The Young Turks - Corporate Dems Back Haspel, Muqtada Al-Sadr Wins Iraqi Election, China Buys Trump

Episode Date: May 15, 2018

A portion of our Young Turks Main Show from May 14, 2018. For more go to http://www.tytnetwork.com/join.  Hour 1: Cenk. Blake Farenthold gets lobbying job and will not repay his $84K sexual harassment settlement. Democratic Senator Mark Warren is supporting Gina Haspel. Muqtada al-Sadr has won majority votes in Iraq’s parliament elections.  ZTE updates, Trump is working with them to secure their jobs. China has guaranteed loans to build a Trump resort. 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. Thank you for watching or listening to this free podcast of the Young Turks. We want to make sure that you get some portion of the show every day. But if you want the full show, which is actually five segments, come become a member and support independent media as well. TYT network.com slash join.

Meanwhile, enjoy the free podcast. Welcome to the Young Turks, another huge show for you guys today. Yesterday we covered Bernie Sanders Town Hall on the Iran deal. There we had myself, Anna Kasparian, and Mazrabrani doing analysis. Tonight, after the regular show, which will be two hours today as normal. We will have coverage of primary elections in Oregon, Pennsylvania, which is gigantic. I don't mean the state. I mean the elections and the consequences, although it's a fairly sizable state.

And Idaho and Nebraska. I don't know much on Idaho. I don't keep it real with you guys, okay? But there is one interesting candidate out of Idaho. But Nebraska, you'd be surprised. Lots of really interesting progressives from Nebraska, including a civil rights hero that we met on Rebel headquarters. And tonight, the coverage will be myself, John Adirola, and Michael Shore. I love our team.

I love the TYT network. Not surprising. given that I started it. But we've got a lot of great hosts here with diverse skills and talents and tonight. Those guys will be leading the election coverage along with myself. And then, of course, Anna's going to join me a little bit later in this show. And she's got a story about, I mean, under any other administration, it would be shocking corruption at the education department. I know you're not going to be surprised because it's Trump, but any one of these scandals would have knocked out Obama. I mean,

They're so brazen. They're so over the top. Speaking of which later in this hour, his corruption scandal involving China is so over the top. It's over the Chinese wall. So I'll explain. Don't miss that story. That is an unreal story about corruption. I know it doesn't involve porn stars, but it is gigantic.

And on that alone, he should definitely be thrown out of office. That's later in this hour. And unfortunately, we've got more details on the massacre at Gaza. and of course Fox News and the Trump administration blaming the victims. I know it's unsurprising, but the depths of their depravity are still

a little hard to watch, so we'll share that with you. But important updates from that story as well. So lots to get to on this show. Let's start out with some regular mill corruption. Let's go this way. Republicans and Democrats. All right. Blake Faron Holt was a congressman from Texas.

He was a Republican. and he had to settle a sexual harassment case because of how he had harassed women in his congressional office. Let me show you a picture of Blake Ferenholz and then tell you what he did to warrant those sexual harassment charges and why he had to pay out. He would tell his coworkers about how his wife wouldn't sleep with him. Now, if I'm his wife, I don't blame him. I don't blame her, but not the kind of thing you should be sharing up the office.

And then he asked a woman that works under him to show her nipples to him. And then he said about a woman that he had had a wet dream about her. That is totally and utterly gross, ridiculous, and for a boss in any office to say that is preposterous. So, of course, Ferenholt spent $84,000, not in his own money, but in taxpayer funds, to quietly settle that lawsuit. When the news broke this past December, he vowed to quickly pay the money back, but you're going to be shocked to find out, never did. Interesting. So, by April, the White House Ethics Committee, I'm sorry, not the White House, the House Ethics Committee, close to wrapping up a probe into more office misconduct. He quit Congress.

So because why, he had said, well, look, man, if the House Ethics Committee finds that I did do this sexual harassment, then I won't let the taxpayers pay. I'll pay the $84,000. Well, good news for the taxpayers and for Farronhold, you got a new job. I hope you're sitting down. Because you're going to be shocked at what the job is. He's a lobbyist. Say it with me. Of course.

That's the revolving door. So he does scummy things, well, both in the sexual world, unfortunately, and sexual harassment, etc. But also in run-of-the-mill corruption in Congress, hey, lobbyists give me money. I'll do whatever you ask me to do. Donors give me money. I'll do whatever you ask me to do. Now that he's left Congress in shame, no problem. The Calhoun Port Authority in Port Lavaca, Texas says, that's our guy.

