The Young Turks - Progressive Sellouts!

Episode Date: April 13, 2022

The NYC subway shooting suspect was a self-declared ‘prophet of doom’ on YouTube. The Congressional Progressive Caucus PAC endorsed incumbent Shontel Brown over Nina Turner. More than a dozen Los Angeles gangs are targeting some of the city’s wealthiest residents in a new and aggressive manner, sending out crews in multiple cars to find, follow and rob people driving high-end vehicles or wearing expensive jewelry. Globally, inflation is surging amid persistent pandemic disruptions and war in Ukraine. Hosts: Ana Kasparian ***  The largest online progressive news show in the world. Hosted by Cenk Uygur and Ana Kasparian. LIVE weekdays 6-8 pm ET.  Help support our mission and get perks. Membership protects TYT's independence from corporate ownership and allows us to provide free live shows that speak truth to power for people around the world. See Perks: ▶ https://www.youtube.com/TheYoungTurks/join SUBSCRIBE on YOUTUBE: ☞ http://www.youtube.com/subscription_center?add_user=theyoungturks FACEBOOK: ☞ http://www.facebook.com/TheYoungTurks TWITTER: ☞ http://www.twitter.com/TheYoungTurks INSTAGRAM: ☞ http://www.instagram.com/TheYoungTurks TWITCH: ☞ http://www.twitch.com/tyt 👕 Merch: http://shoptyt.com ❤ Donate: http://www.tyt.com/go 🔗 Website: https://www.tyt.com 📱App: http://www.tyt.com/app 📬 Newsletters: https://www.tyt.com/newsletters/ If you want to watch more videos from TYT, consider subscribing to other channels in our network: The Damage Report ▶ https://www.youtube.com/thedamagereport TYT Sports ▶ https://www.youtube.com/tytsports The Conversation ▶ https://www.youtube.com/tytconversation Rebel HQ ▶ https://www.youtube.com/rebelhq TYT Investigates ▶ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwNJt9PYyN1uyw2XhNIQMMA #TYT #TheYoungTurks #BreakingNews https://youtu.be/kI2fW6GvJYA https://youtu.be/t04ZrC0VEj4 https://youtu.be/vKVs0eAUFDY https://youtu.be/aJ5XUn6cNok https://youtu.be/0CHEFOWGFhA https://youtu.be/KRdQubM0w6w https://youtu.be/vdfZjvb968A https://youtu.be/uLmgDBmtjjA https://youtu.be/RbOM5K1EAS4 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. The new BMO ViPorter MasterCard is your ticket to more. More perks. More points. More flights. More of all the things you want in a travel rewards card.

And then some. Get your ticket to more with the new BMO ViPorter MasterC. and get up to $2,400 in value in your first 13 months. Terms and conditions apply. Visit bemo.com slash the iPorter to learn more. Welcome to TYT. I'm your host, Anna Kasperin. How you guys doing? Are you guys doing alright? You know, it's a nice day in your neighborhood. You know, here in LA, the sun is shining. It's a little windy, you got the Santa Ana winds, but the sun is shining. You know, you got to look at the positive, look at the positive, look at

Look at the silver linings in the world. The Brooklyn shooter has been apprehended. We'll get into that a little later in the show. We'll also talk about a new report detailing the uptick in what's being referred to as follow-home robberies in Los Angeles. So we'll talk a little bit about that as well. Later in the show, we will go to some migrants who are now in the United States and wanted to thank Texas Governor Greg Abbott for the ride that he gave them to Washington, D.C. That video is remarkable. Can't wait to talk to you all about that as well. In the second hour, John Iderola will be joining us to talk about some fun stories, some serious stories.

I'm sure you've all at least gotten a little bit of info about the exchange that Ben Shapiro had with a college student. And man, he got a little flustered, but we'll maybe have a debate about whether or not the student was inappropriate. Okay, so we'll get to that in the second hour. As always, please like and share the stream if you're watching us online. If you're not watching us online, that's totally cool. You should maybe consider becoming a member because our bonus episodes have been honestly very, very feisty lately. A little too feisty yesterday, especially at the tail end. So if you're a member, you know what I'm talking about. If you're not a member, just go to t.yt.com slash join or click on that join button if you're watching us on YouTube. Now, let's get to our

first story, the details about the Brooklyn subway shooter, alleged. Authorities have now officially arrested a suspect in the Brooklyn subway shooting, which took place yesterday morning. Now 62 year old Frank James is in custody and apparently has described himself in the past as the prophet of doom. He's now facing a felony charge for committing a terrorist attack against a mass transportation system. And the images that you're seeing were provided by the New York Police Department as the manhunt was underway to find Frank James. What's kind of incredible about this story is that he was arrested in the East Village. So he wasn't too far away from the crime that he committed. But he seems to have turned himself

in. Apparently a call came into the crime stoppers. And apparently he said, You know, I think you're looking for me. I'm seeing my picture all over the news and I'll be around this McDonald's. And then he told authorities that he'd be walking around that general vicinity. And sure enough, he was. As he was walking out in public, others in the area noticed him and also called the authorities. And so he was, of course, later arrested. Now, he did manage to escape the scene of the shooting. And that's what the authorities are trying to figure out as we speak. Like how did he manage to do it? Did he remain

in the subway car with all of the people he victimized and then he left as soon as the car stopped. They're trying to figure that out. But on the scene, after the shooting, authorities found a Glock 9 millimeter handgun. They found three ammunition magazines and also a credit card with his name on it, which, you know, real genius there. You know, leave in your credit card. But I think at that point, he probably knew that the authorities were on to him. And as we had mentioned yesterday, authorities were looking for a U-Haul truck that they believed he had rented. Why did they believe he had rented it? Well, on the scene, they also found a key to that U-Haul van. Now, there are other details emerging about this suspect that I wanted to get into because it turns out that he has like literally dozens, if not hundreds of YouTube videos where he is.

