The Young Turks - Family Drama

Episode Date: October 5, 2022

Herschel Walker’s son, Christian Walker went on Twitter to share his experiences with his father have scarred him. Ron DeSantis posed for a photo opportunity at the most inconvenient time. TYT exposes the crazed Trump supporters that believe in the unbelievable Qanon conspiracies. Host: Ana Kasparian, Farron Cousins 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. What's up, everyone, welcome to TYT. I'm your host Anna Kasparian. Joining us today, filling in for Jank Yugar is Farron Cousins, host of Fairen Balance, friend of the show, and all around awesome guy. Farron, how are you? I'm doing wonderful, it's great to be here again.

You can also check out his work, by the way. over at Ring of Fire. I mean, got to support good lefty content. So make sure you subscribe to Farron's shows. I'm looking forward to the show today, Farron. There's of course more. We have some developments on the Herschel Walker abortion story. He seems to have had a falling out with his very loud vocal public son.

So we'll talk about that as well. And later in the show, we'll also give up an update. on, you know, the state of Florida following Hurricane Ian and how Ron DeSantis is being accused of interrupting relief efforts to engage in a photo op. I want to get your thoughts on that because I know you're based in Florida, Farron. So before we get to all of that, though, just want to encourage you guys to like and share the stream if you're watching us on YouTube. Also, we had an awesome bonus episode yesterday for our members. You can always become a member if you're not one by going to t.yt.com slash join or just click on that join button if you're

watching us on YouTube. Well, with you Without further ado, the story everyone's talking about, Herschel Walker, let's get right to it. Serious accusations that in 2009 that you paid for an abortion. First question, do you know the woman that is making this allegation? There you have Herschel Walker, a Senate candidate out of the state of Georgia. Being asked a pretty serious question about allegations that were made in a new Daily Beast report accusing Herschel Walker of paying for an abortion for a girlfriend he had

gotten pregnant back in 2009. Now that story came with some receipts literally and it also came with a greeting card that was signed by Herschel Walker hoping that the woman would feel better. Now her name has not been made public but she felt the need to come forward considering the fact that Herschel Walker is running with a campaign that seeks to seeks to ban all abortions with literally no exceptions. None. Even if the woman's life is in danger as a result of that pregnancy, Herschel Walker would not support an abortion for that woman. And so it makes him a bit of a little bit of a, you know, hypocrite if it turns out that he was urging a former girlfriend to have an abortion that he paid for it. So how did he answer

Hannity's question? Let's watch. I have no idea, but it is a flight out lie. And, uh, And now you know how important this seat is. The seat is very important that they'll do anything to win this seat, lie, because they want to make it by everything else except what the two problems that we have in this country is. Now, Farron, much like other interviews that Herschel Walker has done, he didn't do himself any favors, in my opinion, with how he handled these questions during the Hannity interview. But I do want to get your thoughts on all of this. I mean, calling GOP candidates, hypocrites, or Republican lawmakers, hypocrites, I think is like so cliche at this point because you could do it every day with a variety of issues.

Do you think this is going to affect them in any way? I don't know. I mean, as it stands right now, I don't think it has the rallying of support that we have seen from the entire GOP, from all of these anti-abortion groups out there, the forced birth groups basically. They're doubling down on their support. They like the guy. They think, yeah, this is still, this is the guy. This is the guy we're going to send to the Senate from Georgia. And we're talking about a party that wants to jail people who help people get abortions. I mean, in their own eyes, in their own words from the last month, Herschel Walker should be in jail. But instead of saying, okay, well, now we're going to have to prosecute you under these laws we were working on, they're saying, hey, everybody makes mistakes.

He's a changed guy, Eric Erickson says. No, he's not. I mean, we this guy is who he's always been. It's just now getting exposed. And of course, the Republicans in a rock and a hard place here. You can't just suddenly abandon it because you want that seat. And we're now seeing how far they're willing to go to do their mental gymnastics to defend a guy that stands for everything that does everything that they claim to hate. You know, in this 24 hour news cycle, the news moves so quickly that it's easy to forget that not so long ago, the Republican Party very aggressively supported a Senate candidate out of Alabama, Roy Moore, who had credible sexual abuse allegations against him from women who were minors at the time, who were as young as 13 years old at the time. And did those credible allegations change the hearts and minds of the Republican voters and the Republican establishment that was backing him and supporting him? Of course it didn't. Because while today you hear Republican politicians and candidates incessantly fearmonger about innocent teachers sexualizing kids, not too long ago, they themselves basically gave sexual misconduct, sexual assault victims, a massive middle finger. people who were allegedly children when these incidents happened, gave him the middle finger and said, F off, we want Roy Moore in office. We want to give this alleged predator even more power.

And so you can shut up now. I mean, that was essentially what happened. And to me, this abortion issue is just another example. What you see from these politicians is this effort to so fear into the electorate toward whatever scapegoat they want to target. But when push comes to shove, They have no problem supporting candidates who have urged women to get abortions, who have paid for women to get abortions. It's all about political power. It's all about power accumulation. All you have to do is go back and see how the anti-abortion movement gained momentum in this country. Jerry Falwell didn't say a damn thing about the 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling.

