The Young Turks - Crisis in Gaza

Episode Date: October 12, 2023

As strikes devastate Gaza, Israel forms a unity government to oversee war sparked by Hamas attack. House Republicans are set to start voting at 7 am today on who their new speaker should be. New York Republicans plan to file measure to oust George Santos. Sen. Chuck Schumer and Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, New Yorkers who are among the most powerful Democrats in Washington, are notably missing from public efforts to pressure President Joe Biden into providing more aid for the 123,000 migrants who have arrived here since last year. HOSTS: Ana Kasparian (@AnaKasparian) SUBSCRIBE on YOUTUBE: ☞ https://www.youtube.com/user/theyoungturks FACEBOOK: ☞ https://www.facebook.com/theyoungturks TWITTER: ☞ https://www.twitter.com/theyoungturks INSTAGRAM: ☞ https://www.instagram.com/theyoungturks TIKTOK: ☞ https://www.tiktok.com/@theyoungturks 👕 Merch: https://shoptyt.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You're listening to The Young Turks, the online news show. Make sure to follow and rate our show with not one, not two, not three, not four, but five stars. You're awesome. Thank you. Woo! It's up! Welcome to TYT. I'm your host Anna Kasparean. Welcome to Solo Anna Wednesdays, although I'm not going to be solo for the entirety of the show. We have a major announcement in the second hour of the show. So you definitely want to stick around for that.

And for our members, I'm super excited for our bonus episode. You have to be a member to watch it. But for our members, we will have two members of the main show production team joining in. Taylor Ellis and Kate Patino. They're going to join in and cover some of the news of the day with me. Some lighter stories, although one of them has to do with corruption in the food industry. But it's going to be a great time. I'm super excited. I know that Kate's been on the show before, but that was a while ago. And I think this might be Taylor's, yes, it's your debut, Taylor. I'm super

excited. So you guys get to see some of the faces behind the scenes who make the show possible. I would not be able to do it without them. So we're gonna have a good time. You can become a member by going to t.yt.com slash join. And again, in the second hour, giant announcement. You don't want to miss it. In fact, the announcement is so giant, it's going to take up the entirety of the second hour. So stick around for that. But before we even get there, we've got a lot of news to cover. And I wanted to start off with some updates on just the absolute devastation taking place in Gaza as we speak. The bombardment of Gaza continues. Israeli strikes hitting Palestinian communities.

Israel's military released this footage showing its operations. It says, as it's targeting Hamas fighters. Hundreds of civilians have been killed. The airstrikes have caused huge damage to homes and shops. Absolute devastation. Air strikes by the Israeli defense forces continue to pummel the Gaza Strip in retaliation for the terror attacks Hamas militants carried out against Israeli civilians over the weekend.

The death toll from the Hamas massacres has now surpassed 1,000 people sparking fury among Israeli officials. Militants in Gaza are holding an estimated 150 people who have been taken hostage from Israel, including women, children, and the elderly. Tragically, there's even more devastation in store for Palestinian civilians who are trapped in Gaza and have nowhere to flee for safety. While Gazans are blocked from exiting the strip, humanitarian aid is also sealed off from entering the area.

After the attack by Hamas, Israel halted the entry of food, water, fuel and medicine into the territory. The sole remaining access from Egypt was shut down Tuesday after airstrikes hit near the border crossing. As a result, the humanitarian crisis is growing and becoming more dire each passing day. Making matters worse, the territory's only power plant has run out of fuel. Gaza's only power plant has stopped working after running out of fuel as Israel continues its deadly bombardment for a fifth day. Israeli troops are massing near the Gaza border in preparation for what could be a ground

invasion of the territory. Palestinian officials said half of the dead in Gaza are women and children, killed as shops and homes were levelled. Children are now playing here where they should be sleeping. What is this? This is not a life. We are living here, surrounded by rubble. Gaza is destroyed. Everything is destroyed. With Gaza's only power plant shut down, only private generators are left to power homes and hospitals.

