The Young Turks - David Pecker resigns; AT&T layoffs and outsourcing; Trump vs Google

Episode Date: August 29, 2018

David Pecker resigns from Postmedia board; AT&T layoffs and outsourcing; Trump accuses Google of rigged search results Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about you...r ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Starting point is 00:00:00 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. What's going on, everyone? But young Turks. Okay, thank you, Granik is bearing with you guys. We are going to have a fun, exciting, fascinating show for you guys.
Starting point is 00:00:24 Later in the program, we will be doing a poll. We need you guys to participate. And sorry, Alex Jones just a gift that keeps on giving. Oh, it's so good. Oh, no, no, you think, come on, yeah, we heard all the alien stuff, we heard the game frogs, we heard it all. What are you guys going back to that well for, if you will? We're not, not today.
Starting point is 00:00:42 No, no, no, no, you haven't seen this. What is on his personal phone? What was he searching? You're going to love it. You're going to love it. That's later in the program. All right, by the way, if you miss any portion of this program, are you nuts? Okay, you need to sign up for membership and get all the show.
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Starting point is 00:01:30 Alright guys, huge elections tonight. After the main show at 8.05 p.m. Eastern, again, t.y.t.com slash live. TY.t.com all of a sudden a very sexy new website, by the way. I like it. I know. It features Anna a lot, so all of a sudden. I actually admitted that I like that part of it. Yes, all of a sudden she loves it.
Starting point is 00:01:52 Anyways, so tonight, Arizona. So, Mr. I like to give the president different kinds of jobs. Sheriff Joe Arpio is up for election in Arizona. Florida, huge progressives in Florida, huge conservatives. It's a battle royale. Don't miss any of the election coverage tonight. And of course, all that will be available for members as well. Yes.
Starting point is 00:02:17 All right, Casper, let's get started. All right, we begin with some late breaking news from the day. David Pecker, the CEO of AMI National Enquirer, that is the publication under the parent company of AMI, has resigned, but not from AMI. He's resigned from post-media boards. That is a Canadian media company. They have released a press release saying that David noted that it is important for him to focus his efforts on ensuring that his businesses are best positioned for continued growth.
Starting point is 00:02:49 Now, again, he has not, as far as we know at this moment, resigned from AMI, parent company of National Inquirer. But what we do know about him is that he has turned on Trump. Remember, he is a Trump supporter who had done these catch-and-kill contracts with individuals who had dirt on Trump. And so now he's cooperating with investigators in regard to potential illegal campaign contributions. Who knows what he's going to tell authorities, but what we do know is it's not looking good for him if he's willing to resign from this board.
Starting point is 00:03:20 Yeah, so you don't get a twisted, catch and kill, not like Vladimir Putin, but you catch and kill a story, so they would pay a lot of money to someone who thought, hey, the National Enquirer is interested in the story about Donald Trump, I'm going to sell it to them and they're going to feature it. Wrong, not going to feature it. They're in cahoots with Donald Trump. That's why he has gotten immunity and given evidence against Donald Trump, it appears, and that's That's why he was in a world of trouble because some of the stuff they were doing was potentially
Starting point is 00:03:51 illegal and apparently definitely illegal. That's why he needed immunity violating campaign finance laws, among other possible legal violations. And so it's not good enough to get them off the AMI position because that company is apparently structured for lies, and that's kind of the whole point of the company. Have you ever checked out the National Enquirer? Have you ever seen any of their headlines? No, I always thought they were credible and legit. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:04:16 But a lot of people do, because a huge percentage of this country and all other countries are apparently mental. We just didn't know it until the internet when they formed a community of mental people. And so, and then started watching Info Wars. Anyway, so, by the way, I just want to give discredit to post media. Why? I mean, they're asking Pecker to step down, he has stepped down. So my question to them is they own most of Canada's newspapers.
Starting point is 00:04:46 Why did you have David Pecker on your board in the first place? A guy who runs National Enquirer, which is nothing but fiction and preposterous stories that have no connection to real news, it should be a deep, deep embarrassment to have that man on any news organization's board, let alone the political hatchet job that he's done apparently for years upon years on behalf of Donald Trump and others? Well, I think that this is yet another example of how the media, whether it be in the United States or other countries like Canada, is not dominated or controlled by the left. Okay, so the people that you hear crying about the media, being leftists, are usually the
Starting point is 00:05:29 people who know that the David Peckers of the world really do have more control than any progressive ever has. There's no such thing as liberal media, okay? There's definitely no such thing as progressive media with the exception of this show. Yeah, so if you say we're home, we're progressives, you're goddamn right, we are, okay, and we don't hide that at all, we're home of progressives. Join us, t.yt.com slash join. But if you say the CNN, a multi-billion dollar corporation is run by liberals who care about
Starting point is 00:06:00 what? Progressive policies? No, they are a public corporation. They care about maximizing profit, period. The end. All those multibillion dollar media corporations that are public in nature, by law must only care about maximizing profit. That means tax cuts for themselves, for corporations, for the rich, et cetera, deregulation,
Starting point is 00:06:24 allowing their mergers. These are all very, very conservative principles. And that's on a overall macro level before you go below the belt of the peckers of the world. And then, and those guys just have a personal agenda. and personally profited off of Republicans like Donald Trump. And to be fair, Pecker has been, you know, pushing out right-wing stuff for a long more time in a million, horrible, ridiculous articles against Hillary Clinton, but also did Donald Trump's
Starting point is 00:06:54 bidding within the Republican primaries and attack guys like Ted Cruz. He's the one that ran the articles about how Ted Cruz's dad might have killed JFK. And the most preposterous story the National Inquirer has ever run, that Ted Cruz had five mistresses. That is pretty ridiculous. Come on. After that, even National Inquirer readers have to be like, not credible. All right, well, I want to move on to other news.
Starting point is 00:07:20 We have a lot of stuff today, and this is a story that I care deeply about and doesn't seem like a lot of other places are talking about it. AT&T is outsourcing thousands of jobs, and this is after the Trump tax cuts have led to record profits for this corporation. give you exact numbers, ATNT is earning record profits spending billions on stock buybacks and is expecting an estimated windfall of $20 billion in savings from Donald Trump's tax reforms. So they're in a good financial situation, right? They're doing well. They have no reason to lay people off or outsource jobs. I mean, do they really need to make more money,
Starting point is 00:07:59 more profit? Yeah, they do. So 16,000 people in the United States have lost their jobs at the communications giants since 2011 as it continues to shut down call centers to consolidate facilities in the United States or in favor of offshore alternatives in countries such as India, the Philippines, and Mexico. So in some of the countries that they're outsourcing these jobs to, people make about $2 an hour. So what is the Republican response to that, right? We got to be competitive. So do we lower our wages to $2 an hour to compete?
Starting point is 00:08:29 Because their reaction to outsourcing has been, oh, more tax cuts. That's going to be the solution. That's going to solve the problem. Except it didn't solve the problem at all. They're making record profits because of these tax cuts. They're not using it on creating more jobs or paying their employees more. They're using it on stock buybacks, and they're still outsourcing jobs. One more stat.
Starting point is 00:08:51 In the past seven years, AT&T has closed 44 call centers. Foreclosures took place this year. So before we enter more of AT&T's lies, and look, you might find this weird, but I don't blame them for the lies. They're going to lie to you, they're going to cheat, they're going to take whatever they can, they're going to legally bribe politicians, that's their job, that's their job. So the thing that frustrates me is when people on TV pretend like corporations are humans and that they're patriotic. They're going to do the right thing.
