The Young Turks - No Mo' Cuomo

Episode Date: August 10, 2021

Governor Andrew Cuomo resigns. Roberta Kaplan, who aided Cuomo, resigns from the Time’s Up organization. After months of negotiation, the Senate voted 69-30 to pass the $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure plan. Florida’s governor says school leaders’ salary may be withheld if they require masks.  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. Welcome to the Young Turks. Hold on, hold on, we're gonna get to it, okay? And media reaction is hilarious. We've got a thousand stories for you guys, obviously leading with Andrew Cuomo and his resignation, but tons and tons of stories, including a word, in my opinion.

And based on my reading of the stories, what is actually going to happen with infrastructure and budget bills. So mysteries solve tonight. I mean, that's just, that's what we do. We solve mysteries. We solve mysteries. That's what we do. Okay.

All right. Well, I can't wait to talk about the infrastructure deal. Because it's the one thing where for some reason, the press won't report on the things that actually matter about that bipartisan infrastructure bill. So we're going to give you the nitty gritty. But first, we begin with Cuomo. The best way I can help now is if I step aside and let government get back to governing. That is New York Governor Andrew Cuomo announcing that he intends to resign following all the fallout from the Attorney General's, I'm sorry, the state attorney general's report indicating that he had harassed, sexually harassed, 11 women, nine of whom he worked with, and of course,

There are a bunch of other pretty devastating controversies that he's been embroiled in, including the fact that he made decisions that led to nursing homes, spreading COVID, and he led to the death of elderly people, which no one in the media is talking about right now. But that's also a controversy that should be considered when it comes to his decision to resign. But, Jank, I feel like you're going to press something. Are you ready for it? Oh, yeah. Are we ready for it?

You ready? Ladies and gentlemen, we got him. Down goes promo, down goes promo, down goes promo. Look guys, we're gonna give you a lot of details here, and one of the things I want to preview for you guys is that how complicit the media was. Because that's written all over the story, and especially on the issue of corruption. And of course, we didn't get him, he got himself, and these brave women came forward, which led to more women, which led to the investigation. It's not like the media uncovered it in the first place. They're now part of a dog pile.

But on the other hand, there's some members of the media that are defending him today and talking about his political comeback. Oh, poor Cuomo. Okay. I mean, well, I mean, they like him so much, etc. Such a good guy. But from a progressive perspective, we always knew he was corrupt. We proved it. We had receipts.

We showed it to you over and over again. But every time that a progressive ran against Cuomo, Cynthia Nixon or otherwise, the press would come and go, would come and go, how can we help you, Angel Como? We hear you're corrupt. How can we help you? How can we help you? So they are his major accomplice in the crimes that he committed and why he has stepped down today. So if you're a progressive, it's a great day in America today. Now, he would claim that he's stepping down for the good of the nation, for the good of the

electorate in New York. And he does it while speaking to people in a very slow, and condescending way as if we're all morons, but nonetheless, here's more of his comment. I work for you and doing the right thing is doing the right thing for you. Because as we say, it's not about me, it's about we. No, it's definitely about you. And he also decided to lean on his three daughters during this announcement, which honestly made me cringe, but maybe you feel differently about it. Let's watch.

In many ways, I see the world through the eyes of my daughters, Kara, Mariah and Michaela. They are 26 and 26, twins and 23. And I have lived this experience with and through them. I have sat on the couch with them, hearing the ugly accusations for weeks. I have seen the look in their eyes and the expression on their faces. And it hurt. I want my three jewels to know this. My greatest goal is for them to have a better future than the generations of women before them.

It is still in many ways a man's world. It always has been. We have sexism that is culturalized and institutionalized. I want them to know from the bottom of my heart that I never did and I never would intentionally disrespect a woman or treat any woman differently than I would want them treated. And that is the God's honest truth. Your dad made mistakes and he apologized and he learned. from it. So just to give you all a sense of just how much he respects women, as I mentioned earlier,

the New York State Attorney General's report detailed that he had sexually harassed 11 different women, and then proceeded to attempt to discredit the women as they came forward to detail the allegations against him. Very similar to what Weinstein did against actresses who he had abused and raped. In this case, we're talking about sexual assault and sexual. harassment among his own employees, aides who worked for him. And that's not to say that it's the only controversy he's been embroiled in. There's a new controversy now that Ronan Farrow reported about, which I'll get to in just a second. But let's not forget that he's the one who forced

nursing homes to take elderly patients who had tested positive for COVID. That spread COVID within these nursing homes, a ton of elderly people died needlessly, and then his administration turned around and underreported the number of deaths by as much as 50%. That's who Cuomo is. These aren't just mistakes. These are intentional decisions that he made that led to people dying and led to people getting harmed. So I actually thought the way that he used his daughters there as political cover was Absolutely disgusting. So he said, oh, I saw the hurt in their eyes. So sounds like they don't even believe you. If you didn't do it, why would they have hurt in their eyes? So, and if you're going to talk to your daughters about what you did and apologize, why are you doing it on national TV? Why don't you go do it at home? You're doing it on national TV because you'd like to use them as a political prop. You're disgusting. So he's always been disgusting. It's just now the media's flipped from helping him to, oh, I guess he's not going to be in power anymore.

