The Young Turks - Meet The Mess

Episode Date: September 19, 2023

Trump reportedly gave his staffer to-do lists written on classified documents. Legal experts say Donald Trump just threw his own legal defense "under the bus." Trump repeatedly attempted to blame Democratic California Rep. Nancy Pelosi, former speaker of the House on January 6, 2021, for the riot that day at the US Capitol. He claims that she rejected his offer of 10,000 National Guard troops. Trump said, “Listen: Nancy Pelosi was in charge of security. She turned down 10,000 soldiers. If she didn’t turn down the soldiers, you wouldn’t have had January 6.” He said explicitly, “She’s responsible for January 6.” "Terrible mistake!" Trump trashes DeSantis and other Republicans over abortion bans. HOSTS: Cenk Uygur (@CenkUygur) & Ana Kasparian (@AnaKasparian) SUBSCRIBE on YOUTUBE: ☞ https://www.youtube.com/user/theyoungturks FACEBOOK: ☞ https://www.facebook.com/theyoungturks TWITTER: ☞ https://www.twitter.com/theyoungturks INSTAGRAM: ☞ https://www.instagram.com/theyoungturks TIKTOK: ☞ https://www.tiktok.com/@theyoungturks 👕 Merch: https://shoptyt.com 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. Woo! It's up! All right, welcome to the young Turks, Jane Huguer, Anna Kasparan with you guys. Big day ahead, as usual, Trump accidentally confess us. And as usual, we've got the usual, you know, wrongdoings of the people in power.

So luckily, you found a show that covers it. But as always, we'll also give you a little bit of hope, too. All right, Casper, what's up? All right, well, a pretty big story that broke today in regard to Donald Trump's indictment on the classified documents case. Let's get to the details. One of Donald Trump's longtime assistance has now come out against him and is cooperating with federal investigators in the classified. documents case, the very case that Donald Trump himself has been indicted in by special counsel Jack Smith.

Now the aide said that Trump repeatedly wrote to do lists on classified documents while she was working for him, okay? And that's according to sources close to Molly Michaels, who's the assistant who has come forward with these allegations. So as described to ABC News, the aide, Molly Michael, told investigators that, More than once, she received requests or taskings from Trump that were written on the back of note cards. And she later recognized those note cards as sensitive White House materials with visible classification markings used to brief Trump while he was still in office about phone calls with foreign leaders or other international related matters. So, you know, given her tasks to do, writing it in list form, just that he happened to do.

in the back of literal classified documents, according to Molly Michael. Now, the note cards with classification markings were at Trump's Mar-Lago estate when FBI agents searched the property on August 8th of 2022, but the materials were not taken by the FBI, according to sources familiar, with what Michael told investigators. Now, for those who are unfamiliar with that name, as I was earlier today, she was someone who was hired by Trump. Back in 2018, Michael became Trump's executive assistant in the White House, and she continued to work for him when Trump left office.

But she resigned last year in the wake of Trump's alleged refusal to comply with federal requests and the FBI's subsequent search of Mar-a-Lago. Now, sources close to Michael said that she actually was not present. She was not at Mar-a-Lago at the time that the FBI raided Donald Trump's residence. But when she returned to her office, she found the documents underneath, according to her, a drawer organizer, and she says that she immediately transferred those documents over to the FBI that same day. Again, this is all based on what she's saying. It's unclear if Michael notified Trump or others at Marlago about her discovery, or if any of those note cards

from White House briefings are among the 32 different classified documents that Trump is charged with unlawfully retaining. And Michael also reportedly told the investigators last year that She was concerned about how Trump handled recurring requests from the National Archives about said classified documents, about handing those documents over. Speaking to federal investigators, Michael recounted how by late 2021, as many as 90 boxes of materials from Trump's time as president were moved into a basement storage room at Marlago and how as pressure from the National Archives mounted, she and Trump aide Walt Nata would bring boxes to Trump's residents.

for him to review. And sources said that after Trump heard the FBI wanted to interview Michael last year, Trump allegedly told her, quote, you don't know anything about the boxes. I mean, wow. Yeah, so there's a couple things that flow from this and also one of Trump's former lawyers have turned on and we'll talk about that in a sec too. So first is the flippant nature with which he deals with are classified documents. So if, again, you know, fill in a Democrat and MAGA would be irate.

If Biden was just like offhandedly writing to do list for his assistant on the back of classified act groups, oh, here's our plans to invade Iran here and go get me tomatoes and bananas, right? You know every Republican would be epiplectic in talking about impeachment. But for Trump, that's the bare minimum, okay? To me, the much more serious stuff is she says, over. over and over again, he would have them move the documents in response to the FBI. And the FBI would say give the documents and he'd like, don't give it to them. Just move them. Keep moving them.

And oh, we gave all the documents, the 15 boxes. And she's like, no, so there are at least 90 boxes. And you've seen them. And you've seen the pictures. So what are we doing here? And what you were doing was a federal crime. That's what you were doing. And so, look, we're only talking to independence. Democrats are going to say Trump's guilty no matter what.

Magna's going to say he's innocent no matter what. So to all the independence out there, how many times do people in his inner circle, people who got paid for him, people who liked them, who wanted to work for him, I have to say to you, the guy's an unbelievable criminal. We couldn't stop getting him to commit crimes before you believe it. So in this case, here we go again. We don't talk about the boxes, a total mob boss move, everything he did here is along those lines. And you've got to ask yourself at some point, what the hell was he going to do with those documents?

Yeah. Because, I mean, this idea that he just kept him for memorabilia is absurd. Well, I mean, please don't believe, tell me you believe that. I mean, apparently he just didn't want to spend any of his funds on paper to write to-do lists for his assistance. I mean, no, but that's the thing, Jake. I'm curious about that as well, right? Because obviously there's a lot of speculation about why he wanted to keep those classified documents in his possession.

