The Young Turks - Michael Cohen, Kellyanne’s husband, and Wolf-Pac Hawaii

Episode Date: April 11, 2018

A portion of our Young Turks Main Show from April 10, 2018. For more go to http://www.tytnetwork.com/join.  Hour 1: Cenk. Trump reacts to Michael Cohen controversy. Hope Hicks absence impacts White House. Trump loses favor from Kellyanne Conway’s husband. Trump fires off on DOJ. Updates on Syria. Trump University settlement finalized. Wolf PAC Hawaii resolution passes. Hour 2: Cenk, Ana. Hannity responds to Kimmel’s apology. Sinclair anchor resigns after threatening to assault David Hogg. Sinclair develops new technology to track viewer data. Comedian TJ Miller arrested for fake bomb threat. 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. Thank you for watching or listening to this free podcast of the Young Turks. We want to make sure that you get some portion of the show every day. But if you want the full show, which is actually five segments, come become a member and support independent media as well. TYT network.com slash join.

Meanwhile, enjoy the free podcast. Welcome to the Young Turks, giant show ahead for you guys. Obviously, enormous news in the case of Michael Cohen, his office's hotel room, that's interesting, and home have been rated. I'm going to tell you all about that in a second. Will Robert Mueller be fired? That is a little bit later in the program. Fox News hosts acting atrociously. Hannity, Ingram, Lou Dobbs, Greg Jarrett, the list goes on.

All of that later in the program. Some related to this Cohen-Muller situation and some completely unrelated. They don't need an excuse to be loathsome. On the other hand, a shocking agreement between myself and a Fox News host. Shocking. That is also later in the program. Let's do this show. Let's go over here.

Okay. So, the president's personal attorney, Michael Cohen, has had his rooms, offices, house rated. This is a very significant move. They are coming for his documents related to Stormy Daniels and McDougall and perhaps other documents related to the National Inquirer and perhaps related to Robert Mueller's investigation. So I'm going to tell you what they came for, how they did it, why it's okay, and

of course how Donald Trump is enraged over it. So lots of fun for everybody, although of course the country is in turmoil as usual under the Trump administration. So let's begin to explain. First, we go to HuffPost, agencies, documents relating to $130,000 payment to Stormy Daniels, the adult film star, as well as emails, interesting, tax records even more interesting, and business documents, perhaps even more interesting. Because, you know, you. Sure, if it's all just about Stormy Daniels, Michael Cohen might be in a world of trouble, as we're going to explain or have legal experts to explain to you in a minute. But if it's related to business documents that also touch on Donald Trump, Trump could be an even bigger trouble,

especially if they have something to do with the Russians. So now let me go to Axios. A White House source talked to them and said, Mueller's investigations has been drip, drip. This was a giant leap forward, a personal hit. They were moving in inches. Today, they moved a mile. So obviously a huge news story here, and the White House has taken it as such. The Washington Post says Cohen is under federal investigation for possible bank fraud, wire fraud, and campaign finance violations.

All of those are enormously serious and could have put him away for a long, long time, unless, of course, he cooperates, which would also be interesting. Now, we're going to go to Michael Cohen's attorney, Stephen Ryan. Now, listen to this quote, because this is very relevant to what investigations this rate touches on. He says, I have been advised by federal prosecutors that the New York action, which is the raid, is in part a referral by the Office of Special Counsel Robert Mueller. Initially, everybody took that to mean that this is not part of the Mueller investigation. Mueller referred it to New York, where local prosecutors then went and did this raid and are now pursuing the Stormy Daniels investigation and possible campaign finance violations, et cetera. But if you notice, he said that it was in part a referral by the Office of Special Counsel. And not only that, now lawyers are correctly pointing out that, well, Mueller might be.