is saying all sorts of violent things, terrible disturbing things, racist, anti-Semitic. I mean, I'll get into some of the details in just a minute. But what really fascinated me about the reporting about the videos was just how clearly and transparent, he was very transparent about desires and fantasies of killing people. And when we talk about censorship on social media, I think there's this one kernel of truth coming from the right wingers who lose their minds over people like Alex Jones getting banned permanently. You should have a policy that applies evenly. And since these platforms really rely on these faulty algorithms to make decisions about who should or should not be allowed on their platform, the policies and guidelines are not applied evenly. And again, we're talking about. a guy who has committed a terrible act of, you know, violence in New York who for quite some time was posting these videos. And now let me get into the details of what he had said

in those videos. Again, you know, Rolling Stone reported that there were hundreds of them. Other outlets reported that there were dozens of them. Who knows the exact number of videos, but there were many, multiple. So in a March 2nd video title told you so, James uses a news segment on recent subway attacks as a segue into an attack on Mayor Eric Adams' policies against crime and homelessness, seemingly implying that his struggles are actually a direct result of the failures of New York City's social services. In the video, he says, these are the people that was supposed to be helping me. They made me worse, he says, gesturing to a computer screen open to a photo file named Them Hoes, which appears to display headshots of employees of New Jersey's

Bridgeway Behavioral Health Services, an organization James references in numerous videos. He also said that they made me effing worse. They made me more dangerous than I could ever than anything. Anyone could ever effing imagine. These are the people that Eric Adams wants to send out to help the homeless and whatever the case may be. Yeah, look, I want to be completely clear about my take on this guy and what he says in these videos, okay? I don't think he has any credibility. I don't take anything that he says, you know, at face value. To make himself out to be, you know, the victim is unbelievable and ridiculous. And you'll get what I'm talking about as I give you more details in regard to what

he said about various groups of people, particularly black women. He was particularly vicious toward black women, and we'll get to that in just a second. So in the same video, he mocks the mayor's subway safety plan rolled out earlier this year, going so far as to suggest that he could actually easily commit a crime in the subway station without being caught. Now I want to say that he did eventually get caught, but he turned himself in. There is a huge breakdown in our institutions when I'm comes to this story. I mean, you have surveillance cameras that were not operating, that were not functioning. And that was a little bit of a disaster because those surveillance cameras are supposed

to capture any violent crime that takes place. So cops are able to catch the suspects. I don't know what would happen had he not turned himself in. I think it's probably likely that they would eventually apprehend him. But again, there is a breakdown in these institutions that are meant to keep us safe. Now he says he can't stop, he's talking about Eric Adams here, he can't stop no effing crime in no subways. He may slow it down, but he ain't stopping anything. James laughs, adding that the large number of entry and exit points from the subway stations would make apprehending criminals nearly impossible. He says, quote, with the program in place with all these police, I'd still get off. I know I could get off because they can't be everywhere. Those who go on to commit crimes

like shooting, that means you have to have police in every station and that's not possible. So he's kind of bragging about having the potential ability of committing a crime, a violent crime without any repercussions without getting caught. Now let's move on to his hateful rhetoric toward various disenfranchised groups of people, namely black people who he seemed to target quite a in his video rants. So he apparently thinks that black people have allowed themselves to be Europeanized. That's what he says. He occasionally flip flops between admiration and hatred for other black Americans, often espousing black nationalist ideals and calling for the creation of a black ethno state before immediately disparaging educated black and prominent

black women, such as Vice President Kamala Harris and newly confirmed Supreme Court justice, Katanji Brown Jackson. He also compares, people of color. This is, I almost like don't even want to read this because it's so disgusting. But for our audio audience, I'm going to read what the report says verbatim. He also compares people of color to a bunch of turds in a toilet waiting to be flushed down the drain by society. And implies that a race war between whites and blacks is imminent. He also says if white people try to exterminate us, I would not be mad for one effing bit. They can't live with each other, but they're going to live with your black ass, your half monkey cursed by God black effing, stinking ass,

he says in the video. Now, aside from his terrible, hateful rants, he also is very transparent about his fantasies of killing people. One of James's most egregiously racist videos is they hate Jew, a convoluted semi autobiographical tirade uploaded to Facebook in late 2017. I mean, these videos have been posted for years, that he finds himself fascinating about killing a Latino man whom he claims prevented him from advancing his machining career and suggesting that Jewish individuals have so much contempt for blacks, despite undergoing the horrors of the Holocaust. Are you guys getting the pattern here? The pattern of I'm so great, I'm such a wonderful person, and it's all these other people around me that are keeping me down. In this case, a Latino

