The Young Turks - Guilty Guilty Guilty

Episode Date: April 21, 2021

A medical examiner rules that Officer Brian Sicknick died of natural causes. Senator Elizabeth Warren invites billionaire rival Leon Cooperman to testify on her wealth tax. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You're listening to The Young Turks, the online news show. Make sure to follow and rate our show with not one, not two, not three, not four, but five stars. You're awesome. Thank you. Welcome, friends, you're watching The Young Turks with Anna Casparian. Joining us today is Francesca Furentini, host of the Bituation Room, good friend of the show, good friend of mine, and Francesca. I'm really happy that you're here with us because it's a big news day. We have breaking news right off the top. Yeah.

Absolutely. How are you doing? I'm so glad. I'm good. I'm good and I'm excited to get into it with you, Anna. There's no better person I want to talk to on this day. I love it. I love it.

I have to say I've had a stomach ache all day long awaiting the verdict in the Derek Chauvin trial. We're going to talk about that in just a second. But for those of you wondering, like, what happened? You guys were in the studio yesterday. Now you're not in the studio. We're making the transition, and so it all really depends on the comfort level of hosts and whether or not they're vaccinated. So just bear with us as we transition full time back to the studio, which we're going to get closer to next week.

But wanted to give you guys that explanation right off the top before we get to our big news story today. And luckily, finally, it's a good one. So former Minneapolis cop, Derek Chauvin, has been found guilty of all three charges against him in the murder of George Floyd. This is a big day. And by no means am I saying that this is going to change policing. Obviously, there's still a lot more to be done. But I would be lying if I would say that hearing what you're about to hear in this next clip didn't make me feel really good. Take a listen. State of Minnesota plaintiff versus Derek Michael Schoven defendant.

Verdict count one. Court file number 27, CR20, 12646. We the jury in the above entitled matter as to count one, unintentional second degree murder while committing a felony, find the defendant guilty. We the jury in the above entitled matter as to count two, third degree murder perpetrating an eminently dangerous act, find the defendant guilty.

Verdict count three. We, the jury in the above entitled matter is to count three, second degree manslaughter, culpable negligence, creating an unreasonable risk, find the defendant guilty. This verdict agreed to this 20th day of April, 2021 at 1.45 p.m. Immediately after the verdict was read, the judge revoked Derek Chauvin's bail and he is now in custody while he awaits the official sentencing. So today he's been convicted. In about eight weeks, we'll find out what his sentence will be, and I'll give you the details on what's likely to happen, at least based on some of the speculation that reporters and law experts have already put out there. But Francesca, you know, first thoughts on this conviction.

I mean, I think that the sad truth is that not a lot of us were expecting this and that it is good news, but that time after time after time, and especially in the case of Brianna Taylor, you know, You saw the neighbor's wall in her apartment complex get more justice than her family did. And so this is huge. And it is also a testament to the fact that actually protest works, that outrage, that mass movements, they work, that organizing, it works because you bet, you bet yourself that like if there hadn't been the giant outpouring a year ago and continuing up until today around George Floyd's murder, this could have easily gone the other way and probably would have. Right. I mean, I think we're so used to injustice when it comes to police brutality, excessive force, police murders. I mean, case after case, we've seen unarmed individuals literally running away from a cop as he opens fire and shoots them in the back.

I mean, the case of Tamir Rice, there was no justice for that 12 year old who was shot and killed within two seconds of the cops showing up to the park. He was playing with a toy gun, of course. I mean, you think about all of these stories, the story that we covered yesterday of an elderly woman with dementia who forgot to pay $13.88 worth of merchandise at Walmart and then was like basically brutalized by the cops who showed up to the scene to apprehend her. It was just violent, brutal, and these are images that we've come to expect, you know? And then usually there's no justice that follows. But in this case, I agree with you.

I think thanks to the pressure that was applied for justice, we finally do see a little bit of it. But of course, there's still a lot of work to be done. I mean, the stories that I just detailed right now, the elderly woman, that was a big story yesterday, Police brutality and the virus within policing lives on, I don't know how much of a difference this one conviction will make. I think it certainly does send a message to cops that you're not above the law and you can't just willy-nilly go around brutalizing people over your perceived threat of especially, you know, black men in this country. But this is big news. I think you're right. I mean, I did I did not expect these convictions, all three charges convicted on all three counts.

Absolutely. And and it doesn't stop, right? I mean, there were three other officers involved in this murder standing by, helping pin George Floyd to the ground so that he could not get loose so that he could not breathe, right? So that he was, you know, calling out to his mother. And through this trial, we learned that his mother had already passed away. And so according to his brother, he was calling out to her because he knew he was going to die. I mean, that is the kind of excruciating, heart-wrenching detail that we got in this trial that was so important that it was more than just those nine minutes and 29 heinous seconds, that it was more than this officer's murder, that it was sort of a look at every different angle of this crime, which it was a crime. Don't let anyone ever take that word away from this man. He is a murderer. Derek Chauvin is a murderer. But just to say that it was so important in this case to go through and that the other police officers who aided and abetted, whose trials are still yet to happen,

I hope that this reflects on them and I hope it sets some sort of precedent, which shows that not only can you not do it yourself, but you can't stand around and be okay. with your fellow officer killing someone in front of your eyes. That is aiding and abetting. That's right. So those three officers will stand trial in the summer, August specifically. And of course, we'll give you guys coverage on that and fill you in as we learn more details. But I do want to also just provide some of the photos of what that scene look like as the verdict was being read. You know, Derek Chauvin, of course, had like a blank expression on his face.

As the verdict was being read, you know, I found this tweet interesting. So there he is. You know, you can't really make much of someone's facial expression or body language. I try not to do it, but you can tell that he was kind of, he seemed somewhat shocked. And then you have the image of him being led away by police because, as I mentioned, his bail was immediately revoked. and he's now in custody. When it comes to sentencing, we won't know what the sentence will be for these three charges or for the three convictions until about eight weeks from now.

