The Young Turks - Joe Biden In Free Fall

Episode Date: August 27, 2019

A recent poll reveals the collapse of Joe Biden and the rise of Bernie and Warren. Cenk Uygur and Ana Kasparian, hosts of The Young Turks, break it down. 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. Hey, guys, you've heard of the Young Turks podcast because you're listening to it right now. But make sure that you subscribe and give it a five star rating if you like it. Thank you for listening. All right, welcome to the Young Turks. I feel that this week is going to be enormously active.

And now you think like, well, that's the worst prediction you've ever made. Active in like what way? Yeah. Like stress levels? I feel it. I feel real active right now. No, I mean newswise. And I think that, well, isn't, I mean, the Trump era isn't every week insanity defined?

Yes, in fact, we have stories about that. in today's program. But I feel something in the air about this week being particularly insane. So let's see what happens, buckle up, everybody breaks for impact. Well, I want to start off with some good news because there's quite a bit of good news today. Yeah, believe it. Oh, no, no, there's, I mean, you want to talk about shakeups, okay, we got great news. And we will get to Trump's insanity, there's a tornado of insanity that, or a hurricane

of insanity that we're gonna get to. Yes. But I also wanna let you know that Anna is gonna be on Cuomo tonight. So that's at 9 o'clock Eastern and it's going to be progressives versus moderates because of the story we're about to tell you, which is awesome. Anyway, but make sure you're watching CNN at 9 o'clock tonight to see Anna. All right, let's do it. A major poll indicates that both Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren are now leading in the Democratic

primary. Now, this is a Monmouth University poll that shows that they are beating Joe Biden, who has been the frontrunner, and they're beating him by one point. The Monmouth University poll released Monday shows Sanders and Warren deadlocked among Democratic voters at 20%. With Biden, a point behind at 19%. No other candidate cracks double digits. That includes Kamala Harris, who's in fourth place, at 8%. All right.

You guys ready? Ladies and gentlemen, we got them. Down goes by, okay, I'm just kidding, I'm just kidding. Okay, so one of the worst mistakes anyone can make is to get too confident and I don't want people to get confident. With that said, this is great news because there are giant changes in the poll results for these candidates. So if you just go back a little bit, the same polling organization found something very

different just last month. Hold on. So before we show you the massive changes that I've ever. come forward. I want to tell you two things we're going to do afterwards. One, Nate Silver has decided this poll doesn't count. Hilarious. Hilarious, okay? By the way, if you don't know Washington, you'd think like, oh my God, that sounds so preposterous, right? He's kidding or something, right? No, no. Everybody in Washington, there's already been a couple of polls showing Elizabeth Warren taking, making huge strides, Biden falling back a lot. The other polls had

Sanders rising a little bit or staying even. Now, this poll shows him rising as well. They literally don't believe any of those polls. I know people talking to them internally where people in Washington are like, no, that obviously isn't true. Because no one, I know, all my friends say it isn't true. So Americans are wrong. Okay, so they actually believe this stuff.

Now, we're going to show you the massive movements. And afterwards, I'm going to tell you, I'm going to show you a fun, told you clip. That's always hilarious. Okay. Right, but I do want to say before we get too far removed from my down goes Biden joke, largely joke, but it's on its way, is that, look, in all seriousness, this poll is a statistical tie. So you shouldn't say things are statistical ties only when it's to your advantage.

And a lot of the headlines do say tie. Now, not all of them said tie when Biden was up by a point, which happened recently, but overall, a lot of them did say tie, et cetera. and this poll does have a 5.7% margin of error, which is significant. Yes. So look at the overall movements. So don't be like Nate Silver and not look at the overall movement and go, I don't see it, I don't see it, I don't see it, right?

His new excuses, no, it has to be after a major event, otherwise the poll doesn't count. Yeah, I know, we're gonna get to him just a second. Okay, hold on, sorry, just to finish up on that. So, but it definitely does count. At the same time, it's of course not to end all one and be all. It's one poll, it is going along with the rest of the polls showing similar movements, but it doesn't mean that they've taken the lead for good. We'll talk more about them.

Yes, I agree with you. I think that the biggest takeaway from this poll is that the very same polling organization in late June found very different numbers for the progressive candidates. So let me give you the past numbers, and again, this is the poll from June. with the Monmouth University poll in June, Sanders has ticked up six points and worn five points. Biden dropped 13 points from 32% in June. So he went from 32% to 19%. And we're comparing apples to apples. It's the same organization doing the polling. Also, Biden is down 14 points among white and non-white voters. He's down- That would be everyone. It's, yeah, I know. It's a really weird

way of putting it. No, no, it makes sense because they say his strength as white voters, but sometimes they'll turn around and say his strength is African American voters in places like South Carolina. And he's down with both across the board. So there's nowhere to hide. He's lost in almost every category, as Anna will continue to explain. Exactly. So he's down 14 points among white and non-white voters.

He's also down 14 points among men, 13 points among women. He's down 15 points among voters younger than 50 years. old, which doesn't surprise me, and 9% among voters 50 and older. So across the board, Biden has seen a decrease in his poll numbers, and it is fascinating to hear some of the moderates in the media try to dismiss this type of polling. And just going back to Nate Silver, I do want to read you his tweet in response to this because it was just fascinating. He says, let's go to Graphics 6, the advanced skill in polling analysis most people miss

is that you should be much more inclined to believe there's been a significant shift in the polls after big news or campaign events, example debates, and much less inclined to do so when there hasn't been. So two things I want to just mention off the bat. First of all, there was a debate in June. Yep. I mean, did you forget about that? And secondly, there were other things sprinkled throughout the last poll and today's poll.