man who allegedly has stopped him from fulfilling his machining career, mental health professionals who tried to help him allegedly making him worse. I mean, he's the victim, you know, he's the wonderful person and he's been screwed over by society. That's like the through line that I've noticed from the descriptions of his video rants. Now his final hate filled and rage-filled upload was on April 11th, so very recently. And the clip was titled Domesticated Averages. And it serves as an eerie precursor for the attack that he went through with earlier this week. He said, quote, I've been through a lot of crap where I can say I wanted to kill people. I wanted to watch people die right in front of my effing face immediately. But I thought about the fact that, hey man, I don't want to

go to effing prison, f that. So I had to absorb the BS, even though it was building up inside me, what could I do? Not much. So aside from wanting to inform you all about who the suspect is, what kind of history he's had, and I'm sure we'll learn more details about him as this story develops, I also wanted to just make it clear that what happened in New York on Monday really is a breakdown in our institutions, okay? And there's so many different societal issues kind of intertwined in this one case. So there is clearly a problem with easily accessible guns. There's a problem with the unwillingness to, you know, in some cases, and I'll give you examples later in the show of prosecuting violent crime, and I want to make that

specification, but also why weren't the surveillance cameras working? I mean, one of the ongoing issues in New York is how severely underfunded the public transportation is. It's been falling apart to the point where surveillance cameras aren't working. Listen, I'm not a big fan of surveillance, but it makes sense in these types of public spaces if you're concerned about crime. And to be sure, the subway system in New York has been riddled with violent attacks recently, with stabbing. We shared the story of the guy who smeared his own feces on a woman's face after she rejected his advances. Like, how do you not make sure that these surveillance cameras are

working so people who might be victimized by criminals will have their justice served eventually? Now this guy turned himself in again, who knows what would have happened had he not turned himself in? It took more than 24 hours for the authorities to arrest him. But again, I mean, the story, it does show like a complete breakdown in how society is supposed to function. And it is a problem when you have working people in New York fear using the trains, which they obviously need to rely on in order to get to and from work, right? So it is a huge problem. I don't want to minimize the fear that people are feeling. At the same time, Let's also keep it real.

This story was so shocking and so jarring because of how uniquely violent and terrifying it was. So I don't want anyone to think that these types of shootings are happening on subways in New York on a regular basis. But there have been a number of violent attacks. And so the question is, how do we deal with the uptick in the violent attacks in a way that actually helps to rehabilitate people? that is important, but also ensures that there is a deterrence element as well. So people don't think that they can commit violent crimes and not face any real consequences with it or for it. We'll see how this all plays out. I am worried about, as I've said, multiple times on the show, the pendulum swinging back in the direction of mass incarceration.

I don't want that. But we are seeing the pendulum swing so far in a direction that I don't think is helpful for the left that, of course, wants to make a good case, an important case for criminal justice reform that keeps people safe while also rehabilitating people. Now, so far, we don't know much about his record, whether he has a criminal record. Those details are likely to emerge later. But as always, we will fill you guys in on that as we learn more. In the meantime, though, share what you think. Very curious to hear what your thoughts are. If you're a member, you can always comment as a member. If you're not, send me a super chat, tell me what you think about this story. For now though, why don't we move on to our next

story? And it has to do with something that's been developing in Los Angeles and new report is pretty terrifying. A task force in Los Angeles has been investigating a surge in what's being referred to as follow-home robberies. And these robberies are pretty terrible because it seems as though individuals who want to commit these robberies are kind of like stalking certain individuals as they're eating at cafes. If they look like they might have money, they'll follow them home and essentially rob them. Oftentimes there is a weapon involved. We've seen cases of victims being pistol whipped. I mean, it's awful.

So the authorities wanted to investigate this and figure out, okay, what's behind it? Is there organized crime? And here's what we've learned. So according to Captain Jonathan Tippett, who spearheads the task force, police have identified at least 17 gangs most based out of South LA and operating independently that are involved. There were 165 such robberies in 2021, and so far this year, there have already been 56, including several over this past weekend. So in a four week period from September to October, there were 45 follow off or follow home robberies. In November, there were another 39,

Tippett said. So shots have been fired in at least 23 of the cases, and yes, there have been fatalities. Two victims have been killed, said Tippett, who also heads the LAPD's robbery homicide division, which investigates high profile crimes. So their report also gone into some specific. So look, we're going to get into like the anecdotal evidence, which by itself doesn't mean much, right? Because it's very easy to take independent cases or, you know, a few stories and then kind of sensationalize. And I want to avoid doing that. But aside from looking at specific cases, I do think it's important to step back and take a look at what's happening in California overall when it comes to various crime trends that we're seeing. So first, the anecdotal stuff.

So 18 year old Matthew Adams was involved in eight. Let me repeat that. Eight separate follow-off robberies over a six-month period starting last fall. During the course of the eight robberies, which occurred between September and February, Adams was arrested three times. The first time was on January 9th when Adams was found in a car that had been used in one of the robberies and where a gun was also found. Online court records show no charges were ever filed against Adams in that case. Okay, no, no, let's come to me.