Starting point is 00:09:23 They're going to do the right thing, that they have morals. No, it's not a person. It's a legal fiction and it is, it will do what it is programmed to do. is programmed to only maximize profit. That's the only code. So it will do whatever it takes to maximize profit. So did they lie about how they were going to hire Americans? Of course, of course they did.
Starting point is 00:09:43 It's the exact opposite. So I don't want people to get to misunderstand us either. Look, if you, it's possible that people are using AT&T less because there's no more phones in your home, for example. That's entirely possible. And so then if you don't have enough people calling into the call set, centers, you gotta shut them down. You can't keep them running forever if you don't have enough customers.
Starting point is 00:10:09 But that is not the case. It's not the case that they, of course, I'm giving a wild example about their home phones. In reality, of course, AT&T now has all the cell phone customers. And their call centers, yeah, and their call centers are just as busy as before. So it's not saying, no, you gotta keep your call centers open under all circumstances. No, no, no, no, that's not the case. In this case, they are just as busy, and I told you about their profits. We'll tell you a little bit more in a second.
Starting point is 00:10:36 Now, and if the offshoring, I probably blame them less than other people do for that. I get it. They want to cut their costs. And here it might cost you $10, $15 an hour, whatever it costs you. And in Bangladesh, it might cost $2 or less. Then move your ass to Bangladesh and be based in Bangladesh. You want to do that? That's fine with me.
Starting point is 00:10:56 You don't get to stay in the United States. You don't get to be headquartered in the United States. You don't get to take advantage of the U.S. while shipping all of your jobs abroad to Bangladesh, India, Mexico, wherever it is that you want to ship them off to. I have a slightly different view on that. To me, you don't need to be headquartered in Bangladesh. But you don't get to take advantage of all the things that America gets to provide.
Starting point is 00:11:17 And then offshore the jobs and go, ha ha, we get to do it. Okay, you get to do it. But that doesn't mean you also get to have tax cuts. Because you said the tax cuts were for hiring Americans. That was a lie. So okay, no problem, offshore anywhere you like, give me back the money. Yeah, look. That's billions upon billions of billions of dollars.
Starting point is 00:11:38 We have to pay as American tax fees. They gotta get the money from somewhere. AT&T's not paying it anymore. They said they did it on your behalf. What a sick joke. Now that that's proven, absolutely proven to be a lie, okay, great, let's get the money back. Why is your taxes now down the 21%? It was a 35%.
Starting point is 00:11:56 It hasn't created any new jobs. It wasn't for the American worker. It wasn't for the American citizens. It was for the executives of AT&T. So give us a goddamn money back. You outsource anywhere you're like. I'm not interfering with your business. You make any decisions you like.
Starting point is 00:12:10 You want to cut the call centers? That's fine. But don't do it with my money because now we're going to have to pay those taxes. 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 pedaling. lies that serve the interests of the rich and powerful. But now there's a podcast dedicated to unraveling those lies, debunking the conventional
Starting point is 00:12:35 wisdom. In each episode of Un-B-The Republic or UNFTR, the host delves into a different historical episode or topic that's generally misunderstood or purposely obfuscated by the so-called powers that be, featuring in-depth research, razor-sharp commentary, and just the right amount of vulgarity, the UNFTR podcast takes a sledgehammer to what you thought you knew about some of the nation's most sacred historical cows. But don't just take my word for it. The New York Times described UNFTR as consistently compelling and educational, aiming to challenge conventional wisdom and upend the historical narratives that were taught in school.
Starting point is 00:13:16 For as the great philosopher Yoda once put it, you must have learned 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. Hell no. Yeah, look, there's a number of different things going on.
Starting point is 00:13:50 First off, remember, AT&T, is doing this mega merger with Time Warner. So this is a telecommunications company which is monopolizing the market. We already had an issue with telecommunications companies monopolizing the market. So if you live in certain areas of the country, you have no choice. You have no options. If you want internet, if you want a phone connection, you have to deal with one corporation and one corporation only.
Starting point is 00:14:13 So they monopolize the market while simultaneously getting these massive tax benefits. Then they outsource the jobs to other countries, and they fire a bunch of Americans who rely on these jobs. And like, it's a number of different things. This is a layered issue, a layered problem. And just to give you more details on the merger with Time Warner, in the first six months of 2018, AT&T reported nearly $10 billion in profit as the company seeks to finalize this $85 billion merger with Time Warner.
Starting point is 00:14:44 has spent $16.45 billion on stock buyback since 2013, including $419 million in the second quarter of 2018 alone. That's the most that it's spent on buyback since 2014. So look, the stock buybacks, the bad behavior, it was happening under Obama's watch. I'm not giving him a pass on that at all. But it's now amplified, accelerated under the Trump administration. So let me be clear, and I know that people get frustrated sometimes when I keep emphasizing this.
Starting point is 00:15:14 So you want to make money and you do it in a way that is not harmful to rest of society. I think we should rewrite the code of public corporations so they have a second priority. It's not just the maximized profit. But after that, you make a lot of money, bless your heart. So look at the money they're making, $10 billion in just the first half of the year. So they're slated to make about $20 billion in profit. In profit. Okay.
Starting point is 00:15:42 But what you don't need is a tax cut. When you tell us you need, you need a tax cut, otherwise you won't have, you won't be able to do good business in America. A preposterous lie, only someone who is deeply, deeply corrupt would tell you that lie, like politicians who are bought off by AT&T and other public corporations through their donations and people they might want to merge with, like people that run cable news stations that are owned by Time Warner who are probably not doing this story about AT&T and how they robbed you blind.
Starting point is 00:16:16 Oh, is that why they're not covering the story? Huh, interesting. You know, the funny thing is you tell mainstream media that they're like, well, that sounds like a conspiracy theory. A public corporation want to maximize profit is a conspiracy theory? Well, that's the most wide open conspiracy that's ever been reported. I mean, you have to have either a childlike innocence or be not very bright to understand how those corporations work.
Starting point is 00:16:41 So last thing, because this is, to me, the worst of the lies. So they said, okay, look, we're giving bonuses to everybody because of the tax cuts, and they said they were going to give a $1,000 bonus to 200,000 employees. Lie number one was, no, that had been previously negotiated with the unions. The unions had gotten that $1,000 bonus for the workers. Then they go and pretend that it's the exact opposite, that it was a Republican tax cut that did it. Okay, so that lie is bad enough, but the second lie is the worst. They said, oh, we're going to invest a billion dollars into America and to American workers, and it's going to create
Starting point is 00:17:18 7,000 jobs. Now, the communication workers of America, in this case, is a union that would love that, and they would applaud 18. Sometimes those guys turn around and are against Democrats, because they're like, hey, listen, if you give a tax break or other breaks to the corporation that my guys work at, some of it's going to come to me, and they go and support those things. So they are aligned with AT&T on that count. So they did an analysis because they care about the guys that they represent. It turns out AT&T since the tax cuts has not added 7,000 jobs, they have done literally the exact opposite.
Starting point is 00:17:53 They have fired 7,000 people. Now, again, your business isn't doing well or it's in a struggling industry, whatever it might be, right? You got to lay off workers, it happens. But you make $10 billion in six months. You didn't have to lay off those workers. You chose to lay off those workers. You chose to lie and say that you were going to add 7,000 workers.
Starting point is 00:18:16 And then you say, but I need the tax cuts. I need you, the American taxpayer, to pay more and me to pay less, because poor AT&T. So I want to quickly clarify that as well, because the corporate tax rate was cut from 35% to 21% under the Trump tax plan. And so when people say, well, the middle class is paying more in taxes. than these corporations are, sometimes you'll get a response saying, no, that's not true. They're paying 21%. Most middle class Americans don't pay 21.
