The Young Turks - Greasing Lips

Episode Date: May 24, 2023

NYC professor allegedly threatens New York Post reporter with machete. The man who crashed U-Haul near White House was charged with threatening harm. House GOP auctions off McCarthy's used chapstick as debt talks intensify. The NAACP president explains why the group issued a Florida travel advisory. Here’s what workers really care about, according to a Post-Ipsos poll. Newsmax segment condemns Fox News' trans-inclusive bathroom policy. Cenk Uygur (@CenkUygur), 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. Woo! It's up! All right, welcome to the Young Turks, Jane Huguer Anna Kusparan with you guys, really crazy day, interesting day. And among the interesting stories today is Tucker Carlson and Donald J. Trump looked like there might be teaming up to take on Fox News.

There's not been this dramatic a tag team since the road warriors crossed over to the WWF. Nobody saw it coming, right? And so, and then they took on the wild Samoans, and everybody knows how that ended. We all know. Okay, so that's later in the program, as well as a lot of madness. So let's get started, Casper. Well, we do have a story involving an attack on the White House. We will discuss that in just a moment, but a different story that broke.

pretty soon before we started the show today has to do with a professor in New York, an example of politically motivated violence on the left that I don't think is helpful at all. So let's talk about it. An adjunct professor in Manhattan's Hunter College threatened to chop up a New York Post reporter while holding a machete to his throat. Now we're going to explain the context in which this occurred, but first, the shocking video. to my door. Get the f*** away from my door. Let's get out of here.

You can't do that. Let's get out of here. You can't. So that was Shelly Ann Rodriguez. Again, an adjunct professor at Hunter College. The reporter there is from the New York Post, and he actually approached her at her Bronx apartment to ask her questions about an incident that occurred on the Hunter College campus involving anti-abortion students. They had set up a booth. I'll give you some more

information about that in just a moment. But here's a little more of what led up to this incident. So on Tuesday, meaning today, New York Post reporter Ruben Fenton knocked on Rodriguez's door. Rodriguez yelled from inside, get the F away from my door or I'm going to chop you up with this machete. Fenton identified himself in moments later. She emerged from her apartment wielding a machete, which she promptly put to Fenton's neck. Now, the post is reporting that the reporter and his photographer immediately left after she did that for obvious reasons. But she, an armed Rodriguez, then followed them outside of the building onto the street where she accosted them outside and continued to threaten them. She said, quote,

If I see you on this block one more effing time, you're gonna, Rodriguez said, while still wielding the knife, the machete, get the F off the block, get the F out of here, yo. The professor briefly chased the post photographer down the street to his car before coming back to kick the reporter in the shins. She finally retreated into the building after that occurred. So I'm going to take a little break and get your thoughts, Jank. Yeah. So not remotely acceptable. And I don't know what other shows are going to say about it if they're even going to cover it. But I don't want anybody thinking that the progressive position is to hold machetes to reporters next. No, totally, utterly unacceptable. She should be fired immediately. And so what bothers me is that a lot of times when stories break, everybody gets tribal, right? And you go to your different corners, different. political corners, different, ethnic corners, et cetera. And so she's one of us, she's a minority, right? So that's it, we're going to defend her.

No, no. And if she puts a machete to a reporter's neck, can Matt Walsh do it? Can Tucker Carlson do it? I mean, we'd be outraged if something like that happened. And we should be outraged because resorting to violence is, first of all, not a good way to win over or persuade anyone of anything. And it's a moral, it's a moral. It is counterproductive and you know, look, this is the New York Post.

Some might be uncomfortable and might not trust what's coming from the New York Post. I certainly want to see receipts when it comes to these types of narratives, right? They provided the receipts in the form of the video you watched and also in terms of Rodriguez accosting the photographer and the reporter outside of the building. They provided some evidence of that in the form of a photo, which you can take a look at right here. So clearly you could see that she has something in her hand, which I'm assuming is the machete. It's not that clear in that image. We saw the video.

There's no and zips or butts about it. So look, again, this just broke. So I don't really know what anybody else is going to say about it. But it should be universal. This is, she's, this is her second act of violence. And trust me that the right wing has more machetes, more AR-15s, more weapons, are more willing to use it. getting into physical violent altercations is crazy. Now, you mentioned that she should be fired.

She has been fired and we'll get to the statement from the college in just a moment. But I think it's also important to understand why a reporter would show up to her door. Like what did he want to ask her about? Because look, and let me just say, if you're on the left and you want to make the case that a reporter showing up to her door is unacceptable and she felt threatened and that's why she can use violence against the reporter. I disagree. Would you say the same thing about Taylor Lorenz when she was showing up to relatives homes to speak to Chaya Racheck? Right? I mean, no, that would be unacceptable. So it's not close. Let me give you further context, right? So what did

the New York Post reporter want to talk to her about? Well, it had to do with an incident that occurred on the campus of Hunter College on May 3rd. So there were some anti-abortion students who set up a booth, and the booth, you know, was meant to pass out information in the form of pamphlets in regard to their political views and their ideology when it comes to reproductive rights. She didn't like that, and she approached the students, and here's what happened. You're not educated. This is propaganda. What are you going to do? Like, anti-translectry? You're not what you're going to do next? I mean, you know, we're talking about abortion.

