The Young Turks - Jussie Smollett Indicted And 11-Year Old Arrested For Not Doing Pledge Of Allegiance

Episode Date: February 22, 2019

Actor Jussie Smollett has been arrested after police charged him with falsifying an alleged racial and homophobic attack. http://tyt.com/GETACCESS Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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We begin with stories that aren't strictly political, but are important to give you updates on, so let's get to that. Empire actor Jesse Smollett has been arrested, his bail set at $100,000. And this follows news that he actually staged the entire attack where he had alleged that two individuals who were Trump supporters had attacked him viciously. Now according to the New York Times and their reporting, Smollett was upset by his salary and seeking publicity. He staged a fake assault on himself a week after writing himself a threatening letter.

Now that threatening letter also included a powdery substance that was not harmful, didn't get any attention, and since it didn't get any attention, he allegedly hired two individuals to stage this attack. Now the staged assault was carried out by two brothers to whom the actor has paid $3,500 and that they have a copy of the check Smollett used to pay them. So they did provide evidence, and I'm glad that they kept that evidence. I wish they hadn't agreed to do this. But nonetheless, they provided that evidence to the authorities, and this is the reason why they

were let go, and Smollett was later arrested. Yeah, they're cooperating witnesses, so they're fine. So there's almost no question here. There's surveillance footage showing them taking a cap from the area of the reported assault the two brothers, police did a great job, they tracked the cab, they interviewed the driver, and the driver explained who the two customers were, and it was the two brothers. They then later flew to Nigeria, I don't know if they escaped in the country or laying low for a while, I don't know if they saw that in the movies or in a TV show.

What does that mean? You're gonna come back. They're gonna be able to interview you when you come back. Right, and then they were, but we don't know why they went to Nigeria, but they were arrested immediately upon arrival in Chicago. Yeah. And Jake, I actually want to go to the police superintendent in Chicago. He gave a press conference today, and I really liked a lot of what he had to say.

This is just a small snippet of it, though. Let's take a look. The Empire actor Jesse Smollett took advantage of the pain and anger of racism to promote his career. I'm left hanging my head and asking why. Why would anyone, especially an African-American man, use the symbolism of a noose to make false accusations? How could someone look at the hatred and suffering associated with that symbol and see an opportunity

to manipulate that symbol to further his own public profile? How can an individual who's been embraced by the city of Chicago turn around and slap everyone in this city in the face by making these false chalk claims. That was Superintendent Eddie Johnson. He also said, quote, I just wish that the families of gun violence in this city got this much attention. And I think that's a fair point to make. And look, obviously the worst part of all of this is that by staging this type of racial

attack, it makes people question or become way more skeptical of others who have legitimately been targets of hate crimes. Yeah. Well, I actually thought that he put it nearly perfectly when he said, take that symbol of hate and use it as an opportunity to manipulate that symbol to further his own public profile. It's about as gross as you can get. But beyond gross, illegal to do a false report to the police, maximum sentences three

years. Everybody's talking like he's not going to get any time. Probation is also possible. But I don't know why we're assuming that. I know he's a little famous, I guess more famous now or infamous, and a little wealthy, but I don't make that assumption at all. And I'll tell you this, if it was a white person who faked an attack by two black guys to get out of something or for whatever reason and said, oh, yeah, it's like, for example,

Black Lives Matter attacked me and they're terrible and you should be looking for black men in the, that would be awful, terrible, false crime, false allegation, and I would ask for jail time for that. I think, you know, I don't know what the right number is, six months, I have no idea. But if I want it in that case, I should want it in this case, and I do. So they'll have to prove it, he still claims that he didn't do it, but I mean, the evidence appears to be overwhelming. They also have him calling the brothers a little bit before the attack and a little bit

after the attack. Okay, so it's, come on, so can I just say, look, there's two elements of the story. One is what happened and then two is the media reaction, celebrity reaction, et cetera. I wanted to get to that actually. Yeah, so just last thing on why I was initially skeptical about it. And I thought Anna did a great job of covering it on the day that it happened. Before you get to your point, can I actually show the audience the way we covered it because oftentimes, look, we are very clear about where we stand on political

issues, but more importantly, we want to get to the bottom of the truth, even if it goes against our beliefs, right? The point is not to pass down some sort of agenda, the point is to tell the audience the truth. And for all the criticisms we get for race baiting, right? Hilarious. Right. I mean, the way we covered this story was the right way to cover it. And I'm not just saying that to toot my own horn, I know that everyone else in this network

would cover it the same way, we're not looking to push for a nonsense, you know, racial agenda. Again, we want to get to the truth. And this is how we covered it when the story first broke. And there was a tremendous amount of pressure to cover the story in the first place, even though we didn't have all the information yet. Take a look. An actor from the show, Empire was allegedly beaten. He was definitely beaten, but the story we're trying to get down to the details of it.

