The Young Turks - Jacket-off Jim Jordan

Episode Date: April 22, 2021

Attorney General Merrick Garland announces an investigation into the Minneapolis Police Department. Columbus police kill 15-year-old girl during a domestic dispute call and a look at what police are saying and body camera video shows. 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. What? Are we in the studio together? Oh, we can almost do this. It's amazing. We're at the same desk.

We're in the studio. We're about to talk about the news. It's Wednesday. So weird. Well, that part's normal. But we too look, like we're the requisite distance. On camera, it looks like we're 30 feet apart. It does look like we're far away from each other.

Yes. I saw some breaking news. But I'm really happy that we're doing the show together today, that we're doing it in person, we're at the same desk. You know, things are starting to feel a little bit normal. Yeah. Well, this doesn't. This is weird.

Yeah. Like I can see you and you're right there. I don't have 30 screens. in front of me. I feel very exposed, like the camera's so wide. Every camera has been like this on my face for 14 months. The one thing that's kind of difficult to get used to since we've been doing the show like through Skype from our homes is, yeah, I can't see Brett's facial expressions. And that's a little unnerving because I take a lot of cues from Brett's facial expressions. I don't think he even knows that. I watch him too. Yeah, how could you not? He's very

expressive. If I make a point, he'll like, yeah, yeah. And then I'll be like, oh, maybe I need to rethink that. But anyway. No, that's not how I respond. All right, well, we got, we have a giant showhead for you. Nando Villa will be joining me for hour two and the post game. And one of

my favorite stories today has to do with John Kennedy, a senator who, and I will not screw up his name today. I usually call him Joe Kennedy or a bunch of other names. John Kennedy. Anyway, he thought that he could, you know, pull a fast one on Stacey Abrams and make her look unprepared, but he was wrong. So we're going to show you some video from that.

Val Demings gets super fiery against Jim Jordan as they're discussing the need for police reform. We'll talk about that story as well. But first, let's begin with what the Justice Department intends to do under the leadership of Joe Biden in response to police brutality. and what we've experienced in Minneapolis. I am announcing that the Justice Department has opened a civil investigation to determine whether the Minneapolis Police Department engages in a pattern or practice of unconstitutional or unlawful policing. And that was Attorney General Merrick Garland,

who has announced that not only will he go back to beefing up consent decree, to ensure that police departments who have been found violating the constitutional rights of citizens will have to be held accountable. We'll have to deal with the consequences of that. But he's announcing there that they're going to be launching an investigation, a civil investigation, into the Minneapolis Police Department. This comes immediately after Derek Chauvin. A former Minneapolis cop was found guilty on three separate charges in relation to his murder of George Floyd. And so this is a really good update to the story,

because while it was nice to see Derek Chauvin, you know, have to face some accountability for what he did, that by no means is the end all be all in fighting for justice and accomplishing justice when it comes to policing in this country. I mean, immediately after Derek Chauvin was found guilty and convicted, we learned that a Columbus, Ohio police officer shot and killed a teenager,

a story that we'll get to a little later the show today. But John, before we get to more of the details of what this DOJ investigation entails, what are your thoughts? Yeah, yeah. So someone was killed yesterday, someone, and if they haven't already been killed today, they will be, and they probably have been. Yeah. As you point out, it's not the be-all end-all, the verdict, it's not anything like that. In fact, as we will talk about later in the hour, it seems like in terms of Congress, it might have said back, actually having some sort of substantive change that goes beyond the fate of one man. So we can compare the approach of different administrations.

Obama had done a few things like this at one point. Trump never would have ever. He dispatched goon squads to black bag people. Like they were never going to have anything like this. And so with Biden, we get Merrick Garland looking into it. But I guess I'm just not ready to be excited about that. Like they'll find hopefully what we know. to be true, which is no cop almost ever faces charges, let alone actually gets convicted of

crimes. Okay, so that's waiting for them to find. I guess they have to act like they don't already know. But then what will come of it? Some sort of grand sweeping executive orders, maybe Biden could in theory do that. Maybe if he wants to be seen as some sort of bold FDR 2.0, he will. But if not that, then it's going to be something that has to go through Congress and we are getting those signals already that they don't have an appetite for significant change in this area. That's a great point because while Congress really remains broken and divided, which leads to them basically accomplishing very little to nothing, you can then look to the Biden administration to take any type of executive action to investigate various police

departments. In this case, we're talking about Minneapolis. But at the end of the day, all you need is a Republican administration to come in and essentially undo what the previous administration had done. And that was certainly the case with the consent decrees. So the consent decrees were implemented in various police departments across the country, including in Baltimore, Chicago, Ferguson. Jeff Sessions, immediately before he got fired by Donald Trump, decided to essentially dismantle those dissent decrees, I'm sorry, consent decrees and essentially make them toothless. What Merrick Garland did on Friday of last week was essentially re-implement those consent decrees. And then today he announced the investigation into this particular police

department. And he explains specific reasons why and what the objective is. Take a look. Congress gave the department the authority to conduct civil practice pattern or practice investigations, which look beyond individual incidents to assess systemic failures. Those investigations allow the department to determine whether a police department has a pattern or practice of unconstitutional or unlawful policing. The investigation I am announcing today will assess whether the Minneapolis Police Department engages in a pattern or practice of using excessive force, including during protests.

