The Young Turks - Governor Chris Delulu

Episode Date: December 31, 2024

President Biden reportedly regrets stepping aside for Kamala Harris in the 2024 race, believing he could have defeated Donald Trump. Trump weighs in on the immigrant visa debate but provides little clarity on his position. New Hampshire Governor Chris Sununu argues that Elon Musk’s immense wealth eliminates any potential conflicts of interest." HOST: Ana Kasparian (@anakasparian), Cenk Uygur (@cenkuygur) SUBSCRIBE on YOUTUBE ☞  https://www.youtube.com/@TheYoungTurks FOLLOW US ON: FACEBOOK  ☞   https://www.facebook.com/theyoungturks TWITTER  ☞       https://twitter.com/TheYoungTurks INSTAGRAM  ☞  https://www.instagram.com/theyoungturks TIKTOK  ☞          https://www.tiktok.com/@theyoungturks 👕MERCH  ☞      https:/www.shoptyt.com 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 our trash revolution. I'm so upset. Oh my God. Bega! We're going to be able to be. All right, well, the young Turks, Jakey, Granite, experimenting with you guys.

Great to have you back, Casper. Thank you. Good to be back. Indeed. All right, here we are live from the Polymarket Studios in L.A. So, we've got a hell of a show for you guys today. And then at 8 o'clock Eastern, normally we do members only for bonus episode. But today, legendary Turks and Jerks.

So I'm going to weigh in John I'd roll, Jared Jackson, Rashad Ritchie. And so A, we want you guys voting on it. We've got a bunch of polls. On the main page, t.com, should we be talking to right wingers and trying to reach common ground? It's only for members, paying members, because we want to know what the core of the community thinks. So far, the results have been very interesting. And then at ty.com slash polls, Turk of the year, jerk of the year, because we're going to take what you say in the account. And then finally, real quick, all these fun categories you guys

created, our members did, including the worst mainstream media hosts of the year and the worst corporate Democrat. So, and the worst Trump pick. So there's a lot of super interesting stuff on it. CYT.com slash polls. By the way, while you're on the website, 20% off today. Are we not merciful? All right, Casper. All right, let me, before I get started, let me just just give you all a warning. And that includes you, Bart, because I'm going to rely on you a lot throughout the show. I'm getting over an illness. So if I cough, I apologize ahead of time. And I'll try to cut the mic as much as possible. Okay. Everything's going to be all right. All right. So why don't we start off with this insane story involving what Biden's been saying

behind the scenes in regard to some of his decisions in the lead up to the 2024 presidential election. Incredibly, President Joe Biden still thinks he would have beaten. Donald Trump had he stayed in the presidential race. And that's according to new reporting from the Washington Post, which spoke to more than two dozen people who are close to the president. So here's what they say. Biden and some of his aides still believe he should have stayed in the race despite the rocky debate performance and low poll numbers that prompted Democrats to pressure him to drop out. Biden and these aides have told people in recent days that he could have defeated Trump, according to people familiar with their comments.

Aids say the president has been careful not to place blame on Harris or her campaign. So let me just be very clear and blunt. There is absolutely no indication, no evidence, nothing to indicate that Joe Biden would have beaten Donald Trump. On the contrary, there is a mountain of evidence indicating that he would have lost to Trump. In fact, some of the people close to Biden have since come out publicly to admit that their internal polling was even worse than the public polling that we all saw for ourselves. So how can someone be this delusional? I don't understand. And I'm going to show you some of that evidence in just a moment. But, Jank, why don't you jump in?

I think there's something in this story that's even more important than Joe Biden being delusional. And it goes towards the state of not just Democratic Party, but all of Washington. And so that nudge. it is buried in here and I don't want you to miss it. We'll get to that in a little bit. Just real quick on this, look, his own advisors said he would have lost at least 400 electoral college votes and that he had, quote, a 0% chance of winning. So, and that was right before he dropped out. So, but he still holds on to it. And I believe that he actually believes it. And some of his internal advisors, closest advisors, actually believe it because the bubbles are so thick. You can get yourself to believe anything. And Anna, when you were away, we were

talking about wicked Adam McCain made some interesting comments about that movie. And apparently a lot of people on the left think that's Wizard of Oz is Donald Trump because he says he knows everything, then you lift the curtains and it turns out he knows nothing, right? And we have more on that later in this program. But I said, I could see how the right wing would think that Biden is the wizard of us. And oh, I don't worry, Democratic leadership knows everything. We're the professionals. We're the ones who know what's right and wrong and we play fourth dimensional chest. You open up the curtain and you've got a guy in mental decline who's like, I cut a one when literally no one in the country

thinks that. So the people in power are all the wizard of us. They don't know anything. They live in utter delusion. And this story is an excellent example of that. Well, I think what's also a common issue that you find with not just leaders in the United States, but world leaders, is once they surround themselves with yes men. And in this case, you know, this piece is not just about what Biden believed. It's what Biden and his aides believe. I mean, it's, it's hard to imagine that people who don't have cognitive decline like Biden would delude themselves into thinking that he had a shot in beating Donald Trump in the election. But his aides, allegedly, are saying, yeah, he could have totally beat Trump,

like he shouldn't have dropped out of the race. That is the regret. I mean, imagine at this point in the game, not confessing, not taking some ownership of the terrible decision to run for a second term or the terrible decision to stay in the race for as long as Biden did. No, no, there's no humility here, there's no self-reflection, it's just doubling down on the exact thing that Biden did wrong. It's amazing. But I think it's because he has people surrounding him that were nodding their heads and saying, yeah, totally, you're doing great, you could have beaten Trump.

