The Young Turks - Friends With Benefits

Episode Date: April 30, 2024

Trump and DeSantis meet privately in Florida. Tensions grow between Trump and Lake in Arizona race for Senate. NBC News investigation reveals Israel strikes on Gaza areas it said were safe. Older Americans like Harris are fueling a sustained boost to the U.S. economy. Benefiting from outsize gains in the stock and housing markets over the past several years, they are accounting for a larger share of consumer spending, the principal driver of economic growth, than ever before." HOST: Ana Kasparian (@anakasparian) 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. Gettysburg, wow. Oh my God. The God! Welcome to TYT. I'm your host, Anna Kasparian, and we have a fantastic show ahead for you today. Yes, we're going to give you some updates on the war in Gaza. That's going to be later in the show. So in the second hour, Wazni Lombray will be joining me to talk about a whole host of stories that I'm excited to share with you, including a guy from Silicon Valley, a billionaire, who's, well, basically calling for what he refers to as ethnic cleansing of Democrats in the city of San Francisco. I mean, obviously, being a Democrat is not an ethnicity, but this is the guy who makes the big bucks. This is the guy who's like living high off the hog.

living his best life, talking about how he wants to purge San Francisco of Democrats. We'll get to that in the second hour with Was. In the first hour, we're gonna touch on some electoral news. We're gonna talk a little bit about Donald Trump, who he is forging relationships with after having conflict, who he is suddenly souring on in the Republican Party, a big candidate who he's now kind of not in favor of. So we'll talk about that in the first hour as well. And later, I'll also give you a little bit of an update on the protests that have been happening all across university campuses in this country. So without further ado, why don't we get to our first story? Let's talk a little bit about Donald Trump making friends with Ron DeSantis

again, maybe. I don't know that Ron DeSantis, it feels like he owes anything to Donald Trump. The problem for Ron DeSantis is if he wants to have any future, he can't continue to be on the wrong side of Trump voters. And he got himself there. towards the end of that campaign. Very true. As anyone paying any attention can tell, Donald Trump is the dominant figure in the Republican Party. He is the favorite of the Republican base. And if Ron DeSantis wants a future in national politics, he would need to forge a new relationship with Donald Trump, even after they had a pretty ugly primary race trading barbs. Of course, Donald Trump was far more

aggressive in trading the insults. But nonetheless, Donald Trump and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis met over the weekend following a pretty contentious Republican primary, where the two feuded pretty viciously. Now Trump and DeSantis had not even spoken to one another since the primaries ended. And so DeSantis has not campaigned for Trump, that's obvious, but he made some backhanded criticisms of Trump after he dropped out of the race. And essentially, endorse Trump. I mean, of course, who else is he going to endorse Trump is the nominee for the Republican Party. Now, in a February call, though, he was speaking with supporters, and DeSantis said this of Donald Trump, quote, I think Trump has got people in his inner circle who were

part of our orbit years ago that we fired. And I think some of that is they just have an axe to grind. So he's arguing that, you know, the reason why Donald Trump came after me so viciously is because his staffers consist of people I used to work with, they seem to, you know, have an axe to grind, and that's really the only issue. But I would venture to say that if you are at all familiar with Donald Trump, he doesn't like anyone challenging him. So DeSantis, for a short period of time, was seen as a formidable opponent to Donald Trump in the Republican primaries, which is the reason why Trump directed his ire toward Ron DeSantis. He then directed his ire toward Nikki Haley, once Nikki Haley was considered a formidable challenger to Trump.

I don't think she ever really was, but that was the thinking that you would see kind of relayed in the mainstream press. Now, the comments angered Donald Trump, which isn't surprising. I mean, it's very easy to get under his skin. At the time, a top aide to Trump called DeSantis a sad little man. But there's more. So in recent weeks, DeSantis had held an event for donors at a resort in Florida, and people close to him said he is potentially interested in running for president again in 2028. Now, Trump wouldn't be an issue in 2028. He couldn't run again unless he loses this election and decides to run again, which I hope isn't the case. But nonetheless, during the Republican primary, Trump told advisors he wanted to hurt DeSantis for

