The Young Turks - Money In Politics

Episode Date: November 5, 2022

Billionaires in the United States have spent over $900 million on the upcoming midterm elections. Republicans are coming for your social security. Senator Joe Manchin has called for a bipartisan deal to protect social security. Apparently to Pete Hegseth the subject of social studies is “made up by conservatives”. MSNBC has dropped Tiffany Cross after almost 2 years on their weekend lineup. Host: John Iadarola, Cenk Uygur, Mark Thompson 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. Be my team. Bexie! Bigotsie! Three years! Bigotsie!

Bigotee! Bigotee! Bigotee! Bigotee! Bigotee! Wow, See, Lord. All right, power panel.

Jake, you're John Iderolo of Damage Report fame. Join the Thunder. No, that's a real shirt. I love that shirt. Thunder means a group of dragons. Did not know that. Now I know because dragon daddy over here. I learned it in school.

And not only John, but Mark Thompson, but not just Mark Thompson. The Mark Thompson. Thank you. Thank you, Jack. Because Mark's got a new show on YouTube. It's called The Mark Thompson show. going to find it. If you don't put the the in there, you get a Christian ventriloquist. That's true. I do think he's copying Megan, though, with spelling it, T-H-E-E-E.

That seems needless. All right, that's a thought though, John, thank you for that. I've got my credibility glasses to T-Y-T today. Oh, very good. Forgot the hats, so I may rock the hat. I know the hat is something that people are. That is a bit of a trademark for you. Yeah, I'll usually rock a hat. Yeah. I may wear the T-Y-T merch. Something, okay. All right, here we go. All right, mark the stallion. Okay, okay. So fun for everybody, a huge show ahead. Of course, super substantive stuff. We're starting with it. I'm gonna tell you how politics actually works unlike any other show on planet Earth. And then later, drums. Okay, John, take it away. I don't know, I think what

we've got up first is pretty dramatic. Let's talk about this. You were probably taught in school that America is a democracy. And sure, it has some of the characteristics of that. But I want you to Let's take a look at the results of a new report from Americans for Tax Fairness about billionaire spending in this election cycle, and we're gonna try to figure out if that's the best classification for our country. So they have found that as of September 30th of this year, billionaires in the US have spent nearly $900 million in these, I'll remind you, midterm elections. And they only counted up until five weeks before the election.

I've got news for you, there's a lot of campaign spending that happens in those last five weeks. Yes, they spent $881 million. So even if that was it, and there's no more spending between then and election day, that would already be 44% more spending than the 2018 midterm cycle, which was a huge one. That was the Democrats' chance to take back the Congress after Donald Trump and the Republicans had been in power for years. They've almost spent half again as much.

They spent 611 million in that cycle. Okay, by the time we're done with this one, they're probably going to hit one billion. And bear in mind, there's not a lot of billionaires in this country, but they have spent 7.4% of all of the money received from any source by candidates, parties, and political action committees this election cycle. And I may not have made clear with the tone of my voice in that graphic, but that's amazing fact number two, because billionaires spending close to a billion dollars and the cycle is insane. But the fact that they can do that, and that's 7.4% of all of the spending means that there's

a lot of money being spent. In fact, according to the most recent estimates, this midterm cycle is going to top $16.7 billion. It's the midterm elections. That is, like, didn't it used to be the case that like a presidential election, you spend a billion dollars. That's crazy. That's a crazy amount of spending. Obama raised a billion dollars, 16.7 billion dollars. It's not the presidential election. There are only 750 billionaires in this country. Well, I say only. There should be zero. There's 750 billionaires. And they've spent this shocking amount of money. We're going to break it down in a few other ways to make clear how insane this is. But we're supposed to believe that they're doing this, spending a billion dollars out of the goodness of

their heart or because politics is a hobby, not because they expect to get anything. This isn't transactional. It certainly isn't a bribe. So let's not use the B word, but these are amazing numbers. Okay, so I forget the exact number now, but good news, it's in my book. You could pre-order at justice coming book.com. I think Reagan spent around 80 million, and that's probably too high. But some number that now seems comically low.

And back then, it was like, whoa, look at all this money in politics. And that's because, as you see in the book, in 1976 and 78, Supreme Court made decisions that allowed for bribery. America is now by far the most corrupt nation on earth. It's not close. Why? Because in other countries, you have to actually bring in like one of those old briefcases with money in it, right? Maybe if you're really corrupt, like a bag full of money, a duffel bag or a suitcase go old school, right? In America, you're like, oh, no, no, I'll just send you $100 million.

dollars and I'll do it publicly and then you I own you and you work for me that's brazen and but what's amazing about corporate rule guys is that mainstream media then comes in and cleans it up they just whitewash it and they go no I don't see it that's that's not interesting to the election I'm not going to report on it are you kidding me are you joking you call yourself a reporter? A reporter? And you don't think 800 some odd million dollars buys politicians? Why? Because they're too honest? Look guys, I was just in New York. So you got the standard thing that Tom Friedman used to do. I talk to my Uber drivers, right? And so like I talk to our viewers too, but I'm putting them aside because okay, I'll obey they're progressive. The press would

consider them biased. By the way, these billionaires are of course not biased, but progressives are. Anyway, talk to Uber driver, but you talk to any of them. You could talk, because they, I say that because make sure media people never talk to any real human beings, okay? You talk to any of them and all of them, and you ask them, our politicians, honest or corrupt? 100 out of 100 will tell you that they are corrupt. Hey, they take a million dollars, let alone 100 million dollars, is that will they do what the guy tells them to do that gave them the money? 100 out of 100 will tell you, yes, of course they'll do the thing that the guy that gave him the money tells them to. You asked reporters, like, nope, nope, I don't see it.

No, no way, no way. No, Peter Thiel doesn't own Blake Masters and J.D. Vance. Ken Griffin doesn't own the Republican Party. Come on, man. I mean, the reporters in this country are the very last people on earth who should be reporters. Because they just say, no, no, no, I will deny reality. There is crazed and deranged as MAGA cult, okay? No, what do you mean, $881 million?

I don't see any corruption. Oh, you give that to Republicans. By the way, and Democrats, no, they would never be corrupt. They're honorable gentlemen debating policy in an honest way. Who the F are you kidding? Everyone in mainstream media is a joke. It's a joke they never cover this issue. This is the only issue.