have referred it, but that doesn't mean it's because they're in charge of the investigation. Or it could mean they're in charge of one investigation, the Stormy Daniels one. But they could also be serving, and I know this is an uncomfortable term, as the taint team. Okay, it is what it is. That is a legal term. And the reason is you don't want to taint the information that you get from that investigation. If it in fact is attorney-client privilege, you don't want Mueller's team to see it because they're not allowed to see it. if it relates to their investigation, and it is actually privileged. If it is not privileged, then Mueller's team can see it, and the Southern District of New York

can pass that on to them. So that's why it might serve a dual purpose, not only to get Trump and Cohen on Stormy Daniels, but possibly to touch the Russian investigation, but first, it would have to get past the taint team. So, very interesting on a couple of accounts, and gives you a sense of how, broad this could be. Now we go to law and crime. They explained to go after communications between an attorney and a client, prosecutors have to have reason to believe that those communications were used in furtherance of a crime or fraud. In other words, look, going after somebody is already a big deal. Rating their house is a huge deal. Doing it to an attorney

who might have attorney-client privilege is a enormous deal. So it is not like, oh, what's the big deal like Giuliani was on to the Washington Post and he's like, well, it might be to find evidence that the prosecutors could use or it could be to make sure that they are cleared. Other prosecutors laughed and laughed at that idea. No, prosecutors do not go to a federal judge and get a warrant on a case this sensitive with potential attorney-client privilege being involved as well because they'd like to clear the suspect. No, they do it. because they think they already have an enormous amount of evidence, enough evidence to convince the judge of this, and they'd like to get more evidence possibly because that evidence might

be being destroyed. Now, we don't know that that's the case, but that is one of the alternatives as to why they would have such urgency in raiding someone's house or their office. Now back to the Washington Post. They explain, Cohen is Trump's virtual vault, the keeper of his secrets from his business and deals to his personal affairs and the executor of his wishes. So, whatever Trump has done,

Michael Cohen very likely knows about it. That is part of why Donald Trump is losing his mind as we speak. You know, they arrested a lot of other people. He got angry in some cases, mildly disturbed in others. And in this case, it is nuclear.

Because Michael Cohen has done a lot of business deals with Donald Trump. And he apparently knows where the bodies are buried. And so if they've got his documents, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick. Okay. Mark S. Zaid, who is a Washington lawyer, expert in this field, says the seizure of Cohen's records should be, quote, the most concerning for the president. And apparently it is because the president is not happy about it.

This is what he said last night, and this was supposed to be in the, no, let's go to the videos first. This was supposed to be a meeting about Syria instead of devolved into this. It's an attack on our country in a true sense. It's an attack on what we all stand for. So when I saw this and when I heard it, I heard it like you did. I said that is really now in a whole new level of unfairness. No, it is not remotely an attack on our country. In fact, it is upholding our finest traditions that no one is above the law. And so if all of the people in the Trump administration signed off on this warrant as they did,

as I'll explain to you in a minute, and a federal judge signed off on it, well, that is exactly what our rule of law is meant to do. It might be a personal attack on you because you might have broken the law and so might your lawyer. But that is not an attack on our country. It's quite the opposite. More from Trump. This is the most biased grip of people. These people have the biggest conflicts of interest I've ever seen.

Democrats, all, or just about all, either Democrats are a couple of Republicans that work for President Obama. They're not looking at the other side. They're not looking at the Hillary Clinton, horrible things that she did and all of the crimes that were committed. They're not looking at all of the things that happened. Yeah, none of that is true. I will show you later which party they belong to and who they were appointed by. Suffice to say that Donald Trump was about 100% wrong in that statement. So now, one more on the attorney.

General under which all of this is happening. That's Jeff Sessions. Are you frustrated that the Attorney General is not your personal lawyer and is not there to protect you? We need to talk about a relatively new show called Un-F-The Republic or UNFTR. As a Young Turks fan, you already know that the government, the media, and corporations are constantly peddling lies that serve the interests of the rich and powerful. But now there's a podcast dedicated to unraveling those lies, debunking the conventional wisdom. In each episode, of Un-B-The-Republic, or UNFTR, the host delves into a different historical episode or topic

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The New York Times described UNFTR as consistently compelling and educational, aiming to challenge conventional wisdom and upend the historical narratives that were taught in school. For as the great philosopher Yoda once put it, you must unlearn what you have learned. And that's true whether you're in Jedi training or you're uprooting and exposing all the propaganda and disinformation

you've been fed over the course of your lifetime. So search for UNFDR in your podcast app today and get ready to get informed, angered, and entertained all at the same time. When you've broken the law, Donald Trump, well, let's find out. The Attorney General made a terrible mistake when he did this and when he recused himself or he should have certainly let us know if he was going to recuse himself. And we would have used to put a different Attorney General in. So he made what I consider to be a very terrible.