He didn't really seem to have a problem with it until he realized that if religious leaders start rallying on that very issue, five years later, well, then they can use their, you know, religious organizations and their religious voters as leverage in these elections. And that's how they essentially were able to captivate the Republican Party. That's the way this works. It's all about power. It's important to understand that. They don't care about any of these issues at all. But at the end of the day, while they accumulate power, the groups of people they target, of course, lose rights. They get targeted by unhinged lunatics who have bought into the fear sold to them by Republicans. That's what's really going on right now. Anyway, well,

you know, isn't that kind of the magic of today's Republican Party and the Republican Party of the last 50 years is making people care about things that actually don't impact their lives at all, right? This abortion ban, if you don't want one, don't get one. I mean, it's It doesn't affect your life, a single transgender athlete in the state playing a sport. Now, you've got every conservative in the country up in arms over that, whereas even just three years ago, they've been like, what do I care? I don't watch women's sports anyway. It's not the NFL. But they convince these people that this is the thing that matters to you.

This is what's really going to affect your life. And that is, I mean, honestly, it is nothing short of a work. of magic convincing people who are struggling to get by, living paycheck to paycheck, that their economic problems caused by Republican leadership, that those don't matter. What matters is whether or not two men can get married. What matters is whether or not a woman that you don't even know and have never met can get an abortion. And we don't want that to happen because that, I guess, affects you somehow. And these people buy into it. They say, Yes, yes, this is how I vote then.

It is it is crazy how they have just brainwashed an entire, you know, third of the country into thinking these things matter. Well, they tap into issues or they use the kind of rhetoric that tends to stoke fear in people, right? So when they talk about the issue of abortion, I mean, obviously they use words like murder, even though we're having a conversation about a zygote oftentimes, the vast majority or an embryo, majority of abortions happen in the first trimester where a fetus or I should say an embryo is not viable outside the womb. But they use the terminology that triggers a part of your brain that leads to fear. And I think that that fear unfortunately kind of overshadows what the focus should really be, which is the fact that these voters, all Americans who aren't in that top 1% category are are being robbed by these politicians and the corporate interests who are in their pockets.

credit brought up the receipts. The woman had provided a receipt showing the payment for the abortion, a personal check that was given to her by Herschel Walker to the tune of $700 to help her pay for the abortion. And so he was asked about that along with the greeting card that he had sent her out telling her to feel better. He had signed that. Here's how he handled that part of the conversation. They're claiming that on September 12th of 2009 that the woman has a receipt for an abortion. They're claiming that five days later on September 17th, you sent a $700 check and that you sent it in a get well card. The get well card, it looks like it's included with your signature in the article. Have you seen it? And is that

your signature? I haven't seen it, but you know, I can tell you, I send out so many, get well, send out so much of anything. But I can tell you right now, I never asked anyone to get an abortion. I never paid for an abortion and it's a lie. What about the $700 check? Is there anybody you can remember sending that much money to? Well, I send money to a lot of people and that's what's so funny. And let's go back to my part.

You know, I do scholarship for kids. I give money to people all the time because I'm always helping people because I believe in being generous. God has blessed me and I want to bless others. So do you want to bless your ex-girlfriend with $700 to make sure that she has the funds necessary to pay for an abortion? Because it seems like that's what happened. And by the way, the Daily Beast independently corroborated details of the woman's claims with a close friend, she told at the time who, according to the woman and the friend, took care of her in the days after the procedure. So, look, I, in my mind, there's really no question as to whether or not he did this. And from the commentary I'm seeing from conservative supporting him, seems like they've accepted that he's done this as well. As you mentioned, Farron, you have Eric Erickson saying, like,

ah, he's a changed man. Okay, all right. I do also love it's like, look, I write checks to a lot of people. I send a lot of get well soon cards. How many abortions are you paying for, man? Like, do we need to go through all these receipts at this point? I mean, it's bad enough. You're hiding the kids that you do have. And then over here, you're like, nope, nope. How are you picking and choosing the process here, by the way, of who gets to stay? It's terrifying. But at the same time, you got to feel a little sorry for his campaign handlers too. I mean, these people, I mean, look, they deserve it. But at the same time, they have to deal with this. Like, they have to craft these responses. They

had to heavily coach him before he sat down with Sean Hannity. And then to watch it all go down in flames because he can't, you know, form a cogent thought is absolutely hilarious. But I'll tell you what's not hilarious is the fact that during that Hannity interview, Herschel Walker got at least $50,000 in donations from Republicans. $50,000 during that clip on Sean Hannity's program because as we've talked about, the Republicans don't actually care. They just want the seat more than anything. And they're willing to put aside all these alleged values that they have to hold on to it and open their wallets to this man. This is just a level of nuttery. I didn't even think it was possible, but here we are. And this will probably be, we'll look back on this in

three years and be like, well, that wasn't as bad compared to whatever stupid scandal happens in 2025 at this point. I mean, at this point, it's, oh, this GOP candidate actually hung someone. Well, he's a changed man. He's a changed man. I mean, he did what he did that five years ago. He says, he's different now. Okay, he's different now. It's just, it is ridiculous. But again, for me, this goes beyond Herschel Walker, right? I think people get stuck on the story right in front of them without taking a step back and looking at the larger ramifications. of what is transpiring in this country, people are losing rights that had been granted to them nearly 50 years ago because of this conservative strategy to latch on to manufactured culture war issues to, A, distract from the robbery that's taking place by corporate interests,

