The Young Turks - Getting Trucked Over

Episode Date: August 1, 2023

What indictments? NY Times-Sienna poll shows Trump extending lead over DeSantis by 37 points. "It’s outrageous”: Florida columnist skewers DeSantis for secret use of taxpayer cash on campaign. The DOJ is arresting a key witness in the GOP’s investigation into the Biden family and spurring the latest round of obstruction accusations and conspiracy theories. Trucking giant Yellow shuts down operations. Candace Owens: “I think that virtually every societal ill that we are facing today is because of women.” HOSTS: 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 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. Welcome to TYT. I'm your host, Anna Kasparian. Jank Yuger is off for the majority of the week. He will be back on Thursday. He's traveling, doing interviews. In fact, we might cover one of those interviews on the show tomorrow.

But have no fear, we have a great show ahead for you today and for the rest of the week. Wozni Lombray will be joining me for the second hour of the show. Francesca Furentini will be joining me on the show tomorrow. So we're going to have a lot of fun. We're going to cover a lot of important stories, a lot of fun stories as well. And later in the show today, we will, of course, discuss Elon Musk's latest publicity stunt and debacle over his ex sign on the Twitter building in San Francisco. We're also going to discuss some of the right-wing conspiracy theories in regard to the Hunter Biden investigation.

Just an incredible story that blew up over the weekend that I can't wait to share with you. So I'll talk about that in the first hour today. But before we get to all of that fun stuff, just want to encourage you all to like and share the stream if you're watching us live on YouTube. You could also help support the show by becoming a member by going to t.yt.com slash join or just click on that join button if you're watching us on YouTube. It's a great way to keep TYT independent. You allow us to speak our mind without any fear of corporate retaliation.

And we're always grateful for that. Now, without further ado, let's get to our first story. Donald Trump is not running for president to make America great again. Donald Trump is not running for president to represent the people that voted for him in 2016 and 2020. Donald Trump is running to stay out of prison. And if we elect, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, listen, I know, I know this. truth, the truth is hard. But if we elect Donald Trump, we are willingly giving Joe Biden four more years in the White House, and America can't handle that.

Oof, Republican voters were not buying with GOP presidential candidate. He's a candidate? Will Hurd was selling during the party's annual Lincoln dinner in Des Moines, Iowa over the weekend. His anti-Trump comments led to jeers and booze from the crowd, which clearly still supports the former president. But look, don't take that mere anecdotal evidence as the only indicator of where right-wing voters stand today. Trump still manages to crush the competition as he prepares for a likely third indictment for his alleged role in attempting to overturn the 2020 presidential election. Now, according to the latest New York Times Sienna poll of likely Republican voters, a whopping 54% say that they still plan to vote for Trump in the primaries.

Ron DeSantis comes in at a distant second with just 17% of likely GOP voters supporting the Florida governor. Now, this isn't a good sign for conservatives hoping that the primary winner will be someone with, you know, like less baggage. The Times argues that no other candidate in history has lost a nomination with as much support as Trump has. Breaking results down a little bit further, the poll categorized likely Republican voters into three separate buckets. The MAGA base, persuadable voters, and individuals who are not open to Trump. These are the never Trumpers. So as you can see from this graphic, members of Trump's MAGA base represent 37% of the Republican electorate. They strongly support him

in the Republican primary and have a very favorable view of him. The demographics of this group represent the most conservative, the most populist wing of the Republican Party. They tend to be blue collar workers without a college degree. Now outside of the MAGA base, 37% of Republican voters are keeping an open mind and can be persuaded to vote for another candidate. Although about 17% of those in this particular category say that they lean toward Trump. And the third category, the never trumpers, represent 25% of Republican voters, and they are not fans of Trump, clearly.

So the never Trumpers are pretty easy to define. Let's talk about their characteristics, okay? So these voters tend to be educated, affluent, moderate, and they're often more than just Trump skeptics. A majority of these voters view him unfavorably, say he's committed crimes. and don't even back him in the general election against President Biden, whether that's because they actually prefer Biden or simply wouldn't vote. Now, if you're wondering whether Trump's legal woes concern the MAGA base, his most avid supporters, the simple answer is no. In fact,

they don't even believe that he has committed any crimes at all. Supporters who came to see Trump in Pennsylvania Saturday are standing by him. It's political garbage, and I'm not going to swear, but that's what it is. They're just trying to smear his name, and it's not working. So that lady's reaction to all of these criminal indictments that Trump is now dealing with, I think it's pretty representative of what the MAGA base overall feels about these prosecutions, about these indictments, they just think that it's a political witch hunt, and that these indictments wouldn't have even happened had Trump decided against running for president again.