mistake for the country. It's amazing. He admits obstruction of justice so regularly and so publicly that it confuses people. He keeps saying if I had known that Jeff Sessions was going to work for the American people and not for me, well, I wouldn't have hired him. I want him to protect me. And the fact that he recused himself and was honest about it and didn't protect me, instead did his job as attorney general, well, that bothers me greatly. Why didn't you protect my lawbreaking? I wish I would have gotten rid of Jeff Sessions. Look, normally you'd have to do document requests,

other raids of other people's homes and offices. You'd have to do depositions to find out this incriminating in evidence. But he keeps saying it over and over again. Why won't the Attorney General protect me? That's not his job. He's the Attorney General of America, not of you. But he thinks, well, I am the country. I'm the president.

No, that's not how this country works. You're not a dictator. You're not the ruler of all of us. You're supposed to be our representative. So your attorney general is the top law enforcement officer. He's supposed to enforce the law, whether it applies to you or the rest of us. It is the only thing that has ever done that is principled and decent. And of course, Trump hates him for it.

Now, this is a fun little compilation that we did. Donald Trump, what's the one word you would use to describe what's how? happened here. It's a disgraceful situation and it's a disgrace. It's frankly a real disgrace. And it's a disgrace. It's a disgrace. So I just think it's a disgrace that a thing like this can happen. Yeah, that seems clear that you certainly think that. All right. So he wasn't done yet. That was yesterday. So this morning he wakes up in a rage. So he tweets out in all caps as usual, a total witch hunt. He thinks that's clever. that somehow that's going to get him off.

That's what Nixon said. Nixon literally called Watergate a witch out before he resigned in disgrace. Oh, there's that term again. So then he tweeted out, attorney-client privilege is dead. No, it's not. So an attorney cannot break the law either.

So we'll get to a fuller explanation of that in a second. But first on the idea of this, yeah, on the attorney-client privilege, Richard Painter, who worked as the head of ethics for the Bush administration and a Republican. Now, not fond of the Trump administration, to be fair, but not fond of them because they keep being unethical. Anyway, points out, he's a lawyer. He says, no, there is a crime fraud exception to the attorney-client privilege, as there has been for centuries. and then he puts the case there in case Trump wants to read that old case, which I'm sure he does.

Okay, Trump not understanding the law, no. Well, here's another tweet from another expert, Joyce Alina writes in, or Alina, I should say. There are special requirements for authorizing a search warrant of an attorney's office. Both the assistant attorney general for the criminal division and the deputy attorney general signed off on this one, possibly signaling a crime fraud exception to the usual privilege for attorney-client communications. So you cannot commit a crime and one of fraud and then go, what, what, what, I'm an attorney. I'm an attorney. No, that doesn't make you above the law either.

That's, of course, in regard to Michael Cohen. Now, we go back to the New York Times. They explained the FBI agents who raided the office of President Trump's personal lawyer on Monday, were looking for records about payments to two women who claimed they had affairs with Mr. Trump and any information related to publisher of the National Inquirer's role in silencing one of the women. Several people briefed on the investigation said. Because in the case of one of the women, the National Inquirer paid her $150,000 for a scoop and then buried that scoop and never ran it.

Now, this is a common M.O. for the National Inquirer, which works hand and glove with Donald Trump and has for a long time, well before Trump ran for office, well, that's the National Enquirer basically helping the campaign by paying $150,000 and then not reporting it. So that could also be a campaign finance violation. Can't wait to see them in court. And can't wait to see the documents that Cohen has in regards to the National Inquirer, which he struck many deals with.

That's going to be good. More from the New York Times. Now, this is really important. The involvement of Mr. Rosenstein, who authorized this, and top prosecutors in New York in the raid of Mr. Cohn's office, makes it harder for Mr. Trump to argue that his legal problems are the result of a witch hunt led by Mr. Mueller. In addition to Mr. Rosenstein, who's the Deputy Attorney General, all of the top law enforcement officials involved in the raid are Republicans. Mr. Mueller, Christopher A. Ray, the FBI director, and Jeffrey Berman, the interim United States. attorney in New York. They're all Republicans, almost all appointed by Donald Trump, including Rod Rosenstein. He is a Republican appointed by Trump to be Deputy Attorney General. But again,

Trump's like, but why aren't you covering up for my crimes? Oh my God, I'm so angry at Rosenstein. Well, you shouldn't be. That's his job. And by the way, credit to these Republicans for being principled and doing the right thing and actually doing their job, despite a world of pressure from the leader of their own political party. And Berman particularly appointed Trump went outside of normal protocol to make sure that Berman got that position. Berman is a former law partner of Rudy Giuliani, a huge ally of Donald Trump. And he authorized the warrant.