20282, which again, if you're all familiar with Donald Trump, none of that should be shocking or surprising. But that all could change if DeSantis actually begins raising money for Trump's presidential campaign. And as we've shared with you earlier, compared to Joe Biden, the Trump camp has had a lot more difficulty in raising money. They have far less cash on hand. You know, it's funny to put it in that type of framing, considering the fact that we're discussing legalized bribery, right? So it's like, ooh, which one of these candidates is bribed more? But as we also know, having a lot of cash on hand, having more cash on hand than your opponent puts you in a better position to win the election. It's not a guarantee, but it certainly does put you

in a better position. And so Trump could certainly use the help of Ron DeSantis, who was more appealing to more or less the moderate Republican voters, who then, of course, had their sights set on Nikki Haley, but Nikki Haley didn't go anywhere. Now, we don't know how well this meeting went. As I mentioned, it took place over the weekend. We also know who organized this meeting. It's a big real estate developer out of the state of Florida. His name is Steve Whitkoff, and he wanted them to rekindle their relationship. You know, it's a very transactional thought behind this meeting. And Whitkoff himself was at the meeting. So I'm sure both individuals in their own ways, depending on how much political power they have, will do favors for this real

estate developer, but nonetheless, the alliance absolutely would benefit both. Trump, of course, could use DeSantis for fundraising. DeSantis needs to get into the good graces of the MAGA base if he wants a future in national politics. So we're uncertain as to how that meeting went, but I thought this was an interesting story because I think it's a teachable moment or something that we can learn from, right? This is how politics actually works. As a much as I hate to admit it, this is the reality of politics. It is very much transactional. And so if you see opportunities in which you can work alongside someone or a political group where an alliance would be beneficial, you have a mission, you're an agreement on what that

mission is, whether it's a policy mission, whether it's some sort of structural change within our government, you should work with people even if you disagree with them on other issues. Now, DeSantis is a clone of Donald Trump, or at least he attempted to be a clone of Donald Trump. The only reason why they fell out is because Trump was offended that Ron DeSantis would have the audacity to run against him in the primary. But when you look at who they are as politicians, you know, one of them obviously has a lot more charisma. That's Donald Trump. One of them has a lot more discipline, if you want to call it that. That's Ron DeSantis, which is why I think he appealed more with some of the more moderate Republican voters.

But overall, they do seem to go for a certain type of Republican politics that isn't really that different from one another. And so I see them definitely building an alliance and engaging in this transactional relationship because they see it as beneficial for both of them. And I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing. I think this is how politics works. And so when you're guided by political purity and you decide you don't want to work alongside someone that you disagree with on X number of issues, even though there's a main policy goal that you might have, you might share with that individual, well, you're really shooting yourself in the foot and you're going against your own best interest because

building a coalition, building an ally ship in this case to benefit your campaign or benefit whatever policy that you're trying to accomplish, make a lot of sense to me. So we'll see how this all plays out. But one thing that's very clear about Donald Trump specifically is he values transactional relationships more than anything. The second that relationship is no longer beneficial for him, he will throw whoever it is that we're talking about under the bus, whether it be Ron DeSantis, whether it be his own vice president, it doesn't matter. Donald Trump is all business all the time. It's all about how he can benefit from the relationships he forges and so it doesn't surprise me that he took up this meeting.

I am curious to see how that meeting played out though and I'm sure we'll find out in the coming days. because while Trump might be, you know, reengaging with Ron DeSantis and building a new relationship with him, there's a surprising figure who Trump has actually soured on. So let's discuss who that is. Former President Donald Trump thinks Arizona Senate candidate Kerry Lake is a loser. I'm not even kidding. This was a surprising story reported by the Washington Post. They claim that since Lake jumped into this Senate race, Trump has repeatedly expressed skepticism about her political prospects in a state he sees as key to his bid to return to the White House and has shown annoyance with her frequent presence at his Florida resort, Mar-a-Lago. And that's according to

five people who are close to Trump, who spoke, of course, on the condition of anonymity to describe his comments. So one thing that's clear about Trump is he doesn't really take kindly to individuals that he views as losers. And typically he makes that thought process well known, right? So when he was going after John McCain, he viciously attacked John McCain for being a prisoner of war, which was, let's say what you want to say about John McCain. There's a lot of areas in which John McCain should have been criticized. Him being a prisoner of war was not it. But Trump saw that as, oh, John McCain is a loser. His plane got shut down. He became a prisoner of war. And so he kind of treats politicians that way as well, including individuals like

Kerry Lake who lost the gubernatorial race in Arizona. At one point last year, after grumbling for months that Carrie Lake was at his Mar-a-Lago club too often, Trump gently, I don't, I think gently is a very generous word used here, Trump gently suggested that Lake, too Lake, that she should leave the club and hit the campaign trail in Arizona, according to a person with direct knowledge of his comments. I can't believe that she would even need to get that kind of advice from Donald Trump. If you're running for Senate, that doesn't mean that you just need to appeal to a single district in your state. You know, you're running for Congress as a representative. No, no, no, you need to appeal to Republican voters and some independent voters throughout the entire state of Arizona.

What are you doing in Mar-a-Lago? Donald Trump can't steal the election for you. I get that you like to be there. You like to rub shoulders with Trump and his friends, but you're not going to win a Senate candidate if you're spending all this time in Florida. Now, Trump has already decided against Picking Lake as his running mate because she lost the gubernatorial race in Arizona. So if you're wondering whether Kerry Lake is still a contender, it appears that's not the case. And a lot of people also believe that Christy Gnome is also someone who's no longer considered by Donald Trump.