Starting point is 00:18:45 They don't actually pay 21%. Because remember, the GOP did not close corporate tax loopholes. They remain in place. They remain intact. So their effective tax rate went from 17% to 9%. I guarantee you most middle class Americans are paying more in federal taxes than 9%. If you're a conservative, independent, it doesn't matter who you are, and you think the system is You're absolutely right.
Starting point is 00:19:09 It is rigged. It's rigged exactly with laws like this. Donald Trump told you he was going to close a loophole on hedge funds. They pay way lower taxes than you do. They're the richest people in the world. I don't mind them making money, bless their hearts. But why not pay the same taxes that everybody else does? Why not pay the taxes at your bracket?
Starting point is 00:19:27 Because why they bribed the politicians like incredibly corrupt Donald Trump. So he lied straight to your face saying he'd take that loophole away. Guess what? Didn't take it away. They didn't take any of the loopholes away, any of them. So what do they do? They lowered taxes on corporations, kept all the loopholes, and they robbed you blind. So that's how the system is rigged.
Starting point is 00:19:49 It's as clear as day. They give campaign donations, yes, to corrupt Republicans and Democrats, and they do independent expenditures. They do dark money spending. What is that? You and I know what it is? It's a bribe. It's a bribe. They bribe all of them, including the most corrupt of them all, Donald J. Trump.
Starting point is 00:20:10 And at the end of the day, they come out and tell you pretty stories about bonuses and how they're going to add jobs. Next thing you know, your job's chipped off to India. You're screwed. If you're lucky, you get another job at minimum wage, which is still down at $7.25 for the country. That's $15,000 a year. You've got to somehow support your family on that. That's how the system is rigged. One more story before we go to break.
Starting point is 00:20:35 Jared Kushner's real estate company has been found committing wrongdoing in pushing individuals out of rent-controlled properties in order to then rent them out to people who are willing to pay more. Now, this is all in New York City, and the way New York City works, just like many other cities throughout the country, with rent-controlled buildings, is if a tenant is living in a rent-controlled unit, that individual's rent cannot increase, you know, a giant amount in any given year. The landlord can increase it incrementally, a tiny percentage each year. And that's a way of making sure that people have affordable housing.
Starting point is 00:21:15 Now the only way that the tenant or the only way that the owner or landlord can charge more or market value is if the person moves out of the rent controlled unit and a new person moves in. At that point, they can rent it out for market value. Now, with that said, what Jared Kushner's company was found guilty of doing was creating a situation that was so uncomfortable for the tenants living in those rent-controlled units that a lot of them couldn't take it anymore and they moved out. So when he would file for permits in order to do construction, he needed to note the exact
Starting point is 00:21:50 number of people living in rent-controlled units. He lied in those documents. So in order for the city to approve construction, they need to make sure that the construction isn't going to be burdensome for those living in the rent-controlled units. He purposely lied so the city wouldn't oversee what he was doing or oversee the construction that was taking place. They wanted the city to essentially green light the construction. Anyway, the Associated Press did great work in investigating this, and that led to lawmakers
Starting point is 00:22:20 in New York looking into it themselves, and they've issued a fine. That's the update to this story. So how much is this fine? $210,000. That's it. Yeah, they're gonna brush that off. That's no big deal to them. So I think the worst part of this is how they did it.
Starting point is 00:22:40 And it's just how the powerful crush to powerless is just unfortunately the incessant drumbeat of our lives in America. There are oligarchs who rule us and Jared Kushner is one of them. He was running the company at the time. They chose to do this, that's why they had been fined. And it was good groups like housing rights initiative that launched this, not against Jared Kushner. They launched it to make sure, against the landlords to make sure that they're not screwing over the tenants in general.
Starting point is 00:23:11 By the way, one of the guys who was also doing it, Michael Cohn. So if it was a political hit job at this point, they would actually want to protect Michael Cohn because he's turning evidence against Donald Trump. But they are not, because that's not what they care about. They care about housing rights. Yeah. So one of the advocates for tenants said they were, quote, weaponizing construction. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:23:32 So, let's read some of those quotes. They're amazing. So first, I want to tell you just how widespread this was. Let's go to Graphic 10. So the New York City Department of Buildings Find Kushner Coes for filing 42 false applications for construction work in 17 buildings saying that there were no rent regulated tenants. in the units. It was just a flat out lie.
Starting point is 00:23:56 Okay. So let's fast forward to Graphic 13. Kushner Coes was able to clear out 250 residents in three years from the 338 unit Brooklyn building so their apartments could be sold, earning the firm $155 million in sales. Okay, and to the statement that Jenk was alluding to earlier, yeah, they talk about how they essentially weaponized construction, driving out tenants, paying low. lower rent with constant noise, ripped up apartments, and interrupted plumbing. So that's not all.
Starting point is 00:24:32 So I thought when I first heard about this story, that it was mainly just driving them out with unbearable noise. And sometimes they do it during the day, sometimes they do it during night on purpose to drive them crazy. By the way, this is what we did to Noriega, to drive them out of the embassy when he was hiding. This is what we do to torture people so they turn themselves in. And so, but they're doing it for profit here and oftentimes get away with a good job by New York City in catching them in this time.
Starting point is 00:24:57 But it's not just the noise. They rip up their plumbing. So then they can't take a shower, they don't have any water, they can't brush their teeth, they don't have any plumbing. So there was flooding in some of these units as a result of that. Some of the tenants complained of toxic dust, which often happens if you're doing construction in an old building. Noise, as we mentioned, and rodent infestations, because that's fun.
Starting point is 00:25:20 No, but think about how bad a guy you have to be to think, hey, you know what, I bought this building knowing that it is rent control. It has rent control apartments in it. I've calculated that into my cost, but that's inconvenient to me. And these people can't afford this apartment otherwise, I got a great idea. I will ruin their lives until I drive them away from that apartment. And then I don't care where they go, they probably can't afford any other apartments around here.
Starting point is 00:25:49 I don't maybe move out of the city, I don't care, but I'm gonna maximize profit. How am I gonna do it? I'm gonna release rats basically into their apartment, I'm gonna flood their apartment, I'm gonna cut their water, and I'm gonna do construction day in and day out until I drive them crazy and then they leave. And this is, and then all the society in America celebrates people like this and they're like, yeah, but hey, they're successful, what does it mean to be successful? Right.
Starting point is 00:26:15 Successful, how? By what metric? To me, that's not success. These people are monsters. So yes, Jared Kushner, who does that, rules people's lives so he could, he has apparently $811 million, but it's not enough. It's not enough. He's got to release rats into your house, destroy your life for another couple of million
Starting point is 00:26:38 dollars. Right. And so I want to be fair, I want to give you the reaction from Kushner Coes. They basically have denied any wrongdoing. They say that they're going to appeal this fine. Kushner, Jared Kushner, was the individual running this company at the time that these false reports were submitted to the city. So I want to be clear about that.
Starting point is 00:26:59 So what are they saying happened? They're blaming it on a third party. Because, you know, Republicans, the party of responsibility, doesn't want to take responsibility for what happened here. Jared Kushner was the head of this company when this happened. So how about the CEO, the head of the company take ownership of the president of the company, of the wrongdoings that occurred at this time frame. This was right before he decided to leave the company to go work for Trump.
