The Young Turks - Kavanaugh Accuser Speaks Out

Episode Date: September 18, 2018

Writer of Confidential Brett Kavanaugh Letter Speaks Out. Ready to get exclusive member benefits? http://tyt.com/GETACCESS 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. All right, well, I'm the Young Turks. Thank you, Granite, Kus, Paring with you guys tonight. Well, we've got a big show ahead for you guys. And obviously, lots of developments in the Kavanaugh story, which we're going to do in just a minute here.

We've got some of the first segment, some of the second segment, because it's a giant, giant story. Later on, if you follow us on YouTube, you might have seen my video raging about Jake Tapper segment on CNN, featuring Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. They aggressively challenged her, claiming that her programs cost too much. No, really. On cable news, they attacked the progressives saying that their ideas are not realistic and pragmatic. Why, I've never seen that before except every single segment done on cable news on all three stations for decade after decade after decade. Yeah, when it has to do with the progressive, all of a sudden, CNN very curious about detailed policy proposals. Yeah.

Oh, you'd like to cut taxes by trillions of dollars for the rich. You'd like to start wars and claim, as the Bush administration did, that the Iraq war would cost $1.7 billion, not trillion, billion dollars. Nah, okay. Anyway, so there was, what he did was terribly misleading at best, and I think there was, in reality, a big lie in that segment. And so I want to expose what that is. That's going to be a little bit later in the program after we get through the Kavanaugh stories,

and I don't want you to miss that. Well, there's a ton of news today, so let's get going. All right. Over the weekend, the anonymous woman who had made sexual assault allegations against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh decided to reveal her identity and give specific details about what she says happened back in the 1980s when he allegedly sexually assaulted her. Her name is Christine Blazy Ford, and she is a psychology professor in Northern California.

And she spoke with Emma Brown of the Washington Post and did give some specific details that I want to share with you. She claims that at the time, even though she doesn't remember the exact date, Kavanaugh was 17 years old and she believed she was 15 years old. Now, on the summer, or I'm sorry, one summer in the early 1980s, Kavanaugh and a friend both stumbling drunk corralled Ford into a bedroom during a gathering of teenagers at a house in Montgomery County. She was quoted as saying that while his friend watched Kavanaugh pinned her to a bed on her back and groped her over her clothes, grinding his body against hers, and clumsily attempting to pull off her one-piece bathing suit and the clothing she wore over it. When she tried to scream, he put his hand over her mouth. So at that point, she says that she feared for her life. In fact, she was quoted as saying, I thought he might inadvertently kill me. It wasn't until the other person in the room, Kavanaugh's friend, Mark Judge, it wasn't until

he got involved that she was able to escape. Kavanaugh's friend and classmate at Georgetown Prep School, Mark Judge, jumped on top of them, sending all three tumbling. Ford ran from the room, briefly locked herself in a bathroom, and then fled the house. So there are important pieces of, in my opinion, evidence that really help reinforce her And we'll get to that in just a minute. But, Jank, I'd like you to jump in. So one thing I want to be clear about in terms of the friend, Judge, and his role in it,

he earlier had put out a statement saying, I have no recollection of that, which I found to be inconclusive to say the least, usually saying I have no recollection of that means, well, do you have the evidence yet or don't you? But now he's much clear on the record. He says, it's just absolutely nuts. I never saw Brett act that way. He described Kavanaugh as a brilliant student and not, quote, not into anything crazy or illegal. Now, there's lots of talk by judge who later went into rehab.

In fact, wrote a book about his travails with drinking. Lots of talk in his book about that. And there's even a guy who appears to be Kavanaugh in the book. They used a very slight pseudonym for him. It was literally, his last name was literally O. Kavanaugh. Yeah, that's the smallest pseudonym you could do. Anyway, apparently they were both training heavily that summer. You'd do without what you will.

And I want everybody to be super clear. Nobody's judging Kavanaugh for drinking too much when he was in high school. That's not remotely the issue. The issue is what he did that day, okay? And so, on the other hand, as even Maggie Kelly pointed out, if she's making up the story, why would she put a friend of his in the room, which would only corroborate his story if they remain friends? So it's not the type of thing that you would do if you, I don't think, if you were making

up a story. And now, look, if we're going to get into it, you have, like, there's a lot of Republican chatter about how this is an 11th hour move by the Democrats, like at the last minute. Okay, but to me, that's irrelevant. The only question is, is it true or is it not true? So should they have released it earlier? Well, Diane Feinstein was apparently trying to keep her identity secret because she didn't want it coming out. Now it's too late for that.

And so maybe it would have never come out if it wasn't for some of the other Democratic senators, et cetera. But that explains the 11th hour thing. It doesn't go towards whether it's true or not. So that's what we have to try to judge here. And you might come to a conclusion that's inconclusive, right? You might say, hey, it's 35 years ago. They both have spotty memories. One side was heavily drinking, et cetera, et cetera.

But I think that's the question. In the very beginning, when this story first broke, we asked the question of, whoa, if it's back in high school, it's got to be a pretty high bar to have this effect a nomination. Well, attempted rape has met that bar. Exactly. So there are things that we've learned about Ford's past that I think are very relevant in reinforcing her story. So one of the main things that an accuser gets asked is whether or not he or she spoke to

someone in their personal life about the attempted sexual misconduct or alleged sexual misconduct. And she hadn't spoken to anyone in her personal life. However, she and her husband did go to couples therapy in 2012 where she opened up to a therapist about this. So let me give you the details on that. Ford said she told no one of the incident in any detail until 2012. Again, 2012, that's an important year, remember that, when she was in couples therapy with

her husband. The therapist notes do not mention Kavanaugh's name, but say she was attacked by students from an elitist boy school who went on to become highly respected and high-ranking members of society in Washington. So she did, it's on the record, it's in the therapist's notes, which were shared with the Washington Post. But there's more. Notes from an individual therapy session the following year, show Ford described a rape attempt in her late teens. Then there's the third piece of, in my opinion, evidence in this case. So one of the things that she did, Ford did,

when this was all happening back in July, and we had no idea about it, was she approached Washington lawyer Deborah Katz. She told her about these allegations. And so, So Katz responded with, everyone's going to think you're lying. And so to deal with that inevitable outcome ahead of time, Ford agreed to do a polygraph test. And so she took a lie detector test and she passed. And so that is an important piece of evidence as well. However, Brett Kavanaugh is aggressively denying these allegations. When the allegations first came up with no details included. He said, I categorically and unequivocally deny this allegation. I did not do this back in high school or at any time. And he was even asked about this by Senator

Hirono from Hawaii. And here's what he had to say. Since you became a legal adult, have you ever made unwanted requests for sexual favors or committed any verbal or physical harassment or assault of a sexual nature? No. Have you ever faced discipline, or entered into a settlement related to this kind of conduct. No. So he has been denying all these allegations. There were other statements of denial that came out after this. But we'll see how this plays out.

