The Young Turks - Can I Get A Witness

Episode Date: February 16, 2021

Senators and impeachment managers say the trial is over, but the work is just beginning for investigating the Capitol Insurrection. Sen. Coons hounded Dems to drop witnesses because ‘people want to get home for Valentine’s Day’ while an impeachment manager says calling witnesses would have cost them Republican votes. 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. All right, we're on air. What's up, everyone? So what happened was my screen went dark right as I was about to say, welcome to the Young Turks. Okay, anyways, that's the perils of broadcasting during coronavirus. Yes, that's still happening. Okay, so that's such a great and appropriate beginning to our 19th anniversary show.

So old school, TYT with technical issues at all. No, seriously, guys, amazing show for you guys today. Of course, the acquittal, the second acquittal of Donald Trump is a giant news story, but particularly as it relates to the future of the Republican Party and the future of the Democratic Party. So we're gonna cover all of that should they have called witnesses or not. The rage will ensue outrageous comments by Republicans and Democrats alike. And yes, as I alluded to just a second ago, after the regular show is over at 8 o'clock Eastern, we have a 19th birthday extravaganza for TYT. Yes, we have been around astounding 19 years. Yes, we are the oldest show in internet history, longest running daily show on the planet, on the series of tubes called the internets,

as Republican Senators used to call them. All right, so look forward to that. We've got all of our old school hosts, Ben Manquitts, Anna, Brett, John, you name you, everybody's here. In fact, some folks from behind the scenes that you're going to love. All right, so stay tuned, hopefully for the entirety of this broadcast. Like I shared the stream, we got so much great news for you guys, Anna. All right, well, before we get to all of the updates on what happened in the impeachment trial, let's talk about what Andrew Cuomo's been up to. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo is speaking up after there have been reports indicating that he and his team had essentially

withheld numbers of coronavirus deaths in nursing homes. The nursing home deaths were undercounted by as much as 50%. And this is based on an investigation and some leaked audio, which Governor Cuomo and his team had no choice but to respond to. So they have confirmed the reports that they withheld the actual nursing home deaths. And they cited the fact that they were worried about Donald Trump using the deaths against them as the reason for withholding the information. So the governor's top aide, Melissa DeRosa, confirmed the contents of the recording of a September conference call with Democratic state legislators first reported by the New York Post in which she admits that the governor's office withheld the numbers due to concerns.

They would be used against us by the Justice Department under then President Donald Trump. So it's not just Republican lawmakers who are terrified of Donald Trump and his supporters. Apparently even in a pandemic in a crisis where accurate information is incredibly important, You have Democrats like Andrew Cuomo and his team withholding accurate data and information because they're afraid of how Trump might use it against them. Here's what DeRosa specifically said, quote, he starts tweeting, meaning Trump, that we killed everyone in nursing homes. He starts going after New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy, starts going after California Governor Gavin Newsom, starts going after Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer. He directs the Department of Justice

to do an investigation into us. And basically we froze because then we were in in a position where we weren't sure if what numbers we were going to give to the Department of Justice or what we give to you guys was going to be used against us. We weren't sure if there was going to be an investigation. I mean, there's been an investigation because you guys lied about the number of deaths in nursing homes. And Cuomo made some pretty horrendous mistakes early on in the pandemic, which by the way, some of some of those mistakes or I shouldn't even say mistakes. I mean, gutting the Medicaid system in the state was a giant error on his part. We talked about that on this show. But look, if we're going to be critical of Republican

lawmakers for engaging in this kind of stuff, as has been the case in Florida, we're certainly going to hold a Democratic governor like Andrew Cuomo accountable as well. Right. So there's only one caveat here. And then we'll, I'll talk about what I think are core most mistakes. Caviot is, at the time, Trump was threatening to withhold money from the states. So if any of the Democratic governors admitted a mistake, Trump's team might have used it to withhold funds from that particular state. So that's the kind of monster Donald Trump was and they had to react to that to some degree. Now having said that, the majority of the reason they held it seems to be that they did not want to be criticized, which by the way

is politician 101. And so yeah, Trump can criticize you. Legislators that you're talking to could criticize you and the press could criticize you. And that's called being a representative of the people. And so it comes with the territory. If you don't want that, don't take the job. So it's an abdication of responsibility to not be honest, especially in the middle of a pandemic where people's lives are on the line. To the point that Anna was making about mistakes, you know, you could say some of them were understandable or shared by Trump administration. Department of Health said that they should put coronavirus patients that came out of the hospital into nursing homes all the way back in March when it had first started or we were first aware of it. And that turned out to be a horrible mistake. Yes, it was an opinion shared by others, but nonetheless, they all made that mistake together,

including Governor Cuomo. And that was not corrected until May with devastating consequences. So there's no reason, and especially Trump's gone. There's no more withholding of money from states based on who their governor is and whether they're blue or red. All that is gone now. So let's have real accountability for all Republicans and Democrats and the important mistakes that were made. Yeah, exactly. And I think the frustrating part about all of this was, you know, the way that the media responded to Andrew Cuomo early on in the pandemic was, in my opinion, ridiculously biased and way too generous to him. I mean, you had to rely on independent news sources in order to learn anything about what he was doing to gut the Medicaid system.

in the state as this pandemic was becoming more and more of an issue. And then aside from that, I mean, the media understandably and justifiably has been very critical of Republican lawmakers on a state level and all the mistakes that they made. And all Cuomo had to do was just show up and present himself as like this tough talker. And everyone was like enamored with him as if he was like the top leader. He's the one taking things seriously. He's the one who's infallible, no mistakes made. No, there were serious mistakes made. And I'm sorry, being afraid of Trump's criticism isn't enough of a reason to withhold important

data from the public, that's what we saw happening in Florida, and it's unacceptable. Doesn't matter if it's a Democratic or Republican governor, the public deserves to know what's going on in these nursing homes. And more importantly, with COVID overall, no information should be withheld. Well, look, that gets to the heart of it. So there's two different issues here, guys. One, we're not unaware of the size and scale of the mistakes. So if, you know, I'll use an unfortunate analogy here. If, you know, Cuomo is growing around, you know, in a gun fight knifing people, Trump was using a

