The Young Turks - Hour 1: TYT’S 21ST ANNIVERSARY SPECIAL

Episode Date: February 15, 2023

Hour 1: Grab a libation and party with Cenk Uygur, Ana Kasparian, John Iadarola, Dr. Rashad Richey, Sen. Nina Turner, Jayar Jackson, Michael Shure, and Dave Koller as TYT celebrates its 21st Anniversary! Watch classic TYT clips and hear wild stories of the early days of The Young Turks. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You're listening to the Young Turks, the online news show. Make sure to follow and rate our show with not one, not two, not three, not four, but five stars. You're awesome. Thank you. Welcome to the Young Turks' 21st birthday special. All right, Jake, you're Anna Consparing, John Irola, representing Young Turks and Damning Report. We got more, Rashad Richie, Nina Turner, J.R. Jackson, Michael, Shure, Gabe Kohler, a, others will join us. You'll see folks on video as well. So first, let's do a cheers for 21 years

on the air. Congratulations, everyone. All right. Cheers to you guys for giving us a voice and letting us do our thing. I love it. Okay, I drank too quickly before she finished the cheers. Yes, he's now drunk. So yeah, seriously, we say it all the time, but the members make younger responsible if it wasn't for you guys would have gone under a long time ago. Just reading stories about how other digital media companies are massive trouble now, but you guys are our bulwark, you're our foundation, you are the Young Turks, and that's why a lot of people in the industry don't understand. How do you guys do it? Well, we do it because our audience is us, right? That's how we do it. And for them, they just can't do it because they're so relying on

advertisers, et cetera, and that's a problem for them. All right, but we're going to have fun tonight. So one of the things that we are going to do is we're going to do games, okay, but before we get to the games, crazy story that we covered in TYT, okay? So I pick, John and Anna picks. So Anna, let's start with you. I wouldn't say craziest stories. I thought about some of the more memorable moments, moments that really stood out to me. So there was a pivotal moment in in TYT history back in 2010, I believe it was, or 2011, when Jank was a host at MSNBC. And I hated it. I hated it.

There was one week, and Jank is the kind of person who doesn't leave people behind, right? So he gets this hosting gig on MSNBC, and he tries to get us all in with him. So I remember, I was flown out for one week, and I got to experience what MSNBC was like, And I was scared. I was terrified that like this is our new reality because I just didn't feel like it was the right fit for TYT. And so there was a pivotal moment when Jank and our tiny little crew at the time went to a nearby bar because he had an announcement he wanted to share with us.

And here's what I'm talking about. Is there going to be any interesting announcement or anything today? We do have traumatic news today. My guess is that there's a low ball opening off. First of all, let me tell you something that will not go out for a long time. Monday, okay, this is totally confidential, it goes nowhere, okay? The head of MSNBC talked to me and said he heard from Washington that I'm being too harsh. He talked about how outsiders are cool and they wear leather jackets and they ride bikes and he'd love to be an outsider.

But, Jack, the reality is we're not. We're insiders. We're part of the establishment and you've got to start acting like it. I couldn't quite believe it. I sat back thinking, this is like out of a movie. Who says this stuff? Honestly, the thing that probably did they hate the most is when I keep saying all the politicians are corrupt. Right?

They're all blocked. They're all bought. They're team Obama, man. So he hated when I criticize Obama. He started to get that look, the same look that he had at the law firms where I knew he couldn't bear it anymore. And I said, oh my gosh, he's going to quit. Instead of quitting, he said, that's it. I'm going to just do the show my way.

I'm not going to listen to this. I'm going to go balls to the wall. Okay. So he did go balls to the wall. and that didn't last, right? Yeah, so I'll give you the background on this. So that's from Mattiselle. It's a movie that was made about us a while back by Andrew Napier.

It's a good movie, you should really check it out. And he, because he was shooting that movie, he happened to capture that moment. And so at that time, MSNBC had talked to me, and by the way, the guy in the movie that you see with his head cut up, that's not the head of MSNBC, that wasn't my executive producer, it was just used for dramatic Anyways, so we don't have that on tape, if we had that on tape, that'd be amazing. Because Maastro Media, I know, right? Well, it's Project Veritas, I mean. So, of course, mainstream media immediately was like, we believe MSNBC and not you. But there I am on tape three months before I left MSNBC saying they gave me this speech and I'm not going to do it, okay?

And so three months later, I get called into the office again. office again, and they say, okay, we're going to take away 6 o'clock from you. That's the spot Ari Melburgh's in now. It's a coveted spot. I just saw an article today about Ari Melburgh might be the future of MSNBC. So that is a super important. So that Ed Schultz used to be in it. And at that point, I had killed in the ratings, right? And I had the best ratings they had ever gotten at 6 o'clock. And I was the only MSNBC host to beat Fox News in any demographic. I was beating them in 18 to 34 year olds, right? And so I say, Phil, you didn't, it's not the ratings, right?

Because he can't say it's the ratings, we all see it, right? And he's like, no, no, no, Jack, it's not the ratings. And I'm like, am I a troublemaker personally, like at the office? You know, anybody, no, no, no, no. Everybody likes you, right? And I'm like, okay, so you're moving me to the weekends. He said, I'm going to move you to the weekends. And by the way, double your salary.

Interesting. Okay. Move me to the weekend. So I asked him a question, it was, I know, right? Still today, to this day, I'd be like, oh, right? That was over a decade ago and I'd like to get there. Anyway, and so I said to him a question with a purpose. I said, okay, if that's all true, what could I possibly do on the weekends to get back into a prime daily position?

