The Young Turks - Ditch McConnell

Episode Date: September 23, 2021

Democrats have time to raise the debt ceiling without Republicans, according to Mitch McConnell. The George Floyd police reform bill appears doomed as Republicans refuse to accept any meaningful reforms. The U.S. Special Envoy to Haiti resigns over migrant expulsions. Pfizer’s CEO rallies staff to fight the Democrats’ drug price negotiations. Kayleigh McEnany deletes a tweet after brutally mocking Donald Trump. Hosts: Ana Kasparian & Cenk Uygur Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You're listening to The Young Turks, the online news show. Make sure to follow and rate our show with not one, not two, not three, not four, but five stars. You're awesome. Thank you. Thank you. All right, welcome the Young Turks, Jane Canana with you guys. So, as you all know, we do a lighthearted show often times, but there's tons of serious stories. Plenty of serious stories today, so not in the best of moods, so buckle up, brace for impact. But for all of you out there that are members, don't forget Power Hour with Nina Turner

tonight at 6 p.m. 8 p.m. Eastern, sorry, I had to struggle with math there a little bit. You're going to love it. I mean, Pacific, my bad. We're into heroes and villains. What would Nina do? You guys absolutely love it. We'll talk more about it later. All right, and I'll let's get a start. The House has ended up approving a new piece of legislation, a standalone bill that provides $1 billion to fund the Iron Dome in Israel.

Now this comes after AOC and other progressives in the House of Representatives had blocked the measure, the provision in the stopgap bill earlier this week. Now obviously it's really interesting to see how quickly House Democratic Democrats get together and pass a standalone bill that provides funding for Israel. But in terms of how the vote went this time around, there were some changes. So let's talk about it. The measure cleared the House in a bipartisan vote of 420 to 9. Also eight Democrats and one Republican voted against the funding for the missile defense system.

Two other Democrats, Hank Johnson of Georgia and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, voted present. So the one Republican, by the way, who voted against it is Tom Massey of Kentucky. Now, AOC actually changed her vote from no to present. And then there was a strange moment on the House floor where you can see her, you know, being embraced by other Democratic lawmakers as she's crying. So let's take a quick look at that. Mr. Lawson, Florida pursue it, the House resident,

and inform the House that Ms. Lawson will vote. Nay, on House Resist in 483 amendments, he votes nay. Just to give you some more context into this story, the United States is not somehow abandoning Israel by not voting in favor of that $1 billion spending bill for the Iron Dome. In fact, Israel is getting a ton of military assistance to the tune of $38 billion, which was approved. by the Obama administration in 2016. In fact, the U.S. has already provided $1.6 billion to Israel for Iron Dome batteries, interceptors, co-production costs and maintenance, according to a 2020 report from the Congressional Research Service.

So it's unclear at the moment why AOC decided to change her vote from no to present. Of course, there are speculations as to why that happened, and I guess that's what we'll talk about now, before I get to any of the other details. So, Jank, what do you think? Yeah, so it's a terrible vote. And the reason that's terrible vote, indisputably a terrible vote, is because you vote of present. You're right there, we see you.

Either vote yes or vote no. Here's how many people are you going to gain by voting present? Zero, none. Everybody's pissed. Left wing's pissed, right wing's pissed. You think people aren't going to call you anti-Semitic? Of course I'm going to call you that anyway. That's what they always do.

That's always a trash, trash argument of the right wing, the establishment media, your own Democratic, leaders, you gain nothing by voting present. Nothing at all. Now there's some, you know, legitimate political, electoral reasons that some of the progressives voted the way that they did. Jamal Bomah's district has a significant Jewish population, very progressive otherwise, but sometimes, yes, tends to be supportive of Israeli government's one, even when they're right wing. So you take that into consideration like you maybe aren't as stringent on gun rights in, or gun restrictions in West Virginia or Montana as I would be, I understand, everybody's got

different factors that influence their decisions. But first of all, make up your mind. Second of all, okay, you're crying, but I don't want to pile on to that. I feel bad for you. I just genuine. But at the same time, it really doesn't affect how I view your vote. Votes either good or bad. And then if you're wondering why some of the other progressives might have backed out, let's

Can we be honest here for a second? Democratic majority for Israel spent millions of dollars against Nina Turner and helped a defeat her. So are some of them cowards because they're worried about Israeli right-wing lobbyists? And if, by the way, if you're in corporate media and you say, oh, no, they don't exist, I can't believe you're saying that they're in favor of Israel and their right-wing and they're lobbyists, well, do your goddamn job and be a reporter. What are they then?

What are they? That's exactly what they are. And if you get offended by that and you want to help the establishment be more right wing, you're not a journalist, just go get another job, be a plumber or something. So yes, I'm sure somewhere intimidated by that, which makes me disgusted and these, the lobbyists in this country are sick, the whole system is corrupt and sick, and if you take certain votes, you're gonna get millions of dollars spent against you and they're gonna try to end your career. So that's part of the issue here.

And let's be clear what I mean by they, for all you liars out there. who like to call everybody anti-Semitic, if they don't support the right-win apartheid government of Israel, okay? No, by they, I mean all the lobbyists, former lobbyists, oil lobbyists, banker lobbyists, Israeli lobbyists, oh, well, Israeli or not Israeli, I mean, they support the massively right-wing government of Israel, et cetera, I'm tired of it. Saudi lobbyists, I don't care, defense contractors that are thrilled. Guys, this is ironic because I love Iron Dome, okay? But we already gave $38 billion.

