The Young Turks - Jewish Space Lasers!

Episode Date: January 30, 2021

Leon Cooperman is back for more crocodile tears, this time over higher taxes for the wealthy. Plus Bernie hits back as the billionaire investor whines about tax hikes, and Elizabeth Warren reminds us that billionaires are just big greedy babies. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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3rdi Hello and welcome to the Young Turks Friday, power panel. I am John Aderola, host of the damage report. Very excited to be joined on this power. paneled by two individuals who have joined me on the damage report previously. First host of the Rashad Ritchie Morning Show, Dr. Rashad Ritchie, welcome to the Young Turks. Thank you for having me. Glad to have you here. And civil rights attorney Charles F. Coleman Jr., welcome as well. Thanks for having me. Glad to be here. Glad to have you both here because we have got a lot to get through. Some of the sort of billionaire reaction and strike back to some of what's been

going on on Wall Street recently. We're going to be delving a little bit more into the actual situation with GameStop and some of those stocks in the second hour when Anna Kasparian takes over. But we're going to be talking a little bit about what the billionaires are saying, the possibility for potential tax increases in the future on billionaires. We're going to be talking a little bit about that. And also we're going to be dealing with some of the added crazy that's come to Congress over the past couple of weeks. There's someone you probably haven't heard of, Marjorie Taylor Green, well, we're going to introduce you to her because you definitely don't know who that is. And lots more besides. So a lot that we're going to get to. And as I said,

Anna Kasparian is going to be taking over for the second hour. And it is going to be a fun one because she is going to be joined by both Francesca Fiorentini and Jason Carter. So you know that's going to be a lot of fun. You're not going to want to miss that. I also wanted to let you know, by the way, that you should definitely prepare yourself for tonight on Twitch at Twitch.tv slash TYT. You're going to have another episode of the common room. Brett Ehrlich is going to be hosting and he's going to be joined by his wife, Brooke, J.R. Jackson, a legendary producer, and Judith Benezra as well, who I have been told was the fan favorite happy half hour guest not too long ago. So that's definitely

going to be fun as well. So lots to look forward to for tonight. With that said, gentlemen, I'm hearing something in the background. Maybe it's a dog, I'm not sure. Why don't we jump into this? Ever since a group of people, sort of led by Redditors, started engaging in some stock activity that hit the hedge funds, where it hurts, billionaires have been crying about the current condition of financial markets. So this is once again a situation when rich men cry. I care. That's it. If you're not familiar with that video, that was literally Leon Cooperman crying because Elizabeth Warren was talking about the possibility of a wealth tax and he broke down on live TV. I get it. I get it. But anyway, he's back in the news recently because of all that's been going on. And so I wanted to take a little bit of a look at what he's been saying and then we can analyze right now president Biden is tackling the easy

things all of us want to get the virus behind us right so anything he does to battle the virus is universally welcome when he starts talking about raising tax on capital gains raising tax in ordinary income in a recent speech he's talked about fair share i hate that expression with the passion what does fair share mean and this fair share is a bullshit concept It's just a way of attacking wealthy people and, you know, I think it's inappropriate. We're all going to work together and pull together. Okay, so I respect the honesty of Leon Cooperman, a man who was charged with insider trading by the SEC back in 2016, admitting that he has no idea what the concept of a fair share means.

But anyway, look, this is really before Biden has even talked much about tax reform, the possibilities for anything going on in the future. We're going to have a couple of senators weighing in just a little bit. But I wanted to give you both an opportunity. Starting with you, Dr. Ritchie, what did you think about Leon Cooperman there? It was music to my ears. It will be used for motivational value for me. The fact that President Biden has been in office just a few days,

and he has made a billionaire fall to his knees, basically, crying because he cares. So let's look at what's really happening. Capitalism is their God. That's why they're crying. They're crying because their faith system is being attacked. And their faith system is rooted in an economic floor. And that economic floor is starting to crumble as they understand it. He doesn't understand fair share because he's always had an unfair share.

So he's indoctrinated to a different belief system. And now he's seeing how that belief system is starting to crumble. And I find it really interesting that he actually said during the interview that he voted for Joe Biden because he voted for his values and not his pocketbook. And then he goes on to cry about what's happening in the economy, not talking about values whatsoever, but simply talking about a bottom line dollar. I think we need to reestablish a values core in the United States of America. And progressives are doing that in large part with policies that look at individuals as people, where it's transformational and not simply transactional. Your government should work for you, and now the other way around.

Charles? You know, quite frankly, after I finished bathing in all of the white tears that he was crying, I felt like this was actually not far in a way much different in terms of attitude and approach than what we saw on the 6th of January. And what I mean by that is there's a sentiment of wanting to maintain these vestiges of systemic inequity in America. And people literally losing their minds at the idea of a playing field, which now includes franchisement from different groups in different areas that makes everything level or closer to level in America. And people's reaction to that is a function of their own privilege in terms of what they have been able to maintain literally for generations. And so these tears are no different than the vitriol, which fueled what we saw on January 6th.

