The Young Turks - First Amendment Fights

Episode Date: March 30, 2024

Trump's team cites the First Amendment in contesting charges in the Georgia election interference case. Anti-abortion doctors struggle to explain Mifepristone harms before the Supreme Court. Biden holds a record-breaking New York City fundraiser with Barack Obama and Bill Clinton. " HOST: John Iadarola (@johniadarola), Yasmin Aliya Khan (@YazzieK), Helen Hong (@funnyhelenhong) SUBSCRIBE on YOUTUBE: ☞ https://www.youtube.com/user/theyoungturks FACEBOOK: ☞ https://www.facebook.com/theyoungturks TWITTER: ☞ https://www.twitter.com/theyoungturks INSTAGRAM: ☞ https://www.instagram.com/theyoungturks TIKTOK: ☞ https://www.tiktok.com/@theyoungturks 👕 Merch: https://shoptyt.com ❤ Donate: http://www.tyt.com/go 🔗 Website: https://www.tyt.com 📱App: http://www.tyt.com/app 📬 Newsletters: https://www.tyt.com/newsletters/ If you want to watch more videos from TYT, consider subscribing to other channels in our network: The Watchlist https://www.youtube.com/watchlisttyt Indisputable with Dr. Rashad Richey https://www.youtube.com/indisputabletyt The Damage Report ▶ https://www.youtube.com/thedamagereport TYT Sports ▶ https://www.youtube.com/tytsports The Conversation ▶ https://www.youtube.com/tytconversation Rebel HQ ▶ https://www.youtube.com/rebelhq TYT Investigates ▶ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwNJt9PYyN1uyw2XhNIQMMA Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You're listening to The Young Turks, the online news show. Make sure to follow and rate our show with not one, not two, not three, not four, but five stars. You're awesome. Thank you. Woo! Three-by-D, T-R-T, T-Machee, T-Machee, T-A-T, T-Mach-T, T-V-A-T, T-V-A-T, D-A-T. I'm sure things will get wild. I just want to start off calm. I'm John Adiroula, welcome to the young Turks.

I've got two awesome people joining me on the panel here at this very desk, Helen Hong, once again in studio, comedian, writer, podcaster as well, how you doing? I loved the, I loved the drop it. I loved your technique. Thank you, it was the calmest drop it we've ever had actually. It was like, it was like the words didn't match the energy, but they did. Kind of in a way. Like it was like, I was like, ah, that's slick.

That's because I'm an unnatural actor. But anyway, Helen's here and across the country. Yasmin Leah Khan, how's it going? It's going very well here from the Gulf of Mexico, Houston, Texas. Exactly. On the Gulf, sometimes doing videos at Rebel HQ about golf. And Yaz, not only we'll be commenting on all of our stories, but we'll also be leading one of the stories in just a little bit,

which I'm very excited for. So thank you for doing that. worse. Oh, but that's the first hour, the second hour in studio, three people, a full desk. Jordan, you will be leading, Brett Ehrlich will be here, Mark Thompson as well, you know it's gonna be a lot of fun, so don't go anywhere, definitely stick around for that. You can also stick around for this as well. You should see the part of the show that I'm in, preferably, but we have a lot that we're gonna be talking about through the course of this hour. Not only the big dueling presidential fundraisers, one already in the bag, Joe Biden raising a bunch of money and Donald Trump promising,

that he's going to raise even more with the star power of Kid Rock or Scott Bayo or something. I don't know who's going to get. But we're going to be talking about it. We're going to be talking a little bit about the anti-choice crusade continuing in America. Death threats against judges, instigation to further death threats in other cases. We have literally multiple examples of that. And then we're going to be capping off the hour with Kerry Lake declaring defeat in a defamation lawsuit. So that's going to be fun as well.

So lots to talk about. Everybody buckle up as we launch into this first topic. Can voters trust a presidential candidate who has not won a single Trump International Golf Club trophy at long last, sir, have you no chip shot? Well, look, I'd be happy to play. I told him once before when he came into the Oval, when he was being before he got sworn in, I said, I'll give you three strokes if he carry your own bag. Trump's not going to like that. But anyway, that took place at last night's big glitzy New York fundraiser.

Obviously, Joe Biden was there, joined on stage by Barack Obama, Bill Clinton. You saw Stephen Colbert sort of moderating things, and there were celebrities and actors and musicians. Mindy Kaling was there in Queen Lativa, Lizzo, Ben Platt, Cynthia Rivo, Leah Michelle, Chuck Schumer as well, you know, amongst all those people. I don't think Chuck Schumer's going to draw that much attention. But the event certainly drew attention because it brought in a ton of money. We expect that he raised something like $26 million at that single event, which is a lot of money. It's much needed, of course, Joe Biden, who has maybe drawn into parity with Donald Trump

in a number of polls, including his swing states, but definitely is going to want that money, that well-funded war chest as he jumps into the general election. And thankfully, not only did he have a successful event in New York, but things have been going pretty well, fundraising wise throughout the year. So if you take a look at the end of February, the campaign cash on hand metric for the two campaigns, you have Joe Biden lapping Donald Trump there. Now of course, Donald Trump is not going to take that lying down, so we will turn to him. But Helen, I want to start with you, it was a big event, you had a lot of jokes being thrown

around, mostly at Donald Trump's expense. Some people thought that the event was a little bit elitist, though. What do you make of it? I think, you know, Joe Biden shouldn't make old jokes. Sorry, Joe, but you know, I don't think Joe should ever say or hint or allude to the word old. Because it's not working in your favor, buddy. Gramps, you know what I mean? Like the first word that I think of when I think of Joe Biden is old.