Oh, they got to have devastating evidence for those Republican allies of Donald Trump to say, Yeah, this is really bad. You should really rate his home and his office. Wow, can't wait to see that evidence in open court. Okay. Now, back to more facts here, and we go to MSNBC here. They had an expert in Frank Figluisi. He is a former FBI director, and so let me give you his quotes.

He says, this could primarily, this could be primarily assistant director, I should be clear, former FBI assistant director. This could be primarily about Stormy Daniels. If you think about the election violation, that could be the contribution in kind by paying her off. If you think about bank fraud, it could be getting a home equity loan to pay her off. If there's tax violations, it could be fabricated Delaware Corporation to pay her off. He continues. Remember, Stormy is claiming that a threat was launched in the Las Vegas parking lot against her and her child. There could be a Federal Hobbs Act violation.

There could be interstate travel to communicate a threat. There could be interstate communication of a threat versus via a phone or a computer. And if that's found in the search results yesterday, if it's found that Trump knew about that, we're into a conspiracy to commit Hobbs Act. That's a serious crime. Of course, all of these are a serious crime. So how much time could Michael Cohen get? The expert here explains, if you're looking at a multiple violations of everything that we've heard come out of the possible search warrant motivations, you're looking at decades, a couple of decades potentially, if they're all found guilty.

Damn. Now, Michael Cohen did not get a job in the Trump campaign as he was hoping for. After all those years of loyal service to Donald Trump and all those things that he did for Donald Trump, including paying $130,000 to Stormy Daniels out of his own pocket. And then he didn't get a job at the Trump White House either. That's how loyalty is repaid by Donald Trump. Well, now, Cohen is facing potentially a couple of decades in jail. Are you sure Michael Cohen is going to stay loyal to Donald Trump? Or maybe, just maybe, a guy who was unethical enough to represent Donald Trump in all those dealings might think,

it's time to protect myself and not work for this guy anymore who's clearly not only not protecting me, not giving me the things that he said he was going to give me. But if it's a state case in New York, the president cannot be. protect him. Uh oh. Anonymous Trump advisor says, Trump won't like that Cohen is in the cross years, but you have to remember, he'd prefer the heat beyond Cohen than on him. Well, that does sound very much like Trump. You know who else knows Trump? Michael Cohen. And Michael Cohen's going to know that. So finally, we're going to go to one other expert here, Louis Sunshine. She says, when it comes to Michael Cohen, and this is a former Trump organization executive, so she

knows them both. When it comes to Michael Cohen, anything is possible, anything and everything is possible. The president is in deep, deep trouble. Thank God. So let's see what he does next. Is he going to blow up? Is he going to fire Rosenstein and Sessions? 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

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And if you go to ExpressVPN.com slash TYT, you can get three extra months for free with this exclusive link just for TYT fans. That's E-X-P-R-E-S-S-V-P-N dot com slash T-Y-T. Check it out today. And Mueller, because in order to fire Mueller, he's got to fire Rosenstein. And in order to fire Rosenstein, he might have to fire sessions. Remember, there was a Saturday night massacre under Nixon, which then led to threats of impeachment, which led to his resignation.

We don't know how Trump is going to react. as more news comes out about what Michael Cohen might do. But if Michael Cohen flips, it's good night, Irene. Can't wait. Even if he doesn't flip, they have all of his documents. No, not yet. Ladies and Jeff? Not yet.

But we're getting way, way closer. Okay. Now, some quick follow-ups for you guys, and then I'll tell you if he's going to actually fire Mueller in the next segment. Okay. Hope Hicks was one of the emotional anchors for Donald Trump. She would stabilize him. She was a soothsayer, if you will, because she would sue them, which is disturbing you think about. But she was relatively good at her job.

Now you saw Donald Trump have a thousand temper tantrums. But now that she is not there, apparently he is totally unhinged. So let's go to several different reports. First one is from the Washington Post. They explained this was Trump's first crisis, of course, referring to the rate of his lawyer's office, Michael Cohen. Trump's first crisis without Hope Hicks, the recently departed White House Communications Director, who knew her way around the broader Trump orbit, getting to the bottom of what was happening, counseling the president, and intuiting how he would want the situation handled.