Did he want to sell them? Those are some of the more nefarious allegations. Did he want to use them to his advantage anyway when it comes to foreign business dealings? Or is he just the kind of guy who doesn't like to be told what to do? No. You know what I'm saying? Yes and no. It doesn't even matter what his intentions were.

He was in possession of classified documents, he was asked multiple times to return them, he refused to do so. In fact, he lied consistently about what documents he even had in his possession, and that's what led to the raid in the first place, right? So it doesn't even matter what his intentions were. What I fail to understand is how a man can be so incredibly idiotic to the point where he becomes his own worst enemy, right? I mean, four separate criminal indictments.

When it comes to the classified documents case, I mean, mounting evidence of wrongdoing. Same when it comes to the election interference case. I mean, it just goes on and on and on. Own worst enemy. He doesn't know how to handle himself. Yeah, because it's pathological. He has a psychological problem. He can't stop lying and he can't stop breaking the law.

Guys, what Anna is saying might have some truth to it, that he was stubborn. And if the authorities tell you to sand something over, you might think, oh my God, that's the authorities. to be careful with this, and I wonder if I have something by mistake that I shouldn't have. That's what a normal person would think. Trump thinks, I hate the authorities, they're not going to get me to stop breaking the law. I'll show them. I'll hide the documents even more. So is that possible?

Yeah, there's some possibility. But why does he have him in the first place? Guys, the answer is super obvious, but we're not allowed to say for fair reasons, because we don't have the evidence on it yet. Okay? But there's one very logical reason why you'd have those arguments to sell them and make an unbelievable amount of money off of them. One other thing I want to bring up is, listen, you're engaged in, if this is all proven in court, of course, criminality by being in possession of these classified documents. He knows that. He knew that he was not supposed to be in possession of those classified documents. So why then basically engage in the sloppy behavior of writing to-do lists on the back of note cards that are essentially classified documents?

That's how she found out that these are classified documents. That's how she realized that he was engaged in wrongdoing. So that one has a super easy answer. Moron of morons. So I'm not just saying that flippantly, guys. So today Donald Trump has a true social post where he says, Biden is dumb as a rock. And in that same exact post, he says,

the Republicans should use the 25th Amendment against them. The 25th Amendment is for your own cabinet. It has nothing to do with the Republicans in the House or the Republicans anywhere. The Republicans, by definition, could not use the 25th Amendment against the Democratic president. Remember that people were threatening you use the 25th Amendment against him. He never even bothered to figure out what it is. insane. Like, you could have, he could have been removed from his office and his cabinet, different cabinet members met to discuss removing him from office because he was so emotionally

and mentally unstable. And he still didn't bother to find out what the hell the 25th Amendment is. And he's so painfully stupid that he writes in public something that isn't true about the 25th Amendment in the same post that he's calling Biden dumb. So is it surprising that a man of this level of like stupidity like just I doubt he crossed the 70 on IQ. I swear to God, okay? So I mean, just about as dumb a person as I have ever seen in public. Is it surprising that he'd write his to-do list on the back of classified documents? No, not remotely surprising. And for one more thing about the selling them, look, if you say, oh, the idea that Donald Trump, who loves America would sell out our defenses, I mean, I'm greatly amused by that. But that's

That's not what we're talking about, that you think that he's some sacrosan. Remember, he had our way of infiltrating Iran's defenses. You know who Iran's number one enemy is? Not us, it's Saudi Arabia. And Saudi Arabia, well, look at that, gave Donald Trump millions and millions of dollars right after the election through the golf tournaments. And they gave his son-in-law two billion dollars through his private equity fund. And they're the number one people who would want that exact document that he waived

around in Bedminster that he's on tape saying he's got and he knows he shouldn't have. So that is one of many different possibilities as to how he could monetize those documents. It's not just he happened to randomly grab hundreds of top secret documents, et cetera. Come on. And Jenna Ellis has turned on and we'll get to that in this. Right. Before we do though, he was actually asked about the multiple indictments he's facing, including the classified documents case during an interview with Meet the Press over the weekend. So I want to show you the portion where they discussed the classified documents. So you kind of get a sense of where Donald Trump's head is at on this issue.

Let's watch. A new charge suggests you asked a staffer to delete security camera footage so it wouldn't get into the hands of investigators. Did you do that? It's false. But let me tell you what- Would you testify to that under oath? I'm gonna tell. I'll testify-to-that under oath.

It's a fake charge by this deranged lunatic prosecutor who lost in the Supreme Court nine to nothing he tried to destroy lots of lives. He's a lunatic. So it's a fake charge. But more importantly, the tapes weren't deleted. In other words, there was nothing done to him. And they were my tapes. I could have fought them.

I didn't even have to give them the tapes, I don't think. I think I would have won in court. When they asked for the tapes, I said, sure, they're my tapes. I could have fought them. I didn't even have to give them. Just so you understand, though, we didn't delete anything. Nothing was deleted. Now it depends if the authorities subpoena the tape as part of their criminal investigation.

No, you have to you have to turn over the tapes. They have been subpoenaed. No, he just has a completely skewed in inaccurate view of how pretty much everything works, right? Whether we're talking about our criminal justice system or we're talking about our constitution in the 25th Amendment. It's this lack of intellectual curiosity. But even worse than that, it's this willingness to essentially push aside what the reality is and instead implement what his worldview is. And it's inaccurate.

No, you couldn't have fought them after they subpoena the tapes, the surveillance tapes in Mar-a-Lago because you refuse to hand over the classified documents. So look, nothing triggers me more than someone pretending to Donald Trump is intelligent. So here's the guy who thought the stealth fighter was invisible to the naked eye. That it was like Wonder Woman's Jet, you couldn't see it. And he said it twice on tape. Moron, ask someone, ask someone, right? And no one has the courage to say, hey, Mr. President, you're an idiot.

