The Young Turks - Freedom Dreams

Episode Date: December 9, 2022

WNBA star Britney Griner has been released from a Russian penal colony in a prisoner swap between the United States and Russia. An entitled right-wing host is ticked that Britney Griner was released. A hot mic moment exposes a Fox News guest on his REAL opinions of the show. Host: Ana Kasparian, Cenk Uygur Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You're listening to The Young Turks, the online news show. Make sure to follow and rate our show with not one, not two, not three, not four, but five stars. You're awesome. Thank you. Woo! It's up! Thank you. Well, young Turks, Jake Huber, Anna Conspirate with you guys. I'm planning on having an excellent show.

I don't know what you guys are planning, but that's why I'm planning. You know, a few minutes prior to going live, I really asked myself that question. What kind of show do you want to have? I think I want to have an okay show. Okay, we're going to go anywhere from okay to excellent. Yeah. So buckle up and see what we wind up getting. All right, so let's take it away.

We begin with a prisoner swap. I spoke with Brittany Griner. She's safe. She's on a plane. She's on her way home. After months of being unjustly detained in Russia, held under untolerable circumstances, Brittany will soon be back in the arms of her loved ones, and she should have been there all along.

Today began with some surprisingly great news. Brittany Griner, the WNBA star who had been held in custody in Russia over having a small amount of cannabis oil in her bag, has been released thanks to a prisoner swap. Now, the prisoner swap is controversial in the eyes of right wingers. We'll talk about that a little later in the show. But for now, let's focus on what actually occurred here. Griner was released in exchange for a man by the name of Victor Boot, who is a Russian arms dealer. And there was a lot of effort to get him extradited from Thailand to the United States to prosecute him. But Russia demanded Boot to be the person that they exchange for Britney Greiner. And after the negotiations finally

ended, the United States agreed to that deal. Now, the prisoner swap occurred in Abu Dhabi Thursday, according to senior Biden administration officials, a joint statement from the UAE and Saudi Arabia said the Gulf countries played a role in mediating the exchange between the United States and Russia, asked when Greiner would be coming home following his remarks. Biden indicated it would be in the next 24 hours. Now, for those who haven't been following this story too closely and you're curious how this all kind of came about, Griner, who for years had played in the offseason, for a Russian women's basketball team had been detained since February when she was arrested

on drug smuggling charges at an airport in Moscow. Now, despite her testimony that she had inadvertently packed the cannabis oil that was found in her luggage, she was sentenced to nine years in prison in early August and was moved to a penal colony in Mordovia Republic in mid-November after losing her appeal. And the individual that she was exchanged for, Victor Boot is known as the merchant of death because of the fact that he was an arms dealer to all sorts of unsavory individuals,

including DEA agents who were posing as Colombian terrorists, and they were trying to see if Victor Boot would sell weapons to them. And sure enough, he did. He was eventually convicted and sentenced to 25 years in prison. here in the United States. Yeah, if you're going to sell weapons of Latin American countries, you really got to do that through the CIA. We can't have you coming in here freelancing.

Exactly. Like for the United States to be like the arbiters of like who gets the weapons, who doesn't get the weapons? I mean, we sell weapons to Saudi Arabia so they can rain terror on people in Yemen. Like we don't really have a lot of room to talk. Yeah, yeah. So basically that was, they were taking out the competition. Now, having said that, he's a terrible guy.

He always plotted the deaths of Americans. And so I've got a very complicated opinion on this. Number one, I hate the deal. Interesting. Number one, I think you're nuts if you go to, I'm sorry, number two, if you go to Russia, you're nuts. We'll talk about that in a second. I agree with Rand Paul. Number three is I'm not going to criticize Biden for it. Wait, how does that make sense? I hate the deal, but I'm not going to criticize it for it. So what you're seeing here, guys, and because first of all, we're the fairest show in America, as you all know. But what you're seeing with the rest of the media and rest of politicians, et cetera, is people who were like, oh, you have to free Britney Griner, you have to free it, Biden sucks for not free Britney Griner.

Yep. I've now turned on a dime in a second as we knew they would. I can't believe he freed Britney Griner. Why didn't he get Paul Wheelan? Oh, why didn't he let the merchant of death go? This is outrageous. So I'm not interested in your BS critique just for it to score political browning points, right? which is 99.9% of what you're seeing in media today.

There was no winning for Biden in this case, right? Yeah. And we're going to get to Paul Whalen in just a moment, because I think that's an important part of the story as well. But there was no winning. And I agree with you in terms of the deal, because we're not talking about criminals of the same caliber. I don't think that Brittany Griner is a criminal at all.

And certainly not a drug smuggler. That is an insane charge. No, I think it goes even beyond that. That's, of course, true. But look, they basically kidnapped Griner. It was a week before their invasion, they knew that they needed, you know, some leverage. And they basically kidnapped her as part of a negotiation strategy. So she had less than a gram of cannabis oil that people use for massages and stuff.