And he just sat there for like the most awkward minute of anyone's life. because he hadn't thought about it. He's like, I'm doubling your salary and you don't have a choice where you're going to go somewhere outside of cable news, we're everything, right? And so he hadn't bothered to come up with an excuse. And it's because I knew it was because of that speech and how they didn't like that I was challenging politicians, right? But Phil, being not the brightest bulb, then talked after this blows up and I go, no, I don't

want it. I don't want the weekend job. You can keep the salary. you can keep it. I'm going back to LA. I'm still doing Young Turks anyway. I never let it go. So I'm just going to go back to doing the Young Turks. He's like befuddled by it. But he goes out there and then they leak bad ratings that I had. And this was funny from three months prior when Fukushima had happened and Osama bin Laden raid had happened. And those are huge CNN stories. Yep. So all of CNN had spiked up and MSNBC had spiked down. Without giving

the context, they're like, oh, yeah, look at Jenks ratings from February or March. March. From three months ago, etc. And but he said to, and the New York Times reporter who wrote about it and seemed to write it in a way where he seemed to say MSNBC was right, was was Brian Stelter. Okay, but Phil screwed up and even in the midst of saying, oh, no, that's nothing new with that. We were just having trouble getting access to guests. You schmunk, you just admitted. You just said, we'd like to cater to the powerful and Shank doesn't cater to the powerful, we're having trouble getting them on our shows. And so we're firing him because the powerful don't like them.

And why would you ever have a guest on who isn't already powerful? Those are the only people that matter. Exactly. I mean, look at all those admissions and that tiny little statement he gave his and Stelter, and Stelter, by the way, didn't even notice. Okay, didn't even notice that that would be a bad thing in journalism. Okay, so back to me. I just want to give you guys context. So I wanted that to be the moment that I,

like presented in this anniversary special because every once in a while, actually pretty regularly, I get comments, tweets, whatever from people who are like, why are you, go do your own thing. Why are you at TYT? Go do your own thing. No, I'm at TYT because Jank is worth working for. Okay, because he has- I'll convince you someday. You're all right, you're all right, right. No, but like, don't, don't downplay it, okay, because you did something that I'm not sure anyone else would be able to do. Your values and your principles meant more to you than a million dollar contract. Don't hide the number, Yugar. Okay, that's serious.

And you walked away from that into the, let's keep it real, the uncertainty of digital media and the trials and tribulations of digital media because your values and your principles mattered more to you than the money did, than the fame did, then the, you know, all the special treatment you get for being a cable. hosted. And that was everything to me. So I wanted to really celebrate that and give you endless kudos for that and make sure that the audience knows because a lot of our audience members are newer. They joined the audience like after this all happened and they might not be privy to what Jake literally gave a middle finger to in order to basically deliver the truth to you guys. So thank you Anna. That's incredibly sweet. I really really really appreciate it. And And, but look, I'll tell you one thing is definitely the right decision. Nothing like being free.

So on top of everything else, first of all, I didn't get into this to not do honest news. So what's the point? I could have just stayed a lawyer. I could have gone into real estate, which my dad was in. I could have done all these things if money was a goal. So if you're going to say, do the news, but don't do it honestly, no deal. No thank you. I have got no interest.

But secondarily, when you have to have. to be someone else's servant in a sense and do as they tell you, whether it's right or wrong, then what are you doing it for? And you got to do it, you got to do it. I hear you, right? And that happens a lot, right? But I didn't have to do it because I had you guys. And so look, and I get, I know I'm corny, but I mean it 1,000 percent. When other hosts are given that ultimatum, they don't really have a choice. There's no radio left anymore that industry is destroyed for talk show hosts, right? And at the time, YouTube would just kind of barely started, right?

It was around 2011, and YouTube had started at the end of 2005. It'd only been around six years. There was no Facebook presence, there was no rest of social media, et cetera. And so like if that ultimately came to any of the hosts on MSNBC now or CNN, well, it's the end of their careers if they say no. And so that's a hell of a thing. But for me, I knew we had members. And I knew that we weren't going to be rich and it was going to take a long time and I knew it was going to be a struggle, but I knew you had my back.

And so since you had my back and we could go back and just build it, right? And then I wasn't going to fall off a cliff. I had, that gave me the courage to do that. So you were my safety net. So if you see me being corny on air about how much we value the members, it's 100% real. And if it wasn't for you guys, we couldn't even survive that moment. Yeah. Yeah, and all you were being asked to do explicitly was go to the weekend.

I mean, there were some implicit stuff about stop challenging or whatever, but they weren't asking you to do much and you didn't sell out for that. I mean, there are people that, you know, we see that go all the way to the right. Like they'll go way further for less money. And so, you know, there's always going to be accusations thrown around about people selling out or whatever. People love to talk about it as if it's a hypothetical. You've already been tested, you've already gone through it.

Like, 100%. It would have been really easy. Yep. But anyway, yeah. Now that's an amazing moment. And you know, it's last thing about it. When I, they also told me to tone it down. Normally they wanted to protect Democrats and Obama.

I wrote about this in the book. Justice is coming. You could actually get it pre-order if you want t. t.com slash justice. But one of the things was after Obama gave a speech right, I was criticizing him, because he honestly talked out of both sides of his mouth. They were like, don't do that. And they're like, I'm like, what?

I'm like, I'm like, what? I can't criticize the president of the United States. They're like, sure you can. You just have to be respectful and wait a certain length of time. And you know me, not just because I'm a wise ass, but because I'm like, okay, well, let's figure it out. What length of time? Should I wait an hour? Because the speech just happened and I'm alive on the air after the speech. I'm not even on in an hour. Do I wait a day? Do I wait a week? And again, they've never been asked this question because it means shut up. Otherwise, we don't pay you, right? And so I'm not going to tell you who said it, but one of the hosts there was like, well, maybe two days or so.

