The Young Turks - How About Zero?

Episode Date: October 22, 2021

Joe Manchin and Bernie Sanders got into a heated argument over the reconciliation bill, with the West Virginia Senator saying he's comfortable with spending a dollar amount of "zero." President Biden says Kyrsten Sinema isn’t on board for raising “a single penny” in taxes on the wealthy. Biden is also open to eliminating the filibuster on voting rights "and maybe more." The voter-fraud hunt in Texas just blew up in Republicans’ faces. Conservative host Candace Owens calls for the U.S. to invade Australia to free people from "tyranny." Hosts: John Iadarola, Francesca Fiorentini, Nina Turner 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. If Joe Manchin, Kirsten, Cinema, and the Senate parliamentarian will allow it, I would really like it if we could drop it. Isn't that awesome? They gave us an intro. That's it. We're not getting anything else, but we got that intro.

Well, that's actually not true. I'm surprised you got all three blocks down, John. I thought it was just going to be one and then cut. Maybe, maybe like two blocks for one year. But anyway, we do have two other great things. We've got Senator Nina Turner. It's always great to have you here. Thanks, Jenna.

And Francesca Fiorentini, not only of the bituation room, but also I hear tell of a Twitchuation room. Tell us about it. Oh yeah, Wednesdays at 1, Pacific 3 p.m. Eastern, the Twitchuation room is on Twitch, obviously. That is Twitch.tv slash TYT. So go there and of course every relation to my podcast, the bituation room. So yeah, it was super fun and I'm excited for more shows. That is awesome. I just, I love that we're continuing to build out our sort of like Twitch programming.

Like pretty much every day, I think at one Pacific for Eastern, you know that there's going to be something awesome there. And I love that. And I'm very much looking forward to doing the show with both of you. Thank you for being here. Thank you for your time correction as well, John, for, yeah, I count. I could also be wrong. Anyway, so look, we're going to have an awesome hour and we're going to, look, we're going to get mad. That's the news. That's what we can do. But there's good reason to. But we also have a second hour. And in the second hour, Jair Jackson is going to lead you, but he's going to be joined by Wazni Lombray and Farron Cousins as well. How awesome is that going to be? So don't just

stick around for this hour. That's the warm up. You also have a second hour as well. But with all that said, are you two ready to talk about some news? Ready to rock and roll. Okay, let's do it. we finally have a little bit more insight into what Senator Joe Manchin wants in the reconciliation bill. Basically nothing. Or at the very least, he'd be satisfied with nothing. And that's not just me reading his behavior, his whole total vibe and all that. This is what he is saying to other senators. So he and Bernie Sanders apparently squabbled behind closed doors on Wednesday, with Manchin using a raised fist goose egg to tell his colleague he can live without any of

President Biden's social spending plan. And we're finding this out because other senators were there too. John Tester, Chris Coons. So Tester said, Joe said, I'm comfortable with nothing. Well, Bernie said we need to do three and a half trillion dollars. The truth is both of them are in different spots, said Tester. Thank you, Senator Tester. We had not known that in detail over the past few months.

But apparently, yeah, Mansion said, I'm comfortable with zero and did the old goose egg. The great thing about that is that Joe Manchin is free to just say that behind the closed doors. He can cut the programs, but he never has to go across West Virginia, stopping at the homes of people struggling in a variety of ways. It's a place of great poverty and tell them all, I'm happy if you get zero, door to door zero. That would be fine with me. And so look, some of this, we've known that he has problems with a lot of these programs, and we're going to run through a bit of specifics of what he wants cut but I just love the call that he's yeah he is comfortable with zero he doesn't need it he is literally a millionaire Nina Turner

John I mean he is set for the rest of his natural life and so are his children and most likely his children's children and children's children so he could have in dip this is just fragrant indifference just just straight out indifference to the suffering of people in this country and even, especially in his own district, as you know, the state of West Virginia is the six poorest state in the United States of America. Lots of poverty. There's struggle. We know at one point the coal miners were striking. They may still be striking right now. But a lot of needs are there. So he can just have this cavalier attitude about the social programs that the president is trying to push because there's no skin off his nose, so to speak. Yeah, Francesco. Oh, yeah, just the, I mean, this is, he is, this is a zero, this is like his, his heart, this is his like empty little heart.

That's what the goose egg is. It is like, oh, nothing there, not like so many Republican senators, right? Except he's a Democrat. And this is what Democrats, and actually this is what conservatives, whether it's a conservative Democrat or it's a conservative Republican hold over progressives and other Democrats who actually care. independents who actually care every single time, which is, oh, we could also do nothing. How about that? How about everyone dies and starves instead of just a few people? And so then progressives are sort of crawling back to the table. And the negotiating table like Bernie Sanders is he can't walk away, right? Because Sanders actually has a moral compass, right? And he's one of the few senators holding it. It's very shaky. You know, everyone wants to pry your soul from your hand in the Senate. And it's just, it's, you know, it's hard. Or super easy if you just

don't take a bunch of corporate money and have actual principles. Yeah. Yeah. Although we should put out with Mansion, he has a special added layer of corruption. I mean, the vast majority of them are corrupted by their never-running quest for more and more campaign finance donations. But for Mansion, he's literally making money off of coal himself. It's amazing. Like, and so I'm I'm glad that we're focusing on his zero, but we should also focus on the six zeros you'd need to get to the millions of dollars that he's personally earned from his own coal company. And while there has been some intermittent, you know, reporting of that, that obvious big, that's fundamental conflict of interest. I was doing reading for this story where they

were talking in particular about, for instance, the $150 billion to incentivize power plants to switch from fossil fuels to clean energy. And most of them, the vast majority of them, talked about, well, you can't get it because Mansion's not in favor of it. They never said coal company owner Joe Manchin would prefer if we keep burning coal. It's the most obvious corruption imaginable, but it doesn't really hurt him. Because what percentage of his constituents do you think no? That know that that's why we're not going to have it, know that he owns that. And Nina, you mentioned, you know, those who were striking, coal miners who are striking. Like, he supposedly loves coal. Where's he been? I haven't seen him at that.

