The Young Turks - Dirty Secret Service

Episode Date: July 19, 2024

Trump rally shooter was reported as a suspicious person an hour before opening fire, sources say. Republican senators accost Secret Service head at RNC: "You Owe Answers!" Behind the curtain: Top Dems now believe Biden will exit. Joy Reid briefly equates Biden's Covid bout with Trump's near assassination: "Isn't that exactly the same?" HOST: Ana Kasparian (@anakasparian), Cenk Uygur (@cenkuygur) SUBSCRIBE on YOUTUBE: ☞ https://www.youtube.com/user/theyoungturks FACEBOOK: ☞ https://www.facebook.com/theyoungturks TWITTER: ☞ https://www.twitter.com/theyoungturks INSTAGRAM: ☞ https://www.instagram.com/theyoungturks TIKTOK: ☞ https://www.tiktok.com/@theyoungturks 👕 Merch: https://shoptyt.com ❤ Donate: http://www.tyt.com/go 🔗 Website: https://www.tyt.com 📱App: http://www.tyt.com/app 📬 Newsletters: https://www.tyt.com/newsletters/ If you want to watch more videos from TYT, consider subscribing to other channels in our network: The Watchlist https://www.youtube.com/watchlisttyt Indisputable with Dr. Rashad Richey https://www.youtube.com/indisputabletyt The Damage Report ▶ https://www.youtube.com/thedamagereport TYT Sports ▶ https://www.youtube.com/tytsports The Conversation ▶ https://www.youtube.com/tytconversation Rebel HQ ▶ https://www.youtube.com/rebelhq TYT Investigates ▶ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwNJt9PYyN1uyw2XhNIQMMA Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You're listening to The Young Turks, the online news show. Make sure to follow and rate our show with not one, not two, not three, not four, but five stars. You're awesome. Thank you. Welcome to the Young Turks, Jane Hugar, Anna Kusparian, we're live at the RNC. Normally would be at the Polymarket Studios, of course, in LA, but we've been here in Milwaukee all week. And it has been exciting. So as you've seen, we've interviewed Charlie Kirk, Rudy Giuliani, Mike Lindell.

Those were fun. I now have a pillow that I could call my own. So I was just on the floor of the convention. That was trippy and amazing. So we've got a lot to report to you guys throughout the night about how the convention is going. So we'll do our usual show, of course, 6 to 8 p.m. Eastern right here.

And then afterwards, instead of the best, Members only episode will be going live for everyone in covering the political speeches. And then several Republicans have promised to come by. We'll see how that goes. And that should be interesting as well. And by the way, a lot of people here are talking about both are Rudy and Charlie Kirk in abuse. Are they really? Yeah.

What are they saying? They're saying, wow, those are interesting. Okay, so interesting. I'll take it. I love it. Obviously, we have huge updates mainly on the Democratic side. So as you'll see in a second, Joe Biden is inches away from withdrawing from the race. And so the battle for replacing him has begun.

Yeah. And we've got a lot on that. Yep. All right. Anna. Before we get to all of that, though, I think it's important to check back in with the investigations into the assassination attempt on Donald Trump. And so why don't we begin with this?

Law enforcement officials are now saying that Secret Service snipers spotted the shooter 20 minutes before he opened fire. It's my understanding that briefers told lawmakers that the shooter was identified as a person of interest 62 minutes before that shooting happened. Well, the damning details of what led up to Thomas Matthew Crooks' assassination attempt of Donald Trump don't end there. In fact, we have a lot of other damning details that have now been released into the public. We're going to get to that in just a moment. But first, we have other major updates about that assassination attempt to share with you.

So first of all, we still know almost nothing about the shooter's motives for this assassination plot. But we have discovered some details about what he was searching in days leading up to the assassination attempt. So the FBI discovered that he had done searches online for President Trump's butler, Pennsylvania rally and the date of the Democratic National Convention in his phone history. So they were able to, you know, crack into his phone, figure out what he was searching, and that is what they found. He had photos of Trump, Biden, and other politicians on his phone. We also know that the shooter had visited the site of the rally at least one time before Saturday, which of course was when the assassination attempt took place. Now in the days before the rally,

He visited his local gun club to practice shooting. Obviously that in and of itself isn't at all suspicious. You know, people like to go to gun ranges, no problem there. But he also bought a ladder at home depot and purchased 50 rounds of ammunition. He also looked up major depression disorder and treatment online. So that could be an indication that he was struggling with some mental health issues. And the FBI told senators on Wednesday that Crooks had posted on a gaming site, warning of his impending attack.

However, and I want to be clear about this, investigators have actually walked that back saying they now believe the account was actually fake. So before we get to what happened on the day of the shooting, because we actually have a much clearer timeline about how the, you know, tragic events unfolded. Jank, I want to give you an opportunity to weigh in on what we have learned about his searches on his phone.

Yeah, finally, it's beginning to make sense because Because we knew obviously any shooter is going to have something wrong with them. And I won't say that it's a mental health problem every time, but it's close. And so, and of course, as always normal caveat for you guys, if you don't know, most people that have mental health issues are not at all violent. Okay, but there is a small minority that unfortunately does go in this direction. So it turns out he was staking out both Trump and Biden. And so the fact that he's a Republican, you know, gun enthusiasts now begins to make a little bit of sense.

It's not that he was just targeting Trump. It looks like he might have just been targeting any politicians or the biggest politicians. And maybe he was sick of politicians or whatever he thought in his mental state. And so he just happened to be able to get to Trump. Pricker is the guess I have now based on the information that we have. I mean, obviously he's searching out both. And if it was Biden in that field, it in Pennsylvania, maybe it would have been by. So at least there's logic in it now. And it's great to get more information. And as we always tell you, like in the beginning, you just don't know enough. Now the picture is beginning to form. Exactly. Well, let's talk about what transpired

on the day of the shooting, because we have some more details about that as well. So while we still don't have a clear motive for why the shooting happened in the first place, why he felt the need to carry out an assassination attempt. The timeline of the events is actually pretty damning for law enforcement. Because clearly, there were some pretty significant errors made here. And while the Secret Service would like to place the blame on local authorities, it's becoming clearer and clearer to me that the security lapses were caused by Secret Service. So Crooks was actually identified as suspicious around 5 p.m.