Did she inadvertently pack that? Probably, I mean, we're going to get high off of less of a gram of cannabis oil, right? And by the way, we'll get to this later in the show, but right wingers are like, oh, yeah, she went there's a drug deal. I mean, you're insane. Shut up, right? So it is interesting to see which Americans they value and which Americans they do not value because it seems to me, based on their commentary, that they don't believe that she

deserved to be released at all. It's insane. Of course, guys, unspoken in that is when they see Brittany Griner, they see someone who's black and LGBTQ and they have their minds made up about her before anything else even happens. But I do agree with Rand Paul, who's a Republican. They so note this for the record, maybe the only time. It's been probably one or two about war too. But where he's like, why would anybody go to Russia?

Right? Look, right now, if you're an American and I don't know if there's this folks who like to do the adventure ones, oh, we like to go to North Korea and get kidnapped. And then we got to take a lot of time and money and resources and energy to get you unkidnapped, et cetera, by the North Korean government. I'm not interested. Don't go to Russia. If you're an American, if you go to Russia, prepare to be kidnapped.

Because if they can make up, they gave her a nine years in a penal colony, okay? You think they can't find something in your Advil or your aspirin or something and make up charges against you? They're just looking for leverage. And by the way, that's okay, that's Americans. But if you're German or you're French or you're from a different country, you think they're not going to make up charges about you? No, at this point, Russia's a tyrannical government and you'd be nuts to go there. And to be fair to Brittany Reiner, she had nothing new with that. She went before the war started.

She had no idea. She was just doing her job. And look, part of the reason why she goes is because the amount of money that WNBA players make isn't enough, right? So that's why she would go play with the Russian team. As I don't want to call it a side hustle, but you get what I'm saying, right? It's another opportunity to make income because WNBA players are not the same as NBA players. We all know that. Yeah.

And so, look, I wouldn't go to the Gulf countries either. I wouldn't, I'd barely go to any country that has a dictator because at any moment, they can kidnap you. And there's not a thing you could do about it. All right. So, but back to why I don't like the deal. Look, number one, you're rewarding them for taking a hostage, basically. And that then incentivizes both Russia and other countries to take random American terrorists as hostages and go, oh, there are. I found just three microscopes of oil involving something else or other, right?

And I mean, this is as trumped a charge as you could possibly find. So I don't know how that you can get any lower than this. Oh, an American was jaywalking. That is a very serious crime in Russia, right? So don't, but now we've done it. We've incentivized the kidnapping of American terrorists. And so, and the reason I'm not criticizing Biden for it is because there was a world of pressure on him. And as everybody was screaming, release her, it's your fault for not releasing her.

I'm like, no, it's not his fault for not getting her released. It's a Russia's fault for kidnapping her in the first place. So it's not fair to criticize them on both ends, right? But would I have done it differently? I think, you know, of course you don't know, right? But what I would have asked for, I know that they were asked for it initially. But there's different levers that you could use. As Paul Whalen and Griner, obviously they asked for that.

But then you could insist, and Biden is a, we're being honest, is a lifelong terrible negotiator. I mean, we've seen him negotiate with Mitch McConnell. He gets his ass handed to him every time. That's just reality, okay? So if he negotiated in the same way and it looks like he did, it's not surprising that we got a pretty bad deal. So the way that you could have done that is, hey, I want those two. And if you don't give me those two in exchange for the merchant of death, then we're going to do an all-out blitz against tourism and Russia. and we're going to try to absolutely pulverize your tourism industry.

Oh, I like that. I like that a lot. Yeah, and I'm going to cost you billions of dollars. That's a really interesting bargaining trip. Bargaining chip. Okay, so I want to get to Paul Whalen because that's another part of the story that is relevant. Now, Paul Whalen is another American citizen who has been convicted on espionage charges in Russia.

He denies espionage. Russia believes that he's some sort of American spy. I have yet to see any evidence proving that's the case. So it seems like they're using him as a hostage as well. And he's already been imprisoned in Russia for four years. But Russia is unwilling to give him up. And President Biden talks about that in the next clip. So let's take a quick look.

We've not forgotten about Paul Whelan, who's been unjustly detained in Russia for years. This was not a choice of which American to bring home. We brought home Trevor Reed when we had a chance earlier this year. Sadly, for totally illegitimate reasons, Russia is treating Paul's case differently than Brittany's. And while we have not yet succeeded in securing Paul's release, we are not giving up. We will never give up. We're remaining close touch with Paul's family, the Will & Family. And my thoughts and prayers are with them today.

They have to have such mixed emotions today. And we'll keep negotiating in good faith for Paul's release. I guarantee that. So the State Department has declared that Whelan was wrongfully detained. He was unfortunately convicted of espionage and is serving a 16 year prison sentence. And as I mentioned earlier, he's already been in prison for four years. Waylon, former Marine, who is a U.S., Irish, British, and Canadian citizen, was detained at a Moscow hotel in December of 2018 by Russian authorities who alleged he was

involved in an intelligence operation, he was convicted and sentenced in June of 2020 to 16 years in prison in a trial U.S. officials denounced as unfair. And, you know, while Paul Whelan's family is certainly happy and they're celebrating the fact that Brittany Griner was released, they're hoping that there is hope for their brother. In this next video, Paul Whelan's brother, David kind of talks about, you know, how disappointed they are when it comes to their family member. But I don't want to put words in his mouth. Let's take a look. He was very disappointed that he was left behind, though he was very happy that Britney Griner got out today.