The investigation will also assess whether the MPD engages in discriminatory conduct, and whether it's treatment of those with behavioral health disabilities is unlawful. It will include a comprehensive review of the Minneapolis Police Department's policies, training, supervision, and use of force investigations. It will assess the effectiveness of the MPD's current systems of accountability and whether other mechanisms are needed to ensure constitutional

and lawful policing. So he was clear about what they're looking for, what the objective is. And John, you had a great question about what does it mean once they find that there was wrongdoing within this police department. Well, he did lay that out a little bit. So the New York Times reported that if the investigators find that the police department has engaged in unlawful policing, Garland said that the Justice Department would issue a public report. So that's step one. It also has the option, doesn't mean that they're definitely going to do it, but it also has the option to bring a civil suit against the department and enter into a settlement agreement or consent decree, what I was talking about earlier,

to ensure that prompt and effective action is taken to bring the department's practices. into compliance with the law. So this is one of a few options that we have in the federal government in basically intervening and ensuring that local police departments aren't violating the constitutional rights of its citizens. But again, I think you're absolutely right. You need Congress to act. And based on what we're seeing in Congress in various police reform hearings,

we'll talk about some of that later in the show, that's unlikely to happen. Yeah, I think, look, I'm overall pessimistic. I think that the investigation could be good. If they're going to go into all of those different areas, the training and stuff like that, it's not that we are going to be on the edge of our seat wondering if they'll find anything, but they can, you know, in theory, sketch out in a high profile way. This is going to be, you know, the results will eventually be announced by the federal government. So this is something that's going to demand some attention.

And then, you know, they can talk about exactly what the training is like, what the hiring practices. But the hiring practices are like, in theory, I mean, I don't know about this particular police department, but they could go into things like white supremacist infiltration of police departments. I think in theory, if this were broader encompassing multiple different areas, like they're looking to this one because this is the case that we just experienced. But what about all the high profile cop killings of the past few years that we didn't get to investigate because they weren't president yet? Like, you could go into Chicago, you could go into L.A.

You could go into these areas. What is it? Like after two years, it's not a crime anymore. Like, it's not a sin what was done. I would prefer to see something a bit broader. That, in theory, could be what Congress does. But we'll see if they actually want to do that. Right.

And to be clear, they don't. I mean, there are certainly some Democratic lawmakers who are pushing for this. At the same time, when you're dealing with a Republican Party that has based its entire political identity on culture war issues, and essentially branding themselves as pro-cop, with the exception of the capital rights, in that case, maybe not so pro-cop. They're not going to move away from that branding that they've built for themselves. I mean, that is their entire political party.

What else do Republican voters get from Republican lawmakers? What other promises do they get? What else do Republican lawmakers talk about? Nothing, nothing. I mean, if Republican lawmakers actually incessantly talked about how, how, they protect business interests, as much as they talk about how racist they are, then I don't know. Maybe they wouldn't get many voters. They're already incredibly unpopular, which is why they have to rig elections to their advantage.

But putting that aside, the one other thing I wanted to mention is, look, just how disastrous the Trump administration was on all fronts. I mean, we know that. But when you look at what Jeff Sessions specifically did to consent decrees, and the reasoning he gets, to essentially make them toothless. It gives you a sense of how little they respect human lives, how little they care to protect people who are unarmed and have been brutalized by cops. Sessions, according to the New York Times at the time, had imposed three stringent requirements for the agreements.

Top political appointees must sign off on these consent decrees, okay? Rather than career lawyers who have done so in the past, department lawmakers or lawyers, I should say, department lawyers must lay out evidence of additional violations beyond unconstitutional behavior. I would argue unconstitutional behavior. It's good enough, good enough. But I'll give you more. And the deals must have a sunset date rather than being in place until police or other law enforcement agencies have shown improvement. That's what Jeff Sessions did. And so there's already a little bit of progress with consent decrees being re-implemented and actually having some enforcement behind them. That's a little bit of good news. But

again, like systemically, you have to take a good look, like take a step back, take a look at what's happening, even in a place like Minneapolis right now, right? Sure, Derek Chauvin was convicted of all three charges, but at the same time, it's like a war zone there. meaning that it's like overly militarized in order to prevent people from practicing their First Amendment. Yeah. That's a problem. That's part of this. Yeah, and it's good that they, you know, by name called out that they're going to be focusing on violence against protesters. Yeah.

Maybe they can find something. I don't know. We covered a few instances last year. With the exception of like a handful of states, most states in this country have either already passed laws that would brutalize protesters, as the case in Florida shows. Or they have the legislation pending, you know? I think it's 33 different states this year have that sort of legislation. That's either passed or they're talking about it. Yeah. So it's hard to say that, you know, justice was served. Maybe you can say that when it comes to one particular case involving George Floyd and Derek Chauvin.

But when you look at the systemic issues at play here, obviously we haven't even begun to chip away at it. Anyway, let's move on to our next story of a cop in Columbus, Ohio shot and killed a teenager, 16-year-old by the name of Macquia Bryant. And this happened as the country had been celebrating the conviction of Derek Chauvin, a former Minneapolis cop who murdered George Floyd in broad daylight by kneeling on his neck for longer than nine minutes. Police said that the girl had threatened two others with a knife before the shooting, playing segments of body camera video that showed the victim lunging towards someone in a driveway before an officer fired four shots. A knife is visible in the driveway next to the girl as police performs CPR. I watch the video. I want to just be clear that we're going based off of what police have released. They haven't released the full video. They've released a portion of the video. And based on what I've seen specifically, that description appears to be correct.

That doesn't mean that, you know, you don't have non-lethal options in order to get the situation under control. In this case, the cop, Nicholas Reardon, decided to go for his lethal weapon, a gun, and shot at Bryant four times. Columbus Mayor Andrew Githner says this. We know based on this footage, the officer took action to protect another young girl in our community, but a family is grieving tonight, and this young 15-year-old girl will never be coming home. And Hazel Bryant, who identified herself as the victim's aunt, said that her niece got into the fight with another person at her foster home. Bryant said the victim had a knife but dropped it before the officer shot her. So obviously we're getting a different story from a family member there and a different story from the police.

But my takeaway is even if the cop saw her as a threat to others, why do they have non-lethal weapons if they're not going to deploy them in these types of situations? Yeah, yeah. I mean, recently I would say they have them so they can pretend that they were trying to draw them when they actually drew their gun and shot someone. But this time they decided to just skip straight to the gun. Yeah, look, I know that on the right, the video means that they can now just celebrate about this and mock it. Stephen Crowder and his group were doing that today. I personally think that something can still be a tragedy, regardless of the fact that she had the knife. We can wonder about bits of context. We don't have information on currently, like they say she was in a foster home.