And I was like, so until it's out of the news cycle. And then when I go to say it, you'll say it's out of the news cycle. Okay. And then, but it wasn't just Democrats. I yelled at a former Republican congressman who wanted to cut Social Security. If you're an MSNBC viewer, you don't want Social Security cut, right? I'm fighting for you. They're like, we didn't like your tone.

Was that the guy you told to shut up? No, that was on TYT. Oh, yeah. Oh yeah, that was on TYT, right, right, yeah. So by then not on MSF, he said they had a loss their minds. How could you tell someone powerful to shut up? That is an outrage. Well, people will not like that.

Are you kidding me? They love it. You don't like it. Anyway, so now let's make fun of me. Okay, so I'm going to show you, before I get to you, I'm going to show you one of my favorite clips. We're going to go to the Tata clip because it makes fun of me. So we got to switch it out.

Is that legal in Florida now? I have layers to this story. But first, by the way, our favorite drinks are on t-y-t.com slash cheers. Don't drink and drive, be responsible. But if you're responsible and you're at home, go make one of the drinks. Drink with us. We're 21 now. We're all legal, okay?

And so here's the Colonel Todak, General Totak clip. We're going to begin with Brigadier General retired Anthony Tanta. He's also the author of Rogue Threat. General Tata, welcome to the Young Turks. Hi, how are you guys doing? It's Tata, actually, it's one of those good Italian names. Okay. Well, for a guy named Jank Uger, I should be better with people's names.

All right. Hey, I've been called Worst, trust me. And you go by General Tata? I go by Tony or whatever anybody wants to call me. My favorite, my absolute favorite moment in that clip is the look on your face when he corrects you. That was a funny look. So good.

It was not really apologetic. You were perfectly fine with what happened. No, no, seriously, that look looks like I'm thinking, what do you correct me for? What's the big deal? No, no, no. You look embarrassed. Oh, a little bit embarrassed, but a little bit like that's close enough to Tata. Okay, that's funny.

See, those are two interpretations. So what was the reality? best on my recollection, but that look was like, I can't believe I screwed it up again. What am I going to do? What am I going to do? I've done it. Okay, but I have two defenses, as it turns out. Okay, all right. So number one, brigadier general retired papa wound up going into the Trump administration. Yes, he did, he did. And he was such a nut that they couldn't get him confirmed. but of course Trump did the usual acting what do we have here deputies under

Secretary of Defense that's a really high level position okay so how was Teta if you will a lunatic he thought that Barack Obama was Muslim of course and that he was a terrorist that he was a terrorist leader looking to undermine the country from within and there's like 20 other lunatic comments like that. At the time, I don't know that he's a lunatic, right? He was just an author. He's writing all these books. His books are hilarious. They all have the same name and they're all threat. Oh, here's book one, sudden threat. Book two, rogue thread. Book through three, hidden threat. Book four, mortal threat. I like sudden threat, but I thought the rest of

everything is so gradual. So I'm glad I got his name wrong. Okay, take that, bring it to your general. Tata for now, until he becomes a senator. Yeah, I know, to wait for it. So second defense, I was like, how did Tata get stuck in my head? And we did this clip once before on a show. And I thought it was because I had watched an adult movie called bodacious tattas. Oh, my God.

When I was, when I was younger, okay? No, it's because the first celebrity guest ever on TYT was. Joe E. Tata. Really? Yes. That was your first ever guest? Yes. He's the actor who was the owner of the peach pit on Beverly Hills 902-1-0. Joe E. Tata. That's his name?

Yes. And I looked it up because I was like, how did it get in my head? I know it's not the other thing. And then I was like, oh my God, it's Joey Tata. I mean, look, Brigadier's name is Tata, right? But he's a big, big man, strong man. He can't be called Tata, and that's why he wants it pronounced Tata. Yeah, so Joey Tata, by the way. That's a real man, by the way. Yeah, he is. He's, that was a great guest.

So I met him at a bar that we just started the young turks. It's still in my living room. I invite him on, right? I'm like, oh, you're the owner of the Peach Pit, right? He's like, oh, yeah, that's right. And so I was like, oh, you want to come? I have a serious satellite radio show. Would you like to go on?

And he's like, well, I don't know what that is. And because it's so young, so new at the time, I explained to him. He's like, yeah, sure, I'll come in. He comes in and he realizes a one bedroom crappy apartment, right? And somebody's, they live there, right? You see my couch, my TV and everything, right? And I'm there, probably Dave is there, Ben is there. All in a robes.

Probably, hey, Seuss, too. And he looks around, looks around, and then like tentatively sits down. I'm going to die, I guess. Yeah, no, he said that. I don't remember exactly, but I think he said at the end. He's like, oh, you guys are great. But when I first came and I thought I was going to die. By the way, to give you a sense of how much money there was in media, I asked them, so could you just retire off of the money you made on 90210?

Let's be honest, it's a character actor, right? Side actor. And he's like, oh, yeah, I never have to work again. Oh, that's amazing. It's awesome. Okay, by the way. Okay, now the sad part, as I was looking him up yesterday, for this, he passed away last year.

