The Young Turks - Political Theater

Episode Date: April 21, 2022

President Biden announced another $800 million in aid to bolster Ukraine’s military efforts in the Donbas region. Ron DeSantis’ plan to punish Disney for supporting LGBTQ rights by repealing their special district governing authority would raise taxes on Florida families in the Orlando area by $2,200 each. Lindsey Graham on the midterms: “If this is a policy debate, we’ll kick their ass. If it’s a personality debate, we might lose.” As the Biden administration prepares to lift Title 42 on May 23, more Democrats in Congress, and running for office, say they have concerns about the decision and are asking the administration to reconsider or have a more concrete plan in place for the influx of migrants expected to arrive at the southern border. Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s short-lived policy of requiring state troopers to conduct secondary inspections of trucks crossing into Texas from Mexico reportedly cost the United States almost $9 billion in just 10 days. Hosts: Ana Kasparian, Cenk Uygur https://youtu.be/RI8S-6Dgi1g https://youtu.be/j0BAklXBydA https://youtu.be/VIwh0qWRiGA https://youtu.be/ICeyLPaza-0 https://youtu.be/6S8rSt_hvAA https://youtu.be/KgYI_WXSd58 https://youtu.be/48jlIg96wYQ https://youtu.be/Y2n5Eiz5v58 https://youtu.be/t-6ZzfUxcUU https://youtu.be/P2zHEgTTUAI 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. All right, well, the Young Turks, Jake, Eugger, Anna Kusperian. Yeah, welcome everybody. See, on Twitter, I was talking about what CNN Plus did wrong. Everything? Yeah, that's a good place to start.

Half a billion dollar mistake is the costliest mistake in news history. I don't know. Thoughts and prayers. People are asking. Anyways, one of the things they obviously did wrong is they don't start their shows with, everybody, welcome to the young turks. Well, there's a little bit of truth of that because we're playful. We're real human beings, right?

We're playful. Not a lot of shows on CNN starting with. We're crazy. We have so many stories today though, by like, okay, I'm not lying when I say this. I mean it. And apologies to everyone who worked so, so hard on this two and a half hour show. The only thing I want to talk about and care about is what we're going to discuss in the bonus episode. Oh, that's for the members.

And you guys are going to love that. It's so good. This is so funny. But we have so many important and interesting news. news events. And also we have Shelley Bean Murphy and Zeke B who just joined up. So you guys are amazing. You're American heroes. We do this show together. So welcome aboard. Casper. Let's do it. I'm announcing another $800 million to further augment Ukraine's ability to fight in the east in the Dombos region. This package includes heavy artillery weapons, dozens of howitzers,

and 144,000 rounds of ammunition to go with those howitzers. It also includes, more tactical drones. In the past two months, we've moved weapons and equipment to Ukraine at record speed. That was President Joe Biden announcing that the United States is sending another $800 million worth of weaponry to Ukraine in its battle against this Russian invasion. But what's likely to happen to all those weapons when all said and done, when this war hopefully eventually is over. That is a problem, especially with the defense department, making it abundantly clear that they don't really have any way of tracking these weapons, and they don't have safeguards in place to ensure that the weapons don't end up in the wrong hands. So CNN, of all

places, actually reported on this, and they did a pretty good job in noting what some of the risks are. And I want to share those risks with you. As they write, the United States has few ways to track the substantial supply of anti-tank, anti-aircraft, and other weaponry. It has sent across the border into Ukraine, a blind spot that's due in large part to the lack of U.S. boots on the ground in the country. I disagree with that part. I hope they're not trying to push for boots on the ground in the country, but let me continue. And the easy portability of many of the smaller systems now pouring across the border. And again, we obviously don't want to send boots on the ground, but we also should have some sort of strategy

in place to ensure that the weapons don't end up in the wrong hands. But to be fair, the United States does have a pretty long history of arming various countries and then having to deal with the unintended consequences of doing so. Both current US officials and defense analysts say that in the long term, some of those weapons might end up in the wrong hands. For For instance, one person says we have fidelity for a short time, but when it enters the fog of war, we have almost zero, said one source briefed on US intelligence. It drops into a big black hole and you have almost no sense of it at all after a short period of time.

It's also a problem that the United States is relying on Intel from Ukraine, which clearly Ukraine has a conflict of interest here, they're gonna want to do whatever is necessary. to bolster their case for more weapons. The Biden administration and NATO countries say they are providing weapons to Ukraine based on what the Ukrainian forces say they need, whether it's portable systems like javelin and Stinger missiles or the Slovakian S300 air defense system that was sent over the last week. Javelin and Stinger missiles and rifles and ammunition are naturally harder to track than larger systems like the S300, which was shipped by rail.

Although javelins have serial numbers, there's little way to track their transfer and use in real times. And I also want to just note that the types of weapons that we're sending are becoming more and more powerful and intense. I'll give you those details in just a moment. But, Jank, are you concerned that this is something that's going to backfire? And what do you think the answer is, right? I think that it's important to help Ukraine, but I do think that there will be unintended consequences with all these weapons pouring in. Yeah. So first of all, it's important to acknowledge that everything is a cost, benefit, and analysis.

So in the political world, there's nonstop talk of black and white issues. Either something is a terrific idea or is a terrible idea, and there's no weighing of the issue. No, this is a case where is there a potential downside? Clearly there is, right? Could some of it go into the wrongness? Could some of it be sold in the black market? Of course, right? So there are downsides, but I think the upsides are much, much larger.

