The Young Turks - Melania Trump Demands Firing Of White House Advisor And CNN Goes After Trump

Episode Date: November 14, 2018

Melania Trump has made a very public and very bizarre demand of a top White House official. CNN is taking Trump to court over his unprecedented ban of reporter Jim Acosta. Get exclusive access to our best content. http://tyt.com/GETACCESS Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You're listening to the Young Turks, the online news show. Make sure to follow and rate our show with not one, not two, not three, not four, but five stars. You're awesome. Thank you. All right, welcome the Young Turks. Jake U. Granite and Kisperian with you guys. As usual, a crazy day in news. It's Trump world.

CNN has sued the White House. That's fascinating. I have mixed feelings about a couple of stories in the rundown today, including. that one, believe it or not, but wait till you get a load of Maxine Waters. I think that, look, I've actually had some issues with her in the past in terms of policy, but in this case, I think she's going to do some amazing work. So this time, Trump folks, buckle up, brace for impact. If Maxine Waters is the one that takes down Donald Trump, oh, that would be awesome, awesome.

If a black woman led to his demise, it wouldn't get any better than that. Yeah, yeah, I would, unless it's maybe a Mexican woman. No, because his disdain for black women is maybe higher than for anyone else. Really? Including Mexicans? Well, you know, Mexicans, he uses a political punching bag and does demagoguery. And look, he's terrible to all these groups. But I think he genuinely is deeply racist and sexist against black women, like in it, to

his bones, in his core. That is why every time there's a black woman, April Ryan, Abby Phillips, and the list goes on and on the recent PBS reporter, Maxine Waters, Amorosa, it goes low IQ, stupid, dumb. And like this whole idea of like, how dare you ask me a question? Why? is actually one of the longest serving reporters in the White House press corps. She would actually have a better standing-to-ask question than almost anyone in the room. But he looks at her like, how dare you?

Yeah. And so that would be terrific. Anyway, that's a little bit later in the program. And I gotta tell you, I got a little bit of anger. Oh, we have a dangerous show ahead for you, because I have a lot of anger today. Yeah, you look like you're pent up. You look like you're ready to- I'm just salty today, so I'm actually excited that you You might disagree with me on some stories because I can let it out on you.

Oh, okay, that sounds great. Looking forward to the show today. All right, so we got some salt bait coming out. Action coming up, apparently. All right, so that's coming up. Anyway, the one thing I'm angry about is related to the young Turks. I still haven't caught John, Jesus Christ, guys. Like, come on, balance the reason.

This isn't funny anymore, okay? First of all, I should be catching Anna. What is it? What is this? As my dad was there, what is this? TYT.com slash jank. Okay, no, that ain't right. Okay.

I agree with everything John says. John is always right. Some serious sabotage here. There's insanity in the synapse control room tonight. Is there collusion going on at the TYT headquarters? Is John colluding with the producers and the director? You know what it is? It's a witch hunt.

It's a witch hunt. And be a witch hunt if people wanted to investigate the potential collusion going on. Well, I think maybe we should. No, I doubt. Anyway, in fact, I'm kicking you out of the synapse control room. Yesterday, I was going through my old list of things that were named in the last couple of drives. And Savannah Cooper, you are a legend.

We talked about it in the post game last night, but she's got a camera, and I confess last night that I had forgotten that she named the control room, the synapse control room. Okay. So in honor of you, Coop, all right, from now on, there's insanity in the synapse control room. room tonight. Okay. So this is a triptych desk, by the way, named by Adam Westberg.

All right, t.wit.com slash Jen. Anna. Jenk, let's move on. Oh, come on. We gotta move on. Oh, that's a good picture of me. Okay, yeah. I agree to disagree.

By the way, Jake made fun of my hair right before we went live. I didn't make fun of it. He did. He made fun of my hair. No, I was trying to help you because it was a mess. You weren't winning with it. He said, is your hair supposed to be frazzled like that? Okay.

This exact quote, keep that in mind when you're thinking about joining under his URL. Okay, look, you get 18 different progressive shows. This guy had the audacity to make fun of my hair. Okay, 18 different progressive shows, commercial free, okay? Any time you want, including exclusive stuff like old school, aggressive, progressive, postgame, behind the scenes you're gonna love. T.y.t.com slash, go, go to the next story. Remember when you accidentally got a mushroom haircut?

Yeah, I- We talked about it in post game. You should become a member just for that conversation. conversation alone, because I couldn't stop laughing. Okay, let's move on. There's a lot going on in the news. Slashchang. Okay. My hair is a little faster.

I told you. Okay, come on, we gotta do the news. What's wrong with us today? Okay. All right. In an unprecedented move, First Lady Melania Trump has called for the firing of a top national security official, another woman by the name of Mira Rick Adele, Rick Hardell. And she hasn't given many details as to why she would like this individual to get fired.

We do know that the two women did clash during Melania Trump's recent trip to Africa. And the only statement that we've received from her communications director, Stephanie Grisham, is the following. She said, it is the position of the office of the first lady that she no longer deserves the honor of serving in this White House. And when she says she, of course, she refers to the national security official that I had previously mentioned, Myra Ricardell. Now the only other thing that we know is that they did have a few confrontations, one of

which included a confrontation, including Rick Cardell demanding that the National Security Council staff have seats on the First Lady's plane during her trip to Africa last month. And that's according to people who are familiar with the disagreements that. took place. Yeah, all right, well, look, normally this would be, again, as usual, the largest controversy in another president's term, but it's going to be one of thousands under Donald Trump. But now we got first ladies firing deputy national security advisors. That's a super important position, having to do with, I don't know if you could tell

from the title, national security. So as you're worried about the caravan and all that stuff, and oh, my God, the immigrants are coming in, the infection and all this stuff, you just fired the deputy national security advisor because the first lady didn't like that she wanted the national security staff to be on a foreign trip with her. I mean, is that what the national security staff is supposed to do? She's like, oh, I do declare, oh my God, they interfered with my trip to Africa with with all their national security stuff.