Super quick out on that. Number one, remember, they have a giant incentive for Biden to stay in office. Because their power is attached 100% to Joe Biden. Even when it's another Democrat running, they lose all of their power. But I think that they genuinely do believe it because the bubbles are so thick. And as Anna tells you the rest of the story, I'm going to come back and tell you every charge they made against Trump, whether that's true or untrue, and most of them were true, applies even more so to Joe Biden. And this story again proves that. So let's talk a little bit about the evidence indicating that Biden really had no shot.

Okay, so polls predicted that he was going to lose and that he was going to lose badly. And in fact, you're looking at some evidence of that right now. So the New York Times poll, on the day he dropped out, had Biden losing by three points nationally and getting wrecked in the battleground states as well. So obviously, you need to win the battleground states. But more importantly, if you're a Democrat, because of how the electoral college is set up, and this is something Jenk has repeated many, many times, you need to win on a national level by five points. So to see Biden losing by three points nationally, not a good sign, a clear

indication he was going to lose. And real quick, Anna, those polls are off. Remember, they had Kamala Harris winning and she lost the popular vote. Exactly. So he wasn't really down three. He was down more than that. Even more than that. Exactly. These polls tended to overestimate the performance of the Democrat and underestimate the performance of Donald Trump. So some polls were actually even worse than that. So let's take a look at this. So a New York Times, Sienna College poll found Trump was ahead of Biden by six percentage points among likely voters and eight points ahead among registered voters. So some of Biden's closest allies acknowledge now that he was not the best candidate

to run against Donald Trump for the 2024 presidential race. But that's just because his style of governing did not always mesh with today's politics. Things are a little bit different, like stylistically these days. Like, that's what they're thinking. And I don't think that's it. But nonetheless, his national security advisor, Jake Sullivan, who I can't wait to never have to hear from again, says the president has been operating on a time horizon measured in decades while the political cycle is measured in four years. James Clyburn remember telling Biden that he had to revitalize his campaign because he was too focused on substance and not focused enough. on like the politics of winning, the new environment that we currently live in, style seems

to carry the day more than substance, your style does not lend itself well to the environment we're currently in. Or it could be that he was obviously deteriorating right before our eyes and the American people did not feel comfortable, re-electing him to serve a second term. I think that was the heart of the matter. And then you can also get into the substance of Democrats promising a whole host of policies that they never deliver on. And there's a lot of frustration and a lot of resentment toward Democrats because of that. And in addition to regretting his decision to drop out of the presidential race, there was also another move that Joe Biden wishes that he had not made. In private, Biden has said he should have picked someone other

than Merrick Garland as Attorney General complaining about the Justice Department's slowness under Garland in prosecuting Trump. it's aggressiveness in prosecuting Biden's son Hunter, according to people familiar with his comments. Look, I agree in regard to the criticism of Merrick Garland. The slowness in bringing the charges, if you're going to charge Trump, then why are you going to wait until you get super close to the election? And you know there's going to be delays in the cases. And if he wins, well, those cases go away for the most part. And that's exactly what happened. There was also plenty of blame for Biden to spread around. He has also mused on changes in the media,

arguing that he did not get enough credit for his accomplishments, especially on the economy, which inflation was crushing people. And then later, the high interest rates were crushing people. It's hard to make a case that Biden succeeded in bettering the economy when people were unable to afford the basics. And he did nothing about the housing market. I mean, the housing crisis is worse than ever before. And in fact, HUD, which is the Department of Housing and Urban Development under Biden, just put out a report showing that between January of 2023 and January of 2024,

homelessness increased by 18.1%. That is the highest recorded increase in homelessness that HUD has. ever recorded. So I mean, these are things that Americans are feeling day to day. So the idea that the media should have done PR for Biden is laughable to me. Yeah, to be fair, that's what he's experienced his whole life. So he thought, well, I don't have to put out my own message. I'll just get the media to do propaganda for me, as they have for the last 50 years. Call me the boy from Scranton, say, I'm such an average Joe, and every time I screw up,

just pretend it was a stutter. Never investigate me, knowing that now we know for sure that he had mental decline from day one, according to his own staffers. We're going to talk about this a little bit later, but, you know, one of the reporters said on CBS over the weekend, it was our biggest failing that we didn't look into Joe Biden's mental status. And yeah, yeah, and that's like considered controversial in mainstream media. No, it was an enormous failure of the media.

They were actually super kind and deferential to Joe Biden, but Joe Biden thought not enough. That's such a good point. That's such a good point, Jank. Because I remember as early as 2020, when he was running in 2020, we were getting brow beaten for bringing up Biden's obvious signs of mental decline. And we finally just dropped it because the gas lighting was, it was a lot. And it's like, okay, fine, whatever. Everyone says that it's inappropriate to bring this up, even though we see some obvious

signs. Yeah, and let me just say that's, it's not just Democrats, guys. It's mainstream media folks who browbeat people like us who tell the truth. Like when I go to Washington, if I say Joe Biden has mental decline issues, up until the debate, the reaction I would get every single time from reporters was this. They look at me like, you're some sort of radical. What are you, MAGA? Of course, Joe Biden's totally fine.