So Joey, we love you, thank you, thank you for having, you know, for having the courage to come on this show that nobody knew, right, all the way back literally now 20, 21 years ago in my living room. So we love the other Tata. All right, John, what's your clip? Okay, so I will throw the video in a second. I don't know exactly what the content of the video is, but this isn't like the most amazing news story that we discussed, but it's one of the most amazing individual elections,

I think that we've covered. We've covered many, many elections across many cycles, and there have been a number of surprises, but generally, they go sort of the way that you expect they will. And if you're a progressive and you're backing a progressive candidate, nine times out of ten, you're gonna be disappointed. And in the 2018 cycle, I remember Jank committed to, we are going to cover every primary. We don't care if it's five races or one. race. We don't care if it's a small thing. We are going to make sure people stay focused on

these primaries. And so I joined you for basically all of them. And a lot of times it's just me and you covering it. And it was loss after loss after loss. And it was so depressing. And then finally, we entered a night where we're like using false bravado to have fun. But we know in our gut the way that this race is going to go except hold up. Maybe it's not going to go that way. Let's take a look. So in the 14th, with 4% reporting, still very early, it's 51.8 to 48.2. Whoa, we got a race on our hands. We got a race. I mean, it probably doesn't even matter who's in the lead, right? Alexandria. Ocasio, course. Oh, God. It's only 4%. So it has jumped up by 20% at first of all. The new Bimo, ViPorter Mastercard, is your ticket.

to more, more perks, more points, more flights, more of all the things you want in a travel rewards card, and then some. Get your ticket to more with the new BMO ViPorter MasterCard and get up to $2,400 in value in your first 13 months. Terms and conditions apply. Visit bimo.com slash ViPorter to learn more. Multiple results, but let's start with the 14th. I do have bad news, though. For Joe Crowley, because with 51% of the vote, she has expanded her lead to 58.1% to 41.9%. She's up by 2,200 votes. Oh, God, that's unbelievable. Unless there's something really wrong here, she now stands an excellent chance of winning.

57.6% to 42.4%. I'm calling it. Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez, the winner, defeating Joe Crowley, the number four Democrat in the House. Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, we got him. We got him. Down goes Crowley. Down goes Crowley.

Down goes Crowley. Down goes Crowley. Tonight he's eating Crowell. That's how you end it. Anyway, and then later on in the night, it was finally, not to say that you're not an actual caller, it was actually called and we freaked out because even up to that point, I was just expecting, well, this is nice for now. This is fun, but I know where this is going. It's going to flip, and it didn't. We won one young, first time candidate comes in with almost no press coverage, almost no acknowledgement that the primary is even happening and takes out the number four, I think, at that point, Democrat in the House, just like.

We had come off of 2016 with the big loss of Bernie and then Donald Trump is president. It's like, what the hell is going to happen? And then here comes AOC and it was just such an exciting election. Now we have the context of an additional five years and there's been other great wins since then. And we have more to look forward to. But at that point, it was just so needed. And it being so close enough, us getting to track it in real time with the audience and everyone was so excited, that was just one of those standout election nights.

Yeah, so I'll give you context behind that one. So on election 9th, 2016, Ida reminded me of this story. Ida Rodriguez was on with us and she said, Jank, what do we do now? And I said, now we fight. And we, I wound up hatching a plan with some of the Bernie Sanders staffers to start an organization called Justice Democrats. And so I named the group. I pulled the guys together. We started it.

You saw us start it right here on TYT. I did the announcement because part of the reason we did it on TYT is mainstream media didn't care. We pitched it to them and they're like, oh, a bunch of Bernie people and that T.W. And there's no way you guys are going to win anything. Don't care, okay, no coverage. To be fair, there was one guy who did covered at one point. And that was Dave Weigel from the Washington Post at the time at the Washington Post. Now he's a seven and so and then we Rokana came on the show and became a Justice Democrat

on the air, which was amazing. I didn't think the incumbents would do it. He took tremendous courage of him to do it because we were going to primary incumbents. So he was taking a big risk. But the part I want to tell you about is shortcut Chukabardi, who ran the group, who was the former Bernie staffer, called me one day and said, Jenk, the answer is Alex. And so that's what we used to call her back then. Okay, it's this Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez.

She's it, okay? So cover her as much as you can, and I'm going to switch from being executive director of just Democrats to running her campaign. Okay? And he took Corbyn Trent and Alexandra Rojas, who were all the critical parts of just Democrats, and moved him to the AOC campaign. I was like, shortcut, that's the balliest move I've ever seen, right? So I hope to God you're right, because if she doesn't win, all of our chance, Chips are on that table, right?

Then we're in a lot of trouble if she doesn't win. Nobody's ever been more right than shortcut was, okay? And so at that point, we had done, we had mentioned her 34 times on air, 34 different videos, okay? We had covered her more than the rest of the media combined times three, four, five or so, right? And so, and I had even done a segment called Alexandria the Great. Before she won the primary, what everybody thought she was totally irrelevant. This is one of my favorite things that's also in the book, Justice Scottwin. They asked Crowley about whether she, one of Crowley's assistants, staffers on whether she was a real threat.

She laughed, the staffer did and said, no, she'll get 10% and work at the young Turks. Oops. If Crowley had not lost, right now he'd be the Speaker of the House. He was in Hakeem Jeffrey's position. Maybe. Right? And he was being groomed to be the Speaker of the House. And that night, like, I had a different point of view than you did.

You thought progressive, we lost all these things, you know, we're likely to lose. I knew all of our chips were on the table with AOC. I had really seen any polling. Yeah, you know, I had interviewed her actually the day before. She came on to talk about some of the stuff going on at the border. And it was just such a great interview that, like, I had this period of like, God, why aren't people like this in Congress? And so I was just so ready to lose that day because it seemed too good to be true.

So that's maybe why it was a little bit nice against that. Well, you didn't seem weren't wrong. I forget if it was four weeks or in that ballpark. But about a month before the election, we had a poll showing that she was down 35 points. Damn, really? Yes. I didn't know that. I didn't know about that poll.