Starting point is 00:27:26 He still has, he's still a stakeholder in the company. So that leaving the company is irrelevant, he still makes money off of it. And look, as with the big banks that rip you off all the time, the mistakes are never against them. They're always somehow against you. Oh, golly, gee, a third party wound up making me a lot of money. But I didn't happen to check in that they were releasing rats and trying to purposely drive you crazy.
Starting point is 00:27:49 Did I make money off of that? If that third party was costing them money, do you think they would have found out immediately? And they would have regulated on their ass. Instead, and besides which, I don't even believe them. I think this is part and parcel of what they do. That's why they were fine. And this happens all the time. All right, we gotta take a break when we come back, Google.
Starting point is 00:28:13 Is it doing bad things to conservatives? Bad, that's what Donald Trump says. The word bad, Google bad. Okay, we'll explain when we come back. All right, back on the young Turks, Jen and Anna with you guys. Let me give you guys some context here. On YouTube super chat, Craig Adolfi says the Sun Networker papers are the Canadian newspaper equivalent of Sinclair.
Starting point is 00:28:40 They're far right propaganda, but they dominate local markets here. Unfortunately, same everywhere, apparently. Yep. It's unfortunate. Jared Kraft writes in on YouTube Super Chat. Love the new site, but can you work on the video player so we can Chromecast with it? Me and my wife often work from home and watch all your shows. No.
Starting point is 00:29:00 I'm kidding. Of course we'll work on that. One thing at a time, guys. But when you send notes, it does help, okay? And we put them all in what we call a product roadmap because we're fancy like that. we go work on them one at a time. Okay? So thank you. Keep sending in the notes. Look, we're doing this together. You're the young Turks. So help us make it better and better. Yeah, you know it helps me make no filter better when you guys go on iTunes and you leave a five star rating
Starting point is 00:29:27 on the podcast. No filter with Anna Casperian. Check it out. All right, Casper. Don't leave any bad ratings. If you have any issues, just tweet me about it. I'll work on it. Okay. And I will give you, and, you know, asking you shall receive, we are here to serve the audience. Birkeneks on Twitter writes, Jank Uger's comment on going below the belt to the peckers of the world deserves the Beavis and Butthead laugh from the soundboard. Yes. Agreed. I don't want to distract from the story, but during a postgame soon, we need to discuss
Starting point is 00:30:04 the last name pecker. We just need to. But it has to be discussed. We have to. Also later discussed, the alleged pronunciation of the word. of Coburn, but that is not how it's spelled. Anyways, okay, in all seriousness though, on the post-game tonight, the downside of Sasha Baron Cohen, his last episode was kind of heart-wrenching and I felt so bad for a conservative.
Starting point is 00:30:31 I'll explain why. So come join us, t.yt.com slash join, get all the member shows. All right, what's next, Dana? Okay. Donald Trump is concerned about Google search engine. He believes that there is a conspiracy against conservatives and that the search engine only brings up negative content pertaining to Trump. And this is all based on a non-scientific self-admitted, non-scientific study that was done by an organization known as pajamas media. So we'll get to that study in just a minute. But Donald Trump tweeted the following.
Starting point is 00:31:08 Google search results for Trump news shows only the viewing reporting of fake news media. In other words, they have it rigged for me and others so that almost all stories and news is bad. Fake CNN is prominent, Republican conservative, and fair media shut out. Illegal. And then 96% of results on Trump. I can't, whatever, I'm done. I'm done with this. I'm done with this tweet.
Starting point is 00:31:34 You guys can read it for yourself. No, but ending is important. This is a very serious situation. Will be addressed. Right, right. That's the president of the United States threatening Google. You better show up with positive news results for me. Even if they wouldn't normally show up in your algorithm, otherwise we will address your company.
Starting point is 00:31:52 That is chilling speech and potentially unconstitutional, et cetera. So let's break this down. There's a couple of layers to this. One is algorithms, and there is a real legitimate issue there. Not the one that Donald Trump's talking about. We'll talk about the so-called study, but before we do anything else, I got to always note for the record that the president as a child, they have a rig, he says with all caps, of course, for me and others, it's so unfair, it's so unfair, okay, and so that almost all stories
Starting point is 00:32:26 and news is bad, fake CNN is prominent. Every part of it reads like a temper tantrum from a five-year-old. You're right. So yesterday on the show, Brett and I discussed how Trump thinks highly of himself. It might just be a defense mechanism. He might actually not think highly of himself. But it appears that he does think highly of himself because he fails to comprehend why and how any news organization would write anything negative about him. Right? Like, I hate to break it to you. Negative search results come up because you do bad things all the time, right? So that's just the fact of the matter. By the way, when it comes to Google's search engine and their algorithm, there are problems. But the problem is not what Trump just mentioned. The problem is that Google does literally the exact opposite of what Trump believes that Google does.
Starting point is 00:33:20 So Google, Facebook, a lot of social media giants create what's known as thought bubbles, right? And it's actually devastating. It's not a good thing because people will see search results based on. what Google believes you want to see. So if you are reading, let's say, conservative outlets or progressive outlets, the search results will show you what they think your political ideology is. Several months ago, it was revealed that Facebook, if you go into your settings, you can see what Facebook has determined about your political ideology. I did that, and it said that I'm left-leaning, right? Or I think it said something even more extreme than that. But whatever,
Starting point is 00:34:01 It doesn't matter. It was right. It was based on what I post. And so they put you in these categories based on your political ideology and then they serve up content that they believe that you'll like and you'll agree with. That's not a good thing. That's a bad thing. You want to get out of that bubble and understand other perspectives.
Starting point is 00:34:19 Okay. So there are legitimate criticisms of algorithms that is one of them. And by the way, if you're wondering, why do they do that? It is for self-interest as any corporation would. So why is it their self-interest? If they serve you things that you like, you increase time spent on the platform. So if you're on Facebook and they keep serving you things, you're like, ooh, I like that conspiracy.
Starting point is 00:34:43 I like that one too. Oh my God, I think Obama is an alien, right? You spend more and more time on Facebook. If they serve you things you don't like, you click out. So they're only doing it because of human nature and to maximize profit. Now that doesn't mean that it's the right thing to do, but you should be cognizant of you of those real issues. Another real issue with the algorithms, I talked to a UCLA law, I'm sorry, UCLA professor
Starting point is 00:35:07 on TYT interviews, which you should check out. And he made a great point. He's like, look, it's generally men, young to middle age men in Northern California, that write all the code for these algorithms. You know, smattering of code writers in other places, there's some women. And it is, at this point, mixed race, Asians, whites, South Asians, et cetera, right? But that small group of men pretty much set the culture for the world, because the algorithm
Starting point is 00:35:38 becomes the culture. And so those are really interesting conversations about algorithms instead of, me don't like algorithm, it bad, it does say nice things about me. No, no, you schmuck. That's not how it works. No, but it's even worse than that, Jank, because he's basing that emotional reaction on a non-scientific... Stop.
Starting point is 00:36:04 Do you know how fast you were going? I'm going to have to write you a ticket to my new movie, The Naked Gun. Liam Nissan. Buy your tickets now. I get a free chili dog. Chili Dog, not included. The Naked God. Tickets on sale now. August 1st.
Starting point is 00:36:18 Study by an organization called Pajamas Media. And by the way, the person who ran this study, she admitted that her name is Paula Bullard. She admitted this is non-scientific, but nonetheless, she made a big deal about it. So let me tell you how the study was done. Let's go to Graphics 17. When she searched for Trump within Google News, within the first 100 results, CNN appeared 21 times, the Washington Post and NBC News 11 times, while right-leaning sites like the Wall Street Journal appeared only three times and Fox News twice.