And that's based on the New York Times reporting that Derek Chauvin faces up to 40 years in prison when he is sentenced in the coming weeks. But it's likely that he'll receive less time. The presumptive sentence for second degree murder is 12 and a half years. and that's according to Minnesota's guidelines, although the state has asked for a higher sentence. So we don't know what the sentence will be, but we'll find out in about eight weeks. And Judge Cahill did say that he will sentence him in about eight weeks. And then finally, Maxine Waters has gotten a lot of attention lately because she was encouraging

activists and protesters to take to the streets. That led to a lot of anger among right-wingers. And honestly, Jank and I got into a little bit of a debate recently about whether or not Maxine Waters should have chimed in on what the verdict should be before the jury could pass down a verdict. But we're finding out now that Waters is not just, she's not happy. She's not celebrating. She's relieved. You know, someone said it better than me. I'm not celebrating. I'm relieved. That's her direct statement. So this is a big deal. It really is. It certainly sends a message, and it shows that if you fight for it, you can win justice, even in cases where it seems like cops are above the law. Absolutely. Yeah. So we have other angles to the story that we want to talk about. Let's actually start off with the GOP reaction or the conservative reaction, beginning with Greg Gutfeld. So the verdicts, the verdicts. in the Derek Chauvin trial was read today. He's found guilty on all three charges, which is a

pretty big deal considering all the injustice we've been dealing with in this country regarding policing. That includes the guilty charge for second degree unintentional murder, guilty on third degree murder, and also guilty for second degree manslaughter. So of course, we're going to get lots of different reactions to these convictions, especially from right wingers. And Greg Gutfeld, Fox News host couldn't help himself. He jumped in right away with this statement. Take a look. And now I'm going to just get really selfish.

I'm glad that he was found guilty on all charges. Yeah. Even if he might not be guilty of all charges. I am glad that he is guilty of all charges because I want a verdict that keeps this country from going up in flames. Uh-uh. Oh, my goodness. No.

What do you mean? Look, Greg. What do you mean? No, I'm at least being honest. My neighborhood was looted. I don't ever want to go through that again. We do not sacrifice individuals for the sake of how people feel. I'm saying he's guilty. I'm glad about the verdict.

I'm glad about the verdict, even if he wasn't guilty of the things he was convicted of. That's what Greg Gutfeld said there. So he's actually not happy with the verdict. He finds the verdict incorrect or I mean, it's amazing. I mean, did he sit on the on the jury? Did he listen to all the compelling evidence? Did he listen to the police chief for the department testifying under oath that what Derek Chauvin did in kneeling on the neck of George Floyd and essentially murdering him was not actually part of the department's policy. It was not part of their training. He was not supposed to do that. I mean, the police chief. And we know that,

In policing, there's this culture of everyone looking out for one another, no matter what. And in this case, you have the police chief testifying against Derek Chauvin. But none of that matters to Greg Gutfeld, Francesca. None of that matters. No, and it's funny because I think Janine Piro tries to jump in. And initially you're like, you hear that, no, oh, like, that's terrible. And I'm like, is that Juan Williams? Like who's, you know, who's saying that?

Is it like one of the less crazy Fox correspondents? And it's Janine Piro who's basically like, no, we shouldn't sacrifice. And I think she means Derek Chauvin, like, just to like prevent our cities from being looted supposedly. So she's like defending Derek Chauvin. And is it just, of course she is, because she's the worst. But, you know, like Guttfeld is doing what the right is going to continue to do around Chauvin. And they have been, right? Whether it's Shapiro, whether it's It's Gutfeld, whether it's going to be Tucker Carlson, and I know we're going to talk about him. But if you at all, if you kill Black Lives Matter protesters or you kill a black person, you will immediately become a martyr.

Doesn't matter if you're a murderer by law, you're going to be a martyr. And so honestly, looking at 40 years that Chauvin may get, I don't know, I would say that's going to be more like 12. It might even be more like eight. It might even be more like four. And you can bet that he's going to come out and be a martyr for the right and we'll completely lean into it. Maybe he'll run for office. I'm so sorry to paint this picture. But I think people who've been in this struggle for a long time well know that sadly that is what happens.

And so, you know, yeah, Gutfell's claiming that he cares about cities. I think they're cool with the massive amount of like flue lewd. tanks that are rolling through Minneapolis right now, think everyone's safe, not safe from police, but definitely safe from demonstrators. I mean, the New York Times actually had a great piece recently that looked into the militarized response to Black Lives Matter protests last summer, and how that was ineffective policing that only escalated violence during these demonstrations. You know, we keep hearing about the looting. We keep hearing about, you know, businesses getting

broken into. Well, rather than spending all of that manpower with the cops, essentially brutalizing protesters who have a legitimate reason to protest, they could have protected those businesses. They could have focused on that, but they didn't. And no one ever talks about that, right? There's a reason why the only thing you see in the media, and Brett Ehrlich made this point, he's absolutely right. The media is not just going to cover peaceful protests. They're going to cover the violent angle to it because that's the sensationalized angle that's going to get the eyeballs watching the program, right? But is that indicative of what the movement is? Is this something that Black Lives Matter is encouraging people to do

to engage in violence and looting? Of course not. Of course not. But it's the narrative that the right wing likes to run away with because they want to distract and deflect from the very real problem that we're seeing in this country when it comes to policing. My guess is that They do it because of the racial angle that they want to just minimize and pretend like it doesn't exist. But policing is brutal overall. It disproportionately impacts communities of color, but it doesn't matter if you're an elderly woman with dementia.

It doesn't matter if you're an elderly man protesting in Buffalo, New York. They will brutalize you if you dare to challenge their authority. And that is a problem. It should certainly be a problem for right wingers who claim that they have a problem with big government, right? And big government's cracking your skull, they're okay with it though. Absolutely. I just want to mention, though, that like one of the other piece of this testimony, I know we're not going to go through the whole trial, but like the other thing that stuck out to me that I think is really important is the ways that a lot of right wingers will say, you know, oh, well, you know, you're, you just don't like the police because, like, you don't live in a high crime neighborhood or like, you know, the police are here to protect, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.