and B, to accumulate power for themselves, because they need something to campaign on. So this is what they campaign on. fear, you know, thoughts of basically doing away with rights that people have had for decades, like getting involved in what kind of sex people are having in the privacy of their own homes. You've got Clarence Thomas salivating at the idea of overturning gay marriage in this country. It's disgusting. That is what politics has devolved into. And at the heart of it, I really do think it's because we're not ruled or governed by

politicians who want to serve our best interests. We are governed by corporate interests, okay? These are all puppets for corporations who just want to make sure that they can continue lining their pockets with our money with this endless redistribution of wealth from the bottom to the top. That's what's really going on. Yeah, absolutely. And they sell that, like you said, with the culture wars. That's how you get the people on board. Because if they actually knew what the Republican Party's plans were, especially heading into the midterms, what are they talking about? Possibly getting rid of the VA. I mean, 9 million veterans here the United States could lose their health care access, privatizing Social Security, continuing to destroy

the U.S. Postal Service. I mean, getting rid of Medicare and Medicaid. These are things the Republicans have talked about within the last two or three months. The VA thing just came up a couple days ago. And these are real things Republicans want to do, but you can't run on those, obviously, because those are terrible. So you run on the issues that you think is just red meat for the base, which it is. And that is, let's take rights away from these people that aren't you, right? We're not touching your rights yet. Yeah, we just got to, we got to do the others, because that's what it always comes down to. There's always for the Republican Party been the others. And those are the ones that you have to be afraid of. It's been black people in the

United States with Ronald Reagan and his welfare queen talking points in the southern strategy. It was immigrants during the Trump years. It was anybody from an Arab nation during the Bush years. It's always the others that you have to be afraid of. And we're the only ones that can protect you from them. And also all the pain and suffering you're experiencing economically is due to the others, right? It's the immigrants taking your jobs. It's, you know, the reason why you're feeling this instability and all this fear is because of those Muslims that are pouring into our country. I mean, name whatever poison they want to put out there, right? Every year it's something different. But I just wish voters took a moment to question what it is that's actually happening

in this country that's making them feel so miserable. And I don't know, I just feel like if we were, If we had media that actually conditioned us to think critically about these issues, and if we had the ability to actually focus on the powerful and what they're up to rather than the powerless and how they're really not up to anything that's harming us, I think we'd be in a better place. But I think there's so many different elements of our society that need desperate reform, maybe the fairness doctrine as it were, you know, decades ago can't be implemented in the exact same way today. But we need something that, that ensures that these media bubbles,

like there needs to be a breakthrough. Because as long as we're all siloed off and as long as we're all just focusing on echo chamber news that confirms what we already believe, we're gonna be screwed. People are not thinking critically about what's really going on in the country. Anyway.

Yeah, sorry, we can go on and on about this, but and I love how I wanted to do two stories in this segment, but we're already out of time. So we gotta take a quick break. When we come back though, Second part of the story is a little less comfortable to talk about because it has to do with family dynamics. But Herschel Walker's son, Christian Walker, has now been pretty vocal in condemning his father. But I think he's pretty condemnable himself. So I'll explain why when we come back.

Welcome back to TYT, Anna Casparian, and Farron Cousins with you. We just did an update on the whole Herschel Walker abortion scandal. And there's unfortunately another angle to it that I think is worth discussing. And it involves his son, Christian. Family values people, he has four kids, four different women, wasn't in the house raising one of them. He was out having sex with other women. Do you care about family values? I was silent lie, after lie, after lie.

The abortion card drops yesterday. It's literally his handwriting in the car. They say they have receipts, whatever. He gets on Twitter. He lies about it. Okay, I'm done. Done. Everything has been a lie.

That was Christian Walker, who happens to be the son of GOP Senate candidate out of Georgia, Herschel Walker, who of course has just been implicated in a massive abortion scandal. A woman came forward alleging that he had gotten her pregnant and urged her to get an abortion and even paid for that abortion back in 2009. And now his son, who had been campaigning for him pretty aggressively, has turned his back on his father and has even alleged that his father was abusive to his mother years ago. Now, this all kind of started with a few tweets and then he later put out the video. We'll watch more of that in just a minute. But I think the tweets are telling as well. He writes, I know my mom and I would really appreciate if my father, Herschel Walker,

stopped lying and making a mockery of us. You're not a family man when you left us to bang a bunch of women, threatened to kill us and had us move over six times in six months running from your violence. He continues to say, I don't care about someone who has a bad past and takes responsibility or accountability, but how dare you lie and act as though you're some moral Christian upright man? You've lived a life of destroying other people. Why just survive back to school when you can thrive by creating a space that does it all for you, no matter the size. Whether you're taking over your parents' basement or moving to campus, IKEA has hundreds of design ideas and a affordable options to complement any budget. After all, you're in your small space era. It's time to