Totally fine. I can't believe you would say. They found it so outrageous. It's ageism, ableism, all sorts of, you know, we're going to call you names so you can shut up and understand that you're not supposed to speak out about this. Yeah, and look, I could prove it. So, like, we talk about bubbles. Biden had a bubble, but how about the mainstream media bubble? Did a single reporter or on-air anchor or pundit for four straight years before that debate go on air, certainly for the first three years as he's shaking hands with invisible people other than us, and we weren't allowed on cable news?

So on cable news or mainstream media, did anyone go on air and go, this guy's too old and it's obvious, there's got, hey, we need to investigate his doctors and look into, because when Trump came out with ridiculous notes from his doctors, they were like, let's look into the doctors, let's look into this. We don't believe him. When Joe Biden comes out and he says, oh yeah, my doctor says, I'm in great mental health. Every reporter's like, he's in great mental health. Run the propaganda, run the propaganda. All of you guys in mainstream media are pure propaganda, you don't even know it. So that brings me to what you referenced a little earlier, Jank. And that is CBS correspondent Jane Crawford. She was asked what she believed was the most underreported story of 2024. And her reply went viral. And I'm just going to preface it by saying, I commend her for this admission. Take a look.

That would be to me, Joe Biden's obvious cognizant decline that became undeniable in the televised debate. At the presidential debate was unquestioned. And, you know, it's starting to emerge now that his advisors kind of managed his limitations, which has been reported in the Wall Street Journal, for four years. And yet he insisted that he could still run for president. We should have much more forcefully questioned whether he was fit for office for another four years, which could have led to a primary for the Democrats. It could have changed the scope of the entire election.

Yet still, incredibly, we read the one. Washington Post that his advisors are saying that he regrets that he dropped out of the race, you know, that he thinks he could have beaten Trump. And I think that is either delusional or they're gaslighting. President Biden has. So just to clarify at the very end, she says, I think that is either delusional or they're gaslighting the American people. But Robert Costa decided to butt in and incredibly, believe it or not, continue to provide cover for Biden. Let's watch. President Biden has said repeatedly he was sick during the debate June 27th in Atlanta and he's always been fine and he leaves fine. That is his

position, the position of many of his top aides as well, even though there is that reporting. So, okay, so is that the standard operating procedure for Robert Costa? Is that how he does his reporting? If a politician says it, then it is by definition true and I print it. Come on. Yeah, I mean, look, they're still doing it. This is a, her saying that is a big, national headline story. Why? Because it's the first time any reporter on television is saying hey maybe we should have actually covered Joe Biden in a fair way and been a little bit tougher on him given that his aides are now saying that he was a mental decline the entire time he was president of the

United States of America and commander-in-chief. Look guys if we're being honest we should have been having a conversation about the 25th Amendment. So the guys obviously doesn't know what's happening at all. This guy who's in such bad shape, he literally doesn't even realize he had no chance of winning. He lives on a different planet, right? He's so detached from reality. They asked him about the drones and he's like, uh, I heard they were fine. He's not in charge. And did anyone say the 25th Amendment? I mean, they didn't come within miles of that when she finally says it at the end here after it's too late. Even then, people are scandalized

I know it's amazing. Because they think their job is to protect the establishment, to protect the people in power. Whenever it's an outsider, right wing or a left wing, they strut him to pieces. And whenever it's an insider, they're like, oh, we pray to you, we worship you. So I loathe mainstream media. And all they are is marketing for the status quo and corporate rules. So now back to Biden.

So this guy, how many times did I tell you on this show, Frozen in Amber, frozen in the 1970s. Now let me tell you one of the experts that the New, that Washington Post talked to, Zelser, He said, President Biden and his supporters often yearned for a world that disappeared. You can't actually govern the way you did in the 1970s in 2021. Now, why does that person say that? Because all of the reporting is that Joe Biden wanted to run the place like it was the 1970s. And he thought, well, no, I'm going to bring people back to the way it should be and show that

Trump was just a fad and that no one should worry about him. He was just an aberration. And we're going to instill faith back into our systems and our institutions. Well, brother, if you're talking about the Constitution and democracy, that makes sense. But if you're talking about instilling faith in the system that is money and politics and corruption and the current system that we have, the country despises that system. And so what he did was say, well, I love this. And by the way, at a bare minimum, can you distinguish between the two things, the foundations

of the country that they love and the current corrupt system that they hate. But even more important than that, guys, do they even understand that difference? And the answer is a resounding no. No one inside the White House for four straight years understood a simple concept of people aren't mad at the Constitution. They're not mad at democracy. They're mad at money in politics. They're mad at the corruption.

They're mad that you're obviously serving the donors, obviously. So then the second part of it is they're like, oh, it turns out it's a new media ecosystem. And Joe Biden was just hoping that they would be kind to him, even if he didn't make his own case. But it turns out they weren't, or at least not sufficiently enough for him. He's like, they kissed me only on my left cheek. I expect them kiss on the left and the right and the middle cheeks. And so. There's a middle cheek?

Well, there's a lot of cheeks. Right. And Biden wanted all of it. And he's like, what, the media won't serve me, even though I'm the ruler, right? And so, look, guys, again, put aside the media bias, put aside the establishment's perspective, but look at how little they care about figuring out the political world as it is. Because if they think Trump is that dangerous, you should do your homework and you should work over time to figure out, hey, what media ecosystem are we in?

