The Young Turks - Democrats Rebel On Impeaching Trump

Episode Date: May 22, 2019

Will the Dems go through with impeachment proceedings? Ana Kasparian, Jayar Jackson, and Francesca Fiorentini, hosts of The Young Turks, break it down. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Hi everybody, welcome to TYAT. I'm Anna Kasparian. Joining me today is not Jank Yugar, although he will be back for the conversation. But in the meantime, we're gonna have awesome panels. Francesca Fiorentini joins us and so does J.R. Jackson. What's up guys? How are you doing? What's going on?

We're just complimenting each other's facial colorings. Oh, really? Lip colors and such. Oh, lip colors, yes. Yeah, I'm gonna, you wanna borrow this? In the break. You know, it's, I don't know if it goes with my undertones, but I can try. We're a progressive show.

No one's going to judge if you try them. My undertones. So as I had mentioned earlier, Jank will be coming back to interview Ben Glebe. Ben Glebe is running for president, and Jank is going to do the full episode of the conversation on this interview. So they're going to have a conversation about this presidential run. And later, of course, we're going to do some special coverage for the Beto O'Rourke Town Hall on CNN.

Part of that will be live for everybody, and then we will put some portion of it behind a paywall for our audience. So please tune in live at 8 p.m. Pacific Time. Again, that's 8 p.m. Pacific Time, 11 p.m. Eastern? Yes, yes, I got it right, I can do math. Okay, great. So with that said, let's get to the news. There's a lot to get to today.

in the show, we're going to discuss yet another Megan McCain meltdown on the view. I got to be honest, like, kind of my favorite thing to talk about these days, just to like get my mind off of all the other insanely devastating stuff. But we all need a little break, right? So Brooke Thomas will join me for that later. All right, let's get started. Trump's former White House counsel, Don McGahn, has defied a subpoena to testify before Congress. And this is a big deal because it's really calling into question whether Speaker Nancy Pelosi's decision to refuse an impeachment inquiry is the right way to go.

Now, according to reports, White House counsel Don McGahn, who witnessed extensive and likely criminal obstruction of justice, failed to honor a judiciary committee subpoena honoring Trump's command not to appear. So this is just completely flying in the face of law and order, completely ignoring the subpoena. listening to what Trump wants, as opposed to doing what the subpoena is supposed to force you to do. And if this is yet another action that the Trump administration gets away with, well, it's sending a very clear message to the Trump administration and future administrations, that you can go ahead and ignore our system of checks and balances, you can go ahead and ignore Congress, and no one's gonna do anything about it.

And also, though, this is just such a popery of idiocy. I mean, the thing about preventing Don McGahn from speaking in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee is that Don McGahn already gave his testimony to Robert Mueller. And he was, I think, one of the two biggest witnesses for the entire Mueller report. And the administration at the time was like, yeah, sure, go ahead, go testify to Mueller, whatever. Like they didn't even prevent him at the time. And now suddenly they want to prevent him essentially probably from just saying what's actually in the Mueller report.

Actually, what's amazing about that story is if you guys can remember, this was some time ago, after McGahn had given this extensive testimony to the special counsel, there was a story that broke, I believe in the New York Times about how the Trump administration didn't even care to ask for a brief. Trump's lawyers didn't even ask Don McGahn for a brief to kind of understand fundamentally what it is he told Mueller, which is kind of miraculous. And there was a lot of miscommunication and disagreement and conflict between the White House Council and Trump's personal lawyers.

They didn't really like communicating with one another and they didn't have a unified strategy. We forget how much of a clown show this is, because as you're talking about, when he, McGahn went there and talked with the Mueller report, everything came through. Those facts were given. The problem is, is now we've got Barb and we've got Trump controlling that narrative, to a degree to which they think they are, at least. They think they're controlling and mischaracterizing what was coming out of the motorport. And so far they've been a certain percentage successful in that.

So if they let McGahn go back in front of this panel and the American people get to see directly as he's speaking, because no one reads, will watch him say what he said, or maybe more, and they don't want that to happen because right now they're controlling. Well, the Muellerport, of all of the thousands of pages of moleport, all that said in there was a few words, no collusion. I mean, and that is a sad statement. but it's so real, the fact that like, personally, I'm halfway through the Mueller report. I'm gonna be honest with you, I read the summaries, I'm halfway through, I'm slogging through

it, but it's like Harry Potter, Game of Thrones, because I read first, Mueller reports here on my list. Actually, Francesco, over the weekend you mentioned something to me that I thought was really important and it doesn't get talked about at all. In fact, you're the first person I've heard even mention it as you're reading the entirety of this report. So what was the one line you came across in the report that was just jarring to you? I think, I mean, thus far, again, about 200 pages in, so I haven't gotten to the obstruction

part, but I'm in the, like, actually what happened and what went down. It was a, so there were like a, you know, so many different inroads into the Trump administration from various Russian oligarchs, literal oligarchs trying to contact various officials. I think one, and I'm not going to remember his name, I think it was something like Dmitri, or Dmitri, when Trump, one, texted somebody else and they have these texts, and I can't remember if it was someone in, I don't think it was in the White House, but anyway, they have this text from this guy, and it said, Putin has won, and that, to me, the fact that like, they're high-fiving each other when Trump wins the election is, that's not all you need to know,

but it's a lot of what we need to know in terms of just how much Russia was pulling for Trump and illegally so. So I want to go to Jerry Nadler, who did a press or released a statement following Don McGahn defying the subpoena. Let's take a look. The president is declared out loud his intention to cover up this misconduct. He told Mr. McGahn to commit crimes on his behalf. He told Mr. McGahn to lie about it. After the report came out, the president claimed that Mr. McGahn lied to the special counsel about what happened.

