them nuts. But they got easily influenced in that direction, which leads you to believe they could get influence in a, another direction. Like so that's what we're saying. Don't give up on him. And it's deeply, deeply frustrating. And if you're a family member and so many stories, people leaving their kids behind you, go to Dallas to go and participate in this quackery and never coming back.

But the many of you cut off connections, they're only going to have those guys to influence them. Yeah. And guys, it's impossible not to be frustrated. But you have to slowly influence them in the other direction. You're not going to win overnight. Exactly. But, you know, one word at a time, in this case quite literally. I really appreciate what Joe did here, though, because I've been thinking more and more about, like, okay, how do you plant seeds? Like, how do you engage in discussions with people who have fallen down that rabbit hole and persuade them to maybe be a little more skeptical of these conspiracy theories? But I actually think distracting them with something that is fun, enjoyable, and benign like Wordle is a better way to do it.

So Joe also says this. She has to discuss wordle issues with me, her mom does, multiple times per day, which has made her more social and less isolated. She's always texting me to brag on a score, by the way I did that this morning. Or express frustration, sometimes she asks me to help her when she's stuck. Anyway, Wordle, share it with the QAnon cult member in your life, she says. Yeah, look, it makes sense. And if you're trying to solve puzzles, you're using logic to some degree.

We're back on the path to sanity. And so this is a unique way of doing it, an interesting way of doing it. It's not necessarily going to work for your family member. But it isn't the point to just use Wordle. The point is to reintroduce them into sane social circles a little bit at a time and be open and you've got to have a real open heart because they're going to drive you nuts. Because I think one of the things that draws people in, especially to like those forums, is like you think you're part of this community. And so if you can socialize them in a healthier environment, I think that's far more effective. Here, I'll give you another example. In response to Joe's story, another redditor said this,

I love this. One commenter recalled that they remember reading that one person's Q&N QMOM turned away from conspiracy theories after developing an interest in Korean dramas. They're very popular right now, very hot. They added, just shows how many people turn to Q because they need something in their life to obsess over. But I think it's not about something to obsess over. I really think that it has to to do with, you know, feeling like a sense of community. And I do think that there are a lot of lonely, atomized people out there. And we can find better ways. We can strategize to help them out instead of just rejecting them as crazy people.

Yeah. And so one last thing. QAnon does provide these things for them, unfortunately, things like community. But the other thing that it provides is purpose. They feel like they're fighting against the machine and that they're brave, truth, tellers and rebels that figured it out and they're the community of rebels who are fighting back, right? And it gives them purpose. So another idea is to give them a different purpose, one that is both sane and maybe even helpful, right? So, and it could be as simple as, you know,

trivia and literally like it's trivial, right? And in this case, Wordle, or it could be a good purpose, hey, let's go help out at the hospital. I mean, or let's help out kids. I mean, you say you're really interested in kids, right? I mean, you're heartbroken over what happened to these kids, right? Let's go help kids. Let's go to the local hospital. Kids that have got cancer or maybe child sex survivors, right? That's real, right? And you could actually go help those people. And that give you a real purpose, help people, and get back into the logical world and hopefully find that community that actually helps kids that's wonderful and loving. All right. So we're going to leave the first hour with that hopeful story. When we come back

for the second hour, there's an unfortunate story involving police brutality and injustice. So let's take a break. We'll come right back with that story and more. 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 dot co slash t yt i'm your host jank huger and i'll see you soon