No charges were ever filed against Adam, Adams in that case. So he does the follow home robbery. He's in the car that he used to do the follow home robbery. And he has a weapon in that vehicle. Why weren't there any charges filed? I want to know. And this is a guy who has been in eight of these follow home robberies. Does that make sense to you guys? Is that is that like justice? Is he being rehabilitated? Is this considered rehabilitation when you've been arrested eight times and seem to have absolutely no remorse for what you're doing and victimizing these people? Imagine someone following you home with a gun to rob you.

Okay, let me give you more details. Adams was arrested again on January 27th and a third time on February 21st. First, and in both cases charged with illegal gun possession court records show, he was ordered released each time without having to pay bail. The reason was a pandemic related rule aimed at reducing the jail population that requires L.A. County defendants to be released without posting bail for certain offenses. Now look, totally cool with that if we're talking about nonviolent stuff. We're talking about a dude who has loaded weapons, follows people home, threatens them with the weapons to rob them. Okay. So if the argument here is, listen, our prison system in California is overcrowded. We're dealing with COVID. It's deadly. So we want to limit the prison population in order to ensure that, you know, people who are incarcerated are not getting sick and dying. I get that. But is there any monitoring to make sure that people who commit violent crimes don't do

a similar crime later? Like apparently there was nothing, no monitoring, nothing, okay? So you're free to go, you've done this eight times, you're free to go. But it gets worse, more details. Adams was finally, eventually charged on April 4th with seven counts of robbery and two gun enhancements. And his bail was set at $450,000. He faces more than 20 years in state prison if convicted, okay? So authorities had obtained a warrant to search his home.

And there were two other individuals that he would do these robberies with, Eric Wilson and Jayne Sparks. And so they, you know, did this search of their homes. And I just want to show you the kind of weapons they found. So these are the kinds of weapons that they've been using to intimidate people as they rob them. Great, I feel real safe. This is awesome restorative justice, right? In a separate case, a man named Cheyenne Hale, 25,

was arrested this month on suspicion of participating in the armed robbery of a man in downtown LA, in October in which two watches were stolen. Police said they recovered a loaded gun from Hale during his arrest and that detectives in Tippets unit later found seven additional handguns, $21,000 in cash and a large quantity of drugs including cocaine and methamphetamine when they served a search warrant at Hale's home.

Now I want to show you a disturbing video of what Hale and his buddies did to one individual in downtown L.A. Okay, this is what the follow home or follow off robberies look like. Hale has a real key, I get it. Here is going to be released from custody, according to court records. So am I allowed to be upset about that? Is that does that do away with my lefty cred? And if it does, great, take my lefty cred away. That is not justice, that is not okay.

And that does not keep a community safe. And worse yet, minimizing stuff like that reverses any possibility of passing real criminal justice reform that actually does make sense. So prominent activists think that these types of reports or being concerned about these types of issues is just buying into copaganda or sensationalism. I'll give you examples. One prominent activist, Hamid Khan on Tuesday accused the LAPD of week after week of sensationalism about crime in the city suggesting police were blowing crime trends out of proportion to maintain their grip on the city's budget. LAPD has to constantly legitimize itself, constantly has to make itself useful to the community by raising this specter of people running wild. I mean, I think there is an important use for policing. I think policing absolutely needs to be reformed. But I would love to ask Khan, what community do you

live in? What kind of privilege offers you the safety that people in low income communities do not have the privilege of having? Who do you call when you're worried about someone committing a violent crime that will victimize you? I want to know because you would call who. You would call authorities, they would be pretty useful in that situation. Like literally zero focus on reforming, policing, but all the focus seems to be on minimizing these instances of serious violent crimes. I ain't here for that. And so I promised you I'd take a step back and give you actual numbers about what's happening in California. So we're not just focusing on one or two anecdotal pieces of evidence, right? So let's take a look at what's happening in Sacramento.

In just Sacramento County from March 2020 through September 2021, 5,100 inmates were released on zero bail. The total number of rearrests was 4,400. Awesome. Mary Kay Tibbitts was sexually assaulted and killed along with her two dogs in her Sacramento home in September. Her accused killer is Troy Davis. He had two felony strikes but was still

released without needing to pay bail just a few months prior. That's just Sacramento County. Maybe I'm being a little unfair, maybe I'm being unfair. Let's go to San Diego. In San Diego County, repeat offenders are also common. It looks like close to 65% were re-arrested after being released on zero bail. District Attorney Summer, Stephen, or Stefan said. And of those that were re-arrested, 65% were also re-arrested on a felony crime, this ain't it, this ain't it, this isn't rehabilitative at all, this is not restorative at all. And all this does is just paint a picture of the left as individuals who are totally fine, or activists I should say, like Hamid Khan, paints them as individuals who are just

totally fine with this kind of crime standing. Because like to be. quite honest with you guys, I don't know what kind of restorative programs are being implemented right now. So if people are being let off, right, whether it's no cash bail, whether it's a refusal to prosecute, you know, in an effort to substitute prosecution with other programs to help people up, great, great, where are the programs? I want to know the details about that. But there's a bunch of mealy-mouthed individuals who claim that there's restorative justice going on. I don't see it. I don't see it. And it's infuriating because I don't want me as someone who wants criminal justice reform to be lumped in with individuals who minimize garbage like this. I ain't here for it.