Then he directed Mr. McGahn not to come here today so that the public would not hear his testimony and so that we could not question him. President Trump may think he can hide behind his lawyers as he launches a series of basis legal arguments designed to obstruct our work. He cannot think these legal arguments will prevail in court, but he can think he can slow us down and run out the clock on the American people. Let me be clear. This committee will hear Mr. McGahn's testimony, even if we have to go to court to secure it. We will not allow the president to prevent the American people from hearing from this witness. We will not allow the president to block congressional subpoenas, putting himself and his allies above the law. So that's a lot of tough talk coming from Jerry Nadler.

Following that statement, the House Judiciary Committee also, had two additional subpoenas, one for former White House Communications Director, Hope Hicks, and the other for former Deputy White House Counsel Annie Donaldson. And so, again, they're giving out more subpoenas, and there is a lot of tough talk, but there is still a considerable amount of disagreement among Democrats as to whether or not pursuing an impeachment inquiry makes sense. And we'll get to that conversation in just a second, but I want you guys to jump in And share your thoughts on what Jerry Nathar had to say there.

I'm still on the, I'm waiting. You kind of said it from what I was thinking. I'm ready to see it. We had a lot of tough talk. We've had a lot of, you know what? I'm sick of this. I'm tired of this. You know, we're the Congress.

This is the Judiciary Committee. Listen to me. Now we're going to give another subpoena and have you guys to fight again. The next time, hey, we have another empty chair. I can't believe they would do this to us again. Let's try it again next week. I can't believe they would do this to this again. We're not going to waste any more.

How many more times we're not going to waste it? more time not doing anything. I also think, though, that that image of, excuse me, of McGahn, his name right there, another Donald, in an empty chair, everyone is convened, the entire Senate committee, that is an embarrassment to this country. And that you are in the White House, you are a council to the president, and you're not there. This is, you, like, we still have a constitutional democracy here.

You don't just make up the rules and you're not showing up. So yeah, the next step is to hold him in contempt. What's incredible to me, sorry to interrupt you, Francesca, but what's incredible to me is that, I mean, this is a lawyer who understands the law and is somehow thinking it's a good idea to be Trump's lackey in this situation. Who threatened to resign at another point, right? At the most pivotal point that we all know, right, on Air Force One and Trump says, I'm going to fire the special counsel.

Right, and he, again, like, threatened to quit as a result of that. So what's amazing about this entire story is we know who's, you know, acting contrary or counter to what the law indicates they should do. And at the same time, you have Trump, who just recently gave a rally in Pennsylvania, arguing that he's the one who has been the victim of criminal behavior. Here he is making that case again. No, we caught them. They were spying.

They were spying on our campaign. I'll tell you what, if that ever happened to the other side, this thing would have been over two years ago. And you know, it would have been treason. They would have called it treason. And that's what it is. It was treason. And it should never be allowed to happen to another president again, ever, ever, ever. That's what they'd call it, treason, treason, treason.

Even supporters, the people in the back are like, yeah, you probably did it, you know, there are none of them are like, you're right. They're lying, it's treason, they're just kind of like, you, but you, come on, no, Francesca. I feel like they don't care, I think his supporters don't care how he got there. They don't even care how he got there. That's true, but they do buy into the talking point that he's putting out there regarding how he, by the way, By the way, it's been debunked. He was not spied on.

It's been debunked. But he doesn't care. Was this by the microwave? I forgot which time. Yeah. This was Obama's people via the microwave. Right, supposedly the Obama administration was spying in on the Trump campaign, which has been debunked for the billionth time.

But to your point about how his supporters feel and how they might not even be buying what Trump is selling them right now, it's not true. In fact, immediately after he made those statements, here's what his fans, his supporters. Supporters, his base began to chant. And you took back your country. Well, we have a great new attorney. Very fair look. So they're chanting, lock them up,

Meaning the individuals that Trump has compiled a list of, John Kerry is on that list. So Trump wants William Barr, the Attorney General, to launch an investigation against Trump's political opponents. And all the people he's blocked on Twitter. Also, why does he always give rallies outside of an Air Force One, like it's some awful MAGA lost episode, you know, where everyone's like marooned on an island? Doesn't that feel like that? That sounds awesome.

Oh, being marooned on an island with MAGA supporters? No, no, for them to be on an island. All together, away from us. To be fair, they're in a sort of purgatory, let's be real. Yeah, it's just, it's amazing. And look, what he has done successfully, in my opinion, is twist the story in a way that actually works to his advantage when it comes to his base. I think that the majority of Americans who aren't part of his base aren't buying the

argument that he's selling there, but his base has been primed. They've already been convinced that the real person who's the victim in this whole scenario is Donald Trump. And so look, there's really no point in trying to convince them otherwise. But I do think that it's a scary situation where you have someone who continuously acts as though he is above the law. You have the Democratic leadership who allows him to believe he's above the law because they They refuse to pursue an impeachment inquiry.

It's very different from an impeachment proceeding. And it sets the tone for where this country is going to head if we don't find politicians that have enough of a backbone to hold this guy accountable for his actions. There's enough people chanting, lock them up for the folks that would actually do something about it to be afraid of them acting. Acting in one way, who knows, but the thought process being, hey, they keep chanting, lock them up and lock her up and lock him up, even though all of his associates. just keep getting locked up.