And those things included Biden saying all sorts of nonsensical, crazy statements. One of the latest ones that we haven't covered on this show yet, he gave a speech where he talked about the, you know, what would it have been like if Obama had been assassinated? Like he has these weird moments that I think are really starting to hurt him politically. No, I mean, look, I'm worried about Biden. And I don't mean that in like a fake kind of way, like, I'm concerned about him. Let's now, you know, talk about how his mental state and bury him. No, I'm worried about him as a person.

If he was the candidate, it'd be massively word for the Democratic Party. I mean, look, he was just in New Hampshire and he said, you know, what a beautiful state of Vermont is. Now, if that was the only slip up, you'd say, oh, that's no big deal at all, right? And I always remember the theorists, let's put him that way, that thought that, that Hillary Clinton had an aneurysm and had brain damage. And it was a lot of people on the right wing, but also some folks in the left wing, okay? And that was never true, and there was never any evidence of that. And faced with overwhelming evidence that her mental state is fine, now they still won't

give in because some people lose their minds when it comes to politics and bias, etc. So with Biden, if it was just one data point, okay. But now, guys, he's done it over and over again with so-called gaffes and the poor kids can be like white kids and you've heard at least half a dozen significant ones. But the Vermont New Hampshire one, you're campaigning in New Hampshire. New Hampshire is one of the first two states, confusing it with Vermont. When you're that seasoned a politician, that is really weird. And so these, so I give you that in the context of what Anna just said, which is, no, Nate,

all of this has happened since the last debate. There's been two debates and the polls moved after the second debate clearly in favor of Warren and Sanders and more importantly against Biden. And then there was one poll that showed that no, Biden had regained the lead. And of course all the mainstream media is on Biden's side. So they do propaganda on his behalf 24-7 after the debates for several weeks. But then he kept making these huge gaps that are making big news. So there's plenty of reasons to believe this poll and two others that are similar to it are real.

But when anyone in the establishment, including Nate Silver, sees numbers they don't like, they just wish them away. He did the same thing with Donald Trump, right about this time. When I was saying, look, all the numbers are super real, he's gonna win the Republican nomination. People like Nate Silver were saying I was crazy. Oh, that's never gonna happen. No one I know likes Donald Trump. That doesn't mean a goddamn thing.

And the reason I get more mad at Nate Silver is because his job is supposed to be numbers. If he was a normal jackass pundit on television, I'd be like, it's Tuesday. Right, that's all the American people said that millionaires should keep their tax cuts. That's what I heard among my millionaire friends, right? That's normal stuff. But Nate can't even see numbers straight. Yeah, I mean, look, I'm not really surprised. I think that his commentary and his hostility toward progressive candidates is well documented.

But I do want to get back to some of the other findings of this poll. And then I want to kind of give you my theory. And then Jane can brag about his predictions. Yes. Yeah, I know that's what he's waiting for the most. So here are some more findings, and it's just fascinating. Biden also slipped 18 points among Democratic voters who describe themselves as moderate or conservative, and nine points among self-identified liberals.

Okay, let's pause for a second. Self-identified moderates stop supporting Biden, according to the responses from this poll. And just quickly, I want to give you my theory. Look, Biden, yes, there have been a number of gaps. He's also been MIA when it comes to, in my opinion, important campaign stops and rallies and, you know, in terms of like strategizing and garnering more support or solidifying more support in the Democratic base. He's been, you know, MIA, he's kind of ripping a page out of Hillary Clinton's playbook,

which I think is a giant mistake. And then you have the progressive candidates, and what have they been doing? They've been making it rain with policy proposals, right? And they're robust, they're bold. I mean, Bernie Sanders with his Green New Deal proposal, actual legislation that came out last week. And it was wonderful, right? And so they're coming out strong, they're hitting Mitch McConnell where it hurts. We have a story in the rundown today where Bernie Sanders went to Kentucky, and he called

out Mitch McConnell for completely neglecting, struggling coal workers. These are candidates who actually care about the issues, and they're not afraid to propose bold solutions to very real issues Americans are facing today. I think when you combine all these different elements, that is reflected in this poll. The response from Democratic voters is reflected in this poll, and it's great. Yeah, so I wanna clarify one thing, and then, Bragg. So this poll was conducted between August 16th and 20th, so they hadn't seen the Green New Deal proposal yet.

But there are so many others. Yeah, that's what I was gonna say. But he did criminal justice reform proposal that was very bold. But it's one of many in a pattern. First, Elizabeth Warren had come out with a lot of proposals, and then Bernie now has doubled down in his number of proposals. And so now, if you're someone who's a progressive, you see those, or just any Democratic voter based on the numbers, you go, well, look, they're coming out with interesting ideas

and look like they're fighting for me, and these are things that I agree with. If you're in the establishment, and I have to clarify this because both sides don't understand each other at all, because live in different bubbles, in the establishment, they look Look at those proposals, especially by Bernie Sanders and go, no one would care about those. Those are not big events because obviously those are unrealistic, everyone in Washington says so. Obviously we're not going to do those because that would hurt oil companies, et cetera. So, and Nate Silver doesn't have to think about oil companies.

He just is part of the group think. And everyone in that toxic stew thinks there's no way that American people would be interested in progressive ideas. Nate, look at the polling on every single issue. I mean, I can, I've literally gone through dozens of issues that have been polled. The American people are 60% to 80% in favor of progressive issues. The number that keeps popping up in like half the polls is 66%, 66%. That's two thirds of the country, okay, on massively progressive values and issues, et cetera.