This is, by the way, just so you know, this is not so that Iron Dome exists. This is an additional $1 billion. They said, it was kind of damaged when we were killing the Palestinians. Was it? I thought you said Iron Dome blocked all those, almost all those missiles. I thought you said the Palestinians were impotent and couldn't really kill you guys. And you mocked them and mocked them and said, how, how we protect our civilians? But we have to murder your civilians.

And so how did Iron Dome get damaged? I got a billion dollars of damage in that last conflict. No, it didn't, you're lying. It's for money for Raytheon, it's money for another contractor, and it's money for Israel. And so are we doing Iron Dome for Palestinians? And no one in Washington would, by the way, of all the things I've said now,

they will consider the most radical, protect Palestinian lives. Palestinian lives. Are you insane? No, no, we get to kill their civilians and say it was accidental. So Washington does think that's radical because there happened to be one progressive who had the courage to stand up there and say exactly what needed to be said, and that was Representative Rashida Talib. I'll get to her speech first before we get to her fellow Democratic colleague, essentially implying that she's anti-Semitic. I'm not implying is saying it. I got words for him. We'll see that in a second. All right.

You want to call people words? We can do that. All right. We cannot be talking only about Israelis need for safety at a time when Palestinians are living under a violent apartheid system and are dying from what human rights watch has said are war crimes. We should also be talking about Palestinian need for security from Israeli attacks. We must be consistent in our commitment to human life, period. Everyone deserves to be safe there. And I don't think that's a controversial statement at all, right?

Especially when you, like, I mean, look at the asymmetrical treatment by the United States toward Israel and Palestinians, right? I mean, Israel gets an insane amount of funding. And in this moment, I mean, they were going to get additional funding in the next National Defense Authorization Act. That's where the additional funding is usually approved with no problem. They get it with bipartisan support. This was the one instance where progressives had a little bit of leverage in the stopgap

bill, because Republicans, of course, are not gonna vote in favor of funding the government for political reasons, right? That's why they use their leverage in that regard, and they block the passage of it. Not because they don't believe Israel has a right to exist, but because why are we needlessly adding additional foreign aid and funding to Israel when we're already giving them tens of millions of dollars, tens of billions of dollars, according to that military aid agreement that took place under the Obama administration. But anyway, I just find it so fascinating that whenever it comes to issues at home,

whenever we need to pass legislation funding issues at home, it's nonstop negotiations, nonstop nickel and dimeing for months and months and months and months. This piece of legislation got written up and passed within days. But when it comes to helping out our fellow Americans, unacceptable. Anyway, here's Rashida Talib's fellow Democrat, Ted Deutsch from Florida. Mr. Speaker, we can have an opportunity to debate lots of issues on the House floor. But to falsely characterize the state of Israel is consistent with those, let's be clear. It's consistent with those who advocate for the dismantling of the one Jewish state in the world.

And when there is no place on the map for one Jewish state, that's anti-Semitism. So all these years, they told progressives, hey, don't be mean to your colleagues by calling them out on all their corporate contributions. They're all obviously corrupt. They take lobbyist money to the tune of millions of dollars. But don't say it because we're all colleagues, beloved, cherished colleagues. and all about unity. And what is Ted Deutsch to and every other Democrat, every corporate Democrat, every establishment Democrat do the minute there's a slight disagreement? You're an anti-Semite.

You're the worst person on earth. You're a bigot. You're this. You're that. What happened to unity? What happened to unity? Is Pelosi and Hoyer and Clyburn livid about the lack of unity? No, they don't care.

They don't care at all. They're like, yeah, go, go insult Rashida Talib. Spit on her. You kick her. Do whatever you've got to do. She's a progressive and a Muslim. It doesn't count. You can do anything you want to her. Progressives, wake up. These people are not your friends.

They're literally your opponents. You think Ted Deutsch is going to vote with you on this issue? Does it look like it? Or half the issues? Godheimer, Godheimer is the one killing all these bills, let alone all those guys on the

prescription drug bill, et cetera. Now, hey, Ted Doge, you like to call people names. Well, why don't we give Iron Dome to the Palestinians? Why? I guess you hate Muslims. Because your argument was, if you don't take, give Iron Dome to Israel, an extra funding for Iron Dome for a billion dollars in repairs that are obviously mythical, okay?

To Israel, you're for dismantling it, and you hate all Jews. So if you don't give Iron Dome to the Palestinians, by definition, according to your own argument, you hate Muslims. who live there. You hate Palestinians. You're a bigot and a racist, Ted Deutsch. You are a bigot and a racist. And by the way, that's actually real. You think Ted Deutsch thinks that we should treat Muslims the same way we treat Jews or Christians? Of course not. Of course not. And he says, can you believe the one democracy, beloved, cherished Israel in the Middle East. And they're so, they only have nuclear weapons and the entire, the biggest military that's ever been built

the United States behind him and billions about billions of dollars. And they kill civilians over and over. And they've continued an apartheid state for over 50 years and crushed the dignity and the respect and the humanity and the rights of all those Palestinians. But if you dare oppose it 1% you're an anti-Semite. My ass. We're not going to take it anymore. Ted Deutsch, you hate Muslims.

It's super obvious. You don't want them to have the same rights. And you're a goddamn bigot. Okay. Are we even now? It's just incredibly frustrating. And yeah, the vote from AOC was pick aside. The half measures don't work.

No one's happy with the half measures. I mean, it's, you have case study after case study of Democrats carrying out half measures. So if you're worried about your district, then vote yes on the funding. I mean, there's a reason why she's getting a lot more heat right now than Jamal Bowman is. You know what, somebody wrote in our YouTube super chat with an excellent point. Moon Drigan said, how about a billion dollars for Haitians? Exactly, I mean, it's such a great point. So Israel is a wealthy country, and we're giving them a billion dollars for repairs, for repairs, okay?