And the testimony of the store clerk who called the police because he thought that George Floyd had used a counterfeit $20 bill. And he testified that he wishes he didn't call the police because they didn't help. They actually just murdered a man outside of the store where he worked, right? And it's a perfect example of like, here is a minor, minor infraction or whatever, you know, whatever it is, you know, counterfeit $20 bill. By the way, a lot of homeless and poor folks do that. Like, it happens a lot. It is when you murder someone over that, you're murdering someone over the crime of being poor,

all right? But like, it's a perfect example of that. Here you have this gentleman who's like, I really, I wish I hadn't called because we probably could have solved it ourselves. And I think that's where the BLM movement, movement for black lives and other folks have really sort of set this bar as like, how can we reimagine safety? You know, yeah, there was a problem. Yeah, okay, the store, the clerk was scared. He didn't want to be on the hook for 20 bucks if he accepted it. But was there, is there someone else to call who's not armed, who's not rife with institutional racism, who can actually de-escalate,

who can talk to George Floyd as a human being? right? And have this whole thing avoided? You know, and also, yes, policing absolutely needs to be reformed, but it's not good enough to just reform policing, right? Like, if we're concerned about crime, what are the underlying causes, right? Like, what, I mean, there's a reason why crime did increase during the pandemic. And many of those crimes were crimes of desperation. We're talking about burglaries, robberies, those types of things. I'm not justifying it, but you do have to take a step back and ask, okay, well, what are the underlying problems, societal issues here that we need to actually

pay some attention to rather than just simply focusing on band-aids to fix what we're seeing in various cities across the country? And one other thing I want to point out, it's all about perspective, right? So if you live in a more affluent part of town, if you happen to be part of a specific demographic, then policing has probably been pretty great for you, right? You call the cops, if you feel threatened, they're gonna show up, you're not worried about them brutalizing you in any way. Understand that your perspective and your firsthand experience with policing might be very different from what other communities and other people, other demographics are experiencing. So that's the other part of this, right? I would argue that everyone wants to

feel safe, everyone wants protection. It's just that not everyone in this country has gotten it from how policing is done in this country so far. And then one final thing that I have to say about Greg Gutfeld and other conservatives like him. Look, if they're worried about looting, if they're worried about activists engaging in violence, I would like to hear them respond to the double standard that they engage in on a regular basis where they minimize the criminality of the Capitol Hill rioters. They pretend like it was no big deal. And then at the same when it comes to demonstrations about something very legitimate, they'll go ahead and demonize them and defame them as nothing more than looters and rioters. Which, by the way, in Florida right now, thanks to a law that was just signed by Governor Ron DeSantis, if you're a motorist and you decide to run over protesters on the road, you have immunity at this point.

It's insane. Yeah, if there were sneakers inside of Capitol Hill, I feel like Greg Gutfeld would get upset about the looting there. Like if people were running out with anything other than like Nancy Pelosi swag and be like, oh my God, it's looting. No, it's just Trumpers stealing the Constitution. What? That's fine. Yeah, exactly.

Well, we got to take a break. But if you think we're being too harsh on right wingers, get a load of how Nancy Pelosi responded to the verdict. I think it kind of came from a good place, but not a good execution. So we'll give you that video and more when we return. And if you're liking the show, if you want to help us out, please like and share the stream. It's one of the easiest ways and best ways to help get the message out about TYT and what we're doing here. I'll see you after the break.

Ladies and gentlemen, we need to talk about a relatively new show called Un-F-The Republic or UNFTR. As a Young Turks fan, you already know that the government, the media, and corporations are constantly peddling lies that serve the interests of the rich and powerful. But now there's a podcast dedicated to unraveling those lies, debunking the conventional wisdom. In each episode of Un-B-The-Republic or UNFTR, the host delves into a different historical episode or topic that's generally misunderstood or purposely obfuscated by the so-called powers that be. Featuring in-depth research, razor-sharp commentary, and just the right amount of vulgarity, the UNFTR podcast takes a sledgehammer to what you thought you knew about some of the nation's most sacred historical cows. But don't just take my word for it. The New York

Times described UNFTR as consistently compelling and educational, aiming to challenge conventional and upend the historical narratives that were taught in school. For as the great philosopher Yoda once put it, you must unlearn what you have learned. And that's true whether you're in Jedi training or you're uprooting and exposing all the propaganda and disinformation you've been fed over the course of your lifetime. So search for UNFDR in your podcast app today and get ready to get informed, angered, and entertained all at the same time. What's up. What's up, everyone?

Welcome to our first social break of the show today. Lots of fun environmental stuff to actually announce for you guys. including the go green sale over at ShopTYT. So our latest release, Legalize it, is on sale, 20% off during our Go Green sales. So go to shopty.com where you can get more details and check out all of the cool new marijuana-themed, or I should say pot-themed gear we've got over there. Also, we're going to do an Earth Day special this week. April 22nd is the day that we're doing it.

And it's going to be freaking fantastic. 5.30 p.m. Pacific, 8.30 p.m. Eastern. And you can watch live at t.y.t.com slash live. We're going to have all of your favorites on, including Benjamin Dixon, Ida Rodriguez, Wally, Mason, from the sunrise movement. That's exciting. And also Brett Erlich. Brett's going to make an appearance.

So you're going to get more than happy half hour this week, folks. You're going to get fun on Earth Day. So make sure you guys check that out. I'm going to read a few comments. And oh, by the way, you should become a member, t.yt.com slash join so you can get all of that programming and members only programming as well, exclusive to members. You don't want to miss out on all of our fun stuff. Jenny Penny from our member section says the world witnessed a G.D. and real-time murderer. What does G.D. mean? Witnessed a goddamn and real-time murderer? Okay, great.

Can all the BS networks stop showing abusive cops as heroes? Look, I truly believe that type of propaganda infiltrates police culture. Yeah, I mean, what you know what infiltrates police culture? Seeing their peers get away literally with murder again and again and again and again. Like that's what I think has led to at least part of the culture that we're seeing right now. Francesca, did you want to jump in? Oh, I was just going to say, yeah, happy 420, but also, yeah, the two. two things according to, we spoke to Malina Abdullah of Black Lives Matter, the two things that

actually change policing, accountability, and getting police out of communities of color. The reason that so many affluent communities have a great view of police is because they're never there. They're just not there. So it's like, oh, cool. I don't have an occupying army in my neighborhood. Tight. I like police. Yeah. You know, it's interesting though, because in places is like Beverly Hills, if you need the police, they'll be there, like within seconds, right? And it goes to the point that I was trying to make earlier about, you know, your experience with policing might be very different from other communities. So, you know, empathy matters. Theater goddess says Gutfeld doesn't care about cities. He cares about his neighborhood, which

probably got looted by white people, not affiliated with Black Lives Matter. But no one talks about that either. Yeah, I mean, I don't know where Greg Gutfeld lives, but I guarantee you he's not actually genuinely concerned about violence and looting. No more trigonometry writes in and says Keith Ellison, the Minnesota Attorney General deserves a shout out for leading the charge. I don't know if the charges would have been brought with a Republican attorney general or another weak suit. I think that's a really great point. So shout out to Keith Ellison. And again, I'm so happy that we got to start the show today with good news. All right, let's get back to the show. I'm going to be.