This is bull. This is violent. You're triggering my students. I'm sorry about that. No, you're not. Because you can't even have me. So you don't even know what that is. You don't even know what this is. You don't know what this is. Number one, they're students.

Number two, I mean, I disagree with their political views. It's a college campus where your ideology, your political views, whatever stance you have on any particular policy issue, should be debated and discussed openly. It's supposed to be the kind of environment where you're supposed to be environment where you're supposed to have an exchange of ideas. And the fact that she got like that, what the students is insane to me. The students who set up the booth are with the students for life of America.

You guys know what my views on reproductive rights are. I've been pretty aggressive in promoting the notion that women should have full autonomy of their bodies, full agency, they should be able to make the decision in regard to what they do. But nonetheless, I'm not going to assault students and start throwing stuff off of the, you know, table that they set up just because I disagree with them. That, in my opinion, signals to everyone watching that you don't have the ability to defend your position and instead you need to resort to shutting down opposition like that. Yeah, so look, this is why I say she's in our tribe, because obviously she's left wing. I agree with her position on abortion, but I don't agree

with the way that she handled that. That's crazy. Look, there's two parts of it. That's crazy. Number one, you're a professor and you're physically throwing their stuff around. That doesn't make, like, no, totally, totally unacceptable. Guys, always think about what if the shoe was on the other foot. Imagine you're doing a table for any cause. But lately, like, trans has been in the news a lot. You're doing something that says, hey, we should respect and value our fellow trans students, right? And some right-winger comes and goes, oh, yeah, and then starts throwing stuff around on the table.

What's going to happen? You're going to get super bad. I know I'd get super mad, right? That's violence, it's totally unacceptable, it's physical, et cetera, and it could lead to further physicality. No, it's not even close on this one either, okay? But there's one other thing that really ticked me off about that. She's like, you're triggering my students.

First of all, no, he's apparently triggering you, not your students, so let's keep it real, okay? But more importantly, she said, this is violent. And then she did violence. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. We are, you can't, look guys, and now I'm going to lose some progresses because there's this theory going around that I can't stand that words that are not at all violent are actually violent because we disagree with them. No, that's not a thing. You just made up that standard. It's not at all a thing. Words can be violent if they are a direct assault. And an assault could mean like, I'm going to hit you. I'm going to kill you as opposed to actually doing it. It's still assault when you say it. You put someone's life in danger or you make them worry about their lives. So there are some. some words that actually are in the legal category of violence, but, hey, I don't like what

you're saying, or I don't agree with what you're saying, is not violence. It's not. It's not. We've had pro-life and pro-choice here, and you can say pro-choice and anti-choice in this country for my entire life. And when they cross the line, the right wind crossed the line, and they attack doctors or any of us, because they don't agree. I think it's like the equivalent of knee surgery. They're like, oh, no, I think it's an issue of morality. So I'm going to hit you. I'm going to kill you. I'm gonna block in your abortion clinics, et cetera. That is totally utterly unacceptable, right? But when they say, hey, I think life begins a conception,

that is not violence. It just isn't, that's their opinion, okay? And you certainly can't use this idea of, well, I didn't like what you said, so I'm gonna call it violence, and then I'm gonna meet it with violence, actual violence, physical violence. No, absolutely not. If you do that, you're not really a progressive.

You become, like if you're in that tiny, tiny, tiny category, You've come all the way around and you agree with the right wing ideology. If I don't like something, I get to hit it. No, that is not at all what a progressive does. obviously people can disagree with it. But look, for me, for at least a year, two years, I mean, I kind of expressed this on the show before. I was experiencing pretty extreme boredom. And what I mean by that is just existing in this echo chamber where your ideology, your ideas, your beliefs, like none of it gets challenged because you're constantly surrounded by people who

agree with you. And more importantly, what I've noticed is if you did, to maybe disagree even slightly within your political tribe, right? I mean, the like anger that that's directed toward you over that is pretty intense. And so I always speak my mind no matter what. So I just deal with the backlash. But the point that I'm trying to make is you become sharper and better at expressing and communicating what your beliefs and values are. You get better at defending them. when they're challenged and there's no better place if you ask me for your beliefs to be challenged than on a college campus when you're learning about yourself, when you're

figuring out who you really are, what your beliefs and values really happen to be. And if you're true in those values, you're able to defend them calmly through debate, through civil debate. When you try to just shut down or silence the opposition, what that communicates to everyone else is that you're coming from a place of weakness, from the inability to defend your positions. And seeing that take place on the left is really disheartening, incredibly discouraging, and I think it's unnecessary, right? And I'll go for, look, so, look, I think that debate doesn't even have to be civil.

I think it could be heated debate. No, I love heated debate. Right, and we raise our voices, et cetera. But there's a very clear line. You do not cross over into anything physical. And by the way, when you do that, as I've said about the right wing a thousand times, The minute they do that, what they've said is, I surrender. I can't beat you with my ideas.

So I'm going to resort to violence. And so if the left does it, we're going to have a different standard? No, what would that make us? That would make us hypocrites just like the right wing. A standard for you and a standard for me? No, there's only one standard. You could argue as strongly as you possibly can. And by the way, don't listen to establishment Democrats telling you not to argue strongly.