Now, according to the Times, not a single one of the respondents in the MAGA category agreed that the former president committed any serious federal crimes. Only 2% of them said, they admitted that he did something wrong in his handling of classified documents. But more than 90% said that Republicans need to stand behind Trump in the face of these investigations. So in order for one of his primary opponents to actually beat him, support needs to consolidate for one candidate among persuadable and not open to Trump voters. And look, that's hard to see play out at this current moment, considering this vast field of contenders. I don't even know Will Hurd was running. But it's going to be tough because there are notable differences

between the persuadable GOP voters and the never Trumpers. So as the time reports, Trump's skeptics support additional military and economic aid to Ukraine and comprehensive immigration reform while they oppose a six-week abortion ban. The persuadable voters, on the other hand, take the opposite view on all of those issues. So I want to give you a sense of of what the times means on those issues and how different the persuadable voters are from the never Trumpers. So while 61% of persuadable voters say that America

is in danger of failing, only 37% of never Trumpers say the same. In other findings, 58% of persuadable voters oppose more aid to Ukraine, but only 26% of never Trumpers agree. Persuatable voters are more likely to support DeSantis considering 41% want to punish woke businesses, which of course is comparable to what DeSantis is currently doing

with Disney and Florida. Only 28% of NeverTrumpers agree with that. And while 69% of NeverTrumpers have an unfavorable view of him, only 12% of persuadable voters do. Remember, among the persuadable voters, 17% of them are already leaning toward Trump anyway. So it's going to be hard for one of Trump's primary opponents to consolidate enough support to beat Trump. And guess what? Trump, of course, is having a field day with these poll results and has taken the opportunity to troll his opponents about it. In fact, he plans to skip the first primary debate, which is set to take place on Fox News on August 23rd in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. In a truth social post, he writes, quote, let them debate so I can see who I might consider for vice president. Now, who is.

Is they? So far, there's Governor Ron DeSantis, of course, Senator Tim Scott, Nikki Haley, Chris Christie, Vivek Ramoswamy, and Doug Bergam. They've all qualified for that debate. So far Trump's former vice president, Mike Pence, has yet to meet the criteria to qualify, which requires at least 1% in three high quality national polls or a mix of national and early state polls between July 1st and August 21st. Now, in addition, candidates must have a minimum of 40,000 donors with 220 or more states. Since Trump is skipping the first debate, he might end up doing some sort of rival event,

typical Trump fashion. The Associated Press reported that one option Trump has floated is a sit-down interview with former Fox News host Tucker Carlson. Of course, you know, the very guy who publicly supported Trump and then privately said terrible things about Trump, basically compared him to a demon. So anyway, let's circle back to Mipal Ron, who's been pretty much slipping in the polls for months now. who's a veteran GOP strategist brutally assessed DeSantis as a flawed candidate while talking

to Rolling Stone. He said that every time DeSantis opens his mouth, he has a tendency to, shall we say, think out loud and he clearly doesn't understand the game. Iowa is not Florida, and he just doesn't get it. He's not a particularly articulate candidate, and the skill you need to become president is typically being able to show voters you can. connect with them and that you understand their problems. In fact, he even gave examples of presidential candidates that he felt did really well because of their ability to connect with voters. And he was pretty bipartisan in listing those examples. He mentioned Barack Obama. And to be fair, Barack Obama, especially in 2008 with his hope and change campaign, certainly did connect

with voters who were concerned about their economic conditions and also concerned about the wars abroad. Now, unfortunately, Obama didn't deliver on a lot of those promises, and I think that ended up hurting the Democratic Party. But that's beside the point. Let's get back to what Rollins had to say about DeSantis. He also argued that when you get into these culture wars, the way that DeSantis has, the vast majority of people don't understand what they are. That may work in parts of Florida, but not these other places he needs to win. That is not what sells. And to be clear, Ron DeSantis has centered anti-wokeness, the woke mind virus, as the main issue in his campaigning. It's just not really working out that well for him.

