The Young Turks - Pander Bear Fail

Episode Date: December 29, 2023

Nikki Haley panders to racists who want to erase the fact that the civil war was really about slavery. Rep. Lauren Boebert switches Colorado districts to avoid a likely tough rematch. Here's why "Bidenomics" is falling flat with voters. Can the Fort Worth woman living in subsidized housing be evicted for having a gun? HOSTS: Ana Kasparian (@AnaKasparian) and Cenk Uygur (@cenkuygur) 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 ❤ Donate: http://www.tyt.com/go 🔗 Website: https://www.tyt.com 📱App: http://www.tyt.com/app 📬 Newsletters: https://www.tyt.com/newsletters/ If you want to watch more videos from TYT, consider subscribing to other channels in our network: The Watchlist https://www.youtube.com/watchlisttyt Indisputable with Dr. Rashad Richey https://www.youtube.com/indisputabletyt The Damage Report ▶ https://www.youtube.com/thedamagereport TYT Sports ▶ https://www.youtube.com/tytsports The Conversation ▶ https://www.youtube.com/tytconversation Rebel HQ ▶ https://www.youtube.com/rebelhq TYT Investigates ▶ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwNJt9PYyN1uyw2XhNIQMMA 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. Woo! It's up! All right, welcome to the Young Turks, Jane Huger, Anna Kusparan with you guys. Today's a big day. We've got your regular show here, and then right afterwards, boom, Turks and Jerks.

The Turk of the year, the best person of the entire year on the planet, and the worst person on the planet. So it'll be interesting to see it. Spoiler, me. I'm just kidding. Okay, which one? Oh, wait what? No, I'm just playing, I'm playing, I'm playing, I'm playing. Okay.

Oh, it might be, sometimes I'm a bit of a jerk. No, no, I'm just playing. All right, all right guys, so anyway, tons of news for you guys. So let's get started. Well, we begin with Nikki Haley's No Good, Very Bad Day. Let's get started. What was the cause of the United States Civil War? Well, don't come with an easy question or anything.

I mean, I think the cause of the civil war was basically how government was going to run. The freedoms and what people could and couldn't do. Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley was asked a rather simple question, A question that I would venture to say, a fifth grader could even answer. But she did have some difficulty getting to the heart of what the civil war in the United States was really about. So she's off to a shaky start. Let's see if she can recover.

What do you think the cause of the Civil War was? I'm sorry? I mean, I think it always comes down to the role of government. We need to have capitalism, we need to have economic freedom, we need to make sure that we do all things so that individuals have the liberties so that they can have freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom to do, or be anything they want to be without government getting in the way. Thank you. And in the year of 2023, it's a strong to me. And you answered that question without mentioning the word slavery. What do you want me to say about slavery? No, you answered my question.

Thank you. Next question. Oof, that was so bad that even conservative media outlets were criticizing her for it. She really wanted to avoid having to mention slavery. Now this is during a town hall event in New Hampshire. It was in Berlin, New Hampshire, which is a right leaning part of the state. And it was difficult to hear what the man asking the question was saying in the second video we showed you. So I just want to give you the transcript real quick, and then, Jake, I want your thoughts.

The man responded, in the year 2023, it's astonishing to me that you answer that question without mentioning the word slavery. Haley quickly replied with a question, what do you want me to say about slavery? The man said, you've answered my question, thank you. And Haley replied, next question. Now she has since responded to the backlash following the release of that video, which I believe was first posted by the Biden HQ Twitter account. That's going to be relevant information in just a bit. But before we get to it, Jank, what are your thoughts?

Yeah, I'm super curious to see if it was a plant, if it was if it was a plan by the Biden team or the DeSantis team. Hold. Okay, but first on the answer. She's like, well, why don't you come with an easy question like sarcastically? Yeah, no, that's like literally the world's easiest question. Was the civil war about slavery? Yes, definitively about 100%.

And then her answer is so nonsensical. Well, you know, the government shouldn't take your freedom and way to do whatever you want, including owning other people. Well, okay, how about their freedom to not be owned? Like, how about their freedom at all about anything? And but to her, she comes out of from a Republican perspective, which is you're impinging upon my freedom if I'm not allowed to do anything I want to other human beings. So I mean, it's a very telling answer, but really mainly it's about the pandering, but we'll

get to know too. Yes, yes, definitely, she's definitely a pander bear here. But no, I actually think that the way she worded that answer was, it was meant to allow an individual hearing it to interpret it in any way they want. So you interpret it as her fighting for the freedom of the slave owners. Whereas she could use feasible deniability and say, no, no, I was referring to the freedom of the slaves, right? Yeah, but not in the way that she said it. It didn't work.