And that was over an hour before he opened fire. He was spotted walking near the magnetometers. And so here's more detail about what happened when he was reported and why he looked suspicious. At 510, according to congressional sources, law enforcement identifying crooks as a person of interest. Police believe he used AC units to climb up and gain access to the roof of a building and eventually made his way to the perch where he had a direct line of sight to the former president. There was local police in the area that were responsible for the outer perimeter of the building. 5.30 p.m., police see he as a range finder, which can be used to establish distance for target practice. And at 5.52 p.m., a sniper spotted crooks on the roof, roughly 20 minutes before he takes his first shot.

At 602, Trump walks onto the stage. Someone's on top of the roof. Look. The crowd noticed a suspect on the roof, an officer climbs up the building, but falls to the ground after Crooks aims his weapon at him. At 6th Trail, the first shots ring out. Take a look at what happened. And we learned of a new potential gap in the plan. Sources telling ABC News, the Secret Service requested that a local police cruiser be stationed at the same building where the shooter was perched.

But local law enforcement said they did not have the resources to provide that cruiser. So I want to just briefly talk about the fact that the Secret Service said that they do not have the resources to provide one cruiser to secure that building. So what I don't understand. So the onus is on local law enforcement, because we're not talking about some, you know, wealthy town that has limitless resources to provide security for a candidate for a federal election. Yeah. Like it is insane that they did not have the resources necessary to secure that building, the Secret Service. Yeah. So I'm a little bit more, um, I don't know, conflicted about it. I did, but there's some like, so let's break it down. So first of all, they're saying,

hey, this is outside the perimeter, local cops, can you put a cruiser on this? Does that mean that they thought that maybe the guy on the roof was a local cop and that's why they didn't take further action? That's a good question and we don't know. So I want to be clear. We don't know that. Yeah. So because that is the only thing they can begin to explain why, even if it's not 62 minutes, like so look guys, there's two parts of this, right? The part of this, the part where he's walking around with a weapon, that's on the Republicans, 280%. Because whenever, like they said, we should be able to walk around anywhere with a weapon. So a lot of times cops don't go up to people with weapons because they're worried that the

right wing is going to bite their head off, right? Well, what do you mean? I'm going to write. I'm going to write. Right. So I don't know if that's what happened, but that does happen often. I mean, you go walk into a Walmart carrying that same exact weapon and they're not going to stop you, right? So that's the first part of it. Once he's on the, roof, then there's no excuse other than unless the Secret Service thought that that was a local cop, right? And I don't know, I don't know if that's the case, but once they know that he's on the roof, or they know someone's on the roof, they took way, way, way too long. Like that is crazy.

And especially when you see, they did a good job down that CNN piece of showing the visual, right, of how close the building is to the rally. But that building is way too close. Yeah. You can't have somebody on the roof of that building. If the secret service is not doing that, they're not doing enough. So look, the secret service here is like there's more almost more secret service here than attendance. Okay. So obviously they have some degree of resources. Exactly. And so. And by the way, if you're trying to figure out where you should allocate those resources, you should allocate them to Trump. Now, why? Now, I mean, before the shooting, not even just after the shooting, after the shooting is obvious, right? because he's the only one doing rallies, like Joe Biden's barely doing any rallies. So Joe Biden's doing a rally, by all means, give him everything he wants, right? Get some secret service to RFK Jr. But Trump's doing, was doing a thousand rallies. Exactly.

I have to wind in the wide open. And by the one last thing, secret service, in the first couple of days put out some sort of excuse about, well, we told Trump not to do rallies in the open. No, but rallies are in the open. That's the whole point of a rally. I got to say, look, I'm not, I have no reason to believe that there was some big conspiracy against Donald Trump, right? And I know that there are people on the right who are spreading that conspiracy theory. The left has their own conspiracy theories. I'm rejecting all of that.

Like, I think that that's super toxic. Honestly, I think that there's a big problem with incompetence in our institutions. And the idea, like, I see the Secret Service trying to pass the blame to others. First, they started by trying to blame local law enforcement. And they keep changing their story. So I'm going to give you another example. Okay. So at first, The head of Secret Service Cheeto said that local police snipers were actually located inside of the building that the shooter was positioned on top of. But that ended up not being true. So later, local law enforcement officials denied that local snipers were in the same building as Crooks. On Wednesday, a Secret Service official told NBC News that the local sniper team was not actually in the building, as Cheetle said. Instead, it was in another building in the same complex.

So the stories keep changing. It seems like this is a massive error, an example of massive incompetence. And it's leading to senators calling for the head of the Secret Service to resign. Yeah. Okay. And I'm beginning to agree with them. I agree too. Yeah.

So look, it depends on what information you have. People love to like make gut reactions to a situation and think that they know all the answers when there's such little information. So in the beginning, I don't know how long the Secret Service knew that there was a guy on the roof, right? I go, so they say, oh, fire everybody in the Secret Service. Hold on, we don't know anything yet, right? And then the Secret Service risked their lives to surround Donald Trump. So my instinct is to say, well, those guys are courageous. And in the government, one of the few things that I thought that still functioned and was competent was the Secret Service.

That was the impression that I had. They were the most professional outfit, right? And so, Anna, I think you're making the best point, which is, man, deep incompetence has set in in so much of the government. Yeah. Like, they're just, we lost a thread, right? And so now at this point, when I look at the new information and how long they're, you know, the guy was on the roof. No, the Secret Service is not allowed to pass the buck because that's your whole job. Your job is to protect these candidates and you and Trump is a former president.