We'll give you what we have so far. It seems like it was a racially and sexual orientation motivated beatings. I just want to really emphasize that we don't know who the attackers are. We don't know whether or not those things were actually said or yelled out. There are some sources saying that. But as we know, whether these people are witnesses, I have no idea. We don't know who they are. And I'm always super hesitant to say like, yes, this was racially charged or yes, it was this,

or that. We don't know. We don't know at this moment. So that's, I think, the exact right way to cover it. And earlier in the week, I talked about it on air for the first time when, in expressing skepticism when it was warranted. At that point, we had new evidence showing that it likely was staged. And then last night when police finally arrested him, Ben and I talked about it at length on

old school, another program that we have. And look, why were we initially skeptical? I know why the right wing was initially skeptical. They're skeptical of every attack on a minority in this country. And of course, the reality is in overwhelming majority of times, 99% or higher. There's no hoax. There's no actor trying to get more attention. It's just a regular person who was attacked, and it's our job to seek justice in that situation.

But for the non right wingers, the reason we were skeptical is it was just too convenient. There was the noose which he kept around his neck and walked home with. There was the bleach, there was the attacking on him for his race and for his sexual orientation. Somehow these masked men knew him at two in the morning, had the bleach, had the noose with him, had all that, and on top of that said, this is Maga country. It's possible and different variations of that have happened throughout where there's one or two elements of a story like that. But man, he laid it on thick.

And so that's why we were skeptical. But now let's turn to the overall coverage of it and have people's reactions. Like a lot of people like the celebrities that tweeted on his behalf in the beginning. So Michael B. Jordan, Tracy Ellis Ross and so many others, they meant really well. Why would they question them? They're not experts on news. They don't know what a fake attack versus a real attack looks like. Someone they know, or even if they don't know him, who's someone in their profession says

I was viciously attacked, your natural instinct is empathy, right? And there's nothing wrong with that instinct. And at the time the police were backing out what Smollett had said. They had no reason to doubt him if they don't know, like if they don't track the news every single day to know what real attacks look like, right? And so Robin Roberts, she interviewed him. But before any story came out questioning his side of the story, there was a little bit of doubt but doubt from, again, dubious sources and the police were backing him up even

when Robin Roberts interviewed him on ABC and all the way throughout. And for all the insane people in the right wing who say, oh yeah, you see that, this proves that it's fake news. No, it proves the opposite. is if there was a conspiracy to blame Trump supporters for this attack, why did they break the conspiracy? Why did the news then turn around and say, no, it was fake and he's been arrested? That makes no sense at all.

No, they acted on the best information they had. And this is what's frustrating. Every day, because of the right wing in this country has lost its mind, we have to debate with borderline lunatics that thought, no, the press invented the story, they wanted to blame to Trump supporters, but you say, well, logically, then why would they then today turn around and say it was Smolett who did it, and it's his fault? And they go, I don't care about logic, fake news. I know.

No, they reported what they had then. They reported what they had in the middle, and now they're reporting what they have based on the information that is public and from the police itself. And they did the right thing. Yeah, I think there are a number of different things happening. In response to some on the right wing who think that there's some sort of conspiracy against them and all that. I think that right now, every political issue, every racial issue is one big game, where

you're on one of two teams. And you want to win at any and all costs. And unfortunately, while we play this game, we don't listen to one another, we continue to widen this giant divide that we're already dealing with. And I don't know what the solution is, because it feels like things keep getting worse. But we need to figure out a way to just calm down for a second and stop seeing things as my side versus their side. We need to get to the truth and we need to look out for one another as Americans.

Like we're so far removed from that, I don't know if we ever had that as a country. I know growing up when I was much more idealistic, I really did feel like we looked out for one another, but we don't do that anymore at all. So that's one thing. The second thing I want to talk about is just how, look, we need to, we need to, we need to calm down and just put our emotions aside, or at least suppress our emotions until we have more information about everything, right? So you're right in that people didn't have all the information yet, and then as soon as they

did get the right information, they made sure to update their stories, et cetera, et cetera. But there are some people that I feel on social media especially really played it up and got really emotional and really angry before we knew all the facts. No, but look, let me defend those folks even, okay? And now we're not talking about the media, we're not talking about the figures that we discussed before. I'm talking about people in the media, but I'm not specifically talking about journalists. I'm talking about, you know, pundits, things like that.