Why do they hire him as lobbyists to increase the port's visit? visibility. Well, okay, for the first time, we are seeing and hearing about that port, and that is a port I want no part of. Okay? So he is lobbies. Why is that good news for the taxpayers? Because now he has plenty of money to pay them back. Look, he was already a millionaire, but as a lobbyist, he'll be getting paid $160,000 a year. Well, plenty of money to pay back that $84,000. So that news broke today. So did this news. In a statement to ABC News, the Texas Republicans said that his legal counsel has told him not to repay the $84,000 settlement.

So, nope, not going to pay it. But wait a minute, I thought you said that if it was shown and then you left and then you were going to pay. It's like, yeah, yeah, yeah, that's what I said because I'm a professional liar. I just got hired as a lobbyist, so kind of case closed. These are the people who are so-called representatives. Now, luckily, Ferenhold is not anymore, but particularly vile guy, now doing a particularly vile job. Okay.

Now, let's go to the Democrats. So the way that Washington works is the Republicans win almost no matter what. The Democrat's job is to be the Washington Generals to the Harlem Globetrotters. So the Harlem Globetrotters, of course, a lot of you remember, a great team. They play a lot of skills. It's not an actual game. It's for everybody's amusement and they play tricks and stuff. And they put on these shows and the losers whose job is to lose, at least they're actors in a sense, so that they're okay.

But their job was to get embarrassed and humiliated was the opposing team, the Washington generals. That's who the Democrats are. So the way that this shell game is played is the Democrats are always supposed to say there was nothing we could do. Now, in the Trump administration, this is a relatively easy game. Oh, my God, the Republicans hold the Senate, they hold a house, and they have the White House. What could we do? There's nothing we could do.

We lost the Supreme Court. I mean, we had it. We put in and nominated a guy. the Republicans blocked it, even though they did not control the White House. And they were supposed to confirm the Supreme Court nominee of the Democratic president. But it turns out there was something they could do. So they won that anyway. And then the Republicans come in, they put in their draconian, right-wing, zealot Supreme Court Justice Democrats go, what?

Do they fight it like the Republicans did? No, they go, there's nothing we can do. And I can give you not dozens, but hundreds of examples of that. But today we have a perfect example of it. Because, hey, good news. Gina Haspel is up for the position of CIA director. She has two massive problems on our record. Number one, she authorized torture during the Bush administration.

It was illegal back then. It's illegal today. She should have been put in prison for that. She ran a black site. They did waterboarding. They did sleep deprivation. They hit the detainees. They tortured them in several different ways.

a giant report came out from the Senate condemning that torture and showing how horrific it was and unquestionably illegal. And we have executed people for the crime of waterboarding when it was done to us. Okay, on top of that, she has a second crime, which is she's like, well, those torture tapes. Yeah, we taped it. They're terrible. And if you ever saw them, you'd put me in prison. So she shredded them.

She destroyed evidence. We're still having a conversation about this person. But no, no, no, no, no. Good news. Good news. Two Republicans flipped on her. Now, the Republicans only have 51 in the Senate. So if they lose two Republicans, they're down to 49 and she doesn't get confirmed. Hey, congratulations America. We finally blocked someone who's a torturer and who does not believe in the rule of law. Wait a minute. Did we? And the answer, as you know, is no, we didn't. Why? Because four Democrats flipped and voted for her. So in the committee, they're going to vote for her. First, it was, guess who? Of course, Joe Manchin. Joe Manchin's like, torture her.

I get to help Trump. I'm fantastic. My primary's over. I don't have to worry about progressives ever again. So yes, of course I vote for the torturer. Hey, we're at 50-50. They're already... We need to talk about a relatively new show called Un-Fing 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 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. In pretty good shape. They can, now, but they want some cushion for this because what if you lose more senators that are Republicans? By the way, to give credit to those Republicans.

who claimed they weren't going to vote for her, John McCain and Rand Paul. Now, Rand Paul would have voted for her because if it's ever the deciding vote, the establishment always gets what it wants. And in the case in Gina Haspel is not just the Trump administration. Democratic torturers love Gina Haspel too. All those now contributors on MSNBC who also covered up the torture program on TV going, well, I'm a Democrat and I like Gina Haspin. I mean, if you find her guilty, you might find me guilty.