There's no answers or butts. There's no, hey, I thought the other guys are doing it. No, no way, right? And given how long he was on the roof, this is inexcusable. So I'll wait for more information and I don't mind if they have hearings or I don't mind if Biden here or whoever's going to make the decision, here's out what the head of the Secret Service has to say. But as things stand now, they very, very likely should be fired. So let's talk a little bit about the senators who are calling for Cheadle's resignation. So after senators received a briefing on the attempted assassination, and this took place yesterday, Republican Senator John Barrasso said that Secret Service was just trying to cover their ass and failed to answer any real

questions. And look, their behavior, to me, has been clear as well. It does seem like they're trying to cover their ass. And in an interview Tuesday with ABC, Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatel concluded or conceded that the shooting was unacceptable, but also claimed, quote, I don't have all the details yet, but it was a very short period of time between when Crooks was identified as suspicious and when he began shooting. No, that is a lie. Over an hour. He was reported over an hour before the shooting started. But let me continue with her statement. Seeking that person out, finding them, identifying them, and eventually neutralizing them took place in a very short period of time. And it makes it very difficult. Look, I don't think

that an hour is a short period of time. I could be wrong. I don't know. No, are you kidding me? Yeah. When the life of a president is potentially on the line, an hour is an eternity. If you can't get to somebody in an hour, you just can't get to them. Yeah, I don't know what she's talking about. That's crazy. But again, we now know he was identified as the suspicious individual over an hour before the shooting and multiple attendees did flag him down. Now Secret Service and local law enforcement are trading blame for who was ultimately responsible. Cheeto is, by the way, expected to testify before a House Oversight Committee hearing within the next month about the secure. failures that took place last weekend.

Yeah, so this should be resolved right away because it looks really bad. And look, this gets to one last quick thing here. I don't really know who's in charge of the US government. So I don't know who would make this decision. So is Joe Biden in charge? Does he make this decision? I mean, Joe Biden is in seclusion right now, obviously trying to decide what to do with the campaign.

He's very likely going to drop out, but it doesn't seem like his attention is on this. And somebody's attention should be obvious. And, you know, this one has to do with her actually here at the RNC. Let's watch. This is exactly what you were doing today. This was an assassination attempt. You owe the painful answer. You owe President Trump.

A group of Republican senators berated Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle at the RNC recently, just yesterday, demanding answers for Saturday's assassination attempt. attempt against Donald Trump. Obviously, there were some security failures. They want answers in regard to the security failures. So in the video that you just watched, you'll see a group of Republicans, including Senator Marsha Blackburn, Senator John Barrasso, and Senator James Lankford. Now Blackburn uploaded a four-minute video of the group, essentially a costing Cheatel and demanding that she stepped down if she doesn't answer their questions. Let's watch. I have called for your resignation and I'm going to be John and I will start to answer our questions right now about the death threat to come to the Trump and allowing him to go on

in Pennsylvania at a time when he'd already been alerted that there was somebody with a spotter all these situations already identified an hour before and you let him go on stage without the knowledge of him the team on the ground and you will put him within the I'm less than reach of his life. So resignation for full explanation to us right now. Can you give us an explanation? Why would anyone allow the president to go on stage? When you know you've got a potential friend who you've got snipers that are trained. there was a suspicious individual, they were aware of that, you know, at least, at least over 30 minutes prior to Trump taking the stage. Why did they allow Trump to take the stage? No, this is a disaster in two different ways. One, because they almost let the president die. And that would have been the worst act of malpractice in secret service history.

In fact, he was hit. I mean, she should be fired on that alone. Yes. The former president has hit. A presidential candidate is hit by a bullet. You got to go. She should have resigned by now. It's untenable. Okay, I'm glad we saw the second part of the video because the first part of the video is a bit shocking. Head of the Secret Service is walking away from three senators. What's going on here? You're supposed to be accountable.

Now I get it there kind of ambushing you in a way that you didn't expect and in a place you didn't expect. And in a place you didn't expect and it's not a formal hearing. But it's weird. It's like Matt Geeks with Kevin McCarthy. It's like random right wing bloggers with me. Like the senators are chasing her down. She's ignoring them. This whole thing is so strange.

And then the second part now is this this is the stuff that creates tons of conspiracy theories. Yeah, I agree. Because once you have massive unanswered questions, people are going to start to fill in their own blanks. And that's dangerous. And that's what this is really about. So senators had a closed door briefing. with Kimberly Cheadle. She was supposed to answer their questions, and they were upset because they felt that she didn't answer their questions. So that's the reason why you can hear the senators say, either you answer our questions, give us the information we need, or you should step down, you should resign. In fact, the GOPA told the Washington Post, quote, a number of senators caught wind that she was present here at the forum, you know, this is the RNC, in a suite. And after not having their questions answered earlier today during the briefing, they thought, let's go up and ask some questions. She refused to answer questions and started running away and they followed her.

So what was actually discussed during the briefing that has these Republican senators so upset? Well, Senator Barrasso, who was also in the briefing, explained earlier yesterday while making an appearance on CNBC. Let's watch. All right. I participated in the whole thing. To me, it was a cover your ass briefing by the, by the secret service, the director of the secret service needs to go. That shooter was identified as a suspect, suspicious character, a full one hour before the shooting occurred. Had a range finder, a backpack, and then they lost sight of him and never really followed up on that.

I wanted to ask a question. I talked to other senators who wanted to ask questions. We were cut off from doing so, and we had questions that we were willing to say, wait a second, what really happened there? Who's going to be held accountable? Who was in charge of that building? Why wasn't the roof scrutinized? How did all these things happen? they didn't answer any of those questions for us. It was completely unsatisfying as a briefing.

I think it was they just did it because they felt like they had to check a box instead of actually providing us the information that the American people need to know. The FBI gave about half of the briefing. They didn't even get called until 20 minutes or so after the shooting occurred in terms of was this part of some other plot. But we needed to know what happened. How could this have occurred this close to the death of a former president? We didn't get any kind of satisfaction. time for the head of the Secret Service to go. Now, during this briefing, she allegedly conceded that there was failure. I mean, I don't really need her to admit that there was failure.

There was clearly failure. But Cheadle's refusal to answer the questions, of course. And her inconsistency with the public remarks that she's made clearly riled up the MAGA base tenfold. So things got superheated when Cheadle refused to answer questions from Barrasso and Blackburn. Let's take a look. No, we'll leave with you now. Yeah, we'll be talking to those coming from fall. Thank you very much.

No, no, no, we're going with you. We're going with you. You're going to do. Good evening. No shame. No concern. You're pregnant. You and I didn't.

I'm going to come to you down. You're asking to us. You answered to us. This is exactly what you're going to stay. This was a destination attempt. You owe the head of the secret. You owe President Trump answers. Go, go, go, go.

