The Young Turks - Pizza GaetzGate

Episode Date: April 1, 2021

Over 4,000 migrants, including many kids, are being crowded into a Texas facility. Tucker Carlson interviews Matt Gaetz over his new sexual impropriety allegations, in “one of the weirdest” interviews he’s done. 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. What's up happy people? You're watching The Young Turks with Anna Casparian. And since it's Wednesday, my co-host is John Iderola for the first hour host of the damage report, good friend of mine. And you know, The father of all dragons. That's who John Niderol is. The majority. I'm good.

A lot of kids. It's a lot of, it's an obligation, but also an honor. But no. Yeah, no, I'm excited. I'm always excited to do the news on Wednesday. And I'm also, and I mean this in only the most good way or neutral way, not in a bad way. It feels like it's always Wednesday. Like, I feel like we just did this, didn't we?

I love it. Well, we did. We did for your show. Oh, that's true. That's true as well. Yeah. So everyone go check out the damage report, which I co-hosted with John yesterday. And Brett Ehrlich, who produces this show, also hosted today.

So the damage report, one of the fan faves over at TYT network. So make sure you check it out. And also follow John and the damage report over at TikTok, where I guess you're putting out TikTok TikTok videos now, which is cool. Very, very hit. That's a good guess. Very edgy. You nailed it, honestly. That's what we're doing. Oh my goodness. All right. Well, we have a lot of news to get to today, including some more concrete details regarding Joe Biden's infrastructure proposal. We have a better understanding of where his priorities are on that piece of legislation. In hour two, Nando Villa will be joining me and we'll probably talk about all sorts of lefty stuff,

including what should be done when it comes to student loan debt if we get to that, if we don't get to that in the first hour. We're also talk about the aftermath of the coup in Bolivia. Luckily, they were able to overpower those forces and actually have a democratic election. But the United States is pushing forward with some talking points that I think could be problematic. So let's squash them in the process. But before we get to all of that, John, why don't we touch on what we're learning about migrant facilities and detention centers at the border? You ready?

Let's do it. All right, let's do it. We're learning more about migrant detention centers that the Biden administration is keeping unaccompanied minors in. Now, previously, the Biden administration refused to be transparent and did not allow the media to tour these facilities. But now the Associated Press and CBS News were both able to tour the main detention facility for unaccompanied migrant children in the border. And it's the facility in Donna, Texas specifically.

So we're going to show you some video in just a second, but I think that, you know, giving you a little more context into what the reporters experienced is important because unfortunately the situation is just as bad as we had suspected. For instance, more than 4,000 people, including children and families, were crammed into a space intended for 250. And the youngest were kept in a large playpen with mats on the floor for sleeping. The children were also being housed by the hundreds in eight so called pods formed by plastic dividers, each about 3,200 square feet in size. And many of those pods had more than 500 children in them. So there's no question that this detention center is jam packed with people. The conditions are very similar

to what we saw during the Trump administration. And we do have a quick CBS News report to get to to show you what that scene looked like. Inside this processing facility run by Border Patrol, plastic pods have become an overcrowded purgatory for migrants waiting to seek asylum. HH test does not have the adequate beds to be able to take on all of these kids. There are roughly 4,100 people here, 17 times what the facility was built to hold. More than half are unaccompanied children. They all sleep on the floor, some with mats and others with foil blankets.

Jagaline Perez crossed the river this morning with her two-month-old baby despite the dangers. We do it out of necessity, otherwise we wouldn't come here, she says. She left Guatemala to find a job in the United States and will likely end up at the Donna facility. This is where the smallest children stay. Somehow they crossed into the U.S. alone, now awaiting their fate in a tiny space, never meant for children. So, Jean, there's no question that this is a difficult situation. You know, Biden has committed to avoiding the deportation of unaccompanied minors, mostly because the federal courts demand that he, you know, commit to that.

The tail end of the Trump administration had a federal court ruling indicating that he couldn't just use deportation of unaccompanied minors as the default strategy. So he had no choice, but to allow them into these facilities for processing as well. But these children are only supposed to be in the detention facilities for 72 hours max. And unfortunately, they're spending a lot more time there because there's a backlog. There aren't enough resources committed to actually dealing with this situation appropriately. And really, there is no difference in the way that these migrant children are being treated. treated right now versus how they were treated toward the end of Trump's administration.

This is different. Let me be clear. This is different from taking children away from their parents at the border. That was Trump's zero tolerance policy. In this case, you know, you have an influx of unaccompanied minors coming to the border and Biden is bringing them in because he has to. But, you know, the way it's kind of being reported makes it seem like there's a significant difference effectively in the way that these migrant children are being process and that's just not true. That's not the case. Yeah, there's arguably in some of the photos less chain link. That's about it. That's pretty much it. It doesn't really seem like much of a difference. You still end up with a bunch of people sleeping on the ground. By the way, maybe we don't

need to remind people of this. It's still a pandemic. You cannot cram people together like that if we were in a totally cool public health situation. We are very much not though. And so it's dangerous for a ton of different reasons. That is one of the big ones. We can go through all the things that we always say when we talk about this about how Biden, theoretically has better motives and blah, blah, blah, no Stephen Miller, blah, blah, but at the end of the day, there's still a ton of people there. It didn't happen like a week ago. We've been talking about this for weeks now. I think we can expect better than the mats. I think we can.

I think that if we can, our military has a missile with blades that spring out so they can hit a car and kill people in the car without an explosion, just from the actual blades. It's that accurate. We can't figure out how to purchase beds. There's no mattresses nearby. There's no Walmart or anything like that. We only have a defense budget of like $7 or $800 billion. So clearly it would take months and months to figure out how to get people off the ground or how to make some extra space or how to like we're not traveling. Rent out hotels, rent out motels. You could do all of this. And maybe you can't do it in one day. But I do not think it is unreasonable to expect that in a month, two months you can't figure that out. It just seems completely unacceptable. Motivations better, whatever. That buys you a couple of days, I guess, to figure it out. And now we get to expect that we don't end up with a situation that is indistinguishable from under Trump. And one really last final point, people should be way more pissed off at the press secretary right now because the press secretary swore a couple weeks ago, we'd love to let you people

in. We just have to figure out like the security for their privacy or whatever. Nope, it's because it looked like that. That's why they didn't want the cameras in there. There's no different security thing. You can still see them in the video now, except what you see is really bad and inconvenient to them. So I really hope that Biden and the press secretary get some hard questions about their previous delaying tactics? I mean, look, to be, I guess, fair to reporters, that was really the only thing that reporters had any interest in asking Biden about during his first press conference, his first presidential press conference.