This is a return or a cry to return to what they know as the America that gave unlimited advantage to people with privilege, people with certain backgrounds, people with certain advantages in life. And this is what people are responding to in such strong and very emotional ways. And so I think it's very important that viewers understand the link between that idea, this notion that we are going away from the America that I know and I don't support that. All of that is rooted in oppressive models, models that are based on inequity and models that, you know, he was actually quite honest when he said, I don't know anything about a fair share or anything, anything of that nature. So I think his comments were on their face, very sincere, but at the same time very telling. And I think it's important that we make sure to make the connection that all

of those attitudes, all of those ideas, or that faith system that was just described, is connected to the America of yesterday that people are clamoring, that 74 million people are clamoring to maintain. And that's why you saw as many people come out and vote for 45 for Donald Trump the way that they did. Yeah, I think that you're definitely right. The freak out over the fact that people were, it was made a little bit easier for people, for instance, in Georgia and the runoffs to vote. And you know, I feel bad for Georgia Republicans. They've worked for decades and decades to make as difficult as possible. And so I get it if you're losing a little bit of control of that. And by the way, multiple states in the past month or so are moving forward

on legislation to once again make it even more difficult to vote. So everyone watching this should definitely be watching for that in their own states. And so, yeah, that the idea that things might become a little bit more equitable, you know, he doesn't necessarily think of himself as the same as some QAnon shaman who's charging the capital, but both of them are trying to hold on to the unfair advantages that they have maintained throughout America's history. And what I find most interesting about it is that it's not like, unless I'm missing something, it's not like Joe Biden is Mr. Wealth Tax. It's not like he has some sort of insane communist tax policy. He doesn't. He might be supportive, for instance, of raising the corporate

tax once again, but not even to where it was pre-Trump. He's talking about raising it to something like 28%, like sort of half back to where it was before the Trump tax cuts. Now there are people who are asking for more, and I want to give them their due. Bernie Sanders tweeted in response to this, oh look, another billionaire's mad that he might have to pay more taxes while children in America go hungry and veterans sleep on the street. Cry me a river, yes, we will make Wall Street billionaires pay their fair share of taxes and create an economy that works for all of us. And we're gonna have a little bit of video from Elizabeth Warren just a second. I want to bear in mind that supposedly Cooperman's net worth is $3 billion. Now not to what's that?

No, I was gonna say John, you know, and I think that that's a really important point, if you consider all of the major candidates that were on the left, all the major candidates from the the Democratic Party, Joe Biden was Wall Street's pick. As far as, you know, when compared to Elizabeth Warren or Bernie Sanders, he was the overwhelming favorite of the Wall Street establishment on the left. And so what that tells us is that this notion of greed in an uneven playing field is a really, really deep one that reaches very, very far. Because at the end of the day, he said it himself, he voted for Joe Biden, and yet still, he's still complaining. Because And it could have been that much worse. So, you know, when you look at that in context,

especially around who the other options were and how the establishment, if you will, felt about those options, you got the guy you wanted and you're still crying, literally. How unfair do you want the system to be? Yep. Well, yeah, they're pretty clear about that. And I think about, we debate a lot of issues on this show. And I'm sure, you know, in various forms, both you do as well about the cost, like if this particular policy we want passes or if it doesn't, what are sort of the costs and what are the benefits? For him, when I think about like, if Elizabeth Warren's wealth tax were to be put into effect, and if he were to lose, like, what is it, like 0.2% of some of his wealth or something like that, can anyone, the cleverest

person watching this, can you make the case for how his life will change in any measurable way, Any opportunity he'll lose, anything he won't be able to afford, anything about his life that'll be different as a result of that. And he seems to think it's going to change enough that he would actually cry in public, but I don't think that he could even describe it. He just knows that he has a lot and he wants more. He has an addiction. And we on the left are very sympathetic to people who are struggling with addiction. But that doesn't mean that nothing can be done when the addiction is potentially breaking America. His like basically dragon sickness for his accrued money, it's bizarre. I don't understand it, perhaps because I've never had money like that. But that doesn't mean that

if enough billionaires cry, we shouldn't look into the possibility of some sort of wealth tax that can potentially make things a whole lot more equal here in America. And we're going to have the details on Elizabeth Warren's plan at a second. But Rashad, I wanted to give you an opportunity to talk. Yeah, man, you know, there has to be a realignment in this country to the values we believe in. I do find it quite ironic that a lot of these same individuals will call themselves patriots, right? They believe in patriotism, country first. And then all of a sudden, when you ask them, simple thing, how about paying two cent extra somewhere? All of a sudden, the patriotism goes out the door. Well, those two extra pennies can help children. Those two extra pennies

can help veterans. Those two extra pennies can help senior citizens. They don't want to do that. And there's always an argument about policy as it relates to domestic. We argue about the budget. And then when it relates to international policy, have you ever heard someone say, you know, it will be a great idea to go to war with Iran, but it's not in the budget? For some reason, conservatives always have enough money to kill people and blow things up. It's as if we have an unlimited budget to do that. And then when we talk about spending that money domestically on the same taxpayer who has given you the money in the first place, we argue over the coins. All right?

Jay-Z had a great line, man. This is what I thought about when I see these hardcore billionaires crying on TV. Sensitive thugs, y'all all need hugs. Obviously, you're faking the funk, right? You're saying you vote for Joe Biden because of values, then you're antithetical to the values he represents while on television. It doesn't make any sense. I think it's really quickly, John, I think it's also important to point out that in most cases, these are not self-made wealthy folks. These are people who at the end of the day had an enormous head start over other people in ways that generally speaking did not emanate from.

an even playing field to begin with. So if you look back in terms of how you got to where you are, it's not as though you just sort of worked hard and earn all of what you have through your own sweat and elbow grease, if you will, and that labor. These are in many cases things that were handed to you that they were ill gotten in some way, shape or form from systemic oppression, and you have now continued that cycle in terms of what you have. So miss me entirely with the notion that the government is taking from you what you have rightfully earned. These are things that you were actually given and handed. In most cases, more cases than not, you know, people don't wake up.

