The Young Turks - Blindsided

Episode Date: April 4, 2023

Episode summary: First on CNN: CDC team studying health impacts of Ohio train derailment fell ill during investigation. Va. teacher files lawsuit over her shooting by six-year-old student. DeSantis’ Reedy Creek board says Disney stripped its power. Marjorie Taylor Greene doubles down on "Democrats are pedophiles" remark during 60 Minutes interview. A nine-year-old girl didn’t want her goat slaughtered. HOSTS: Ana Kasparian (@AnaKasparian) & Francesca Fiorentini (@franifio) SUBSCRIBE on YOUTUBE: ☞ https://www.youtube.com/user/theyoungturks FACEBOOK: ☞ https://www.facebook.com/theyoungturks TWITTER: ☞ https://www.twitter.com/theyoungturks INSTAGRAM: ☞ https://www.instagram.com/theyoungturks TIKTOK: ☞ https://www.tiktok.com/@theyoungturks 👕 Merch: https://shoptyt.com 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! Welcome to TY, I'm your host, Anna Kasperi, and Jank Ugar is off for the week. The Francesca Furentini is here to host. the first hour with me. Frannie Fio, how are you doing? I'm good. I'm glad to be here, glad to

fill in for Jank. He deserves some time off. And yeah, looking forward to kicking off another very exciting week of news with you, Anna. There's a lot to get to. Believe it or not, Trump's indictment didn't make it on the show today. I'm sure there's going to be endless coverage of that later. But I do want to just quickly start off by announcing a new TYT podcast that dedicated to the Trump indictment. So during a recent episode of the Young Turks, we talked about Trump's indictment and how, you know, what the ramifications of that could be. But if you go to wherever you get your podcast, you will find some info on this

TYT podcast, which I'm looking for the name of. In fact, give me a minute, I'm gonna look for more details on this, but we are dedicating a podcast specifically to this Trump indictment and what follows that story. So there will be plenty of coverage, just not on today's show. But we do have a lot of really great stories for you, including an update on the East Palestine train derailment. Apparently there were some details that were kept out of the public from the CDC and the EPA that I wanted to talk about.

We'll also discuss a lawsuit that a first grade teacher has now filed against a school district after getting shot by one of her six year old students. So that's another update. And then we're going to fill you in on what the latest is in regard to Florida Governor Ron DeSantis's struggle against Disney World in Orlando, Florida. But before we get to any of that, just want to encourage you to like and share the stream. If you haven't already, it's an easy way to get the message out, let people know about the show. And you can also become a member by going to t yt.com slash join where Wozni Lombray will be joining me for a special members only bonus episode. Why don't we get started with the update to East Palestine. This one is

quite a doozy and gives you a sense of why the public seems to lack trust toward our institutions. While residents of East Palestine, Ohio were told repeatedly that their air and water quality was completely fine after a train derailed in their town and essentially released toxic chemicals into their environment. Turns out that some of the individuals doing the testing actually fell ill and it wasn't widely reported that they had fallen ill. So this was an exclusive report by CNN, one of the examples of good reporting from CNN. And before we get to who got sick, why they got sick and what the excuse is in terms of why the public didn't know about it. Let's just do a quick refresher and give you context into what happened during this train derailment.

So 11 cars carrying more than a million pounds of hazardous chemicals ended up derailing in East Palestine, a small town in Ohio. Now the chemicals spilled into the soil and air and into two small creeks that run through the town, a car carrying flammable vinyl chloride became unstable, sparking fears of a massive explosion. So they decided to do what was referred to as a controlled burn, although there are some conflicting reports as to whether they needed to do a controlled burn. There could have been a safer ways of doing this. Nearby residents were evacuated while small holes were punched in the rail cars so vinyl chloride could be channeled into a trench where it was burned. A black

mushroom cloud rose over the town and left ash and soot on cars and buildings for miles around. Afterwards, the CDC's agency for toxic substances and disease registry sent 15 people to the area to conduct an assessment of chemical exposures. And one of the things that the investigators do is they go to households near the derailment site to ask them if they're experiencing any symptoms related to exposure to these toxic chemicals. And I'll give you the results of their study in just a moment. But before we do, the investigators, some of them got real sick. Now remember, they sent 15 CDC employees to do this investigation.

Seven U.S. government investigators briefly fell ill in early March while studying the possible health impacts of a toxic train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed to CNN. So Francesca, seven out of the 15, nearly half of them got ill, and they suffered from symptoms like sore throat, headaches, coughing, nausea, basically the same symptoms that the East Palestine, Ohio residents were experiencing, but we're told repeatedly, everything's going to be okay, you're going to be fine, everything is safe. Absolutely.