Okay, make your case and win that battle of ideas, but the minute you go cross over to physicality, you've surrendered and said, I'm impotent, I can't beat you with my brain, so I'm going to attack you with my arms. Or with strategy. Or with a machete, okay? So, and by the way, I don't want people like that who are unhinged, smearing the rest of all of us, including you guys, so that then the right wing can come in and go, oh, look at all the left wingers doing this kind of violence. No, no, that's why it's very important to draw a line and say, I don't care which side she's on, that's unacceptable. So you had mentioned whether some on the left might defend her actions.

I haven't obviously seen any statements so far. This story just broke in regard to her meeting a New York Post reporter with a machete. That just broke. I haven't seen any statements from progressive groups. However, after the incident that took place on May 3rd in which, you know, the professor approached and accosted those students who are anti-abortion, There were some progressive groups on campus who stood up to defenders. So I want to give you some of their statements.

So one of the groups that stood up and defended her is the Cooney for Abortion Rights Group. And another group that co-signed onto this statement is the Palestine Solidarity Alliance. And here's what they said. Hunter College adjunct professor Shelly Ann Rodriguez approached the display, constructively critiqued the group members and eventually physically took down items from the table. Her actions to shut down the tabling were fully justified. Ridiculous. And are part of a long and celebrated CUNY legacy of confronting groups such as military recruiters who disseminate misleading information.

I mean- No, you meet their misleading information with correct information, especially if you're a professor, that's your job. One of our members just wrote in saying, why wasn't she fired over that incident? And that's because we have crazy people like this defending her. What does Palestine have anything to do with this crazy professor committing violence on her college campus? What are you guys doing? That's not helpful to the Palestinian cause? And why are you even involved in this debate? And if you're pro-choice, you think the right thing to do is you're not allowed to choose your opinion.

And if you do, I'm going to commit violence against you. You think that's the pro-choice position? No, it is not remotely the pro-choice position. And that was not 1% constructive. By the way, if she had gone all the way to yelling at them and giving her point of view, I would have said, hey, look, I don't know that that's a great thing we're a professor to do, but not guilty, no problem, okay? But the minute you cross that line into physicality or violence, you've lost the argument.

And it's just super counterproductive guys. And remember, look, even Mahatma Gandhi said this. He said partly, I didn't do, we didn't go in the direction of violence because they had more guns than us, okay? So you're not going to out violent the right wing. And so, and I don't want tiny, speck, microscopic part of the left pretending that they represent us all. Finally, Hunter College did put out a statement indicating that they have fired her over this latest incident. They write that Hunter College strongly condemns the unacceptable actions of, Rodriguez and has taken immediate action.

Rodriguez has been relieved of her duties at Hunter College effective immediately and will not be returning to teach at the school. So there was immediate action taken after the latest event. So that's that's the story. All right. Why don't we take a break? When we come back, we have another story involving violence this time directed toward the White House. That story is still developing, but we'll give you the information as we know it when we come back from the break. All right.

All right, look, lots of heated thoughts on, including from our members on that last story with a professor. You guys, and there's tons of people who agree with us. Textant says, how does a professor that throws student stuff around still have a job, let alone a machete in New York City, no less. Is shy coal train 42 says resorting their violence in place of reasoning just shows laziness. Lou B says violence is the declaration of defeat of reasoned discourse. We can go on and on, right? And there's a lot of people I read during the social break who disagree with us.

Guys, I'm not going to pull a Fox News. Fox News is, oh, my audience said something, all right, let's lie to them then, because I don't want to hurt their feelings, right? No, I'm not going to lie to you, even if you don't like it, not going to do it. Do not resort to violence. If you do, it's a disastrous road. It ends terribly for all of us. It ends terribly for humanity.

And I'm not going to tolerate it. And if you don't like that and you want a progressive show that believes in violence, have at it, Hoss, go to a show that believes in violence. That's not us, and it's never going to be us. Sorry. All right, let's talk about another story involving violence, this. Police say a man in a U-Haul truck seen there intentionally rammed a barrier. You see that happen, but could not get through. He's been charged with threatening to kill, kidnap, or harm the president, vice president,

or members of their family. A 19-year-old man from Missouri by the name of Sai Varshith Kandula has been arrested and is facing multiple charges, including threatening to kill the president and vice president of the United States. Now, the Secret Service is luckily confirming that no one has been injured or harmed. The story is still developing, so there's a lot we don't know even at this moment. But as it develops, we'll give you more details. But for now, here's what we do know. The truck, which carried a Nazi flag, among other items, crashed into security barriers

on the north side of Lafayette Square at 16th Street just before 10 p.m. Eastern Time, according to the U.S. Secret Service, a preliminary investigation revealed the driver may have intentionally struck the barrier, the agency later said. In fact, here is some more information about the incident and what transpired on the scene. Video at the scene shows investigators inspecting once that all stopped, a Nazi flag, a black backpack, a roll of duct tape, a notebook with writing in it, and other items the suspects apparently had with him. The Secret Service evacuated a nearby hotel as bomb technicians searched the truck to make sure there weren't any explosives inside. Now luckily, there were no explosives inside. Here's what we do know about the contents of the U-Haul truck. Among the items that appear to be from the truck are a Nazi flag, a black backpack, a roll of duct tape.