Despite all that, we still have to worry about it because they're still worried about politically how it's going to work because he's controlling that narrative. Which the magnitude of what we're talking about, and Trump, when he says if the shoe were on the other foot, let's talk about if the shoe were on the other foot, and a Democratic presidential candidate had what we know, known business interests standing to gain billions of dollars working with a foreign government that was at the same time meddling in our elections and then not only encouraged that, that medley, encouraged it, find the emails, you know, also then diffused whatever, the WikiLeaks, DNC hacks, diffused essentially

what was theft, right, and was illegal. And again, I don't put the GRU in the same, this is not Edward Snowden we're talking about, all right? Like, if the shoe were on the other foot, impeachment hearings would have started six months ago, y'all. It would have, they were started two years ago. Before a Democratic president would have even assumed office impeachment hearings would have begun. Yeah. All right? So the whole shoe on the other foot things is, I mean, the fact that we are just sort of, oh, well, do we like Mike Pence?

Ooh, does it look bad before 2020? No, no, no, no. It doesn't matter. You impeach. You begin the proceedings at least. So let's have that conversation, you know, before we go to break, because I think it's an important one to have. Finally, members of the Democratic Party got together with Nancy Pelosi in a series of Monday

night meetings to encourage her to pursue an impeachment inquiry. Based on reporting from the New York Times, there is some conflict and some disagreement as to whether or not this makes a lot of sense. But today, the former White House counsel, Don McGahn, defied a congressional subpoena. He did not show up to testify. And it appears that McGahn has decided to listen to what Trump wants, as opposed to what the the law requires him to do. Now I give you that context to just keep in mind as I give you the details of this story.

According to the Times, I'm sorry, according to Washington Post, at least five members of Pelosi's leadership team, four of whom also sit on the House Judiciary Committee with jurisdiction over impeachment, pressed Pelosi in a closed door leadership meeting to allow the panel to start an inquiry. And I just want to know that an impeachment inquiry is different from impeachment proceedings. An impeachment inquiry doesn't necessarily mean that it will evolve into impeachment proceedings, but it's an inquiry. It's getting the process started to really determine whether or not this makes sense.

They argue that it would help investigators attain documents and testimony that Trump has blocked. Now Pelosi and her supporters countered that argument by saying, no, we need to let this go through the court system. We already had a district court judge rule in our favor, ensuring to uphold. a subpoena for Trump's financial records. Let's not take this any further than we need to go. It's an unpopular position to pursue impeachment. Again, this is an argument coming from Pelosi and her supporters.

And let's focus on what we need to get done legislatively, which is hilarious because what have Democrats done legislatively so far. And I'm not talking about freshman Democrats who actually have done things. I'm talking about Democratic leadership. So I have more details, but I want to open it up to the panel. I mean, I don't think she's done nothing. There was the Equal Rights Amendment or the, what is the Equality Act, I believe, that that did pass in the House.

It did pass in the House, that's huge, that's under Pelosi's watch. But again, I think we're seeing exactly what I think a lot of us foresaw when Pelosi became Speaker of the House once again, which was to establish some sort of normalcy and to essentially put a lid on the more progress. wing of her party. And these aren't even progressives. These are people in her own, these are her own advisors who are saying that. And like with her San Francisco, man, she represents one of the most progressive left countries

in, I mean, cities in this country. And this is the person who's holding back the tide. I mean, I agree that I don't think that we should impeach over something silly, like, I don't know, extramarital affairs. But if there's a time to impeach, it is absolutely now. And I think the analysis of that Medi Hassan, for example, or the intercept has floated, that there are so many other reasons to impeach this president beyond like the Russia involvement. You have to say it.

So there's a preview of things come. So we talk about the approach that Nancy Pelosi had. It sounds similar to what Mitt Romney was saying, hey, you know what? Maybe not, but then maybe so. But then also the political climate isn't going to allow that to happen. It's a preview of the way the Democrats generally tend to run things wants to have this control. Like, well, let's not do too much because we're going to worry people. Do what you're doing and then make your case.

Just speak on it. So as you're talking about, people will get confused as what an impeachment inquiry would be versus an impeachment proceedings. And then people would get confused about the reasons why they're doing it. They could go into the 17 to 18 other reasons why there's a reason to impeach his president outside of the no collusion stuff that they're talking about. If they make a case and talk about what they're doing and why they're doing it over and over and over and over and over again, maybe it'll start penetrating a few minds and

people won't be so worried about the implications for 2020. Because we, well, how many times have we heard since the Mueller report came out? No collusion. No collusion, no collusion. We've heard nothing else from it because no one else is talking about everything else that had to do with it. And actually outside the motorport, things he's just doing in office. You don't even have to go to that.

Right. So there are Democrats who are speaking out, including, of course, Representative Alexandria Acacio Cortez, who is our. arguing in favor of an impeachment inquiry. Here she is making that case. You know, I trust the speaker is taking a measured approach to ensure that we're moving everyone forward. I know that being a speaker is hard. Holding this party together is a difficult task, but I think that he wants to do.

My person is that I think we have to move forward. So there's AOC saying, look, being speaker is a difficult task. I totally understand that, but we need to move forward. A very diplomatic way of approaching it. And I applaud her for her diplomacy, because that is not an easy thing to do, I'd argue. And then you have Representative Ted Deutsch, a Democrat from Florida, I want to give you his quote. We should be having the conversation about impeachment. How this will help us up, okay, we should be having the conversation about how this will

help us break through the stonewalling of the administration. If the answer by the administration is, quote, no, you can't talk to anyone, you can't have anything, we're simply not going to cooperate, then at that point, the only avenue that we have left is the constitutional means to enforce the separation of powers, which is a serious discussion of impeachment. And I could not agree more. And just to really emphasize a point that was made by both of you, look, it's not just about Russian meddling, okay?

