The Young Turks - MAGA Meltdown

Episode Date: November 11, 2022

Conservative host Benny Johnson melts down over Kevin Mccathy. Everything you need about Lauren Boebert’s tight Colorado tight race. Republicans are having no problems blaming Donald Trump for midterm election results. Mike Pence shared intense details of his last few days as Vice President. Host: Ana Kasparian, Cenk Uygur 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. Colgate Total is more than just your favorite toothpaste. It's dedicated to advancing oral health. The new Colgate Total Active Prevention System features a reformulated toothpaste, innovative toothbrush, and a refreshing anti-bacterial mouthwash. All designed to work together to fight the root cause of common oral health issues, such as gingivitis, plaque and tartar.

Use the full routine twice daily and be dentist ready. Shop the Colgate Total Active Prevention System now at walmart.ca. Well, the Young Turks, Jane Kuggana consparing with you guys. Guys, not only we're going to have the usual fun, but there is a two. turn of events today. Today is in a very important news day. And I'm not just talking about the elections, although it's related to the elections. And we do have some updates for you guys. Lauren Borbord has taken a slightly 800 vote lead, but it's not over. The Democrat in Nevada, Cortez Mastro might make a comeback depending on where the votes are. So all that's interesting.

L.A. and California have stopped counting votes that'll take another two months. They never can. They, it's incompetence wall to wall in California. It really is and it's like, listen, I'm a big proponent of mail-in voting. In fact, I've mailed in my ballot. We should have the infrastructure in place necessary to count the ballots in a timely fashion, right? Yeah, but I don't know. I keep hearing that everything that California does is perfect and we have no reason to ever complain. So I guess California is great.

And you hear that from two sets of people, Democrats who are like, what? incompetence is actually what we should be doing. Okay, if you say so. And then, of course, the media, the media should be furious. I mean, all of this lead up to the mayors are, oh my God, who's going to win? And it's nearly tied. You know what they're stopped at? They're not stopped at 87% of the vote.

They're stopped at counting at 44%. Literally, yeah. It's been two days. Yep. It's been two days, 44%. By the way, it happens in every election in California. Yeah. Katie Porter is down to a one point lead.

it's like we're on pins and needles, it's around 50% reporting. Like what is wrong with you? Why can't you just count votes? Like the dumbest states in the world count votes a thousand times better than you guys do. So, but no one in the media will say, oh, that's, are you criticizing Democrats? That's not allowed in the state of California. The L.A. Times will yell at you and San Francisco will yell at you. Are there any reporters in this goddamn state?

No. Why aren't you furious that they won't, they can't do something as simple as count votes? Here, I told you now, two days after the election, watch, I'll come back on here next week. And they won't be anywhere near Dunn County, anywhere near Dunn. Complete clown show in California. Anyways, look, we got to go on to the show, but that's not what I was going to say. The huge story of today is actually the infighting in the Republican Party. Now, I've heard BS stories about infighting the Republican Party and how it's going to hurt them.

For the last 20 years, every one of those stories is complete BS. It only helps the Republicans, and we explain to you how. Not this one. This one is completely different. And so that is, it's one of the biggest stories in a long, long time. All right, so let's do it. I mean, let's begin. Let's begin with the Republican infighting.

And this happens to be one of my favorite stories of the day. I am obsessed with following the news. I got an entire team of young kids 20 years old. All they do is look at clips online. Never once did I get a clip about Kevin McCarthy going based going flame thrower. Kevin McCarthy rip roaring. Never once. You just saw a guy named Benny Johnson real active on Twitter, had never really seen him on video before.

But I've seen some of his annoying tweets. And he's having a bit of a meltdown there, Jank. A bit of a meltdown during midterm election coverage on Charlie Kirk's show, which I happened to really. enjoy watching because someone like Benny Johnson typically has a lot of comments about other people having meltdowns. But before we get to that, why don't we watch Benny Johnson lose it over the poor performance of Republican candidates during the midterms? Unhinged. I have never seen anything more flaccid and linguine spine than the way that the corporate, the corporate GOP approached this very winnable election. Now, I think there's a lot of synthesis to be done, but you

touched on McCarthy. I thought it was wild the way they rolled out this plan for America. I saw nothing about it. Nothing. I am obsessed with following the news. I got an entire team of young kids 20 years old. All they do is look at clips online. Never once did I get a clip about Kevin McCarthy going baste going flame thrower. Kevin McCarthy rip roaring. Never once. I didn't get a single clip that like the corporate GOP did a single fire thing in this election. And we cover this day in and day out. We have the best damn people on the internet covering the hottest clips out there. And we go nuts for it. And if Kevin McCarthy did something boost, I would have covered it. I have nothing against it. But I didn't get a single clip, Rich.

To be fair, voters were on pins and needles just waiting for Kevin McCarthy's plan for America. I mean, maybe Betty Johnson isn't aware of the fact that typically Republicans don't have any plan for America. So while they certainly did a lot of campaigning on the crime wave, a lot of campaigning on inflation, did they offer up any real solutions? I mean, on the night of the election, we had Matt Gates on the show. We asked him for his economic plan. What he would do, what Republicans would do should they take over the house? And honestly, the only well thought out idea he had was investigation.

into the Bidens. Great, that doesn't really do anything to tackle the two issues that they purport to care about so, so much. But, you know, real calm delivery there, Benny. You're a real calm analyst on Republicans and how they're doing in the midterms. So I'm going to get to what Anna's referring to about his hypocrisy. But first, Anna, just let me do a quick correction for you. No, Matt Gates had two thought out plans.