You can not come away. You cannot fight from the people in the United States. They're the head of the secret service. You owe answers. You can help answers to the president, to the past president, and you owe answers to me. The president should have this good of protection for crying out loud. Now look, if you're watching this video and you're feeling a little uncomfortable with how they're hounding her and following her like that, believe it or not, there's actually a conservative who has spoken out against what the senators did there. We're going to get to him in just a moment. But speaker Mike Johnson, representative Steve Scalia,

and Senator Mitch McConnell have also called for her resignation and are launching their own investigations into the matter. So, Jank, do you want to guess who has called out the Republican senators and is not in favor of what they did there? So I don't know, I'll do a blind guess. Mitt Romney. No, it's actually a conservative host in the media, Sprit Hume. Whatever. Yeah, so let me read his tweet. He says, whatever Blame Secret Service Director Kim Cheeto deserves for the colossal security failure of last Saturday in Pennsylvania, the Republican senators harassing her in the hallway of the GOP convention in Milwaukee Wednesday did themselves no credit. They will have her before them and under oath soon enough.

What they did in the convention hall was pure grandstanding. Yeah, so look, no one did themselves any favors in that exchange, not the head of the secret service, not the senators. I was embarrassed why that tape. They're turning this country into a banana republics. But what is this? What we have senators chasing down other parts of the government, etc. But I'm not just blaming the senators. I blame the Secret Service ahead as well. So you look, with Republicans, you have to verify what they're saying eight times over. So I'm not going to take their word for it. And they do have a chance to question her later. And that will be decisive. And I would

be shocked if she kept her job. But if what they're saying is true, that now, what, five days after the shooting, you still can't tell us exactly what happened with the shooter. Why, are you having trouble getting in touch with your own secret service agents? Are you having trouble getting in touch with local police authorities? No, you should know exactly what happened already. It should not be in doubt. This is not like five hours after the shooting. This is five days after the shooting. So she really doesn't have any excuses. But okay, let's hear out in a formal setting what she's got and then very, very likely fired her. But if you're a U.S. Senator, don't chase people down the hall, yelling at him. It's embarrassing for everyone involved.

All right. Let's take a break. When we come back, we will check in with the Democratic side of the presidential election. Is Joe Biden going to step down now that Democratic leadership has urged him to do so. We've got that story and more. Don't miss it. Sky and Midwid. They just joined on YouTube by hitting the join button below the video. We appreciate it, guys. You guys are the best. Thank you for being with us here at the R&C. Kate Mick and Jesse gifted five memberships, Box gifted a membership. And finally on our website, Andrew, Joe Bologna, Aircom, 9, and Valen 619, all became members. And we appreciate you guys. And if you can, go to t.com slash team to help pay for us going to the DNC.

because it's been amazing here and the DNC should be way more interesting. Better lighting, please, DNC. You got to give me better lighting. Please, I'm begging you. I look washed out. Okay, it's unfair. Why do I even do my makeup? What's the point? I look like crap. All right, so anyway, t.yt.com slash teamwork. We appreciate you guys. All right, Anna. Let's do it. When you're told by members of Congress that they're losing, They're losing. They're going to lose the House in the Senate if he stays on the ticket. When you're told by members of Congress who have seen the polls that you're losing swing states and that your numbers are going down in swing states in states like Virginia, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Minnesota are now in play.

And when your top fundraiser over the past 5, 6, 7, 8 years is telling you the money's gone, the donors have all gone away, you know, it's really incumbent on people that are around Joe Biden to step up at this point and and help the president and help the man they love and do the right thing. This is not going to, this is not going to end well if it continues to drag out. Well, as Joe Scarborough just acknowledged, Joe Biden is facing massive pressure to drop out of the presidential race and allow for a more competitive Democrat to run against Donald Trump. In fact, the highest ranking Democratic officials in his own party, I'm talking about Democratic leadership like Chuck Schumer, Nancy Pelosi. They've met with him and they have urged him to drop out. And apparently that pressure is working to some extent. There are some cracks in his defiance, if you will. So this morning, Axios reported that behind the curtain, top Dems now believe Biden will exit.

There are some reports that he could exit the race as soon as Sunday, meaning this weekend. Now, thus far, Biden has not budged an inch on dropping out of the race publicly. So what he thinks privately might be completely different from the brave face he's putting on publicly. However, Axios reports that privately he's resigned to mounting pressure, bad polls, and untenable scrutiny, making it impossible to continue his campaign. An anonymous senior Democratic advisor told CNN that Biden's gone from saying Kamala can't win to, do you think Kamala can win? It's still unclear where he's going to land, but he at least seems to be listening. He's been listening. Yeah. So guys, you've heard me say now that it's over for a while,

and it was over after the debate. And remember, I thought that he was not the right candidate about a year ago, as you all know, but I didn't say that it was over and he was going to step down before the debate, before the debate, the great majority of the people supporting him, not the voters. And this is interesting and important. I'll come back to that in one second, but the elite, all the politicians, all the media, and all the donors, we're all still behind. But after the debate, and when I saw the ad against Bob Casey, I said, it's definitely over. They can't withstand this, right? But now, he's got nowhere left to go. We're in the checkmate portion of the program. He's down to just the king. He doesn't even have any pawns.

left because Joe Scarborough and Mika Brazinski are by far his top defenders in the press. So that's like losing your queen. And so that's gone. That's off the board. Nancy Pelosi off the board, Adam Schiff off to Chuck Schumer, Keem Jefferson. Everyone's gone. He's lost all of his pieces. The donors are gone. Jeffrey Katzenberg. I mean, that's the person they're alluding to. One of the top donors for the Democrats of all time, the biggest supporter of Joe Biden within the donor community, he's saying we don't have any money left. Just like I told you guys, I said it was that was set in motion three weeks ago because he would run out of donor money and it would be a revolt in Congress. And that's exactly what happened. And so it's not a question. Like soon, like within minutes, we're going to switch to who should be the new nominee. Right now, Joe Biden is definitely. done. If he kept going, they're going to have to humiliate him. They're going to have to do it in public more. Like it would be insanity, sheer insanity to continue, and it wouldn't work anyway. So this is when you say Joe Biden had a good run, whether you believe it or not.