Welcome back to TYT, Anna Casparian and Francesca Furentini with you. Francesca has an awesome podcast that you guys should check out called The Bituation Room. Francesca, your turn to jump in and plug away. Yes, yeah, watch live every Sunday, 5-8 Eastern at Frannie Fio on YouTube and wherever you get your podcast, The Bituation Room podcast. We had Malina Abdullah of Black Lives Matter on L.A. recently talking all about local victories to try and defund the police and the ways that, you know, Democrats, including Eric Garcetti, are trying to walk that back. So it was a great discussion. Check it out. Well, we're not quite done with the Derek Chauvin news. We gave you a little. a little bit of Greg Gutfeld's response. And unfortunately, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi did not

have a good reaction. So Nancy Pelosi has responded to the verdict in the Derek Chauvin case. He has been found guilty of all three charges, including second degree, unintentional murder, third degree murder, and second degree manslaughter. Now, it's very rare for justice to be served in these types of police cases. And of course, many are celebrating that in this case, there is justice. I think House Speaker Nancy Pelosi wanted to do that, but it did not come off that way. Let's take a look. Thank you, George Floyd, for sacrificing your life for justice, for being there to call out to your mom. How heartbreaking was that? Call out for your mom. I can't breathe. But because

of you and because of thousands, millions of people around the world who came out, for justice, your name will always be synonymous with justice. Thank you for sacrificing your life for justice. I wouldn't have gone in that direction. Francesca, you're the one who brought this video to my attention. What are your thoughts? Just let Karen Bass speak, just step aside. Seriously. Please don't, don't say that, Nancy. That's a terrible thing to say. He didn't sacrifice his life.

I don't think his family would be content with you framing his murder as him sacrificing his life. Say, I'm sorry that it took your heinous murder for us to understand to open so many of our eyes, including my own. I knelt, Nancy Pelosi, for nine minutes in Manolo Blonix on the Senate or on the Capitol floor. Like, again, and this is just broader than that, you know, and this is where we go. some of these Democrats who jump on to a mass movement only when it's convenient and only when like everyone from Amazon is the corporation is like, all right, now I need to talk about how black lives matter. Like, you know, they only stick their necks out when it's widely popular and we need to actually talk about what are the reforms and the real proposals that

they are pushing through Congress. You know, I know there's a George Floyd Act, but it doesn't go far enough. We're talking about small things like banning chokeholds or no knock warrants. These are fine, but they are only addressing the extreme cases of violence. And they don't go far enough when it comes to structurally making sure that police are reined in and so that we don't have any more people murdered at the hands of them. Right. And I mean, when you think about the cases where cops come in and brutalize people, it's usually over. over someone engaging in some sort of act, first of all, sometimes it's just someone calling 911 on people who aren't doing anything wrong, like in the case of Tamir Rice, who is

literally playing with a toy gun at the park. And then you have cases with an elderly woman with dementia forgetting to pay $13.88 worth of merchandise at Walmart and cops get called in for that. I mean, there's so many issues that need to be dealt with that go beyond reforming policing. Like, we do need to reform policing, no question about that, right? But what is the role of policing? Like, what do they get called in for? And what are the various societal issues that we need to deal with that lead to things like desperation, poverty, right? Mental health care, in the case of the elderly woman with dementia, right? We have, I mean, in Los Angeles alone, tens of thousands, something around 60 to 65,000 homeless people on the streets who are just

trying to survive. And when you're trying to survive, you'll do anything to get some food to make sure that you have the sustenance you need. Crimes of desperation exist because people are desperate. Why are they desperate? We need to have those conversations. And yes, we have racism within police forces across this country. I mean, we've done story after story of, you know, oath keepers saying, oh, yeah, we were trained by current serving police officers. That's a problem. Absolutely. So you're right. You're right. Like paying lip service, which is what we got from Nancy Pelosi there, isn't nearly good enough. And it's also kind of ironic that as house speaker, she has a difficult time speaking clearly and connecting with people on these types of

issues. You know what I'm saying? Like, what made her think that was the best line to use? Yeah, and I also think that, you know, there are mayors of big cities like Eric Garcetti or like or, and governors, um, like Andrew Cuomo, who have relied on police, who love the police because as Professor Alex Vitale, who's an expert on sort of, you know, police militarization, he's great, you guys should all look him up. Um, but he explained something to me, which is that Where politicians fail, they just rely on the police to shut everyone up. Oh, so you failed on housing policy, rely on police to shut up the homeless people. Lock them up.

Oh, you failed on health care? Oh, rely on the police to just tackle mentally ill people. Oh, and if some of them die, whatever. But so it is absolutely a democratic problem, even though the right is just relishes in the racism of it. But it is a failure of politicians when they rely on police time and time again, no, not to keep people safe, but to clean up, supposedly, when they have failed so drastically when it comes to basic infrastructure, basic health of everyday cities and communities. That's such a great point. Absolutely. Well, let's switch gears a little bit because we do have an update on another cop that we've covered. And that's Officer Brian Sicknick. This is a pretty big update. that we should clarify. So we have a little more clarity on what caused the death of Officer Brian Sicknick. This was the officer who died shortly after the capital rights that took

place on January 6th. Now a medical examiner has ruled that Sicknick died of strokes or natural causes and not by homicide, which was what everyone previously thought, based on statements by the Capitol Police, by the way. So Francisco Jay Diaz, the medical examiner said the autopsy found no evidence that the 42-year-old officer suffered an allergic reaction to chemical irritants, which Diaz said would have caused Sicknick's throat to quickly seize. Diaz also said there was no evidence of internal or external injuries. So just to back up for a second, when we first learned about Brian Sicknick's death, it was reported that he was bludgeoned by a fire extinguisher. Then the story changed and investigators thought that maybe the bear spray that was sprayed

