The Young Turks - On The Hunt

Episode Date: September 15, 2023

Hunter Biden indicted on felony gun charges. Senator Mitt Romney announces his retirement and dunks on a few members of his own party on the way out. CNBC’s Jim Cramer suggests that automakers should relocate to Mexico to get around the impending UAW strike. Seattle police officer investigated after body cam video showed him joking about a pedestrian who was fatally struck by police the day before. HOSTS: Cenk Uygur (@CenkUygur) & Ana Kasparian (@AnaKasparian) SUBSCRIBE on YOUTUBE: ☞ https://www.youtube.com/user/theyoungturks FACEBOOK: ☞ https://www.facebook.com/theyoungturks TWITTER: ☞ https://www.twitter.com/theyoungturks INSTAGRAM: ☞ https://www.instagram.com/theyoungturks TIKTOK: ☞ https://www.tiktok.com/@theyoungturks 👕 Merch: https://shoptyt.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Woo! It's up! All right, welcome to the young church, Jane Cougar and experience with you guys, an interesting day of breaking news, including the hunter indictment that we're going to start with in a second. hunt. They are. I think they're on the wrong hunt as we've talked about before and we're going to talk about again. And the workers of the world are kind of beginning to unite. And it is making the powerful very uncomfortable. Well, Jank, as they say, what we do in life echoes in eternity. They do say that, especially Maximus Decimus Meridius. That's right. Okay. Did you just watch gladiator or something? No, I heard a speech where someone quoted that in a very fierce way and it fired me up.

Okay, good. We like a fired up, Anna. All right, take it away, Casper. All right. Well, big news in the Hunter Biden case. A federal grand jury has indicted Hunter Biden on felony gun charges. Now, this follows a plea deal involving a diversion agreement that absolutely fell apart for Hunter just a few weeks ago.

Now, he is dealing with three counts as a result of this grand jury indictment. Biden was indicted in Delaware federal court on three counts tied to the possession of a gun while using narcotics. Two counts are tied to Biden allegedly filing a form, claiming that he was not using illegal drugs at the time he purchased a colt cobra revolver in October of 2018. The third count alleges that he possessed a firearm while using a narcotic. And I mean, that must be a very, very serious offense in a country where we're just swimming with. with guns, all of these other gun owners, definitely not using any illegal narcotics, definitely not. By the way, in case you're wondering,

marijuana is illegal at the federal level. And hence, literally millions of people have done this crime. Literally. Schedule one drug, it is considered a schedule one drug. And when there is no other underlying crime, like a bank robbery or something else that you use the gun for, this is pretty much never charged, never. But all of a sudden you have a Trump appointed special prosecutor and the Republicans want some sort of political payback and we're charging the lowest crime in American history.

All right, have fun. Boy, you got them, Republicans. Now, look, I think this is their attempt to essentially get more. I mean, it's part of their fishing expedition. So as a result of this indictment, I'm sure many of you might have heard of various Republican lawmakers. calling for his financial documents to be subpoenaed. Even though they've already subpoenaed so many of his financial documents, they've poured over his financial documents, they have failed to show any wrongdoing, or at least wrongdoing tying Joe Biden to Hunter Biden in any incriminating way.

I want to also just go back to the plea deal that fell apart, just in case you might have missed that angle to the story. So as I mentioned, about last month, there was a plea deal that absolutely fell apart. And it was a plea deal that special counsel Michael Weiss had agreed to, although there seemed to have been some sort of miscommunication. The two sides reached a plea agreement in July, which called for Hunter Biden to plead guilty in Delaware federal court to two misdemeanor counts of failing to pay his taxes in return for prosecutors recommending a sentence of probation. Now, a separate felony gun charge, and that's the gun charge that he's now been indicted for,

for legally owning a Colt Cobra 38 special handgun would have been dropped in two years if Biden honored the terms of what's known as a diversion agreement. Now, it all kind of fell apart as a result of, I guess, a miscommunication between the prosecutors and the defense. Now, the judge overseeing the case took a look at the plea agreement and had some questions. The agreements are not straightforward, and they contain some atypical provisions. U.S. District Judge Mary Ellen Norica noted, including one that could theoretically protect Biden from other tax-related crimes in the same time period. And so prosecutors said the provision in the diversion agreement would not protect him from different charges.

While attorneys for Hunter Biden said it would, that miscommunication essentially led to the plea deal falling apart. And because of political pressure from the Republican Party, toward Michael Weiss, the special counsel decided to move ahead with a grand jury. And the grand jury did decide to indict Hunter Biden on this gun charge. Yeah. So that plea deal had a huge problem, which is that it was super vague. You didn't know what it applied to. Did it apply to all charges against Hunter Biden or just these nonsense charges?

So I don't, I think the judge made the right decision in the earlier case. I think the plea deal was deeply flawed. but in a normal case, they would never prosecute anyone on this. And so he's doing it because of political pressure or because he's a weirdo right winger who wants to get Hunter Biden no matter what. By the way, there's a third possibility that the Republicans have now latched on to. And we're the fairest show in America. So we'll give you that one too.

They think that even though Trump appointed him, he's secretly on Biden's side. And he's charging him with this because he doesn't want to charge him with anything that could connect him to Joe Biden. Or the more likely explanation is he doesn't have any evidence connecting him to Joe Biden. And you guys have Doug and Doug and Doug and you've got all, you ask for every kind of evidence. You've got every kind of evidence. By the way, including bank records. They're still crying about bank records.

But they got a ton of bank records. And none of them showed any connection between Hunter Biden and Joe Biden. The laptop shows there's no connection. But look, the Republican Party these days, it's, look, you watch this show regularly. You will see us criticized Democrats harsher than almost any other show, including a lot of right wing shows, right? And Hunter, we got no love for it all. He ran scams to no end with the art and the gas and all that stuff, right? But guys, they don't have any evidence.