And the Haitians, we say, go back to your goddamn country. Live in squalor, after the earthquake, after all the natural disasters, after the assassination of your president, After economic havoc, which, by the way, we in America, started in the first place. Haitians, if you said, let's give them a dollar, people would take your head off in Washington. But a billion, an extra billion dollars for Israel, for a problem that doesn't actually exist. So the defense contractors can rich, get rich, and the Israeli right-wing government can get rich. It's disgusting. And yes, it's racist and bigoted.

They would never do it for Haitians. They would never, ever do it for Haitians or Palestinians or anyone who's brown. and you know it. All right, let's take a break. Would we come back? We've got more news for you, including Mitch McConnell actually being right on what Democrats should do in regard to the debt ceiling. I wish Democrats would listen.

We'll be right back. All right. All right, back on CYT, Jay Canana with you guys. More news. The Senate is expected to vote on. raising the debt ceiling, so the government is funded up until December of 2022. But the Senate also has a 50-50 split between Democrats and Republicans, meaning that the legislative filibuster would require 10 Republicans to vote in favor of it in order for it to pass.

Mitch McConnell has made clear that not a single Republican senator will vote in favor of it. In fact, he says that if Democrats want to fund the government, the best way to do that is to pass the legislation through the reconciliation process, which requires a simple majority. They can certainly do that. They could also certainly completely get rid of the Senate filibuster, which I think would be a really, really good idea. But we'll get to that in just a moment. McConnell said on the Senate floor Thursday that it would take Democrats about a week or a little more to use the so-called budget reconciliation procedure to raise the debt limit. Senate Democrats have so far resisted employing the tactic,

saying that the effort should be bipartisan as it has been in the past. So I want to go to this video of Mitch McConnell. He gave a press conference. And I don't know, maybe Democrats should really call his bluff. We'll see. But let's watch. We have a Democratic president, Democratic House, a Democratic Senate. They have decided to, with the possible exception of infrastructure all year long to operate on a partisan basis at $1.9 trillion bill earlier this year that all of us opposed for darn good reason and this reckless taxon spending measure which could range from $3.5 trillion to $5 trillion. So my advice to this Democratic government, the president, the House and the Senate,

Don't play Russian roulette with our economy, step up and raise the death ceiling to cover all that you've been engaged in all year long. So no effort on their part to describe our position as irresponsible makes any sense because the facts are indisputable. This is a totally democratic government. they have an obligation to raise the death ceiling, and they will do it. No, but he's right. He's actually right. And we got to be honest about that. Okay, Congress controlled by the Democrats, executive branch controlled by the Democrats, there are no excuses. No excuses. They could scrap the filibuster if they wanted to scrap the filibuster, but they won't do it. I would argue that that's a far better way to do it, and it would show strength.

Instead, Democrats are like, but we want to do this in a bipartisan way. Why? Why? I don't get it, man, the Democratic Party, let's just keep it real, incredibly embarrassing. In vote after vote, issue after issue, the most embarrassing party, okay, the cowardice, the naivete, I can't stand it. Okay, so there's two parts of this. One is the portion that Anna mentioned about.

McConnell being right about the Democrats. I'm gonna get back to that in a second. But first, let's talk about the things he's wrong about. Over the top hypocrisy. So he says, and guys, that's why I keep saying one of the main culverts is mainstream media, because look at what he says, it's just amazing. Is there a single reporter in the room? He said the the Democrats are playing Russian roulette with their economy because they won't raise the debt ceiling. All of the Republicans, including Mitch McConnell, are voting no on raising the debt ceiling. I know, but Republicans are going to Republican, James. No, I know, I know, no, no, no. But Anna, you and I know that. But how many Americans

actually see that? Because no reporter ever says, hey, by the way, the Republicans are goddamn liars. Of course they don't say it. Of course they don't say it because they're not reporters. They're not media, they're not journalists. They're just stenographers for the people in power. It's all a game. It's Kabuki Theater. If there were a single journalist who wanted to actually do the creed of journalism, which is comfort to afflicted and afflict the comfortable, they would say, Wait, Senator, I don't understand what you just said. You said it's playing Russian roulette with the economy, and you're voting no.

So aren't you playing Russian roulette with the economy? Is it every single Republican playing Russian roulette with the economy? And by the way, here's the second piece of hypocrisy. You all voted to raise the debt ceiling under Trump. So you voted no under Obama, yes under Trump, and no under Biden. Doesn't it seem like maybe you're trying to tank the economy and hurt the American people on purpose for your political agenda? Now, those things are super obvious, and you won't get any reporter in media to say it because they work for corporations.

They're totally corrupt. The reporters, the editors, they're all in on the game. It's absurd to not raise the debt ceiling. All that means is we're going to pay our debts. We've already incurred those debts. This is not a budget bill where you decide how to spend the money. This is after you spent the money, do you pay the credit card debt or don't you? And the Republicans are saying, let's be deadbeats.

And let's destroy the credibility of America and the American dollar and absolutely pulverize our economy and the world economy. And the reporter's like, I can't tell who's right or who's wrong. It's a look, and they're doing it for politics. That's what I mean when I say Republicans are going to Republican. And for Democrats to sit back and expect the media to cover this accurately and to call them out on their hypocrisy is ridiculous. In fact, this wouldn't even be a political opportunity for Mitch McConnell and Republicans.

If Democrats got rid of the filibuster, if they got rid of the filibuster, if they actually played hardball and accomplished things for the American people and the constituents who put them in that position of power in the first place, this wouldn't be an issue. But they're unwilling to do that. Instead, they give these embarrassing interviews like the one I'm about to show you featuring Senator Elizabeth Warren, where they're like, but why don't they just play ball? Because they're Republicans, they want to defeat you. Let's watch. No choice. Why not just? What is no choice? Why aren't you asking the Republicans about this? Well, we are asking. They're saying they're going to block it next, this week.