into his face, and that did happen, we have video evidence of that, caused his illness, which led to his death. But now, based on what we're learning from this medical examiner, that is not the case. He did not have an allergic reaction to it, and he actually died from natural causes. Siknik suffered two strokes at the base of the brain stem caused by a clot in an artery that supplies blood to that area of the body. And Siknick had returned to the Capitol headquarters, Capitol police headquarters after the attack when he collapsed and was admitted to the hospital. He died the next day. So the two individuals who were seen on video spraying him with the bear spray are now unlikely to face any type of homicide charges as a result of what we're now learning

from the medical examiner. Yeah, I mean, I think it's really important that we understand the specifics of how Brian Siknik died, but at the same time, I think you would be hard pressed. And I think there is a compelling case to be made in court that the actions of the insurrectionists, the capital rioters, had everything to do with the fact that he suffered a stroke soon after, whether or not it was instantaneous, whether or not, you know, like, He was hit with a fire extinguisher. Obviously, those are awful things, and one of them happened, and one of them didn't happen

is you're clarifying. But again, I think that some folks, the right, will probably look at this and be like, see, nobody died. Anyway, doop-doo-do, do-do, nothing happened, no laws broken. No, I think that absolutely- At TYT, we frequently talk about all the ways that big tech companies are taking control of our online lives, constantly monitoring us and storing our data. that doesn't mean we have to let them. It's possible to stay anonymous online and hide your data from the prying eyes of big tech. And one of the best ways is with ExpressVPN. ExpressVPN hides your IP address, making your active ID more difficult to trace and sell the advertisers. ExpressVPN also encrypts 100% of your network data to protect you from eavesdroppers and cyber criminals. And it's also easy to install. A single mouse click protects all your devices. But listen, guys, this is important. ExpressVPN is rated number one by CNET and Wired magazine. So,

take back control of your life online and secure your data with a top VPN solution available, ExpressVPN.com slash TYT, you can get three extra months for free with this exclusive link just for TYT fans. That's EX, P-R-E-S-V-P-N dot com slash T-YT. Check it out today. There could be a cause and effect here of someone suffering that kind of intimidation, violence, fear, and then later having a stroke and dying. But again, we are experiencing a good day of news when someone actually is brought to justice. And I'm not going forward, holding my breath when it comes to holding a lot of these rioters accountable.

Right, yeah, I think you're right in that assessment. And listen, two things can be true. He can die of natural causes, but at the end of the day, what happened in the Capitol that day was wrong. The same right wingers who are trying to make it seem like this is no big deal because his death was by natural causes are the same people who would totally justify cops gunning down anyone else who's like basically using chemical irritants in the face of these cops or doing anything else to assault the cops. Like you can't have your cake and eat it too. The right wing likes to justify police using brutality if the person who's

has been brutalized doesn't listen to the commands of the cop. But you can't then turn around and say that the actions of the rioters were totally fine. Don't minimize that. You can tell the truth about what's actually happening with Brian Sicknick's health and what led to his death while also wanting to hold rioters accountable for what they did. Because the fact of the matter is we have so much evidence that there were rioters there who were assaulting cops, who were engaging in criminality, and they should be held accountable for that. Don't go overboard. Don't needlessly and gratuitously charge people for things they didn't do. But anyone who claims that what happened in the Capitol is no big deal.

And we should just kind of minimize what these individuals chanting hang Mike Pence did is just wrong. It's just wrong. Stop trying to whitewash what happened that day. Yeah. I do think there is, I still think he has a strong case. I mean, to be honestly, if I were his lawyer or like his family and wanted to sue Donald Trump, right, as I know some of the Capitol police officers have been suing Trump, I think there is a compelling case. And the problem is is that every time someone dies, I mean, look, the defense for for Derek

Chauvin in the case of George Floyd, we're trying to blame George Floyd and his heart conditions or all the ailments that he had. And it's the same, same, same thing. If a murder or a death doesn't fit your political ideology, you will justify it. And time and again, so sadly, the victims, the person who is dead is not around obviously to defend their own name. And we're there from Mike Brown on down to George Floyd defending someone who cannot defend themselves and sort of using our like just BS barometer around morals to say who is a worthy victim and who is not a worthy victim. And you see it time and time again.

And especially with police brutality, when folks like for Adam Toledo outside of Chicago, 13 years old, you know, a lot of folks say, well, he had a gun. So his arms were up when he was shot dead. That is the bottom line. He did not deserve to die. Does someone deserve to, does I, I thought this was, I thought the right was always the party of like due process and innocent until proven guilty. Oh, no, no, no, I'm sorry if you are a white man. Yeah, no, this just in, if you represent my values only.

I mean, yeah, they're also the same people who claim that they're warriors for free speech, but then they want to crack the skulls of anyone who engages with the BDS movement. They want to literally outlaw it and pressure Congress to pass resolutions condemning it. Of course, of course, there's a ton of hypocrisy. You certainly see it on both sides. I'm not trying to clear Democrats of it, but when it comes to the right wing, it is kind of miraculous how on one hand they'll focus on, oh, violent rioting when it comes to Black Lives Matter, and then simultaneously minimize the rioting and looting that took place in the Capitol on January 6th,

which by the way, was fueled by this desire to overturn the results of our democratic process and the outcome of the general election, which, you know, it's a little different than people demonstrating in order to reform policing, which actually is a genuine problem in this country. But anyway, we should take a break, and when we come back, my fave. Leon Cooperman is back. He's still crying. We're gonna keep dunking and it's just a lot of fun. You don't want to miss it. We'll see you then. You know, I'm going to be able to be. I want to start off by thanking our new YouTube members. And if you're not a YouTube member, you can easily join by clicking on that join button if

you're watching on YouTube. And you'll be presented with different tiers. So whatever you're comfortable paying, you can go ahead and join as a member. And you get all sorts of perks, including exclusive members only programming. And also, I believe they call it emojis on YouTube, not emotes, which they reserve for Twitch. But anyway, definitely check that out. So special thanks to Pedro Morales, Adam Vibbert, Austin Schultz, Boyd Huff, Dominique Jones, and Tim Abrams. Thank you so much for becoming members. We really appreciate you guys. And I hope you guys enjoy all the perks that come along with