The first word that I think of when I think of Trump is not old. It's a bunch of other things that I can't, I'm not allowed to say. due to FCC regulations on this channel. But old is not the first word. Joe, you old, I'm sorry. Yeah, I liked his joke, but I was also thinking like, I really hope they don't challenge each other to some sort of physical contest,

even walking around a golf course, like sure, Trump is gonna look bad, but like you might seriously hurt yourself. Seriously, like you might break a hip. Yeah, sit down, grandpa, sit down. Good joke though, good joke. Yes, what did you make of it? Well, speaking of golf,

Golf Digest magazine actually ranked all the US presidents as how good of golfers they are, but they use handicaps, but they still rank Trump number one, and Biden was number two. So if it comes to a golf off, if that's what it's called, I don't know that Biden will be able to hold his own against Trump. And of course Trump does have a lot of golf trophies. So he is a very formidable, very athletic old president. Those are his own words. He is very athletic for some reason that he doesn't even understand so hashtag athletic but also hashtag cheater at golf that's hashtag great athlete yeah yeah I didn't even know that Joe Biden gulfed actually I was completely

unfamiliar with that I also love though have to I think if you want to be president you have to golf I think yeah yeah yeah's an idea let's have a president and you know we did with Barack Obama love playing basketball you know it was it was something different and I guess he winsurfs I think Joe Biden did at 1.2 for Donald Trump a guy who masquerades as some sort of populist or whatever the fact that he spends like 30% of every day on a golf course would seem to undercut that. I mean, how many people could afford to play golf, let alone in this economy? Like could he play pool or something, throw darts?

Like there are sports that the every man takes part in that he could at least pretend to be interested in. Yeah, well, they all get a severe senior discount. Yeah. Because, you know, when you're pushing 90 or however old they are, they give you a discount at the golf course. And if you die on the course, they pro rate it based on the number of holes you've actually I heard that. You can save some money that way as well. What other sport could he possibly play, though? You know, because like golf, you get, you don't even have to walk if you don't want to you, just get to ride around those little

carts. So, like, I don't even know what other sport would even remotely compare to, like, the amount of physical activity that golf makes you do, which is like very little. I never play golf, so I don't know. I think that it seems like there's not a lot of wind surfing, which I think is crazy that Barack Obama windsurfs. I mean, I think that America would pay $26 million to see either one of these Gramps windsurf. Like I would come, I would somehow come up with $26 million to see a wind surf off. I'm thinking beach volleyball. I would pay quite a bit to see all of the different candidates remaking that classic top gun beach volleyball scene.

In like, I would not actually see. No, thank you. We can, we can negotiate on attire. But anyway, while Joe Biden raised over the expected $25 million, at his New York City fundraiser, Donald Trump, in all of last February, only raised $20 million, and he is trailing in money, he needs to make it up, and he has a plan. So coming up in just the first week of April, he's going to be having a number of notable individuals, flock down to Bar-a-Lago, and he is expecting that he will raise $33 million.

Now, notably, Queen Latifah will not be there, and Lizzo's maybe at this point. But what he does have is a whole bunch of billionaires who are going to be coming. So New York hedge fund billionaire John Paulson is already said that he's going to go, they've got this New York grocery billionaire. They've got a number of people who, you know, they're not like getting Grammys or Oscars or anything, but they've got a lot of money and they're looking to spend it on Trump. Big grocery. Exactly.

Big grocery got cash. Big grocery. If you would like to attend this event, you can. It's $250,000 minimum per person. so, you know, maybe take out a loan. I don't know, but if you'd like, you can be a chairman contributor. You only have to pay $814,600 for that. But in exchange for the nearly $1 million, you do get a copy of Trump's coffee table book

full of photographs that costs like $75 on Amazon. But you can get it this way if you prefer. Photographs of what? Of him? Him, unfortunately, yeah. I mean, I'd roll the dice. There's a coffee table book. So like this big book.

With this big photographs of Trump. Mm-hmm. Wow. What an image, gross. I think that you would have to pay me $250,000 to take that. And then you could go to the event. And then display it on your coffee. You actually have to display it on your coffee table for that amount of money.

I mean, no, for me to display it on my coffee table, that would be the $814,000. The chairman cost. You'd have to be the big donor to put it on my coffee table. For me to look at it every day. Well, look, as of right now, Donald Trump is confident that this event is going to bring in a lot of a lot of money and look, he has a lot of billioners, you know, and they're willing to put a ton of money in, and I'm sure other MAGA people will and all that too. In advance of that though, he is doing pretty much everything he can to raise money, and

I don't just mean selling shoes and NFTs and Bibles or whatever, he's fundraising. So if you have found yourself in the unfortunate position of being on his mailing list, you might have gotten a message like this, you can see it right here. It's a message from Donald J. Trump, I know, because it says that, it's under his official heading, which would seem to make it official enough, but just in case he decided to double it up. He then says, we can't lose to Obama. And he is right, he can't lose to Obama.

He can lose to Joe Biden, that's entirely possible, can't lose to Obama, he's not running against you, buddy. But anyway, he says, before the end of the day, I'm humbly asking every patriot reading this message to chip in our average donation of 32 or whatever they can to help us defeat the Biden-Obama-Clinton cartel. He needs the money. And look, it could work in 2016, in 2020, when he did try to raise money, whether it's you know for the campaign or for, you know, the legal defense fund to overturn the results

of the election, he did raise a bunch of money. The fact that he's having so much trouble right now is actually a little bit surprising. And I honestly at this point have not seen a great explanation as to why that is. You know, people are saying that like the wealthy donors at this point are already tapped out. the primary, but was that not true in 2016 or 2020? And what about the regular MAGA people? Why are they not flocking to Phyllis coffers?