It didn't work. It totally fell flat. And this was her way of avoiding any offense to those who don't like telling you. telling the truth or acknowledging the reality of what the civil war was really about. It was about ending slavery in the country. I remember long, long, long time ago, this must have been like 2009, maybe 2010. RT invited me on one of their programs and the topic of the Civil War came up and obviously I talked about slavery. And I remember the insane backlash I got in the comments.

And back then, I didn't know what gas lighting was. And so, so many of the comments were like, no, it was about property rights, how dare you, and had nothing to do with slavery. And I'm like, am I wrong? And I remember panicking. I'm like, what if I'm totally wrong about this? Of course I wasn't wrong. And of course I was right.

Of course, at the heart of the Civil War was the fact that the Confederates wanted to fight in order to maintain the ability of slave owners to own slaves. Yeah, guys. It's crazy. So I've been in the South many, many times. And, and I've seen tons of the bumper stickers and crap merch that they sell about how it was a war of northern aggression and how the Yankees don't understand what they were really fighting for. Yeah, go ahead, go ahead. Tell me what you're really fighting for?

Property rights, what do you mean property? You mean human beings as property. Okay, great, great, no problem. Then I'm going to own your ass. Okay, let's go. I want you and your family and anyone else related to you to serve me as my dogs for the rest of your life. And if you want, I'll sell off your kids and make profit out of it. What, I got rights.

I got property rights. Heal, he'll, okay? Oh, you don't like it when it's done to you. But you don't mind doing it to other people. Your freedom is the freedom to oppress other human beings. Here's what the Civil War was about. Slavery, 100%. If you don't think that's true, you're a very, very, very likely racist.

Because it's such a weird thing to deny. The only reason you deny it when the whole war was obviously about slavery, Like states rights, states rights to what, peach cobbler? No, states rights to own property, human beings is property. So if you're denying that, you're denying it for a reason. No one who isn't racist like randomly wants to defend the Confederacy in the Civil War. You're defending it because you think, I mean, come on, man, shouldn't I have that right? Get real, get real, no one believes you.

You know, we all know why you're thinking that. So why is Nikki Haley doing this? She's theoretically a woman of color. We're gonna get back to that too, because she's sick the way she uses this as an advantage using identity politics. Ironically on the Republican side, okay? But the reason Nikki Haley cares about this is because she thinks her voters are racist. And she thinks her voters think the Civil War is 50-50, can't quite tell who was right or wrong. That's why she says outrageous things like that.

And it's not the first time she said outrageous things in regard to the Civil War. We're gonna go to an old video dating back to 2010 in just a moment. But first, a little more context about the event and the gentleman who asked the question. So apparently reporters from the Washington Post reached out to him and asked some questions. The voter declined to share his name when asked by the Washington Post. He later told reporters that he had asked the question because he saw her answer such a question when she was running for government of South Carolina, and he was curious if she would provide the same response in New Hampshire. And you know what? He wasn't lying about that. In fact, in 2010, there was an interview

that she did with two groups that were sympathetic to the Confederates. And in the context of that interview, she addressed the Civil War. And I think it's important for you to take a look at what she had to say and how she had to answer questions about the Civil War. Let's watch. What's your belief about the reason the Civil War was fought? I mean, again, I think that as we look in government, as we watch government, you have different sides, and I think that you see passions on different sides. And I don't think anyone does anything out of hate. I think what they do is they do things out of tradition and out of beliefs

and what they believe is right. I think you had one side of Civil War that was fighting for tradition, and I think you had another side of the Civil War that was fighting for tradition. change. You know, at the end of the day, what I think we need to remember is that, you know, everyone is supposed to have their rights. Everyone's supposed to be free. Everyone's supposed to have the same freedoms as anyone else. So, you know, I think it was tradition versus changes the way I see it. Tradition versus change on what? On individual rights and liberty of people. So this was while she was campaigning in 2010 to become the gun.

governor of South Carolina. She was speaking to leaders of Confederate heritage groups. And she called it a fight, as you heard, between tradition and change. And the interview, by the way, was available. It's still up on the now defunct Palmetto Patriots Group's YouTube page. So that's where it was found. And look, if you want to run for public office, if you want to be the governor of a state, you're the leader of that state. Leaders lead. And what I have a big problem with in our current political system

is that it incentivizes people who have no interest in being leaders. It incentivizes people who want to pander to the worst elements of society in order to get into office and then continue to pander to these very people. Leaders lead. In my opinion, the way Nikki Haley handled the interview she did in 2010 and the way that she handled the question that was asked of her during that town hall in New Hampshire shows lack of leadership. It shows cowardice. And I just, I'm so turned off by that. So a couple of things here, including something to be fair to Nikki Haley about. So first, which is between tradition and change.