Anyway, we got to take a break. When we come back, the Congressional Progressive Caucus is garbage, and I'll tell you why. I got a little heated after that first segment, but I just wanted to thank our wonderful audience, including Brad David in our super chat section who says, Anna, with all of these terrible stories in the news, I would rather you just show us videos of your dog Charlie. He must be such an amazing dog. So I went from like feeling not so great to feeling awesome because you've reminded me of Charlie. So thank you so much for that comment.

I appreciate it. Now it's time to get on that roller coaster because since I'm on a high, now we're about to go to a low. I'm going to rage about the congressional progressive caucus. So the progressive caucus in Congress has decided to endorse. a corporate Democrat in Ohio's 11th district in her bid for reelection. And if you're familiar with progressive politics, you probably already know that Nina Turner is the progressive challenger in that primary race. And the progressive caucus has decided to endorse the corporate Democrat over her challenger, Nina Turner. The PAC, according to a press

release that they put out, also announced a new slate of Congressional Progressive Caucus Incumbent Endorsements, Representatives Jimmy Panetta, Melanie Stansberry, Nikima Williams, Chantelle Brown. That's the individual that we're talking about here. Andy Kim, Katie Porter, love Katie Porter, Mike Levin and Stephen Horsford. They say, quote, we're proud to support and endorse this group of bold, progressive leaders that are fighting for working people in their communities and across the country, said CPC PAC co-chairs, Mark Pocan, Pramila Jayapal, and Jamie Raskin. Each and every one of them is working every day to take on corporate special interests. I mean, what a joke.

Fight for economic and social justice, universal health care, climate action, and bold solutions to the urgent crises facing our country. We are thrilled to support their campaigns and look forward to continuing to build the progressive movement alongside them in Congress. Now, why would the progressive caucus choose to endorse the incumbent corporate Democrat Chantelle Brown over Nina Turner? Well, it could be that Chantel Brown, who is backed by corporate interests, decided to, you know, join. the Progressive Caucus, which tells me that the Progressive Caucus has no standards. Like if Matt Gates wanted to join the Progressive Caucus tomorrow, I feel like Pramila Jayapal would be like, come on, Homeboy, give me a hug, yeah, for sure, we have no freaking

standards, none, zero, anyone can join because let me tell you something, Chantelle Brown, not in any way a progressive, and I want to make my case. Now Daniel Moran, is a great reporter and he let everyone know about this story. He says for context, Brown officially joined the progressive caucus in January. Oh wow, in January, wow, a few months ago. She must be such a wonderful progressive fighting for things like Medicare for all, except she's not. And she had previously joined a different group of people.

A couple of days ago, the business friendly New Demco, Welcome to Representative Chantelle Brown in Ohio and Nikima Williams of Georgia to their block. Brown is not a member of the Progressive Caucus, Williams is. So this was before she had decided to join the Progressive Caucus in January. Regarding Brown, this is not surprising. The new Democrat Action Fund endorsed her in mid-July while the Progressive Caucus had endorsed Nina Turner. Now, this is previously, these are older tweets. But I give you that context because clearly the new Dem coalition, the new Democrat action fund is a pro-business, pro-corporate group of individuals.

And Chantel Brown is simultaneously part of that mess. Well, also having the ability to present herself as a progressive because she was accepted into the progressive caucus in January, you know, it's all you need to do. just join a group of people who have no standards but like to use a label that they have no business using. So what has Chantelle Brown done in Congress so far? Now her stint in Congress has been short, but if you look at her record, of course, there are already some red flags. So she has no problem with the military spending easily voted in favor of the National Defense Authorization Act, which every year for the most part increases funding to the Pentagon. So typical corporate Democrat behavior there.

Then you also have her willingness to vote in favor of the corporate backed bipartisan infrastructure bill. She voted for that knowing full well that Biden and everyone basically broke their promise and did not have a path forward for the build back better agenda, which included all the social spending that people actually want. That was the initial deal. Chantelle Brown's like, who cares about that deal? We want to make sure our corporate buddies are super happy with us passing legislation that privatizes public infrastructure.

It's awesome, let's do it. That's who Chantelle Brown is. And who backed her campaign? Let's see what kind of progressive support Chantelle Brown has had. This is a piece from the intercept back in July of 2021 titled in the race against Nina Turner, GOP donors, Republican donors, fund Chantelle Brown. With one week left in the Ohio primary Republican donors have picked their Democrat and the pro-Israel PAC supporting her. Okay. So they're specifically talking about a PAC that is like their one and only issue is support Israel no matter what, even if it has a right wing government that does terrible things, you just support no matter what. Don't ever criticize.