Well, there's a recession. I don't know if you heard, but there's like a mild, there's a lot of inflation happening. That's true. And eggs are like $8 a carton. That was true. You know, and so if you're like a, you know, the big grocery is always going to be there and big whatever billionaires are going to be there.

But if you're counting on those 22 bucks, bucks from Joe Schmo in the middle of the states. He's trying to pay his rent and buy food, you know, because milk and gas is all expensive. So, like, they might be like, oh, I paid for this MAGA hat and four years ago, and I'm wearing it again. I don't have another $22. I'm sorry, but the economy sucks right now. Thanks in large part to you, Donald Trump. So thank you.

Perhaps. Thank you for that. Yes, what do you think about the state of the state of the state? the funding of the two campaigns? I mean, I think it is very telling, right? Because with Trump, he doesn't have the support of the populace the way he thinks he does. This is such a dumb election, can I just say real quick? Because like, first of all, he doesn't even know who he's running against.

I didn't know that Clinton and Obama were also in a cartel with Biden. And it just says love America on his thing. So as far as rallying his troops, like troops as been his supporters, I don't know if these same scare tactics are enough to get them to give him more money, especially when all he does is talk about how much money he has. But you know, we see it in other races all across the country. You want to look at how many people are donating how much money. And on the Republican side, you do tend to see a lot of bigger donations coming from fewer people. And unfortunately, those people, they only get one vote at the at the voting booth.

So we'll see how that goes. Allegedly. Allegedly. Allegedly. Everything is, who knows? Yeah, mules depending. Yeah, and look, I will say I am pretty surprised about Biden's ability to draw on the money. You know, considering the fact that he's still in some polls trailing and I don't, like just colloquially,

perhaps I'm in a bubble, I'm in LA, you know, it doesn't seem like there's a lot of enthusiasm for him at this point. They've been drawing in a lot of money and maybe it's the lingering threat of Donald Trump. I mean, maybe they're leaning into that, but but it is, if you're worried about Donald Trump winning later on this year, I think this is a pretty good sign and we'll see if it continues. Yeah, I think that's, I think that's exact, I just was on the phone of my dad on the way here and my dad was like, oh, that Biden, my dad's 80 and he's like, oh, that Biden's old. He's just, I don't know if he can do it anymore. Oh, God.

The new BMO ViPorter MasterCard is your ticket to more. More perks, more points, more flights, more of all the things you want in a travel rewards card, and then some. Get your ticket to more with the new BMO ViPorter MasterCard and get up to $2,400 in value in your first 13 months. Terms and conditions apply. Visit bemo.com slash the iPorter to learn more. Well, you not coming off as a big fan of Biden.

Turns out there were other people, not big fans of Biden at that pro fundraiser. So why don't we turn to that? Even though Joe Biden was successful in New York and raising a bunch of money, not everyone who showed up at the event was happy to see him there were a number of protesters outside who were rallying in support of those being absolutely devastated in Gaza and some actually ended up disrupting the event here's a little look at that Right of what you're doing because of what you're doing because of what you're doing. Because of the things that you're doing.

And based on media reactions to that, I know many people at the event, many people commenting on the event are incredibly aggrieved by those protesters interrupting the proceedings. I know, you know, Stephen Colbert is telling jokes, I like Stephen Colbert's jokes, but they're not like sacred, like, you know, and if people are worked out, maybe they have cause, maybe there's like a reason, maybe a lot of people have died. A lot of people continue to die. So maybe go easy on the people that want to just, you know, maybe take a moment out of this gathering to focus on the real stakes of the election, even just the stakes going forward of Joe Biden's presidency. And I want to turn now to Democracy Now, which actually did some interviews of people. who are participating in this protest. Let's take a look at that. I am a first generation American Palestinian, and we have had enough. My family's voted Democrat for as long as we've lived in the U.S. It's heartbreaking.

We feel guilty, and we feel awful. I feel like I voted for my own people's genocide. And I'm done letting Democrats get away with it just because we're scared of the alternative. So look, she, you know, she feels what she feels. She's very passionate. It's I don't think difficult to understand why if you want to tell her to just shut up and think that that's going to be persuasive and getting people in line, you can try

that. I don't see why that would work, but feel free. I would say that there have been obviously been previous iterations of these sorts of protests. I mean, there was not committed in Michigan. You've seen things like that and attacked at every turn for daring to not fall in line with Joe Biden. But Joe Biden seems to be sort of trying to moderate his position a little bit. In some cases rhetorically, both he and Kamala Harris have sort of spoken out a little bit more vigorously in defense of those being annihilated in Gaza. You see the United States finally lining up at the Security Council behind a call for at least a limited ceasefire.

Joe Biden during the event last night said that he didn't give details, but he talked about some sort of deal that he's trying to broker. And now we're seeing reports of some sort of peacekeeping force that might actually include US forces. And so maybe he was always going to do this stuff. Or maybe it's good when people speak out that maybe they're pushing Joe Biden in not only a position that they find to be sort of more moral, but also might help to reassure some of his supporters that they can actually count on him before November. And so in that, they might have actually done not only the Palestinians

massive favor, but maybe Joe Biden as well. Yeah, so I want to go to you first. What do you think about those protests and some of the commentary about it? I mean, I think it was inevitable that something like this was going to happen in a place where Joe Biden was with all of his big fancy donors and all of his fancy Hollywood and Broadway friends, a lot of Broadway people there. You know, Joe Biden is trying to win a second presidential term right now. And this is such a low bar, but at the end of the day, Biden is still not Donald Trump.

as utterly disappointing as Biden has been on so many levels, he's still not Trump. And I don't know if that's going to be enough to get him his second term in November. But if he wants to win the vote, if he wants to keep a lot of the voters who voted for him the first time around, he's got to give, like he's got to do something. And as much as I would love to think that, I would love to not think, let me say, that this wasn't the plan all along. You know, like, let me just like let thousands of people die in Gaza first and then, you know, pull out my Trump card, no pun intended. But it is reassuring to see that narrative change even however many months later. Hopefully, maybe the protest did make a difference, but he is trying to win an election right now. And it's not going to, he's losing a lot of popularity. And even Donald Trump has recognized that, which is, you know, I mean, anyone can see that, but he's saying it.