So the establishment agrees that that torture, we condemn it publicly, but we put somebody in office who was the primary culprit. And one of their excuses is, well, she was ordered to do it. Well, who ordered her to do it? Rumsfeld and Cheney and Bush. All right, let's put them in jail. Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no. That's very impolite.

Those are good people. We go to cocktail parties with them all the time. So the establishment agrees that was all fine, let's all covered up together, Gina Haspel, etc. So mansion flips, and so you don't have to worry about McCain and Rand Paul. But Rand Paul, as he deal with Pompeo, would have voted for her if they needed that vote because he's a liar and he pretends to be a libertarian. But we saw in the case of Pompeo, they needed the extra vote and they always find the extra vote. It's a fun little shell game we play, right? Oh, I'm not going to support her.

The Democrats, oh, Gina Hasbill, I can't believe she did the torture. Oh, I got it's a martyr. Mansion flips, and then Joe Donnelly flips, and then Hyde Camp flimps. And today, Mark Warner, the top Democrat on the Intelligence Committee, says, yeah, yeah, yeah, sure, of course, fine. No, he says, don't worry, she promised me that she wouldn't do the torture anymore. Well, that makes me feel better. Proposterous. So here is Senator Warner's quotes about this.

She said over the last, he said, over the last year, I've had the opportunity to work with Ms. Haswell and her role as deputy director. And I've always found her to be professional and forthrights with the Intelligence Committee. Have you? Was she forthright when she destroyed evidence? Everybody knows she did it. She signed the order. She doesn't dispute it. Nobody disputes it. She destroyed 92 tapes. If you destroyed evidence in a case against you, do you have any idea what kind of trouble you'd be in? You'd be going to prison for a long, long time.

But Gina Haspel's in the cocktail circuit. Oh, I do declare everybody, Gina Haskell. A brilliant job. The way you torture people and then burn the evidence. But you are part of the establishment, aren't you, Gina? So welcome it. Fourth right, I mean, it takes a special kind of. politician to say Gina Haspel of all people

has been forthright. Okay. And then he went on to say, I remind you, this is the top Democrat on this committee. Representing the Democrats. He said, most importantly, I believe she is someone who can and will stand up to the president if ordered to do something illegal or immoral like a return to torture. Well, but I wish. We had a moment to figure out if Gina Haspel would follow an illegal order to torture someone. Oh, right, we did under the Bush administration.

And she did follow that order. This is a shell game, guys. It's one party different names. So these are preposterous comments. They're going to make her the head of the CIA. No, but she promised us. You remember when they voted for Betsy DeVos and Ben Carson, a couple of the Democratic senators voted for them and said, no, no, but they came into my office and they promised. They promised.

And what happened afterwards? Well, Ben Carson is now dismantling housing and urban development. And Betsy DeVos is destroying the education department. There's a new story out today that she hired people from the for-profit colleges to make sure that they would end the investigation of for-profit colleges. But we already live that. We already know that all those things that they say in those testimonies are nothing but lies. But the Democrats go, oh, you need votes now? Resistance.

Guys, resistance. Like we're going to resist this. No way. Trump, what do you need? And Mark Warner comes and goes, yes, sir, absolutely, sir. Of course, Mr. Donald Trump, sir. And so does Heid Camp and Donnellian Mansion. They were always going to vote yes.

They were always going to vote yes on all of these nominees. Whatever the establishment wants, they're going to get a yes vote. It's just a kabuki theater and a lot of show. And then at the end of the day, the establishment, and now in this case, Donald Trump as well, they are aligned on this, get exactly what they want. And the Democrats turn around and go, well, there was nothing we could do. There was everything you could have done in this case. You chose not to because you're justice corrupt.

Okay, I think that was clear. We are now moving on to international news. I've got a lot of international news about Iraq, but first let's go to, I'm sorry, about Gaza, but first news on Iraq. You guys remember Mukta al-Sutter? He was the founder of the Mahdi army. I'm going to get back to them in a second, but those guys who led two insurgencies against the United States. Well, maybe you hadn't heard of Muktaxan in a while, but guess what? He just won their elections in Iraq.