They've always considered me to be at a higher level than other criminals of my sort. And for whatever reason, I'm treated differently than another individual here from a Western country that's also on a charge of espionage. So even though we're both here for espionage, I'm treated much differently than he is. And my treatment is also much different than others held for espionage and other presidents. I would say that if a message could go to President Biden, that, you know, this is a precarious situation that needs to be resolved quickly. And I would hope that he and his administration would do everything they could to get me home, regardless of the price they might have to pay at this point. So that was actually Paul Weiland himself. Wailen himself. Apologies. We do have a video of his brother as well. We'll get said in a moment.

But, Jank, any comments on what Paul said there? Yeah, look, so when our guys get taken and charged with being spies, to be honest with you, I have no idea if it's true or not. Because I know that less than a gram of cannabis oil is nothing and is a pretext to just basically kidnap her. Do I know who are spies in Russia are? No, I have no idea, right? So Whalen is being very aggressive in saying that he's not anywhere near a spy.

Usually spies are a little bit more reserved than that when they get caught, right? And it usually doesn't become a public spectacle like this one has, but it's impossible to tell. So I'm just being fair and saying, I don't know the evidence. And by the way, they've never presented the evidence. Exactly. So that's, and if you don't present the evidence, you probably don't have it, especially if you're running a tyrannical government like Putin is. And then finally, here is Paul Wayland's brother, David,

who expresses happiness and support for Greiner and her family, but is worried that maybe the Biden administration gave up one of the bargaining chips here. So let's take a look. Anytime an American comes home is wonderful news. I'm so glad for Brittany and for Sherell, it's a wonderful day. Someone from the White House let us know, which was very kind. It's hard to process this in real time, which is what we had to do last April, when Paul was left behind before, and Trevor Reed came home.

And it's a great day for the families of the wrongfully detained, and we feel wonderful for them. But we do worry about what's in Paul's future. I think it's become clear that the U.S. doesn't have any concessions that the Russian government wants for Paul. And so I'm not really sure. I'm not really sure what the future holds. The Kremlin is particularly focused on parity, on getting equal things. And so if they have labeled Paul as a spy, it may be that they're waiting until the U.S. government captures a spy and can and offer that as a trade. I mean, I don't think that Russia has shown that they care about parity.

I mean, think about who they held hostage here, Brittany Griner, for less than an ounce of cannabis oil versus someone who is internationally known as the merchant of death. I mean, that's crazy. Yeah, absolutely. Look, my heart goes out to the way of the family. They're right. First of all, they're a class act for congratulating Biden and Brittany Griner's family, et cetera, on their return. But since Whalen is not part of the deal, that means he is screwed. And he's going to probably stay there indefinitely.

And he's in a labor camp too. And it's just awful, awful what the Russian government is doing to these folks. But I do want to point out something that one of our members pointed out on Twitch, Surfer Tim 850. They said, hey, Joe, why don't you take cannabis off a Schedule 1? So as we are all piling on to Russia about, oh my God, can you believe they arrested her for nine years off this tiny little thing? Biden, who promised to take cannabis off of Schedule 1 here in America, still runs the government tyrannical enough that we arrest people for the same crime. Yeah, I mean, I hear what you're saying. And he definitely should take it off the Schedule 1 drugs.

But he did make some positive moves in expunging records of people who were prosecuted for marijuana possession. And, you know, he doesn't want to prosecute people who get caught with marijuana. So some positive moves in that direction. I want to be fair. But I agree with that comment overall when it comes to the scheduling of marijuana. And finally, a lot of our members are writing in saying, man, if I was here, I'd never smoke again. I disagree. I would do the exact opposite.

As soon as I got to America, I'd do a press conference and light a big blunt and go, On camera. On camera and say, take this Putin. And so, and I would say all the most vicious things about Putin and the current Russian government, if I was her, I'd go on a campaign to do that. We have no doubt that you would, Jenks. Yes. And I would try to single-handedly destroy Russian tourism and cost them billions of dollars,

all coming probably from Russian oligarchs for the kind of government that they run. When we come back from the break, we'll talk about the right-wing reaction. to the prisoner exchange. Later on in the show, we'll also provide you a video of a Republican Congresswoman literally crying on the House floor over rights for gay people in this country. That and more coming right up. All right, back on TYTJ and Anna with you guys. We got news.

We have some reaction from right-wingers on the prisoner exchange that freed Brittany Greiner. Brittany Greiner released, but she was traded for the merchant of death, Victor Boot, the guy who they did the film Lord of War, where he sold like 30,000 AKs to guerrilla drug dealers who were killing DEA agents. So we traded him for her and, you know, this guy was responsible for countless deaths of Americans. Wow. Yeah. Why do I have a feeling if President Trump were in office, it would have been handled so much better? Because you're stupid. That's why you have that feeling.

Now, of course, Whalen could have been negotiated for release by Donald Trump because he was imprisoned under Donald Trump's watch. and he did nothing about it. So let's move off the Donald Trump talking point for a moment, and hear what else Kerry Lake has to say. It's a bad trade. I think most Americans, like I said, most Americans are happy that Britney Griner is home, obviously, and just think that, hey, you know what, that's a bad trade. And we made a trade from a position of weakness, not of strength.