So this whole stuff about Melania Trump should get a pass, I'm done with it. So Nancy Reagan, when she got involved in politics, and she did a couple of things that just say no campaign against drugs, and it was a huge part of starting the war on drugs. Thank you, Nancy. You know, she gets all this ass kissing in Washington. Oh, Nancy Reagan. She was so stupid that she told Ronald Reagan about how astrology should rule his decisions the White House, and that idiot listened to her, okay?

So now if you're Laura Bush, now that's another Republican first lady, and you didn't get involved in politics, she was nothing but intelligent, pleasant, a good representative of the country, never did anything wrong, never got involved in the trying to control policy for irrational reasons, then there's no reason to go out for the first lady. It's not about Republicans or Democrats. Laura Bush was, in my opinion, perfectly fine, and I defended her throughout the Bush administration for eight years as we went after her husband and Dick Cheney relentlessly, right? Well, Melania Trump comes in and starts firing national security advice because he didn't

like the way she picked seats on her plane. No, no, no, I'm done with her. She married Trump, come on, we're playing, we got kid gloves when we talk about Melania Trump. Well, look, I did not want to attack Melania Trump on the things that I saw people in the media and online attacking her for, which was her past. as a fashion model, the way she dresses, what kind of shoes she's wearing, who cares about that stuff?

I think that it is fair to criticize her once she does enter the political world and she starts making or having influence on political decisions. And if we have a member of the national security team getting fired because Melania Trump just simply doesn't like this person or doesn't like the types of confrontations they had, then yeah, I think that it's fair to criticize her. To be fair, I don't know much about, you know, the deputy national security aid. What I do know is that this is a very strange thing. It's never happened before.

And to know that the first lady could have, if this woman gets fired and it appears that she will likely get fired, she has undue influence. I mean, what type of expertise does she have to make a decision like this, unless there's actual evidence of wrongdoing that could put the country in jeopardy in some way, which I doubt. Look, and I'm also tired of their hypocrisy. We're always a good guy, so we don't criticize her modeling career. But Michelle Obama tried to get kids to eat healthy, and they said, oh, she's doing crop again

and try to control your live, and big guy, yeah. And when she wore sleeveless shirts, which is the most normal thing on the planet, they're like, oh, how dare she expose her arms? Melania Trump did naked lesbian photo shoots, I'm cool with it. I got no problems, but you better never, ever talk about Michelle Obama's arms again. And then now, look, let's keep it real, too. Laura Bush married George Bush when they were very, very young, okay? And Melania married Donald Trump when he was very, very old.

And so what did she do it for? Because of his charming personality, because he's a very high IQ person because he's a stable genius, can we just be real for one second? I know you're not allowed to say it. She married him for the money, for the money, okay? There is no other reason to marry a monster like Donald Trump. He's not remotely charming, he's one of the dumbest guys in the world, he's a brute and a bully, he cheated on her endlessly, she did it for the money, but now we're supposed

no, no, no, no, don't say it, you're not allowed to say it. I'm saying it, sorry, sad day for you. Yeah, I don't care for any of the reasons why she got married to Donald Trump. I do care when she starts making decisions that impact the country, impact national security. She's not an expert on national security. I don't care how much she might dislike a person. You have to look at that person's expertise and decide whether or not he or she is doing a good job in the position that they're currently holding.

That is how you decide whether or not that person should remain in government, not whether not the first lady likes that person. Last thing, look, the reason I bring up the money is because what's the qualification here? I mean, is she, again, I'm gonna, we keep using Laura Bush as the counter example. Well, they kind of came up together, right? And she was trusted by George W. Bush to give him decent counsel. And she appeared to be on the surface a very decent person who would try to temper his, you know,

worst instincts, right? Melania Trump, we're trusting her to make decisions about the deputy national security advisor for what reason? For what reason? She's not a, like they didn't grow up together, she's not a trusted partner in that sense. She's got none of the attributes of anyone else remotely qualified to talk to the president. Now I know there's a great irony because the president himself is a moron, he's not qualified to make decisions about the national security advisor.

But he's the president, there's nothing we can do about it, and he got elected. That's real. Whether he's qualified or not, the American people decided he should be president. Now, but when the first lady comes in and based on fits of, you know, whatever it was peak, you know, that they didn't, she didn't like this other woman for whatever reason, telling the president what to do and firing people involved in security, totally, utterly unacceptable. All right, moving on to other news, actually an update on an ongoing story. CNN has decided to file a lawsuit against Donald Trump and other defendants in relation to the revocation of Jim Acosta's White House press credentials.

Now, his press credentials were revoked after he asked Trump a simple question a day after the midterm elections regarding the migrant caravan that is attempting to make its way to the U.S. U.S.-Mexico border. Take a look. President, if I may ask one of the question, are you worried? That's enough. That's enough. That's enough. That's enough.

That's enough. That's enough. Mr. President. I'll tell you what, CNN should be ashamed of itself having you working for them. You are a rude, terrible person. You shouldn't be working for CNN. Go ahead. I think that's unfair.