I mean, if only this were in Cuba, and then we could call it, you know, the East Palestine syndrome and do, you know, 60 minutes, which we're going to talk about reports all about the syndrome that must be related to Fidel or something. No, and I'm making that joke because obviously it's this is why, you know, TYT and and your coverage is so important is because this is a story that a lot of mainstream news outlets have left, you know, like a toy that they're done playing with. It's done. It's over. We're not going to follow up, you know, and because there's no, it's not follow. It's corporate malfeasance. It fingers both the bite administration and Republicans, we don't want to touch it. No, this is exactly why we have to talk

about this. And of course there were people who were going to get sick, you know, and of course the residents are going to see what happens. This is mind you, after the head of the EPA goes and drinks the water performatively, I think there's like two or three moments where different officials are drinking the water, just a total slap in the face. And so yeah, and I look, I think the CDC workers, like, yes, it's a little bit delicious sort of, you know, hypocrite, like hypocrisy and justice maybe, but they didn't want to necessarily be there cleaning up the mess of, you know, like essentially a massive, you know, railroad barons, um, malfeasance. Yeah, they didn't want to be the ones to be the guinea pigs. And yet here they are,

is if they hadn't been through enough in these last, you know, three years of the pandemic. Yeah. And it's, it's just so frustrating because it's, it's, important to have institutions, government institutions that you can rely on to tell you the truth, that you can, you know, take their reporting, take their investigation, and figure out whether or not it's safe to go back to your home in East Palestine. And in this case, I mean, the argument was, well, you know, we decided that the public didn't really need to know about the seven CDC investigators who experienced these symptoms. Because when they were told to go home and rest, their symptoms were alleviated and they were able to get back to work and do

their thing. No, no, but you don't get to make that decision. The local community there deserves to know about the reality of the situation. They deserve to know every moment of that investigation, what the outcome was, whether or not the CDC employees fell ill as they were doing their investigation, because they need to make decisions about how to move forward. Do they go back to their homes, is it safe for their kids? But there's more to this that's pretty incredible. So again, all of the symptoms that they experienced were consistent with what the residents were experiencing. And by the way, apparently continue to experience, but they keep getting told that everything is safe, everything is fine. So early results of the Ohio Ace

survey, so that's the survey that the CDC did, show that more than half of the 514 residents who have taken it so far have experienced symptoms after the derailment. So what are the top symptoms? Well, 74% of the residents said that they are experiencing headaches. 61% said anxiety. 53% say coughing. 53% say fatigue. 50% reported that they were experiencing pain, irritation or burning of the skin. And another 50% of them also say that they experienced stuffy nose and sinus congestion. Now, the CDC spokesperson said in a statement to CNN, quote, symptoms resolved for most team members later the same afternoon and everyone resumed work on survey data collection

within 24 hours, impacted team members have not reported ongoing health effects. So in their minds, everything's okay. I mean, they got better. They were able to go back to work within 24 hours. So that's the reason why we just didn't really feel the need to report this widely. And why are we finding out about this now? Because the investigator's symptoms improved soon after they left the area. The incident was not reported to the public, a CDC official said, noting that reports of

illnesses experienced by CDC personnel on the job wouldn't ordinarily be disclosed. Why not? Why wouldn't they ordinarily be disclosed? especially if they're investigating something, a chemical release into the environment that could impact the local community's health. It absolutely should be ordinarily disclosed. And then not only did the CDC experience this, apparently there were workers for the Environmental Protection Agency who also reported similar symptoms. They got sick, but since their symptoms got better within 24 hours, apparently they went back to work and didn't

feel the need to widely report this or widely report the illnesses to both the press or the local community. Any final thoughts, Francesca? No, the biggest thing is they get to go home, right? That's they get to leave East Palestine. The residents do not have that option. And all of this is to save money for everyone to keep passing the buck back and forth between, you know, again, corporate greed and government. And when you hollow out places like the CDC or the EPA or FEMA and you gouge them, yeah, they're not equipped. And yeah, so I understand being like, we don't, we should put these residents up in hotels, which is what they should do for months and months and months until they know it is safe to move back. But again, we like we don't really have that

infrastructure. We don't have that infrastructure when it comes to climate change. We don't have that infrastructure when it comes to corporations who are going to do late stage capitalism all over us and make us clean up their messes time and time again. Look, you can't have it both ways. If you want the free market to be able to use us as their little garbage bin, then you better help and assist people. So when these things inevitably do go wrong, people aren't stranded. Absolutely. The local community absolutely deserves to be paid damages. They deserve to be put up in hotels where they and their children are safe for many of the environmental impact here. But more importantly, just taking a step back and looking at the bigger picture, I just don't really want to hear much from the Biden administration about what the Trump administration was able to do unilaterally in rolling back regulations pertaining to these rail companies. The Biden administration can undo what the Trump administration did.

They can do the same thing unilaterally, but have chosen not to. So why haven't they re-implemented the very regulations pertaining to the breaking systems that the Trump administration had repealed from the Obama administration? I just, I would like some answers on that. So while it is absolutely true that the Trump administration deregulated these trains and made them less safe, the Biden administration could have reversed what the Trump administration did, and they have chosen not to, at least so far. And that is a big problem in my eyes. And if you're going to criticize the previous administration, you have to take ownership for your failures as well. Buttigieg has not done enough in response to this. And we keep hearing more and more stories about these train derailments.