So I think that's how most people are going on. If I were, you know, being held in a, you know, the conditions looked horrible, by the way. I mean, she's so big and tall, and literally they look like to keep the prisoners in a cage. Yeah. And so the conditions were obviously horrible. But if you told me we're going to release you for this guy, I would maybe say, you know what? Let me stay a little bit longer. Keep working on that negotiation. Let's see if we can find something a little bit more level. Does anyone really believe that? Does anyone really think that if Carrie Lake were a prisoner in Russia, And there were an opportunity for her to be released in exchange for the merchant of death. She'd be like, you know what? No, I'm good.

In fact, I will remain in prison until you can get a better deal. Does anyone believe that? Yeah, zero percent of people. Instead, she'd be like, oh my God, I'm a political prisoner because of mine. He won't have to be released. He should trade the entire country for me. Okay, come on. These things are all entitled little pricks, these Republicans, and they're so selfish, so obsessed with themselves.

don't ever realize that there's a problem until it happens to them. I mean, look at what she just said. It looks like we're keeping her in a cage. Yeah, that's kind of how prisons work. Like, you don't, like, she's like, I don't know, I've never been in prison. So I don't, what is a prison like? They have no empathy for any other human being ever. And let's keep it real, guys.

A lot of our members have been writing this in it already. But like, she's, and I read it to you guys during the break. She's black, she's gay, she's strong. She's everything that the Republicans hate. So they're like, oh my God, that's all we got. There was a white male in prison in Russia. We could have gotten instead. So that's a part of it.

I think it's actually a relatively small part of it, but it is a part of it because they have no empathy for her. Well, I mean, I think it's baked into, the judgment is baked into what Carrie Lake was saying there. Because she's essentially judging Brittany Griner for, I don't know, I guess allowing herself to be released through this prisoner exchange agreement, right? Like, because that's what Carrie Lake is saying.

If it were me, you know, I would want what's best for the globe, for the world. And I would not want the merchants of death to be released. So I would stay in a penal colony in Russia to get a better deal. No, I don't believe it for a second. I don't think anyone actually believes the first. Well, the voters of Arizona said that they prefer the other candidate and voted her in. And you said, I don't care what's good for Arizona. I care what's good for me.

100%. Okay, I don't like that I lost the election, so I'm going to pretend it's illegitimate and cry about it for weeks and weeks. Please spare me. I don't know any Republican that isn't massively selfish. I mean, there's a lot of ones that are like in different camps. Oh, we hate gay people, we're racist, we're this, they were that. But one thing that binds almost all Republicans together is greed.

Now, that wasn't the only reaction that you might have come across today. There was also a segment on real. America's voice featuring a woman named Karen Turk. Okay? Not part of the young Turks. She definitely not. And she is not a fan of Griner. In fact, calls her names, seems to think that she didn't deserve to be released.

Let's hear what she had to say. I want to add in Tennessee Cowgirl who's saying they need to release all the J-Sixers. How about people who maybe, you know, did something really small? And they've been in that D.C. gulag for over a year in some cases. And so think about the priorities of this administration, how far they're off. But you brought us. So it's really sad. Like you think about all of these people, these Americans that are sitting in jail in a gulag.

And we release this, you know, entitled, spoiled brat. So she believes, they believe, everyone on that panel believes that Brittany Griner should still be imprisoned in Russia over less than a gram of cannabis oil. But January 6th rioters who broke into the Capitol building, who beat up Capitol police officers and metropolitan, metro police officers, they're the innocent ones. And they're in a gulag and should be released immediately. You know what we should have done, Anna? I got the perfect solution for them. We should have included them in the prisoner swap. You get the merchant of Venice. plus all the J6 sedition rioters, okay?

Congratulations, you get all of our, the guys who committed treason, I guess, America. Russia would love that. And by the way, the guys who hated America so much, they attacked our capital, they would probably love that. They get to go back to their homeland. Go to Russia, go to get, leave the country. They literally attacked our capital. Some of them were literally convicted of treason, okay?

Okay, so they hate America. So why don't you leave? That's what the right one always says. Let's also just address the spoiled entitled brat comment because Brittany Griner would go play basketball in Russia because the pay for the WNBA is so abysmal here. In fact, 90 out of 144 WNBA players end up going to Russia during their off season so they can earn enough money to live. But she's an entitled brat, right? She's entitled for being a person who has to live under system where she has to literally go to a foreign country to make enough money.

Yeah. During the off season. Yeah. And so, by the way, let's also note Ed Henry for a second. Do you guys know that? Do we have to? Yeah, Ed Henry used to be the head of the White House correspondence. So in D.C., they were like, Ed Henry, such an objective, wonderful journalist they used to all

say, all of them, okay? And he worked on multiple cable news networks. And now look at him. He's on newsbecks going, oh, those poor capital rioters, I can't believe they're being persecuted for attacking America, that's all. He was never objective. He was conservative as a lot of reporters in DC are. And the minute he gets paid to reveal who he actually is, all of a sudden that's Ed Henry

right there. And to Carrie Lake, as Anna pointed out, Donald Trump could have gotten Whalen released. Whalen was captured in 2018. So, and your big daddy day, who you vacuumed the carpet for did nothing bupkis to get him released. So why aren't you saying that? Because daddy can do no wrong. Oh, yeah. So wait, under your logic, wasn't Donald Trump a miserable, miserable failure for those two years as he couldn't get Whelan released?