Right now you have Democrats and even some Republicans calling for a postponement of the Senate judiciary vote on Kavanaugh. They were set to vote on his confirmation this week on September 20th. But that is now in jeopardy considering the detailed allegations that came out over the weekend. So Ford had married her husband in 2002. And early in their relationship, she told him she'd been a victim of physical abuse. And that was 10 years before they went to couples therapy. And the therapist noted it in their records.

Now, there is something in there that cuts in two directions. One is the obvious one. she's not, she didn't go to the therapist the other day after Kavanaugh was appointed to be a Supreme Court justice and they're going through the confirmation hearings and she says all of a sudden, hey, I remember Kavanaugh, right? No, this is back in 2012 and 2013 that it's in the therapist notes. Now, the thing that comes to the other direction is at the time, he was already a high-ranking judge and she was aware, according to the people, including her ex-husband, that

that he could be nominated for a higher position. Okay, so then think about that for a second, though. In order for you to, there's two possibilities if you're in the camp of Kamenaw didn't do it. First of all, you should check yourself as to why you're in that camp. Are you in that camp because you're positive about the details of this story? Or you like his policy positions and hence think, well, I'm going to tilt things in his direction, okay? Because I ask myself that all the time. I've been asking him for the last three days as we've been coming.

covering this story about, wait, who do I believe and why do I believe them, right? So you would have to think that either she was telling the truth, she just had the wrong guy and it's 35 years ago and it was O'Kavanaugh or O'Connor, I don't know, right? But that's, look, it's 35 years ago, it was in high school, it is some possibility. You could be in that camp, right? You could be in the camp that she's, it's not a thing you could fudge, right? It's not a thing that's miscommunication. So now, I don't want people to misunderstand this as I talk about it.

So if it was a date rape situation, it would be just as bad. The butt in that is there would be more room for miscommunication 35 years later. I thought he meant this and I thought she meant that. That is not the situation here. She describes that they don't know each other except that they're at this party and Kavanaugh and Judge are drinking upstairs. And at some point, and she's vague on the details, because it was a long time ago and just consider all the factors here, right?

She doesn't remember how she got home, et cetera. But she says, she clearly remembers they pulled her into a room. It was basically an abduction within the party. So it leaves less room for I thought she meant this and I thought he meant that. So this is a stark case here. So then you have to think she made it up because it's not a miscommunication. It's not a, he said, she said in terms of how did that particular night go, how did that particular day go, how did that date go, okay?

So this is, no, they pulled me in the room, he pinned me down, and then covered my mouth when I started screaming, okay, so now back to the therapist, 2012, 23rd, do you think she's a respected professor in her field in psychology? She is at Palo Alto College, I believe. They do work with Stanford, et cetera, well respected, right? She's 51 years old. Do you think, so I guess six years ago, she would have been 45, a 45 year old is going to go into a couple's therapy session about her marriage and in that kind of setting

is going to set up a lie just in case this Kavanaugh guy winds up being confirmed because she doesn't come forward then, she's not worried about his federal judge positions at that point, it's going to set up a lie that might come into place six years, 12 years later in the middle of her couple's therapy trying to save her marriage. I mean, and if she were to do that, wouldn't she just name him rather than, you know, using a description? And by the way, the polygraph test is important. The lie detector test is important.

And she is willing, based on what her lawyer says, to testify before senators, to answer any questions that they may have. Brett Kavanaugh responded by saying that he would also testify. These are all important details. And look, I don't know what the truth is. We don't know without a shadow of a doubt what the truth is. We're not investigating this case. We just know the details that have been reported that have been made public. But what I'm calling for and what I think is a reasonable request is to postpone this vote so a real investigation can take place. because, look, anyone else who's applying for any job, any average American applied for any average job, would have to deal with some sort of an investigation if these types of allegations

were lodged against them. Or they wouldn't even have a chance at getting that job. But this is a possible Supreme Court justice. He should be held to a higher standard because he is going to make decisions that impact our lives. And so I think it makes all the sense in the world to not rush through a vote so Republicans can have their political win. Let's take politics out of it for a second and actually look into these allegations to see if there's any truth behind them. And she has throughout all the therapist notes, et cetera, and the discussions she had in the past referred to it as a rape attempt.

So it's not a scandalous thing she made up today to make it sound worse. No, that's how she's always described it. And she said that it traumatized her for years on end, her relationship. And that's why it came up in the therapy sessions, her relationship with other men, et cetera. She also went on to say that if judge hadn't jumped on top of there, we don't know what his motivations were, and they're both apparently, as she describes it, incredibly drunk. But if he hadn't done that and she hadn't then gotten loose, she was worried he might have inadvertently killed her.

And that's how serious it was. And by the way, how does she get away? This part, at least in her account is clear. She ran, as soon as they fell off the bed, she immediately ran into a bathroom and locked it and would not come out until she heard them stumbling down the stairs. Then she unlocked the door and ran out of the house, okay? So it is, the description of the event is very stark. So you have to believe that she made all that up six years ago to try to frame Kavanaugh today.

That's a hell of a thing to do. So, and look, let me just touch on the politics real quick. It's, if you think she made it up, then you think it's because of politics. And now, of course, the smears have already begun. And, like, legitimate things to talk about. Is she a Democrat? Is she a Republican? For example, Roy Moore's accusers were Republicans.

So in a sense, they had more credibility because they had no political dog in the fight to begin with, right? I get it. And the professor here has given small amounts of Democrats, before, it's not some big donor or anything like that, but okay, you can take that into account. So if you think she's lying, you think it's because of politics, and I get that this would delay it. And if it's delayed or if Kavanaugh has to withdraw, they will not be able to get a new nominee before the elections. And as things stand today, and this is not what the Democrats

expected, but as it turns out, there's a poll out today saying Democrats are leading in Arizona and Tennessee and Senate races that were expected to go to Republicans, which would, flip the Senate, which could affect Kavanaugh or the next judge's appointment. Obviously, remember what happened with Merrick Garland and how the Republicans blocked it for an enormous period of time. So there are those political forces at play. So if I thought it's something that's made up, I'd say, look, you got to keep it real. That's a consideration here.

Would the Republicans do something like that? Well, I would be skeptical, right? I'd look into it pretty closely given how much this might affect the overall seat, the Supreme Court seat. But given her story, it would be extraordinary, extraordinary if she was making it up. I mean, that would be foresight and political calculation in a field that she is not in at all in the midst of the toughest times in her life. That would be borderline shocking.

And she's already passed the polygraph test. But it looks like they're both going to go and testify, so we'll have more information. So should they delay these proceedings? Absolutely. Absolutely. And I'm telling you that not because, ha, ha, I want to delay it because of political reasons. I just explained it to you so you can make up your own mind as to what you think the political calculations are. So irrespective of that, you can't, or because of that, hey, the Democrats might be able to delay if they win the Senate, et cetera.

I'm just going to push this guy through, even though he might have done an attempt to rape at some point. It's not a sentence you want to speak. And to be fair to the Republicans, a number of them, not all of them, not most of them, but a couple of them have now come out and said, no, we got to hear them out. And we especially have to hear her out. So that's good. And of course, Democrats agree.