The Gaza Strip's biggest hospital, Al-Shifa, only has enough fuel to keep power on for three days. And that's according to Mathias Cairns, a Gaza-based official for doctors without borders. The group said the two hospitals it runs in Gaza were running out of surgical equipment, antibiotics, fuel, and other supplies. We consumed three weeks worth of emergency stock in three days, he said. Now the Palestinian Red Crescent said other hospitals generators will run out in just five days. So the pain and suffering of innocent Palestinian civilians is expected to continue. Israel has formed a unity government to oversee the war, which consists of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, senior opposition leader and former foreign minister Benny

Gaunt, or I should say defense minister Benny Gaunt, and current defense minister Yoav Galant. There is a buildup of Israeli troops in preparation for a ground invasion into Gaza as well. A ground offensive in the tiny coastal Gaza strip, densely populated with two-pointed. million people is likely to dramatically hike casualties in a war that has already claimed at least 2,200 lives on both sides. Some 250,000 people have fled their homes in Gaza, more than a tenth of the population, most crowding into UN schools, others crowded into a shrinking number of safe neighborhoods in the strip of land, only 25 miles long, wedged among Israel,

Egypt and the Mediterranean Sea. Now, the Israeli defense forces have responded to the terror attacks carried out by Hamas over the weekend exactly how you'd expect they would. And its Western allies, including the United States, have already declared their commitment to helping Israel defend itself. Ultimately, the people who will suffer the greatest harm are Palestinian civilians. Which leads one to wonder why some leftist organizations and student groups across the United States decided to literally cheer on and justify Hamas's horrific actions rather than condemn them. Take New York University School of Law, who's president of the Student Bar Association,

Raina Workman, urge people to not condemn Palestinian resistance. This week, she says, I want to express, first and foremost, my unwavering and absolute solidarity with Palestinians in their resistance against oppression toward liberation and self-determination. Israel bears full responsibility for this tremendous loss of life. Let's pause for a second. Hamas carried out terror attacks. So conflating Hamas with Palestinians, I think is a pretty gross thing to engage in. I know she thinks that she's helping. I know she thinks she's standing up for Palestinians who have been oppressed.

In reality, she is engaging in justifications for terrorism that was carried out by Hamas. Now, workmen later lost a job offer at the law firm Winston and Strawn. as a result of her comments, but unfortunately she wasn't the only example of someone who seemed to be cheering on Hamas. Members of Stanford Students for Justice in Palestine's leadership wrote an op-ed Tuesday arguing that Palestinians have a legal right to resist occupation. Several California chapters of the pro-Palestinian group signed on to a statement saying Hamas' attack now stands as a revolutionary moment in contemporary Palestinian resistance. Multiple banners hung around campus over the weekend, according to the paper, reading that

the illusion of Israel is burning and the land remembers her people. They've since been taken down. Now here's a reminder of what that so-called revolutionary moment looks like. After finally resting back control of Kaffa Aze Kibbutz, a small farming community, Israeli security forces discovered the aftermath of a massacre. Residents were murdered wherever the gunmen found them. We see blood spread out in homes. We found bodies of people who had been butchered. The depravity of it is haunting.

Major Libby Vice told us Israeli soldiers at Kafar Azah reported, finding slaughtered children. Multiple have said that they saw beheaded children of varying ages ranging from babies to young, slightly older children. We are looking at body bags there. There were so many people killed in that kibbutz in particular. And this news is absolutely devastating to hear the confirmation of the decapitated children. At least 22 Americans among the dead in Israel, according to the State Department.

We know Americans are also missing here. We don't know if they've been killed or taken hostage. Now, I want to address the claims of decapitated Israeli babies. Those claims first surfaced about a day or so ago. The IDF was asked about it. And at that time, the IDF did not have confirmation. Today they confirmed it, but I see leftists on Twitter. I'm going to keep calling it Twitter, let's keep it real, pointing to what the IDF said yesterday about it.

Okay, I know you'd like to go into a time machine and pretend like the confirmation that came out today doesn't exist, but it exists. And I find it especially disgusting when you see comments about I won't believe it until I see it. Really, you need to see images of decapitated babies to believe the brutality that Hamas carried out over the weekend, that's what you need to see. Criticism of the Israeli government's treatment of Palestinians is often met with allegations of anti-Semitism. For many who engage in these critiques, including the hosts of this show, the allegation is unfounded and is just used as a way to silence justified concerns for power.

Palestinians. Now we always make sure to draw a clear distinction between the government of Israel and its civilian population. But I guess for some of these Calus student groups, that distinction doesn't really matter. You can't pretend to be worried about Palestinian children while simultaneously justifying the slaughter of Israeli babies. At Columbia University, another Ivy League institution, Colombia, students for justice in Palestine argue the responsibility for the war and casualties undeniably lies with the Israeli extremist government and other Western governments. Or, you know, you can condemn and denounce the brutal terrorist attacks carried out by Hamas militants, which specifically targeted innocent civilians.