You know, I didn't really enjoy the framing coming from the reporters because it seemed like they were trying to get Biden to commit to just deporting unaccompanied minors, which, you know, they should have probably, done a little bit of homework to see how the federal courts have ruled on that very issue. But nonetheless, putting that aside, I think you're right. I mean, there are the short-term solutions in providing the resources necessary to handle this situation of the border appropriately. But then there's also, you know, a long-term solution as well that so far I don't see a lot of journalists drawing connections to. I see some independent journalists drawing connections

to. And Biden is on the wrong course when it comes to it, and that's foreign policy, right? So, you know, he's continuing on with the same type of rhetoric that we heard from Trump in regard to Venezuela. You know, the United States goes in there and, you know, succeeds in implementing some sort of coup. I mean, they certainly tried several times under the Trump administration, and they just install whatever U.S. puppet they want. What is that going to do to further destabilize the situation in Venezuela? And then you have U.S. citizens who are like, Why do we have this influx of migrants coming to the border? As if we played no role, as if the United States played no role, that video that we showed

you, in the end of it, I made sure to include the woman from Guatemala. I mean, obviously the United States led a coup in Guatemala as well, which led to a lot of economic pain and crime in that country. So these are things that we need to look at. It's not a quick fix. It is a difficult situation. There's no question, right? But there needs to be a holistic approach as opposed to send them all back or, you know, or you know, that's really all I'm hearing in terms of solutions. And that's not really a solution. I think that the U.S. needs to take responsibility for its role in causing what we're experiencing at the border right now. Yeah. But just to give you a few more details before we move on, the youngest children, among them, a three-year-old girl being cared for by her 11.

year old brother and a newborn with the 17 year old mother are kept out of the pods and they sleep in that playpen area. The Border Patrol generally is not supposed to detain children for more than three days, but health and human services lacks the space. So more than 2,000 kids have been at this particular facility, the Donna facility, for more than 72 hours, including 39 for more than 15 days. And then I do want to call out the Associated Press because it does show that they haven't done their homework about why Biden has committed to accepting unaccompanied minors. They say that Biden has declined to resume the Trump era practice of expelling unaccompanied immigrant children. No, but that's not true, right? Trump did want to expel

unaccompanied migrant children. But the federal courts told him he couldn't do that. He was citing coronavirus as the reason for deporting literally anyone who came to the border, including children. And when a judge ruled that he couldn't do that with unaccompanied minors, he stopped that practice. And so obviously Biden, whether he wants to or not, does not have the ability to deport children. And that framing matters, right? Because what they're trying to do here is draw a distinction. And that distinction, I think, unfairly gives Biden credit that he just doesn't deserve yet. So far, he hasn't really materially done anything different from what we were experiencing

toward the end of Trump's administration. And we got to be honest about that. If you're not honest about it, you can't talk about solutions, and that's an issue. All right, let's move on to some other news today. Matt Gates. Matt Gates is a big story. Big story, folks. Big, not good, bad.

All right. So Matt Gates appeared on the Tucker Carlson show to attempt to defend himself, although you wouldn't think that's the case based on how this conversation went down. So just to give you a little background on what he's defending himself on. On Tuesday, news broke that the Department of Justice was investigating whether Gates had a sexual relationship with a 17 year old and paid for her to travel with him, which by the way breaks federal sex trafficking laws. The resources briefed on the probe told the New York Times, Gates in an Axio story later that day, denied the allegations but confirmed that he was under investigation.

Gates says that the accusations were part of an extortion effort. And he also alleged that he and his father are cooperating with the FBI and that his father is wearing a wire. Because, you know, when someone's wearing a wire, you would want to make a public announcement about it. But with that said, how did the conversation with Tucker Carlson go? Let's take a look. The New York Times is running a story that I have traveled with a 17-year-old. old woman, and that is verifiably false. People can look at my travel records and see that that is not the case.

What is happening is an extortion of me and my family involving a former Department of Justice official, and the FBI and the Department of Justice were so concerned about this attempted extortion of a member of Congress that they asked my dad to wear a wire, which he did with the former Department of Justice official. Tonight I am demanding that the Department of Justice and the FBI released the audio recordings that were made under their supervision and at their direction, which will prove my innocence. What is the allegation?

Is that really not very clear from these news stories? Yeah, again, I only know what I've read in the New York Times. I can say that actually you and I went to dinner about two years ago. Your wife was there, and I brought a friend of mine. You'll remember her. And she was actually threatened by the FBI, told that if she wouldn't cop to the fact that somehow I was involved in some pay for play scheme that she could face trouble. And so I do believe that there are people at the Department of Justice who are trying to smear me.

So there's a lot to unpack there, John. I'm going to let you take a stab at it. Go ahead. Yeah, I think that's what Tucker was thinking. There's just so much here and I wish there was less. Yes, so he's had a very interesting defense strategy over the past day. He's said there, the idea that I traveled with a 17 year old is verifiably false. The travel, look, is an important component when it comes to the actual sex trafficking laws, because that's the illegal part is crossing state lines and having money be involved. He didn't deny having sex with a 17 year old there, which I feel like I would do if it weren't true. I would want to make clear that people knew that I was not as a late 30s congressman sleeping with a 17 year old

girl, I would want that. That would be nice. Also, he says the travel allegations are verifiably false. People can check my travel records. Okay, I mean, if it's in there, that might prove that it happened. It not being in your official travel records doesn't prove that it didn't happen. But anyway, I mean, John, hold on. I mean, I think that that was actually a valid point because I too keep logs of who I'm fornicating with when I'm traveling, obviously. And what kind of travel arrangements? Like what a stupid, like what a stupid thing to say, right? Like, oh, I'm, I'm potentially breaking sex trafficking laws with what I'm doing. Let me make sure that there's proper documentation of that anyway, but continue, sorry.