Okay, so let me explain why. So number one, the weapons that they are getting to the Ukrainians, and very effectively so, by the way, I'll talk about that in a second, are doing serious damage to the Russian military. And so I don't, just in a bubble, I don't care about damaging the Russian military. But in the context of them invading Ukraine, I hear a lot about damage. the Russian military within Ukraine, right, just so that they could drive them out so that less people can die, so that wars of aggression are not awarded.

Guys, there's a second reason why I'm not as concerned in Ukraine. When we, if we were going to go arm rebel forces in Syria, they are rebel forces, not state actors, they are much, much harder to control. And as you know, there was nefarious forces all around in different camps in Syria, right? Now, even in Afghanistan, when we gave to the government of Afghanistan, we knew that government was so weak that you could just push him over with a feather. We told you that on the show for about 20 years straight. So that was not a surprise. The Pentagon could have pretended to be surprised, but they were not in reality surprise.

So that government was so weak, we were really afraid anybody could just knock them over and take those weapons. But the Ukrainian government is not that weak. And so it presents a smaller risk, not a non-existent risk. But a smaller risk versus the reward of, oh my God, they're doing real damage to the Russians. And so that brings me to how we're getting to them, getting the weapons to them effectively. It's amazing. We're just bringing them across the border from Poland. Number one, it's possible the Russians' capabilities are way lower than we realized.

I mean, I thought partly because of the news industry, right? But partly because of movies and media, et cetera, you get the sense everybody does, including me. of like, oh, everybody's tracking with satellites, Americans are, Russians are, Chinese are, and everybody knows where everyone is within like a six foot perimeter. Giant amounts of weapons are being used against the Russians and just like doing massive damage to the Russian military. They haven't found any of them yet crossing the border. It is crazy. So Russia both publicly and privately has acknowledged the weaponry pouring into Ukraine.

By the way, through Poland, you know, through Western Ukraine, they've publicly said that they want to target those shipments, but they haven't targeted any of those shipments. And so right now, the intelligence community is trying to figure out why that's the case. They have a few theories, including one theory that the Russian military knows the weapons are coming in, but they don't quite know exactly where they're coming in from, which I think is fascinating. Like how do you, how are you unable to figure that out? But you're right, I mean, there have been so many incompetent moves by the Russian military here that show you not only their incompetence, but how they lack the power that we were under the impression they had previously. Yeah, well, that's the thing about using power. People might find out you don't have as much as you thought you had or that you were claiming you had. And so that's what America found out the hard way in Iraq and Afghanistan.

And that's what Russia is finding out right now in Ukraine. And we, by the way, have much better technical military capabilities than Russia. And even we got ground down and lost in the least sophisticated country technologically in the world, Afghanistan. So if we can't beat the Taliban in Afghanistan, how the hell of the Russians going to beat Ukraine with all these weapons pouring in? They're going to get bogged down. There's no question about that.

But the reason to, there's two more reasons why I'm in favor of this. Number one, we got to hurry because the Russians could figure out where the weapons are coming in from. And then they would start bombing those and make the transfer weapons to the Ukraine much more difficult. And by the way, much more costly to us because a lot of them would be destroyed on the way in. So it's a balancing of interest. But the last thing is the most important part. Guys, and Anna read it to you, but I want to give you context. So the solution that Washington is offering for, well, I don't know if we can track them well enough is boots on the ground.

Exactly. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. No boots. Yeah, the CNN article obviously fed to them by Pentagon sources and defense contractors mentioned four different times that the way to solve the tracking issue is to put American boots on the ground in Ukraine. No, that is not the way to solve it. You're doing propaganda.

So there's actual news buried in the article about the weapons and how they're getting in and what kind of weapons. But it's also surrounded by propaganda, which is. Well, it would be way, way, way better if we put American troops on the ground. That way we can get into a much bigger and messier conflict where the defense contractors would make even more money. No, you hit the nail on the head. You're absolutely right about that. Because what was jarring to me about CNN of all places covering this was the fact that, A, for the first time I saw CNN show concern about where these weapons will eventually end up, which is it's not, it's uncharacteristic of any corporate media outlet.

But what I did also find jarring was that you have defense department officials specifically raising alarm about where the weapons end up. And that is especially uncharacteristic of anyone serving in the defense department. And so really the whole point of this piece at the end of the day is to manufacture consent, to drum up support for American boots on the ground, something that we absolutely must resist because it's not about ending the war, it's about escalating the war for these Defense Department officials. So you might be in favor of arming Ukraine, helping Ukraine, and to be quite frank, as we've talked about on the show, anyone who might be wondering, like, why is this our

responsibility? Why are we doing this? Remember, the United States persuaded Ukraine to give up its nuclear weapons in exchange for security guarantees. So this is a commitment that the United States had previously made to Ukraine, and I think it's important to follow through with those commitments, especially when it comes to getting countries to give up their nuclear weapons, something that I think is incredibly important to do. But one other caveat I want to add to that is, you see how easy it is for money to just be appropriated for any type of military cause? But when it comes to social spending programs here in the United States, they either nickel and dime you, they either means test you, or they just don't pass the legislative.

legislation at all. They clearly have the money. So I got to add two things to that. One is Medicare for all, for example, even based on a very conservative Koch brothers funded research paper shows that the country saves two trillion dollars. Okay, saves two trillion dollars. So but even if it cost a lot of money, which it doesn't, it would say 45,000 extra lives per year. So we get very emotional and rightfully so, about the poor Ukrainian civilians being killed, to the best of my knowledge, 45,000 has not been killed yet in Ukraine. But 45,000 die every year here because we don't have universal health care.