Now, Rollins goes on to predict that Biden is likely to get elected if Trump wins the Republican primary. He says, quote, I would be shocked if Trump were not the nominee. And at the end of the day, I don't see how Trump is a viable presidential candidate. So unless something serious happens, Biden is probably going to get a second term, and I could even see Republicans losing their majority in the House. Look, there's a lifetime between now and Iowa's caucus on January 15th. So honestly, who knows what will actually happen? However, Trump's legal problems are, in fact, hurting his campaign financially. The Republican frontrunners slam the new charges, which include allegations he tried to have his surveillance video erased after receiving a subpoena for documents.

On Sunday, Trump posted to social media Mar-a-Lago security tapes were not deleted, and I never told anybody to delete them. While the criminal charges against the former president Mount, so do the legal fees. CBS News has learned that a public filing later today will show Trump's political action committee, Save America, has spent more than 40 million on legal expenses for Trump and his aides on multiple legal cases this year. I mean, his campaign is now fundraising for his legal defense fund. It is amazing how loyal Trump's base is to him. And believe it or not, Trump's campaign spending that money to defend him in court does not break campaign finance. laws. And while any other campaign would be hindered by the financial and electoral costs associated with a candidate that's accused of so much criminality, for now it seems that Trump's loyal base is likely to pull through and clinch primary victory for the former president. But again, it's still super early. We don't know what could happen. And should Trump actually

be convicted of any of the crimes he's been indicted for? I am curious to see how it plays out for the Republican Party in the general election. It's going to be a wild ride, and I guess we're going to wait and see what happens. For now, though, let's move on to another election-related story, this time centered on Ron DeSantis and how he's just spending a ton of Florida taxpayer money without having to disclose it because he passed laws to prevent those disclosures from happening. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is burning Florida taxpayer money on his campaign. And he's also passing laws to prevent the public from even finding out about it.

That became clear after he was involved in a multi-car accident last week in Tennessee. Now the fender bender occurred as he traveled in a motorcade to a campaign stop for his 2024 presidential bid. According to police, the chain reaction crash happened on Interstate 75 in Chattanooga, causing four cars in that motorcade to hit one another. Now, all the cars involved in the crash were government vehicles, taking DeSantis and his team to a scheduled fundraiser. DeSantis wasn't physically injured, but some Floridians might feel some mental anguish after a freedom of information request has revealed how excessive his campaign is and how he's using state taxpayer money while being excessive. South Florida Sentinel's Steve Bocquet gave more detail in a new op-ed writing that seven agents from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, FDLE, traveling in four different SUVs apparently

rented by the state at our expense, squired DeSantis to a small campaign event in Tennessee on Tuesday. Now, the only reason why we know these details is because of that freedom of information request and because of the fact that that accident took place in Tennessee, a freedom of information request in Florida wouldn't have worked. More on that in just a moment. Now, this was a small campaign event, and this type of security was unnecessary to say the least. But apparently, this is the norm for DeSantis, who has reshaped the Florida Department of Law Enforcement into his own personal police force. FDLE is required by state law to protect

the governor around the clock regardless of whether he's conducting official, personal or political business. But Florida has never had a governor so obsessed with security who spends this much time in Iowa, New Hampshire, Tennessee, Utah, and other places. So those costs will become astronomical. So in addition to the seven cops who accompanied the governor, as many as six other officers had already been placed at that campaign event site. This spending on car rentals and police escorts would have been kept secret if the accident occurred in Florida rather than Tennessee because some of the sneaky laws that the governor passed in order to hide how much he leans on Florida's taxpayers for his own presidential aspirations. Citing safety

precautions earlier this year, the GOP-led legislature passed a bill to shield DeSantis' travel records from the public. The new laws text reads as follows. The legislature finds that the safety and security of persons authorized protection outweigh any public benefit that may be derived from the disclosure of such records. Therefore, it is a public necessity that records held by a law enforcement agency relating to security or transportation services under be exempt from public records requirements. So to cover DeSantis's travel, schedule, and satisfy his security concerns, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement is hiring even more agents whose job will exclusively entail safeguarding DeSantis, his family, or the grounds of the

governor's mansion. On the FDLE Facebook page, the agency had apparently been seeking applicants to be protective operations special agents to ensure the safety and security of the governor and the first family. Now, the post was later removed. I wonder why. Months ago, DeSantis was even asked point blank about his efforts to keep Florida taxpayers in the dark about his travel records and costs. the bill to shield the governor's travel records why explain to floridians why that is important to you well it's not necessarily something that i came up with i think the issue is is you know

with a security situation how you do patterns of movements if you're somebody that is targeted which unfortunately i am and i get a lot of threats that that could be something that could be helpful for people that they may not want to do good things. If you're doing campaign events, most of the public know about it. Usually these are public events that are posted. And paying for security might make sense if, you know, the security wasn't excessive. Now, having Florida taxpayers fund excessive security while concealing the cost they're paying for does not make sense to me.