But when Warren and Sanders defend those, everyone in the establishment goes, oh, that's not a big deal, that can't be real. Now finally Warren is broken through a little bit and they get, oh, she has a plan for that. And so they've given her some positive coverage, but remember Bernie's still in the race. Okay, so that finally leads me to what I told you guys recently. When the last set of polls came out showing that Warren was closing in on Biden big time and Biden was fading, here's what I said. The Biden fade has begun.

So now we got a poll out of Iowa, I believe that's a fairly relevant. relevant state. It's starting line at change polls and in a new, we've got a new leader, Elizabeth Warren. In fact, Joe Biden's now tied with Bernie Sanders. So depending on how you want to frame it, he's tied for second, tied for third, and fading and fading. Warren now has an 11-point lead in Iowa against Biden. Now here's the thing. You can say, hey, that's just one poll and you can talk about, hey, you know, what is the credibility of that poll, etc. But guys, it doesn't really matter. Does anyone think that Joe Biden, after losing the lead, is going to retake the lead? No one that knows politics thinks that. Once the fade begins, it's good night, Irene.

And here we are, nighty night. So maybe Nate and Joe Scarborough and everybody else in Washington thinks no, Biden's an amazing politician, and he'll mount a comeback. I'm here to tell you, and I've been proven right about a thousand times over, that he will not make a comeback. He has no ability to make a political comeback. Once the fade begins, it's terminal, and it has already begun. So I told you that 10 days ago when the polling showed what we thought it was going to show based on what we know about politics. And the reason why we do predictions, yes, It's fun. Yes, I get a big head over it.

But really, the main reason is so you know that we're not full of it. We're not Monday morning quarterbacking it. We told you ahead of time. And part of the reason we do that is because everyone else in media says we're wrong. So I say, okay, great, why don't we do a test? I'll tell you ahead of time what's going to happen. They can tell you ahead of time and let's see who's right. And time and time again, we're shown to be right on this show.

Luckily, they give us credit after we're proven- Oh yeah, every time. They've never once said, oh yeah, they were right, we were wrong. The most important part of that is we were wrong. Who cares about us being right? The phenomenon is what's important. Yes. And so even though we told him Hillary Clinton is very defeatable, I saw her lose with my own

eyes in 2008, they're like, no, no, no, she can't be beat, no way, Trump has no chance, no chance. And okay, that's the past, have you learned anything? No, haven't learned anything, all of Washington. And right now they're like, Sanders has no chance to win. The war, I don't know, maybe, but come on, really. A progressive, I mean, none of our ideas are going to get implemented. Maybe it'll be cute that she'll win, but we're not going to do any of those goddamn things.

And they really can't see that they're biased. So one last one for you guys today, that. Look, I think there's an excellent chance that Biden doesn't even make it to Iowa. He's not even in the race when the voting begins. Because if this fade continues, we're in August. He's gasping for air. He ain't going to make it to January. So you think he's going to want to get humiliated coming third, fifth, seventh?

No, there's an excellent chance he leaves the race before we have a single vote. Now on the other end, Donald Trump is a certifiable lunatic and he keeps saying things that are crazier and crazier every single day. So I still believe, I've said this from day one and I still believe today, there's also a very good chance Donald Trump doesn't make the election. So, the mainstream media for the last six months, nine months have been talking Biden versus Trump. It might be neither.

I would argue it's actually fairly likely to be neither. So let's see what happens next. I think Trump is definitely, definitely going to remain in the race. I think you're wrong on that, but we've taken a bet and we'll see how that bet goes. And I hope I lose, I hope I lose that bet. Now I'm thinking of quadrupling down. Let's quadruple it. Let's do it.

Let's do it. Mama needs a new bathroom, okay? I'm gonna do it. I'm gonna do it. She, no one goes me better than Anna on these bets, okay? That's $800, Jake. No, no, no. So it's right now, it's $200 or nothing, okay?

Because we won the $100, because it didn't happen by the midterms, okay? Then, so it went to $200 or nothing, so that's double or nothing. So we go to $400 or I win $200. You see what I'm saying? Hmm. Because that way I get to win. Oh, I see what you're saying, okay. Now all of a sudden she's thinking about it.

No, I'm not. I want to win $800. That would have to be eight. There's the trade war, so inflation with materials. Okay, I hear you. All right, so 400 you win, 200 I win if Trump is not in the race. Correct. Right, like does not finish this term.

Correct. Does not finish this story. All right, let's do it. Deal. All right, here we go, we're on again. All right. Wait till you see the rest of the show. I don't know what happened there.

Okay, wait till you see the end of the show because there's a lot of news out that he ain't going to make it. But okay, all right, God bless, let's go forward. All right, we gotta take a break. When we come back, we have Bernie Sanders, man. This is one of my favorite stories. He's showing up to Kentucky. He is calling out Mitch McConnell.

McConnell, smacking him in the face politically. This is what I love. I love it. We'll be right. Not a big news story, though. No, not a big deal. Okay, we'll do it. 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.

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 described UNFTR 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, and entertained, all at the same time. All right, back in a young church, Jenkin, Anna, with you guys. This is a portion of the show we do together.

Sir Tracy writes in Anna on Cuomo, get it, girl. Thank you. So I just got word that I'll be on with Anna Navarro. She'll be representing the moderates in the discussion. That's so fitting. A Republican, but anyway, okay. No, no, that's perfect. Yeah, that's right.

If you want to vote for a Republican, you support the people Anna Navarro supports. Yeah. And if you vote for a Democrat, support the people Anna supports. So that's tonight at 9 o'clock on CNN. Don't miss that, that ought to be fun. Anna brings it. Okay, Tommy, too strong writes in, progressives are pulling ahead versus everybody. There ought to be a T-shirt.

