The Young Turks - Class Clowns

Episode Date: September 9, 2023

Piers Morgan obliterates Kari Lake right to her face for still claiming the election was "stolen" from her: "That's complete nonsense!" "Brain drain": Nearly half of Florida's college faculty say they're looking for jobs in new states. Republicans try to find a new term for pro-life to stave off more electoral losses. Pence tells Republicans that they must choose between "conservatism" and "populism": "Will determine the course of our nation." New corporate minimum tax ushers in confusion and a lobbying blitz. The Georgia grand jury recommended charges against three GOP senators (and others), but DA Willis did not indict. Dignified silence doesn’t work against Trump. Jimmy Fallon apologizes to "The Tonight Show" staff after Rolling Stone report. U.S. Open match delayed after climate protester "glued his feet" to the floor.  HOSTS: Cenk Uygur (@CenkUygur) 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. Dropy! Big my team! Big my team! Big my team! Bigotty!

Drop it! Power panel, young Turks. Jay Gugger, Senator Nina Turner, Rayvana. Great to see both of you today. Good to be here. All right, we're going to have fun tonight. Okay, so one of the things we're going to talk about a little bit later in the program, Republicans now backing away from the term pro-life.

Huh. Okay, interesting. And in the second hour, Mayor Mondale Robinson is going to join us. Apparently the state is investigating a letter sent to him by the Klan, but they've decided to investigate Mayor Robinson instead of the clan. Unbelievable, outrageous. He's going to join us later as well. So a hell of a show. Ray, take it away.

Yeah, so I'm excited for the story about the pro life. But first, let's start with someone who is criticizing Carrie Lake, who you might. might not expect to be criticizing Kerry Lake. Let's take a look. On January 6th, it wasn't as the media described it. It was not an insurrection. And many of the people were encouraged to go in by FBI informants. Well, hang on.

And also by the- Let's not get too far ahead of ourselves here. The truth is that thousands of people descended on the Capitol as a howling aggressive and it turned out very violent in some cases mob. People were killed that day and they broke into the U.S. Capitol. absolute epicenter of American democracy, and they did it to thwart democracy. You know what they say about a broken clock? Because Pierce Morgan made a surprising amount of sense with his interview with Kerry Lake about January 6th. And I just have to say, I love

that they juxtaposed her downplaying the violence that happened with the actual videos of January 6th. It just goes so far to prove his point and undermine hers. But when more Prussed Kerry Lake on why Republicans couldn't produce a single piece of credible evidence, or really any attempted evidence at all to show the election had been stolen from Donald Trump. Her response was to say he just hasn't seen that evidence because he's British. And if you think I'm joking, watch for yourself. And you're saying there's no evidence, Pierce, but there really is a mountain of evidence. And more and more of it's coming out, we're looking at what happened in Michigan.

As more information comes out about completely phony voter registration, we watch as they pulled ballots from underneath tables after they kicked the poll observers out and started counting ballots. There are lots of these stories swirling around, but every single time it's gone before people who actually, whose job it is to say whether this has actually happened, there's no evidence. I keep saying as Donald Trump, I don't know why he keeps flogging the dead horse of a stolen election. Well, I'll tell you what, the evidence, when actually what he wants to be doing is trying to persuade people

that he should be elected again. Give us something for the country to feel positive about. And he is doing that. And he is doing that. But the evidence is coming out. And I know it's probably not being played in the UK, but it is coming out. Every day more and more evidence is coming out about how bad 2020 was.

The polls are showing that the majority of Americans now believe that the 2020 election was wrought with fraud. No, they don't. That's complete nonsense. And he's right. Because after I watched this, I scoured the internet to find a single poll, even from like a far right publication showing that more than half of Americans believe the election was stolen for Donald Trump. And even right wing organizations couldn't produce a poll that backed up the claim that Carrie Lake is making. I did, however, find this headline from this article. Almost a third of Americans still believe the 2020 election result was fraudulent, which I don't know where. Gary Lake took her math classes, a third is not a majority. That being said, it's still far, far too many people that believe this massive lie. But I will say, Pierce Morgan did do something

that conservatives in American media, I guess, are just too cowardly to do. He called the grift out for what it is. Take a look. The majority of Americans in every poll I've seen do not believe that the election was stolen. You know why? Because he wasn't stolen. I'm looking at polls. I'm looking at polls and I follow election integrity because it is near and dear to my heart. And all I want is for every American. I think what you want to do, like Donald Trump, you want to fuel a sense that every time you guys lose a fair election, it's unfair and rigged and stolen. Every time you win, it's the purest example of efficient working democracy imaginable. That's really what it boils down to.

When Trump won in 2016, it was of course a fair election. Suddenly when he lost, it's unfair. No, Jank, I am by far no fan of Pierce Morgan, but I really enjoyed watching this. Yeah, 100%. So I see so many things in just that short interview. So first of all, that's the difference between a European and an American right winger. The European right winger is still right wing and drives us crazy on many other issues, but has not lost their minds and is still attached to the fact-based world.

And then we could have a, you know, wild disagreements within that fact-based world, as long as we're not ignorant, not denying reality, etc. Right. Whereas the American right-winger these days, I mean, look, Carrie Lake, let's be honest. She looks lobotomized. She, like, I have read many polls and they all say we want. And why is a third of the country think that Trump won? Because people like Kerry, like lie to them as a matter of course.