Well, she's not there anymore. So what happened? Well, let's go to Mike Allen's report at Axios about that. Until now, when storms hit, Trump could turn to Hope Hicks to explain things to him, suggests wording, simmer him down. With her departure from the White House, we saw the president working out his fury in real time. Let me get this right. The earlier unhinged Donald Trump was the calm version of Donald Trump.

That was after Hope Higgs would come in and go, now, Mr. President, let's look at it this way. You might want to say it this way rather than that way. And then he would unleash those tweets and say the things that he did on camera. That was the calmer version. We are now at the untethered version. In fact, the White House source tells Axios, this is the first crisis post-Hopix. This was different. I've never seen him like this before.

this is the president you're going to see more of from here on out, unvarnished, untethered. If that was varnished earlier and we're about to hit unvarnished, oh boy, buckle up, brace for impact. And this time, that's for the Trump loyalists. And reports are out that he is in fact stomping around the White House, fuming at Rosenstein, The deputy attorney general thinking about firing him, also out of his mind angry at Jeff Sessions, the attorney general, and of course, despises Robert Mueller, the special counsel. Staffers are apparently working around the clock to try to make sure he does not fire Mueller. They keep explaining to him that would put him in deeper trouble.

He, first of all, has dubious authority to do that. But even if he had the authority, there are Republicans that are saying that they might look into impeachment if he does. and they are doing all they can without Hope Hakes to try to contain the president. So far, they have not done a very good job of containing him. And this is just the first day. For days to come, once again, can't wait. Tick-Tock, Tick-Tock, I told you it would come sooner than you expected.

Now the clock is going faster and faster and faster. I said he'd be out by the midterms, never changed my mind on that. Let's see what happens. Okay. Now, fun little fact about somebody else inside Trump's inner circle. So Kelly Ann Conway is, of course, one of the top aides to Donald Trump, and she is often out there speaking on behalf of him, making an aggressive defense of the president. apparently the president found out recently that she's in fact alleged by some to be the number one leaker inside the White House. He was shocked and chagridden to find out. Donald Trump, I got news

for you. Everyone around you is leaking. And they have a sense that you only care about yourself and not them. So what do they do? They only care about themselves and not you, which is logical. But this is not about Kellyan Conway. It's about her husband, George Conway. Now, George Conway has in the past tweeted some significant criticism of Donald Trump, and then when Kellyanne Conway's wife is up for a communications director, a job she's

currently seeking, he deleted all those tweets, as if we wouldn't notice. But we did, I'll talk more about that in a second. But guess what? And this is the interesting part. He's doing again now. The Michael Cohen raid happens, and Kelly Ann Conway is out there tweeting

against Donald Trump. Fascinating. Things are unraveling. So you know what Donald Trump tweeted. He tweeted a total witch hunt and attorney client privilege is dead. Well, here comes an interesting part. George Conway then tweeted in response this. Now, you're going to look at this and go, what is that?

Well, that's actually a link to a section of the law. Interesting. So what section is you referring to? Well, Ken Meyer from Mediite explains. the legal segment Conway highlighted states that law enforcement can obtain search warrants to investigate an attorney who is subject of an investigation and who also is or may be engaged in the practice of law on behalf of clients. The manual says these warrants would not necessarily violate attorney-client privilege, though there are various guidelines for how the warrants

have to be obtained. So Trump says attorney-client privilege is dead. Kelly Ann Conaway's husband tweets out, no, it's not. This is a well-known exception to attorney-client privilege if the attorney commits a crime. And he says that publicly. Interesting little tweet that he threw out there. But that wasn't all. He also retweeted this. Remember, Trump tweeted total witch hunt.