I'm not talking about strict journalists. But given the history of racism in this country, given and homophobia and given the attacks that are incredibly real and that have happened hundreds, thousands of times, when they believed that an attack like that had happened. And they would have no reason to doubt it. I mean, the cops are saying it happened at the time. Why would they doubt the cops randomly, right? I can understand why they're mad about the racism and the racist attacks and the homophobic

attacks. Now as it turned out in this case, this particular guy had made it up, it appears, but that doesn't negate any of the emotions that I think are real based on the facts of the attacks that have happened in the past. Yeah, look, the emotions are fine. I think the issue that I have is just assuming that it definitely happened the way that he alleges it happens, there's no questioning him, you shouldn't be skeptical. In fact, when we did- Oh, well, yeah, that I agree with, yes.

When we did the initial video, I'm gonna be honest with you guys about how it felt as I was commenting on it. I felt super uncomfortable commenting on it truthfully. I did comment on it truthfully, but I was worried that people are gonna start attacking me because they're gonna think, hey, she's being too skeptical of his accusations or his claims, oh, you should believe the victim. But I felt like that's an irresponsible thing to do. As someone who has a platform, it's my responsibility to let everyone know, hey, we don't

know all the facts yet, we need to wait, and then we can give you real commentary on this. But it's uncomfortable because people think, oh, no, no, no, she's denying that the victim is saying or that the victim really went through this. And the same thing happens with people who come forward with sexual assault allegations. Look, I think that you should take every sexual assault allegations seriously, but I do not agree that you believe that person right away at any and all costs no matter what, right? And you go back to our Kavanaugh coverage and you see when we began to believe Christine Blasey Ford, when we questioned the third person that came forward and the context and the facts

that we looked at to arrive at those conclusions rather than making knee-jerk decisions. So I know what the knee-jerk thing on the right wing is. Oh yeah, they never listened to any of the facts. They always believed the woman and they never believed the facts. It's just not true. You can look at all the videos that we've covered on all those different issues. Aziz Ansari is another example. But Anna's right, there are people on the left that say no, if the woman in the Azizansari

case says this happened, that's 100% and you are not allowed to question it. Sorry, we are allowed to question it, that's part of our jobs. And by the way, this also applies to the establishment. So we talked about the right way and the left wing. But the establishment will tell you when Mark Sanford, I don't know if you guys remember this story, he was the governor of South Carolina, went missing. And it was such a weird story. And then he put out a statement that he was on the Appalachian Trail.

And I came out on the show and I said, he is not. There's no way a governor goes missing because he decided to go camping on the Appalachian trail for a couple of days. That's not a thing that happens. No, he's doing something that he doesn't want people to find out about. And at the time, people were like, how dare you? This is a governor. You're accusing a governor of not telling the truth?

God damn right I am, okay? Because he, and then guess what? It turned out, of course he wasn't on the Appalachian Trail. He was having sex with his mistress down in Argentina, okay? And yes, we question governors and politicians, they're the first people you should question. So each category, whether it's right wing, left wing, or the establishment has their own sacred cows. But when you're covering the news, you can't have sacred cows, you have to actually look at the facts.

Look, I don't want this to come across as us, you know, gloating over the fact that I think that we covered it right all throughout, okay? I just want to say for the next time that it happens, just put aside for a second where you're from. That doesn't politically and ideologically. But that doesn't mean, in this case, coming back to Smollett, because he made it up that the rest of all the attacks that have happened in this country against black people and gay people aren't true.

If you think that, then you don't care about the facts at all. Don't pretend that you do. A self-proclaimed white nationalist just got arrested because he was going to terrorize, and he had stockpiled weapons and drugs and everything. He was going to terrorize left-wing politicians, including Blumenthal, who he referred to as Blumen Jew. Yeah, no, he was gonna murder those people. He was gonna murder people.

And this Smolet's story has gotten about a thousand times more coverage than the FBI arresting what they called a domestic terrorist who was going to murder politicians and journalists that he considered to be against Trump. Now is there an even playing field here in how we cover the stories? No. In fact, the media, I think, goes too much out of their ways. to appease the right wing and say, well, on the one hand, we have thousands of racist and bigoted and homophobic attacks.

On the other hand, we're gonna cover even more so, one case, one case of a guy who made it up, and then it appears, even if they're not trying to do that, and I don't think they're attempting to do it. But to the average viewer of the news, it looks like it's even, and maybe it's not even because the one case that was fake got so much more coverage than all the other cases that are true, and there's something deeply wrong with that. So I wish the news also would give better context in that case. But I'm gonna come all the way back around to Smollett himself.