Thank you for your service. And wow, this is exciting. We're going to get to pick a new candidate and we're going to have a real shot to beat Donald Trump. Yeah, there's literally no allies left. And guys, I want you to consider for the rest of the country, for everyone in the country, what the two political campaigns look like, what the optics are, right? So we've been at the RNC all week. I don't believe the, I genuinely don't believe, we'll see, right? The pro working class message, right?

But at least that's the message that they're really driving home at this convention. So you have the Republican Party branding themselves as the party that's looking out for the little guy, for working class Americans. And then on the Democratic side, is there any conversation about policy right now? Of course that. Because everything is wrapped up in this power struggle. And that does not look good to the American people, especially at a time when they're struggling financially, economically due to inflation and stuff like that. And so it's just a bad look for the Democrats. The longer this drags out, the more it hurts the party in general.

Yeah, guys, there's a second huge problem with him dragging it out, which is that people are starting to ask, real average Americans. Anna and I took an Uber ride today. I know it's cliche to tell you about taxi drivers and Uber drivers, but nevertheless, they are a good indication. And he said, well, look, he's a 26 year old guy, doesn't follow politics that much and said, well, who's in charge of the country? Because to the average person that those are in politics, when they see Joe Biden, they think he doesn't know what he's doing. He's obviously in mental decline. Like that's the most obvious thing in the world. They don't debate it.

The debate is only because the allies of Biden force you into a debate by continuing to gaslighting, right? But in the real world, there's no debate at all. Everybody thinks Joe Biden's gone, right? So then they're wondering, so who's running the place? And so that's beginning to deteriorate faith in the government, let alone the Democratic Party. But they're also thinking like the Democratic Party seems to be kind of like a little bit questionable. Yeah, wrapped up in their own ambition, their own political ambition, as opposed to looking out for the little guy, which is what historically the Democratic Party was thought to be, right? And so the other thing that the Uber Driver mentioned, which I thought was telling is, remember, he says, I don't really follow politics that closely. I don't watch the news that much.

But, and I do think that's actually representative of most American voters. Definitely. And you know what he said? He said, yeah, I'm going to vote Trump because he seems like he wants to help. Yeah, that brother, and he admits it, he's like, I don't know any of the details. And I don't know who actually wants to help, right? He didn't say those exact words, but that was his indication. But he's like, Trump seems like he wants to help.

And he hasn't heard anything from Biden or the Democrats about how they're going to help him. He said, look, rent went up by $1,000. Me and my girlfriend, we think we might not be able to afford an apartment to just to even rent, right? And then he interrupted our conversation when I said that Biden was bragging about how he expanded NATO. But I'm like, nobody even knows that. And he said, yeah, I don't know that. And he doesn't care. He doesn't care about expanding NATO.

The brother's trying to pay for rent. The Democrats are so out of touch. But the longer they have Joe Biden as his figurehead, the more average voters are going, who is in charge of the Democratic Party anyway? Yeah. Are they run by some sort of secret group that we're not seeing? That's a terrible thing to show the American people, for God's sake, let's go. But it's okay. Almost certainly by Monday he's gone. So get ready for a new nominee. So let's talk about some of the other indications that Biden is likely going to drop out of the race. And by the way, guys, there's, I guess, two questions. The first question I didn't even consider because I think it's ridiculous, but the idea of him resigning from the presidency, no one's. No one's having a real conversation about that, okay? So there's very little time left in his term. He's going to finish his term. We're talking about dropping out of the presidential race, so a more competitive candidate can go up against Donald Trump. Now, in an interview released on Wednesday, on BET, Biden was asked if there was any scenario in which he would drop out of the race,

and he said the following, if I had some medical condition that emerged, if somebody, if doctors came to me and said, you got this problem and that problem. So it seems like there is an opening, right, where he thinks it's reasonable for him to drop out of the race. That same day, Biden was diagnosed with COVID, but obviously COVID is not something that a president or a candidate would drop out of a race from. But what is motivating Biden's alleged change of heart could be the following. So one Biden advisor who spoke on the condition of anonymity said that the decision came down to hard facts and that there were three that matter, polling, cash and which states are in play. And as this advisor put it, none of those are trending in the right direction for Biden. So top Democrats have been pushing Biden hard on all three of those.

Okay, just bringing all of this data to his attention, telling him about how unlikely it is that he's going to win the election or re-election. When asked if that report was true, a spokesperson for Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer stated, Leader Schumer conveyed the views of his caucus. And last means the entire Senate Democrats now think he should step aside. Exactly. And by the way, two thirds of Democratic voters believe that he should step aside. Yeah, 65% on a new poll. So that goes to, you know, somebody was saying, one of our members said, I hope I never hear the word blue MAGA again. And I understand and I appreciate that. And that was Mongostis Gloop. It's a funny handle. But I appreciate you guys. Be part of the show. Take the join button below and be one of our members. But guys, I hope I don't ever have to say that again. But the 35% that still think that Joe Biden should be the candidate, they think they're the majority. Because they're, look, I don't want to hurt your feelings, but it's an alternate reality.

This thing is beyond over, right? But those folks are still to this day say, no, Biden should stay on and we the voters want him. No, you want him. But the overwhelming majority of Democratic voters don't want him, let alone the general population who gets the vote in the election, right? So just be clear on what reality is. And even if you disagree with the people that are in the majority, okay? So now look, when you've lost the Senate caucus, there's nowhere to go. I mean, imagine if they come out publicly, all of the Democratic senators, which leads to the second problem. And part of what Schumer and Jeffries, et cetera, are telling Joe Biden, they're saying it's not just, they're not

telling them, hey, brother, we think you're a mental decline. I can't have. They're not saying that. They're saying people now believe slash realize that you're in mental decline. So we can't hide it anymore. So now the perception is such a giant problem that even if you were in great shape, which we know, you're not, right? But even if you were in great shape, you'd still lose. And because and you're you are not able to change that perception in the interviews and events that you did. We heard you out. You did all these things. And now the perception is even more dug in that you can't campaign and be president for the next four years. So that's why it's over. Not just because of the reality of your medical condition, but because of people's perception, the voters will not turn around. They're positive that they're not going to vote for you. So it's literally impossible for it to be clear. Now, I also want to just quickly note that there are other members in the Democratic Party, big names like Adam Schiff, calling for Biden to drop out. Also, Hakeem Jeffries spoke with Biden. And Jeffries, the minority leader, told House Democrats last week that in a visit to the White House on Thursday night, he had directly expressed the same breadth of insight, heartfelt perspectives, and conclusions about the path forward among them to Biden. And it was also reported today that former President Barack Obama is telling his allies that he does not believe Biden can win. But there is still one prominent individual in the media who absolutely believes that Biden could still win. And maybe the real problem here is the backstabbing that's taking place by other Democrats.