And it would save money. And still every time that the national media talks about, they go, how are you going to pay for it? As if it's extravagantly expensive. The minute it's weapons, they're like, oh, you got to pay. You got to pay more. Pay double. Pay ten times more. And now you guys want to hear another really interesting part of this, even by the,

admission of Raytheon CEO, you know, the money largely isn't going to create new weapons and send it to Ukraine, that would take too long. We're sending weapons we already have. Most of the money is going towards restocking our weapons. Yes, can I get the details? Which, by the way, is optional. We don't have to restock them. Yeah, you're right about that.

And I want to give the details because, you know, we keep throwing numbers at you, including this latest round of $800 million. No, I mean, the United States has already appropriated billions of dollars toward Ukraine. Before I get to those details, though, I want to remind you of the statement from Raytheon's CEO prior to Russia invading Ukraine. This is when we suspected that it was going to happen, and Raytheon, along with other defense contractors, were salivating over it. So Greg Hayes, the CEO for Raytheon said at the time, we are seeing, I would say,

opportunities for international sales, the tensions in Eastern Europe, the tensions in the South China Sea, all of those things are putting pressure on some of the defense spending over there. So I fully expect we're going to see some benefit from it. And to be sure they have. So getting back to what Jenk had mentioned in terms of like replenishing our reserves of military weaponry. So the fiscal year, this fiscal year alone, defense contractors are guaranteed to also reap significant benefits from the Pentagon's Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative and the State Department's foreign military financing program, both of which finance the acquisition of American weaponry and other equipment, as well as military training.

They have in fact been the two primary channels for military aid to Ukraine from the moment the Russians invaded and seized Crimea in 2014. Since then, the U.S. has committed around $5 billion in security assistance to the country. Now, to your point about the DOD inventories, this is the part you should know about. More than half of the Pentagon's 6.5 billion portion of the emergency spending package for Ukraine is designated simply to replenish Department of Defense inventories. Lawmakers allocated 3.5 billion to that effort, 1.75 billion more than the President even requested. They also boosted funding by $150 million for the State Department's FMF program for Ukraine. So let's also be real and honest about the fact that there are private

companies, private corporations, private defense contractors that are making, sorry for the punt, killing off of this, this war in Ukraine. Yeah. And, you know, again, national media almost never acknowledges that these are private corporations whose goal is to maximize profit. So yeah, the war is a very, very good business for defense contractors. It's just a fact. It's an escapable fact. And it's a fact as we read to you in the quote that they celebrate. They say, oh, great benefits are coming our way. Shareholders should be ecstatic about the imminent wars. And last word goes to one of of our members, Dragon with a girl tattoo said, I kind of doubt Boeing and Raytheon care where the

weapons go after they get their money. So of course that's true. There's a caveat to that. If the weapons do end up in the wrong hands, that paves the way for them to send more weapons and whatever future war we have to deal with as a result of some dangerous militia having, you know, these dangerous weapons. That's exactly what I was going to say. Yeah, sorry. Sorry to step on. No, no. Like, no, they actually would love it for it to wind up in the wrong hand. Same thing with gun manufacturers here in the US. Do you think they mind bad guys buying weapons? No, and it scares the bejesus out of the good guys, and they buy more guns, right? Same exact thing in the defense industry. The weapons going to the wrong places creates

more conflict, which then America has to solve as the world police, et cetera. And finally, guys, again, nuance. So defense contractors have a very bad motive here, and they would want some of those things, those weapons to go in the wrong hands. They would also want us to put boots on the ground so we get stuck in a much bigger war. So be very, very careful. Do not believe the mainstream media when they start doing propaganda about having boots on the ground or no fly zones. That is totally defense contract to propaganda. But at the same time, it doesn't mean that Russia didn't invade Ukraine and that Ukraine doesn't need help. Russia did and Ukraine does definitely need help. So let's get them these weapons, but without buying into any of the BS from the

defense contractors. And by the way, if you wanted to, as we stated earlier, you can get them all those weapons and not spend any money because you don't have to rebuy those weapons. Right. That's just a choice we're making. All right, we got to take a brief break. But when we come back, we'll give you the latest in this Disney versus DeSantis war in Florida. It looks like Republicans might be making a move that'll hurt them electorally and I'm here for it. We've got that story and more coming right up. All three of those folks just joined by hitting the join button below on YouTube.

So Jamie Jeffrey and a man from Earth, you guys are American heroes. We appreciate you doing the show with us for everyone not on YouTube. TYT.com slash join. We love you guys. All right, Casper. Well, Florida's state legislature, which is dominated by Republicans, has just passed legislation that would retaliate against Disney for having the audacity to condemn the state. law that's known as the don't say gay bill. Now if you guys can recall the employees over at

Disney, there are tens of thousands of them, demanded that their employer condemn that law. And finally, Disney took a stance and decided to do so and even put out a statement indicating that they would stop donating campaign money to politicians in the state who voted in favor of that legislation. They also said that they would help fund efforts to repeal the law. Well, in response to that, the Republican lawmakers in the state, with the, under the leadership of Governor Ron DeSantis, decided to pass legislation that would potentially hurt them financially, and I want to give you the details on that, but it might have some unintended consequences

for these Republican lawmakers. The bill would eliminate the Reedy Creek Improvement District, as the Disney government is known, as well as a handful of other similar districts by June of 2023. So let's pause for a second. Basically decades ago when Disney World was getting started in central Florida, they were given these special privileges where they were able to govern on the land that they were building on. So it's like a mini government with Disney being able to govern that area. And so what the Republican lawmakers are doing as retaliation for Disney speaking out for once is essentially dissolving them of that privilege.