They will continue happening as long as these rail companies know that they can operate the way that they've been operating with impunity. All right, let's move on to another update to a story we covered a while ago, and it has to do with a school shooting. Let's talk about it. Some things that I'll never forget, and I just will never forget the look on his face that he gave me while he pointed the gun directly at me. That's something that I will never forget. It's changed me. It's changed my life. That's first grade teacher Abigail Zwerner. And the shooter that she is referencing in that interview was one of her six-year-old students. That's right. A six-year-old student opened fire at Richneck Elementary School in Virginia and attempted to essentially kill this teacher. Now, luckily she survived, as you can see from the interview.

She was shot through her hand and basically the bullet hit her chest and she suffered from a collapse lung as a result, but she is recovering. The big story now, though, is that she has filed a lawsuit against the school administration. the school board and other officials within the school district. She says that she had warned administrators and officials about how violent the student was and her concerns allegedly went ignored. So the lawsuit alleges that concerned teachers and school employees warned assistant principal, Ebony Parker, three different times on January 6th, that the first grade student had a gun on him at school. Swerner claims she also told assistant principal Parker in the hours before the shooting

that the boy had threatened to beat up a kindergartner and was in a violent mood. There are more accusations in this lawsuit before I get to those details. I just want to open it up to you, Francesca. Keep in mind that the six-year-old is too young to be prosecuted, which I think makes sense. And so the teacher here is looking for justice, and I think this lawsuit is an interesting way to get it. It's such a bigger story, right? Because it goes to the heart of why we need basic gun control in this country. But let's start with what she said, which was the look on his face.

And now maybe there's clarification, but I can only imagine that that look was not a look of like, what am I doing? Oopsies, but it was I'm mad, I'm a six year old, I'm throwing a tantrum, and I want to hurt you. And that is terrifying, like on some like chucky, like, level, you know, child pointing gun at you. Like that's what that sounded like that it was bone chilling. The problem is so many Republicans instead of, of course, because they can't talk about gun control because the NRA gives them too much money.

So they have to be like, well, that child was, you know, it's a demon, demon child and we should lower the age to be held legally liable for something like that. Like that, that truly is their answer. It's like, yeah, yeah, anti-choice, anti-choice, have your baby, have your baby, But if you get a bad one, I don't know, put it in jail. Well, the other statement that you might get from some Republicans is that, well, I mean, these schools would be much safer if you just arm the teachers. So think about what that would mean.

That would mean that in this particular case, a first grade teacher would have to shoot a six-year-old who is posing a threat to her life and the lives of others. I would say maybe we need to rethink some of the policies that allowed for the situation to get to the point that it got in. That's just my thought on it. Maybe you don't get to claim moral high ground ever again if that's your stance and that's your argument. Are you kidding me?

I know, it's crazy. I mean, I can't even imagine, like the amount of stress teachers are already dealing with, especially with the fact that they have historically been underpaid, under a preemptive. underappreciated, they're also dealing with ridiculous accusations of grooming children from the right wing as we speak, but that same right wing wants to arm those teachers to then do what? In this case, in this very specific case, shoot and possibly kill a six-year-old kid. Now look, I think this lawsuit is also really interesting because it implies that there were warning signs that administrators and school officials decided to ignore or not.

neglect. And it's a lawsuit. It has to go through court and we'll figure out what the, you know, there needs to be evidence presented. Right now, these are just accusations. But I think the accusations, if proven true, are pretty damning. The suit also alleges upon hearing that information, assistant principal Parker had no response, refusing to even look up at plaintiff when she expressed her concerns. The suit also alleges that the assistant principal also repeatedly failed to act on warnings the boy had a weapon that day of the shooting. So apparently Zwerner, the first grade teacher who got shot, claims the boy had a history of random violence and had strangled a teacher in kindergarten. Two days before the shooting, the lawsuit

alleges, the boy smashed Swerner's phone and called her and others an inappropriate name. On the day of the shooting, during recess on January 6th, Zwerner had informed another teacher that she suspected that the six-year-old had a weapon after seeing him remove something from his backpack. Now, the other teacher decides to search the boy's backpack, but did not find a weapon, according to the lawsuit. Now, the other teacher did decide to relay that information to Parker. Again, that is the assistant principal, telling her that the boy may have put the gun in his pocket before the search and taken it outside for recess. Parker replied the boy had small pockets insinuating that he couldn't possibly have a gun on him, according to the

lawsuit. But guess what? He had a gun on him because that was the same gun he used to open fire within a first grade classroom shooting this first grade teacher. So I just, I don't know if this is proven to be true. I don't know why it would be so difficult to just check and see. Like why would the teachers make this up? Obviously they're concerned. How about we cover all basis, especially knowing that the student has a history of violence within this campus. goes to like who's going to be paying out this lawsuit, you know, is it just the principal, the system principal, people who might have known, you know, like 40 million dollars. Exactly. Yep. Exactly. Exactly. That should be going to helping this school to getting, you know,