Let's pretend to be honest journalists. All right, speaking of which we go back to corruption. Yes, exactly. So first, let me just note that the person who will be stepping in after he resigns is the lieutenant governor, Kathy Hochel, a fellow Democrat, and she will serve the rest of his term when the resignation becomes effective in 14 days. So he did give his two week notice, very kind. She will become the state's first female governor. Now, there was other Cuomo related news today in the form of new reporting from Ronan Farrow. This was published in the New Yorker, so check that out for the full piece.

But here's what we learned about the possible obstruction of justice that Cuomo was involved in. So in a previously unreported 2014 episode, Cuomo called White House advisor Valerie Jarrett to complain about then U.S. attorney Preet Bahara and his investigation into. to Cuomo's shuttered Moreland Commission probing political corruption. In fact, he told Jarrett, quote, this guy's out of control and even said he's your guy. Jared claims, and she was a top advisor to Obama at the time, she claims that she hung up the phone immediately once she realized that Cuomo was trying to get her to intervene in that investigation and immediately reported it. But the public didn't know about this until today, that is a serious effect.

I mean, if Democrats are going to talk about Trump's obstruction of justice, and he did, in fact, engage in obstruction of justice based on the Mueller report, they should be equally upset and enraged that there was obstruction of justice taking place in 2014 with Cuomo and this investigation. A really important point here, guys. And it might relate to why Cuomo resigned today. I mean, we had all these charges. And well, before this, the investigation came in, concluding you're still fighting, still fighting. But he steps down today after the Rowan and Pharaoh peace. Is it related? I think it is partly related to why for two reasons. Number one, he realized this isn't going to get any better, it's actually getting worse.

They're uncovering more or more of my crimes. Jesus, if I stay longer, maybe they'll find out what a complete criminal I've been from day one, okay? But there's a second hidden part of that article that you should know about. Valerie Jarrett is one of Obama's top friends, let alone ally and advisor, okay? Valerie Jarrett would never give an on-the-record quote if it wasn't Barack Obama throwing Andrew Cuomo onto the bus. So if you had asked Valerie Jarrett before these scandals broke about the corruption issue that's being reported by Ronan Farrow, she has that same exact information. I guarantee you she would not have given you an on-the-record quote.

She would have protected another corporate Democrat. So she goes on the record with Ronan Farrow. Why? Because that's Obama signaling. The establishment is done with you. Now you've got to move along, okay? And so Cuomo gets that message, oh, I have no allies left. Biden's not on my side anymore.

Pelosi's not on my side. And now the Obamas have left me. So I'm toast and I got to go. Understand how that game is played. Yeah, I mean, he had no friends or allies left. And I think Obama made the right choice. I mean, that report detailing his sexual harassment of 11 different women is damning. What I do find fascinating, though, is that the Democratic establishment wasn't willing to abandon him.

As soon as we learned about the details of Cuomo's administration intentionally misrepresenting the number of elderly people who had died in nursing homes based on the decisions that Cuomo made. Yeah, and guys, to my point, though, value Jared and Barack Obama knew that all. long. Yep. They never revealed it until now. So I'm glad they revealed it now so that we can get rid of Cuomo, right? But they would have covered up that corruption to the end of time if they didn't think Cuomo is now damaging the Democratic brand or more specifically the corporate Democratic brand. I mean, if Cuomo keeps this up, progresses by winning elections or the media might take the other side seriously, God forbid, right? So I'm glad that they're throwing him under the bus. He deserves to be there. But remember that they kept it hidden this

whole time about the corruption that they definitely knew about. Well, there's another angle to this Cuomo story that I think is worth discussing. And it has to do with the people gallivanting around town, pretending to be good guys, when in reality, they were aiding and abetting Cuomo all along. Governor Andrew Cuomo of New York has stepped down. He is resigning following a state attorney general's report indicating that he had sexually harassed 11 different women. Now, he was involved in other controversies that probably weighed into his decision to step down. But now we're learning about people within his orbit, individuals who present themselves as fighters for the powerless,

who actually aided and abetted Cuomo, even when it came to the issue of sexual harassment. So one of those people is the co-founder of the legal defense fund for Times Up. Times Up, of course, is the organization that is supposed to be protecting women and representing them in cases of sexual harassment and sexual assault in the workplace. Now, Roberta Kaplan, the chairwoman of Times Up and the co-founder of its legal defense fund, was one of several prominent figures whom the report, and I'm talking about the New York State Attorney General's report on Cuomo, found to be involved in an effort to discredit one of Cuomo's alleged victims, and she has continuing legal ties to Melissa de Rosa, a former Cuomo aide

accused of leading that effort. So the woman that we're talking about here is Lindsay Boylan. And so once it became clear that she was going to speak out against Cuomo and his sexual harassment, that's when all of a sudden the media had access to her files from Cuomo's office. all of a sudden, you see this effort to publish an op-ed letter that's signed by a bunch of people within Cuomo's orbit, speaking to what a great guy he is and how Boylan is full of it, basically.