The cargo area of the moving truck appeared empty. So the Nazi flag is getting a lot of attention for obvious reasons. We're going to get to the insane right-wing reaction to the Nazi flag in just a moment. Now, law enforcement sources also told CNN that the suspect did in fact make some violent threats against Joe Biden. Kandula made threatening comments regarding the White House at the scene, including that he wanted to kidnap and harm President Joe Biden. ABC News also reported that FBI agents who interviewed him relayed that the individual said that he wanted to seize power, take over the government, and kill the president. authorities are looking at a mental health component, possible mental health issue that could have led to this incident.

Yeah, so look, that's all we know, right? Like, yes, there was a Nazi flag. I want to show you this image that shows the flag unfurled right next to the U-Haul truck. Apparently, the fact that it was unfurled like that was suspicious to right wickers like Matt Walsh, which we'll get to in just a moment. But first, what were the charges? Well, he has been charged on five counts, including assault with a dangerous weapon, reckless operation of a motor vehicle, trespassing and destruction of federal property.

U.S. Park police said he's also been charged with threatening to kill, kidnap, or inflict harm on a president, vice president, or their families. Jake. Okay, so I want to cover the right-wing lunatic reaction. So let's go to Don Jr. first. He had a lot of tweets about this, but where he implied that this was some sort of federal law enforcement false flag operation. One of them is this where he puts a picture of the suspect who appears to be South Asian

and says clearly a white supremacist, right? Like ha ha, it's sarcastically, yeah. This is obviously not the case. And so this is obviously a fake event presumably put on by the FBI or law enforcement, which apparently now the right wing hate. They apparently despise law enforcement. and they think all investigations are fake and phony and that they're all liars. This is an amazing development in American politics where the right wing now despises cops

and thinks everything they say is a lie. That is amazing, okay? Before you continue, though, what I don't understand is, why is the right wing taking ownership of this guy, like in a way, right? I mean, why are they getting so defensive about this? As soon as there's like a swastika tattoo involved or a Nazi flag involved, the right gets super defensive and starts denying that the incident is real. Why? Anna, that's such a great point. Because until you said it, this thought had not occurred to me. This whole day, this thought never crossed my mind. Oh man, I better explain that Nazi flag. I better explain to the way.

Because why would that occur to you? Why would you be like, oh, I got I better make sure I defend the guy. with a Nazi flag, thought no one who isn't worried that they might be in that same category, okay? Yeah. Keep it real. Speaking of that same category, let's go to Matt Walsh. He said totally normal, of course, for the police to neatly lay out the evidence at a crime scene so that reporters can take pictures.

So a conspiracy theory is born. And by the way, I did a tweet about this in the morning, and then I couldn't believe it. Everybody is so in, look, so I don't know that this applies to everyone that's right wing in the country, okay? And that's, and unfortunately in social media, we have the most extreme people from both sides, okay? So, so I can't speak for all right wingers. But almost every right winger in social media thinks that this is a false flag operation. But why? They've all become Alex Jones. But I don't get like, why? You get what I'm saying? Like, why would this be a false flag? Oh, I know their theory. A false flag for what? No, their theory is, oh yeah, of course,

you send in a South Asian guy to be a white supremacist. Pause, pause. Did it not occur to any of you that if the FBI had done it, that maybe they would have sent in a white guy? For real. Like no, you thought the FBI is like, hey, anybody want to volunteer? Oh, we got a South Asian guy. Let's pretend that he's the white supremacist, right?

But they've lost their mind, so logic is totally irrelevant to them. Okay, so and I, but I know what their theory is. Their theory is, uh, yeah, the FBI sends in an Indian guy to pretend to be a Nazi to try to kill Biden and Kamala Harris so they could crack down on the right wing. But wait a minute, the guys has Nazi power for that. Are you worried that we're going to, that the FBI is going to crack down on Nazis? Correct answer is yes, they are worried about that. Guys, you're telling on yourself without realizing it. Okay, I'm not one percent worried that the FBI is going to crack down too hard on Nazis in America.

Okay, if you show me the FBI abusing the law, you see show them abusing FISA warts has actually happened the other day. Even in the case of January 6th defendants, I'll come out and say no, I don't want the FBI breaking the law under any circumstances, even if it's against crazy right wingers who are doing insurrection, et cetera. I don't want that. But you give me a legitimate investigation of Nazis in the country and I don't catch feelings over it.

So no, I'm sorry, Matt Walsh and Donald Trump Jr. And apparently every single right wing are online, you've lost your minds. Check yourself into an asylum where you belong. The FBI or the local cops aren't going to get an Indian guy and be like, oh yeah, man, let's pretend he's a Nazi. And then let's pretend he's trying to kill Biden and Kamala Harris so we can, what, maybe crack down on the right wing later. Yeah.

No, cuckoo for cocoa puffs, lunatics. I don't know, Jake. I think you're partly being unfair to the right winger's online. Because to be fair, the FBI does have a long history of engaging in, you know, some special operations on behalf of the left wing in America. Like, that's what they're no. No, but seriously, like look at that, right? Like, Anna's kidding because it's so obviously a joke, right?

But they really believe it. They're like, oh, man, the FBI's so left wing. Oh, they've been against the right wing. The whole, have you ever, guys, that's the thing, man. They've never read a history book in their life. The FBI is massively right wing. They would literally murder left-wing activists. Up until today, they investigate Black Lives Matter, all progressive groups, groups against oil drilling.