Let's take a look. It's his decision to make. It seems to me that these behind the scenes meetings that should be private are being leaked intentionally to sort of force his hand. I think that's disrespectful to the president. I think it's disrespectful to the office. Even if he doesn't drop out, I think we have to understand that there's a binary choice. There is a threat, an existential threat to democracy on one side and Joe Biden on the other. So he still has my vote because he has Vice President Harris right next him.

who is ready to step into the role of president, God forbid, something happened to Joe Biden. So I still think, you know, Democrats, instead of throwing Joe Biden under the bus, need to start talking more about the Republican program. What about throwing the American people under the bus by withholding the true condition of Joe Biden from them, you know, attempting to essentially just hide the truth and hoping that Biden will win reelection when he needs to be out and about campaigning in order to beat Donald Trump. Like, look, this is my speculation. I could be totally wrong. I get the sense that Sonny Hosten really wants the presidential candidate to be Kamala Harris.

But there is, once Biden steps down from the presidential race, there's going to be a debate among Democrats about whether Kamala should be crowned the candidate, which is the undemocratic choice, if you ask me, or if they should have an open convention where others throw their hat in the race and the delegates get to vote and decide who the best candidate is. If that happens, there is some possibility that Kamala Harris won't be the candidate. I just feel like this argument of, no, just let Biden continue running. Kamala Harris is the vice president. So God forbid, if something happens to Biden, Kamala will step in. Yeah, I'm going to agree with your speculation in an in a minute and I can back up the reasoning. First, what Sunny Hassan said there was cuckoo for

Cocoa Pus. She appears to be the last Biden dead ended. And so, and something she said really offended me that this is disrespectful to him and the office. No, no, he's being disrespectful to 65% of Democratic voters who say, brother, we're going to lose because of you. Please step aside. We love you, but you got to go because we got to beat Trump. And it seems like you like you don't even care if we want to beat Trump. And so it's incredibly disrespectful to the country, to democracy. I mean, you keep saying democracy's on the line. And then you want to run an 81 year old who 80% of Americans believe no longer has a functioning brain. So I, yeah, oh, don't say harsh things like that about the president. Why? Because he's the powerful. And we have to

kiss his ass because he's powerful. That's not what the press is supposed to do. Isn't it amazing The press, instead of challenging the powerful, yell at anyone who does challenge the powerful. They're like, how dare you know that you should kneel and bow down before authority? Okay, the voters don't matter. Democratic voters, we don't care about them. And how about your beloved Nancy Pelosi and Akeem Jeffries and Chuck Schumer, isn't it disrespectful to them for you to throw them under the bus? And it's obvious we're going to have a new Democratic candidate. And these guys constantly fighting it is disrespectful to their beloved Democratic leadership that has now decided it should not be Joe Biden.

So nothing she said made any sense at all. And it was elitist and insulting to the average person. Now, I think you're, I had the same sense that you did. And here I'll throw our guys under the bus too, okay? And it's not really under the bus. I think that they progressives, our guys as in Bernie Sanders, et cetera. I think both the Bernie Sanders camp and the Kamala Harris camp are trying so hard to make sure they're not blamed for pushing Biden now. And they want to say, especially now the Kamala Harris, because those are, because the progressives always get blamed and African American leaders and other folks who are not African American, but want Kamala Harris, right, don't want to seem like they did.

a palace coup and then their preferred candidates then gets, you know, has that, yeah, no, no, gets attached that that paint gets attached to them, right? And, and so they don't want that on Kamala Harris. What they want instead is Kamala fought for Biden to the end. And remember, the office is what's important. And she's the vice president and you have to respect the office. It has to be Kamala Harris. I guarantee you to you right now, 100% prediction. Sonny Hassan as soon as Biden steps down and says, there should be no conversation, there should be no open convention, and it should be Kamala Harris shoved down everybody's throat. Otherwise, it's disrespectful, disrespectful to the elite and the powerful. I guarantee you she makes

that argument. So I think you're totally right. And I see it in a lot of other politicians and media figures that are going taking it easier on Biden because they're saying, oh my God, the team, the ticket, the office has to be respected. They're going to all turn and say there should be no democracy, no open convention, no nothing. Kamala Harris should be anointed because that's what we prefer. And that's absolutely the wrong way to do. By the way, I think Kamala Harris can easily earn it at a convention. I agree. She would be the favorite of the convention and Anna, I started to be you suggested I started watching more Kamala Harris speeches and I did. She sounds better and better. She does. She does. It seems like whatever weird trance she was in during

the administration where she had trouble speaking publicly has kind of gone away. And I'm happy about that because she's doing way better in her public appearances. So there is a good chance that even in an open convention, she will end up being the favorite to run against Trump. Look, let me just be clear. First of all, even an open convention, she'd be. the favor. No question. The vice president's definitely the favorite, right? And if she can't deliver it after being an overwhelming favorite, then she's not a strong candidate. But if she does deliver it, then she's the convention and the process strengths her. Then no one can complain that she's the candidate because she earned it. And no one could take that away from her. And then she didn't just

get anointed or named because remember Biden named her in the first place. That's how VP's work. Right. This would be her first opportunity to actually earn it herself. And it would give her so much more credibility. Now, by the way, Mark Halpern reporting that Biden is, this just happened, last legs considering Kamala Harris. And apparently, if you believe his reporting, he is not going to say it should be Kamala Harris. Apparently he's going to say open confession. Wow. Okay. And we don't know. That's Mark Halper reporting, okay, for what it's worth. but I would be thrilled. I would have thought that the political thing to do,

and if he doesn't do this, that means he has a deep problem with Kamala Harris, that Biden would come out and say I'm resigning, you know, stepping down from the candidacy, I've sustained the president, and I have incredible faith in Kamala Harris. And, you know, obviously I back her. But I think we should do an open convention. I think Kamala will easily win the open convention. That's the right way to do it. So you guarantee the right process, but you don't see.

like you're disrespecting your own vice president. If he doesn't even say it should be common, he just says it should be an open convention, wow, then he really doesn't believe in her. Well, we'll see how this plays out, right? So because we don't know this is based on one individual who's claiming this is how it's going to happen. We'll see how it happens. And as you guys always know, we'll give you the details as this story develops.