And of course, Trump being the biggest racist in the Republican Party, as one of our members on YouTube, Bean pointed out, Trump said she was, quote, loaded up with drugs, okay? That's what he said about, instead of trying to, instead of say, hey, how can I help? Because former presidents have gotten people released before and vice presidents as well. Clinton has, Gore has, Carter has, right? Meanwhile, Trump's sitting in Mar-a-Lago going, oh, yeah, she's loaded up with drugs. Screw her, go Russia. Way to kidnap her, Russia!

Of course, because Trump also loves Russia more than America. We should have sent him in the prison exchange, too. All right, well, let's switch gears and talk a little bit about domestic policy. Oh, sorry. I'm so sorry. I've got to call back to that story for one last comment. Okay, hold. Okay, you guys ready for the, you guys ready for the last bit of irony here? Karen Turk, who was complaining about how what a criminal griner is in 2020 served a month in prison for being convicted of stealing her dying mother's social security checks. my God. Okay, that and she talked about how Reiner was entitled, a young entitled, but you were, you were entitled to your mom's social security checks after she passed away.

When aren't they projecting? 100%. When aren't they projecting? They're always projecting. That is incredible. Wow. And listen, honestly, right wingers that especially ones that moralize, I've never met people as a group that are more immoral and more crooked and more criminal than right wingers judging others. So here she is without a hint of irony or anything or morals or decency. As she knows she's a crook, a thief that by the way, stole from you guys. She stole from the American government. Now she's criticizing the American government for getting out someone who was innocent. An American,

yeah. That's right. That's who the right wing is. All right, it was worth it to go back for that All right, but we are switching gears now to talk a little bit about domestic policy. was trying to persuade her colleagues in the House to vote against codifying some protections for same-sex couples in this country. So without giving away too much, let's watch the first part of her speech. Mr. Speaker, I'll tell you my priority. Protect religious liberty, protect people of faith, and protect Americans who believe in the true meaning of marriage. I hope and pray that my colleagues will find the courage to join me in opposing this misguided and this dangerous bill. I yield back.

No one's going to force you to marry a woman. You know that, right? That's probably what she's complaining about. That's what she's worried about. She's like, why doesn't somebody make me do it? Okay, so I think that these guys are all closeted, not just homophobes, but it closeted in a lot of different ways. Anyways, but what I love there was like, I can't believe my colleagues won't join me in hating gay people as much as I do.

Can't we just hate together? Why are you breaking up the hate circle that we had? You people are sick, man. So you're saying, get a lot of these Republicans, they're saying two consenting adults who love each other should be prohibited by the government from getting together and living together and marrying one another. because we hate them so much. And we believe in freedom? You believe in free? You don't believe in, look, if you're a Republican who's against the same-sex marriage act

and against same-sex marriage overall, you are never allowed to talk about freedom again. That includes Ben Shapiro and is totally lying hypocritical ass about, oh, yeah, gay people. They shouldn't be allowed to marry. I'm for freedom. I mean, I'm for freedom for me, not for you guys, of course. That's how right-wingers are. She's literally crying because people won't hate as much as she does. And, you know, as we have learned when you're married, there are certain rights and protections that you do have.

There are certain tax benefits you get to enjoy, right? They treat marriage as if it is literally just a religious thing, and that's all it is. It's a religious thing. No, marriage, especially in a place like America, is not about religion, right? If you want to make it about religion, it's about taxes. It's about being able to make a decision about your partner's health, health if he or she is in the hospital and maybe unconscious from an accident or some ailment. I mean, there are, again, incredibly important rights and protections that come along with being married, legally married. And this woman wants to deny those rights to same-sex couples because why?

Like, I just need to understand what a rationale is. And look, maybe I'm being unfair to her. Maybe she provides good reasoning in the next clip. So let's take a look at that and then we'll discuss. I rise to adamantly oppose H.R. 8404, the disrespect for marriage act. This unnecessary misguided legislation not only disrespects the importance of traditional marriage for the health of a family, but also disrespects people and organizations of faith who have the constitutional right to carry out their mission in accordance with their most

deeply held beliefs. Orbergefeld is not in danger, but people and institutions of faith are. This hollow amendment provides no tangible protections for religious schools, no protections for faith-based adoption and foster care agencies, no protections for Christian businesses who contract with the government, and no protections for civil servants that justly believe marriage is just between a man and a woman. The bill's implications, submit to our ideology or be silenced. This is yet another step toward the Democrat's goal of dismantling the traditional family, silencing voices of faith, and permanently undoing our country's God-woven foundation. I mean, the delicate nature of religious people like her in this country, right? Disrespects

people of faith? What? I mean, why is it so easy to disrespect people of faith? Like just the mere existence of same sex couples makes you feel disrespected? I mean, what a special little snowflake. Oh my God. I mean, do you need a blanket and a binky? Are you going to be okay? I mean, the idea that people joining together in a union, a legal union because they love one another, the idea that that would make me feel disrespected. No, no, no, there isn't a problem with that union. There's a problem with the person who feels disrespected by that. Okay, look at your life, look at your choices. is go to therapy, talk to a therapist about it. Because seeing other people in love joining together in a legal marriage doesn't make me feel

disrespected. Yeah, so there's so many ironies here. First of all, they're identical to Muslim fundamentalists that say you shouldn't draw the Prophet Muhammad, okay? No, you should draw the Prophet Muhammad because you're in that religion, but I'm not, right? So they say you shouldn't get married to someone in the same gender as you. No, you shouldn't because you believe in that religion. I don't believe in that religion and you want to take away my freedom as an American.