How do we get our message out? Should we try different things to get our message out? Or should we just stick with old man Biden's thought of, everybody's like in 1970s? We'll just do the right thing and say that the system is the greatest thing in the world. And they're all supported magically. I mean, you have to be a moron to think. I'm sorry, guys.

But if you're in Washington, you have no idea how stupid you are. Like, you keep talking down to everyone. Like, you know things. And then you don't do the most simple homework. Hey, gee, I wonder how we can win an election. Yeah. I wonder how we get our message out. And by the way, you wanna know a clue here, I'll buy you a clue.

Do your own press conferences. If you had a president who wasn't in mental decline that you were trying to hide because you're all corrupt and you're all intensely selfish and don't care about the American people or American democracy at all, what you would have done is had a strong president come out and go, look at these inflation numbers. I know they're problematic and I'm on it, and we're gonna work on it. and we're going to work on price couching, but we did so much better than the rest of the world, France, Germany, et cetera, Japan, you make your case, right?

Look at these unemployment numbers, the record low unemployment. Why didn't Joe Biden do the bare minimum? Because he's so arrogant and he's so stuck in the old ways and he didn't care to change. Even if it damned his own party, even if it damned a country, his ego was more important than everything else combined. I loat that man now. This propaganda of how he's a sweet old man and he cares about people and how much empathy he has, that's nothing but junk marketing paid by a bunch of crooks in mainstream media. So lastly, Anna, look, I told you about the charges against Trump are also true against Biden.

So what were those? People said that Trump was a huge lie. That's true. I said that and that's definitely true. Well, what's Joe Biden? He's been lying about his mental decline for four straight years, let alone the fact that he's told many other outrageous lies that he was arrested with Nelson Mandela while protesting apartheid in South Africa.

That is not a small lie. That would have been one of Trump's biggest lies. That his uncle was eaten by cannibals, lunatic lies. But mainstream media realizes after the election, oh, maybe we should have challenged them once, right? At least some did realize it. At least some. I don't even realize that.

I know. I know, I know. So that's right. So number one, giant liar. True of Trump, true of Joe Biden. Giant ego. What did Biden do? I'm not stepping aside.

It has to be me, me, me, me, me, me. I don't care about anyone else. I am the demigod. It must be me. I don't care if I'm gonna get checked into a senior citizen center the day after the election. Number three, against democracy. Well, what you do, brother? You made sure there was no primary on the Democratic side.

You made sure no one else. had any opportunities, you canceled primary after primary, your party did, and you ate it and abetted that. So you were against democracy. And finally, meddling with his own government officials, you know Trump famously, I'm disappointed with my attorney general sessions and all that stuff. And what did Biden do at the end? Oh, I'm disappointed my attorney general, just like Trump said, and I wish that he had investigated

my political opponent earlier. And more aggressively. And more aggressively. That at least has some merit on the substance. right? Because it made it seem more political to do it later. But look, he's saying, I wish I had meddled with my attorney general and made him investigate my political opponent earlier. And I wish I would have meddled with him and made sure he never investigated me or my family or anyone attached to me. That's exactly what we said was wrong with Donald Trump. Four for four exact same things

Biden and Trump. Now, did the press cover it that way? We did. Did the right wing media tell you all the problems with Trump? Did the left wing media tell you all the problems with Biden? Did mainstream media tell you all the problems with the establishment? No, because they're all doing propaganda and marketing. None of them are actually doing the news. When we come back, we'll give you an update on the internal war brewing within Donald Trump's base over H-1B visas. Trump has weighed in on it, and I can't wait to tell you who he's siding with. We'll be right back. All right on T.O.T. Jake, Anna and T.S.J. Thanks for joining, brother. He hit the join button below. Anna.

Let's get right to our next story. The H-1B visa program is a total and complete scam concocted by the Lord of easy money on Wall Street in the oligarchs in Silicon Valley. The citizens in this country are what provided the platform for you nerds even to exist. We're not going to take the temperature down. We're not going to take the temperature down. Oh no. Oh no. Oh no. Oh no. We do not, it's no backing down. It's doubling down.

Well, now the big question is how will Steve Bannon respond to Donald Trump? because Donald Trump has weighed in on this giant debate within the MAGA base in regard to H-1B visas. These are work visas for high-skilled foreign workers that are typically hired by tech companies. Silicon Valley has taken a lot of advantage of that program. And so in speaking with the New York Post, Donald Trump said, I have many H-1B visas on my properties. I have been a believer in H-1B, I have used it many times, it's a great program. Now, to be clear, Trump is confusing the visas that he utilizes in hiring workers for his

properties. He's using a different type of visa entirely. I'll explain what that is in just a minute. But the debate right now centers on H-1B visas, which focus on high-skilled workers who are typically hired as engineers or to work in IT in Silicon Valley. These are people who have specialized skills. The types of foreign workers that Donald Trump hires for his properties are typically those who have H2B and H2A visas. And those are for, you know, unskilled labor, right?