He's done such tremendous damage. He allowed those now right wingers to go around and smear all other legitimate people who have been attacked, who have suffered, whether it was physical or not. And in his case, by the way, the brothers did punch him because he told them to, right? And he scratch his own face, it appears. That's why he was, it did appear actually beaten as the police originally reported, right? And for his own fame and glory, I guess, well, mission accomplished, you're now famous Smollett, he threw other African Americans and other gay Americans under the bus.

And I can't begin to describe to you how inexcusable that is. Let's take a break. When we come back, we will have a pretty hilarious interview with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. And also, um, an 11-year-old went to a juvenile detention center for refusing to stand for the Pledge of Allegiance. That story's got me livid. All right. We need to talk about a relatively new show called Un-Fing 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, aiming to challenge conventional and upend the historical narratives that were taught in school. For as the great philosopher Yoda once put it, you must have learned 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. Let's come back. All right, back on a young church, Jane Canana, with you guys. Guys, fun, great news. People are still giving the Amplify program and I want to give a shout out to them. And you can as well.

So Ido Rousseau and Chris Gamble give a generous donation at t.com slash media. So thank you for doing that and now we'll be able to get membership for more people in the media. And so we're gonna keep on going down that list so we don't talk about on the show because we don't take up too much show time doing it. I love that you guys are still participating in that. And by the way, the other day, Jake Tapper had a segment that was very, very similar to ours. And we know that people on his staff have redeemed Young Turks membership. What?

Yes. It was not all, it was every video and every order. But I'm not saying that to hate on him. I love that they did that. There's nothing wrong with that. No, no, that's great. That's great. Yeah.

And so look, so that amplified in a lot of ways totally worked. So you guys are amazing, again, Ido and Chris in this case, thank you in t-y-t.com slash media to make that happen. So I just wanted to show you the graphic to let you know what we're doing tomorrow or what I'm doing tomorrow for Wolfpack in the state of Washington. We're going at 1 o'clock, but we're meeting up a little bit earlier than that at the Senate, state senate. So make sure you get the email, email Washington at wolf dash pack.com so we can meet up.

up there. And there's a former just Democratic candidate that's also going to come, Sarah Smith, et cetera. Okay, and then today we have a member's only section of this program. So if you wanna watch the whole show, just one segment, but if you wanna watch the whole show, please become a member and you could do it for free as a trial at t.yt.com slash trial. So please check that out. And lastly, I wanted to point out that we are gonna cover the Bernie Sanders Town Hall on Monday. So we're gonna have play-by-play coverage.

and then analysis afterwards. So the coverage is available to everyone. So right here at t.com slash live, make sure that you're watching along with us on CNN will be a second screen for you guys to analyze it. Okay. Can I just jump in on that? It's unfortunate that the town hall is on CNN, but what Bernie Sanders has to say and the questions that he's going to be asked are important.

So I will, I warrant this, this is okay. Oh, okay, well, she's not merciful. But CNN is no longer used as a new source for any of our reporting. Okay, all right. Anna's still on that? I am on it until there are significant changes, including Zucker, hopefully at some point getting fired. All right, she's very clear on that.

Now we go to a couple of quick comments, all from our member section. Sergeant Gopher writes in, we should want jail time, especially in a case like this, discrediting instances of real racism and giving ammunition to the ignorant for your personal Promotion is unforgivable, not to mention the waste of public resources. Robert Strickland says, when he refused to let the police check his phone, that was a red flag for me. And IM SOX says all those right-wing people who have said the same thing regardless if Smollett set it up or not. So that's true, but now they feel empowered. Actually, I'm going to do one last one from Twitter.

Kato, not Kato, says, I was a little skeptical of Smollett's story myself because the attackers reportedly references Empire credit during the attack. Ain't no MAGA guys watch an empire. And also, look, not to, I'm not saying this to insult him, but there are a lot of actors and actresses out there, right? Many of whom are people of color or might have, you know, a non-heterosexual identity. Why out of all those people was small at the one that MAGA guys would target? It just seemed too weird. I know.

Like, oh, you're so important. I mean, it could be random. But the way he described it did not sound random that they were carrying around the noose, the bleach, and specifically targeted him. It could happen, but obviously less likely. Okay, let's go. All right. An 11-year-old in Tampa, Florida had been arrested for refusing to stand during the Pledge of Allegiance.

This is a sixth grader in a Tampa suburb, and apparently the sixth grader from the suburb allegedly told the substitute teacher the flag is racist. and the national anthem is offensive to black people. So he refused to stand. At that point, he gets into a verbal dispute with the substitute teacher, her name is Anna Alvarez. And in response, the teacher said she asked the student, why not go to another place to live if it was so bad here? She said that he answered, they brought me here. By the way, that is an amazing answer for an 11 year old.