Yeah, and like sometimes I'll be in a store and you know, I'll think I really want a shoplift. Let me add it to my to do list. No, that's not how crimes work. Also, making it about somebody attempting to extort you, I get that. Whether it's true that it's happening or not, I get it. And I'll even go so far as to say, I assume that it is true, that someone is trying to extort him. I think a lot of people are missing that that doesn't mean the crime didn't happen. It actually kind of indicates that it's more likely that the crime did, because you can try to extort someone for something they hadn't, they haven't done. Especially being a Republican congressman, though, they're unlikely to go down for crimes they did commit, let alone ones they didn't.

I would rather extort someone for a crime they committed. So I get him wanting to make this whole conversation about this DOJ guy that's like messing with his family. But the DOJ guy could be messing with his family because Matt Gates had sex with a 17 year old and was bringing her across state lines. So all of that is really important. We also, whether it's a crime or not, we'll see whether he did anything or not, we'll see. But even like I think we have to make clear whether he is going around trying to begin relationships of 17-year-olds. Because whether that's legal or illegal, I think it's noteworthy for a public servant. Yeah, yeah, I agree. I absolutely agree with you on that.

Well, look, obviously we don't know without a shadow of a doubt that he did what's being alleged or what he's being investigated for. So our commentary, just to be clear, is really speculative at this point. But, you know, I think it's easy to make educated guesses based on the character of the people that we're talking about. And Matt Gates is the type of person who can lie to the American people with a straight face. He certainly did it incessantly during the Trump administration. He did it incessantly when it came to the 2020 general election. So it's really hard to take anything that he says seriously or at face value, considering how willingly deceptive he's been in his short tenure in Congress. So we'll see what happens through the outcome of this

investigation. But as he was talking in that interview, I couldn't help but think about, you know, similar types of claims that were made by Trump's lawyers in response to the outcome of the 2020 election. There was a lot of like, oh, you'll, I demand that this gets released, And that gets released and we have all this evidence. Wait till you see all the evidence. The evidence is gonna come out and you'll see. And of course there was no evidence. And so it might be different in this case with Matt Gates.

But if I had to share my opinion, he's not a trustworthy person. With that said though, I love that he's like trying to like relate with Tucker Carlson in this next step. I'm not the only person on screen right now who's been falsely accused of of a terrible sex act, you were accused of something that you did not do. And so you know what this feels like, you know the pain it can bring to your family. And you know how it just puts people on defense when you're accused of something so salacious and awful. You just referred to a mentally ill viewer who accused me of a sex crime 20 years ago.

Of course, it was not true, I never met the person. But I do agree with you that being accused falsely is one of the worst things that can happen. Oh man, like just in case, I want to remind people as I did on the damage report this morning, that might or might not be what Matt Gates was referring to. But Tucker Carlson was also accused of sexual harassment by a frequent Fox News guest last year, not 20 years ago, and it was a woman he very much met. Whether it happened or not, we can't say, but there are far more recent accusations against him than the thing he's referring to. What was also fascinating was the post-interview commentary from Tucker Carlson.

Let's hear what he had to say. You just saw a Matt Gates interview. That was one of the weirdest interviews I've ever conducted. That story just appeared in the news a couple of hours ago. On July 18th, get excited. This is big! For the summer's biggest adventure. I think I just smurf my pants.

That's a little too excited. Sorry. Smurfs. And the certainty that there's always more than you read in the newspaper, we immediately called Matt Gates and asked him to come on and tell us more, which is you saw he did. I don't think that clarified much, but it certainly showed this is a deeply interesting story and we'll be following it. Don't quite understand it, but we'll bring you more when we find out. I mean, that's a strong claim to make for a man who's had Rudy Giuliani on his program

on multiple occasions, but I get it. I mean, if someone brought up uncomfortable accusations that were made against me, I would not like that interview and probably respond to it in a similar way. But what I think is interesting about the story is how there is a divide among conservatives on how they're handling this, right? Because, and you'll see in a story that we're going to do a little later from former White house staffers, there are conservatives who like deeply dislike Matt Gates and are not defending him. But then there are some conservative lawmakers who should probably just out of their own

self-interest avoid commenting on the story altogether. And the person that I'm referring to here is Jim Jordan, Representative Jim Jordan, who told CNN, quote, I believe Matt Gates. How about you sit this one out, Jim Jordan, because you've been accused of hiding or brushing under the rug the sexual assault of wrestlers who came to you and disclosed what they had dealt with. So, you know, it's crazy how Jim Jordan is still in Congress. He seems untouched by that scandal. Hopefully, you know, we learn more about it. He, if he is actually guilty of what he's being accused for, suffers the consequences of that. But with that said, I mean, if I were or Jim Jordan, I would probably just shut my mouth. But he couldn't help himself.

That'd be great advice. I'd love if you would take up on that. Yeah, he believes him, okay, whatever, like yeah, they believe the guy in all of these cases. That's hardly new. We don't have to make this a big part of this, but one of the most vocal defenders so far has been Marjorie Green, a person whose entire whack-a-doodle to pick a Brett's term worldview is based on the idea that there is a shadowy cult of powerful political people who are preying on young girls, but when she comes across someone who might fit into that group, no, I believe it, it's a witch hunt. And again, we don't know what he did or when he did it, but she is predisposed to assume that someone she likes and agrees with politically,

politically cannot obviously have done that. It's just, you know, somewhere there's somebody, Hillary Clinton, or somebody's raping kids, I don't know who. But yeah, they're of course going to believe him, or they're at least imply. It's, at the end of the day, it's a sexual harassment, sexual assault claim. They don't care about that. They've been very clear and very consistent about that. They can change everyone. It's literally a sex trafficking claim.

It is literally an accusation of sex trafficking of a minor. That is literally what Q&A. Exactly. But it doesn't matter. They don't care about that. They didn't care about Epstein. They don't care about Trump stuff. They don't care about any of the specific ones.