But this is the same guy who changed Florida's state laws to allow him to run for president without even having to give up the governorship, which essentially robs the state of Florida from having a dedicated and committed governor who's looking out for them. Look, this is not good news considering how irresponsible DeSantis has been with his campaign finances. He recently fired dozens of staffers after burning through millions of dollars. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis tapped out top donors and burned through $7.9 million in the first six weeks as a presidential candidate, according to an NBC news analysis of his new campaign finance disclosure. And making matters worse for DeSantis, more than two thirds of his campaign cash, nearly $14 million, came from donors who gave the legal maximum and cannot donate again.

DeSantis finished June with more than 12.2 million in the bank, but his filing indicates that three million of that can only be used in the general election. Now compare that to Trump. Trump's campaign ended the quarter with 22.5 million on hand. I mean, Trump's got his illegal fees. That's definitely exorbitant. So comparing the two is kind of like comparing apples and oranges. But nonetheless, at the same time, DeSantis spent about 40% of what,

what he raised, in part by paying salaries to 92 people before the staff firings. That gave him by far the biggest staff footprint of the GOP presidential candidates, but also left him with the question of how he can sustain his payroll or anything close to it without finding new sources of revenue. However, the super PAC supporting DeSantis has much more money and cash on hand. DeSantis' team has raised a stunning $150 million for his presidential ambition so far. But the vast majority, 130 million, has gone to a super PAC run by allies who cannot legally coordinate with the campaign. Now, add that money spent assigning dozens of FDL agents to provide security for DeSantis, as well as engage in the governor's

political stunts, including, by the way, rounding up undocumented immigrants in the Keys, Texas and elsewhere, just to fly them to other parts of the country that he has determined to be sanctuary states or cities. He's just burning through Florida taxpayer money, abandoning his voters and constituents in Florida, and getting away with it by passing laws to cover up all the money that he's spending while doing so. Just something to keep in mind while his campaign continues to flail. Do Florida taxpayers feel good about funding a failure of a campaign while they're being abandoned by their very governor? Just a question I want to ask them. Maybe they're cool with it, maybe they're not. I guess we'll see as we move ahead with this election. We got to take a break for

now. Let's take that break. And when we come back, more news for you, including, well, this big conspiracy theory among right-wing voters over the weekend. What was it about? And what is the truth? Don't miss it. Welcome back to the show, everyone, just want to give a quick shout out to stoned to the bone dragon, who sent a very sweet note to me saying, we love you, Anna, love you right back. Thank you for being a TYT member. We really appreciate you and your support of the show. Without further ado, though, let's get to our next story because there was kind of a laughable conspiracy theory over the weekend that I want to talk about. Also, as we speak, here comes Devin Archer.

Let's just go over here and see if we can get a word with Devin Archer as he walks into the building. Mr. Archer, what do you intend to tell the committee today? Do you have anything to say? Did you have meetings with the Bidens and can you elaborate on what stage? Did anyone tell you not to appear today, sir? You just watched Hunter Biden's former business partner, Devin Archer, show up to be interviewed by Republicans in the House Oversight Committee. His interview, which will not be under oath, is part of the GOP's investigation into the Bidens. He's expected to disclose that President Joe Biden was on business calls with his son Hunter.

However, over the weekend, MAGA exploded with conspiracy theories following news involving a separate fraud case that Archer is involved in and was. convicted for. On Saturday, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York wrote to trial judge Ronnie Abrams and asked her to schedule a date for Archer to report to prison after the Second Circuit Court of Appeals finalized an order days earlier upholding his one-year sentence. Now, what was he sentenced for? Well, he was sentenced for something entirely different, separate from Hunter Biden, okay, and he should actually serve a sentence for that. A jury in 2018 convicted Archer of two felonies for his role

in a conspiracy to defraud a Native American tribe, but his 22 sentence has been repeatedly postponed amid a long-running series of appeals. Now, this letter by the prosecutors comes out on the eve of his interview with the GOP in this Hunter Biden investigation. And so immediately, have conservatives in right wing media arguing that this is an attempt by the federal government to prevent this guy from being interviewed by GOP lawmakers, except as you saw, he showed up to be interviewed by GOP lawmakers. Even though the court wasn't even expected to make a decision and said Archer to prison before his closed door meeting with the House Oversight Committee today, right wing media still blew up as if the letter from the federal prosecutors to the trial