And this has already passed in the State House and Senate. Let me continue. The measure leaves room for the districts. Stop. Do you know how fast you were going? I'm going to have to write you a ticket to my new movie, The Naked Gun. Buy your tickets now. I get a free Tilly Dog.

Chili Dog, not included. The Naked Gun. Tickets on sale now. Yes, first. To be reestablished with a Republican legislative leader signaling a likely restructuring of a 1967 deal that lawmakers struck with the company that allows it to provide services such as zoning, fire protection, utilities, and infrastructure. Now again, this is all meant to happen as a result of these lawmakers wanting to retaliate

against Disney. So typically, I mean, I don't like corporations having all these special privileges. I'm against that, but I'm also against what triggered this legislation in the first place. It's not because of the fact that Disney underpays its employees or has working conditions that aren't favorable to the employees. It's only because of the fact that Disney dare to threaten these Republican lawmakers with campaign money. That's all it's about at the end of the day. But let me give you more. The proposal would have huge tax implications for Disney, Don't care about that at all, whose series of theme parks have over the decades transformed

Orlando into one of the world's most popular tourist destinations. The Democrats have warned that the move could cause local homeowners to get hit with big tax bills if they have to absorb bond debt from Disney, although such details are far from clear. I actually want to elaborate on that more because that is, in my opinion, the juiciest part of the story, Okay, the most delicious potential part of the story. And I know you want to jump in, Jake, but can I give the details first, please? No, no, tease them, tease them. All right, fine.

Okay, no, seriously, guys, I'm just going to make one quick point, and then I want to get to that too. I want you to notice that Rhonda Santis and the Florida Republicans did not take this action when Disney said they were against the don't say gay bill, okay? They only took the action, as Anna pointed out, after Disney said, we're not giving you. money anymore. Ding, ding, ding, ding, ding. Okay, so that's what motivated them. And this is DeSantis literally saying, how dare you not send my bribe?

In return, the government, big government, will retaliate against this private company because you're no longer bribing me and my capos, my captains here in my mafia. That's how, you know, Republicans, you hate government corruption and big government? Well, who do you think corrupts them? Okay, it's the people giving the campaign donations, especially corporations that do it for profit. So this is an excellent example of corruption. If you hate corruption, you should hate what DeSantis did here. Go ahead, Anne.

So there are, you know, look, I think the Democrats in the state should let them have it. Do you booze? But there are Democrats who are actually concerned about the residents in this area who could suffer from massive, massive tax increases if they actually do go through with this, if Ron DeSantis actually signs this into law, which he likely will. Now, a state Senate minority leader, Gary Farmer, a Democrat, warned that residents of Orange and Oceola counties may have to assume Disney's liabilities of anywhere between $1 billion and $2 billion if the Reedy Creek Improvement District is dissolved. In fact, he's quoted as saying, the debt service alone for Reedy Creek is over $1 billion.

This bill makes no provision as to how that debt service is going to be assumed. The debt service alone would amount to $580 per person in added taxes. They would be liable for. Let them do it, farmer. Let them do it, okay? Farmer wrong, farmer wrong. Let them do it because I want nothing more than the Republican lawmakers in that state to suffer the consequences. consequences of the gross retaliatory action that they're taking here. Again, not because of all

the other things that we've criticized Disney about, but because Disney actually stood by its workers for once in condemning this bill and threatened to take away campaign donations from these lawmakers. I want to give you more, though. In total, Farmer does warn that a family of four in the area could be hit with a $2,200 tax bill. Also, state senator Jeff Brandis, a Republican, also expressed worries over Disney's liabilities saying, my concern is this bill essentially wipes away Disney's $2 billion in debt, adding, if the legislative intent here is to ultimately attack them, then why would we want to cancel $2 billion of debt?

And he mentions that because there's some, there's an idea that maybe we just cancel the debt so the residents in the area don't get hit with these tax bills. But if you do that, Disney might just say thanks, thanks for doing away with that $2 billion in debt. We appreciate it. No, DeSantis might have really screwed up here for a number of reasons. It's so good. Number one, it turns out this is the one special privilege that corporations have in America that actually cost them more money than it saves them. And you want to know why?

It was passed back in 1967. So back then, the companies and government used to actually be different entities, and they would negotiate back and forth. And apparently Disney didn't strike a very good deal. I remember the first article I read, I was like, wait, how is DeSantis helping them? Disney in this case appears to be paying for the fire department, garbage pickup, almost everything in this area, right? And so I'm like, how would this punish Disney? And then I read more, and I was like, oh, no, it doesn't punish Disney. Disney had struck a terrible deal back in 1967.

They might be like, yeah, great. The $2 billion is literally what Disney owes. If you cancel it, you just gave Disney a $2 billion gift. How the world does that punish them, you moron? Now, the reason DeSantis is doing it is he is genuinely mad at Disney. He is. A lot of times politicians say, oh, I am so mad at corporations and then give them billions of dollars. Not in this case.

In this case, he's trying to do a marketing gimmick where he's like, I am tough against Disney because they don't hate gay people. I hate gay people. And I can't believe Disney doesn't, right? But it's backfiring on him. Yeah, let me give you his statement. Because this is, look, at the end of the day, this is all about political power. This is about campaigning.

Ron DeSantis, without a doubt, is eyeing a presidential run. If it's not in 2024, it'll be in a presidential election following that. But in response to all of this, well, you know, in a campaign fundraising email, he said this. If Disney wants to pick a fight, they choose the wrong guy or they chose the wrong guy. As governor, I was elected to put the people of Florida first and I will not allow a woke corporation based in California to run our state. You know, go through with it, Ron. Go through with it. I would love to see it.