Okay, well, we know enough about foster homes to know that there are potentially things that could contribute to that. The fact that he came in the way that he did, he didn't try to do it non-lethaly. People attack people with knives in other countries and don't get shot dead. Like you're capable of disarming them or stopping them. They do that routinely in other places. Was it like obviously it could have worked and nothing bad could have happened here? No, not necessarily. This makes it a more complex tragedy, but still a tragedy. Yeah, definitely. And we can and we can think that, you know, regardless of the fact that she had a knife. We can wish that it hadn't happen. We can wish that things went differently. Maybe I don't know. Maybe if they'd gotten

there faster. I don't know. Well, it's interesting because you mentioned people in other countries with knives, essentially not getting shot and killed, but cops will find a way to restrain them or de-escalate the situation. That happens in this country too. Yeah. And so people were posting those videos on social media showing cops dealing with someone who either has a mental health issue, someone who's unruly, someone who's armed with a knife. And it's amazing how to Now in some cases, they don't need to open fire, they can find a way to de-escalate the situation without using a lethal weapon. So that's certainly an option.

It's just that those options are not really deployed anymore. I remember years and years ago when we would cover police brutality stories, the big story was they're using their tasers too much. Now it's like, why aren't you guys using your tasers instead? Now it's just let's use our firearms immediately. Yeah. Anyway, it's just, it's a frustrating situation. I do want to go to this video of her mother. She wanted to reflect on who Makia was and how, you know, she was an honor roll student. And obviously this is incredibly tragic for, for everyone, including her mother. Take a look. Makaya was named after a male prophet in a Bible. She was a very loving, peaceful little girl. She was 16 years old. She was an honor roll. She was a honor roll. student. And Makaya had a motherly nature about her. She promoted peace. And that's something

that I want to always be remembered. You know, and there's a lot, I have a lot of questions about what happened before the cops were called, right? Because Columbus interim police chief Michael Wood said that just after 4.30 p.m. on Tuesday, police received a 911 call. from someone who reported that women were trying to stab them and then hung up. Dispatchers were unable to gather any information about the weapons or what the weapons were at the scene, he added. So my question is, all right, well, what if Makia was the one who called the cops and felt that she was in danger? Like, how do the cops know that she wasn't trying to defend herself? Like, I don't know. I have a lot of questions. I don't know the answers to

them. And I just think it's too early for anyone to judge and place the blame on the person who was gunned down here. And that's a 16 year old. Sure. And the thing is, like I was saying about the right, like celebrating, like, you know, they consider this a great moment where, look, some people jump to conclusions and imagined that this is like so many cases where we imagine that she, none of this was true. She didn't have a knife, none of that context that's been added. Can you maybe understand? why people might think that? How many times have we been through this cycle? How many times we've been through this cycle in the last two weeks? I think you can forgive people for assuming

that the pattern that plays out hundreds of times every year might have played out in this case. It's a tragedy, even though it wasn't the exact same thing, but maybe, like if you're, if you consider yourself an outsider to this conversation and you wonder why people would jump to conclusions like that, maybe think about what it would take for someone to, reflexively assume, oh God, it happened again? Why would you believe that? Well, you believe that because that's what you had experienced in your community and in other communities. That's the grief that you had play out over and over and over again. So if you are an outsider, maybe this is an opportunity for some empathy rather than some sort of cheap feeling of superiority because

someone you don't agree with on everything politically got a detail wrong before the information was out. Yeah, and can we just talk about a contradiction that I've noticed with the right wing that drives me crazy? So one of the things that Stephen Crowder was upset about was the fact that the police department released a portion of the body camera footage. And he felt that the police department was wrong in doing that because they gave into the mob. No, they have a responsibility and obligation to release that footage to the public, which pays for the salaries of those officers. They work for us, right? They work for us. And so on one hand, you have the right way that's like, big government. We don't like big government. We hate big government. Nanny

state, nanny state. No, you guys love big government, especially when big government is crushing the people you guys hate. They love big government. But in terms of the body camera footage, No, it's not giving into a mob. It's them fulfilling their literal obligation to the very people who pay their salaries. People forget, cops work for us, okay? They pretend as if this is like some private entity that's being like attacked and is making decisions based on mob rule. That's not what's happening here.

They work for us and they should face accountability. Well, and also he's responding to the fact that like, oh, there's been a change. all of a sudden they're releasing the footage quickly. Maybe ask yourself, why did they used to take so long? Why was it that you'd wait nine months when all the information that was needed to evaluate a police killing was in that video? And in terms of people putting pressure on public servants to do what they want, I would say in this case, seems like a net good for everyone. In this case, good for the cops, right? It resolved the situation for some people, maybe do that more often.

I don't know, how many months did they spend trying to get people to surround places where the votes are being counted and hound Raffensberger and Kemp and go to the Capitol and put pressure on them explicitly to get the representatives, including Republicans, to overturn the vote. We all want people to pressure the government to do the right thing. Some of us just have really twisted ideas of what the right thing is. That's right. And look, on one hand, I really can't blame Stephen Crowder for saying. incredibly stupid things when he weighs in on serious issues like police brutality. His whole bread and butter is to say offensive, awful things, get demonetized, and then whine about it. That's it. That's all Stephen Crowder does. And when you spend all your time and

energy on that, it's kind of hard to make sound, cogent arguments. Anyway, we got to take a break when we come back, probably my favorite story of the day. Val Demings versus Jim Jordan on the house floor and it did get fiery. Do not miss it. We'll see you in just a few. We need to talk about a relatively new show called Un-F-The-Republic, or UNFTR. As a young Turks fan, you already know that the government, the media, and corporations are constantly peddling lies that serve the interests of the rich and powerful. But now there's a podcast dedicated to unraveling those lies, debunking the conventional wisdom. In each episode of Un-Bing the Republic, or UNFTR, the host delves into a different historical episode or topic that's generally

misunderstood or purposely obfuscated by the so-called powers that be. Featuring in-depth research, razor-sharp commentary, and just the right amount of vulgarity, the UNFTR podcast takes a sledgehammer to what you thought you knew about some of the nation's most sacred historical cows. But don't just take my word for it. The New York Times described UNFTR. are as consistently compelling and educational, aiming to challenge conventional wisdom and upend the historical narratives that were taught in school. For as the great philosopher Yoda once put it,

you must unlearn what you have learned. And that's true whether you're in Jedi training or you're uprooting and exposing all the propaganda and disinformation you've been fed over the course of your lifetime. So search for UNFDR in your podcast app today and get ready to get informed, angered, entertained all at the same time. We're going to be.