And to pretend just recently with Cuomo scandal, the hosts, we're all pretending. Oh yes, no, now we take all of them. this stuff very seriously, got to believe the women and all of that. And then they go right back to no, we're just going to have him on to talk about it. Tucker Carlson, so confused about this story, arguably could have reached out to the journalists who'd written it for some details or perhaps a contact at the DOJ or something. No, we should only bring on the victim to lose his mind on camera. Yeah, and to Tiger Carlson, the story is not that complicated.

I read it within a four-minute break on the show yesterday. It's pretty straightforward. You just have to read. You have to read the article. But sometimes that can be really difficult to do with all the busy schedule stuff that he's got going on. Anyway, with that said, we should take a break. But when we come back, we're not quite finished with this story. We're going to tackle it from a different angle because apparently there was a lot of disdain for Matt Gates within the Trump administration.

We'll give you the details on some leaked texts and more when we come back. We need to talk about a relatively new show called Un-F-The-Republic, or UNFTR. As a Young Turks fan, you already know that the government, the media, and corporations are constantly peddling lies that serve the interests of the rich and powerful. But now there's a podcast dedicated to unraveling those lies, debunking the conventional wisdom. In each episode of Un-B-The-Republic or UNFTR, the host delves into a different historical episode or topic that's generally misunderstood or purposely obfuscated by the so-called powers that be. Featuring in-depth research, razor-sharp commentary, and just the right amount of vulgarity, the UNFTR podcast takes a sledgehammer to what you thought you knew about some of the nation's most sacred historical cows. But don't just take my word for it.

The New York Times described UNFTR as consistently compelling and educational, aiming to challenge conventional wisdom and upend the historical narratives that were taught in school. For as the great philosopher Yoda once put it, You must unlearn what you have learned. And that's true whether you're in Jedi training or you're uprooting and exposing all the propaganda and disinformation you've been fed over the course of your lifetime. So search for UNFDR in your podcast app today. and get ready to get informed, angered, and entertained, all at the same time.

What's up everybody? So lots of updates for you all on programming and all that. But before I get to it, just want to encourage you if you haven't done so already to join as a member on YouTube, it's one of the best ways to really support our show financially. and through moral support. We love hearing from our members. We love collaborating with them. And so just click that join button and you'll notice that there are different options for membership. We're actually in the process of possibly working on more options for you guys with more perks. But, you know, there are different price points and you can join depending on what you're most comfortable with. And it's a great way to help support us and, you know, keep us independent, which is really, really important.

As you know, YouTube is demonetizing quite a bit of content. So this is a great way to keep us focused on the stories that we want to share with you all without being influenced at all by opaque algorithms. With that said, though, let's move on to some good news. We were nominated for a Shorty Award, and we can still vote today. I believe today's the last day of voting. I thought it was yesterday, but no, it's today. So go to t.yt.com slash shorties.

We're trying to win an award for TYT's election coverage, and the category is Best in Live Event Coverage, and come on, guys. Did anyone do it better? Okay, so definitely check it out, and you can vote up until midnight tonight, so check that out. Also, happy half hour airs tonight after the post game show. Make sure you check that out on Twitch. It's Twitch.tv slash TYT.

And of course, that's hosted by Brett Ehrlich. Brett, do you want to jump in and tell us what's going to be on your show today real quick? Just a quick tease. Yeah, it's going to be so fun. I think it's on the Twitch homepage today. I'm just lost in this guy's eyes, honestly. I can't even really remember what I'm supposed to do today. But it'll be fun.

Good news and good booze. I love it. I love it. Okay, real quick, I'm going to read a few member comments before we got to get back to the show, starting with Salam, who says, America, we have had two ways. So far, that attempts to change the trajectory of politics. One, you can form a union as the folks in Alabama are trying to do, or you can storm the Capitol as another group attempted.

Guess what way will last longer? Yeah, yeah. I got stoned and watched a bunch of documentaries last night about the 1930s. And I agree with you. Anyway, we'll talk about that in the post game. I have a lot to say. Mike writes in and says, could Biden administration possibly get big pillows from the pillow guy, Mike Lindell? Would it be any different if these children from, oh, I don't know, Sweden,

or were they, if they were from Sweden or Germany? Yeah, I mean, I don't really see many German children there. But look, the point is, like, Germany doesn't have a history of the United States installing its own puppets there. You get what I'm saying? Like, there's a difference between how the United States has responded to leftist leaders. in Latin America and, you know, nationalizing industries in Latin America versus how they've handled, you know, European countries. It's very, very different. And again, foreign policy is very much intertwined in the immigration issue. It's just that reporters would have you think otherwise. We gotta get back to the show. See you there.

Welcome back to TYT. I am going to pull a jank Uyghur and read one more member comment right now. And it's from, I'm honest, you caught my attention with your handle. Your mom is in recovery mode, writes in and says, can we all take a second to appreciate that calling a 17 year old girl, a 17 year old woman is a massive red flag for how creepy he is? I would agree with you, although even I make that mistake. And it's just like, honestly, when I do it, I misspeak, right? Like, it's hard to, like, really process the fact that this is a minor that we're talking about. But he's creepy. Like, there's no question about it. I just think that maybe that's not the best reason to point out. how creepy he really is. Speaking of creepy, we're not the only ones who have issues with Matt Gates.