That was the point. It never got published. But Kaplan provided counsel to DeRosa for that op-ed letter that was never published. So in the meantime, she's working with Times Up, pretending to be this warrior for women's rights and equality, wanting to represent the best interests of women in the workplace, who may have been abused by their bosses. But then at the same time, she's providing legal counsel to DeRosa within Cuomo's office and giving them advice on what they should do to help discredit one of the women who came

forward with sexual harassment allegations. So in a letter she wrote, unfortunately, recent events have made it clear that even our apparent allies in the fight to advance women can turn out to be abusers, we have felt the raw, personal, and profound pain of that betrayal. I'm not sure who she's referring to. It doesn't seem like she's referring to herself, but she should be because she's the one who betrayed women in providing legal counsel to another woman whose whole effort was to discredit another woman for coming forward with allegations against Cuomo. Yeah, guys, again, here's something you don't usually hear because all these people know each other, they're friends with each other, and oftentimes work in close coordination, even if it's not explicit, hey, you write this and I'll write that. So a lot of the bigger Democratic nonprofit groups are totally working for corporate Democrats like Andrew Cuomo.

So the idea that they would hold them accountable is oftentimes a total joke. No, they're in their back pockets. And in Rona Farrow wrote a great piece about Andrew Cuomo's corruption today. And in that piece, he talks about how Cuomo would pull different levers of power. One was the press, because the press was totally in his back pocket, if he ever wanted to smear anyone, he's like, oh, I'll just go to mainstream media, they work for me, and they'll help me destroy my political opponent. But the other level of power was, well, are you going to be able to get a job, not just within the Democratic Party, but within the broader circle of Democrats? So, for example, there was a female prosecutor that was looking into corruption in Cuomo's administration.

And he threatened her by saying, basically, you'll never work in this town again. And by this town, in this case, it doesn't mean New York, it means democratic circles. So when you have powerful allies at groups like Times Up that are supposed to hold you. you're accountable, but meanwhile they're aiding and abetting you, yeah, then you're, it's not just that you get cover from them, which is already bad enough, but it also sends a message to everyone that's working under you, you better not cross me because of my powerful allies, your career will be over. Now, at the same time, I don't want you to blame times up in its entirety. Understand this is one person that was working there, and she's no longer there, and the others are scrambling

to say, no, no, no, no, it's not us. And I am making a broader point about be careful of these giant democratically aligned groups in D.C. because they are not at all independent. Yeah, I think that's for me the important takeaway to this story, right? It's not about one individual person, it's about a broader point regarding, you know, this necessity or this perceived necessity for these nonprofit organizations to come in and hold powerful people accountable or to protect workers. You know, you see it happen over and over again where they claim to be one thing and then they present themselves to be something completely different.

And if you want to provide workplaces that are, that where equality prevails or where workers are treated fairly or treated right, you empower the workers. You don't rely on like some third party non-profit organization to come in and do the work for you. Like it's just there's always going to be a breakdown in the system if you do that. But she's not the only one. Let me give you more details on what she did. So the op-ed letter that I was referring to was part of a broader effort in which Cuomo and his aide sought counsel from former administration officials, including Alfonso David. That's a name that you should remember. The president of the human rights campaign, the largest LGBTQ political lobbying organization in the country.

Then there's Tina Chen, the chief executive of Times Up, and the governor's brother, Chris Cuomo, an anchor on CNN. So they're reaching out to all these different people trying to get them to sign that letter because that's what would make it more effective. But apparently the president of human rights campaign, Alfonso David, didn't end up signing that letter. However, he considered it and he also offered to find former employees who worked for Cuomo to sign it in order to help bolster that letter. And we're also learning some more details about David. He was part of Cuomo's tight inner circle, serving as his chief counsel from 2015 to 2019. The New York Attorney General's office found David appeared to have played a significant role in Cuomo's efforts to discredit his accusers. The report states, for example, that David provided a confidential file to Cuomo's top aides, which they used to discredit Lindsay Boylan.

So you understand what he's doing? He doesn't want his fingerprints on it. That's why he doesn't sign the op-ed. But he gets a whole bunch of people that potentially worked for him and own favors to go and support Cuomo. Meanwhile, he's conferring with Cuomo on how to bury these women who Cuomo sexually harassed. And look, a lot of these so-called women's groups, LGBTQ groups, from time to time, they do great work. But they're also used by corporate Democrats to attack progressives all the time. So now in this case, they're not attacking progressives.

They're attacking victims of sexual harassment, but it's the same machine. It's built to attack. Yeah, exactly. And Cuomo gives the orders. Okay, you pretend they're anti-gay, you pretend that they're sexist and misogynist, while I actually do those things, and then you're my Praetarian Guard, and you protect me. So that kind of power structure built up within the establishment Democrats is grotesque. And this is not the only case of it happening.