being members. In our super chat section, we have John Sherwood, who writes in and says, I have traditionally enjoyed legal procedural dramas, but lately I've been horrified to reassess them and notice how often they get us up to cheer cops ignoring the rules and brutalizing bad guys. Hollywood needs to get involved to correct this. Well, actually, it's amazing because it's not just with police, it's also with like the intelligence community. Hollywood like has to get certain permission. They have to like work with them. Like they have a lot more influence over that kind of content that you know than you know about. And even Ben Menkowitz on an episode of old school talked about what it was like to be a local news reporter

and how if you have any type of negative coverage of policing, they'll retaliate against you by basically banning you from press conferences. And it was a really interesting perspective. So if you're a member, you can get all of old school and other members only programming. If you're not a member, you get part of old school. But you should become a member because that was a really interesting story. Moving on, Holly Todd writes in and says, in my jankiest voice, Down goes chauvin, down goes chauvin, slams head on the desk. Ah, Jank would do that. He did do a live video today, by the way, on the verdict.

So even though he's not on the live show today, you can check that out on our YouTube channel. Donovan E says right-wingers don't understand what happened today because they view justice as oppression. Do you think the right wing will lash out and use violence? I don't know. I hope that's not the case, but it is interesting to see how, to see how some of them are already quick to react negatively to the guilty verdict.

Peter writes in and says, hey, Anna and Fran, Francesca, he said Fran, but he doesn't know Francesca. He doesn't know, okay? I'm always tempted to call Francesca Fran, but she doesn't like it. So I try not to. Chauvin is found guilty on all three counts. He can rot behind bars for the rest of his life, and so can every other murderous cop. All right. And then Peter Hamby, real quick, While I'm glad Derek Chauvin was the main bad cop weeded out, the power these cops have over us, mainly the minority, isn't up in smoke. You're absolutely right about that, and I see the 420 reference there.

But there's a filter in place, my 420 piece complete. Thank you for that comment. Peter Hamby, we love you. We got to get back to the show, though. I'll see you guys there. I'm going to be able to be. I'm going to be. Welcome back to TY, Anna Kasparean and Francesca Furentine with you.

So, Leon Cooperman is back in the news, which I love, because Leon Cooperman is my favorite billionaire to dunk on, and we're about to do that right now. So Senator Elizabeth Warren wants to hear what notorious billionaire crybaby Leon Cooperman has to say about her proposed wealth tax. Now, Leon Cooperman has called the wealth tax foolish, which of course means it's time for another edition of When Rich Men Cry. And I love this episode because Warren has invited Leon Cooperman to appear at an April 27th hearing on creating a fairer tax system. So she's like, okay, all right, you think I'm foolish. You want to say all these nasty things about me during CNBC interviews.

Why don't you come and testify and tell us why it is that my proposed wealth tax is such a bad idea. Now, for those of you who might have missed that proposal, she had first pitched it when she was running in the Democratic primary, but she's reintroducing it. And the ultra-millionaire tax, which Warren reintroduced last month, would seek to raise at least $3 trillion over 10 years by imposing a 2% annual levy on the net worth of households above $50 million. Billionaires would face a 3% tax. So we're not talking about increasing taxes on people like us. We're talking about increasing taxes on people who have been able to dodge paying taxes through all sorts of loopholes and tax giveaways by our federal government. Now, Warren wrote a letter to Leon Cooperman arguing,

as we more expeditiously, as we move expeditiously toward consideration of changes to our rigged tax code so that the wealthy pay their fair share, I believe you should be afforded the chance to present your perspective directly to Congress. Now, she used the phrase fair share, and Leon Cooperman no like that. In fact, he said as much during a CNBC interview. Let's watch. When he starts talking about raising tax on capital gains, raising tax on ordinary income, and in a recent speech, he's talked about fair share. I hate that expression with a passion. What does fair share mean? I've said in your program numerous times, basically, I'm willing to work six months a year for the government to six months of myself, which means a marginal tax rate

of 50%. You live in California, Connecticut, New Jersey, New York, you're ready well past that. Okay? And this fair share is a concept. It's just a way of attacking wealthy people and, you know, I think it's inappropriate. We all got to work together and pull together. We all got to work together and pull together. Yeah, I'm worth $2.5 billion, but I'm going to complain about paying too much in taxes anyway, even though I get all these loopholes and tax credits and things I don't actually deserve. Okay. All right. Warren loves to troll in, by the way, which I'll get to in a second. But Francesca, I wanted to give you a chance to jump in. I can't be having all the fun. No, that was, that was first of all, amazing. And I love that impression.

And I also feel like the next time CNBC interviews him, he's just going to be like literally on like the Cayman Islands, just burying his gold. You know, like, you know, they always say, you know, your fair share, I don't even get it. And I'm like, okay, here we go, like he, that's what he's doing. Like the guy, you know, he's, he paid a fine for insider trading. He knows, like, only someone who is guilty and who knows they don't deserve that money is that fragile about it. We've talked about this time and again.

And obviously, look, I wish Biden would jump on to Elizabeth Warren's tax plan and taxing the ultra wealthy. That would be huge. And I think, you know, there's a lot of analysis right now that is like, you know, Biden can only skirt so long and go so long without actually tackling corporate greed and greed of ultra wealthy. He's trying to sort of say that nothing will change. Everything is okay. We can totally pay for all this infrastructure. But no, you need the money. And the last time I was on this show, Anna, we talked all about how beefing up the IRS would mean that actually would mean getting

millionaires and billionaires to pay taxes. They already owe something like $10 trillion, right? Like huge amounts of money. So we don't even know what Leon Cooperman already should be paying. You know, like we don't know everything we should be getting from him, but he's already, but he's mad anyway. Yeah, there was this new analysis out that showed that because of the IRS being underfunded, and that usually leads to them focusing most of their energy on easy audits on people who are typically not wealthy. Wealthy people are able to skirt about $1 trillion in taxes a year. So yeah, it is a massive amount of money. And it's just, and we're talking about taxes that they should be paying even under our broken tax code that gives them all sorts of goodies and favors. Okay. But after he, after he did that interview, you know, Warren's been trolling him, which I will admit, I've been enjoying it because she's right on this issue. There should be a wealth tax. And you're absolutely right about Biden. I mean, Biden wasn't even willing to increase the corporate tax rate to. what it was prior to Trump cutting it from 35% to 21%. Biden has proposed a 28% corporate tax rate, and now it looks like he's not even really going to fight for that. The end result is likely