The most notable among them, by the way, in terms of donors to Chantelle Brown is New England's Patriot owner Robert Kraft, a close ally of Donald Trump, who donated $1 million to Trump's inauguration and has supported a slew of Republican candidates. Kraft has individually donated the election maximum of $5,800 to Brown's campaign, and with his family contributed more than $20,000. $1, Homeboy donated a million bucks to Trump's inauguration. And he supported Chantel Brown, who has now been endorsed by the Congressional Progressive Caucus when she was running against Nina Turner. There are more. I mean, please read this intercept piece because we don't have time to get through all of the right wing donors who funded Chantel Brown's campaign. But I want to note a few others. 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. Liam Nissan. Buy your tickets now and get a free Tilly Dog. Chilly Dog, not included. The Naked God. Tickets on sale now. August 1st. You have Stephen Fishman who donated over $10,000 in campaign contributions to Republicans

running in 2020, including Lindsey Graham, Jim Rish, Mike Rounds, and Michael McCall. he also donated $1,800 to Chantelle Brown. You have David Heller, a Cleveland area real estate executive. Mm, nothing, nothing more progressive than taking money from a real estate executive. He donated $2,800 to Brown. Heller, who has been an avid supporter of Republicans in Congress and in Texas, donated over $13,000 to Ohio Governor Mike DeWine in 2020, as well as $5,000 to Texas House Speaker, Dade, felon and who led, by the way, the push to restrict voting rights in that state.

The Congressional Progressive Caucus stands for nothing at this point. Their willingness, with the exception of the squad, I want to be clear about that, their willingness to help pass the bipartisan infrastructure bill, which again is just a corporate giveaway already revealed how low their standards really are and what they're what they're what they really stand for and now you have this you have them laundering the image the reputation of a clear corporate Democrat and they're doing so against Nina Turner who actually is a progressive who is a fighter who does speak her mind who is not willing to be set. by corporate interests or corporate Democrats.

And maybe that's what they're afraid of. Maybe that's what they're afraid of. Because within that caucus, you've got a whole bunch of folks who are not progressive at all, are not supportive of a single payer healthcare system, who went along with the plan to essentially pass a corporate-backed infrastructure bill without securing a path forward for the social spending bill that Biden wanted, allegedly wanted, didn't fight for, but allegedly wanted. wanted. No, I mean, how. And the fact of the matter is, why would they care? Why would

these members of the Progressive Caucus care about us being upset if we're not organized, and if we don't have the means necessary, the organized effort necessary to apply pressure from outside Congress. I think that's where our focus needs to be. And I do want to end this story with a little bit of an upside, with a little bit of optimism, because the only area where I've seen a little bit of accountability in this country lately has been with efforts to unionize.

I've seen that happen with efforts to get better working conditions by striking, and that happens with workers who are lucky enough to already have that union protection, because let me tell you something, if we're sitting around waiting for the congressional progressive caucus to save us, man, we are in for just one disappointment after the next. That's not to say there aren't wonderful progressives within that caucus, but I would venture to say that there's only a handful of them. Because again, if Chantelle Brown can be part of that caucus, if someone funded by Republican donors and Trump supporters can be part of that caucus, that caucus don't mean a damn thing.

And I feel so terrible that Nina Turner is dealing with this kind of gross betrayal from individuals who love to use the progressive label. But actions speak louder than words. And this promoting Chantelle Brown is the last thing a true progressive would do. All right, we got to take a break. But if you want to help Nina Turner out, go to hello somebody. I think we might have a, do we have a graphic for that? Yeah, let's let's throw that up. There we go, Nina Turner.com slash hello. Go to Nina Turner.com slash hello. She's wonderful. She's a fighter. We obviously support her here at TYT. And I think what the congressional progressive caucus did is pretty gross. All right, we got to take a break. We'll be right back.

Ice cream. Hey everyone, welcome back to the show. I wanted to make sure to correct myself on something I said on the show yesterday because one of our wonderful viewers actually drew attention to something I missed and I want to make sure that I correct the record so you guys are fully informed and I'm not misinforming you. So yesterday when we were covering the story about the Brooklyn subway shooting, I said that Alvin Bragg, the district attorney in Manhattan, had noted that he would not prosecute certain gun-related crimes. So he put out that memo in January of this year. Apparently, there was enough backlash

that in February, he tried to backtrack a little bit, and he released a second memo. In the second memo, he said that in coming weeks, they would release details about how they plan on prosecuting gun-related crimes. I have not found that information yet, but he did kind of back off the notion of not prosecuting gun-related crimes. I would like more clarity on how he makes these determinations or distinctions. But notably, the memo also said that it would not prosecute non-firearm related crimes. So that could mean stabbings, like there was no clarity on that either. But I just wanted to be clear about that because I don't want people to think that he didn't respond to the backlash that he received. He did in fact do that. All right, without further ado,

though, why don't we get to this fun story because I love it. Recently, Texas Governor Greg Abbott caved to pressure from right wing extremists who wanted him to essentially declare an invasion in Texas in order to trigger the national government guard, and state troopers, by the way, to police the borders and immediately expel any asylum seeker or any migrant trying to come into the country. Now, Abbott didn't want to do that, so instead he came out with this plan. He's like, this will be genius. Came out pretending to be a tough guy and he's like, you know what I'm going to do? I'm going to put these migrants on a bus. I'm going to ship them over to DC and I'm going to have DC deal with them, okay? Now we can't