Why, I'm glad you've mentioned that, Tommy, because there is a T-shirt. Of course, he knows that. TYT.com, I'm sorry, shop at TYT.com. And actually it fits in perfectly because it's got 20% off today, presumably because of back to school or something. It's one day only. It's one day only, so you do have to panic and you got these snapbacks now. So they're pretty cool and badass and all that stuff, so go for it.

So 20% off at shopty.com. Tommy, seriously, thank you for mentioning that every, like when I wear my progressors versus everybody's shirt? People are like, yes. Okay, anyway, KT. Nicole 87 says, today was my first last day of college, had to share with my TYT family. Well, thank you and thank you for watching. With us, Cabitch on Twitter says, after Mrs. Biden spoke, I think that broke the camel's back. She just couldn't sell her own husband with any authority. Poll taken actually before that. So upcoming polls might be worse for Biden. The Vermont gaffe after the poll. This, Jill Biden after the poll, Bernie's Green New Deal proposal after the poll.

So upcoming polls could conceivably be significantly better for the progressives. All right, and the last one is on YouTube super chat, Cardinal Sin says impeached now, Democrats will look good for a change. Yeah, it would be wonderful if they fought. All right, and then I just want to remind you all on Friday, our panel will be available to our members as always. But we're doing something a little different. If you'd like to watch, you can watch, and you're not a member, you can watch through Zoomo.

Just go to zoomo.com slash TYT, and you can experience the main show on that platform. And if you're interested in becoming a member, it's very easy to do so. Just go to t.yt.com slash join. All right. Let's do it. Let's do some more news. I say here in Kentucky to Senator McConnell, stop blocking legend. from putting to the floor of the Senate.

That's Bernie Sanders calling out Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who has blocked votes that would increase the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour. Sanders is also calling him out for his unwillingness to help struggling coal workers in the state of Kentucky, many of whom are struggling with finding work, and more importantly, getting paid what they deserve for the work that they've already done. Here's Sanders calling him out. Now, if you want to, Senator McConnell, you can vote against that legislation. But we live in a democracy.

The Senate is entitled to a debate and the American people are entitled to know how you're going to stop your cowardice. Have the guts to debate the issues. I love watching Senator Sanders attack like this. And I think it's important for him to do it because fighting really does get people to discuss what the reality is among politicians and how someone like Mitch McConnell doesn't care about anyone, doesn't care about doing the right thing, and is actually incredibly undemocratic because he does block votes on the Senate floor. And the federal minimum wage is just the latest example of that.

So I love that Sanders is calling him out. So what winds up happening is it attracts media attention when there is a fight between personalities, because the media is adverse to covering issues. But when there's a cat fight, they're like, ooh, okay, we can frame it as, you know, this person versus that person, and so, and we can say, hey, we're neutral to it, but we're just giving you the fight, and they love the fights, right? So then once you have the fight, you're on your moral high ground, because you're saying the reality, Mitch McConnell, you got coal miners in Kentucky who got ripped off.

Their last paycheck didn't even get paid to them. They've been out there for three weeks blocking this railroad, right? Are you gonna fight for them? You're their senator. Oh, you haven't done anything for them. Why? Because you actually represent corporate interests that are against them. So just own up to it.

There's a fighting with AT&T in Kentucky, which side are you on? As always, McConnell's on the side of the billionaires and corporations. And then on the $15 minimum wage. Like he, if you let him get away with it, he'll bury it and the media will never talk about it again, we'll never have that vote. But if you, but I know this is a revolutionary thought for other Democrats in the country. But it turns out you could actually fight back. You could actually talk and call him a coward and say, hey, you know what?

He's not allowing a vote. And what is McConnell gonna do? He's gonna say, well, no, $15 minimum wage is bad. Higher wages for people in Kentucky is bad because they would hurt my corporate donors. He'll couch it in terms of like, oh, it could hurt the economy, which would eventually hurt you. But I really, really don't want you to have higher wages. Right. Awesome, thank you very much.

That's why you start that fight. That's why we want aggressive progressives. Exactly. I love that you just said that because a recent poll, actually a poll released today from Monmouth shows that both Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren are tied at 20% in that poll and they're above Biden at 19%. I bring that up because this is the way Democrats win. They differentiate themselves as fighters and individuals who care about the average American

worker and they juxtapose their policy proposals to. to that of Republicans, whereas moderate Democrats think, oh, let me just try to be a lighter version of the Republican that I'm fighting against. Well, people aren't going to vote for you because they already have the Republican. They're not looking for Republican light, they're looking for someone who might be willing to actually fight for them. And Bernie Sanders shows over and over again, he's willing to do that. Now following the rally, he put out a series of tweets that I want to share with you.

He says, over 500,000 workers in Kentucky make less than $15 an hour. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, why don't they deserve an average raise of $4,300 a year? Stop blocking legislation to raise the current starvation minimum wage to a living wage of $15 an hour. By the way, real quick, I do want to give Rashida Talib a lot of credit because she's saying, yeah, $15 an hour, it's a good start. There's no reason why workers shouldn't get paid at least $20 an hour. So she's a fighter and I love it. Mitch, you don't want to vote on 15, we could make it 20, right?

We could have that conversation. And $4,300 extra for 500,000 people living in Kentucky. That ain't no joke. And what will Mitch McConnell do? He'll hide behind small businesses and got nothing to do with it. It's the giant business that are funding him. But okay, then let's take the one more issue here. So coal miners with black lung disease went up to Washington and saying, hey, is anybody

going to pay for our health care? we're literally dying because you told us to go work in the coal mines and that you were going to have our back. Now Mitch McConnell actually doesn't care about coal workers at all, not even 1%. So he's like, no, I'm not going to take care of you at all. You're going to sit there and die while I take money from the corporations that made that happen. So let's put it out there. Let's emphasize it. Because they pretend that they care about the coal companies because they ultimately care about the coal workers.