And in one lifetime, you know, with the few exceptions of geniuses, you don't wake up in a single lifetime amassed billions of dollars at once. That just does not happen. That is the result oftentimes of the transfer of generational wealth that you have continued and you have built upon. But what we know about America and what we know about wealth in America, is that more often than not, that generational wealth has roots in things that are ill-gained and ill-gotten. So this entire notion of billionaires crying about, you know, crumbs being taken off of their cake is absolutely laughable. I want to align on that point, if I could, quickly.

Feel free. Equity is always debated as fairness, equality, but that's not what it really is. Equity is this. And here's an example. It's like playing in a football game. Both teams understand the rules of the game. The referees are somewhat fair. You have an audience looking, you can call that the media. And you're told as a team, all you have to do is play better and score more points and you win the game. And so you do that. You play hard. You play better. You score more points. You understand the game. You studied it. You worked hard. You practiced. At the end of the end of the The fourth quarter with one minute left, you're up 50 points, there's no way the opposition team can defeat you. And then you learn at that one minute marker that the opposition team actually inherited 100 points before the game ever begun. And they're telling you that everything is fair.

It just optically looks fair, but it is absolutely unfair. It has inequity built into the game. Yeah, yeah. And I think in that analogy, shorting stocks is like deflating a football. I think. I'm not an expert on football. But anyway, really fast forward, close this out. I did want to, if the, if the other analogy is the taking the crumbs off the cake, here is what the taking off the crumbs would look like. This is what reduces grown men to tears on TV. So under Warren's plan, which we talked about a lot during the primary, and I personally find it impossible to imagine that Joe Biden would support this, but it's something worth putting pressure on him too. Families with a net worth of more than $50 million would pay 2% tax on every dollar of that. net worth above 50 million, which comes out to two cents on every dollar. The handful of billionaires across the country would pay a 6% tax for every dollar above one billion. So the first billion just has normal income tax or whatever property taxes, and above that it would be 6%, which

I don't know. Maybe I will become much more sensitive about this if I ever get a billion dollars. I don't think it's likely to happen, but I think that they're probably doing okay. I think think they're going to make it. In any event, we're going to take our first break. We come back. We've got a lot more to talk about, including Marjorie Taylor Green and what is going to happen with the Republican Party. So stick around. We'll be right back. We need to talk about a relatively new show called Un-F-E-Bing the Republic, or UNFTR. As a Young Turks fan, you already know that the government, the media, and corporations are constantly peddling lies that serve the interests of the rich and powerful. But now there's a podcast

dedicated to unraveling those lies, debunking the conventional wisdom. In each episode of Un-B-The-Republic or UNFTR, the host delves into a different historical episode or topic that's generally misunderstood or purposely obfuscated by the so-called powers that be. Featuring in-depth research, razor-sharp commentary, and just the right amount of vulgarity, the UNFTR podcast takes a sledgehammer to what you thought you knew about some of the nation's most sacred historical cows. But don't just take my word for it. The New York Times described UNFTR as consistently compelling and educational,

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Hello everyone once again. So here is a little bit of what's going on in the audience. Stephanie Carlton sent in a super chat over on the TDR YouTube channel saying, Hey John, I tried three member chats and one super chat in TDR for a shout out for my daughter Stephanie's 40th birthday tomorrow. You and Brett are her faves. I I apologize for missing that live show, but happy birthday, Stephanie, hope it's a good one. While we're at it, thank you to our new YouTube members, Starla Herrick, Bonnie Southerd, and Ryan D. Appreciate you becoming members. What's going on the super chats? Well, on the damage report this morning, we pointed out that Marjorie Taylor Green apparently has often called

herself Marjorie Green, and I'm personally sick of the attempt to make her name seem more like Alexandra Acosta Cortez, and people are pointing out in the super chats that I've apparently messed it up a couple times. We'll see what happens in the future, and it's a low stakes game. So, but thank you for sending in your super chats. I do appreciate that. Let's see. Okay, Juan Abrams says, Puerto Rico has been in debt problems since before Hurricane Maria. How much do you want to bet that those investors will get bailed out first? Yeah, that seems like a pretty good bet, actually. Let's see, Izzy Sanchez says, the rich and elite rob us blind and commit countless white-collar crimes, but we average folks

get crushed financially and socially. That is one of the fundamental laws of America. Let's see. Over on Twitch, Quiet Dragon April Dawn, subscribe for the second month and said, still remember the first time I tuned in and Anna literally spoke my thoughts. For the first time I realize it's not just me. Now my whole day revolves around TYT's schedule and I absolutely love it. It's small world because my day revolves around TYT's schedule too. But thank you for watching. See, Void Queen says, imagine being so out of touch you think capital gains is regular income. Yeah, yeah. Okay, Moxley's fringe, subscribe for the ninth month and says we're getting a fantastic Friday.

What have we done to deserve this? I don't know, we have to all answer that for ourselves, but we do appreciate you watching at the very least. Okay, Gabby says we can either fight billionaires via Reddit and stock trading apps or we can fight them with pitchforks, their choice. So that's the thing. We on our side and the left side never choose the pitch forks. But they sure do push you to a point of desperation. The progressive defender says we need a maximum income of 500 million and everything above that is taxed at 100%. No one needs more than that. No one even needs that much, but I'm trying to be fair and make sure they have their fair share. Well, okay, if Leon Cooperman watches that, he's going to break down into more than just here. So progressive defender, you need to dial back a bit. And let's see how much

time do we have 30 seconds. Mr. Lumberg says, he whys about paying a fair share. Then in the next breath says work together and pull together. Hey Leon, news flash, paying your fair share is working together. Right. That's true. Thank you in a tech dragon. And I love that name, by the way. Okay, we only have a little bit of time left in the social break. So we are going to go back to that.