Starting point is 00:36:53 So she's arguing, would you look at that? I go to Google News, I type in Donald Trump, right, or Trump News. And what comes up is a bunch of establishment news organizations. Yeah, guess what doesn't pop up? The Young Turks doesn't pop up. Are we gonna run around and say, oh, they have a progressive news bias? No, they have an independent news bias because of course CNN's gonna pop up. Of course NBC is gonna pop up.
Starting point is 00:37:20 They consider those news organizations legitimate, whereas independent news sources are considered illegitimate. Well, look, look, no, no, let's be fair, because that's that one's, that's a That's an open question that I'm very curious about. So she says, not only did Fox News and Walser Journal not show up that much, but she says PJ Media didn't show up. I got bad news for you. There's a good reason for that.
Starting point is 00:37:42 Nobody knows PJ Media, almost nobody goes to it. National Review doesn't show up weekly standard, Breitbart, the Blades, Daily Wire, Hot Air, Town Hall, Red State, all these conservative sites didn't show up. But we did our own study, and I guess now it can be called a study too, because we did the same exact thing she did. It was non-scientific, but still. Right, but no, they're calling it, but now the Hill and all the other newspapers are, like, they explain it's not scientific, but they then keep referring to it as a study.
Starting point is 00:38:07 I know, I know, yes. So anyway, we did the same study, and the young Turks didn't show up either. By the way, you're just Googling Trump. That's super hard to show up in the first hundred results. And now I use us as an example, partly because, of course, we're familiar with us, et cetera, but because we're also the largest online progressive network. So that's a fact. And so, it's not like, hey, PJ, BJ media that nobody's heard of, right?
Starting point is 00:38:33 It's a thing that certainly could show up in results. And my guess is if you did it on YouTube, you get different results and we might show up there because of our size, et cetera. But our point, to me, the really interesting question is, do they have a white list or not? Okay. They say fervently that they do not have a white list. Yes, they do. Okay, now you think they do. I don't know.
Starting point is 00:38:55 A whitelist, if you don't know, is obviously the opposite. opposite of a blacklist. So blacklist means you're banned. A white list means you are more heavily promoted, okay? So if they have a white list, it is probably because the mainstream media put enormous pressure on them. They did. Okay?
Starting point is 00:39:16 You have to be legitimate. And the only way you're going to be legitimate is if you make us more money. No, but they have. They have done that. This is not, by the way, this is not me trying to spew some crazy conspiracy theory. They have done that, and they've, the mainstream press has done that not just with Google, they've done it with Facebook, they've tried to do it with YouTube, and they've succeeded to some extent, right?
Starting point is 00:39:35 Because, and they've done it indirectly through this whole fake news debate, right? No, I, I, so again, let me be clear. Has CNN, et cetera, put on pressure like that, absolutely. And so is the New York Times, Washington Post, et cetera, right? Has Facebook and YouTube succumb to it? Well, they're two totally different organizations. and there are gradations of it. So one thing that they can do is they can give money to certain programs and not give it
Starting point is 00:40:03 to certain programs. And so that's one way of doing it, right? Another way of doing it is actually affect the algorithm. Now, my guess is, and now at that point, that's the part we don't know. You don't know if they have a white list. And I actually, I'm as skeptical as I am about the mainstream media, et cetera. And here we're trying to give you all the nuance here and look at it from both perspectives. I don't want them discriminating against anyone against us or against the right wing.
Starting point is 00:40:28 I believe in the free marketplace of ideas. I believe we will maul them and we have mauled them. Just let us have at it, Haas, okay? So, but I think Google doing a white list for their algorithm would be very surprising to me. That messes with their core product, which makes billions upon billions of dollars, and it does it by feeding you the things that are most likely to give you the search results you want. That's how they crushed their competition. It would be very foolish on their part, and I don't think they're that dumb to go and create
Starting point is 00:41:01 a white list for their search algorithm, which is the very core of their business. So I could be wrong, but that's where the open question is. See, this is an interesting conversation about the algorithms. They know like me. They rigged system against Trump. No, they're not going in there and going, okay, make sure that you put negative results for Trump. That is preposterous. There's no way they're doing that.
Starting point is 00:41:24 One other thing that I want to mention, I am so sick and tired of this nonsense regarding CNN being left-wing news. Are you kidding me right now? So CNN, the same cable news network that gave Trump unlimited free advertising during the last election, they're the left-winger's, the ones who refused to go to Bernie Sanders' speech and instead went to Trump's empty podium waiting for Trump to show up, that's left-wing news, really? The same cable news network that had Scotty Nell Hughes on regularly, but did not have a progressive counter, you know, person to come on and debate her. They had me on
Starting point is 00:42:04 once, once, okay? Brian Stelter had me on once with Scotty Nell Hughes. I crushed it, never got invited back again, okay? But Scotty Nell Hughes kept making appearances on CNN. But it's not me being bitter. I don't care about appearing on CNN. What I do care about is actually debunking this nonsense about how CNN is left-wing news. One other thing, Corey Lewandowski, what happened to him? Did he get hired as a contributor at CNN? I believe he did. No, you guys don't. Look, come on. Now, you can say, hey, today Donald Trump was president, so of course we have to have Donald Trump supporters on CNN for balance. That's what they would say, right? But wait a minute. He wasn't president during the primaries. He wasn't president during the general
Starting point is 00:42:44 election. Even if you want to grant him the general election, he got $2 billion of free media during the primaries, whereas Bernie Sanders, from the network news, got one-16th of the coverage of Donald Trump. Trump got 16 times the coverage of Bernie Sanders. So sometimes there are biases, but there are biases that come from places that are understandable. They're not right, but there's group think. There's group thinking cable news. There's group think in Washington, D.C.
Starting point is 00:43:14 Oh, Donald Trump is entertaining and interesting. Now, why does the guy who runs CNN think that? he's Jeff Sucker. He's the guy who hired Donald Trump to host the apprentice when he was at NBC. So, of course, he thinks Donald Trump is interesting. He has a history of getting ratings from Donald Trump. He doesn't give a damn about the national discourse. He doesn't care about being fair to progressives.
Starting point is 00:43:36 Okay, so you could have a debate as to, you know, how they should have done that coverage. And I think that it's a fair debate as to whether the group think biases the national media outlets against progressives like Bernie Sanders. And by the way, he gets conservatives. And so radical conservatives, I think there's a good reason to be against them. But you get there outside of the mainstream and the establishment news has a particular point of view about them. But what is not legitimate is saying Google goes in and writes code saying, we hate Bernie
Starting point is 00:44:09 Sanders, make sure you only bring up the negative stories about him. Or we hate Donald Trump, only bring up the negative stories about him. That is preposterous. As much as I like Bernie Sanders, there's no reason to believe that Google is doing that. If you say editors of the Washington Post have a certain worldview that then gives them a perspective that is against Bernie Sanders or against Donald Trump, that's an interesting and legitimate debate. Not whether Google is rigging their algorithm against these politicians. Finally, Larry Kudlow, who is Trump's economic advisor, addressed whether or not something might be done about Google and its search engine. Take a look.
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Starting point is 00:45:39 That's EXPRE S-SVPN.com. TYT. Check it out today. Larry, the president said this morning, he's unhappy, a separate topic with Google and the search results that are coming up. And he said that there could be consequences coming Google's way. Does the president believe or does the administration feel that there needs to be some form of regulation for Google? Or what exactly was the president referring to that? We'll let you know. We're taking a look at it.