Apparently there were some former Trump aides and GOP officials who also didn't like him. And we know about this through leaked text. So as so called Gatesgate started trending on Twitter, former Trump aides and GOP officials started basically dunking on Matt Gates in a private group text. and this group text was obtained by Business Insider. And so, of course, we're gonna read you what some of those texts had to say. Now, one former Trump aide who was on the text chain with 18 current and former GOP and White House sources shared this with Business Insider and here's what they were saying. The former Trump aides aren't necessarily happy to see

the three-term lawmaker in trouble, but they feel a little vindicated, a former White House staffer told insider. Oh, they feel vindicated. What is that about? Well, for instance, one former White House staffer said this. He's the meanest person in politics. Now, remember, we're not talking about leftists. We're not talking about progressives, right? We're talking about Democrats, like liberal Democrats. We're talking about conservatives, people who worked in the Trump White House. The very same administration that Matt Gates, like, could not stop himself from defending. He loved Trump, was certainly a Trump bootlicker and loyalist. But apparently there were people within the White House that were not fans of Matt Gates. Republican leadership,

one former congressional aide wrote, will likely watch him completely implode in a matter of days without having to do a thing. So I have more to share with you, John, but I wanted to get some of your thoughts first. Yeah. Yeah, the prediction that he could implode within a couple of days is an interesting one. I wonder how much we could possibly learn during that time if the investigation is ongoing. Maybe if the investigation has been concluded, then someone from the DOJ might come out and make that clear. Maybe he can do a bunch more media hits that'll make him look really bad. That's certainly possible. In terms of him being the meanest person in politics, as you point out, people who work in the Trump White House said that. The Trump, they work for

Trump and they think that Gates is the meanest guy in politics. I don't know. Look, I think that there are a lot of negative qualities that sort of just scream from every word and action that he engages in. Mean isn't the one that I find to be most important or most worrying. Right. There's some of the other at TYT, we frequently talk about all the ways that big tech companies are taking control of our online lives, constantly monitoring us and storing and selling our data, but that doesn't mean we have to let them. It's possible to stay anonymous online and hide your data from the prying eyes of big tech. And one of the best ways is with ExpressVPN. ExpressVPN hides your IP address, making your active ID more difficult to trace and sell

the advertisers. ExpressVPN also encrypts 100% of your network data to protect you from eavesdroppers and cybercriminals. And it's also easy to install. A single mouse click protects all your devices. But listen, guys, this is important. ExpressVPN is rated number one by CNET and wired magazine. So take back control of your life online and secure your data with a top VPN solution available, ExpressVPN.com slash TYT, you can get three extra months for free with this exclusive link just for TYT fans. That's EX, P-R-E-S-V-N dot com slash T-YT. Check it out today. Allegations about him in terms of like why he's in politics, what actually wants, what he does, his obligation to his constituents to do work. That sort of stuff I feel is more important

potentially. Well, okay, real quick, with the statement coming from that Congressional aid about Matt Gates imploding, I don't know how true that is, but the way that I read it was, oh, these are people who are looking for Matt Gates to implode, right? And I think that that's fascinating. And I wish we knew why. I wish we knew more details. The accusation of meanness, I agree with you. It's not the worst accusation, especially when you consider the Trump administration. However, I want to know why. I wish we had more context into why it is that they seem to have so much disdain for him. One former Trump White House aide also wrote good riddins. It sounds like he let whatever BS power he thought he had go to his head,

and he thought himself above the law. I mean like- He's the first politician to do that. Yeah, yeah, I know. Look, there's definitely a lack of self-awareness here, right? Especially when you've worked for the Trump White House. And Trump certainly believed that he was above the law. He was treated as if he was above the law until the very end when, you know, there were some issues with what he was encouraging people to do. There's also some, you know, fraud issues related to his taxes. We'll see if that actually plays out with robust consequences in the end. But yeah, there are plenty of politicians, especially on the right, who seem to think that they're above the law.

So there's something else at play. And that's what I'm really curious about. I just, I would love to know, I really wish that I could sit down very briefly and then never speak to these people again, what their issue with him is. Like he, he seen, obviously I despise him. Seems awful, is a total tool. But from their point of view, isn't Matt Gates like what this whole thing is about? Like, don't they just want an army of plastic-faced wet, Matt Gates that just go on Fox News to own the libs. They don't do anything. They're fine with whatever, you know, proto-authoritarian takes over, doing whatever they want to the government to our democracy. Like, I really, is the issue just a personal thing? Is it a comment that he made?

Do they actually wish that he was doing more work? I would, I would find that to be a positive thing. Yeah, I really wish that I could, I wish there was more substance to the critiques than just, yeah, that guy sucks. I hope he, you know, goes to jail over this. So let's put out some theories. And my main theory is that despite the fact that it looks as though there's like this united front in pushing the Republican Party toward Trumpism, I think that internally behind closed doors, the old guard absolutely hates that, right? I think that you know, these staffers, these former White House aides, these are people who didn't want the Republican Party to pivot over to this pretty disgusting brand of Trumpism.

And Matt Gates is really a big symbol of that type of culture within the GOP. So I think that they can't publicly say this stuff, right? Because this is what the base is. This is what the base loves. And they can't speak out against it. That's honestly career suicide for them. But I think that internally, the way that they really feel is that, you know, this new, I hesitate to say new, but this Trumpish culture that has really overpowered the Republican Party is uncomfortable for them. They don't necessarily agree with it, and it could come with consequences for the GOP eventually. Actually, it did, I mean, with the Republicans no longer in power.

So maybe that's what's really fueling it. But there could also be some personal issue as well. Who knows? Yeah, that's possible. Yeah. All right. You know what? Let's take a break. And when we come back, we've got a giant story to share with you about the details in Biden's infrastructure proposal. You know, we had shared some preliminary details with you all last week. But now we have more concrete figures on just how much the Biden administration plans on spending and where they plan on spending it. We'll get that story in for you and more when we come back. Come right back.

Thank you. Thank you. Skater Dragon writes in in our super chat section, it asks a very important question, which maybe I need to lay off the weed because I know this reference, but I don't remember exactly where it's from. Have you ever put butter on a pop tart? It's so freaking good. John, where is that from? Is that from Family Guy? You don't remember? Yes, it's Family Guy. Yes, okay. You were obsessed with that song for a while. I know. That was very 2012. I remember that was like something in my head all the time.

And I would ask you all the time because you're the king of Pop-Tarts. Like no one loves Pop-Tarts more than John Ida Rola. Like every Pop-Tart, every flavor. I'm close. Yeah. No, I agree. I agree. Anthony Patrick says,

oh, thank you, Anthony. This is super sweet. And, okay, Anna's my favorite. So he's ranking hosts. I'm just going to fast forward to the last part because he says that he started watching for Jank, but stayed for my brain. It's really funny because people did not stay for my brain in the early days of TYT. And I was super, I used to be super intimidated by Jenk, Matt Taibi.