But we'll get to that later in the show. It has a lot to do with the fact that she felt the need to disclose killing a puppy in a book that she wrote. We'll get to that later. But for now, Trump apparently said she didn't win of Carrie Lake. He told one political ally over dinner at Mar-a-Lago earlier this year. And Lake is apparently turning moderates in the state of Arizona off. Keep in mind, Arizona is a swing state. So you do need to appeal to moderates.

In January, Arizona Republicans were privately registering alarm to Trump about Lake's candidacy. During one conversation, the former president asked for an assessment of his standing in the state, according to one person familiar with the conversation. The Republican told him that he was in good shape, but that lake was in trouble. largely because of her attacks on John McCain or McCain Republicans, whom she urged to get the hell out of the CHOP during her first run for office. So when she was running for governor, she has since said that this comment was in just. Was it Carrie? Was it? Like who is Carrie Lake really? That's what I want to know.

What does she stand for? What are her principles? What are her values? I think what muddles her true identity or her political identity, identity is the way she's handled the abortion ban in Arizona. When the highest court in the state, Arizona Supreme Court ruled that a anti-abortion law dating back to the mid-1800s could absolutely be brought back and implemented. At first, she freaked out about it because she knows that it's not a popular policy to support. First, she said that they should repeal it immediately. then she seemed to warm up to the idea of implementing that draconian anti-abortion law. And so she flip-flops and she tends to try to see, you know, where are the politics of the

Republican Party leaning in this moment? And let me just go in that direction because I want to win. But I think voters are smarter than that. I think voters see that kind of flip-flopping. They see the endless, pathetic pandering to Donald Trump without even offering your own brand of politics or your own policy solutions, and I think they get turned off by it. And then when you consider the fact that John McCain was a huge figure in Arizona as a United States senator, attacking him, not a good move. And apparently the stench of that misstep continues to follow her as she runs for Senate in the state of Arizona. Now, the Republican told him that he was in good standing, so Trump's good, apparently, in the state of Arizona. And we have covered some of the polling

coming out of the swing states that shows that Trump is beating Biden in a lot of these swing states. Some of those states, you know, it's within the margin of error. And so we'll see how it plays out for Biden. But let's stick to Carrie Lake and Donald Trump souring on him, on her. So Trump's top advisors were also pretty upset that an ally of Lakes had released an audio recording of then Arizona GOP chair Jeff DeWitt. We actually covered this on the show. She had been secretly recording the meeting that she had with Jeff DeWitt, and then one of her allies released it. And in that recording, you can hear DeWitt encourage her to drop out of the race. Seemed like there was some quid pro quo happening where some shadowy figures would do some

favors for her if she agreed to drop out of the race. Now this deeply embarrassed DeWitt, and it should have, it's pretty greasy, gross politics. And it led to him stepping down from his post. Now the episode also prevented elected Republicans in Arizona from communicating with her because of the obvious fact that they can't trust her. Once you know someone is secretly recording your conversations, you're not going to want to have conversations with them. And so it has caused a rift between Kerry Lake and the Republican Party in the state of Arizona. Trump was more surprised than angry when told about the January incident, according to three people familiar with his reaction. She tapes everything? That's good to know. Then there's her Democratic

Challenger and how he actually managed to get bribed more than she did. But in this case, look, I'd rather have a Democrat elected in the state of Arizona to serve in the United States Senate rather than supporting someone like Carrie Lake. I think Carrie Lake is just a vapid, empty shell of a person who doesn't really stand for anything. She'll pander to anyone she feels she needs to in order to accumulate power for herself. And it appears that even though someone like Trump does the same, he kind of doesn't like it when other politicians do it. Now, her fundraising is not as impressive as the Democratic challenger here, Representative Ruben Gallego. So Lake's fundraising has lagged behind Gallegos.

She had about $2.5 million cash on hand at the end of last quarter compared with nearly $10 million. dollars reported by the Gallego campaign. So we'll see how that Senate race plays out. At first, she got a little bit of a bump in the polling following her ally releasing that recording of the conversation she had with DeWitt. It appears that some of that spike has evaporated since then, and we'll see how it plays out. But the fact that Trump has now soured on Carrie Lake does not bode well for her. And based on what the reporting indicates, her spending so much time at Mara Lago instead of doing the work in Arizona to win the race, you know, it's not going to work out so well for her, I suspect. And she really only has herself to blame. So we'll see how that

plays out. Overall, if you're hoping that she doesn't get elected, this is good news. And I am curious what the commentary from the Trump supporters will be moving forward, because overall, they had been pretty supportive of Lake, but they might sour on her too, considering these updates about how Trump feels about her. All right, we're gonna take a break. When we come back, we'll go to Gaza and talk a little bit about an incredible NBC investigation, looking into the declared safe zones by the IDF and how those very safe zones were then bombarded. So that and more coming up, don't miss it. Welcome back to the show, everyone. I'm your host, Anna Kasparian, and I wanted to do a little bit of coverage on Gaza, namely this investigation that NBC News conducted in regard to the declared safe zones in the enclave. Were they really safe?