Like, so he does care about coal, but he cares about the end result of it. Not the black stone. He cares about the green bills at the end of it. And he's made so much money off that. I just wish that that was a bigger part of this conversation. Well, we're making it a bigger deal. And yeah, people should have that little asterisk, you know, read the small print. You know how on the medications, the medication commercials and it's like read the small print. We should be reading the small print here, which is simply Senator Joe Manchin is controlled by his owner-donors. And he will not cross them at all for fear of not getting the donations that he needs on the one side, on the campaign side,

and on the other side to continue to enrich himself in a way that causes pain to others. is the small print. And so, you know, and we've talked about this before. And Jean has certainly talked, I mentioned this as well. In order to get him and also Senator Sinema to move, we should just go ahead and negotiate with the owner donors. Because they're not making any moves without the approval and the blessings of the people who control them.

And they don't care about the voters or the residents in their states. No, exactly. I'll just say two things. One, it makes me rethink what's in the, the pared down infrastructure bill, right? Like the roads and bridges infrastructure. Like if he's so against the social infrastructure, the build back better act and everything in it and that's being stripped for parts as we speak, then what's in the like very,

very minimal, you know, actual infrastructure bill? Like who's making out on that bill? Like who which donors, which private no bid contracts are getting funneled into the fine print of that? Like it makes me actually. more dubious of the thing that is bipartisan rather than the thing, you know, that we're working toward. It's, you know, so it's super suspect. The second thing I'm going to say, and I've been racking my brain about Mansion for so long, I'm so sick of talking about him. I'm so

sick of having to run around and figure out what's he thinking, what's in his heart, nothing as we've gone over. And it's the following. It's that it actually doesn't matter. In fact, It doesn't matter that our senators are corrupt. It doesn't matter that they're bought and sold. And all the rest of it, all the window dressing that a lot of media likes to do of, hmm, how do we come to the table and all the negotiations? At the end of the day, corruption is part and parcel of our political system. And that is so, it's a painful pill to swallow you guys.

And absolutely, it moves us to take bigger and bolder action when it comes to getting something done. because we can't always rely, definitely can't rely on Democrats to do it. Yeah, you know, I certainly agree. I have the same questions about the bipartisan infrastructure bill. Like we've effectively assembled through the course of this year, progressives have assembled a club sandwich of compromises. Like the initial 3.5 was already a massive, I guess that's one piece of bread. The fact that we just said basically you can have your bipartisan one, which privatizes some infrastructure and a variety of other things that are not progressive priorities. They actually go against our values. Those are the compromises we already

made. And now they're cutting additional trillions. What have they had to give up? What has cinema or mansion or any of them had to give up? Effectively nothing. And you're totally right about the baked corruption. I just, I wish that like when you, the little bit that you might here through all of your schooling about corruption is about bribery. And you like you get this image of somebody like using their foot to like move a bag like filled with hundreds like under a bathroom stall to a person. And it's ridiculous that if Joe Manchin, like if I handed a bag with $3,000 in it to Joe Manchin, he was like, ha ha yeah, he could go to jail for that. But if he stops legislation so that he can make millions of dollars,

dollars. That's cool. That's just part of the system. Isn't that messed, I almost swore, isn't that messed up that that's the way that it works? But that is, that is the way that it works. And corruption occasionally gets talked about very briefly. There was a congressional cycle years ago where because of Duke Cunningham, we talked about it a bit. But almost every single one of those representatives who were campaigning on it was at least as corrupt. They've just legalized their form of corruption. And they all pointed at that. the one person who is stupid enough to make it personal? Because it's a showstopper, John.

Once we talk about that, if we had an honest conversation about who has been bought and sold in elected office, it's a showstopper. Suddenly we understand we don't have the greatest democracy on earth. We progressives already knew that, but it's like, well, what do you do? So you kind of continue the circus act as if everyone's operating in good faith and they're absolutely not. Yeah. Yeah, it's so true.

And just follow the money. I mean, not only follow the money in the budget to see where priorities are, but follow the money, the trails and trails of money that lead to these elected officials. It is absolutely legal in the United States of America to bribe politicians. You got to do it a certain way, John, as you laid out, one way gets you put in jail. But the other way, let's go overseas and raise money across the waters and not deal with the policies that need to be dealt with. Senator, Senate. Let's have fundraisers and wine caves and multi-maltai extra wealthy people can just pour money and have their wheel done, even if the overwhelming majority of the American people who are siding right now with both the hard infrastructure and the soft infrastructure plans, but that is not going to be the reality because the owner-doners do not agree. And this conversation is certainly reminded me of something that Mother Jones once said when she visited somebody in jail and she asked the man, what was he in jail for? And he said, I stole a pair of shoes. She said, if you had a stolen a railroad, you'd be a senator. Yeah. That is the reality today. Yep, that's a great point. Yeah, you don't hand over a bag with $3,000. Have a bag with $300,000 a year waiting for them as soon as they get out of office. They just have to do it. want before then. It's amazing. Anyway, they say that some sort of deal might be possible. Some of them were saying within a day. Mansion says that's not going to happen. Maybe he's

had a change of heart and he wants more. That'll be fun to see. But at some point, maybe there will be a thing. And so I want to make sure that before we go into the weekend, people have an idea of our current best understanding of what might be in and out of it. So I'm going to list all these things that I want to hear your reaction. So originally there was going to be 12 weeks paid family and medical leave, which would be by no means any sort of international record, but don't get excited. It's gone. It's down to four. So four if you get horrifically ill, if you have a child, you better get that bonding in in that one month because that's all you get. A one year extension of the child tax credit isn't that nice of them.