They protect their own in a giant way. And unless the dam is completely broken, of course, the third, you know, basically co-conspirator is the mainstream media. Now, the human rights campaign has decided to hire an independent investigator, to look into David's role in all of this. He has refused to step down. So unlike Roberta Kaplan, he has decided to remain in his position pending this investigation. There are some board members within that organization who are trying to get him to step down, but he's refusing to do so. Why just survive back to school when you can thrive by creating a space that does it all for you, no matter the size. Whether you're taking over your parents' basement or moving to campus, IKEA has hundreds of design ideas and affordable options.

to compliment any budget. After all, you're in your small space era. It's time to own it. Shop now at IKEA.ca.ca. Should also note one other thing, because it's important to know exactly what he's accused of doing in the Attorney General report. The report also states that David was involved in discussions about calling and secretly recording a conversation between a former Cuomo staffer and another Cuomo accuser named Caitlin, who has not provided her last name. Caitlin claims that in 2016, the governor grabbed her at a fundraiser and put her into a dance pose for photographers. She said the governor had his staff reach out to offer her a job two days later. So she's one of the women who Cuomo's office was seeking to discredit. Apparently, according to these

allegations, David, the president of the Human Rights Council or campaign, offered to help with that. And so, look, we'll see how this investigation plays out. But if I were him, I wouldn't wait for the investigation, I would step down. That attorney general's report is pretty damning. And if he's, you know, if they found through their investigation that he did this, if he offered his assistance in discrediting victims of sexual abuse and sexual harassment, he has no right to serve any position that claims to protect human rights. Come on.

And David's gonna apparently fall back on the defense of, no, I was a senior counselor to Cuomo, But golly gee, I had no idea what was going on at any time. Okay, you say you didn't know that he grabbed the breasts and the other private parts of these women. Okay, that might be true, okay? But you didn't know who Cuomo was that he uses power to intimidate others, whether they deserved it or not? Look, again, it's not just about political opponents, and it's not even just about sexual harassment. In the Ronan Farrow piece, there are two women who are leading up an investigation. the Moral and Commission, that's about corruption.

And when they start to look into Cuomo's donors, Cuomo uses the same exact network to crush them and not just attack them in the press, but to basically say, I'm going to ruin your career if you expose my corruption. So he's been doing this bullying and intimidating tactics throughout his whole career. Anybody who's a senior advisor to Cuomo that pretends not to know that is the biggest lie. I've ever seen. Of course you knew that that's his M.O. That's how he operates. And you probably loved it and participated in it, especially it was, you know, people who are actually trying to do good in the world, that were anti-corruption, that were trying to fix things, right? No, you guys in power

love how things are broken and how it keeps you at the very top. So of course, now he's pulling a Cuomo and trying to stay where he is. And by the way, if he stays in power, he'll probably attack the powerless again and again and again because he'll think, oh, good, I got away with it. Now I'm going to seek vengeance against my opponents that were trying to seek out justice. No, no, no, we're not in favor of that. Anyway, again, it's not even about David. A lot of these groups act in the same exact way. So be careful who you give money to, these people basically work for corporate Democrats and will do anything to keep their power.

When we come back from the break, we'll give you an update on the bipartisan infrastructure bill, which did pass in the Senate today. All right, back on TYT, Jen and Anna with you guys. I just want to do a quick thank you to Ablina Sabrina, who was on the power panel on Friday and just did a raid of us on Twitch. And again, being the boomer that I am, I'm always like, raid is a good thing on Twitch. where she sends her audience to us, we appreciate it, you're the best. All right, Casper.

All right, let's talk about the Senate. So the Senate has officially passed the bipartisan infrastructure bill, which approves $550 billion in new spending on physical infrastructure. Now, I'll detail what's in the bill, I'll detail, more importantly, what's not in the bill. But what's fascinating about this is at a time when Democrats and Republicans seem like they can never work together, a lot of Republican senators voted in favor of this bipartisan deal, which should be a red flag more than anything. So the bill passed by a wide bipartisan majority of 69 to 30, with 19 Republican senators voting for the bill, including Senate Minority Leader

Mitch McConnell. And so what enticed Republican lawmakers, the same Republican lawmakers who are in favor of tax cuts, deregulation, corporate giveaways? Why would they they vote for $550 billion in new spending? Well, it might have to do with the fact that there are some corporate giveaways here, which I'll get to in just a second, but let's talk about what it does fund. It invests $110 billion in roads, bridges and major projects, $66 billion in passenger and freight rail, $65 billion to rebuild the electric grid, $65 billion to expand broadband internet access, $39 billion to modernize and expand transit systems and $7.5 billion to build a national network of charging infrastructure for electric

vehicles. That's probably my favorite provision in the bill so far, including what I'm about to read, which is that the bill also includes $55 billion for water infrastructure, 15 billion of which will be directed toward replacing lead pipes. So the water infrastructure is, of course, incredibly important. So there are good things in this bill. I don't want to take away from that. we should also focus on what this bill does not include, and more importantly, the corporate giveaways that are involved in this legislation as well. Now, while you have this bipartisan group of senators celebrating bipartisanship, just want to give you a quick excerpt from Ben Burgess's piece in Jacobin, where he writes, the gap between Biden's initial infrastructure

proposal and the bipartisan bill is a catastrophe in human terms. What it has going for it is bipartisanship. And let me take you to this graphic, which shows you what Biden's initial proposal look like and what the bipartisan deal looks like. So obviously there's quite a bit of cuts in everything from innovation. There's no spending on innovation, no spending on in-home care, no spending on improving buildings. There's some money there for utilities, transportation, and a very small amount for pollution, and of course not nearly enough to deal with climate change. Now to give you more details, the original bill had $387 billion for housing, school, and buildings. The bipartisan version has zero.