Because again, either the people in that area are going to pay increased taxes, and who do you think they're going to blame? You think they're going to blame Disney for the increase in taxes? You think they're going to blame Democrats for the increase in taxes? Or are they going to blame the political party that's in charge in the state of Florida? I'm just going to say, family of four getting hit with a $2,200 tax bill, they're not going to take kindly to that. Especially considering the cost of living in Florida has gone up so significantly. during the pandemic because of private equity money flooding in and snatching up real estate in the area. So have at it, do it. I'd love to see it. Let's see what the outcome will be.

So first, let me give credit to the Democratic senators in Florida because they have no power. So it's not like they can actually stop DeSantis from doing this. The Republicans have both houses and the governor seat. So what they're doing is they're doing good messaging. They're saying, hey, it is the Republicans and DeSantis that is about to cost every family in this area $2,200. And that is true. It's both true and effective messaging. So they're doing a pretty good job with it, actually. Now, when it comes to DeSantis, look, like I said, and I've talked a lot about this,

basically big government and big business merged in 1978 when the Supreme Court made decision that corporations can give money to politicians. And from then on, every deal has been in favor of big business and against the average American. I mean, the Republicans talk about America first. No, they're corporations first. America's almost last, right? So that's why all the current deals are they take your taxpayer money and they shovel it to their corporate donors. The donors give them a million.

They give back a billion, 10 billion, sometimes even all the way up to a trillion dollars. Yes, combined, right? So that's how the bribery normally works. Now, they're breaking that pledge here, the Republicans, and they're canceling that deal. Now, it's an old deal, so it winds up helping Disney to cancel it. But I wanted to mention one other thing. It's a point made, again, by one of our members, another really smart point. Pilates Progressives said, if anyone on the left punished their corporation this way,

it would immediately be deemed cancel culture by the right. The hypocrisy has become their defining trade. Totally. First of all, I love our members. We do the show together, t.yt.com, slash join to become a member. so I could read your comments in the stories, okay? Second of all, think about that comment. You know that if a Democrat said, I'm going to punish a company.

And on top of that, they said it's because they won't give me campaign contributions anymore. My God, that's all Joe Rogan and Bill Maher, let alone every right-wing media outlet, we'll talk about for a month. Oh, can you believe the Democrats canceled culture? They canceled Disney. Oh, my God, right? yet the Republicans do it, and none of their voters even realize it. They're like, oh, yeah, that's why I can't believe Disney stop bribing DeSantis.

They don't mind being hypocrites. No, they don't mind being hypocrites. I mean, it's been pointed out how hypocritical the Republican Party is over and over again. And they love it. They'll claim that they love democracy. They want to protect American democracy, support the troops that have preserved American democracy while they're trying to reverse the will of the American people in the 2020 presidential election.

They're hypocrites. They love being hypocrites. At the end of the day, the only thing they understand and they understand it well is power. And honestly, Democrats, it would serve them well if they took some time to understand that as well. Anyway, we got to move on. Let's get to our next story. President Trump has proven he knows how to do these things. He needs to remind the American people of what we did in the past and what we can do in the future.

And it's about the future. The election is about the future. And if this is a policy debate, we'll kick their ass. If it's a personality debate, we might lose. That was Republican Senator and Trump lapdog, Lindsay Graham, who is delusional enough to think that the reason why the Republican Party has been successful is because of their policies and not because of Trump's cult of personality, which I think is a crazy thing to say. But I do think that on a more local level, that point could be true.

I want to elaborate on that a little more in just a minute. But before I do, Cenk, what were your thoughts on that, a weird rant? Okay, I thought that was one of the funniest things I've ever seen. So first of all, policies, policies, we're talking about policies? What policies? All right, so Anna's going to get more into the culture wars and how they distract you. But the second hilarious thing was Democrats have shining personalities. Oh my God.

We would win on person. Have you ever met Nancy Pelosi or Chuck Schumer? Chuck Schumer, that's a personality that is so much better than Republican personalities. I mean, that man does are compelling. Look at them. Those are the compelling personalities that Republicans are losing to. Dems are so hot right now. Yeah. So look, even Republican voters don't believe that.

If Lindsay Graham tried to sell them that bill of goods. No guys, we're losing because Chuck Schumer is so dynamic. Huh? Okay, really? And I mean, your nickname for Joe Biden is literally sleepy Joe Biden. Yeah. And then you turn around and go, well, he's so much more charismatic than Trump or any Republican. That's why they're winning all the time.

Okay, if you say so, brother. I would love it, I'd be here for it, but that ain't the case. In this case, literally everyone knows that. What helped Trump, undeniably, was the fact that he's a cult of personality. In fact, what ended up hurting Trump in the 2020 election cycle were his COVID-related policy. Had it not been for the pandemic, I'm certain that Trump would have actually been reelected. But COVID was so devastating for the American people and his. lack of leadership was so devastating that it hurt him and it put Joe Biden over the edge and

he won. But again, going back to the whole personality thing, you might not like Trump's personality. You might find it off-putting, but let's not mistake the fact that his supporters love his personality. And if you compare him to Biden and Democratic leadership, you can kind of understand why. So we brought the receipts. Here's a fun compilation of Donald Trump showcasing his personality. And let me just say before you run it, then we're gonna show you the Democrats. Yeah. Okay, let's see who's a more interesting personality for better or for worse.