The second one was cutting Medicaid. And he was very clear about that. By the way, that polls that, you know, I think it was 68% against at least. He thinks Medicaid causes inflation. Yeah. And by the way, that poll was, it was an exit poll from this election, none of people who said inflation was their top concern. And of the people who say inflation is the top concern, it's like 68 or 73.

I told you guys a couple of days ago on the show, just a giant 7 out of 10 Americans that inflation is their number one issue, go, do not cut Medicaid. Do not cut it. And the Republicans come in and go, yeah, yeah, we just lied to you about trans this and critical race theory, that. We don't really care about any of that. All we're going to do is cut all your services and cut taxes for the rich. So how we're going to pay for taxes cuts for the rich if we're not going to cut from you, right?

So that's what the real agenda is. And so by the way, there's a lot that I actually agree with Benny Johnson about in his little rant here. But before I get to my agreement, I want to show you a tweet that he had about Anna, because I thought that this was interesting, okay? To say the least. Yeah, I mean, so let's put it up for you guys. It says, Lib Anchor goes into unhinged, in capital letters, unhinged rage after Roe overturned,

leaves Christians stunned. Stunned. Stunned. Apparently, Anna, congrats you've stunned like 250 million Christians in this country. Well, I mean, I am the number one stunner, what can I say? Yeah, well, and he's not wrong by them because that video was seen by 58 million people on TikTok, so perhaps a little stunning. Okay, but the last time we checked. But no, by the way, so I want to do a little comparison because we have that video.

So why don't we watch that video and see whether I'm unhinged and just keep in mind his delivery in the video we showed you earlier. Let's watch. I don't care that you're a Christian. I don't care what the Bible says. Like I feel like it's a clown show like sitting here trying to decipher what your little mythical book has to say about these very real political issues, right? I don't care if you're Christian. In fact, I will fight for you to have your religious liberty and practice your Christianity. I believe in that. I don't believe in Christianity,

which means that you do not get to dictate the way I live my life based on your religion. I don't care what the Bible says. You have every right in the world. All those women who identify with your religion have every right in the world to not get an abortion, to not take birth control. But they do not have the right. to dictate my life and what I decide to do with my body. I don't care about your goddamn religion. I'm so tired of having non-stop conversations about what the Bible says. You live your life in the way that you interpret the Bible. Again, I don't care, but you don't get to take the Bible and tell me,

while the Bible says this, in this chapter and this verse, I don't care. I don't care, I don't believe in it, and I have the right based on our Constitution to not believe in it. That was pretty passionate. I will say that. And I believe in people having passionate feelings and doing a passionate delivery of their arguments. I don't think that makes them unhinged. But Benny Johnson throwing things around. I don't know if it was a pen. I don't know what he had in his hand. He's throwing things. He's screaming. He's yelling. But it's okay for him to do that. It's okay for him to feel passionately about something. But anyone on the left, particularly women on the left, who might feel passionately about something, might have a disagreement about the issue that they're speaking passionately about, it's unhinged, this person's a lunatic, by the way, I'm not a quote unquote lib, but I mean, he didn't even bother to see when that video was filmed.

So I'm not surprised at all that he would get his facts wrong in that tweet. But it is interesting because I remember before, like on the day of the midterms, before we began our coverage, just incessant tweets from right. We can't wait for your meltdown tonight. I don't know, the only meltdown I had that night was over our power going out. Yeah, but that was it. Yeah. So here comes a twist now.

So first of all, do I think it's a big deal to yell on air? Of course not, I do it all the time. Have I thrown a pen from time at the time? Yeah, not towards anybody, go over there where there's nobody. Yeah. And if you notice, he threw a pen and if you notice, he threw a pen and if you notice, it knocked over Charlie Kirk's water. In fact, one of our members, Shugaze Dragon, Georgie, said,

Charlie Kirk knocking over his water is the best thing about this clip. It's true, he's like trying to make sure he gets the water. Benny's still like, oh, Sank their lawn, right? Well, stimulants do dehydrate you. I heard. No, I don't know anything about this. So anyway, in terms of Benny, I actually know him. I've moderated a debate with him.

I don't know if you remember that. I don't. Yeah, and he came up to me at a party in D.C. like almost 10 years ago and said, and I'm good, look, it's kind of awkward, but I'm going to tell you, he said, you're a legend. Oh, Benny Johnson calls Jank Yugar a legend. Why are you hiding the lead? What's going to bury?

I don't like to talk about things that people say off air, but that's why I never said it before. Benny Johnson. Okay, and I'm not sure that that's really praise. I mean, it is, but it's like, is that a thing you want to brag about? What's worse is what he's about to say, he said a lot of the right-wing infrastructure was based on what you are doing on the young Turks, okay? I mean, that's obvious, they copied everything that you've built. Yeah. Yeah. So, I mean, first of all, sorry to America, but we've always been doing it

right here, and that's why they're copying us. It's just that the rest of the media goes, oh, no, no, no, we would never do that. Why would they never do that? Because it's authentic. So that's why you'll never see stuff like that on cable news, because it's not authentic. Now, back to Benny. So he's having a meltdown over, and it's okay, I'm pro meltdown. Okay, who cares? Say it, say it loud, say it proud, right? But the substance of it is also correct. So the old school politicians both in the Republican Party and the Democratic Party are lukewarm and they teach everyone to be lukewarm.

They don't show passion, they don't do anything and they put out tie in any one of the co-host on that program said it looked like their website and their ideas and their phrasing was all from 1994. Well, it is. It's the same thing with the Democratic Party. Democratic Party is way worse. Like Democratic Party will put out statements saying we are pro people and we are in favor of breathing, right? You're like, I know, I say something for God's sake.