It's not actually invisible. Radar can't pick it up, right? Because he's not only dumb, but Aryan. In this case, he says, they're my tapes. Brother, they're your tapes until you commit a crime on them. When the cops call in and say, hey, we think you might. killed your wife and it's on your, you know, the ring video on your phone, on your door, right? You don't go, they're my tapes. You know, you can't have them. They're my tapes. Got you

cops. No, that's not how it works. If the authorities have a warrant to raid your home, even though it is your property, you don't have the right to deny them entry if they have a warrant. I mean, he knows, he has to know this. I see, God knows what he knows. So, and then he says, nothing was deleted, so it's not a crime. Also not a thing. Mr. Trump, it looked like you tried to kill your wife and you shouted her. But I missed, she's still alive, says, not a crime. No moron, it is a crime.

You just couldn't, you were so stupid, you couldn't complete it. By the way, that's literally what happened. They ran into technical difficulties when they tried to delete the tapes, and none of them could figure it out. And finally, the guy who was in charge of tech was like, I don't think we should do this either way. I'm pretty sure the authorities told us not to delete this. Meanwhile, Trump is telling everybody is,

just go ahead, take care of it. Take care of it, get care of it, right? So look, I wanted right, like, it would have been great if right wingers picked someone who was a populist and was really conservative and I would debate them and I would be mad, but wasn't such a pathological criminal, but nice job, right wingers. This is the, this is your leader, super embarrassing. Finally, Jenna Ellis, one of his lawyers, you remember the ones that I was out there with Rudy and the Cracken Lady, et cetera.

That's Sidney Powell. So Jenna Ellis, one of the top three during the whole election was stolen stuff. Today, Trump's a malignant narcissist. I cannot support him anymore. Oh, interesting. Okay, was that after you incriminated yourself in the election meddling case and now would like to distance yourself from Trump? Or had that not happened, would you still be a supporter of Trump's? I'm very curious about that. Yeah, so I got no love for the gen Alice of the world. Okay, they're giant hypocrites and now they're all, they're all scurrying about trying to protect themselves. But part of the reason is because Donald Trump won't protect anyone. He doesn't care about anyone that's related to him.

He makes you commit crimes and then throws you under the bus. So Jan Alice didn't believe that. She thought she was going to be totally fine. Oh, yeah, Trump really likes me. We're going to steal this election together and it's going to be great. Oops, it turns out we are going to be able to pull it off because he's a moron and I've been listening to this dumbest guy in America. Oh, the authorities are interested in this because it turns out you can't do a coup against America. And oh, Donald Trump won't defend me.

He's got hundreds of millions of dollars, but he won't spend a dime doing it because he's so infinitely greedy. Oh, malignant narcissist, thank you for figuring it out, Jenna. But again, MAGA, every single person that's on his side at some point goes, holy cow, what an unbelievable liar and what an unbelievable criminal. But I'm sure dozens and dozens and dozens of right-wingers, deep conservatives, all wrong, but your beloved cult leader. is the only one who's telling the truth. All right, have at it. Well, when we come back from the break, we'll share with you how Trump decided to incriminate himself on national television, having to do with one of these indictments,

by the way. Don't miss that story. We've got that and a lot more coming up. We'll see you then. All right, back on TYT. Jay Canana with you guys and a Florida dragon gifted five Young Tours memberships on YouTube. So they're with us too, and we appreciate all of you guys. If you want to join, you can hit the join button below or t.wit.com slash join.

Casper. All right, let's get right to the next story. The most senior lawyers in your own administration and on your campaign told you that after you'd lost more than 60 legal challenges that it was over. Why did you ignore them and decide to listen to a new outside group? Because I didn't respect them. Legal experts are now arguing that that moment that you just watched during Trump's interview on Meet the Press was basically the moment he incriminated himself and essentially

countered his own legal defense in the election meddling case, which of course he's been indicted for both on a federal level and in the state of Georgia. Now, he's facing those two indictments because of his alleged actions. And here are his statements with a lot more context. So you can decide for yourselves whether he engaged in basically incriminating himself. But understand that his argument, his main defense is, I was just following legal counsel. This is what my lawyers were telling me. Well, is that really the case? Let's watch.

The most senior lawyers in your own administration and on your campaign told you that after you'd lost more than six, illegal challenges that it was over. Why did you ignore them and decide to listen to a new outside group? Because I didn't respect them. You'd hired them. Sure, but that doesn't mean, you know, you hire them. You never met these people. You get a recommendation. They turn out to be rhinos or they turn out to be not so good. In many cases, I didn't respect them. But I did respect others. I respected many others that said the election was rigged. You called some of your outside lawyers. You said they had crazy theories. Why were you listening to them? Were you listening them because they were telling you what you wanted to hear? You know who I listened to

myself? I saw what happened. I watched that election and I thought the election was over at 10 o'clock in the evening. You were listening to your instincts. My instincts are a big part of it. That's been the thing that's gotten me to where I am, my instincts. But I also listen to people. There are many lawyers. I could give you many books. There are books that are written on how the election was rigged. There are numerous books that were written on how the election was rigged. Just to be clear, were you listening to your lawyer's advice or were you listening to your instinct. I was listening to different people. And when I added it all up, the election was rigged. So there you have it. Donald Trump has a library with many leather bound books. He's read two

Shakespeare's and a Camus. But nonetheless, he says that his instincts were a huge part of it. I think that's probably the most damning thing he said there. But he also kind of muddles the message with, I also listened to legal counsel that of course told me things I wanted to hear. Yeah, when Welker was drawn up the question, given how much it's in the news and given the case, she probably thought through a couple of potential answers that she could get. One was, well, I listened to some lawyers, but not others. Well, that would already be a problem for Donald Trump's defense because that means, okay, so you weren't just strictly listening to counsel.