The original infrastructure bill had $400 billion for home and community-based care. The bipartisan version has zero. Even clean energy tax credits, an absurdly inadequate response to the climate crisis, plummeted from 300,000. $163 billion to $0, but guess what this has going for it, bipartisanship, and selling off public infrastructure to private companies, which we'll get to in just a second. Yeah, so we told you yesterday on the show that we'll see if, you know, how Washington is going based on how they vote on the $3.5 trillion bill that used to be called an infrastructure bill but is now being called a budget bill.

And that got split out of this because that has most of the Democratic proposals. This is basically the one they're talking about here is basically the Republican version of the bill. And so that's why it's being celebrated in Washington. But we said, look, maybe there's some chance Democratic version will pass. Normally I tell you there's no way. But the jury's still out on it because people like Nancy Pelosi to Bernie Sanders are so adamant that it's going to pass. So, but the thing that we added was, but we'll be able to tell partly in media reactions. So today we have our first important data on how the media is reacting.

So when you read the CNN piece, it's not to blame these particular writers, understand that the writers are generally speaking irrelevant. There's group think and the editors tell you how to write the stories. So they're all written in similar ways in all of these articles. So how did they frame this Republican version of the bill and how they're they frame the Democratic version of the bill to give you a sense of which way the media is going to push, okay? And if you think the media doesn't push, you're hilarious. So this one is framed by CNN, for example, as historic and sweeping. Now, they took, I know these, because

Andy, in fact, I told you that they would call it historic. And it's because I've lived this movie before. Barack Obama, when he did the incredibly weak financial reform bill, the corporate media called it historic. Dodd-Frank. Right. And so here they are again. And it says, these are all quotes, shore up the nation's crumbling infrastructure. Man, that sounds like it's really needed. Which, by the way, it is. Like, I'll take all of this, except for the part that Anna's about to tell you about, right? But that doesn't mean that we shouldn't do the other one. We should also definitely do the other one, which is bigger and also desperately needed and would actually shore up our crumbling infrastructure.

They again describe it as a wide bipartisan majority. If you just saw that by itself, that's true. But it's in the framing, like, oh, that's a really positive thing about this bill. They say the legislation stands to modernize and upgrade the nation's aging and outdated infrastructure. It was not quite described this way before they had agreement. Because before they had agreement, the press couldn't tell, wait, are the powerful going to do this or not? Now that the corporate Democrats and corporate Republicans have agreed, CNN thinks this is the most important bill that's ever existed, right? They say it was done after months of painstaking negotiations. These guys are heroes. They say it's a rare example of successful deal making.

Now, again, if you just saw that, you say, well, the bill has a lot of good parts that they seem like they recognize that, no problem, right? No, they're framing it in a way of so that when progressives say, hey, if you don't pass the three and a half, trillion dollar one we're going to vote no on this. Then the same press turns around and goes, they're preventing historic reforms. We need to, we need to, you know, make sure that our crumbling infrastructure doesn't fall on our heads. And it's the progressives that won't let you have it. Guaranteed market down in stone. Okay. And then okay, well then how are they going to frame the three and a half trillion dollar one? A little bit further down the article, they say it's a separate and more expansive package. Again, by itself could be okay.

But then they go on to say, but expansive is like, this one is bipartisan and reasonable. The other one is expansive. And they say, it's, and they explain that Democrats in the House might not vote for it, might not vote for the bipartisan version if they don't get this version. And they said, that's, quote, a stand that has been met with criticism from Republicans and pushback from some moderate Democrats. In other words, that is not the reasonable one. No, this Republican version is the reasonable one, and that's the one we should go with. And that's how this game is played.

Okay, back to you. Yeah, but like, so for progressive lawmakers who inevitably will deal with that mounting pressure to vote in favor of this bipartisan deal in the House, even without a clear path forward with the $3.5 trillion reconciliation version of the bill, they need to understand that they got elected to represent the best interests of their constituents. CNN didn't get elected. An editor at CNN didn't get elected. If they're going to serve as the PR wing of the White House or a PR wing of the Senate, let them do what they're going to do. But lawmakers need to understand what they got elected for in the first place. And they've made their commitments on national television. AOC on national television said, we're not voting for this bipartisan bill unless there's a clear path forward for the $3.5 trillion. dollar reconciliation bill. Nancy Pelosi, House Speaker, claimed that she will not bring the bipartisan

bill to a floor vote unless there's a clear path forward for the reconciliation bill. I don't really trust Nancy Pelosi much, but I will say she's not the type that says something like that unequivocally. And so it seems like she intends to follow through on it, but I also, of course, would argue that we should proceed with caution. It's Nancy Pelosi. And if she gets a little bit of pressure from the Biden administration. I have no doubt that she'll cave. But I also want to go to- Can I, I'm sorry, I interject Anna, but it's, it also could be a trick by Pelosi, that it might not be caving. So like she says, oh, I'm putting my foot down. So it's all in how the media spins it, right? So then later, if she says, well, there's nothing I could do,

I had to at least pass something, then they will probably paint her as not wishy-washy and flip-flopping and she didn't get a priority through. My guess, is the corporate media will then say, what a statesman, you know, like this person, what a master legislator, you know, sacrificing her own priorities to get the bipartisan version through. Yeah, I have no doubt. Look, the media is going to do what the media is going to do. We know what they're going to do.