They're like, just in case they're terrorists, anybody opposing a corporation is a terrorist. The FBI's been awfully right-wing. They do one investigation of you guys, because your beloved cult leader has broken a thousand guys. goddamn laws. And all of a sudden, you guys are, did you know FBI does investigations of people? Yeah, it's called the Federal Bureau of Investigations. Welcome to America. Welcome to this planet. They're like, no, we're the special victims. Us and these Nazis. We're the victims. The FBI is actually going after Nazis now. What's next? Okay, no, I'll tell you, I'll tell you the best theory on what this guy is. Obviously, mentally ill. Okay.

And if you don't know, yes, some South Asians and believe that they're Aryan. And that doesn't mean Aryan as a Nazi. It just means that Aryan is an Indo-European group. And you will see in some Hindu culture and drawings, art, and religious symbols, the reverse swastika. Because they're also Aryan. Not Aryan in bad, not Aryan as a Nazi, but Aryan as in as, as, as in genetics, biology, et cetera. And so it's not actually totally crazy for a South Asian guy to go in this direction.

If he is mentally unwell, of course, no person who's mentally well South Asian or otherwise is going to go in this direction, right? I mean, the guy thinks he's going to take over the government with his phone truck. Like he's 19, I just, we don't know much about his motive yet. So everybody calm the hell down. Just calm down. But look, guys, but here's what we do know. He has Nazi flag duct tape, all this stuff, and he was going to kill the Democratic president and the Democratic vice president.

So, and Anna, that's why they have to come up with a false flag thing because who thinks that left winger is going to go kill Biden? Nobody thinks that, right? So they're like, but I got to protect the Nazi. So it's a false flag operation. Yeah, they're pretending to be a right winger. It's those dastardly cops who are always against the right wing. You live on a different planet.

Go get mental health counseling. It's becoming more and more untenable, but nonetheless, we move on to a completely different story that doesn't involve violence. So, House GOP lawmakers interrupted debt-sealing negotiations to focus on what really matters and what they do well, fundraising. Now, what were they fundraising for? Well, it was for the National Republican Congressional Committee, so they were fundraising for themselves, and I love the fact that they interrupted the, the, the, the, the

difficult legislative job that they do in order to engage in this fundraising. So this made headlines because of the auction associated with this fundraising effort. So the fundraising auction of McCarthy's used cherry lip balm ended with Representative Marjorie Taylor Green placing a winning $100,000 bid as confirmed by her spokesperson. But guys, don't think that she did that automatically, immediately, just to suck up to Kevin McCarthy. She did it after Kevin McCarthy was willing to sweeten the deal a little bit. She only began bidding after the California Republican chose to sweeten the deal. He agreed to attend a dinner with the winner and whichever donors and supporters they plan to bring along. So here is a photo of Marjorie Green celebrating, a little celebratory photo with the used chapstick that Kevin McCarthy had used.

Now that cash, by the way, is headed to the House GOP campaign arm. The fundraiser during Tuesday morning's closed door GOP conference meeting lasted about 15 minutes with first term representative Aaron Bean leading the auction. After all, it was his campaign's branded chapstick up for bids. So I am amused by this. But like, this is what they do all the time. Yeah. So I'm going to have an opinion here that's not altogether too popular with mainstream Democrats. We got a trend going today, folks.

Yeah, I know, right? So look, is it absurd to buy the used chapstick at an auction for $100,000? Of course it is. But everybody knows that. But everybody also knows it's not about the chapstick. She's basically giving that to the House GOP campaign committee, right? And by the way, all of the congressmen have to chip in to that campaign committee. In this case, though, they're trying to get them to chip in more.

Why can Marjorie Taylor Green afford that? Because she has tons of grassroots fundraising. So she has more money probably than almost any of them on the House side. Okay. Now, look, I like grassroots fundraising, and she appeals to her grassroots. So I would rather have that than corporations, but in her case, her base is a little cuckoo for cocoa puffs, right? So they push her to do more crazy stuff, more crazy stuff, and every time she does it, she makes more money. So for her, $100,000 for chaps, it ain't that big a deal, okay?

So that is actually, now here comes the ironic twist here. That's actually not as bad as other Republicans and other Democrats who raised it from giant multinational corporations and then give it to their campaign arm. Okay, so before you get to that, I just have to go to this one line in the political piece about this story, which I thought was funny, right? So Olivia Beavers, who wrote the political piece, writes, Democrats greeted the McCarthy chapstick auction with barely masked alarm. They were alarmed. But like, why are you alarmed? No, no, I'm going to say. Why are Democrats alarmed?

