The Young Turks - One Year Later

Episode Date: January 7, 2022

President Joe Biden taunted former President Donald Trump with a litany of defeats that were dealt after the election, and after the failure of the January 6th coup attempt. Moments after Biden addressed the nation from the Capitol rotunda on the anniversary of the Jan. 6 riot, Fox News anchor Dana Perino criticized the speech as “political” and “divisive.” A new report says Boeing and Pfizer are among the companies and trade groups to have donated $8 million to Republicans who voted against certifying Biden's election victory. Dozens of entrepreneurs, made newly wealthy by blockchain and cryptocurrencies, are heading en masse to Puerto Rico this winter. An NFT collector had $2.2 million worth of ape images stolen by hackers. Hosts: Ana Kasparian, John Iadarola  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. We're going to be able to be. Welcome, everyone. You're watching The Young Turks. I'm Anna Casparian and joining me today is my good friend, an excellent colleague and the host of the damage report, John Ida Rola. John, how you doing? Thank you. I like that I'm a better colleague than friend. Just good friend. Well, you know, you're all right in the friend category, but you're a fantastic call. Yeah, I don't know. For some reason, we just admittedly, we haven't hung out much in the last year and a half.

Anyway, yeah, no, I'm glad to be here. It's been a very long time since you and I have done a show together. Right. I mean, it's been like a whole what, like three, four hours because I was on the damage report today. So everyone check out that episode if you missed it live. And we're going to be talking about the one year anniversary of the January 6th, Capitol riots. We'll share some video featuring Joe Biden's speech later in the show. We actually have two stories that are very likely to upset the crypto bro community. We'll be talking about. how Puerto Rico is now being utilized as a tax shelter for crypto billionaires and millionaires. And we'll also talk about one of my favorite stories, possibly of the year. I know it hasn't really been a long year. The story of the NFT apes that have gone missing, stolen. What a tragedy. Where are they? Well, we'll give you those details a little later. In the second hour, we'll also talk about a state Republican lawmaker who was so upset during a high school basketball game that he decided to

attempt to pants a referee. We're talking about a politician who's bullying a referee by trying to pants. And that's a real story that we'll get to later in the show. But before we get to any of that, I just want to encourage you guys to like and share the stream. If you're watching us live, leave us your super chat comments. If your members, leave us your comments in general. and we'll try to get to them when we go to our social breaks for everyone else. Come on, get with it, man. We're going to have an awesome show. You don't want to miss it.

So why don't we get started? You ready, John? I am, I think. All right, let's do it. He's not just a former president. He's a defeated former president. Defeated by a margin of over 7 million of your votes. Today, of course, marks the one-year anniversary of the January 6th Capitol riots, the very riots that were incited by former President Donald Trump.

And you just heard from President Joe Biden giving a speech, of course, on this one-year anniversary, but more importantly, for the first time really calling out Donald Trump and the incitements that he engaged in, which of course led up to the Capitol riots. Now, we have other snippets from his speech. He did get a lot of admiration, a lot of applause for it, because Joe Biden isn't really known for tough rhetoric, unless he's talking about corn pop, of course. But here he is addressing Donald Trump and the Capitol rioters. There are simply zero proof the election results are inaccurate. In fact, in every venue where evidence had to be produced and no thing. to tell the truth had to be taken, the former president failed to make his case.

Just think about this. The former president and his supporters have never been able to explain how they accept as accurate the other election results that took place on November 3rd. The elections for governor, United States Senate, House of Representatives,

elections which they close the gap in the house. They challenged none of that. President's name was first. Then we went down the line. Governors, senators, House representatives. Somehow those results are accurate on the same ballot. But the presidential race was flawed. And on the same ballot, the same day, cast by the same voters, The only difference, the former president didn't lose those races. He just lost the one that was his own. Now, obviously, I agree with what President Biden says there. I think that the point he made in regard to the Republican wins on the same ballots that do not go contested by Trump supporters,

happen to be pretty fascinating, especially when on the same ballot, they'll complain that there was voter fraud pertaining to the presidential election. So I like what he says there. But the big problem that I have, John, is while rhetorically speaking, Biden is saying the right things. What really matters is what kinds of actions the Biden administration and the whole of the Democratic Party take to prevent the erosion of what's left of our democratic process. Yeah, you're right, substantively. I do have one criticism even before we get to what you just said, which is more important, admittedly. Rhetorically, the points he's making are indisputable. And in the previous clip, I like that he's being aggressive. I wish that he could deploy that against literally

anyone other than Donald Trump or as you said, corn pop. But that's not going to happen. Maybe a speech or two like that about Kirsten Cinema could have moved the needle, could have done something, but we'll never know because he's not going to do it. His rhetoric in terms of how he explained a very good point about their lack of issue with all of the other down ballot races was undercut a little bit by the fact that it was like the worst possible delivery of it. But it's a great point. And they they don't dispute those. Some of the most like out front people like Marjorie Green who literally will not stop talking about how the election was stolen, she is from one States, she got elected on that. But again, it's that point being made by Biden is like,