going to be a 25% corporate tax rate. But in regard to Warren's trolling, during an interview with, so after he did some of these interviews with CNBC, basically calling Warren's tax plan, foolish and all that. She put out a mug as part of her campaign merchandise that said billionaire tears, so you'll be drinking billionaire tears. He didn't like that during an interview with CNN business. Cooperman called Warren, then a Democratic presidential candidate, a superficial nasty hater. Like you're a grown man. I think it's weird when grown men use the word Hater, but okay, and urge the public not to fall for this political charlatan. Nonetheless, Warren also included in her letter to him, the opportunity will allow you to fully

air your views, not merely in front of the financial news audience, where you often express them, but before the entirety of the American people. And I do want to give you another taste of how Warren loves to troll this guy, because it's It's just, it's great A. It's a lot of fun. Let's go to our next video. Maybe you've heard, there are some billionaires who don't like this. Yes, they've been interviewed on TV, I've noticed lately. So sad, so sad that they might have to pay two cents out of their bazillion dollars. So here's the thing. And they say, you know, I worked hard. I care.

That's it. Imagine being worth $2.5 billion, not million, $2.5 billion dollars. And just the proposal of a long-shot wealth tax makes you lose it on national television. I can't get enough. It's amazing. It's amazing. Those tears are so like, they're like that, well, got to cut my second family loose. I don't know how Clarissa's going to deal with all this.

I don't know why I said Clarissa. I feel like that's a second family wife name. But I got to say goodbye. Or it's his boat, Clarissa, whichever. There's a Clarissa in there somewhere. The point is that, yeah, he can definitely afford it. And I do, look, I disagree with Elizabeth Warren on a lot of things. But watching her do like a hot five-minute set about like billionaires.

I'll go for like I'll get tickets to that show. I'll watch her just sort of like troll them and it's true though he should sit in a hearing if he has something legitimate to say an ad which apparently according to CNBC he does because he's got money never really understood that hedge fund had to pay a fee for insider trading okay still gonna put him on TV okay cool but like then yeah put him in front of Congress to have him suggest something else. My guess is he doesn't want that because he doesn't want any more scrutiny into his own finances than there's already been. You know, it's, I would have thought the same, but he is genuinely considering it. And I hope he does testify. Look, whatever you think about

Elizabeth Warren, put it off to the side. I agree with you, Francesca. There are certainly things that I disagree with her on. When she backed away from Medicare for all during the Democratic primaries, I was not pleased by that. But Her moment to shine is really during these hearings where she gets to ask difficult questions to people in the financial sector. Just this past weekend, I rewatched how she grilled Timothy Geithner following the 2008 economic collapse. And I mean, she just like sliced and diced the guy.

He was like tripping up. It was a sight to see. I highly recommend you guys check out that video. But Cooperman, a longtime hedge fund executive who's net worth Forbes pegs at $2.5 billion, told CNBC he's a bit suspicious about the invitation, but is nonetheless considering testifying anyway. Please testify. Please, please. Oh, will he cry, Anna? Do you think he'll save some tears just for the mic? Bring extra hankies. Give a loud like, you know? Listen, as a man, as a man who's good at failing upward, I'm, I'm, I'm. very interested to see him flailing upward, which is likely going to happen during that testimony. It's going to be wonderful. So stay tuned for that. All right, one more story before we wrap up

our first hour today. And George Bush is back in the news. With lots of people willing to launder his reputation, drives me crazy. George Bush, former president, spoke to Hoda about his thoughts on immigration and the current state of the GOP. Let's hear what he had to say. It's a beautiful country we have, and yet it's not beautiful when we condemn, call people names and scare people about immigration. Yeah. It's an easy issue to frighten some of the electorate, and I'm trying to have a different kind of voice. Well, okay, if you were to describe the Republican Party as you see it today, how would you describe it? I would describe it as isolationist, protectionist, and to a certain extent, nativist.

Are you disappointed? Well, it's not exactly my vision. So it's interesting because I went back to watch some of his speeches on immigration when he was president because I was sure that I was going to find, you know, language that goes along with the GOP narrative of like, oh, we gotta shut everyone out and we need to be awful to asylum seekers. But he was calling out nativists even when he was in office. But he had some pretty awful policies that impacted immigration and immigrants, including,

by the way, the Patriot Act, which allowed for the United States to hold immigrants or non-citizens under indefinite detention. I mean, it really did away with some of the legal protections that undocumented immigrants or immigrants who aren't citizens have. Like, those legal protections matter. So he's got to take a good hard look at what he contributed to this broken system. And I have a lot more on that. But Francesco, what are your thoughts? Yeah, I mean, absolutely. And it is amazing that George W. Bush is trying to be public now without saying first, I'm sorry. And yeah, you should probably indict me for war crimes. Like, that's it. That's all I want to hear him say. That's all he should say. And his entire administration, like you were saying, set us up for Trump. The trillions of dollars of debt that both wars created. The amount of border militarization under Homeland Security, which was a department created because of 9-11 and the response to it, right? Like, calling people names is bad. Yeah, remember when you call people evildoers and terrorists and you're either

with us or against us, homie, this was your legacy. There's a reason that you've been like put out to pasture as he then says, right? It's because nobody likes you. And the fact that mainstream media somehow is the only one and so-called liberal media is trying to resuscitate him is insanely infuriating. But again, this is that dangerous stuff. Look, Democrats sleepwalked into the Trump administration just the same as Republicans. And you see that so perfectly with the lack of self-awareness, the lack of understanding of his legacy that George W. Bush has right there. He set it up, Trump knocked it down. Like you're looking at what you, like what you sowed. And we had to all reap it. Yeah, I mean, it's such a great point. And really the big difference

between someone like George Bush and Donald Trump, and what I would argue made George Bush a lot more, are dangerous is that he had like this friendly, likable persona that I think helped cover up the awful policies that he implemented both through foreign policy and through domestic policy. I mean, hate crimes toward Muslims in the United States shot up during his administration as a result of some of the rhetoric that they were using, you know, terrorist rhetoric, which really took off during the Bush administration. We invaded countries based on faulty intel, arguing that invading Iraq made sense because they had weapons of mass destruction. And of course, there were no weapons of mass destruction. And the American people

were sold a complete lie. And we remain in the Middle East with these forever wars till this day as a result. Like, these are things you're right. He should apologize for and at least reflect on, or at least be forced to reflect on by the very people who are now interviewing him, right? Because look, I'm, who's Hoda's co-host, Anna? What do you expect? Hoda's co-host is George W. Bush's daughter. Like, once again, the nepotism and the revolving door between media and politics, and especially the Republican Party, so of course Hoda's not going to ask him a hard question.