Okay, but what's the tradition? The tradition was slavery. So if your tradition is to own human beings, to whip them, to kill them, let's be honest, to rape them, and to sell off their children as furniture, your tradition sucks. It's the worst tradition in the world. It's a stain in this country's history. Yeah, and if that hurts your feelings, I don't care at all. You have to own up to what is right and what is wrong.

You don't have to needlessly own a terrible tradition for no reason. You could easily dismiss it and you're done with it today. The minute you say, of course that was important, of course the Civil War is about slavery, and of course, thank God the North won. North won. I'm from the South and I love Peach Cobbler, but thank God the North won. So we became the United States of America and we stopped treating people in the most immoral way. Imagine how easy is that? That's the easiest thing in the world. And a lot of Republican politicians struggle to say the easiest thing in the world. Okay, now to be fair to Nikki Haley, she did

help to bring down the Confederate flag in South Carolina. That was of course because of the shooting at a black church in Charleston where Dylan Roof killed nine parishioners and wanted to start a race war and but but we're the fairest show in America so she had an important role in that and so at least she did that right at a critical time okay now one last thing though about the identity politics and then and I'll do speculation on who did it so at the time when she was running again to Anna's point they had asked her the racist groups that are like, well, protect the confederacy in our vicious, racist ways,

et cetera. So they ask her about, hey, are you going to take the Confederate flag down? And at the time she said, I don't have any intentions of bringing it back up or making it an issue. Quote, I'm the perfect person to deal with the boycott because as a minority female, I'm going to talk to them and I'm going to go and let them know that every state has different conditions and every state has certain things that they hold as part of their heritage. So that's her weaponizing her identity and saying, don't worry, I'll get those black people off of your, you know, you don't have to worry about them anymore and I'll stop their boycott because I am a minority female and I will use it callously against other minorities to help

Republicans. So that's who Nikki Haley is. Now we'll get to the man asking the question in just a moment. But I want to note that after the backlash, She attempted to defend her remarks and also, you know, claim that she knows it's about slavery. Everyone knows it's about slavery. She first went on a radio show known as the Pulse of New Hampshire and said, of course the Civil War was about slavery. We know that. That's the easy part of it. What I was saying was what does it mean to us today?

What it means to us today is about freedom. First of all, that's the most generic crap I've ever heard, okay? And what does it really mean today? It means clouds and sunshine, okay? And secondly, why is that the hard part? If it's about freedom, obviously it's about slavery. So she's like, well, the easy part is slavery, that's why I didn't mention it, really? Because it looked like you were really struggling, and you said at the beginning

that it was a very hard question, right? Right. And then you tell us what the hard part is what it means today. No, that's also incredibly easy. I mean, obviously it means freedom, where's the hard part? So she's, you know, she's attempting to walk back her statements to some extent, and she's done it multiple times ever since the town hall took place last night. Now with that said, I want to move on to her allegations regarding the Biden campaign. And I actually think that her suspicion here is warranted.

I actually had the same suspicion before she put it out there. But I also want to note, even if it was a Biden plant, even if Biden's not the one who, who caused you to face plant the way you did and fail in answering a question a literal fifth grader could answer more accurately than she did. So let's be clear about that. 100%. But with that said, she also said on that radio show, The Pulse of New Hampshire, he was definitely a democratic plant. That's why I said, what does it mean to you? And if you notice, he didn't answer anything. We see these guys when they come in, we know what they're doing. And so she has made it clear that she believes that the Biden campaign sent a plant to ask that

question and I think that there might be some merit behind it. I don't have any evidence I want to be clear about it. The only thing that made me suspicious this morning was that the first account that I saw posting this was the Biden campaign on X. There's more than that. I know but let me just give a finish my point. The other thing is look there is polling that indicates that if Nikki Haley were to be the Republican nominee, she would easily beat Biden by like 17 points. I mean, the polling is absolutely disastrous for Biden in a one-to-one matchup with Nikki Haley. Now, at the same time, Nikki Haley has been surging in New Hampshire.

Trump still has a lead on Nikki Haley, but if Nikki Haley somehow manages to win the state of New Hampshire, that could give her momentum. And a nightmare scenario for Biden, who's deeply unpopular would be an election where he's up against Nikki Haley. That's why he's hoping for Trump over Haley. Now Trump, you know, he's also, unfortunately, he's got a slight lead over Biden at the moment and we should be, I mean, I don't know, Democrats keep saying that our democracy is on the line, we should be super concerned, but Biden insists on running for reelection, even though he's an incredibly vulnerable candidate.

So I don't know how the election is gonna turn out, it's not looking good for either way, whether it's going to be Trump or Haley. But I do think that this is something that the Biden campaign would want to do. They would want to put a Democratic plant at that meeting, at that town hall to make Nikki Haley look bad. So. Yeah. So there's some chances that it's DeSantis because he challenged her on it immediately. He had a ready answer.