You know, many of us had been suspecting that Palestinians were told to flee to certain areas of the Gaza Strip for safety. And then, you know, the accusation was that the IDF was then intentionally bombing those areas. Well, now, unfortunately, we have a confirmation that that was the case in at least seven instances. So let's discuss what this NBC investigation found. The leaflet dropped on December 18th lists in addition to El Zahur, El Shibura, and Tal al-Sultan as safe zones. Our investigation reveals that the IDF targeted those three areas

after it told residents to head there. On January 9th, an airstrike in Tal al-Sultan. The attack hits the home of the Noffal family there, killing 15. A new NBC investigation finds that the Israeli defense forces would conduct airstrikes in areas that Palestinians in the Gaza Strip were specifically told to flee to for safety. They're referred to as safe zones. The only problem is oftentimes they didn't end up being safe at all. Now their investigation specifically looked into seven deadly airstrikes in the southern region of the enclave that had been designated as safe

zones. And I want to give you a few specific examples that were provided. But first, how was this investigation conducted? Well, the crews compiled the GPS coordinates of each strike, all of which hidden area identified by the Israeli military as an evacuation zone in an online interactive map it published on December 1st. The map has not been updated since then. And the Israeli defense forces told NBC News in a statement Sunday that it remained accurate. So understand, this isn't a situation in which the IDF updated the information regarding where the actual safe zones are, and it's that Palestinians didn't see it. It's that the information never changed, even though there were airstrikes in the so-called safe zones. So keep in mind, by the way, they post

this information, this map of the safe zones online. Now imagine being in Gaza, dealing with aerial bombardments, but also with internet blackouts, which they've been dealing with in the Gaza Strip, you're not going to be able to access that map to begin with. So even if the map was something that the IDF stayed true to, if they actually kept their promise of not bombing those so-called safe zones. There is some likelihood that Palestinians wouldn't even see the map or be able to access the map given the fact that they don't have access to the internet oftentimes. The leaflets can be helpful, but I would venture to say they'd be even more helpful if they showed the safe zones that were actually safe. And again, NBC's investigation

indicates that wasn't the case. So even if they evacuated to the areas deemed safe by the IDF, it's likely that they would either get severely injured or even possibly die from airstrike. So as you saw on the earlier video, they gave you a specific example that I want to give you more information about. So on December 18th, the IDF dropped leaflets that identified Rafa's Tal al-Sultan and Al-Zahur neighborhoods, as well as al-Shabura, home to a large refugee camp as safe and told residents to go there. NBC News found that all three locations have been hit by airstrikes since then. Raffa's Tal-Al-Salton neighborhood, which was designated safe in leaflets dropped by the IDF on December 18th, was targeted less than a month later on January 9th. Relatives said that 15 people died in that strike and they belonged to, or they were in the Nofal family home when that strike happened.

There are other examples that NBC News investigated and confirmed. I want to give you another example right now. On February 12th, 24, our crews filmed the aftermath of an airstrike on Al-Shabura camp. They asked us to go to the Shabura area because it is safe. This is the safe area. Look around you, what happened, a man on the scene of the attack says. On April 20th, at 10 p.m. also in the Shibura district, a building leveled. Among the dead brought to the hospital,

a pregnant woman whose premature baby briefly survived only to perish in the war it was born into. So those types of stories are just gut-wrenching and difficult to process. But I do think it's important to give you more details about the victims in that strike and name the pregnant woman who lost her life and her infant who also lost their life. So among the dead were Sabrine Sakhani, who was 30 weeks pregnant at the time. Her baby, Sabre al-Rour Jode, was born an orphan after doctors were able to perform a posthumous cesarean section and rescue her from her mother's lifeless body. But as you heard in that video, unfortunately, the infant did not survive.

And yet another example, you know, you have an infant dying. In this case, you know, after the infant was delivered through a posthumous cesarean section. I can't imagine what it's like to perform something like that. But the child had respiratory issues and died. Now, there's another example. This is yet another area, another safe zone that the NBC investigators looked into and here's what they found. On November 4th, Israeli defense minister Yoav Galant says there's a safe zone which is located in Almwazi, where there will be no strikes and anyone there will be in a safe place.