forced them onto that bus because that's considered kidnapping. He could actually face some pretty serious charges for that. So it's really a voluntary effort. And guess what? Some of these migrants are telling Texas Governor Greg Abbott, thanks for the ride, Homeboy. Let's watch the video. They know that they are a prop in all of this, but they wanted to come anyway because this allows them to get a ticket to where they're going. Some of these migrants told me that they want to go on to Miami. They said they are very excited to be here. They feel welcomed. We're here in the food court at Union Station where a lot of them have been getting something to eat because this was a 34 hour bus ride, which they did tell me that they received food and

drinks, but it's been a very long journey and now they're going to be departing to other destinations. Catholic Charities has been on hand to assist them with their efforts. How do you feel? Destination, finally? Miami. Miami, Miami, you got style. Yeah, I watched the Golden Girls. That's the only reason why I know that song. No, I love it so much. You guys, this is such Texas residents are funding the transportation of these migrants to places honestly like Florida. So now Ron DeSantis is the one who is, I mean, I don't even want to say Ron DeSantis is the one

who has to deal with these migrants, because at the end of the day, we're talking, like especially since we're talking about Venezuelans here, right? The right wing loves to talk about the terrible conditions of Venezuela. Oh, the poor Venezuelans, like they love to talk about that. All right, so I mean, you acknowledge You acknowledge that the conditions that they're living in are terrible, that they need help. So help them. Go ahead, Ron DeSantis, help them out. No, I just, I love it because at the end of the day, what Abbott did with this was just a stunt. It was nothing more than a political stunt.

It was partly a stunt that he pulled in response to the pressure he was receiving from the more extreme elements of his party, from former Trump administration officials. And it was partly a stunt because that's all politicians do these days. They engage in stunts and sometimes those stunts backfire. So if Democrats were smart and they're not, what they should do is campaign on this. Talk to the people of Texas who unwittingly are funding the free rides for these migrants to various parts of the country. I think it's great. I love that they're paying for it. More of that, please. But my guess is Democrats won't use this as a way of essentially calling out Republicans for who they really are. Yes, they're hateful, but they try to exploit the hatred and the fear of constituents in order to do their campaigning.

And it's so easy to call them out on that. And what's frustrating is how ineffective and weak Democrats are. in using these weaknesses against the Republican Party. But anyway, I hope these migrants are safe. I hope they're happy. And more importantly, I hope that Abbott's being harassed by his, you know, right wing Republican officials as we speak. Nothing would make me happier. All right, final story for you all in the first hour before we bring on our good friend, John Ida Rola. I wanted to discuss inflation. Let's get to it. The Biden administration, they were already addressing inflation concerns in public.

Of course, they told you not to worry. They said inflation was bad, but it's only transitory. It's not going to last. Just transitory. Not so transitory. You might remember. Some folks have raised worries that this could be a sign of persistent inflation. But that's not our view.

Over time, as the economy is turning back on, we'd see some of these transitory effects. That's what's been predicted. I'm not saying that this is a one-month phenomenon, but I think over the medium term, we'll see inflation declined back toward normal levels. They were lying. They were spewing talking points. the same lines over and over again, then they're media mob friends, they echo the lie, and they're lying again today. The media mob is more than happy to give them cover.

It's a little sad, some of the highest paid news people, I mean, you can't really call them a journalist, either pretend to not know what causes inflation, or they're too stupid and lazy to read about what's happening in the economy. The fact of the matter is, in the the news cycle and with any political issue, any economic issue, even with a situation like a pandemic, sometimes there's new information, okay? So when there's new information, your analysis of the situation tends to change. That's what grownups do. They take in new information and then they analyze the situation based on that new information, Hannity. Now, some people are too stupid to do that.

Some people have difficulty allowing facts to absorb in their brains. Hannity might be one of them. But let's talk about why members of the Biden administration initially argued that inflation was transitory and why they now argue it is not. Turns out that there were some world events. Maybe Hannity isn't aware of them. World events including Russia invading Ukraine and the impact that has on things like, I don't know, gas, prices and food prices. Kennedy showed a compilation video of Biden officials from literally last year,

like starting in January all the way through, I think October. Gee guys, I wonder, has anything changed in the news since October of last year? Has there been any new information, any world events that could have an impact on something like inflation? Yeah, I think so, maybe. And look, I think that there are things that buy. that there are things that Biden can do to help Americans out during this period of inflation. But my proposed solutions are very different from what someone like Hannity would propose. I would want to make ordinary Americans who are working real hard whole during this situation.