Moktada! That is that for a magic trick? All right. So, let me go to Reuters to explain. Populist cleric Mukta al-Sahar, a longtime adversary of the United States, has all but one Iraq's parliamentary election. The Electoral Commission said in a surprise turn of fortune for the Shiite leader. Surprise.

Now, I am not overly surprised by, don't even, I didn't predict it. I'm not predicting your regulations. I'll tell you why I'm not surprised. It's because he's a populist. Now, I've got more details on that in a second. But what have I told you all across the world, whether it's Brexit or it's Corbyn, whether it's Trump or Bernie Sanders or even in this case, Mukta al-Sutter, who's a terrible guy in a lot of ways, if you run as a populist, you are more likely to win.

It's not rocket science. But here in America, the Democrats in the media insist, no, don't run as a populist. You know what you should do? You should be part of a corrupt system and tell everybody that everything's going to be okay and that the system is wonderful. Brilliant electoral strategy. It never works anywhere. So now, what did work here and what's the ramifications for Iraq?

Reuters explains, and the first election since the Islamic State was defeated in the country, Iran-backed Shiite militia chief, al-Amiri's block was in second place while Prime Minister Hyder al-Abadi was once seen as a front runner trailed in third. Now, why did Abadi the current prime minister lose? Unlike Abadi, a rare ally of both the United States and Iran, Sutter is an opponent of both countries. So Sutter went with the Iraq first strategy. Meanwhile, the current prime minister who was beholden to both Iranian corruption and U.S. corruption said, I love her. U.S. Iran. Aren't they great? And the people of Iraq were like, no, I don't think they're great. You're going down a third. And once again, all the media and

everyone else is shocked. The guy who's a populace wound up winning a surprising victory, the guy who said that he would continue the current corrupt system with a shocking loss. You watch the young Turks, you're thinking, of course. Everyone else, like, oh, what? What? What? What's going on? I can't figure it out. Okay. Now, why are we not happy about this? Sutter has led two uprisings against U.S. forces in Iraq and is one of the few Shiite leaders to distance himself from Iran. Well, we're one for one there. So Iraq is now, and has always been in modern history, largely Shiite. It's about 60% Shiite. The rocket scientist, neo-conservists in this country, thought, oh, no, we'll topple them. And then even though they're largely Shiite,

they will not align with Iran. But they did, and they have for quite some time. But at the end of the day, there is some surprising good news out of this. Again, don't celebrate. Wachtat is not a good guy. I'll show you some stuff about him in a second. But there's two pieces of good news. One is, well, now the Iraqis went, yeah, yeah, we're largely Shiite, and so is Iran.

But we're our own country, and we don't want to be beholden to them, and we don't want to be ruled by them. So that's good news. And Iran is no ally of ours, and they're run by the Ayatollah, although McDonough's father was an Ayatollah. Anyway, they wanted their own Ayatollah, but the fact that they're independent from Iran, if all this comes for fruition, is good news. I have more details on that in one second, too. The other good news is, to be fair, that looks like a democracy. Because if we had rigged it, we would not have put Mukdad al-Sutter in charge. There's no way we would have done that.

So they kind of had a real vote, and that's why it was surprising. And in our case in America, our oligarchs choose who they're going to donate the most money to. Those people, nine out of ten times win the primary. In fact, 95 out of 100 times win the race overall. 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.

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I mean, I'm not sure that I would have expected Iraq to ever have an actual democracy in any way, shape, or form. So I'm coming clean on that, and I'm surprised by that turn of events. Not if you have a real election, will the populace win? Yes, I'm not at all surprised by that. The fact that we had apparently some sort of real election in Iraq, I am a bit surprised by that. So fair is fair and credit where credit is due. Now, let's turn to why Iran is not happy about this. Celebrations erupted on the streets of Baghdad after the commission's announcement with thousands of Sada supporters singing, chanting, dancing, and setting off fireworks while carrying his picture and waving Iraqi flags, many chanted Iran out.

Okay, damn. And then the advisor to Ayatollah Ali Hamanai in Iran had this quote to say about Sadr. We will not allow liberals and communists to govern in Iraq. Well, whether you're allowed it or not, he seems to have won the election. Okay, but that's fascinating. Now that Mukta al-Sahar, which is opposed to Iran has won, they're like, liberal. Mukta al-Sahder ain't nobody's liberal.