So in fact, the woman that I ran against, who was a corporate Democrat, used to constantly brag about how she is for firefighters and veterans. I was like, you're missing puppies and kittens. Okay, like you're saying nothing. You're saying absolutely nothing. And the one last thing about it that ironically agree with him. And point out an important phenomenon here. He's talking about you didn't give us any hot clips. We were always looking for the hottest clips.

Like literally videos, I didn't know what he was referring to. Yeah, videos, right? So no, no, no, but this is a super important phenomenon. Kind of like more perfect union does for us. Not us specifically, but more perfect union has a lot of great video content for the left. Yeah, it doesn't have anything to do with us. Right. So, but kind of, but not really, more perfect union is more cerebral.

He's looking for somebody say that somebody's eating children or something and the right wing loves that and they put it out and they're like, oh my God, Paul Pelosi's eating children and that's why he was attacked by Tom Hanks and whatever, right? And they're like, oh, that's a hot clip, right? And so that's their side. So, but he's right that that's what drives the news media. And so when he puts out a hot clip, et cetera, it does get in the news. And I'm not saying all of his, do I'm just saying generically, generally.

Why do you think Candace Owens is constantly saying insane things, right? She said that the guy who attacked Paul Pelosi was with him on the night that Paul Pelosi got the DUI months ago. That's a lunatic conspiracy. The paper said, no, I don't know them at all. I went to go hurt Nancy Pelosi. I don't know Paul Pelosi. I mean, we have a confession, right? And she's still saying it.

Why? Because it's a hot clip, it's a hot clip. It's gonna get spread everywhere, right? And so, but by the way, what that's doing is for our side, we need more passion. Democrats are like three day old fish that's been sitting out on the table, right? And so Republicans on the other hand need to cool it. They're like lunatics, right? But the fact that guys like Benny Johnson have an industry looking for hot, deranged clips to promote, incentivizes the Matt Gates, the Marjorie Taylor Green,

the Lauren Bobberts, et cetera, to create those hot clips so they get more famous. And so that's what's happening on the right. And one thing that I will give them, almost everything they have in those clips are totally like lunatic detached from reality, right? But they do know how to get in the news cycle, which does make a difference. Whereas our side, other than Tim Ryan and John Fetterman, are all like, no, I know the best way to win an election is to go right to your basement and never come out. Oh my God, I don't want any press at all. Like Warnock refusing to attack Herschel Walker for the multiple abortions he paid for while campaigning on banning abortions in all circumstances. Why wouldn't you use that to your advantage? So I think what you're saying is absolutely correct. Like, they're so afraid to campaign in a way that this era really calls for.

And if you're uncomfortable with it, if it makes you queasy, then you're in the wrong room. You're campaigning to do the wrong thing. You're not the right person to like be a senator or a member of Congress if you're not willing to rise up to this occasion, right? Yeah, so I 1,000 percent disagree with Warnock strategy, but at least there's a defensible argument to be made in Georgia when he's trying to reach those white evangelical voters and how you do that and how you approach them, et cetera. But in most races, there's no argument at all. Like look at Cortez-Maso in Nevada. She's losing right now. Well, you know what she said

during the campaign? No, neither do I. She said absolutely nothing. She ran against an opponent without saying a word, without saying a word. She's like, he Republican, he bad. It's Trump somewhere. Not necessarily even backing him, but Trump exists in the world. So you must vote for Now that works against Don Boldick and other lunatics that are very tied to Donald Trump, but no, it doesn't normally work in an election. And that's why Democrats always lose when in reality the polling indicates that their voters agree with them on the issues. Overwhelmingly, overwhelmingly, but they refuse to speak up. And one, they misunderstand modern media, and two, they're cowards. And so the instinct to prod politicians to actually fight for their voters is a correct one.

It's just that the way they do it on the right is where it's gotten unhinged. I just wanted to make fun of Benny Johnson. I didn't think it was going to turn into like a substantive discussion and critique of Democrats. But nonetheless, there you have it. We do have to take a break. When we come back, we've got an update on the congressional race between Lauren Bobert and Adam Frisch. Boebert has unfortunately taken the lead. We'll tell you by how much when we return.

All right back on T.R.T. Jank and Anna with you guys. Also, Ty Bonds, a bit of an American hero. Tye hit the joy button below. Joy button. The joy button could exist. Join button underneath the video on YouTube. Everybody remember, tomorrow's food for thought trivia. 150 of our members wins a $100 gift card for Blue Apron. So t-y-t.com slash join. I had a blue apron vegetarian burrito last night for dinner. Look at this. It was delicious.

I'm going to give out more cards. So stay on the live stream, share the live stream for good comments. I'm going to give out $100 blue apron gift cards today. Okay. All right, let's move forward. Okay, so let's give you an update on the congressional race with Lauren Boebert. On Tuesday, we will be part of a big red wave that says enough is enough. It's time to get back to what we know works.