Doing so doesn't make light of war crimes committed by Israel's government. But it makes your little student group look like heartless terrorist sympathizers. But I'm not done yet because the New York City chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America promoted a pro-Palestinian rally over the weekend. Here's what that look like. When the Palestinians broke through the fence, they put the F-35 and they put the F-35. There was some sort of rave or desert party where they were having a great time until the resistance came in electrified hang gliders and took at least several dozen hipsters.

But I'm sure they're doing very fine despite what the New York Post says. What the speaker was referring to was one of the massacres that took place at a music festival in Israel last Saturday. Hamas militants flew in on motorized paragliders and began shooting at festival goers. At least 260 people were gunned down and killed, and many are still missing. Some were also kidnapped and taken hostage. AOC luckily spoke out against those comments and the bigotry displayed. She received some backlash from leftists as a result.

But the NYCDSA chapter wasn't the only group that thought it was totally okay to celebrate the slaughter of innocent civilians. The Chicago chapter of Black Lives Matter put this disgusting message on X. The post includes the silhouette of a Hamas militant on a paraglider, along with the Palestinian flag and the message I stand with Palestine. The post also declares, that is all, that is it. Again, I just want to reiterate, 260 people were gunned down, civilians were gunned down at that music festival. They weren't IDF forces, they weren't enemy combatants, they were innocent civilians. BLM Chicago has since taken down that post. But if a portion of the American left fails to see how outrageously immoral it is for Hamas

to target maim and murder innocent civilians, can they at least consider how utterly stupid and ineffective it is in the quest for Palestinian liberation. What exactly was Hamas's endgame? And how exactly did their actions get Palestinians anywhere close to freedom or a two-state solution? All Hamas did was kill innocent civilians and provoke the Israeli government in carrying out more devastating war crimes against the Palestinian people. The United States is already committed to helping them do just that with Biden, that we're sending more ammunition to Israel.

Now this war is spreading to Lebanon and could expand to Iran. Weird thing for the so-called anti-war leftists larping as revolutionaries to cheer for from the comfort of their Brooklyn apartments. You know, the same crowd who thinks words or violence and clapping too loud during conferences is cruel. Listen, condemning Hamas takes no effort. Speaking out against the loss of innocent lives takes no effort. valuing civilians on one side while cheering for the brutal killings of innocent people

on the other side makes these leftists just as deplorable and reprehensible as the far right government of Israel. That's the truth. Some people might not like it, some people might find that super offensive. But how exactly would anyone argue that what Hamas did over the weekend has in any way benefited the Palestinian people? It hasn't. And now they're dealing with the the brutality as a result of it. We got to take a break. When we come back, we have more news for you, including this circus in Congress in regard to finding the next speaker for the House of Representatives. Come right back. Welcome back to the show, everyone.

Just want to read a few comments from our viewers, especially since I'm probably not going to be able to get back to these comments later in the show, has to do with my segment on what's happening in Gaza. We've got Max who says, Anna, I'm with you. The left needs to chill out and stop embracing everything. Some things are just wrong and they need to call it out. I mean, I don't think it's that difficult to call out the slaughter of civilians. That simple. Animal Slayer says, Anna, thanks for speaking truth. I'm at Yale law, and I'm also

disgusted by the complicity of students slash faculty in covering up. I feel politically homeless. I think a lot of people are feeling that way because the discourse is increasingly dominated by extremes on both sides. But I think it's really important to keep in mind that the extremes are not representative of the majority of Americans. The leftists who are saying incredibly cruel, terrible things on social media are in no way representative of the entirety of the American left. So it's important to keep that in mind as well. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez coming out and condemning, you know, that rally where they're cheering on the slaughter of Israeli civilians, that meant a lot to me. And I'm glad that she did that. She got backlash for that.

But I'm glad that she did it because that was the right thing to do. Stinky Stinky Feet says, I'm no expert on foreign policy, but I'm human. If humans can do this to other humans, including kids, we are doomed as a race, the human race. That's why it's so important to condemn it. It really, really is. Anyone who is complicit in it, anyone who justifies it, anyone who minimizes, you know, the absolute terror that those poor Palestinian civilians dealt with is just, they're

not on my side. That's the way I like to see it. Peter Hamby says bombs, bullets, bloodshed, a war of racist intent, nobody will win. Absolutely agree with you on that. Okay, so we're going to switch gears a little bit because I wanted to give you an update on a story that broke yesterday, having to do with a Republican lawmaker. It looks like there might be some consequences for him. So it looks like Republican members of Congress are looking to expel freshman Republican lawmaker George Santos. Now, New York House Republican lawmakers plan to introduce a measure to have Representative