And the Republican Party today, this current Republican Party, they just lie as a regular course of business. I we've never seen anything like this. The politicians lie regularly to begin with, but this is a whole new level. They took it to 11. They did. Like they just say it with no shame at all. None of this is true. Hunter is not connected to Joe Biden and this charge is absolute trash.

In fact, I actually want to call a specific person out and it's, look, the lawmakers are going to do what they do, right? This is a politicized prosecution, I think it's pretty cool. clear at this point. But in regard to right wing media, just today I saw a tweet from Ben Shapiro that was concerning. Because Ben Shapiro really likes to present himself as more of a good faith member of conservative media. He does better than others, you know, definitely better than like, let's say, Michael Knowles. However, he lied in that tweet. Or anyone else he's ever hired, but okay. No, that's true. That's exactly. That's exactly true. Now, in his tweet, he said, you know, people keep saying that there's no evidence incriminating Joe Biden.

And then he lists, like he has bullet points proving that there is evidence. And in that list, he included the testimony by Devin Archer, a former business partner of Hunter Bidens. You guys, Devin Archer's testimony was garbage. He did not say what Republican lawmakers investigating the Biden family were hoping he would say. He said the exact opposite of what they were hoping he would say. In fact, his testimony was so bad, and the Republican lawmakers doing the investigation knew it was gonna be so bad

that James Comer, the head of the committee, investigating Hunter Biden, didn't even show up for the testimony. So how are you gonna list Devin Archer as evidence incriminating Joe Biden? Yeah, you never see us defending the Democratic Party unjustly. You never see us make excuses for politicians when they're being cheesy,

lying, you name it. it, et cetera. But look, I'm sorry, but it's just a reality. Right wing politicians and right wing media. It's just based on a factory of lies. So that testimony, and Ben Shapiro, look, to his credit, is a smart guy. He's too smart not to know that that it was a humiliating testimony. James Comer literally didn't show up because it was so humiliating. And look, every piece of so-called evidence that they cite is not going to stand up in court because That's why it's not being brought as charges, because there is no goddamn evidence. It's total horse crap like Joe Biden called Hunter Biden.

It's his son. Of course he called him. He calls him daily. He calls every family member daily. Are you guys like, oh, I call this daughter daily. I wonder what she's up to. Look, the politicians overall are cheesy. They are generally corrupt.

Joe Biden has taken hundreds of millions of dollars in campaign contributions, and he has delivered for those donors. legalized bribery. He participates in it just like almost every other politician does. You want to hit him on that. I agree with you and I will back that up. But you want to invent things and you want to just make up reality and lie to your audience 24-7 and poison their minds with things that aren't true. Sorry, no, you're full of crap. And by the, and be careful what you wish for. I mean, there are no strong Democrats in this country. But God help you if there is one day. Because you can literally put away millions of Republicans on that same

charge. Millions of Americans. Literally millions. Yeah, literally millions of Americans like who, again, partake in the use of illegal narcotics as it pertains to our federal government and certainly have possession of firearms. So there's no use in talking to right wing media or politicians. They don't care about what's facts, et cetera. They're just trying to make money, right? So but right wing voters. I don't know that you care about principles at all anymore. I don't know, it's up to you guys. But guys, like making a mistake on a gun for him, he had the gun for 11 days and then threw it away, did not commit any crimes with that gun. And none of you have been smoked pot at all while having a gun. None of you have, none of you have ever made a mistake on one of those forms.

Come on. You, you know that if he did this to you, you would go ballistic. You'd say it was the tyranny of government, taking your rights away, trying to put you in prison for getting for a tiny mistake on a gun form with no other underlying crime with that gun? Get out of you. You don't believe that. You know you don't believe that. This is honestly, and I've said this before, I'm going to say it again. And I'm trying to be understanding of the conservative voters mindset as they get riled up

by the misinformation they're fed by right wing media and GOP politicians, right? this is their version of the Russian collusion investigation. You get what I'm saying? And so think about how the way that Russia collusion story was covered, especially on outlets like MSNBC, really made people think like, no, no, no, there's a lot of smoke here. There must be fire.

So I want to be understanding toward them because the propaganda is there and the propaganda is fierce and it's just wall-to-wall nonsense about how, you know, I mean, people genuinely think there's already evidence available. There isn't. And I want to see it. Like, I have no problem pointing to the evidence myself and saying, you know what, here's what they found. This does not look good for Hunter Biden. This does not look good for Joe Biden. That evidence doesn't exist, guys. Yeah. If there is the Devin Archer testimony, show me. Show me where Devin Archer said, oh yeah, totally.

Joe Biden as vice president was selling his influence to foreign agents in order to cash in to the tune of tens of millions of dollars. Show me. I'd love to see it. Prove me wrong. I have no problem correcting our errors on this show. But it just doesn't exist. By the way, I will correct one error that I've already made in this story. And that is the name of the special counsel. It's not Michael Weiss. It's David Weiss. I don't know why I keep wanting to call him Michael, but it's David Weiss. Yeah, so last things here, guys. Look, I thought in the Trump, Russia situation, there was a lot of smoke. But when it turned out that there was no fire, what did we do? We told you there was no fire. And that's not that hard. That's not that hard. You go, oh, wait, his sons are saying that they get all their money from the Russians and a hundred other things. Oh, Hunter Biden is a crook. It seems like a crook. That's fair. And he's talking about the big guy and calling the big guy. And that sounds weird.