Doesn't seem like Republican Representative Lauren Boebert knows much about what works, because we don't even know if she's going to win her re-election. She is still very, very close to the Democratic challenger, Adam Frisch. And while last night it appeared that he had taken the lead by 75 votes, she has unfortunately now taken the lead. This is the latest number. I checked right before going on air. She's at 50.13 percent. He's at 49.87%. So just hundreds of votes make the difference in this case, unfortunately. But what is shocking is that it was a close race to begin with in a Republican district that she was expected to win easily. And this could be yet another sign that even

Republican voters might be sick and tired of the antics and the chaos that comes along with these Maga Chuds serving in congressional seats. Yeah. So this is a solidly Republican district. So it's not lean Republican. It's not a toss up. That's why nobody was paying attention to the race. But one thing that does happen with these celebrity, not job Republicans, well, two things happen. One, because they're in the news so often, they raise a lot of money. Remember, a third of the country is whatever Trump, the craziest thing you've heard Trump say, a third of the country agrees with it completely. So when Bobert says something crazy, she raised a lot of money. People are like, oh my God, you know, whatever the late

this conspiracy theory she has. She's got almost all of them, but I don't want to give you the wrong one. And they're like, oh, that's so... Why just survive back to school when you can thrive by creating a space that does it all for you, no matter the size.

Whether you're taking over your parents' basement or moving to campus, IKEA has hundreds of design ideas and affordable options to complement any budget. After all, you're in your small space era. It's time to own it. Shop now at IKEA.ca. True, right? But what also happens is Democrats from across the country give to their opponent.

So their opponents wind up raising actually too much money. Why do I say too much money? Because their races are generally not that close. For example, Marjorie Taylor Green is in a district that's like plus 30 for Republicans. You just cannot win in a district like that. So when you send money to our opponent, actually, to be honest, it would be much better served going to districts that are much closer races, right? with great candidates. So now, but having said that, it turns out, well, in this case, you're right to send it to the guy because he's got a real shot of beating him. But again, the number one point here is the one I made on election night. The winner here is sanity.

Look at all those Republicans in that Republican district going, I just can't take it. No, I'd rather vote for a Democrat than vote for Bobo the Clown, as you called it. You guys, this is so important because Lauren Bobert was one of these Republican members of Congress who was the most vocal in wanting this country to be a Christian nationalist country. And it was terrifying because obviously I don't want the country to go in that direction. And my feeling was maybe this is the first sign that the Republican voters are going to start fighting for this. But the fact that Republican voters seem to have turned their back on her, backs on her, makes me feel a little more relieved than anything else. Now, we don't know how the race is going to turn out in the end.

But again, the fact that it's so close really does say a lot about how the constituents in this particular district are feeling about her brand of republicanism. Now, a few pieces of trivia here that I think you'll be fascinated by. So during the Republican primary, she was primaried. Obviously, she won the Republican primary, but nonetheless, the person running against her in the Republican primary decided to endorse Adam Frisch, the Democrat in the general election. And that's state senator Don Corum. He's the one who came out to endorse Adam Frisch, even though he himself is a Republican who ran against Lauren Bobert in the Republican primary. Also, this is my favorite part of the story, hands down.

538's predictive model gave Frisch a three in 100 chance of taking the district. Big brains, big brains. Nate Silver, he knows everything. Big brains. Don't compare him to real clear politics. He's way better than that. Way better. And remember, Hillary Clinton's definitely going to win.

Oops, now look, you know, we had our old beefs with Nate Silver. I like polling. I think everybody talking about how polling gets wrong all the time, they're just misunderstanding polling. Polling generally gets it right unless you're polling the wrong people. And I've said this a thousand times and even big brain Nate Silver can't get it through a thick skull in elections where there are unlikely voters like women who just registered to vote because of Roe who never voted before and hence would not be a likely voter. You will have different results than the polling because of that phenomenon. I don't know why it's so hard for them to understand

in that. Okay? And yet they're like, oh, no, I pulled likely voters. By the way, your poll of likely voters is very likely correct. You just pulled the wrong people. You had to have go now normally would work in a normal election, but in these type of elections, you have to go broader with your poll. But they just don't get it. They just don't. I don't know. I feel like every election season, it's the same story. Like, this is what the polls say. And then it turns out the polls are wrong. That's been happening more and more often. No. And it's, and there's, and there's, There's a good reason for that too. The polls used to be like right 95% of the time.

Now they're right about 80% in time. But whenever you see them being right, you don't see it because nobody ever says, this poll was right. What the hell? That's not a hot clip, right? Okay. But the ones that are wrong is because of Trump and Bernie and now because of Roe. Because Trump and Bernie brought out unlikely voters.

That's why he had that great miracle upstate Bernie did in the 2016 primaries in Michigan, where he outperformed by 23 points. because a whole slew of new young voters registered and then voted for him. And they didn't account for that. And after that, I would have figured that they would have put that into their models, but they're like, no. And that's partly because Nate Silver wrote a whole book about how, no, the party decides. And whoever the establishment wants is the one that's going to win and that's great.

Right. So he doesn't want to move off that theory. That's what makes him biased. Yeah. Well, if you're not going to get off that bias, you're going to keep producing these horse crap polls that show that. that Adam Frisch has a three and 100 chance of taking the district. All right, well, let's move on because I do want to talk about Adam Frisch and what his strategy was in campaigning.

How did he get so close to beating Bobert if it turns out that he doesn't beat her at all, right? Well, it turns out that Adam Frisch really modeled himself as a moderate in this case. A moderate businessman and former Aspen City Council member, he attempted to appeal to voters tired of what he described as anger tainment. the anger taintment that Bobert provides. He's also leaned into qualms constituents have had about the focus Bobert has put on her own image versus delivering for the district. A fresh win would be a surprising pickup for Democrats in a place that Cook Political Report, a nonpartisan political analyst analysis firm, has rated as solid Republican.