George Santos expelled. So let me give you the details on who's involved. It includes Representative Anthony Di Esposito. He released a statement basically claiming that fellow New York GOP representatives, including Nick Lolta, Mike Lawler, Mark Molinaro, Nick Langworthy, and Brandon Williams will co-sponsor an expulsion resolution against Santos, and keep in mind that all of these Republican lawmakers are first-term freshman members of Congress. And so this is in response to the latest allegations. There is a superseding, there are superseding charges in regard to Santos's alleged crimes

in, in this case defrauding his own donors, stealing from his own donors. That's what the accusations are. You can go back to our coverage of that yesterday to learn more details about it. But the Republican lawmakers who are looking to expel Santos from Congress say the following. George Santos's many deceptions coupled with the ever-expanding legal case against him further strengthen my long-held belief that he is unfit to serve in Congress. And for that reason, I will be sponsoring a resolution immediately to expel George Santos from the House of Representatives, That was actually a tweet, I should say, from Di Esposito, yeah, Diaspico, who tweeted that on Wednesday. Now, the move comes after Santos was indicted earlier this week with 10 new criminal charges,

accusing him of stealing campaign, stealing from donors. Basically, he's alleged to have stolen his donor's financial information and charged their credit cards without permission. Moreover, he is also charged with lying to the FEC about campaign contributions from his family. Previously, the six lawmakers who were looking to expel Santos voted in May along with the rest of the GOP to defer the issue of dealing with Santos to the House Ethics Committee. Now, Santos faces 23 criminal charges, and I guess that changed their mind a little bit. So he, Santos is maintaining his innocence. He claims that he's done nothing wrong, but he is a well-known notorious liar. So I would take anything he says with a grain of salt, if that. But I do want to commend these Republican lawmakers for wanting to hold Santos

accountable. It's about damn time. And yesterday when we covered the latest charges against Santos, there was a little bit of concern that Republicans would circle the wagons and do what they tend to do, which is protect their own. But this guy is a liability for their party, and I'm glad that they see it. And it would be wonderful if the Republican Party was willing to hold more of their members accountable for their actions. And if we can get back to a place, maybe a pre new Gingrich era where we can have Democrats and Republicans actually working on behalf of the American people and would serve their best interests. It doesn't really help us to have all these sideshows going on. It doesn't help us to have an ineffective Congress that

fails to pass any legislation that actually improves conditions here in the United States. We have a serious migrant crisis going on. We have a serious housing crisis going on. Americans are struggling, suffering. And in the meantime, you have circus clowns like George Santos running around. It's unacceptable. And I'm really happy to hear that there are some Republican members of Congress who are looking to expel him. So we'll see how this plays up. I wanted to give you that update. And we'll see what happens. I mean, I don't know if they're going to be Republicans who are going to want to protect this guy. I'm really hoping that's not the case. But I wouldn't be surprised. We'll just wait and see. I hope that this resolution goes somewhere.

Drama in Congress, because as we know, Kevin McCarthy has been taken out of his speakership role in the House of Representatives, and Republicans are now looking to replace him. There's some big updates on that story, so let's get to it. Kelly, we do have a candidate. Steve Scalise has just hit the majority of the House Republicans. They have voted for him to be the nominee on the House floor for a speaker. Now, this does not mean that anything is done yet. Scalise has a long road in front of him at this point. That's right.

In a shocking move, the House of Representatives, Republicans specifically have nominated Representative Steve Scalise over Jim Jordan as their choice for House Speaker, at least for now. Now, there's going to be a broader vote on the House floor on this issue, and they are not going to hold that vote today. They'll hold that vote soon to determine Scalise's fate. But this could take a long time given the fracturing within the Republican Party, given the differences among some of the more traditional Republican wing of the party and the more populist MAGO wing of the party. Now, Scalise didn't have a huge majority among the House

Republicans. They voted 113 to 99 to nominate him. And so does he have a chance? I hate to say this, but the opinion of Matt Gates obviously matters quite a bit in this situation. Of course, he's the ringleader of this whole effort to oust McCarthy. And so here's what he had to say about Scalise. What's your reaction? Now that Scalise has a vote, speaker relaxed. All right, Matt. I'm excited for him. Can't wait to go vote for Steve Scalise. Absolutely. Long live, long live speaker Scalise. I gotta be honest, I'm a little bit surprised that he had no problem with Scalise.