It's incredibly popular, cuts childhood poverty. They're going to give it to you for one more year. We'll do universal pre-K for three and four year olds. I hope that they get very well educated during those two years because the free community college is out. They're not going to do that. But don't worry, they are going to be making it a little bit more affordable. So if you're a low income student, instead of about, I think, $6,000 a year in Pell grants that you could have gotten, you can get $500 more.

So I don't know what you're worried about paying for college for. They're going to give you $500 more. And Bernie Sanders wanted to have dental and vision coverage added to Medicare. They're not going to do that, but they are going to give you an $800 voucher for dental. So that's nice. You know it's good because it's a voucher. And the Clean Electricity Program, one of the largest single components to deal with the climate crisis, is likely out very specifically because Joe Manchin owns a coal company.

I will never get tired of saying that. I hope that you never get tired of hearing it. And that is currently what it looks like. Oh, there's also another thing that's not in it. We're gonna be talking about that a little bit later on in terms of how they're paying for all this. But that is the current shape of it in rough terms. Crumbs. Crumbs.

I mean, we went from progressos pushing for 10 billion. And let us remind folks who are with us, this is over 10 years. So it's not all over 10 years. So progressives said, let's do 10 billion, or 10 trillion, excuse me. Let's do 10 trillion. Then the point was, okay, let's do six. And now, you know, then it was 3.5, let's agree with that. And remember at one point, Senator Manson said four trillion for infrastructure should be a starting point.

I wonder what changed his mind on that. So now we went from 10, from progressives, six, everybody was kind of letting that marinate to 3.5 trillion, now to about 1.9. trillion dollars. It is absolute crumbs. And you know what is going to happen once that negotiation is settled and everybody kind of gets on the same page. They're going to be out there celebrating this foolishness. And I want to say another word, it begins with an S. They're going to celebrate this. Once again, selling out the American people, the poor, the working poor and barely middle class and asking people to get giddy and excited about the crumbs from the table. Yeah, I mean, I am heartened that at least universal pre-K was not cut.

I wonder if there's like a diploma after those two years, you know, instead of the free community college is like a very cute little diploma and mini one, very, very adorable. But you know, if there are just a few things that we can actually defend and expand, like universal pre-K is a start. It is, you know, just like things like Medicare and Medicaid, once they are enacted is very difficult to roll them back. In fact, you know, we want to expand them, if anything, they're incredibly popular. My question is, is if this goes forward with the crumbs, right? But like, hey, there's a, you know, it's a pretty good, a little chocolate chip in that crumb, maybe half a one, right? Is it going to be implemented in time before, you know,

the political shenanigans and machinations start in, right? Meaning are Democrats going to actually, since they've done kind of a bad job selling this, I mean, especially the president, I know we're going to talk a little bit about Biden later on, but he hasn't done a good job of selling it thus far. If it passes, how are you going to actually tell the American people, guess what? This is what we've done and we are doing. And if you can't get your kid enrolled this year, it'll be next year, or is it going to be in six years? You know what I mean? Like the implementation is really key and the narrative and the language and the rhetoric around it and how it's really being discussed. I mean, we can't even roll out a vaccine in a way that feels

compelling enough. You know, a life-saving vaccine. And granted, it's largely thanks to, you know, the erosion of any kind of medical trust thanks to Trump, as well as a privatized Medicare medical industry, but still, right? Yeah. This administration still needs to show that they've got the language and the tools to really just just put that final seal on this. and make sure the American people know what's in it. Yeah, you're right. It's also entirely possible that in a couple of years, we'll have Republicans opting out of free pre-K

because it makes their kids magnetic or something. By the way, you make a good point about taking whatever is left of these crumbs and then sung to the American people. So why does that matter? Well, you know, politically, not substantively, politically it matters because we're going to have midterms and we're going to have a presidential election. It also matters in another way. And I'm going to end this segment on a kind of a down note

that I literally have not heard anyone talking about, and I don't understand why. So Nina was totally right. Let's say it's $1.9 trillion. That's over 10 years. That's assuming you get 10 years, because if you do nothing with the mandate you've been given, and if the Republicans take control, who is to say that they can't use reconciliation to defund the programs that Biden is funding via reconciliation? Why are we assuming that if the Democrats don't maintain control, the Republicans won't

just kill all of this anyway. I don't know. Maybe it's unlikely. I think it's really weird that no one is talking about that though. Because before we're even at the halfway point, we could potentially have President Harris or President AOC or President Marjorie Taylor Green. Like, these are all possibilities we should be thinking about as well. I don't know, maybe that's getting into dark territory. Yeah. That's not going to happen. Well, I hope not. Tucker Carlson would defund it though. Anyway, we do have to take our first break though, but when we come back, so we talked about one half of the American presidency, that's Cho Manchin. We're going to hit the other half, the fancier, the fancier, purple-haired,

cool-dress half after this. Welcome back to the Young Turks, everybody. Spending some time with Nina Turner, Francesca Farentini. This is a great way to end the week. Thank you for being here. Anytime. Unfortunately, I'm going to make you talk about Carson Cinema, so apologies in advance. You already signed up. I don't think it would be really unprofessional for you to drop your Skype connection right now, so I think I've got you as we launch it on this next story. During his town hall last night, Joe Biden called out Kirsten Cinema, specifically because of her opposition to one of the major ways to pay for the reconciliation bill, which is raising taxes on corporations and the wealthiest individuals in America. Here's a bit of that. There's a lot of Democrats in the House and Senate who are confused about where Senator

Senator Cinema actually stands on things. And I know she's been negotiating directly with you and the White House. What is your read on her? And obviously, you need her to remain positive in your direction. So I don't know what you're going to say. But what is your read on her? Do you know where she stands? First of all, she's smart as a devil, number one.