Gatling gun. And it was so loud and did so much damage that it was hard to notice a dude in the back with a knife, right? And I'm not saying that they were intentionally killing people. I'm just using that as an analogy of like, how do I focus on the knife when there's a giant gatling gun ripping the place apart, right? And yes, the juxtaposition of Cuomo as a non-insane person trying to give you information as opposed to Bozo the clown going, I don't know what's happening, buh, buh, buh, inject yourself with bleach, a hydroxychlorican, the guy's juggling on air, escorting water from the flower on his lapels. So yes, I get the juxtaposition, Cuomo looked like he was a normal human being and has people were like, oh my god, it didn't

I didn't know in America we could elect non-insane people. I get all that, that's issue number one. But guys, what Anna said about gutting Medicaid is so important and the central problem with the mainstream media, because it isn't just that they're distracted by the Gatling gun or the clown outfit, it's that they don't want to cover the problems of the Democratic establishment, because they agree with the Democratic establishment. So not only did he gut Medicaid, which barely, barely, barely, barely mentioned by the press before or after Trump. Because they don't mind. The press thinks the Democrats are awesome.

Democratic leadership is awesome. They're all absolutely, they were smitten by Andrew Cuomo. And the idea of criticizing Cuomo was anathema, right? And so secondly, I mean, look, all of the Democratic leaders are against universal health care. Is that ever mentioned by the press? Wait, in the middle of the worst pandemic of our lifetime, it's not just Republicans, it's Democratic leaders saying we should not, under any circumstances, have universal health care. People should not be covered in their entirety. No, that's never mentioned. In fact, if it's mentioned

at all in the press, it's applauded. Oh, bravo. Way did not do universal health care like every other development because Medicare for all sucks. Oh, I hate Bernie Sanders and I hate Medicare for all. Bravo, Andrew Cuomo, Bravo, do not cover people. Do not cover people in the middle of a pandemic. Okay, well, with that press, of course Cuomo's going to get away with botching the nursing home situation and health care overall during the pandemic because the press mainly did cheerleading for him. Now that Trump is gone and the Gatling gun is gone and I'll like, oh yeah, yeah, I guess that's problematic. No, you're a little late, but okay. Yeah, look, just to buttress your point, without the added embellishment, to the media stuff. Look, Biden can single-handedly expand Medicare to cover every single uninsured

person in this country right now through an executive order. He can do it because of the fact that coronavirus is an emergency. And so he doesn't need to wait for congressional approval to do it. This is something that David Dayan has written about extensively, you know, as part of his first 100-day series. It's just an effort to, or I'm sorry, it's the day one series. that the American prospect is put out, indicating that Biden actually has quite a bit of executive power that he can use without worrying about the obstructionists in Congress. But he has not chosen to expand Medicare to ensure that every single person in this country is covered under a pandemic. That's an important story. That's something that should be covered by more outlets

other than just the American prospect and some indie journalists, or indie journalists. Yeah, well, why are independent journalists the only ones doing journalism in America? That's because the mainstream media sucks and mainly works for the establishment. All right, I'm done. Okay, great. Let's move on to what we're hearing our lawmakers suggest now that Trump has been acquitted. So the Senate impeachment trial for Donald Trump, the second impeachment, trial for Donald Trump has ended. And seven Republicans did vote in favor of convicting him

on the charge of inciting an insurrection. However, the Senate did not have enough votes overall. The required two-thirds majority in order to convict him overall. So the outcome of the Senate trial indicates that Trump has been acquitted. The 57 to 43 tally fell 10 votes short of the two thirds majority that's needed. Now among the Republicans breaking ranks to find, this is according to the New York Times, among the Republicans breaking ranks to find guilty the man who led their party for four tumultuous years demanding absolute loyalty were Senators Richard Burr, North Carolina, from North Carolina, Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Mitt Romney of Utah, Ben Sasse of Nebraska,

and Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania. I think it's important to name the senators who voted to convict by name. Now, since the Senate has failed to convict Donald Trump, what we're now hearing with bipartisan support is this effort to create a 9-11-style commission, which would be, in my opinion, disastrous. Because the 9-11-style commission obviously references the 9-11 commission, which called for more invasive surveillance into the American people. So if Trump isn't able to pay the consequences for inciting the insurrection, now the American people have to suffer the consequences. So I just wanted to give a shout out to the boogaloo boys who participated in that riot. Because for all of their anti-government nonsense, what they really did was encourage more government and more

invasive surveillance in our personal life. So congratulations. And I'll get to more details on who called for this in just a second. But Jank, I wanted to get your thoughts first. Yeah, so whenever the government decides they're gonna do more spying, 98% of it falls on the left wing. So in a sense, the right wing thinks, not so bad, right? We do the violence. We try to coup. It didn't work, but it could have worked, but and afterwards we get the government to crack down on our political opponents. Kind of a win for everybody. Is the government actually are going to trace right wing terrorists? They almost never do. And when Bush tried it, he did it at the near the end of his term. And when Obama came in, Limbaugh and Fox News yelled at

him. So Obama said, I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry. And it withdrew Bush's report about right wing domestic terrorists. And so then what did we have? We had nonstop right wing domestic terrorism ever since. And Trump, of course, encouraged it and loved it. So he not only didn't have the government do anything about it, he went around promoting it. So now if they do a 9-11 style commission and they look into domestic terrorism problems and start to look at things ahead of time and trace things, if history is any judge at all, they will leave the most dangerous right wing militias completely alone, completely undisturbed, partly because the people that are that track these kind of things are usually right wingers. So they, when they see like right wing

right wing militia, they think, oh, those are good boys, man. Those are, yeah, those, hey, they look like my buddies, man. I love it. Yeah, no, they're no problem. Oh, this goddamn left winger wants equality and justice. Let's trace them to the end of time, let alone Muslims, black people, et cetera. So, and guess who proposed it? Of course, Democrats did. So I'm going to, I want to end up to give you the facts on it.