But January 4th, three children die when their tent is hit in Almazzi. NBC News documents this attack. The footage shows a crater and the hospital treating survivors. 14 people are killed. So among those who were killed in that airstrike were three children, their tent was hit by that airstrike. And so what is the IDF saying? How do they explain themselves? Considering they have designated safe zones, they're communicating that with Palestinians. And by the way, that's one of the main defenses you'll hear toward the IDF. Oh, it's the most moral military.

They're so moral. They let the population know. They let civilians know before they're conducted airstrike, which obviously is not the case. Well, you can't claim to be moral if you're telling people to flee to a specific area for safety. And then you proceed to do airstrikes that ends up killing civilians in the safe zone that you just designated. The IDF replied in an email that it was not aware of any strike at the provided coordinates and times. a March 26th strike on the Tal al-Zahur neighborhood. It did not respond when asked about the six additional coordinates. But they did blame Hamas for the airstrikes. Not that Hamas carried

out the airstrikes, of course, but that it was Hamas that was in that area that persuaded them to do the airstrikes or carry these air strikes out. The IDF blamed Hamas for telling people to ignore directives to move. No, but obviously, obviously, the Palestinian civilians did follow the directive, and they did move to the designated safe zones. And those safe zones were bombed anyway. And so put yourself in the shoes of a Palestinian. If you hear from, you know, you hear from the IDF or the Israeli government telling you, okay, this is where you need to go in order to avoid, you know, getting killed from shelling or from bombing. And then you hear that people keep getting killed in these

safe zones, are you going to listen to them? I wouldn't trust them. I wouldn't know what to do in this situation. You know, we keep hearing these news stories about how the IDF is, you know, any minute, they're thinking about going into Rafa. They've already been doing air strikes in Rafa. There are, people are already getting killed in Rafa. It's happening right now as we speak. So my issue with this ongoing war isn't that I, I don't believe Israel has the right to defend itself. It's specifically military operations like this that I have a problem with. And I hate that binary thinking because it's so dishonest. Okay, the binary thinking is either Israel does nothing and they allow Hamas to act with impunity

considering what happened on October 7th or Israel has a right to defend itself and it gets to do whatever it wants. No, those aren't the only two options. And that's what I've been trying to communicate to people. There are ways to carry out this war that actually demonstrates some concern for innocent civilians who have done nothing wrong. And it's stories like this and it's investigations like this that make it abundantly clear to me that they're not going out of their way and they're not working hard to protect civilians as they're going after Hamas. When you tell people to go to a designated safe zone and then you bomb that safe zone anyway, you lose the moral high ground. So when you see the students on these campuses who are, you know, outraged about what's happening,

when you see the protests, yeah, there might be a few people who say dumb, unhinged things and they should be condemned. But the majority of people are seeing these types of military operations, and this is what they have a problem with. By the way, the IDF not only blamed Hamas, saying that Hamas is telling people to ignore the directives to move, it said in a follow-up email that it would act against Hamas wherever it operates with full commitment to international law. They seriously said that while distinguishing between terrorists and civilians. I'm also a little bit tired of the lies because obviously this particular story makes it clear that they are not showing that they're distinguishing between terrorists and civilians.

Finally, I want to end on this. So Senator Bernie Sanders, who is a, strong critic of Israel's prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu does in fact hesitate in referring to what's happening in Gaza as a genocide. And that might bother some of you, but he did have some pretty strong words in regard to what he believes is happening in Gaza as we speak. Let's watch. And I think the word genocide is something that is being determined by the International Court of Justice. But this is what I will say. I don't think there's any doubt that when Netanyahu is doing now, displacing 80% of the population in Gaza is ethnic cleansing. That's what it is, pushing out huge numbers of people. And now we're looking at the possibility

of an attack on Rafa, where people have gone for so-called as a safety zone. So what's going on there, again, to my mind, it's outrageous. And as you've indicated, I strongly oppose U.S. funding for Netanyahu's war machine. And if you guys can recall in the very beginning when, you know, Israel was carrying out its response to the atrocities that were committed on October 7th, you know, there were some hardliners on the left who were disturbed at Bernie Sanders' support for what Israel was doing. That was at the very beginning. And it was because Sanders believed, and I believed as well, that Israel absolutely had the right to go after Hamas after what happened on October. But they lost the moral high ground because of situations like this, the bombing of safe zones, the unwillingness to allow enough humanitarian aid to enter the region, the complete leveling of the Gaza Strip, complete destruction of its infrastructure, residential buildings, the fact that they know Rafa now has more than a million displaced Palestinians sheltering there for safety,

even though now it's also dealing with airstrikes. But they're planning on doing more and intensifying these attacks. You know, the unwillingness to support a two-state solution, which I will admit, I mean, after all of this, it seems like an impossibility, but you have Netanyahu bragging about the fact that he served as an obstacle to developing a two-state solution, that he funded and propped up the very group that he's now fighting against, Hamas. He funded Hamas and that never gets any attention. So it's a lot more nuanced than Israel either does nothing or Israel gets to do whatever it wants.