And this next bit of information, you're probably not going to love Jank because he's one of these guys who, you know, should he win, wants to be part of the so-called problem solvers caucus, which is basically let's serve as an obstacle to any real policy that could improve people's lives caucus. That's what it should be renamed to. Yeah, it's one of the most corporate caucuses. So look, guys, I'm very practical. So I think that, not I think, I know that higher minimum wage, paid family leave, child tax credit, et cetera, pulls well in every district. And it would help even conservative Democrats win, corporate Democrats win. But they won't do that because of their donors. But having said that, in this district that is heavily Republican, I understand why he's

running as a moderate Democrat. I understand why he frames himself as an alternative between left-wing Democrats and the Republicans to try to win those independent and moderate Republican votes. And normally I put it in scare quotes, but apparently there are moderate Republicans in that district, and they did vote for him. So I'm not begrudging him that strategy. And I know he'll be a corporate guy that I won't like at all in Congress and still be a vast improvement over Lauren Bobert.

And by the way, his strategy of running the idea that, hey, she's not even in a district. She's done nothing. She hasn't passed any bills. She hasn't even passed. That's the right message. Propose any bills that would help your lives at all. That's the best message. 100%.

I agree with you on that. All right. Well, let's move on to another banger today. Another great story. Let's do it. During a golf session with some mutual friends of ours had a person next him who was egging this on, saying to Trump, and I know this, because again, this is a mutual friend, aren't you mad at Candace? Aren't you mad at Candace? Aren't you mad at Candace? And eventually he was like, yeah, I'm so mad at Candace. I'm so mad at Candace. And this got back to me, that he was upset with me, that he was angry at me. And the next time, And next time that I saw him, he was quite rude to me. He was actually rude to me. You just got a glimpse of Candace Owens, beginning to turn on Donald Trump, as many other conservatives in right wing media have after the terrible performance of Republican candidates in the midterm elections.

A lot of blame going around, a lot of that blame pointing to Donald Trump because he endorsed flawed candidates who then went on to lose. Now, this trend is just awesome. It really, it's fun watching it. I'm curious to see how it plays out. There is this very real effort to prop up Ron DeSantis as a replacement for Donald Trump. I think that might actually backfire if DeSantis decides to run against Trump during the Republican primaries in 2024. But nonetheless, I'm kind of bearing the lead because the New York Post is getting. real harsh. And here's the latest example. Their latest cover has Trump modeled after Humpty Dumpty.

They call him Trumpy Dumpty. And they write, Don, who couldn't build a wall, had a great fall. Can all the GOP's men put the party back together again? And there's a vicious op-ed about Donald Trump in the New York Post as well, which I'll give you a few excerpts from in just a minute. But before I do, Jenk, can you believe, can you believe that Trump was mad at Candace Owens? I mean, that's really the big story of the day. So look, now everybody's turning on Trump, Brian Kilmead, saying he should butt out of the Herschel Walker race because all he could do is damage Walker. Wow, that's on Fox News.

Laura Ingram turning on him. No, he's hurt, dog. Don't ask me if he's all right. That's a bigger story here. But a quick comment about Candace Owens, what a petty person. I know, he was rude. He was rude. He was rude to me.

Yeah, like everything he did that. And, you know, Sally said, Susie said that Trump said this about me. And that's why you shouldn't support Trump. That's why you shouldn't support Trump. By the way, behind the scenes, you'd be amazing what happens in Democratic politics. I don't come on here and be like, oh my God, Sally said, Susie said she was mean to me, so don't support her. No, what's their policies? Who cares how they are to us?

Are they going to pass laws that help you? your life. No, I hold a grudge. I would care. Okay, well, that's another thing. You're a better person than I am, 100%. He does not hold a grudge. And even if there's a Democratic candidate who's done and said vicious things to him, he'll still promote that person. It's amazing. I wouldn't. Okay, it depends on their policies. Right, exactly. It's the only thing I care about. Okay, so now back to the main story here. Guys, this is title fight. This is the big one. So for 20 years now, I've heard the annoying news actors on MSNBC and CNN and say, this is the election of our lives. Oh my God, you know what? There's internal fighting among

the Republicans. Oh, that's going to hurt them. No, it doesn't. Like, for example, the Tea Party. All they did was they moved the over one over to a window to the right, meaning they pushed both the Republican Party and Washington, D.C. overall to further right wing. It didn't hurt the Republicans at all. The primaries they had didn't make the party weaker. They didn't make the party weaker. their party stronger before, okay? So now it's so every story that I've ever heard like that, I thought, oh, BS man, God, in fact, you're actually helping their promise. But this one is very different. Why is it different? Because Trump is two things that are very important. One is he's so unhinged. He's now finally completely hurting them in the elections. Like it's not

arguable anymore. So if they stick with Trump, they're doomed. They're going to keep losing and losing and losing. So the jury's in. That forces the hand of the otherwise cowardly establishment Republicans. They no longer have a choice. If they don't fight him, their party is ruined, right? But if they do fight them, their party might be ruined. Because Trump is like a wounded corner animal.

And those kind of animals are the most vicious. And he was already vicious to begin with. So he's going to try to tear their face off. So it's, and I, God, the story, you know, but it's true. It's so good. And you're gonna see by the way, traditional Republicans for the first time now ripping Trump's face off. So look, there's that video that they put on true social where Trump is the lion and the hyenas are coming for him and stuff. And there's pre-election and I don't mean to feed into that because he ain't anybody's lying other than a cowardly lion in the long run.

But there is an analogy here because the other Republicans were dogs and he made them all heal and we saw it. That was his one upside and we've been honest about that throughout. He said Ted Cruz heel and that dog healed, right? But now those dogs have turned into hyenas and they're, they've always been angry and they've been stewing and stewing and now they're ready to fight. So it's gonna be a cornered lion versus a pack of hyenas and they're gonna rip each other apart. So you're saying that the chickens came home? Oh, for sure.