So the Republican Party in this country is totally illegitimate. And even when right wingers in the rest of the world, well, I shouldn't say the rest of the world, I should say in Europe, look at our right wing. They go, what are those things? Are you, they think our right wing has lost its mind, even though they're on the same side of the ideological spectrum. Because it's lie after a lie, it's a lie factory. It's not a disagreement. It's not a disagreement. They're just flat out lying and they know it.

So for example, Kerry Lake in the midst of the longer interview, said the 44% of Democrats believe that the election was stolen from Trump. Not anywhere, not within planets of true, right? But who cares? They don't care about objective reality 1%. percent. So that's a giant difference. Second giant difference is that Europeans, especially the British, are used to real

interviews. That's why Pierce Morgan, whether we agree with him or disagree with him, is often challenges his guests and is combative. Whereas in America, you have to just bow your head for 98% of, that's why we always feature like Medea-San interviews, because he actually challenges his guess, which is like, it's like breaking news when you do that in America. If an anchor, I mean, like Don Lemon challenged Vivek Romancewamy for a second. And back then, that was before everybody decided to pile on Vivek. That was considered like so Reeve Ghosh that he nearly, that was among the contributing factors for him being fired.

Like in America, reporters are trained. No, you kiss the ass of politicians, no matter how insane they are, right? So that clip was telling in a thousand ways. But I have more to say about my changing opinion on people like Pierce Morgan. But I want to say that for a second. Nina, what'd you think? Loved it. And I got a new term. I'm going to, I will start to use. I'll give Pierce credit and that's flogging a dead horse.

That's just so beautiful. But he's right. I mean, his advice to former president Donald J. Trump, why you keep walking down this fool's path here? Because the election was not stolen. And instead, stop doing that and talk to the people about what you want to do when you become president in the United States of America, if you do become president of the United States of America, God forbid. But Donald J. Trump and his elk can't do that because they really have no real plans for making this country a better place. Pierce did that thing. And if I never watched another interview of his, I will forever remember this one, how he challenged her with the facts. And her point about there was no insurrection. I mean, I wonder what her definition of insurrection is, because it must be. be tremendously worse than what the video evidence shows and what is coming out in terms of

the facts about those people who converged on the Capitol to try to overthrow an election. I mean, what really is her definition of an insurrection? Inquiring minds do want to know. This interview really reminded me of Ben Shapiro when he was interviewed on BBC by Andrew Neal. And Andrew Neal, for people who view the BBC know, is a climate change denying far right, conservative. And he pushed back on Ben Shapiro. And Ben Shapiro was so unprepared to receive that kind of pushback. He called him a radical socialist. I mean, it is crazy the difference between how members of the American media treat their guests versus members of the British media, even when they're faced with a guest who has the same politics as them, or is on their same side of the

political aisle, they will still present the counter argument and push back, you know, with facts, they'll prepare for their interviews in a way that, you know, American politicians, American political commentators just seem so utterly unprepared for. Yeah, and I wanted to say about Peers Morgan, and I'll include two other people in this general category, Bill Maher and Joe Rogan. I got so frustrated with them that I wrote them off a while back. I'm now peeling that back, okay? And so here's what I mean by that.

It's not that I look at that Pierce Morgan interview and say he did such a great job. I now agree with all of his opinions. Of course not, right? And Rogan and Bill Maher drive me nuts. But let's like my point is you're we should fight them on the things that we disagree with them on without saying that's it. We appears Morgan shouldn't be on TV. I mean, I never said any of this. I'm against Castle culture in the first place.

But still, I felt like I was done with Rogan and done with Bill Maher because they were being so unreasonable. And I'm now saying, look, I'm not done with him. I'll just fight him on the things I disagree with. And I'll agree with them on the things that I agree with. And that's why we shouldn't just get rid of everyone that doesn't agree with us. So here's a great, brilliant moment by Pierce Morgan, a guy I generally disagree with. And that's why you need diversity of opinion.

So it was refreshing to see, and I wish that people in American media, no matter where they are in the ideological spectrum, would understand that if you're in the press, you're supposed to hold the people in power accountable. You're supposed to challenge them, and you're definitely not supposed to accept their lies and just move on. You're definitely supposed to challenge their lies. And unfortunately these days, the Trump wing of the Republican Party, which is unfortunately the great majority, the great majority, of the Republican Party just thinks that lying is totally okay, that there's nothing wrong with it at all, and they do it as a matter of course. Yeah, that's exactly right. Don't believe you're lying eyes, your lying ears.

Don't believe any of that, just believe what we are saying. And think your point about disagreeing with people on issues, and when you agree with them agree, that should be the course of action, especially in media. But far too many of our folks here are too afraid that they won't get invited going to get invited to the Christmas party. I mean, this is what this boils down to. And it is sometimes an honest, I think an honest concern, not so much the Christmas party. I mean, I'm being cute there when I say that halfway cute. But it's also about you won't get access to this person

again. You know, there are people will call you up and ask you, why were you so hard on them? Why did you come at them like that? I mean, that really is the environment that we are in where politicians in America are seen as rock stars and you don't rock the boat with rock stars. you treat them as such, you coddle them, you don't, you don't ruffle any feathers, and that's it. And it really is a shame. It does a disservice to the American people and to people around the world who will view a lot of these interviews. I'm going to say one last quick thing, because I've got a perspective on this that, of course, most folks don't because they didn't work as an anchor on cable news.