Okay, he might be a populist, he might be against corruption as you're about to see. I guess in some ways that makes you a progressive against corruption, but in other ways, especially in his adherence to fundamentalist Islam. No, no, he's not a liberal. He's not a communist. So the Communist Party supported him because they thought, well, all the other choices are so horrific and so corrupt that he's the lesser of those evils apparently. So now understand he got the most votes. His party got the most votes. He didn't actually, in a parliamentary system, to run for a particular seat. He did not. So if his party forms the majority coalition, he would get to pick the prime minister. He wouldn't be prime minister himself, but he might not even get that

opportunity. He got 1.3 million votes, second place, 1.2, and third place, 1.1 million. So it's possible that second and third place can form a coalition without him. So we'll have to see how that government comes together. And Iran might still have the last word, because the guys who came in second and third, duo allegiance to Iran, as I explained the prime minister, also it was some allegiance to the United States. So they might find a way to block him, but they could not find a way to defeat him at the polls. Now, why are we not happy about Mukdad al-Sadr? Well, first, the Trump administration. Satter has denounced President Donald Trump's decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital and demanded the closure of the American embassy

in Baghdad. Now, I don't want our embassy. and Baghdad closed, but I understand why he's making that statement. Again, he's a populist. And I think, you know, a lot of countries, Ireland, Belgium, South Africa agree that that decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital was a disastrous one. But don't mistake Mugta al-Sutter for any kind of guy that would be helpful to the West or Western ideas or secularism, etc. So if you want to look, see what the Mati army looks like. Here's some pictures from the bad old days. They launched two insurgencies against U.S. troops and killed a lot of American soldiers. So it was so bad that it was part of the reason why we couldn't have our

puppet government run Iraq. The insurgency was too effective, honestly. And so I want a secular government. I don't, all across the world. So this kind of Mahdi army that is more fundamentalist and opposed to the United States is no friend of ours. But that's not how you get elected in Iraq by being a friend of the U.S. That wouldn't work and it didn't work. So, and by the way, I gave credit earlier here to the Bush administration in essence because I did not think there would ever be a real democracy in Iraq. On the other hand, they were convinced that if there was a real democracy in Iraq, that Iraqis would obviously support whoever we pick to be prime minister.

Another thing that they were preposterously wrong about. Okay. Now, so why did Sotter win? Well, Reuters explains, projecting himself as an Iraqi nationalist, Sutter has a zealous following among the young, poor, and dispossessed. I'm telling you, politics is not difficult. If you say that you're going to represent the majority of the country, you might get a majority of the country to vote for you. Now, in a parliamentary system, he didn't get the majority,

but he did get the most votes. So there are a lot of poor people in Iraq. If you say to them, I'm going to look out for you. And so the elite, they're more likely to vote for you. Again, here in America, the media is so warped. They're so part of the elite. that they cannot see straight. They think, oh, if you try to represent the poor or the middle class, you'll never win.

You should just tell everybody that the system's totally fine. Look at these wonderful Democrats like Hillary Clinton telling everybody everything's A-OK. That is a terrible, terrible electoral strategy. By the way, they're going to try to do it again in 2020. Hopefully some of us will stop them. Okay, so now that's one part of it. The other part of it is it's the corruption, stupid. Run against the corruption.

It works all across the world. During the campaign, frustrated Iraqis of all shades complained about their political elite, systematic patronage, bad governance, and corruption, saying they did not receive any benefit of their country's oil wealth. So here in America, our productivity is sky high. I've shown this to you over and over again, and our wages have been stagnant for the last 40 years. So they see the wealth, Americans, the average American, but they don't have the wealth. Why? Because they got robbed. Who did they get robbed by? Yes, by the elites who are the donors to the politicians.

In the case of Iraq, they see the oil. There's a lot of wealth in Iraq, but they don't have it. The average man in Iraq doesn't have it. So when a populace, in this case, a bad guy comes along and says, oh, yeah, I'll represent the poor and I'll end the corruption, completely unsurprisingly, he wins. Now, imagine if there was actually a good guy who was a populist who actually meant that they would represent the poor and the middle class and who actually meant that they would end the corruption. Wouldn't that be amazing in any country? But here we are again in Iraq, the same result as all over the world. Run as a populace, run against corruption, and you can nearly guarantee victory. So, Mukdad al-Sutter, as bad a guy as he might be, and as much as he might have attacked us, is no one's dummy, and that's why he's back, and now, perhaps, in charge of Iraq.