This is an old headline saying Nixon sees, quote, witch hunt. insiders say, now that is not subtle. I don't know, maybe George Conway thinks he's being subtle, but he ain't. Clearly, George Conway, not a fan of Donald Trump. By the way, he started as a fan of Donald Trump every once in a while in order to seemingly to protect her, to protect his wife, comes out and goes, no, no, I still support Donald Trump. Sure. Early on, he was up for a job in the Trump administration. I don't know if it's because he didn't get it or they did offer to him and he didn't want it. But either way, clearly, based on these tweets and many others, not a friend of Trump. I don't know if that's just him speaking or if he's being a proxy for

his wife, which would be even more interesting. So let me give you the background. Last year, this is from Ross story. For instance, he ripped into the president for undermining his own proposed travel ban with a series of impulsive tweets. He has also recently been retweeting articles that criticized the president's alleged affair with adult film star Stormy Daniels, Joe Roms, as well as stories that mock Trump for being unable to hire top-notch legal counsel to defend him in special counsel Robert Mueller's probe of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. So I don't know what's going on between the Conways, but I do know what George Connoe is doing publicly, and that's slapping Trump across the face several times. unraveling. I don't get to say told you yet, but Tick-Tock, Tick-Tock.

Okay, now we're going to take a break. When we come back, is Trump actually going to fire Mueller? And if he does, what would be the fallout? And what are Republicans saying about it? You're right in the middle of this podcast. We've got another great segment coming up for you. If you'd like the full show, which is actually five segments, go to t-y-tnetwork.com slash join you become a member, you support the show, you support

independent media, and you get the whole two-hour show ad-free every day. Let's go do it now. All right, back on the Young Turks. If you use YouTube super chat, you help the show, so we appreciate it, and a little bit more likely to read the comments, and they're good ones. L.J. Cyrus 1 writes in, I wonder if this is what Trump meant by Drain the Swamp regarding investigations and the people related to the Trump campaign or Trump directly. So drain the swamp of anyone who might actually help in fixing the swamp, perhaps.

Syntha Townsend uses hashtag TYT Live to talk to us during the show on Twitter. Republicans got their tax cuts and no longer need Trump, time to turn him into a scapegoat. Indeed. And so if the economy goes poorly, their elections go poorly, they go to me. How it wasn't us? Was that someone bitch Donald Trump? Well, it's a good thing we got rid of. Well, let's hope that's how it turns out.

All right, let's go here, speaking of which. So today, more bad news for Donald Trump, but this one has nothing to do with the investigations against them. It has to do with an old investigation of Trump University. So let's go to ABC News to explain this one. A federal judge in Southern District of California on Monday finalized a $25 million settlement to be paid to the attendees of the now-defunct real estate seminar called Trump University.

Now, they explained it that way because it was never a real university, just Trump called it one. And by the way, that was also against the law. And it was just seminars. And people were hoodwinked. It was a scam. It was a fraud. Oftentimes they'd be told that they were going to meet Trump and instead they'd get to take a picture with a cardboard cut out of Trump. Because Trump is just nothing but a con artist.

And they charge people an arm and a leg for this. This, by the way, has nothing new with politics. This was way before he ever entered the campaign. New York prosecutor Eric Schneiderman first sued Trump in 2013 for allegedly defrauding thousands of Trump university attendees out of millions of dollars. And so the New York Attorney General went after him all those years ago. Because anyone could see, wait, this isn't a real university. There's a total scam.

You're robbing people blind. So Trump has now basically settled. this case. Now he says he didn't do anything wrong. There's 25 million bucks saying otherwise. Trump is not the kind of guy to pay $25 million if he thought he didn't do anything wrong. So the settlement, by the way, will recover about 90% of the cost of those who attended so-called Trump University, meaning that he ripped him off for even more money than that. He's only returning 90% of it. And finally, let me give you Eric Schneider, Ms. Quote on this. He said the settlement marked a stunning reversal by President Trump, who for years refused

to compensate the victims of his sham university. My office won't hesitate to hold those who commit fraud accountable, no matter how rich or powerful they may be. Now, I want you to imagine for a second what Fox News and the Conservers would have said if Obama had to pay a $25 million dollar settlement because he set up a fake Obama university and rob people. You think maybe they might have called them a hustler? What wouldn't they have called them? Look at the contrast between the two guys. One was a constitutional law professor at one of the most esteemed law schools in the country,

the University of Chicago. The other set up a fake university to scam people and had to pay them back $25 million. dollars because he'd robbed them. That's who Donald Trump is. He's a con artist through and through, and he has been his whole life. All right. Now let's go on the good news. Okay.