Number two, she's very supportive of the environmental agenda in my legislation, very supportive. She's supportive of almost all the things I mentioned relating to everything from a family care to all those issues. Where she's not supportive is she says she will not raise a single penny in taxes on the corporate side and or on wealthy people, period. And so that's where it sort of breaks down. So Biden is right there. She has, she was reported in the Wall Street Journal. She's, quote, told to lobbyists she's opposed to any increase in taxes on high income individuals, businesses, or capital gains. Like anything, nothing. Not like, okay, I don't, I don't want to totally reverse the Trump tax cuts, but like let's not go all the way back. Like literally not a single

cent more on the wealthiest people, the people best able to weather a tax increase, nothing on them. And so I got to throw it, I got to throw it to you, Nina. What do you think about Joe Biden's approach to this incredibly radical position from Gerson Cinema? Well, that wasn't a call out. I mean, Jesus, that was a call out. It wasn't a call. I don't even know why the headline says that he called her out. He can call her out. He propped her up. He commented her intellect, smart as the devil support this, this and this. But with no money, Because the tax increases that the president wants to put into this bill will actually pay for those programs on the social side. So smart as the devil, but cold is ice.

She actually does not care about the people. So her being supportive doesn't even matter. I mean, the stuff just didn't make sense to me. So the headline is totally wrong. He should read, cinema doesn't give a bleep, bleak, bleak, okay, about the people in her state, let's know in the entire country. He didn't call her out. He complimented her. No, I totally agree with that. Also, is it a compliment to be called? Smart as the devil? Like, I think he, it's a backhanded compliment, you know, like, yeah, I guess so.

But it truly doesn't, it doesn't instill confidence in that president, in Joe, Biden as the leader of the party and the country to have him sort of sort of lay it out on the table. It's like usually we want to know how the sausage is made. In this case, I'm like, honey, please save it because you need to project a little bit more authority than that being like, well, you know, that little whippersnapper really getting into my sock and, you know, or whatever it is that little June bug is up my sleeve. Like it's just, it's a little too much from him to basically say, yeah, I have one senator who has not been elected the president of the United States of America, who is effectively single-handedly thwarting my agenda that I was

elected and that we have a majority in the House and the Senate to enact. So I would have said, keep her name out of your mouth, man. Just say we're working hard and we're getting everyone on board and then repeat why it is so important to pass this piece. of legislation and what it would do to, you know, to families across the country. It's a perfect platform, Joe. We like don't don't listen to what Anderson Cooper wants to tell you, just project some strength, man. Honestly, you think you think shoe on the other foot, you think about Trump up there, if he would ever let anyone be like, so you got, you know, you got McConnell in your ear, don't you? Trump would be like, oh no, not at all, you

You know, like you, so like you want a little bit of that from Biden. Yeah, he wouldn't be like, oh sorry, I need to continue. Yeah, I just wanted to add to what Francesca is saying, again, the president, you know, this is this is not a typical situation that we're in. I mean, there is a global pandemic of people truly are suffering and losing their lives and their livelihood. So we're not talking about a bustling time economically or socially where we got time for people to play games. If I were the President of United States of America, I would let both

senators know. Senator Manchin, I'm coming to West Virginia. Moving to West Wing there, as a matter of fact, brother, you're going to see me every single day. And I mean that because you know what, instead of playing around with you, I can play around with a real Republican. That's it. And that's all, brother. And unless Senator Sinema know, and I'm on my way to Arizona directly. Yeah, 100%. On my way. I mean, that's it. And I agree with Fantreska in terms of the strength that it takes, even Lyndon Baines Johnson, President Lyndon Baines Johnson, as complicated and racist as he was, because he was, son of the South had them tendencies. He knew how important it was, whether he was doing it just for his legacy sake,

or he understood that this was the right thing to do at that moment to push through the Civil Rights Act and the voting rights act. Can you imagine this president in that moment? And President Lyndon Baines Johnson had to deal with straight up races from the South, like straight up races. And he still was able to push through filibuster and all. We need some Lyndon Baines Johnson action right here, baby, right now. Yeah, like, we could probably sketch out 10 or 20 levels of pressure. And I don't expect him to do the top one. I don't expect them to do the top 10.

But like when when you've been working for like 45 years to become president, at one level or another, in the front of your mind, a little bit it back. That's all you've been thinking about. And oh, you're not going to get to do anything because of this senator. You give a little smile. No, you don't give a little smile. They're destroying your whole thing. You've spent a lifetime working for this. Don't act like it's, yeah, she's a whippersnapper. She's that beetle crawling up your arm, as Francesca says. Really fast, let me point. Maybe this is me getting petty or whatever. But the smart is the devil thing. Can we stop pretending that people are smart who are not? And I don't mean that she, can't do well on a test or whatever, that's not what I'm talking about. I'm saying we should

expect a little bit more before we throw around a word like smart. Smart means that your brain works better than average. What else could it mean? So when you pursue a political agenda that is going to result in environmental degradation, the destruction of American cities from climate change, increased wealth and income inequality that will exacerbate political tensions, tribalism, potentially political violence, you are creating an American hellscape. Yeah, maybe pragmatically for her for a little bit, it's good. But how smart is that? When they say that Ben Shapiro is smart, Ben Shapiro sees two faces, a white face and a black face. And when he sees a black face, his brain shuts down. He can't think rationally about them.