And then I want to rip into Democratic leadership as usual, because here they come, too little, meet too late. Yeah, I mean, you're definitely hearing the chorus of Democrats demanding this, but this is a bipartisan effort. Don't make that mistake. Because whenever it comes to government spying or increasing government power, it's really a bipartisan effort. And it is really shameful to see Democrats essentially morph into the Bush administration and see the Republicans turn into, I don't know what they are, basically this unhinged, you know, extension of conspiracy theorists and paranoid Trump loyalists. But let me remind you all that Lindsey Graham, Republican Senator, did not vote in favor of convicting Donald Trump in the impeachment trial.

He certainly is one of the lawmakers who's calling for this 9-11 style commission. And I put together a little compilation of all the lawmakers who have been calling for this. Let's take a quick look. There was a pre-planned element to this attack. Mr. Wallace. us that we need to look at. Did Nancy Pelosi know on January the 5th that there was a threat to the Capitol? What did President Trump do after the attack? We need a 9-11 commission to find out what happened to make sure it never happens again. I think there should be a complete investigation about what happened on 1-6. Both, why was there not more law enforcement, National Guard already mobilized, what was known, who knew it, and when they knew it, all that,

because that builds the basis so this never happens again in the future. I think that is also important, George, but that is different from allowing that to define the future of the Republican Party. Senator Coons, you just heard Congresswoman Dean right there on the necessity of a 9-11 commission. You agree? I do, George, this was a remarkable week, a powerful week. And I think the House managers, obviously Congresswoman Dean and Congressman Raskin and a very talented team put on an incredibly compelling and powerful case. But there's still more evidence that the American people need and deserve to hear. We'll be tearing into Chris Coons a little later in the show. But I'm sure you guys

notice that Lindsey Graham mentioned Nancy Pelosi in his answer and how maybe this 9-11 commission needs to investigate how much Nancy Pelosi knew about the threat before it happened. But Nancy Pelosi, by the way, is also calling for this 9-11-style commission. And when she was asked, okay, well, is this commission going to be a little different from the previous commission that was, you know, tasked to investigate how 9-11 happened? She's like, yes, it will be different. And I was like, oh, okay, great. How is it going to be different?

Maybe, you know, the failures of the original 9-11 commission will be maybe addressed in this new commission. No, you know what she said? She's like, yeah, you know, times have changed. The 9-11 commission consisted of like nine white males and one female. Times are different. No, we're not asking for diversity. We're not asking for diversity in a freaking 9-11 commission.

We're saying that we don't want a commission. Not anything like the 9-11 commission to investigate the riots that took place in the Capitol because, I mean, the ACLU spoke out against it. Real quick, Jank, ACLU at the time regarding the 9-11 commission. The 9-11 commission's most sweeping proposed solution is a powerful national intelligence director and a national counterterrorism center that would, that would centralize power over both foreign and domestic intelligence collection agencies in the White House. The way in which the recommendation centralizes power over both foreign

and domestic surveillance in the White House raises serious civil liberties concerns. And we've experienced those civil liberties concerns, Jank. Yeah, so let me address all the people in that clip. First of all, Senator Cassidy is a Republican from Louisiana, the guy in the middle of that clip. And he's the only one that was consistent. He voted to convict Trump, which he's paying a price for now since he's a Republican. Republican Party is entirely lost its mind. So they're going after him and they're looking to end his career. But he was honest and he was consistent. When you took a look, I can barely look at Chris Coons. So he's the one who said, and we're going to talk about it later in the show, that he didn't want to call witnesses because he wanted to go,

go home for Valentine's Day. And now he wants to do after, after you could have actually taken action and that's over. Now that it's totally irrelevant, now he'd like to study it afterwards. As long as it doesn't interfere with your, you know, plans for the weekend, Senator, okay? And that's a Democratic senator. Now back to Lindsey Graham, I mean, it's, there's an ironic mention there because the person mainly pushing for the 9-11 style commission here is Nancy Pelosi. And Lindsey Graham's like, oh, great, okay, then we'll investigate you. Wait, we were investigating Donald Trump. In my opinion, the idiot Democrats dropped out without witnesses.

And now somehow it's turning a new investigation of Democrats because that's how dumb Democratic leadership is. And so will they start to distract people with the investigations of Pelosi and Kamala Harris and whatever BS commission they do? Of course. And so a lot of Democratic voters I saw today were excited about this. Like, oh, now the truth will come out. Guys, what difference does it make?

The only time that there was anything we could do about it was when we were trying to convict Trump and make sure he's not allowed to run for office again. Why does that matter? Because if he runs for office again and somehow wins and he won once and he nearly won the last time, he is already indicated he will definitely end democracy. So the only thing that mattered was the vote to bar him from office. And the rest of it is just BS semantics and theatrics. And Democratic voters are tricked by it every time.

They're like, did you see how strong Nancy Pelosi is? She's gonna do a 9-11 style commission. Ooh! And then what are we gonna do about it? Nothing, because there's nothing left to do. In fact, she called it a quote, after action review. Well, that is accurate. That is accurate, I'll give her that.

After all the action is over, here come the Democrats to do something totally meaningless and probably counterproductive. Not probably, definitely, it will definitely be counterproductive. Especially, I mean, you don't think lobbyists are salivating at this opportunity? What does this mean? I mean, if it means more surveillance on American people in an effort to investigate domestic terror, That means that there are going to be more government contracts given out to companies that have certain surveillance technology available. We know how government works. This is going to be

counterproductive. We should not be suffering the consequences of what Trump and his supporters did. And that's what's so incredibly frustrating about this, that some of the lawmakers who refuse to hold Trump accountable or some of the lawmakers who kind of tried to hold him accountable, but then caved in the last minute, they're the ones who are now calling for a 9-11 style commission to investigate not just the riots. That's the way they'll sell it. But it's gonna go beyond that. This is always a way to increase more government power and more surveillance into the American people. And they do this by scaring you. That's why Democratic voters are probably in favor of this. The riots were scary. We don't want this to happen again. Our democracy is bruised. We're at a lot