For now, we're going to take a quick break when we come back who's got more news for you, including, well, an insane thing that Joy Reid said on on her show recently comparing Donald Trump and Joe Biden. You do not want to miss that story. We've got that and more coming up. through t.com slash team. And then thank you to our new members on YouTube, Justin Porter and Aaron Botcher. You guys are amazing.

We appreciate you and you'll allow us to do this beautiful, honest show that you guys see right here. So thank you guys and thank you for sending us to the RNC. Anna. Hold on to your butts for this story because I literally can't believe someone made this argument on national television with a straight face, but it happened. These two men are both elderly.

Donald Trump is an elderly man who, for whatever reason, was given nine seconds to take a iconic photo op during an active shooter situation. Weird situation, we'll figure that out one day. But his survival of that and bouncing right back and going right to his convention is being conveyed in the media world as a sign of strength. This current president of the United States is 81 years old and has COVID. Should he be fine in a couple of days? Doesn't that convey exactly the same thing? No. No, it doesn't.

Okay. I mean, are you serious, Joy? Are you serious? I mean, these MSNBC hosts look totally unhinged. Several of them, including Joy Reid, were questioning if the event was staged in SS. They're like, oh, this is a really weird coincidence. what's going on? And look at what she said for a nine second was allowed to do a photo. He's the president of the United States. He just got shot.

Former president of the United States. Yeah, I got you. But the former presidents are still called president. Right. And so you're begrudging him putting up his fist after he got shot. First of all, that's just nuts. Second of all, any of these things like, oh, is it curious how they stage things? No, you're egging on people on your sign. to think crazy things. Conspiracy theory. Yeah, Michael Steele did the same thing. Again, on MSNBC, they're starting to really sound like the MAGA version,

you know, on the Democratic side, for sure. And then what kind of lunatic thing is it to say, oh, you got COVID, you got shot, it's the same thing. No, it's not. I had COVID a couple of weeks ago. It was a normal cold. So that's, look, COVID now is, especially if you're, I mean, I get it, he's 81 and it's a little bit more of a risk. And God knows what I'm, I hope nothing happens to President Biden and something could happen. But getting a cold is not the same thing as getting shot in the head. Like you're embarrassing yourself by saying ridiculous things like this. And unfortunately, Anna, they've kind of trained their audience to want this.

They want some sort of criticism of Donald Trump under any and all circumstances. But guys, there's a billion things to criticize them on policy and the other crazy stuff he does. And when you criticize him on those things, you lose credibility when you also criticize him for how he got shot. Yeah, it's kind of crazy because Jank and I have been doing this for a long time. And I remember when I first started working at TYT, there was one cable news channel, Fox News, that was very clearly partisan, very clearly dishonest in their framing, deceptive in what they were telling their audiences. And since then, unfortunately, that virus has spread to all other forms of media, including left-wing media, MSNBC. And so I don't have a problem with them criticizing Trump at all. We criticize Trump on this show.

What I have a problem with is the way that they frame things, the way they omit certain details and certain stories. It's not helpful. And it creates these ideological bubbles in the country where rather than. Finding common ground with both sides, we all hate each other. There's always division. It's always toxic. And I feel like it's leading the country in a really, really bad direction. What she said there was just, she said it with a straight face.

I can't believe she said it. I'd be so embarrassed if I was on the record saying something like that. But anyway, as we know yesterday was confirmed, but that President Biden tested positive for COVID. This is the third time in the past two years that he has tested positive for COVID. Here's what he wrote on Twitter. I tested positive for COVID-19 this afternoon, but I am feeling good and thank everyone for the well-wishes. I will be isolating as I recover.

And during this time, I will continue to work to get the job done for the American people. Now, during MSNBC's coverage of the RNC yesterday, former White House press secretary Jen Saki argued that it's actually going to be pretty difficult for Biden to show Democrats that he's up to the task. And that is what ultimately led to Joy Reid's interjection at this watch. They have a more immediate challenge right now, which is projecting to the Democratic Party, he's inevitable and he's up to this job. Yeah, well, here's the question that I have on that.

These two men are both elderly. Donald Trump is an elderly man who, for whatever reason, was given nine seconds to take a iconic photo op during an active shooter situation. Weird situation, we'll figure that out one day. But his survival of that and bouncing right back and going right to his convention is being conveyed in the media world as a sign of strength. This current president of the United States is 81 years old and has COVID. Should he be fine in a couple of days? Doesn't that convey exactly the same thing?

That he's strong enough older than Trump to have gotten something that used to really be fatal to people his age. So if he does fine out of it and comes back and is able to do rallies, isn't that exactly the same? It should. I mean, it's not exactly the same. It's not same incident, but it's all, it's an elderly man coming through out of an illness. It should. It's funny because Jen Socky's face was like, what are you saying? Please stop talking. But then she says it should. Of course, she doesn't want to embarrass her colleague there. But I mean, it was a huge cringe moment. I look, I don't think that the MSNBC hosts understand how unhinged they sound. And they lost a threat a long time ago.