Yeah. I first of all those those protesters at the event last night are heroes in my opinion like kudos to you thank you for doing that I'm sorry that Stephen Colbert and Lizzo and all the Mindy Kaling and all the freaking you know rich people in the room were like aghast but there are literally children dying of starvings maimings starvation every day hundreds to thousands of children are dying in Gaza every day and we're not idiots like we see the footage coming out of it and we know what's going on like our eyes are finally open to what's going on and it's our money our taxpayer money that's on the names of those bombs that are being used

to kill these children and are on the names of the you know that that are aiding this administration over there that's blockading food aid and water from getting in, which is why all these children are dying of malnutrition in Gaza. So those people are heroes, in my opinion. And again, like Biden, if my 80-year-old father is like, that man is old. So we already have the, you know, because he is trying to win an election and it's not looking great. You know, it's not like it's going to be a landslide, even though his opponent will be Donald freaking Trump, you know, there's a huge portion that are like, man, that man is too old to be president. And then you're going to add the population of us that are watching what's going

on in Gaza being like, you're also aiding in genocide. You're going to lose too many voters, bro. Yeah. It's too many voters for you to lose. Like, it's not a guarantee. Believe me. Like, it's not like you're like, I got room to spare on this election. No, you don't. Yeah, well, hopefully they're at least seeing that. They've certainly been provided many reminders. And the last thing I'll say about this is I think part of the exasperation about the protests, I think, it'll never be stated in this way, and so I can only speculate. But I think it's that, so it's late March now, and so this has been going on for five, six months. I think the protesters were supposed to get bored and move on by now.

I think that was kind of the unstated plan. Sure, you know, the initial massacres, the first thousand dead, the first 5,000 dead. I understand you people are young and you're passionate, you'll protest. But like, that was months ago, you know, new video games have come out and Beyonce's got a Western album. Haven't you moved on to something else on the algorithm? And they're furious that no, no, some people weren't just following a trend or whatever. They care about this and they're continuing to follow.

It's not making, you know, headline news necessarily every day. You're not seeing, you know, it's not all over CNN, but a lot of people working out of their news from that anyway. And so, yeah, I wouldn't be surprised that a lot of people who cared about the wanton slaughter of civilians are still bothered by it, you know, a few months later. Yeah, I'm glad you brought it up because I, you know, when the bombings were first happening, I was trying to find, like, I would post about it. I would, like, repost Instagram clips from like Amnesty International and Doctors Without Borders, you know, those, those anti-Semitic, allegedly organizations and I would try to find like a like one of those little gifts like

the animated gifts on Instagram and at the beginning there were none for you know speaking out about Palestine or Gaza or anything and now there are tons yeah so the kids are on board when there's animated gifts being like free Palestine or like don't stop talking about Palestine on Instagram like the kids are on board can you define gift because some presidents who might be watching are old, I hear. Oh, so when you post on Instagram, you can add a little like animated, like, you know, like laughing Chihuahua or something or like an animated, like, you know, I don't know, banana talking if you're telling a joke. I don't know, the possibilities are endless. Yeah, search, find something totally appropriate though.

And it's gonna be, and it's so funzies, but also there's ones that say, let's maybe let's not kill babies. And that's that's less funzies, but also, you know, agreed, agreed. Maybe more appropriate for the context than laughing chihuahua. Yeah, a little bit, arguably. Okay, well, we're gonna see what ends up happening with the Donald Trump fundraisers, see if you can match the Biden Hall. But we do have to take our first break, but we come back, lots of more to talk about, so don't go anywhere.

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Visit Spexavers.cavers.cai to book your next eye exam. Eye exams provided by independent optometrists. Welcome back everyone to the first hour of the Young Turks Power Panel. If you're just joining us now, please hit the like button. And with that, yes, you want to take it away? Yeah, yeah, let's do it. Abortion pills are more widely available now than ever before. And that's made Mitha Pristone an urgent priority for anti-abortion groups.

The Christian legal advocates who helped overturn Roe v. Wade filed a suit in Texas in November 22 to ban the medication outright. An appeals court didn't go that far, but it did order the FDA to reinstate nationwide a number of restrictions, including the requirement the doctors can only prescribe pills in person. Now that case has reached the Supreme Court. All right, so a group of anti-abortion doctors have filed suit in Amarillo, Texas, challenging the FDA approval. of the abortion drug, Maphryston. Unfortunately, these crusaders couldn't muster a convincing enough argument.

So at least for now, the drug is still available to people. So what was their argument? It was all based on a really strange hypothetical situation. And I will lay it out for you right now. They argued that this drug is so dangerous that some pregnant woman somewhere would inevitably experience some kind of serious complications from taking it. Then she would go to an emergency room where a doctor, maybe an anti-abortion doctor would be working.

So that doctor would then have to leave his other patients to go tend to this woman who took a drug that she never should have been able to take in the first place, less something like this happened. And then what? That anti-abortion doctor would somehow now have to aid in an abortion and become emotionally traumatized from the experience. That's really what their argument was. And that was such a far-fetched scheme that even the Supreme Court justices, Even the anti-abortion ones didn't buy it.