That's absurd. And they're like, yeah, but you don't understand. I hate you. No, I do understand. I do understand. And he said, oh, no, no, it's not hate. I just think what you're doing is evil and immoral and should be banned. Okay, no, that you're saying we should separate out these people.

We should ostracize them. We should give them laws that are different than other people and punish them because they are immoral. they engage in immoral acts. If that's not hatred, what is? She also said the line, which was fascinating. They want us to submit to their ideology. Exactly what I was going to say to. What do you think you're doing?

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There's gay couples everywhere, it takes us a big state. So in my marriage and in all my relationships, I have never thought of that gay couple. And that gay couple has never interfered with any of my relationships, has never crossed my mind at all. Do you feel disrespected by their mere existence, Chang? And not only do I not feel disrespected, I cannot conceive of a way that it affects my life and my, the institution of marriage, or anything related to me and my relationship, right? So I don't need, by the way, there's also a straight couple in Texas who fervently believes that you should not get married to gay people, and they haven't. There's a straight couple, they got married to each other, okay?

I don't care about them either. They also have never affected me. So I would never ask them to submit to my ideology. What would I ask them to do? No, you must marry someone gay? That's crazy. Of course I'm not going to do that, right? I don't care what their ideologies and they don't have to care what my ideologies.

But she says, Vicki Hartler and almost every Republican says, no, they need to submit to my ideology. ideology and not get married? So look, I mean, what if a group of people decide we want to establish a new religion? Okay, these are our sincerely held religious beliefs. And we sincerely believe that the institution of marriage overall is demonic and satanic and evil. So should there be an effort to prevent same sex, I'm sorry, heterosexual couples from marrying? Well, so they're deeply held beliefs. Right?

Because who gets to be the arbiter of which religion is relevant in this particular case, in this particular issue? Because here, there's different religions, and we live in a country where the government shall not establish a religion, okay? So using a religious argument in regard to policy matters makes no sense. You just don't like same-sex marriage, you don't like same-sex couples, it creeps you out, allegedly, although I think there might be something else going on, but I can only speculate on that. Just move on. I can't believe she cried on the house floor about this.

All the stuff that happens in this country, all the children that get shot up in schools in this country, I've never seen her shed a tear on the house floor on those issues. Ever, ever. What made her shed a tear on the house floor like an absolute lunatic is the idea that people might love each other enough to want to get married when they're gay and she wants to prevent it. That's what makes her cry. Amazing. other example you know that there are cultures in the world that think that it's actually very immoral to bring a baby into the world if they have health challenges okay now a lot of people would describe I disagree with that okay but

it is their deeply held beliefs they think it's really immoral what you're gonna take someone who's got Down syndrome and actually have a birth no you should abort that baby now I find that abhorrent but they do genuinely believe that so according to her ideology she should be able to force everyone into an abortion if they have a kid with Down syndrome she says what that's their They're deeply held beliefs that you should have an abortion. So I'm going to make you have one. Well, that's insane, right?

But they then turn around and go, I'm going to prevent you from having an abortion because of my deeply held beliefs, perfectly rational. I'm going to prevent you from getting married if you're gay and love each other, even though we're supposed to live in an equal country filled with justice and that does not discriminate against enemy and does not establish your religion. She says, I don't care. She's announcing, I am the Taliban. I love what Al-Qaeda is doing.

I just want it done here and under my religion. So be honest about who you are, Republicans. And guys, it has, as we mentioned earlier, marriage has tax benefits. They're literally saying we will punish you financially and legally for being gay. That is insane. That is deeply un-American. And those bastards, if they don't love this country, they should get the hell out. Well, even though it's a lame duck session, the Democrats still, of course, have control of the House.

And since the Senate had already passed this bill, the House has passed the bill as well. And it will be making its way to Biden's desk. And, you know, poor, poor Congresswoman crying on the House floor, it just wasn't enough to defeat this legislation. I want to know one other thing, though. The legislation itself is not the victory that I would have liked to see. Because there are still some pretty significant restrictions on gay marriage should the Supreme Court decide to reverse Obergafel. So for instance, if some states, red states in particular decide we don't want to conduct same-sex marriages, they still have that right. But if a couple got married in a different state where same-sex marriage is legal, the red states have to honor that marriage.

They have to recognize it. Yeah, I'm so glad you mentioned that. There's the irony here that the Republicans actually already got a poison pill into that bill. And it's not, so that bill is not nearly as good as people think it is because the Republicans already kind of decimated it ahead of time. She just wants more and more and more. She doesn't want gay people to have any rights. And TYT reports, one of the leading people who broke the story on that, we'll put the link

to the article that our reporting team wrote about that in the description box. You should always check the description box. We've got great links there that are supplementals to the story. All right, when we come back, probably my favorite story of the day, hot mic moment over at Barstool Sports where they disclose how they really feel about Fox News. Come right back. Someone sent this to me. Thank you for doing so, because apparently Donald Trump shot down Russian attempts to trade Paul Whalen for the merchant of death.