Yeah. Normally it takes a Trump endorsement to send you up that high. But a great number of amazing things happened in that last month. And she wound up, and she wound up winning relatively comfortably, right? And then, and Shortcott was right, that she would be a national sensation if she won. And she was, and she is. And helped to inspire a lot of other really awesome people up to today and in future elections. Yeah, absolutely.

All right, guys, here's what we're going to do. We're going to play games like Never Have I Ever. We're going to tell you about some of the things, stories behind the soundboard that we use on the show for time and time. I'm going to try to squeeze all that in. We're going to take a super quick break, but in the break, you're going to see a video about the special as well. So let's do that now. Hey, TYT, happy anniversary. I love you guys so much, everybody there, still such great friends.

Thanks for giving me my start, Jank, Anna, John, Brett, all my great friends over there, Judith. You guys are doing great work and so important to the progressive movement, TYT forever. Happy 21st birthday to TYT. huge 21 years of progressive media. I'm such a fan. I'm also kind of liking this 21 milestone because I think it's time to get drunk on some democratic socialism. Something I can get down for. Hey, this is Alonzo Bowden. I want to congratulate TYT on its 21st anniversary. And thank you TYT for allowing me to be part of the network. Here's to 21 more years or maybe even 22. Heck, let's go for 25 more. That should be enough.

What's up, y'all? Rick Strong from T.Y.T. Sports. It is hard to believe that it has been 16 years. And there are many things that I will remember. I have been through the glory days of toilet water running down our old studio, the transition to current, those weird blocks that we had in the back, the 24-hour live stream. it has been an incredible ride for me.

What has made this company great is the viewers. That is what speaks volumes to the core of what we are doing, is that independent media coupled with uncorrupted values, you guys see it, and the only reason that we exist is because of you. I appreciate every opportunity that I've been given. And I hope that even to this day, I have served this audience well connecting and covering the intersection of sports and politics. Love you all.

Your host, a Turkish barbarian. matter is a woman. If the job description where what do you do, it's decision maker. Don't taste me, bro! Don't taste me, bro! Don't taste me! All right, back on the director's 21st anniversary slash birthday. I'm going to read a couple of comments because you guys are wonderful and I love the perspective you're providing. Then we're going to play never have I ever. Vicki said Ty Ykeeper provides us with honest unbiased reporting simply it's priceless.

Thank you so much. Thank you, Vicki. We appreciate it. And meow out loud and said, jank's cute face while listening to Anna's kudos. Thank you. I'll take cute face. I'll take it and run. Tuffy said I was a handsome devil when I was younger.

Wow, a lot of compliments. Thank you guys. The throat grow dragon say, my TYT membership is the best money I ever spend every month along with my DSA membership dues. I hope you know how much love and respect there is for you guys here in Brooklyn. That's amazing. Thank you, thank you. And I'm going to read one, a little bit long one because it gives me hope.

Stephen Scales wrote in, Jenk, I've been a TYT viewer than members since 2008. So that's 14 years now. Man. No, 15 years. After a friend suggested that I check you out. At the risk of being corny, you literally changed my perspective on life in general. I was unaware that I had a lot of right wing beliefs until I started tuning in. Which by the way is true for a lot of people, including all the way back in the day, me, right?

I've learned so much over the years, but the most important thing I gained from watching you deliver the news in a real human way is empathy and understanding. Thank you, Jenks, thank you, TYT. Happy 21st birthday. I had to pull my car over to type this. Now I'll continue my ride home so I can smoke one for TYT. Yes. Indeed. And by the way, guys, since we're now legal, we can drink. Since we're 21 years old, you can follow along at home too. Our favorite drinks are up at t.com slash cheers. Make sure you drink responsibly and don't drive. But if you're at home, have some fun. Make some of those drinks. Okay. All right. So, and thank you guys. You're all wonderful for saying that. And any time we help people see things in the right way is a giant

win for us, more important than any money or any other reward that we can get. For sure. So never have I ever. Now here's a hilarious thing and I purposely didn't ask the producers this. I don't really know how to play. Oh my God. Okay. So this would be the first thing that you've never. Apparently, okay? Because I remember when I was a kid many years ago and I heard that people played spin the bottle. But I wasn't cool enough that I ever played spin the bottle myself. And I was like, you spin it and then what happens? And then I think never have I ever came around later. Okay, that's how old I am. And so newer technology. Yeah. That's right. And so I never got to do. So what do we do? Never have. So I say never have I ever. Well, this is different than a typical

games. The typical game is you take turns proposing things that are true of you to see if you can get other people. This, I think, is sort of like Asher sort of is that person. Okay, so well, let's let's do it here. And by the way, have you played? No, I have never played. See? I know, I know. But I mean, anyway. All right, okay. All right, first one, never have I ever curse on air when I wasn't supposed to. So I have cursed on air, so I don't raise my hand. Well, so we're supposed, Asher, we're supposed to have some up to begin with, right? Ten fingers. We're really nailing this. Okay, and we're, so you're starting with ten. And then if you have not done that, you lower one. Yes. Or no, if you have done it, you lower one. Yes. If you have done it. So I have cursed

on air accidentally, probably today. So nine. I lower one. Okay. Can I just prove, can I just say that I kind of prove my point? No one really knows how to play. Anyway, okay. Okay. Okay. Well, I haven't often played the Asher variant. Okay. It's a regional one. All right, never have I ever cut an interview with a guest short or ended in an interview abruptly. Well, I don't think I was the one who did it. Okay.

I want to add just brief context. I ended it abruptly because I asked this person a question, and I don't know if my producers are watching. And they answered the question and did not stop speaking nor take a breath for 16 minutes. Oh, my God. So for like the last six minutes, I was just like, I have to end this. You had jank on your show? Oh. First and last time.