There's one final part of this that I want to touch on. And it has to do with what you had referenced earlier, Jank, about the book that Mark Judge had written. So Mark Judge had to go to rehab for alcoholism, and he had written about that in his book and, you know, wrote extensively about his experience, drinking when he was much younger. And Deborah Katz, who is the lawyer for Ford, touched on the fact that Judge had denied these accusations, but also talked about how certain things are now missing. They've been scrubbed from the record, either on social media or otherwise. pertaining to Mark and what he had said, Mark Judge and what he had said about his lifestyle

and Kavanaugh's lifestyle earlier. So I want to give you that video so you can see what, you know, she has to say about it. Take a look. The other person who was in the room, a man by the name of Mark Judge, according to your client, says, this didn't happen. He said it's just nuts. This didn't happen. Your response?

Well, he's also written three books and many, many articles and Twitter posts that have all now been completely scrubbed from the public domain, where he acknowledges that that was behavior that from his Georgetown prep school days, that they routinely engaged in tremendous drinking and really inappropriate behavior, and that the drinking was so severe that they were blacked out regularly. That's now been scrubbed. I think that's relevant. I mean, why are you scrubbing those things if you have nothing to hide? So we'll see if people can find that. You can't really erase anything on the internet, so we'll see if they find those.

And it might be just personally embarrassing things to him that he didn't expect that the whole world's going to be looking at him. We don't know if it's necessarily related to Kavanaugh, but obviously erasing things at the 11th hour is relevant. And another thing that's relevant here, and by the way, if you care about Ford's politics, then you should care about Mike Judge's politics. Because, you know, if you think, hey, well, if she's a Democrat, that might influence her to lie. Well, Mike Judge is a Republican and has written for the daily caller, the weekly standard, and obviously is friends with Kavanaugh. So keep that in mind as well. So last thing from my perspective on this is, remember, Ford did not want to come forward. And she went on to say through her attorneys that she was actually thankful to find out.

That was a conversation we had on Friday. Did Feinstein cover this up because she thought it wasn't, not a big deal, but that, hey, it's not right to bring up accusations from high school or it won't play well politically. We were having that conversation. Well, it appears that question has been settled to some degree because Ford and her lawyer are saying, no, no, no, Feinstein was trying to do right by us. We didn't want to come out because we knew we would be viciously attacked, right or wrong, and that those smears have begun.

So I told you the tip of the iceberg on things that aren't, aren't even smears. They're just about her voting record, et cetera. But questioning her credibility, et cetera, has also begun today. And apparently Ford explained to the Washington Post, these are all the ills I was trying to avoid. Now, now that she's been exposed because BuzzFeed reporters had gone in and other reporters had started calling all of her friends, she knew that they were going to, they already knew who she was and it was going to get revealed.

She says, now I feel like my civic responsibility is outweighing my anguish and terror about retaliation. So keep that in mind, too. So if this was a plant from back in 2012, why did she feel this anxiety about the anguish and terror of having to come forward? So much so that she didn't come forward. She went to her congresswoman, she went to Feinstein, she remained anonymous with the press, but she didn't want to name herself and go through all this stuff because she knows what the right-wing attack machine looks like. And she's been forced into the spotlight now because of reporters uncovering who she is.

Well, that's also relevant. If it was a trap, why wouldn't you come out immediately and say, yeah, got you, right? Yeah. So there's a lot of evidence for the moment being in the public record that seems to indicate that she's telling the truth. It's certainly, she certainly, in my estimation, thinks she's telling the truth, and there's good evidence to back her up. I guess the last thing that those guys would hang their hat on is maybe she had the wrong

guy, but she seems pretty clear on who it was. Yeah. By the way, Mike Judge also does not deny that Kavanaugh was there. He just says none of this ever happened. Right, exactly. All right, we're going to take a break, but when we come back, we're going to give you some of the smear campaigning that's coming from Republicans. We're also going to give some credit to Republican senators who are saying, let's pump the brakes and postpone this vote before

we make a mistake. So come right back. I'll tell you who those people are. All right, back on a young Turks. First YouTube super chat, Alex Cruz says, I can't remember the last time the GOP put ethics before party. They'll push him through because of an agenda. I don't care about rape. I mean, look at the president. Right. Well, except Donald Trump has misplayed this a little bit, to say the least, because now the two senators were about to tell you the second that are not saying let's go forward no matter

what are Flake and Corker, who the president has pissed off over and over and over again. So now they're like, delay, right? So told you, he's totally incompetent. Do you think for, I mean, we're going to have a longer discussion about this later, but with Corker and Flake, do you really think that their calls to postpone the vote is political or? I, no, I mean, is it relevant that they hate Trump and Trump has attacked them over and over? I think it is. Yeah, I think it's relevant. Yeah. Would they have pushed forward with the Republican agenda otherwise?

Maybe. So, okay, we'll talk about that again, like you said in a sec. Samuel Vimesis writes in on YouTube super chat. Brock Turner on Trump's SCOTUS list as well, referring to the Stanford student, of course, and it committed to rape. Fantorang says Kavanaugh is a liar just as everyone else around Trump and Trump himself. Well, Kavanaugh has been caught lying a couple of times already in the testimony. So now I'm going to go to the member's comments.

Stephen Manky says, really the scary thing is to think of how common the Kavanaugh situation is given how reluctant most girls are to come forward for understandable reasons. Think about all the people who have not come forward. It's a good point by Stephen. Michelle was an excellent point in the member section. She said, I am furious with the Kavanaugh situation. I'm so disgusted with the gender bias inherent in the story. Boys being intoxicated equals being less responsible for their actions.

A girl being intoxicated, she becomes responsible. for not only her actions, but the actions of someone violating her. That's right. That's a great point, Michelle. That always happens, always. Yes, thank you for writing that in. And now I'm going to tell you about membership, so let me just start by giving you one quote here.

Alan today writes in from members section. I just became a member after listening for free for a couple of years, and I absolutely love all of the content. I can't believe how much you get for only five bucks a month. It's more than worth it. Thanks to everything you guys do. Thank you, Alan. We appreciate it. Thank you for signing up, too. And we do think it's a bit like progressive Netflix.

You've got more than a dozen shows that you could watch and listen to. So one of the questions you guys have been asking about is, hey, what happened to the investment money? So I want to just address that real quick here for a second. First, since we're doing the membership drive, let's take a look at where we are. Remember, we started right after Labor Day at 27,661. It's at t-y-t.com slash join to become a member. Let's see where we are today. 31,405.

So that is great, great beginning to this drive. We've got to keep that going. We're calling it be on the left side of history and help us build a home of progressives. So that naturally leads to questions that are understandable. Hey, guys, you got investment money back in 2017. It was $20 million, so, you know, what did you guys do with it? Okay, now, let's just acknowledge no other company would ever tell you. Okay, that's a state secret.