How smart is a person whose brain is so messed up? Tucker Carlson cannot conceive of the experience of millions of transgender Americans. He will never be capable of understanding, let alone applying any empathy to this community. So I don't care if he can do math problems. How smart are these people truly? Let's have a little bit higher expectations for things like this. On cinema. Amen. Thank you.

On cinema, I will say, look, obviously taxing the richer popular, we made a bunch of graphics about it. You already know that it's popular. We're not going to read those. I will say, I love this. I saw this. I think it was the New York Times. Yeah, New York Times. I took a screenshot of this.

Cinema's tax rate blockade prods Democrats left towards billionaires tax. Shut up. She's taking away the capital gains tax. Yeah, I think she'll allow a wealth tax through. I think she'll probably just forget who she's working for when Elizabeth Warren comes in with her legislation. Shut up, New York Times. Don't try to tease us with that stuff.

They're gonna do a wealth tax. We can't raise the corporate tax rate 1%, you a bunch of liars. But anyway, I just want to throw a little bit more hypocrisy. on there. Maybe this can factor into the smart thing too. Back in 2017, Kirsten Cinema was really mad about the Trump tax cuts. Remember, she voted against them. The ones we can't get rid of, she voted to stop it, saying today's tax bill adds $1.46 trillion to the national deficit, raises taxes on hardworking families and cuts nearly $25 billion for Medicare. Washington failed again to do the hard

work and find real solutions for Arizonans. I guess she's found real solutions for Arizonans. And, you know, way back in 2011, a decade ago, she had said asking big corporations of the rich to pay their fair share is common sense, not class warfare. So one of two things happened. Either she lost her common sense or the class warfare continued and they took over the territory that is cursed in cinema. What an indictment. Yeah, I mean, what an indictment of the Democratic Party to have these kinds of Democrats. I mean, it is, it lays bare. I know some of the critiques that you, Senator Turner and that Bernie Sanders brought up in his multiple campaigns. And that's why he ran for president twice, right? It is to say that the Democrats have strayed

from their once mission of helping the working man, of helping, you know, everyday people, of of not being in the pockets of big corporations. And what an indictment that you have these two people out in front. And so we all talk about Trump. Oh, you know, Trump has imploded the Republican party. What if he runs again. Ha, ha, ha. We can't get in. anything done because we have people dripping in corporate cash going like, how are we going for it? Like that's what it is. It's a cartoon at this point.

I'd watch that question. Agreed. I mean, just absolutely agreed. And you know, let me, let me put an addendum to something I said about the president going there. But if there are only two senators, which I doubt they're only two, a lot of people, a lot of other Democrats, it pains me to say it, are hiding behind these two. But let's just for the sake of argument for giggles say that there are only two holding this process up. Well, then the other 48 should be there, like white on rice and black on coal. Yeah, and I meant that. All up in West Virginia and Arizona doing what Senator Bernard Sanders was able to do when he smoked out. Joe Manchin, his complaints about, you know, why is he writing an op-ed in my state? He writing an op-ed in your state because you're not doing anything and he's calling you out, brother. That's exactly what he's doing.

Imagine if the others in the Senate, the Democratic Senate caucus joined forces with Senator Sanders and did the exact same thing to these folks. Show them no mercy. Right. Why is there an op-ed with 48 signatures? That's it. That'd be powerful. I mean, 100%.

I mean, you got Bob Menendez of New Jersey who is against lowering the cost of pharmaceuticals, who is against allowing Medicare the program to negotiate the price of medicine, to get a lower rate. I mean, so it's like again, yeah, you know, Senator Turner's right, it's, there are so many other senators there, Democrats who are like, yes, it's all about cinema and mansion. Totally, yeah, no. And look, I'm glad that we have Senator Nina Turner here. We need Senator need to share there. That's what we need. You'd be right in those out beds. Okay, related to this though, the increase in any of the taxes whatsoever is the only thing that they're standing against. Another type of much need to reform is also there.

So let's jump into one more quick story. At its town hall, Joe Biden talked about the filibuster, which is currently stopping pretty much everything from happening. Most recently, the compromise of a compromise voting bill that the Republicans successfully blocked with a filibuster this week. Here's what Joe Biden had to say about that. But I also think we're going to have to move to the point where we fundamentally alter the filibuster. The idea that, for example, my Republican friends say that we're going to default on the national debt because they're going to filibuster that and we need 10 Republicans to support us

is the most bizarre thing ever heard. I think you're going to see, I know, if they gets pulled again, I think you're seeing an awful lot of Democrats being ready to say, not me, I'm not doing that again, we're going to end the filibuster. But it's still as difficult to end the filibuster beyond that. That's another issue. But are you saying once you get this current agenda passed on spending and social programs that you would be open to fundamentally altering the filibuster or doing away with them? Or doing away with it? Well, that remains to be seen. But when it comes to voting rights, voting rights is equally as consequential.