I mean, Democrats, maybe they're not engaging in auctions for chapstick, but they certainly engage in the same fundraising. No, guys, I'm on the war path. Like, that's sorry, but I come with facts. 90% of the Democratic Party, and I'm being conservative there, it's probably higher, right? But the Justice Democrats do not take corporate PAC money, so they're exempt from this. Of all people, Matt Gates does not take corporate PAC money, so he's exempt on the Republican side. But the overwhelming majority of both parties, including, yes, the beloved Democrats, take campaign contributions just like that and give it to their campaign arms of their party,

just like that, okay? And they all do it because the whole thing is corrupt. All those campaign contributions from corporations are flat out bribes. Corporations are not people, they don't have opinions, they're not doing it for the public good, they're doing it for their bottom line. And they have purchased almost all of our politicians. So when you see a tiny snippet of this, don't be like, oh my God, I didn't know. No, you should be alarmed, not at that particular incident.

which, by the way, there's, of course, that incident is absurd. I don't mind you like being angry about it, of course, right? But what I'm telling you is you should be angry at the whole goddamn system because that's what they do 24-7. And for Democrats, corporate Democrats, which is, again, 90% of the party to be like, I can't believe she raised money. The second reason reporters will believe anything. What, you guys raised millions of dollars and then the reporters kiss your ass for it.

And then I can't believe she gave it to their campaign committee. We do the same thing. Okay, go ahead, reporter. Write it credulously like Democrats are wholly an angels. And even though we do the same exact thing, and then let's all make fun of Marjorie Taylor Green. So look, the Democrats exploited this story in what they probably believe is strategic way of owning the Republicans here, right? So for instance, let's go to Graphics 7, where Representative Velasquez wrote the following, sending $100,000 or spending $100,000 on chapstick while working overtime to gut the programs

that working families rely on GOP priorities in a nutshell. And what she's referring to, of course, is the debt ceiling. So Democrats gave all sorts of statements to the press about how inappropriate this is as we're quickly approaching the deadline for the debt ceiling, and the GOP is just not cooperating because they want to gut social spending programs. But let's also be honest about that, because Democratic leadership has now made it clear that they're going to aid and abet the Republican effort

to gut social spending programs. So what do I mean by that? Well, let's get to Hakeem Jeffries and what we learned about him late last night. So he issued a statement in regard to the Republicans' demands, and here's what he had to say about it. We're willing to discuss freezing spending at current levels. That's an inherently reasonable position

many in our party might even be uncomfortable with, but President Biden recognizes we're in a divided government situation. President Biden and Democratic leadership also realizes that the debt ceiling, like they have to raise the debt ceiling. And Republicans should, I mean, Democrats should call their bluff. Republicans are going to end up raising the debt ceiling, even if Democrats refuse to provide a single concession. And the reason why I say that is because failing to raise the debt ceiling will crash the world economy and it will financially harm the very lawmakers who are far more interested in engaging in what appears to be insider trading than doing their jobs as legislators. So why are we pretending as if Democrats have no choice? Joe Biden has

no choice but to negotiate with Republicans. It's a false premise and I can't stand it. So look, it's all a game because corporate Democrats aren't cahoots, they want to cut social spending programs. And by the way, freezing spending is actually a spending cut when you take into account inflation. So a spending cut would amount to a 5% cut when adjusted for inflation, a step back from the Biden administration budget request in March, which proposed increasing discretionary spending. But by the way, so Democrats have agreed, all right, fine, maybe we freeze spending on defense, defense-related discretionary spending and non-defense discretionary spending. Republicans aren't happy with that.

They're not satisfied. They're like, no, no, no, no, no. We are not satisfied with that. We want to increase defense spending and freeze non-defense discretionary spending, meaning social safety net programs, right? Here is my prediction. Democrats will give them what they want because Democrats also agree with that, that, that policy. They just do. Yeah. So look, look, I am so sick of the propaganda on all sides.

So we, I wrote about this on social media again earlier today. And what was the reaction that I got from establishment Democrats? They were, they couldn't believe it. They're like, what are you doing? No, of course Democrats don't do this kind of campaign contributions. Right, right, right, right, right. And then I was like, oh my God. The people who watch MS, CNN, read New York Times, listen to that they genuinely believe that the Democrats are angels. That when they take campaign contributions, it's out of the goodness of their heart that the corporations gave it to them. And they took it and they never returned the favor. The meany, evil Republicans return the favor.

But Democrats are too holy to do that. That's crazy. You've been brainwashed. No, both sides take the money and do exactly as they are told. And that's that conjecture, guys, we've shown it to you on the show over and over and over again. Not only do we show it to you in the votes and we show you the receipts, here's what the contributions they got, and here's how they voted for Republicans and for Democrats, okay? But on top of that, we do predictions ahead of time and tell you, look, it's politics is super

simple. Follow the money. So here, we're going to tell you exactly how things are going to turn out, and they always turn out that way. But reporters are like, money, what's money? I don't know, right? Oh, oh, that's the thing that corrupts Republicans, but not the beloved angelic Democrats. It's absurd. It's insane. Okay, now let's go to Hakeem Jeffrey's last thing. So this, look, best case scenario for Hakeem Jeffries is that he's a complete and utter loser.

But that's not the reality. The reality is Hakeem Jeffries on economic issues agrees with the Republicans, just as Joe Biden does, just as Nancy Pelosi does. That's why he takes the Republican. Did you hear what he called the Republican position? These lunatic Republicans come in and go, I'm going to hold the whole economy hostage. I'm going to hold a country hostage. We didn't do it under Trump, but we're going to say that we're going to crash the economy by not lifting the debt ceiling. You don't negotiate with that.

The Republicans didn't negotiate with Democrats when Trump was in charge over the debt ceiling. Here's the amount of negotiation that happened under Trump on the debt ceiling. Zero, none, zero. So you return that in kind. If you're a strong Democrat and you actually believe in your positions, you go, no, we're not negotiating. You want us to use the 14th Amendment, we'll use the 14th Amendment. You want us to use executive power, we'll use executive power. We don't give a damn.