You're a very rude person. The way you treat Sarah Huckabee is horrible. And the way you treat other people. people are horrible. You shouldn't treat people that way. Go ahead. Of course. Just sit down, please. Well, when you report fake news, no, when you report fake news, which CNN does a lot, you are the enemy of the people. Go ahead. Mr. President. Later that night, Jim Acosta's press credentials were taken away, and CNN felt that there was no other avenue to combat this other than a lawsuit. So the suit alleges that Acosta and CNN, that

Acosta and CNN's first and fifth amendment rights are being violated by this ban. But something to just keep in mind, it was docketed, meaning the lawsuit was, and assigned to Judge Timothy J. Kelly, who is a Trump appointee. We'll see what happens. And there are six defendants listed in this suit. Trump, chief of staff John Kelly, press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, who had shared a doctored video of this whole kerfuffle to make it seem as though the situation was much worse than it was. Deputy Chief of Staff for Communications, Bill Shine, we have the Secret Service Director and

the Secret Service Officer who took Acosta's hard pass away last Wednesday. And they have listed past precedents regarding the White House and the press in their suit, which I'll get to in just a second, but Jenk, jump in. So I'm a little conflicted about this. So it's important for people to stand up for freedom of the press. So I'm glad that CNN is doing that in that sense. From a political optics point, and CNN is not in the politics business. I mean, they cover the news, but they're not on one side or another.

And if you think they're liberal and on the side of progressives, that's hilarious, conservatively, they're economically, they're incredibly conservative. But as a matter of optics, it makes it seem like the press is in a battle with Donald Trump. We are in a battle with Donald Trump. Yeah, I hear you. We are, but the battle was started by Donald Trump, who repeatedly refers to the press as enemy of the people for simply doing their jobs. For the first time in decades, the press is actually doing a decent job covering people

in positions of power, a decent job. I mean, for the first time ever, I mean, I'm reading the New York Times, reading the Washington Post. They were asleep at the wheel during the Obama administration, and the Bush administration. And the Bush administration. We're finally seeing muck-raking journalism, which I haven't seen in forever. No, we are. I mean, there are stories, Jank, that unfortunately because of, you know, time restrictions we haven't

even been able to get to. But one of the stories that the New York Times did an excellent job on recently was how the Trump administration is basically letting these big banks that caused the economic meltdown in 2008 off with very, very low fines. Yeah. So there is good journalism going on, stuff that we wouldn't know about. if we had, you know, the crappy reporting from, you know, the past decade. Yeah, so look, back to CNN.

The problem here is that, and I get it, look, I don't want to appease the crying of the right wing. And they will cry about this and they are in the middle of crying saying, oh, you see that? Oh, the president is not going to Trump. So I'm not in that business, but there's also a little bit of hypocrisy here. So the Obama White House denied us a press credential. There's about 150 press organizations in the White House press corps. And you find out in this story, apparently the only reason to ever deny anybody press

credentials is if you think that they're a physical danger of the president. So is Jim Acosta physical danger to the president? Of course not. That's preposterous, right? But we weren't a physical danger of Obama either. And we were probably larger than about 130 out of the 150 press organizations there. And they cry about that.

They're like, oh yeah, yeah, I don't know, but it's a lot, I can't tell. So, like, they deny outlets all the time. And so, but now this is a big name reporter, so, you know, it becomes a different situation. No, I get it. But we were stupid for not fighting. Like, let's keep it real. So should we have sued Obama? Maybe we should have.

Yeah, we should have. We absolutely, I didn't know. I didn't know. I had no idea that we had applied for those press credentials and had I known what type of rights we had, then yeah, we should have fought and we were dumb for not doing that. But this isn't about us. This is about the First Amendment, this is about the press overall. I love the fact that they're suing, because I do believe that their constitutional rights

were violated. And if you look in the past at previous rulings that were very similar to cases like this one, judges have ruled that the press has a right to be there, that they can't just simply be banned because the president doesn't like them or like their reporting. So now I think it constant has a better case in CNN, because they're not. Part of the defense of the White House is, well, look, there's 50 other CNN reporters who have press passes who can come to the White House. But then you get to pick and choose the reporters that you like and you create a hostile

environment and one that is purposely intimidating and could ruin a specific journalist's career. I understand all of that. But if I was CNN, the next person I would send would ask much harder questions than Acosta. So you didn't like Acosta, we're going to send someone even tougher. And you ban that guy, we'll send someone even tougher, okay? So, and but for Acosta, it's super real, and I get it. And so if I'm in his situation and you say you banned me because he didn't like the questions I was asking, well, that deprives me of my freedom of speech, freedom of press under

illegitimate circumstances. So if you're going to do it right, first of all, the standard for the secret service is that whether they're a danger to the president, obviously Acosta's not. Second of all, you're supposed to send written notice to the media organization. You're supposed to go through a legal process, and do you think Trump went through that? Of course not, because he hates the rule of law. He can't stand it, he's a wannabe dictator, doesn't care. So he didn't do any of the things right legally, so then CNN and Acosta have all the right

in the world to say you didn't follow the law at all, at all. So don't get me wrong, I think Acosta has an excellent case. Now, and one more thing to buttress that, they said for a while, oh, with the doctored video that they had that was sped up to make it seem like Acosta was chopping at the intern's arm. And as you just saw in the video there, he did not do that. And they said it was because he had touched the woman or assaulted her or whatever, right? Here's the problem with that, as usual, Donald Trump ruined that defense because he's too stupid

to keep track of his own lies. So on Friday, he said that Ocosta was, quote, not nice to that young woman, but then he said, quote, I don't hold him for that because it wasn't overly, you know, horrible. Oops, there goes your one defense. Awesome. Yeah, I mean, his, his own mouth gets himself in trouble all the time. So great. Look, this is not about CNN, it's not about TYT, it's not about the liberal press or conservative

press. I would feel just as passionate about this if there was a conservative member of the media. who had been retaliated against simply for asking the president a question that he didn't like. This is unacceptable. We can't allow something like this to stand. And if a lawsuit is the only way to stand up to Trump in this case, then it's the right thing to do because we need journalism, we need people to have access to people in positions of power so they can give us the information we need.