The truth really lies in the middle. And if there was any real indication that the IDF was looking to protect civilians to the best of their ability, we would be having a completely different conversation right now. But that's just not what's happening. And that's where the issue lies. All right, let's move on to an update on the protests that have been happening. So as we all know, there have been some protests taking place in regard to the war in Gaza on university campuses across the country. It all started with Columbia University. And over the weekend, if you were paying close attention, there were all sorts of videos posted online, many of which lacked context.

And I don't want to get into them because I think those instances that are going viral really need to be developed a little more. We need more information about them. But of course, anytime you have a mass movement or mass protest, you're going to have some people say unhinged things. There were some counter protesters who also in engaged in unhinged behavior, but nonetheless, the big update today is that Columbia University made it clear that by the afternoon, students had to leave the campus, basically do away with the encampment that they built in the university's campus or else they would face suspensions. And so the big update now is that Columbia University has in fact begun suspending student

protesters who have refused to abide by this deadline to vacate the encampment on to New York campus. This is reported by CNN. There's also a lawsuit, by the way. And I think this lawsuit probably encouraged the president of Columbia to act with a little more urgency. So in this lawsuit that was filed today, an anonymous Jewish student alleged that Columbia has failed to provide a safe learning environment during the ongoing demonstrations. I just want to note that despite the very few examples of people saying unhinged things, for instance, there was one I'm going to try to not say inflammatory stuff, but it's hard not to when you hear idiocy like this. But there was one student who said that Zionists don't deserve to live.

That person has been kicked out and it's deserving. You should not be, you should not be promoting that kind of message. Okay, it's dangerous. It is not something I'm in favor of or supportive of. But I give you that as the exception to the rule. If you see how the actual protesters who were in the encampment were acting, how they really went out of their way to ensure that this was a nonviolent protest, you'll get a sense of how guys like that were definitely the exception, not the rule. And so to be perfectly frank with you, I love the fact that the students feel passionately enough about this issue to make their voices heard. I also really feel that it was going to be an impossibility for Columbia to divest from Israel.

And in fact, they made it abundantly clear that they are not going to divest from Israel. And even though the protesters might not get what they want in this case, I think that they have started something that could grow, that could be built, hopefully, in a peaceful and productive way. Elsewhere, Brown University said that it will hear a group of students and faculty members arguments for divestment. So it appears that at least Brown University is more open to the idea of divesting. Columbia is literally building a sister campus in Israel, which is why I felt that it was going to be unlikely that Columbia would actually listen to anything that the students

had to say about divesting. But Brown University seems to be a little more receptive. We'll see where that goes. Northwestern University said that it reached an agreement with demonstrators to limit the scope of the protests. So in some campuses, you know, they're allowing protests to happen, although it seems like they're doing so in a way to keep them contained. At Columbia, you're seeing the most aggressive action. And that's the other thing I wanted to bring up. Look, when you're talking about Columbia, we're talking about some of the top universities in this country, okay? Whether you like it or not, these are the future of, these people are the future of the country, very likely future elites in this country.

And if their experience with Israel and their protest of Israel is going to bring up these memories of them being, you know, brutally arrested in some cases by police, or if they're going to think of their professors getting brutally arrested and knocked over by police, they're not going to have warm and fuzzy feelings toward Israel. And I think that the way Netanyahu handled, like Netanyahu should not have released a statement about what's transpiring on American university campuses, okay? It's not, I get it, they're protesting Israel, so he felt the need to say something, but all he did was inflame the situation further. And so I think overall, this forceful response to the protesters who I believe do have a genuine moral issue with what's happening in Gaza, the way that they're treating these protesters, I think is counterproductive for anyone who wants to ensure that America maintains its commitment to

Israel. I don't know if that's going to be the case. You know, I don't know if young people are going to follow suit with what we have in the country and in the government right now. And as we know, one of the reasons why the U.S. is such a close ally and a defender of Israel, regardless of which government is in charge, how far right wing the government is, regardless of how they carry out their war in Gaza. It all has to be. to do with the main issue that we have in any political policy decision decided by our federal government. It always has to go back to, all right, well, what are the lobbying groups involved, which lobbying groups are the most powerful? You know, and the Israel lobby is powerful. I don't

know how persuasive they're going to be in the future, considering, you know, the people that are getting their skulls crushed right now and getting suspended or expelled right now are going to be the future leaders of this country. So I just think we have an issue with people not being willing to think about long-term strategy. And I think that's definitely the case with how some of these protests have been handled. Hundreds of protesters have also been arrested over 20 campuses across at least 16 states. So it's a developing story. Columbia has gotten a little more aggressive today. We'll see what the students will do following today's events. And it's seems, you know, a lot of these students are willing to take a suspension or even an expulsion