So we could have had him. We could have had Whelan back. It's amazing. And by the way, you know who's reporting this? The New York Post, which is pretty right wing and would, you know, provide cover for Trump, but not in this case. Yeah, and so they were saying to Biden, oh, why didn't you get whaling? It turns out Trump just turned down getting whaling. Jesus.

Okay, all right, and by the, here I'll read a comment too. Joe in our member section on YouTube said there's no hate like Christian love. That's a powerful statement too. I mean, it's Christian fundamentalist to be. Yeah, let's be fair, because I think that there are wonderful Christians out there who are not hateful. But unfortunately, we don't get to hear from them the way we hear from these hateful, like, Republican politicians. For sure. Yeah.

And Tocote just became a member, and we appreciated. And Progressive, Connock, is the biggest Canadian hero I know by a landslide. Just gifted five Young Turks memberships to folks on YouTube. Go grab that while you can. How do you grab that? I don't know. All right. Anna.

All right. Let's get to our next story. I have a full-time job being offered to me in Fox News. No, but look, I got home. I talked to my wife about it because I was disappointed in myself. Nah. And she was like, let's be honest. Like, do you want to be working with these people?

You just heard from a gentleman named Francis Ellis from barstool sports. And he apparently, as of late, has been appearing more and more on Fox News, specifically Jesse Waters' show. But in a hot mic moment, he disclosed what he really thinks about working at Fox News, what he thinks about the network. And I enjoyed it. I also enjoyed the fact that the editors were supposed to edit this out of the final product and they just forgot to. But Mediite was able to grab it before they deleted the video. So let's go to the first clip where he talks about how he was asked to work full time for Fox and how he felt about it. They have asked me to do man on the street for them.

And I had to say no. They wanted me to take like this subway bingo card down into the subway and be like ask random strangers. have you seen a rat fill out your bingo card thing? It was like so stupid. She let you read it. I know.

But what if they offered you not just a segment but what if they're like, Francis, we want you to do the 8 o'clock to 9 o'clock hour? Well, yeah. I mean, then that would be I'd have to have a conversation with Dave for sure.

Like, hey, I have a full-time job being offered to me in Fox News. No, but look, I got home, I talked to my wife about it Because I was disappointed in myself. And then she was like, let's be honest. Like, do you want to be working with these people? She was like, I watched the rest of his show and like the stuff that he did.

He's a joke. You know, I'm a big fan of his wife. Don't know who she is, never met her. But 1010 would recommend great wife. Yeah. So look, guys, this story is interesting not because you've got Barstool Sports versus Fox News. That's a little bit interesting. Barstool, look, I'm gonna be unfair because I do not watch or listen to most of their hosts,

but from what I have seen, a lot of their hosts and their founder appears to be pretty right wing, not exclusively right wing, but often supports crazy right wing stuff, right? So it's not surprising that Fox News is then taking some analysts from what appears to be a largely right-wing sports network, right? Yeah, and to be clear, this guy does like comment. stuff, right? So I don't know if he's an analyst. He might be. I haven't really seen any of it. All right, I get it. So, but look, but that's not why it's interesting. It's interesting because it shows you how media works behind the scenes. Okay. So he's like, man, my wife says

they're an effing joke. I know that. But he still goes on because he's got to get that attention, right? And so. Also, let's look, let's just be honest about the media landscape, especially in the United States where there are very few options for folks, right, to have a stable job, to have, you know, gainful employment in the media industry. It is difficult. I mean, the layoffs, the digital media closures and bankruptcies, it's all over the place. So it's, it is slim pickings, which is why it's incredibly difficult to find principled people who will say no to those opportunities. And so this is a complicated case. We're not just bashing the guy, Because if you believe him, he said that he did say no to that segment.

And that's good, that's principled, right? But at the same time when he says, well, would you take an hour long show? He's like, whoa, that's different. You know why it's different? Sean Hannity, for example, has one of the prime time shows on Fox News. You know what his salary is? $40 million a year. Okay.

So that's why when he says, would you like, how about a prime time show? He's like, well, then, you know, selling out your principles and being, awful to other people as you're living, yeah, yeah, maybe I'd consider that, right? He's being honest, I don't fault him for that. And by the way, he's not alone. Don't just pick on that guy. I guarantee you 98% of people in media would have that same exact thought. And now you've seen people switch from MSNBC in the past.