And yes, in the future, we should fight. We should fight because we deserve to be there just as much as CNN does, just as much as the New York Times does, or any other news organization. I mean, they have people there from the daily caller. If you have people there from the daily caller, I mean, come on. So that's Tucker Carlson's website that publishes lies on a very, very regular basis. And they do it for propaganda purposes. So now one more piece of hypocrisy from Donald Trump.

During his campaign, if you remember, he kicked out a lot of people from his rallies, the Washington Post, BuzzFeed Politico, Univision. etc. At the time, he said, no, no, no, he's not going to do it when he's in office. Quote, when I'm representing the United States, I wouldn't do that, but I would let people know if somebody's untruthful. In fact, we have video evidence of that. This is a video from June of 2016. If you are elected, will you try to revoke the press credentials of media outlets at the White House?

No, it's a different thing. In my case, I'm a person running for office. I rent these large arenas. I rent them, and so I have an option. When I'm representing the United States, I wouldn't do that. But I would let people know if somebody's untruthful. And here's one more quote from Trump during the campaign. Whoever choose the people that get the press credentials, I wouldn't even tamper with that, frankly. Please.

Okay, so not true, as usual. He hates the idea of the First Amendment. and the idea that there would be a free press who would challenge government officials. He believes in big government ruling over you. He believes in authoritarian form of government. And so, no, he was lying the entire time when he was, and you knew from his campaign, when he banned the press, he would ban the press when he's in the White House, and he has, and he's banned Acosta.

So, look, it's a minor, it's not even a dispute. I'm just unsure if this is the right strategy as opposed to the strategy of sending tougher and tougher reporters with tougher and tougher questions in. But you could, by the way, you could do both. Yeah, I would argue that would be the best way to do it. Yeah. Keep sending, you know, real journalists who are going to ask some tough questions. And don't back down.

That's the thing that I'm afraid of, actually, that there was going to be no action taken following this. Yeah, so you know what, let me give credit to a guy, I almost never give credit. to, that's Jeff Sucker. So look, there's good reason for not giving him credit. He's unfortunately the guy who's partly responsible for bringing us Donald Trump in the first place, not only because he hired him in the apprentice, he couldn't have known that he was going to run for president, but he gave him billions of dollars on free media coverage and

denied it to progressives and other candidates during the campaign. But in this case, he is standing strong for freedom of the press and for Jim Acosta, and he is not getting bullied. And so for that, credit where credit is due, the Jeff Suck. who runs Sienna. And I'll tell you what, one super last thing. We had Sam Donaldson on the show a long time ago, and he was the White House correspondent for ABC for a long, long time, both under Reagan and Clinton, he told us a great story

about whenever the Reagan White House or the Clinton White House complained about the questions he was asking, Rune Arledge's boss would give him a race. So to Jeff Zucker, you should send two signals. One is this lawsuit if you think that's the right thing to do, and obviously you do because you filed it, but two is you should give Jim Acosta a race, and you should make it very, very public so that it sends a message to all other reporters. We will not be intimidated. If you do your job and you're a watchdog journalist and you challenge the government, you

will be rewarded, not punished. Let's take a quick break when we come back some good news, including real action by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez already, and what Maxine Waters plans on doing to the big banks. All right, back on the Young Turks, members' comments first. Professor Ging writes in, OMG, could you guys imagine how hard TYT reporters would rock the White House press score? Oh, we get super salty. Oh, God, that'd be great. Anyway, Maas writes in, how many people have to drown in right-wing tears for folks to realize it's not the left end of the snowflakes?

Like it, Ganes, right? I don't get it, you always say that CNN doesn't find. We need to talk about a relatively new show called Un-F-The-Republic, or UNFTR. As a Young Turks fan, you already know that the government, the media, and corporations are constantly peddling lies that serve the interests of the rich and powerful. But now there's a podcast dedicated to unraveling those lies, debunking the conventional wisdom. In each episode of Un-F-The-Republic, or UNFTR, the host delves into a different historical episode or topic that's generally misunderstood or purposely obfuscated by the so-called powers that be.

Featuring in-depth research, razor-sharp commentary, and just the right amount of vulgarity, the UNFTR podcast takes a sledgehammer to what you thought you knew about some of the nation's most sacred historical cows. But don't just take my word for it. The New York Times described UNFTR as consistently compelling and educational, aiming to challenge conventional wisdom and upend the history. historical narratives that were taught in school. For as the great philosopher Yoda once put it,

you must unlearn what you have learned. And that's true whether you're in Jedi training or you're uprooting and exposing all the propaganda and disinformation you've been fed over the course of your lifetime. So search for UNFDR in your podcast app today and get ready to get informed, angered, and entertained all at the same time. By back, now it's different. Well, let me go to Cam J before I respond to that.

Cam J writes, and the press is discredited by both sides. The way they report only compounds, how people see them as arms of the rich. This will make CNN look like a rich elite institution fighting a manifestation of the people. So that's interesting, and I think that's part of it. I think that what I was trying to say earlier is CNN now looks like they're in a conflict with Trump, whereas when they are asking questions, that is not because they're opposed to Trump, those are legitimate questions that they should ask of any government official and any president.

Whereas the lawsuit makes it seem like they're fighting when in reality, like asking the questions is not fighting. You see what I'm saying? I know it's a difficult point and I'm not making it incredibly well. No, I get what you're saying. Right. Because journalists are not supposed to have personal grudges and personal bias. biases against people in positions of power, they're supposed to be asking the tough questions

because it's the right thing to do, it's what a professional journalist, a real journalist does. But the fact of the matter is, right now they are in a fight with the president. And it's not because they started it. It's not because they want to be in that fight. It's because he's the one who made the decision to revoke credentials. In my opinion, and hopefully in the judge's opinion in the future, in an unconstitutional way. And so yeah, they're in a fight right now. But I don't think that this is CNN's doing.