But when I was at MSNBC, I once got into a significant challenge to a former Republican congressman. talking about a program to cut social security and I push back aggressively against it. Now, there was nothing crazy that happened on air and he was on satellite. I mean, there was nothing that went wrong other than me semi loudly challenging him, okay? And people at MSNBC talked to me and said, you don't do that. Why? Why don't we do that? I mean, here's a guy on the other side of Republican looking to cut social security, the most cherished program in American history. And I'm not a lot to push back against them on MSNBC.

And yes, that's the notes they give you. Because in American media, it's assumed that if someone is in power, you must bow your head and never challenge them. That's why our media has completely fallen apart. And that's part of the reason why right wing media lies with impunity and gets away with it. because it's it's turned into a fact-free zone everywhere because it's not just the right-wing media lying to you.

It's also the establishment media is saying we're also going to lie to you to protect the people in power. We're not going to challenge their lies. We're not going to go after. We're not going to give you objective reality. We're just going to please the people in power. And neither side is doing the country any favors. Well, Gene, to that point, I mean, most of those people, I won't say all, but most of them

benefit from the status quo. I mean, the people telling you don't push back on social security, probably don't have to worry about whether or not social security is robust. So in a moment, they just don't care about it. So they're pushing really their agenda. And you know, there's really, I think what we're unveiling even in this story that there's a lack of class consciousness mainly on mainstream media. And that is why independent media like TYT and others are so important because more

likely than not, not not all of us, but more likely than not, and certainly here on on TYT, we do understand a class-based consciousness and it's important. country. However, a lot of professors in states like Florida and Texas are trying to get out of where they are because a survey of 4,250 faculty members across four states, including Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, and Texas highlights the growing concerns of political involvement in higher ed and the widespread desire to find employment in other states. Let's take a look at this reporting from Tampa Bay Times, says the survey was administered by faculty groups in Florida, Georgia, North Carolina. Carolina and Texas, including local chapters of the American Association of University Professors. Faculty in those places had been hearing their colleagues talk anecdotally about wanting to leave their states after lawmakers passed legislation that restricted tenure, gutted diversity programs, and targeted other longstanding practices in higher education. So in addition to the political climate surrounding higher education and the rhetoric that

the right wing is using to attack higher ed and calling it liberal indoctrary. These are the main reasons that educators want to move out or are even starting to move out of those states. 71% cited academic freedom concerns, 68% cited pay, and 58% cited tenure, the targeting of diversity initiatives and or LGBTQ plus issues. It continues on about 80% of respondents describe their state's political atmosphere, just surrounding academia as poor or very poor, which which won't surprise you once we start discussing the legislation that's been passed in some of these states or they're trying to pass that attacks higher ed. So really quickly, anti-tenure Republicans in Texas and in other states including Florida, Iowa, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, and South Carolina has said they want to rein in unaccountable professors who

are pushing a liberal agenda in the classroom. And let's talk specifically about Texas, because Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick wanted to end professor tenure in its entirety and led a hard fight and campaign to do that, which I mean, you might as well just be going out and saying, I want no high quality professors in my state. I want the kids and the young adults of my state to get the worst education they possibly can because no professor worth their salt wants to come teach here. And he was only rained in slightly. by the Texas Senate who passed a bill in April, which barred schools from granting the benefit of tenure to newly hired professors. And here's a statement from Texas Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick. He had this to say, tenured university professors are the only people in our society that have the guarantee of a job. That's completely untrue. These professors claim academic freedom and hide behind their tenure to continue blatantly advancing their agenda of societal division. No examples of that, by the way.

He didn't provide a single example of how that's happening in Texas schools whatsoever. But the 74 reported that the Texas House last month approved a much milder, milder version allowing schools to fire tenured faculty for, quote, professional incompetence or quote, conduct involving moral turpitude, intentionally vague language. That version is the one the legislator sent to the desk of Republican Governor Greg Abbott, who is expected to sign it into law. And of course, we're seeing the same sorts of legislation being talked about and passed in Ron DeSantis, the state of Florida.

He signed legislation that would ban state funding for diversity, equity, and inclusion programs at Florida State Universities in the Pensacola News Journal reported that the new law, SB 266, bars Florida state universities from spending state or federal funds to promote, support, or maintain any programs that advocate for diversity, equity and inclusion or promote or engage in political or social activism, exceptionally broad language so that they can try to crack down on as many organizations that are led by black students

and students of color as possible as by LGBTQ students as possible. The reporting continues how gender and race are taught on Florida campuses will be restricted under the new law. It requires university officials to review any lessons quote, based on theories that systemic racism, sexism, and privilege are inherent in the universities, excuse me, of the United States, and were created to maintain social, political, and economic inequity.

So in other words, they're making sure that the students in public universities in Florida don't learn the truth about America, that they're continued to be taught as they are in, you know, public, low, or secondary and primary education in Florida, a false patriotic narrative of this country, one that claims that America wasn't founded on slavery, that the wealth of this country wasn't built on the backs of slaves and that the generations after those slaves didn't receive any of the wealth that they've built. I mean, Jenk, it's so frustrating to read to read that these states are passing laws to make their, to make. One of the hardest parts of getting older is feeling like something's off in your body, but not knowing exactly what.