Let's watch. A guy who spells his name, M-E-I-J-E-R, but they pronounce it Meyer. The hell kind of a spelling is that? Meyer, Meijer, it's Meijer, but it's actually pronounced Meyer. I said, how the hell do you pronounce this guy's name? Nobody knows him. He's done nothing in Washington. Nobody can do it like me. Nobody. Nobody can do it like me. Honestly. Nobody's stronger than me.

Nobody has better toys than I do. There's nobody bigger or better at the military than I am. Nobody loves the Bible more than I do. Nobody builds walls better than me. Nobody's better to people with disabilities than me. Nobody's fighting for the veterans like I'm fighting for the veterans. There's nobody that's done so much for equality as I have. There's nobody more pro-Israel than I am.

There's nobody more conservative than me. is nobody that respects women more than I do. Nobody would be tougher on ISIS than Donald Trump. I'm sitting there tweeted, Bing, Bing, Bing, Bing. You press a button. Bing, Bing, Bing, Bing. They all hand your checks. Bing, Bing, Bing, Bing. We had our beautiful Marines standing there. Bing, Bing, Bing, Bing.

You know, the old days, Bing, bong. You know, with the map? Bing, Bing, Bing, Bing. Little mouth on him. Bing, Bing, Bing, Bing, Bing, Bing. Bing, Bing, they're cleaning up. Fixed up, Bing, Bing, Bing. A 14-point plan. Bing, Bing, Bing.

Antity Wiener. You know, the little... Bing, bing, bing. Everyone's attacked me has gone, bing. Everyone else, bing. Don't worry about it, little Marco, I will. Well, let's hear a big, big, don't, don't worry about it, little, Michael. He was always calling me little Marco.

And out of me, the guy he's tall with him, he's like 6-2, which is why I don't understand why his hands are the size of someone who's 5'2. Have you seen his hands? They're like this. And you know what they say about men with small hands? Look at those hands. Are they small hands? And he referred to my hands if they're small, something else must be small.

I guarantee you there's no problem, I guarantee it. Okay, again, listen, it's important to differentiate, like, or to separate his personality, which you might find off-putting from, like, how much you hate him, his policies, and all of that. No, I mean, the reason why he's so popular among the Republican electorate is his personality. Like, let's just keep it real. You can't deny that. And in all of that, did you guys hear any policy? All I heard was big, bing, bing, bing bing b bing bing bing bing bing bing bing, right?

And the Republicans love it. And honestly, like the country elected him the first time, nearly elected him the second time based on the Electoral College. So now let's go to the Democrats and see if Lindsay Graham is right that they are at least as equally scintillating. But he says far more. These Democrats win because of their shining personalities. Let's find it. We hold these truths to be self-evident. All men and women created by the go, you know the thing.

He promised to keep government shut down for months or years, no matter whom it hurts. That's just plain wrong. The fact is, we all agree we need to secure our borders while honoring our values. Face many dangers. One being stationed at bases breathing in toxic smoke from burn pits. Many of you have been there. For Secretary of Health and Education Service, I nominated Javier Bakaria. You know, Javier Bacchera, excuse me.

Look, I don't feel pleasure showing you that, but it's the truth, okay? It's the truth. We got to be real about it. Yeah, now back to what Lizzie Graham's trying to hide with the worst lie in American history. What? And like, seriously, even if you're a Republican, what policy are you super proud of? Tax cuts for the rich, which polled poorly among all Americans, including Republican voters. They did not want tax cuts for corporations and the rich. But they did it anyway. Is that the policy? And it's funny because they didn't campaign on that policy. Yeah. They didn't campaign on that policy. Not once. Never did they say in 2016 or 2020. If you elect us, we will make sure to get $2 trillion to the rich.

To the richest people in the country, we're gonna funnel your taxpayer money straight to them. They never said that, but that's the only major legislation that they passed. And at the end, Trump realized, oops, I forgot the wall. And in a panic in the last year, built about three and a half feet of the wall, just so you can say, well, I built son. I don't know, man, I mean, you can jump over it, but whatever, right? And so even if you were screaming as a right wing are immigration, we hate the immigrants, we hate them. First of all, that's not a policy.

Second of all, you didn't even do that. You didn't even build a wall. You didn't do anything because the whole thing is to own the libs. And so that's why they feed you all that cultural war crap. Oh, be afraid mad at Dr. Seuss and the wrong bathroom. And can you then the high school girls track team and all that squirrel, squirrel, squirrel, squirrel, because if you found out the only reason they exist is to funnel your money to the rich, it would get a lot less votes.

Exactly. All right. Well, speaking of immigration, we've got an immigration related story. coming right up after the break. And it unfortunately includes a video of Biden getting real confused when a reporter asked him about Title 42. We've got that story and more. Don't miss it. We'll be right back. All right, back on TYT, Jank and Anna with you guys. Dramatic announcement from out of nowhere.

Definitely out of nowhere. I didn't even tell Anna. So, you know the other day I told you guys how much I put into a rebellion pack to help Nina Turner and her race in Ohio's Love at the District. It was a backbreaking 25K. And so now all of a sudden everybody's calling me up. I don't have that kind of money. I mean, I put everything on the line to make sure Nina Turner can win. And you can help with Helpderrebellion.com.

And I asked you guys to, and I asked you to match the 25K through the smaller donations, obviously, right? You did. Wow. We already got the 25K. Hold, you know what? My co-founder from Justice Democrats, shortcut Chalker Barty, who then ran AOC's campaign and was AOC's chief of staff, he's kind of legendary.

He just put in $25,000. What? Okay, so helpderrebellion.com, let's match his 25K. Helpderrebellion.com, he kind of looks like my... Damn, that's a great picture. I know, right? And he looks like my cousin there. And you can tell my cousin's better looking than I am. Anyway, helpderrebellion.com match shortcuts 25K as well.