mental mental health workers to work a case with this kid, you know, to help him to take him out, whatever it is. But you know, you see the ways in Florida and I believe in Texas and other states, and we've covered this before, the ways that because of teachers leaving the profession for a million, a million reasons that you that you listed earlier, that they're going now to veterans and former police officers to stand in for teachers. Again, further militarizing our schools. Yep. And yeah, leading to what crossfire, more violence? Oh, how is how is an former cop? And look, this is not a statement on all former cops, but what do you think their approach is going to be with a kid who is violent? Probably violence. Do we think that that's what that kid

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with code next chapter at checkout. Visit happy mammoth.com today and get your old self back naturally. Oh. Yeah, I mean, the idea of there is a very serious teacher shortage all across the nation and the idea of filling the gap with veterans who might be suffering from PTSD or from former cops who have certain training that is not conducive to a safe learning environment. It's just a terrible, terrible idea. In reality, you know, There needs to be a real discussion about what to do to support these teachers and more

importantly provide services for kids who might be going. I mean, this is a six year old, okay? I don't believe that people are born evil. Obviously the six year old is experiencing something and needs help. At the same time, when the educators and other students are going to the administrators to warn about the student having a gun, the administration should probably take it seriously. Because it wasn't just the educators in this case. After recess, a student told a teacher that the six-year-old had shown him a gun while they were on the playground,

threatening to shoot him if he told anyone, according to the lawsuit. That teacher relayed the information to the assistant principal through an intermediary, the suit alleges. A guidance counselor also warned the assistant principal about the boy possibly having a weapon. About 45 minutes before the shooting, the counselor asked to search the boy, but was rebuffed by the assistant. principal, Parker. And then final thing that I want to say is the mother should be investigated, the six-year-old's mother, okay? Look, if all of this that's been, all of these accusations against the assistant principal

and other officials are proven true, yes, they should be held accountable. But also, let's talk about the mom for a second, because how did the six-year-old obtain the weapon in the first place? Well, the mom claims that she kept the gun. She kept the gun secure, very secure, with a trigger lock on the top shelf of a closet. On the top shelf of a closet, Francesca. That is what the mom is saying. So this isn't, you know, oh, maybe we're going to speculate that the parent isn't keeping the gun safe.

No, she is admitting that she keeps it on the top shelf of a closet, as if the six-year-old can't put a chair right where the shelf is and try to get up there and obtain the weapon. And so since the boy is not going to be prosecuted, and I don't think he should be prosecuted under Virginia law, maybe there needs to be an investigation into the mother, and maybe there should be potential prosecution into how she has unsafely stored the weapon, which was then used by her six-year-old to shoot a first grade teacher. I mean, I agree with that. I just think, I totally agree. I think there's a little bit of a slippery slope into what I feel like is yet again, this

excuse to not have basic gun control because the other the other part of gun control is in my opinion you can have a weapon you just can't have it at your house like and i know i know second amendment you know freaks are gonna like go crazy on me but it's like what if you had it safely stored in like a community facility right it's around the corner i disagree with that that's this is i'm not a second i am not a second amendment nut i do think law abiding citizen should be able to have a weapon in their home, but there should be regulation. But who's checking it? But who's like who? Well, I mean, in cases like this, I mean, I think it's a gun control policy to pass legislation that ensures that you're keeping your

gun safe and away from children, if you have children in the house. In cases like this, if it's proven that the mom is not doing that, she should be prosecuted. That's how you enforce it. I agree with that, but I feel like that's like too little too late. This is retroactive. I passed to California at like gun safety, like, you know, you have to pass like some sort of safety test right when you want to buy a gun here. I just did it to see if I could do it and didn't study it all, of course. And it's like, where do you put gun? Do you put it in the fruit basket? Do you put it, you know, like in the crib? And it's like, no, you put it in a drawer and you lock it. And I answer that because obviously I'm, I can put, you know, my synapses

are firing sort of. Any idiot can pass it, but who's actually storing their guns safely? I hear what you're saying, Anna, but it just, we have prosecuted parents in the past. It hasn't led to anything. Kids are still going to get it. And usually they kill themselves or their parents. But what would the point of having a gun in a community center be if you're purchasing the guns specifically as a form of self-defense should someone break into your home? That's a good point.