a risk right now and people buy it. They eat it up and it's really frustrating. So last things I'll add, I guarantee ahead of time now. And you'll see us do a story on this a couple of years from now that that group, whatever is formed. If anything is formed out of that commission, it will investigate black groups, black civil rights groups, far more than right wing groups. It's a guarantee. It is hundreds of years of American history that shows you that that's what's going to happen every single time. So nice job in holding Trump accountable. And they'll, they will also have giant barriers all over Washington, D.C. And the minute that the left wing goes to protest on any issue, they'll crack down on us. Because we have to protest, because the

establishment, Republicans and Democrats are about to agree to a number of horrific things, right? And when And that left wing goes to protest, they'll say, oh, here we go, time to crack skulls. Well, now we'll show them how tough we are. So, so unbelievably stupid. And they're like, oh, yeah, no, no, no, guys, because it's going to be great. It's going to be great. We're going to have accountability. We'll call witnesses like Mike Pence, et cetera. Then why didn't you call them when there could have been actual accountability? Please spare me. Democrats are the worst and the weakest party ever and every time. When we come back from the break, we'll talk about what happened with the witnesses.

There was a brief period of time where we thought there could be witnesses called and then Democrats caved again. We have that story and more when we come back. We need to talk about a relatively new show called Un-F-The Republic or UNFTR. As a Young Turks fan, you already know that the government, the media, and corporations are constantly peddling lies that serve the interests of the rich and powerful. But now there's a podcast dedicated to unraveling those lies, debunking the conventional wisdom. In each episode of Un-B-The-Republic or UNFTR, the host delves into a different historical episode or topic that's generally misunderstood or purposely obfuscated by the so-called powers that be, featuring in-depth research, razor sharp commentary, and just the right amount of vulgarity, the UNFTR podcast takes a sledgehammer to what you thought you knew

about some of the nation's most sacred historical cows. But don't just take my word for it. The New York Times described UNFTR as consistently compelling and educational, aiming to challenge conventional wisdom and upend the historical narratives that were taught in school. For as the great philosopher Yoda once put it, You must unlearn what you have learned. And that's true whether you're in Jedi training or you're uprooting and exposing all the propaganda and disinformation

you've been fed over the course of your lifetime. So search for UNFDR in your podcast app today and get ready to get informed, angered, and entertained all at the same time. We're going to be able to be. I'm going to be. We're going to be able to be. We're going to be. We're going to be able to be.

All right. All right, back during the break, let me read some super chat comments and we'll go in whatever random order I can do it. Sir, some key it, right, 74, guys, get readable handles. I love you, but okay, anyways, been a TYT member for only a year, but I'm still excited for your 19th birthday. You guys make it feel like a family and we are all in it, TYT strong. You felt like a family member until I criticize your name, right? Anyway, love you, thank you for being a member.

All of you watching on YouTube, super easy, hit the join button below. In fact, Donnie Bowman, Arden Debell, Eugene Keyes, and Arfson all just joined. We appreciate it, and you are part of the family. British 32 wrote in, hijacking anna, enjoying TYT and TDR as normal, should take a bet on when the Republicans will turn a commission away from Trump, MAGA, and Republicans, and towards Democrats for alt-reality for talking points for 2020 elections. Well, as we just discussed, we think that's exactly what's gonna happen. And so as usual, smartest audience in the world, you guys, I swear to God, you know politics

and news way more than the average Washington reporter. If you have every report is writing like, oh, Bravo, 9-11 commission, style commission, it's going to be unbelievable accountability after action review is such a smart idea, okay, after action review. It's in the name, this is useless. Anyway. But don't worry, Jank, don't worry. There will be diversity on that commission, which will recommend more surveillance on American people. Okay, so it'll be okay. It'll be okay. Yeah, there'll be more women and minorities that decide to spy it on us.

Okay, and that makes it better according to Democratic leadership. Kate next writes in in our website, members-only section, and that's t.yt.com slash join to get there. No, you don't need a 9-11 commission. The footage and evidence is plain is in plain sight online. Just read the tweets, Facebook posts, Reddit's Q and on, et cetera. And Combezi Atai writes in, happy 19 years to YT. I've been a viewer for over half of that back when Jenk was doing impressions of John McCain as the penguin from Batman. Here's some more successful years of helping the progressive movement.

That's awesome. I remember those impressions, that was great, I love that you remember that. No matriotometry writes in. I don't buy the Trump excuse they're using. I think it's exactly how it looks. They were trying to make their nursing home desks not look as bad as they were. Regarding the Cuomo story. And Boston Gay-Stoner wrote in, did Trump force Andrew Cuomo to write a book on how to handle the pandemic too? Great point. I love you guys. All right, we got a lot more for you guys, and I'll read more comments during the next break. Stay right here. We're going to be able to be.

All right, back on TYT on our 19th anniversary, we are in internet years, 2,000 years old. Okay, but we're still here. After all these years and all of our competitors being washed away, we're still here. All right, Casper, let's do more news. All right, during the Senate impeachment trial, Democrats considered calling witnesses after some new evidence emerged regarding Trump's phone calls as the riots were taking place. In fact, one representative, Representative Jamie Herrera Butler issued a statement recounting a story she's told over the last month detailing a heated call between House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy and Trump during the middle of the violent insurrection.

There was also some new evidence coming from Pat Toomey, a phone call between Pat Toomey and Donald Trump, some indication that Trump just continued to attack Mike Pence on Twitter, even as he found out that Pence had been evacuated from the area as a result of these rioters. So he was essentially adding more fuel to the fire. Now, the impeachment managers got together to vote on whether or not it made any sense to bring witnesses in order to add more evidence to the case and at first they voted in favor of this and then they immediately backtracked. And so the big question is why? Why did they at first decide to call witnesses and then later decide, no, we're not going to do that. Well, we've been getting different answers from different

lawmakers. But this story I think should focus quite a bit on Chris Coons, who apparently, according to Politico, during the Senate break after the witness vote Saturday, Chris Coons twice came into the manager's room off the Senate floor. Coons pressed House Democrats to relent, saying their quest for witnesses would cost them Republican votes to convict, and maybe even some Democrats? And then he also said this, the jury is ready to vote. People want to get home for Valentine's Day. I mean, Jank, it's with Democrats like these, who needs Republicans? Like you need to get home for Valentine's Day?