You know how CNN is. They go out of their way to be neutral. They don't want the conflict, they want the access. But in this case, I mean, you have a president who can't even handle neutral reporting. All right, Jack Townsend writes in on YouTube super chat, hey guys, I'm very conservative. I don't really agree with you all on much. But I watch you all the time and appreciate hearing different points of view. I know that there are normal conservatives who can disagree productively.

I really appreciate you writing in and saying that, man. It's good to know that, and I love that you've got an open mind, or at least listening to the other side. And we can be pretty tough on the other side, and the fact that you're even listening to us shows you've got even more open mind. Okay, so we have resolved one thing at least, which is the TYT shirt contest is over, and Anna has been defeated. Oh, damn.

Okay, and luckily it's by a good guy, not a bad guy. Bernie won Kenobi has won the poll, t.com slash poll we were asking which shirt you would prefer, and apparently it is Bernie won Kenobi that you preferred. And by the way, the person who designed that is a TYT member. Their handle is old turk. So you'll be able to purchase that picture on a shirt later this week at shoptty.com. Shop tyy.t.com would make for a good Christmas gift, by the way, to fellow Bernie supporters. And next Monday, Anna and I are going to do a special post game that's free to everybody.

Normally the post games are just for the members. But in this case, only the members can ask questions. And you could be on video too. So it's a special thing. It's called Shindig where you get to ask those questions, like as if you're Skyping in, we're using that technology to do that. So if you want to be one of the people asking us questions, become a member, t.t.com slash And if you, but if you want to watch it, everybody can, well, I thank you, appreciate that.

Oh, come on. Anyone, anyone can watch that special post game where the members ask us questions next Monday. All right, Anna, what's next? All right. Alexandra Acacio-Cortez, along with a number of progressive groups, including the Justice Democrats and the Sunrise Movement, protested outside of the offices of House Minority leader, Nancy Pelosi, who of course is the House minority leader right now during the lame duck session.

So what did they protest? Well, protesters called for Democrats who will have a substantial majority in the House next year to create a select committee to develop a plan to switch to 100% renewable energy. So we're gonna give you Pelosi's reaction to this protest in just a minute, but remember Pelosi is a Democrat, she's on the left, and you have real progressive show. up to her house, not really her house or office, and demanding that she actually do something about climate change and renewable energy here in the United States. Now without further ado, let's hear from Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in what she has to say about

this protest and this whole movement. We need to tell her that we've got her back in showing and pursuing the most progressive energy agenda that this country has ever seen. You know, I think in order for us to move forward and what Americans are asking, not just of the Democratic Party, but for all members of government, Republican, Democratic, independent, everyone agrees that we need to get big money out of politics and that the way future is to figure out a way where we can govern without special interests getting in the way. Do you think that the Republicans can move on this issue at all, or is there too much fossil fuel money in their coffers? You know, there are some Republicans that are actually in the NOPAC caucus, I believe. So, so I don't think that this is necessarily a left versus right issue. This, this can be a true issue.

So she's a little hopeful there at the end. And so I love this, that's strength. And it's nearly unprecedented, I've never seen, and I don't recall at all, it might have happened, but I certainly don't recall it. of a person in the same party, who's, in her case, a congressperson elect, going to the office of the minority leader, soon to be speaker of the house, and joining a protest and speaking outside of her office, man, that is unreal strength. And I'll tell you, look, because if you look at it from the outside, you might be like, what's the big deal?

I mean, she's a progressive activist. She won office. She should just do what you're not seeing the pressure in Washington. In that bubble, they're like, how dare you? How dare she? How dare she? No, but seriously, my God, I don't know what Pelosi's about to say to you guys. I haven't seen the video yet, Anna did.

But I can tell you, in private, she must be fuming. And so they're gonna say, oh, you're bringing cameras into my office, you know, and trying to challenge me. And of course, whenever they don't want to actually do anything and you challenge them on it, you know what their go-to excuses? Well, why didn't they just ask for a meeting? I would have done the meeting. Oh, sure, sure, of course you would have, right?

And you would have immediately taken action, right? Doubted. So I think that actions always speak louder than words. And whatever little thing that so-called progressives might pick on Alexander Acosio-Cortez for casually saying in the past is irrelevant. What's relevant is what she actually does. And what she did here, in my opinion, is absolutely correct. Because establishment Democrats do not like to be challenged by members of their own party.

They're harsher toward progressives than they are toward conservatives in some cases. Definitely. And so I love what AOC did here. She showed real strength. She showed that she's willing to get together with progressive groups, organize, and really hold Democrats' feet to the fire. And Pelosi, I mean, what option does she have in terms of a statement, a public statement? Of course, she's gonna make it seem as though she's okay with this.

Look, to be fair, we're speculating as to what she's thinking internally. I know, I know. I know. But I mean, I think we have good reason to have that speculation. But nonetheless, here's what Pelosi said publicly. She said in the statement that she was, quote, inspired by the energy and activism of the many young activists and advocates leading the way on the climate crisis. She also said, I have recommended to my House Democratic colleagues that we reinstate

the select committee to address the climate crisis. We welcome the presence of these activists, and we strongly urge the Capitol Police to allow them to continue to organize and participate in our democracy. Okay, I will give Nancy Pelosi credit for an excellent statement. That's exactly the right thing to say publicly. And so, look, if you don't believe me that internally, that they're fuming, I say that based on my experience and having talked to a lot of people in Congress in the past. I'm not saying that I have specific knowledge of what Nancy Pelosi thinks about this particular

incident, that's fine, you can choose not to believe it, but I've been there. And especially with incoming freshman congresspeople, they're like, oh, you got to know your role and you got to earn your stripes and so pay your dues. Pay your dues. And for someone like this, and they'll say, oh, look at this grandstanding with the cameras and everything else and trying to get in good with the activists, right? They hate that stuff, they hate it to their core. So I hope I'm wrong and they magically switched overnight and they'll say, and usually

what they do is, and this is the most important part, they threaten your career behind the scenes. I guess you don't want a good committee assignment. Well, good luck with that. Yeah, I mean, good luck with that. Exactly. From what I can see from Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, she doesn't view her career in the same way that almost everyone else in Washington does.