And so guys, remember, it is a dozen years ago that I'm at MSNBC as a host. And they tell me specifically, don't criticize Democrats. So that's the nature of this network. That's the culture of this network. And that's literally the guidelines of this network. So if you do that for another dozen years after I left, this is the end. This is the end result where you're, they're so in their own bubble that they think, well, doesn't everyone irrationally just hate Donald Trump? And by, because there's, as I've said a hundred

times, there's plenty of rational reasons to hate Donald Trump. But when you get into the irrational and like, oh, yeah, no big deal that he got shot in the ear. Yeah, missed his man and killed him, could have killed him if it went an inch the other way. There's no big deal. It's like getting, like, having a cold. Same thing. You sound ridiculous. Okay. You sound like, you sound like, a lunatic. You just touched on something that I've been wanting to articulate on the show for some time now. Now's a perfect time to say it. Guys, I don't want Democrats to turn into everything they hate about their political opponents. And I feel like that's what's happening. That's a great point. Right? Like I don't want to be that. I want to be better than that, right? Like I don't

want to dabble in conspiracies. I don't want to dehumanize people on the other side. I don't want of brush off an assassination attempt. Can you guys imagine if someone tried to kill you? You knew that there were people out there who literally wanted to kill you. And one person got real close. That is a traumatic experience. No one should have to deal with that. In a democracy, no one should have to deal with that. And we are supposed to be better than this. We're not supposed to do what joy we did in that segment and we're not supposed to make light of what happened last weekend at that Trump rally. Okay, with that said, I do want to actually give Van Jones credit. And I want to juxtapose what you heard from Joy Reid to what Van Jones actually had

to say. Let's take a look. A bullet couldn't stop Trump. A virus just stopped Biden. You've got the nominees of this party getting their butts kissed. Biden's getting his butt kicked by his own party. The Democrats are coming apart. The Republicans are coming together. I really want to thank Van Jones for saying that because it's a sobering statement to make. I'm sure he's gotten some backlash from Democrats for saying it, but it is true. And we have to look at the situation clearly. And we need to improve where there's need for improvement. And our behavior should not be modeled after everything we hate on the right.

So with that said, Joy Reid has been under some scrutiny for previous comments that she's made regarding Saturday's assassination attempt. She, in fact, posted a video on her Instagram page this week, questioning the extent of Trump's injury and what happened that day. Let's take a look. We still don't know for sure whether Donald Trump was hit by a bullet, whether he was hit by glass fragments, whether he was hit by shrapnel. We don't have those details. We actually have no details from his physician, even though this man is still a secret service protected, you know, and presidential candidate. we knew almost nothing. We don't know why for nine full seconds, Donald Trump was allowed to stand back up during an active shooting, an active shooter situation, even though they at that point had said the shooter, the shooter was down. How would have they know, how would they have known if there were more shooters or not? Nobody knew that there could have been five shooters for all they knew. Yet they allowed him to stand up in the middle of that, you know, crisis and pose for a photo. And this pump the air so he can get the iconic photo. What is the actual injury to Donald Trump's ear that's under that bandage? Shouldn't we know that by now?

Jake, I'm curious what you thought about that. No, no, she's totally in La La Land. I mean, they're super heavy. implying that the shooting was staged like oh why did they let him stand back up why did they give him nine seconds to set up that photo up that was looked I mean she said I don't know she might even I don't remember if she used the word stage but almost everything she said was super heavily implying that it was staged and look and like conspiratorial things like oh did it really hit his here but guys one more thing hold on it sorry yeah the stuff about the teleprompter shattering and the

glass hitting him. If you said that in the first couple of hours, which I did, that's because all those reports were flying around and we were trying to figure out what happened and why the injury was so light. Right. Totally understandable. You were saying that four or five days after the shooting. Everybody knows this hell prompter didn't break. It's on tape. Everyone knows it wasn't glass. Why are you still saying that? I know. It's such a weird conspiracy theory. Like you're just, I'm sorry, man, but it's embarrassing. And look, when Republicans used to say, Trump derangement syndrome. I was like, there's no such thing. They're just making that. Anyone who criticizes Trump, they say, oh, you go to Trump derangement. But apparently there

is Trump derangement syndrome. And it doesn't affect most of Trump's critics at all, right? But it apparently infected almost all the MSNBC hosts. What she was saying there sounded like Q and on kind of crazy talk. Yeah, I agree. And look, the final thing I'll say is, Look, even if you take Trump out of it, okay, for the people who are alleging that, oh, this was all staged, a person is dead, okay, a Trump rally goer, a father of two daughters, dead. He was shot and killed as he was like shielding his family from, from the shooter. And two other individuals were in critical condition. I think their condition has improved slightly, but they're still in the hospital and it's still

serious. Yeah, it's just last thing because I want you to think about how we're easy these conspiracy theories are. So what do you think happened? They fired real bullets that killed Corey, the firefighter who was killed while shielding his family. They hit a couple of other people. But they meant to do all that. They meant to murder that poor guy. But then Trump ducks down. And what do you do? Like in the old wrestling days, Dusty Roads, the American Dream would roll under the wrestling ring and would cut his own forehead with a razor so it looked like when he got hit by the chair that is all bloody and stuff. Do you think Trump was carrying around? Oh, just in case there's an assassination attempt. Oh, perfect. There's one now here. I'll cut my ear. I mean, what is this? Come on. Who's this

crazy? No, obviously he, the bullet grazed this here. What she was like, what do you think it was? We don't know if it was a bullet. There's a bullet flying by him. The New York Times photographer captured on tape. What else do you need? No, that's totally Trump derangement syndrome. There's nothing, if Trump was riddled with 28 bullets there and died, she'd say like, oh, pretty convenient. Dyes like a martyr and a hero and then helps JD Bans become president.

I wonder if this was staged. Okay, if you're going to be a lunatic, I guess you got a good shot at being an MSNBC host. So Trump's son, Eric, by the way, said that the ear injury from the shooting, not serious. he didn't even need stitches. So for Joy Reid, if you're wondering, you know, how serious the injury was, there you have it. His own son said he didn't need stitches. Yeah, I don't know if he needs that bandage and that's a bit of a staging on that part. He's milking it a little bit.

Yeah, he's milking it a little. Yeah, but that's okay. He got shot. He's allowed to milk. Yeah. Okay. Anyone else who nearly died, like literally like half an inch, he'd be gone. Okay, that is a traumatic experience.

So just try to be a human being. Yeah, that's what it is. I mean, they've dehumanized Trump so much, understandably because he says such terrible things where he do not dehumanizes others, right? But they've like got a wall in their head for all humans and then Trump on the other side of the wall. And that's not right. As Anna said earlier, we can't devolve into doing the same things that they do and the things that we didn't like about them. If we become them, then what was the point? Exactly. All right, we got to take a break. We'll be back. in the next hour with an awful story involving the Israeli government, Benjamin Netanyahu, and the squashing of a children's hospital. So come back for that and more. We'll be right back.