Everything else flows from this. There are other issues. But these are the guys at the top that are making the decision. Hey, MAGA knuckleheads, you think that Latino guy who just crossed the border came from Guatemala without a dollar in his pocket is the one controlling American politics? Come on, Maga, don't tell me you're that dumb, okay? I know you're dumb, but don't tell me you're that dumb. No, it's obviously the guys at the top with hundreds of millions of dollars.

What do you think? And guys, again, every human being knows this except reporters in America. Think about how biased and preposterous mainstream media is. Okay, so do you think that these politicians, do you think that the donors are giving to them, like John said, you know what, out of the goodness of my heart. You know, golly, gee, I just had $120 million lying around and I decided, why not? Why not give it to a politician? Now look, there's a video that proves definitively later in the show that politicians like Joe Manchin go, yeah, yeah, give me the money and I will do exactly

as you order me to do. Okay, so, and by the way, 60% of the money is going to who? Republicans, of course, but by the way, that means 40% of the money is going to Democrats. It's actually 59, 39, right? And so, by the way, if the mainstream media ever, like, pundits and stuff covers this, they will say Mitch McConnell's corrupt and they'll be 100% right about that. They're very rare people who mention it. But if you say, okay, and so is Nancy Pelosi. They're like, how dare you?

No, she's a master legislator and the money she, the hundreds of millions of dollars she raises, and Chuck Schumer raises and Joe Biden raises. Well, they're pure as a driven snow. They would never let them that affect them. No, they're all corrupt. It's all a shell game. Good cop, bad cop. By the way, 10 out of the top 12, top 12 donors are Republicans.

Of course. Okay. You know how much those 10 guys are worth collectively? $150 billion. So this money's pocket chains to them. They're like, here, servant boy, servant boy. You, Marco Rubio, come here, be my bitch. Ted Cruz, you, you, next.

Here, I wonder if they slapped them in the ass. I don't know. I don't know what fun games they play with them. Hey, Joe Manchin, come here. Do as I tell you. Cinema, come here. I order you to do this. And they go, and they do it right away.

But do any reporters tell you that? Nope, nothing. Corruption, $881 million. Would that affect human beings? Would it editor? No, right? We never talk about it. Right.

Executive producer. Never talk about it. Guys, you want to know why? Almost all the money goes to media. Thank you. That's exactly what I was going to say. The reason that they're orphaning this story is because they're in the ecosphere that gets all that money. That's exactly right.

These are media spends. So who do you think is going to call them out? The media? No, absolutely not. And then to John's point, a midterm election, why all this money into a midterm election? Because this is a power grab going on. And they've already bought a bunch of legislators to Jenks Point. And now in the midterms, they're able to buy more.

I mean, this is an honest to goodness, full court press. And the only way to pursue it is to hit the midterms and a lot of money as well. Yeah, yeah, 100%. We can just show you very briefly some of the top 10 that you were talking about. Oh, George Soros is at the top of it. And so I joke because, of course, the Republicans would point to that. That is bad, just him, all the rest is fine, only him is bad. How about this?

How about we stop all of them from giving money? How about no more George Soros, no more Richard and Elizabeth, Ken Griffin who spent 66 million? That is a lot of baseball money, damn. None of them get, I'm joking, none of them get to spend money anymore. How about that? If you think it's bad that George Soros is pulling all the strings, you anti-Semites, let's have none of them contribute money to politics. I think that would be absolutely wonderful. By the way, you had referenced Citizens United, and if you want to find out more about that,

then read his book. But for now, if we can jump ahead to this chart, you're going to see billionaire contributions by midterm cycle. And this is crazy fact number three. Back in 2010, they spent, or they contributed, $32 million in bribes. Citizens United passes, and look at how that rises. What is it going to be in four more years? Is it 1.5 billion? Is it 3 billion at that point? Is there any limit to how much they will give? Will there be? And that's not a rhetorical question. Can we maybe limit it? I think that would be amazing. Does anybody think, if we bring up that chart one more time, you know how like we all kind of agree that things are really bad in America, particularly in terms of our politicians, their qualifications, political

rhetoric, does anyone think that that has helped? A massive exponential increase in billionaire campaign spending? Does anyone think that that's made things less extreme, less partisan, less tribal, less violent perhaps? Does anyone think that? No, regular people don't want this, by the way. A poll this year of 2,000 registered voters found that 66 to 21% people wanted the ability of billionaires to contribute unlimited, unlimited amounts of money to be restricted. So this is not a controversial thing. In America, 66 and 21, that's the most lopsided poll you're ever going to find. They don't want billionaires doing this. And they know that, they hold that position, not even knowing all these numbers. They don't know how insane it's

gone up. They don't know how much these individual billionaires have given. They don't even need to know the breakdown by party or anything like that. They just know deep in their bones that this is unjust and it's wrecking our country. That poll is actually framed in a very positive way towards right wing and it still came out 6621. There's another poll that says, do you think the politicians represent their donors or their voters? 93 to 7. 93% of Americans say, of course they represent their donors. Obviously they don't represent their voters.

If you did that in media, it would be the exact opposite. I think you could find 7% that are honest, never talk about it on air. But 7% who say, oh, no, yeah, obviously they work for their donors. And 93% of reporters in the country would say, no, they do not represent their donors. How dare you? How dare you besmirch the good reputation of the moderate Joe Manchin? Okay, so now that leads to Republicans who say, oh yeah, oh yeah, are you going to limit Soros's money in politics?

You're going to limit the union money? Yes, of course we would. I don't want their money either. I don't want him, I don't want anybody buying politicians. Why is this a complicated idea? And the reason is because you're used to corporate media and right wing media. Mainstream media says, well, maybe you limit politicians, Republicans money, but overall we never talk about it.

It's all perfectly good. Right wing media says, oh, yes, source, you limit his money. The Coke brothers, Ken Griffin, no way, no way, you don't limit their money. They're wonderful billionaires. They're doing actually pro-billionaire propaganda on Fox News. That's why you even got that 21% number because they're like, oh, I heard on Fox that I'm a billionaire, you know, billionaires are great. They're saints.