But then at the end, you have to see, is there a fire or isn't there? So when our side sees there's no fire, no, I shouldn't speak for our side. I should speak for us. When we see there's no fire, we tell you, honestly, there's no fire. Derek side sees there's no fire. They're like, oh, great, let's keep lying to them about the fire. Right. Let alone the fact that we lied about the smoke to begin with.

I mean, it's the Benghazi treatment. Yeah. And guys, last thing on this. If the special prosecutor has Hunter on corruption, for God's sake, charge him, okay? I don't want any corruption in this country, and I certainly don't want to connect to the president of the United States. If you have the evidence and you don't charge him, that would be a travesty of justice. If you don't have the evidence, shut up and drop these stupid charges that you know are trash, and let's move on with our lives. Well, speaking of moving on with our lives, let's get to our next story.

We are preparing to strike these companies in a way they've never seen before. He's coming in and saying, well, they've never seen anything like it. I think there's a nuclear option on the table, if he's not careful. And that nuclear option is a country called Mexico. But PEPA's got a 55,000 person factory for VW, and they got a good educational workforce is $5 an hour. No real pollution control rules, that's not to be mentioned, have free health care. So you know what? You want to play ball?

You want to keep doing this? Mexico. Glad to see you're standing up for the American worker here, Jim. Thanks for that. It's hard to imagine Jim Kramer hate anything or anyone more than the American worker. That was CNBC's Kramer essentially responding to an impending auto worker strike as a result of a contract expiring and the big three essentially, you know, not meeting the demands of the unionized workers. Now the big three include four GM and Stalantis and it's amazing to me that Kramer's like, yeah, yeah, yeah. These companies should just sell out the American worker to Mexico.

You know, cheap labor? Wouldn't it be so much better, especially for the bottom line for these companies? You know, maximize their profits, return, you know, hired returns on investment to shareholders. It'd be great. I want to give you guys an update on where the negotiations stand in a minute. But, Jank, what are your thoughts? Yeah, this is a great mask off moment like that CEO the other day saying we should make the workers suffer and we should drive up unemployment, so they know their role, okay? And this is corporate media saying, well,

our allegiance is to corporations. It's not to our viewers, it's not to the American people. The average citizen, they despise. They openly despise you. CNBC is arguably more conservative than Fox News. Totally. Yeah. On economic issues, it's not even that close. So, and Fox News is crazy conservative on economic issues, but CNBC still goes further right wing than they do. Because the whole corporate media, both what we call mainstream media, the MSNBCs, the CNs of the world, and right wing media, the Fox News, et cetera, the world, they're under the same umbrella of corporate media. They're giant multi-billion dollar corporations, their number one clients are all multi-billion

dollar giant corporations, and they serve those people. That's literally how they make money. And then they insult you to your face. They insult your intelligence by saying, no, we don't care about our profits. We don't care about our advertisers. We're just being honest and looking out for you. It's a joke. And Jim Kramer now is admitting accidentally that it's always been a joke.

They're for the CEOs, they're for the owners, therefore the shareholders. They are not for the average American worker. They despise the average American worker. Look at that threat he does to you. We don't need you. We'll find cheaper labor, which is always better than you anyway. That's the kind of disgusting crap that corporate media has been doing our whole lives. And by the way, I'm furious at the Democratic Party for not giving a left-wing alternative to that.

All we have is populist, fake populace clowns on the right wing who say, oh, yeah, isn't that terrible what CNBC is doing? Hey, you know what, Trump's got a great new idea, lower corporate taxes. Totally, totally. Okay, so look, I actually disagree with you a little bit, okay? Because yes, I agree that most members of corporate media will either engage in half-truths or they'll just flat out lie, but Jim Kramer, to his credit, is very honest, his mask is always off, okay? He absolutely despises Sean Fane, who is the head of the United Auto Workers, can't stand the guy.

This isn't the first time he's attacked him. But let's get back to where the negotiations stand. Now, if the big three failed to reach deals with the United Auto Workers before 1159 p.m. tonight, the union's contracts will in fact expire and the workers will likely be going on strike. Now, there are some other potential options. We'll get to that in a moment, but here's where the negotiation stand as we speak. So the UAW is demanding a 20% immediate raise as well as an additional raise of 5% over every year over the next four years. So in total, the UAW is asking for approximately a 36%

raise over the life of that contract. Now according to the president of the union, Sean Fain, all the automakers had boosted the amount they were offering to raise wages with Ford now offering 20% or 20% raise during the life of the contract, GM offering 18% and Stalantis offering 17.5%. But it would just be a one-time raise of that amount without the additional increase per year, the 5% increase per year that they're asking for. But even Ford, who's now offering the highest wage increase of 20% is only proposing about half of what the union wants. It's worth noting that the union's demands go further than just pay increases. And by the way, their demands aren't just arbitrary. It's based on how much profit the big three have brought in, especially in recent

years. So the big three have made about $21 billion, not in revenue, in profits, in just the in just the first six months of this year. Okay, so the idea that, you know, they're barely hanging on and increasing the pay of the very individuals who are generating the revenue, and the profits for the companies is a ridiculous argument to make. Now, the big three CEOs also have, on average, received a 40% pay raise over the last four years. And here's what each of them made in 2021 specifically. I'm sure they're making more now, but just a few years ago, GM CEO Mary Barra made over $29 million. Ford CEO, James Farley, made almost $23 million.

Stalantis CEO, Carlos Tavares, made about $21 million. And so auto worker pay, meanwhile, only went up 6% during that same four-year period, which is actually a net loss when you take inflation into consideration. Hey, we know you probably hit play to escape your business banking, not think about it. But what if we told you there was a way to skip over the pressures of banking? By matching with the TD Small Business Account Manager, you can get the proactive business banking advice and support your business needs. Ready to press play? Get up to $2,700 when you open select small business banking products. Yep, that's $2,700 to turn up your business. Visit TD.com slash small business match to learn more. Conditions apply.