So anyway, after that, I was like, well, okay, great to talk to you. You got to go. Yeah. But, I mean, John, that was a weird for you. I counted it. It was at least 16 minutes. Okay, John, waiting for him to finish a 16 minute point is not ending an interview abruptly.

It's the exact opposite. Good interview, good person. But he's just too polite. Okay, so ending abruptly, are you kidding me? How many can I count? Dick Morris, you guys remember him? Used to be with Clinton as a massive right winger, worked at Fox News, got into a foot fetish scandal. Anyway, never have I ever.

And he got it, and he was, he came in studio and we got into a giant fight over the Iraq war. And he'd never been challenged before, apparently, right? Wow. And that's what I began to realize, oh my God, the rest of the media. never challenges any of these guys, no matter how wrong they are. He was epiplectic that I was challenging him. And he walked off to set, right? And then Chuck Yeager, who turned out not to break the land speed record,

but be a different Chuck Yeager. Like, we had a guest on his name Chuck Yeager. Chuck Yeager broke the land speed record. He was a test pilot and stuff. Yeah, yeah. And we're like, oh, how was that? He's like, I'm not that Chuck Yeager. Oh, yeah, yeah.

I'm like, oh, God, Jesus, okay. And of course, Lou Dobbs. I don't remember that. Ooh. Lou Dobbs, welcome to the young Turks. Well, great to be with you, John. All right. Now, Mr. Dobbs, we agree on many things,

such as the lobbyist ruining politics and sticking up for the middle class, et cetera. But it'd be no fun to talk about the things we agree on. Sure, let's go for it. Let's talk about the things we don't agree on, mainly the problem of illegal immigration. We're going to have to leave it at that and... Well, let me ask you one quick question, can I? Oh, absolutely. Hey, we don't have the time restriction.

If we disagree, let me ask you to, let me just lay out one syllogism. You tell me how. My question is, how can you reform immigration law if you can't control immigration? How can you control immigration if you don't control your mortgage? You do a comprehensive piece of legislation that recognizes the people that are here, that recognizes the future problem, that recognizes controlling borders. You take all that into account. I have no problems with that, absolutely. Need you out with 30 seconds.

All right. The book is Independence Day. And one last question for you, real quick, in 30 seconds or less. No. Christopher. No. I've never had that happen before. That was his publicist.

Yeah. And she was interfering, like she was going on air to say no, get off the air, etc. I've never, never seen that anywhere. It's bold. Okay, let me ask you one last question. No. No, that is insane. You can't do that.

He seemed interested, by the way. Of course, of course. He wanted to keep going. But she's like, this is, he's asking you questions. You're not good at answering. We got to get out of here. We got to get out of here. You're dying here.

Yeah, so. I do remember him flailing in that interview. So she did what a publicist, I guess, is supposed to do. But not like that. But interrupting a live broadcast like that is insane. Yeah, all right. So third one, I'm at eight now. I'm at nine. Okay, let's see. How much have I drank so far? Okay, never have I ever recorded my own show on the weekend.

Well, there goes, that's me. What? Recorded your own show on the weekend. Well, let's watch. Let's see what happened. Every week I get great tweets for my followers. I love hearing from you guys. I didn't know what Twitter was going to do when it first came out. I didn't know what the point of it was since we already had Facebook and so many other social media sites. But I love how easy it is to communicate back and forth with all sorts of people. So I get messages from my fans. I'm sending messages to celebrities I'm a fan of Al Belsso. One of the guys that I tweet back and forth with probably more than anyone else,

says, is this the project which you mentioned concerning working on the weekend? If so, kudos to you for taking advantage of the studio. Yes, I tweet about secret projects and working on all the time, but last week I did tweet about this one. I am here on the weekend filming because there's literally no time during the week to do it. But either other shows are filming, which is constantly happening. The studio is almost never being used or more likely I'm just busy doing other stuff. And so for the time being at least, if I'm doing this show, you can understand that I'm coming in and doing it on the weekend, like making the graphics and producing the stories and everything. So yeah, that's the one and it's happening again.

So hurrah! That was amazing! That was amazing! I need more champagne, please. Oh my God, that was awesome. Okay, so of course I caught him on one of the weekends because I work nonstop, right? So I went into the office to work and this set of a gun sitting there to the reading for the prompter, et cetera, right?

There wasn't a prompter or whatever it was. I thought you were practicing the problem. Anyway, and I think that my recollection is that you were a little nervous like, what? It looked like it and by the way, based on the delivery there, I better not have been on prompter. Pick up the pace, Johnny boy. By the way, though, I just, no, let's look back to me. Okay, seriously though, how John's here because of me, and it's like one of my best accomplishments at TYT.

I am here because of her, that's true. Because like, you were always, like, so the way I found out about John is we had launched a show called TYT University, which I was the host of. And the whole idea around that show was to have university students like send in videos about their university experience, like college parties, whatever. If they want to talk about curriculum, they could do that too. John was the only one who would consistently send good videos. And so we would show them on TYT University all the time. And then eventually he got hired because we had a great on-air presence, obviously had a great work ethic. Believe it or not. No, but you did. You did. I mean, John did not send in, like, party videos. Like, they were all important topics. Exactly.

So like I remember one of them was like this, they were proposing a policy to allow concealed carry on campus. I remember that. And then we're like, hey, we're looking for like, you know, some fun college life content. So like he went out of his way to go to a party that he probably otherwise would have never gone to just so he could film. Yeah, I googled what's fun party life like. And it's some good ideas. Yeah. Anyway, yes, I thought you meant like going online and recording your show to.

to then watch or something, so now I'm even more embarrassed. But I don't know if it's possible for us to bring up like a still shot of that. I was saying while we were watching it, first of all, I love the background. The background is nice. I would set up colored LEDs to reflect onto it. So everyone on Twitch who does that, I was the progenitor of it. I think the sidebar with the little planet looks really cool. Looks great.