Hey, neocons, did you think you'd be handing Iraq to Muqtara al-Sadr and his Mahdi army? No, you didn't, did you? Brilliantly played. Now, of course, they'd like to do it again in Iran. Buckle up, embrace for impact. You're right in the middle of this podcast. We've got another great segment coming up for you. If you'd like the full show, which is actually five segments, go to t-y-tnetwork.com slash join.

You become a member, you support the show, you support independent media, and you get the whole two-hour show ad-free every day. Let's go do it now. All right, back on a young Turks. Two quick tweets for you guys, crayfish caddy says, conservatives supporting state officials killing unarmed individuals. Nothing new there. unfortunately true here and at abroad. Dr. K.S.M.D. talking about the elections, saying we'd love to keep watching, but I have to go home and drop off my Oregon primary ballot.

If you took corporate cash, don't count on my vote. Hashtag TYT Live. Hashtag Wolfpack. Hashtag Justice Democrats. So two things about that. One, if you live in California, you can mail in your ballot right now. So there is an uncorrupted candidate. Her name is Alison Hartson. She's running against Diane Feinstein. who takes millions of dollars in corporate cash. We're going to talk about that a little bit later in our election coverage.

But whoever you're voting for mail-in that ballot in California, if you live in Oregon, Pennsylvania, Idaho, or Nebraska, go out there and vote right away. The polls are still open in most of those states, and there is primaries tonight. And one last thing, you don't have to turn off the Young Turks to do that. Just get our app, and then you could watch or listen as you drive around or or go to wherever you're going, or if you're aligned to vote. So, t-y-t.com slash app, or just go to the App Store on an, it's the iOS one now. Android's coming out a little bit later, but we'll come out soon.

In the app store, just type in TYT and you'll get it. So I hope that you guys can take advantage of that as well. All right, I got one more story for you in this so-called hour. Okay. Now, if there's one thing that Donald Trump is against, it is China taking our jobs. I know that, and I'm going to share a video with you guys, where he's clear on the record. And he loves to keep his campaign promises, right? So this one should be a lamp.

It's really, really easy. And in the case of the company called ZTE, which is a mobile phone company in China, it's the fourth largest one in the world, actually. Well, they did something that was against almost all of Donald Trump's stated principles. And I do have to give them credit. They did strike down what ZTE did. So let me explain that to you first. ZTE, one of the world's largest telecom equipment makers, suspended its main operations after

the U.S. Commerce Department banned American supplies to its business for seven years. Now, that's Trump's Commerce Department. So what does ZTE do? Okay, let's find out. The U.S. government launched an investigation into ZTE after Reuters reported in 2012, the company had signed contracts to ship millions of dollars of worth of hardware and software from some of the best known U.S. technology companies to Iran. Now, that was a time when we had sanctions on Iran. And obviously, Donald Trump is definitely in favor of sanctions against Iran. This is a company that is taking our jobs and bringing them to China.

they've got, they're doing business with Iran. And again, that was reported in 2012, but to be fair to the Trump administration, they cracked down themselves on this. His Commerce Department did. And they find ZTE $1.2 billion. And then they had a list of things that they had to do in order to comply. So let's find out what happened there. ZTE pled guilty last year to conspiring to violate U.S. sanctions by illegally shipping U.S. goods and technology to Iran and entered into an agreement with the U.S. government. The ban is the result of ZTE's failure to comply with that agreement, the Commerce Department said, okay, well, okay, credit where credit is due. Story's over, right? Not exactly. And then this very curious tweet from Donald Trump just a couple of days ago. He said, President Xi of China and I are working together to give massive Chinese phone company, ZTE, a way to get back into business. fast. Too many jobs in China lost. Commerce department has been instructed to get it done. What? Wait a minute. First of all, that was a law enforcement matter. You're now reversing

your own commerce department and the law enforcement that they were doing to protect us from what was happening there. And I've got more details about what ZTE was up to and how bad it was. Secondly, You're worried about too many jobs lost in China? You think this guy keeps campaign promises? Are you kidding me? Look at what Donald Trump was saying during the campaign. We are living through the greatest jobs theft in the history of the world. Nobody has ever stolen jobs like other countries have taken them from us.