2003 auto workers have seen their average hourly wage declined by a whopping 30% due to the stagnant wages and inflation. Now, so what is the UAW also pushing for in these negotiations? They want the end of this tier system where newer hires are not protected with the same benefits and the same pay that more senior employees get, the return of retiree, medical benefits. They'd like more paid time off and the restoration of pensions. And according to UAW worker who spoke to the BBC, the demands are justified. So this person says, in my opinion, we are owed this, said Paul. who works in a Stalantis factory in Michigan making Jeep Grand Cherokees.

The fourth generation in his family to work in the industry. He said such jobs which came with good healthcare and secure pensions had provided an awesome living for his parents. A way of life that no longer feels possible today. He says that he can't even afford the vehicles that he's helping to manufacture, which I think a lot of people can relate to. I mean, think about all the workers in this country who can't afford to buy a home or a condor or a townhouse, a place to live, even rent a place to live in the very towns or cities that they're working in. I mean, it is a very common issue right now.

And he also says, we're still sitting on the back burner while these CEOs are making, you know, upwards of $20 million a year. We're going to the grocery store saying, well, what do we really need this week, basically nickel and diming themselves because they don't have the resources to just buy groceries for their families as a result of these stagnant wages? So look, I can't, first of all, I want to actually mention, you know, in the car industry, in particular, Henry Ford is legendary for having said that he wants to pay his workers well enough so that they could buy his cars.

So for now that we're in such an awful situation with the new robber barons that run this country, that we've fallen below the Henry Ford standard is an indictment of, of us as a society. So now into this specifics of this contract negotiations, I, you know, it's impossible for me to tell what's quote unquote fair in this case. So there's so much details to it. But to me, the bottom line is very simple. You can't say that you made a quarter of a trillion dollars.

I mean, that is so much money. It's hard for the mind to fathom it. It's a mountain of money. Quarter of a trillion dollars in profits. in the last 10 years, and they say, I can't afford to pay my workers a decent wage. No, you're saying, I can't afford it. I can afford it easily. I'm just choosing not to pay them a decent wage. I'm choosing to make them suffer because I want to make an extra couple of bucks off of them. And so these giant, multi-billion dollar corporations that continue to pulverize the American

worker are what's driving this country crazy to begin with. So that's why the right wing is so mad. And then they get misdirected in terrible directions. And of course, the Democratic Party and the core of the Republican Party, the establishment of both parties, love the corporations, serve the corporations. And they're not going to help these workers. The Republicans hate the workers. They're not going to help them 1%.

And then Joe Biden is supposed to be the big labor guy. What's he going to do? I don't know. I don't know. I certainly, I haven't seen him offer any encouraging words to the potentially striking workers yet. And then finally, of course, back to the media, because we started with that clip. Dylan Radigan used to be at CNBC, started their two most popular shows. During 2008 crash, he started saying on air that it was the banker's fault because it was

unquestionably the bankers fault. CNBC pulled him from the air. because, not because he was incorrect, but because he was correct. And they didn't want those bankers being blamed when they were a huge advertiser on CNBC. So these guys that are on television almost all serve corporate interests. They don't serve your interest at all, just so you know. And by the way, just so you know, not just if you're a Republican, but also if you're a Democrat. Yes.

The Democrats oftentimes are believed in pretty little lies about these wonderful people. at the cable stations and New York Times and the wonderful Democratic politicians, they're all angels. No, they get their money from these same exact corporate interests, and they use the same exact framing as the Republicans do. Finally, what's likely going to happen, we don't know for sure. So for instance, since we're quickly approaching the expiration of their contract, they could literally go on strike tomorrow. They could agree to an extension of the contract and continue negotiating.

And if they do go on strike, the car industry is different from the rail workers and their potential strike, which of course was squashed by Congress. So what they could do is essentially have some of the workers pick it while others are still working. So thanks to the nature of the auto industry, they can picket a few select factories and snarl the whole supply chain. One engine or transmission location per company might be enough to shut down nearly three quarters of the U.S. assembly plants, said Jeff Schuster, global head of automotive and automotive for global data and industry consultant, two plants per company. You can pretty much idle North America, he said. So that maneuver could help the unions essentially save some of the resources in their strike funds. Some of the workers can continue working, as some are picketing.

And even if the big three starts shutting down some of the plants that are not on strike, then the workers at those plants could be eligible for unemployment benefits as a result of that. So we'll see how this all plays out. But again, that deadline is quickly approaching. My last point is, if this winds up hurting the economy or raising your prices anyway, make sure that you're furious at the greedy sons of bitches that thought a quarter of of a trillion dollars in profits wasn't enough and they had to crush their workers more to make what, $251 billion in profits? Do not blame the workers. Blame the guys who are swimming

in billions of dollars in profits and will not share it. When we come back, Romney quits. We'll tell you why. Hot dog is my favorite meat. Mitt Romney. All right back on TYT, Jank, Anna and Matt Gill with you guys. Go ahead, Anna. Well, there's some big news in the Mitt Romney camp. Let's talk about it. I've spent my last 25 years in public service of one kind or another.

At the end of another term, I'd be in my mid 80s. Frankly, it's time for a new generation of leaders. They're the ones that need to make the decisions that will shape the world they will be living in. Senator Mitt Romney will not be seeking re-election. That's the big announcement he made today, and he did so while a giant excerpt of a biography written about him was published in the Atlantic. In that excerpt, there are a lot of jabs at members of his own party, which we'll get to in just a moment. But he really explains that he'd like to kind of retire at this point. He mentioned how it's now time for a younger generation to take the reins and govern the country and lead it in the direction that makes sense for younger generations.