No, it's, et cetera, et cetera. Can I tell you all the details? Of course not. I can't tell you people's salaries. There are privacy concerns, et cetera, et cetera. But I will share with you guys more than almost anyone else will. And the first part of it is that you have to understand. And we get really in the inside baseball here.

but because we really, your trust is super important to us. And I think we've earned it over the last 16 years, but it's partly by being honest like this and telling you how things work, right, when you ask. So investment does not equal revenue. In order to be a sustainable business, your revenues have to equal your costs and hopefully be a little above them, okay? So when you take investment money in, that doesn't mean that you have become sustainable or that you can go to the Bahamas.

That's not how it works. The way it works is you take the money in and you put it into infrastructure, into building a company that can then become sustainable and hopefully profitable, okay? So what does that mean? Well, there's mundane things like HR and finance, and you guys might think, well, I ain't got none to do with finance. Okay, yeah, that doesn't help me. That's not an extra show. You're right, but a company needs that. There's no way around that.

And so that is a little bit of what the money went into. The other things are things that we've been dying to give you guys for all these years. Look at all the new wonderful apps that we have on Android's and iOS, et cetera. The new websites launched. That takes engineers. I know that Donald Trump thinks engineers are weak, but we happen to think they're strong. And we've got a good team of engineers now and product guys, et cetera, so that we can give you all the products so that you can easily watch and consume the shows that we've been giving you. The other part of it, of course, is the shows themselves.

So there's a whole bunch of new shows, partly because we're now up on skinny bundles like YouTube TV, and there are more to come, partly because we wanted to give you guys those shows as podcasts, et cetera. So Anna's got a new show, no filter. John is got John Iderola's a new show. Damage Report, reasonably sure by Michael Shore. You know aggressive progressive has been around a while, but also to maintain that and bring on the Jimmy Door Show as a podcast, etc. All that requires producers, editors, graphics

people, stage crew, let alone the hosts. So obviously those are all expenses. That's what you build. You build what we call the home of progressives. And I think it's fair to characterize it as I just did a little while ago as a progressive Netflix. Then you have to make revenue to try to make sure that you cover your costs. So there's still a ton of people that work here. and rent, et cetera. For some of you, this is obvious, it's super obvious. But for others, I want to make sure that you understand how it works. So why are we doing the membership drive?

Because that's revenue, that actually makes you sustainable. And this is really important, guys. It's revenue that comes from you guys, so we have to serve you. I've said this from day one. I want to align our financial incentives with what you guys want. If it's aligned with what other people want, and I get it, look, sales is still a huge part of the industry, and to some degree it has to be, that aligns you with advertisers, okay? And then there are other interests and that aligns you with other people.

I would rather be aligned to you guys. So if we build those 100,000 members, we are rock, and they will not be able to move us. There is no pressure in the world that can move this show and this network if we're at 100,000 members. So that's what I mean by building the home of progressives together, because that's what makes us sustainable going into the future. And so I'll end on a fun note here. My daughter was just graduating preschool. That's apparently a thing now, graduating preschool.

I'm like, well, I don't think I want to over congratulate her on that. But anyway, they sing a song, and it's called The Wise Man Built His House. And it goes, The Wise Man Built His House upon the Rock, and every time she goes like this, She's five years old. Built it upon the rock. Apparently, that means really stable. Oh, the rain came down. I'm not going to read the whole song to you, but the floods came up and the wise man's

house stood firm. And then they rub it into the foolish man. They say, the foolish man built his house upon the sand. The rain came tumbling down. The floods came up and the foolish man's house went splat. I saw it. The point being, guys, is that I hope we're being the wise man by building it upon your rock. And I know you guys, and I know that you want a really, really progressive show on a network.

And unfortunately, that one outside of us does not exist now. And without us probably would not exist for quite some time. If you're happy with lukewarm Democrat talk, there is some alternatives out there for you guys. But you want real strong progressives that are going to fight back and that are going to fight for you. This is how you build it. So I hope you guys can participate, t-y-t.com slash join. Thank you. All right.

We have more Kavanaugh news for you, including a story that just broke. So let's get to it. The Senate Judiciary Committee has let everyone know that there will be a hearing on the Kavanaugh allegations on Monday, next Monday. And that is important. We don't know details about whether or not Kavanaugh is going to testify or Ford's going to testify. But we do know that both parties have agreed to answer any questions that the Senate Judiciary Committee might have about these attempted rape allegations that Ford has accused Kavanaugh of. And this is important because remember, the judiciary committee was set to vote on Kavanaugh's confirmation this week on September 20th. But it appears that there will be a delay in that vote so they can make way for this hearing, which will take place a week from now.

Now, there were some Republican senators who did call for a delay, and I want to give them some credit. First, there was Senator Jeff Flake of Arizona, and then Bob Corker of Tennessee. Both Republicans who are retiring at the end of their terms joined Democrats in urging a delay in the vote until the committee hears from Ford. The panel was scheduled to vote on Thursday afternoon on Kavanaugh's nomination, and as I mentioned, It doesn't appear that that will happen now that there will be a hearing next Monday. Jeff, go ahead.

Yeah, a couple of things here, guys. One is a flake is on the Judiciary Committee. So without him, they could not have gone forward anyway. If he voted to not confirm or to not wrap up the proceedings, the Republicans had no choice. And he clearly indicated that he would not go forward. So now that Flake came out, let alone Corcorate, if they lose Flake and Corcoran the overall vote, let alone Murkowski and Collins, they're toast. He won't even get confirmed.

So now that they realize they can't just push this through as they were originally planning, then that's why the hearings begin on Monday, because they're like, okay, well, then we got to hurry. Because if it lasts any longer, we might not make it before the midterm elections. So now that the couple of Republicans have forced their hand, the rest of the Republicans to the Republicans are going, okay, then let's go, let's go, let's get him in right now, right now. Get Kevin on, get her in, and let's try to wrap this thing up. That's what you're seeing today.

Exactly. So, to give you Flake's statement, he said, I've made it clear that I'm not comfortable moving ahead with the vote on Thursday if we have not heard her side of the story or explored this further. He continues to say, for me, we can't vote until we hear more. And as Jenk pointed, he is a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, so it is important to have him on board. Also, you know, keep in mind that Flake, just to be fair and full disclosure, he has been

a vocal opponent and critic of Donald Trump, so that might be relevant to you. I want to make sure you know about that. Also, Bob Corker said the following, a delay would be best for all involved, including the nominee. If she does want to be heard, she should do so promptly. And if she does participate in this hearing next Monday, then it would be pretty prompt. So we'll see. Again, we don't know for sure whether or not she's agreed to testifying on Monday.

So Senator Collins is theoretically pro-choice. So she has to pretend that somehow Kavanaugh is not going to vote with the pro-life position, which he probably will. And he's voted against abortion rights in the past as a judge. So, but even for those who are pro-life, Corker, Flake, etc., well, they've got to It would have been interesting to see what they would have done if they didn't hate Trump, okay, and if Trump had not attacked them over and over again. Because all the other Republicans stood firm.