I'm like, one of my, I don't think I could ever be as knowledgeable as them. And then I do what I always do. I just crush it, you know, not a big deal. Just kidding. Anyway, thank you, Patrick. That's a really, thank you for that kind comment. TYT Wolfpack Justice Dem writes in and says, I think majority report reported that there are plenty of resources. That's fascinating. Okay, border cons still run by racists, aren't allocating them properly. Biden needs to clean house. You know, Biden also said that himself. Biden said that there were resources appropriated for the border that the Trump administration refused to use.

Well, I got news for you. If that's the case, I mean, those resources are still there, right? So use them. And look, to be fair, that Associated Press piece that I was reading did mention that there was construction taking place while they were there. But that's all they said about it. I don't know if they're expanding the facility to make it, you know, livable for people while they're being processed.

But obviously, as we learn more about that, we're going to keep updating you guys. Tricia Briggs writes it and says, John is so right, this border situation is completely unacceptable. The Biden administration needs to stop sitting on their hands and do something. Completely agree with you. Now, let's get back to the show. Welcome back to TYT, everyone. Anna Casparian and John Ida Rola with you. John, what were you guys talking about on the damage report today? Great time to do a quick plug. Well, I had Brett Ehrlich and Wednesdays are big news Wednesdays on the damage report. We had to delve into a really big story of that Matt Gate story and all of the different insanity,

both, you know, that he's facing, that he's brought in himself, all the context of the weird things he said and done, his vote against the human trafficking law. He was literally the only person in Congress to vote against it. There was a lot of that, but also the infrastructure bill and a few other things too. A mask burning party, that sounds like fun. All of that will be uploaded today to our YouTube channel. Yes, yes, the culture wars rage on. But for now, let's talk a little bit more about the infrastructure bill because the Biden administration has released some more details about it. And we have a better grasp on where his priorities are. So earlier we had shared some preliminary details about the Biden administration's

proposal to beef up the United States infrastructure. This is an effort to modernize the U.S. infrastructure, focus on converting things over to renewable energies. And this is also coupled with the fact that there should be the creation of millions of jobs. Yes, their construction jobs, yes, they're short-term jobs, but you're likely to see this being framed, if not by the Biden administration, by reporters as, you know, this New Deal-type effort to kind of get the U.S. economy back on track for ordinary Americans. We know the economy is doing real well for people at the very top, even during a global pandemic. Now, it comes with a $2 trillion price tag. When we had initially reported this story to you guys, we mentioned that the price tag was three

trillion dollars. But what it appears is going to happen is they're going to come with a infrastructure bill that would be proposing $2 trillion in spending. And then there would be a second bill that would help with things like universal child care, paid family leave. It would make the child tax credits that just passed under the recent relief bill permanent. And that would again have a price tag of about $1 trillion. I don't know if I agree with the with the strategy of trying to pass two separate bills. I think that that might have some political capital issues with it, but we'll talk about that later. For now, let's focus on what the infrastructure bill includes. It would rebuild 20,000 miles of roads, which I don't know if you've

been driving around in the United States recently, but we can certainly use that. It would repair 10 of the most economically important bridges, but that's not where it stops. They plan on repairing other bridges as well, but there is a focus on some of the more economically advantageous bridges. They would eliminate, and this is very important, lead pipes and service lead pipes and service lines from the nation's water supply, which is clearly an important objective to have when you consider, when you consider how dangerous lead is, especially to children as they're developing, they would shift over to clean energy sources, modernize the electric grid, possibly with weather rising equipment. So we don't deal with what Texas

recently dealt with as a result of them privatizing and deregulating their independent energy grid there. And in the process of doing all of this, it could potentially create millions of jobs. Now, Biden's administration has named this the quote, American jobs plan, echoing the $1.9 trillion pandemic relief bill that Biden signed into law this month, known as the American rescue plan and the spending in the plan would take place over eight years. We'll get to how Biden proposes to pay for this in just a minute. But so far, what are your thoughts, John? Yeah, how he plans to pay for in terms of the timeline, I don't particularly care about, except the fact that I like that it shows a willingness, as you'll get into in terms

of the taxes. I think that the political implications for that being a part of the bill, in terms of how it might influence the possibility of getting Republicans on board is the important part. In terms of what's in it, pretty much everything that's in it that I've seen I like, and it's shocking that it's taken to this point to get it. The idea that Republicans under unified Republican control weren't able to get probably some much smaller infrastructure bill passed, even just pragmatically, being able to campaign on having done that seems like it would have been a great idea. But I guess it's the government doing something for the country and they're sort of viscerally opposed to that. Yeah, the repairing of the roads is great.

Every day we drive on roads. I mean, the 405, I cannot believe that someone could fly into a major U.S. city and drive on a highway like that and think, oh, this is what America thinks of itself. And the bridge is obviously a huge safety concern. Some of the electrification of school buses and we talked on TDR about the establishment of a half million strong EV charging network. That's great, as you pointed out, the lead pipe removal, finally getting that done again. How could that not have been done already? All of this is good. It's just that for all the good you can fit in your $2 trillion bill, arguably you can fit about twice as much as a $4 trillion bill. And when we're talking about this being over the course of 10 years, it doesn't seem like,

it doesn't seem irrational. And maybe we're not going to hit the AOC request of 10 trillion. But Joe Manchin was asking for more than what Biden is currently targeting. And so what we talked about in TDR, and I'm curious in your opinion is the process of actually getting this past, reconciling the House and the Senate versions. Do we think that it's likely that they might produce something more like what we'd want? I think, well, I mean, you're asking one of the most pessimistic hosts on this network. I don't think that a single Republican is going to vote in favor of this legislation. They would have to do this through reconciliation. I think that discussions about policy, especially right now, end up getting, I guess, bogged down with annoying procedural debates.