We're going to be. I'm going to be. I'm going to be. I'm going to be. You know, guys. saying, the people are saying they agree with Bernie. This is according to a poll that we had you guys participate in. And I want to share the results with you. And it's actually very different from previous polls where we ask a question and the vast majority of you are on one side of the

issue. In this case, the audience was a little split. So the poll question was, Rashida Talib recently tweeted that she wanted no more policing because the police, she says, can't be reformed. Bernie disagreed saying policing merely needs to be reformed. Which one do you agree with? And the majority of you, 58.63% agree with Bernie Sanders on this issue. But Rashida Talib, you know, got 41.37% of the vote. Yeah, I mean, look, it's very different from the results of our previous polls. So I would say that this poll was a success.

Because sometimes I feel like we ask you guys pretty obvious questions. But this is a good one. And I love knowing where you guys stand on some of the more controversial issues. Anyway, we have lots of great programming this week in order to celebrate, sure, Earth Day, but, you know, there's a little bit of 420 mixed in there, right? Like, I can use my vape on that special, right? I don't see why not. Everything you'll smoke comes from the Earth. So tomorrow we will be having an Earth Day special, and that will happen right after our postgame. So check that out starting at 5.30 p.m. Pacific, 8.30 p.m. Eastern. That's our Earth Day special, which you can watch on YouTube.com slash, no, t.Y.t.com slash live. I'm mixing up my URLs. Okay. I'm not very good at this live read stuff.

Moving on, damage report. Did not win an Emmy or a Webby. No. But he did get a participation trophy. So everyone, woo! John Ayrola! He's an official honoree. I didn't get a Tony either but I didn't I didn't ask like I wasn't like hey this is great John give me give me recognition I didn't do that you you first of all absolutely deserve recognition thank you you deserve more than just recognition the damage report is like one of the best shows on the network you guys should check that out if you haven't already and they also have a TikTok so we do also it's a social award which I don't

That's Mersen Sophie and probably like Cassie and Norma and stuff. I don't do anything with that. So really it's them. So they're the losers, not me. No, but they do a lot of great work there. Yeah, you guys have a great team. I love it. I love it.

All right. And then we have 20 seconds left. I'm going to read maybe one comment from the math magician who says just Minnesota will be investigated, the Minneapolis Police Department, not Minnesota. Aren't there 49 other states where cops hunt black people for sport? and cut off their fingers for trophies. Yes, that's true, but it's even worse than you think. It's just Minneapolis Police Department.

Welcome back to TYT, Anna Kasparian and John Ida Rola with you. Let's get right to our next story. But now today, you support law enforcement. Well, that's, I'm delighted to know that. But don't support them when it's politically convenient. for you to do so, support them when they're under attack by people fighting them and spraying them and knocking them to the ground and beating them with polls. Congresswoman Val Demings was a police officer for 27 years before getting elected into

Congress. I did not know that. 27 years, I didn't know that either. That's a whole career. She had a whole career and then decided to be a congresswoman. Anyway, but that's beside the point. That fiery speech was in response to Jim Jordan trying to essentially minimize the seriousness and the viciousness of policing in the United States. And keep in mind, we're talking about a woman who was a police officer for 27 years, and she's speaking out against a societal ill that we're all witnessing firsthand.

And so before I get to the numerous exchanges that Val Deming's had with Jim Jordan, I do want to provide a little bit more context about what was how. happening on the house floor. So Tuesday's argument came during a debate over another piece of legislation, the COVID-19 hate crime act, which seeks to address a surge in racist attacks against Asian Americans, in part by providing funding to law enforcement agencies to respond to hate crimes. Now look, we could have a discussion about that? I mean, if we have a broken policing system in this country, it doesn't really make a lot of sense to pump more money into it so they can investigate hate crimes. I mean, like entire police departments are a hate crime at this point. But anyway, so. They have expertise. But for the purposes of this discussion,

let's let's put that argument aside and just focus on what Val Demings is trying to do. And what she's trying to do here is draw attention to very clear racism, discrimination we're seeing in the country. She's critical of police departments. And Jim Jordan wasn't having it. So Demings took her Republican colleagues to task over a proposed amendment that would prevent efforts to defund police, an effort that some racial justice protesters embraced last summer. Deming's called the amendment, quote, completely irrelevant because the bill makes no mention of defunding the police. So this is just another Republican trick meant to deflect and distract from the conversation that's supposed to be taking place. Val Demings did not take kindly to that, and this is how it all exploded.

I served as a law enforcement officer for 27 years. It is a tough job. And good police officers deserve your support. You know, it's interesting to see my colleagues on the other side of the aisle support the police when it is politically convenient to do so. Law enforcement officers risk their lives every day. They deserve better, and the American people deserve. I have the floor, Mr. Jordan. Did I strike the nerve?