Let's go, let's go, let's go, let's get Kavanaugh in. Because we really need a pro, in their view, a pro-life justice, right? So we got to, and they keep giving Trump credit because he got Gorsuch confirmed. They say that's one of the best moments of his presidency. I happen to think it's not that hard to get somebody confirmed. All you're going to do is pick a Republican when the Republicans are in charge and just make sure that they didn't commit attempted rape earlier. Oops, Trump couldn't even meet that bar. Anyway, we'll see how it winds up.

But now, given how much Trump has antagonized Flake and Corker, when you get to what they consider to be a close call because they do really want a pro-life justice on the Supreme Court, they go, nope, let's hear her out. Yeah. So that's Trump screwing himself by being, as usual, over the top, antagonistic to people he might need later. It's because he has no sense of politics or decorum or basically getting anything done. Right. But also consider that even if Flake and Corker are vocal opponents or critics of Donald Trump, they have voted along with his policy proposals and basically do what he wants.

But in this case, they're speaking out. And I still commend them for it, regardless of what their intentions are. I think that they're still doing the right thing. By the way, Senators Murkowski and Collins also released a statement about this. Murkowski saying, I think that might be something they might have to consider, meaning postponing the vote, at least having that discussion. This is not something that came up during the hearings. The hearings are now over.

And if there is real substance to this, it demands a response. that may be something the committee needs to look into. And Collins also said, I want to have both individuals come before the Senate Judiciary Committee to testify under oath. Both individuals have agreed to do that. It just remains to be seen whether or not they're planning on doing it this coming Monday. So those comments were before the news broke just a little while ago that the hearings are going to pick back up next Monday.

But it's because of those comments that that happened. Exactly. And then one more from Orrin Hatch, who is firmly on Kavanaugh's side and says he believes him. But he says, if that were true, Ford's allegations, I think it would be hard for senators not to consider who he is today. We need to talk about a relatively new show called Un-F-The Republic or UNFTR. As a young Turks fan, you already know that the government, the media, and corporations are constantly peddling lies that serve the interests of the rich and powerful. But now there's a podcast dedicated to unraveling those lies, debunking the conventional wisdom. In each episode of Un-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 UNFTRTR podcast takes a sledgehammer to what you thought you'd, 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 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. So even Hatch saying, well, if it's true, that's not good news. Right. And Hatch so far has been defending Kavanaugh pretty aggressively. Yes, very much so.

One other part of the story that is, in my opinion, important. Last Friday, there was a letter released that was signed by about 65 women who know Kavanaugh, who have known him throughout the years, and who supported Kavanaugh and his character. They were vouching for him. Well, today, there are individuals who have known the accuser, Christine Ford, and they are sticking by her side, and they have some allegations of their own that I think are interesting, in regard to Kavanaugh, but I do want you to hear their statements. Now, this letter that was signed by women who have gone to school with Ford's say the following. We believe Dr. Blazy Ford

and are grateful that she came forward to tell her story. It demands a thorough and independent investigation before the Senate can reasonably vote on Brett Kavanaugh's nomination to a lifetime seat on the nation's highest court. This is the part that stood out to me. They also write, many of us are survivors ourselves, the letter had received three dozen additional signatures as of Monday morning. Just to be absolutely clear, they're not referring to Kavanaugh and specific in being survivors. So this is partly to counter the Republicans letter that came out a day after the allegations

where they had 65 women, and by the way, I should correct the record on this. When we were discussing it, I said, I thought those were women that knew Kavanaugh all throughout his career? No, those are 65 women that knew him back in high school till now, spanning that 35 years. So they did all know him from high school. They apparently got, the Republicans claim they got that, those signatures within 24 hours. That seems totally unbelievable. So, and I think Anna made a terrific point about that on Friday. So how did the Republicans get this letter all ready to go to defend Kavanaugh? They didn't know about the charges. Now, a lot of people have made that point, but Anna added on top, remember when Mitch McConnell

warned Trump, don't pick him, don't pick him, and he said it was because there was too much of a document trail. Too many documents? That's what Mitch McConnell was worried about? Yeah. Perhaps there were some Republican senators who already knew about this, had the letter prepared, and that's why they were telling Trump, don't do it. Could Trump, by the way, having heard the allegations think, what's the big deal? I've been accused of similar things and move forward anyway. Now, that's, we don't know yet. But it is curious that McConnell gave that warning, and it is curious that they had their letter ready to go immediately. Absolutely. And also keep in mind that the paper trail or the documentation regarding

Kavanaugh's decisions and rulings in the past, it was just par for the course when it comes to a conservative judge, there was nothing that really stood out during the confirmation hearings that would convince Republican senators to vote against Kavanaugh. So I remember during those confirmation hearings, I'm like, oh, something really bad is going to come out. And nothing came out from those documents. I mean, nothing that would upset Republican senators. Of course stuff came out that would upset progressives or left-leaning lawmakers.

But overall, it was to be expected, the stuff that came out was to be expected. So I don't know, look, this is obviously my speculation, but I feel like McConnell was worried about these allegations that did come out. No, it's a really good point. It could be that McConnell was worried that it would take too long, and now it is taking too long, but not because of the documents. But it is also possible that McConnell thought, look, I got 51 votes and they're locked in. I don't have to worry about anything unless it's something so bad that the Republicans

would have to vote against them. And so his warnings to Trump are at a bare minimum relevant and should be investigated as to what Republican senators knew before these allegations came out. So final part of this story that I want to touch on is the smear tactics, smear campaign. Individuals aligned with Trump's White House are quickly getting to the smear campaign to essentially discredit. the woman who came forward accusing Brett Kavanaugh of attempted rape back in the 1980s. Christine Blazy Ford is the name of the accuser. And when she came out with specific details to the Washington Post about this alleged assault, a number of Republicans, including Donald Trump Jr., came forward with ridiculous, you know,

statements about her. So first, let's go to Donald Trump Jr. He posted an Instagram post about how Diane Feinstein is, this is all political game, and I'll give you the statement. He says, oh boy, the Dems and their usual nonsense games really have him on the ropes now. So I just want to be clear. He's kidding. So he doesn't actually think that Kavanaugh is on the ropes.

But that's probably the classy thing to do, to joke around about attempted rape during the Supreme Court confirmation hearings. The guy has no sense of what's proper, but can you blame him? He grew up with Donald Trump as his moral guiding figure, that was his dad. And so he doesn't get that you're not supposed to joke around about stuff like that. But that's Donald Trump Jr. for you, as usual. He continues to write on his Instagram post, Senator Diane Feinstein had the letter in July and saved it for the eve of his vote, honorable as always.