What? What are you doing? Oh, he can't be inconvenienced by a Senate impeachment trial. He's got to, he can't be inconvenienced by witnesses. He's got to get home for Valentine's Day. People want to get home, Jank. That's what they were voted for. Yeah, so.

To be fair, the Valentine's night that he was trying to get back home to was with several Republican senators, because he's apparently in love with them. So we some Republican senators say that they might not do the right thing if we don't agree to their demands. And so their demand is for you to stop pummeling the Republican Party for the un-American, un-democratic people that they are. And so you're going to send them a Valentine's Day gift of stopping that investigation into how horrific their party is. So they'll give you a meaningless vote. Those votes were never going to convict anyway, that extra couple of votes. So A, that argument makes no sense. Okay, number two, he says, you might have lost some Democratic senators? Which ones, Chris? You want to name them? By the way, when I just said that, I'll tell you right now, everybody in Washington just flipped

down, they're like, he called a royalty, nobility, Senator Coons, Chris. How dare he? He's just one of the masses. He's not allowed to do that. Yeah, Chris, which Democratic senators are you talking about? You want to spit it out? Which Democratic senators were going to betray their oath and we're going to side with Trump if they didn't get their balanced ties day weekend? You tell me, okay? And understand who Chris Coons is, okay? Other than being one of the most conservative Democrats, and guys, if you knew Chris Coon's real record, you would be shocked. The mainstream media has spent their whole lives protecting corporate Democrats like Chris Coons. Chris Coons is monstrously conservative. But there's one thing else about Chris Coon. You'd think he was

a Republican if you saw his entire record. But there's another thing about Chris Coons that you need to know, and that's very relevant to this story. He's usually a proxy for Joe Biden. So when Coons, who is a protege of Biden and comes from the same state and his very good friends and worked very closely with him on his campaign, when Coons says it's time to wrap this up, that usually means Joe Biden is saying it's time to wrap this up. Now, are you surprised that Joe Biden wants to help and protect Republicans? Of course not. That's what he's done his whole career. So here comes Biden to the rescue of the Republican Party again. So I think it's also important to talk about what kind of deal was made. So the impeachment managers agreed that they would not call any additional witnesses as long as this new evidence would be entered into the record. And so the statement from Representative Jamie Butler was included in the record. And what you're about to see in this next video is Representative Jamie Raskin reading what the conversation between House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy and Donald Trump was all about.

Take a look. In my January 12th statement in support of the article of impeachment, I referenced a conversation House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy relayed to me that he'd had with President Trump while the January 6th attack was ongoing. Here the details. When McCarthy finally reached the president on January 6th and asked him to publicly and forcefully call off the riot, The president initially repeated the falsehood that it was Antifa that had breached the capital. McCarthy refuted that and told the president that these were Trump supporters. That's when, according to McCarthy, the president said, well, Kevin, I guess these people are more upset about the election than you are. So that is relevant to this Senate impeachment trial.

It would have been far better to actually have her called as a witness. But Jenk, for devil's advocate's sake, let me ask you a quick question. So what could be motivating Biden and Coons in wanting to avoid calling witnesses and wrap this up? argument that's been shared widely is that this would possibly lead to weeks of the impeachment trial continuing on, which would further delay the passage of another round of economic relief tied to the coronavirus. So what are your thoughts on that? So all right, I'm glad you're asking that. First, I want to dispense with the BS excuse,

and then I want to tell you why they should have called witnesses and why not calling witnesses was both stupid. At TYT, we frequently talk about all the ways that big tech companies are taking control of our online lives, constantly monitoring us and storing and selling our data. But that doesn't mean we have to let them. It's possible to stay anonymous online and hide your data from the prying eyes of big tech. And one of the best ways is with ExpressVPN. ExpressVPN hides your IP address, making your active ID more difficult to trace and sell

the advertisers. ExpressVPN also encrypts 100% of your network data to protect you from eavesdroppers and cyber criminals. And it's also easy to install. A single mouse click protects all your devices. But listen, guys, this is important. ExpressVPN is rated number one by CNET and Wired magazine. So take back control of your life online and secure your data with a top VPN solution available, ExpressVPN. And if you go to ExpressVPN.com slash TYT, you can get three extra months for free with this exclusive link just for TYT fans. That's EXPRE S-SVPN.com. slash TYT. Check it out today. And cowardice. Okay. So number one, the excuses, well, it would delay

COVID relief and we desperately need COVID relief because this is the same Washington Kabuki theater every time. Republicans take hostages. Democrats say there's nothing we could do and they use hostages as an excuse for inaction. So in this case, it's a lie. They would need to take depositions, which give them plenty of time to pause. I know this for a fact. pause the impeachment hearings and vote on anything they like. So it's just not true. Secondly, even if they say, well, the Republicans are using technical maneuvers now to delay the COVID relief as strike back for continuing the impeachment proceedings, well, then

you bludgeon the Republicans politically by saying these monsters are holding up your COVID relief to play political games. You know why you would do that? because it's true, then that would be good substantively, and it would be good politics. God forbid Democrats should do that. They're like, the Republicans threaten something, everybody hide, everybody cry. No, you know, you have a mouth, you could say things, you could counter them, you could say why are they holding up COVID relief, and that would make them unpopular.

I have to talk like their little children, because they apparently cannot understand simple concepts. So now that we've dispensed with their BS excuse, which is never true, now let's go on to the reality. Now, if they had called witnesses, they say, well, look, you gotta look at the politics and the policy, the substance of this. So let's look at the politics first. So you would have spent weeks calling witnesses like Mike Pence and saying, hey, by the way, they try to murder you. And Trump, now most of the Republican Party is backing Trump. And so they're all for the the people that were trying to murder you. Is that correct or is it not correct, Mr. Vice President? When you thought you were about to be murdered and Trump would not act,

how did you feel, Mr. Vice President? In this video, I would have played 2,000 times. Watch this video. I would have played that at the beginning of every day. I would have played it at the end of every day when Pence was on, I would have played it 20 times until I had everybody on cable news asking, are the Republicans okay with hanging their own vice president? It's not complicated. Politics is about branding. You had a chance to destroy the Republican brand. And as usual, like morons, you gave that opportunity away. Now, onto the substance, which is more important. Guys, if I run that video and we call Pence, what's he going to say?