Agricultural workers and, you know, low-skilled workers to do, you know, work on Mar-a-Lago and other properties like that. I'll get more specific about that in just a minute. But it's really interesting to see how this is playing out, Jane. because, you know, famously, Donald Trump has been anti-immigrant, but he has always kind of had that caveat of wanting to bring in immigrants who are high-skilled and who he feels are going to contribute to American society. And I remember in his first term, he had a conversation with Steve Bannon about it. And Steve Bannon is anti-immigration, period. He's a hardliner. That's what you heard in the compilation clip in the beginning. And so that debate just kind of went away.

in the first term, but now it's back because Elon Musk has the president-elect's ear, and he has benefited from foreign workers coming in and working at Tesla and things like that. There are problems with the H-1B visa program. I'll get to that in just a minute, but I'm curious what you think about this internal disagreement. So I think this is absolutely critical, and it has very little to do with the H-1B visas. it has to do with this internal civil war and whoever wins that and it might be messy and it might not be that one side wins definitively for four years it might rock back and forth we'll see how it plays out but that's the major story here the fact that Steve Bannon and

Elon Musk are in an all-out brawl and Trump has to figure out who to side with is an amazing story and the fact that it's not absolutely clear which one is right that they might be both be right and wrong in different ways is also interesting it is it is Because politics used to be so simple, right? The Republicans say this, the Democrats say that they're both fake. It's good cop, bad cop. And at the end, they give the tax cuts to the rich, right? That's how it works 98% of the time.

Now, the talking points are out the window. And there's people fighting on the right, in the left, against each other, et cetera. So along those lines, but I want to come back to H-1B visas to just give you the context of this particular fight. So that's for engineers, but not extraordinary. That's a different visa for like extraordinary people that are actors, singers, et cetera, right? Or athletes. So then you've got the H2B that is for more blue collar workers and H2A, which is just strictly for agriculture workers, right? H2A is the only one that's unlimited because keeping it real, Americans are not doing those jobs.

And we need those folks to come in and do those jobs. Everybody kind of agrees to that, at a minimum, secretly agrees to that. But the other two are capped and the question is, you know, do you have a lot of them, some of them or none of them? So when Trump talks about the H-1B visas, in the past, he was in the first term, he was definitely against and now he says, oh, I use them all the time, that's not true. He had about a dozen applications, but then withdrew them. He mainly used the H-2B visa for waiters.

Yeah, let me get to those details because no, you're wrong actually. He was making a case in favor of H-1B visas and Bannon disagreed with him in the first. term. And then that debate just kind of went away. Yeah, it's mixed Anna. Yeah, I don't know. It's maybe Bannon temporarily persuaded him to be against H-1B visas, but I distinctly remember how Trump was like opening up about like, oh, no, but we want the skilled workers to come in. Yeah, I know what you're remembering. It was literally an interview he did with Steve Bannon, I think, on a serious satellite radio show. And Steve Bannon said, we don't want these guys coming in from India and China. I do remember that, yeah.

executives in Silicon Valley, and that's where Trump did the right thing. And he was like, no, what difference does it make? As long as they're rich and they're good, good at what they do, et cetera, right? But technically, he was against H-1B visas in his first term. Okay, all right, so let's get to some more specific details here. So look, the skilled worker program that offers the H-1B visas currently has a cap of 65,000 per year, a number that technology companies have pushed to increase. So the tech CEOs want to lift that cap because let's keep it real, it helps them save on labor costs.

This does drive down wages for American workers in this line of work. There's no question about that. Lee Fong wrote an excellent piece about very specific companies in Silicon Valley that have really abused this system to the detriment of American workers. So I do think that some who are against the H-1B visas are making a decent point about that. But I also think that we can keep the program while reforming it because I also think that there might be some instances where we don't have enough American workers for certain specialized jobs, right? It really depends. I do think Americans should be considered first for these

jobs, but there is evidence to indicate that that has not been the case. And I'll give you that evidence in a minute. But then you go to the H2B visas, which are for non-agricultural, unskilled labor. Trump's businesses do benefit from this the most. Their cap. at 66,000 per year. And finally, there's the H2A visas, which are for agricultural workers, and those do not have any caps. So from 2003 to 2017, Trump's companies were approved for more than 1,000 H2 visas for jobs like cooks, housekeepers, waiters at his properties, including Mara Lago in Palm Beach, Florida, and the Trump National Golf Club in Jupiter, Florida.

And then in each instance, the companies have to attest that there's just no American citizen that can perform this job, which I find difficult to believe when it comes to the Mar-Lago and, you know, the golf club jobs. And then there's the agricultural jobs, right? Currently Trump's winery in Charlottesville, Virginia is seeking 31 foreign vineyard farm workers under the H-2A program, offering them $15.81 per hour. So hours before Donald Trump said that he is siding with Elon Musk and he's in favor of these visas, Steve Bannon had actually just done his show and he was attacking Elon Musk for wanting to not only protect the program, but also lift the cap. And so to Elon Musk's credit, he's also open to reforming the system for its flaws and abuses. So I want to mention that as well. But Bannon wants none of it.

And so this is what he said on his show, in response to Elon Musk, just hours before Trump weighed in on it. This is for Elon Musk. The reason I'm in America along with so many critical people who built SpaceX, Tesla, and hundreds of other companies that made America strong is because of H-1B. Take a big step back and F yourself, all caps, in the face. F yourself in the face. I will go to war on this issue, the likes of which you cannot possibly comprehend. Oh, yeah, tough guy. You're going to go to war on the likes of which you cannot possibly comprehend.

You're a man-child. The H-1B visa program is a total and complete scam concocted by the lords of easy money on Wall Street in the oligarchs in Silicon Valley. to both initially to just increase profit margins. But there's a darker element to it today. A contempt of America and American citizens, and we're not going to tolerate it. You need to honor this country, and you need to honor the citizens in this country.