She's not a careerist. She didn't go there to like, oh, I'm going to get a plum assignment on a committee. And then one day I'm going to be the chair of that committee, and I'm going to raise so much money with that position because then all the lobbyists will have to kiss my ass and I'll accrue more power. And then I'll have more power for the sake of having power, but I won't do anything with it. Otherwise, I'll lose that power, right? No, she came in to do something.

And on day one, she's already doing it. That's a real progressive, and that's a real strength. Absolutely. Let's talk about Maxine Waters, because we're seeing a lot of strength there, especially when it comes to the big banks. I love, love, love this story. Maxine Waters is expected to head the powerful House Financial and Services Committee. And now that Democrats have taken over the House of Representatives, she is specifically going

to go after the big bank, something that I absolutely love, especially because it seems as though so much attention is focused on Trump and all of his nonsense, that it feels as though the big banks and corporations have been getting away with murder behind the scenes while everyone else has been distracted. But it appears that Maxine Waters has not been distracted. So she wrote a letter to her colleague's eight-page letter indicating what she plans on doing as the head of this committee, okay? And with Trump in the White House, she says, I know that our fight for America's consumers

and investors will continue to be challenging, but I am more than up for that fight. I like that kind of talk. So first she's going to go after two of the big banks, Wells Fargo being one of them, and Deutsche Bank is the other one. I don't know which one of these actions I love more. I love it too. Okay. So Wells Fargo, lots of drums there.

We've reported on a bunch of stories where Wells Fargo had to confess to wrongdoing. We'll get into some of those details in just a minute. But one of the reasons why she's going after Deutsche Bank is because Deutsche Bank was giving Donald Trump loans when no one else would, right? So Wells Fargo and Deutsche Bank, the largest German financial institution that has had a long relationship with Trump, were the only two banks specifically mentioned in her eight-page letter. But she says that she's not going to stop there. Those are just the first banks that she plans on focusing on.

Deutsche Bank was one of the few banks that lent money to Trump after bankruptcies by some of his companies. In 2017, the bank paid about $630 million in fines to US and British regulators for failing to prevent trades that allowed the transfer of about $10 billion out of Russia in violation of anti-money laundering laws. So if you remember, they got Elliot Spitzer on questionable transactions that his bank reported, saying he's taking out big amounts of cash at the same time. Now, technically, they're not supposed to report it unless it's in $10,000 increments or more.

On Spitzer, they decided, well, he's going out for the big banks. Why don't we go after him? They went and reported numbers. They're called suspicious activity reports, and they made a lot of them in even smaller numbers, in his case. Now, so the banks do that. I just give you that as an example because the banks are supposed to, by law, do that on a regular basis. When they have transactions of their clients that check off certain requirements, they They must by law report it.

Sometimes they do it even if it doesn't meet those requirements as they did the Spitzer, right? So you think Donald Trump was smart enough and savvy enough not to have hit those red flags? You probably hit them left, right, and center, right? And Deutsche Bank says we will cooperate with any law enforcement we have and we will and we look forward to it. Fascinating? No, they won't. They won't.

I mean, of course they're going to say that publicly, but if you look into, okay, go ahead. No, no, I'm with you. The banks have been terrible in evading justice, or they've been quite adept at evading justice, and Deutsche Bank is not going to voluntarily walk in and go, by the way, all the terrible things that we've done, but they have had to pay these enormous fines for all the different lawbreaking, instead of that they've done. The only reason why in this case they might be telling the truth is because they're in trouble, man, they have supported a ton of wrongdoing, including the billions of dollars in money laundering

That they knew that they were doing. That's why they paid the fines, right? And apparently Mueller's team has also talked to Deutsche Bank. So they might be chastened by that. Like, oh, the special counsel requested things about potential law breaking. We're in a lot of trouble here. Because the number one thing they care about at the end of the day is their own ass, right? So yeah, they'd like to protect their clients that are doing illegal activities.

That's part of their appeal to them, like, oh, don't worry, come. We'll launder your money for you, right? But if it's them versus their clients, they'll go, us, us, we're gonna protect us first. So Trump might be in a lot of trouble here. You get into his tax returns, that's a whole world to hurt for him. You get into his bank account, oh, that is filled to the room with landmines. So go get him, Max. So I think that Trump is certainly one of the motivating factors in some of these investigations.

And I'm fine with that. But for me, this goes beyond Trump, right? This is more for me about what we're going to do to protect consumers. Because what's happening behind the scenes, and unfortunately these are the types of stories that don't get enough pickup, is that the Trump administration, both through the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the Justice Department, have been taking it very easy on the very banks that mess with us and destroyed the economy. So a specific example is Barclays, which is one of these major multinational banks.

They were also committing fraud in the run-up to the 2008 economic downturn. And what they were doing was the subprime mortgages, bundling these mortgages, and then putting out these mortgage-backed securities that people were investing in. People were unwittingly investing their retirement money in that. And those assets were so toxic. As soon as everything blew up and people started defaulting on their loans, people lost nearly 50% in some cases of their retirement accounts. And so the Department of Justice under Obama pursued, in my opinion, a very weak fine for

Barclays, only $7 billion. You know what the Trump administration did? They settled for $2 billion. They said, hey, Barclays, here's a $5 billion gift to you because Donald Trump won. Now, you're gonna have to pay that fine because you rip people off. You stole their money. But we don't mind that you stole their money because you're our donor. So we're gonna give back $5 billion to you guys.