The law enforcement officers deserve better than to be utilized as pawns. When you and your colleagues be ashamed of yourself. The gentlelady will suspend and the clock will be stopped. You have not seen anything yet. That's just the beginning of the back and forth. It gets better. But Jim Jordan, you can't really hear him, but he's off to the side going out of his way to interrupt her as she has the floor. And apparently the house has had problems with Jim Jordan doing that. So she just kind of lost it because she's trying to make an important

argument there. And it's her time. But he doesn't like what she's saying. And he's obviously triggered by that. So he's trying to interrupt and stop her from speaking. Yeah, yeah. So, I don't know, the overall story is just, they've got nothing. It is just a party of slogans and distractions. Their favorite people are people like Marjorie Green who exist in Congress just to slow things down, calling for roll call votes and everything while not even putting forward, even bad legislation, let alone solutions to actual problems. They just talk about cancellation and try to stop people from voting. That is literally the entire political movement. Culture wars, that's it. That's all they've got. That's all they've got. Look, I know we have Republican viewers, and I appreciate you guys for actually going out of your way to watch content that you likely disagree with. But if you are one of those Republican viewers, write in, because I am curious, what do you think the Republican Party is offering you? How is the Republican Party making your life better? other than engaging in these like scare mongering tactics regarding cancellations and all of this

culture war nonsense that's based in no reality. What are they offering you? I want to know. Well, the devil's advocate. So if you are a Republican who are watching this and you, for instance, make a living by giving highly paid speeches at college campuses, then yes, they're protecting you in theory, your free speech rights. Other than that, Or wait, are you Dr. Seuss? Maybe they're protected. You might be Dr. Seuss or, I don't know, do you make anthropomorphized potato toys? If you do that, then they might be protecting you.

But other than that, like if you have student loan debt, medical bankruptcy, you're about to lose your house, you got a word, you might get COVID. If it's that stuff, they're not really interested. But like, I don't know, if you were getting royalties off of the original design of the Aunt Jemima logo, then maybe they're defending you. But other than that, no, I don't think so. Let's go to the next clip. Mr. Jordan, you don't know what the heck you're talking about.

You know nothing about what law enforcement officers do. I know about my motive. And you're using them as pawns because it's so ridiculous political. When you give a speech, Mr. Chairman, about motives and questioning motives and then our motives are questioned. How do we address that? The rules allow a request of words. I have tried to live and do. and you know nothing about that and to utilize them as political pawns.

Mr. Chairman, I have a point of inquiry. Ms. Demings has the time and the clock will resume. Congresswoman Demings is right. Republicans certainly do use police as political pawns, and they will pretend to defend police when it's convenient for their political agenda. But when push comes to shove and they are pressured to hold one of their own accountable or a group of their own accountable for their brutality and viciousness toward cops, they're unwilling to do it, right?

And you see this across the board with various groups of people. I mean, when it comes to our troops, when it comes to the military, oh, we got to defend our troops, we got to support the troops when, you know, manufacturing consent for endless wars in the Middle East. But maybe we don't need to protect the vets or the troops when it comes to providing the health care and mental health care that they need after they go through more. multiple deployments. Maybe we don't support the troops so much when it comes to Donald Trump referring to them as suckers and losers for getting drafted in wars like the war in Vietnam.

Yeah. Yeah, they don't support the cops as people. They support state violence against their political enemies. And if it's the cops doling it out, then they support it then. If it's the cop wielding the cudgel, then they like it. They don't support soldiers as people. They support international state violence against their international enemies. That's what they support, which is why it's not really hypocritical that they're okay with cop spending. At TYT, we frequently talk about all the ways that big tech companies are taking control of our online lives, constantly monitoring us and storing and selling our data. But that doesn't mean we have to let them. It's possible to stay anonymous online and hide your data from the prying eyes of big tech. And one of

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Last year, cracking people's skulls and trying to run them down with their SUVs, and then they cheer as people try to beat those same cops to death with Trump flags at the Capitol. Those weren't their political enemies at the Capitol, so they don't support state violence against them. It is actually quite consistent. quite predictable. And that's why, sure, send the soldiers abroad, have them, you know, kill hundreds of thousands of people in Iraq. That's cool when they come back and they want health care. No, I'm not interested in that. They're people then. They're not interesting or valued then. That is quite convenient. It's politically convenient. It's convenient ideologically

and consistent. I mean, it's just across the board. I mean, pick your issue. The sanctity of life. We want to protect human lives when it comes to essentially dismantling reproductive rights for women, but they don't really care about human lives once they're actual human lives, living, breathing individuals who might need government assistance, who might need their tax dollars to actually work for them if they find themselves in a tight spot. They use all sorts of people from all sorts of demographics and all sorts of professions as political ponds, and I have to be honest with you, it felt so good to finally see a democratic lawmaker call it out for what it is. And she's not done yet. We've got one more video.

Mr. Chairman, I'm glad to hear that my colleagues on the other side of the aisle are on the side of law enforcement now. Because I don't know where my colleagues on the other side of the aisle have been over the last four years, including on January 6th, when police officers, who protect us every day were fighting for their lives because of the big lie that was told. And my colleagues on the other side of the aisle were silent as one person after another person took the microphone and said, go down there and engage in combat, fight like hell. They used the bicycle racks as deadly missiles against the law enforcement officers that you all say you care about so much. And thank you, Mr. Cicolini, because you're absolutely right.

The only person who voted to support local governments and passed legislation to support local governments that includes law enforcement were the Democratic members on this side of the aisle. That needs to happen more often on the House floor, on the Senate floor. We need to have Democrats who are willing to speak. about things in a frank manner and to call out Republican shenanigans for what it really is. You know, it's just, and Jenks says this all the time, and I'm usually pretty dismissive of it, John. You know, he mentions how, you know, if corporate media is not covering something, then most people don't know, right? Sure. So there might be conservative voters out there who hear that impassioned speech from Demings and think, oh yeah, right, they don't actually

support the cops in certain cases. They only do it when it's, it fits their political agenda. Yeah. I don't know. I don't know. But my point is instead of, I feel like what we see from Democrats oftentimes is a lot of this like, I am offended theater on social media. Enough of that. Enough of that. Get off social media. Do more of that on the House floor. Or both. But do both. I don't care. But my point is we don't, the reason why this is a news story today is because it doesn't happen often. That's true. You know? Yeah. And and if a conservative, is watching, then they might have to wonder, hey, yeah, Antifa was beating those cops. Why is Jim Jordan not angry about that? Like, make them actually think about the inconsistency.