own it. Shop now at IKEA.ca. People's lives, how dare you? And I mean, not so long ago, he said some pretty lovely things about his father. He was campaigning for his father. These kinds of things are complicated. I get that even if you've had an abusive past with someone, doesn't necessarily mean you completely cut them off. But Herschel Walker responded by saying, I love my son, no matter what. And Christian Walker quote tweeted that saying, you have four kids that we know of, and you weren't in the house raising one of them. You're out cheating and lying when you weren't, you know, raising one of them. You're out cheating and lying. If you loved your kids, you'd be raising them instead of running for a Senate race to boost your ego. So apparently that tweet later

got deleted, who cares? But before I go to you, Farron, I think it's worth watching a little more of that video that Christian Walker had put out this morning. In this video, he responds to conservatives who are criticizing him for basically putting his father on blast. Let's watch. I stayed silent as the atrocities committed against my mom were downplayed. I stayed silent when it came out that my father, Herschel Walker had all these random kids across the country, none of whom he raised. and you know my favorite issue to talk about is father absent surprise because it affected me that's why I talk about it all the time because it affected me for the right to say I'm being suspicious for saying hey I'm done with the lies when you all have been calling me saying is this true about your dad gosh we're not

going to win Georgia this candid all that's been you you have no idea what I've been through in my life you have no idea what me and my mom have survived we could have ended this on day one we haven't I haven't told any stories. I'm just saying don't lie. Don't lie on my mom. Don't lie on me. Don't lie on the lives you've destroyed and act like you're some moral family man. Y'all should care about that, conservatives.

Y'all should care about that, conservatives. But if Christian Walker is genuine in his conservatism, which I do question and I'll explain why in a little bit, he should be informed about the fact that conservative politicians don't care about any of the so-called values they purport to care about when they're campaigning. It's all about appealing to a base of evangelical and religious voters to accumulate power for themselves. And that's it. He should know that. Hopefully that information can help him out a little bit. But Farron, what do you think? I mean, there's a lot of sympathy being shared by lefties on Twitter toward Christian Walker. And I get it, but my heart doesn't bleed for him.

No, absolutely not. Like listen, on this one particular issue, I get where he's coming from. And that's about the extent of my, oh, I get it. I understand what you're saying, but you're also still pretty vile yourself with everything you have done over the last year and a half. So no, past sins are not going to be forgiven here in this case, Christian. But I do think it's funny that he is starting to learn very quickly how fast that entire Republican party will turn against you. I mean, it took minutes. It took minutes for these people to come

out, trashing him, one GOP operative, calling him a spoiled brat, you know, trying to trash this campaign. And I don't think he gets it yet. He's gonna, as more and more of these people turn on him, because what he doesn't understand is that his father, in every sense of the word, is a useful idiot for the Republican Party, that's why this seat is so important to them. It's more important than Dr. Oz, it's more important than Blake Masters because Herschel Walker is the kind of guy that the higher ups in the GOP can absolutely boss around, have him be their yes man for every single thing they want, because they know he's not going to put any thought into it. He's not going to understand it. You know, he's not going to be the guy that's going to

push back like a Mitt Romney every now and then and say, well, wait a minute, uh-uh. This is a guy. You say, hey, go vote yes on this. And he's going to absolutely go vote yes, because he doesn't know. He doesn't know any better because this is not his area of expertise. So. 1000%. I think you're so right about that. It's all it's about manipulating him. And I mean, you see it happening in real time and it's pretty gross. And I think when Herschel Walker said, the Democrats want this seat so badly, it's an important seat. He's right about that because there's a lot on the line when we're talking about a candidate like Herschel Walker who can easily be manipulated by the Republican establishment. But I do want to go to one other portion of that Christian Walker video, which I actually found more fascinating because Christian Walker is under the impression that the left is against him and has been criticizing him over the sins of his fault.

he would be mistaken about that. So let's hear what he says. And then hopefully I can inform him more on why the left doesn't like him. And then for people on the left to act as though I'm responsible for all of the things that he has done. I've talked about father. I've talked all these issues because they've been close to me, because they matter to me, because I went through it. That's why I've talked about it.

So when you say, well, talk about your dad. I am. I'm saying this behavior is atrocious. Don't come for me. You don't have to like my policy. You don't have to like me. You don't have to. I'm just saying I'm done with the lies. Okay, so a few things in response to that portion of the video. Number one, and I'm sure people will disagree with me about this, I don't care. I don't think that it's right to pressure the children of an objectionable person to publicly condemn their parents or their family members. I find that gross. I don't think that anyone is responsible for the political views of their family members

or the actions of their family members. And I think family dynamics are super complicated. So I I've never been against Christian Walker because he doesn't condemn his father. I've been against Christian Walker because he does stuff like what you're about to see. Let's watch. Honey bun, why do you need a month to celebrate who you sleep with? Newsflash, nobody cares. You have all your rights. Now shut up.

You take a pride month out to run around the streets with no clothes on and hook up in public. And then you want to run around crying, oh, I'm so oppressed. No one likes me. Well, stop pushing it in everybody's face. No one cares. So there he is having a meltdown over Pride Month and pretending as though the LGBTQ community has all the rights that they could possibly need, even as you have literal bomb threats being sent to hospitals that provide gender affirming care.