Starting point is 00:46:07 We'll let you know. So we're taking a look at it. My guess is Larry Kudla had no idea what they were talking about. I hope so. And he's like, oh, he tweeted something again. Oh, yeah, we're taking a look at it. Yeah. But the consequence of that is not good.
Starting point is 00:46:23 When the top's chief economic advisor, the president's chief economic advisor says, oh, you, the president has an insane conspiracy theory against this particular company, well, we're going to look into them. Yeah, it doesn't look good. Yeah. And basically threatening consequences against that company. It presents First Amendment issues. It presents a lot of issues when the government is taking action against what they perceive to be their political opponents.
Starting point is 00:46:54 We've got to take a break. When we come back, one of my favorite stories of the day, some more details into Duncan Hunter and what he spent his money on, campaign money wrongfully, illegally, criminally. Okay, and by the way, great story when we return, which is Donald Trump talking to evangelical leaders and giving his opinion of the left. You're going to love that story. Now, by the way, some of you get some portions of this show, but not the whole show. Please get the whole show. Make sure you don't miss any of these fantastic stories. You do that by becoming a member. Very reasonable price. You get all the progressive programming you want. t-y-t.com slash join. All right, we'll come right back. We hope you're enjoying this free clip from the Young Turks. If you want to get the whole show and more exclusive content while supporting independent media, become a member at t-y-t.com slash join today. In the meantime, enjoy this free second.
Starting point is 00:48:00 All right, back on a young Turks, Jank and Anna with you guys. Lots of comments. Let me go through them as quickly as I can. Let's go to YouTube super chat first. Stabby 666 says, funny thing is, Google will buy us a search toward what you've looked at before. So if Trump is seeing all these fake news sites, it means he looks at them more than conservative sites.
Starting point is 00:48:18 So that's another possible. Oh, Drums. Right, except he's actually quoting the so-called study. Yeah, he doesn't- And to be fair, the woman who did the study did incognito, so that it wouldn't do that. We're the fairest show in America. By the way, I've mentioned this on the show before, but in case you've missed it in the past. If you want to get search results without the thought bubble component of it,
Starting point is 00:48:40 use Duck, Duck, Duck Go. It's what I tell my journalism students about. It doesn't give you any thought bubble search results. It's really good. Yeah, fascinating. Yeah. Not buying it. Okay. Connor Lazaru writes in Trump voice, whenever I Google my name, Donald Trump, all I see are little children and my former associates in jail. Why so biased? Connor, I hope I did your comment justice. Elliot, as a software engineer, I do strongly believe that they do fiddle with their rankings based on my personal experience. Prior to 2016, TYT would pop up after a few keystrokes.
Starting point is 00:49:19 Now it's more picky. That's interesting. Okay. Interesting. Have you been blacklisted? Should we make? We should like. I know.
Starting point is 00:49:27 If we were like the right wing, we would cry nonstop. They blacklisted us. They did it. They discriminated against us. Like, well, how, based on what? How do you know, right? We just told you, hey, you couldn't find us in the top 100 either, but we didn't need a safe space for it. Anyway, Brian Brawler says, being a TYT camera person, it must be hard not to laugh during live segments,
Starting point is 00:49:47 especially with some of the voices that Jenk and Anna do on air. Well, I thank you, and I had not noticed that before I just did the Trump books. Okay, last two things are tweets because they're so good. Gabby Marita says, me thinks the guy who almost definitely committed crimes to in an election might not want to accuse other people of rigging anything, but as always, right-wing projection, that's exactly right, because he thinks I would rig it. That's what I do all the time. I rig whatever I can. And then finally, Liberal Mommy 82 says, when I type in the Black Plague, it only tells me terrible things about him.
Starting point is 00:50:24 No, we've got to get her a T-shirt. Okay, no. That's weird. I got, look, next segment, I'll tell you how it's complicated. I always forget it. The producers are a real. remind me. But Liberal Mommy 82 is going to get a t-shirt, and so does Connor Lazarus, because yours was also very, very funny. Okay, thank you guys for participating.T.com slash join for membership. All right, here we go. Robert Jefferson is an evangelical leader, God help evangelicals, and he is sometimes accused of hypocrisy because he's an unbelievable hypocrite, but specifically on the issue of Donald Trump. I mean, they told us our whole lives. Family values of morality.
Starting point is 00:51:07 Donald Trump, meanwhile, with 18 different mistresses and raw dog style. Oh, come on. Right after his wife had a kid, he goes and has an affair, lies about it, pays hush money. Now evangelical leader is going around. I mean, I mean, who, come on, a mistress, hush money, of course, of course, morality. I never cared about morality. So how is he going to answer that charge? So this is fun to begin with, but wait until you get a load of what Donald Trump said back to
Starting point is 00:51:34 Okay, so first let's watch the so-called pastor. This is not what you would ever do as a leader of your church. You would preach against much of what the president's done in his life. Is that a fair tradeoff for you then on the judges, on the issue of abortion and those other things? Well, first of all, Shannon, to be fair, we have to understand these are still allegations against the president. So I'm not going to judge the president on these things. But even if they were true, some of these allegations, I mean, obviously we don't support extramarital affairs. We don't support hush money payments, but what we do support are these presidents' excellent policies.
Starting point is 00:52:08 And so I think the left is trying to shame people like myself continuously for supporting this great president. It's not going to work. We're not going to turn away from me. Because I've had a number of mistresses myself and abortions. Oh, but they're just allegations. By the way, that was not true necessarily. We don't know anything about Jefferson's personal life. I want to be super clear. I have no idea how much of a hypocrite he is in his personal life. No.
Starting point is 00:52:35 Okay, but I remember, to be fair to him, when it was allegations against Bill Clinton, he's like, whoa, whoa, it's just allegations. I'm sure that was his reaction. Oh, but that's right. Now, all the conservative evangelical leaders were like, shame, shame, right? Now, I mean, come on. These are just allegations of mistresses and hush money and raw dogness. Okay, they're just allegations.
Starting point is 00:52:58 Yeah, and I'm sure evangelicals. you know, don't protest outside of abortion clinics and shame women as they're entering those clinics ever, right? And now he has the nerve to talk about how the left wing is shaming him on his obvious blatant hypocrisy. All right, so now we get to the fun part, that was just an appetizer. Donald Trump has evangelical leaders over at the White House, and this is what he tells them according to new news, this is fairly breaking, it just happened right before we came
Starting point is 00:53:29 on the show. He says, quote, the level of hatred, the level of anger is unbelievable. Part of it is because some of the things I've done for you and for me and for my family, but I've done them. First, let's pause. I don't know what that means. Because of some of the things I've done for you, okay, I get that. That's the policies.
Starting point is 00:53:46 And for me, you lost me there, okay? And for my family, wait, what did you do for your family? Was that the policies or the things you did against your family? He can't help himself. But I've done them. I feel like he's given us a little bit of, it's. It's like a foreshadowing message about how he's done more corrupt things for the benefit of himself and his family.
Starting point is 00:54:04 Yeah, I think, no, so I think what he did was in mid-sentence, he went from, hey, remember the good policies I did for you guys, and I looked out for myself, and I did those things against my family, but I did them. Because there's no, like, it's just, oh, train of thought, there's no logic, there's no anything. All right, so let's continue, it gets worse. This November 6 election is very much a referendum on not only me, it's a referendum on your religion. It's a referendum on free speech and the First Amendment.