He's not a guy with a ready answer oftentimes. But there was a moment there that his team could have prepared. So it's not, and remember what DeSantis is trying to do is he's trying to do is he's trying to to peel away her donors because they're all in a donor game like that's never talked about in the press but it's a giant part of their calculations and why they do what they do so why what does this have to do with the donors because now a lot of formerly Democratic or currently Democratic donors are giving money to Nikki Haley so she could be Donald Trump and DeSantis wants those donors so this

could have been a way for DeSantis to say look she's not so moderate right right and so So there's some percent of chance of that. In terms of Biden, if it's Biden, which Anna's right, there's good evidence given how quickly they had the video posted it and made a comment about it. And is it a plant? There's excellent evidence for that. We're all, of course, since we don't have direct evidence of the guy saying, yes, I am a plan.

Yes, I'm a Democrat or a dissentist supporter. You have to look at the circumstantial evidence. And in that case, he refused to give his party affiliation afterwards to a reporter or his name. Those are telltale signs, to be honest. Usually if somebody's a real person, they're like, oh, yeah, Bob Smith from over there, and they're very proud, right? Not every time, but most of the times. He did bring his sons with him, which is a little bit, you know, that's not usually what

a plant does, et cetera, but. This is a smart plant. Yeah, and he wanted, and you could tell from the way that he was asking the question, he wanted her on tape saying it, right? And so very likely a plant, probably Biden, but somehow saw a chance that it's this. Now, I've dealt with plants before when I ran for Congress, and now my Democratic opponents sent four of them over to a town hall I was doing. By the end, two of them said they were gonna vote for me, and the third one was on the

fence, and we have it on tape, okay? So plants are no big deal, you just give them what you got, right? Plants are only a problem if they're like massively disturbing the event, that could be an issue, right? Or you just don't have any answers. They come and they ask you questions, and you're like, golly, gee, was something. slavery, good or bad? I don't know, that's a plant. It's a plant such a hard question. I can't tell, right? So the problem isn't the plan. The problem is Nikki Haley.

Yeah, 100%. I mean, she, again, she's the one who face planted. And you're, I mean, this is not her first rodeo. She's been in politics for a while now. And so she should expect plants. And she should be ready. But she immediately cowtowed and pandered to, again, the worst elements of society. Because you made a great point, Jank. It is her assumption that Republican voters are deeply racist and want to provide cover for the Confederates in the Civil War. That is what she thinks about Republican voters. Interesting. Anyway, we got to take a break.

When we come back, we'll talk about what Lauren Bobert is up to. She nearly lost re-election last time around, but she's got some tricks up her sleeve this time around. We'll tell you what they are when we come back. Okay, free speech. And Anna and Mike and Blav Stewie with you guys. They just joined by hitting the join button below. Young Turks members make this show possible, period. Period.

We need you. Without you, we don't have a show. We don't have this voice. And speaking with Joe Beach Babe 21 and Gabby Mathis gifted memberships and we appreciate you. Anna. Time for some more electile dysfunction. Today I am announcing my candidacy for the 2024 Republican nomination to represent Colorado's fourth congressional district. in the United States House of Representatives.

It's the right move for me personally, and it's the right decision for those who support our conservative movement. Since the first day I ran for public office, I promised I would do whatever it takes to stop the socialists and communists from taking over our country. Don't be fooled by the heavily pixelated video featuring Republican congresswoman Lauren Bobert. That video was not filmed in 2008. It was actually filmed recently, and she was noting that she will be running in a different

district in the state of Colorado with the hopes of easy re-election. Now, reelection is a weird way of putting it since she's running in a different district for the first time, but it was a strategic decision that she made, considering that she nearly lost her reelection last time around to a Democrat. And things aren't looking so great for her today, considering the fact that she had some scandals in recent months that will not bode well for her. And she has chosen to run in a more conservative leaning district in order to make her election easier. So why is this important for Republicans? Well, Adam Frisch, who is the Democrat who nearly beat Bobert, he lost by just 546 votes in

2022. He's raised over three times as much as the GOP incumbent in his new nomination bid. And so he's raised more money than Lauren Boebert, nearly beat Lauren Boebert in 2022. And Lauren Bobert has engaged in all these scandals since that election that might actually really hurt her in getting reelected in Colorado's, you know, fourth, third district, which is where she had previously run. Now, the decision gives Republicans a stronger chance at holding on to Colorado's third district as they fight to keep their house majority next year. Bobert's departure from the third district eases the path for a more moderate Republican,

Grand Junction Colorado attorney Jeff Hurd, whom the Colorado Springs Gazette endorsed over Bobert this month. But Bobert is also trying to spin her decision, saying, quote, well, Bobert concluded that while she did not arrive at this decision easily, a lot of prayer, a lot of tough conversations, and a lot of perspective have convinced me, that this is the best way I can contribute to fight for Colorado for the conservative movement and for my children's future and for the future of our great country. Now, the scandals that I'm referring to really have to do with the fact that she was disrupting a musical of Beetlejuice in Denver. She was caught on tape, groping her date.