Chickens welcome. They're not home. They're roosting. They're roosting big time. So I want to get to some excerpts from that op-ed because it was, I mean, I think it's the most vicious anti-Trump op-ed ever. I mean, yes, it is a right-winger publishing it, which makes it even more interesting. But, I mean, even if you're comparing it to other vicious op-eds toward Trump that were written

by liberals like no this is as not even close not even close okay so let me give it to you hey lion ted and sleepy joe meet toxic trump you know if the former president had any self-knowledge or even the slightest ability to be self-deprecating he might consider giving himself this alliterative nickname okay that's actually the tamest excerpt let me keep going after three straight national tallies in which either he or his party or both were hammered by the national electorate. It's time for even his stands to accept the truth. Toxic Trump is the political equivalent of a can of raid. Okay.

Yeah, I mean, look, he ain't plain. Here, I'll give you more. He said, well, Tuesday's nice results. This episode is brought to you by Square. You're not just running a restaurant. You're building something big. And Square's there for all of it. giving your customers more ways to order, whether that's in-person with Square kiosk or online. Instant access to your sales, plus the funding you need to go even bigger.

And real-time insights so you know what's working, what's not, and what's next. Because when you're doing big things, your tools should to. Visit square.ca to get started. Suggests that Trump is perhaps the most profound vote repellent in modern American history. The surest way to lose in these midterms was to be a politician endorsed by Trump. This is not hyperbole. Okay. And by the way, I just, I think it's important to note, like, we're not fans of the individual

who published this and wrote this. He's a terrible person. He's a neocon. But that doesn't matter. It's not about who we like, who we don't like. It's about what's currently transpiring in the context of the Republican Party and what that means for 2024. And I want to go back to what I said, you know, just.

recently. This could really backfire on Republicans. Because as they're attempting to prop up DeSantis, they're really forgetting where Trump, dare I say it, shines. And it's on a debate stage where he easily crushed dozens of Republicans who were running against him in the Republican primary in 2016 easily. I mean, all he, I don't know how he did it, but he did it. And it was a joy to watch. I know how he did. He did two things that are very correct. And the minute a Democrat does it, but with sanity instead of insanity, they're going to win. But they got to get past mainstream media. He won. He seemed like a populist. He's not actually a populist. He's elitist. And he even said, I don't want poor people in my cabinet. I only want rich people, right?

And so, and by the way, he had the richest cabinet in American history. And what did they do? The only thing they did was pass tax cuts for themselves, okay? But he seemed like a populace. It talks like a regular guy. Marco Rubio and Jeff Bush were like, these are the notes that were written for me that I will now read. You are in favor of free trade. And they seem like robots and fake phonies, right?

And Trump comes in. He doesn't seem like a phony because who else would say idiotic things like that? Nobody's going to script that, right? He's so far off the prompter, but that makes him look real and authentic. And the second thing he did that got him to victory was he pointed at all those guys. I already gave them money and they did whatever I told them to do because they're corrupt. And that's 100% right. I swear to God, I was on vacation.

It was the first debate. I watched it. And I said, this thing's already over. Okay. And then I came out here on the show. I said it. And remember, at the time, Trump's already on top of the polls. So it wasn't like I was a genius or anything like that.

And Ben and everyone else said, oh, you're crazy. To be fair to Ben, everybody said, you're nuts. There's no way in the world that clown can win. And I'm like, guys, this country's been waiting for one politician to say they're all corrupt. It's gonna- Yeah, we're right about that. It's gonna catch on fire. Of course it's gonna catch on fire. And he ran on drain the swamp in 2016.

By the way, in 2020, he didn't and he lost. Just one final excerpt from this piece. Voters have their own problems. This election was about them, not toxic Trump's pathological inability to accept his own fail and his desperate need to elevate cringe-inducing bootlickers while punishing politicians capable of an independent thought. Yeah, and I mean, it goes on and on calling him a boohoo whiner who lost his reelection bid due to his owning competence.

Yeah. Okay, so Padorts is a terrible neocon who I don't agree with anything on. But that's the thing about right wingers. They're perfectly happy to be vicious. vicious. Like if you ask a Democrat to fight Trump, they're like, I don't want to. I don't want to fight Trump. Okay, I know, I know. I'll call him a racist and then run. Okay, no, that's not really fighting him. So when it comes to Republicans, they're like, step aside, Butch, I got this. Okay. So now the vicious neocons and right wing hatchet men, et cetera, are going to take on the vicious Donald Trump. And they are actually going to shred each other. And so that is going to cause them damage in terms of their brand.

is going to turn it cause damage in terms of they're going to start endorsing different candidates on each side and then think about this guys this is this is probably the most important part Trump today news is out saying I'm running no matter what and people are like no they're trying to tackle them they're like don't hold on just think about it just think about it you're at your lowest point are you sure and he's like oh don't care and he's in a rage and writing I'm not angry on his platform right okay now when he runs everybody's gonna say DeSantis, you have to run. We gotta beat this guy, otherwise our party is ruined.

He's, and now conventional wisdom, and I think it might be right, is that Trump is the only Republican who could lose to a Democrat in 2024, okay, especially to Joe Biden, okay? So any other Republican probably can easily beat Biden, if I'm being honest, at this point, at this point, okay? So they're like, you guys, they're saying DeSantis has to run. But when DeSantis runs, Trump is either going to rip him to to shreds and win the primary because he still holds the MAGA voters in his back pocket. By the way, we went to Florida, Michael's sure did these interviews, you can watch it on

the Young Turks YouTube channel. And he said, DeSantis or Trump, literally every single person answered Trump, okay? So he's got his crew and it's a significant crew in the Republican Party, and they're the voters. And so, but if he doesn't win, he might threaten to run as a third party guy And ensure a democratic country. Oh, I love it. Yes. Yes, politics is back, baby. That's right.