I believe this is a copy for full transparency. And at that point, you know, it's the photo that he posted on Instagram. Trump's Jr. added posting a picture of a letter that reads, Hi, Cindy, will you be my girlfriend? So he's essentially minimizing what Ford alleges, which is attempted rape, by making it seem as though, you know, all Kavanaugh did was write her a cute note in crayon asking her to be his girlfriend. In fact, a lot of Democrats were mad at Diane Feinstein because they think,

thought she was too respectful of Ford's wishes to remain anonymous and that she should have released this earlier. In fact, it was a Democratic colleague that went to the intercept and forced her hand, basically Feinstein's hand. So if Feinstein was trying to do political tricks and released this at the last second, well, she chose a curious way of doing it because then she got blamed by fellow Democrats because it looked like she was never going to release. it until someone else made her.

So maybe you could blame other Democrats if you're a Republican, but it seems like Feinstein is the one person that I don't want to say was covering it up for you, but was not bringing it forward. Yeah, it's so. She says the wishes of Ford. It's funny because the Trump seemed to have a hard time keeping track of things that both, you know, help them or hurt them. Like Donald Trump Jr. is like, oh yeah, she held on to it till the 11th out.

I mean, she didn't just hold on to it. Diane Feinstein isn't the person who revealed her identity. This happened the way that Jank described. The media got hold of the details, the information, the identity of the accuser. They were contacting her incessantly. And she saw that the narrative was being controlled by people who had no idea what happened. So she decided to come forward and reveal who she was. By the way, I have no love for Senator Feinstein.

I think that she's a complete, nutter disaster. And I wish that she would have been voted. out of office during the primaries. But with that said, I think the way she handled this, you know, she was in a tough spot because you have a woman coming forward with these allegations, she demands to remain anonymous, and you have to honor that. You have to respect that, especially given how incredibly rough it is for a woman to come forward with sexual assault allegations against a person in a position of power.

As we're seeing here. Yeah, exactly. So, by the way, Donald Trump himself, he is doubling down on his support for Brett Kavanaugh. Kavanaugh, he says that Kavanaugh is one of the finest people he's ever met. And he also- In his case, that might be true. It might be true. But that's a very low bar. Yeah, especially for someone who's been accused of sexual assault himself by several

different women. That's Donald Trump. Donald Trump, yes. Trump has no intention of dropping Kavanaugh's nomination and that the White House plans to try to defend against the charges that were made. And it's already playing out. We're already seeing it. The final part of this is Oren Hatch.

So Senator Orrin Hatch believes Kavanaugh does not believe the accuser, and he's been very clear about it. Take a look. So I talked to him on the phone today. And what did he say to you? Well, he didn't do that. And he wasn't at the party. So, you know, there's clearly somebody's mixed up. He said he wasn't at the party that she's referring to.

Yeah. He's a very strong, decent man. And you believe him? Yeah, I sure do. Do you believe the accusers? Well, I think she's mistaken. I think she's mistaken something. You see, I don't know how Orrin Hatch knows.

So when the story came out, we had a tough conversation about how do you know, right? And we talked immediately about what if the shoe was on the other foot. Now, things seem to be a little bit clearer based on all of the evidence that has come out about how she told a therapist, the therapist took it in her notes back in 2012. and that it had forced, you know, and she talked about it in the couples therapy because it was so traumatic for her and it was creating issues for her with other men, et cetera. So now there's a lot more evidence that seems to indicate that she talked about this earlier, et cetera, right?

Okay, so that leads me to believe her. For the moment being, we'll see, we'll hear their testimony. I mean, anything is possible, right? But Hatch, either having seen that evidence or no evidence at all goes, no, no, he's positive. Camino's right and she's wrong. Other than your politics, how could you be positive of that? That doesn't make any sense. Well, Oren Hatch has a pattern, has displayed a pattern of doing this, especially when there

are similar allegations or allegations of sexual misconduct against Republicans. So we're going to take a little time machine back to earlier this year, where Orrin Hatch decided to believe Rob Porter over his ex-wife. lives in domestic assault or domestic abuse allegations. So again, this is Orrin Hatch from earlier this year. Take a look. What was your conversation like with the minister? Well, you know, I'm somebody who believes in helping people.

And it was a conversation to let him know that if he needs help in the future, I'll try to be there. Thank you, Senator. He's a good guy. No question. I don't understand. I really don't understand what happened. Do you believe these allegations against him?

against the people of the women. I don't believe them all, but I think there's enough there that you have to take it very seriously. So why, okay, why don't you believe them all? And if you're taking it seriously, it's constantly with Hatch and unfortunately with a lot of the older Republican senators, let alone older men throughout society, is gut instinct is, I believe the guy, and I want to help the guy. Like the victims, ah, yeah, right? But the guy, the guy needs help.

Kavanaugh, of course I believe Kavanaugh. He's a great guy. He's a great guy. Porter, I went to go see how he was charged. The accusations were that he beat women. And he's like, I've got to go see how it can help him. There was a photo of one of his ex-wives with, you know, bruises on her face. Yeah.

That went viral. And look, I get it. They worked with these people. And so they form bonds and friendships. And they, if I'm being super fair to Orrin Hatch, he didn't. didn't see that side of Porter, so he wanted to help the guy that was helpful to him in his dealings with him, et cetera. But at a bare, bare minimum, you have to be more mindful of the potential victims.

And so often we see callous responses that is not mindful of that at all. Exactly. And if we go even further back to the early 1990s, when Justice Clarence Thomas was dealing with allegations or trying to defend himself against allegations by Anita Hill, Hatch did the same thing and simultaneously bashed Anita Hill. Take a look. Judge, there are a lot of things that just don't make sense to me in Anita Hill's testimony. I liked her personally, I thought she presented herself well, and I think everybody who

listened to her wants to like her and many do. The judge, it bothers me because it just doesn't square with what I think is, some of it doesn't square with what I think is common experience and just basic sense, common sense. And I know it outrages you, as it would me, as it would anybody who is accused of these type of activities. Yeah, I mean, Orrin Hatch has never experienced anyone put pubic hair on his can of Coke, so it doesn't square with him, that's just what he thinks. I mean, that's so frustrating because, so the pubic hair in the Coke is the most commonly

used example, but I think it's among the worst examples of what Clarence Thomas did with Anita Hill. He kept badgering her for sexual favors and to go out with her. That's a million times worse than a joke about pubic hair and the Coke, et cetera. So, Orrin Hatch, have you had females constantly haranguing you for sex at work? I'm going to tender a guess that the answer is no, okay? So it reminds me when white people say, cops don't beat me up for no reason, so I guess they're not doing it to black people.

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So, and the fact that you have no empathy can't, for all these decades, Oren Hatch, you've had a chance to develop empathy and still haven't done it yet. So now other lines of attack they're gonna use and they're what they're calling their counteroffensive is going to be, hey, they made these accusations late, that does not affect the credibility, the accusations even 1%. So I think that's a really weak argument. They're gonna say that the accuser never told anybody about the incident at the time when they were in high school, she did tell therapists in 2012 and 2013, and it's documented in

their notes, but they say no, she should have told somebody at the time. What else should she have done as a young girl who was 15 years old and had nearly been raped? She said on her way home, she was so worried that somebody was going to notice that she was abused and ask her about it because she was so afraid of what people might think and why was she at the party where there was underage drinking, et cetera. Now we're going to go back in a time machine and blame her for everything she did on that day when she was the one attacked.