But then it's all undercut by the fact that as one of the palest people in existence, I decided to wear a way too overexposed shirt and a super light jacket. That doesn't help. Yeah, so it was a mess. They're by proving the right wing wrong, we don't hate white people. Exactly, we make them whiter than ever. But anyway, yes. But when I saw John working on the weekends, I was like, I like this guy.

Okay, this guy's a killer. And of course, when I worked in Miami, I went in and used a studio on the weekends to record a show just like you did. And that was many years ago, of course. All right, so never have I ever done this? show while an earthquake was happening. I don't remember that one. I don't remember if I had done it or not. But we have a clip. If an immediate friend or colleague splits up, your chance of, no, it's not, it doesn't, that's the headline is flawed. It doesn't mean there's a 75% chance of your marriage will end. If your friend split, your chance of divorce increases by 75%.

I think there's an earthquake right or wrong. Yeah, we just had an earthquake. Oh yeah, I can feel it shaking. Yeah, we're having an earthquake right now as we speak. There's an earthquake. earthquake. It's kind of creepy. Yeah. I feel my ass swaying in the chair. Yeah. Nice job. Good call on that. Yeah. It's worth a, it's worth an awkward fist bump. Whoever feels the earthquake first, I believe it is now over. Ben and I had the worst on-air chemistry in the beginning. I was the worst. My delivery is looking better. No, 100%. No, we like, we've finally developed a good rapport and everything was great, but like it took a few years. I'm not gonna lie. Yeah, no wonder I didn't remember it. I wasn't on there. Okay, there was, you guys had the vibe of like a married couple

who was just keeping up appearances for the kids. Thousand percent, thousand percent. Yeah. So I do remember we had a massive storm at the DNC in 2016. That was scary. And we were in one of those tents. The media were put into these giant tents. And, it started swinging back and forth, the tents did. I mean, it was a big storm, right? That was scary. And it was really scary. Of course, everybody left a building except us.

Yep. And we stayed on air. Yep. Okay, except one of our hosts, who at the time was not a host, J.R. And I look over, and he's half in the tent and half outside the tent. So he hasn't left. He hasn't left. And I asked him about it later.

He's like, look, I ain't a fool. Okay. Like you guys. He's like, if I felt that tent going too. more percent in that sway. I'm gone. Yeah, I'm gone. I'm halfway out. And so he had taken precautions. Yeah. So we did that too. All right. So last two, never have I ever won P.A. Warren, PJ Bottoms on the show while filming. No, I haven't done that either. I definitely did not. Okay. Maybe on the weekends? No, I don't know for sure. I'm going to give the finger up.

I'm only at seven. I think you guys might be at six. I don't know. No, no. I'm at eight. Oh, okay. So whenever I go on air at home, I always make sure to pull. put on jeans. Doesn't matter if it's going to be two minutes on air, you're only going to see this, because you never know. That's exactly when the camera goes like this or something. Reflection off a glasses to the monitor or to the penis. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. It'll get you. Well, okay, a little too much. All right. That's what they would say if they were watching. Oh, okay, I like that. Never have I worn a TYT shirt under a blazer. These are, these are targeted. I mean, I definitely have.

Okay, well, there you go, but then you could just go to- But that looks great. Actually, I kind of like, I like my hair in that shot actually. Yeah, there you go. Anna, you've never, could we get it once? With a, I don't- She's won a t-shirt. I'm worn a t-shirt.

But not with a blazer, obviously. I'm not like, I don't like the way t-shirts look on my body type. Like it just makes me not, I don't know, it's just not flattering for my body type. That's the only reason why I have issues with t-shirts. Yeah. But it doesn't mean you guys should have issues. Yeah, I have the same exact issue with skinny jeans. Anyways, but hey, John's got one on right now, you can get it at shoptyt.com.

Okay, all right. Cheers to 21. Cheers to 21. And we've got shot glasses like that. I'm not saying you should go to shopty.com and get it, but kinda. All right, so that was never have I ever. Now guess that soundboard clip. Okay, this is fun.

We go to the sound board every once in a while. We used to use it all the time. We still use it from time to time. So let's play one and see if the three of us can figure out what clip it's from. All right, go ahead, part. Rasting times require what? Drastic measures, yes. Who said that?

Thank you. Drasting times require drastic measures. Okay. So that's, of course, we all know it. It's Phil Davidson. I did not remember the name. Okay. Yeah, he's a guy who went, who was, he was one of the first guys to go viral, like ever.

Yes. Right? And he was on Tosh. If you remember that show because he had featured people who went viral and Tosh Point O randomly was shot out of the same studios as the young Turks were. Anyways, and I randomly hosted a show with Tosh back in Miami when I was doing weekends practicing shows on the weekends, etc. Anyways, Phil Davidson had gone nuts in a speech that he was giving to for the state treasurer or something like that.

Yeah, he wanted to be state treasure. He was running for that position. And in a Republican primary. Okay. And then everybody laughed and of course he lost. But now we look back on it. Yeah. And he'd almost certainly win now. Yeah. He was just a man ahead of his time. So do we have the clip so people can see it? Let's watch. We've told you about crazy Republicans throughout the country, right? Well, we've got excellent video footage of one from Ohio today. My name is Phil Davidson. And I am seeking our party's nomination for the position of Stark County, Treasure. I am from the village of Minerva, and I will not apologize for my toe tonight. I have been a

Republican in times good, and I have been a Republican in times bad. The Stark County Treasurer's office is a mess. Drasty times require what? Drastity measures, yes. Who said that? Innominated, tonight I win. Tell your friends, tell your neighbors, tell Randy Gonzalez. I'm coming. Who said that? Who said that? I love this guy, man. I love this guy. Nobody's ever been this excited about Stark County Treasurer position before.