We know it. They've done it a billion times. The Affordable Care Act, this reminds me of the Affordable Care Act, let's keep it real. Affordable Care Act had incredibly important provisions, there's no question allowing 26-year-old, people up to the age of 26 to stay on their parents insurance, doing away with the ability for private insurers to turn people away if they have preexisting conditions. These are important provisions, just like some of the funding here for infrastructure is important. However, let's not make any mistakes. This is a corporate giveaway. The reason why Republican

lawmakers in the Senate are in favor of this bill is because their corporate donors are in favor of the bill. So there's a portion, I mean, it's literally thousands and thousands of pages long. But the part that I cared about the most is they're not raising taxes on the wealthy. And they claim that Democrats specifically claim that they want to make sure that they have pay force set and ready to go. So what are the pay force? Well, there's a portion in the bill that talks about asset recycling, something that we covered in detail on this show. They're going to privatize public infrastructure, and when they do, these corporations who are leasing our infrastructure get to implement tolls and fees, and it ends up becoming a tax on the backs of working people. Now, there's a part in the bill, the way that it's written now, indicating that these entities are not allowed to implement tolls or fees toward those who make less than $400,000 a year.

year. But there's no enforcement mechanism in the legislation. What are they going to do? Are they going to stop cars and say, oh, how much? Can I please see your tax returns? Make sure you're, make sure you're not making more than 400,000 a year. You know, we don't want to implement a toll that could hurt you. Now, come on, it's ridiculous. There's no enforcement mechanism. None, none, none, none. They're going to privatize infrastructure. That's what they're going to do. So there was another portion of the bill that had a gas tax. And so the Republicans said, well, Well, of course we don't want to tax the rich. That's an outrage, right? Let's tax the average American, make sure they pay more money in taxes. That way, that's a higher percentage of

their income. And it really crushes the average worker. And, but for CEOs who are our donors, the gas tax doesn't affect them at all. They don't care, right? So now the Democrats did take that out. So credit, where credit is due on that. But apparently, they kept in the part about privatizing things, at least to some degree, and then cover it up with don't. Don't worry, we will not charge tolls for people making under 400,000. Come on, guys, you know that's comical, right? Yeah, it's ridiculous. There is no tome machine that tells people how much money,

that tells the government how much money you're making as you're driving by in your car, nor should there be. Right. And so that's absurd. And by the way, we have a petition on this, t.t.com slash petitions. You go there and you'll see it. It's saying, hey guys, don't fall for this trick. Why do I talk so much about the media?

Because it's the media that go and lean on progressives. Hey, just give in, just only do the Republican version, only do the Republican version. Our petition says, do not do that. Stick with your promises and make sure that you're voting on both in the House. If they vote on this one first, it's the only one you'll ever get. You'll never hear the $3.5 trillion one ever again. If they vote on the $3.5 trillion one in the Senate and Senate over the House and the House votes on it first, great. No problem.

Then I say, vote yes on this. And then do a new bill. You guys are Democrats. You're in charge. You could do a new bill saying, kidding, we weren't privatizing. They're never going to. I know they're never going to do that. I mean, that's like the most utopian fantasy world ever.

But no, I mean, and by the way, one final, just this is trivia, but I think it's hilarious. The provision where they talk about privatizing public infrastructure is they titled it asset concessions. So, you know, the government. It's engaging in asset concessions to corporations who will then manage that infrastructure and charge you money for using it. Asset concessions. Why do we have to make concessions? We don't. We don't.

There were no concessions made by massive corporations and banks when they got money from the Fed because they needed liquidity. There was no nickel and diming there, okay? There was no discussion about taking their assets and handing it over to the American people as they were being bailed out. So I think it's fascinating here that we're having a discussion about asset concessions to corporations who just want to nickel and dime the American people for using infrastructure. They used to be public. That was already funded by taxpayer money in the development of that infrastructure. But now corporations can make money off of it if it becomes privatized.

I think that progressive should fight that provision even if they agree to vote for the bipartisan bill. So one of my favorite quotes is from a local progressive California, Eric Olson, who said about the super majority that Democrats have had in California, why are we still negotiating? We have a super majority. We don't need to negotiate with Republicans. It looks like we're negotiating with the donors instead, and that's exactly what's happening here. Democrats control the House, the Senate, and the White House. They're not negotiating with the Republicans. They're negotiating with their own donors and having to give concessions to them when they're. didn't need to give any concession at all to corporations. All right, we got to take a break when we come back.

We'll take a little trip to Florida where Governor Ron DeSantis is threatening school administrators if they implement mask mandates. We'll be right back. All right, back on TYT, Jank, Casper, forward. All right, let's take a little trip to Florida. DeSantis is threatening the pay of public school administrators who implement a mask mandate. Schools across the state are reopening for in-person learning. And Ron DeSantis, much like Donald Trump, seems to have some incentive in keeping his own

constituents unsafe, including children and teachers. Now a spokesperson for the governor said, quote, ultimately education funding is for the students. The kids didn't make the decision to encroach upon parents' rights. So any financial penalties for breaking the rule, and mind you, breaking the rule in their mind is forcing people to wear masks within the schools. So any financial penalties for breaking the rule would be targeted to those officials who made that decision. Let's hear a little bit from Governor Ron DeSantis himself and his reasoning for this.