But now it's been proven to be a lie. You got black languages? Mitch McConnell doesn't give a damn about you. You want to get higher wages? Mitch McConnell is going to block it and end it and stop it. Because he doesn't care about the coal workers. He cares about the coal companies that fund his campaigns. He is the heart of darkness on corruption.

So it's way past time that somebody started fighting back. And if it takes Bernie Sanders going down to Kentucky to kick his ass, I'll take it, and this is what energizes progressives, and Lisa electoral victories. That's the only way you're going to beat McConnell in Kentucky. You're not going to do it by being soft. Absolutely. All right, switching gears to some other news today. Over the weekend, the New York Times published a lengthy piece about conservative

operatives who are looking to find opposition research on journalists who publish negative stories about Donald Trump. And the reason why they're doing this is to discredit them and also intimidate them to prevent future negative stories on Trump. Now, I think Trump does a pretty decent job putting himself out there in a negative light as it is. But let me give you the details on what the Times found. Operatives have closely examined more than a decade's worth of public posts and statements

by journalists. Only a fraction of what the network claims to have uncovered has been made public with more to be disclosed as the 2020 election he used. up. Now, they targeted two individuals already, one of whom's already been fired. It was a 25-year-old photojournalist at CNN who had put out some questionable tweets when he was about 15, 16 years old. So good job, way to get him. The photojournalist, by the way, didn't publish any negative stories on Donald Trump. In fact, this loose network of conservatives are targeting anyone who works at any news organization that has ever published anything negative on Donald Trump.

The research is said to extend to members of journalists' families who are active in politics, as well as liberal activists and other political opponents of the president. In its targeting, not only high-profile journalists who challenge the administration, but also anyone who works for any news organization that members of the network see as hostile to Trump, no matter how tangential, how tangential. Okay. Tangential. Tangential.

Okay, sorry about that. No matter how tangential the job may be to cover to the coverage of his presidency, and it is being used explicitly as retribution for coverage. So there are more details, but this is purposely done to intimidate journalists from doing their jobs, period. Yeah, so first of all, the stories are negative because they quote Donald Trump. And so it's not like it's op-eds attacking Donald Trump, although I'm sure that some of those organizations certainly have had that.

But no, they're like, don't quote Donald Trump because otherwise people realize he's an idiot. So any story that they perceive to be negative about Trump is usually just giving you whatever Trump said or did, which is borders on insanity and oftentimes crosses that border. So, and this isn't, they always paint this as unusual. And I get it. For a president, it's unusual. But actually, the right wing has been doing this for a long time. Roger Ayles did it at Fox News.

He had a binder on executives and hosts on other channels that were competitor with Fox News. When I was a host on MSNBC, the PR department told me about that and said, be careful because I had done an article attacking Fox News. And they said, you shouldn't do that. I said, what do you, we're at MSNBC, we're competing with Fox News. They're like, they'll have a folder on you and attack you personally. So the Republicans have been the bad guys on this forever. Ironically, it's the New York Times, Washington Post, and CNN that won't tell you that.

They'll say, well, both sides do it, what both sides? We're still left wings folders and attacks against people's families. And so ironically, these are the organizations that do political correctness with false equivalencies, but it's never good enough for the right wing. They attacked them anyway. The only upside to this story is that finally, since it has affected the powerful, they're paying attention. Because this has been happening online to folks who are the tip of the spear. So they've attacked the young Turks, these same set of guys, the same right wing, the same

tactics have attacked the young Turks, Sam Cedar. I mean, you name a progressive host online, we've already gotten this 10 times over, a hundred times over, because they know we influence people and especially the younger generation way more than anybody else does, so they attack us first. But when we're attacked, the rest of the establishment media is like, oh, well, I do declare. Yeah, perhaps, perhaps not, right? Both sides do it, false equivalency. No, I mean, the establishment media will publish the same attacks.

I mean, there's no question about it. Yeah, without ever noting, hey, these are hatchet jobs. These are coming from an illegitimate source. And, hey, maybe I should be careful about that James O'Keefe video. Maybe he might have edited it like he did 12 other times, et cetera. But now that it touches them, all of a sudden, the New York Times is like, whoa, Hey, whoa, hey, what's going on? Right?

Yeah, I know. This is the same thing we've been telling you for at least five years. Well, okay, so there are two things I want to point out. First off, the right wing is unfortunately a well-oiled machine, starting with the executive branch and the Trump administration, going down the pipeline to the most questionable publications, including Breitbart. So one of the examples at the times noted was when there was a piece published on Stephanie's, Right?

So she is in the communications team for Donald Trump. She's worked for Melania Trump for a long time. Apparently the Times put out an article that did not shine a positive light on her work history. And so the central player in this loose collective of conservatives is a man by the name of Arthur Schwartz and he is Don Jr.'s good friend. And so he spends all his time digging up all this oppo research, including social media post dating back a decade ago.

And then he'll feed it, he'll tweet it, of course, and then he'll feed it to publications like Breitbart. So let's go to that graphic. The New York Times published a profile on White House press secretary, Stephanie Grisham, which included unflattering details about her employment history. Then in retaliation, Breitbart News published an article that documented anti-Semitic and racist tweets written a decade ago by Tom Wright Pierciante, who was in college at the time and has since become an editor at the Times political desk, right?