You know Wolfpack is fighting to get money out of politics. They want to pass a constitutional amendment. To end this once and for all, go above the Supreme Court, who has made preposterous. rulings saying that money is speech, that corporations are human beings and have the constitutional rights of people, and that money in politics, even to the tune of billions of dollars, not only doesn't corrupt people, but doesn't even have the appearance of corruption. You're sure you get millions. Longbandy Twizzlers candy keeps the fun going. going. Twizzlers, keep the fun going. The dollars to politicians, and they don't expect anything in return. Preposterous. So what Wolfpack's trying to do is go state by state and have the state's call for

a convention to propose that amendment. Well, great news out of the state of Mahalo. Out of Hawaii, that was a funny 40th slip. But yes, Mahalo indeed to Hawaii. And so the Senate in Hawaii has passed the resolution. 18 to 5. That deserves a... Okay, but not too much because the House has not passed it yet. So that is very important. I want to tell you all about that in a second.

But first, some shout-outs to American heroes in the Hawaiian Senate who did an amazing job. Senator Carl Rhodes was sponsor of this legislation, and it's called SCR 76. Some are calling it the spirit of 76. he did a fantastic job. Senator Brian Tanaguchi, he was the chair of the Judiciary Committee. He held a very fair hearing about that, bless his heart. Senator Donovan Delacruz, chair of ways and means, incredibly important there. Senator Gil Keith Agaran, he's the vice chair of the judiciary. He's always been fair. He's asked good questions, cared a lot about the issue, and that's what we want.

We just want fair people to give it a fair hearing. Senator Mike Gabbard, you might recognize his last name there. Yes, he's the father of Tulsi Gabbard. He voted for in the judiciary. He's our former sponsor on that. So wonderful for all these years in Hawaii. Senator Josh Green, excellent Senator Will Espero, champion of our legislation there, Tom Heinrich, clerk of the judiciary.

It was actually very helpful as well. Senate President Ronald Cochi voted out for it on the Senate floor. Of course, Senate president voting for it makes a huge difference. And then a special shout out to Rock Riggs, who is not a legislator, but who is very helpful. And we want to make sure that everybody who's helpful gets the credit that they deserve. And by the way, if you live in Hawaii, make sure you go thank those people. Because they're your representatives and they stood up for you. The overwhelming majority of the people in Hawaii want to get money out of politics.

They're in favor of this resolution. So thank you to the senators that voted the right way. Now, we have to get the house. If you don't get the house, it doesn't count. So if you want to help and you're in Hawaii, by all means, Hawaii at wolf dash pack.com, email them, go and find a way to help. And those volunteers make all the difference. It's our volunteers who worked hard for years in Hawaii to make this happen and who are working on it right now.

And they're in the heat of this battle. You've got to get the Senate and the House so if you're going to help, there isn't a better time to help than right now, right now. They're in the middle of it this week, okay? And so, by the way, if you want to join the movement, you can join it from any state. Wolf-dash-pack.com slash go to help from any state at all. In this case, we're talking about Hawaii because Hawaii is in the middle of the fight right now. The Senate did the right thing, and I told you all those heroes in the Senate. Now we're going to find out in the House if there are more heroes or for some reason.

this is thwarted and there are a lot of ways that it can get thwarted and we're not unsavvy, we've been doing this a long, long time, so of course everybody will be paying attention. We'd love to give credit to the Hawaiian House as well and all the people fighting for that

as well. Now, I want to go to some of the people who helped on this because I think it's important to hear from them. And their perspective as legislators are really important for you to understand how they deal with the issue. And these are the good guys. So let's go to Senator Josh Green here.

That's very likely the single greatest threat to our democracy. There are a lot of threats to government. There's a lot of reasons that we don't do as well as we should. But when you have that kind of influence, that amount of money that can't be traced, can't be tracked,

can come in giant sums all at once. It really, it makes it very difficult just to run on issues, to fight for the right causes, because at any moment, that special interest money can touch a legislator, touch a chairperson of a committee, flip a, flip a race that should have been a fair battle.

So we should reverse it. At any moment, the money can come for you. They're all aware of it. They're aware of its pervasive influence. We have got to end that influence. They've got to represent you guys. Now, these guys do, but they're giving you warnings from their personal experience. Let's go to Stacey Schroger next.

It feels to me that our Congress is not listening to us anymore at all. And I try to pay attention to legislation that's passed. And what I'm seeing is special interests, voice is louder than ours. All right, we're not done yet. Kanyella Ng, he's a state rep. He's also, by the way, running for U.S. Congress now, and he's also a Justice Democrat, also does not take corporate PAC money. But here's his perspective as a state rep in Hawaii.