That's why I personally, I don't speak for the left, but as someone on the left, that's the reason why. I really don't like Christian Walker and all of my critique toward him is on those issues, not what his father is up to. And to be quite honest with you, the whole dynamic with his father makes me super uncomfortable because there's a part of me that also feels for him. I have no doubt that Herschel Walker was a terrible father to him. And that's traumatic. That's awful for a child. And that trauma is difficult to get past, right? So I'm not at all criticizing him for that. I feel a little terrible for him that he went through that. But at the same time, he's pretty terrible himself, all on his own without the help of his father.

Yeah, it's really gross to go back and watch all of those old videos that Christian Walker put out. Because like you're showing right there, like this guy has also been a useful idiot, pushing these stupid Republican talking points, trying to downplay things that are very important. And of course, straight up lying to people about this. The LGBTQ community is losing rights left and right here in this country. I mean, here where I am in the state of Florida, teachers will lose their license if they mention the LGBTQ community. I mean, I would say that's an attack. And Christian Walker knows this, but he's been doing his part to try to pull the wool over people's eyes. And so it will be interesting going forward to see where he ends up actually landing politically, right?

Is he going to stay with the Republican Party now that they're all denouncing him and calling him a brat and saying he's got, you know, mental problems? Or is he going to say, well, I can't go to the left because I've already got this whole track record of horrible things. Does he go with the forward party? I don't know. I don't know. They could use a spokesperson, I guess. But that guy's going to be politically homeless. And I think I think that's kind of what needs to happen because I don't think he knows what he believes. I think he says things for the outrage and for the attention. And the money. Yeah, and the money, of course, which is far greater on the right than it is over on the left. So maybe that's where he stays. He'll find his niche.

But he's getting so much backlash right now that I don't know how he stays with that group after just going after his father. But it'll be interesting to see. I'm sure he'll land on his feet with a new grift in the next month or so. We'll find out. Well, this is America after all, so I don't doubt it. All right, well, let's move off this story because there's a lot of other news to get to, including some allegations against Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and a photo op he engaged in. It's a categorical lie, and the sheriff and the county said it's a lie. I don't know why we're worried about these silly issues when we've got people to help, okay?

I was the first one to show up in DeSoto and help those people. They were appreciative that we were there. We weren't stopping anything. They had distributed a bunch of water and food and whatnot. There was nobody even in line at the time. So it's a total lie, and it's just dumb. But I don't have time for that. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis was responding to a reporter who was asking about these allegations

that he had interrupted relief efforts following the devastating hurricane, Hurricane Ian, in order to engage in a photo op for a few hours. Now, he, of course, vigorously denied that he had done that. But did he interrupt relief efforts? Well, let me give you the details you could judge for yourselves. The infuriated workers had apparently told ABC action news that they'd been leading a relief mission for days since Hurricane Ian made landfall last week, but a state trooper made them stop because DeSantis was en route. The trooper allegedly told the workers that his hands were tied.

Unfortunately for DeSantis, there was also video that shows he was lying when he was trying to rebut what the reporter was asking him about. Now, it's a lot of local news video and they're pretty vicious with copyright claims. So we can't show you the video, but it's on YouTube. You could watch it for yourselves and we'll explain what it says. In the video picked up by Tampa's local ABC affiliate WFTS, a local assistant principal is captured on video complaining about being kept from recovery and cleanup efforts because of DeSantis's photo op, which goes against the categorical lie allegation by the Florida governor. And I'm curious what you think, Farron, you're based in Florida. Luckily, you know, you weren't impacted by Hurricane Ian because

of where you're situated in Florida. And I'm really happy about that. But what have you noticed about the local government's response to Hurricane Ian? Well, first of all, I wish I would have known that the local news outlets are really bad about when people use their clips because I've got that clip in a video tomorrow. So now I'm worried about that. But no, the local government's response, you know, the city governments, the county officials is always pretty good, right? This is one of the few things that we do see here in the state of Florida that brings people together in a way that, you know, I don't think most people, if you've never been through a natural disaster, I've been through at least 10 hurricanes in my life. Dude, everybody, everybody comes

together. People are, you know, helping out elderly neighbors. They're helping out people that they otherwise despise. Trust me, I know we've all done it. So it is great to see that response. And then of course, you end up with the big guys. You get your Ron DeSantis is coming down and his fancy white boots. We've all seen the picture, you know, not a smudge of dirt on them. And they wanna make it all about them. He's, you know, in some of the pictures he's wearing his DeSantis for governor gear and

he's making sure his wife has it on too. It is absolutely appalling. And at the same time, they're the ones who want to say that the left is trying to politicize this. You know, Vice President Harris said only send aid to black people. That is not at all what she said, but that's what they're claiming. And then the truly disgusting part, as you said, people, I do encourage you go watch that video clip of the local news. There is no question, these people were forced to stop working, right? You see them interacting with the people telling them they have to stop.

And then Ron DeSantis goes on the air and he tells the state of Florida what you just saw with your own eyes didn't happen. It's somehow made up, and that is the caliber of people that we're dealing with, not just here in Florida, but all across the country on the Republican side, who will look at you dead in the eye and tell you that what you just saw happen didn't happen. It's a mirage. And I don't know how we fight against that when they're literally telling people deny the reality that you see and only trust my word. That's nuts. That's been an ongoing issue and it's infuriating how how often you come across video evidence of what actually transpired and voters are told don't believe you're lying eyes and there's some portion that just goes along with it. But I think you're absolutely right in your kind of analysis of what the situation is like on the ground versus on a higher level with politicians and public figures. I mean, it's just like disaster capitalism, right? Where capitalists love to exploit a disaster for profit, politicians do the same when it comes to these disasters for political power.