But we've got more news for you and just a few. Don't go anywhere. You know, I'm going to be able to be. Welcome back to the Friday Power panel. Everyone, we got Rashad and Charles with us and we got a lot more news to get to. So why don't we jump into something that's fun in a bizarre sort of way, but very, very depressing for the future of America. Let's talk about one of the most recent Congresswoman. Marjorie Green has been causing a lot of controversy, a lot of calls for her to reside or potentially be expelled.

Recently, we had this quote from Speaker Pelosi during a press conference saying, the enemy is within the House of Representatives, a threat that members are concerned about. In addition to what is happening outside, asked by a reporter to clarify who the enemy was. Pelosi said she was talking about members of Congress who want to bring guns on the floor and have threatened violence on other members of Congress. So that's not specific, unfortunately, because you'd imagine something like that could only apply to one person. But there's a little bit of Lauren Boebert in there as well. But part of it in terms of threatening violence on other members of Congress could certainly

include Marjorie Green. Before being elected at Congress last year, Ms. Green used social media in 2019 to endorse executing top Democrats, including hanging Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton and shooting Nancy Pelosi. And look, I can't, I don't know for sure how much you've been watching this show this week. I don't know how up to date you are with her conspiracy theories. So I'd like to quickly run you through a few of them, but I apologize if I miss anything. There are a lot and I'm just one man. I can't remember everything. So last week, Media Matters reported that Green in 2018 agreed with a Facebook commenter who claimed that 9-11 was done by our own government, that none of the school shootings were real or done by the

ones who were supposedly arrested for them. And that includes Sandy Hook and Marjorie Stoneman Douglas and probably a lot of others. One week before the election, she's on video saying the only way you get your freedoms back is it's earned with the price of blood. That's fun. There's photos of her getting private security from some of the three percenters you can see here back during the campaign. Those are militia members, some of whom were involved in the attack on the Capitol. But don't worry, her spokesperson says those people were at one event independently of Congresswoman Green. But wait, can we go back to that photo, though? Because I don't care if they're dependent or independent. She seems perfectly fine. They're literally, they're the only people there

not, that are covering their face. And I don't think it's for COVID, honestly, the guys with the assault rifles. Anyway, there's a lot more and it gets even crazier than that. But I don't want to cover too much ground before we give Charles and Rashad a chance to check in. So Charles, what do you think about Marjorie Green's first couple of weeks as a congresswoman? I think that for a number of Americans, there was this question after the election as to whether Donald Trump's tenure in office had left a stain on American politics that would remain. And I think that with her election, we have the answer. I think that in a lot of ways, the remnants of the past four years are not going to go away anytime soon.

And quite frankly, as much of a whack job as this woman has shown herself to be, she represents the ideology of a number of million of Americans. I think it's dangerous, I think it's problematic, but at the same time, I don't necessarily know that the left idea of to take a moral high ground, if you will, in response to it is going to do anything that is going to address it. I don't necessarily know that soft shoeing around this or talking tough, if you will, around that is going to really address the problem. I think that it's only going to emboldened groups on the other side to feel like,

yeah, we're here, we want to make our presence known, and there's nothing you can do about that. And so at the end of the day, you know, I hate to say it, the only way you can deal with the bully is to punch him in the face, proverbially speaking. And so whether that's removal from Congress, whether that's, you know, looking to address this person with censure or some other capacity, that is something that you all need to, I mean, that you all, that the left needs to really look at. If they're going to really have this conversation about expulsion, which is not at all an easy thing. And I will acknowledge that, they need to really be serious about that. Because if not, you're only going to get your skirt pulled up, proverbially

speaking, because she has no intention of stopping. And her supporters don't want her to stop. They put her there for this reason. And so I think that we have to understand that this is where we are politically. And if there was any question as to whether the face of American politics had been indelibly changed since the election of Donald Trump in office, now we have our answer. Rashad, let me let me throw this to you though, but I also want you to answer. So expulsion requires two thirds of the House. Do you think that would require at least some chunk of Republicans, do you think that we could scrape together? I don't know the math. Let's say 40, 50 Republicans. Is that a possibility? Well, let me tell you this. I think so, and here's why.

There are many more congressional, moderate demographics or moderate districts in the United States than there are Senate, excuse me, then there are Senate districts that are moderate. I think you have a chance here. There's a reason why the Constitution was written with Article I Section 5 Clause 2. Article 1, Section 5, Clause 2 establishes the parameters to remove a sitting member of the House. And remember, this is a membership organization, and we have removed individuals before. There's precedent. And we've removed people for doing nothing other than for being racist upon arrival. We have literally removed them. Now, here's the difference. Back then, members of their own party said, no, you're not coming here. It wasn't the

opposition party. It was their own party that said, you're not going to damage who we are with this rhetoric. Because of the tribalism in politics, you have now lost that identity, that moral center of what your party is. Donald Trump came in and pimp slapped every single Republican in leadership. And he made himself the standard bearer of the party. Why? Because he could not bear the standard of fiscal responsibility, of family values, or whatever else the platform was saying they represented. So he shrunk everything. He made it fit him and they allowed it. And now what do you have an expression like this? And I just got to say, gentlemen, I must apologize because this woman is from my state. It is a complete embarrassment. But I just want you to remember