Hannity would probably give them the middle finger and tell them to lift themselves up by the bootstraps because that's who Hannity and the right wing really are. So let's take a look at this fun graph that was put together by the New York Times. And it compares all of these developed countries in terms of what they're experiencing with inflation. So as you guys can notice, almost every country has experienced significant inflation with few exceptions. So China and Japan apparently have experienced very little inflation, China at 1.5%, Japan at 0.9%. But whether, when we're talking about the United States, inflation as of March had shot up to 8.5%, Germany, 7.6%. Britain, 6.2%. We've got France at 5.1%,

Canada at 5.7%, and South Korea at 4.1%. So it's almost as if inflation is occurring not because of, of policies implemented by one government. It almost seems like there's like world events happening, you know, like a pandemic or a war involving a major oil producing and gas producing country like Russia. Like imagine getting paid millions of dollars to be an idiot. And that's all you get day in and day out on Fox News. So let's actually get to the details here. What are we seeing and why did the talk of inflation go from being transitory to no longer

being considered transitory? After Russia invaded Ukraine, predictions about inflation were torn up and reset much higher in light of rising commodity prices. The war sparked fears about the stability of energy supplies from Russia, which are crucial to Europe and disrupted food production, raising the risk of a global hunger crisis. So this is a very serious. problem. And again, what I would propose to deal with it is very different from what Hannity would propose. For instance, we should already be in a situation where we're not so reliant on fossil fuels that a war by Russia would have this kind of impact on people's personal finance. But fact of the matter is, conservatives have fought tooth and nail to prevent any type of significant

investment into renewable energy that would actually make us energy independent. Now, there's another option that I don't agree with, but it's funny that the right wing would agree with it, but there's a conflict because they're so pro corporate and pro capitalist that they can't propose it. So we're dealing with oil companies, gas companies, fossil fuel companies within our borders that have control of this supply. And they make deals, not just with U.S. consumers, but with other governments. We drill and frack the most fossil fuels. We're the top oil and gas producing country in the world. But those resources get shipped off because they're owned by private corporations that are going to sell it to the highest bidder.

That's how it works. So would Hannity and the rest of the right wing, the individuals who love the fossil fuel so much, are they going to propose that Biden implement a ban on exporting these natural resources? That would require speaking out against their corporate buddies. What a conflict. So instead, they just have these vague, nonsensical rants about like, we don't like mine and mine's really bad. Okay, so what is your solution then? Oh, you don't have a solution? Okay, great, moving on.

The Consumer Price Index data released Tuesday showed a whopping 18.3% increase in gasoline prices in March from the prior month, seasonally adjusted accounting for over half of the overall monthly increase in the index. For the year through March, gasoline prices rose 48%. So no doubt, Americans need help. Okay, it is undeniable that that's the case. But what I would say that Biden should do is not in any way something that right wingers are in favor of. You know, what can we do to help people pay for these bills?

What can we do? Like low income people, what can we do to help them pay for gas? Biden has done a few things here and there that don't really, it just barely makes a dent. But any real substantive policy that helps relieve the pain that people are feeling in the country, that hasn't really been implemented. So I also want to go to one other cause of inflation right now. And it's the fact that China just takes COVID way more seriously than most other countries, certainly way more seriously than the United States does. So China's undergoing another lockdown. China has taken a zero tolerance approach to outbreaks that calls for stringent lockdowns, as well as mass testing and quarantine in government facilities. Because several of the

country's largest industrial cities are fighting outbreaks, such measures are taking a toll on the factory and transportation networks that are the backbone of China's manufacturing and the global economy. See, that's the other thing that Hannity and other right wingers don't like to mention, and makes them a little uncomfortable, you know? Because their corporate goons, their corporate buddies, love exploiting cheap labor. Workers who were abused in other countries, underpaid, undervalued.

They love that cheap labor. But turns out when we have most of our products manufactured in another country because corporations are just drunk off exploiting labor, we're at a significant disadvantage when that country that we rely on for the manufacturing shuts down in the middle of a pandemic, right? The measures in China, home to about one third of global manufacturing, are disrupting the production of finished goods like Toyota and Volkswagen cars and Apple's iPhones, as well as components such as circuit boards and computer cables. So no one,

no one on the right is speaking out about how corporations have put us in a a uniquely terrible position right now. They're definitely part of this inflation issue. And I mean, even companies that didn't need to raise their prices decided to do so because they decided to exploit the inflation narrative to increase their profits. And we've talked about that before. Final thing I'll mention, and I hope this is helping Hannity out, you know, Homeboy can't be bothered to read anything. Neither can his idiot producers. Jen Saki also called out Texas Governor Greg Abbott in this press release. I thought it was fascinating and I've seen some videos of what this looks like.

Governor Abbott's unnecessary and redundant inspections of trucks transiting ports of entry between Texas and Mexico are causing significant disruptions to the food and automobile supply chains, delaying manufacturing, impacting jobs and raising prices for families in Texas and across the country. Local businesses and trade associations are calling on Governor Abbott to reverse this decision because trucks are facing lengthy delays exceeding five hours at some border crossings and commercial traffic has dropped by as much as 60%. But let's keep it real, folks. You think that's an accident? Maybe it's a little conspiratorial. But I would venture to say it's on purpose. Because if you can manufacture a crisis by, taking hold of the ports, making sure that trucks and, you know, transit isn't able to go to and from countries that we rely on for manufacturing. You can then turn around and just blame Biden for it. It's Biden's fault. Anyway, but I'm glad that Jen Socky and the White House fought back with the press release, very strong. Good stuff. Anyway, we got to take a quick break. When we come back, John Adirola will be joining me and we're going to have a great time. Don't miss it.

Thanks for listening to the full episode of the Young Turks. Support our work, listen to ad-free, access members-only bonus content, and more by subscribing to Apple Podcasts at apple.com slash t-y-t. I'm your host, Shank Huger, and I'll see you soon.