Like Scalise is more in the traditional wing of the Republican Party, whereas Jim Jordan is more representative of the Matt Gates, MAGA wing of the Republican Party. But it seems like Matt Gates is open to voting for Scalise. I really don't care either way, whether it's Jim Jordan or Scalise. These are two individuals who have radically different political views from my own, and I highly doubt that they're going to carry out the best interests of their own constituents, much less what my political goals might be. But nonetheless, there are still some holdouts who would prefer Jim Jordan over Scalise. For example, you have Congressman Max Miller, who voted to remove McCarthy,

and he also voted to nominate Jim Jordan. And here's what he said, quote, I'm not switching my vote. I'm Jim Jordan all the way. Apparently, Representative Chip Roy also followed suit. And here's what he had to say. I will not be voting for Steve Scalise on the floor this afternoon. The House GOP should not have called a vote at 3 p.m. After finishing the vote at 1.30 in Congress, that is unacceptable and purposeful. These guys, I mean, they've got like real easy lives. They're like, oh my God. How dare they call a vote at three when we were doing something else at 1.30? I don't, why is that such a big, I don't understand why that's such a big deal.

Like, why is it so difficult for you to do two things within the span of like a few hours? Okay, anyway, Jim Jordan did not endorse Scalise after the nomination vote, which raises the possibility that he could continue fighting for the speakership role. But if today was a loss for Jim Jordan, then it might have been an even bigger loss for Donald Trump, who posted the first following just last week. Let's take a look. Congressman Jim Jordan has been a star long before making his very successful journey to Washington, D.C., representing Ohio's fourth congressional district. Jim, his wife, Polly, and family are outstanding. He will be a great speaker of the House and has my complete and total endorsement. It is interesting that Republican Congressman went against Trump's wishes here when it comes to House Speaker.

But we'll see if that develops and plays into, you know, any other issues among this infighting within the Republican Party. Now, in the midst of all this chaos to basically replace McCarthy with a new speaker, one representative is still seething over how they treated, how they were treated in the aftermath of the vote to oust McCarthy from the speakership role. And that person is Congresswoman Nancy Mace. Let's watch. I'm wearing the scarlet letter after the week that I just had last week being a woman up here and being demonized for my vote and from my voice. I'm here to let the rest of the world know and the country know. I'm on the side of the people.

I'm not on the side of the establishment. And I'm going to do the right thing every single time, no matter the consequences, because I don't answer to anybody in D.C. I don't answer anyone in Washington. I only answer to the people. You are a sitting member of Congress. You are not in a high school theater class. But theater is all members of Congress do today anyway.

I mean, that's all they waste our time with. So I'm not surprised. I don't care that she voted to Alice McCarthy. And she's going to take vote. She's going to make decisions as a sitting member of Congress that's going to lead to some backlash. It's going to lead to some support. Like, don't cry me a river. you have a powerful position in the United States Congress.

Like you're not some pariah because you voted against McCarthy for the speakership role. But I want to end this segment with a discussion on the interim speaker, the person who is serving a speaker as this chaos plays out. And they determine who the actual speaker will end up being. Because that person has some financial ties that are concerning. He's not the only one in Congress who has financial ties that are concerning. But this individual, the temporary House speaker is Patrick McHenry, who gaveled the House representatives out of session minutes after the vote came in in regard to Scalise.

So Capitol account reports that Wall Street would actually love to get him elected as speaker. And Wall Street often gets what it wants. Now, it doesn't seem like Republican members of Congress are even considering him at the moment. But I do think it's interesting to see how much Wall Street. loves McHenry. So much of the finance industry sees McHenry 47 as the adult in the room, someone who knows policy and how to get things done. As speaker, they argue he could be a steady hand in a very chaotic time, something that Republicans especially need now. McHenry would be a dream

candidate, notes one person. Now why would the finance sector like McHenry so much? Hmm. They couldn't be in his pocket, right? Except they kind of are. According to Open Secrets, McHenry has raised almost $3 million, $3 million from the securities and investment industry during his time in Congress. In other words, big business wants McHenry to bring Washington back to the status quo, which is kind of a weird way of framing it because we never really left the status quo when it came to policies that protect and provide cover for corporate greed.

But nonetheless, big business has certainly made an investment in McHenry. I want to give you a few more specific details. Since taking over the Financial Services Committee, oh goody, I'm glad he has that role. In January, McHenry has received at least $140,000 from executives at private equity firms, hedge funds, and venture capital firms, as well as from their spouses. Last election cycle, McHenry raised just $7,655, or just 0.2% of his campaign money from small donors, according to data from Open Secrets. That amount was lower than all but a dozen members of Congress.