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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. Take the people living them dumber. To attack the people who are trying to create a better educated populace and they're having their intended effect of getting these professors out of the state. I mean, it was about half of professors in Florida said that they want to leave. I mean, it's absurd. Yeah, there's two different problems here. The first one is the one you're alluding to Ray Vaughana there. Because look, there's a reason why they do this. They want to replace things that are part of objective reality with their own propaganda. So they don't want you to teach

things that are true, like the actual history of slavery, because they think it hurts their feelings and they want to replace it with propaganda. So it's not that they, people are either smart or not smart, that's just genetic, largely speaking. But what they want to do is they want to keep them ignorant and not knowing what reality is. You know why they do that? Because they're not on the right side of reality. If they were on the right side of reality, they would love for professors to teach things that are real. So look, if you're a teacher or a professor, what would you do? Now let's take the example of University of Texas and UCLA.

So they're both great schools or they both used to be great schools. And so if you're either a new professor that's going to take a job at Texas or at UCLA, or you're now at University of Texas and a previously fantastic school, okay? Okay. Well, what would you think? Well, if I stay in Texas, I might not have tenure. That's very devastating. And they might make me teach things that are not true or prevent me from teaching things that are true. Well, then that makes your decision super simple, right? If you can, get out of that backward state and go to UCLA at equally good grade school and rescue yourself and be able to do the job that you signed up for. Of course.

course a bunch of professors are going to leave. A huge percentage are going to leave. And that leads to the second problem, the bifurcation of our society. We continue to split ourselves apart. So there's, and by the way, this goes both directions. So a lot of people leave California going, well, I want lower taxes or less crime or whatever it might be. And they're going to Austin, Nashville, and Florida, etc. They say, I don't want the blue states. I'm conservative and I don't want to live in a blue state. And then the red states are passing these draconian laws and backwards laws. And so any reasonable person living there or, let's say, a progressive person living

there goes, well, I don't want to live under these rules. I don't want my kids living under these rules. And I don't want my kids being taught as slavery was halfway okay. That's nuts. So I'm going to leave. And then what happens? The red states get redder, the blue states get bluer. And we as a society become even more fractured.

So I'm super worried about both of those phenomena. Now, we should be concerned. This is exactly what these people want. I mean, their master design is working. It is, in fact, the dumbing down of America because they benefit from it. And Republicans in particular can continue to stoke the cultural wars that they are doing right now. This cultural populism that is animating this society, even beyond when we talk about politics, even beyond when we talk about who's a Democrat or Republican, that is always a looming variable. And I can tell you as someone who was a college professor, college professors come from all walks of life, all ideologies. We are teaching the facts in the classroom and good professors, and I know everybody, you know, there are professions where everybody's not good necessarily at their

trade, but good professors want their students of all ages, because all ages come through college campuses, to be critical thinkers. And part of thinking critically is also having laid before you, what are the facts? So for me as a historian, I am going to lay out the historical facts. And since Ray brought up slavery being the original sin, staying on this country, there was nothing good that came out of that for the people who were enslaved. And generationally, nothing good came out of it. And have somebody like the Santas and his educational board, his state education board, say, oh, black enslaved people, boy, they learned some good skills why they were enslaved, but not tell. So none of that is true. Number one, they act as if enslaved people

then come with a set of skills already. They did come with a set of skills already, which is why they were most lucrative and in creating the United States as the hegemon nation that it is today. But nothing good comes from being a script of your culture, your religion, your name, being raped, being separated from your family,

not being able to enjoy the fruits of your labor. Nothing good comes from knowing that when you birth the baby into the world, the baby will take on the condition of the mother, even if the mother was raped by a white man. Nothing good can ever come of a situation like that. So these Republicans are getting exactly what they want in these states. And then they are given an assist on the federal level by these Republicans in terms of continue to cement not only the cultural wars,

but this whole full populism that they have going on. And then there's no pushback, no real pushback from Democrats who, have power in this country? Not really. Yeah, boy, that's a whole other topic. But I do want to say one last thing. And I do this a lot to, I dress it to Republicans or conservatives in the audience. And you do it as you please. But look, number one, I talked to her neighbor earlier today. She's mixed race, half black, half white. She's a little sick of the Democratic party for a lot of similar reasons we are, some different reasons, et cetera. But she said to me, But what am I going to do?

I can't go to the Republicans because they're lunatics. Republicans, here in America, why do you insist on being lunatics? So you know how easily you can win some elections if you stop being so extreme? So for example, you want to object to some portions of DEI teaching. No problem. I object to some versions and some portions of those versions of DEI teaching. So what? That's a normal debate, discussion, et cetera.

But Ron DeSantis says, oh, anyone who objects to me banning DEI is a Marxist professor. Come on, come on. So that English lit person, the biology professor, they're all Marxists. Look, I've debated Marxists a hundred times. We did a segment on the show where I debated Marxist on a regular basis. So obviously, I don't agree with Marxists. But those professors aren't Marxist. When you say that, you're a God damn liar and it makes it impossible to support you.