You were making your own decisions as to which lawyers you would listen to, right? And already that would be problematic for Donald Trump, but you know that Donald Trump is not going to understand that concept, right? There's like two brain cells like Pong that go there, but I don't know if they ever meet inside his brain. But of course, with his verbal diarrhea, he wound up saying a lot more. I listen to myself. I listen to my own instincts. I'm in charge. Later she asks, are you in charge?

And he's like, I'm in charge. I made a decision. Well, poof, there goes your whole defense on my lawyer's main. me do it. That's true. I mean, there's no ansips or butts. Okay, I mean, you're totally screwed. The only way he gets out of any of this is he pards himself on the federal cases and he gets mega jurors who are like, yeah, I don't care about that, but it's at all. In the state of Georgia. In the state of Georgia, state of New York, yeah. Right, where in Georgia, he would not be able to pardon himself. Same with New York, because these are state level indictments.

But if he were to be elected again as president of the United States, there is some concern that he would attempt to pardon himself. And he was actually asked about that in the context of this interview. So why don't we take a look at what he had to say about whether he would try to pardon himself if he were president again. If you were reelected, would you pardon yourself? I could have pardon myself. Do you know what? I was given an option to pardon myself. I could have pardon myself when I left.

People said, would you like to pardon yourself? I had a couple of attorneys that said, you can do it if you want. I had some people that said it would look bad if you do it, because I think it would look terrible. I said, the last thing I'd ever do is give myself a pardon. I could have given myself a pardon. Don't ask me about what I would do. I could have, the last day, I could have had a pardon done that would have saved me all of these lawyers and all of these fake charges, these Biden indictments. They're all Biden indictments, political.

They indicted, they want to arrest their political opponents. Only third world countries do that, banana republic. So ready? I never said this to anybody. I was given the option. I could have done a pardon of myself. You know what I said? I have no interest in even thinking about it.

So I just need to understand something because maybe I'm misinformed, okay? That's definitely a possibility. But for Trump to pardon himself, he would have to do it while he's still in office. Yes. When he was still in office, I maybe have the timeline a little bit mixed up, Jank. But when he was still in office, he hadn't been indicted yet, am I right about that? Yeah. So look, normal process works like this.

You get indicted, you get convicted, then you ask for a pardon. Normally no one ever asked for a pardon until there's a conviction, okay? But Trump has turned all, everything upside down. So then you would have to, in order to get a pardon, you have to admit guilt and then ask, And then have contrition. So none of those things happen. My guess as to what actually happened based on decoding the orange moron here is that he invited lawyers to say, can I give myself a pardon?

And the lawyer is like, no, Mr. President, there'd have to be a case. And you're not going to be president when there is. You can't give yourself a preemptive pardon for all the crimes you've committed. Besides which, that would look pretty bad, right? And we'd have to be awfully specific. We'd have to say, oh, for the national documents you're about to steal, we're We're gonna give you a pardon. Right, they hadn't stolen the national documents yet.

Okay, so none of this makes any sense. But look, his verbal diarrhea has one giant downside, but it has two accidental upsides. Well, part of the reason MAGA believes him no matter what is because all of our politicians sound like phonies. That's totally true. And they are phonies. And they are phonies, that's right, okay? So MAGA correctly assessed that, right?

But then this guy sounds authentic. Why does he sound authentic? Because who the else would admit all those things, right? He just says all these things he's not supposed to say. And so they go, oh, then he must be honest. No, there's a difference between verbal diarrhea and honest, right? And the second reason that it helps is because he's constantly repeating. And in politics, it's all marketing and repetition works.

So he's like, I could have pardon myself. I could have pardon myself. So when he says that, every mega guy now in the country is saying to all their family and friends, He could have pardoned himself, but he didn't. This is going to seem weird, but I, it seems like I'm going off on a tangent, but it is related. So in regard to the Hunter Biden prosecution, when the defense and the prosecution in that case had agreed upon a plea deal regarding specifically the gun charges, Republicans lost their minds. And I actually gave them, I felt that their argument had merit, right? Because the argument was, well, this plea deal is too vague.

This plea deal appears to provide immunity to Hunter Biden on any crime that he has committed up until this point. And that is just too much immunity. We're uncomfortable with that, right? I agree with them on that argument. Me too. I felt that it was too vague. That kind of immunity is unacceptable.

Okay. Now think about it in the context of Donald Trump, right? So what would Donald Trump do if he were to pardon himself before leaving office? He would essentially declare that any criminality he engages in in the future, any potential indictment he might face in the future, he has pardoned from. Just a blanket pardon, right? Blanket immunity. Luckily, he didn't do that.

But if you buy his argument that he just made in that video, and if you think that he would be justified in pardoning himself before he leaves office, understand what that would actually entail, and then consider the double standard you're engaging in, if on one hand, you have a problem with Hunter Biden's blanket immunity. And on the other hand, you would have no problem with Donald Trump's blanket immunity if he had pardoned himself. Yeah. So in that same case, I said the judge made the right decision because that immunity grant

was way too vague and broad immunity for what, everything, right, in regards to Hunter Biden. But Anna is absolutely right in pointing that out. But that's the problem with MAGA, you cannot break through them. But that doesn't mean you shouldn't talk about these stories. One, we're in the news business and this is massive news about the former president. And by the way, the current leading candidate in the race period, he's now beating Biden in the polling, okay, and easily winning the Republican primary. So he is right now, as things stand, likely to be the next president of the United States. And so for independence out there that still use their own minds, how could you possibly do a blanket pardon for crimes in the future, let alone the crimes in the past?