They don't do it as much anymore. From MSNBC and CNN over to Fox News. And all of a sudden overnight, change all of their opinions and analysis. Totally. I mean, I've seen people go from TYT to kissing daily wire ass. I've also seen people working at TYT to kissing boogaloo boy ass. So yeah, it exists. And Tucker Carlson ass and all over Fox News. Definitely. Et cetera. So now let's get to the fun stuff because they start clowning on Tucker Carlson. And that was probably my favorite part of it. Let's watch. and then like Tucker comes on and just screams like what's going on it's so weird

doesn't make sense to me doesn't make sense to you shouldn't that was pretty good and they're just they're just like they're just trafficking and hate they're just trafficking and hate hate. They know it. Yeah. And he still goes on there, though. You see how this works, right? And but even then, it seems like they barely know it. Like his wife watched the rest of Jesse Waters and

figured out that he's an effing joke, right? Like, they're like, oh, Tucker, no, yeah, it looks like he's trafficking. Look, how's- I think it's pretty clear that they know. I think it's clear they know exactly what Fox News is about. It's interesting how we kind of have different perceptions of the audio because my perception was that Ellis is actually really uncomfortable with Fox News, does not like Fox News. And yeah, I look, I totally hear what you're saying. He's going on, but he's going on again in a media landscape where it's incredibly difficult to be a principled person and say no to opportunities. Only crazy people like me do that, right? Where it's like, No, I don't want to be your, you know, I don't want to be your mouthpiece and your tool. Exactly.

Anyway. Yeah, I mean, look, I know one other person who did it and it wasn't for Fox News. It was me for MSNBC. Yeah, it's a good point. And guys, the reason why I've never criticized others for not leaving MSNBC is because where are they going to go, right? And so that every anchor on MSNBC knows, especially because in the old days there used to be radio and now there basically isn't any radio left? Not for anyone on the Democratic side. And they see what happened to Bill O'Reilly on cable news overall. Bill O'Reilly had the number one radio show in all of cable news. And then they thought, oh, he's such a legendary broadcaster. And then when he left Fox News, he's like, all right, I'm going to go into new media,

and I'm going to do this. And he got about negative 17 viewers. And it turns out he wasn't a great broadcaster. He just happened to be on Fox, right? And so, and now he, then he went from making tens of millions of dollars a year to make it nothing. So when they see that happen over and over again, when an MSNBC executive or a Fox News executive says jump, they say, how high, I'll do anything, I'll do anything to keep this job or to get this job. Yeah.

Now, the last clip has to do with the fact that Ellis goes on Fox to make jokes, right? He does like these comedic segments. But he's feeling a little guilty because he feels that some of the jokes that he makes might not be jokes that the audience understands. So let's take a listen to that. But you're in a capacity where you are very clearly like taking comedic route. So it's, I don't know, bro. People are dumb. Dude, last night I think I think last night I went into a place that I shouldn't have gone to.

No, you're too harsh yourself. No, because last night I was like, yes, the Democrats are like eating children beneath pizza shops. Yeah, but that obviously is like that would mean. There are people watching that who don't know that I'm with them. Yeah, what are you going to be? They're like, finally, are you, a young handsome person is saying it. Are you Jesus? What are you going to fix everybody?

Come on, bro. You're there to tell jokes. I'm not here to fix people, but I'm certainly not here to like stoke the flame. Yeah. Divide the country. I'm really curious what you think about that exchange. Yeah. I think he's a good guy.

Yeah, I think so, too. I think he's a good guy struggling with how to get ahead in his career while not morally compromising himself. Maybe he made some mistakes, and I agree with him. He shouldn't have made that joke. I 100% agree with him that the audience does not know at all. The audience thinks it's absolutely literal, okay? And so you have to don't assume that they think like you. They do not.

They genuinely believe in crazy things like Democrats running, you know, a pedophile ring out of a pizza shop basement. So when he jokes about that, they go, aha, we knew it, right? And so, but the fact that he actually has. a conscience already elevates him above most of the people in media. It's so rare, it's so rare. Exactly. So that's what really spoke to me, what really stood out about him. And look, at the end of the day, it's really hard for people to understand it unless they're actually in the media news business, right? There are so few jobs that actually pay you

not only like a decent salary or a decent wage, but think about benefits, right? There are few options. So, I don't know, I don't want to say I don't blame anyone for taking those kinds of jobs. I actually do, right? Like, I think you can find a way, pave your own way. You can make it happen. But I also understand what that landscape looks like and the pressures to survive in this economy, right? So all of those factors play a role in the decisions that people make. Just want to be fair and mention that.

Yeah, and last things here is that, but don't give them too much credit for being honest. Remember, it's a hot mic. He didn't mean to admit any of that on air. Exactly. And he probably would have gone on for another segment. He probably will not be asked to go on another segment after this. Keep it real. So we're being balanced here.

And guys, like just one more last piece of context for you guys. One of the reasons MSNBC wanted to move me from primetime weekends and that's what I said no, is because they said I was criticizing Obama too much. But that's your job as a journalist to be fair and to criticize with facts. whoever is doing the right or wrong, right? And they said, remember who the home team is. And so they view the Democratic Party as the home team. So when you get mad at Fox News,

don't forget that most of the people that work in mainstream media also had to do a Faustian bargain. And in that case, they had to agree to lie on behalf of corporations, the status quo, establishment politicians in both the Republican and Democratic Party. So it's not just the Fox News guys that are morally, compromised. Honestly, it's most immediate. We got to take a break when we come back for the second hour of the show. We'll talk a little bit about the sick behavior of one manager over at

Olive Garden when it came to sick employees and requests for time off. Later, we'll also talk about how CVS is facing a lawsuit for not being completely transparent with some of the money that's being donated by their customers to the Diabetes Association. That and more coming right up. podcast at apple.co slash t yt. I'm your host jank huger and I'll see you soon.