So then that story by Breitbart gets retweeted by members of Trump's administration and his friends, and then it starts building momentum. And then what does the Times do? They freak out and they start investigating. They haven't fired him yet, but were his tweets or his social media posts put in context, are you automatically going to concede to the right wing and the hatchet job that they're doing? Like, my point is, they have a well-oiled machine, they have a strategy, and it's important

for media to not fall for their games, right? Not fall for their pressure, and they do time and time again. CNN fired a 25-year-old photojournalist over a story that he didn't even publish himself. It's disgusting. Well, they're talking about his tweets when he was 15 years old. So let me get this right. Republicans say, if you attempted rape in high school. as Kavanaugh was charged with, it's totally irrelevant.

But if you tweeted the wrong thing in high school, you should be fired immediately. Really? That's your standard? You don't believe that. You're just playing games. And you play, I get it, you're playing political games, at least we understand it. But the New York Times is like genuinely shocked and chagrin. Like, turns out there might be some bad actors on that side. Well, Sherlock, I'm glad you've finally figured it out. I'm glad you guys are journalists. But they, I think they are genuinely like, oh my God, bad actors.

No, everybody is good in 10, and both sides do it. Anyway, look, when you look at the things that the other guy that they targeted went after, he said, look, I was joking around with my friends. And my, you know, I don't know what the racial and religious composition of his friends are, and he probably doesn't want to get them in trouble and et cetera. But you gotta look at that context. You can't just be like some wrong word was said. If he actually meant it, that's a different story, and how old was he?

Was he a journalist at the time, those are all relevant. But if you look back and go, hey, he might have said something in joking to a Jewish friend that was anti-semitic, removed from that context, and then you fire him over that because the right wing wants you to, well, then you're an idiot, okay, and you're weak, and those fascists will steamroll you while you're playing patty cakes. It looks like, look, don't get me wrong, this is a positive development, because it looks like for the first time the mainstream media is going, oh, oh, this is kind of unfair. I see what they're doing, to which of course I reply, of course, of course, they've just

been doing it, they've been doing to everybody but you until now. So now that it touches you, you're like, okay, oh, wow, maybe I should look into this a little bit more. Of course you should. And last thing on this, guys, look, there's different levels of terrorism that the right wing does. Whenever there's something they don't agree with, they issue death threats nonstop. I don't mean Schwartz or Trump, et cetera. Although Trump threatens violence, encourages violence regularly. No, they just release it to the crazy people that follow them. And it's called stochastic

terrorism. And so part of that is they target your family. And it might not be death threats. It might be different tricks. I don't want to get into all the tricks, okay, but we've seen them all. They target where you work, they target you personally, then they target you physically, and then they send the death threats. And so you have no idea the pressure that builds. So random people working at those organizations, maybe you're an accountant at the New York Times, and now you realize, oh, and this has been happening for a long time, wait, am I going to keep working at the New York Times when they're threatening everybody in the building?

And then they have a great number of madmen on their side that actually have sent pipe bombs, that actually have done mass shootings, et cetera, and they keep encouraging them, encouraging them. And you know what it does? After a while, it works, and it gets the accountant to be nervous and leave the New York Times. And then more, and then more, and then the terrorists win. And so this is how the right wing is trying to terrorize us all. And it's a tough situation to be put in. The correct response is to offer all of us to stand up together and end the false equivalencies,

and end the out of context character assassinations, and say, we're not gonna listen to you. I don't care what you found from a 15 year old and what he said a decade ago or two decades ago. You're a hatchet man, and you're a joke, and we're gonna do real news. But that requires courage. So they've got to have the courage to stand up and say, yes. Yes, one side definitely does it more, and we're gonna stop feeding the trolls. And we're gonna end this nonsense. When we come back from the break, we are gonna talk about the G7 summit.

And as you can imagine, Donald Trump just displayed his lunacy for the entire world. Tick, tick, tick, tick, tick. 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 the best ways is with ExpressVPN. ExpressVPN hides your IP address, making your active ID more difficult to trace and sell the advertisers.

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We hope you're enjoying this free clip from The Young Turks. If you want to get the whole show and more exclusive content while support. independent media become a member at t yt dot com slash join today in the meantime enjoy this free second all right back on a young church oh i forgot to get the tweets okay um so we got some great tweets for you guys and by the way a little bit later in the program we're going to announce something really exciting okay the wrestles progressive says i love Sanders he's like the the only boomer politician who gets millennials i can only hope i have the same kick in my step when i'm his Look, I'm 49, I think the same thing.

When I went around with him in California back in 2016, I was like, how is this dude standing straight after all of this campaigning? And that was just, I was on the road with him one day. He was out there for hundreds of days in a row. Amazing stuff. Anyway, nasty habit says, if the minimum wage had kept up with inflation, it would be $22.65 per hour right now. Exactly right.

And so they, I mean, we all got screwed. wealth redistribution right there to the top. Michael Napin on Twitter says, Jenk has never won a bet against Anna. The big guy will never learn Anna for the win. Michael, I love you, dude. Okay. He's the best. Yeah, agree to disagree, but here's what I have to say to you as a counter, Michael.

Tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, all right, last one, last one. Seth Jones says, what do we think the odds are that the Trump administration will be prosecuted after the next administration comes in. Well, normally the odds would be infinitesimally small if it's a democratic administration, but I'm on a war path. I mean, you'll see it in the next story we're doing, but the guy's 100% criminal. And if I've got anything to do with it, and I likely won't. But if I do, I'm never going to let it go.