And when you talk about the crimes in the past, you have to lay out what crimes they are. So Trump would have had to have said, yes, we tried to do a coup. Yes, we did fake electors. I pardon myself for the fake elector coup that I was planning and already committed. Maga, you really think he has the power to do that and you really think he should have done that? And you really believe him when he says, I didn't even think about it for a second. Then why did you just tell us about the meeting you had with lawyers where you guys discussed it? That's not really, I didn't think about it for a second.

That's, I brought it, either the lawyers just voluntarily came in out of nowhere. And he's like, oh, look, lawyers asking to talk about a pardon, which I didn't ask for. Or he asked for the lawyers to come in and say, hey, how can I avoid culpability when I'm a lifelong criminal and I broke like a half a dozen or two dozen laws, right? So did that mean he happened? Did it not happen? Does he think about it? Does it not think about it? His contradictions are endless, but you guys always say, no, not guilty.

not guilty, not guilty. I bet somebody else did something along those lines. What about this? What about that? No, he did all these things. He's incriminated himself now to no end. They'll be able to stay in court. Here's the president on several occasions in that interview saying I made the decision. I was in charge.

It was not the lawyers. I didn't listen to the lawyers that were giving me good advice because I didn't respect them. And instead, I decided to seek out lawyers who told me exactly what I wanted to hear. That was essentially the message, the implied message in the way he handled the questions in that interview. So we'll see what happens, but I just know the basics of what you should and shouldn't do if you're facing criminal investigations and criminal indictments. Do not under any circumstance do press interviews about these issues, because you might say something that self-incriminates. And that's exactly what happened to here. And again, not bright enough to realize he's that he's incriminating him.

Like before you went to go talk to her, you didn't think for one second, hey, what's my top defense in this case? Oh, right, my lawyers told me that I could do a plan a coup, and I could have people pretend to be electors when they're not electors and have them signed documents. And then we create a disturbance in the Capitol so they can't finish the proceedings. And then we have it kicked over to the states. My lawyers told me to do that. You didn't think through what your number one defense in court is going to be. That's your number one defense. That's what the DeHiro defense lawyers are already indicating they're going to go with.

And so you just go out there and you blow your own defense. Come on, Magh, he's smart. Why did he just shoot himself in the foot? Why? He doesn't think through anything because he's not bright at all. Please pick someone smart, please. All right, let's move on to another moment in Trump's interview that I think is worth discussing because this is a lie that gets told over and over again.

And I think it's important to understand how the Capitol police actually work. So without further ado, let's get to the next story. That was at 4 o'clock and a afternoon more than three hours of three hours. after the attack started this president. I want to know who you put out on that day. Nancy Pelosi. I don't have, why would I tell you that? Donald Trump was asked by Kristen Welker on Meet the Press, why he refused to help members of Congress by deploying National Guard troops as the January 6 riots were underway. Now, his answer was full of lies, but before I get to debunking those lies, why don't we hear what he had to say

in greater context. You as Commander-in-Chief, you have authorities that Nancy Pelosi doesn't have. No, no, she has authority over the Capitol. Why didn't you send help in that moment, though? Frankly, just so you understand, I assume that she took care of it. She turned down. But when you realize that the National Guard wasn't coming? Well, you didn't realize anything until quite a while.

National Guard not coming. I asked it to be there three days in advance, and she turned it down. She says that that request was never officially made. Oh, stop it. Let me just tell you. Let me ask you about this, Mr. President. The mayor of D.C. gave us a letter saying that she turns it down. Okay, we have it. Nancy Pelosi also was asked, and she turned it down.

The police commission of Capitol Police, wait a minute. Capital Police said that he wanted it, and Nancy Pelosi wouldn't accept it. She's responsible for January 6th. So let's talk a little bit about how this process actually works, because even if Nancy Pelosi wanted that kind of power, she doesn't have that kind of power. The Speaker of the House does not have that kind of power. So what do I mean by that? So the way that the National troops, National Guard troops would be deployed in a situation

like this is if the so-called Capitol Police Board gets together and they unanimously decide this is what we're going to do. Now, what consists of the Capitol Police Board? You have the House Sergeant at Arms. That's not Nancy Pelosi. That was a guy at the time by the name of Paul Irving. He actually resigned the day after January 6th. He did report to Pelosi, but Pelosi's not the one who's part of this board that makes the decision. Paul Irving was part of that board. Then you have the Senate Sergeant at Arms, the individual who reports to the Senate Majority Leader at the time It was Mitch McConnell. That guy's name at the time, Michael Stanger.

He was the Senate Sergeant in Arms. And then you have the architect of the Capitol, Brett Blanton, who had all sorts of issues. We'll get to him in just a moment. And then there's the chief of police for the Capitol Police, right? And at the time, that's Stephen's sonned. Okay. So the board decided against calling the guard ahead of January 6th. They had a conversation about it.

They decided against it, but then they requested troops after the rioting was already underway. That is how the process works. So even if, by way, there's no evidence of this happening, but even if someone approached Nancy Pelosi specifically and said, yo, we're offering you up 10,000 National Guard troops, what do you say? She doesn't have the ability to either approve or deny that request unilaterally. And I do find it fascinating that Trump is so hyper-focused on national. Nancy Pelosi, who's the person that the House Sergeant at Arms reports to. But what about the Senate Sergeant at Arms, which reported to, or who reported to Mitch McConnell

at the time? Is he irrelevant in all of this? Nothing matters, guys. So look, the National Guard is in the executive branch. Nancy Pelosi doesn't have some authority over the National Guard. She has no authority over the National Guard. It's like saying, why didn't the Mayor of San Antonio call in the National Guard? DC because he's not the president of the United States and that's what the president can do and only the president in conjunction with this board getting their recommendation and following through and a normal process that the executive branch does.