So even though McHenry has stated that he has no interest in serving as speaker, Wall Street certainly loves him. And whenever Wall Street loves a politician, you got to follow the money and understand why that is. Either way, I don't really see Scalise as any different from McHenry when it comes to goodies and cookies for Wall Street. But we'll see how it plays out. The most frustrating part about Congress is the gridlock and the inability to pass legislation

to fix various broken issues, whether it's the migrant crisis, whether it's our issues with affordable housing. We obviously need to build more housing. We need to at least temporarily stop foreign investment in residential real estate when we have a housing shortage. There's so many issues, so many problems that these very members of Congress love to complain about on Twitter as if they're not sitting members of Congress who could actually draft and pass policies that would, you know, alleviate some of these issues. But instead, they're wearing the scarlet letter on their shirts, they're parading around, engaging in theater, pretending like they're important people doing important things. In reality, they act like children, they act like sideshows,

and it's incredibly frustrating. So who knows? Maybe there's a possibility that after they decide on who the speaker will be, they'll do something about the migrant crisis. They'll do something about these issues that Americans have been struggling with. I wouldn't hold my breath, but one can hope. All right, let's take a break. When we come back, we've got more news for you including, well, the story about the migrant crisis. Residents in Chicago are now suing the local government over the issue. A lot of blame going around, one Democrat blaming another. It's an incredible story. Don't miss it. We'll be right back. What's up, everyone? Welcome back to the show, Anna Casparian with you.

Just want to remind you all that there's a big announcement in the second hour of the show, so in about 20 minutes. So don't miss that. For now though, we've got some more news to get to, including a pretty big update on the migrant crisis. Now Chicago is building sprawling tent camps to get migrants off the streets of places like this ahead of the cold winter months. Democratic Illinois Governor J.B. Prisker slamming President Biden for not doing enough, writing the federal government's lack of intervention and coordination at the border has created an untenable situation for Illinois.

The White House blaming Congress for not acting and saying they've accelerated work permits and provided a billion dollars to cities nationwide. The Democratic Party's blame game over the migrant crisis continues, and it starts. starting to impact their base of voters. In fact, why don't we take a little trip to Chicago where South Shore residents in Chicago have decided to refile a lawsuit that aims to stop the city from housing asylum seekers in police stations and schools. That is literally what's happening right now.

The situation is so dire that these migrants are sleeping in encampments on the sidewalk, or they're sleeping on the floor. police stations. They literally opened up a high school that they had previously shut down recently to basically house the migrants in that school. And the community is understandably outraged because they shut down that school when kids in that neighborhood needed it. And then they decided to open it to house migrants. Now, I don't begrudge them for needing it some place to house the migrants. I totally understand where, you know, the local lawmakers are coming from. But I also understand where the local community is coming from. I understand why they

would want to file this lawsuit in the first place. Now, the lawsuit filed on September 26th by Natasha Dunn, Jimmy Darnell, Jimmy Darnell Jones and other residents seeks wider relief in addition to their initial case filed in May, which sought to stop the former South Shore High School from being turned into a shelter for migrants. It names the city of Chicago, Mayor Brandon Johnson, and Chicago Public Schools as defendants. Now previously the residents had decided to drop the first lawsuit after learning that the former high school would not be used to house the asylum seekers who have been arriving by bus from Texas. since last year. But after hearing the thousands of migrants would continue to come to Chicago,

the South Shore residents filed a broader lawsuit in Cook County Circuit Court. And they're basically saying, like, listen, the local community has been fighting for scraps for a long time now. And now we have a migrant crisis on top of it. And how exactly are local leaders serving us? How exactly are they able to serve the migrants who are in need of shelter, jobs, food, all of that? Now, more than 17,000 migrants have arrived in the city since August of 2022. The lawsuit argues that the use of public buildings as migrant housing is a nuisance to the community, and it also accuses the city of violating zoning ordinances around the former high school and other public areas. The suit calls for an audit of city funding used for migrants and related housing.