I would put it in the same rhetorical category of like 80% of what I say on my show. It's like what I think of is indisputably true and should make sense in a rational world, but it's being broadcast in a different world than a rational one. They're not going to answer what Biden said. It's a great gotcha point that they will never be got by. But but you the other point though is should he be making those points? They're true. But I don't know, there's something about the president speaking on the anniversary of January 6th and going, not just denying that the election was stolen or declaring that no rational person believes it, but kind of delving into the minutia of it to me sort of like by necessity reopens it as a conversation. Like I worry that

that seems defensive almost. It makes it seem as if this is a debate that we can have politically when there is obviously no debate to be had there. I don't think there is any speech that Joe Biden would have given today that would have been good. I know, I know that that's, and look, you get called the Joe Biden fit online. It's going to reinforce what some, you know, demapologists think about me, which is there's nothing Biden can do that'll make you happy, which is not true. That's not true. A speech is just a speech, right? So sure, we can nitpick. We can say that he's, you know, making points that are demonstrably true. But unfortunately, attempt to or create an opportunity to like relitigate something that's already pretty clear. I think that's a valid

criticism. I don't know what else he would say, though. Like, what else would his speech be? Like, To me, the president's speaking on this day is really not that important. To me, going back to what I said earlier, the most important thing is what kind of actions are being taken by the Democratic Party to, in the very least, mitigate the damage that's being done, not just on January 6th, but more importantly, everything that's transpired following January 6th. So I want to go to one more Biden clip, and then I'll give you some more detail. in regard to what I'm talking about, because it's not just about the insurrectionist. It's not just about the riots on that day. It's about what has been done legislatively on a state level to erode our democratic process. Let's go to the last clip.

Finally, the third big lie being told by a former president and supporters. It's that the mob who sought to impose their will through violence are the nation's two patriots. Is that what you thought? When you looked at the mob ransacking the capital, destroying property, literally defecating in the hallways, rifling through the desks of senators and representatives, hunting down members of Congress. Patriots? Not in my view. I like that part of his speech a lot, a lot. And I don't know if people agree with me on it, But I think that him mentioning the fact that these riders defecated in the Capitol like that,

it gives you, it's gross, obviously, but it gives you the imagery that you need to have when it comes to these people who did what they did that day. Because there really has not been a robust counter by Democrats, especially not by Joe Biden, to the narratives that we've been hearing from the Republican Party. Remember, they keep trying to paint these individuals as patriots, or they try to paint these individuals as, you know, tourists, like peaceful demonstrators, peaceful tourists, like nothing, nothing serious, nothing to be worried about. Of course, they also provide a buffet of other narratives if you're not buying that, right? Oh, it was actually the FBI, and we'll get to all of those other narratives later in the show. But I like the fact that Biden said something in the context of this speech that gave people, a real visual of what these people were doing, right? Aside from the clear violence. Yeah, they're cropping all over the floor. They're cropping on desk.

Like this is something, these are not patriots. These are not people who are in a healthy state of mind to say the least. Now, real quick, going back to what I was saying earlier about what has transpired following January 6th. Later in his speech, Joe Biden talks about how we have overcome, you know, the election was sort of. the election was certified, almost making it appear as though there's been a great victory in the name of democracy. But things have actually devolved considerably. So for instance, let's go to this headline from U.S. News and World Report. Republican-led state legislatures pass dozens of restrictive voting laws in 2021. States with Republican legislatures have passed waves of new laws making it harder for constituents to vote in response to the 2020 election, experts say. And we've covered various states in quite a bit of detail with what they're doing to make it increasingly difficult for people to vote, particularly, you know, voters who happen to be black, people who typically do not have, like, let's say, a state ID because they're out of state students or don't drive a car and use public transportation. I mean, all sorts of restrictive laws.

And there needs to be a robust response to that legislatively. And John, what would that robust legislative response be on a federal level? I don't know. It probably would look like one of multiple pieces of legislation of varying degrees of quality that have been there waiting to be passed since Biden was inaugurated. And not only have they not done it, but they've barely even seemed like they wanted to. We can at least point to the reconciliation bill and say there was some robust debate for a period. But with the voting rights bill, they deferred to Manchin. Mansion was going to go find some Republicans.

He swore he'd be able to do it. Obviously he couldn't because that's ridiculous. And they gradually chopped away bits of it, producing weaker and weaker pieces of legislation. And now they're once again putting the football out there and saying that that's going to be sort of their priority for the rest of January. Well, I really hope that that's true and we'll be waiting to see. But it's all been there from the very beginning. I have not seen a real fight for voting rights. And as we know, in order to pass any legislation, you would need to either reform or do away

with the legislative filibuster in the Senate, which currently requires 60 senators, which means you would need 10 Republican senators to vote in favor of any bill for it to pass. And Biden, especially in the context of social spending legislation, wants to maintain the filibuster. Some argue, well, he wants to carve out for voting rights. I don't see him fighting for it. Anyone can say they want anything. But the proof is in the pudding. Action speak louder than words.