everyone watching, we gave you Ossoff and Warnock. That does balance out nicely. The other thing that I want to say is that, you know, looking at the political spectrum, this is also very interesting. And I think Michelle kind of still hit on this point. What this campaign and her election and ascension into the national spotlight has done is it has further placed the Republican Party in a squeeze play. Because after January 6th, you know, after Donald Trump's election and then his loss. And then after January 6th, people are looking at the Republican Party. Republican Party to really understand what is your identity, what is it that you stand for,

what is it that you really are about at this, at your core. And they, in the middle of having to soul search around those catastrophes by themselves, are now stuck with this. So now you have to ask yourself, are we going to allow this very dangerous, very problematic rhetoric that we know is problematic and that we know is dangerous? Are we going to allow that to fester? Are we going to allow it to stay in our presence without speaking up, without doing what we know is right in terms of speaking out against it? Or are we going to sort of separate ourselves in a way that other people may not like and that may alienate parts of our base? So it's funny to watch me sort of watch the Republican Party unravel at it seems. We saw this start to happen about

five years ago when Donald Trump entered into the fray and began to get widespread amounts of support. And it has continued. And I think that the inaction and the the unwillingness to sort of really draw that line in the sand before it's too late has always contributed to its undoing. And we're seeing that play out right before our very eyes. Yeah. Yeah. And we and like having a member of Congress in your party that's, I think, conservatively crazier than 75% of the capital writers, like people who are wearing chain mail and horns, like probably have a better grasp on reality than one of the Congress people who was rushed to safety there. And for all of the crazy,

things that she believes and we're going to go to some more in just a sec. Let's all remember that she agreed with the idea that Nancy Pelosi should be shot in the head, Barack Obama should be hung. If you can call for the murder of your political opponents and you don't get removed for that, I don't know what even in theory could get you removed at that point. Steve King, it took forever for Steve King to sort of kind of be pushed out. She's doing like a objectively worse stuff than Steve King is. And so far, like maybe in a week she'll get a talking to from Kevin McCarthy, that's about it. But let's turn to some of the crazier stuff. Marjorie Taylor Green said that earlier today she was going to put out a statement about all

that's going on. And some people got their hopes up that perhaps she would resign, but no, that's the rational thing to do. And remember, we're talking about Marjorie Green. Instead, she just said she's not going to back down from the mob because they're lying about her and they're smearing her. And when a Republican or when a conservative media person says that they're being lied about her spirit, what it means is that they're being quoted and they find that to be inconvenient. And so I want to show you like actually, like this is the things that she said. This is not speculation about her beliefs, but here are just some of the crazy things that Marjorie Taylor Green, congressperson believes. So that is a gigantic wall

of text, but I will sum it up for you. The campfire in California, the worst wildfire in America, in California to that point, she believes was not caused by electrical equipment from PG&E. She believes that space lasers owned by the Rothschilds were beaming energy back to America and a blue, blue beam of light shot California and burned down the forest. And perhaps it ends there, or perhaps it was done on purpose so that Governor Brown could get his high speed rail. All of that is in that thing. Space lasers owned by nefarious Jewish businessmen behind the scenes, all so they can get some sort of big, commie, lib public transit project. And that's just one of the crazy things that she believes really fast. And I'll give you both a chance to jump in.

Let's also throw in, she on video, so I guess it's a lie in a smear, but you can watch the video of her saying it in 2019. So all of, you know, a year and a half ago, she said that Ruth Bader Ginsburg had been replaced with a body double. That wasn't actually her. It was a clone or someone that looked like her. And we've got video that we can go to in a few. But like, this is, this is just reruns of info wars. This is just Alex Jones. But Alex Jones was never crazy enough to run for office and win. Has he been missing out an opportunity? Could he be Texas's junior senator right now? Because apparently these beliefs are not an impediment to being elected to Congress. So I guess when you talk about her being crazy or crazy enough to run, the immediate question that I have,

and this is all Rashad's neck of the woods, so he can answer the question better than I could even begin to unpack it. Who's crazier? Her for running or the people for voting for her? I think that's really like the real question, Which one takes the crazy because at the end of the day, I was familiar with the post that you just went over, John, and I was insistent that somewhere there was a missing script from the next Jason Bourne movie where he came in at the end and stopped this nefarious plot of the space lasers and the high-speed train, because that's the only thing that would actually make sense to me is that this would be part of some huge action plot because it's absolutely that absurd and that ridiculous. But what it also tells me is that, you know, similar to what we saw with Q&N and everybody who was sort of looking for something there, there is a faction of American, of the American electorate that wants to believe something greater. And I think what that tells me on a larger scale, something more seriously, is that it actually potentially represents an opportunity for a third party or for an offshoot of either major party to provide something of value. substance value to folks who are actually really willing to look at something different and do something other than what we've been doing. Because that's the only explanation that I have were these wackadoodle type of theories

that keep surfacing and that people keep latching on to. Rashad, are you going to answer for the fact that she's from your area and she believes in Jewish space lasers? Hell no. Is that a thing down there? Is that a, that's not a tradition or anything, is it? Man, let me tell you, I'm convinced that we're. We're actually in the twilight zone, we just don't know it.