So then what reason? Well, you know the reason. You've heard the reason, but I'm asking you. Actually, I haven't heard the reason. They say that they're not going to do it because of everything that's happening with the down the Democratic side of the agenda. But regardless, if they're going to vote against it, don't you guys have the obligation to raise it on yourself? Are we hostage to Republicans who are threatening to blow up a part of the economic system? system because they want to do that for politics. That's just not where we should be as a nation.

None of us were elected to come here just to cause trouble so that the Republicans can get reelected. Your hostages, if you make yourself hostages, and they have made themselves hostages. We saw today on the House floor how democratic lawmakers are willing to speak out against one another. This was in regard to the House floor vote on a $1 billion military spending, additional military spending for Israel. Rashida Talib voted against it. And then a fellow Democrat, Representative Deutsch from Florida, gets up on the House floor and calls her anti-Semitic. And it's amazing because you can see that they're willing to call each other out. So when it

comes to the filibuster, yeah, you're going to have the mansions and the cinemas who claim that they want to maintain it, they won't get rid of it, but how about you break their backs? Yeah, so look, this is actually really simple, and that's why- politically, by the way. Nina Turner ran, that's why I ran, because if I'm being honest about it, there's no, on some issues now finally there's some plain spoken Democrats, Rashida Tilly, Cory Bush, among them, but on issues like this, look, it's super simple. If that reporter comes to me and says, oh, well, the Republicans aren't going to raise

death ceiling, I've got a couple answers, the one I gave you earlier, and then second of You say, hey, listen, they're basically saying they were idiots for trying to work with them. So we're not going to work with them anymore. How's that? Okay, boom, I'm done. I'm done with the parliamentarian. I'm done with reconciliation. I'm done with the filibuster.

McConnell told me to be. He said, what are you trying to work with me for? What are you stupid? I'm never going to give you a vote. Okay, then I don't need your goddamn votes because we have 50 Democratic senators. But they're not willing to say that. Why, guys? Why?

Does anybody actually honestly believe they're negotiating with Republicans? And for what reason? No, they're negotiating with their donors. That's why they're pretending that they want bipartisanship when they don't need it at all. They don't need those votes. They're pretending that Mansion and Cinema are having heartfelt issues when cinema is collecting checks on the daily from drug companies. We're not negotiating with Republicans. We're negotiating with donors.

Now, that's why I'm sick of the corporate media. Who in media is telling you that? Turn on cable news. The brave Rachel Maddo telling you that? No. They never talk about the real problem. The real problem is all these people take money from corporate interests. And they serve them and they do this kabuki theater and the media loves the fake theater, loves it.

And he's never going to tell you the truth about what's happening. This issue is so easy and is 100% right. We just go in and we go, oh, okay, you guys don't want to raise the debt ceiling. Get the hell out of the way then. That's it. We're doing it through reconciliation. Oh, parliamentarian, what are you going to say? Please say no, please say no, you're fired, get the hell out. Next parliamentarian, it doesn't matter.

You have the power. You're choosing not to use it because you love your donors so much. This shouldn't even be a story. Like I'm gonna be honest, this is an annoying. The fact that it's a story is annoying. Democrats hold the power, they can get this done without Republicans, but they refuse to do it. In fact, one last thing that I want to bring up.

So what's the plan? What are they going to do? Because Republicans have made themselves clear. So are they going to do with the reconciliation? Are they going to have a carve out? What are they going to do? Are they going to get rid of the filibuster? Of course not.

Debbie Stabenow, Senator from Michigan, says, I don't know what the plan B is. Plan B is to have Republicans step up and be responsible. No, it's not. That's never going to happen. You can do that plan A through Z. It's never going to happen. These, they're useless. This is, I'm so sick of this game and I'm so sick of the refs lying to you, nonstop.

Oh, Republicans, Democrats, we can't tell. Oh, Republicans, oh, they voted to increase the death ceiling under Trump, but they won't under Biden or Obama. Well, I can't tell if that's right. Well, if you can't tell if that's right or wrong, you suck at your job. Go be a plumber. Nothing wrong with being a plumber. It's an honorable profession. But just being a courtesan of the powerful, it's disgusting.

And Democrats, shut up already about the Republicans. Oh, we haven't gotten Republican permission. You look like weaklings and cowards asking the other party, your opponents, for permission to legislate when you have every branch of Congress and the presidency. And you're still asking pretty please. either actually do your job or shut up about opposing Republicans. You don't, don't even run in elections. Just let the Republicans win all the elections. Because they're your donors like them a little bit better anyway.

You're paid to be patsies, pathetic. All right, well, we move on from one Democratic disappointment to the next. Looks like police reform will die in Congress. Of course. where the Senate Republicans, of course, are not going to vote in favor of it. And so now there is a area where there's a massive disagreement about qualified immunity. And so the negotiations have completely stalled and they're going to be stalled permanently. That's what the update is.

So the House passed the George Floyd Justice and Policing Act in March. And Representative Karen Bass and the Democratic Senator Cory Booker have since been working with with the Republican Senator Tim Scott to try to reach a bipartisan agreement on a bill that could pass in the Senate. But as I mentioned, these talks dragged on for months and months and months until everyone kind of forgot about it. And then today it was reported that the talks have just completely stalled. Now the area of disagreement, of course, is qualified immunity. Qualified immunity, which police currently enjoy, essentially shields them from any civil liability for misconduct.