So, no, no, they're Soros. Sores is bad, although the billionaires good. No, you schmarts, and they're not bad or good. They just shouldn't be allowed to bribe politicians. No, they're bad. It's the most obvious thing in the world. Okay, we could disagree about that. One last thing.

They are. Okay. No, no, these- By their very nature. You hoarding all of that money in the ways that you got it, the ways that you had to manipulate our economic system, the amount that you've extracted from your workers. It is inherently bad.

You might be charitable too, but overall you're bad. Okay, I don't. I don't agree with that, but that's okay. God bless. So now, guys, why do they do it? Last thing. So by the way, when you mentioned baseball, I thought you were being serious for a second because one of the top donors is the Ricketts family and they own the Chicago Cubs.

So I thought you were making a reference. I was like, oh no, Ken Griffin, I got it. Yeah, I was referencing him because I know, I have deep knowledge about sports. Yeah. There are a lot of sports ownership groups that pour a lot of money into politics and checks. Right about that. Yeah, 100%. And they're almost all bad guys.

Okay. is, why do they do it? So Adelson, for example, Sheldon Isson owns casinos in like the Venetian, etc. Not just in Vegas, but he makes most of his money in China and Macau. And he does it because it pays. And so again, in my book, sorry, but it's just that it's where I summarized everything, right, is I explained the Adelson primary. And so they went in all kisses ring. And the reason was because three different cycles, Sheldon Adelson gave over $100 million to the Republicans. What did he get in return?

Because he's not a dumb businessman. He was one of the richest men in the world. He passed away very recently. Well, one of the things he got was lowered the estate tax just in the nick of time. Saved his family. Literally, though, literally saved his family billions, billions in justice estate tax. He ended online gambling for a long, long time. He ended corruption charges against him in China.

He got his wife, the presidential medal of freedom as a chotchkey that Trump threw in. I can go on and on, right? And in one part of the book, in one piece of legislation, I showed the amount of money that is put in by lobbyists and what they got in return. It was 100,000 percent return. It's absurd. It's absurd. That's got to be better than the stock market. There's no such thing in capitalism because this isn't capitalism. This is corporatism where corporations and very wealthy billionaires have captured the United States government.

By the way, 100,000% feels like the top percentage shank. It doesn't feel like you get any higher. But I showed the math. It's unheard of in business because this isn't capitalism. This isn't free markets. This is just crony capitalism. I pay off all of these servants, Republicans and Democrats, and they work for me. And isn't it amazing that nobody tells you that on CNN, MSNBC, or Fox News?

Isn't that super weird? Weird. And they're all supposed to disagree, but yet they're all in, if you will, a conspiracy to keep the most relevant information about politics away from you. Yeah. Yeah, well, I mean, they may not talk about it, but I'm sure the independent right-wing media And the populist, the populist anti-elite right-wing media is probably talking nonstop about it. Oh, I'm sure.

Anyway, we're actually going to be talking a lot more about corruption, about money and politics. We are going to take a break, though. So send us your messages. Jank will respond. We'll be right back. All right, back on TYT, Jank, Mark, and John with you guys. A lot of news, so let's get to it. A lot of news and a lot of lies.

Take a look at this. You know, now in this last ditch effort, well, let's lie to senior citizens and scare them to death with lies about Republicans. They want to take away your Social Security and Medicare and cut it. Okay, not a single Republican has ever said it. No Republican supports it. Not a single Republican has ever said that they want to cut your Social Security or Medicare, according to Sean Hannity. And he admits there that if they did say it, the idea that they would do that would be terrifying to senior citizens.

So if you are an elderly individual and you're watching this, I mean, you need you to buckle up and take a look at him being proven wrong. Be my objective to face out social security knives. People who advise me politically always tell me that's dangerous. And I tell them, in that case, it's not the room of my brother. That's why I'm doing this. We're getting right back. Medicare and Medicaid are of the same story.

It ain't to be pulled up. So that is Mike Lee, who is only, to be fair, only a senator, only might sponsor legislation to accomplish those goals, might vote to get rid of Social Security and Medicare, as he has been working towards for 12 years. That was back in 2010. And I haven't really been paying attention to politics since then. I think, have the Republican has gotten more reasonable since then? No. So there is your senator, your Republican, all on record saying he wants to destroy these incredibly popular programs. It's not the only horrible position he holds, to be fair. He advocates for raising taxes on the poor, wants to eliminate unemployment benefits, Medicare, Medicaid, University

home ownership, contraceptive rights, and the entire new deal. And so this is all from different video clips that are available from that event. And in fact, if you look at Jonathan Larson's work at t.com, you can find out a lot more details about all of this. And so anyway, Lee says there that he believes that these programs need to be phased out, that they can't be saved, that they shouldn't be saved if they can be saved. And along the way, you all who might not be making nearly as much. One of the hardest parts of getting older is feeling like something's off in your body, but not

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like cortisol. It helps with common issues such as hot flashes, poor sleep, low energy, bloating, and more. With over 40,000 reviews and a bottle sold every 24 seconds, the results speak for themselves. A survey found 86% of women lost weight, 77% saw an improved mood, and 100% felt like themselves again. Start your next chapter feeling balanced and in control. For a limited time, get 15% off your entire first order at happy mammoth.com with code next chapter at checkout. Visit happy mammoth.com today and get your old self back naturally. Money is him or is donors should be paying more. He says our current tax system is bad because of the fact that we've got almost 50% of the population that pays nothing. 43.5% I think is the number.

He says if we all have to pay taxes, every single one of us will have an incentive to make sure that our tax dollars are well spent. And what he is referring to there, and let's be clear, exaggerating there is that an insufficient number of poor people, according to him, pay federal income taxes. That does not mean they don't pay taxes. Literally everyone pays taxes. And by the way, the poor who will, on average, spend every cent that they have merely trying to survive, are going to pay taxes, sales taxes, and a variety of other taxes on all that they spend. The rich are the ones who are able to get away with evading taxes in a number of different ways. And so we have more on this, but I love that they're openly advocating for this.