So he says at one point in that interview, I assumed she took care of it. You assume Nancy Pelosi, who is not in the executive branch, took care of the National Guard. So that's why you didn't do your job. I don't understand how anybody believes this guy. I just don't, guys, come on. All right, he says, she's responsible for January. The new BMO ViPorter MasterCard is your ticket to more. More perks, more points, more flights, more of all the things you want in a travel rewards card, and then some.

Get your ticket to more with the new BMO ViPorter MasterCard and get up to $2,400,000, in value in your first 13 months. Terms and conditions apply. Visit bemo.com slash the iPorter to learn more. Three six. Yeah, they were trying to kill her that day. So she thought, oh yeah, why don't I just invite a bunch of my political opponents? In fact, the most deranged of them, the ones willing to break into the capital and murder me

and Trump's own vice president. Yeah, I'd love to do that. But yet, go on social media and what you will see from Mago, Walter Wallace, It was Nancy Pelosi. Yeah, it is amazing. And it shows, look, I don't expect anyone to know how this process actually works, right? And what you have here is Donald Trump essentially taking advantage of or exploiting, you know, I think the general ignorance that most Americans have about how this process works.

So it's very easy to lie to people and especially get Trump supporters to believe that the person responsible for not calling for help from the National Guard troops, was Nancy Pelosi. Of course, that's not the case. By the way, I want to give you some more details about what transpired that day. So remember, all of this had been investigated as part of the House Select Committee investigating January 6th. So Steven Sund, the Capitol Police Chief during the riots testified to the Senate panel that by 109 p.m. on the afternoon of the riot, he notified both Irving and Stanger of

the department's need for a state of emergency declaration and National Guard troops. which was not approved by the Capitol Police Board until after 2 p.m. It took over an hour for them to finally approve it after the riots had already been underway. Okay, Irving said he did not recall getting a request for the National Guard until shortly after 2 p.m. Now, after the investigation, some of the laws have changed, which I think makes a lot of sense. So according to a roll call in late 2021, President Joe Biden signed a bill into law that lets the Capitol Police Chief ask for National Guard help without the approval of the Capitol Police Board. And I said I would get to the architect of the Capitol, right?

At the time, the person serving in that role was Brett Blanton. So Brett Blanton said he avoided coming to the hill on January 6th of 2021. He explained that he thought it wouldn't be prudent to drive to work that day, a revelation that infuriated lawmakers on the House administration committee panel, which investigated this. Instead, he said his official vehicle served as the agency's mobile command post during the January 6th attack, where he listened to police radio and directed personnel from afar. Yeah, it was mobile because you were getting the hell out of Dodge.

You were supposed to get in there and help. That is hilarious framing. So look, we tell you a thousand times over, you know, yes, Trump was a pathological liar, but the press makes it seem like he's the only one in power that lies. No, most of the people in power lie all the time. Just not as spectacularly as Trump. I think one of our members on YouTube nailed this as to why he didn't respond. And people don't say this often enough, and I think it's exactly right.

Knightita wrote in, Trump sat in his corner hoping the coup succeeded. Once it failed, he finally spoke. Exactly right, okay? He sat there for three hours watching TV, hoping go get him, guys, go get him. Meanwhile, we know from witness testimony, Mark Meadows, his chief of staff comes and says, Mr. President, they're talking about murdering the vice president, your vice president, Mike Pence. And he says, Mike deserved it.

And he goes back to watching to see if they're going to succeed. And once he realizes, oh, yeah, he's, how could they possibly take the building and they keep it? The only people who could believe that are the idiots that were on the ground and Donald Trump. No, they were supposed to delay the proceedings and then the Republicans were supposed to panic and the Democrats were supposed to panic and bring it back to the states. But they didn't panic. And once they didn't panic, finally it dawned on Trump, oh, right, this can't possibly work. Then he comes out and makes a statement, oh, okay, I guess you guys can go home now that the coup failed. All right. When we come back, Donald Trump has some harsh words for Republican lawmakers,

not just Ron DeSantis, but also other Republicans, and the way they've been messaging and passing laws on abortion. So we've got that and more. Don't miss it. All right, back on TYT, Jank Anna and Boss Monkey with you guys. They hit the join button below the video on YouTube. You can do likewise become an American hero. I like monkeys. I like members. But Boss Monkey, I'd be careful.

Boss Monkey could do some damage. Well, the good news, they're now on our side. Nice. Because all members, you are the Young Turks. Without you, we don't have this. And we'd love doing the show with you guys. Casper. Well, Trump had some harsh words for the Republican Party.

Let's hear what he had to say. I think the Republicans speak very inarticulately about this subject. I watched some of them without the exceptions, et cetera, et cetera. I said, other than certain parts of the country, you can't, you're not going to winner this issue. Donald Trump accusing others of speaking inarticul. on an issue. Now, in this case, he's actually referring to members of his own party on the issue of abortion. Let's hear more of what he had to say. Democrats don't want to see abortion in the seventh month. Okay, I speak to a lot of Democrats.

They want a number. There is a number and there's a number that's going to be agreed to. And Republicans should go out and say the following. Because I think the Republicans speak very inarticulately about this subject. I watch some of them. them without the exceptions, et cetera, et cetera. I said, other than certain parts of the country, you can't, you're not going to win on this issue, but you will win on this issue when you come up with the right number of weeks because Democrats don't want to be radical on the issue, most of them, some do. They don't want to be radical on the issue.