The Mueller report did clear him of collusion, but it did not clear him of obstruction of justice. And besides which, even aside from obstruction of justice, all of these potential financial crimes are serious. You know, the possible violation of the emoluments clause, these conflicts of interest. The fact that his own personal lawyer for years, Michael Cohen, had testified that Trump inflated his assets in order to obtain loans from Deutsche Bank and then deflated his assets in order to save on taxes. That is tax fraud.

These are serious crimes. And the fact that you have Democrats who have no backbone on this issue is just infuriating. We need to see strength from the Democratic Party. And I would argue that Speaker Pelosi should just sit down and really think about how Republicans would handle this if the shoe were on the other foot. Yeah, I mean, I completely agree. I also just want to say that yes, it cleared what we know the unredacted or the redacted Mueller report, we know that it cleared him of collusion, but we also know collusion is not actually

a legal term. Right. So conspiracy would be more of the term, but actually like I would say there is a hell of a lot of cooperation between the Trump campaign and many different Russians and things that we actually don't know. And now I think this week, you know, I for one am very happy that the five current and five former Deutsche Bank employees are speaking to the media about money laundering, flag that were raised connected to Jared Kushner and the Trump organization's payments to people

in Russia. And now they're speaking out about it, follow the money. And that's why he is trying to subpoena or trying to censure Deutsche Bank for not speaking to Congress, right? Because he knows that once we follow the money, oh hey, maybe it's all right there. And I think the other thing about impeachment, and to me it's like, yes, it doesn't matter if it will get voted down by the Senate majority. is Republican, right?

To me, it goes back to when Obama came into office and said, you know what, let bygones be bygones, let's not investigate what happened in Iraq and Afghanistan. Let's not look into war crimes. Let's not look into the violations of the Geneva Conventions that the United States did partaking when it waterboarded prisoners. Let's not look at Guantanamo, and I don't want that. Whoever comes in 2020 and let's hope it's a Democrat, right? I don't want there to be a, hey, you know what?

bygones be bygones. No, no, no, all the norms that the Trump administration is breaking, we need to make those laws come 2020. All the things. Right now, we have an Office of Government Ethics, you guys. Did you know that we had one? That dude, his name is Walter Schaub, he resigned after Trump came into the White House over the Emoluments Clause. Right. Because he's like, honestly, I don't even know what I'm doing here anymore. And mind you, this is, the Office of Government Ethics, like, has very little. They, they, they, hardly raise a peep out of anything. I mean, like, Congress is allowed to lobby on behalf of corporations that they just got

off the board of, you know, like, there's just a lot that goes under his, you know, that slides under his radar. And this dude resigned over the Trump administration? Come on, what are we doing? And I leave you with this. The White House, as we know, is trying to block all of these subpoenas and these investigations, and it's hard to keep track of all of them. How many have there been and how many has the White House tried to block, according to the Washington

Post, the White House is blocking more than 20 Democratic investigations into Trump, his finances, or his policies. So I leave you with that as we go to break. When we come back, we have, oh, God, a twisty twist when it comes to Merrick Garland that I love, and you're going to love it too. Come right. We need to talk about a relatively new show called Un-Fing the Republic or UNFTR. As a young Turks fan, you already know that the government, the media, and corporations

are constantly peddling lies that serve the interests of the race. and powerful. But now there's a podcast dedicated to unraveling those lies, debunking the conventional wisdom. In each episode of Un-B-The-Republic or UNFTR, the host delves into a different historical episode or topic that's generally misunderstood or purposely obfuscated by the so-called powers that be. Featuring in-depth research, razor-sharp commentary, and just the right amount of vulgarity, the UNFTR podcast takes a sledgehammer to what you thought you knew about some of the nation's most sacred historical cows. But don't just take my word for it. The New York Times described UNFTR as consistently compelling and educational, aiming to

challenge conventional wisdom and upend the historical narratives that were taught in school. For as the great philosopher Yoda once put it, you must 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. Welcome back to TYT, Anna, Francesca, and JR with you. JR is gonna read some member comments in TYT lives in just a second. But first I have a quick announcement about Squarespace. Squarespace is a great service to look into if you're looking to create a website.

It's really easy. I use it to build my website. And the best part about all of this is that since you're a TYT viewer, you get a discount that I didn't get when I built my website. So if you go to Squarespace.com slash TYT, you will get a 10% discount. have even more exciting news to share with you. So, TYT is now officially on Pluto TV, which is so great. It's a wonderful service.

And if you're interested in watching some of our programming, including our live linear programming like damage report or no filter, you can, happy half hour, that's Brett's show. You can simply go to Pluto TV and go to channel 116 to watch all of our programming. It's pretty exciting. Awesome. Shout out to Drew at Pluto. Oh, nice. What's up, Drew?

Hey. What's happening, Drew? Thanks for holding it down for TiT over there. I've got even more exciting news. Mm-hmm. We're going to go to a couple of the tweets, member comments. First, these are member comments from Jeff Hennendale. Sorry to mess up your name because you have such a great tweet.