And I just have not seen that from the Biden administration. Also, more than 40% in the U.S. do not believe that Joe Biden legitimately wants. the election. This is according to an axios poll. And you know, it's one of many. We've shown you so many polls indicating that a huge portion of Americans, particularly those on the right, do not believe that Biden won the election. They believe it was stolen by Donald Trump. So this is what I'm talking about when I say that it has not been this massive victory for the Democratic Party or for the country or for our democratic process. Things have continued to devolve. And I worry that Biden is completely disconnected or delusional about it.

100%. Yeah, it's clear. And look, it's the sort of thing, it should be like the err issue that, you know, regardless of what any elected Democrat in a position of power thinks about any other individual piece of legislation or like a, you know, a conversation about immigration reform or whatever, you obviously have to secure your ability to get elected. And they know what's being done. They know what's being done in terms of voter suppression with the, the piece of

pieces of legislation being passed at the state level that you just talked about on TDR this morning. We talked about the secretaries of state elections where big lie Republicans are running to take over virtually every swing state in the country. And if they have any urgency about this, they're not showing it. And the only advice they seem to have for anyone not in a position of power is just out-organize it. Yeah, out-organize not only the baked-in decades of voter suppression that were already there long before Donald Trump. There was already gerrymandering. There was already inequitable distribution of polling places and all that. That already existed. Then they did it during the Trump years. And then they've done it even worse since then.

The Democrats lost the 2016 election. How much extra organization do they think is just sitting out there on the road waiting to be picked up? It's ridiculous and it's insulting to the people who actually do that organizing as a full-time job. They have a job too. The election and officials have a job too, and they should start doing at least some version of it. That's exactly right. You know, passing off all the hard work to organizers is ridiculous. Well, we got to take a break, but when we come back, we'll give you both Donald Trump's response to Biden's speech and also how other conservatives, including Lindsey Graham and Fox News reacted to it. It's shocking. It turns out that the president's speech was political.

Wow. So we'll give you that and more when we return. Welcome back to the show, everyone. You're watching TYT with Anna Kasparian and John Iderola on this one year anniversary of the Capitol Hill riots. We've got more news on that story, so why don't we get right to it? President Joe Biden gave a speech on the one year anniversary of the Capitol riots. And while Biden usually takes a more conciliatory tone with Republican lawmakers, that wasn't the case in his speech today. He not only called out Donald Trump, not by name, but it was very clear he was talking about Trump. He also gave a pretty vivid image of who the capital rioters were and what

their intentions were. And Donald Trump and the rest of the conservatives are not too happy or pleased about it. Now, before we get to Donald Trump's statement, his fuming statement, in response to Joe Biden, why don't we give you a little snippet of what Biden had to say? He's not just a former president. He's a defeated former president. Defeated by a margin of over 7 million of your votes. Now Donald Trump, of course, did not like that. And I personally enjoy when his feelings get hurt. And when he puts out these unhinged statements, they don't get as much play these days because they're not on Twitter, where he's banned. But here's what he had to say in response to Biden. Biden used my name today to try to further divide America. Let's just pause. I already need to pause. A, Biden didn't actually use Trump's

name at all, but it was clear who he was talking about. So, I mean, I guess that doesn't matter that much, but fair enough, exactly. But secondly, Donald Trump doesn't ever get to criticize anyone for dividing the country. Dividing the country is his bread and butter. Dividing the country is what he capitalized on in the lead up to the 2016 election. It is what he leaned into during his one and only term as president of the United States. Division is what he eats for dinner. He loves it.

So to say that Biden is dividing the country is ridiculous, especially when it's coming from Donald Trump. Now, I have a ton of criticism for Biden in a million other ways, but being divisive or dividing the country, I think, is crazy, especially when he's gone out of his way to unite with Republicans, especially when he has decoupled the massive infrastructure bill to separate out the public infrastructure, I'm sorry, the physical infrastructure from the social spending, just so he can get Republicans to sign on to the physical infrastructure bill. There's no way I'm ever going to buy from someone like Donald Trump that Biden is the divisive one. If anything, Biden isn't divisive enough. He's not harsh enough when it comes to the nefarious figures in the Republican Party. But let me continue. The political theater is all just a distraction for the fact that Biden has completely and totally failed. That statement I don't have as much of an issue with. I'm not going to lie. So let's just put that aside. John, before I get to the rest of the statement, any thoughts?

Look, I think there's quite a bit of failure that we can identify, that we have identified many times on the show. I don't think that's why he's making the statement. To link it together is nonsensical, but, you know, Donald Trump is implicated in this, so he has to come up with some sort of defense, talking about it being divisive on the anniversary of a riot you instigated. And reporting today says you watched with glee so happy that you were. rewound the riot and watched it again, I don't know, I feel like you maybe get to share in the division. No, Biden, look, Biden is a lot of things, many of them bad, but particularly divisive. No, no, we could point out some of the ways that he's undercut his own campaign

promises. I would argue there's a case to be made that, you know, not helping people out with student loan debt, you know, requiring them to to start repaying in the middle of a pandemic. Like, those are things... One of the hardest parts of getting older is feeling like something's off in your body, but not knowing exactly what. It's not just aging. It's often your hormones, too. When they fall out of balance, everything feels off.