So for one, Miphyprostone is hardly the most dangerous drug out there. So their whole hypothetical makes no sense. It's a progesterum walker that aids in the abortion process. But after over 600 clinical trials, it's presented with less than a 1% risk of serious complications. So here is Dr. Landa Prine discussing just how safe this drug actually is. What are your observations as a long-time provider about the safety and the efficacy of mithopristone? It's very effective. I don't even have medications that are 98 to 99% effective. Our blood pressure medicines aren't effective like that. So it's an unusually effective medication, if anything, and extremely safe.

Yeah, it's so safe that it's a little ridiculous that they even try to use the safety in their argument at all. We'll get to some of those arguments in a bit, but first, John, what do you think about their weirdo hypothetical argument that they decided to take all the way to the Supreme Court? I don't know, I don't know if it's weird. I think it's actually kind of fun. It's sort of like it sets up kind of a creative challenge for us if we want to get something else banned. So if there's some sort of medication that you don't like, you could say, okay, a doctor could theoretically be operating on someone. And then someone else drinks a bunch of rum, they get drunk, they then get in a car accident, they go to the emergency room. And then the doctor has to leave their good non-rum drinking patient and go deal with that rummy, I don't know, like this is not how law is supposed to work, and I guess the silver

lining is that maybe it still isn't how it works. I like that, you know, the, on the one hand the Supreme Court, you know, they killed Roe v. Wade. They've been perfectly willing to set fire to precedent, even decades and decades of precedent. But this at least demonstrates that maybe they kind of still want like a fig leaf that things are working the way they're supposed to. So that's good. And on the side of the anti-abortion forces, we know that in the wake of the death of Roe v. Wade, that proved to be politically very difficult for Republicans. And the elections since then, particularly special elections, have not gone especially well. It's expected that that's going to have a big influence on the presidential election this

year. So like you would think that they would like take their victory and just chill for a a couple of years, maybe let the furor die down. But they don't, they seem to want to activate like challenge mode for this presidential race and just make sure that it's front of mind for everyone with medication abortion and challenges to IVF and all sorts of things like that. So it's a weird political strategy at the very least. Yeah, you kind of have to wonder if these doctors, if like the politicians in Washington are like, can you guys just chill for a minute, you know, but we will get to some of those weird hypotheticals that you mentioned. But Helen, what do you have to say?

I love this maybe concept. I have said this many times before publicly. The number one item on my bucket list is to have a threesome with Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie. Now, maybe you know or maybe you don't know that they had a very nasty divorce a few years ago. But maybe they're at some kind of party together and maybe I also would be at the same party And maybe all three of us would get totally tanked. And maybe they would want to get into a hate doing it situation. And maybe they wouldn't have nowhere else to do it except for in my hotel room.

And maybe all of our clothes would kind of fall off and we would all fall into bed together. Maybe, I mean, it's unlikely, but maybe the possibility is there. So let's make a law about it. Am I right? I can see Clarence Thomas. I know I really want that for you. Thank you. I've been saying, like, I've been declaring this to you, the universe. Like I thought my manifestation, my manifestation is off because I've been declaring this to the universe for literally decades.

Please, let me have a threesome of Brad Pitt and Andrew. You've got to believe harder. You have to believe harder. And I'll help. I'll believe with you. So, you know, we'll both be working on it. Thank you. Okay. So here are the arguments that were presented. So according to the intercept, U.S. Solicitor General Elizabeth Proligar told the court this. FDA approved Mephapristone based on the agency of scientific judgment that the drug is safe and effective. It's maintained that judgment across five presidential administrations and millions of Americans have used Mitha Pristone to safely end their pregnancies. So the challenge to the drug was first brought up by the Alliance of Hippocratic Medicine, which is comprised of a few different groups of anti-abortion doctors. They filed a suit in Amarillo, Texas specifically because they knew that if they did it there, that the case would be heard by a very far-right anti-abortion Trump-appointed judge.

And yes, sure enough, his name is Matthew Kazmeric. I think that's how you say it. Of course, he cited with the alliance, but to justify his ruling, he cited some very questionable and biased sources, including two studies that were sponsored by anti-abortion groups and were later retracted. According to the Associated Press, Kazmerich cited one of their retracted studies in claiming that Miffra Pristone causes many intense side effects. The ruling also cited the second retracted paper in explaining why anti-abortion physicians had the legal standing to bring their lawsuit. Instead of showing they were directly harmed by a product,

the judge said medical abortions caused, quote, enormous pressure and stress to physicians. So interestingly, no men of the pressure or stress on the patient there. They're just worried about the physician. So ultimately, there are concerns over setting an unrealistic legal precedent if the Supreme Court would have agreed to ban the drug based on the arguments presented. And John, I think that's what you were referring to earlier.

It could mean, for example, that anyone could sue to have a medication ban just because they have some kind of personal belief against it. And they don't want anyone else to have it for that reason. So Supreme Court Justice Katanji Brown Jackson, she did suggest that if a doctor has a problem with abortion, that doctor can exempt themselves from participating. That doesn't mean that the whole drug has to be made unavailable to everyone everywhere. So John and Helen, I want to get your thoughts. But one last thing to consider before I get those is the Comstock Act of 1873, 1873, which is a law that isn't really enforced right now. it's called a zombie law, but anti-abortion activists are hoping that it'll be their way of getting

abortion outlawed unofficially. So the Comstock Act of 1873 made it illegal to send obscene, lewd, or lascivious, immoral, or indecent publications through the mail. The law also made it a misdemeanor for anyone to sell, give away, or possess an obscene book, pamphlet, picture, drawing, or advertisement. The breadth of the legislation included writings or instruments pertaining to contraception and abortion, even if written by a physician. So the concern here is that in reviving the zombie law, other gynaecological medications and instruments could become unavailable to doctors and patients across the country, even if they have nothing to do with abortions. So the ruling for all of this is expected to come later this year, possibly in June. John, what do you?