Now, some aren't like Mike Lee. They don't want to completely eliminate it just yet, but they want to raise the eligibility age. They want to cut the benefits. They're coming out with draft legislation already. And take a look at just like with abortion, you know, when the elections months and months away, then, oh, they're big tough guys talking about their extreme ideas. But as to get closer to the election. Suddenly, oh, I mean, they don't want to talk about anything. They don't have any radical positions or anything. Oh, mums the word and eliminate any references from the campaign website. Well, the cheat is the modification to Social Security, but Kevin McCarthy on the House side

has been open about wanting to revisit Social Security. So it's not just happening on the Senate side. It's all over the Republican Party. George Bush took a shot at this when he was president. He wanted to privatize Social Security, modify Social Security. You'll hear all of these different code words. They want to get rid of these entitlement programs straight up. So Rick Scott's in charge of elections on the Senate side for the Republicans.

He's a Republican center of Florida. He suggested sunsetsetting all provisions, all laws every five years. Basically, okay, this is a summary of it. That means every five years they'd have to reauthorize Social Security and Medicare. And Republicans hate Social Security and Medicare. They've been trying to get rid of it since the day that FDR imposed it. right, passed it and signed it into law. Like literally, you look up the history of social security at every turn,

Republicans have tried to destroy it, right? So that's a verifiable fact. But before an election, they always panic and go, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Social Security, Medicare, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, right? We wouldn't touch it. Okay, and then, but that's why Mitch McConnell was so mad at Rick Scott, because Rick Scott said it publicly. Yep.

And Mitch McConnell's like, what are you doing, you idiot? We're supposed to pretend to be progressives and on the side of the American people and say, oh, yeah, we love Social Security Medicare, which are the most progressive, in fact, arguably socialist programs in American history. We pretend to be in favor of that. And then as soon as we win, we do what our donors told us. Destroy the goddamn thing and give me more tax cuts. So what Hannity is an absolute joke.

And if you told Hannity the day after the election, should we get rid of Social Security and Medicare? Like, yes, finally. Okay, more tax cuts for me. The son of a bitch makes $40 million a year. Oh my God. They look at, you know what, they call social security, and Hannah does this all the time. They call Social Security and Medicare entitlements, as if like, oh, look at you with your,

you feel so entitled. Get goddamn right, we're entitled to it. Every one of us, including me, including all these guys, we've all paid into, including every one of you, paid into Social Security, paid into Medicare, it's taken out of every damn check, right? And at the end, we are entitled to that money, because it's our money that we put in for our retirement, right? Yep.

And Republicans go, oh, you feel like you're entitled to it. And then meanwhile, they give hundreds of millions of dollars to Republicans because they feel entitled to billions, in fact, trillions in tax cuts. Yep. So these are the worst people on earth totally lying to you. Finally, by the accredited Joe Biden in the Democratic Party, it took them forever. But yes, of course you're supposed to talk about this in an election. Most of the voters are older.

Are you nuts? They should have been pounding away at this. When I saw Mitch McConnell panic, this was like now months ago, Rick Scott comes out. He's like, I got this great new plan, okay? We're gonna screw all the Americans and take away their social security. And you see Mitch McConnell like, we're sitting into his shell like, but in like anger and fear, right? And he's like, no, no, Rick Scott doesn't talk for us, cut it out after the election, you idiot, after the election, right? When you saw that fear and panic in McConnell's eyes, that's when you attack.

because he's worried. Instead, the Democrats sat on their hands like idiots, like every time until like two weeks before the election. They're like, oh, right. Social Security and Medicare poll at like 87% and 79%. Right, American people. Old the voters are older. God damn it. Right, right, right, right, right. And so good. I'm happy they did it in the last two weeks. They should have been pounding. They should have hurt them to their core. For the last two months, they should have pounded away. These sons of bitches are going to steal your money. That's literally true. So right on. I mean, this is the messaging problem the Democrats have had. And yes, they should have been hitting this way, way sooner. Instead, it was about democracy and we're losing

democracy. Not saying that that's not true, but I mean, you start talking Social Security, Medicare, you're talking about stuff that gets people's attention. And the other thing, and I heard this on my show, my brand new show, the Mark Thompson show on YouTube, I heard that, and people said sarcastic, Mark, do you really think the Republicans are going to take away Social Security, I mean, the third rail? I used to hear that about Roe, about you really, think they're going to overturn the row. I mean, it's by now, it's so radioactive. They're going to do it. They say they're going to do it and they will deliver on that if they gain enough power. Yeah. Yeah. And also, maybe last thing on this, but we don't even have to like just

sort of gaze into the midst of the future and wonder where will they be able to find an opportunity. They've basically been saying that when the debt ceiling needs to be raised, they're going to take, they're going to hold that hostage to get these cuts. And everybody's been saying the Democrats have to take care of that situation before the midterms, and they've said this week they're not going to. They're just going to leave it open, and hopefully the master strategist and the Democratic Party will take care of it without giving up anything after the elections. But it's the same situation as with Merrick Garland back before Obama finally left office. Like you had an opportunity in theory to get this done, you didn't, and we've been paying the

price for it ever since. Yeah, I'm trying to figure out which one is the bigger lie. When Fox News tells you that Republican politicians have your best interest in mind, and they care so much about the average American, I mean, that is preposterous a lie as you could possibly. They all work for the billionaire donors that can give them all of their funding. They brag about it openly. Lindsay Graham has said, well, look, the donors would close their checkbooks if we don't deliver for them.

He literally said it out loud. Trump has said it, et cetera. Or if it's MSNBC and corporate media saying Democratic leadership, genius. master legislators. So you don't talk about your most winning strategy, your most winning policy issue, until people almost don't hear it. And you whispered at the end. Yeah, Social Security and Medicare.

And then you run. That's genius, genius. No, you say it for two months straight. You run all your eyes at them. The reason Mark's right, look, guys, I care more about democracy than anything else. I vote based on that. I care more about that than my Social Security. I care more about that than anything, right?

But most people, most voters care about things that are the closest to them. Democracy is theoretical. It is far away from them. They would like it. They like it. They care about it a little bit, right? But their social security is right here. If they don't get it, they might starve.

They might, they don't have their Medicare. They might literally die, right? That is right here. You want to get as close to the voter as possible. Republicans have known this my entire life. Democrats are still like, uh, what? You get closed of the voter and how it affects them. Huh?