At me, J.R. Jackson, nice lid. That's right. Just because- Is there any substance in that? I'm just reading what they gave me. I mean, give the people what they want. Gabby Maria that says using Air Force One as a political prop is against military regulations. It's a piece of United States Air Force equipment, not a bumper sticker for a political party.

Very true. It's incredible because I mean, in the Obama administration, I can imagine that turning into a thing, right? Into an issue. Oh, of course. But like with Trump. That in a tan suit. You know Air Force One now has a bumper sticker on it.

Like it has like a no collusion. You know, that like whips off every time it, like, takes them. A couple of 2.T. Lives, hashtag 2.I.T. Live on Twitter, of course, the conversation is there as well. We might as well spread the love. Chrissy says, yay, Francesca's on the panel. It's a good night to be watching live. It is. It is a good night. Searching for the tweet about Anna, I can't find one.

Aw, it's okay. It's okay. I don't take the first list. I'd be like, that feels like harassment. All right, let's do one of my favorite stories of the day has to do with Merrick Garland. Members of Congress have subpoenaed Donald Trump's financial documents, specifically because of some of Michael Cohen's testimony, which indicated that Trump would inflate his assets in order to obtain loans from Deutsche Bank and then later deflate his assets in order to save on taxes, which is tax fraud if he is found guilty of that. Now, the Trump administration has been fighting aggressively to prevent the release of his financial documents. And so as a result, this is going through the court systems. And what we're finding is that the US district court judge, Amit META, has ruled to uphold

the subpoena, which is a good sign. So in a 41 page opinion, META systematically dismantled the Trump legal team's arguments against the validity of the subpoena, and he pushed back on claims from congressional Republicans that the House Judiciary Committee must formally launch an impeachment inquiry before issuing such subpoenas. So the argument coming from Trump's camp is, hey, you know, they haven't, there's no impeachment proceedings happening right now, so they can't subpoena these records. But that is not true. And the judge in this case made that abundantly clear. In fact, he writes in his opinion, Congress plainly views itself as having sweeping authority to investigate illegal conduct of a president before and after taking office.

This court is not prepared to roll back the tide of history. Now, Jay Sekulow, who is Trump's personal attorney, has responded to this decision by this judge by saying, quote, we will be filing a timely notice of appeal to the district circuit court of appeals. Well, Mr. Seculo, I really hope you do, because the chief judge of that court is none other than Merrick Garland. Mm. Mm. Mm. Sure.

Robbs. Yeah. Yeah. There's that harmless face. Yeah. There's those eyes that say bipartisanship. I have no thoughts. I represent the law.

Mm. Constitution amendments. I don't know. Let me count them. I think by now. I'm sorry, I don't know what he sounds like, he might sound like this. Hi guys, I'm married. He might sound like Mickey Mouse.

That might actually be the reason. Anywho, keep going. Can I just say, whoa, what you have right there is the Trump team baiting impeachment in order for like, they're like, no, we can't release the tax returns because there's no impeachment yet. Well, here's the thing. How guilty do you have to be? That they're not really baiting impeachment, because look at the actions by the Democratic leadership, the unwillingness to even pursue an impeachment inquiry.

And so they might be making this argument, and I think any reasonable person would assume that this is baiting Democrats into pursuing impeachment, but if you listen to the rhetoric and the discourse coming from the Democratic Party right now, you know, you have really nothing to fear because Pelosi is, you know, standing her ground, she's refusing to pursue impeachment. But nonetheless, the argument was ridiculous, even if you think that maybe Democrats will do something. And an update to this story is that Sekulo might need some legal protection of his own because Michael Cohen is now saying that Sekulo is the one who directed him to lie about the Trump-Moscow tower deal.

So we'll see how that goes, but Seculo is now working with his own attorney when it comes to his school. My hope is dwindling. My hope is dwindled a long time ago. Okay, so now Merrick Garland is the head of this particular D.C. court circuit of appeals that's going to see his case. I almost expect him to just follow in line and go with whatever Trump wants him do now. The reason why this guy gets with every lawlessness, unlawful activity he's done his entire

life is because people keep letting him. He gets help. Mitch McConnell's helping him. Someone else is always helping him do something to subvert our justice system in some kind of way. So, I mean, look, Don McGahn, I remember when he was supposed to come in a, we just talked about how Don McGahn is not testifying today, just showed up an empty chair. Before they said, oh, man, Don McGahn is going to show up because he was ready to quit.

He's going to bury this president. Look who showed up today. And guess who, look who listened to the president he doesn't even work for anymore. Robert Mueller. Oh, man, I can't wait until Rob Mueller comes out and starts talking about this whole Mueller port and lays down the law and tells what's up. Guess who's getting cold feet about coming to testify in front of America? But Robert Mueller, I don't have any hope that Merrick Garland is going to do anything because

he's so upset about how he got screwed over in the last cycle and getting his nomination. People don't do anything. Nancy Pelosi's not seeking the most inkling part of impeachment. So no one does anything. They continue to do what they want because they know they're facing, well, there's other terms I could use, but weak people. Look, no one in this whole company is more pessimistic than I am. Like I'm, you know, I was recently reprimanded for being negative.

So I get it, I get where you're coming from. But at the same time, I actually disagree with you when it comes to the courts to some degree. Because remember, we already had a judge who upheld these subpoenas. And Sekulow is simply threatening an appeal, which will go to Merrick Garland. And it's not even about impeachment, it's about upholding these subpoenas. And Congress 100% has the right to subpoena these financial documents. So I don't see Merrick Garland, you know, conflicting with the previous ruling on this. No, he's not a comment.