My opinion on that is around like hunting. If you're like, I do this for sport, I like it for hunting, etc. If you want to argue that it's for personal safety, there could be like, you know, specific lock boxes, right, that you get with your gun. Maybe it's support, maybe it's funded. Hey, it's taxpayer fund. And sure, I'm not, I do not like that idea, but why not? Taxpayer funded, it's like a newfangled lockbox. It can only be, you know, open with your fingerprint, whatever. Give that with the gun that should be included. We're also not going to do that because it sounds expensive as hell. And guns are cheap and paying people off is even cheaper. Buying politicians is cheap. Well, I wanted to end on one final note because is the school district putting up any type of

defense? Are they looking to settle? They're not looking to settle. They plan on fighting this lawsuit and they apparently do have a defense. Here's the lawyer representing the first grade teacher, Werner, explaining what the defense is. What's the defense? Well, they're going to try to argue that this is a workers' comp, that a person can't sue their own employer in Virginia. But Virginia has very special laws and very interesting Supreme Court cases. And this is an exception. No six-year-old student is really going to be a risk of shooting a teacher. It's not a part of their job. It's not a night 7-Eleven worker. And so I think the workers' comp defense will fail. I mean, that is an insane defense. And also by putting

up that defense, it seems to be an admission of guilt here. I don't know. Am I reading correctly, Francesco? What do you think? Workers? Just like, what if Paul and it's trust, she was shot in her the, like in the workplace? I don't, it's all, yeah, they're going to defend it, of course. They're going to say whatever they need to say. But I think you're right, ultimately, that if this bears out and she can get some kind of compensation or if she wins this, you know, it should be a lesson to schools also to push back on the narrative that they need to be more militarized and more armed, right? And I think their students, as we've seen in just this last week in Tennessee, students are fired up and they're mad about how much they are being

put at risk and their own lives are being played with. We're going to take a quick break. When we come back, we'll fill you in on the latest with Ron DeSantis' battle against Disney. It's really, really interesting story. He was outmaneuvered by Disney in a pretty incredible way, If you're on the left, you shouldn't be celebrating it because there's a pretty terrible message there. And later, we'll also talk about Marjorie Green being asked some pretty tough questions during her interview on 60 Minutes. All that and more coming right up. We'll see you in a few. Welcome back to TYT, Anna Casperian and Francesca Fiorentino with you.

Check out Francesca's podcast and show, The Bituation Room. Where can everyone find it? Subscribe to it and support you, Francesca. Oh hell yeah, on all podcast platforms, the bituation room, spell it out, and then follow me at Franie Fio. You can watch it live every Tuesday at Franie Fio on YouTube and Twitch. Love it. Well, I love it. But I got to say, this next story comes close when it comes to like my affection. Because man, this debacle between Ron DeSantis and Disney is really fascinating. And I think that it's a teachable moment for anyone who has legitimate concerns about corporations having too much power in this country.

So let's talk about it. Florida governor Ron DeSantis is currently losing his culture war battle against Walt Disney World after the executives, for the theme park outmaneuvered him. Now, in order to understand this story, you kind of have to back up and try to figure out why Ron DeSantis is going after Disney, which employs 75,000 people in the state of Florida in the first place. Now, weeks before Ron DeSantis's hand-picked board was supposed to take control of the land that Disney World is located in, they actually move to legally limit the board's power, unbeknownst to the governor or the board itself. So let's rewind. Let's try to figure out what the root of this whole debacle

is in the first place. And then I'll tell you what Disney did exactly. Republican Governor Ron DeSantis escalating his fight against the house that Mickey built, pressuring state lawmakers to repeal Disney World's unique self-governing authority, the little-known Reedy Creek Improvement District that dates back to the late 60s. They will be considering the congressional map, but they also will be considering termination of all special districts that were enacted in Florida prior to 1968, and that includes the Reedy Creek Improvement District. Political insiders say the battle is really over Florida's new parental rights and education law, say gay, say gay, which opponents, including some vocal Disney employees call the don't say gay law. Disney's CEO Bob Chepeg, initially non-committal, saying after the governor signed the bill into law,

our goal as a company is for this law to be repealed by the legislature or struck down in the courts. So DeSantis' feelings were so hurt over Disney sharing its views on the so-called don't-say gay bill that he decided to do away with its self-governing authority in Orlando. Now, Disney has a board that makes decisions about that land called the Reedy Creek Improvement Board. DeSantis wants to replace that board with what is referred to as the Central Florida Tourism Board of Supervisors. Now, before that, a Tourism Board of Supervisors came into power, Disney decided to do something, or at least the Reedy Creek Improvement Board decided to do something. Ahead of an expected state takeover, the Walt Disney Coe quietly pushed through the pact and restrictive covenants that would tie the hands of future board members for decades, according to a legal presentation by the district's lawyers. One of DeSantis's appointed board members describes the reality of the Disney move by saying, this essentially makes Disney the government.