And, you know, they're also frustrated that Mayor Brandon Johnson isn't, I guess, rejecting the migrants and continues to take them in. I really don't know how much of a choice he has, to be quite honest with you. So I, when I see these stories, my head always goes straight to Congress, where you see members of Congress constantly complaining about the migrant crisis as if they don't have the power to do anything about it, as if they don't have the power to, you know, pass immigration reform, which we desperately need. And clearly at this point, there's hunger for that on both sides of the political aisle. So maybe get off social media and pass some legislation to deal with this. We need more immigration judges to fast track the asylum cases instead of deal with this insane backlog, right? You have asylum seekers. And that's

thing, that's our law. If asylum seekers come to the country and claim asylum, they must be heard before an asylum judge. They can't just be deported or rejected outright. If members of Congress have an issue with that, they would have to, you know, work on legislation. They would have to negotiate with the other side of the aisle. None of that is going on. All you see day in and day out is complaining in the media and on social media. It's just so pathetic. Now, the political ramifications are real for the Democratic Party. Unfortunately, we couldn't play the video of the lengthy press conference of the South Shore residents who have filed this lawsuit. It was covered by local media.

Local media is incredibly annoying when it comes to copyright claims, even when it falls under fair use. But nonetheless, I do think you all should watch that press conference because we're not talking about wealthy elites who are trying to. to reject migrants. We're talking about a majority black community who have been fighting for scraps, who do feel that they've been neglected by their local government. And it is unfair to them. So to have them shoulder the burden of a migrant crisis without the necessary resources is insane. And by the way, where is Congress?

More importantly, where is democratic leadership? This is a huge political liability for them. Are they doing anything about this? So apparently, according to Politico, they are in a muted way. Leadership, like what kind of leadership is that? So Democratic leadership in Congress has taken a muted approach to the issue, which has had a massive impact on major cities across the country, including Chicago and New York City. So apparently there's a lot of backroom wheeling and dealing going on with President Joe

Biden specifically, but it's clearly not enough. So is democratic leadership even doing anything relevant or significant behind the scenes? Here's what political reports. Schumer and Jeffries, meaning Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries, have had success political claims by quietly brokering meetings and lobbying those close to the president, according to five people, familiar with the efforts. And it comes as they are dealing with threats of a government shutdown and House GOP leadership. turmoil. Wow, what heroes. Congressional leaders are approaching a real crisis in the

country in a muted way, like real leaders would. Okay. So in mid-September, Biden expanded temporary protected status or TPS for Venezuelans. The designation made nearly 10,000 migrants in New York city, specifically eligible for work permits. My understanding is that this fast tracking of the temporary protected status was expanded to about 500,000 migrants. Schumer called the TPS change welcome news in Senate floor remarks after the announcement. And he said that I wrote to Secretary's Blinken and Majorcas in July that country conditions in Venezuela clearly met the criteria for TPS. So this is a good step forward, he said. Now, he could be fighting to lift sanctions on Venezuela so their economy isn't crushed by those sanctions and people aren't fleeing the

country looking for economic opportunity here in the United States. But as far as I can tell, that's not even a conversation right now. You know, maybe improve the conditions in the countries where people are coming from. And maybe they will be dissuaded from leaving everything behind to come here in the United States where no resources are allocated for them and they're forced to sleep in encampments and police station floors. They're also having meetings and patting themselves on the back for it. Schumer helped set up meetings with Jeffries and Mayor Adams in New York City and other New York representatives. This happened in late July. I'm not really interested in their meetings. If your meeting doesn't actually translate to something substantive to

actually help these local communities and these migrants. What bragging about your meetings does nothing. Jeffries played a key role as well with a closed door gathering taking place in his Capitol Hill office. They're taking meetings, everyone. And do not forget, it was Senator Schumer who already passed bipartisan comprehensive immigration reform in the Senate with wide bipartisan support only to see it die in a GOP house. That was a long, long time ago. I believe in 2010, if I'm not mistaken. Imagine bragging about something you almost accomplished,

like over a decade ago. All right. Now, Politico also reports that Schumer and Jeffrey's decision to back channel with the White House for expanded work authorization and more federal emergency funds speaks to the politically volatile nature of the problem. the Senate Majority Leader and his House Minority Counterpart, why to avoid inflaming a debate that Republicans are using to push moderates into their column on the 2024 ballot? I don't think they understand how angry residents in these local communities are, many of whom typically vote for their party. There is clearly a need to pass immigration reform.

you need to allocate resources through Congress. That's where the money comes from. It is appropriated through Congress. If Congress fails to appropriate the necessary resources, these cities are going to struggle in providing the shelter they need to provide for these migrants. And our broken immigration system will continue to yield the kind of results that we're seeing right now, which are unfair to everyone involved, including the migrants and members of these local communities. And is there anything else going on? Well, Republicans have totally seized the moment. The idea that