you think? How does this make you feel? Hopeful, terrified? I mean, look, what we seem to have gotten from the Supreme Court outside of Alito or Clarence Thomas, that gives me some hope, I suppose. Not necessarily that we're in the clear when it comes to topics of reproductive freedom with this Supreme Court, but at least in this particular topic, maybe this is a bridge too far, so that's good. When it comes to the Comstock Act, okay, just don't put any words in what you ship when you ship the medication abortion, and that should get you around. I think it's ironic that the right wants to take us back to 1873 law that seems up their alley or maybe a couple decades earlier actually because they didn't like some of the legal changes that preceded the 1870s but anyway yeah look everyone these arguments is ridiculous that the physicians are worried about emotional pressure and strain oh it's uncomfortable that you might have to live in a world in which someone else has a medication abortion you know what causes emotional pressure and strain I'm a new dad having a kid being forced to have a kid I imagine would put some emotional

pressure and strain on people and if it's just that fact that someone else takes a medication can have secondary emotional characteristics on you and we're being told that by the facts don't care about your feelings movement by the way okay well ozempic's very popular now lots of people are getting on a Zempick thanks to that according to the advertisements they're dropping weight which means that I have now more competition so that makes me very uncomfortable the fact that other people are gonna be lower weight I guess it should be banned.

Is this the sort of legal apparatus that we want to set up in this country? I really, I really don't think that we do. I don't even think that these people think that we should, except in the case of this particular medication. And at least in this case, Big Pharma has said that if this is allowed to be banned, then you will see these sorts of challenges coming to a wide breadth of medications. And that's not just a good argument, that's an argument being made by Big Pharma, who you better bet the US judicial system cares a whole lot more about than the US judicial system cares a whole lot more

about than the rights of individual Americans. So thankfully, our interests seem to have lined up in this case, so we're probably going to be free and clear. I mean, if this law sets a precedent, buckle up Viagra and Cialis users, because we're coming for you. I mean, I feel emotional stress thinking about a boner that lasts for 15 hours. I know. So do I.

I know at least what I'm gonna, I would bet money that at least. One Supreme Court justice, probably Brett Kavanaugh, let's face it, is on Viagra or Cialis. And I don't, I don't feel comfortable. It's causing me emotional stress thinking about Brett Kavanaugh with a boner at all, frankly. So look out all other medications, including Viagra and Cialis. We're coming for you. Or not. And also with Brett Kavanaugh, you can never know if he's having that bow.

because those robes so flowing, so loose. Okay, I can confirm that I feel emotionally distressed right now at this conversation. The turn that this conversation has taken. Oh, you do? You're not sitting at the desk with Helen. How do you think I feel? Anyway. I'm so sorry, yes. Yes.

Well, it is what it is and here we are now. All right, back to you, John, on that note. Thank you. A great story and very well presented, yes. Thank you so much. Okay, we're going to very brief We'll briefly cover this last story and then we're gonna take a break. There's a lot more to, no, actually, I've been overruled. We're gonna take a break right now, respond to some of your comments and come back with a lot more news. A lot of stories to talk about, so why don't we get ready and jump into this?

What they argued today was very simple. A president has a right to speak, a human being an American. This country is based on the Constitutional First Amendment rights to speech. He had that right and he did so. He has also a right as the executive branch to question and provide election integrity. God knows our country needs that right now, Janine, I know you know it, I know it, the American people know it. So that's why we're looking at this from a serious standpoint of constitutional violations.

That is Alina Haba, Trump lawyer, talking about the legal strategy that the Trump team rolled out this week in the Georgia election subversion RICO case, saying there that they are going to defend everything that he did and said as being encapsulated under the First Amendment. As she points out, in America, you have free speech. A human has free speech, and she's right. I mean, she has like an eight year old's understanding of the First Amendment or the protections of grants or the limitations of it. But she's not wrong on some level. The issue is that there are plenty of things that you can say that are a crime to say. In particular, if you are attempting to convince an elected official to violate their oath of office or commit a law, commit a crime, that's not legal.

Certain threats are not legal. There are those limitations. But this is not hypothetical. There have been a number of people in the Trump orbit, including his co-conspirators in this particular case who have attempted to hide themselves behind the First Amendment, and they have not been able to do that. Judges have thrown aside any attempt to do that. So perhaps he'll be more successful.

For now though, she wants to not only lay out the defense, but also turn the tables on Joe Biden. Take a look at this. Number one, you and I both know Judge Jeanine, that we have only one RICO situation, and that's what's happening with the Merrick Garland Biden administration. Let's be honest about it. We've seen the White House logs. We've seen the proof. The only RICO is the coordination against Donald Trump.

Oh, I see. It's not Trump that recode. It's Biden that recode. Now, she said, we've seen the White House logs and we've seen the docs. But I haven't. I don't, like, are you trying to convince me, Alina Haba? Gene Piro, like, she didn't cut in. Has she seen them?

What White House logs and docs are you talking about? This is compelling. If you're saying that there's evidence that Joe Biden and Merrick Garland are coordinating with Fannie Willis and perhaps with the DAs in New York as well, I would lead with that and I would have those documents. I might even print them out. But of course she didn't provide that. I don't know what she's saying. She's saying it to Janine Piro rather than the judge in the Georgia case. So I'm going to guess that it's BS and it's based on nothing. But that is their defense. It's First Amendment. And also you should understand that as of just earlier today, there's been another. development in that case, which is that they had hoped that Fannie Willis was going to be booted from the case because of the relationship that she had with the special investigator there. Now the judge did not accept that after several weeks of consideration, but the judge opened up the possibility that the Trump team could appeal that decision and try to get Fannie Willis thrown off the case regardless. They are now doing that. They are appealing that. It is

going to take a few weeks to find out whether that will be successful, but this is two different ways they're attempting to derail this case. Helen, I'll start with you. What do you think about his chances? Well, you know, I'm a fan of the First Amendment. I think the First Amendment is what makes this country truly great. You know, the First Amendment is what allows me to call a former president a colossal bloated d-bag and, you know, not risk being poisoned with plutonium, let's say, for instance. But, you know, for his, I love that you brought up, she has, his lawyer has an eight-year-old's understanding of the First Amendment.