So I have no doubt that Ron DeSantis is engaging in it. This is his moment to shine. This is his moment to show the country what his leadership looks like, because I have no doubt he's going to run for president. So I think that's part of it as well. But I wanted to quickly comment on what you said about local communities helping one another, even if they disagree with each other politically. I feel that. I go to Florida a lot because of my family living there. I have in-laws living there. We were just in Fort Myers last

July. And seeing photos and video of the devastation there, I got emotional. And I know that the majority of people living there in the last election voted for Trump. I know I don't agree with them politically. But at the end of the day, they're people. And they've just lost everything. That entire community is wiped out. It is so difficult to watch that. And it makes me feel good to know that on just a basic human level, ordinary people are able to put that stuff aside and help each other out, that they haven't completely dehumanized each other. Because if you just pay attention to the news, it really feels like based on political identity, people have dehumanized each other. And that is a scary place to be.

It really is. And you know, we, the last hurricane we had come through here was two years ago. And I actually had had hand surgery the day before. So after the storm, we're all out there. We're working, trying to clear debris, get stuff off the roads. And, you know, I'm still going over and I'm helping my elderly neighbors clear their yard. I've only got one good hand. And it's not even my dominant hand. And trust me, these folks that I've been helping, I know from their Facebook post, like, they're Q people. But it didn't matter. Like, even though I'm, you know, one armed guy, I'm going to help them because they need help. And it was great. And it's a good feeling and all the kids in the neighborhood doing it. And those are the kinds of things that really do matter

in these situations. What we do not need is people like Ron DeSantis coming down to take their photo ops. It's just like when we had the deep water horizon disaster in the Gulf of Mexico. You know, the governor came here. It was Charlie Christ at the time. That was when he was a Republican still. And he gets his pictures and he's looking out at the Gulf like, like, what good does that do? You're watching oil roll in and you're just, hmm, that's very tough. It's come on. I hate it when they do this crap. I know. It's the same line of thinking when you hear the, oh yeah, have you been to the board? Have you done your photo op at the border yet? It's like, what is a politician's visit to the border supposed to do? That's not policy,

that's not immigration reform, that's not dealing with anything. That's literally just optics. You're pushing for Democrats to go to the border for a photo op just to improve their optics. That's it, that's all it is. Yeah, and then they'll criticize them when they do that. Like, oh, well, he just went down there for a picture. But I tell you the delicious bit of irony down here is, do you know what they're doing? They have started taking Venezuelan migrants from New York and sending them down here to Florida to help with the cleanup and recovery efforts. Of course, of course. Yeah, because we need the people to help. And by the way, that is what always happens.

You know, after all the hurricanes down here, we do see, you'll see busloads of people come in. They will help, They will do tremendous work, they'll clear debris, they'll rebuild roofs and fences and all kinds of stuff. And then they just ship them out when they're done with them, which is absolutely ridiculous. These people rebuild our entire state and we treat them like these expendable workers. But yeah, they're sending people, the Venezuelans, just like the ones he sent to Martha's Vineyard. We're now having to bring them all back because suddenly we need them and we'll cast them aside when we're done. It is absolutely, that's one of the worst things we see during the storm says how they treat these migrant workers who put our communities back

together. Yeah, this country loves to exploit the most vulnerable people. I mean, in California, because of our wildfires, instead of hiring firefighters, giving them good pay, good pension, good benefits, they use prison laborers to fight wildfires. And then once they're out of prison and they want to apply for a firefighting job, they get denied because they're convicted felons. That's what this country does. Just any opportunity to exploit labor, any opportunity to exploit vulnerable people, I mean, that's part of the reason why we don't have immigration reform. We don't have immigration reform, and it's not being pushed by Republican politicians either, because companies and the agriculture industry exploits them. They're here, they're undocumented,

they have no legal recourse, so they can be used and abused by these companies, by the agriculture industry. It's disgusting. And it is enabled by our politicians. It is. And if those workers ever complain about the conditions, about not getting paid, about making, you know, less than minimum wage, they ship them back. They say, okay, if you want to complain, just know that we'll just send you back. And we've got 10 other people waiting right behind you to take this position. And so they do get abused. And I know we're like, we're so on a different topic right now. But this is important. And that is why you're so right. That's why we don't ever actually get immigration reform because the corporations rely on the exploitation of those people to stay afloat.

100%. Well, we got to take a break. But when we come back, TYT went to a Trump rally in Michigan and spoke to some QAnoners, some Q&N believers. And I don't know, man, I'm really worried about where we are as a country. We're going to show you those clips and more coming right up, don't miss. Welcome back to the show Anna Casparian and Farron Cousins. This is the final segment of the first hour and the second hour, Ben Glebe will be joining me. But if you want more Farron cousins, you're in luck because you could check out his work online. Farron, tell the fine people of TYT where they can watch your content.