The citizens in this country are what provided the platform for you nerds even to exist. Because in the predatory nature, the Darwinian environment of the world as it is, you would have already been crushed and destroyed. in Donald Trump's base and you have the hardliners like Steve Bannon. Like, I think that there are good people who are concerned about American jobs, right? I don't think that those people fall in the same category as Steve Bannon, who seems to be more in favor of creating like some sort of ethno state type of situation.

So I don't want the good people who have real legitimate concerns about the H-1B visa program to be lumped in with the Steve Bannons. Then you have the Elon Musks, who I think are more representative of big business in Silicon Valley, and they absolutely have taken advantage of this program to maximize their profits. So for instance, let's focus on Tesla for a second. Tesla is relying quite heavily on these workers. So Tesla has obtained 724 H-1B visas this year alone. And so, yeah, if you're benefiting from it, and if you're able to pay these forms, workers a little less and also take advantage of them working like workhorses,

then yeah, you're going to want to protect that program and you're going to want to lift that cap. But oftentimes this is happening to the detriment of American workers. And that's what I was referring to in regard to Lee Fong's reporting. So just to give you a quick example, Jank, he writes that Google, Amazon, and Microsoft all rely on a funnel of such workers. Meta is classified as H-1B dependent over its unusually high. foreign visa workforce. And as layoffs hit Silicon Valley last year, the tech industry ramped up applications to bring in even more foreign personnel. So they're literally laying off American workers and replacing them with the foreign workers. And so that's where some of the resentment

is coming from and where some of the concern is coming from. And I don't want to discount that. because it does drive wages down, even for people who went to college, probably put themselves themselves in a tremendous amount of debt, and then are unable to find jobs in Silicon Valley despite the education that they went out and pursued. Yeah, so this story is so interesting because they're both half right and half wrong, Steve Bannon and then Elon Musk, and where those halves fall are going to be determinative. So Steve Bannon is against all immigrants, and he even makes it racial. So does Laura Lumer.

And in a minute, we're going to agree, I don't know about Anna, I'm going to agree with Laura Lumer. Disagree. Okay, all right. So hold on, we're going to show you that video and I'm going to tell you why. Okay. So we don't agree with Laura Lumer and Steve Bannon on their anti-immigrant stance. Racism?

Their rhetoric, their racism, then when they specifically talk about other races and say they don't want them here, it doesn't, I mean, that's like the definition of racism. This is not like, hey, there's something wrong with their institution, so I'm calling everyone in the country a white supremacist. No, they specifically will say, we don't want Indians in the country. Yeah. That's the definition of racism. Okay. So now, on the other hand, when they talk about, hey, we need to protect American workers and sometimes these companies and their corporate executives, and the donor class aren't interested in doing the right policy for America.

They're interested in doing the right policy for Tesla or SpaceX or their individual companies. They are correct about that. And the fact that they are telling right wing voters in this battle, remember, watch out for the donor class, watch out for the corporate executives, is really important. So as much as I loathe Bannon and Lumer on those things that I have every right to load them on, It is super interesting and important, and yes, I'm going to say it, positive that they are saying, watch out for the donor class, watch out for corporate rule. I mean, Steve Bannon the other day said we need to increase corporate taxes dramatically.

We need to raise taxes on the rich. And those folks need to help pay for the things that helps the average American. I mean, that is what we've been saying for 20, 25 years. And so I'm going to, I'm not going to do this silly. thing that the left has done for a long time. A person has said one bad thing, even if it's like nuclear bad, or a couple of bad things or whatever, that's it. I won't take yes for an answer. I'll just dismiss them out of hand and say there's nothing to do. I'm going to close my mind and I'm not even going to think about it. I'm not going to do nuance and I'm not going to

try to do an interesting strategy where we go, you're right on the corporate executives and corporate rule. You're terribly wrong on race, right? And separate out social and economic issues. When you get to Elon Musk, he's right there. What are you guys doing talking about how Indians are this and that or Muslims are bad? He's offended by the racist rhetoric and he should be. I mean, some of Laura Loomers, see, look, I don't know what you are specifically referring to that you agree with with Laura Loomers. So I'll wait to watch the video. However, her tweets, some of her tweets were some of the most disgusting tweets I've read on X.

And that's saying something. And that's saying something. Yeah, 100%. But so when you go to the H1BVs, before we go to the tape, A really interesting, thoughtful critique of them is from David Sorota, who's a great progressive, right? And Soroto talks about, hey, look, they're using these, not because they really can't find any engineers in America. It's just that they don't want to pay the engineers, the prices that they would have to pay. The salaries, they would have to pay them under normal condition.

So they bring in guys to work at half the rates. And so this is just another form of corruption. And so my guess on H-1B visas is the answer is somewhere in between, that H-1B visas can be used appropriately and can be amazing and wonderful and bringing some top talent from across the world here, which I think is great and strengthens us. But we need to be careful that it's not abused by corporations so that it drives our wages lower, including for engineers, right? But nobody's having that nuanced conversation.