Huh? I'm just going to say, Trump bad guy, me good guy. Did that work? No, it didn't work. It hasn't worked for six straight years. They just, they suck at this. And if corporate media didn't lie on behalf of corporate Democrats nonstop, we would have replaced these losers ahead of the Democratic Party decades ago.

And what would we have gotten? Let's be productive. And let's be factual. So what would I replace them with? It's not a matter of just progressives. I would replace them with people who are aggressive and know that you're supposed to fight your opponent and not lay down to them. He said, come on, guys, isn't this the most obvious, simplistic things you've ever

heard in your life? So what's the proof of concept? John Federman, Tim Ryan. John Federman is on the edge of retaking a Republican seat, even though he had a stroke. Okay, if he hadn't had the stroke, he was going to be up by 10. Tim Ryan is in an R plus 10 state in Ohio, and he might beat JD Vance. And even if he doesn't, he's this close. Why?

Tim Ryan and Federman don't agree. Tim Ryan's more conservative, John Federman is more progressive. No, but the thing they agree on is they run aggressive. They say, well, I'm going to take down that son of a bitch ass kisser, okay? And people go, oh, I like that. Remember, we're not in Democratic primary. The general election voters like that. My whole life, I've been saying this, and I've been called a radical, I've been called everything.

They say, oh, Jake, you're such a rookie, no, no, the way you win elections is you tell people that the other side is better than you. Republicans are great, and we're civil to them, we don't want to fight them, we don't want to fight them, okay? And then the media comes and go, oh yeah, genius, genius. No, it was the dumbest strategy, they did it for 40 straight years, look at what, look, again, I don't agree. agree with Tim Ryan on a lot of policy issues, but look at what he's doing. It's not rocket science. You're supposed to run against the other guy. And now look at Hannity, what we started the story with. Now Hannity's in a panic. Have you ever seen them play defense on Fox News? Now Hannity's playing defense. No, no, no, no, no, we're not going to cut social security. What do you mean social security?

No, no, no, Republicans never said that. He goes back to his lines. So that's how you do it. Exactly. Okay, well, let's turn to Democratic Senator that you might not be as positive towards whenever you're ready, let's go to this. West Virginia's Joe Manchin has an independent mind, which voters in his deeply red state seem to appreciate. And he held out for key changes to the Biden administration's inflation reduction act. We're going to ask this political linchpin, whether the art of compromise can make a comeback in Washington, D.C. Okay, so that is Fortune's CEO initiative conference,

and they love Joe Manchin. In particular, they love his independent mind. And if you've been paying attention to politics for a little bit, you probably know exactly what that means when a rich person says it. They don't like independence. They like someone who is on their leash right now. And Joe Manchin very much is. We're going to talk about a number of different topics here. But right there, they were talking about compromise and social spending.

Let's jump to a little bit more on that. Looking ahead, what are the similar opportunities for bipartisan action? You're going to get your financial house in order. We cannot live with this crippling debt. If they don't get their house in order, if we don't look at the trust funds that are going bankrupt, whether it be Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, highway, all the ones. Alan earned tremendous problems right now. If we can't come to grips of how we face the financial challenges this country has,

then we're all going to be paying a price that we can't afford. Okay, so there is Joe Manchin making the sort of vague argument that he always makes to stop the U.S. the federal government from doing basically anything. There's something economic that's out of control, and at some point it's going to be bad. and so we can't do anything. We won't be able to afford these. Okay, so what if we were to raise taxes a little bit, raise a little bit of money, make these programs more sustainable?

No, no, no, no, we can't do that. In fact, if you want to jump ahead July this year, he said that in addition to not supporting climate spending because he doesn't care if your kids and your grandkids are living in some sort of mad max apocalypse, he also didn't support tax hikes on the wealthy to fund any of these programs, infrastructure, let alone these what he would call entitlement programs like Social Security and Medicare that flash to a month or two from now. He's probably going to be working with Republicans on to help them get them cut in the way that

they want. So Joe Manchin has been helping the Republican Party the entire Biden administration, right? So they can't, the Republicans, remember, were out of power. The Democrats, of course, have the presidency, the House, and the Senate. So if they wanted, they could actually pass anything they want. But Joe Manchin is not a Democrat. He's a Republican. And he's pretending to be a Democrat. That way you could do more damage. So what do you mean do more damage, right? Well, first of all, you block 85% of Joe Biden's agenda, which he did, single-handedly. Like, don't get me wrong, Chris, his cinema helped.

And if they weren't around, other corporate Democrats would step up. And this is all his shell game, right? But he was happy to do it, right? So he kills most of Biden's agenda. Biden is also a Republican, so he doesn't really care. After Manchin killed his agenda, he's at a news conference, he sees Joe Manchin. He goes, hey Joe Joe, how you doing? Jojo. Somebody kills 85% of my agenda. I ain't calling them Jojo, calling them something else.

Okay, so anyway, so this is how this game is played. So I'm bringing that up in this context. Why? Because the Republicans are getting killed on Social Security. Finally, Democrats woke up in the last couple of weeks before the election. They're talking about how the Republicans have promised to cut Social Security and Medicare. That's a definitely a winning strategy. And then the Republicans call mansion, they're like, hey, we need your help. So be a good boy and go out there and say, I as a Democrat. Why just survive back to school when you can thrive by creating a space that does it all for you, no matter the size.

Whether you're taking over your parents' basement or moving to campus, IKEA has hundreds of design ideas and affordable options to complement any budget. After all, you're in your small space era. It's time to own it. Shop now at IKEA.ca. I think we should cut social security and Medicare. Great. So he goes and he talks to a bunch of CEOs, and he goes, remember, I am your loyal servant, more on that in a second, okay, and so I am here to serve you and my Republican colleagues.

So I will destroy the Democratic messaging right before the election and say, it's me as a Democrat that wants to cause Social Security Medicare. And if the Republicans win and they want to do that, is he going to help them? Of course he is. He's a servant of the donors. And then what does the media do? No, moderate. Moderate's a positive phrase.

Independent thinker. Independent thinker. No, no, he's corrupt. He takes millions of dollars from these guys. And then what a liar. Oh, the deficit. It's funny, you know, Joe Manchin and the other corporate Democrats, they can never find the deficit or the debt when Trump is in charge or Bush is in charge.