He has ties with the Russians, and God damn it, will someone investigate it already? All right. Well, we're gonna talk about that a little bit in the next story, so let's get to it. All right. Donald Trump has been in France for the G7 summit, and as you can imagine, he has been as cantankerous as you could, you know, expect him to be among our allies. And one of the issues that he brought up was the fact that Russia is no longer part of this annual event.

Now, Russia used to be part of this annual event until the annexation of Crimea happened in Ukraine. Trump argued strenuously that Vladimir Putin should be invited. or re-invited back five years after Russia was rejected from the then G8 for its annexation of Crimea. Now, he makes the argument in the next clip. Let's take a quick look. I mean, a lot of people are smart. A lot of people say having Russia, which is a power, having them inside the room is better

than having them outside the room. If I wanted to go strictly by politics, I'd probably poll that. And possibly, I'd say, oh, gee, I don't want Russia in. I really think it's good for security of the world. It's good for the economics of the world. Remember, they're building a big pipeline in Europe, going right up to Germany. And I said to Angela, who I had a great relationship, but I said, you know, you pay Russia billions of dollars, and then we defend you from Russia. And I say, how does that work?

Okay, so he wants to put them back in the G7 for no apparent reason. Now, no one has emaciated his business ties to Russia. Mueller did not do that at all, at all. He thought it was outside of what he was asked to look into. He was asked to look into the election, so he looked only at the election. There's this giant business ties with Russia just looming there. Both of Donald Trump's sons have said, we got all our money from the Russians for the golf courses. So does he owe them something?

No, no, no, no idiot Democrat wants to look into it. They're still, you know, playing patty cakes with them. They won't even take his New York state taxes, which New York has offered to Richard Neal. And Richard Neal, the head of the Ways and Means Committee in the House, won't take it. Pelosi doesn't want it. So nobody's investigating him, it's outrageous. Now, the right wing I get, I don't even want to bother talking about Mago, you're bringing in Russia is awesome.

That's who's strategic, he's brilliant, okay, whatever. So now let's address the portion of the left wing that I disagree with, to say the least. you're going to make an argument that he wants to bring Russia back into the G7 because he really cares about geopolitical circumstances in the world and thinks that it'll lead to more international stability if Russia is in. You really want to die on that hill? That Trump is doing this based on principles that he has about geopolitics. And then you just heard him say, he knows it's not popular, but he wants to do it anyway. When's the last time Donald Trump did something that didn't benefit him personally, that would hurt him politically.

Yeah, that's a great point. Look, I don't know if this type of behavior would hurt him politically with his base. But I will say, look, there are two separate issues. First off, what motivates Trump? Why is it that he decided to bring Russia up? I do not buy for a second that he cares about geopolitical politics. I don't believe for a second he has any strategy in mind. However, if you just take Trump and his ties to Russia completely out of it and think about it

in a non-Trump context, I do think that Russia should have a seat at the table. No. You don't? No. I think it's important to have them be part- Not on this. No. Listen.

Not to negotiate with Putin and like concede to what he wants, but I do think that it is a significant power in geopolitical politics. And I think it's important to apply pressure both diplomatically and through other means like sanctions. Okay, so tell me why you disagree with that. So first of all, in the substance, I'm not with the mainstream Democrats who are like, oh, Russia's a boogeyman and we should start conflicts and them doing the election interfering as tantamount to war. That's crazy talk, okay?

I want stability with Russia, I don't want any conflict, I don't want to start any wars, et cetera. But that doesn't mean they have to be in the G7. So they annexed Crimea, they still have troops in eastern parts of Ukraine. If you allow them back in the G7, it rewards their aggressive military tactics, which would cause them to potentially do more aggressive military tactics in other countries. That actually destabilizes the world. It doesn't mean they're not in the United Nations, it doesn't mean you should never work

with them. But we don't have to let them into NATO, and we don't have to let them into G7. They were ejected from G8 for very good reason. And this is not a conservative position to bring the Russians back in. Even Boris Johnson from the UK is like, no, no, no, no, we don't want the Russians. I know, it is pretty amazing. Yeah, so almost no one backs Trump on this. He's all alone, because there is no principled position, there is no conservative position,

there's certainly no progressive position that supports it. All there is is Trump going, Vlad, what do you need, what do you need? So look, we can argue about this till the cows come home. And I know I'm never going to convince that portion of the left wing that is I, I think I lost my mind on it, fine, whatever, I think you've lost your mind completely and utterly. You've become so biased on that issue that you're not open to new facts. So when Trump out of the blue comes and goes, oh, I need Russia back in the G7, I need it right now, even though it's going to hurt me politically, but that's okay, I really want

Why? Because I care about world civility and less conflicts, and I really care about this because of the pipeline, which I've criticized before in Germany. Really? Really? Really? You don't believe that. Hold on.

And I'll even address it. Look, I'm not questioning your intelligence, because I know Glenn Greenwald is really smart. I know a lot of guys on that side are really smart. But Glenn, you don't believe that. You know you don't believe that. Saying that is ridiculous. Okay, wait. Wait, there's one other thing that I want to pose, and I want to get your thoughts on it,

because I think this is also a possibility. So I agree with you, again, I just want to repeat that Trump doesn't care about geopolitical politics. I'd be shocked if you ever thought about it for a single second. However, what we do know is that Trump is motivated by his money, money, and also- He owes the Russians. Hold on, money, and there's one other thing that Trump is motivated by, and that's flattery. He likes to be around individuals who are complimentary toward him. And he has done such a great job at demonizing our longstanding allies, members of the G7,

that maybe there's a possibility he wants Vladimir Putin to be part of these meetings again, these annual meetings, because he knows that Putin is gonna tell him all the lovely, fluffy things that he wants to hear about himself. But even that's not true. Because if you've noticed, Putin actually has barely said anything about Trump. And unlike Kim Jong-un and other leaders that have gone around kissing Trump's ass, at least verbally, while doing other things in the background, Putin hasn't done that. It's not like Putin in the press conferences goes, oh, I believe U.S. intelligence rather than Russian intelligence.