But at the same time, I think that just based on what was written in that excerpt, published in the Atlantic, it's clear that the party has changed to a point where he doesn't really feel comfortable within it. And he names names. So I can't wait to get to some of that, including how Republican lawmakers feel about Donald Trump specifically behind the scenes, while pretending like they're huge fans and loyalists of Donald Trump publicly. So I think there's a couple of reasons for this retirement. We can acknowledge that Mitt Romney would have had a primary. I don't know if it would have been a tough one, probably, but he crushed last time. So I think he would have been fine in the primary. But do you want

even a 10% chance of losing if you're Mitt Romney? And you, you know, you were the governor of Massachusetts, you're a senator of Utah. You had this huge business career that in the Washington world is coveted. So retiring on a high note makes tons of sense. And what are you going to stay there until you're 80s for anyway? You're super rich. He should go enjoy his life. So I think he made the definitely the right decisions. I think politics entered into it a little bit in terms of that primary. But generally, I know it's a bit shocking for me to say, but I kind of believe him that he just wants to leave well enough alone and go. I've got more on his attack against other Republicans, which I love. I can't believe his age. I mean, look, politics aside,

I know I'm going to get heat for this, but I got to call a spade a spade. Is Mitt Romney the original Zaddy. Yeah. I can't believe he's as old as he is and like, by the way, he looks good. He looks good for his age, like unbelievably good for his age. No, no, yeah, and you know, there's a common, you know, I don't know if you call it a stereotype or a positive way of looking at it. I mean, that's not a good picture. No, that's not the best one, but that black folks don't age as much as other races do, right?

I don't know Mitt Romney is secretly black because this, I mean, and it would be. the biggest, deepest secret of all time. But that brother does not age. I can't believe how late, how he's in his mid-70s. And he looks great. Anyways, but guys, I don't want you guys mistaken anything we're saying for, we like Mitt Romney. No, he's a very corporate establishment Republican. That's why I said politics aside. Yeah. So those, guys like him have been robbing us blind for decades in this country. Now, having said that, that doesn't mean that he isn't right about the other end of the Republican Party. And so Anna's going to give you the devastating quotes he has against other Republican politicians.

And on that, I do appreciate his honesty. I do, I do. He's a very rare politician that had the courage to say, no, my side is full of crap. Yeah, no. And I can't take it anymore. I genuinely do respect him on that front. Because I know how difficult it can be to be outspoken and critical of your side. when you know they're engaging in behavior that is not good.

Look, I'll go even further. We're going to get to the comments in one second. But I don't know that Bernie's ever criticized the Democrat this honestly. No, he has. Is his specific naming names? Naming names. I mean, look, he used to be a lot more ferocious on that front for sure. And he has, he's a little gentler now.

And I think it's because he has some say in power, yes. And he has some say over some of the policies, some influence. over some of the policies in the Biden administration. But anyway, look, let's get off the Bernie bashing for a minute, okay? Let's go back to the Republicans. No, I love Bernie, but they don't get, no, I do. But they don't get that you have to take on your colleagues in order to accomplish anything. But at least Mitt Romney understands, yes, sometimes you have to be honest about your side,

no matter whose feelings get hurt. So let's get to what Romney had to say about his Republican colleagues. Again, this was a lengthy excerpt of a forthcoming biography about Mitt Romney that's written by McKay Coppins. And here is what Republican senators said about Donald Trump after the Mueller investigation failed to show any evidence of collusion with Russia. Perhaps Romney's most surprising discovery upon entering the Senate was that his disgust with Trump was not unique among his Republican colleagues. Almost without exception, he told me, they shared my view of the president. In public, of course, they played their parts as Trump loyalists, often contorting themselves

rhetorically to defend the president's most indefensible behavior. But in private, they ridiculed his ignorance, rolled their eyes at his antics, and made incisive observations about his warped toddler-like psyche. Romney recalled one senior Republican senator frankly admitting, quote, He has none of the qualities you would want in a president and all the qualities you wouldn't. Now, after the Justice Department announced that the Mueller investigation showed no collusion between Donald Trump and Russia, here's what happened. As Romney later wrote in his journal, the president was met with a standing ovation fit for a conquering hero and then launched into some rambling remarks. He talked about these so-called Russia hoax and relitigated the recent midterm elections and swung wildly from one tangent to another. He declared somewhat implausibly that the GOP would soon become the party of health care.

The senators were respectful and attentive. As soon as Trump left, Romney recalled, the Republican caucus burst into laughter. God, I can't stand how dishonest the Republican politicians and right-wing media is. We've said it two billion times. We get it. We're not like mainstream media. Democratic politicians are also... One of the hardest parts of getting older is feeling like something's off in your body, but not knowing exactly what.

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Dishonest, but this is a different level, guys. Like, they are Jekyll and Hyde. They don't believe a word they're saying, not a goddamn word. everybody knows in Washington that Trump is one of the dumbest people to ever step foot in in public life and Romney says it over and over again incredibly dumb incredibly mean filled with hatred obsessed with himself a total con man yet other than Romney as he's retiring and to be fair he said it before he was retiring too this there's like five to ten guys in the history of Trump from the Republican Party, Adam Kinsinger, Liz Cheney, et cetera,

that I've had the courage to say, all right, I'll lose my seat. But this isn't right, this isn't right. This guy is disgusting in every way. He's a con man, a liar, et cetera. Every other Republican politician is the worst person on earth, totally brazenly lying to you. And that's one of their own. So there's a lot more to get to. They say it in private.