Impossible, unless you say, I don't mind liars. I don't mind people who are crazy and extreme, et cetera. And look, I had a professor at what I went to college. Now, back then I was a Republican, but I wasn't an extreme, I was there, a liberal Republican existed back in the day. Okay, I know it sounds impossible now, right? But I took a class with a history professor who was a top aide to Richard Nixon. And I went to the class and I read the syllabus, et cetera, I read the facts. And then I listened to the professor who clearly had a conservative perspective and one that was way more conservative than mine.

And I disagreed with him. And you know what happened? My head didn't pop off. I survived. Oh wow, we could listen to other people's point of view. And what's crazy is that the right wing says, we're for freedom. And we need to deserve, we need to be able to say whatever we want, including racist words and all this stuff.

And then you go, okay, then why don't you listen to that guy that you're calling a Marxist, who by the way, isn't a Marxist, and he's actually trying to teach you about history. No way, I don't want to listen to him. Fire him! Fire him! I hate cancel culture, but fire him! Because he won't lie for us. Fire him. Okay, well then you deserve the fate that you have as Republicans. Because nobody can sign up for this madness.

Even if they're conservative, they can't sign up for. this madness. So go ahead, drive away all the smart educated people in your states and see how it turns out for you. And the kids are going to suffer the most in society by extension. I mean, that's really what hurts here. And every professor, every teacher in a K through 12 classroom, everybody can't just pick up and move. I mean, one of the things that Ray laid out in those stats is the pay is not good. You know, so wanting to move and being able to move are too different. different things. But even the ones who can move, even if it's a minute amount of educators who can leave, that hurts the children. It hurts. And it hurts young adults or seasoned adults, whoever is in those classrooms. It really does hurt. And over time, it is going to have an impact in our country and the world. Yep. All right, we got to take a break. Now, when we come back, the good news is Republicans are apparently reeling behind the scenes. And they're trying to,

the pro life label. Wow, that is a hell of a turn in American politics. So that good news when we return. Mia, Mia, Mia just joined by hitting the join button below the video. We appreciate your sister, Chris Birch, gifted five Young Turks memberships on YouTube. Chris, you're awesome. All right, Ray's got more news for us. Yeah, so let's get into the story. I'm most excited to talk about today because it shows just how far removed Republican politicians are from the average person, including the average Republican in this country, because according to reporting from NBC News,

Republicans are exploring a shift away from the label pro-life because it has become so unpopular among the American people and has led to multiple major electoral losses for the GOP. So a little bit from that reporting. At a closed-door meeting of Senate Republicans this week, the head of a Super PAC closely aligned with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell presented poll results that suggested voters are reacting differently to commonly use terms like pro-life and pro-choice in the wake of last year's Supreme Court decision that overturned Roe v. Wade said several senators who were in the room. Now this polling was shared with them by former McConnell aide Stephen Law, and it showed that

the term pro-life no longer resonated the same way it used to with voters. It's just not hitting like it used to. But it's not because they don't like the term of pro-life. It's It's because they don't like the policy behind it. It's because their anti-abortion policies are extremely unpopular. But do you think that that's the takeaway hook from that? Of course it's not because that would make too much sense. Now here's what Senator Kevin Kramer said in an interview on Thursday. What intrigued me most about the results was that pro-choice and pro-life

means something different now. The people see being pro-life as being against all abortions at all levels. And this made me laugh out loud when I read it. Because what is the message that Republican Party has been putting out for decade after decade that it is that being pro-life means that you are against abortion for every reason. You think that it's murder. Therefore, you would be against abortion in all cases. You've championed that position. I'm so, so sorry that people listen to what you said and that they did not.

like it. It's ridiculous. But from NBC News, Kramer asked what terminology senators should use instead of pro-life. When asked, said, I think it's more of a, I'm a pro-life, but, or it's, I care deeply about the mother and the children, and we should always have compassion. But I believe that after 15 weeks where the child can feel pain, they should be protected. Incidentally, the majority of scientific evidence actually does not suggest that fetuses at 15 weeks can feel pain. But of course, I wouldn't expect facts to come out of the mouth of Republican. But some of the senators in this meeting started brainstorming new terms to use. Senator Todd Young of Indiana summarized Wednesday's meeting as being focused on pro-baby policies.

Asked whether senators were encouraged to use a term other than pro-life. Young said his pro-baby descriptor was just a term of my creation to demonstrate my concern for babies, Although that concern for babies ends the moment that they're born, in which case, screw the mother, screw the baby, screw the family, we're not going to do a single thing to help you. My pro baby policy is focused more on restricting your access to abortion, ensuring that you don't have bodily autonomy as a woman. Senator Josh Hawley said the polling made it clear to him that specificity is needed in talking about abortion. He had this to say, many voters think pro-life means you're for no exceptions in favor of abortion ever.

ever and pro choice now can mean any number of things. So the conversation was mostly oriented around how voters think of those labels that they've shifted. So if you're going to talk about the issue, you need to be specific. You can assume that everyone knows what it means they probably don't. His state, by the way, passed an abortion ban that doesn't include exemptions for instances of rape and incest. So I think it's perfectly reasonable for somebody to hear Josh Hawley say he's pro-life and assume that that means no exceptions, considering what is happening in his own state and considering what's happening in other states because abortion is now banned in 14 states and several others have pursued restrictions.