When any Republicans in charge, you never hear them talking about the debt or the deficit. She said, mum's the word, nothing. Oh my God, that's all. Trump mansion, right? Now Biden's in charge of the Democrats. They're going, God damn it's debt. Devin's trying to help other American people. Cut their goddamn Social Security.

Okay, we've got the debt and the deficit. All right, great, Joe, you care a lot about that. So let's raise taxes on the wealthy because that will actually reduce deficit. Awkward. Yeah, no, no way, no. Because, look, to be fair, the poor people of West Virginia need to have their Social Security and Medicare cut. But my donors, I mean, they can't risk losing $10. bucks. They only have 32 billion. So we can't, no, no, no, you have to leave the billionaires

alone. They're the most precious people on earth. I work for them. You're their dog, Joe Manchin. You're their freaking dog. They walk you on a goddamn leash, as you're about to see in a second, more of it. Go ahead, Mark. I mean, you're certainly right. This deficit hawk stuff is just used as a, it's subterfuge for, you know, hobbling legislation. Jank is so right about that. And you never hear about cut if you're so concerned with budget, the defense budget. Instead, we deal with a bloated defense budget that is voted by both parties, and they're getting excesses in excess of what they want. I mean, in other words, the appropriations request is one thing. Then we give them 20% more. Both parties do that. But you don't hear

that defense budget mentioned in any of this conversation about trying to bring debt under control. And I think the notion of smearing the message or muddying the message, is a really good one. I mean, it's a, it takes away the us versus them advantage that the Democrats would otherwise have. I think that's a really important message today. Yeah. Well, we don't have much time, but let's get to a little bit more from Joe Manchin. First, this clip. As John Kennedy said, that's not what your country can do for you, what you can do for it. And right now we've got people asking how much more can my country do for me. That's not how you remain the superpower of the world. Well, how about this? How about we ask the billionaires,

What can you do for us? I feel like you could give a little bit more in taxes, still be fabulously wealthy, you could still buy as many islands as you could ever hope to see in the rest of your life. But maybe then we wouldn't all suffer, but no, no, you're the one who's supposed to suffer. Regular people are supposed to suffer and give and sacrifice, not the wealthy. I wanted to read one more quote from him because he also talked about campaign contributions to these CEOs. And he said, he was contrasting the way that these CEOs invest in their business and the way that the corporations invest in politicians. And he said, they've done that by taking risks, getting a return, expecting returns on investment.

The investments you've made in politics from the Democrat side and the Republican side by asking nothing in return is a foolish investment. Because you would never do that in your business world or your private life. So he believes that these corporations are not expecting anything. They're also apparently not getting anything from these contributions, but they should. He thinks they're being foolish because they're not openly bribing politicians enough. They're just giving corporate money out of the goodness of their heart and not expecting any return. That's what professional politician and full grown adult, I checked. Joe Manchin had to say to this group of CEOs.

He literally is saying that if you're a 73 year old retired coal miner in West Virginia, you need to do more for your country. But if you're a billionaire that funds his campaign, you don't need to do any more for the country. You're good. You're good. It's disgusting. But I want to play one more mansion clip. Watch what he says here. Bipartisan action used to happen on a fairly regular basis. Why, why has it gotten so hard and so much worse? The rules of how you participate in the Senate or in politics. Now you can't go out to dinner with a lobbyist. They looked at that as a bad thing, that they repelling influence. The lobbyists basically would go out and have different

different functions, Democrats and Republicans would come together. Those things have changed because there's no camaraderie right now. What can the business community do to better engage with this somewhat dysfunctional political system you've been describing? Why don't you do this? Tell a politician when they come to you. Say, listen, I'm sorry, I don't give checks. I don't give a donation or a contribution to any politician, but I'm willing to make an investment. What should I expect from you? What are you going to do? What have you done in your political life? will you do if this is your first time? Tell me so I can make a decision on whether I want to invest in you because I can expect something in return. Wow, he said it. He just said it.

That's just said it. That's all that says. He just said, invest in a politician and then demand to know what he can do for you. That's in return. In return, that's quid pro quo. All three of them. That is, that's the definition of corruption. He just said it on tape. Now, what's going to be amazing guys and that's why we do predictions on this show so you can understand how politics works. You will not see that on a single cable news station. You will not see the New York Times right about it. You will not see Washington Post right about it. That is an amazing admission of corruption. He's talking to CEOs, there's a giant CEO label right next to him. And he says, you should bribe us and then you should demand that we work for you and that

you get a return on investment from us corrupt politicians. Yeah. And then all of mainstream media will say, no, that's not news. No, every, all these politicians are dirty, corrupt, terrible, immoral people, okay? So when the mainstream media lies to you and say they're honest, and Joe Manchin is a moderate from West Virginia, that's why he has to serve his voters. His voters want him to work for CEOs in New York. Do they, do they? You goddamn liars, why are you lying on behalf of Joe Manchin. So this is corruption defined. Republicans and corporate Democrats like Joe Manchin working together with CEOs just screw the rest of us. Yeah. This is not democracy. This is flat out bribery and corruption. And that's America. They've turned

America into the most corrupt nation on earth. It's disgusting. All right, we got to take a break. We'll be back. All right on TYT, Cenk, John and Mark with you guys, I can't find the comment here, but one of our members suggested if I don't do the audio recording of my book that you should. Oh, okay, that'd be a great honor, Jack. But I'll tell you what though, if you really want to hear Mark's voice all the time, it's the Mark Thompson show on YouTube, okay? I could kiss you right now.

Well, that would make a lot of news and that would get a lot of views for the Mark Thompson show. You got to put the the in there. All right, the Dragon Daddy, go ahead. I will. I will. Okay, let's talk about this. MSNBC has dropped the Tiffany Cross weekend show after a nearly two-year run and under circumstances that are at the very least interesting. They chose not to renew her contract and for now we'll be filling her time slot with a series of rotating hosts.