Let me, we were always taught in school. You know, you can't yell fire in a crowded theater. If there's no fire, you can't just go fire, fire, and people just go screaming and running out and people get trampled and hurt because you yelled fire when there was no fire. That's where your First Amendment stops. lawyer with an eight-year-old brain, that you, your First Amendment stops when it injures me, my First Amendment, right? All of my amendments and all of my rights to be safe and live in a democracy and have who

the majority of the people in our country voted for become president. So, yeah, cute, but no. Yeah, yes? Yeah, every time I see Alina Haba, I keep forgetting. getting that she's still one working for Trump and like hasn't been disbarred yet. In my mind, she's been disbarred, but we're not there yet. But yeah, like adding on to what Helen was saying, the thing that these Trump people seem to constantly forget is that these laws and amendments and rights, etc., all these things

that they hold so sacred, they're not completely unconditional, right? We have freedoms of press, for example, but, you know, it's still considered slander and libel if you say and print something that isn't true, right? That's still an offense. And you're not allowed to commit crimes regardless of how that is being done. And oftentimes to commit a crime, you often have to speak and write down words. Right. So another thing that keeps coming up with Trump and a few of his associates, I guess we can call them, is whether or not they lied intentionally, knowingly with malintent or with actual malice. In other words, if they knew they were lying when they were lying. And if it's determined that they did know what they were doing,

then they're liable to get in trouble for doing so. And just this week, we saw that happen with Trump's former attorney John Eastman, John Eastman. I want to call him Dave Eastman. John Eastman. And I know, I don't know if we're going to get to it later, but also Carrie Lake. We're seeing all that play out right now with Carrie Lake. So they're trying to make lying less of a criminal offense because it's such an integral part of all of their schemes that they're running, and it is costing them. So they're trying to just make that not be a thing anymore. Yeah, 100%. Look, Rudy Giuliani as well. He owes over $100 million to the election workers that he defamed. Doesn't you have a First Amendment right? Well, yeah, you do have

rights under the First Amendment, but there are also laws. I think it's the same lawyer who's gonna get Carrie Lake for the same thing, if I'm not mistaken. Yeah, so there are limitations and there need to be limitations. And they even think there should be limitations in areas where there shouldn't be. Like if you can theoretically say anything, why do they keep bringing up that they think that like Joe Biden talked to one of Hunter Biden's business associates on the phone? Doesn't he have a free speech, right? Again, like the like you cannot just throw out these platitudes, these slogans.

Like the Constitution is not made to be digested in slogan form. There's actually like constitutional law there, there are theorists of the Constitution. You can understand deeper than that, or at least some people hypothetically can. And so we're gonna have to see in this case, Again, it's not just about the things that he said and the things that he said that could be crimes include the conversation that he had with the Secretary of State, Brad Raffensberger, where he is trying to get him to break the law. And by the way, and I mentioned this on the damage report earlier today, many people forget there's also a kind of implicit threat in what he said to Brad Raffensberger when he talked about possible suits against Brad Raffensberger for not like doing the right thing and following the law. And that's the president doing that. He was then the president. And all the fake electors who signed fake government documents pretending, they were impostors,

pretending to be the actual, those who are supposed to certify the election in that case, the actual electors, that's free speech, I guess, but it's breaking the law. Again, I don't know why at this point we need to explain to people how any of this works. Thankfully, the judge is aware of this. And at the end of the day, Alina Haba can do the, you know, running damage control that she's doing with Janine Piro, but it's probably not going to have the effect that she wants in court. For a limited time at McDonald's, enjoy the tasty breakfast trio.

Your choice of chicken or sausage McMuffin or McGrittles with a hash brown and a small iced coffee for five bucks plus tax. Available until 11 a.m. at participating McDonald's restaurants. Price excludes flavored iced coffee and delivery. But that said, we do need to move because there's very little time left to another case, and let's jump into this. Despite a gag order being placed on him earlier this week by the judge in the New York hush money case, Donald Trump is still attacking, not only the judge, but also his daughter,

and now doing that by name. And so we'll bring up one of his messages where he is trying to draw the attention of his base on true social, not only to judge, But also to Lauren, his capital D daughter, who is apparently a rabid Trump hater, who has admitted to having conversations with her father about me, and yet he gagged me. But you gotta, you gotta word that differently, man. Just say he put a gag order on. He don't say that the judge gagged you, you big goof. But anyway, the idea there is, hey, did you know, he's got a daughter.

He's got a daughter, and his daughter's really bad. She does Democrat stuff. She works with shifty shift. Did you know that? Did you know that? Maybe you should look her up. Maybe you should give her a call. Maybe you should send her mail.

Of course, he's never going to be that explicit. He's never going to say it. But we know the threats that have come to virtually every public official that has crossed Donald Trump. I have no doubt that the merchant family is very worried, that Lauren is very worried at this point. He goes on in a second message, by the way, we can bring this up. And this is where it turns a little bit away from the threats to, I guess it's a defense. Like he says that Jonathan Turley described this case as illegally pathetic, there was no crime. Virtually every legal scholar says it's not a case, has never been brought before, it's not criminal, it shouldn't exist.