Oh, I love the idea of being murdered. I was okay with it. Oh, but we have it on the record that Trump got a call from inside the Congress and he knew for a fact that Pence's life was in danger. And 13 minutes later, he tweeted out another attack against Mike Pence. Another attack against Mike Pence when he knew that Mike Pence, Mike Pence, my be murdered that day, let alone Pelosi, let alone all the other Congress people. But that's your own vice president. And when you do that, they said, well, no, no, the Republicans couldn't

possibly switch. They said they weren't going to switch. So I guess we should surrender. Or hear me out, maybe you should make a case so compelling that they have to vote with you. Otherwise, they're going to lose public support. But they're never going to lose public support unless you make your case and you do it with witnesses that tell you what actually happened that day. But as usual, we got unilateral preemptive surrender from the Democrats. And I'm just sick of it. I've been covering it for 19 years every time they surrender, every time they have a total nonsense excuse, I'm not, I'm just not going to entertain it.

They're losers. They blew a golden opportunity to put away a fascist like Trump so he never returns. They blew a golden opportunity to tell the American people who the Republicans and And Trump actually are usual. Democrats suck. Well, Democrats do in fact suck. And when we come back, we'll tell you why Pelosi continues to suck. Because she, I mean, anyway, don't miss this. She thinks that it's incredibly important to have a strong GOP and we'll give you the context and everything when we come back. We're going to be able to be.

We're going to be able to be. We're going to be able to be. We're going to be able to be. All right. And I got so many things to tell you. you guys. So let's start with Twitch. Sparkle Dragon gave a thousand bits. We really appreciate that those bits make a giant difference. Katie Borders, Katie Porter's Whiteboard gifted five subs. That's hilarious. Mimosa Dragon, Dragon Song, ESC. Steff Mont also gifted subs. Thank you.

Deep Programmer Anon said happy 19th anniversary, TYT. Thank you for all you do. We all appreciate your hard work, intelligence, and honesty. Much love to all TYT staff, contributors and online community. You all give me hope for our future. Absolutely. All the way from all the employees you never see at TY2 who works so hard to everybody in our online communities. You guys are amazing, we do this together. Here are folks who signed up with Prime, Peregirl, Trans-Robo Ball, Kingsley, VM, who wrote in two months of Bezos's Bucks to TYT, because they've been a member through Amazon Prime. If you have Amazon Prime, it's free for you, but we get the revenue. It's a giant win-win, please try to engage in hashtag Bezos Bucks.

And MoDK, also with Prime said the only place for real news, Mr. Scruffy said, TYT is the biggest. There's no other network that's even big. And I'll end on Progressive Am a Dragon, been with us for seven months on Twitch and said, happy to be part of this wonderful community. Well, we're happy to have you as part of this community. All right. 00083 wrote in on the YouTube super chat. The weakness from the Democrats is sickening, I want to, and then put in a vomit emoji. Very accurate.

Leith, Kristen Mero, I just wanted to thank you for the wonderful super chat donation. We're really appreciated. Thank you for looking out for us. Debt free dad said, I expect nothing less from Dems, of course. That Bernie Brose said, insert VPN advertisement here to protect against Patriot Act 2.0. Well, I'm glad you mentioned it. TYT.com slash pure VPN. That is actually a sponsor of ours.

That does protect your computer. And there's a 7-A trial for only 99 cents, which is ridiculously inexpensive. So protect yourself online now, t.y.com slash pure VPN. Our audience is so smart. They even do the plugs for us. Anyway, Rick Thrust just joined by hitting the join button below on YouTube. So to Thomas Dunn, Jen F, Hattie Nomada, Lisa Parker. And there she is again, or I'm sorry, yes, Leith, Kristen Merrow.

Anyway, Lee, thank you, appreciated for being a member and the generous donation. Now we go to our members on our website, t.yt.com slash join to join there. Ecclectic miscellaneous said the most important thing to the media is that unlike Trump, Dems are very polite and eloquent. That makes it okay when they refuse to provide millions of people, basic healthcare, and they go back on their promises to provide a bare minimum of survival funds to keep people from going hungry, bankrupt, or homeless during the worst pandemic of our lives. First, you're right, as usual. Secondly, the reason for that is that they're all elites. So when you speak like an elite and you act like an elite, they think,

oh, no, no, it's okay. They can't possibly be a bad guy. That person looks and acts just like me. So that's how that game is played. on Young Turks, Jane Can Anna with you guys. I'm ready for more rage. Let's do it. Go ahead, Hannah. All right. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi just couldn't resist another opportunity to deeply embarrass the Democratic Party and its voters. This time after the Senate failed to convict Donald Trump of inciting an insurrection, she gave a press conference, you know, reporting that to reporters. And then also added something that she said in the past, I don't want to put words in her mouth, let's hear what she thinks this country needs.

I think our country needs a strong Republican Party. It's very important. Yeah, the Republican Party is actually very strong. It's a little too strong. So strong that the Democrats seem to cower any time they're given an opportunity to actually hold them accountable and fight against them. They failed to do that with the Senate impeachment trial. They failed to call witnesses when they had the perfect opportunity. to do so. Even in the first impeachment trial, it was the Democrats who chose to ensure that the trial was narrow in scope and didn't actually look into Donald Trump's financial crimes. And by the way, Nancy Pelosi has a habit of saying this about the GOP. Here's a video of her from September 30th of 2020. One of my prayers is that the Republicans will take back their party. The country needs a strong Republican party. It's done so much for our country. And to

have it be hijacked as a cult at this time is really a sad thing for America. Jake, I have reason to believe that the Republican Party is what it is, because the vast majority of its voters like the way the Republican Party is right now, basically a bunch of Trump loyalists who refuse to ever hold Trump accountable for anything. But she doesn't seem to know that. Yeah, so I'm going to translate for you in a second. But first, let me just say that Nancy Pelosi has once again done an excellent job of channeling her donors perfectly. That's why she's been able to collect over $700 million in campaign contributions for herself and the Democratic Party.