This board loses for practical purposes the majority of its ability to do anything beyond maintain the roads and maintain basic infrastructure. That is insane, Francesca. I mean, while I see a lot of MSNBC liberals dunking on Ron DeSantis over this, and I totally understand the temptation to do so because Ron DeSantis is, especially the fact that he's retaliating against Disney over their views on his legislation, I gotta say, it is not a good look to cheer on a corporation having this kind of power, especially when we're talking about power, that's more, I guess, powerful than elected lawmakers in the state. For sure. And in 1967, it was so, you know, disgusting why they wanted this board, you know,

is basically because they wanted to make sure that the neighborhood wouldn't be full of like working class people. Like they wanted to make sure the neighborhood like looked pristine and manicured and, you know, looked like Disney World. Apparently they didn't like the way Anaheim and the way Disneyland looked. Anaheim is fairly middle class. Yeah. And it's nice, you know, but like they wanted, you know, that was the move. It was like, we don't want this to be real, even though we employ all of these people who we underpay. So for sure, no love for the Disney corporation.

That being said, if you're going to show me two powerful POSs and be like, choose one, I'm going to choose the one that is seemingly not homophobic. Like, that's just what I'm going to do. I don't care if they're in government. I don't care of their head of a corporation. I don't care if they're doing this for the wrong reasons. It is, I'm going to go with a person who is standing with LGBTQ people, even if it is, just deploy to make money because they realize it's not profitable to be hateful.

Right. Sure. You know, that's fine. But it's a power grab, Anna. I mean, you're totally right. No matter where and how you look at it, it's power grab. Nobody, neither of these people are representing the actual community. What's incredible is that the Reedy Creek Improvement District, basically they approved

that agreement on February 8th, which was the day before the Florida House voted to put the governor in charge. And this is all happening under Rhonda Santis's nose, but he doesn't realize it. The declaration, this is the best part. This is amazing. The declaration is valid until 21 years after the death of the last survivor of the descendants of King Charles III, King of England living as of the date of this declaration, if it is deemed to violate rules against perpetuity, according to the document.

I mean, that line is incredible and also seems to be trolling DeSantis to someone. extent. A development agreement allows Disney to build projects at the... 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 fall out of balance, everything feels off. But here's the good news. This doesn't have to be the story of your next chapter. Hormone Harmony by Happy Mammoth is an herbal formula made with science-backed ingredients designed to fine-tune your hormones by balancing estrogen, testosterone, progesterone, and even stress hormones like cortisol. It helps with common issues such as hot flashes,

poor sleep, low energy, bloating, and more. With over 40,000 reviews and a bottle sold every 24 seconds, the results speak for themselves. 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. Highest density and the right to sell or assign those development rights to other district landowners without the board having any say according to the presentation by the district's new special legal counsel. So in response to this, DeSantis is of course freaking out the right

wing in the state of Florida is freaking out. They have employed some high power D.C. attorneys that have defended Ron DeSantis when it comes to some of his other culture war related stunts. DeSantis placed those Disney allied board members with five Republicans on February 27th, who discovered the binding agreement, the previous board approved. So they are irrelevant now. As it stands at this moment. The handpicked Ron DeSantis board has no power based on this out maneuvering by Disney. And Disney says, good luck with your fancy lawyers, bro. Good luck with your fancy lawyers. They say all agreements signed between Disney and the district were appropriate and were discussed and approved in open, noticed public forums in compliance with Florida's government in the Sunshine

law. That's pretty incredible. I don't know how DeSantis and his cronies missed this. Maybe he was too busy crafting his next culture war, bigoted legislation to distract from the fact that he does nothing to improve the lives of Floridians at all. But any final thoughts on this, Francesca? I mean that last point, just like improving the lives of Floridians, right? How is Disney doing that?

I would argue not much, right? I mean, and, you know, in terms of like give your workers a raise or your cast members a raise. You know, we know they've been underpaid and DeSantis is trash. And then finally, I'm just waiting for a corporation in Florida to actually take a stand. Like I like that this is stand, it's very funny. I love that line, but I kind of want to be like, move your money, move the money. If you truly have a problem, I do think, look, I do think divestment is a good strategy. We should be divesting from places that have draconian laws, whether it's around, you know, education or whether it's around abortion rights.

I do want to see companies putting their money where their mouth is. That's such a great point because I got to be honest with you. I don't I don't care about some like shallow statement from any corporation on any political issue. Why do we seek statements from them knowing that they're just going to say whatever they need to say to placate the individuals asking for a statement? You're right. I mean, talk is cheap. Actions actually communicate to the public that they stand firm on what they're saying. And of course, Disney's not going to do that. Disney, and in fact, Bob Iger, who is now, again, the head of Disney, made clear in a recent call

with investors, I believe, that they love operating in Florida, because there's all sorts of tax benefits that come along with it. There's no way that they're going to move their business to another state. And, you know, DeSantis is saying, don't worry, I'm going to keep fighting against them. I'm going to keep fighting against Disney. He claims that Disney did not provide adequate notice, lack of consideration, improper delegation of authority, ethical violations. We'll see how that all plays out. But also keep in mind that when lawmakers allow for corporations to have more power than elected lawmakers do, sometimes the chickens come home to roost. And I think Desantis is starting to realize that right now. All right, we got to take a break. When we come