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why is it that the unselect committee nickname is so, it's so childish, but whatever, why is it that the unselect committee of totally partisan political hacks whose judgment has long ago been made not discussing the rigged presidential election of 2020, it's because they don't have the answers or the judge for what happened. They got away with something, and it is leading to our country's destruction. Now, what's leading to the country's destruction is the fact that this man lost more than 60

court battles challenging the results of the 2020 election and continues to perpetuate this lie that the election was stolen from him. He lost, but he continues to lie to the American people and that is not only dividing the country, that is leading to political violence. In fact, in poll after poll, Republicans who respond, a significant portion of them argue that, yeah, we might need to resort to political violence to take the country back. And to be sure, considering January 6th, they've already done it. And he just continues to lie. He can't help himself. So that's Donald Trump. Trump is going to trump. This is what he does. But now let's go to some of the other conservative, some of the other GOP lawmakers who have weighed in.

We've got Lindsey Graham, who is a complete nutter clown. He tweets, what brazen politicized, I can't say this word. I always struggle with it. He accuses Biden of politicizing January 6th. Maybe because January 6th was incredibly political. It was an attempt to overturn the results of our democratic process. It's inherently political. So accusing Biden of politicizing something that's political is incredibly stupid. But Lindsey Graham isn't the only one who did this. He continues to write in his tweet. I wonder if the Taliban who now rule Afghanistan with al-Qaeda elements present,

contrary to President Biden's belief, are allowing this speech to be carried. I don't, I that see did you see, you know, when the Virginia, when people couldn't drive because of the snow and there's the huge backup and someone had tried to like tie it to BLM? Like that in the Lindsay Graham speech are like inevitably what Twitter has to become. Like in the absence of actual cleverness just tie two things together. Just a reference another thing and that's supposed to stand in for cleverness. And so he thinks he's doing that. He's not engaging. It's even worse. It's even worse. It's even worse because Lindsey Graham is a massive war hawk. Like he's very hawkish on foreign policy. And so he's like, I don't know, like how can I have some pro-defense spending, pro-military industrial complex like baked into this.

So he puts out some lie about al-Qaeda working with the Taliban. I don't know. I would like to know, why is he politicizing the Taliban taking over Afghanistan? We can all play this game. Don't politicize anything. Don't talk about the election in a political way. He's talking about them politicizing a coup. You get to politicize a coup. It's pretty political. What's also amazing is Lindsey Graham himself on January 6th made statements that were very similar to what Biden said in his speech. Was he politicizing things? I don't know. Let's refresh our memories. It is over.

It is over. The final thing. Joe Biden, I've traveled the world with Joe. I hoped he lost. I prayed he would lose. He won. He's the legitimate president of the United States. I cannot convince people, certain groups, by my words, but I will tell you by my actions.

That maybe I, among any, above all others in this body, need to say this. Joe Biden and Kamala Harris are lawfully elected and will become the president and the vice president of the United States on January the 20th. Brazen politicizing. Brazen. No, I'm very glad that you brought that up. And look, he said that he was done with Trump after January 6th. That's obviously not true. It's been political.

The only question is in what direction does Lindsey Graham think his politics should go in the immediate aftermath of the insurrection? I think he somewhat reasonably thought, oh, well, we've clearly crossed a line. This isn't going to work. It's why he denounced it. It's why Fox News hosts were trying to stop Trump in the middle of it. Kevin McCarthy was against him. But they had, I guess, underestimated the depravity of their base. And so within a month or two, you know, he was headed down to play golf with Trump.

I'll remind you, by the way, because I'm very glad that you brought up that, that speech. Just two days later, remember, he was mobbed at an airport by a pro-Trump crowd chanting at him. Because how dare you not stand with your president. He was reminded just two days after the insurrection how radical this movement had become. But he has reconciled himself to that since then. And he has once again just, you know, a good, loyal, you know, cog in the machine. Well, he's a coward. I think that moment in the airport probably shook him.

And so now he's going after Biden for saying the exact same thing that he said on the night of January 6th following the riots. I want to now go to Fox News host Dana Perino, who also seems to have a problem with a politician using a speech to talk about politics. So let's watch. The president, though, his remarks were more pointed and quite political, I would say, divisive in many ways. This is how he sees it, Brett. The other thing is that Brett, we're talking about choices and tones that you can make when you are a president of the United States. And if your instinct is to escalate, rather than de-escalate attention and division, then that's one way to go about it. And in some ways to me, what I thought today is the president just missed an opportunity

to talk about what you just said, which is that our founding fathers were brilliant. They put together a constitution that is not perfect, but it has held together. And you could have shown gratitude to those lawmakers who came back to the chamber, after being quite shaken, I'm sure, and their staff's shaken up. They come back, they do the right thing. And Joe Biden is inaugurated, and he is president. And we as a country, we have moved on. We've got a lot of challenges that we're dealing with.