No, it was great to see it. Great to see actual passion. Also, like, you have to let her talk. Like, you can't keep interrupting. Just stay quiet. And I know it might be tough. But just like pretend that a college kid is being molested and stay quiet, you know, like you used to. He's got a lot of good experience with that. Exactly. It's easy. Yeah. All right, that's a dark note, but we do have to go to our next break. So let's go to that. And when we come back, we have more news for you guys, including, what should we talk about next, John?

Let me see, let me see. I got to tease you guys a little bit. I'm down for whatever. Conservatives, they're big mad. They're big mad about how the jury ruled in the Chauvin case, so we're going to give you a few of those examples when we return. I'm going to be. I'm going to be.

I'm going to I'm going to I'm going I'm going and my and I'm going on.

You guys, I love it. You guys, I love what I do. I was asked to challenge, and I'm so glad I didn't do it, but like run against Diane Feinstein. The reason why I didn't do it is because, like, I knew that being in Congress was going to make me miserable because I wouldn't be able to do what I'm doing now. So, like, if I ever do make it to Congress for whatever reason, like, I'm not there to make friends. Like, what Val Demings said, like, I fantasize about that. Yeah. Oh, you know, by the way.

I would bring up the charges against Jim Jordan, right there and there. Right then, you want to talk about criminality? Yeah. You want to talk about criminality. Okay, let's talk about criminality. Let's do it right now. Yeah, and then offer him a jacket because he looks ridiculous. He's jacket off gym.

Yeah, by the way, Matt Gates has a podcast. You could still do this. They do media all the time. I know, but not the way that I want to do it. I don't want to just do like her. I'm just going to go on a show and talk out of my, whatever. Like, there's a lot of preparation and research that goes into it. So, like, I don't know.

I couldn't, I couldn't juggle both. Anyway, this isn't about me. This is about you. I'm going to read your comments in just a minute. But first, a quick note about our ShopTYT store. We are celebrating Earth Day by, and also 420, by selling merchandise that goes along with the theme. And you get 20% off of the Go Green collection. So just go to shopt.com and you'll see all of the different offerings on the shop. And you guys will enjoy it. I love the tank top I got. I got a tank top sent to me. No, I haven't seen it. It's black. It says legal. legalize it. I actually put it on today to wear to work. And it's a tank top. I didn't want that one woman to get mad at me again for bearing my shoulders. So I decided not to wear it on the show. Just pull of Val Demings and just do it. Okay. Okay, let me read some comments from you guys starting with old Mick who says, okay, so I'm an old fart at 69 years old. Sixty-nine is not that old. And born and raised in the Twin Cities and I can simply or simplify. Merrick Garland's investigation, does the Minneapolis police department operate outside of the law and the Constitution?

Yes, hell yes. And then? So I hear what you're saying there. I mean, it really, it's not just about the investigation. It is about the actions taken following the investigation. Mickey C., the silver-haired dragon says a semi-truck drove through a crowd of people celebrating Floyd's verdict. Injuries are not yet known. In San Diego, a white supremacist attack people celebrating. the verdict with a huge knife. Cops stopped the people from trying to stop him. They protected him and let him get away. White supremacists tore apart a memorial for Dante and Adam and the cops helped him tear it down.

When is enough enough? So a lot of what you mentioned there, I haven't personally seen. But again, it goes back to what John and I were talking about. And what Francesca and I were saying as well yesterday, Derek Chauvin, is just the tip of the iceberg. It just means accountability in one specific case. And it has to do with Keith Ellison, the right people at the right time, and we can't leave it to chance. This is a countrywide problem.

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We really, really appreciate it. Moving on to conservatives having meltdowns over justice. While Americans have been celebrating the Derek Chauvin verdict, and of course he was found guilty of three charges in the murder of George Floyd, some conservatives are having difficulty in dealing with this news. They don't like this reality. Tucker Carlson, for example, was so distraught with the verdict that he had a complete meltdown when his guest, a former New York corrections officer, dared to disagree with him. Take a look. I just think that it was excessive and it shouldn't happen. The guy who did it looks like he's going to spend the rest of his life in prison. So I'm kind of more worried about the rest of the country, which thanks to police in action, in case you haven't noticed, it's like boarded up. So that's more of my concern.

But I appreciate your coming on. Ed Gavin, thank you. Nope, done. Thank you. That is the laugh of a sociopath. I have more to say, but John, why don't you jump on first? Yeah, no, I think he should have. should have the biggest audience. I think it's a good thing that a country would, out of everyone

who does political commentary and media, he should have the biggest audience, that madman there, who freaked out Joker style because something that he, as an incredibly rich man will never be affected by, happened and some people were like kind of temporary relief that the justice system actually worked for once. And he freaked out about that. Because this guest, who he brought on presumably to agree with him about literally everything, said that kneeling on someone's neck for eight and a half minutes is excessive, which it objectively is. So I don't know, I don't know how we're supposed to respond to that. The guy said a reasonable thing and Tucker Carlson absolutely lost his mind and then cut the guy's mic. Yeah, because Tucker Carlson, Tucker Carlson is

a coward when it comes to debating grown men. We experienced it during Politicon when all of of a sudden, Tucker Carlson, in his debate with Jank Yugar, was super agreeable and super nice. And like, no, I'm actually not a bad guy. I'm not, no. I might have said things like that on my show. But in reality, I'm actually, you know, very reasonable person. He fears debates with grown men. The way that he handled that in immediately cutting off the mic, cutting off the interview. And by the way, this is from a free speech advocate, right? Someone who, pretends to be concerned about college campuses protesting conservative speakers. This is the free speech.

He doesn't like speech that disagrees with him. And when it's a male doing it, he'll cut that interview off right away. He doesn't like that. If it's a young, maybe a female activist, it's a different story. He'll mock them, he'll make fun of them. He'll treat them the way that you would expect someone like Tucker Carlson to treat them. But we're talking about a former New York corrections officer. who isn't even saying anything honestly that impressive.