A Trump administration will stop the jobs from leaving him. America so easily. The theft of American prosperity will end and it will end immediately. They are stealing our jobs. The theft of China is stealing American jobs. America first. Let me see that tweet again. Too many jobs in China lost. What? We asked Don Blankenship what he thought about this and he said, has created millions of jobs for China people. Okay, that might not have been directed to Trump. All right.

So now let's tell you why Z-T was in so much trouble. I mean, already you got the violations, you got the fines, and you got that they were selling technology to Iran. But there's more. The ban came two months after two Republican senators introduced legislation to block the U.S. government from buying or leasing telecommunication equipment from ZTE, citing concerned that the companies would use their access to spy on U.S. officials.

not just sell it to Iran and to North Korea, by the way, but to spy in on us. But there's more. That's Reuters. Now we go to HuffPost. ZTE phones have already been described as a security risk by the U.S. military and intelligence community. Two weeks ago, the military banned their use on basis for fear that they could be used to track the locations of service members. So he's putting our troops in danger by reviving ZTE. Now, let's go to the Commerce Secretary who put the sanctions and the fines in place in the first place. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, who was one of Trump's top allies and still is, last month called ZTE's behavior egregious and said, it cannot be ignored.

So after Trump's tweet, we go back to Wilbur Ross. At a national press club speech on Monday, Wilbur Ross said that. the ZTE sanctions were an enforcement action unrelated to trade negotiations, but that he would be reviewing the situation, quote, very, very promptly as a result of Trump's request. So perhaps their violations can be ignored if Donald Trump tweets about it. Fascinating. So now, you might be thinking why did Donald Trump do that? Is he just doing negotiations on trade?

Well, his own comments secretary just told you, no, it has nothing to do with the trade negotiations. even more curious. Our one more tweet from Donald Trump, he said China and the United States are working well together on trade, but past negotiations have been so one-sided in favor of China for so many years. That is that it is hard for them to make a deal that benefits both countries. But be cool, it will all work out. Now, wait a minute, if China has been getting the benefit of those trade deals, as you've been

telling us all over and over and over again, and you said it during the campaign, they're stealing jobs from us, they're ripping us off. Why did you just send a tweet saying how we should get them jobs? And even though they violated our laws and they did not even comply with the agreement that they said they would comply with this somehow, and they gave technology to Iran and North Korea that somehow we should help that Chinese company. Why on God's green earth would you do that? Well, let's find out why Donald Trump wants us to be cool. So a story out today in HuffPosts. Trump did not mention in that tweet or its follow-ups that on Thursday, the developer of a theme park resort outside of Jakarta had signed a deal to receive as much as $500 million in Chinese government loans, as well as another $500 million from the Chinese banks, according to AFP, that is a French media organization. Trump's family businesses, the Trump Organization, has a deal to license.

since the Trump name to that resort, which includes a golf course and hotels. Oh, this guy's corruption knows no bounds. So China, you want ZTE to be back in business. They got 70,000 jobs in China that they want to bring back. A lot of Chinese government officials probably connected to that company. A lot of rich people in China connect to that company. And all of a sudden, China gives a loan to a theme park in Indonesia, a massive one, combined billion dollars. They then give money to Donald Trump saying, oh, Mr. Trump, we would like to put your name on this resort.

And we'll pay you a lot of money to do that. And lo and behold, all of a sudden Donald Trump cares about jobs in China. And he cares about Chinese companies. And he doesn't care about giving technology to Iran and North Korea. He doesn't care about violating sanctions, doesn't care about the rule of law. He doesn't care about his own commerce department ruling against this company. And all of a sudden, he says, we've got to get jobs back in China. Don Blanky should also have something to say about this.

His China family has given him tens of millions of dollars. All right, one more quote here. Trump, despite his campaign promises to turn over his businesses and have no involvement with them, has still not fully divested himself of his businesses. and continues to profit from them. If you're wondering, Article 1, Section 9, Clause 8 of the United States Constitution, makes it very clear. You are not allowed to take money from a foreign power under no circumstances.

Clearly unconstitutional. And there it is. No title of nobility shall be granted by the United States. No person holding any office of profit or trust under them shall without the consent of the Congress. except of any present emolument, officer, title of any kind whatever from any king, prince, or foreign state. And Indonesia funneling money to Donald Trump and then getting a billion dollars from China, and then China then getting a favor from Donald Trump is the definition of what is prohibited under the United States Constitution. On this alone, he should be immediately impeached.

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