It's like, I don't know, they brought me here, man, I don't know where I'm supposed to go. It's a great answer. The substitute teacher responded with, well, you can always go back because I came here from Cuba and the day I feel I'm not welcome here anymore, I would find another place to live. Total lie. Really, you're gonna go back to Cuba? No, you're not.

No way. She sounds like an obvious right winger, I'm sure despises the government of Cuba. The idea that she'd go back to Cuba is laughable. Well, to be fair, she says I'd find another place to live. She didn't specifically say Cuba. Where are you gonna go? Canada? No, I know, I know.

More left way. Look, first, before we go further with this story, let me be clear about something. The Supreme Court has ruled on whether or not students can be punished in any way for refusing to stand for the Pledge of Allegiance. I'm sure you would all be shocked to find that it's wrong and it's considered unconstitutional for teachers or administrators or staff to punish a student for refusing to stand. This is protected speech. I mean, this is the most obvious thing in the world.

So you want to know why Alvarez, the substitute teacher, called the police and she admits this. She admits this. Alvarez said she called the police because she did not want to keep dealing with him. Okay, let's stop right there. So she doesn't want to deal with him, so she wastes the police time, police's time, by calling them and having them show up, okay, they come and they show up, and this 11th grader gets upset.

And so he starts talking back to the cops, which as we've talked about on the show multiple times, the worst thing you can do is disrespect a police officer by talking back to him or her. And so what did the cops do? They arrested an 11 year old. And what was he charged with? Resisting an officer without violence. And disrupting a school function. But wait a minute, if it's okay to not stand for the flag and the teacher goes ballistic

over it, not the kid. The kid didn't do anything. He's always not stood for the flag, right? A substitute teacher comes in, causes a ruckus, and they go, okay, no, technically we're not arresting you for not standing for the flag, wink, by the way, it's not only unconstitutional, it's also against Florida law specifically and against the policy of that district. So for three different reasons, they have no right to disturb him. They go cause the problem in the first place, and when the kid goes, well, no, I don't

I don't want to leave the class, I have every right to stay in the class. They're like, how dare you? But wait a minute, I'm in the right, you're in the wrong, they're like, are you resisting arrest? But wait a minute, I'm being arrested. Well, I'm, okay, I guess I objected being arrested. That's it, that's resisting arrest without violence. What?

Well, what are you supposed to do when somebody is a teacher verbally accost you in a way that is completely wrong against policy, against law? and against the Constitution, and when the police come and try to arrest you for no reason at all, are you supposed to be happy about it? Are you supposed to be, oh, thank you so much for doing a false arrest? I really appreciate it. And an 11 year old is supposed to figure out- This is crazy. Even though he figured out everything correctly, he's right on the law, he's right on everything.

But they're like, but remember, you're supposed to also know that even though it's not on any textbook, it's not in any law book, that cops are never to be disagreed. with, otherwise they'll ruin your life. Because now, I mean, this is insane. They've been expung this arrest and go way beyond that. Maybe you should compensate him, et cetera. His constitutional rights have been violated. Conservatives, you should be with us on this.

You claim to love the Constitution. This is a clear violation of the Constitution. Where are the pretend First Amendment activists on the right? Yes. Yeah, where are they? Okay, the first, no, to a free new speech. When it's somebody saying racist something, the racist stuff, you're like, oh, freedom of speech, I need freedom of speech to hate people.

Now, when this is an actual adjudicated freedom of speech issue, where are you at? Where are you at? I don't see you, right? And then you got the Constitution overall in the Supreme Court interpretation. And then you've got, by the way, jackbooted thugs from the big government coming and interfering with your personal life and your personal rights. I mean, the conservatives should be all over supporting this young black kid. Yeah, right.

I haven't seen him yet. I haven't seen a single conservative supporting him, let alone being outraged by the case. Of course not. And stop criminalizing our kids. Look, I was a rebellious kid, so I did a thousand things wrong when I was a kid. And I mean, let alone the fights, now I'd be in maximum security, solitary confinement for the fights that I got into when I was a kid. But on this issue, I think there was at some point where I probably didn't stand for the pledge

for God knows why, because I was a rebellious kid and I probably found an excuse and that was based on principle or whatever, right? What, imagine if they had arrested me and that's it. And they're like, that's on your record for the rest of your life. Do you think I could have gotten into a good school? Probably not, right? So there goes that. I have no doubt that if you were a kid in school in this era, you would get arrested

at some point, for sure. Especially a Muslim kid, because at that when you were young, you were still practicing Muslim, right? I mean, we never practiced anything, but yes, technically I was Muslim, yes. I mean, you didn't eat, like, pork. Oh yeah, for a while, that's right, I didn't eat pork, that's right? Or drink, so like just imagine. I know, but I was a kid. Well, no, that's true, but for a little while when you were in college, you didn't drink,

right? Yeah, yeah, that's true, absolutely. But most importantly, if I was in a poor minority area and I had done the things I did in school, I'd have been in lockdown for a long, long time. And so that is a two-tier justice system, and it's unacceptable. So everybody should be on the kid's side, but now they're still having to go through this process. And the thing that I can't abide by, last thing is they're excuses.