Now, Republicans want to maintain that. They don't want to get rid of that. Democrats want to get rid of that specifically so. Police maybe think twice before they open fire and shoot unarmed individuals because they could be sued by their family members. Now, Cory Booker said, quote, we made it clear from the beginning of our negotiations that a bill must ensure true accountability, transparency, and the policing standards necessary to bring an end to horrific incidents of violence Americans are routinely seen. like the murder of George Floyd. After months of exhausting every possible pathway to a bipartisan deal, it remains out of reach now. And yeah, it's, you guys are not going to be able to pass anything in a bipartisan way in the Senate

unless it's a massive corporate handout bill like the bipartisan infrastructure bill. Unless you're giving corporations handouts, Republicans are not going to play ball. So I'm not really interested in hearing about any piece of legislation that they're working on in the House, unless they're actually going to do something about the legislative filibuster in the Senate. Because otherwise, they're just wasting our time with nonsense negotiations that go nowhere. Yeah, look, as usual, we have perfect credibility on this because we told you before, months ago, we talked about it in the address the Congress that Biden did. We talked it on several about a several occasions. So that bill's never going to pass. They're never going to get an agreement because the Republicans will not agree.

They don't actually want to do criminal justice reform. What they want to do is pretend to be doing criminal justice reform and delay it long enough until they get a Republican president. They're running out the clock. And schmucks like Cory Booker love to try to work with Republicans. Hey, Corey, I got news for you. They don't want to work with you. I don't know when you're going to get that through your thick head. You're really trying to do bipartisanship?

Come on, man. This is so stupid. Like, really, is anybody that gullible? Oh, the Republicans, a deeply racist party that ran on the Southern strategy, which the whole point was to get racist to vote for us and has now built its temple on the racist Donald Trump and worships him. You thought was going to do real police reform? Now, come on, man.

Seriously, I don't know, man. Either Cory Booker is unintelligent or he just plays this game. and that playing the games is actually more sickening. It is. It really is. And look, I- You help run out the clock for the Republicans. Just do something.

You have the whole goddamn Congress. Do you care about black people or don't you care about black people? Do you care about justice in this country or don't you? Oh, you can't say that to Cory Booker because he's black. I just said it. I just said it. I can't say it and I did say it. Because you're wasting our time working with the Republicans when you know

there is no chance that they would do real police reform. 100%. And look, Cory Booker is not dumb. He knows it. He knows it. And this is where I speculate, but I think that there's, this is a good educated guess. I think they're terrified. I think they're terrified of passing police reform and then having Republican lawmakers who are vicious blame the uptick in violent crime on Democrats. That's what they're afraid of. 100%. So they don't, I don't think they genuinely wanted to pass this bill. Because here's What's what happens. When you genuinely want something, you'll stop at nothing to get it passed.

And so if that legislative filibuster is standing in the way in the Senate, you're gonna do everything in your power to scrap it. Guys, look, if I'm, look, it's so simple. If I was president, if one of you were president and you actually cared about you, I'm dying to pass these bills. And you actually cared about it that much. What would you do? You would obviously get rid of the filibuster and you'd pass them all.

Okay, oh well, mansion of cinema are a problem on some of the economic issues because of their corporate donors, et cetera. All right, well, then you put them on blast. And you've got two years at least before the midterms to put them on blast and to put enormous pressure on him. Do you know that Christmas cinema after she did that theatrical downvote on minimum wage? Lost 15 points in Arizona. All you got to do is put a spotlight on them. They'll be pulling at 20% within the month. But oh no, our beloved corporate Democrats, we can't ever touch them.

Oh my God, what are the Republicans going to say about me? I'm so sick of Democrats being cowards. You would pass, if you got rid of the filibuster, you'd pass criminal justice reform. You'd pass the death ceiling, no problem, obviously. You'd pass voting rights. You'd pass anti-corruption laws, but they don't want to pass anti-corruption laws. You'd pass a $3.5 trillion, actual infrastructure bill, but they don't want to pass that because they work for their donors.

That's why we play all these games when Democrats can literally do anything they want right now. And if you were president or I was president, we'd all do this because we actually care. But the Democratic politicians do not care about you. They care about, oh, my donors, my donor, my beloved donors giving me millions of dollars. They care so much more about them. That's why you see this stuff. So if you're black in America, they just screwed you. You're going to keep getting beat by cops.

You're going to keep getting shot by cops. Because the Democrats said, we care more about the parliamentarian. We care more about Senate tradition of the filibus. which, by the way, was always racist and used the block civil rights for its entire history. We care more about the racist traditions of the Senate than we care about black people, then we care about our own voters, than we care about Americans. That's what all the Democrats are telling you now. Now, to be fair, I should, because we actually care about the facts.

To be fair, that's not true. Corey Bush and the progressives insisted on qualified immunity. And by the way, this is part of the theatrics of the Cory Booker crowd to go, Oh, can you believe progressives actually wanted to make real change? Now we couldn't get a deal with the Republicans. They were about to do it. They were about to give real police reform. But because Cory Bush and the progressives wanted actual reform, now we can't get fake reform.

Good. I'm glad they fought. Keep fighting. And by the way, for all the progresses in Congress, the corporate Democrats are not your friends. They're in league with the Republicans. They're trying to run out the clock on all of us so none of this gets done. All right. We're going to take a break. When we come back, we'll give an update on Biden's immigration calls and how it is leading to officials quitting. Special envoy to Haiti has just resigned. We'll tell you why when we come back. to Haiti has resigned in protest of the mass deportations and inhumane treatment of

Haitian migrants at the US border. The expulsion flights to Haiti, by the way, began on Sunday and there were about 10 by the end of Tuesday, according to Haitian officials. US officials also say they are ramping up to seven flights a day, which would mark one of the swiftest large-scale expulsions from the US in decades. But despite the mass deportations and the cruel treatment of these asylum seekers at the border, Republicans argue that the Biden administration somehow isn't harsh enough. Well, of course, progressives are furious at how insanely violent and harsh the Biden administration has been toward migrants at the border. Very similar to what we experienced during the Trump administration.