They don't want to kill a baby in the seventh month or the ninth month or after birth. And they're allowed to do that and you can't do that. Now, I would just like to commend Donald Trump for telling the truth about where Democrats stand on the issue because despite the incessant accusations that Democrats want like late-term abortions, abortions right after the baby is born, which is murder, by the way. There are literally laws on the books against that. You know, Trump was willing to actually tell the truth, but not quite. Because earlier in the interview, he basically claimed that Democrats are extreme on the issue and they love late term abortions and they want abortions up until the

point the baby's going to be born and even after the baby is born. Yeah. So it's like he loves to say two things at once. He does it on every single issue. So look, we're burying the lead. I'm going to get the lead in one second, but let's keep burying it for one more second. Okay. So he says in the earlier part, they sometimes they wanted after the birth. Well, again, not a thing that's called homicide. And then they bothered to debunk that. No, there's no, there's no law regulation, Democrats have pushed for killing people outside the womb, not a thing that exists, right? But he says that then he turns around and he knew very specifically, in the longer version of the interview, he said 92% of Democrats don't want abortions in the third trimester.

That's true. So why did you make up to the Democrats want to murder kids in the ninth month and afterwards, right? And why did you say it in this same interview? It's just so crazy. Right? Like, he's just, he's, he's, he's. He's inexplicable in so many ways. But finally, the major story here, Donald Trump is pro-choice. That was a definitive pro-choice segment. She asked many times, and he answered many times, we just have to pick a week. We have to pick the number of weeks, and then, okay, and that's the answer.

Well, if you want to say that abortion can be legal up until a certain number of weeks, that's basically the pro-choice position. Exactly. The pro, the anti-choice position is, no, no weeks, it's a life form and you're not allowed to touch it. Life at the moment of conception, which by the way, moment of conception, the second sperm enters the egg, even before it implants itself into the uterus, right? Life at the moment of conception, anything happens to that life, it's tantamount to killing babies. And not only is, okay, if you say, all right, that is the definitively, the anti-choice or pro-life position, however you want to frame it, right?

Life begins at conception. I've heard that for 40 straight years now. So there's no good, and you could ask them. That is their position. But you say, all right, well, look, that's the activists, et cetera. But the Republicans that are passing laws are saying six weeks, like Rhonda Santos, right? Which is effectively a ban because women don't know they're pregnant, usually at six weeks. And so our side will say that.

And maybe some people on the anti-choice side will say that. That's okay. I mean, it's basically a ban on abortion if it's six weeks, right? We'll take it. But Trump is not saying that. In fact, he's actively fighting against that. And he's saying, no, let's pick weeks, whether it's 15 weeks, 24 weeks. Well, if you pick 24 weeks, that is exactly Roe.

That's exactly what Roe said. That's exactly right, yes. Now, look, what prompted the answer that you just heard from Trump was the question of whether Trump would pursue a federal ban on abortion. And in the context of that answer, he also discussed how, look, people wanted the issue to go back to the states. I help make that happen. It should be left up to the states. But then he proceeds to talk about what could be done on a federal level, right? So again, kind of contradicting himself by even answering that question. If he genuinely believes

it's a state's rights issue, he would have just said, look, it's a state's rights issue, let's move on. But he didn't. He started talking about what could happen on a federal level, and his views on abortion-related policy on a federal level is the pro-choice perspective. And look, This is what I think is actually transpiring here. You say Donald Trump is dumb. I think that in certain areas, he is not informed. He certainly doesn't know how our government works. He certainly doesn't know how our Constitution works.

But putting that aside, the one area where I think Trump is actually pretty smart is politics. Just saw a headline right now about how he's planning on delivering a speech about the striking car auto workers, right? He understands that that is a popular thing to do. Lean into the economic populism, even if you don't mean it. In this case, he saw what happened in the midterm elections, the red wave that never happened. A huge reason for that was because of the abortion bans. It was because of the reversal of Roe.

And what's hilarious to me is that as he's calling out Republicans, he's getting a lot of backlash from these anti-abortion, anti-choice conservatives. they're delusional about the popularity of what their views are. federal ban landed on your desk if you were reelected, would you sign it at 15 weeks? Are you talking about a complete ban? A ban at 15 weeks. Well, people, people are starting to think of 15 weeks. That seems to be a number that people are talking about right now. Would you sign that? I would, I would sit down with both sides and I'd negotiate something and we'll end up with peace in that issue for the first time in 52 years. I'm not going to say

I would or I wouldn't. I mean, dissent is willing to sign a five-week and six-week ban. Would you support that? You think that goes too far? I think what he did is a terrible thing and a terrible mistake. But we'll come up with a number. But at the same time, Democrats won't be able to go out in six months, seven months, eight months, and allow an abortion. What Trump just said there, despite all the backlash he's getting from conservatives, and we'll get to the backlash in a moment, was actually spot on in regard to where public opinion is on that issue.

So Anna, I don't think it's a matter of being smart or not. I think that he's a con man, and he has been his whole life. And so what do con men do? Some con men are smart. Yeah. Oh, some are, for sure. But he's a blunt instrument. Okay.

So he just, and I wrote about this in my book, Justice is coming. He would test, along with assistants, they'd go on talk show hosts or they, first they'd listen to talk shows, he'd have the assistants do it. And then he would go on with like Mark Levine and Sean Hannity, et cetera. And they would test two different messages, because they don't care. He would have been a Democrat if he thought that was more effective, right? He would have been super kind and giving if he thought that was going to be more effective. Oh, so depressing that that's not effective.

I know, I know. So what they found out was what Republicans wanted to hear was we hate immigrants. That's the number one thing that did that they heard back from those experiments basically. And like he could have put out a pro-immigrant message because he's used undocumented immigrants his whole life on his real estate projects, right? And in fact, they tested it and they came back, no, you got to hate immigrants. So in this case, what's he doing? Well, he's given people what they want and it's actually elementary politics. So he's like, oh, people don't want a six-week ban and people are in America are overwhelmingly pro-choice.