And so they're saying, like when they say, no, no, it's okay because he was disrupting a school function, please stop lying, okay? And when they say, no, he was not arrested for refusing to participate in the pledge. But for causing a disturbance. But by definition, if someone doesn't participate in the teacher, he yells at him, they didn't cause a disturbance, the teacher did. Yes, yes. So you're just using it as an excuse to arrest the kid for not standing for the pledge.

Now the substitute teacher is no longer teaching in this district anymore, and the district says that they are going to take a good hard look at the way that they're training their educators, which I think is a good idea. But there should be some consequences for the teacher. I'm not saying like lock her up or anything crazy like that. Lock her up, lock her, no, no, you don't need to do that. But my point is, if you are an educator, you have a responsibility and an obligation to handle your classroom as an adult, not immediately call the cops and waste their time because

you don't want to deal with students anymore. And okay, you know what, final two points, because I don't want you to get mistaken here. Because the last we checked in on this story, the kid's still facing charges. That's crazy, totally, utterly unacceptable. And I want to go back to the teacher saying, you know, just go back. I was from Cuba, I could leave the country whenever I want if I don't like it here. So you could just go back. He's African American, where's he supposed to go?

I mean, to his point about they brought me here, well, how do you know which country he originally came? those countries back then. What a preposterous thing to say. What an incredibly thoughtless thing to say, and that's supposed to be the teacher. My God, this district has to make it right for this kid and this family immediately instead of pursuing charges, which is literally un-American. Let's move on to some other news.

Recently, former acting FBI director or deputy FBI director Andrew McCabe had released a book And in that book, he disclosed the fact that back in May of 2017, he had told the bipartisan group of lawmakers, the so-called gang of eight, that he had launched an investigation into Donald Trump and his relationship or alleged relationship with Russia. Now, Mike Pompeo, who is Donald Trump's current Secretary of State, knew about this. And he was asked about it during a recent interview. And I thought this was fantastic. Pay close attention to the way he doesn't really answer the question.

You were the acting CIA director at the time. Andrew McCabe also said that congressional leaders knew about this. Did you know about the counterintelligence investigation into the president? So, you know, I really, I've watched a little bit of it. I haven't probably followed this as close as you had. I've been a bit busy. I find it sad. Andrew McCabe had the IG from the organization he worked for forever, declare that he was

incredible. And I just, that's unfortunate. So I don't put a lot of stock into things Mr. McCabe said. My work at the CIA was always aimed at the singular purpose of keeping America safe. I don't talk about investigations that we did or did not do. You didn't answer the question, though. No, no, no, no. It was like, oh, circle, circle, circle, circle around it, the flag, circle around it. I'm not going to answer your question. Yeah, I've been busy. Oh, was the FBI investigating the president? I didn't know that. I was, I've been busy. And did he notify? The gang of eight, those are the senators and congressmen from the Republican and Democratic side.

Is that an interesting story? I missed it, right? I know. Come on, come on. You knew. You knew. He knows. He knows.

So May 2017, he's the CIA director. That's when the FBI launches the investigation. There's no question that the CIA director would normally know. That's why it's a good question to ask him. When he doesn't answer it, it's absolutely clear that he knew. Okay, so we have part two of this little question and answer session. Take a look. So you weren't aware of the counterintelligence investigation?

No, there's, I don't talk about ongoing investigations or the absence of ongoing investigations. For two years, I've protected that, and I'll protect it again today. I love it. Yeah, by the way, he started with, he said, so you didn't know about the investigation, he started for a second with no, and then he immediately like scrambled to, he was like, no, I mean, I can't comment on an investigation either way. I mean, it could be, could not be, I don't know, I'm not going to say anything. Yeah, because look, understand of course why he's doing that, because if Trump finds out

that his beloved Pompeo, his current secretary of state, and his buddy knew about the investigation in the Trump all along, and I guess didn't do anything about it, because Trump would think, well, you're the head of the CIA, why didn't you stop it? Right, you're exactly right. Remember. Head of the CIA, of course, can't do that. But Trump would think that. Trump would think that because he's a child, he doesn't know how government works, he doesn't

know what the rules are, he doesn't care about the rules. But remember, the most important thing to Trump, no matter what, is loyalty, even though he is unloyal to everyone who surrounds him, right? And so I, look, this is, I know that this is probably a flaw of mine and I accept it, okay? This is what I love. I love the drama. Like, I love, I enjoy watching the soap opera-like dynamics of Trump administration officials. I actually enjoy it, because here's the thing.