YouTube.com slash the Ring of Fire and YouTube.com slash Farron balanced. Love it. All right, well, why don't we move on to more lunacy and talk about Trump's latest rally in Michigan? Obama is playing Sleepy Joe Biden in a mask. George Woods, the actor, is playing Sleepy Joe, trying to wake people up by pretending to spend all this money in Ukraine that he signs and he's signing a blank paper. Obviously, like obviously that's happening. Well, you just heard from a Q&N believer and a Trump supporter who attended Trump's rally in Michigan over this past weekend.

TYT showed up to speak to the Trump supporters and see what's on their minds. And unfortunately, there are people who believe all sorts of things that aren't true, all sorts of things that, you know, I know that the urge is to ridicule them and mock them. But I think, I know this is going to sound like an insult and I don't mean to insult them. But mental health is a very big problem in this country. And as I watch these interviews and I watch these answers, I can't help but feel like a lot of these people, people might need help. So I just want to say that right off the bat before we get to more footage of these interviews. Starting with the woman you just heard from, not only does she think that Joe Biden or Joe Biden is really Obama wearing a Biden mask and James Wood is being

or is the one manipulating them. I don't really, she also thinks Tupac is still alive, which is fun. That's a fun part of the interview. Let's watch that. Tupac's still alive? Yep, where's he? Jackson is still alive. Where are they? And there were Trump? Well, they're in the, and we're out here, damn it.

I would have loved to have seen Tupac. I'll show you a picture. I mean, that part of the interview was fun, but that was the only fun part of this whole interaction. And there's more interactions to show you guys. But Barron, I don't know, I feel like I'm being a little bit of a Debbie Downer, because again, the urge is to make fun of them or mock them. But I feel like these are people who might be struggling with some stuff, you know? Yeah, I mean, look, I agree 100%, but I just gotta tell you too, I'm convinced. I'm with them now. I'm gonna go and I'm gonna go see Tupac perform with Michael Jackson.

I'm gonna sit right next to the Obama playing Joe Biden at it. It's gonna be awesome, you should come. But no, for real, these, look, you kind of don't really know, right? I mean, is there a problem with these people? Is it an act for some of them? I mean, are they just doing this because they think it's weird and fun? Is it, you can't really say it's a form of rebellion because these people I think are a little past the age for for that kind of thing. But it is terrifying. No matter which way you slice it, this is terrifying because these are real people. These are people that show up and vote. And these are the things they at least claim

to believe. And we know there are plenty of true believers among them. We saw that group what a couple months ago that spent weeks in Dallas because they were just so certain JFK Jr. was going to come back right where his father had been murdered. And they honestly think that. And I don't know if this is a new phenomenon or I don't know if it's just because we have social media and it's, we're more likely to see them than ever before, but, but it's, it's so weird. And I don't even know the worst part is I don't even know how you would counter those things. When you see someone saying something so obviously wrong, so obviously false and easily disproven, but you know they're not going to believe what you say to them. So how do you fight that?

I don't have the answer to it. You know, we do it every day and it doesn't seem to be reaching them. Well, look, not to minimize the utility of shows like ours, but I'm going to do that right now. Listen, doing a show on YouTube or yelling at people and trying to get them to believe what you believe doesn't work, right? The real question is, like, what are, and honestly, the phrase root causes gets repeated in like every context so many times and I almost roll my eyes every time I hear it at this point. But honestly, root causes, right? So I do think mental health is a huge problem that needs to be tended to in this country. So I do think that there's a portion of, you know, this Q and on people believe in Q&N conspiracies. I think some percentage of them do need help.

And these are people who live in a world that doesn't make any sense to them, right? Like think about how we're dealing with media that tells us not to believe our lying eyes. So people don't trust these institutions, they don't trust the media, they don't trust politicians. And a lot of us are atomized as well. I would venture to say that some of these people are probably pretty lonely themselves. And they've found a community of people online and being part of that community means buying into whatever they're selling. So I think that's part of it as well. I just we're divided, we're atomized, we're always fed BS from corporate media. all of these things need to be dealt with, and I think people's material needs also need to be addressed by the Democratic Party if they're really to be the ones who kind of take this self-righteous stance, right? Like they love to pretend like they have the moral high ground. But rather than just mocking these people or painting them as dangerous individuals we should be fearful of, ask yourselves, hey, what did I do as a politician, as someone who's elected as a public servant to.

you know, encourage this kind of thinking or to create a system in which people are kind of pushed into this kind of thinking. What can I do to help them out so they see that there's actually a better way? I don't like that's that's what I want to like focus on because again, there is no other way, right? You do have to address the root causes and what got people to think this way in the first place. And you had mentioned the whole JFK thing. Well, I want to go to the very last video here because in this last video, Michael Shore, the reporter who went and asked these questions, wanted to know about this whole JFK thing, right? And so, you know, luckily there was a Q&N believer who had great answers to him. So let's watch. What about JFK Jr.? Yeah, he's alive.

Is it? Yeah. Where is he? He's around. Do you know where he is, though? He's everywhere. He's everywhere. All right. All right, because, uh, yes. What makes you think that, though? Like, somebody being so famous and so well known and, you know, with family, what makes you think that he's alive if nobody's seen him? Jamantria. I got to look that one up.