Donald Trump is the swamp. He's gross. So, you know, in her, when she goes after Wells Fargo too, she's gonna do it to protect consumers. And look, you gotta understand. I have some policy differences with Maxine Waters. And I think she's actually more on the corporate Democrat side. oftentimes, okay? But that's for another day.

As Anna pointed out, we gotta go fight the White Walkers first, okay? So whether it's House Lannister or whoever, let's go, let's go, there's a bigger threat. And the threat right now is Donald Trump. And I think Maxine Waters doing a fantastic job of fighting back against them. And going after Wells Fargo protects you guys, because they keep ripping you off, going after Deutsche Bank, goes after Trump, but if Trump didn't do anything wrong, then they won't find anything. This only is if we're right that he did do things wrong, then they'll find a lot, okay?

So, and if it's Maxine Waters that takes down to president, that would be perfect. That would be a black woman who he called low IQ, and then she could turn around and go, Tell me who's low IQ again. Okay, oh God, that would be perfect. So go get him, Max. Go get him. Just want to end this segment before we go to break by noting that we just did two stories on two women in government that are kicking some butt.

Me likey, very sabrosso. There's a bunch of pictures going around of the four Justice Democrats in Congress. They got together, Ayanna Presley, Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tileven, AOC. and man, those pictures look powerful. They're not coming. They have arrived. They're in the house. Yes.

We'll be right back. We hope you're enjoying this free clip from the Young Turks. If you want to get the whole show and more exclusive content while supporting independent media, become a member at t.com slash join today. In the meantime, enjoy this free second. All right. Back on TYT, Canadian atheist writes in Alexandria is pushing the establishment to the left. Exactly right.

This is all from the member section. Progressive Todd writes in, AOC doesn't care about a committee position. At TYT, we frequently talk about all the ways that big tech companies are taking control of our online lives, constantly monitoring us and storing and selling our data. But that doesn't mean we have to let them. It's possible to stay anonymous online and hide your data from the prying eyes of big tech. And one of the best ways is with ExpressVPN. ExpressVPN hides your IP address, making your active ID more difficult to trace and sell the advertisers. ExpressVPN also encrypts 100% of your network data to protect you from eavesdroppers and cybercriminals.

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Check it out today. She cares about making positive change. Carefully watching makes a great point. They can't threaten her financial stream. She is people-driven. That gives AOC her strength. Freedom. That's exactly right, because normally they say, oh yeah, what if we talk to your donors?

And she's going to say, have at it, hoss, I'm a just Democrat. All my donors are actual human beings, right? Yeah. So that's strength they can't take away. I love that. YouTube super chat, Colin Barron's writes, and I love AOC, but protesting the House leader seems to shoot her ability to earn political capital in the foot. How is she supposed to move her agenda?

Colin, I love your brother, but that's totally wrong. I get why you're saying it, because the old school way of looking at it is, well, the Speaker of the House has enormous power, which is true. And so you can't get anything introduced unless she doesn't want it, if she doesn't want it introduced. So unless you appease her, right? No, there is another way to do it. Like if Alexandria played the same old game, she would be number 220 on the list of Democrats.

He's the youngest, incoming freshmen, and they don't really like her anyway. I remember Pelosi the day after she won, dismissed her victory. So she would have almost no power. She would have to spend decades beseeching Nancy Pelosi and her ilk, and she would have to slowly accumulate power so she could introduce one bill, right? No, no, no. The other way to get power is you win and you apply pressure, right? and say, hey, listen, Crowley was the number four Democrat, and he's not here anymore, I am.

Hey, you're the number one Democrat, that's funny. See, that puts a little fear of God in them. All of a sudden, we're having a conversation instead of waiting 20 years pleading with them, which is never gonna work. Right, it kind of reminds me of people who keep pushing for trickle-down economics when it's proven to not work. So try something different, right? And so in this case, she's doing something different.

Because if she plays, you're totally right. If she does what other incoming Democrats have done in the past, which is suck up to establishment Democrats, A, they turn to establishment Democrats eventually themselves, and B, they get nothing done. So yeah, apply pressure. Yeah, do not get co-opted by that system. Last thing is from Twitter. Art Murray 1 says, I like seeing the TYT microphone right there next to the CNN microphone. Me too.

And she, it was not an accident that we got the first interview. Okay, so God bless. Now we're in the house too. And if you notice, of course, I read the member comments first. That's one of the things you get with membership. So t.t.com slash jank to become a member, get all 18 of our shows. And it's $4.99, guys, it's almost nothing, right? It's five bucks a month.

If you are an activist level member and you get to do it for 10 bucks or if you're already a member and you want to do t.y.t.com slash upgrade for a higher level membership. You get really cool member perks, but mainly you help build home of progressives, and we're really appreciate it. You could obviously do it through any of the host names, you can do it through join, but really, of course, the best way is TYT.com slash Jack. Anna. All right, forward.