The legislature passed a parent's bill of rights that I signed in the law about a month and and a half ago and laid down the law in the state of Florida is that parents have the fundamental right to raise their children, their health and well-being, and that that has to be respected by the state at all levels of government. I, particularly for young kids, many of these kids, by the way, have recovered from COVID, and so there's really no scientific justification to put it on at that point. What are the harmful effects of putting a kindergartner in a mask for seven hours. Have they talked about the emotional, the academic, the physiological? Why isn't CDC studying that? They've had a lot of time to do it, but yet you don't do it. And to act

like somehow that this is just something that we shouldn't worry about, I don't think it's acceptable. So I think the fairest thing to do is just say let parents make the decisions. Let the parents make the decisions, which I would typically agree with, Except for when the parents' decision has a negative impact on public health, because with a virus that can spread, community spread, it's a little bit of a problem, especially within a school where you have children who are not vaccinated, right? So the whole point is to stop the spread of COVID, to keep people safe. And unfortunately, while it's still true that children are less impacted, even by the, you know, Delta variant, we're starting to see an uptick in

young children getting hospitalized with coronavirus. So this is just an effort to stop the spread of COVID from one person to the next within a school setting. But apparently Ron DeSantis has a difficult time understanding that, because this is his culture war issue of choice, even as people in his own state are suffering as a result. Well, what we have is a battle between DeSantis and Abbott in Texas for who's going to take the mantle of the most extreme right winger because they think that's going to help them run for national office. And so now, funny enough, the two states that are hit the worst are Florida and Texas.

Why? Because they're led by guys who are prioritizing a slight political advantage for them. And look, I keep, with the last couple of days I've been saying, I'm trying not to be too harsh on Republicans, voters, but it's hard because they know that in their primaries, whoever is the least intelligent, the least rational, the most conspiratorial is the one that's going to have the advantage. They know that. I'm not calling DeSantis and Abbottdom.

I think that they know exactly what they're doing. They know. Yeah, they're perfectly happy and willing to sacrifice the lives of their. own voters, so they have a slight better chance of winning maybe a presidential primary. So DeSantis knows that if he's okay with any kind of mass mandate in Florida, that they're going to bludgeon him with it in a presidential primary, right? And so, I mean, you're thinking, how could that be, especially if you live outside America, it seems unbelievable.

And I'll give you a couple of stats. So right now, over 500 unvaccinated people dying every day, every day in America, right? Almost everyone who's dying is unvaccinated. And they keep telling them, what's the big deal? What's the big deal, right? Oh, this mass man is mad. But did you know that if you're vaccinated, you could still spread the virus? Did you know that?

Yeah. I mean, you might not, you're very unlikely to die, but did you know you can still spread the virus? So what's the point? What's the point? What's the point? You don't die. So you don't take up space in hospitals to the point where people who need to go to the hospital for other reasons get turned away. That's what happens. That's what happens when you get vaccinated.

Yeah. Yeah. Anyway. So in Texas, we'll get to that in a second. They're asking for doctors outside of the state to come and help because it's so bad. But meanwhile, no, no, screw the mask, screw the vaccine, right? In Florida, it's an epic disaster. It's now the worst in the country.

By the way, there's 135 kids in the hospital right now in Florida from COVID. So they're less likely to get affected and they're less likely to die. But it doesn't mean that they don't get affected. It doesn't mean that they are not exposed because they don't have the vaccine. You can't give the vaccine. The kid's under 12, right? And so, and here's the Santa saying, I don't care. I demand that you endanger your kids.

So because he's not, it's, it's not that the state is debating whether to do a mass mandate or not. He's saying you are not allowed to do it at the local level, even if cases are raging out of control. Even if you have kids in the hospital in your local neighborhood, Republicans claim that they were in favor of local control for the communities all of these years, right? Now he says, no, I'm taking that away. You're not allowed to decide for your own community or for your own kids. I'm going to endanger them no matter what you think because it's going to help my political ambitions. I mean, what level of catastrophe linked to deregulation will convince Floridians that they're going in the wrong? direction, like how many condo buildings need to collapse and how many Floridians need to be hospitalized and die before they take things seriously.

That's what I want to know, because it's one thing for things to kind of be like abstract arguments, right? Like people love thought experiments, people love abstract arguments, like, oh, what if, what it? No, this isn't what if. You're seeing it happen right in front of you. You have children hospitalized, you have people dying when you have access to a vaccine that It'll keep you alive.

That's the point of the vaccine, it keeps you alive. I wanna repeat that because people don't seem to get it. They're like, well, you can still spread it. Yeah, you can still spread it, that's true. You know what stops the spread of COVID? Wearing N95 masks. That stops the spread of COVID. So we have a system in place, a very simple system in place,

where you wear face covering, and it prevents the spread. And if you're vaccinated and you happen to experience a breakthrough infection, the likelihood of you being hospitalized, likelihood of you dying is drastically minimized. I don't know why it's so difficult to understand these things. Now again, I think you're right, Ron DeSantis knows the truth, but it's disgusting and it's sick that he has decided to latch onto this as his campaign thing, right? Yeah.