in order to make their voices heard. So we'll see how this develops and I'll fill you in as it does. For now, though, let's take a quick break. We'll be right back. What's up, everyone? Welcome back to the show. I'm Anna Casparian. I just want to thank John Hicktower, who gifted 100 TYT memberships, John. You might be the new Johnny Pie. Don't tell John Iderola, but between you and me, you did it. You did it. Thank you to the elder Zeus, who wrote in and says, man, I miss life before Trump, can't wait for life after Trump. I totally get what you're saying at the same time, though. I think the issues we have in our country that led to the rise of Trump is what we should also focus on. Because there's obviously

deep divisions, deep frustration among the electorate in America. And I think Trump is a symptom of those issues that need to be dealt with. But I totally hear what you're saying. All right, one more story before we go to our second hour and bring Waz in. I wanted to do a little bit of an update on the economy because look, inflation be sticky. And we need to know why. And I've been wondering, I see my peers. We're struggling. So why is consumer spending so high? Like, who's spending the money? Are they just charging things on credit cards? What's happening? Well, it turns out we have our answer. So let's talk about what's really happening in our economy right now. Consumer spending by affluent baby boomers and retirees is one of the main factors keeping

inflation high, thus killing everyone else's dream of the Federal Reserve stepping into lower interest rates. Now with interest rates being so high, the cost of borrowing money is far more expensive. If you want to take out a mortgage on a home, you'll notice that your monthly mortgage payment is going to be much higher. If you want to buy a new car and you need to finance it, it's going to be far more expensive to do so. But the situation is a little different for older Americans who have accumulated a decent amount of wealth for themselves and are spending that cash. So older Americans have benefited from two main things that we've noticed in our economy in recent years. For one, they've built a lot of equity on their homes. I don't know if they're taking

out, you know, equity line of credit. I would urge them not to do that unless it's an emergency, but it appears that some of the spending is coming from the equity that they've earned on their properties. They've also invested in stocks, and stocks have really blown up in recent years, and so they've accumulated wealth in that regard as well. Stock prices, as measured by the S&P 500 index, are about 72% higher than they were five years ago. Home values soared 58%. Let that sink in, 58% from the end of 2018 through 2023. In just five years, home values went up 58%. And that's also according to the Federal Reserve. Now, household wealth grew by an average of 5.5% a year in the decade after the 2008, 2009 Great Recession. But things really accelerated beginning in 2018 to nearly 9%.

So now when you look at older Americans, they tend to account for a higher percentage of America's population, right? Because this isn't new, usually older Americans, they've worked their whole lives, they've accumulated wealth, and they're able to spend. They loosen the purse strings a little bit and they're able to spend some money. That's always really been the trend. It's just that baby boomers in particular make up a larger portion of the, you know, retired community or those who are semi-retired, maybe they're working some jobs here and there, but aren't really working full-time jobs like they used to. So Americans ages 65 or over supplied nearly 22 percent of consumer spending in 2022, which is the most recent year for which data is available. Well, that's the highest such figure on records dating to 1989 up from about 16% in 2010. And so you have a huge portion of the population that has accumulated wealth.

Their accumulation of wealth was really accelerated beginning in like 2019, 2018, 2019. And it's due to the rapid rise in the value of their property. the spikes we've seen in the stock market, and they're looking to spend, baby, right? And so retirement-aged Americans, you know, are certainly going out there. And what are they spending their money on? Well, some pretty big ticket items. They're spending a lot of money on travel, going out to eat, health care, entertainment, stuff like that.

And so their spending is relatively immune to the Federal Reserve's push to slow growth and tame inflation through higher borrowing rates. because they rarely require borrowing unless, you know, they're borrowing against their own home, which I want to reiterate is not a good idea unless, you know, they're borrowing against their home for an emergency or something like that. Now, research by Michael Brown, an economist at Visa and others, has also found that significant stock market wealth typically boosts spending on discretionary items such as restaurants, travel, and entertainment. Sectors of the economy where spending is surging and inflation remains elevated. So why is this relevant to you if you're a young American, am I just trying to get you jealous

with how much wealth that older Americans have accumulated and what they're spending their money on? No. It impacts you because the Federal Reserve had planned to lower interest rates at least three times this year. It now appears that that is unlikely to happen. So they were planning on lowering interest rates in the summer, June or July. Now it appears that is unlikely to happen. And it's because of the fact that inflation remains sticky. Part of the reason why inflation remains sticky, it's not the only reason.