Yeah, the issue generally of money in politics is probably the most urgent issue facing our nation. Because whether you're talking about climate change or kids dying in schools getting shot up or environmental protections or universal health care, these things are all the reason why they're not happening is because of money in politics. It's the one reform that will make all other reforms possible. The one thing that we can reform that makes everything else possible. Because if the money corrupts, it corrupts all of the issues. That's why this is the most important thing. That's why you got to get into the fight. Hawaii at wolf dash pack.com.

But here's more. The folks I talk to, whether you're in blue states or red districts or blue districts, they understand the problem of money in politics. When I first ran for office, it was a Republican district. There was a Republican incumbent. And when I knocked on doors, they got it. They understood that the same people that are funding Donald Trump are funding his democratic opponents. So it's a lot bigger than just partisanship.

It's just this handful of elite, wealthy elites versus everybody else. Representative Ng is definitely right about that. And that's why in polls, 93% of Americans say that the politicians, say that the politicians, represent their donors more than their voters. So we can change that. And the only way to change that it'll stick is an amendment. So that's why we're going down this path. Now, and for the folks in Hawaii, sorry for the pronunciations.

But I'm going to go to Keha Ulani Faneh next. I believe the plan for Wolfpack is the correct one because I think we need to go around Congress. There's been many pleas for us to get big money out of politics, but nothing has been done. And so I believe this is the right path in calling a convention in order to do that. Look, both the reps and our volunteers are doing amazing work there. If we get this amendment, we basically get democracy back. And all these folks are going to be the new founding fathers and mothers. That's not an exaggeration.

Right now, donor opinion has a direct correlation to public policy. Unfortunately, Princeton and Northwestern studied this over 20 years. Public opinion has no effect on public policy. We've got to get our democracy back. Here is Tim Vandervere. He's the chair of the Democratic Party. He's speaking for himself here. Granted, we have not had in over 200 years an Article 5 convention.

But we've gotten pretty close. And it's my understanding that every time we've gotten close, Congress has decided to do something. When they see the rabble, us in the electorate, the plebs getting unruly, sometimes it forces their hand. And Congress is not doing anything about it now, of course, because it's controlled by oligarchs, Republicans. But also when the Democrats had their shot, they were unable to do anything about this. I do think there's a lot of passionate voices in Congress in the Democratic Party that are adamantly opposed to Citizens United. But I think this will apply the appropriate pressure to really start to force their hand. And I also don't think it's a Democratic or Republican issue.

I think there's a lot in the Republican Party who see this as a threat to democracy. Isn't it an amazing and wonderful to see Democrats actually fighting for you guys and fighting for the right issues? It is possible. You've got to like real progressives and then you've got to reward them. Thank everyone involved here. And most importantly, keep fighting because the House is not at all guaranteed. That would be terribly disappointing if the House, whatever forces there were to prevent this. If they were, if they don't and the House passes it as they should, then we would have the sixth date on the board and that would be amazing.

One last one, because Carl Rhodes has been an absolute champion here. So I want to go to Senator Rhodes as well. As in politics in general, in life often too, in nothing venture, nothing gain. If we're just going to sit around and wait for the Koch brothers to do whatever they want to do, then that's, that's, that's, that. I'm not willing to be that passive about it. No, and neither were five states earlier, including the largest state in the Union, California. This is eminently doable.

The way you do it is you don't wait for Congress to do it. Congress is already corrupted. You get state by state call for a convention to propose an amendment. Then three quarters of the states have to ratify it anyway. Luckily, the only thing that the country agrees on is get the money out of politics. So Hawaii, let's finish this together. other, Hawaii at wolf dash pack.com, getting a fight right now. Thank you guys. We'll be right back. Thanks for watching. We're listening to this free version of the Young Turks podcast.

You know that the full show is at t-y-tnetwork.com slash join. If you become a member, you get the full show ad-free. We love you for watching or listening either way. There's going to be a new free podcast tomorrow. You can keep on doing that. But if you want to get the full show ad-free, t-y-tnetwork.com slash join. Thanks for listening to the full episode of the Turks, support our work, listen ad-free, access members-only bonus content, and more by subscribing to Apple Podcasts at apple.com slash t-y-t. I'm your host, Jank Huger, and I'll see you soon.