He hasn't helped the right folks yet. Being on the wrong side has been beneficial. But the law, the law, he is violating the law. You can't hold up these subpoenas. They're subpoenas. So, like, I mean, I think Merrick Garland, first of all, it's great. This is sweet, sweet justice. And I think he will absolutely uphold the former ruling and say, no, you can't prevent

these subpoenas from going forward. I think that we're in a time when the right has made everything so partisan. And so I hear you, JR, that, like, you know, that anyone who's sort of moderate is always worried they're gonna play into other people's hands. I think Comey did that before the 2016 election. I think to some extent Robert Mueller has done that. I think there's been a lot of people who are like, well, I'm a, I'm a sort of a moderate Republican, centrist, damn, you know, like, but guess what? They're alone. There's nothing left. And so I think if, you know, I think Merrick Garland will absolutely uphold the former ruling, and I think he should.

So let's switch gears a little bit because I'm fatigued from talking about these investigations and talk about something that actually affects most Americans rent and how expensive it is. It's no surprise that affordable housing has been increasingly difficult to come by. In fact, if you are working a minimum wage job, there is literally nowhere in the country where you can rent a two bedroom apartment with that wage. That was based on a study by the Federal Reserve. This is a serious issue that many Americans are facing right now. And so of course, some entrepreneurs out there thought maybe this is a good opportunity to make

some money off people who can't afford their rent. And so now these startups are popping up that give people loans in order to basically pay their rent, which is absolutely insane. They're specifically focusing on college. students, and I just want to note before we go to this video that the heart of this issue is the fact that we have unaffordable housing. Now, are there going to be people who are going to prey off of that system and make money for themselves?

Of course. But again, the big issue here is affordable housing and the unwillingness by our lawmakers to really do anything about it. With that said, let's hear from Tony Diamond. He is the founder of Stay Tony, one of these companies that gives out loans. so people can afford their rent. Take a look. Stay Tony is a corporate apartment provider.

So the majority of our guests will stay with us from one to three months. And so, you know, the writing has been on the wall that affordability is an issue. So we wanted to come up with an innovative way to address that. And so we had the idea of allowing our guests to finance that one to three months of rent. So for example, instead of having to come up with, let's just say you're relocating to Los Angeles, Instead of having to come up with, let's say, one month's rent of $3,000, you can now pay that over time. So, for example, we have an interest-free program where you can pay one month over three months, so $1,000 a month for three months, where you can break that $3,000 into paying it over six months,

at $500 a month. And what's very exciting is one of our programs is interest-free. Just one of the programs, right? So at the end of the day, you're still having to pay that allotted amount that you would have had to pay regardless. It's just an installment. That's correct. I think a lot of people, especially people just at a college, right, that don't have, in some cases, if you want to move to New York City, $15,000 saved up to make all of that work.

Okay, so he mentioned the interest-free program twice in that interview, and it made it seem like, oh, yeah, yeah, they're just going to give me money for, you know, for no interest, and I'll be able to pay, no, that's not how it works. So, of course, the interest-free program that he's talking about is a very, very temporary short-term thing. It's about six months, I looked at their website. I don't know if everyone qualifies for that interest-free loan, besides which no one should be financing rent.

Like, you shouldn't take out a mortgage to be able to afford your rent. That's absurd. This is crazy. This is crazy. So if you need $3,000 for your one month of rent, and then you may need $15,000 for your move. They went through moving expenses, relocation fees, temporary stays, all that stuff that comes that are made moving across country to get a job that pays you $7.10. And move into a bed bug infested apartment with three other people.

So they provide these beautiful locations and beautiful ways for you to make, get your way out. And all you got to do is pay $1,000 a month. Did they forget there's these other things called expenses that you're also paying? So they didn't forget it. I'm not saying that's what they're presenting in a way that, oh man, you get $3,000 broken up into $1,000 at a time. What a gift.

I don't want to misdirect my anger, right? Because again, the big issue here is we have this giant group of lawmakers, it's called Congress, that refuse to do anything about a very real problem that we're facing right now. Americans are not making enough, housing prices are through the roof, education is through the roof. So these companies are specifically targeting college students, recent college grads, who have like astronomical student loan debt and because they have astronomical student loan debt and because wages are so low, they're unable to afford rent.

And so these companies are like, yeah, I'm gonna go ahead and loan them money. And don't worry, we're not as bad as payday lenders. We don't charge 700% interest, but we do charge around 20%. No, no, no, that is not a solution to this issue. Well, I mean, listen, if millennials stop spending so much money on avocado toast, eh? Do I have a job at Fox? Who's hiring? Listen, capitalism, file this all under post, like late stage capitalism.

This is late stage capitalism to the T. This is perfect example of how right now, capitalists are just feeding off the carcass of capitalism. And then there are flies that feed off the vultures of capitalism. And then there are maggots, which are baby flies, that feed off of the flies, that feed off of the vultures that are feeding off the carcass of capitalism. And the carc is really is America, right? Like, I'm from San Francisco.

Like, this is a place where instead of rebuilding public transportation and infrastructure, we are the testing ground for driverless cars. We are the testing ground for Uber and Lyft and all the other things, right? It's like, why actually invest in the public sector when there are a bunch of 29-year-old millionaires or, you know, who want to jack up the prices on everyone? Yeah. I wanna also just note that there is everything in our economy right now is a house of cards. And while Trump incessantly argues that the economy is doing really well, again, the reality

is for the average American, things are not going well. I'm gonna give you some numbers about consumer debt. So outstanding consumer credit, which does not include mortgage loans, exceeded $4 trillion for the first time in 2018. So more people are taking out more debt simply to live, simply to get the bare necessities, whether it's medical care, whether it's education, whether it's housing. Just take out loans, take out loans, be indebted for the rest of your life. But again, it's a house of cards.