Yeah. I play a lot of trivia. That's one I don't know. So I'll look at it. Jamantria? Yes, sir. All right. All right.

All right. All right. I'll check out Jamantria then. Yeah. What? I don't know what is that? What is I don't know what that is I don't know what that is I don't know what that is I don't know what that is I'm kind of scared to even look it up because I don't even want that on on my computers. But the way she's speaking and I mean like physically the way she is speaking you you kind of get the impression that I mean look if I didn't know any better I'd say okay well she she seems like she's on something you know just the slow, pathetic cadence, all of the, like, that to me is kind of a big warning sign there, that this person isn't clearly thinking in their right mind. I mean, obviously I can't, I don't have specialized training, I can't diagnose this woman, but we have to look at these

people, as you said, and the root causes of it. What is it? Like, what is going on inside their heads because if we can't figure that part out, we can't deprogram these people. And there are some folks out there that actually do a very good job of both of the fifth column has actually done a really good job of actually not being condescending like I am and not making jokes about it, but talking in a way that does help, you know, people tell them all the time like, wow, you actually convinced me or you convinced my parents to stop this. I'm not that guy. I wish I was, but I'm definitely not. But if you can reach them and you can talk them through these things and sometimes just getting them to say these things out loud for the first time, sometimes that clicks with them. And they realize like, well, wait a minute. Okay, now that now that I'm hearing it from me, I'm starting to get it. And it's a long process. We don't have the resources to get all of these people, but we could. I don't think it's impossible. I don't think all these people are

completely lost. I totally agree with you. I totally agree with you. I think mocking them, calling them stupid, it doesn't help anything. I mean, it might make you feel good as you're mocking them. It's like an emotional release. But, you know, we should all grow up and mature and understand that like emotional releases don't help anyone other than the person engaging in that emotional release, like if you genuinely care about building a better future for this country, we shouldn't cut people out of our lives. Like so if you have a family member, I've said this on the show before, if you're the daughter of one of these women that we just, you know, heard speak, give your mom a hug and like, believe me, I don't have any Q&N

believers in my family, but I definitely have parents who have political views that I disagree with, right? I'm not going to cut my parents out of my life. And I'm not going to let any snooty annoying group of people on Twitter tell me that I'm a bad person for not condemning my family members. No, I love my family. We disagree. And guess what? I'm planning seats. And if I'm calmly sharing my perspective with them, they're actually shockingly open-minded to it. And so I think the real trick is to come at people from a non-judgmental, calm place where you just want to have a discussion and don't push it too much because if you're being super aggressive, that's when people like, it's like a knee jerk reaction to reject what you're saying immediately.

But plant those seeds and do what Michael Brooks, I think, did better than anyone I've ever ever had the pleasure of knowing. He pushed me to the left because he made me feel that I wasn't being judged as I was debating him on certain things, right? And when he would make good points, since I felt like, hey, I can trust this guy. He's not judging me. I don't feel like he's mocking me. I don't think he's putting me down. I was open to what he was saying. And that led to me doing more investigation myself. That's what we should do. And I know it's like the hardest thing in the world. And by the way, no one is, no one should be forced to do it, right? If you don't have the emotional capacity for it because it's emotionally draining,

I totally understand that as well. I'm just saying that the tactic of dividing ourselves has not worked at all. It's actually made the situation a lot worse. And so I think we need to have these conversations and come at it from a place of understanding regardless of how difficult it is, you know? No, I agree 100%. And again, I wish I was that person. You know, I'm not.

Yeah, and I readily admit that. And I know it's an area where I personally need to get better at, but I also, I have a short fuse. I'm not, you know, a calm and collected individual most of the time, especially when I'm talking about things that I am just insanely passionate about. You know, I get, I get heated. I get into it. Um, so a lot of that, you know, maybe it does start with us. Maybe we fix ourselves, you know, work on our shortcomings in order to help that. I know, I would love to say that's something I'm going to do. I honestly, I can't even because I know me. I know what I do. I know how I am. I would love to work on it, but I also have about a hundred other personal

things I need to work on as well. I will get there eventually, but it's not going to happen overnight. There's other people who do it much better, much better than I do. Yeah, for me, what's worked is just kind of saving the ire for people who actually have power, right? Because I think if you direct that fury at ordinary people, even if it feels well deserved, doesn't really get anything done. So that has helped me. But, you know, I saved the viciousness for, again, power players, whether it be in media or in politics. But anyway, I know the conversation went in directions that we didn't expect. But hopefully it was helpful to some. And you guys should definitely check out more of the reporting that Michael Shore has been doing for us. We're going to be

going to more rallies in the future. And I'm sure you guys will enjoy that content. But for now, Unfortunately, we got to go. We got to take a break and Ben Glebe will be joining me in the second hour. But Ferran just wanted to take an opportunity to say thank you. It's always a pleasure hosting with you. I enjoyed every minute of it. Thank you. Of course, we're going to take a break when we come back. Ben Glebe will be with us. Don't miss it.

Thanks for listening to the full episode of the Young Turks. Support our work, listen to ad-free, access members-only bonus content, and more by subscribing to Apple Podcasts at apple.co slash t-y-t. I'm your host, Shank Huger, and I'll see you soon.