And that's why these things are happening to us and around us. We came from a parallel universe. I guess my assessment is just as credible as hers, right? If we're in a parallel universe, here's the reality of what happened. No jokes here. There was a one two combination. The first hit was the indoctrination of this group of people, the voters that said this is our person.

They were indoctrinated for years. And they were indoctrinated by Donald J. Trump. And that indoctrination was protected, promoted by leaders of the Republican Party like Mitch McConnell and others. So that was your first hit, the indoctrination. The indoctrination said this, science means nothing. Truth is debatable. Facts are fake news. Listen to what Trump says, don't worry about the facts or the evidence in front of you. That was the indoctrination. The second punch, the second item was the radicalization. There are literally individuals who have been radicalized like what you saw at the Capitol

and others. These individuals in her district that voted for her, they had a choice. They had a Republican primary. In that district, I would argue Republicans are no more. This is something undefined. This is something not Republican-like. It is different. It has morphed. It has transformed into something unrecognizable. Remember, when you're voted in in a congressional district, you are the personification of the majority of those voters. Who is she? She is them. They are her. Does she seem like a conservative Republican? Does she seem like a typical Republican? Of course not. She doesn't, she doesn't fit any of these molds, but her district doesn't either. This came over time.

This did not happen overnight. And to unravel it, it would take time as well. And I really hope President Biden and Vice President Harris and others understand the era that they are in. This is not the time, in my opinion, for Pelosi not to call somebody out. This is the time to call people out by name. Well, look, there was video for talking about how white supremacy doesn't exist. And black men are just held down by the fact that they won't leave gangs. And there's her going on for a minute and half about how the Vegas shooting was an attempt by the liberals to get rid of guns.

It was a faked shooting too. All of them are. Every single shooting is faked. Except the ones done by black people. Those are real to her. Of course. Of course. But the mass shootings, I just don't like I just can't understand why if the damn libs are going to go to all this trouble of faking these shootings, why do they keep forgetting to take the guns after? They just keep faking it to justify taking the guns and they never actually take the guns. But anyway, exactly. We unfortunately do have one other aspect of her being there that we do have to deal with, which is her interaction with Corey Bush. So let's turn to that real fast. Apparently earlier today, Marjorie Green got into an incident with new representative Cory Bush that Marjorie Green believes her video is somehow a vindication for her. But here is how to begin. Cory Bush put out a tweet saying, a maskless Marjorie Taylor Green and her staff berated me in a hallway. She targeted me and others on social media.

I'm moving my office away from hers for my team safety. I've called for the expulsion of members who incited the insurrection from day one. And she calls, she brings, she wants that to be brought to a vote. And by the way, what she was saying is 100% true. Her room assignment was actually changed. Nancy Pelosi has confirmed that to get her away from Marjorie Green, which makes sense to me. Marjorie Green seems like all she wants in life is to infect people with COVID, so I wouldn't want me or my staff to be near her either. Now, it's not as simple as that because then Marjorie Green put out a tweet saying,

Cory Bush is the leader of the St. Louis Black Lives Matter terrorist mob who trespassed into a gated neighborhood to threaten the lives of McCloskey's. Now, she just throws out that name randomly because everyone who likes her is going to know what that is. But in case you're watching this and you don't know, that's the two rich people who stood on their porch with guns and threatened to murder people who are marching somewhat nearby. They think of those people as, wow, that was fast. They think of those two individuals who were desperate to start shooting people in that crowd as heroes of a sort. And she thinks that they are. Yeah, look at that. You could see how much their life was in danger at that point. Anyway, she has a video. of this interaction. And I want us to go to that video and see what we can learn from it. This, a bunch of bad people do, or a small amount actually, do a really bad thing, attack the capital, which I denounce and completely am against and don't agree with the violence. But yet Democrats who cheered on, supported, called peaceful protest, Antifa BLM riots, the entire

year long that caused billions of dollars worth of damage, attacked American businesses, burn down Minneapolis. Let's see, what else did they do? Then they funded, then they supported bail bond links for criminals. You know what? Yeah, don't yell at people. You know what?

You shouldn't bring COVID positive members in here. Spreading COVID everywhere. Stop being a hypocrite. Yeah, this is how it is. here now. This is how it is. Stop being a hypocrite. This is who this is arguing with my Democrat, Democrat colleagues, supposing colleagues. That's how it is. It's how it is now in America. So you're witnessing exactly what we're having to live through. Okay, so that Congresswoman who is, as her in mask points out, censored, you know, the video

goes out to God only knows how many people. She's on the media all the time and everything. But anyway, okay, so I don't know who actually asked her to put on her mask. I would say that that person has a point because she wasn't wearing her mask. But anyway, she seems to think that this proves that Cory Bush was wrong somehow. Like she's tweeted like 30 times about it since then. But anyway, what do you both think about this about Cory Bush asking for her like sort of room assignment to be changed. Rashad, what are your thoughts? I think she showed up on day one, acted like a jaded ex-girlfriend. She has been stalking people, chasing people. She has created such insanity around her tweets that members of Congress are literally unsafe. And she just

got there. If we've learned anything, here's what we have learned. It gets more emboldened. She doesn't settle in. She doesn't mellow out. she gets more extreme. So here's the question that members of her own party need to grapple with. What she is today, she will be a hundred times more of it next year. Is that what you want your party to be defined by? I'm really trying to appeal to the few sensible Republicans left in the regime of the Trump dynasty. Is this who you want to become your public name?

narrative and your public champion. Because if you do, if you keep allowing these individuals to define you, you will be no more. And I'm actually okay with a little push and pull in the political struggle. I'm okay with that. I like that. But what we have now is evil versus good, not ideology versus ideology. You know, John, I think that we have seen what happens when we allow controversy to be hustled for profit. What we end up seeing is that you are now toying with forces that you cannot control. When we saw the rhetoric that began with Donald Trump and that began with his sort of online and public bullying of different groups, a lot of people stood by and let it happen. And the culmination of that

was what we all witnessed in January, on January 6th. And so I think Rashad is absolutely right. I think there is a legitimate question as to given what we have already seen, given what we already know as around what can happen when these things are left unchecked and unfettered, are you willing to risk it again and make it go worse, just so you can have an alternative in your mind to AOC on your side? You know, is it worth that to you, given the potential consequences? And do you... 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.