Because the donors love her. Why do they love her? Because the donors think there should be a strong Republican Party and a really, really weak Democratic Party. So when you have an incredibly weak Speaker of the House say that she wishes the opposition party would be stronger, the donors think, Cheching, mission accomplished. Exactly what we wanted. Here's a weakling encouraging the other party that we gave money to to give us tax cuts to do. She's cheerleading for the other party. The only reason you would do that is if the donors tell you to do that. And every donor agrees, yes, Republicans should be super. strong and Democrats should be represented by imbeciles. Okay, so mission accomplished, like I said. Now let me translate to you what she means by a strong Republican Party. She means the corporate Republicans who are my friends and allies should regain control

of the Republican Party. They have lost control of it to a populist. Now remember, all the donors and all the corporate Democrats and all the corporate Republicans hate populism. They hate the idea of the masses controlling anything. She, on the other hand, has done a great job of hating her base and keeping them under control. So I'll give her credit for that. I mean, they say, oh, she's a master legislator, she's never passed a goddamn thing, except when she had a super majority and she passed her Republican healthcare plan.

Anyway, but when it comes to controlling her base and getting everybody including all the media and almost all the Democratic politicians to despise their own voters, she's done a brilliant job. Remember, the donors don't like our voters to do not allow populism in the Democratic Party, right? So now, in the case of the Republicans, populism was horrific. So do I want that? No. Do I, does that mean I want the corporate Republicans back? No, that's the difference between us and Nancy Pelosi. Nancy Pelosi can't wait for Mitch McConnell to be back in charge of the Republican Party.

As she sees him getting his ass handed to him by Donald Trump, she weeps for her friend Mitch McConnell. Oh, how will we ever do the corporate tax cuts you always wanted? always wanted. Now there's like trouble with these populists. Here I'll give you more quotes from a couple of months ago that Anna alluded to. What is this? What is this about the Republicans that they don't care enough about what they believe in as a party, a legitimate party with beliefs in their view of the role of government? First of all, who are you kidding? Right now, 68% of Republican voters say that if Trump started a new party, they would immediately abandon the Republican Party and join that party. So what views and principles are you alluding

to? They don't have any views or principles. I mean, how could anybody in Washington, let alone the supposed leader of the opposition, look at the Republicans over the last 20 years and think, now that party has good principles. And I wish those principles would be strengthened, right? I mean, Mitch McConnell couldn't say that with a straight face. And she said, quote, I pray that they would get us a grand old party again. Hopeless, hopeless. I'm done caring what non-intelligent, non-informed people in Washington repeat as parrots for Nancy Pelosi an incredibly weak Democratic leadership. No, I do not wish for a strong Republican Party. I wish for an incredibly weak and destroyed Republican Party. And I wish

for Democratic leaders to actually know that they are not supposed to be Republicans. I know this is going to shock them and everybody in Washington is going to be a gas at what a barbarian I am. The Democrats are supposed to fight Republicans, not encourage them. We're the bad guys for pointing out the goddamn obvious. I know, but I mean, it's just not going to happen. The way this system works incentivizes the behavior that we're seeing by democratic lawmakers like Nancy Pelosi. It's not gonna change. I think that it's a fool's errand to think about Democrats serving as like some sort of opposition party or people who are gonna fight for the policies that we desperately

want. There are some good actors within the Democratic Party who do want to do the right thing, do want to focus on things like Medicare for All in the Green New Deal. But that caucus of genuine true progressives is still incredibly small. And unfortunately, Nancy Pelosi type corporate Democrats still rule the Democratic Party. And as long as they keep taking donations from their donors, they're not going to serve as a real challenge to the Republican party. Because on the fundamental policy issues, they agree. They want the austerity. They agree on never ending wars abroad. When it comes to foreign policy, there's rarely any disagreement, which is why the National Defense Authorization Act passes every year without fail.

The only time it was ever questioned was under Trump when he tried to veto it. Well, when he vetoed it. And then Congress passed it with a, you know, veto proof bill, a veto proof vote, I should say. So the system is broken and to expect democratic lawmakers to do the moral thing or the right thing, I think is ridiculous and naive. They're not going to. They never will. So let me just destroy the excuse of the weak, weak Democrats. They'll look at that clip and they'll say, no, Jenkins Anna, you guys are so unfair. She's not saying she wants the Trump-backed Republican Party be strong.

We never said that. She wants the pre-Trump Republican Party to be strong. Yeah, like Bush era Republicans? Like you want a stronger Bush-era type Republican Party, really? That's what she wants? No, no, no, no, no. I just want to ask those weaklings, those, all right. They're establishment Democrats, both their politicians and their fan girls online, okay, and fan boys. So do you want to go back to the pre-Trump Republican Party and celebrate that?

You want to celebrate Mitch McConnell? You want to celebrate Ted Cruz, Lindsey Graham? They were all there before Trump, and they were all doing the same exact thing before Trump. And do you want to go celebrate Dick Cheney and George W. Bush? And the answer is yes, they do. That's why MSNBC is filled to the rim with former Dick Cheney and George Bush officials. And because they think, you know what, the best kind of Democrat is a light Republican. No, we don't agree, we don't want weakness, we don't want losers, we don't want somebody celebrating

Mitch McConnell and Dick Cheney. We want someone who wants to actually fight and defeat Republicans. And that is definitely not Speaker Pelosi, and that's not my opinion, you heard it. You saw it with your own eyes, you heard it with your own ears. She can't wait for there to be a strong Republican Party, because that's what you're That's what she's used to. She likes getting beat by them, because in reality, they're part of the same team, and they're all here to rob you. Well, we have a story about Mitch McConnell, so let's get to that. So Senate majority Mitch McConnell was not among the seven Senate Republicans who voted to convict Donald Trump in the Senate impeachment trial. However, after he voted to acquit Donald Trump

in the Senate impeachment trial, he gave a fire speech saying that Trump was definitely responsible for what transpired on January 6th when rioters breached the building and caused all sorts of damage. Several people died. Weird. Now, let's hear what else he had to say. Fellow Americans beat and bloodied our own police. They stormed the Senate floor. They tried to hunt down the Speaker of the House. They built a gallows and chanted about murdering the vice president. They did this because they'd been fed wild falsehoods by the most powerful man on earth. Because he was angry, he lost an election.