He's saying what any rational person would say after watching a video of George Floyd having his neck knelt on for over nine minutes by a cop. He had stopped moving. After calling out for his mother who had died years earlier, after begging them to stop because he can't breathe, finally he stopped moving. And Derek Chauvin still didn't move his knee.

off his neck. Any reasonable non-sociopathic person watches that video and says, yeah, Derek Chauvin went too far. Tucker Carlson watches it and thinks, yeah, of course, of course he should do that. And the very thought of someone having to face any consequences

for murdering an unarmed man in broad daylight, like, we can't have that. We can't have that. It was insane. It was also cowardly. And not just cowardly because when the guy pushed back just a tiny little bit, he cut his mic. It was cowardly because he so rarely actually says anything on his show.

It's just, I don't want to talk about that. So here's a distraction. I'd rather talk about the place being boarded up. Okay, but you're responding to this particular verdict. You say that the jury was being bullied in some sort of vague way. Okay, what do you think should have actually happened there? He's not actually saying. He responded negatively to it, being labeled as excessive. So are you saying he should have been ruled innocent in all of those charges? He's not actually saying that. Presumably he believes it. He certainly wants his audience to come away with the impression that he believes that, but he's not actually going on the record. He almost never goes on the record actually taking a stance on something.

It's just kicking up some dust, freaking out a little bit, like going red in the face, which looks even more ridiculous with the insane tan that he sprayed on to himself. He doesn't want to actually take a stance, and yet his followers believe that he's strong and logical and intellectual gladiator and all of that. Yeah, an intellectual gladiator doesn't cut off an interview the second the grown man who's disagreeing with him disagrees with him. And that's what happened in that. He is not some courageous person. It's very easy to debunk whatever talking points he has. And I think you're right. He's saying a lot there without actually saying it, because clearly he's furious that there were consequences for Derek Chauvin. And I also want to issue a correction

on behalf of Tucker Carlson because in the middle of his hyperventilating, he claimed that Derek Chauvin will spend the rest of his life in prison. That's actually not true. So I want to give you the details on that because technically, as CNN reports, Chauvin could face up to 40 years in prison for second degree murder, up to 25 years for third degree murder, and up to 10 years for manslaughter. That is unlikely to happen. though, because he does not have a criminal record. So Chauvin has no prior criminal record. The state's guidelines say that for such a person,

the presumptive sentence for both second degree and third degree murder is 12 and a half years. The judge is given discretion to hand down a sentence between 10 years and 8 months and 15 years for each. So honestly, it's unlikely that he's going to spend the rest of his life in prison. But this is what Tucker Carlson does. He didn't even care to read the details of what the sentencing could be. He didn't care to look into the details of what the individual charges entail and why it is that he was found guilty. You think he had watched any of the trial? I mean, the police chief, the police chief testified against him, okay?

The witness testimony was so compelling. And the prosecution did a great job. And so only a sociopathic person can watch that video of what Chauvin did and consider it an injustice that for once there's some accountability for the cop who carries out the brutality. I think that's definitely part of it. I think it's also possible that this is something that we talk about often, which is conservatives can't actually empathize. They can't look at another person and wonder about what it's like to have experienced what they've experienced. It has to happen to them. So, you know, Jesse Waters didn't get maternity leave until he had his second kid. Megan McCain, like, didn't get maternity leave until that. They can't, it has to happen to them.

So you issued a correction, I'll issue a challenge. If kneeling on someone's neck for eight and a half minutes isn't excessive, if it's in fact totally reasonable, I'll come kneel on your neck, Tucker. Let's do it. Let me do the reasonable thing of kneeling on your neck for close to nine minutes. I'll be willing to do that. I'll even pay for the flight. Take me to your studio on the lawn your neck, buddy, and it'll be very, very reasonable.

You got me excited just thinking about it. Anyway, well, there's one other conservative that we need to talk about, and that's Ben Shapiro. This is certainly not as serious. Ben Shapiro might be losing his edge. Turns out that maybe people are realizing that the cool kid's philosopher, not cool, not a philosopher, not even very smart. and likes to engage in self-owns on social media. So in response to Derek Chauvin's conviction, he's been convicted of three separate counts in the murder of George Floyd. Ben Shapiro, of course, engaged in the same commentary that most conservatives in media and politics did.

They acted as if this was unfair, they acted as if this was only done, this ruling by the jury was only done in order to prevent riots from happening. But then he responded to, to a tweet that was incredibly embarrassing for him. So Caleb Howe had tweeted that CNN's Don Lemon had said justice has been served. Many people said that after Derek Chauvin was found guilty.

Ben Shapiro quote tweeted and said this. And we all know he would never have said this had the reverse verdict been reached. Very good, Ben. Very good. Cool kids philosopher. Hashtag shower thoughts. Yeah, no, he's, I, oh God, yes. Yeah, if the opposite of justice happened, then Don Lemon would not refer to it as justice being served.

Yeah, good job. I bet you wouldn't have gotten your umbrella if it hadn't rained. Well, presumably, I, but there's so many people that absolutely, they watch that and they think, he nailed him, he nailed him. There are many conservatives. There are people who aren't even conservatives that watch his show because there is this myth, kind of like a Tucker Carlson-y myth, that he's really smart and really clever and understands logic. So even if you don't necessarily agree with him, you should definitely follow him to get how conservatives think. And look, the thinking process is incredibly loose, so it is emblematic in that way.

But that's not clever, and he left it up even after the own. That is what his Twitter account, it is. rambling half thoughts that maybe seem to be kind of a point if you don't think about them that if preferably you're a little bit high. I respect the fact that he didn't delete the tweet. Because he got dunked on pretty hard, right? And I know that that temptation is there. I respect, look, I don't respect him overall, clearly.

But I respect that one action of keeping the tweet up, mostly because I wanted to grab it for the show. So thank you for making my life easier. But just think before you react, just please. Anyway, let's move on to our final story for the first hour. And this is something you alluded to earlier, John. What are we going to expect from Congress in regard to policing, police reform? We've got some bad news on that.