And that's going to continue being a problem. So they might be able to pass this through reconciliation. I don't know how much of a problem people like cinema and mansion plan on being in the Senate. But what I do know is that, you know, there needs to be something done in regard to the filibuster because this goes beyond the infrastructure bill. It goes beyond, you know, the other bill that Biden's planning on rolling out. If they want to do anything to reform our democracy, which is an incredibly important agenda item, they're not going to be able to do that through reconciliation. They would have to do that through reforming the filibuster. And in the very least,

reforming the filibuster. And I don't know if the will to do that is there. I know that Biden has hinted that he's willing to do it. But right now, in terms of actual steps forward with that, we haven't seen anything yet. The one thing that I do want to caution people about is the way that this proposal is being framed. I think this is a good first step. But this certainly is not like a holistic approach to the economic woes that Americans are facing right now. Because when you frame this as, you know, ooh, it's like the new New Deal. It's just an exaggerated claim to make. I think that it's influenced by the New Deal. But remember, Franklin Delano Roosevelt not only focused on rebuilding and revolutionizing the infrastructure here

in the United States, he reformed the banking industry. You know, and he, and he, he, had no problem with really increasing taxes on the wealthy. In this case, yes, there is a proposal to increase, like for instance, the corporate tax rate. But Biden is not proposing to increase the corporate tax rate to what it was before the Trump administration, which was 35%. He's proposing to go from 21% to 28%. And I mean, it's just, in my opinion, if you're really trying to create a more equitable system in the U.S., going like halfway between Trump and what the tax rate used to be, it just doesn't go far enough. Now, I wanted to share this video with you guys real quick, although it's not really quick. I know it's a longer video. But the Smithsonian puts out these

incredible documentaries. They're titled America in Color. And they did a great documentary about the 1930s and, you know, the influence of FDR. And there were flaws, don't get me wrong. There were certainly flaws with the New Deal, which we'll talk about in a second, flaws in which it looks like Biden tried to correct in his proposal pertaining to race. We'll talk about that in just a minute. But first, take a look at what, you know, happened during the New Deal era. Roosevelt tries everything he can to make good on his campaign promise of work for those who need it. He forms the Civilian Conservation Corps, the CCC, and offers jobs to 250,000 young men. They earn 30 bucks.

a month, 25 of which is sent back home. They reshape the American landscape, with new roads, 800 parks, and 3 billion trees. In 1935, another New Deal project, the Grand Coulee Dam, is the biggest building site in the world, employing 11,000 men. In Washington State, they excavate nearly 63 million tons of earth and rock. The conveyor belt, two miles long, transports the debris.

And some 24 million tons of concrete pour into the Columbia Basin to dam the river. I'm sorry, but the working men of that era, they can get it. I'm just going to say that real quick. As soon as I saw that arm, I looked at the preview of you and I like, I knew she was going to respond and she did. You did not fail, Casparian. Apologies, apologies. But you can see the influence of the New Deal era in what Biden is proposing here. But it certainly does not go far enough, right?

So there's that issue. However, I do want to give Biden credit because the one area where, you know, it really has become a stain on FDR's. leadership. It was the fact that the New Deal era didn't really consider black workers. In fact, it kind of left them behind. And so Biden's proposal very much puts racial equality front and center. And I think that's an important part of this as well. There shouldn't be a difference in how white workers are treated versus black workers. And he wanted to make sure that that was part of the legislation. So that's positive as well. So John, did you want to say anything else? Yeah, yeah. I think that that as a component of it is very important to bear in mind,

you know, what the priorities of the federal government and regular people were back then. Almost certainly the worker with the nice arms, probably a hardcore racist. Let's just keep it real. He was almost certainly an hardcore racist. But he probably was. Yes, so that's good. And then also-1930s. Exactly. Yeah, no, look at him, come on. Anyway, I love that they focused on that. But also, we know that Biden likes this idea that he's going to be bolder than Obama and all of that, and that it's the second new deal. But like I'm just doing rough numbers, and I'm not an expert on this, but as a percentage

of the GDP, it is based on the different sources I'm looking at, at least one-fifth the size, possibly one-fortieth the size each year than the New Deal. So significant and that's good, but I don't know, if you're gonna compare it to that, I think you gotta get that number up higher. And if you really, if you really want that, then why are you so hesitant to like engage with people like AOC and others that think that we should incorporate what is being termed? I'm seeing a lot of talk about this, the human infrastructure element and that we should prioritize that as much as the physical infrastructure element.

Yeah, that's such a great point, John. And look, one other thing that I would caution the audience about, or Pay attention to this because this is important. You know, it's not just about how much spending you're willing to commit to. It's also about how that spending will be used. I'm not even talking about the objectives. I'm talking about is this going to turn into some sort of giveaway to private companies, right? And we've seen that problem in California with the construction of affordable housing.

affordable housing. I mean, there was a Los Angeles City Council member who got arrested by the FBI because he was engaging in a play to pay to play scheme where these developers were getting these like sweetheart deals, of course paid for by California's taxpayers to build affordable housing. And what they would do is they would inflate the costs of construction. And of course, we're footing the bill for that. And so I got a little worried when I saw that like investors, you know, I was reading, you know, some of these financial publications and they're just like, these investors, again, real excited about what this means for the stock market.

And it's like, that's not a good sign. So, but look, I don't want to be too harsh. I just think that that's something that we should be paying attention to moving forward. And so far, based on where his priorities are, Seems like he has good intentions. Not big enough. I certainly think that it could be a problem to try to pass multiple big agenda items through multiple bills. I thought that this was all going to be combined into one piece of legislation, but that's not the case. And so we'll see what happens. But I think anyone who thinks working with Republicans is feasible as being incredibly naive, they're going to be a problem. Even though Biden has committed to keeping the corporate tax rate low, really, lower than what it was before Trump. Exactly, exactly. And that's what I mean, at the time that they were debating the Trump tax cuts, that's what we were saying. Someday, some centrist's damage, it's going to be like, I raise the taxes.