When it comes to voting rights, just so I'm clear though, you would entertain the notion of doing away with the filibuster on that one issue? Is that correct? And maybe more. And maybe other issues. Okay, so right there, you hear him say he would be willing to do it for that and many more, and he said that you might have at some point, I don't know why we would still need things to prod the Democrats in supporting this.

of supporting this. What have they not seen that they yet need to see? But the issue is that you can get as many as you want, as long as you do not get all 50 and you don't have all 50, they're not going to reform it. Mansion and Cinema, and like Nina Turner was saying earlier, probably two to six more are not going to do it, even for carve-outs for things like voting rights. Meanwhile, our voting rights are getting shredded, which is not only objectively wrong in a democracy, but will also make it substantially harder for the Democrats. to win the elections necessary to get into the Senate to eventually reform the filibuster. It's an amazing self-fulfilling prophecy in that way.

So he seems okay with the idea, but we're no closer to actually getting it done, not based on anything that I've seen. Stop. Do you know how fast you were going? I'm going to have to write you a ticket to my new movie, The Naked Gun. Liam Nissan. Buy your tickets now. I get a free Tilly Dog. Chili Dog, not included.

The Naked God. Tickets on sale now. August 1st. Feel free, let me know if you disagree. No, and then and there it is. I mean, you just laid it out, John. It makes no sense. All roles lead back to voting.

So in order to vote to elect people who hopefully might do something on behalf of the people, we got to make sure that voting is, is expanded and protected. We know throughout the states in this country that Republicans are absolutely having a field day with it. We also know historically the filibuster has been used for very racist. means. I mean, most often used to stop civil rights legislation, just period. So they should have been taking care of this. Now, the point that he's making about getting the, the, you know, the infrastructure passed and both the hard and and social infrastructure past, okay, I'm going to give the president that. But at the same time, making it very clear that we cannot continue on

this course, it is very disruptive to the whole of democracy. And the fact that for the People Act is going nowhere, the John Lewis Voting Rights Act might go somewhere. They allow Mansion to introduce a watered down version of for the People Act that does nothing with dark money. Asked the brother to bring 10 Republicans. He had one job, one job to try to bring 10 Republicans across the line to pass his version of the legislation. Why they would give this man, this kind of deference just absolutely boggles my mind, especially since it has been revealed that he thinking about going independent, any dangone way. Why are they letting this man be the shadow president?

He out of the shadows. He just flat out acting as if he's the president. But let me just give one more thing. Back to President Johnson, what he said about voting. A man without a vote is a man without protection. Let me throw people in there, you know, but people without a vote are people without protection. That is it. All roles lead to two things.

We need campaign financial form, and we need to make sure that we are expanding and protecting the ballot box. They go hand in hand. And the fact that these people don't get that and understand that enough, and the African American community in particular, not the only issues that we care about, but historically voting and the way we got the ability to be able to vote in this country is so deep seated in our liberation in this country. And overwhelmingly we support the Democratic Party this proportionately. You know, other people will dance and date other folks. We've got a wide coalition, don't get me wrong. But African Americans are the lowest base of the Democratic Party. The fact that they are not putting a higher premium on ensuring that voting is secure and expanded

and getting away and getting rid of the filibuster boggles my mind. Yes, especially when they consistently rely on the African American vote. and time again and propping of people like Kirsten Cinema and Joe Manchin to come through, please make the calls, please do all this, you know, we're gonna get, we're gonna get the majority and look, you know, what happened in North Carolina or in Georgia, excuse me, what happened in Georgia and Raphael Warnock and John Asif, you know, and the amount of effort that that took and the grassroots organizations, you know, from from black organizations to Asian American organizations to Latino voters, just everyone, it was such an,

a group effort, and they're squandering it, right? And just again, his stance in that town hall, I mean, I don't know, they need to do these in the morning or something or whenever he's at the peak because he's just so defeated, yeah, maybe more, I don't know, dupy-do. Like it's so, I'm so unconvinced and I know a lot of media outlets are like, hey, maybe this will really do something and they're very excited about it. I don't see a man who is convinced, I don't see a person, a politician who is going to to lead this charge. I see someone who feels already defeated around the things that he's trying

to get done. And he's allowing others to stymie him. And I just want to say like all of this makes me realize, you know, we talk about the inside political strategy. A lot of this gets very wonky, who's meeting with whom, who's moving on this and that. And we have to remember that the outside political strategy of mass movements and pressure and grassroots organizing is so important and valuable, especially when again, we are being utterly lied to about the good faithness of any of these senators, about the democratic, the fact that the Senate is undemocratic in and of itself. Speaking about legacies of racism and slavery in this country, the Senate was enshrined to protect minority rule. And that's what it does. Why do you have 50 Republicans

who represent millions fewer than the 50 or 49 other Democratic senators, right? Like, we understand that. And so we're at the end of our rope. And back in, you know, 30 years ago maybe, you know, I was like a young, like lefty coming up, like, you know, protesting the war in Iraq. And I was like, electoral politics, F it all, you know. And I feel that way. But it's like the people in charge are going to sink us all, bringing us all down together. And they're going to float up on their little, you know, buoys of cash. So like we can't afford to not care about this, but we still need to maintain. I wouldn't even say like a certain amount of militancy when it comes to mass pressure. 100%. Yeah. Yeah. And I understand the system is obviously absolutely

disgusting. But I also know that if Republicans could push a button and have every single person like you were then give up on electoral politics for the rest of your life. They would jam it until it broke. Yes. Both of you have talked about history, about how the filibuster has been used. I think historically, more than 50% of the filibusters for several decades were specifically stopping any sort of civil rights reforms. And you know, you were, Francesca, you were just talking about how messed up and unrepresentative the Senate is. And there are things that have changed in the past 50,

60 years. But there are some things that haven't nearly as much. And so I want to demonstrate that playing a video that we've played before in the show. And it has to do with a bunch of racists and some moderates using the filibuster to protect the voting suppression that's going on. This is a video of Martin Luther King Jr. And other than that, it could be played today and be just as accurate about what's going on. Take a look at this. I think the tragedy is that we have a Congress with a Senate that has a minority of misguided senators who will use the filibuster to keep the majority of people from even voting. They won't let the majority of senators vote.