So after Derek Chauvin was found guilty of all three charges in the murder of George Floyd, lawmakers in Washington allegedly have breathed a sigh of relief because this means that there's less pressure on them to do their jobs. Less pressure on them to govern, to legislate, to protect their own constituents from police violence. This is according to a report from Axios where they write an acquittal or mistrial in the Derek Chauvin case involving the former police officer would have unleashed days more of protests and added bipartisan pressure to act on criminal and police reform. But since that's no longer the case,

since we know that the jury found Derek Chauvin guilty of all three counts, Cedar Democratic and Republican aides, who would never let their bosses say so on the record, privately said the convictions have lessened pressure for change. They noted the aftermath of mass shootings. Time and time again, Congress has failed to pass gun control legislation,

and the conversation ultimately moves on until another terrible event occurs. So the people who are talking to Axios are staffers and aides who work for these lawmakers. So they have inside knowledge into what these lawmakers are thinking. They just don't want to do their jobs. They just don't want to do their jobs. Like, most Americans saw that verdict and felt relief because we're not used to seeing any accountability when we have police shootings, right? For lawmakers, they're like, oh my God, we don't have to do our jobs.

What was it, George? Oh my God, can we go back to fundraising now, please? Like, it's embarrassing. Yep. Some other part of the system barely worked so this part of the system doesn't have to. It's so pathetic. Even, like, I don't know if we can put up that same, that last graphic a second ago. I know that this isn't like Nancy Pelosi that wrote the graphic, but the way it's worded is so perfect because Congress has failed to pass gun control legislation and the conversation ultimately moves on

until another terrible event occurs. The thing about that is that another terrible event, always. does occur, though. It's like you always have another mass shooting. It's almost like the lack of action is contributing to it. So, but you get how the pattern is going to play out in this case. The conversation might go away. It's unlikely to last long because the police kill people all the time. But they are going to do it again. Is it possible that maybe that's a bad thing that we should try to ward off? Why did you get into politics? Is it just to go to like cocktail parties? Yes. You have. power. You seem to like it. Why not use it for something? No, I mean, it's full of Smeagles. Full of Smeagles. Go on. Congress is the ring, right? And they just want the power. That's it. That's all it is. They want the power. And look, let's also- That's true. It's not like Smeagel ever conquered anything. He just huddled in his cave with it. Yeah, poor Smeagel, though. Yeah, he wasn't ambitious. He didn't want it. It just happened. Anyway, that's a different discussion for a different time,

although we should have it. No, but look, I, I, They, they, it's not just for power's sake. Think about what happens after they leave Congress. That's when the big payday happens. Right. I mean, that's, think about, think about all the insider trading that takes place. Brazen insider trading that takes place out in the open. We all know about it. We all see it. They get to do it, right? They, they get to be personally invested in individual stocks. And they're the ones who are supposed to be regulating these companies, guys. I mean, it's the best grift in the world. Yeah, yeah, that's true. Although at least recently, the system also kind of worked in that two of the biggest open grifters

lost their Senate re-election bids in Georgia. That's true. That's certainly true. I just, I don't, look, I don't find it to be particularly surprising. They are cowards. They're not leaders, even the ones who are called leaders. I get it in that they're right. Maybe eventually the conversation will move on. That's on us, I guess. So let's do like Maxine Water says and not back down. Let's stay confrontational, including with Dem leadership. That said, I will never understand the lack of wanting to actually use the power that you have. Like we're seeing it with them. Trump, I guess, one of the benefits with Trump was that he was so lazy that he was president and he didn't want to do anything.

No, he did. I mean, he got- He got his tax cuts passed. That's true. He got that. But, But like, I would be digging through the archives, find it out the secrets, spoiling stuff for the whole country. He didn't want to do anything. They're all Trumps at the end of the day. They want power, but they don't know for what, except money. And look, even Joe Biden, unilaterally, he can do a lot. David Dayan had a whole series on the American prospect about what the president of the United States can do constitutionally in the first 100 days.

And there was so much, so much that could have been done to, in the very least, lessen the pain and suffering that people have been experiencing during this pandemic as a result of police violence, all of that. And he didn't do any of it. He could have single-handedly and unilaterally expanded Medicare to ensure that every single person who lost their health insurance as a result of being laid off from the pandemic would get health care coverage. Instead, he went along with pressuring Congress to pass a relief bill that paid for COBRA. I mean, it's just, we have a lot of criticism for Republicans, clearly. But that criticism also extends to Democrats, especially when they pull stunts like this. And I'll leave you with this one final point. This month, just to the point in this whole piece, this month Biden backed down from his campaign promise to create a police reform commission saying that he would back other legislation. making its way through Congress.

Well, I mean, he knows that there's no, there's no legislation making its way through Congress. It's just, it's all just people pointing at each other. Yeah. So like Congress is like, no, no, no, no, no, they got it over there. Biden's like, no, no, no, Congress has got it over there. I don't know. I guess, for the most part, local governments also and governors, they don't want to do anything either. No.

Until, by the way, you threaten them with a recall. And then they start whipping things back to shape, right? I'm not saying that Gavin Newsom is doing that. I'm saying that he's at least trying, whereas before he was, you know, having fancy dinners in Napa Valley with his lobbyist while everyone else was suffering in the state of California. That's true. Gavin Newsom sucks. So does Eric Garcetti. We'll talk about that on some other show. But for now, many. Many. We do have to go to our break. When we come back for our second hour, Nando Villa will be joining me.

Thank you to John. Thank you. Great to be in studio with you. It's so nice. And everyone go check out John's Show, The Damage Report, if you aren't doing so already. Let's take a break, and I'll see you in just a few minutes. Thanks for listening to the full episode of the Young Turks. Support our work, listen to ad-free, access members-only bonus content, and more by subscribing to Apple Podcasts at apple.com slash t-y-t. I'm your host, Shank Huger, and I'll see you soon.