11 states including Missouri have enacted abortion bans with no exceptions for rape and incest. And Republicans know, they know that it's unpopular. Senators who attended law's presentation said he encouraged Republicans to be as specific as possible when they described their positions on abortion, highlighting findings that he said could have a negative impact on elections. Now, one national strategist who worked on Senate races last year had this to say. The issue of abortion was problematic for Republicans last cycle. Hell yeah, it was. So it's no surprise the Senate Leadership Fund is going, is polling public perception of the issue. It's a smart thing to do. The report continues, the National Republican Senatorial Committee,

the campaign arm of Senate Republicans is encouraging Republicans to clearly state their opposition to a national abortion ban. Apparently no one gave that message to the Republican candidates on the debate stage two weeks ago. And support for reasonable limits on late-term abortions when babies can feel pain with exceptions for rape, incest, and life of the mother, a source familiar with the organization strategy said. The NRC, the source said, is encouraging candidates to conress that position with Democrats' support for taxpayer-funded abortion without limits, which is also just a blatant lie. But I mean, Jank, this is just chickens coming home to roost.

This has been one of their primary social issues that they've been campaigning on and fighting for for years. They finally got what they wanted at the Supreme Court level. And now they're upset that the public isn't exactly in the same fascist viewpoint that they are. And they weren't listening to what the people actually wanted. So it's just come back to bite them in the ass. Two of the quotes that you read to me were super telling. First, the one from Senator Hawley, where he's saying, I can't believe people think that we mean no abortions under any circumstance, including rape and incest and starting at the beginning of the pregnancy. Yeah, brother, that's because that is your position.

What do you mean you can't believe that? You know what he, like, and not only that is, Ray just told you, that's literally the law they passed in his state. Did he object to that law? No, he was wildly in favor of it. So you see how politicians are massive liars? Nine out of ten of them, they just brazen, brazen, brazen, pathological liars. And yet everybody on TV kisses their ass.

So look at this Josh Hawley guy. He's saying, I can't believe they caught on to the fact that our, what our actual position is. So everybody now, let's lie and pretend that's not our position, even though we've just passed the bill. in my state with that exact position. Okay, then which leads me to the other one that you read about the National Republican Sanatorium Committee.

So they said, let's break this down now. This is Graphic 9, right? They're encouraging Republicans to clearly state their opposition to a national abortion ban and reasonable terms, reasonable limits on late-term abortions and exceptions for rape, incest, and life of the mother. You know what they just described? Roe. That's literally Roe V-O-8. Like, there's such pathological liars that eat their own voters, because they've been lying to 24-7 by right-wing media and right-wing politicians, don't even realize that's Ro. Roe didn't say you can have an abortion up until the moment of birth or as some lunatics in the right-wing now are saying after birth, that that doesn't make even, that doesn't make sense, it's not even trying to make sense, right?

Rose said, yeah, of course you could limit it late-term abortions in the last trimester. So now in this Orwellian world, the Republicans are now publicly saying, now remember everybody, the word pro-life is no longer polling well because people found out what we actually mean by it. So we should not change that policy, which the great majority of Americans despise, including in the red states, Instead, we should change what we call it so we could deceive people better. Well, welcome to the Republican Party. We can't make this stuff up. This is going to be a lifetime movie.

I can feel it. I mean, yeah, and that pro baby, absolutely not. You're not pro baby because if you were pro baby, you know, to some of the things that Rayvana listed out, you would care whether or not the baby's parents make a living wage, whether or not the baby's parents make a living wage, whether or not the baby is educated and has more than a fighting chance to have a good life. You would support labor unions, you would support child care, you would support the child tax credit, all of the things that give a baby who will eventually grow up to be a toddler, then a teenager, then an adult, et cetera, et cetera, a excellent opportunity to live a good life.

But instead of that, you're all about giving tax breaks to the ultra wealthy, doing away with the child tax credit allowing big corporations to pollute our air, our water and our food so that that child doesn't have an opportunity to grow up strong. And Jink, your point about that was real. I mean, I read that a few times just to make sure I was reading that correctly. The same thought crossed my mind that we had that and you all fought for more than 50 years to do away with it. They full of it. Right.

And just to talk about quickly how popular that position is and why Republicans are trying to rebrand their pro-life position to be rogue. This was pull of graphic 11 because a record high 69% say abortion should generally be legal in the first three months of pregnancy. The prior high of 67% was recorded last May after the Supreme Court's Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization draft was leaked. And then just to talk about how popular even that position is amongst Republicans who live in states where abortion is being banned with heartbeat bills. and even more regressive forms of bans.

A July poll found that 73% of all US adults, including 58% of those in states with the strictest bans, believe abortion should be allowed at six weeks of pregnancy. So of course, Republicans are trying to rebrand themselves and trying to shift the pro-life narrative in terms more favorable than them, because they've gotten everything they've been fighting for. They've gotten everything they ever wanted.

And it's kicking them in the afts electorally because they've never represented the people vote for them. They've never represented people generally. They've represented their, their cristo-fascist values, trying to put restrictions on women's bodily autonomy. And that isn't what the people want, even the people who vote for them. So it's just, again, chickens coming home to roost. 100%. So last quick things here to respond to what Nina and Ray said. So why did they call it pro-life instead of pro-baby? It's exactly what Nina said. Because if you You call it pro baby, then they're going to say, okay, what are you doing for the baby after it's born?