Isn't it weird than in all the various crimes that he has alleged to have committed, whether it's trying to overturn the results of the election in Georgia, or the January 6th insurrection, or the classified documents, or the hush money, or E. Jean Carroll, not only did he not do it, but it's never been seen before, it's never been prosecuted. We've never seen anything like it. Like did you just not pay attention to like law and order all these years? People have violated the law before and they've gotten in trouble before. This might be new to you, but it's not new to the country. Maybe how shameless he is is new, I suppose. But when you pay off someone like Stormy Daniels, that might be well and good outside of the context of an election. You're allowed to do that.

Rich men do that sort of thing all the time, looking to Elon Musk's past. But in this case, it was during an election. That had an effect on the perception of you at a critical moment during the election. And if that wasn't bad enough, then you tried to hide it in terms of the paper trail. And you potentially committed fraud when you did that. That is why he is facing 34 counts of falsifying business records. He's not being prosecuted for having an affair. That's his own personal issue to deal with.

It's the falsifying business records that could end up getting him. Anyway, Helen, at this point, what do you think? Did I already say colossal D-bag? You said something like that. Feel free to repeat it, honestly. You have free speech. My First Amendment rights, man, colossal D-bag. A colossal bloated D-bag is what I said, and I stand by that.

It's my favorite phrase. You know, I just, the fact that he's, you know, it's, he's like, he's got a daughter, wink, wink, and maybe if something bad happened to her, wink, wink, I'm sorry, I'm trying to with this eye, but I can only make with this eye, so I should go like this. It's just, I mean, isn't that against, I feel like that she's gotta be against the law somehow. To be clear. It's not, you know, like if she got shot, wow, that would be a bummer, huh? Wink, wink, wink.

Yeah. I'm so bad at winking, I'm sorry. You gotta work on that in the off season. Yeah, no, look, it seems like something like that. It doesn't seem like you would need to have gag orders in this case, but you do. And to be fair, he's allowed to say these things about the judge. The judge is not protected even under that judge's gag order. It protects the lawyers and the witnesses and the jurors.

I don't believe it even names his daughter or family members as those who will be protected. But bear in mind, it's not like you get one chance at a gag order. They might revisit this thing and perhaps they should. You could get gagged again and again. You could be like pub fiction, you know what I mean? Like, like, there's good, there could be like a, like a lot of gagging. Yes. I think I, I, I keep this show high brow.

Mm-hmm, mm-hmm. One brow high, raised, maybe. Yes, what do you think? With her good winking eye, yeah. I think, you know, like this, this case, I just is like kind of a little bit off topic, but, you know, it keeps me referred to as this Stormy Daniels case. And that is a bit of a misnomer because like John was saying, it's not about hushed money. It's not about Stormy Daniels. It's about the fact that they falsified documents, right? And his attorney has already gone to jail for the exact same thing. So now

things are not looking great for Trump. So he reverts back to whatever his old tactics were. He tried to intimidate people. He tries to scare them into thinking he's going to do something really terrible to whoever. But the thing is, he doesn't have a whole lot of leverage right now. He's not the president, right? He doesn't have any money. Everybody knows it. And he's busy running an election while he's sitting in a courthouse in New York. So he's not doing very well. But something else that keeps coming up. What did he say exactly? Something about like no other attorney ever. Any lawyer who has looked at it says it's a crazy case, something like that. That's a thing that keeps coming up, you know, that this has been going on all the time and

nobody ever gets prosecuted for it. I don't know why that's an argument. I don't know why that's a credible argument and we're seeing it happen in the trial where he was accused of inflating his property values, right? Which is a different case altogether. And a lot of the commentators, the pro-Trump commentators are talking about it and they're saying, you know, it was a victimless crime. Crime, it's still a crime. Even if there's no victim, it's still a crime, right? And then whenever they bring up the fact that, you know, it's still a crime, it's still on the the books and say, yeah, but everybody does it and they're never prosecuted for it. Again, it's still a crime, it's still illegal.

So even if, you know, some people haven't been caught for it, it's still bad and it still should not be happening. So that's how I feel about that. Yeah, and it's particularly erotic in this case is because as you point out, Michael Cohen was prosecuted for this. It feels like there were some lawyers who thought it was a crime because they sent him to jail. And in terms of like, you know, even in the cases where we haven't seen anything like this, Like, you know, the New York fraud judgment, there have been judgments against major corporations before.

But, you know, George is pretty novel. Obviously January 6th was pretty novel. That's still not a defense, you know? Just because you're particularly creative in the way that you break the law doesn't mean that it's suddenly cool. I don't think that's how the justice system is supposed to work anyway. But with that, we are unfortunately out of time. Yaz, I hear you host a show. Where can people listen to it?

Yeah, so I have a podcast called Modern Context. You can listen to it wherever you get podcasts or you can watch it on YouTube. Right now I'm working on part two of my Ireland story and it's like surprisingly interesting. Maybe not surprising, but it's very interesting. Part one is out right now and you should listen to it also. You can check out all my videos on Rebel HQ on the Rebel HQ YouTube channel. I do videos there four days a week. So don't miss it. Awesome. And Helen?

I also host a podcast that's got nothing to do with news or current events. So if you need a little bit of a break and with some trivia, you can find my podcast on all podcast platforms. It's called Go Fact Yourself. Be careful when you Google it. Do you see what I did? Yeah. I love trivia. I'm going to listen to you.

Yes, please do. Go fact to yourself. You can go back to yourself, yes. And I mean that with love. I will. Thank you, Helen. Awesome. Well, thank you to both of you for most of what happened in this hour.

But anyway, we do have a second hour coming up and a bonus episode. Newel is gonna be here, Brett Erl, Mark Thompson, all in studio, you're not gonna wanna miss it. We'll see you after this.