Mike Pompeo, you are not Smeagel, you are, what's the bad guy's name? Gollum. He's Gollum, right? He wants that power, precious, precious power. Why did anybody make her watch Lord of the Rings? I know, right? No, I'm obsessed with it. No, I'm obsessed with it.

I'm a little late, but still. No, he's so obsessed with the power, and so he's got to do all this, like, mental gymnastics and play all these games and try to, like, pretend like he's loyal to Trump, all for that power. Why? Why? What a miserable existence. Yeah. Well, if Pompeo said the truth, said, yeah, I was acting CIA director.

Of course I knew the FBI was investigating Donald Trump's connection to a foreign government. That's where the CIA would be relevant, right? And no, I didn't tell him all the details, because I'm not supposed to. The CIA director is not supposed to tell the president the details of what the FBI told us about the investigation of him, that would be crazy. And he would be right about that, and he would be fired immediately. And remember, the story we did about Dan Coates other day, so he's the director of national intelligence, Dan Coates is, and Trump is thinking of firing him because he didn't, he wasn't

loyal enough, he didn't lie for him in public congressional hearings, which would be illegal to do, right? He should have said that North Korea stopped all their missile programs, but they have haven't, that Iran is in violation of treaties, but they're not, okay? So he's like, he's so mad that Dan Coates did not commit a crime in front of Congress that he's thinking of firing him. And they say, when Coates gives the intelligence briefings in the morning, most important thing for the president, that he doesn't like to talk to Coates, he likes to talk to Pompeo.

So now if he found out his buddy Pompeo that he's been like, can you believe Coatsy over here? He won't even lie for me. That guy's not loyal. I don't like his disloyalty. And if he turned out if Pompeo knew about the investigation all along, they'd be like, Oh. Okay, as the Trump turns.

Oh, these are the days of our lives. And eventually, they might all wind up at general hospital. Too good, too good. All right, we gotta take a break. When we come back, America's power couple of corruption. 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.

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Okay. In crime rights in the member section, I'm a teacher. If I call the cops whenever a student annoyed me, I'd have to hire a secretary. So, Hollia writes, and they arrest the kid because he dared to know his rights, that's exactly right. As Zappa Hart on Twitter says, what happened to being sent to the principal? I know, right? That's what I think about in every one of these school stories. Yeah, if I got out of control, they sent me to the principal, okay?

I mean, I feel a little bad for the principal, I mean, I bet principals have been calling cops on kids too. Yeah. But I agree, that's the right way to do it. Yeah. Okay, so all right, let me thank one of our sponsors, NordVPN. So look, one of you guys talked about it yesterday in a tweet. Here's when the terrorist got caught yesterday, he had his, every website he ever went

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So NordvPN.com slash TYT or use a promo code, TYT. All right, thank you guys. All right, what's thanks, Anna? All right. Sorry, Cho or Chow? Chow. Okay, I keep mixing it up, sorry. Mitch McConnell, who is the Senate Majority Leader, is married to Elaine Chow.

She is the head of the Department of Transportation, otherwise known as Dot. Now, this marriage has brought up, in my opinion, what appears to be a huge conflict of interest because McConnell, who is from Kentucky, can very easily touch base with his own wife to get deals for the state of Kentucky. And through a Freedom of Information Act and through an investigation by an organization that cares very much about this type of corruption, we have found that it does appear that the Department of Transportation has favored Kentucky and its transportation projects over the projects of other states.

So we'll give you some examples. Chow has met at least 10 times with politicians and business leaders from Kentucky in response to request from McConnell's office. In some cases, those people later received what they were hoping for from Chow's department, including infrastructure grants, the designation of an interstate highway and assistance in getting state funds for a highway project. So there are a number of email exchanges that kind of bear this out that make this pretty obvious.