back a pretty off the rails interview featuring Marjorie Green and Leslie Stahl on 60 minutes. The part of that interview that I wanted to talk about was Marjorie Green having to answer some pretty difficult questions about who she is as a person. She failed in the context of this interview. We'll give you that and more coming up in the next segment. Welcome back to the show, everyone, Anna Casparian, Francesca Furentini, and how Blair you with you, how Blair you writes it and says, I think Francesca and I agree that Anna's hubby needs to take her to salsa lessons again. We need those dancing videos in our lives. Do you agree with that, Francesca? I doubt you've ever thought about it. I've thought of, I mean, you guys are great dancers. I mean, I don't, I don't want to tell you what your husband what to do, however. Why I do it. Yeah. Yeah, that's your job. Yeah. No, but I get the sentiment. We can all use a little more fun and lightness in our lives, especially with how terrible the news cycle is every single day. But with that said, why don't we move on to Marjorie Green? Being fact checked in real time, which is nice to see. And how should. she immediately deflected after dealing with that fact check.

Congresswoman Marjorie Green was recently experiencing a little bit of discomfort, just a little bit as she was being interviewed by Leslie Stahl on 60 Minutes. And to be frank, the interview was combative to say the least, but there was one portion of it that I thought was interesting. So the topic of Marjorie Taylor, Marjorie Taylor's belief in outlandish, conspiracy theories came up, namely the idea that the Parkland shooting was really just a false flag in order to pass gun control legislation, which let's pause for a second. Francesca, I want to bring you in right away.

There's endless mass shootings, endless mass shootings that lead to nothing. No legislation, no proposals, no nothing, okay? Why would we have to even consider that these shootings are false flags to pass gun control legislation when the gun control legislation never happens? Exactly. It's because, and you know what the best part about it is, it's an admission that we should have gun control. It's an admission, it's like, oh man, that's pretty persuasive. I mean, remember after the Vegas shooting, that was also another thing, right? It was like, well, there were so many people killed at once from a high rise from a hotel. This was clearly an op. You're like, I don't know.

Have we done anything? Has anyone had their guns taken away? No. Have we gotten any stricter? Maybe minimally? I don't know. Biden did, he waved a wand. He did something, kind of.

But I like how Marjorie also is taking after Alex Jones and is like, everyone has a false flag. I need mine. I'm going to do Parkland. That'll be nothing. She went with Parkland. She did. She did.

Now, let's give you the details of the interview, which unfortunately due to copyright issues, we cannot show you, but I can give you the transcript. So Leslie Stahl asks her, did you apologize for your position on Parkland, Florida? Marjorie Green responds, what was my position on Parkland, Florida? Stahl responds that it was a false flag. At that point, Green says, I don't know if you actually have my, no, I never said Parkland was a false flag. No, I've never said that. School shootings are horrible. I don't think it's any anything to joke about.

Well, at that point, Leslie Stahl decides to show the receipts. As she was speaking, 60 minutes showed a screen grab of Green's now deleted 2018 Facebook comment. We fact checked, Stahl replied, before I got to this interview. So I wanted to show you all the screen grab of the now deleted comments from Marjorie Green. So someone on her Facebook page commented in response to the shooting, or I'm sorry, in response to the Broward County Sheriff's Deputy Scott Peterson

receiving a retirement pension after the shooting. So they write, it's called a payoff to keep his mouth shut since it was a false flag planned shooting. And Marjorie Green says, exactly. So she along with this commenter, Francesca, believe that the now disgraced Broward County Sheriff's Deputy Scott Peterson received the retirement pension, so he keeps his mouth shut about this shooting really just being a false flag. That is what they believe. That is what she posted. But I was just doing that because, you know, I just wanted a yes and, you know, I'm a good, I just want to be a team player. And, you know, it really helps engagement on the Facebook. So it didn't mean I believe in it. Like, right? Like, you know, that's what they do.

Like, it's the same, it's they support conspiracies with the same energy that you and I like would support one another's selfies on Instagram being like, yes, girl, you look good, you know, like fire emoji. You would, they do that but for like, hey, you know, Parkland was an inside job from Hunter Biden. Like, yes, girl, go off. You're right. Like, what? It's also really strange to me that you would have that take that you would float the notion. that a school shooting was an inside job. And then when you're asked about it, just be as infuriated by the fact check, infuriated that it even comes up, right?

Like they never want to take ownership of what they believe and what they say they believe. So it all really depends on the context. If it's in the context of, you know, this Facebook conversation, if it's in the context of conversing with other like-minded right wingers, Oh, yeah, we're on false flag, right? Am I right? But then once they're challenged on that, no, I never said that. I take school shootings very seriously.

Do you, though? Do you? And if she does take school shootings very seriously, like the one, like the Parkland shooting, which she had referred to as a false flag, then why did she feel the need to harass students like David Hogg after the shooting occurred? Remember, David Hogg experienced his class. classmates getting slaughtered right before his eyes. And after that, this is what Marjorie Green did.