She's also gone through a divorce, which I don't think really matters to anyone. I don't think that that should work against a political candidate at all, but that's one of the other things that's been cited. And the closure of her restaurant, her gun-themed restaurant shooters, has been cited as a possible factor in hurting her in her reelection bid. Yeah, so this was a tiny bit complicated. First, there's logic in what she's doing. She might lose in the third district, but the fourth district has 20-point advantage for Republicans, and Ken Buck is leaving. He's the incumbent Republican. So it's all she has to win the primary.

The general election is guaranteed. And same thing with Marjorie Taylor Green. She's in a super red state. So all she has to win the primary and then the general is guaranteed. There isn't anything that Marjorie Taylor Green could say to lose her election in that safest seat. The fourth district of Colorado is the same. That's why Bobert wants to switch over to it.

Now let's talk about GOP hypocrisy a little. But this is a tiny one because no one remembers and it's such a small issue. But when I ran for Congress in 2020, I was about 20 minutes outside the district, right outside the district. But yes, you can run if you're outside the district. And the Republicans were beside themselves. You're a carpet bagger. A carpet bagger.

I can't believe he's outside the district. How terrible. Lauren Bobert lives hundreds of miles from the 4th District, like from the boundary of the 4th District. It's not even close, not within literally hundreds of miles of close. So this is just like, I mean, in the more timely packed East Coast could be like the completely different state, right? So it's pretty, but then one other part is her explanation, stuff like that drives me

crazy from politicians. This is the one advantage that Trump has. He says a lot of crazy stuff, but he says it in a way that gives you a sense that it's authentic, maybe not honest, but authentic, as in that's the real Donald Trump, right? Lauren Boyer, so she does the two things that all politicians do, Republicans, I should say, I've put a lot of prayer into this. So it's okay. So look, I've put a lot of prayer into murdering you, and then I decided to do it. So it's okay, it's okay. I put a lot of thought into it and a lot of prayer. Does anyone really believe that Lauren Bobert has even once, like, knelt beside her bed

and prayed to Jesus. I do. You do, really? Yeah, and I'll tell you why. Because for a lot of, you know, Christians, fake Christians, whatever you want to call them, right? To be fair to, like to the fake Christians, a lot of religious people are this way.

And I know, like, when I was religious, like I wished for a lot of things. And so when you wish for something, what do you do? You pray, right? You're like, please God, you know, let me lose 20 pounds and eat bacon at the same time. For a Muslim, that would have been an ironic prayer. But okay, but so has she prayed for things for herself?

My guess is yes. Okay, that's fair, you're probably right about that. And religious people, and I love you, but you know, when you pray, you're not actually talking to God. You're gonna hear back what you wanna hear back. Like it reminds me of Michelle Bachman, I'm mainly talking about fundamentalist religious books, right? She said that God wanted her to be an accountant, then God changed her his mind and wanted her to be a politician. Like everything she did, she said, well, no, God wanted me to eat that last piece of pie, sorry. But I had a lot of prayers, though, before I ate the pie.

And then the second thing that Bobert mentioned is the children, always the children. She had to switch districts for her children. Why were your kids like, Mommy, I really want you to run in a district hundreds of miles away? Come on. Look, the statement she made about her children, I mean, obviously it's not really about doing anything for her children, but it's a way of connecting with voters and, you know, appearing as though she's just like them and she's got kids too and she has the same concerns and worries about children as they do. I get why she does that. The whole thing about like,

oh, I prayed on it. It just, it seems a little antiquated at this point. That's the reason why I asked you the question. Like, I don't know if that even really appeals to voters anymore, the same way that it did, let's say, back in the early aughts. No, because you're in a different bubble for a lot of conservative voters. She's in Colorado. In the fourth district where it's a 20-point advantage for Republicans, I bet. And Colorado has, Colorado Springs has a lot of really conservative parts. Although it's a blue state overall these days. And so in the fourth district is super conservative. And so she knows that's like easy way to hook religious voters that are on the Republican side.

You just say you prayed on. I relate to that. I prayed for a brand new car the other day. I just don't think religious and conservative voters are dumb. Like I don't think they're dumb. I mean, she got caught just a few months ago, like grab up. I'm being a dude's crotch at a musical of Beetle Juice and vaping indoors and being super obnoxious and disruptive to the entire audience. To be fair, she wanted that juice.