Her staff was informed of the decision on Friday morning, but they will apparently remain in place. Now, previous to this show, she had been the D.C. Bureau Chief for BET's networks, and Cross has not, as far as we've seen yet, spoken to media about this. But there has been speculation about why exactly this show, which is apparently quite popular, was doing very well in the ratings. Apparently, let's see, has averages the second most African American viewers of any weekend cable news show, 4.6 million viewers per month. And by the way, the show's audience skews 55% female. So all things that the network is saying that they're looking for and appear to have gotten,

and yet she's now out. So there are a couple of different potential explanations about why exactly this happened. Some are saying that her relationship with the network was becoming frayed in part because executives were growing concerned about her willingness to address statements made by cable news hosts on other networks, and indulging in commentary, executives felt did not meet the standards of MSNBC or NBC news. And so let's jump to the first of that. So there's two different instances of this that we can point to, perhaps there are others.

After Megan Kelly attacked her earlier this month and called her the most racist person on television, cross called Kelly the blackface expert, referencing past commentary. by Megan Kelly about blackface costumes and that sort of thing. She later apologized Megan Kelly in that particular case. There was also an incident that you might remember from just a week or two ago with Tucker Carlson, where Tucker Carlson accused her and MSNBC of trying to incite a race war against white people, and in particular threatening white women who are, in his words, of course, the key to reproducing the white race.

Yes, that is a quote that had an anchor. her said on a show, Tucker Carlson there. He said that she's trying to foment white genocide. She's trying to replay Rwanda's 1994 ethnic cleansing. But in this case, it would be white people who were wiped out. And so because Megan Kelly called her a racist and she responded and Tucker Carlson said she's trying to get hundreds of millions of white people to be killed, she's gotta go, I suppose. Now in the last 24 hours, she did also have some commentary about

Ronda Santis and Florida, that is interesting, I can't actually say some of these words, but it referenced Florida as being the, I'm gonna say, penis of America, and that it should be castrated. And so that's controversial. Now, she means it as a metaphor. She doesn't actually want to cut off a la Bugs Bunny, Florida, so that it like drifts off into the ocean or anything. But those might be some of the reasons that she was fired. Yeah, okay, we're hiring just so you know. So we'll be talking to Tiffany soon, if she's interested. Because look, I don't know that we're going to particularly hire or we'll have a conversation about it. But I'm interested in aggressive hosts. I'm not MSNBC who thinks she should be a dormat for Fox News

and allows Tucker Carlson to fire your host. What a loser network. Tucker Carlson attacked her. she said something back and you fired her. That's a surrender to racist, fascist, Tucker Carlson. I mean, what a pathetic, pathetic thing to do. Now look, guys, when the news came out this morning that they had severed their relationship. I said, I don't know, man, people are saying crazy things these days. Maybe she said something crazy behind the scenes that I don't know about. So I said, look, barring something that she said that I don't know, it seems like,

like this was a terrible move, right? But I was worried. But no, it's that, that's gone now. Because so for, let me explain why. So someone who's got really good ratings on MSNBC, but all of a sudden have MSNBC executives leak about them and then sever the relationship. Gee, I don't know who else might have been in that situation. So for those of you who don't know, that was exactly what happened to me. I was the 6 o'clock host for MSNBC. MSNBC. MSNB starts, I had the best ratings they had ever gotten at 6 o'clock. I literally, in the the conversation with the head of MSNBC said ratings are not an issue, right, obviously, because we all see the ratings and we all see that it was the best they'd ever gotten at that

time slap. And he's like, no, no, no, ratings are not an issue. Okay, so then what's the issue? Okay, and when I was at MSNBC, the very first interview I said that I said I was going to kick Fox News's ass and make them cry. Okay, they called me in. NBC officials, PR people called me in and said, don't, don't do it. I'm like, wait, I thought they were our competition. Aren't we trying to get pressed and beat them? They're like, no, no, no, no, no, no. You don't know how scary they are.

I swear to God, this is a real conversation. They say they have some of the, they have our anchors and our executives as followed. I was like, I was like, shouldn't you report that? Your NBC News. Shouldn't you report that the other guys are lunatics that are having you followed? I don't know it. I didn't get followed as far as I know. Followed to what end?

But you're telling me to be a coward and that if I'm not a coward, I'll have trouble. And here she is, she was the most aggressive host on NBC, MSNBC, by a long shot. Medea is a great host, okay? And so many, watch yourself, okay? I don't want to put any ideas. But when I saw Tiffany Cross say these things that were true and aggressive on air, I was like, they're letting her say that, maybe MSNBC's changed, right? because there's new leadership, et cetera.

They haven't chased it all. And look at this leak. Now it's for sure that she didn't say anything outrageous off air that we don't know about. The executives leaked to variety and told them. Yeah, she dared to fight back against Tucker Carlson and Megan Kelly. That's not what NBC News does. NBC News lays down like a goddamn doormat and lets the fascist walk all over them. And remember, Tiffany, you are not to do the news, you're not to be honest, you're to do corporate media.

You don't see corruption, you don't see racism, you don't see any problems with the Republicans. Our job is to kiss their ass. We're MSNBC, the left wing station. Hilarious. Joke, thank you. Thank you for proving what a joke you are. Like I said, Tiffany, call me. Well, on this one, I think you have to yield to Jank.

He knows MS, their culture, and what they'll accept. They're so mainstream. But as Jank was speaking, I was thinking, well, in a way, they're a reflection of the Democrats and some of the points we've made this hour, which is that, you know, there's sort of a politeness and a, a tame quality to Democratic messaging, and it's only lost elections. And the in-your-face quality that you need, especially now, to cut through the media noise, that is in short supply in the mainstream media with certainly opinion hosts.

And so I think, as I say, when it comes to the actual specific culture at MS, Jank has pretty much the ranking officer on deck, but it would seem as though they're all about the politeness. So I want to say one last thing about this, because guys, think about the contrast. Because it's not that MSMC can't be tough. If you remember in 2020, when Bernie Sanders won the first three primaries, Chuck Todd called his followers brown shirts. His family died in the Holocaust, and he called his followers Nazis. That's as tough as it gets, right? Chris Matthews said that if Bernie Sanders wins, there might be executions in Central Park.

Jeez. Okay, so they know how to be super tough. but only towards the left wing. I mean, look at corporate media, it's just a hall of mirrors. Everything is an illusion. They set up a left wing channel that only attacks the left wing. And if you attack the right wing, they fire you. Isn't that amazing?