And the fact that some of the centrist Democratic voters aren't really calling Biden out on that, it's just fascinating. It's fascinating, really, really interesting stuff. Now in his resignation letter, foot wrote, quote, I will not be associated with the United States inhumane, counterproductive decision to deport thousands of Haitian refugees and illegal immigrants to Haiti, a country where American officials

are confined to secure compounds because of the danger posed by armed gangs to daily life. Our policy approach to Haiti remains deeply flawed, and my policy recommendations have been ignored and dismissed when not, when not edited to project a narrative different from my own. And by the way, he mentions the inhumane treatment of Haitians and the mass deportations. I agree with him on that.

But I have a bad feeling about some of his recommendations or what he's urged the Biden administration to do, especially in regard to meddling in the governmental affairs of Haiti, right? So I don't know exactly what his intentions are, but I'll get to why I'm a little suspicious in just a second. Now, U.S. Ambassador Michelle Sisson is also expected, or yeah, Sisson is expected to depart soon after being nominated to serve in another State Department post. And she adds another critical voice to the administration's response to Haitians camped on the Texas border. So before I get to my suspicions, Jank, do you want to jump in? Yeah, I'm curious about those suspicions. Yeah. Look, overall, our policy towards Haiti is miserable.

we've got the border police pretty much whipping them at the, you know, at the border. So, and then we barely helped them with the natural disasters, et cetera, all the things, I'm really curious about your theory, Anna, because all the things that this diplomat is saying seems to be true to me. And of course, there's a lot of CYA now. Cover your ass at the Biden industry. No, no, it's not us, it's him. If you say so, but your policies suck. So that's a fact. And if you think you're winning over Republicans with your, by being brutal to Haitians, turn on Tucker Carlson and see how that's working out for you. Every Republican is claiming that you guys are letting him in the country on purpose.

Even as you're shipping them out and flying them out, there's a Republican congressman that went on there today. Just flat out talked about the replacement theory because they're now white supremacists without any brakes in the car at all. And he said, oh, Biden's flying them around the country. He's using taxpayer money to fly them around the country. He's getting gipmo ready to detain them in Gipmo. I'm not even kidding. That's part of the story as well. I mean, by the way, I mean, we've been using Gipmo to detain undocumented immigrants seeking asylum.

We've been doing that at least since the 1990s during the George H.W. Bush administration. That was when we were using Gipmo the most. It's not the same detention center that, you know, Muslims are being kept in. In some cases, Muslims that we know haven't even done anything wrong, but we continue to keep them detained indefinitely anyway, which is insane. But I do want to give you those details, okay? So the service, the DHS, Department of Homeland Security, is currently looking to give a contract to a private company to operate the detention center at Gitmo. The service provider shall be responsible to maintain on site the necessary equipment to erect temporary housing facilities for populations that exceed 120 and up to 400 migrants in a surge event, the contract solicitation says. And just to give you a little bit of history on this, as I implied earlier, during the George H.W. Bush administration from 1991 to 1993, when many Haitians sought to flee the country to seek asylum in Florida,

As many as 12,000 were sent to Guantanamo Bay under a policy overseen by then attorney general, William Barr. And I'm sure he had great pleasure in doing it. And I found this old report from back in 1991 to show you what the conditions were like as these Haitian refugees were seeking asylum and waiting to see what their fate would be. And it gives you a sense of how cruel it was back in 1991. I'm guessing it's not going to be so great in modern days. Let's watch. Curious eyes peer from behind the concertina wire as we pull up to Camp McCalla, one of the makeshift tent cities housing Haitians in Guantanamo.

The kids don't seem to mind, but there's something troubling about children playing next to razor wire. Something frightening about a barefoot toddler wobbling past the metal stakes that hold up a tent. A big complaint here is lack of information, not knowing what's going on back in their homeland. This man listens for news on the small radio of the arts. the only problem is it picks up only the Cuban stations and he doesn't speak Spanish. But they do have this. A big screen TV set up in a nearby hangar. Nine to five it's turned on to CNN and about a dozen Haitians at a time are allowed to sit in. It's not much, but it's a luxury the Cuban refugees don't have. It may be the only luxury the Haitians have. What do you want? You want my shoes? Yes. At least two boys want my shoes. Another one wants my wine. Looking around, it's obvious they have little to wear, and at dinner time, little to eat.

Man, it's just, it's heartbreaking what this country does to people, man. As our government destabilizes their country, as we do it on behalf of business interests, then we turn our backs on them and treat them like animals. Now looking to use Gitmo again to hold these people. Do you guys know why Haiti was poor in the first place? It's because they led one of the earliest slave rebellions. And when they did, the Western nations that were wealthier punished them. And so they cut off trade with them, and they did a great number of other things to make sure that they starved the former slaves in Haiti.

Because how dare you rise up against the white man? And this is what we did. We brutalized that country for so long now. And now the Republicans say it's not brutal enough. Lindsay Graham's on television, defending the whipping. whipping. He said that guy on the horse, the border agent that seemed to be whipping the Haitians with the reins of his horse, he says, that guy's here to protect you. Who's you? And of course what he means is white people. Racist white people, they're here to protect you from

black people. How are they dangerous? They're desperate. They don't have any money. They went, you know, a lot of them actually came from Brazil and South America because they had relocated back in 2010. That is an unbelievable trek because they dared to believe and have hope in America. And the racist Republicans come here and shred them.