We're gonna go to break. We'll be back. All right, back on TYT, Jake and Anna with you guys. Straw Hat Dragon gifted a membership on YouTube. We appreciate it. No straw hats. Yeah, well, there you go.

You got a whole dragon made of straw hats. And now a new member with thanks to that person. So thank you. I'm just to read one comment here. Dragon Dragon said the hyenas are turning on scar. Our members are so good, man. Great comments. Oh, you're a member.

I love that comment. $100 blue apron gift card. All right. email at rewards at tyt.com will verify that it's you and you'll get a hundred dollars of free food. All right. What's thanks? Well, let's talk a little bit about what Mike Pence is up to. Former Vice President Mike Pence published a lengthy excerpt from his book on the Wall Street Journal to kind of share his side of the story. What transpired on January 6th, what he was experiencing and what he thinks about it today. Well, what I got from this lengthy excerpt was that he was kind of sending

Trump some mixed messages. And I'll explain what I mean by that after I give you, I think, the relevant highlights from what he published. He wrote, by mid-December, an irresponsible TV ad by the Lincoln Project suggested that when I presided over the January 6th joint session of Congress to count the electoral votes, it would prove that I, I knew it's over, and that by doing my constitutional duty, I would be putting the final nail in the coffin of the president's reelection, meaning, you know, he's going to count the votes, the electoral votes, and that's it, it's over. Trump lost. Apparently, he thought that ad was irresponsible. It apparently also upset Trump. It was the first time anyone implied,

I might be able to change the outcome. It was designed to annoy the president. It worked. During a December cabinet meeting, President Trump told me the ad looked bad for you. I replied that it wasn't true. I had fully supported the legal challenges to the election and would continue to do so. But first of all, it is true that after you count the electoral votes, that's it. Like that little ceremonial thing that we do with the vice president and the joint session confirms these are the electoral votes, we're going to count them. Biden won, Trump lost. What was irresponsible about that ad? And why do you say you disagree with it? You're sending mixed messages to Trump who's a lunatic and thinks you're going to carry out what he wants you to carry out. Yeah, there's a killer

line from Trump in that in that exchange that we were going to get to in a second. But the reason that Pence is focusing on that ad, the ad's not at all important. He's trying to say that, Oh, it was the bad guys that brought this issue up to divide us in the first place. No, it wasn't. No. It was Trump and his idiot goons who came up with the idea. They were just rubbing it in your face with that ad. So that's totally a rewrite of history.

That's not how the timeline went at all. Listen, what I got from this was that even after Trump incited violence toward Mike Pence, to the point where Trump supporters wanted to literally hang him and were chanting that they wanted to hang him. Pence still, till this day, is trying to appease Trump. That's what I got from this. No, it's a slight variation of that. He's still trying to appease Trump voters. Yes, yeah, that's true.

Okay, that's why all of this entire op-ed, it's got devastating things in it. But he always catches it. Like, we were right to be questioning the votes and we should have done it the right way. And by the way, Anna, that's why he's telling Trump, too, because for two reasons. One, he wants to appease maga voters. Right, of course. If he just says, hey, you guys are goddamn lunatics. Of course we didn't win the election.

And I can't magically say, oh, Trump's now president, you idiot, right? So he has to massage it, right, as a politician. But the, so that's the main reason that he pushes it forward. He still thinks he's going to run for president. It's insane. And that the Trump voters are going to vote for him. Hey, wake up, Mike Pence. They don't like you.

They wanted to murder you. No, the unerned confidence among mediocre men like Mike Pence blows my mind, right? And the sense of entitlement. I mean, it is incredible. But let me continue. I mean, we're just scratching the surface here. So apparently things got heated at one point. Okay, so this is where things start to get heated.

On December 23rd, my family boarded Air Force 2 to spend Christmas with friends. As we flew across America, Trump retweeted an obscure article titled Operation Pence Card. It alluded to the theory that if all else failed, I could alter the outcome of the election on January 6th. I showed it to Karen, my wife, and rolled my eyes. Ooh, that's so, look, he acknowledges they wanted it. hang him, right? And that's his way of fighting back with a little, and I rolled my eyes. Ooh, Mike, oh, you're going crazy. Settled out, simmer down big. Oh, my God. Can you believe the president of the United States wants me to steal an election for him? Yeah, anyway.

I wanted to murder me. I roll. That'll show him. So then he hears about what Josh Hawley wants to do. So Josh Hawley was one of the Republican senators who said that he was willing to co-sponsor what Republicans in the House wanted to do, right, which was to challenge the electors. Now, Pence wouldn't be able to challenge the electors if it was just Republican members of the House wanting to do so. They needed senators to want to do so as well in order for a debate to transpire, you know, during this whole ceremonial event. And so he said, I welcomed Holly's decision, okay, to co-sponsor election objections on January 6th. So again, I mean, it's the mixed messaging that he's engaging in to appease Trump voters

while also trying to reject this notion of like, you know, using an alternate slate of electors or rejecting the electors, all of that. He then writes, early on New Year's Day, the phone rang. Texas Representative Louis Gohmert and other Republicans had filed a lawsuit asking a federal judge to declare that I had exclusive authority, okay, and sole discretion to decide which electoral vote should count. I don't want to see Pence opposes Gohmert suit as a headline this morning, the president said. I told him, I did oppose it. If it gives you the power, he asked, why would you oppose it? I told him, as I had many times, that I didn't

believe I possess that power under the Constitution. Quote, you're too honest, Trump chided. Hundreds of thousands are going to hate your guts. People are going to think you're stupid. Okay, no, that's super important. Yeah. Okay, now Mike Pence, remember, is very nervous, very careful. He's not going to say that Trump said something if he didn't say it, right?