judge was meant to prevent him from talking to Republican lawmakers who of course are hellbent on implicating President Joe Biden in criminal wrongdoing. Again, as you saw in the video at the top of this story, Archer clearly showed up and spoke to investigators today, although it was closed door and we don't know exactly what he said. One of the conservatives losing her mind over the letter was Miranda Devine. In a New York Post column, Divine argues that the DOJ can't sink any lower after attempted jailing of Hunter Biden's ex-partner, Devin Archer, before his testimony. She also appeared on Fox News to talk about it. Let's hear what she had to say. Explain his relationship to this family and why his level of knowledge is important here.

Devin Archer was Hunter Biden's best friend in business. They met at Yale and they were in business together and friendship together for many years throughout Joe Biden's vice presidency. And they made a fair amount of money together. And then eventually, Devin Archer came unstuck with their last joint venture, which was this company called Burnham, which ended up dissolving into fraud convictions for numerous people involved, other than Hunter Biden, even though Hunter Biden was listed, I think as vice chairman and earned a couple of hundred thousand dollars. And Devin Archer lost millions of dollars on the deal. He's the one going to jail. And I think,

you know, he would feel fairly bitter about that. I know friends around him say that he feels that he's just been abandoned by the Bidens having been promised by Hunter that he was family. Okay, so these multiple investigations can get confusing. But I want to make something crystal clear. Okay, remember, Archer has been convicted of a completely separate crime, okay, having nothing to do with Hunter Biden. Devine is making it seem like he's suffering consequences for criminality that Hunter Biden is involved in, and that's just not the case. Anyway, let's get back to the prosecutor's letter and Archer's response to it. So Archer's lawyer, Archer's counsel, said it was premature to set a sentencing date because Archer was considering further appeals and intended to

raise an error in the sentencing process. Archer's lawyer plans to file a response to the U.S. attorney's demands by Wednesday, meaning Archer wasn't even planning to respond to prosecutors today. He was planning on responding two days from today, two days after he's interviewed by Republican lawmakers. Look, my point here is he planned to be interviewed by the Republican lawmakers, and today, he was interviewed by Republican lawmakers. Like this obsession among the GOP to prove that the Biden administration is interfering with their investigation is laughable, okay? Because the Trump appointed, you know, the Trump appointed investigators into Hunter Biden

could have easily been fired by President Joe Biden, but they weren't. He hasn't intervened at all. Even Archer's attorney Matthew Schwartz poured cold water on the conspiracy theories, saying in a statement that, quote, we are aware of speculation that the Department of Justice's weekend request to have Mr. Archer report to prison is an attempt by the Biden administration to intimidate him in advance of his meeting with the House Oversight Committee. To be clear, Mr. Archer does not agree with that speculation. In any case, Mr. Archer will do what he has planned to. do all along, which is to show up on Monday and to honestly answer the questions that are put to him by congressional investigators. Republicans view Archer as a key witness in their months long hunt for smoking gun in their investigation into the Bidens. Their other key witness, to be fair,

ended up being a Chinese agent, so they don't exactly have the best track record on this case. But so far, no evidence has emerged indicating that Joe Biden's decisions as president or even vice president were influenced by his son's business deals. Biden has also had repeat, Biden has also repeatedly denied involvement in his family's business agreements. However, oversight chair James Comer, subpoenaed Archer in June saying that he played a significant role in the Biden family's business deals abroad, including but not limited to China, Russia, and Ukraine, and that the committee believed he had information relevant to the investigation. Look, I don't really care about the Bidens. I don't care about providing cover for them,

if they engaged in any criminality. We'll see what comes out of this interview. But it is amazing how the very party that has downplayed Trump's alleged crimes are now obsessed with this Biden fishing expedition. They would need to prove quid pro quo in their investigation, and that's even more difficult to prove. And while the GOP wastes its time and energy on this investigation, they're doing nothing to pass legislation that improves the lives of their constituents. Look, just like the multi-year ill-fated Russian collusion investigation that Democrats launched

soon after Trump won the 2016 presidential election, Republicans are more interested on investigating their political opponents rather than improving health care, addressing the opioid epidemic or mental health care, or responding to the housing crisis. But maybe their constituents will forget about all those issues if the GOP succeeds in doing what they seem to do best, owning the libs. We'll see. For now, though, we're going to take one more break in this hour and come back with some more news. This next story has to do with one of the largest trucking companies in the country going under. What does this mean for their 33,000 workers? Why did this company fail? All those details and more coming right up.