And then Biden says, oh, no, no, no. I could be really brutal to them too. I'll take the plane and say, and not flying them across the country. They're flying back to Haiti. Okay? He said, I don't even want to hear it. We're going to ignore international law. We're going to follow Trump policy

and we're not going to even go through the process of finding out if they really have a legitimate claim of being a refugee that has a chance of staying here and getting asylum. Nope, you're not getting a hearing. We're ignoring American law, international law. We're going with Trump law. And now he's hiring people who might speak Haitian Creole for Gitmo.

Yep. They put that job posting. And then when they got caught red-handed, they're like, oh, no, it could be for anything. No, it can't. Really? Haitian Creole? I mean, it literally says that in the job description. So you're planning to put Haitians in Guantanua Bay to appease Republicans.

How's that working out for you? It's just stunning how dumb Democrats can be. All right, so let's get to foot and why I have a bad feeling. Okay, again, take this for what it's worth, take it with a grain of salt. But apparently he's been very critical of the Biden administration for weeks and weeks and weeks. So even before this mass deportation effort of the Haitians. So for weeks, the Associated Press wrote, Foote had been quietly pushing in Washington a plan to boost U.S. security assistance to Haiti

to pave the way for new presidential elections. But Haiti watchers said he became increasingly disappointed with the pace of decision making in the administration. And he's also getting some praise from from Republicans, including one Republican strategist who now works as a lobbyist on behalf of the Haitian government. No, I just want to be clear though. That's the only Republican I've heard giving him praise, and he literally gets paid by the Haitian government. I know, but this is a relevant, no, this is relevant.

Because here's what I'm concerned about, like the United States has a history of propping up these puppet governments, and that has not worked out well for places like Haiti. So it seems like part of this guy's frustration is that the Biden administration isn't working like quickly enough to prop up some new like Haitian puppet leader, you know? That's the way it's coming across to me. I hear you, I'm definitely not sold on that. I don't know, it's hard to know Foote's motivations. But him bringing attention to this important matter and the fact that the Biden administration

is being generally terrible to Haitians is a good thing to me. So, but you know what, we'll ask him to come on the show. Yeah, I would love that. I would love that because unfortunately, no one at the Associated Press elaborated on this. No one at the Associated Press asked him questions to, you know, maybe fill in some blanks. Like, this is relevant. What does he mean by that? I want to know what he means by that, right?

Provide security for presidential elections in Haiti. Okay, but what does that mean? Does that mean we send in troops to Haiti? Like, who are we propping up? Like, what's going on? That's the important, relevant part to this. Great that he's, you know, condemning Biden's inhumane treatment toward Haitians. I totally agree with him on that.

But I want some more details on this. Anyway, but to go back to that Republican lobbyist who now works on behalf of the Haitian government, he said this, when someone who is tasked with Haiti policy at the highest level resigns because recommendations are ignored and dismissed, it's not only troubling, but shows you this administration does not tolerate anyone who won't go along with their distorted view of the facts. Dan Foote is a world-class diplomat who refuses to be told what to do. I wish more foreign service officers had his courage to stand up and call out their bosses. So that seems like a totally benign comment.

But, you know, it's coming from a Republican who now works as a lobbyist for the Haitian government. What's going on? I want to, like, know what the underlying issue here really is. I got you. My message is the same. Biden, Republicans don't like you, will never like you, will never give you any votes. It's not the 1990s grow up. Yeah. All right, why don't we do one more story? Pfizer's CEO is basically calling on his own employees, urging his own employees to help

fight back against the budget reconciliation bill, which would allow for Medicare to, of course, negotiate lower drug prices directly with pharmaceutical companies, thus securing lower drug prices for Americans. There are other provisions in there, by the way, that would lead to lower drug prices for Americans in general. And so Albert Borla said he was particularly disappointed that a House Democratic leadership-backed drug pricing plan and similar proposals, quote, will have a little positive impact, will have little positive impact on patients where it really matters at the pharmacy. So he's claiming, you know, he's sending this letter, this email, I should say, to his employees, and he's like, this is not, I mean, lower drug prices is really

not going to help Americans at all. Not at all. Americans definitely want to pay two to three times more for prescription drugs compared to every other country in the world. That's what Americans want. You know, I'm glad that the CEO of Pfizer is telling us what Americans want. Then he says, when we ask the Pfizer colleagues to develop a COVID-19 vaccine in less than a year, you did. When we asked you to rapidly expand manufacturing so we can produce 3 to 4 billion doses per year, you did it. Just wanna note that Pfizer did it because there was a money making opportunity for Pfizer. I'm happy we have the COVID vaccine. It's effective, it's keeping people alive, it's keeping people out of the hospital.

But for them to pretend as if they've sacrificed so, so much, Pfizer expects $33.5 billion in vaccine revenue in 2021 alone. Pretty relevant, okay? So sacrifice is a funny way of phrasing this or framing it. Researchers, by the way, from Bentley University found that the National Institutes of Health provided $17.2 billion in funding for 10 technologies between 2000 and 2019. By the way, this is public funding, of course, taxpayer money, that were applied in the creation. of COVID-19 vaccines, some of the technologies were in wide use since the mid or late 20th century, but some, like the MRNA technology in the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, were only established

very recently. But the point here is, we the taxpayers fund the research and development, which then leads to the so-called innovation, right? The taxpayer takes the risk in helping them fund the research and development. They come out with the drugs. And then they turn around and price gouge us for the very same drugs, where we pay two to three times more compared to other countries. And then the CEO has the audacity to say, can you believe that they're trying to negotiate lower drug prices on behalf of Americans? We must defeat this bill.