Let's go, let's go. We can do this. We've got some great ads that are coming out. You're going to be able to see some of those ads next week. And we want to be able to run them. Every ad we run is an extra X number of voters that we get. And that race is so close. You can make the difference.

And really, you would get the difference. say I did that. And if you put Nina Turner in Congress, you would be a total hero. So let's do it together. Can we put the picture up one more time? All of a sudden, he's interested in shortcut Jack or Martin. I just want to make one point that's super inappropriate, but like looks like he's swall both physically and politically. So good for him. Good for him. Shortcott politically swole. Yeah, by the way, since I've known him, he has worked out. And that's how so credit to him on many things, including their amazing AOC victory, et cetera. Let's go do this together, help the rebellion.com, and we'll put the link down below to make

it easy for you guys too. All right, let's go. All right, let's get to some immigration related news. The Biden administration had announced that it's planning on lifting Title 42. That was the Trump era pandemic-related order that prevented asylum seekers and migrants from crossing the U.S. border. And now it turns out that some corporate Democrats who are seeking re-election don't like that because it might actually hurt their chances of getting reelected.

And so we don't know what the Biden administration will end up doing, but there is legislation on the table to extend Title 42. And that legislation is authored by Democrats. Now the Trump-era public health order was put in place in early 2020 and prevented migrants and asylum seekers from crossing the border into the United States due to the COVID-19 pandemic. On April 1st, the CDC said the measure was no longer necessary from a public health standpoint. In fact, they announced that it should be lifted. And the Biden administration did in fact announce that they planned on lifting it. Now, centrist Democrats like, centrist,

let's say corporate, conservative Democrats like Chris Coons and Senator Gary Peters, who are often vocal supporters of Biden's agenda, are expressing. reservations about lifting the policy. In fact, Chris Coons shared those reservations during an interview with Face Denation recently. Let's hear what he had to say. The announcement that Title 42, which is a public health measure, may be rolled back in a number of weeks. That's something where the CDC declared that they could no longer justify this ongoing practice of expelling folks who come to our border based on the pandemic. In the region where I'm from, we're seeing infections rise. I think Philadelphia, for example, just returned to a

mask mandate. So my hope is that that will be reconsidered appropriately. I know that there are both Republicans and Democrats calling for a reconsideration and the administration just announced a plan for how to deal with a possible surge in crossings at the border. Margaret, we do need to come together and show our values that we can secure our border and improve the inhumane immigration system, the immigration system that so many of us have worked to try and address for years. All right. And of course, Senator Gary Peters also weighed in saying, unless we have a well thought out plan, I think it is something that should be revisited and perhaps delayed. I'm going to defer judgment on that until I give the administration the opportunity to

fully articulate what that plan is. But Biden did put out a plan. And that plan was pretty detailed. We talked about it here on the show where he would empower more than just immigration judges to process people as they're seeking asylum. And look, at the end of the day, what's informing the statements that you're hearing from these conservative Democrats is fear, worries that they won't get reelected. And the fact that, look, let's keep it real, like, Republicans, unfortunately, have been successful in their anti-immigrant propaganda. They have convinced Americans that migrants are dangerous, asylum seekers should not be admitted into the country, and it's reflected in polling. For instance, a recent poll from Morning Consult shows

that a majority of Americans, 56%, to be specific, opposed lifting the measure. While support and opposition breakdown predictably by party lines, just 31% of independent voters support Biden lifting Title 42. So that is what is informing their decision. But I mean, what Democrats are trying to do right now is essentially extend Title 42 for another 60 days. I don't really see how kicking the can down the road is going to help them in any way. What their failure has been is the inability to do effective messaging, to count,

the propaganda coming from right wingers who campaign on fear. That's all they've got. That's all they do. Yeah, I think the most important part of the story, unfortunately, is the Biden video, which we're going to get to in a second. That's not just about this. So it gets to a larger issue. But on this issue, of course, the conservative Democrats are going to go and be anti-immigration.

But Chris Coon's saying, oh, it's because of the pandemic, my ass it is. That has nothing to do with any of this. By the way, guys, look, you have to actually. listen to the science. At this point, if you're vaccinated, the mortality rate of COVID is less than 0.1%. And he's worried that in Delaware, they're going to get more COVID because people are crossing the border down in Mexico to Texas and Arizona. No, he's not worried about that at all. That's a classic politician lie. It's not, it has nothing to do with COVID. He just wants to scare Democratic voters. Okay. So Chris Coons is one of the most conservative Democrats.

You shouldn't trust a word that comes out of his mouth. And so if he's saying it, by the way, that means Biden's about the back pedal. Again, he is the top ally for Biden in the Senate. If he's criticizing Biden, he there's very, very little chance he didn't get admission, I'm sorry, permission ahead of time from Biden so that Biden can go, well, I mean, there's pressure and what can I do? and maybe I could change on Title 42. Because you know what? Being more like the Republicans has worked out so great for Biden's polling so far. Oops, that strategy hasn't worked at all.

But as always, they've learned nothing from it. Yeah, so now it's pretty unclear what the future holds for Title 42. I think the Biden administration has really engaged in this culture of kicking the can down the road on a number of different issues, including student loan debt. So instead of just forgiving student loan debt, he keeps extending the, I guess, the, I don't know what the exact word is. Moratorium. Moratorium, exactly, the moratorium on students having to pay their federal loans. And he's citing the pandemic as a reason for that. But eventually, I mean, you're going to have to deal with it.