And then all of corporate media goes, oh yeah, MSNBC's left wing. MSNBC is the left wing. They know that the Republicans are right and the progressives are wrong. They are the left weight. And unfortunately, they brainwashed people like Fox News does. And they brainwashed them into voting for corporate Democrats and voting against their interests. I'll give you one last stat. In Mississippi, 65% of Democratic primary voters wanted Medicare for all.

But the press told them, Bernie cannot win. Bernie cannot win. Bernie cannot win. Bernie cannot win. Progressives cannot win. You must vote for the corporate Democrat. You must vote for the corporate Democrat. And so you know what they did?

Bernie, who wants Medicare for all, they said no. Joe Biden says, I'm never going to do Medicare for all. They voted 78% for Joe Biden. Why? They were hypnotized by MSNBC telling you, no, progressives can never win. You should only elect Democrats who will lie down like formats for the Republicans. And let Tucker Carlson walk all over them, okay? By the way, that's the same exact thing they said about Hillary Clinton.

And Hillary Clinton lost Donald Trump. Did they learn anything from it? No. Joe Biden, by the way, won by 43,000 votes in three swing states. Otherwise, Trump would have won re-election. He was this close to losing. Yet the next election, I guarantee it. I'll tell you ahead of time, and you will sit, write it down in stone.

There is a 0% chance that I am wrong. MSNBC will go out there and say, you've got to vote for the corporate Democrat. You got to vote for the conservative Democrat. They're the only ones who can win. They're the only ones who can win. The progressive, don't vote for the progressive. They're never going to win. Hypnotize, hypnotize, hypnotize.

And remember, Tucker Carlson's great. Don't criticize Tucker Carlson. Don't criticize Megan Kelly. No, no, no. We're the left wing station. We're the left wing, okay. And the rest of the media, we're like, oh, yeah, yeah, left wing, left wing. Yeah, yeah. The left week says Republicans are right. Vote for Republicans and conservative

Democrats. Yeah. Okay, that's media for you, and that's MSNBC. room was created by progressives 100 years ago. You mentioned the rose, you mentioned that that approach, the bell ringing, God being removed. Of course, lunch breaks. Lunch breaks. Okay, so thank you to Pete Hegesith for reminding us that if not for progressives a century ago, there probably wouldn't still be public education and everybody would be toiling in the fields as peasants the way that those two millionaires would like.

But that is Pete Heggseth of Fox News, joining Charlie Kirk to demonize. school bells and being able to break to eat a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Yes, they're actually going at school lunch breaks now. Let's listen to a bit more. Different subject, social studies, the idea we're not going to study civics, history, philosophy, theology. We're going to create psychology and social studies and split it all up as if we can dissect human nature and through a scientific method, which they've invented, create more perfectible human beings by controlling how they think and what they think. All created by progressives.

So almost every subject and frame, did you take social studies? I took social studies. The progressives made it up. It's a made-up conglomerate of subjects meant to silo the way that we think, as opposed to basing all of wisdom in God's wisdom, in his word. And it all makes sense looking at it through that lens. I have to see a lot of right wing media because of this job. I had missed that they apparently have an issue with the field of psychology now.

The scientific method? Was that Tom Cruise? Who was that? Guys, the core, like they always are like Western civilization. We have to protect Western civilization. And actually there's amazing, wonderful things about Western civilization. Up sides and downsides, obviously, right? But one of the giant upsides, one of the pillars, the cornerstones of Western civilization is the scientific method.

That's what's great about Western civilization. They're like, no, what's great about it is white people. But I keep your stinking science to yourself, all right, your facts. They're attacking social studies? What is that? What is that? That's insane. He's like, we used to study philosophy, did we?

Did he? Did you study philosophy? Is that a thing that we did? We were teaching philosophy, but then we stopped to do social studies where you learn history and civics. Yeah, stop for lunch. By the way, what would he say about a college student who went to college to study philosophy? What do you think he would have to say about that? Oh, yeah, you wasted your money, and now you want student debt relief?

Oh, you want to study Socrates? You know, that's what he would say. No, all of that, he gave away the game at the very end. He was using a tiny bit of code words, and at the end, he's like, we used to teach God's wisdom. You know what I'm saying? Now we let these Jews and Muslims run around and these atheists. and these kids and stuff and people who are gay and trans and stuff. No, let's bring back God, okay, Christianation.

We only teach them the Bible. And by the way, do you? If you taught them the Bible, they would teach them that Jesus said, give away all your worldly possessions, give them to the poor and the needy. Do you want to teach that, Hegseth? I guarantee you that Hegseth himself would have called Jesus Christ a communist. Jesus Christ said, no rich man can get into heaven, none. He said, give away all your possessions.

turned to other cheek, welcome in immigrants. He washed the feet of the poor, the needy and prostitutes. They would say, oh, Karl Marx, goddamn Jesus Christ, that guy should be tarned and feathered or crucified or something. Okay, look, the old crazy anti-Semitic trope about, oh, yeah, the Jews killed Jesus. And then people said, oh, no, it was the Romans, the Italians killed Jesus, right? No, you know who killed Jesus? Conservatives.

They said, oh, yeah, this guy's causing trouble. He wants to change the way we do things. He's saying giving away all your property to the poor. We don't want to do that. We're rich. We don't want anything to change. Hang the son of a bitch or crucify him. That's who Hexif is.

That's who Fox News is. He threw out the money changers. Fox News loves the money changers. They work for the banks. And you know what Jesus was? He was occupied Nazareth. That's what he was. The first thing he did was throughout the money.

change them from the temple. They don't know a thing about the Bible. They don't want to teach you the Bible. They want to teach you rich man's propaganda. Okay, white Christian males are in charge. And screw Jesus and screw your education and your scientific method and your Western civilization. Screw all that. As long as Hegseth and his bros are in charge. And by the way, you don't even get a lunch break. All right, we got to go. Sorry, guys. We got an amazing second hour, so don't miss a minute of it. We're going to come back. Charlie Kirk tells us how to survive the election.

Okay? So, oh, God help us. Jesus. All right, we'll be right 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 Podcasts at Apple. Apple.com slash t-y-t. I'm your host, Jan Huger, and I'll see you soon.