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ExpressVPN is rated number one by CNET and Wired magazine. So take back control of your life online and secure your data with a top VPN solution available, ExpressVPN. And if you go to ExpressVPN.com slash TYT, you can get three extra months for free with this exclusive link just for TYT fans. That's E-X-P-R-E-S-S-V-P-N.com slash T-Y-T. Check it out today. I want to be associated with that. I think that's a real question. The other thing that I want to say about this specific incident and your question regarding

Cory Bush, John, I want you to think about something. Given the fact that Cory Bush has been as active and engaged with BLM as an organization and as essentially a political party as she has, do you not think that that woman is justified in caring for her own safety, this is not the first time that she has been under attack, both physically as well as psychologically from people who would seek to do her harm or want her to fail. And so I have every reason to support that black woman from the standpoint of regardless of her ideology, what we know for sure and what we can agree on is that she did not wake up with this woman being the first person to try and terrorize or intimidate her.

And because of that, given where she is, given what she's done and given where she's come from, we know that in order for her to have said publicly in the way that she did, I don't feel safe, this is a genuine feeling that comes from a real place from someone who knows what it is to feel unsafe. And I think that given that and putting that in the proper context, we have to give her the support that she needs, just regardless of her ideology, just from the standpoint of knowing that this for her is a very real and very dangerous and scary threat. Yeah, and this is right now. Not to say that Fox hasn't already demonized her because, as you point out, her activist work, but we know what the last two years have been like for Representative Ocasso-Cortez and Representative Omar and Representative Talib and Diana Presley as well. Fox has, like they know what their audience wants and their audience is to wants to be worked into a fervor to hate black and brown women. That's what they want. They love that. They get off on that. And Corey Bush is unabashed and outspoken. And so I know that she has got to be so worried about, I doubt she puts a lot of thought. But the like Lori Ingram is going to be demonizing on a daily basis. And Sean Hannity is going to be and Tucker Carlson's going to be doing whole monologues about how she's evil and she's in a couple. with a pack of people with guns down the street and everything. And so what like she's already,

I'm sure, facing tons of threats and it's only going to get worse from here. Having a person like that literally passing you on the hallway every day, voting on the floor next to you somehow seems even more perverse. I would agree. I mean, you know, as someone who worked on Capitol Hill, I would marble, and this was, you know, easily 20 years ago, I would marvel, I would marvel at the way that different representatives from different sides and different members of Congress could have these fiery, passionate debates on the floor and then walk out and sort of laugh and beat in the cafeteria together and walk down the hall and see each other and ask about each other's kids. It didn't make sense to me at the time, but I respected it

as I became someone who was familiar with it and understood it. Those days are far and long gone. And what we are seeing is our government, our Congress, our legislative body on a federal level in the most extreme of circumstances turn into something reminiscent of the chaos that we have witnessed in British Parliament, like over the year. It's like we're we're about a step and a half away from that. And I think because of the fact that we are not in a space that respect civil debate of differing opinions. I think that when you look at and consider, like you said, some of the right wing media outlets that sort of fuel the crazy on the other side and how much vitrial they help stoke, Cory Bush is exactly right in terms of her being

concerned for her safety. Because even if it doesn't come from a member of Congress, there are all kinds of folks who come in and out of D.C. that seek to do people harm because they're charged up on the hater raid that has been served to them from Fox News. And that's a real thing that they have to be mindful of. And so I do wish her safety. And I hope that, you know, that she's able to navigate her space in a way that allows her to do her job without sort of being overly concerned about her safety and security. I agree. Yeah. Well, we have to take our last break of the hour, but stick around because we got time for one more story afterward. We'll see you in just a few. I'm going to be able to be.

You know, I'm going to be able to be. Hey, everyone. Hey everyone. Let's see what's been going on in the audience. Okay, so Ballot Wagon Dragon, in the member comment says, today at work, someone used to slack of you and Hilo, and when I said, I love John Adirlo, they said they thought you were shy LeBuff. Thanks. Anyway, let's see, Irene says, I don't want to hear about Green's delusions. It's endlessly depressing and frightening. Seeing this interaction is just so sad. This is what we've devolved into. I couldn't work with Green. I get it. I'm sick of it already. Like, she's been a

Congresswoman for a week and a half, and I'm already done. That's what we have, though. And okay, so in the super chat, constant chaos says billionaires think that where they started is nothing because they are legitimately mentally ill, their behavior is the same as by patience. I mean, look, there are some billionaires who seem to sort of get the obligation they have to not create a far worse off world than they were born into, but I don't know. Franklin Sharpslexer says, maybe I'm daft, but this is for real. Maybe Marjorie is the Republican's Green New Deal. Why?