So then why don't we be pro-choice, but we just don't say we are. So that's why he says, well, I'm going to negotiate number of weeks, 15, 24, again, that's the pro-choice position. the pro choice position. Yep. So he's just saying he's pro choice without using those words. So why don't the other Republicans do it? Good question. So the reason Ron DeSantis is going extreme on abortion, social issues, et cetera, is because

he's trying to find room on the right to be seen as more right wing than Trump rather than left wing. Because if he's seen his left wing, it's over. He has no chance of winning, right? Yep. So he's got to outflank him on the right, so he's got to go to these extreme positions to have a prayer winning the primary, and then, by the way, if DeSantis or any of them win, they'll renounce those positions in the general election, and most of the media will come

out and go, oh, that's a smart pivot. No, that's just a lie, right? But anyway, that hasn't happened yet. So right now, Trump is going with the more popular position, because duh. No, but it is amazing, right? Because DeSantis's strategy will lead to even more failure. And to be sure, Trump has only widened the gap between himself and Ron DeSantis in the Republican primary polling. But they don't get it. I mean, it reminds me of the kind of campaigning that we're seeing from Mike Pence. I mean, put aside the fact that Republican voters who are loyal to Donald Trump absolutely

despise Mike Pence. Put that aside. Even if that weren't the case, Mike Pence has largely campaigned on anti-abortion garbage. Doesn't bode well for him. And it hasn't been really doing well for Ron DeSantis either. Let me just read what Ron DeSantis's war room put out on X. New, Trump says he will compromise with Democrats on abortion, so they're nice to him. Both sides are going to like me.

Then he says it's a terrible thing. Babies with heartbeats are protected in Iowa, Florida, and South Carolina. He didn't quite say that, but nonetheless. But he kind of did, though. I'll come back to that. But they're not heartbeats at six weeks. Okay, anyway, Ron DeSantis will never sell out conservatives to win praise from corporate media or the left. But listen, Ron DeSantis War Room, get to know voters in your own party.

Because voters in your own party don't like the draconian anti-abortion policies, including the effective abortion ban in the state of Florida. They believe that abortions should be legal in the first trimester. Yes, even the majority of Republican voters feel that way. So look, a huge thing happened today regarding Ron DeSantis and abortion. One of the top Republican donors in the country is given in the hundreds of millions pulled out from DeSantis and said, I'm not going to support him anymore. Why? Okay, what happened?

That's because of the six-week abortion. Oh, interesting. Fascinating. Now, why? You think, is he just, even though he's a massive Republican, he's just adamantly pro-choice? No. He says, that's going to eliminate him from winning the general election. And you see the really rich donors that actually control our politics, the right wingers, they're not actually right wingers. They don't actually care about abortion. They use abortion to gain power so they can get tax cuts.

So now that abortion is going to cost them power, they're telling all the Republican politicians dump it like it's a bad habit. Who gives a goddamn what these religious idiots think? We're just using them as cannon fodder for our tax cuts, right? So dump their sorry asses and move on. And they're like, DeSantis, what's wrong with you? Why aren't you dumping them? It's not because DeSantis is open hardest for the strategy that I explained to you in a second.

But the donor thinks, I don't care what your primary strategy is. I just care about winning a Republican winning the general election. Because any Republican will give me the tax cuts that I want. Right, and look, for those who are curious, what do you mean it's just a way of getting tax cuts for, you know, corporations and the rich? Just look into Paul Wyrick, who found a way to unite and galvanize religious voters through the abortion issue. But that wasn't what motivated him. What motivated him was the fact that schools that refused to desegregate were no longer able to claim like tax breaks and tax deductions, right? And so he was furious about that and needed an issue to galvanize religious voters and

abortion worked. But in this day and age, after having reproductive rights granted to Americans through Roe v. Wade in the 1970s, it's really hard to go back. Even among religious voters, a lot of them are like, I don't know, man, maybe should be legal in the first trimester. Because yeah, people want freedom. They want to be able to make decisions about their own lives. And abortion isn't simply a culture war issue. It is an economic issue as well, considering the kind of country we live in, the lack of support that families get in this country when it comes to everything from, you know, medical bills or health care system, child care. It's a big issue for a lot of people.

And I think it's a big issue across the aisle, regardless of religion. So what Anna refers to, I partly explain in chapter three of my book, Justice is coming out tomorrow, actually, t.yt.com slash justice to order it. And that chapter is called why Republicans suck. And among the reasons why they suck is because not only they try to trick you guys, they try to trick their own voters, because they don't give a damn about their voters. All they care about is, give me the money, Lebowski. They're not investing $100 million to the politicians because they don't expect a return. They expect a massive return.

And by the way, even Trump is now saying, oh yeah, corporate taxes, I'm gonna cut them even more. So, and that part of the strategy is actually smart. He's undercutting DeSantis with his base, DeSantis's base, that was the donors. So he's outflanking him in every direction. But last thing I want to say is go back to the substance of this. He said about the six-week ban that it would be a terrible thing and a terrible mistake. Well, you're just told all of the pro-life voters in the country that their position is a

terrible thing and a terrible mistake. That is indisputable. You can go and watch the tape. That's what he said about the six-week ban. So yes, there should be repercussions from conservatives going, oh, I guess Donald Trump was lying to us the whole time, and he was pro-choice the whole time. Which, by the way, remember, he used to be publicly. Listen, my prediction is they won't be upset. Of course not.

Right. So we'll say, I can be wrong. Maybe good news out of this, because maybe now Mago will be like, Trump said it, we are now all pro-choice. We'll take it. Let me do a Biden and say, they were pro-choice anyway. All right, we got to take a break. When we come back for the second hour of the show, some pretty serious allegations

against Russell Brand involving rape and some multi-year investigation with some text messages to corroborate the claims. I want to give you the details on all of that and more when we come back. Thanks for listening to the full episode of the Young Turks. Support our work, listen ad-free, access members-only bonus content,

more by subscribing to Apple Podcasts at apple.co slash t-y-t. I'm your host, Shank Huger, and I'll see you soon.