So at the end of the day, Trump just goes, Elon or Banon, Elon or Ban, oh, he's, Elon's got way more money. Elon. And he chose Elon and said H1B visas are great when that was not his earlier position. And he uses H2B visas, not H1B visas. So that is inaccurate. So we got the Laura Luma media clip. Yes. Yes. So let's watch. What we need to have a conversation about is what is it going to mean for the future of our country, our national security, and the incoming Trump administration, if we have a bunch of technocrats who are also essentially well because their companies are receiving government subsidies and they want to take over our defense industry. If you have a bunch of tech bros with billions of dollars and direct unfettered access

to the vice president and the president of the United States, and then they are also, you know, very cordial with our adversaries as in China and Iran. We see that Elon Musk is having these meetings off the books with Iranian officials, with Chinese officials. What does that mean for us? and the future of our constitutional republic. Okay, I mean, it bothers me to say, but almost everything she said there was totally right. So they are getting government subsidies. Elon's companies get enormous government subsidies. They are looking for breaks for their own companies.

They do care about making separate deals with China, Iran, and everyone else. Because a ton of their money, billions and billions of dollars are tied up in China. That is their interest, not the American interest. Those are two different things. When she called those corporate executives and the corporations themselves, welfare queens, something I've called them for a long time and people caught feelings over. They are welfare queens. The oil companies take $30 billion in subsidies and rob us blind every single year.

What she said about depending on was right. Now, for those of people who think, well, no, Laura Lumer is unacceptable. You can't ever say she's right, even if she says the sky is blue and the grass is green. she has said the worst possible things about Muslims. I'm Muslim. So I get it. I get it. She's terribly wrong on race, right? But at the same time, you have significant portions of MAGA that are now saying corporate rule sucks and I'm tired of taking my taxpayer money and giving it to these executives and to these companies. And let's make sure we're careful about the donor class, even ones next to Donald Trump. That is an excellent development. Excellent. They are thinking for themselves.

They are looking out for corruption, even among Trump's donors. So even if I disagree with them on the H-1B visa, the fact that this rebellion is happening and the civil war is happening is wonderful news. Not because it's going to destroy the Republican Party, which is what Rachel Maddo is going to say, right? But because it's actually showing you that they're thinking for themselves and we might be able to have the most untraditional alliances you have ever seen to actually fight against corporate rule. Issue by issue. Issue by issue.

Exactly. So yeah, I mean, I agree. In that clip, what she said was correct. And I will also commend them for engaging in a debate on the substance of this program, right? I think it's important to find solutions. I don't want to get rid of the H-1B visa program, but I do think it needs to be reformed because there is evidence that it's being abused to this. detriment of American workers. And I think it's important to protect American workers,

especially when they've done what they're supposed to do. They went to school. They took out the student loan debt. And now they're unable to find a job in Silicon Valley because foreign workers are being brought in to maximize profits for these companies. All right, with that in mind, let's take a break. And when we come back, we'll talk about why outgoing lawmaker Chris Sununu might be named Chris DeLulu after you hear this story that he's involved in. We'll be right back. All right on T.O.T. Janganana with you guys. More news. All right. We got to talk about Chrisanunu.

As much as people say, well, Elon is a billion billionaire outsider. First, I don't that they're billionaires. I like people that are successful. I like the fact that he's in a way he's so rich, he's so removed from the potential financial influence of it. What? All right. Well, yesterday, Chris Sununu, the outgoing governor of New Hampshire, stated that Elon Musk is just too rich to have any conflicts of interest between his many businesses and his newfound role in advising Donald Trump and the government. So look, we'll explain why Sununu is a bit delulu in a minute, but first, we're going to show you Sununu's full statement in full context about why he's not worried about Elon Musk having

such close ties and connections and influence to president-elect Donald Trump. Let's take a look. As much as people say, well, Elon is a billionaire outsider. First, I don't mind that they're billionaires. I like people that are successful. I'd rather the difference whether a billionaire or broke. I'd rather have someone successful. And I like that it's an outsider and an engineer and not a while a politician and not looking for anything out of the game.

He's not that much of an outsider. In fact, one of the criticisms and the concerns is that he has billions of dollars tied up in government contracts. You don't see a conflict of interest here? Everyone has a conflict of interest at some level. But that's like a pretty big one. The guy's worth $450 billion as of today and this month. So I don't think he's doing it for the money. He's doing it for the bigger project and the bigger vision of America.

He doesn't need the dollars. He really doesn't. So it's not about, oh, if I get involved in this, I'll get another little contract here or there. That's nothing to him. So I like the fact that he's in a way he's so rich, he's so removed from the potential financial influence of it. So there's this saying in Armenian, it's not really a saying, but it's like a thing that you hear from Armenians.

It's Achka Kushhta, that means their eye is full. Meaning like, they're good, they don't need more. They're not looking for more. They're satisfied. When it comes to the billionaire class, they're never satisfied. Okay, it's part of the reason why they're billionaires. Okay, and so it might not necessarily be about the money, but it might be about the genital measuring contest, right?

Like, there's more to it than, oh, he's rich enough so the conflicts of interest don't matter. No, no, the conflicts of interest always matter. And to have someone that close to the president elect, advising him on what to cut in government funding, right? And what to increase in government funding is concerning when he could very easily persuade him to increase government grants for his own businesses and his own companies. That is a legitimate concern. Yeah. So a couple of comments here, starting with what you were talking about, Anna, This whole idea that he's too rich to care about money is hilarious, hilarious. So the number one thing that, and I was just having a conversation with somebody about this,

about the, I'm not talking about the top 10% or even top 1%, but the guys aren't like the Forbes 400 list. The number one thing that they're obsessed with is where they rank on the list. 100%. So it's not about like, oh my God, if I get a little bit more money, I can eat at any restaurant I like. No, they're all way, way, way past that, right? So to them, it's all about ego and I gotta have more, I gotta have more, I gotta be number one. So it's never enough. Elon Musk is always worried about Jeff Bezos.