But good work. Okay, over on Twitch, Babylon Rocker, subscribed for the six month. Thank you for that. Will in Japan is a new subscriber subscribing with Prime. Metal Chad, subscribed for the six month and says I heart TYT. Prime subscription on Twitch and MainSite membership. Keep up the great work. Thank you for that.

Gothic Electrolite is at four months. Freak for three and says, great work. Love you guys. Thank you so much for that. Tell me what. gifted a sub, E.K. Greens, gifted five and Moxley's Fringe gifted five as well. Thank you so much for that. Really do appreciate people making it so that other people can be a part of the community. Okay, Stephanie says, thank you, John. I know you can't get to every comment of birthday.

You made my daughter so happy with a shout out. Not only is she turning 40, but she just lost her kitty of 16 years too, so she's been really down. Thank you from a worried mom. That is really sad. I'm sorry to hear that. My dog is really old. He's like, well, not really old, but he's 10 or 11. And I've recently started to think about like that at some point there's going to be a time when I've lost dogs before my life. But this is the first dog that I got as a puppy, like off in my own. And it's just really sad to lose someone that you've been with for so long. So definitely my heart goes out to you and your daughter. Okay, I don't think we have time to go through another one. So we are going to take this little break. We'll be back

in just a sec with one last story for you. Welcome back to the first hour of the Young Turks, everybody. John, Rashad, and Charles. We got time for one more story, so let's launch right back into it. Everybody wants to know what the future of the GOP is going to look like. Well, at least according to Kevin McCarthy's travel session as a schedule, it looks like it might look kind of like it did a couple of months ago because he recently traveled down to Mar-a-Lago and Ilhan Omar tweeted out this photo that was apparently a spread of him posing very awkwardly with Donald Trump. And Ilhan Omar responded with, I see, begging the loser insurrectionist to help them not lose again in 2022 is the strategy the GOP is going with.

It's an interesting strategy because they lost control of the House under Trump, the Senate under Trump, and eventually the presidency under Trump. They've got the Supreme Court in their back pocket. They've got that. But I'm curious, starting with you, Charles, what do you think about the future of the GOP? Is it going to stick with Trump? Is Trump going to turn against it? How is that going to go? So here's the deal, John. I think that the GOP is going to have to figure out who's going to be able to be the most racist, the most sexist, the most xenophobic person that we can put up that the public is going to stand. Why do I say that? I say that because quite obviously the target for 2024 is going to be Kamala Harris, because we're not expecting Joe Biden to do two terms in office, which makes her the presumptive Democratic favorite. And so in order to in order to energize their base, they're going to have to summon all of the

anti-identity politics folks within their party, within their grasp, that are going to come out and turn out that boat. So the question becomes, do we feel like Trump is the person to deliver the message? Or can we find someone in the next 18 to 24 months that is going to be able to deliver the same message, but perhaps make it more palatable to our base? And so ultimately, that is where the question lies. Because from a strategic standpoint, I have no doubt and no question in my mind that their game plan is exactly the same as it's always been. Rashad?

Yeah, I concur. And I will say this, there's no Republican Party right now. It's Republican Party in name only, right? Because a Republican Party or a party period means platform, structure, core values, Donald Trump's wreck and ball leadership completely obliterated all of that. So you don't really have a defined Republican Party anymore. And that's why he's able to utilize these unofficial channels to still exert his power and influence over the process. I think likely what is going to happen is you're going to have a significant split in the Republican Party.

And I think Donald Trump is going to be behind that. And this will be a rift that they will not be able to overcome in their lifetime. But they created the Frankenstein monster that is Donald J. Trump. And the question is, is Trump the monster only or the scientists in politics who created them? And my argument would be both are the same. Well, so look, he's been talking about creating his Patriot Party and either he runs as a third party candidate or he runs candidates against people like Marco Rubio. If he does that, knowing the size of his base, now we don't yet know if the base would go to him, but they certainly seem loyal. If he creates a third party to try to steal the QAnon people and the most out and out white nationalists that vote Republican, do the Republicans have a chance nationally as long as that exists? No, no, not at all. Not in the presidency. And I don't know if he cares about the presidency. He may want to have a bunch of surrogates across the country. And he may not split the party in the sense of having a third political structure, kind of like the Tea Party. They had a third political identity, but they still.

operated within the structure of the general mainframe of the Republican Party. Charles? The reality is that the public, the Republican Party is going to have to deal with this Donald Trump problem for a very, very long time. And it's on, and it's on fault. Like, you allowed Donald Trump to become as big as he did. You didn't do anything to sort of reel him in. And now he's got enough power to make, you know, decisions that are going to influence

and impact your party. So whether it's through a third party, through the Patriot Party, or whether it's directly as a kingmaker or his direct involvement in the Republican Party, Republicans are now going to have to deal with the monster that they allowed to grow and that they fed and that they created for a very, very long time. Well, that is unfortunately all the time we have for this first hour, but I want to thank both of you for joining me, Charles Coleman Jr. Dr. Rashad Ritchie, as always, love talking politics with you. So thank you. Same. Thank you. Thanks for having me. And everyone at home, there's still another hour. Anna Kasparian is going to be taking over, and she's going to be joined by Jason, Carter, and Francesca Fiorentini. It's going to be an awesome hour, so don't go anywhere. Thanks for listening to the full episode of the Young Turks. Support our work, listen ad-free, access members, only bonus content, and more by subscribing to Apple Podcasts at apple.com at apple.com slash t-y-t.

I'm your host, Shank Huger, and I'll see you soon.