And Republicans are like, oh, I don't want to do anything for the baby. I don't want to do anything for the mom. I don't, wait, is the baby a corporation? Is the baby super rich? Because if not, I don't want anything to do with the baby. They're like, okay, so we're generically pro life. But once they're actually alive, let's get the hell out of Dodge, right? So now they're going full circle back to pro baby, which is hilarious.

Okay, you don't put pro baby in a corner. apparently. And then lastly, I mean, you want to talk about full circle? The national Republican senatoral committee saying to Republican senators that they should argue for the Roe v. Wade position and pretend it's their own. That's as full circle, deep irony as it gets in politics. The twilight zone. Yeah, 100%. All right, we got to take a break, guys. When we come back, Mike Pence thinks he's going to take over the Republican Party by fighting against populism. Can't wait to see a spectacular failure when we return. Nina Turner, Rayvana. Of course, check out Ray on Rebel headquarters, Nina's

TYT contributor all over the network. And other folks that are joining us today's Moka Funk and Nunya business, they just joined or signed up through the join button below the video on YouTube. Jay Jesper 82 is an American hero for two reasons, gifted five young turks memberships. And on top of that, upgraded their membership. And you could do that through the join button too. And that allows us to keep membership at $499 for those folks who could only afford that much during the month. We appreciate all of you for that, Ray. All right.

Next story, trigger warning, Mike Pence. Another strain of this ideology challenges conservatism, not from the Democratic Party, but from within for control of the Republican Party. It takes the form of what's known as populism rather than progressivism. But make no mistake about it. Those ideologies are fellow travelers on the same road to ruin. He's so goddamn uncharismatic. I can't help but laugh at him.

Now Mike Pence has found yet another way to make himself even less popular among the Republican base. Remember right now he's polling in the single digits, the upcoming Republican primary. Now, during a speech in New Hampshire, Pence confronted Republicans with an ultimatum. Either get behind conservatism or get behind populism. But according to Mike Pence, the two are mutually exclusive. Now, he's trying to scare Republican voters away from populism. And so he cites notoriously disliked people such as Bernie Sanders. As we know, everybody hates Bernie Sanders. And he's not consistently one of the most popular members of the Senate. Now, Mike Pence then goes on to describe what he considers the dangers of the growth of right-wing populism.

Take a look. Today, a populist movement is rising in the Republican Party. The growing faction would substitute our faith in limited government and traditional values with an agenda stitched together by little else than personal grievances and performative outrage. The Republican populace would abandon American leadership on the world stage, embracing a posture of appeasement in the face of rising threats to freedom. Republican populace would blatantly erode our constitutional norms. A leading candidate for the Republican nomination last year called for the,

quote, termination of all rules, regulations, and articles, even those found in the Constitution. close quote. While these imitators in this primary have demonstrated a willingness to brandish government power to impose their will on opponents. If you fell asleep while you were listening to that, you were not alone. I promise there was more than a few stories coming from that audience. Now Mike Pence is bashing populist conservatives for saying they leave abortion policies to the states and for not being sufficiently hawkish on foreign policy.

as a, you know, deeply popular positions. And then along with some more loud breathing, as you heard, he says Republicans have to decide between real conservatism and populism. Republican voters face a choice in this state and in every state around the nation as these primaries unfold. And I believe that choice will determine the fate of our party and the course of our nation for years to come. So today I ask my fellow Republicans this, in the days to come, will we be the party of conservatism or will we follow the siren song of populism unmoored to conservative principles? The future of this movement in this party belongs to one or the other, not both.

where he's trying to really drive it home and then someone's phone rings in the audience. It's so, so hysterical. And if you thought, it seems like Mike Pence is trying to channel Ronald Reagan, but I mean, potentially a version of Ronald Reagan immediately after he was shot, because God, what a train wreck this is. You would be right because the title of his address is populism versus conservatism, Republicans time for choosing is a call back to Ronald Reagan's pivotal 1964 speech in support of Barry Goldwater's presidential bid. Let's just quickly, because he did call Donald Trump out by his name. Let's quickly talk about this. When Donald Trump ran for president in 2016, he promised to govern as a conservative.

And together we did. But it's important for Republicans to know that he and his imitators in this Republican primary make no such promise today. It seems like they forget that we succeeded because of a conservative agenda. Not in spite of it. I mean, the truth is, Donald Trump, along with his imitators, often sound like an echo of the progressives they seek to replace. The truth is, the Republican Party did not begin on a gold.

an escalator in 2015. Long before that day, it was forged and defended and defined as the conservative party in America. And so it should ever be. Incidentally, Mike Pence is polling below 5%, and Donald Trump has consistently polled above 50% for the Republican domination, so I'll let you all decide what's more popular. Mike Pence's rigid conservatism are Donald Trump's false populism. People want populism, Jank, I guess even if it's a false and fraudulent version of it.

Yeah, I know who was calling during the speech. It was the 1990s asking for their policies back. So look, Mike Pence apparently doesn't know it, but he's fighting the last war. This one's already over, brother. And by the way, so even though I dislike Donald Trump more than Mike Pence, and if you put me in a nightmare scenario where I had to vote for one or the other, I'd vote for Pence because I think Trump would eliminate democracy in this country. Having said that, Pence is on the lying side of this, believe it or not, even as compared to Donald Trump, because he's pretending that the conservative voters have always wanted what conservative politicians and conservative media have been saying they wanted.