And by the way, look, the Republicans have the House so you can't just lift the filibuster like they did last time. Remember, the Democrats lifted the filibuster because they thought it was so important, right? So instead, Hakeem Jeffries calls that insane Republican position, quote, inherently reasonable. Why don't you just go work for them? Seriously. Inherently reasonable? You think McCarcy, Marjorie Taylor Green on policy positions, when they're holding the whole country hostage, they're being inherently reasonable? Nah, they're paying to lose. The donors control the Democratic corporate Democrats 100%. So they say, hey, you know what? Have this fake fight over the debt ceiling.

And then look at the Republicans. They say, oh, I'm so concerned about the debt. but I want to increase spending on on defense on defense well then you're not concerned about the debt no you're concerned about make sure you take from the average American if it's going to the average American take it take it and who do we give it to defense contractors super rich billionaire defense contractors who just coincidentally happen to be our donors and Democrats who also have the same exact donors go oh go golly gee there was nothing we could do we had to take it from the average American and give it to the, to our contributors because we're bipartisan and we care about getting along with the Republicans so much.

Now, it's all theater. Every mainstream media reporter that plays along with this is garbage. They should go get another job. Go be a plumber. That's a noble profession, okay? Go clean the streets. It's a noble profession instead of doing marketing for corporate rule. And these corporate Democrats are disgusting.

And don't get me wrong. If it's 90% of the Democratic Party, Republicans don't be like, oh, man, where the good ones? No, your party is 99% corrupt. 100%. No, I'm giving Matt Gates credit for not taking corporate pack money. I can't stand Matt Gates, and I need you guys to do nuance. Like when you say, hey, the guy doesn't take corporate pack money, they go, oh, so you like up?

No, I don't like him. I was literally the only reporter who said to his face, hey, what did you do with that 17-year-old? So we kick ass for a living, okay, but you have to be honest. So when they don't take corporate PAC money, you have to acknowledge that. And when our side does, just like they do for 99% of the time, you have to acknowledge that. But instead, what do we have? We have tribes. The MSNBC tribe says, nope, we're going to be hypocrites.

If the Democrats do it, it's okay. If the Republicans do it, it's terrible. The Fox News tribe says, oh, and the Republicans are corrupt, it's awesome. And Donald Trump is the king of corruption, and that's the best. He came to drain the swap and drained it all into his goddamn pockets, and that's awesome. But when the Democrats do it, it's bad. No, they're both lying to you. These guys are all bought.

We'll talk about what workers want when we come back from the break. All right, back on TYT, Jank, Anna, Ronnie Sweat, Owen Wolfson, Piercefeld, J.P. Rager, all just became members. You're amazing. We appreciate you. You make us stronger. We do this together. So they hit the join button below the video on YouTube. You can do likewise. And of course, you could join from anywhere at t-y-t.com slash join. And I want to thank athletes at L.C. now for the third time, because they just gifted 50 young Turks membership on YouTube. That's amazing.

That is amazing. Thank you, brothers. We appreciate it. And I don't know who else is at the L.C. brothers and sisters. So thank you, thank you. And that's the community standing up for one another. And I love that about you guys. All right, Anna.

Let's talk about what workers want. This was a fascinating poll that was done that I wanted to discuss. So let's do it. The Washington Post and Ipsos have put out a poll regarding the thoughts, interests, and concerns of American workers. They wanted to see where their hearts and minds are at. And there were some pretty surprising results from the poll. Stay tuned for what I believe was the most shocking result of this poll. But first, let's talk about what happens to be the most important for work.

workers. Now, the pollsters specifically asked the survey takers, how important are each of the following aspects of the job? And then they asked a follow up question, which of the following aspects of the job are most important to you? So if you take a look at this graph, you'll notice that the light orange represents extremely slash very important. And then the darker orange represents most important. And as you can see, the vast majority of workers believe that how much they get paid on the job is the most important thing. That's the number one priority, which makes a lot of sense. Coming in at number two, though, you have a good boss or manager, which also makes a lot of sense. Although I will say, while the majority of people said that

it was, in fact, extremely or very important, a significantly smaller share believe that it's the most important issue, especially when you compare it to pay, right? So just to give you some more information about what they found here. So notably things like free gym memberships, lunches and laundry service, we're at the bottom of the list. So when employers have like, you know, pizza parties and things like that, the employers are like, whatever, they're not that impressed by that. Because look, at the end of the day, it's what is the, what's going to cause lasting happiness at work, and it's making sure that you're making enough money to live, and also that you have a good relationship with your boss slash manager, because who wants

to deal with someone they don't get along with? That can make your life pretty miserable. So before I continue, any thoughts on that so far, Jay? Yeah, look, I think that having a good boss or manager coming in a strong number two is interesting, and it makes sense. And it's something that hasn't been emphasized in these studies that much before. But I remember when my wife had a manager that was very difficult, right? Totally unreasonable. It kind of ruins your life. Oh, totally. It just, it takes over everything. You can't stop thinking about it for eight, 10 hours a day or sometimes you'd work 12 hours a day. You got this person breathing down your neck asking you for no matter what you do, you can't win, right?