I think Donald Trump's a great leader. He hasn't said any of that. He just says, comes to the press conferences and goes, Trump, heal. And Trump goes, yes, I believe the Russians instead of my own government. Yes, Vladimir is a wonderful strong leader. You need strength. He's very strong, right? So Riek comes in and bows.

But I've never seen Putin bow. I've never seen him give like big compliments to Donald Trump. Well, look, I think that he's been very friendly with Donald Trump publicly when they have met and when they've done like joint press conferences. But one other thing is, remember, they've had a number of private meetings. Now, of course, why do they want those meetings private without any U.S. officials part of it, without any transcript or any record of those meetings? They could be, you know, talking about some of their shady deals or whatever. 100%. But look, I just think that Trump has this affinity toward dictatorial regimes.

I think that he loves authoritarian. I think that he sees authoritarian and he feels this connection. There's like a love connection. It's happened with Duterte. It's happened with Bolsonaro in Brazil. Look, I'm just, I'm giving you all of the possibilities. I know, I get it. I'm giving you all the possibilities.

And don't get me wrong, I don't deny that there are some business deals going on behind the scenes that should be investigated. With that said, I do think that if you do care about geopolitical issues, applying pressure through economic means and sanctions is great, and I would lean in that direction. But I want Russia to be part of the conversation and apply pressure that way as well. That's where I'm coming from. Yeah, okay. So look, there's dictators.

he doesn't like, I agree with you, he likes authoritarian dictators that are on his side, but he doesn't seem to like the Iranian leaders. He doesn't seem to like Maduro, so he's pretty selective about the dictators that he likes, right? And, you know, what you could argue about whether Maduro is a dictator or not, but certainly Trump thinks so. So there's 50 other dictators in the world that he doesn't love. He wants Venezuela and oil also. Like his business interests.

It's always about the money. Okay, last thing, guys. You can think anything you like, but you're wrong, okay? So, no, no, no, you are. And I'm, and so I don't care and you can cry about it all day long too. So the reality is you're ignoring obvious things. He goes in to meet with the Russian leader without an American translator, let alone any American government official.

Like you can go and be like, oh, that once happened in 1837 as well, when there were no translators, anyway, okay, so I'm having fun there. But overall, like, they're like, oh, maybe that happened once or twice before. That's not even true. But you're trying to find excuses. His sons say we got all the money from the Russians. He does almost everything on behalf of the Russians, including weird, out of the blue, things like, yeah, let's put them back in the G7 when no one else, not even any other conservative agrees with that.

Okay, and then on top of that, he goes to have secret meetings with Putin where he doesn't want any American to hear what they're talking about. The answer is super obvious. Okay. He has business ties with the Russians. They have leverage over him, and they tell him what to do. If you want to cry about that, go cry somewhere else. Oh, no way.

I think Trump is really honest about Putin. He's dishonest about everything else, but he's really honest about beloved Putin and Russia. I think you're crazy for thinking that. I have to mention one other thing. I would feel terrible if I didn't, so I'm going to do it right now. Look, there was the foreign minister. of Iran, who is not, look, Iran is not part of the G7. However, Zareef, who's the foreign minister of Iran, was invited as a guest.

And so I don't know, is there a possibility that having an Iranian presence there upset him to the point where he's like, well, if Iran gets to be here, then Russia gets to be here too. I'm just putting that out there too. No way. He planned this long ago. And of course, this, no, guys, you're trying so hard. I'm not trying hard.

Not to see the obvious. I'm giving you the details. The Russians own him. I can't wait to have any kind of power where we can prove that out, okay? So you can't say based on this, obviously like, I'm not saying I can say it all day long. I'm not gonna put somebody in prison over our assumptions, no matter how obvious they might be. But will a goddamn prosecutor look into his business ties with Russia? What is wrong with you guys?

It's the most obvious thing in the world. And don't tell me they have, they've looked into it, because they haven't. Show me the case where they looked into it. You don't have it. You just go, oh, well, they look into it, so he must be guilty, he must be innocent. And if you're on the so-called left, and you keep insisting and screaming from the rooftop how innocent Donald Trump is, even though you know they haven't looked into his business size with Russia, what's your motivation?

And I think your motivation is that you're too, you dug a hole too deep, and you can't get out, so you've surrounded yourself with your own bias, and you're like, nope, nope, Nope, Trump was totally innocent on Russia, totally innocent. No, I don't want to see his business ties. I don't want to see the hundreds of millions of dollars he took. And I don't want to talk about whether he might be biased about money and his own personal interest. He is on everything else, but not this one.

On this one, he's pristine. Okay. Okay, well, have that it, Haas, make that argument and get mad at me, but you're wrong and I'm right. All right, I just want to note one other thing. For anyone who thinks that we are in this weird echo chamber where we never disagree with one another, here it is. But look, we agree largely when it comes to Trump's relationship with Russia.

I'm just saying in this particular context, he might have been motivated by other things. I'm just putting that out there. We've got to move on. I don't want you to get mad at me, Jake. Okay? All right. We'll be back. Thanks for listening to the full episode of the Young Turks.

Support our work. Listen, ad-free, access members-only bonus content, and more by subscribing to Apple Podcasts at apple. slash t yt i'm your host jank huger and i'll see you soon