In fact, he might cover up some of the bad things that he said. So look at what Trump said there. You're too honest. In other words, he's known all along that it was a lie. And what he's saying to Pence is, let's just grab power. Why are you sweating whether it's true or not true? Why are you sweating this stupid U.S. Constitution? You're too honest.

We could just stay in power, you idiot. And in his mind, he genuinely believes that part, where he thinks, well, if we could just stay in power by cheating, why wouldn't we? What kind of sucker or loser? What kind of dumbass would just volunteer leave because they got voted out? You're too honest. People are going to think you're stupid. Right. And that's him saying, I think you're stupid for following democracy.

And by the way, idiot MAGA, this is why we call him fascist. I hate Ron DeSantis. A lot of people on the left wing call him fascists. I don't, okay? Because I've never seen him try to ruin democracy. I've seen him be hateful. I've seen him do terrible things. But end democracy, I've never seen that.

Trump on the other hand said, hey, dumb dumb, why are you bothering to protect democracy? Let's destroy it and make the country fascist. And let me be dictator. Yeah, look, I just have one area of disagreement with you because you keep talking to Trump supporters and to MAGA voters as if the fascist label turns them off. They want it.

They want it. they were willing to storm the capital for it. So you just have to accept that, Jank. Like they don't care. I mean, you have them now openly calling for our democracy to be replaced with a dictatorship, literally. I'm not exaggerating that. I mean, it is what it is.

This is who they are. And hopefully, now that we've seen how poorly Republicans have performed in the midterm elections, maybe some of these Republican voters are waking up to the fact that they've got some portion of their base calling for things that they probably don't want, like the destruction of our democracy. I got to say one thing about that, Anna, it turns out that to be fair to the Republican voters, about eight and a half percent of them are worried that Trump and his guys are going to ruin democracy.

Right. That's the difference between Brian Kemp and Herschel Walker in Georgia, eight and a half points of people going, I can't vote for the Trump guy, okay? So apparently some Republicans were invincible. And then last thing is, in that same quote, he said, hundreds of thousands of people are going to hate your guts. In other words, I'm going to make them hate your guts. And that's exactly what he did. That's exactly what he did.

All right, final part of this that I wanted to talk about was the conversations that Mike Pence had with Eastman. That was Trump's attorney who had this political theory of the alternate slate of electors, meaning the sham electors, right? So Eastman talked to him, explained what the strategy would be. So at first, Eastman had argued that Pence could return the votes of five states until each state legislature certified which of the competing slate of electors was the correct slate of electors, basically a roundabout way of implementing the sham electors, right? Well, apparently Pence writes this. Eastman repeatedly qualified his argument saying it was only a legal theory.

I asked, do you think I have the authority to reject or return votes? He stammered, well, it's never been tested in the court, so I think it is an open question. At that, I turned to the president, meaning Trump, okay, who was distracted and said, Mr. President, did you hear that? Even your lawyer doesn't think I have the authority to return electoral votes. The president nodded. As Mr. Eastman struggled to explain, the president replied, quote, I like the other thing better, presumably meaning that I could simply reject electoral votes.

That story is so telling on so many fronts. Trump, they're discussing, hey, what is the legal theory, if any, exists at all for your claim that you should still be president? Kind of a relevant point, and the vice president is in the room where you're trying to convince the vice president. Meanwhile, he's like playing Sudoku or something. Like, he's like, he's like, well, well, eating a filet a fish or something. He's like, what's going on? I like the other plan better, yeah.

The other one, the other one where and what's the difference between the place? I don't know. Just go right, just fascism, yeah, I like that plan better. Okay, he's an idiot, he's incompetent, and he obviously wanted to overthrow our democracy. But one last thing about Eastman, he admits. in the emails, no, the Supreme Court will very likely rule against us. There is no real theory that makes us correct, right? And by the way, in the January 6th hearings, they showed the emails where he clearly

thinks that they are wrong, but he's still going in that direction. So that's bad intent. You could actually prove intent. Yep. Merrick Garland, do you exist? I know you're like wearing depend's 24-7. And you're so nervous, like, oh, what's Trump going to say about me? Loser.

Can you at least go after John Eastman? No. The guy is clearly on the record as we are lying, trying to destroy democracy. And he's like, I don't know if I can do anything. I'm glad he's not on the Supreme Court. I wish it was another, someone else appointed by a Democratic president. But I remember when Obama appointed him. And I was like, he picked the most conservative, most establishment Democrat he could find.

to put on the bench, because that's what Obama does. Right, because then he had a better chance of getting him confirmed. That's exactly right. And what happened? And to be fair to Merrick Garland, Obama's kind of his mentor. What did Obama do to fight for Merrick Garland? Nothing. Zero. So now Merrick Garland is doing nothing to fight for you guys. That does it for the first hour of the show.

When we come back, we've got some international news, including an update on the protests in Iran. Stick around. Thanks for listening to the full episode of the Young Turks, support our work, listen to ad-free, access members-only bonus content, and more by subscribing to Apple Podcasts at apple.com at apple.combe. I'm your host, Shank Huger, and I'll see you soon.