You want that juice, go do it in the comfort of your own home. Don't be doing it out in public while people are trying to enjoy Beetle Juice. But the flip side is. My point is, like talking about how you're praying on things, I don't think is going to persuade religious, conservative voters to forget about the fact that you got caught in those scandals. I don't know. I don't know if they, so I guess we'll see. Because with Trump, I mean, Trump did everything imaginable. Grab him by the crotch, he said, and they'll let you get away with it because you're a celebrity. Trump's also a man.

Yeah, and he was on the cover of Playboy and, you know, and the mistresses and the porn stars, et cetera. And all those religious folks who said family values were like, had a boy way to go! You're grabbing by the crotch, yeah, right? So like, am I, is Bober totally mistaken in thinking if she just says, Oh, I prayed on it, that they'll be like, okay, as long as you're on our side, as long as you're on our side. I know, but you're also forgetting the fact that there is a double standard when it comes to that type of stuff, depending on your sex, right? And so there's always been much stricter standards for women in conservative circles, in religious groups as compared to men.

I mean, look, there's also the Republican Democratic double standard. Name any, I hate to do this, but I'm going to, it's just so you can trigger in your mind, What would actually happen? Name any Democratic woman, if they had done that at Beetlejuice play, right? If Elizabeth Warren had grabbed the crotch. Oh my God, please don't. Okay. I don't imagine that.

No, but like you, but the reason I mentioned a name, one, because you know Elizabeth Warren has a zero percent. It would be so shocking that I would almost be impressed. Right. But what would the Republicans do? For the rest of her career, that is the only thing they would ever mention. She once said, based on something she heard on. her family that she was 116th Native American. No, that was badging.

Okay, okay, whatever, whatever. They found that tiny little needle in her haystack and they're like, and they won't let it go. If she grabbed her crotch like Lauren Boebert did, okay, on tape, they would never, ever stop talking about it, not only in her context, but in the context of all Democratic women. A Republican woman does it, bygones be bygones, they don't care. I don't think they care at all. We'll see, we'll see, I mean, look, she wasn't.

popular to begin with, which is why she nearly lost her reelection bid. Let's see how it works out for her in this new district. I would venture to say that the voters in that district will not take kindly to the fact that she lives literally hundreds of miles away. I hear you on what you're saying about the, you know, political jabs meant to destroy someone's candidacy and it's inauthentic when it comes from other politicians and other political groups. But I do think that the constituents in that district are going to to want representation from someone who actually lives in that district and understands what

they experience on a day to day basis and what their needs are. So we'll see, we'll see, maybe I'm, I'm being too hopeful. I just think that someone like Lauren Bobert has not really proven that she's well suited to be a sitting member of Congress. And she's not the only one. I don't think that matters at all for Republicans. Not the only one. Look, I don't think that matters for Republican voters at all, at all.

Marjorie Taylor Green's worse. Agreed. love her, right? So, but there is something about Lauren Bobert where it's not exactly the same. And I could see Republicans in our primary going, well, let's just go with another conservative. Right. Because I think that the fact that, and I think you, it's partly what you said, Anna. Different standard for women and men.

If Donald Trump had done the same exact thing, they'd definitely say out of boy. In fact, we know that they did, it's literal, right? And in her case, they might think like, I don't know, as a woman that's unbecoming. Right, and she's insubstantial, et cetera, even though a lot of clown-ass Republican men say similar things as her, right? I mean, Republican Congressman DeJarlet had an affair and had his mistress have multiple abortions. No, to be fair, the mistress only had one abortion that he paid for. Oh, sorry, just one abortion. He had his wife, he paid for, and had his wife do two abortions.

And he got reelected. Three abortions total. He got reelected. Easily, easily. Easily. Republicans don't care about anything that they say they care about. All they care about is owning the lips. So if they think that Bobard owns the libs well enough, then they'll put her back in. And that's how it goes. And she'll own that crotch. And for now, we are going to take a break. When we come back, we've got more news for you, including the disconnect between

what the Biden camp believes is a stunning economy and how Americans disagree. We'll be right back. All right on TYTJing and Anna with you guys. Jason O'Leah is an American hero. He gifted five memberships on YouTube. Margaret Larcombe, gifted 10. I'm gifted 10. Margaret, you're also a massive American hero. We appreciate you. Casper. All right, well, let's talk a little bit about this ongoing disconnect between the Biden administration and the American people, namely in regard to the economy. The Biden administration would like to tout its economic accomplishments and what they have dubbed binomics.

However, Americans do not feel warm and fuzzy when they think about the state of the economy. So what exactly explains this disconnect? Now, the fact of the matter is there are some measures of the economy. There are some numbers you can look at that certainly look good for the Biden administration. They certainly can go out there and tout it. But it's actually frustrating a lot of American voters who feel that they're not reaping the benefits of what the Biden administration is touting. So for instance, the November unemployment rate of 3.7% is just 0.2 percentage points above its pre-pandemic level, which marked a five-decade low in joblessness. The annual inflation rate also plunged last month to 3.1% from a high of 9.1% in June of 2022, according to the Labor Department's Consumer Price Index.