That's so true. And also, his shareholders. And how do you think he got that money? You think he got it by not caring about money, okay? No, he got it by cutting corners and getting government subsidies and firing 75% of his workers because he's obsessed with money. Right? And this is a comical thing that people in the establishment say to protect their donors. Oh, don't worry, our donors are so rich. That's why they're unbiased. Hilarious. By the way, Maga makes that same mistake about Donald Trump.

Yeah. They say, oh, he's so rich, he doesn't care about money. Okay, anyways. So the second thing is about outsider. He said, oh, Elon Musk is an outsider? No, he wasn't part of the regular establishment, but is he an outsider in the way that we think of like Bernie Sanders? or, you know, some folks on the right, right? Not Trump, because Trump's in the same category as Elon Musk, which is vague, right? But Steve Bannon is kind of an outsider, as much as we loathe him.

He's definitely an outsider. Yeah. And so whereas Trump and Elon are in this category of, no, they're super rich, and they have the same interests as rich people do, they have the same interests as corporate rule, they want the same things as corporate rule, and what do they do? Trump do? Corporate tax cuts, tax cuts for the rich, and did almost none of the things that he promised man on his first term. Now he sides with Elon again. So it's a misdirection. Elon and Trump in that sense are not the outsiders Sununu's talking about. He's trying to give

them the veneer of like, oh, they're radical. And they're just holding people feet to the fire and they're being honest. No, no. He's an insider, the richest man in the world who cares about making way more money for himself and any child would know that. Right, and by the way, I mean, Chris Sununu told on himself a little bit there, because when Dana Bash made clear that there are some serious conflicts of interest with Elon Musk, so he was like, well, I mean, everybody's got conflicts of interest. Oh, do they? What are your conflicts of interest?

Oh, yeah. And all of his donors have conflicts of interest, et cetera. And he thinks that's normal course of action. So look, guys, here's what's super interesting. Dan Abash, good questions there. and you've seen me criticize her vociferously before, right? So interestingly, Dana Bash, Steve Bannon, and me are on the same side of this, which is, no, Elon Musk definitely has conflicts of interest,

and you should be really concerned about them as you would be with any donor. George Soros, corporations, unions, but certainly, at least unions stand up for the average guy and labor, right? But Elon Musk stands up for himself. So it's strange bedfellows everywhere you look and Chris Sununu, who you say hate Donald Trump, now in the same team as Donald Trump, Elon Musk, as long as they're doing corporate favors. That's the interesting part about this, right? Because think about it, with the whole H-1B visa debate, Elon Musk wants to protect the program and increase the cap to bring in more, you know, high-skilled foreign workers. That benefits corporations. So it doesn't surprise me that you have

these corporate politicians supporting Elon Musk. And remember, Elon Musk was also a big money donor to Donald Trump's campaign. And Donald Trump has now come out in defense of Elon Musk and his position on H-1B visas. Trump says he's in favor of the program. And you know, Elizabeth Warren had written a letter to Donald Trump asking him to resolve Elon Musk's conflicts of interest. And here's what she wrote. Musk's automobile, Musk's automobile company, Tesla, has obtained nearly

$42 million in government contracts to provide electric vehicles and services to the government. The government indirectly subsidizes the company and its competitors via $7,500 federal tax credit for EVs. Further, she writes that SpaceX Musk's rocket company has received nearly $20 billion in government contracts to provide crucial rocket launches. The company provides critical Department of Defense support in Ukraine and around the globe via its satellite-based internet service, StarShield, the military version of Starlink. And so if you have the president's ears, you are more likely to ensure that that gravy train from the federal government keeps on going.

Yeah, so there's two different categories there, government contracts and government subsidies. You know, if he's getting the same subsidies as everyone in renewable energy, okay, I get it, right? In terms of the government contracts, some of his companies do great. Let's be honest. SpaceX was used to bring back some pilots for Boeing because Boeing screwed up their space mission as well as every other mission so badly. Yeah. Right.

So now that should, like, we should be fair no matter what. Just because Elon's a donor to Trump, I wouldn't say, oh, pull all of a space X's contracts. That's crazy. Are they doing a better job or worse job, right? And if they're doing a better job, no problem with having. contract. But should we be careful? Of course. And were these same reporters careful back when the establishment was in charge? Well, I have a perfect example. How about Halliburton? When they got no bid contract after no bid contract for billions upon billions of dollars. And who gave him those no

bid contracts? Dick Cheney, their former CEO when he was vice president. And what did they give him right before he gave him those no bid contracts? He gave him a $34 million golden parachute exit package. So that was open bribery. It was one of the worst piece of corruption I have ever seen in American politics. And mainstream media barely covered it, never mentioned it, never brought it up, because as long as the establishment is robbing you, they're super happy about it because that's their beloved corruption. But now that this is happening, all of a sudden they're a little wary, and that's interesting

too. So we'll see how this all plays out, but anyone who thinks that conflicts of interest in government don't matter, they're just delusional. And that's certainly the case with Chris Sununu. All right, we got to take a break. When we come back for the second hour of the show, we'll do a little bit of international news. Check in on what's transpiring in Gaza and more. Don't miss it. I don't know.