I know, I know, and you're right, that is a problem. I mean, Governor Cuomo's brother having a prime time show on CNN like these are issues right when the media is supposed to hold people in positions of power accountable these conflicts of interests matter and we're certainly seeing that in the context of this interview but we do have one more clip from the interview for you let's take a quick look at that okay this hypothetical republican is pro immigration pro a path to citizenship for undocumented workers pro docca pro reasonable gun control pro education funding for public school Does that person have a shot or that Republican, would that Republican have a shot in 2024?

Sure, yeah. You think? I think so. I think that it depends upon the emphasis. I think if the emphasis is integrity and decency and trying to work to get problem solved, I think the person has a shot, yeah. It seems like you've... By the way, I think pro-immigration isn't the right way to put it. I think border enforcement with a compassionate touch.

With a compassionate touch, look, the Republican base is what it is. I'm not justifying it, I'm not minimizing it, but he's wrong. And I think there's a very real reason why Republican voters seem to love the pretty awful rhetoric coming from the GOP right now in response to migrants at the border. It's because all of the GOP has been focusing on for a while now is essentially demonizing people over culture war issues, right? So immigration for them is part of the culture war meant to deflect from the fact that they failed in governing, they failed in providing a good life for the American people, inequality

continues to be a huge problem. So in order to distract from all of these societal ills that they have taken a role in, they'll go ahead and demonize others. Oh, these asylum seekers, these unaccompanied minors at the border, these are the people that we need to be scared of, worried about. And so the Republican base has been conditioned to feel honestly like combative, angry, fearful toward immigrants. And so Bush is wrong. Bush is wrong when he thinks like, look what happened to Marco Rubio. He wanted to create a pathway to citizenship. Like he took still a right. wing, but a softer approach toward immigration. And during the Trump era, I mean, his political

ratings decreased significantly because he wasn't, at least at first, willing to go along with their fear-mongering narrative about migrants. Yeah, I mean, I just want to say that it is surprising and like the tiniest, slowest clap for George W. Bush to say the Republican Party is currently nativist. But once again, he fails to understand. the way his entire presidency set this up. And one specific way, and we saw this bear out on January 6th, which he says in that interview made him sick to his stomach, well, buddy, a lot of the folks who stormed the capital got radicalized in the U.S. military were radicalized under the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan

and the incredible apparatus of Islamophobic fearmongering that you could, created so that they've come back and not just imported all of their, you know, weaponry back to the United States, back to police forces, back into communities. But now they're suddenly afraid of Muslims and they see, you know, Sharia law in the mirror behind them, you know, like it's Candyman or something. And like, that is exactly the kind of, that's a kind of hatred and rhetoric that Bush's administration fomented. So it's, again, you're totally right. That was, it reminds me of why Bush drove me crazy, which was that at least Trump has the decency to be a POS. Does that make any sense? Like he's fully the POS that he is.

Like he is so unabashedly, right? But like Bush would always sort of like, we are a force for good. And you're like, no, you're not. No, you're not. Why am I crazy? Like, you know, and that is, I think. And the last thing I'll say is that Republicans hate Bush too, all right? There is a reason that the Marco Rubio's, that the Jeb Bush's did not do better in 2016,

which was that Bush and the Bush administration was a massive failure. The Iraq war was a failure. The war on terror was a failure. And so instead of sort of holding Republicans nose in it that Democrats just sort of run away from it. They're not claiming that anti-war, that sort of, you know, pro-fair trade. They're not claiming that mantle that they should. They allowed, you know, a demagogue want to be populists to do it in the form of Trump. And, you know, we wanted Bernie Sanders over here and he would have won.

Anyway, Anna. Yeah. Yeah. And, you know, there was one other part of the interview. I have to bring it up. Like, you know, he basically said regarding what's currently happening with unaccompanied minors, he's like, I don't, I can't imagine what would convince a parent to send their children with these coyotes. And it's like, well, I mean, just you can't imagine it. You just have to sit down and actually think about it, right?

And it's not only his policies that played a role in essentially creating an unlivable situation in the very countries that people are fleeing right now. I mean, you got to take a look at your father's legacy, right? When he was the head of the CIA, he engaged in all sorts of awful policies in Latin America, supporting dictators, overthrowing democratically elected leaders because they don't go along with what U.S. business interests want. All of those things destabilized these countries in Latin America, and they continue to be destabilized. They continue to be rife with violence, corruption, and people are fleeing, looking for safety. And in some cases, parents are so desperate that they're willing to put their children on that incredibly dangerous journey to try to get them to safety.

So there are explanations for what we're experiencing at the border. It would just require politicians like George Bush to have a moment of self-reflection, or it would require journalists to demand that they have a moment of self-reflection. And unfortunately, in this case, we didn't get any of that. So are you going to buy his book, though, Anna, last thing? No, just a coffee book? No, not even to laugh at. No.

I'm not spending money on that garbage. But a book that I am reading right now that you guys should absolutely check out is it's called Homewreckers by Aaron Glance. Excellent book to kind of understand all of the failures in responding to the 2008 economic collapse and why it is that we're seeing inequality continue till this day. It focuses on the housing market. There's a very real reason why you're unable to buy a house and I think that book makes a good case. So check that out and we're going to take a break when we come back we have more for you guys including some good news from coal miners uh i love this story i can't wait to share it with you i'll see you in just a few minutes

thanks for listening to the full episode of the young turks support our work listen ad free access members only bonus content and more by subscribing to apple podcast at apple dot co slash t yt i'm your host jank huger and i'll see you soon