But you could have talked about the strength of our system. John, as a connoisseur of the devil's lettuce, sometimes my memory is a little fuzzy. So I just wanted to be reminded of what Donald Trump was up to as the capital riot was taking place. Because if I remember correctly, Donald Trump had to be urged to take action to stop the violence. But it took him a while. Why was that? What was he up to? Well, apparently, according to the new reporting, he was watching it and giggling, excited that they're coming to fight for me.

He was having fun. He was presumably avoiding phone calls with all of his advisors because virtually all of them apparently were texting him to stop. He was approached twice by his own daughter to stop it, but he was enjoying it. And they finally got him to start to record a video. It took forever to put it out because he refused to say anything sane or rational during it. And then eventually the video did come out. We saw it. It was madness. It was him talking about how they're very special people and he loves them very much.

So that's what he was doing. But Dana Prino, why are we listening? Dana Prino was talking about people politicizing things. She was the press secretary under George W. Bush. It's such a like it's you know like as you're growing up you learn about like imposter syndrome and all that. And when you but sort of the opposite when your kids you think that adults understand everything. They've gotten to their positions because they're capable and competent and all that. And then you grow up and you realize it's not really the case.

It is so 100% the same for the news. Dana Prino has been doing this for literally years. She's a professional insofar as anyone in news is. And she just throws out that someone's politicizing something. It's the laziest thing. It's like the attacks against Emma Watson. Anytime somebody criticizes Israeli government policy, it's anti-Semitic. It's just you just throw it out there.

It means nothing. It doesn't mean anything to you to make it. And it just makes this whole thing, this attempt to have a discourse about the future of our country, even more pathetic and unbearable on a daily basis. Well, we've got one more video that I want to just quickly get to because the worst elements of the Republican Party have been floating this conspiracy theory that, you know, it wasn't really Magachuds doing the riots. It was actually the FBI. And so Matt Gates and Marjorie Green held a press conference to continue spreading this nonsense. And it was so awful that even newsmax, cut away from it. But I wanted to give you a quick snippet of what that press conference looked like. We are here to expose the truth, to ask key questions about what happened on

January 6th, who animated the violence, the extent to which the federal government may have been involved. We know this. January 6th last year wasn't an insurrection, but it very well may have been a Fed surrection. This is the very last thing that happens before the breach. You've got Ray Epps whispering into this guy's year, and this is the moment of breach. If you were the January 6th committee, wouldn't you want to know what Ray Epps whispered into that individual's year? Yeah, I'd like to know. But what does that have to do with your weird conspiracy theory that it was the feds who did this?

Yeah, I don't know. I mean they for first of all they again they have to have a defense this is what Tucker Carlson has presented to them their movement is now led by effectively Alex Jones with a slightly higher budget and a few less pulled pork stains on his shirt that's it it's just a conspiracy theorist cult that's all it is and they've decided that okay saying that it's in Tifa that seems really crazy because all these people are locked up and they were clearly there and they're clearly conservative so something else has to absolve them of it To be very clear, the theory that they've concocted that the FBI inspired this does not in any way absolve the individuals who participate in a riot. As you're trying to beat the life out of a cop, it doesn't matter if 30 minutes ago an FBI agent was near you. That's irrelevant. You're trying to murder someone. It doesn't absolve any of the political leaders who told them to go there, who spoke to them that morning. It certainly doesn't absolve any of the members of Congress or the Senate who tried to overturn the election even after all. of that violence, it would be interesting, but not absolving in any way. It also isn't true,

and the evidence isn't there. But even if it were, it wouldn't prove anything like what they think it would. We don't want to dedicate the entirety of the show to January 6th. So when we come back from the break, I actually want to talk about a story that, yes, has a component of January in it, but it is a story involving corporations that you will not get anywhere else in broadcast news. So when we come back, we'll talk about all the major corporations who promise to stop donating money to Republican lawmakers who egged the insurrectionists on. Where are they today? Are they back to these legalized bribes? We'll give you those details and more. Come right back. Welcome back to TYT. Well, as many of you may have noticed, the cable news networks have

been covering the one year anniversary of the capital riots, but they haven't really talked about one element to that story that I think is incredibly important. Those corporations who promise to stop funding the politicians who refuse to certify Biden as the rightful winner of the election claim that they would just stop donating, right? But now where are they? Are they engaging in the legalized bribery again? Or are they sticking or staying true to their promise? Well, we've got some news for you on that front. So let's talk about it. Major corporations have continued spending literally millions of dollars to fund the campaigns of Republican lawmakers who aided and abetted the Capitol Hill rioters. One of the ways that they did that was,

by refusing to certify the election to its rightful winner, Joe Biden. And so after that, they claimed, you know, after the riots took place, these corporations claimed that they would no longer provide campaign donations to these Republican lawmakers. But did they stay true to their promise? Well, turns out, no, of course, of course not. They were hoping that everyone else would stop paying attention, and then they can continue engaging in legalized bribery because that's how their bread is buttered. They want to make sure that all these elected officials, whether they're Democrats or Republicans, whether they're insurrectionists or not, are working for them, not working for us or are Democrats? Why just survive back to school