And he includes a link in the email so employees can write to their members of Congress and urge them to defeat the bill. Yeah. So just to be absolutely clear, he's not actually asking the employees to write a letter to congressman. And no one knows better than the leader of Pfizer that Congress people don't care about letters at all. They care about the money. He's like, he's telling him, send the goddamn money, okay? Because remember guys, the money we're sending them is nothing compared to the billions of dollars that they're giving back to us.

So everybody give a couple hundred bucks. These politicians are cheap, they'll do anything we tell them to do. So to prove that point to you guys. And Anna's point to, let me start on that one. David Mitchell, founder of the independent nonprofit, patients for affordable drugs now, explain that all 356 drugs approved by the FDA from 2010 to 2019 are based on research, basic science from the NIH. So, oh, you know, it's going to hurt our innovation if we don't have billions upon billions of dollars in profits.

First of well, that's not true. In fact, another independent group showed that the, even if you took away a trillion, this is an amazing number. A trillion dollars in sales from American drug companies, it's, they would still be massively profitable and so profitable it would still pay to do research and development. And he's like, they're going to take our ability to weigh to quadruple charge Americans. Okay, so how are they influencing the corrupt politicians? And by the way, if you ever hear a reporter not refer to politicians as corrupt, they're not real reporters. Christian Cinema received $750,000 from pharmaceutical companies and medical device industries,

including right before she said, no, I will not allow the government to negotiate drug prices. She just received a check from the drug companies. That is outright legalized bribery. Any reporters, no, no, no, no, no. Pfizer's just talking to her. It's not a reporter. It's just They're a Praetorian guard for the corrupt. So now here's other Democrats that in the House said, oh, no way. No way you're going to lower drug prices for Americans. By the way, do you know how many Americans want lower drug prices through the ability of the government to negotiate those prices?

About 90%. All the Democratic voters do, almost all the Republican voters do, all the independent voters do, they have nothing to stand on other than, hey man, I took bribes, and I got to deliver for the people I care about, my donors. So let me give you more examples. Peters, that's the Democrat in the House. He received $860,465 from pharmaceutical packs and its employees. So that's why the head of Pfizer saying, hey, all the employees write letters.

He means write checks to corrupt Democrats. The Republicans, we bribed every one of them. The Republicans are in our back pocket. You don't have to worry about them. They work for, they're our busboys, there are waiters, there are servants. Every Republican is corrupt, every single one of them, okay? Now we just got to get a couple of Democrats and we're home free. So Peters received $88,550 from the industry this election cycle.

Oh, look at that. It's the most of any House member. So he gets the most money from pharmaceutical companies and turns around and says, oh my God, all of a sudden, I'm worried about innovation, even though all the innovation is actually done by the NIH through taxpayer money. I'm so worried about it. After they gave me this $88,000, I became even more worried about it.

Okay, then we go to Schrader, and the same exact thing, saying no, government should not negotiate prices. Americans should pay more. These are so-called Democrats. Their grandfather was an executive advisor, so I guess money's staying in the family. They received $614,830 from the industry,

and of course also are saying you should have higher drug prices. So bribery and corruption in America is just wide out and open. And the reason why it's so open, so brazen that the guy running Pfizer can just go out and give a speech saying, now everybody remember, bribe your local politician, okay? We're trying to get them to give us extra billions of dollars from taxpayers and rob them, rob them blind, and just put it in our pockets. And he just says it on video, not a care in the world. Cinema takes the checks.

Peter is straighter. They take the checks and they vote with the drug company. Not a care in the world. Why do they do that? Normally there would be consequences? Because our media sucks. And they know our media is also corrupt, so they'll cover for them. You know what they'll get for doing that?

They'll be called moderates. And they'll say, oh, these are the reasonable people. Oh, the people who want lower drug prices, radical progressives. radical progressives, and by the way, radical right wingers in this case, because the right wing also wants lower drug prices. But the sane, wonderful bipartisan moderates, the corporate Republicans and corporate Democrats delivered again and did exactly what this corporate boss told them to do. Why don't we have a federal government agency of scientists that is publicly funded? Instead of giving NIH money to these private pharmaceutical companies, why don't we fund research and development for a government agency that actually does the research necessary

to develop new drugs? Why don't we do that? By the way, you could do it the other way around too. I mean, it's just the robbery is unbelievable guys. If you're right-wing or life-winger, it doesn't matter at all in this issue. Okay, all right, what's the reverse? NIH is the one that actually does the research, that actually does that innovation. So if you're an investor who put the seed money in to create a patent, to create a drug,

et cetera, you would get a lot of return. That's how capitalism works. So why is the government giving it away? Shouldn't the American taxpayers get a giant percentage of the profits of Pfizer and those other companies? But all of a sudden, capitalism, what name so? They can't find capitalism. Oh, no, no, no, the government shouldn't give anything to the poor. although that's lazy welfare bums right but give away billions and ultimately over all these years

trillions of dollars that we could have had as taxpayers give it to the drug companies bravo well played that's capitalism no it's not that's crony capitalism that's corporatism that's bribery that's corruption and if we had real press in this country you would all know it already all right we got to end our first hour we're a little late but it's all right so when we come back. We'll talk about Kaylee McEnany, getting humiliated to the point where she had to delete a tweet about crime.

And later in the show, we'll also talk about Mitch McConnell. Is he an alpha male? I don't know. We'll give you the details you decide for yourselves. We'll be right back. 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. TYT. I'm your host, Shank Huger, and I'll see you soon.