And certainly they wouldn't want the majority of people to vote because they know they do not represent the majority of the American people. In fact, they represent in their own states, a very small minority. It's 100% true. Everything that the Republicans are doing in the Senate, in state legislatures, demonstrates that they do not have one ounce of faith that they will ever get a majority of the country to support them or their agenda, assuming that someday they ever have an agenda again, other than tax cuts of voter suppression and occasionally demonizing transgender athletes. Other than that, they have nothing. They don't feel the need. need to get anything because they are every day building on the multi-layered, unrepresentative, biased system that we have.

And it comes in a lot of different forms, the electoral college, the fact that you can gerrymander, the inherent system of representation in the Senate, all of this. And they've been adding layers of voter suppression to it for decades and decades and decades. It was bad in 1963 when that video was recorded and it's gotten worse, basically every year since then, especially since the Supreme Court decided that I guess states aren't racist anymore and you don't need the Voting Rights Act. And the last couple of years might be the worst of all. And the Democratic Party has an obligation, a duty to be the one, the only party to stand up for democracy. If you're not going to have two,

you should at least have one and they're not doing it. Curison Cinema and Joe Manchin and a few others would prefer to have the filibuster as a shield, not a shield that protects democracy, but a shield that protects them from ever having to do anything in the Senate. And if the cost of that is that the voters of Georgia who've done unimaginable work to finally elect two senators, if that gets taken away in the next cycles because of the new voter suppression, then he's fine with that. If Texas, which has been trending blue, if they halt that in its tracks, then that's fine. If they can flip Arizona and some other states by making it so difficult for Democrats to vote, but Joe Manchin occurs in the cinema are going to lose any sleep over

that. And that could not be any more clear. But as Francesca said, Joe Biden, if he understands these stakes, he's sure not acting like it. Any other thoughts? I mean, there it is. You just laid it out. Just as clear, crystal clear, laid it out. These things are not separate. They're very much a part of the whole. They really do go together. And that is what we need the Democrats to understand. I believe that the Democrats are going to get handed next year in 2022, because another point that Francesca made, that even if we get the crumbs, how they put it out that, you know, when, when do the everyday people feel the impact of the crumbs remains to be seen? And will it be in enough time to to actually sway the voters that their material conditions have changed or will be changing soon.

That is going to impact 2022. Democrats need to wield power is finite. You don't have it all the time. And really the difference between the Democrats and the Republicans, the Republicans wouldn't give a care. They're going to wield that power. I mean, Senator McConnell is wielding that power. He got an ironclad lock on his caucus. They don't give it. And I wish the American people, Although I'm a Democrat had more of a choice, but they really, because the Republicans have lost, they have a loving minds. And the Democrats ain't far from it because they're not wielding that power that was given to them. And yeah, Georgia brought it on home. But I think it's going to be squandered and Democrats are going to have a serious awakening that is beyond politics because it has

consequences to the people who depend on the government to stand up for them and do their bidding, they're going to get handed in 2022. Yeah, I have a fast point. Super fast, we're at a breaking point for sure. And if, and this pandemic proved that we don't have a country anymore. And I'm reminded of the quote, you know, it's either socialism or barbarism. It's either democratic socialism, it's actual social programs for the people or it's barbarism. And it's all the kind of warfare that the crazy Republicans, as Nina Turner said,

who've lost their damn minds, what they're pushing us to. So make a choice. Yeah, well, we're gonna take our second break. come back a little bit more for you after this. Welcome back everyone to what remains the first hour. It's me, Nina Turner, Francesca Fiorentini. Great to have you all here. By the way, reminder that coming up in just a little bit,

Air Jackson is going to be taken over for the second hour, joined by Wazi Lombre and Farron Cousin. So that's going to be a lot of fun too. You're not going to want to miss it. We only have a few minutes left, but let's talk about this. Like many Republicans, Texas Lieutenant Governor Dan has been searching for a solid year now for evidence of voter fraud. And in fact, he offered up a bounty for it.

Texas loves their bounties these days. He offered up $1 million in reward money to be paid out of his own campaign coffers to, quote, incentivize, encourage, and reward people to come forward and report voter fraud. I mean, that's a big incentive. You can potentially make a huge sum of money if you can just prove that voter fraud happened. And there was obviously so much, I mean, for Joe Biden to steal the election, that's millions of votes that were falsified. It should be pretty easy, but it didn't really work out exactly like Dan Patrick thought. They did find someone who claimed some of the money, but the first person to come for it was Eric Frank, a progressive poll worker in Pennsylvania who reported a Republican for voting twice.

And in the end, it was proven. Patrick's campaign paid Frank $25,000 for his tip, which led to the conviction of Ralph Thurman, a 72-year-old Republican who voted twice. His lawyers claimed he'd been tricked by poll workers into voting a second time, later admitting he had illegally voted a second time using his son's name. And apparently, while he is the first and only person, Eric Frank, to get some of this money, they gave him the minimum. amount promise, just to $25,000. So, like, not only have they got not got any Republicans that they can give money to, but he's really holding on to that money really jealously. But anyway, I just want to read you a little bit from Frank, who said, it's my belief that they were trying to get cases of Democrats doing voter fraud, and that just wasn't the case. This kind of blew up in their face.