There are other factors as well. So I want to make sure that you're aware of that. But one of the big factors is the affluent nature of older Americans and how they're very much out there spending their money. And so that is keeping, you know, consumer spending high, obviously laws of supply and demand, you know, there's a limited supply, high demand among these individuals who have accumulated the wealth. And so inflation continues to be an issue. Also, one thing that tends to lead to inflation is the cost of oil. And with this ongoing war in Gaza and the new sanctions that the Biden administration has implemented against Iran's oil exports, That's going to limit the supply of oil in the global market. And that limited supply means that we're going to see spikes in the cost of oil. We're going to see it at the pump. But we're also going to see it in the price of goods and services.

Because remember, when it comes to goods and services, you have to transport the goods to provide the services or to provide the goods for people to buy. And obviously, the transporting of that is going to be more costly given the price of gas. And so that's another reason why. But the consumer spending on the older end of, you know, the age spectrum is what's also leading to the sticky inflation. So the shortage of housing by housing, by the way, is one of the biggest issues because while interest rates have gone up, the price of homes have also continued to go up. That is usually not the case. That's not supposed to happen. The only time that happens is when you have a severe shortage of housing. And that's what we're dealing with right now. So you still

see prices going up. But, you know, the higher interest rates have done very little to kind of control that situation, considering the fact that there's limited supply. People need to find a place to live. If they have accumulated wealth, they're more likely to be able to buy these homes. And by the way, of course, private equity firms buying up residential real estate that should be kept for Americans looking to buy houses is also an issue. Now, the wealthiest one-tenth of Americans own two-thirds of all household wealth. I want that to sink in because that is devastating. Still wealth for the median household, the midpoint between the richest and poorest rose 37% from 2019 to 2022, the sharpest rise on record since the 1980s, according to the

Fed to $193,000. And remember, guys, people were able to save up when we dealt with those shutdowns. And I thought maybe the money that Americans saved is what they're still using to, you know, go out there and engage in consumer spending. But it seems like that money has actually ran out. And what you're also noticing, a trend that is simultaneous to what we're seeing with older Americans and their spending habits is that consumer debt has gone up. It's at record levels. So there are a lot of Americans who are having trouble making ends meet, and they're relying on credit cards in order to buy the bare necessities for their household. And so you do see this two-tiered system where some portion of Americans are doing real well for themselves

because of their investments, whereas younger Americans are struggling, just kind of holding on for dear life, hoping that there will be some rate cuts. But it seems unlikely that we're going to get a rate cut in the summer. I'm not entirely sure, sure, we'll see what happens. But one final thing I'll say before we wrap this up, because it's important. If interest rates remain high, it is very likely going to hurt Biden's chances at reelection. In fact, even Donald Trump knows this, he has made some statements arguing that, you know, Jerome Powell is going to lower interest rates to help Biden. There's really no indication that Powell's going to do that. I will say, though, Powell is not immune from political pressure at all. And Trump of all people knows that

because Powell was who Trump handpicked to be the head of the Federal Reserve. And when Powell was considering increasing interest rates under Trump's watch, Trump basically bullied the crap out of him to prevent that from happening because he knew that there would be political ramifications for Trump. And so incumbent politicians, by the way, used to frequently harangue Fed chairs for lower interest rates in public and in private. Lyndon B. Johnson, a Democrat, of course, reportedly cornered his Fed chair against a wall at his Texas ranch. So that kind of political pressure has existed prior to Trump. But beginning in the Clinton administration, that culture kind of went away. Clinton was not willing to pressure the head of the Fed to lower

interest rates or prevent increasing interest rates. But then that new era was immediately squashed by Donald Trump essentially pressuring Jerome Powell to keep interest rates low. And so if you enjoy the lower interest rates, you probably thought that was fantastic. The idea is lower interest rates do lead to inflation. But it does appear that even with the higher interest rates right now, inflation remains sticky. And one other thing that I'll note is, you know, the older Americans, the retirees, the baby boomers who have accumulated this wealth, they're also kind of benefiting from higher interest rates as well. Because if they have savings, if they've invested in bonds, for instance, government bonds, higher interest rates typically mean higher yields.

And so not only do they benefit from the wealth they've accumulated, but if they have the right investments that one would invest in at a time of higher interest rates, then they're very likely benefiting from that as well. Hell, I mean, if you even just put your money in a high yield savings account, which has absolutely no risk, you are earning interest on your savings. So if you haven't opened an account like that, please do so. It's an easy way to make money. money, your money makes money for you. Don't just keep it in a low yield interest savings account. That would be a waste. But it is interesting to see the factors that are playing

a role in the decisions that the Federal Reserve is making right now. Interest rates are absolutely crushing younger Americans. It is much more difficult to buy homes, much more difficult to get a loan to buy a car. And so people are just hoping for a little bit of relief. And I'm unsure as to whether Powell is going to provide that relief before the election. We'll see. For now, we're going to take a break. When we come back, Wazni Lombre, joins me for the second hour.