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association. We've got Chevron. We've got Eli Lilly. We've got Merck, Johnson and Johnson. I mean, that's just a few. I'm not listing everything. It's just a few of the corporations who said that they would either pause or stop donating to these Republican lawmakers. And now they've since continued. So the American Bankers Association was the top donor to these individuals. The ABA gave at least $203,000 to the GOP objectors between January 6th and November of 2021. Who was the top recipient? Well, that would be House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy.

and he received a total of $333,500 since January of 2021. Now, again, after the capital riots took place, all of these companies pretended like they really valued our democracy, they pretended to be outraged, horrified about what transpired on January 6th, dozens of companies, including Walmart, Amazon, Morgan Stanley, and AT&T said they would stop donating to these law. while others, including Microsoft, Deloitte and Goldman Sachs, paused all political donations. Donations to the, get a load of this number. Donations to the 147 GOP objectors soon recovered, though, reaching nearly $3 million in each of the second and third quarters of 2021.

John, are you surprised by any of this? You know, I mean, I knew that they would eventually get back to it. I guess I'm a little bit surprised at how quickly they did, especially considering that it wasn't, for the most part, it wasn't an election year. Like, they're under no obligation. Like, they're not even getting pressured as much from the lawmakers to donate, but they do, this is all from them. They want to make sure that those lawmakers are on their side. And honestly, in this period where some corporations are refusing to donate to them, that provides a perverse incentive. for others to break that prohibition because if those lawmakers are hurting a little bit financially,

they might give you even more attention for the same donations that you might have been giving in years past. And so you see them donating. Again, not even an election year. This story is disgusting, not just for the insurrection angle. Let's pretend that there wasn't the insurrection. It's disgusting for all the reasons that it normally would. Corporations should not be allowed to do any donations whatsoever. If their CEOs want to donate money, they can legally, their workers can. They can already do this. How is money also coming through a corporation? How does that make absolutely any sense, except if you are at some point in this food chain of corruption? And virtually everyone who ensures that this sort of thing

can continue benefits financially from this arrangement. The numbers are disgusting. $33,000 to Kevin McCarthy. Imagine if a story came out that like one lobbyist from Merck like passed a burlap sack with $5,000 from one bathroom stall to another. I hope that that would be a major scandal. But no, you just do it like through official channels and you can bribe them 60 times as much and it's perfectly cool. Now this is the sort of story that should be a major scandal and I'm very glad that you're covering it. But unfortunately, most people probably aren't going to pay that much attention. They've accepted this corruption. And that's what these corporations really bank on. The fact that the media,

tends to have a short attention span. The American people tend to be distracted with a billion different things that flood the news cycle on any given day. But it's important to follow through on these stories because I think what you're saying is so right, John. What this also messages to lawmakers is that there are virtually no consequences, regardless of what you do to even threaten our democracy. There might be some tough talk immediately after something like, I don't know, a capital riot. But as soon as people look away, as soon as people are distracted with something else, the very politicians who aided and abetted that terrible behavior incited that behavior, then get rewarded with these legalized bribes.

Just a few more examples. Boeing, of course, is in the mix. Boeing paused political donations after the January 6th attack and said, that it condemned the violence, lawlessness, and destruction that took place in the U.S. Capitol in a statement. But following that, Boeing was also among the largest donors profiled with its pack giving 190,000 to election objectors. It's since given $10,000 to California Representative Ken Calvert and $9,000 to Kentucky Representative Hal Rogers, among others, according to the report. So they went right back to doing what they do. And you know, oftentimes when we talk about criminal

justice reform, there's a lot of talk among right wingers in regard to, you know, these progressive criminal justice policies make these criminals think they can do whatever they want with absolutely no consequences. And honestly, there are some instances where there's, there are valid points being made. But what I want to mostly point to is how they have no problem with how these nefarious legislators get incentivized to do whatever they want. And more importantly, when they do something that threatens our democratic process, there are no consequences. There are no consequences when it comes to their corporate donors. And there certainly have not been any real consequences politically. Even when the Democrats hold the levers of power, they have not done nearly enough to hold these lawmakers accountable. Yeah, they're investigating the Capitol riots. It's, you know, you have the House Select Committee doing so. But most of the focus so far has been on, you know, Trump's close circle of people. And even they, I would argue, are unlikely to face any real consequences. So we'll see how it all plays out. I hope that they prove me wrong. But the incentives are in the wrong place. And these lawmakers did what they did because they knew that they would get away with it. All right, shall we upset the crypto bros? Are you ready for it?

My ads, my replies have just been too pleasant on Twitter recently. How is that ever possible? I'm very nice. People are really nice. Yeah, but usually that doesn't save you on Twitter. Anyway, let's get to it. Puerto Rico has become a hot destination for crypto millionaires. and billionaires. Yes, they're fond of Puerto Rico's incredibly loose tax policies. And so they're

flooding into the country, or I should say to the, you know, to the U.S., you know, Puerto Rico is part of the United States, U.S. territory to essentially use it as a tax shelter. So I got a glimpse of what the governor of Puerto Rico had to say about this. He used to to be against the current tax policies that have been implemented in Puerto Rico following Hurricane Maria. But now all of a sudden, he is using completely different talking points to support the fact that it's become a massive tax shelter for these billionaires and millionaires. Let's watch. Crypto millionaires are flocking to Puerto Rico. That's because if you spend at least half the year on the island, you're free of taxes on capital gains.