There's no question, none. that President Trump is practically and morally responsible for provoking the events of the day. No question about it. This was an intensifying crescendo of conspiracy theories orchestrated by an outgoing president who seemed determined to either overturn the voter's decision or else torch. our institutions on the way out.

74 million Americans did not engineer the campaign of disinformation and rage that provoked it. One person did. Just one. So given what McConnell is saying in that speech, why did he vote to acquit Donald Trump, especially since he finds Trump accountable or responsible for what happened on January 6th? Well, he claims that he just believes that you can't impeach or, you know, find guilty through this impeachment trial, a city, a president who's no longer a sitting president, someone who's now out of office. So what he's trying to do here is have his cake and eat it too, because the Senate trial

could have happened when Trump was still in office. But it was Mitch McConnell who chose to delay. As the New York Times reports, McConnell refused to call the Senate back to hear the case while Trump was still president, except to say that he had been right to, quote, not entertain some light speed sham process to try to overturn the loss of jurisdiction. McConnell said the only way to punish him now, by the way, is through the criminal justice system. Trump, he said, didn't get away with anything yet. No, no, no, you guys acquitted him. You voted to acquit him. And then you gave that ridiculous speech.

Okay, so that was Mikado's concession speech, and I'm going to explain what I mean by that in a second. But first I want to dispense with his excuse. And this whole thing of like, oh, the Republican senators think it's unconstitutional. Nonsense, please stop entertaining ridiculous lies. So under their theory of constitutionality, Joe Biden could literally shoot one of them in the head on January 19th, 2024. And then they said, well, we have to quit. He's no longer in office. By the time we get to impeachment and conviction, it's past January 20th, so he's free to go. Does anybody think that Joe Biden would be allowed to do that? Of course not. Now, luckily, Biden isn't going to do that. But by the way, Trump did. Trump tried to get them

killed. He knew that they were under mortal threat. He knew that people were attacking them violently. And he encouraged it afterwards in the middle of the riots. And now they just said, oh yeah, that's totally okay. You can not only can you attempt to murder people, you could attempt to murder us as long as you do it at the end of your term. And then holding your account will be unconstitutional. No one believes that's true. We, by the way, former officials have been convicted after they left office. Of course, otherwise they could just resign and never have any accountability. Because, hey, technically I'm out of office, right? So no, that's just total nonsense. Yet the whole country had a nonsense debate. Oh, I don't know, maybe, maybe not,

50-50. All right, now on to the main event. The reason why I say that was a concession speech is because Mitch McConnell and Donald Trump just had a fight over who was going to lead the Republican party, and Donald Trump won. So he won so thoroughly, Mitch McConnell, who wanted to convict, couldn't do it, and had to bow his head. So in frustration, and as an ode to half of his donors who were really upset at Trump, he had to do that speech to say now, tis, tis, tis, even though McConnell was the single most important person who determined that Trump would not be held accountable. If he had broken and said, I am going to vote to convict, he would have brought many other Republican senators with him. He chose not to do that. Now, why? Why? This is not

discussed in the press. The reality is McConnell is a very savvy politician. He's a rare person in D.C. who is not an idiot. So he clearly went to his caucus and he asked, which way are you going to vote? And he realized he does not have enough support to defeat Trump. Why? Every poll out, and I told you this, where the first time a poll came out, and it's had 80% of Republicans backing Donald Trump, I said this case is over. They're never going to convict them because Republican senators are going to get afraid of their own voters. And that's what McConnell saw. He wanted to convict. He's super mad at Trump. Some of his donors are super mad at Trump. So he goes and asks, and everybody goes, I'm not going to convict. A huge majority, huge majority of Republicans,

not only like Donald Trump before, they love him after. They didn't have any problem with the capital attack. Our own voters, the Republican voters, like that we were attacked. And so McConnell saw the handwriting on the wall. Now, I actually think this is a rare instance where his political a calculation was wrong. He should have finished Trump no matter what the cost was. But he thought if I vote against him, I'm not gonna have enough votes anyway, and then they'll strip me of my leadership. Mitch, I got news for you. They're gonna strip you of your leadership eventually anyway. Right now, believe it or not, my thesis is that they're grooming Lindsey Graham to be the new leader of the Republican Republicans in the Senate, because he is the

furthest up Donald Trump's ass. So since he's the biggest Trump loyalist, he represents the caucus. Mitch McConnell now is verboten. He did a speech and they don't, they didn't like it. And in a battle between half the Republican donors, and this was super important, I told you this on the day that it happened too, and Nikki Haley indicated half of the other donors, Republican donors, are with Trump. And at least three quarters and up to 90% of Republican voters still backing Donald Trump. Well, who's gonna win that? Half the donors and three quarters of the the voters are of course gonna win. So Trump won, it's his party. They will never be able to get it under control again. And I now think that the handwriting's on the wall for Mitch McConnell

and his leadership. And soon they'll get rid of him too. This was the biggest political mistake of his life. All right, we gotta take a break. When we come back, we have more news for you guys, including some devastating new information about just how much Republican senators who who voted to acquit Donald Trump, feared for their lives as the riots were taking place on January 6th. We have those details and more for you in the second half of the show.

We'll see you guys there. Thanks for listening to the full episode of the Young Turks. Support our work, listen ad-free, access members, only bonus content, and more by subscribing to Apple Podcasts at apple.com slash t-y-t. I'm your host, Janke Huger, and I'll see you soon.