And at some point, that house of cards will crumble. Because if wages remain stagnant, if inflation continues to go through the roof, and if our Our lawmakers refuse to do anything about the cost of living and how ridiculously expensive it is, well then eventually people are going to default on their loans. Yeah, and I think that, you know, listen, rent control was defeated pretty resoundingly here in California. And I think that it's a moment for all of us to be speaking with the people we know who are homeowners or who are lucky enough to, yes, to have a home and really organize.

And to say, hey, actually, when we protect renters, we protect everyone, and we protect the value of everyone's property and everyone's home. And when, you know, we're not charging, you're not gouging renters, actually you're creating stronger communities, teachers, don't have to move out of their own communities where they teach, right? So I think that we have a lot of work to do. I do think we're going to pass rent control, hopefully here in California and then throughout the country in places like New York where it's desperately needed in big cities like that.

But it's slow going, and it's hard to convince people that actually, like, You know, well, capitalism, do what it do. No, it doesn't. This is actually not capitalism. This is not actually, you know, free markets. Yeah. All right, we got to take a break. When we come back, though, remember Chris Kobach?

He wants to be Trump's immigration czar, and he has a list of diva-like demands from the White House. And you don't want to miss what he's asking for. We'll be right back. At TYT, we frequently talk about all the ways that big tech companies are taking control of our online lives. constantly monitoring us and storing and selling our data. But that doesn't mean we have to let them. It's possible to stay anonymous online and hide your data from the prying eyes of big tech. And one of the best ways is with ExpressVPN.

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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. Welcome back to TYT. We're going to jump right in. You guys ready?

Let's do it. Former Kansas Secretary of State Chris Kobach is in the news because he is being considered as Donald Trump's immigration czar. Now, this was a position that Trump and Kobach actually joined forces on. It is a position that does not currently exist within the Trump administration. But rather than making Kobach the head of the Department of Homeland Security, Trump has decided maybe this is a better way to go because the immigration czar might be able to go even further than the Department of Homeland Security.

Just something to consider. Now, Kobach has put out a list of demands from the White House should he accept this position. And I wanna read that list to you. It includes a government jet that would be available to Kobach 24 hours a day, seven days a week. It would actually fly him to visit his family over the weekends. He wants an office in the West Wing. He wants the weekends off to visit said family. He would like to be the Secretary of Homeland Security by November.

He also wants to be the main television spokesman for immigration policy. So anyone else who's doing communications work for the Trump administration would not qualify to talk about immigration policy, should Kobach accept this position. And he also wants a guarantee that cabinet secretaries related to immigration defer to him. And if there's ever a dispute between Kobach and these other cabinet secretaries, well, he wants President Trump to mediate the disputes. Oh, wow. Other conditions included having a staff of seven reporting to him, walk-in privileges to the Oval Office, a security detail if deemed necessary, and the title of assistant to the president. Who wants walk-in privileges to the Oval Office?

Like I feel like a non-knocking, like I'm just gonna come on, oh God, I did not, I saw nothing as a president, right? I mean, but what are you gonna see? Him eating like a Big Mac while watching Fox News? Like, it's the worst that it can get. Yeah, or like just holding a picture of Ivanka. Oh, something was just communicated in my ear, but I will not repeat. So you want to think about it.

He has this longy list of demands and pay rates and I guess access to everything he wants to be above other folks that have been there. This guy was Secretary of State, lost, I think, a governor raised, set up the voter fraud commission or something when they were trying to limit people's voting rights. That dismantled within months. What is his, this is so much more failing up than anything else? All you gotta do is go to an idiot president and say, hey, give me all this because I've been kissing your butt all over TV. Well, here's what Trump likes about him.

Now, let me also note that Trump is considering one other person for this position. Trump also has been considering others for the role, including Kenneth Cuccinelli, the former Virginia Attorney General. Now, it's unclear as to whether or not Cuccinelli has made similar demands. I would assume not, because that would probably be in the news as well. But if Kobach is facing some competition and he's putting out some crazy demands, maybe Trump will go with someone else. I don't know, they're both terrible. Those demands are hilarious though, because the one that's like must be media spokesperson

on anything immigration related, the administration must be like, well, that sounds pretty good. But here's the thing. I mean, I don't, do you want to, I don't want to talk about that. Also, Kobach is clearly a frontrunner because two K's in his name, you know? So just, just you know his middle name also. If only it has that third, then you can really lock it in. Right, exactly.