What a deal. The former Republican governor of Puerto Rico, Luis Fortuno, joins me now. Good morning to you. Governor, is Puerto Rico the new tax haven now for crypto millionaires? Well, Stuart, if people are moving from California or New York to Florida or Texas, we want them to consider Puerto Rico as well. We are part of the U.S., we are American citizens, but we do not pay federal income tax.

We pay local taxes. Well, Governor, Puerto Rico has a poverty rate around 40%. My question to you is, what does Puerto Rico get out of it? How do those people benefit from this migration? No capital. That's influx of capital and jobs. On the one hand, all these people, these are type A individuals. They don't sit around watching TV all day.

They want to go out and they're investing in the local economy. John, apparently you can use the argument of jobs in any context, including in the context of crypto millionaires and billionaires flooding into a country specifically to avoid paying taxes. Yeah. And I'm not entirely sure how that creates jobs in Puerto Rico. And in fact, I will give you examples of how this has actually been incredibly damaging to the people of Puerto Rico.

But maybe I'm wrong. I don't know. Tell me what you think. Yeah, look, the personal financial interests of wealthy people is always presented to the masses as being fundamentally about improving their standard of living, whether they call it, you know, trickle down economics or putting a focus on jobs or whatever. They do that. It's always fake. They don't give a damn about jobs. They replace you with a robot or a microwave if they could. In this case, though, So, look, I am hardly a crypto expert. And so I'll provide that as an opening for people who their entire personality has been replaced with an obsession with crypto to go into the chat and talk about it. The connection between their personal financial interests when it's like crypto or an ape painting, the connection between that and jobs is obviously a thousand times even more tenuous than regular a whole investor talk.

It's not about that at all. They want to go there and I guess technically live there, although what does it even mean for any of these millionaires to technically live somewhere? They can go literally anywhere they wanted to drop VAT and do to get lower taxes. And yes, incidentally, they might spend a little bit of money. They might go to a restaurant or something, but they are not there to invest. They're not there to create jobs. They're not there to look out for the local community.

And for those who might be watching this video and who really believe in cryptocurrency, and you genuinely, maybe you've made some money off cryptocurrency. Just go to YouTube later, watch the show first obviously, and type in in the search bar, Bitcoin or cryptocurrency pump and dump. And you will be amazed at how many tutorials there are on how you can get rich from crypto pump and dump schemes. Not news stories about it, literal tutorials on how to engage in it. Yeah. Okay. So I'm sorry for everyone who's like, no man, cryptocurrency is the future man, he's not in the future man, it's now.

It's democratizing everything. It's the same Silicon Valley libertarian types, by the way, who are spewing that nonsense. And when you look at who's really benefiting from crypto, generally speaking, it is not the little guy. It has not been a process to democratize things. But let me give you more detail. details. When it comes to Puerto Rico specifically, some of those crypto millionaires and billionaires are not actually interested in doing anything to benefit the local communities there. The movement is alarming an earlier generation of Puerto Rico tax expats like the hedge fund manager Rob Rill. They call me up saying they're going to literally start a city in Puerto

Rico to have their own crypto world, said Mr. Rill, who moved to the island. in 2013. I can't engage in that. The newcomers are still debating the exact shape of Puertopia, or exact shape that it should take. Some think they need to make a city. Others think it's enough to move into old San Juan. And by the way, you should totally trust them because they definitely have good intentions. Here's Matt Clemenson, who is the co-founder of Lottery.com. He's one of these people who believes in this Puerto Rico project. He says, we're benevolent capitalists.

Oh, you're a benevolent capitalist. Building a benevolent economy. Puerto Rico has been this hidden gem, this enchanted island that's been consistently overlooked and mistreated. Maybe 500 years later, we can make it right. Maybe 500 years later, we can do the same thing that's been done for 500. years. Yeah, no, don't trust. And by the way, look, some people are probably already responding, no, but you don't understand. Like, blockchain is this really interesting technology or like that crypto in some formulation can be good for someone who's not a millionaire. I'm not disputing

literally any of that. It just doesn't have anything to do with how crypto is manifesting, what this story is about. For like the technology that underlies the ability to create custom pharmaceuticals can be great. And you can also get an opioid epidemic. You can monetize almost any good development for bad ends, and that is what we're seeing. I'm sure there's great stuff with blockchain. I'm sure NFTs can benefit some small artists. But right now it is being used by people who are already wealthy to get wealthier. And the crypto millionaires are there because they're the people involved in crypto who didn't have literally every dollar they owned stolen from them.

Crypto wealth is built on people who invested in crypto and lost it all. That is effectively what it is. If you'd like to roll the dice, then you can participate in that. Maybe you'll get rich, but it is hardly a sure thing. It's being presented as that because people who are in charge of the system are going to benefit no matter what. Also, the tax breaks that the crypto millionaires and billionaires are taking advantage of does not apply to native Puerto Ricans. I want to be clear about that. So there's this double standard in the tax system in Puerto Rico and natives.