They say it all the time. They're all goddamn liars. So we're just scratching the surface, let's get to McConnell, let's get to Republican leadership, right? Because McConnell especially despises Donald Trump, and it's not a new phenomenon with McConnell. He has despised Donald Trump for a very long time. In fact, one time during Trump's first impeachment, as the first impeachment was underway, essentially, Trump attacked Romney on Twitter, because Romney called Trump's actions wrong and appalling.

This was the impeachment having to do with Trump withholding congressionally appropriated funds to Ukraine in return for a sham investigation announcement by Vlodemir Zelensky. Now, McConnell privately called Trump and asked him to stop attacking members of the Senate, and then Romney called McConnell to thank him for doing that. But apparently this was McConnell's response to Romney as he was thanking him. It wasn't for you so much as for him, McConnell replied. He's an idiot. He doesn't think when he says things.

How stupid do you have to be to not realize you shouldn't attack your jurors? And then he continues, you're lucky, McConnell continued. You can say the things that we all think. You're in a position to say things about him that we all agree with, but can't say. Now, a spokesperson said that McConnell does not recall this conversation, and that he was fully aligned with Trump during the impeachment trial. Coward. There's one other element of McConnell that's worth mentioning.

So it has to do with the riots that took place on January 6th, about four days prior to the riots taking place on January 2nd of 2021, Mitt Romney gets a text message from Angus King. So at that point, Angus King is a junior senator. And King says to call him because he has something important to say. King informs Mitt Romney of a conversation he just had with a high ranking Pentagon official. Law enforcement has been tracking online chatter among right wing extremists who appeared to be planning something bad on the day of Donald Trump's upcoming rally in Washington, D.C. The president has been telling me the election was stolen. Now they're coming to steal it back. There's talk of gun smuggling, of bombs and arson, of targeting the

traitors in Congress who are responsible for this travesty. Romney's name has been popping up in some frightening corners of the internet, which is why King needed to talk to him. He isn't sure Romney will be safe. So at that point, Romney talks to him, Romney gets the info. he calls or he sends text messages to Mitch McConnell to basically warn him about what he has heard. And this is what he wrote. In case you have not heard this, I just got a call from Angus King who said that he had spoken with a senior official at the Pentagon who reports that they are seeing very disturbing social media traffic regarding the protests planned on January 6th.

There are calls to burn down your home, Mitch, to smuggle guns into D.C. and to storm the capital. I hope that sufficient security plans are in place, but I am concerned that the instigator, the president is the one who commands the reinforcements the D.C. and Capitol Police might require. And guess what McConnell did in response to those text messages? Nothing. He didn't even respond. Yep. They're all scared of Trump. And by the way, even if you're a Republican, you got to respect Romney way more than you respect all those other establishment Republicans. I certainly do. Yeah.

And you know, and you know this even if you're a mager, you hate, Romney, no problem, I get a brother. But at least he's being honest and you can tell, right? And you know Mitch McConnell's dishonest. You know every one of these guys, J.D. Vance, we're going to get to him in a second. Liars, total, utter filthy liars. And even if you're a Republican, you know that. They hate your beloved Trump. They hate him.

And they think he's an idiot. And they never say it. They never say it because they're cowards. and they're craving and they're corrupt. Now before we get to J.D. Vance and Mitt Romney doesn't pull any punches. I do want to just share a quick little excerpt on Mike Pence because apparently Romney had long been put off by Pence's pious brand of Trump sycophancy. No one, he told me, has been more loyal, more willing to smile when he saw absurdities,

more willing to ascribe God's will to things that were ungodly than Mike Pence. Yeah, look, all politicians are, almost all politicians are like this. Mike Pence is like, oh, God, I care so much about God. And then Trump does like these demonic things. And Pence is like, God's in favor of it, sure. Is that godly, Mike? Is it? But all that being said, he did not participate in the coup.

And for that, he's going to go down in history as a guy at the most. critical moment, did the right thing. So Mike Pence, I'm past it. J.D. Vance, on the other hand, I'm not past at all. So in regard to J.D. Vance, as Romney surveyed the crop of Republicans running for Senate in 2022, it was clear that more Josh Hollies were on their way. Perhaps most disconcerting was J.D. Vance, the Republican candidate in Ohio. I don't know that I can disrespect someone more than J.D. Vance, Romney told me. Yeah, I mean, that's, I mean, Anna's known as a salt dragon, but I mean, Romney, I did not know was salt daddy. No, no, listen, listen, this is what this

actually not only made me respect Romney. Again, we disagree politically, but I respect his integrity that he wants to stay true to his values. And more importantly, he is carrying out what I hope to one day be able to do myself. As he's making his exit, he takes the blow torch. Here's what I really think about all you. I know. I thought Mormons were supposed to be. Wait for it.

Well, I thought you were doing that on a daily basis anyway. Okay. Kind of. But I thought Mormons were supposed to be like nice and pleasant. Instead, this guy comes in with a blow torch of salt. Anyways, finally, Vance. Yes, and so by the way, he actually used to like J.D. Vance prior to J.D. Vance running for Senate. He read Hillbilly Elegy. He thought Vance was a great guy. But as soon as he started running as a candidate for the United States Senate, obviously he became more and more Trumpian in order to appeal to the MAGA base. And so here's what else Romney had to say about him. I do wonder, how do you make that decision? Romney mused as Vance was degrading himself on the campaign. trail that summer. How do you go over a line so stark as that? And for what? It's like, really?