You know, the throat goat dragon never disappoints. In our member section, Throat goat writes in, Will Hurd went to Des Moines and made a will turd. Listen, I like juvenile comedy, and that was great, that was fantastic, it made me chuckle. So thank you for writing in. As always, our members can write in. We like to read your comments during our social breaks. And if you're not a member, you can write in via YouTube super chats and we'll read your comments through that avenue as well. For now, though, let's talk a little bit about a company known as yellow that has now gone under.

And this has some pretty serious implications for tens of thousands of workers. 33,000 people across the country are now without a job this morning, including around 22,000 members of the Teamsters Union. According to the Wall Street Journal, Yellow's collapse is the biggest in the history of the American trucking industry. That's right, and it's unfortunate. Trucking giant Yellow Corp shut down over the weekend and is planning to file for bankruptcy just shy of its 100-year anniversary. And look, this is a pretty big deal, considering the company employed tens of thousands of workers who operated 12,000 trucks moving freight across the country. The failure in peril's nearly 30,000 jobs, including around 22,000 Teamsters members. Hundreds of its non-union employees were laid off Friday after the company stopped taking in new shipments from customers.

Let's go through all the poor decisions, Yellow Mage, through the decades that eventually led to its demise, starting with its mergers and acquisitions, apparently mergers and acquisitions it couldn't afford. So in an effort to stay competitive, the company engaged in several insanely expensive mergers over the years, which honestly ended up screwing over the entire business, saddling the company with unmanageable debt. And while redundant positions are usually cut to save money following an acquisition, Yellow didn't go in that direction. For example, in 2003, Yellow bought Roadway, another trucking firm for around $1 billion in cash and stock, the two companies combined

back office functions, but not networks, which of course limits cost savings. And then soon after, Yellow purchased another trucking company for more than a billion dollars. In 2005, Yellow bought competitor USF for $1.37 billion, again, combining back office functions, but not the broader company. So these decisions were pretty disastrous, although they were the result of the 1980 Motor Carrier Act, which deregulated the trucking industry and spurred the launch of many smaller trucking companies.

Now, many of the large trucking companies went under as a result, and Yellow felt it needed to acquire smaller companies to stay afloat. But taking out billions of dollars in debt to acquire those businesses, clearly became a problem, especially in the lead up to the 2008 economic collapse. So when that recession hit, trucking demand obviously evaporated, and executives wish that they had, you know, integrated faster. So business with Walmart, which was the largest customer, dropped around 50% between 2008 and 2010, which proved to be a financial fiasco for this company. Debt from the mergers and the operational complexity of running disparate brands continue to haunt the company.

The company said bankruptcy loomed again in 2014 and 2020. By the way, you should keep that date 2020 in mind because we're later going to get to how much the government tried to assist this company and now they're failing. Now James Welch, who was CEO from 2011 to 2018, said the company. deal making debt was its undoing, quote, we were just making, taking on too much debt and overpaid, end quote. Now, digesting the debt has been a slog for 20 years. The Wall Street Journal reports that Yellow's pricing was also irresponsibly low, if you can believe it. So Yellow's revenue per shipment in 2022, for example, was $319, while competitors were bringing in $400 per shipment. The lower prices were likely meant to mitigate the impact of poor service and

mismanagement. For example, Yellow's terrible reviews on consumer affairs resulted in the company's 1.9 out of five stars. All of this translated to a difficult financial situation for this company. And to be sure, the Teamsters conceded to so many things to help this company stay afloat. So anyone trying to blame the Teamsters is just not really understanding the situation, hasn't done the proper research into this story. Now, since 2009, Yellow's annual revenues have hovered close to $5 billion, but the company has posted losses most years and never a profit above $25 million. But while they undercharged most customers, Yellow allegedly, you know, overcharged the Department of defense and ended up getting sued for it. The DOD sued yellow for price gouging the government

from 2005 to 2013. The government alleged that yellow operating companies, YRC freight, yellow transportation, and roadway express, inflated shipment weights, build the defense department using improper rates, and falsified statements in efforts to conceal their actions. Yellow was accused of reweighing thousands of shipments and not returning the overpayments when the shipments were lighter than originally estimated. So in the end, Yellow ended up paying a settlement. Yellow paid about $6.8 million to the government and $2.1 million in settlements with investors to basically settle the nearly 13 year old civil matter. Yellow admitted no liability and denied the government's core allegations.