I just want to quickly interject here and say, okay, but the baseline went up, right? The inflation, like inflation means that the price of everything, the baseline prices of products that we need, essential goods that we need to buy, that went up. And then it continued to go up another 3%. So like, oh, inflation slowing down. Yeah, but the price of everything is still super. expensive. So it's like, are we just going to pretend like that's not the truth? That's not the reality. Okay, I'm getting ahead of myself. Here are some more positive economic factors.

US gross domestic product, GDP, is on track to rise at nearly pre-pandemic levels, far faster than the minimal or even negative growth projected by scores of economists. And the economy posted these strong top line numbers in the face of rapid Federal Reserve rate hikes, which bank officials admitted could take the economy into a recession. Now they're arguing, no, turns out no recession, even with the high interest rates. We had a soft landing, if you will. And so while the Biden administration wants to brag about this stuff and make it part of Biden's reelection campaign, fact of the matter is the American people aren't buying it. Biden's approval rating has fallen to a record record low of 34% according to a Monmouth University

poll released last week with nearly 70% of respondents disapproving of his handling of inflation. More than half of respondents disapproved of Biden's record on jobs, even as he presides over historically strong labor market. Now, it is true that the unemployment rate is incredibly low, and that is something to celebrate. But as I said, when Trump was in office and the same thing was touted by the Trump administration, the quality of those jobs were, really does matter. If people are employed, that's great. But are they gainfully employed? Meaning, are they able to afford the goods and services they need? Are they able to afford housing? And a lot of Americans are like, no, we are not happy with our wages. We're not

happy with inflation, even if it is slowing down. I'll give you more statements from people who are not so happy about the economy in just a moment. But, Cenk, what are your thoughts so far? What do you think explains the disconnect? So first of all, the numbers are good. Is it really? Yeah, it's real. So the inflation has come down. There's no question about it, but it still exists, to Anna's point. And so when you say, hey, inflation is not as bad as it used to be, it's damning with faint praise for a lot of voters, even though it's totally true, right?

Unemployment is at a near record low, and he has created, Biden has created a ton of jobs. And by the way, this is what we've said now over many Republican and Democratic administrations. The head of the Fed deserves more credit and blame than any president does for these type of things. And I think the Federal Reserve shockingly has handled the inflation pretty well. They did bring it down fairly quickly. Wages have gone up a little bit, et cetera. So now that's the good news. But, and there's a big bud coming here. So, and I'll give one more caveat to the Biden team. And which is that media does matter. Like in right wing media has been saying it's awful, it's terrible. And it burrows into people's heads. Trump said a thousand times how great

he was at jobs. Even though he created half of the jobs that Biden did, he scores 19 points higher than Biden does on jobs because he's good at marketing. So that also matters. But I think the real explanation here is in the roller coaster. So what happened was we get hit by COVID. And a lot of people lose their jobs. We're in a really bad situation. And then we did something really good. It started in the Trump administration. And then Biden's first bill, the COVID relief plan, was really positive.

And that's what everybody was high on Biden, right? And they were talking about him being FDR 2.0 and all these things. At that point, people got a big influx of government cash. And then all of a sudden, they were feeling pretty good, surprisingly, in those years. Then what happened? All of it's sunset. And so Joe Manchin and Joe Biden let him do it, pulled the rug out. So the child tax credit was gone.

So many things that helped the average American at that time were gone. And then they got hit with inflation. So now all of a sudden, the money that they got used to for a second, they felt like was taken away from them by Joe Biden, fairly or unfair. The savings that they were able to accumulate as a result of the economic stimulus provided during coronavirus, the pandemic, that was all depleted as a result of inflation, right? So you're right about the roller coaster effect. But there are other factors that I think we should get into as well. Yeah, just to finish that thought. Yeah. So when you had the

child tax credit, et cetera, taken away from you, Ari Rabenhaft wrote a really good piece about this in The Interceptive former top campaign official for Bernie Sanders. All of a sudden, people, and when you have something taken away from you, it feels, it's a psychological phenomenon where it feels much worse than if you never got in the first place, okay? So then they feel like, oh no, that got taken away. And then inflation hits. And remember, about 40% of the country can't survive a $400 hit. When you add up the, what all the prices that went up, it's about, you know, I haven't done the math on it and I haven't seen an economist on it, but could that total $400 for an average person, for eggs, gasoline, all the things

that went up, let alone if you had to buy a car, let alone rent, right? It's going to be way more than $400. So all of a sudden, there he could get hit with a double whammy, and they don't think, hey, Biden passed the bill in the first place, they think, and they don't think supply chain issues, and Biden never talks about it, never makes his own case. So they think, well, under Biden, over the last two years, my life got worse. And that is also true. Okay, so I have a few things to say.