It wasn't even all of Ohio was Stark County Treasurer. It's so small. And it's a mess. So small. Yeah, he's from the village of Minerva. Okay. To this day, from time to time, you will hear. hear me on air say, tell your friends, tell your neighbors, tell Randy Gonzalez, I'm coming.

And that's the reference. Because I probably, maybe the most frequent question I've ever been asked on TYT is, who's Randy Gonzalez? By the way, we should invite him on the show. By the way, we did. We did? Yeah, he's on. And here he is.

And right now. Okay, and he's joined by Brigadier General Tata. Okay, real quick though, my favorite thing about that clip is when he's like, drastic times require what? And then this poor person in the audience is just like, drastic measures, yes. Tell me he wouldn't win today. Tell me he doesn't win that primary today. I might vote for him. Okay, it was exciting. I did like it. Yeah. And the Stark County Treasurer offices a mess. It remains a mess. We saw it. Okay.

And by the way, no, Randy Gazales turned us down. We found him, but he said no. No, not Randy Gonzalez, Phil Davidson. Oh, we tried him too. Yeah. And he said no, too. But now we should bring him back. Yeah, for sure. Okay, all right, whatever happened.

We need someone to represent the village of Minerva. Exactly, we've never had anyone on from Minerva. We got to make that happen. All right, all right, let's go to the second one. Second clip. Animals are innocent. Okay, that's a classic. So that is, I think, a vegan rap.

Yes. And it's like a cable access kind of show. I think it was just a YouTube show. Okay, right? It might have been cable access. HBO, I think. No, okay. High production value.

And I remember the dude walking around as people were sitting, okay? Like a super awkward dude walking around as people were sitting. So let's see if I'm right. Let's watch. So this morning, Jank Yugar sent me a video that I now believe is the best video that I've seen all year. And it features vegan activists who feel very strongly. about the fact that we refer to people negatively by using animal names. Don't use chicken as an insult. Animals are innocent. Don't be speciesist. Never use the name of an

animal as an insult for a human. Animals are innocence. If you're disloyal and we have a spat, I will never call you a rat. I respect you and rats. Don't use rat as an insult. If you check out women while out for a jog, I will never call you a dog. I respect you and dogs. So you's dog as an insult. If you complain that we're not rich, I will never call you a bitch. I respect you in female dogs. Don't use bitch as an insult.

No, no, no, but that was the best video that's ever been created and it's ever been put up on YouTube, okay? I enjoyed that video so much, I watched it over and over again. I'm not kidding. No, I watched it three times. Animals are innocent. Now you know, now you can't, you won't be able to get it out of your head. He has actually a fine voice. It's not bad.

Also, by the way, how great of a karaoke song would that be? Oh, my God, we say. We got to get drunk tonight. Oh, you are doing that fun with that? Come on. We get drunk tonight. We go to sing karaoke. We put that in.

Animals are innocent. If you say that we're not rich, I will not call you a bitch. That's excellent stuff, really. But that might have started like the whole political correctness genre. genre like don't don't say that about dogs, okay? Animals must be protected though. To be fair, animals, okay.

All right, let's try one more. Okay, this one's going to be a little bit of a deep cut. I remember. I remember. I'll never ever forget this because this woman is a national treasure an American hero. There was

a guy doing some nasty stuff on on the train, okay? And look, given what we're dealing with on public transit these days, everyone can use a woman like this on the train because the guy's fondling himself doing some nasty stuff. And she's like, no, no, no. Everyone else is pretending like they don't see this. Everyone else wants to like be quiet about it.

I'm not going to be quiet about it. Can we watch the video now? Yeah, I did not, I didn't remember exactly. I thought, I was like, it's not the documents lady. So that's a nice job. All right, so let's watch. Diana Carter noticed a man on the train in New York City rubbing his penis. And apparently this is a common thing that happens on train, sexual harassment and sexual assault has actually shot up considerably in the last year.

So as a result, she took out her cell phone, started filming him and really put him on blast. What are you doing? I'm square. What are you doing? What are you doing? Do some freaky shit in and I'm gonna get up out this chair. and I'm a bust your ass. You want to rub your bitch,

you rub your shit when you get off the motherfuck train. Get up. Get the fuck up. Get the fuck off this train. You got the right one, honey, because I'm a crazy bitch. Please believe me. I love that line.

He had a card for the win. That was my favorite line. Can you play that one more time? It gives me life. You got the right one, honey, because I'm a crazy bitch. Please believe me. I love her.

We need her so bad right now. Yes. America needs her. Yes. But I do have to say, she shouldn't use the word, bitch. That is not insults, female dogs, I respect, female dogs, and animals are innocent. Subway masturbators, yeah. Okay, the look on his face, I'm like, oh no, yes.

No, it's amazing, I love that. Okay. All right, guys, we're out of time with thank you guys. You guys are giant, giant, we couldn't have done TYT without Anna Cusparian and John Iidrola. You guys are amazing. I love you guys. Thank you. Right back at you, Casper.

So check out damage report, of course. All right, we've got to take a break. When we come back, we've got more host for you guys. Dr. Rashad Ritchie is Senator Neida, Turner in the House. Well, not quite in the house. We'll say, we'll come back. Thanks for listening to the full episode of the Young Turks. Support our work.

Listen ad free. Access members only bonus content. and more by subscribing to Apple Podcasts at apple.com slash t-y-t. I'm your host, Shank Huger, and I'll see you soon.