Of course it did. Sweet irony. Yep. I love that. It reminds me also of some of like the Texas anti-choice stuff and like trying to put a bounty on anyone who helps a woman get an abortion or anything like this. And then a bunch of like out of state people are suing for the money. But like in order to prove that it is unconstitutional and it'll be thrown out even sooner. Like I love that. I love just like flipping this on its head. And yeah, there is not a lot of instances of voter fraud. But if you really want to go after it, if you really want to go after it. Well, you know, I know a lot of Republicans who have second homes in Florida and we know where they vote. I feel like isn't

Bannon one of many, many, many who are like, yeah, yeah, I'm registered in Florida and I definitely vote in Florida. Yeah. So be careful what you wish for, but look, anything that takes money away from Dan Patrick is good. So let's get that money everybody. Times are tough. Unemployment benefits are running out. So if you're a poll worker, you know, I don't know. It's just so funny to me. Like I really at this point, I don't know what you guys think, I feel like at this point, I would have expected like some, you know, giant barge of ballots to wash up on shore, you know, and it's all sort of incredibly manufactured, you know, and like Ted Cruz is the first one on the scene. Very like George Costanza like saves the whale on the beach, you know.

Flimes upon it. Like, right, right, exactly. Like there would have been a moment or like it just, you know, somehow magically appeared in a hole in Mara Lago, I guess a fan dropped him off, you know, but like nothing like that has materialized. Yeah. No matter how much they hope and pray. Yeah.

It is not there, you know, and just the share of stat that Bloomberg did an investigation, you know, Bloomberg news, that there were fewer than 200 cases of voter fraud that went to court between 2018 midterms and 2020 presidential elections. I mean, come all. Yeah. You know, I there was a one, I think it was, I'm forgetting who did the, they did a survey and they basically said you got a greater chance of being struck by lightning than to find wholesale voter fraud. Yeah, okay. That's another thing by the way I would do for a reward of $25,000. You can strike me in lightning all you want. Bring on Thor.

But anyway, not to take away the fun of this, but I do, I do want to transition why this matters because this story is the perfect demonstration that the election was actually secure. You think that like Rudy Giuliani doesn't need that money if he could prove voter fraud? They can't, okay? But nothing of this will convince a single Republican that there was not massive voter fraud. And look, for me, that simple fact is annoying, the fact that so many people have a conception of reality that is so out of step with actual reality. But it will be used to accomplish things. Trump, for instance, is using it to fire up his base, saying at a rally last week, the single biggest issue, the issue that gets the most pull, the most respect, the biggest cheers is talking about the election fraud of 2020's presidential election.

But at the end of the day, just getting cheers is not what this is about. They're acting on it. And what do you do? It's not, they know that there wasn't voter fraud, but they are using it to get what they want, which is voter suppression laws, which they've gotten dozens of, and also people in positions of power to influence the results of future elections. In Arizona's race for Secretary of State, Trump has endorsed Mark Fincham, a state legislator who promoted a partisan review of Maricopa County's election results.

that reaffirmed Biden's victory, but he's one of the guys that was willing to do an audit. In Georgia, Trump is supporting Representative Jody Heiss in a Republican primary to oust Brad Raffinsberger, the Secretary of State who resisted Trump's pressure to rig the state's 2020 vote in his favor. And by the way, Greg Abbott just put in a new Secretary of State that tried to help Trump overturn the last election. That's John Scott. So in a number of these states, some of which Biden won narrowly, others in theory, could flip, They are making sure that not only did they suppress the vote as much as possible, but that the Secretary of State, the position most in charge at the state level of how elections are handled, how audits go, how recounts go, how all of that goes. They are putting absolute insane conspiratorial flunkies into these positions.

Now, some of these have been appointed already. Some will be running in races, so definitely keep an eye on those. But the insane rhetoric that we're hearing now is not just bad for rhetoric's sake. It is laying the ground for potential actual challenges to elections in the future. Yeah, not to mention with all these people in power, I think we might start seeing the stealing of elections if we haven't already, as in the case of Stacey Abrams. But with these folks counting the ballots and like in charge and stuff, like again, republicanism is one giant projection. they will soon fulfill their own prophecy and be the ones who are actually committing the fraud and stuffing ballot boxes. Mark my words, we're gonna see that. Because again, whatever they can do

to maintain minority rule at all costs. Elections have consequences and we need to focus on not just the presidency, not just the Congress, but hello somebody, we need to focus on state legislatures and governors' mansions and Secretary of State's offices because Republicans are basically saying, you know, even though they certainly want the presidency and they want to control the Congress, they're not just resting on that. They are actually pushing on state and state level to have the power and the control. And Democrats have failed to do that too. Mm-hmm. Yep, for years. They've just ignored it for more than a decade. Well, unfortunately, on that down note, that is all the time we have.

Don't worry, another hour is coming up. It's going to be great. And I want to thank Nina Turner, obviously always great to have you on. You've been doing the damage report a lot recently, which is a dream come true. Thank you so much. Oh, my pleasure, China. Everybody check out Power Hour on Thursdays available to the members. Podcast excerpts come out on the following Mondays.

Francesca, you've got the Twitchoation room on Wednesdays. Oh, on Wednesdays. Yeah. I've run out of my ability to speak. I actually time it. So I fall apart at the end of the hour, like a Cinderella thing, but you also have your podcast. Yes, the bituation room every Sunday, 5-8 Eastern. I think that's correct on my YouTube channel, Fran Efeo, where you can follow me as well. And you can listen as a podcast too. Awesome. Thank you, everyone, for watching. J.R. Wozni and Farron

cousins are coming up after this, so don't go anywhere. ad-free access members only bonus content and more by subscribing to apple podcasts at apple dot co slash t-y-t i'm your host jank huger and i'll see you soon