But here is how he appeals to Trump. He does it through appearances on Fox News where he says things like this. Why is it so hard for the administration to enact the policies the president ran on? Well, I think the biggest impediment to actually, Tucker, has been the Department of Homeland Security itself. leadership at that agency for the past two years, ever since the president took office, has been unwilling to execute many of the president's plans. And I can say from direct personal experience, I have been in the room when the president has given express orders to leadership at DHS and been assured that, yes, those orders

will be carried out. And then a year later, nothing has happened. So there has been deliberate foot dragging. And I think that's why you're seeing the White House take the necessary steps to clean house at DHS and put people in, hopefully, who will quickly execute with the president orders. I mean, it was the president who was elected, not the agency. Oh, yeah, because former DHS secretary Kirsten Nielsen was really guilty of foot dragging when it came to carrying out all the hideous things that the Trump administration wanted,

including putting children in cages. This is a payup. You're looking to come forward and get what you've done all your work so hard for. We wonder what kind of people like to work for Trump, same type of people that Trump is, you end up doing these bad things or doing these backwards things, and you're like, I'm ready to get paid up, hey, by November, I should be leading this department by now. Who takes a job and says, by November, give me, we can't get minimum wage hikes, but you're going to walk in and say, hey, I deserve the job by November. Two points of, like, just information, one, Ryan Zinky was fired for having a private jet,

like, Zinky is being, was fired for doing the exact same things that Chris Kobach is demanding. Thank you, in case people didn't know what a jet looked like. But, like, Ryan Zicki was like, well, I need to fly everywhere. Like, all these goons and grifters and idiots, basically, they don't understand that when you work for the president and you work in the cabinet, you don't get things handed to you. You're like, you are not the president. Sorry.

And, like, as much as that office has been debased at this point, you don't get a private jet. And, like, again, Zinky, Scott Pruitt, all these people that were fired for that kind of, like, ridiculous royal treatment. The second thing, Chris Coback is a perfect contender for this job as immigration czar because he was the architect of SB 1070 in Arizona with Sheriff Joe Arpaio, right? That's what Trump loves about him. So that's one of the reasons why he's being considered for this role. He is willing to go much further than Kirsten Nielsen was willing to go. And Kirsten Nielsen, as we all know, went pretty damn far.

So something to keep in mind as this position gets chosen. And let me just also note that there are several important positions within the defense department that the Trump administration has not filled. And it's because his number one, he's very narrowly focused on the immigration issue. It's been a winning campaign strategy for him. And that's what he's going to keep going for. All right. So with that said, let's go to the one fun story in this hour before you guys have to leave.

And I love this topic. Fox News sent Steve Deucey out to do like this man on the street type segment. Usually these segments are not live. They're usually taped for reasons that you're about to see. They have titled this segment, Deuce on the Loose. I'm not kidding. Let's take a look. We've been watching all sorts of people walking by with their texting device. Excuse me, ma'am. Hello. Hello. Excuse me. Hi. Can I ask a question?

It'll just take a second. I see you're walking through the crosswalk with your phone. How often do you look at your phone with a text and things like that? I try not to often. You may be going forward. You could get fined $250. Is that a bad idea? We're a good idea. I really don't want to. Okay. I don't think she has, she's in a hurry to go to work.

Okay, this guy right over here. Hi, how are you? Looking at this guy right here. See, he's using his phone through. Hi, excuse me, can I ask a question? Can you tell that New York City is a very busy place? It is indeed. All right.

Meanwhile, we got all these people that are going to work. Keep in mind, if you're working in New York City at 9 o'clock, you've got 20 minutes to go, and so everybody's in a big hurry. he's in a big hurry. Now, right over here, AJ, here's a guy. I'm going to surprise him. I'm going to see if I can get his attention. Excuse me, excuse me, sir. Hi. Excuse me? Can I ask you questions? Come on, let's go across the street. Now, all the people who are texting or looking at their phones could be subject to a $250 fine going forward, but it looks as if. So, for far from the people on the streets of New York City.

Let's just talk to this guy. Hi, excuse me, can I ask a question? Everybody's busy. So usually these aren't live because you're going to get a ton of people who don't want to talk to you, especially if you're Steve Ducey and most people don't like you. But more importantly, how many times is he going to say I'm in New York City? It's like he doesn't actually know where he gets chapered into from Florida. day.

Like, I'm in New York City. Oh, look. I guess it's people actually do real work. Oh, well, look at you. Like, this is amazing. It was so good. I loved every moment. Also, hey.

They didn't get, they didn't come off of it. They're like, no, we're going to keep going. We're going to keep showing this. No, no, make him suffer. What did he do to get this duty, deucey? Also, pro- Duce on the loose, guys. Pro tip.

Duce on the loose. If someone's on their phone. For a second, deuce on the loose, diarrhea. That's what it sounds like, it's, well, no, someone's mad at him. Someone's really mad at him. Oh, yeah, for sure. Yeah. You know, I was, he lost the game of, like, cool or whatever.

It's either that or, you know, do see, some folks have this, like, you know, and we're going to do this quick sentence, I'll go outside and do it, it's going to be fun. And I really hope it was his idea. Like, I can do it, no, let's go do it. People are going to want to talk to me. He should have gone up to the Bronx or something. People will talk to him there. Yeah.

Grouch you that guy. Wait, also, pro tip, don't talk to people who are on the phone. They probably won't respond to you because they're on the phone. They're texting device, as you call it. The best part about it, though, is. He's like, no. I mean, look, they're doing coverage of a proposed law in New York. But I would argue that it's even more unsafe.

Like, oh, it's unsafe to walk and text at the same time, which is a fair point to make. It's also unsafe to film and walk across the street at the same time as your host is failing to get anyone to answer a single question about this law. By the way, and when you can't get anyone to answer your questions and this is live, you have to resort to stupid statements like, can you tell that New York City is a very busy place? Yeah. 8.40 in the morning and people go on to work at 9 o'clock, they have 20 minutes to get there.

Yeah, he starts shaming people on how late they are for work. I love it. Anyway, deuce on the loose. Thank you so much, guys, for joining me for hour one. Loose, deuce. Thank you. Francesca Furentini, J.R. Jackson, check them out. They're awesome. Yeah. And we'll be back with Brooke Thomas for the second hour. 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.