Now, the company was already in serious financial peril when the COVID pandemic hit, which begs the question, why exactly did the Trump administration agree to give this company a $700 million lifeline through a COVID rescue loan? The company, remember in 2020 noted that they're likely going to file for bankruptcy. So what was the Trump administration thinking? The company had reported a whopping $100 million loss in 2019. And the Trump administration still handed over the cash to this failing and mismanaged company. Congress actually investigated that decision and found that yellow didn't even meet the criteria for the government aid.

A congressional report in June of 2023 concluded that the Treasury Department had skirted its own rules in giving out the loan and that the Trump administration aired in lending the money to the troubled company. The loan was supported by the Teamsters at the time as a job-saving measure. And look, I don't blame them at all for supporting that, right? Their jobs were on the line. But the Teamsters weren't the issue. The issue was the mismanagement within this company. The issue was that the federal government really dropped the ball in allowing for these

mergers to take place in 2003 and 2005. Now, so far, yellow has paid only, get a little of this, $230 of that $700 million loan. And now the U.S. government is on the line for the rest. The U.S. Treasury now holds about 30% of yellow shares, which have plunged and ended Friday at 71 cents apiece. Now, Teamsters also needed to negotiate a new contract since the current one was set to expire in March of 2024. But clearly it was already too late. In June, the company even sought to deter two pension fund payments, putting it $50 million behind in its contributions.

Now, I'm unsure of what will happen with the pensions. There has been no reporting on that, and it's infuriating. It doesn't really seem like reporters care too much. However, the pension benefit guarantee corporation, which is a federal government agency, is likely going to be on the line for those pensions. While the details in this particular case are unclear, pension payments will likely be reduced down to the maximum guaranteed benefit. But the main point I want to make about this story is that we keep hearing over and over again

from the Republican Party that they're concerned about government waste. I mean, if there's ever an effort to invest in, let's say, a renewable energy company, I remember there was a big brouhaha over Cylindra and how the Obama administration provided some investment money for that renewable energy energy company. And then they failed. Republicans lost it. What a waste, what a waste, they said. Are you hearing from a single Republican lawmaker today who is concerned about government waste? Criticize the Trump administration for handing out $7 million to this trucking company that had red flags all.

over it. No, you're not hearing any criticism. You will hear them try to pin this on the Teamsters as if it's their fault, even though they engaged in multiple concessions in order to help this company stay afloat. But I want to reiterate again, the Teamsters had nothing to do with this. There was mismanagement, the willingness to take on unmanageable debt, and in the end, that debt is what did them in, totally destroyed this company. And now there's 33,000 workers across the country who have lost their jobs as a result of that. It is infuriating to say the least. It would have been far better for the federal government to seize the company knowing full well that they were likely going to go under and 33,000

workers were going to lose their jobs. That would have been a better solution as opposed to handing them $700 million that they were never going to return. Let me do one more story before we go to break. I do want to talk about this Candice Owens story briefly before we switch over to the second hour. I mean, we are in a matriarchy. And this is why they accuse me of being an internalized misogynist because I'm able to think through and acknowledge the flaws of what happens in society when women get power. And if you want to know what happens, look around you.

Women fall for emotional arguments the entire time. Show us a commercial, you know, it's so sad. And before they get to the rational aspects of it, they're already invested emotionally. And I think that virtually every societal ill that we are facing today is because of women. Virtually every societal ill that we're facing today is because of women. Candice Owens took advantage of her sit-down interview with alleged human sex trafficker and misogynist Andrew Tate to blame all of society's problems on women. Wealth and income inequality, women's fault.

Corporate greed? Women's fault. Even though they make up a fraction of corporate executives, of course. Our broken health care system, women, of course. The Pentagon's inability to pass a single audit. It's the ladies. Just kidding. Those are all very real problems that Candace can't blame on women. So let's hear the only example she can think of.

I think that virtually every societal ill that we are facing today is because of women. And I think the greatest recent example of that is the Bud Light controversy because, I mean, trans people were just playing dress up as women, invaded every woman, women's base. And women said, oh, but I feel bad because it's how he identifies at the inside without thinking through the fact that you're quite literally disappearing yourselves, right? You're quite literally saying, I will cease existing before I let this grown man who's wearing a wig have a bad feeling. That's insane. That is a patently insane emotional conclusion to come through. Then Dylan Mulvaney sipped one beer, one beer. And Kid Rock was out there with an AK.