I mean, I think it's more important to hear from the local communities in Puerto Rico. How do they feel about it? It's one thing to hear from the individuals who have benefited from cryptocurrency and stand to benefit further from the tax laws in Puerto Rico, but I don't trust them. I would rather hear from people living in Puerto Rico who have grown up in Puerto Rico, and they're not too happy about this. In fact, there's a growing movement to do something about it. So one person says this, what's happened here is a perfect storm, said Halsey Minor.

The founder of the news site, CNET, who is moving his new blockchain company called Video Coin from the Cayman Islands to Puerto Rico this winter, referring to Hurricane Maria and the investment interest that has followed. He added, while it was really bad for the people of Puerto Rico, in the long term, it's a godsend if people look past that. That was a real, I just read you a statement verbatim, but it doesn't stop there. So Andrea Satz says, we're the tax playground for the rich. We're the test case for anyone who wants to experiment. Outsiders get tax exemptions. The locals can't get permits. And gentrification has ended up being a huge problem as a result of this.

More than 142,000 locals fled the island in the first year after the storm, according to the Census Bureau. As real estate prices dropped, investors moved in and have driven up prices again in certain areas. The result is that many Puerto Ricans can no longer afford to live in their own neighborhoods, including those who would like to come back home, activists say. The tax break laws are exacerbating the problem as people move to the island and snap up property. And I want you to hear from Bianca. She is an independent reporter who lives in Puerto Rico and she has noticed how her community, where she grew up, has changed as a result of all of this. Let's watch.

today I found out that the land behind my house the one that you see in my videos all the time were the horses that I give water to live the land that gives me access to the beach that land is being sold to a company that develops luxury apartments you might have heard that Puerto Ricans are worried that our land is being bought up and this is an example of that this is private land but it's also protected land the government set it aside for agricultural purposes and it's also supposed to be protected. for its environmental value. But I happen to be doing a story about this before it hits so close to home. And everyone I talked to says those laws are not being respected. And that land that was supposed to be protected is getting developed. So I'm making this video not as a reporter, but as a Puerto Rican who's sad and scared that Puerto Rico is becoming a place where only the wealthy have access to our most beautiful natural resources.

So that video went viral. And following that, it appears that the government declared the 7,400 acres of land as nature and agricultural reserves, including the beach that Bianca fought to save. So there was a positive update to that. But the reason why I wanted to share that part of the story with you is because the same tax policies that these crypto fanatics are taking advantage of, obviously will also be taken advantage of. by other individuals, including real estate developers and those who stand to profit off of raping and pillaging this land. And it's a huge issue. And anyone who makes this argument that like, no, no, it creates jobs. We've seen that argument and how it actually plays out in the mainland. And it does not actually play out the way that they would have you believe. And then finally, I do have to get to the inequality that's really baked into cryptocurrency because I think that's usually left out of the, you know, cheery stories that we hear from proponents of cryptocurrency and how things are playing out right now. Let's go to Graphic 9. A study by the National

Bureau of Economic Research showed that the top 10,000 Bitcoin accounts hold 5 million bitcoins, an equivalent of approximately $232 billion, with an estimated 114 million people globally holding the cryptocurrency according to crypto.com. That means that approximately 0.01% of Bitcoin holders control 27% of the 19 million Bitcoins in circulation. And I should also be clear that the thing that seems to be the most admired about cryptocurrency is the lack of regulation. They love the fact that there's very little regulation involved. which is why these pump and dump schemes not only take place, there are literal tutorials on how to engage in them. Pump and dump schemes are regulated by the SEC in the regular stock market and all of that.

Yes, there's still terrible behavior happening in that regard as well. But at least there's like some watchdog, at least there's some regulation. Think about the greed involved here. Think about the lack of regulation. Think about the money laundering that takes place through cryptocurrency. And I just think this is a perspective that doesn't get shared. And the reason why it doesn't get shared, John, is because the value of crypto is dependent on hype. It's dependent on people talking about how amazing cryptocurrency is.

And it's the future and it's this and that. It persuades others to invest in it to drive up the price of these various cryptocurrencies. Exactly. Which is true of most things. but the relationship is perhaps stronger with cryptocurrency than virtually any other asset. I do disagree one thing though. I know the pump and I think that Elon Musk is just tweeting about particular cryptocurrencies because he's really into it. I don't think it's like a money-making scheme or anything. Also, I agree with those in the audience who are saying,

we think we've heard pump and dump enough times for the rest of our life actually. If you could just not ever say that again, please thank you. All right, I will do my best. I will do my best. All right. We have a story on NFTs when we come back for the second hour of the show. So get ready. We'll be right back. Thanks for listening to the full episode of the Young Turks. Support our work, listen to ad-free, access members, only bonus content, and more by subscribing to Apple Podcasts at apple.com slash t-y-t. I'm your host, Shank Huger, and I'll see you soon.