You sell yourself so cheap? The prospect of having Vance and the caucus made Romney uncomfortable. How do you sit next to him at lunch? Yeah. Yeah, I love it. I welcome this. I welcome all of this. I will allow it. It's great. And I'm going to give you one more caveat. Look, to be fair to Romney, he sells himself more expensively. And so he's been doing the bidding of corporate donors and the establishment for a long, long time. And that's a more sophisticated robbery. And one more caveat, you remember when Trump was thinking of making him Secretary of State, all of a sudden Mitt Romney didn't hate Trump as much, okay?

So let's acknowledge all of that. Now, having said that, the JD advances of the world are the most disgusting liars I've ever met. And I'm, I appreciate that Mitt Romney, even though he's in the same party as him, acknowledges. No, you're, it's almost a form of breaking the gaslighting and, and breaking the torture that is gaslighting. He's like, no, you got your eyes aren't lying to you. The guy's a total scumbag. And he doesn't believe anything he's saying. He hated Trump. He thought Trump was an idiot. He, at all of those things. And then turns around and lodges himself right in Trump's ass. And everything he says is a lie. I recommend reading the Atlantic piece. Again, it's the

excerpt from a forthcoming biography on Mitt Romney. He takes some jabs at Josh Hawley as well and more. It was a fascinating read to say the least. For now, though, we're gonna take a break. And when we come back, we're gonna talk about one of the most heartless cop related stories I've seen in a while. Don't miss it. We'll be right back. All right back on TYT, Jank Anna and Heidi Bridgewater and Callie Millie Moe. That's the guy who just or the person who just wrote in with the comment criticizing me, which I thought was legit. and then he becomes a member. That's what I love, guys.

That's what I love. Agree, disagree, share ideas, and grows a community. That's exactly how you're supposed to do it. I love that. Damn right. Vega, jester, thank you for gifting your membership. And Teddy Cool, thank you for this beautiful comment, Rodin, if I have a daughter in the future, I will name her aunt.

That's very sweet, and we appreciate you, Teddy. All right, what's next? Well, this story is really difficult to stomach. So I just want to give you a warning about that. Without further ado, though, here it is. This video from a Seattle police officer's body-worn camera captures what sounds like a callous disregard for human life. I think she went up on the hood, hit the windshield. Then when he hit the brakes, flew off the car.

But she is dead. That's the voice of SPD officer, Detective Daniel Adder. It's recorded January 24th, one day after a woman, 23-year-old John v. Condula was struck and killed by another officer's squad car, while that officer was responding to a call. That's right. A Seattle police officer is now under investigation after he was caught on body cam laughing and joking after another officer fatally struck a pedestrian the day before. Now, we'll listen to more of that body cam footage in just a moment, but first, it's important to get into the context of what happened to this young student who was here in the United States from India. She was here trying to get her graduate degree in Seattle specifically, and then this happened. A marked patrol vehicle driven by Seattle police officer Kevin Dave struck and killed Janavi Kandula on January 23rd. That officer had been responding to a priority one call.

Police said a day after the incident when he hit Kandula, 23, who had been in a crosswalk. So she was in a crosswalk. He was driving incredibly fast. He was definitely going over the speed limit. A report by the Seattle Police Department's traffic collision investigation squad later found that Dave had been driving at a peak speed of 74 miles per hour in a 25 miles per hour zone. Investigators concluded that Dave struck Condula with his Ford SUV at approximately 63 miles per hour and Candula was thrown approximately 138 feet. Witnesses said that she started running as soon as she saw the car speeding in her direction. The investigation into the incident

found that had Officer Dave been traveling 50 miles per hour or less as he approached the intersection and encountered the victim. And if Dave and the victim responded in the exact same manner, this collision would not have occurred. Now let's get to the police officer you heard in the video essentially seeming to laugh about this matter. So his name's Daniel Auderer and he's the cop that we'll hear talking on the body cam footage a day after the incident took place. He's also the vice president of the Seattle police officer. Officer Association Guild, so the union representing the police department. He is a drug recognition evaluator on the forces DUI squad.

And so he was there on the scene after the woman was struck and killed to evaluate whether the officer had been under the influence when the incident occurred. So on the other end of the line was reportedly the union president. His name is Michael Solon. We don't hear him, unfortunately. I would like to hear the other end of the line just to have a clearer idea of what they were genuinely conversing about. And it's important to know that because of the defense that Otter is about to share with us all. We'll get to that in a moment. But with that said, let's watch Otter's pretty callous response to this absolutely horrific death. Let's watch.

I mean, he's going 50. That's not out of control. That's not reckless for a train driver. I don't think she was thrown 40 feet either. I think she went up on the hood, hit the windshield. Then when he hit the brakes, flew off the car. But she is dead. No, it's a regular person.

Yeah. Yeah, just write a check. Just. $11,000. She was 26 anyway. She had limited value. Really hard to stomach those comments. Let's skip ahead to what he's claiming.

Now, he hasn't spoken to the press about this. He hasn't put out some publicist statement about it. But he did essentially do a filing where he responded in a way, he responded in a way to basically defend himself. Okay, so he said this. I intended the comment as a mockery of lawyers. I was imitating what a lawyer tasked with negotiating the case would be saying and being sarcastic to express that they shouldn't be coming up with crazy arguments to minimize the payment. I laughed at the ridiculousness of how these incidents are litigated and the ridiculousness of how I watch these incidents play out as two parties bargain over a tragedy. He continued to write in this filing with the Office of Police Accountability.

I do understand that if a citizen were to hear that, they would rightfully believe I was being insensitive to the loss of a human life. I also understand that if I heard it, it could diminish the trust in the Seattle Police Department and make all of our jobs more. difficult. With all that being said, the comment was not made with malice or a hard heart. I was quite, it was, it was quite the opposite, he said. Oh, sure. Yeah. By the way, he's got a bit of a history being pretty callous. I'll get to that in a minute. I want to hear your thoughts so far, Jane. Well, I'm going to go to the members first, because I think they nailed on a couple of things. James Neosaturn, a YouTube member wrote in, damn, he even has a joker-like laugh. And the reason I'm reading that is because you want to talk about ridiculous.