And even mainstream media have been saying conservative voters wanted, but it turns out they never wanted in the first place. Things like free trade. Now conservatives really want companies to make even more profits by outsourcing your jobs. Do they? One of the very few positives about Donald Trump is that he exposed some of those lies. And because why he doesn't care about ideology. He just cares about what's going to get him more votes, what's going to get him more money. So he would just basically test all of his policies, because he has no attachment to ideology or thoughts. So he'd be like, now remember, everybody, we're free trade, big free trade. He's like, I mean, we hate free trade. Screw free trade. He's like, okay, I'm going against free trade.

So I wrote about that in my book, Justice, is coming. He, A, B, tests all of his policies. He did it methodically actually before he even ran for president. So I can go issue after issue. Another one that he mentioned is like, we have to protect our friends across the world. That means starting offensive wars that certainly the left doesn't want, the independents don't want. And now we found out the right wing voters don't want it either. Meanwhile, all of American media was lying to us the whole time saying, oh, Republican voters love war and they can't wait to go and invade Iraq and die over there so that Exxon Mobil can make more money. Well, it turns out, no, you're not right.

That was never the actual conservative position, okay? The conservative positions are what a lot of times, what the populace in the Republican Party are saying now. The problem with the populace in the Republican Party isn't that they are more honest. It isn't that they're closer to progressives. I mean, I mean, the great irony there is they're representing right-wing voters' interests better,

but they're doing in a deeply dishonest way because it's fake populism, as Ray referred to. So I wish they were near progressive positions. They're nowhere near progressive positions. And then he's like, oh, can you believe they're like the progressives like Bernie Sanders. Bernie Sanders isn't among the most popular politicians. In the last, well, since 2016, I'm not sure I've ever seen a poll that had Bernie Sanders anything other than number one most liked politician in the country.

Now, if you listen to mainstream media and you listen to greasy politicians like Mike Pence, they'll make you think that he's a radical, extremist, and unlike, it's not remotely true. Go look at the actual polls. The people love Bernie Sanders. But he's an honest, real populist. That's the thing that both every kind of right winger and everybody in mainstream media, that's the thing they're most afraid of because that's what the American people actually want. Speaking of which, let's go to his former co-chair, Nina Turner.

Thanks for that, Jink. I mean, I was thinking the exact same thing. He is the most popular politician in America, and he has been consistent for the last, you know, over 40 years. And even when Republicans don't agree with him policy-wise, they will say to you that he is genuine and that he is authentic. And by the way, today is his birthday. So we should say happy birthday to Senator Bernard Sanders. I was thinking as Pence trying my best to stay awake, Ray, too. It's like watching paint dry, seriously.

I mean, but when he said to the Republican Party, you got to choose. I want to say, Alex, we choose populism for 70 million, okay? The siren call of populism has been chosen for 70 million. I bring that up because, you know, even in the last election, even though former president Donald J. Trump did not prevail. He still received over 70 million votes during that election. And he won in 2016. So it is very clear where Republicans are on full populism.

Jink, as you brought up, it is a fake populism. God only knows what would happen if it was real populism. And another point to that last point, which is I went to East Palestine, where they voted over 80% for President Donald J. Trump in my home state of Ohio, when Norfolk's train derailed, putting poison in their water, the air, the food, the wildlife, everything. That's what happened there. And you know what those folks were asking for? More government intervention, not less. They wanted Norfolk to pay for what they did, not less. So Mike Pence is definitely out of touch. And yes, President Donald J. Trump did show up there talking all kinds of smack per usual,

not letting the people know that some of the rules that he softened hope to cause this. But the one thing about his full populism, he showed up. And President Joseph R. Biden has yet to show up in East Palestine, Ohio, where people are still suffering. He's yet to show up on the campaign trail anywhere. He's yet to say one single thing that would be his policy. Look, guys, you can tell we're not a show that just goes, okay, we're supporting this side or that side. And we're not thinking, we're telling you the reality of all these things. So, I mean, tip of the Lego hair to Mike Pence for standing up for democracy against Donald Trump.

But at the same time, why is he making up what conservatives really want? Because that's what his corporate donors actually want. Everything he listed as the so-called conservative positions were actually positions that corporate America funds politicians like Mike Pence to say. So that's why populism is more popular than fake conservatism because it's actually. actually popular and it's based on the American people as opposed to corporate interests that unfortunately dominate both parties. All right, we are unfortunately out of time. Everybody check out Rayvon on Rebel headquarters. Everybody check out Nina Turner everywhere. Nina, is there anything else you want to plug, by the way? Well, just happy to be here, Jink, on the main show always.

And I have a big announcement coming up really, really soon. So you all need to stay tuned, either right here on the main show or on one of my Rebel HQ video appearances. But yeah, that's about it for now. All right, you guys better check in the Rebel headquarters. News can break in any moment. Okay, I love it. All right. When we come back in the second hour, Jimmy Fallon in a world of trouble for good reason.

We'll explain. And it turns out that even mainstream media now is saying maybe Biden should fight back. Okay, we'll cover it when we return. Thanks for listening to the full episode of the Young Turks. Support our work, listen to ad-free, access members-only bonus content, and more by subscribing to Apple Podcasts at apple.com slash t-y-t. I'm your host, Shank Huger, and I'll see you soon.