And then, but like, collapse because men said absolutely not. And I give that example because women need to realize how backwards it is that it took men to stand up to say something was wrong. When it was so obviously patently wrong, nobody cared. for years until men stood up to it. Imagine being so privileged and so financially comfortable that the only thing you ever think about is a months long story involving a ticotker, a transgender ticotker being given a special bud light can. I just, is there anything else these people think about? Seriously. All right, I have more to say on that in just a

moment, but first I want to go to Andrew Tate because he did want to make it clear that men aren't always better than women. In fact, he believes that women are better at staying home and taking care of kids. There's certain things that women can do so much better than men. I said this the other day, I was saying to my brother, my brother had his daughter here and my niece was here and I said, isn't it amazing? I found this amazing. I said, isn't it amazing the patience a mother has with a toddler? I'm like, she's been listening. the Peppa Pig for four hours. I would lose my mind. I couldn't do it. I simply couldn't do it. So women have this emotionality, which is so fantastic when it's properly used, when it's put into

place it's supposed to be. I would never drop my child off to a daycare full of men. Would you drop your three-year-old child to a daycare run exclusively by males? It'd be weird. It's just something about it is weird. I wouldn't trust the men not to lose their temper with the kid. I wouldn't understand why all these men want to be around these children all day. It would be very weird scenario. So we all understand inately our gender roles, innately on some level. So women have a fantastic superpower when it's properly used. But like everything on earth, if you have a superpower or any kind of power at all and it's put in the wrong direction, it can be destructive. Water, if it's going through a dam, can power a city. If it's not going to a dam, it's a flood.

Look, I get that this is anecdotal, but as a woman, I can just clearly state that I have no patience for the toddler we just heard from. And look, it's not surprising that Candice Owens is going along with the garbage that Andrew Tate has been spewing. She has always stood by him throughout the entire span of his arrest. She cited her very realistic opinion of what women are capable of when she first rejected the allegations against Tate saying, quote, I believe is women, I believe, I don't, that statement doesn't even make sense. I believe is women, what I believe is women that trade sex for positions in Hollywood for

positions at work. And then when they regret that sex that they traded, they call a man a rapist. I believe that Andrew Tate is exactly what he tells us that he is in his videos when he talks about women. And he says that he thinks that women should be subservient to men. Yeah, okay. Look, just going back to what Candace Owens said in an earlier video that we showed you in this segment, She's touting Kid Rock and what a real man he is because he shot cans of Bud Light after the whole Bud Light Dylan Mulvaney Bruhaha. Kid Rock is still serving Bud Light at his bar. So like even that that stupid culture war issue that she's pointing to to throw women under

the bus doesn't even make sense. And this is the kind of commentary that you should expect among the financially privileged. because when you're making millions of dollars in spreading nonsense propaganda, the culture wars reigns supreme. And all the injustices and economic flaws in our system don't matter. They don't touch her. They don't affect her. So she has no idea about what the majority of Americans are dealing with. She has the time to sit around and think about freaking Dylan Mulvaney for months and tie that story to the flaws in women. Again, it makes no sense. We have very problems in this country. Okay? Again, we have a serious housing shortage, a serious housing

crisis. We have a broken health care system. We're not even able to allow Medicare to negotiate drug prices on our behalf. And Medicare is getting price gouged by pharmaceutical companies as a result. Whose fault is that, Candace Owens? Is it women? Is it Dylan Mulvaney? Is it Bud light. I'm so tired of the endless culture war distractions from these culture bores. This is all they care about. This is all they do. And we should just honestly mock them for it. It's so pathetic, so laughable. And I mean, she is a perfect example of what right wing media loves. You want to hate on women? You want someone who's willing to trash feminism, get a woman to do it. You want someone to trash black people, get a black person to do it. This is Candace Owens's

whole brand. And look, it's been very lucrative for her. So congratulations, Candice. But to blame women for the real problems that Americans are facing today is pretty pathetic and lacks any understanding about what's really going on in the country. It's pretty stupid. We're going to take a break. When we come back, Wosny-Lombay joins me for the second hour. Don't miss it. Thanks for listening to the full episode of the Young Turks. Support our work, listen ad-free, access members-only bonus content, and more by subscribing to Apple Podcasts at apple.com at apple.com slash t-y-t. I'm your host, Shank Huger, and I'll see you soon.