Number one, let's dispel the notion that the Biden administration had anything to do at all with wages going up. The Biden administration did zero in regard to wages. Zero. Didn't fight for a minimum wage increase? The reason, why did wages go up, Jenk? Do you know? Yeah, well, obviously what happened was because of the supply chain and inflation. And the lack of, and the fact that one way you can't your

credit though is low unemployment because that was supply and demand issue. That led to people having to raise wages to be able to hire people because of that. So but overall, you're absolutely right. The federal minimum wage was not increased. Biden took no action. It was market forces that forced some of those companies. There was a tight labor market, okay? A tight labor market, which for the first time in a very long time brought corporations to their knees and had no choice but to raise wages in order to attract labor in order to operate and function properly. That's why. The other reason why, let's not forget, is that workers who were lucky enough to already be organized and unionized decided, you know what, we're going to practice

our labor rights and we're going to strike. And that includes workers at John Deere, that includes workers, you know, the rail workers, as we all know, the UAW workers. Wages didn't increase because the federal government under the leadership of Joe Biden did the right thing. In fact, I would venture to say that Joe Biden abandoned American workers in regard to wages specifically. Now at the same time, one other thing I'll say, he does deserve credit though in regard to the individuals he appointed for the National Labor Relations Board, which provided far more protection for organizing workers than the prior administration under Donald Trump. So he deserves credit on that. But I don't want anyone

to take credit away from the workers themselves who in many cases put a lot on the line and really nearly sacrifice their own livelihoods and their own jobs in order to demand better pay, better benefits and better working conditions from their bosses. Yeah, I'm just going to agree with you on two things. This high labor market is the easiest way to describe what I was trying to describe. There's no question. And you saw it at McDonald's, et cetera, putting up signs of $18 an hour, $17 and I saw it in the middle of the country, too.

So, and they're not doing that for their health. They're doing that because they need the workers. They didn't have a choice. And unions did a fantastic job over the last couple of years in increasing wages for folks. But to main point that Anna is banging by the Biden administration, if you remember, there was a time when wages started to go up significantly because of that tight labor market. And then all of a sudden, Fox News, MSNBC, CNBC, CNN, all of them were like, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, this is a real big problem.

It's going to lead to bigger inflation. we can't have the workers making more money, no way. And the Biden administration, instead of fighting back against that, seemed to aid and abetted with administration officials saying that they're concerned about rising wages, when in reality what Biden could have done, let's be constructive about it. He could have gone up there and said, look, your prices are already going up. Your wages have to go up to match it.

So I'm going to fight harder for your wages to go up. I'm going to push for the $30.15 minimum wage so that everybody could get the bare minimum. I'm gonna do all these things to fight for you guys. Even if you don't think that's great policy, first of all, you're wrong, but even if you think it's not, as a matter of politics, if you just sit there and you don't address the inflation, and you don't go out there and go, I'm gonna get your higher wages, I'm gonna fight for you so you can fight back against inflation, well, of course they're not gonna give you credit for it, and behind the scenes, you killed the $15 minimum wage, and we all know that, right? So you were counterproductive. The other thing I want to just note is a different factor or measure that the Biden administration likes to point to and supporters of the Biden administration like to point to is how consumer spending is strong, it's up. Consumers are shelling out the big bucks, right?

And I'm curious how they do their analysis because if inflation, I mean look, inflation has slowed down. But if inflation led to higher prices for essential items that Americans need, they literally have no choice but to pay more for the essential items that they need. Is that factored into their analysis? Are they just saying like Americans are spending more money? Consumer confidence is high. I'm curious about that. Yeah.

And so as people are spending more partly because they have to, it's not a, it's not a great thing to brag about. I agree with Anna. Yes, I'm sure that they're doing more. shopping too. Look, the economy's rebounding. So that's why I keep telling you, this is a mixed issue, right? And going into 2024, it looks pretty good to the point where it gives me a little bit of hope. But you need the leader to go out there and address people's concerns. Like housing. And yeah, and what did Biden do to address the concerns about housing, about

health care, about wages? And the reality is, in a best case scenario, even his defenders would have to say he didn't do anything. And, and they all say like, well, I mean, he's really good on the substance, but he's a, he's not a good communicator. Well, sorry, but if you're going to run for president, you really need to be a good communicator. And so you can't do a terrible job of communicating your message and then complain that people didn't get the message. 100%. All right, we're going to take a break. When we come back for the second hour of the show, we're gonna talk about a mother of four who decided to use her firearm to respond to a home invader at three in the morning. Now she's being evicted from her home in the state

of Texas. We're gonna talk about the details of that story and whether it's okay that she's been punished for trying to protect her family. That and more coming up in the next hour.