Starting point is 00:54:31 Okay. Notice he says it's a referendum on your religion. Yeah. Okay. Now for a little while he pretended to be Christian. Yeah, I remember that. But he couldn't remember any Bible verses, he couldn't remember which church he went to. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:54:45 He could remember anything. He took a famous picture of next to an evangelical leader in his office with a cover of Playboy magazine right next to them on the wall of his office. So good. the cover? Okay. I mean, I hear you have a religion and they're attacking your religion. You vote for me. I will defend your religion, whatever it is. Okay? Anyway, I'll try not to do the voice on this one. You can't, by the way, real quick, you can't say that it's the left coming after the First Amendment when you continuously go after the press and talk about, you know, punishing
Starting point is 00:55:21 them for not covering you in the way that you'd like them to. See, Jeff, at least has like a little hint of shame because no because he at least recognizes it and addresses it on Fox News right he's like he covers up for it but you can tell he's a little uncomfortable Trump no self-awareness no shame at all no empathy those things are missing so he's like can you believe they're going after the first amendment you call the press the enemy of the people you talk about shutting down the Washington Post because it's owned by Jeff Bezos, I honestly don't know if he's ever read the First Amendment. But not only is there freedom of speech, but there's freedom of other press written
Starting point is 00:56:02 into the First Amendment, he probably doesn't know that. But with no shame at all, he's like, can you believe the way they're attacking the First Amendment? Okay, so he goes on to say, they will overturn everything that we've done and they'll do it quickly, referring to the left, and violently. Violently. And violently, he's repeated it. There's violence, of course, a third repeat.
Starting point is 00:56:21 When you look at Antifa and you look at some of these groups, they are violent. These are violent people. So four times he caused the left violent. Let's remember who caused the violence in Charlottesville. It was the far right. And he said, look, there's good people on both sides. Yeah. Okay.
Starting point is 00:56:37 So nonstop right wing ideology is guns, violence, guns, violence, right? And then turn around, oh, the left wing's very violent. I mean, you see that Bernie Sanders? To me very, he didn't say Bernie Sanders here. No, but Bernie Sanders, to be extra fair, he was the one while campaigning said that he wanted to punch someone in the face, right? Oh, no, that was Donald Trump. Oh, sorry, my mistake.
Starting point is 00:57:01 He was the one that said just physically assault people who don't agree with me and I'll pay your illegal bills. Oh, no, that was Donald Trump. He's not about the left being violent. He said, in the good old days, people protesting people like me at rallies like this would get carried out on stretchers. Okay, but the left is violent, please, okay, so he goes on and say, you have people that preached almost 200 million people, 150 too close, depending on which Sunday we're talking
Starting point is 00:57:29 about, and beyond Sunday, 100, 150 million people. I don't understand that sentence at all. What? No one does, no one does, I don't even want to spend any time on it, Donald Trump's madness. All right, so now, last one, this is my favorite, little thing, Merry Christmas. Oh, my God. Okay, hold, hold. Little thing, Merry Christmas.
Starting point is 00:57:50 You couldn't say Merry Christmas. I'm telling you, when I started running, I used to talk about it, and I hate to mention it in August, but I used to talk about it. They don't say Merry Christmas anymore. They say Merry Christmas a lot right now. It's all changed. It's all changed. Yep, everyone's saying Merry Christmas right now. Could we say Felice Navidad as well?
Starting point is 00:58:10 Not under Trump you can. Like, again, MAGA guys, really. Are you that unbelievably stupid that you think that people were just not saying Merry Christmas at all in America? Nobody was saying Merry Christmas. How many times we have to say yes? And then when Donald Trump got elected, everybody's like, okay, all right, dog, you got me, you got me, Merry Christmas, okay, okay, okay, Merry Christmas.
Starting point is 00:58:35 Or did we just become more jubilant? And whether it's actually Christmas time or July, we're like, hey Anna, you know what, Merry Christmas. You know what, I feel so good, Donald Trump's at all. is Merry Christmas. Merry Christmas. Everyone's saying it now. All the time, every day, Merry Christmas.
Starting point is 00:58:51 He's taking credit for Christmas. Why do people care? Why do they care? Isn't that political correctness in a country like America? Bingo. Why, you have to say Merry Christmas. I'm going to lose my mind if you don't say. Just relax, dude, relax.
Starting point is 00:59:07 Yeah, and what do you want? Like, the people presumably not saying Merry Christmas are people who might not be Christian, like Jews or Muslims or atheists or Buddhists or whatever. So, like, is he bragging? I made the Jews say Merry Christmas. Okay, under me, they're all having to say Merry Christmas. Because that really is a true spirit of Christmas. Yeah, forcing people to say. Forcing people to say things they don't want to say. But that's the right wing ideology. Like, I control your life and God damn it, you will be married during Christmas or perhaps even August.
Starting point is 00:59:42 What an amazing story. Okay. All right. Amazing times we live in. Yes. All right. Let's go to Duncan Hunter. Let's dunk on Hunter. Oh. Okay.
Starting point is 00:59:52 Um. Whoa. So Duncan Hunter is a congressman, Republican congressman in the state of California, San Diego area. And he has been indicted for misusing campaign money to the tune of $250,000, a quarter million in campaign money that he and his wife has spent on nonsense. And I'll give you a sense of what that nonsense is in just a second. is in just a second. Now, more details are coming out as this indictment has been released.
Starting point is 01:00:22 And what's fascinating to me is that Duncan Hunter, as a politician, has a salary of close to $175,000. I'm rounding. It's $174,000 some change. But that's a pretty nice chunk of change. That's a lot of money. And apparently it wasn't enough. They were living well above their means. And so he had spent over $400 for 30 tequila shots at a bachelor party and countless fancy dinners. He visited one of his favorite bars, sometimes multiple times a day, piling up thousands of dollars in tabs. Now, this is the activity that he took part in when he was in Washington. But back home, Homeboy's driving a dented-up truck. You know, he's looking like, you know, working class cowboy.
Starting point is 01:01:09 You know, he looks like he's, you know, living well below his means and that he's really a representative of the people. But then he goes to Washington where actually he spent most of his time and he's drinking, he's partying, he's living lavishly. And now he's got caught. Yeah, yeah. And predominantly doing this one. Yes. So let me bring you down. So there's a lot of like nuggets in the story.
Starting point is 01:01:34 It's like an Easter egg hunt in the story. One of my favorites was when he's back home, they say, you know, he's. He only has two beers at a time and sneaks away to have a cigarette sometimes because he didn't want to get caught by his wife. And remember, this is the guy who threw his wife under the bus. Like, hey, man. That's a bit better. I know.
Starting point is 01:01:49 I know. We'll get to it. We'll get to it. But this guy's clearly got some control issues with his wife. Okay, let's just note that. Okay. Now, moving back to Washington, where he's like, party. The only part of the story that made me like him was over $400 on 30 tequila shots at a bachelor
Starting point is 01:02:04 party. Hey, if you could afford it and it's actually your money and not campaign money? Yeah. All right, I like that kind of guy. Let's do some tequila shots. I hear you. I mean, it was 30 shots for himself, but no, I'm kidding. It wasn't, it wasn't.
Starting point is 01:02:16 But by the way, the rest of that's quote that you read does make you wonder about that because then it got like, it got kind of dark. He visits his favorite bars, no problem, sometimes multiple times a day. I know. And then thousands of dollars in tabs. Yeah, that doesn't sound very good. But, you know, maybe sometimes he takes up meetings at a bar. I don't know, I don't know why I'm giving him the benefit of the doubt.