And kicking the can down the road closer and closer to elections, whether it be the midterm or eventually the presidential election, makes no sense. It really doesn't. All right, well, let's reset for the Biden video part of this, because it's a bigger story than just this one issue of immigration that we should discuss. Recently, President Joe Biden was asked by reporters what he intends to do in regard to Title 42. Title 42 was the pandemic era policy that was implemented by Trump that essentially banned migrants and asylum seekers from crossing the US border. And they cited COVID for the reason for doing so. Now, what's concerning is how Biden

answered the question because it's very clear that he confused Title 42 with the whole mask mandate issue, let's watch. I'm Title 42, sir. Are you considering delaying lifting Title IV242? No, what I'm considering is continuing to hear from my, my, first of all, there's going to be an appeal by the Justice Department. Because as a matter of principle, we want to be able to be in a position where if, in fact, it is strongly concluded by the scientists that we need Title 42. that we'd be able to do that. But there has been no decision on extending Title 42.

So when he mentioned the appeal by the DOJ, it's abundantly clear that he's referring to the mask mandates because a federal judge just struck down the constitutionality of the mask mandates and now the Biden administration is planning on appealing it through the Department of Justice. That is not what he was asked about. He was asked about Title 42, which has to do with the immigration policy at the southern border.

Guys, that was really bad. So I know why he made the mistake, because Chris Coons was doing that talking point, his ally, the conservative Democrat in the Senate about, oh, we want to make sure that we don't lift Title 42 and we keep banning the immigrants because we're concerned about coronavirus, okay? So the mass mandates on the plane. etc is about coronavirus but title 42 and the the mass mandates on the planes are completely different issues they're not actually linked at all okay so the way that he talked about it as and and title 42 is if you don't follow politics that closely and you're not familiar with it I get it but within

Washington and within the White House that is a big gigantic issue that is not It's not like an obscure little thing. For him to confuse those two things, it's really bad. I wish it wasn't the case. But that is, no, he's, he's in trouble. That he's confusing very simple things live on air. And it happens, unfortunately, regularly. You know, he misspeaks.

He doesn't know the names of members of his cabinet. that he appointed himself obviously, like it's just, it's been a mess. And anyone who says that his, you know, mental health is totally fine and, you know, there isn't a decline there is lying. They're lying. And I don't understand, especially if you're a Democrat in a position of power, why would you keep lying about that, knowing that it puts the country at a major disadvantage and it puts your party at a major disadvantage? Why are you doing it? Yeah. So guys, look, I know why they did it during the election. When we said Biden had mental health issues during the election, everyone I know in democratic politics and establishment media, like,

come on, I thought you guys were objective and neutral. No, media yelled at us more than anyone else did, right? And all the way through to my friends, they were like, jank, this is outrageous. You can't say that. What if Trump wins? Okay, but those are two different things. I hate Trump, and I didn't want him to win at all. But at the same time, we do a news show where we have to be honest with the audience. We're not like the right wing media. We're not going to lie to you for our own benefit. We're not like mainstream media, okay?

So now, but now we're past the election. So the only reason why they keep supporting him is just because they've been taught that you're supposed to kiss the ass of the powerful. And oh, that's my boy, that's my side. That's my side. No, guys, it doesn't help you. In the next election, if you run Biden again, And by the way, it'll be two years later, that is a disaster, A, for the country, what I care

most about, but B, if you care about the Democratic Party, an absolute train wreck for the Democratic Party. Right now, he's saying to everyone that'll listen, there was a big story earlier in the week about he's definitely going to run again. That's no, no, no, you have to tackle him. I mean, if he does this during the campaign, we're going to get annihilated. And besides that, the substance of having a president that has some mental health issues is not a good thing. I mean, look at the previous president. He had different mental health issues, but he was so nuts that his own cabinet considered removing him from office.

We want to go to two presidents in a row like that. Now, the good news is Biden is not nuts. He's just struggling, right? But I mean, look at what happened at Feinstein. She literally can't remember what happened yesterday or sometimes what happened literally a minute ago. During like the same conversation, the same person. Yeah. So we have the, and by the way, why do we have these dinosaurs on both sides? Trump is also in his mid-70s, right? The reason is because of money in politics. Because the more that they stay in office, the more money they get

from corporate interests, and the more the corporate interests know that they're getting a return on investment. They've invested in Biden and Pelosi and Schumer and McConnell for decades. And they know Mitch McConnell is going to deliver for us. Nancy Pelosi is going to deliver for us. And so that's why they keep going to these super old politicians. It is kind of amazing that they never forget to deliver for their corporate donors. Yeah, of course. That's like the one thing they don't forget.

By the way, why? Because their staff is constantly telling them. Now remember President Biden, you have to help defense contractors, they have to get all the money. And remember, don't do the student debt relief you promise on the campaign trail. That doesn't help us at all with donors. In fact, banker donors don't like that. Okay, so remember, don't actually do any of your promises.

Or maybe that's what happened. The actual great promises that he had during the campaign, maybe he forgot them all. But seriously, it's not a thing to make light of overall. Overall, this is a significant issue. You will have everyone in the establishment yell at us, but you can see it in that clip, you can see it in the previous clips, and you'll be able to see it going forward. Our job is to actually deliver the news to you, and this is a real issue. All right, I would say that was a banger first hour, but you ain't seen nothing yet.

Second hour is even better. Stick around because when we come back, we'll talk about just how much money the U.S. government lost as a result of Greg Abbott's shenanigans in Texas, an incredible story. And later, a YouTube personality looks like he purposely crashed his own plane. We'll tell you why when we come back. 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.