Anna. Okay, all right, let's talk about some other stuff. The wildfires in California continue to burn down multiple homes. and properties, people are still under mandatory evacuations. However, there was one mega mention that was spared in the Woolsey Fire. This is the fire in the Southern California area that scorched through Malibu. Kim Kardashian and Kanye West Home was spared, and it wasn't an accident. It was because they actually hired private firefighters who decided to dig ditches

around the property in order to protect it from the flames. Let me give you the details on that. Kardashian and West had the luxury of hiring private firefighters who battled flames surrounding their $60 million mansion outside of Los Angeles. So the team dug a number of ditches to create a firebreak around the house. Neighbors told TMZ they were thankful the couple had put up the money to bring the firefighters to save all of their homes. So because of the geography of their house and the way that it's all set up, their efforts

not only saved their home, it also saved the homes of other people in the neighborhood. But I think that this is an interesting story, especially considering Cal Fire, the way it's funded, how it's actually underfunded when you consider the severity and the frequency of these fires due to climate change. Look, I don't blame them for doing what they did. I would do the same thing if I had the resources, but we're moving closer and closer to a situation where if you have the means to protect your property, your life, your home, you can do it. And then when it comes to important services like fire departments, they're not getting

the funding that they need to keep up with the frequency of these fires so everyone else suffers. Okay, so I have mixed feelings about this story, which I'm gonna get to in a second, but I noticed that my post game stories are getting through to your head. Because I think like my daughter Joy, you almost said, fighter, fighter. Yes. Yes. So in a post game, I talked about how my six-year-old daughter with the shower nozzle goes,

I'm a fighter fighter, fighter, fighter, instead of firefighter. Anyway, both cutesy and interesting stories in the post game, if you're a member, t-yt.com slash join. Anna? To become a member. Or Anna, that works too. Okay. Anyway, so now on to this story.

Look, I totally get it. I don't begrudge them. If it was my house, I'd want to protect it, too. They didn't do anything wrong. And in fact, their neighbors are incredibly thankful because they might have saved the whole cul-de-sac that they live in. And so that's great. So it's not about Kim Kardashian and Kanye West in that regard.

But we live in trouble times and the wealth inequality is so great now that we're going back to insanity like privatized firefighters. So that's, if you don't know, that's actually the system we had here a long time ago in America, and it was a disaster. That's why we went to socialized firefighting departments, literally, and socialized cops. So those are socialist systems where the public decides we're better doing this together than one by one. Because when you had privatized firefighting systems and organizations and companies, well,

they would put out your fire, but they wouldn't put out the fire next door. door and then it would engulf the whole neighborhood and it was an absolute disaster, right? So now our public fighter fighter, I just did it, our public fighter fighters, fighter fighters are so underfunded that the rich are getting their private, personal firefighters. Yeah. Well, that's deeply problematic. For the society, not because of their individual action, but for society, that's a real big problem. So let's talk a little bit about the way Cal Fire is funded.

It's actually pretty complex and complicated. They do receive some funding from the federal government. They also receive funding from the state. But to give you an idea of how bad things have gotten in the state of California because of these wildfires, the agency, this is in September of this year, the agency was down to its last 11 million after spending 432 million in July and August alone. The budget year doesn't end until June 30th of 2019. So in September, Cal Fire had asked for more funding, both from the state and the federal

government. And the reason why they had to do that is not because they're wasting the money, it's because there are more wildfires in the state of California as a result of, you know, record droughts, drier weather, climate change, warmer temperatures, longer, warmer seasons lasting longer than usual. The request means that the state will probably dip into budget reserves for the eighth time in the past 10 years to cover the cost of putting out wildfires. And another thing in California is they have for a very long time now employed inmates to essentially

fight the fires alongside our hired firefighters. And then later when they're released from prison, they're not allowed to get hired because the background investigations just to get hired as a professional firefighter in California is It's very extensive, and if you've ever been convicted of a felony, you won't get fired. But it's a money saving tool. And so we're exploiting inmates. We don't have enough funding to keep up with the frequency of these fires, and then people with money are gonna do what people with money do, and that's protect themselves with

private firefighters. Look, if you're gonna make their actions in any way political, Kanye went in support Donald Trump, who then blamed the firefighters and California for the fires when in reality it's the climate change. And so he helped a guy who causes the problem in the first place, but it's okay because he's rich, because he could just protect himself by hiring privatized fire force. And so I remember people talking about wealth inequality has gotten so bad. Eventually the rich are going to have to build moats around their house.

This is almost literally a moat, they dug a trench around their house. So in this case, the fire wouldn't get in. But I mean, that's what they're doing. They're closing themselves off and they're hoarding all the wealth. Again, not mainly Kanye and Kim Kardashian in this case, they just happen to be trying to genuinely protect their house. Exactly. Look, and I'm not putting this on them, but also understand what the wealthy overall

have fought for, not just in the federal government, but also in the state of California. I mean, they have a $60 million home, right? Back in 1978, Californians passed a horrible proposition that capped property taxes at a little over 1% of the market value of the home, which severely underfunded our schools, severely underfunded the state. And so who do you think suffers the most from that? Us, us as Californians who desperately need these services, in some cases to stay alive and protect our homes.

Yeah, and so if you're thinking, well, don't make it political, no, look, you're not getting it. Because those are all decisions, and whether you noticed it or you didn't notice it, they did take away money from the schools. They did take away money from firefighters, and they did take away money from our ability to fight climate change through things like the proposition that Anna talked about and through the tax cuts for the rich and through all the things that they did. Those are decisions that were made whether you noticed or you didn't. Those are all political decisions that affects your life. And so as I look at those pictures of the burnt out cars and houses, and by the way, some of the selects, We're not able to hire privatized firefighters.

Miley Cyrus's house was burnt down, so is Neil Young's and Gerard Butler's. But as you look at these pictures and you look at some of the pictures left over from the extreme hurricanes we're experiencing now, it looks like a post-apocalyptic world. Absolutely, yeah. And so this too is political because we've made a political decision to do nothing about climate change. And now the extreme weather has come home to roost. Of course, you're the wealthy who helped partly create it, then you just hire private cops, private firefighters, and build moats.

Something to think about while we go to our next break. But when we return, we have more stories, including some international news and what North Korea is currently doing with its missile development. Yeah, that's also a mixed story. That's fascinating twists and turns in that story, because there's bad guys on all sides. We'll explain when we come back. 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.co slash t-y-t.

I'm your host, Jan Kheuger, and I'll see you soon.