I too do not care about the lives of my constituents, and Floridians love it. They love it, they eat it up, they eat it up. Now I would be fine with it if Florida were an island, but it's not, it's connected to the United States. And so we have to deal with it. And I know, I know, don't blame the voters. Don't blame, don't judge them. I'm judging them. I don't care. I'm judging them because they're specifically leading to unnecessary deaths in the country. Let me give you this headline. Florida requests 300 ventilators from federal government as COVID cases keep rising. Governor DeSantis says he isn't aware of that. That's a local ABC affiliate in Florida reporting

that. He's like, what am I the governor? I'm totally unaware that. We're in an absolute emergency, a pandemic of epic proportions, and Florida's leading the country. Oh, by the way, right wing, you guys said that Florida was such an outstanding example of how to deal with the pandemic. You just sit there and do nothing. Oops. How did that turn out for you? Leading the country. Wake up, wake up, Florida.

Wake up, wake up. How many of you need to die? How many of your family members need to die before you brush off this goon who's only looking out for his political career? I'm sick of it. I'm sick of it. I'm done with it. So for those of our, one more thing here, for those of us who are vaccinated, and that's a lot of us, by the way, in the country now, about 71% of the country has at least one shot of the vaccine. And by the way, one shot already puts you in really good shape.

Okay. So guys, think about what that means. That means we're raging right now in coronavirus. It's almost the worst it's ever been. January was the worst. November of 2020 used to be the second worst. Now this new wave is even worse than the November wave. So it's the second worst wave we've ever had, okay, but it's happening almost exclusively

within just 29% of the country. So for it to equal the wave that happened when none of us were vaccinated, that means inside that 29%, it is raging completely out of control, unbelievably out of control. There's 108,000 new cases every day in America. That's a stunning number. And it's almost all unvaccinated. So these are your own voters. Guys, so now if you're vaccinated like us, your survival rate, even if you get coronavirus,

this is literal, 99.999%. Okay. So generally speaking, you're going to be fine. But the kids are not vaccinated. That's problem number one. Problem number two is there's immunocompromise people that are vaccinated and that are still at risk. cancer patients, et cetera.

And number three is, if enough people do not get vaccinated, more variants pop up. And a variant might pop up where the vaccines we have don't work. Oh, my God. Then we would have to reinvent a whole new vaccine and the entire country would have to shut down again for a year or two years. You idiots, I, Nana, you're getting me to say it again. We don't like the mask either. We don't want the local restaurants shut down either.

We want to be able to go to a movie, God damn, and put on a mask or even better get vaccinated so we can move on from this goddamn thing. No, it's at this point, I just, I give up, I give up. I give up. No, there absolutely will be another mutation that the vaccine will not be able to withstand. We're going to deal with these shutdowns on and off over and over again. this process is going to drag on for years to come, years to come. Because people who abide by a billion different laws somehow think this one thing amounts to government control and control over your life.

It's a dictatorship, Joe Rogan said, a dictatorship. Who exactly is the dictator? Do you know how a dictatorship works? Yeah, what benefit do we get out of it? What benefit does Biden get out of it? If anything, it hurts the economy and it hurts his own record, why would he be in favor of that? Biden as a dictator. It's an all hilarious thing in the world.

It's absurd. Meanwhile, the other guy actually tried to end democracy and asked his Justice Department and his vice president to basically declare a dictatorship. And you think doing a health precaution, oh, don't take an Advil, that's dictatorship, okay? But ending democracy, no, not dictatorship. absurd. In Missouri, they now have 30 ambulances stationed across the state because they know they're in an absolute panic in the weekend. They got to get ready and they got to get and maybe get people out of the state because the hospital beds are taken. But are they going

to encourage them to put on masks or get the vaccine? Nope. No, I'm starting, like I'm also kind of, look, I'm keeping it real. I'm starting to lose it because how many years of our lives are we going to lose based on this incompetence, right? For those of us who survive it, right? Already, it's been over a year and a half. How many years are we going to deal with this? Because our quality of life suffers, right? We can't get together with our friends, businesses shut down. I mean, I miss normal life.

Yeah. No, for that brief, a couple of weeks in California where we could actually go around without a mask. Where we could be free? Where we could be free. Ironically, it was great. But as soon as the Delta variant took over the whole country, we had to put the bass back on. Because we're decent people, and we don't go, oh, I got the freedom to smear disease all over you and maybe get your family members killed. Freedom.

And finally, guys, but mainly it does affect unvaccinated, overwhelmingly. So I think anthropologists are going to look back at this and go, wow, that might have been the largest death cult. Certainly one of the largest death cults in human history. Because remember, they're killing themselves. They're all going around going, don't get it, don't get it. And over 99% of the deaths are them, the unvaccinated. So over 500 people every day dying because they made that one choice to believe propaganda instead of doctors. All right, I am going to avoid these types of stories in the future because they literally infuriate me.

So we're going to take a break. And when we come back, we'll talk about Chuck Todd's advice and feelings for antropoma. Oh, disaster. Thanks for listening to the full episode of the Young Turks. Support our work, listen to ad-free, access members-only bonus content, and more by subscribing to Apple Podcasts at apple.co slash t-y-t. I'm your host, Shank Huger, and I'll see you soon.