You're claiming you're actually on her side in that tape, that you had sympathy for her, but that you were mocking the callousness of the lawyers. Please, man, we got eyes, we got ears. Come on, man, you're laughing your ass off. And you said her life had limited value and then laughed. Imagine, hold on, imagine that's your daughter. I got a daughter. Imagine that's your daughter and he's having a good belly laugh over how limited her the value of her life was. And then come around and tell us that, look, it's one thing to say you're talking about the lawyers.

It's one thing to say you were sarcastic, but do not pretend that you were on her side or had any sympathy for her. That's ridiculous. And then most importantly, Bernie and other YouTube member wrote in, cops don't see us as human. And I think, guys, unfortunately, that's how we train them to have a callous disregard for the citizens' lives. And what drives me crazy is the extremeness on all sides. So we were supposed to reform this. This is a giant problem in policing in America, that we train them, worry about yourself, care about your own safety, and the citizens are, don't worry about it. Just shoot, do whatever you have to do, better to be judged by 12 than carry.

up by six, your life is more important than the citizens lives. We train that, train that, train that. We ask reasonable reform on the left saying please fix that training. And then other folks said, no, defund the police. That slogan made it seem like we were gonna get rid of police. It turned everybody off. And you know what we've done since? Nothing.

No, we've increased funding for the police and it instituted no accountability. You've got to find a reasonable way to get accountability. That's what the giant majority of the country wants. They don't want no cops, they don't want runaway cops who are killing our daughters and having a good laugh over it. They want accountability and they want them to care about our lives. It's not too much to ask for and we can't get it in any part of the political spectrum. Yeah, it's super frustrating because everything that's transpired following the protests in 2020 has been a bit of a disaster, right? So you've got the slogan, yes, you have some cities that very briefly

cut funding to police departments and then immediately decided, no, we're gonna not only refund the police, but we're gonna add additional funding. But at that point, a lot of the, I think a lot of cops quit, right, because of the protests. A lot of them retired early. So then you're dealing with some parts of the country, like Oakland for instance, which has a very severe police shortage. And then you see stories like this where, you know, some of the ones that remain seem to have this absolute disregard for human life. And that leads to additional distrust toward policing. And that's just a terrible system to live under, especially at a time when if you're living in some parts of the country, you might be experiencing, you know, an uptick

in certain crime. You might want to, I don't know, call someone for help. And if you don't trust the police, who are you going to call? It's a huge problem all around. But I want to go back to his record, right? First off, let me just say, I think it's really important to hear the other side of the call, super important. Because if he is claiming what he's claiming here, that he was actually just being sarcastic and critical of the lawyers and how these negotiations take place, okay, prove it. Let's hear the other side of the call. With that said, though, Let's go to his pass because back in 2010, a profanity-filled dash cam video showed four Seattle officers detaining a man after pulling him over during a traffic stop. One of the four officers on the scene was Auderer.

Now, here's what James Egan, who is the Seattle defense attorney, had to say. One of the officers says to this Hispanic detainee, if it weren't for my badge, I'd skull, F you and drag you down the street and officer otterer in listening to this has the same kind of goofy laugh that you hear in the most recent body cam recording and it's not clear if he's faced any discipline yet but or if he's even been like suspended you know usually they'll be suspended with pay there's no word or statement about that however in a statement monday the seattle police department said it learned of the conversation not from but from an employee who listened to it in the routine course of business.

That employee was concerned about the nature of statements and took their concerns through their chain of command to the chief's office. After reviewing the video, the chief's office referred it to the office of police accountability for investigation. Now obviously the person who reported, otterer has not been named, but whoever that person is, I commend them for doing something that a lot of police officials, a lot of police officers don't do, fail to do or too afraid to do, which is report an officer engaging in bad behavior. So we'll see where this goes. But it's, it certainly doesn't look good.

Let's put it that way. Fix the goddamn training. And so what did the left say when I said that? Or the left on Twitter, the tiny amount that they are. They say, it's not enough. It's not enough. We have to defund the police entirely. Well, how did that work out for you? But we could have gotten this, but we didn't get it. Nobody even tried to fix the training. And then the right wingers are like, we don't need to fix no stinking training. Thin blue line.

Support the cops. Support the blue lives matter. Until they kicked your ass on January 6th and all of a sudden now you hate the cops. Oh, and they're not trained well enough to deal with us. Well, first of all, yes, that's true because they just let you into the building half the time. Okay. But yes, this doesn't, they have the same regard for. for all of us.

You're the citizens and unless you're rich and powerful, they don't give a goddamn about you. All right, finally, I'm gonna give the last word to another YouTube member. By the way, you could be a member and do the show with us by hitting the join button below. Samantha, Toto wrote in, wow, this guy's about to cost the department,

a lot of money and unfortunately accountability for this guy won't be jail. Samantha, you're 100% right. Cops are never gonna go to jail for this kind of abuse, et cetera. But more importantly, you know who pays that money? We do, we do. That cop doesn't pay it because they got a great union and their union says, nope, nope, nope,

we're never going to be accounted for a goddamn thing. You're not going to take a penny from us. We're not going to jail. We're not doing anything. No, the citizens have to pay for our crimes. And that's what's going to happen next. All right, we got to take a break. When we come back, a big update on Alex Jones, his bankruptcy declaration and what he's

really spending his money on. 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.com slash t-y-t. I'm your host, Shank Huger, and I'll see you soon.