So that's the attacks that are coming. Let me add to that. It's very common, extremely common for victims of sexual assault or rape, both men and women, to feel like it was their fault, even if they were the victims. And so they feel shame about it and as a result will not report it, will not tell anyone about it. So that's something to keep in mind. I mean, she was 15 at the time.

And so coming forward and talking about that publicly at that age, that's something to keep in is not an easy thing to do, and I wouldn't, you know, put it against her for refusing to do that at the time. And Megan Kelly presented two sides of this on NBC. And to be fair to her, she made a very good point on the side of the accuser, saying, why would the accuser put another friend of Kavanaugh in the room if she was making it up? She knows that that guy will very likely testify with Kavanaugh whether it's true or not true.

So that adds credibility to the accuser. That's a great point by Kelly. But she also went on to explain what the different lines of attack will be. She said they will be looking to see if she's a quote unquote proven liar. So they will try to analyze everything she's ever said to try to create that track record in a sense. And then she put out this conjecture I wouldn't have even thought of, but I think right wittings do think this way. She said, well, maybe she carries a grudge against Kavanaugh because she actually wanted Kavanaugh and he blew her off. I find that to be inconceivable.

Like, that's, I mean, to carry that for 35 years, make it up to a therapist six years earlier, I mean, that doesn't make any kind of sense. But will people start saying it? It's already on TV, et cetera. And so the onslaught is coming. So this is the tip of the iceberg, prepare for the iceberg. She took a lie detector test, okay? Blazy Ford did.

I think that's important. And let's see. Let's see if Kavanaugh would be willing to do the same. You know, let's get to the bottom of the truth. And if she was willing to do that, then it means something. And she passed that polygraph test. Let me be absolutely clear about that. Okay.

Okay, we got to take a break, guys. When we come back, we still have an amazing number of stories, including Ken Starr. What is his views on impeaching Donald Trump? No. No, no, no, we're going to do that story, but just no, like, that's my reaction to Ken Star. I know, I think he might have broken the hypocrisy meter. We have a thermometer for the membership drive. If we had a thermometer for hypocrisy, I think Ken Star would have just broken it.

Anyway, we'll tell you about that. And when we come back, Jake Tapper does it again. It attacks Alexandria Ocasier-Cortez and does so in a way that, in my opinion, has a very big lie in the middle of the segment. And so I want to explain what that lie is and why he should have known or must have known that it was terribly misleading. So we'll explain that when we return. 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 supporting independent media, become a member at t.t.com slash join today. In the meantime, enjoy this free segment. Turks, we have breaking news. We also member comments. I want to get through them as quickly as I can here, make you sure you guys are involved in the show. Player 2 writes in, Jenk, I drive right share and now sometimes under my breath when I start

a trip, I say yala, let's go. I just wanted to start with a fun one, it's super fun. Of course, referring to Sasha Barron Cohen's skits on Showtime. Okay, Chris says the CNN cable news not know that the more they try to smear Alexandria Ocasor Cortez and other progressives, the more people become curious about them and fall in love with their policy, thus leading them to vote for them, sounds like CNN is helping more than hurt them, and that could only be good for progressives. But Chris, remember, I'm going to be a little too self-congratulatory here.

But without us, they probably wouldn't hear about the counterattacks and find out about their policies. And without the Internet overall, obviously, right? Now they can just Google it, and that's the overwhelming part of this. But without us, is there going to be some spirited defense of Ocasio-Cortez and some other outlet that I'm missing? Doubt it. Right?

And give credit to the intercept, et cetera, that do good work. But obviously we've got an online network here. So Michael says, the TRT seems to be the only source of clarity these days. I'm grateful for them for giving me all of the information and leads, not just condescending all of it into seconds long tidbits that are easily digestible but leave out important context. Yeah, I hate tidbits. Like, let me just keep it real.

Every once in a while, if we're talking about a fun story, tidbits are fine. So let's keep tidbits and kibbles and bits. You know what I mean? Like, we need to give you guys the details so you understand the story. Yes, a lot of people are famous for 45-second videos, and you can get something from them, but not a lot. Ecclectic miscellaneous says, kudos to Jenk for being so honest and open with viewers about their financial situation and membership drive, explaining it on the main show and not

hiding it from us, what other news organization would have the balls to do that, proud to be a member of TYT, the home of progressives. Thank you, brother. Appreciate it. And tonight for the members, I'm going to answer even more questions in a town hall. So please check that out. Obviously, t.wit.com slash join to become a member. And then tonight at 7 o'clock Pacific, 10 o'clock Eastern, I'll take your questions,

members' questions. All right, last two ones. Raina Shea makes a good point. Please remember or refer to Kavanaugh's accuser as doctor or professor, Blaise Ford. It's true, and she has earned that. And finally, Bagu Yesha wrote in, officially became a member of TYT network. I've been watching the show since 2015. Your detailed explanation put me over the top on why we need to support the network.

I believe in everything Jank and Anna do. My favorite person is still John, because of how down to earth and practically is, keep up the good work, proud to support. Thank you. Really, really appreciate it. Everybody obviously, t.com slash join to get involved. Okay, breaking news. All right. Donald Trump has just announced that he will impose more tariffs on China

further escalating the trade war that we have already engaged in. The details indicate that Trump will impose 10% tariffs on $200 billion worth of Chinese imports, and then those duties are set to rise to 25% by the end of the year. Also, keep in mind that China has already stated that they plan on retaliating against these tariffs, and Trump has no intention of backing down. Things will continue to escalate. By the way, the White House has decided to take some items off a list of affected goods. Now, there are 300 goods that were previously proposed on their tariffs list, and they've taken them off probably because they realize that consumers here in the United States would really be hurt if they were included on the list. It includes products

like bicycle helmets, high chairs, smart watches, and some chemicals. Finally, Trump said that if China takes retaliatory action against our farmers and other industries, we will immediately pursue phase three, which is tariffs on approximately $267 billion of additional imports. And he also tweeted that tariffs, this is all a lie, and we'll talk about in a minute, He says, tariffs have put the U.S. in a very strong bargaining position with billions of dollars in jobs flowing into our country. And yet these increases have thus far been almost unnoticeable. If countries will not make their fair deals with us, they will be tariffed. And tariffed is in quotation marks.

I don't know why. And Cavalice for noise. Okay. You will be tariffed. Oh, that plays well on TV. You're not on TV. You're the president. Take the job seriously.

Okay, so this is imminent disaster. He's so proud of his beloved stock market. Now, most of those gains go to the people at the very top. We've talked about this, as you all know, a lot. Wages for the average American has gone down when you take inflation into account. So the one thing he's got to hang his hat on is how well the stock market's doing. You keep prodding this bear, and you'll get a bare market. Okay, and so at what point does this scare the bejesies out of people and create instability

in the markets? Because now he's talking about phase three, $267 billion in tariffs. And he thinks that this tough guy act is going to get China to roll over. That's not how they operate. And they're in a much better situation than we are. And they hold a lot of our debt too. A lot. They have leverage in many different facets.