Starting point is 01:02:39 He doesn't deserve it. So later they talked about this private club that's very near the capital and a bunch of the congressmen go there and they hang out on the patio apparently going back multiple times a day having beers and vodka. I don't know if he's got an issue in that regard, but let's hope he doesn't and that he's just having a good time, but he's having a good time at your expense. Yes. He's spending the campaign money that you gave him to actually win office and to push your
Starting point is 01:03:04 ideology and your principles, not to spend it on tequila shots and pet rabbits. And so I don't mind anybody having a good time. That makes me like them. But this guy is one, clearly overdoing it and be most importantly doing it with your money instead of his money. And that's a huge problem. That is a huge problem. So let me give you more details because it gets better.
Starting point is 01:03:24 So while Hunter was in Washington, where again he spent most of his time. His wife Margaret mostly stayed in California where she managed the campaign's finances and struggled to keep up appearances with things like private. school tuition, all on a $174,000 a year congressman's salary. So I wanted to read you that little nugget from the Times because, oh, are you guys having a hard time paying for your kids' private school education? Is that what's happening? Do you need bootstraps?
Starting point is 01:03:53 Do you want me to loan you some bootstraps so you can pull your... You're making $174,000. Oh, by the way, I thought you were going on this search, and that's true too. But, well, if you are having trouble of affording private tuition, perhaps as a government official, you could actually make your public schools good enough for your kids to go to. Yes, exactly. So I have absolutely no sympathy for them whatsoever. Like, if you look at what they spent the money on, they actually didn't spend the majority of
Starting point is 01:04:19 this campaign money, again, to the tune of a quarter million dollars, on insanely lavish things. Yes, there were some examples of that. But they spent that money on like groceries, like average everyday things that people need. So, I mean, and by the way, they were doing this while Duncan Hunter simultaneously would talk about fiscal responsibility. You know, a real pick yourself up by the bootstrap's type of Republican. Hunter showed up at an Alamo rental car agency in Reno, Nevada. And with his own bank accounts nearly empty, he dipped into campaign funds to pay $351.4 for a rental. car to drive to Lake Tahoe for a ski weekend. Days later, there were more charges.
Starting point is 01:05:02 $1,08 and $72.72 for food, drinks, and a room for three nights at the Hyatt Regency Lake Tahoe Resort Spa and Casino, the longest hotel name in existence. Also, his personal bank account at the time that he withdrew $20 had only $15 and $2 remaining. Like they were living well above their means. Now, all these details are coming out. What is Duncan Hunter's response? Blame my wife, and it is pathetic. Let's take a look at the first video. This is him on a peer. Any accusations against your wife?
Starting point is 01:05:36 What do you have to say about? That'll come out in court, right? I mean, that's for the court and for her. Right. Was she in charge of those big charges? She was the campaign manager of the campaign. And you didn't know about any of the dental clothes or anything like that? Wife, under bus, hates his wife.
Starting point is 01:05:55 It's so obvious. He did it on Fox News, too. He keeps doing it over and over again, man. He's definitely got issues with his wife. It's amazing. By the way, he blames two different things. And it is not wise to lie in two different directions at the same time. If you don't want to get caught, just stick with one lie.
Starting point is 01:06:14 So his other lie is, oh, is the deep state. The deep state run by Democrats rigged this against me. Plus, my wife did it. Well, which one is it? Yeah, no, what I love. Unless, wait a minute, I just figured it out, unless his wife is the deep state. Excuse me. That was kind of cute.
Starting point is 01:06:36 Sorry, it was a sneeze. Okay, but no, he actually, thank you. He blamed a third, a third group of people. Oh, he did. So remember, Republicans are very pro-law enforcement. They love law enforcement, except when they could get caught doing something bad. I'm gonna skip ahead to video four. What he has to say here?
Starting point is 01:06:55 This is part for the course. This is modern politics and modern media mixed in with law enforcement that has a political agenda. This is the new Department of Justice. This is the Democrats' arm of law enforcement. That's what's happening right now. It's happening with Trump and it's happening with me. They could try to have a political agenda as our law enforcement, as a U.S. government.
Starting point is 01:07:18 I think we've seen with Strock and what the FBI and the DOJ have been doing, let's let's Let's let them expose themselves from what they are. And that's a politically motivated group of folks. Did he just accuse the Department of Justice of being left-wing? Like the Attorney General is Jeff Sessions, one of the most right-wing racist people in existence. You're gonna accuse the DOJ of being left-wing. They're pathetic. No, what's more pathetic, unfortunately, is the Republican voters.
Starting point is 01:07:47 And so that's the thing you'll never hear in any other part of the media. Because they're like, oh my God, we don't want to offend them, what if we hurt our ratings? Okay, no, we're home of progressives and we're here to tell you the truth. Okay, so now let me back it up with facts. So they're perfect, in his district, they're perfectly aware of these scandals. These charges have been pending for a long time. They've just come out now, but they knew about it. And now, after the charges came out formally, they polled his district and they pulled
Starting point is 01:08:15 Democrats, independents, and Republicans. So, independents have turned against them, but by a narrow margin, it is a couple of conservative district. Democrats obviously against them for a number of reasons, but 77% of Republicans stand by Hunter. Okay, maybe they're like Robert Jeffers, the pastor who supports Donald Trump, and they say, look, yeah, he's a crook, but I don't care he's my crook, as long as he's pro-life and whatever, and in favor of tax cuts for the rich, I don't care that he steals from me. Okay, whatever. That could be, no, but that's not it. 72% say the indictment either made no difference or actually increased their support for him.
Starting point is 01:08:54 Why would it increase your support for him? Oh, he's a crook. He flew his pet rabbit across the country on my dime. Well, bravo, I now support him even more. What kind of a schmuck would say that? It's unbelievable. But they don't really believe those insane conspiracy theories about the Department of Justice and Jeff Sessions being liberals, right?
Starting point is 01:09:16 Wrong. 64% of Republicans said the charges against him are politically motivated. 64%. That's 2 thirds of Republicans in his district that have lost their minds. This is California. Okay, so look, I'm telling the rest of the media won't tell you because they're so afraid of offending Republicans. Two thirds of the Republicans in his district are insane.
Starting point is 01:09:39 They think the Department of Justice run by Jeff Sessions is doing a liberal conspiracy Against Duncan Hunter. Yeah. Yeah. That's cuckoo for cocoa puffs. By the way, I mean, fine. The misuse of funds included the money that you donated to his campaign. So if you're comfortable with this, have fun, like enjoy it.
Starting point is 01:10:00 You will misuse your money to go on trips to Italy or to in and out or to buy his prescriptions or to the dentist or his cable bill or trips to Walmart. He will keep sending his kids to private schools while completely dismantling an under funding the schools that you send your kids to. Enjoy. I don't know. What else can I say? Yeah, there's no excuses for it. So the fancy Lake Tahoe stuff, like maybe you can get yourself to believe, oh, maybe he was doing a political fundraiser. No, it was just him and his family. But even so, there's trips to Walmart and Albertsons over and over again. Why? Because he's just like, oh, it turns out I could rob people who gave to my campaign and not to me.
Starting point is 01:10:39 Then I'll just keep on robbing him for year after year after year. I'll just charge everything to them. Suckers. Yeah. And you know what? It turns out he was right. You, if you are one of his donors and one of his voters in that district, you are a sucker. After he stole all that money from you, he turns around and say, oh, it was a deep state liberal conspiracy led by my wife, and you, moron of morons, believe him. So in joke, give him more money. He's got to, I mean, there's more trips to Tahoe and Italy to take. Crazy. All right, we got to take another break. when we come back, what is Trump planning on doing with Manafort? Go.
Starting point is 01:11:19 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, Shank Huger, and I'll see you soon.

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