Let's watch. David, why are you supporting the red flag laws? If there had been, if Scott Peterson, the resource officer at Parkland had done his job, then Nicholas Cruz wouldn't have killed anybody in your high school or at least protected them. Why are you supporting red flag gun laws that attack our second amendment right? And why are you using kids to get to as a barrier? And you have nothing to say. No words.

Tell him walking. He's got nothing to say. Sad. He has nothing to say because there really isn't anything to say, you guys. He has nothing to say because he's paid to do this. And he's a coward. He can't say one word because he can't defend his stance. Speaking of the inability to defend your stance,

after Marjorie Green was fact-checked by Leslie Stahl, she responded with deflection and word salad nonsense. So here you go, this is what she said. Have you fact checked all my statements from kindergarten through 12th grade and in college? And as I've paid my taxes and never broken a law and the only, I got a few speeding tickets, do we need to talk about those too? Because I think where you're going down is the same attacks that people have attacked me with over and over. Well, they might have attacked you with it over and over because you alleged that a school

shooting was a false flag in order to pass gun legislation. So why don't you defend what your views are? This isn't an attack. This is asking you whether you apologize for that claim or whether you want to defend that claim. So go ahead, but she's unable to do it, right? Reality is not an attack. using your own words, the things you said, the video evidence of you telling David Hogg that

he is paid, right? That like, what do they expect us to do? And this is why ultimately zooming out on this entire story and the back and forth and we could debate it. But I ultimately, look, I watch the 60 Minutes interview and I do not think that Leslie Stahl actually did that great of a job. More, I think more broadly, I don't think 60 minutes should have done this interview. The entire segment opens with like a six minute, you know, explanation of who Marjorie Green is and where she came from and how she's a little bit divisive, like her thoughts on a national divorce. You know, the thing we haven't tried to do since the Civil War, like it's all with the same sort of blasé, monotone, like centrist media where, you know, hey, all these things are equal, you know, people who want healthcare and a green new deal and not to die. in a flood, that's the same thing as wanting to do over the civil war. Anyway, it is driving me insane, Anna, because there's, it's literally it's like you're known for being

kind of an attack dog, you're really fiery. About what? Say it, say it. Because what you showed just there is that she's an attack dog for believing that students are faking their own mass shootings. Just say that and stop giving it so much gas. Look, 20 minutes ago, Marjorie Green, Just tweeted out a video with the headline, Democrats are pedophiles, y'all. Like, this is the kind of green light, like a normalization that mainstream news often does with far right nationalists. Yeah, I don't know. I think that, you know, it's, she's an elected lawmaker, whether we like it or not. And I think it is important to do these interviews.

And my takeaway was a little different from yours. I think that what Leslie Stahl did in fact checking her in real time and then watching Marjorie Green flail the way she did in response to those questions was important for a broader non-newsmax audience to see. And, you know, whether it makes any difference in terms of the voting base that seems to be very supportive of Marjorie Green, whether that makes any difference for them, I mean, I don't know and I don't think it will. But Marjorie Green, very rarely, if ever, does any type of interview where she gets challenged. And it was kind of nice to see her in a context outside of Fox News or Newsmax or O-A-N. And watching her flail was important for at least people like me. I don't know. I enjoyed seeing it. No, I agree.

But Anna, it wasn't flailing, was it? It wasn't flailing. She flailed. I mean, it's pretty clear she couldn't hand. Yeah, that anger is fantastic, right? anger in response to a fact check where she got caught because she couldn't explain herself. And I think those moments are important. Now, you know, with the rest of the, I hear what people are saying, you shouldn't platform her. Again, she's an elected lawmaker. So ignoring her and pretending like she doesn't exist also doesn't help the problem. So, you know, it's an ongoing debate. I think the interview was important to do. But I hear what you're saying. It's a different

perspective and I and I respect that. Yeah, it's just an interesting, it's like a Kellyanne Conway conundrum, right? That's definitely a TM. They're Kelly and Conway conundrum, which is how many times can you invite someone on when they just lie to your face? Will you still give them airtime? You know, because clearly she was about ready to a walk. I mean, if Leslie had pushed it even further, she was like, what are you going to do? You know, you got a parking ticket. And like she freaked out. And yes, you could call it flailing. I call it sort of a bitter partisan, you know, like honestly like an ultimatum, right? It was a little. a little bit of a like, I'm going to walk away from this interview if you keep on going down

that road. Yeah. All right, there was one more story left that I really wanted to do with you, Francesca, but we're going to have to hold off on it. Thank you for doing the show with me today. Francesca Fierntini has a fantastic podcast. You should check out, The Bituation Room. Also watch her on all of the shows. She was on Damage Report earlier today, so make sure you check that out. Francesca. And tomorrow. With you. Love it. Always a pleasure. Have a great night. We'll see you soon. 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 podcast at apple.com at apple.com slash t-y-t.

I'm your host, Shank Huger, and I'll see you soon. Thank you.