But in the end, you know, from the perspective of 10 years ago, it's still a cut. They still got their cut. It didn't matter which party was in charge in that respect. And I, in hindsight, I feel a little bit stupid because Brett and I had a bit of a debate this morning about whether you might be able to get some Republicans on board. because it's an infrastructure bill. It's going to put a lot of money and create a lot of jobs in their districts. But it is at the end of the day, as he points out, going to be funded via tax increases and there's virtually no Republicans and potentially even some Democrats that you're going to lose as a result of that. Even if they're not bringing the taxes back up to where they're at pre-Trump and they're possibly reimposing certain sorts of loopholes and things like that, you're still going to lose a lot of politicians,

no matter how much economic stimulus it gives to their district, especially when the new strategy is, vote against it and then just say that you voted for it for the good stuff. That's what they've started doing for the stimulus bill, for the COVID bill. They could just do that for the infrastructure bill as well. Yeah, no, you're you're right. Well, Brett's right. I don't know why you're debating with that point. That's actually a really good point. It's mostly me. No, I mean, Mitch McConnell has already come out. He's like, well, right on, right on way don't really like about tax or no go with the tax cuts, tax increases. So there's no working with them. I mean, even when Obama offered like additional tax cuts to Republicans in the stimulus bill that he had passed,

right? They're like, no, we don't want to work with him. Okay, so let's not make that mistake again, okay? And let's please do something about the filibuster. Otherwise, any discussion about the pro act, any discussion about the for the People Act, which would reform our democracy, all of that stuff, it means nothing. It means nothing unless Democrats are willing to do, what it takes to get rid of this ridiculous arbitrary process in the Senate. So we'll see where that goes. And for now, we're going to move on. Just do one more story with you if you don't mind. Okay, great. All right. So let's do one more story. Because I know you have some thoughts about this. You covered it on your show and I wanted to have you elaborate a little bit. So student loan

debt continues to be a massive problem in the United States. This is debt that students cannot get rid of even if they filed for bankruptcy and there have been growing calls for the Biden administration to forgive student loan debt. Now Chuck Schumer is continuing with these efforts to really present himself as this progressive and a man of the people. And so speaking at a press conference recently, you know, the majority leader called on, you know, his supporters to pressure Congress pressure pressure lawmakers to cancel student loans. Let's hear what he had to say. Folks listening, whether you have the debt, have a friend who has the debt, believe it's the right thing, we're asking you email, call, right, President Joseph, Robinette Biden, and tell him you want this done. We're trying to get as many people to contact the White House as possible, and frankly, we told this to Joe Biden, and he said, go ahead, let it rip.

So let's show him what kind of support there is out there for this great plan that Elizabeth, Bob, and I, and many, many others are pushing. Let's get this done. Oh. Wow, what a tactician, really. Yeah. And what a cool individual. Anyway, yeah, I don't like the posing at the end. Also, based on the conversation, if that was an accurate reflection on the conversation that

Senator Schumer had with Joe Biden, F. Joe Biden. He's like, Schumer's like, yeah, no, are people, the American people really really, we're really want to cut student loan debt. In fact, they're going to start to make it clear to you. And Biden says, yeah, let it rip. What are you talking about? First of all, you can just look at the polls. You already know what the American people think about it. And I would also say, why do we have to do a whole other campaign? You said you would do it. You knew how much we wanted it. It was one of the things that led young people to support you in the first place. I'm all for for people contacting their elected officials. We ask them to do it all the time. I kind of feel

like in this case, they shouldn't have to, though. I think that Joe Biden knows damn well what people want. And even if he doesn't, Warren and Schumer do, I don't know about Menendez, but those two definitely, what don't they talk to Joe Biden? Why don't they put some pressure on him? You're the leader of the Senate Dems. You couldn't cause all sorts of problems for Joe Biden and his agenda if that's what you wanted. If you really are prioritizing this. And he's been consistent, he's been talking about it for months now. Maybe he actually does want $50,000 to be canceled. But if so, don't say I want it. I'm your champion. Now you guys go and actually make it happen. And presumably, if it doesn't happen, well, it was on you guys

because I told you to go talk to him. No, and it's not on us. We voted. We got him elected. And by the way, got you to be majority leader. Now you do your job and talk to Joe Biden and make it actually happen. And if we can't do 50,000 right off the bat, we know he can do 10,000 in his own adult mind, what he can do with the stroke of a pen is at least 10,000, do that, and then we can return and talk about the 40,000. How about that? How about a little show of good faith on this topic from Joe Biden? Because as of right now, he has the exact same position as Donald Trump when it comes to canceling student loan debt, at least in terms of this. I understand they've done a couple of billion for special programs, blah, blah, blah,

don't tweet me. I'm talking about the actually canceling a significant portion of the trillion plus dollars in student loan debt that we have outstanding. No, don't do. I don't. I don't. I don't. I don't And also to the people who are like, no, no, but don't you get it? Biden is going to propose this great indentured servitude bill that forces you to work in a specific field. And then maybe in 10 years, if you're lucky and the right administration is in charge, they might cancel your student loan debt, but probably not. No, I don't want to hear about that. I don't care. Like that's not, that's not a solution, right? The whole point is to give people the economic freedom that comes along with doing away with this ridiculous student loan debt.

debt, most of which is, is, you know, being doled out and processed by the federal government. And, you know, they charge interest. That is a form of bringing in revenue for the federal government because they charge interest. And I think that's one of the motivating factors for why we haven't really seen an administration willing to discharge student loan debt. But, you know, I agree with you. I mean, you said everything that needed to be said. You know, Chuck Schumer, not a great debate. but certainly a great delegator. And I'm busy. I don't have time to do his job. He needs to do his job, okay? He's got a tremendous amount of power as the Senate majority leader. Okay, the person who served as a Senate majority leader not too long ago, Mitch McConnell apparently understands

how to flex his power. It's just unfortunate that right now we don't have much of that with Democratic leadership. So that's where we're at. But great points all around. Thank you, John. I'm glad we did that last story. Me too. I saw your tweet about it, or at least the damage reports tweet about it. And I was like, I do want to talk about this with John. And you delivered. So, and you guys can watch more of John's commentary over at the damage report.

Make sure you subscribe. And John, have an awesome night. See you soon. Thank you. You too. Have fun with Nando. All right. When we come back, Nando will be joining me for hour two.

See you then. Thanks for listening to the full episode of the Young Turks. Support our work, listen 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.