Do you think Donald Trump understands that complexity? Now, be honest, even if you're a mager guy, do you think Donald Trump understands that complexity? There's no way he does. Do you think he understands the consequences of his actions? Of course not. We've discussed it a million times. Almost every White House administration official who has ever talked to the press has said, the man does not understand the consequences of his actions.

Be careful. So he thinks, oh, I'll bully them around. The first time he did the tariffs, he didn't even realize that they were going to do, we were going to get tariffed back. And so, and even if he understood that that was a possibility, he was genuinely shocked, according to his own description of the event, that they went after our farmers. Of course they're going to go after the farmers, because they know that will hurt politically. Because generally America is obsessed with farmers in their political dialect to begin with. Secondarily, Chinese know that those are mainly your voters in the middle of the country. Any sophisticated person would have known they were going to go after the farmers first.

But Trump, as usual, like when he said, nobody knew health care was this complicated, came out and said, I can't believe they went after the farmers. That seems like a political thing. Of course it's a political thing. So are they going to strike back this time? Yes, that's your bottom dollar on it, and we might have to. You know, I'm, look, I don't wish for this to happen because a lot of people would suffer as a result of that.

But you're right, in saying that Trump keeps boasting about his economy, stock markets are at record highs, the unemployment rate is low, even though the majority of those jobs are horrible and wages remain stagnant. But every time he mentions more tariffs, the stock markets suffer, right? All of a sudden, you'll see the SMP, all of the measures of the stock market going down. And so, all right, you want to play this game? I mean, he's so insanely ignorant and oblivious to how disastrous this policy is that he's going to keep pushing through. And as he keeps doing that, it will destroy the economy.

Inflation is already out of control, which is why the Federal Reserve is thinking about raising interest rates even further to account for inflation and kind of lower it a little bit. This is going to increase inflation, especially if all these goods that we rely on China for are now being heavily taxed. Those prices will then be, of course, transferred on to us, the consumers. This is going to hurt him politically. This is the one thing that even Republicans who rally in support of Trump time and time again. So one thing that they do not support and they're openly critical of. Yeah, one last thing on it.

Look, there are parts of Trump's trade policy that I agree with. For example, he chose not to do the TPP Trans-Pacific Partnership. I agree with that. So if you were going to say, hey, look, let's re-look at NAFTA, let's not do TPP. I'm concerned about sovereignty. I'm concerned about who's writing these deals. And here's my counterproposal, and here's the direction I think we should go in. And here would be the consequences that would flow from that, that I think would be net positive.

Then we would be having an interesting, intelligent conversation. That is not the conversation we're having with Donald J. Trump. The conversation is, me get China again. You get tariffed, right? That guy, you think he's thought through steps B, C, and D. Ain't no way he's thought that through. So when those consequences hit us, no one is going to be surprised except Donald Trump. So that's why I'm telling you, these are not smart policies, they are not well thought out.

This is not part of the trade policy that any progressive should be happy with. There's no need for a trade war done on these terms in this way and in this fashion without any forethought put into it. And so brace for impact. Nobody knew that tariffs could be this complicated. I'm telling you, man, he's playing with fire when it comes to the markets. And this orange kid's going to get burned at some point. But then unfortunately, we all get burned.

All right, moving on to other news. There have been calls from progressives to abolish ICE. And if you look into some of the allegations against members of ICE, you'll understand why. There have been two individuals involved in immigration control that have faced some serious criminal charges as of late. First, there's Blake Northway from Oregon. It turns out that state police detectives arrested Blake Northway, who's 55 years old in Medford, Oregon last Thursday, following a joint investigation between the Oregon State Police and ICE's Office of Professional Responsibility. And he has been charged with 10 felony charges of sodomy and one charge of incest.

Officials stated that the charges have nothing to do with his role at ICE. But even though we don't know the exact details of what he allegedly did, these are some pretty serious accusations or charges, 10 felony charges of sodomy and one charge of incest. Now, these charges came forth after another individual who's connected with Border Patrol had been arrested in connection to four murders. So Juan David Ortiz is the U.S. Border Patrol supervisor who was arrested, and he's He's been charged with murder in the deaths of four female sex workers following what authorities call a two-week killing spree that ended with a fifth woman escaped from him at the Texas gas station.

She then went to go find help. When authorities were looking for him, they eventually found him. He fled and was found hiding in a truck in a hotel parking lot in Laredo, Texas. Also two of the women who were victims were U.S. citizens, but the nationalities of the other were not yet known. And people were concerned that he was probably getting information about the manhunt about him because he's in law enforcement. So he might have been receiving that information. But as it turns out, luckily, the fifth woman escaped, found a state trooper who did a great job, and they pursued him and they got him. The part of the story that I have

to confess that I liked was him hiding in a truck in the hotel parking lot. A tough guy when you're going to go commit those, you know, violent acts against women and that you think have no power. But when you think people are coming to get you, all of a sudden, you're quivering in a, you know, hiding from the authorities and not so tough after all. What's crazy about this story is after authorities found him, he did confess to the murders. And a few of the murders, actually two of them took place in the hours after the fifth woman had escaped and alerted authorities. So, um, wow.

I'm, I'm, it's such a tragic story. I'm glad they caught him. But I think it's important to highlight these stories because, you know, when we have conversations about immigration in the country, all immigrants who are here and, and who are not documented are defamed and slandered as criminals and rapists and members of MS-13. I think it's about time we take a good, hard look at some of the criminals that we've employed to keep immigration under control? Well, look, two things about that, as we've shown you over and over again, crime statistics

show that people who are American citizens commit crime at higher rates than undocumented immigrants, as significantly higher rates. Now, that doesn't mean that I make assumptions about American citizens. We're all American citizens here. I don't think that we're all in the immortal words of Donald Trump criminals and rapists. But to say that a group that commits significantly less crime than the average American are criminals and rapists as Trump called them is outrageous, especially when it turns out when some of the people that are guarding the border theoretically against those potential criminals are the ones that are criminals themselves. And finally, you know, we're told whenever there's accusations against the powerful or law enforcement, no, just bow your head.

How dare you say that, cops are always right, ICE is always right, these people just want to have open borders in the case of ICE, and they just want to let everybody run free without the rule of law. Turns out, these are the guys who don't want rule of law. These two particular guys I'm talking about, and so should we trust anyone unquestioningly? Of course not. And so that includes, yes, sometimes law enforcement. Now, again, law enforcement is the guy who are there.

the folks who also caught these guys. So have a, I hope, a little bit more sophisticated and nuanced look at the whole picture and understand that somebody's job or even citizenship doesn't necessarily mean that they are more credible than other Americans and other people in the country. We got to take a break. When we come back, we will discuss Jake Tapper's interview with Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. 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 dot co slash t yt i'm your host jank huger and i'll see you soon