In one email, just days after Chao was sworn in, McConnell's state director emailed her lieutenant asking the secretary to meet with maritime industry lobbyist Jim Adams about proposed changes to buy American, higher American requirements for offshore drilling equipment. The lobbyists donated $1,500 to McConnell's 2014 reelection campaign. So there's all sorts of things going on. There's campaign contributions. the fact that there's this, you know, administration power couple situation happening. And what also really stood out to me, McConnell's been defending Trump pretty aggressively in

any and all cases. And remember, Congress is supposed to serve as a check and a balance to the executive branch. If you know your wife is part of the administration, is part of the executive branch, can Can you really effectively do your job in serving as a check to that power? That's interesting, getting your wife's husband, I mean your wife's boss fired in a sense, if it was to go all the way to prosecuting him in the Senate. Okay, I find this story cute, and I'll tell you why. It's old school corruption, and for the Trump administration, I know the bar's been really,

really lowered, but it just, it seems not as bad as the other ones. I'm keeping it real, okay? So the $1,500 is fairly low amount, but that one seems to be the worst because it's at least it's a donor, right? So it's a donor to Mitch McConnell, his wife Elaine Chow running the Department of Transportation goes and goes, what can I do to help your donor? But that's Washington 101, okay? And in terms of the other projects, they even have, in my mind, less clarity on the quid pro quo.

And so the Department of Transportation is going to do some projects in Kentucky. And Elaine Chow has two outs here. She's like, one, that's my home state. I'm going to favor it a little bit. And that's normal and that's what a lot of people do. You shouldn't, but okay. Number two, look, my husband happens to be the majority leader in the Senate. No matter who the majority leader was, and even if I wasn't related to them, that would

be a very important constituent that the executive branch would care about. That part is also true, okay? So they've got a lot of outs here. So this is, it's not great, but of the different Trump scandals, to me, there's a little bit lower on the list. Yeah, you know, the reason why I wanted to cover this isn't even about the quid pro quo component of it, although I, of course, I find that wrong. But you're right in that with all the corruption stories we cover, this is kind of further

down the food chain. What really did stand out to me though is how much this undermines the checks and balances that we're supposed to have. And also, if I remember correctly, and I do remember correctly, Mitch McConnell was in the room when Andrew McCabe announced to the gang of eight that he was going to launch that investigation on Trump and his potential ties with Russia. And so behind the scenes, okay, Mitch McConnell knows what's going on. He knows how much of a bad guy Trump is.

But publicly, he will do Trump's bidding. He will support Trump, he will defend Trump, he will do whatever it takes publicly. And so I think that conflict of interest there is really a huge problem because, look, we know that right now our democratic system of government is in jeopardy. There are all sorts of conflicts here, there's all sorts of corruption. But just on the very superficial level, there's supposed to be a system of checks and balances. And he is the Senate majority leader. How are you going to expect him to do his job properly if he has that huge conflict of interest

within the administration? Yeah, last two things on this is, look, American oversight did a good job. They got a freedom of information request, it's great investigation in that sense. And they got all these emails. But the reality is if Elaine Chao and Mitch McConnell were going to do something really corrupt, they wouldn't send an email about it, they'd live together. They could just talk to one another. So it's awfully hard to catch them on a big fish story by going to the emails of their underlings.

Oh man, what kind of conversations do you think they have? I don't even want to know. Gross. Okay, I don't want to know. And the last part of it is, look, I got a little house of cards here, right? Why is this smaller story coming out? Is it to deflect attention from what could be larger stories? And now this is a total speculation, okay?

The minute Elaine Chow was put in the office, there's a, first of all, let's just also acknowledge there's logic in it, right? She's worked in other administrations before. She's a well-known Republican right winger. She's married to the most important senator on the Republican side. Okay, keep it real, those are real considerations, right? But it's the Department of Transportation. Her family from Taiwan has a giant transportation business.

Yeah. I would keep the eye on that ball. I'm not saying they did anything wrong because we don't have any evidence of that yet. But that would be a much larger story. I like it. Let's keep an eye on that ball. Yes. Yeah.

Okay, we have to take another break. But when we come back, we are going to discuss the North Carolina election rigging story. I mean, you got some family betrayals going on, you got some testimony, we have some video. You don't want to miss that story. Wait, hold on, this is the, we're heading into the fourth segment. Okay, guys, this is the one that's for members only, but we're gonna come back after this segment and we've got more for you guys as well, including corruption on divorce and so many other, I'm telling you, it's corruption there, the Young Turks, but there's also a little

bit of hope as well. So stay right here. Members, make sure that you get the next segment, obviously. If you're not a member, t.yt.com slash trial. It's a free week trial to check it out. We'll be right back. Thanks for listening to the full episode of the Young Turks. Support our work. Listen ad free. Access members, only bonus content and more by subscribing to Apple Podcasts at apple.com slash tYT. I'm your host, Shank Huger, and I'll see you soon.