Schumer and Jeffrey is working behind the scenes, rather than working openly with members of Congress on this, has not worked out well for them. If they think that they're going to avoid criticism from Republicans, they're mistaken. In fact, here is Representative Nicole Malatakis, who said, the week when the mayor was saying this migrant crisis will destroy New York, Schumer was at the state fair eating corn. National Republican Campaign Committee spokesperson Savannah Viar jumped in two, saying that Hakeem, Jeffries, and Extreme House Democrats caused New York's migrant crisis, his refusal to offer any actual solutions other than hiding by

behind his lackeys screeching inaudibly at press conferences is why they're destined for doom on the ballot. And look, you look at the approval ratings of these Democrats, and Biden in particular, it's not looking good. And I think the reason why their numbers are dropping considerably is because of the way they've handled these types of crises, which impact everyone, of course, but in the case of the micro crisis in these big blue cities, obviously it's having an impact on the local population of Democratic voters. And they are upset. They're very upset. So Democrats on a state level are also upset with congressional Democrats and the Biden administration. You have Kathy Hochel, the governor of New York speaking out against him. You have Eric Adams,

the mayor of New York City, also speaking out against him. In fact, Adams is technique, which is basically ripping the White House and the leader of his party for, in his words, destroying the city and not providing enough migrant aid has basically hurt his reputation with Washington. Because that's how things work, right? You have to suck up to the Biden administration. And if you dare say anything negative about the Biden administration, even when the critique is justified, they'll just ice you out and appears that's what happened with Eric

Adams. Now one Democratic advisor who spoke to Politico on condition of anonymity, of course, because he or she doesn't want to deal with the retaliation said, getting federal assistance would be a lot easier if the two most powerful Democrats in Congress, Schumer and Jeffries, were out front fighting for their home state, meaning New York. And again, it is having an impact on how Democratic voters perceive the party and immigration overall, a Siena College Research Institute survey found more New Yorkers view migrants as a burden than a benefit, which is really, really sad to see. But again, I can understand where they're coming from. These are not bad people. These are people who are experiencing the migrant crisis, something that a lot of

border cities had experienced without the necessary resources. And if they're just neglected and left to deal with it without the necessary resources, there are going to be political consequences. Another Democratic Party official told Politico, obviously it's politically thorny, but you'd hope they'd step up some more. They've been totally absent. The only thing we're getting is the lion's share of asylum seekers. We're not getting the lion's share of funding. The official added that the 140 million in federal funding allocated for New York support of migrants is pennies in a crisis. Adams has estimated will cost $12 billion.

But, of course, there are always going to be some Democrats who are defending leadership. I didn't expect to see it from Representative Jamal Bowman, but here he is. He says that Jeffries was with me in Washington when we met with Homeland Security Secretary Majorcas and Mayor Adams to push the administration for more resources. So the leader is an essential part of this. And Kathy Wilde, who's president and CEO of the Partnership for New York Business Group, told Politico, they're 100% supporting the city, but they are not in a position to deliver the kind of funding that the situation requires because there's not a budget provision to cover billions of

dollars for humanitarian crisis for a humanitarian crisis as opposed to a natural disaster. Now, mind you, much like the Chamber of Commerce, she represents the business community. And the business community loves the migrant crisis. Why do I say that? Well, there's a tight labor market. They've been urging the Biden administration to provide these temporary worker visas or worker, I'm sorry, temporary protected status so these individuals can work. You have migrants flooding jobs, which does away with some of the leverage that workers

currently have. That leverage has led to better pay, better benefits. I mean, we've been covering those labor-related stories on the show. But understand that they don't want to pay higher taxes to provide the resources necessary to shelter the migrants and care for the migrants. They just want a larger pool of workers they can exploit, especially low wage workers. That's what they're excited about. So Kathy Wilde, super excited about the migrant crisis, thinks that the Biden administration handling it perfectly, dole out the temporary protected status, do nothing about passing legislation to reform,

our immigration policies and we're good to go. We're really winning with Democrats, aren't we? Not like we would win with Republicans on this matter. They've failed to pass any comprehensive immigration reform. And quite honestly, all I've seen in regard to their solutions is building a wall and just engaging in unbelievable cruelty toward asylum seekers. That's not the answer. But the lack of leadership among the leadership in the Democratic Party is depressing to say the least, and there is a political price for it. I just don't think they realize how deep that political price is. All right, we got to take a break when we come back. Big announcement in the second hour. Don't miss it. Thanks for listening to the full episode of the Young Turks,

support our work, listen ad-free, access members-only bonus content, and more by subscribing to Apple Podcasts at apple.com slash t-y-t. I'm your host, Jane. and I'll see you soon.