It's just, it's like a torture chamber. So I don't blame him. I had this one boss that, you know, he didn't necessarily yell at me, he never yelled at me actually, but he would just yell all the time. It was super animated and always, I'm just kidding. No, Jake is freaking awesome. I'm very, very lucky. But no, totally. Like I, I had a short stint at a media company prior to working at TYT. There was some crossover where I worked at TYT in this company at the same time. And I just remember management being really difficult there, like yelling at me over literally nonsense, right, asking me to print out papers. And since I didn't do it literally right that moment

right away, because I was taking a feed from a reporter who was remote, this, like, this editor just lost it on me and was like screaming at me. I'm like, I don't know, pretty sure it's more important to take the feed from the reporter. But nonetheless. So I'll tell you real quick about boss story that I had. I'm working at the prosecutor's office. I get arrested. It's a false arrest, it's proven to be a false arrest. And my boss is still yelling at the top of his lungs at me. And I'm like, can I, it's a, it's literally a false arrest, adjudicated as a false arrest, right? Just like, I don't care. And I'm like, okay, well, then that makes you weirdo and totally unreasonable, right? And so, no, I can't stand it. And by the way, I left

there early because I was like, I'm not going to go into work with this idiot and telling me what to Do you? Sorry. So following the priority of having a good boss or manager, you have benefits, right? Makes a lot of sense. Health insurance benefits, retirement benefits, amount of vacation time. Right in the middle is friendliness of coworkers, which I would venture to say is also very important. But in the age of remote work for a lot of white collar workers, I can understand why it's lower down the list of priorities. Now let's move on to other issues, including remote work. How do Americans feel about know, having to go into the office. How many Americans are able to do remote work? Well, they asked the survey takers about that. If you had a choice, how often would you want to work from home? And unsurprisingly, the majority of respondents want to work from home all of the time, or most of the time. Only a small percentage, 1% say never, 5% say rarely. So 7 and 10 workers said that they choose to work from home all of the time at 37% or most of the time at 35%. About a quarter of these workers would choose to work from home some of the time at 23%

while just 6% would opt to work remotely, rarely or never. And look, why? Why is that? They actually, I thought that was the most interesting part of it because I feel this, right? I actually don't mind coming into the office and doing the show from the studio. I think it looks better, it sounds better, there's more chemistry, because we can pick up on certain nonverbal cues. However, the commute kills me. The commute kills me. It takes so much time out of my day. And I was, I guess, unsurprised to find that that's the top reason why workers would rather work from home. One of the other reasons why is because they feel that they're actually more productive at home. And honestly, I feel that as well. When I'm in the studio, if I'm producing the show from the

I want to chat it up, right? I want to chat it up. Like I see John, I see Bard, I see, you know, John the stage manager, who's a different John that you haven't seen on camera before. Like I wanna hang out with my friends. So I get that too. Yeah, and by the way, another factor here was hanging out with friends. And so, and but what was interesting is that like half the people don't have any friends at work. And I was like, oh, that kind of sucks.

It sucks, but I get it too. I mean, I think that some of what's going on right now culturally, right? And some of the call out culture that's happening is discouraging people from getting close with their colleagues at work. I think that's what's happening. That's part of it. And remember, guys, I imagine that this is blue collar and white collar combined. So that's kind of interesting. Look, my biggest takeaway is I'm shocked at the number of people who are relatively high.

happy with their shop. Yep, I want to get to that. So why don't we fast forward to that where I couldn't believe it, most workers are actually very happy about, this is Graphic 7, about 8 in 10 workers say that they are satisfied with their jobs while the same shares say their jobs are enjoyable, even though about 6 and 10 workers, 62% report that their jobs are stressful and I totally feel that I fall in that category like the job is super stressful but I love the job yeah me too I want to complain about the job and I want my husband to hear me complain about the job without requesting that I consider a different job because I don't want a different job I just want to complain about how stressful the job I love happens to be

okay and so look that was really encouraging yeah that's like the first encouraging poll In like decades, right? And it does, and I'm heartened to see that that American workers are kind of getting along with each other and some of them kind of like their managers and bosses. And they're pretty satisfied with their jobs. But that doesn't alleviate the number one problem, which is pay. And so, and that is what, you know, corporations have done is they've taken more and more from their employees and transfer it over to corporate profits, right?

So pay would probably come in, number one, under most circumstances, my guess, because it's such a giant factor, right? But in this case, in America, my guess is it's coming in much higher than it would even in other countries because we have not had our government represent us. We don't have the social safety net, right? Like our, we have to pay for everything out of pocket. Think about that. In other countries, Scandinavian countries, I mean, your health care.

is provided. So if you have low pay and a lack of like a social safety net and government programs, well, that's a disastrous combination. And that's what American workers are dealing with right now. So I could totally understand why higher pay is the top priority. All right, we got to take a break. That does it for the first hour. When we come back for the second hour of the show, man, we've got a lot to get into, including accusations that Fox News is not right wing enough and has become too moderate, which is insane. That and more, don't miss it. Thanks for listening to the full episode of the Young Turks. Support our work, listen to ad-free, access members-only bonus content, and more by subscribing to Apple Podcasts at apple.com slash

t-y-t. I'm your host, Jan Huger, and I'll see you soon.